diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Debt, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Debt, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..597cf6767fa7b55259de3ff909f9108d72e487d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Debt, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE DEBT Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman & Peter Straughan1 INT. CARGO PLANE. MILITARY AIRBASE. ISRAEL - DAY 1 A strange ROARING sound... CLOSE ON A YOUNG WOMAN ...in darkness. Light begins to spill on her from the right - revealing her face, lost in thought. This is RACHEL SINGER - pretty, painfully young looking. A surgical dressing covers half her face. As we pull back a little we see that two YOUNG MEN sit either side of her. They are STEPHAN GOLD (thirties) thick- set, capable, and DAVID PERETZ (late twenties), dark-haired and pale-faced. The three faces in the darkness, each looking straight ahead - something from a Caravaggio painting. The roaring, which we realise is the sound of ENGINES, gradually runs down into silence. The light from the bay door which is opening off-screen begins to flood the scene with HARSH DAYLIGHT, revealing the inside of a CARGO PLANE. Stephan turns to look at the growing light. Then he turns to Rachel. STEPHAN Breathe. He stands. Rachel turns to look at David but he is standing too, his face a mask. Rachel gathers herself, then stands and turns to follow the other two, walking towards the light. As the three approach the opening and descend the ramp of the bay door, we hear a woman's voice: SARAH (V.O) We should never forget how young they were. EXT. AIRBASE RUNWAY. ISRAEL - DAY TRACKING THE THREE ...as they walk across the tarmac - first Stephan... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 2. SARAH (V.O.)(CONT'D) My father, Stephan Gold, was the youngest Unit Commander in Mossad. David is next... SARAH (V.O.)(CONT'D) David Peretz had his twenty-ninth birthday while on the mission. Then Rachel. SARAH (V.O.)(CONT'D) My mother was even younger. Only twenty-five. RACHEL'S P.O.V Silhouetted against the bright light is a group of waiting MILITARY and MOSSAD DIGNITARIES. Their hands are raised in applause. SARAH (V.O.) (CONT'D) Despite their youth they'd had the courage to confront an unimaginable evil.... The three walk towards their welcoming party. Rachel blinks against the sunlight, takes out a pair of sunglasses and slips them on.2 OMITTED 23 INT. FUNCTION ROOM. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - DAY 3 CLOSE ON OLDER RACHEL ...now 56. Handsome, impeccably groomed. A long crooked SCAR runs down one side of her face. SARAH (O.S) ...a man whose sadistic experiments left thousands disfigured or dead, who became known by a name which defiles the annals of medicine: The Surgeon of Birkenau. She's wearing tinted glasses, staring at us, listening to Sarah speak. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 3. REVERSE Rachel's daughter - SARAH - stands at a podium, reading the Dedication to a rather large audience who have come for the launch of her first book. She's 31, and clearly her mother's daughter. The cover image from the book is projected on a screen behind Sarah - a black and white photograph of a young Rachel, David and Stephan. Above their faces, the title - In Our Hands. SARAH Their mission had been to return him to Israel to stand trial. Instead it ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin... CUT TO:4 EXT. MILITARY AIRBASE. ISRAEL - DAY - THE PAST 4 CLOSE ON YOUNG RACHEL ...as she waits behind David and Stephan, face bleached out by the sunlight. She stares at the ground. SARAH (V.O.) But this was not what was celebrated. It was their youth itself that became a symbol. Here were the children who had faced Israel's greatest nightmare, her greatest pain... David and Stephan have moved out of shot and Rachel reaches the DIGNITARIES. Still looking down, she manages a smile, a bob of her head, reaches out to shake the first hand...5 INT. FUNCTION ROOM. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV. DAY 5 CLOSE ON OLDER RACHEL ...lost in the memory. SARAH (O.S.) ...and in the simple act of facing the Monster, had helped to vanquish it. Sarah, has finished reading and looks for her mother in the audience... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 4. SARAH (O.S.) (CONT'D) This book is dedicated to my inspiration. My mother, Rachel Singer. People around Rachel begin to applaud, the sound almost startling her. Automatically she gives the same bob of the head, acknowledging the applause. Sarah, cheeks burning with a mixture of embarrassment and emotion, hasn't finished yet. She locks eyes with her mother. SARAH (CONT'D) Mother, I'm so very proud to be your daughter. More applause. Rachel manages to smile.6 INT. FUNCTION ROOM. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - LATER 6 The room is now alive with the excited chatter of the guests. Rachel moves against the tide of the audience with a fixed social smile, murmuring thanks to well-wishers, trying to get out, trying not to look like she's trying to get out...7 EXT. TEL AVIV. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV. PATIO - CONTINUOUS 7 She emerges onto the empty patio, slides the glass door shut behind her, muffling the chatter from the room beyond. She lights a cigarette, inhales greedily, trying to calm down. She stares at the sun blazing over the Mediterranean ahead of her. Her glasses darken against the reflected glare. As if sensing something she turns to see a SMALL BOY - her GRANDSON - watching her from behind the glass of the patio door, something UNNERVING in his direct gaze. Rachel stares back at him in silence. Sarah appears behind the boy, her son, and scoops him up into a hug. Still the boy stares at his grandmother, who gives a tight smile and turns back to the sea. Another guest walks up to Sarah and she nods, smiling, at what he is saying to her but her eyes slide back to her mother, standing on the other side of the glass. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 5.8 1NT/EXT. APARTMENT BLOCK. TEL AVIV SUBURB - DAY 8 A shabby, dimly-lit stairwell in a run-down section of the city. A YOUNG MOSSAD AGENT knocks at one of the apartment doors. After a moment it is answered by OLDER DAVID, now 62. YOUNG AGENT David Peretz? DAVID Yes. YOUNG AGENT You were expecting me? David looks at this young version of himself. DAVID Yes. I was expecting you. YOUNG AGENT Would you come with me sir? David stares at him, then walks back into the apartment. The door almost swings shut and the Agent catches it, considering walking in after him. But before he can, David re-emerges carrying his jacket. DAVID Let's go. TITLES BEGIN - We TRACK with David, CLOSE on his face as the two men begin the long walk down the staircase. He doesn't say anything to his companion, doesn't look around him, and we HOLD on that face as his mind tries to catch up, tries to work something out, to decide...9 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS 9 The apartment block stands on stilts. Abandoned furniture is piled around the columns supporting the building. Still on David as the two men walk out from the darkness into the street that services the run-down estate. David follows as the agent moves ahead towards a larger road. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 6. They cross a busy carriageway, and wait for a moment on the central reservation for a break in the traffic. Parked on the far side of the road, two identical cars, their windows tinted. The Agent moves to the leading car, opens the driver's door and gets in. David stops in the road, opens the rear passenger door and throws his jacket inside. He pauses for a moment and turns to look back at the second car.10 INT. CAR - CONTINUOUS 10 A MAN sits in the back of the car, silhouetted against the brightness outside. This is OLDER Stephan, now 63. He watches as David straightens up, hands on hips, squinting up at the sun.11 EXT. STREET. TEL AVIV SUBURB - CONTINUOUS 11 DAVID (Indistinctly) Sorry. The Agent turns. YOUNG AGENT What, sir? DAVID (Beat) I - I think I... He stands like that for a moment and then suddenly STEPS OUT INTO THE ROAD in front of an on-coming TRUCK. The impact sweeps him out of the frame. The shocked Agent scrambles out of the vehicle as other cars screech to a halt in front of David's lifeless body. TITLES END.12 EXT. TERRACE. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - NIGHT 12 A celebratory dinner for the book launch is in progress - publishers, journalists, local dignitaries...FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 7.Rachel is re-joining the table, taking her place beside herdaughter amidst the dinner party chatter. Sarah watchesher. SARAH When are you going to stop? RACHEL Stop what? SARAH The smoking. RACHEL Soon. SARAH I hope so. Do it for your grandson. SARAH Are you sure you have to go back home tomorrow? RACHEL It's all arranged, I'm afraid... SARAH But we'll have breakfast before you go? I thought maybe we could take a walk on the beach? (Trying to sound casual) I'd like you to see more of him.A WAITER leans over with WINE for Rachel. She covers herglass. RACHEL (To Sarah, ill-at-ease) Well, I'll be back. We can...maybe in the holidays or...MIRIAM, a PUBLISHER appears at her shoulder with a copy ofSarah's book. MIRIAM I've marked the place. I thought perhaps from chapter eleven...? RACHEL ...Yes, thank you.Rachel nods absently, flicking through the pages of thebook. Sarah realizes, with a small stab of pain, that shehas no idea what that means.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 8. SARAH If you'd rather read something else, mother..... RACHEL No, that's fine.Rachel is barely listening. She is staring at a black andwhite photograph in the book.We see that the photograph is of a YOUNG MAN in NAZIUNIFORM. It's titled: DIETER VOGEL, "The Surgeon ofBirkenau." MIRIAM You must be very proud.Rachel looks up at her, realizes what Miriam is talkingabout. RACHEL (A little automatic) ...It's a wonderful achievement. I'm very proud of her. MIRIAM And I'm sure you were invaluable in the research. SARAH (Keeping it light) Actually, my mother withstood all interrogation. My father was the talker. (Trying a joke) I'm the only journalist in Israel she won't speak to.Miriam laughs obligingly but Sarah instantly regrets theremark.There is a sudden excited MURMUR from the table. The womenlook over to where Stephan approaches the table. He is in amotorised WHEELCHAIR. The Mossad Agent attends discreetlyin the background.Rachel's face hardens. RACHEL I thought he couldn't come. SARAH (Standing up, surprised) So did I.Several of the local POLITICOS have stood up to greetStephan, who is all smiles and handshakes.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 9. STEPHAN (To the politicos) Please, sit, sit. My God, it must be election season.There's good-natured laughter from the table. Sarah joinsher father, kissing his cheek. SARAH You came. STEPHAN I came. So you're the famous author I've heard so much about?Rachel watches as he takes a place at the table, picks up acopy of the book and examines the cover photograph, holdinghis glasses a little from his eyes to focus. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (Without looking) Rachel. RACHEL Stephan. STEPHAN (To Sarah) Now you're the expert, maybe you could tell me something. (Pointing to himself) Who's this handsome devil on the cover?More polite laughter from the table. STEPHAN (CONT'D) It went well? SARAH'S HUSBAND She was wonderful. STEPHAN That's good. Good, good. That's very good.Rachel takes a sip of water and notices Stephen's hands,crumbling some bread - they're SHAKING.She looks up at his face, reads the hidden STRAIN there.He senses her gaze and meets it, and for a second his smilefalters and SOMETHING LIKE PANIC flickers in his eyes.Rachel stares back at him, disturbed. Miriam stands,tapping her glass with her fork. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 10. MIRIAM I just want thank you all for coming to help us celebrate the launch of this wonderful book. I'm sure we're all particularly thrilled to have two of the heroes of this story at the table. And even more thrilled that one of them has agreed to read for us... Applause. She gestures to Rachel who stands, still looking at Stephan. The table quietens down. Rachel opens the book at the marked place and hesitates, only now realising what she is about to read. Then... RACHEL (reading) "On the evening of the 31st of December, it began to rain more heavily. So isolated had they become from the outside world that it was only when she looked out of the window that Rachel remembered it was New Year's Eve...13 INT. KITCHEN. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - NIGHT - THE PAST 13 Young Rachel stands in the small kitchen. Rain lashes on the window. She stares out at some FIREWORKS exploding nearby, then turns away and begins to gather three METAL SAUCEPANS from the shelves. We TRACK with her as she walks into the...14 LIVING ROOM 14 And begins to place the pots on the floor to catch the rainwater which is dripping through various points in the ceiling. As she positions the last pot we REVOLVE around her to get our first view of the far wall. And there, tied to a radiator, is DIETER VOGEL, now 50. He's bound, his mouth taped, apparently asleep. Rachel doesn't, of course, react to this sight. Instead she begins to clear away some pieces of BROKEN GLASS BOWL from the floor. We TRACK with her as she walks back down the short hallway into the kitchen, drops the pieces of bowl into the bin. From the living room comes the three distinct PINGS of rainwater dripping in the pots.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 11. She stops suddenly, puzzled. It's a moment before she works out what she's noticed - something has changed in the sound of the rainwater next door. There are only two drips instead of three. She walks back towards the living room... RACHEL'S P.O.V - through the living room door we can see that one of the pots has been overturned. Rachel slows to a stop. A sudden wave of adrenalin causes her to turn but...it's too late. Vogel steps out of the alcove he's been standing in so that he is directly in front of her. Before she can even cry out he has slashed her face open with a SHARD OF GLASS. Instinctively she cups her hands to her ripped face. Vogel grabs her by the hair and stepping behind her, tries to worm his other hand underneath her raised arms to reach her throat with the glass. Her training kicking in, Rachel uses a krav magah move to grab and twist Vogel's forearm, breaking his hold on her and turning the arm until, with a yell of pain, Vogel drops the shard. He swings wildly at her, but Rachel ducks the fist and drives the palm of her hand up into his face. Vogel stumbles back, surprised by her speed and the sudden pain of the blow. Rachel is about to press home the attack but is blinded by blood from her wound washing into her eyes. As she wipes her eyes clear, Vogel grabs a LAMP from a small chest of drawers in the hall and smashes it into her face. She falls. Vogel begins to run, but, driven by adrenaline and desperation, Rachel scrambles onto all fours and lunges at him, catching hold of his trouser leg as he moves towards the front door. Vogel stumbles, manages to pull a leg free and stamps down on Rachel who lets go with a moan. He stamps again, steps free and kicks her hard in the head. Rachel rolls with the force of the kick and comes to a rest, losing consciousness. RACHEL'S P.O.V - LOW ANGLE - Fluttering in and out of darkness - Vogel's feet as he stands beside us, breathing hard. Then he turns and hurries to the front door...and out. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 12.15 EXT. WALKWAY. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - NIGHT. 15 Vogel hurries along the walkway and sets off DOWN THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE of the apartment building.16 INT. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE. NIGHT. 16 Rachel lies motionless. Then a cough. And another. And finally she rolls over, holding her gaping cheek with one hand, and drags herself towards the CHEST OF DRAWERS.17 EXT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT 17 Vogel runs down the spiral staircase.18 INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT 18 With difficulty, Rachel pulls out a GUN fitted with a silencer... and pulls herself towards the door.19 EXT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT 19 Vogel's dwindling figure as he nears the bottom of the stairs.20 EXT. WALKWAY - NIGHT 20 Streaming blood from her face, Rachel heaves herself out of the apartment towards the railings guarding the walkway. We hear the clatter of Vogel's feet on the stairs below. She raises the gun to the railings, to take aim....21 EXT. COURTYARD - NIGHT 21 Bursting from the stairwell, Vogel starts to run across the courtyard towards the street.22 EXT. WALKWAY/COURTYARD - NIGHT 22 Rachel's aim follows Vogel's lunge for the gateway... RACHEL'S P.O.V There is a lurid flash of fireworks from nearby and for a moment we see Vogel lit, about to make it to the gate and disappear forever... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 13. Rachel FIRES. A single shot. And, improbably, incredibly, the tiny figure of Vogel drops. Rachel hangs over the banisters far above us, gun in hand, staring at us with disbelief.23 EXT. TERRACE. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - NIGHT 23 Rachel finishes reading and puts the book down. Nobody moves. The air of bonhomie has been replaced by an uneasy silence. Not knowing what else to do, one of the guests begins to clap and the others hurriedly join in. Rachel doesn't acknowledge the applause. Stephan is staring at her with a STRANGE INTENSITY.24 INT/EXT. STEPHEN'S CAR. TEL AVIV - NIGHT 24 Stephan and Rachel sit in the back of the car. Behind a screen the young Mossad Agent we saw earlier sits in the front next to the Driver. Tel Aviv races by in neon smears. The air is charged with tension. RACHEL (Of the driver) He's driving too fast. Stephan ignores her. She turns to the window, watches as they streak past another car. RACHEL (CONT'D) This is ridiculous. What's so important? Tell me where we're going? STEPHAN We're going to David's apartment. Rachel turns to him, startled. RACHEL David...? STEPHAN I keep track of people Rachel. It's my job. (Beat) I know he came to see you yesterday. RACHEL (contemptuous) What's this? The jealous ex- husband or the intelligence officer? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 14. STEPHAN A little of both. What did he want? RACHEL Fuck you. STEPHAN What did he tell you? Something about his intensity unnerves her. RACHEL He didn't tell me anything. (Off his look) He didn't! He told me where he'd been travelling, that he'd been teaching... We spoke for a few minutes and then I had to go. Stephan is still staring at her, reading her. RACHEL (CONT'D) (Bristling) If you don't believe me ask him yourself. And then he can't keep it from his face - and she knows. Something terrible has happened.25 INT. LIVING ROOM. DAVID'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 25 Stephan sits in the middle of the squalid living room, lost in thought.26 BEDROOM 26 Rachel walks slowly though the room, taking it all in - the little islands of occupation, the places where David sat, read, slept. Piles of newspapers. Used cups. A mound of laundry... ON Rachel as she looks about her, looking for something, some sign from the man she knew. But there's nothing personal here. These are the rooms of a man who had no real home.27 BATHROOM 27 Rachel walks in and switches on the light. She stares around the dirty bathroom. CUT TO: FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 15.28 CLOSE ON YOUNG DAVID 28 ...turning to face us, the beautiful smile... CUT TO:29 BACK ON OLDER RACHEL 29 ...as she begins to cry.30 LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS 30 Stephan sits listening to her breaking down.31 LIVING ROOM - LATER 31 Rachel sits on the couch. RACHEL Why did he do it? Stephan looks at her, considering. He takes out a sheet of PRINTED PAPER, hands it to her. She reads some of the first page, then looks up at him. And now we see it on her face too. Fear.32 EXT. STAIRWELL OUTSIDE DAVID'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 32 The Mossad Agent sits on the stairs, smoking. As the door behind him opens he stands aside and watches Rachel SWEEP past him down the stairs, without giving him a glance.33 INT. RACHEL'S HOTEL - NIGHT 33 Rachel is packing, folding clothes neatly, precisely, silently - all the time a terrible tension in her movements. She tries to close a drawer but it sticks, She keeps trying, then in a sudden rush of fury yanks the drawer free and hurls it across the room. She stands breathing hard. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 16.34 EXT. PATIO TERRACE/BEACH. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - DAY 34 The next day. Tables under umbrellas are ranged along the terrace. Sarah and her husband are on the beach below, playing with their son, laughing. As if feeling our gaze, she looks up at us, shielding her eyes against the sun. REVERSE Rachel sits at a table with Stephan, watching her daughter. Stephan takes out an ENVELOPE and passes it to her. She opens it and examines the contents - an AIR-PLANE TICKET and TWO PASSPORTS. Stephan takes out a small BLACK CASE and slides it across the table towards her. She turns to look at it with disgust, KNOWING WHAT IT IS. Then she takes it and puts it in her handbag. STEPHAN My car's waiting outside. It can take you to the airport. Rachel turns back to stare at her daughter.35 ON THE BEACH 35 Sarah, playing with her son, glances up once more at her mother on the patio.36 SARAH'S P.O.V 36 Rachel stands, an elegant woman at breakfast, her dark glasses, her suit...She raises a hand and waves. Puzzled, Sarah waves back, then watches as her mother begins to walk away from her.37 INT. LOBBY/STREET - DAY 37 PULLING RACHEL ...as she walks from the bright light of the patio into the relative darkness of the hotel lobby, suitcase in hand, face set, steely. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 17. We TRACK with her as she emerges from the shadow of the hotel back into the bright sunshine of the street and starts to walk along the sidewalk. After a moment a CAR purrs alongside. She ignores it for a moment, keeps on walking, the car cruising beside her. Finally, almost angrily, she stops and gets in. The YOUNG AGENT sits in the back seat next to her. The car pulls smoothly away.38 EXT. TEL AVIV AIRPORT - DAY 38 Rachel climbs from the car and walks towards the building, pulling her wheeled suitcase. The young agent has climbed out and moves swiftly ahead of her, waiting as she passes into the departure building.39 INT. AIRPORT PASSPORT CONTROL - DAY 39 Rachel looks down at her passport. We see her PHOTOGRAPH and name - RACHEL SINGER. She hardly reacts as the agent ushers her to the front of the queue. An Officer takes her passport, and as he checks it, we see...40 INT. CHECK-POINT CONTROL BOOTH. EAST BERLIN - DAY - THE 40 PAST ...the passport again. We're now looking at the black and white image of YOUNG RACHEL. The name beneath it is ELSA ROGET. The passport is slid back across the counter and we find ourselves in...41 EXT. CHECK-POINT. EAST BERLIN - DAY 41 Rachel takes her passport back from the BORDER GUARD and walks forward, past the barrier into EAST GERMANY. RACHEL'S P.O.V A CROWD of people are waiting beyond the check-point for their loved ones. They're all looking eagerly at us. Only one YOUNG MAN has his back to us, turning away to light a cigarette. Then he turns - Young David - a fine, sensitive face, darkly shadowed eyes. This is the SHOT we saw earlier. A moment when we see how anxious he is to play his part right. Then he smiles his beautiful smile... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 18. Supered TITLES read "East Berlin, 1965." Rachel walks up to him and after a fractional hesitation they embrace. DAVID (In German) How was your trip? RACHEL (German) Fine. Everyone sends their love. DAVID You've cut your hair. HIGH ANGLE David takes her suitcase, and they begin to walk away, hand in hand, along the BERLIN WALL. Finally... DAVID I'm David. Rachel nods, embarrassed. RACHEL Rachel.42 EXT. ANOTHER STREET - DAY 42 They have turned into another, quieter street. David lets go of her hand, and they walk on.43 EXT. COURTYARD/BALCONY. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY 43 A figure leans over the railing on the crumbling balcony at the top of the building, smoking a cigarette, watching. This is YOUNG STEPHAN. HIGH SHOT - POV David and Rachel are coming through the iron gate into the run-down looking courtyard. A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN - the building's only other occupant - watches the couple as the pass, David murmuring a greeting. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 19.44 INT/EXT. STAIRWELL - DAY 44 A brief glimpse of the couple climbing the winding stairs - a view we have seen before.45 INT. EAST BERLIN - SAFE HOUSE. DAY 45 The place looks like a squat. YOUNG Stephan sits playing idly at a battered old upright piano, a cigarette in his mouth. He looks up as David and Rachel walk in and stand framed in the doorway, looking every inch the young married couple. Stephan looks at them for a beat, then starts to play the first few bars of Mendelssohn's wedding march. The other two blush furiously, not amused. Rachel takes her case from David. RACHEL Where do I sleep? STEPHAN You're in my room. He waits just long enough to enjoy her reaction. STEPHAN (CONT'D) I'm moving in with him. (Beat) You're at the end there. She nods and walks off.46 INT. KITCHEN - LATER 46 Stephan is smoking. David sits at the table. He is using a file to create a notch at the bottom of a thin strip of sprung steel. Both men can hear the BATH RUNNING in the bathroom, both very aware of this new female presence in the house they've been sharing together for the last month. STEPHAN What do you think of your new wife? David frowns at the steel strip, seeming preoccupied. DAVID Too young. Stephan watches him, amused. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 20. STEPHAN Pretty. David shrugs. STEPHAN (CONT'D) You didn't notice. He begins to sort his possessions out. STEPHAN (CONT'D) You know what I've noticed? You don't notice women. I've noticed that. How long have I known you? DAVID (examining the steel) I don't know. STEPHAN Two years. All the places we've been to. You don't look at women. Before I get into that bed, is there anything you have to tell me? David sighs, blows on the steel strip and holds it up for Stephan to examine. We hear the bathroom door open and there is a quick glimpse of Rachel wrapped in a towel as she slips past the door heading for her room. The two men watch her pass. Stephan turns and catches David's expression. STEPHAN Well, well...I think he just noticed. CUT TO:47 INT. SAFE HOUSE - RACHEL'S ROOM - NIGHT 47 Rachel sits on her bed drying her hair. She stops, listening to the indistinct murmur of the men's voices from the room next door. Rachel leans towards the wall, trying to hear more but the voices fall silent.48 INT. SAFEHOUSE - MORNING 48 David, holding a kitchen knife, MOVES TO STAB Stephan. Stephan uses a krav magah move to disarm him. The knife clatters to the floor as he twists David's arm behind his back.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 21. There's an element of showing off and Stephan uses a little more force than is necessary. David winces but doesn't say anything. Stephan turns to Rachel who has been watching. STEPHAN Yes? Rachel nods and they change places. David picks up the knife and repeats the "attack" move on her. She disarms him easily. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Now an attack from behind. David takes his position, grabbing Rachel from behind, but he's so awkward with her the attack seems a little tentative. Stephan talks as Rachel practises breaking free from the hold. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Where have you come from? RACHEL Argentina. STEPHAN Really? Whereabouts? RACHEL Cordoba. STEPHAN What were you doing there? RACHEL My husband is an Industrial Chemist. Stephan glances at David, amused. STEPHAN He does look like a chemist. David grabs Rachel again, once more holding back a little. STEPHAN (CONT'D) She's not going to fucking break, David. Move. He takes David's place. STEPHAN (CONT'D) What were you doing before this? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 22. RACHEL Before Argentina we lived in Hungary where my husband studied... Stephan is smiling. She realizes he's talking about Mossad. RACHEL (CONT'D) Oh...Liaison. STEPHAN And what did you do in Liaison? RACHEL (Beat) Translator. Stephan looks even more amused. STEPHAN So, first time in the field. Rachel feels herself blush a little angrily. Stephan grabs her from behind and Rachel executes a perfect break, twisting Stephen's arm. Stephan winces, surprised. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Good. That's...good. David gives the slightest of smiles. DAVID Welcome to Metsada.49 OMITTED 4950 INT. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - RACHEL'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 50 Rachel lies in bed, restlessly playing with a locket around her neck. Giving up on trying to sleep, Rachel rises from the bed, throws on a robe and pads out of the room...51 INT. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - LIVING ROOM. CONTINUOUS. 51 ...and into the living room. She sits down at the table, stares at a FILE before her. She hesitates then opens it, forces herself to look at the terrible PHOTOGRAPHS inside - a pile of severed legs, bodies covered in mustard gas wounds, phosphorus burns, a naked woman, barely a skeleton, held up by two Nazi nurses, a row of DEAD BABIES, rulers laid beside them to indicate dimensions... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 23. Rachel stares at this last image, overwhelmed.52 HALLWAY 52 David stands watching her through the half open door. He makes a small move - perhaps to go to her - then stops himself and slips back into the darkness.53 EXT. STREET - MORNING 53 A tram trundles down the wide Berlin street. Rachel and David are walking to Vogel's surgery, holding hands. She's pale, very frightened. David walks, trying, and failing, to think of anything to say to her. He suddenly notices an odd sound. It's Rachel, humming tunelessly to herself, very low. Something about this pierces him. He gives her hand a squeeze.54 EXT. CLINIC - DAY 54 The two stand in the doorway, at the foot of the stairs leading into the clinic, their husband and wife routine. DAVID (In German) I'll be waiting for you. She nods, trying to smile. RACHEL (her throat is tight) I won't...be long. They kiss. She turns to go, looking so young and lost... David hesitates, staring after her, then walks quickly away. Rachel walks up the steps towards the entrance.55 INT. WAITING ROOM. DAY. 55 A large NOTICE BOARD covered with photographs of grateful smiling MOTHERS holding their NEWBORN BABIES - row upon row of new life. Rachel sits staring at the board. She turns her attention to the frosted glass door to the doctor's surgery. Indistinct shadows move on the other side. She turns to look at the other two women sitting looking through magazines, then back to the door. A shadow darkens as it approaches the glass, then the door opens and a NURSE leans out. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 24. (All dialogue at the clinic is in German, subtitled.) NURSE Frau Roget? With a smile, the Nurse gestures for Rachel to enter.56 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. DAY. 56 Rachel stands behind a SCREEN, trying to control her nerves. All we can hear is the sound of RUNNING WATER and Rachel's tense breathing. Finally she takes off her skirt and unbuttons her blouse with trembling fingers. She puts on the gown, and slips out of her underpants, stumbling as she steps out of them. We TRACK with her as she walks out from behind the screen into the large brightly lit room. She walks towards the GYNAECOLOGICAL CHAIR at the centre of the room. On the far wall, behind a screen, someone stands washing their hands at a basin. As she walks, Rachel passes a tray of MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS, her glance lingering on it. She reaches the chair and climbs onto it. A pause and then, tentatively, she lifts her feet into the stirrups, tugging the gown to cover herself as best she can. She tries to steady her breathing, focussing on the ceiling. A bright LIGHT shines down on her. We hear footsteps approach. Rachel closes her eyes. VOGEL Good morning, Frau Roget. I'm Doctor Bernhardt. Rachel opens her eyes. Vogel is sitting on a small stool, taking a speculum from the tray of instruments, his back to us. RACHEL Good morning, doctor. He turns and smiles at us - and he has a wonderful, warm smile, the air of a gruff but kindly Uncle. VOGEL Alright now, just relax. We're going to do a little examination. If you feel at all uncomfortable, you just say. Alright?FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 25. She manages to nod. VOGEL (CONT'D) Alright, this is my hand... and this is the speculum. It's going to feel cold. Rachel reacts as Vogel pushes the speculum into place, opens it and begins the examination. She stares up into the light. VOGEL (CONT'D) Can I ask how old you are? RACHEL Twenty five. VOGEL And how long have you and your husband been trying for a baby? RACHEL Nearly two years. VOGEL Uhuh. Well, the ovaries look fine. Alright, let's see... your cervix is slightly retroverted. Tilted backwards? Rachel raises her hand to her LOCKET NECKLACE and begins to fiddle with it. RACHEL Really? The angle from which we next see VOGEL, and the way the image of his face freezes in black and white, tells us clearly that this locket conceals a CAMERA DEVICE. VOGEL Mmm. But that generally shouldn't affect fertility. RACHEL Oh, good. VOGEL You have a slight accent, Frau Roget. Where are you from? RACHEL Argentina. We just moved here... A few months ago. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 26. VOGEL Whereabouts in Argentina? Buenos Aires? He looks up at her and Rachel instinctively moves her hand away from the locket. She finds herself nodding. Vogel looks away again. Rachel bites down on a wave of panic. VOGEL (CONT'D) Oh, Buenos Aires. Beautiful. I went once, when I was young. We went to the Opera house I remember. What's it called again? Rachel stares at the light. Beat. RACHEL Teatro Colon. He turns back to her, holding a swab, the warm smile. VOGEL That's right. Beautiful. This might sting a little, dear. Rachel winces. VOGEL (CONT'D) I'm sorry. Now, there's a couple of tests we need to run, make sure there are no problems. Is that alright? Rachel nods. He pats her hand. VOGEL (CONT'D) Brave girl.57 EXT. CLINIC - DAY 57 Rachel walks out and finds David waiting, smoking. He takes her hand and they walk off without speaking.58 EXT. QUIET STREET - DAY 58 The two turn the corner, out of sight of the clinic. David glances at her. She looks pale, shaken. He feels a wave of sudden tenderness for her, opens his mouth to say something then catches himself. CLOSE on their hands. After a moment David LETS GO. They walk on. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 27.59 INT. BAR - DAY 59 Stephan sits at a table. Rachel and David appear beside him and join him. There is an awkward silence for a moment. Stephan sips his coffee. STEPHAN (in German) So. Everything...? RACHEL (in German, abruptly) Next appointment is on Wednesday. She looks at David but he is staring at the table. Like Stephan he is uncomfortable with the thought of what Rachel has been through. She takes his hand. He looks up, surprised, searches her face... But then Rachel lets go and walks off towards the toilets. David looks down at the SILVER LOCKET lying in his palm.60 EXT. STREET - DAY 60 Stephan walks down the street. A SMARTLY DRESSED MAN walks towards him, absently jingling his CAR KEYS in his hand. As he nears Stephan, the man fumbles the keys and they drop. Stephan dips down to pick them up and hands them back to the man with a smile. SMARTLY DRESSED MAN Vielen dank! STEPHAN Bitte sehr. The two continue on their way, and we follow the smartly dressed man, closing in on his hand, in which he now holds his keys AND THE LOCKET. We see him tuck it into his jacket pocket as he walks on.61 EXT. RAILWAY STATION - FOOTBRIDGE - EARLY EVENING 61 The FOOTBRIDGE which crosses over a closed RAILWAY STATION below. On either side of the bridge runs a barbed wire topped FENCE. A few PEDESTRIANS cross the bridge in the early evening gloom, intent on getting home. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 28. David and Stephan appear, walking over the bridge towards us. David's eyes flick to the tracks ahead and below as a TRAIN begins to thunder by. Stephan begins to COUNT softly to himself as the train runs below his feet. STEPHAN One, two, three, four, five, six... DAVID (O.S.) It's a ghost station...62 INT. KITCHEN. SAFE-HOUSE - EVENING 62 A hand-drawn plan of a RAILWAY STATION is on the table. David indicates the tracks on the plan. DAVID West Berlin trains pass through East Berlin on this track, but don't stop. STEPHAN Usually. He raises a lighter to the cigarette in his mouth. MATCH CUT TO:63 EXT. RAILWAY BRIDGE - EVENING 63 As the train disappears into the gloom and Stephan slows to light his cigarette. Beside him David's eyes flick to the STATION PLATFORM in between the tracks below, eerily lit in the gathering dusk. DAVID'S P.O.V - several BORDER GUARDS patrol the abandoned platform. DAVID (V.O.) The station's guarded at all times... We're TRACKING PAST the entrance to stairs leading down from the bridge onto the platform below. We see it's been sealed off with a locked gate. Another BORDER GUARD stands on the stairs below, staring up at us as we pass...64 INT. KITCHEN. SAFEHOUSE - EVENING 64 AT KITCHEN TABLE FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 29. David indicates the point on the plan. DAVID ...and the stairs to the platform are sealed off.65 EXT. RAILWAY BRIDGE - EVENING 65 The two men have walked on past the mid-point of the bridge. David glances at the far track. DAVID'S P.O.V - the track runs along the far side of the platform. On the other side of the track is a barbed-wire topped WIRE FENCE. DAVID (V.O.) Our train driver makes an unscheduled stop on the near track. STEPHAN (V.O.) The last two carriages will be around...66 INT. KITCHEN SAFEHOUSE - EVENING 66 Stephan indicates a point on the track. STEPHAN ...here. And they will be empty. Once that train has stopped, the guards won't be able to see this fence. And on the other side of the fence is...67 EXT. THE RAILWAY BRIDGE - EVENING 67 The two men are at the top of the stairs on the other side of the bridge now. Stephan glances to his right... STEPHEN'S P.O.V - TRACKING as we descend the stairs. We can see that on the other side of that high wire fence is a CAR PARK and a long, low building... STEPHAN (V.O.) ...a postal depot. We see that car park is lined with the yellow VANS of Deutsche Post. Several FEMALE POSTAL WORKERS in dark skirts and white blouses stand around the car park on their breaks, smoking and chatting. As we watch one of the vans trundles out of the OPEN FACTORY GATE. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 30. STEPHAN (V.O.) The vans come and go all day long.68 INT. KITCHEN. SAFEHOUSE - EVENING 68 David rolls up the plan. DAVID We're just one more parcel. Once we're in West Berlin there'll be transport to Templehof airbase and a private charter. Stephan stubs out his cigarette. STEPHAN That's the wrapping. Now all we need is the present. Rachel realises both men are looking at her.69 OMITTED 6970 OMITTED 7071 OMITTED 7172 OMITTED 7273 INT. LIVING ROOM. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - EVENING 73 Rachel runs the hem of a partially-made WHITE GARMENT through a SEWING MACHINE. She finishes and takes it over to where Stephan stands waiting. It's unfinished, but a fairly good approximation of a MEDIC'S WHITE COAT. RACHEL Try this on. Stephan puts it on. She tugs at the coat, straightens the unfinished collar, runs her hands down the front to smooth it out. RACHEL (CONT'D) (re: the coat) How does it feel? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 31. STEPHAN (Flirting) Nice. Rachel ignores this, begins to pin the cuff of one of the sleeves. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Here you are, Mossad agent, all those years of training, the highest levels of marksmanship and krav magah, first big mission...sewing. Rachel resists a smile, brandishes the pin. RACHEL Black belt in dressmaking. He holds up his hands in surrender. STEPHAN I never argue with an armed woman.74 INT. KITCHEN. SAFEHOUSE - LATER 74 Rachel and Stephan sit as David serves the dinner. Rachel examines her dish. RACHEL (Politely) What is it? DAVID (Beat) It doesn't have a name. Stephan tastes his. STEPHAN (Grimacing) Shit. David lifts his spoon, blows on it. DAVID (Solemn) Now it does. They laugh a little, settle into eating. David stares at his bowl, deciding whether or not to say something. Finally... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 32. DAVID (CONT'D) It's my birthday. They look up at him in surprise.75 INT. BAR - LATER 75 Tinny music plays. The place is almost empty. In the back of the bar the three sit in a corner drinking beer - just young people, laughing, a little drunk. They could be students. Rachel is reciting something from memory. RACHEL Uh, at ten - study the Mishnah, at fifteen - study the Talmud. By eighteen - stand under the wedding canopy... STEPHAN We're too late for all of those. They laugh. RACHEL Uh...twenty. In your twenties you are to "pursue your life's goals." STEPHAN (Flirtatious) What are you pursuing Rachel? Rachel thinks about it, shrugs. RACHEL I don't know. I'm waiting to find out. STEPHAN (smiles to himself) Youth... RACHEL What about you, grandfather? Have you got a goal? STEPHAN (Smiling) Oh yes. We believe in goals in my family. We're very driven men. My father was Director of Collections by the time he was fifty.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 33. RACHEL So what's your goal? STEPHAN Director of Collections by forty. They laugh. RACHEL (To David) What about you David. What "life goal" are you pursuing? David smiles, stares at his drink. DAVID This is it. Rachel laughs, looks around at their less than glamorous surroundings. RACHEL This is it? This is all you want? David laughs. He would obviously rather change the subject but Rachel is a little drunk, a little curious. RACHEL Seriously, what do you want out of life? DAVID (Beat, shrugs) I want this. I want to get Vogel. I want him to be put on trial and I want the world to watch so everyone knows what he did. I want them all to know the truth. He looks up at their faces, embarrassed at having darkened the atmosphere. DAVID And...I want another drink. He gets up and walks off to the bar. Rachel stares after him. Stephan watches her. STEPHAN Forget about it. RACHEL Forget about what? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 34. STEPHAN I've spent two years with him, and I don't know him. Nobody knows him. He's alone. Rachel thinks this over. RACHEL What about family? Stephan stares at her. She realises what this means. RACHEL (CONT'D) All of them? STEPHAN (O.S.) All of them. He looks over at David standing at the bar. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Maybe it's not always a blessing to survive.76 EXT. STREET/PARK - DAY 76 A tram passes, revealing Stephan walking across the scrubby, desolate park, jingling car keys in his hand. Suddenly he drops them. He's about to pick them up when a man dips down and hands them back to him. We recognize the moment. STEPHAN Vielen dank! SMARTLY DRESSED MAN Bitte sehr. Stephan walks on. In his hand he is now holding a small METAL TUBE.76A INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. CLINIC - DAY. 76A From Rachel's POV we are watching Vogel as he prepares his instruments. She has come for her second examination. VOGEL This is my hand. This is the speculum.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 35. Rachel flinches as she feels the speculum. VOGEL (CONT'D) How did you find me? RACHEL (beat) What? VOGEL Who told you about me? RACHEL Who... told us? VOGEL Were you referred by a doctor, or...? RACHEL (trying to conceal her relief) Oh, Doctor Eisenberg. VOGEL Ah-ha. How is the old Jew? RACHEL Very good. Vogel busies himself for a moment. VOGEL Any history of infertility in your family Frau Roget? RACHEL No. VOGEL Are your periods irregular? Rachel stares up at the light. RACHEL Yes. VOGEL Yes. I think we've found the problem. Rachel stares at him - she didn't know there was a problem. VOGEL (CONT'D) It's very common. Your ovarian follicles...well, inside you're still immature. (MORE) FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 36. VOGEL (CONT'D) We need to help you with this. There's something we can use, a little injection. Do you want to proceed? Rachel nods, dumbly. Vogel nods, turns back to his tray of instruments, begins preparing an injection. Vogel turns back to her with the HYPODERMIC NEEDLE. Instinctively Rachel stiffens. He injects her. VOGEL (CONT'D) (As he works) How many brothers and sisters do you have? RACHEL (Stiff) None. VOGEL An only child? Rachel nods. Vogel smiles, not unkindly. VOGEL (CONT'D) And yet you say there's no family history of fertility problems? RACHEL (Beat) I lost my mother in the war. Vogel stares at her. Then, to her dismay, he TAKES HER HAND, and pats it with such a sad, sympathetic look, that she feels her eyes prick with tears. Then he lets go and turns back to the examination.76B EXT. CLINIC - DAY 76B Rachel comes out to find David waiting for her again. Once more he takes her hand and they walk off.76C EXT. QUIET STREET - DAY 76C As they turn into the quiet street, David lets go of her hand. Rachel stops. She looks shaken. David watches her. DAVID Are you alright? She nods. Suddenly Rachel takes his hand again. David stares straight ahead but he DOESN'T PULL FREE and they walk on like that. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 37.77 OMITTED 7778 INT. SAFE HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - EVENING 78 Rachel and David walk into the room and find Stephan waiting for them. STEPHAN Identity is confirmed. We have a green light. Rachel and David stare at him.78A EXT. ANOTHER STREET - DAY 78A We are looking at a yellow DEUTSCHE POST van. Stephan and David are walking towards it. Stephan stops by the van, shielding David as he drops the length of thin steel we saw him working on earlier, from his sleeve - an improvised SLIM JIM. With professional ease he slips the Jim between the window and the weather shield. In seconds he has the door open and the two climb in...79 INT. KITCHEN. SAFE HOUSE - NIGHT 79 Rachel comes out of the bathroom in her nightclothes, with her hair wet around her. She looks into the kitchen. David is sitting smoking. Rachel pauses in the doorway and then walks in. A small two bar electric fire provides the only light in the room. Rachel kneels down in front of it to dry her hair. David looks at her as Rachel spreads her hair around her shoulders. She looks very beautiful. She starts to comb her hair. On impulse, Rachel HOLDS OUT the comb to David. David takes it. He starts to comb, pulling it slowly through her hair. Then stops. The atmosphere is suddenly charged. DAVID It's a brave thing you're doing. RACHEL I'm not brave. I'm terrified. DAVID But you're doing it anyway. Because you know how important it is. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 38. Another stroke and then he stops again, stares at the comb in his hand. DAVID You're very brave. RACHEL (Beat) David... Rachel turns round and stares at him, overcome with longing. She leans in to KISS HIM. For a moment David hesitates, but then it's as if something inside him closes and he pulls back from Rachel, his face cold. Without a word he gets up and walks out. Rachel sits, crushed...80 INT. LIVING ROOM. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - LATER. 80 Rachel, sits at the piano in her robe, picking out notes. She's been crying. Stephan stands watching her from the doorway, holding a drink - something slightly predatory about him. He crosses to her, sits down beside her and starts to match her notes. They work out a nonsense tune between them.81 INT KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS 81 David listens as they play.82 INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS 82 Rachel picks up Stephen's drink and takes a sip. STEPHAN It's whiskey. Defiantly Rachel drains the glass, grimaces a little. Stephan watches her. He continues to play, moving the melody up in octaves until his hand is beside hers, then covering hers. Rachel brushes him away. He puts his hand back and starts to caress her wrist. STEPHAN (CONT'D) You're so beautiful... He begins to kiss her neck. Rachel stares ahead, pretending it isn't happening. Then she gives in, turning to him. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 39.83 INT. RACHEL'S BEDROOM - MORNING 83 Rachel stands at the mirror, dressing in a DARK SKIRT and WHITE BLOUSE, trying to control all the emotions she is feeling. Behind her Stephan lies in the bed watching her. Neither speaks.84 EXT. COURTYARD/STREET - LATE AFTERNOON 84 Rachel and David cross the courtyard to the gate. David holds it open for Rachel. As they turn into the street, David takes her hand. Both stare fixedly ahead, only too aware of what happened the night before.85 OMITTED 8586 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. LATER 86 Rachel is in the chair for what she knows will - whatever happens - be the last time. VOGEL Alright, this is my hand. And this is the speculum. RACHEL Okay. Vogel begins the exam. From beneath her GOWN Rachel slips a HYPODERMIC NEEDLE. VOGEL You had intercourse last night? RACHEL (Tight) Yes. VOGEL Good. You're at the most fertile stage of your cycle. This is very good timing. He turns to his tray of implements. VOGEL (CONT'D) I think we are going to see results. (MORE)FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 40. VOGEL (CONT'D) All you have to do is have faith. Ask any of my patients. RACHEL What about your patients in Birkenau...? Vogel looks up in shock. Rachel grabs a fistful of his hair and pulls his head to one side. With her other hand she jams the needle into the side of his neck, and begins to depress the syringe. Vogel gives a grunt of surprise, opens his mouth to speak but no sound comes. He grabs vaguely for Rachel's throat with one hand, struggles with the needle with his other, eyes dull with fury, fighting the drug racing through him. Rachel fights to hold him, bucking on the chair, pinned beneath his weight, struggling for breath... Weakening, VOGEL manages to pull the needle free and it drops to the floor... INSERT OF SYRINGE ...which we see still contains some FLUID. A rope of spittle drools from Vogel's contorted mouth onto her face. Then his eyelids flutter and close and he collapses onto her. Rachel pulls his hand from her throat, gasps for air. Finally she pushes him to the ground. She leaps up and deliberately knocks the tray of medical instruments to the floor. RACHEL (CONT'D) Help! The Nurse runs in, reacts at the sight of the prone VOGEL. RACHEL (CONT'D) He collapsed! NURSE My God! What happened?! RACHEL (overlapping) I don't know! I don't know! He just clutched his chest and collapsed! The Nurse grabs for the phone and dials. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 41. NURSE (into the phone) I need an ambulance! Karl-Gustav- Strasse. The clinic. My husband has had a heart attack. Rachel reacts to this revelation. EMERGENCY OPERATOR (O.S.) (Over phone) Your name please? NURSE It's Frau Bernhardt, please, please hurry!87 EXT. REAR OF CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 87 Stephan kneels in a recess of the building, by the open NETWORK JUNCTION BOX of the clinic. He's wearing HEADPHONES, alligator-clipped to two cables in the box. EMERGENCY OPERATOR (O.S.) (Over phones) The ambulance is already on the way, madam. Stephan un-clips the phones and pockets them. He straightens up, closes the junction box and walks calmly away, through a gate in the wall, into the next courtyard. HIGH SHOT As Stephan races up some steps, along a balcony, and into the building...88 INT/EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - CONTINUOUS 88 TRACKING with Stephan through the hallway, out of the door and onto the street....89 EXT. AMBULANCE DISPATCH - CONTINUOUS 89 An AMBULANCE, sirens wailing, starts out of the dispatch, and swings onto the street. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 42.90 EXT. STREET OUTSIDE CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 90 Stephan rounds the corner of the street and walks TOWARDS THE CLINIC. He checks his watch as he turns into an alley opposite the entrance.91 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. LATE AFTERNOON 91 Rachel finishing dressing, looks anxiously at the nurse as she crouches by her unconscious husband, monitoring his breathing.92 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS 92 The AMBULANCE speeds on.93 EXT. STREET NEAR CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 93 Stephan pulls back some rusty doors. Parked in the small courtyard beyond is the van we saw before, now decorated with AMBULANCE DECALS and LIGHTS. David drives the car forward as Stephan climbs into the passenger side...94 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. LATE AFTERNOON 94 Rachel paces outside the door, looking down the corridor. The nurse wipes away a tear, tense and frightened. NURSE (to no one in particular) Oh god! Come on, come on! Hurry!95 OMITTED 9596 INT. THE CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 96 A SIREN approaches and Rachel moves to the door... RACHEL They're here. Stay with him. I'll go and get them... The nurse nods gratefully. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 43.97 EXT. CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 97 ...a vehicle pulling up. Whether it's the real ambulance or the fake one, we're not sure.98 INT. LOBBY. CLINIC - CONTINUOUS. 98 Rachel runs past the concerned patients in the waiting area to see... David and Stephan, coming up the stairs, holding a stretcher.99 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. MOMENTS LATER 99 Rachel leads them in. Stephan crouches down beside Vogel and takes his pulse. STEPHAN We need to take him to the hospital. He and David open up the stretcher and transfer Vogel to it with some efficiency. NURSE Oh God! STEPHAN He's going to be alright. Rachel and the nurse follow David and Stephan as they carry the stretcher out through the waiting room.100 INT. LOBBY. CLINIC - CONTINUOUS 100 We hear the siren of the real ambulance starting up not-so- very-far-away down the street as David and Stephan push the stretcher towards the doors. The nurse follows, but David stops her. DAVID I'm sorry, Madam, but you'll need to meet us at the hospital. NURSE But... I want to travel with him. DAVID Not possible I'm afraid. New regulations. We begin to register that the siren is growing louder with every second. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 44. As Stephan and David carry the stretcher down the stairs, Rachel takes the nurse's hand to detain her. RACHEL Don't worry, he's in good hands now. He's going to be fine. NURSE Thank you...thank you. RACHEL You should get your things, go to the hospital to meet him. The Nurse nods tearfully, starts to back towards her office, watching as they disappear.101 EXT. CLINIC - LATE AFTERNOON. 101 David closes the rear door of the van and the two jump in and drive off as Rachel comes out of the building. She begins to walk briskly away. Behind her, the real ambulance is pulling up at the clinic. She doesn't turn back.102 EXT. COURTYARD/STREET NEAR CLINIC - LATE AFTERNOON 102 The DEUTSCHE POST VAN that David and Stephan stole earlier pulls out into the street. Behind it we catch a glimpse of the now abandoned ambulance. David quickly closes the gate and climbs in.103 EXT. STREET NEAR CLINIC - MOMENTS LATER 103 Stephan draws up alongside Rachel and she climbs in as the door is opened for her.104 INT. BACK OF VAN - MOMENTS LATER 104 The winter evening is gathering outside. David and Rachel are in the back of the van. David has taken off the white coat. David checks his watch. STEPHAN (Tense) I know, I know. He accelerates. Rachel grabs hold of the back of the seat to avoid falling. She looks down at the stretcher - Vogel lies unconscious. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 45. One of his hands jolts free and drops onto her foot. Gingerly she steps free.105 EXT. DEUTSCHE POST DEPOT - NIGHT 105 HIGH ANGLE The depot car park is dark - rows of postal vans parked up. An eerie silence. Through the high fence behind the vans we can make out the tracks and dimly lit STATION PLATFORM beyond - GUARDS patrolling in the little pools of light. As we watch a POSTAL WORKER comes out of the depot and walks through the carpark and out of the gate, his shift finished.106 INSIDE THE VAN 106 P.O.V - THROUGH VAN WINDSCREEN We're watching the WORKER walk in front of us and leave the car park. In the dark of the back of the van, Rachel crouches, watching him leave. She turns back to where Stephan and David wait by the van doors, bolt cutters in their hands. On the floor of the van lies Vogel's unconscious form. They wait in absolute silence, listening to the fading footsteps of the worker. David checks his watch, holds up a single finger to Stephan. Moments later we hear the sound of an approaching TRAIN. Stephan raises a hand and counts them down - five, four, three, two, one... The two men open the van doors and run at a crouch to the base of the foot-bridge stanchion, as the train roars from the darkness and begins to pass them, screening the two men from the GUARDS ON THE PLATFORM. Rachel closes the rear door behind them and runs along the line of the fence to the other end of the yard and crouches down by a junction box, screened from the platform, standing watch. She looks over to Stephen and David in the shadows of the bridge stanchion. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 46. Again silence falls. Then faintly we hear another engine approach. Moments later another train begins to roar past. Instantly the two men rise from the shadows and begin to CUT through the wire fence, working with fierce concentration. STEPHAN (Softly) One, two, three, four, five, six...107 AT THE JUNCTION BOX 107 Rachel checks the car park behind for workers.108 AT THE FENCE 108 The train is almost past. The two men work feverishly, snipping through the remaining links, working their way towards each other - forming a four foot long split in the fence. They sprint for the stanchion again... STEPHAN (As he runs) Twenty, twenty one, twenty two... As they dive for cover the last carriages of the train pass. A guard on the platform glances over but sees nothing but darkness and the vague outline of the postal vans beyond the fence. He continues walking down the platform.109 AT THE VAN 109 Rachel holds her breath, but nothing disturbs the new silence. Along the fence she can just make out the two men crouched in the shadows. Stephan raises his hand in an OK, signalling they're ready. Rachel suddenly hears FOOTSTEPS echoing in the car park. Through the window of a van, she can see a POSTAL WORKER emerging from the depot and crossing the car park. As she watches he takes out a cigarette, starts to light it but then stops. He is staring over at the footbridge, as if he can faintly make out those dark shapes at the base... He takes a few steps forward, puzzled. A little closer and he might really see something... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 47. Rachel looks to the PLATFORM - the two guards visible there are talking to each other, looking the other way. She takes her chance - moves up behind the parked vans... ON THE WORKER ..as he takes a few steps closer to where Stephan and David are crouched... RACHEL (O.S.) (calling) Do you have a light? The man turns and takes in this pretty postal worker, who has emerged BEHIND HIM. He smiles and walks back towards her. He lights her cigarette, studies her face. WORKER You new? RACHEL First shift. The girls said it was okay to come out for a smoke....110 AT THE FENCE 110 David and Stephan lie listening to the murmured conversation. WORKER Yeah, it's okay. Are you working until midnight? RACHEL Yes. WORKER After the late shift most of us go to the Vetter. Do you know it? David checks his watch again, nods at Stephan. We hear another APPROACHING TRAIN.111 ON RACHEL 111 ...smiling, pretending to be listening to the Worker. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 48. WORKER ...it's just on the corner. You should come along. She glances through the fence and down the track to where the train's LIGHT can be seen approaching in the gloom. This is it.111A INSIDE THE VAN 111A The inert body of Vogel, lying on the floor. His hands, bound at the wrist, suddenly twitch involuntarily.112 IN THE TRAIN - DRIVER'S CAB - CONTINUOUS 112 POV - the Border Guards on the platform. The driver begins to BRAKE.113 ON THE PLATFORM 113 The Border Guards watch in surprise as the train slows...114 AT THE FENCE 114 As it passes them, the train screens Stephan and David from the platform. The two men rise and swiftly begin to cut the remaining section of fence. As the train comes to a halt the last carriages stop directly opposite them, empty and dark. They're almost there.114A ON THE PLATFORM 114A In the distance, at the head of the train, the driver can be seen stepping down and gesturing to the guards, pointing up ahead. DRIVER There's something on the tracks up here! The Guards peer doubtfully into the gloom ahead. One sets off to investigate. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 49.115 ON RACHEL 115 ...getting rid of the Worker. RACHEL Well, maybe I'll see you there? I finish in half an hour. Why don't you go and get me a drink ready? The Worker can't believe his luck. WORKER Half an hour then. He starts to move towards the gate... Suddenly the VAN HORN BLARES, shattering the silence of the car park.115A AT THE FENCE 115A Stephan and David turn back to the van.115B ON RACHEL 115B She turns, shocked. The Worker too turns back in surprise.116 IN THE VAN 116 Vogel, hands still tied has wormed his way over the seats and is pressing frantically on the HORN. He claws at the tape over his mouth, manages to pull it free. Stephan leaps into the van and is upon him in seconds. Vogel manages to give a HOARSE YELL, then Stephan uses a krav magah move to silence him.117 ON THE PLATFORM 117 The remaining Border Guard is staring over at the darkened car park, trying to work out what he just heard.117A ON RACHEL 117A WORKER What was that...? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 50.118 AT THE FENCE 118 David watches in dismay as a Guard comes into view at the far end of the platform, entering a GUARD HUT. He lifts a TELEPHONE inside. DAVID (Softly) Fuck. He heads for the van at a crouching run.119 OMITTED 119120 ON RACHEL 120 Rachel indicates the vans closest to them. RACHEL I think it came from over here? WORKER No, it was one of those... He steps past her, peering at the shadowy vans ahead. Rachel stares at him wondering if she can take him down silently. BORDER GUARD (O.S.) Stay where you are! She turns to see two BORDER GUARDS approaching the side gate of the car park.120A ON THE PLATFORM 120A ...as the Border Guard comes back from checking the lines ahead. BORDER GUARD There's nothing there. Get moving now! His part of the mission completed, the Driver climbs back into his cab.120B ON RACHEL 120B ...as one of the Guards approaches her, pistol drawn. The second guard fans past, walking slowly towards the bridge. The first guard SHINES A TORCH into Rachel's face. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 51. FIRST GUARD What are you doing here? RACHEL I work here. I'm on a break. FIRST GUARD Show me your papers, both of you. The Worker nervously fumbles for his papers, passes them to the Guard who inspects them.121 AT THE FENCE 121 David watches Rachel offer her papers to the Guard as the train starts to rumble back into life. He moves back towards the van. AT THE VAN STEPHAN (hissing) We have to go! David stares over at Rachel. Stephan grabs Vogel. STEPHAN We can make it. Help me with him...122 ON RACHEL 122 FIRST GUARD (Handing them back) You can go. The Worker gratefully hurries away. Rachel is watching tensely as the Second Guard closes on the van...123 AT THE VAN 123 Stephan watches the train pulling away, THEIR LAST CHANCE. He has pulled Vogel's body to the door. STEPHAN (Hissing) We're going! Now! FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 52. David shakes his head. DAVID Not without her. He moves up the blind side of the van...124 IN FRONT OF THE VAN 124 The Second Guard takes a few more steps and stops in surprise- the OPENING in the fence VISIBLE NOW. SECOND GUARD (Startled) Hey! Over here! David appears behind him and downs him, fast. A Guard on the platform has turned to see the opening in the fence, and yells out.125 ON RACHEL 125 As the Guard beside her turns his attention to his comrade, Rachel grabs the guard's gun hand, sweeping it away from her, at the same time stepping in close and punching the guard's throat with her other hand. As he staggers back choking, she twists the gun free.126 OMITTED 126127 ON THE PLATFORM 127 Another guard hits an ALARM. A SIREN begins to sound...127A ON RACHEL 127A About to head back to the van. A shot rings out and a BULLET suddenly strikes the ground beside her. She looks up to see a GUARD has appeared up on the bridge, rifle aimed at her. Other Guards open FIRE, jumping down onto the tracks and advancing towards the cut fence. Acting on instinct, Rachel returns fire with the pistol, and takes cover behind the wall... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 53.128 AT THE VAN 128 Stephan has jumped into the driver's seat and starts the engine. David scrambles into the back, barely making it before Stephan is peeling out, the back door hanging open...128A ON RACHEL 128A ...as more guards appear at the side-gate behind her - she's caught between them now. She watches in dismay as the van heads for the exit. Suddenly it brakes... IN THE VAN Stephan throws the gear into reverse.. ON RACHEL and the van begins to reverse with a scream of tyres towards Rachel. The Guards at the side-gate open fire on the van hurtling towards them, bullets pocking the rear doors. The side door is flung open and Rachel dives in, just as Stephan roars forward again.128B INT. VAN - CONTINUOUS 128B P.O.V - THROUGH WINDSCREEN The Guard from the bridge has run down the stairs and is now between us and the exit. As we watch he raises his rifle... STEPHAN Down! The three duck as the Guard fires, punching a neat hole in the windscreen. Seconds later the van thuds into him, sending him flying. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 54.128C EXT. VAN - CONTINUOUS 128C ...as it roars out of the depot gates, bullets flying past it...129 EXT. ROAD NEAR STATION - NIGHT 129 STEPHAN'S P.O.V On the road ahead a Border Guard Jeep appears, driving directly towards them. Stephan has no choice - he floors it. At the last second the jeep tries to pull right but the van catches its rear side and barrels straight through, the jeep spinning off and smashing into the wall.130 IN THE VAN 130 Stephan fights to keep the van under control, screeches into a turn and off down the road. STEPHAN Is he dead? (Beat) Is he dead? RACHEL Who? STEPHAN The Guard! The one who saw your face! Is he dead? RACHEL No. Stephen's grim silence says everything. He glances back at the unconscious Vogel lying between the other two. STEPHAN How did he come round? How the fuck did he come round? You gave him the full injection? Rachel hesitates. STEPHAN Did you give him the... RACHEL I don't know! I thought I... FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 55. STEPHAN Jesus Christ! Stephan can't believe it's all fallen apart so quickly. STEPHAN We could have gone! DAVID It's not over. STEPHEN We could have fucking...! DAVID WE STILL HAVE HIM! IT'S NOT OVER! We still have him. Stephan glares at David but doesn't say anything. The van roars on.131 INT. SAFE HOUSE. CORRIDOR - NIGHT 131 Rachel sits on the floor looking towards the living room, staring at something. RACHEL'S P.O.V ...three POTS have been placed under drips from the ceiling inside the room. We hear the three distinct notes of the water drops. Rachel stares dully at the water dripping, feeling exhausted and numb. A key scrapes and Rachel turns to the door as Stephan and David walk in, hair soaked from the rain. RACHEL (Standing up) What did he say? Stephan stalks past, ignoring her. RACHEL You made contact? David nods. David looks after Stephan who's walked on into the living room in grim silence. RACHEL What did he say? FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 56. DAVID It's going to take time. They need to open up a new route, they need to find political help. Maybe the Americans. Two weeks... maybe three. Rachel reacts with dismay. Rachel moves after David towards the living room. The camera continues after her. DAVID We work four shifts guarding him. We feed him at the end of each shift. We never leave him alone. STEPHAN (turns to Rachel, hard) And you're compromised. You don't leave the fucking house. DAVID We can do this. We just need to stay focussed. The three turn to stare at something off-screen. The camera continues into the room to find Vogel's body slumped on the floor, bound to the radiator, mouth taped, slumped, unconscious. We continue towards him...closing on his face...CLOSER...Then his eyes open and he looks at us...132 INT. BEDROOM/LIVING ROOM. SAFE HOUSE. - DAY 132 Rachel's EYES OPEN and she lies in bed listening to the muffled sound of Vogel CURSING and YELLING in German next door - a breakfast ritual that has been going on for days. IN THE LIVING ROOM VOGEL (In German) .....Fucking assholes! Fucking pig shit food! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck... David and Stephan are wrestling with an enraged Vogel, trying to feed him. A BOWL clatters to the floor. Vogel's shouts are muffled as his mouth is taped again. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 57. BEDROOM He continues to swear at his captors as best he can through his gag. Rachel tries to block out the sound with her blanket.133 KITCHEN 133 Rachel walks in and finds a flushed David wiping oatmeal off his trousers, the empty bowl on the bench beside him. DAVID (Off her look) At this rate he's going to starve himself to death before we can get him back.134 LIVING ROOM - LATER 134 Rachel sits in the armchair near the end of her shift, watching Vogel who is slumped asleep. He looks dishevelled, the oatmeal he refused to eat smeared down his chin. She can't delay the moment anymore. She takes a bowl of prepared oatmeal from the table beside her and walks towards Vogel, stirring the bowl with an unsteady hand. She kneels down in front of him. In the silence, we hear rain falling heavily outside. Vogel wakes, stays slumped, staring at her with dull eyes. She takes the napkin that was covering the bowl and wipes the food from his chin. Finally she removes the tape from his mouth. Vogel watches her without moving. She offers him a spoon of oatmeal, waiting for the sudden yelling and abuse. He says nothing, just opens his mouth obediently. Rachel feeds him a spoonful of oatmeal. He speaks to Rachel in German, subtitled. VOGEL My wife. Rachel ignores him, feeds him another spoonful. VOGEL (CONT'D) Is she hurt? Another spoonful, and another. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 58. VOGEL (CONT'D) Is she alright? An ALARM CLOCK on the table, rings - the end of her shift. She wipes his mouth, tears some tape from the roll. Vogel closes his eyes, a look of such genuine suffering it stops Rachel. VOGEL (CONT'D) Please? Tell me she's alright. Rachel puts the tape over his mouth and stands. David walks in and takes his place in the ARMCHAIR facing Vogel. Rachel begins to leave. She looks back at Vogel who is staring after her, eyes pleading. She hesitates then gives a small nod and turns to walk out of the room, passing Stephan who has been standing in the doorway, watching her.135 KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS 135 Rachel starts to wash the oatmeal bowl. Stephan follows her in. STEPHAN You can't talk to him. RACHEL I didn't say anything. STEPHAN You can't listen to him. RACHEL I know. I just... STEPHAN (overlapping) I'm not angry - He rubs her back. Rachel stiffens a little. STEPHAN (CONT'D) - I'm just telling you - we don't talk to him. We don't listen to him. He isn't there. He isn't a human being. He... He stops himself. STEPHAN (CONT'D) We have a date. Ten days time. The Americans are going to help. Rachel looks at him, relieved. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 59. RACHEL Good. He smiles, stares at her, moves a little closer but Rachel has already side-stepped him and walked away. MONTAGE136 LIVING ROOM - DAY 136 Stephan sits on the armchair in front of Vogel, taking the GUN apart, cleaning it.137 LIVING ROOM - DAY 137 Vogel thrashes around on the floor as best he can, David holding him down. Stephan tries to force oatmeal into him. He spits it back out.138 KITCHEN - DAY 138 Rachel is cleaning, trying to keep busy, trying to keep the encroaching decay of the kitchen at bay, scrubbing and scrubbing.139 HALLWAY - MORNING 139 An exhausted David, finishing his shift, walks out of the living room as Stephan walks out of his bedroom to take his place. Rachel walks out of the bathroom and into her bedroom, for a moment the three criss-crossing each other's paths. Rachel's bedroom door closes. Both men avoid looking at each other as they pass it.140 HALLWAY - MORNING 140 Stephan and David are carrying a struggling, cursing Vogel towards the bathroom. Before they can get there Vogel pisses himself, the urine puddling on the floor at their feet. STEPHAN Fuck! Stephan drops Vogel in disgust jumping back out of the way. Vogel lies in the pool, staring up at him, eyes triumphant. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 60.141 OMITTED 141142 OMITTED 142143 INT. SAFEHOUSE. LIVING ROOM - DAY 143 Vogel leans against the wall, staring blankly at the window, sunk into a profound depression. He looks filthy, jaw dark with beard growth. Rachel watches him from the doorway.144 LATER 144 Rachel is washing Vogel's face with a towel. He pays no attention, continuing to stare out of the window. Rachel picks up a bowl of shaving cream, strips the tape off VOGEL's mouth, and begins to brush the cream over his face. She produces a RAZOR and carefully begins to shave his cheeks. She stops suddenly, a TEAR is running down Vogel's cheek, cutting a line through the soap. He turns his eyes to her. VOGEL Why don't you just kill me now? Rachel pauses for a moment. VOGEL (CONT'D) How can you keep me waiting to die like this! Rachel keeps on shaving. VOGEL I know what you want. You want to hand me over to the others, let there be some fucking sham of a trial. Then, when they kill me, you can tell yourself that there was no blood on your hands. Rachel switches to the other cheek. Vogel's getting more animated, tears in his eyes, a kind of bizarre indignation... VOGEL (CONT'D) But that isn't true. There will be blood on your hands. (MORE) FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 61. VOGEL (CONT'D) You will be my murderer! You fucking hypocrite. You fucking... Rachel tilts his chin up a little and puts the razor to his throat. He falls silent, tenses, waiting. Then... VOGEL (CONT'D) (Softly) Yes. Do it. You want to do it... Rachel finishes with a trembling hand. Vogel slumps back against the wall, the tension in his body easing away. He gives her a long, calculating look. And as we watch some CHANGE seems to come over him, some new fire beginning to kindle in him - a sense of cold contempt for Rachel and with it, perhaps, a fresh determination to survive this. VOGEL (CONT'D) That's right. I'd forgotten. You Jews never knew how to kill. Only how to die. Rachel wipes the razor clean on the towel, SLAPS fresh tape onto Vogel's mouth and gets up.145 INT. KITCHEN - MORNING 145 Rachel is cleaning the kitchen again, clearing some of the mess of dishes into the sink. She moves a dirty pan which has been left overnight and stops, staring at the COCKROACH which is crawling inside. A sudden wave of NAUSEA hits her.146 BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER 146 Rachel crouches at the toilet, vomiting. She finishes, rinses her mouth, looks at her pale reflection. She opens the door and steps out... Vogel stands DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HER. Rachel stands frozen - a split second of total panic. Then Stephan steps into sight behind Vogel, gun in hand - the morning bathroom visit. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 62. Rachel flattens herself against the hall wall, quickly wiping her mouth dry, as Stephan pushes Vogel past her towards the bathroom.147 EXT. STREET - EVENING 147 Stephan is walking back home. A POLICE CAR SIREN wails somewhere nearby and Stephan hurriedly cuts into an alley, waiting in the shadows until the siren has faded away. Then he hurries on his way.148 LIVING ROOM - EVENING 148 Rachel uncovers the dish of prepared oatmeal and kneels down beside a sleeping Vogel. She removes the tape. Vogel wakes, breathes out, watches her. After a moment... VOGEL I was dreaming about my wife. She feeds him some more. VOGEL (CONT'D) One of the great regrets of my life is that we were unable to have children. My wife would have made a wonderful mother. Vogel watches her, then suddenly SPEAKS IN ENGLISH... VOGEL (CONT'D) It's a great blessing. Rachel stares at him. VOGEL (CONT'D) You should try lemons. For the morning sickness. Rachel can't move. VOGEL (CONT'D) They say it helps. Rachel struggles to hold it together, feeds him another spoonful. VOGEL (CONT'D) What's your name? (Beat) Sarah? Hannah?...Rachel? Esther? (Beat) You Jews stay close to your roots, don't you? It's a good thing. Very good. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 63. Rachel spoons in another mouthful. VOGEL (CONT'D) I loved the bible as a child. Retribution. Higher justice. Rachel shovels in another mouthful. He chews it thoughtfully, examines her face. VOGEL (CONT'D) Yes. I understand you perfectly. (Beat) You weren't lying at the clinic when you told me about your mother were you? About her death? Rachel loads the spoon with more oatmeal, determined not to show any emotion. VOGEL (CONT'D) I'm very sorry for your loss. It almost takes her breath away. She tears the tape and puts it over his mouth, gets up and walks away, determined not to show him any emotion. Vogel watches her go.149 HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER 149 Rachel makes it out into the hallway before she feels the tears running down her face. She gives in to them, turns and finds David behind her. DAVID What happened? What's the matter? She can't speak at first. RACHEL Nothing. He...nothing. She wipes her face. RACHEL (CONT'D) He can understand us. DAVID What? RACHEL He can understand every word we're saying. He just spoke to me.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 64. Her face contorts as she tries to compose herself. David reaches out to hold her. DAVID It's alright. It's alright. It's nearly over. He pulls her close, holds her, rests his forehead against hers. They stand like that, eyes closed. The moment hangs. RACHEL (Suddenly) Why didn't you go? At the station. You could have got away. Why didn't you? She looks up at him. He stares into her eyes. Beat. Then, suddenly he kisses her. It's what she's waited so long for and she's stunned for a moment, then puts her arms around his neck, returning the kiss hungrily. They are helpless with desire for one another. There is a sudden scratch of a key at the front door and, instinctively, the two break apart. Stephan enters, hair wet from the rain. He stops, seeing them, sensing the atmosphere. They stare back at him. Rachel steps away a little, wiping her face. RACHEL (CONT'D) What did they say? Stephan stares at them in silence. He unbuttons his coat. DAVID Stephan? STEPHAN It's not happening. They stare at him aghast - this is the last thing they wanted to hear. DAVID What the fuck does that mean? STEPHAN The Americans have pulled out. (To Rachel) Has he been fed? DAVID So...so what does that mean? RACHEL Oh God...FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 65. STEPHAN Did you feed him? DAVID What does that mean? What's the plan now? RACHEL (rising panic) We just need to get him to the airfield, there must be some other way, some... Stephan starts down the hallway towards her, angry. STEPHAN I said has he...? David instinctively steps in front of Rachel, raises a hand. DAVID (overlapping) I'm asking you... STEPHAN (overlapping) I'm talking to her! Supposedly it's her shift now, but instead of doing what she's supposed to be doing she's out here with you! (To Rachel) Now answer the fucking question: Did you feed him? RACHEL YES! I fed him! Stephan stands glaring at her, then turns abruptly away. STEPHAN (Beat) There's no plan. There's no fucking plan. They said the operation is being "re- evaluated." He turns to David. STEPHAN You know what that means? They're going to cut us loose. They stare at him shocked.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 66. STEPHAN It's a fucking mess and they're backing away from it quickly as they can. RACHEL (CONT'D) (Beat) No. STEPHAN It's happening. I can feel it. RACHEL They can't just leave us! STEPHAN Yes they can! Because we fucked it all up! We fucked it all up and now we're on our own! Suddenly we hear someone KNOCKING on the front door. The three FREEZE, staring at each other. Silence. DAVID Were you followed? Stephan stares at the door, thrown. DAVID (CONT'D) Could you have been...? There is another KNOCK at the door. Stephan turns to the chest of drawers and takes out the GUN. RACHEL Stephan? Stephan is hurriedly screwing the SILENCER onto the GUN. There's another KNOCK at the door. RACHEL (CONT'D) Stephan! Stephan walks into the living room and aims the gun at Vogel. Vogel instinctively squirms away, falling to one side, wriggling back as far as he can. RACHEL (CONT'D) What are you doing? STEPHAN If it's them, he dies. Vogel lies, breathing hard through his nose, eyes on the gun aimed at him.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 67. David suddenly steps in between the two, the gun now pointing at his chest. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Move. DAVID You're not doing this. STEPHAN He's not getting away from me. DAVID This isn't the mission. STEPHAN I decide what the mission is! If I say he dies, he dies. DAVID We're finishing this mission. We're taking him back. STEPHAN Get out of the way! There is another KNOCK at the door. David and Stephan stare at each other, the tension building. Abruptly Rachel turns and walks down the hallway towards the door. Stephan calls after her. STEPHAN Rachel. Rachel! From the hallway we hear the sound of the door being opened - the murmur of conversation. The two men stand frozen, listening. Vogel lies, breathing hard through his nose. We hear the door close. The three listen as footsteps approach down the hall... Rachel walks back in. A long beat. RACHEL (Dully) It was the lady from the bottom apartment. She invited us to her New Year's Eve party. She turns and walks back out. The others stay where they are, frozen. We hear a PIANO PLAYING as we... CUT TO: FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 68.150 KITCHEN - DAY 150 As the piano music plays we see David and Stephan practise krav magah moves - careful, controlled, but under it all an edge of real tension between them.151 LIVING ROOM 151 Vogel is tied in his usual place. Stephan sits in a dangerous mood. He's playing the piano. A lyrical rendering of Deutschland Uber Alles. Vogel is watching him.152 KITCHEN 152 As the music continues the two men's workout grows more intense - the punches and blocks build in speed, faster and faster, both men breathing hard with the exertion, neither willing to stop, a real violence simmering under the surface.153 INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY 153 Stephan knows he's watched and avoids Vogel's gaze until he can stand it no longer and looks...154 KITCHEN 154 David is the first to break through the blocks - his fist stopping inches from Stephen's face. The two men freeze, staring at each other, breathing hard. The music crashes to a halt.155 LIVING ROOM 155 Stephan is staring at Vogel. He begins to play the anthem more discordantly, hitting the keys more violently, as if the music is possessing him. Then suddenly he stops, stands up and walks away from the keyboard. Stares at Vogel. Vogel is very aware of the sudden change in atmosphere, a sense of impending violence. Stephan doesn't move. The moment hangs.156 LATER 156 David is taking over the shift from Stephan. They pass each other in the doorway without a word. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 69. David stops, staring... Vogel lies in his usual place. A SACK has been placed over his head, hooding him. The effect is deeply sinister.157 KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER 157 Stephan sits eating with Rachel. David walks in and throws the SACK on the table. Stephan glances at it, continues eating. DAVID What are you doing? STEPHAN It's your shift. DAVID (To Rachel) Did you know about this? RACHEL About what? DAVID (To Stephan) His mouth's taped. You want him to suffocate? STEPHAN I was sick of seeing his face. Go back in. DAVID Don't do that again. Stephan gets up and walks calmly towards David as if shooing him back out the room. STEPHAN You don't give orders David. It's your shift now so you can go back in there... He has his hands on David's chest, gently pushing him back. David takes his hold of the hands, pulling them free and suddenly there's a flurry of violent movement as Stephan yanks his arms free of David and the two men shove at each other. RACHEL Stop it! They stop, breathing hard. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 70. DAVID We're not animals. Just remember what we are. Remember what we're not. He walks back out. Stephan sits back at the table, starts eating again. He glances at Rachel, but she won't look at him. After a moment she gets up and walks out.158 INT. SITTING ROOM - CONTINUOUS 158 David looks up from his chair to see in the hallway. Something purposeful in her manner alerts him.159 HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 159 David appears in time to see Rachel is putting on her overcoat. DAVID What are you doing? Rachel doesn't look at him. RACHEL I have to get out. DAVID (Gently) Rachel... Rachel tries to unbolt the door. David bars her. Rachel tries to talk calmly but she's fighting panic. RACHEL Get out of my way, please. I'm just going to go out for a few minutes. That's all I want to do. Stephan walks out of the kitchen, taking in the scene. DAVID She wants to go out. RACHEL (appealing) No one will see me. Tell him, David. I just want to walk. I just want to get some...air. Please. Stephan shakes his head. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 71. Rachel tries to unlock the door, but David has hold of it. She struggles against him. STEPHAN Don't be stupid. He takes her arm. Rachel jerks free. RACHEL GET OFF ME! Then she slumps against the door, her back to them. She's crying brokenly. A beat as the two men stand over her, not attempting to comfort her any further. Stephan turns and walks away. David leans his head against the door, waiting for her to stop.160 INT. SAFEHOUSE - LIVING ROOM. EVENING. 160 It's raining heavily outside and water is dripping through the cracks in the ceiling. David kneels next to VOGEL with a bowl of oatmeal and strips the tape from his mouth. VOGEL Thank you. David. David doesn't react. Vogel hums a tune to himself in between spoonfuls, watching David, his mood strange. VOGEL (CONT'D) David and Stephan and Rachel... He gives a soft laugh, finding something amusing in the sound of the names. VOGEL (CONT'D) If I had a choice I'd prefer Rachel to feed me. So gentle...in another life, the makings of a Nurse, I think...in another life... David continues to feed, careful to appear immune to Vogel. VOGEL (CONT'D) How is she today?FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 72. VOGEL (CONT'D) You should let her get more rest. It's a dangerous time, the first month or two of the pregnancy. David stares at him, unable to hide his shock. VOGEL (CONT'D) (Beat) You didn't know? Vogel absorbs this thoughtfully. VOGEL (CONT'D) You're not the father then? (Beat)I thought it would be you. I thought...I don't know. The way you look at her. The way she looks at you... David stirs the oatmeal, trying to think about what he's just discovered. Vogel doesn't take his eyes off him... VOGEL (CONT'D) Women can be like that, they like to make you dance first, I remember. (As though to himself) So, she chose the other one...? He shakes his head, shrugs. VOGEL (CONT'D) That must be hard, watching them together, right in front of you. And you not saying a word. Like the Poet says - "Great souls suffer in silence." I wouldn't have taken Stephan as a family man. Too ambitious, too...? Whereas you? David, I see you with children... DAVID (Quietly) Shut up. Vogel stares at him. This is the first time someone has spoken to him in weeks. He's quick to hide his sense of triumph. VOGEL I am expressing my sympathy. For your suffering. DAVID What does a monster like you know about suffering?FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 73. VOGEL I'm a doctor, David. David stares at him. DAVID A doctor. (beat)You blind children trying to change the colour of their eyes. You inject people with petrol. You...you replace people's hands and legs and you watch as they... He stops himself. DAVID (CONT'D) This isn't medicine. This is disease. This is sickness. Vogel seems to consider this. VOGEL So we were all insane? Is that the answer? DAVID (Beat) There's no answer. I'm not looking for an answer. I'm not looking for... He forces himself to be silent, tries to regain control of himself. He offers Vogel another spoonful, but his hand trembles a little with the violence of his emotions. VOGEL You're trembling. David pushes the spoon into Vogel's mouth, starts to load another spoonful. VOGEL (CONT'D) It's strange. Here I am - the victim, kidnapped, bound, soon to be murdered, but I think you are the one that is afraid, David. (Beat) Afraid of the monster. He leans closer to David. VOGEL (CONT'D) (Softly) Boo. They stare at each other, eye to eye. Vogel senses a new brittleness in David. His tone becomes more assured.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 74. VOGEL (CONT'D) Yes. Do you know why it was easy to exterminate you people? Your weakness. I saw it. Every day I saw it. Every one of them, thinking only of how to avoid being flogged, or kicked, or killed. Only thinking of themselves. David looks up at him with a strange, crooked smile, eyes glittering. VOGEL (CONT'D) Why do you think it only took four soldiers to lead a thousand people to the gas chambers? Entire families? Because not one, out of thousands, had the courage to resist, the courage to be the first to fall. Not one would sacrifice himself. Even when we took their children from them. I knew then that you people had no right to live, no right to... He may have begun his speech hoping to get a reaction from David but he has lost himself in his rant and so rather than triumph we see only a moment of startled fear in his eyes as David suddenly swings the bowl violently at his head, SHATTERING IT on the pipe to which he is tied. He grabs Vogel by the collar and begins to punch him, hard, again and again. Vogel slides sideways, limp. And still David punches him in a murderous rage, possessed, wanting to break his skull open, to kill him. Rachel and Stephan run in, with Rachel reaching him first. She throws her arms around him, trying to stop him, but - instinctively - he throws a punch behind him. It connects, splitting her lip and sending her flying to the ground. Stephan runs at him, knocking him to the floor, and remains lying on him, the two of them breathing hard, the assault finally over. VOGEL slumps forward, held up only by the rope at his wrists binding him to the pipe on the wall. Stephan is still struggling with David, who's panting, adrenalised, staring wildly at Vogel's slumped body. STEPHAN Out. We're going out. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 75. He begins to drag him out. Stephan nods in the direction of VOGEL. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (to Rachel) Are you going to be alright? Rachel nods. As she hears the door close, she turns to stare at Vogel. He's barely conscious, his face smeared with blood.161 INT. SAFEHOUSE - BATHROOM. NIGHT. 161 Rachel drenches a cloth under the tap.162 INT. SAFEHOUSE - LIVING ROOM. MOMENTS LATER 162 Rachel cleans the blood from VOGEL's face. He has his eyes closed. VOGEL (Mumbling, in German) Thank you... She tears off a new strip of tape and places it over VOGEL's mouth, gently. She notices the rain leaking in through the ceiling and walks off towards the kitchen. We hold on Vogel, apparently sleeping. Then his tied hand reaches out, straining and manages to reach one of the SHARDS of broken bowl.163 KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS 163 Rachel gathers three METAL SAUCEPANS. She stops for a moment looking at FIREWORKS flashing in the sky. She remembers - it's New Years Eve. We TRACK with her as she walks into the living room and begins to place the pots on the floor to catch the rainwater which is dripping through various points in the ceiling. CLOSE ON VOGEL'S HANDS As he uses the shard to saw through his ropes.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 76. ON RACHEL ...as she finishes with the pots and notices the pieces of shattered bowl scattered around Vogel. She kneels down in front of him and collects up the pieces. She glances up at Vogel, checking him. He is still slumped, eyes closed. We TRACK with her as she walks back into the kitchen. From the living room comes the three distinct PINGS of rainwater dripping in the pots. She drops the pieces of bowl into the bin and stops, puzzled. It's a moment before she works out what she's noticed - something has changed in the sound of the rainwater next door. There only two drips instead of three. She walks back towards the living room... RACHEL'S P.O.V - through the living room door we can see that one of the pots has been overturned. Rachel slows to a stop. A sudden wave of adrenalin causes her to turn but...it's too late. Vogel steps out of the alcove he's been standing in so that he is directly in front of her. Before she can even cry out he has slashed her face open with a SHARD OF GLASS. Instinctively she cups her hands to her ripped face. Vogel grabs her by the hair and stepping behind her, tries to worm his other hand underneath her raised arms to reach her throat with the glass. Her training kicking in, Rachel uses a krav magah move to grab and twist Vogel's forearm, breaking his hold on her and turning the arm until, with a yell of pain, Vogel drops the shard. He swings wildly at her, but Rachel ducks the fist and drives the palm of her hand up into his face. Vogel stumbles back, surprised by her speed and the sudden pain of the blow. Rachel is about to press home the attack but is blinded by blood from her wound washing into her eyes. As she wipes her eyes clear, Vogel grabs a LAMP from a small chest of drawers in the hall and smashes it into her face. She falls. Vogel begins to run, but, driven by adrenaline and desperation, Rachel scrambles onto all fours and lunges at him, catching hold of his trouser leg as he moves towards the front door. Vogel stumbles, manages to pull a leg free and stamps down on Rachel who lets go with a moan. He stamps again, steps free and kicks her hard in the head. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 77. Rachel rolls with the force of the kick and comes to a rest, losing consciousness. RACHEL'S P.O.V - LOW ANGLE - Fluttering in and out of darkness - Vogel's feet as he stands beside us, breathing hard. Then he turns and hurries to the front door...and out.164 EXT. WALKWAY. BERLIN SAFE HOUSE - NIGHT. 164 Vogel hurries along the walkway and sets off down the spiral staircase of the apartment building.165 INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT. 165 Rachel lies motionless. We wait for her to cough as we saw her do before. But she doesn't. She just continues to lie still.166 EXT. STAIRCASE - CONTINUOUS 166 Below us Vogel clatters on down the stairs, flight after flight.167 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 167 No movement from Rachel.168 EXT. STAIRWELL/COURTYARD - CONTINUOUS 168 Vogel clears the stairs and bursts into the courtyard. There is a lurid flash of fireworks from nearby and for a moment we see Vogel lit, as he passes the point where earlier we saw him drop to the ground. He reaches the gate and goes through, his shadow disappearing on the pavement. He's gone.169 INT. BERLIN SAFEHOUSE - LIVING ROOM. NIGHT 169 Rachel holds a blood-soaked tea towel to her cheek, trying to staunch the flow. David sits, staring ahead, in shock. Stephan bursts in, out of breath. STEPHAN Nothing. Not a trace. Nothing at all.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 78. He hurries to the drawers and takes out the gun, puts it into his waistband. STEPHAN (CONT'D) He might go to the house, might try and get a message to the wife... DAVID (Without looking up) He's not going back to the house. He's gone. Fifteen years, it took them to find him. And he's gone. And no-one's going to find him again. STEPHAN So we what? We...are you going to make the phone call? Are you going to tell them how he got a fucking piece of broken bowl? Wonderful. But don't try and take me down with you. I've done nothing wrong. Remember that! Stephan kicks at the chair, at the drawers. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (muttering tensely) This can't happen! This is never going to go away. RACHEL I take responsibility. It was my shift. DAVID (Quietly) This happened because of me. I let him go. And no-one's ever going to find him again. He closes his eyes, struggling with the enormity of his guilt. Stephan drops the gun onto the table, sits down. Outside we hear more fireworks. Suddenly... STEPHAN No-one's ever going to find him again. Something in his voice causes Rachel to look up at him. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (Beat) What if he didn't escape?FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 79. RACHEL What are you talking about? STEPHAN Only four people know what happened in this room. Us, and him. And he's not talking. No one will ever hear from him again. RACHEL (Realizing what he means) No. STEPHAN Nobody needs to know what happened here. RACHEL He escaped. STEPHAN That's the truth. But that doesn't have to be the truth we take home. The truth can be anything we want it to be. The truth is Vogel tried to escape, you struggled with him and got hurt. The truth is, seconds before he got away, Rachel got the gun and shot him. The truth is we got rid of him.... got rid of the body... got rid of every trace of the Surgeon of Birkenau. RACHEL We can't lie about this! STEPHAN No, you know what? We have to. We have to! This is...this isn't about us. This is about Israel. This is a national humiliation! We can't be seen to fail. And in the end, Vogel rots away his life in some jungle, looking over his shoulder, waiting for the bullet...? Who's to say...? He looks at them both, trying to convince them, trying to convince himself. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Maybe that's a worse fate. Maybe that's...The important thing is justice... justice is seen to be done!FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 80. Rachel turns to David, waiting, expecting him to say something. But David looks like he's been barely listening, lost in his own thoughts. He notices Rachel staring at him. DAVID He's gone. What does it matter?(Beat) He's gone. Stephan seizes on this, sensing he's close to convincing them. STEPHAN (Seizing ) He's right. It makes no difference. No difference. All we have to agree is that we never talk about this. No matter what happens, we never tell anyone. The truth stays in this room. Between us. Agreed? Rachel looks at David again, wanting some kind of sign. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (To Rachel) Agreed? Say it. (Silence) I need to hear you say it! She's still staring at David. He's still avoiding her gaze. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (To Rachel) Say it. Say... DAVID Agreed. Silence. Rachel closes her eyes. Instead of relief she feels a kind of immense disappointment. RACHEL David...? STEPHAN Rachel? Say it. It's an oath. Say it. We CLOSE on Rachel. The moment that will change her life forever. From outside comes the sound of some REVELLERS on the street cheering, more fireworks. We hear some people chanting a countdown to the New Year... REVELLERS (O.S.) (From outside) ...vier, drei, zwei, ein! FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 81. But just before the expected barrage of fireworks we... CUT TO:170 EXT. DAVID'S APARTMENT - 1997 - NIGHT. 170 The young Mossad Agent stands smoking outside David's door. This is the scene we saw earlier. From within we can hear indistinct shouting.171 INT. DAVID'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS. 171 Rachel is holding the PRINTED SHEET - the point at which we left this scene earlier. RACHEL (crying out) How could this happen? You said he would never speak! You said he'd never... STEPHAN We don't know it's him. RACHEL Oh God! Oh God! STEPHAN If you read it... RACHEL He's alive! He's in the Ukraine! What else is there to read? STEPHAN This is a little internet story. (Grabbing the paper, reading)..."a psychiatric patient claiming to be the Surgeon of Birkenau..." Some crazy old man. No-one is paying this any attention. Yet. RACHEL (as if her mind was elsewhere) How did you find it? STEPHAN David comes back after all this time, I want to know why. I had his apartment searched. This was on his computer... Rachel stares at him.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 81A. STEPHAN (CONT'D) He didn't say anything to you last night..? Rachel doesn't answer. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Rachel..? RACHEL No! Beat.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 82. RACHEL (CONT'D) (quietly) Why would he do this..? STEPHAN Because he couldn't handle it. I told him we had to deal with it and he couldn't handle it. He thought it was all going to come out and he panicked... He trails off, thinking about what happened down on the road. Rachel stares at him. His previous words have just sunk in. RACHEL (Suddenly) Deal with it? (Beat) What does that mean? Deal with it? Stephan stares at her. RACHEL (CONT'D) What did you tell him to do? STEPHAN (Simply) I told him to find Vogel. I told him to finish it. Rachel stares at him. She stands up, starts to walk away, comes back, slaps him hard across the face. RACHEL (quiet rage) Did you know he'd been ill? Did you...? You knew, didn't you? You killed him. YOU killed him! You knew he wasn't strong enough... STEPHAN (overlapping) FUCK DAVID! I don't want to hear about David! David took the coward's way out! RACHEL You could have left it alone! It's an old man in a hospital! You said - nobody will believe it! No-one will notice! STEPHAN There's a journalist. This stops her. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 83. STEPHAN (CONT'D) A Ukrainian. He's heard about it and he's going to interview Vogel. (Beat) Then it all comes apart. (Beat) We don't have the name of the hospital. You have to find out where he is. Rachel stares at him. RACHEL What are you talking about? STEPHAN David's taken himself out of the equation. (Indicating his chair) I can't do it. You're the only one left. RACHEL Are you insane? STEPHAN We can't... RACHEL I'm not...Look at me! I'm not capable of...This is insane. I can't do this. STEPHAN (Beat. Simply) You have to, Rachel. Because for thirty years you've been taking the credit for it. (Beat, carefully) And there's Sarah. It's as if he's struck her. Beat. RACHEL I won't do this. She walks out.172 EXT. STAIRWELL OUTSIDE DAVID'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 172 And into the stairwell. As before, the Mossad agent stands to let her pass, and watches as she sweeps down the stairs.173 INT. RACHEL'S HOTEL - MORNING 173 The scene we saw earlier. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 84. Rachel is packing, folding clothes neatly, precisely, silently - but all the time there's a terrible tension about her movements. She tries to close a drawer but it sticks, She keeps trying, then in a sudden rush of fury yanks the drawer free and hurls it across the room. She stands breathing hard. Then something we didn't see - her gaze settles on a photograph beside her table - SARAH holding her son, smiling at us. Rachel stares at the photograph, her breathing slowing.174 EXT. PATIO TERRACE. HOTEL NEAR TEL AVIV - DAY 174 Stephan sits amongst the remains of a meal. Sarah and her husband are on the beach below, playing with their son. Stephan watches them. He senses a presence and turns to find Rachel behind him. She sits down, stares down at the beach through her dark glasses. Stephan watches, almost holding his breath, working through lightning calculations of how to handle her. But Rachel is the first to speak. RACHEL (Beat) I always knew this would happen. I knew we'd be punished. I knew we'd have to pay. STEPHAN (Quietly) I thought I'd already been punished. RACHEL God doesn't plant car bombs. STEPHAN I wasn't referring to the wheelchair. They look at each other. STEPHAN (CONT'D) If I could go back, Rachel, I'd change it all. If I could give you back a chance to be happy, to be...FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 85. He stops. She is staring back at him coldly, unmoved. He shrugs, letting that go. STEPHAN (CONT'D) But there's one thing I would never change. She looks over to where Sarah is playing with her son, laughing. RACHEL (Instantly) She isn't going to find out. She shakes her head, as if the idea itself were impossible. RACHEL (CONT'D) She can never find out. Stephan stares at her, KNOWING THAT HE HAS HER, that it's already decided. He takes out the envelope and slides it across the table towards her. She examines the ticket and passports inside. Then he slides her the BLACK CASE. We've seen this part of the scene before. She stares at it with disgust, knowing what it is. Then she takes it and puts it in her handbag. STEPHAN My car's waiting outside. It can take you to the airport. She stands up, an elegant woman at lunch, her dark glasses, her suit... She looks down to Sarah, raises a hand in farewell. Sarah, not understanding, waves a hand in response, calls something which is lost under the sound of the sea. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Go down to her. Say goodbye to her. Rachel stands stock still, staring down at her daughter. RACHEL How can I? (Beat.) How can I? She turns and walks away. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 86.175 ON THE BEACH 175 Sarah stands, shading her eyes, watching the small figure of her mother walking away from her.176 OMITTED 176177 OMITTED 177178 OMITTED 178179 EXT. CITY CENTRE. KIEV. UKRAINE - DAY. 179 A tram wipes through the frame to reveal Rachel walking across a busy street towards the stark facade of an imposing 1960's building. A TITLE reads: Kiev, Ukraine180 INT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 180 The public area of the building - a main reception desk, a little cafe, a sweeping staircase leading up to the floor above... Rachel is at the reception desk...180A NEWSPAPER BUILDING - MEZZANINE LEVEL - CONTINUOUS 180A Rachel crosses to a TABAC KIOSK, glancing back to some glass doors behind her. A sign indicates the offices of the UKRAINIAN EVENING NEWS. We can see a RECEPTIONIST at her desk. A young man walks through the entrance, and she throws a knowing glance up at him as he passes. Rachel takes in the ALARM PAD beside the receptionist. RACHEL (turning to the Kiosk Owner) Cigarettes please. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 87.180B GROUND FLOOR CAFE. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 180B Rachel sits, silhouetted against the large window. Rachel opens her pack and lights a cigarette. A WAITER approaches. WAITER (In Russian) What can I get you? RACHEL Just a coffee. She stares out at the stream of people passing in and out of the building... CUT TO:181 INT. HANGAR - DAY - THE PAST 181 Late sixties. Young Rachel, Stephan and David are giving a talk to a group of young Israeli soldiers. This is a well- rehearsed routine, something they have probably done many times. RACHEL At that moment, I don't think I was thinking about myself at all. I was thinking about my mother. I was thinking about how she had suffered in Europe. The FACES of the soldiers, moved by this. One raises a hand. SOLDIER The same question to Mr. Peretz. The others look at David, waiting for him to make his usual response. But David doesn't move. Stephan looks along the row. David sits staring straight ahead. The silence GROWS. And we realize he's NOT GOING TO ANSWER. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 88.182 INT. RACHEL AND STEPHEN'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - EVENING 182 The house is cold, white, aggressively modern. Rachel sits in her underwear, drunk, a bottle and glass of wine on her dressing table. Stephan is dressing behind her. STEPHAN (Calmly) Fuck him. He examines his reflection in the mirror. STEPHAN Fuck him. A DOORBELL rings downstairs. He walks out to answer it, taking the wine bottle from her as he goes. STEPHAN (CONT'D) Hurry up. Rachel finishes her glass, starts to apply some eye makeup. She senses something and turns to find YOUNG SARAH (four) watching her from the doorway. She stares back at her dully. RACHEL Go to bed, Sarah.183 LIVING ROOM - EVENING 183 * A cocktail party in progress - Stephan is mingling with the guests - Mossad high-fliers, Military, politicians. She * watches him handle them - just the right mix of deference and charm. Rachel stands against a wall, drunk, watching him as he laughs sycophantically at something one of the politicians has said. He crosses over to an attractive BLONDE WOMAN and greets her. As Rachel watches he runs a hand down the woman's back - an unmistakably INTIMATE gesture. Rachel watches - depressed by how little this makes her feel. She begins to mix herself another drink, sees someone across the room, and her face changes... ON DAVID He's standing alone drinking, nervous. Rachel appears * beside him. *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 89. RACHEL * My own party and you're the only * friend I have... * She turns, leans against the wall, scans the party, watches * Stephan working the room. * RACHEL (CONT'D) * ... all Stephen's friends. * Stephen's girlfriends. She turns to see what David's reaction to this is, but he continues to watch Stephan. * RACHEL (CONT'D) * And what kind of a friend are * you? I call you last night and... * * RACHEL (CONT'D) * I thought the silence was for the * audience, I didn't know you'd * really lost your voice. * David suddenly takes her hand and pulls her round the * corner. * AROUND THE CORNER * He turns to her, his face alive with an energy that we * haven't seen before - fear or excitement? * DAVID * Why do you call me? * RACHEL * What? * DAVID * You call me, at night, when * you're drunk. Why do you call me? * RACHEL * What are you...? * DAVID * Do you want us to fuck around * behind his back? Like he fucks * around behind yours? Is that what * you want? * Rachel stares at him, upset and angry. * RACHEL * I want a friend *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 89A. DAVID * I don't want to be your friend. * (Beat) I'm leaving. * RACHEL * Good. I don't know why you * bothered coming if your just * going to... * DAVID * (interrupting) * Come with me. * She realises he isn't talking about the party. * Beat. * RACHEL * Where...whare are you going? * DAVID * It doesn't matter. Away from * Israel, away from this...poison. * I can't stand what it is doing to * us. Come with me. We'll go to * Spain. Or Italy... We can save * ourselves. *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 90. WIFE (O.S.) * This is such a beautiful * photograph, Rachel. You look like * a pair of Angels. * A YOUNG ISRAELI and his WIFE are admiring a photograph the * Wife has picked up from the table - a portrait of Rachel * and Sarah. * RACHEL * (Mouth dry) Thank you. * WIFE * (showing it to David) * Isn't it lovely? * David doesn't answer, is still staring at Rachel. The * husband senses a scene, takes the photograph. * HUSBAND * (Smoothly) * You know you have to excuse us, * (to his wife)... we must catch * Michael... * His wife is confused... * HUSBAND (CONT'D) * (leading her away) * ...before he leaves, you * remember...? * Rachel is staring at David, shaking her head, eyes * glittering with tears. * RACHEL * You can't do this to me now. We * had our chance. We said we would * live with it. This is me living * with it. * David takes her hands. * DAVID * I'm in love with you, Rachel. I * want my life back so I can live * it with you. Come with me. * RACHEL * You can start again. You don't * have a child. You don't have * anyone. *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 90A. DAVID * I thought I did. * (beat) * Why can't we be happy? * FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 91. RACHEL (after a beat, quietly) * Because we did a terrible thing.. * He nods, finally, and lets go of her hand. Beat. Then he * turns and walks away from her through the crowd to the * door, and is gone. * She moves to follow him, then stops. * Rachel turns and finds STEPHAN standing against the wall, * waiting. They stare at each other. * STEPHAN * (flat) * There you are. * He leads her back towards the party. *184 INT. NEWSPAPER BUILDING - GROUND FL. CAFE - EARLY EVENING 184 Rachel sits, still smoking, though it's dark outside now. There is a sound of chatter from above her and she looks up to see JOURNALISTS spilling out from the offices above, coming down the stairs towards her. Rachel eases a PHOTOCOPIED SHEET from her bag and examines it... INSERT SHEET A photocopy of a JOURNALIST'S BY-LINE - a long, rather mournful face, the name YURI TITOV. She checks the face, slips the sheet back in the bag, looks up, studying the men descending towards her. Moments later she has found him - chatting to a colleague. He reaches the ground floor and walking past her, goes to the bar for a coffee. Rachel finds herself staring at him - the man WHO COULD DESTROY HER LIFE. Yuri seems to sense someone watching him and looks to where Rachel was sitting. But there's no-one there.185 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE LOBBY. CONTINUOUS. 185 The PRETTY RECEPTIONIST stands chatting to her BOYFRIEND, a young journalist. He is holding her coat for. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 92. She starts to put it on and the Boyfriend gives a brief bark and play-bites at her neck. She laughs, pushing him away. Rachel hurries in. RACHEL (Russian) Am I late? I'm sorry.... Can I place an advertisement? RECEPTIONIST (gathering her things) 100 grivna for twenty words. 5 grivna a word after that. Rachel proffers an envelope. RACHEL (CONT'D) Here... The girl takes it. RECEPTIONIST Thanks. Rachel fishes in her bag and hands over a 100 GRIVNA NOTE. RACHEL This should cover it. The girl drops the envelope onto her desk, and slips the money into a small DESKTOP DRAWER UNIT, as Rachel leaves.186 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - MEZZANINE LEVEL. CONTINUOUS. 186 Rachel pauses outside the doors, zipping her bag, watching the receptionist tap a code into the alarm key-pad before letting herself and the Boyfriend out. She locks the door after them and the two walk past Rachel who smiles a goodbye. She watches them go.186A INT. NEWSPAPER BUILDING - GROUND FLOOR CAFE - NIGHT 186A The place is dark now, eerily lit by the street lights outside. An ELDERLY SECURITY GUARD trudges past, whistling softly.187 OMITTED 187188 OMITTED 188 FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 93.189 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - LOBBY. CONTINUOUS. 189 We're looking through the glass doors to the shadowy mezzanine level beyond. A DARK FIGURE stands silhouetted at the door. We hear the scrape of tools working on the lock. There is a click, the doors open and Rachel slips inside. The alarm begins to BEEP. Rachel takes out a TORCH. A quick twist and the beam becomes ULTRAVIOLET. As Rachel moves swiftly towards the alarm box, the beam from the torch sweeps across the girl's desk, and we see Rachel's envelope glowing a deep PURPLE. We may also notice that the desktop drawer unit where the girl placed the money is smudged with purple FINGERPRINTS. Rachel opens the alarm box and shines her beam onto the keypad. We see four PURPLE FINGERPRINTS, one deeply pigmented, the other three progressively less so. Rachel takes a deep breath and punches the four marked keys in what she hopes is the correct order. The alarm falls silent. She moves quickly out of the lobby, down the corridor...190 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - MAIN ROOM. CONTINUOUS. 190 ...and into the main press room. Using her torch on its regular setting, Rachel scours the desks for information. On one desk is a photograph of the journalist we just met - YURI - HOLDING A LARGE FISH in triumph. Rachel dives into the desk's FILING UNIT and begins to rifle through the files. Presently, she finds an OLD PICTURE OF VOGEL. He wears SS uniform, the same shot we have seen before. Behind it, a stack of SCRIBBLED NOTES. She begins to scan them.191 INT. NEWSPAPER BUILDING - MEZZANINE LEVEL - CONTINUOUS 191 The Receptionist and her drunk BOYFRIEND stand at the doors to the newspaper office, trying to open them. It takes them a moment, as - unaware that it was unlocked - the girl has accidentally locked it. Her boyfriend tussles with her playfully, keen for her to let him try instead, but she swats him away, turns the key again and finally they're in. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 94.192 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - MAIN ROOM. NIGHT. 192 Rachel, unaware, is still reading through the notes. She takes out paper and pen and copies down the information she needs.193 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - LOBBY. NIGHT. 193 The receptionist stands by the alarm box, drunk and confused, as the Boyfriend, impatient and equally drunk, comes up close behind her and reaches round to clumsily unbutton her coat. RECEPTIONIST (Whispering) That's weird. The coat undone, the Boyfriend reaches round and snakes his hands up inside her sweater. She ignores him. RECEPTIONIST (CONT'D) I set the alarm. BOYFRIEND What? RECEPTIONIST The alarm's not on. BOYFRIEND Who gives a shit? He moves his hands from her breasts to grab her around the waist and pull her away from the alarm box.194 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - MAIN ROOM. CONTINUOUS. 194 Rachel is still at the desk reading. Suddenly the main LIGHTS are switched on and the Receptionist and the Boyfriend stagger into sight. Rachel stands frozen, COMPLETELY VISIBLE. The girl and boyfriend stand kissing, too engrossed in each other to see the woman standing only ten feet from them. The Receptionist pulls free, laughing, makes it back to the entrance and switches the lights off, plunging the room into darkness. Rachel moves behind a column. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 95. Laughing softly, the Boyfriend leads the girl over to a desk. He opens a drawer, searches through it, triumphantly produces a PETTY CASH TIN. BOYFRIEND The loot! He starts to take some cash from the box. RECEPTIONIST (Laughing) You can't! BOYFRIEND I'll put in an i-o-u... He scribbles on a piece of paper. BOYFRIEND (CONT'D) "Andrei borrowed money to take Katia to Club Oxygen." He drops the note in the tin. RECEPTIONIST You're going to get fired. He kisses her. BOYFRIEND You're worth it. RECEPTIONIST You're going to get me fired! BOYFRIEND (Kissing her) I'm worth it. They kiss again, slowly backing up against the desk Rachel was searching. The two struggle with their clothes.195 BEHIND THE COLUMN 195 Rachel has no way of reaching the door. She closes her eyes as the young couple begin to have sex on the desk. Then she opens her eyes and notices something... RACHEL'S P.O.V - CLOSE on her TORCH which is still on the desk. The Boyfriend seems to be staring RIGHT AT IT.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 96. Rachel watches, holding her breath. ON BOYFRIEND ...as we realise he is staring STRAIGHT THROUGH the torch, lost in the moment. Next moment the couple change positions and some books and the torch are swept from the desk and clatter to the floor. The TORCH ROLLS across the carpet to the shadowy entrance of the cubicle. BEHIND THE COLUMN Rachel stares at the torch, wondering if she can reach it before they can see her. But at the moment the desktop tryst reaches its noisy conclusion. AT THE DESK The Boyfriend does up his trousers and pulls on his coat. The Receptionist adjusts her dress. She notices the fallen items and begins to pick them up, following the trail to the torch. BEHIND THE COLUMN Rachel stands frozen as the Receptionist stoops down directly IN FRONT OF HER and picks up the torch. The Boyfriend notices. BOYFRIEND What are you doing? RECEPTIONIST I'm tidying up. BOYFRIEND Are you working? Are you at work now? RECEPTIONIST (Laughing) No, I'm not working. BOYFRIEND So leave them. She drops the objects and follows her Boyfriend out. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 97. Shaking, Rachel picks up her torch and replaces the items she is still holding from Yuri's file into the filing cabinet. From OS, we hear the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the alarm being reset. Rachel's heart sinks. OS, we hear office doors close, and the KEY TURNING in the lock. Rachel's eyes alight on A MOTION SENSOR, blinking in the corner of the room. She waits. And eventually - no choice - she runs for the door. The motion sensor lights up and the alarm strikes up loudly with a warning BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.196 INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - LOBBY. CONTINUOUS. 196 Frantic, Rachel dashes to the alarm box, the insistent beep- beep-beep even louder here. Rachel runs for the door, yanks it open and bolts out. Moments later, the alarm CLANGS into action.196A EXT. BACK OF BUILDING - NIGHT 196A Rachel bursts out of a fire exit, the siren blaring and disappears into the night.197 EXT. RACHEL'S CAR. KIEV STREET - NIGHT 197 Rachel's car drives off down the road.198 INT. CAR. UKRAINIAN ROAD - NIGHT. 198 Rachel has pulled over and is on her cell-phone to Stephan. RACHEL He's at the BABENKO Hospital.199 INT. STEPHAN'S OFFICE - NIGHT 199 Stephan is alone, working at his computer. He taps in the name, searches, clicks on the link to a map. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 98. STEPHAN (CONT'D) It's outside Vinnycja. About a hundred and fifty miles south- west of you. What name is he going under? Rachel checks her notes. RACHEL (O.S.) Ivan Schevchuk. He's the right age. STEPHAN When is he supposed to interview him?200 INT. CAR - NIGHT 200 RACHEL Tomorrow. There's silence from the other end. Both know what this means. STEPHAN (O.S.) This will be over soon. And when it is... Rachel hangs up.201 EXT. ROAD - MORNING 201 A car drives through the wintry landscape.202 INT/EXT. HIRE CAR. ROAD - MORNING 202 A forest of fir trees pass as she drives. Rachel's mind is elsewhere. The car drifts to the wrong side, then swerves as she corrects. STUDENT (O.S.) What were you thinking at that moment? CUT TO:203 INT. UNIVERSITY LECTURE HALL. TEL AVIV - EVENING 203 The night before David's suicide. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 99. RACHEL is being interviewed by a FEMALE FACULTY MEMBER. Projected on a screen behind is an image of the young Rachel, Stephan and David. The audience consists of mainly female students, hands raised. STUDENT Did you think you were going to die? Rachel seems to consider this carefully, although we know by now that this is a question she's been asked thousands of times and has a carefully rehearsed answer to. RACHEL I'll tell you something. At that moment, when I was on the floor, I wasn't thinking about myself at all. I was thinking about my mother. And what she had suffered in Europe. I think that was what gave me the strength to get up again. The audience listen, moved. Rachel looks out and then FREEZES - Older David sits near the back of the room. LECTURER Well, I'm sure you'll all join me in thanking Ms Singer... As the audience applaud enthusiastically Rachel smiles, trying to regain her composure but her eyes are drawn back to David, standing in the shadows, watching her intently.204 INT. AUDITORIUM - LATER 204 * The place is empty now, only David and Rachel sitting in * the seats. * David looks like a man who's been up on speed for too long, * eyes strangely bright in his exhausted face. * Neither of them seems to be able to bridge the divide * DAVID * You look well. * Rachel ignores this. She's waiting for an explanation. * RACHEL Does Stephan know you're here? *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 100. DAVID I expect so. (Beat) I read about * him. How is he? * RACHEL (shrugs) * The same. Different. Resigned to * life at a desk. He likes to play * the tragic hero... * She stops herself, ashamed. * RACHEL (CONT'D) Things became...very bad between * us. We try to stay civil for * Sarah. * DAVID * Have you met anyone else? * Rachel stares at him. How can he even ask this? * RACHEL No. Thank you for asking. There * was someone...but he left. And I * never heard from him again. * (beat, hard) * What are you doing here, David? * DAVID * I wrote you letters. * RACHEL Pity you didn't send any of them * DAVID * Rachel... * RACHEL * (overlapping) * What is it? Thirty years...? * She's suddenly so angry, she starts to gather her things to * go. * DAVID * I wanted to see you... * RACHEL * (overlapping) * All that time...Not a single * word? * DAVID * Don't go. * She stops. *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 101. DAVID I was ill for a while, Rachel. * (A beat) * I spent some time in ... in a * kind of hospital * RACHEL Where? * DAVID * Mexico * RACHEL * What were you doing in Mexico? * DAVID * Different jobs. Some teaching. * Whatever I could get. * Beat. * DAVID * I travelled a lot. The States. * Most of South America. North * Africa.... I kept moving * (beat) * Looking for him * RACHEL Who..? * He doesn't answer and she looks up, suddenly realising who * he means. She feels a sudden, instinctive rush of fear. * RACHEL (CONT'D) * Why? * (beat) * What would you have done if you * had found him..? * He's watching her intently * DAVID * I would have told the truth. I * would have gone to the newspaper, * and said "this is the Surgeon of * Birkenau." I could have finally * seen him face trial. * Rachel listens to this, mesmerised. * RACHEL * And what would have happened to * us? * FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 101A. DAVID * We'd be free. Whatever happened * to us, it seemed to me we'd be * free. *Rachel stares at him without answering * DAVID * Don't you agree? Aren't you tired * of lying? Isn't that what you * would have done - if you'd found * him? * RACHEL * But it isn't just us. (Beat) It's * Sarah... *Beat. Something changes in David's face, something fading *away. He sits slowly back * RACHEL (CONT'D) * She hasn't done anything wrong. * DAVID * (Quietly) * No. * RACHEL * If the truth had come out she * would be destroyed. (Beat) * So...no, I wouldn't have told the * truth. * (A long beat) * But you never found him *She looks at him, waiting for him to contradict this. * DAVID * No I never did. *The LECTURER appears at the doors to the auditorium. * LECTURER * Ms Singer? * RACHEL * (Relieved) * Yes. Thank you... *She stands up again, the spell is broken. * RACHEL(CONT'D) * There's a car for me....(Putting * on her coat) Did you hear about * Sarah's book...? *After a moment, David nods. *FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 101B. RACHEL * The launch is tomorrow. Perhaps * you could come? I don't know if * Stephan will be there or not, * but... * DAVID (suddenly) * If we could go back... if I'd * waited for you...if you'd * come...would it have been * different...? * FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 102. RACHEL * We can't go back. A beat. * DAVID I'm sorry. * RACHEL Come tomorrow. We'll talk then? * David gives a smile that might be an assent. Or might not. * Rachel nods, walks quickly out of the auditorium. David * sits as the light banks above switch off one at a time, * watches the line of shadow moving towards him. * HARD CUT TO:204A EXT. ROAD. UKRAINE - DAY - THE PRESENT 204A A car roars past and is gone, revealing Rachel standing amongst the trees beside her car, a cigarette forgotten in her hand, absorbing what it was David was asking her. Finally she drops the cigarette and climbs back into her car.205 INT. CAR - DAY 205 CLOSE ON RACHEL ...driving, lost in thought. She drives into some grounds... RACHEL'S P.O.V THROUGH WINDSCREEN The BABENKO HOSPITAL - a huge, imposing building stands in wintry grounds. A long drive leads up to the car park and the entrance. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 103.206 OMITTED 206207 I/E. CAR - CONTINUOUS 207 Rachel stares up at the building as she drives towards it.208 INT. BABENKO HOSPITAL - RECEPTION. CONTINUOUS. 208 The large lobby area, vast pillars. A few stairs lead up from this to a waiting area, separated from the corridors beyond by BARS AND LOCKED GATES. Rachel approaches a young male REGISTRAR at RECEPTION. RACHEL (Russian) Good morning. I'm here to visit Mr. Schevchuk? The man squints at her, checks his register an squints at her again. REGISTRAR You're from the newspaper? Because I have a man's name here... RACHEL Oh, no, no. I'm Mr Schevchuk's niece. Anna Barova. I've been before, do you remember? A moment's scrutiny, then a shrug. REGISTRAR Well, our visiting hours haven't changed, I'm afraid. Eleven till one. He points to a PLAQUE that reads: VISITING HOURS: 11:00am - 1:00am, 5:00pm - 8:00pm Sarah glances at her watch. It's 10.25. REGISTRAR (CONT'D) Take a seat? He points to a waiting area. Rachel walks up the few stairs past a large PILLAR and takes a seat, trying to think of her next step. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 104. She glances to her left, through the bars, and sees an OLD WOMAN in a patient's gown staring blankly at her from the far end of the corridor. A DOCTOR appears and leads the Old Woman away, still staring. Rachel looks away, unnerved. Someone has just walked in and is talking to the Receptionist. Rachel's view is obscured by the pillar and she leans slightly to see who it is. RACHEL'S P.O.V - YURI stands showing his press card to the Registrar. AT RECEPTION The Registrar passes the press card back. REGISTRAR Mr. Schevchuk is in room 414. Visiting time starts at eleven o'clock. You can take a seat over there. Yuri walks across the lobby, towards where Rachel is waiting, but as he clears the pillar we see her seat is EMPTY. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PILLAR ...Rachel waits for Yuri to pass and then slips back out of the lobby.209 EXT. BABENKO HOSPITAL - CONTINUOUS. 209 Rachel emerges - panicking. Time is almost up. What can she do?210 EXT/INT. CAR. REAR OF HOSPITAL - MOMENTS LATER 210 Rachel's car is speeding down a narrow road that runs behind the hospital. Two stone arches frame the road, where the building meets the hillside. RACHEL'S P.O.V - high fences - the forbidding facade of the hospital - rows of barred windows. Rachel is scanning the building, looking for some way in.211 EXT/INT. CAR/REAR ENTRANCE - MOMENTS LATER 211 Suddenly we pass a central arched entrance. A man is opening large double METAL DOORS for A LAUNDRY VAN to leave the hospital. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 105. It takes Rachel a few moments to register it. Then she BRAKES.212 EXT. BACK OF HOSPITAL - MOMENTS LATER 212 The LAUNDRY VAN is driving through the doors. It stops, engine idling, and the DRIVER begins to climb down to close the doors after him. Before he clears the side of the truck, Rachel slips into the darkness. The DRIVER, oblivious, reaches the doors and begins to swing them shut...213 INT. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 213 Rachel runs up the staircase from the service area of the hospital.214 INT. CORRIDOR. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 214 Long and bleak with rows of BARRED DOORS. Rachel runs on.215 INT. WAITING AREA. BABENKO HOSPITAL -DAY. 215 Yuri is writing in a notebook. The clock says: 10:50.216 INT. ANOTHER CORRIDOR. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 216 Rachel reaches a junction - the vast, white corridors stretching away from her in different directions, like a nightmarish maze. She stares about her, picks a corridor and begins to run again.217 INT. CORRIDOR/CENTRAL STAIRWELL - DAY 217 Rachel reaches a MAP on the wall and scans it, frantically trying to locate the room she needs. She hurries on to an ancient looking ELEVATOR and gets in, jabs at the fourth floor button. With a groan of its motor the elevator begins to rise.218 CORRIDOR 218 RACHEL'S P.O.V - TRACKING past rows of NUMBERED DOORS. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 106. Finally we reach it - ROOM 414. Rachel stares at the door.219 INT. TOILETS. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 219 Rachel sits in a CUBICLE. She takes the BLACK CASE from her handbag and opens it. Inside is a pen. She lifts this and the false bottom of the case away to reveal a HYPODERMIC NEEDLE and an AMPULE of a clear liquid. With trembling hands she begins to prepare the injection. She can't quite believe what she is about to do.220 INT. ROOM 414 - CONTINUOUS 220 Rachel enters the room. The curtains are drawn and Rachel hesitates for a moment, her eyes adjusting to the gloom. A MAN sits in a chair, angled towards the window, his back to us. An IV drip hangs on a stand, its tube running into a cannula on the back of a withered hand which hangs from the chair. The only sound is the faint, rasping breath of the man. Rachel moves a little closer. On the bottom of the bed hangs a medical chart. The name reads Ivan Schevchuk. Rachel moves closer, carefully taking the HYPODERMIC NEEDLE from her pocket.221 INT. BABENKO HOSPITAL - RECEPTION. DAY. 221 A NURSE is unlocking the gate at the waiting area for Yuri. He walks through them and over to the ELEVATOR.222 INT. ROOM 414 - DAY 222 Rachel stands by the IV drip and tube. She can inject directly into the tube - and it will be over. She holds the tube, rests the tip of the needle against it. She struggles with herself. Just one tiny push... She can't do it. She stands frozen for a moment then slowly lowers the needle. Beside her, the steady breathing alters. The Man stirs and a cadaverous face half turns towards us. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 107. Rachel and Schevchuk stare at each other. The face is ancient, lined...but IT ISN'T THE FACE OF VOGEL. IVAN SCHEVCHUK (Weakly) Are you the journalist? (Beat) Do you know who I am? RACHEL (Beat, meaning it) No. No, I don't. IVAN SCHEVCHUK My name is Dieter Vogel. I am the Surgeon of Birkenau. (Beat) Have you heard of me? RACHEL Yes. I've heard of you. Schevchuk looks at his withered hands. IVAN SCHEVCHUK (Simply) I have killed thousands. You can take my photograph. The last photograph of the Surgeon of Birkenau? He struggles to raise his arm in the Nazi salute, a pathetic sick man. Rachel sits down at Schevchuk's desk, feeling suddenly exhausted.223 INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 223 Yuri stands in the elevator waiting for the doors to close. NURSE Hold the doors please. Yuri holds the doors, as the Nurse approaches, escorting an ELDERLY WOMAN with a walker - the two moving at a snails pace. Yuri watches, amused.224 INT. ROOM 414 - DAY 224 We CLOSE on Rachel, lost in thought. Beside her Schevchuk rambles on. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 108. IVAN SCHEVCHUK (O.S.) ...It comes down to blood. We weren't afraid of power. It was our destiny. The slave races had bred with apes. But we Aryans are descendants of the Theozoa who come from another planet. We were born to rule and to... He dissolves into a fit of weak coughing. Rachel stares at a NOTEPAD AND PEN on the desk beside her.225 INT. CORRIDOR - DAY 225 Yuri walks towards Schevchuk's room. He pays no attention to Rachel as he passes her, sitting on a bench, dialling her cell phone. She listens to the other end ring.226 OMITTED 226227 INT. TEL AVIV - STEPHAN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 227 Stephan is talking to a couple of OFFICIALS. His cell phone rings. STEPHAN (Answering) Yes? RACHEL (O.S.) (Beat) It isn't him. Stephan nods, a fixed smile on his face, covers the mouthpiece. STEPHAN (gesturing to Officials) A family matter... Would you give me a moment? The two OFFICIALS leave the office, closing the door behind them. Stephan takes a a beat to calm his breathing. STEPHAN (CONT'D) (Into phone) You're sure?228 INT. CORRIDOR. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 228 RACHEL It isn't him. It's over. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 109. STEPHAN (O.S.) Thank God. Thank God. This is wonderful. This is...and you're okay? Rachel? You're alright, yes? Rachel stares at the wall. Silence. STEPHAN (O.S.)(CONT'D) Rachel? RACHEL You were wrong. STEPHAN (O.S.) Well, thank God I was, but... RACHEL About David. You were wrong about him.229 ON STEPHAN 229 ...smiling and gesturing "one minute" to the two officials on the other side of the glass partition. STEPHAN About David? RACHEL (O.S.) He didn't kill himself because he was afraid the story would come out. This gets Stephan's attention.230 ON RACHEL 230 RACHEL When he came to see me, he was asking me for something. STEPHAN (O.S.) What? RACHEL My permission. And I didn't give it. I wouldn't let him tell the truth and he was tired of living with the lie. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 109A.231 ON STEPHAN 231 ...mind whirring. He can sense something. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 110. STEPHAN Truth is a luxury, Rachel. Some people have to put other things first - their country, their people...their children...232 ON RACHEL 232 Struggling not to cry. STEPHAN (O.S.) Sarah's so proud of you, Rachel. You have to think about her. RACHEL (Crying) I want her to be proud of me. Stephan is desperate to talk her down from the ledge. STEPHAN (O.S.) (Soothing) Of course you do. RACHEL I want to do something to make her proud of me.233 ON STEPHAN 233 STEPHAN Rachel...? Rachel...? RACHEL (O.S.) People have to know the truth, Stephan. David was right.234 ON RACHEL 234 STEPHAN (O.S.) Listen to me... RACHEL Goodbye. STEPHAN (O.S.) Rachel, listen to me...! She hangs up. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 111.235 ON STEPHAN 235 ...listening to the dial tone, panic overwhelming him. There's a knock at the door and an ASSISTANT appears. ASSISTANT Sir....? Stephan doesn't move.236 ON RACHEL 236 She sits for a moment, then stands up...237 INT. CORRIDOR. HOSPITAL - CONTINUOUS 237 LONG SHOT From the other end of the corridor, as the small figure of Rachel steps away from the bench. She straightens her scarf and wipes her eyes, then begins to walk towards us. REVERSE - ON RACHEL - OVER THE SHOULDER As she walks towards the end of the corridor.238 INT. ANOTHER CORRIDOR. BABENKO HOSPITAL - DAY 238 PULLING RACHEL As she moves down another corridor. She reaches an opening on her left, which reveals a STAIRCASE winding around a central lift shaft, caged in frosted glass panels. She glances through it as she passes. And just for a second we see an ELDERLY MAN walking down the stairs. Rachel has walked on a few steps before it registers, and she stops - VOGEL. She walks back to the opening. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 112. The figure seems to have retraced their steps, because they are now walking FURTHER UP the staircase, on the other side of the lift shaft - a shadowy figure through the frosted glass which quickly disappears from sight. Rachel stares after him, frozen. What did she just see?239 INT. STAIRWELL. HOSPITAL - DAY 239 She begins to climb the stairs.240 INT. REC ROOM - DAY 240 Rachel comes through double doors and finds herself in a long REC ROOM - PATIENTS and some STAFF grouped around the room. Rachel begins to walk through the room - elderly men all around her, playing cards, reading, some sitting staring vacantly. She walks through them, staring at faces. Is he here? Is he amongst this ordinary world? She feels her pace quicken as she's drawn on through the room. It's as if she's back at that terrible night. Vogel's ahead of her somewhere, escaping all over again. She FLASHES through DOUBLE DOORS into a junction area - a long, empty corridor leading away from her on the right, ahead another set of double doors... She bursts through these doors and finds herself in...241 INT. LOCKER ROOM/BATHROOM - DAY 241 A long, white tiled corridor of a room. A row of windows down the right, under which sit WASHBASINS. There's a row of LOCKERS and DOORS along the left. Rachel walks on, feeling increasingly as if she's in a dream. She's deep into the room before she realises it's a dead- end - there's no exit ahead of her. VOGEL (a dull rasp) Why did you come...? She turns and freezes. Vogel has emerged from one of the doorways on the left. Now he's between her and the doors on the far side of the room.FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 113. VOGEL (CONT'D) Why did you have to come? You didn't have to follow me. He begins to advance slowly towards her. VOGEL (CONT'D) Was it Schevchuk? Did he talk? Rachel stands frozen as he creeps closer. He reaches out a hand as if to reassure her, a ghastly attempt at reasonableness. VOGEL I can stop him. I won't tell him anymore. (Almost pleading) Nobody needs to know. As if the spell has broken Rachel makes a sudden dart for the doors. But before she can pass him, Vogel has moved with surprising speed and, almost before Rachel has seen the SCISSORS in his other hand, he has stabbed them into her shoulder. She reels over against the opposite wall, dislodging a GLASS SHELF which shatters into a WASHBASIN behind her. Vogel goes after her, pinning her against the basin, one hand on her throat, the other hand trying to stab her again. Rachel manages to grab the scissor hand and the two struggle frantically. The scissors inch closer to her FACE, to her EYE. Her other hand emerges from the basin behind her holding a piece of the broken glass shelf, which she whips across Vogel's face. He gives a horrible shriek and lets her go, clutching at his cheek. Rachel collapses gasping to the floor. Moaning, Vogel stumbles to a basin, blood dripping down onto the white porcelain from his slashed face. He suddenly notices Rachel has made it to her knees and is trying to crawl towards the door, He walks after her, pulls back her head, gets ready to stab the scissors into her throat. VOGEL You Jews never knew how to kill. Only how to die. FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 114. Then he gives a gasp of pain, eyes closed, his whole body doubling with the pain, hands weakly scrabbling at the PIECE OF GLASS Rachel has stabbed into his thigh. He falls, almost on top of Rachel, and she finds herself pressed against his contorted face as he hisses and spits in agony. His hand searches blindly for the dropped scissors. Rachel grapples with him, almost embracing him, apparently trying to prevent him for reaching it. His searching hand locates the scissors and his eyes open in triumph, staring straight into Rachel's. He raises the scissors above his head. Then he stabs Rachel in the stomach. Rachel jack-knifes, as if she's been punched. Then...nothing. Both lie still. The only sound is Vogel's rasping breathing. Slowly Vogel gathers himself, drops the scissors, gets onto his knees - the victor. He climbs to his feet and begins to limp towards the door.242 INT. CORRIDOR - DAY 242 PULLING VOGEL ...as he walks down the corridor, breathing hard, trying to make it back to his room, back to safety. Suddenly he staggers against the wall. Something's wrong, something in his back. He twists around trying to locate the source of the strange sensation. And there it is - the HYPODERMIC NEEDLE Rachel has stuck between his shoulders. He touches it with his fingertips, eyes wide with horror, feeling the rush of lethal chemicals through his blood. He twists again trying to pull the needle free but his legs are already giving way and he collapses to the floor. Moments later he's dead. CUT TO: FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 115.243 INT. WASHROOM - CONTINUOUS 243 Rachel manages to turn over, starts to drag herself up... MUSIC begins.244 INT. ROOM 414 - DAY 244 As the music continues we see Yuri putting his coat on. He's evidently finished his fruitless interview with Schevchuk, who is sitting slumped by the window. Yuri turns, about to leave, when he suddenly notices a NOTE upon the desk, ADDRESSED TO HIM. Surprised, he picks up the note and begins to read it. INSERT We see the first line - "My name is Rachel Singer."245 EXT. BABENKO HOSPITAL - CONTINUOUS 245 The road at the back of the hospital. The music continues as we TRACK with Rachel, staring steadily ahead, walking slowly down the long road, her coat pulled around her. In the distance, framed between the arches, her abandoned car. Blood begins to spot the ground behind her.246 YOUNG RACHEL'S P.O.V - THE PAST 246 We are in darkness. Then a DOOR opens ahead of us and slides to one side revealing an oval of brilliant white light. Slowly we TRACK FORWARD towards the harsh light.247 OLDER RACHEL 247 ...walking on towards her car.248 MILITARY AIRBASE. ISRAEL - THE PAST 248 YOUNG RACHEL'S P.O.V - FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WITH PINK AMENDMENTS - 26.03.09 116. We're at the top of an AIRPLANE STAIRWAY, which leads down to the runway below, and two lines of waiting DIGNITARIES, applauding.249 OLDER RACHEL 249 Walking on - a small lone figure against the white of the snow.250 MILITARY AIRBASE. ISRAEL - THE PAST 250 The three YOUNG PEOPLE begin their descent down the stairs towards the WELCOME PARTY.251 OLDER RACHEL 251 ...tiny, framed within the two arches. Still moving towards the car....252 MILITARY AIRBASE. ISRAEL - THE PAST 252 We CLOSE on Young Rachel as she blinks against the harsh sunlight, takes out a pair of sunglasses and slips them on. Then she steps forward to accept her reward. FADE OUT \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Deception.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deception.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..638fea0ce1ed5ab1003513fdf70257ea03a18bf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deception.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DECEPTION Written by Mark Bomback & Patrick Marber September 15th, 2005 I . EXTREME CLOSE ON A CELL PHONE resting face up on a black surface. A beat of silence -- is broken by its abrupt RING... RING... RING... Move in tighter on the phone's LCD DISPLAY. A number comes up: 555-3827 RING... RING... RING... A hand enters frame. We follow it to a pad and pen we now discover to the left of the phone. The hand picks up the pen, brings it to the pad, on which we find a list of handwritten numbers. At least fifty. To this series is now added 555-3827. RING... RING... RING... FADE TO BLACK. FADE IN: EXT. MANHATTAN - LATE NIGHT We pan across the city skyline, a beautiful sight -- over which we hear the CLACKING of computer keys. INT. A CONFERENCE ROOM (RUTHERFORD STERN) - LATE NIGHT A wall of glass offers a letter-boxed view of a sleek conference room. Amber sconces illuminate an enormous table, empty save for & YOUNG MAN at the far end - a lonely figure hunched over a laptop. Steadily tighten on JONATHAN MESSER (late 20s), trim build not entirely at ease in a suit. Likeable features suggest a gentle, intelligent demeanor. Grids of numbers from the laptop screen reflect off his glasses. Tired, he rubs his eyes, continues typing. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN LAW OFFICES - LATE NIGHT Briefcase in hand, Jonathan walks a vacant corridor of empty cubicles. In a few offices lights are still on; the figures of YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN at work are blurred like photos out of focus behind the frosted-glass of closed doors. INT. TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY STATION - LATE NIGHT Waiting for his train, Jonathan pauses at a news kiosk. JONATHAN Do-you have tomorrow's Times yet? The grizzled OLD MAN behind the counter doesn't look up. OLD MAN It is tomorrow. (CONTINUED) 2. CONTINUED: JONATHAN Right. I forgot. The Old man grudgingly bends to cut the plastic on a fresh stack of newspapers. As he does, Jonathan glances at numerous porn magazines on display. Naked women smile back at him -- OLD MAN Anything else? JONATHAN Uh - no. No that's it, thanks. EXT. BROOKLYN - LATE NIGHT Jonathan descends an above-ground subway stop. Neighborhood streets are vacant, the clopping of his shoes the only sound. Jonathan turns a corner, heads for a humble duplex, the first floor marked by unlit neon: "FLEURS DE SOLANGE." He ascends the steps, his keys out -- WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Jonathan! The voice from nowhere startles him - he spins to find SOLANGE (50), a vibrant Haitian woman with a thick accent, standing in the doorway below, bundled in a ski jacket. JONATHAN Solange, you're up so late? SOLANGE So early, Jonathan. We open in one hour. (GRINS) So tell me, you have been out with a lady friend, oui? JONATHAN (SMILES) Je suis desole, madame, mais no. SOLANGE But why else does a young man come home at such an hour? JONATHAN Just working late, that's all. SOLANGE Every night working late, working late. (teasing him) Ah, you can't fool me. You are Mister Mischief maker - I know this! You come by (CONTINUED) 3. CONTINUED: SOLANGE (CONT'D) later and pick out something for your lady friend, oui? INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Very modest. Furnishings are nice, but sparse. Jonathan hangs his suit jacket in a closet of empty hangers. INT. JONATHAN'S BEDROOM Not much decoration other than a dated Jimmy Connors poster and an old tennis trophy. Jonathan lies in bed, flipping channels on a small TV. Typical late night stuff: infommercials; CNN; a Brazilian soccer match; "Channel J" (public access) on which X-rated clips advertise phone sex. Jonathan lingers a moment on these explicit ads - then clicks back to, the roaring soccer crowd. He closes his eyes and drifts off to the frenetic Portuguese of an unseen announcer.. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN LAW OFFICES - COFFEE LOUNGE - MORNING TWO CORPORATE LAWYERS are talking shop while pouring coffee. JONATHAN (0.S.) Excuse me. Fixing his coffee, Jonathan reaches past them. They barely give him a glance as they continue their conversation. LAWYER 1 So, the Knicks win last night? LAWYER 2 I'm pretty sure, yeah. JONATHAN Actually, they lost by 4. Both pause, turn to Jonathan. Jonathan smiles awkwardly. JONATHAN It was supposed to be a good game though. LAWYER 1 Oh. (back to Lawyer 2) Hey, so. did you get a chance to look over that memo from Watkins? INT. RUTHERFORD STERN CORRIDORS - MORNING Bustling - yet here too Jonathan is ignored as he carries his coffee past ASSISTANTS and LAWYERS talking shop. He smiles (CONTINUED) 4. CONTINUED: politely at those he passes; few bother to smile in return. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING . Again Jonathan works alone at one end of the long table, rapidly typing, eyes ping-ponging from files to laptop, beside him a meticulous arrangement of pastel-colored post- its on which are scribbled various calculations. He strikes us as extremely good at his job, tackling the overwhelming array of numbers and data with methodical assurance. Taking a break, he pauses to peer out the glass wall before him. Behind the glass, employees pass like fish in a tank. INT. MEN'S WASHROOM -- DAY In a stall, Jonathan is staring sleepily at patterns in the stall's marble door -- when a sudden KNOCK-KNOCK on the divider to his right startles him. He peers down and over, to expensive black wingtip shoes, a Wall St. Journal spread on the floor. Another KNOCK-KNOCK. Confused, Jonathan turns to address the divider: JONATHAN Yes? MALE VOICE (O.S.) Take a look at this. The voice sounds youthful, energetic. Its owner slides his Journal along the floor halfway between the marble division. MALE VOICE (O.S.) The Japanese are developing a toilet that can analyze your urine for glucose levels, kidney disease, even cancer. They're referring to it as the "super bowl." JONATHAN That certainly is - something. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Of course if you've ever been to Japan, you know they're nuts about their toilets. I'm talking web sites, symposiums... Jonathan chuckles. MALE VOICE (O.S.) You think I'm kidding. They have bowls over there that cost more than a piano. What I want to know is how you're supposed to retrieve this analysis - you know, from your super bowl. (CONTINUED) 5. CONTINUED: JONATHAN Maybe they're developing a fly with a nursing degree. A superfly. MALE VOICE (O.S.) (LAUGHS) Who's in there anyway? JONATHAN Uh, Jonathan Messer. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Messer... What department? JONATHAN None. I'm from Worth and Berman. I've been over here a few wee-- A FLUSH from the next stall cuts him off. The sound of zipping up, of a belt buckled, then of a stall door opening. MALE VOICE (O.S.) So you're an accountant? Jonathan follows the FOOTSTEPS, now addresses his stall door. JONATHAN Audit manager, yeah. MALE VOICE (O.S.) So how's it work, Rutherford Stern hires Worth and Berman to give their blessing to our books, and they send you? JONATHAN Have laptop, will travel. What about you? MALE VOICE (O.S.) What about me? JONATHAN Well, I didn't get your name for one.th-- The SOUND OF A FAUCET RUNNING drowns him out. MALE VOICE (O.S.) .ose. JONATHAN Sorry - I didn't catch that? (gets no response) Hello...? (CONTINUED) 6. CONTINUED: MALE VOICE (O.S.) I said it's Wyatt. Wyatt Bose. Jonathan FLUSHES, buckles his belt, opens his stall door - - only the men's room is now empty. COMPUVOICE (SOUND ADVANCE) Message-four. Three-oh-eight-pee-em. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Alone again, Jonathan listens to voice-mail on his cell phone. We..find two more batteries sitting ready in a charger. PETERSON (O.S.) Jonathan? Chet Peterson. Just wanted to- confirm you're wrapping up over there at Rutherford Stern because the controller at Clancey has been on me to get someone in there by Thursday. I told him how brilliant you are, said you're the best auditor we've got. Anyway, I forwarded you some documentation... Jonathan clicks his mouse - to find 27 a-mails ending in worth&berman.com. He reaches for his palm pilot, clicks on a day planner, stylus writes "Clancey" into next week. Other than places he'll be working, days-are-all entirely blank. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Jonathan still working. Only a few of the post-its now remain on the tabletop. Yawning, he glances at his watch - MALE VOICE (O.S.) 12:53 a.m. Startled, Jonathan turns to a well-dressed young man in the' doorway - penetrating eyes, playful smile, familiar voice: WYATT Sorry if I scared you. I was heading home and saw the lights. We met before, in the can... JONATHAN Sure. It's Wyatt, right? WYATT BOSE nods as he steps into the room. There's something very likeably "on" about him. (CONTINUED) 7 CONTINUED: WYATT So do you normally work this late? JONATHAN Pretty much. I'm supposed to be out of here by tomorrow so I'm just trying to finish up. What about you? WYATT You kidding? This is an early night. Hard to believe that once upona time a man's success was measured by how little he had to work. You know in Sweden the average worker gets 7 weeks a year vacation? (regards his stacked files) Do-you like accounting? JONATHAN It's all right, if you enjoy working with numbers. Do you like being a lawyer? WYATT It's all right. If you enjoy working with assholes. Jonathan laughs, glances at his monitor screen. WYATT Well, I'm probably disturbing you - JONATHAN No - it's okay. Really. WYATT So Worth and Berman, huh? Don't you have to like be in Mensa to work there? Jonathan smiles, shrugs modestly. WYATT Been with them long? JONATHAN Since my senior year of college. They subsidized my graduate degree. WYATT Really. So you were poor? Jonathan is given pause by the bluntness of the question. (CONTINUED) S. CONTINUED: JONATHAN Well - I guess you could say that. I was raised by a single mother, and she died when I was nineteen, so... yeah. It wasn't so bad though. I'm sure a lot of people have had it worse. WYATT Not around here. Practically every suit I know is Harvard by way of Andover. JONATHAN Are you? WYATT Me? Hell no... I'm Princeton. By way of Exeter. Jonathan laughs. Wyatt smiles, takes a few idle paces. WYATT So. Jonathan. (GRINS) What do you say to a break? CUT TO: CLOSE ON A SCREENSAVER OF SWIMMING FISH. Tilt up from Jonathan's laptop screen to Wyatt and Jonathan, sitting on top of the expensive conference-table, passinga joint, staring out at the rain hammering the far windows. JONATHAN (STONED) .It's just sometimes I feel so - I don't know - removed. I mean, I work for one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, and.there's not so much as a desk there to prove it? They've decided all we need are cell phones and laptops. Messages are voice-mailed, documents e-mailed, salary's deposited online. Chet Peterson, my senior manager? I swear he wouldn't recognize me if I was sitting in his chair. Jonathan pauses, takes another drag, train of thought drifts: JONATHAN I don't know... I used to have friends. But it's like I've spent so much time trying to prove myself, working these hours - you can only do it so long before you look up and realize you've lost (CONTINUED) 9. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (CONT'D) everyone. Just - fell out of touch. With everyone... And I try to meet people at work. I do. But it's always the same. To the accounting staff I'm a pain because for two weeks they have to hold their breath and hope I don't pick up on any of their screw ups. And to everyone else, I'm just a temporary fixture, so why bother? The truth is, this is the first meaningful conversation I've had in I don't know how long. It's like if I disappeared tomorrow, I'm not .sure anyone other than Solange would even notice - she's my neighbor. I live on what must be the only block in Brooklyn that still isn't hip. (EXHALES) I guess I just never counted-on the isolation. It's like sometimes I look through that glass, and I see life literally passing me by. Jonathan stares out the glass wall in stoned silence. WYATT Jonathan? JONATHAN Yeah? WYATT By the clock on the wall there? You've just talked for 37 minutes straight. Wyatt looks at Jonathan -- and cracks up. Jonathan hesitates, then he too starts to laugh so now they can't stop, their laughter filling the expansive room -- until it's drowned by the SOUND ADVANCE OF POURING RAIN... EXT. MIDTOWN - STREET - LATE NIGHT Jonathan hurries in the cold. rain for the Times Square subway. He's just about to descend - when across 7th Avenue he spots a beautiful YOUNG WOMAN in a camel hair coat, clutching a slim briefcase, waiting to cross the street. Jonathan gazes at her, almost gasping. She's surrounded by pedestrians with umbrellas., she's the only one without one and she's DRENCHED. But she seems content to entertain herself drawing a pattern in the drops collecting on the umbrella in front of her. Jonathan watches, intrigued - and then the rumble of the subway below reminds him he'd better move. 10. INT. TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY STATION - LATE NIGHT Jonathan stands in a long line to buy a Metrocard, his glasses steamed up. He takes them off to wipe the lenses. JONATHAN'S POV: the entire station is a blur, all unfocused, muted colors, no object discernible from another - - until his glasses return his POV to immediate focus, and he sees the same Young Woman in'the camel.hair coat, a pair of dollar bills in her hand, entering the station. Jonathan can't help but stare again. Despite her business attire, there's an almost childlike lightness. to her step. Jonathan notices her slim briefcase. Beneath her hand, he can make out the first letter of a monogram: "S." She checks out the long line for Metrocards, considers waiting, then decides life's too short. She continues past, headed for the turnstiles. Jonathan continues to observe as she raises her briefcase, then proceeds to wriggle her slender frame through the narrow gap in the turnstile. A PANHANDLER on the other side watches her with amusement. Glancing up, she catches his eye, and blushes a mischievous smile. Once she's through, she drops her money into his collection - and slips out of view. ANGLE ON JONATHAN, still stuck on line, staring at the space she vacated. INT. SUBWAY PLATFORM -- SHORT TIME LATER Jonathan arrives as an N train pulls away, the platform now practically. empty. Weary and still a bit stoned, Jonathan peers sleepily into the dark expanse of tunnel, yawns - And then he sees "S" is waiting on the same platform. Ten yards away. He gazes at her. She's unwrapping some GUM. He watches as she puts a piece in her mouth. The sound of an ARRIVING N TRAIN. "S" heads for it, Jonathan follows... The train halts. The door before him is the last of its car, the door before her the first of the next. The doors open. (CONTINUED) 11 CONTINUED: II S ‚Ä¢ II (turns to Jonathan) Excuse me, is this the train for canal Street? It takes Jonathan a second just to find his voice. She's even more arresting up close. JONATHAN Uh,.either one is -- I mean the N and the R both stop there so, you know, either way, I mean, this is the right train. Yes. SOS Of Thanks. "S" enters her car. Jonathan wavers, wants to follow into her car but doesn't have the nerve. He enters a different car. INT. SUBWAY CAR - LATER Jonathan's slumped against a window, annoyed. at himself for not getting in her car. He can see 'S'. She sits in the other car chewing her gum. He studies her, he's absolutely knocked out by her. CONDUCTOR (O.S.) Next stop Canal Street. Canal is next. He sees "S" rising to join the small crowd gathering by a door. Jonathan stands up - his last chance. Determined, he braces himself and rises, grasping his briefcase. The screeching of brakes as the train grinds into "CANAL ST. STATION." A sudden JOLT of the braking train.causes Jonathan to stumble slightly and his briefcase BANGS against a seat and SNAPS OPEN - contents tumbling out. His cell phone hits the floor. Jonathan quickly bends for his phone - when the train lurches to a halt, nearly knocking him over, and sliding his cell phone a few feet along the grimy floor. O.S. we hear the hiss of the doors opening as Jonathan grabs for his phone a second before it's stepped on. He hurriedly stuffs it in his pocket, shoves his files and papers and paraphernalia back into his briefcase and rises to his feet - - to find the doors closing, and "S" gone. (CONTINUED) 12. CONTINUED: Devastated, he hurries to a window, searching the platform as the train begins to depart... He can just glimpse the back of her camel hair coat as his car is sucked back into a tunnel. He stands helpless, just shuts his eyes and lowers his head. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN - COFFEE LOUNGE - MORNING Jonathan is pouring coffee when he brightens on hearing Wyatt enter, talking animatedly with Lawyers 1 and 2. Caught up in telling his joke, Wyatt doesn't seem to notice Jonathan. Only when the lawyers burst out laughing does Wyatt glance up. His eyes meet Jonathan's. Jonathan smiles in greeting - but Wyatt just nods coolly, returns to his fellow lawyers. Jonathan's smile falters. He exits wordlessly. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN - DAY Jonathan hands over files and CD-Roms to a less than sociable ASSISTANT CONTROLLER. JONATHAN I guess that's it. then. Nice meeting you. ASSISTANT CONTROLLER Uh huh. Jonathan turns to go, takes two paces - then turns back. JONATHAN Listen - could you point me toward Wyatt Bose's office? The Assistant Controller looks up in mild annoyance. JONATHAN Wyatt Bose. He's an attorney here. She sighs, put upon, then slides out a desk drawer in which a laminated page of names and extensions is taped. Jonathan's eyes follow her lazy finger down the list -- A GRUFF VOICE (O.S.) Hey, quit looking down her shirt! Jonathan instinctively leaps back from her desk, turns to find Wyatt grinning at him from down the corridor. WYATT Leaving, huh? So where to next? (CONTINUED) 13. CONTINUED: JONATHAN Clancey Funds on Thursday. Clute Nichols after that. Wyatt's about to reply - when ANOTHER LAWYER passes him in the hall. Wyatt taps the lawyer's shoulder. WYATT Hey, wait up a sec. (smiles back) Well, good meeting you, Jonathan. ,Wyatt turns and starts to walk off with the other lawyer. Jonathan bends for his briefcase - WYATT (O.S.) Wait, so you have off tomorrow? Jonathan looks up to Wyatt smiling at him from down the hall. WYATT You don't happen to have .a. decent backhand, do you? INT. MANHATTAN RACKET CLUB - DAY Beneath an enormous bubble dome, Jonathan and Wyatt play mixed doubles with two attractive YOUNG WOMEN (early 20's). Between points, we observe from Jonathan's side of the net Wyatt chatting up his partner. The rapport between Jonathan and his partner is markedly less comfortable; he wipes his brow, smiles at her, she forces a polite smile in return. SAME SCENE - LATER A good rally underway. Jonathan fires a backhand. Wyatt returns it with an audible grunt. Jonathan snaps the ball back to Wyatt's partner - only Wyatt intercepts, nailing it back. Jonathan returns it with equal force. A grin on Wyatt's face as he savors the battle, blasting back each ball. The women step aside. Jonathan lunges, barely managing to lob a return. Sensing victory, Wyatt raises his racket and with a guttural bark mercilessly smashes the ball. Jonathan dives, racket over-extended - and returns a near perfect shot just over Wyatt's head... but it lands two inches outside the opposite baseline. WYATT Out! (CONTINUED) 14. CONTINUED: Jonathan curls forward, gasping for air. Silence - then Wyatt's SOLITARY APPLAUSE echoes in the humid space. WYATT Commiserations, Messer. Good game. They shake hands at the net. Jonathan is exhausted. WYATT (WARMLY) Develop akiller instinct and you'll beat the crap out of me. Jonathan turns to commiserate with his partner - but she's already gone to join her friend. Jonathan crashes out on the court. From his low angle he watches as Wyatt goes over to the girls and says something that causes a burst of laughter. The girls finally wave goodbye. Wyatt hops over the net. WYATT They asked if we'd fancy a post-game cocktail. Don't worry, I got us out of it. Jonathan is barely able to speak. JONATHAN Oh? I would've been happy to. WYATT Are you kidding? They're a couple of first years at Merrill. Screw that, we can do better. Hey, you OK? Jonathan nods as an amused Wyatt helps him to his feet. INT. RACKET CLUB LOUNGE Soft jazz plays as Wyatt leads Jonathan past the bar area. Wyatt is admiring Jonathan's weathered tennis racket. WYATT Man, I remember when these first came out. I think I was a frosh at boarding school. (chuckles; fingers a string) Jeez, are these strings natural gut? JONATHAN Actually, it's a hybrid weave: natural gut and Kevlar. They're pretty obscure now. I should replace them, they're all frayed... (CONTINUED) 15. CONTINUED: Looking up, Jonathan abruptly slows his pace, his eyes suddenly fixed on a woman sitting at the far end of the bar. From behind, it looks remarkably like "S"... Only, as she turns, her profile proves otherwise. INT. LOCKER ROOK! Wyatt and Jonathan in towels, heading for the showers. Jonathan still deep in the 'S' moment - WYATT Have you ever considered contacts? Jonathan halts, confused to find Wyatt studying his face - his eyeglasses in particular. JONATHAN Huh? Oh - yeah, I tried once, but I was allergic to something in the solution. WYATT Too bad. You have an attractive face. Your eyes especially. Jonathan looks self-conscious in his towel. WYATT It's not a come on, just an observation. (considers him a beat) You don't get much, do you. JONATHAN What - you mean sex? WYATT No, flood insurance. How many women have you slept with? JONATHAN Oh, I don't know, not a whole- WYATT Of course you know. Everyone knows. JONATHAN Maybe - four. WYATT Maybe four? (CONTINUED) 16 CONTINUED: JONATHAN Okay fine, just four. What about you? WYATT Me? I have no idea. JONATHAN What? You just said everyone - WYATT I meant everyone like you. Confused, Jonathan looks up -- as Wyatt disappears into a shower stall. SAME - MOMENTS LATER Jonathan emerges freshly showered, a towel around his waist as he walks toward the rows of lockers. WYATT (O.S.) Tonight?... Fine. I'm on the list? Jonathan finds Wyatt half-dressed, seated on a bench by a locker and talking on his cell phone. WYATT There better be. Wyatt hangs up, looks up to find Jonathan staring, puzzled. WYATT Something wrong? Jonathan reaches into his locker for his hanging jacket, and pulls out his own cell phone. It's identical to Wyatt's. JONATHAN We have the same phone. WYATT Oh - and you thought I was using yours? I can afford my own phone calls, you know. JONATHAN No, I wasn't -- of course you can- WYATT I'm pulling your dick, Jonathan. (grins, slams his locker) Actually, I was just firming up some plans for tonight. Are you free? (CONTINUED) 17. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (SURPRISED) Me? Sure, I guess - but I don't want to INTRUDE- WYATT You're not. What do you say, are you in? JONATHAN I guess I could go home and change. WYATT To Brooklyn? Forget it, you can borrow something of mine. INT. WYATT'S BUILDING - EARLY EVENING A three-story brownstone in an expensive West Village neighborhood. As Wyatt leads Jonathan to the staircase, they pass a papery-faced GENTLEMAN (50s) in a fine suit. WYATT t a uten Abend, Herr Kleiner. (glances back) This way, Jonathan. INT. WYATT'S APARTMENT Urban chic to a serious degree. Big terrace, funky furniture, framed snapshots of Wyatt with similarly hip and attractive young friends - and great art, including an entrancing image of a burning candle just slightly out of focus. WYATT Like it? It's a Gerhard Richter. Kleiner downstairs is a hot shot art dealer - he hooked me up with the gallery in Munich. Wyatt disappears into the next room. Alone, Jonathan wanders, pauses by the framed snapshots. The young people in them are like Wyatt -- beautiful, strong, wealthy. Jonathan pauses by one photo in which Wyatt looks a bit younger, his hair bleached blonde and loosely spiked. WYATT (O.S.) Talk about a bad look. Startled, Jonathan quickly turns to find Wyatt standing right behind him,. a slick, expensive SUIT draped over his arm. (CONTINUED) 18. CONTINUED: WYATT Here, try this one. (off Jonathan's hesitation) What? JONATHAN Nothing, I just hope I can pull it off. WYATT You hope you can pull it off. You know who you remind me of? James Getz. JONATHAN Who? WYATT A guy I roomed with freshman year at Princeton.. Real smart - witty too, when you loosened him up. Only from day one, he just didn't fit in. For starters, he was dirt poor. But it wasn't that. See, there was always this boundary - this wall - between Getz and everyone else. You could argue we laid the foundation, but he built it. Built it by believing the lie. JONATHAN What lie? WYATT That he was any different. The clothes, the money, the wry anecdotes - it's all one big masquerade. Anyone can get in, you've just got to wear a costume. But Getz never got that. He assumed he could never scale the wall, when the truth is he was the only one guarding it. It never occurred to him his anonymity could be an asset. No one gets over like the guy who's just a face, an impression. We are - all of us - only who we're perceived to be. JONATHAN So what happened to him? WYATT Who, James Getz? Oh - he killed himself. JONATHAN (hesitates a beat) You're pulling my dick, aren't you. Wyatt turns to him with a grave look... then smirks. (CONTINUED) 19. CONTINUED: WYATT With both hands. Jonathan can't help but laugh as Wyatt hands him the suit. CUT TO: CLOSE ON A BUFF YOUNG MAN (EMCEE) in a vintage bowler hat. He struts up to us, thumbs in his suspenders: EMCEE And now, straight from the Cafe Germaine, the Velvet Rope is proud to introduce you to the lovely Miss Lu Lu Lamour! INT. THE VELVET ROPE - NIGHT An ultra-elite "new burlesque" nightclub in Manhattan, 1920s Parisian decor. Strictly UPSCALE PATRONS, male and female, sip from crystal barware, while on stage a BETTY PAGE TYPE performs an elegantly choreographed strip tease. Wyatt and Jonathan sit at a small table; each table is fitted with. an old-fashioned black rotary telephone, as well as a small monitor recessed into the tabletop on which old stag films play silently. All part of the wink-wink ambience. WYATT It's a little self-conscious, but I thought you'd get a kick out of it. How's that suit working out? JONATHAN Oh - great, actually. WYATT Keep it then. I've got two just like it. Jonathan's about to protest, when a WAITRESS arrives. WAITRESS Two Macallan 25 year. Enjoy, gentlemen. JONATHAN Isn't this like fifty bucks a glass? WYATT We'll try not to spill any. (regards the floor show) So what's the wildest thing you've ever done? Sexually, I mean. (CONTINUED) 20. CONTINUED: JONATHAN The wildest thing? Oh I don't know, I've never been too adventuresome. WYATT All right, what's the lamest thing then? JONATHAN The lamest... Wyatt's focused on him, amused, eager to hear it. JONATHAN Actually, that was probably a few months ago. I was flipping through money magazine and saw this small ad in the back. It read something like "Are. you feeling all alone? Looking to meet women but have forgotten how?" And-there was this number. WYATT And you called it? So what happened? JONATHAN Nothing actually. The phone just kept ringing. And that's it. Wyatt stares at Jonathan a beat, then starts to crack up. JONATHAN Lame enough for you? WYATT You called a sex ad - from Money Magazine. That is beyond lame. Jonathan too starts laughing - when the phone at their table lights'up. Wyatt looks to Jonathan, raises a brow - then picks up. He listens a moment, smiles, hands it to Jonathan. JONATHAN .Hello? Wyatt taps his shoulder, directs his gaze to a SEXY BRUNETTE at a distant table, receiver to her ear, eyeing Jonathan. JONATHAN .All right... Goodbye. Jonathan hangs up, turns to Wyatt. JONATHAN She wants to dance. 21. ON THE DANCE FLOOR - LATER Jonathan is slow dancing with the sexy Brunette to an old Edith Piaf ballad. He looks over her shoulder to his table, where Wyatt is sitting, talking on his cell phone. Glancing up, Wyatt's eyes meet Jonathan's; he flashes a proud smile. Jonathan continues dancing, truly enjoying himself. The Brunette leans in, whispers something in his ear... BACK TO WYATT AND JONATHAN'S TABLE Wyatt clicks off his cell phone, looks up to find Jonathan returning alone, looking deflated. JONATHAN She's a hooker. Wyatt shrugs, grinning. JONATHAN Hold on - you knew? What - are all the women here prostitutes? WYATT That depends on what you mean by that word. Stretch the definition and you could incorporate most of the men as well. (sips his drink) You know in Amsterdam prostitutes not only belong to a union, they have to pay taxes. JONATHAN You seem to possess quite a store of international trivia. WYATT Not really. I just get around... Jonathan, relax. It's not like she just shot your dog. I was only trying to help. Besides, what are you looking for - a relationship? As if you have time for one? This was your first day off in how long? JONATHAN Three weeks. WYATT Four for me. Face it, we've mortgaged our youth. Pimped out our twenties. But we still have needs. And there's nothing shameful about wanting them met. (CONTINUED) 22 CONTINUED: JONATHAN So you sleep with hookers? WYATT (LAUGHING) Me? Never. JONATHAN So how do you - meet your needs? Wyatt studies him a beat, another French love song drifting in the background as the Emcee introduces a new girl. WYATT What if I told you... (breaks off, laughs) Christ, I sound like an infommercial. JONATHAN What were you going to say? WYATT Listen. You don't think that women have these same urges? Young women, just like ourselves, successful and working their asses off to stay that way? You better believe they do. JONATHAN And? WYATT And - well - let's just say, there's a way...a way it can be taken care of. JONATHAN You make it sound like a mob hit. Wyatt smiles, and turns his attention back to the floor show. INT. TAXI CAB - LATE NIGHT Wyatt and Jonathan are in the back seat. A quiet beat. JONATHAN What you were talking about, before. Peoples' needs... Wyatt turns to Jonathan with a grin: WYATT Some other time. (to Cabbie) (CONTINUED) 23. CONTINUED: WYATT (CONT'D) At the corner, please. The Rhiga Royal. (to Jonathan) Listen, I have to meet someone.. JONATHAN (SURPRISED) Oh... okay. The cab pulls up before the RHIGA ROYAL HOTEL. WYATT Hey. You had a good time tonight? JONATHAN Yeah. Yeah I did. Thanks. WYATT I'm glad. Listen, that thing with the hooker, I'm really sorry if I - JONATHAN Forget it. It was funny. Wyatt smiles warmly, pats Jonathan's shoulder. WYATT I'll give you a call tomorrow. Wyatt climbs out. Jonathan watches through the cab window as Wyatt disappears into the golden glow of the lobby. LATER: Driving in the cab, Jonathan catches his reflection in the glass. He smiles, liking how he looks in Wyatt's suit. Outside, rainy Manhattan passes by ina hypnotic blur. JONATHAN (To driver) Hey. Could you let me out at the next corner over there, on 7th Avenue? EXT. TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY - LATER Jonathan stands in the exact spot where he first saw "S". He buys a New York Times and a hot-dog. Pedestrians and theatre crowds pass by as he remains rooted to the spot,.hoping he'll see that face in the crowd. After a while he shakes his head at the ridiculousness of it and heads down into the-subway. INT. CLANCEY INVESTMENTS - A CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Clancey's stiff CONTROLLER (50s) hovers nervously over Jonathan as he unloads files onto the huge conference table. (CONTINUED) 24. CONTINUED: Beside him we see he's set up his laptop, phone charger, pencils and a fresh, unopened pack of pastel post-its. CLANCEY CONTROLLER Any problems, you'll want to see Julie Levinson, she's our assistant controller - or if she's busy, Scott Werner, our senior accountant. If Werner's unavailable, we have two staff accountants - but like I said, I don't anticipate any problems. I mean we've never had any before, so... JONATHAN Right.I just need the access codes for the accounts and sub-accounts? The Controller suddenly looks uneasy. JONATHAN You've got account numbers, but no access codes. Without those I can't get the banks to authorize statement verification. (beat; smiles) Besides, how else can I steal the money? CLANCEY CONTROLLER What? JONATHAN Nothing, I was just pulling your-- leg. I do need those codes though, when you get a chance. INT. CLANCEY CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Other than Jonathan's suit and tie, the reduced number of post-its and the lighter stack of files - little has changed. Jonathan is hunched over his laptop. Like Rutherford Stern's conference room, this one too is designed with a glass wall. Jonathan peers out at workers passing in utter indifference to him. Slightly different tank, slightly different fish. CLOSE ON A BUSINESS CARD: a Rutherford Stern masthead, beneath it Wyatt's name and office number. Jonathan picks up his cell phone and dials it. RING... RING - WYATT (O.S.) Hey, Jonathan. JONATHAN How'd you know it was- (CONTINUED) 25. CONTINUED: WYATT (O.S.) You really ought to block your caller ID. So - same place as yesterday? EXT. ROCKEFELLER CENTER - DAY Along the entire square of ledge, throngs of SUITED BUSINESS TYPES bundled in scarves eating street vendor fare. It's here we find Wyatt and Jonathan, having a quick bite. WYATT I wonder what the Founding Fathers would make of this scene. Wyatt regards face after face of young men and women wearing expensive suits, wolfing down lunch so they can get back to work - a good 2/3 of them talking on cell phones as they eat. JONATHAN I'm just glad to be outside. (awkwardly heartfelt) I've got to tell you, this has been great, meeting up for lunch. I used to just- A cell phone RINGS. They both instinctively reach in their jackets, take out their identical phones. It's Wyatt's that's ringing. Jonathan rests his down on the ledge. WYATT Yes?... Shit. Okay, see if you can.gettme on the 6:15 out of JFK tonight... Fine. Wyatt rests his phone on the ledge next to Jonathan's. WYATT Rutherford needs me to join him asap in London to paper some financing with Lloyds. I tell you about this? JONATHAN No - no you didn't. WYATT Yeah, I should be gone a few weeks. Jonathan tries to mask the wave of loneliness setting in. JONATHAN Sounds exciting. WYATT Nah, it'll be boring as sin. (CONTINUED) 26. CONTINUED: Wyatt studies him a moment, grabs his cell phone and rises from the ledge. WYATT Shit, I'd better get back. You ready? INT. CLANCEY INVESTMENTS - CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER Sitting before his laptop, Jonathan takes out his cell phone and punches in some numbers. COMPUVOICE (O.S.) I'RN-SORRY-THE-VOICE-MAIL-PASSWORD-YOU- ENTERED-IS-NOT-VALID-PLEASE-TRY-YOUR- He enters the numbers again, receives the same prerecorded message. He hangs up -- when it abruptly RINGS, surprising him. He stares at the phone a curious beat, then answers it. JONATHAN Jonathan Mess- CLICK. Dead air. More puzzled, Jonathan frowns a beat - then replaces the battery with one fresh off the charger. INT. CLANCEY BUILDING - ELEVATOR - NIGHT As ignored as ever, Jonathan is squeezed among EMPLOYEES on their way home. TWO SECRETARIES speak in hushed tones: SECRETARY 1 .That's just it. You caught him in a lie, so now everything he says you have to- RING of a cell phone. RING... RING... It's Jonathan's. Surprised, he takes out the phone, presses talk. JONATHAN Hello? A soft, electronic rustle from the other end... then: WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Are you free tonight? JONATHAN Excuse me? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) I asked if you're free tonight. JONATHAN I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong-- (CONTINUED) 27 CONTINUED: CLICK. The line goes dead. EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT Jonathan trudging home. He descends into the subway. INT. SUBWAY STATION Jonathan is heading for the DOWNTOWN N/R when:. RING... RING... His cell phone again. He steps aside and answers: JONATHAN Hello? The CRACKLE OF STATIC on the other end. Then: WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Are you free tonight? JONATHAN Actually I am, but I don't think I'm who The static on the other end worsens. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) I'm sorry, I didn't get that? JONATHAN I said I am free, but I - WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Could you be at the Plaza in one hour? JONATHAN The hotel? I - I guess, but - WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S'.) Beneath the Eloise portrait. THE ROAR OF A TRAIN pulling in. Only when the train passes can he hear the other end. But now there's no one there. Jonathan stares at his cell phone - and frowns. Close on the phone's display as Jonathan scrolls down its list of stored numbers. His expression says none are familiar. And NOW he gets it. INT. TAXI CAB - NIGHT A heavy-set CABBIE glances in his mirror at Jonathan in back, cell phone to his ear. (CONTINUED) 28. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (into phone) Hi, it's Jonathan, I've got your cell! I guess you must have mine. I imagine you're in the air now, but call when you get this. if you do. Oh, and you got a call from someone who I'm...forget it, just call me. Jonathan hangs up. CABBIE So where ya visiting from? JONATHAN Excuse me? CABBIE You're from out of town, right? JONATHAN (PUZZLED) Me? No. CABBIE Huh. I can usually tell. You seem like a tourist. JONATHAN I've lived here all my life! CABBIE No offence, pal. The cabbie pulls over on Central Park South. Jonathan leans forward, peers up at the gorgeous French Renaissance facade. CABBIE Well, here ya are. The Plaza. INT. PLAZA HOTEL - LOBBY - NIGHT Sheer elegance. Wealthy GUESTS stroll, chat, lounge. Hotel STAFF in immaculate uniforms greet, assist, etc.. Jonathan anxiously wanders the perimeter, then slows as he spies a PORTRAIT OF A PRECOCIOUS LITTLE GIRL grinning at him. SAME SCENE - SHORT TIME LATER Jonathan is standing awkwardly beneath the Eloise portrait, glancing at his watch, growing restless, unsure -- (CONTINUED) 29. CONTINUED: WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Pardon me, but may I ask you something - personal? Jonathan quickly looks.up, to find standing before him an attractive BLONDE WOMAN. She's. around his age, slender to the point of stark, dressed in a chic grey business suit. THE BLONDE Are you waiting for me? JONATHAN I - think so, yes. You're here for Wyatt, right? THE BLONDE Excuse me? (hesitates, appraising him) I'm sorry, did we speak earlier? JONATHAN Yes. Yes we did - THE BLONDE Good. Let's go then. INT. PLAZA - ELEVATOR Jonathan and the Blonde stand in an elevator alongside an ELDERLY COUPLE. The couple smile at the handsome pair. Jonathan fidgets uncomfortably. The Woman is staring at the lit numbers. He notices a ROOM KEY in her hand. JONATHAN (whispers aside) Look, I don't think I'm -- I mean; you and I., we don't know each other...? She turns to him, the slightest smile on her thin lips. THE BLONDE No fooling. DING. The doors open. She steps out. A beat. He follows. THE HALLWAY Walls, carpeting - details all classically gorgeous. The Blonde keeps a quick pace, headed toward a room. JONATHAN What I mean to say is, I'm fairly certain there's been some kind of mistake. (CONTINUED) 30. CONTINUED: She stops dead in her tracks, her back to him. THE BLONDE You're not who I spoke with on the phone? JONATHAN No - I mean, yes, but - THE BLONDE You're not attracted to me? JONATHAN Oh no, it's not that at all, it's just - THE BLONDE It's just what... exactly? She turns, steps toward him. Jonathan opens his mouth to explain -- when she covers it with hers. It takes him a moment to succumb to her kiss... but not too long. INT. PLAZA -- A ROOM - LATER A smooth plane of pressed sheets creases as two bare bodies lower to them. The Blonde hovering over him, Jonathan's tentativeness is all but gone. Jonathan cradles her to him, her features softening under waves of pleasure as she gasps, and whispers in soft, slow annunciation as if it were the sweetest word in our language: THE BLONDE Fuck. LATER: Jonathan lies post-coital. A smile. And then a look of mild anxiety, 'what's going on'? He turns to the Blonde but she's fast asleep. INT. PLAZA - THE', ROOM - EARLY MORNING On the sound of a DOOR SHUTTING, Jonathan's eyes squint open. Still naked, he props himself up, leans over to find he's all alone. A clock radio reveals itself as the source of the FAINT CLASSICAL MUSIC we hear. The time reads: 6:18 am. He rises, glances around the room. No sign of her. INT. PLAZA - RECEPTION DESK - MORNING Showered and dressed, Jonathan is talking with a DESK CLERK. (CONTINUED) 31. CONTINUED: DESK CLERK Sir, I'm showing that room as having checked out at 6:20 this morning. JONATHAN Well could you tell me the name of the guest who was staying there? DESK CLERK I'm afraid we're not allowed to disclose information regarding our guests. If you give me her name, I can confirm if she was registered here. JONATHAN Actually, the thing is... it's okay. Forget it. EXT. CENTRAL PARK SOUTH - MORNING Jonathan exits to good tidings from the BELL STAFF. Lost in his thoughts, it takes him a moment to respond. He starts to walk. His cell RINGS. He answers. JONATHAN Hello? WYATT'S VOICE Hey, you're up early! JONATHAN Hi! How's London? WYATT'S VOICE Raining. So you've got mine-and I've.got yours? JONATHAN Yeah. Listen, last night...um...I met this- WYATT'S VOICE Damn! Sorry, I'm gonna have to call you back, they want me in a meeting. Hey, no long distance calls, okay! Wyatt hangs up. Jonathan shakes his head, amused. He hails a cab, glances back at the hotel. His lips curl into a vaguely proud, if still dazed, smile. 32. INT. CLANCEY INVESTMENTS - DAY Jonathan sits alone at the long conference table, working but distracted. He pauses, eyes Wyatt's cell phone sitting there. INSERT - EXTREME CLOSE ON THE CELL PHONE'S DISPLAY WINDOW The numbers stored have no names associated with them. It's just a series of undesignated seven-digit sequences, a list of phone numbers that seems to go on and on. Jonathan clicks on a number at random. It highlights itself. Jonathan hesitates, then clicks again. The number is dialled. RING...RING - a woman with an elegant BRITISH ACCENT answers: BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) Yes? JONATHAN Hello, um - I'm sorry to bother you - BRITISH ACCENT (V.O.) How did you get this number? JONATHAN Through a friend. BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) I think you've got the wrong number. Now if you'll excuse me - JONATHAN wait - Jonathan fumbles for what else to say before she hangs up. BRITISH ACCENT (V.O.) Yes? CLOSE ON JONATHAN. What to say? And then: JONATHAN (braces himself, swallows) Are you free tonight? He shuts his eyes, ready for a hang up. A long silence. BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) I can be. Jonathan opens his eyes half in disbelief. (CONTINUED) 33. CONTINUED: BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) Where? JONATHAN Where. Right... The Plaza? BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) I'm afraid that's a bit uptown for me. Perhaps the Mercer? Say by the Shakespeare, half past eleven? JONATHAN The Shakespeare? BRITISH ACCENT (V.0.) It should be fairly evident. INT. THE MERCER HOTEL - LOBBY - NIGHT The SoHo industrial motif is the antithesis of the Plaza. By a vintage book library we find a sleekly dressed YOUNG BLACK WOMAN perusing spines of Salinger, Scott, Sheherazade - JONATHAN (O.S.) Excuse me, um - I'm sorry to disturb you - She turns, regards him a moment, curiously - a copy of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in her hand. JONATHAN I'm - supposed to meet someone here and- BRITISH ACCENT You're rather new to this, aren't you? Jonathan falters. She smiles. BRITISH ACCENT That's okay. I like that. LOBBY ELEVATOR She enters first, then Jonathan. He waits for her.to push a button - only it seems she's waiting for him to do the same. JONATHAN I'm sorry, what floor? She rolls her eyes. BACK TO THE HOTEL LOBBY Jonathan and British Accent cross the lobby once more. (CONTINUED) 34 CONTINUED: BRITISH ACCENT Frankly I'm surprised that whoever gave you access didn't explain more. (SIGHS) Right then, the rules: One,.no names, no jobs - no nothing. Two, latex is mandatory and non-negotiable.. Three, no rough stuff - the only rule that's even remotely malleable provided there's mutual consent, although I say if that's your thing, take it elsewhere. And finally... She halts a few feet from the registration desk. BRITISH ACCENT The initiator is responsible for the room. JONATHAN (takes him a second) Oh - so I should...? BRITISH ACCENT Precisely. BACK IN THE ELEVATOR Jonathan is holding a key card. British Accent is leaning against the opposite wall, eyeing him with a slight grin. A moment. DING. The elevator doors open. INT. MERCER HOTEL - HALLWAY - NIGHT They are headed for a room as he ventures another question: JONATHAN So are there a lot of - people - who do this? She turns to him with a look of growing impatience -- when the CREAK OF A CART causes them to glance up: a ROOM SERVICE WAITER is crossing past the far end of the hall. Jonathan turns back to find her staring at him uneasily. BRITISH ACCENT How did you get into this? JONATHAN Well, a friend of mine - BRITISH ACCENT He uploaded your numbers but failed to explain the basics? (CONTINUED) 35. CONTINUED: JONATHAN He's - well, he was going out of town. (off her frown) I'm doing something wrong, aren't I? BRITISH ACCENT It's not that, it's just... well, you strike me as something of a stowaway. In fact if I were more suspicious, I'd say you didn't belong here at all. Flustered, Jonathan's about to offer some explanation --- BRITISH ACCENT But obviously somebody felt you did. The notion suddenly registers with Jonathan -- Wyatt! BRITISH ACCENT And I'm a sucker for bashful boys... She takes his wrist, traces a finger over his palm... and removes the key card from his hand. INT. MERCER HOTEL - HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jonathan and British Accent having sex. She has his arms pinned back, writhing on top of him, clearly enjoying the control - Jonathan remains awed, just enjoying the ride. INT. MERCER HOTEL - BEDROOM- LATE NIGHT Jonathan lies in bed-beside British Accent. JONATHAN Can I ask you something? Why do you do this? BRITISH ACCENT Why are any of us doing this? For the economics of the arrangement. (rolls over, away from him) It's intimacy without intricacy. Jonathan's about to reply -- BRITISH ACCENT Look, I've got a 7 a.m. breakfast, so... She says no more. Jonathan stares up at the ceiling a beat. JONATHAN Well - good night. (CONTINUED) 36. CONTINUED: She doesn't reply. INT. CLANCEY INVESTMENTS - CONFERENCE ROOM - LATE DAY Jonathan.alone at his laptop, the stack of files down to a bare few. He dials a number on 'his' cell: JONATHAN (into phone) Hey, I never heard back from you. I guess you're busy.with stuff over there. (smiles to himself) I've been kinda busy too! I've been wondering - did you mean for me to take your phone? EXT. RHIGA ROYAL HOTEL - NIGHT Jonathan walks the carpet-draped sidewalk toward the entrance - then pauses, looks around in recognition of this same spot where Wyatt had gotten out of the cab that night. JONATHAN (V.0.) I've got a feeling you did. You dog! I can see you grinning right now. Jonathan returns the BELL STAFF's chipper greetings and steps inside -- JONATHAN (V.0.) Anyway, I just wanted to say... thank you. SOUNDTRACK MUSIC SWELLING: to herald a MONTAGE: INT. THE BENJAMIN - LOBBY - NIGHT Jonathan seems somewhat more relaxed as he lingers in the lobby. A woman with a BOYISH HAIRCUT taps his shoulder. INT. THE REGENCY - A ROOM - NIGHT Jonathan and an ASIAN WOMAN having sex on a plush celadon carpet, two briefcases resting side by side a few feet away. INT. CLANCEY INVESTMENT SERVICES - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Alone as usual, Jonathan now seems strangely contented in this isolated state. WORKERS pass in the wall of glass, but now he doesn't bother looking up. In his briefcase, we note the inclusion of a toiletries bag. 37. INT. THE DRAKE - LOBBY - NIGHT At a registration desk, Jonathan hands his credit card to a DESK CLERK. A BELLHOP gestures to a luggage cart. Jonathan shakes his head, looking confidently past him to a TALL WOMAN seated inconspicuously among the various out-of-towners. INT. THE DRAKE - ROOM - MORNING Jonathan wakes up alone, his necktie knotted around a bedpost. He reaches for the phone, presses "Room Service." INT. WEISS MURPHY INSURANCE - COPY ROOM - DAY Jonathan is waiting to make some copies when the SECRETARY at the copier hands him a stack of paper... WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Can you hold these? INT. THE MARK - ROOM -- LATE NIGHT .only the voice belongs to the woman Jonathan is having sex with - referring to her legs that she wraps around him. INT. THE FITZPATRICK - SUNDRY SHOP - MORNING Jonathan buys a bottle of O.J. and a 36-count box of condoms. INT. WEISS MURPHY INSURANCE - CORRIDOR DAY Carrying his coffee mug, Jonathan suddenly slows, his eyes locked on The Blonde with whom he'd first been at the Plaza. Her eyes fix on his as he.nears - a flash of mutual recognition... then nothing as they pass without a word. Jonathan can't help but allow himself the slightest grin. INT. HOTEL ELYSEE - THE "CLUB ROOM" - NIGHT Jonathan wades confidently through a sea of YOUNG EXECUTIVES. He approaches a REDHEADED BUSINESSWOMAN. He asks her something. She looks up, confused --- -- when ANOTHER REDHEAD taps his shoulder. Her free hand slips into his,. their fingers interlocking... INT. THE PARAMOUNT - HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT . PULL BACK from interlocked fingers to find Jonathan's hand entwined with ANOTHER WOMAN'S. We realize we're watching their image in a MIRROR when we PAN away from the mirror... (CONTINUED) 38. CONTINUED: to Jonathan and YET ANOTHER WOMAN having sex. The bed keeps banging against the night stand - a glass of water, moving closer to the edge with every bang. There's something almost rote about it, a numbness in the repetition... the glass FALLS, HITS the ground and BREAKS. MATCH CUT TO: Jonathan PLUNGES into water. INT. THE PENINSULA - HEALTH CLUB - MORNING Jonathan doing laps. He emerges from the pool, strides with confidence past the tourists flanking him on either side: OLDER COUPLES snoozing, PARENTS adjusting floaties on kids, BUSINESS TRAVELLERS with airport novels. He continues toward us, hair slicked back, like Wyatt's. MONTAGE ENDS/ CUT TO : EXT. BROOKLYN - JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Jonathan arrives at his building's steps to find Solange hurrying out of her flower shop. She embraces him warmly. SOLANGE Jonathan, for so long I don't see you! JONATHAN J'ai ete tres occupe. with work. He's exhausted. And no longer so exhilarated by his nightly activities. SOLANGE Work? No, no. You believe you can trick me, Mr. Mischief Maker! I want to meet this lady friend of yours. Jonathan is about to protest - SOLANGE Ah., ah - ecoutez, I have beautiful winter- roses, just. arrived. She.will swoon... Jonathan smiles, but there's a reticence to it. JONATHAN Maybe later, okay? SOLANGE There is no later when it comes to love! If you find it, you must not let it go. (CONTINUED) 39. CONTINUED: Jonathan nods absently, continues up the steps - when she tugs his sleeve. He turns to her; she searches his eyes. SOLANGE There really is no one? Jonathan evasively shakes his head. SOLANGE There should be, Jonathan. It is not good for a young man to be too much alone. He gives her an uncomfortable smile. She smiles back, but as she heads inside, she looks both-sad and worried for him. Jonathan continues up the steps, opens the front door and disappears inside. We remain on the vacant street, hear his FOOTSTEPS climbing the steps - and then the muted RING of his cell phone. A beat, then another... .and the front door opens again as Jonathan steps back out into the night. INT. THE HUDSON HOTEL - LOBBY -- LATE NIGHT Checking his reflection in a mirror while he waits, Jonathan faintly hears what sounds like WYATT'S LAUGH. He quickly turns to the sound: a bar off the lobby. Through slotted glass he scans the backs of heads: a group of business men. Reflected in the mirror, a WOMAN appears behind him. Jonathan freezes, his eyes grow wide - WOMAN Excuse me... He doesn't breathe. Utterly stunned, he turns to confirm... It's her. -It's "S". INT. THE HUDSON - ELEVATOR Jonathan stares at her in sheer disbelief but she's oblivious, smiling casually back at him. INT. HOTEL ROOM "S" enters first, flips on the light, proceeds inside. Jonathan enters tentatively behind her, eyes still glued. "S" takes off her coat, drapes it over a chair. Jonathan remains still and silent, just watching. She undoes the wrists of her blouse, then the collar button. (CONTINUED) 40. CONTINUED: Jonathan is about to say something but can't. She undoes the next button. We can glimpse a bra. She undoes the next -- JONATHAN Before we...um, the thing is - I know you. She glances up, curious - her hand lingering by the front clasp of her bra. JONATHAN Not 'know' exactly, but we sort of met before. In the Times Square subway station. It was raining... ‚Äû S ‚Äû (GRINS) In the subway? JONATHAN You had no umbrella. You were soaked. ‚ÄûC,. It's true, I don't have an umbrella. JONATHAN Then you asked me if the N train stops at Canal. She squints back at him, vaguely recalling him. She smiles warmly and continues to unbutton her blouse. JONATHAN Wait. ‚ÄûS¬ª Is something the matter? JONATHAN This just seems strange, that's all. S¬Äé Because you've seen me before? JONATHAN Maybe. I don't know, it's just - (EXHALES) Ever since that night on the train, I've thought about how nice it would be to see you again. And now suddenly, here you are, taking off your clothes. ‚Äû S of Bingo! So what's the problem? (CONTINUED) 41. CONTINUED: JONATHAN It's just that- "S,1 (a generous smile) Hmm, it is kind of a gear-shift. She starts to button her blouse back up. ‚ÄûS‚Äû Well, maybe some other time. Jonathan is thrown as she reaches for her coat - JONATHAN Wait - don't go. She glances back curiously. JONATHAN What I mean is, by any chance... are you hungry? INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - PRE-DAWN A BELLMAN rolls a cart noiselessly down the carpet, placing early editions of the New York Times before each room. He pauses by a door, quietly leaves anewspaper. We can hear the sound of JONATHAN AND "S" TALKING AND LAUGHING... INT. HOTEL ROOM They sit across from each other Indian-style on the bed. The radio is tuned to a pop music station. They're finishing a meal of burgers and fries, getting along famously. You have some ketchup on your chin. JONATHAN sorry, I'm a messy eater. ‚Äûs‚Äû Me too. Jonathan rubs at his chin with a napkin, misses. she takes the napkin, dabs it in water and cleans him up. JONATHAN Thanks. (CONTINUED) 42. CONTINUED: They continue to eat for a while, eyeing each other between bites. JONATHAN (POINTS) Um, I think there's a little piece of... ‚ÄûSr. .onion in my hair? She laughs and flicks it.off. Hmm...they get everywhere. JONATHAN By the way, my name's- ‚ÄûS,. Don't! She puts her finger to his lips. A first touch. An electricity between them. ‚ÄûC/, (a playful smile) You know the rules. No names. JONATHAN The 'rules' seem to specify no conversation either. as., They are a little rigid, aren't they? But I think we should obey the 'no names'. It'll be fun! JONATHAN Ah, but I know.yours begins with an 'S'. ‚ÄûSir Is that right? JONATHAN I saw part of the monogram on your briefcase. ./ S If I see-Excellent work, Holmes. (leans in, smiles) Maybe I'll tell you if.you guess... Her face is an inch from his, the moment mysterious and sexy. (CONTINUED) 43. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (Holmes voice) Hmrn...what do we know of her? She sports a camel coat, a briefcase and possesses no umbrella. I deduce...her name is 'Sybil'. 'S' laughs. JONATHAN Sarah? Sara? Samantha? Sandra? Susan? She makes a little sound of encouragement. Hun... JONATHAN Aha! Sue? (shakes her head) Suzie with a 'z'? You're saying my name is 'Suzie'? JONATHAN is it? ‚ÄûS‚Ä¢‚Äû Nape. Jonathan laughs. JONATHAN I've got to tell you, I'm much better with numbers... How about Sonia? Sheena? Wait - Sophie! You're definitely a Sophie. ‚ÄûS. With an 'ie' or a 'y'? JONATHAN Either. W7 Neither. JONATHAN How about Syd? As in Syd Charisse? She was Cyd with a 'C'! (CONTINUED) 44. CONTINUED: JONATHAN But maybe you spell it with an 'S'? ,, S . If I do not. JONATHAN Steffi? Sexy Steffi soaking in the:rain?. She mock-frowns. ‚ÄûS.,, Nein. JONATHAN Sally? Sally with three 'l's? She shakes her head, amused. Jonathan rubs his chin. JONATHAN Hmmm. Hmmm. The mysterious 'S' alighted from the train at Canal Street. She may well be from 'downtown'...hmm...ah! Of course! How foolish I've been; Sinead. 'S' giggles, charmed by him. JONATHAN Stella? Sky? Sunbeam? ¬ªS.,, Do I look like a 'Sunbeam'? JONATHAN Absolutely. To me you are 'Sunbeam'. ‚ÄûS.,, Then so be it. Jonathan considers this a moment, and concedes. JONATHAN Can I ask what you do for a living? You first. JONATHAN I sit behind glass and watch people pass like fish. She smiles - a more interesting answer than she expected. (CONTINUED) 45. CONTINUED: ALSIP You work in a bank? JONATHAN Nahh, I'm... I'm kind of an accountant. us,, Now I bet that's just what you wanted to do when you were a kid! JONATHAN Oh yeah. I'm living the dream. Feel free to leave now. u S ‚Äû Still here. JONATHAN So what about you? ‚ÄûS¬ª No, we're still on you, Frank. Off Jonathan's look, 'Frank'? ‚ÄûS.11 You look like a Frank. So, Frank, when you were a little boy, what did you wanna be when you grew up? .Jonathan thinks. Confesses: JONATHAN A pro tennis player. ‚ÄûS,. Huh! I wanted to be an umpire. JONATHAN You're kidding? ‚Äûs‚Äû Really! I loved the idea of sitting in that big, high chair. (umpire voice) 'The ball was good,'Mr McEnroe.' JONATHAN I can see it. An 80's new wave love song comes on the radio. She beams, reaching across Jonathan to turn it up. (CONTINUED) 46. CONTINUED: a, S 11 I used to love this song. "S" stands up on the bed, starts to dance. She reaches her hand out to Jonathan. He smiles, shakes his head. JONATHAN Trust me, it's not a pretty sight. "S:, I'll be the judge of that. He hesitates, then takes her hand, rises to his feet, and starts to dance with her. He's self-conscious at first, but she's agile enough to guide him, and soon he's into it. is S Il See? You just need the right partner. She closes her eyes, swaying with the music. They dance together. He's falling even harder for her. As the song ends she holds his gaze -- when a small yawn escapes her. She covers her mouth. of S+‚Äû I'm so sorry. Suddenly I'm crashing. She drops down on the bed, tugging him down with her. They lie back, side by side. JONATHAN I'd like to see you again. Not in a hotel. it S+ " Hmm. I'd have to think about that. JONATHAN How about tomorrow? /. S to It is tomorrow. She curls up next to him, rests her head on his arm, closes her eyes and drifts off. Jonathan gazes over at her. The perfect line of her jaw. The petite divot above her lip. The tiny pierced comma in a presently unadorned earlobe. And then he notices, in the far corner: her purse. He stares at it; her name and personal details less than 20 feet away. He hesitates, then tries to silently slide his arm out from under her -- when she stirs and nuzzles closer. He looks over (CONTINUED) 47. CONTINUED: to the purse, then back at "S," sleeping peacefully on his arm... and chooses this perfect moment over knowing any more. INT. THE HUDSON - HOTEL ROOM - MORNING CLOSE ON JONATHAN'S SLEEPING FACE. His eyes slowly open. JONATHAN'S POV: her purse is no longer on the chair. He raises his head, sees that she's gone. He stares at her pillow. The indentation where she slept. Smiles to himself. He gets out of bed and heads for the bathroom. There's a NOTE on the desk on hotel note paper: Frank - you snore like a tractor. Will call u later. Sunbeam xxx He stares at the note, beaming - when his cell phone rings. Jonathan picks it up. MAN'S VOICE (V.0..) Are you free tonight? A bea- - and then Wyatt's familiar laughter. JONATHAN Hey! Are you back in town? WYATT (V.0.) I wish. It's friggin' anarchy in the U.K.. I'm stuck here at least another week. JONATHAN Oh. Because I thought I saw you last night - at the Hudson. WYATT (V.0.) The Hudson, huh? Sounds like you've been enjoying my little gift. JONATHAN Yeah. I mean, I was. Only now - well, I met a girl. Not just any girl. The girl. WYATT (V.0.) That's fantastic! Who is the lucky gal? JONATHAN She's a member of your naughty little sex club. I have broken all the rules and had an honest-to-God conversation. (CONTINUED) 48. CONTINUED: WYATT (V.0.) That's extremely naughty of you! So what happened, Romeo? JONATHAN I'd like to say it's a long story but it's not. When you are coming back, you gotta meet her. WYATT (V.0.) So she's, what, a lawyer or something? JONATHAN I-have no idea, I don't know all that much about her. All I know is I can't wait to see her again. WYATT (V.0.) Listen, I don't want to dampen your spirits, but - be careful, okay? JONATHAN What do you mean by that? WYATT (V.0.) Nothing. I'm just saying, this club - who knows who anybody is, right? JONATHAN Yeah, yeah, yeah but - sometimes you just have to go with what you feel, don't you? WYATT (V.0.) True enough. Hold on a sec. Muffled sounds of Wyatt talking to someone else. WYATT (V.0.) It's non stop back-to-back bullshit here. Listen, I'll call you later. And hey - congratulations! Wyatt hangs up. Jonathan smiles. And then reads the note again - grinning. INT. WEISS MURPHY INSURANCE - BUILDING LOBBY - DAY The morning crush of executives filing toward elevators. Among them we spot Jonathan, just slightly out of step, a sleepy smile lingering on his face. 49. INT. WEISS MURPHY INSURANCE - CONFERENCE ROOM - LATE DAY Jonathan is working on his laptop, clearly distracted. He looks at his cell phone, hoping it will ring, but it doesn't. He calls up the list of "Recent Calls: Incoming," scrolls up to the top number. It reads: "Number Unavailable." Jonathan looks worried, wondering how he can get a hold of her - when his cell phone rings. He immediately picks up. JONATHAN Hello? WOMAN (O.S.) (unfamiliar voice) Are you free tonight? JONATHAN (DEFLATED) I think you have the wrong number. EXT. STREET -- NIGHT Jonathan arrives at the subway station. He's a little anxious now, still hasn't heard from her. He lingers at the top of the stairs, not wanting to descend. Below him he can hear the lonely roar of a train pulling in below. only when the train quiets down does Jonathan realize his cell phone is ringing. He picks up. JONATHAN Hello? Intermittent static on the other end. And then what sounds like a WOMAN GASPING; it's unclear if it's a sound of pleasure or pain. JONATHAN .Hello? The Gasping comes faster; Jonathan debates hanging up - when the gasps halt,--replaced by the faintest whisp__of_ a female voice: "No... No please..." There's no mistaking the tone now it's fear - then. suddenly a shrill, terrified SCREAM... - and the line goes dead. Jonathan stares breathlessly at the phone in his hand, like he's just witnessed something awful. He quickly checks the display: "Number Unavailable." Jonathan looks panicked with the possibility that it was "S"- - when the phone rings again. He hesitates, then picks up. (CONTINUED) 50. CONTINUED: "S" (V.O. FROM PHONE) (COYLY) Are you free tonight? Jonathan exhales in relief on hearing her voice. EXT. CHINATOWN - CANAL STREET - NIGHT Jonathan stands on a corner, looking out of place amidst the glistening neon and bustle of Asian faces. He peers anxiously down the.street, checks his watch, all anticipation - - when something is wrapped around his eyes. He's startled, tugs it off and spins to find "S" smiling back at him. if S I'll I bought you a present. She drapes the scarf around his neck. It's all striped, bright colors - all the more funky against his dark suit. I knew it. You look smashing. JONATHAN Sure you don't mean "clashing?" She laughs - then notices how tense he seems. ,/S‚Äû Are you all right? JONATHAN. I guess. I got a call-before yours - I'm not sure if it was real, or if it was even meant for me - but there was a woman who sounded like she was being - I don't know, hurt. Maybe worse. "S" seems instantly on edge. Something about this scares her. If SIP You don't know who she was? JONATHAN (shakes his head) It could've been a prank. (notices). Now you're the one who looks scared. ..S‚Äû No, it's just - it sounds creepy, that's all. (CONTINUED) 51 CONTINUED: She shakes it off, mustering a smile as she takes his arm. ‚ÄûS‚Äû Come on. EXT. CHINATOWN -- AN ALLEY -- NIGHT A makeshift street market, everything from fish and meat to cheap electronics for sale in cramped stands. Jonathan and "S" walk arm in arm through the packed crowd, like a couple. Jonathan looks like we've never seen him before: a fascination with everything around him, especially her. They pause at a stall selling cheap trinkets, including a small metallic wind-up toy of a duck riding a bicycle. ¬´S" He's so cute! What's his name? VENDOR (DEADPAN) Duck On Bike. "S" beams like it's the greatest name ever. INT. A RESTAURANT - CHINATOWN - LATE NIGHT An intimate place, Jonathan and "S" are the only patrons at this late hour. They sit across from each other, grinning at "Duck On Bike" as it totters across the table, trips over a chopstick and flails on its side. /t S ‚Äû Oh, poor Duck On Bike! She uprights the toy and it keeps on moving across the table. JONATHAN You gotta respect him; he just keeps at it. A WAITER arrives and sets down a laminated menu - entirely in Chinese. "S" points to the characters like an expert. J! $ Ft We'll have this... and this... oh, and let's try one of these. Thank you. The Waiter nods, walks off. JONATHAN What did you order? (CONTINUED) 52. CONTINUED: ‚Äû S of I have absolutely no idea. JONATHAN How do you know we'll like it? ¬Äé S" How do you know we won't? Jonathan gazes at her a beat. JONATHAN This is so...not my life. ‚Äû$‚Äû Is that a good thing? JONATHAN More than you know. O " smiles. Jonathan looks at her. JONATHAN Ever since that night on the subway - I haven't stopped thinking about you. She lowers.her eyes. JONATHAN Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out. She slowly looks up again, touched. ‚ÄûS‚Äû Are you always so honest? JONATHAN No. it S., Even so, I'm not sure I believe you. Jonathan's look, 'why not?' "S.‚Äû You're in the sex club! Another anonymous guy looking for anonymous action. I'm not judging you, I'm in. there too, but don't say you've been solemnly holding atorch for me for - how long is it -- wow, one whole month! Jonathan smiles. (CONTINUED) 53. CONTINUED: JONATHAN Point taken. But I've thought about you a lot. ,.S.,, In between the mindless shtupping? JONATHAN And sometimes during. She laughs. The waiter brings them their drinks. JONATHAN So how come you got involved in the club? She frowns slightly, thinks. ‚Äûs . If Wouldn't it be great if you could just meet someone and not have to do the 'work/ family/previous relationships' thing? Isn't who we are right now so much more interesting than where we've come from? JONATHAN Sure... but that didn't really answer my question. She reaches over and takes his hand, holds it tenderly. ‚Äû S of I know it seems like I'm holding out on you, but I'm not. It's just - I turned thirty this year, and I made this vow to live only in the present. And it's good, you know? And yes, maybe it's because there are things in my past I don't care to think about - but that's the same for everyone, isn't it? He nods, still holding hands, loving every moment of this. is S . ‚Äû I like you. I hope you like me. Can't that be enough? Jonathan smiles, completely disarmed by her. The waiter brings their food and goes. JONATHAN I wasn't asking for an autobiography, you know. I was just curious. (CONTINUED) 54. CONTINUED: If S. IS (a beat) A woman I know used to do it. So I decided to give it a try. For various reasons, it suits my present situation. JONATHAN You mean the intimacy without intricacy. ‚ÄûS . 110 It has its merits. At least I thought it did... until you came along. He beams, gazing at her. Blushing, she starts in on the food. Outside we can hear rain starting to fall... EXT. CHINATOWN RESTAURANT - LATER Jonathan and "S" step out into pouring rain, pause under the shabby awning. Waiters inside are putting chairs on tables. She fishes in her coat and pulls out a PACK OF GUM. The wrapper is entirely in Chinese. She offers him a piece. JONATHAN Oh - no thanks. JIS.11 Don't let the wrapper intimidate you. I buy it at a store nearby. It has ginseng in it, you know, for energy. It's not bad, though it sort of tastes like hairspray. She chews her gum. He watches her; the jaw line, her lips. She looks at him and smiles, but there's something behind it: a sadness. Almost an uneasiness. JONATHAN Hey, are you all right? "S¬Äé I don't want to complicate your life. JONATHAN Too late. -- I want all the complication you've got. She gazes at him, blinks back her emotions. it Sc, Your glasses. They're fogging up. She reaches out and gently removes his glasses. (CONTINUED) 55. CONTINUED: She wipes the lenses, then peering into his eyes, slowly leans in to return them to his face... only she presses her lips to his instead, the glasses still in her hand, the kiss itself at once tender and passionate. She absently lowers her hand, lost in the unexpected intensity of the kiss. Embraced, they accidentally step under the sheet of water falling off the awning. Jonathan guides her back beneath the awning's shelter. At S is (breathless whisper) Maybe you should go... JONATHAN Maybe you should stay. She smiles as he kisses her even more passionately. Again they feel the awning's drops, and Jonathan moves to shelter them - - only "S" leans into him instead, leading him out from under the awning, the falling rain suddenly drenching their faces as they continue to kiss, the moment purely exhilarating. wiping the rain from her face, Jonathan gazes at her, soaked and utterly beautiful, with something akin to awe - like he's just breathed for the very first time. Rack focus on a hotel down the street, its neon sign reads: "Hotel Lotus." INT. HOTEL LOTUS - ROOM - LATE NIGHT Jonathan and "S" lying on the bed in their white hotel bath robes (underwear on), his arm around her as they watch TV. He strokes her hair. She nuzzles up to him. She changes channels. Finds some tennis. JONATHAN Perfect. They watch together. ‚Äûs_.. So were you any good? JONATHAN Yeah. But I didn't want it enough. The guys who make it really need it. I played recently, first time in years. I've got this friend - a new friend, he's great. (CONTINUED) 56. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (CONT'D) Maybe you'll meet him one day. Anyway, we played and he creamed me. But I knew I was better than him. He said I had no killer instinct. I's. it .I don't know, I think you're a pretty determined character. JONATHAN On a level with this feller? He points to 'Duck on bike' watching over them like a charm. "S Given the chance I believe you could be. She idly flips channels, finds a romantic melodrama, an old black and white film. They settle back to watch. JONATHAN I know we said we wouldn't rush. But for the record, I'm doing everything Ican to apply.the brakes here. ‚ÄûS . of Me too. (PAUSE) And for the record, I'd like nothing more than to make love right now. But I'm kind of glad we decided to wait. JONATHAN It's a wise and mature choice we've made. //S . ,/ Our parents would be proud. Pause. Jonathan is wild with lust for her. JONATHAN But say we did, just say... Mmhmm...? JONATHAN Say we were to suddenly tear off these robes... Would that be such a terrible thing? For two people in Manhattan - ‚ÄûS. In the small hours on a wet Winter's night... (CONTINUED) 57. CONTINUED: JONATHAN To consummate their deep human needs in a frenzy of...of... Fucking and sucking? JONATHAN Beautifully put. Its. I. You were saying? JONATHAN Who - who would blame these two people? 0IS ‚Äû Who could possibly judge them? They face each other, breathing deeply, almost panting... JONATHAN And who would know? His face is inches from hers - when she rolls over and reaches for a glass of water on the night stand. She sips her water, as she turns back to Jonathan. Still, Jonathan picks up on her subtle shift. JONATHAN is everything okay? She starts to say something, then stops herself and nods instead. She sets down her glass, starts to get out of bed. JONATHAN Where are you going? ,I $‚Äû (a mischievous smile) For ice... JONATHAN (a lusty grin) Ice, huh? I,S,I I saw a machine down the hall. I'll be right back. She starts to tie her robe closed - (CONTINUED) 58. CONTINUED: JONATHAN That's all right, I'll go. He hops off the bed, grabs an ice bucket from the mini bar and a key card from the table, he surreptitiously adjusts his penis (as one does): and goes to the door. He's about to turn the handle when - ., S‚Äû Wait - JONATHAN (glancing back) Yes? She hesitates a cryptic beat - then shakes her head, and smiles at him with immense tenderness. Jonathan beams back. its . P1 Hurry, okay? He blows her a kiss, she blows one back. Almost in SLOW MOTION. She looks stunning. INT. HALLWAY - LATE NIGHT As Jonathan exits the room, hold on the room number: 517. Jonathan runs down the long corridor to the ice machine. He's giddy with excitement. Passionately alive. At the ice machine: an eccentric OLD WOMAN in her night attire is slowly filling a bucket. Piece by piece. Her weak, gnarly hands plucking at the blocks not wanting to break her long nails. Jonathan hops around in an agony of frustration. She turns, looks him up and down - he feels a bit self- conscious in his robe and bare feet. JONATHAN Would you like some help, ma'am? OLD WOMAN I can manage, thank you. Finally, her bucket is full and she goes on her way. .Jonathan quickly fills his bucket with ice. (CONTINUED) 59. CONTINUED: Returning down the empty hall, ice bucket in one hand, key card in the other, Jonathan hurriedly checks door numbers. We see Room 518 has the DO NOT DISTURB sign on. Jonathan arrives back at room 517. He pauses and slips his robe from his shoulder, mock 'sexy'. He puts the card key in the lock, starts to open the door-- a small rectangular light blips RED. He tries the card again. Again red. He knocks on the door, calls out: JONATHAN I can't get the card to work. He tries the card again. Leaning in, he thinks he hears something behind the door. He peers down at the key panel: red. He knocks harder, waits for a response. None. Dead silence. JONATHAN Hello?... Hello? He jostles the door handle: it won't budge. He's getting anxious now, his breath quickening. He tries the key card again: red. He pounds harder, then slams his shoulder into the door. Nothing. Desperate, he tries the key card again -- and the light turns green. - A millisecond's surprised hesitation - then he jerks the handle, throws open the door and Jonathan tumbles into THE ROOM He peers up into the small entryway: empty. Ahead of him we glimpse the foot of the bed, its mussed blanket and sheets. Jonathan gets to his feet, starts for the bed, his breath quickening as he now notices a few red specks on the blanket. Panicked, he rushes forward to find BLOOD soaking the bed, splattered all over the crumpled sheets... Jonathan gapes, horrified, the world crashing in on him just as he senses something behind him and BANG! - something hits him to the back of the head -- he goes down like a sack of potatoes. BLACKOUT. TWO HOURS LATER THE ICE BUCKET on the floor. The ice has melted, a pool of water seeps out... follow the flow to arrive at Jonathan's (CONTINUED) 60. CONTINUED: fingers... slowly responding to the cold water... The TV playing a different film now. OVERHEAD OF JONATHAN lies on the floor. He groans a little. Rubs the back of his head. Checks his hand for blood. Pain etched in his face, he manages to get to his feet, shaky. He looks around the room. It's EMPTY. No sign of "S." He runs into the bathroom. Also empty. Back in the room, he tries the closets: empty. The CONNECTING DOOR between this room and the next: LOCKED. He looks to where she'd draped her clothes and bag - every trace of her is gone. He whips back to the bed - the sheets are still crumpled, only there's no blood an here on them. He runs to the window looks down at the street. It's four in the morning, no one around. INT. HOTEL HALLWAY Tripping over his own legs, Jonathan runs barefoot down the corridor. He rounds a corner, another stretch of narrow corridor. O.S. we hear the muted DING of an elevator. Jonathan tears off in its direction... He stumbles into the open square in which the elevators are located. He crushes the down button, peers up to the floor indicator overhead: "4" slowly creeps to "3". INT. STAIRWELL His bare feet pounding the cement steps, Jonathan takes each floor faster, sweat on his brow and his palms which slip their grasp on the railing -- he tumbles head first, crashing to the 2nd floor landing. He clutches his head, gets up and continues to dash down... BANG! of the stairwell's exit as Jonathan stumbles out; he lurches forward, finally looking up to find he's in THE LOBBY His undershirt tugged and misshapen, boxers twisted around his bare thighs, robe open, Jonathan scans the lobby, wild- eyed and shaking. It's utterly vacant at this hour, the only sound a piped-in muzak rendition of the Beatles' "Yesterday." SLAM! OF JONATHAN'S HAND ON THE FRONT DESK (CONTINUED) 61 CONTINUED: The Asian Clerk working there snaps his head up with a startled gasp. Jonathan barely manages to breathe the word: JONATHAN help... INT. HOTEL LOTUS - 5TH FLOOR HALLWAY - SHORT TIME LATER Two hotel SECURITY GUARDS take the lead as they near room 517, Jonathan trailing, breathless and shaken... JONATHAN .I saw blood on the bed and then someone hit me. When I came to, she was gone. SECURITY 1 This woman you were with. What's her name? Jonathan looks blank, his mind racing. SECURITY 2 Sir? JONATHAN I don't know. (off their looks) It starts with an 'S'. I think. SECURITY 2 Was shea prostitute? JONATHAN No! No, she's just a person. A friend. SECURITY 2 A friend with no name. JONATHAN Of course she has a name! I just don't - we have to find her - something must have happened to her! INT. ROOM 517 The two Security Guards are eyeing the bed. SECURITY 1 I thought you said there was blood? JONATHAN I told you, whoever did this must have cleaned it up while I was out. (CONTINUED) 62. CONTINUED: Jonathan freezes, eyes darting to the night stand. JONATHAN My wallet and keys - they're gone! They were right here... He looks over to the chair where his crumpled suit lies. His SCARF is gone too. SECURITY 2 Maybe she took them. JONATHAN What?! SECURITY 2 It happens. JONATHAN She didn't do this, okay?! Something happened to her! You don't understand, we were... Wait! He sees something on the floor between the bed and night stand. He runs to to pick it up: a Chinese Gum Wrapper. JONATHAN This -- this was hers... Jonathan clutches it desperately, the lone trace of her existence. The Guards exchange a look like he's INSANE. SECURITY 1 Sir - are these your clothes? Jonathan nods absently. SECURITY 1 How about putting them on. INT. LOBBY - LATER Jonathan arrives to find DETECTIVE RUSSO (female, mid-30s) waiting by reception with a UNIFORMED OFFICER. Seeing Jonathan, she sizes him up a moment, then approaches him. RUSSO Mr. Messer, I'm Detective Russo. INT. POLICE PRECINCT - RUSSO'S DESK - LATER Still shaken, Jonathan sits in a wooden chair across from Russo, amidst the din and traffic of the precinct. (CONTINUED) 63 CONTINUED: RUSSO (SCEPTICAL) And you don't know anything about her. Where she works? Where she lives? JONATHAN I told you how we met. RUSSO Through a sex group. Her flat words hang in the air. He guiltily avoids her eyes. RUSSO Does this group have a name? JONATHAN I don't -- it's not like that. RUSSO Mr. Messer, I spoke to the desk clerk. She only recalled seeing you check in. JONATHAN That's... that's the way it works. RUSSO All right. But now you're telling me that in addition to this mystery woman, there was another individual in the room? JONATHAN Not at first -- look, I know how it sounds, but I'm telling you, whoever hit me must have - I don't know -- taken her. Maybe even... He stops himself, shuddering to think of the implications. RUSSO Mr. Messer, have you had - experiences like this before? Taking any sort of medication? JONATHAN I'm not crazy, okay?! A woman vanished back there! There was blood all over the goddamn bed! He becomes very conscious that this sounds crazy - when A CELL PHONE RINGS: it's Russo's. She pauses, struck by the genuine desperation in Jonathan's face. She finally picks up. (CONTINUED) 64. CONTINUED: RUSSO Yeah. (glances at Jonathan) No, I don't think it's necessary... Right. She hangs up and turns to Jonathan. He looks away, barely able to contain his devastation. JONATHAN What am I supposed to do? An awkward silence, then: RUSSO If you want to file a report regarding the items she - (corrects herself) - the items you claim were stolen... Jonathan shakes his head, crushed and exasperated. JONATHAN I'd like to go now. Is that all right? Can I just - can I go? EXT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - FIRE ESCAPE - MIDDLE OF NIGHT Jonathan climbs up to the landing, fishes in the dark for a boot. He tips it, a SPARE KEY falls out. As he starts back down, he feels something in his coat pocket. He reaches in, finds "Duck On Bike" where he'd pocketed it. INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - BATHROOM - MIDDLE OF NIGHT Jonathan stands motionless beneath the shower, face buried in his elbow, completely overwhelmed by his loss and longing. INT. JONATHAN'S BEDROOM Jonathan enters, wanders for his bed -- when he pauses, staring at his dresser. He approaches, peering down at something that's caught his eye... HIS HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS TROPHY. Nothing unusual - except for a small square outlined in dust three inches from the trophy base, the wood around its perimeter far more faded than the exposed area - as if the trophy had recently been moved. Jonathan swallows tensely, staring at the cryptic dust mark - (SOUND ADVANCE) BANG! of a file cabinet drawer yanked open in 65. A SPARE BEDROOM Used for storage, including an old, gun-metal grey filing cabinet. Phone to his ear, Jonathan rapidly sifts through faded file folders crammed with papers and documents. JONATHAN (INTO PHONE) .Your ad says 24-Hour Locksmith... Well how soon could you-... Fine. He opens a file: it's where he keeps his passport. He stuffs it in his back pocket, keeps searching, pulls a folder marked "CREDIT CARDS." Sorting through old statements, he finds the line: "To report a card lost or stolen..." INT. JONATHAN'S BATHROOM - PRE-DAWN CLOSE ON JONATHAN'S HAGGARD FACE in the mirror of a medicine cabinet as he pulls it open. Be fishes around, finds what he's looking for: a SMALL BLACK CANNISTER for film. He pops the cap to reveal a fat roll of emergency money. Jonathan exits the bathroom, crosses the living room to the foyer, where we find a LOCKSMITH finishing changing the lock. INT. JONATHAN'S BEDROOM - DAWN Jonathan lies awake, staring at his muted TV, his face tear- stained, his eyes clouded. JONATHAN (V.O.) This is Jonathan Messer. I won't be able to come in today. I'm - pretty ill... 'Duck on Bike' sits on his nightstand next to his glasses. INT. SUBWAY CAR - DAY Jonathan seated, resting against the window, drifting off into.restless sleep. We MOVE IN TIGHTER ON HIS FACE, tighter -- CONDUCTOR (O.S.) Next stop Canal Street. Canal is next. : Jonathan jerks awake. A few stares from nearby passengers. EXT. CANAL STREET - DAY Jonathan emerges from underground to hectic Chinatown. What once felt romantic now feels cold and exclusionary, a bustling mix of ASIANS and map-clutching TOURISTS. He surveys the area,-overwhelmed, eyes searching for anything resembling a clue. Foreign faces return only cold, blank stares. (CONTINUED) 66. CONTINUED: Jonathan pauses by a STREET VENDOR, takes from his pocket the GUM WRAPPER he found in the hotel, shows it to the vendor... INT. CHINESE MARKET - DAY Cramped and dingy. Jonathan makes his way to the counter, where an OLD WOMAN sits smoking. He holds up the wrapper. JONATHAN I was told you sell this gum here? The Old Woman studies him a wary beat, then gestures to a candy display. In one box is the same gum. JONATHAN A woman - a white woman - buys this brand of gum. I need to find- The Old Woman interrupts him in raspy Chinese. JONATHAN I'm sorry, I don't -- Do you know the woman I'm talking about? A white woman...? Please, it's very important that I -- GIRL'S VOICE (O.S.) My grandmother doesn't speak English. Jonathan spins around to find a CHINESE GIRL.(13) in a smock. JONATHAN Can you ask if she knows the name of the white woman who buys this gum? The Girl questions the old woman in rapid Chinese. She takes. a dragon her smoke, then gives a lengthy answer. The girl nods, finally turns to an anxiously waiting Jonathan. GIRL She says they sell that gum in practically every store in Chinatown. EXT/INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Jonathan is struggling with his stiff new key, hearing his PHONE RINGING inside. INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT Jonathan rushes for the phone, picks up. JONATHAN Hello? (CONTINUED) 67 CONTINUED: DETECTIVE RUSSO Mr. Messer? INT. NY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE - LOBBY - AN HOUR LATER. Creepy and drab. Jonathan enters, approaches a RECEPTIONIST. The Receptionist nods, points across the lobby to Detective Russo. Jonathan looks very worried. INT. M.E.'S OFFICE - A RICKETY ELEVATOR The elevator descends with an unnerving rattle as Jonathan rides down with Russo. RUSSO The body came in late last night, although time of death's still unclear. She was found in a taxi: driver was in a .coffee shop on his break, came back to his cab and there she was in the back seat. The elevator shudders to a metallic stop. RUSSO Her purse was recovered from a dumpster about a block away, so we've got a name. Jonathan tenses as the elevator doors BANG OPEN. RUSSO Simone Forester. Jonathan looks sick with fear. INT. MORGUE Russo leads Jonathan into the harsh fluorescent lights of the morgue. A MEDICAL EXAMINER (50s) looks up from a deli sandwich, takes one last bite and waves them over. As they approach, Jonathan notices the TWO UNIFORMED OFFICERS stationed down here. They recognize Russo, nod in recognition - and eye Jonathan with hard, careful stares. SAME -"'MOMENTS LATER The M.E. stands over agurney, casually lifts the sheet that's been draped over the body. We glimpse a slender foot. CLOSE ON JONATHAN beside Russo. He turns instantly pale, lip quivering as he stares in disbelief, our CAMERA SLOWLY COMING OVER HIS SHOULDER to get a look at (CONTINUED) 68 CONTINUED: THE VICTIM'S FACE: it's not "S". But we do recognize her. It's the Blonde: the first woman he'd been with, the one he'd passed without a word in an office some days later. She looks the same, only death-pale and naked - and her neck marred by a thin, discolored line where she's been strangled. RUSSO Mr Messer...? He tries to speak, but can hardly breathe, let alone answer. RUSSO Was this the woman you were with last night? She frowns, suspicious of Jonathan's hesitation. His tense eyes whip across the morgue: the two cops still idling there. They're out of earshot, but their mere presence amps tension. Angle on the guns in their holsters. The handcuffs dangling -- RUSSO Mr. Messer? JONATHAN No - she's not. Not last night... no. Russo studies his strained expression a suspicious beat. EXT. MEDICAL EXAMINER BUILDING - SHORT TIME LATER Jonathan exits behind Russo as they step onto the sidewalk. RUSSO I figured it was a long shot. The only reason I called you down is she was last seen with a man in the bar of the Hudson hotel. JONATHAN (suddenly tenses) The Hudson? RUSSO You mentioned this group of yours meets up at various hotels. I thought it was worth a shot. Russo glances up at him, trying to read him - something about his reaction not sitting right with her. (CONTINUED) 69 CONTINUED: RUSSO Mr. Messer, is there anything else you want to tell me? Nervous and torn, Jonathan manages to shake his head. EXT. MORGUE/ STREET - NIGHT Jonathan exiting the morgue, talking low into his cell phone. JONATHAN Wyatt, it's me. I need to talk to you. Call me, OK? Please. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN LLP - LOBBY - MORNING A pleasant RECEPTIONIST smiles up from her expansive desk. RECEPTIONIST May I help you? Jonathan is standing across from her. JONATHAN Yes, I need to get in contact with one of your attorneys, Wyatt Bose - it's extremely important. He's working out of the London office right now. If I could speak to his assistant or someone who'd know how-to reach him immediately... RECEPTIONIST Of course. Just a minute. The Receptionist types into her PHONE SYSTEM. She shakes her head, confused. JONATHAN B-o-s-e. First name Wyatt. RECEPTIONIST Wyatt with a 'Y'? JONATHAN Yes... The. receptionist frowns. RECEPTIONIST Oh -- Ms. Pomerantz? Angle on a MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN walking past. (CONTINUED) 70. CONTINUED: RECEPTIONIST Ms. Pomerantz works in H.R.. MS. POMERANTZ What can I do for you, Mr, JONATHAN Messer. Jonathan Messer. I'm an auditor from worth and Berman. INT. RUTHERFORD STERN - CORRIDOR Jonathan walks alongside Ms. Pomerantz. POMERANTZ Are you sure you have the right firm? JONATHAN Yes -- yes, I'm --- He works here. I've seen him working here. I net him here. POMERANTZ When was this? JONATHAN A few weeks ago. Wyatt Bose. Wait... here. He hands her Wyatt's business card with the Rutherford Stern masthead on it. She studies it with a look of confusion. POMERANTZ I don't know what's going on, but I can assure you, there is nobody here named- JONATHAN I've seen him in the halls - for Chrissake we smoked pot in the conference room! Ms. Pomerantz abruptly frowns, when Jonathan spots a LAWYER - FLASH INSERT -= COFFEE LOUNGE This Lawyer and another laughing at Wyatt's punch line. Jonathan runs over to the Lawyer, grabs the man's arm. JONATHAN Thank God. Look, I'm trying to find Wyatt. LAWYER Who? (CONTINUED) 71 CONTINUED: JONATHAN Wyatt Bose. I saw you talking with him, cracking jokes in the coffee lounge. FLASH ON SAME SCENE: Wyatt looks up, eyes meet Jonathan's. Jonathan smiles in greeting... but Wyatt just nods coolly. LAWYER I crack jokes with a lot of people. JONATHAN Hold on, you're telling me you don't-- LAWYER Hey - easy with the hands, okay? Jonathan realizes he's got the man's sleeve in his fist. He lets go, spins back to Ms. Pomerantz. JONATHAN He said he was in London with Mr. Rutherford, paperinga - MS. POMERANTZ (O.S.) Mister Messer. Jonathan spins to find Ms. Pomerantz scowling at him. A beat. MS. POMERANTZ Mr. Rutherford is presently recovering from hip surgery. In New Jersey. Jonathan glances around, to find everyone - lawyers, assistants, mail clerks - all staring at him. INT. WYATT'S BROWNSTONE - DAY Breathless, Jonathan bolts up a set of stairs, knocks on a door. No answer. He knocks harder. From within we hear a set of FOOTSTEPS. Sound of a lock turning, the door is opened... JONATHAN Wyatt - .by a MAN in his early 60's, his WIFE behind him; both strike us as wealthy, downtown patron-of-the-arts types. JONATHAN Sorry, I -- I need to speak to Wyatt. MAN Excuse me - Wyatt? (CONTINUED) 72 CONTINUED: JONATHAN Wyatt Bose. He lives here. WOMAN In this building? He must be new. See, we've been out of town the past2 months - JONATHAN Not in this building - in this apartment. MAN (FROWNS) Young man, we've owned this apartment going on thirty years now. JONATHAN But... I was right-here-with him... The Man takes a step back, catching his wife's equally wary expression, his hand making for the chain lock. JONATHAN (DESPERATE) Wait!! That painting there, it's a Gerhard Richter, right? WOMAN (even more uneasy) Yes? JONATHAN From a gallery! In Munich - the one that Herr Kleiner handles? The art dealer downstairs? MAN Downstairs? You must mean Mr. Moretti, but he's in the carpet business - JONATHAN But Wyatt smoke to him. MAN Unless it was in Italian I doubt he got very far. Jonathan steps back, looking like he's losing his mind. WOMAN Young man... are you all right? 73. EXT. WYATT'S BUILDING -- DAY Jonathan stumbles out, breathing hard as he tries to grapple with this - when he slams up against a man's shirtfront. Two hands grasp his arms, we glimpse a pair of black wingtips - - and whip tilt up to the papery face of "Herr Kleiner" (aka Mr. Moretti). "HERR KLEINER" Sono spiacente. INT. SUBWAY CAR - EVENING Jonathan sits slumped against a window, the world around him is ceasing to make sense. Across the aisle, a YOUNG BOHEMIAN COUPLE sit side by side, her headon his shoulder. On Jonathan's face there's a sense of loss that is almost overwhelming. Jonathan takes the crinkled Chinese gum wrapper from his pocket, smoothes it in his hands, stares down at it with a look of longing... . when his eyes suddenly widen. He sees something inside, something he hadn't noticed. He unfolds it to reveal two words written in a feminine hand on the white underside: I'm sorry Jonathan quickly looks up, as if expecting someone else to share in this haunting discovery. of course, no one does. He stares back. down at it, bewildered, stunned - chilled. EXT. SUBWAY STATION - CANAL ST., CHINATOWN - LATER Jonathan runs out from the subway station. Determined, he walks down Canal street, his eyes suddenly land on a COPY SHOP across. TIGHT ON JONATHAN as we see something click in his head - INT. RUTHERFORD STERN - LOBBY - LATE DAY Jonathan steps off the elevator, heads straight for the Receptionist. She immediately looks nervous. RECEPTIONIST Sir, we asked around, nobody knows the guy YOU'RE- (CONTINUED) 74 CONTINUED: JONATHAN When I was working over here, you made a photocopy of my I.D..' RECEPTIONIST We do all freelancers, it's policy. (REALIZES) Oh - I'm not sure I'm allowed to- JONATHAN You have to. She looks at him', sees his desperation. SAME - MOMENTS LATER Jonathan is flipping through the stack of photocopies, then halts on one. He stares at it. The Receptionist peers over. RECEPTIONIST That's him? He was real cute. Only he wasn't a lawyer. He was a systems analyst, I think. He was here for a few days to work on the computers. RECEPTIONIST'S POV: of the photocopy in Jonathan's hand. It's of a Massachusetts Driver's License. Staring back up at us is Wyatt's smiling face. RECEPTIONIST I thought you said his name was Wyatt? PAN TO THE NAME beside the photo: Sansky. WilliamR. Jonathan is already running for the EXIT. INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT -- HIS BEDROOM - EVENING CLOSE ON JONATHAN'S LAPTOP SCREEN as an internet search engine runs the name: "Bansky, William." A page of some 200+ matches is returned. Jonathan readies himself, then dives in. Beside the keyboard rests the receptionist's photocopy of William Bansky's Massachusetts driver's license. We see Detective Russo's business card resting a few inches away. ON JONATHAN - MOMENTS LATER Checking URLs site by site. He finally pauses on one. It's an article from the Boston Herald. The headline: "POLICE HAVE FEW CLUES TO YOUNG EXECUTIVE'S DISAPPEARANCE." As Jonathan scans the article, we glimpse some lines of text: (CONTINUED) 75 CONTINUED: "...looking for William Roger Bansky, age 31...was employed on a freelance basis by an on-site software consulting firm in Boston..." -- .Bansky recently relocated from the Chicago area..." -- ‚Ä¢ ". 'lavish lifestyle'..." -- .a number of bad checks" . debts" .a young man on the run..." Tilt up to Jonathan, scribbling on a Post-it pad: WYATT BOSE = WILLIAM BANSKY, SOFTWARE CONSULTANT, BOSTON ORIG. FROM CHICAGO -- $$ TROUBLE He sticks the post-it to the photocopy of Bansky's ID. He steps back, stares at it a beat - when he notices something on his desk,,resting under the phone: a manila file folder. He frowns at it - clearly out of place here. He picks the file up, opens it... to a series of 8X10 photographs? Heart racing nervously, he takes one out: it's of Jonathan standing in the Plaza lobby by the Eloise portrait. Confused, he quickly flips to the next one: in it, a Blonde now stands there with him -- the Blonde found murdered. Simone Forester. Jonathan's rapidly breathing as he shuffles through more photos. They're in sequence, taken by telephoto lens. Jonathan and Simone Forester getting in the elevator. Opening the room door. Undressing. Screwing. In one, Jonathan has his hands on her neck... He's sweating with anxiety- when suddenly the phone rings, startling him. He eyes it warily, then slowly picks up. JONATHAN Hello? RUSSO (O.S.) Mr. Messer, it's Detective Russo returning your call. Jonathan freezes, tries not to sound panicked, his eyes fixed on the damning photos of himself and Simone Forester. JONATHAN Oh - right, I was just - checking in, to see if you had any leads... RUSSO On that missing girl of yours? No, not yet. (CONTINUED) 76. CONTINUED: JONATHAN (anxious to hang up) Oh - okay, thanks- RUSSO (O.S.) Are you sure you didn't know Simone Forester? The PHOTOS of Simone in his hands, Jonathan tenses... JONATHAN I told you before - RUSSO (O.S.) I remember what you said. (an unsettling silence) And you weren't at the Hudson two nights ago? JONATHAN I don't -- why are you- RUSSO (O.S.) Turns out among credit card charges made that night, there was one with your name. The card was declined. JONATHAN I cancelled them all, the day they got stolen. RUSSO (O.S.) I see. I figured it didn't mean much - cards move quickly. It just struck me, you know.. The coincidence. Jonathan can hear the suspicion in her pause. RUSSO (O.S.) By the way, the morgue confirmed strangulation as cause of death. He found trace fibres of Kevlar in her neck wound. JONATHAN Kevlar? RUSSO (O.S.) It's used in certain kinds of rope and string. Jonathan's eyes suddenly go wide; whip pan with his gaze to the hall closet door. (CONTINUED) 77 CONTINUED: RUSSO (O.S.) Mr. Messer? JONATHAN Yes - yes, I'm -- RUSSO (O.S.) Thought I lost you for a second. (PAUSE) Well, I won't keep you. You have a good night. Jonathan slowly hangs up, his panicked gaze returning to the hall closet as he paces toward it, throws open the door. In the far corner rests his racket bag. He grabs it, yanks open the zipper... his face draining of all remaining color as he peers into his empty racket ba . His racket is gone. SAME - MOMENTS LATER Jonathan pacing the floor, paranoid. He holds Detective Russo's card. Knows he should call back. He abruptly reaches for the phone, and dials... another number. JONATHAN I know, okay? I know your name isn't Wyatt Bose. I know you killed that woman. And I know you're trying to frame me for it, so - so - WHY? What the hell is going on? And where is she?! If you hurt her I swear to God I'll... Jonathan falters, unsure where he's going with this and realizing he's now talking to himself. COMPUVOICE TO-SEND-THIS-MESSAGE--PRESS-POUND-OR- simply-hang-up. To-erase-and-record-a-new- messa ge---press-Star. Jonathan hesitates, hits the Star key. A new BEEP. Harder: JONATHAN It's me. I need to talk to you. He hits pound. Breathes. At least he's done something. Suddenly from O.S. a faint creak. Jonathan spins, scans the room, grabs the nearest blunt object: his tennis trophy. QUICKLY CUT SHOTS of Jonathan searching his apartment, his trophy raised as a makeshift weapon. (CONTINUED) 78 CONTINUED: He finally halts, uneasy but satisfied there's no one else here - when his home phone rings, startling him. RING... RING... RING... Jonathan hesitates. His machine picks up: JONATHAN'S ANSWERING MACHINE This is Jonathan. Please leave a message. BEEEEP. A moment of hiss - then: MALE VOICE (O.S. Jonathan? Jonathan whips to the phone - it sounds like Wyatt --- PETERSON (O.S.) Chet Peterson calling - -- only it's not. PETERSON (O.S.) I understand you were out today. I left messages on your cell but never heard back, so I thought I'd try you at home. He slowly lowers his trophy as he listens, staring out the window at the dark night and empty street below. PETERSON (O.S.) Just want to make sure you're up to speed with Weiss Murphy, because the folks at Clute Nichols are expecting you... INT. SUBWAY CAR - MORNING Jonathan sits in a crowded car, dressed for work. PETERSON (V.0.) They're our biggest client, so needless to say, make them your top priority... Jonathan takes out the crinkled Chinese gum wrapper. He stares at it with a look of longing: this is his Priority- EXT. CHINATOWN -- DAY A series of shots: Jonathan asking around about "S." The street vendors. The receptionist at the hotel. The waiter at the restaurant where they ate... They all shake their heads. Heading back for the subway, dejected, he steps on.a discarded page from the newspaper's Metro section, sees a headline: "STILL NO SUSPECT IN MURDER OF YOUNG EXEC." The photo is of Simone Forester. 79. INT. CLUTE NICHOLS BROKERAGE - CORRIDORS - LATE DAY Intensely preoccupied, Jonathan walks alone past assistants and execs. In his eyes a sense of paranoia, a mistrust of every strange face. INT. A CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Isolated behind yet another wall of glass, Jonathan just stares bleary-eyed at his laptop, unable to work. EXT. CLUTE NICHOLS BUILDING - NIGHT Jonathan exits, starts toward the sidewalk -- but hears something: sandpaper SHUFFLE of shoes on pavement. Be spins -- No one there. Just one of many large stone pillars adorning the building. Jonathan peers anxiously at the pillar, wavering. He steps closer, trying to glimpse behind it - RING! of his cell-phone breaks the stillness. RING... RING... He catches his breath, quickly picks up. A silent beat. A WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Are you free tonight?... Hello? He hangs up, chilled. Turns again to the pillar, steps closer - no sound. He hesitates... then turns and walks off. INT. TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY STATION - NIGHT People heading home from work. Jonathan among them, utterly desolate. Sliding his MetroCard, he suddenly feels watched again. He spins, peers anxiously behind him. Only strange faces passing through turnstiles. INT. SUBWAY STATION - CORRIDOR A narrow, curved stretch of grimy walls of ads and graffiti. Jonathan keeps a quick pace, feeling vulnerable. We lag back, following him from an ANONYMOUS POV; glance up at a sign for stairs to the N & R trains. INT. SUBWAY PLATFORM Jonathan is waiting for his train, eyes nervously glancing around, still feeling watched - When he sees a young woman standing all the way across on the opposite platform, waiting for a train. She casually turns her head, and Jonathan's eyes go wide... (CONTINUED) 80. CONTINUED: It's "S." Jonathan just gapes across the divide of two subway tracks; he can't believe he's seeing her again... . when she starts to back away, almost as if she might run. Confused, Jonathan rushes to the edge of his platform. JONATHAN wait! Wait, right there! Jonathan stands on the edge reeling, desperate to get,to her. He looks around, hears the distant: .nimble of afar. off train, and suddenly he does something we'd have never thought him capable of: he jumps onto the tracks! He lands hard, nearly breaking his ankle, but quickly scrambles to his feet, splashing in the sludge between rails, eyes darting along the track, anxious to avoid the third rail, ears attuned to the sound of that distant train as he races for THE CENTER DIVIDER He reaches the grimy rungs and quickly climbs up. He gets to his feet on the center divider - now only one lane of track separating him from the platform she was standing on - only she's no longer there? He scans the people waiting, no sign of "S" among them - and then suddenly he spots her, heading for the exits. JONATHAN STOP! She glances back, utterly stunned to find Jonathan standing on the center divider, feet soaked in muck. Neither speaks for a moment, just staring at each other across the solitary track. Then: JONATHAN I thought you were dead! She looks like she wants to say something, but doesn't. And all at once he's hit with a crushing realization: JONATHAN You are in on this, aren't you?! She holds his eyes a moment longer, fighting back emotion - then she abruptly turns and starts back for the exit again. (CONTINUED) 81. CONTINUED: JONATHAN How do you know him? (off her silence) Damn it answer me! She halts, slowly looks back at him. of cam‚Äû Through the club. He caught me trying to steal his wallet. Jonathan looks confused; she's struggling to stay composed but looks like she could break down at any moment. ‚ÄûS‚Äû He asked if I wanted to make some real money. All I had to do was get involved with you, and not ask any questions. Jonathan just stares, devastated. JONATHAN So everything between us - was nothing? She fights back tears. ., S No - no... After that first night I tried to call it off, he said he'd kill me if I didn't go through with it. JONATHAN Go through with what? ‚ÄûC,. The plan. Get you out of the hotel room, slip out and meet up later for my money. Only I ran instead. He's been looking for me ever since. I have to leave the city - JONATHAN Then why didn't you? S¬Äé Because I needed to see you again. I needed to be sure you were all right. Despite his conflicting emotions, Jonathan is moved by this. S,f I didn't know how to find you - you were just a number in a cell phone, and (CONTINUED) 82. CONTINUED: 'is" (CONT-D) Jonathan had taken that. I remembered you took this train - JONATHAN Wait, Jonathan? I'm Jonathan. Jonathan Messer. You're -? O.S. we hear the approaching roar of an INCOMING TRAIN... ii S 7f Did you go to the police? JONATHAN I can't. He's framing me for murder. What? JONATHAN He killed a woman from the club, someone I'd been with. "S" is shocked., instantly terrified. Clearly she had no idea. I/ S$f Jonathan, you have to leave! Do you understand? You need to get the hell out of here, he's going to kill you! The roar of the incoming train is growing LOUDER... Don't you understand? He's going to kill - - when the INCOMING TRAIN completely drowns him out... and swipes "S" out of Jonathan's view. Jonathan struggles to peer through the train windows but its passengers prevent him from getting a look at her. Just then the TRAIN DOORS OPEN WITH THE NOISE of passengers getting on and off. Panicked, Jonathan cranes his neck, trying to see her through the windows. JONATHAN STOP! He boards the train; using it as a bridge, he pushes through passengers, desperate for an open door to the other side. (CONTINUED) 83. CONTINUED: CONDUCTOR (O.S.) Shuttle to New York's Grand Central Station. Grand Central is next. He jumps off the train, in the direction she'd been walking -- only she's nowhere in sight. Jonathan spins frantically as the doors close and he hears the TRAIN START TO PULL AWAY. He runs alongside the train - desperately searching for a glimpse of her - no sign of her in any of the windows... .until the last car passes - and there she is, standing at the rear observation window, her hand pressed to the pane, her tearful expression bidding him a heartbreaking goodbye. He stumbles to a devastated halt, eyes pleading vainly as he watches her recede, framed by the rectangle of window, directly beneath it the train's steel. exterior labelled the shuttle line's circled black and white S. INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - MAIN CONCOURSE - LATE NIGHT TILT DOWN FROM THE CONSTELLATIONS of the vaulted ceiling to the tiny figure of "S," standing at the ticket counter, staring uneasily through bars at a TICKET AGENT. TICKET AGENT Let's see - there's one to New Haven, leaving in... six minutes. If you need to go farther, you can transfer from there. "S" peers anxiously around her, like someone hunted. #; SIT And that's the very next train leaving? INT. METRO-NORTH TRAIN (IDLING IN THE TERMINAL) Only a few scattered travellers this late. "S" slumps into a seat, takes a breath - and starts to quietly break down. She shuts her eyes, tries to stifle her sobbing. A man's hand extends a handkerchief from the seat behind her. ‚ÄûS‚Äû No thank you. RACK FOCUS on the man withdrawing his handkerchief behind her, grinning coolly to himself: it's-Wyatt. WYATT Suit yourself. (CONTINUED) 84. CONTINUED: RACK BACK TO "S" as her eyes blink open in terror -- SMASH CUT TO: INT. JONATHAN'S BUILDING - MAILBOXES - LATE NIGHT Jonathan yanks open his mailbox. Empty. As he heads upstairs, there's a change in his face: a newly forged determination. He takes out his cell phone, dials. The other end immediately picks up: COMPUVOICE (O.S.) WORTH-AND-BERMAN-VOICE-MAIL-BOX-FOR- JONATHAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Jonathan Messer‚Äî Jonathan hangs up. Takes an angry breath. Presses redial. COMPUVOICE (O.S.) WORTH-AND-BERMAN-VOICE-MAIL-BOX- He hangs up again. But his face bears a blank, eerily driven expression. He hits redial again as he opens the door to INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT Jonathan enters, phone still to his ear. COMPUVOICE (O.S.) WORTH-AND-BERMAN-VOICE- Jonathan hangs up and just stares at the phone in his hand, on the verge of something like a scream. He takes a breath. Presses redial once more. Only now it RINGS. Jonathan freezes. RING... RING... RING... RING... RING -- a CLICK of someone picking up, then SILENCE and faint wisps of static. JONATHAN Hello...? Not a word from the other end. We barely make out BREATHING. JONATHAN Wyatt? Is that you? Jonathan takes a tentative step forward, as if fearful that the least movement will cost him this connection. JONATHAN Say something damn it! From the receiver we hear a well-exhaled breath. And then: (CONTINUED) 85 CONTINUED: WYATT'S VOICE (O.S.) (sung in a low whisper) Yesterday... Reeling, Jonathan grips the phone tighter to his ear. WYATT'S VOICE (O.S.) All my troubles seemed so far away... JONATHAN What do you want from me? WYATT'S VOICE (O.S.) Now it seems as though - JONATHAN Answer me! WYATT'S VOICE (O.S.) - they're here to stay, Oh I believe JONATHAN Why are you doing this to me?! WYATT'S VOICE (O.S.) - in yester-- JONATHAN I'm going to find you, you hear me? I'm- CLICK. Dead air. JONATHAN Hello?... Hello?! Jonathan SLAMS the phone down, tension in his face joined by a new emotion, something closer to. fury. JONATHAN I'm going to find you. EXT. MIDTOWN MANHATTAN - STREET - DAY Jonathan is heading for the Clute Nichols building, that same focused tension on his face - WOMAN'S VOICE Mr. Messer? Jonathan is too lost in thought to hear it. WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) Jonathan. (CONTINUED) 86 CONTINUED: He glances up... to find Russo standing near the entryway - what's she doing here? He has no choice but to meet her. RUSSO I was gonna call, but I was in the area. Just doing some follow-up. Jonathan tries to mask his uneasiness. JONATHAN Follow-up? RUSSO On that missing girl of yours. The.one whose name began with. an "S." Have any luck finding her? Jonathan absently tightens his grasp on his briefcase. JONATHAN No. No luck. RUSSO I see. That's too bad. she studies him a cryptic beat, then smiles flatly. RUSSO Well, who knows, maybe she'll turn up yet. You have a good day, Mr. Messer. Jonathan nods tensely, then walks off, feeling her watching him from the curb as he goes. INT. CLUTE NICHOLS - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Employees pass by the glass behind which we see Jonathan - a lone figure at his laptop, surrounded by files and post-its. Close on Jonathan as he scribbles on a post-it: "Yesterday - Beatles?" Widen to find the post-its organized with his usual fastidiousness - only scribbled with words, not numbers: "Wyatt Bose = William Bansky" and other random scribblings. He's trying to apply his mathematical mind to his crisis, hoping to conjure some kind of pattern or logic to it all. Reverse angle through the glass: to anyone passing, he looks like your typical overly meticulous, isolated auditor. Closer on Jonathan as he clutches the table, looks seconds away from utterly losing it -- when something suddenly occurs to him. He whips around, gaze fixing on (CONTINUED) 87 CONTINUED: His cell phone. He grabs it. Presses a key repeatedly - scanning - then hits SEND. Jonathan brings the phone to his ear, listens for the other end; then: JONATHAN Are you free tonight? CUT TO: INT. THE KITANO HOTEL - LOBBY - NIGHT Jonathan waits anxiously by a Botero sculpture of a rotund dog. A young woman in a BLUE PASHMINA approaches. INT. THE KITANO - ELEVATOR Blue Pashmina enters first, Jonathan follows her into an empty elevator. The doors close. JONATHAN Do you know Wyatt Bose? BLUE PASHMINA (immediately guarded) Excuse me? JONATHAN What about William Bansky? Does that name-- She darts.for the "Door Open" button, but he blocks her path. BLUE PASHMINA I swear to God I'll scream. JONATHAN Please, I'm not trying to scare you, I just -- I'm looking for someone.and it's very important that I find him. she tries to push past him, again Jonathan blocks her. JONATHAN He does this too - or he did. someone had to give him the numbers. Someone let him in. If I can-'find who it was that knew him, they might know where he's -- she suddenly kicks him in the shin with a spiked heel. Jonathan grasps his leg - she presses the button and is out the opening doors before he's even looked up. SOUND ADVANCE: TENSE CLACKING of computer keys... 88. INT. CLUTE NICHOLS - CONFERENCE ROOM - SAME NIGHT CLOSE ON JONATHAN alone at the end of the conference table, eyes scanning files absently, fingers typing on auto-pilot. His gaze holds a new determination, as the CLACKING OF KEYS SET THE RHYTHM FOR A BRIEF MONTAGE- INT. HOTEL CASABLANCA - LOBBY - LATER Jonathan anxiously escorts ANOTHER YOUNG WOMAN past the quasi- Moroccan motif. Asking her something, he takes out a folded paper from his pocket, shows it to her: it's the photocopy of Bansky's license with the image of Wyatt's face. She quickly shakes her head, her eyes searching for the exit. INT. THE LOMBARDY - BAR - NIGHT Jonathan trails a TALL WOMAN as she bee-lines for the exit. He grabs her arm, thrusts the photocopy into her hands. She halts, looks up at him... and tears it in two before handing it back and hurrying off, her glare full of paranoia. TNT. THE SHERRY-NETHERLAND - LOBBY - NIGHT Jonathan rises from a couch to greet YET ANOTHER YOUNG WOMAN. He gets no more than a few seconds into his question when she about-faces without a word. Jonathan has a relentless look in his eye. Takes out his cell, calls another number... INT. VARIOUS HOTELS - LOBBY COUCHES - NIGHT Rapid jump cuts of A DOZEN DIFFERENT WOMEN'S FACES, all indicating twenty different kinds of "no"; with each cut the women occupy the exact same position in frame, only their faces and the hotel backgrounds behind them change. INT. THE MICHELANGELO - ELEVATOR - NIGHT Room key in hand, Jonathan rides up with a woman in a BLACK BUSINESS SUIT - a tall, attractive business-type. Jonathan stares at his shoes, trying to mask his. utter exhaustion. INT. THE MICHELANGELO - A ROOM - NIGHT Jonathan and Black Business Suit come in. She starts to UNDRESS: JONATHAN I need to ask you something, it's incredibly important... (CONTINUED) 89. CONTINUED: He pauses to unfold his now scotch-taped photocopy, shows it to her. She freezes, eyes fixed on the license photo. Jonathan braces himself for her departure - when she stares back up at him in scared but clear recognition. SAME SCENE - MOMENTS LATER Seated on the edge of the made bed, Black Business Suit shifts uncomfortably as she lights a cigarette. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT I was in Chicago on business, a little over a year ago. I was out.to dinner with one of our Chicago partners,.a man named Holloway. That's how I met him. TIGHT ON JONATHAN as we SMASH TO: INT. EXPENSIVE CHICAGO RESTAURANT - NIGHT A slightly older man (HOLLOWAY) sits with his back to us. Across from him sits Black Business Suit. A YOUNGER MAN steps into frame, rests his hand on Holloway's shoulder. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT (V.0.) At first I assumed he was a junior executive at their firm. But he wasn't. That's not to say he didn't work for Holloway, but clearly in a more intimate capacity... TNT. THE MICHELANGELO - ROOM - NIGHT Black Business Suit takes a cool drag on her cigarette. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT I wasn't shocked. Besides, obviously I'm no prude. Even back then, I'd been doing - you know, this thing -- for a while. INT. EXPENSIVE CHICAGO RESTAURANT - NIGHT Wyatt is talking, entertaining his two companions - but clearly more focused on Black Business Suit, flirting it up. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT (V.0.) I was simply curious. More so when he apologized, explaining that he'd forgotten about another engagement. Wyatt's knuckles just barely stroke Black Business Suit's thigh as he rises to leave. They exchange a knowing glance... (CONTINUED) 90. CONTINUED: BACK TO MICHELANGELO ROOM BLACK BUSINESS SUIT I was intrigued. He was intelligent, informed about everything from law to art to politics. I'd never met anyone so in command of his own charm. He said that he'd come from nothing, that everything he learned, he learned from his tricks. He claimed that Holloway was even grooming him for a position at his company. She lights another cigarette with her old one. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT In a way, I felt for him. But I also admired him. It sounds silly,. but he had a way of making me feel - close to him, you know? This clearly hits home with Jonathan. He barely nods. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT So I found myself telling him things.. Personal things. And, next thing I knew - JONATHAN You told him. About this. A beat, and she nods, crushing out her other cigarette. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT He seemed fascinated by it. Wanted to know all the details. (EXHALES) I suppose I'd had too much to drink. And I was distracted... I was thinking about what a great lay he was going to be. INT. FOUR SEASONS CHICAGO -.SUITE BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Wyatt and Black Business Suit go at it with animal aggression. She's on all fours, arching lustily, pleasure nearly unbearable, eyes clenched shut as she climaxes. Exhausted, her body goes limp. TILT UP to his face: an eerily blank, driven stare, devoid of real pleasure. She struggles, tries to protest - when his hands grip her shoulder blades, thrusting harder, violently pinning her down, her sudden fear stifled by the mattress -- INT. THE MICHELANGELO - ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON Black Business Suit staring off, chilled by memory. (CONTINUED) 91. CONTINUED: BLACK BUSINESS SUIT Only afterwards I discovered two of my credit cards were missing. As was my cell phone. Of course I couldn't say anything to Holloway. And Jamie must have known I'd never report it to the police. (BEAT) So I just put the incident out of my mind. I all but forgot about it, until one night, maybe two months ago - INT. THE WARWICK (NYC) - LOBBY - NIGHT Black Business Suit is crossing the lobby for a portrait of Hearst and A SUITED MAN lingering beneath it... when the man looks up. It's Wyatt. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT (V.0.) I almost didn't recognize him. But when I did, I suddenly felt very, very scared. She freezes -- obscured by one of the trees as Wyatt checks his watch, scans-the lobby with a cool, piercing look. BACK TO BLACK BUSINESS SUIT AND JONATHAN IN THE MICHELANGELO BLACK BUSINESS SUIT I left before he saw me. She drags on her cigarette, looks off into space. BLACK BUSINESS SUIT He must have used my cell phone to get into the group. (crushes out her cigarette) Anyway, that's it. That's all I know. She looks around. At the room, the bed. She shudders, rises. JONATHAN Wait - thank you. (off her look) Have you ever run into him again? BLACK BUSINESS SUIT Getz? No. And I don't ever want to. JONATHAN Getz? BLACK BUSINESS SUIT That was his name. Jamie Getz. 92. EXT. FLEUR DE SOLANGE - NIGHT Bundled in her ski jacket, Solange is closing up her shop for the night, stacks of flowers in her arms, when she notices Jonathan coming down the front steps. SOLANGE Jonathan, you're home early - Only when he looks up, she finds the young man in the overcoat isn't Jonathan. It's Wyatt. SOLANGE Oh - je suis desole. My mistake. Wyatt flashes her an icy smile, continues down the steps. Solange watches him walk away, a puzzled look on her face. INT. MICHELANGELO - HOTEL BUSINESS CENTER - NIGHT Huddled over a computer, Jonathan typing, eyes red from exhaustion and stress as we hear his recall: JONATHAN (V.0.) who's James Getz? WYATT (V.0.) A guy I roomed with freshman year at Princeton. on Jonathan's monitor we see he's on a web site for Princeton University alumni. He types in: Getz, James. A beat - then: "No match." A long list of G names follows. Jonathan scrolls down the list, but there's no Getz. JONATHAN Shit. Jonathan exhales, about to log off - when a name among the H's jumps out at him: Holloway. Reed. Jonathan stares at it tensely - then clicks on the name. "Sort no contact information available." Jonathan thinks a moment - then tries a search engine, types: "Holloway Reed" then decides to add the word "missing." An article appears. From the Chicago Tribune: "BODY OF MISSING BUSINESSMAN FINALLY DISCOVERED." A head-shot style photograph shows a man in his early 40s whom we recognize from Black Business Suit's story. Beneath his photo, his name: "Reed Holloway." (CONTINUED) 93 CONTINUED: Jonathan glances up at the Hotel employee manning the desk. JONATHAN Can I print this out? EXT. EIGHTH AVENUE (HELL'S KITCHEN) - LATE NIGHT Porn shops and prostitutes, the streets pulsing with a sinister energy. Jonathan is pacing toward the subway, reading over the printed article. EXT. BROOKLYN - ELEVATED SUBWAY PLATFORM - LATE NIGHT Jonathan descends the steps to his presently deserted neighborhood. O.S. the departure of the subway train is joined by the distant.wail of SIRENS. Jonathan continues down the block, then pauses. He wrinkles his nose, smelling something. He looks up: two blocks away, a thick plume of smoke is billowing up into the sky -- EXT. JONATHAN'S DUPLEX Jonathan bolts around the corner to find an ambulance and fire engine curbside -- a fire raging in the lower story of his building! Running toward the blaze, he speeds past a BLACK BMW parked across the street, engine running. It suddenly shifts into gear and peels out in a fast turn. Jonathan spins - something about it troubling him - but the BMW is already gone. He continues racing toward his building... The neon "FLEURS DE SOLANGE" sign crackles and sparks in the flame. Through blown out windows, piles of burning flowers emit what must be an awful stench. Two EMS WORKERS are loading a gurney on which Solange lays, burned and half-aware, but alive, when Jonathan rushes over. She manages to open her eyes, her voice barely audible: SOLANGE Jonathan... He squeezes her hand as she's lifted into the ambulance. JONATHAN' (to EMS worker) Is she going to be okay? EMS WORKER Yeah, she'll make it. (CONTINUED) 94. CONTINUED: The ambulance doors SLAM shut. A hand grabs Jonathan's arm. He spins - it's a FIRE WORKER. JONATHAN I live here. INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - LATER Thick smoke clouds the stairs and corridor. Suit jacket over his head, Jonathan is hurriedly escorted by the Fire Worker. His own door has already been kicked open, splintered at its hinges. The place looks like it's been turned upside down, furniture soaking wet, charred areas on walls. FIRE WORKER Lucky we were able to contain it somewhat. Better get your valuables together. INT. JONATHAN'S BEDROOM still in shock, he tosses random clothes in a gym bag - "Duck on Bike" too. JONATHAN (calls out) How did it start? FIRE WORKER (O.S.) We're not sure. Maybe a bad fuse. INT. JONATHAN'S BATHROOM Jonathan opens his medicine cabinet, takes out his small film cannister, uncaps it to see how much money he has left. Not very much. He stuffs the cannister into his pants pocket. INT. SPARE BEDROOM Jonathan opens his old gunmetal-gray filing cabinet, then pops open his briefcase, trying to decide what to take. He finds a file marked "Bank Statements," pulls it, about to toss it in his briefcase - when he stops, something about its contents --- CLOSE ON THE FILE. Stuffed with paper. But not bank statements... Copies and copies of photographs of Jonathan with Simone Forester. Some we've seen, some new. Jonathan hunts through more files, his breathless nausea telling us the contents of each and every file have been swapped out with photos. (CONTINUED) 95. CONTINUED: He opens another at random - and freezes: it's a photo of Jonathan and "S" walking in Chinatown. He scans through others, shots of them in the restaurant, entering the Hotel Lotus... TIGHT ON JONATHAN, terrified by the horrific implication - FIRE WORKER (O.S.) Mr. Messer? Jonathan gasps as he looks up to find the Fire Worker in the doorway. He quickly shuts the file. JONATHAN Just - give me a minute. INT. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM A paranoid-looking Jonathan returns with a briefcase stuffed near to bursting. The tired Fire Worker looks up impatiently. FIRE WORKER That everything? Jonathan regards his minimal possessions, realizes how little evidence there is of a life. A wrenching sense of isolation. JONATHAN I guess it is. FIRE WORKER You got someone you can stay with? INT. A SEEDY HOTEL LOBBY - DOWNTOWN - PRE-DAWN The sort of decrepit no-tell motel frequented by hookers and junkies. Jonathan clutches his briefcase as he stares through steel mesh at. the NIGHT CLERK. NIGHT CLERK It's fifty for the night. Jonathan fishes out his film cannister, and parts with what he discovers are his last three $20s. INT. SEEDY HOTEL - ROOM - PRE-DAWN Even more depressing than the lobby: bars on the windows, stains on the thin walls through which the faint sounds of paid sex bleed in. Somewhere a bottle smashes. (CONTINUED) 96. CONTINUED: Unable to sleep, Jonathan has emptied his briefcase contents onto the bed. He stares at one of Wyatt's photos of him and "S." She's smiling up at him. EXTREME CLOSE ON THE IMAGE OF HER FACE. The smile, frozen in time, at once haunting and heartbreaking. He gently sets the photo down beside the Chicago Tribune article he'd printed on the unsolved murder of Reed Holloway ("BODY OF MISSING BUSINESSMAN FINALLY DISCOVERED"). His eyes drift to the article, and something suddenly occurs to him - FLASH ON: THE PHOTOGRAPH IN "WYATT'S.BROWNSTONE" of Wyatt with bleached hair styled in a loose spike -- IN THE ARTICLE'S PHOTO, Holloway sports an almost identical look.-His eyes move to the date of the article: "May 17." CUT TO: Jonathan on the phone, a business card in hand. OFFICE ON PHONE Boston Police, how can I direct your call? Jonathan reads off the card Detective Russo had given him: JONATHAN This is Detective Russo, NYPD, badge number 274655. 1 just need some information from you guys. Jonathan sits in suspense, awaiting a response. Finally - OFFICER ON PHONE Well? JONATHAN You've got a case, a missing person named William Bansky. I'm wondering if you can tell me the date he was last seen? OFFICER ON PHONE Hold a sec. (PAUSE) Bansky, William, last seen... May 17. Jonathan's eyes return to the Holloway article ("BODY OF MISSING BUSINESSMAN FINALLY DISCOVERED:), dated "May 17." OFFICER ON PHONE Anything else you- (CONTINUED) 97 CONTINUED: JONATHAN That's it, thanks. Jonathan quickly hangs up, equally encouraged and chilled by the connection he's made. TILT DOWN to a post-it, on which he's scribbled: "BOSE = BANSKY = HOLLOWAY." To this he adds: "= JAMES GETZ" INT. CHASE MANHATTAN BANK - MORNING A line of customers stare mutely up at plasma tv screens above - except for Jonathan, unshaven, suit wrinkled, face all anxious tension. SAME - TELLER'S WINDOW - MOMENTS LATER Jonathan slides his passport through the window's metal tray, to the TELLER (40s) working behind three inches of glass. The Teller examines the passport, then slides it back. TELLER M'kay, if you'll just swipe your ATM card. She gestures to a small punch pad to Jonathan's right. JONATHAN Actually, my card was stolen. TELLER Mmm'kay... do you see those two taupe colored telephones over there? Just pick up either one and you'll be connected with our automated system. JONATHAN The thing is, I already used your automated system and...look, this passport's all I have left, it's the only thing proves who I am and now I'm down to like my last ten dollars here, so... Jonathan's cool is cracking. The Teller wrinkles her brow. TELLER Mm'kay, if you press "0" on either phone? A customer service representative will - JONATHAN Give me a goddamn break. (CONTINUED) 98. CONTINUED: TELLER Sir, there's no need for profanity. JONATHAN (loses it) Oh no? In the last few days I've seen a woman I thought might be dead turn up alive and a woman I assumed was alive turn up dead, both at the hands of a guy about whom everything I know is apparently a lie. I've had my building set on fire, my neighbor nearly killed, and my apartment ransacked. So please forgive my language, but it's been one fuck of a week. The stunned Teller stares back at him slack-jawed. JONATHAN Look, I know I'm just another face on this side of the glass, I get that. But I'm begging you, as one human being to another, please let me into your life just long enough to help me out here. Please. The Teller stares back at him a beat - and nods. She starts quickly typing into her monitor, finally looks up. TELLER I'm showing that card as having been sent out four days ago. It definitely went out. We even heeded the change of address request. JONATHAN Well, like I -- wait, what request? TELLER Apparently you informed the bank of an address change? She swivels her monitor so he can see. TELLER Mr. Jonathan Messer, 140 E. 91st Street - EXT. BANK - DAY AS SEEN FROM THE CONVEX MIRROR OF AN ATM MACHINE: we watch from an ANONYMOUS POV Jonathan racing out of the bank. 99. EXT. 91ST STREET Jonathan rounds the corner at a jog, checking awning numbers, finally halts on one: "140 E. 91st." INT. 140 E. 91ST - LOBBY We recognize the DOORMAN in the midst of fielding a complaint by an ELDERLY TENANT with a yappy dog. Jonathan hurries to the elevators, unnoticed. INT. 140 E. 91ST -- HALLWAY Jonathan emerges from an elevator. The last door on the left. Jonathan tries the doorknob. It's locked. Jonathan checks under the mat. Sure enough, there's a key. INT. THE APARTMENT Utterly bare. Empty walls, expensive views, polished wood floors. Jonathan takes a wary step inside, leaning to peer around the corners. He paces cautiously through the living room. The dining area. The glistening chrome and granite kitchen. THE BEDROOM A room as empty as the others - with the exception of a small pile of envelopes beneath a window in a far corner. Jonathan slowly nears...to find it's a stack of mail. He picks up an envelope -- O.S. the CREAK of a door hinge. Jonathan whips around -- no one behind him. He steps out of the room to investigate. We remain alone in the empty room an excruciating beat... .until Jonathan finally steps back in, only slightly at ease. He returns to the stack of mail, picks up an envelope. He reads: "Mr. Jonathan Messer 140 E. 91 St..." Eyes wide, he hurriedly flips through the rest of the mail - all addressed to him at this address. Jonathan still staring at this mail in disbelief, when he finds at the bottom of the stack: another PHOTOGRAPH. It's of "S" standing fearfully on the subwa latform across the track from Jonathan. And suddenly Jonathan is gripped with fear, unaware of a blurred, nearing intruder... WYATT Long time no see. (CONTINUED) 100. CONTINUED: Jonathan spins round, Wyatt's standing there with a gun. It's pointing directly at Jonathan. WYATT I have some instructions. Follow them and I might let her live. JONATHAN Where is she? WYATT This should've been simpler. I frame you, you panic... JONATHAN Where is she?! A terrifying silence - Jonathan erupts: JONATHAN Goddamn it tell me what you did to-- WYATT Press pause on the questions and listen. The brokerage firm you're auditing is Clute Nichols. As a standard part of that audit you're temporarily privy to all client accounts as well as access codes required for transactions. At 11 p.m. tonight you're going to skim from those accounts a total of $200 million and transfer that money to an account I've established overseas. JONATHAN I can't - I have no idea how to even- WYATT I know you don't. But I do. Your passport. (brandishes the gun) Now, please. Jonathan takes it out and tosses it to him. Wyatt catches it. And hands Jonathan an ENVELOPE. WYATT It's all in there. 11 pm tonight. Their banks will just be opening. JONATHAN It won't work - they screen for stuff like this. It'll be discovered eventually. (CONTINUED) 101. CONTINUED: WYATT I can live with eventually. I always have. JONATHAN This account overseas - it's in my name, isn't it? A moment of tense silence. Jonathan just stares back hard a quiet beat; then: JONATHAN Why'd you pick me? Wyatt raises a brow, vaguely amused the question. WYATT You answered the ad, Jonathan. (off Jonathan's confusion) "Feeling all alone out there? Have a great job, fine personality and good looks to match, but no time to.meet that special someone? Help is just a phone call away -" JONATHAN The ad - in Money magazine... WYATT (GRINS) Told you to block that Caller ID. Of course I had to scope out a whole lot of losers before I hit the jackpot. After all, there only so many Jonathan Messers out there. (BEAT) If you screw with me, well - you saw what I did to that Blonde? That's kindness compared to what I'll do to your little .girlfriend. You won't even recognize her when I'm through. JONATHAN Why should I believe you? Everything you told me was lies. WYATT Not lies, Jonathan. Foreplay. And now... now you're fucked. He grins his 'charming' grin and starts for the door. (CONTINUED) 102. CONTINUED: WYATT Remember: be smart. I'll be watching you. And... feel free to take a shower, looks like you could do with one. The front door slams. Jonathan just stands there, staring shell-shocked at the envelope. EXT. STREET - MINUTES LATER Jonathan comes out the building putting the envelope in his suit pocket. As he crosses the street a CAR HORN BLARES - WHIP AROUND to find a car barrelling at us. Jonathan dives out of the way an instant before the car would have hit him. Face first in the gutter, scraped and gasping, Jonathan peers up to see Wyatt's BLACK BMW speeding away. CUT TO: INT. WORTH & BERMAN - AN OFFICE - LATE DAY A stiff guy in his late-30s is working in his office when an ASSISTANT enters. ASSISTANT Mr. Peterson, one of the audit managers is here to see you. Jonathan Messer? PETERSON (PUZZLED) Really? Well - okay, bring him back. We follow the assistant out the door, read the name stencilled on the glass "CHET PETERSON, SENIOR MANAGER." INT. WORTH & BERMAN - LOBBY Through a set of frosted glass doors we see Peterson's Assistant approach a RECEPTIONIST, who gestures across the lobby. The Assistant approaches the sofas, where Jonathan is seated. She addresses him. He rises. INT. WORTH & BERMAN - PETERSON'S OFFICE Chet Peterson looks up as his door is opened - PETERSON Jonathan, good to see you again! (CONTINUED) 103. CONTINUED: - reverse angle to find a YOUNG MAN we've never seen before. YOUNG MAN Actually, I was just looking for Fred Whipple's office? PETERSON (AWKWARDLY) Next door down. The Young Man ducks out, and now Peterson sees his Assistant approaching, Jonathan a few paces behind her, adjusting his glasses. Peterson reloads his greeting: PETERSON Jonathan, good to see you again! INT. PETERSON'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER Close on Chet Peterson, gravely peering across his desk. PETERSON Well, I have to say, your resignation comes as something of a surprise. Most of our auditors seem to like the freedom the position affords. (CONCERNED) You'll stay on to finish up at Clute Nichols, of course? Track around Peterson to see Jonathan seated across from him, lifting his head to reply - and doing so revealing it's " Wyatt," wearing one of Jonathan's suits, hair colored and styled like Jonathan's, even sporting identical eyeglasses. He offers an awkward half-smile, just as Jonathan would. WYATT Absolutely. PETERSON So do you have any plans? WYATT Yes. I'm going to travel. I want to see the world. Peterson nods benignly. CUT TO: 104. A SERIES OF QUICK DISSOLVES/ STOP-MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonathan sitting in the conference room of Clute Nichols, lettered-boxed by the glass wall through which he watches employees pass in fewer and fewer numbers. Throughout this, Jonathan's blank stare of harrowed tension never changes. LAST DISSOLVE TO: EXT. MANHATTAN SKYLINE - NIGHT Abeautiful shot of the cityscape - accompanied by the sound of fingers clacking on keys... INT. CLUTE NICHOLS - CONFERENCE ROOM Jonathan seated at the far end of the empty table, typing on his laptop. Beside him is the envelope Wyatt gave him, and its sheet of paper on which instructions are typed. Jonathan peers at the laptop clock. It reads 10:58 PM. His eyes travel in a tense triangle from instructions, to laptop screen, to glass wall - fingers typing all the while. He finally reaches a prompt: BIENVENUE. POUR ANGLAIS, CBOISEZ P2. We glimpse a small. logo with a SWISS FLAG. Jonathan presses F2. Reads some more, types some more. Finally we read: ENTER SUB-ACCOUNT NUMBER. Jonathan enters more per Wyatt's typed instructions. Reads. ENTER DESIGNATED ACCOUNT NUMBER: Jonathan copies the numbers in from the instructions. Waits. ENTER SENDER'S 8 DIGIT ACCESS CODE. REQUIRED TO COMPLETE TRANSACTION. His eyes travel to a page atop a Clute Nichols file. We can glimpse an 8 digit code circled in pencil. Jonathan stares at the cursor.on the laptop screen, the icon blinking petulantly. He's about to type... And then he halts. His eyes drifting to HIS CELL PHONE, resting in its charger. TIGHTER ON JONATHAN. His eyes fixed on the cell phone, an idea forming in his mind -- RING!! of the cell phone suddenly jars us. RING... Jonathan hesitates, then picks up. WYATT (O.S.) What's taking you? (CONTINUED) 105 CONTINUED: Jonathan says nothing. We can hear Wyatt getting tenser: WYATT (O.S.) I said what's taking you? JONATHAN I wondered if you were monitoring this. WYATT (O.S.) Don't worry about what I'm doing. Just finish the transaction. Now. JONATHAN Not until I see her. (off Wyatt's silence) The transfer's impossible without an access code. And there's no way I'm entering it until I'm sure that she's safe. So you tell me. How do we do that? Wyatt still remains unnervingly silent. We tighten on Jonathan, holding his breath, any plan he's concocting clearly hinging on this... WYATT (0..S.) (low, frustrated) You have a wireless connection? Jonathan lets out a brief exhalation. SAME - MOMENTS LATER Jonathan snaps his laptop lid shut, packs it in his gym bag, in which we glimpse the photo he's kept with him of "S" smiling up at him. He then turns to his cell phone once more. He picks it up, scrolls the menu, punches a number. RING... RING... RING... RING- AWOMAN'S VOICE (FROM PHONE) Hello? JONATHAN (BEAT) Are you free tonight? A sudden, jarring SOUND ADVANCE OF MUSIC as we CUT TO: 106. EXT. THE PLAZA HOTEL - ROOFTOP - LATE NIGHT An elaborate and intensely packed WEDDING PARTY is being held up here beneath the glow of heat lamps, the music and crowd noise unspeakably loud. We travel through the din, past hundreds of well-heeled partiers, mainly young and wealthy. EXT. PLAZA HOTEL - LATE NIGHT The party noise is even slightly audible 30 stories below, where we find Jonathan carrying his bag as he enters... INT. THE PLAZA HOTEL - LOBBY Jonathan surveys the busy lobby. GUESTS mulling. STAFF bustling. And, of course, the "ELOISE" PORTRAIT. WYATT (O.S.)' May I ask you a personal question? Jonathan spins around, stares frostily into Wyatt's magnetic smile. With Wyatt's new look, they could be brothers. Except Wyatt looks clean and crisp, Jonathan dishevelled and tense. Wyatt eyes the bag in Jonathan's hand. JONATHAN Where is she? WYATT In one of the rooms. Safe. (a thin smile) I got us a table. INT. LOBBY BAR - MOMENTS LATER A WAITRESS delivers a pair of drinks to where Jonathan and Wyatt are seated. WAITRESS Two Macallan 25 year. Enjoy. The Waitress leaves. Wyatt raises his glass. WYATT To friendship. Jonathan just stares back at Wyatt. JONATHAN Bansky's dead, isn't he? (CONTINUED) 107. CONTINUED: WYATT He was dead when I met him. Just like you. The rest was a mere formality. (re: the laptop) Of course he didn't have your bargaining chip. Speaking of which... JONATHAN Not until I see her. She's the only reason I'm here and not at the police. WYATT I told you, she's in a room. Alive. JONATHAN Give me the key then. Wyatt considers this, then takes out an electronic key card and slides it across the table. Of course there's nothing on the key card to indicate a room number. WYATT As soon as you're done, I'll tell you the room number. JONATHAN Not good enough. Wyatt reaches for the key card; as he does we glimpse a handgun concealed by his suit. JONATHAN You won't let her live. You killed all the others, you'll have to kill us too. WYATT Hey, I like you, okay? You'll be fine. JONATHAN (scoffs, repulsed) You like me. WYATT I do, Jonathan. In my way. After all, you're my creation. I'm the one who gave you life. JONATHAN Don't you get it? It was her, not you! She's the one. She gave me life! You can steal my identity, but not what's here. (CONTINUED) 108. CONTINUED: He puts his hand on his heart. Wyatt is startled by Jonathan's passionate outburst. WYATT Yeah, well, I'm weeping big wet ones for you both. Now, let's get on with it. (BEAT) I don't have all night, Jonathan. Jonathan reluctantly nods his assent. Wyatt lets go of the key card. Jonathan opens his bag... SAME - MOMENTS LATER CLOSE ON JONATHAN'S LAPTOP SCREEN as it defuzzes from sleep. The screen as it was, cursor blinking by the request for an access code. Wyatt watches intensely as Jonathan starts to type -- then pauses, looking confused. Jonathan quickly reaches around. to the back of his laptop, feels an empty jack - and suddenly turns pale. WYATT What is it? JONATHAN My wireless modem - I must have left it in the conference room. I can't get back online. Wyatt glares at Jonathan, seething. WYATT You stupid fuck. JONATHAN I can go back there and- WYATT No. (thinks, then abruptly) Get up. INT. PLAZA HOTEL - LOBBY - MOMENTS LATER Wyatt and Jonathan crossing the lobby; they arrive at HOTEL GUEST BUSINESS CENTER, partitioned by a wall of glass. Jonathan and Wyatt stand on the other side, peering in. (CONTINUED) 109. CONTINUED: JONATHAN They don't let you use your own computer. Wyatt takes out a hundred dollar bill, gives it to Jonathan. WYATT They will now. Jonathan takes the hundred, and heads into INT. HOTEL.BUSINESS CENTER Empty at this hour, with the exception of a sleepy-looking EMPLOYEE. As Jonathan steps toward the desk, he takes out the hotel key card, his eyes travelling up to a clock overhead: 11:29. INT. LOBBY (OUTSIDE THE BUSINESS CENTER) Wyatt eyes Jonathan on the other side of the glass. INSERT WYATT'S POV: Jonathan explaining himself to the clerk. Satisfied, Wyatt finds a comfortable chair with a direct view of the business center's glass. Across the lobby, an attractive AUBURN-HAIRED WOMAN in business attire glances over at him. INT. BUSINESS CENTER Jonathan is subtly slipping the $100 bill to the Employee. EMPLOYEE You forgot your. own room number? JONATHAN I just checked in and it's been a hectic day. Look at me! The Employee looks uneasy - something about the ill-concealed tension in Jonathan's eyes. EMPLOYEE You could just ask at the front desk. I'm sure they can- JONATHAN I really don't have time, okay? Jonathan presses the bill into the Employee's palm, peers up at the clock again: the big hand clicks over to 11:30. (CONTINUED) 110. CONTINUED: BACK TO WYATT IN THE LOBBY Still eyeing Jonathan. He sees the Employee hesitate, then accept the money. Wyatt looks relieved -- when his view is abruptly blocked by the Auburn-Haired Woman. AUBURN HAIR Pardon me, but may I ask you something - personal? Wyatt quickly looks up at her, momentarily confused. AUBURN HAIR Are you waiting for me? BACK TO JONATHAN IN BUSINESS CENTER The Employee finishes swiping his card through a scanner. EMPLOYEE Room 907. JONATHAN 907 - thanks. BACK TO WYATT IN THE LOBBY His view of Jonathan still obscured by Auburn Hair. WYATT What the hell are you -- And then he sees Auburn Hair glance unsurely at the Eloise portrait, then at her cell phone's clock -- and now realizes: WYATT Motherfucker! He jumps up, shoves Auburn Hair aside - eyes darting to the Business Center to find Jonathan no longer behind the glass, just his laptop resting on the counter where he'd been standing. INT. HOTEL ELEVATOR Jonathan rushes into an elevator car just as it's about to close. He turns to find a YOUNG FAMILY riding up with him. They've pressed floor 6. He presses floor 9. INT. HOTEL LOBBY Wyatt arrives at the elevators - none are ready to open. He furiously presses the call button, his hand hovering by his concealed gun. INT. 6TH FLOOR HALLWAY - ELEVATORS Ding as the elevator doors open and the family step out. Jonathan is left alone, impatiently waiting for the doors to close - - when his eyes land on something in the hallway: the fire alarm. He suddenly reaches out to stop the elevator door just as it's about to close. INT. 6TH FLOOR HALLWAY Wide shot of an empty hotel hallway -- as suddenly the fire alarm blares to life. Pan 180 to find Jonathan dipping into an emergency exit stairwell. INT. PLAZA HOTEL - LOBBY Wyatt is just about to step onto an elevator, when a crowd of wedding guests also start to pile in. Furious, he abandons the elevators for the nearest stairs. INT. 7TH FLOOR HALLWAY GUESTS spilling out of rooms met by the blaring alarm... INT. 8TH FLOOR HALLWAY . as Jonathan smashes the glass of yet another fire alarm. INT. LOBBY - SECURITY DESK Surveillance monitors show guests in the various hallways and stairwells rushing in confusion at all angles... SECURITY (O.S.) We've got alarms on two - wait, three floors - EXT. HOTEL ROOFTOP Only the party 30 stories above remains oblivious: music still blasting, the upscale throngs still partying. 112. INT. STAIRWELL Wyatt is bounding up the stairs, rounding the Fifth Floor - - when he hears the door overhead bang open, and like a tidal wave a flood of guests fill the stairwell. Wyatt presses against the crush of bodies, pushing his way up the stairwell. INT. 9TH FLOOR - HALLWAY Close on a door marked by a placard: 9th floor -- as it's banged open by Jonathan's shoulder. The sound of the fire alarm is fainter up here as Jonathan races down the carpeted corridor, room numbers blurring past in sporadic fits - 925...921... 918... 913... 910... Jonathan finally lurches to a halt before room 907. He takes out his key card, about to slide it in the slot -- when a hand grabs his forearm! He spins in panic to -- - a CLEANING WOMAN. She says something.in Vietnamese, indicating the ringing alarms. JONATHAN Fire, I know - I'll be out in a minute. The scared Cleaning Woman nods and hurries off as Jonathan quickly slides the key in the slot. The light blinks green. He jerks the door handle and throws open the door to find - INT. ROOM 907 - nothing. The room is freshly made up, no sign of life other than A PORNO FILM BLARING from the TV set on Pay-Per-View. Jonathan's heart is pounding - where is she? He searches every corner, the bathroom, the closets. Everywhere. The sterile room taunts him - the uncreased bedspread, the neat arrangement of the complimentary stationary, the incessant moaning coming from the porn on the TV set -- Jonathan suddenly erupts, grips the TV and shoves it off its ledge. It hits the floor with a crash, and sudden silence. Jonathan rubs his brow, heaving in desperation -- when his eyes land on the sleek, dark piece on which the TV was (CONTINUED) 113. CONTINUED: resting; it's a dense, rectangular block - only when Jonathan taps it, he realizes: it's hollow. He immediately seizes it, yanks it from the wall... And there she is, lying face down in a lifeless heap: "S". Panicked, Jonathan rushes to her, turns her over. She looks semi-conscious, hands and mouth duct-taped. Jonathan hurriedly removes the tape, gently shakes her, terrified by how lifeless she appears - - when her eyes widen, focus on his face. Before he can say anything, she throws her arms around his neck, presses her face to his chest. ‚ÄûS., (whispers gratefully) You're alive. He's struck by these words, and nods, holding her face in his hands as he kisses her urgently and gratefully. JONATHAN What do you say we stick together from now on? JA S" I'd like that. INT. EMERGENCY STAIRWELL A rush of guests hurriedly descending the staircase, a seemingly endless stream of densely packed faces. Close on Wyatt jostled within the flow of the wealthy guests - as he's the only one heading up. He passes the 6th floor... INT. 9TH FLOOR Jonathan and "S" hurrying down the hall - Jonathan torn between a choice of two stairwells. His eyes dart from one to another - he finally gambles on the one to the right. INT. EMERGENCY STAIRWELL Wyatt forcing his way upstream with menacing determination; his gaze is wilder, more and more irritated by the descending mob of successful, well-dressed guests he's pushing against -- - when he halts, peering up through the railings' lozenge- shaped opening, past a collection of hands and profiles... .to Jonathan and "S" some three stories above. (CONTINUED) 114 CONTINUED: TIGHT ON WYATT. As yet unnoticed by Jonathan, he remains halted on a stair, bodies squeezing past him. TIGHTER ON HIS EYES. That predatory gleam. EVEN TIGHTER ON HIS GUN, tucked carefully at his side. CLOSE ON JONATHAN AND "S" three stories above, starting to descend -- when Jonathan notices the hint of disruption in the flow of bodies below. Immediately wary, he leans over the railing, but can't get a good look. He grips the railing, leans further over... and his eyes find Wyatt's staring right back up at him -- JONATHAN He's down there! I saw him - 11 SIP Oh God - JONATHAN Up - we've got to go up! Clutching her arm, Jonathan and "S" turn back up, against the flow of traffic. Stories above, less and less people are evacuating. ANGLE ON WYATT as he presses upward, his steely gaze even more rapacious. The crowd is thinning as Jonathan and "S" race upward as well. INSERT JONATHAN'S POV: a shaky, dizzying blur as they race higher and higher... INSERT WYATT'S POV: from below but gaining on them, Jonathan and "S". appearing and disappearing with each twist and turn of the staircase... CLOSE ON JONATHAN AND "S", desperately racing upwards... CLOSE ON WYATT bounding the stairs, footsteps echoing, the staircase now empty and quiet, save for the footfall of Jonathan and "S" - no more than three floors above Wyatt now... Wyatt slows his pace, leans into the railing, takes aim... CLOSE ON JONATHAN AND "S" still hurrying up - when a shot rings out, a jolting echo clanging through the stairwell, the (CONTINUED) 115. CONTINUED: bullet missing them by inches. "S" screams, Jonathan tugs her with him - - when a second shot rings out, the bullet punching a dent into the underside of the stairs just overhead. ON WYATT, realizing he needs a cleaner shot, taking the stairs even harder in pursuit, all merciless intensity. EXT. HOTEL ROOFTOP - MOMENTS LATER The party is still at full throttle. Apparently no one has yet told them of the alarms. CLOSE ON A STAIRWELL DOOR MARKED "EMERGENCY EXIT" as it suddenly bangs open and Jonathan and "S" spill out. They pause a moment - thrown by the sight of all the wealthy, beautiful faces, laughing, dancing. JONATHAN Come on! She grabs his hand, and they waste no time disappearing into the mass of bodies. They keep moving. Shoulder to shoulder within the swell of partiers, they fit right in - instantly anonymous - though not as smartly attired. BACK TO THE STAIRWELL DOOR as Wyatt enters the party, scanning the dense crowd, all senses alert. INSERT WYATT'S POV: just a mass of successful, attractive, partying young men and women. There's no way to pick Jonathan and "S" out. Wyatt's smirk fades to an icy glare as he stalks the periphery. WITHIN THE CROWD "S" clutches Jonathan's hand, their heads ducked low as they press forward... CLOSE ON WYATT, frustration gnashing at him as he quickens his pace, the idiotic enthusiasm of the crowd enraging him, sweat beading on his face -- -- when suddenly the music stops. Wyatt frowns., eyes darting. CLOSE ON JONATHAN AND "S" glancing around in confusion - SECURITY (DISTANT U.S.) Ladies and Gentlemen, we need everyone to evacuate the hotel. This way please. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: The crowd noise resumes, as the throngs begrudgingly start for the exits. ON JONATHAN AND "S," doing their best to stay concealed within the exiting crowd. Angle on Wyatt pushing his way through the crush, shoving people aside, trying to find them - - when he suddenly stops. He has an idea. He takes out his cell phone. BACK TO JONATHAN AND "5" within the crowd - - when Jonathan's cell phone RINGS. CLOSE ON JONATHAN as his eyes widen in panic. RING... He quickly fumbles for it, tries to turn it off - - but it's too late... WHIP ACROSS THE CROWD to Wyatt, grinning wider. He's spotted them. In an instant he is bee- lining through the packed suits. WIDE SHOT OF THE ROOFTOP as the throngs are clearing out. Jonathan grabs "S" as they duck, racing across the dark, rooftop, looking for a place to hide. They take cover behind a large venting duct near the ledge - gasping to catch their breath... Stepping back, "S's" foot clinks against something: a stray iron railing post. She reaches. down for it, starts to lift it - - when Wyatt's hand darts in and grasps the other end. She looks up in terror - when Wyatt punches her violently, knocking her to the ground. Jonathan rushes to her - only to be blocked by Wyatt, gripping the iron rod tight. WYATT Nice try back there, Jonathan. Looks like you picked up a thing or two from me. Jonathan tries to strike him - when with a lightning quick movement Wyatt whips the iron rod through the air, cracking Jonathan across the face. WYATT Killer instinct, pall (CONTINUED) 117. CONTINUED: Jonathan crumples, his glasses knocked to the ground. CLOSE ON WYATT as he grips the iron rod like a tennis racquet, steps into position - - and brings the rod down on Jonathan with ruthless tennis strokes: Backhand! Bam! Forehand! Bam! Slice! Bam! Jonathan can barely peer up, bloody and beaten. He hears Wyatt drop the iron rod... JONATHAN'S POV: Wyatt's blurry figure hovering above suddenly swoops in on us - - as Wyatt grabs Jonathan by the throat, hefts him up and yanks him back to the roof's concrete ledge. Jonathan fights to struggle free - when Wyatt jams the gun under his chin. Jonathan freezes. JONATHAN (GASPING) They'll... catch... you... WYATT Me? No - no, I'm just a face in the crowd. I'm a tourist, just passing through. JONATHAN'S POV: Wyatt's face presses closer, now almost in focus as he presses Jonathan's torso back over the ledge - WYATT As for you, you had your fun... Wyatt presses closer, crushing Jonathan's back to the edge. WYATT Now we're going to go back down... INSERT JONATHAN'S HAND reaching into Wyatt's pocket, his fingers fumbling for the cell phone (Jonathan's old phone). WYATT We're going to get that laptop... CLOSE ON JONATHAN'S FINGERS blindly prodding - he has the phone now - his fingers feel for the antenna... WYATT And we're going to finish this, once and for - - when with all his strength Jonathan jams the cell phone up into Wyatt's eye, the antenna punching into the retina. (CONTINUED) 118 CONTINUED: Wyatt's grasp slips from Jonathan's collar as he stumbles back, cupping a hand to his wound as he swings his gun toward Jonathan - - when with every ounce of strength Jonathan charges, Wyatt's shot missing him as Jonathan slams him into the ledge wall, seizing the momentum to turn himself - - as Wyatt falls right over the edge of the hotel rooftop... EXT. THE PLAZA HOTEL (WIDE SHOT) .Wyatt's body plummeting down the magnificent facade, vanishing into the vastness of the city below. EXT. ROOFTOP CLOSE ON JONATHAN as he crawls to the ledge, peers down into the darkness. He exhales, then turns back to "S" - - to find she's right beside him, grateful tears in her eye. She leans into him, and he holds her tight, the two of them embraced on the precipice as we DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PLAZA HOTEL - STREET LEVEL - SHORT TIME LATER Strobed reds and blues of police and fire.trucks amassed, trying to control the throngs of guests and pedestrians blocking our view of the body they're all gawking at. We travel through the confusion until we find JONATHAN AND "S" sitting side by side on the sidewalk curb, each propped against the other. The 'shock of it all is beginning to fade. He reaches into his pocket and hands her 'Duck on Bike'. JONATHAN Yours, I believe. 01S.11 Thanks, Frank. She winds the toy up. They watch it make it's funny way down the sidewalk. JONATHAN Can I ask you something personal? She nods. (CONTINUED) 119. CONTINUED: JONATHAN What's your name? "S" considers the request, then smiles gently, leans in close and whispers the answer in his ear. Jonathan gazes at her a moment - whatever her name is, it must be perfect. JONATHAN So what now? She smiles up at him. S Well... are you free tonight? On Jonathan: treasuring these moments. He is truly free -- perhaps for the first time in his life. JONATHAN Yes. I'm free. They gaze at each other. We leave Jonathan and "S" to their privacy, pulling back as they continue talking, continuing away until we're THROUGH A WINDOW AND INSIDE THE HOTEL ITSELF the window itself now a frame, letter-boxing the scene, people passing like fish in their tank... except for Jonathan and S, seated center-frame, two small figures side by side, face to face, talking intimately as we. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Deep Rising.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deep Rising.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e819f15c9f3d4be6c9ed7fad21e0539cf4847033 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deep Rising.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Deep Rising formerly known as TENTACLE by Steven Sommers & Robert Mark Kamen extended revisions by Robert Mark Kamen Revised Draft Jan. 1st, 1996 OPEN TO: A FLASH OF LIGHTNING rips the HOLLYWOOD PICTURES LOGO away, and we find ourselves in the middle of... 1 STORMY SEA - NIGHT 1 SUPERIMPOSED: SOUTH CHINA SEA The dark blue waters roil and boil and foam. THUNDER CRACKS. LIGHTING FLASHES. CUT TO: 2 UNDERWATER - NIGHT 2 An enormous Japanese BATHYSCAPHE free-falls through the water. An autonomous fifteen-man submersible. Almost futuristic in its design. The nose cone is an amazing ultra high-pressure plexi-dome. LETTERING along the side tells us this is the "SHINKAI 90000." COMPUTER PRINTED across the SCREEN are the WORDS: ASSIGNMENT: GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION. SUB-OCEANIC SEISMIC RESEARCH. TECTONIC PLATE SURVEILLANCE. ADDENDUM: ABOUT TO BREAK THE WORLD'S RECORD FOR THE DEEPEST DIVE... 3 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 3 The JAPANESE CAPTAIN watches a DLD laser tracking system and barks one-word questions to his JAPANESE CREW. The Sailors work the consoles and give clipped monosyllabic answers. The JAPANESE SCIENCE OFFICERS go over charts on the electronic position board, a contiuously-shifting graphic representation of the ocean contours below. Behind them is an elaborate DEPTH GAUGE with computerized graphics. READ: 34,000 feet and dropping. The Crew works at a fevered pitch. An ALARM SOUNDS as the depth gauge sounds 35,000 feet. All eyes on the depth gauge. Several Science Officers share excited looks. 4 ON THE DEPTH GAUGE: 35,100 -- 35,200 -- 35,300 -- 35,400...4 The excitement builds. Even the Captain's weathered eyes widen. And then, as the depth gauge hits 35,801 feet below sea level, the entire Crew breaks into CHEERS, WHOOPS, HANDSHAKES AND HIGH-FIVES. CUT TO: 5 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 5 As it continues its descent, it passes corroding metal drums leaking toxic waste, radioactive waste, dumped in the depths, away from prying eyes, and populated areas. The vessel drops into the SULU BASIN. Imagine the Grand Canyon under forty thousand feet of water. But the Sulu Basin is ten times the size of the Grand Canyon. Down here, ten thousand fathoms below the storm, all is calm. The dual TURBO-PROPS on the ear of the submersible KICK ON. The Bathysaphe is now mobile. It glides down the side of an enormous rock face, carefully avoiding massive sandstone pinnacles which jut up from the ocean floor far below. DISSOLVE TO: 6 DEEP SEA - NIGHT 6 THE SHINKAI hovers near a gigantic tectonic plate. A ROBOTIC ARM extends out from under the plexi-dome. Its "hand" is a high-tech LASER CUTTER. It approaches the plate, steadies, then fires a direct BLUE BEAM at the bedrock, burns the rock into magma and cuts a perfect round pattern. Another ROBOTIC ARM reaches forward, its CLAW rips out the cut rock from inside the pattern, then takes the sample and sets it inside a hydro-basket on the submersible's port side. DISSOLVE TO: 7 MINDINAO DEEP - NIGHT 7 A desolate, barren, spooky place. Nothing breathes. Nothing lives. Or so it would appear. The creepy, foreboding MUSICAL SCORE tells us otherwise. The Shinkai ENTERS a huge ROCK FISSURE. CUT TO: 8 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 8 The Captain and the Science Officers stare through the plexi dome and out into the freezing, cobalt blue of the PALAWAN TROUGH. The MUSIC intensifies as they round each curve. Then, dead ahead, is the end of the trough, which is half-blocked by a rock-encrusted embankment. The MUSIC builds. The Shinkai approaches the embankment. Slowly starts to glide up the side. The Captain and Science Officers seem mesmerized by all the lonely creepiness. They crest the embankment. And the plexi-domed VIEW FILLS with an unimaginable horror. As far as the eye can see, the entire murky landscape is filled with WHALE BONES. A valley of death. Cluttered here and there, carelessly flung about, are the rusting hulks of several ships. Seemingly ripped apart. Clusters of shark cartilage float through the water like white ghosts. The Captain, the Science Officers and the entire Crew just stare, frozen in place by the strange horror before them. CUT TO: 9 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 9 The vessel cruises through the valley of death. Everyone is nervously taking readings, making calculations and adjusting equipment. Gone is the excitement and euphoria of the record breaking. Several Crewmen cast nervous glances out through the plexi dome. Giant skeletons everywhere. CUT TO: 10 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 10 The Shinkai approaches an eerie-looking rock formation. The robotic arm comes out. The laser cutter steadies, aims, then shoots out its blue beam and cuts into the rock. WHOOSH!! A HUGE JET STREAM OF INKY BLOOD BLASTS OUT OF THE FORMATION! CUT TO: 11 SHNKAI 9000 - NIGHT 11 The Captain and the Science Officers recoil as the inky stuff envelopes the plexi-dome, completely blotting out the VIEW. CUT TO: 12 PALAWAN TROUGH - NIGHT 12 The Shinkai VANISHES into a huge cloud of inky blood. We HOLD for a LONG OMINOUS BEAT. And then, like a slow-motion earthquake, large boulders and giant crevices begin to shift in the murky waters. WHALE BONES TOPPLE and SCATTER. Several feet under the ancient silt, something is coming alive. CUT TO: 13 SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT 13 Everything outside the plexi-dome is still BLACK. Everyone is staring at the position board, which shows a large section of the OCEAN FLOOR STARTING TO MOVE, its contours incongruous with the rest of the graphic representation. The Science Officers look stunned. The Captain barks commands. The Crew leaps into high gear. Then the Captain reverses the trottle, and petal-to-the-metal he starts to back out. The inky blood swirls past the plexi-dome. Then suddenly, and impossibly, the SUBMERSIBLE JERKS TO A HALT. Everybody goes ass-over-teacups. EQUIPMENT SHATTERS. SPARKS FLY. GLASS BREAKS. Lots of YELLING in Japanese. The SHINKAI starts to ROCK and SHAKE. Something has a hold on it. More EQUIPMENT SHATTERS. Men are thrown about. Then it stops rocking. The Sailors stop yelling. Everything goes dead quiet. Frightened eyes share terror-filled looks. A SOUND is HEARD coming from the exterior of the ship, like feet runing across the outside of the hull. Very creepy. The HULL starts to MOAN and CREAK from an UNSEEN PRESSURE. And then the sub begins to be crushed like it's a beer can. The metal HULL TORQUES on all sides. RIVETS POP and SNAP. WATER SPRAYS and SHOOTS. More SPARKS FLY. The STEEL PLATING DIMPLES, CRUMBLES and SCREAMS in agony. CHAOS. PANDEMONIUM. And then the SHINKAI IMPLODES. A massive CHURNING SWIRL of water, metal and men. SMASH CUT TO: 14 SOUTH CHINA SEA - SUNSET 14 THE SAIPAN, a tricked out Jet Foil, built for speed not looks, gunmetal blue, lean and mean, rips across the choppy water. The Rolling Stones STREETFIGHTING MAN pours out of the jet foil, reverberating over the waves, as the CAMERA rushes right at the windsheild and into... CUT TO: 15 PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET 15 Stripped down, low frills, high tech... ...where JOHN T. FINNEGAN, bathed in the last light of day, all taut muscle and sinew, all business, with every one of his 38 years etched on his rugged, good looking face, is harnessed into the steering pylon, wrestling with his steering-sticks, holding the bouncing jetfoil steady as he can, hauling ass, propelled, it seems, by the music blasting out of four state of the art speakers bolted to the metal walls. Light from the laser imagers plays across Finnegan's face. The face of a man in his element, on the edge, in control. He barks commands into his RADIO HEADSET. FINNEGAN How we doing out there? THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD we see LEILA, a muscular Filipina clambering over the foredeck. She's dripping wet. Tough as nails. She turns to Finnegan and "mouths" something into her headset. Finnegan flashes her his most charming smile. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Yes, I'm very warm and dry in here, thank you for your concern. His HEADSET comes alive withe the SOUND of LEILA bitching in an unintelligible foreign tongue. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) A raise? I already pay you two bucks a day. He watches as Leila fights the WIND and SEASPRAY and dogs tight a series of hatch-latches across the foredeck. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Missed one darling. Leila turns and gives him a "jerking-off" sign with her hand. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) I love you too. The Radar Imager suddenly blinks, and goes to black. Dead. Finnegan taps on the screen. Nothing. Taps on the console. Still nothing. Simultaneously two more imagers shut down. His mouth screws tight. CUT TO: 16 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 16 Crammed wall to wall with enough horsepower to fly a 747. Pumped out of two thumping engines. The domain of a scruffy, shifty-eyed, likeable little weasel of a mechanical genius...JOEY PANTUCCI. Wearing a mechanic's toolbelt, slung sideways across the hips like a gunslinger, singing the theme to "Gilligan's Island" over the engine's roar. Way off-key. His hands crammed deep in a tangle of wires. On the walls are a few pictures: Of a few major league engines. Of a few major league pinups, and a few of Pantucci and Finnegan...together in the U.S. Navy...in front of the Saipan in shinier days. PANTUCCI (singing) " -- if not for the courage of the fearless crew -- " He tugs at the wires. PANTUCCI (CONT'D) " -- the Minnow would be lost, the Minowwww would be lost." Finnegan's voice explodes through his headset... FINNEGAN (V.O.) (radio filtered) PANTUCCI!! Unperturbed, Pantucci works at the wires. PANTUCCI (into radio) Can we use our indoor voice please... FINNEGAN (V.O.) (radio filtered) I'm flying blind here God damn it! Pantucci pulls two wires from the tangle. PANTUCCI You trying to make me feel guilty? He begins to strip the wires with his teeth. CUT TO: 17 PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET 17 Finnegan peers out of the windscreen, trying to see ahead of himself. FINNEGAN Guilty will be the least of what you feel when I run my rig into one of these god damn no name islands! Get me well here! CUT TO: 18 ENGINE ROOM 18 Pantucci twists one wire around another. PANTUCCI All better... 19 PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET 19 The console lights up. The screens come back on line. Finnegan is pleased. PANTUCCI (V.O.) Now tell me again... CUT TO: 20 ENGINE ROOM 20 Pantucci works his wrench around an engine mount. And his nervous eyes around six men, big, bad men, standing on the far side of the engines out in a narrow passage. A Maori(VIVO). Two Aussies(MASON and MULLIGAN). A Samoan(MAMOOLI). A Chinese(CHIN). And an Aborigine (BILLY). Tattooed, armed to the teeth, packed in Kevlar body armor. Mercenaries. Who would as soon wring your neck as shake your hand. And a sixth man. HANOVER. The obvious leader. Smoother than the rest, but still showing the edge of a man risen from their ranks. He consults his watch with a growing concern. PANTUCCI ...why we took this job? CUT TO: 21 PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET 21 Finnegan hits a button on his console. The Stones are replaced by the first chords of LAYLA. FINNEGAN If I told you once...I told you a thousand times... CUT TO: 22 ENGINE ROOM 22 PANTUCCI (rote) I know...I know...if the cash is there we don't care... (nervous) Finnegan this is as mean a pile of shit as we ever carried... Pantucci notices Hanover impatiently looking at his watch again, and nods for a mass of Aussie mean and muscle named MASON to follow him up a ladder. PANTUCCI (CONT'D) ...and some of it's coming your way. He quickly pulls out a wrench, slaps it over a bolt and tightens it down. The leak stops. He blows on the WRENCH like it's a six-shooter, then spins it at the speed of light and holsters it into his toolbelt. CUT TO: 23 PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET 23 As Finnegan is watching the sea ahead, swathed in the shrieking Clapton guitar solos, the hatch opens. Hanover enters, followed by Mason, who leaves the hatch door ajar. Finnegan's eyes remain fixed on the sea. His ears on the Clapton. Hanover and Mason hold onto any available rail as the boat slams over the waves. HANOVER You remember the first time we met Finnegan? I think you were just starting out...smuggling gold off Sumatra for those two Chinese...what did we use to call them? FINNEGAN Fok Yu and Fok Yu Two...are we strolling down memory lane for any particular reason? HANOVER No, it just struck me as odd...I don't see you for all these years and you've still got the same tape stuck in the box. FINNEGAN You know what they say...the classics are eternal. Hanover looks at the Topo Imager. Holding onto the rail to keep his balance as the boat slams over the choppy sea. HANOVER So where are we? Finnegan points to a spot in the middle of the map. FINNEGAN Right here...middle of nowhere... HANOVER And where is our point of arrival? Finnegan points to another spot on the map. FINNEGAN Right here...middle of nowhere...and the answer to your question is yes. HANOVER Which question is that? FINNEGAN The one you came up to ask...are we on schedule? HANOVER (to Mason) Take note Mr. Mason...this is why you hire a professional...No whining. No excuses. MASON (attitude) I've heard a lot of stories about you mate... FINNEGAN All of them flattering I'm sure. MASON They were...but they musta been talking about another Finnegan... because the one I heard about was as rough as they came...the one I'm looking at is, well, about as current as the music. HANOVER Don't mind him Finnegan...you remember 25...balls of steel... splashing around in a sea of testosterone. FINNEGAN I don't mind him...but I do think it's time for him to get back down below with the rest of the playgroup. MASON And who's gonna make me? Finnegan looks at Mason...at the open hatchway just behind him... FINNEGAN The Finnegan you heard about. ...and jams the steering sticks full speed ahead. The force of acceleration tumbles Hanover into the console. Mason tumbles out the open hatchway, down the stairs behind him. As he rises, Hanover regards Finnegan for a moment. A smile flits across his face. HANOVER That's why we're sill around Finnegan...you and me... Nothing gets the feathers up. Business is business. Eh? Finnegan's hand finds the console. He hits a button. The first strains of Led Zepplin's WHOLE LOTTA LOVE comes roaring out of the speakers. FINNEGAN And the classics are eternal. Finnegan cranks the sound to the max, pulls back on both steer sticks, and holds on, as the force of acceleration hammers him into the pylon. CUT TO: 24 OPEN SEA - SUNSET 24 The Saipan roars off into the setting sun, hell bent for leather. Zepplin screaming in its wake. CUT TO: 25 SOUTH CHINA SEA - NIGHT 25 Sailing through the mild waters of the South China Sea, a luxury cruise liner. The FUJI MARU. Top of the line. State of the art. And absolutely MASSIVE. No expense has been spared. Breathtaking. Gunfire shatters the serenity of the night. CUT TO: 26 FUJI MARU DECK - NIGHT 26 A group of tony British passengers is shooting skeet. Being night, the CLAY PIGEONS are glow-in-the-dark. They EXPLODE over the WATERSPORTS PLATFORM, where TWO JET SKIS swing from harnesses, and TWO SPEEDBOATS are being hoisted up the side. CUT TO: 27 CRYSTAL POOL DECK - NIGHT 27 Rigged for a formal party. Chinese lanterns sway in the breeze. A band plays. Hundreds of wealthy Passengers, the men in tuxedos, the women in drop dead gowns, dripping with jewelry, dance, flirt, gossip, as an endless stream of waiters ply the floor with champagne laden trays. CLOSE ON: The sexiest pair of spiked heels ever to grace the foot of a woman, stopping at the top of the deck. PAN UP: A shimmering golden gown, high slit on the sides to reveal a perfect set of legs, a runway model's body, a cover girl's face...and a thief's sharp ferret eyes. TRILLIAN. A class act from top to bottom. A head turner for either sex, and knows it. She holds an orchid in her hand. Trillian scans the crowd, looking for her prey...and finds him. Her POV. The Ship's smug Captain. JEAN BAPTISTE DELCROIX. She fixes the orchid in her hair just so, about to move... OLD WOMAN He said an orchid and a beautiful woman belonged together... It was our first date. Trillian looks down to a petite old woman, dressed impeccably, delicate, frail, her beauty long faded except from her eyes. Kindness becomes her, like moonlight does the night. OLD WOMAN (CONT'D) He said that it was the orchid I wore that made him fall in love with me... TRILLIAN He sounds like a real gentleman. OLD WOMAN The best of the best he was... This cruise was supposed to be our 60th anniversary gift to each other. He died last Spring... TRILLIAN I'm so sorry... OLD WOMAN I was going to wear one...special for him...like a memory... The Old Woman looks at the orchid. And then at Trillian. OLD WOMAN (CONT'D) But without him here I don't know why I should. Trillian takes the orchid from her hair, and places it in the lapel of the woman's jacket. TRILLIAN Because an orchid and a beautiful woman belong together. The smile Trillian bestows on the old woman is loving, sincere. The moment between them is broken by the keen clear sound of a silver spoon tapping a crystal champagne flute. CANTON (V.O.) Ladies and gentlemen... ANGLE ON: The deck where the band stops playing. Voices hush. Everyone turns to NIGEL CANTON, 65, tall, elegant, every white hair perfectly in place, impeccably turned out, with the energy, and enthusiasm of a man half his age. Canton stands at the head of the pool, in front of a wall sized aquarium, flanked by his Captain. CANTON (CONT'D) All my life I had the dream of building the greatest pleasure ship ever to sail the seven seas... tonight, seeing all of you here...so elegant...so beautiful...so rich... The crowd roars with laughter. CANTON (CONT'D) I realize my dream has come true...I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making it so... Canton lifts his glass. CANTON (CONT'D) To the Fuji Maru! Good times forever! CROWD Forever!! Here! Here! The crowd swells around Canton. ANGLE ON: The Captain chatting up some passengers when a woman's voice, seductive, beguiling, turns his head to... TRILLIAN (French) Is it true what they say about a captain and his boat. The Captain's libido rises as he gazes into Trillian's come hither eyes. CAPTAIN Is what true madame? Trillian takes one step closer, until her moist lips are pursed inches from the captain's. TRILLIAN (French) Madamoiselle...that the bigger the boat...the bigger the man... His breath catches. CAPTAIN It is a theory I would be glad to put to the test. Trillian draws even closer. If looks could cause a man to climax. TRILLIAN (French) In school, the Sisters said testing was my specialty. PASSENGER Captain... Driven to distraction, The Captain turns his attention for a moment to a passenger introducing his wife. PASSENGER (CONT'D) My wife... CAPTAIN Enchante... ANGLE ON: Trillian, turning from the captain into the crowd. C.U. on her hand by the side of her dress. A man's wallet held surreptitiously. Her fingers open the wallet, extract a thin gold card with a black stripe. She discards the wallet, keeps the card, and disappears into the crowd. CUT TO: 28 FUJI MARU BRIDGE - NIGHT 28 Top of the line. State of the art. The crew is multinational. English is the common language, but everyone has an accent. Canton, the picture of self-satisfaction, enters, sipping champagne. CANTON You wanted to see me Captain? The Captain stands next to a bank of LASER IMAGING SYSTEMS. Canton steps up. Looks down at the THERMAL RADAR IMAGER. Multi-colored LASER IMAGES. CAPTAIN We have a storm rising behind us... we may have to close the canopy, I hope it doesn't ruin your party. CANTON (self-satisfied) Ruin my party? Captain, this ship was built to withstand a typhoon. I can't imagine there's anything on the sea today that could possibly ruin my party. SMASH CUT TO: 29 JETFOIL - NIGHT 29 C.U. A crowbar quietly pops the top off a wooden crate to reveal the lethal looking tip of a torpedo...PULL BACK TO: Pantucci in the storage hold, surrounded by half a dozen crates, his wily eyes popped wide with apprehension. He licks his lips nervously, looks around and whispers into his headset. PANTUCCI (whispers) Finnegan...Finnegan... A hand falls on his shoulder, spinning him around to a fist coming right into his face. CUT TO: 30 PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 30 Jimi Hendrix. THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER. Blasting. As the Jet foil rockets across the waves. Leila, stripped out of her soaking wet clothes, down to her panties and bra, stands wiping her dripping wet, magnificently ripped body, with a dry towel. Leila puts her fingers in her ears. LEILA Gum kwa she bam dok. FINNEGAN It's not noise...it's genius... And then over the headset, over the Hendrix... PANTUCCI (V.O.) FINNEGANNNN!! Followed by the unmistakable sound of fist hitting flesh. Finnegan and Leila trade a look. CUT TO: 31 HOLD - NIGHT 31 A massive fist plows into Pantucci's stomach. He drops from the arms of MULLIGAN, a scar-faced Irishman with a buzz cut. As quickly as he is doubled over he is yanked up straight by the man who hit him, VIVO, a merciless Maori, covered by tattoos, topped off with venom. MULLIGAN You know what my goal is? Before I die I want to make love to a woman from every country on earth. VIVO You mean countries that are acknowledged by the UN...or like made up countries too? MULLIGAN What the hell does that mean? VIVO Like Mamooli's country... MAMOOLI What you talkin'? Samoa's a county! VIVO It's a dot on a map... MULLIGAN Map...no map...I don't give a shit ...they got women on Samoa, it's on the list. HANOVER Mr. Billy you're in the batter's box. Hanover watches calmly as BILLY, the Aborigine, cracks his fist against the side of Pantucci's head, knocking him out of Vivo's arms. BILLY At home we denosy the nosy. BILLY hoists Pantucci. He draws his knife under Pantucci's bloody nose. HANOVER We're not savage here Mr. Billy... we're professionals. Hold him...Mr. Chin... The Chinese merc steps forward, and whaps Pantucci upside the head with a cruelly accurate crescent kick. Pantucci hits the wall hard, crumbling. Chin lifts him. HANOVER (CONT'D) Anyone else? Massive Mason steps forward. MASON I'll take a go and the I vote we throw the little weasel overboard... MULLIGAN I vote we slit his throat THEN throw him overboard... Mason raises his ham of a fist drawing his tree trunk arm back, taking dead aim at Pantucci's face. He never gets the punch off. His arm is caught from behind. He looks over his shoulder to Finnegan. Gripping his wrist. Right in his face. FINNEGAN ...this is not a democracy. You don't get a vote. Mason, enraged, swings with his free hand. Finnegan twists his arm sharply, sending Mason's head into the steel wall, knocking the big man senseless. The other mercenaries go to draw their weapons. Before the guns are out of holsters, Finnegan swings a spear gun into Hanover's face, an inch from his eye. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) I'll say it again for the hearing impaired... Finnegan cocks the spear. CLICK! Hanover does not blink. Everyone freezes. With his free hand Finnegan lifts Pantucci to his unsteady feet, the spear stays poised. Finnegan backs out of the room. HANOVER This isn't right Finnegan. I've got a contract. FINNEGAN (RECITING) 20 hours on the clock. Out and back. Double for overtime. HANOVER And no questions asked. FINNEGAN Who asked any? HANOVER He did...with a crowbar...you know the rules on a broken contract. FINNEGAN I know it...but you want to get where you want to get, and back? I need a chief engineer, and unless you got a replacement, I'd highly recommend overlooking the indiscretion. With that Finnegan leads Pantucci out of the hold, slamming the door behind him. PANTUCCI Thanks... Finnegan turns his gaze to Pantucci. It makes the smaller man quiver. FINNEGAN You put me in that position again I'll throw you overboard myself. Finnegan stalks off. Pantucci swallows hard, knowing he means it. CUT TO: 32 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 32 A man strides down the hall of an executive passageway, his face obscured in shadows. He has a CANISTER in his hands. Walks through a door MARKED: "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" CUT TO: 33 COMPUTER/CONTROL MONITOR ROOM - NIGHT 33 The brain center for the whole ship. Rows of computer mainframes, laser-guided imagers and D.T. processors. No humans needed. And none are present. Except one -- The Man strides purposefully down a row of computers, makes a left, then a right. He knows exactly where he's going. He arrives at an ultra-high-tech CONSOLE. The cerebellum. Three similar canisters are plugged into the console. The Man unscrews the middle canister. Screws his canister into its place. Sets the TIMER to 0:300 hours. Pushes a button. The TIMER starts to COUNT DOWN. CUT TO: 34 THE FUJI MARU - NIGHT 34 All LIT UP and looking beautiful. The wind is stronger. The party is wilder. The BAND louder. The people drunker. Rain begins to fall. Everybody moans and heads for cover. The deck's huge hydralic canopy begins to close, reviving the party spirit. CUT TO: 35 VAULT ROOM - NIGHT 35 A gold card with a black stripe slides into the security lock of a high tech vault. Lights blink. Tumblers roll. One after another the electronic locks unlock. Trillian stands back as the massive vault door swings open. With a quick look over her shoulder, she enters the vault. CUT TO: 36 VAULT - NIGHT 36 Trillian consults a list, looking for one very specific vault box. Finding it, she pulls a lock pick from her fabulous coiffure, and picks the lock in nothing flat. A pro. Flipping open the box, Trillian removes the only thing she came for. A dazzling diamond ring with the center stone the size of an egg. With a twist, she pops the stone from the setting, holds it up to admire it in the light... CANTON (V.O.) It is an amazing stone... Trillian grits her teeth, and turns to...Canton, the Captain, and two burly Chinese security men. CANTON (CONT'D) ...what were you planning on doing with it? TRILLIAN Retiring. CANTON Well you can still proceed with your plans then...in prison...Captain... escort the lady... Canton exits. The Captain steps forward, and removes the diamond ring from Trillian's hand. CAPTAIN Mademoiselle...you are not a lady. He slaps her across the face. Trillian flushes, touches the drop of blood at her lip...and decks the Captain with a vicious right cross. TRILLIAN And you...Monsieur...you are not a gentleman. CUT TO: 37 VEGETABLE LOCKER - NIGHT 37 A hatch door bursts open. Trillian is thrown inside. The DOOR SLAMS SHUT. Trillian looks around. No windows. One door. Lots of fruit and vegetables. Trillian accepts the hopelessness of her situation. She takes an apple, sits down and bites deeply, running her options. CUT TO: 38 COMPUTER/CONTROL MONITOR ROOM - SAME TIME 38 The CANISTER TIMER finishes counting down -- 4 -- 3 -- 2 -- 1. It suddenly EMITS a high-energy HUM. Intense electro static, which builds into... CUT TO: 39 SAIPAN PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 39 ...A screeching guitar solo... The Allman Brothers Band pulses out of the speakers. Finnegan is prepping the wound over Pantucci's eye for sutures. As he swabs it carefully, Leila is at the helm keeping the speeding, bouncing, boat on course. PANTUCCI Here's what I think...I think these mokes below are a hit squad. FINNEGAN I saw these guy perform...at Altmont ...you know that? They opened for the Stones... He carefully threads the surgical needle. PANTUCCI Right now...there's some bozo sitting on his yacht at those coordinates they gave us, sipping his scotch and soda...totally unawares that we are about to deliver 500 kgs of high power torpedo to light up his ass...that's what's down there in that hold and who knows what the hell else... CUT TO: 40 HOLD - NIGHT 40 The top of another wooden crate is popped revealing the answer to Pantucci's question: a chilling display of firepower. Pulse rifles. Hand held gatling guns with laser sightings. Oblong grenades. The latest in death delivery systems. Hanover and his men lift and load. Slamming shells into chambers. KA- CHANG! KA-CHANG! KA-CHANG! These boys know their toys. CUT TO: 41 PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 41 FINNEGAN Hold still now...I was like three rows back. Finnegan centers the needle over Pantucci's wound. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) ...Jagger was here...I was here... PANTUCCI You don't give a shit about anything do you? FINNEGAN Sure I do...I give a shit that at 0300 hour we reach our point of destination. I give a shit that those mojos got to do what they got to do, and 45 minutes later we are turn around and gone. I give a shit that by the time the sun comes up we are all safely tucked in bed. PANTUCCI That's it? That's all you give a shit about? FINNEGAN Oh yeah...and that my stitch job doesn't make you uglier than you already are...this won't hurt a bit... Finnegan sinks the needle into the wound. Pantucci's SCREAM rises above the music. CUT TO: 42 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 42 The Fuji Maru cruises through RAIN-LASHED waters. Accompanied by a very scary MUSICAL SCORE. Then suddenly, in the extreme foreground, AIR BUBBLES angrily GURGLE to the surface. Then a WAVE EXPLODES, as if THRASHED from below. Then another WAVE EXPLODES, forty feet to the right. Then ANOTHER, eighty feet to the left. And then ALMOST SEEN: Huge, black, ominous THINGS seem to be SQUIRMING beneath the water. Heading for the Fuji Maru. CUT TO: 43 CRYSTAL FOREDECK - NIGHT 43 RAIN PELTS the canopy. LIGHTNING FLASHES. THUNDER RUMBLES. We can HEAR the PARTY inside. MUSIC, laughs and cheers. CUT TO: 44 THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 44 The entire ROOM seems to be FRITZING OUT. The lights crackle on and off. The Captain stands behind the bank of failing IMAGING SYSTEMS, growing edgier by the moment. MATE The entire bridge electrical system is shutting down sir! CAPTAIN Switch over to auxiliary power, and run a circuit check. MATE Yes sir... The COM. OFFICER is busy fiddling with the communications and imaging gear. DISTORTED LIGHTS from the scrambled systems plays off their faces. COM. OFFICER We're losing radar and sonar! FIRST MATE Communications systems are out sir! The Captain is confounded, on the edge of panic. Canton hurries onto the bridge. CANTON What the hell is going on? CAPTAIN Communication systems have failed! Radar...sonar...radios...I don't understand it. MATE Maybe it's the storm! CANTON Nonsense! We're impervious to weather! FIST MATE We have a main frame meltdown!! CANTON Well unmelt it!! Canton storms out. Every piece of electrical equipment on the bridge starts to shut down. SMASH CUT TO: 45 HULL - NIGHT 45 Where the waves meet the hull, A BALLAST HOLE excretes water. Suddenly, near the ballast hole, a WAVE EXPLODES, thrashed from below. Accompanied by the scary foreboding MUSIC again. CUT TO: 46 VEGETABLE STORAGE - NIGHT 46 Trillian, making the best of a bad situation, is just putting the finishing touches on a wonderful salad culled from the stores. As she sits down, spreading a makeshift napkin on her lap just so, a violent SUCKING SOUND comes from above her. Trillian's eyes shoot upward. A VICIOUS GURGLING SOUND RACES through a large PIPE along the ceiling. Trillian leaps to her feet. Backs away. A little spooked. CUT TO: 47 STATEROOM BATHROOM - NIGHT 47 An elegant woman sits on the toilet, her gown hiked up inelegantly, reading "Vogue." As she turns the page the same strange sound, a violent sucking, comes from inside the walls, startling her. She looks around the room. Can't see anything. Shrugs it off. Goes back to her magazine. Turns another page. A LONG SCARY BEAT. And then suddenly -- She SHUDDERS VIOLENTLY and gives a sharp CRY. Her eyes filled panic. She tries to stand, but she's JERKED BACK DOWN! Her ARMS FLAIL WILDLY. Scattering stuff off the counter. She tries to SCREAM, but it comes out more like a GURGLE. Below her, in the TOILET, there is a hideous SLURPING SOUND. She manages a final, desperate scream, a high-pitched WAIL. Which nobody hears because... CUT TO: 48 POOL DECK - NIGHT 48 ...the Band has kicked into another ROCK SONG. The drunken revelers whoop and holler, dancing with reckless abandon ignoring the THUNDER and LIGHTNING. And then...with a loud BASSO PROFUNDO CLANG, the CRUISE LINER JERKS TO A STOP. EVERYTHING goes CRASH. PEOPLE TUMBLE. TABLES TOPPLE. The MUSIC STOPS as the entire Band falls into the pool. CUT TO: 49 VEGETABLE STORAGE - NIGHT 49 Trillian goes ass-over-teacups, rolling over just in time to see a wall of BOXES CRASHING straight down on her. SMASH! She's knocked out cold. CUT TO: 50 WATERSPORT PLATFORM - NIGHT 50 One of the SPEEDBOATS breaks free of its harness. TOPPLES over the side and drops down into the sea. SPLASH! CUT TO: 51 POOL DECK - NIGHT 51 Everything goes quiet. Everybody freezes. Panic is a heartbeat away. A FLASH OF LIGHTNING lights up the top of the canopy. The passengers begin to mutter fearfully. From his perch, Canton fights down his own panic, and addresses the crowd in calm reassuring tones. CANTON Ladies and gentlemen...your attention please... Ladies and gentlemen... The disquieted crowd turns to Canton. CANTON (CONT'D) This is the most technologically advanced sailing vessel on the water today. Every problem has been anticipated...the Captain has assured me that we will be up and running in no time...so enjoy yourselves...there's nothing to worry about... Suddenly, and quite violently, a WOMAN is SUCKED UNDER THE WATER -- THWUP! Others swimmers notice and freeze. The Woman doesn't come back up. And then, THREE more SWIMMERS are violently JERKED UNDER. All the people in and around the pool see this and panic. SCREAMING. YELLING. SWIMMING. SWIMMING and RUNNING. A CRACK OF THUNDER! The Captain calls out -- CAPTAIN Remain calm! Stop! Do you hear? REMAIN CALM! The pool clears. Everybody backs the hell away from it. The WATER in the pool BUBBLES, and GURGLES, and then goes quiet. And then, from somewhere deep within the bowels of the ship, comes a loud, eerie, primordial YOWL. WE PUSH IN ON CANTON: His eyes slowly widen. Stunned. His calm replaced by pure terror. CANTON Dear God. CUT TO: 52 SOUTH CHINA SEA - NIGHT 52 Off in the distance is the cruiseliner. WE HOLD FOR A LONG, SILENT, EERIE BEAT. And then the SCREAMING begins... SLOW DISSOLVE TO: 53 SAIPAN - NIGHT 53 Blasting through increasingly stormy seas. CUT TO: 54 PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 54 Finnegan notices Billy, Mulligan and Vivo setting two catapult like devices on the front of the deck. FINNEGAN Leila see what they're up to... Leila exits. Finnegan's eyes go up from the action on deck to the radar screen, where a blip, fast moving, right toward the jet foil catches his attention. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) What the hell... SMASH CUT TO: 55 SAIPAN - NIGHT 55 A FLASH OF LIGHTNING REVEALS -- The speedboat from the Fuji Maru hurtling at the hull! BAAROOOOM!!! The speedboat slams into the Saipan. Instant FIREBALL. ANGLE ON: The mercs and Leila slammed to the deck. SMASH CUT TO: 56 HOLD - NIGHT 56 A GASH is RIPPED out of the bow. METAL FLIES. WATER SPRAYS. The new HOLE VOMITS FLAME. Spewing it over the crates. Hanover and the rest of his men are blown against the walls. CUT TO: 57 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 57 Pantucci DIVES as flying SHRAPNEL PEPPERS the two engines. Instantly kills one engine. Maims the other. A FIRE starts. CUT TO: 58 PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 58 RED WARNING LIGHTS flash and blink. Lighting up the console. The left steering stick dies in Finnegan's hand. FINNEGAN Joey!! Talk to me! CUT TO: 59 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 59 Mayhem... Fire spews out of the engines. Pantucci sprays a fire extinguisher frantically. Where the shrapnel entered the hull water now spurts with every wave. Smoke and water, oil and fire. PANTUCCI Jezebel's dead...Hercules is right behind her! We got a gusher in the hull! CUT TO: 60 PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 60 As the Saipan comes to a halt, Finnegan loses play in his remaining stick. FINNEGAN Shit!! Finnegan locks the sticks down, and runs out. CUT TO: 61 HOLD - NIGHT 61 TRACK WITH Finnegan running through the smoke filled hold, past Hanover and the merc's who are pulling themselves off the floor, right into the... ENGINE ROOM. Where Pantucci is beside himself in smoke and sputtering flame. PANTUCCI What did you do to my kids!! FINNEGAN Me?? PANTUCCI No! The man in the moon!! Who's driving this thing? Finnegan notices something on the floor. He picks up a shard of the speedboat propeller. Strange. Hanover steps into the room. HANOVER What happened? Finnegan looks at the piece of speedboat in his hand. FINNEGAN We ran into a speedboat... He shows the piece of speed boat to Hanover. Who stares at it. Finnegan sees the hint of recognition in his eyes. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Speedboat in the middle of the ocean... HANOVER How soon can we get up and running? FINNEGAN We can't...we got one engine dead, and the other limping badly. HANOVER I have a schedule... PANTUCCI I spent two years building these things...screw your schedule! Mason grabs Pantucci by the throat, lifting him off the ground. MASON You little weasel! Finnegan slams the piece of speed boat into the back of Mason's knees buckling him to the floor. In the blink of an eye there is the barrel of a .45 pressed hard against his head, Hanover at the trigger end. HANOVER We were talking about my schedule... FINNEGAN You're going to have to get a new one. HANOVER Not an option. FINNEGAN Then you better start swimming. Hanover cracks Finnegan across the face with the barrel of the gun. Finnegan's head spins. He touches the corner of his mouth, and comes away with blood, and a look of murder in his eyes. Hanover slams a round in the chamber. HANOVER One more joke and your comedy career is over. Now fix this. PANTUCCI With what? Look at them...they need gears...cylinder heads...oil pans... we're in the middle of the goddamn ocean... FINNEGAN I think he knows that Joey. PANTUCCI Good! So maybe he also know where the hell am I going to get the parts I need... Mulligan comes running in. MULLIGAN Target in sight!! CUT TO: 62 SAIPAN - NIGHT 62 Everybody stands on deck as Hanover scans the darkness through a pair of infrared binoculars. HANOVER Contact verified! You know the drill gentlemen! The merc's scatter below deck. Hanover hands the binoculars to Finnegan. HANOVER (CONT'D) Care to see what dreams are made of Finnegan? Finnegan's POV through the binoculars. The Fuji Maru in the distance, lit up, beautiful. CUT TO: 63 DECK - NIGHT 63 BAM! BAM! Two grappling hooks fly from the barrels of the two catapults bolted to the deck, landing on the deck of the Fuji Maru, which looms above the Saipan. Vivo pulls on the lines until they go taut. Finnegan, Pantucci, and Leila stand by watching as the mercs in full assault gear, communication headsets in place, get ready for action. VIVO Lines set. Mason swivels the big HARPOON GUN on the bow. MASON Tow lines! VIVO Clear! He FIRES the HARPOON. It shoots and SLAMS into the rear deck of the Fuji Maru. MASON Tow line secure. HANOVER Secure the zone of operation!! Swift, athletic, the mercs leap onto the lines and scramble hand over hand toward the Fuji Maru's deck. HANOVER (CONT'D) When I was a little bit of a pissant we lived down the road from where all the big cruise ships used to come into Sydney harbor... The first mercs reach the Fuji Maru's deck, and toss life lines down to Hanover. HANOVER (CONT'D) Mum and me we used to sit by our front door and watch them...she used to say "one day you're going to make your fortune in life on one of them..." Hanover hands one line to Finnegan, one to Pantucci. The third he attaches around his waist. FINNEGAN Great woman your mother. Real foresight. HANOVER And she could do a hell of a barbie to boot! Belt up. You'll find all the parts you need up there. Finnegan and Pantucci comply. FINNEGAN I assume somebody up there has made sure no distress signal can be sent. HANOVER I'd say that's a pretty good assumption. PANTUCCI (nervous) You know the crew could be armed. HANOVER With what? Martinis and tanning oil? Hanover hand signals to his men above. The lines go taut. Finnegan, Pantucci, and Hanover are hoisted to the deck of the Fuji Maru. CUT TO: 64 FUJI MARU DECK - NIGHT 64 Deathly silent. Not a soul is about. The mercs are deployed in a close military defense pattern. HANOVER Synchronize watches... Everyone hits a button on their watches. HANOVER (CONT'D) 25 minutes...by the numbers. Engine room and machine shop are on the third sub deck...Vivo...Mulligan go with them...keep in touch...move out... CUT TO: 65 SAIPAN ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 65 A thick black hose weaves it's way across the flooded floor, sucking water. Leila up to her knees in water, wearing a blast visor, stripped down to her skivvies, wields a welder against the gaping hole in the hull. As the boat dips in the waves water sloshes in. Billy sits on the stairs trying to stay dry. He goes to light a cigarette. LEILA (angry) Kwan bat! Kwam bat! Booom!! She points the acetalyne tank she works with. BILLY (bothered) Yeah...yeah...yeah... Billy heads for the deck. Leila looks after him in disgust. LEILA Asshole... She ignites her torch, is about to flick her visor down again when a loud gurgling, a sucking sound, stops her. She cuts the torch. Looks around nervously...and then she spots the suction hose sucking away. She smiles to herself. Flips the visor, fires the torch, and goes back to work. CUT TO: 66 FUJI MARU DECK PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 66 An alert Mulligan leads Finnegan and Pantucci around a corner. Vivo brings up the rear. PANTUCCI You'd think they'd set a deck watch... FLASH TO: The deck full of people partying, carousing. The railing is lined with 15 lifeboats suspended in their harnesses. FLASH BACK TO: Mulligan, Finnegan, Pantucci and Vivo staring at a completely deserted deck. The lifeboat harnesses swing in the breeze, eerily empty. Mulligan looks back to Vivo. MULLIGAN I thought the plan was we'd evacuate them after we got through. VIVO Maybe plans changed... MULLIGAN Plans don't change... PANTUCCI Maybe it's the wrong ship. MULLIGAN Shut up! And then a strange yowl echoes from somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship. Finnegan and Pantucci trade a look. FINNEGAN Let's just keep going. MULLIGAN (nervous) You ain't giving the orders here! And again the yowl. Everyone freezes. MULLIGAN (CONT'D) Let's keep going! CUT TO: 67 CRYSTAL POOL DECK - NIGHT 67 Hanover, Mason, and Chin set foot on the deserted pool deck. FLASH TO: The pool deck is jammed with people partying. The band playing. Two kids toss a beach ball back and forth. The ball flies over one boy's head... FLASH BACK TO: The ball falls into the empty pool...Where the band's instruments litter the bottom along a big jagged crack. MASON What the... Uneasy, Hanover and his men look around at the over turned chairs. The smashed aquarium. Chin bends down and picks up a small squid from the bottom of the smashed aquarium. The squid wraps its tentacles around Chin's hand almost immediately. Chin regards it with curiosity. HANOVER Focus on the task Mr. Chin... ...and then the yowl freezes them. C.U. on Hanover's face. His eyes flicker with uncertainty...and a tinge of fear. CUT TO: 68 GRAND ATRIUM LOBBY - NIGHT 68 DING! FLASH TO: A glass elevator descending through the spectacular atrium, full of elegant well-dressed people laughing, chatting. DING! FLASH BACK TO: Mulligan, Vivo, Pantucci, and Finnegan, standing amidst the shattered glass and broken furniture, whirling to the elevator door opening. Mulligan, nerves ajangle, and Vivo, swing their pulse rifles up hard as the door opens to reveal...and empty elevator! DING! The door closes. The car starts to ascend in the eerie silence. The mercs watch it go with growing uneasiness. CUT TO: 69 FUJI MARU BRIDGE - DAWN 69 The door to the bridge is KICKED OPEN. Mason and Chin leap inside. Guns out front. On edge. The overhead lights flicker on and off. The imager screens are all black. The STEERING WHEEL slowly ROCKS. As if an invisible captain is steering a ghost ship. Hanover ENTERS. Eyes shifting. Suspicious, and a bit nervous. HANOVER What the hell is going on? CUT TO: 70 THE FRISCO BAR AND CASINO - DAWN 70 Mulligan leads Finnegan, Pantucci, Vivo into the casino. The place looks like a mess. Tables and chairs are upended. Glasses and bottles are shattered everywhere. And there's BLOOD on the floor. A BELL RINGS LOUDLY and the TROLLEY CAR STARTS TO MOVE! ELECTRONIC VOICE Next stop, Chinatown! Everyone jumps, freaked. Mulligan and Vivo spin around and OPEN FIRE. Start BLOWING the shit out of the TROLLEY CAR. The GUNS sound like nothing we've ever heard. ROLLING THUNDER. Absolutely deafening. CUT TO: 71 FUJI MARU - DAY 71 The GUNFIRE ECHOES through the hull. Suddenly, with a loud SPLASH, a sixteen-foot-long LIFEBOAT pops to the surface. Then another LIFE BOAT POPS UP. Then ANOTHER. Then THREE MORE off to the port side. Then TWO MORE off to the starboard. It's as if the SOUND of the GUNFIRE is somehow releasing the boats from their watery graves. They start to drift away. Spooky quiet. CUT TO: 72 FRISCO BAR AND CASINO - NIGHT 72 BULLETS RAKE the Trolley's metal sides. The WINDSHIELD EXPLODES. Finnegan yells at Mulligan and Vivo -- FINNEGAN Guys!! Whoa! WHOA! WHOA! WHOOOAAA!! Finnegan finally tilts the muzzle of Mulligan's gun to the ceiling. They stop firing. A little wigged-out. Their professional demeanor going by the boards. All goes quiet. They look at Finnegan, who is the picture of calm. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Guys...get a grip. The Trolley car reverses. The ELECTRONIC VOICE is now CRACKED -- ELECTRONIC VOICE Next stop, Fisherman's Wharf. Mulligan whirls, his gun poised. Just then his headset crackles. HANOVER (V.O.) (radio filtered) This is Red One...status report. Finnegan leans in towards Mulligan's mike. FINNEGAN (into radio) Your boys just killed a trolley car Red One. Mulligan pulls the radio away. MULLIGAN (into radio) We been down three decks, there's nobody home... Total spooky-town. Advise on how to proceed. CUT TO: 73 CONNING TOWER - NIGHT 73 Hanover looks around at the empty bridge, the blinking lights. HANOVER Stay to the schedule. Stay to the plan. Nothing has changed. But the look in Hanover's slightly unnerved eyes tells a different story. CUT TO: 74 FUGI MARU STORAGE ROOM - DAY 74 Trillian goggily crawls out from under a mound of boxes. Her left eye's got a nice purple shiner. Her elegant gown is ripped. A VERY STRANGE SOUND coming from behind the wall. Wet. Gooey. Slithery. Ominous. Trillian freezes. TRILLIAN Hello? The SOUND slowly MOVES across the wall. Then another WALL starts to GURGLE. Trillian spins around. She forces herself not to panic. Very cautiously, taking small measured steps she reaches the handle to the freezer, and tries to open it. No go. The gurgling ripples above her. Her mouth goes dry as her eyes follow the sound across the ceiling. Her hand goes to her hair. She pulls her lock pick out, and very slowly kneels down until she is eye level with the door lock. She begins to pick her way out, her ears and eyes following the gurgling above. Suddenly the sound stops. The silence makes Trillian's heart sound that much louder. She sidles close to the wall. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Hello? Still silence. Cautious, she taps on the wall. For a moment nothing. And then... WHAMM!! Something slams against the wall from the other side in response. Trillian falls back against the door, her heart in her throat. CUT TO: 75 ENGINE CHAMBERS - DAY 75 A MAZE of pipes, hoses, gears, engines and catwalks. THINGS are HISSING, HUMMING, RUMBLING and CLANKING. A spooky place. Dark. Damp. Eerie. Ominous. Mulligan and Vivo, looking more nervous by the moment, lead the way. Finnegan and Pantucci follow. PANTUCCI (rattling, nervous) You know what I'm gonna do after this...I'm gonna get a normal life... FINNEGAN (calm) Joey... PANTUCCI ...Like a house in the suburbs... maybe a couple of kids...some sort of business...be in the bowling league...go to the ball games... Finnegan turns to Pantucci, his voice even, calm, almost kind. FINNEGAN Joey...it's okay... PANTUCCI What? You don't think I can have a normal life? FINNEGAN Joey...look at me... He forces Pantucci to look him in the eyes. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) We're gonna get what we gotta get... do what we gotta do...and get the hell outta here...okay? Pantucci draws his strength from Finnegan. He forces himself to take a deep breath. PANTUCCI Okay... Suddenly, overhead, something black and veiny skitters across the mass of pipes, so fast it shocks Pantucci back into the wall. MULLIGAN What the...??? He and Vivo spin their guns at the pipes. The red dots of their laser sights sweep the shadowy web of metal. Nothing. MULLIGAN (CONT'D) Come on...the sooner we get outta here the better I'll feel. Mulligan and Vivo move forward. PANTUCCI (quiet) Finnegan... Finnegan turns to Pantucci, who has not moved from where he hit the wall. FINNEGAN It's okay...come on... PANTUCCI (scared) I'm stuck... Pantucci tries to pull away from the wall. He is stuck. MULLIGAN (jumpy) Hey! What are you trying to pull! PANTUCCI (pleading) John... Finnegan takes Pantucci by the front of his shirt, ignoring Mulligan. FINNEGAN Relax your arms...slowly...that's it... As Finnegan pulls, Pantucci does as he is told. He slips away from the wall. The jacket doesn't. MULLIGAN What the... He reaches out to touch the wall. Finnegan grabs his wrist, grabs a flashlight from Vivo's utility belt and shines it on the wall. Their POV -- the entire wall is covered in a strange, yellow, secreted GELATIN. Laid on in some sort of weird, inhuman, geometric pattern. Like a spider web. CUT TO: 76 THE SAIPAN'S HOLD - DAY 76 Leila has welded half the hole shut. A GUSH OF WATER suddenly pours through the other half. Leila cuts the torch. LEILA Gebop!! The KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK of the PUMP is like a loud scary HEARTBEAT. Leila removes her blast visor. Wipes her brow. -- A MANGLED CORPSE GUSHES IN through the gaping hole! LEILA SCREAMS. Bloody murder. Scared shitless. Quickly backs away. Actually, it's only half a corpse. The bottom half having been eaten away. It's wearing a tuxedo. The corpse's face is tightly constricted, eyes wide open, a grotesque death mask. Leila shakes like a leaf, waist-deep in seawater. CUT TO: 77 SAIPAN DECK - NIGHT 77 Billy is staring out at all the lifeboats as they drift away. All he can hear is the loud KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK of the PUMP. He talks into his headset -- BILLY (into radio) I dunno where they came from, turned around and there they were. (pause) No, no passengers. (pause) No shit I'll keep my eyes open. CUT TO: 78 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 78 Leila trembles in the waist-high water. The PUMP'S HEARTBEAT seems to have gotten louder. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. Leila slowly starts edging her way around the corpse. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. Her eyes are transfixed, staring at the abomination, too scared to scream. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. Her back is to the gaping hole as she slowly starts to pass in front of it. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. The water swirls around her waist. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. She's almost past the gaping hole now. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK... Then something grabs her! She SCREAMS! And falls back towards the gaping hole -- But it's only a twisted piece of metal off a strut. She exhales. Relieved. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. Suddenly, LEILA'S whole body SPASMS. She SCREECHES wildly, in great pain. The she's RIPPED backward out through the gaping hole. Gone. WATER SLOSHES back in. KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK-KA-CHUNK. CUT TO: 79 FUJI MARU MACHINE SHOP - NIGHT 79 Knee deep in water, an edgy Mulligan watches Finnegan as he disassembles pieces of a thermal carburetor from an auxiliary generator. His eyes keep shifting around. Over in the far corner Vivo is watching Pantucci working over a metal lathe, repairing the cylinder head. Metal-on-metal. Vivo sits up on a barrel, trying to keep his feet out of the water. FINNEGAN The hulls of these things are supposed to be impregnable... MULLIGAN So? FINNEGAN So...If the hull's impregnable why are my feet wet? MULLIGAN Why don't you just stop figuring and keep working so we can get the hell out of here? PANTUCCI Why don't you help us so we can get done faster so we can get the hell out of here? MULLIGAN 'Cause grease monkey ain't in my job description dick head... Vivo pulls his feet further up on the barrel. VIVO What I want to know is why the goddamn ocean is always cold...since I'm a kid I hate god damn cold water. Then out of the corner of his eye, Vivo sees SOMETHING MOVE. He spins around. Nothing but pipes and hoses. MULLIGAN (nervous) What was that? VIVO Nothing. MULLIGAN Someone's back there. VIVO Hey! Come out here! Finnegan and Pantucci stop working. All eyes are focused on the maze of pipes. THINGS are HISSING, HUMMING and RUMBLING. Nothing moves. MULLIGAN Check it out! VIVO Hey! You hear me? Come out! Still no response. MULLIGAN Will you check it the hell out!! Disgusted, Vivo puts his feet in the water, gingerly. VIVO Man this shit is cold! He walks toward the mass of hissing pipes. His pulse rifle rising. VIVO (CONT'D) I'm gonna kick your ass for putting me through this... Then he hears a strange SLURPING and SUCKING SOUND coming from behind some gears at the end of a little alleyway. VIVO (CONT'D) I'm not screwing around with you man...I hate the cold water. MULLIGAN What is it man? VIVO I'm looking... Vivo slowly goes in for a closer look, gun out front, heading down the little alleyway. He looks behind some pipes. The SLURPING gets LOUDER. Then he sees it. His eyes widen -- VIVO (CONT'D) On shit! And that's the last thing he ever says. Because just then, from a dark area between the pipes, SOMETHING SHOOTS OUT! Mulligan, Finnegan, and Pantucci stare in horrified amazement as Vivo is viciously YANKED into the pipes. A moment later a WASH OF BLOOD is FLUNG across a wall. Mulligan freaks out, aims his rifle at the pipes. MULLIGAN Vivo!! Vivo!! As Mulligan's attention diverts, Finnegan instinctively heads for Vivo's rifle, lying on the floor. Mulligan swings around. KACHUNK!! His rifle is armed. The laser dot fixes on Finnegan's forehead. MULLIGAN (CONT'D) Touch it and you're dead, asshole! Finnegan freezes, looking up at a very freaked out Mulligan. PANTUCCI Don't shoot, man, don't shoot! MULLIGAN What happened to Vivo?! What the hell happened to Vivo? Everybody's breathing hard. Freaked out. Major tension. Blood drips down the wall. CUT TO: 80 VAULT ROOM - NIGHT 80 Trillian steps up to the vault, looking around, a bit nervous, something is definitely not right here. TRILLIAN Helloooo? She shrugs, must be her imagination. From inside her low cut dress she pulls the Captain's gold security card. She is about to run it through the reader slot when... V.O. Ahem... She spins to...Hanover, Mason, Mamooli and Chin. Looking grim. TRILLIAN (recovering) I'm sorry... This area is for authorized personnel only. As the assistant to the Purser, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to vacate... Mason and Chin lift their pulse-rifles. KACHUNK!! TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Or maybe not. HANOVER Where is everybody? Trillian is confused -- TRILLIAN What do you mean? Hanover steps forward, right in her face. HANOVER (threatening) I mean...where is everybody? TRILLIAN Poolside? Hanover grabs Trillian by the throat and slams her against the wall. He rams his gun against her forehead. HANOVER You tell it straight or I pull the trigger. Who are you? TRILLIAN (choking) A passenger... Hanover blinks. HANOVER Where are the other passengers? Trillian shrugs. Mason grabs the card out of her hand. MASON Forget her...let's get what we came for and get the hell out of here! Mason runs the card through the slot. The ELECTRONICS KICK IN. LIGHTS FLASH. TUMBLERS ROLL. CLICK! It unlocks. Hanover's HEADSET comes alive with Mulligan SCREAMING. HANOVER Mulligan?? What?? I can't hear you?? Repeat I... -- Mason JERKS the vault door open. A FIRE-AXE SWING DOWN into his head, WHUMP! Kills him instantly. Eyes wide open. Everybody freaks out. Jumps back. Hanover lets go of Trillian, and stares into the vault directly at Nigel Canton. Holding the axe. CANTON Oh my God. I didn't mean to... Behind Canton the Captain is on the floor, in severe pain, his clothes are ripped up, REVEALING nasty looking RED SCARS, blistered and puffy, all over his chest and arms. CANTON (CONT'D) I thought it was one of them! Chin jams his rifle to the middle of Canton's forehead, and cocks a round into the chamber. HANOVER Stand down soldier! But this is one soldier who is slow to obey the order. Hanover grabs Chin by both shoulders and gives a colossal yank. HANOVER (CONT'D) I said... He slams Chin against the wall. In the process he loses his headset. HANOVER (CONT'D) Stand down!! Chin and Hanover stare at each other, their chests heaving. Mason finally drops to the ground. All she wrote. CANTON I didn't mean to! I though it was one of them! HANOVER One of who?! CUT TO: 81 MACHINE SHOP - NIGHT 81 The machinery is sputtering, and sparking, shorting, steaming as the sea rises. Mulligan, in a panic, has backed Finnegan and Pantucci into a corner. He screams over his headset. MULLIGAN Hanover!...Hanover! Come in! Come in you son-of-a-bitch! No response. A sucking sound comes from the dark mass of pipes. Mulligan spins. MULLIGAN (CONT'D) Hanover!! Hanover!! FINNEGAN Forget them... Mulligan spins back to Finnegan and Pantucci. MULLIGAN (fried) Shut up! You hear me!! FINNEGAN ...we gotta get outta here -- NOW. MULLIGAN Shut up, man, just shut the hell up! I gotta think! I gotta think!! PANTUCCI What's there to think about?? That THING back there... MULLIGAN There ain't no thing here!! No thing!! There's you him and me!! Got it! You him and... Suddenly, Mulligan's LEGS are suddenly JERKED OUT from under him. He hits the floor hard. Starts FIRING WILDLY. Finnegan and Pantucci hit the watery deck. BULLETS RICOCHET everywhere. Mulligan is WHIPPED across the floor. SCREAMING in fear. His pulse-rifle goes flying. He's SLAMMED into a metal pylon, then SUCKED into a dark void in the pipes. All in the blink of an eye. Finnegan grabs Mulligan's pulse-rifle. OPENS FIRE. BLASTING the shit out of anything and everything that moves. FINNEGAN Grab the parts!! Pantucci grabs the knapsack, cramming as many parts as he can into it as Finnegan keeps firing into the steaming, creaking, sparking machinery. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) I'll cover! Move! Move! Pantucci doesn't have to be told twice. He runs like hell, with Finnegan firing a final burst, and following. CUT TO: 82 VAULT - NIGHT 82 Everyone hears the MASSIVE GUNFIRE. Hanover looks around for the source of the sound. He finds it in his discarded headset. HANOVER This is Red one! Come in Red two! The gunfire stops, replaced by an ominous, horrifying, sucking sound. CANTON (panicked) It's them! We've got to get off! He runs out of the vault. The Captain follows close behind. Hanover listens to the sucking sound getting louder and louder. HANOVER Let's find them! CHIN What about the vault? HANOVER It's not going anywhere... Hanover rushes out with Chin right behind. Only Trillian remains, breathing deeply, scared...but not scared enough to forget the reason she came cruising in the first place. She goes right to the vault, opens one of the boxes, removes the giant diamond, drops it down her decolletage, pulls her high heels off, and runs out. CUT TO: 83 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 83 Finnegan and Pantucci run to the end of a long section of metal grating, right below a staircase, to catch their breath. Everything has gone dead quiet, except for the billowing and clanging of the engines. Smoke and sparks obscure their vision. PANTUCCI Finnegan, what the hell was that? FINNEGAN I don't know...you got what we need? PANTUCCI If I don't, I ain't going back to get it...you think we're safe? Both of them listen to the silence. And then, at the far end of the grating, one grate rises...and falls. Finnegan and Pantucci watch, transfixed. Then, like a locomotive gathering speed, the grates start rising and falling, faster and faster, clanking louder and louder, headed right for the two of them. LOUDERFASTERLOUDERFASTER!!! FINNEGAN Come on!! Finnegan and Pantucci run up the stairs as fast as they can...just as the grate they were standing on rises and falls. Silence returns. Except for the steaming, creaking machinery...and an ominous sucking sound. CUT TO: 84 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 84 Trillian comes running down the passageway to a freight elevator. Looking over her shoulder, she hits the button. The elevator doors open to a freight elevator large enough to hold a dozen people. Trillian rushes in and hits the up button. She breathes a sigh of relief as the steel doors close...until the elevator starts going down. TRILLIAN Up!! I want to go up! She panics. And starts pushing the up button frantically, her heart pounding in her chest. There is not a sound except for the hum of the elevator descending...until something drops on the roof with a THUMP! Trillian screams. The elevator comes to a bumps stop. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) No...No... Trillian shrinks from the ceiling of the elevator...and then the car starts to move again. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Go up...please go up! Trillian pounds on ever button on the console, to no avail. The car continues its inexorable descent. Finally, in desperation, she hits the emergency stop button. The elevator stops. The emergency SIREN WHINES. A LONG BEAT. Nothing moves...and then... WHAM! Something beats on the roof, trying to break in. And again -- WHAM! The ELEVATOR SHUDDERS and continues its descent. Trillian backs up against the wall, staring at the ceiling, scared. The ELEVATOR DINGS! Startled, TRILLIAN SCREAMS. The DOORS start to OPEN. Panicked, Trillian raises the only weapon at her disposal...a high heel. The DOORS OPEN. -- SOMETHING LUNGES IN! Trillian swings her high heel...right into Pantucci's face! Finnegan plows in right behind him. PANTUCCI OWWW!! OOWWW!!! Trillian tries to run out. Finnegan grabs her. TRILLIAN I'm not staying here! FINNEGAN It ain't any better out there! Trillian struggles. Finnegan does not let go of her. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Lady, I'm telling you... Trillian buries her high heel into the back of Finnegan's hand, breaking his grip. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) OWW! Just then, the doors to the elevator shut, and the car starts to ascend. TRILLIAN Now look what you did! FINNEGAN I saved your life is what I did! TRILLIAN Who asked you to! PANTUCCI What the hell's going on here? TRILLIAN You're with that other bunch, right? FINNEGAN What other bunch? TRILLIAN The thieves. FINNEGAN I'm not a thief. TRILLIAN Then who are you? FINNEGAN I'm their ride. Trillian hears music to her ears. TRILLIAN You have a boat? Her demeanor changes, her voice goes to honey. PANTUCCI Finnegan! Trillian and Finnegan turn to Pantucci who is looking down at the floor where a mass of yellow slime has dripped from the ceiling. All look up to the yellow goo dripping from the ceiling...followed by a sucking sound. TRILLIAN It's up there!! Finnegan lifts his pulse rifle and blasts the ceiling. The sucking sound stops. FINNEGAN Not anymore. The elevator stops. DING! The door opens. Finnegan whirls his rifle, rising. Trillian lifts her high heel, ready to strike... Hanover, Chin, and Mamooli have their massive guns trained on the car. The Captain and Canton quiver behind them. There is a momentary stand off. HANOVER Where are my men? FINNEGAN Dead. CHIN YAAHHH!! Chin charges Finnegan, the butt of his rifle raised to smash Finnegan's skull. Finnegan parries and drives Chin into the rear wall of the elevator. Mamooli jumps Finnegan from behind, wrapping his rifle against Finnegan's throat. Pantucci jumps on Mamooli's massive back, ripping at his face. Finnegan drops, buries his elbow in Mamooli's solar plexus, spins, and has his knife out of his boot and at Mamooli's throat in a flash. ANGLE ON: Trillian. Impressed. She had no idea. HANOVER Drop it! Finnegan looks up into the barrel of Hanover's gun...and a pair of eyes that will use it. Finnegan does as he is told. HANOVER (CONT'D) Now, back up! Again, Finnegan does as he is told. HANOVER (CONT'D) Everybody in! The Captain and Canton are only to happy to comply. As they slip in, Trillian tries to slip out. Hanover swings his gun on her. HANOVER (CONT'D) Where are you going? TRILLIAN (freezing) Nowhere... FINNEGAN Hanover, listen... HANOVER Shut up! Hanover hit the elevator button. The elevator starts to rise. HANOVER (CONT'D) Now, where's Mulligan? Where's Vivo? FINNEGAN I told you... PANTUCCI Man, there's something here! On the boat! CANTON You see? You see? HANOVER Shut up! Shut up all of you! Now here's what we're doing... Mamooli is going to take you back to fix your engines, Chin and I are staying here to finish the job... FINNEGAN Did you clear this? HANOVER With who? All of a sudden, the car is jerked to a halt, as if some giant hand was yanking on the cable. FINNEGAN With that... And then, the elevator jerks down again. And up. Everyone is thrown about like straw. Everyone is shouting, panicked. And then the jerking stops...and the sound of sucking surrounds the car. The cable starts twisting, creaking sickeningly above their heads. PANTUCCI It's gonna snap the cable! Trillian starts hitting the buttons frantically. TRILLIAN Open! Open! God damn it!! Finnegan is at the doors, pulling them with all his might. FINNEGAN Help me!! Pantucci, then Mamooli, then Hanover and Chin pull at the doors as Trillian keeps hitting the buttons. The doors part a bit. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) They're coming! They're coming! The doors fly open to...a solid wall. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Oh shit... And silence...until the doors slam shut...the cable snaps...and the car plummets! Screaming and shouting mixes with the bloodcurdling shrieking of the metal elevator frame against the shaft. Finnegan's eyes go to the floor indicator. 13 12 -- 11 -- 10 -- 9 -- 8 -- 7 -- 6 -- 5 -- 4! 13 An AUTOMATED VOICE rapidly CALLS OUT right along with it -- VOICE 4th floor. 3rd floor. 2nd floor. 1st floor... Down, down, down it goes. Faster and faster. But the elevator doesn't stop at the first floor. It keeps dropping. The FLOOR INDICATOR BLINKS: "SUBLEVEL. SUBLEVEL. SUBLEVEL." CANTON It's taking us to the bottom of the ship! FINNEGAN HANG ON! CABLES SNAP. METAL SCREAMS. The ELEVATOR starts to BUCKLE. Which is actually good, because it's getting jammed sideways in the shaft which slows it down. The it HITS bottom with a resounding crash. CUT TO: 85 SUBLEVEL LOBBY - DAY 85 The DOORS BLOW OUT into the darkened hallway. For a long moment nothing moves, then Finnegan tumbles out of the elevator. Rising painfully. One after another the others exit into the dark lobby. HANOVER Where are we? CANTON The sublevel lobby. Finnegan bends down to pick up one of the pulse rifles. HANOVER Don't touch it! Finnegan looks up to Hanover standing a bit shakily, his own rifle trained on Finnegan. FINNEGAN You shoot me and you got no ride home... And with that, Finnegan picks up the gun. A test of wills. Finnegan wins, and then turns to the Captain. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) You the Captain? CAPTAIN Yes. FINNEGAN How do we get out of here? CAPTAIN We have to make it to the third deck... Pantucci steps on something. CRUNCH! He looks down, his eyes widen. PANTUCCI Oh no!! Oh no!! Finnegan!!! He starts dancing around, trying not to step on whatever it is. Trillian looks down and SCREAMS. Everybody freaks -- Finnegan grabs a flashlight from Chin's utility belt, and sweeps the beam over the lobby. The entire floor of the lobby is littered with shattered HUMAN SKELETONS. Picked clean and spit out. Just like the earlier whale bones. Then suddenly, at the far end of the hallway, one of the metal WALLS suddenly EXPANDS and FLEXES. Everybody feezes. And then the FLEXING suddenly comes RACING down either side of the hallway, accompanied by the most god-awful PRIMORDIAL SCREECH! FINNEGAN This way! FINNEGAN BOLTS. Everybody else right behind him. The FLEXING and SCREECHING VANISHES into the walls. CUT TO: 86 FUJI MARY & SAIPAN - DAY 86 RAIN POURS DOWN on the Fuji Maru and the Saipan as they bob in the waves, surrounded by endless choppy ocean waters. CUT TO: 87 SAIPAN ENGINE ROOM - DAY 87 Billy comes down the steps, gun out front, looking around. BILLY Hey you! Muscles! Out here! There is no reply. The only sound is the sucking of the pump. BILLY (CONT'D) O.K. You want it that way... He ENTERS the waist-high water. BILLY (CONT'D) ...when I find you, you pay... Billy heads deeper into the hold. CUT TO: 88 MACHINE SHOP - MOMENTS LATER 88 Damp, dark and disgusting. A MAZE of pipes and gears lines the walls. Finnegan SLAMS the HATCH shut. Dogs it tight. Everyone's gathering themselves around the room: Trillian, Pantucci, Hanover, Mamooli, Chin, the Captain and Canton. TRILLIAN We've gotta call for help. PANTUCCI Yeah man, no shit, call in the Marines. CAPTAIN We can't...all the communication systems went down. TRILLIAN So get them back up. CAPTAIN I don't know how. PANTUCCI Hey I can fix any damn thing... where's the comm. center? CANTON We should get off as soon as possible. TRILLIAN But if we can at least send a message... CANTON I say we evacuate as soon as... FINNEGAN (to Canton) Who are you? CAPTAIN He's the owner... FINNEGAN Why don't you want a message sent? CANTON I just think that... FINNEGAN Because you know a message can't be sent... There is a moment of silence. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) You're the inside guy aren't you? The guy who knocked out the communications. Hanover sets Mason's pulse-rifle down and claps his hands. HANOVER Bravo. Canton flashes Hanover a look. The Captain is confused. Trillian suddenly GRABS CANTON, spins him around and SLAMS him against the hull. TRILLIAN How the hell do we fix it?! A tense moment as Canton debates his situation, then relents. CANTON You can't... All the systems were melted at their core by nitric acid... CAPTAIN (confused) This was your life's work...your dreams... CANTON My dreams cost more than they would make...I miscalculated the market... there was no way I could recoup... FINNEGAN Unless you collected on the insurance... TRILLIAN What are you people talking about? FINNEGAN He's with them. He motions to the mercenaries. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) They rob the joint blind and torpedo it to the bottom. He collects the insurance, and sails off into the sunset clean as a whistle. Finnegan fixes Hanover with a look of certainty. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Right? The Captain blows. He leaps on Canton. His hands find the older man's throat. CAPTAIN All these people dead!! Because you screwed up on the math?? Finnegan pulls the Captain off. FINNEGAN It's not going to help us! CAPTAIN We're going to die here! We're going to die! Finnegan holds the Captain with both hands, calming him. FINNEGAN I was born in a City housing project in the Bronx OK? It's not in the cards that I die on a luxury cruise ship...now which way up? TRILLIAN (alarmed) You hear that? Unseen by anyone, there is MOVEMENT within the MACHINERY. The walls start to come alive with dark, SHADOWY IMPRESSIONS. HIDDEN within the maze of machinery, OBSCURED by the bad lighting, glistening abominations slither over pipes, squirm through gears, and undulate in and out of crevices and holes. The room is becoming a living, throbbing, pulsating horror. CAPTAIN They are...they are everywhere. FINNEGAN All right, be cool, everybody, nice and slow, no sudden moves. Everybody slowly and quietly moves for the far hatch. Then a loud GURGLING is HEARD. Everybody looks up at the ceiling. Hidden within the girders, and sticking to them, a large translucent INTESTINE-like thing CROSSES the ceiling. Inside it are strange, disgusting biological workings. The GURGLING suddenly gets dramatically LOUDER. And then we SEE BILLY and LEILA, being sucked down the entire length of the fatty intestine. Still alive. And squirming wildly. EVERYBODY freaks out and HAULS ASS for the hatch. Finnegan and Hanover OPEN FIRE. Covering their asses. CUT TO: 89 ENGINE CHAMBERS - NIGHT 89 Everybody pours out of the machine shop and fans out into this mechanical MAZE. The engine chambers are a labyrinth of pipe-lined alleyways, motorized chambers, swaying catwalks and pillars of steel. The LIGHTING is very poor, very dark. Hanover, Pantucci, Chin and Mamooli OPEN UP. FIRING blindly and wildly at anything and everything that seems to move in the darkness. The MUZZLE FLASHES and TRACER FIRE light up the chambers in a sort of surreal horror tableau. We catch more ABSTRACT GLIMPSES of the translucent TENTACLE-SACS, strange FEELERS, groping SUCKERS, SLIME and VEINS. CUT TO: 90 DEEP IN MAZE - NIGHT 90 Finnegan rounds a corner and crouch-runs down a narrow alley. Alone now. White-knuckling his rifle. He turns another corner and runs right into Trillian. FINNEGAN AHHH!! ...Spins, gun ready to fire at... TRILLIAN Noooo! FINNEGAN Jesus Christ lady... TRILLIAN (scared) What are those things? FINNEGAN I don't know... Finnegan looks around to the engine room, a labyrinth of pipe lined alleyways, motorized chambers, swaying catwalks and pillars of steel. The LIGHTING is very poor, very dark. He takes off. TRILLIAN Hey! Hey! Where are you going? FINNEGAN ...there's got to be a way to access out back there... He motions into the deep shadows. TRILLIAN But what makes you think there aren't more of hose...things...back there? FINNEGAN Nothing...you want to come, come... you don't... Trillian weighs her options, and takes off after Finnegan. TRILLIAN You don't have to be so touchy. FINNEGAN Look lady, I know you people are used to getting your way... TRILLIAN What's that supposed to mean? You people. FINNEGAN You people...rich people... TRILLIAN I'm not rich people. FINNEGAN Well, you sure do a good imitation. TRILLIAN Thank you, I work at it... Finnegan comes to a ladderstair leading to a catwalk. He starts to climb. Trillian, hampered by her long slinky dress, rips at the bottom, making it maxi to mini in a flash, and scoots after Finnegan. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) I heard you say you grew up in the projects in the Bronx... Reaching the top of the ladder, she clambers onto the catwalk next to Finnegan, who is deciding which way to go. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Trillian Daley... She holds out her hand. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Projects...South Chicago. Finnegan ignores her hand. FINNEGAN Finnegan...John J...now that we've been properly introduced, can we get the hell out of here? Finnegan starts to walk down the catwalk. TRILLIAN So this boat of yours...that's what you do? Give people...rides. FINNEGAN That's what I do. TRILLIAN Seen a lot of islands? FINNEGAN Quite a few. TRILLIAN Since I'm a kid, I had this dream... I want to own my own tropical island... Beaches, warm ocean, lots of food, little clothes...population of one... FINNEGAN Anti social? TRILLIAN Self sufficient... FINNEGAN With the emphasis on SELF, and in selfish, right? TRILLIAN Takes one to know one. SNAP!! A TENTACLE SHOOTS OUT between Finnegan and Trillian. Just missing them as it SLAMS into a wall. Finnegan falls onto the catwalk, drops his rifle, unarmed. Trillian, freaked, stumbles back and lands on her butt. Finnegan sits up against the walls, turns and looks -- The TENTACLE slowly SQUIRMS across the wall like a big leach. Trying to find its prey. Finnegan is frozen in place. Watching. Trillian sits up, eyes widening in fear as she sees -- Hideous little worm-like FEELERS and SUCKERS protrude up and down the Tentacle. WRIGGLING and WRITHING and feeling their way across the wall. Getting closer and closer to Finnegan. Finnegan's eyes go to his pulse-rifle close to Trillian's feet. He motions for her to push it toward him. But, frozen in fear, she can only watch the slithering horror before her. Tongue-like, the Feelers lick their way across the oily wall. FINNEGAN DUCKS as they squirm over his head. Then he BRUSHES against some dirt, making a SCRAPING SOUND. A Feeler quickly drops down and touches Finnegan's arm. He leaps to his feet. So does Trillian. She grabs the rifle, turns and bolts off down the dark alley. Finnegan tries to run, but the Feelers hold him tight. Two more Feelers slap onto his arm. HE YELLS. The Creature starts reeling him in. ANGLE ON: Trillian, running. Finnegan's YELL reaches her. She stops cold. Looking back the way she came, torn. ANGLE ON: Finnegan, fighting for all he is worth, being reeled into the mass of machinery by the tentacle. When...out of the darkness, Trillian suddenly comes running back. Panting hard, she aims the gun. FINNEGAN Shoot it! Shoot it! Spurred to action, Trillian jams the rifle barrel against the tentacle and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) The safety! The safety! Trillian frantically fumbles around, looking for the right lever on the complicated, sophisticated weapon, trying to find it. TRILLIAN I don't know where it is! FINNEGAN On the side!! Desperate, unable to find it, she does the next best thing...she swings her rifle like it's a baseball bat. SMACKS the TENTACLE. HARD. RIPPING into its flesh. It SQUIRTS ink blood, releases Finnegan and recoils. Finnegan drops to his knees. Grabbing his arm, in pain. The tentacle recovers and starts coming toward him again. Trillian grabs him, and with all her strength, jerks him to his feet, and starts to drag him backward. The tentacle coils, ready to strike. Just before it does so, Finnegan grabs the rifle with his one good arm, flips the safety, and fires, blasting the tentacle to pieces. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Let's get the hell out of here! Finnegan staggers to his feet. He and Trillian run off. CUT TO: 91 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 91 Trillian and Finnegan come running around a corner, and stop to catch their breath. FINNEGAN (annoyed) The safety...the safety... He flicks the safety on and off. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Got it? TRILLIAN (pissed) Hey! I didn't have to come back. FINNEGAN Yeah you did... TRILLIAN (defensive) Right... You have a boat. FINNEGAN Boat or no boat... You woulda come back anyway. You're that kind of gal. TRILLIAN Oh yeah? What kind is that? FINNEGAN The "come back" kind. TRILLIAN How do you know that? FINNEGAN Takes one to know one. Finnegan's small smile makes Trillian acutely uncomfortable. V.O. HEELLPP!! CUT TO: 92 ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT 92 The Captain is stuck in a strange gelatinous spider web. Struggling, frantic. But the more he struggles, the more enmeshed he gets. He holds his hands out beseechingly to Canton, who stands looking at him in terror. CAPTAIN Help me! But Canton does not move. All of a sudden Canton sees something deep in the web, behind the Captain, which makes his blood freeze. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) What is it? Canton takes a few steps back. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) What?!... WHAT?! The Captain tries to look over his shoulder to see what it is. There is a DARK MOVEMENT deep within the spider web. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) HELP ME, CANTON! HELP MEEEEEEE!! ANGLE ON: Finnegan and Trillian racing across a catwalk. Below them, they can see Canton backing away from the Captain. FINNEGAN Grab his hands!! Canton looks up, stunned, as he sees Finnegan and Trillian rushing down from the catwalk. CAPTAIN CANTON!! HELP!! Canton backs away from the Captain, as the Captain's struggle draws him further into the web. The Captain's eyes bulge, horrified, as he feels SOMETHING inside the spider web GRAB him from behind. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) IT HURTS!!!!! IT HURRRRRTTTTTSSSS!!! He struggles WILDLY. Then starts to freeze up as the tentacles wrap around him. Finnegan and Trillian race across the floor as the Captain is slowly sucked deeper into the spider web; his face and body bady constricting, paralyzed. His VOICE is CHOKED OFF. Hanover, Chin, Mamooli and Pantucci burst out of another alleyway. Finnegan and Trillian reach the Captain just as his FACE is SUCKED into the gelatinous web. They skid to a stop. Everybody piles up. Eyes wide. Watching as the Captain's body is pulled deeper into the dark web. Tentacles enveloping him. HANOVER (to Canton) Where is the closest hatch? Canton still pressed against the wall, staring at the spot the Captain disappeared, talking to himself. CANTON I never meant for anyone to get hurt ...it was supposed to be clean... Hanover grabs Canton by the front of his tattered tuxedo jacket. HANOVER You hypocritical bastard...all you gave a shit about was the money... where's the hatch!! Canton points down a darkened passageway. HANOVER (CONT'D) Alright let's move out...you two on point... He looks at an uneasy Mamooli and Chin. FINNEGAN Joey... Which way's aft? PANTUCCI That way. He points in the opposite direction. HANOVER Who gives a shit about aft? FINNEGAN That's where my boat's moored. HANOVER You trying to take over my show Finnegan, that what you trying to do? FINNEGAN Just trying to get to my boat... Finnegan takes off down a catwalk in the opposite direction that disappears in the dark. Pantucci is right with him. Trillian, a step behind. HANOVER (yelling) You stay away from that vault! You hear me? Just before he steps into the darkness, Finnegan calls over his shoulder... FINNEGAN They respond to sound... He disappears into the dark. Canton looks at Hanover for a long moment, and then takes off after Finnegan. The other two mercs look at Hanover, wavering. HANOVER (tense) What? The sound of his voice makes the two mercs look around nervously. MAMOOLI (whispered) He made sense. HANOVER (loud) He's a bloody... And then conscious of his voice reverberating... HANOVER (CONT'D) (whispered) ...he's a bloody taxi driver! Chin breaks for the catwalk, hurrying after Finnegan. Hanover stands with a very antsy Mamooli, steaming. After a long moment, he strides off after Finnegan as well. CUT TO: 93 BALLAST PASSAGEWAY - DAY 93 In SLOW-MO, Finnegan and the others creep down a darkened, pipe-lined passageway. Guns out front. Sight beams sweeping the path ahead. Eyes wide open. Sweat sliding down their faces. Breath coming in short nervous bursts. Hearts pounding out of chests. The ominous MUSICAL SCORE adds to the tension. Then the EMERGENCY LIGHTING KICKS ON. A creepy-looking reddish-blue glow is cast throughout the ship. Finnegan continues on. Followed by the others. All sweating hard. Eyes nervously shifting. Fear thick in the air. LOOKING DOWN THROUGH A METAL GATE, we SEE Finnegan, Trillian and the others passing below. Then suddenly, in the dark foreground -- SOMETHING WET WRIGGLES across the gate. They come to a door. Finnegan tries the handle. No go. Finnegan turns to Canton, and mimes for keys. Canton shakes his head. He has none. HANOVER (whispered) Very good Finnegan...very good. Trillian moves up to Finnegan. She reaches into her hair, and pulls out her trusty lockpick. As he watches, somewhat mystified, she inserts the pin, tickles the lock a few times, and depresses the handle. Click! The door opens. Finnegan looks at her curiously, but with respect. CUT TO: 94 BALLAST SECTION - DAY 94 They ENTER the rear ballast section, where the walls are indeed far apart, half of which is now a small POND. Obviously flooded. The only way out of this room is down some STEPS which VANISH beneath the seawater, or through a single violently twisted HATCH DOOR. Finnegan tries to push the hatch. It will not give. Mamooli and Chin join him, adding their considerable muscle to the task. The hatch holds tight. Finnegan turns to Canton, who stands slumped against a railing. He does not look well at all. FINNEGAN What's on the far side? CANTON I don't know. PANTUCCI (nerves) It's your damn ship! What the hell do you mean you don't know? Finnegan touches Pantucci's shoulder. FINNEGAN Joey, what difference does it make... Finnegan enters the water. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) If you hear one shot, you know I made it...start coming... Pantucci follows Finnegan to the water. HANOVER How do we know you're going to signal...how do we know you're not going to just take off? Finnegan stops. FINNEGAN I'll wait here... You go check it out. Hanover does not move. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) (contemptuous) I didn't think so. Finnegan wades into the water. Just before he sinks beneath the surface... TRILLIAN Finnegan... He looks back. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Be careful. With a smile, Finnegan dives under. Pantucci right behind him. The others stand looking around, nervous. CUT TO: 95 UNDERWATER - NIGHT 95 Finnegan SWIMS down to the floor of the ballast. Then into a passageway lined with black pipes. Pantucci right behind him. STRANGE NOISES REVERBERATE through the MURKY waters. CREAKS and MOANS. Spooky shit. Both men are wide-eyed as they swim. Weaving their way through a maze of pipes and ducts. The THINGS could come out of almost anywhere. Bubbles drift up from the darkness below. The MUSIC IS TENSE...VERY VERY TENSE. Pantucci falls behind. He swims around a curve and right into a SEVERED HUMAN ARM! AIR BUBBLES BLAST out of his mouth as he SCREAMS. The fingers on the dead hand seem to reach out for him. He fights his way past and swims off in a panic. CUT TO: 96 BALLAST - NIGHT 96 Trillian stares down into the water. Hanover keeps a sharp, nervous eye back down the catwalk, white-knuckling his pulse rifle. Chin and Mamooli keep watch, tight lipped. Canton paces back and forth, driven by anxiety. HANOVER Stop pacing. Canton acts as if he does not hear. He keeps pacing. Hanover chops sharply with the stock of his rifle into Canton's arm. Canton crumbles against the railing, in pain. CANTON AAAAHHHH!!!! HANOVER You deaf? TRILLIAN Why don't you back off? HANOVER You want some too? Hanover's jaw clenches. He releases the safety on his rifle, the click resounding ominously in the hollow room. TRILLIAN How brave we are. Trillian's eyes fix on Hanover's, unwavering. A Mexican standoff. MAMOOLI Hanover! Everyone turn to... A giant ball of black, wet, OOZING RUBBER UNDULATES down the gangway. Coming straight at them. A mass of glistening striated MUSCLE. HANOVER Fire!! The three men open up with their pulse rifles. The CREATURE gets RIPPED TO SHREDS. Red and blue INK-BLOOD SPLATTERS everywhere. But onward it comes. Down the gangway. Trillian grabs the pistol off Chin's utility belt, and opens fire. Canton jumps into the water and disappears. CUT TO: 97 KITCHEN - NIGHT 97 Finnegan explodes to the surface. GASPING for air. He reaches down and yanks a half drowned Pantucci up next to him. They both look up to gunfire exploding in the distance. CUT TO: 98 BALLAST ROOM - NIGHT 98 The creature keeps coming. The mercs keep firing. Then without warning Hanover drops his rifle and dives into the water, disappearing beneath the surface. Trillian is astounded. She throws down her pistol, picks up the pulse rifle, and slams on the trigger. The recoil of the rifle throws her into the water. When she surfaces, she sees Chin and Mamooli, firing as they retreat to the water's edge. Still holding her rifle, she dives. CUT TO: 99 UNDERWATER - NIGHT 99 Trillian swims down a violently SHAKING PASSAGEWAY. Eyes wide. Filled with fear. All around, DEBRIS DROPS through the water. Primordial SOUNDS REVERBERATE off the walls. Lots of BUBBLING and GURGLING -- THEN SOMETHING LUNGES OUT! TRILLIAN OPENS UP. FIRING wildly. The water fills with FIRE and BUBBLES. Trillian looks around. Scared shitless. The bubbles clear just in time for her to see -- Chin, mouth open, eyes wide, screaming in agony, being ripped past her. She tries to fire her rifle. Too late. Trillian watches as Chin VANISHES down the shaft in a CLOUD OF BUBBLES. CUT TO: 100 KITCHEN - NIGHT 100 TRILLIAN BURSTS to the surface. FINNEGAN YANKS her up and out of the water. FINNEGAN You O.K.? Trillian can only nod, and gasp for breath. Canton and Hanover catch their breath, PANTING AWAY, waterlogged. Hanover reaches over to retrieve the rifle in Trillian's hand. Trillian points the barrel at him, and hits the safety. TRILLIAN (grim) Finders keepers. Mamooli bursts out of the water, falling on the floor, close to panic mode. MAMOOLI Where's Chin? TRILLIAN Gone... MAMOOLI This is not real! This is not bloody real! Finnegan TOPPLES a large, heavy metal BROILER onto the open floor gate, sealing the watery hole in the floor. There are two hatches in this room. The far hatch is closed. Mamooli stands next to an OPEN HATCH. Canton points to it. CANTON Through there...another sixty, seventy yards...there are more elevators there. PANTUCCI I ain't goin' up no more elevators. CANTON There's stairways... Mamooli SLAMS the HATCH SHUT. Eyes bugging out of his head. MAMOOLI I say we stay right here! PANTUCCI Are you crazy? MAMOOLI (desperate) There's plenty of food here. We can hold out...someone'll rescue us... FINNEGAN Who? MAMOOLI Someone...maybe they sent an SOS! PANTUCCI On what? This son of a bitch (to Canton) zapped the communications. HANOVER Mamooli stand down! MAMOOLI We don't even know if his boat is still there...you saw Billy! FINNEGAN Boat or no boat...I'm going... Finnegan steps forward. Mamooli aims his rifle right at Finnegan's head. MAMOOLI They're wipin' us out one at a time. I say we make a stand. Right here! Right now! Maximum firepower! PANTUCCI Somebody shoot this jerk! FINNEGAN (calm) Nobody's shooting nobody...come on, just let us through the hatch! MAMOOLI I'll kill you!! I'll fucking kill you!! I'll do it! I'll do it! I'm not playin' around here! Finnegan freezes. CLOSE ON: The hatch. As a BLACK LIQUID starts to OOZE through a tiny latch-hole. No one sees it. FINNEGAN I once saw a guy put a fish in a bottle, then he corked it, sealing it tight, and threw it to a baby octopus. The little sucker felt its way around that bottle, and in less than two minutes, got that cork off, slid inside, and ate that fish. MAMOOLI What the hell are you talking about? FINNEGAN Us...I'm talking about us... We're the fish. The LIQUID SHADOW OOZES down and hits the floor, starts to EXPAND, filling like a water balloon. It's not a liquid. It's a Tentacle. VEINS, FEELERS and SUCKERS begin to form. MAMOOLI And what? These things are octopuses FINNEGAN I don't know what these things are ...all I know is... The TENTACLE slowly RISES UP right behind Mamooli. Inches behind his head. Finnegan and Hanover see it. Eyes widening. MAMOOLI What...? What?? Mamooli turns to the tentacle looming over him, about to strike. MAMOOLI (CONT'D) EEEEYYYYYAAAAHHHH!!!! He opens fire, emptying his clip into the tentacle. The tentacle retreats into the pipes. Mamooli looks around. The room is empty. He runs out. CUT TO: 101 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 101 Mamooli rushes into the empty passageway, looks left. Then right. His POV. Down the hall another TENTACLE comes racing at him. Mamooli panics, drops his rifle. TRACK WITH Mamooli racing down the hallway, looking over his shoulder in fear, as the tentacle comes racing after him...gaining...gaining... almost on him... Mamooli leaps through an open hatch, and swings it shut in one swift motion. The tentacle slams into the glass portal. Stopped. Mamooli keeps his eye on the portal, and backs up two steps. He lets out a long deep breath of relief, turns... WHAM!!! Another tentacle envelops his face! MAMOOLI EEEYYYAAAHHHH!!!!! CUT TO: 102 MECHANICAL CHAMBER - NIGHT 102 Dante's Inferno: STEAM, SMOKE, FIRE, STRANGE NOISES, DARK AREAS, and lots of MOVING ENGINE PARTS. Finnegan leads, followed by Trillian, Hanover, Pantucci, and Canton. We can HEAR their HEARTS BEATING. Scary shit. Finnegan heads for a open HATCH. It suddenly SLAMS SHUT. He instantly VEERS down another passageway. PANTUCCI What the hell is going on!! Finnegan heads for another open HATCHWAY. It also SLAMS SHUT. FINNEGAN They're herding us. Finnegan and company keep going. HANOVER What are you talking about? As they round a corner, the CEILING IMPLODES right in front of them. PIPES and OTHER MATTER CRASH down. Cutting them off. Leaving only one route open...a slim passageway. FINNEGAN Like cattle... TRILLIAN You're saying they can think? FINNEGAN I'm saying they're calling the shots... Finnegan heads toward the passageway. CANTON Do we have to go there? The ceiling left above them begins to torque, and splits. The answer is plain. Everyone runs into the passage just as the ceiling comes down. CUT TO: 103 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 103 Finnegan leads them single-file, they quickly head into a SHAKING narrow void. Fear has led to silence, and unbearable tension. The walls on either side creak, and moan with strange noises. CUT TO: 104 MID-HULL - NIGHT 104 Finnegan quickly comes out of the CREAKING, MOANING GANGWAY, followed by the others. All the STRANGE NOISES suddenly STOP. Everything gets quiet. Finnegan freezes. Something's wrong. Everybody looks around. STEAM SHOOTS OUT from multiple pipes. The air is thick with MIST. TRILLIAN What's the matter? FINNEGAN The quiet... HANOVER Maybe we lost them. FINNEGAN Or maybe we're exactly where they want us to be. Finnegan moves on. The others follow. Guns out front. TENSE. They round a huge metal pillar and come face-to-face with a soul-wrenching nightmare. The CREATURES' NEST -- OR STOMACH. Across a small portion of the ship's midsection, is a huge GELATINOUS WOMB. Imagine a massive thick wall of clear-yellow JELL-O, with hundreds of BLUE VEINS running through it. If it weren't all so horrific, it would be considered beautiful. Inside the womb, A DOZEN HUMANS, passengers, float around in some kind of twisted embryonic state, the living dead. They all seem to be breathing the gelatin. Several TENTACLES WRIGGLE through the stuff; which divides and re forms in some sort of strange mitosis. Finnegan and the others look at the passengers, horrified. But even more horrifying is that the people can look back at them. Many start to reach out, seemingly in slow motion as their hands ooze through the thick gelatin. Trillian looks sick, trembles in fear. TRILLIAN What is it? FINNEGAN A meat locker. TRILLIAN We can't just leave them here. Canton looks like he's about to throw up, he starts backing away, heading for a side hatch. CANTON I can. In the womb, a Tentacle suddenly approaches a sexy young LADY. The Lady tries to back-pedal away, but because of the gelatin, it's like one of those nightmares where you can only move in slow motion. The FEELERS GRIP her naked thigh. She tries to scream, but her face is already starting to constrict, her whole body is being paralyzed. Pantucci is so horrified he's about to cry. PANTUCCI Oh no...oh God please no. The TENTACLE-SAC gloms onto the Lady's forehead. THROUGH THE SAC we can SEE her SKIN MELTING. The only thing she can move are her EYES, which are bugging-out in absolute horror as she is imbibed alive. Our heroes are frozen in fear. Until the Lady's EYES LIQUEFY. Trillian burries her head in Finnegan's shoulder, trying to shut out the horror. FINNEGAN We can't do anything for them... Let's go... He begins to lead her toward the hatch...when her eyes recognized the old lady with the orchid in her hair. The old lady seems to see her too. Her hands read out, IMPLORING. Her mouth silently shapes the words: HELP ME! Just as a tentacle comes creeping toward her. TRILLIAN NOOO!! Her rage rises. She hefts her rifle, and starts blasting away. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) You won't get her!! You won't!! Spitting FLAMES and SMOKE. The BULLETS IMPACT the gelatin. BLASTING IT AWAY. But the bullets only manage to go about twenty feet into the thick shit before gliding to a stop. GELATIN EXPLODES all over the place. TRACER HOLES STREAK through the stuff. But all the bullets are sliding short. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Finnegan...do something!! Please!! Finnegan looks around and spots the place in the ceiling where most of the Tentacles are coming from. Their long TAILS WIGGLE down from a massive clutter of pipes. A bas-relief of horror. Finnegan reaches over and yanks two thermite grenades off Hanover's utility belt. HANOVER Finnegan, No!!! ...bites the pins and spits them out. FINNEGAN Eat this. He chucks the grenades up into the strange WRITHING FRESCO, safely clear of the passengers. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) FIRE IN THE HOLE! Pantucci and Hanover throw themselves to the floor. Finnegan pulls Trillian down, covering her. BA-WOOM! GELATIN SPRAYS EVERYWHERE. CUT TO: 105 FUJI MARU - SAME TIME 105 A loud, creepy, suction-like SOUND is HEARD, that strange pitter- patter of little feet running across the hull. Then the HULL begins to MOAN and CREAK from an UNSEEN PRESSURE. CUT TO: 106 MID HULL - NIGHT 106 All the MOVEMENT STOPS. The remaining TENTACLES VANISH into the machinery. Pantucci, and Hanover look up from the floor, covered in slime. Finnegan and Trillian also look up...and then look at each other face to face...inches apart. Dripping with slime. FINNEGAN Looking good... TRILLIAN You should talk... Then the machinery shuts down. The engines go dead. ALL SOUND CUTS OUT. An expectant hush. Somewhere, WATER DRIPS... WE GO EXTREMELY CLOSE ON Trillian's EYES. Pantucci's EYES. Hanover's EYES. Finnegan's EYES. The air is riddled with ominous expectation. And that's when the HULL BEGINS TO TORQUE. RIVETS POP and SNAP. WATER SPRAYS. METAL BUCKLES. 107 SHOT: 107 At the far end of the ship, part of the LOWER BOW RIPS OPEN! AND A WALL OF WATER RUSHES IN. FLOOD CITY! Finnegan's eyes widen as he sees (MODEL SHOT) the massive WAVE OF WATER CRASHING TOWARDS THEM. RIPPING OUT PIPES, DUCTS, WALLS, EQUIPMENT and EVERYTHING in front of it. FINNEGAN GO! GO! GO! They all hightail it for hatches. Finnegan and Trillian make it into one hatch. Hanover and Pantucci make it into another. WATER CRASHES and SPRAYS behind them. CUT TO: 108 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 108 Massive AIR BUBBLES EXPLODE out from under the bow. CUT TO: 109 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 109 RED WARNING LIGHTS FLASH up and down every passageway. And a CLAXTON RINGS, in accelerating tones, giving a frenetic urgency to ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SCENES: 110 A PASSAGEWAY: 110 WATER BLASTS through a hatch and CHASES Finnegan and Trillian down a passageway. They jag left at an intersection -- WATER BLASTS through the hatch directly in front of them. FINNEGAN We're going to sink! We've got to get on deck! They backtrack. Trillian's now in the lead. They HAUL ASS down a hallway. WATER ROARING IN from everywhere behind them. All of the watertight HATCHES begin to hydraulically CLOSE. Trillian and Finnegan JAG into a hatch. It's a small room. The hatch in front of them closes. WATER BLASTS in behind them. SWEEPS them off their feet. The ROOM quickly starts to FILL UP. Trillian pulls frantically at the hatch. CUT TO: 111 NARROW PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 111 Hanover and Pantucci quickly slog their way through knee-high water. Pantucci stumbles into the water, frantically scrambles up. He looks back -- UNDER THE WATER, INKY FORMS hurl themselves down the passageway right towards him. Pantucci YELPS, and splashes away. CUT TO: 112 SUBMERGING ROOM - NIGHT 112 Trillian and Finnegan pull with all their might on a tiny portal. Finnegan tries to insert the blade of his knife in the crack. TRILLIAN So how do you get from the Bronx to the South China sea? FINNEGAN You quit high school, lie about your age, join the navy, and next thing you know, four years are up and you need a way to make a living... The knife blade slips into the crack. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) I'll break the seal! Pull. He yanks the blade. Trillian pulls. The seal pops. The portal flies open. Waist-high in water, Trillian sticks her arm out, tries to get her shoulder out, but there's no chance in hell of that. TRILLIAN Too small! She pulls her arm out. And a TENTACLE LUNGES IN. Just missing Trillian. It SPLASHES under the water. GRABS Finnegan's ankle. Pulls him under. FINNEGAN sticks the barrel of his gun underwater and OPENS FIRE. WATER EXPLODES. The Tentacle recoils. And rips itself back out the porthole. Trillian SLAMS the PORTHOLE SHUT and dogs it tight. The WATER QUICKLY RISES. CUT TO: 113 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 113 Pantucci and Hanover hauling ass. Hanover pulls out his last two Thermite grenades. Pantucci panics and grabs for them. PANTUCCI Gimme one! Gimme one! He knocks both of them out of Hanover's hands. They DISAPPEAR under the water. HANOVER You idiot! They quickly fumble around in the water, trying to find them. A TENTACLE BLASTS around the corner. Partially obscured by the wave in front of it. Heading right for them. Hanover finds the two grenades. Gives one to Pantucci. They rip the pins out and toss the grenades behind them. Then HAUL ASS faster. The Tentacle right behind them. A BEAT. And then the GRENADES EXPLODE, BA-WOOM! BA-WOOM! CUT TO: 114 FUJI MARY - NIGHT 114 The storm hammers the deck. Canton staggers out onto the RAIN SLICKED DECK just in time to see -- A HOLE BEING BLOWN OUT the side of the Fuji Maru's HULL. BUBBLES continue to EXPLODE OUT from under the bow. CANTON Oh my God, it's going to sink. Then slowly, Canton gets a gleam in his eye, now thrilled. CANTON (CONT'D) It's going to sink. CUT TO: 115 SUBMERGED ROOM - NIGHT 115 Finnegan and Trillian are getting banged around the frothy WATER as it quickly RISES. Now only inches from the ceiling. Trapped. They're about to drown. Finnegan keeps looking around, trying to figure a way out. TRILLIAN I was so goddamn close, Finnegan! So goddamn close to my island... I could almost taste the sand... FINNEGAN Keep tasting... Finnegan shoves the pulse rifle to the ceiling. And blasts away until part of the ceiling falls out and into the water. There's just enough room between two metal beams to get out. The rising WATER SHOVES them up through the hole. CUT TO: 116 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 116 Side-by-side, Hanover and Pantucci quickly slog their way through waist-high water. They round a corner and look back -- INKY FORMS SLOSH around the corner. Heading right for them. They slog faster. PANTUCCI They're catchin' up! They're catchin' up! We gotta slow 'em down! HANOVER Feed them. That'll slow them down. A black STRIATED MUSCLE ROILS out of the foamy water, then quickly VANISHES under it, heading straight for them. PANTUCCI Feed 'em?!! Okay! All right! Feed 'em what? WHAT ARE WE GONNA FEED 'EM?! Hanover takes his pistol and SHOOTS Pantucci in the leg, BLAM! Pantucci SCREAMS. FALLS into the water. Hanover RUNS on. Pantucci doesn't even have time to deal with the pain. He starts SCRAMBLING through the water. UNDERWATER, the INKY FORMS RACE AFTER HIM. Only meters away. Pantucci throws himself into the opening of a dumbwaiter. SLAMS the DOOR SHUT. The TENTACLE ATTACKS the door. WORMING its way across the surface, trying to find a way inside. Pantucci is scared beyond his pain. Pushing back as far as he can against the rear wall, he sees the control button. He presses the up arrow. The dumbwaiter starts to move. CUT TO: 117 FUJI MARU REAR DECK - DAY 117 The Saipan is still bobbing behind the Fuji Maru. But the HARPOON HOOK, which holds the tow-line and is embedded into the rear deck of the ship, is starting to PRY LOOSE. It JERKS and BUCKS against the metal wall. Canton doesn't notice this as he slips and slides his way up to the railing. He sees the Saipan and smiles. Then he looks off at -- 118 ISLAND 118 rising out of the ocean. About a mile away. Canton starts to climb over the railing. And that's when the HARPOON HOOK RIPS FREE. WHIZZES FORWARD. And IMPALES Canton's LEG. He SCREAMS. Tries to spin free. The hook hangs onto his leg for a long, agonizing BEAT as Canton continues to SCREAM. Then the HOOK RIPS FREE, grabs the METAL RAILING and starts TEARING IT off the deck. Canton drops to the deck, holding his leg and whimpering in pain. And then he sees it -- 119 SPEEDBOAT 119 dangling from its harness down on the watersports platform. 120 TO SCENE 120 Canton starts to crawl for it. Moaning and bleeding. CUT TO: 121 CRYSTAL POOL DECK - NIGHT 121 Finnegan and Trillian race up onto the pool deck. Passing beneath a colorful NEON SIGN which READS: "THE FUJI MARU - YOUR FUN SHIP" In the dark, Trillian trips. She falls to the slippery, waterlogged deck, and SCREAMS... TRILLIAN EEEEEYYYYYAAAAHHHH! ...clawing at her face... Finnegan pulls her hands from her face...and the thing that attached itself there...a small squid from the shattered aquarium. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) (freaked) Ah...ah...ah... Tries to catch her breath. FINNEGAN It's OK...it's not one of them... it's from the aquarium...it's... And then it dawns on Finnegan. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) It's not them...it's it... TRILLIAN What? FINNEGAN You know what kind of force it took to rip open the bow of this ship? A million little things like this... He holds up the squid. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) ...can't exert that kind of pressure... And the way it tracked us? A million little things don't carry portable phones to coordinate positions... What's chasing us... it's one...thing...one giant... thing. SMASH CUT TO: 122 ARIAL POV - MATTE FX SHOT - NIGHT 122 ...looking down on the Fuji Maru from high up in the air. Beneath the ENTIRE SHIP is an enormous, undulating BLACK SHADOW. A massive monster from the deep. CUT TO: 123 CASINO - NIGHT 123 RED WARNING LIGHTS FLASH. The CLAXTON RINGS. Off to one side of a wall, behind the bar, the dumbwaiter door opens, and Pantucci tumbles out, looks around, and then hears... HANOVER (V.O.) Help!! Help!! Pantucci limps around the bar, down a row of one armed bandits... rounds a corner, comes face-to-face with Hanover. Hanover's eyes are filled with terror and despair. His face is badly constricted. His body paralyzed. He clings to a black-jack table as a Tentacle-Sac drinks its way up his leg. It's already to his hip. He grasps desperately for his pistol, just beyond his reach on the floor. This guy ain't gonna survive. PANTUCCI YELPS and quickly back away, eyes wide, totally tense. He looks around, sees that there's only one Tentacle, and it's completely occupied with devouring Hanover. Pantucci is wigged, but manages to lock eyes with Hanover. Then he looks at the Sac, filled with regurgitated flesh. PANTUCCI ...even you don't deserve this. Pantucci picks up Hanover's pistol. Then slowly, cautiously, he creeps forward, and sticks the gun into Hanover's TWITCHING HAND. PANTUCCI (CONT'D) I'm sorry man... He turns and quickly limps off. Hanover's EYES look down at the gun in his hand. Then, with all the strength he has left, he slowly, painfully, turns the pistol so it points at his head. CLOSE ON: Hanover's trembling FINGER. As it slowly squeezes the trigger. He want to kill himself. Needs to hill himself. He squeezes harder. The TRIGGER DEPRESSES! -- CLICK! The gun is empty. Hanover's mouth opens in a horrible, silent scream. CUT TO: 124 REAR DECK - SAME TIME 124 Finnegan and Trillian race out onto the rear deck just as the HARPOON HOOK finishes TEARING the railing off the ship. The HOOK, the TOW- LINE, and the ENTIRE RAILING DROP over the side and fall OUT OF SIGHT. The TWO BOATS are now UNCOUPLED. Finnegan reels at the rain soaked sky. FINNEGAN Will somebody give me a break here? And that's when Finnegan and Trillian hear the SOUND of a HYDRAULIC HOIST. They look over -- 125 AT THE WATERSPORTS PLATFORM: 125 The speedboat is being hydraulically lowered into the water. Canton sits inside, fiddling with the ignition. ANGLE ON: Trillian and Finnegan racing down the spiral stairs leading to the watersports platform. TRILLIAN Wait! Stop! The boat touches down into the water. CANTON I'd like to but I have an appointment with my insurance broker! He HITS the HOIST-RELEASE BUTTON. The speedboat breaks free. Canton HITS the IGNITION. The boat's ENGINE ROARS. CANTON (CONT'D) Life takes the damndest turns, doesn't it? He red-lines the THROTTLE. The SPEEDBOAT HAULS ASS away from the cruiseliner. Canton steers for the island. Smiling. ANGLE ON: Trillian IN HER RAGE... TRILLIAN You son of a bitch!! She grabs Finnegan's pulse rifle, hefts it to her shoulder... FINNEGAN Look! He forces her to look in the distance. Their POV. The island. TRILLIAN Oh my god! Oh my god! How do we do it? How do we get there? FINNEGAN Not like him. Finnegan points to the water...and an INKY PSEUDOPOD FORM racing after the speedboat underwater. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) It's the engine...it can hear the engine...it goes for the loudest sound... The Tentacle quickly picks up speed, going faster and faster, getting closer and closer, stretching further and further. Suddenly, behind them, a METALLIC THRASHING SOUND is HEARD. They turn around and look -- The hook, the tow-line, and the entire railing have dropped down onto the watersports platform and are tangled up around the two jet skis, trying to tear free -- The Saipan is still clinging by its fingernails to the Fuji Maru! Finnegan races over to a WINCH and grabs the winch- line. CUT TO: 126 SPEEDBOAT - NIGHT 126 Canton, smiling brightly, peers at the approaching island through the speedboat's windscreen. So relieved he sings to himself, from the operetta H.M.S. PINAFORE. CANTON Oh we sail the ocean blue, and our mighty ship's a beauty. We are strong men, yes it's true, and responsive to our duty... When...YANK!!...the SPEEDBOAT is GRABBED from below, practically exploding as it DISINTEGRATES into TWO PIECES. Canton is PROPELLED through the windscreen and onto the hood. CUT TO: 127 WATERSPORT PLATFORM - NIGHT 127 Finnegan struggles to clip the winch-line onto the tow-line, hanging precariously over the edge of the ship, clip in one hand, winch-line in the other. The whole METAL MESS is BUCKING and TWISTING and SCREECHING. His every joint is being ripped out of socket as he strains to get the clip on the line before the entire rig tears away into the sea. With one last heroic effort of will and grit, he snaps the clip in place just as it all BREAKS LOOSE. One of the JET SKIS and the ENTIRE RAILING are RIPPED over the side and fall down into the ocean. Finnegan is also YANKED over the side, but he manages to hold on by his fingers, dangling precariously. FINNEGAN Hit it! Hit it! The HOOK and the TOW-LINE drop -- then SNAP TAUGHT as the winch-line holds them tight. Trillian throws the start lever on the winch. The WINCH KICKS ON and starts reeling in the Saipan. Finnegan tries to crawl up on the deck, exhausted. Trillian reaches down and pulls him the rest of the way up. He half collapses on top of her. TRILLIAN You know, Finnegan, I'm starting to believe what you said about you not being born to die on a luxury liner. Despite the grimness of their position, the closeness of their bodies is...a turn on...to both of them...and then a SCREAM from the sea. They look in the direction of... CUT TO: 128 SPEEDBOAT - NIGHT 128 Canton is pinned to the hood of the speedboat, his face shredded by glass, his leg mangled, screaming as his panicked eyes watch a TENTACLE slowly squirm across the hood toward him, it's hideous feelers writhe and arch. Canton backs away from it as far as he can. Another TENTACLE SQUIRMS up next to him. Canton crawls away from that one. Its Feelers and Suckers unsheathe, dripping mucus. Canton's eyes widen, horrified. Then another TENTACLE SQUIRMS up. Canton crawls to the center of the hood. And another TENTACLE. Canton has nowhere to go. The Tentacles close in on him. CANTON No! No! No! All the tentacles rise over him, about to descend. CANTON (CONT'D) NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! CUT TO: 129 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 129 Finnegan and Trillian race for all they are worth, clamber over the side of the Fuji Maru, dropping to the deck of the Saipan. CUT TO: 130 SAIPAN - NIGHT 130 Finnegan and Trillian slowly clamber through the hold, waist deep in water, on edge, eyes wide, watching for any sign of trouble. It's quiet in here. Maybe too quiet. TRILLIAN (quietly) Finnegan... FINNEGAN Yeah... TRILLIAN ...the minute you start your engines ...it's going to kill us, isn't it? They step up to one of the big CRATES. Finnegan starts SMASHING it with the butt of his pulse-rifle. The CRATE BURST OPEN. REVEALING the WARHEAD of the torpedo. Trillian is stunned. FINNEGAN Not unless we kill it first. Finnegan SMASHES more of the CRATE, it falls apart, REVEALING the entire torpedo. He hands her his pulse rifle. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Anything moves, you shoot. Finnegan starts to yank open the top plates of the missile head. Trillian looks around nervously. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) There's not much horsepower left in the engines, but there's enough noise...once this baby's set...I'll rev it up...that slimy bastard will come for it like candy... TRILLIAN If you blow up your boat, how are we going to get to the island? FINNEGAN Jet ski...there's one left up there. The plate comes loose. Revealing a gaggle of wires, and parts. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) ...let's see, it was red wire cross compressor blue wire...or blue cross red? He starts to fiddle with the wires. -- Suddenly, there's a LOUD SLOSHING SOUND right behind them! CRATES TOPPLE! More pulse rifles spill out. Trillian spins, ready to blast away with the pulse rifle, to... PANTUCCI Don't shoot!! Don't shoot!! FINNEGAN Just the man I wanted to see. On this puppy here, you remember if it's red to blue or blue to red... He refers to the wires. PANTUCCI Not even a Joey, I'm glad to see you? Joey, what happened to your leg? FINNEGAN Joey, you want to get sucked out by a giant fucking mutated squid? PANTUCCI (fast) Red cross over to blue double blue ...is that what it is? A squid? FINNEGAN Squid...squid like...squid type... it's got tentacles, a feed sac... probably one central nervous processor somewhere...what the hell do I know is going on deep down in the ocean...there's all sorts of shit we've never seen...eighty foot clams...60 foot sharks...I'm just guessing...can you get me more juice out of Hercules...fast? PANTUCCI For juice, I gotta rebuild. That's not fast. TRILLIAN How about noise? Can you get noise? We don't need speed, just noise, right? FINNEGAN Right... PANTUCCI Can somebody tell me what the object of the exercise is here? FINNEGAN Seafood salad. (to Trillian) You ever operate a jet ski? TRILLIAN (nervous) You want ME to go up there? FINNEGAN Not unless you can wire a missile or fix an engine. TRILLIAN And what if I run into one of those things? Finnegan tosses her a pulse rifle from the overturned crate. FINNEGAN Don't forget the safety. She hits the safety, slams a shell into chamber... TRILLIAN Don't take too long...I'm not planning on being on the menu tonight. ...and exits. PANTUCCI (razzing) I've never seen you so congenial with a member of the opposite sex... The two of you got a nice patter going...got a nice rapport... FINNEGAN And you got 10 minutes before this thing livens up a boring evening. Finnegan attaches a wire to a sprocket. A red light starts to blink on the warhead. CUT TO: 131 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 131 It is VERY DARK. The RAIN is getting worse. THUNDER RUMBLES. LIGHTNING FLASHES. The FUJI MARU MOANS and CREAKS. BUBBLES EXPLODE from beneath it. The Saipan rocks against her hull. Trillian clambers along the TILTING RAILING, heading for the watersports platform. Her gorgeous eyes shift nervously. TRILLIAN I'm going to be OK...I'm going to be OK... The ship's METAL HULL SCREECHES. The SEAWATER BUBBLES and GURGLES. From somewhere deep inside the ship, we HEAR that loud primordial YOWL again. Trillian freezes, her heart double beats. She looks around, really scared. CUT TO: 132 SAIPAN'S HOLD - NIGHT 132 The missile is on a hoist being pushed forward by Pantucci and Finnegan toward a GAPING HOLE in the PORT BOW. PANTUCCI You know what I think? I think our luck has just about run shit out... FINNEGAN A little to the left... PANTUCCI I think we gotta stop floating from one fucked up situation to the next... FINNEGAN Line it up now, nice and easy... The missile head is right in line with the hole in the bow. PANTUCCI I'm telling you, man, we got to give the future some serious thought. FINNEGAN I have been. PANTUCCI And what have you come up with? FINNEGAN How does an island sound to you? Pantucci looks at Finnegan quizically. This is news to him. CUT TO: 133 SAIPAN - NIGHT 133 The TIP of the WARHEAD creeps out through the hole. The body of the missile is just a hair too wide, which is good, because it jams itself nice and tight into the hole. CUT TO: 134 WATERSPORT PLATFORM - NIGHT 134 Trillian takes the tarp off the remaining jet ski. Pushes the swivel arm that holds it out over the railing. The PLATFORM TILTS! Trillian loses her balance. Almost goes over the side. Just barely manages to catch herself. Hangs there for a moment. Something SWISHES in the water below her. Trillian's EYES scan the darkness; scared sick. CUT TO: 135 THE SAIPAN'S PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 135 Finnegan LASHES the STEERING-STICKS as hard left as they'll go. The rudder locks tight. Pantucci enters. PANTUCCI I gerry-rigged the ignition...all you gotta do is start her up...it won't go fast but it'll go loud... Trillian's scream tears through the night. Finnegan's eyes go to the Fuji Maru. He kicks open a box by the side of the console, and pulls out a sawed off shot gun with a pistol handle in a holster. PANTUCCI (CONT'D) Man, don't go up there... FINNEGAN One whistle... Start the engine... Finnegan slams shells into the shotgun. PANTUCCI She's gone... FINNEGAN Second whistle you make it to the deck and get ready to jump... PANTUCCI All you're gonna do is get yourself killed...and for what? Some chick? FINNEGAN You're beautiful what you're jealous, you know that, Joey? Finnegan hefts a pulse rifle, and runs out of the pilothouse. CUT TO: 136 FUJI MARU DECK - NIGHT 136 Finnegan drops onto the deck from the tow line. Pulse-rifle leveled. Adrenaline rushing through his veins. A man on a mission. The SHIP is in its final death throes. MOANING and CREAKING. Trillian's scream pierces the night, followed by several shots. Finnegan takes off in it's direction. CUT TO: 137 FUJI MARU PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 137 Finnegan ENTERS. Ready to be jumped. The scary MUSIC builds. TENSION CITY. Again shots fired. This time closer. Finnegan throws caution to the winds, and runs for all he is worth. CUT TO: 138 HALLWAY - NIGHT 138 Trillian is being dragged down the dark hallway by a tentacle wrapped around her legs. She struggles frantically, trying to get a clear shot off. But her shot goes wild as she is pulled this way and that, slammed against the walls on either side. She loses her rifle. CUT TO: 139 GRAND ATRIUM - NIGHT 139 Finnegan ENTERS the glass-domed atrium. Sloshes through the water. Stops in the middle and looks around. Sees a Tentacle, writhing up a glass wall of the atrium. Finnegan hears TRILLIAN SCREAM. He quickly plants his feet and FIRES from the hip. GLASS SHATTERS EVERYWHERE. He arcs around. WINDOWS BLOW TO PIECES. Finnegan lets out a low, angry, guttural YELL. The TENTACLE SHREDS from the GUNFIRE. CUT TO: 140 HALLWAY - NIGHT 140 The tentacle dragging Trillian retracts. Freed, Trillian gets up, grabs her rifle, and RUNS LIKE HELL. CUT TO: 141 FRISCO BAR - NIGHT 141 Trillian runs in and is immediately hit by COLORFUL SWIRLING LIGHTS and a PULSATING STROBE. FLASHING RED WARNING LIGHTS, the SOUND of the CLAXTON, the SPRAYING WATER and thick MIST...major psychedelia. Disoriented, Trillian runs towards a dark exit door -- and into a geometric gelatinous SPIDER WEB. Sticks. TRILLIAN NOOO!! NOOOO!! HELPP!! HELPP!! CUT TO: 142 ATRIUM - NIGHT 142 Finnegan is slamming another clip into his pulse rifle when he hears TRILLIAN, YELLING for help. He takes off running through a hatch. CUT TO: 143 FRISCO BAR - NIGHT 143 Trillian struggles in the web, but she's only getting herself more stuck. Behind her, deep in the web, Tentacles slowly start squirming their way towards her. Trillian feels the GELATIN start to MOVE. She struggles wildly. Panicked. Finnegan ENTERS the room. Spots Trillian. Starts sloshing his way through the water. Trillian sees him coming. TRILLIAN Finnegan! Trillian looks back. Sees the Tentacles coming out of the darkness of the web. Twenty feet back and closing. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Hurry!! Hurry!! Finnegan runs up and grabs her. Tries to pull her free. But she's stuck good. He looks behind her to the tentacles quickly closing in on her. Now fifteen feet away. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Get me out of here!! As she struggles, Finnegan pulls out his knife, and starts to hack away at the sticky webbing. Trillian tries to look behind her. FINNEGAN Don't look!! Push!! Trillian struggles with every last ounce of her strength. Now ten feet away. TRILLIAN FINNEEGGGAANNN!!! Finnegan hacks away with desperate urgency. Now five feet. FINNEGAN Grab my hands!! Finnegan plunges his hands into the goo. Trillian latches onto Finnegan's wrists, he onto hers. Four feet. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Push!! Push!! Finnegan strains, pulling, until every muscle in his body keens with the effort, every vein pops to the surface. Trillian pushes for all she is worth. Three feet...two feet...one foot... BOTH YYYEEEAAAHHH!!! With a last gargantuan effort, Finnegan yanks...Trillian comes tearing out of the webbing...the remnants of her gown doesn't...in the nick of time. The tentacle rushes forward. Finnegan jams his pulse-rifle into the web and OPENS FIRE. Blasting the entire clip into the goo. Tearing the shit out of it. BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!!!!!! And that's when the whole ROOM starts to QUAKE. And SHAKE! Finnegan and Trillian both look down at their feet as they hear the LOWER DECKS EXPLODING UPWARD, one at a time -- BAM! - BAM! -- BAM! Something is rising up through the ship. He grabs Trillain and pulls her toward the exit. She scoops her fallen pulse rifle off the floor. FINNEGAN Go! Go! Go! He shoves her out the door, and is about to follow when the door is slammed shut in his face. TRILLIAN (V.O.) Finnegan!!! FINNEGAN Get to the jet ski! Go! CUT TO: 144 HALLWAY - NIGHT 144 Trillian stands there, pulling on the door, half naked. The door is bolted tight. She has not other options. She runs off. CUT TO: 145 FRISCO BAR - NIGHT 145 Finnegan turns as the DANCE FLOOR and the D.J. BOOTH EXPLODE as SOMETHING RISES UP from below them. His eyes widen. And there it is -- The huge, horrible, mutated, mucus-covered, sucker-faced HEAD OF THE CREATURE. A giant mutated protoplasm. Jutting up from a breach in the floor. The trunk of the Creature, the part where all the Tentacles come from, is below the next deck. A slimy, translucent MEMBRANE slowly RISES, REVEALING what appears to be some sort of ORGANIC LIQUID EYE. It seems to stare right at Finnegan, who is transfixed by the sight. A Tentacle slowly starts to move in on Finnegan. Finnegan starts making his way around the shattered debris that blocks his shot. The EYEBALL-type organism follows him. Another Tentacle starts to move. Silently undulating through the water towards Finnegan. The membrane over the EYE moves. And another Tentacle starts to close in for the kill. They are surrounding Finnegan. Finnegan comes around the shattered D.J. booth. Faces the Creature full-on. He can't miss. He gives it a wicked smile. FINNEGAN Get a good look... In SLOW-MOTION, Finnegan lifts his pulse-rifle. It DRIPS WATER. He jams the gun-butt into his hip. Takes aim -- FIRES! But he only gets off one quick BURST before a TENTACLE LASHES OUT and GRABS him. JERKS him into the air. His pulse-rifle goes flying. Finnegan is being dragged toward the hole into the floor, and the death that awaits him. He struggles to free himself as the hole looms closer, closer. He is about to disappear down the hole of no return, when his hand comes up with his knife. He slashes the tentacle in two, scrambles up and heads for an open door. As he reaches the door, a tentacle rises up in front of him. Huge. Blocking his way. It's maw opens wide. A terrifying sight of jaws and teeth and death. About to devour him. As it strikes forward, Finnegan draws his shotgun, and blasts the vile thing to smithereens. He bolts through the door, several Tentacles already after him. CUT TO: 146 WATERSPORTS PLATFORM - NIGHT 146 Trillian sits up on the jet ski. She hears the GUNFIRE. TRILLIAN FINNEGAN!! COME ON!! CUT TO: 147 PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT 147 Finnegan runs wildly down a passageway. He rounds a corner. A TENTACLE SIDE-SWIPES him. Hard. SMASHES him into a wall. Finnegan DROPS the shotgun. Hits the floor running. Another TENTACLES CHECKS him. Sends him SPIRALING through a hatch. Finnegan TUMBLES in. Face-first. Quickly rolls over and looks back -- A TENTACLE LASHES in through the doorway. Finnegan back-pedals on his hands and feet, stumbling over various sports equipment. The TENTACLE homes-in on him. CHARGES FORWARD. Finnegan hurls himself backwards. THROWING anything that comes to hand at the Tentacle. A VOLLEYBALL. A WATERSKI. A TACKLE BOX. A FRISBEE. But onward it comes. Finnegan back pedals faster. Over diving gear. Scuba tanks. Fins and masks. The TENTACLE RISES. About to STRIKE. Finnegan backs into the wall. Trapped. He spots a SPEARGUN. Grabs it. The TENTACLE LUNGES. Finnegan FIRES. NAILS IT. PINS IT to the wall. Finnegan scrambles past the furiously WRITHING TENTACLE and runs out of the room. CUT TO: 148 WATERSPORT PLATFORM - NIGHT 148 Trillian lifts up her feet as the jet ski touches down into the dark water. She frantically whispers to herself: TRILLIAN Oh my God, oh my God. Suddenly, twenty feet from the jet ski, SOMETHING SWIRLS through the water. Trillian aims her pulse-rifle at it. Eyes wide. Knuckles white. Breathing hard. WHAMM!! Something drops onto the ski behind her. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) EEEEYYYYAAAHHH!!!! She turns, ghost white...to Finnegan. FINNEGAN I don't mean to drop in unannounced ...you ready... TRILLIAN Soon as I get over the heart attack... Finnegan whistles. Waits. No engine goes on. He whistles again. Still no response. Removes his watch, gives it to Trillian. FINNEGAN Three minutes...I'm not back...no matter what...you go... TRILLIAN No... FINNEGAN You don't take orders very well, do you? TRILLIAN I don't take orders at all. FINNEGAN This time, make an exception. He grabs Trillian's pulse rifle, and leaps up on the side of the Saipan, and scales up to the deck. Trillian watches him, and then looks at the watch. CUT TO: 149 SAIPAN PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT 149 Finnegan bursts in. FINNEGAN Pantucci!... JOEY! Then he spots something on the floor. He reaches down and picks it up. It's Pantucci's leather tool belt. It's been RIPPED TO SHREDS. Finnegan stares at it. His grip tightening. Tears rising in his eyes. His jaw clenching. Then he flings the belt aside. Filled with rage. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Time to die, motherfucker. Finnegan hits the ignition button. A desperate moment of dry cranking ...and then the one remaining engine catches, sputters, and fires to life. CUT TO: 150 FUJI MARU - NIGHT 150 Trillian hears the Saipan's engine come to life. She hits the ignition on the jet ski. Right next to her something drops from the deck of the Saipan into the water. Finnegan clambers up in front of her. His pulse rifle still in hand. TRILLIAN Where's you friend? FINNEGAN He's not coming... The Saipan strains on its leashes. ENGINES GUNNING. Finnegan swings his rifle around. OPENS UP on the tie-lines. All the TIE-LINES SHRED. The Saipan starts to break free. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Hold on! He GUNS the ski...and it stalls. The jet ski stalls. Goes dead in the water. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Oh shit!! Nearby, the WATER SWIRLS violently. He hammers the starter button. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Come on!! The ENGINE STUTTERS. He tries again. FINNEGAN (CONT'D) Come on!! Another STUTTER. More WATER SWIRLS, getting closer now. But the third time's a charm. The jet ski comes to life and shoots off along the side of the ship. Just as a tentacle comes shooting out of the water. Finnegan fires at it, blowing it to pieces. The last TIE-LINE SNAPS. The SAIPAN LURCHES AWAY from the Fuji Maru. The jammed steering-sticks force the rudder to turn it in a tight circle. 151 FAST: 151 Finnegan bears down on the handlebars of the jet ski. Pedal to the metal. Looking straight ahead. Trillian holds on for dead life. Suddenly, a WAVE EXPLODES in front of the jet ski. Finnegan cranks the handlebars. The JET SKI SLEWS SIDEWAYS. The Saipan starts to arc around. The WARHEAD gleams in the MOONLIGHT. Dripping water. Finnegan HAULS ASS away from the Fuji Maru. ENGINE ROARING. Throwing water. Another WAVE EXPLODES. A tentacle rears up. Right in front of the jet ski. Finnegan and Trillian lean hard. The JET SKI SKIDS sideways across the water. BOUNCING HARD. Trillian can't hold on. Flips off the back. Skips across the water. Finnegan ROARS away. A tentacle hard on his ass. Trillian pops to the surface. Treads water. Panicked. Watches Finnegan and the jet ski leaving her behind. Finnegan looks back at Trillian. Bobbing in the water. The he looks at the Saipan. Continuing its arc. Its deadly payload racing for the Fuji Maru. Finnegan CRANKS the HANDLEBARS. SMASHES through a wave and heads for Trillian. Trillian sees him and swims hard. The SAIPAN ROARS straight at the Fuji Maru. The warhead perfectly positioned to strike its hull. Only fifty meters away. Now forty. Now thirty-five. 152 FASTER: 152 Finnegan cuts the motor of the jet ski. Slides up next to Trillian. Grabs her by her arm. Rips her out of the water. Throws her onto the back of the jet ski. Just as a tentacles rises up, lashing out. He GUNS IT. SMASHES through the waves. The WARHEAD SPLASHES through the water. The jet ski hauls ass. ENGINES WHINING OUT. Faster and faster. A HUGE GEYSER OF WATER EXPLODES in front of the jet ski. A tentacle slaps down hard. Finnegan cuts hard. Too late. The JET SKI RAMPS through the geyser. They and the JET SKI TUMBLE and SPLASH across the water. The SAIPAN CHARGES FORWARD. Twenty-five meters away from hitting the Fuji Maru. No twenty meters away. Now fifteen. Finnegan pops to the surface. Looks around. Can't find Trillian. He DIVES under the water. His POV: Tentacles converging on him from the murky depths. The "retrieve" feature that's on all jet skis forces it back around towards where Finnegan and Trillian fell off. Finnegan BURST to the surface. Holding Trillian. She looks nearly lifeless. The jet ski heads right at them. Finnegan swims for it. Dragging Trillian. As tentacles converge from all sides. The JET SKI is suddenly SUCKED under the water! Swallowed whole. Finnegan quickly reverses. Backstrokes like mad. The WARHEAD SLICES through the water. Now only ten meters away from hitting the Fuji Maru. Now nine meters away. Now eight. Seven. Six. Five. 153 GO INTO SLO-MO NOW AS: 153 Finnegan paddles hard. Sucking in as much water as he is air. A TENTACLE RISES UP out of the water. Looms above Finnegan and Trillian. Dripping water. About to strike. There's nowhere to hide. Finnegan paddles harder. 154 COME OUT OF SLOW-MO AS: 154 The TENTACLE starts its DOWNWARD LUNGE. And that's when the SAIPAN RAMS the Fuji Maru. The WARHEAD SLAMS into its hull. BA-WHOOOOOOMMM!! The SAIPAN EVAPORATES. METAL FLIES. WATER SPRAYS. FIRE FILLS the night sky. The TOP DECK of the Fuji Maru CARTWHEELS across the waves. The Tentacle above Finnegan drops like lead. And just lies there. Quivering. Another EXPLOSION. LIFTS the remains of the FUJI MARU out of the sea. Sends shock waves across the water. Blows Finnegan's hair back. He swims on. Towards the island. Pulling Trillian. The remains of the SAIPAN and the FUJI MARU SMOLDER and SINK. BUBBLES EXPLODE to the surface. A couple dozen small FIRES dot the waves. WATER SIZZLES and STEAMS. SMOKE drifts into the night sky. Debris coats the water. SLOW DISSOLVE TO: 155 BEACH - SUNRISE 155 Finnegan and Trillian crawl out of the water and up onto the beach of the island. They collapse next to each other. Finnegan is exhausted. Trillian coughs up seawater. They both turn and look out to sea, and the rising sun. Trillian reaches into her bra, and pulls out the egg sized diamond. She holds it up. The sun refracts off it brilliantly... Trillian looks at the diamond, looks around at the picture perfect island, the picture perfect sunset...and then she heaves it as far as she can into the sea. For the first time since they know each other there is nobody around. No people. No tentacles. And when they look at each other, something else comes to mind besides survival. Finnegan moves towards Trillian. Trillian moves towards Finnegan. Their lips move closer, closer... And then, down by their feet -- SOMETHING EXPLODES OUT OF THE WATER! Scares the shit out of them. The audience too. But it's just Pantucci. Looking waterlogged and shell- shocked. Coughing up half the sea. Finnegan and Trillian help him to his feet. PANTUCCI Was it the water in my eyes or were you guys about to... FINNEGAN Joey... PANTUCCI Because it's cool, you know, I can always take a walk or something down the beach... FINNEGAN Joey... PANTUCCI Or I could go for a swim...although, I gotta tell you...if I never get in the water again... BOTH Joey!! PANTUCCI OK...OK...you don't have to beg me ...I'll stick around... And then they head the most gut-wrenching, spine-tingling, teeth- shattering ROAR ever. Pure primeval. Like no sound or animal or thing we've ever hear beofre. Coming from DEEP WITHIN THE ISLAND. PANTUCCI (CONT'D) Or maybe not... Finnegan, Trillian, and Pantucci slowly turn and look INLAND. We BEGIN TO PULL BACK as they all stand up. MORE STRANGE NOISES ARE HEARD. FROM MULTIPLE UNKNOWN SPECIES. WE KEEP PULLING BACK. REVEALING more of this creepy-looking island. And leaving our three heroes stranded on the beach. WE KEEP PULLING BACK. REVEALING pieces of the smoldering ship. Nearly the whole island is VISIBLE now. Dark jungles. Craggy mountains. Maybe the scariest-looking place on earth. FINNEGAN (V.O.) What now... The "THING" ROARS again. It's hellacious. AND WE CUT TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Deer Hunter, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deer Hunter, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ddb8907ae9e7bcbd1262ca4790d40e1a39765403 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Deer Hunter, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +EXT. PENNSYLVANIA STEEL MILL - LIGHT SNOW - DAYThe plant is massive, grime-streaked, squatting in the valleyunder five massive stacks, each one trailing a black ribbonacross the winter sky. Fires can be seen flickering throughthe windows and long flames weave and dance from the tops ofguyed metal flues. Steam rises in clouds from vents andchimneys and the sound of it all -- the hissing, theclanging, the rumbling, the shrieking -- comes faintly, mutedby the falling snow.In the foreground is a street -- COLUMBINE STREET -- whichinhabits the bottom of a narrow ravine and plunges directlydown the hillside, straight at the mill. Columbine is a sadlooking street, a grim-looking street, a street hanging on bythe skin of its teeth. Dilapidated stores hug the narrowsidewalks. Battered signs squeak in the wind. Sandwichedbetween the stores and scattered on twisting roads along thehillside are narrow Victorian houses. These houses, which runto three stories or more in height, all seem on the verge oftoppling over, and undoubtedly would, except that they areall connected one to another by a mad arrangement of utilitylines which cross and re-cross between them with occasionalaid from a leaning pole.MUSIC COMES UP -- dissonant, rather frightening music -- aswe watch a car come charging up through the slush onColumbine Street. As it nears CAMERA the car falters on theslippery grade and slides out of sight. A figure appears,huddled against the driving snow. The figure disappears ASCAMERA HOLDS ON THE STEEL MILL AT THE END OF THE EMPTYSTREET.MAIN TITLE COMES UP: THE DEER HUNTERINT. STEEL MILL - DAYA white-hot ingot shoots out of an ejecting mechanism andcomes ripping down a track. Another ingot follows it, andanother and another and another. The ingots are huge,trembling with heat, and they come on with a terrifyingrumble.CREDITS ROLLUNDER CREDITS we see STEELWORKERS catching the ingots withtongs and deftly swinging them into troughs. The STEELWORKERSwear leather aprons and are stripped to the waist. Warped inheat waves and glistening with sweat they seem like figuresin some hellish ballet. Since they all wear goggles it ishard to distinguish between them, but there are three, whoare young, who seem to work with particular grace. These areNICK, SAL and MERLE.CREDITS END. CAMERA CLOSES ON NICK, SAL AND MERLE. The noiseis deafening, the heat is unbelievable and the ingots come onwith murderous speed. Taking advantage of a slight pauseMERLE jabs NICK and they both make cuckold's horns at SAL.SAL blushes and waves them off with his hand. MERLE and NICKmake the horns again and now SAL puts both hands on his hips,gives a thin smile and studies the corner of the shed. MERLEand NICK begin laughing. SAL can't hold out and he startslaughing too, but now the ingots begin roaring down the trackagain and they all grab their tongs.INT. GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH - ALTAR - DAYA very old PRIEST is making preparations for a weddingceremony. SAL'S MOTHER hovers around him as he unlocks acabinet and takes out white tapers and a golden crown whichwill be used in the service. The PRIEST moves with agonizingslowness and SAL's MOTHER is in the midst of a bad case ofnerves. SAL'S MOTHER It's all ready? Everything's ready? PRIEST Yes. SAL'S MOTHER Are you sure everything's ready? Are you positive? PRIEST Everything. Yes. SAL'S MOTHER It would snow... Everything's going to slip. Everything's going to slide... All the cars are going to crash!SAL'S MOTHER puts her hand to her mouth and bursts intotears. SAL'S MOTHER (CONT'D) I can't believe this... My own little boy... with a stranger!The PRIEST smiles. He takes SAL'S MOTHER in his arms andcomforts her.EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - DAYAnother car lunges up the hill, gets about halfway and slidesback. As the car disappears, the door to one of the housesbursts open and a group of giggling BRIDESMAIDS beginscampering across the street. They have all been working ontheir dresses, which are not completely finished, and theyall carry ribbons and scissors and pieces of material. Asthey make their way to the other side of the street they allwave away the snowflakes and grab each other for support. Oneof the BRIDESMAIDS loses her dress entirely and with everyonelaughing she rushes back to retrieve it in her slip. When thegarment is repossessed a door comes open and the BRIDESMAIDSdisappear inside.CAMERA HOLDS ON COLUMBINE STREET. The snow slants across thelittle stores and piles on the gables of the tipsy littlehouses. Another car appears, lunges at the hill and slidesback. Suddenly the door to the bakery comes open and a groupof OLDER WOMEN emerge carrying a huge wedding cake with aminiature bride and groom standing on the top. The WOMEN areall in their fifties and bundled in boots and dark overcoats.They begin moving slowly up the street, in the driving snow,with the great white cake held firmly between them.INT. STEEL MILL - ENTRY AREA - DAYThe time clocks are lined against both walls. As a whistlescreams to mark the end of the shift thousands of men beginchecking out. NICK, SAL and MERLE are right up in the frontranks and once they have clocked their cards they gathertogether along the wall. NICK Where's Vince? SAL There's Albert! (calls) Hey, Albert!!!ALBERT -- six and a half feet tall and built like an ox --changes course and plows across the river of homeward-boundSTEELWORKERS. ALBERT How you feelin', Sal? SAL I feel okay. ALBERT Feeling hot? NICK (arm around SAL) Humper's ready. Old humper's hotter'n damn hell! MERLE There's Vince! OTHERS (calling) Vince!... Over here! Vince! MERLE Get him, Albert. Get Vince! ALBERT I'll get him.ALBERT wades back into the stream of STEELWORKERS, grabsVINCE and they all push out together.EXT. STEEL MILL - PARKING LOT - DAYThe snow is still falling. It covers the ground. It coversthe acres of parked cars. It swirls and tosses and blows. Asthe five friends come bursting out of a side exit they allstop dead in their tracks. VINCE Snow... Holy shit, snow!SAL gives a look at the others. Something is going on. VINCEis so excited he begins hopping around. VINCE (CONT'D) ... Do you know what this means? Do you guys realize exactly what this means?They all know. They all know damn well. MERLE and NICKexchange looks. ALBERT chortles. SAL What are you guys...? Are you guys going hunting?The others nod, shrug, shuffle their feet. They are all alittle embarrassed. SAL (CONT'D) Not tonight?... You're not driving up tonight? NICK As soon as you're hitched, Sal. First we get you hitched. SAL (envious) You guys are crazy. You know that? I mean you guys are really nuts. VINCE He's getting married... and we're nuts! NICK (puts his arm around SAL) It's all right. Hey, it's all right. We'll be right here, right with you.A look at the others... NICK (CONT'D) Won't we? Right? Am I right? MERLE Right. ALBERT Damn right! VINCE What do you think, Sal? Jesus, you think we'd miss this?Now SAL is embarrassed. He makes a gesture with his hand. NICK (with a laugh) C'mon. C'mon you guys!They all start into the swirling snow. NICK with an armaround SAL. VINCE And we want you to know, Sal, that any help you might need-- ALBERT Yeah, Sal-- MERLE Willing fingers-- ALBERT Extra feet!INT. V.F.W. POST - DAYThe place is large and drafty and rundown. A huge Americanflag hangs from the middle of the ceiling. Under it WOMEN arelaying white table cloths on trestle tables. Off to one sidea half dozen OLD MEN wearing VFW hats are Scotch-taping paperribbons to the brick wall. Two OLD MEN are on stepladders,two more are bracing the ladders and the operation is underthe direction of a pair of World War I VETS standing side byside. Their hands tremble. Their four eyes loom huge behindcorrective lenses. VET 1 Up I would say... What would you say? VET 2 Up. VET 1 (signals) Up ribbon!One end of the ribbon is moved up. The two VETS study it. VET 2 Down I would say... What would you say? VET 1 Down. VET 2 (signals) Down ribbon!Suddenly there is a commotion. The WOMEN who are setting upthe tables all rush to the door as the OLDER WOMEN come inwith the wedding cake. The OLDER WOMEN look half-frozen andas they move toward a table the cake receives a great chorusof Uhh's and Ahh's. Suddenly one of the OLDER WOMENcollapses. Friends rush to her aid, seat her in a chair andgive her wine. The WOMAN takes the glass, tosses it off inone swallow and grins. EVERYONE laughs.EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - BOTTOM OF HILL - DAYA big, battered old shark-finned black Cadillac approaches,coming fast.INT. CADILLAC - DAYNICK, SAL, MERLE, VINCE and ALBERT are all laughing. NICK isat the wheel. VINCE Hit it, Nick! OTHERS Go Nick! Hit it, baby!!!EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - DAYThe car bangs over potholes and slams into the grade. Wewatch as it reaches the half-way point, then the threequarter mark...INT. CADILLAC - DAYNICK bends forward over the wheel, peering out through theslapping wipers. GUYS IN THE CAR (chanting) Do it, Nick! Do it! Go Nick, Go! Do it! Do it, Nick! Go!The car fishtails, loses speed... to a creep. NICK Back! All hands to the rear!ALBERT and MERLE, who are sitting in front, immediately throwthemselves into the back seat on top of SAL and VINCE. GUYS IN BACK SEAT Easy... 'At's it, easy! Easy, Nick... Easy!EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - TOP OF HILL - DAYThe Cadillac inches up the last ten feet, gains level groundand skids to a stop. From inside comes a MUTED CHEER.INT. BRIDE'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - DAYANGELA is dressed in her white bridal gown and veil. She isplump, pretty, with a solemn, round face and big brown eyes.ANGELA leans forward into a mirror. ANGELA (sincerely) I do.A pause. ANGELA scowls and tries it again. ANGELA (CONT'D) (heartfelt) I do.ANGELA tries it a few more times. It sounds worse and worse. ANGELA (CONT'D) I do, I do, I do!!!ANGELA stares at herself. Now she looks desperate andunrelievedly forlorn. Bursting into tears she throws herselfon the bed. Someone has slipped a photograph under thepillow. The photograph is face down and as ANGELA pulls itout she sees that something is written on the back: ANGELA (CONT'D) (reading, slow) "This is it -- more or less... Love, Mom."ANGELA frowns, turns the photograph over. It is a picture ofMichaelangelo's "David". ANGELA stares at the figure for along, long moment... ANGELA (CONT'D) Oh, wow.INT. JOHN'S BAR - DAYThe place is packed with boisterous STEELWORKERS drinkingboilermakers. Deerheads are mounted in a long row over thebar, and hand-painted murals decorate the walls. The muralsdepict hunting scenes and display an eerie tone -- at oncecomical and frightening -- as if the animals held some secretfrom the hunters, some power beyond their own.JOHN bangs out from behind the bar with a tray of beer. Atthe same moment SAL comes in with NICK, MERLE, ALBERT andVINCE. JOHN, who is a great bear of a youth, puts down histray, wraps his arms around SAL and begins jumping him aroundthe floor, grinning ear to ear. The STEELWORKERS turn, deserttheir places and swarm around SAL, joking and shoutingcongratulations.INT. LINDA'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAYLINDA is thin -- a skinny slip of a thing with a hauntinglylovely face. Wearing her bridesmaid's dress she stands alonein the kitchen, staring at the ceiling. Thumping noises arecoming from the room above. The thumping gets louder.There is a crash, then another crash, as if furniture werebeing thrown around. A MAN'S VOICE begins cursing and thereis more thumping and crashing. Suddenly there is a thud...and then silence.LINDA bites her lip. She crosses to the stove, ladles stewinto a bowl, butters bread, pours a cup of tea and puts itall on a tray.INT. LINDA'S HOUSE - FATHER'S BEDROOM - DAYThe room is a wreck of broken furniture. Chairs are turnedover, lamps are smashed and the pictures hang cockeyed on thewall. In the middle of the room, face down on the floor, isLINDA'S FATHER. His coat is torn, one shoe is missing and heholds a half-empty bottle in his hand. Behind him, throughthe open window, snow is blowing in.LINDA comes in with the tray. She stands for a momentexpressionless, looking down at her father. Then she sets thetray on the bureau and kneels beside him. LINDA Daddy? FATHER (mumbles) Go... fucking hell!LINDA reaches down, takes her FATHER by the shoulder androlls him over. It takes some effort and the face that comesup is gray, unshaven and implacably bitter. Saliva dribblesfrom his mouth, there is a cut with the stitches still in itseaming his forehead and as LINDA looks at him he beginscursing again. FATHER (CONT'D) Fucking shit... all around, like a sea! Like an ocean!LINDA gets up and closes the window. She comes back, getsdown on the floor beside her father and pushes him toward thebed. Then, hiking up her bridesmaid's dress, she takes him bythe shoulders again and heaves him onto the coverlet. Theeffort is almost too much for her. Tears begin to burn in hereyes, but when he slips back she tries again. The fathergroans, begins to mumble, and then, when she almost has himon the bed, he suddenly lifts his hand, catches her full inthe face and pushes her violently across the room.LINDA crashes backwards over a fallen chair and smashes intothe wall. As she gets to her feet her father advances on her. FATHER (CONT'D) Fucking bitch... All bitches!He swings, catches her in the face again, hard. LINDA Daddy...! Daddy, it's me! FATHER Hate 'em. Fucking bitches!LINDA'S FATHER swings at her again, loses his balance andfalls on the floor. LINDA stands looking at him, holding herjaw. She is crying. Tears are streaming down her face. EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - TOP OF HILL - DAYSeven MUSICIANS, carrying their instruments, file silentlythrough the falling snow.EXT. ALLEY BEHIND JOHN'S BAR - DAYThe WOMEN are all gathered, some fifteen or twenty, rangingfrom grandmothers to young wives. About half of them wieldrolling pins or heavy pans. As the last reinforcements arrive-- TWO HEFTY LADIES WITH TRUNCHEONS -- a roar of laughtercomes from inside.INT. JOHN'S BAR - DAYNICK, SAL, MERLE, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN are dancing. TheMUSIC is at top volume and the smoke is thick enough to cutwith a knife. Suddenly, from the back, comes a CHORUS OFSCREECHES AND FEMALE RECRIMINATIONS. The door to the alleybursts open and the HEFTY LADIES WITH TRUNCHEONS appear. TheSTEELWORKERS take one look, gulp their drinks, grab theirheads in their hands and rush for the front door.EXT. JOHN'S BAR - FRONT ENTRANCE - DAYThe STEELWORKERS stream into the snow with the WOMEN closebehind. Several blows are delivered and the howls ofcomplaint are met with angry commands to hurry and getdressed for Sal's wedding.CAMERA CLOSES ON SAL, who emerges with NICK and MERLE. Thesnow hits him a sobering blow and he comes to a stop. SAL Boy, this is it. This is really it... I mean... here I go.SAL'S MOTHER hurries out of the alley. She is crying. SAL'S MOTHER My beautiful boy! My angel... who is leaving his own mother.She throws herself in SAL's arms, sobbing. SAL Momma... SAL'S MOTHER So cold is your heart to leave your own mother? SAL Momma, I'll be right upstairs.SAL throws a look to NICK and MERLE. They gesture withsympathy and study the snow flakes. SAL'S MOTHER So cruel is your heart? Is your heart so uncaring? SAL (a litany now) One flight, Momma. It's one flight. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - DAYThe trailer is a dented two-tone pink and cream job whichlooks as if it had been purchased third-hand off aconstruction site. It stands on cinder blocks in a small lotwhich has been cut out of the side of the hill. A wreckedschool bus decorates it to the right. On the left is a barebranched tree. NICK's black Cadillac is parked in front and alight shows from inside the trailer.CAMERA PICKS UP MERLE who is strolling toward the trailerwhistling through his teeth. He is wearing his tuxedo andcarries a knapsack and a deer rifle. He mounts the cinderblock steps and pounds on the trailer door. NICK opens thedoor and waves him in.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - DAYThe place is cramped, littered with camping paraphernalia. Adeer head is mounted above the sink and NICK, who is halfinto his tuxedo, is applying waterproofing to a pair of heavyboots. MERLE smiles, throws his kit on the stove and sits. MERLE (indicates the waterproofing) You should have put that on last night. NICK I know. MERLE That way it sets. NICK Yeah.Pause. MERLE I just wait. You know? NICK Huh? MERLE I just wait. For this... It's what I wait for... I wait all year. NICK So do I. MERLE (sharp) You do? NICK (nods) Yeah.NICK grins, takes down his rifle and begins wiping the oiloff it. MERLE You think about it? NICK Yeah. MERLE So do I. (watches Nick for a minute) I want to be ready... You have to be ready... It has to be there, in your mind. NICK The shot? MERLE Fucking A. NICK I don't think about the shot that much. MERLE (firmly) You have to think about the shot. It's the shot. The shot's it. NICK (uncertain) Yeah... I guess. MERLE (studies him) What do you think about? NICK I don't know... I guess I think about the deer... Being out, maybe. I don't know. I think about it all. Hell, I like the trees, you know? I like the ways the trees are, all the different ways the trees are too. MERLE (with a glance to the window) I'll tell you something, Nick. I wouldn't hunt with anyone but you. I won't hunt with a yo-yo. NICK (laughs) Yo-yo! Who's a yo-yo? MERLE Who's a yo-yo...? Who do you think's a yo-yo! They're all yo yo's. I mean they're all great guys, for Christ's sake, but... The point is, Nick, without you I'd hunt alone. Seriously. I would. That's what I'd do. NICK (laughs) You're a fucking nut. You know that, Merle? You're a fucking maniac! MERLE Yeah. (he grins) When it comes to hunting, that's true.Cursing and banging from outside. NICK opens the door. JOHNand ALBERT, both in tuxedoes and loaded down with gear, arepounding on the trunk of the Cadillac, trying to get it open.NICK and MERLE go out. EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - DAY NICK Albert! For Christ's sake... John! Wait a minute, you guys! ALBERT It won't open. NICK You gotta hit it here. Here, Albert, not there. ALBERT Where should I hit it? Just show me where I should hit it. NICK Here. Hit it here.ALBERT hits the trunk in the indicated spot and the lid snapsopen. ALBERT Hey, that's neat.NICK nods. ALBERT (CONT'D) That's new, isn't it? NICK Couple of weeks... Listen -- ALBERT I love this car. Some cars sit, you know? This car, a car like this... grows. I mean you never know, with a car like this, where this car has been.VINCE comes up, also in tuxedo, and dragging a totallydisorganized clutter of hunting gear behind him. VINCE Hey, guys... JOHN Shhh! Albert's gonna hump the Coup de Ville.ALBERT looks around at his friends. He surveys the back endof the Cadillac with simian pride. Then he expands his chest,thumps on it with both fists and yodels out a magnificent,mile-carrying Tarzan call. As the echo of it comes back thechurch bell begins ringing down the street and a group ofexcited BRIDESMAIDS come, hurrying up. BRIDESMAID 1 Albert, what are you doing! BRIDESMAID 2 Hurry up, you guys! BRIDESMAID 3 Who's got their carnations? BRIDESMAID 4 Here. They're right here. BRIDESMAID 1 Look at you! You're all a mess! BRIDESMAID 3 Put on their carnations! BRIDESMAID 1 Who's got a pin?As the BRIDESMAIDS begin straightening ties and putting oncarnations, NICK hears someone call his name. He turns tofind LINDA standing beside the trailer where she can't beseen. She looks pale and very frightened and she holds asmall suitcase in her hand. NICK (crosses) Linda... LINDA Hi. (forces a smile) Nick, your shoes are soaking. NICK Linda, what's the matter? LINDA (tries to toss it off) Oh... You know...She fights against it but the tears begin to come. NICK looksaround, pulls her inside the trailer.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - DAYNICK clears a place on the couch. LINDA sits, holding hersuitcase in her lap. LINDA (with great effort) I was just wondering... Nick... You're going hunting... If I could use this place to stay, because... NICK Sure. Are you kidding? Sure. LINDA I'd want to pay you... and I was thinking -- NICK (kneels in front of her) Linda... Hey, Linda... LINDA I would want to pay you, Nick... and I was thinking -- NICK Linda, Linda...! LINDA (very small, looking into his eyes) What? NICK Will you marry me? LINDA (after a long, long moment) Okay. NICK Would you?LINDA nods - a solemn nod. NICK (CONT'D) You would?LINDA's lip begins to tremble. Tears stand in her eyes andshe gives a little toss of her head. LINDA Who else, dummy?NICK stares at her. He can still hardly believe it. NICK This is terrific...! This is really terrific!LINDA nods. She is suddenly excited, suddenly radiantlyhappy. She takes the suitcase off her lap and throws herselfin NICK's arms. NICK (CONT'D) I don't know what we've been waiting for! LINDA (eyes closed, loving him) I don't know! I don't know either!INT. GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH - NIGHTSAL and ANGELA stand facing each other as the PRIEST readsthe Holy Sacrament of Marriage. PRIEST "Blessed be the Kingdom... now and forever unto Ages and Ages...As the PRIEST continues with the Holy Sacrament CAMERA PICKSUP FACES IN THE CONGREGATION. We see SAL'S FAMILY. We seeANGELA'S FAMILY. We see the VETS from the V.F.W. Post. We seethe STEELWORKERS from the bar and the WIVES and MOTHERS whochased them home to change. They are hard faces -- workingclass faces -- but we sense a fortitude among thecongregation, a community of both heart and spirit.CAMERA PICKS UP NICK, MERLE, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN standingin a row opposite the BRIDESMAIDS. The guys all look slightlydisheveled. Their tuxedos are all too small and their shoesare soaking wet from walking in the snow.NICK catches LINDA's eye and they hold each other across theintervening space like two children who are amazed.The PRIEST hands white tapers to the bride and groom. CAMERACLOSES SLOWLY ON THE PRIEST. The man is impressive -- gentleyet full of power. The PRIEST lights the tapers -- firstANGELA's, then SAL's -- and looks out across the assembledcongregation. PRIEST "For everyone that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds will be reproved."EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - TOP OF THE HILL - NIGHTSave for a lone figure trudging home, the street is deserted,left to the gently falling snow. In the background themassive silhouette of the steel mill is plainly visible, litwith fire.INT. GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH - NIGHTNICK, MERLE, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN join with the BRIDESMAIDSto assist the PRIEST in the crowning of SAL and ANGELA.The PRIEST crowns SAL first. PRIEST "The servant of God, Sal, is crowned for the servant of God Angela, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."Now ANGELA is crowned. PRIEST (CONT'D) "The servant of God, Angela, is crowned for the servant of God, Sal, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."Guiding the couple by their joined hands the PRIEST leads SALand ANGELA around the analoy. The movement is very precise,very formal, a circling to represent eternity.INT. V.F.W. POST - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHTThe Band is going full blast and the whirling COUPLES, youngand old, are laughing.We see SAL and ANGELA, NICK and LINDA, VINCE, ALBERT andJOHN. The only one of the group not dancing is MERLE. MERLEis drinking, standing alone on the side of the floor chuggingbeer in tense, rapid-fire gulps. We sense immediately that hefeels out of place, at a loss to join spontaneously in thespirit of the party. MERLE finishes the beer, crumples thecan and starts on another. As he picks up the second can henotices that a SAD-LOOKING GIRL is sitting against the wallbehind him, waiting for someone to ask her to dance. The SADLOOKING GIRL gives MERLE a smile. MERLE pretends not to seeand moves behind a post.INT. V.F.W. POST - TRESTLE TABLES - NIGHTThe wedding cake that was carried in earlier has now beenattacked from all sides, but the miniature bride and groomare still standing in the middle. Unnoticed by each otherSAL'S MOTHER and ANGELA'S MOTHER eye the little figures. Bothwomen are in rather teary condition and begin moving towardthe cake. Suddenly, as the CROWD shifts, they encounter eachother face to face. Smiles are exchanged -- strained smiles,which get stretched and stretched and stretched. Then, inunison, they desert the smiling and remove their respectiveoffspring from the cake. SAL'S MOTHER looks down at her sugarcoated groom and ANGELA'S MOTHER looks down at her sugarcoated bride. Then they eye each other, burst into tears andthrow themselves in each other's arms, moaning and sobbing.INT. V.F.W. POST - COAT ROOM - NIGHTAnother COUPLE tries to enter the rack. It is pretty full.They finally find an empty place and squeeze in.INT. V.F.W. POST - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHTNICK comes off the floor with LINDA and throws an arm aroundMERLE. NICK Sit with Linda, man, will ya?... Give her a beer. (to Linda with great solicitude) Would you like a beer? LINDA (puzzled) Sure. NICK What kind of beer would you like? LINDA (laughing) I don't know. NICK (to Merle) Give her Miller's. Miller's High Life.NICK takes off. LINDA sits down at a table and MERLE goes tothe cooler to get a Miller's. He gropes around in the tub,finds one and pops the tab. Suddenly he notices that NICK hascrossed to the SAD-LOOKING GIRL by the wall. He has stoppedin front of her and is asking her something. The SAD-LOOKINGGIRL gives a blush, gets out of her chair and NICK takes herin his arms and begins to dance. The SAD-LOOKING GIRL lookstransformed. She begins chattering and laughing.MERLE crosses back to LINDA and gives her the beer. As hepulls up a chair to sit down beside her he stumbles andnearly loses his balance. He is very drunk. MERLE Sorry. LINDA (laughs) It's okay, Merle.NICK swings by with the SAD-LOOKING GIRL and waves. MERLE (catching Linda's expression) I guess you like Nick. LINDA (nods) Yes.MERLE doesn't say anything for a moment. He seems to betrying to contain a floodtide of emotion. MERLE Fuckin' Nick... (clears his throat) Fuckin' Nick... gives. (he nods, bangs his fist on the table) Gives. Fuckin' Nick gives.INT. V.F.W. POST - COATROOM - NIGHTThe rack is still jammed with COUPLES but the laughing andgiggling has now given way to the sound of heavy breathingand low moans.What light there is comes from the colored glass ballrevolving above the dance floor, where the MUSIC is nowplaying sweet and low.The front door comes open and a U.S. Army SERGEANT steps intothe darkened hallway. The man wears his dress green uniform.On his chest is a row of battle ribbons and his shoes arebrightly polished. SERGEANT Pow!The SERGEANT gives a beery chuckle and moves toward the dancefloor.INT. V.F.W. POST - TRESTLE TABLE AREA - NIGHTThe SERGEANT passes between groups of celebrating GUESTS,plucks a beer from one of the coolers and sits down alone atthe end of one of the white trestle tables.INT. V.F.W. POST - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHTALBERT gives his Tarzan cry, suddenly picks his GIRL off herfeet and marches around holding her above his head. GIRL Albert, what are you doing... Albert!INT. V.F.W. POST DANCE FLOOR - ANOTHER LOCATION - NIGHTVINCE and JOHN are standing together. VINCE is going bananasbecause his girl, MARSHA, is dancing too close to FRED. VINCE Look at that, see... Watch. Wait a minute, watch. There! D'j'u see that? D'j'u see the way he... You know what that guy is doing? That guy is squeezing her ass! JOHN Oh, well... VINCE Oh well! What do you mean Oh well?! The guy is actually... He did it again! That's what he's doing... He... He's reaching in, John, to her --! I'll kill him! I'm gonna kill him right now.VINCE marches up and taps FRED on the shoulder. FRED releasesMARSHA. MARSHA waits, one hand on her hip, while the two ofthem exchange words. VINCE turns MARSHA, points to her ass.FRED turns MARSHA, pints to the small of her back. VINCE ishopping up and down now. So is FRED. MARSHA, who is gettingbored, points to the door. VINCE and FRED bang out. As soonas they have gone MARSHA is taken by someone else who putshis hand right back where FRED had it.INT. V.F.W. POST - TRESTLE TABLES - NIGHTNICK, SAL and MERLE are standing together, looking at theSERGEANT. MERLE Nick, he just came back. NICK From Nam? MERLE Fucking A. See that ribbon in the left. That's Quan Son. That fucking guy was at Quan Son!MERLE gestures with his head. NICK and SAL cross with him tothe SERGEANT. MERLE (CONT'D) We, ah... We're going too.The SERGEANT looks at them and delivers a big, blank smile. SERGEANT Pow! MERLE What?The SERGEANT keeps smiling. MERLE (CONT'D) (to Nick) What'd he say? NICK Pow. MERLE Pow? NICK Pow. MERLE Oh.MERLE nods. MERLE (CONT'D) (clears his throat) Uh... well, maybe you could tell us how it is over there? SERGEANT Pow! MERLE Pow? SERGEANT Pow!MERLE looks at NICK. NICK looks at SAL. They all beginscratching their heads, trying not to laugh. MERLE Well, thanks a lot.They turn away and then, when they are out of earshot, theyall break up, howling. SAL Who the hell is he? MERLE Who the hell knows! NICK Is he from here? MERLE Hell no! NICK Well, where's he from? MERLE AND SAL (in unison) Who the hell knows! MERLE (soberly) Maybe he's lost. SAL AND NICK Lost??? MERLE (throws up his hands) Well, I don't know!INT. V.F.W. POST - NIGHTThe GUESTS have formed in a long double line which extendsfrom the dance floor right out into the street. Everyone ispretty drunk and they are all armed with streamers and bagsof rice. As SAL and ANGELA appear from out of a back roomthere is a great rowdy CHEER. The MUSICIANS strike up aMARCH. Followed by the MUSICIANS, showered with streamers,rice, advice and encouragement, SAL and ANGELA walk thegauntlet toward the street, where a glossy, bright redPontiac with headers and straight pipes is being revved in aseries of ear-splitting crescendos.EXT. V.F.W. POST - STREET - NIGHTJOHN, ALBERT, MERLE and VINCENT are standing by the door.Their tuxedos are stained and torn. Their carnations aresquashed and their clip-on bow ties are either missingentirely or dangling from the open collars of their shirts.VINCE looks the worst, with a black eye and half his pant legtorn away, and they are all guzzling beer. VINCE Bullshit! That's bullshit! MERLE You wanna bet? VINCE I'll betcha! That's bullshit and I'll betcha! You're fulla shit! MERLE How much? How much do you wanna bet? OTHERS Bet him! Bet him, Vince! VINCE I'll betcha! I'll betcha... I'll betcha twenty dollars!EXT. V.F.W. POST - PARKED PONTIAC - NIGHTSAL and ANGELA emerge to more CHEERS and a shower ofstreamers and rice. ANGELA is helped into the Pontiac on theright. NICK throws an arm around SAL and walks him around tothe driver's seat. NICK Don't worry what it says in the book. SAL Right. NICK Just forget that. Forget what it says in the book. SAL I'm gonna start slow... At the top. Then I'm gonna work down. NICK Great. That's great. SAL That's my plan.NICK gives SAL a hug. SAL gets in the car. NICK See you Monday. SAL See you Monday.INT. PONTIAC - NIGHTSAL looks over at ANGELA. SAL All set, hon?ANGELA nods. SAL puts the car into gear and starts slowlyoff. Fists pound on the car. Rice and streamers shower down.Suddenly, through the front windshield, MERLE appears, starknaked, running in front of the car with colored paperstreamers floating out from his upraised right hand. For asplit second SAL cannot believe what he is seeing. He throwsa look at ANGELA. ANGELA covers her mouth in amazement andthen quickly shifts the hand to cover her eyes.EXT. STREET - NIGHTMERLE weaves down the street in front of the growling redPontiac. MERLE is not just running. He is leaping andbounding, as if released from gravity and entered into arealm of pure ethereal space.NICK, ALBERT, VINCE and JOHN pound down the street behind thePontiac, ALBERT carrying MERLE's clothes. GUYS Look at that! Fuckin' guy! Fuckin' Merle!... Unbelievable!EXT. STREET - NIGHTThe road forks, one road going high to a parking area, theother descending to the valley below. MERLE swerves up theincline toward the parking area, while the Pontiac goesstraight and disappears down the hill.ALBERT, VINCE and JOHN stagger to a stop, panting helplessly.NICK grabs MERLE's clothes from ALBERT and takes off up thehill.EXT. HILLSIDE PARKING AREA - NIGHTMERLE stands motionless, looking out across the valley asNICK approaches. The night is brilliantly clear and the firesfrom the mill light up the sky with an eerie glow.NICK comes to a stop a few feet away. NICK Merle?MERLE turns. His face has a strange, distant look, and hegives NICK an almost feral grin. MERLE You think we'll ever come back? NICK (startled) From Nam? MERLE Yeah.NICK moves up beside him. He doesn't know what to say. MERLE (CONT'D) I love this fuckin' place... That sounds crazy. I know that sounds crazy, but I love this fuckin' place... If anything happens, Nick, don't leave me there. I mean it. Don't leave me... You gotta promise, Nick. You gotta promise me that. NICK (half laughing) Merle -- MERLE Promise! You gotta promise! NICK You got it.MERLE lets out his breath. It is as if some great weight hadbeen pressing on him. MERLE (with a laugh) Let's go huntin'. I mean let's do it! DISSOLVE TO:EXT. THRUWAY - NIGHTNICK'S battered old shark-finned Cadillac comes screamingpast.INT. CADILLAC - NIGHTNICK, MERLE, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN, all of them still intuxedos, are jammed in the car between knapsacks, sleepingbags, six packs of beer and deer rifles. GUYS (singing) Let me be free! Let me be free! If... you... will let me be free... You'll... always be happy... with me-e-e-e!!! ALBERT (making a trumpet sound) Wa-wa-wa!... Waaaaa!!!EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - NIGHTTale Cadillac comes blasting by...INT. CADILLAC - NIGHTNICK is hunched over the wheel, his eyes gone completelyglassy. MERLE and VINCE are on the nod, while ALBERT andJOHN, both half asleep, are having a lead-voicedconversation. ALBERT She fucked you? JOHN She fucked me. ALBERT She fucked me too. JOHN She fucked you? ALBERT She fucked me too.There is a long pause. They both struggle to keep their eyesopen. JOHN She fucked us both. ALBERT Yeah. JOHN Fucking women, man... ALBERT (shakes his head) I know...INT. CADILLAC NIGHTNICK'S head is sunk below the upper rim of the steeringwheel. One eye is entirely shut and the open one seems closeto death. Suddenly his head snaps up. He slams his foot downon the brake and the Cadillac fishtails, rubber screaming, toa jolting stop.EVERYONE in the car comes awake ten bleary eyes staring outthrough the windshield.There are deer in the road, fifteen or twenty of themstanding in the headlights.EXT. CADILLAC - NIGHTVINCE, ALBERT, NICK and JOHN pile out with their rifles.VINCE immediately slips and falls down. VINCE Get 'em! For Christ sake, get 'em! JOHN Who's got the ammo? ALBERT Ammo! Get the ammo! VINCE I'll get it! Where is it? JOHN It's in the trunk!... It's in the trunk! I'm telling you, it's in the trunk!VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN rush around to the trunk. ALBERTbegins pounding on it. VINCE There, Albert! Hit it there!Pushing and shoving each other, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN rusharound to the side of the car. As they pass along theembankment at the side of the road there is a soft sound,like a sigh, and all three of them simultaneously vanish.NICK, who has been watching, stares at the place where histhree friends disappeared. He takes a few steps forward,realizes what has happened and doubles up in the middle ofthe road, helpless with laughter. VINCE (CONT'D) (getting out of the car) Man, let's go hunting!... Where are they?NICK makes a gesture, a downward pointing of his finger.VINCE crosses to the side of the road.EXT. RAVINE - NIGHTThe slope is a good 45 plus. At the bottom, barely visible,three tiny figures flop in the snow.EXT. CADILLAC - NIGHTVINCE looks down at the three hunters with an expression ofabsolute disgust. He looks at NICK -- flat on his back,pounding his feet, howling -- and then he looks at the deer.The deer are still watching. If anything they have edgedcloser and their massed expression of polite curiosity throwsVINCE into a blind rage. VINCE Get out of here, damn you! Go home!... Scat!... Shoo!VINCE, whose rifle is fully loaded, slams a shell into thechamber and lets off a barrage of shots above the deer. VINCE (CONT'D) Bastards! Assholes! Get lost!EXT. MOUNTAIN PASS - DAWNThe sky is cold -- first light -- with low, wind-drivenclouds. CAMERA TILTS DOWN and we see NICK's Cadillac comingup a narrow road flanked by precipitous, heavily forestedridges on both sides.EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - DAWNThe Cadillac seems minuscule, overwhelmed by the massive,black slopes looming up from the road.INT. CADILLAC - DAWNEveryone is eating cold hot dogs, ripping them out of a halfdozen plastic packages, dipping them in a jar of mustard andstuffing them down. Hot dog juice has dripped overeverything, potato chips are littered everywhere and bothbeer and milk are being passed around. ALBERT Fuel up. Need fuel. JOHN Those are mine! ALBERT You want 'em? JOHN Damn right! ALBERT Gimme a Hostess Twinkie, Merle. MERLE Here's a Hershey.ALBERT tears off the wrapper, dips it in the mustard andglomps it down. JOHN That's mustard! ALBERT (mouth jammed full) What? JOHN You just put mustard on your Hershey bar. ALBERT (nods) Good... Pass the beer. VINCE (pointing to a location beside the road) Here, here! This is it! MERLE (milk slopping over him) Watch it, shithead! VINCE (pounds Nick on the shoulder) Here! This is it! ALBERT It is not! VINCE It is too! Now you passed it! MERLE It's ahead, by the tree. NICK It's ahead, Vince. VINCE That isn't it! There's no way that's it... Unless they changed it. They might have changed it.NICK pulls to a stop on the shoulder. VINCE (CONT'D) They changed it. That's what they did. This is it but they changed it.EXT. ROADSIDE AREA - DAWNThe sky is just turning grey. A cold wind is blowing, moaningin the trees and swirling a fine haze of snow across the openroadway. The guys all pile out in their wrecked tuxedos. VINCE This is it. Definitely. This is it, but they changed it. ALBERT You're full of shit. VINCE Who's full of shit? ALBERT You're full of shit! VINCE I'm telling you, they changed it! ALBERT They did not! VINCE They did too! ALBERT Jesus, it's freezing!NICK, MERLE and JOHN have the trunk open and are taking stuffout. MERLE strips down where he stands and begins putting onhis hunting clothes. ALBERT and VINCE grab their things andfollow the example of NICK and JOHN, who are changing on thecorner of the seats. NICK Whee-uu! ALBERT Jesus! JOHN Holy shit! VINCE Merle, hey Merle, you got any socks?MERLE, who is crouched down studying the hillside, looksover. VINCE (CONT'D) (rummaging around in the mess of things he has brought) Never mind, Merle. Never mind, I got 'em... Where the hell are my pants? Anyone see my pants?... Who the hell took my pants!VINCE begins plunging around. OTHERS Fuckhead! Watch it! VINCE Somebody took my pants... I know I brought pants.VINCE tears into another pile of equipment, comes up withnothing and steps out of the car. VINCE (CONT'D) All right. All right, you guys. Whoever took my pants, I want 'em back!EXT. ROADSIDE AREA - DAWN - LATERShots are ringing out in the hills. NICK, ALBERT and JOHNstand by the roadside while VINCE and MERLE glare at eachother. VINCE is still in his tuxedo pants, is still wearinghis dress shoes and is draped in a gigantic red goose downvest that could only have come from ALBERT. MERLE's knapsacklies on the ground in front of him and we can see that itcontains a pair of Vibram-soled mountain boots. MERLE Sure I got boots. I got boots right here. VINCE Then lemme have 'em. MERLE No. VINCE (both hands in the air) No!!!? MERLE No. VINCE What do you mean, no??? MERLE That's it. No. No way. VINCE Some fuckin' friend... You're some fuckin' friend, Merle! MERLE You gotta learn, Vince! You come out here... You got no jacket, you got no pants, you got no knife and you got no boots. You think everyone's gonna take care of you! That's what you always think, but this time you're wrong. This time you're on your own! ALBERT Merle, give him the boots. MERLE No. No boots. No nothin'. VINCE You're one fuckin' bastard, Merle. You know that? You're one fucking bastard! MERLE (snapping it out, jabbing his finger at the ground) This is this, Vince. This isn't something else. This is this! VINCE You know what I think? There's times I think you're a goddamn faggot!... I fixed you up a million times, Merle! (to the others) I fixed him up a million times! I don't know how many times I fixed him up... and nothin' ever happens... Zilch! Zero!... The trouble with you, Merle, no one knows what you're talking about! "This is this"? What does that mean, "this is this"? I mean is that some faggot bullshit, or is that some faggot bullshit!!! And if it isn't, what the hell is it??? JOHN Vince. Hey, you guys -- VINCE (hopping now) Take last night...! Last night he coulda had twenty fuckin' deer! More! He coulda had more! And look what he does! I mean look what he fuckin' does!!! JOHN Vince!!!JOHN throws up his hands in a comical way. JOHN (CONT'D) I'll get the boots. ALBERT (in agreement) Get the boots. JOHN (crossing to Merle's knapsack) I mean let's get going before --MERLE -- who has remained completely calm throughout VINCE'stirade -- pumps a shell in the chamber of his rifle. JOHNfreezes in his tracks and stares at him, his face gone white. MERLE I said no.JOHN looks at ALBERT, who is right behind him, and they bothback away. VINCE, who is standing directly opposite MERLE,begins to tremble. His mouth comes open, closes and comesopen again. Urine begins trickling out from the bottom of hispants leg, staining the snow. Suddenly, NICK steps forward.He looks at MERLE, crosses to the knapsack, takes out theboots, walks over to VINCE and throws them on the road. NICK (gently, to Merle) Let's hunt.INT. BUSTED-DOWN OLD LOGGERS SHACK - NIGHTThe place is about nine-by-twelve. The floor is rotted out,boards are missing from the walls and the entire structure iscanted to the right. Hanging from the roof peak is a hissingColeman lantern which sways in the wind.VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN are sacked out, sound asleep. Beercans -- some old, some new -- litter the floor. Wet clothes,most of them bloody, hang from tie-boards and nails. Strungup on the end wall are two deer carcasses, one of them with aknife jammed in it where steaks have been cut out.Snow is blowing in -- dry, crystal bright. It swirls overeverything and settles on the sleeping figures on the floor.CAMERA DISCOVERS MERLE AND NICK. They are both in sleepingbags, lying on rusted bedsprings at either side of the brokendoor. The wind gusts and moans. The cabin shudders and thenthere is a sudden lull. MERLE Hey, Nick? NICK Huh? MERLE Tomorrow I go with Vince. NICK Hunt with Vince? MERLE Yeah... I mean so he knows... He doesn't even know.EXT. THRUWAY PITTSBURGH OFF-RAMP - TWILIGHTTraffic is heavy, an unending flow of cars, a river ofheadlights suspended on a curved concrete trestle which seemsto float in thin air. Behind is the mill, belching steam andablaze with fire.NICK's Cadillac appears, horn blaring, weaving through thetraffic. The car sits low. Trussed to the hood, to the roof,to the trunk, are the carcasses of five deer. Rope-endsflutter and bang in the wind. The car shudders and thuds.Inside, grinning maniacally, NICK, MERLE, VINCE, ALBERT andJOHN are all shouting and guzzling beer.EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - TWILIGHTThe Caddy appears, swerving onto Columbine with tiresscreaming and NICK still leaning on the horn. The guys areall hanging out the windows, shouting to FRIENDS, whistlingat GIRLS and banging a triumphant tatoo on the doors. ALBERT Maxie! Hey Maxie wha'd'ya say! JOHN Hey Geraldine, let's eat! VINCE Nothin' to it, asshole! Piece o' fuckin' cake!As the car ascends the grade the mill appears behind it,seeming to loom upward under the pink-streaked twilight sky.CAMERA HOLDS AS THE CAR COMES TOWARD IT. The headlights blazewhite, like huge hungry stars, and the eyes of the dead deeron the fenders glitter gold and green and red.ALBERT leans out the window and gives his Tarzan call... ITSEEMS TO ECHO, AS IF COMING FROM FAR AWAY, FREEZE FRAME...EXT. CLOSE-UP OF JUNGLE LEAF - DAYThe leaf is being eaten by an exotic-looking insect. Aftereach bite, the insect lifts its head, produces an exceedinglythoughtful expression, and chews.WE HEAR THE BUZZ AND CREAK OF OTHER INSECTS, THEN A DULL,FLUTTERING DRONE. THE DRONE GROWS LOUDER...EXT. HELICOPTER SQUADRON - SOUTH VIETNAM - DAYThere are twenty of them, coming fast and low, just over thetops of the trees. Sunlight gleams on their paint andmurderous-looking rockets are packed to their bellies in fatclusters, like eggs.Suddenly, in unison, they fire the rockets.EXT. RANGE OF LOW HILLS - SOUTH VIETNAM - DAYAs the rockets streak away the lightened choppers shootupward, lost to sight. There is an eerie silence and then thehillside explodes, vanishes in a sheet of smoke and flame twomiles wide.EXT. DUSTY ROAD - DAYA platoon of AMERICANS have been ambushed on the road. Thebodies lie helter-skelter -- headless, armless, legless, gutsspilled in the dirt. No one moves and there is absolutesilence except for the low buzz of flies.A V.C. LIEUTENANT steps into sight. He gives a brusquecommand and V.C. SOLDIERS step out of the jungle. TheLIEUTENANT bayonets a few of the fallen U.S. SOLDIERS --idly, without much interest -- and then cracks a joke as herubs his finger in the Americans' blood. The V.C. SOLDIERSlaugh, spear a few AMERICANS themselves and repeat the joke.There is a slight sound. The V.C. LIEUTENANT spins and givesa low command. Fifty feet away there are three grass huts.He signals his SOLDIERS to spread out and then he startstoward them.INT. GRASS HUT - DAYSouth Vietnamese VILLAGERS -- women, children, and a few oldmen -- sit huddled in the semi-darkness. The WOMEN hold theirhands over their BABIES' mouths. Flies buzz and there is alook of stark terror in their faces.EXT. DUSTY ROAD - DAYOne of the fallen AMERICANS moves. CAMERA CLOSES ON THESOLDIER. His face is in the dirt and flies are nuzzling at agash in his temple. The face is unshaven, frighteninglygaunt, but we recognize that it is MERLE.A WOMAN'S SCREAM comes from the direction of the huts. A shotrings out. MERLE pulls himself to his hands and knees andstands there, on all fours, like a dog.EXT. GRASS HUTS - DAYThe V.C. roust the VILLAGERS from their huts, smashing themin the back with rifle butts. One of the SOLDIERS emergesfrom a hut carrying two small BABIES upside-down by theirfeet. One of the WOMEN cries out. The SOLDIER gives her akick, swings one of her BABIES in the air and lets it go. TheBABY turns over and over against the blue sky. As the BABYcomes down ANOTHER SOLDIER catches it through the neck on theend of his bayonet.EXT. DUSTY ROAD - DAYMERLE strips a B.A.R. from one of his dead companions, slamsa fresh clip in it, jams two extras in his pants and startsfor the grass huts. His movements are slow, almost dreamlike,and his face is expressionless, like someone risen from thedead.EXT. GRASS HUTS DAYThe VILLAGERS -- about twenty of them -- have been formed ina line. As the SOLDIERS look on the V.C. LIEUTENANT walks upand down trying to extract information. The SPEARED BABY liesin the dust between the two groups. The SECOND BABY tries toplay with it. The SOLDIER who threw the dead baby in the airsquats nearby and yawns.EXT. GRASS HUTS - ANOTHER ANGLE - DAYMERLE approaches between the huts. He takes a quick lookaround the corner, finds the V.C. all bunched in a neatpackage and draws back.CAMERA CLOSES ON MERLE'S EYES. They are cold, dreamingthings, glittering blankly.EXT. GRASS HUTS - DAYMERLE spins out with the B.A.R. on full automatic. The V.C.SOLDIERS go down screaming, arms and necks thrown back, in athin mist of spraying blood.ABOVE THE CHATTER OF MERLE'S B.A.R. WE HEAR A GROWING ROAR.EXT. APPROACHING AMERICAN HELICOPTERS - DAYThere are five of them, coming in low under the tops ofnearby trees.EXT. GRASS HUTS - THE VILLAGERS - DAYThe VILLAGERS stand motionless, staring at the helicoptersand frozen with terror. They turn. They start to run. Andthen they disappear in a roaring wall of burning napalm.EXT. GRASS HUTS AFTER NAPALM ATTACK - DAYMERLE stands alone with his B.A.R. surrounded by clouds ofbillowing black smoke. There is no sound but the rush ofheated air and the faint crackle of flames. MERLE'S clothesare burning. Flames are licking up his trouser legs and ablob of napalm is burning fiercely on his helmet.In front of MERLE the SOLDIERS and the VILLAGERS lie in twocharred heaps. The BABIES lie between them. Both aremotionless now, like two roasted stones.An AMERICAN LIEUTENANT steps out from behind one of theburning huts. MERLE and the LIEUTENANT spin on each other andthen the LIEUTENANT lowers his carbine. LIEUTENANT What the hell are you doing here? MERLE (numb) Saving lives.MORE AMERICANS appear, some twenty of them, coming out of thetrees in a long line. Among them are NICK and SAL. LIEUTENANT Move it out, girls! Move it out!The LIEUTENANT heads down the line. NICK stares at MERLE. NICK Merle?... Jesus, Merle!MERLE turns and looks at NICK. There is no recognition. Heseems to be looking right through him.SAL comes up behind NICK. SAL Hey...! Hey, Merle!A shot rings out. The LIEUTENANT goes down and suddenly thewhole line of AMERICANS is caught in a murderous cross-fire.Grenades rain out of the trees. MERLE, NICK and SAL dive forcover.Out of the smoke V.C. SOLDIERS begin to appear, more and moreof them, swarming out of the jungle in scores.EXT. CLEARING IN THE JUNGLE - HEAVY RAIN - DAYWe are looking at the ground where three pits have been dugand fitted with bamboo gratings which are held down bystones. The ground is ankle-deep in running mud and the pitsare filled with water to within a foot of the bamboogratings. In each of the pits are about a half-dozen men --SOUTH VIETNAMESE and AMERICAN. Their hands grip the gratingsand their eyes are hollow. Other than an occasional groanthere is only the sound of the falling rain.A V.C. SOLDIER trudges out of the jungle. As he reaches thepits he notices the hands, curses and begins jumping up anddown on the bamboo gratings. The hands disappear. As soon asone comes back, the SOLDIER stomps on it, shrieking withlaughter. Then, almost as an afterthought, the SOLDIER pullsdown his pants and squats above the center grating.CAMERA TILTS SLOWLY UPWARD. We see the clearing in itstotality. It is a raw hole hacked out of the jungle andcontains only two structures. One is a large bamboo "tigercage" with a few leaves tied to its top. The other is a smallhut with a thatched roof. The walls of the hut are open andwe can see V.C. GUARDS moving about inside.A cry comes from the hut. There is the THUD of a rifle button flesh and the cry abruptly stops.INT. THATCHED HUT - DAYIn the middle of the hut is an American kitchen table with arose-patterned plastic top. At opposite ends of the table aretwo chairs. A SOUTH VIETNAMESE PRISONER sits in one of thechairs. In the other chair, facing him, is MERLE.The SOUTH VIETNAMESE has a welt on his head and one of thehalf-dozen V.C. GUARDS in the hut is screaming at him. In themiddle of the table, between the SOUTH VIETNAMESE and MERLE,is a single-action .45 caliber revolver with an Americaneagle carved on its ivory grip.MERLE sits quietly, waiting, but his eyes are working, takingin every detail of the scene. The V.C. GUARD gives the SOUTHVIETNAMESE a final cuff, takes up the revolver with adramatic flourish and loads one cartridge into the chamber.Immediately the OTHER GUARDS begin placing bets. The GUARDSare a ragged bunch -- wet, half-drunk on captured Budweiser,and it takes some time to straighten things out.MERLE looks off to his right:INT. THATCHED HUT - REVERSE ANGLE - DAYWe see more SOUTH VIETNAMESE and AMERICAN prisoners standingagainst the wall. Most of them have been badly beaten and allhave their elbows tied behind their backs. In among them,standing beside one another, are NICK and SAL. NICK looksgrey, like a skinny ghost. SAL is out of control, sobbingquietly.INT. THATCHED HUT - ORIGINAL ANGLE - DAYThe betting is now completed. The V.C. in charge waves the.45 around and calls for silence. Then, closing the cylindercontaining the single bullet, he points the revolver at theceiling and clicks through the empty chambers until therevolver goes off with a ROAR. Bits of thatch flutter downfrom the ceiling. The V.C. GUARDS shout enthusiastically andgrin.MERLE sits motionless. The SOUTH VIETNAMESE across the tablefrom him begins shaking uncontrollably.The V.C. in charge now reloads the revolver with onecartridge, snaps the cylinder shut, puts the gun on the tablebetween MERLE and the SOUTH VIETNAMESE and gives it a goodspin.The revolver slows and finally comes to a stop pointing atMERLE. MERLE stares at it for a long beat. Then he picks itup, spins the cylinder, cocks it, puts it to his temple andpulls the trigger. The hammer falls on an empty chamber witha loud CLICK.MERLE places the revolver back on the table and pushes ittoward the SOUTH VIETNAMESE. The SOUTH VIETNAMESE begins totremble again. Fumbling horribly he finally manages to getthe gun in his hand. He spins the cylinder, cocks the hammerand puts the gun to his temple. The gun weaves around.The SOUTH VIETNAMESE closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.There is a loud CLICK.MERLE takes the revolver again. He spins it, cocks it -- allin one smooth motion -- puts it to his temple and pulls thetrigger. There is another CLICK.MERLE pushes the gun back across the table. This time theSOUTH VIETNAMESE takes it up with sudden confidence. He spinsthe cylinder, cocks it, puts it to his temple and pulls onthe trigger.THERE IS A ROAR. THE PISTOL IS FLYING IN THE AIR AND THEN THEMAN'S HEAD, HALF-EXPLODED, CRASHES OVER ONTO THE KITCHENTABLE.MERLE doesn't even blink. The GUARDS begin hooting andlaughing, wiping pieces of brain from their clothes, andMERLE watches them, watches every gesture, every movement...like a cat.EXT. THATCHED HUT - LATER DAYA pile of bodies lie by the steps in the pouring rain. Thebodies are both SOUTH VIETNAMESE and AMERICAN. Their headsare all variously blown to pieces and SEVERAL HUGE RATS arealready feeding on them.INT. THATCHED HUT - TABLE AREA - DAYNICK is at the table now, opposite a SOUTH VIETNAMESE. Heholds the pistol by his chin, spins the cylinder. His face istwitching, dripping sweat and both he and his opponent areholding onto each other's eyes as if they had been at it fora long time.NICK raises the pistol to his temple, CLICKS OUT. The GUARDSmurmur. NICK pushes the pistol across the table.INT. THATCHED HUT - PRISONER END - DAYThere are no Americans left to play except SAL. The sobbinghas stopped but SAL is shaking and trembling and his eyeswander around in their sockets as if they been cut loose.MERLE, who lies on the floor nearby, is trying to talk toSAL. As he does so we hear the CLICKS coming from across theroom and the excited MURMURS of the GUARDS as their bettingchoice survives another round. MERLE You can do it, Sal. SAL No. No, no. MERLE Sal... listen to me, Sal! You have to do it. SAL I want to go home, Merle. MERLE You have to think about this, Sal. Listen to me, Sal! You have to think about this. SAL (tears again) This is horrible! MERLE Listen to me, Sal. If you don't do it they'll put you in the pit. If they put you in the pit, Sal, you're gonna die... Sal, do you understand? SAL (nods) Merle, I wanna go home!There is an EXPLOSION from the other end of the room. SAL'Seyes go wide and he lets out a whimpering SCREAM. The GUARDSopen a path and NICK appears. His knees won't support him andthe GUARD who is holding him throws him on the floor. MERLE Listen to me, Sal. Do it! You have to do it!The GUARD who delivered NICK jerks SAL to his feet and dragshim of f to the table.INT. THATCHED HUT - TABLE AREA - DAYSAL is thrown in the chair. A SOUTH VIETNAMESE is placedopposite him. The SOUTH VIETNAMESE is a kid, even youngerthan SAL, and he is trembling with terror. SAL Hey, listen, you can do it. (Sal nods, smiles) Believe me, you can do it. We can both do it. Then we go home, see? Then we go home!SAL looks down. The pistol is ending its spin and the muzzlecomes up pointing at the SOUTH VIETNAMESE. The SOUTHVIETNAMESE stares at the gun and tears begin to fill hiseyes. The GUARDS begin yelling at him, urging him on and thenSAL gives him a SMILE OF SUCH UNWAVERING FAITH that the SOUTHVIETNAMESE picks up the gun, fumbles the cylinder around,cocks it and puts it to his temple. For a moment SAL and theSOUTH VIETNAMESE look at each other. THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE ISTAKING HIS FAITH STRAIGHT OUT OF SAL'S EYES AND NOW SAL GIVESHIM ANOTHER ENCOURAGING NOD.The SOUTH VIETNAMESE BOY squeezes the trigger. THERE IS ANEXPLOSION AND HIS HEAD DISINTEGRATES WITH A ROAR.SAL sits motionless, his jaw hanging open and his face formedin an expression of terrible puzzlement. Then his face beginsto move, begins to twitch, as if the muscles were trying todiscover a frown. SAL looks around. He looks back again atthe place where his friend was sitting and he begins to cry.INT. TIGER CAGE - HEAVY RAIN - FOLLOWING DAYA half-dozen SOUTH VIETNAMESE sit huddled together in themuck on the uphill side. A seventh lies sprawled on his back,DEAD. The rain pours through the few leaves placed on theroof and splashes in great cascades in the middle of thefloor.On the downhill side are SAL, NICK and MERLE. SAL is in afetal position, gripping his knees and rocking himself backand forth. His eyes are vacant and his face is fixed in anexpression of horror, as if he were still watching the boy atthe table blow himself away. Beside SAL is NICK. NICK sitsslumped against the bamboo. One knee is raised and he ispicking at the threads of his trousers where they have tornat the knee.MERLE IS STANDING, GRIPPING THE BAMBOO WALLS OF THE CAGE ANDLOOKING OUT AT THE "PITS".EXT. THE PITS - MERLE'S POV - HEAVY RAIN - DAYThe pits are about twenty feet away. Running mud and watergurgle into them, coming out through shallow trenches on thedownhill side. There are fewer hands than the day before, farfewer. The nearest pit only has one pair and as MERLE watcheshe sees that these hands are struggling to keep their grip.SUDDENLY ONE OF THE HANDS SLIPS AWAY. THE HAND COMES BACK FORA MOMENT, THEN BOTH HANDS DISAPPEAR.INT. TIGER CAGE - HEAVY RAIN - DAYMERLE turns away from the "pits". He looks down at SAL, thenhe looks at NICK. His expression is one of exasperation, asif he had been having a long argument. MERLE I'm telling you, Nick, no one's going to come. NICK What are you, God? MERLE Listen, asshole, it's up to us! NICK They bombed last night, right? Didn't they bomb? If they bombed last night, they could bomb tonight. They could be up there right now! MERLE What are you, hoping? NICK What else? MERLE I thought you might be praying. NICK I'm doing that too. MERLE I suppose you wish you were somewhere else? NICK What do you think? MERLE Nick, you're wasting your time... Listen to me! You're wasting your time! This is no fucking time for hoping or praying or wishing or any other shit! This is it. Here we are... And we gotta get out! NICK You're right... Okay, you're right. MERLE (grabs him) Get off your ass, Nick. Get off your fucking ass and stand up!!! NICK (stands) Okay, okay! (he straightens his shoulders) Okay. Okay, you're right... What about Sal? MERLE Forget Sal. NICK What do you mean? MERLE I mean forget Sal... Sal can't take it, Nick. NICK Forget Sal? MERLE Forget Sal... Listen to me -- forget Sal! I've been working on Sal since dawn, Nick. Sal's in a dream and he won't come out. LISTEN!!! From here on you gotta go for you. You hear me? For you! NICK Merle... MERLE LISTEN, NICK! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD OR YOU AND ME ARE BOTH DEAD TOO!A shout comes from the thatched hut. The SOUTH VIETNAMESEwhip around in fright. MERLE and NICK turn.Through the bars of the "tiger cage" we see the V.C. GUARDScoming down from the thatched hut. The GUARDS are alldrinking beer again and the GUARD IN CHARGE is waving thepearl-handled revolver.NICK looks at MERLE. The sight has totally unnerved him. MERLE (CONT'D) (calm) We gotta play with more bullets. NICK We what? MERLE We gotta play with more bullets, Nick. It's the only way. NICK More bullets in the gun? MERLE (even) More bullets in the gun... The trouble is that still leaves one of us with his hands tied up, so that means we gotta play each other. NICK (numb) With more bullets?... Against each other?... Are you crazy!!! Are you fucking nuts!!! MERLE Nick... NICK!!! It's the only chance we've got!NICK stares at MERLE. Rain is pouring off them in rivuletsand the VOICES of the approaching GUARDS are getting louder. NICK How many bullets? MERLE (watching him) Three bullets -- minimum. NICK (panic) No way. No fucking way! MERLE (evenly, holding him with his eyes) I'll pick the moment, Nick. The game goes on until I move. When I start shooting, go for the nearest guard and get his gun. NICK No. No way! MERLE When you get the AK, open up. You got me? Open up. NICK (screaming) YOU'RE CRAZY!!!... NO WAY!... NOW YOU'RE CRAZY!!! YOU'RE COMPLETELY CRAZY!!!The GUARDS begin screaming orders from outside the cage andONE OF THEM lets off a blast of automatic rifle fire whichshreds the bamboo roof just above the PRISONERS' heads. NICKand MERLE grab SAL and drag him to the door.EXT. CLEARING IN THE JUNGLE - HEAVY RAIN - DAYAs the PRISONERS emerge from the "tiger cage" the GUARDSsmash them with their rifle butts, screaming orders. In themelee SAL is separated from NICK and MERLE, both of whom areknocked to the ground by furious blows. When they get totheir feet they see that SAL is wandering off alone in thedirection of the "pits". One of the GUARDS spots SAL andclubs him down.SAL gets up and begins wandering off again. The GUARD clubshim down again, turns to the GUARD IN CHARGE and beginscomplaining. The GUARD IN CHARGE dispatches a SECOND GUARD tohelp the FIRST and the TWO GUARDS open the bamboo grating onone of the "pits".MERLE turns to NICK, who is standing beside him. MERLE It's up to you, Nick. Now it's up to you.EXT. CLEARING IN THE JUNGLE - THE "PITS" - DAYSAL has absolutely no comprehension of what is about tohappen to him. His eyes are dreamy, far away, as if he hadmentally transported himself to some distant place. There aregreat gashes in his head from the blows he has received andas he stands waiting in the pouring rain he looks exactlylike a very small child who has experienced some terribleconfusion.Suddenly the GUARD standing beside SAL wrenches him around.We see the pit now, CLOSE UP. There are four bloated CORPSESfloating in the muck.We SAL'S FACE, CLOSE UP. He gives a CRY and tries to turnaway.We see the GUARDS pick SAL up, SCREAMING. We see the SPLASHas SAL hits the water and then we see him surface between thebloated CORPSES, STILL SCREAMING, paddling desperately andtrying to find something solid to hod him up.EXT. CLEARING IN THE JUNGLE - WAITING PRISONERS - DAYNICK stands motionless, stunned, listening to SAL'S SCREAMS.MERLE has his attention focused on the GUARD IN CHARGE andwhen he glances in their direction MERLE slugs NICK in thestomach and begins beating him furiously to the ground. NICKstruggles to his feet. MERLE attacks him again and now, asthe GUARD IN CHARGE comes over to see what's going on, MERLEbegins hopping up and down, pointing at NICK, pointing at therevolver in the GUARD'S hand and screaming. MERLE Him and me!!! Him and me!!!The GUARDS look at each other, interested. MERLE (CONT'D) Him and me, goddamn it! Him and me!INT. THATCHED HUT - HEAVY RAIN - DAYMERLE and NICK sit facing one another across the rosepatterned kitchen table. The GUARDS are all grinning and eventhe SOUTH VIETNAMESE are watching with grim fascination. NICKhas the revolver. He is trembling visibly. Already MERLE hasmanaged to draw the GUARDS in closer and as NICK spins thecylinder and cocks the hammer MERLE jumps up and beginspounding on the table. MERLE This is it, motherfuckers! Now he's going to do it! Watch! You watch!NICK almost loses what little control is left and his handbegins shaking violently. MERLE (CONT'D) Look at him! See! This is it and he knows it!Side bets begin changing hands. MERLE (CONT'D) Last chance to lose your money there, guys. Goodbye money! Hurry, hurry. Here he goes!NICK puts the revolver against his temple and pulls thetrigger. There is a dull CLICK.NICK puts the revolver back on the table. His hand is shakingso badly it falls with a clunk. MERLE grabs it, spins it,sticks it to his temple and CLICKS OUT, talking all the time: MERLE (CONT'D) This is stupid! You understand stupid? On and on! At this rate we'll still be here tomorrow! (throws the revolver on the table) Wait a minute. I know! Hey, I got it. More! Put in more! You understand more? More! More bullets! (he mimes with his fingers) Three bullets! You understand three? That way BLAM! BOOM!MERLE hops up and down, laughing maniacally. MERLE (CONT'D) KA-POWIE!!! BA-ROOM!!!... 'Cause I want that bastard! Him I want boom! Him or me!!!The GUARD IN CHARGE looks at his COMPANIONS. They all beginshouting for him to go ahead. The GUARD IN CHARGE purses hislips, as if imitating a general coming to a decision, andthen nods his assent. The GUARDS all howl. MERLE joins rightin. MERLE (CONT'D) He's terrific! Great fucking guy!The GUARD IN CHARGE takes the revolver, opens the cylinderand begins sticking in two more cartridges. MERLE (CONT'D) KA-POW!!! BA-ROOMIE!!!MERLE hops up and down again, then screams at NICK, jabbinghis finger at him, as if in fury. MERLE (CONT'D) Both of us may have to pull on this, so get your shit in fuckin' shape!!! (to the GUARDS) Him or me!!! Now we got it, him or me!!! (he rubs his hands and sits back down) Place your bets, motherfuckers! Now we're going! Now we got a game!The GUARD IN CHARGE places the revolver on the table, spinsit. MERLE (CONT'D) Watch! Now watch! He's going to get it. And then KA-POW! BA-ROOMIE!!!The muzzle stops pointing at MERLE. MERLE scowls, looks overat the GUARD IN CHARGE. The GUARD IN CHARGE has lifted thebarrel of his AK 47 and is watching him with caution. TheOTHER GUARDS, who are totally caught up in the game, areyelling and shouting. MERLE You guys think I'm in trouble, right?MERLE picks up the revolver, spins the cylinder, cocks it... MERLE (CONT'D) No way! Never!!! (he begins to chant) MERLE IS MIGHTY! -- HA! MERLE IS STRONG! -- HA! MERLE IS MAGIC! -- HA! MERLE LIVES LONG! Lemme hear it. Come on, motherfuckers, lemme hear it!MERLE starts it again. The GUARDS who are bett ing on himJOIN IN: MERLE (CONT'D) (with GUARDS) MERLE IS MIGHTY! -- HA! MERLE IS STRONG! -- HA! MERLE IS MAGIC! -- HA! MERLE LIVES LONG!MERLE takes a glance at the GUARD IN CHARGE again. The GUARDIN CHARGE is still eyeing him with caution.MERLE places the revolver to his temple... and CLICKS into anempty chamber. MERLE (CONT'D) See! Nothing to it.He pushes the gun across to NICK. Then he stabs his finger athim, screaming again, as if in a fit of rage. MERLE (CONT'D) You got an empty chamber and it's in your mind! Just put that empty chamber in the gun!NICK looks down at the revolver and picks it up. He stares atMERLE for a moment. Then he spins the cylinder, cocks thehammer, Puts it to his head... and CLICKS into an emptychamber.The GUARDS let out expressions of disbelief. Those betting onNICK begin taunting those betting on MERLE.MERLE sits motionless, as if stunned, as if utterly defeated,his brow furrowed in a mighty frown.NICK pushes the revolver across the table. His face istwitching but he gives the gesture a certain flair, as ifthrowing back a challenge.MERLE stares at the revolver -- stares at it with anexpression of utter gloom. Then he reaches out, takes therevolver in his hand and pulls it toward him, as if he nolonger possessed the strength to pick it up. MERLE (CONT'D) (gloom) Who's for Merle? (he thumps his fist on the table) Is anyone for Merle???MERLE roams a glowering eve over the watching GUARDS, as ifsuddenly discovering himself among traitors. Slowly, hepushes himself to his feet. The gun is still on the table,still in his right hand, and as he gets up he lets his bodysag over it. MERLE (CONT'D) Who here is for Merle...?There is absolute silence now except for the drumming of therain. It is as if the war had disappeared, vanished. TheGUARDS stand motionless, hardly breathing, so captivated byMERLE'S performance that they suddenly resemble littlechildren. MERLE (CONT'D) Who... here... is for Merle...?MERLE begins his chant again. His voice is low, verydramatic, and the GUARD IN CHARGE joins right in. MERLE (CONT'D) (with GUARDS) MERLE IS MIGHTY! -- HA! MERLE IS STRONG! -- HA! MERLE IS MAGIC -- HA!MERLE snaps the revolver level in his hand and BLASTS theGUARD IN CHARGE, hitting him full in the face. At the sametime NICK throws himself into the GUARD who is standingbehind him, spins and slams the GUARD'S AK 47 into his chin.TWO MORE SHOTS BLAST OUT FROM MERLE'S .45 and we see TWOGUARDS crash over the kitchen table. NICK now opens up withAK 47, and as MERLE backs off beside him, also with an AK 47,they GUN the remaining GUARDS to the floor.It is over in an instant. The BODIES lie in a bloody, tangledmess under a pathetic paper lantern. The rain drones on --uninterrupted, undiminished, eternal...EXT. CLEARING IN THE JUNGLE - HEAVY RAIN - DAYBarely visible against the dripping foliage -- like a shadow is a startled V.C. SOLDIER. The man takes a half-stepforward, unslings his rifle and OPENS FIRE.INT. THATCHED HUT - DAYThe SOUTH VIETNAMESE PRISONERS are hit where they stand. NICKspins, BADLY WOUNDED. MERLE throws himself on the floor andlets go with the AK 47.EXT. BAMBOO GROVE - HEAVY RAIN - DAYMERLE appears carrying NICK on his back. NICK is unconsciousand the effort that MERLE has expended to get him this farcan be measured in MERLE'S eves, which burn like dead coals.As MERLE approaches, traversing the bamboo grove along theside of a steep hill, we suddenly see SAL, stumbling alongbehind and attached to MERLE by a short rope.MERLE comes to a stop, unshoulders NICK and lays him on theground. As MERLE stands looking at NICK, gasping for breath,SAL hunches down and stares at the endless trunks of bamboowith an expression of pure terror. SAL Where are we going, Merle? Are we going home?There is a sound, so faint as to be almost imperceptible.MERLE throws himself on SAL, slamming one hand across hismouth and raising the other in case he has to silence NICK.For a moment there is nothing -- silence. The rain drones onand we can hear NICK'S breath, which comes in short, shallowrasps.The sound comes again and suddenly a PLATOON OF V.C. SOLDIERSappear, coming down through the trees. Their passage isalmost completely silent and they go by on both sides, movingdown the hill.CAMERA CLOSES SLOWLY ON MERLE'S FACE. His gums are bleedingand his skin is drawn tight so that every bone stands out inhis skull. His teeth are bared, his eyes are hollow and helooks within a hair's breadth of being completely mad.EXT. CRATERED ROADSIDE - NIGHTA huge battle is taking place nearby. The earth trembles andshakes and gigantic explosions intermittently light the sky.MERLE staggers down a ravine with NICK, loses his footing andslides to the bottom where he lies in the mud, motionless,too tired to move.SAL comes down behind. He is hunched over, like a gnome. Therope which MERLE has tied around his neck drags in the mudand his eyes are huge with terror. SAL Merle? MERLE (a whisper) Right here.SAL crouches down in the mud. SAL Where are we going, Merle? Are we going home? MERLE (barely moving his lips) Right here.Another explosion lights the sky, this one much closer. Inthe flash we see that a red American car is stranded in themiddle of the road. There is another explosion and anotherflash. The car is dusty, spattered with mud, but otherwise itappears miraculously unharmed.NICK'S breath rattles in his throat. MERLE, who lies besideNICK, holding him, has closed his eyes. SAL, who is the onlyone who has seen the car, stares at it hard, and for a longtime, trying it out with one eye and then the other. SAL Merle?No answer. SAL (CONT'D) Merle?Still no answer. SAL goes over to MERLE and shakes him.Getting no response he crosses fearfully toward theautomobile. When he gets to within a foot of it, he reachesout and touches it. SAL (CONT'D) Merle. Merle, a car!As the flashes continue to light up the sky, SAL peers at thetires and begins kicking them. SAL (CONT'D) Hey! Hey, gee!SAL crosses to the window and looks in. There is no damagewhatsoever, the keys are dangling from the ignition. SALpulls open the door and climbs in. He pumps the accelerator,hits the starter...THERE IS A FLASH OF FIRE, THEN A HUGE EXPLOSION AND THE CARGOES UP IN A FIREBALL OF FLAME.EXT. CRATERED ROADSIDE - BURNING CAR - NIGHTMERLE has dragged SAL from the car and thrown him in theditch below NICK. SAL is horribly burned and MERLE kneelsover him -- out of breath, tears streaming from his cavernouseyes -- howling with helpless rage. MERLE Damn it!!! God damn it!!!MERLE looks down at SAL. SAL'S face in a mass of raw fleshbut his eyes look up at MERLE with lunatic, unwavering trust. MERLE (CONT'D) Sal! (more gently) Sal... Goddamn it, Sal, don't you know anything? SAL Where are we going, Merle? Are we going home? MERLE (nods) Sure. Sure, Sal. We're going home.EXT. CRATERED ROADSIDE - FOLLOWING DAYREFUGEES are streaming down the road in a desperate,frightened human torrent. There is every imaginable means ofconveyance -- from bullock carts to motorbikes -- but thevast majority, carrying their meager belongings, are fleeingon foot. The burned-out car is still in the middle of theroad and the great human tide streams around it, as if itwere an island. In the distance comes the sound of machinegun fire and mortars are coming in nearby. MEDVAC helicoptersclatter overhead with wounded strapped to baskets on theskids. Now and then an ARMY CONVOY comes through, blastingthe REFUGEES into the ditch.MERLE sits alone on the embankment by the side of the road.NICK and SAL are gone and the area is littered with freshbandage packages and throw-away medical supplies. Suddenly ajeep pulls up with a two-star GENERAL in it. GENERAL Where's your unit, soldier?MERLE stares at the GENERAL -- blankly, withoutcomprehension. Finally, after a long moment, he gives aslight shrug. GENERAL (to his DRIVER) C'mon. We'll take him along.The GENERAL and the DRIVER get out and start up theembankment toward MERLE. GENERAL (CONT'D) Little R and R and you'll be standing tall again, son... Damn, this is steep! DRIVER Uh-oh. Sir.The GENERAL looks up at MERLE. MERLE is holding the pearlhandled revolver and he cocks the hammer with an audibleclick. GENERAL Uh-oh.The GENERAL and the DRIVER turn tail, scramble back down theembankment and pile in the jeep. GENERAL (CONT'D) (as they take off) Y'know, there's more fucking maniacs coming out of this conflict...MERLE watches them go without expression. On the road belowthe REFUGEES stream past -- by the hundreds, by thethousands, by the tens of thousands. For a long moment MERLEwatches, then he jams the gun in his pants and stands.EXT. EVACUATION ROUTE - DAYMERLE is walking with the fleeing REFUGEES. CAMERA PANS,HOLDING ON MERLE as he grows smaller and smaller -- to aspeck in the vast human torrent. DISSOLVE TO:INT. OUT-PATIENT ROOM - U.S. MILITARY HOSPITAL - SAIGON - DAYThe room is tiny, a cubicle furnished with a chair. NICK isalone, standing at the window looking out. He wears illfitting civilian clothes whose colors are too bright for-thepallor of his skin. Around his neck is a piece of plastic onwhich is stapled a colored paper marker. Departing aircraftthunder overhead and there is the sound of some nearbyhydraulic mechanism.EXT. LOADING RAMP (NICK'S POV) - U.S. MILITARY HOSPITAL - DAYBlack BODY BAGS are laid out in countless rows on the hotconcrete TWO PFC's are stacking them on pallets and MOREPFC's, driving hydraulic LIFTERS, are loading the palletsinto the cavernous hold of a huge JET TRANSPORT.INT. OUT-PATIENT ROOM - U.S. MILITARY HOSPITAL - DAYNICK turns away from the window and sits down in the chair.Suddenly the door bursts open and a harassed DOCTOR comes in. DOCTOR Is your name Solomon?NICK shakes his head. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Are you sure?NICK nods. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Lemme see this.The DOCTOR looks at the paper marker on NICK's neck. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Is this yours?NICK nods. DOCTOR (CONT'D) This isn't yours. This can't be yours! I'm going to take this one off and cut it up... (he extracts a pair of scissors and does so) Shred it... so no one gets a hold of it. What I'm going to do now, I'm going to give you this one. (he staples a new marker around NICK's neck) There. How's that? Does that feel better?NICK nods. The DOCTOR directs a finger at him. DOCTOR (CONT'D) That one's yours.The DOCTOR slams back out the door. Another jet thundersoverhead. The hydraulic LIFTERS on the loading ramp shriekand whine...NICK reaches for the new paper marker on his neck and peersdown at it from the corner of his eye. It seems to remind himof something and he takes out his wallet. In his wallet is aPHOTOGRAPH of LINDA. NICK peers at the photograph intently,then closes his wallet and puts it away.INT. U.S. ARMY TELEPHONE CENTER - SAIGON - DAYBanks of telephones line the wall. Stretching out from thetelephones are long, ragged lines of SERVICEMEN waiting tocall home. The room is huge, full of echoes. Re-enlistmentposters are plastered everywhere and CANNED LATIN MUSIC isplaying.NICK stands in one of the lines with only one person in frontof him. He looks anxious. He takes out his wallet again,peers intently at LINDA'S PHOTOGRAPH, then puts it back.NICK takes a half-step forward -- staring at the telephone --and then he stops, frozen with fear. GUM CHEWER BEHIND Go on, babe. Take it. 'S all yours! NICK (mumbles) You go ahead.CAMERA HOLDS ON NICK as he turns out of the line and headsfor the exit under a long row of CLOCKS.EXT. BUSY STREET - SAIGON - DAYNICK comes along the sidewalk in a CROWD OF PEDESTRIANS. Heis drunk and he moves aimlessly, as if he had been driftingalong for hours. As he comes to a stop, staring at a SOUTHVIETNAMESE who has lost both legs, he fumbles in his pocketfor a pint of whiskey, empties the bottle and drops it in thegutter. Suddenly, across the street, something catches hiseye. NICK (calling) Sal...! Sal!!!NICK throws himself into the traffic, headlong, without evenlooking.Vehicles swerve and screech to a stop. NICK dodges betweenthem, gains the sidewalk on the other side and claps his handon the back of a passing SOLDIER. The SOLDIER turns. It isnot SAL at all and the resemblance is not even close. NICK (CONT'D) Sorry... Thought you were someone else.The SOLDIER continues on his way. The CROWD streams on, a seaof bobbing, brilliant color. NICK gropes in his pocket andproduces another pint bottle. He unscrews the cap and downs along swallow.INT. BAR - SAIGON - NIGHTThe place is very dark. LOUD MUSIC is playing. Partially-cladBAR GIRLS are dancing with the CUSTOMERS, while above, on akind of trapeze, NAKED GIRLS are performing obscenecontortions.NICK sits at one of the tables. By now he is very drunk and aBAR GIRL is giving him her undivided attention. NICK I love Linda, see. I love Linda more than I can even say. BAR GIRL Everybody love Linda. NICK That's right. That's exactly what I mean! BAR GIRL I love Linda. Myself, I love Linda so much! NICK Only,good people love Linda, see. What Linda has, Linda -- BAR GIRL (in his ear) How you like to have nice fuck with Linda? You like that? Special, crazy fuck just like with Linda? NICK (stares at her) You mean...? BAR GIRL I show you. Come. You come. (pulls him to his feet) Linda have special, crazy fuck. That right?NICK nods. He looks as if he might be about to cry. BAR GIRL (CONT'D) I give you special, crazy fuck, just like Linda. Come. You come. Linda cry, make crazy moan?NICK nods. BAR GIRL (CONT'D) I give you cry, crazy moan. Come. You come.INT. CORRIDOR - BAR - NIGHTThe BAR GIRL comes around the corner with NICK, guiding himto a flight of narrow stairs. She has one hand around hiswaist and the other down the front of his pants. BAR GIRL You like to call me Linda now? NICK Linda, yeah. BAR GIRL You call me Linda, just like home.Suddenly NICK draws to a stop, staring at a small window atthe end of the corridor. He tears himself loose from the BARGIRL and pushes up against the glass.EXT. NARROW STREET (NICK'S POV) - NIGHTSeated on the sidewalk against the wall of the oppositebuilding is an OLD MAN surrounded by a collection of whiteceramic elephants. A truck roars by in front of him.Motorcycles sputter past and PEDESTRIANS hurry in bothdirections. The OLD MAN sits motionless, like the guardian ofsome timeless, silent kingdom.INT. CORRIDOR - BAR - NIGHTNICK spins away from the window. NICK Hey... Hey, elephants! Look at those elephants!The BAR GIRL stares at him. NICK (CONT'D) Linda loves elephants! Linda... she loves 'em!NICK turns and charges back down the corridor with the BARGIRL hot on his tail. BAR GIRL Wait! First I give you special fuck! NICK Elephants! Make way... I gotta get elephants!EXT. NARROW STREET - NIGHTNICK paces up and down in front of the OLD MAN and hisceramic elephants. NICK Great... These are great. I wanna tell you these are great elephants! I'm going home, see... Stateside in a few days and my wife Linda, she loves elephants. She... she has a thing for elephants because elephants... Elephants go on. You know what I mean? They go right on. I don't know if they cry. Maybe at night. I mean... What I mean is my two best buddies are dead, see, MIA, who knows, and they would have liked some elephants also because... How much are these elephants? I mean let's talk elephant. (notices a GROUP OF STREET URCHINS) Hey you guys...! Over here! Come over here and carry elephants!The STREET URCHINS come running. They are ragged,malnourished, ranging in age from about six to nine. They arecovered with sores. One of them ~as lost an eye and anotherhas lost a hand. NICK (CONT'D) Everyone take an elephant! (to the YOUNGEST URCHIN) You know how to carry an elephant? (the URCHIN nods) That's what I thought. Right off I figured you as that kind of guy. Hey, wait a minute, I gotta get change. Take an elephant! Everyone take an elephant and then form up. Right here. Over here, like this, in a nice long elephant line... Good. That's good. Man, look at all these elephants! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... eleven elephants! (surveys them) Hey, but you gotta stand tall to carry elephants. (he illustrates) Better. That's better. I mean... God damn, I mean that's elephants now! Wait. Now you wait while I get change.NICK dives into a nearby bar.INT. NEARBY BAR - NIGHTThe place is as dark as the one before. MUSIC BLASTS from ajukebox and two vaseline-covered GIRLS are dancing. As NICKcrosses to the bar to get change there is a WHISTLING SCREAMand then the FRONT WALL OF THE BUILDING DISINTEGRATES IN AROAR OF NOISE.NICK pulls himself out of the debris. There is absolutesilence in the WRECKED BAR but rockets are coming in all overthe city and the EXPLOSIONS rumble and roar.EXT. NARROW STREET AFTER ROCKET EXPLOSION - NIGHTA nearby building is burning fiercely. The street is desertedexcept for the sprawled CORPSES of the STREET URCHINS whichlie this way and that, like broken dolls.NICK walks out past the CORPSES. The street is littered withfragments of broken ceramic -- gleaming, pure white, likechunks of snow.EXT. DESERTED STREET - SAIGON - NIGHTThe sky is alight with fires. Now and then HUGE EXPLOSIONSrock the night and SIRENS wail.A lone figure appears, walking down the middle of the street.As the figure approaches we see that it is NICK. NICK (toneless, over and over) Hey, hey, the wind does blow. Hey, hey, the snow does snow. Hey, hey, the rain does rain...NICK swallows, as if to force back some overwhelming emotion.Then, squatting down under a lamp post, he begins again. NICK (CONT'D) Hey, hey, the wind does blow. Hey, hey, the snow does snow...NICK takes out his wallet, opens it hurriedly to thePHOTOGRAPH OF LINDA and peers at it with a kind of ferociousdetermination, as if this link were the last, as if bystaring at it hard he could make it hold. NICK (CONT'D) (his voice thin, cracking) Hey, hey, the wind does blow. Hey, hey, the snow does snow --There is the sharp report of a pistol SHOT and then, as NICKspins, staring at a shuttered building, there is theunmistakable sound of APPLAUSE.NICK stares at the building for a long moment, then hecrosses toward it.EXT. YARD BEHIND BUILDING - SAIGON - NIGHTA tiny light glows inside a paper lantern. Lying on thearound are three CORPSES, all of them Asian, all of themexpensively dressed and all of them with their heads blownoff. As NICK stands looking at them a door comes open on theback of the building,and TWO BURLY MEN bring out anothercorpse. The body is that of a young American. Like the Asianshe is expensively dressed and he is dead from a bullet in theright temple. MAN (V.O.) If you are brave and lucky I can make you rich.NICK turns. A MAN is standing in the shadows of a small grapearbor, eyeing him with a look of cold amusement. The MAN'Saccent is French. Beside him, on a small white table, is abottle of champagne and several glasses. MAN (CONT'D) You have played?NICK stares at the MAN, nods. MAN (CONT'D) Once you have played it is not so hard. Cigarette?NICK shakes his head. MAN (CONT'D) You seem... disturbed. NICK I... No. You do this for money? MAN Mais certainment... A great deal of money. Naturally I do not do it myself. I myself do not possess the nerve. (smiles) But I am always... how do you say... looking out for those who do... It is a thing quite rare. Champagne perhaps? Tch, tch. Don't say no. When a man says no to champagne, he says no to life and that no man must ever do. (gives NICK a glass) Where did you play? NICK Up north. MAN Ah yes. Of course... So few survive. (smiles) La creme de la creme... How did you obtain release? NICK Playing. MAN (raises his eyebrows) Playing? NICK We... Three bullets. MAN And then you...The MAN makes a clicking sound, three times, as if firing apistol. NICK nods. MAN (CONT'D) How extremely clever. That is really most extraordinaire... Allow me please to introduce myself. I am Armand... And you are? NICK Nick. ARMAND Nick. C'est extraordinaire! Do you know that I have a cousin who is called Nicholas and a nephew Nickolai. So you are, comme on dit, en famille. In the family.There is another SHOT from inside and another round ofAPPLAUSE. NICK I have to go. ARMAND But you must come in. NICK No, I -- ARMAND But I insist. NICK I have to go. ARMAND You are frightened, no?NICK nods. ARMAND (CONT'D) Of what is there to be afraid? The war? The war is no problem. It is a joke, a silly thing. I make one call and get you out.ARMAND refills NICK's glass. NICK looks at it. The glass isas thin as paper and the sparkling bubbles dance and hiss.NICK lifts the glass and empties in one swallow. NICK See, I'm going home. ARMAND Ah yes. Of course. (smiles) To the girl who waits. NICK (gives him a look and sits) Yeah... Do you mind if I sit? ARMAND But of course! Please make yourself comfortable. Perhaps you would enjoy some fresh caviar, or une petite glace, or --? NICK (weary, shaking his head) No. None of that. ARMAND Unfortunately I must now go in, but I leave you my card. Naturellement I pay my players cash American. Just so you know.ARMAND disappears in the darkness. Then his VOICE comesagain. ARMAND (V.O.) (CONT'D) However, should you prefer German marks, or perhaps Swiss francs, this of course can be arranged. Everything can be arranged.ARMAND moves around the side of the building and the sound ofhis FOOTSTEPS fades away. The TWO BURLY MEN come lurchingwith another CORPSE. Laughter comes from inside the buildingand there is a glimpse of AN ELEGANTLY DRESSED WOMAN seatedat a cafe table. The BURLY MEN return to the door and shut ittight. In the distance the sky goes up in a huge flash offire and then the sound of the EXPLOSION rolls across thecity like a great dead wind. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - WINTER - DUSKThe trailer is all decked out with bunting and stuck, like aplum cake, with tiny American flags. Stretching from thetrailer to the side of a house across the street is a huge,hand-lettered banner which says "WELCOME HOME NICK!" and itwhips and it snaps in the cold winter wind.NICK's battered old shark-finned Cadillac is in the yard.Alongside it are a bunch of newer cars and PEOPLE are comingfrom all directions, spilling in and out of the trailer andcongregating in excited, foot-stomping, half-frozen groups.EXT. SERIES OF SHOTS - COLUMBINE AREA - DUSKWe see the OLD PRIEST on his way from the church. We see theOLDER WOMEN, wrapped in shawls and carrying cakes andcookies, trudging up the hill. We see ALBERT, JOHN and abunch of STEELWORKERS, all of them half-bombed, dragging twocases of beer on a child's sled. We see LINDA peering out thetrailer window, pale and anxious-looking. We see VINCE, whois unofficial lookout, jumping up and down at the approach ofevery car and screaming, "This is it! This is Nick!" andthen, when it isn't, saying, "Not yet! Just hold your water,I'll tell you when!"And we see an empty street into which SIX VETS from the VFWPost come tottering. The VETS are all in their old uniforms.While three of them attempt to make MUSIC on a BASS DRUM, aFIFE and an old Army BUGLE, the other three attempt to sing. VETS Three cheers for the red, white and blue...! VET #1 This is hard. VET # 2 Christ Almighty, it's fifty years! VETS Three cheers for the red, white and blue...INT. TAXICAB - DUSKNICK sits hunched forward in the back seat surrounded byunwrapped cartons containing electric appliances he hasbought for LINDA. NICK looks nervous, VERY NERVOUS.Suddenly, as the cab comes over the crest of a hill, thetrailer looms into sight, straight ahead, with VINCE hoppingup and down in the snow and the OLD VETS all marking timeunder the flapping banner. CAB DRIVER Whadda welcome! Will you lookit... Whadda welcome!NICK stares at the approaching trailer. NICK That's not it. CAB DRIVER What're you, crazy? That's not it??? You said a trailer. You said-- NICK That's not it. Keep going. Go straight. CAB DRIVER Hey, now listen. Now you said -- NICK I'm telling you that's not it! Now keep going!NICK throws himself down on the floor. NICK (CONT'D) Just keep going! Just keep going straight!EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - DUSKLINDA is outside, standing with VINCE and ALBERT. VINCE This is him. I'm telling you, this is Nick!The TAXICAB comes thudding by. LINDA, VINCE and ALBERT allwatch as it disappears over a rise. ALBERT (to VINCE) I thought that was it. VINCE So he's in the next one, Albert. I mean take it easy. I mean you're driving everybody nuts! VETS (V.O.) (singing raggedly) Three cheers for the red, white and blue...! VINCE (to LINDA) You okay?LINDA gives a thin smile. VINCE (CONT'D) It's gonna be the next one. Okay?LINDA nods. VINCE (CONT'D) It's gotta be the next one. I mean it's gotta be! Right, Albert? ALBERT Fuckin' A. It's gotta! VINCE It's gotta!EXT. MOTEL - DUSKA huge neon sign stands against the grey sky, buzzingangrily, as if it were full of bees.The TAXI DRIVER comes out of one of the units, gets back inhis cab and pulls away.INT. MOTEL - NICK'S UNIT - DUSKNICK stands in the doorway where the driver has left him. Hisduffle bag and the cartons of electric appliances are piledalong the wall by his feet. His head is thrown back and he isdraining a bottle of whiskey, gulping it down in great rawswallows. .NICK lowers the bottle, catches his breath and goes at itagain. This time, as he lowers the bottle, the stark panic isgone, but there is still fear -- blind, nameless fear, likethat of an animal run to the ground.NICK crosses to the window, grips the frame with both handsand looks out.EXT. THE STEEL MILL FROM THE MOTEL (NICK'S POV) - DUSKThe five great stacks trail ribbons of black smoke across thepale winter sky, Steam billows upward in huge, silver-edgedclouds and there is the flash and gleam of fire.INT. MOTEL - NICK'S UNIT - DUSKNICK turns back to the room. He stares at it blankly --stares at the bed, stares at the bureau, stares at the chair,then he picks up the bottle, closes his eyes and beginsgulping down whiskey -- gulping it hard, fast, as hard andfast as he can.EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - NEW ANGLE - DAWNThe banner stretching to the house across the street has beenwhipped to shreds by the wind. In the yard, parked besideNICK's black Cadillac, is another car of about the samevintage. There is a case of beer on its roof, the windows areentirely frosted over and the engine is running. After amoment TWO STEELWORKERS come down the street and knock on thetrailer door. TWO OLDER WOMEN emerge, putting on their coats,and then LINDA comes to the door and tells the STEELWORKERSshe has no news. The STEELWORKERS and the OLDER WOMEN startoff, but now one of the WOMEN points to the frosted up car.The STEELWORKERS go back, pound on the roof of the frosted upcar, pull open a few doors and go on their way. First thingout is a GIRL. Next thing out is a SECOND GIRL. Their dressesare rumpled and half-undone. Neither one has a coat and theSECOND GIRL is missing a shoe. The GIRLS both plunge backinside the car, where howling and cursing can now be heard.The GIRLS both retrieve their coats. The SECOND GIRL gets hermissing shoe, plus a bra and a pair of panties.She returns the panties to the FIRST GIRL, puts on her shoeand they both take off at a fast trot. As the two GIRLS leavethere is a cascade of empty beer cans and ALBERT, VINCE andJOHN all stagger out -- bleary-eyed, hung-over, halfundressed and freezing. LINDA comes out of the trailer withcoffee, but just as she emerges the whistle at the mill goesoff. ALBERT and VINCE begin yelling at each other, yelling atJOHN and yelling at LINDA. Then they throw themselves back inthe car and start off. The case of beer on the roof crashesto the street. They stop, pile out, pick up the cans, heavethem in the back seat and take off again.JOHN says something to LINDA and goes on his way.LINDA stands in the yard, alone, with the three cups ofcoffee.EXT. ADJOINING OVERLOOK - DAWNNICK stands half-way down a rickety wooden stairway,watching.EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - ORIGINAL ANGLE - DAWNLINDA turns and goes back inside the trailer.EXT. ADJOINING OVERLOOK - DAWNNICK swallows and starts down the stairway toward thetrailer. He hesitates, pulls the bottle from his pocket,drains the last of it and tucks it under the stairs.Straightening up, he claws at his hair, trying to comb itwith his fingers. Then he starts down again.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - DAWNCakes, cookies, six-packs of beer and bottles of wine coveralmost every inch of available space. LINDA sits on thelittle settee, wedged between two cases of Coca-Cola andhunched over a white sweater which she is attempting, withpainful slowness, to knit. LINDA is trying not to cry. She istrying her God-damnedest.There is a knock at the door. LINDA freezes. Then, trying tobe totally matter-of-fact, she puts down the sweater, crossesto the door and opens it. NICK Guess who.LINDA stares at him. NICK gives a little laugh and steps in. LINDA (throws herself in his arms) Nick! Oh, Nick, you're back!She hugs him for a moment, as hard as she can, then they pullapart. LINDA (CONT'D) I thought... Oh, Nick, I thought you were hurt, some accident. Maybe you fell or maybe some car... (back in his arms) I thought someone stole you away! NICK No. LINDA Oh, Nick! Oh I missed you so!They pull apart. LINDA (CONT'D) How are you? NICK Fine. I'm fine. How are you? LINDA Fine. I just go along, you know. Down at the market. Back here. I mean it just seems there's a million things to do!... Are you sure you're all right? I mean, what about the wound? NICK (anger) That was nothing. That wasn't anything. LINDA But -- NICK It was just the complications. I mean, you take a little thing over there and then you get complications. I mean all the guys had it. LINDA I made you a sweater. (she gets it) Here... You have to take that off.NICK removes his coat. LINDA pulls the sweater over him LINDA (CONT'D) I couldn't remember your exact size.The sweater is huge, a great rumpled thing reaching almost toNICK's knees. LINDA (CONT'D) (smoothly) Oh, that's fine. Perfect... It is a little too big... (she pulls the sweater back off) ... but I can easily fix that. Easily. One thing about wool sweaters, they are such a cinch to fix.She crosses to a garbage pail out of NICK's line of sight andstuffs the sweater in it. NICK How's the trailer? LINDA Great. Fine... Once or twice it did fall off the blocks. I don't know what that's from. NICK Frost. LINDA Is that what it is? I couldn't figure out. NICK Did you get hurt? You didn't get hurt? LINDA Oh, no. It just kind of goes thump. Would you like a Coke? You don't drink Coke. Or maybe you do. What about champagne? Let's have champagne! I don't think we have champagne. Let's have this. See? Sparkling. I'll get you an opener. Oh, that's right. No opener. Let's just have beer. Do you want some cheese? Or maybe eggs? Maybe we should have coffee.She begins to sob. CAMERA CLOSES ON HER FACE: LINDA (CONT'D) Nick? I'm so glad you're alive! I'm so happy! I... I just don't know what to do!EXT. COLUMBINE STREET - DAYNICK and LINDA are some distance away. NICK is shaking handswith an ENTHUSIASTIC MAN while LINDA stands to one side,watching his face, and so full of love that she seems aboutto burst. ANOTHER MAN comes over. LINDA takes the MAN's armand presents him to NICK.WE CANNOT HEAR WHAT IS BEING SAID. THE ONLY SOUND COMES FROMTHE MILL WHICH LOOMS UP BEHIND THEM OUT THE FROZEN VALLEYBELOW.INT. PIZZA PARLOR - TABLE BY WINDOW - DAYNICK and LINDA sit opposite one another. Across the street acoal train is rumbling slowly by and NICK is watching it. Thecars are black, interchangable, and they roll on and on.Suddenly the last car appears. The car passes and there issilence.LINDA gives NICK a smile. NICK It was all for nothing. Do you know that? It was all for nothing.LINDA stares at him. She doesn't know what to say, how torespond. NICK forces a grin, gestures with his hand andshrugs. He picks up the check, stands. LINDA Nick?... I just want to say how sorry I am about Sal and about Merle. How... I know you loved them and I know it's not the same. I mean now. NICK Naw, it's... I mean... LINDA Maybe... I don't know, if you want to talk -- NICK Naw, it's... This guy wants his money.INT. SUPERMARKET - BACK ROOM - DAYThe place is full of crates and boxes. ONE CREW is unloadinga tractor-trailer. ANOTHER CREW is stacking and unpacking.NICK stands with LINDA and a red-faced, cigar-chewing MANAGERwho is pumping NICK's hand, slapping him on the back andshouting orders all at the same time. MANAGER You did a good job, kid. Pettrucio, here! You did a good job. Gimme a count on these pears! I think we got 'em now, know what I mean? The pears, the pears! Ask me, we got 'em right by the balls, know what I mean? Have a cigar. The pears, Pettrucio, the pears!!!He goes off. NICK (to Linda) Does this... I mean, how does this job work out? LINDA Oh, it's great. Fine.NICK nods. A STOCK BOY comes by and whistles. STOCK BOY Hi you, hot lips. NICK What do they... bother you!? LINDA (takes his arm, laughs) No-o-o! NICK I'll kill 'em. Anybody bothers you, I'll kill 'em! LINDA (gently) Nick. It's okay... It's okay. (gives him a squeeze, kisses him) I have to go now.NICK nods. LINDA (CONT'D) Pick me up at eight.NICK nods again. LINDA hurries off. The MANAGER comes in frombehind, clapping NICK on the shoulder and going for his ear MANAGER That's one sweet little piece of ass. I'm telling you, that's one sweet little piece of ass. Who's got these pears, God damn it! Who's got the count on these goddamn pears!EXT. STEEL MILL PARKING LOT - DAYNICK stands by the entrance to the mill. It is cold and helooks as if he had been waiting for some time. SuddenlySTEELWORKERS begin streaming out the doors, heading for theircars. NICK cranes his neck and then he catches sight ofALBERT and VINCE. NICK Hey, Albert!ALBERT turns. He grabs VINCE and pulls him through thedeparting STEELWORKERS. VINCE What the --! ALBERT It's Nick! VINCE Nick...? (sees him) Jesus, Nick!VINCE grabs NICK's hand, shakes it. Then ALBERT does thesame. VINCE (CONT'D) Where the hell were you? We were all set -- beer, broads. Right? Am I right? ALBERT Yeah. NICK I got delayed. I -- ALBERT (hugs him) Hey, Nick! God damn!... What've you been doin', I mean... VINCE Fuckin' guy's been shooting slants, Albert! I mean, what do you think? ALBERT I know, but... VINCE What do you think? You think he's been picking flowers? Fuckin' guy's been saving your ass, Albert. Everybody's ass! Even in Europe! ALBERT Yeah. Oh, boy, yeah... Jes', you must be tired. NICK I'm fine. Hey, I'm fine.THEY start for the cars. NICK (CONT'D) How're you guys... I mean, how've you guys been? VINCE Same old thing. Hey, same like always. Nothing's changed. Albert is getting fat. ALBERT Look who's talkin'! Jes'! He got married! Vince got married! NICK Married? ALBERT Tell him, Vince. VINCE Yeah. I did. Yeah...What the hell.VINCE makes a gesture, shrugs. NICK (after a beat) Well, who'd you get married to? VINCE Aw, it's a long story! ALBERT Tell him, Vince! VINCE Well... you remember Cynthia? NICK Cynthia! Sure. VINCE (nods) That's who. NICK (fast recovery) Cynthia! Hey, that's terrific. I mean... Great! That's really great! ALBERT Show him the gun. Hey, show him the gun, Vince.VINCE looks around. Cars are streaming out of the lot, hornsblaring. VINCE pulls back his coat and shows a .38 Smith andWeston in a holster on his hip. NICK What the hell's that for? VINCE What's it for?? ALBERT He's serious. Vince is fuckin' serious! NICK You mean...? VINCE Hey, Nick, I mean... This here is for the guy that gets caught! ALBERT Vince thinks... you know... NICK (nods) Hey... hey, let's drink!INT. JOHN'S BAR - NIGHTNICK comes through the CROWD OF STEELWORKERS shaking hands.The STEELWORKERS treat him with immense respect. There are nocracks; there are no jokes. They squeeze his shoulder, pathis back, reaching out for him, touching him. STEELWORKERS Nice going! Good going, Nick! You did good, boy; you did fine! Let him through! Damn good, boy! Let him through! He's all right! Did his part and he did it good! Let him through! Let's make a little room!JOHN pushes out of the crowd. JOHN Nick! Hey, Nick! (gives him a big hug) Boy! Boy oh boy! Are you okay? You're okay, huh? NICK Fine. Hey, I'm fine. JOHN Sit down. Here. Right here. (calls) Albert! Vince!JOHN pushes them all into a booth. A tray arrives loaded withbeer and shots of whiskey. JOHN (CONT'D) Here. Here we go. (he raises a beer) Here's to you, Nick! ALBERT Fuckin' A! VINCE (stands) Here's to Nick, you guys. He did his part. He did... what hadda be done... and so he did it... and here he is!!!INT. JOHN'S BAR - NIGHT - LATERNICK sits at the bar flanked by VINCE and ALBERT. Both VINCEand ALBERT are completely glassed out. Behind, in the booths,three or four STEELWORKERS are sleeping. JOHN moves aroundbehind the counter wiping things off. JOHN Rough, huh? NICK Rough. (he nods) We didn't have to do it, John. JOHN No? NICK No. How's Angela? How's she taking it? JOHN Not so good. NICK No? JOHN Worse since she talked to him. ALBERT (with a dull beery blink) Fucking A. NICK Worse since she talked to who? JOHN Sal. NICK Talked to Sal? (stares at him) Sal's alive? JOHN Kind of. You didn't know? NICK (pushes off the counter) Sal's alive???JOHN, ALBERT and VINCE exchange glances, nod. ALBERT He's real bad, Nick. NICK (stares at them) Well, where the hell is he!!! I mean what are we all sitting here for!!! (tears begin streaming down his face) WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??? ALBERT Nick... VINCE Hey, Nick... JOHN Nick, we don't know where Sal is... Nick, Angela won't tell us. NICK Why?... What do you mean?... Why??? JOHN Nick, she won't say why. NICK But Sal's mother! What about Sal's mother! JOHN She's out of her tree, Nick. She is straight out of her tree. NICK (stares at them) Oh, Jesus.He walks in a circle and then stops, staring at them. NICK (CONT'D) Oh, Jesus!!!NICK turns and goes out.INT. SAL'S HOUSE - FRONT PARLOR - NIGHTThe room is very dark. ANGELA sits at a lace-covered table bythe window where a street lamp illuminates her in an eerieglow. ANGELA holds a portable radio in tier hand, a very tinyone, and she fiddles with the dial, going from one station toanother.There is a sound from the hallway, then SAL'S MOTHER comes inwith NICK. SAL'S MOTHER I know I know you. So familiar. Such a familiar face. Oh, I know now! The toaster man! I'll go and get it for you.SAL'S MOTHER goes out. ANGELA lights up a cigarette. ANGELA You're back. NICK Yeah. ANGELA I'm glad. Seriously... I'm very glad. NICK Angela, I just heard Sal was alive. ANGELA Sure. Why not. NICK Where? Where is he? ANGELA Nick, he's fine. He's in a hospital and they're fixing him up. NICK You talk to him? ANGELA Oh, sure... Twice a day. NICK What hospital is he in? Where? ANGELA Nick... Sal is very weak. He suffered a severe wound... and right now he doesn't want a whole lot of people to get involved in a whole thing. NICK Hey, Angela, Sal and I go back a long way. ANGELA He doesn't want people bugging him, Nick!ANGELA begins to tremble, jabs out her cigarette and standsup.She stares at NICK for a moment, goes to a telephone pad andwrites down a number in a tiny, nearly illegible scrawl. NICKcomes up behind her. ANGELA finishes, puts down the pen andstands with her back against the wall. NICK tears off thepiece of paper, looks at it, puts it in his pocket. NICK Angela...?ANGELA laughs and gives a strange, twisted smile, avoidingNICK's eyes. ANGELA Did you ever think life would turn out like this? NICK No. ANGELA You know what Sal's got now?... Sal's got... one arm, Nick, and... that's it.The door to the kitchen bangs open and SAL'S MOTHER comes inwith an electric toaster and a screwdriver. SAL'S MOTHER Here. This is it. What you do, you stick this in here.Pushes the toaster in NICK's arms. SAL'S MOTHER (CONT'D) Then you jab it, see. Jab it good. Something's in it. Hear? Listen. Something's in it. What? What's there?EXT. RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH - FRONT STEPS - NIGHTNICK sits on the steps with the toaster that Sal's mothergave him in his lap. It is snowing and from inside the churchwe hear the CHOIR SINGING. The sound is massive, deep anddark, like a great river rolling through the night.CAMERA CLOSES ON NICK. He is staring at something, tearsglistening in his eyes.EXT. ORTHODOX CHURCH - REVERSE ANGLE (NICK'S POV) - NIGHTWe see a lone telephone booth at the curb. The door is halfopen and snow is blowing in.EXT. ORTHODOX CHURCH - ORIGINAL ANGLE - NIGHTNICK closes his eyes, leans his head forward and takes it inhis hands.INT. MOTEL NICK'S UNIT - BATHROOM - NIGHTLINDA steps out of the shower and begins to dry herself. LINDA It just seems sort of strange coming to a motel... Like a honeymoon. Or some kind of parlez vous ... Not parlez-vous! (she giggles) What am I saying? That's those cocktails! Parlez-vous!... What I mean is rendezvous. Some kind of rendezvous.LINDA pulls on a short and very sexy nightie, then looks atherself in the mirror. She is very excited, very nervous. Shestrikes a pose, pulling up the bottom of the nightie andpoking a finger in her mouth. LINDA (CONT'D) Do you know what I mean?... Nick?NICK doesn't answer. LINDA pulls the door full open, takesone last look at herself and goes out.INT. MOTEL - NICK'S UNIT - BEDROOM - NIGHTAs LINDA comes out of the bathroom her face falls and shestops dead in her tracks.NICK is lying on the bed -- sprawled on his back, one shoeoff and sound asleep. LINDA Nick?NICK doesn't stir, doesn't budge. LINDA crosses and looks athim -- hungrily, top to bottom -- then she gives his toe awistful shake. LINDA (CONT'D) Nick...? Nick, it's me!But NICK is out, gone. LINDA lets out a little moan and sitsdown on the chair beside the bed. Then, almost immediately,she stands and begins taking off his clothes. She takes offhis shoes, then both socks. As she goes to undo his belt, hisshirt, which is unbuttoned, falls slightly open, revealing afresh scar. LINDA stares at the scar for a moment, then sheslowly exposes the whole of NICK's chest.NICK'S CHEST IS COVERED WITH A SERIES OF TERRIFYING FRESHSCARS. THE SCARS ARE RAISED; THEY ARE INTER-CONNECTED ANDSTUDDED WITH ANGRY SUTURE MARKS, LIKE A TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OFSOME UNKNOWN BATTLEGROUND.CAMERA HOLDS ON LINDA'S FACE. DISSOLVE TO:INT. STEEL MILL - CASTING ROOM - DAYNICK stands at the handle of a long metal rod. At the otherend of the rod ALBERT and VINCE are attaching metallicstrips. When ALBERT and VINCE have secured the strips theysignal to NICK and all three of them lower their goggles.CAMERA PULLS SLOWLY BACK. NICK is standing below a furnacewhich is seven stories high, towering above him into a mazeof cat-walks and monstrous steel-hipped cranes.ALBERT and VINCE give a signal and the CRANE OPERATOR raisesthe door at the bottom of the furnace. NICK is now alone,standing like Don Quixote with his lance. As NICK advancestoward the base of the furnace with his rod the surface ofhis asbestos suit begins to smoke and bits of lint which havestuck to it burst into flame. Within reach of the furnacenow, NICK pauses. Then, lifting the metal rod, he jams itthrough the open doorway at the base of the furnace. There isa white flash as the metallic strips explode and then ageyser of molten steel erupts in a huge jet through thedoorway, passing NICK at the level of his shoulders andshowering him in a great cascade of white sparks.INT. JOHN'S BAR - NIGHTNICK sits at the bar, silent, hunched over a beer, lost inthought. All around him STEELWORKERS are shouting, yelling,cracking jokes. After a moment VINCE pushes in, claps him onthe back. VINCE How's it feel, huh? How's it feel to be back? NICK (forced enthusiasm) Great. Feels great... Fuckin' A! VINCE I mean, I guess you still think about Nam. Right? I mean -- NICK Naw. (shakes his head) Uh-huh. VINCE Hey, Nick, you ever do it with one of those slants? NICK No. VINCE No! NICK Never one. VINCE Oh, Jesus! (looks around) You're kiddin'! NICK One, Vince... you have to understand, doing it with one... would be... like nothing. They're small, see, so if you're smart you get about six or eight. I mean, if you want to have any fun. VINCE Six or eight. (nods) And they go wild? NICK (lowers his voice) They have these little sticks, Vince. They call them "chomp chomps", and when you get these girls going, you have to stick 'em in their mouths.VINCE stares at NICK. His respiration is up, his mouth isbone dry and his eyes are as big as saucers. For a moment hisbelief is total, then a frown crosses his face. VINCE You're full of shit! NICK (nods) Yeah. VINCE (pounding him on the head) And I believed you! I oughta punch you out! I oughta...! Hey. Hey, let's go huntin'! Albert! Hey, Albert! Let's go huntin'. What do you say? Nick? What do you say? NICK Sure. ALBERT Hey! Fuckin' A! Hey!He spots JOHN passing with a tray of beer. ALBERT (CONT'D) Hey, John!ALBERT scoops JOHN into his arms where he holds him frombehind. JOHN Yes, Albert? ALBERT (into his ear) John,we're going huntin'. JOHN Who's going? ALBERT We're all going. JOHN Nick's going? ALBERT Nick, Vince, Albert and John. JOHN No women? OTHERS No! No women! Jesus! What are you, crazy? JOHN Take these beers.They all take a beer. JOHN raises his glass, solemnly. JOHN (CONT'D) Here's to huntin'. ALBERT Hey! Fuckin' A! VINCE (hopping up and down) Just like always! Just like it always was! Right, Nick? Am I right? NICK In the timeless words of Squire Albert...VINCE cracks up, howling. VINCE Squire Albert...VINCE collapses on the floor. NICK In the timeless words of Squire Albert... ALL (in a ragged chorus) Hey! Fuckin' A!!!INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK sits on the bed in the back part of the trailer. Hishunting gear is piled on the floor, the lights are out and heis staring at the telephone which is illuminated through thewindow by a street light on the corner. There is a soundoutside, then the lights come on as LINDA enters withgroceries. LINDA Nick? NICK Right here.LINDA crosses to the doorway. LINDA What are you doing? NICK Oh. Nothing... Sitting. LINDA You're going hunting? NICK (blankly) What? LINDA I see you're going hunting.NICK looks at the equipment on the floor. NICK Yeah... All the guys, we're all going huntin'. Like we did. You know? Like we always used to. LINDA That's wonderful. I think you should... fresh air.NICK gets to his feet, suddenly. His face is twisted withpain and his voice is cracked with emotion. NICK You know how sometimes you're going along... You're going along... And that's all...! One thing is right after another, like steps... And you step along.NICK can hardly breathe. It is as if he were choking. NICK (CONT'D) I don't know where that is... It's gone! That's gone!A car pulls up outside. The HORN begins blowing, then VINCEand ALBERT begin pounding on the wall of the trailer. VINCE (V.O.) Let's go!!! ALBERT (V.O.) Hey! Fuckin' A! Time to roll!!! NICK I gotta go.NICK swings his pack on his back, picks up his rifle andheads for the door. LINDA follows, still clutching hergroceries, her emotions so pulverized she can't even speak. NICK (CONT'D) I'll be... I don't know... Couple of days.NICK IS GONE. LINDA STANDS MOTIONLESS, CLUTCHING HERGROCERIES, STARING AT THE TRAILER DOOR. IT IS DARK OUTSIDE.SNOW IS BLOWING IN. THE DOOR CLOSES SLOWLY, WITH A FAINTHISS, AND THEN CLICKS SHUT.EXT. MOUNTAINS - MIXED HARDWOOD FOREST - DAYSnow is blowing, swirling past the trunks of stark, icecovered trees. There is no horizon. Sky and earth are boundin a moan of wind, in the faint creak of frozen limbs and thewhispering, fitful, spinning flakes.NICK appears, suddenly, as a gust of wind shifts the slantingsnow. NICK is moving easily, heading slightly uphill,following the contour of the slope. As he draws closer we seethat he is following a SET OF FRESH TRACKS.EXT. MOUNTAINS - MIXED HARDWOODS - ROCK LEDGE - DAYA magnificent SEVEN POINT BUCK stands by a grove of hemlocks,looking down the slope.NICK appears below, barely visible in the swirling snow.The BUCK watches NICK for a moment, then turns unhurriedlyand vanishes into the trees.EXT. RIDGE NEAR CAMP - DAYVINCE is out of breath, clawing his way up a steep slope onall fours. JOHN and ALBERT, who have reached a level areaabove VINCE, unsling their rifles. SHOTS are going off inevery direction and the sound is so magnified by echoes thatit sounds like a full scale war. VINCE What are you, kiddin'? Are you kiddin' me, Albert? Twenty times I coulda had her! She...! One time she begged me, practically begged me. Listen, I had her tit, which was out, in one hand, and my other hand... You know that mole on the inside of her right leg? Well, I was past that mole, way past that mole, and I was --JOHN nudges ALBERT. FOUR DEER are coming down the slope,single file. JOHN and ALBERT raise their rifles and FIRE. TWOOF THE DEER FALL AND THE REMAINING TAKE OFF. VINCE, who isjust getting to his feet, unslings his rifle, trips and fallsdown. JOHN and ALBERT drag VINCE to his feet and then rushover to the TWO DEAD DEER. VINCE (CONT'D) (coming after them) Nice shootin', you guys. Not bad. Not half bad.Leans his rifle on the horns of one of the fallen DEER. VINCE (CONT'D) 'Course how could you miss, right? Twenty, maybe thirty feet. I mean, if I'd'a been where you guys were -- JOHN Psst. Vince!JOHN signals with his head. VINCE turns. ANOTHER DEER hascome out of the woods. The DEER is rattled by the gunfire andpeers at VINCE uncertainly. VINCE spins and grabs his gun,which immediately goes off. He slams another shell in thechamber and scrambles to his feet but the rifle sling ishooked on the antlers of the DEAD DEER and another shotricochets off a nearby rock. JOHN and ALBERT dive for cover.As they look up, they see the DEER trot down the slope andthen VINCE, firing wildly, running after it.EXT. MOUNTAINS - RIDGE TOP - DAYThe wind is much stronger, moaning in the trees. NICKappears, moving fast, at a near trot. Suddenly he stops,listening. At the same moment there is a snort. NICK wheels.The BUCK is behind him, bounding away.EXT. MOUNTAINS - RIDGE TOP - DAYThe BUCK appears, trotting out of the swirling snow. Reachinga deadfall the BUCK pauses, looking back, and then turnssharp left and disappears.NICK comes out of the snow. He is winded but still goinghard.EXT. MOUNTAINS - DEADFALL - DAYNICK reaches the deadfall, hesitates, then rapidly springsover. As he touches down on the other side there is agrowling sound.NICK grabs for the deadfall. The wind shifts and we see thathe has stepped onto a boulder which is loosely planted at thetop of a steep scree slope. As NICK watches, the boulderbegins to roll, then to bound, dislodging other rocks andboulders, all of them bouncing and leaping and cracking...and then falling -- soundless -- over a sheer ledge tounknown depths below.EXT. BUSTED-DOWN OLD LOGGERS SHACK - DAYALBERT and JOHN have dragged their TWO DEAD DEER to a logbeside the shack. They sit side by side, drenched in sweat,guzzling beer out of both hands. JOHN Sweet! Oh, that is sweet! ALBERT Hey! Fuckin' A! Just... just like a hot shit... except cold.JOHN lowers his beer. ALBERT gives him a blank expression,then cracks up. SHOTS explode nearby. At first the shots arescattered but they quickly open into a FULL BARRAGE. ALBERTand JOHN stand up.EXT. HIGHWAY EMBANKMENT - DAYThe DEER that VINCE was chasing earlier comes hobbling out ofthe woods pursued by a GROUP OF HALF-DRUNK HUNTERS. VINCEcomes barreling through the HUNTERS, shouting and screaming.VINCE's clothes are in tatters, the sole is gone from oneshoe and the barrel of his rifle is jammed up with mud andperceptibly bent. VINCE I got this one!!! This one's mine!!!VINCE loses his footing and rolls down the embankment, headover heels.EXT. DITCH - DAYVINCE comes up ten feet from the bewildered DEER. He raiseshis rifle, fires, and the BARREL SPLITS OPEN. SHOTS begincoming in, thudding in the mud and ricocheting off rocks. TheDEER wheels out on the highway. VINCE heaves his rifle at theDEER, draws his pistol...EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYCars are parked on both sides of the road. HUNTERS aresitting in the cars, drinking, eating sandwiches and warmingthemselves at small fires. MORE HUNTERS are up on theembankment. VINCE I got this one!!! This one's mine!!!The panicked DEER bolts down the highway between the parkedcars. The HUNTERS ON THE EMBANKMENT open fire. The HUNTERS INTHE CARS dive for cover. VINCE (CONT'D) Hold your fire! I got this one!!!VINCE FIRES, FIRES AGAIN. SHOTS are ringing everywhere.HUNTERS are shouting, running, yelling. A car window goesout, a headlight goes out. The DEER is hit, falls and getsup. VINCE takes aim. A FLEEING HUNTER bowls him over. TheDEER bolts for the woods, bullets smashing all around it.VINCE scrambles to his feet and plunges after it. VINCE (CONT'D) I got it! I got this one!EXT. WOODS - DAYThe DEER staggers through the trees, blood pouring from itswounds. VINCE comes stumbling after it. HE FIRES, FIRESAGAIN.EXT. BUSTED-DOWN OLD LOGGERS SHACK - DAYALBERT and JOHN stand with their beers, looking into thewoods. A shot zings by, close, and they dive behind a log.The DEER comes out of the woods, barely able to keep moving.VINCE appears, reeling. He takes aim at the DEER and there isa DULL CLICK. VINCE jams his pistol back in his holster. VINCE Gun! Gimme gun!!!ALBERT indicates his rifle. VINCE stumbles over to it, rams acartridge in the chamber. VINCE (CONT'D) (looks around, bewildered) Where's it gone? JOHN Inside, Vince.VINCE staggers to the cabin door. The DEER is lying on thefloor, motionless, DEAD. VINCE I got it! Hey, you guys, I got it!!!EXT. MOUNTAINS - FROZEN LAKE - DAYThe wind is blowing in gusts, slanting the snow first one wayand then the other. NICK appears in the distance, a blackspeck in the endless expanse of shifting white.As NICK draws closer we see that he is near exhaustion. Hisclothes are , caked with snow, his breath comes in a shallowgasp and his gait is uneven, favoring one leg. As NICKAPPROACHES CAMERA HE FALTERS AND LIMPS TO A STOP. There areno tracks. There is nothing to go by and he hunkers down inthe driving snow.The wind bangs in from one way, then it shifts and bangs inagain from another way. Suddenly it stops entirely. In thesilence there is a sound -- the click of a hoof on rock.NICK turns. The BUCK is standing on the shoreline, not thirtyfeet away, looking down at him.NICK pushes himself to his feet, raises his rifle and sightsdown the barrel.WE SEE THE BUCK THROUGH NICK'S SIGHTS. IT IS A CLEAR SHOT.NICK'S FINGER IS ON THE TRIGGER. HE HAS ONLY TO SQUEEZE IT.NICK LOWERS HIS RIFLE. THE BUCK SNORTS, TOSSES HIS HORNS ANDDISAPPEARS IN THE SLANTING SNOW.NICK STANDS MOTIONLESS, STARING AFTER IT, SO WONDER-STRUCK HEHAS FORGOTTEN TO BREATHE. NICK (grins) Damn... God damn...EXT. MOUNTAINS - OVERLOOK - DAYNICK sits on his haunches with his back against a sheer rockface. As he devours a Hostess Twinkie he looks out over asnow-shrouded landscape of such spectacular beauty that itmight be something from a dream. NICK (shouts) Hey! Hey... okay!INT. BUSTED-DOWN OLD LOGGERS SHACK - NIGHTThe Coleman lantern hangs from the rafter, rocking in thewind. NICK is propped against the wall, dozing. JOHN is outcold. ALBERT and VINCE are both drunk and arguing bitterly. ALBERT You're full of shit, Vince! You're so full of shit you're going to float away! VINCE Who? Who is? ALBERT You, Vince! You! You are! You're a crock! You're a walking, talking crock!... I mean, what do you know? VINCE I know! I fuckin' know! ALBERT You don't! VINCE I do!!! ALBERT I'm tellin' you she does it, Vince! With twenty guys you know! VINCE She does not! ALBERT Then what's the gun for! What's this for? VINCE In case!!! The gun's in case!!! ALBERT In case???!!! In case of what? In case you stumble on her, suckin' cock in the front fucking hall?! VINCE She might!!! She might do it, Albert, but you can't fuckin' tell me that she does!!! ALBERT She does, Vince! That's what I'm telling you! She does!!!VINCE is sheet-white, trembling. He grabs up the pistol andcocks it. VINCE (shrieking) Say that one more time!... Say it!!! Go on, say it!!!NICK is half-way up the wall, still half-asleep, staring atthe pistol in disbelief. Suddenly he springs, seizes the gunwith one hand and slams VINCE to the floor. VINCE gets up.NICK slugs him in the face, knees him in the stomach andbegins pounding his head against the wall. ALBERT lurchesover, pulls NICK away. ALBERT Nick! Nick, you'll kill him!... Easy. Nick, easy! Hey, hey. Vince goes back a long way. NICK (grimly) Yeah.VINCE gets to his feet. Blood is streaming down his face. VINCE What the hell was that! (picks up the pistol) What did you think? Did you think it was loaded! NICK You loaded it, Vince! I saw you! VINCE The fuck I did!!! NICK The fuck you didn't!... Gimme that!NICK takes the pistol. VINCE What do you think? You think I don't know!!!NICK looks at him, then he EMPTIES THE PISTOL INTO THE FLOOR.For a moment there is absolute silence. The wind moans in thetrees, snow curls through the open door and JOHN, who isstill soundly sleeping, finds a new note on which to snore.NICK looks down at the pistol, turns it over in his hands... NICK I'm going to throw this fuckin' thing away.NICK goes out.EXT. BUSTED-DOWN OLD LOGGERS SHACK - NIGHTFor a moment NICK stands in the light from the door,listening to the wind. He looks down at the pistol again,then he heaves it into the trees.The wind gusts. The snow swirls and hisses, slipping throughthe woods in great streaming wraiths.NICK watches it for a moment, then he turns and goes back in.EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - DUSKThe trailer is lonely looking, DARK and cold. VINCE pullsinto the yard beside NICK's car and skips to a stop. NICKgets out, says a few words to VINCE and everyone laughs. NICKgoes around to the trunk, removes his gear, slams the lid andpounds on the car. VINCE takes off, thudding over the curbwith his load of THREE DEAD DEER.NICK crosses to the trailer and goes inside.INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - RECREATION ROOM - NIGHTTWO DOZEN AMPUTEES in wheelchairs are watching a western.INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR OFF RECREATION ROOM - NIGHTIn the foreground a NURSE holds a telephone. Beyond the NURSEwe see a wizzened figure in a wheelchair coming slowly downthe polished corridor. As the figure draws closer we realizeit is SAL. SAL is dressed in a white hospital gown, thebottom of which hangs over the front of the wheelchair andtrails limply on the floor. Both SAL's legs have beenamputated and he has lost one arm. His face is terriblyscarred and what expression he displays is centered in hiseyes.SAL takes the telephone. THE SOUNDTRACK FROM THE MOVIE IN THERECREATION ROOM IS VERY LOUD. SAL Hello?INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK sits in a little chair by the window, still in hishunting clothes, huddled anxiously over the receiver. NICK Sal? Sal, it's me, Nick. SAL Nick. Hey. How's things? NICK Oh. You know. How's it with you? SAL Same. Hey. Same old stuff. NICK (he can hardly hear) What's that noise? SAL What? NICK What's that noise? SAL John Wayne... Listen, Nick -- NICK Great. Hey. That's great. SAL Listen, Nick -- NICK John Wayne's great... Listen, Sal. Jesus. When are you getting out? SAL I'm gonna stay here, Nick. NICK (hearing it) What? SAL (with everything he has) Place is great. Really. One great place... Basketball, bowling. You name it. Canasta. Hearts. Lots of guys are making salad bowls. What I'll do is make a salad bowl for you, unless you'd rather have a pencil holder. The pencil holder's neat, I mean -- NICK Wait a minute. Sal. Hold it. John Wayne's making so much noise I can hardly -- SAL I gotta get back, Nick.SAL looks around in desperation. SAL (CONT'D) They're passing out popcorn now, so I'll be talking to you... maybe next year.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK holds the receiver, staring into it. There is the SOUNDOF WHOOPING, GRUNTING, THUNDERING HOOVES... NICK Sal?... Sal?INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR OFF RECREATION ROOM - NIGHTSAL is wheeling himself rapidly down the polished corridor.At the doorway to the recreation room he pauses, looking backat the DANGLING RECEIVER. Then he turns and disappears intothe flickering darkness, where BUGLES are sounding a cavalrycharge.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK listens to the SOUND OF THE BUGLES for a moment, thenputs the receiver back on the telephone. He stands, walksaround in a little circle - pained, terribly upset. His eyefalls on the clock. It is nearly eight o'clock. He turns,hurries out the door.EXT. SUPERMARKET PARKING LOT - NIGHTThe lot is empty except for scores of abandoned shoppingcarts which a CLERK is banging together.NICK gets out of his car and goes in.INT. SUPERMARKET - NIGHTTwo or three CHECKERS are closing out the registers up front. CHECKER She's in back. NICK Thanks. CHECKER How was huntin'? NICK Oh. Fine. CHECKER Get anything? NICK No. CHECKER Too bad.NICK goes down a long aisle of bright packages. Coming out atthe back he finds LINDA sitting in a green plastic chair,crying. NICK Linda... Honey, what's wrong? LINDA (helpless shrug) I don't know. NICK Hey. Look. There must be something.LINDA looks at him, tears streaming down her face. LINDA I'm just so lonely. NICK C'mon. I've got the car. LINDA (shakes her head) I'll be out... Just leave me. I'll be out. I'm fine. Really. I'm fine.NICK walks back down the aisle between the bright packages.INT. NICK'S CAR - SUPERMARKET PARKING LOT - NIGHTThe CLERK is still collecting abandoned shopping carts. Thecarts crash and clank as the CLERK rams them together.NICK sits behind the wheel, watching the clerk. His handsbegin shaking uncontrollably and he gets back out of the car.EXT. SUPERMARKET PARKING LOT - NICK'S CAR - NIGHTNICK watches the lights go out in the market. LINDA comes outof the door and crosses towards him. NICK You okay?LINDA nods. NICK fumbles for the door. LINDA Let's make love, Nick.LINDA takes him in her arms and holds him tight. LINDA (CONT'D) Let's make love forever!INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTLINDA is asleep - lying on her back, arms flung out acrossthe pillows, like a dancer leaping.NICK stands beside the bed, wrapped in a blanket, lookingdown at her. After a moment he draws the covers over her,fusses with her slippers until they are straight and thengoes to the window.EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF NICK'S TRAILER (NICK'S POV) - NIGHTThe wind is blowing. Bits of trash skitter and swirl in thefrozen ruts and a cat comes by, MEOWING. Suddenly a MANappears walking slowly down the street. The MAN is elegantlydressed in Western attire, wearing a tailored suit with vest,polished boots and a Stetson hat. As the MAN draws under thelight of a street lamp he pauses, looking at NICK's trailer.THE MAN IS MERLE, OR IF NOT MERLE IT IS A FACE SO STRIKINGLYSIMILAR THAT NICK ALMOST LETS OUT A CRY.THE MAN UNDER THE STREET LAMP PAUSES, JUST FOR AN INSTANT,THEN HE TURNS AND MOVES ON DOWN THE STREET.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK backs away from the window. For a moment he standsmotionless, hardly able to believe his eyes. He looks over atLINDA, he looks down at a chair, then he pushes his face tothe window again.EXT. STREET (NICK'S POV) - NIGHTThe street is empty. The MAN is gone.INT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK hesitates, then he sheds the blanket and pulls on pants,shirt, jacket and jams his sockless feet into a pair ofslices.EXT. NICK'S TRAILER - NIGHTNICK comes out into the street. There is no one in sight.NICK crosses to the intersection of Columbine.EXT. INTERSECTION OF COLUMBINE - NIGHTNo one. Nothing. A beer can rolling in the wind.NICK jams himself against a wall, zippers his jacket. He isirked with himself, a little frightened. Suddenly he hears acar door close and en engine start up. A black limousinepulls out of a nearby street and comes past him slowly. ACHAUFFEUR is at the wheel.The PASSENGER in back appears to be the MAN he saw, but theMAN is looking out the window on the other side and his faceis not visible.As NICK watches, the limousine rapidly gathers speed. Thetail lights grow small, then the car dips over a hill anddisappears.INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - RECREATION ROOM - DAYSunlight streams through a window. The television is going.In a far corner SAL sits in his wheelchair, sleeping.CAMERA CLOSES SLOWLY ON SAL. His head has fallen to one sideand his single arm sticks into the air -- as if he had failedin his grasp of something, as if he were drowning. On a trayin front of him is an untouched breakfast of orange juice,milk and a little box of Wheaties.INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY STAIRWAY - DAYSomeone is descending the stairs. After a moment the feetappear, clad in expensive cowboy boots. We see expensive,tailor-made trousers, a belt buckle embossed with a sixshooter... and then, suddenly, MERLE'S FACE.MERLE slows in his descent, stops, looking at something.EXT. V.A. HOSPITAL ENTRANCE (MERLE'S POV) - DAYNICK is getting out of a cab. He pays the driver and startstoward the building.INT. V.A. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY STAIRWAY - DAYMERLE watches NICK for a moment, his face utterly withoutexpression, then MERLE continues down the stairs.EXT. HOSPITAL GROUNDS - DAYNICK is pushing SAL down a walkway. NICK Sal, we need you. We need you. SAL Hey, Nick. How can you need me? NICK We do, Sal. We do... You're the heart.Turns SAL and sits on a bench. NICK (CONT'D) Sal, you're gonna die! You're gonna sit in that corner watching soaps and you're gonna die!... I'm not saying it's gonna be the same. It's not gonna be the same, but whatever it's gonna be we're all gonna do it, Sal. God damn it we are! We are gonna do it! SAL Nick. I'm so scared. I'm so fuckin' scared to go home. NICK (nods) I know. It's like coming from the moon. Or Mars.SAL laughs. SAL Did you go hunting. NICK Yeah. SAL Did you get one? NICK No. SAL You didn't get a deer? NICK I tracked this one, a big buck. God, he was such a beauty--! What's this suitcase here? SAL Where? NICK Here. Behind you.NICK pulls a suitcase off the rack behind SAL's chair. SAL I don't know.NICK sets the suitcase on a low wall and starts to undo theclasps. NICK Maybe Angela brought you stuff. I know she said --The suitcase slips over the back of the wall. NICK (CONT'D) Shit!NICK swings up on the wall and then he freezes. The lid ofthe suitcase has popped open and bundles of money arescattered all down the slope of a steep embankment. SAL Mom keeps sending me socks, Nick. I mean, if it's socks or something just let 'em go.EXT. HOSPITAL GROUNDS - EMBANKMENT WITH MONEY - DAYNICK looks down at the money scattered at his feet. Thebundles are made up of hundreds and they are everywhere. SAL (V.O.) Maybe you could use socks, Nick. Jesus, I mean, come to think of it socks are pretty expensive now. NICK It's not socks, Sal.NICK bends over the suitcase and begins going through lookingfor identification. There is nothing. As he straightens up henotices a wadded-up piece of paper lying beside one of thebundles of bills.The paper is about an inch square. The corners are tatteredand it looks as if it had been carried in someone's pocketfor a long time.NICK picks the paper up, realizes it is a calling card andunfolds it.THE CARD READS "EXHIBITIONS". IT CONTAINS A TELEPHONE NUMBERON THE LOWER LEFT CORNER AND IS IDENTICAL TO THE CARD ARMANDGAVE TO NICK WHEN HE CAME UPON HIM IN THE GARDEN BEHIND HISROULETTE GAME IN SAIGON.EXT. HOSPITAL GROUNDS - VALLEY OVERLOOK - DAYNICK leans on a railing watching the black, interchangeablecars of a coal train roll slowly by. SAL sits with thesuitcase of money in his lap, utterly bewildered, crying. SAL Who is it, Nick? Who is it? I don't understand.NICK looks at SAL. His head is spinning and he brings himselfback with effort. NICK It's Merle, Sal. SAL Merle? ... Merle's alive? (NICK nods) How do you know? NICK I saw him last night. I thought I was dreaming. I thought I was out of my mind. SAL Merle gave me this? NICK Yeah. SAL But, Nick... Hey, I mean, where would a guy like Merle get money like this?NICK is standing slightly behind SAL, looking down at themoney. The reality of what MERLE is doing, has nearlyoverwhelmed him and it is only with tremendous effort that hemaintains a casual tone. NICK Oh cards, maybe. Poker... It's getting cold, Sal. I'm going to take you in. (starts off) We'll call Angela. The guys can help her bring you home... Did I tell you I was going on a trip? SAL (panicked) Trip? What do you mean, Nick? You said you'd be -- NICK It's okay. Hey, it's okay! Just a week. Just to see Phantom Mary. SAL Phantom Mary? NICK Didn't I ever tell you about Phantom Mary? SAL (laughs) No. NICK (starts off again) Well... Phantom Mary's on my mother's side. Naturally no one there admits it because Phantom Mary's pretty weird... You want to hear the whole story? SAL (enthusiastically) Yeah! NICK Like I say, Phantom Mary's pretty weird... Lives alone, lives way out in the middle of nowhere with a cat called Pajamas and a cow called Fred. Well, last week I got a call from Phantom Mary, which in itself was very strange... DISSOLVE TO:INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - U.S. ARMY AIRFIELD - TEXAS - DAYThe place is a madhouse of activity. As jets scream overheadTROOPS embarking for Saigon are being counted and recounted.SERGEANTS are yelling off names. CLERKS are typing forms andpapers. Forklift trucks weave in and out, DRIVERS cursing.NICK is back in uniform. He stands at a window watching a jettransport being prepared for loading. A CLERK comes by,arguing with a SERGEANT. The CLERK sets down his clipboard toconsult the SERGEANT's papers. NICK picks up the clipboardand moves into the CROWD.INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - ANOTHER LOCATION - DAYNICK spots a lone SECOND LIEUTENANT sitting on his gear. MoreOFFICERS are waiting nearby but the SECOND LIEUTENANT seemsnot to know them.NICK moves in close enough to read the SECOND LIEUTENANT'sname tag. NICK (bawling) Biederman! Where's Biederman! LIEUTENANT Here. NICK You Biederman? LIEUTENANT Biederman, yes. NICK I got you on this flight, Biederman. Is that right? BIEDERMAN Correct. NICK Follow me, please.INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - WAREHOUSE AREA - DAYNICK walks along briskly with the LIEUTENANT at his side. NICK Right this way.INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - WAREHOUSE AREA - DAYNICK comes to a door, opens it. NICK Through here.INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - UTILITY CLOSET - DAYThe LIEUTENANT walks into the closet and comes to a stop,looking puzzled. NICK comes in behind him, closes the doorand picks up a length of pipe. NICK Take off the uniform.The LIEUTENANT stares at NICK, dumbfounded. NICK (CONT'D) Take off the uniform, Lieutenant!The LIEUTENANT nods, begins taking off his uniform.INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - UTILITY CLOSET - DAYNICK has changed into the LIEUTENANT's uniform and tied himto a chair. The LIEUTENANT is in tears. NICK is going throughhis orders. LIEUTENANT Please! Please mister, please! This is vital I go to Saigon. This is very important. Most important. NICK (exasperated) Listen, Biederman, I'm going to club you into the floor unless you tell me what the fuck is so important. LIEUTENANT That I must not tell you. Top secret. You see there. Topmost secret. NICK Biederman! LIEUTENANT (stiffly) I will not betray my country. No. Ne-ver!NICK throws down the pipe in disgust, whips a gag around theLIEUTENANT's mouth and ties it. NICK When I get to Saigon I'll tell 'em where you are.Slams the door.EXT. SAIGON AIRPORT - TERMINAL BUILDING - NIGHTViet Cong SAPPERS have just attacked. A number of jetfighters are burning, bodies are strewn over the tarmac andjeeps with SOLDIERS are racing back and forth.Out beyond, the jet transport taxis into view, lumbering likea great silver monster out of the night.INT. JET TRANSPORT - NIGHTNICK stands in the aisle next to a COLONEL who is peering outthe window. COLONEL Jesus Christ, they hit the airport!NICK nods. COLONEL (CONT'D) Those fuckin' niggers. This time I'm going to eat balls!... You ever try 'em? NICK Naw. COLONEL (leans close) Not bad fresh, but they don't keep worth a pig's fart.NICK nods. EVERYONE starts out. COLONEL (CONT'D) Lotta guys don't know that. (winks) Assholes!EXT. JET TRANSPORT - DEBARKATION RAMP - NIGHTA SIREN is screaming in the distance. NICK looks aroundnervously. The COLONEL is still right in beside him. COLONEL Tell you something else. Don't eat 'em in the damn Delta. Unless you like 'em fishy... Some do. I don't. I never did.The scream of the SIREN grows louder. Suddenly a Jeep careensaround the corner followed by a huge black Cadillac flyingAmerican flags on the fenders. Both vehicles screech to astop and an MP jumps out of the jeep with a loud hailer. MP (amplified) Lieutenant Biederman! Lieutenant Biederman report to the ramp! COLONEL That's you. (grabs NICK's arm and waves) Right here, Sergeant! He's right here! MP Right this way, Lieutenant.NICK is hurried to the limousine where a SECOND MP holds thedoor. SECOND MP Quick as you can, sir. We're in a rush.NICK gets in the limousine. The SECOND MP slams the door,jumps in the front and they take off with sirens wailing.INT. LIMOUSINE - SAIGON - NIGHTThere are jeeps with MP's ahead; there are jeeps with MP'sbehind. Seated beside NICK is a gigantic MARINE CORPORAL whostares rigidly ahead.EXT. CAVALCADE - SAIGON - NIGHTPedestrians and bicyclists flee as the cavalcade comesscreaming down a wide boulevard.EXT. AMERICAN EMBASSY - SAIGON - NIGHTThe jeeps peel off to the side. The gate swings open and thelimousine enters the compound.INT. AMERICAN EMBASSY - RECEPTION AREA - NIGHTA STRING QUARTET is playing. GUESTS in evening clothes aredrinking champagne.NICK enters with the MARINE CORPORAL and is whisked rapidlydown a hallway.INT. AMERICAN EMBASSY - KITCHEN - NIGHTNICK stands in front of a huge range staring down at a table.On the table there is a basket of eggs, an omelette pan and apile of mushrooms. Across from the table six SERVANTS withnapkins on their arms stand waiting with plates. MARINE (V.O.) Sir?NICK turns. The MARINE CORPORAL is holding a chef's hat. NICKtakes off his cap, puts on the chef's hat. Suddenly a doorcomes open and the AMERICAN AMBASSADOR and his WIFE come in. AMBASSADOR Henri! So good to see you. How are you? How are you? Darling, this is Henri. Henri, my wife Elizabeth. WIFE My pleasure. AMBASSADOR Henri, we are starved. Six omelettes, s'il vous plait. WIFE (hissing) Avec champignons. AMBASSADOR Avec champignons. (back to his WIFE) Fines herbes?The WIFE shakes her head. The AMBASSADOR winks. AMBASSADOR (CONT'D) Avec champignons.The AMBASSADOR and his WIFE hurry out. There is dead silence.NICK pulls the MARINE CORPORAL to one side, points to hiscrotch. NICK Pee-pee.INT. AMERICAN EMBASSY - CORRIDOR OFF KITCHEN - NIGHTNICK comes down the corridor behind the MARINE CORPORAL. Ashe passes a straight-back chair standing against the wall hepicks it up and swings it down on the MARINE CORPORAL'S head.The blow is ferocious. The chair splinters into pieces andthe MARINE CORPORAL goes down with a dull thud.NICK stands for a moment, looking at him. Then he kneels,removes his pistol and jams it in his belt.EXT. AMERICAN EMBASSY - WALKWAY TO PEDESTRIAN EXIT - NIGHTThree MARINE GUARDS are standing at parade rest by an openiron gate.As NICK appears in his white chef's hat the GUARDS snap toattention and he walks into the CROWD OF ASIANS streaming byoutside.EXT. TELEPHONE BOOTH - BUSY INTERSECTION - NIGHTNICK takes out his wallet, extracts the tattered calling cardthat he found with SAL'S money and dials the number. He letsit ring a long time but there is no answer.EXT. DESERTED STREET WITH SHUTTERED BUILDING - NIGHTNICK is not sure where he is. Suddenly he stops, recognizingthe yard with the little grape arbor where he met ARMAND.EXT. YARD BEHIND SHUTTERED BUILDING - NIGHTThe yard is grown over. As NICK goes in there comes a lowbuzz of flies. He trips over something, draws back. Seeing acandle on the little table under the grape arbor, he crossesand lights it.The yard is full of discarded champagne bottles, red velvetcushions and rotting CORPSES. NICK leans over one of theCORPSES. The skin is falling away and the eye sockets writhewith maggots.NICK straightens, looks around. NICK Merle!!!The back door to the building is open. NICK draws his pistoland goes in.INT. SHUTTERED BUILDING - NIGHTNICK finds his way blocked by a door. He steps back, hurlshimself against it. The door gives way with a crash and hestaggers into the middle of a small stage hung with redvelvet curtains and furnished with a table and two chairs.Out beyond the proscenium, huddled together in a litter ofbroken cafe tables, a FAMILY OF REFUGEES stare at him interror from the other side of a small fire. NICK (waves pistol) It's okay.The REFUGEES cower back even further. NICK (CONT'D) (screaming) It's okay, God damn it! It's all right!POUNDING and BANGING come from the direction of the frontdoor. NICK crosses...INT. SHUTTERED BUILDING - FRONT DOOR - NIGHTNICK readies his pistol, cautiously unbolts the door andjerks it open. The COLONEL FROM THE AIRPLANE tumbles in andfalls flat on his back. Standing in the doorway, lit by theheadlights of two cars, is a party of U.S. OFFICERS, ARVNOFFICERS and WHORES. COLONEL (no attempt to get up) Hey, good buddy, how you doin'? (gestures) This is Biederman, you guys. Biederman, this is Son Loc, Tu Fon, Huckerbelly and Potts. What's the story here, Biederman? We're looking for... Wait a minute.He fishes a piece of paper out of his breast pocket. COLONEL (CONT'D) Here it is. Chez Armand. WHORE Chez Armand not here! Chez Armand has gone to other spot! COLONEL (gets up) Honey, c'mere. Come right here.The COLONEL opens a brown paper bag he is carrying andpresents her with a large red, white and blue dildo. COLONEL (CONT'D) This is for bein' so smart.The WHORE shrieks with pleasure. EVERYONE laughs. COLONEL (CONT'D) (arm around WHORE) Let's go! Mount up! C'mon Biederman!The COLONEL throws an arm around NICK and they all start forthe cars. COLONEL (CONT'D) (to NICK) Boy, do I love this conflict. Huh?... What the hell were you doin' in there? NICK You know a guy named Merle? COLONEL Merle? That's who we're looking for. Merle. NICK Yeah? COLONEL Sure! I got eight hundred potatoes says he goes one more... He retired, you know. NICK Yeah? COLONEL Now he's back.Pulls NICK close so he can whisper in his ear. COLONEL (CONT'D) He eats 'em... Sure... He eats 'em raw!EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - SAIGON OUTSKIRTS NIGHTAn elegant house of French design is ablaze with lights. Thehouse is encircled by a stone terrace on which tables havebeen set up. Over the terrace and strung out for a hundredyards into the surrounding trees are countless paper lanternswhich bob and sway in the wind. GUESTS are everywhere --wandering in and out of the house, sitting at the tables andstrolling under the trees. For the most part the GUESTS areAMERICANS and SOUTH VIETNAMESE. The majority of these areOFFICERS IN UNIFORM, but there are numerous CIVILIANS mixedamong them and the CIVILIANS are attired in everything fromsports shirts to white linen suits and tuxedos. As tonationality there are no limits. There are FRENCH, GERMANS,BELGIANS, SWISS, CHINESE, BRITISH and AUSTRALIANS. WHORES andMISTRESSES abound. WIVES are not greatly in evidence, exceptto dog the heels of heavily armed ARVN GUARDS who wanderabout, glass-eyed, drinking champagne.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - PARKING AREA - NIGHTJeeps, personnel carriers, trucks and light tanks are parkedside by side with gleaming Mercedes limousines, staff carsfrom various government agencies and a blitz of civilianvehicles running from sedans to motor scooters.More vehicles arrive by the minute and exotic couples, likeplumed birds, debark in the swirling dust.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - CLEARING IN TREES - NIGHTA dozen ARVN helicopters have put down between the trees. Onehas crashed and lies on its side with a broken rotor.There is a mounting clatter in the distance and anotherhelicopter comes out of the sky. As it sets down a dashinglyhandsome AIR FORCE OFFICER hops out and extends a hand to hisWIFE. When his WIFE has descended the OFFICER opens a backcompartment in the fusilage and carefully takes out theirBABY. He hands the BABY to his WIFE and they stroll offtoward the house.INT. RUBBER PLANTATION - HOUSE - NIGHTGambling tables are set up in all the rooms. The betting isheavy, champagne flows like water and the atmosphere is oneof reckless abandon, as if money, like love, were good for anhour.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - ROULETTE STAGE - NIGHTLow bleachers covered in red velvet are set in a semi-circlefacing a small stage. The stage is lit with a single,blindingly bright spotlight and is furnished with a table andtwo velvet-covered chairs. Two CONTESTANTS, both of themVIETNAMESE, sit opposite one another. Between them, lying onthe table, is a revolver. Both CONTESTANTS are dressed intuxedos. Both wear red numbers on their downstage arm.Although the bleachers are not yet full, eager BETTORS jamthe first three rows. Here CLERKS with change trays take thebets, signalling each transaction to a MARKER who chalks theshifting odds on a large board.CAMERA CLOSES ON NICK, standing in the aisle, staring indisbelief at the evolution of the game he once played.Now a REFEREE enters the stage carrying two strips of scarletcloth. REFEREE (amplified) Game number seven. Gentlemen will please wrap.The CONTESTANTS wrap their heads with the scarlet cloth. REFEREE (CONT'D) (as he loads revolver) One cartridge. Game to be played to completion. Forfeit automatic after delay of one minute.The REFEREE places the pistol back in the center of the tableand spins a wheel whose -intervals are alternately marked Land R. The wheel clatters to a stop with the marker on L. REFEREE Gentleman on the left will now commence play.The REFEREE steps out of the light. A gong sounds. TheCONTESTANT on the left picks up the pistol, spins thecylinder, cocks it andplaces it to his temple. He hesitates, pulls the trigger...and clicks out.NICK is unable to bear it. He turns, starts around toward theback of the stage. AS NICK MOVES THROUGH THE GUESTS WE HEARTHE SOUND OF THE CYLINDER CLICKING, AMPLIFIED OVER A P.A.SYSTEM. WE HEAR THE CLICK OF THE HAMMER BEING COCKED...NICK turns. The SECOND CONTESTANT has the pistol to histemple. He pulls the trigger... THE GUN GOES OFF WITH ADEAFENING ROAR and he topples on the floor.The FIRST CONTESTANT STEPS FORWARD AS THE SPOTLIGHT NARROWSTO CONTAIN HIM ALONE. HE BOWS, CLASPS HIS HANDS ABOVE HISHEAD AND DANCES AROUND.NICK stares at the FIRST CONTESTANT celebrating his victory.He looks around him. BETTORS are screaming and yelling infive languages.NICK starts off again, hurrying.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - BACKSTAGE AREA NIGHTNICK comes upon a pile of six naked CORPSES with their headsblown off. Opposite the CORPSES -- sitting, standing, pacing,squatting in the dirt -- are a GROUP OF WAITING CONTESTANTS.Some of these are AMERICAN. Most are SOUTH VIETNAMESE,several of whom have come with WIVES and FAMILIES. A few ofthe contestants are well dressed, most are in rags. THREE. OFTHE WAITING CONTESTANTS ARE WEARING TUXEDOS.Suddenly a WOMAN WITH A BABY lets out a shriek. NICK spins.TWO BURLY MEN appear, bringing the CORPSE OF THE SECONDCONTESTANT. As the WOMAN WITH THE BABY begins sobbing andscreaming with grief the BURLY MEN strip the tuxedo off theSECOND CONTESTANT and then, as each article is summarilyremoved, they begin dressing one of the WAITING CONTESTANTSin it. ARMAND (V.O.) If you are brave and lucky I can make you rich.NICK turns and finds ARMAND behind him. ARMAND studies himfor a fraction of a second and then smiles. ARMAND (CONT'D) C'est tres amusant... You have been promoted. And to a Jew... I am joking of course. Naturellement. Seriously, Nick, may I hope that you have come to play? NICK I came to see Merle. ARMAND Ah. Merle. And you know Merle? NICK Yeah. ARMAND (studies him) You are his friend. NICK Where is he??? ARMAND (faint smile) Merle is under his tree... Beside the terrace. You can't miss him.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - TREES BY TERRACE - NIGHTGUESTS are still coming in from the cars, strolling downthrough the trees in bright coveys and flocks, chatteringlike birds.Laughter comes from the terrace. Glass tinkles and the tinylanterns bob and sway.NICK appears, hurrying down the steps. Suddenly he stops.MERLE is sitting at a table under a nearby tree. He is alone,dressed in a tuxedo, watching the arriving GUESTS with anexpression of dreamy detachment, as if they were rain drops,or snow flakes, or falling stones. NICK (shouts) Merle!MERLE turns, watching NICK as he crosses toward him. WhenNICK reaches the table, he stands. NICK (CONT'D) Merle...! Jesus! Hey, how are you? MERLE Nick!... I thought you went home. NICK I did. I... This is stolen. I came back. MERLE Sit down.NICK sits. MERLE's self-possession has thrown him. He doesn'tknow where to start. MERLE (CONT'D) (breaking the silence) How's Linda? NICK Fine. She's fine... Merle, what the hell are you doing? MERLE (eyes him) I like it, Nick. NICK Merle... Hey, Merle, listen... (stares at him) Why?For a moment MERLE doesn't answer. His eyes are pale, likefaded robin's eggs, and they seem to look through NICK, as ifto some landscape far beyond. MERLE I like it because it's simple.A BEAUTIFUL VIETNAMESE GIRL steps up and whispers somethingin MERLE's ear. MERLE (CONT'D) (stands) I have to go, Nick. We'll have a drink.MERLE and the VIETNAMESE GIRL move into the CROWD. NICK Merle...! Merle, wait!NICK starts after them. He can see them ahead, moving rapidlythrough a GROUP OF ARVN OFFICERS and WHORES. NICK (CONT'D) Merle!!!NICK sees he can never overtake them directly. He cuts aroundto the terrace.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - TERRACE - NIGHTNICK maneuvers his way down to the end of the terrace. NICK Excuse me... Sorry... Sorry... Pardon.NICK reaches the end of the terrace. MERLE and the BEAUTIFULVIETNAMESE GIRL have disappeared.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - TERRACE - NIGHTNICK sits at one of the tables. The terrace is deserted. REFEREE (V.O.) Gentleman on the right will now commence play.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - HOUSE - NIGHTThe gaming tables are utterly deserted. AS NICK WANDERSTHROUGH THE EMPTY ROOMS THE SOUND OF THE GAME CONTINUES OVERTHE P.A. SYSTEM -- THE SOUND OF THE CYLINDER SPINNING, THESOUND OF THE HAMMER BEING COCKED... AND CLICK AFTER CLICKINTO EMPTY CHAMBERS.Suddenly NICK can stand it no more. He turns and startstoward the entrance to the bleachers.A SHOT EXPLODES OVER THE P.A. SYSTEM. NICK freezes, then heruns.EXT. RUBBER PLANTATION - ROULETTE THEATRE - NIGHTNICK appears at the back of the aisle between the bleachers.The CROWD is going wild, yelling and screaming. NICK pushesthrough a group of BETTORS and then stops. A look of stunnedrelief spreads over his features.On the stage a tall figure stands alone in the spotlight,head bowed in acknowledgement of the OVATION.NICK grins. He begins yelling and screaming along witheveryone else.On the stage the tall figure raises his head, pumps his fistsin the air and begins hooting maniacally.... WE NOW SEE, AS DOES NICK, THAT THE TALL FIGURE IN THESPOTLIGHT IS NOT MERLE AT ALL. IT IS MERLE'S OPPONENT.INT. V.F.W. POST - BASEMENT - DAYPipes crisscross the ceiling and there is the faint hiss ofleaking steam. Seated on a bench and all dressed-up in theiruniforms are FIVE OLD VETS. TWO VETS are on the nod. THEOTHER THREE -- rheumy-eyed and ancient -- give patientattention to the SIXTH VET who stands beside the boiler witha bugle, trying to play TAPS. VET 1 Up a little there... What would you say? VET 2 Up.The VET WITH THE BUGLE tries it again, flubs it, startsover...INT. V.F.W. POST - MAIN HALL - DAYThree tables have been set up in the middle of the floor. Thetables have been laid with white cloth and the OLDER WOMENare setting out fresh flowers and laying the places for afuneral breakfast. They work in silence, fussing over theplacement of each knife and fork.AS THE WOMEN WORK WE HEAR THE SOUND OF THE CHOIR SINGING ASTHE SERVICE PROGRESSES IN THE CHURCH. AT FIRST THE SOUND ISBARELY AUDIBLE, EASILY MATCHED BY THE FAINT NOTES OF THE VETWITH THE BUGLE IN THE BASEMENT BELOW.BUT NOW THE SOUND OF THE CHOIR GROWS -- A SOUND AS DEEP ASWATER, AS DARK AS NIGHT; A SOUND LIKE STONE.Gradually, one by one, the OLDER WOMEN stop fussing with thetable. They stand motionless, listening.EXT. GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH - FRONT STEPS - DAYA HEARSE waits at the curb. The day is windless, cold andgrey Snow is drifting down and the gleaming vehicle emits aghostly cloud of white exhaust.THE SOUND OF THE CHOIR IS MUCH LOUDER, ASCENDING IN DARKTRIUMPH TO A SUDDEN, FINAL NOTE.In the ringing silence of the MUSIC'S END the doors to thechurch swing open. NICK, VINCE, ALBERT and JOHN appear withMERLE's flag-draped COFFIN. Followed by MOURNERS, they bearthe COFFIN slowly down the steps.EXT. CEMETERY - DAYSnow drifts down from a leaden sky as the MOURNERS standtogether on a steep hillside of tilted, weather-wornheadstones. The mill looms behind them, breathing roilingclouds of steam and uttering a dull concordia of clanks andgroans.EXT. CEMETERY - GRAVE SITE - DAYThe PRIEST completes his reading of the 23rd PSALM. TheMOURNERS join in the LORD'S PRAYER.CAMERA CLOSES ON NICK, VINCE, ALBERT, JOHN and SAL. They helpSAL to the side of the grave. It is awkward. The chair getsstuck and they have to carry it. THEY ALL pick up a handfulof dirt and then, following NICK's lead, they throw it in.NICK steps back from the grave, nods to the VETS. The VETScome to attention. The VET WITH THE BUGLE steps forward andtremblingly, but perfectly, PLAYS TAPS.INT. V.F.W. POST - MAIN HALL - DAYThe meal is over. The WOMEN are drinking coffee, the MEN aresmoking and putting down the beer. There is muted laughterand conversation.NICK sits at the head of one of the tables, flanked by LINDAand SAL. He looks stunned. His food is untouched, there aretears in his eyes and he hardly seems to know where he is. LINDA Eat something, Nick. Eat a piece of toast.NICK nods, picks up a piece of toast and then, forgetting allabout it, lays it absently on his plate.VINCE comes up behind NICK, looking somewhat officious in anew blue suit. VINCE You want to say a few words, Nick? I think you should. Like that would wind things up.NICK nods. VINCE raps on a glass. VINCE (CONT'D) Quiet!... Quiet!!!... Awright, everybody, Nick has a few words. NICK (very shaky) I just... would like to say a few words... about Merle. I guess Merle always wanted something... I don't know... better. That fucking guy, he saved my Life. He saved Sal's... What Merle liked, he liked things right... But then there wasn't any place for that... that he could find.Tears are streaming down NICK's face and he sits down,looking miserable. VINCE (hisses) John! Play something!JOHN goes to the piano, hurried along by VINCE. He sits down,casts a quick glance to the ceiling and begins playing"America The Beautiful".A FEW VOICES being SINGING. OTHERS join in. ALBERT stands up.Then EVERYONE stands up. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Defiance.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Defiance.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7d7f40a033d60cedfb0c4dca34e1b98ad297470c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Defiance.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DEFIANCE Written by Clayton Frohman & Edward Zwick FADE IN: 1 NEW YORK CITY - PARK AVENUE - NIGHT - 1982 1 A TAXI pulls over to a curb where an ELDERLY MAN waits with his MIDDLE-AGED SON in THE RAIN. MIDDLE-AGED SON (as they climb in) 23rd and Lex. The CABBIE grunts a reply. MIDDLE-AGED SON (CONT'D) How ya doin', Papa, you doin' alright? ELDERLY MAN Fine, fine... MIDDLE-AGED SON This is just a check-up, okay? Doctor Katz says you'll outlive us all. (looks out the window) Traffic isn't bad. We should be back in time to watch the Mets. He notices his father is STARING, wide-eyed, at the cabby's HACK LICENSE. We glimpse only the last name..."Bielski." MIDDLE-AGED SON (CONT'D) Papa? .Papa, what is it? IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR, the old man catches the furtive eyes of the cabby. ELDERLY MAN ...You. Can it be? The eyes in the mirror look away. And then back. ELDERLY MAN (CONT'D) Bielski. Can it possibly be? As we PUSH IN on the eyes in the mirror, we HEAR THE DESPERATE RASPING SOUND OF PANTING. CUT TO: 2 A MAN RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE THROUGH THE WOODS. 2 Bombs EXPLODE all around as he passes dead bodies and BURNT- OUT VEHICLES. Without slowing he discards a WW II Red Army helmet, a field jacket, a heavy pack, anything that might impede his flight. He glances back up over his shoulder. The sky is filled with BOMBERS. He runs on. SALMON Revision - 8-18-07 2. 3 OMITTED 3 4 THE VILLAGE OF NALIBOKI 4 A typical Eastern European shtetl. LOCAL POLICE help German Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, round up Jews. PEASANTS beat them with sticks as they are herded into lines. One man tries to run and is beaten. Others look on, or look away with indifference as they are loaded onto waiting trucks. 5 TWO MEN HIDE IN THE NEARBY WOODS (ZUS & ASAEL BIELSKI) 5 We study their faces: a turbulent portrait of impotent rage, terrible fear, overwhelming grief, and secret relief. ASAEL Where are they taking them? ZUS --Shveig! Shveig! ASAEL BUT-- ZUS Just shut up! Please... 6 AN ALLEY WAY IN NOVAGRUDOK 6 The man we last saw in flight (TUVIA BIELSKI) wearing the remnants of his uniform, slips down a cobble-stoned street. He ducks into a doorway as A PATROL passes by. 6A A REMOTE FARM 6A Zus and Asael move warily through a barnyard. A tethered dog BARKS furiously. A farmer challenges them. WALENCKI (in Russian; subtitles) WHAT DO YOU WANT? Walencki brandishes a pitchfork. ASAEL (in Russian; subtitles) Some food...? WALENCKI They are looking for you people. The two brothers glance nervously around. WALENCKI (CONT'D) Get away from here! GO! ZUS, the older of the two brothers, takes a menacing step toward the farmer but his younger brother holds him back. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 3. 6A CONTINUED: 6A ASAEL Zus. Let's go. As they retreat toward the woods, Zus warns the farmer. ZUS We'll be back. 7 A BOURGEOIS APARTMENT -- DAY 7 Tuvia is getting dressed as AN ATTRACTIVE WOMAN -- his wife, RIFKA -- stands by the window, smoking a cigarette. TUVIA And no news of my brothers? RIFKA They are used to trouble, they'll be all right. TUVIA If you stay, you'll have to go to the ghetto. RIFKA I can get false papers and pass as a gentile. So can you. Tuvia shakes his head, no. He finishes dressing. Theirs is a relationship long past passion. RIFKA (CONT'D) Will you at least stay tonight? TUVIA I need to see to my family. Will you come? RIFKA To the country? No. CUT TO: 8 A MODEST MILL - LATER THAT DAY 8 A PAIR OF LEGS lie motionless behind a trough. Beyond, A MAN'S TORSO. Zus and Asael stare in mute horror. ASAEL Papa-- Gottenyu... Flies buzz about dead LIVESTOCK. A WOMAN'S BODY lies nearby. 9 IN THE HOUSE 9 A still portrait of a life interrupted. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 4. 9 CONTINUED: 9 A table set for dinner. Candles lit. An open book. A NOISE from a cupboard. Zus grabs a hatchet. From the root cellar, a YOUNG BOY, 14, appears. His face is dirty and tear-streaked. They go to embrace him. ASAEL Aron. The boy (ARON) recoils. He is disoriented and WILL NOT SPEAK. 9A EXT. MODEST MILL - MOMENTS LATER 9A Loaded down with possessions, Asael hurries back to the woods. Zus pauses long enough to pry the mezuzah from the door. CUT TO: 10 THE FOREST AT DUSK 10 Aron stares mutely straight ahead. Asael is shaking uncontrollably and crying. Zus is at a loss what to do. ZUS Stop it... But Asael is lost in a confusion of grief and panic. ZUS (CONT'D) Stop it. STOP IT! Finally Zus grabs him in a gesture halfway between violence and comfort...and holds him as Asael rocks back and forth. CUT TO: 11 THE NALIBOKI FOREST AT DAWN - VIEWED FROM ABOVE 11 A million acres of dense, impenetrable woods and swamps. 12 ASAEL AND ARON SLEEP HUDDLED ON THE GROUND 12 The sound of a FOOTSTEP. They sit up in terror. TUVIA If I was a German you are dead. ASAEL Tuvia! Asael leaps up to embrace him as if he were salvation itself. ASAEL (CONT'D) Papa and Mama. They killed them. (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 5. 12 CONTINUED: 12 Asael clings to him. Even Aron allows himself to be held. Tuvia hold them silently. Zus appears, hatchet in hand. ZUS Big brother returns. Tuvia and Zus look at each other warily. ZUS (CONT'D) You saw them? Yes. Tuvia saw them. Zus takes the mezuzah from his pocket, tosses it to Tuvia. ZUS (CONT'D) Welcome home. 13 LATER - THE NALIBOCKI FOREST - A LOAF OF STALE BREAD 13 is torn apart by filthy hands as they move through the trees. ASAEL Are you going back to the army? TUVIA There is no more army. Asael worships his big brother. ZUS Hope at least you killed a few. Tuvia just stares at him. ASAEL What is it like? To be in a war? TUVIA It wasn't war. It was something else. Zus eyes him carefully. TUVIA (CONT'D) Where is Sonia and the baby? ZUS Horodysze. Hiding in a cellar. I'll bring her when it is safe. Where is Rifka? TUVIA In Novgrudok. She wouldn't leave. ZUS You are still separated? TUVIA She is still my wife. (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 6. 13 CONTINUED: 13 ZUS Your rich wife. Zus chews with the open-mouthed relish of a peasant. ZUS (CONT'D) So why exactly have you come back? Tuvia just stares at him. The reason is obvious as he holds his younger brothers. ZUS (CONT'D) You have a plan? TUVIA No. Do you? CUT TO: 14 POURING RAIN - A NEW HIDE-OUT (CAMP #1) 14 Shivering and miserable, they are trying to start a fire. Asael's few remaining matches are sodden. TUVIA Is there anything left to eat? Only a few potatoes in Asael's bag. WORMS writhe among them. ASAEL Zus finished the last of the sausage. Tuvia glares at Zus, who glares back. Sibling rivals. ZUS Stankowicz' farm is closest. ASAEL He has dogs. ZUS Fuck the dogs. Wilencki then. TUVIA You think Wilencki is going to give us food? ZUS No. We take it. TUVIA How? ZUS We...Take...It. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-18-07 7. 14 CONTINUED: 14 TUVIA And he tells the police. ZUS I have run from the police my whole life. Do you really think it's a good time to stop? A moment of decision. Who holds the balance of power? ASAEL We know these woods. They'll never find us in here. Tuvia looks at his brothers. He has been outvoted. CUT TO: 15 THE SMALL FARMHOUSE 15 where Zus and Asael first tried to get food. Asael waits outside, anxiously on guard. 16 INSIDE 16 The farmer (WALENCKI) who threatened them with the pitchfork sits eating a simple dinner. Zus and Tuvia burst in. Zus brandishes a hoe. ZUS (in Russian; subtitles) We want food. Be quick about it! WALENCKI (in Russian; subtitles) You again! ZUS NOW! WALENCKI Sure, sure. Take what you want... Tuvia begins to stuff provisions into a sack. ZUS Where is your gun, farmer? WALENCKI I have no gun. Zus grabs a dinner plate and SMASHES IT IN THE FARMER'S FACE. ZUS WHERE IS YOUR GUN? Holding his bloody face, the farmer cowers in fear. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 8. 16 CONTINUED: 16 WALENCKI Please... Zus kicks him. WALENCKI (CONT'D) I beg you... TUVIA ZUS-- ZUS He's lying. He kicks him again. The farmer begins to weep. ZUS (CONT'D) You're lying! Zus dumps the remains of the farmer's dinner onto him. ZUS (CONT'D) If I hit you once more, you will shit your pants. Twice and you will never shit again. The farmer knows Zus won't hesitate. WALENCKI Up there... Zus kicks the man aside. Above the stove is an old rifle. Zus grabs it, points it at the farmer. ZUS We were never here. CUT TO: 17 THE BROTHERS 17 running through the woods. Zus raises the rifle in triumph. TUVIA He was willing to help us. ZUS He's lucky I didn't crush his head. (MORE) (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 9. 17 CONTINUED: 17 ZUS (CONT'D) Fucking Polack. I've eaten shit from these people long enough! TUVIA This is your plan? To terrorize every anti-Semite in Belorussia? ZUS No. Some I will kill. CUT TO: 18 ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST 18 Aron has been left alone. He holds a STICK which he "shoots" like a gun -- kachew -- as he creeps from tree to tree. Aron freezes. SOMETHING is moving in the trees. He crouches. A dark blur. An animal? It moves off. He follows. The shape appears again. It's a SMALL GIRL, roughly Aron's age. Aron waves at her. The girl stares, then runs off. Aron hurries after her into a wooded grove, then stops short. A PILE OF NAKED CORPSES. Overflows a newly-dug trench. The small girl runs to A MIDDLE-AGED MAN with a crude Star-of-David sewn to his tattered coat. He holds an OLDER GIRL, 14, in his arms. Nearby, three or four OTHERS emerge from hiding. Starved, in tatters, the living waiting to die. CUT TO: 19 A CLEARING (CAMP #1) - LATER 19 where the three brothers gorge themselves on stolen food. Someone FARTS loudly. ZUS Ah... ASAEL You know what Papa would do when you did that at table... Tuvia smacks Zus on the head, taking on a gruff voice. TUVIA Peasant. (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 10. 19 CONTINUED: 19 Tuvia imitates his father's criticism of Zus. Asael laughs. Zus can't help but laugh as well. Even in grief there is laughter. A glimpse of ties that bind them. ASAEL I can't believe Papa's dead. ZUS Bernicki. ASAEL The police captain? TUVIA We don't know he did it. ZUS He always had it in for Papa. TUVIA We don't know he did it. ZUS So we will go and ask him if he did. ASAEL Koscik has a pistol. He showed it to me once. ZUS One pistol isn't enough. We need rifles. Machine guns. TUVIA Machine guns? You're going to take on the whole German army? ZUS Just because you didn't... The SOUND of footsteps. Zus jumps up cocking the rifle. ARON emerges from the trees. And then, behind him, THE SURVIVORS he discovered among the corpses. THE MIDDLE-AGED MAN holds a teenage GIRL by one hand and carries his younger daughter. MIDDLE-AGED MAN The child is hurt. The brothers stare at him. Wary and unwelcoming. TUVIA Set her down. The man lowers the child to the ground. She isn't moving. MIDDLE-AGED MAN I am Avram Rubinski. This is my daughter. She-- The Germans-- (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 11. 19 CONTINUED: (2) 19 He cannot bring himself to say the words. OTHERS shuffle forward, still in shock, barely able to speak their gratitude as Tuvia offers chunks of bread and cheese. The man tries to feed his daughter. She is barely alive. Asael turns to Aron. Gently. ASAEL Where did you find them? Aron still won't speak. Asael addresses the other girl. ASAEL (CONT'D) Your sister is sick? LITTLE GIRL (RACHEL) They kept her for a week. We fill in the rest. ZUS (O.S.) TUVIA-- Zus has moved out of earshot. Tuvia joins him. ZUS (CONT'D) We cannot feed them. TUVIA I'll go ask Koscik for food. ZUS And the pistol. TUVIA And the pistol. Without another word, he starts off. ZUS Remember to say please. CUT TO: 20 A RUSSIAN-MADE MAHKAROV REVOLVER. 20 Koscik, a rotund, florid-faced Pole, hands it to Tuvia. KOSCIK I have only four bullets. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 6-26-07 12. 20 CONTINUED: 20 TUVIA I cannot thank you enough. They sit in Koscik's warmly-lit kitchen. Koscik's WIFE stands silently by the stove, glaring at Tuvia. KOSCIK Your father was a good man. TUVIA He said the same of you. Tuvia can't help but notice Koscik's wife giving him the evil eye. Koscik produces a bottle of vodka. KOSCIK Ignore the bitch. (raising the bottle) To the dead. God rest their souls. (in Russian; subtitles) Bitch-- Do you want vodka? His wife just glares at him. KOSCIK (CONT'D) I live with this, can you imagine? HEADLIGHTS sweep over the window. A CAR is fast approaching. KOSCIK (CONT'D) Hide yourself. ...The barn. 21 TUVIA HURRIES ACROSS THE COURTYARD AND INTO THE BARN. 21 22 IN THE LOFT 22 He climbs a ladder and is startled to find FIVE MORE MEN AND WOMEN in hiding. They stare in mute terror. 23 OUTSIDE THE BARN 23 Koscik greets A BELARUSSIAN POLICE CAPTAIN and his SONS as they exit the car. They speak in Russian, with subtitles: KOSCIK Working late, boys. POLICE CAPTAIN Hunting Jews. Our new bosses are very organized. Koscik offers the bottle. KOSCIK Hunting can work up a thirst. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 13. 23 CONTINUED: 23 POLICE CAPTAIN Fifteen in one day. The council is offering a year's free tax for every one you turn in. - KOSCIK A Jew is worth that much? Do you pay more for a fat one? They laugh appreciatively. 24 IN THE LOFT 24 A man COUGHS then shrugs an apology. Tuvia glares at him. 25 BACK TO THE COURTYARD 25 POLICE CAPTAIN Caught five of them hiding in a ditch. Smelled so bad I was afraid the Germans wouldn't want them. KOSCIK Maybe for a reduced price. More laughter. More vodka. POLICE CAPTAIN You know the Bielski's? KOSCIK Sure. POLICE CAPTAIN We missed two when we visited the parents. 26 IN THE LOFT 26 Tuvia listens to this casual talk of his parent's death. 27 BACK IN THE COURTYARD 27 POLICE CAPTAIN Anybody caught helping them is in for it. You know this, Koscik? KOSCIK Do I look like an idiot? Don't answer so quickly... More laughter. The Police Captain looks at his watch. Yawns. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 14. 27 CONTINUED: 27 POLICE CAPTAIN Been at it since dawn. The wife doesn't like these long nights. He tries to hand back the bottle to Koscik. KOSCIK Keep it. POLICE CAPTAIN Bribing an officer of the law? Maybe you have more of this black market vodka hidden in the barn? KOSCIK Take a look. And clean out the cow shit while you're back there. The policeman laughs and climbs back into the car. POLICE CAPTAIN You'll keep your eyes open, yes? KOSCIK Good hunting. 28 MOMENTS LATER - IN THE BARN 28 Koscik and Tuvia speak in harsh whispers. KOSCIK --If the laborers find them tomorrow, I will be denounced-- TUVIA What am I supposed to do with-- KOSCIK Take them into the forest-- TUVIA --And feed them how? I can't care for my own family. Behind them, several of the REFUGEES have emerged from their hiding place. They stare at Tuvia balefully. 29 MOMENTS LATER - BY THE ROADSIDE 29 The refugees are loaded with provisions. A young man, PINCHAS ZUCKERMAN, has a tethered GOAT. Another man carries a violin case. Koscik hands Tuvia another bottle of vodka. TUVIA Those men? They were the ones who killed my parents? (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 15. 29 CONTINUED: 29 Koscik doesn't want to tell him. Finally he nods, yes. KOSCIK You people. Why is it so fucking hard to be friends with a Jew? They embrace. TUVIA Imagine being one. Tuvia leads his motley band toward the woods. CUT TO: 30 A FOREST TRAIL - DAY 30 Tuvia leads them. He notices an OLD MAN staring at him. OLD MAN You sat in back. Tuvia just looks at him. OLD MAN (CONT'D) In school. I am Shimon H'aretz. TUVIA I thought you were dead. SHIMON I am at least half-dead. (after a moment) I heard them speaking of your parents. I am very sorry. Tuvia shakes his head. SHIMON (CONT'D) And the other brothers? What was his name, the wild one? TUVIA Zus. He's with the other two. SHIMON You are hiding here? In the forest? Tuvia nods. SHIMON (CONT'D) There has been trouble before maybe? With the police? Tuvia doesn't answer. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 16. 30 CONTINUED: 30 SHIMON (CONT'D) So now you go to the forest. A wise choice. TUVIA For a dumb schoolboy, you mean. SHIMON My whole life I presumed to teach others the right way to live. I had no doubt: this is God's way, this isn't. You'll forgive me if recent events have somewhat shaken my resolve. TUVIA It is just like school, I don't know what you're talking about. (touching him) Teacher...Come... Come. (gesturing to the FOLLOWERS) Please. CUT TO: 31 OMITTED 31 32 THE CLEARING - LATER THAT DAY 32 The new arrivals squat by a fire where potatoes are cooking in the ashes. Everyone shares from the soup pot. There aren't enough spoons to go around. Shimon offers Aron something to eat. SHIMON Here... You're not hungry? Aron doesn't respond. SHIMON (CONT'D) The little one does not talk? ASAEL He saw. Things. TUVIA, MEANWHILE stares fixedly as Avram digs his daughter's grave. The gun is still in his belt. Zus is constructing a shelter. ZUS I send you for food and you bring more mouths to feed. TUVIA You send me? ZUS Did you at least get the gun? (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 16A. 32 CONTINUED: 32 Tuvia shows him. TUVIA Only four bullets. ZUS Then we'll have to make them count. Zus heads for the food. Asael is trying to start a fire but the kindling is wet. SHIMON Here... Shimon takes a book from his coat, rips out pages covered in Hebrew and crumples them into the fire. They burst into flame. SHIMON (CONT'D) The Psalms have many uses. ZUS SITS AMONG THE NEWCOMERS watching as they eat hungrily. Tuvia stops near Avram DIGGING a grave before heading out of the camp. We realize Avram's daughter has died while Tuvia was away. THE SOUND OF DISTANT THUNDER. DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 17. 33 A LONE FARMHOUSE - DUSK 33 Tuvia stands in the driving rain, shaking. He stares at the lit windows. 34 INSIDE THE HOUSE 34 The POLICE CAPTAIN we saw earlier eats dinner with his WIFE and TWO SONS. They speak in Russian. WIFE You worked late. The man nods, his mouth full of food. WIFE (CONT'D) Tomorrow is Sunday. You have a day off, yes? POLICE CAPTAIN (still chewing; nods) ...Fucking SS never sleeps... The door OPENS slowly. They all look up. (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 18. 34 CONTINUED: 34 Tuvia stands on the threshold, dripping wet, a spectral figure. He holds the pistol at his side. TUVIA You know who I am? The policeman says nothing. His wife is instantly terrified. One of the SONS stands. Tuvia turns the gun on him. TUVIA (CONT'D) Sit. The son obeys. The SOUND of the rain on the tin roof is deafening. Tuvia turns back to the Police Captain. TUVIA (CONT'D) And you know why I am here. POLICE CAPTAIN ...what are you talking about? TUVIA You have no idea what I'm talking about... POLICE CAPTAIN If they say find someone, I find him. It's my job. TUVIA To find Jews. POLICE CAPTAIN Or lose my job. TUVIA And it's a good job, isn't it? You like your job. POLICEMAN I was always fair with your family. ...Everyone knew you were smuggling this and that. But I looked the other way. (in desperation) ...Ask your father. TUVIA My father? You don't talk about my father... Tuvia places the pistol against the man's forehead. TUVIA (CONT'D) Down on your knees. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 19. 34 CONTINUED: (2) 34 TUVIA (CONT'D) (BELLOWING) ON...YOUR...KNEES...PIG! The policeman begins to weep. TUVIA (CONT'D) For my parents, David and Beila Bielski... for my brothers and all the others-- POLICE CAPTAIN Please.... I beg you... One of the man's SONS makes a move toward Tuvia. Tuvia SHOOTS him in the chest. His mother SCREAMS. The Policeman suddenly starts to stand. Tuvia backs away, shoots him. And then the other son. It is all over in seconds. 35 OMITTED 35 36 TUVIA STANDS THERE, FROZEN 36 The police captain's wife is prostrate and KEENING over her dead family in Russian. WIFE Kill me, too! Tuvia should indeed kill her, too. To avoid being identified. TUVIA Tell them who did this. CUT TO: 36A EXT. POLICE CAPTAIN'S HOUSE - DUSK 36A The rain still pours down on the house as Tuvia runs away. 37 A FOREST TRAIL - STILL RAINING 37 Tuvia pushes through dense forest. Branches rake his face. Finally he leans against a tree. We move CLOSE on his face. TUVIA Riboynoy shel oylam, riboynoy shel oylam... (closes his eyes) Lord of the universe, forgive me, I have murdered -- but they were monsters and did not deserve to live. DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 20. 38 NEXT MORNING - A LOW FOG CLINGS TO THE FOREST FLOOR 38 Zus awakens, sodden and stiff. He looks at the group, now numbering fourteen. People sleep huddled together: Asael holds Aron; Avram keeps his surviving daughter close. And there is Tuvia -- sitting by the fire. Zus takes the pistol from Tuvia's belt. Checks the cylinder. ZUS Only one bullet left. TUVIA His sons. Zus nods his approval. ZUS How was it? TUVIA What? ZUS To kill them. It was good, no? TUVIA Shut up. Tuvia stares into the fire. He is dirty and tired. Zus looks around. ZUS What are we going to do with these others? TUVIA I don't know-- ZUS The women will slow us down. And your old teacher-- TUVIA You're afraid he's going to beat you for forgetting your homework. ZUS We have to be able to keep moving, and quickly. TUVIA I agree. But they're here. They consider their predicament. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 21. 38 CONTINUED: 38 TUVIA (CONT'D) We'll sleep farther up the trail. If anyone comes, they'll find them first. The gunshots will give us time to escape. ZUS Alright. But no more. TUVIA No more. CUT TO: 39 SEVERAL MORE REFUGEES 39 stumbling into camp behind Tuvia, who carries a heavy sack of provisions. Zus gives Tuvia a look. TUVIA I know. I know... Tamara, you remember Cousin Zus. Please, go sit down by the fire. And this is Lazar -- Isabel's youngest... Tamara is pleasant-looking but emotionally wounded. TUVIA (CONT'D) This is Isaac Malbin. From Minsk. Malbin is sweet-faced with little round Trotsky glasses. TUVIA (CONT'D) Asael, find them something to eat. ASAEL! Zus takes Tuvia aside. ZUS Tuvia, I have pity for them all, BUT-- TUVIA They are family. ZUS And how will we feed this family? TUVIA We'll water the soup. One of the new arrivals is a DARK-HAIRED BEAUTY. Tuvia and Zus watch her pass. Zus is particularly interested. ZUS And this one, is she family? TUVIA No. By the fire, the veterans pepper the newcomers with (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 A21. 39 CONTINUED: 39 questions. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 21A. 39 CONTINUED: (2) 39 MIRIAM You are from Lida! Is Isadore Korein alive? LOVA There are so many in the ghetto, I don't know... TAMARA Does anyone have news from Vilna? DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 22. 40 OMITTED 40 40A ANOTHER DAY (CAMP #1) 40A Food, such as it is, is being handed out to SEVERAL NEW ARRIVALS. Asael brushes Aron's hair. Rachel sits beside her grieving father. She looks at Aron. He looks back. Nearby, Tuvia and Malbin are building a shelter. Malbin is hopelessly inept. A wall COLLAPSES. TUVIA Fuck me! Have you never used a hammer? MALBIN Uh. No. TUVIA What is it you do, then? MALBIN I suppose...you'd have to say...I was...am...an intellectual. TUVIA This is a job? MALBIN I published a small magazine... actually a journal...well, more like a pamphlet. Zus passes them, his arm around the dark-haired beauty. ZUS Tuvia, this is Rona. Rona is my forest wife. TUVIA I see. Congratulations. Zus winks and walks past. Malbin and Tuvia watch them. MALBIN Interesting concept. TUVIA As long as his village wife stays in hiding. MALBIN Nice to know there are some things even Hitler can't destroy. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 23. 40A CONTINUED: 40A Suddenly the camp grows quiet. TWO YOUNG MEN who have emerged from the forest, their clothes dirty and torn. One of them aims an army-issue rifle. ZUS Hello, boys, what can we do for you? YOUNG MAN #1 Food. We want food. Everyone remains still. Zus eyes his own rifle nearby. ZUS These little shits are holding us up. The Young Man motions his partner to take Zus's rifle. ZUS (CONT'D) You little shits have the balls to shoot me? In response, the young man CHAMBERS A ROUND. TUVIA This is all the food we have. You are welcome to share. ZUS No. (MORE) (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 23A. 40A CONTINUED: (2) 40A ZUS (CONT'D) I want to see if this little shit will shoot me. You like shooting Jews, you little shit? YOUNG MAN #1 You are Jews? (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 24. 40A CONTINUED: (3) 40A ZUS No. We're the Gestapo, you little shit. TUVIA Come. Sit. Put down your guns. ZUS Or perhaps you'd prefer I shove them up your ass. TUVIA Where are you from? The young man glares at Zus. Then, to Tuvia: YOUNG MAN #1 Horodyszcze. The name freezes Zus in his tracks. His wife is there. PERETZ We haven't eaten in two days. My name is Peretz, this is Jacov. JACOV Two days ago there were three thousand Jews in Horodyszcze. Now there are fifty. Me and him, we hid in a wall. ZUS You know a woman there, Sonia Bielski? The men look at one another. JACOV We knew her. Zus can hardly bring himself to ask the next question. ZUS ...There was a child. Jacov shakes his head. Sorry. Zus leans his head against a tree. After a moment he begins to BEAT HIS HEAD against it until BLOOD pours down his face. ASAEL (to the newcomers) His family. Tuvia puts his arms around his brother. Zus's shoulders begin to heave. Soon his body convulses with deep wracking sobs. He is absolutely unself-conscious in his grief. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 25. 40A CONTINUED: (4) 40A ZUS So many dead. TUVIA I know. ZUS Mama. Papa. Their heads are close together, their faces wet with tears. ZUS (CONT'D) Why not us? TUVIA I don't know. ZUS I thought they'd be safe. I should have been with them. TUVIA No. ZUS I could have protected them. Tuvia just holds him. He, too, is crying quietly. ZUS (CONT'D) Better to be rabbits? Hunted? Hiding? No... Zus breaks free of Tuvia's embrace and walks away. 41 LATER - BY THE FIRE 41 Jacov and Peretz are eating. Between ravenous bites-- PERETZ We are looking for partisans. JACOV What is the name of your otriad? Tuvia laughs ruefully. ASAEL What is an 'otriad?' TUVIA An armed brigade. JACOV We heard the Russians are beginning to organize. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 26. 41 CONTINUED: 41 TUVIA Here? JACOV And also in the Lipicanska. ASAEL Then we are the Bielski Otriad. You want to join? PERETZ (looks around) The Russians are fighters. JACOV --But you need a gun to join them. Without a gun you are nothing. They sabotage railroads and kill Germans. ZUS (O.S.) We will kill all the Germans you can handle. Starting tonight. They stare up at him, his face a mask of blood and filth. ZUS (CONT'D) If you're not afraid to use that rifle. 42 MOMENTS LATER - JUST OUTSIDE OF CAMP -- 42 Zus is loading Wilencki's gun. TUVIA --we must get what we need without killing. We can't make more enemies-- Zus concentrates on opening the breach. TUVIA (CONT'D) --It won't bring your family back to life. Or Mama. Or Papa. ZUS Blood for blood. You had your revenge. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 27. 42 CONTINUED: 42 TUVIA And I can still see their faces. ZUS 'Vengeance is mine.' Who said that? TUVIA So this is God's work you're doing, Zussie? ZUS No. Only YOU can play God. Save a few lives, take a few others... TUVIA We cannot become...like them. ZUS If only... (a hard look) Are you coming with us or not? TUVIA Us? ZUS Peretz and Jacov. (POINTEDLY) Asael, too. Tuvia looks over at Asael, who looks away. TUVIA (to Zus) You are making the decisions now? A stand-off. Zus stares back at him. The struggle for command has grown more obvious. TUVIA (CONT'D) We wait for dark. CUT TO: 43 A BURNING TRUCK 43 Lights up the night sky. A MAN comes running out of a tavern, the same man who loaded Jews onto trucks in an earlier scene. MAN My truck! WHO DID THIS TO MY TRUCK? Tuvia, Zus and the others appear out the shadows. TUVIA We did. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 28. 43 CONTINUED: 43 The man stops short at the sight of their weapons. MAN Who are you? (REALIZING) You don't understand. They made me give them my truck... Zus FIRES. Jacov and Peretz follow suit. The man goes down. They throw his DEAD BODY onto the burning truck. CUT TO: 43A A CLUSTER OF HOUSES - LATER THAT NIGHT 43A Zus and Peretz are backing out of an open doorway, FIRING BACK INSIDE AS THEY GO. From within, the sound of SCREAMS. ZUS THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU COOPERATE WITH NAZI SCUM..! FACES appear furtively at the windows of nearby houses. Zus addresses the little neighborhood, delirious with joy. ZUS (CONT'D) WE ARE THE BIELSKI OTRIAD! WE ARE JEWS! YOU LIKE TO KILL JEWS! HERE WE ARE! WE ARE THE BIELSKI'S! TELL THEM! Tuvia looks around warily. This is getting out of hand. CUT TO: 44 A ROADSIDE DITCH - LATER THAT NIGHT 44 Tuvia and Asael lie in on one side of a road. Tuvia has looped ONE END OF THE WIRE around a post. 45 IN THE DITCH ON THE OTHER SIDE 45 Zus, Peretz, and Jacov WRAP THE WIRE to a tree. 46 UP AHEAD 46 The lights of a MOTORCYCLE, a GERMAN COURIER. 47 IN THE DITCH 47 Tuvia waits until the BIKE is almost upon them. Then he TIGHTENS the WIRE so it stretches INVISIBLY ACROSS THE ROAD. GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 29. 48 THE MOTORCYCLIST IS GARROTED 48 by the wire. His bike goes sliding away as the Bielski's swarm him, KILLING HIM with the last bullet from the Mahkarov. ZUS rummages through the downed-bike's saddlebags. He finds a beautiful KNIFE and lifts it up triumphantly. PERETZ Look--! MORE HEADLIGHTS fast approaching. TUVIA Hide! Everyone! They all scramble back into the ditch, dragging the dead courier with them. 49 A GERMAN STAFF CAR 49 approaches. As its headlights pick up the downed motorcycle, it slows and pulls off to the side -- 50 DIRECTLY OVER THE DITCH 50 Where Tuvia and Zus are concealed. From within the car, we hear VOICES SPEAKING GERMAN. A YOUNG PRIVATE gets out and walks up the road to investigate. PRIVATE (in German; subtitled) It's one of ours, but no one is here. Maybe he was drunk? From the car, an SERGEANT yells a reply. SERGEANT (in German; subtitled) Move it off the road before the convoy passes. I'll report the sonuvabitch. As the soldier drags the bike off the road, AN OFFICER steps out of the car and lights a cigarette. He's followed by the Sergeant. He carries a Schmeisser SUBMACHINE GUN dangling from his shoulder. 51 IN THE DITCH - ZUS 51 can see the Sergeant's feet peeking out over the ditch. A STREAM OF PISS Cascades onto him. He tries to inch his body away... (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 30. 51 CONTINUED: 51 THE PISSING SERGEANT catches the flicker of MOVEMENT below, SEES Zus lying in the ditch. Stunned, he tries to zip up his fly. It catches. ZUS LEAPS UP brandishing the KNIFE. He's on the Sergeant before he can get the gun off his shoulder. Stabbing him through his greatcoat, the BLADE BREAKS OFF IN HIS HAND. MEANWHILE, THE LIEUTENANT drops his cigarette, reaching under his coat for a pistol. Tuvia TACKLES him. The GUN skids away. They roll around on the road, CLAWING, PUNCHING, BITING. Tuvia SLAMS the man's head against the pavement. 52 UP THE ROAD 52 The Private sees Asael and Peretz coming at him. Jacov follows with his rifle. The Private turns and runs down the road. They give chase. 53 FROM INSIDE THE CAR 53 Another OFFICER is in the back seat with A WOMAN. He reaches for his gun, stands up in the seat and begins FIRING WILDLY at Tuvia. TUVIA ROLLS UNDER THE CAR, avoiding the burst. MEANWHILE, ZUS USES THE HANDLE OF THE KNIFE to BREAK the Sergeant's nose. He RIPS the SCHMEISSER away, firing point- blank into the man, whose greatcoat CATCHES FIRE. INSIDE THE STAFF CAR The officer takes close aim at Tuvia, just as ZUS TURNS THE MACHINE GUN on the car BLOWING OUT THE WINDOWS, killing the Officer and the woman -- and saving his brother's life. 54 MEANWHILE, DOWN THE ROAD 54 Jacov fires at the Private, MISSES. The man keeps RUNNING. Jacov fires again. MISSES AGAIN. FINALLY his THIRD SHOT hits him in the leg. The Private keeps running. Limping now. JACOV I got him! Peretz and Asael can now catch up to the soldier. FROM FAR AWAY We SEE them knock the Private to the ground, KICKING him until Jacov catches up to them and FIRES A FINAL SHOT. GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 31. 55 BACK AT THE STAFF CAR 55 Tuvia stands, out of breath. TUVIA Stupid! The gunfire could be heard for miles. ZUS He was pissing on my head. Zus is high from the killing, covered in the dead man's blood. He begins calling out orders. ZUS (CONT'D) Peretz, Jacov, check the car for guns... (to Tuvia) This one's yours. He presents him with the Schmeisser as if it were a trophy. Tuvia accepts it, checking the gun efficiently. ZUS (CONT'D) I'll check his pockets for more ammo. TUVIA Hurry--! AT THE STAFF CAR Peretz and Jacov emerge with two MACHINE-PISTOLS, several BOTTLES OF SCHNAPPS and a beautiful LEICA CAMERA. JACOV They were on their way to a party! They toss one bottle to Zus and another to Tuvia. 56 UP THE ROAD 56 Asael stands over the dead Private. He isn't much older than Aron. 57 BACK AT THE STAFF CAR 57 ZUS rifles the pockets of the dead Sergeant for ammo. He finds cigarettes and the man's wallet. He opens it. ZUS Welcome to Belarus, herr Henkel. A CHAMPAGNE CORK POPS as Peretz and Jacov toast their victory. PERETZ Now we are real Partisans... (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 32. 57 CONTINUED: 57 JACOV To the Bielski Otriad! 58 SUDDENLY - ANOTHER SET OF HEADLIGHTS 58 are rounding the bend. Troop trucks. The Staff Car was leading A CONVOY. TUVIA Into the fields! RUN! Tuvia pulls Peretz off the road, but Jacov reloads his rifle and begins to FIRE at the approaching trucks. TUVIA (CONT'D) Jacov, NO! THE TRUCKS STOP. Troops pour off and begin RETURNING FIRE. Jacov is CUT DOWN by a MACHINE GUN. Peretz, Zus, and Tuvia race into the WHEAT FIELD. It's not clear if they can make it into the woods. A FLARE IGNITES OVERHEAD turning the wheat fields BRIGHT WHITE in flickering incandescence. Malbin is almost paralytic with fear. ASAEL doesn't know which way to run. He plunges into the WHEAT FIELD...but ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. ONE OF THE TRUCKS drives forward, CUTTING HIM OFF, using its SPOTLIGHT to reveal him. FIFTEEN SOLDIERS start after him. 59 SEEN FROM ABOVE 59 We watch as they CONVERGE on him. TUVIA, ZUS AND PERETZ Have almost made it into the woods when PERETZ IS HIT. He falls. Tuvia and Zus pick him up and half-carry, half-drag him into the sanctuary of the forest. TUVIA Zus. His rifle. Zus races back to pick up Peretz's weapon. 60 ASAEL, MEANWHILE 60 has realized his mistake. He tries to circle back toward the woods but the SOLDIERS move to CUT HIM OFF. He is fast, but not fast enough. We realize he isn't going to make it. 61 IN THE WOODS 61 Tuvia and Zus look at the scene with mounting horror. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 33. 61 CONTINUED: 61 TUVIA Asael... He rips the rifle from Zus's hands. For a moment we think he's going to go back after him. Instead, he wedges the rifle into a tree-trunk and takes careful aim... THE SPOTLIGHT SHATTERS Plunging the field into darkness as the flare burns out. ASAEL seizes the moment and dives to his knees, disappearing from view and CRAWLING NOW rather than expose himself. AN IRRIGATION DITCH is nearby. Frantically he DIGS into the soft mud on its banks. As he scrapes his hands raw, he can HEAR his pursuers drawing near, CALLING OUT to one another. CUT TO: 62 THE FOREST CAMP - DAWN 62 A somber mood. Tuvia watches someone scrape at the porridge congealed in an empty pot. OTHERS stare listlessly into space. ONE MAN chews on a piece of leather, ANOTHER sucks on an old chicken bone. Zus, meanwhile, is in the middle of a nasty drunk from the captured schnapps. Nearby, Aron shares his ration of bread with Rachel. Little enough, but a connection is made. Peretz lies nearby. Malbin is trying to comforts him. There is nothing that can help him. Malbin looks to Tuvia. SHIMON They thought you were bringing food. Tuvia just stares at him. SHIMON (CONT'D) Did the farmers stop you? Still no answer from Tuvia. SHIMON (CONT'D) They had guns? Dogs? TUVIA No. SHIMON I don't understand. Tuvia says nothing. Nearby, a child cries in hunger. SHIMON (CONT'D) The Talmud says if you save a life you must take responsibility for it. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 34-34A. 62 CONTINUED: 62 TUVIA Again I have no idea what you are talking about. Around them, the beseeching eyes of so many hungry faces. SHIMON I think you do. VOICE You are the Bielski's? A MAN stands in the clearing. BEN ZION GULKOWITZ is tall, well muscled, a rifle strapped over his shoulder. ZUS How'd you get past the Lazar? BEN ZION Who? Zus stands unsteadily, then lurches into the woods, leaning on an occasional tree for support. He finds the erstwhile sentry --LAZAR -- ambling toward him. ZUS You shit! You worthless shit! Zus punches him, knocking him the ground. In a sloppy, drunken frenzy, Zus SLAPS him again. TUVIA Enough! ZUS He walked right by you! Someone could have been killed! Tuvia pulls Zus off him. TUVIA I said, enough! (to Lazar) Get up! Get up! ZUS If we were real partisans he'd be shot. TUVIA He made a mistake! (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 35. 62 CONTINUED: (3) 62 ZUS MISTAKE! We cannot make mistakes! As Zus goes for Lazar again, Tuvia roughly PULLS HIM OFF. Zus goes flying, tripping over, landing on his ass. TUVIA That's right, Zus. No mistakes. Like last night. (looks at him) First they will torture Asael...and then they will hang him. Tuvia walks away, leaving his brother on the ground. 63 BACK IN CAMP 63 Tuvia rejoins them. Ben Zion looks up at him. BEN ZION You are Tuvia Bielski. TUVIA You know me? BEN ZION I am Ben Zion Gulkowitz. Ben Zion is besieged by questions about friends and family. MIRIAM Pardon me, you are from Vilna. My sister lives on Passaya Street. BEN ZION The SD came without warning. Hundreds were taken. No one knows where. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 36. 63 CONTINUED: 63 THE WOMAN begins to cry. MIRIAM My poor sister...dear God, no... Meanwhile, Peretz's MOANING ceases. A woman grumbles: WOMAN #1 We'd be better off in the ghetto... TAMARA At least here we are safe. LOVA There at least we had hope... SHIMON No. Here, we have hope. A FEW MORE join in, grumbling their dissatisfaction. Others take the opposite position. These are Jews, after all, and arguing is a revered sport and a pastime. It escalates. WOMAN #1 We are hungry! This is a defining moment for Tuvia. When at first he speaks, it is awkward, ineffectual amid the growing tumult. TUVIA I know we have no food. But tomorrow... tomorrow will be another mission. RONA Look what happened the last time. TUVIA That was a mistake! But the mistakes we made will not be made again! More objections. Tuvia must raise his voice to be heard. TUVIA (CONT'D) We could be here a long time. And we have to prepare. LOVA How? TUVIA Better security. Better at getting food and information-- (talking over their OBJECTIONS) --at making shelters. Whatever is needed. We all participate. We don't work against each other. At this he looks directly at Zus. Daring him to object. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 36A. 63 CONTINUED: (2) 63 TUVIA (CONT'D) I want to kill Nazis, too, but we...just...cannot afford revenge. Not right now. We cannot afford to lose friends like Jacov and Peretz. A small voice speaks up. ARON Or Asael. Everyone stares. It is the first time Aron has spoken. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 37. 63 CONTINUED: (3) 63 TUVIA Or Asael. We... We-- (trying to hold it TOGETHER) --cannot lose anyone. He looks from face to face. Filthy, ravaged, many of them with tears in their eyes. This is what they need -- leadership, faith, something to believe in. And gradually, his tentativeness and awkwardness is replaced by something else. A new voice. From deep inside. TUVIA (CONT'D) ...We will map out where we've been so as to not visit the same farms too often. And we take only from those who can afford to give, and leave those who can't alone. LOVA The poorest farmer has more than us. TUVIA True. But what I am saying is... what I mean is... We are not thieves. (his resolve growing with every word) Or murderers. We may be hunted like animals but we will not become animals. (looks at them all) We have all chosen this -- to live free, like human beings, for as long as we can. Each day of freedom is an act of faith. And if we die trying to live, at least we die like human beings. His mission statement. A vision of their future. Everyone nods in mute acknowledgement. Zus lowers his head. The shift in power between them has occurred. Tuvia has emerged as the undisputed leader. CUT TO: 64 OMITTED 64 64A FALL IN THE FOREST 64A The trees take on color as if in celebration of their coming together. 65 KOSCIK'S FARM 65 All is quiet as Tuvia, Zus and Ben Zion watch from the woods. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 38. 65 CONTINUED: 65 TUVIA Now. They leave their cover and approach warily, guns at the ready. 66 OUTSIDE THE HOUSE 66 Koscik's wife looks up from her garden and glares at them. TUVIA Hello. She refuses to be flattered. In Russian: KOSCIK'S WIFE In the barn. 67 IN THE BARN 67 Zus calls out. ZUS Koscik, put your pants back on and leave those sheep alone. He steps into the shadows to find: KOSCIK HANGING FROM A THRESHING HOOK that has been driven through his chest. A sign attached to the hook reads (in Polish) "JEW LOVER." CUT TO: 68 KOSCIK'S NEWLY-DUG GRAVE 68 is just beyond the barn. Tuvia finishes piling on the last shovelful of earth. Koscik's wife stares straight ahead. TUVIA I'm sorry. KOSCIK'S WIFE (a monotone) Come. 69 A ROOT CELLAR 69 dug into a hillside. Overgrown with tall grass it is undetectable. Koscik's wife opens the heavy door, revealing ASAEL, who emerges blinking into the bright light. TUVIA Thank God. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 39. 69 CONTINUED: 69 Zus pulls his lost brother into a mighty embrace. ASAEL Zus.... ZUSSIE... I can't breathe. Zus lets him go and Asael reaches back into the root cellar. ASAEL (CONT'D) Look. Two LOVELY YOUNG WOMEN -- BELLA and CHAYA -- emerge, tentative and scared. Though their dresses are dirty, it is obvious they were once expensive. Zus eyes them appreciatively. ZUS Asael... Well, well.. ASAEL (BLUSHING) Shut up. Look at this-- He has two more rifles and a large box of ammunition. Tuvia turns to Koscik's wife, deeply moved. TUVIA Thank you. KOSCIK'S WIFE (turning away) Go. CUT TO: 70 A FOREST TRAIL 70 They head for home. Zus walks beside Bella. BELLA --and then we fell into this horrible bog. Chaya saved me. Honestly, I can't swim at all. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 40. 70 CONTINUED: 70 ZUS (MESMERIZED) Then I will teach you! BELLA We must have got lost a dozen times. I was absolutely resigned to die. ZUS No... BELLA Tell him, Chaya. Was it not the absolute worst? And that farmer, Mr. Koscik, kept making the most vulgar jokes, he said any girl who-- As they continue out of earshot, it appears as though Zus would be happy to listen for hours. DISSOLVE TO: 71 A TOWERING PINE FOREST 71 Aron and Rachel are walking through the woods. For a brief moment, viewed through the eyes of the young, we see these woods as a magical place. Strange mushrooms, gnarled roots, an enormous spider's web glistening with dew. 72 THE CAMP HAS BEGUN TO SHOW PROGRESS 72 Sentries are posted. Zus expertly helps with the building a bunker ("zemylanka"). There's a more permanent kitchen, a wash trough, a clothesline. Pinchas tends his goat. Though primitive and raw...a haven. SHIMON AND MALBIN ARE DIGGING A HOLE Their bickering will become for them, as time goes on, a sport and a pastime. MALBIN You're trying to tell me all politics is meaningless. SHIMON In the West a monster with a little mustache, in the East a monster with a big mustache. This is all I need to know about politics. MALBIN Your messiah will have a mustache, too, and a full beard. SHIMON No. The messiahs are all in politics, and they're killing us. Zus unloads two cut and stripped trees. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 40A. 72 CONTINUED: 72 ZUS What's killing me is all your talking. Back to work. Malbin and Shimon go back to work. MALBIN And Roosevelt? He has no mustache. SHIMON My life in these woods is much easier because of Mr. Roosevelt, thank you. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 41. 73 WALKING THROUGH THE CAMP TUVIA AND ASAEL 73 review their plans. TUVIA We need to know what's going on in the villages, how the Germans patrol, who the informers are-- He realizes that Asael is not fully concentrating; instead he is watching as Chaya walks past. TUVIA (CONT'D) Are you listening to me? ASAEL Yes. TUVIA What's her name? ASAEL Chaya. [I believe.] TUVIA (YELLING) CHAYA! He waves as Chaya turns to look in their direction. Asael smiles, embarrassed. TUVIA (CONT'D) So talk to her. ASAEL I hardly know her. TUVIA You spent three days in a cellar! Asael blushes, returns the focus to their prior conversation. ASAEL Malbin says the Piznarksi granary is full. We need two guns at least... TUVIA Whose turn to go? ASAEL Zus. TUVIA You go along, just to make sure he understands my orders. Asael nods. TUVIA (CONT'D) (re: Chaya) Go on...Go! (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 A41-41A. 73 CONTINUED: 73 Asael heads toward Chaya. 74 NEAR A SHED ROOF - BEN ZION 74 We notice a FEW NEW FACES. Their number has exceeded twenty. Among them are two lumbering, dark-skinned men, ARKADY and MOTL LUBCZANSKI. Ben Zion is showing Lazar and the other newcomers how to clean a weapon. BEN ZION This is not a gun. It is Bar Kochba's spear. It is Ehud's sword. You fix the patch to the rod-- They do as he instructs. BEN ZION (CONT'D) --then run it through the barrel... and don't lose the patch in the BARREL-- Lazar looks up, sheepishly. LAZAR I lost my patch. ARKADY LUBCZANSKI whispers contemptuously to his brother, MOTL... ARKADY LUBCZANSKI The village idiot. Zus shoves Arkady out of the way and approaches Lazar, who cowers. But rather than abuse him, Zus removes the patch from the rifle and hands it back to him. LAZAR Thank you, Zus. ZUS (returning the rifle) It's nothing. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 42. 75 OMITTED 75 76 A ROADSIDE - NEXT DAY 76 KISSELY is a MILKMAN with bright red hair and a bushy mustache. He leads a horse-drawn CART laden with milk cans. ZUS AND THE OTHERS rise up out of the ditch. In Russian: ZUS (a pleasant tone) Good morning, friend. Getting an early start to market? Could you possibly spare us a bit of milk? Zus' tone is belied by the rifle in his hand. KISSELY This is what I'm required to give the Germans. If I don't meet my quota they'll shoot me and my family. Zus is tempted to shoot him himself. ASAEL (to Zus) Leave half. He can't go to the Germans empty-handed. Zus glares at Asael. ASAEL (CONT'D) Tuvia's orders. Zus shakes his head, climbs onto the wagon and begins removing cartons. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 43. 76 CONTINUED: 76 ZUS (to the milkman) We are so grateful, comrade, for your cooperation. What a lovely coat. Is that a fur collar? CUT TO: 77 ZUS, NOW WEARING THE MILKMAN'S COAT 77 joins the others lugging milk cans along the forest path. LAZAR (V.O.) HALT! WHO GOES THERE! Zus shakes his head. Lazar stands, pointing his weapon. ZUS Lazar, you can see it's us, you idiot. You only ask, 'who goes there' when you don't know who it is. LAZAR Sorry, Zus. 78 THE CAMP 78 is a beehive of activity. Shimon and Malbin are digging. MALBIN Even Spinoza said existence can be substantiated by empirical evidence. SHIMON All your secular learning, yet you know nothing of life. MALBIN How can you say this? Learning is my life. SHIMON And for every fact that goes in your head, another comes out your rear end. CHAYA and BELLA receive the bounty from the foragers. BELLA Milk, eggs -- Chaya, our brave men have brought us a feast! ZUS Blintzes! You will make me blintzes! She bestows her best smile upon him. 79 BY THE FIRE 79 New arrivals are being shown around by Ben Zion. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 43A. 79 CONTINUED: 79 A MAN and WOMAN cry out with joy at an unexpected reunion. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE PINK Revision - 9-27-07 44. 79 CONTINUED: (2) 79 ARKADY LUBCZANSKi approaches Chaya. ARKADY I don't think we've been properly introduced. Arkady Lubczanski. CHAYA Hello. ARKADY You are Chaya? CHAYA ...Yes. ARKADY You are getting along all right? Anything you need? An extra blanket? CHAYA Oh. Well... Yes, that would be nice. ARKADY You'll have it by tonight. Something nice and soft. (smiles at her) I couldn't help but notice you don't have a husband yet. CHAYA (somewhat taken aback) Yet? (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 44A. 79 CONTINUED: (3) 79 ARKADY Most of the woman have already chosen. They haven't told you about this? (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 45. 79 CONTINUED: (4) 79 CHAYA No. But thank you for explaining it. She hurries away. Malbin sits down wearily beside Shimon. MALBIN Descartes at least provided for the subjective nature of experience. He takes a spoon from his sock. SHIMON Yes. You annoy me therefore I exist. MALBIN You are not eating? SHIMON By my best calculation, today is High Holiday. I am fasting. Malbin can't believe this. He rolls his eyes and digs in. One of the NEWCOMERS has brought a violin. He begins to play. A bittersweet melody. People stop talking and listen, eyes filling at this reminder of a sweeter, civilized time. Ben Zion has left the new arrivals and approached Tuvia. He looks grave. Tuvia immediately knows something is wrong. TUVIA What is it? BEN ZION The new ones, they are from Novagroduk. Your wife-- Tuvia tenses. Ben Zion hesitates... BEN ZION (CONT'D) They say...She was killed last week. (at a loss) I'm sorry. Tuvia nods. No outward display of grief. An awkward moment. TUVIA Thank you for telling me. (changes the subject) We have to dig a trench around the new zemylanka. If it rains I'm afraid water will seep in. Tuvia clearly cannot deal with his news. BEN ZION I'll see to it, then. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 46. 79 CONTINUED: (5) 79 Tuvia nods and walks away. CUT TO: 80 ARON AND RACHEL WALK THROUGH THE WOODS - CONTINUOUS 80 Cathedral light cuts through the trees forming visible shafts. ARON Jacob's ladders. Like in his dream. Asael says you can see the angels. They walk on, eventually coming upon RAILROAD TRACKS. A TRAIN is rounding the bend, headed in their direction. RACHEL Can we stay to watch? ARON If we hide. They move back into the trees as the train NEARS: a slow- moving engine pulling a line of WOODEN CATTLE CARS. RACHEL Is that a Nazi train? ARON If we had some dynamite we could blow the shit out of it. RACHEL (with undisguised AWE) ...Just like your brothers. Aron can't help but be pleased by this notion. Then, as the train passes, they can see HANDS gripping the small barred windows. And every now and then a gaunt, desperate FACE. They stare in astonishment. CUT TO: 81 OMITTED 81 SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 47. 81A UNDER A SHELTER -- CONTINUOUS 81A Tuvia sits alone. Outside, the SOUND of the violin continues. Shimon comes to sit beside him. SHIMON I am sorry for your loss. Tuvia nods. He is deep inside himself. SHIMON (CONT'D) Do you want to say the Kaddish? When at last Tuvia speaks, it is almost to himself. TUVIA She was a beautiful woman. But cold. Not a day went by she didn't remind me I wasn't a good provider. For years it wasn't really a marriage at all. And now... He lowers his head. All Shimon can do is sit beside him. 82 THE PERIMETER OF THE CAMP - CONTINUOUS 82 Bella takes Chaya aside. BELLA You have lipstick? Please, I know you have some left. Chaya digs in her pocket and produces a tiny remnant. Bella dabs it on and casually approaches Zus, who is on guard duty. BELLA (O.S.) (CONT'D) May I join you? ZUS Of course. BELLA You get lonely out here? ZUS I like the woods. LAUGHTER and MUSIC waft through the trees. BELLA I'm a little scared out here. Zus knows an opportunity when he sees one. He offers her a drink from his bottle of vodka. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 48. 82 CONTINUED: 82 BELLA (CONT'D) I've never tried it. ZUS Go ahead. She drinks, refuses to grimace. Drinks again. Zus laughs. - Bella touches the rifle in his arms. BELLA Why is there a rule against women having guns? ZUS There aren't enough for the men. BELLA Women need guns, too. ZUS What for? BELLA For protection. ZUS Women have men for protection. Bella bites her lip. She's a virgin but also realistic. BELLA I want protection. She steps closer and takes Zus's hand...under her coat...onto her breast...never taking her eyes off him. BELLA (CONT'D) You will take good care of me? You will be my commander. 83 OMITTED 83 84 MEANWHILE - DEEP IN THE FOREST 84 Aron and Rachel are walking back from the train tracks. Suddenly he senses movement, freezes: ARMED POLICEMEN are advancing through the trees. Aron and Rachel bury themselves beneath piles of leaves until the police pass by, then he grabs her hand and dashes OFF-- ARON RUNS through the woods like a deer. She follows. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 49. 85 IN THE CAMP 85 He bursts in, SCREAMING. ARON MEN WITH GUNS! Chaos. People panic, search for family members, grab whatever they can carry, ZUS AND BELLA emerge from the woods where they have lain together for the first time. He grabs his rifle. TUVIA tries to maintain order. TUVIA ONLY FOOD AND GUNS! FOLLOW ASAEL! Asael clutches Chaya's hand. Rounding up others. ASAEL Don't panic. THIS WAY!. GO. ZUS QUIET! NOT ANOTHER WORD!!! THE POLICEMEN begin FIRING. TWO of the group are KILLED. Tuvia roughly pushes people deeper into the woods. TUVIA Lova, Ben Zion -- stay with us. Asael, keep them moving. Don't stop! THE POLICEMEN enter the camp. A submachine gun RAKES a shelter. KISSELY has found the escape trail into the woods. KISSELY This way-- 86 THE FOREST IS DEATHLY STILL 86 Tuvia and Zus usher the group across the river and up the embankment. TUVIA Go! Go! Move! (holding back) Isaac, keep them moving! Zus, Asael, Ben Zion... Tuvia motions for them to take defensive positions while the others escape.- The policemen emerge hurriedly through the trees and begin crossing the river. SHOTS rings out. A Policeman goes down. The German Soldier is shot in the leg. They are dragged from the water. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 49A. 86 CONTINUED: 86 An edgy silence. From the trees a VOICE calls out in Russian-- (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 50. 86 CONTINUED: (2) 86 VOICE (ZUS) LEAVE NOW AND WE WON'T SHOOT THE REST OF YOU! POLICEMAN DON'T BE A FOOL. THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF US! ZUS THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF US! WHO IS THE FOOL? The policemen exchange apprehensive looks. TUVIA WHERE ARE YOU FROM? POLICEMAN KARELITZ! The confrontation changes languages. BEN ZION I'M FROM KARELITZ, TOO. I LIVED BY THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE. POLICEMAN MAYBE I KNOW YOU. SHOW YOURSELF! BEN ZION YOU FIRST! Derisive laughter from the trees. POLICEMAN Give us Bielski and the rest of you can go free! Behind a tree, Tuvia is surprised by the mention of his name. TUVIA You are from Belarussia, pig! Why do you work for the Germans against your own people? KISSELY For the same reason you steal from the poor. To survive. ANOTHER SHOT RINGS OUT. Kessely is hit in the arm. KISSELY (CONT'D) Shit. ZUS Next one is to the head! (CONTINUED) DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 51. 86 CONTINUED: (3) 86 TUVIA Soon it will be dark... See how you find your way home then! The policemen are having similar thoughts. SUDDENLY - A POLICEMAN BREAKS AND RUNS AWAY Soon it's a full-scale retreat. AFTER A MOMENT Tuvia, Zus, Lova & Ben Zion emerge. Zus picks up the dead German's machine pistol. TUVIA (CONT'D) They'll be back. (looks around) We have to find a new camp. ZUS Next time just draw them a map. TUVIA What does that mean? ZUS It means -- we should have killed the fucking milkman. Your policy of diplomacy is shit. Zus is breathing hard, full of the adrenaline of battle. ZUS (CONT'D) ...Two are dead. Winter is coming and now we have no shelter. Why? Because you don't have the stomach to do what must be done. He walks away. CUT TO: 87 OMITTED 87 DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 52. 88 THE NOVEMBER WIND WHISTLES THROUGH THE BARE FOREST (MONTAGE) 88 as the group trudges along -- weighed down by cooking gear, food, guns, etc. Asael takes the iron cauldron from Chaya. Zus and Bella walk side-by-side. Pinchas leads his goat. MALBIN Where is he taking us? My feet are going to fall off. SHIMON A great rabbi once said, "wherever I go, I am always going to the land of Israel." MALBIN Well, maybe rabbis should give better directions. Tuvia walks alongside but apart. CUT TO: 89 A HILLSIDE 89 The group is sprawled on the ground. Four people share a single cigarette. Shimon and Malbin hardly have the energy to argue. Pinchas feeds his goat. Tuvia walks among them. TUVIA Rest and eat. I need volunteers for a scouting party. Zus raises his hand. Tuvia nods in grudging gratitude. However mixed his feelings, Zus can always be counted on. CUT TO: 90 A FORK IN THE TRAIL 90 Tuvia looks at Zus, who shrugs. They are in unfamiliar territory. As they move cautiously forward: A MAN IN A RED ARMY TUNIC steps into the path, holding an automatic rifle. He WHISTLES softly. More ARMED MEN materialize, surrounding them. GRAMOV (in Russian; subtitles) WHO ARE YOU? Tuvia instantly grasps the situation. He salutes. TUVIA (in Russian; subtitles) A brigade of independent fighters searching for our comrades. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 52A. 90 CONTINUED: 90 Zus almost does a double-take at Tuvia's bluff. GRAMOV What brigade? (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 53. 90 CONTINUED: (2) 90 TUVIA We belong to the Bielski otriad. GRAMOV We know of you. Jewish bandits. Zus's finger tightens on the trigger of his submachine gun. ZUS I'll take the two on the left... Tuvia maintains his composure. TUVIA I'm sure we can clear up this misunderstanding with your commander. CUT TO: 91 THE OCTOBER OTRIAD BASE 91 A primitive tent camp. RUSSIAN PARTISANS move about, quiet and cold-eyed men wearing remnants of Red Army uniforms. Zus can't help but be impressed by the array of weaponry. VICTOR PACHENKO emerges from a tent. A former lieutenant, dashing in a fur cap and long officer's coat. He addresses them in Russian. VIKTOR I am Viktor Panchenko, commander of the October otriad. We have had complaints of a Jewish gang stealing from villages loyal to us. (a steely look) How do you respond to these charges? TUVIA When you take food it is from loyal supporters. When we do, you call it stealing. VIKTOR We are soldiers. TUVIA And we fight a common enemy. The motherland doesn't distinguish between Jews and non-Jews. Viktor is amused by this bit of Soviet dogma. VIKTOR But Jews do not fight. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 54. 91 CONTINUED: 91 TUVIA These Jews do. Viktor appraises Tuvia for a moment. VIKTOR We will see. Select your best fighters and send them to us. Zus looks at Tuvia, knowing he has no choice. TUVIA We are honored to be of service. Tuvia and Zus SALUTE and head back the way they came. ZUS (under his breath) So we're partisans now. TUVIA As if we have a choice. CUT TO: 91A NEW CAMP (CAMP #2) 91A Has taken root. People hard at work building zemylanka. 92 THE NEW CAMP (CAMP #2) 92 Tuvia and Malbin are working together on a new bunker. Malbin expertly nails a header across a doorway. TUVIA (throwing a smaller HAMMER) Here. MALBIN If my friends at The New Socialists' Club could see me now... (shakes his head) I haven't read a book in months. TUVIA I haven't read one in years. Malbin looks up from his work. TUVIA (CONT'D) I wasn't a very good student. You can ask Shimon. MALBIN .I did. Tuvia laughs ruefully. Considers him for a moment. TUVIA Yet you accept me as Commander. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 55. 92 CONTINUED: 92 Malbin thinks about it for a moment. MALBIN Who else? Tuvia nods. Good point. They continue working. MALBIN (CONT'D) Might I make an observation? Tuvia gestures, go ahead. MALBIN (CONT'D) We need to be strong, but-- TUVIA ...But--? MALBIN Other things are important, too. TUVIA Such as? Malbin tries to think how best to put it. MALBIN Community. Tuvia considers the word. As if trying it on for size. TUVIA You have more ideas? About all this? MALBIN ...A few. TUVIA I'm listening... 93 MEANWHILE, THE WOMEN WATCH AS ASAEL LEADS IN NEW ARRIVALS 93 BELLA More mouths to feed. RONA More young bodies to keep us warm. One ot them, a young man, YITZHAK SHULMAN, RIPS the yellow Star-of-David off his coat and kneels to KISS THE GROUND. SHULMAN Which one is Tuvia Bielski? Someone points Tuvia out. Shulman hurries over and kisses Tuvia's hand. Zus is drinking nearby with his cronies. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 55A. 93 CONTINUED: 93 SHULMAN (CONT'D) None of us knew if you really existed. I am from Baranowicze. They are going to liquidate the ghetto. Chaya bursts into tears. Asael puts his arm around her. CHAYA My parents-- Zus catches Tuvia's glance to Malbin. Tuvia turns back to Shulman. TUVIA We'll do what we can. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 56. 93 CONTINUED: (2) 93 Shulman tries to kiss Tuvia's hand once again, but Tuvia takes his hand, instead, and shakes it. CHAYA looks deeply into Asael's eyes. CHAYA You will help my parents? ASAEL I...I... CHAYA I've seen you looking at me. If you were to rescue them, I would do... anything...you-- Asael is completely undone by the starkness of this. ASAEL No. I mean, yes. All right. 94 ZUS CATCHES UP TO TUVIA 94 and grabs him as he walks away. Their hushed tones belie the growing chasm between them. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 57. 94 CONTINUED: 94 ZUS And what exactly does that mean, 'do what we can.' TUVIA We must send for whoever is left alive. ZUS And if it is a hundred? Six hundred? TUVIA Then we will provide. ZUS And when the Germans follow these hundreds and slaughter us. TUVIA I won't let that happen. Tuvia exchanges a glance with Malbin. Zus catches it. He has sensed Malbin's growing influence. ZUS You won't let that happen. TUVIA No. I'll bring them out myself. ZUS From the ghetto. TUVIA Yes. ZUS Pan Tuvia. Rabbi Tuvia. Allow me to kiss your hand... Tuvia tries to pull his hand away, but Zus holds him. ZUS (CONT'D) You think Pachenko wants hundreds more of us in the forest? TUVIA I cannot have you contradicting me... Not when others are around. (looks around) Our family must stick together. (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 58. 94 CONTINUED: (2) 94 ZUS And who is it that's risking our family, and for what? For the sake of these-- (gestures at the new ARRIVALS) --Malbushim. TUVIA Don't call them that. ZUS That's who comes to us from the ghetto. Empty clothes. Bloodsuckers. TUVIA They are people. Jews. ZUS Pretentious Jews. Jews who stuck up their noses and wouldn't give us the time of day when we passed them on the street. Jews who went out of their way to keep their daughters locked away from our dirty hands. (SAVAGELY) You think your old teacher will give you a good grade because you saved his worthless ass! They accept you as their leader only because they are too weak and full of shit to help themselves. TUVIA --What about Bella? Tuvia looks over at Bella, who is anxiously watching. TUVIA (CONT'D) --You think she'd be with you if it wasn't for what is happening here? Zus glares at him, but tries to control himself. TUVIA (CONT'D) --Is it love Zus? (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 59. 94 CONTINUED: (3) 94 Zus is sick of talk. He PUNCHES Tuvia in the face. Tuvia is rocked but still he goads his brother. TUVIA (CONT'D) You are the man of her dreams? The Romeo of Novagrudok? Zus can't take anymore. He charges Tuvia, who sidesteps and SLAMS him in the gut. All the frustration of the past months, not to mention years of sibling rivalry, translates into fists and elbows. Ben Zion moves to break it up. Tuvia and Zus turn on him. ZUS Is this your business? Zus gains the upper hand and starts to beat the crap put of Tuvia. Finally, in desperation Tuvia rolls away and picks up a rock. He is about to slam it into his brother's head when suddenly he stops himself. The two brothers look at each other, both breathing heavily -- realizing that they have crossed some line. ZUS (CONT'D) (calls out) Ben Zion. Krensky. Lova. Israel. Let's go. (to Tuvia) We are going to join the real partisans. He looks at Asael. ZUS (CONT'D) Are you coming? Asael looks at one brother, then the other. Once again, he is in the middle. He looks at Chaya, then back at Zus. ASAEL No. ZUS Good. I'll dance at your wedding. He stops by Bella's side, touches her arm, then disappears down the trail. The others follow. CUT TO: 95 THE OUTSKIRTS OF NOVOGRUDOK 95 Tuvia and Asael feel naked outside the safety of the forest. In the distance the city looms. 95A THE STREETS OF NOVOGRUDOK 95A Tuvia and Asael pass by the barbed wire and machine-guns of the guards and dogs manning the barrier to the ghetto. GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 59A. 96 THE WALLS OF THE NOVOGRUDOK GHETTO 96 Tuvia and Asael climb over a dilapidated wall. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 60. 97 THE DESERTED STREETS OF THE GHETTO 97 People peer out from behind shuttered windows. Others hurry to get off the street. Tuvia consults a hand-drawn map. TUVIA This way. 98 OMITTED 98 98A EXT. FOREST - DAY 98A Zus, Lova and Ben Zion march alongside the Russians Partisans. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 61. 99 AN APARTMENT IN THE GHETTO - DAY 99 that might once have been home to a family-of-four now HOUSES fifteen. Tuvia and Asael are deep in conversation with several ELDERS of the ghetto Council ELDER #1 We are not so naive as to believe they won't kill some of us. But all the Jews? It makes no sense. They need us to work. In the factories. The labor camps. Tuvia notices A PRETTY GIRL standing on a chair in order to hear. Her name is LILKA and we will soon come to know her. (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 62. 99 CONTINUED: 99 TUVIA There are rumors. Of death camps. ELDER #1 We too have heard of such places. But have you seen them yourself? Can you tell me, with absolute certainty, that we are not just as likely to die out there with you in the woods with Winter coming on...? Someone WHISTLES from the street below. A tense moment. Another whistle. All clear. ELDER #1 (CONT'D) --Do you think we haven't all considered running away? For every one that leaves they kill twenty. How can I sacrifice thousands for the sake of a few?" Tuvia looks at them, rubbing his face in concentration. TUVIA What if we were to take all of you? ELDER #1 The old, the sick? There are thousands. How will we live? TUVIA We will protect you. We have made alliances with the Russian Partisans. ELDER #1 They are as bad as the Nazi's. You are too young to know the pogroms-- (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 63-63A. 99 CONTINUED: (2) 99 Tuvia SLAMS HIS FIST on a table. TUVIA YOU WANT TIME? Fine, I give you a day. A month. Maybe a year. To live! (to an older couple) Your daughter is out there with us. (to another woman) Your husband is waiting for you. An old orthodox RABBI stands nearby. TUVIA (CONT'D) Rabbi? RABBI We...are waiting for God. Tuvia looks at him in disbelief. Such madness is incontrovertible. A suspended moment. LILKA I am going. This breaks the log jam. Several others join in, "We are coming," "Us, too," etc. Tuvia nods his acknowledgment. CUT TO: 100 A COURTYARD IN THE NOVOGRUDOK GHETTO - NIGHT 100 A crude tunnel has been dug through a ghetto wall. PEOPLE squeeze through into the adjoining alley. Behind them, a hundred more await their turn. Out in the alley, Asael stops them momentarily as a car goes by at the end of the street, then gives the all-clear. Tuvia takes Lilka' hand and helps her pass through. Their eyes meet for just a moment. CUT TO: 100A OMITTED 100A (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 63B-63C. 101 THE FOREST CAMP 101 The new ARRIVALS file in. Men wear citified coats and some women have furs. They eye the veterans, thinking, 'how dirty they are'; the veterans eye them warily, wondering, 'How will we feed them?' A handmade sign reads, "New Jerusalem." Chaya is re-united with her parents. She holds Asael's arm and looks up at him with absolute rapture. She is his. Malbin is collecting valuables. One WELL-DRESSED WOMAN is reluctant to part with her jewelry. WELL-DRESSED WOMAN But they were my grandmother's... (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 64. 101 CONTINUED: (2) 101 MALBIN And now they belong to the otriad. Everyone sacrifices for the sake of the collective. We can trade these for food or weapons. Next... Nearby, Shimon is INTERVIEWING another line of arrivals. SHIMON --How about carpenters? Any bootmakers? Seamstresses? ARRIVAL #1 I am an accountant. SHIMON (DEADPAN) That should come in handy. Next... RIVA I am a nurse. SHIMON Ahhh...welcome. And you, tateh? OPPENHEIM is an old man with thick glasses. OPPENHEIM I am a watchmaker. Tuvia has walked over to observe. TUVIA Can you repair guns? OPPENHEIM Guns? No. TUVIA (hands him a rifle) See if you can fix this trigger. Oppenheim slips on a pair of spectacles and studies the mechanism. It sticks. He digs into his pocket and produces a small file and expertly begins to shave the metal spur. He tests it, then hands it back to Tuvia, who CLICKS the trigger. TUVIA (CONT'D) You have a new profession. A murmur of appreciation ripples through the group as Shulman appears -- leading A MAGNIFICENT WHITE HORSE. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 65. 101 CONTINUED: (3) 101 SHULMAN Look what we found running free. Must have belonged to an aristocrat. TUVIA My God, she's beautiful. (strokes her flanks) May I? He mounts her easily, urges her around the perimeter, greeting the new arrivals. Heads turn as he trots past. He is the center of attention, and he knows it. And likes it. TUVIA (CONT'D) Friends, we are happy to see you safely among us. But there are many things you must learn about living here... All attention turns to him. The Lubczanski brothers grumble to each other, none too pleased with Tuvia's show-boating. TUVIA (CONT'D) Once you are settled, you'll be assigned work duties. Everyone works, no exceptions. 101A INTERCUT IMAGES 101A Of people being introduced to various tasks: shoemaking, sewing, cooking. Asael teaching them to use guns. TUVIA We will help supply the Russian Partisans by making clothes, repairing guns. 101B BACK TO TUVIA ON HORSEBACK 101B Malbin catches his eye and winks -- clearly this has been part of their "strategy" discussions. TUVIA Women will learn to use weapons and fight alongside men. Tuvia takes a rifle from Asael and holds it aloft. TUVIA (CONT'D) This is not a gun. It is Bar Kochba's spear. It is Ehud's sword. You will all learn to protect yourselves. A LITTLE BOY holds Lilka's hand and looks up at Tuvia in wonder. He cuts an iconic figure. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 65A. 101B CONTINUED: 101B LITTLE BOY (to Lilka) He is a Jew? Lilka is equally struck -- although there is something more than wonder in her regard. She nods. TUVU Pregnancies are forbidden. We cannot accommodate an infant's needs. Our bunkers are overcrowded so you will have to build new ones. He looks out over the sea of expectant faces. TUVIA (CONTINUING) ...This is the one place in all of Belorussia where a Jew can be free. (looks out over them) We will make again, here in this forest, the life that was taken from you. We welcome you into our community. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 66. 101C LATER - TUVIA IS WALKING HIS HORSE BESIDE THE RIVER 101C when Riva stops him. RIVA You are Tuvia Bielski? You are really him? (Tuvia nods TENTATIVELY) You are a hero. A Maccabee. She vigorously shakes Tuvia's hand and walks away. Tuvia catches his reflection in the water. And likes it. 102 THE CAMP AT DAWN - TO ESTABLISH 102 102A IN AN UNDERGROUND BUNKER - DAWN 102A Lilka awakens to find TEN WOMEN wedged in beside her -- back to front -- like spoons. Idly, she begins to ITCH her scalp. Then her leg. In the pale morning light she sees that she is crawling with lice. She SCREAMS. The women around her wake up, terrified. LILKA Get them off! Get them off me! CHAYA What? Where? LILKA EVERYWHERE! OH, MY GOD, OH, MY GOD... RIVA Lice need somewhere to sleep, too. The others LAUGH, but Lilka is on the verge of hysteria. She stumbles out, stepping on several others as she goes. 102B OUTSIDE THE BUNKER 102B Crying, she tears at her clothes -- only to discover Tuvia and OTHERS staring at her with interest. She is mortified. 102C LATER THAT DAY 102C THE WOMEN wash clothes in the stream. Lilka is by the riverbank, scrubbing furiously. Tamara works beside her. TAMARA You get rid of them quicker if you boil them. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 66A. 102C CONTINUED: 102C Lilka is grateful for this bit of camp wisdom. BELLA Tamara, come on in, it's freezing and slimy and horrible. Tamara shakes her head, no. RIVA So modest... BELLA ... So last night I dreamed I was taking a real bath. With hot water. RACHEL And soap. (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 66B. 102C CONTINUED: (2) 102C RIVA And bubbles. CHAYA Oh, take me to that dream! RIVA I was dreaming of shoes... CHAYA Shoes, Riva? RIVA There was a man in a shop on Grudek street... and the way he caressed my feet when I tried on his shoes... Riva swoons. The women burst into ribald laughter. The SOUND of a horse. They look to the opposite bank where: TUVIA RIDES BY on his horse. Lilka can't help but stare. BELLA Doesn't take a fortune teller to know what Lilka's dreaming about... Lilka blushes furiously. The women laugh even louder. CUT TO: 103 A FLAT STRETCH OF TRAIN TRACK 103 Gramov shows Zus how to plant a disk-like CONTACT MINE. GRAMOV --buried underneath with this DETONATOR-- (indicates a finger- like protrusion) --almost touching the rail. As the train passes, its weight causes pressure on the detonator, and then-- (very loud; in English) BOOM! Zus falls over, startled. Gramov laughs. Partisan humor. DOUBLE YELLOW Revision - 10-8-07 67. 104 FOREST CAMP #2 104 Chaya is on kitchen detail with Tamara. TAMARA Yesterday, potatoes with beets, Today, beets with potatoes. Special treat tomorrow...potato soup. With beets. Not far away, Arkady and several others have created a primitive still -- turning potatoes into vodka. ARKADY We love potatoes, don't we, boys! Here, put some hair on your chest! They give Aron his first taste. NEARBY Bella is walking, arm in arm, with Asael. BELLA So...a little bird told me that a certain someone is waiting...for another certain someone to ask a certain question... Go on... She indicates Chaya by wiggling her eyebrows in her direction. Asael shakes his head but heads in that direction. 104A NEARBY 104A Asael "happens" to bump into Chaya. ASAEL Hello, Chaya. CHAYA Hello, Asael. ASAEL May...I help you? CHAYA Wash clothes? I... don't think so. An awkward moment as he stands there watching her. ASAEL Chaya... I...was...wondering...if... maybe...you...I mean... you and I-- (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 67A. 104A CONTINUED: 104A CHAYA I accept. ASAEL You do? CHAYA I do. 104B ANOTHER DAY 104B Asael and Chaya are getting married. A LIGHT SNOW is falling as they say repeat their vows as Shimon instructs. Their breath condenses in the cold. ASAEL Behold thou art consecrated unto me by this ring according to the Laws of Moses and Israel. But rather than a ring, Asael gives her a shiny new rifle. As the ceremony continues, we: 104C INTERCUT: A TREE LINE OVERLOOKING A MUDDY ROAD 104C Zus, Ben Zion and several BIELSKI FIGHTERS hide alongside TEN RUSSIAN PARTISANS as a GERMAN TROOP TRUCK approaches. Pachenko watches as Zus follows the approaching truck through binoculars, then cocks the heavy machine gun. The truck SLOWS TO A CRAWL as it encounters an overturned PEASANT CART blocking the road. 104D BACK TO THE WEDDING 104D As Asael kisses the bride, Tuvia is staring not at the newlyweds but rather at Lilka, who has washed and let down her hair. She glances up and meets his eye, then looks away. As Asael crushes the traditional glass underfoot: 104E ZUS OPENS FIRE. 104E The driver SLUMPS over the wheel and the truck careens lazily off the road. GERMAN SOLDIERS spill out, blindly returning fire as Zus's fighters SWARM down the hill. Several are HIT right away. 104F INTERCUT: THE GROWING ECSTASY OF THE WEDDING CELEBRATION 104F WITH THE FRENZY OF BATTLE. People dance and sing, their joy juxtaposed with the murderous intensity of the firefight, their twirling movements a cracked mirror of the death agonies of fighters of both sides as they are hit and fall. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 67B. 104F CONTINUED: 104F Some of the inexperienced Jewish fighters freeze, some fire their weapons blindly. Ben Zion does well. ZUS RUNS AMONG THEM, fiercely EXHORTING them to attack. ZUS Get up! Move! SHOOT OR I'LL SHOOT YOU... FROM A VANTAGE POINT IN THE ROCKS Viktor watches, heartened by Zus' natural aggression. GERMAN SOLDIERS TAKE COVER behind the overturned truck effectively RETURNING FIRE. Several partisans are KILLED. ZUS PULLS A POTATO MASHER GRENADE from his belt and RUNS AT THE TRUCK in a mad headlong assault. ZUS (CONT'D) ARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH! He ROLLS THE GRENADE under the truck and dives away as it EXPLODES. The remaining Germans RAISE THEIR HANDS. CHEERING PARTISANS leap into the truck, capturing an arsenal of rifles and ammo. THE JEWISH FIGHTERS join in the looting. Boots, coats, blankets, etc. Zus approaches the wounded and captured German prisoners, kneeling in surrender, hands behind their necks. Without hesitation, he shoots them, point-blank, one after another. VIKTOR approaches Zus, who salutes. VIKTOR You are related to Bielski? ZUS I am a Bielski, too. Viktor looks at him appraisingly. VIKTOR Indeed. He walks away. Zus has found a home. 104G LATER - THE OTRIAD SINGS AND DANCES ON 104G as SNOW continues to fall. The young marriage is a celebration of hope over despair. DISSOLVE TO: 105 OMITTED 105 AND AND 106 106 DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 68. 107 OMITTED 107 DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 69. 108 OMITTED 108 DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 70. 109 THE RUSSIAN WINTER (MONTAGE- MUSIC OVER) 109 SNOW covers the camp. A driving wind. Bundled in scarves, overcoats and as many layers as they can wear, Bella and Chaya break ice in a pot. Tamara takes FROZEN LAUNDRY from a line. In a bunker, Malbin and Shimon shiver under a shared blanket. Women and children stare blankly into space. Riva unwraps rags from a man's foot and examines his toes, BLACK with frostbite. Asael and Tuvia are making their rounds. They pass Aron and Rachel who have built a snowman which they top off by adding a German helmet with a bullet hole in it. 109A IN A STORAGE AREA 109A Asael shows Tuvia the last few potatoes. ASAEL There is talk of returning to the ghetto. TUVIA Madness. ASAEL They've barely eaten in days. Even when our food missions manage to get through, there are armed patrols. Farmers who once helped us now guard their barns with shotguns. Tuvia considers for a moment. TUVIA Send out more missions. And bring shotguns. Tuvia sets off. In every face he passes, there's misery and accusation in the shivering bodies and trembling blue lips. Children stare at him with sunken, haunted eyes. 109AA A MAKESHIFT STABLE 109AA Tuvia visits his beautiful horse. He unties him. 109AB LATER - IN THE FOOD LINE 109AB A whisper runs through the group..."meat"..."what kind?"..." Where'd it come from?" Tuvia watches them eat hungrily. 109B OMITTED 109B DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 71. 109C OMITTED 109C AND AND 109D 109D 109E A STABLE - NIGHT 109E Snow falling outside. Several partisans are singing. Zus is drinking heavily with Viktor; they take pinches of salt with each swallow. Viktor finishes a bottle, tosses it. VIKTOR Another dead soldier! Zus looks at him, bleary-eyed, confused. Viktor explains: VIKTOR (CONT'D) More dead soldiers than empty bottles. ZUS (slurring his words) That is so...Russian. He cracks open another bottle and takes a big slug. VIKTOR At least you drink like one. ZUS 'A Jew can't drink, a Jew can't fight.' What is it we are good at, Viktor? Dying. That is what we are good at. VIKTOR So tell me about this brother of yours... ZUS .Asael? VIKTOR You are such an idiot. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 71A. 109E CONTINUED: 109E ZUS I know who you mean... The Great Tuvia Bielski. Savior of the Jews and all around Big Shit. VIKTOR You compete with him. ZUS He competes with me. VIKTOR My older brother and I have the same relationship. ZUS He is a Big Shit also? VIKTOR A soldier. (a long moment) He was killed in the first hour of the German invasion. This sobers them up a bit. 109F IN THE ZEMYLANKA 109F LILKA is shivering, her eyes inward and unfocused. TUVIA Lilka? LILKA Sorry, Tuvia. I was...thinking. It's nothing. He looks at her intently, knowing there's more. LILKA (CONT'D) ...Every time new people come into camp, I keep hoping... even though, I know... (her teeth are CHATTERING) ...I'm sorry. TUVIA Everyone here has lost someone. She looks up at him, helpless to be so revealed. LILKA You too? TUVIA (a small nod) Here... He takes off his wool coat and puts it around her shoulders. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 71B. 109F CONTINUED: 109F LILKA No. Today I go on my first food mission. Tuvia's order has consigned her to this dangerous duty. TUVIA I will have Asael send someone else. LILKA No. I must go now. I want to go. She is clearly scared but desperate not to show it. He reaches into his belt and hands her a revolver. TUVIA You know how to use this? She nods. Leaving, she passes the Lubczanski brothers, who are on their way in. DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 72. 110 ON MOTL AND ARKADY 110 MOTL LUBCZANSKI She is a tasty one, your aristocrat. TUVIA She is not my aristocrat. ARKADY LUBCZANSKI No? We were told, 'hands off,' property of the Commander. Tuvia just stares, daring him to continue. 111 LATER THAT DAY 111 Tuvia walks past the now-empty stable heading into the woods. A voice calls out of the misty snow. VOICE HALT! WHO GOES THERE--! TUVIA Lazar. I am coming from camp. The danger is from those coming to camp. LAZAR (SHEEPISH) Sorry, Tuvia... (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 73. 111 CONTINUED: 111 TUVIA No sign of the food mission? LAZAR Not yet. Tuvia looks anxiously into the deep woods. 111A MEANWHILE - DEEP IN THE WOODS 111A Lilka and Shulman are walking backwards, retracing their steps to obscure their footprints in the drifting snow. SHULMAN We mustn't have any tracks leading back to base. He loads two sacks of food onto her shoulders. SHULMAN (CONT'D) Stay on this side of the creek until you reach the river then up the hill. (points the way) I'll wait here for the others. She nods and trudges on toward camp through waist-deep snow. 112 BACK IN CAMP - OUTSIDE A MAKESHIFT INFIRMARY 112 As they head toward a zemylanka, Riva is briefing Tuvia on the sick. Every now and then, he glances toward the woods. RIVA --several cases of pneumonia... Also I'm beginning to see signs of scurvy. No one's had a vegetable in weeks. LAZAR Tuvia! Lazar is dragging a WOUNDED MAN back into camp. RIVA Bring him to the infirmary. Tuvia glances back toward the woods. Looks at his watch. RIVA (CONT'D) ...Shulman will look after her. He looks up. She looks at him sympathetically. Apparently his interest in Lilka isn' quite as secret as he imagines. 112A BACK TO THE WOODS 112A Exhausted, cold and alone, Lilka is becoming increasingly disoriented in a snowy landscape where every tree looks (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 73A. 112A CONTINUED: 112A alike. She turns in a circle, trying to decide which way to go. A MANGY DOG appears out of nowhere, its coat matted, its ribs showing, a wild look in its eye. It GROWLS ferociously. LILKA Shoo-- Shoo-- (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 74. 112A CONTINUED: (2) 112A But the dog, as ravenous as she, smells the food and won't back down. It inches forward, FOAMING at the mouth. Lilka tries to step back but the dog LUNGES, snapping its jaws. It's terrifying. She looks desperately for help. Suddenly the dog LEAPS at her. She turns away and it rips a sack from her shoulder, knocking her down. Viciously it begins tearing the sack apart in search of the food within. A SHOT RINGS OUT. The dog drops. Lilka holds the smoking gun in two hands. Grimly, she pockets the weapon, picks up the sack of food, and starts off. Reconsidering, she walks back and hoists the dead dog onto her shoulder, too. More food. 112B IN THE INFIRMARY 112B Riva bandages Edjelman's head. Tuvia looks at all the sick. TUVIA What's wrong with them all? RIVA If it's typhus we're in trouble. The lice are carriers. ASAEL The partisans have ampicillin. But they say they need it for themselves. In the background Lilka enters, face scratched, blood smeared hands and arms -- like some kind of primitive huntress. ASAEL (CONT'D) (sees he is distracted) Tuvia... TUVIA Medicine for typhus. I heard you. I'll go see Viktor right away. On his way out, he passes Lilka, who is being looked after. TUVIA (CONT'D) Are you all right? LILKA Fine. (handing him the gun) Thank you. Tuvia can clearly see that she is shaken -- but he has no time to ask more. He has to find out about the medicine. TUVIA I must go. SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 75. 113 THE PARTISAN ENCAMPMENT (TO ESTABLISH SNOW) 113 114 INSIDE A TENT 114 Viktor, Gramov and Zus are poring over a map of the area. VIKTOR --and every time we try to move, they radio back to police HQ which houses the transmitter...here. ZUS --So we attack the transmitter. VIKTOR Yes, yes, my Hebrew warrior. Except for the troops in Stankiewcze and the machine guns out front. THE TENT FLAP OPENS. Tuvia enters. He has developed a cough. VIKTOR (CONT'D) Two Bielski's in one room! To what do we owe this honor? TUVIA We have sickness. I need ampicillin. VIKTOR This medicine is reserved for fighters. TUVIA If typhus breaks out in our camp, it may spread to yours. VIKTOR I will have to take that chance. Zus looks from one immovable force to the other. TUVIA I must insist. Comrade. VIKTOR You'd better not. Zus is watching this dick-measuring with keen interest. ZUS There would be medicine in the police headquarters at Stankiewcze, yes? (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 6-26-07 76. 114 CONTINUED: 114 He looks to Gramov, who looks to Viktor, who nods. ZUS (CONT'D) Tuvia and I grew up there. (looks at Tuvia) Perhaps the Bielski otriad will volunteer to take out the transmitter. Viktor looks from Zus to Tuvia. TUVIA Of course. Zus grabs his submachine gun. ZUS Krensky, Ben Zion. Let's go. CUT TO: 115 THE TOWN OF STAKIEWICZE 115 is quiet at midnight on this snowy evening. 116 IN A BACK ALLEY 116 Tuvia and Zus sit in the cab of an old truck, its exhaust sending plumes of condensation into the freezing night. ZUS Well... He looks into the back where the others wait, anxiously clutching their weapons. Tuvia tries to hold back a cough. ZUS (CONT'D) Stay with the truck. And make sure it's in gear when we get back. TUVIA I'm going in with you. ZUS I give the orders tonight. Across the square, the police station looms. TUVIA You don't have to do this. ZUS I don't? (a bitter laugh) What about the typhus? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 7-18-07 77. 116 CONTINUED: 116 TUVIA So more die. They will anyway. A grim smile from Zus. Tuvia is broken up inside. ZUS I have been given this mission by my superior officer. He starts to get out the cab. Tuvia reaches into his pocket, takes out the mezuzah that once blessed their parents' home. TUVIA Zus... (hands him the mezuzah) For luck. Zuz pockets it and joins the others creeping into the shadows. But rather than follow them into the police station, we HOLD on Tuvia's face. Suddenly we HEAR The sound of gunfire. Then nothing. Ten seconds. More gunfire. Twenty. It is excruciating. Thirty. The longest CLOSE-UP in film history. 117 INTERCUT - FLASHES OF WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE... 117 Ben Zion bursts in and opens fire, killing two policemen. Krensky jumps the counter and smashes the transmitter. A policeman appears behind them on the stairs and shoots Krensky in the back. Ben Zion whirls and kills him. 117A TUVIA WANTS TO HELP. HE PULLS HIS GUN, UNLOCKS THE DOOR. 117A OPENS IT. STOPS. HE HAS PROMISED TO WAIT WITH THE TRUCK. Zus, meanwhile, rummages cabinets, looking for ampicillin. BEN ZION Let's GO! In the back room, Zus keeps rummaging. A window EXPLODES. Ben Zion is hit. Mortally wounded, he sinks to his knees, returning fire as Zus reappears. 118 TUVIA WATCHES 118 as Zus bursts out the door. He races to the truck and struggles into the passenger seat, BLEEDING FROM HIS SHOULDER. ZUS Go. GO! TUVIA What about the others?! (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 7-18-07 77A. 118 CONTINUED: 118 ZUS GO, DAMN YOU! 119 IN THE TRUCK (TRAVELING) 119 From his coat Zus takes out a BLOOD-SOAKED PACKAGE. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 78. 119 CONTINUED: 119 ZUS Medicine. TUVIA The others? ZUS Fighters die so that malbushim may live, that's what you believe, yes? Tuvia absorbs the accusation as if taking a punch. TUVIA So you're a communist now, Zus? Zus lays his head back on the seat, closes his eyes. ZUS Communist, Zionist, Manicurist, what difference does it make? You got your medicine. TUVIA Come back to us. Zus won't look at him. TUVIA (CONT'D) You are my brother. ZUS So you remember. CUT TO: 120 A MOURNER'S CIRCLE IN THE TREES 120 for Ben Zion and Krensky. Shimon addresses the group. SHIMON Merciful God, we commit our friends Ben Zion and Krensky to your care. We have no more prayers, no more tears. We have run out of blood. Choose another people We PAN PAST the familiar faces. SHIMON (CONT'D) We have paid for each of your Commandments. We have covered every field and stone with ashes. Sanctify another land. (looks at them) Choose another people. Teach them the Deeds and the Prophecies. Grant us but one more blessing -- Take back the gift of our holiness. YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 79. 121 IN A ZEMYLANKA - LATER THAT DAY 121 Tuvia is still drinking heavily. He is COUGHING STEADILY, his face sweaty with fever. The SOUND of angry voices from outside the bunker. 122 OUTSIDE - IN THE FOOD LINE 122 Arkady Lubczanski has pulled a knife on Asael, who backs away, STUMBLING into a group of bystanders. ARKADY Next time, I cut off your nose, pisher. Tuvia emerges from his bunker. He is weaving a bit and his words are slurred. TUVIA Whassa problem, Arkady? ARKADY Those who risk their lives to bring back food deserve a larger portion than those who risk nothing. ASAEL Everyone gets the same portion. ARKADY Not when you're serving, pisher. I see you digging to the bottom of the pot for your little forest cutie and her parents... ASAEL She is my wife! TUVIA Policy is...Same for all. If someone is stealing he'll face consequences. Asael is astonished that Tuvia would go against him in public and embarrassed by his public drunkenness. ASAEL What consequences? Others are closely watching this test of Tuvia's authority. TUVIA Reduced rations for one week. (a beat) Both of you. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 80. 122 CONTINUED: 122 ARKADY WHAT?! TUVIA (in his face) ARE YOU QUESTIONING MY DECISION? Arkady is tempted to take him on. But he backs down. TUVIA (CONT'D) (raises his voice) This matter is settled. Everybody back in line. People are staring at him. TUVIA (CONT'D) WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? BACK IN LINE! His eyes meet Lilka's. She looks away. Asael takes Tuvia's arm and pulls him aside. ASAEL Tuvia, I would never-- TUVIA Yes. I know. ASAEL Then why am I to be punished...? Tuvia just takes another swallow from his bottle. ASAEL (CONT'D) Fischer is with them. So is Levine. On food missions, they take first for themselves and only bring back what's left over-- Tuvia's head is throbbing. He closes his eyes. ASAEL (CONT'D) --and they spread rumors, that you are power-hungry and corrupt, that you take whatever woman you choose-- (Tuvia can't help but laugh) --that we keep gold for ourselves, and that-- He stops himself. TUVIA --What? (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 81. 122 CONTINUED: (2) 122 ASAEL ...that you drink too much and are no longer fit to lead us. TUVIA .Maybe they're right. Asael looks at him. No longer the brother he once idealized. ASAEL Zus would have punched him senseless. TUVIA Zus. ASAEL I miss him. ß TUVIA He has made his choice. He reels away toward the woods. CUT TO: 122A IN HIS ZEMYLANKA - LATER 122A Tuvia is lying in his bunker, vomiting and burning up with fever. Shimon has brought him soup. SHIMON Drink this. (WINKS) From the bottom of the pot. Tuvia can barely get the soup down. TUVIA ...the way they look at me... with their pasty faces. Let them starve, we're all going to die out here anyway. SHIMON Not easy being the big boss. Moses was a lonely man when he led us out of bondage. TUVIA ...Moses. SHIMON So I'm a sucker for a biblical allusion. But what is society without leaders. Without leaders, we falter. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 81A. 122A CONTINUED: 122A TUVIA I am not a leader. SHIMON Neither was Moses, but somehow that seemed to work out. CUT TO: 123 THE PARTISAN CAMP 123 Several partisans are singing a drinking song while Zus silently soaks his feet in a bucket. Lova walks in. His face is black and blue. ZUS Lova, what happened? Who did this? Lova sits and buries his head in his hands. ZUS (CONT'D) Lova. Tell me. Who? LOVA Gramov. Two others. I used the officer's latrine. ZUS For this they beat you? Lova is trying not to weep. LOVA They said they wouldn't shit in the same hole as a Jew. Zus gets to his feet. CUT TO: 123A INT. PANCHENKO'S TENT -- MOMENTS LATER 123A Zus bursts in to find Panchenko deep in conversation with Gramov and others. They look up at the intrusion. ZUS Forgive me, Commander. PANCHENKO Zus. Join us. He offers him a glass of vodka. Zus doesn't take it. ZUS I want to report the mistreatment of a comrade. Gramov looks up. Zus meets his eye. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 81B. 123A CONTINUED: 123A ZUS (CONT'D) This man beat Comrade Lova -- for no reason at all. GRAMOV I had a perfectly good reason. He is a Jew. The other men LAUGH. Panchenko frowns at Gramov. PANCHENKO --and you are an ignorant Tartar. (offers Zus vodka) Ignore him. Here... ZUS Anti-semitism is a violation of Party discipline. Panchenko sighs. Does he really have to deal with this? PANCHENKO He's right, Gramov. Apologize to the Jew. GRAMOV I apologize, Jew. PANCHENKO There. You see? (...a command) Now drink up. Zus doesn't know what to do. He accepts the vodka. 124 EXT. THE BIELSKI CAMP (TO ESTABLISH) 124 Guards ring the snowy perimeter. 125 OMITTED 125 126 THE BLURRED IMAGE OF AN ANGEL FRAMED BY A HALO OF SUNLIGHT 126 as it swims into focus. Tuvia opens his eyes. It is Lilka. She sits beside him, mopping his forehead with a cool rag. LILKA Your fever broke in the night. The medicine helped. TUVIA How long was I asleep? LILKA Two days. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 81C-83. 126 CONTINUED: 126 TUVIA And you've nursed me the whole time? LILKA Chaya helped. TUVIA Did you study nursing at university? LILKA We devoted ourselves to more essential knowledge -- like Greek Philosophy and Latin. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 84. 126 CONTINUED: (4) 126 TUVIA I never went to university. LILKA What kind of work did you do? Before. TUVIA My wife's father had a store. Before the Race Laws. (looks at her) She is is dead. LILKA I'm sorry. TUVIA Tell me more about university. LILKA It all feels like a dream. I spent months trying to master Chopin's nocturnes. TUVIA I'd love to hear you play. LILKA You know Chopin? TUVIA Who doesn't? Chopin the butcher from Novogrudok. LILKA (LAUGHS) If you're well enough to tease me, you're well enough to eat. I'll see what's for supper. She gets up to go. TUVIA Thank you, Lilka. 127 OUTSIDE TUVIA'S BUNKER 127 THE LUBCZANSKI'S have taken the fullest advantage of Tuvia's illness. There are now TWO LINES of people waiting for food. The malbushim line up like prison inmates. Lazar looks into his bowl -- two beans floating in a scummy broth. IN THE SHORTER LINE Motl, Arkady, Fischer, Levine and a few others are enjoying real food. Lazar calls out from the other line. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 85. 127 CONTINUED: 127 LAZAR Hey, Arkady This isn't soup, it's piss. ARKADY I will piss on your head and you will say it's raining. Eat it. The rest of Lubczanski's cabal laughs. TUVIA emerges from his bunker. The first thing he sees is Asael, whose face is BATTERED AND SWOLLEN. TUVIA What happened? Asael just looks over at the food line -- where Arkady has grabbed Chaya by the waist -- to the delight of the others. Tuvia strides over to them. TUVIA (CONT'D) What is this? ARKADY New policy. Fighters get better food. TUVIA Against my orders... ARKADY You are no longer Commander. Sorry. Tuvia nods, considering his remark for a moment. AND THEN TAKES OUT HIS PISTOL AND SHOOTS ARKADY IN THE CHEST! He then turns the gun on Motl and the others -- they literally cower in fear. He raises his voice to those watching. TUVIA As long as I am the leader of this group, you will obey my commands. THERE WILL BE NO MORE COMPLAINING! NO MORE SITTING! NO MORE DOING NOTHING. ANYONE WANTS TO LEAVE, THEY LEAVE. NOW! The rest work. Every morning we get up and we work. WE WORK. In the snow and the cold and the dark. Tomorrow we begin to build ten new zemylanka, we double the number of food missions. ...We work. (looks down at Arkady) Take his body into the woods and leave it for the wolves. He turns and walks away. As he passes the food lines, people subtly move out of his way and whisper after he is gone. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 85A. 127 CONTINUED: (2) 127 Whereas once he was greeted warmly by all, now his isolation is complete. He is the Commander. DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 86. 127A TUVIA CAREENS THROUGH THE TREES 127A Tripping over roots, and finally leaning against a tree, he is mumbling, almost incoherent -- part prayer, part profanity. DISSOLVE TO: 128 OMITTED 128 129 THE FIRST BUD OF SPRING 129 struggles through patches of snow. Ice drips from branches. 130 OMITTED 130 130A THE OTRIAD 130A Takes a group portrait. The forest is green again. 131 THE SUNSHINE IS WARM 131 on the women's bodies as they bathe in the river. CHAYA Who has the soap? I know there was a little left? BELLA Use the sand. It's good for your skin. RIVA And what skin! And already married, too! Bella laughs. Chaya splashes her playfully with water. BELLA I've turned into a skeleton. CHAYA And you were always so worried about staying slim. BELLA When we get out of this forest I am going to eat only cake and grow as big as a house. Tamara appears. She's wearing a long overcoat. LILKA Join us. At least the sun is warm. (Tamara turns away; Lilka joins her) Tamara? TAMARA I can't, Lilka... (lowers her voice) I'm pregnant. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 86A. 131 CONTINUED: 131 LILKA I had no idea. TAMARA I've kept it hidden for months but now it's obvious. No one can know. They move away from the others. Tamara shows her. TAMARA (CONT'D) It could come any day. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 87. 131 CONTINUED: (2) 131 LILKA ..Who is the father? TAMARA I--- It was when I was escaping. A man with a gun stopped me. I thought he was a Partisan. He told me to follow him and he took me to this place... The memory overwhelms her. She begins to break down. TAMARA (CONT'D) Inside me something broke....I wanted to die. Every night I have nightmares -- what will happen when Tuvia finds out. LILKA He will understand. TAMARA No. You mustn't tell him! LILKA I won't. Don't worry. (touches her arm) What are you going to do? Tamara's eyes fill with a new resolve. TAMARA I feel this new life inside me. It's the only thing keeping me going. I won't give it up, I'll kill myself. Lilka puts her arm around her. 131A IN THE DEEP FOREST -- ARON IS OUT HUNTING 131A From his belt hang the pelts of two dead rabbits. He hears A SOUND. Three GERMAN SOLDIERS are putting camouflage on their helmets. Beyond, A GERMAN ARMORED COLUMN. The assault is coming. CUT TO: 132 THE CAMP 132 where Shimon and Malbin are playing chess. Shimon has developed a bad cough. MALBIN You call that a move? SHIMON I call it an inevitable conclusion based on unimpeachable reasoning. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 A87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 SHIMON (CONT'D) The question, my friend the Genius, is what are you going to do about it. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 87A. 132 CONTINUED: (2) 132 MALBIN I'm thinking about what I'm going to do about it. SHIMON Aha! I got him! MALBIN You didn't get me. You think you got me? How about this? SHIMON (GOBSMACKED) Who would make a move like that? MALBIN A genius maybe. Tuvia has been listening nearby. Aron races into the camp. ARON Tuvia... We SEE Aron whispering in Tuvia's ear. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 88. 132 CONTINUED: (3) 132 TUVIA (calls out) Asael! Asael comes running. TUVIA (CONT'D) Get a message to Zus. He's got to tell Viktor they're coming. CUT TO: 133 OMITTED 133 133A EXT. CAMP PERIMETER - DAYS LATER 133A Tuvia stands peering out into the forest. Asael joins him. ASAEL Lazar spotted another patrol. They're getting closer. Tuvia nods. Suddenly, he HEARS a strange sound. An animal? TUVIA Do you hear that? 134 IN THE WOMEN'S ZEMYLANKA 134 We HEAR the SOUND for what it is... The cry of a newborn. A baby boy in this mud manger. Riva and Lilka have assisted. Tamara holds her new baby to her breast. Suddenly -- the blanket serving as a door is SWEPT ASIDE. TUVIA stands there. Tamara cries out and shields the baby. Lilka springs up and pushes him back outside. 135 OUTSIDE THE BUNKER 135 Tuvia walks angrily. Lilka keeps up. LILKA She promises not to take extra food... TUVIA This is against my orders. LILKA So you are going to shoot her, too? Tuvia stares at her. He has never seen this side of her. LILKA (CONT'D) Please, Tuvia. The baby is all she has to live for. TUVIA I cannot allow it. He turns away. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE SALMON Revision - 10-21-07 88A. 135 CONTINUED: 135 Lilka SPINS him around, surprising him with her strength and the strength of her passion. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 7-18-07 89. 135 CONTINUED: (2) 135 LILKA You must let it live! TUVIA I cannot keep the living alive. Tamara and the man who fathered this child are responsible for its fate. LILKA She was raped by the Nazis. Tuvia closes his eyes. He is tired of being in charge, tired of being the arbiter of other peoples' fate. LILKA (CONT'D) ...You tell us to hold onto our humanity. Not to become like animals. What better way than by bringing a life into this world of suffering and death. It's our only hope. Tuvia is undone by her intensity. The very nearness of her. The smell of her newly-washed hair. The glow of her skin. He looks at her. And nods in surrender. LILKA (CONT'D) Thank you, Tuvia. She kisses him. A chaste kiss of gratitude. She pulls back and they look into each other's eyes. The next kiss is something entirely different. TUVIA Lilka... LILKA I knew what was expected of the women here -- yet you never touched me... TUVIA Shhh.. LILKA I'm not afraid of anything, Tuvia. I'm not even afraid of you. They kiss deeply. 136 IN TUVIA'S BUNKER - LATER 136 Lilka lies in his arms. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GOLDENROD Revision - 10-21-07 90. 136 CONTINUED: 136 TUVIA The Germans are coming into the forest. I don't know what is going to become of us. LILKA It doesn't matter. If I had stayed in the ghetto I'd be dead. You saved my life. TUVIA No. You have saved mine. He reaches for her but before they can begin to make love again-- THE BLANKET DOOR IS PUSHED ASIDE. Malbin is there. MALBIN Oh... ..I..... Hello, Lilka. LILKA Hello, Asael. TUVIA Yes? MALBIN We've caught one. CUT TO: 137 A GERMAN SS SCOUT, HANDS TIED BEHIND HIS BACK 137 is led into the clearing. He wears the same uniform as those who marched the villagers into the forest for execution. ASAEL He's a scout. TUVIA They're coming for us. Group members have begun to gather around him. They begin to hurl insults -- schtik drek, paskudnyak -- as the hapless man is pushed to his knees. ASAEL We found this in his pouch. He hands Tuvia a sheaf of documents -- including a map. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 91. 137 CONTINUED: 137 TUVIA Entrance points, wetlands, obstacles. (hands it to Shimon) You read this. SHIMON (re: the documents) They've assigned an entire division to surround the forest. A tidal wave is coming. ASAEL Don't they have a war to fight? SHIMON (still reading) Assault begins in two days. Passover. How fitting. Meanwhile, some of the group have begun TORMENTING the man. MOTL Monster! He kicks him in the head. SHULMAN Bulvan! Shulman PUNCHES him in the face. GERMAN COURIER Bitte....Bitte... TUVIA (to Asael) Did you reach Viktor? ASAEL He's on his way. The tormenting of the poor courier is gaining intensity. MALBIN TUVIA-- The German lets loose a torrent of pleading. GERMAN COURIER Ich habe frau und kinder! SHIMON He says he has a wife and children. Lazar picks up a stick. The German tries to crawl away; the crowd blocks his escape, pushing him back into the center. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 91A. 137 CONTINUED: (2) 137 LAZAR So did I! RIVA If you let him go, he will lead them back here. Tuvia looks at Malbin. What to do? (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 92. 137 CONTINUED: (3) 137 MALBIN Ask if he'll promise not to reveal our location. Shimon translates. SHIMON Sie mussen versprechen nicht zu sagan wo wir sind. The man looks up at him, pleadingly. GERMAN COURIER Nein....Nein... SHULMAN He'll say anything. He breaks the stick across the man's back. LAZAR We want justice... MOTL Justice... Soon it is a chant: "Justice! .Justice!" Tuvia looks at their faces. Only months ago they were decorous, civilized. Now they are hungry, almost feral. Murderous. Bella has been silently watching. She steps into the circle, looks down at the terrified German man. BELLA My son's name was David. David Kagan. We SEE now that she is holding a sharpened hoe. BELLA (CONT'D) He was fifteen. He had blue eyes. She raises it above her head. BELLA (CONT'D) He played the piano. She swings with all her might. The others watch with a mix of thrilled horror and perverse delight. A line has been crossed. Riva steps forward, holding a large shovel. RIVA My sister's name was Ellie... As she swings the shovel, the CAMERA begins to back away. Miriam steps forward, carrying a large rock. MIRIAM My husband was Meyer... The group closes in, obscuring our view of the body. Aron can't take any more. He runs off into the woods. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 A92. 137 CONTINUED: (4) 137 MOTL My parents, Sol and Raya. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 92A. 137 CONTINUED: (5) 137 AVRAM For my daughter, Sonya. MORDECAI For my mother. RACHEL My sister. LILKA My whole family. ALL JUSTICE! JUSTICE! . Tuvia closes his eyes. He has done nothing to stop it. Asael looks at Malbin and Shimon. They are undone by what they have witnessed. Tuvia walks away. Behind them, the group separates -- staring at the lifeless body on the ground. And then they look at each other, their blood lust sated, beginning to reckon with what they have done. What they have become. 138 TUVIA STANDS ALONE IN THE FOREST, HIS FACE IN SHADOW 138 He sees Aron, squatting beside a tree, crying silently. Tuvia kneels beside him, cradling him. TUVIA Reeboynoy shel oylum... Lord of the Universe. We have done unspeakable things yet still I seek your mercy... He HEARS something. Malbin waits at the edge of the forest. His face is drawn and pale from what has just happened. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 93. 138 CONTINUED: 138 MALBIN Viktor is here. CUT TO: 139 VIKTOR AND ZUS 139 are waiting in the clearing. Tuvia approaches. He and Zus nod to each other but do not speak. It is excruciating. Tuvia and Viktor walk into the woods. Zus waits with other BODYGUARDS as Asael joins them. Zus wears a Nazi jacket. ZUS He doesn't look good. ASAEL I could say the same about you. Where'd you get the jacket? ZUS Let's just say the former owner no longer had need of it. Zus winks. The other bodyguards stare impassively. ZUS (CONT'D) Embrace me. Asael looks confused for a moment, then embraces him. ZUS (CONT'D) (WHISPERING) Hide this. (shoves a revolver into his pocket) Wolnicky stores ammunition for us in his barn. There's no guard. He slaps Asael fondly on the cheek and rejoins his comrades. 140 VIKTOR AND TUVIA 140 sit on a downed tree and converse in Russian, with subtitles: VIKTOR You found these on the prisoner? Tuvia nods. Viktor studies the scout's documents. Tisking. TUVIA We can't fight an entire division. VIKTOR The battle on the Eastern Front has begun. The more troops we engage here, the fewer they have to attack the Motherland. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE GREEN Revision - 10-14-07 93A. 140 CONTINUED: 140 TUVIA We've done our part for the Motherland. (CONTINUED) BUFF Revision - 9-2-07 94. 140 CONTINUED: (2) 140 VIKTOR My orders are to take command of all partisan operations. You will bring the rest of your fighters to me. TUVIA And the others? Old people, women and children. VIKTOR In war there are casualties. TUVIA And if I refuse? VIKTOR You are officially a deserter. Do you know the policy on dealing with deserters? Viktor unfolds a paper flyer from his pocket. VIKTOR (CONT'D) ...The Germans are offering fifty thousand marks for information leading to your capture. (hands it to him) Not a very flattering likeness. Too Jewish. Viktor rejoins his bodyguards, turns back for a last word. VIKTOR (CONT'D) Have your men in my camp by tonight. He walks off. Asael takes the wanted poster from Tuvia. ASAEL I wouldn't show this around. There are some who'd turn you in for less. CUT TO: 141 LATER - A SPOTTER PLANE BUZZES HIGH ABOVE - HUNTING 141 Down below, Viktor and the Russian partisans have struck their tents and hidden beneath the sheltering trees. Viktor's gaze follows the plane. He gives an order into a field radio. Zus has been listening. (CONTINUED) SALMON Revision - 8-19-07 95. 141 CONTINUED: 141 ZUS You want them to find Tuvia's camp. Viktor just looks at him. ZUS (CONT'D) You're deliberately sacrificing them so we can remain safe? VIKTOR No. So we can keep fighting. Everyone must sacrifice in the struggle. ZUS Those are my brothers. VIKTOR I am your brother! He is your brother! Comrade Zus. Your Jewish sentimentality is heart-warming, but counter-revolutionary. Zus has secretly known he would hear these words. He grips his rifle but holds his tongue. BACK TO: 142 THE SPOTTER PLANE -- FLIES OVER THE BIELSKI CAMP 142 Tuvia stares up at it. Have they been spotted? Shimon is sitting nearby with a group of children. He looks pale. His cough is worse. He is very ill. SHIMON ...but the children of Israel were afraid to leave Egypt. Until Moses said, 'Do not trust in me, trust in God.' He will take care of you' (a wrenching cough) And so tomorrow we celebrate the Passover by sitting around and arguing just as we have done for centuries. Tuvia stares at them, a curious expression on his face. Malbin comes to stand beside him. MALBIN (looking at the plane) Did it see us? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 7-18-07 96. 142 CONTINUED: 142 TUVIA Tomorrow is Passover. Yes? MALBIN ...How should I know? TUVIA Moses. The Exodus. Malbin doesn't get it at first. TUVIA (CONT'D) --He left before Pharaoh could stop them. Now Malbin understands. He looks at Shimon. MALBIN You want to move them all? The old, the sick. They'll never make it. It isn't the first time Tuvia has consigned people to their death, and apparently it won't be the last. TUVIA We leave now. Spread the word. 143 MOMENTS LATER - THE BIELSKI CAMP 143 is a blur of activity as everyone mobilizes for evacuation. Sacks and cooking equipment is tied onto impromptu packs. Asael and Malbin coax the older people into motion-- ASAEL Come, tateh-- OPPENHEIM But my tools-- The SOUND of approaching aircraft. Tuvia searches the sky. Riva pairs each of the elderly with a child. Tamara tucks her newborn under her coat. The SOUND of the approaching aircraft grows LOUDER. People look up, shielding their eyes. Then from out of the sun, two ominous silhouettes: STUKA DIVE BOMBERS! TUVIA TAKE COVER! 144 THE SCREAMING WHISTLE OF THE FIRST BOMBER 144 panics the crowd. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 97. 144 CONTINUED: 144 Some race into the forest; others are frozen. Tuvia grabs people and bodily drags them to cover. STRAFING 20MM CANNON chew up the ground. Several people are hit before they can reach cover. Lilka herds everyone she can into: 145 A BUNKER 145 where people crowd in like sardines. Chaya and Riva gather children around them. They hear the WHISTLE of an incoming shell....BOOM! Dirt from the roof rains down on them. 146 BOMBS BEGIN TO RAIN DOWN 146 Dirt and debris everywhere. AN INCENDIARY SHELL HITS high in a tree. Its branches burst into flame. An hysterical woman leaps out of a bunker and is BLOWN APART. 147 MEANWHILE - IN VIKTOR'S CAMP 147 Zus listens helplessly to the distant sound of bombs dropping on his brothers. 148 BACK IN THE BIELSKI CAMP - A DIRECT HIT ON A ZEMYLANKA 148 It explodes into a million pieces. Wood shrapnel everywhere. Where once was a bunker, now there is only a gaping crater. Tuvia races into the maelstrom to help the wounded. AN EXPLOSION KNOCKS HIM DOWN He tries to clear his head but he cannot focus. ALL SOUND FADES AWAY to be replaced by a high-pitched hum. 149 TUVIA'S WORLD IS IN SLOW-MOTION 149 Falling dirt and debris, tumbling bodies, exploding bunkers -- a surreal effect. 150 IN REAL TIME -- THE CAMP IS BEING TORN APART 150 Cowering in safety, Malbin sees Tuvia lying in the open and gathers his courage -- RACING through danger to his side. MALBIN Are you alright? Tuvia shakes his head, points to his ears. He cannot hear. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 98. 150 CONTINUED: 150 MALBIN (CONT'D) ARE...YOU...ALRIGHT? When Tuvia speaks, his WORDS sound DULL and MUFFLED. TUVIA MUST...GO! MALBIN ...WHAT? TUVIA THE GERMANS...COMING...! Malbin looks around, panicked. Asael appears out of the smoke, yells at Malbin above the din. ASAEL Get them out of the bunkers! Malbin runs off. Asael helps Tuvia to his feet. A nearby explosion SHOWERS THEM with dirt as they CRAWL to safety. The world RAMPS BACK TO NORMAL SPEED at a dizzying rate. ASAEL (CONT'D) We need to hold them off...until the rest are safe. Tuvia still can't hear. Asael pantomimes firing a rifle. ASAEL (CONT'D) ...HOLD...THEM...OFF! Tuvia nods, trying to clear the buzzing in his head. TUVIA ...MACHINE GUN... ASAEL With Levine and Miriam... There. (points out positions) Lazar, Rosa, and Schmuel. There and there. (Tuvia nods) And me. Tuvia shakes his head, no. ASAEL (CONT'D) Yes. He runs off. Still clearing his head, Tuvia regains his footing -- suddenly realizing the the bombing has stopped. GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 98A. 151 AT THE ENTRY WAY TO A ZEMYLANKA 151 Malbin appears, eyes wild. MALBIN Everybody out! Now! But the group's natural reaction is to stay huddled in safety (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 99. 151 CONTINUED: 151 MALBIN (CONT'D) THE COSSACKS ARE COMING! This gets the job done. People begin to crawl out. 152 OTHERS EMERGE FROM THE BUNKERS 152 YOUNG PEOPLE holding hands with OLD, PARENTS with CHILDREN on their backs. Tuvia urges Lilka and Bella to hurry them into the woods. 153 MEANWHILE -- THE ASSIGNED DEFENDERS, MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE 153 take up their assigned positions: Levine mans the heavy machine gun behind a log; Lazar, Miriam and Rosa in the trees. Tuvia anxiously waits for the last of the women and children to disappear into the forest. A SUDDEN SILENCE DESCENDS - EVERYONE LOOKS TO THE SKY Tuvia realizes the bombers have broken off their attack. He knows the ground troops will soon follow. He turns to Asael, grabbing his shoulders. TUVIA Don't try to fight... Just slow them down. Then join us. Asael nods. No need for more words. They embrace fiercely. Asael pushes Chaya toward Tuvia. ASAEL Take her. She resists, clinging to his arm for a moment. TUVIA Come. He forces her to join him and catch up to the others. 154 THE CAMP 154 is eerily quiet as the dust begins to settle. The defenders check their weapons with grim efficiency. They are no longer inept innocents; they have become warriors. 155 DEEPER IN THE WOODS 155 Tuvia catches up with the fleeing group and urges them on. 156 MOMENTS LATER -- THE DEFENDERS WAIT ANXIOUSLY 156 We study their faces. Beautiful in their stoic acceptance. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 99A. 156 CONTINUED: 156 SUDDENLY -- A FUSILLADE from the woods. Rosa falls dead. The defenders RETURN FIRE. Levine fires the machine gun; Miriam feeds the belt. 157 UP AHEAD WITH THE FLEEING GROUP 157 Tuvia hears small arms fire. He knows what it means. BUFF Revision - 9-2-07 100. 158 BACK AT THE CAMP 158 The rear guard action can't hold out for very long. Tree by tree, they begin to fall back. Asael fires blindly into the murky shadows. The SOUND of a man crying out. Then Levine is hit. Miriam pushes him out of the way and TAKES OVER. She expertly kills several assault troops who appear out of the woods. The rest of the attackers TAKE COVER. 159 WITH THE FLEEING GROUP 159 Malbin waits anxiously for Tuvia, clutching a map. MALBIN (struggling to control his panic) This swamp here...goes...for miles. TUVIA Show me. 160 BACK AT THE CAMP 160 Lazar runs from tree to tree, keeping up a steady stream of fire. He is surprisingly brave. Until A GRENADE flies out of the woods and lands at his feet, killing him instantly. The Assault Troops have begun to outflank them. Asael is suddenly in jeopardy. Sara sees the danger. MIRIAM GO! Miriam keeps their ATTACKERS pinned down as the two men race for new positions. Then she is hit. She keeps firing anyway, her finger locked on the trigger even as she is dying. More troops begin firing from their flank. Asael has no choice but to break off. They race into the woods. 161 BACK TO THE FLEEING GROUP 161 Tuvia hears the guns go silent. This, too, has meaning. 162 A RISE REVEALS THE IMMENSITY OF THE KRASNAYA GORKA SWAMP 162 Malbin stares at what lies ahead. MALBIN Oh, my God... (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 100A. 162 CONTINUED: 162 TUVIA Are the others back yet? (Malbin looks stricken; he shakes his head) ..Asael? Malbin shakes his head once more. Asael is not coming back. Chaya begins to weep. Riva comforts her. SHULMAN We've got to keep going! BELLA The Germans will be here any minute! MALBIN (to Tuvia) Do we wait...a while? MORDECAI We could hide... MAN #3 I say, fight them here. MOTL Yes. Fight! SHULMAN That's crazy! Tuvia is in hell. If he waits for Asael, he risks them all being caught. Suddenly it all falls apart. Tuvia sinks to his knees as if his legs can no longer bear his weight. MALBIN Tuvia--? Tuvia can't speak. He has no more answers. Nothing to say. He stares at the impenetrable swamp. The end of the line. The sudden vacuum of leadership is felt by them all. They stare at one another, anxious and rudderless. WOMAN (ZOE) My father cannot make it. RONA There are snakes-- Tamara's newborn is crying. She tries to comfort it. An old woman stares at the swamp in terror. MAN #1 (FROHMAN) The children... SHULMAN We'll put them on our shoulders. (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 100A1. 162 CONTINUED: (2) 162 BELLA Tuvia, what do we do? Oppenheim is petrified. Rona is crying. MALBIN TUVIA-- And still Tuvia is silent. More arguing. A general MURMUR of dread is rising. Malbin goes to kneel beside Shimon, who is covered in sweat -- undone by the forced march. MALBIN (CONT'D) What's wrong with him? SHIMON (fighting for breath) ...He... ..is... ..tired. Malbin hears something, looks up. FROM HIGH ABOVE - THE SPOTTER PLANE APPEARS They have been found. Lilka kneels beside Tuvia. (CONTINUED) TAN Revision - 9-10-07 100B. 162 CONTINUED: (3) 162 She takes his hand silently. LILKA COME-- He shakes his head. TUVIA You have a weapon? She shows him her revolver. He checks the clip, then looks into her eyes. TUVIA (CONT'D) Use it on yourself before you let them take you. She nods gravely. Suddenly a VOICE interrupts. VOICE Why are we stopping? Everyone turns. It's Asael. Back from the dead. He hands off a wounded comrade to Riva's care. ASAEL (WILD-EYED) They're coming! (to Tuvia) Why aren't we moving? Tuvia looks up at him, lost. Almost helpless. ASAEL (CONT'D) We must keep going! TAMARA In there? RONA It is impossible! More murmuring. Asael raises his voice. ASAEL Nothing is impossible! What we have done is impossible! The murmuring quiets. Asael meets Tuvia's eyes. He is literally willing his older brother to be strong for them, as he has been, time and again. ASAEL (CONT'D) God will not part these waters. We will do it ourselves. RONA But how? (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 8-16-07 100B1. 162 CONTINUED: (4) 162 ASAEL Not by miracles. By our strength. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 100C. 162 CONTINUED: (5) 162 ASAEL (CONT'D) (turning to the man beside him) Take the rope from your pack. (confused; he obeys) Now, you....give me your belt. SHULMAN We don't have enough rope. ASAEL We'll link arms. Make a chain. A human chain. MOTL What are you talking about? Tuvia is deeply moved. His little brother has become a man. Once more, he finds his voice. TUVIA Each person takes care of the other. (meeting Asael's eye) .Give him your belt. Asael nods at Tuvia gratefully. The group is hushed, apprehensive. Then: ONE MAN Removes his belt and offers it to Asael. ANOTHER STANDS, HOLDING HIS BELT And then another. One by one they offer them. There is something quietly heroic in the gesture. Tuvia looks at the group, looks away, fighting back emotion. SALMON Revision - 8-18-07 100D-100E. 162A THEY WADE IN, WAIST HIGH 162A People link arms and hold on for dear life yet still they flounder. A man goes under, is pulled up. A harrowing undertaking. 162AA THE BELTS ARE ROPED ACROSS THE DEEP POOL 162AA People cling to it as they drag themselves, hand over hand. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 101. 162B SOMEONE CLIMBS OUT TO WALK ALONG THE BANK. 162B TUVIA No tracks on land. Get back in. It is almost impossible to make any progress. Especially when one is weak and malnourished. 162C IN A DEEP BOG 162C The mud sticks to their clothes, faces. Soon they are indistinguishable from their surroundings. When one person sinks in the muck, it takes three to get him back on his feet. The column slows. Tuvia gestures for them to keep moving. They can't. Literally cannot. He begins to physically push them on. Sometimes harshly. Eventually they are moving again. CUT TO: 163 A GHOSTLY LANDSCAPE 163 Gnarled bare trees shrouded in mist. They trudge forward, their expressions wan and empty. Tuvia find Malbin and pulls him aside. TUVIA (WHISPERING) How much farther? Malbin shrugs his shoulders. Who knows...? 163A THE WATER IS ALMOST HEAD HIGH 163A Parents hoist children onto their shoulders, hold weapons overhead as they claw at tall reeds to propel themselves forward, step by tortuous step. SHIMON clings to a tree. His wracking cough is terrifying and he is deathly pale. TUVIA Come... Shimon can't catch his breath, he just shakes his head, no. He can't go on. Tuvia half-drags, half-carries him onward. CUT TO: CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 102. 164 A SPIT OF LAND IN THE SWAMP - DUSK 164 They rest, eat what little food is left. A litter carrying Shimon is deposited on dry ground. He is barely alive. MALBIN Is he...? Tuvia shakes his head. It's only a matter of time. The Spotter Plane drones overhead. TUVIA Take off your glasses. Reflections. Tuvia moves off to check on the others. MALBIN Shimon, listen to me, the physical plane is just an illusion. Only the spiritual plane is real. SHIMON (fighting for breath) No. The physical plane is where man acts to redeem himself. MALBIN You've redeemed yourself enough, you should shut up now. SHIMON Look who's talking about shutting up... I need to tell you something. MALBIN (leans closer) What is it? SHIMON You shouldn't think so much. The world around you is beautiful. MALBIN (stunned; looks around) This world? SHIMON Even this one. Tuvia has come to sit beside Lilka. She leans into him. TUVIA We're lost. LILKA No. ..No. She puts her arms around him. (CONTINUED) CHERRY Revision - 9-2-07 102A. 164 CONTINUED: 164 They hold each other and drift off to sleep. CUT TO: 165 AT NIGHTFALL - A SQUAD OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 165 sit around a campfire at the edge of the swamp. FROM NEARBY The LIGHTS of their fire can be seen flickering through the reeds as the ragged column MOVES SILENTLY past. TUVIA Not a sound. Pass the word. We watch as the ORDER is passed down the line. Parents hold hands over their childrens' mouths. Shimon is carried on an improvised litter made of branches. CUT TO: 166 A FOREST CROSSROADS 166 Panchenko and a few others are on horseback. Behind them the rest of the Partisans are marching away. Zus and the Jewish fighters are on foot, awaiting orders. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 103. 166 CONTINUED: 166 PANCHENKO You will hold this crossroads until the brigade has completed its retreat. Zus looks around at the position. ZUS For how long? Panchenko's orders are never to be questioned. PANCHENKO Until you are ordered to withdraw. ZUS And if we cannot hold the position? Panchenko looks at Gramov, who stands nearby cradling a submachine gun. PANCHENKO Comrade Gramov will enforce discipline, if necessary. Gramov smiles. The implications are clear: nobody retreats. PANCHENKO (CONT'D) You have served us well, Comrade. ZUS (a wintry smile) I am so honored, Comrade. Panchenko wheels his horse and gallops off. Zus and his men take cover in the woods. In the distance we can HEAR the unmistakable SOUND of approaching armor. Lova kneels beside Zus. LOVA What are we doing here? Zus? Half a mile down the road, A TANK rumbles into view. LOVA (CONT'D) Tell me. Who are we doing this for? With a shaking hand, Zus tries to light a Molotov cocktail but his matches are wet. He reaches into his pocket for more. Instead he finds the mezuzah that was once affixed to his family's door. As he stares at it, the SOUND of the approaching tank grows louder. BACK TO: YELLOW Revision - 7-30-07 103A-105. 167 THE KRASNAYA GORKA SWAMP 167 empties at last into a shallow river. On the opposite bank is dry land, and beyond, the deep forest. And safety. The bedraggled group makes their way across. 168 OMITTED 168 (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 106-106A. 169 ON THE OPPOSITE BANK 169 Asael pulls people up onto dry ground. They lie there, freezing and exhausted. Some cannot control their shivering. SHULMAN What's next...Sinai? Tuvia can't help but laugh. Soon they are all laughing. It ripples throughout the group. Joyous. Contagious. An overwhelming feeling of relief. They are safe. Tuvia lies on the ground. All the adrenaline has suddenly left his body. Then Aron appears, tugging at his sleeve. Shimon is asking for him. Tuvia kneels down beside his teacher, whose eyes are closed. Malbin is weeping quietly. Who will he argue with? SHIMON (a whisper) .Tuvia... TUVIA Right here. Shimon is at the end. SHIMON ...Something...to say... TUVIA Shhhh... SHIMON ...no...please... (finding the strength) I almost lost...my faith....but you...were sent..by God..to save us. TUVIA Ridiculous. SHIMON I know... ... But just...in case... .I thank....HIM... .and I thank you. He closes his eyes. It's too much for Tuvia. Hard as he tries, he cannot stop the tears from filling his eyes. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 107. 170 SUDDENLY -- UP THE RIVERBANK 170 Trees begin to FALL OVER -- as if pushed by a dinosaur. A PANZER TANK emerges onto the banks, less than a quarter-of-mile away. ITS TURRET BEGINS TO SWIVEL The menacing gun turning in their direction. 171 THE GROUP IS CAUGHT OUT IN THE OPEN. 171 THE TANK ROARS FIRE. The first round EXPLODES among them. Several are killed. TUVIA Back to the river! He pushes people down. They cling to the banks, cowering. THOSE WITH WEAPONS take cover, using the embankment as if it were the lip of a trench. They RETURN FIRE -- old men, young women, even some children. 172 A SQUAD OF GERMAN INFANTRY ADVANCES 172 behind the tank, using it as protection. Aron kills one. But the Germans are well-trained. They direct a withering fire -- forcing the partisans to keep their heads below the embankment. BUT THE TANK IS UNSTOPPABLE It turns its attentions on the riverbank -- its first round SAILS OVERHEAD, sending up a huge geyser of water. But the next round PLOWS INTO THE EARTH, tearing a huge chunk of earth and killing two of the brigade. TUVIA grabs a satchel and begins filling it with grenades. He throws the satchel over Malbin's head, grabs his arm and races, crouching low, beneath the lip of the riverbank. Asael provides covering fire. So do Lilka, Chaya and the women alongside the men. UP AHEAD A stand of trees hides Tuvia from view as he climbs out of the river and heads into the forest. He pulls Malbin down just as A SQUAD OF GERMAN INFANTRY approaches and begins to set up a heavy machine gun. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 8-8-07 107A. 172 CONTINUED: 172 Tuvia POPS UP behind them, spraying them with his submachine gun. He then turns the heavy machine gun on the infantry advancing behind the tank -- to devastating effect. But now, the tank turns its attention to Tuvia. Its machine gun begins to chew up the forest, forcing Tuvia to take cover. Without pausing to think, Malbin grabs a grenade from the satchel and races toward the tank. It falls pitifully short, exploding harmlessly as Malbin is cut down. DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 108. 173 TUVIA IS NOW ISOLATED AND PINNED DOWN 173 Bullets tear chunks out of trees as he tries to take cover. THE TURRET SWIVELS IN HIS DIRECTION It is only a matter of moments before he is dead. WHEN SUDDENLY FROM OUT OF THE WOODS Zus and the rest of Jewish fighters emerge, firing on the run. Without regard for his own life, Zus charges. The German infantry is caught in a cross-fire as the Bielski brigade climbs out the river, firing wildly. Zus guns down the tank commander manning the machine gun from the open hatch. Jumps onto the tank and DROPS A GRENADE inside. An EXPLOSION of BLACK SMOKE BILLOWS. Zus stands up amid the billowing smoke. He sees Tuvia who is staring back at him. 174 BOTH GROUPS MEET - THE DESTROYED TANK SMOLDERS NEARBY 174 Asael is the first to reach Tuvia, who is carrying the German assault machine gun. TUVIA Only weapons and ammunition! Spread the word. Tuvia hands him the machine gun. ASAEL Anything else? Tuvia looks at him. Is he fucking with him? Just a little. TUVIA Go on. Lilka is carrying a small child. TUVIA (CONT'D) Lilka, please help. We've got to get the injured into the forest. LILKA What about the dead? TUVIA Everybody gather your things! We have to get out of the open! Nearby, Aron removes the machine from the tank and hands it to Zus. Bella approaches. Zus embraces her. Tuvia seizes one of the German rifles. He yells to Shulman. TUVIA (CONT'D) Shulman! Weapons only! Tell them. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 108A. 174 CONTINUED: 174 Shulman follows Tuvia's order. TUVIA (CONT'D) (throwing the weapon) You've been promoted. Congratulations! Tuvia turns, sees Bella with Zus. They see him. Zus hands Bella the machine gun from the tank and approaches. TUVIA (CONT'D) Where is the rest of your unit? ZUS Good question. TUVIA You are going back? ZUS No. They look at each other. So much unsaid. No time to say it. TUVIA We've got to build a new camp. Zus nods. ZUS Perhaps you have room for one more? (CONTINUED) DOUBLE BLUE Revision - 9-17-07 109. 174 CONTINUED: (2) 174 Tuvia reaches out his arms and they embrace fiercely. 175 IN THE DEEP WOODS - LATER 175 They walk in silence. Lilka comes to walk beside him, resting her head on his shoulder as they walk. Tuvia looks up at the shafts of light slanting through the towering trees, as if allowing himself to appreciate its beauty for the first time. Suddenly, he stops, listening, puzzled. TUVIA Don't you hear it? ZUS What...? TUVIA Nothing. Isn't it beautiful? We HOLD on Tuvia. He has aged ten years in one. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 7-18-07 110. 175 CONTINUED: 175 But for now he allows himself a brief moment of satisfaction. We might even see the ghost of a smile. But it is short- lived as Asael appears by his side and we see concern once again clouding his face. Another problem to attend to. And as THE CAMERA BEGINS TO PULL AWAY he is already hurrying to catch up with the others. As they all disappear from sight into the sheltering darkness of the woods, these words appear on screen: THEY LIVED IN THE FOREST FOR TWO MORE YEARS. IN THEIR NEW CAMP THEY BUILT A SCHOOL, A HOSPITAL, A NURSERY. AND STILL MORE CAME TO FIND THEM. AT THE TIME OF LIBERATION, TWELVE HUNDRED WALKED OUT OF THE FOREST. DISSOLVE TO: 176 THE OPENING SCENE - NEW YORK CITY - 1982 176 Park Avenue. Traffic. More words on screen: ASAEL JOINED THE RUSSIAN ARMY AND DIED SIX MONTHS LATER. ZUS AND TUVIA EMIGRATED TO THE UNITED STATES. In the taxi, THE ELDERLY MAN thrusts his hand through the slot in the Plexiglas window separating him from the driver. ELDERLY MAN Here is money. I can get more. So much more. Take it, please. CAB DRIVER No, no... Indeed, when the CABBIE speaks, though the voice is older and somewhat frail, we recognize it as Tuvia's. ELDERLY MAN What else can I give you, do for you? AGED TUVIA Nothing, it isn't necessary. Tears stream down the elderly man's cheeks. ELDERLY MAN We are alive because of you. (looks at his son) My children. His children. So many. .Thousands. (CONTINUED) DOUBLE CHERRY Revision - 11-1-07 111. 176 CONTINUED: 176 Behind them, HORNS are HONKING. This is New York City. AGED TUVIA Please, the traffic... ELDERLY MAN Bless you, Tuvia Bielski. May the Lord bless you and keep you all the days of your life. THE CAB PULLS AWAY FROM THE CURB INTO THE RAIN - MIDDLE-AGED SON Papa, who was that man? The Elderly Man watches the cab pull away, wiping his eyes. ELDERLY MAN That wasn't a man. That was an angel. As the cab pulls away, the CAMERA CRANES UP until it is lost in an anonymous sea of traffic. These words appear on SCREEN: TUVIA BIELSKI NEVER SOUGHT RECOGNITION FOR WHAT HE DID. HE DROVE A CAB IN NEW YORK CITY FOR TWENTY YEARS. TUVIA AND LILKA REMAINED MARRIED UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1987. FADE OUT. www.vantageawards.com \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Departed, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Departed, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..8596de83c65548169d63aa78d254930a6e69977c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Departed, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE DEPARTED Written by William Monahan Based on Infernal Affairs SCRIPT AS SHOT COMPILED SEPTEMBER 2006 FADE UP ON THE SOUTH BOSTON HOUSING PROJECTS. A MAZE OF BUILDINGS AGAINST THE HARBOR. COSTELLO (V.O.) I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product...of me. YELLOW RIPPLES PAST THE CAMERA AND WHEN IT CLEARS WE SEE THROUGH DIESEL SMOKE: A BUSING PROTEST IN PROGRESS. THE SCHOOL-BUS, FULL OF BLACK KIDS, IS HIT WITH BRICKS, ROCKS. N.B.: (THIS IS NOT SETTING THE LIVE ACTION IN 1974; IT IS A HISTORICAL MONTAGE, THE BACKGROUND FOR COSTELLO'S V.O.). INT. THE AUTOBODY SHOP. DAY. COSTELLO's profile passes in a dark room. COSTELLO (V.O.) Years ago, we had the Church. That was only a way of saying we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were head-breakers. They took over their piece of the city. EXT. SOUTHIE. VARIOUS The neighborhood. 1980's. We won't be here long. This isn't where Costello ends up. It's where he began. Liquor stores with shamrocked signs. MEN FISHING near Castle Island. Catholic SCHOOLKIDS playing in an asphalted schoolyard. COSTELLO (V.O.) Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a job, we had the presidency. That's what the niggers don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chaps it's this. No one gives it to you. You have to take it. INT. LUNCH COUNTER. DAY COSTELLO comes in. The shop is one that sells papers, sundries, fountain drinks...and fronts a bookie operation. YOUNG COSTELLO (leaning over cluttered counter) Don't make me have to come down here again. (CONTINUED) 2. CONTINUED: PROPRIETOR Won't happen again, Mr. C. The frightened proprietor hands over money. Fifty bucks, a hundred, doesn't matter. COSTELLO is never the threatener. His demeanor is gentle, philosophical. Almost a shrink's probing bedside manner. He has great interest in the world as he moves through it. As if he originally came from a different world and his survival in this one depends on close continual observation and analysis. YOUNG COLIN looks up. CLOSE ON his eyes. He is fourteen or fifteen, but small for his age. Bookish. COSTELLO eyes the proprietor's TEENAGE DAUGHTER, working behind the counter. He takes a propane lighter, and, strangely, pays for it (the proprietor startled) and waits for change. He lights a MORE cigarette with the lighter. YOUNG COSTELLO Carmen's developing into a fine young lady. You should be proud. You get your period yet, Carmen? The PROPRIETOR is uneasy. COSTELLO turns to YOUNG COLIN (about 14) staring at the local hero. Costello reaches up above and behind the counter and takes down some cigarettes. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) You Johnny Sullivan's kid? COLIN nods. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) You live with your grandmother? COLIN nods. YOUNG COLIN Yeah. COSTELLO tells the Proprietor to takes three loaves of bread and some soup off the shelves and puts them in Colin's bag. COSTELLO Get him three loaves of bread. And a couple of half gallons of milk. And some soup. He goes over to the fridge and puts two half gallons of milk in the bag. Some soup. Costello turns to Colin. (CONTINUED) 3. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO (CONT'D) Do you like comic books? Colin nods. He adds a couple of comic books. When the PROPRIETOR looks at him, he takes out the money he put in his pocket and gives back half. YOUNG COSTELLO You do good in school? YOUNG COLIN nods, holding the big bag of loot. COLIN Yes. YOUNG COSTELLO That's good. I did good in school. They call that a paradox. He gives some money to Carmen. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) Buy yourself some makeup. Keep the change. Looks intently at COLIN to see if he gets it. Colin does. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) You ever want to earn a little extra money, you come by L street. You know where I am on L street. COLIN nods: everybody does. YOUNG COLIN Thank you. He pushes out with the bags of groceries. The PROPRIETOR can do shit about it. YOUNG COSTELLO watches YOUNG COLIN go off down a slummy street. INT. A CHURCH. MORNING. 1985-ISH YOUNG COLIN, the good boy, the very good boy, is serving at a funeral Mass. Various views of the church. Stained-glass light. The altar is still wreathed in the smoke of incense. (CONTINUED) 4. CONTINUED: PRIEST (V.O.) To you, O Lord we commend the soul of Alphonsus, your Servant; in the sight of this world he is now dead; in your sight may he live forever. Forgive whatever sins he committed through human weakness and in your goodness grant him everlasting peace. ALL Amen. CLOSE on COLIN'S face. PRIEST (VO) May the angels lead you into paradise; May the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city, The new and eternal Jerusalem. A liturgical bell tings. INT. THE AUTOBODY SHOP. DAY COSTELLO is talking informally (we realize that this is a continuation of the philosophical talk, the shadowy pacing). YOUNG KIDS. Useful young men. YOUNG COLIN, three years older, is among them. YOUNG COSTELLO Church wants you in your place. What sort of man wants to be kept in his place? Do this don't do that, kneel, stand, kneel, stand...I mean if you go for that sort of thing... YOUNG COLIN, the recent altar boy, visibly doesn't go for that sort of thing. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) I don't know what to do for you. A man makes his own way. No one gives it to you. You have to take it. (a beat) Non serviam. YOUNG COLIN James Joyce. (CONTINUED) 5. CONTINUED: YOUNG COSTELLO Him and Lucifer. And me. (to the room) Guineas from the North End and down Providence, tried to tell me what to do...And something maybe happened to them. EXT. A REMOTE BEACH. DAWN Rose-colored dawn. YOUNG COSTELLO, with a pistol, executes a MAN kneeling in the surf. She falls on the body of a man who has just been executed. COSTELLO Jeez, she fell funny. FRENCH moves forward with an axe in his hand. FRENCH Frank, you gotta see somebody. They go about their business. INT. THE AUTOBODY SHOP. DAY YOUNG COSTELLO walking, talking...Not continuous with the above. We see that only YOUNG COLIN is present. YOUNG COSTELLO You decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you, the Church. MISTER FRENCH is doing books off behind a window of dirty glass. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) When I was your age, they would say, we become cops or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: When you are facing a loaded gun... very close on COSTELLO, holding Colin's shoulder. YOUNG COSTELLO (CONT'D) What's the difference? ECU: COLIN'S EYES swerve up. We are now on (MATURE) COLIN'S EYES eyes. This is how the character transits the "age leap"...on the unchanging eyes. 6. THE SAME EYES. Pull back to reveal: POLICE TRAINEES. (INCLUDING BARRIGAN, who is included in all Colin's trainee scenes). COLIN is in the class, wearing a trainee's uniform. He has a notebook, a pen. Writing. INSTRUCTOR The slug enters the skull by forming a small entrance hole. Blood and brain matter is ejected backwards from this hole. The bullet, which may expand, fragment or tumble, then passes through the brain... COLIN writes. INT. FIRING RANGE. DAY POLICE TRAINEES ON A FIRING RANGE. As we go along the line we see COLIN, firing dry and then speed-changing a clip in a BERETTA 92F. He is a perfect trainee. EXT. A TRAINING FIELD. DAY STATE POLICE TRAINEES standing in a pissing rain, a DI yelling at them OS. COLIN is staring forward. RAIN streaming down his face. His opinion on the experience is not decipherable. Ad libs: "Sir, yes, sir." EXT. THE BOSTON COMMON. DAY Guys we recognize from the previous shots at the State Police Academy (wearing Statie t-shirts), including COLIN and BARRIGAN, are playing rugby against some FIREFIGHTERS. Very rough game. The game breaks up with each group giving each other the finger. FIREFIGHTERS are moving away triumphantly. COLIN Fucking firemen are getting pussy for the first time in the history of fire. Or pussy. COLIN sits on a bench looking at THE GOLD DOME OF BEACON HILL. The terraces of fine townhouses. Aqueous golden light behind. Misty golden beauty. (CONTINUED) 7. CONTINUED: BARRIGAN What are you looking at? Forget it. Your father was a janitor, and his son's only a cop. COLIN (not vainglorious, but innocently stretching for the idea) You're in trouble if you're "only" anything. BARRIGAN Don't tell me I'm looking at the first dickhead-American president of the United States. COLIN doesn't have a great sense of humor but he knows how to pretend that he does. He smiles. EXT. STATE POLICE GRADUATION CEREMONY. DAY Bagpipes and bullshit. Flags cracking. Line after line of paramilitary-looking graduates, among them COLIN. SPEAKER (V.O.) The Massachusetts State Police has a long tradition of excellence. Your graduation today solidifies your acceptance into one of the finest law enforcement agencies in our nation. As the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am confident each and every one of you will serve with distinction, honor and integrity. CAMERA swirls around COLIN as he moves, a lone person, through the breaking up crowd. Other graduates are hugged by family. COLIN, alone, comes to the gates of the yard. THE MAYOR VO Congratulations. You are dismissed. The bagpipe band plays "Minstrel Boy." COLIN'S POV: AN OLDSMOBILE. COSTELLO and MISTER FRENCH standing by the car. (CONTINUED) 8. CONTINUED: COLIN walks over to the car. COSTELLO gives COLIN a BOX. COLIN flips open the top and then quickly closes it. NOTE: The box could contain an eyeball, money, drugs, a picture of Colin fucking his school teacher...we will never know. COSTELLO School's out. You earned it. Yeah, no more teachers, no more books. INT. AN EXAMINATION ROOM. DAY TITLE: FOUR YEARS LATER A test is reversed on a desk lit with fluorescents. BILLY takes up a Number Two pencil. He is in a room full of trainees, far enough along in their traineeship that their hair has grown in. A CLOCK TICKS, sweep hand coming around. BILLY'S EYES on it. INSTRUCTOR (O.S.) Begin. BILLY takes the test, marking multiple choice answers swiftly while all around him trainees are sweating and still trying to read the questions. EXT. A TRACK. DAY BILLY, wearing a State Police sweatshirt is running, alongside BROWN a black trainee with specs. BROWN She tells me, you never finish anything. (puff puff) You finish the police course you get taken care of again baby. (puff puff) So after graduation (puff puff) I get a blowjob again. BILLY That's great. Your mom must be a wonderful woman. BROWN Fuck yourself. (CONTINUED) 9. CONTINUED: BILLY Look at it this way, you're a black guy in Boston. You don't need any help from me to be completely fucked. BROWN Ways to get ahead, though, man, ways to get ahead. BILLY (exasperated by this) To where. (Yeah) BROWN is left thinking about this. EXT. TRAINING FIELD. DAY BILLY with other trainees is being braced by a DI. DRILL INSTRUCTOR This is not the regular police. This is the state police. Your training will illustrate the difference. What's the difference? BILLY (sotto voce to BROWN) Rage issues and lower median IQ. DRILL INSTRUCTOR You say something? BILLY Sir, I was agreeing with you about our obvious superiority to other forms of police, sir. DRILL INSTRUCTOR We're not superior, we're the best. BILLY Sir, yes sir. INT. FIRING RANGE. DAY BILLY, in glasses and ear-protectors, waiting for the target. Go from the GUN to 10. INT. A CRACKHOUSE. DAY. COLIN, four years a veteran of the gang unit, is on the job, on a raid, clearing rooms, part of a team working with massive aggression. He moves through a door. A SAD SACK OF SHIT is throwing drugs out a window. COLIN (calling to other cops) Douchebag! COPS enter past Colin and pigpile the man. COLIN is chewing gum, all testosterone and aggression, glad to be a cop. The smartest guy in the room. EXT. FIRING RANGE. DAY BILLY fires, and changes clips. EXT. A STREET IN BOSTON. DAY A BLACK-WINDOWED, MODERN, POLICE BUILDING, beetling over a plaza. Older Boston reflected in the featureless glass. The Boston of this film is almost futuristic. COLIN looks up at the building with great intensity. He puts on his sunglasses and walks towards the door. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. DAY COLIN, in civvies (a very good suit), stands at suave attention before CAPTAIN QUEENAN, a mild and scholarly man who might as well be a Jesuit history-teacher. QUEENAN Congratulations on passing the detective exam, and welcome to the Special Investigation Unit. DIGNAM (tonelessly) Whoop-di fuckin' do. QUEENAN We won't be working directly together, you'll be working for Captain Ellerby, but I like to see everybody. (contemplating him) You're a worker, you rise fast. (CONTINUED) 11. CONTINUED: DIGNAM Like a twelve year old's dick. (Alt: Like a turd in the pool.) COLIN Thank you, Sergeant. DIGNAM My pleasure. COLIN (to Queenan) Thank you, sir. He turns to go. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE WAITING ROOM. DAY As COLIN leaves the office, looking very satisfied and not a little saturnine (it's not as if he isn't pleased by recognition and it's not as if he won't get revenge on Dignam), he barely glances--and does not actually see--the TRAINEE sitting off to one side. He sees polished brogues, and walks on. QUEENAN'S SECRETARY (whispering, joyful, in love with COLIN) Congratulations. COLIN Thanks, hon. As COLIN leaves she moderates her expression and: QUEENAN'S SECRETARY (coldly) You can go in there now. BILLY looks up. He has not seen COLIN, and COLIN has not seen him. He has his interview on his mind. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. MOMENTS LATER BILLY stands at attention. The picture of a spit-and-polish trainee. QUEENAN You can sit. BILLY does. (CONTINUED) 12. CONTINUED: QUEENAN (CONT'D) So. BILLY has no idea why he is in this room with the brass. Sgt. Dignam is staring at him aggressively, with contempt, stirring his coffee. DIGNAM is more intelligent than he seems. QUEENAN (CONT'D) Do you know what we do here? My section? BILLY doesn't want to answer unless he can answer correctly. BILLY Sir, yes, sir, I have an idea... SGT. DIGNAM Whoa, let's say you have no idea and leave it there. No idea. Zip, none. If you had an idea about what we do we would not be good at what we do. We would be cunts. Are you calling us cunts? BILLY wouldn't normally take crap from this guy; but he does. He's openly intrigued by the situation. Dignam is staring at him. BILLY looks evenly at QUEENAN. QUEENAN (not looking up from papers) Staff Sergeant Dignam has a style of his own. I'm afraid we all have to deal with it. SGT. DIGNAM (getting to business, hard) You have family connections down in Southie. Through your father. Tell us about your uncle Jackie. BILLY Uncle Jackie was a carpet layer for Jordan Marsh. SGT. DIGNAM Uncle Jackie was a small-time bookie who tended bar at the Vets in Somerville. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 13. CONTINUED: (2) SGT. DIGNAM (CONT'D) He got popped by Nicastro in '95. They found his body out by the airport. BILLY says slowly: BILLY That's right. (tightly) I remember his funeral. SGT. DIGNAM (cruelly) Closed casket? BILLY That's right. SGT. DIGNAM You tell anybody at Deerfield - that is, before you got kicked out for whaling on a gym teacher with a folding chair - you had an uncle met his demise like that? BILLY says nothing. Eyes luminous. SGT. DIGNAM (CONT'D) I got a question. How fucked up are you? INT. CORRIDOR POLICE BUILDING. DAY COLIN, in his good suit, moves along the hall. He owns the building. He looks into offices. He is looking at his future. From one room BARRIGAN (still working in uniform) gives him the thumbs up. COLIN gets a coffee. He looks at a secretary's ass. Caught at it, he smiles beautifully. She smiles back. BARRIGAN What you got? (with admiration and envy) "Staff Sergeant". In four years you're a sergeant. COLIN SIU. What a country. BARRIGAN (after a beat) Perfect. (CONTINUED) 14. CONTINUED: Meaning to some extent "Perfect for a dick like you". This is how friends come apart. BARRIGAN is unable to continue his pose of congratulation. COLIN (close on Colin) is on to him. COLIN I don't mind going it alone. If you could go it alone you might get somewhere yourself. BARRIGAN We're cops. This isn't "somewhere". COLIN I know you're a worker. I might be able to do something for you. You got any suits at home or you like coming to work looking like you're gonna invade Poland. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. DAY BILLY is still at attention. DIGNAM going with wet thumb through papers. SGT. DIGNAM Let's look at the rest of the family tree. Your maggot uncle Tommy Costigan--he's another goof-- got busted selling guns to federal officers. Among many, many, many other departures from, ah, "normative behavior". QUEENAN is inspecting Billy, watching his reactions. Specs catching light. BILLY What's this got to do with me? SGT. DIGNAM Why are you pretending to be a cop? INT. OCS CONFERENCE ROOM. CONTINUOUS COLIN is eyeing a woman COP across the table. She smiles at him and lowers her eyes. At the end of the table: ELLERBY This unit is new, and you are the newest members of it. You have been selected for it on the basis of intelligence and aptitude. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 15. CONTINUED: ELLERBY (CONT'D) This is an elite unit. Our job is to smash--or at least marginally disrupt-- (he gets the laugh he expected) --organized crime in this city by our own efforts and by enhanced cooperation with the FBI, represented here by Agent Frank Lazio-- (show the deeply unreliable dandy LAZIO) and we will do it. And by organized crime in this city...you know who we mean. SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS come up. COSTELLO in sunglasses standing in front of the Autobody shop. COSTELLO standing with UNCLE JACKIE COSTIGAN. ELLERBY (CONT'D) (clicking the button) That's Jackie Costigan...that's an old picture. Jackie met his demise. PHOTO OF JACKIE'S DEMISE: PHOTO OF JACKIE, DEAD. ELLERBY (CONT'D) Last known photograph. MORE RECENT PHOTOS. FITZY, DELAHUNT, FRENCH, all photographed with COSTELLO. Coming out of buildings, talking on the street, getting into cars. ELLERBY (CONT'D) Costello uses three key guys. There's Fitzy...off the boat psycho...lives in Brockton with his mother who looks like she's straight out of "Going My Way"... There's Delahunt, muscle, and here's French...the number one. But of course the rock star is...[you know who] A picture of COSTELLO comes up. COLIN looks at it. In the MUG SHOT Costello is serene, untouchable legally, untouchable at the heart. He's like a hilarious devil. ELLERBY (CONT'D) We've done a briefing book. Read up. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 16. CONTINUED: (2) ELLERBY (CONT'D) I want to have any and all ideas, so I can pass them off as my own. (laughter, a long beat) Do your jobs and you will rise fast. You're in the best position in the department. Let's go to work. The recruits disperse into a glittering modern office. COLIN, in his flash suit, gets a cup of coffee. He looks at the BRIEFING BOOK. He opens to a picture of COSTELLO. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. DAY DIGNAM still working Billy. DIGNAM Your old man was a hump from Southie. Baggage-handler at the airport. Family's all criminals except your old man. BILLY And one priest. Since you seem to know everything. DIGNAM I ain't sure about him, either. (ALT: Last I heard he was happily married to a 12 year old boy and living on a beach in Thailand.) Family's dug into the Southie projects like ticks. Lifers down there. Three decker men at best. You grew up, however, up the North shore. La di (fuckin') da. Dignam leans over Billy. DIGNAM (CONT'D) You were kind of a double kid, I bet, right? One kid with your old man. One kid with your mother. Upper middle class in the week, and then dropping your 'r's and hanging in the Southie projects with daddy the donkey on the weekends. I got that right? BILLY, opened up expertly and crudely, stares with contained hatred. (CONTINUED) 17. CONTINUED: SGT. DIGNAM You have different accents? You did, didn't you. (You little fuckin' snake.) You were different fuckin' people. BILLY You a psychiatrist? SGT. DIGNAM If I was I'd ask you why you're a Statie making thirty grand a year. And I think if I were Sigmund fucking Freud himself I wouldn't get an answer. So tell me, what's a lace curtain motherfucker like you doing in the Staties? BILLY Well. Families are always rising or falling in America. Am I right? QUEENAN (appreciative, kindly, looking up from his papers) Who said that? BILLY Hawthorne. SGT. DIGNAM (although he knows perfectly well who Hawthorne is) makes a fart-noise with his mouth. BILLY looks at him with an "I'm going to kill you" expression which is not without wit and which Dignam seems to admire. DIGNAM What's the matter, smartass? You don't know any fuckin' Shakespeare? QUEENAN We have a question. You want to be a cop, or do you want to appear to be a cop. It's an honest question. Lot of guys want to appear to be cops. Gun. Badge. Pretend they're on TV... SGT. DIGNAM A lot of em just want to slam a nigger's head through a plate glass window. (CONTINUED) 18. CONTINUED: (2) BILLY I'm all set without your personal job application, Sergeant. DIGNAM (after a "we got a live one" glance at Queenan) What the fuck did you say to me, trainee? BILLY looks at him, and then looks forward. BILLY Sir, with all due respect, sir, what is it you want from me? DIGNAM Hey asshole, he can't help you. I know what you are, and what you aren't. I'm the best friend you ever had on the face of the earth. I'm gonna help you understand something: You're no fuckin' cop. QUEENAN He's right. (Billy looks at Queenan) We deal in deceptions here. But what we don't deal with is self- deception. In five years, you might be anything else in the world, but you won't be a Massachusetts State trooper. BILLY You sure of that? QUEENAN I'm sure of that. DIGNAM Guaranteed. QUEENAN (looking up from his papers) You don't have much family. CLOSE ON BILLY. (CONTINUED) 19. CONTINUED: (3) BILLY (deciding this on the spot) I don't have any family. EXT. HUNTINGTON AVENUE. LATE DAY A TROLLEY goes past. HOSPITAL HILL, above the trolley line, is sinister, quiet. HOSPITAL at the top like a malign fortress, above rows of endlessly repeated condominiums. BILLY CROSSES from the Trolley stop, desperately, an angry young man at his life's turning point. INT. A HOSPITAL ROOM. LATER BILLY'S MOTHER lies as if floating in her bed. Tubes, lights. A bald head on a barely-dented pillow. She is a cancer patient in a coma, weighing possibly 80 lbs. Gasping for air. Her airways are cleared with a suction tube. BILLY sits watching as the tube goes in. BILLY sits looking at her. EXT. THE HOSPITAL CORRIDOR. LATER BILLY is leaning against a wall. A maternal WASP UNCLE, a not- bright guy (pretensions, rather than status), speaks briefly to a DOCTOR further along the hall, then approaches BILLY, hands in the pocket of a good suit. WASP UNCLE What's this I hear from Stephanie about you becoming a policeman? BILLY You mean Stephanie who was the only one who came to my father's funeral? That Stephanie? UNCLE That Stephanie. BILLY Nothing much to it Uncle Edward. UNCLE Are you trying to prove something to the family? BILLY When you say "family", what do you mean? You? (CONTINUED) 20. CONTINUED: UNCLE You always question everything, don't you? BILLY Yeah, well, maybe it would have done you some good to have a question from time to time. "Am I an asshole?" "Are my kids a mess?" "Is my wife a money-grubbing whore?" Those are questions. (the UNCLE starts to leave) "Have I been good to my dying sister or am I just pretending to be?" (he's stung THE UNCLE) Too late now, right? UNCLE Do you need some money for the funeral? THE UNCLE moves away, bends to get his overcoat. BILLY When my mother dies we don't have any connection. You got it? EXT. BOSTON. TWILIGHT AERIAL. FLY FROM the HOSPITAL TO: THE GOLD DOME ON BEACON HILL INT. AN APARTMENT ON BEACON HILL. TWILIGHT A REALTOR switches on lights. An empty, flash apartment above the Parisian rooftops of Beacon Hill. A view of the Dome. More than you'd think a cop could afford. We see, as COLIN does, beyond his reflection in the glass, the STATE HOUSE DOME. REALTOR This is it. Nice. You've got high ceilings, parquet floors. There's a lock on the fridge in case you have eating issues.... Joke...not a very good one. (uneasy) So, you're a policeman? (CONTINUED) 21. CONTINUED: COLIN (like something he is used to reciting) I'm a State Police detective. REALTOR (wondering where he gets his money from) State Police Detective. You a married State Police Detective? COLIN (coming out of his reverie and coldly:) ...No. REALTOR Oh, cuz it's big and I wondered if a cop... COLIN I have a cosigner. REALTOR You intend to have a housemate. That's cool. COLIN Give me the fuckin' papers. EXT. HOSPITAL HILL OVERLOOK. NIGHT BILLY sits on a bench looking out over the whole city. (It is the best view of Boston, never seen in a film). He's smoking a cigarette, making his decision. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. DAY Continuation of the interview. BILLY So what do I do? QUEENAN During the war, Churchill used river mines. He'd float them down the rivers into Germany. They'd either hit something, or not. That's what we'll use you for. I'll float you down the river. The rest will happen. Or it won't... (a beat) (MORE) (CONTINUED) 22. CONTINUED: QUEENAN (CONT'D) By the way, this isn't police work for peanuts. There's money behind this operation. You won't be paid as a cop, but there is a bonus involved. Tax free. QUEENAN writes on a slip of paper and hands it to BILLY. BILLY looks up from the paper, impressed. DIGNAM Luck of the Irish. All that and you're still young enough to fuck undergraduates. QUEENAN We can't conceal that you've been a trainee. You'll be convicted of a crime. We're thinking that a guilty plea to assault and battery might make sense. DIGNAM Given your nature. QUEENAN You'll serve enough jail time to convince anyone that it's no set- up. You'll be on probation. The whole nine yards. DIGNAM I need you, pal. You've already pretended to be a Costigan from South Boston. BILLY looks up with a glazed insolence. In one beat he is not a scared trainee but a smart criminal. BILLY Every weekend...Sergeant. DIGNAM Perfect. QUEENAN Do it again. For me. EXT. HOSPITAL HILL OVERLOOK. NIGHT BILLY throws down his cigarette. He has decided. FILM TITLE: THE DEPARTED 23. EXT. CEMETERY. DAY Priest's cassock whipping in the wind. A few mourners (shabby genteel ladies, contemporaries of his mother), but Billy seems to have no real connection with any of them. LATER BILLY is alone at the grave. He looks at the tags on wind- blown wreaths. One gives him pause. Under a picture of The Virgin it reads: "Heaven holds the Faithful Departed" and is signed: "F. Costello". INT. JAIL HOLDING TANK. DAY A CELL DOOR CLOSES. On Billy. Looking like a real criminal. Not a pretend one. Frightened and resolute at once. BILLY is in a holding tank. EXT. THE BALCONY OF COLIN'S APARTMENT. MORNING COLIN, in a bathrobe, leans on the rail and looks at Boston. THE GOLD DOME visible. Colin drinks coffee. Not satisfied: worried. INT. A PROCESSING FACILITY. DAY BILLY, naked, holds his clothes in a bundle. Being processed out of jail. Beside him another guy, furtive, gruff, not trying to be friendly. OTHER PRISONER You're Bill Costigan? BILLY Who wants to know? OTHER PRISONER Nothin.' I know a Sean Costigan. L Street. BILLY My cousin. OTHER PRISONER Connected but not too bright-- (BILLY looks at him with an only-I-can-insult-my- cousin look) No offense. Billy gets his clothes. 24. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM. DAY On the wall is a rogues gallery of COSTELLO and all his primary guys...MISTER FRENCH, DELAHUNT, FITZY. COLIN and others sitting listening. COLIN, reading a paper (Boston Herald) which may or may not have the headline, CASE DROPPED AGAINST DRUGS CADET (featuring a picture of Billy), looks up as SGT. DIGNAM comes in. SGT. DIGNAM Sorry I'm late. ELLERBY Staff Sergeant Dignam is our liaison with the undercover section. Their undercover work is extensive. He's here to give us his report. Sgt. Dignam. SGT. DIGNAM OK. They're out there, my people. They're like the fuckin' Indians. You're not gonna see them. You're not gonna hear about them except through me or Captain Queenan. You will not, ever, know the identity of undercover people. This shit hole, unfortunately, has more fuckin' leaks than the Iraqi navy. ELLERBY Fuck yourself. SGT. DIGNAM I'm tired from fucking your wife. ELLERBY How's your mother? SGT. DIGNAM Good. She's tired from fucking my father. (opens a FILE) OK, today, girls, what I got for you is microprocessors. LAZIO, the Fed, comes in and sits down. With folders, pencil. (CONTINUED) 25. CONTINUED: SGT. DIGNAM (CONT'D) Somebody, as you may already know, stole one hundred microprocessors from the Mass Processor Corp out Route 128. They're the kind of processors they put into computers that can put a cruise missile up the ass of a camel from the other side of the planet. That's what they do out there on "America's Technology Highway". Worth a hundred grand apiece. Guy worked for the company two months walked out the door with a box of processors on Tuesday, has a ticket booked for Florida on Wednesday, but on Thursday he gets found in a dumpster. You know where this dirt ball started his life? Southie projects. COLIN What was his name? The, ah, departed. SGT. DIGNAM Myles Kennefick. Got the job with a forged UMass transcript. UMass Boston, which incidentally happens to be in... LAZIO South Boston? SGT. DIGNAM Who forged your transcript, dickhead? COLIN I know that guy. His father runs the Hibernian Liquor Mart. Kennefick's. ELLERBY We are not here to solve the "Case of the Dead Scumbag". We are here to nail Costello. COLIN stands down, embarrassed. (CONTINUED) 26. CONTINUED: (2) SGT. DIGNAM We got a guy says that he hears Costello is moving the processors to China...that he set up the whole fuckin' job and popped Kennefick. (LAZIO is writing, lawyerish.) You don't want to miss it if Costello takes a dump. ELLERBY We'd miss less if your informants were available to us, and of course to the FBI (Bureau)... LAZIO Without asking for details, do you have anyone in with Costello presently? SGT. DIGNAM Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself. My theory on Feds is they're like mushrooms. Feed 'em shit and keep in the dark. You girls have a nice day. EXT. A STREET OF TENEMENTS IN SOUTHIE. DAY BILLY steps off a bus at a corner. He goes up to a house, and knocks on the door. A Southie hag answers. On an oxygen cylinder, smoking. BILLY'S AUNT Billy? BILLY nods. BILLY Aunt Cathy? His aunt takes her cigarette out of her mouth and then embraces him fiercely. BILLY takes it like the imposter he is. But he might well love his aunt. BILLY'S AUNT Good to see you. Good to see you. INT. BILLY'S AUNT'S KITCHEN. DAY BILLY is eating soup. (CONTINUED) 27. CONTINUED: BILLY'S AUNT They said you were in the Staties, I couldn't believe it. BILLY I got kicked out about four months ago. SEAN It was in the papers. Sean is a villain leaning in a doorway. Bad tie: he takes it off. He has been at a funeral. BILLY Well. So you know. SEAN And why are we graced with your presence? BILLY I brought your mother some pictures of my father. It's true. They are on the table. BILLY (CONT'D) My mother had them. My mother's dead. SEAN (reflexively) I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your troubles. Sean opens the fridge, opens a beer, and hands it to BILLY. He opens one for himself. SEAN (CONT'D) I was at a funeral myself. Myles Kennefick, knew him in school. Beat the fuck out of him seven or eight times as a matter of fact. (affably to Billy) You workin'? BILLY No. 28. EXT. THE PORCH OF THE THREE-DECKER. LATER Sean and BILLY are still drinking beer. SEAN When did I see you after that? BILLY Not for a long time. Down the cape after Rose's wedding. I think. SEAN Fuck, oh shit. I remember that, dude. I had that fuckin' buck knife, right, and I cut all the brass numbas off the doors at the hotel. I was trippin'...All of them. That was a night. Sean looks deflated. BILLY Listen, I got twenty thousand dollars when my mother died. Insurance. SEAN Yeah? BILLY In your line of work, if I gave you ten thousand dollars what could you give me back? SEAN My line of work... I'm not in that line of work just presently because I don't have ten thousand dollars. As a matter of fact I have never had ten thousand dollars. BILLY That's what I'm saying. Sean nods, and nods. SEAN You know what we usually say at these moments. (CONTINUED) 29. CONTINUED: BILLY You fuckin' moron. What are you talking about? I'm not a cop. I'm your cousin. INT. BILLY'S CAR. NIGHT BILLY is waiting. Sean comes out of a squalid looking house and gets into a car. Fast. Billy puts the car in gear. SEAN Fuckin' Ricans think they know everything. If they knew shit they wouldn't be Puerto Ricans. He has a paper bag full of money. He opens a beer. SEAN (CONT'D) (high as a kite) Double the money, double the fun. (confusing his TV jingles) Cinnamon toasty apple bun... R is for Ricans...P is for pigs... They drive past a BPD cruiser. Sean hides his beer. SEAN (CONT'D) I can't stop drinkin. BILLY laughs. BILLY Why would you even think of stopping drinking? SEAN He don't like it. He don't like drinkin...he don't like fightin... (Sean looks sad) ...he says stay out of the bars... You know, we're not even supposed to do this on this side of fuckin' Worcester. BILLY Who says? SEAN He says. Costello says. God says, as far as you're concerned. 30. INT. A HORRIBLE BAR IN SOUTHIE. NIGHT Sean, beyond wasted, is talking to some people, including MISTER FRENCH. A table wet with spilled beer. SEAN Not a cop. He got out of the joint three weeks ago. Dead up. He talks like his shit don't stink but he's good people. VILLAIN Cunt cop. MISTER FRENCH I knew his father. I liked his uncle Jackie better. SEAN Uncle Jackie was excellent. AN IRISH VILLAIN Fucking guineas. They solemnly toast uncle Jackie and his fate among the fucking guineas. Across the crowded room, BILLY is ordering at the bar. BILLY A cranberry juice. WELL-DRESSED SCUMBAG AT BAR It's a natural diuretic. My girlfriend drinks it when she got her period. (to BILLY) You got your period? BILLY glances over at the table where MISTER FRENCH sits with SEAN, and then smashes his glass into the face of the WELL DRESSED SCUMBAG. He stands waiting for the SCUMBAG to get up he is grabbed and shoved against the wall by MISTER FRENCH. Popped into a pay phone hard. The pay phone comes off the hook. BILLY Get your hands off me. MISTER FRENCH Do you know me? (CONTINUED) 31. CONTINUED: BILLY No. BILLY shakes his head no. MISTER FRENCH I'm the guy who tells you there are guys you hit and there are guys you don't. That's not quite a guy you can't hit, but it's almost a guy you can't hit, so I'm fucking ruling on it right now that you don't hit him, understand? BILLY Yeah. Excellent. Fine. MISTER FRENCH I know you. I know your family. Also I know you do another drug deal with your idiot fucking cop- magnet cousin I'll forget your grandmother was very nice to me and cut your fucking nuts off. You understand that? BILLY Yeah. MISTER FRENCH Now you know me. BILLY Yeah. A beat: they stare at each other. MISTER FRENCH What are you drinking? BILLY Cranberry juice. A beat. MISTER FRENCH What is it, your period? BILLY laughs. MISTER FRENCH (CONT'D) Get him a cranberry juice. (CONTINUED) 32. CONTINUED: (2) The WELL-DRESSED SCUMBAG is bleeding, incredulous. MISTER FRENCH takes him by the shoulder. MISTER FRENCH (CONT'D) (sotto voce to WELL- DRESSED SCUMBAG) That's Jackie's nephew. WELL-DRESSED SCUMBAG Oh... MISTER FRENCH Oh, what? FRENCH demolishes him with body blows. FRENCH Get the fuck out of here. EXT. A HOUSING PROJECT IN SOUTHIE. DAY COLIN and BARRIGAN (who Colin has moved to plain clothes) stand at the door, talking, or trying to talk, with a fearful MRS KENNEFICK. MRS KENNEFICK looks like she starts drinking whiskey at 9 in the morning. COLIN Mrs. Kennefick, Myles and I were in school together. Myles was behind me in school but I knew him. I will get those responsible. Don't you want to see us catch whoever used him to do a robbery and then killed him? MRS KENNEFICK Allegedly. COLIN (grimaces) "Allegedly". MRS KENNEFICK If he was killed he probably did something wrong. COLIN You don't mean robbery do you, Mrs Kennefick? That's not what you think he did wrong. MRS. KENNEFICK notices COSTELLO driving by. 33. INT. COSTELLO'S CAR. DAY. Costello and Gwen are in the car. Gwen is dressed like Jackie O. COSTELLO Wave to your girlfriend. EXT. A HOUSING PROJECT IN SOUTHIE. DAY. MRS KENNEFICK I mean fuck yourself. She slams the door. As COLIN walks away from the door he notices the TAIL: a maroon sedan and a damaged white delivery van. COLIN You get that? BARRIGAN "Allegedly" or "fuck yourself?" COLIN Welcome to the neighborhood. EXT. AN INTERSECTION. MOMENTS LATER FRENCH pulls up to a light. [COSTELLO blows a red light and leaves the tail (including the Surveillance Van which we will see again) behind him in a snarl of traffic.] COSTELLO Cut 'em here. French steps on it and blows through the light, leaving the follow cars behind. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Bye, bye. INT. THE ELEVATOR AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS. DAY COLIN boards with a bunch of other cops and workers. On board, directly beside him, is MADOLYN. COLIN's age, beautiful, wearing a business suit. She has a thick stack of medical-looking files. She's a psychiatrist on contract to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She does probation counselling work with "violent offenders" and also sees policemen. (CONTINUED) 34. CONTINUED: COLIN Making a house call? MADOLYN Have I seen you professionally? COLIN No, no. I know what you do. I know who you are. MADOLYN nods, and then because this is a (relatively) sensitive subject ignores COLIN, but she is visibly attracted by him. COLIN (CONT'D) When guys have to "use their "service revolvers" in the "course of duty" they get to talk to you about their "feelings" and whatnot. MADOLYN laughs. COLIN (CONT'D) No. Oh, I know how it goes. You're a mental health professional. MADOLYN (laughing) I have an appointment on this floor. The door opens. COLIN That's good. They're all fuckin' crazy on that floor. (points up) I'm one floor up. MADOLYN Oh, fancy policeman. COLIN That's right. Fancy. MADOLYN Are you a Statie? After she steps out he prevents the door from closing. (CONTINUED) 35. CONTINUED: (2) COLIN Yeah, I'm also getting my law degree. MADOLYN Suffolk, nights? COLIN They don't run Harvard Law at night, last time I checked. MADOLYN When was the last time you checked? COLIN Before I went to fucking Suffolk. MADOLYN I went to U Mass. I wasn't insulting you. COLIN Well I thought you were, and for that you have to take me to dinner. MADOLYN Maybe you could shoot someone and I'd have to see you professionally. COLIN Whatever it takes. I'll stab someone in the heart with an icepick right now if it gets me dinner with you. MADOLYN hands him a card. COLIN (CONT'D) I don't need a card, I'm a detective. She hesitates. He takes the card. COLIN (CONT'D) I'm only joking. Nice to meet you... "Madolyn". The doors close. The elevator takes him up. He takes out his cellphone as if he's forgotten something. As the doors open, the signal bars light up, and the phone rings. (CONTINUED) 36. CONTINUED: (3) COLIN (CONT'D) (walking, voice low) I didn't know about your tail until I saw it myself. I couldn't call, I had the other guy with me. Blue sedan and a white delivery van, fucked up with graffiti on the side. The van is audio surveillance. OK, have a nice day. INT. A COFFEE SHOP IN SOUTHIE. MORNING The same shop in which YOUNG COSTELLO talked to YOUNG COLIN, all those years ago. Two ITALIANS are in the shop, talking hard to the Pakistani PROPRIETOR (SINGH). These are hard guys but they're not being threatening, just persistent: the guy DOES owe them money. BILLY is finishing his breakfast. Watching. He goes over. The two GUINEAS are amazed. [Dialog on separate document]. Billy is finishing his breakfast. Watching. He goes over.... BILLY You guys from Providence? The GUINEAS look at him. The younger one moves to intervene. BILLY smiles and destroys them both. Maniacal violence. The biggest beatdown in gangster movie history--and obviously that's saying something. In the course of the beat-down Billy breaks his left hand--a "boxer's fracture". BILLY stands over his victims, breathing hard, holding his broken hand. PROPRIETOR What have you done to my place! Get out of here. BILLY goes. INT. EMERGENCY ROOM. NIGHT BILLY, unlit cigarette in his mouth, is having his hand wrapped in plaster by a lady doctor. In another life he might have dated her. Not in this one. INT. FRENCH RESTAURANT. NIGHT A romantic restaurant. The best Boston has (which isn't saying much, but whatever). COLIN, looking great, a man on the rise. MADOLYN in pearls, also looking great. But maybe the conversation has lapsed and the date gone south. (CONTINUED) 37. CONTINUED: COLIN You also do probation work, right? MADOLYN That's right. I see "violent offenders". COLIN Bad guys. MADOLYN That's one way to look at it. Not necessarily. COLIN wonders if she's breaking his balls. A DESSERT arrives: some towering Japanesey concoction with a fan of sugar candy spines, sitting in a pool of sauce. COLIN looks at it, fork poised. MADOLYN looks at it. He looks up at her. COLIN That have this and they don't have duck l'orange. MADOLYN smiles: she likes him. Even with the dinner-long bitterness over the duck l'orange. MADOLYN Was your dinner OK? COLIN (holding balloon of inappropriate wine) Oh, the lobster was excellent. I just thought, French restaurant... The look at the dessert. MADOLYN I'm waiting for you to make your move. COLIN I don't know what you're gonna do, but if it moves I'm going to arrest it (shoot it). MADOLYN laughs. COLIN sees his shot: he's got her laughing. (CONTINUED) 38. CONTINUED: (2) COLIN (CONT'D) What's it like having people "find themselves?" All day long people "finding themselves." Does it get messy with all those feelings flying around the room? MADOLYN Why, does that make you uncomfortable? Colin stares at her. Water glass nearly goes over. MADOLYN (CONT'D) You know what Freud said about the Irish? COLIN Yes I do. MADOLYN If you actually do I'll see you again. COLIN Who says I want to see you again? MADOLYN (concerned, perhaps unexpectedly) Don't you? COLIN Yes, course I do. (a beat) What Freud said about the Irish is We're the only people impervious to psychoanalysis. MADOLYN is impressed. COLIN (CONT'D) Tough luck for you with a client list of Mick cops, isn't it. "Opening up"? Good luck to you. COLIN laughs but looks nervous about the concept of "opening up". COLIN (CONT'D) Why do you do it? (CONTINUED) 39. CONTINUED: (3) MADOLYN Some people do get better. COLIN takes it seriously; admires it. COLIN Fair enough. MADOLYN Sometimes, though, I want people to forget about their personal bullshit and do their jobs. Unsaid: Like I do. COLIN Including the criminals? MADOLYN If they don't do their jobs you don't have one. COLIN Me? I'd just arrest innocent people. I'll arrest you right now. MADOLYN You're trouble. COLIN You don't know the half of it. INT. A HORRIBLE BAR IN SOUTHIE. NIGHT A slow night. BILLY IS AT THE BAR bent over a glass of cranberry juice. The women available are two CRONES. [Dialog on separate document]. Stark contrast to COLIN'S EVENING. A BOOKMAKER on the phone. BILLY, by the glances of people looking at him, has made his bones. He's treated with respect. His hand and wrist in a cast. Out of nowhere (though Billy is aware conversation has stopped he does not look around)... COSTELLO sits down beside him AT THE BAR. BILLY observes: MISTER FRENCH sitting down at a far table. Watching. Covering the room. COSTELLO is brought a glass of water by the silent bartender. No sound whatsoever in the bar. (CONTINUED) 40. CONTINUED: They say nothing, look at each other. BILLY notices DELAHUNT and FITZY, entering. They stand by MISTER FRENCH. BILLY sits motionless. COSTELLO Do you know who I am? BILLY does: but shakes his head. BILLY No. COSTELLO You met my friend, Mister French the other night. BILLY Is his real name Mister French? COSTELLO No. (a beat) Come with me. (As BILLY hesitates) I'm not the cops. I'm not askin' you. BILLY stands up. MISTER FRENCH stands up. BILLY, COSTELLO, and MISTER FRENCH move towards the back room. As they walk to the back room of the bar, we hear COSTELLO: COSTELLO (CONT'D) You know something, they just do not stop having the Mafia in Providence, and this can cause problems for me. INT. BACK ROOM OF THE BAR. CONTINUOUS. COSTELLO Those guys you tuned up are connected down Providence. What they're going to do is come back up with some guys and kill you. Which, sure as you're born, they will do unless I stop them. Do you want me to stop them? BILLY Is it something I can't do personally? (CONTINUED) 41. CONTINUED: COSTELLO appreciates the balls of this. He looks at Mister French. Then back at Billy, smiling. COSTELLO I'm going to have my associate search you. BILLY tenses. Exactly as he might if he were wearing a wire. BILLY Search me? Search me for what? MISTER FRENCH and COSTELLO look at each other. MISTER FRENCH C'm here. COSTELLO Contra-fucking-band. Take your fuckin' shoes off. MISTER FRENCH Shoes off. BILLY slips out of them. MISTER FRENCH inspects the shoes. COSTELLO'S cold eyes are on BILLY. MISTER FRENCH searches BILLY. Looks into his wallet. The wallet is emptied onto a table. COSTELLO I knew your father. BILLY Yeah. He's dead. COSTELLO I'm sorry. How did he go? BILLY He didn't complain. COSTELLO That was his problem. BILLY Who said he had a fuckin' problem. COSTELLO I just said he had a fuckin' problem. There's a man could have been anything. (CONTINUED) 42. CONTINUED: (2) BILLY Are you saying he was nothing? COSTELLO I'm saying he worked at the airport. COSTELLO turns to MISTER FRENCH. MISTER FRENCH He's clean. COSTELLO The arm. With amazing violence MISTER FRENCH smashes the cast on the corner of a table. Billy drops to his knees in tears of pain. MISTER FRENCH sorts through the pieces of the cast. Ad libs: "such a fuckin' pussy." COSTELLO (CONT'D) (holding Billy by the collar) It makes me curious to see you in this neighborhood. Regressing. And, if I can slander my own formative environment, it makes me sad, this regressing. Plus, I don't know if it's beyond some cop prick like fucking Queenan to pull you out of the Staties, and send you after me. I just can't know. I don't know what they do in...that department, anyway. He grabs Billy's broken right hand. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Are you still a cop? BILLY No. COSTELLO twists Billy's broken hand. COSTELLO You swear on your mother's grave that you're not a cop. BILLY I am not a cop. (CONTINUED) 43. CONTINUED: (3) COSTELLO You stop doing coke deals with your jerk-off cousin? BILLY Yes! COSTELLO lets go of Billy's hand. Billy is weeping on the floor. COSTELLO straightens his suit. COSTELLO Take it easy. Get your hand taken care of. I'm sorry. It was necessary. As for our problem with Providence...let's not cry over spilled guineas. INT. THE MAIN PART OF THE BAR. MOMENTS LATER COSTELLO, the visiting king, points at a group of drinkers, including a BLOND WOMAN (1st), GWEN. COSTELLO What's this IRA motherfucker doing in my bar? The IRA MOTHERFUCKER is terrified. COSTELLO (CONT'D) (slapping him on the back) Only kidding. How's your mother? JIMMY Ah, she's on her way out. COSTELLO We all are. (straightens suit and tie) Act accordingly. Costello exits. INT. COSTELLO'S APARTMENT. NIGHT MISTER FRENCH is methodically shelling and eating peanuts. COSTELLO Do you trust him? MISTER FRENCH These days, who's reliable? (CONTINUED) 44. CONTINUED: COSTELLO His Uncle Jackie was. MISTER FRENCH The Costigans are talented in general. COSTELLO You don't trust a guy behaves like he's got nothin' to lose. MISTER FRENCH I'm reliable. And he is. COSTELLO Well, you're one in a million. MISTER FRENCH Ten million. COSTELLO What about your wife? MISTER FRENCH I thought she was. COSTELLO She wasn't. SILENT FLASH of MISTER FRENCH strangling his wife with a wire in a 70's bathroom. MISTER FRENCH She got reliable. GWEN looks up: GWEN Don't you people ever shut the fuck up? COSTELLO "Another county heard from." MISTER FRENCH One too many. 45. EXT. LYNN MARSHLAND. DAWN SEAGULLS squabble over unusual food. POWER PLANT IN THE DISTANCE, the MTA-train going by. TWO BODIES lie in a tidal ditch in the salt-marsh. They are the Italians who Billy fought in the restaurant. Hands taped together behind their backs. Two in the head each. COLIN is with the LYNN POLICE and the State Police forensics people. COLIN gets down and lifts a soaking lapel. Revealed is the tag of a men's shop in Providence. COLIN The principles of detection tell me that these men came from Providence. LYNN DETECTIVE I'd appreciate it if you got out of my crime scene. COLIN This is my crime scene, but knock yourself out. COLIN gets up. He walks back across the marsh. Opens his cell phone. COLIN (CONT'D) (walking) I saw a dead guy. I think I have post traumatic stress. You available for lunch? See you then. At a PAY PHONE he dials another number. INT. COSTELLO'S CONDOMINIUM ON THE HARBOR. MORNING One of Costello's homes. COSTELLO Who's the lead detective?...Good, he's a moron. BILLY cannot hear what COSTELLO is saying. He has an aluminum brace taped on his wrist and hand. COSTELLO (CONT'D) I want you to get the cops to look at Jimmy Pappas for the hit. Of course he had nothing to do with it and will say so. You look in (MORE) (CONTINUED) 46. CONTINUED: COSTELLO (CONT'D) his car...and find...the gun that did it. COLIN In the trunk or the glove box?... All right. EXT. LYNN MARSHLAND. CONTINUOUS COLIN deadpan, appreciative, hangs up the phone. BARRIGAN walks in the middle distance, giving the man his privacy. COLIN Wanna see some dead guys? INT. COSTELLO'S CONDOMINIUM ON THE HARBOR. MORNING COSTELLO sits down in the breakfast area in his bathrobe. He has a bowl of cornflakes. COSTELLO Have a seat, Billy. BILLY Thank you. COSTELLO (he looks up) You know John Lennon? BILLY sits. MISTER FRENCH are nearby. BILLY Yeah, he was president before Lincoln. COSTELLO (smiles) Lennon said `I'm an artist. You give me a fuckin' tuba and I'll get you something out of it'. BILLY I'd like to squeeze some fuckin' money out of it. COSTELLO and MISTER FRENCH look at each other. COSTELLO Smart mouth. Too bad. COSTELLO lifts a piece of plastic on the table revealing a severed human hand. BILLY tries to conceal his shock. 47. INT. SURVEILLANCE OFFICE. CONTINUOUS QUEENAN and STAFF SGT. DIGNAM are listening to the live broadcast. QUEENAN is benign. Lights of equipment in his specs. INT. A CONDOMINIUM ON THE HARBOR. CONTINUOUS. COSTELLO takes the ring off the finger of the severed hand. Partial exchange with MISTER FRENCH. BILLY watches. COSTELLO The point with John Lennon is a man can look at anything and make something out of it. For instance, I look at you and I think what can I use you for? COSTELLO (CONT'D) (giving the hand to Mister French) Get rid of this. (back to Billy) Maybe we can work something out. Let me get dressed. He gets up. INT. COSTELLO'S BATHROOM. DAY BILLY runs the water in the sink. He starts to leave the bathroom and then impulsively takes off his wire and chucks it out the window as far as he can. EXT. THE BUILDING. DAY The wire falls into the water. INT. SURVEILLANCE OFFICE. CONTINUOUS. Queenan reacts mildly to the loss of the signal. He removes his headphones. DIGNAM That was quick. He dead already? EXT. "ACROPOLIS RESTAURANT". DAY A GREEK GUY (JIMMY PAPPAS) in chef's whites is cuffed and stuffed by TACTICAL OFFICERS. He has no idea what is going on. COLIN and BARRIGAN follow. (CONTINUED) 48. CONTINUED: COLIN This will get Captain Ellerby on the six o'clock news. BARRIGAN No wonder you get ahead. EXT. A STREET BY THE HARBOR. DAY BILLY walking and talking on the phone. BILLY I won't do it if I have to wear a wire. No wires. Ever, ever, you understand me? You don't know what this is like. (listens) Micro what? INT. SURVEILLANCE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Queenan on the phone. QUEENAN Microprocessors. We'll probably be at war with the Chinese in twenty- odd years and Costello is selling them military technology. Microprocessors, chips, computer parts. Anybody says anything about anything like that, you let us know. EXT. POLICE BUILDING. DAY. TELEVISION IMAGE. ELLERBY is before a thicket of microphones. REPORTER Did you have a tip from an informant? ELLERBY No, it was tireless police activity that ah effected ah the arrest of the ah alleged perpetrator. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #1. DAY COLIN is rolling a quarter across the backs of his fingers. BROWN (last seen as Billy's friend) and BARRIGAN, new plainclothes recruits to Colin's special squad, sit across from him. (CONTINUED) 49. CONTINUED: COLIN I've been put in charge of this unit. It is a small surveillance sub-unit but it is mine. And I didn't take this job in order to fuck it up, or to let anyone else fuck it up, whosoever they may be. I hand picked this group. You are my A-team so I want you to conduct yourselves accordingly. Through glass we see ELLERBY, preening. ELLERBY gives the thumbs up. COLIN (CONT'D) Hi, Captain. And our primary target is obviously Frank Costello. But we don't communicate with anyone else in this shop. Queenan is compartmentalizing everything in SIU. It's the right thing to do, personally I don't trust these fucking troopers either. We think we might have a problem. We think Costello's got a rat in the State Police. BROWN Really? COLIN Yeah. Really. BROWN Do we have direct access to Queenan's undercovers? COLIN (not happy about this) No. Ah...not presently. Not presently. But I'm hoping to get things...reorganized. That's it. Congratulations. Don't disappoint me. BROWN and BARRIGAN leave. Colin leaves as well. BARRIGAN (to Brown) I know why I'm here. I made him feel guilty. Why are you here? (CONTINUED) 50. CONTINUED: (2) BROWN Intelligence and aptitude. BARRIGAN That's new. COLIN opens his cell phone. COLIN Hello Dad. I have a new job. (ALT: I got a promotion.) INT. A BOOKIE SHOP. DAY MISTER FRENCH backhands a guy into a table of betting slips. MISTER FRENCH Where's your fucking license? I don't see no fucking license. BOOKIE What license. BILLY, who is not wearing a cast anymore, watches. MISTER FRENCH There's no such thing as a license, of course, but you definitely have to have one. (grabs the bookie by the ear) If you are not being run by us you will be run by someone else, which means you will have let undesirable elements into Mr. Costello's area. A HARD GUY sitting reaches inside his coat. BILLY in a flash breaks his jaw with a pistol barrel and then covers the sprawled HARD GUY with the gun. HARD GUY (spitting teeth) I was going for my fucking cigarettes... He was. They fall from his fingers. MISTER FRENCH Hey, that's Jimmy Bags. What the fuck you doin'? (CONTINUED) 51. CONTINUED: BILLY What the fuck. I didn't know.... BOOKIE There's no profit if I pay him two grand a week. I'm in the hole if I pay him two grand a week. MISTER FRENCH Then make more money or go out of business. This is America. If you don't make money you're a fucking douchebag. What are you going to do? BOOKIE Make more money. MISTER FRENCH That's the spirit. EXT. THE STREET OUTSIDE THE BOOKIE SHOP. LATER BILLY and MISTER FRENCH emerge. MISTER FRENCH Very interesting. BILLY Yeah, well. Fuck. MISTER FRENCH Don't worry about it. Guy didn't need need his teeth anyway. Maybe if he was an Eskimo. But in this country we eat a variety of items. They get into COSTELLO'S CAR. Billy in the front seat. Mister French in the back. MISTER FRENCH (CONT'D) He knocked Jimmy Bags teeth out. COSTELLO does an Edgar Kennedy. COSTELLO So? BILLY He was... (CONTINUED) 52. CONTINUED: MISTER FRENCH Reaching for his cigarettes. BILLY Okay! You gonna give me shit, it wasn't no reason----he put his hand in his coat! I don't know if he's a bookie or what the fuck he's doing... COSTELLO (interrupting) Well, you know what the fuck a bookie does? BILLY (to Costello) Pays you. COSTELLO Bingo. Anyway, I like a guy who goes around knocking guys teeth out for no reason. He takes out a cell phone and hands it to BILLY. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Here. From now on call the bar and ask for Mikey. Just Mikey. You ask for Mikey because there's no Mikey. Wait. We'll call. MISTER FRENCH Forty-eight hours from the time this phone first rings, you take the fucking chip out - like so - and you fucking destroy it. After three days a phone ain't clean. If you use a phone which is not clean, you will have a accident. You never call us. We call you. You got that? BILLY I got it. MISTER FRENCH I can't fuckin' hear you. BILLY I got it. 53. INT. A HARBOR RESTAURANT. BOSTON. DAY A lobster-bib kind of place. DAYTIME DRINKERS, MICKS in bad boat shoes, hyper-aware of... COSTELLO and BILLY in a back table. COSTELLO, having finished his lunch, is drawing. Billy is unused to being the subject of so many stares. He has sort of a coked-out nervousness, dirty hair. BILLY Don't look. There's a white van across the parking lot? WE see it through the smeared glass: the WHITE VAN we always see. This time with a different magnetic business sign. COSTELLO (lifting and looking at his sketch) They don't have directional microphones. BILLY What, do you got x-ray vision? COSTELLO (not taking his eyes off his sketch) They don't have directional microphones. BILLY registers what seems to be inside information. COSTELLO looks over his half-glasses at Billy's untouched food. COSTELLO is sizing Billy up: has been thinking about him. COSTELLO (CONT'D) People looking at you make you self- conscious? BILLY shrugs. Indicating: Yeah, well, who the fuck wouldn't be. BILLY I don't know. COSTELLO Why? They're minuses. They can't tell the difference between a rock star and a career criminal. BILLY Anyone not a criminal is a minus? (CONTINUED) 54. CONTINUED: COSTELLO What are you soft? That's not what I said. Eat something, Jesus Christ, we got a nice day by the water. Sun's shining, gulls are up...Nice smell of ozone... TWO PRIESTS and a NUN are sitting two tables over. An older priest and a younger one. COSTELLO notices. THE NUN gets up and leaves. COSTELLO (CONT'D) You know if your father were alive and saw you, sitting here with me, let's say he would have a word with me about this, in fact, he'd kill seven guys just to cut my throat. And he could do it, which is something you may not know about William Costigan, Sr. BILLY He never, ah, I mean never? COSTELLO He kept his own counsel. He never wanted money. You can't do a thing with a man like that. Your uncle Jackie needed a lot of money. But even though he got his money from me, he also would kill my entire fucking family if he saw me here with you. And I think about this. BILLY So what are talking about here? COSTELLO Fact is you're not a guy fresh from the zoo who wants to run a spring water distributor and I don't see you up the dog track as a general manager. BILLY Look at it this way. It's like a tuba. I want to see if I can get something out of it. COSTELLO smiles at this, then looks at his sketch. (CONTINUED) 55. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO You ever think of going back to school? BILLY With all due respect, Mr. Costello, school's out. COSTELLO Well that's your problem. Maybe someday you'll wake the fuck up. He gets up and leaves the table, leaving BILLY sitting there. COSTELLO stops to speak to the priests. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Good day, Fathers. PRIESTS (terrified and simultaneously) Good morning [day], Francis, good morning. The OLDER PRIEST is very nervous, looking around. The YOUNGER PRIEST concerned for his elder but personally not implicated. COSTELLO leans over the OLDER PRIEST, a pathetic man. COSTELLO You recall our chat? (the OLDER PRIEST nods, terrified) "I am as God made me", was that what you said? May I remind you, God don't run the bingo in this archdiocese. YOUNG PRIEST May I remind you, Mr. Costello, that pride comes before the fall. COSTELLO What comes before the Fall is the Summertime. COSTELLO notices that THE NUN is heading back to the table. COSTELLO (CONT'D) How is Sister Mary Theresa doing? We had a tasty relationship before she took her vows. Enjoy your clams, cocksuckers. 56. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT FITZY beats up a guy with a pipe. Billy watches from the background. EXT. WATERFRONT - NIGHT FITZY and the Costello gang blow up a car as Billy watches. Laughing, they hop in their vehicles and drive off. INT. ELLERBY'S OFFICE. MORNING OFFICE decorated with golf implements. ELLERBY has a hangover. Sunglasses. Eating baby aspirin by the small fistful. COLIN I'm not making enough progress with Costello? ELLERBY "Progress" is hard to define. I make progress every day. In fact, I'm making progress now. There are guys in this department make excellent progress for twenty years without ever getting anything you could definitively call a result. It's like any American industry. Nobody minds if you don't succeed as long as you don't fuck up. He has a bowl of ice water on his desk. ELLERBY (CONT'D) Objectives get lost sight of: fair enough. Who did the two guys from Providence? COLIN Jimmy Pappas. ELLERBY And what happened to Jimmy Pappas? COLIN He had a heart attack in jail and got knifed in his bed at Boston City Hospital. I believe it's been in the papers. ELLERBY stares at COLIN. (CONTINUED) 57. CONTINUED: ELLERBY Are you happy with this result? COLIN It's a result. ELLERBY Yeah, but cui bono? Who benefits. COLIN Cui gives a shit. It's got a bow on it. ELLERBY (with true appreciation) I think you are a cop, my son. He drops his face into the bowl of ice water. INT. BILLY'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT. MORNING A stripped HOSPITAL BED stands in a fall of light. This is the apartment where his mother became ill. Billy has packed half of his mother's things into boxes--and then stopped. Billy doesn't use the bedroom. He sleeps on the couch among boxes of pictures, papers, teacups wrapped in newspaper. BILLY is sitting on the couch. He reaches into a box and lays out photographs like cards. Scenes from his life. His former life. His family life, his life as a child, his romantic life. He sits and stares at the pictures. He rearranges the photographs in different ways. NOTE: THIS IS A MEMORY BILLY HAS AS HE IS LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPHS ON HIS MOTHER'S APARTMENT. FRENCH and BILLY break in, surprising the MAN (BRIAN), seated at his dining room table. He throws a child's toy at them. FRENCH ducks out of the way and the toy hits BILLY in the cheek. FRENCH draws his pistol and approaches the table. BRIAN rises and starts to flee. Cut off, he retreats the other way. BRIAN No, please... FRENCH Brian, stop it, I ain't gonna hurt you. (CONTINUED) 58. CONTINUED: He fires, using a soda bottle as a silencer. BRIAN drops to the floor. FRENCH approaches him assessing his victim. He turns to leave, passing BILLY. He give him a slap. FRENCH (CONT'D) Wake the fuck up. They leave. EXT. A BEACH NEAR A POWERPLANT. DAY BILLY leans against the wall of a concession stand. His knuckles are cut. A cut over his eye. He is agitated. Smoking. A car pulls up and Queenan and Dignam get out of it. In appearance, if anybody's watching, they're bracing Billy. QUEENAN Hey. Let's go through the routine. DIGNAM You think you can pop someone. There's no special card to play. The guy whose jaw you broke was Boston Police Department. BILLY I'm going fuckin' nuts. I can't be someone else every day. DIGNAM Most of the people in the world do it every day. What's the big deal? Dignam is drinking coffee. BILLY I'm not them. DIGNAM You're nobody. You signed the paper. We're the only people in the world who know that you're a cop. Maybe we'll just erase your file. This is Billy's deepest fear. (CONTINUED) 59. CONTINUED: DIGNAM (CONT'D) And zip, you're a soldier for Costello, open to arrest for how many felonies? Maybe we'll do that. BILLY Maybe I'll fucking kill you. He gets free of DIGNAM and punches him. QUEENAN Easy now. That was a joke, Billy. DIGNAM Just because you play a fucking tough guy doesn't mean you are one, you lace curtain fucking pussy. The fight. QUEENAN grabs Billy and holds him against the wall. QUEENAN (gently, like a man calming a wild animal) Be smart. If someone was watching how are we supposed to not arrest you? BILLY looks desperately inland. REVERE BEACH condominium buildings. A thousand empty terraces, five thousand empty windows. BILLY is desperate. QUEENAN (CONT'D) Get in the car. They do. QUEENAN (CONT'D) Keep your act together. It's just a little while longer. BILLY nods, out of it. DIGNAM is looking at blood on his hands in disbelief. BILLY When are you going to take Costello? What's wrong with taking 'em on any one of the million felonies you've seen him do. Get him for pissing in the street. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. CONTINUED: (2) BILLY (CONT'D) What, are you waiting for him to chop me up and feed me to the poor? DIGNAM Well. That would stick... QUEENAN You shut up. We're building a case. It takes time. You know that. BILLY There's something wrong. QUEENAN Maybe. Maybe. DIGNAM Keep your ears opened. No bullshit. QUEENAN I want you to listen for any chatter about a spy in the Special Investigation Unit. (BILLY looks at him) You hear anything like that? BILLY shakes his head. BILLY Are you serious? QUEENAN I'm afraid so. BILLY Jesus H. Christ. QUEENAN Hang tight for me. Just a little longer. We're this close. BILLY nods reluctantly. BILLY Okay. QUEENAN Thank you, Billy 61. INT. OBSERVATION OFFICE. DAY COLIN walks into the office. BROWN and other team members are watching a closed-circuit monitor. The MONITOR shows FITZY sitting in an interrogation room. COLIN is spooked. COLIN (to Brown) What have you got? BROWN Uniform clipped him on the Pike for a suspended licence. However, as he's the subject of an open investigation---- COLIN At least one. He's one of Costello's crew. BROWN ----we're entitled to get a warrant. We can't get an address off him. He paged his lawyer but the lawyer hasn't called back yet. COLIN Who's the lawyer? BROWN He didn't know the name. He just had the number on a card. Beeper number. COLIN Did he beep him? BROWN Twice. COLIN All right. COLIN glances around and sees: a briefcase lying on a desk. He picks it up. He takes off his ID badge and tosses it on a desk. COLIN (CONT'D) Give me your phone. (to Barrigan) Turn the camera off. Turn it off. (CONTINUED) 62. CONTINUED: He takes Brown's cellphone out of Brown's pocket goes into the interrogation room. BROWN What? COLIN Give my your phone and turn the fucking camera off. Who's is this? I'm gonna take this. He picks up a BRIEFCASE. BARRIGAN touches two buttons and switches off the sound recorder and video feed. COLIN goes into the interrogation room. BROWN He can't do that, can he? BARRIGAN He just did. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. CONTINUOUS FITZY looks up at COLIN hopefully. COLIN says nothing. He sits down, opens his case, takes out a yellow pad. COLIN Mr. Fitzgibbon, afternoon. FITZY You my attorney? COLIN What do you think? Did you make any statements or phone calls I need to be aware of? FITZY I beeped you. The card they gave me...that's it. COLIN That's it? Don't you have to call your mother and tell her you're not gonna be home for supper? ON FITZY. He looks up at the CCTV camera. (CONTINUED) 63. CONTINUED: COLIN (CONT'D) The cameras are off. (gently puts phone on the table) Call your mother. Fitzy hesitates. COLIN (CONT'D) Lookit. They're in there suiting up for a raid. I don't know where they are going, but they do. And so do you. Call your mum. COLIN puts a cellphone on the table. FITZY takes up the phone and punches in a number. It is answered. FITZY Mum, I'm not gonna make it for supper. I got held up. Yeah, talk to you later. INT. A HOUSE WHERE DRUGS ARE BEING HANDLED. CONTINUOUS BILLY looks up at MISTER FRENCH, who is on the phone. Other men are frozen, holding bags of Ex. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. CONTINUOUS. FITZY closes the cellphone. He puts it into COLIN'S hand. INT. A HOUSE WHERE DRUGS ARE BEING HANDLED. CONTINUOUS MISTER FRENCH Everybody out. Move. The DRUGS are swept up instantly, in sheets laid over the tables. MISTER FRENCH lights a cigarette with his ZIPPO, and then reaches out and lights the curtains on fire as BILLY watches. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. CONTINUOUS. COLIN takes the cellphone and puts it in his pocket. FITZY Who are you? When do I get out of here? (CONTINUED) 64. CONTINUED: COLIN I think you need another attorney, after all, Mr. Fitzgibbon. Have a nice day. INT. OBSERVATION OFFICE.CONTINUOUS COLIN comes out and hands BROWN the CELLPHONE. COLIN Run the last number called. That'll be his house. Whatever the location is I'll swear I surveilled him at it. Abracafuckindabra. BROWN Why'd you use my phone? COLIN Because you didn't go in there. INT. COLIN'S APARTMENT - DAY COLIN, hung-over, sits at the breakfast table. Madolyn looks at him. MADOLYN The light's nice here in the morning. COLIN doesn't respond. MADOLYN (CONT'D) It's all right. Guys tend to make a big deal out of it. It's actually quite common. COLIN I gotta go to work. COLIN simply gets up and walks away. INT. MADOLYN'S OFFICE. DAY A clock ticking. Madolyn is looking across at ...Billy. Madolyn is very much a guarded shrink. But no one's more guarded than Billy. BILLY It's like confession. Isn't it. This sort of thing. (CONTINUED) 65. CONTINUED: A beat. BILLY (CONT'D) People make things up in confession. You know that? MADOLYN I know they do. BILLY People are liars. They want to be stars of their little films. MADOLYN That's an interesting observation. BILLY Do you lie? MADOLYN Why do you? BILLY I'm asking if you lie. MADOLYN Honesty isn't synonymous with truth. BILLY You lie. So, is it to do some good, to get somewhere personally, or just for the fuck of it? MADOLYN I expect sometimes...people...do it to keep things...on an even keel. BILLY So, you had a parent who was a drunk? MADOLYN looks up at him, transpierced. Tables turned on the psychiatrist. BILLY smiles at her. MADOLYN (flustered) Did you? BILLY (simply) No. (CONTINUED) 66. CONTINUED: (2) MADOLYN Let's keep this with you. BILLY (abruptly) There was a cop leaving when I came in. MADOLYN How do you know he was a cop? BILLY Bad haircut, no dress sense and a slight air of scumbag entitlement. You see cops? MADOLYN That's part of what I do. Although, I don't normally see cadets who were kicked out of the Academy. BILLY You should get a better job... BILLY (CONT'D) Do they all come in and cry...your cops? MADOLYN Sometimes they cry if they had trouble at home or if they've had to...use their weapons. BILLY Let me tell you something. They signed up to use their fuckin' weapons. Most of them. But they watch enough TV so they know they have to "weep" after they use their weapons. No one's more full of shit than a cop. Except a cop on TV. MADOLYN I looked through your file and I see you have a record of assault. What was it like for you in jail? BILLY You want to hear about the showers? MADOLYN Did something happen to you? (CONTINUED) 67. CONTINUED: (3) BILLY No. (a beat) You sit there with a mass murderer, your heart-rate jacked, your hand...steady. That's one thing I found out about myself in prison. My hand doesn't shake, ever. MADOLYN What do you expect from coming here? BILLY I have to come here. MADOLYN I know it's not elective...on your part...but, now that you're here, what do you want? BILLY You want the truth? (a beat) Valium. MADOLYN If you lied, you'd have an easier time getting what you wanted. BILLY What's that say about what you do for a living? Madolyn is taken aback. She closes her file. MADOLYN Look, I think we better have a few more meetings before we can even talk about prescriptions. She closes his file and puts it in the rack behind her. BILLY I'm having panic attacks. You didn't even ask about that. Last night I thought I was having a fucking heart attack. I puked in a trash barrel on the way in here, I haven't slept for weeks. (CONTINUED) 68. CONTINUED: (4) MADOLYN Is this true? BILLY Yes. I said something true. I want some fucking pills and you close my file? I thought I was supposed to tell the truth here. MADOLYN Yes, you are. BILLY If only fuckin' here. She retrieves his folder. BILLY (CONT'D) (giving into stress) Guy comes in in pain, against every instinct of ...privacy, of, of, self reliance... that he has, and you don't help him? You send him off to score smack on the fucking street?! (Is that what you do, Mrs. Fuckin' Doctor?) MADOLYN stares at him, then lowers her eyes, takes out a small packet of two pills. She hands it over to him. BILLY looks at it. BILLY (CONT'D) Two pills. She nods. BILLY reaches out and deliberately places the pills on the desk. BILLY (CONT'D) Why don't you just give me a bottle of scotch and a handgun to blow my fucking head off. Are we done here with this psychiatry bullshit? MADOLYN is taken aback, guilty, astonished. MADOLYN You can leave! BILLY What if that was a legitimate threat? (Hot shot). (CONTINUED) 69. CONTINUED: (5) BILLY leaves. MADOLYN stares after him. MADOLYN Fuck... EXT. PLAZA OUTSIDE THE OFFICE BUILDING. DAY Very windy. Papers blowing. Billy is walking. Madolyn catches up to him. MADOLYN Why is the hardest patient of the day always the last one? BILLY Because you're bored and tired and don't give a shit. It's not supernatural. MADOLYN Look, I'm not just...somebody you have to see or they put you in jail. If you are in distress I will help you. Madolyn holds out a paper and a business card. BILLY What's this? MADOLYN My card. And a prescription for twenty Lorazepam. BILLY stands holding the prescription. BILLY Is it enough to kill myself? MADOLYN (she fixes him with a stare) Maybe it is. All right? Have I done my job up to your goddamned standards? Because by my standards you fit the model of drug-seeking behavior, and fuck you if you don't like my initial clinical reaction. BILLY (re: prescription) Thank you. (CONTINUED) 70. CONTINUED: MADOLYN I'm transferring you to another counselor. She starts to go back inside. BILLY You wanna get a cup of coffee? INT. COMMAND CENTER (UPSTAIRS). NIGHT. A WEEK LATER It's an otherwise disused floor of a new luxury office building. Cables and monitors and computers everywhere. It's crawling with State Cops as well as FBI (LAZIO is present, very nattily dressed). COLIN comes in with BROWN and BARRIGAN. This operation is all new to Colin. ELLERBY All right, let's bring it in, please. Come in please. (addressing room) Our target is a major transaction of microprocessors. Yes, those. I don't know what they are. You don't know what they are. Who gives a fuck? Cash will be handed over in a building which we have under AV surveillance. Staff Sergeant Sullivan's team... (he nods at COLIN) Will ID the bad guys and listen in on the phones. COLIN (to his guys) Did you guys know anything about this? No. ELLERBY (to LAZIO) How long have we been tapped on this building? ELLERBY (CONT'D) Our unit will not take action until a man Captain Queenan has inside the operation has verified the transaction. Questions? Anyone? This is who we're after. (taps picture of Costello) (MORE) (CONTINUED) 71. CONTINUED: ELLERBY (CONT'D) We've been after this cocksucker for a long time, and tonight we're gonna get him. Get to work. ON COLIN as he reflexively touches his cell phone and thinks about the best way out of this. ELLERBY (CONT'D) We've been after this son of a bitch for a long time, and we're getting him tonight. Get to work. COLIN (to team) Go find out what we're doing and get on it. COLIN wanders off in the mill of officers. He is taking out his cell phone when ELLERBY comes up to him. ELLERBY Sorry to get you at the last minute. But things leak. This lead came from Queenan's undercover guy. ELLERBY walks on to a COFFEE STATION, a yard away. COLIN (into cell) Dad? COSTELLO (O.S.) (on phone) Yes? COLIN is completely normal on the phone. COLIN I'm not going to make dinner. Something big has come up. INT. COSTELLO'S APARMENT. CONTINUOUS COSTELLO is on the phone. COSTELLO Too bad. Your mother worked all goddamned day. We'll just have to sit down without you and your friends. 72. INT. COMMAND CENTER. CONTINUOUS COLIN turns away from the activity. COLIN Oh, my friends are still coming. COLIN sees QUEENAN staring at him. COLIN (CONT'D) We'll just say lunch tomorrow. All right, bye. COLIN ends the call. QUEENAN is there. QUEENAN The readiness is all. You know the players, call the game. COLIN Thank you, Captain. He gives him the clipboard, Colin goes to the work area. LATER COLIN joins his team (BROWN AND BARRIGAN), who are seated in a U shaped work-area. COLIN, still stunned by the fact of this operations center, swallows as he notices on video three angles of a building he seems to know very well. He sits down and puts a headset on. A GEEK COP leans over and shakes his hand. GEEK COP Piece of cake. I'll operate the cameras. You ID the guys and log them. COLIN nods. QUEENAN comes up. QUEENAN All cellphone signals are under surveillance through the courtesy of our Federal friends over there... COLIN looks: sees LAZIO and two others. ELLERBY (as if on coke and he probably is) Patriot Act. Love it. Love it. (CONTINUED) 73. CONTINUED: COLIN, using his left hand, not looking, opens his cellphone, autodials, and then taps an instant message into it, pushes "Send." DETAIL OF IM: "No Phones" ONSCREEN, CARS PULL UP IN FRONT OF THE TARGET BUILDING. COLIN All right. That's Costello right there. Costello, Mister French, Fitzy, Delahunt, Billy Costigan the new guy...Time is 10.46. BROWN Who are they meeting? ELLERBY (leaning over screens) I don't know. Some Chinamen from points unknown. They're already inside. DETAIL OF COLIN'S PHONE. COLIN hits "send", sending the message "No phones". THE SCREEN then reads "Erasing Sent Message". EXT. TARGET BUILDING. NIGHT COSTELLO and the boys go into the building, moving past TWO IDLING CARS. We see Costello look casually at his phone. INT. COMMAND CENTER. CONTINUOUS Watching images. COSTELLO'S GUYS move through pillars and disappear. CAMERA GEEK COP We have a blind spot. ELLERBY Why do you have a blind spot? CAMERA GEEK COP We had two hour's notice. Two hours. What the fuck you think this is, NASA? ELLERBY It never crossed my mind. You get a camera in the back? (CONTINUED) 74. CONTINUED: TECH COP IN DOWN VEST What back? Ellerby blows his nose. He is on coke. COLIN sends another TEXT MESSAGE: "Blind spot inside door." INT. TARGET BUILDING. CONTINUOUS - REVISED 6/8-9/05 COSTELLO looks at his IM screen and turns to his guys. COSTELLO Turn off your cell phones. FITZY and some others mutter. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Check your weapons...Fitzy has the chicken... Everyone turns off their phones, including BILLY (but we know Billy has TWO phones). BILLY looks around at the pillared distances. He sees: A GROUP OF THREE MEN waiting and FIVE OTHER MEN spreading out through the pillars. Armed. INT. COMMAND CENTER. CONTINUOUS CAMERA COP (to no one, and maybe OS) Maybe if we had some Homeland security money like some other fucking douchebags I could mention... Both Brown and Colin have their headsets on. QUEENAN Any calls? PHONE TECH COP They turned off their phones. COLIN looks utterly innocent. ELLERBY Search randomly for calls made from the area. (CONTINUED) 75. CONTINUED: PHONE TECH COP Eight hundred seven phones are live in this area. ELLERBY Narrow the area. LAZIO What you see for coverage is what you get. DIGNAM (like Queenan, an observer of Ellerby's operation) Why the fuck did they turn off their phones? PHONE TECH COP Wait, there's still one phone up. DIGNAM Where? A single light on the screen. QUEENAN looks at an IM (from Billy) on his phone. DETAIL: "buyers here". ("$") QUEENAN The buyers are there. COLIN wonders how Queenan knew this. The single light winks out on the screen. ELLERBY looks at Queenan, impressed. ELLERBY You know, direct access to your fucking guys would have certain fuckin' advantages. QUEENAN (mildly) Not to my guy. ELLERBY stares at him. DIGNAM This is unbelievable. (looking at screens) Fuck it, who put the cameras in the fucking place? (CONTINUED) 76. CONTINUED: (2) CAMERA TECH COP Who the fuck are you. DIGNAM I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy. QUEENAN Hey, hey, hey... INT. AN OPEN AREA IN THE RUINED BUILDING. NIGHT COSTELLO'S BOYS spread out. Across the open, lumber-strewn area, CHINESE GANG MEMBERS are waiting. A LOCAL CHINESE-AMERICAN MAN acting as the interpreter and fixer stands waiting near a SUITCASE on the floor. With the CHINESE GANGSTERS is a more official looking MAN IN A BAD SUIT - terrified. FITZY carries a case containing the processors. COSTELLO (to translator) How you going, Robert? CHINESE TRANSLATOR Tops, Mr. Costello. I want to tell you that at least two of these gents have machine guns. COSTELLO takes it all in. The CHINESE GANGSTER looks like a Malay pirate. Costello's gunmen are perched above, automatic weapons trained on the Triad. BILLY sneaks a message to Queenan via Text Message,"$" to indicate "buyers here." CHINESE GANGSTER (in Cantonese, not subtitled) Waiting, waiting. We almost departed! This man is from the Embassy. He will have to blow his brains out if he is captured. His entire family will be killed. CHINESE TRANSLATOR He's a little upset. COSTELLO Tell him light on the starch. (CONTINUED) 77. CONTINUED: BILLY is watching carefully. [As (INSERT) ONSCREEN in the OPERATIONS ROOM the last lights wink off...] He removes his hand from his pocket, having just switched off his phone. CHINESE TRANSLATOR (roughly translating) He's fronting the Chinese government and he's just scared shitless. COSTELLO Government man. (loudly, to Chinese) I'm concerned about Chinamen who think it's wise to bring automatic weapons to a business transaction. The CHINESE GANGSTER interjects -- CHINESE GANGSTER Ngup, Ngup, Ngup. Ngaw um ming. Kay ngup mutt. [Yap, yap, yap. I don't understand. What is he saying?] The CHINESE TRANSLATOR translates Costello's statement about "concern." SEVERAL OF THE TRIAD, hearing a "automatic weapon," stupidly raise their MACHINE GUNS. They don't aim them. COSTELLO For his own good, tell Bruce Lee and the Karate Kids none of us are carrying automatic weapons because here, in this country, it don't add inches to your dick. You get a life sentence for it. We (but no one else) hear a double click as MISTER FRENCH cocks a pistol behind his back. CHINESE GANGSTER (in Cantonese) Put away that machine gun. The MACHINE GUN is put away. (CONTINUED) 78. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO If these chinks want to nuke Taiwan any time in this century, you tell them they better shape up fast and show me one million dollars. The CHINESE TRANSLATOR translates. COSTELLO (CONT'D) What we generally do in this country is one guy shows up with the items, and the other guy pays him. No tickee...no laundry. COSTELLO gestures and a BOX of PROCESSORS is put on the floor. Opened. The CHINESE GANGSTER gestures and a case of money is put on the floor. Opened. FITZY looks at it, nods. CHINESE GANGSTER Nay tiey ching chaw yut bok mon. [Make sure it's real. It's a million dollars.]. ALTERNATE/ALSO (insult): Ne dei yeeche ling ngnaw dong maw gok nay chun. [Next time you make me wait, I'm going to cut your dick off. COSTELLO In English, thank you, also. CHINESE GANGSTER Du ne. [Fuck you.] The deal is done. COSTELLO The expedition continues this way. To Billy's surprise both Costello's men and the Chinese head out through the back industrial windows onto a canal-side pier. INT. COMMAND CENTER. CONTINUOUS The CARS of the CHINESE GUYS are driven away, passing a van full of... Startled TACTICAL COPS. TWO TACTICAL UNITS are hidden outside. 79. INT. COMMAND CENTER. CONTINUOUS ELLERBY is staring at the screens. ELLERBY Don't tell me those cars were empty. Please don't tell me those Chinamen's cars were empty. (to Camera Tech Cop) Do you have a camera in the back. An IMAGE comes up. Nothing. ELLERBY (CONT'D) Can I talk to you a minute? As the Camera Technician gets up, Ellerby pounces on him. EXT. BEHIND THE BUILDING. CONTINUOUS Tied to the pier there are two boats, a NOVI LOBSTER BOAT and a BOSTON WHALER with a guys we've never seen at the wheel (random getaway hires). The TRIAD members get into the NOVI, and chug away. Fitzy carries the SUITCASES OF MONEY onto a BOSTON WHALER and it takes off. COSTELLO turns to Billy. COSTELLO See, no surveillance here. They didn't figure we had a navy. Always figure an exit for your business partners. What with everything all dug up, you can't trust a slant to find the Mass Pike and, with or without Staties out front, frankly I don't approve of orientals driving to begin with. BILLY What about us, Frank? What're we gonna do? COSTELLO We depart. We didn't commit no illegalities. BILLY is stunned. Admiring. MISTER FRENCH Except sell the ching chongs a bunch of fuckin' plastic. (CONTINUED) 80. CONTINUED: The CHINESE GUYS, staring back, chug away down the canal in the lobster boat. BILLY watches COSTELLO go, admiringly, and then follows him. EXT. STREET NEAR TARGET BUILDING - NIGHT 103A A few blocks from the target building, a Police Tactical unit stops the departing Triad cars with a roadblock. As officers approach the cars they realize they are empty except for hired Caucasian drivers. An officer reports this to the command center. INT. COLIN'S APARTMENT. DAY Colin is asleep on the couch, in a bachelor disaster of Chinese food boxes. Something on TV: "Audition." A key in the door: He wakes as MADOLYN comes in carrying a bag of coffees and a BOX OF EFFECTS. MADOLYN Good Morning. MADOLYN smiles at him, also shy. COLIN Good morning. MADOLYN I beat the movers. COLIN How was the last night in the, ah, old establishment? MADOLYN (putting the box on the kitchen counter) Lonely. COLIN I'm glad to hear that. It sucked here, too. They kiss. MADOLYN takes in the apartment. MADOLYN I'm gonna thank your Uncle Alphonsus for the square footage. COLIN Uncle Alphonsus is in heaven. So am I. (CONTINUED) 81. CONTINUED: MADOLYN unpacks food. Coffee. Croissants. MADOLYN French donut? COLIN (re: box of stuff) Yeah. Hey, can I... MADOLYN Sure yeah. He sorts through the box. It's all Madolyn's key stuff - a mug, a few critical books...framed family pictures, breakables...and comes up with: A PHOTOGRAPH of a young Madolyn standing in front of a North East rust belt slum. COLIN Well, we're not having this out. MADOLYN What? MADOLYN isn't prepared to be at cross-purposes. But she is taken aback. She puts the photo quietly away. Contaminated. COLIN You don't see any pictures of where I came from. Look, I respect who you are, but not in the living room. We might have company. MADOLYN Company? She laughs. COLIN looks at a diploma. Veritas. COLIN Why work for the state? MADOLYN Why not? You do. COLIN Not forever, and you don't have to. You've got degrees...you're a hot shit... I mean, what you do, why make as much as a guidance counselor? (CONTINUED) 82. CONTINUED: (2) MADOLYN (deadpan, over her coffee cup) I believe in public service. COLIN stares at her. COLIN Now you're just being ridiculous. MADOLYN (kissing him, and intently:) You like me living here? COLIN (hands down her shorts) Yes I do. THE PHONE (landline with mobile handset) rings. COLIN (CONT'D) Answer it. You live here. MADOLYN, not 100% confused by his seizing on the interruption, gets the phone. MADOLYN Mayor Sullivan's Office. After a moment she holds the receiver out to COLIN. MADOLYN (CONT'D) (whispering) I'm sorry! COLIN Who is it? MADOLYN I think it's a guy with a, ah, (She touches her throat, and whispers) A cancer guy. COLIN reaches in his pocket and looks at his cellphone: dead. A bad mistake in his situation. He crams the phone into a table charger beside the landline and takes the handset. COLIN Hello? (CONTINUED) 83. CONTINUED: (3) COLIN exits the kitchen. COLIN (CONT'D) (to Madolyn) Something for work. MADOLYN looks after him. She doesn't start eating again, she watches Colin. She is seen staring at him through the following scene. COSTELLO (V.O.) What the fuck is it with your phone? EXT. THE CHELSEA YACHT CLUB. CONTINUOUS COSTELLO, with his collar turned up, is walking along the floats. Wearing a headset. INTERCUT TERRACE OF COLIN'S APARTMENT/CHELSEA YACHT CLUB. CONTINUOUS COLIN hunches, closing the glass door, and glancing in at Madolyn. COLIN Nothin', nothin'. It doesn't have any power, that's all. It just happened once. COSTELLO Was that that shrink cunt answered the phone? COLIN Yes. Yes. As I said, she was gonna move in, so she moved in. COSTELLO You better get organized, quick. COLIN Last time I checked, I tipped you off and you're not in jail. COSTELLO Are you listening to me? COLIN Yes. (CONTINUED) 84. CONTINUED: COSTELLO Are listening to me, son? Do you like Little Miss Thing sucking your cock? COLIN looks in at MADOLYN. COLIN Yes. Yes I do. COLIN is frustrated. COSTELLO So earn it. (a beat) I'm gettin' the feeling we got a cop in my crew. COLIN I been gettin' that same feeling. COSTELLO He's one of yours. Inside. Have you seen anything? COLIN Look, I have no access to undercover files in Queenan's department. It's locked up. Queenan and Dignam run the snitches. They don't give anybody a peep. I'm doing the best... COSTELLO (interrupting) Your best? What do you think we're in, the fuckin' haberdashery business? COLIN takes a breath, tries to reason and mind his place. COLIN Please Frank, if you don't relax I can't relax. Let's start with this...get me all the information on the people around you last night. Everyone that works for you. Get me real first names. Get me... (CONTINUED) 85. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO (interrupting Colin) Get you? Give you? Who the fuck do you work for? COLIN Okay, Frank...I'm sorry...could you please get me social security numbers, ah, I need drivers license numbers, full names, dates of birth, anything like that. Bank account numbers, everything that you don't get from a criminal record or, or a wrap sheet or a... COSTELLO (relenting a little) Collie, calm down or you'll shoot in your pants. I'll get you the records and whatnot. You'll have 'em but listen to me son, don't disappoint me on this, or some other guy will be putting their cock up Little Miss Freud's ass. EXT. DOCK/WATERFRONT - CONTINUOUS Costello hangs up and walks along and sees QUEENAN and DIGNAM step out. QUEENAN How are you, Francis? COSTELLO My mother called me Francis. QUEENAN I know she did. And your father called you the tumor. COSTELLO, not liking that: COSTELLO Oh, what did your father call you, Charlie? Oh yeah, I forgot, he wasn't around. QUEENAN Where are the real microprocessors, Frank? (CONTINUED) 86. CONTINUED: COSTELLO Microprocessors...oh yeah, I heard that story. You arrested some Chinese government guy at the border carrying some light sockets or somethin'. DIGNAM I can't wait to wipe that fuckin' smirk off your face. COSTELLO (to Dignam) Wouldn't you rather wipe my ass for me? QUEENAN I will get you, Frank. COSTELLO If you could've you would've but I guess you like to go at your own pace. From off-stage we hear a young, angelic GIRLS CHOIR begin to sing. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Excuse me, I've got a date with some angels. As Costello walks away: QUEENAN Sooner than you think, Francis. INT. COLIN'S APARTMENT. CONTINUOUS COLIN, looking worried, folding his phone away, comes into the apartment. MADOLYN is staring at him. COLIN What? MADOLYN You have a boss that has a laryngectomy? COLIN No, no, no. That was a guy who works for me. (CONTINUED) 87. CONTINUED: MADOLYN You're lying to me. COLIN Not exactly. (the charming Colin:) There are certain things I will not be able to talk to you about. I cannot allow you to jeopardize an ongoing investigation. (Or your own life.) (more seriously, after a long beat) There really are things connected to my job that you can't ask about. That you don't want to know about. MADOLYN (after a beat) Okay, then say that. COLIN looks at her steadily: if she's serious, she's pure gold. COLIN I will. Thank you. He kisses her. The DOORBELL RINGS. MADOLYN That's the movers. COLIN You still wanna stay? MADOLYN I do. The doorbell safely ringing, Colin kisses Madolyn. COLIN (re: doorbell) All right. All right. I'm coming. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. CONTINUOUS DIGNAM is alone. We see Queenan's empty desk in a fall of light. We see Dignam's arm, wrist, phone, an expensive heavy watch. (CONTINUED) 88. CONTINUED: BILLY (O.S.) I'm gonna get on a plane unless you put Queenan on the phone. DIGNAM Queenan had a funeral to go to. This is my shift. Calm down. INT. IM PEI TYPE FOOTBRIDGE WITH A PEDESTRIAN CONVEYOR. DAY (INTERCUT) BILLY is talking on the phone, in a fury. BILLY Why shouldn't I get on a fucking plane? Meet up? Do you actually want me dead? There's a rat in your unit. That's a fact. You just don't know it. Where's Queenan? DIGNAM He's not here. BILLY They knew you had cameras in the building. You have a leak from the inside. It's real. Smoke him out. DIGNAM And how do we do that Mr... fucking genius who didn't even graduate the academy? BILLY Disinform. Let it slip to SIU that you're getting a sealed wiretap warrant for Costello's apartment. Don't tell anyone in our department but tell SIU. Flush it and see if it comes out of the pipe on my end. That's first. Narrow it down. Where's Queenan. DIGNAM Are you deaf? He's not here. Call me when you get something real. BILLY is in a full-on panic attack. He takes a pill, leans back against a wall, closes his eyes. The second phone rings. He stares at it: opens it. (CONTINUED) 89. CONTINUED: BILLY It's me. INT. DESERTED CAFE - DAY Madolyn and Billy sit at a table. Talking like friends now, emphatically non-clinical. Billy is zoned out, preoccupied, nervous. MADOLYN I'm assuming you want to change things, you know, change the people you know, change the people you meet, change everything, anything. Too many choices can see like no choice at all... BILLY Confucius say that? MADOLYN So you do...something radical. BILLY "Something radical," huh? MADOLYN ...yeah, you do... Sometimes it's just a matter of picking a thing and doing it... BILLY So how long you been with this guy? MADOLYN Oh, four months. About four months. BILLY You love this guy? MADOLYN It's pretty serious, yeah, it is. BILLY A head case or anything? I'm just curious... MADOLYN No more than I am. (CONTINUED) 90. CONTINUED: BILLY Then you're lucky. Considering the odds, right? He lifts his cup to drink. BILLY (CONT'D) Good, give him a shot. This may not be exactly what Madolyn wants to hear. But she nods. MADOLYN Doctors aren't supposed to have illusions. BILLY Yeah, that's because of vastly superior intelligence. Godlike, really. Smiles, called on her shit. MADOLYN OK, I'm in a serious, newly serious, relationship...there are...ups and downs...everybody has doubts, problems -- I mean doubts. She realizes she may have glazed and gone a little too far on "problems". BILLY What would you do if he was standing right there and saw us? MADOLYN I'd lie. To keep things on an even keel. You know all about it. INT./EXT. BANKROBBER'S APARTMENT. CHARLESTOWN. DAY The BANKROBBER, a junkie, wakes up to a vision: JESUS, indicating the sacred heart. BILLY smashes the glass and the frame over the guy's head. CUT TO OUTSIDE: MISTER FRENCH has lit a cherry-bomb. He throws it. He hands out fireworks to KIDS. (CONTINUED) 91. CONTINUED: BACK INSIDE: BILLY shoves him down on the couch and crams the gun to his head. BILLY You take off an armored car at the Dedham Mall and what do you do. Do you pay guineas in Providence? BANKROBBER Fucking now I do. BILLY What the fuck do you do. BANKROBBER What, I pay Costello and wait for him to trade me to the FBI? Cause that's what he does. BILLY FBI? What the fuck are you talking about. {Firecrackers off} BANKROBBER Oh my God, is that French out there? BILLY (grabbing him by the shirt) What the fuck did you just say about the FBI? BANKROBBER Forget what I said. I'm fucking high, I'm high. Firecrackers continue to go off outside. The BANKROBBER knows what this means. BILLY Whatever's going through your very poor, very limited, brain...I'm not going to hurt you. Just tell me what you just fucking said. (CONTINUED) 92. CONTINUED: (2) BANKROBBER Forget it, I'm high, I must be high, I would never say what you thought I said. As the firecracker sounds increase outside (Maybe French's "Do what you have to do"), BILLY, no way out of what he has to do, glances at the window, shoots the guy through the kneecap. BLOOD sprays everywhere. The bankrobber screams. BILLY Tell me what the fuck you said. BANKROBBER (covered with blood) Why do you think he's not arrested? Costello's a protected FBI informant. He'll trade you out. (a beat) I thought I was supposed to go into shock. I'm not in shock. It fucking hurts. It fucking hurts. BILLY gets out of the house. OUTSIDE MISTER FRENCH is benignly watching kids light cherry bombs. BILLY Let's go. ON SOUND: Sextet from LUCIA di LAMMAMOOR. INT. A THEATER. NIGHT From behind COSTELLO'S HEAD, which almost fills the frame, we see a blur of beautiful color. ON STAGE, an opera is in progress----LUCIA DI LAMMAMOOR done with masks. CUT TO COSTELLO, revealing Costello's rapt face and PAN to reveal on his Left a beautiful WHITE PROSTITUTE. PAN back over COSTELLO'S face to reveal a beautiful BLACK PROSTITUTE. PERFORMERS with MASKS sing on stage. As the music soars, COSTELLO moves crinolines up the women's legs. INT. A BEDROOM. NIGHT. COSTELLO fucks...and fucks weird. 93. EXT. QUEENAN'S HOUSE IN WEST ROXBURY. NIGHT A street of three-deckers. QUEENAN gets out of his unmarked cruiser. As he does: BILLY steps out into the light. The two men stare at each other, each lit by their own streetlight. BILLY Hey, it's me. QUEENAN What do you want? What are you doing here? BILLY Come here. QUEENAN approaches him. BILLY (CONT'D) Costello is giving people up to the FBI. QUEENAN stares. QUEENAN The FBI? BILLY He gives information to the FBI. He's a protected informant. Aren't they trying to make it a Federal case? And it never gets made? QUEENAN (realizing he has to be very careful) Go around the back. Go around the back. INT. QUEENAN'S HOUSE. MOMENTS LATER BILLY sits on a bench in a hallway, exhausted, staring. THE SACRED HEART and JFK are on the walls. QUEENAN comes along the hall. QUEENAN My wife's asleep. She left supper out. Come and have something to eat. BILLY shakes his head. (CONTINUED) 94. CONTINUED: BILLY No, I... QUEENAN We'll talk in the kitchen. Come and have something to eat. BILLY follows him towards the lighted kitchen door. EXT. DRIVING RANGE. DAY (WINDY) COLIN is watching ELLERBY hit golf balls. Well. ELLERBY Congratulations. Haven't seen a guy like you since me. You'll be transferred to Internal Investigations but you will continue to work right where you are in the Special Investigation Unit. COLIN I don't get it. ELLERBY We are all convinced that Costello has at least one mole in the Special Investigation Unit. COLIN Right. ELLERBY You'll investigate. Everybody. Anybody. COLIN Well, that's just a dream job for a cop. ELLERBY We have considered all possible candidates. You have an immaculate record. Some people never trust a guy with an immaculate record. I do. (a beat) I have an immaculate record. ELLERBY hits a drive. (CONTINUED) 95. CONTINUED: ELLERBY (CONT'D) Play golf? COLIN No. ELLERBY That's a pity. Pretty much sucks as a game but you get to form relationships. (a beat) How's the wedding coming along? COLIN Everything's great. On schedule. She's a doctor. ELLERBY Outstanding. That's good. Marriage is an important part of getting ahead. You don't want anyone thinking you're a homo. Married guy seems stable. People look at a wedding ring and think: someone can stand the son of a bitch. Ladies see the wedding ring and know immediately that you must have some cash and that your cock works. COLIN Oh, it's working. Overtime. ELLERBY I'm glad to hear that. Hits a drive. Ponk. EXT. CONSTRUCTION AREA. DAY HEAVY EQUIPMENT stands on the thrashed earth. Hoardings. BILLY crosses the road under what remains of the Expressway, and after hiding in an angle of the building and cocking the gun in his pocket bangs on the door of a dead bar. The door is unlocked by: DELAHUNT. INT. THE DEAD BAR. DAY It's another of COSTELLO'S "locations". BILLY looks around. Every man from the previous night is there--but no COSTELLO. DELAHUNT closes the door behind him and bars it. Men are oddly enough filling out forms. These are not men used to pencil and paper. Billy is nodded at. (CONTINUED) 96. CONTINUED: MISTER FRENCH Boss wants your real name, your social, your license number, all your bank account numbers. BILLY I don't have a bank account. MISTER FRENCH I'm a cash business myself. BILLY What's he doing, setting up IRAs? MISTER FRENCH You fill in the papers, real name, all your numbers, no fucking around, and then we all wait here. MISTER FRENCH (CONT'D) No, I ain't. MISTER FRENCH goes off into a separate room. BILLY takes a paper and, sitting at the bar beside FITZY, writes down his information. The other men are mostly finished and DELAHUNT is collecting the papers. DELAHUNT tosses the brown envelope on the bar. DELAHUNT Put the forms in there. FITZY I don't know if this is how you spell Citizens'. BILLY glances at what FITZY is crawling: CITTIZINS TRUST. BILLY No, no, no. Jesus Christ. He takes the brown envelope, and writes on it CITIZENS. FITZY What are you, retarded? That ain't right. BILLY gives up. Both of their forms are stuffed in an envelope. BILLY gets up. DELAHUNT Billy, he said to stay here. (CONTINUED) 97. CONTINUED: (2) BILLY I'm not sitting in this room without a tetanus shot. I'm not staying. MISTER FRENCH Where you going? BILLY goes out. DELAHUNT puts his coat on. He picks up the brown envelope on which CITIZENS TRUST is written. EXT. THE WATERFRONT. DAY BILLY is holding his bottle of tranqs. He traces with his finger the doctor's name...MADOLYN MADDEN. His "police" phone vibrates and he takes it out. ONSCREEN Follow the envelope. BILLY deletes the IM and dials Queenan directly. BILLY Why can't Ellerby's guys? SIU. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. DAY QUEENAN closes his door. QUEENAN They can't. They are compromised. EXT. COSTELLO'S APARTMENT. NIGHT Costello emerges, in an overcoat. Carrying the envelope. He gets into his Oldsmobile. BILLY starts his car and follows. INT. CINEMA. NIGHT REVISED ON SET 5/31/05 Dark theater, movie in progress. Wobbly porno music. A thin audience of raincoat artists. The door opens and COSTELLO enters. He moves slowly down the aisle and sees: COLIN sitting alone. He sits down in front of COLIN. Costello is wearing the dildo. He watches the movie, moaning. COSTELLO Oh yeah, be dirty. Colin goes for his gun. Costello gets up, shows him the dildo. (CONTINUED) 98. CONTINUED: COSTELLO (CONT'D) See anything you like? COLIN unnerved, recognizing COSTELLO now. COLIN Jesus Christ, Frank, I almost shot you. Frank sits, closer to Colin. COSTELLO You're not indulging in self abuse are you? COLIN Frank, we got problems. COSTELLO I hope you're not turning into one of those sob sisters, who wants to get caught. You're not crackin' up are you? COLIN I don't crack up. COSTELLO Pick a place where any cop could see you... COLIN Why did you show up then? COSTELLO I own the place. COLIN Why am I not fuckin' surprised. Look... COSTELLO You're gettin' reassigned. COLIN How the fuck did you know that? COSTELLO Where'd they put you? COLIN I have to find myself. (CONTINUED) 99. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO chuckles, truly enjoying this. COSTELLO You're telling me, sonny boy. COLIN I have to find the guy you have in the department. COSTELLO With everybody looking up their own ass and you looking for yourself, I put my money on nobody finding nothing. We see in Colin's face hurt and hatred for Costello. His idol doesn't like him. COLIN Frank, for me, you've got to lay low. COSTELLO Laying low is not what I do. COLIN Yeah, big fuckin' daddy Frank. Lookit, Frank, what good am I to you if you don't listen to me? Queenan's compartmentalizing. He's fuckin' smart, you know that. I will find this rat if you let me do it my way. If you let me do my job. COSTELLO Okay. (gives him the envelope) But Colin, I hope I won't have to remind you, that if you don't find that cheese eating rat bastard in your department so we can give him a halo, most likely it won't be me who pays for it. COLIN nods, sweat on his lip. COLIN Why would you need to remind me of that? I didn't know that would I be any good at what I do? Trust me, I know how to do this. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 100. CONTINUED: (3) COLIN (CONT'D) It involves lying, and I'm pretty fucking good at that, right? COSTELLO (looking at the screen) Maybe it's because it's always been so easy for me to get cunt that I never understood jerking off in a theatre. Costello gets up to go. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Who knows what's easy? Collie, take care of business. The door opens again at the back of the theater and we see: BILLY in a dark back seat. COSTELLO, after hesitating as Colin sweats, shoves the brown envelope to COLIN, and goes. BILLY receives a text message: "Get visual ID suspect." He slumps in his seat as Costello marches up the aisle and out of the theater. He has barely recovered from this when: The dark shape of COLIN is moving rapidly towards and through the emergency exit beside the screen. Billy follows. INT. CINEMA BACK STAIRCASE AND ALLEY. NIGHT It's open, and gives on to what Boston keeps trying to call the Theater District and what keeps being The Combat Zone. COLIN vanishes around a corner. BILLY follows, looks left and right, then goes after EXT. A STREET OF CHINESE SHOPS. CONTINUOUS COLIN, who is walking along, putting the envelope into his coat. BILLY is speeding up, moving through pedestrians, desperate to see Colin's face. COLIN will be caught up to within seconds. He turns down another street. BILLY starts into a half-run. He turns the corner. ANOTHER STREET painted with neon light (quiet). BILLY'S POV: COLIN is halfway down the street. (CONTINUED) 101. CONTINUED: BILLY follows. BILLY is nearly up to COLIN on this quieter street (And COLIN is aware of the tail) when... BILLY'S cellphone rings. His phone has fucked up, as they do. Instead of turning around, COLIN accelerates. The only thing on his agenda is to not have his face seen. BILLY spins into a door-opening and silences the ringer. TEXT MESSAGE DETAIL Make arrest. COLIN takes a right at the end of the street, into an alley. EXT. AROUND THE NEXT CORNER. MOMENTS LATER COLIN is waiting, in a doorway of his own. He has a knife open in his hand. He waits, listening to (faltering) footsteps: a MAN, face invisible in shadow, turns the corner. COLIN pulls him into the doorway and rips upwards with a knife. As the body falls we see: it isn't Billy. It's a CHINESE MAN. COLIN backs away in horror, and hurries off down the street. EXT. ANOTHER STREET. MOMENTS LATER COLIN, sweating, staggering, hurries along. No sign of Billy, no sign of a follower. But he does notice: CCTV cameras at the intersection. He spins and gets out of there, heading off through. CHINATOWN. Colin, holding his envelope, walks, sweating, fast, then faster, past repeated ideograms in neon (the ideograms say--flash--"Departed"). EXT. CHINATOWN. MOMENTS LATER BILLY has lost Colin. He hears a hubbub from the corner where a small crowd of Chinese speakers is gathering and pushes through the crowd to see: blood running on the pavement. BILLY backs away, gets out of there. INT. CCTV ROOM. NIGHT COLIN is looking at CCTV tapes. We see COLIN, unrecognizable on cheap video. Then we see a blurred image of BILLY. Crossing the street in beats. No more use as ID than the Shroud of Turin. 102. EXT. MADOLYN'S CELLAR APARTMENT. NIGHT (RAINING) Through grated windows we can see Madolyn finishing up her packing. BILLY KNOCKS on the door, which leads only into Madolyn's basement apartment. A long beat and she opens the door. The chain on. BILLY Your name's on the pill label. I thought you weren't supposed to be in the book, in case of obsessive patients. MADOLYN How obsessive are you? BILLY Medium. MADOLYN Are you okay? Why are you here? BILLY I really liked our conversations. I've been...regretting that we didn't continue...our conversations. MADOLYN I'm glad you want to see me...it's nice to see you...I enjoyed talking...I enjoyed having coffee with you, very much...but I don't see people...I don't see people in my home. Billy gets soaked. INT. MADOLYN'S CELLAR APARTMENT. CONTINUOUS BILLY looks around and sees: boxes, transition. The furniture already gone. An air-mattress on the floor. There are still tea things on the counter. A basic life is still possible here. Madolyn has been making tea here, sleeping here, reading in bed. Billy, soaked, a drowned rat, is looking vulnerable and honest. BILLY Thanks. If this is inappropriate... I can leave. MADOLYN takes a moment to react. (CONTINUED) 103. CONTINUED: MADOLYN No, it's, it's, it's not inappropriate...you're not a patient... BILLY You moving in or out? MADOLYN I still have three weeks on the lease... BILLY is looking at THE PICTURE to which Colin objected. A young girl in front of a rust belt slum, tilted in a box of effects. MADOLYN (CONT'D) That's me. BILLY Yeah, I know. He hangs the picture on a nail. MADOLYN (the kettle whistles OS) Would you like a cup of tea? BILLY nods. BILLY Yeah. Yeah I would. Thank you. Madolyn leaves him looking vaguely around the apartment. In the kitchen, it appears that Madolyn has forgotten how to make a cup of tea. She perseveres, comes out holding two cups. Billy is looking at the handful of books still in the apartment. MADOLYN Do you want some... BILLY Sugar? No... She hands him the cup of tea. Strung out, he spills his tea, slightly, unobserved by Madolyn. Madolyn looks over at the bed, the book, the lamp, the incontrovertible evidence that she's probably really, in fact, not that into Colin.. MADOLYN I've always needed my own place. (CONTINUED) 104. CONTINUED: (2) BILLY Hedging your bets? MADOLYN No. I'm not "hedging my best"...I told you when we had coffee...There's a choice. You choose...you have to make a... BILLY Decision. MADOLYN ...decision...and stick by what...you choose...you have to... BILLY Move in with your boyfriend? MADOLYN Yes. Stick by what you...otherwise it's... I have to say that your vulnerability is really freaking me out right now. Is it real? BILLY Yeah, I think so. Tick...tick...tick. BILLY (CONT'D) You don't have cats. MADOLYN No. BILLY I like that. That's good. INT. CCTV ROOM. NIGHT Colin is still studying the blurry image of Billy. INT. MADOLYN'S BASEMENT APARTMENT. NIGHT In the tiny kitchen BILLY is kissing MADOLYN and unbuttoning her shirt. Her hands start to move to push him away. He continues. 105. INT. CCTV ROOM. NIGHT Still studying the blurry image of Billy, COLIN tenses as someone comes into the office and switches off the tape. He glances at his coat. The envelope is visible folded into the breast pocket. He takes his coat and goes. EXT. CHARLES STREET. NIGHT Wet empty streets. The "gaslights" are on. About midnight. INT. CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. NIGHT A Costello business. The restaurant is closed for the night. One bartender is sweeping up and the other is counting the takings. In a darker alcove of the bar COSTELLO sits alone at a broad table, drinking brandy. On sound, classical music. As a knocking is heard Costello looks up. A BARTENDER lets Billy in. COSTELLO watches Billy approach. We hear him sit down. COSTELLO You got a girlfriend? BILLY No. No. What does that matter? COSTELLO Depends. I'm sure you know by now there's an informer in my crew. Cop. Staties or Boston Police department, I'm not sure. He pours Billy some brandy. Then starts to draw a sketch. BILLY What about the FBI. COSTELLO It ain't. Trust me. The ex-wife, an old friend or stupid...that's what brings you down in this business. BILLY Stupid...Well, that leaves me out. COSTELLO Past days, case like this...I killed everybody who works for me. BILLY Better safe than sorry, I suppose. (CONTINUED) 106. CONTINUED: COSTELLO On the other hand, back then, it was only five...or six...and French. But COSTELLO, maybe, is sorry. BILLY I look around at your guys. They're all murderers right? I think "could I do murder?" And all I can answer myself is, "what's the difference". COSTELLO Give em up to the Almighty. Like that. BILLY Yeah, that's my point. You accuse me once, I put up with it. You accuse me twice, I quit. If you make me fear for my life, I put a fucking bullet in your head as if you were anybody else. COSTELLO looks up. This is new: but he's impassive. And impressed. COSTELLO (to Billy) You got something you want to say to me, William? BILLY You're seventy fucking years old. One of these guys is going to pop you. As for running drugs, what the fuck. You don't need the pain in the ass, and they're going to catch you. And you don't need the money. COSTELLO smiles, and continues with the sketch. Later he will light up the paper. COSTELLO I haven't needed "the money" since I took Archie's milk money in the third grade. Tell the truth, I don't need pussy any more,but I still like it. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 107. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO (CONT'D) Point I'm making...you see...I got this rat...gnawing, cheese eating fucking rat...questions come up...questions...see, Bill, you're the new guy...and the girlfriend. Why don't you stay in the bar when I get the numbers. Your numbers. Everybody's numbers. BILLY Is there something you want to ask me, Frank? COSTELLO Start with, you agree there is a rat? BILLY You said there is one. I base most of what I do on the idea that you're pretty fucking good at what you do. COSTELLO Sure, sure, all that aside...but you Bill, what would you do? COSTELLO sketching. BILLY How many of these guys been with you long enough to be disgruntled? Who needs more money than you pay them? You don't pay much, you know. It's almost a feudal fuckin' enterprise. (COSTELLO nods, accepting this) The question is, who thinks that they would do what you do better than you? COSTELLO Only one that can do what I do is me. You want to be me? BILLY stares over a precipice: he knows this as well. BILLY I probably could be you. I know that much. But I don't want to be you. (CONTINUED) 108. CONTINUED: (3) COSTELLO Heavy lies the crown...sort of thing. FRENCH comes in from the kitchen. MISTER FRENCH Francis. BARTENDER We're out of here, Mister Costello. You'll have to set the alarm. COSTELLO (eyes on Billy) Thank you, Jimmy. See you tomorrow. ON SOUND the door closes and locks. COSTELLO (CONT'D) There's a boat coming in, up in Gloucester. French will give you all the details. COSTELLO leaves. INT. COSTELLO'S KITCHEN. DAY/INTERCUT: INT. COLIN'S OFFICE COSTELLO is on the phone. MISTER FRENCH is sitting on a stool, smoking. OPERA playing on sound. COSTELLO You heard nothing? COLIN No. COSTELLO Nothing about drugs. Nothing about new guys, nothing about Gloucester? COLIN No, Frank, not a thing. And I promise you I would have heard about it. COSTELLO hangs up and turns to MISTER FRENCH. COSTELLO You're sure. No other departments, no codes, like that... (CONTINUED) 109. CONTINUED: COLIN'S VOICE Frank. You can relax on this one. COSTELLO Okay, Collie. I will. Costello hangs up and turns to Mr. French. COSTELLO (CONT'D) (emotionally) It ain't Bill. No way, he says. Thank God for Billy. INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS. DAY Everybody is busy in the office. It's COLIN's first day of Internal Investigations. COLIN'S moving through the bullpen. COPS stare at him with resentment. COLIN Morning. He comes up to Queenan's door just as Dignam comes out. DIGNAM faces COLIN down. COLIN (CONT'D) A problem? DIGNAM Yeah, I run rat fucks like you. I don't like them. COLIN The day you wouldn't take a promotion, you let me know. And I wouldn't even have a job if you did yours. DIGNAM Fuck yourself. COLIN I need to know the identity of your undercovers. DIGNAM Blow me. Not literally, there's no promotion in it for ya. He walks away. COLIN goes into Queenan's office. 110. INT. QUEENAN'S OFFICE. MOMENTS LATER QUEENAN puts the cig into a cup of water, and throws it into the trash. COLIN Morning, Captain. QUEENAN Look who's here. The Queen of the prom. COLIN They are not happy with me. Especially Staff Sergeant Dignam. QUEENAN What do you expect? Everybody knows you're assigned here to find Costello's rat. They want to find the leak as much as you do. What they do not want is to be accused of being the rat. COLIN sits uneasily. COLIN Fair enough. Well one of them has to be dirty, We know that, right? QUEENAN Two days ago, my undercover guy in Costello's organization---- COLIN Who is that? QUEENAN Lots of luck. (Not a chance.) You can go over my head, high as you like. You still won't get an answer. COLIN Fair enough. QUEENAN As I said, two days ago, my guy nearly found out who Costello's rat is. He lost him in the street. (CONTINUED) 111. CONTINUED: COLIN Really? Did he get a look at him? QUEENAN ...No. COLIN Nothing that could help us? QUEENAN Nah. COLIN (swallows) (Too bad.) Any advice? Generally? QUEENAN Costello can't do (much) business without coordinating with his source... (gestures out window) Who is here. In SIU. Follow Costello and you'll find his rat. COLIN realizes: Just follow Queenan and you'll find his rat. QUEENAN (CONT'D) (turns away) You're going to be looking at my people. Going through their bank statements, phone bills, medical records. Don't expect them to get you a coffee or invite you to their houses. Let me get you a coffee. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. DAY COLIN is sitting in his office alone, remembering what Queenan has just told him: QUEENAN (V.O.) Follow Costello and you'll find his informer. In the fishbowl of his glass office, COLIN is being stared at by pissed-off cops. COLIN calms down. He opens the gray envelope. He takes out the forms that he was given by Costello, opens up POLICE PERSONNEL DATABASE and starts searching. He types in SS numbers. One, then another, then another. The result is always: "Person not found". He types in Costigan, William M, hits return. It comes up: "Person not found". COLIN keeps working. 112. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. LATER MUGSHOTS of all of Costello's guys. He looks at them desperately...no one squares up with the blurred, impossible, images he saw on the CCTV screen (which he has printed out).COLIN closes the curtains on his fishbowl office (not fast enough to avoid seeing Dignam give him the finger), locks his door. He picks up the phone. VOICE ON PHONE (V.O.) Internal Investigations. COLIN This is Sullivan. I need constant surveillance on Captain Queenan, starting right now. INT. COLIN AND MADOLYN'S NEW BEDROOM. SAME NIGHT COLIN is lying in bed, his back to MADOLYN. COLIN If I wasn't with the Mass State Police. If I did it full time,law school, I'd be through in a year. I'm thinking that. If I wasn't a trooper. MADOLYN What's going on? COLIN Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing going on. Just thinking. MADOLYN Okay, all right. (thinking about it; blows a breath) And what about money? COLIN I got some money. Another city...I'm thinking that. Another city doesn't seem unattractive to Madolyn, who's in her own cut-and-run crisis -- but maybe she can't believe that Colin is thinking about it. She blows a breath. MADOLYN Another city? It'd be a clean slate. (CONTINUED) 113. CONTINUED: COLIN is in hell. He looks at her intensely. COLIN I want you to know you don't gotta stay. If we're not going to make it, it's got to be you that gets out. I'm not capable (a beat) I'm fuckin' Irish, so I'll deal with something being wrong for the rest of my life. Long pause. MADOLYN Not a bad idea, another city. EXT. THE CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. DAY FITZY and DELAHUNT are smoking on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. DELAHUNT Of course I know how to spot a cop. FITZY Oh yeah, how's that? DELAHUNT If he's not paying attention to us, he's a cop. THEIR POV: A MAN across the street is looking into the window of an antique shop. DELAHUNT (CONT'D) See that guy over there, he's a cop. He's not paying attention to us. He's a cop. FITZY Lot of fucking cops. A WOMAN walks by definitely ignoring both men, dragging a lapdog. FITZY (CONT'D) What kind of dog is that? No response. (CONTINUED) 114. CONTINUED: FITZY (CONT'D) She's a cop. DELAHUNT She's probably the fucking Police Commissioner. INT. CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. CONTINUOUS Too early to be opened for business. COSTELLO and NEW GUYS, six hard customers, come in through the fire door. At the BAR, BILLY is drinking coffee. He notices the NEW GUYS. Off the boat Dublin toughs. COSTELLO and FRENCH come in from the kitchen. FRENCH tells the NEW GUYS to move to the back. COSTELLO HAS BLOOD ON HIS SLEEVES. He comes over to the bar and looks at BILLY. COSTELLO You can get out of here. This is the crew for tonight. BILLY I thought I was on for that. COSTELLO I changed my mind. Take the night off. (to Bartender) Jimmy, get the mop. COSTELLO heads to the back of the restaurant. MISTER FRENCH, grabs the BAR KNIFE from behind the bar. BILLY looks up at him. MISTER FRENCH Go out the back. Some guys answer the questions right. Some don't. MISTER FRENCH goes towards the back of the restaurant, holding the big knife. BILLY closes his paper. EXT. THE CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. MOMENTS LATER BILLY steps out, ignoring DELAHUNT and FITZY. DELAHUNT You're a cop. BILLY Huh? (CONTINUED) 115. CONTINUED: DELAHUNT You're ignoring us. You're a cop. We're guessing who cops are. Most good looking women are cops. BILLY Right. I'm going home. He's playing with his new boys. DELAHUNT See you later. BILLY Later. BILLY walks down the street and heads into an alley. Around the corner, he opens his phone. BILLY (CONT'D) He's moving something with all new guys. (A whole new crew.) I don't want to tell you what or where. It might be disinformation. It probably is. Just keep following him. I need to see you today. (a beat...reacting to Queenan, Billy continues) No. Today. EXT. POLICE STATION/COLIN'S OFFICE. DAY A DETECTIVE (DETECTIVE 1) is leading the team to trail after Queenan. On foot. A plug in his ear. Two other DETECTIVES sit in a sedan nearby. (These three detectives are new guys, never seen before, the I.I. surveillance team working for Colin). DETECTIVE 1 Can I ask a question, Sergeant? COLIN Yes, go ahead. DETECTIVE 2 Why the fuck are we following Captain Queenan? To find out about the good Catholic life? (CONTINUED) 116. CONTINUED: COLIN (angrily) I have to follow every lead, however unlikely, however fucking painful it might be to your delicate fucking sensibilities. DETECTIVE 1 Who says I have delicate sensibilities? COLIN I have reason to believe that Queenan is Costello's informer. Follow him, and don't get made. DETECTIVE 1 Copy that, Sarge The detectives in the car get alert and start their car as QUEENAN comes out of the building. DETECTIVE 1 (CONT'D) We got him. DETECTIVE 2 Sarge, we got the target. EXT. TREMONT STREET/FINANCIAL DISTRICT. DAY DETECTIVE 1 trails Captain Queenan through the crowds of people heading towards work. INT. PARK ST. SUBWAY STATION. MORNING QUEENAN begins to light a cigarette and then gives it up. A TRAIN comes in, and Queenan boards. DETECTIVE 1 boards the next car. INT. DETECTIVE 1'S SUBWAY CAR. MOMENTS LATER Looking through smeared glass into the next car as the train begins to move DETECTIVE 1 sees QUEENAN answer a cell call. INT. QUEENAN'S SUBWAY CAR. CONTINUOUS QUEENAN is on his cell. QUEENAN Where are you now? (CONTINUED) 117. CONTINUED: BILLY Look down the car. QUEENAN looks up mildly as the car rocks. BILLY (CONT'D) Got me? QUEENAN'S POV: BILLY is slumped in a seat at the far end, not looking towards QUEENAN. BILLY (CONT'D) Any reason you'd have a tail? QUEENAN No...Of course not. BILLY (on the verge of hyperventilating) I'm watching a guy... QUEENAN I don't have a tail, Billy. Through the glass we see DETECTIVE 1 watching Queenan. BILLY Okay. Get off at South Station. You wait there for ten minutes. After I leave I'll text message you the address where we'll meet. I'll make sure you don't have a tail. QUEENAN South Station. Wait ten minutes. As the train stops BILLY vaults off of it. On the platform he walks along, texting. EXT. SOUTH STATION SUBWAY EXIT. LATE MORNING QUEENAN, mild in his specs, chewing gum with his dentures, comes out of the station, and looks at the TEXT MESSAGE on his phone. 118. EXT. A STREET SOUTH OF FT. POINT CHANNEL. MOMENTS LATER A building under rehab, covered with scaffolding, but still functioning as a corporate building. QUEENAN goes along to the entrance, and in. DETECTIVE 1 comes along after him. We see the Internal Investigations car up the street. DETECTIVE 1 dials his cellphone. DETECTIVE 1 He went into a building on the waterfront. Address is 344 Wash... INT. THE LOBBY. MOMENTS LATER DETECTIVE 1 looks at the elevator-indicator, and the building directory. DETECTIVE 1 He went to the top floor. It's empty. No tenants. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS COLIN, listening, playing with a COIN. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING. MOMENTS LATER DETECTIVE 1 emerges from the building and joins other detectives in the car. DETECTIVE 1 I don't know what we're doing here. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2/BRASSERIE. CONTINUOUS COLIN, after fumbling between cell phones, dials the correct one. COLIN (to COSTELLO) I think I've got him. I think Queenan is meeting with him right now. EXT. CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. MOMENTS LATER FITZY and DELAHUNT'S phones ring simultaneously. DELAHUNT Get the van. Get the boys. 119. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING ROOFTOP. CONTINUOUS BILLY is waiting on the roof as QUEENAN finally arrives. QUEENAN I assume these premises do not have an anti-smoking ordinance. So, what's going on? BILLY I told you, he's got dope coming in, I don't know where. He's getting spooky, Captain... QUEENAN What do you mean? BILLY He's crazy. I just saw the man. He had blood all over him. I can't get any more information for you. I can't trust it. He's not including his regular guys... I'm telling you, he's gonna find out who I am. He's gonna fuckin' kill me, I know it. QUEENAN All right, all right. I hear you. I'm sorry for you trouble. Look, I'm not gonna jeopardize your safety any longer. I'll get you out. I can't do it overnight but I'll do it. We can bust him for what we have. At least I think we can...I hope. You're out of there ASAP. BILLY nods, and nods. BILLY Yeah? What about the FBI? QUEENAN They're compromised. BILLY What? QUEENAN They're fucked, just like this lighter. (CONTINUED) 120. CONTINUED: BILLY'S phone rings. INT. FITZY'S VAN. CONTINUOUS DELAHUNT is calling Billy from a van crowded with Costello's usual bad guys as it scorches through traffic. DELAHUNT Billy, where the fuck are you? We been trying to reach you. We found the rat. Top man says we're gonna take care of him. The address is 314 Washington Street. You got it? All right. See you there. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING ROOFTOP. CONTINUOUS BILLY listens in horror, staring at the oblivious QUEENAN. QUEENAN What? BILLY You were fucking followed. QUEENAN By who? BILLY Costello's people. QUEENAN Impossible. BILLY No. One of the cops he's got inside tipped him. QUEENAN realizes that his enemy might be... INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS COLIN raises his eyes. Diabolical. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING. MOMENTS LATER FITZY'S VAN stops outside the building. COSTELLO'S MEN get out of the van, and head into the lobby. INT. INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS CAR. CONTINUOUS The DETECTIVES are watching. (CONTINUED) 121. CONTINUED: DETECTIVE 1 What the fuck is going on? DETECTIVE 2 Holy fucking shit. Looks like Queenan's meeting with all of them. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS COLIN listens. COLIN Yes. INT. STAIRCASE. DAY Billy and Queenan are running downstairs when they hear footsteps coming up from below. They immediately go back up to the elevator lobby. Pushing through plastic sheeting. INT. LOBBY ON THE TOP FLOOR. CONTINUOUS Billy is slamming elevator buttons. The indicator shows both elevators coming up. BILLY They'll be on the elevators, too. QUEENAN Take the back fire escape. BILLY What'll you do? QUEENAN I'll be fine. If you get made I can't protect you. Go down the fire escape. Now. That's an order. I'll be fine. BILLY goes. Queenan waits. Watching the elevator indicator. QUEENAN, in his specs, very mild, takes out his gun and breaks the cylinder, checking that it is loaded, and putting a shell into the empty sixth chamber. EXT. FIRE ESCAPE. MOMENTS LATER BILLY climbs out onto the fire escape at the back of the building and starts dropping down, fast. 122. INT. THE TOP FLOOR LOBBY. DAY The elevator door opens, revealing DELAHUNT and BOYS. QUEENAN looks right as the door to the staircase opens revealing FITZY and boys. QUEENAN Can I help you gentlemen? FITZY I guess we've had enough of this shit. Where's your boy? QUEENAN doesn't answer, and never will. He draws his gun and is tackled. EXT. BACK ALLEY, COMMERCIAL BUILDING. DAY BILLY drops off the fire escape and runs down the alley. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING. MOMENTS LATER BILLY towards the front doors just as-- QUEENAN'S BODY bounces off the scaffolding, smashes into the pavement and explodes. BLOOD splashes all over BILLY. INT. INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS CAR. CONTINUOUS DETECTIVE 1 screams into his headset. DETECTIVE 1 Fuck! Something came off the roof. COLIN What came off the roof? What do you mean something came off the roof? Go again with that information. EXT. THE COMMERCIAL BUILDING. CONTINUOUS FITZY, DELAHUNT and boys come out. The crew has seen the UNMARKED COP CAR. FITZY grabs BILLY. FITZY You're fuckin' late. Where the fuck were you? Get in the fuckin' van. (CONTINUED) 123. CONTINUED: BILLY What the fuck happened? I came to meet you. They start piling into a van. INT. THE INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS CAR. CONTINUOUS DETECTIVE 2 is yelling both at his partner and into the mic. DETECTIVE 1 Stay in the fucking car. Stay in the fucking car. This is a surveillance unit. (into mic to Colin) Do I pursue. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS COLIN is sitting very calmly. COLIN No. Stay where you are. I need some fucking information here. What came off the building? DETECTIVE 1 I'm not sure. INT./EXT. INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS CAR/ THE STREET. CONTINUOUS DETECTIVE 1 No pursuit. No pursuit. DETECTIVE 1 (CONT'D) Fuck that. DETECTIVE 1 gets out of the car and runs towards the fleeing men, gun drawn. FITZY turns on DETECTIVE 1 with a pistol drawn. DETECTIVE 1 fires and DELAHUNT is hit in the stomach. FITZY shoots the detective (he is wounded in the hand, not killed). The VAN takes off. DETECTIVE 4 Thirty-two X to CP. Thirty-two X to CP. We're being fired upon. I repeat. 124. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS ON RADIO. "Officer down", etc. COLIN has never felt more guilty in his life. DETECTIVE 4 (V.O.) We have an officer down. An officer has been shot. Request immediate assistance. He switches off the light and sits in the dark as the afternoon gathers. INT. THE DEAD BAR. NIGHT FITZY, BILLY, and the BOYS are drinking. Dirty, paranoid, guilty, frightened, smoking. DELAHUNT has been shot, is dying, on a dirty couch. FITZY sits down and looks at Billy. FITZY And where the fuck were you? BILLY Boss told me to go home. FITZY Maybe he did and maybe he didn't. At any rate you weren't fuckin' home. BILLY I was in a fucking grocery store with no signal. When I got a signal I got the call. What the fuck do you want. Was I there or was I not there? Huh? FITZY walks away. DELAHUNT (OS) Billy. Billy (Billy goes over to him) BILLY (re: his wounds) Jesus Christ. (CONTINUED) 125. CONTINUED: DELAHUNT Two days...two days ago the Boss says to me, it's been ten years already, and you've never done me wrong. He asked me, if one of the other guys is a rat, would I take him out. I told him I would but I don't know if I would. Now I know I can't. I've done a lot of bad things but I've never been a murderer. BILLY realizes that DELAHUNT is dying. DELAHUNT (CONT'D) Hey Billy, I don't want no one to put me in a dumpster. Just don't put me in a dumpster. BILLY When you're dead it makes no difference where they put you. BILLY lights him a cigarette. DELAHUNT You know what I thought today? BILLY What's that? DELAHUNT Who didn't show up today is the rat. BILLY Yeah, so? DELAHUNT You never been late in your life. And when I called you... I made a mistake. I gave you the wrong address. But you showed up at the right one. DELAHUNT grips his arm. BILLY is terrified. DELAHUNT (CONT'D) Tell me why I didn't say anything. Tell me why. (CONTINUED) 126. CONTINUED: (2) He waits for DELAHUNT to continue. But DELAHUNT after an odd smile of complicity, finally dies. BILLY, the only one who knows that DELAHUNT is dead, stares down at him. FITZY (drinking) That cop was tough. We were excessive with the cop. BILLY walks past the table. BILLY He's dead. I'm going home. BILLY leaves by the front door. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM. NIGHT All hands present. Dignam is in a black silent rage. ELLERBY Do you know why Queenan went to that building? COLIN No. DIGNAM A better question is why your fuckers were following him. COLIN I told Internal Investigations to follow him. DIGNAM Why? COLIN That's internal Investigations business. DIGNAM grabs COLIN by the neck and runs him into a wall. COLIN gets a palm under Dignam's chin and comes close to breaking his neck. The men at length are separated. COLIN straightens his good clothes. COLIN (CONT'D) I have to investigate everybody and anybody. I don't have to justify anything. Nor does anyone have to like it. I now have information... (MORE) (CONTINUED) 127. CONTINUED: COLIN (CONT'D) from a very good source...that Queenan may have been killed by his own undercover. COLIN is trying this on. DIGNAM That's a fucking lie. COLIN Captain Queenan and Staff Sergeant Dignam here have information on this undercover, and other informants, in a locked file. I need those files unlocked. DIGNAM I don't have the password. Why don't you come down to the garage... COLIN That's a lie. DIGNAM hits COLIN in the face. COLIN goes down hard, into the crook of a file cabinet and the wall. Blood from his mouth. DIGNAM No one calls me a liar. Especially when I'm lying. ELLERBY Everybody shut up. (to BROWN) Work with the tech guys to unlock the files. Dignam. You take a leave of absence. DIGNAM Leave of what? ELLERBY Queenan's dead. That makes me your boss. DIGNAM I'll hand in my papers first. COLIN What? (CONTINUED) 128. CONTINUED: (2) ELLERBY Hey, world needs plenty of bartenders. Two weeks with pay. DIGNAM Good. COLIN I need those codes. ELLERBY No, you want those codes. EXT. MADOLYN'S OFFICE BUILDING. NIGHT When she comes out: BILLY is waiting. BILLY I tried to call you a few times. MADOLYN I know. (I know.). I can't... He leans close to her. She strokes his head. MADOLYN (CONT'D) I can't be a friend to you. I can't. I'm sorry. BILLY It's okay, okay, I know. MADOLYN walks away. INTERCUT COLIN'S OFFICE #2/COSTELLO'S CONDOMINIUM. NIGHT COLIN needs a shower and is gun-shy as people move past the glass windows. He is still rinsing blood out of his mouth. COSTELLO is listening to LUCIA di LAMMAMOOR. GWEN sits nearby in attractive lingerie, reading a book. COSTELLO Now, when I hear Lucia, I can't stop thinking about the cocaine curtsy you did on that nigger broad's face. (the phone rings. Costello answers:) What? (CONTINUED) 129. CONTINUED: COLIN (into phone) Your shouldn't have killed Queenan. COSTELLO One of us was going to have to die. With me it tends to be the other guy. COLIN (agitated) You're crazy, Frank. You killed the guy who has all the information. And Dignam's not in the office, he's gone. He resigned. COSTELLO I don't give a fuck about Dignam. COLIN He's fucking gone. They took his papers in. He's not talking. I don't know where he is. COSTELLO Don't get your balls in an uproar, Collie. That Irish piss-ant won't be a problem. He's so hot for me, we give him a whiff of my ass, he'll crawl right in it. Let's give him a whiff. COLIN I will. COSTELLO Don't worry. I'll take care of it. COSTELLO turns to the GWEN. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Sweetheart, you're giving me a hard- on. He starts to dial the phone. GWEN Are you sure it's me or all that talk about whiffin' and crawlin' up asses? (CONTINUED) 130. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO Hey, watch your fucking mouth. GWEN You watch it. She rises and as she crosses: GWEN (CONT'D) Let me straighten you out. COLIN looks out into the bullpen. People working. On a table he sees PLASTIC BAGS which contains Queenan's bloodstained effects-- broken glasses, smashed wristwatch, and CELLPHONE. He glances around, and picks up the CELLPHONE. Blood gets on his fingers. He moves into the office, and seen through the glass, he seizes the phone and with trembling fingers punches up the last incoming number. INT. BILLY'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT KITCHEN. NIGHT BILLY is looking at a chipped SANTA MUG from his childhood and is eating something--sheer maintenance, and drinking wine from the bottle. His phone rings. He looks at the ID and is stunned. Queenan's number! He picks up the call but remains silent. The caller is also doing the same. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS COLIN hears that the other side has hung up the phone. He sees: ELLERBY looking at him through the glass. But Ellerby hasn't seen the phone. INTERCUT BILLY'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT/COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS BILLY is agitated. Exhausted. Frightened. He paces, and looks at the phone. He begins to pack, assembling clothes, money. Finally, like a man committing suicide--it's that intense-- he dials the number. INTERCUT. COLIN Yeah. BILLY You called this number on a dead guy's phone. Who are you? COLIN So it is you. Thank God you're all right. We were very worried. (CONTINUED) 131. CONTINUED: BILLY Who are you? COLIN You're talking to Sergeant Sullivan. I'm taking over Queenan's unit. BILLY Let me talk to Dignam to confirm it. COLIN Staff Sgt. Dignam has... taken a leave of absence. He's very upset. We're all very upset. The best thing would be for your to come in. We need you to come in. BILLY listens to Colin go on. Then shuts off the phone. His other phone rings. COLIN dumps out the box of Queenan's belongings. In the diary he sees an entry showing undercover suspects Costello is FBI informant. BILLY listens to Colin go on. Then shuts off the phone. His other phone rings. INT. THE CHARLES STREET BRASSERIE. DAY COSTELLO is sitting with his key guys, including FRENCH and FITZY. A TV station plays above the zinc bar. BILLY is drinking, hitting it heavily. NEWS ANCHOR State Police have confirmed that the body of the man found dead in the Fenway marshes yesterday afternoon is that of Timothy Delahunt, an undercover policeman for the City of Boston.. This was the scene today.... If you have any information about this murder, you are urged to call the Boston Police. The TV shows DELAHUNT'S BODY being loaded into an ambulance. A crime scene. COSTELLO's eyes have widened slightly. But he is strangely undisturbed. (CONTINUED) 132. CONTINUED: FITZY Fuck. I can't believe it. MISTER FRENCH Don't believe what? FITZY I'm embarrassed. How the fuck did they find him so fast? I spent all fuckin' night out there, dragged the poor bastard.... I must have been there seven hours. In three feet of mud. What the fuck is a marsh? And who walks their dog in a fuckin' marsh? In three feet of water? I don't believe it. I still don't believe he's a fuckin' cop. COSTELLO The cops are saying he's a cop so I won't look for the cop. (to FITZY) Are you soft? The next time I tell you to dump a body in the marshes, put it in the fuckin' marshes, not where some guy from John Hancock goes every Thursday to get a blowjob! He makes a move for the door. COSTELLO (CONT'D) Proceed. They get up to leave, following him. EXT. SOUTHEAST EXPRESSWAY. NIGHT Two cars carrying Costello and his men are speeding down the highway. Behind them, two SIU CARS are trailing. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2/COSTELLO'S CAR. CONTINUOUS COLIN closes his door and punches in a number. IN COSTELLO'S CAR, his cell phone rings. COSTELLO Jesus Christ. He answers it. (CONTINUED) 133. CONTINUED: COSTELLO (CONT'D) What? COLIN Don't go. You've got a tail. Two cars. Not very subtle. They won't be subtle from now on. That's what I've been trying to tell you. COSTELLO Get rid of them. COLIN There's no need to go yourself, Frank. COSTELLO Get rid of the fuckin' tail! CLOSE on COLIN as what he has to do crystallizes. COLIN I will. All right. A cold look in his eye, Colin leaves his office and goes down the hall. IN THE CAR Costello remarks to French -- COSTELLO Tails. Fuckin' rats. This rat shit is wearing me thin. FRENCH Francis, they're all rats. Women are rats... cunts...Yeah, we're becoming a nation of rats. INT. SURVEILLANCE OFFICE. MOMENTS LATER BROWN is there. BARRIGAN. ELLERBY. Others. COLIN Stop. Stop. Pull these guys off. Tell your team to stop following Costello. We don't need to surveil him. COLIN stands in the door like a gunfighter. Everyone looks at him. (CONTINUED) 134. CONTINUED: ELLERBY What the fuck are you talking about? COLIN I have it from an undercover: Costello knows he's being followed. Let our UC take him in. ELLERBY What informant? COLIN Queenan's guy. He called me when he found out Queenan was dead. I'm running him. Everyone is impressed. ELLERBY No. You give him to me. COLIN No. But I can give you Costello's destination. ELLERBY You know where he's going? COLIN Yes. And what he's about to do. Call off the tail, and get Special Ops. Get them on standby. We meet him where he's going. Suit up. We're gonna take this prick tonight. BROWN (to crew on the road) All units fall back. Everyone moves at once. EXT. SOUTHEAST EXPRESSWAY. NIGHT COSTELLO is checking the rearview mirror. He sees: The TWO SIU CARS exit the highway onto Atlantic Avenue. COSTELLO smiles. The cars exit the highway. The cars pass through a maze of industrial streets. (CONTINUED) 135. CONTINUED: BILLY, riding in the back seat, is trying desperately to see where they are. He sees a STREET SIGN and taps out a text message on his phone. INT. COMMAND VAN. NIGHT (MOVING) COLIN, in vest, observed by Brown, reads the message. COLIN It's the heavy equipment warehouse Costello owns on Sheffield. He must have a container or a truck in there. (his big moment of decision) Go. EXT. PARKING GARAGE. NIGHT It is an unfinished structure, the lower parts used, the upper parts accessible but still under construction. It is built on a pier, the harbor lights beyond it. The COMMAND VAN and POLICE CARS pull up with lights off. A TACTICAL VAN disgorges TACTICAL OFFICERS who spread out through the dark. INT. COMMAND VAN. CONTINUOUS. COLIN (into mic) There's an exit on the other side. Cover it. We'll take him when he comes out. COLIN checks the load on his pistol. INT. AN UPPER FLOOR OF THE PARKING GARAGE. CONTINUOUS COSTELLO unlocks a CONTAINER with a construction company logo on it, opens the doors, and steps back. BILLY looks into the container. It's cocaine or heroin in kilo bricks. Men stand around with MP5s under their coats. COSTELLO Load it. BILLY, trying to save Costello... BILLY How do you know you don't have a tail? COSTELLO looks at him. (CONTINUED) 136. CONTINUED: COSTELLO Were you in the fuckin' car? BILLY What if they took one off and put another one on, Frank? COSTELLO Load. The drugs having been loaded fast by the crew, including FNG's, the container is hosed out. BILLY turns from FITZY'S CAR as everyone gets it. BILLY Frank told me to check out the back. You guys go ahead. FNG DENNIS Watch your ass. Instead of getting into COSTELLO'S CAR on the other side of the container, he steps back into shadows as both cars leave. INT. COSTELLO'S CAR. NIGHT FOUR CARS with no headlights bracket the vehicles as soon as they come out of the garage. COSTELLO realizes that something has gone wrong. COSTELLO Cocksucker. LIGHTS come on, and Policemen are everywhere, guns in their hands. COLIN is not visible among them. POLICE open fire at Costello's car. THE CAR reverses back into the garage. MISTER FRENCH (the driver) is shot in the arm, and the car crashes into a wall. A gunfight opens up. FNG's exchange fire with brutally efficient tactical cops and are shot down expertly. COSTELLO, limping, gets out of the action, fast. He runs into the parking garage. French drives away (alternately is shot, or commits suicide). INT. PARKING GARAGE. NIGHT COSTELLO, shot through the stomach, is moving through the dark. All that's stored in this garage is heavy equipment for the big dig. Plenty of places to hide. We hear gunfire in the distance. COSTELLO hides between two pieces of heavy equipment and dials his telephone. To his surprise the phone rings quite nearby. And keeps ringing. (CONTINUED) 137. CONTINUED: COSTELLO moves out into the open, and sees, at a near distance, COLIN, his shadow long on the concrete. He has a gun in his hand. Costello moves out to face him. COLIN You're an FBI informant. COSTELLO comes out of the shadows. COSTELLO Jesus Colin, grow up. Course I'm talking to the FBI. COLIN Do they know who I am? COSTELLO says nothing for a moment. COSTELLO I never gave up anybody who wasn't goin' down anyway. COLIN instantly raises the pistol to shoot him. COLIN Did you give me up? COLIN'S PISTOL wavers. COSTELLO Nobody knows nothin'. COLIN shakes his head and cocks the gun. COLIN Frank, Frank, do they know about me? COSTELLO I know you, Colin. You know I'd never give you up. You're like... COLIN A son...to you? Is that what it is about, all that murderin' and fuckin' and no sons? What are you, shooting blanks? COSTELLO tries to raise his gun which is inside his sleeve. He's sitting on his coat so that the shot goes off sideways as COLIN shoots him. (CONTINUED) 138. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO topples backward into the bucket of the bucket loader. ANGLE ON COLIN. Then from the bucket loader, a post death tremor sets off one last shot from COSTELLO'S gun. Ricochet. COLIN fires into the dead body again and again. He backs away. COLIN (CONT'D) I got Costello! I got Costello here! INT. POLICE HQ/CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Colin is debriefed concerning the shooting of Costello. [Dialog separate document]. INT. BULLPEN AREA. DAY COLIN enters, tired from a debriefing. Applause from everyone in the office--the full crew. COLIN is embarrassed by the attention. BROWN is leading the whole team to a standing ovation. COLIN looks past the heads of the crowd and sees: Dignam, staring at him evenly. COLIN (to crowd) It's not any reason for, ah... QUEENAN'S SECRETARY brings him some wine. COLIN (CONT'D) Thank you. QUEENAN'S SECRETARY No, thank you. He takes a glass of wine. Then guiltily, almost in tears, he drinks. BROWN jerks a thumb towards Colin's office #2. BROWN He's waited a long time for you. (COLIN looks up and sees BILLY) How'd you get him without the files? COLIN Caller ID. On Queenan's phone. You know that guy? (CONTINUED) 139. CONTINUED: BROWN Yeah, we were classmates together. COLIN I'm gonna go talk to him. COLIN goes off. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. NIGHT In Colin's office BILLY sits with his ankle on his knee. He looks very tired, dirty. Wearing a VISITOR badge. COLIN Good to see you Trooper. BILLY Yeah. "Trooper". COLIN Colin Sullivan. We spoke on the phone. How long have you been undercover? BILLY Long time. Long fuckin' time. COLIN I can't begin to tell you what a debt we owe you. I want you to know I'll be recommending you for the Medal of Merit. BILL Medal of Merit. Oh, yeah. That's kinda like a gold star around here, right? COLIN It's the highest honor we got. BILLY I just want my identity back. COLIN You want to be a cop again? BILLY No, being a cop's not an identity. I want my identity back. COLIN takes it. (CONTINUED) 140. CONTINUED: BILLY (CONT'D) You'll have to excuse me. My only contact has been with a police shrink. COLIN (throat clicks) A police shrink. (instead of asking the obvious) Was that... helpful for you? BILLY What are you gonna do about the rat in this building? COLIN I'm gonna find him. Don't you worry about that. You got anything? Did Frank, ah, say anything... BILLY I'm all done being a cop. I just want to get my money and go home. COLIN Fair enough. You've given a lot. I can get you your file. I just need your password. BILLY The password's my name, William Costigan, Jr. They gave it to me in case something happened to them and I had to explain myself to someone like you. He writes it. Colin takes the paper and hides his astonishment. COLIN All right, Bill. Just give me a minute. I'm gonna go in the other room. This computer's gone blooey on me. Billy nods. He goes. 141. INT. COMPUTER ROOM. NIGHT COLIN accesses the personal database, enters the password. Billy's confidential file opens up. Every fact about the man. Photos. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. CONTINUOUS Billy takes a drink from the bottle COLIN has put on the desk. As he puts the bottle down he sees, sticking out of a box, a BROWN ENVELOPE. On it is written "CITIZENS." BILLY picks up the envelope...and knows everything. INT. COMPUTER ROOM. CONTINUOUS COLIN is reviewing it Billy's file. Outside the glass wall we see BILLY, staring at COLIN's back...and then moving on. INT. COLIN'S OFFICE #2. LATER COLIN enters, holding a printout of Billy's personnel file. He looks around the empty room. He sees the BROWN ENVELOPE lying on the desk, and understands everything. He sits down at his own computer--which does in fact work, and opens the personnel file. COLIN clicks DELETE. "Do You Really Want to Delete?" COLIN clicks "Yes" and Billy's picture, file, life, disappear. EXT. POLICE BUILDING. NIGHT BILLY exits the police building and moves across the plaza. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE MADOLYN'S OFFICE - DAY BILLY waits outside Madolyn's office. MADOLYN, carrying work, breakfast, rounds the corner and sees him standing and waiting for her. She's a little spooked, opens her mouth to speak... BILLY I know. I'm not here to...I'm not here for that. I've got something to...to give to you...something I need you to keep. For me. MADOLYN What is it? (CONTINUED) 142. CONTINUED: BILLY (stopping her from speaking) I need you to be my friend here and not ask any questions. That's for you to hold. He gives her a manila envelope. BILLY (CONT'D) Only you. Open this if I'm dead or if I call you and tell you to open it. Please do exactly what it says. Exactly what it says, please. Madolyn is a friend. She's not going to ask questions. She accepts the envelope. MADOLYN All right. BILLY I'm sorry to show up here like this. There was no one else I could give it to. I'm sorry. There was no one else. He backs away, and then turns to go. MADOLYN I...we... (he turns) I've, it's, been so confused... I just want to say... He turns and looks at her. She doesn't speak: can't. BILLY Whatever you have to say, really think about it, and if you still want to tell me, tell me in two weeks, all right? She moves her head slightly, watches him go. INT. MADOLYN'S OFFICE. MOMENTS LATER. MADOLYN sits at her desk, devastated, looking at a fall of light. The envelope lies on her blotter. She sits on ... then straightens up, takes a marker and writes "COSTIGAN" on the envelope and puts it in her desk drawer. (CONTINUED) 143. CONTINUED: We DISSOLVE to a SONOGRAM. INT. COLIN'S APARTMENT. MORNING A SONOGRAM picture of a fetus. It looks to him at first like a CCTV picture blown up. COLIN stares as if at something in a horror film. COLIN I was dreaming... MADOLYN What? COLIN I was dreaming I was dead. MADOLYN Death is hard. Life is much easier. Referring to the envelope COLIN What's this? MADOLYN Open it He does. COLIN Really? MADOLYN Yeah. COLIN Really? MADOLYN Yeah. COLIN You're joking... MADOLYN It's not a joke, it's a human being. Colin belatedly thinks of what a human being might do in these circumstances and kisses her. (CONTINUED) 144. CONTINUED: INT COLIN'S APARTMENT - LATER COLIN is in the shower. MADOLYN moves into the kitchen and puts the kettle on. She checks the mail, lying there on the counter. It's tied with a string. She undoes the string and sorts through the mail. Suddenly, she freezes looking at: AN OVERSIZED ENVELOPE addressed to COLIN: [COLIN SULLIVAN, 20 Pickering Street, Apt TK, Boston, MA, zip TK], with a return address of Wm. Costigan, 13 Conant St., Boston, etc., etc.] MADOLYN stares at the envelope, listening to the shower going. Billy has written to her fiance. She starts to put the envelope down, and then realizes...she has to hide it...she has to open it. Inside the envelope is a jewel case: EXILE ON MAIN STREET. And a note: PLAY ME NOW. MADOLYN puts the CD into the machine. She puts on the headset and listens...and listens. COLIN comes out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and t- shirt, barefoot, his hair wet. He looks at Madolyn, realizing that something is wrong. COLIN What? MADOLYN pulls the headphone jack out of the stereo and roughly the following booms out of the speakers. [NOTE: THIS RECORDING WAS DONE IN POST -- I THINK FROM THE PORN THEATRE DIALOGUE.] COLIN (CONT'D) Your guys shouldn't have done that. COSTELLO One of us was going to have to die. It tends to be the other guy. COLIN stares at her and we ought to think murder is a possibility. COLIN I'm now in charge of everything here. Including Queenan's informers. Theoretically. I can't unlock the files until after the brass squeezes Dignam. If the brass squeezes Dignam. (CONTINUED) 145. CONTINUED: (2) COSTELLO So Dignam's the only one with the keys to the kingdom. COLIN He's fucking resigning. He put his papers in. He's not talking. COSTELLO Give me his location. Tonight. COLIN and MADOLYN stare at each other. MADOLYN I thought I was the liar. COLIN I can explain. She goes into the bedroom. COLIN'S PHONE RINGS. He answers it. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING ROOFTOP. DAY BILLY is walking, on the phone, happy, and twisting the knife. BILLY Costello recorded everything. He put all the tapes in a little box and kept them with his lawyer. That was his insurance. His lawyer came to me. Costello trusted me the most. Imagine that you rat fuck. Sound quality good enough? I was a little worried. INT. MADOLYN AND COLIN'S APARMENT. CONTINUOUS COLIN closes a door to speak privately. COLIN What do you want? BILLY I want my identity, you two-faced rat prick. COLIN Where are you? (CONTINUED) 146. CONTINUED: BILLY Three o'clock. Where Queenan died. You keep your cell on. COLIN goes to the bedroom door and tries it. Locked. He knocks. No answer. COLIN Did we not talk about this? This is my job. It's over. He starts to punch the door, and then does not. EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING. DAY COLIN comes along and walks into the lobby. He is not looking for a tail... EXT. COMMERCIAL BUILDING ROOFTOP. DAY COLIN looks out through the door, no gun drawn, but very much a cop clearing his corners. He steps out and--BILLY takes him from behind the door, his only blind side, and grabs the back of his collar and crams a pistol into the bottom of his skull. BILLY Get your hands up. Hands. Hands. COLIN Put the fuckin' gun down. BILLY turns Colin around and puts the pistol to Colin's forehead, hard enough to break the skin. He takes out Colin's belt gun and puts it in his pocket. (Billy screams "hands!" at Colin every time he makes a move). COLIN (CONT'D) I came here to talk some fucking sense to you. You get a hold of yourself and put down the fuckin' firearm and act professional and I can get you your money. BILLY (turning him around) What did you say? COLIN I can get you your... (CONTINUED) 147. CONTINUED: BILLY cracks him across the jaw with the gun. COLIN goes down. COLIN is drooling blood, his bell rung, one eye open. Billy throws away Colin's ankle gun. COLIN (CONT'D) (spitting teeth) Fuck, shit... BILLY (going for Colin's cuffs) You didn't come here to talk, you fuckin' maggot, you came here to get arrested. COLIN Arrested? Arrested for what. (as BILLY cuffs him) So you got tapes of what? Costello was my informant. I was his rat? Fuck you. Prove it. I say he was my informant. BILLY Get up and shut your fuckin' mouth. COLIN What is this, a citizen's arrest? Blow me, prick. Only one of us is a cop, here, Bill. Nobody knows who you are. Nobody knows who you are. BILLY Would you shut the fuck up. COLIN I'm a sergeant in the Mass. State Police. Who the fuck are you? Nobody. I ERASED YOU. BILLY puts the gun to Colin's head. BILLY You erased me? COLIN Go ahead. Shoot a cop, Einstein. See what happens. BILLY What would happen is the bullet would go right through your fuckin' head. (CONTINUED) 148. CONTINUED: (2) COLIN Watch what happens. BILLY What, you think you're gonna get the parade? The bagpipes and bullshit? Fuck you. (safeties the gun) I'm arresting you. COLIN That's the stupidest thing you could do. BILLY Shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up. (hits him) I don't give a fuck if these charges don't stick. (whaling him in the beats) But I'm still fucking arresting you. COLIN is hammered to his knees. Head down, blood in his hair, drooling blood, thinking (impossibly) about his next move. He seems to realize he's fucked. BILLY (CONT'D) [You are what you do.] Get up. (COLIN doesn't move.) I said get the fuck up. BILLY grabs the back of Colin's collar and puts the gun to Colin's head. A crunch of gravel, off. BILLY and COLIN both hear it. BROWN Put down the weapon and step away from Sergeant Sullivan. BILLY drags COLIN to his feet and using Colin as a shield aims the pistol at: BROWN. Brown is aiming his weapon. BILLY I called you. You specifically. You know who I am. I'm not gonna shoot. I told you to meet me downstairs. COLIN Help me. (CONTINUED) 149. CONTINUED: (3) Billy realizes he's in a truly shitty situation: appearances are everything. BROWN Put the weapon on the deck and step away from Sergeant Sullivan. COLIN (a mess, bloody-mouthed) Shoot the fuckin' prick. BILLY (desperqte) Where's Dignam? I told you to bring Dignam! COLIN Shoot the motherfucker! BROWN Put the weapon on the ground and we'll discuss it. BILLY He was Costello's rat. I got evidence. Tapes. Other documents. BROWN Maybe you do, but right now I need you to drop the weapon. BILLY I told you I've got the evidence cold linking this prick to Costello... (BROWN wavers) You fuckin' know who I am. I'm taking him downstairs now. BROWN, weapon ready, follows into the elevator lobby. INT. ELEVATOR LOBBY/ELEVATOR. DAY BILLY moves COLIN into the elevator and as the doors close looks back at BROWN, still in a Mexican stand-off. COLIN, nose broken, blood masking his face. COLIN I can't wait for you to try to explain this to a Suffolk County grand jury. This is gonna be fun. (CONTINUED) 150. CONTINUED: The indicator ticks. Down, down, down. Colin sobs. COLIN (CONT'D) Just fucking kill me. BILLY I am killing you. The doors open and for a frozen moment BILLY, holding the gun on COLIN, stares out of the car. A LOUD BANG. BILLY is shot through the head. BLOOD sprays the walls, and COLIN is hit by flying blood and matter. BILLY falls, crumpled, on his face, half in and half out of the elevator. The doors try to close...open...COLIN, covered with blood, looks up. BARRIGAN lowers his pistol. COLIN slumps, covered with blood. BARRIGAN uncuffs him. COLIN feels his wrists. BARRIGAN picks up BILLY'S gun. The other elevator doors open and BROWN emerges. He looks into the bloody elevator and down at the dead man. BROWN (holstering his gun) Shit... BARRIGAN raises BILLY'S GUN and shoots BROWN in the head. COLIN stares at him. BARRIGAN Did you think you were the only one he had? Costello was going to sell us to the FBI. It's you and me now. We have to take care of each other. You understand? COLIN All right. Give me that. BARRIGAN casually hands COLIN BILLY'S GUN. COLIN presses the gun against BARRIGAN's forehead and fires. EXT. THE COMMERCIAL BUILDING. DAY POLICE TAPE, plenty of cars. Three corpses being loaded onto ambulances. COLIN, hands free, is drinking coffee from a paper cup, being checked out by a doctor. INT. POLICE HQ/CONFERENCE ROOM - NOT MUCH LATER (CONTINUED) 151. CONTINUED: COLIN has been cleaned up a little by paramedics. He's maybe had his lip stitched, but he's still wearing his bloody clothes. COLIN At that time, Trooper Barrigan, who I now understand to have been Francis Costello's informer in SIU, intercepted us in the lobby and shot Trooper William Costigan once in the head. (drinks water) At that time Barrigan retrieved Trooper Costigan's undercover weapon and shot Trooper Brown as he was approaching our location. I attempted to subdue Trooper Barrigan and in the ensuing struggle was struck several times with the Walther pistol. I was able to wrestle the weapon away, at which time Barrigan drew his own weapon and took aim at me. I was able to get off a single shot, striking Barrigan in the head. I then checked for vital signs of Troopers Brown and Costigan and discovered that they had expired. COLIN looks up, eyes clear, perfectly believable. As we transition to the FUNERAL...bagpipes coming up. COLIN (CONT'D) I'd like to go on record that I am recommending Trooper William Costigan for the Medal of Merit. ON SOUND BAGPIPES (Something like"Cross of Fire") as we DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CEMETERY. DAY BILLY'S GRAVESITE. The same cemetery as his mother is buried in. UNIFORMED POLICEMEN (not only State, but MDC, the way they do it, for "brother officers"), saluting. MADOLYN is at the gravesite, dry-eyed though in, distinctly apart from COLIN. He looks at her. She looks away from him, apparently forever. (CONTINUED) 152. CONTINUED: COLIN squares off: his job in the world is to get ahead. A salute is fired with rifles. But later... COLIN and MADOLYN are walking through the graves. COLIN What about the baby? She moves away from him without answering. MADOLYN walks out through the cemetery gates. COLIN hesitates. INT. THE STAIRWAY OF COLIN'S APARTMENT. EVENING COLIN has a bag of expensive groceries and wine. Living the Beacon Hill dream. He climbs the steps slowly. He nods to a neighbor, an old lady coming down with her dog (who incidentally will never accept him as a neighbor, and COLIN briefly seems aware of this). (Don't be afraid to get a bit French here). He gets to his door, and starts to cry, and nearly crumples. But he gets the door open. He looks up and sees a gun. Behind it, stepping fast out of the shadows, DIGNAM. Avenging a guy he didn't even like, because it's the right thing to do. COLIN looks down and sees that Dignam has plastic hospital boots on his feet. COLIN (accepting it, sort of, but only in a COLIN way) OK. DIGNAM fires. Flash groceries fall all over the floor. DIGNAM'S FEET step over COLIN's body, crushing one of a half dozen croissants, and DIGNAM goes down the expensive staircase, leaving the door to the apartment open. The strangest thing happens: a rat emerges and begins to eat the dead man's croissants. The rat hears something and runs so it's not in the shot when it FREEZES. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Descendants, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Descendants, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e781d0f2942522c42182f0298408e9191051851e --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Descendants, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE DESCENDANTS Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash1 EXT. THE OCEAN - DAY 1 CLOSE ON a beautiful 40-YEAR-OLD WOMAN at the helm of a powerful SPEEDBOAT -- her hair tossed back by the wind, her mouth in a euphoric grin. FADE OUT.2 CREDITS -- ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE 2 MATT (V.O.) My missionary ancestors came to the islands and told the Hawaiians to put on clothes, work hard, believe in Christ, and stop surfing and hula dancing. They made business deals along the way -- buying an island, or marrying a princess and inheriting her land. Now their descendants wear bikinis and running shorts, play beach volleyball and surf, and take up hula dancing. Hawai'i has always been a place of contradiction.3 EXT. HONOLULU - DAY 3 VARIOUS SHOTS of Honolulu begin a pattern of montages to be interspersed throughout the film. MATT (V.O.) My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawai'i, I live in paradise. Like a permanent vacation -- we're all just out here drinking mai- tais, shaking our hips, and catching waves. Are they nuts? How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up, our heart attacks and cancers less fatal, our grief less devastating? Hell, I haven't been on a surfboard in fifteen years.4 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 4 We ZOOM BACK from a panorama of Honolulu to find 50-year-old MATT KING seated amid DOCUMENTS atop a makeshift desk -- he has brought his work with him. (CONTINUED) 2. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft4 CONTINUED: 4 MATT (V.O.) For the last 23 days, I've been living in a "paradise" of IVs and urine bags and endotracheal tubes and six-month- old US magazines. Paradise. Paradise can go fuck itself. Matt looks up at the WOMAN we saw in the speedboat, now lying stiffly on an upright HOSPITAL BED, her head cocked to one side, a feeding tube in her nose, a ventilator in her trachea, IVs in her arm. MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) This is Elizabeth King, my wife. Twenty-three days ago she was launched from a powerboat during a race and hit her head, almost drowned. Now she's in a coma that scores 5 on the Glasgow scale and 3 on the Rancho Los Amigos scale, scores showing an extremely severe coma. Liz is very competitive. Whatever she does, she does to the fullest.5 INT. NEUROLOGIST'S OFFICE - DAY 5 Matt is getting the current DIAGNOSIS. NEUROLOGIST She reacts non-purposefully to stimuli in a non-specific manner, but occasionally her responses are specific, though inconsistent. Her reflexes are primitive and often the same, regardless of stimuli presented... MATT (V.O.) It was exactly what Elizabeth used to accuse me of.6 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 6 Matt continues to observe her. MATT (V.O.) Twenty-three days in a coma, and any day now the doctors will give me their final verdict if she's going to come out of it or not. Then I have a decision to make. Wait, that's wrong. Liz has a living will. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 3. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft6 CONTINUED: 6 MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like always, she makes her own decisions. But I know she's going to pull through. His CELLPHONE RINGS. MATT (CONT'D) Hi, Noe, what's up? NOE (ON PHONE) Matt, you have a call from Scottie's teacher. She says it's urgent. MATT Yeah, sure. Put her on.7 INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM - DAY 7 A SCRAPBOOK shows PHOTOS OF ELIZABETH lying in her hospital bed. The compositions are odd, the ANGLES uncomfortably CLOSE. WIDE -- Matt confers with fifth-grade teacher MS. Hayashi and school counselor MRS. THULL. MS. HAYASHI We just don't think these photographs are appropriate for Scottie to be sharing with her classmates. Some of them went home quite disturbed, and we got some angry calls from parents. MATT Yeah, she's sort of been going to town with the whole picture-taking thing, but I had no idea -- MS. HAYASHI I can't tell you how my heart goes out to you and your family, but Scottie just hasn't been herself. Principal Cruz agrees with us that it maybe would be better for Scottie to remain at home with you during this difficult time. MATT Home. See, I would think that sticking to her normal routine would be the best thing for her -- you know, keep her occupied. I wouldn't really know how to... (MORE) (CONTINUED) 4. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft7 CONTINUED: 7 MATT (CONT'D) I mean, I've kind of got my hands full. And her sister's away at school on the Big Island. I don't think Scottie would really want to hang out with me when she could be with her friends and people like you who specialize in children. MRS. THULL Mr. King, we see this every day -- children acting out at school when something's wrong at home. And your family is facing a devastating crisis. Have you been engaging Scottie in really talking about what's going on? Encouraging her to express her feelings? That's crucial. MATT (No) Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. SCOTTIE (O.S.) (singing) This shit is bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s. This shit is bananas. They look over to see -- TEN-YEAR-OLD SCOTTIE KING -- EARBUDS in place and in her own world, DANCING just outside the classroom door. A JANITOR down the hall eyes her suspiciously. SCOTTIE (CONT'D) This shit is bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s! Matt stares aghast at this specimen called his daughter. The ladies glance between Scottie and Matt, wondering when, or whether, he'll intervene. Finally -- MS. HAYASHI Scottie, that is not a good choice! Are you making a good choice? Scottie remains oblivious. Ms. Hayashi rises to her feet. MATT (realizing) Yeah, Scottie, come on. Knock it off. 5. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft8 EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY 8 Matt leads Scottie to the car. MATT What's the matter with you? Showing those pictures of Mom for your art project? SCOTTIE I'm a photographer, Dad, a real photographer. MATT No, you're not. You're overdoing it is what you're doing. SCOTTIE I saw it in a book. Some famous photographer lady took pictures of her mom in the hospital while she was dying, and they're considered art. That's what I'm doing. MATT First of all, your mother's very sick, but she's not dying. Second, you don't share personal stuff like that with strangers. What's going on with Mom is private. SCOTTIE I'm hungry. Can we get burgers? MATT No. SCOTTIE Can we get smoothies? MATT No. As Scottie continues -- MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) The last time I took care of Scottie by myself was when she was one. Now she's ten, and I have no idea what goes on inside her head. She's insane. And with Elizabeth in the hospital, I think she's testing me. I'm the backup parent. The understudy. 6. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft9 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 9 FLASH! Scottie takes Elizabeth's picture again. MATT I wish you'd stop doing that. And rather than taking her picture all the time, you should talk to her. I'm tired of asking you. You heard Dr. Johnston -- people in a coma can hear you -- you know, well, some of them can. It lets them know they're still loved, might even help them wake up sooner. And it'll help you express whatever feelings and emotions you're supposed to be going through -- you know, make you feel better. SCOTTIE I don't know what to say. MATT Tell her a story. SCOTTIE I don't have a story. MATT Tell her anything. Tell her what's been going on in school. SCOTTIE She never cares about that. MATT I don't believe that. What about after school? She's always driving you around the island. You know, gymnastics? Soccer? SCOTTIE I don't do those things anymore. MATT Ballet? Piano? Hula? SCOTTIE Nope. MATT If you're not going to say anything to your mother, we might as well leave. (CONTINUED) 7. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft9 CONTINUED: 9 SCOTTIE Okay. Let's go. MATT How about this? Write her a letter. SCOTTIE What would I write? MATT I don't know. "Get well. Wake up. I love you. Don't leave me alone with my idiot Dad." SCOTTIE How's she going to read it? She's in a coma. MATT Goddammit, Scottie, stop fighting me on everything. SCOTTIE But it doesn't make any sense. MATT You know what your mother is hearing right now? You refusing to talk to her. Is that what you want? SCOTTIE I'm starving. And I'm thirsty. I want a soda. He takes Scottie by the hand and sits her down in a chair next to the bed. MATT We're not leaving until you talk to her. I'll even give you privacy. Recite her the alphabet for all I care. What do you want to drink? SCOTTIE Sprite. MATT OK, Sprite. Diet Sprite? SCOTTIE Not diet. Regular. Do you think I'm fat? (CONTINUED) 8. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft9 CONTINUED: (2) 9 MATT No, you're not fat. SCOTTIE I'm not the model. MATT It's just that all that sugar makes you cranky. SCOTTIE I'm not cranky! MATT Okay. I'll be right back. Talk.10 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 10 As Matt steps out into the hallway, he passes NURSE JOY. NURSE JOY Mr. King, how are you? MATT Fine, Joy, fine. And you? NURSE JOY I see your picture in the paper today. Have you made your decision yet? MATT My decision? NURSE JOY Your family. About your big land. The other NURSE nudges Joy to be more polite. NURSE JOY (CONT'D) What? Me and Mr. King, we're like this. MATT Well, it's not really my decision. It's my whole family's decision. And furthermore... (mock scolding) ... mind your own business, young lady. As he turns away to continue down the hall -- (CONTINUED) 9. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft10 CONTINUED: 10 MATT (V.O) (CONT'D) The whole goddamned state is following my decision on who's going to buy 35,000 acres on Kaua'i my family has owned since the 1860s. My cousins and I meet in six days to approve a buyer. Ever since my father died nine years ago, I'm the sole trustee, the controlling trustee, so I hold all the cards. Why does so much have to depend on me -- my wife, my daughters, my family's land? I just want to hide.11 INT. HOSPITAL GIFT SHOP - DAY 11 A POSTCARD shows a BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIRL in a bikini straddling a surfboard, laughing as she's splashed. Barely containing his rage, Matt stares at postcard before grabbing ALL THE POSTCARDS in that rack. AT THE COUNTER -- About to pay for the postcards and two SODAS, Matt notices a HEADLINE atop a stack of NEWSPAPERS: "Activists Continue Protest of Kaua'i Sale." SHOPKEEPER Hey, they all the same cards. You like buy all the same cards? MATT These are inappropriate for a hospital gift shop. This girl is underage. Why do you sell postcards like this? This is a hospital. These aren't get-well cards. The SHOPKEEPER blinks at the man weirdly accosting her. SHOPKEEPER You like buy all the cards? Or you want I put them back? MATT (pulling out his wallet) Never mind. Yes, I'm buying them. And these two sodas. As she rings him up -- (CONTINUED) 10. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft11 CONTINUED: 11 SHOPKEEPER Okay, you buy underage girl all for yourself. In the lobby just outside the store, he drops the stack of postcards into the GARBAGE.12 INT. HOSPITAL STAIRWAY - DAY 12 Forgoing the elevator -- perhaps to squeeze in a little exercise -- Matt trudges upstairs. MATT (V.O.) Elizabeth's going to make it out okay. I know it. It's not her time yet. She'll wake up, Scottie and Alexandra will have their mother back, and we'll talk about our marriage. I'll sell the land and quit my practice and buy her whatever she wants -- a big boat, a house in France, a trip around the world, just the two of us. We'll get close again, like the early days. It's still in us. It must be.13 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 13 Approaching the door, Matt hears LAUGHTER from inside.14 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS 14 Matt enters to find Scottie on a sofa in the corner GIGGLING and TEXTING. MATT Scottie, what are you doing? SCOTTIE I'm hungry. Can we go? MATT You didn't talk to her, did you? SCOTTIE Yes, I did. MATT What did you tell her? SCOTTIE It's private. (CONTINUED) 11. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft14 CONTINUED: 14 MATT You're lying. And Jesus Christ, enough with the goddamn texting! Give me that phone! Give it here! Scottie fights him as he snatches her phone away. MATT (CONT'D) Jesus, Scottie. Okay, you win. Let's go. Scottie springs up out of the sofa. MATT (CONT'D) At least say goodbye. SCOTTIE Bye, Mom! Scottie bolts out the door. Matt takes a last look at Liz, panic and sadness rippling across his face. MATT (V.O.) My wife -- the sportswoman, the model, the drinker. MATT (CONT'D) Would you please wake up already? I need you. I can't do this alone.15 EXT. BRIEF MONTAGE - DAY 15 Images lead us up the PALI HIGHWAY and into the lush old neighborhood of NU'UANU.16 EXT. KING HOUSE - DAY 16 This STATELY OLD HOUSE shows signs of neglect but feels impressive and welcoming nonetheless. MATT (O.S.) Is this Barb Higgins? BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) Yes, it is. MATT (O.S.) Hi, Matt King returning your call. I assume your daughter is a classmate of my daughter's. (CONTINUED) 12. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft16 CONTINUED: 16 BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) Yes, Lani is a classmate of Scottie's, yes.17 INT. KING HOUSE - DAY 17 As Matt speaks on the PHONE, he wanders out of his cluttered HOME OFFICE and into the DINING ROOM. MATT How can I help you? BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) Let's see, where to start? It's Scottie. She's been texting some awful things to Lani, and I'd like her to stop. MATT For instance. BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) Here's the latest one. "We all know you grew pubes over the summer." She sends little messages like that for no reason. She even wrote it on Lani's Facebook wall. MATT Huh. BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) She calls my daughter Lanikai, implying she's like the size of an entire neighborhood. Do you think that's nice? MATT That's not like her at all. She's usually very sweet. He glances out the window at Scottie, who sits on the ground, back turned, POUNDING something with a BIG ROCK. MATT (CONT'D) As you may know, her mother isn't well, and maybe this is how she's dealing with it. BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) I don't care about the backstory, Mr. King. My daughter comes home from school in tears. (CONTINUED) 13. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft17 CONTINUED: 17 MATT Yeah, no, I get it. I'm very sorry. BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) Scottie should be the one who's sorry. I want her to come over and apologize to Lani, and I don't ever want her to write to my daughter again. LANI (DISTANT O.S.) She can in a good way. BARB HIGGINS (O.S.) If she doesn't apologize, I'm going to tell the headmaster. You can't buy your way out of this. Matt draws a long exasperated breath, as if everything else weren't enough already. MATT (V.O.) See what I mean? Everybody sees me as the rich guy, the inheritor. People resent us. I resent us. Even our last name -- King. How irritating.18 INT. MATT'S CAR - DAY 18 Matt drives Scottie. MATT You need to say you're sorry, and you need to mean it. No dicking around. I have a ton of work to do tonight. Do you have any idea how behind I am? You made her cry. Why would you want to be so mean to someone? SCOTTIE (irritated) I don't know! MATT Is that what you text all the time, nasty things? SCOTTIE No. MATT Well, what then? (CONTINUED) 14. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft18 CONTINUED: 18 SCOTTIE I write them with Reina. They make her laugh, and then she shows Megan and Brooke, and they laugh too. MATT I should have known Reina had something to do with it. I don't want you hanging out with her. SCOTTIE Wait, I told Reina she could visit me in the hospital since I'm not in school anymore. Can she? MATT We'll make a deal. You apologize to this girl, and you talk to your mother, and then we'll see about Reina dropping by the hospital. Okay? Something outside the window catches Scottie's attention. SCOTTIE Dorks! Matt looks to see -- SIX FAMILY MEMBERS, walking on the sidewalk with KAYAKS, wearing T-SHIRTS reading "Melnick Family Reunion." SCOTTIE (CONT'D) Dorks! MATT Scottie, knock it off! Scottie sits back in her seat, laughing. Matt glances in his rearview mirror to see a TEENAGE SON taking off his T-shirt and throwing it to the ground.19 EXT. LANI'S HOUSE - KAIMUKI - LATE AFTERNOON 19 The car drives down a block of MODEST HOMES. SCOTTIE Her house is down there on the corner. MATT You've been here before? (CONTINUED) 15. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft19 CONTINUED: 19 SCOTTIE Yea-uh. She invites me to her birthday, like, every year. MATT So you guys are actually friends? SCOTTIE Until last year's party, when she locked me out of the house and I had to sit outside all day while everybody was inside. She thought she was so great, but then I became friends with Reina and Brooke and got popular. MATT (processing) What?20 EXT. LANI'S FRONT PORCH - LATE AFTERNOON 20 BARB HIGGINS answers the door. BARB HIGGINS Thank you for coming by.21 INT. LANI'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 21 As Matt and Scottie are shown inside, they remove their shoes. BARB HIGGINS I forgot to mention the time Scottie said she didn't want to be Lani's partner at the rock wall because she didn't want to fall into my daughter's butt crack. That doesn't even make sense. Barb now leads them into -- THE TV ROOM -- -- where LANI HIGGINS sits on a couch. Matt is impatient to be done with this meaningless task. MATT Scottie, do you have something you want to say to Lani? SCOTTIE Sorry. (CONTINUED) 16. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft21 CONTINUED: 21 LANI It's okay. MATT Great. Well, nice meeting you both. Lani, you should come over sometime. Come for a swim or a hike or something. BARB HIGGINS Scottie, the things you said were simply evil. Do you realize that? I don't know what's led you to be such a nasty young lady. MATT Hey, hey. We came over. She apologized. We're dealing with it. Kids are mean sometimes. They grow out of it. It's a kid thing. Here, Scottie, you're going to stop, right? And you're really, really sorry, right? Scottie makes a big exaggerated nod. BARB HIGGINS I don't think she's sorry at all. She's going to keep doing it. I can tell. MATT No, she won't. It's like the time Lani locked Scottie out of the house at her birthday party and Scottie sat outside by herself. It was a mean thing to do, but Lani here probably did it just to show off, right? Lani thinks a moment, nods. MATT (CONT'D) But I'm not about to declare that one action defines a human being's entire character. She's a work in progress, and like all complex people is a bundle of contradictions. BARB HIGGINS I didn't know about that. SCOTTIE You brought me cake. (CONTINUED) 17. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft21 CONTINUED: (2) 21 MATT You brought her cake. So, I don't know, maybe Lani should be the one to apologize, since this incident may have been the catalyst for all this... "evil" was the word you used.22 EXT. LANI'S HOUSE - DUSK 22 The door opens, and Matt and Scottie pause to slip their shoes back on. BARB HIGGINS Oh, and Mr. King? MATT Yes? BARB HIGGINS Good luck with the sale. Matt turns to look at her. So that's what all this was about on some level? BARB HIGGINS (CONT'D) They say your decision will have a major impact on Hawai'i's real estate world, not to mention the whole landscape of Kaua'i. Hundreds of millions of dollars, yeah? MATT Big decision. BARB HIGGINS My husband's family is from Kaua'i. Hanapepe, born and bred. They hope you don't sell. MATT You don't say. BARB HIGGINS All the traffic it's going to make. Matt and Scottie walk away. Barb closes the door. MATT Are you going to act different with Lani? (CONTINUED) 18. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft22 CONTINUED: 22 SCOTTIE I'll try, but it's hard. She has a face you just want to hit. MATT Yeah.23 23 INT. MATT'S STUDY - NIGHT The camera makes its way past PHOTOS of Matt's ancestors, BOOKS of Hawaiian history, other family memorabilia to find Matt at his desk pouring over PAPERS. A clock reads 1:20. MATT (V.O.) My great-great-grandmother was Princess Margaret Ke'alohilani, one of the last direct descendants of King Kamehameha. She was originally supposed to marry her hanai brother, but she fell in love with her haole banker and estate manager, Edward King, whose parents were missionaries. Between his land deals and her huge inheritance, all of their descendants for generations have watched the past unfurl millions into our laps through leases and sales. Now the Rule Against Perpetuities is forcing us to dissolve the trust, and we're selling the last parcel of undeveloped land. Matt looks up, his glance falling on the portraits of Edward and Margaret. MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) Soon my daughters and I can just be normal citizens like everybody else, and these dead people will stop controlling our lives. VERY CLOSE ON MATT -- MATT (V O.) (CONT'D) I just want to be a normal guy.24 EXT. DOWNTOWN HONOLULU - DAY 24 Establishing -- tall buildings, business people, lunch wagons. 19. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft25 INT. MATT'S LAW OFFICE - DAY 25 Matt eats a SACK LUNCH at his desk. His window has a grand view of DOWNTOWN. We glimpse his Punahou, college and law school DIPLOMAS. MATT (V.O.) Unlike a lot of my cousins, I haven't touched my share of the trust money. Like my father before me, I live only on the income from my law practice. I don't want my daughters growing up entitled and spoiled. And I agree with my father -- you give your children enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing. Matt's secretary NOE cracks open his door. NOE Mr. King, your cousins are here.26 INT. LAW OFFICE CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 26 Matt enters the room to find SEVEN COUSINS waiting to greet him. From their casual clothing and shaggy hair, an observer might hardly suspect their status. MATT (V.O.) Not only am I the sole but I'm a commercial real estate and transactional attorney, so the most involved of my cousins have been meeting with me regularly to analyze the bids -- Cousin Dave, Cousin Hal, Cousin Six, Cousin Wink, Cousin Lisa, Cousin Connie and Cousin Stan, both of whom oppose the sale entirely. Don't be fooled by appearances. In Hawai'i some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen. LATER -- Matt and his cousins stand above the conference table, looking at blueprints and architectural drawings. MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) The proposals are virtually the same -- hotels, shopping centers, condos and golf courses. 3000 new jobs in the first five years. Support letters from the construction industry and unions. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 20. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft26 CONTINUED: 26 MATT (V.O.) (CONT'D) A Chicago group is offering half a billion dollars, but we're leaning toward a lower bid from a guy named Don Holitzer. He's actually from Kaua'i and made a fortune in Silicon Valley. Cousin Hugh is pushing us in that direction, and I say why not? CLOSE ON MATT, nodding along but highly distracted, the sound of Liz's VENTILATOR growing louder in his brain. We CUT TO ARTIST'S RENDERINGS of comatose Elizabeth -- wide, closer, closer still, closer.27 EXT. QUEENS'S HOSPITAL - DAY 27 Establishing. Matt walks inside the front door.28 INT. FAMILY CONSULTATION ROOM - DAY 28 Matt sits across from old family friend DR. SAM JOHNSTON. DR. JOHNSTON Bad news, Matt. Dr. Chun, Dr. Mueller and I -- we believe her condition, * which we call a multi-factorial anoxic * encephalopathy, is deteriorating. We * see no eye movement, no pupillary * response, basically no brainstem * reflexes whatsoever. The machines * could keep her going, but her quality * of life would be... very poor. * Basically what you see now. She'll never be like she was, Matt. Never. * We know that now. Matt sits very still. DR. JOHNSTON (CONT'D) I can't tell you how sorry I am to have to tell you this. And you have your daughters. There's just nothing we can do. MATT So... if we do go ahead and take her off the machines -- DR. JOHNSTON Not if, Matt. When. I have a legal obligation. You know that. (CONTINUED) 21. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft28 CONTINUED: 28 MATT How long will she last? DR. JOHNSTON Hard to say. Could be a few days. Could be two weeks. But for planning purposes, you should work off the shortest possible scenario. I know I need to get the ball rolling on organ donations right away. Organ donation? Forgot about that one. DR. JOHNSTON (CONT'D) Elizabeth has so many friends, a big life. Last time I was at your house, must have been 200 people. If you're going to let people know to say goodbye, which is fairly typical protocol in these situations, start now. By the time the last day comes, they feel more ready, as ready as they can feel. I'm so sorry, Matt.29 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 29 His mind spinning, Matt prepares to look at the corpse-to-be. When he opens the door and pulls back the curtain, he finds --30 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS 30 -- friends MARK AND KAI MITCHELL up for a visit. They're playing MUSIC for Elizabeth on a mini-boombox, and Kai is APPLYING MAKE-UP to Liz's face. After cheery greetings -- MATT What're you doing? KAI Oh, she's been looking a little pale lately all cooped up in here, and I just know she'd be mortified if no one had thought to help her out with some lipstick and blush. I know she'll grill me. Matt and Mark exchange a look -- "Girls." MARK And of course Kai's getting her all caught up on all the latest gossip. (CONTINUED) 22. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft30 CONTINUED: 30 KAI Well, I don't want to have to start from scratch later. Oh, and Matt, on the way here we stopped by and left some more meals in your fridge, all ready to nuke. Matt smiles -- he'd been expecting a grim moment alone with Elizabeth, but instead he finds a room full of warmth and life. Even if it's a little creepy. MARK So what's the latest anyway, Matt? Any updates? MATT No, no. Just more of the same -- monitoring the swelling, keeping her * kidneys and other vitals working, you * know, hoping for the best. Kai nods sympathetically before turning back to Elizabeth. EXTREME CLOSEUP of Liz's lips as Kai applies lipstick.31 EXT. KALAKAUA AVENUE - DAY 31 JOGGERS go past as Matt's car pulls into the driveway of the OCEAN OUTRIGGER CLUB.32 EXT. OCEAN OUTRIGGER BEACH - DAY 32 Matt lies on the beach watching Scottie play in the surf with her snorkel mask on. The melancholy he feels makes him regard his weird little daughter with tenderness. SCOTTIE (emerging from the water) I'm hungry! MATT What else is new? Let's get you something to eat.33 EXT. OCEAN OUTRIGGER RESTAURANT - DAY 33 Scottie pops two last FRIES into her mouth, then turns her attention to a strawberry SUNDAE. Anxious to spoil her, Matt watches Scottie dig in. Yet he remains preoccupied, his smile distant. (CONTINUED) 23. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft33 CONTINUED: 33 SCOTTIE The food here at the club is so good. MATT Yeah, they do a good job here. SCOTTIE Why is it called a jellyfish? It's not a fish, and it's not jelly. MATT No idea. You ask good questions. You're getting too smart for me, Scottie. SCOTTIE I'm going to find out. Then I'm going to ask Mom when she wakes up and see if she knows. Do you think she's going to know everything she used to know? Matt notices a BUFF GUY and some FRIENDS headed to a nearby table, and his mood sours. Scottie follows his gaze. The guy notices the Kings and feels obliged to mosey over. This is TROY COOK -- athletic and rich. TROY Hi, Matt. Hi, Scottie. MATT Troy. TROY (to his friends) I'll catch up to you guys in a second. Matt stares so intensely that Troy averts his gaze. TROY (CONT'D) So, uh, what's going on? I mean, how's Elizabeth doing? MATT Same. TROY I visited her last week, you know. I thought she looked pretty good. MATT So why'd you ask? (CONTINUED) 24. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft33 CONTINUED: (2) 33 TROY I don't know, I just wanted to know the latest. I'm praying for her every day, you guys. Really hard. Seriously. So what I was saying was, when I was there, I talked to her, and her hand moved, so I was pretty encouraged. I thought that was an encouraging sign. Scottie looks up hopefully. Matt notices. MATT That's enough. TROY I really think she heard me. MATT Look, Troy, go to your friends. No hard feelings. Let's just leave it alone. Troy walks away, stops, turns back. TROY I told you, Matt, there were lots of chops and holes that day. I told you a hundred times. Ask anybody. What happened to her could have happened to me. It was a super-hard day on the water. MATT You weren't supposed to be driving, Troy. She was supposed to be driving. TROY She wanted me to drive. And she's the one who told me to pass the other boat right before the turn. And just your whole attitude toward me, Matt -- I mean, I feel terrible. I wish it were me and not her. Plus I almost drowned myself when we capsized. And my rotator cuff is never going to be the same, and I'm going to miss Moloka'i. SCOTTIE Just because her hand moved, it doesn't mean anything, Troy. Mom twitches at weird times. When you cut off a chicken's head, it runs all around, but it's still a dead chicken. (CONTINUED) 25. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft33 CONTINUED: (3) 33 Scottie pushes back from the table and takes off toward the pool. Matt follows, not even gracing Troy with a final look.34 EXT. OCEAN OUTRIGGER POOL - CONTINUOUS 34 Matt catches up to Scottie. MATT Hey, sport, don't pay any attention to that guy. That guy's a dope. SCOTTIE I hate him. MATT Yeah. SCOTTIE I didn't mean to say dead chicken. I don't want Mom to die. MATT I know, I know. Hey, let's get out of here. Let's go do something crazy. Like let's drive to the airport and hop over to the Big Island and surprise your sister. What do you say? SCOTTIE Right now? MATT It'll be fun. She's not expecting us or anything. And we bring her home. I think she should be here with us, don't you? Don't you miss her? I miss her. SCOTTIE Yeah, I'm out of school. She should be too!35 EXT. OUTRIGGER RESTAURANT - DAY 35 As Matt and Scottie head toward the exit, Scottie FLIPS OFF a crestfallen Troy.A35 EXT. AIRPORT - DAY A35 A Hawaiian Airlines inter-island airplane takes off.36 INSERT -- MAP OF THE ISLANDS 36 A DOTTED LINE goes from Honolulu to Kona. 26. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft37 INT. AIRPLANE - DAY 37 Matt and Scottie look out the window at THE BIG ISLAND coming into view. MATT (V.O.) Somehow it feels natural to find a daughter of mine on a different island. A family seems exactly like an archipelago -- all part of the same geographic expression but still islands -- separate and alone, always drifting slowly apart.38 EXT. KING'S HIGHWAY, BIG ISLAND - DUSK 38 A RED RENTAL CAR zooms along the famous road near Kona traversing rocky -- almost lunar -- landscape.39 INT. RENTAL CAR - DUSK 39 Matt looks over at Scottie, dozing.40 EXT. HAWAI'I PREPARATORY ACADEMY - NIGHT 40 The car turns onto the bumpy gravel road snaking through the campus of this BOARDING SCHOOL.41 INT. DORM SUPERVISOR'S ROOM HALLWAY - NIGHT 41 Matt knocks on a door. An exhausted Scottie slouches against a wall. The DORM SUPERVISOR appears in a nightgown. The TV is on in the background. MATT Hi, sorry to bother you. I'm Matt King. DORM SUPERVISOR Yes, hello, Mr. King. MATT I've come to pick up my daughter, Alexandra. DORM SUPERVISOR Did you call Administration? MATT No, I didn't. It's sort of an emergency. (CONTINUED) 27. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft41 CONTINUED: 41 DORM SUPERVISOR All right, let's see what we can do.42 OMIT 4243 INT. DORM HALLWAY - NIGHT 43 Scottie runs down the hall, excited by the idea of surprising her sister. SCOTTIE Which door? Which door is it? MATT Scottie, keep it down! DORM SUPERVISOR Will you both keep it down? It's around the corner. They turn down another corridor, and Scottie knocks on a door. DORM SUPERVISOR (CONT'D) That's the wrong door. The door opens, and a girl pokes her head out. DORM SUPERVISOR (CONT'D) Go back to sleep, Yuki. MATT Sorry, Yuki. The dorm supervisor knocks on an adjacent door. A moment later a ROOMMATE opens, groggy from sleep. DORM SUPERVISOR Wake your roommate, sweetie. ROOMMATE (glancing in her room) Um... Alex isn't here. DORM SUPERVISOR Where is she? ROOMMATE I think she's... outside somewhere. 28. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft44 EXT. SOCCER FIELD - NIGHT 44 A coat over her nightgown, flashlight in hand, the dorm supervisor leads Matt and Scottie across glistening moist grass. They hear LAUGHTER. TWO FIGURES grow more distinct in the moonlight -- GIRLS hitting golf balls -- ALEXANDRA KING and friend EMILY. DORM SUPERVISOR Girls! What do you think you're doing out here? EMILY Run! SCOTTIE Hi, Alex! It's me, Scottie! Emily takes off but doesn't get far -- she falls flat on her face, golf club in one hand, BOTTLE in the other. MATT You know, I pay $25,000 year for this crap not to happen. Alex! ALEXANDRA Dad? (laughing, to Emily) My fucking dad is here! This cracks her up even more. Scottie laughs too, though she's unsure why. DORM SUPERVISOR You don't talk like that here. This is unacceptable behavior! ALEXANDRA What's up, Dad? EMILY You come out to play a few holes with us? SCOTTIE We came to get you so you can come home. He took me out of school already. I haven't gone for three whole days. (CONTINUED) 29. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft44 CONTINUED: 44 ALEXANDRA (to Matt) What's happening? Why are you here? MATT You need to come home and see Mom. Alexandra hears this, takes a few strides, flings her golf club into the night. ALEXANDRA Fuck Mom! DORM SUPERVISOR What did I say about the language? ON MATT -- MATT (V.O.) What is it about me that makes women in my life want to destroy themselves? Elizabeth with her motorcycles and speedboats and alcoholism.45 EXT. KING HOUSE - NIGHT 45 Matt's car arrives back home, and he and Scottie get out of the car. MATT (V.O.) Alexandra with her drugs and older guys and modeling.46 INT. KING HOUSE - NIGHT 46 Matt carries a passed-out Alex upstairs. Scottie scampers ahead, opening the door to --47 INT. ALEXANDRA'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS 47 -- where Matt places Alex on her bed, takes off her shoes, covers her with a blanket, and watches this tsunami of a girl at rest.48 INT. KING KITCHEN - DAY 48 At the stove, Matt dishes out SCRAMBLED EGGS. Scottie sits in the kitchen nook. MATT (V.O.) And Scottie, how can I protect her from... me? (CONTINUED) 30. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft48 CONTINUED: 48 As he brings her plate over -- SCOTTIE I don't like eggs. MATT Why didn't you say so before I made them? SCOTTIE I thought they were for you. Alex trudges in and pulls a Coca-Cola out of the fridge. MATT Good morning. (no answer) Does Mom let you have Coke for breakfast? ALEXANDRA I'm pretty sure it's after eleven. Now that we get a closer look, we might recognize Alexandra from the postcards at the hospital. We also see a resemblance to her mother. MATT How are you feeling? Shrugging, she plops down near Scottie. MATT (CONT'D) Hungover, huh? Why am I not surprised? I don't know where to start, and we probably shouldn't in front of Scottie. SCOTTIE I don't mind. MATT I thought you were supposed to be getting your act together. ALEXANDRA I have gotten my act together. I was just drinking. I've been doing really well, but nobody ever seems to notice my grades are better, and how I was in that stupid play you guys didn't bother to see. Do you even remember the name of it? (CONTINUED) 31. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft48 CONTINUED: (2) 48 It's on the tip of his tongue. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) That's what I thought. So what if I got drunk on the ONE night you happened to drop in? So the fuck what? MATT Hey, hey, hey. Watch your language in front of Scottie. SCOTTIE I'm okay. MATT (sitting with them) Anyway, it's good to see you. Welcome home. Want some eggs? ALEXANDRA How long do I have to stay? MATT We'll discuss that. ALEXANDRA (getting up) I'm going swimming. MATT Then I'll join you. ALEXANDRA Good times.49 EXT. KING SWIMMING POOL - DAY 49 Matt walks out the patio doors. Seated on the steps of the shallow end, Alexandra is on her cellphone. ALEXANDRA (into phone) I gotta go. I'll see you later. (to Matt) The pool's really dirty. What day does the pool guy come? Matt notices all the floating leaves and insects. MATT He comes... you know, I don't know what day he comes. (CONTINUED) 32. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft49 CONTINUED: 49 ALEXANDRA Awesome. Matt grabs a POLE to skim the surface of the water. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) Sid's coming over. MATT Who's Sid? ALEXANDRA A really good friend from Punahou. We were in school together for years. MATT Oh. Okay. ALEXANDRA He wants to be there for me with all this shit happening. Matt wonders his own version of "What am I, chopped liver?" MATT Do I know his parents? ALEXANDRA No. He might stay over too. Is that cool? Just then, Scottie runs out onto the patio dressed in a BRA AND PANTIES. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) What the fuck? Get out of my underwear, you freak. SCOTTIE Ooo, la la! Don't I look divine? MATT Scottie, get back inside and change into your swimsuit. SCOTTIE Why? MATT Now. Scottie flips him off and runs back inside. (CONTINUED) 33. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft49 CONTINUED: (2) 49 ALEXANDRA Real good job you're doing. MATT That's part of why I brought you here. You have to help me. I don't know what to do with her. Alexandra slides into the water, swims to the other side and props herself on the edge, floating her lower body. Matt lowers himself into the water too. ALEXANDRA Maybe if you spent more time with her, she wouldn't act like such a complete spaz. Get her out of town -- go camp on Kaua'i. That's what mom did with me whenever I was losing it. MATT Listen, Alex, your mother isn't well. ALEXANDRA Obviously. MATT They just told me she isn't going to wake up. It's for sure now. The doctors are going to stop caring for her. Do you understand what I'm saying? Your mom wanted it this way. Alex remains silent. MATT (CONT'D) She has a will, see, saying we have to do it like this. We both do. That's why I got you. We're letting her go. Alex looks at him, takes a couple quick, loud inhalations, then slips -- UNDERWATER -- -- where she SWIMS, FACE CONTORTED, hoping to stay down there forever. Finally she emerges -- ABOVE THE POOL -- -- and gets out, grabbing a towel, crying now. (CONTINUED) 34. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft49 CONTINUED: (3) 49 ALEXANDRA Why'd you have to tell me in the goddamned pool? Matt climbs out and approaches her, arms extended. MATT Alex... Alex... ALEXANDRA What do you want? Matt drops his arms, crestfallen. Alex scoffs, walks back into the house.50 INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY 50 They sit together now on sofas. Alexandra appears drained from crying. MATT I just found out yesterday. We have to go through this thing together, you and Scottie and I. And I need to go around and tell people what's happening -- our family and close friends. Sometimes I'll want you to come with me. Other times I need you to watch Scottie. ALEXANDRA You want me to go around with you and tell everyone that Mom's going to die? What's the point of that? Breaking the news, watching them cry, dealing with their emotions. How depressing is that going to be? Just call them. MATT Alex, nobody wants to do any of this. But we need to tell Grandpa and Tutu, a few friends. They have the right to know and to be able to say goodbye. ALEXANDRA I don't want to talk about Mom with anyone. MATT Whatever you fought about with her at Christmas, you need to drop it. Grow up. You love your mother. Your mother loves you. Move on. (CONTINUED) 35. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft50 CONTINUED: 50 ALEXANDRA I can't drop it. MATT You have to. ALEXANDRA You really don't have a clue, do you? Dad, she was cheating on you. Whoa. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) That's what we fought about. When I was home at Christmas, I caught her with some guy. It made me sick to see her near you. I went back to school thinking that was it, I was done with her. I was going to call and tell you everything. But then the accident happened, and I was waiting until she woke up, I guess. And you, you didn't even suspect. Right? (off his silence) That disgusted me too. You're always so busy. MATT Caught her with some guy? What does that mean? ALEXANDRA Brandy and I were on our way to swim in the Black Point pool, and suddenly I see Mom and some douchebag walk into a house. His house, I guess. MATT Just a guy? It could have been anybody. ALEXANDRA He had his hand on her ass. It was gross. MATT You're sure it was her. (off her nod) Then what? (CONTINUED) 36. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft50 CONTINUED: (2) 50 ALEXANDRA Then nothing. She went into the house. A few days later I told her I knew what she was doing. MATT And? ALEXANDRA First she acted like she didn't know what I was talking about. Like I'm blind. Then she got super-mad and started yelling at me and denied it. That's when I decided I didn't want anything more to do with her. MATT Who is he? ALEXANDRA I don't know. Some guy. MATT What did he look like? ALEXANDRA Dark hair. Matt stands up, walks in a little circle -- he literally does not know which way to turn. Then he knows. MATT Watch Scottie.51 EXT. KING HOUSE - DAY 51 Matt bursts out of his house and starts RUNNING down the street.52 EXT. NU'UANU NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY 52 Matt comes sprinting around a corner.53 EXT. THE MITCHELLS' HOUSE - DAY 53 Matt arrives at his neighbors' house and lets himself in the kitchen door.54 INT. THE MITCHELLS' HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 54 Matt passes through the kitchen into the living room. (CONTINUED) 37. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft54 CONTINUED: 54 MATT Hello! It's me, Matt! MARK AND KAI appear at the top of the stairs looking as though they haven't been downstairs all day. KAI Oh, hey, Matt. MATT You guys weren't sleeping, were you? As they come downstairs -- KAI No, we were just fighting. Come on in. Want a drink? Want some coffee? MATT (shaking his head) What were you fighting about? MARK Stupid. KAI It's not stupid. He wants us to throw parties and have people over, which we do, of course, but who ends up doing all the work? Me. MARK It's work that's totally unnecessary. You don't have to do anything. Nobody's forcing you to clean and buy a new outfit and think of some goddamn theme cocktail. We can just invite people over last minute and drink whatever we have and hang out. It's more fun that way, anyway. As they continue their argument, Matt is struck by the pettiness of everyday life. He at once pities it, is impatient with it, and longs for it. MARK (CONT'D) You know what? We can talk about it later. Matt didn't come over to hear us squabble. KAI Shit, Matt. Is Elizabeth -- is there any news? (CONTINUED) 38. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft54 CONTINUED: (2) 54 MATT In fact there is. I'll tell you in a moment. Who is he? (off their silence) Does she love him? Who is he? KAI Matt. MATT I'm sorry to put you in this position. But I'm not really the one who put you there, am I? I just want to know who this guy is that my wife has been... seeing. KAI Oh, Matt, you're angry. MATT You could be a therapist. Very keen powers of observation. KAI Wow. I think we should talk another time. I think you need to cool it. Matt sits. He's not leaving. No one speaks. MATT Is it Troy? That fucking Neanderthal? MARK You don't know him. KAI Oh, don't you even, Mark. Shame on you. You're her friend. MARK I'm Matt's friend too. And this is a very unique and dramatic situation. I'd want to know. KAI Don't betray her when she can't even defend herself. Matt, you may not be able to hear this right now, but it's not her fault. Women have needs. MATT Are you fucking kidding me? (CONTINUED) 39. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft54 CONTINUED: (3) 54 KAI Your marriage was not... You worked so hard to make partner, and no one can take that away from you. But then you made partner, and you only got busier. And it's not like you were so involved with the girls. She was lonely. MATT So you're going to talk to me in clichÈs about women? Nothing is ever a woman's fault. Was it still going on when she had the accident? Kai looks away. Mark nods. MARK But I stayed out of it, Matt. Anytime Kai talked about it, I walked away. MATT (to Kai) And you what? You probably egged her on. Add some drama to your life without any actual risk. Whom do you think you're protecting anyway? She doesn't need your protection -- it's over. She's going to die. KAI Don't say that. MATT I almost told you yesterday. She's never going to wake up. It's for sure now. You hear me? We're pulling the plug. You were putting lipstick on a corpse. MARK Come on, Matt. That's a little intense. Kai's face dissolves into tears. Mark reaches out to comfort her. Everybody falls back to Earth. MATT I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you guys. I just... Does she love him? Matt looks at him blankly, then at Kai. He'd like to know too. (CONTINUED) 40. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft54 CONTINUED: (4) 54 KAI How can you ask about him when she's going to die? Who cares? Yes, she loves him, loved him, whatever. She's crazy about him. She was going to ask you for a divorce. Matt is stunned but oddly relieved. The truth, once revealed, blows a calming wind. MATT You still haven't told me who he is. I guess it doesn't matter. Matt rises to his feet and leave.55 EXT. THE MITCHELLS' HOUSE - DAY 55 Just as Matt reaches the sidewalk, Mark comes loping out of the house. MARK Brian Speer. His name is Brian Speer. Two e's. A PET GOAT tied up in the front yard watches.56 EXT. NU'UANU NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY 56 From a discreet distance, we notice that Matt has stopped walking to cry.57 EXT. KING SWIMMING POOL - DAY 57 Wandering up the driveway, Matt finds Alexandra sitting with Scottie and SOME GUY. Scottie now wears an oversized t-shirt reading, "She's fat. I'm drunk. It's on." They stop laughing when they see Matt. SCOTTIE Hi, Daddy. ALEXANDRA Dad, this is Sid. MATT (sizing him up) Hello, Sid. Lanky and odd, a permanent smirk on his face, SID rises from his lounge chair. (CONTINUED) 41. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft57 CONTINUED: 57 SID `Sup, bro? As they shake hands, Sid pulls Matt into a man-hug and thumps him on the back. MATT Don't ever do that to me again. (to Alexandra) Get ready, okay? We're going to Grandma and Grandpa's. (to Scottie) Auntie Esther will come over to watch you. ALEXANDRA Sid's coming with us, okay? MATT Sid, this week, what's going on, is a real family matter. You understand. (to Alexandra) Sid's not going to be interested in meeting your grandparents. He'll be bored stiff. ALEXANDRA Dad, I told you he was going to be with me. I'll be a lot more civil with him around. SID (arms wide, shrugging) What can I say?58 EXT. KING HOUSE - DAY 58 Matt approaches the car with Alexandra and the interloper. MATT Does he know what we're doing? ALEXANDRA He knows everything. SID Dude, your wife is dying and then you find out she's been stepping out on you? That's harsh. MATT Get in the car. 42. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 DraftA59 EXT. MONTAGE - TBD A5959 EXT. THORSON HOUSE - DAY 59 Matt watches retired military man SCOTT THORSON (70s) mumble as he sits at a table glancing over DOCUMENTS. Sid is splayed out on a nearby lounge chair. Alex seated at his feet. Every so often a PET PARROT squawks loudly. SCOTT THORSON This is like reading Korean. MATT Scott, I'll be happy to walk you through it. SCOTT THORSON (tossing the papers) Jibber-jabber. MATT It's an advanced directive -- basically her instructions on what medical procedures she wants or, in this case, does not want. No prolonged mechanical ventilation, no -- SCOTT THORSON I know goddamn well what it says. Says she doesn't want everyone waiting around while she spoils like milk. Says if the doctors can't do squat, she'd just as soon get on with it. He stares off into space. ALEXANDRA Gramps, are you okay? SCOTT THORSON Elizabeth had the good sense to write this thing here. Always a thoughtful girl. A strong girl. A hell of a lot stronger than her brother. Barry whines his way through life. Might even be a homosexual, for all I know. MATT Yeah, Scott, I don't think so. (CONTINUED) 43. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft59 CONTINUED: 59 SCOTT THORSON And she's stronger than you, Matt. She lived more in a year than you did in a decade, sitting in your office, hoarding all your cash. All that money you refuse to use -- what the hell good is it? And now you and your family are cashing in your chips -- what the hell for? Maybe if you'd let my baby have her own boat and bought her some safe equipment or let her go on those shopping sprees women like, maybe she wouldn't have gone in for those thrill sports. Maybe if you'd provided more thrills at home. ALEXANDRA Grandpa. SCOTT THORSON And you, Alexandra. Putting your poor mother through hell when all she was trying to do was instill some sense and drive in you. Shame on you. You should try to be more like her. She's a good girl. She's a good girl. The old man climbs to his feet and takes a few steps away. Hands on hips, he looks up as though gauging the weather. Then he clears his throat, wipes his face with his sleeve, turns back. SCOTT THORSON (CONT'D) You all want a drink? As he wanders away toward the kitchen -- LATER -- Scott returns pushing a little DRINK-CART. Behind him trails his wife ALICE. An Alzheimer's victim, Alice is a sweet woman, alert but unable to grasp or recall. ALICE Oh, do we have guests? MATT (kissing her) Hi, Alice. Good to see you. It's me, Matt. ALICE Good to see you too. (CONTINUED) 44. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft59 CONTINUED: (2) 59 ALEXANDRA (hugging her) Hi, Tutu. SCOTT THORSON That's Alexandra. ALICE Hello. SCOTT THORSON She's your granddaughter. And this is your son-in-law Matt. This is your family. Well, except this kid. I don't know who the hell he is. (to Sid) Who are you? Why are you here? ALEXANDRA He's my friend. SID Good afternoon. SCOTT THORSON Alice, we're going to go to Queen's Hospital today and see Elizabeth. ALICE We are? Queen Elizabeth? That's wonderful. I've never met a queen before. I have to put on a nice dress. Sid bursts out LAUGHING. SID Is she serious? SCOTT THORSON You be quiet, son. (then --) No, Alice. Our Elizabeth. Our baby. We need to go visit her in the hospital. She needs us, just like when she was a little girl. Let's think about what she might want in her room. We'll take it to her and put it next to her bed. ALICE But she's a queen. I have to look good for a queen. Don't you want me to look good? (CONTINUED) 45. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft59 CONTINUED: (3) 59 Sid LAUGHS again. SCOTT THORSON Shut up, Alice. (then --) Sorry, old gal. You go ahead and say whatever you want. ALICE I've never met a queen before. When Sid snickers again, Scott Thorson approaches him and glares. SID I'm sorry, man. I was just laughing. It's funny. I think she knows she's being funny. SCOTT THORSON I'm going to hit you. Scott POPS HIS FIST into Sid's face. Sid FLIES BACK.60 INT. MATT'S CAR - DAY 60 The car in motion, Matt glances in the rearview mirror. MATT How's the eye? In the backseat, Sid holds a package of FROZEN PEAS to his puffy blue eye. SID That was unreal. I mean, how often do old people just haul off and fucking cold-cock you in the face? MATT He's hit me a couple times over the years. And watch your language. ALEXANDRA Here, let me kiss it. SID Ow! MATT Hey, could you two just cool it around me? You know, stop... touching each other so much? (CONTINUED) 46. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft60 CONTINUED: 60 SID Whoa! Maybe that's why your wife cheated on you, if you're so against touching. SLAMMING ON THE BRAKES, Matt turns around, points a menacing finger. Even Alexandra realizes Sid went too far. MATT You little fuck. Do you get hit a lot? SID I don't know. I've had my share. MATT (to Alex) Your friend is completely retarded. You know that, right? SID Hey, my little brother's retarded. Don't use that word in a derogatory fashion. Matt looks at him. Given who Sid is, there's no reason to think he wouldn't have a retarded brother. MATT Oh. SID Psych! I don't have a retarded brother! ALEXANDRA You suck, Sid. SID Speaking of retarded, do you ever feel bad for wishing a retarded person or an old person would just hurry up? Sometimes I wait for them to cross the street, and I'm like, come on already! But then I feel bad. Rather than lashing out again at Sid, Matt turns around and lowers his head into one hand, squeezing his temples. It's all getting to be too much for him. (CONTINUED) 47. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft60 CONTINUED: (2) 60 ALEXANDRA (noticing his anguish) Dad? MATT What? ALEXANDRA Don't forget -- I know where he lives. Matt thinks a moment, then -- MATT Get in the front seat.61-63 OMIT 61-6364 EXT. DIAMOND HEAD ROAD - DAY 64 Matt's car passes by the well-known crowded surf-point overlook. MATT (O.S.) Been doing any surfing over there on the Big Island? ALEXANDRA (O.S.) I haven't surfed in years. MATT (O.S.) Yeah, how come? You were so good. ALEXANDRA (O.S.) At first I stopped because I got my period and didn't know how to use a tampon. SID (O.S.) Didn't want to attract sharks, huh? ALEXANDRA (O.S.) So I wouldn't go for, you know, five days or so, and then I guess I just stopped. MATT (O.S.) Why didn't you ask Mom to show you or teach you or whatever?65 EXT. KAHALA - DAY 65 The car continues on. (CONTINUED) 48. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft65 CONTINUED: 65 ALEXANDRA (O.S.) I didn't even tell her I got my period for like a year. She was always pushing me to look older and act older, so I just... SID (O.S.) Even I know how to use a tampon. ALEXANDRA (O.S.) The first time I got my period I thought I shit my pants. SID (O.S.) Ew, maybe you did! ALEXANDRA (O.S.) Sid, shut up. MATT (O.S.) Are you sure he knows what's going on with our family? Because he sure doesn't act like it.66 EXT. BRIAN SPEER'S BLOCK - KAHALA - DAY 66 The car creeps down a street of lovely homes. ALEXANDRA Do you know anything about him? Like what he does or if he's married? MATT Just his name. Brian Speer. ALEXANDRA Why didn't you ask Kai and Mark? MATT I just didn't. ALEXANDRA Why not? MATT I didn't want to get into it. ALEXANDRA We'll google him later. Okay, there it is. Stop. Matt pulls over opposite a supremely average-looking house. (CONTINUED) 49. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft66 CONTINUED: 66 MATT There? He lives there? ALEXANDRA Well, I can't say for sure he lives there. That's just where I saw them. MATT And you just happened to be driving by. ALEXANDRA Sadie was driving. We both saw it. They all observe closely, very focused. Nothing happens. It's just a house. SID That house is a piece of shit. At least go after a guy who's got a mansion. And do you think he's married? That'd be pretty cold-blooded to do it in a house where you're married. ALEXANDRA Sid, please be quiet. MATT What are we going to do? ALEXANDRA I don't know. I'm just showing you the house. They all think a moment. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) Should I go ring the bell? MATT (tempted, then --) No, wait, this is stupid -- this stalking, or whatever the hell we're doing. We came, we saw. Whatever. Let's go. No one moves. ALEXANDRA It's not like we're stalking him exactly. (CONTINUED) 50. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft66 CONTINUED: (2) 66 A PLUMBING TRUCK drives up the road. The three of them reflexively crouch down before catching themselves. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) What would you do if you saw him, anyway? Talk to him or punch him or what? MATT I guess I just want to see him. SID All I know is, someone messed with my girl, all hell would break loose. ALEXANDRA Whatever, Sid. SID I mean, you'd never do that to me, would you? You know, if we ever got married. Fuck around on me. ALEXANDRA Depends on how you treated me. MATT That's enough now. ALEXANDRA And we're not getting married. Jesus. MATT (starting the car) Okay, that's enough. We're getting out of here.67 EXT. NEARBY STREET - KAHALA - DAY 67 Matt's just about to turn back onto Kahala Avenue when -- ALEXANDRA Dad, stop! MATT What? ALEXANDRA Go back. MATT Why? (CONTINUED) 51. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft67 CONTINUED: 67 ALEXANDRA Just go back a couple of houses. Matt does so, checking that the coast is clear. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) There he is. MATT There who is? ALEXANDRA Look. Matt and Sid look toward a HOUSE FOR SALE. At first they don't get it, but soon their gaze drifts to the -- "FOR SALE" SIGN complete with a PHOTO of the broker, none other than -- BRIAN SPEER -- his big white SMILE contrasting starkly with haggard, unshaven Matt's SCOWL. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) Now we know what he looks like. SID Must be pretty handy for a dude having an affair to have some empty houses at his fingertips. (as Matt and Alex look at him) I'm just saying. That's how I'd do it. Alexandra climbs out of the car to grab a FLYER and take a photo of Brian Speer with her phone.68 EXT. BRIEF MONTAGE 68 Images of Honolulu at DUSK TURNING INTO NIGHT -- STREETLIGHTS turning on across an entire neighborhood, boisterous pau-hana DRINKERS AT A BAR, a bus releasing weary commuters, an overhead shot of the environs of the KING HOUSE. MATT (V.O.) I trusted you. But there was always something about you I didn't trust. The sound of an internal PHONE RING begins.69 INT. MATT AND LIZ'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 69 A sitting area off the bedroom is where Elizabeth displays her trophies and sports memorabilia. (CONTINUED) 52. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft69 CONTINUED: 69 This is where Matt now sits nursing a whiskey and pressing a PHONE to his ear. BRIAN SPEER (O.S.) Hi, this is Brian Speer at Kaimana- Prudential Realty. Sorry I missed you. Leave a message with your name, number and time of call, and I'll get back to you just as soon as I can. Mahalo. Looking as though he's about to vomit, Matt hangs up, regards the flyer on the coffee table before him. SID (O.S.) Hey, boss. Matt looks up to see Sid in his boxers. SID (CONT'D) Did you call him? MATT None of your business. And put some clothes on. And you're not sleeping in Alex's room. In fact, you should really go home, son. SID Alex wouldn't like that. MATT Guest room. Take it or leave it. SID We're going to do what we're going to do. MATT I'm not going to make it easy for you. SID I'm just fooling with you, man. We're not like that. Guest room's awesome. (then --) Just call him. He's nobody. Raise hell. WIPE TO:70 INT. MATT'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 70 Matt sits on the bed, listening once again to Brian Speer's outgoing message. (CONTINUED) 53. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft70 CONTINUED: 70 MATT (on the BEEP) Yeah, hi, Brian. My name's, uh, Herb Fitzmorris. I'm interested in that house you've got on Koloa Street, the one with the plantation shutters. I'm at 645-2796. Thanks.71 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 71 As Matt leads his daughters toward Elizabeth's room -- MATT Let me go in for just a quick moment alone first. I'll be right out.72 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 72 Matt closes the glass door behind him and slides the privacy curtain across it. He looks at his wife. She's starting to look different -- her face more gaunt, her hair more matted. Since the last time we saw her, OTHER ITEMS have been added around her bed. Along with draped LEIS, we see a childhood DOLL, DIPLOMAS, and of course SPORTS MEDALS and RIBBONS. An antique QUILT covers her legs. Her father meant it when he said they'd bring her old things. Matt crouches down bedside. MATT You were going to ask me for a divorce? So you could be with some fucking fuckhead Brian Speer? Are you kidding me? Who are you? Because the only thing I know for sure is that you're a goddamned liar. So what do you have to * say for yourself? Go ahead, make a * little joke and tell me I've got it all * wrong. Tell me again I'm too out of touch with my feelings and need to go * to therapy. * (then --) * Isn't the idea of marriage to make your partner's way in life a little easier? For me it was always harder with you. And you're still making it harder. Lying there on a ventilator and still fucking up my life. You're relentless. You know what? I was going to ask you for a divorce some day. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 54. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: 72 MATT (CONT'D) (grabbing a DOLL, tossing it) Daddy's little girl. Matt rises, looks at her motionless face, exhales, gets himself together. MATT (CONT'D) I'm bringing in your daughters now. Alex is home from school. Try to be nice, okay? He slides the curtain open and lets the girls in. SCOTTIE Hi, Mom! Look who's here. Alexandra approaches the bed slowly, startled by the changes in her mother's appearance and knowing the end is near. SCOTTIE (CONT'D) Say something, Alex. People in a coma can hear you. You're supposed to talk to them. ALEXANDRA Hi, Mom. SCOTTIE Tell her how you were drunk the other night. Tell her maybe you're an alcoholic. ALEXANDRA I guess it's in the genes. MATT Girls, be serious. ALEXANDRA Hi, Mom. Sorry for being bad. For wasting your money on expensive private schools. Money you could have used on facials and massages and sports equipment. Sorry for everything. (looking at Matt) Sorry we weren't good enough for you -- especially Dad. MATT Stop it. That's out of line. (CONTINUED) 55. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: (2) 72 ALEXANDRA Or what? You going to ground me? Or ship me off to another boarding school? You going to give me a "time out?" MATT Goddammit! Unable, in front of Scottie, to remind Alex that Elizabeth is dying, Matt grabs his older daughter and SPANKS her. SCOTTIE You got served! MATT Scottie, out in the hall. SCOTTIE She's the one out of line. MATT Go find Sid. SCOTTIE He's smoking. I shouldn't be around second-hand smoke. MATT (raising his hand) Now! As Scottie runs outside -- ALEXANDRA Did you just spank me? MATT You have no right to talk to your mother that way. She's going to die in a few days. What if those were your last words? ALEXANDRA I have every right to speak this way. I'm mad at her. How can you be so forgiving? Matt considers this. Of course she didn't see his recent outburst, and he's not about to let on. MATT I'll be angry later. For now let's just think about the good parts. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 56. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: (3) 72 MATT (CONT'D) And don't say that stuff in front of your sister. Don't ruin her for Scottie. Say something else. ALEXANDRA Look, Mom, I know we fought a lot. But I always wanted to be like you. I am like you. I'm exactly like you. God, that came out so dramatic. MATT You are like her. Mostly in good ways. Maybe some bad ways. Remains to be seen. Sid saunters inside with Scottie in tow. SID I hear you got spanked. I hear all hell's breaking loose in here. (approaching the bed) Hey, Mrs. K., howzit? I'm Sid, Alex's friend from Punahou, remember? Nice day outside. No clouds. Not too hot. You know what I think? Tough lady like you? I think you're going to make it. I mean, I'm no doctor. What do I know? But that's what I think. Matt squints at Sid. Is he stoned? SID (CONT'D) I'm staying at your place to help Alex out. Don't worry, Mr. K.'s got me on lockdown at night. And I met your dad - - he packs a mean punch. Look at this. (bringing his face closer) Wow. You're beautiful. (to Alexandra) If you look anything like her when you're older, you're lucky. I mean, you know, not exactly like she is now. I mean in general. Sid turns back for a long look at Elizabeth. SCOTTIE (looking at her phone) Reina just texted me! She's here visiting her grandma! Can she come visit? (CONTINUED) 57. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: (4) 72 MATT Dammit, Scottie, no Reina. SCOTTIE But you said Thursday, and it's almost Thursday. I don't get to see her in school anymore. MATT Not now. SCOTTIE I need her. Alex needs Sid. I need Reina. Matt looks at Alex, who in turn raises her eyebrows -- what harm could it do? LATER -- Scottie pushes open the door, now accompanied by her friend REINA, 12, who looks around as if the room is dirty. She wears a terry-cloth tennis skirt and hooded terry-cloth sweatshirt. SCOTTIE (CONT'D) Dad, this is Reina. Reina, that's my sister and Sid, and that's my mom on the bed. REINA Hi, everybody. Alex and Matt look at each other, bewildered. Scottie leads Reina to the bed and touches her mother's shoulder. REINA (CONT'D) So this is your mother? I guess it's true. Should I shake her hand? SCOTTIE If you want. REINA No, thanks. MATT So, Reina, I hear your grandmother's not feeling well. (CONTINUED) 58. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: (5) 72 REINA Yeah. It's pretty bad. She got her stomach operated on and then got some stupid infection or something. It's pretty gross. MATT Well, Reina, thanks for stopping by, and, here, Scottie, let me give you some money, and you two can go get an ice cream or something... REINA Too many carbs. MATT Carbs. Well, you could go to the cafeteria and get some lettuce. REINA That's okay. I'm done. (to Scottie, on her way out) You aren't a liar after all. SCOTTIE Don't you want to hang out? REINA No, I should go. I'll see you at the club. Hope your mom gets better. Exit Reina. ALEXANDRA Scottie, what'd she mean by "You aren't a liar after all?" What'd she think you were lying about? SCOTTIE She didn't believe Mom was sleeping. ALEXANDRA So you had to prove to that twat that Mom's in a coma? What the fuck is in your skull, a bunch of stupid pills? SCOTTIE Shut up, you motherless whore! SID Whoa, whoa, easy there, half-pipe. (CONTINUED) 59. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft72 CONTINUED: (6) 72 MATT Where'd you learn how to talk like that? Scottie points at Alex. Matt's PHONE RINGS. He pulls it out to silence it but notices the CALLER ID -- KAIMANA-PRUDENTIAL REAL ESTATE. He freezes. Sensing something, Alex calmly grabs the phone from him and glances at it. ALEXANDRA Hello? No, you've got the right number. This is his assistant Sharon. How may I help you? Alex listens. Scottie has no idea what's going on, but it sure is fun. SCOTTIE Who is it? ALEXANDRA Oh, I see. And for how long? Uh-huh. Okay. So one or the other. I'll tell him. Mahalo. Alexandra hangs up, proud. Matt's proud too. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) That was Bonnie Tanaka, a realtor. She says Mr. Speer is on Kaua'i till the 18th, but she'd be happy to show you the house or you can stop by the open house on Sunday.73 EXT. KING HOUSE - DAY 73 MANY CARS are parked outside.74 INT/EXT. KING HOUSE - DAY 74 PLATTERS of sashimi, fruit, ahi poke and salads lie atop the antique koa dining room table. LONGTIME FRIENDS, 40s to 70s, mingle in the living room and around the pool. We spot Mark and Kai. 60. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft75 INT. KING KITCHEN - DAY 75 Matt is spacing out alone, perhaps mentally rehearsing his speech. Awkward teen BUZZ happens by. BUZZ Hi, Mr. King. MATT Hello, Buzz. BUZZ Sorry about Mrs. King. Hope she gets better real soon. MATT Thanks. BUZZ It really blows. Matt nods, swigs his drink. Buzz now feels emboldened to reveal the cocktail concealed behind his back. BUZZ (CONT'D) Please don't tell my mom I'm drinking. MATT I won't. BUZZ Sometimes I steal beers from your outdoor fridge. MATT I know. Buzz slinks off. MATT (PRE-LAP) (CONT'D) You've all been asking about Elizabeth, and I've given vague answers. But the reason I've asked you all to come over today is to tell you...76 INT. KING LIVING ROOM - DAY 76 Matt addresses the gathering. MATT ...that her coma is permanent. She's not going to make it. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 61. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft76 CONTINUED: 76 MATT (CONT'D) This week -- tomorrow, in fact -- as per her wishes, we're going to unhook her from life-support. (holding for gasps) You all know Elizabeth -- she always likes to do things on her own. Goddammit. (almost losing it) I wanted to tell you all in person. You're all our dear friends, our best friends. And the girls and I appreciate so much all the ways you've helped these last few weeks -- bringing food, calling... ONE GUEST Can we see her? MATT Yes, for God's sake, yes. That's the whole point. Go see her as soon as possible. That's what I wanted to tell you. It should be now, not after. Everyone who loves her deserves a chance to say goodbye.77 EXT. KING HOUSE DRIVEWAY - DUSK OR NIGHT 77 Matt waves goodbye to the last guests as they drive off, then turns back toward his house. Halfway there, his exhaustion forces him to COLLAPSE onto the moist lawn. Sitting there, he comes to a REALIZATION -- not one he wants, but he knows he must deal with it regardless. ALEXANDRA (PRE-LAP) You've lost your mind.78 INT. MATT'S STUDY - NIGHT 78 Matt is catching up on WORK and has a DICTAPHONE in his hand. Alex hovers in the doorway. ALEXANDRA You mean him? Tell him to say goodbye? MATT I'll only be gone a day or so. I'll leave in the morning, and be back tomorrow night. If it takes another day, fine -- I'll give it two days tops. If I don't find him, at least I tried. (CONTINUED) 62. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft78 CONTINUED: 78 ALEXANDRA Drop it, Dad. You've got way bigger fish to fry than confronting fucking Brian Speer. Are you recording this? MATT I'm summarizing a deposition. ALEXANDRA How can you work? MATT How can you go to a movie? ALEXANDRA To get Scottie out of the house. And you're going to tell him to come back and see Mom. MATT I think... I just think she would want him to know. ALEXANDRA Just call his office and say it's an emergency. MATT On the phone he can escape. In person he has nowhere to go. I want to see his face. I want to change his life. Alexander senses his resolve -- it's kind of refreshing, actually -- then breaks into a wicked little smile. ALEXANDRA Then I want to go too. MATT No, you stay with Scottie. ALEXANDRA Fuck that. Let's all get out of town.79 EXT. AIRPORT - DAY 79 A Hawaiian Airlines inter-island airplane takes off.80 INT. AIRPLANE - DAY 80 Matt sits isolated from his daughters and Sid across the aisle from him. 63. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft81 INSERT -- MAP OF THE ISLANDS 81 A DOTTED LINE goes from Honolulu to Lihue.82 EXT. KAUAI AIRPORT - DAY 82 Matt leads his daughters and Sid toward the rental car shuttle when -- COUSIN RALPH (O.S.) Yo, Matt King! Matt turns to see COUSIN RALPH loping over, briefcase in hand. Like Matt, he wears the island businessman's uniform -- Khakis and a Reyn's Spooner shirt. Grinning and nodding, Cousin Ralph gives Matt a back-slap hug and greets Scottie and Alexandra, whose names he clearly forgets. COUSIN RALPH (CONT'D) Whatcha doing here? MATT Just came over for a day or two. COUSIN RALPH Yeah, I just got back from Kahului. A little business over there. MATT Yeah. COUSIN RALPH All right. So you here to talk to some of the cousins? Make sure everybody's happy with your choice? Pay your respects to Cousin Hugh? Matt's smiles to cover the fact that he hasn't actually been thinking about this stuff. MATT No, no, nothing like that. Just a little holoholo. Get the kids out of town. COUSIN RALPH But it is Holitzer, right? We all know it's Holitzer. Cousin Hugh wants him, they go way back. I got my misgivings, though. It's not the highest bid by a longshot. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 64. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft82 CONTINUED: 82 COUSIN RALPH (CONT'D) There's an argument to be made for maxing it out. We only do this once in a lifetime. And in this economy -- MATT Yeah, no, I know. I want to work with you guys, Ralph, I really do. Whatever the majority wants, I'll go along with it. Let's just get it over with. COUSIN RALPH How's Elizabeth doing? She going to be okay? MATT The same. COUSIN RALPH Well, she's a tough gal. She'll be okay. Yeah. Say, where you going, Hanalei? MATT Yeah, Princeville. COUSIN RALPH Come on. I'll give you a ride.83 EXT. COUSIN RALPH'S JEEP - DAY 83 It's an open jeep with bad shocks, and Cousin Ralph drives fast. The passengers hold on, their hair blown back. MATT Hey, Ralph. COUSIN RALPH Yeah. MATT Turn off over here. Let's go see the land. COUSIN RALPH Take a last look, huh? MATT You got time? COUSIN RALPH I got nothing but time. 65. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft84 EXT. TURNOFF POINT - DAY 84 Cousin Ralph makes a turn and heads inland.85 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY 85 The Jeep stops at a FENCE, where a HERD OF CATTLE graze on the other side. Matt jumps out to let the jeep through. RALPH I think this is where a golf course is going to be. They want the golf course to rival Pebble Beach, you know, bring in the big boys.86 EXT. BUMPY ACCESS ROAD - DAY 86 The Jeep ascends through pastoral countryside.87 EXT. LOOKOUT POINT - DAY 87 The Jeep stops at the overlook of an astonishingly beautiful swath of land extending from hilltop to bay. All get out, walk to the edge, look out. SID Are you shitting me? You guys own all this land? MATT Not personally. It belongs to a trust. But yeah, it's ours for a few more days. RALPH The other side of that ridge too. You can't see it from here. It's like this, but a little flatter and doesn't have as nice a bay. SID This is outrageous. COUSIN RALPH (pointing, to Matt) Yep. Big resort there on that point. Commercial area over there, houses all through there. I think they should put in a big zip-line. Hell, we should have put in a zip-line. All continue to ogle this awe-inspiring sight. (CONTINUED) 66. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft87 CONTINUED: 87 RALPH Of course, part of me agrees with the cousins who don't want to sell. They're going to make a pretty big stink at the meeting. MATT I know, but we have to sell. The trust has to dissolve in seven years, and if we haven't sold, it'll be a huge mess. Selling now and distributing the cash is the only clean way to do it. RALPH But it's a shame, yeah? On the other hand, hey, it's just sitting there. No one's using it. At least this way the whole world will be able to enjoy it. MATT (to his daughters) Take a good look, girls. In the old days, this was part of your great-great grandmother's inheritance going all the way back to Kamehameha I. With them, we look across this land, vivid and verdant. ALEXANDRA Down there is where Mom and I would camp. MATT We all did, all our lives. A lot of memories. SCOTTIE What about me? I want to camp. I wish we lived in the old days. ALEXANDRA We do. We still do. (to Matt) Do we really have to sell? MATT Doing anything else would get extremely complicated. A lot of your cousins just want the money. Everything has its time. SCOTTIE I want us to keep it! (CONTINUED) 67. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft87 CONTINUED: (2) 87 Matt looks over at Scottie, then at Alexandra. It's clear that Alexandra is moved by this sight. SID Can you like specify what businesses they'll put here? Because you should totally get a Cheesecake Factory. Only one so far's in Waikiki, and it's awesome. You definitely need a Cheesecake Factory. And Taco John's. MOMENTS LATER -- The Kings approach a nearby MONUMENT commemorating "John Lowell "Keoni" King. 1899 - 1974. The plaque depicts a smiling man atop a horse. MATT (to the girls) My grandfather. He really loved this place. So did your mother. So does your mother.88 EXT. COUSIN RALPH'S JEEP - DAY 88 Cousin Ralph turns off the Kuhio Highway and into PRINCEVILLE, which greets visitors with an immense faux- Italian FOUNTAIN.89 EXT. PRINCEVILLE - DAY 89 Passing through this immense development, Matt notices the names of the condo complexes: The Sand Piper, The Island Tropic, etc. And he observes TOURISTS along the edge of the golf course, with their visors and fanny packs.90 EXT. ST. REGIS HOTEL FRONT DOORS - DAY 90 Ralph drops our friends off.91 INT. ST. REGIS HOTEL LOBBY - DAY 91 Alex and Sid slump against a marble pillar. Scottie has taken her shoes off to slide across the shiny floor. AT THE FRONT DESK -- CLERK Here's your credit card back, Mr. King. And how many keycards will you be needing today for your deluxe suite? (CONTINUED) 68. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft91 CONTINUED: 91 MATT Let's say three. By the way. I'm supposed to meet a buddy of mine I think is staying here. Brian Speer. S- P-E-E-R. CLERK (checking computer) I'm not showing anyone by that name. MATT Thanks.92 INT. HOTEL SUITE - DAY 92 Moving in. LATER -- Matt is on the telephone, nodding gravely. MATT No, I understand. Okay. Thanks. Matt hangs up, blinks a few times, spaces out a moment. Then he slides open the glass door to the --93 EXT. HOTEL SUITE LANAI - DAY 93 -- where he finds Alexandra smoking. MATT Put that out, will you please? Alex shoots him a look, then stamps out the butt on the bottom of her shoe. MATT (CONT'D) You could at least smoke lights. Like Sid. ALEXANDRA I could. MATT Just got off the phone with Dr. Johnston. They did what they had to do a couple hours ago. They've moved her to another floor. They say she seems comfortable, still breathing on her own. She's doing okay. (CONTINUED) 69. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft93 CONTINUED: 93 Alexandra nods at this news and looks off. Matt joins her in gazing out at Hanalei Bay. MATT (CONT'D) So how are you doing, Alex? ALEXANDRA What do you mean? You mean considering Mom's... circling the drain? MATT No, I mean other than that. In general. You haven't been using, have you? ALEXANDRA No, Jesus, I'm not using. MATT Not at all? I smell pot all the time on Sid. ALEXANDRA That's Sid. MATT So you just stopped? Really? ALEXANDRA Look, Dad, it's no big deal. Kids do drugs and they stop. Unless they're like super-ghetto. And you sent me to boarding school, remember? I couldn't get anything anymore. So no, I'm not doing any drugs. But I still think they're fun. Okay, maybe a little pot once in a while. MATT And a little drinking. She can't deny that. MATT (CONT'D) Why are you being so honest? ALEXANDRA Mom's dying. MATT Yeah, well, I'm proud of you. (CONTINUED) 70. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft93 CONTINUED: (2) 93 ALEXANDRA Not much to be proud of. MATT Yeah, there is. We shipped you off. Let them handle it. And now you're here, helping with Scottie, helping me. Thanks. ALEXANDRA You want to know what really pisses me off? That she wouldn't end it. Not even when she knew she was busted. How are we supposed to feel about that? MATT I guess she really liked him. ALEXANDRA So how are we going to find this guy, Sherlock? MATT Right. Well, why don't you two take Scottie to the beach? I'm going to call around a little. We're on an island, for Christ's sake. Everything's just one degree of separation. ALEXANDRA (getting up) We'll find him.94 EXT. ST. REGIS BEACH - DAY 94 Matt scans the BEACH as he ambles toward Sid and his daughters lying on towels. Scottie is snuggled close to Sid. Matt notices LUMPS OF SAND stuffed into Scottie's bikini top. MATT Hey, what's in your suit? SCOTTIE They're my beach boobs. MATT Take that out. Right now. Alex, Jesus, why'd you let her do that? You too, Sid. Lying on her stomach, Alex lifts her head. (CONTINUED) 71. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft94 CONTINUED: 94 ALEXANDRA I don't know. Take them out, stupid. SID Yeah, Scottie. Honestly. Big boobs look kind of fatty. Scowling, Scottie gets up and starts pulling the sand out of her suit as she stomps toward the water. ALEXANDRA Any luck? MATT The hotels were a dead end, but I took another shot with his office. He's definitely in Hanalei renting a house somewhere -- probably one of those cottages around the bay. Who wants to go for a walk? SID Sounds good. Matt grimaces -- not whom he was hoping for. Alex ties the straps of her bikini and flips over. ALEXANDRA Yeah, let's go. Scottie!95 MOMENTS LATER -- 95 Our friends weave their way among BEACH-GOERS. Matt has thought to bring along a print-out of Brian Speer's PHOTO, which he and Alex glance at discreetly. Sid trails behind. SCOTTIE (catching up to Matt) Can we swim with the sharks? I read in the hotel magazine how they put you in a cage in the ocean and throw shark feed in the water and sharks swim right up to you. Can we do that? ALEXANDRA Scottie, we're not really here to do stuff like that.96 EXT. HANALEI BAY - PINE TREES - DAY 96 The sun approaches the horizon. (CONTINUED) 72. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft96 CONTINUED: 96 Father, daughters and Sid have walked past people and houses. Now they're walking just to be walking. We see them from a distance, although we hear them very close. SCOTTIE How'd you and Mom meet? MATT I was with a law school buddy from the mainland, and I took him to the club. We were just coming in from paddling, and your mom was on her way out, and she looked at me and said, "Do you think it's going to snow today?" We all got beers when she came back in. I had already seen her around. That was it. I got her number. SCOTTIE Did you think she was pretty? MATT She knocked me out. SCOTTIE What do you love about her? MATT I love... I don't know. The way we are with each other, most of the time, anyway. I love how she's more capable of feeling joy than anyone I've ever known. I just like being with her, just riding bikes or going out to dinner, even if it's just a plate lunch at Rainbow's. Years ago we used to do a lot of paddling together. ALEXANDRA Can we drop this? Jesus. (mimicking) "What do you love about Mom, Daddy?" Shut up, already. (to Matt) And stop babying her. MATT Easy, Alex. We're just talking.97 EXT. HANALEI BAY FOREST AREA - LATE AFTERNOON 97 Our friends continue walking, this time amid THICK TREES along the shoreline. Again we see them from afar. (CONTINUED) 73. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft97 CONTINUED: 97 MATT Your mom got chased by a shark once. Very close call. ALEXANDRA When was that? MATT We were on Moloka'i with Mark and Kai, and your mom was out surfing and saw a shark right beneath her on a wave. Like right beneath her. She got down on her stomach and started paddling like crazy, and this big fin kept following her. She even paddled up onto the nearest rocks instead of all the way to shore. Got cuts all over her legs and hands. Only time I ever saw your mother scared, and she was really scared. She even threw up. Crying and shaking. I had to hold her for a long time. She really thought she was going to die. Of course she hid all that from the Mitchells, turned it into a funny "Me-versus-a-shark" story. I told her... ALEXANDRA Yeah? MATT I told her it wasn't her time yet. They continue in silence a few moments. SCOTTIE I wish Mom was here.98 EXT. ST. REGIS HOTEL BEACH AREA - LATE AFTERNOON 98 The sun is now very low on the horizon as our friends make their way back to the hotel. Again we see them from a distance. MATT I'll ask you that same question, Scottie. What do you love about Mom? SCOTTIE Lots of stuff. She's not old and ugly like other moms. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 74. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft98 CONTINUED: 98 SCOTTIE (CONT'D) I like her stories -- like how she streaked at the wedding and the time she beat a wild pig with a shoe. How about you, Alex? ALEXANDRA Why are we still talking about this? (then --) I like how she's not afraid of anything.99 INT. HOTEL SUITE SITTING ROOM - NIGHT 99 The four are splayed out watching TV amid the messy remains of ROOM SERVICE DINNER. Alexandra and Scottie wield the REMOTE and stumble upon the channels promoting direct-access ADULT MOVIES. SCOTTIE Let's watch one of these! ALEXANDRA We're not watching porn. SCOTTIE Reina's dad watches pornos. Reina calls them masturbation movies. Her dad has some. She plays them when her parents aren't home and one time invited boys over to see if they grew down there. One did. SID Reina's awesome. MATT Were you there? Have you seen any of those movies? SCOTTIE No. ALEXANDRA You've got to watch her with the internet. And Reina's dad. Scottie, Reina is a fucked-up ho-bag, and you need to stay away from her. Do you want to end up like me? SCOTTIE Yes. (CONTINUED) 75. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft99 CONTINUED: 99 ALEXANDRA I mean the earlier me, when I was mean to you and yelling at mom all the time. SCOTTIE No. ALEXANDRA Well, Reina's going to be a meth-head, and she's going to get used by stupid guys. She's a twat. Say it. SCOTTIE She's a twat. (running across the room) Twat, twat, twat, twat! MATT Stop that! (to Alexandra) I don't get it. I don't know what to do... these things she does. What goes on in her head? You weren't like that. ALEXANDRA It'll go away. MATT I'm not so sure. I mean, look how you kids talk in front of me. It's like you don't respect authority. Alex looks at him -- authority?100 INT. HOTEL SUITE BEDROOM - NIGHT 100 Matt tosses and turns, gets up and goes to the bathroom. MOMENTS LATER -- Exiting the bathroom, he decides he should make a routine inspection and wanders into --101 INT. HOTEL SUITE SITTING ROOM - CONTINUOUS 101 -- where he eyes a lump on the FOLD-OUT BED. He creeps up when Sid awakens. SID Hey, what's up? MATT Hi. (CONTINUED) 76. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft101 CONTINUED: 101 SID Checking on me or something? A sheepish look on his face, Matt takes a seat on the edge of the bed. MATT I don't, uh... I haven't been sleeping very much lately. SID Understandable. MATT I'm worried about my daughters. I'm worried there's something wrong with them. SID I used to do some messed-up shit when I was a kid. Still do. It's going to get worse after your wife dies. MATT What does Alex really think about this stuff that's going on? What does she say? SID She doesn't. MATT What do you mean? I thought she talks to you all the time. SID We don't really talk about our like "issues." We just, I don't know, we deal with our shit by talking about other stuff and having a good time. MATT What would you do if you were me? How would you handle my daughters? How would you handle... the situation of this guy we're trying to find? Matt can't believe what he just asked, but he's desperate for clues from even the unlikeliest source. (CONTINUED) 77. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft101 CONTINUED: (2) 101 SID I told you what I'd do -- I'd lay his nuts on a dresser and hit `em with a spiked bat. With the daughters, I don't know. I'd take them on a trip. Or no, I'd buy `em a bunch of shit. Like with all the money you're going to get when you sell the land -- you're going to make stupid money, right? -- dude, you could buy them anything. Matt questions his sanity at having asked Sid any advice. MATT Do you want some of it? Some money? SID Sure. MATT If I gave you a lot of money right now, tonight, would you leave? SID Why would I leave? MATT No, Sid, I'm asking you a favor. If I give you money, will you leave? SID Oh. I get it. Is that what you want? You want me to go? MATT I guess not. SID Look, dude, you're right. If I had daughters, I wouldn't know what to do. Exchange them for sons, I guess. MATT Then I might wind up with something like you. SID I'm not so bad. I'm smart. MATT You're about a hundred miles away from Smartville. No offense. (CONTINUED) 78. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft101 CONTINUED: (3) 101 SID You're mistaken, counselor. I'm smart. I have good hygiene. I'm an decent guitarist, a good cook. I cook food all the time. I'm vice-president of the Punahou chess club. And I always have weed. MATT I'm sure your parents are proud. SID It's possible. My mom's sort of busy right now. MATT What does she do, your mom? SID She's a receptionist at a pet clinic. But mostly she's been getting the house together after my dad died. My dad died a few months ago. At first refusing to fall for it, Matt sees this is no prank. SID (CONT'D) November 24th. Drunk driver. Actually both drivers were drunk. Yeah. Sid smiles and nods as though to make Matt feel better about the sad news he just shared. MATT Goodnight, Sid. I'll see you tomorrow. SID Goodnight, boss.102 EXT. HANALEI BAY - DAWN 102 SUNRISE. Matt JOGS along the nearly empty beach -- just a few surf FISHERMAN and PADDLERS. He's clearly out of shape but makes a good effort. ANOTHER GUY jogs toward Matt wearing a "Stanford Lacrosse" T- shirt and running shorts with long slits up the sides. BRIAN SPEER! They pass each other. Matt continues on a moment in disbelief, then TURNS AROUND and follows. His strides long and efficient, Brian gives Matt a run for his money. (CONTINUED) 79. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft102 CONTINUED: 102 Soon Brian cuts up the beach toward one of the COTTAGES that line the bay. Matt follows, awkwardly trying to appear nonchalant. MATT (under his breath) Hi, you don't know me, but I know you. Hi, you don't know me, but I know you. Brian Speer, right? Hi, I'm Liz's husband. That's right. Fuckface. Brian disappears up a little PATH through a HEDGE. Matt quickens his pace toward --103 EXT. HANALEI BEACH COTTAGE - CONTINUOUS 103 -- where he spies on Brian walking across a wide lawn toward a lovely OLD COTTAGE. MATT Hi. You don't know me, but I know you. Brian disappears inside, emerging moments later chugging GATORADE. Courage gathered, Matt is about to charge forward when he stops short -- the door opens again, and out comes a beautiful WOMAN in a white bathing suit and white sun hat. Then two LITTLE BOYS. Fucker's got a family. Not the right moment.104 EXT. HANALEI BAY - DAY 104 The sun is higher, and the BEACH is growing populated. Matt sits on the sand, glancing occasionally back toward the cottage. Next to him lie his daughters and Sid. Suddenly TWO BOYS -- Brian's kids -- come running through the hedge and past Matt on their way into the water. Matt turns around to see Brian's wife JULIE SPEER dutifully trailing behind. JULIE Stay in the zone, please! That means you, Skylar. And you too, Colt. MATT (low) Skylar and Colt? (CONTINUED) 80. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft104 CONTINUED: 104 Matt watches the little boys flop into the surf. Mrs. Speer follows, wading in up to her calves. Matt stands to look whether Brian is coming down to the beach too. No such luck. MATT (CONT'D) (to Alex) I'll be right back. Matt gets to his feet, brushes off sand, and walks casually toward Mrs. Speer, maintaining a comfortable distance. Alexandra watches. IN THE SURF -- Matt takes up a casual stance near Mrs. Speer and pretends to look out at the water, just hanging out. Mrs. Speer continues to keep a watchful eye on her boisterous boys. MATT (CONT'D) Looks like you got yourself a handful with those two. JULIE Yeah. MATT Must keep you pretty busy. JULIE They're pretty non-stop, but they're at a really fun age. MATT How old are they? JULIE SPEER Eight and ten. MATT (pointing) I have two girls. Ten and seventeen. That whole non-stop thing. That never changes. JULIE SPEER You guys live here? MATT We live on O'ahu. (CONTINUED) 81. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft104 CONTINUED: (2) 104 JULIE SPEER Oh, so do we. MATT Yeah, I'm just getting my girls out of town for a couple days. Their, uh, their mother is in the hospital, so I thought I'd give them a little break. JULIE Oh, no. MATT She'll be fine. JULIE What's wrong? If you don't mind my asking. MATT Just a little boating accident. Hit her head a little too hard. Does Julie recognize any of this, or even recognize him? Doesn't seem like it. JULIE A sailboat? Or one with a motor? MATT (laughs, then --) One with a motor. She's actually sort of charming, this Julie Speer. JULIE Well, good luck with that. I wish her well. Skylar, don't go so far! MATT You guys staying in one of the cottages over there? JULIE Yes, my husband had to come here for work, so we thought we'd all make a little vacation of it. He knows the owner, so -- MATT Hugh King. (CONTINUED) 82. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft104 CONTINUED: (3) 104 JULIE That's right. MATT He's my cousin. JULIE Oh. Then you probably know my husband. Brian Speer? That hangs there a moment. Matt suppresses the sudden desire to spill the beans. MATT No, can't say as I do. JULIE Oh, I just assumed, since he's been -- SCOTTIE Dad! Dad, come here! Something bit me! Matt looks over to see Scottie very agitated about something. MATT Excuse me. Nice talking to you. JULIE You too. Take care. Matt trots off.105 A MONTAGE -- 105 Images of Hanalei as the sun begins to set over the magnificent taro fields. Wind rustles the trees. Mist falls into the valley. MATT (V.O.) How can I forgive her for loving someone else? Did she even know about his family? Was she that in love? Does she miss him from her coma? Does she wish he could be with her and not me?106 EXT. HANALEI TOWN - DUSK 106 Our friends walk along roadside tourist shops toward -- 83. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft107 INT. TAHITI NUI RESTAURANT - DUSK 107 A lived-in hangout with a wood interior, woven mats on the walls, and tables carved into with steak knives. A UKULELE CLUB jams in a corner. As our foursome enter the joint, Matt notices -- COUSIN HUGH yucking it up at the BAR with other REGULARS. MATT (to Alexandra) There's Cousin Hugh. Get us a table. Order me something. ALEXANDRA Like what? MATT Anything. AT THE BAR -- Matt wedges his way in beside his third cousin, who despite his booziness and very local flavor is nonetheless a King family patriarch. COUSIN HUGH Heeey! Mattie-boy! What are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you until the meeting. He looks over his shoulder to see whom Matt might have come in with. COUSIN HUGH (CONT'D) Is that...? MATT Yeah, Scottie and Alex. COUSIN HUGH Big girls now! So what are you doing here, man? MATT Just getting the girls out of the hospital for a couple days, you know, change of scenery. (CONTINUED) 84. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft107 CONTINUED: 107 COUSIN HUGH Yeah, boy, what you've been going through. That's a tough deal. (taking a drink) But Elizabeth, hey, she's, she's a tough gal, I'll tell you that. A fighter. She'll make it. Get you a drink? MATT Sure, what're you having? COUSIN HUGH Barney, an old-fashioned for my cousin here. Nice to see you, Matt. How you been otherwise? MATT Not much otherwise. Between our business and the hospital, you know, I've just trying to keep my head above water. So listen, I see you have some people staying in the cottage. COUSIN HUGH Oh, hey, Mattie, if I'd known you were coming, I coulda -- MATT No, no, no, I'm just wondering about the guy you're renting to. I think his name is Brian Speer. COUSIN HUGH Yeah, yeah, real determined son-of-a- bitch. He's Lou's sister's... No, wait. Lou has a sister, and the sister's husband... Lou's brother-in- law is cousins with that guy. MATT Huh? Who's Lou? COUSIN HUGH No, wait. You mean the cottages on the bay or the cottage back by the trail? MATT The bay. The guy with the wife and two boys. (CONTINUED) 85. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft107 CONTINUED: (2) 107 COUSIN HUGH Yeah, that's right. Determined son-of- a-bitch. Anyway, the point is the guy we're doing business with is that guy's brother-in-law. Works for him. MATT Brian Speer. COUSIN HUGH That's the guy. MATT What do you mean, the guy we're doing business with? COUSIN HUGH Who do you think? Don Holitzer. MATT Holitzer. COUSIN HUGH That's what I'm saying. That's Don's brother-in-law in the cottage. You don't know him? I would have thought you'd know him. He's a realtor over by you. So if we sell to Don -- and that's what we're going to do, right? That's what you want too. Nice guy, Don. He'll do right by us. Then when Don develops and re-sells and leases and all that -- MATT Yeah, yeah -- COUSIN HUGH He's letting this brother-in-law in the cottage handle the transactions. A lot of them, anyway. Big score for that guy. It takes a moment for this stone to drop to the bottom of Matt's well. MATT What's he like? COUSIN HUGH Who? (CONTINUED) 86. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft107 CONTINUED: (3) 107 MATT Brian Speer -- what else do you know about him? COUSIN HUGH Not much. He's lucky. The bugga's lucky. His sister is married to the guy. Son-of-a-bitch is going to make a shitload of money on commissions. MATT Not if we don't go with that bid. Cousin Hugh's eyes emerge momentarily from their drunken fog to give Matt a firm, steely warning. COUSIN HUGH We all want Don. You do too, Matt. You've said as much. MATT No, I know. You're right. Okay. Well. Good to see you, Hugh. COUSIN HUGH You too. MATT See you at the meeting. COUSIN HUGH I'll be there. TRACK TO THE TABLE firmly on MATT'S FACE as he processes this horrifying news delivered so casually. AT THE TABLE -- Matt takes a seat. Scottie and Sid eat fried appetizers. Alexandra just sits watching the musicians. SID This place rocks. SCOTTIE Totally. ALEXANDRA We ordered you mahi. (CONTINUED) 87. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft107 CONTINUED: (4) 107 MATT (low) Great. The music grows more frenetic. Matt looks around the room, alienated from everything -- from the fried food and the tourists, from the umbrellas in the drinks, from his daughters enjoying the music and this cretin called Sid. Why can't a nuclear bomb blow the whole island up right now?108 EXT. THE ROAD BY THE BAY - SUNSET 108 The light is swiftly fading, and our heroes are little more than SILHOUETTES as they walk back to the hotel. Sid and Scottie talk and laugh together. Alex walks with her father. MATT So, guess what. Turns out Brian Speer is connected to Don Holitzer. ALEXANDRA Who's Don Holitzer? MATT The guy we're going to sell to. And that woman today at the beach. That was his wife. ALEXANDRA Whose wife? (then --) The hottie with the hat? You sure? (off his nod) So he's married. Nice. Why didn't you say anything? MATT It's him I want to talk to, not her. I know where their cottage is. ALEXANDRA You do? So let's do it right now. Let's go knock on his door. MATT That's what I'm saying. Alexandra quietly exults. (CONTINUED) 88. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft108 CONTINUED: 108 MATT (CONT'D) Don't do that. Don't be excited. This isn't fun. ALEXANDRA Well, it's what we came here to do. MATT So you to talk to his wife while I talk to him. And figure out some way to distract Scottie and their kids. ALEXANDRA Got it. Sid, come here!A109 MOMENTS LATER -- A109 The team are gathered for a little huddle. ALEXANDRA Listen, Dad and I are going to go talk to some friends while Sid takes you back to the hotel, okay? SCOTTIE I want to come too. SID I don't. Who wants to sit around talking in some house? Let's ditch these losers and go watch some serious TV. SCOTTIE Yeah! As they walk away -- SID (to Matt, low) Give `em hell, boss.109 EXT. HANALEI BAY COTTAGE - NIGHT 109 Zero hour. Matt and Alexandra approach the cottage from the road and start to walk around it toward the beach. ALEXANDRA Are you ready? MATT No. What should I say? (CONTINUED) 89. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft109 CONTINUED: 109 ALEXANDRA You'll think of something. You're a lawyer. MATT I'm sorry for sucking you into this. I should be doing this alone. It's selfish of me. ALEXANDRA I'm the one who sucked you in. I'm the one who knew. Just as they are round the house toward the lanai, Julie Speer backs out of the screen door with a plate of hamburger patties. Alex nudges Matt. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) Don't be a pussy. MATT (stiffly) Hi there! The screen door slams. Julie looks over. MATT (CONT'D) It's the guy from the beach today. JULIE Oh, hello. MATT Yeah, hey, I'm such an idiot. I just figured out I do know your husband. My daughter and I were on our way back to the hotel from dinner, and we thought we'd drop by and say howdy. ALEXANDRA (mouthing) Howdy? JULIE Great. Come on up. MATT I'm Matt King. This is Alexandra. JULIE I'm Julie Speer. Yeah, I thought that was you. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 90. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft109 CONTINUED: (2) 109 JULIE (CONT'D) You've been in the paper so much lately. I figured you had to know Brian. He's been pretty involved. MATT Yeah, no, I know, yeah, super-involved. Maybe I've met him in passing. I don't know. JULIE So, I guess you guys are deciding really soon. A couple of days, right -- you and your family meet? I'm sorry. That's probably a conflict of interest or something. MATT No, it's okay. You're right -- it'll all be over in a couple of days. JULIE You guys want a burger? MATT We just ate, thanks. JULIE A drink then. As Alex and Matt agree, a figure appears at the screen door. BRIAN SPEER emerges, a bag of BUNS in one hand. BRIAN SPEER Hi, I'm Brian. MATT Brian, we may have met before. Matt King. My wife is Elizabeth King. I think you may have met her too. Our daughter Alexandra. Brian's big GRIN WILTS. JULIE I was just going to get drinks. BRIAN SPEER Good, good. Good. Matt nudges Alexandra, who suddenly remembers her duty. ALEXANDRA Do you need help? (CONTINUED) 91. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft109 CONTINUED: (3) 109 JULIE (over her shoulder) No, no, I got it. Alex is glad to keep her ringside seat for the moment. All buckle their mental seatbelts. MATT Elizabeth is dying. Oh, wait. Fuck you. And she's dying. We unhooked her from the machines this morning. She'll be dead in a few days. ALEXANDRA We're not here to hurt you. We just thought she'd want you to know. As they've plotted, Alex and Matt study Brian's paralyzed face. They exchange a glance, then look back at him. ALEXANDRA (CONT'D) This is him? Why would she go for him? MATT Beats me. Well, he's very articulate. BRIAN SPEER I can't... I'm sorry. I never thought it would come to this. ALEXANDRA You're sorry my mom's going to die? You're sorry you fucked her? You're sorry you fucked over my dad? BRIAN SPEER I'm sorry for all of it. MATT Look, pal, like she said, I'm not here to wreck your life. I just came to give you a chance to go to the hospital. I don't know how long you're planning on being here, but I'm sure you can think of an excuse to leave. ALEXANDRA You must be good at that. MATT You can be alone with her to say goodbye or whatever you want. Do you hear what I'm saying? (CONTINUED) 92. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft109 CONTINUED: (4) 109 Brian seems deeply lost in his own thoughts. Then -- BRIAN SPEER Okay, look, I can't have you here. You understand. Julie returns with wine for Matt and a soda for Alex. JULIE Here we go. (noticing) Everyone's so serious. Please don't tell me you're talking about business. ALEXANDRA We're talking about love. JULIE That's nice. Brian, call the boys in for dinner. BRIAN SPEER They're fine. Let them play a while longer. They all stand there a moment. Matt's unsure how to play this out. He shoots a quick panicked look at Alex, who scrambles to keep the ball rolling. ALEXANDRA Awesome cottage you're renting. MATT Yeah, say, prime Hanalei location. I used to come here as a kid before it was a vacation rental. Alex, your great-uncle Warren and Aunt Lillian built it back in the 20s. Haven't been inside in years. JULIE Come on. We'll give you a tour. ALEXANDRA Or, Brian, maybe you could give my dad a little walk down memory lane, and Julie and I can chat out here. MATT Yeah, I'd like that, if you don't mind. Just a quick look. (CONTINUED) 93. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft109 CONTINUED: (5) 109 BRIAN SPEER Sure. But it's not like I live here. Matt walks up to the door, making a point to let Brian open it for him.110 INT. HANALEI BAY COTTAGE - NIGHT 110 Brian sweeps his hand around the room. BRIAN SPEER Here it is. MATT How did you meet? I'm curious. For a moment Brian looks tricked, as if Matt really did just want a tour of the house. BRIAN SPEER I can't do this. MATT Neither can I. How did you meet? BRIAN SPEER I thought you said you came here just to tell me. MATT I changed my mind. And I can't very well ask her the details. How'd you meet? BRIAN SPEER At a party. MATT What party? BRIAN SPEER Super Bowl party. MATT (figuring it out) At the Mitchells'. BRIAN SPEER Does that help? Does that make it better? (CONTINUED) 94. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft110 CONTINUED: 110 MATT Hey, I'm doing you a favor here. I could go out there right now and fuck you up, so get a better attitude. Then what? How'd you get the nerve to ask her out? Brian drops his head, rubs his temples. MATT (CONT'D) I want to know what makes a person cross that line. Was it about the deal? Is that when you decided she was for you? BRIAN SPEER No, no. It's not what you think. It just happened. MATT Nothing just happens. BRIAN SPEER Everything just happens. MATT Was she going to leave me? BRIAN SPEER She would have. But I, I, uh... I didn't want that. That wouldn't have happened. I love Julie. (anguished) Please don't tell her. Please. I don't know what I've done. I'm sorry. MATT Did she say she loved you? Brian nods slightly. MATT (CONT'D) Do you love her? Brian looks down. MATT (CONT'D) You don't love her. You don't love her. You just used her to get to me. BRIAN SPEER No, I told you. I wasn't trying to get to you. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 95. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft110 CONTINUED: (2) 110 BRIAN SPEER (CONT'D) It was an affair, an attraction. Sex. And she got sort of... carried away with the whole thing, and I guess I went with it. I mean, I didn't exactly say no to things. I should have. I love my family. MATT Then I guess it's all working out. Her lips are sealed, and you don't have to go through the trouble of dumping her. BRIAN SPEER Hey, hey, that's really unfair. I had - - have -- a lot of respect for her. She's a wonderful woman. MATT Too bad her husband found out. You can't win `em all. One more question. Have you ever been inside my bedroom? BRIAN SPEER (tortured) Once. MATT You could have had the decency to lie about that one. Well, she's in Queen's Hospital if you want to say goodbye. That really is all I came to say. BRIAN SPEER Shouldn't you be with her? Matt's face slackens into overwhelming sadness.111 EXT. HANALEI BAY COTTAGE - NIGHT 111 Matt swings the screen door open. Alex sits with Julie. Skylar and Colt are still running around the yard. MATT Yeah, great, all remodeled, new appliances. Nice. Alex, we should be getting back. JULIE Well, hey, thanks for stopping by. Really nice to meet you both. Maybe we'll see you at the beach tomorrow. (CONTINUED) 96. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft111 CONTINUED: 111 ALEXANDRA Yeah, maybe. After Alex and Julie share a quick kiss goodbye -- a common custom in Hawaii -- Julie turns to Matt. Matt leans in, but instead of going for her cheek, he kisses her FULLY ON THE LIPS. He pulls away, and they exchange a brief, vaguely erotic look. Then he turns away and into the night.112 INT. AIRPLANE - NIGHT 112 The plane is dark except for overhead READING LIGHTS. Again Matt, Sid and the girls sit at the very BACK OF THE PLANE. ALEXANDRA So when do you think he'll show up? MATT I have no idea. Sid leans forward from the middle seat. SID Was he sorry? I hope he was sorry, man. You could have told his wife, and you didn't. I hope he knows how lucky he is. I would have told her everything. She deserves to know. Or else she's going to be a dumb bitch the rest of her life. ALEXANDRA Sid. SID I'm just saying. MATT No need to get creepy. Anyway, doesn't matter. That's all behind us. ALEXANDRA Yeah, the one we have to worry about telling things to now is Scottie. MATT I've asked Dr. Johnston to help us break the news tomorrow. (CONTINUED) 97. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft112 CONTINUED: 112 They turn to look at little Scottie, dead to the world in the window seat.113 INT. HOSPICE HALLWAY - DAY 113 Matt and the kids walk slowly through this different, calmer wing of the hospital looking for the right room-number. Finally they find it and push open the door into --114 INT. HOSPICE ROOM - CONTINUOUS 114 While still a hospital room, there is no medical equipment present. Bucolic colorful paintings on the wall are intended to be uplifting. But unlike the expansive view outside Elizabeth's ICU window, here the window looks out partially at a CINDER-BLOCK WALL. Sid and the Kings are greeted by DR. JOHNSTON and grief counselor DR. HERMAN, who affects a comforting smile. DR. JOHNSTON Hello, everyone. Matt. (off their greetings) This is Dr. Herman, whom I told you about. She works with us in counseling. DR. HERMAN (locking eyes with all) Hello, everyone. Hello. Hi. Hello. The two professionals allow the Kings to turn their attention to Elizabeth, who now lies with no machines at all. Around her BALLOONS droop, FLOWERS wilt, get-well CARDS lie in a pile. Elizabeth too is wilting and drooping. Her skin is pasty, and her cheeks are hollow. SCOTTIE How come Mom isn't on any more machines? Is she getting better? The adults exchange glances. Dr. Herman approaches Scottie. DR. HERMAN You must be Scottie. (off her nod --) Scottie, I have a present for you. Dr. Herman hands her a little squeaky RUBBER OCTOPUS she pulls from her pocket. (CONTINUED) 98. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft114 CONTINUED: 114 DR. HERMAN (CONT'D) That's right. It's an octopus. Such a funny creature with its eight legs. But did you know octopi are actually extremely intelligent, like dogs and cats? They have unique personalities, and just like us they have a lot of defense mechanisms. I'm sure you know about the ink sac. She uses ink to confuse her predators. She can camouflage herself. She can emit poison, and some can mimic more dangerous creatures, like the eel. I keep her to remind me of our defense mechanisms -- our ink, our camouflage, our poison, all the things we use to keep away hurt. The reason Dr. Johnston invited me here today is to meet you, Scottie. I've heard a lot about you. SCOTTIE Like what? DR. HERMAN I've heard that you're a wonderful and unique and spirited girl. Dr. Herman shoots a look at Matt before continuing. DR. HERMAN (CONT'D) And I've heard your mom's not doing too well and that she's going to die very soon. All watch Scottie react to this news. SCOTTIE Dad, is that true? MATT Yes, Scottie. It's true. DR. HERMAN You're going to have to be a very brave girl right now, and you're surrounded by people who love you. I came to meet you and tell you that if you ever want to talk about what you're feeling, I would like to talk to you too. I can help you face what's going on without all the silly defense mechanisms that work for an octopus but not for us. (CONTINUED) 99. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft114 CONTINUED: (2) 114 DR. JOHNSTON Okay. Thank you, Dr. Herman. Dr. Herman looks at everyone with great sincerity before leaving. Scottie is left holding the octopus. She drops it, and it squeaks a little. ALEXANDRA What the fuck was that? DR. JOHNSTON Yes, well, they say she's very good one- on-one. SCOTTIE So Mom's going to die for sure? DR. JOHNSTON Yes. We worked really hard with her, but three other doctors and I agree she's in what we call an irreversible coma. Do you know what that means? SCOTTIE It means she doesn't have a brain anymore. DR. JOHNSTON Not exactly, but... yes, that's the general idea. So we're doing exactly what she wanted us to do if that ever happened. That's why she's not attached to the machines anymore. ALEXANDRA It's for the best, Scottie. Look at her. She's not happy like this. DR. JOHNSTON The purpose of medicine is to heal, and we can't do that now. MATT Do you understand? SCOTTIE Yes. What will we do with her body? Dr. Johnston looks to Matt for this one. (CONTINUED) 100. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft114 CONTINUED: (3) 114 MATT First Mom's going to give some of her organs to other sick people, so she can help save their lives. That's a really neat thing she's doing. Then we're going to... we're going to scatter her ashes in the ocean. You know how Mom always loved the ocean. SCOTTIE Her ashes? Scottie looks at her mother, picturing her as ashes. SCOTTIE (CONT'D) When will she die? DR. JOHNSTON Any day now, I'm afraid. But you still have some time. DR. JOHNSTON (CONT'D) Well. Let me know if you have any more questions. MATT Thanks, Sam. The doctor leaves, and the room is quiet. Scottie is in a sort of trance. ALEXANDRA Come here, Scottie. Scottie goes to her sister, who takes her in her arms. SCOTTIE Do eyeballs burn? SID Hey, Scottie. Don't think about stuff like that.115 INT. HOSPICE ROOM - THE NEXT DAY 115 Matt and the kids sit in a sort of vigil. Alex and Scottie read books, Matt has brought some paperwork, Sid reads a magazine. Elizabeth emits a SIGH. All look up a moment before looking back down. (CONTINUED) 101. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft115 CONTINUED: 115 Matt's PHONE VIBRATES. Checking the caller ID -- HUGH KING -- he opts not to answer. The door opens, and Elizabeth's brother BARRY THORSON accompanies his parents Scott and Alice into the room. SCOTT THORSON Here we are. (to Scottie) Hi, Bingo. Alex. Cheerful Alice doesn't really get what's going on. An emotional Barry hugs Matt and the girls. SCOTT THORSON (CONT'D) (eyeing Sid) There you are again. Matt and Alex maneuver seats for the Thorsons to sit near the bed. Barry gets his mother situated, then takes a seat himself. Remaining on his feet, old Scott surveys his daughter from a distance. SCOTT THORSON (CONT'D) So what did you decide? MATT There's not much left to decide. We're just sort of playing it by ear and making sure she's comfortable. SCOTT THORSON I mean what did you decide about the buyer? Who's your buyer? Even Sid and his daughters perk up at this question. Matt is taken aback. SCOTT THORSON (CONT'D) How much are you getting? BARRY THORSON Dad, I'm sure you'll be able to read about it in the paper. SCOTT THORSON I don't need to read about it. I can hear about it right now. (CONTINUED) 102. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft115 CONTINUED: (2) 115 MATT Scott, let's not talk about that here. It's not the time for that. SCOTT THORSON All the same to you, I guess. A million here, a million there. Just ironic, that's all -- Elizabeth coming into this misfortune just as you're coming into a fortune. She gave you everything, Matt. A good, happy home, two beautiful daughters. Matt looks to Barry for help, but Barry's silence and sheepish look imply he buys into his father's propaganda. MATT Scott, what's your point? SCOTT THORSON She wanted her own boat. She should have had her own boat, one she would have been familiar with. MATT She wasn't even driving! Her boat, someone else's boat -- it wouldn't have made any difference. You're not going to blame me for this. SCOTT THORSON Sure, sure, quibble about the details. She was a faithful, devoted wife. She deserved more. Why fight it? MATT You're right. She deserved more. SID For Christ's sake, take it easy on the man. Scott turns to Sid like he's about to pop him again. ALEXANDRA My father has been doing a really amazing job under the circumstances. His point made, Scott looks at Matt and the girls and shuffles to Elizabeth's bedside, puts his hands on Alice's shoulder. (CONTINUED) 103. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft115 CONTINUED: (3) 115 ALICE Are we ready to go? BARRY THORSON No, Mom. Not yet. MATT (gesturing toward the door) Girls, Sid. Matt, Sid and the girls quietly go into --116 INT. HOSPICE HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 116 -- where they take a few steps away. SID Man, that guy's a prick. Was he always like that? MATT Yep. Scottie has stayed behind to peek through a crack in the door. Noticing, the others join her. THROUGH THE DOOR -- As Barry and Alice remain seated, their backs to us, Scott stands above his daughter, touching her arm, eyes closed. SID Is he praying? MATT No. SCOTT THORSON (opening his eyes) Say goodbye to Elizabeth, Alice. ALICE Oh. Goodbye, Elizabeth. The old man puts his hand over his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut. Then he opens his eyes and places a hand on her forehead, smooths her hair back. WIDE -- Matt and his daughters watch without moving. DISSOLVE TO: 104. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft117 INT. KING HOUSE - MATT'S STUDY - NIGHT 117 Matt sits at his desk lost in thought. The only sound is the tick-tock of an old clock reading 3:20. Then he gets up and starts pacing, shooting occasional glances at the BLUEPRINTS and RENDERINGS atop his desk. DISSOLVE TO:118 EXT. HIGHWAY OUTSIDE KING FAMILY SHARED PROPERTY - DAY 118 Matt turns off the highway and into a long driveway.119 INT. KING FAMILY SHARED PROPERTY HOUSE - DAY 119 Matt opens all front doors and lanai doors, letting air into the old place. He notices old PHOTOS OF KING ANCESTORS.120 EXT. KING FAMILY SHARED PROPERTY - DAY 120 Matt walks around the property alone, taking it in and thinking. Like everywhere in Hawai'i, the nature here is powerful -- TREES, BIRDS, SPIDERWEBS.121 EXT. KING FAMILY SHARED PROPERTY HOUSE - DAY 121 Matt plops heavily into a chair on the lanai. WIDER -- Matt alone. DISSOLVE TO --122 EXT. KING FAMILY SHARED PROPERTY HOUSE - LATER 122 It's the same angle but now with FORTY KING COUSINS gathered for the poll. We recognize some faces. CLOSER -- Amid drinks held aloft, a CALABASH is passed among the cousins into which the each places a folded BALLOT. Matt sits watching the proceedings with Cousin Hugh, Cousin Six and another ELDERLY COUSIN at a table piled with papers and contracts. MATT Elizabeth's not doing well. COUSIN HUGH She'll be okay. She's a fighter. (CONTINUED) 105. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft122 CONTINUED: 122 MATT No. She's dying. We took her off the machines. LATER -- Matt, Hugh and Six FINISH THE COUNT while others mill about, mingle, drink -- an early celebration for all except for a group of DISSENTERS off to one side. COUSIN HUGH Well, no surprise. Other than the holdouts who don't want to sell at all, it's Don Holitzer. Chicago group a distant second. Feels good. We're doing the right thing, Mattie. At least there ain't going to be any Wal-Mart. Now it's your call, and we're all behind you, most of us anyway. (handing him a pen) Go ahead, Captain. Make it official. MATT It's strange, that's all. COUSIN HUGH What's strange? MATT We didn't do anything to own that land. It was entrusted to us. And now we're just... Hugh and Six exchange a concerned look. For a moment we go VERY CLOSE on Matt's eyes. Then -- MATT (CONT'D) I can't do it. I won't do it. I'm not going to sign. COUSIN HUGH What're you doing, Matt? I mean, we know you have a lot on your plate right now, but you're not going to fuck this up for us. It's over. If we don't sell now, it'll be a mess when the trust dissolves. Just sign, go to your wife, done. (CONTINUED) 105A. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft122 CONTINUED: (2) 122 COUSIN SIX It's inevitable, Matt. You know that. We'll get out of debt -- the taxes and maintenance have been leaching us for far too long. (CONTINUED) 106. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft122 CONTINUED: (3) 122 MATT I don't want it to go to Holitzer. I don't want it to go to anyone. I want to keep it. COUSIN SIX For Christ's sake. We can't move without your approval. And we don't want to. Hugh tries forcing Matt's hand. Matt resists. COUSIN HUGH Your head's not right, Mattie. Your head's not right. You want a couple days to think it over? Take a couple days. MATT I don't need a couple days. I have the authority, and this is what I want. I haven't wanted something in a long time. We have other businesses we're converting to corporations. We can figure it out. COUSIN SIX But it's utterly unproductive land. It doesn't generate enough income to pay the goddamn taxes. COUSIN HUGH You're the trustee. You know better than anyone we only have seven years left. MATT Then I have seven years to figure out how to keep it. Cousin Hugh draws a long breath, looks up at the sky, then back at Matt. COUSIN HUGH We'll come after you. Just because you're a lawyer doesn't mean the rest of us would be afraid to come after you. But nobody wants to do that. We're family. (CONTINUED) 107. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft122 CONTINUED: (4) 122 MATT People will be relieved, Hugh, the whole state. I sign that document, it's over. End of the line. Something that was ours to protect will be gone. Even though we're haole as shit and go to private schools and clubs and can't even speak pidgin, let alone Hawaiian, we still carry Hawaiian blood, and we're still tied to this land. And our children are tied to this land. It's a miracle that for whatever bullshit reason 150 years ago, we own this much of... paradise, but we do. And for whatever bullshit reason now, I'm the trustee. And I'm not signing. And if you sue me, it'll only make us closer. Cousin Hugh releases a long breath more like a belch, quickly picks his nose, exchanges a look with Cousin Six. Then he brings his fingers to his mouth to WHISTLE. COUSIN HUGH All right, everybody, listen up. Cousin Mattie has an announcement. Get ready. Rising to his feet, Matt scans the faces of his relatives.123 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 123 From the way Matt, Sid and the girls are positioned around the room, we can tell their presence there is now way of life. Scottie snoozes on the little sofa. We may notice that Elizabeth is even more shrunken. A KNOCK is followed by -- A VASE OF FLOWERS appearing in the doorway, topped by blonde hair and held by thin bronzed arms. It's JULIE SPEER. MATT Julie. What are you doing here? He rises to help her find a spot to put the flowers. She nods to the girls. JULIE I know we just met, but I was thinking about you guys these past few days, and I knew your mom was here. I don't know. I just felt I should stop by. (CONTINUED) 108. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft123 CONTINUED: 123 MATT You remember Alex. This is Scottie. Sid. This is Mrs. Speer. JULIE Julie. SCOTTIE Were you friends with my mom? JULIE No, we never met. But I know a lot about her. As they now do often, Matt and Alex exchange a look. MATT Well, we appreciate your coming by. The flowers are lovely. SID (heading to the door) Scottie, Alex. Let's go to the cafeteria. The girls follow Sid's prompt, leaving Matt alone with Julie, standing, a dying woman between them. MATT I, uh, I'm not sure how much you know about my wife's condition, but she's going to die very soon. Any minute, really. That's sort of why we're all here. JULIE I know. That's why I came. Because I know. I came because my husband wouldn't. And that just didn't seem right. I thought someone from my family should come. Wow. MATT I'm sorry I came to your house like that. Just barged in on you. JULIE It's all right. I assume you're angry. Of course you are. I'm angry too. (CONTINUED) 109. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft123 CONTINUED: (2) 123 MATT So he told you, huh? JULIE After you left that night, he was acting really weird. Then I started smelling it all over him. I'd already smelled it. MATT You're a woman. JULIE I finally got it out of him. We've been going crazy ever since. Not easy with the kids around. It's all something I never could have imagined. And then your family's decision about the land. I think you're doing the right thing, but Brian is -- well, it's all so complicated and confusing. MATT I know. JULIE Brian told me everything. Well, how can I ever know it's everything? When did you find out? Have you known for a while? MATT Just a few days ago. JULIE I'm angry, but I'm just so sorry. I can't imagine what you're going through. Do you mind if I say something to her? Matt is unsure but what else can he do? Julie approaches the bed. JULIE (CONT'D) Elizabeth, I'm Julie. Brian's wife. I just want to say I forgive you. I forgive you for trying to take Brian. I forgive you for almost destroying my family. I have to forgive you. Even though I want to hate you. (CONTINUED) 110. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft123 CONTINUED: (3) 123 MATT Okay. All right. That's enough, Julie. I think... I think that's enough. Matt walks to the door and opens it. Alex and Sid -- who've clearly had their ears against the door -- scamper away, unnoticed by Matt and Julie. MATT (CONT'D) He didn't love her. Just so you know. He didn't really love her. JULIE That's why I'm here. Julie heads to the door. At the door, she looks at Matt. Matt looks at her. She leaves. Matt is left alone with his wife, and he realizes suddenly that this is his moment. He walks to the bed, takes her hand, rubs his palm over her hair. He says something to her as though silently praying, then realizes he should say it aloud. He presses his lips to hers and puts his hand on her stomach. MATT Goodbye, Elizabeth. Goodbye, my love, my friend, my pain, my joy. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.124 INT. HOSPICE HALLWAY - DAY 124 The door to Elizabeth's room opens, and Alexandra emerges, a far-away sadness on her face. She walks slowly toward -- A NEARBY WAITING AREA -- where Matt sits with Scottie and Sid. Matt and Sid rise to comfort her, but she's not in the mood. She allows them each to hug her briefly before turning to Scottie. Signaling to Matt to let her do this, Alex escorts a fearful Scottie toward Elizabeth's room, and, reassuring her, guides her little sister inside. Matt and Sid are left alone.125 EXT. MONTAGE - DAY 125 To be determined. 111- The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft 112.126 EXT. THE OCEAN - DAY 126 PADDLES in the water. A BOX ENCIRCLED BY LEIS sits tied to the seat of a small outrigger CANOE. MATT AND THE GIRLS navigate the canoe through the surf. SCOTTIE How far do we have to go? MATT Not that far. Just past the break. ALEXANDRA Steer straighter, Dad. And a little faster, okay? MATT I'm trying.127 LATER -- 127 (CONTINUED) 113. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft127 CONTINUED: 127 Matt and the girls simply FLOAT, glancing from time to time * at the urn in Scottie's lap. In the distance loom the hotels * and high-rises of Waikiki. * MATT * Well, here we are, just the four of us. * For the last time. * (then --) * Alex, why don't you start? Scottie, * hand her the box. * Scottie does so. Alexandra takes the box reverently -- she * wants to perform this sad, strange ceremony without messing * up. * She opens the box and pulls out a scoop of ashes, which * Scottie looks at unblinking. Alex looks to Matt, who gives * her the go-ahead, and without further ceremony pours them * into the sea. * THE ASHES * fall densely in one spot, then slowly darken the water and * disappear. * Alex looks down, struck by the weirdness of it all, before * glancing up at Matt. * MATT (CONT'D) * Scottie, you're next. Go ahead, it's * okay. * Alex passes the box and scooper to Scottie. * SCOTTIE * What should I say? * ALEXANDRA * Just say goodbye. * Scottie looks at Alex and scoops out a pile, holds them at * eye-level, and pauses. * MATT * Come on, Scottie. It's okay. * SCOTTIE * (finally) * Bye, Mom. * A sad Scottie pours her scoop into the water. All look down * as the ashes descend. * (CONTINUED) 113A. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft127 CONTINUED: (2) 127 MATT * All right, Scottie, here. Pass that to * me. Good job. * Now Matt takes his turn. He looks directly inside the urn at * the ashes that were once his wife. * ANGLE ON THE ASHES -- HIS POV * A complex series of emotions passes over his face -- love, * grief, disappointment, resignation. * Without further ceremony he upends the BOX over the water and * pours the rest of Elizabeth into the ocean. * All three take a long look as the mass of ashes disappears. * Matt takes off his LEI and places it into the water. The * girls follow suit. * WIDE ANGLE of the boat floating as the leis float away. *128 INT. KING HOUSE - NIGHT 128 Scottie lies on a sofa watching television, draped with the QUILT that lay atop her mother's hospital bed. Matt comes over with TWO DISHES, hands one to her. MATT One scoop strawberry, one scoop mocha chip. SCOTTIE Great. Matt gets under the quilt with her. Moments later Alexandra wanders in, notices what they're watching, sits next to Matt, pulls the quilt over her legs. ALEXANDRA Can I have some? (CONTINUED) 114. The Descendants PINK Shooting Draft 4/11/10 Draft128 CONTINUED: 128 His eyes not leaving the TV, Matt hands Alex his ice cream. As they sit there on the sofa, the CREDITS roll quietly over them. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Detroit Rock City.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Detroit Rock City.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..adfe3a62774b37e39f02fe19f0bdf1f937934bea --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Detroit Rock City.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DETROIT ROCK CITY Written by Carl V Dupre FADE IN: INT. MRS. BRUCE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Decorated in Carol Brady chic. When it's not gaudy, tacky, and loud, it's blander than toast. Colors like lime green and sunshine orange should be reserved for popsicles only. MRS. BRUCE, late 30's, enters looking exhausted. She carries a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other, Erma Bombeck's The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank. HUMMING "We've Only Just Begun," Mrs. Bruce crouches next to her wildly-ancient entertainment center complete with 8-track. She flips the first record forward on her Ronco Record Mate. Album after album flaps forward. Olivia Newton-John, Neil Diamond, the Osmond Brothers. She stops on the Carpenters and sighs at the serene cover art. Just what the doctor ordered. Placing the vinyl on the turntable, she CLICKS the dustcover closed and FLICKS "Play." Reclining in her Lazyboy, she sips her wine, opens the book and awaits the mellow tones of Karen Carpenter. Suddenly, her eardrums are hammered by machine gun GUITAR. Caustic ROCK 'N' ROLL assaults her senses. She jumps, spilling her wine all over herself. This isn't the Carpenters... IT'S KISS! Racing to the entertainment center, she turns the volume control knob so violently, it comes off in her hand. The music is even louder now. Flustered by the awful noise, she tries lifting the dustcover. It's stuck. She screams and covers her ears. This is Hell. Running to the rear of the huge console, she stretches to reach the plug, but can't. Fingertips millimeters away. As the cacophony POUNDS she shakes the entire stereo with all her frantic might. SCREEEEEECH! The needle scrapes across the vinyl with a shrill, finally coming to a stop. Whew, silence! Then, POP, the dustcover opens unceremoniously. Shaken, she grabs the record with trembling hands and reads the label... KISS - LOVE GUN, SIDE TWO Mrs. Bruce's blood boils. MRS. BRUCE KISS! The devil's music! EXT. LEX'S HOUSE - NIGHT A small, two-story house amid a suburban neighborhood of other two-story houses. Uninspired architecture. Spindly trees. Two-car garage. A faint yellow glow emanates from a cellar window across which shadows frantically dart. Over the CRICKETS, we hear MUFFLED, BADLY-RENDERED ROCK 'N' ROLL. SCRATCHY, GUTTURAL, inhuman. CAMERA MOVES to the cellar window. Inside we see four TEENAGE BOYS who are to blame for the racket. Band practice. INT. LEX'S BASEMENT/BEDROOM - NIGHT An inner-sanctum of KISS devotion. Faux-wood paneling is plastered with countless KISS posters, pictures, fold-outs. The ceiling is wallpapered with more KISS posters. KISS dolls, magazines, records, comic books clutter the shag-carpeted floor. Fast food wrappers heap over the KISS garbage pail. The four high schoolers rock their hearts out as they blast a familiar tune offensively off-key. BOYS SINGING "I wanna rock 'n' roll all night and party every day!" They stink, but they sure are trying hard. Meet the band "Mystery." Concert tee-shirts, holey jeans, total burn-outs. HAWK, a scraggily-haired, disenchanted youth, strains his vocal chords on the microphone as he SCRATCHES at his rhythm guitar. Hawk is sort of the brains of this operation, but knowing the others, that doesn't say much. LEX POUNDS a bass with earnest determination. Lanky with bad posture, Lex is already sporting worry lines. He takes everything way-too-seriously. TRIP STRUMS lead guitar like he's hammering nails. All id, Trip is slightly out of his mind. But, is it the chemicals or just his chemistry. He always wears a knit cap. JAM, a sensitive kid (but no wuss), BASHES on his drums like a madman making the bass drum pulsate like a spastic heart. The big drum bears the word "Mystery" painted on its skin with a lightning "S" just like the KISS logo. They bring the classic tune to a shrieking conclusion and thrust their hands over their heads in the KISS symbol. Hawk screams into the mike at their imaginary audience. HAWK Thank you, Cleveland! You're a great crowd. But after three and a half hours of kick-ass rock and seven encores on top of that, I'm sorry to say that this time we really gotta get back to our hotel rooms and fuck some groupies. Behind him, Trip grabs Lex's bass and swings it by the neck at an amp pretending to bash it over and over again. Lex quickly yanks it away from him. LEX What the fuck, Trip? That's my bass! Jam emerges from behind the pile of drums smiling. JAM That was curly! TRIP Just one more day of school to get through, girls, before tomorrow night... Live! (getting excited) COBO Hall! Detroit, Michigan! (like an announcer) You wanted the best! ALL FOUR BOYS You got the best! The hottest band in the world... KISS!! They all make that BREATH SOUND that mimics a screaming crowd. Suddenly, headlights swing by in the window above them like a spotlight. Lex hops onto the unmade bed and looks out the cellar window. LEX'S POV A baby-shit green, Ford station wagon with fake wood sides SCREECHES into the driveway. Mrs. Bruce gets out and STOMPS toward the house. Lex gasps at the sight. LEX Shit! It's Jam's mom! Jam GULPS as if he's just shat out an whole can of Lincoln logs. JAM My mom? Oh, no! What's she doing here? Lex quickly throws a KISS towel over a TV tray hiding a bong, cigarettes, overloaded ashtray. Trip kicks half-empty beer bottles under the bed. Hawk sprays Lysol frantically around the room as Jam shovels gum into his mouth. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! Mrs. Bruce pounds on the cellar window crouching to see in. She looks like a crazed, underlit psycho. MRS. BRUCE (muffled through glass) Jeremiah! Jeremiah Bruce! You get out here this instant! The boys looks up like innocent, wide-eyed angels. Jam waves. JAM Oh, hi, mom. MRS. BRUCE (screams) NOW! Jam quickly pockets his drumsticks and grabs his worn, denim jacket off the pile of jackets on the floor, then runs upstairs. The others follow. EXT. LEX'S HOUSE/FRONT PORCH - NIGHT The front door opens. Jam steps out to greet his mom with a nervous smile. Hawk, Lex, and Trip stand at a safe distance in the foyer behind him. JAM What's up? Mrs. Bruce grabs her son by the ear and holds up the KISS LOVE GUN record waving it in his face. MRS. BRUCE The devil's body count, that's what's up! Don't you know what KISS stands for? "Knights in Satan's Service!" She hauls Jam across the lawn. Hawk, Lex, and Trip step onto the porch looking on in sympathetic embarrassment. Mrs. Bruce stuffs the record in the trash can then throws Jam in the front seat. SCREECH, the station wagon pulls away. TRIP Jam has yet to do an overnight with us. LEX I had a nightmare once that something like this might happen. I hope he doesn't get grounded again. If he misses Peter Criss's drum solo, I don't know if he'll be able to handle it. HAWK Lex, quit trying to always jinx things. Don't worry, dudes. Nobody's missing that concert tomorrow night. MAIN TITLES CLOSE-UP The LOVE GUN album sitting in the trash can. CAMERA MOVES IN on the round label till it FILLS THE FRAME. The record begins to spin like on a turntable as CAMERA DESCENDS INTO the little hole ENGULFING THE FRAME IN BLACK. This LEADS us INTO... OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE "ROCK 'N' ROLL ALL NITE" BLASTS the way it's supposed to sound. The jammin' KISS classic is accompanied by a barrage of QUICK CUTS depicting KISS mania. TV appearances. Concert footage. Magazine covers. Comic Books. Posters. Art work. KISS merchandise, dolls, lunch boxes, clothes, etc. We see the BAND do their thing in authentic CLIPS FROM REAL SHOWS. GENE, PAUL, ACE, AND PETER SHOUTING IT OUT LOUD. The MONTAGE is a colorful, kick-ass kaleidoscope of the entire KISS phenomena. CUT TO the BEAT of this seminal anthem. The FINAL IMAGE is the KISS "DESTROYER" POSTER. END CREDITS TICKET CHECK INT. JAM'S BEDROOM - DAY The sun's early morning rays beam through the KISS "Destroyer" poster taped onto a window shade. The phone RINGS. Jam bolts upright, his profile blocking the poster. He has just awakened under the only other decoration in his room: a crucifix. Still dressed in last night's clothes, a plain black tee- shirt and blue jeans, Jam leaps out of bed unwittingly planting a foot in the handle of a Bullworker (a piece of exercise equipment comprised of a powerful spring with two handles on either end) whose other handle is stuck under one of the bed's legs. Jam runs to a phone on his dresser, drawing the Bullworker's powerful springs out to maximum tension. No sooner does he pick up, when he is yanked to the floor and dragged across it as if tied to the bumper of a speeding car. Despite the Bullworker pulling him back toward his bed, Jam does manage to get the phone to his ear. JAM Hello? The phone's cord stretches taut causing its cradle to leap from the dresser and WHACK Jam on the head. INT. LEX'S BASEMENT/BEDROOM - DAY Hawk is on the phone as Lex and Trip scour every inch of the cluttered room on their hands and knees searching frantically for something. HAWK Jam, listen up. JAM (O.S.) Hawk? HAWK Just listen up, man, cause we are in a quandary. INT. JAM'S BEDROOM - DAY Jam clutches the phone with his shoulder GRUNTING as he does battle with the Bullworker for possession of his foot. HAWK (O.S.) Are you on the crapper with one of those antenna phones? Sounds like you're taking a dump the size of Butte, Montana. JAM It's my Bullworker. HAWK (O.S.) Anyway, listen up. They're gone! JAM What's gone? HAWK (O.S.) The KISS tickets, you nimrod! They're just fuckin' gone! Please tell me you have'm! JAM (panicked) Gone!? Why would I have the KISS tick...? HAWK (O.S.) Just check whatever you were wearing last night. Now! Jam briefly scans his surroundings double-taking at the denim jacket lying on the floor. He checks the pockets and sees four tickets labelled KISS - JUNE 7, 1978 - COBO HALL, DETROIT. JAM Whew! Oh, God, Hawk... I got'm! Somehow I musta taken Trip's jacket by mistake! INT. LEX'S BASEMENT/BEDROOM - DAY Hawk SIGHS like a deathrow convict pardoned at the last second. HAWK (to others) He's got'm! Lex and Trip collapse with relief. HAWK Trip, he took your jacket by mistake. You must be wearing Jam's. Trip reaches in a breast pocket and pulls out Rosary beads. Spooked, he drops them like they were a bug. HAWK (into phone) Cool. JAM (O.S.) I'm really sorry about that, man. HAWK Don't be a fembot. So, are you like grounded because of last night, or what? INT. JAM'S ROOM - DAY JAM Of course, but has that ever stopped me before? Besides, my mom's going to some church meeting and won't be back till late. No sweat... See you guys in school. CLICK. DIAL TONE. Jam hangs up. INT. LEX'S BASEMENT/BEDROOM - DAY Lex buckles his belt with its huge KISS belt buckle. LEX Poor, Jam, man. Imagine having to stash your KISS records inside Carly Simon album covers. No question, Mrs. Bruce is a psycho-bitch from hell. TRIP You're one to talk, Lex. Your mom's a fuckin' dyke. Trip pockets his wallet which is affixed to a long chain attached to a side belt loop. LEX Trip, a female gynecologist does not a lesbian make. And even if it did, at least my mom didn't give birth to me while she was on LSD. TRIP Shrooms! And even if it was LSD, I can still give my mom a kiss without smelling the catch of the day. HAWK Both you assholes, SHADDAP! Lex and Trip shaddap. HAWK Enough of the mom-bashing, all right? Lex's mom is cool about us crashing over here while she's out of town. And if it weren't for Trip's mom, we wouldn'ta smoked that fine Panama Red last night. So leave the women who gave you life out of it. They're both cool. Trip and Lex cease and desist the mom-bashing and continue getting ready for school. Suddenly, Lex pushes Trip angrily. LEX Trip, you fuckin' asshole. TRIP What? Lex points to a wet mess on the pillow. LEX You spilled my Sea Monkeys all over the bed. DRESSING UP INT. JAM'S BEDROOM - DAY Jam gives the Bullworker one final yank. This time it comes loose... not from his foot, but from under the bed. Its handle lashes up SLAPPING him across the face. Ouch. Fully awake now, Jam throws on Trip's denim jacket. He stuffs a drumstick into his left sock. We see "Mystery" written on it. Just as he's about to stick the other one in his right sock... Without a second of warning, or even a knock, Mrs. Bruce suddenly ENTERS. Immediately Jam stands. MRS. BRUCE Jeremiah, what are you doing? JAM Uhh... nothing. She turns to his closet, the door blocking her view of the KISS poster. Jam leaps to the window and yanks the "Destroyer" shade. It shoots up, FLAPPING around its rod. He's done this before. Mrs. Bruce peeks at Jam from around his closet door. He stretches in front of the window. JAM Ahh, sunshine. MRS. BRUCE You're going to be late if you don't hurry up and change soon. JAM Change? What's wrong with what I got on? MRS. BRUCE It's dirty laundry for one thing and for another, you still haven't worn the clothes I bought you. You're skating on thin ice already, young man, so I wouldn't push my luck. Now get out of those rags. JAM But, mom! MRS. BRUCE Besides, those jeans are so tight I can see your penis. Jam reluctantly takes off the denim jacket as Mrs. Bruce grabs the single drumstick from his hand and shakes it at him. MRS. BRUCE Someday you'll see the futility in forging a musical career with those idiots. She turns and rummages through the closet. JAM (to himself) They're not idiots. MRS. BRUCE Now don't forget you're on the honor system tonight. I'll be home a little after one and if you've been partying or playing that satanic KISS music... well, need I remind you of the consequences? JAM Grounded for the rest of the year? MRS. BRUCE You're a smart boy, Jeremiah. And so handsome. She pulls two Sears department store boxes from the closet and lays them on the bed. Jam is visibly horrified. THIS IS YOUR MOTHER! / THE GIRL'S ROOM EXT. ROBERT F. KENNEDY HIGH - DAY The suburban high school is teeming with morning activity. School buses pull up to the curb. KIDS arrive in droves and immediately find their cliques. The JOCKS and PRIMADONNAS make up the popular crowd. There's DISCO DUDES, FRESHMEN who look like grade schoolers, and GEEKS. At the smoking section hang the BURNOUTS. Hawk, Trip, and Lex stand amid the other long-hairs. TRIP School. What a fuckin' waste of time. Two GIRLS with tons of make-up, hair so feathered it could fly, and tight clothes, saunter by SNAPPING gum. HAWK Will somebody please tell those chicks disco is dead. LEX Stellas. I hate stellas almost as much as I hate dogs. TRIP Same species when you think about it. Their words say one thing, but their eyes say another. They can't stop gawking at the chicks' asses. Girl #1 sneers back. GIRL #1 Don't stare too long, you'll go blind. The boys quickly cover. LEX (defensive) Yeah, right. She wishes. Look at that big ass. TRIP You know what they say about a big ass... big shit. They chuckle. Just then, Jam steps off a school bus in an unbelievably geeky outfit, white corduroy slacks, plaid shirt buttoned to the top, argyle socks and brown deck shoes. TRIP Hey, that dork looks just like Jam. Hawk and Lex look and laugh when they see him. LEX Shit, that dork is Jam. HAWK (to Jam) YO, DOOFUS! Jam gives them the finger. INT. SCHOOL LOCKER AREA - DAY Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam grab books from their lockers. KISS stickers, photos, and rock magazine cut-outs line the insides. Jam's locker door is covered with Peter Criss only. TRIP So, Jam, who did your wardrobe, Tad the preppie sailboat captain? JAM Hey, my mom had me over a barrel, all right. After last night, I had to let her dress me today. It's a give and take relationship. LEX Yeah, she gives you shit and you take it. HAWK Okay, enough. Enough. Gimme the tickets. I wanna hold onto them. JAM They're still at my house in Trip's jacket. HAWK They're what? JAM She was standing right over me when I was changing for fuck's sake. TRIP That's some sick shit right there. Did she comb your ass hair for you too? LEX If your mom so much as smells those tickets, they're history, and we get screwed outta seeing KISS for the third year in a row, the third year! JAM Don't worry about it. They're perfectly safe. We can pick them up after school. My mom won't be home. It's no problem. HAWK All right. After school we double- time it to your house for the tix before heading to the train station for the 2:45 to Detroit Rock City. JAM Check. The BELL RINGS. HAWK As they say in the Tampon biz, see you next period. SLAM! They shut their lockers in unison. INT. STUDY HALL - DAY The STUDY HALL TEACHER grades papers. On the wall a picture of President Carter hangs next to Old Glory. The words "Be Quiet" are written on the blackboard. Students study, read, doodle, sleep. Jam is at his desk touching up the word "Mystery" on his drumstick. Next to him sits BETH. Quirky, but cute, she stares longingly at him wanting to say something, but not having the guts. Pleased with his work, Jam puts the drumsticks on the desk and opens a Peter Criss album cover notebook depicting countless doodles of the KISS logo, the Mystery logo, and renderings of Peter Criss. Beth SIGHS and opens her own notebook. Drawings of hearts fill the pages. In them is written "Beth + Jeremiah" and "I love Jeremiah." Then, one of Jam's drumsticks rolls off the desk and onto the floor. Beth quickly reaches down to grab it for him just as he bends to get it too. THUD, they bash heads. JAM Oof! (whispering) Sorry. Rubbing her head, she smiles and hands him the drumstick. BETH No problem. JAM Thanks. He stuffs his drumsticks in his socks pulling his pantlegs down. Jam and Beth stare at each other. There's a mutual crush, but both are apprehensive about making the first move. Both want to speak, neither does. They awkwardly go back to their notebooks. Mustering the nerve, Jam breaks the ice and whispers... JAM Beth? Beth spins too quickly. Her pen flies out of her hand. BETH Yes? BOINK! The pen hits Jam in the eye. JAM Ow! Feeling awful, Beth moves in to help. The teacher looks up sternly. STUDY HALL TEACHER Mr. Bruce, Miss Bumsteen, is there a problem? BETH No. No problem. Jam points to his eye. JAM Just a little pink eye. No reason to panic. Unamused, the teacher goes back to grading. BETH (whispering) Sorry. JAM (handing back pen) It's okay. Beth resumes doodling feeling like an idiot. Jam does too. Ah, teenage awkwardness. Finally, Beth musters up some courage. BETH Jeremiah? JAM Yeah? She hems and haw, then... BETH I wanted to tell you something... I... Suddenly, Beth is rudely interrupted by HIGH-PITCHED FEEDBACK coming from the P.A. The PRINCIPAL'S VOICE ECHOES over it. PRINCIPAL'S VOICE Jeremiah Bruce, come to the office immediately... Jam throws a startled glance to the speaker as the class sings in unison. WHOLE CLASS Oooo, you're in troubaaaallll. PRINCIPAL'S VOICE Your mother's here and would like to see you right away... More FEEDBACK as the mike on the other end changes hands. MRS. BRUCE'S VOICE Give me that microphone... Jeremiah, you get your sorry self down to this office, mister! All the kids except for Beth burst into hysterical laughter. Mrs. Bruce's tirade continues over QUICK SHOTS of... INT. HAWK'S SCIENCE CLASS - DAY Hawk sits at his lab table burning an eraser with his Bunsen burner. His eyes widen with horror behind his goggles as the other STUDENTS laugh till they hurt. MRS. BRUCE'S VOICE I found some things in the pockets of your jacket while I was picking up your disgusting laundry today... INT. LEX'S GYM CLASS - DAY Lex's eyes bug with terror. The basketball game is at a standstill as everyone is crippled with laughter. MRS. BRUCE'S VOICE Cigarettes! Marijuana! Prophylactics! INT. TRIP'S HEALTH CLASS - DAY Trip dozes at his desk as an out-of-date film about VD sputters on. The room is deafening with laughter. Then, as if hit by a ton of bricks, Trip wakes up alarmed by the familiar, shrilly voice. MRS. BRUCE'S VOICE And something much, much worse! TRIP Holy shit, my jacket! 4-WAY SPLIT SCREEN We see Jam, Hawk, Lex, and Trip agog in dread. MRS. BRUCE'S VOICE If you know what's good for you, you'll get down here... NOW! INT. JAM'S STUDY HALL - DAY Jam slowly sinks in his chair under the profoundly humiliating weight of an ENTIRE SCHOOL'S ECHOED LAUGHTER. INT. WAITING AREA - DAY Mrs. Bruce sits next to a stand-up ashtray in the high school's waiting area. Scowling, she fans the KISS tickets out with one hand. Jam sits across from her, one leg jittering anxiously. They sit for an uncomfortably long time until... Mrs. Bruce pulls a cigarette and lighter out of her purse. MRS. BRUCE I made an appointment with Father Phillip McNulty at St. Bernard's. We're to see him directly where he will register you on the spot. JAM You mean, you're sending me to... b- b-boarding school? MRS. BRUCE What else can I do? Oh, records and magazines and comic books are one thing, but tickets? TICKETS? Jeremiah, do you realize what this means? That you're no longer content merely hearing their awful songs or looking at photos of their horrific faces! Now you want to see the devil in the flesh. You want to reach out and touch pure evil... and in Detroit no less! She flicks the lighter, not yet lighting the cigarette. JAM Mom, three of those tickets don't even belong to me. They're for the guys. Mrs. Bruce holds the tickets over the lighter's flame. MRS. BRUCE And if the "guys" have parents who truly love them, they will elevate me to sainthood for getting rid of these blasted things. Mrs. Bruce lights her smoke with the flaming tickets, then drops them in the ashtray where they burn for a cruel eternity. Jam stares semi-catatonic through his mom's sour expression. MRS. BRUCE It's been a long time coming, son, but you're finally going to get the kind of discipline you deserve. She stands and pulls him out the front entrance by his arm. REVERSE ANGLE ON NEARBY CORNER Hawk, Trip, and Lex peek around it, their heads forming a totem pole. One-by-one they pull back. AROUND THE CORNER They slump against the wall devastated. LEX I knew it! I knew this was gonna happen! I had a bad feeling since last night. Remember? We are so totally fucked! TRIP Waitaminit, dudes! I got it! Maybe we can glue the tickets back together! HAWK What are you, high? TRIP Yeah. HAWK For once Lex is right. It's over. Things can't get any worse from here. Suddenly, a caustic voice BLURTS from down the hall. VOICE I hope you rodents have hall passes! The boys whip their heads around to see a potbellied, yellow- toothed, security officer with long sideburns and slicked back hair at the far end of the hall, fists on his hips. Meet ELVIS. LEX Wanna bet. ELVIS Could that be three detentions I smell? Elvis laughs and breaks into a run barreling down on them like a maniac. Keys JANGLING furiously. HAWK Second floor girls' john! Two minutes! He'll never look there! LEX Check! They take off in three different directions. Still laughing, Elvis stops where the boys just were. Which one to follow? He bolts after Hawk who has taken the nearest staircase. INT./EXT. JAM'S STUDY HALL - DAY Beth looks sadly out the window watching Mrs. Bruce push Jam in the car. Beth puts her hand on the pane wanting to touch him. INT. STAIRWAY - DAY Meanwhile, Elvis HUFFS and PUFFS up a flight of stairs arriving at a set of swinging doors. He goes to push one in, but it swings out at him with a vengeance knocking him backward. From behind it pops Hawk wielding a fire extinguisher. BLAST! A hail of foam covers Elvis's face. Hawk shoves the extinguisher into the man's arms and pushes Elvis backwards down the stairs. He topples ass-over-head till he hits the landing. HAWK You're way out of your league, Elvis. Elvis rises and shakes the CO2 off like a wet dog. Looking up, he sees the door gently swinging in and out. No sign of Hawk. INT. GIRLS' BATHROOM - DAY Trip kicks a bathroom stall violently. TRIP Fuck! Shit! Lex sits on the toilet in the stall. LEX Hey, take it easy, man. This is the girls' crapper, remember? TRIP Wake up, Lex! We just watched Jam's mom torch our fuckin' KISS tickets! Not REO Speedwagon! Not Journey! Not the Bay City Rollers! KISS! If you can think of a better reason to trash a bathroom, I'd sure like to hear it! LEX Trip, it's not the end of the world, okay? Quit acting all squeezed out. Trip grabs Lex by the collar, yanks him off the toilet and shoves him against the wall. TRIP Oh, everything's hunky-dory now that the shit hit the fan just like you said it would, you snug sonofabitch! You fuckin' jinxed us! LEX Smug, Trip! Not snug, smug. Hawk bursts into the bathroom. HAWK We're clear, dudes. They run to exit. Hawk first. Suddenly, Hawk backs up again into Trip and Lex as if a swarm of killer bees was out there. HAWK A skirt just came around the corner. Hawk, Trip, and Lex run back and pile into the last stall. All three stand on the toilet bracing their arms against the walls for balance. A FOXY GIRL hurries into the stall next to theirs. We see the top halves of three heads peek over the stall's partition. The three boys don't make a sound as they watch her sit down. As she glances up, they recoil fast. They whisper super-quiet. HAWK That's Sherry VanHafton. LEX I've been in love with her since the second grade. Then, a SOUND OF TINKLING. They all throw their hands over their mouths to stifle the giggles. Suddenly, POOT! She lets out an ECHOED FART. The boys are awestruck. HAWK Whoa... she just farted. LEX I have never heard a girl squeeze cheese in my entire life. HAWK Weird... Pause. TRIP Peeeyeewww! That stinks! Just then, the SOUND OF CRACKING PORCELAIN, as the toilet they're standing on breaks into pieces with a SMASH. They topple over pulling the stall walls down with them exposing the foxy chick sitting on the can. Water GUSHES everywhere as she screams bloody murder, getting doused ruining her Farrah-do. They bolt out the door slipping and sliding across the torrent of toilet water. Lex turns and shrugs to the traumatized girl. LEX Heh-heh, sorry. He's gone. CALLER 106 / ELVIS ATTACKS INT. MRS. BRUCE'S CAR - DAY Mrs. Bruce uses a finished cigarette to light another. MRS. BRUCE Someday you'll have a son just like you, Jeremiah. A boy who lies through his teeth, buys demonic records, and smokes the dope just like you. JAM (numbly) If I'm anything like you, I'll deserve him. MRS. BRUCE What?! JAM I said, I'm sorry! MRS. BRUCE If you truly are sorry, son, then you better pray like you've never prayed before. God willed me to find those tickets because He wanted to hear from you. He knows you need help and He wants you to ask Him for it. EXT. ST. BERNARD'S - DAY Mrs. Bruce's car turns off the road and drives through an imposing set of wrought iron gates. The sign reads: St. Bernard's Veil of Tears. A School for Catholic Boys. INT. MRS. BRUCE'S CAR - DAY Jam looks at what lies ahead. His face becomes a mask of pure terror. We hear a THUNDER CLAP as Jam puts his hands together and closes his eyes humbling himself. He whispers. JAM Please, God, help. EXT. ST. BERNARD'S - DAY The car winds up the path leading to a dark, Gothic edifice over which tumultuous storm clouds continuously hover. THUNDER BELCHES and bolts of lightning shoot at the blackened crucifixes along the structure. We hear a SCARY ORGAN theme. INT. VOC/TECH DEPT. - DAY Except for the tinkering NOISES that are heard as the STUDENTS work on their projects, there is silence in Electronics Class. The teacher, MR. JOHANSEN, sips from a coffee cup and reads a newspaper, his feet on the desk. The headline says: "Mass Suicide in Jonestown. Cyanide in the Kool-Aid." Above him is a long banner reading: "Sorry, Absolutely no bathroom breaks". Hawk, Trip, and Lex sit before a half-built radio on a work bench, sheer desperation etched on their faces. Lex solders two copper wires together. Hawk attaches a dial. Trip absently plays with a squeeze pump attached to a long plastic tube. He blows air into his face repeatedly with it. TRIP (re:squeeze pump/tube) Wonder if you could smoke shit out of this? HAWK Maybe some tunage'll chase those blues away. Hawk turns the radio on and a HIGH FREQUENCY WHINE pours from its speaker. He adjusts the volume, then the tuner, until a DJ's VOICE comes through crisp and clear. DJ'S VOICE ...and this is Simple Simon on the rock of Detroit, W.A.R.P., home of the biggest KISS giveaway in the history of the universe! Detroit? DETROIT? Hawk, Trip, and Lex react like they've just been hit by phasers on stun. God is intervening. DJ'S VOICE I got four, count 'em, four front row tickets along with four backstage passes to the concert tonight at Cobo Hall and I'm giving them to the 106th caller who can tell me the real names of each KISS band member! HIGH FREQUENCY NOISES again, then the radio loses reception. Hawk exchanges an anxious glance with Trip and Lex. LEX Too bad we're stuck in electronics or... HAWK Never mind with the too bad shit. I got a crazy plan, but only the craziest among us can pull it off. DISSOLVE TO: MOMENTS LATER Mr. Johansen still sits with his feet up, reading. The next page's headline reads: First Test Tube Baby Born. Trip runs up to Mr. J's desk, one hand behind his back, the other on his crotch. His face is drawn in an expression of sheer agony. Hawk and Lex watch anxiously in the background. MR.J Mr. Verudi, get back to your bench. Trip puts one leg over the other always keeping a hand behind his back. TRIP But I gotta take a piss like you would not believe, Mr. Johansen! MR.J Put a clothespin on it till the end of class, Verudi. You know my rule. TRIP But ever since my doctor put me on salt pills, it's been like Niagara Falls every half hour! Please, Mr. J! Have mercy! Suddenly, a wet stain grows across the crotch of Trip's pants. MR.J Salt pills? Don't insult my intelligence, Verudi... Mr. J. stops when he sees the stain starting to spread. TRIP Jeezis, I'm taking a leak in my pants! We now see Trip is squeezing the pump from before. He holds it behind him feeding water into the tube running down the back of his pants. The stain travels fast, hitting Trip's knee in a nanosecond. In a state of shock, Mr. J. slowly opens a long forgotten drawer on his desk, finding a cobweb and dust-covered pad of bathroom passes. He tears one off and dust flies everywhere. He holds the pass out to Trip like it was a cross he was holding before an advancing vampire. MR.J (hoarsely) Get the hell out of here, Verudi! You disgust me! Hawk and Lex observe that Trip has been successful, then do a Three Stooges-style handshake, whispering "Curly!" INT. FRONT OFFICE - DAY The SECRETARY sits at her desk in the reception area filing paperwork. She pauses when she hears RUNNING FOOTSTEPS. Trip charges past, a big, wet stain on his crotch. The secretary notices the pump and tube flopping from the back of his pants as Trip turns a corner. INT. MAIN CORRIDOR - DAY Trip runs up to a pay phone on the wall, pumps every nickel he has into it, puts the phone to his ear and dials. TRIP I need to be connected to the W.A.R.P. contest hotline... Now... lady!... Hello, is this me? I'm Trip. INT. SCHOOL SECURITY OFFICE - DAY A cubby-of-an-office. Cluttered beyond belief. Elvis leans back on his chair against the wall reading a PLOP Magazine. A transistor radio plays W.A.R.P. He bolts at the sound of Trip's name causing his chair to slide out from under him. THWAM! TRIP ON RADIO Am I on the air?... Yeah... Gene Klein, Stanley Eisen, Paul Frehley, and Peter, uh, Criscoula... yeah, that's it! INT. FRONT OFFICE - DAY The secretary hears an ecstatic "YEEEHAAWW" and turns to see Trip wheeling back around the corner, leaping in the air as he runs, YOWLING like a rodeo cowboy. He bounds past her. She watches him and shakes her head. SECRETARY (to herself) Moron. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Still on the floor, Elvis grabs the little radio with rage, flips it off and screams at it. ELVIS Why you little...! Over my dead body! The bell RINGS. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE VOC/TECH ROOM - DAY Students pour into the hall. Hawk and Lex exit the class just as Trip comes zigzagging down the corridor dodging the hordes. All three converge as Trip can't contain his enthusiasm. TRIP I did it! I did it! We won! LEX We won?! HAWK Fuckin' A! Woooooo! The three burnouts jump, scream, HOOT, and play air instruments like loons as if they're the only ones in the hall. They can't stop. The rest of the student body are not amused INT. CAFETERIA - DAY Hawk, Trip, and Lex hold their trays over the counter as the LUNCH LADIES fill them with Salisbury steak, hard dinner rolls and scoops of bluish pudding. Ah, public school nutrition. TRIP (stoked) This is the best thing that ever happened to me at school! Not only are we on again for KISS in Detroit, but we're actually sitting right at the fifty yard line! I dare you dudes to find a curlier scenario. HAWK (double stoked) Stan Lee couldn't think of a better one. LEX The Chinese have a proverb: "That which appears too good to be true, usually is." There's gotta be a catch. TRIP Yeah? I have a saying too, Lex. It goes, "Catch my jizz in your mouth and stop jinxing us, asshole." We're going this time and that's all there is to it. HAWK I'm afraid our constipated little friend is right this time, Trip. There is a catch. Hawk's really got their attention now. TRIP Namely? HAWK Our band "Mystery" is a quartet and we can't go on the road without our drummer. Jam's mom said something about sending him to St. Bernard's, right? We gotta bust him out before we go anywhere. LEX But... but, St. Bernard's is way the hell over in the next county! HAWK So? Your mom's car has a CB, radar detector and cruise control, check? LEX We are not stealing my mom's car. HAWK Damn straight we are. LEX Hawk, all I need is one ding on the Volvo and presto! There are my balls hanging from the rearview mirror after she gets back from Cincinnati. HAWK And when is she due back from that groinecologist's convention anyway? LEX Sunday, but... HAWK Then lighten up. She'll never know we touched it. Alright, here's the plan. We bus it to chez Lex, grab the Volvo, bail Jam the hell outta St. Bernard's and arrive at the train station precisely on time for the 2:45 to Detroit. TRIP Simplicity, Hawk. LEX Simple-icity is more like it. And you guys thought Jam was in trouble before. Wait till Mrs. Bruce finds out he went to that concert with us. HAWK There's only so much trouble an individual can get into till it just doesn't matter anymore, Lex. You familiar with a condition known as Absolute Zero? LEX The hypothetical temperature characterized by the absence of heat and even the slightest amount of molecular activity? Yeah, I'm vaguely familiar HAWK Well, Jam is in absolute trouble. He couldn't get any deeper into shit if he was a fly sitting in a horse's ass. You know as well as me he'd give his right arm just to see Peter Criss's drum solo, never mind a whole KISS concert, check? Lex nods. HAWK Well, the least we, his only buds in the world, can do is take him along with us tonight and give him one last curl before he starts serving his sentence. TRIP Just for the record, I understood the last part of what you said, but for a while there you guys were making no fucking sense whatsoever. HAWK I was just explaining to Lex here what you and I already know. Just had to make it a little more complicated so he'd understand. LEX Very funny, Hawk. Okay, I'm in on this hare-brained scheme, but if anything happens to my mom's car, I'm blaming you. I'll say you drugged me or something. HAWK Curly. Hawk scopes out the cafeteria to make sure the coast is clear. HAWK Ok, dudes, follow my lead. LEX Wait a minute. We ditching the rest of school? TRIP About fuckin' time if you ask me. I'm just going through the motions till I drop out anyway. LEX Hello summer detention. HAWK As I was saying, follow my lead. And maintain. Elvis just showed up. Hawk points across the cafeteria and sure enough Elvis has just entered. Luckily, he hasn't noticed the boys yet. Elvis swaggers to a table of CHEERLEADERS, puts his leg on a chair and starts a one-sided conversation with them. They promptly push their trays away, having lost their appetites. Meanwhile, back at the condiment tray, Hawk and Trip each grab a big handful of ketchup packets and head to a table. Lex reluctantly follows suit grabbing a big handful of ketchup packets too. All three of them put their trays down and sit. HAWK (eyeing Elvis) Five second rule, boys. See you on the other side. Hawk approaches the exit door, glances either way, then leaves. Trip and Lex look at their watches for five seconds. Then Trip heads for the exit door also. Lex still stares at his watch. After five, he looks at Elvis, who stops talking to the cheerleaders. As if possessing some sixth sense, Elvis turns quickly and looks STRAIGHT INTO CAMERA. ELVIS'S POV -- He spots the swinging exit door and an empty table with three full lunch trays sitting on it. ELVIS Excuse me, ladies. Relieved he's gone, the cheerleaders start eating again. Elvis moves through the cafeteria in SLOW MOTION toward the exit door. The hunter in action. INT. HALLWAY - DAY Elvis pushes through the door and into a hall, dead-eye stare focused up ahead where the hallway turns sharply. He catches a glimpse of Lex. Smiling like the devil, Elvis bolts. INT. OTHER HALLWAY - DAY Lex catches up with Hawk and Trip just as Elvis swings around the corner and marauds after them CACKLING maniacally. A mad chase ensues. Down hallways. Around corners. Upstairs. Down ramps. Hawk, Trip, and Lex scramble as fast as they can to escape the clutches of their sideburn-clad nemesis. As the boys pass a classroom, a NERD comes out pushing a projector on an AV cart. Thinking fast, Hawk grabs it out of the nerd's hands and pushes it down the hall at Elvis. NERD Hey, I'm responsible for that! CRASH! Elvis bashes face-first into the rolling cart. He and the projector go tumbling. Not wasting a second, Elvis is back on his feet and after them again. The nerd grabs his hair in horror at the sight of the smashed projector. AROUND A CORNER Elvis SKIDS around the corner and trips on a fire hose stretched across the floor from its glass box to a water fountain pipe. He slides on his belly along the polished floor unable to stop. INT. ENGLISH CLASS - DAY Old MISS HIBBS is lecturing on MOBY DICK. The kids are dozing. MISS HIBBS Then a cry from the crow's nest... "Thar she blows!" Suddenly, a screaming Elvis slides into the open door on his stomach and bowls Miss Hibbs over like a Brunswick. He clamors to his feet and shoots out the room leaving everyone stunned. INT. HALLWAY - DAY Pausing at the corner, Elvis takes a breath and leaps around it. He smiles at what he sees. Up ahead, Hawk, Lex, and Trip stand on a 3-stair stoop, desperately pulling at a locked door. Elvis smiles. They GULP. ELVIS KISS concert? Kiss my ass morelike. A nice, fat detention oughta put a crimp in this evening's plans. Elvis takes his key ring off his belt and begins twirling it. The boys turn and face him. He savors the moment. ELVIS Looking for something, rodents? HAWK Yeah, Elvis... Hawk's brow furrows as he pulls about fifty ketchup packets out of his pocket. Trip and Lex do the same. HAWK ..Your ass on a lunch tray. Elvis laughs and lurches forward -- the boys' cue to drop the ketchup packets at their feet and... HAWK On your marks and... Trip and Lex ready themselves, then... HAWK Fire! They start stomping on the packets, squirting Elvis's face and torso with tomato-based condiment causing him to let out a scream that lasts the rest of the scene. Ketchup spatters across his body in SUPER SLOW MOTION. A shot hits him in the mouth and he COUGHS it back out in mid-scream. The boys stomp relentlessly, mercilessly, blasting their nemesis with hideous cafeteria red as Elvis throws his arms back, body quaking at every splat. It's kind of like the scene in "The Godfather" where Sonny gets it. Beaten and spent, his scream now dried up to a hoarse GASPING, Elvis slips on some ketchup at his feet. He hits the floor with a THUD right in the goop. He lays there letting out DRY SOBS looking like a bunless wiener. Hawk jumps off the stoop. Taking Elvis's key chain away, he hops back up and unlocks the door letting Trip and Lex out. Hawk whips the keys back at Elvis, hitting him in the head, then flashes a pearly Error Flynn smile. HAWK Elvis, you ain't nothin' but a hot dog. Hawk bolts out the door. Elvis tries to get up only to slip in the muck again and fall back down twice as hard. ELVIS Nooooo!! JAILBREAK EXT. STREET IN THE NEXT COUNTY - DAY C/U on the grill of a moving car, Ohio vanity plate reading: Ob-GYN. PULL BACK to reveal it's on a brand spanking-new, brown Volvo 242 DL hauling ass. Hawk drives, Lex rides shotgun, and Trip sits in the back, arms draped over the front seat. EXT. ST. BERNARD'S - DAY The Volvo turns and barrels up St. Bernard's gated entrance. INT. VOLVO - DAY TRIP Well, here we are back at fucking school again. LEX Huh. St. Bernard's. Figures it's named after a canine. Hawk and Trip roll their eyes. INT. ST. BERNARD'S BOARDING SCHOOL - DAY Mrs. Bruce and FATHER McNULTY stand outside his office. The door is open a tad. Jam sits just beyond it, but all we see are his corduroyed legs which shake. Jam is one nervous kid. MRS. BRUCE Again, many thanks and praise to you for seeing Jeremiah on such short notice. Father McNulty has a look of utter compassion on his face. FATHER MCNULTY Anything for a potential tuition... to be given to charity of course. MRS. BRUCE God bless you, Father McNulty. FATHER MCNULTY He already has. They hug. She exits. And the look of utter compassion on Father McNulty's face disappears. INT. FATHER MCNULTY'S OFFICE - DAY The priest enters, SLAMS the door shut, startling Jam, and sits in front of a painting of the Virgin Mary on his wall. The name plate on his desk reads: FR. PHILIP McNULTY. FATHER MCNULTY Before enrolling you, Jeremiah, let me just say it would be greatly appreciated if your career at St. Bernard's was an uneventful one. Some students believe they can get expelled through disobedience and recklessness. What they don't understand is even after God's vengeance is meted out, He forgives. That His devastating anger is followed by His nurturing compassion. In a nutshell, St. Bernard's may punish you even for the slightest digression, but will never cast you out, even for the largest. So here you are, Jeremiah... here to stay! Father McNulty sticks the pencil into an electric pencil sharpener and it makes the same NOISE a DENTIST'S DRILL does when burrowing into a molar. Jam shudders. The Father removes the pencil and blows the shavings away from the needle-sharp tip. FATHER MCNULTY Let's begin the enrollment, shall we? EXT. ST. BERNARD'S - DAY Mrs. Bruce exits the building and approaches her car. She stops when she sees the '78 brown Volvo parked behind her. It's empty. She shrugs and gets into her car, driving off. Inside the Volvo Hawk, Trip, and Lex poke their heads up. The coast is clear so they can sit straight again. They stare up at a second story window where they see part of Jam's profile. LEX Now, how are we gonna do this? HAWK Gimme a second, dudes. Lemme think. They hear an ENGINE and turn to see a delivery truck labelled PIZZA PIG parking behind them. A DELIVERY BOY holding a pizza box steps out. Trip's mouth waters. TRIP (licking his chops) Mmm, pizza... Seeing the boys, the delivery boy stops at the Volvo. DELIVERY BOY Hey, you guys know where... (looks at slip on box) Philip McNutly's office is? Hawk, Trip, and Lex exchange an anxious glance, then Hawk smiles. He is officially inspired as he turns to the boy. HAWK Yeah, I'm Philip McNutly. INT. FATHER MCNULTY'S OFFICE - DAY The Father TAPS his pencil looking impatiently at Jam who has totally withdrawn. He sits motionless staring into space. FATHER MCNULTY Jeremiah, are you aware you need to answer these questions, not just listen to them? Jeremiah? Jam doesn't respond. FATHER MCNULTY Please don't become difficult this early in your stay. I hate disciplining boys before I get to know them. A NUN enters KNOCKING. NUN Forgive me, Father. A young man here with a pizza for you? FATHER MCNULTY Ah, yes! Send him in Sister Conimaria. The nun exits and a second later Hawk enters wearing Lex's baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. FATHER MCNULTY Well, what's the damage, pizza fellow? HAWK Ten even. The priest swivels his chair around and unlocks a box labelled "Donations." While he looks for cash, Hawk gives Jam a discreet kick in the shin. Jam looks up and recognizes Hawk. He then looks out the window seeing Trip, Lex, and the Volvo below. For the first time we see what Jam looks like with a big, fat, shit-eating grin on his face. HAWK (whispering to Jam) If he offers you a slice, you're not the least bit hungry, check? JAM (whispering) Check. Father McNulty swivels back around with a ten. FATHER MCNULTY Here's ten and I'm donating your tip to the church. The Lord thanks you. HAWK Tell the Big Guy not to mention it. Hawk takes the ten, tips the brim of the baseball cap and leaves, giving Jam a cautious wink as he goes. FATHER MCNULTY And not a moment too soon. I'm famished. I hope you brought a lunch for yourself. JAM No, but I'm not hungry anyway. Father McNulty raises his eyebrows, then opens the pizza box. FATHER MCNULTY Well! It finally speaks. There's one barrier we've broken through. Father McNulty smiles, taking a big bite. Jam smiles for an entirely different reason. The priest mumbles with a mouthful. FATHER MCNULTY You know, your coming here reminds me of a gospel called The Prodigal Son. Jam grins a bit feigning interest. FATHER MCNULTY There was once a farmer who had two sons. Both grew up on the farm, helping their father until... (suddenly alarmed) GYYAACK! Father McNulty GAGS sticking his pizza-covered tongue out. He pours himself a glass of wine and sucks it down looking concerned for the moment. Finally, he BELCHES. FATHER MCNULTY That was a very stale mushroom. (beat) Where was I?... Ah, yes, one day the elder son decided to leave the farm... INT. VOLVO - DAY Hawk, Trip, and Lex look up at Father McNulty's window. TRIP Usually takes anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour. They look at their watches, then back at the window. HAWK Shit! This is such a lousy view. How the hell are we gonna know when he's lit? Just then, INSANE LAUGHTER bellows from the window above. TRIP He's lit. INT. FATHER MCNULTY'S OFFICE - DAY The Father has undergone a metamorphosis. He's redder than a boiling lobster, his eyes bulge and he's laughing the deepest laugh a man can without risking psychological evaluation. Jam watches fascinated as the priest tries to finish the story. It's not every day you see a holy man tripping on shrooms. FATHER MCNULTY (in mid-guffaw) So then, the younger one says, "But dad... I've been helping you on the farm my entire life! (belly laugh) You never once slaughtered the fatted calf for me!" And then... (more belly laughter) Forgive me, Jeremiah, it's just that... I've been telling this gospel for years and... I just now realized it's the work of some comedy mastermind! The Prodigal Son is a barrel of fucking monkeys! Father McNulty belly laughs so hard this time, he slides off his chair hitting his chin on the edge of his desk. He is in pain only momentarily, then laughs again, this time at his own pratfall. He hoists himself back into his chair. Hawk, Trip, and Lex suddenly barge into the office, followed by the outraged nun. NUN You kids can't go in there! HAWK It's okay, we're old buds of Father McNulty... How's it hangin', padre? FATHER MCNULTY A little to the right, pizza fellow. Father McNulty laughs some more. HAWK That was another dude. Anyway, we're here to take our bud Jam to the big satanic KISS concert tonight. Okay with you? FATHER MCNULTY (waving) Rock on! Jam gets up and all four boys exit. FATHER MCNULTY (yelling after them) Give my regards to the guy with the really big tongue! The nun looks at the priest, deep concern in her eyes. FATHER MCNULTY What the hell are you doing, Sister Gonorrhea, waiting for a bus? He lets out a belly laugh as the shocked nun runs from the office. Father McNulty laughs even louder at her behavior, POUNDING his fists on the desk, tears rolling down his cheeks, until... He suddenly glimpses at the painting of the Virgin Mary and abruptly stops laughing. What appears to be extreme contrition washes over his face as he moves closer to the painting. FATHER MCNULTY Jesus H. Christ, look at all the colors. GUIDOS INT. VOLVO - DAY Hawk drives, Trip rides shotgun, Lex and Jam sit in the back. Stoked beyond belief, Jam POUNDS his drumsticks on the upholstery to the beat of a rockin' KISS tune playing on the 8-track. JAM Oh, man, my mom is gonna send me to Alcatraz for this and I don't even care! I'm gonna see Peter Criss's drum solo! Lex taps Jam on the shoulder. LEX Not looking like that, Mr. Rogers. Lex hands him a paper bag with jeans and a tee-shirt in it. LEX We got you a change of duds when we picked up the car. HAWK Next stop: the 2:45 to Detroit Rock City! The boys do their Three Stooges handshake and say "Curly!" Jam starts to change. Just then, the Volvo passes a two-tone Chevy Impala with luggage tied to the roof. The passenger in the back seat turns and spots Jam pulling off his pants. It's Beth. Her eyes bulge. Beth parents are in the front. Jam spots her and beams. Their eyes lock. She waves and starts to yell something, when... suddenly... BANG! The boys look out the driver's side of the car to see the rear hubcap rolling away. They've got a flat. LEX (screams) My mom's hubcap! The car fishtails and weaves but Hawk manages to pull over. The Chevy continues on, Beth gazing out the rear window sadly. HAWK Shit! (looks at car clock) Anybody know how long it takes to fix a flat? EXT. LOCAL TRAIN STOP - DAY ANGLE ON a status report. The 2:45 is now leaving. We see is Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam running alongside a train as it picks up speed by the second. They YELL for it to stop, but it's hopeless. The train is gone. So much for the 2:45. INT. VOLVO - DAY Lex looks at the speedometer. Hawk's got it up to ninety- five. LEX Jeezis, Hawk, can you at least keep it within twenty miles of the speed limit? HAWK Lex, am I gonna have to lock you in the trunk till we reach Detroit? Don't worry, these babies are built for speed. Trip holds his stomach as we hear it GROWL. TRIP I'm starvin' and it's way past lunchtime. HAWK Totally. All I've had for chow was a packet of Pop Rocks and a Yoo-hoo. Trip spots a sign on the side of the road: Next Exit, Sandusky. TRIP Let's stop in Sandusky, Hawk. HAWK What's in Sandusky? TRIP Pizza, and I been jones-in' for a pizza ever since we left St. Bernard's. DISSOLVE TO: MOMENTS LATER INT. VOLVO - DAY The boys chomp on their pizza slices and chug cans of Hawaiian Punch. Another raucous KISS tune BLARES. Behind them, a car horn starts HONKING rhythmically. Hawk looks into the rearview mirror and sees two guys and two girls in a tailgating Trans Am. The guys have 90 M.P.H. haircuts, tacky, wide-collared shirts, and massive amounts of jewelry on their necks. The girls wear 10-layer make-up, mega-jewelry, and hair teased so high, it touches the car's roof. HAWK Only a car full of guidos and stellas would ride someone's ass on a two- lane road and beep. INT. TRANS AM - DAY The speakers BLAST a DISCO SONG to which the four passengers sing. KENNY, the driver, HONKS to the disco beat. They're slightly older than our heroes and very full of themselves. Kenny and his best girl CHRISTINE sit in the front. BOBBY and BARBARA are in the back. It's a double disco date. INT. VOLVO - DAY Trip lifts a rubbery slice of pizza to his mouth and the top layer slides off PLOPPING into his lap. TRIP Eyowch! This is one hot pizza! LEX Trip, huck that out before it stains the upholstery! Trip grabs the wad of goop and throws it out the window. EXT. TRANS AM - DAY Just as the DISCO TUNE playing in the Trans Am hits the next chorus, a fistful of pizza SPLATTERS across the windshield. Freaked, Kenny swerves and zigzags all over the road. Righting himself, Kenny's entire family might as well have been insulted. KENNY Stop singing... NOW! He turns off the stereo and floors the accelerator, swerving into the left lane and passing the Volvo. Bobby is just now noticing the mess on the windshield. He starts to laugh. BOBBY Hey, Kenny, look! There's a hunk of fawkin' cheese on your windsheel! INT. VOLVO - DAY Lex is looking at the mess on the Trans Am's windshield and the anger in the eyes of its passengers. LEX Holy shit! We just pissed off the Incredible Hulk, his idiot half brother and two circus clowns. The Trans Am runs alongside the Volvo and Hawk turns to see Kenny pointing to the breakdown lane. KENNY Stop the friggin' car NOW! Hawk rolls up his window. Kenny yells, VOICE MUFFLED, and points to Hawk who pays absolutely no attention whatsoever. JAM Don't you think we should at least pull over and offer to clean it off? HAWK What?! Are you mentally deranged, Jam? Just then, SLAM, the Trans Am bangs up against the side of the Volvo pushing it onto the shoulder. HAWK What the fuck! LEX (freaking out) The paint! EXT. FREEWAY - DAY The Trans Am muscles the Volvo into the breakdown lane. Parking the ass end of the Pontiac out a bit, Kenny blocks the Volvo in. Kenny and Bobby climb from their car and storm over to the boys. Hawk opens his door just as Kenny's hairy-knuckled hands pull him out through the window. He grabs Trip, yanking him out too. Bobby opens the back door and does the same with Lex and Jam. With a kid in each hand now, Kenny and Bobby SLAM the four boys against the Volvo in a line. The size difference between the burnouts and the guidos is painfully obvious now. Kenny and Bobby are Neanderthals. KENNY Do you realize the sheer, goddamn, unadulterated, undiluted, no holds barred, one hundred percent pure as Ivory Snow, absolutely friggin' STUPIDITY of what you just did? HAWK Hey, disco dude, it's cool... Kenny hauls back and SLAPS the row of boys in the faces Three Stooges-style... WHACKWHACKWHACKWHACK! KENNY DO YOU?! Trip, Lex, and Jam clutch their faces in pain. Hawk looks merely disenchanted as Kenny pokes a muscle-bound finger at his chest. Getting in Hawk's face, Kenny yammers loud and fast. KENNY Lemme paint you a friggin' picture ahright? Imagine if you will a 1978 Pontiac Trans American in pristine condition. (beat) An appealing portrait, nesspah? Hawk starts to say "yes." KENNY BUT WAIT! What's that spec on the windshield? Could it be a wad of melted mozzarella, tangy tomato sauce, and various friggin' meat products? Hawk is unimpressed. HAWK Could be. KENNY And if it ain't cleaned off? CHRISTINE Kenny, come on with the macho crap already. Like this kid could take you in a fight anyway. KENNY (ignoring Christine) Answer me, hippie girl. And if the mess ain't cleaned off my car? HAWK It could... bake on? Kenny looks at Bobby and they exchange moronic grins. KENNY You're a smart little homo, aren't you, hippie girl? But, while astounded at your nimble, friggin' insight, I still detect an issue hanging fire, namely: where does a sharp-witted faggot like yourself get off doing such a dopey thing like that there? Hawk figured out that any answer he gives will be incorrect and has decided to wait till Kenny's done. KENNY No really, I'm perplexed. I mean, could you have done stupider if you were born without a FUCKIN' HEAD?! CHRISTINE (using "oh" to mean "enough") Oh! With the language! KENNY Shut-up, Christine! Christine snarls at Kenny. HAWK Okay, Kenny? I don't mean to drain your keg or anything, but could you speed up this process? (beat) Don't get me wrong, we'd love to stand here and get shit on by the cast of Saturday Night Fever, but we're also on a schedule. So step on it. Cold silence as Kenny replays Hawk's insult over in his head. KENNY Are you gettin' wise with me? HAWK No, I'm dumber than a goddamn slug. Now can I please clean your windshield and leave without further ado? BOBBY Break his fawkin' legs, Kenny! Kenny's temper's rising faster than the price of gasoline. Hawk on the other hand is cooler than an Otter Pop. KENNY Oh, you're dumb all right, you hairy ass punk. But please, allow me to clean the friggin' windshield. I insist. And with that, Kenny grabs himself a fistful of Hawk's long hair and pulls him over to the Trans Am. He wipes the pizza off with Hawk's hair, tugging Hawk's head up and down, back and forth. Hawk GRUNTS with each wipe, but doesn't give Kenny the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Trip, Lex, and Jam watch helplessly, trapped under Bobby's dull-witted, but equally threatening gaze. Kenny gets the last of the big chunks off his windshield and looks at his handiwork. KENNY There. Nice and clean. He throws Hawk to the ground and smiles at Bobby. Then, he suddenly hears the KISS tune coming from the Volvo. Uh-oh! KENNY Oh, no, no, no! It's the fag band! Kenny clenches his jaws and walks up to the Volvo, reaching in the driver's door. Suddenly Jam grabs his wrist. JAM Whoa! This is about pizza! Let's leave KISS out of it. Please. KENNY A bunch of guys who make bad music, dress like freaks, and wear more make-up than all my sisters combined? These assholes must be stopped! Kenny pushes Jam away. CHRISTINE That's it, Kenny! I'm leaving! Christine gets out of the car and starts walking down the highway, exiting the scene. BARBARA Oh, Christine! You googatz in the head or something? We're on the side of the freakin' highway! BOBBY Let her go, Barbara, she'll come back to Kenny. She always does... (to Kenny) Right, Kenny? Kenny meanwhile has his arm in the Volvo. KENNY Kool and the Gang, now there's real music. Kenny takes the 8-track from the car... KENNY But this... is crap! He flings it into the highway, where it is summarily smashed to bits under the wheels of a passing semi. FOLLOW a chunk of cartridge and a strand of mangled tape streaming from it as it sails back toward the side of the road, landing at Jam's feet. TILT UP to Jam's face. He raises his eyes and turns to the CAMERA, a single tear rolling down his cheek, just like the Indian in that "Keep America Beautiful" litter ad. Hawk rises and Kenny comes face-to-face with him. KENNY So. All that having been said and done, I believe we are ready for the final topic of discussion. Namely: Have you learned your lesson yet, puke? Hawk pulls a cigarette from his pocket and lights it. He blows some smoke in Kenny's face. HAWK Well, let's recap, shall we? You slapped all of us, yelled at me, used my head for a rag, threw me on the ground and tossed our LOVE GUN 8- track under the wheels of a passing semi. (puffing on cig) So, if the lesson was that you're a dick with ears and a really bad haircut, then, yes... I'd say we learned it. KENNY (beat, in disbelief) Excuse me, I'm a little deef-a- hearin'. Can you repeat yourself? HAWK Okay. Ahem! You. Are. A. Dick. With. Ears. And. A. Really. Bad. Haircut. KENNY Oh, yeah...? Out of original material, Kenny goes for an old stand by. KENNY That's not what your mother said last night. Trip, Lex, and Jam exchange "uh-oh" glances. Meanwhile, Hawk's eyes glaze over. HAWK It's not, huh? Well, then, tell me... Hawk reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his mostly empty can of Hawaiian Punch, holding it discreetly at his side. HAWK ...what exactly did my mother say last night? Kenny draws a blank, not being prepared for this one. HAWK You heard me, prick. What did my mother say last night? Kenny chuckles and looks at Bobby. They have a good little laugh... the homo's got balls! Then Kenny turns back to Hawk. KENNY Okay, fagmo... I'll tell you what your mother said last night. (beat) She said that I was the fuck of her life. Hawk is a little mad now. He tosses his cigarette to the ground and squashes it like a bug under his sneaker. HAWK (very Clint Eastwood) How would you like a nice Hawaiian Punch? KENNY (smirking) Sure. Quick as a shot, Hawk SLAMS the bottom of the can into Kenny's nose, crushing it flat against his face. Hawaiian backwash spews from its tab hole like blood as Kenny falls backwards from the impact. He hits his head on the ground. Taking this as a cue... Trip whips out his wallet on a chain... Lex rips off his KISS belt... And Jam yanks out his drumsticks. As if choreographed, Trip swoops the wallet at Bobby's feet, snagging him around the ankles tightly with the chain. Lex THWAMS Bobby in the face with his big KISS belt buckle leaving a reversed, red, KISS logo branded in his forehead. Trip yanks the chain pulling Bobby off his feet. When he hits the ground, Jam's right there DRUMMING his balls. Bobby shrieks. Meanwhile, Hawk advances on Kenny who tries to get the can off his face, but it's stuck on looking like a pig's nose with fruit punch for snot. Hawk raises both his hands in Kenny's face, then executes the final insult... Hawk messes Kenny's hair. Kenny lets out a scream that comes from the bottom of his vanity. Hawk grabs Kenny by the ears and brings the guido's head swiftly against his kneecap. Kenny falls to the ground, unconscious on top of Bobby. Their heads collide knocking Bobby out cold. Terrified, Barbara leaps from the Trans Am and is cornered. LEX Not so fast, stella. DISSOLVE TO: MOMENTS LATER Kenny, Bobby, and Barbara are now tied to the guardrail with Jam's white corduroy pants, geeky belt, and plaid shirt. Kenny and Bobby rest their unconscious heads on each of Barbara's shoulders. Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam look down at the two guidos and the stella, snickering. BARBARA When they wake up, they're gonna come looking for you jerks. You best hope they don't find you, cause if they do, they're gonna kick your asses. Hawk grabs a cinderblock off the side of the road, walking up to the Trans Am. HAWK Right, stella, and we'll deserve it. But let's really make it worth their while. Hawk puts the rock on the Trans Am's accelerator letting the engine WHINE in protest. (Again we are cautious not to show the guidos' faces.) HAWK By the way, when Kenny wakes up could you give him a message for me. Tell him, quote, Kool and the gang bite my bag, motherfucker, unquote. He throws the Trans Am into drive. All who are conscience listen to the brief SCREECH, then watch the Trans Am as it barrels without a driver into the woods skirting the highway. It races into ditches, bounces off trees, and SPLASHES through ponds, all Smokey and the Bandit-like. The disco-mobile ramps off the edge of an embankment, tumbles down a steep, rocky incline breaking apart along the way, and finally, BOOM! It explodes on final impact. The boys all look at each other and shrug. Hawk walks back to the Volvo and gets in. Trip, Lex, and Jam follow suit and pile in as well. Lex shouts back to Barbara. LEX Oh, thanks for letting us draw from your ample make-up supply. You must have the entire Revlon factory in your purse! ANGLE ON KENNY, BOBBY, AND BARBARA. We now see them from the front. Lo-and-behold, Kenny has been made-up like Gene Simmons, Bobby like Paul Stanley. Whoever finds them is gonna get the wrong idea about their musical taste... and kick their asses all over again. BARBARA Very funny. I hope you choke! STELLA ON BOARD INT. VOLVO - DAY Hawk starts the engine and takes off. Trip pulls a baggie of weed and some rolling papers out. JAM Hey, look, it's that girl. Jam points out at the road ahead to Christine. She's a few hundred feet away walking sadly in the breakdown lane. TRIP That's no girl. That's a stella. JAM Stella or no stella, we should pull over and help her out. HAWK Oh no, Jam. I'm not falling for that twice. JAM Well, couldn't you slow down so I can at least state my case, Hawk? If you don't like it, you can speed up and I'll never mention it again. Hawk slows down, turning into the breakdown lane, travelling about two miles per hour. Christine doesn't notice as they edge closer to her. LEX What is it with you, Jam? You got a thing for that... thing? JAM She's a teenage girl walking on the side of the highway. They make very scary movies that start out like that. HAWK Well, they may not make movies about four dudes going to a KISS concert. But if they ever did, the four dudes most certainly would not stop and pick up a stranded disco bunny. Pause. TRIP Unless there was gonna be a scene where the disco bunny blows the four dudes on the way to the show. INT. VOLVO - DAY Christine sits between Jam and Lex in the back SNAPPING gum. Jam and Lex stare at her like cats looking at a fish bowl. Hawk looks in the rearview mirror at Christine checking herself in a compact. She swathes on some 7-Up flavored, Bonnie Bell lip gloss. Trip meanwhile twirls the joint he's just finished rolling in his mouth, sealing it. He winks at her disgustingly. CHRISTINE Oh, great. I just hitched a ride with a bunch of potheads... I'm hooking up with some people at this funky place in downtown Detroit called Disco Inferno. Mind droppin' me there? TRIP (smirks) What's it worth to you? CHRISTINE (grossed out) What the hell is that supposed to mean? JAM It doesn't mean anything. Don't pay attention to him. HAWK (rolls his eyes) Disco Inferno? Disco's infernal morelike. Trying to be suave, Lex moves in close, putting the make on her. LEX Your clothes may say disco, but your eyes say rock 'n' roll, baby. CHRISTINE Well, your tee-shirt may say rock 'n' roll, but your breath says pepperoni, baby. She pushes him away. Jam laughs. TRIP (frustrated) So, are you, like, gonna polish our nobs, or what? CHRISTINE (thoroughly offended) What? That's disgusting! JAM Trip! That's so fuckin' rude, man. TRIP Oh, quit bein' the wussy, sensitive guy to impress her, Jam. She's obviously not gonna put out. She's a fuckin' tease. CHRISTINE Tease? What the hell did I do to tease you mongoloids? TRIP You got in the car, didn't you? CHRISTINE Oh, God, how calculating of me to lead you all on like that after you offered me a ride in the middle of nowhere. TRIP Whatever... stella. Trip lights the joint and takes a lungful of pot. He passes it to Lex and the joint begins to make its rounds with the exception of Christine. The car starts to fill with smoke. CHRISTINE The name's Christine, not stella. And there's no need to be such pigs just cause I prefer Donna Summer or KC and the Sunshine Boys or the Village People over KISS? HAWK (with disdain) The Village People? They're fags! You're a fag hag! JAM Come on, Hawk. CHRISTINE I can take care of myself, but thanks anyway, germ. JAM Jam. CHRISTINE Whatever. (to Hawk) Okay, Joe Burnout, let's get one thing straight here. As far as I'm concerned good tunes is good tunes, be it disco or rock or polka or whatever have you, regardless of the category. True, if I had to choose, I'd pick the category labelled disco because I happen to enjoy dancing. Disco is just easier to dance to. HAWK You call that John Travolta/Denny Terio shit dancing? I wouldn't dance like that in private if you paid me. TRIP Disco blows dogs for quarters. Christine processes this remark. CHRISTINE Now there's an intelligently biting remark wrought with wit and irony. Trip looks confused, then smiles thinking she paid him a compliment. HAWK Hey, if you don't like that one, maybe you'll think it's funny when we throw your ass out the goddamn car! CHRISTINE Yeah, why don't you put your money where your mouth is? HAWK Why don't you kiss my hairy crack? CHRISTINE Why don't you bend over, you're looking right at it! All, Christine included, pause to think about what that comment was supposed to mean. Lex takes a hit off the joint. LEX (holding in smoke) That last remark fell about 30 yards away from making any sense whatsoever. Hawk and Trip immediately bust into the giggles and it doesn't take long for Lex and Jam to follow suit. CHRISTINE (realization) Hey, you're right. "Bend over you're looking right at it?!" (starts to laugh) What's that supposed to mean anyway? Christine succumbs to the contagious giggle epidemic and the whole car gets a great laugh for a while. They finally calm down again and wipe tears from their eyes. Lex still has the joint now as Christine looks at it. CHRISTINE Man, this is some kickass shit! (beat) Gimme a hit off that jay will ya? Lex smiles despite himself and holds the weed out to her as we... DISSOLVE TO: HELLO DETROIT, GOODBYE TICKETS! MONTAGE The Volvo passing a big sign that says: "Welcome to Michigan, the Great Lakes State." The Volvo racing toward the Detroit skyline. Detroit landmarks: The General Motors Building, the Ford Building, Motown Records, and finally... COBO HALL, where thousands of fans in KISS tees gather, waiting for its doors to open. Unbelievable traffic stretches to an intersection at which stand four key landmarks... a cathedral, a convenience store, a parking lot, and a male strip joint. They face one another, each on its own corner. A gigantic sign on the auditorium's facade flashes the commandment, "YOU GOTTA LOSE YOUR MIND IN DETROIT ROCK CITY" over and over again. EXT. COBO HALL - SUNSET The sun hangs low on this day as the Volvo sits in traffic, passing Cobo Hall. Movement is nearly impossible. KISS FANS cram every square foot of open macadam, pushing through the jammed cars. STREET VENDORS hawk KISS souvenirs from tee-shirts to pennants. Some are in stands along the sidewalk. Others come right up to car windows. INT. VOLVO - SUNSET Christine is fast asleep between Jam and Lex. LEX Man, that weed knocked Christine on her ass. She's sleeping like a baby stella. TRIP (whispers lustfully) Let's lift up her shirt. HAWK (pointing out windshield) There it is! All look ahead. COBO Hall. A HALO GLOW forms around the building accompanied by a CHOIR OF ANGELS. JAM (in reverence) We made it! LEX Curly driving, Hawk. We still got two hours to spare. HAWK Ample time to grab our tickets at the station. See, up ahead. W.A.R.P. One block on the left is the W.A.R.P. tower. HAWK Hey, Look at the front entrance! A car's pulling out. The parking space from heaven. God is surely smiling down upon us tonight, dudes. JAM Kind of funny, I thought He'd be pissed as hell at me. The opening to the Carpenters' "TOP OF THE WORLD" begins. INT. W.A.R.P. TOWER ELEVATOR - NIGHT "TOP OF THE WORLD" continues, playing through the speaker of the ascending elevator inside which Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam stand. They watch the numbers climb, smiling. HAWK What was that D.J.'s name again? TRIP Oh, I'll remember it till the day I die. His name was... Simpleton the Simian? No, Samson Samoan... No, simply, similar... INT. SIMPLE SIMON'S OFFICE - NIGHT Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam poke their heads around the corner of an office doorway totem pole-style. HAWK Simple Simon? SIMPLE SIMON strikes a pose before a full-length mirror in a glittery-back Gene Simmons tee-shirt, silver pants, and very high heel boots. He has a huge Afro and bushy moustache. He turns when he hears Hawk. SIMPLE SIMON The one and only. But can you kids hurry this up? I'm due at Coco Hall in half an hour for the warm-up. They all enter and stand at Simple Simon's desk. HAWK We're right behind you, Simo. Just wanted to thank you in advance for handing over those burly-ass tix me and my buds won this morning. The boys do a Three Stooges handshake and say "Curly!" Simple Simon on the other hand suddenly appears nonplussed SIMPLE SIMON Your name isn't Trip is it? INT. PRODUCER'S BOOTH - NIGHT Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam sit in the tiny producer's booth with Simon who fast forwards a reel-to-reel tape through some very loud, high-speed conversation and bits of music. Looking at the footage counter on the tape player, he slows down at a certain point and lets the boys listen to this: The CLICK of a phone being answered. SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE Simple Simon on the Rock, go caller. TRIP'S VOICE Hello? Is this me? I'm Trip. Am I on the air? SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE I should hang up on you right now, but you're the right caller so answer quick or get your battleship sunk. What are the names of the four members of KISS? TRIP'S VOICE Gene Klein, Stanley Eisen, Paul Frehley, and Peter...Criscula! Yeah, that's it! Pause. SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE Is that your final answer? TRIP'S VOICE (with trepidation) Yeah. SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE (building to crescendo) Trip? You just got yourself four tickets and four backstage passes to KISS live at Cobo Hall tonight! Pause. TRIP'S VOICE I did? SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE Yeah, you did! TRIP'S VOICE Yeeeehaaawww!! This is totally fuckin' curly, man! Thank you God! CLI-CLICK. SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE Whoa, easy, Trip, this is radio, not "Taxi Driver." Now listen up cause this next part is crucial. Stay on the line so we can get your full name, information, and... DIAL TONE. SIMPLE SIMON'S VOICE Trip? Trip? Oh, man, you didn't hang up on me did you? Trip? (beat) What kind of total moron would hang...? Simple Simon stops the tape and looks at the boys who look like they've just been served a life sentence behind bars. SIMPLE SIMON Well, there you have it. We had no choice but to give the tickets to the next caller. I'm sorry. Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam stare at the floor in silence. SIMPLE SIMON We got sodas in the fridge if that helps any. INT. W.A.R.P. TOWER ELEVATOR - NIGHT Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam ride back down the elevator sipping NeHi sodas, watching the floor numbers get lower and lower. Terry Jack's immortal hit "SEASONS IN THE SUN" plays over the elevator speaker. HAWK Well, here we are, dudes. One hour and thirty minutes away from the concert of the century... ticketless. All thanks to Wile E. Coyote, Super- Fucking Genius over here. Trip looks away from the rest, ashamed. LEX Really, Trip, can we bore holes in your head and use it as a bong so it actually does us some good for a change? TRIP Fuck you, Lex! This whole thing wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for you jinxing us. I just made an honest mistake. HAWK Oh, I'm sorry, Trip. What you made was a big, brainless, pile of horse shit. No offense. JAM Guys, GUYS! Come on, if this is anyone's fault, it's mine. I was the one who grabbed Trip's jacket by mistake. It's my fault and I apologize. HAWK Please, Jam, we're trying to vent some hostility here. Sure the whole thing may be your fault, but who's gonna get pissed off at you? Jam looks at his feet. JAM Sometimes I think I don't deserve friends as good as you guys. Hawk, Trip, and Lex cringe. HAWK I have one question. How could a kid who wails on the drums like it's the only thing keeping him alive even think of such a femmy thing to say? TRIP Really, Jam, you tryin' to make us barf? LEX Yeah, it's like you're possessed by The Flying Nun, or something. The doors to the elevator open and the boys step out. SHAKE YOUR WEEWEE! EXT. W.A.R.P. TOWER - NIGHT COBO Hall looms up ahead. Hawk, Trip, Lex, and Jam enter the sidewalk. A thickening CROWD of KISS fans continually meander by. On their way to the car, they suddenly hear a WOMAN'S VOICE bellowing through a megaphone from somewhere down the street. After a moment they see the voice's source. A GROUP OF WOMEN has congregated about forty feet ahead and their LEADER, her back toward the boys, yells to the group through her bullhorn. Flying above them all is a large banner reading: "MATMOK, Mothers Against The Music Of KISS." LEADER Welcome to the first open meeting of MATMOK, Mothers Against The Music Of KISS!" The group cheers as the KISS FANS milling around them pretty much ignore the whole MATMOK spectacle. Lex looks away from the MATMOKS and into the street. We can't see what he sees, but we can tell he's alarmed. LEX Uh... dudes? HAWK (ignoring Lex) Now there's a woman who totally abuses the privilege of motherhood. LEX DUDES! They all look at Lex. LEX (eyes focused ahead) Where's the Volvo? Hawk, Trip, and Jam look at their parking spot to see a beat- up Dodge Dart sitting there instead of the Volvo. TRIP It's gone. LEX I can see that, bright boy. What happened to it? JAM It was stolen! HAWK (incredulous) Christine stole it! Asleep, my ass! The stella booted with your mom's wheels. LEX But we took the keys? TRIP Damn, she musta hot wired it. We picked up a professional car thief in the shape of Olivia Newton-John! LEX Okay, I'm just a little mad now! Jam, why'd you talk us into picking that bitch up in the first place!? JAM I'm sorry, guys. I thought it was a nice thing to do. HAWK Jam, not another word out of your femmy-ass mouth! Okay, we're here, we got nothing, and we got an hour and a half. We're totally committed. It's time to brainstorm. LEX Here's a suggestion. Let's stop worrying about the concert for the time being and get the cops in on this Volvo situation. HAWK Wake up, Lex. This is Detroit. The cops aren't gonna waste city dollars looking for a Swedish car. Face it, the Volvo's on a cutting board as we speak getting sliced, diced, and julienned by Christine, the chop shop gourmet. Lex is developing a look of resolve. This is Detroit! HAWK Now listen up. Here's the game plan. LEX (on a roll) ...I mean, my mom's got insurance. What's the worst thing she could do? Ground me for the entire year? I can handle that... HAWK Cool, bro, now listen up... LEX ...Holy shit! I am in absolute trouble! I never should have let you drive, man! Absolute fuckin' trouble! HAWK Okay, shut the fuck up, Lex! Now, then, step number one, we find us a scalper. I got... (takes out KISS money clip) twenty-five. TRIP Twenty-five more'n I got. LEX All I got is five. The rest is in the Volvo. JAM I got... HAWK Uh-uh. Don't tell us, Jam. Just show us. Jam holds up a ten keeping his mouth shut. HAWK So maybe we got enough for one ticket. Fuck! TRIP Waitaminit, dudes! I got it! We find four really small kids, beat the shit outta them and steal their tickets. What do you think? HAWK (sarcastic) Brilliance, Trip. Sheer brilliance. Give Albert Einstein here the Nobel Prize. Trip smiles proudly. LEX I think we should try sneaking in. HAWK Four dudes sneaking in? We'd get busted fer sure. Bad plan. LEX Okay, one of us sneaks in, gets four ticket stubs off some kids in the audience, comes back out, and we all "re-enter" the concerto. Voila! HAWK Still too risky for my money. (looking at watch) We're running out of time here. This is KISS! A victory for one is a victory for the team. I'm sure I can barter with a scalper, but if you dudes think you got better plans, go for it. We'll reconvene at that intersection... Hawk points to the intersection where the church, the male strip joint, the parking lot, and the Smiley Mart are located. HAWK ...at twenty-thirty hours. TRIP One more time in English. HAWK For the next hour and a half it's every dude for himself. Try to get at least one ticket and at 8:30 P.M. we'll meet over there. JAM (inspired) Wait! I know how we can get in! HAWK Jam, shut-up! You're not allowed to speak, remember? Go use whatever femmy idea you have to get yourself a ticket or four. I don't wanna hear it. JAM (sadly) But... my plan involves all four of us acting together. HAWK See you at 8:30, Jam. Later. (to Lex and Trip) Dudes? Later. Hawk, Trip, and Lex split up, leaving Jam alone. He starts walking in the opposite direction, passing MATMOKS. The leader is still on a roll, yelling through the megaphone. LEADER Look around you tonight, mothers! Look at all the young faces! They smile and laugh but their eyes have lost all hope! Not one among them appears to possess the love and fear of God... This satanic group KISS has stolen their souls. The leader's gaze finally falls upon Jam. He lets out a GASP. Yes, the leader is Mrs. Bruce. So this was her church meeting. She freezes when she sees her son; her jaw slackens. Meanwhile Jam looks stunned beyond comprehension. JAM Oh... dear... Lord!! Mrs. Bruce quickly hands the megaphone to another MATMOK member, who picks up where Mrs. Bruce left off. Jam looks around for someplace to run and hide, but it's too late. Mrs. Bruce slices through the crowd of KISS fans and grabs Jam by the ear. He yelps. MRS. BRUCE I don't know how you got here tonight and I don't want to know either. All I know is you're going to pay dearly for this one, young man! EXT. ST., SEBASTIAN'S CATHEDRAL - NIGHT Mrs. Bruce tugs Jam toward the intersection we saw before. They cross the street toward the corner where the Cathedral sits. Jam looks up at the cross on the steeple and GULPS with trepidation. JAM Mom, what're we...? MRS. BRUCE Just keep your lying, heathenous trap shut, Jeremiah. They climb the steps to the cathedral passing a bulletin board reading: Thank God It's Friday Mass, 6PM-7PM. PARISHIONERS exit the beautiful church, shaking hands with a PRIEST as they leave. PARISHIONERS What a wonderful mass, Father/So inspirational, Father/Thank you. PRIEST Thank you/Come again next week. Mrs. Bruce pulls Jam up to the priest. PRIEST Next mass is tomorrow morning, sister. MRS. BRUCE Can we talk, Father? I'm desperate. My son was about to defy God by going to that blasphemous KISS concert. PRIEST In that case, come right in. Meanwhile, across the street... EXT. WHITE CASTLE HAMBURGER JOINT - NIGHT Parked in front of the busy fast-food establishment we recognize the two-toned Chevy Impala with luggage tied on top. In the window we see Beth and her parents sitting at one of the booths. Out the window Beth looks across the street just as Jam, Mrs. Bruce, and the priest enter the cathedral. Her face drops. BETH Oh my God! That's Jeremiah! DAD Who? BETH Jeremiah Bruce from school. He and his mom just went into that church. He must be in Detroit for the concert. Can I go say good-bye to him? MOM Beth, I am not letting you wander the streets of Detroit after dark. BETH I'm not going to wander. I'm just gonna go over there. Beth points to St. Sebastian's. BETH He's with his mom. DAD Fine, as long as we know where you are. But don't be long. We need to be getting back on the road. Beth is already out the door and halfway across the street. Dad pats mom's shoulder. DAD She's probably got a little crush on that boy. EXT. ST. SEBASTIAN'S CATHEDRAL - NIGHT Beth runs up to the cathedral and sneaks in. EXT. IT'S RAINING MEN STRIP JOINT - NIGHT Hawk walks down the sidewalk badgering everyone passing by for a ticket, getting the same stock answer: "Suffer, dude!" He stops and sits on a curb, lighting a cigarette. Behind him stands the marquee for IT'S RAINING MEN, the male strip joint. A DISCO SONG comes from inside. Just when it looks like Hawk's given up, a VOICE is heard above. VOICE Hey, chief? Need a ticket? Hawk can't believe his ears. He looks up at a greasy-looking hybrid, part porn star, part used car salesman, the SCALPER. SCALPER Second row center, seventy-five clams. Trying to act confident, Hawk takes out his money clip showing the scalper twenty-five dollars. HAWK Dude, this is all I got. SCALPER Sorry, man, no can do. But I'll be here for a while if you scare up the extra gravy. HAWK Where the hell am I gonna scare up that kinda gravy in one hour? SCALPER The easy way. The scalper points over his shoulder and Hawk turns to see three GIGGLING WOMEN exiting the strip joint. None are under forty. A sign below the bar's logo reads: Amateur Night Giveaway! Guys Over 18 Only! Bare It All And Win 75 Bucks! SCALPER You look a little scrawny, but it's worth a shot. HAWK I can't just walk in and take my clothes off. It's embarrasskin. SCALPER Guess you don't want to see the greatest show on earth. And in Detroit no less. Well, take care, chief. The scalper turns and Hawk grabs his arm. HAWK Dude, if it were dancing the way Fred Astaire did it, I'd give it my best shot. I'd learn the steps and practice in my spare time. But this... tribal, ritualistic bullshit, it's way-too-spontaneous for me. SCALPER Yeah, you're probably too young anyhow. HAWK Hey, I invented fake I.D.s, alright. That's not the problem... They're playing disco music in there, man. SCALPER Chief, here's a little secret. Drink heavily, your feet will know what to do. Now shit or get off the pot. Do you wanna dance or do you wanna see KISS only on their album covers? Hawk gets a look of resolve on his face. SCALPER You sure you'll have a ticket for me? SCALPER You have my solemn oath as a public servant. Hawk turns and walks up to the door, hesitating before opening it. Rummaging through his pockets, he pulls out a handful of expired driver's licenses. Choosing the one he thinks best suits himself, he walks in with trepidation. The scalper sees someone else coming up. SCALPER Hey, chief, you need a ticket? Second row center, seventy-five clams. It's Trip. TRIP No thanks, dude. I'm beating my ticket out of some poor, defenseless chump. Trip exits FRAME. SCALPER What's happening to kids today? INT. IT'S RAINING MEN STRIP JOINT - NIGHT Hawk enters your average, everyday, male strip joint. A crowd of LUSTY WOMEN cheer on a STRIPPER IN A FIREMAN'S SUIT. He dances on a lighted, tile stage under a spinning, mirror ball. Hawk shows the MAN AT THE DOOR his fake license and the man nods him in. He approaches the bar in the early stages of being very intimidated. The BARTENDER, a man dressed only in tight, black, tuxedo pants, shirt cuffs, and a tie, comes up to Hawk. HAWK (voice cracking) Like to sign up for the contest. The bartender gives Hawk the once over. BARTENDER You're a little scrawny, but thanks to the concert we're low on amateurs. Name? HAWK Hawk. BARTENDER Pick a song, Hawk. HAWK Got any KISS? BARTENDER You kidding? This is Detroit. Drink? HAWK Yeah, a man's drink... Hawk squints at a name tag on the bartender's tie. HAWK ...Dickey. Dickey goes to the bottle rack on the other side of the bar. HAWK (to himself) I'm gonna need all the help I can get tonight. Dickey returns with the drink and Hawk pulls out his money clip. HAWK (looking at the drink) What's that? BARTENDER You mean you never seen a Jack Daniels on the rocks before? Hawk looks at the unfamiliar drink again trying to play it cool. HAWK Sure, I have. But not one with ice in it, that's all. BARTENDER (seeing money clip) Save your money, stud muffin. The lady at the end of the bar sends her love. Dickey points to a WOMAN sitting at the end of the bar. Mature and sexy. She's a knock-out. Every teenage boy's fantasy. Hawk's eyes pop at this "Mrs. Robinson" before him. HAWK Whoa... she is a killer. BARTENDER Amanda Finch. Her ex is one of the wealthiest businessmen in Detroit. Play your cards right and you could hit paydirt. She like 'em young. (leaning in) And since you look a little new at this, let me give you three words of advice. Hard to get. Think it, act it, know it, be it. Nothing a woman loves more than when you beat her at her own head games. Dicky pats Hawk's shoulder and leaves. Hawk looks away from Amanda and scans the room. He glances back at Amanda. She's still gazing at him the way queens of yore must have eyed particularly cute knights. She winks and toasts Hawk. Hawk raises his glass smiling nervously. They both sip at their drinks. She licks her lips suggestively at him. And, Hawk proceeds to COUGH up his mouthful of Jack Daniels, SPRAYING it all over the bar. SMILEY MART / HAULING BASS EXT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT Your typical 70's convenient store. Out front two SIX YEAR OLDS in Star Wars tee-shirts play tug-o-war with a Stretch Armstrong doll. Trip stomps over grabbing them by their mini shirts. When he tries to act tough, it's pathetic. Even six year olds aren't afraid. TRIP Hey, you little twerps, gimme your KISS tickets or I'll pop your fuckin' faces in. SIX YEAR OLD #1 We don't have any KISS tickets. SIX YEAR OLD #2 Yeah, KISS sucks! TRIP I oughta kick your asses for sayin' that. He grabs the Stretch Armstrong and stuffs it in his pocket. TRIP But I'm in a hurry so I'll just take this instead. Now scram. The kids run away. INT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT The store is crawling with KISS FANS, some reading the comic books, others playing pinball against a far wall, still others looking at the poster section. Trip enters on a mission. He looks around catching the eye of a pretty CASHIER. She's a rocker, wearing a Who tee-shirt, a mood ring, and just a little too much make-up. She smiles at him. Trip returns the smile with a feeble wave. Her mood ring turns from blue to pink. Concentrating on the layout of the store, Trip peers all the way to the back to a darkened corner... where he spies a LITTLE KID wearing a KISS tee-shirt playing a KISS pinball machine. Trip smiles. The eagle has spotted a fuzzy, little bunny. He moves in for the kill, walking past a crowd of kids at the magazine rack, past the Hostess aisle, past the dairy cooler and into the darkened corner. He stands behind the little kid, relishing this moment. The kid is actually pretty good. We also see now the little kid has his face painted like Ace Frehley. TRIP Hey, little kid. Suddenly distracted, the kid loses the ball. LITTLE KID Shit! You just skunked my last ball, you... Trip clamps a hand over the little kid's mouth. TRIP Okay, booger, your KISS ticket or your life. The little kid says something but Trip's hand muffles his words. TRIP Hunh? The kid says what he said before, but it is utterly incomprehensible, once again thanks to Trip's hand. TRIP (looking at his hand) Oh. Okay... But scream and you'll never live to see puberty. I'll pop your fuckin' face in. Trip pulls his hand away. LITTLE KID Please sir, don't beat me up. I do have a KISS ticket, but not on me. TRIP A likely story. Hand it over, kid. LITTLE KID (bottom lip quivering) No really. My brother's hanging onto it for safe keeping. Please, let me get him for you. The kid turns and yells into the store before Trip can stop him. LITTLE KID Hey, Chongo! A titanic guy at the comic book rack looks up from his issue of "Thing" when he hears his name. CHONGO has a very low forehead and the expression of an angry bull plastered onto his face. TRIP (getting scared) Hey, kid, that's okay. I don't wanna see KISS that ba... LITTLE KID Don't try to run, maggot. Chongo's an all-state track star in every event. TRIP What do you want? LITTLE KID (gleefully) A tag on your toe. Nobody threatens me and lives. TRIP Look, you can have my wallet... LITTLE KID It's not nearly enough, punk. Chongo is getting ever-closer with his tree trunk legs, his barrel chest and hydraulic biceps. He is joined by TWO BUDS. LITTLE KID Besides, I was gonna take your wallet anyway. After Chongo and his friends crush your ribcage like a pack of Luckys. Chongo arrives eyeing Trip with distaste. Trip goes white. CHONGO This fairy givin' you shit, bro? LITTLE KID He was gonna mug me for my KISS ticket. TRIP Me? Mug? That's nuts. I said, do you know where I can take a piss. Chongo and his two buds laugh. Then, without a second of warning, Chongo belts Trip in the gut. Trip doubles over and falls breathlessly to his knees. CHONGO Okay, pimple dick, you've got the option of walking outside with us or gettin' dragged out. Either way you're comin' with us. Trip catches his breath. TRIP Please, sir, don't kick my ass! I'll do anything to get out of a beating! LITTLE KID Say, Chongo, perhaps we could use some extra cash for tasty snacks at the KISS concert our weasly friend won't be attending. Chongo scratches his head. CHONGO How much cash do you figure? LITTLE KID Take five for a minute, Chongo. Let me do the math. The little kid taps his finger on his chin and the theme from "JEOPARDY" begins. While the kid thinks, Trip looks nervously up at Chongo and his buds. Chongo reaches into his denim vest pocket and we hear a CRINKLING NOISE. He comes back up with two walnuts, putting them between his bicep and forearm. Trip watches in horror as Chongo makes a muscle and the walnuts are shelled between two walls of iron-hard flesh. CREEEAAAACK! Chongo eats the walnuts, shells and all. EXT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT The full-to-capacity parking lot is patrolled by a couple of SECURITY GUARDS. Lex cautiously makes his way to the edge of the parking lot and looks at the back side of Cobo Hall just beyond the chain link fence that surrounds the lot. He crouches down and walks between two cars parked against the fence, looking both ways. Seeing a guard's flashlight beam, he sits stock still until the beam sweeps past, then SIGHS eased. LEX (whispering to self) I can't believe I'm actually entertaining the notion of sneaking in. I oughta have my cranium examined. Lex finds a vertical break in the chain link. He lays on his back, slides through, then stands on the other side of the fence. He's at the edge of a weedy, littery field that also happens to be poorly lit. LEX Whoa. Danger Will Robinson. Spooked, he lays down again intending to slide back through when a flashlight beam hits his eyes. SECURITY GUARD'S VOICE Hey you! Get back in here! Lex sees the guard standing about fifty feet away on the other side of the fence. Panicking, he bolts deeper into the field. SECURITY GUARD'S VOICE You're not getting far, kid! Lex double-times it as we hear the guard yelling into his walkie-talkie. SECURITY GUARD'S VOICE We got one just ran into the field from the north lot! The field gets darker as Lex closes in on Cobo Hall's well- lit loading dock, where ROADIES empty the remaining bits of KISS's monstrous set from an 18-wheeler. Other huge trucks are parked nearby. There's a bustle of last minute activity. EXT. LOADING DOCK - NIGHT Lex scurries from giant speaker box to a stack of lights to huge trunks, keeping well hidden. He dodges roadies and avoids being seen by OTHER GUARDS. He slithers along side the 18-wheeler and nears the loading bay. Up ahead some auxiliary speakers, drum kits, and scaffolding wait their turn to be carried into the building. SECURITY GUARD'S VOICE There he is! Lex spins. The security guard, flanked by two others, barrel right for him. LEX Shit! He dives rolls under the 18-wheeler. The three security guards leap for the pavement and crawl under the semi after him. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEMI The three guards scramble to their feet and grab a SCRAWNY BODY. They spin him around roughly. SECURITY GUARD Alright, wiseguy, you are so outta here! They suddenly realize they've got the wrong man. It's a roadie. ROADIE Hey, what the fuck? The roadie holds up his all-access laminate angrily. ROADIE Keep your paws to yourself, ya dumb fuckin' apes. The security guards look around frantically for Lex as other roadies join in to defend their comrade. SECURITY GUARD Where'd he go? You see him? No one pays attention as a bass drum is carried past the guards and up the loading dock ramp. They don't notice Lex crammed inside contorted into a shape befitting a yoga master. Praying he won't be spotted, Lex holds his breath as he's carried into the building and disappears. JAM IN A JAM / KISS THIS INT. ST. SEBASTIAN'S CATHEDRAL - NIGHT Jam sits in the front pew, head buried in his hands as Mrs. Bruce and the priest talk on the alter. Beth moves quietly in the back, unseen and unheard. She looks overwhelmed by the architecture, the detail on the stained glass windows, the icons carved into the columns that support the extravagantly decorated ceiling. The priest catches a glimpse of Beth meandering in the back. PRIEST Uh, next mass isn't until tomorrow morning, young lady. Run along now. Beth smiles nervously and heads back toward the front door passing a confessional booth. She throws a glance back at the priest and Mrs. Bruce who have returned to conferring, their backs to her. She stealthily ducks into the booth. MRS. BRUCE Now it's been a while since my boy had holy confession. Could you...? PRIEST (smiling) Consider it done. Mrs. Bruce looks down at Jam and sees his drumsticks poking out of his socks. She immediately takes them out and stuffs them into her jacket. Jam doesn't even move. MRS. BRUCE It's about time you gave up on that stupid dream once and for all. No son of mine is going to be a career musician. Jam is stung. Mrs. Bruce and the priest head back down the center aisle exiting through the gigantic front doors. She eyes Jam. MRS. BRUCE Thank you, Father. I'll be back for him before you know it; after I take care of some unfinished business. PRIEST Just knock loudly, sister. He lets her out and locks the door, leaving the keys in the lock, and walks over to Jam. PRIEST Come along, son. Get into the booth. He helps the despondent Jam up. They walk to the booth and Jam reluctantly gets inside. INT. CONFESSIONAL BOOTH - NIGHT Jam kneels on the board and a mere two feet behind him, Beth sits on a bench shrouded in darkness. Her posture is that of someone with a crate of nitroglycerine on her lap. We hear the SHUFFLING noise of the priest getting into his own compartment next door. A moment later the small, eye- level door SLIDES open. The priest's face is barely visible on the other side of the thick screen, but he's there. JAM Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession in... well... a really long time. PRIEST Prepare to receive the Act of Penance. How many sins have you committed since your last confession? JAM Just one, Father, but boy was it a doozy. Beth leans forward slightly and listens to Jam's confession. INT. IT'S RAINING MEN STRIP JOINT - NIGHT Hawk's at a bar stool gulping sloppily and woozily from a rocks glass. Four more empty rocks glasses sit in front of him. He stares at the sexy woman who smiles back, blowing him kisses from the other side of the bar. The EMCEE enters the stage. EMCEE (into microphone) Okay, ladies, hang onto your hormones. Here comes our next amateur. Let's have a big hand for Hawk! The beginning of a rockin' KISS tune comes over the P.A. and Dicky approaches Hawk. EMCEE You're up, Hawk. Hawk wakes up fast. There's nothing more sobering than having to undress in public. HAWK Oh, Dicky, I c-c-can't... BARTENDER You're not gonna chicken out on me now, are you? We've got your KISS song playing and everything. HAWK I-I c-can't... BARTENDER (leans in close) Look, people undress in public because, A, they're exhibitionists, B, they're nutcases, or C, they need the money. I can tell you're not A, and I hope to hell you're not B. So my suggestion is, think about why you're a C and let your body party, shake your groove thing, boogie oogie oogie till you just can't boogie no more. Hawk thinks about it, then downs the rest of his drink. He grimaces at it's taste, then opens his eyes with new resolve. HAWK You're right, Dicky. I gotta do it for KISS. Gotta put a bag over its head and (hiccup) Do it for KISS. Hawk swivels his bar stool to the right and gets off, forgetting to stand when his feet hit the floor. He proceeds to fall flat on his face. Dicky looks down concerned, but Hawk stands with a little difficulty and heads for the stage. The crowd of women parts down the middle for him and checks him out as he walks by. They seem to like what they see. Hawk looks nervously at the carnivorous faces leering at his package first, his ass after. What the hell is he doing? Hawk reluctantly climbs onto the stage and the gals start CLAPPING to the song. He faces them and starts gyrating his drunken hips at them, feeling no confidence whatsoever, until... The CHEERS start to ECHO and the pulsing lights begin to hurt his eyes. Hawk watches the world proceed to spin faster than the disco ball above his head. He stops gyrating and clutches his stomach. BELCHING. Uh-oh. Hawk spots an almost-empty beer pitcher one of the CHEERING- IN-SLOW-MOTION women holds above her head. He runs up to the edge of the stage, grabs the pitcher, and PUKES. The cheering and music come to a grinding halt. You can hear a pin drop as Hawk yacks his guts out into the beer pitcher. It goes on for an excruciatingly long time, then finally stops. Hawk looks up at the hundreds of astonished eyes staring at him. He wipes his mouth, then a look of ease washes over his face. HAWK Wow. I feel a hundred times better! He hands the vomit-filled pitcher back to the shocked woman. HAWK Thanks lady. He looks over at the emcee, who gazes at Hawk from the DJ booth. HAWK Maestro? As you were. The emcee stands perfectly still, jaw agape. HAWK Come on, dude, we got a bunch of frisky felines waiting for some entertainment! The show must go on! Hawk starts gyrating even though the music is still off. The emcee shrugs, re-cuing the song. It starts again as Hawk faces the crowd, dancing with new-found bravado. The women come out of their dumbstruck comas and reluctantly start CLAPPING again. Hawk pulls off his jacket and twirls it over his head Roger Daltry style. Then he pulls it back down and tosses it into the crowd. The women actually fight over it. Encouraged, Hawk then peels off his KISS Army tee-shirt and hurls it at the women, who SQUEAL with delight. Sure, he may be scrawny, but they don't mind. This lad's got personality. Adrenaline pumping, confidence building, Hawk starts playing the crowd of very responsive ladies. He unbuttons his jeans first. Then, leaving them on, he does an "air guitar" medley: Chuck Berry, ZZ Top, Angus Young from AC/DC, and Elvis Costello in six easy steps. Hawk finishes off with a Pete Townshend windmill, shaking his ass at his audience in mid-strum, then licks his finger and touches one of his cheeks: "hot stuff" (he does this in a manly way of course). Then Hawk pauses to adjust what looks to be his underwear bunching up in his crack. The women WHOO-HOO. He segues into a Mick Jagger rooster strut and the ladies go ga-ga. He makes the sign of the horns with each hand and wiggles a protruding tongue like Gene Simmons. The gals scream in orgastic joy. Then, Hawk goes for the gold. Yes, he does the Fonzie dance! The women are now overcome by sheer animal lust. Hawk's whipped his audience into a frenzied pack of bitches in heat. Amanda smirks and sucks from her little drink straw suggestively. At long last Hawk figures he has to give them what they want. He puts his fingers to his fly, pauses, then unzips. His Brittanias fall to his ankles, revealing a pair of bony legs sticking down from some KISS boxer shorts. The ladies go batty. Unfortunately Hawk has neglected a cardinal rule of disrobing. Never pull your pants down without taking your shoes off first. He tries to kick off his shoes. The left one goes flying across the bar and THWACK, beans a MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN in the face. She flies backwards over a chair. Trying to kick the other shoe off, Hawk loses his balance and falls backwards, hitting his head on the edge of the bar. DRUM ROLL / NEGOTIATION INT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT Trip looks at the little kid, Chongo, and the two buds in fear. TRIP Two hundred bucks? LITTLE KID You heard me, nad breath. My time's precious and I think that's a reasonable price to pay for your sorry life. TRIP Look, I want to live, but I don't know where the fuck I'm gonna find two hundred bucks. The little kid shakes his head in disgust. LITTLE KID Chongo? Take him outside and tear his ass out through his mouth. Chongo advances, muscles flexing. TRIP Hold on! I know how I can get the money! I just figured it out! Only you might wanna wait outside. The little kid and Chongo look at each other. CHONGO I don't trust him. LITTLE KID I think he's on the level. He's too stupid to try anything sneaky anyway. Look at him, he's a moron. They look back at Trip. LITTLE KID You got fifteen minutes and not a second longer. We have a concert to go to. See you outside. Trip nods sullenly as the kid, Chongo, and the two buds exit. Then he checks to make sure Stretch Armstrong is still with him. INT. BASS DRUM - NIGHT Lex is twisted like a pretzel as he's carted into the bowels of Cobo Hall. He tries to keep calm, but it's not in his nature. LEX (under his breath) Keep it together, Lex. Anything worth fighting for is worth dying for. INT. COBO HALL/RECEIVING AREA - NIGHT ROADIES and TECHIES run in all directions as last minute preparations are being attended to. Two roadies carry the base drum down a long ramp unaware that Lex is hidden inside. ROADIE #2 Boy, this one's heavy. Suddenly, Roadie #2 snags his foot on a mess of cable and loses his balance, dropping the oversized drum. In an instant the drum goes rolling down the ramp quickly gaining speed. ROADIE #2 Shit! The roadies bolt after the runaway drum. Other workers scurry out of the way to avoid being hit by the speeding instrument. INT. BASS DRUM - NIGHT Lex spins like in a dryer on speed. LEX WHOOOOAAA! INT. COBO HALL/RECEIVING AREA - NIGHT More techies jump out of the way as the wayward drum heads right for a closed set of double doors. The roadies are just about to grab it before impact, when... The door unexpectedly swings open. The FOXY GROUPIES on the other side scream at the sight of the careening drum heading straight for them. ROADIE #2 Close that door! Too late. The groupies jump away as the drum flies through the open door and down a flight of stairs. INT. COBO HALL STAIRWELL - NIGHT The drum bounces down the zigzag stairway violently. Lex's GRUNTS of pain can be heard from inside. AT THE BOTTOM The big drum hits the landing hard, tips over, then spins like a quarter getting faster before it stops. ON THE ROADIES They barrel down the stairs two at a time. Finally reaching the bottom, they grab the drum. ROADIE #2 Peter's gonna kill us. As they carry the drum back up the stairs, we see it is now empty. Once the roadies are gone, CAMERA TILTS UP to the ceiling. There's Lex clutching exposed pipes for dear life, hanging upside down, praying the coast is clear. BETH'S CONFESSION / COMPENSATORY POSSIBILITIES INT. CONFESSIONAL - NIGHT Jam is at the end of his confession. The priest is still listening on the other side of the screen. Beth sits in the shadows behind Jam. JAM So, you see if it wasn't for me, me and my friends would be at that KISS concert right now... together. PRIEST That's it? JAM Yeah. PRIEST Well, this is a unique confession to say the least, son. And not exactly the most interesting one I've ever heard either. You sure you don't want to talk about... oh, carnal knowledge with a neighborhood girl or impure thoughts about the new student teacher maybe... or how about finding a box of magazines under your dad's bed? JAM No. PRIEST Well then, I suggest you have a seat on the bench behind you and think of something a little juicier to confess than losing KISS tickets. I realize this is Detroit, but I personally find, what that rock and roll band is all about, to be boring as Lucifer's kingdom. I'll return in a little while. The priest SLIDES the door shut again. Jam is all but shrouded in darkness, but can make out the time on his watch. It's getting late. He resignedly sits on the bench behind him... right on Beth's lap. Jam yells, but Beth throws her hand over his mouth. His eyes bulge. He can't believe what he's seeing. He climbs off Beth and sits next to her. JAM (whispering) Beth? I can't believe it. BETH Believe it. Jam thinks for a beat. Something still isn't quite clicking. JAM Are you waiting for confession? I thought you were Jewish? BETH can hardly speak. She gulps thinking of what to say. BETH I have a confession. Here it is. Beth gives him the biggest, wettest, sloppiest kiss in recorded history. She pulls away finally wiping her mouth. BETH I didn't mean for that to be so... intense. Forgive me. JAM I don't care. I wanna hear more. She lunges at him again, kissing him for dear life. Her lips leave his and begin to explore his chin, neck, ear. BETH I've loved you ever since I first laid eyes on you, Jeremiah. I've just always been too scared to show it. JAM Beth, I can't believe you just said that because that's exactly how I've always felt about you... Call me Jam. It's my band name. BETH You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that... Jam! He kisses her neck. Unable to stop, they start undressing each other, both breathing heavy. BETH We've got to take this slow... JAM Right, slow... BETH Oh, screw it! She tears his tee-shirt open with her teeth. INT. IT'S RAINING MEN STRIP JOINT - NIGHT A really buff STRIPPER dressed as a construction worker is on stage with about ten others who stand in the background. The emcee's hand hovers above the stripper's head. EMCEE Okay, ladies, it's down to... Troy the Human Jackhammer... The women APPLAUD as we... FOLLOW the emcee's hand to Hawk who holds an ice pack on the side of his head. EMCEE ...and Mr. Massive Head Wound Accompanied by an Upset Stomach-Hawk! The women APPLAUD but not quite as loud. EMCEE No contest. The grand prize of seventy- five dollars goes to Troy the Human Jackhammer! The women cheer and a DISCO SONG starts as Troy does a reprise of his act. Hawk walks away from the stage with the rest of the rejected strippers, looking the way he feels: pretty damn stupid. He puts on his pants, trying to walk at the same time and falls to his knees. A helpful hand grabs him under the arm and helps him up. It's Amanda looking lustier than ever. HAWK Thanks, miss. AMANDA You're too kind. I'm Amanda. HAWK Right, well, thanks for the drinks and stuff, Amanda, but there's no reason for me to stick around these parts anymore. AMANDA Don't be so glum, Hawk. The night's still young and filled with plenty of compensatory possibilities. HAWK Huh? AMANDA I'd be in a position to spend some money on you if you'd get in a position and spend some time on me. Hawk GULPS. INT. CONFESSIONAL BOOTH - NIGHT Jam and Beth lay buck naked, tightly wrapped around each other in the heat of passion on the confessional booth floor. They kiss, sweat, and PANT heavily. Suddenly, the sliding door to the priest's booth opens. Jam and Beth freeze. PRIEST'S VOICE Where are you, son? JAM Uhh, tying my shoe. PRIEST'S VOICE Oh. So, have you thought of a colorful confession yet? JAM Actually, yes. Last year I walked out of a candy store with a Reggie Bar I hadn't paid for, but went back and apologized the next day. PRIEST'S VOICE Boooring. Think, boy, think! We hear the door SLIDE shut again as Beth and Jam pick up where they left off. HOLD UP INT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT Trip leafs through a KISS comic, not really paying attention to it. Directly behind him is the register and the CASHIER. He starts hearing voices in his head. We see SUPERS of his friends' faces hovering around him. LEX'S VOICE I can't believe you're even thinking of committing a robbery, Trip. You don't pass go and collect 200 dollars for pulling stuff like this. HAWK'S VOICE No shit, dude, is this really worth it? Sure you get your ass kicked nine ways to Sunday by that fucking gorilla, but it's still a hundred times better than getting it porked for the next three to five. Trip sends brief, agitated glances around the store meeting the cashier's eyes again. She smiles at him coyly as she plays with her mood ring. He gives her the eye, then returns to his comic. JAM'S VOICE And what about that girl, Trip? She'll never forget this night. Even if you get away with it, she'll be scarred for life. When are you gonna realize sometimes being tough means being tender. TRIP (to the other voices) Alright, everybody, SHUT UP! Trip snaps out of it. All the shoppers and cashier are starring at him. He COUGHS loudly, clearing his throat to cover his outburst. The shoppers go back to shopping. A MAN WITH A LONG COAT enters the store, looks around, then takes a spot alongside Trip and opens a Mad Magazine. TRIP (whispering to himself) Okay, bro. You gonna have to do this sometime. Might as well be now. Trip puts a hand in his pocket and takes one last look at Stretch Armstrong before stuffing the action figure back in so it looks like he's got a gun. He takes three deep breaths and discreetly pulls his knit cap down over his eyes, revealing it actually as a semi-ski mask that covers the top half of his face. Just then, the man with the coat puts the magazine back and pulls something over his own head. Trip whirls around pointing Stretch-in-his-pocket at the cashier... Just as the man in the coat, now masked with a stocking, pulls the biggest shotgun ever made from under his coat, pointing it at the cashier as well. The cashier shrieks. So does Trip. MAN WITH COAT Evening, honey. Y'know what I am, what this is, and what you have to do, so do it quick. (to shoppers, Trip included) The rest of you kindly introduce yourselves to the floor and kiss it hello. His thunder now stolen, Trip drops to the floor along with everyone else. The air is very tense. The cashier starts SOBBING, keeping her hands in the air. MAN WITH COAT (to cashier) Do or die, bitch! Next time I let the barrels do the talking. CASHIER P-p-please, mister, I'm just a high school kid... Man with the coat COCKS the chamber and the cashier immediately opens the register drawer and starts emptying it. MAN WITH COAT Fuck school, that's what I say! I just went through the motions till I was old enough to drop out and I'm leaving here with at least two fifty the easy way. Look where all that studying's gonna get you tonight. Robbed at gunpoint and possibly shot in the fucking head... for minimum wage! The man with the coat's laughter ECHOES in Trip's head till he just can't take it anymore. ON THE CASHIER She suddenly shoots a surprise glance over the man with the coat's shoulder. Seeing this, the man spins around. There's Trip behind him. TRIP Alright, drop it or I'll kick your ass! Astounded by Trip's audacity, the man with the coat turns his shotgun point-blank at Trip. MAN WITH COAT Oh, yeah! You and what army? TRIP (gulps) The KISS Army! CRASHING BACKSTAGE INT. COBO HALL/BACKSTAGE - NIGHT Your wildest fantasy of a rock show's backstage area come true. The place is packed with "beautiful" people. Scantily- clad BABES everywhere. Slick, RECORD BIZ-TYPES. Lots of food. Lots of booze. Lots of fun. It's backstage at a KISS concert, come on! CAMERA TILTS UP above the partying hordes to find Lex shimming along an exposed duct amid the pipes, sprinklers, and vents. Looking straight down on everybody, Lex is in awe and disbelief. LEX This is real. This is not a dream! This is real! I've pierced the inner circle! He takes the opportunity to peer down some BIG BUSTED GIRL'S cleavage. Then his eye spots something else. He GASPS. A door. On it a star. Written on the star, the word, KISS. LEX Oh, God, they're in there! A big-haired HIPSTER in mirrored sunglasses KNOCKS on the dressing room door. It opens, but Lex can't see inside. The hipster stands in the doorway talking to whoever is there. Lex cranes his neck to see around the door jamb. Desperate for a glimpse of his idols, he leans out too far. Suddenly, the entire duct collapses. Breaking loose of the ceiling, Lex hurls to the floor clutching the duct. Backstage goers leap for cover as SMASH... he hits the ground in a shower of plaster and dust. The hipster protectively pulls the dressing room door shut as two SECURITY MEN jump in front of it. Instantly, huge, burly hands come down on Lex's shoulders. Before he can react, a slew of OFFICERS have him off his feet and carry him away, a stunned expression frozen to his face. EXT. ALLEY BEHIND COBO HALL - NIGHT Lex is thrown into a heaping garbage dumpster by the scruff of his neck. The security officers laugh and pat themselves on the back as they hurry back in. Lex peeks out the lid. The alley is dark and spooky. He jumps out of the trash and comes face to face with the biggest GERMAN SHEPHERD that has ever lived. Its teeth are bared and its black, wolf-like body is coiled, ready to spring. GRRRRRRR! Lex jumps backward hitting the dumpster. A GROWLING PITBULL walks out from the shadows and joins the Shepherd. LEX (petrified) Dogs! Why did it have to be dogs! Then, a GROWLING DOBERMAN with a spiked collar emerges from the darkness on the other side of the alley, its solid, muscular form making the brick building nearby look like jello. Lex starts SLAPPING himself on the face. LEX Wake up, Lex! Wake up, man! This part's gotta be a nightmare! No luck. He stops, when several other DOGS emerge from the shadows and gather behind the first three. These new mutts immediately join in the GROWLING chorale. The Shepherd snaps at Lex. LEX (to the heavens) God, if you ever get me outta this, I swear I will never masturbate again! The pack BARKS even louder. LEX (to heaven again) I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME! INT. CONFESSIONAL BOOTH - NIGHT Beth lays in Jam's arms on the floor. They might as well be the only two people on the face of the earth. They whisper. BETH So. Is it true that Gene Simmons had a cow's tongue grafted onto his real one? Y'know, to make it so long? JAM I dunno. I think he had the piece of skin under his tongue removed so he could stick it out farther. I'm not too up on Gene trivia. BETH Your man is the drummer, Peter Criss, right? JAM Peter Criss is my inspiration, man. If I paid a hundred bucks for a KISS show and all I saw was his solo, I'd consider it... money... Hey, how'd you know that? BETH I have all your notebook doodles memorized, Jam... Here. She opens her backpack and pulls out a package addressed to Jam. The return address reads: Beth Bumsteen, Somewhere in Ann Arbor. JAM Ann Arbor? BETH My dad's company is relocating him. We're moving. That's why I was acting so freaky in school today. I thought it was the last time I'd ever see you. Anyway, open the box. I would have given it to you this morning, except... like I said, I was freaking out. Jam opens the box and his jaw drops. It's a black tee-shirt with the "Mystery" logo printed in white on the chest. Jam holds it up. It's gigantic. BETH I pass by this really cool tee-shirt shop on my way to school every day and I know you wear those black tee- shirts all the time. You look like a size thirty-five, but all the sizes were in Roman numerals. So I got you an XXXL. That's thirty-five, isn't it? Touched, Jam kisses her for a long time. He starts putting on the shirt when suddenly they hear the SHUFFLING of the priest entering his booth. Jam grabs his clothes and sits back on the bench. Beth starts getting dressed at his feet. PRIEST Okay, you better have something really sinful for me this time, son. My patience is worn to threads and your mom will be here any minute. JAM (pulling up his pants) Alright, Father, here it is. About two weeks ago I went to my cousin's wedding and one of the bridesmaids asked me if I wanted to take a bath. PRIEST No... Beth is tying her shoes. Jam slips on his socks. JAM I was insulted, so I asked her if I was wreaking some wicked b.o., right? Then she said no, she wanted to take a bath with me. PRIEST Oh, this is terrible... Please go on. JAM Well, she was a very tempting siren, Father. Built like you wouldn't believe. So I gave into temptation about a block away from the wedding reception at this little motel that charges by the hour. Jam pauses. PRIEST Well? Continue! Continue! JAM Okay... when she peeled off that gown, you'll never guess what she was wearing underneath. PRIEST Was it a teddy? Fully dressed, Beth crawls out of the confessional. JAM No. Much bet... I mean, much more sinful than that. PRIEST A bustier? JAM Tell you what. You keep guessing and I'll say something when you get it. PRIEST Splendid! I love a good game of Name That Nightie. Jam quietly sneaks out. INT. ST. SEBASTIAN'S CATHEDRAL - NIGHT We can hear the priest's voice as Jam hurries to Beth. They dash out the door. PRIEST'S VOICE Satin underwear? Crotchless panties? Leopard skin bra? Fishnet leotard? Leather G-string? EXT. ALLEY BEHIND COBO HALL - NIGHT Still trapped by the GROWLING, BARKING pack of dogs, Lex searches nervously through the garbage behind him. LEX Okay, okay, you're pissed off. I can see this. So... Maybe what we need... ah-ha. Lex holds up a worn-out, old frisbee. LEX Play some frisbee, poochies? The pack just glares and SNARLS. He tosses the frisbee over the packs' heads, but the dogs don't even acknowledge it. They just keep BARKING and GROWLING. Meanwhile, an unnoticed dog at the rear of the pack, a mangy Basset Hound, turns its flat head to see the frisbee land on the ground behind him. His tail starts to wag. LEX (exasperated) Alright! I give up! I hearby and forthwith defer my destiny to you mutts. I may be an intelligent, upright, walking, homo-fucking sapien, but you fleabags are a force of nature. So, I'm just gonna sit here and wait for you to decide. If you let me live, I thank you. If you bite my head off, I'll die knowing I did all I could. It's up to you. Lex waits before the GROWLING, SNAPPING canines. Suddenly, the Basset Hound runs up in front of the pack and drops the frisbee at Lex's feet. Lex looks down at the floppy, wrinkly dog, who wags its tail and PANTS furiously. LEX Well, how do you like that? Lex starts to pet the hound, and one-by-one the rest of the dogs shut-up. Shocked, Lex picks the frisbee up again and throws it. This time the entire pack bolts after the Whammo product. Lex smiles, watching them fight for it in the air... in SLOW MOTION... as the theme from "CHARIOTS OF FIRE" begins. The black Shepherd finally grabs the frisbee in its mouth and runs back toward Lex. It's soon joined by the rest of the pack. That's right about when Lex realizes they aren't going to stop. LEX Whoa! Whoa! The dogs plow into Lex full-force knocking him into the garbage. They surround him licking his face. Lex bursts into unstoppable laughter. Pulling himself up, he pets the dogs as they jump around him wagging their tails and PANTING. LEX (baby talk) You sonsofbitches could tickle a guy to death, y'know that? Sure you do... Sure you do... Lex stops. He hears TALKING coming from inside the windowless, brick building on the other side of the alley. He steps in front of the pack and puts his fingers to his lips. They obey, quieting instantly. He then tiptoes to a thin crack in the brick wall. The dogs quietly follow. Lex puts his eye to the crack and peers in. INT. CHOP SHOP - NIGHT LEX'S POV His mom's Volvo and a BMW are on adjacent hydraulic lifts inside a makeshift auto-mechanic shop. Two BEEFY JERKS with blow torches stand next to the cars. One has a bandage on his head and seems to be in pain. BEEFY JERK #1 So, I jump into the car, hot-wire it in thirty seconds and start driving. Then, suddenly I hear this scream. The disco queen was asleep in the back seat. Beefy jerk #2 laughs. BEEFY JERK #1 You think it's funny? How would you like to have a stiletto heel smacking you in the temple when you're tryin' to work? Beefy jerk #2 laughs more. Beefy jerk #1 checks the time. BEEFY JERK #1 You about done splittin' a gut there? We gotta get these parts to Toledo by nine. Then a familiar voice is heard coming from the back of the shop. CHRISTINE Then maybe you guys'll let me go, huh? Lex follows the voice and sees Christine handcuffed to a radiator near the rear of the shop. CHRISTINE Come on, whadaya say? You scratch my back, I scratch yours. You let me go, and in return, I keep my big mouth shut about your little operation here. Mum, know what I mean? BEEFY JERK #2 You're lucky you're still alive, wench. If you was a guy, we woulda thought nothin' of sawing your head off with a butter knife. BEEFY JERK #1 What are we gonna do with her anyway? Beefy jerk #2 bares what's left of his yellow, crusty teeth BEEFY JERK #2 I dunno, but she sure looks fun. Beefy jerk #1 touches the bandage on his head. BEEFY JERK #1 Yeah, and payback's a bitch. Christine GAGS at the thought. ANGLE ON WALL CRACK Lex's eyeball bulges with terror. EXT. IT'S RAINING MEN PARKING LOT - NIGHT DOLLY FROM the front end of a Jaguar XKE, Michigan vanity plate reading: AMANDA. TO its windshield, through which we see Hawk and Amanda kissing in the front seat, clad only in their underwear. Something like "ME AND MRS. JONES" plays on the radio. When they separate, Amanda takes out a flask and offers it to Hawk. HAWK Thanks. He gulps some down and pulls the flask away COUGHING. HAWK What the hell is that? AMANDA Gin. HAWK Whoa. Some of this hard liquor's a tad too manly for me. I'm a brewski man myself. AMANDA Better ease up then, Hawk. Wouldn't want to give you whiskey dick would we? HAWK Who's Whiskey Dick? Amanda plants a stocking foot on Hawk's crotch and rubs. AMANDA Well. Obviously no one you have to worry about... Woody. HAWK My name's not Woody, it's Haw-haw... Hawk's eyes cross as he lets out a DEEP, OBNOXIOUS GROAN. HAWK ...holy shit! Amanda looks down at his crotch. AMANDA But you do know Premature Peter, don't you? Shame, I just bought these stockings. Hawk has never been more embarrassed. HAWK Well, Amanda, this has been quite a night. So far you've seen me and my dick throw up. (to the heavens) What's next? Projectile diarrhea? (beat, to Amanda) Man. What a stud, huh? AMANDA Believe it or not, you still have a way to go before you start competing with my soon-to-be-ex-husband... the champion of lousy lovemaking. The man who thinks he's the biggest and the best... The man who thinks every secretary, stewardess, and cocktail waitress he fucks should lick his feet for the honor. The man for whom faking it was invented. Christ, if I hadn't gotten pregnant with our son, I would have never known I even had sex with the prick. She takes a healthy swig of gin, relishing its bitterness. HAWK You love him? AMANDA I just told you, he's a big, hairy... HAWK No, I mean... you love your son? AMANDA More than anything in the world. HAWK And he loves you back, doesn't he? AMANDA He's a little spoiled, but I know he does. HAWK Well, shame on him if he doesn't. She pats his shoulder. AMANDA You're sweet. Hawk stares out the windshield. HAWK My mom died of a heart attack while she was having me. Man, I wish I had known her for even one day. If they ever invent a time machine, that's what I'm doing. Going back in time to meet my mom. I'm gonna say, "Mrs. Pitchford?... or Miss Williams, depending on when I show up. You don't know me, but I'm your kid from the future. Just wanted to thank you for the blue eyes, pug nose and for tying the knot with a guy who didn't mind diaper detail... Oh, and, uh... cut down on the red meat, will ya?" Amanda caresses Hawk's cheek. He turns with her hand and kisses it. He takes her arm and begins kissing his way up to her neck, her cheek, her mouth... DR. LOVE TO THE RESCUE INT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT It's a stand-off. Prone customers look up at Trip and the man with the long coat circling each other like sharks. The helpless cashier lets out fearful sobs. MAN WITH COAT Gimme your gun, boy! TRIP No, you gimme your gun, boy! MAN WITH COAT Don't tempt me, I'll shoot! TRIP Not if I shoot first! MAN WITH COAT I don't even think you have a gun! TRIP Neither do I! The man with the coat puts his shotgun against Trip's head. MAN WITH COAT Now, for the last time, take the piece out and lay back down or your mom's gonna need the White Tornado to get the brains outta your ski cap. Trip GULPS. The jig's up. He slowly pulls out Stretch Armstrong, and the man with the coat glances down and starts to laugh very loud. So loud, he throws his head back. When he recovers, Trip's got Stretch aimed at his head and pulled back to maximum tension. TRIP Smile, you sonofa... Trip lets go. WZZMACK! The man gets it right in the face and falls backward onto the Hostess display, toppling a whole bunch of Ho-Ho's, Ding-Dong's, Twinkies, and Suzy-O's to the ground. Trip runs up and grabs the shotgun away as the man with the coat lifts his head briefly, then passes out. Trip turns around and the cashier SLAMS into him, nearly knocking him over. She throws her arms around him letting out relieved SOBS. Behind her all the customers rise from the floor CLAPPING. Trip did it. He saved the fucking store! The cashier looks into Trip's masked eyes. CASHIER Thank you! Thank you!... Who are you? TRIP (with confidence) Call me... Dr. Love! She plants a thousand mega-watt kiss on his lips and we ZOOM IN on her mood ring changing color from gray to fire engine red. Trip's eyes widen just before... KABOOM... The shotgun he's holding goes off, blowing a hole in the ceiling. The recoil from the blast jolts Trip and the cashier apart. We now see Trip's face is smeared with bright, red lipstick. A huge chunk of ceiling falls onto his head but he doesn't move. The kiss hit him harder. I'M HERE FOR THE GIRL AND THE CAR INT. CHOP SHOP - NIGHT BZZZZZ! Christine and the beefy jerks watch the brown, '78 Volvo, Ohio plates: OB-GYN, ascend on a hydraulic lift. Behind them sits the BMW skeleton. These boys work fast. CHRISTINE You guys better kill me before you do what you're thinking of doing. Cause when I'm mad enough, I can bite down very hard. The beefy jerks laughs. BEEFY JERK #1 Sweet Polly Purebred's got some spunk, huh? BEEFY JERK #2 I'll give her some spunk alright. They put their blow torches down and turn to her. BEEFY JERK #1 We stripped that Beemer in fifteen minutes. Bet we can strip her in fifteen seconds. They giggle maniacally and lumber toward Christine. Their shadows growing larger and larger across her. CHRISTINE (mile a minute) Now wait a minute, guys! Two against one ain't fair. Lemme go back and get my friend Barbara. You'd love her. Tits the size of your head. You'll feel like a little baby sucking on 'em. I swear, I'll bring her right back. It'll be a four-way... You guys like disco? I teach disco dancing at my church. You guys look like you got rhythm in your blood. Come on, free lessons if you let me go. BEEFY JERK #1 I know a dance we can do. The horizontal hustle. They both laugh. Just as they're about to grab her... Suddenly, the garage door behind them SLIDES UP revealing darkness. Christine and the beefy jerks look out anxiously. BEEFY JERK #1 Who's there? Silence except for CRICKETS. Then... from out of the darkness emerges a figure... Lex. Christine's eyes brighten like a bulb. LEX I'm here for the girl and the car. You can try to stop me, but I must warn you, it may be hazardous to your health. The beefy jerks laugh at this little punk. They start toward him, one with a tire iron, the other a big monkey wrench. BEEFY JERK #1 Too bad. He was such a young idiot. BEEFY JERK #2 Ehhh. He was a stupid boy. He deserved to die. Lex lets out a quick HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE. The pack of BARKING dogs led by the Shepherd, the Pit Bull, the Doberman, and the Basset Hound, step from the darkness and flank Lex, GROWLING and SNARLING at the beefy jerks. LEX Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make... Hounds of hell? Say hello to dinner! The beefy jerks drop their tools on their feet and yelp in pain. The pack takes this as a threat and charge the beefy jerks, who bolt for a glass-partitioned office. The dogs SCRATCH and BARK at the window ferociously. Lex smiles at Christine. She smiles back. He presses the "down" button on the lift and the Volvo descends. Lex yells to the beefy jerks through the glass. LEX One foot out of that office and your asses are Alpo! Lex unlocks Christine. She leaps into his arms. CHRISTINE Wow! Thank you! You're cooler than the Fonz. She gives him a lingering kiss. Lex leans back, gives the double thumbs-up, and says... LEX Aaaayyyyy! Lex takes her hand and they walk over to the Volvo. Lex lets her in then rounds the car to the driver's side. BEEFY JERK #1 Hey, what about the dogs? LEX You got a phone in there? They nod. Lex drips a dry smile onto them. LEX Call the cops. The beefy jerks watch in disbelief as the Volvo SCREECHES out of the chop shop. 2 GODDBYES, A PUNCH IN THE GUT AND A DRUMSTICK EXT. WHITE CASTLE PARKING LOT - NIGHT Beth's parents wait in the running car as Jam and Beth share a heartfelt good-bye outside the back door. BETH Ann Arbor isn't... that far from Cleveland, right? JAM Nah. Once I get my own wheels, I could come up all the time. BETH That'd be great. Hey, maybe someday your band'll play there. It's a college town, you know? Jam takes her hands. JAM I feel like such an idiot. Why didn't I just say something a year and a half ago? Man, think of how much time we wasted. BETH Let's not think about the past. Let's just think about from today on. I'll never forget you, Jam. JAM Tell me about it. Church will never be the same again. They stare at each other for a really long time. Then, kiss. BEEP. BEEP. Dad looks back out the window and CLEARS HIS THROAT LOUDLY. BETH (flustered) Coming dad. (to Jam) I'll call you. Soon as we get a phone. Bye. JAM Bye. She gets in the car. They both wave as the Impala turns a corner out of sight. Jam is left alone still waving long after she's gone. INT. AMANDA'S JAG - NIGHT Amanda and Hawk are half-dressed post-coitus. She looks in her purse. HAWK Amanda, as ironic as this is gonna sound, I can't take any money for... I'm no Midnight Cowboy, y'know. It would only cheapen the whole deal for me. AMANDA I'm not paying you for the lovemaking, Hawk. I just want you to have whatever you needed the money for when you took me up on my offer. She forces the money into his palm. HAWK ...Thanks. They kiss. AMANDA You're a good man, Hawk. Thank you. EXT. SMILEY MART - NIGHT The cashier, shoppers, and a gathering CROWD watch two cops load the dazed man with the coat into a cruiser. COP #1 (to cashier) You wouldn't happen to know where we could find this... Dr. Love, would you? CASHIER It's company policy to hand over a cash reward of a hundred and fifty dollars to anyone who stops a robbery. I gave him the money and he took off. The cops shrug and get into the cruiser. COP #2 Okay, well, thanks anyway. And let us know if you happen to see him again. We'd like to ask him some questions. The cruiser takes off and the cashier stares at her mood ring. It throbs red like a beating heart. CASHIER (sighing to herself) If I see Dr. Love any time soon, you're gonna have to wait till I'm done with him first. CAMERA TRACKS BACK QUICKLY AND SWINGS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. EXT. SMILEY MART PARKING LOT - NIGHT We find Trip counting his money out to the little kid, Chongo, and their two buds. TRIP ...hundred forty, hundred fifty. That's all I got. The little kid puts the money in his pocket. LITTLE KID Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I really wanted things to work out for you, my weasly, dim- witted friend. You got spunk. (to Chongo) Chongo, give him a fifty dollar wallop. Chongo reels back and... TRIP Oh, no... Please, look. I... THWAM! Right in Trip's face. Trip flies off his feet into the Smiley Mart brick wall with a THUD. A bag of weed drops from his jacket, then some uppers, a few sheets of acid, and finally a can of beer rolls out. CHONGO Hey, the jerkoff's got drugs. LITTLE KID Consider it a bonus, Chongo. Chongo laughs like an ejaculating gorilla as he and his two buds scoop it all up. The little kid, Chongo, and the buds leave Trip lying in a puddle of his own nose blood. He pulls out Stretch Armstrong and looks at him fondly. TRIP (misty eyed) At least I still got you, Stretch. Trip looks up. The six year olds who he stole it from stand close by having watched the whole humiliating exchange. Licked, Trip tosses the doll to them. They both dash away with it, giggling. EXT. NEARBY STREET - NIGHT Christine sits in an idling taxi taking money from Lex, who stands outside the window. LEX This oughta be enough to get you to Disco Inferno, Christine. CHRISTINE Come with. It's not too late for you to catch the fever. LEX No can do. But I made a promise to get you to that disco, and we KISS maniacs are men of our word. Besides... you're pretty cool... for a stella, I mean. Christine takes his hand and writes something on his palm in lipstick. CHRISTINE Here's my number. Tell me how cool I am over the phone sometime. Okay? She gives Lex a kiss then pushes him away. CHRISTINE (to CABBIE) Disco Inferno, on the double. The taxi SCREECHES away as Lex smiles and gets back into the Volvo. INT. COBO HALL - NIGHT Jam approaches the stadium, passing the MATMOKS, walking straight up to Mrs. Bruce. Her back is to him. He taps her on the shoulder. She turns. Her jaw drops. It escaped again! And what an ugly tee-shirt. JAM I'm gonna ask you nicely first. Mom, can I have my drumsticks back? Taken aback by his confidence, Mrs. Bruce grabs his ear and tries to pull him away. He won't budge. JAM Again, can I have my drumsticks? A BUNCH OF IDIOTS walk by with big transistor radios. One of them holds a Mr. Microphone and heckles the MATMOKS. LEAD IDIOT Hey, I'm on the radio! Hi, good- lookin'. We'll be back to pick you up later! Mrs. Bruce yells at Jam through her bullhorn. MRS. BRUCE Drumsticks are the least of your worries, young man. You are in a world of... Jam yanks the Mr. Microphone from the lead idiot and screams at his mother, his voice amplified on the transistors. Everyone stares. JAM I know, mom, I've been in trouble for about twelve hours now! Hellooooo!? The other MATMOKS turn to look as Jam climbs onto a trash receptacle and shouts down at his mother, his face slowly turning purple. JAM I'm gonna be spending the next two years of my life at St. Bernard's Boarding School, remember?! I'm gonna be outta your hair till I'm a legal adult, remember?! That way, all you have to do is go to church, light a candle, pray to a little statue for me, and voila! All is forgiven and forgotten, right mom?!! Then, you can spend your days in guilt-free pursuit of more constructive activities like telling everybody else how screwed up their lives are! That way you no longer need the patience and understanding required to communicate on some normal level with your own child!!! And that way you don't even have to think about how tough it was for you when you were growing up, and it's a good thing too. Cause if you did, you'd realize what a LOUSY, GODDAMN, SHITTY- ASS, PARENT YOU ARE!!! The crowd of KISS fans APPLAUD Jam's rant. Mrs. Bruce is utterly winded from the assault. MRS. BRUCE (timidly) Jeremiah... what's gotten into you? JAM (into Mr. Microphone) I just lost my virginity in a confessional booth! Lord have mercy!! The crowd cheers. Jam jumps down and hands the Mr. Microphone back to the lead idiot. He turns to his mom. JAM For the last time, mom. Let me have my fucking drumsticks. Please. Mrs. Bruce reaches into the trash, finds the drumsticks and hands them to him. He spins them like pistols, then stuffs them into his socks and walks away. SIMPLE PLAN EXT. IT'S RAINING MEN STRIP CLUB - NIGHT Hawk runs to the scalper across the street who's selling a ticket to another KISS fan. HAWK Whoa! Whoa! WHOA! That better not be the last ticket! I hope you have another one for me! The scalper sees Hawk and bolts down the street disappearing around a corner. Hawk stops. He's lost him. Hawk sulks to the now-familiar intersection where all four landmarks meet. He takes one more look up the block at Cobo Hall. Nearly all the KISS fans are inside. The streets are almost deserted. HAWK Fuck me! He sees someone out of the corner of his eye across the street. It's Jam. Lex approaches the other corner. Trip comes up to the forth corner. They all stop when they see each other. Each standing on his own corner. They're all pissed. They meet in the middle of the street as last minute CONCERT GOERS hurry by. HAWK Any luck? TRIP Plenty, but it was all bad. LEX I found the Volvo. HAWK Tickets? They all shake no. HAWK Well, dudes, the only way we're gonna see KISS this tour is by some fuckin' miracle. Suddenly, a commotion up the street. A SURLY MOM yanks four 12 YEAR OLD BRATS dressed like KISS by the scruffs of their necks. She's furious, they're CRYING. SURLY MOM How dare you sneak out of the house like that! You had me worried to death! Don't you know this is Detroit! And for a degenerate band like KISS! They're sick, sick, sick and oughta be in jail with their vile antics! She throws a wad of paper to the pavement as they pass our four heroes. The dudes watch her pull the brats away. SURLY MOM Just wait until your father gets ahold of you! Jam, Hawk, Lex, and Trip turn and look at the crumpled wad at their feet. It's an envelope. An ANGELIC SPOTLIGHT FROM ABOVE highlights it. LEX No... You don't think...? HAWK Nah. Couldn't be. They all shake their heads in unison resolved that it isn't. Then, unable to control themselves, they dive for the envelope. Jam tears it open. His trembling hand reaches in. All their eyes focus like lasers on what's inside. Jam pulls out four KISS tickets. Their jaws drop. Their eyes bug. JAM It's a miracle! A miracle! The boys are practically moved to tears. It's Divine Intervention at its finest. Suddenly, a greasy hand juts out of nowhere and grabs the tickets. The boys look up shocked. They can't believe it. ALL FOUR BOYS ELVIS?!! Yes, Elvis. Fire in his eyes. Mania on his mind. And tickets in his hand. ELVIS (laughing hysterically) Whose laughing now?! Whose laughing now, ya little shits?! I told ya... Over my dead body! Ha-HA-HAAA! HAWK (arms outstretched) Take it easy, Elvis. Don't do anything crazy. Just give me the tickets before someone gets hurt. TRIP Hey, wait a minute! This ain't school property! He's not the boss of us here! ELVIS (crazed) That's right. This ain't school. It's not about school anymore. Now it's personal. LEX Come on, Elvis. We was only kiddin'. It's all in good fun. We run, you chase. Cat and mouse. You know. ELVIS Boys, this time... I win! Elvis stuffs all four tickets in his mouth and chews crazily. In seconds, GULP. Elvis explodes into unhinged laughter as he runs away zigzagged down the street. Our boys are left dumbstruck and speechless. After a really long pause... JAM Well... I still got my idea if anybody will let me speak. HAWK (beaten) Go ahead, Jam. JAM We all beat each other up, then, once we're nice and bruised, we run over to the ticket takers and say we got mugged and our tickets were stolen. They gotta let us in then. They stand and think for a moment. Hawk's mouth curls into a devilish grin. Then, he lets out a gigantic "AIEEE!!! and slugs Jam. The four boys brutally pummel one another in the middle of the intersection. Punching. Kicking. Headbutting. EXT. COBO HALL - NIGHT Two TICKET TAKERS are letting the last KISS fans in. They're about to close the doors when our four bloodied and bruised heroes come running up. HAWK Dude, you gotta let us in! Four muggers just stole our tickets! TICKET TAKER (sceptical) You expect us to believe that? JAM Look at us! Trip points into the crowd of fans inside the auditorium foyer. TRIP It was those assholes! They even stole my wallet! The ticket takers turn to see the little kid, Chongo, and their two buds just going in. The ticket takers signal two security guards who proceed to stop the four stunned kids and confiscate their tickets. They find all the stolen dope and Trip's wallet. TRIP Inside that you'll find my KISS Army picture I.D. and a hundred fifty bucks cash. The security guards see he's right and break out the cuffs. TRIP (to little kid) Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I was really hoping things would work out for you, my weasly, midget friend. You got spunk. The little kid for once is speechless. Then the ticket taker extends his arm in SLOW MOTION into COBO Hall as if to say "Entrez Vous." The four friends pause. JAM This is it! They take a few slow steps almost as if they don't believe it, then run like the wind into the auditorium. DETROIT ROCK CITY INT. COBO HALL AUDITORIUM - NIGHT The lights are out. The lighters have been lit. The CROWDS' ROAR is deafening. Jam, Hawk, Trip, and Lex plow their way through the throngs and head straight for the front row just as Simple Simon takes the stage. SIMPLE SIMON You wanted the best! And you got the best! The hottest band in the world... KISS!!! Simple Simon runs from the stage just as the opening chords to DETROIT ROCK CITY BEGIN. On the beat, BOOM, FIREWORKS shoot from the floor alighting the place. KISS takes the stage descending on hydraulic elevators. ON JAM, HAWK, TRIP, AND LEX They're seeing God! The show is spectacular. The costumes. The make-up. The blitzkrieg of pyrotechnics. The flashing KISS sign. Ace's smoking guitar. Gene's spewing fire. Paul's rockin' vocals. Peter's kick-ass beat. Then, something really weird happens. The crowd behind the boys heaves forward. Jam is pushed like a twig in a flood and over the shoulders of those in front of him. Purely by accident, he is thrown onto the stage landing on his stomach between Paul and Gene. Just before Peter's drum solo is about to start. Gene, Paul, and Ace silence their instruments. Peter throws his drumstick into the air intending to catch it when it comes down. But the sight of Jam landing on the stage distracts him. All is mute as Peter misses the drumstick. It hits the outside edge of one of the drums. Thinking fast, Jam grabs one of his drumsticks out of his sock and tosses it to Peter. It tumbles through the air in SLOW MOTION with a LOW, WHOOPING, HELICOPTER SOUND. We see the word "Mystery" clearly as it twirls. Instantly, it's caught in Peter Criss's hand and he brings it down on his drum not missing a beat. The song resumes with all its fury as Peter's drum kit ascends on a hydraulic platform. Jam scrambles from the stage and leaps back into the audience barely missing the claws of some security guards. The four friends pound on each other with unbridled, teenage exuberance. Will it ever get any better than this? FREEZE FRAME. FADE TO WHITE: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil in a Blue Dress.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil in a Blue Dress.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..65667dde02fc17b3bc20b680c454c47b81710324 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil in a Blue Dress.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS Written by Carl Franklin From the novel by Walter Mosley March 9, 1994 - 3rd Draft1 INT. CHAMPION AIRCRAFT - BENNY GIACOMO'S OFFICE 1 A battered wooden desk drawer groans open and light brown skinned hands with dirty fingernails twist the cap off a pint of rye whiskey and pour liquor into a coffee cup. O.S. VOICE You know, when you fire somebody you have to stick to your guns. They screw the cap back on and lay the bottle in the drawer. O.S. VOICE (continuing) The men might get to thinkin' that I'm weak if I take you back. The cup rises to the face of BENNY GIACOMO, late forties, with salt and pepper hair that was once jet black. Skin darker than a Louisiana Creole. He takes a sip and bares his teeth in a grimace from the whiskey. As he talks we gradually see more of him -- feet kicked up on the desk, fully in charge. A Betty Grable like pin-up girl is giving us background in more ways than one in a swimsuit and high heels on a calendar tacked to the wall: May, 1948. BENNY (continuing) And I didn't tell Dupree that I'd give you your job back... All I said was that I'd be glad to talk to you if you said the right thing... Do you have something to say? A stream of cigarette smoke snakes through as the back of a man's head and shoulder nudges in and shifts nervously. MAN Mr. Giacomo, when one of the white guys has come off a double shift and says he's too tired to work overtime, you don't fire him. BENNY Fella, what'd I tell ya? If you're not willing to give a little extra, Champion can't use you. EASY RAWLINS, thirty, handsome and a much darker brown than Giacomo, takes a drag off a Chesterfield cigarette. 2.1 CONTINUED: 1 Through the window behind him, a team of men pour over a partly assembled airplane, their voices echoing in the hangar that surrounds the office. Benny measures out his words one at a time. BENNY (O.S.) Now... Do... you... have... something... to say? Easy swallows his frustration in silence and thinks about swallowing his pride as well. And then: EASY I want my job back, Mr. Giacomo. I need to work and I need a good job. BENNY (O.S.) Is that all? Easy looks down into the smoke and sits up straight to keep from bowing his head. EASY No, that's not all... I need money so that I can pay my mortgage and eat... I need a house to live in and a place to raise children... I need to buy clothes so I can-- BENNY I'm sorry, fella, but I gotta get back to work... And he swings his feet down and stands up to go. But Easy is up too, blocking his way out the door. EASY Ezekiel, Mr. Giacomo. BENNY Hunh? EASY My name is Ezekiel... Ezekiel Rawlins. Benny clinches his fists and focuses on Easy's chest like a fighter. And Easy rocks back on one foot ready to score a field goal with his right knee. Slowly, Giacomo's face creases into a plastic grin and he shrugs. 3.1 CONTINUED: (2) 1 BENNY S'cuse me, Ezekiel. And he walks around Easy, shaking his head as if amused. Easy watches him go as the low moan of the baritone sax from Duke Ellington's "Absinthe" snakes up like sin and we2 FADE TO BLACK 2 And watch the titles, the last one reading "Two Weeks Later"... FADE IN:3 EXT. JOPPY'S BAR - DAY 3 Black and grey cars, Packards and Buicks from 1928 to 1948, come and go on Central Avenue. Two-storied storefronts with canvas awnings, above black men and women in hats... all in a hurry. The Red Car rumbles through and then a white Cadillac convertible pulls to the curb in front of a butcher shop. Above the shop on the next floor are large partly open windows with JOPPY'S BAR in boldface letters. Inside sits Easy, back to the window reading the classified ads.4 INT. JOPPY'S BAR 4 T-Bone Walker's "Westside Baby" plays on the jukebox as Easy takes a final drag off his cigarette and stubs it out. THE FRONT PAGE of the LOS ANGELES TIMES lies face up on the table beneath the ashtray displaying A PHOTOGRAPH of a middle-aged white man and his pretty young woman companion smiling and waving. Above the happy couple is a headline "CARTER DROPS OUT OF RACE"... The caption under the photo reads "Wealthy civic leader, Todd Carter, shown here with his lovely bride-to-be, Daphne Monet, at a fundraiser last month was unavailable for comment on his surprising withdrawal from the Mayor's race." O.S. VOICE Catch ya later, Joppy. BACK TO SCENE SPLACK! An older black man hitching up his pants underneath a bloodstained butcher's apron has slapped his empty beer glass down hard on the counter on his way out. 4.4 CONTINUED: 4 JOPPY Hey, watch the marble! Dammit, what'd I tell you? The fifty-year-old burly bartender leans over his big stomach checking for cracks and buffing the veiny marble top of the bar with a filthy rag. Behind him is a yellow billboard from 1932 with big black letters reading "Fuller vs. Shag. 10 ROUND MAIN EVENT." We could make out more of the poster and the eight-by-ten framed boxing photos around it if it wasn't so smoky in the place. EASY Joppy, how much they payin' out there at McDonell Douglas? JOPPY I don't know. Don't it say-- His words hang as his eyes stray toward the door. Easy looks up also at THE DOORWAY which fills with the large frame of the white MAN in an off-white linen suit, his pale eyes surveying the room. Satisfied that all but two of the six tables in the tiny room are unoccupied, he smiles at Joppy and walks to the far end of the bar. Easy is surprised to see Joppy, tough ex-heavyweight that he is, duck his head and smile as he makes his way over like he's answering a summons. The white man extends a friendly hand and the two of them shake like old friends and lean in close to talk in private. Easy finds it hard not to watch their conversation as he takes a sip from a short glass of bourbon on the rocks. After a moment... JOPPY Easy, come on over here. This here's somebody I want ya to meet... Come on. This here's a friend of mine. Easy drains his glass and stands up, then walks over. JOPPY Yeah, Easy. This here's Mr. Albright. ALBRIGHT You can call me Dewitt, Easy. 5.4 CONTINUED: (2) 4 He extends his hand and Easy shakes it. EASY How ya doin'? JOPPY (bowing and grinning) Mr. Albright and me goes back to before the war when I was still in the fight game. ALBRIGHT (to Easy) Ever seen this guy fight...? Any time Joppy Shag stepped in the ring you knew you were gonna see some real knock-down-drag-out- fisticuffs... Where you from, Easy? EASY (awkwardly) Houston. ALBRIGHT Houston... Joppy's hometown. Joppy pours Albright a straight shot of Wild Turkey and the big man sips it. ALBRIGHT So I hear you need a job. Easy throws a look at Joppy, but Joppy is busy buffing the bar and putting more of Easy's business in the street. JOPPY Aw yeah, Easy always tryin' to do better. Got his high school certificate from night school. He's threatenin' up on some college. And he's one of the few colored men around here who owns his own house. Shoot, he pays a mortgage every month just like a white man. ALBRIGHT Property owner, hunh? He turns up his drink and sets the empty glass down on the counter. 6.4 CONTINUED: (3) 4 ALBRIGHT (continuing) These big companies, don't give a damn, do they? He reaches in his coat pocket and produces a business card and scribbles something on it. ALBRIGHT (continuing) If you need a job, drop by this address at seven tonight. Easy takes the card and glances at it. EASY What kind of work you do? ALBRIGHT I do favors... I do favors for friends. Drop by. He nods to Joppy and walks out the door. EASY Who the hell is that, Joppy? JOPPY Just somebody I know... A bidness man. EASY What kinda business? JOPPY Oh, I don't ask him all that. He comes in here every so often looking for somebody to do a little job for him... He pays good. EASY In other words, he's a gangster. JOPPY I didn't say that... But if there's a dollar laying in the street I don't think he'll let a little dirt stop him from picking it up. If you worried about making that house note this month, maybe you wanna pay him a call. All them pretty girls you be with ain't gonna buy you a house. 7.4 CONTINUED: (4) 4 Easy cocks his head "Are you crazy?" JOPPY (continuing) Sound like he just wants you to keep your eyes open for somebody... He'll pay you whether you see anything or not... If it was me I'd take that man's money and go on about my bidness... Ain't nothin' to worry about. Easy is still suspicious, but can't take his eyes off the card. EASY (V.O.) When somebody tells me "Don't worry," I usually look down to see if my fly is open... I noticed Albright didn't bother to pay for his drink.5 EXT. EASY'S '46 PONTIAC - DAY 5 Little single family houses with tiny yards of St. Augustine grass rush toward the amber Indianhead hood ornament on Easy's car.6 INT. EASY'S CAR 6 Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" plays on the radio as Easy heads for home in thought. EASY (V.O.) (continuing) DeWitt Albright reminded me of somebody I knew back in Houston. His name was Raymond Alexander but we called him Mouse... Mouse called hisself a businessman too. And I found out that I shouldn't be nowhere around when Mouse got down to his business... I learned that the hard way. A neighbor sweeps out her front porch and waves at Easy as he slows down in front of his house.7 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 7 He gets out of his car and a group of children chasing a man giving goat cart rides, washes past him in the street. 8.7 CONTINUED: 7 A MAN with an unruly head of hair and full beard pushing a wheelbarrow with a double edged axe wheels up behind Easy as he opens his gate. WOODCUTTER Want me to knock down some of them trees back there for you? EASY (irritated) No... Just leave the trees alone. Easy continues up his walkway past flower beds of dahlias and wild roses and stops on his front porch to check on his African violets in a jar next to the front door.8 INT. EASY'S HOUSE 8 He walks into his tiny living room and tosses his jacket onto the sofa. Then moves on through the kitchen and out the back door.9 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - BACKYARD - DAY 9 He picks up a water hose and turns on the faucet, watering and admiring his apple, avocado, pomegranate and banana trees as he lights a cigarette. EASY (V.O.) I had moved to Los Angeles right after the war with three hundred dollars and the G.I. Bill... And I liked coming home to a place that was mine... According to President Truman I had that comin' to me 'cause I had fought in 'the good war' against Hitler in Europe... But that didn't mean a damn thing to a lotta white folks including the foreman on my job... So, here I was out of work needin' thirty-two dollars to pay the mortgage... That was three days pay on my old job -- and I had about three days to get it.10 EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - NIGHT 10 Easy parks in front of a large Spanish-style building. He gets out and walks to the black wrought iron entrance. 9.11 EXT. COURTYARD - NIGHT 11 Easy makes his way through the overgrown patio with roses and vines cascading down from office windows on the second floor.A12 INT. OFFICE - NIGHT A12 Someone is watching Easy as he looks for the right office.12 EXT. COURTYARD - NIGHT 12 A small white MAN pops out from behind a hedge startling Easy. He wears a suit that also serves as a uniform. SECURITY GUARD What are you doing here? EASY I'm looking for, uh... SECURITY GUARD We only take deliveries between nine and six... EASY No, no... I... SECURITY GUARD Yes, we do! Now you'd better leave. He clutches a baton in his hand and swats it into his open palm. EASY Uh... Albright! SECURITY GUARD What? EASY I'm here to see Mr. Albright. DeWitt Albright! SECURITY GUARD Where's your delivery? He holds out his scrawny hand. EASY I have an appointment -- I'm supposed to meet him. 10.12 CONTINUED: 12 SECURITY GUARD Did he give you a note to come in here after hours? Easy only stares, hating this little man. SECURITY GUARD Well, did he? Because if he didn't-- EASY Forget it, man. Next time I see him I'll just tell him you wouldn't let me in. Disgusted, Easy turns to leave. SECURITY GUARD Hold on. He sizes up Easy and then points across the courtyard. SECURITY GUARD (like an order) Across that way to the left and down the stairs... Easy half nods/half glares and walks away.13 OMIT 13 At the other side of the garden Easy turns a corner and heads down concrete steps. At the bottom he opens a door leading into14 INT. BASEMENT - CORRIDOR 14 He looks into the boiler room but turns into an empty corridor stopping at a heavy steel door at the end. He knocks. After a moment a tall and slight MAN with curly brown hair and the complexion of an East Indian opens the door.15 INT. MAINTENANCE ROOM 15 A short and stocky kind of Chinese-looking MAN stands against the door at the far end. The Tall Man ushers Easy into the clutter of heavy metal tools, cans of paint and cleaning solutions. A card table with two chairs sits idly. The Tall Man closes the door and holds out his hand. Easy reaches to shake it but the man starts to pat Easy on his side and Easy pushes him away. 11.15 CONTINUED: 15 EASY Hey, man! What's wrong with you? The Chinese Man slips a hand inside his coat and the Tall Man smiles. TALL MAN (with an accent) Mr. Rawlins, put your hands up a little from your sides, please. EASY Keep your hands to yourself. I don't let no man feel on me like that. The Chinese Man pulls some kind of weapon halfway out and takes a step forward, and the Tall Man tries to put his hand against Easy's chest but Easy grabs his wrist. TALL MAN Don't worry, Manny. He's okay. Just a little shaky. (indicating the door) Let him know. Manny pushes his weapon back in his coat and knocks on the door behind him. After a moment, DeWitt Albright opens up. ALBRIGHT (smiling) Easy. TALL MAN He doesn't want us to touch him. ALBRIGHT Leave it, Shariff. I just wanted to make sure he was solo. SHARIFF You're the boss. ALBRIGHT You guys can go now. Easy and I have some business.16 INT. MAINTENANCE OFFICE 16 Easy follows Albright inside and the big man goes behind a big wooden desk and puts his bone-colored shoes up next to a half full bottle of Wild Turkey. On the other end of the desk a small radio scratches out the Glen Gray Orchestra's "Gotta Be This or That." 12.16 CONTINUED: 16 There is a paper calendar hanging on the wall behind him with a picture of a basket of blackberries, but other than that the room is bare. ALBRIGHT Have a seat, Mr. Rawlins. Easy takes a seat in a chair in front of the desk and tries not to stare at the tan leather shoulder holster under Albright's arm with the muzzle of the pistol almost reaching his belt. EASY (gesturing back) Your friends, hunh? ALBRIGHT Like you, Easy. I need a little help? I give 'em a call... Drink? EASY Sure. Albright pulls another glass from the desk drawer and pours a fresh one for Easy and fresher one for himself. ALBRIGHT One thing I like about working for myself... I always have a bottle on the table... You wanna drink with me? Fine. You don't? Door's right behind you... Joppy tells me you're a war hero... Said you went in with Patton. Easy nods, proud but polite, and Albright pushes him a glass of whiskey. ALBRIGHT So, you want the job? EASY Depends on what kind of job. I don't want to get mixed up in nothing. ALBRIGHT Walk out the door in the morning, Easy, and you're mixed up in something. Only thing that matters is if you're mixed up to the top or not. 13.16 CONTINUED: (2) 16 EASY I mean I don't wanna get mixed up with the law... ALBRIGHT Neither one of us wants to get mixed up in that. That's just rich people trying to keep me and you in our place. He laughs and takes a healthy swig and Easy takes a drink too. ALBRIGHT I'm looking for somebody for a friend. He pushes a newspaper across the desk to Easy and Easy holds it up. NEWSPAPER It's the front page with the photograph of the wealthy Todd Carter and his beautiful bride-to-be... Despite her smile, there's a sadness in the eyes. ALBRIGHT (O.S.) Daphne Monet... fiancÈe of Todd Carter, one of the richest men in town... Been gone for two weeks... BACK TO SCENE EASY She leave him? ALBRIGHT Evidently... You know how it is with women, Easy... Happens to the best of us... He rears back in his chair as if expecting a sign of recognition. EASY I ain't never heard of her before. I wouldn't know how to find a woman like that. ALBRIGHT That's a shame. He laughs a conspiratorial, lecher's laugh and Easy allows a smile. 14.16 CONTINUED: (3) 16 ALBRIGHT See, Daphne has a predilection for the company of Negroes. She likes jazz and pigs feet and dark meat, know what I mean. The insult takes Easy off guard but he should've known. EASY So you think she might be down in Watts. ALBRIGHT I'm sure of it. But I can't go looking for her myself because I'm not of the right persuasion, so to speak. I've been asking Joppy for over a week, but all he could do was introduce me to you. EASY What do you want me to do? ALBRIGHT Just get a location on her. Mr. Carter wants to make up with her... EASY That's all. ALBRIGHT (smiling) That's all. He pulls out a brown secretary-type wallet and counts out 10 ten-dollar bills into a neat stack next to the whiskey. ALBRIGHT One hundred dollars, and I pay in advance. Easy eyes the money. All he has to do is pick it up. EASY I just have to tell you where she is? ALBRIGHT That's right. And keep it, you know, confidential... He freshens Easy's drink and Easy eyes the money some more. 15.16 CONTINUED: (4) 16 ALBRIGHT Joppy tells me you used to frequent an illegal club down on Eighty- ninth and Central. Somebody saw Daphne there a few nights ago. You could start tonight. Easy takes a drink and looks again at the money.17 EXT. JOHN'S PLACE (MARKET) - NIGHT 17 Stripped down to its dark, naked self, Central Avenue has drawn a crowd from all over town. Neon glistens off slick pomade and silk clings to the contours of simmering flesh. An outrage to police even before the era of Police Chief Parker's personal crusade, a squad car sits idling while two dicks in blue manhandle a brother in a grey sharkskin zoot suit, prodding and whapping with nightsticks, searching for something -- anything -- because his date is a young white woman. A few onlookers stand back watching, but since this white woman is not Daphne Monet, Easy only glances and walks inside.18 INT. JOHN'S BAR 18 Easy sees his fifth white MAN that day in a disheveled but expensive dark blue suit staggering toward him, reeking of gin. DRUNK Hey, colored brother. I need you to do somethin' for me-- O.S. WOMAN'S VOICE Go on. What'd I tell you about hair-assing my customers. Easy looks over to see HATTIE PARSONS, the small, brown- skinned manager of the place, glaring daggers at the drunk man while watching the commotion out the window. Easy starts over toward Hattie and the drunk turns and tries to grab Easy's arm. But his desperation causes him to trip and he winds up sitting against the wall. Easy steps over him and joins Hattie at the window. HATTIE I just paid these damn cops and they still roustin' my customers. Well, that's what he gets for being with that white woman. 16.18 CONTINUED: 18 She walks over to the cash register of this neighborhood corner store; and Easy follows, the drunk beckoning him to bend down to talk as he passes. DRUNK Come on, brother help me... HATTIE Don't worry 'bout him. I rung Junior ten minutes ago to come get him. Easy pulls out two dollars and Hattie deposits them into the till. HATTIE I ain't got nobody tonight but Lips and his trio -- Holiday came through here last Tuesday. EASY Yeah? HATTIE Yeah. Heavy FOOTSTEPS are heard pounding down a stairway in the back of the store and big burly JUNIOR FORNAY lumbers in with a cigarette hanging from his lips. JUNIOR Where's he at? Hattie points to the drunk man as he struggles to get to his feet. HATTIE Over there. Let Easy in upstairs and when these cops leave throw his ass out. EASY Hey, Junior. What's goin' on? JUNIOR Not too much. But stick around. Junior leads the way back up the stairs.19 OMIT 19 17.A20 INT. JOHN'S SPEAKEASY STAIRWELL A20 EASY You got a cigarette? JUNIOR Sure. He pulls out his pack and stops to light Easy up. Easy starts coughing as they continue up the stairs. EASY Damn! How do you smoke these things? JUNIOR Don't you hafta work tomorrow? EASY Naw. I got fired. A hint of a smile appears on Junior's face. JUNIOR The last time I heard these fellas playin' tonight was back in Houston, the night your ole buddy Mouse had to pull me up off your ass. Easy grins and shakes his head. EASY That's the way you remember it, hunh? JUNIOR Hell, that's the way it was. And he stops to unlock the door. JUNIOR (continuing) When you gonna admit that you helped Mouse kill old man Navrochet? EASY Aw, man, get off that. I ain't had nothin' to do with that. Junior opens the door and Lips' alto horn slaps Easy in the face. Half of Houston, Texas seems to be jammed into this place. 18.A20 CONTINUED: A20 EASY Boy, it's happenin' tonight. Where's all the white women at? JUNIOR I don't pay them white girls no mind. EASY (sarcastically) Yeah... I bet you don't. And he steps in. JUNIOR That's right. Just like you didn't help mouse kill his stepfather. EASY Go on, man. And he starts away inside. JUNIOR Hey, Easy. Did you help him kill his stepbrother, too? Easy turns to glare at Junior and the surly field hand slaps his thigh and roars with laughter as he closes the door. After all these years the two men still hate each other.20 INT. JOHN'S SPEAKEASY 20 Easy looks around to see couples trying to dance; finding themselves wrestling between tables packed with five and six people each. He heads for the bar pointing a finger at a man in a black silk shirt and a foot-high pompadour hairdo. EASY Alphonso Jenkins! ALPHONSO flashes pearls. ALPHONSO Hey, Easy! EASY Hey, man, you seen a girl named Dahlia or somethin'... White girl supposed to be somethin' to look at. 19.20 CONTINUED: 20 ALPHONSO Naw, but if I see her I'm gonna keep her to myself. Easy claps him on the shoulder and waves at skinny RITA COOK who is sitting at a table with five MEN. RITA Hey, Baby. EASY Hey, Rita! (under his breath) What do they see in you? Finally, Easy spots a fifty-year-old MAN in an old grey tweed jacket sitting in a corner at a table by himself. Looking like the God fearing, all fearing Baptist deacon that he is -- he is as out of place as a whore in church as he nervously gazes about the room and massacres a plate of barbecued ribs. Easy leans over the counter to the bartender. EASY Hey, Lewis. Gimme a couple glasses and a pail of ice and send a quart of bourbon over there to Odell's table. Lewis scoops up ice into a small bucket and plops it onto the bar with two short glasses. Easy lays a dollar on the counter and carries the set up over to the corner as he watches... THE BAND burn it up. BACK TO SCENE Easy stops at Odell's table. EASY Hey, Odell. ODELL Easy. EASY How's it going tonight? Odell doesn't miss a bite as he scopes the crowd. 20.20 CONTINUED: (2) 20 ODELL (slowly) Well... It's goin' alright. It sure is goin'. O.S. VOICE Easy Rawlins, is that you? Easy looks up to see DUPREE, a big black man with a wide white grin in a white suite with blue pinstripes and a ten-gallon hat. DUPREE You ain't jumped outta no windows yet? EASY Not yet, Dupree. DUPREE Miss you down at the plant... You know Coretta, don't ya? He has her in tow like a toy wagon and she offers a coy smile. Short and roundish with cherry-brown skin, she leads with her bosom. EASY Hey, Coretta, how are ya? Coretta rests her sloe-eyes on Easy and Odell and the church going man almost chokes. ODELL Oh, my goodness. CORETTA Could we sit down with y'all? EASY Sure. Sure. Dupree and Coretta settle in. DUPREE You know Benny just wants you to say you're sorry, Easy. And he'll give you your job back. EASY I'm a sorry man, all right. Any man without his paycheck is sorry. 21.20 CONTINUED: (3) 20 Dupree laughs, smacking the table so hard it rattles like an earthquake. And Coretta's smile ignites like a slow fuse causing Easy to feel it all the way down his spine. A man with his hair marcelled back swoops in and pulls a quart of Old Crow from his overcoat and sits it on the table. Easy reaches for his wallet but Dupree beats him to it. DUPREE I got it, Easy. Your money ain't no good up in here. EASY Naw, Dupree. This one's mine-- DUPREE You sure? You the one outta work. Coretta frowns at Dupree as Easy counts out three dollars. CORETTA And you're the one ain't never got no money. DUPREE Aw, Baby... (to bootlegger) Get us another couple glasses. And he peels off a dollar and hands it off. EASY Either one of y'all seen a white girl named Dahlia or somethin' with a 'D'? Odell shakes his head "no," and Coretta looks away as if insulted leaving silence until DUPREE Hey, Coretta got a new job at the phone company. He squeezes his woman in close and Coretta softens up and burns that smile again. Easy grins and nods "congratulations."21 THE BOTTLE 21 It's less than a quarter full now because it's three hours later. 22.21 CONTINUED: 21 BACK TO SCENE John's is only half full and the band is gone. The jukebox echoes Lena Horne's "Prisoner of Love" and Dupree leans back in his chair, snoring -- mouth wide open. Odell gets up and starts to amble off. EASY Hey, you goin' home, Odell? Concentrating totally on keeping his balance, Odell waves feebly without looking back. Easy is droopy-eyed from the booze but Coretta just looks a little sexier. She straightens Dupree's hat on his head and twists up her nose. CORETTA He used to play till the cock crowed. But that ole cock don't crow nearly so much now... She levels her perpetual "come on" onto Easy and he nods sluggishly and lifts himself to his feet. EASY Think I'm gonna head out. CORETTA You be sorry if you go. She slides her hand inside her blouse and discreetly lifts her bodice to air her breasts. EASY I think I'd be more sorry if I stay... He turns to go. CORETTA Daphne sleep by now. You can't get none of that tonight. Easy turns and Coretta plays with the ice in her glass. CORETTA You been telling everybody Dahlia, but her name is Daphne. EASY You know her? 23.21 CONTINUED: (2) 21 Coretta leans back and fans her bosom.22 EXT. CORETTA'S HOUSE - NIGHT 22 Easy struggles with Dupree, and Coretta gives him a hand as they drag him from Easy's car to her front door, the big man's feet plowing two deep furrows in the lawn.23 INT. CORETTA'S HOUSE 23 Coretta pushes the door open and Easy hauls him in. CORETTA Throw him in there on the bed, Easy. Easy pulls and pushes Dupree's dead weight into THE BEDROOM CORETTA Throwed him outta his place, 'cause he couldn't pay the rent. I shouldn't even let him sleep here. Finally Easy manages to pile Dupree onto the bed and then stands up panting and sweating. EASY Damn... Coretta leads him out into24 THE LIVING ROOM 24 EASY I need a cigarette. Coretta shines her hazel eyes on him. CORETTA That all you need? Easy grins nervously and clears his throat. EASY Coretta, sun catch me tip-toein' out your door and no tellin' what your neighbors say... 24.24 CONTINUED: 24 CORETTA Dupree run through his money, fall asleep on me. And you just gonna walk out on me like I was dog food... EASY You got a man in the other room... Why don't you tell me 'bout your friend Daphne? Coretta strolls up to Easy, pressing her body against his. CORETTA Why you keep askin' 'bout her? Colored women ain't good enough for you no more? She undoes a button on his shirt and kisses his chest, and unbuttons another working her way down. Easy sweats harder than when he was lifting Dupree. EASY What if he hears somethin'? CORETTA (O.S.) Way he snorin'? ON THE SOFA - MINUTES LATER CORETTA Oh yeah, daddy. You hittin' my spot! Oh yeah... yeah! The top of her dress undone, Coretta is straddling Easy who is hitting her spot and his too, in a rhythm. Eyes closed, he bites his lip to hold in the ecstasy so as not to awaken Dupree, who is sawing logs -- shredding 'em -- in the bedroom. Suddenly Coretta tears herself off of him and sits back on his knees. Easy writhes and shakes like a power line shorting out. CORETTA (coy, shy) Oooh, that's just too good, Easy. Easy tries to pull her back but she twists down to the floor. CORETTA I can't give up that much love, daddy, not the way things is. 25.24 CONTINUED: (2) 24 EASY (out loud) What things? She shushes him with a finger and twists her head toward the bedroom. CORETTA You know, Dupree's right there in the next room. EASY (full voice) Forget about him! You got me goin', Coretta! Coretta quiets him again and he comes back to his senses. CORETTA But it ain't right, Easy. Here I am doin' this right in the next room and all you doin' is nosin' after my friend Daphne... EASY Daphne? (and then remembers) Oh, yeah... I ain't after her, baby. That's just a job. CORETTA What job? EASY Man wants me to find her. CORETTA What man? EASY Who cares, what man? I don't want nobody but you... He pulls her toward him but she pushes him away. CORETTA But Daphne's my friend-- Frustrated, he sits back against the sofa and Coretta, sensing that he is snapping out of her spell, slides forward onto him giving him her spot again. And within moments they are back at it. 26.24 CONTINUED: (3) 24 CORETTA Oh, baby. Oh, daddy, you hittin' my spot! Oh, yeah... EASY (V.O.) I went on hittin' her spot until just before sun-up. DISSOLVE TO:25 EXT. CORETTA'S HOUSE - DAWN 25 The sky is light purple as Easy stumbles down Coretta's porch. She waves half-heartedly and closes the door as he straightens his clothes and looks around for any "witnesses" on his way to his car. DISSOLVE TO:26 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 26 Easy's Pontiac pulls to a stop in front and he gets out. EASY (V.O.) It occurred to me that Coretta had found out a lot more about what I was up to than I had wanted her to. But I had found out that the rich man's woman had a colored boyfriend... It had cost me a sawbuck to get Coretta to give me that information... Well, let's just say somethin' had cost me ten dollars.27 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER 27 Golden morning light streams in through the window. Outside, a dog is barking at a bird on the fence. Coffee percolates on the stove and Easy walks over and pours himself a cup. He moves to the breakfast table and sits down by the window looking out onto the street as he opens up a blue envelope in a stack of mail. Gradually he begins to silently mouth the words and sits up, his eyes getting bigger until he finds himself reading aloud. EASY "Since Etta Mae has left me and I am a bachelor I figured I could come out and visit and we burn down the town... (MORE) 27.27 CONTINUED: 27 EASY (CONT'D) Write me and tell me when's a good time." (looks up) Aw shit.28 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 28 Easy waters his lawn in deep thought. EASY (V.O.) The letter from Mouse was worrying me in more ways than one... All I had to do was call Albright to earn the hundred dollars I already had in my pocket... But the last time I got money that easy I got it from Mouse -- fifty dollars -- And the next day I had to join the Army to leave town. FLASHBACK:29 INT. STOLEN CAR - NIGHT 29 A younger Easy is driving, his hair greased up high in a pompadour with a pencil line moustache framing his top lip. A man in a wide brim Homburg hat looks away out the passenger window. MAN Drive to the trainyard, Easy! Let's dump this damn thing. EASY (suddenly alarmed) This ain't your friend's car? What'd you do Mouse? MOUSE (still looking away) Just drive this sumbitch! The drone of the engine takes us30 BACK TO SCENE 30 A TRUCK with a whole family's belongings tied down onto a flatbed rolls up. A WOMAN and a bunch of KIDS fill up the cab. WOMAN Bye, Easy! 28.30 CONTINUED: 30 EASY Where you goin', Sophie? WOMAN Back to Texas... It's too fast for me out here. She waves and keeps on trucking. He watches her wistfully and then catches sight of THE WOODCUTTER across the street in a neighbor's front yard, axe in hand, about to swing on a lemon tree. EASY Get away from there! He picks up a rock and throws it, and then chucks another sending the scruffy vagabond wheeling his barrow off down the street. Easy shuts off the water and walks back up on his porch. He picks up a glass of lemonade that sits at the foot of a chair on top of A NEWSPAPER A front page heading reads "CARTER'S WITHDRAWAL LEAVES TERAN ON TOP." Below it A PHOTOGRAPH of a smiling Matthew Teran, with lips too thick for a white man, getting out of a limousine.31 O.S. THE PHONE IS RINGING. It's 31 LATER - NIGHT Easy is asleep on the porch. Finally, he wakes up to the ringing and heads into the house.32 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - BEDROOM 32 Easy flops on the bed and lifts the phone off a cherry wood nightstand. EASY Hello? O.S. VOICE Mr. Rawlins, I've been expecting your call. EASY What? 29.32 CONTINUED: 32 O.S. VOICE I hope you have good news for me. EASY Mr. Albright, is that you? ALBRIGHT Sure is, Easy. What's shakin'? Easy clears his head. He has slept away the day. EASY I got what you want. She's with-- ALBRIGHT Hold on to that, Easy. I like to look a man in the face when we do business. Meet me at the Fisherman's Pier in Malibu at the hamburger stand in an hour. EASY Uh... I don't know about that Mr. Albright -- Mr. Albright? He realizes that Albright has hung up, and swears under his breath.33 EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT 33 The headlights from Easy's car illuminate the cliffs that fall alongside the winding two-lane highway.34 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 34 Easy is cautious, checking the rearview mirror more often than usual. EASY (V.O.) I wasn't used to going to white communities, like Malibu, to conduct business. Champion Aircraft was in Santa Monica but I drove out there in the daytime, did my work and came home. I never loitered nowhere except among my own people, in my own neighborhood.A35 EXT. MALIBU PIER - PARKING LOT - NIGHT A35 The lights from the pier can be seen in the distance as Easy parks his car. And the voices of teenagers in raucous conversation can be heard above Glenn Miller's big band playing "Silhouette In The Moonlight" on the jukebox. 30.A35 CONTINUED: A35 Easy gets out and starts toward the pier.35 EXT. MALIBU PIER - NIGHT 35 Easy walks past the hamburger stand and on to the railing that looks out over the ocean. O.S. VOICE Hi. He spins around and sees a chubby 17-year-old white GIRL in a tight-fitting skirt. He nods respectfully and turns away to look out at the water, hoping she'll leave. GIRL It's pretty out here, huh? EASY Yeah. It's all right. GIRL I'm from Des Moines in Iowa. Where are you from? EASY (without looking back) Huh?... Uh... Texas... GIRL Do they have an ocean in Texas? EASY The Gulf, they have the Gulf. She leans on the rail next to Easy and he glances over his shoulder, seeing a couple of the young men looking around like they've lost someone. EASY I think they're looking for you. BARBARA Who cares? My sister brought me 'cause my parents made her. All she wants to do is make out with Herman and smoke cigarettes. PIMPLY-FACED BOY Hey, you! What are you doing? The five-foot-six-inch twenty-year-old charges straight up to Easy. 31.35 CONTINUED: 35 BARBARA (yelling) Leave him alone, Herman! We were just talking! HERMAN You were, huh? (to Easy) We don't need you talking to our women. Easy braces himself as five of Herman's FRIENDS rush over, including one built like a football player. FOOTBALL Hey! What's wrong? HERMAN Nigger's trying to pick up Barbara. BARBARA Leave him alone! We were just talking about the ocean! BARBARA'S SISTER Barbara! Football gets right in Easy's face. FOOTBALL Hey, fella, what's wrong with you? A couple of the other boys have picked up sticks and are surrounding Easy against the rail. EASY I don't want no trouble. FOOTBALL You already got trouble, boy. EASY Listen... I was just being polite. HERMAN No, you weren't. You were talkin' about the ocean! O.S. VOICE Excuse me. Easy sees Albright's Panama hat appear behind Football. 32.35 CONTINUED: (2) 35 FOOTBALL What do you want? And he whirls around to Albright's smiling face, just in time to see him pull that rifle-like pistol from inside his coat, leveling it at his eyes. ALBRIGHT I want to see brains. I want you to die for me. Albright cocks the hammer. It sounds like a bone breaking, and Barbara starts crying in her sister's arms. FOOTBALL (quickly) I'm sorry, sir. Easy nods but Albright is not satisfied. ALBRIGHT The question is: "Are you sorry enough?" FOOTBALL Yessir. ALBRIGHT Then prove it... Show him... Get down on your knees and suck his peter. Football starts crying. EASY (to Albright) I think he got the point-- ALBRIGHT (to Football) You heard me. He presses the barrel to the boy's forehead and Football goes down to his knees. The other young men look on in horror. ALBRIGHT Son of a gun. You were gonna do it, weren't you? THUNK! He slaps the barrel of the pistol into the side of the boy's head. Football screams and the others scatter. 33.35 CONTINUED: (3) 35 ALBRIGHT Sick bastard. THUNK! He smacks him again, and blood is everywhere. ALBRIGHT Get out of here. You call the cops, I'll kill ya! Football manages to stagger to his feet and stumbles away into the darkness back out toward the parking lot.36 Albright wipes his gun with a handkerchief and slides it 36 back into the holster. ALBRIGHT I don't think they'd dare call the cops. (giggles) But it'll cost me a few bucks if they do. He claps Easy on the back as if it's all been in fun and giggles like a kid on his way toward the hamburger stand. Easy looks at him numbly and tags alongside, clutching his anger in tightly clenched jaws. ALBRIGHT What you got, Easy? EASY You sure no harm is gonna come to that woman 'cause of me? Albright doesn't break stride. ALBRIGHT Course not. Mr. Carter wants to buy her a gold ring and live happily ever after -- What do ya got? Easy exhales, feeling trapped, but he's come this far... EASY Woman told me she's with a man named Frank Green. Albright stops; the charm gone, he's all business. ALBRIGHT Where? 34.36 CONTINUED: 36 EASY He's got an apartment at the Skyler Arms on Skyler and Eighty-third. Albright scribbles it down on a note pad. ALBRIGHT Anything else? EASY Frank's a gangster. A hijacker... Liquor and cigarettes. He's real good with a knife. Albright is unable to suppress a smile. ALBRIGHT Ever seen him in action? EASY Naw. I just heard about him. Albright, still grinning, pulls out the brown "secretary" and counts out more bills. ALBRIGHT Here's another hundred. He shoves the money into Easy's hand. ALBRIGHT Buy ya a burger, Easy? He starts into the screen door of the hamburger stand but Easy declines. EASY No thanks, Mr. Albright. ALBRIGHT How come you let those boys get around you like that? War hero should have been able to pick 'em off one by one before they got you against the rail. EASY I don't kill children. For some reason this is hilarious to Albright. He throws his head back and wheezes out an almost silent belly laugh, then winds down. 35.36 CONTINUED: (2) 36 ALBRIGHT Take it easy. He disappears into the hamburger joint and Easy walks away back toward his car.37 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 37 Easy pulls in front of his house and notices a dark Ford parked across the street as he gets out of his car. A tall, skinny white MAN in a dark blue suit gets out just ahead of his slightly shorter and heavyset FRIEND. Easy watches them as he moves toward his walkway. SKINNY MAN Mr. Rawlins. EASY Yeah. They approach fast but cautiously, the fat one with a hand in his pocket. SKINNY MAN Mr. Rawlins, I'm Miller and this is my partner, Mason. They both hold out badges. Mason is a slob with grease spots on his wrinkled tan suit. MILLER We want you to come with us. EASY Where? MASON You'll see. And he takes Easy by the arm. EASY You arresting me? MASON You'll see. And he starts pulling Easy toward the street. EASY I got a right to know why you're taking-- 36.37 CONTINUED: 37 WHOMP! Easy takes one to the diaphragm, and as he doubles over the fat detective slips the handcuffs on behind his back. MASON You got a right to fall down and break your face, nigger. You got a right to die. The two cops drag Easy to the car and dump him into the back seat where he lies gagging as the car whisks away.38 INT. POLICE STATION 38 Easy's head sags down as he's dragged through the front door past blurred blue bodies that talk. POLICEMAN (O.S.) You got 'im, huh, Miller? MILLER (O.S.) Yeah, we got him coming home. Nothing on 'im. A door opens and Easy finds himself being flung inside.39 INT. INTERROGATION ROOM 39 On his knees he hears the door close and looks up at a single, bare wooden chair resting on the corroded linoleum floor. He crawls to one of the urine-stained corners, and looks down on a dry, flat corpse of a mouse. He pushes his shoulder against the unpainted plaster until he's standing and then stumbles over to the chair and sits. He looks up at the bare pipes that run along the ceiling, dripping water, and at a window with criss-cross chairs instead of glass framing, overgrown branches and leaves pushing their way in. THE DOOR opens and Miller comes in first carrying a notebook. MILLER Ezekiel Rawlins. EASY Yes, sir. Mason follows and closes the door. MILLER We can take off the cuffs if you wanna cooperate. 37.39 CONTINUED: 39 EASY I'm cooperating. Miller motions to Mason and he removes the cuffs. MILLER Where were you this morning at about five A.M.? EASY (stalling) What do you mean? MASON He means-- He plants his foot in Easy's chest and pushes him over backwards. MASON --this morning. Easy has caught himself and stands back up. EASY I don't know... I was out drinkin' and I helped carry a friend home. I could've been on my way home... I don't know... I didn't look at a clock... MASON (wandering over) He didn't look at a clock. WHOCK! Easy takes a fist to the ear and struggles to keep his balance, wiping away blood streaming down. MILLER You were drinkin' down on Eighty- ninth and Central... At an illegal club called John's, weren't you? Mason moves again but this time Easy turns to face him and the fat man looks back with an innocent face, his palms turned up. MILLER You may as well answer 'cause you got bigger troubles than us bustin' an illegal bar, Ezekiel. EASY What do you mean? What's goin' on? 38.39 CONTINUED: (2) 39 Mason has taken off his shoe and is swatting it against the palm of his hand. MASON Means we can take your black ass out behind the station and put a bullet in your head. MILLER Now. What time did you leave Coretta James' house this morning? EASY I guess about five... five- thirty... Miller and Mason glance at each other, and Mason kicks the chair over toward Easy. MASON Sit down. EASY Why, I'm gonna sit down and you keep trying to knock me down? But he sits down anyway. MILLER Did you go back and see Miss James later in the day? EASY No, sir. MILLER Did you and Dupree Brouchard have words over Miss James? EASY Huh? MASON You heard 'im. Did you two argue over Coretta James? EASY Naw. He was asleep. MILLER She went to sleep too, Ezekiel. But she won't be waking up... Easy's face goes sick... 39.39 CONTINUED: (3) 39 MILLER (continuing) Where'd you go when you left Miss James' house? Easy is too stunned to answer. MASON You heard him, where'd you go? Easy stares into space, answering in barely a whisper. EASY I went home with a hangover... CHOONK! CHOONK! Mason fires off two punches and Easy grabs his wrists and pulls him down to the floor, swinging around, straddling Mason sitting on his ass... Miller's police special presses into Easy's temple and Miller speaks to him quietly, deadly. MILLER Get up slow... Real fuckin' slow or you know what's gonna happen. Easy raises his hands and uncoils to his feet, backing away cautiously. Mason is winded and furious. MASON Okay. Let's take him out back. He gets to his feet and reaches for his gun, but Miller stops his hand. MILLER No. Let's go. MASON Bullshit, I'm gonna blow his-- MILLER Let's go! He pushes Mason toward the door. MASON Son-of-a-bitch! Son-of-a-bitch! They exit the door and Easy rubs at his bloody ear. 40.40 EXT. L.A. CITY JAIL - NIGHT 40 Easy walks down the steps of the station buttoning up his top shirt button, his hand cupped to his aching ear to keep out the chill of the night air. The street is dark and deserted like a giant black alley except for the black and white patrol car that sits at the curb. A taut-faced officer leans out the window. OFFICER Hey, Buddy!... It's a long walk... why don't you let us give you a ride? Easy walks across the street off into the darkness...41 EXT. FOURTH STREET BRIDGE - NIGHT 41 A snatch of MUSIC and LAUGHTER startles Easy as he trudges home and a car full of teenagers shoots by. And then... A BLACK CADILLAC LIMOUSINE cruises up behind and drives alongside. VOICE FROM CAR Hey, you! Ezekiel Rawlins! The window rolls down all the way and a white face in a black cap appears in the window. CHAUFFEUR Ezekiel, hold on. Easy keeps walking. CHAUFFEUR Come on, fella. Somebody in the back wants to talk to you. EASY I don't have time right now. He doubles his pace, almost running. CHAUFFEUR Jump in. We'll take you. My boss wants to talk to you. Easy cuts behind the limo and into the street headed for the other side of the bridge but 41.41 CONTINUED: 41 The Cadillac whips a U-turn blocking his way in the middle of the street while cars pass, honking, on either side. The tall angular chauffeur gets out of the car and holds up his hands as if making peace. Easy starts to make another move to escape but: CHAUFFEUR (continuing) Come on. If we wanted to hurt you it would have already happened... He opens the back door and after a few moments, Easy gets in.42 INT. LIMOUSINE - NIGHT 42 Easy settles into the seat with his back to the driver. Edith Piaf's "Parles Moi D'Amour" adds sugar to the strong smell of cologne and the portly form of Matthew Teran sits across from him with a small MEXICAN BOY in pajamas seated next to him holding a small elephant. TERAN I can see that the police roughed you up a bit... That's a terrible practice of theirs which has to change, Mr. Rawlins... Has to change. He opens his gold cigarette case and offers Easy a cigarette. Easy accepts and Teran lights them both up. TERAN (continuing) She was beaten. And died from a heavy blow to the back of the head, Mr. Rawlins. Easy begins to feel nauseous. TERAN The evening's events have caught my adopted son and I quite off guard... My household was asleep when we got the call that the police had a suspect in Coretta James' murder... Did you know that she was a friend of mine, Mr. Rawlins!? EASY No I didn't, Mr. Teran. 42.42 CONTINUED: 42 TERAN Oh, you know who I am? EASY I read the papers. You're runnin' for mayor. TERAN (correcting) I am the next mayor, Mr. Rawlins... And luckily for you, a friend of the Negro... When I arrived at the station I knew right off that you were being improperly detained as is Coretta's boyfriend, Dupree Brouchard. It's this sort of thing that my administration will not tolerate, Mr. Rawlins. Absolutely will not... He sits back in his seat self righteously and offers a nod of assurance and awaits Easy's gratitude... Then after a moment... TERAN (continuing) Yes... Coretta answered phones for a while in my campaign office on 103rd and Western. In fact my people got her a job in the phone company. So when I heard what had happened I got out of bed immediately, personally because of my concern... Was anyone there with you Mr. Rawlins besides Mr. Dupree Brouchard?... Any... other friends of Coretta's? EASY No, sir... TERAN No young lady perhaps? EASY Nobody... TERAN Of course not, Mr. Rawlins. And why should you tell a man whom you've only just met. But, believe me, Mr. Rawlins. You can trust me. 43.42 CONTINUED: (2) 42 EASY (shrugging) There was no one else. Teran's face sags with disappointment and then... TERAN Well don't worry, Mr. Rawlins... I won't tolerate your being harassed... You or any of my constituency -- I was a city councilman in the Watts area for two terms with a large contingent of colored -- I value all of my supporters equally... humble though they may be -- where can we drop you, Mr. Rawlins? EASY You can let me out here. TERAN Are you sure, Mr. Rawlins? This must be quite out of your way. EASY It's okay. The little boy stares up at Easy through big, dark almond- shaped eyes in the silence that follows. And then, Teran picks up the ivory horn that hangs next to his head. TERAN Norman, pull the car over.43 EXT. WAREHOUSE AREA - NIGHT 43 The limousine stops and Easy pushes the door open and gets out. TERAN Mr. Rawlins, may I offer you cab fare? Teran's stubby fingers hold out crumpled bills. EASY No thanks. Easy closes the door and watches the long Cadillac glide away. 44.43 CONTINUED: 43 EASY (V.O.) There had been nights during the war that I still had trouble claiming as part of my life... Insane nights I wasn't sure ever really happened. And here I was again... Had I really just gotten out of a rich man's car who was runnin' for mayor?.. Running against the man I was supposed to be working for... Was he really lookin' for the same woman I was trying to find? My ear was killin' me and the buses had stopped running. And I was feeling sick... Sick from wondering if I had really hard that Coretta was dead.44 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - BEDROOM 44 The room is a mess; trousers strewn here, shirt and shoes over there. And from the corners are haunting, ghostly whispers. CORETTA'S VOICE You be sorry if you go... (heavy breathing) I can't give up that much love, daddy, not the way things is. A PINT OF BOURBON, 3/4 full, sits atop the cherry wood nightstand. Another empty bottle lies next to it on its side, in front of a water glass with 1/2 inch of liquor at the bottom. EASY'S HEAD rests on a pillow on the bed behind it, sweating, tossing and turning as the ghost gets louder. CORETTA'S VOICE Oh yeah, daddy. You hittin' my spot... Oh yeah... oh yeah... The voice of the ghost is reaching closer for his ear. CORETTA'S VOICE Oh, that's just too good, Easy. Oh daddy... oh yeah... The voice is right up in his face. CORETTA'S VOICE Oh, baby. Oh, daddy, yeah... Oh yeah!! Oh Yea-a-h!! 45.44 CONTINUED: 44 SCREAM. He jerks up, awake, and the phone is RINGING. It jingles a couple more times and Easy almost knocks the receiver out of its cradle reaching for it. EASY Huh? VOICE (a woman's) Hello? Is this Mr. Rawlins? EASY Who is this? VOICE Daphne... Daphne Monet... He sits straight up. DAPHNE You're looking for me. A pause on the line. DAPHNE I think you should come and talk to me, Mr. Rawlins... alone. EASY Look, it's late-- DAPHNE Mr. Rawlins, Coretta has been killed... Another pause. DAPHNE And if you don't want any trouble from the police then you'll come... And you won't tell anyone that you're coming. EASY Now wait a minute, Daphne. I don't know nothin' about all this stuff... DAPHNE I'm at the Sunridge Motel on 112th and Grand, Room 102. 46.44 CONTINUED: (2) 44 Easy holds his hands up, helplessly -- "what do you want from me?" -- but no one can see and she has hung up the phone.45 EXT. SUNRIDGE MOTEL - NIGHT 45 It's a Spanish-style set of rooms with tile roofs set around a square parking lot. Easy's car pulls into the alley behind it. He gets out and scans the area looking down from a rise at the back entrance to the parking lot. And then walks down.46 OMIT 4647 EXT. SUNRIDGE MOTEL - ROOM 102 - NIGHT 47 Before Easy can knock, he hears: DAPHNE (O.S.) Mr. Rawlins? EASY Yeah. The door opens and she's standing there, more beautiful than the photograph. They take each other in for a moment before she steps back from the door. DAPHNE Please come in.48 INT. MOTEL ROOM 48 It's a regular drab, cheap motel that she has given a warmer touch with colorful scarves draped over the two lamps. DAPHNE Would you like a drink? She indicates a pint of scotch on the dresser with an empty glass and one that she's been drinking from. EASY No, thanks. She indicates the chair. DAPHNE Please sit down. She's wearing a blue dress that's plain, cutting just below her knee with a ceramic pin just over her left breast. 47.48 CONTINUED: 48 DAPHNE What happened to you? Have you been fighting? Easy stubs out his cigarette in an ashtray and sits down. EASY Why don't you just tell me what you want? She sits down too, her calm but brittle exterior betrayed at the hands. She stops wringing them when she sees that he notices and takes a drink -- more medicine than pleasure. DAPHNE I should be asking you that question. Why have you been asking about me? EASY I heard about you. Fellas at John's said you were something to see. DAPHNE So...? You've found me. EASY Uh... yeah... Guess I have. But you got a boyfriend I don't want no part of... Frank Green. She lights a cigarette. DAPHNE You can stop pretending, Mr. Rawlins. I know someone hired you to look for me. In fact I had to pay Coretta not to tell you where I was... you know how Coretta is... (forces a weak smile) She told me you two became 'good friends' yesterday... (tears gather in her eyes) I talked to her this morning before she died. (regaining control) I... uh... need to go across town to see someone. It's very important... I can't seem to reach him by phone. I'm afraid I'd better have someone go with me. 48.48 CONTINUED: (2) 48 EASY Uh... Miss Monet-- DAPHNE Call me Daphne. EASY Daphne-- DAPHNE I can understand why you'd be nervous... because I threatened you with Coretta... I'm very sorry, but I couldn't think of any other way to get you to come. She takes another drink and stubs out her cigarette though it's less than a third gone. EASY I can't -- why don't you ask Frank? She gets up and starts to pace nervously about the room. DAPHNE He's out of town -- I... I'm willing to pay you. EASY That's nice of you but, see, I'm not really a detective-- DAPHNE --I know that. EASY I was just hired to ask around to try to find you for a man-- DAPHNE I know all about that, Mr. Rawlins. EASY But this is a gettin' a little out of hand-- DAPHNE --Mr. Rawlins-- EASY --Easy. 49.48 CONTINUED: (3) 48 DAPHNE Easy... If you don't help me, then I'll call the police and tell them that you were with Coretta before she died and that you've been after me too. That stops Easy. EASY You'd do that? DAPHNE Yes, I would. I don't want to but I would. She hates herself for threatening and decides to change direction, moving in close. DAPHNE Please let me pay you. EASY No. I can't do that. DAPHNE Why? EASY I don't want no part of all this. DAPHNE Please, I'll pay you twenty dollars. EASY No dice. DAPHNE Thirty... or even more. Name your price. She moves in closer, massaging with her voice. DAPHNE (continuing) Go ahead. There's gotta be something that you want. Her eyes make an offer, but he's a better man than me and he's not taking. 50.48 CONTINUED: (4) 48 DAPHNE (angrily, sarcastically) What? Are you afraid I'll yell rape or something? She walks away and turns up her glass, her desperation, raw, unguarded. EASY Uh, Miss Monet... Daphne, I'm sorry but I really better be goin'. He starts out and she runs to stop him. DAPHNE Easy, don't touch that door-- He opens it and SCREAM! Like an alarm, she's SHRIEKING all of the scale.49 He looks out and sees 49 LIGHTS GOING ON in other rooms.50 BACK TO SCENE 50 He looks back frantically and grabs her by the shoulders. EASY Crazy assed broad! What the hell are you doing?! DAPHNE I'm really very sorry. I really am. She pulls on a coat and grabs her purse. DAPHNE (continuing) I didn't want to do this but... Shall we? She grabs an already packed suitcase and is out the door.51 EXT. LAUREL CANYON - NIGHT 51 Easy's Pontiac snakes up the winding road, city lights glimmering in flashes below as it rounds the curves. 51.52 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 52 Ben Webster's "I've Got It Bad" plays on the road as Easy shifts nervously in his seat, his eyes searching in the rearview mirror and all around for headlights that might be unfriendly. Daphne leans back against the passenger door, taking him in. Easy passes a police car pulled over to the side. He looks in the rearview mirror and its headlights go on. He takes a deep breath, bracing for the worst and Daphne looks back concerned. But the lights arch a U-turn and head back the other way. DAPHNE They must not have seen us that well... God, Frank and I have been pulled over so many times I thought-- She catches herself and looks over at Easy. DAPHNE (continuing) Easy, I'm sorry... Don't be mad at me. Easy keeps his eyes on the road. DAPHNE (continuing) Come on. She tries to touch his arm and he pulls away. DAPHNE (continuing) You really hate me, don't you? EASY How much further is it? DAPHNE Around the next bend... (she grins) You remind me of Frank when he gets angry. EASY Ain't nothin' about me like Frank. DAPHNE Your jaw sets just like his when-- 52.52 CONTINUED: 52 EASY I don't get no kick outta risking my life for some white woman's entertainment. DAPHNE (sighing) Just park behind the Studebaker.53 EXT. RICHARD'S CABIN / INT. EASY'S PONTIAC 53 The Studebaker is parked at a deadend in the street. Easy pulls in behind. The cabin is so overgrown with ivy that all this is visible is the mailbox and address. DAPHNE Did you bring a gun or something? EASY What? No. DAPHNE Easy, that's not very smart. Everybody carries a weapon now a days. EASY (defensively) Well then where's yours? DAPHNE Search me sometime. You'll find it. She gets out of the car. EASY Damn... He frowns and gets out of the car.54 OMIT 5455 EXT. RICHARD'S CABIN - NIGHT 55 Daphne waits, clutching her suitcase and lets Easy lead the way. They get to the door and find it ajar. Easy takes a look inside and then cautiously steps in. 53.56 INT. RICHARD'S CABIN - NIGHT 56 He flicks on the wall switch. It's a typical little hideaway that the rich kept for summer use. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all in one with a long counter separating the kitchen. On the left is a wooden couch with a Mexican rug thrown across it and a metal chair with tan cushions for the seat and back. The opposite wall is all glass with the city lights blinking in the distance. DAPHNE Mr. McGee... No answer. Easy leads them to a door and opens it.57 BEDROOM 57 Another wall of glass and A DEAD MAN spread out on the king-sized bed, with the contents of the dresser and closet strewn all over the room. DAPHNE Oh, my God! She gags and backs out of the room with her hand over her mouth in case she throws up. Easy takes out a handkerchief and holds it over his mouth and nose as he gets a closer look at the body. It's the drunk white man he had seen at John's Speakeasy in the same blue suit. He's lying on his back like a crucifix with a butcher knife buried in his chest. There's blood that has drained from his chest and gathered around his face and hair so dark and thick you could scoop it up like Jello. Easy actually does throw up and doubles over, dropping to a knee to keep his balance and some control. He stays there for several moments regaining his composure and then spots a spilled ashtray and a cigarette butt. He lifts it off the floor and smells it. He wipes his mouth with the handkerchief and then wraps the butt inside and puts it in his pocket. He gets up. EASY Daphne! He hears a CAR ENGINE start up and GEARS SHIFTING. Then runs out the door. 54.58 EXT. RICHARD'S HOUSE - NIGHT 58 A pink Studebaker whips backward out the driveway. Easy runs alongside trying to stop Daphne as she screeches into the street. EASY Hey, wait a minute! She speeds off down the canyon. EASY Dammit! He stands in the middle of the street, watching her go.59 INT. EASY'S CAR - SUNRISE 59 Fiery orange light bounces off the hood of the car into Easy's face as he turns the corner onto his block. He is surprised to see A WHITE CADILLAC parked in front of his house. And now it's his front door that's open. BACK TO EASY He pulls in behind the Caddy and gets out.60 INT. EASY'S HOUSE 60 He pushes open the door. Shariff loiters just inside, grinning at him, and Manny stands in the middle of the living room looking at the floor. From a RADIO in another room Tommy Dorsey plays "Blue Skies" with Frank Sinatra out front. And so Easy walks past the two hoods into THE KITCHEN Albright turns from looking out the backyard window with a porcelain coffee cup cradled in his right hand. ALBRIGHT Easy. Easy looks at the coffee pot on the stove and again at Albright, smiling loose and friendly but looking tired in the same clothes he had on at the pier. EASY What you doin' in my house, man? ALBRIGHT I expected you to be home, so Manny used a screwdriver on the door. What happened to your face? 55.60 CONTINUED: 60 EASY You got no excuse to be breakin' into my house -- What if I broke into your place? ALBRIGHT (still smiling) I'd tear your nigger head out by its root. Easy boils inside and then goes over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee. EASY So what do you want? ALBRIGHT Where have you been this time of morning, Easy? EASY I went to see a girl. Don't you get none, Mr. Albright? The smile leaves Albright's face and his eyes turn even colder. ALBRIGHT I didn't come here to play, boy. You got my money in your pocket and we've been over at that address waitin' all night for Frank Green and now we've found out that he moved from there over a year ago. Easy is scared and confused but he plays it off. EASY So what do you want me to do about it? You don't think I did my job. Shit, I give you the money back. And he reaches for his pocket, but Albright reaches too -- and suddenly, Manny and Shariff are in the room and on Easy like a vice. Albright presses the barrel of the .45 against Easy's forehead. ALBRIGHT Do you believe in God, Easy? 'Cause I'm curious to see if death is any different for a religious man. Easy looks down, away from the gun, and swallows hard. 56.60 CONTINUED: (2) 60 EASY I seen her. After a moment, everyone relaxes and Easy sags out from under their grip and staggers into61 THE LIVING ROOM 61 Manny and Shariff surround him as he sits down in a chair and Albright stalks in holstering his gun. ALBRIGHT Where? EASY She called me. Had me drive up to the Hollywood Hills. ALBRIGHT How'd she know about you? EASY I guess Coretta... the girl that told me about Daphne and Frank Green. ALBRIGHT Why didn't you call me? EASY I couldn't. She threatened to tell the cops that I had killed Coretta... Albright looks over at his henchmen. ALBRIGHT Where is she? EASY She took off. ALBRIGHT (dangerously) Where is she? EASY I don't know! While I was looking at the body she split. ALBRIGHT (nodding) Uh-hunh. 57.61 CONTINUED: 61 Albright looks around the room as if answers lie in the corners, but he is not surprised to hear about a body. ALBRIGHT You call the cops? EASY I tried my best to keep in the speed limit. That's all I did. ALBRIGHT What'd she do, take his car? EASY Hunh? ALBRIGHT McGee. Did she take his car? Easy hesitates, "How did Albright know his name?" EASY Uh... Yeah... ALBRIGHT Where'd you pick her up at? EASY She left that place-- ALBRIGHT --Write it down! To his shame Easy flinches and gets paper from his end table, then scribbles down the address and hands it to Albright who takes Easy's seat and examines the note. ALBRIGHT Get me some whiskey, Easy. Easy studies Albright who sits knees wide apart, now the master of the house, and he can't help himself. EASY Get it yourself... Bottle's in the cabinet. Albright looks up and Easy braces himself for Albright to bring on the end, all at once. But slowly a smile spreads across Albright's face and he laughs, stamping his foot. 58.61 CONTINUED: (2) 61 ALBRIGHT Well, I'll be damned. Get us a drink, Manny... Easy, you're a brave man. I need a brave man working for me... But you gotta find Frank Green, so he can lead us to her. EASY No, thanks, Mr. Albright. People are gettin' killed all around me... You never said anything about all this... ALBRIGHT Easy, you're connectable to two murders. You'll do whatever I tell you to do. Manny brings Albright's drink and the captain turns it up and gives Manny back the glass. ALBRIGHT (continuing) Now you got three days to find him. And you make sure you count 'em right. He walks out the screen door with Manny and Shariff following.62 KITCHEN 62 Easy grabs the bottle from the counter, where Manny has left it, and pours himself a stiff one. But he only stares into the glass. FLASHBACK:63 EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY 63 Dense black smoke masks everything but two vague figures in a struggle. The BOOM of heavy artillery gives way only to the deafening CHATTER of automatic fire. We are hurtling forward into a horror-stricken Easy in combat gear, repeatedly stabbing an already lifeless German soldier. Tears are streaming down Easy's face, his mouth gaped open in an inaudible SCREAM.64 BACK TO SCENE 64 He studies the glass and pushes it away. Then looks 59.65 OUT THE WINDOW 65 Albright and his two goons get in the white Caddy and cruise away.66 BEDROOM 66 He dials the operator. EASY (V.O.) I needed help... Albright didn't flinch at hearing that Coretta was dead and he seemed to know all about Richard McGee too... OPERATOR (O.S.) Number please... EASY Raymond Alexander on... He pauses, speechless as OPERATOR (O.S.) Yes? EASY (after a moment) Forget about it, operator. He hangs up, his eyes trained in thought.A67 EXT. JOPPY'S BAR - DAY A67 A crowd has gathered along the street to watch a three convertible car caravan: the first car bearing a four-place band playing "Happy Days Are Here Again"; the second with someone who could be Lana Turner holding up a "Teran for Mayor" placard with a man in the front passenger seat announcing through a megaphone; and last, but hardly least, Matthew Teran blowing kisses and waving two small American flags. Easy looks up for a moment as he closes the trunk of his car to watch the parade. Then stuffs a ball peen hammer in the waistband at the small of his back, under his jacket. He walks with a purpose into the open door next to the butcher shop.B67 INT. JOPPY'S BAR B67 Easy stops in the doorway, seeing JOPPY as usual buffing the marble top of his bar. T-Bone Walker's "They Call It Stormy Monday" is on the jukebox. 60.B67 CONTINUED: B67 BACK TO EASY He scans the bar and sees that there are no customers, and walks in. JOPPY Hey, Easy. Easy stops at the bar and stares at Joppy. EASY That girl called me last night. JOPPY What girl is that? EASY The one your friend is lookin' for. JOPPY Uh, huh. That's pretty lucky, hunh? EASY No, Joppy... Wasn't no luck at all. It was you. Joppy inadvertently clenches his fists and notices Easy's aggressive stance. EASY You and Coretta was the only ones that had my phone number who knew I was lookin' for her. And Coretta was busy scammin' Daphne so she wouldn't have done it... It was you, man. JOPPY Maybe she looked in the phone book. EASY I ain't in the phone book, Joppy... Joppy's eyes narrow. JOPPY What the hell you mean, coming up here all mad like you gonna do something?!... 61.B67 CONTINUED: (2) B67 EASY (yelling) You damn right! Coretta's dead! Your friend Albright is on my ass. The cops done brought me down once -- Why didn't you just tell Albright your damn self? JOPPY (yelling back) What did I tell you? To just take that man's money! I didn't tell you to do nothin'! I call myself trying to help you save your house... Don't come up in here startin' no shit with me. And he pulls a baseball bat from behind the bar, but Easy has pulled his hammer and SMACKS it down hard, cracking the beveled wood that frames the marble. JOPPY (continuing; panicked) Easy, wait! Watch my marble! My uncle left me that when he died! EASY And goddammit, he's about to get it back. He draws back for the downswing, and Joppy drops the baseball bat, holding up his hands. JOPPY Let's talk. Let's just talk. EASY What you got me into, Joppy?! Joppy inhales, forcing himself to be calm. JOPPY She asked me to help her 'cause I told her that Albright was lookin' for her. And I figured I could help you make a few bucks and throw Albright off the trail too. She wanted to know something about you so I told her... I guess I must've give her your phone number... EASY Where is she, man? 62.B67 CONTINUED: (3) B67 JOPPY I don't know... EASY Don't lie to me, Joppy! JOPPY I ain't lyin'... I don't even know her that good. She just asked me to help her. And she asked me not to tell nobody... I guess 'cause of her and Frank Green. EASY What's she runnin' from Joppy? JOPPY I swear I don't know. She didn't tell me. I didn't mean to get you into nothin', Easy... I just... she just... I mean you seen her, Easy... Man, she's something else. Easy can see "sucker" written all over Joppy as he fumbles for a cigarette with one hand and shakes his head with disgust as he lights up. EASY Damn, Joppy. Is there any white woman that ever gave you the time of day that you wasn't a sucker for? Joppy frowns painfully and continues to wipe the bar.67 EXT. T. CARTER FOUNDATION - DAY 67 Easy turns into the winding driveway through the stone entrance way that bears the name of this distinguished institution on a bronze plate. He parks the car and gets out, adjusting his dark brown Stetson which matches his pin-stripped suit. He looks around at the massive and well manicured grounds and walks into a patio area of this Spanish-style complex. EASY (V.O.) Albright had said that when you're mixed up in something it's best to be mixed up to the top. I could see his point. So that's where I was going... all the way to the top. 63.68 EXT. CARTER FOUNDATION PATIO 68 An ELDERLY SECRETARY descends an outdoor curved stairway carrying a file. She spots Easy looking around confused and immediately becomes annoyed. SECRETARY May I help you? EASY Uh... yes. I came to see Mr. Carter. SECRETARY Do you have an appointment? EASY No, I don't. SECRETARY Well, I'm sorry, but Mr. Carter is a very busy man. Easy pulls out Albright's business card and hands it to her. EASY Well, tell him Mr. Albright sent me, and it's real important. She looks at the card and then up at Easy with annoyed superiority. SECRETARY May I ask the nature of your call, Mister...? EASY Rawlins. But I'm not so sure he'd want me to tell you. SECRETARY I'm quite sure, Mr. Rawlins, that whatever you know is nothing I can't know as well. EASY Okay. Well, anyway, tell him I'm here with information about that little chippy of his that dumped him. SECRETARY Is this some sort of joke? O.S. VOICE Uh... Excuse me... 64.68 CONTINUED: 68 Easy and the secretary turn to see a TALL MAN in a dark grey suit with bushy black hair and thick eyebrows standing in the doorway. He forces a smile and comes out. BAXTER Mr. Rawlins was it? He holds out his hand and Easy shakes it. EASY Yes. Mister... BAXTER Baxter. (to the secretary) I'll take care of this. (and back to Easy) Why don't you come with me, sir? They walk through the door into69 A HALLWAY 69 BAXTER Not very smart talking about Mr. Carter's business to a secretary. EASY I don't wanna hear it, man. It's too much goin' on for me to give a damn about what you think is smart. Baxter bristles up and slows down his walk, about to put Easy in his place. But Easy slows down too and squares up on him. Baxter reconsiders and leads the way up a stone staircase.70 INT. CARTER'S OFFICE 70 Baxter ushers Easy into a huge elegantly furnished room more closely resembling a hall than an office with large arched doors and windows leading out onto a stone veranda overlooking a canyon. Alone looking out at the greenery on the opposite hillside is TODD CARTER. Baxter walks out and speaks with Carter, while Easy watches them from inside the office. The rich man perks up with interest and hurries inside with Baxter who throws Easy a dirty look on his way out. He pauses uncertainly wearing a simple Sears Roebuck-looking tan suit with a plain open- collared white shirt. The dark circles under his eyes show nights without sleep. 65.70 CONTINUED: 70 CARTER Mr. Rawlins. He runs a hand through his thinning red hair, and offers an overstuffed sofa. They sit on either end. CARTER (distraught) Has something happened to Daphne? EASY The last time I saw her she looked fine. CARTER You saw her? EASY Yeah. Last night. CARTER She's still in town? EASY She was last night. CARTER What did she say -- what was she wearing? EASY A blue dress. Blue heels. CARTER And a pin on her chest? EASY Yeah, on the left side. CARTER (carried away) Oh yes, that's her. That's her. You know I've never known a woman who could wear perfume so slight that-- EASY --Mr. Carter, Mr. Carter-- CARTER What did she say? What did she say?... Oh, I'm sorry. Brandy? 66.70 CONTINUED: (2) 70 He points to a crystal decanter near Easy. Easy pours himself a drink and takes in Carter as he wrings his hands to keep from going to pieces. This guy's got it bad. EASY Mr. Carter. I came here to get some answers. CARTER Yes...? EASY I don't know... I'm takin' a helluva chance... Carter runs his hand through his hair again, the suspense killing him. EASY (continuing) I guess it's just that when I'm working for somebody, I wanna know what I'm gettin' myself into... Carter leans in as if he missed something. CARTER I beg your pardon. EASY Well, I'd like to know the real reason why Mr. Albright hired me. CARTER (after a moment) Mr. Albright? EASY Yeah. The man you hired to find Daphne. CARTER There must be some mistake... I'm sorry, busy... Who are you talking about? Easy and Carter stare at each other, not sure how to proceed. EASY You didn't hire somebody to find your girlfriend? 67.70 CONTINUED: (3) 70 CARTER No... Until just now I was sure that she was hundreds of miles away from here... You say someone is looking for her? Easy nods, his brow furrowed in thought. Carter gets up and walks to the door, looking out into the canyon. CARTER (half to himself) Someone is looking for her. EASY What's goin' on between you two? Carter shrugs and stammers nervously. CARTER Uh... I don't know... We were going to be married... We had a fight... (then recovering) Uh... that's none of your concern, Mr. Rawlins. He stops and looks to the floor, the gravity pulling him down... way down. CARTER (continuing) Someone's... after her? A Mr. Albright? And he said he's working for me? EASY Yeah... Do you know a man named Richard McGee? CARTER No... I can't say that I do. EASY Why would someone be after her, Mr. Carter? CARTER Uh... I can't say -- I don't know... He's lying and Easy knows it. 68.70 CONTINUED: (4) 70 CARTER (continuing) Do you think you could find her again? EASY I don't know. CARTER It's important, Mr. Rawlins, for her sake... I'm willing to pay you. EASY Mr. Carter, why did she leave? CARTER I can't tell you any more Mr. Rawlins -- I'll pay you to find her... Easy thinks about it, and then nods. EASY Okay... a thousand dollars. CARTER A thousand dollars?! EASY Yeah. I'll take two hundred right now. CARTER Mr. Rawlins. I think you're trying to take advantage of me. But left me inform you that the incumbent mayor and the chief of police eat at my house regularly. EASY Good. Then they can help us-- CARTER --No. They can't! Carter is too emphatic and Easy waits for him to give more, but instead he turns and gazes out again at the canyon. BAXTER I'll have Baxter write you out a check. 69.70 CONTINUED: (5) 70 EASY (after a moment) Mr. Carter, why'd you stop runnin' for mayor? CARTER (terse) I'll have Baxter write you a check. EASY Why is Matthew Teran looking for her too? CARTER (with finality) Baxter will write you a check!! Easy takes him in and then holds out his hand. EASY I'll take cash, Mr. Carter. Carter fumbles in his wallet, and too nervous to count the money, shoves the wallet at Easy. CARTER Take it all... Just take it all. Easy nods and strides out of the room.71 OMIT 71A72 EXT. T. CARTER FOUNDATION - DAY A72 Easy walks to his car, gets in and drives away toward the entrance. EASY (V.O.) So Albright was working for Matthew Teran. And whatever Teran had on Carter was strong stuff... too strong even for Carter to go to the police... But because Teran was desperate to find the girl too, that gave me the best hand. I had seen her once, and if I played it right, I'd see her again.72-75 OMIT 72-75 70. MONTAGE SEQUENCE:76 POOL HALL - THAT NIGHT 76 Easy talks to the short, squat, suspicious woman who runs the place. Through the smoke, other distrustful eyes fix on him from pool tables and dark corners. EASY (V.O.) Everywhere I went was a familiar place, but different because I was asking about buying hijacked liquor from the man nobody wanted to talk about. Frank Green... DISSOLVE TO:77 NIGHTCLUB - NEXT NIGHT 77 Upscale, with a balcony. Billy Eckstine fronts the band. Blacks and whites are dressed to impress, including Easy, who leans into the bartender. EASY (V.O.) It was actually looking more and more like I might not make it through this little adventure I was having. But I was likin' the chill in my blood, and the freedom of working on my own. DISSOLVE TO:78 ABE AND JOHNNY'S LIQUOR - NEXT DAY 78 The two JEWISH OWNERS unveil for Easy a case of hijacked liquor in a wooden crate. EASY (V.O.) There were times in the war when I had felt like this. When life or death where the only two choices. That made it simple. And that was alright by me.79 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 79 Easy unlatches the gate and pushes it open. He's tired, and he trudges up the walkway to the porch. He sees THE WOODCUTTER standing on the front lawn of the next door neighbor's, waving at him. 71.79 CONTINUED: 79 BACK TO EASY He throws a rock and then unlocks the door. But he notices THE POT OF AFRICAN VIOLETS lying broken on the cement. He looks up just in time to see a TWO-BY-FOUR swing down. BONK! And Easy is seeing stars. A big man, dressed in black, kicks open the door and drives Easy head first into80 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM 80 Easy slams to the floor but manages to roll out of the way of a lethal CRACK! of the board onto the floor. He grabs a lamp and hurls it at the oncoming figure who catches it on the arm and keeps on coming, snapping a blade from his fist which leaps out like a chrome-colored flame. Easy scrambles back, his head butting up against the couch, his forehead streaming blood, his eyes wide with the sight of sure death advancing. EASY (terrified) Frank! Wait a minute! I need to talk to you! Frank looms over him, his sinister but handsome brown face framed by a short-rimmed, black Stetson hat and a black shirt and coat. He holds the knife to Easy's neck, letting the blade press into the skin as he talks. FRANK You the reason why she told me to lay low, hunh. Easy buries himself back against the sofa. EASY (machine gun quick) Naw. I got five hundred dollars for you. Rich man wants to talk to a white girl you know. Daphne... Frank's eyes flame and he presses the knife, drawing blood. FRANK You a dead man-- WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! 72.80 CONTINUED: 80 O.S. VOICE Easy, you in there? Frank's head whips toward the door and Easy knocks the knife away and comes up tussling. Frank scrambles to get away and Easy tackles him, straining to keep Frank from reaching the knife. THE FRONT DOOR springs open and SPATS ON PATENT LEATHER SHOES clump in, the last one stomping down on Frank's outstretched fingers. Frank screams and cradles his hand in agony. Easy scrambles up to his knees and gawks up at MOUSE, dressed in a plaid zoot suit with Broadway suspenders down the front of his shirt, a long-barreled .41 caliber pistol held loosely in his hand. MOUSE Want me to kill him? EASY (exhaling relief) Mouse! Aw, man naw, it's all right... MOUSE Well, what's happenin'? He holds out his hand and helps Easy to his feet. Frank makes a slight move towards the knife and Mouse levels the pistol at his head, his gold-rimmed teeth glittering from a smile that wants Frank to go for it. MOUSE I'll blow your goddamned nose off... EASY No, don't! (to Frank) Where's Daphne Monet? Frank just stares up at Easy, his eyes sharp and defiant. EASY Look, if you don't know where she is, maybe we can help each other find her. After a moment, Mouse cocks the hammer. 73.80 CONTINUED: (2) 80 MOUSE Nigga, you heard him. EASY No, Mouse. Don't kill him. The phone RINGS next to Mouse and he picks it up, eyes still on Frank. MOUSE Huh?... He's busy right now, you gonna have to call back. He hangs up. EASY Frank, a rich man she knows is willing to pay a thousand dollars just to talk to her. A thousand bucks, man. Frank still won't talk and that does it for Mouse. He releases the hammer. MOUSE Easy, lemme try. THUNK! He slaps Frank upside the head with the pistol. MOUSE You better... (THUNK!) Talk... (THUNK!) You stupid-- Easy grabs Mouse's arm and Frank slumps to the floor. EASY Let him go! MOUSE Get out of my way! EASY Let him be! The two friends struggle, and Frank rears up and plows into Easy, sending him sprawling to the floor on top of Mouse. Then Frank, covered in blood, hurls himself across the room, out the door. 74.81 Mouse gets to his feet and runs to the door aiming the 81 pistol, but it's too late. Easy stands up and Mouse points the gun at him. MOUSE Damn you, Easy. Don't you never grab me when I got a gun in my hand! Easy silently eyes the pistol and gives Mouse a chance to calm down. After a moment Mouse looks down at his jacket. MOUSE Look at the blood you done got on my coat. Why you wanna go and do that? He looks out the door and grabs a small suitcase. Then spots the bathroom and moves to it, taking off his jacket and hanging the pistol in his belt. Easy holds his fingers to the bump on his forehead and catches his breath as Mouse runs water in the bathtub. MOUSE Now we got to find that girl so we can get that money. EASY No, we don't, Mouse. I don't need your kinda help or I would've called you. Mouse comes out of the bathroom, scrubbing at a spot on his jacket with a washcloth. MOUSE You standing there with a knot on your head the size of a twelve- year-old tittie and you "don't need my kind of help"? EASY (angrily) This is the same shit you pulled five years ago when you asked me to drive you out to your stepfather's house, then come to find out you killed him and your stepbrother. MOUSE Aw, easy, that was a long time ago. Easy glares at Mouse and dabs blood from his forehead with a handkerchief. 75.81 CONTINUED: 81 MOUSE (after a moment) Come on, Easy. Cut me in on this. I could help you. I let you run the show. I swear I will. He ambles over to Easy apologetically and holds Easy's shoulders with both hands. MOUSE I swear, I ain't gonna do nothin' you don't tell me to do. Easy knows he can't believe this but EASY Everything I say? MOUSE Everything you say. With no choice, Easy nods and walks into82 THE BATHROOM 82 He runs cold water onto a washcloth and looks in the mirror, dabbing at his forehead. EASY Who was that called? MOUSE (O.S.) I don't know... Sound like some white girl. Easy turns toward the door "Aw Man!"83 INT. EASY'S CAR - DAY 83 Mouse, in a plum colored double-breasted suit and a brown felt derby hat, turns on the radio and the Ink Spots' "We'll Meet Again" purrs out. He starts to turn the key, but then remembers and honks the horn.84 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 84 Easy opens the door and stands on the porch. MOUSE Hey, Easy, was it a left on Richland or a right? 76.84 CONTINUED: 84 EASY A right. And if Dupree ain't over there in Compton, just come on back 'cause I might have heard from the girl. Just then a car cruises around the corner and Easy watches MASON AND MILLER pull up across the street and get out. He glances over at Mouse.85 INT. EASY'S CAR - DAY 85 Mouse shuts off the radio and slumps down in the seat out of view.86 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 86 Easy watches them stroll up the walkway. MILLER Mr. Rawlins... We came to ask you a few more questions. MASON (grinning) So why don't you just invite us inside... (holding open the door) After you. And Easy and Miller go in. MASON What happened to your head? I don't remember doing all that. He laughs and closes the door behind them.87 INT. EASY'S HOUSE 87 Miller looks around suspiciously. The room still shows signs of the struggle with Frank Green. He exchanges a look with Mason. MILLER Been having a party, Ezekiel? Mason pushes Easy into the chair and Miller plants his foot on the seat between Easy's legs and leans in. MASON You got a lotta cuts and bruises to be an ordinary working stiff. 77.87 CONTINUED: 87 MILLER It's looking worse and worse for you, my friend. What do you know about Richard McGee? EASY Who? On the other side of the room Mason picks up a chunk of the broken lamp from the fight. MILLER A dead white man in a cabin in Laurel Canyon. Mason comes over and stands over Easy next to his partner. He fingers the sharp porcelain shard of the lamp, threatening. MASON He hangs out with some of those same nigger friends of yours down on Central Avenue. Easy eyes the sharp edge, making up his mind to kill this fat son-of-a-bitch if he gets too creative, and die with him. MILLER He just happened to have a note in his pocket with 'C. James' written on it. He holds the slip of paper up for Easy to see. MASON Any of this making you feel talkative at all, 'cause I'll bet ya six bits to a bottle of piss that we're looking at a double here... All we need is to place you in the dead man's house. EASY I ain't been there. MILLER Where? EASY I ain't been in no dead man's house. Miller stands back and pats his pockets for a smoke. 78.87 CONTINUED: (2) 87 MILLER How 'bout a smoke, Ezekiel? Easy taps out one and Miller places it in his mouth. MILLER Got a light? Easy pulls out his lighter and sparks the flame. MILLER May I? Easy shrugs and passes the lighter to Miller who fires himself up. MILLER Nice lighter... He holds the lighter out of Mason who wraps it up in a handkerchief. MILLER And we got our print. EASY What do you mean? MASON Oh, hadn't you heard? We found a cigarette lighter in the dead man's house with the killer's fingerprints on it. EASY (total disbelief) Naw, man. I didn't do it. MASON Course you did, we got evidence. EASY (frantic) I didn't do it. You know I didn't... And Miller leans in hard. MILLER We know that you know more than you're lettin' on. And now a white man's been killed. (MORE) 79.87 CONTINUED: (3) 87 MILLER (CONT'D) Now you better tell us what you know, or you're goin' down for the murder of Richard McGee and Coretta James. He straightens up and Easy stands up, too. EASY (shouting) I don't know nothin'. MILLER (to Mason) Put the cuffs on. Let's take him down. As Mason reaches for the cuffs, Easy sees Mouse peek out from the kitchen doorway then disappear inside. EASY Uh, listen! I don't know who did it! MILLER But we do... He sees Mouse draw his gun, his eyes trained on Miller's back. MASON And that's all that counts. EASY Dammit, I didn't do it. MILLER Tell it to the D.A. Mouse is trained with the hammer cocked and Easy is about to give the signal, but then: EASY Look, gimme some time to find out. MILLER Forget it. EASY Gimme till tomorrow... Tomorrow mornin'... Miller thinks about it and then-- 80.87 CONTINUED: (4) 87 MILLER Okay. Tomorrow morning, that's it. He nods to Mason and Easy looks up to see Mouse raise the gun and slide back into the kitchen. Mason unlocks the cuffs. MASON Have a nice evening, Ezekiel. And he and Miller walk out. Easy looks out the doorway watchingA88 EASY'S POV A88 MILLER AND MASON get in their squad car and drive away. BACK TO SCENEB88 He turns back to see Mouse standing in the living room. B88 EASY (wearily) I guess you know what would have happened if you had shot them two cops in my house? MOUSE (shrugging) Hell yeah. They'd be dead. Easy shakes his head. EASY Come on, let's go. He grabs a jacket.88-91 OMIT 88-91A92 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY A92 Easy hurries out of his house pulling on his jacket with Mouse right behind. MOUSE What they tryin' to pin on you? 81.A92 CONTINUED: A92 EASY I'll tell you on the way. You got the keys? MOUSE Yeah. And he hurries around to the driver's side. EASY Before we run out to Compton we got one other place to stop by... He freezes seeing the Woodcutter watching and listening. EASY (to Woodcutter) Man, don't you mess with my trees while I'm gone. He gets in as Mouse cranks the engine. EASY You heard me. Leave my trees alone. As Mouse starts away the old man smiles mischievously and starts to sharpen his axe. Easy leans out the car window, yelling back as the car pulls away. EASY I mean it now. Don't you mess with my trees!!92 EXT. PORTLAND COURT - DAY 92 It's a horseshoe of tiny apartments with over a dozen little porches and doorways staggered in a semi-circle around a small yard that has a half-dozen stunted magnolia trees growing in brick pots. Easy and Mouse step into the courtyard, passing elderly tenants sitting inside screened doors. Jimmy Lunceford's "I'm Walking Through Heaven With You" floats out into the yard. They arrive at the closed door of number eight. Easy knocks and then knocks again, hard. Something CRASHES on the inside and heavy FOOTSTEPS pound to the door. VOICE BEHIND DOOR Who's that? 82.92 CONTINUED: 92 EASY Easy! The door opens and JUNIOR FORNAY stands there behind the screen door in blue boxer shorts and a white T-shirt. JUNIOR What you want? EASY It's private, Junior. Lemme in. And he reaches to pull open the door, but Junior throws the latch. JUNIOR I ain't got time now. I'm tryin' to get some sleep. MOUSE Why don't you open the door, Junior, 'fore I have to shoot it down. Mouse steps out into the doorway, in plain view. JUNIOR Mouse. MOUSE Open up. We ain't got all night. Junior forces a smile and lets them in.93 INT. JUNIOR'S APARTMENT - DAY 93 Filthy and junky, with old car parts scattered amongst old furniture, the room is unpleasant with only the benefit of a dim light -- just like Junior. JUNIOR Y'all want a beer? He nods at a card table with one folding chair and throws two others into place on his way to the refrigerator. Easy and Mouse sit down and Junior brings over a quart of PABST BLUE RIBBON BEER and two glasses that he wipes out with a rag. EASY What ya smokin'? Zapatas? 83.93 CONTINUED: 93 Junior tosses his pack onto the table and pours beer into the glasses for Easy and Mouse, and drinks from the bottle. Easy unfolds the handkerchief in his pocket on the table, uncovering the cigarette butt from Richard McGee's house. EASY (to Junior) This is one of yours, ain't it? Junior looks at the butt and shrugs. EASY You the only one I know cheap enough to smoke this shit... Why'd you kill Richard McGee? JUNIOR Huh? What you talkin' 'bout? EASY Ain't no time to play, Junior. I know you the one killed him. JUNIOR You crazy, man. You crazy! And he stands up to emphasize his indignation. MOUSE Sit down, Junior. Junior shifts awkwardly from side to side and then sits back down. EASY Tell me what happened, Junior. JUNIOR I don't know what you talkin' 'bout. EASY Well, the police will. When they find out that they got your fingerprints up there in that man's house. JUNIOR What fingerprints? What house? 84.93 CONTINUED: (2) 93 EASY Hattie had you pull that man out of John's the night I was there. And he was laying up there dead with the same suit on and a knife in his chest. JUNIOR I ain't killed nobody. EASY Quit lyin', you big ole sweaty- thick headed-cornbread eatin'-- Mouse can't keep from laughing and Junior starts up after Easy. JUNIOR You thick-headed, ya damn self!! But Mouse is up, still laughing with the pistol in his hand. MOUSE Sit down, man... 'fore I blow your brains out. JUNIOR What kinda shit y'all trying to pull here? MOUSE (last warning) Sit down. Junior sits down and throws himself around in the chair like a child throwing a fit. EASY You better tell it the way it happened. And maybe I'll forget what I know... Otherwise, I'm gonna tell Mouse to shoot ya 'cause you know I don't like your ass and he don't like you either. Mouse slaps the table, laughing so hard he's in tears. MOUSE Aw, man... And he aims the pistol and cocks the hammer, causing Junior to throw himself around some more. 85.93 CONTINUED: (3) 93 EASY You killed him to take his money, didn't ya? JUNIOR I don't even know who you-- EASY You just had to rob him, didn't ya! JUNIOR I didn't! I didn't touch nothin' in his house! SILENCE. But it's in the open now and Junior frowns and shakes his head. JUNIOR Hattie had me take him out to his car. And he say he give me ten dollars to drive him home. Mouse is busy working a toothpick between his front teeth. MOUSE I know you took that. JUNIOR Hell, yeah. Then he asked me about that white girl you was askin' everybody about at the club. And I told him I seen her with Coretta... What the hell I care if he know? EASY You tell him but you won't tell me. JUNIOR I don't like your ass, Easy. And he gimme fifty dollars. EASY (disbelievingly) Fifty dollars? Just to tell him you seen her with Coretta? JUNIOR Naw. To deliver a letter. Easy is stopped for a moment. EASY What letter? 86.93 CONTINUED: (4) 93 JUNIOR How should I know? He just said to give it to her. EASY And you knew where she was? JUNIOR I didn't say that! I give it to Coretta to give it to her the next mornin'! EASY You 'spect me to believe that? Why would he trust you to give it to the girl if it was worth fifty dollars? JUNIOR 'Cause he had to blow town, fool! Easy stops to make the connection. EASY Why? JUNIOR He didn't say! EASY (after a moment) You better be tellin' the truth. Let's go, Raymond. He and Mouse get up. JUNIOR I'm tellin' the truth. I ain't killed nobody. That man was alive when I left him! Easy opens the door, looking back at Junior, who's still going on and walks out.94-95 OMIT 94-9596 INT. EASY'S CAR - DUSK 96 Compton looks a lot like Texas, with unpaved streets and little country-styled houses set back away from the road behind vegetable gardens and chicken coops and small sheds with a horse or a cow tied up. 87.96 CONTINUED: 96 Easy and Mouse pull into the gravel driveway of a little house and are met by the usual barking dog you find in the country -- part Spaniel, part Shepherd, and some kind of Retriever. It dogs Easy and Mouse's heels as they get out of the car.97 EXT. DUPREE'S SISTER'S HOUSE - DUSK 97 They notice the light in the front window go out and the shade pull back slightly as they walk toward the front door. Moments later the door opens and the dark figure of Dupree Brouchard appears. DUPREE (to the dog) Go on. Go on in the back. The dog obeys and Easy and Mouse walk up the walkway. EASY Hey, Dupree. Been trying to call you. DUPREE Yeah, Easy! Cops just let me out today. My sister gone to work and I didn't feel much like talking... Raymond... MOUSE Hey, big man! Them pigtails I smell? DUPREE Yeah. Lula Mae made some 'fore she went to work. Dupree ushers them in.98 INT. DUPREE'S SISTER'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DUSK 98 Dupree's face under the kitchen light shows two swollen black eyes from a brutal police "questioning." His eyes are heavy with liquor and tears glisten down his cheeks. DUPREE Why somebody wanna kill her like that? Why? EASY I don't know, Dupree... I don't know... 88.98 CONTINUED: 98 Dupree pours rye whiskey into a water glass in front of Mouse, who swallows half the shot without looking up from his plate of food. Easy declines when the bottle comes his way, feeling the pressure of time running out. EASY Did Coretta ever say anything to you about a letter she was keeping? DUPREE Letter? What kinda letter? EASY For that white girl... DUPREE Naw. But I know it was on account of her that Coretta got killed. Easy rears back in his chair with keen interest and Mouse looks up from his pigtails. Dupree takes a drink and his eyes narrow in anger. DUPREE (continuing) Everything between Coretta and that Daphne was always such a damn secret... I mean that ole girl didn't think nothin' about two- timin' on Frank... She probably 'innerduced' Coretta to one of them ole guys she knew... And when he came to the house after Coretta... (starting to break) ...he found out she wasn't that kinda woman... Cops said she fought him... aw my Gawd... fought him 'cause she wouldn't have nobody but me-e-e... He buries his face into his hands and Easy throws a sad but frustrated look to Mouse. DUPREE (continuing) Aw Gawd, I can't even go to sleep... 'cause I can still see her face that mornin' 'fore I went to work... (MORE) 89.98 CONTINUED: (2) 98 DUPREE (CONT'D) Junior had been by and just left the house... and she came runnin' out to the car carrying her bible... And she said, 'Keep this for me, baby.' Easy and Mouse exchange looks. JACKPOT! And Dupree falls apart. DUPREE (continuing) Police won't even let me go near her house. So it's the only thing I got left from her. It was a sign... I know it was a sign, 'cause she was so religious... MOUSE It's all right, big man... it's all right... And he pours Dupree a half glass of rye.99 THE BOTTLE - LATER, NIGHT 99 Barely a "corner" of whiskey lies at the bottom and DUPREE is snoring like a buzzsaw, sound asleep. MOUSE squints into his glass, wondering why it's empty, and looks down the length of the kitchen leading into100 THE BEDROOM - NIGHT 100 Drawers are pulled out on the dresser, and Easy is rifling through another until he pulls out a bible. He fans the pages, finding THE LETTER already opened. His fingers pull out a photograph and then two more. BACK TO EASY His excited face goes sick, and he silently mouths: EASY Holy shi-it... 90.100 CONTINUED: 100 EASY (V.O.) I was as nauseated from fear as I was from what I saw... Pictures of a much younger Matthew Teran and children... innocent, helpless, naked children...101 KITCHEN 101 Easy hurries in holding up the letter. EASY I got it. Come on, I think that girl is gonna call again. MOUSE That Dupree is a good man, but he sure can't hold his liquor. Easy grabs his coat off a chair and starts to put it on, stuffing the letter in his coat pocket. EASY You got your sails up pretty far too, Raymond. MOUSE You callin' me drunk? EASY Well, you been puttin' it away along with him and-- MOUSE If I was drunk could I do this? And in less than a heartbeat he has pulled that long- barreled pistol and is aiming it at Easy's forehead. MOUSE Ain't a man in Texas can outdraw me! EASY (forced calm) Put it down. MOUSE Go on. And he puts the gun back in his shoulder holster. 91.101 CONTINUED: 101 MOUSE Go for your gun. Let's see who gets kilt. EASY I don't have a gun, Raymond. Come on, let's go. MOUSE You fool enough to go without a piece then you must wanna be dead. He lays the pistol on the table then draws a .32 automatic from his waist, this time cocking the hammer, the muzzle only inches from Easy's head. Easy can tell from the glazed look in Mouse's eye that instead of seeing him, his friend is glaring at some demon he carries around in his head. So he stands stock still. EASY (quiet, soothing) Let him go, Raymond... He done learned his lesson. If you kill him then he won't have got it. MOUSE He fool enough to call me out and he ain't even got no gun? I'll kill the motherfucker. EASY Let him live, Raymond, and he be scared whenever you walk in the room. MOUSE Motherfucker better be scared. I kill a motherfucker. I kill him! Easy stares down the barrel of the gun for a long moment until Mouse blinks, then nods and lets the pistol fall down into his lap. His head on his chest, he's sound asleep. Easy takes the gun and puts it on the table with the other. Then walks to the doorway and turns out the light.102 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 102 The dim street lamps of Easy's neighborhood streak past as Easy scans the streets and sidewalks, wary for anybody who might be staking him out. 91.102 CONTINUED: 102 EASY (V.O.) The pictures were burnin' a hole in my pocket... I had no doubt that Albright had killed McGee... and that he had done it for Matthew Teran... But Teran hadn't known who killed Coretta. I was sure of that, too.103 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 103 Easy's car pulls up and he gets out and looks around cautiously before starting up the walkway. EASY (V.O.) (continuing) For the first time I hated walking up to my house... I still didn't know if I could go to the police. But Albright was liable to be showing up in a few hours asking about Frank Green. I was thinking I oughta forget the girl and leave town, back to Houston or Galveston where they didn't know me too good. Easy gets to the door, still literally looking over his shoulder, and hears the phone RINGING inside. He unlocks the door and bursts in.104 INT. EASY'S HOUSE 104 He races through the dark living room and into105 INT. BEDROOM 105 And picks up the phone but the dial tone DRONES on the other end. EASY Shit! Damn! He whacks the nightstand with the receiver, dying with frustration. And SOMETHING MOVES in the dark. He lunges and grabs DAPHNE MONET and pulls her into the light, then sits down onto the bed before the shock can knock him down. DAPHNE Are you all right? 93.105 CONTINUED: 105 Easy shakes his head in disbelieving relief and she reaches to touch the bump on his forehead. DAPHNE What happened? EASY Your boyfriend, Frank Green, threw a surprise party for me. DAPHNE I'm sorry, Easy... He pulls away. DAPHNE (continuing) Easy, Coretta's boyfriend, Dupree, got out of jail today. And... DAPHNE EASY (continuing) (he joins her) I need you to help me You need me to help you find him. find him. Easy shakes his head, amused, and lights a cigarette. EASY --I already have the pictures... Daphne stiffens, as if from an electrical shock, and then: DAPHNE Easy, I paid seven thousand dollars for those pictures. They belong to me. EASY Oh yeah? Matthew Teran may have somethin' to say about that. DAPHNE Easy, you wouldn't dare. EASY Try me. Who killed Coretta? DAPHNE I don't know -- I'll pay you for them. I'll give you a thousand dollars. EASY You gave Richard seven. 94.105 CONTINUED: (2) 105 DAPHNE Okay, I'll give you seven. EASY Where'd you get seven thousand dollars from? DAPHNE Never mind. I'll give it to you. Easy, please. They're very important to me. EASY Coretta's life was important to a few people too. What's say you tell me who killed her? DAPHNE Easy, honey, I don't know. EASY 'Honey?' Do Frank and Carter really fall for that stuff? Come on... You and Todd Carter have a fight and all of a sudden he doesn't wanna be mayor no more... You leave, he's worried but he can't even get his buddies in the police department to help him find you... And now you wanna buy some pictures of Teran. Why? 'Cause he's got some dirt on you. She gets up and walks away. DAPHNE Easy, why don't you just take the money! EASY Is that what Frank told Coretta? She whirls around to face him. EASY (continuing) Was she being too nosy? Or was she just being Coretta and trying to bargain up the price? DAPHNE Easy, please. How much do you want? 95.105 CONTINUED: (3) 105 EASY Tell me. Is Frank your husband or your pimp? SMACK! She swings and open hand across his face, and SMACK! He returns the gesture, sending her back onto the bed... He picks up the phone and dials "O." DAPHNE Easy, put the phone down. EASY Why don't you try screaming again? 'Cause I bet police like white women with Negro boyfriends who hijack trucks... DAPHNE Easy, please. She reaches for the phone and he pushes her away. EASY I bet they like pimps, and whores, too, who scam rich white men like Carter runnin' for mayor. DAPHNE Easy, please, put it down... EASY And I'm sure they like it when these white girls tell their colored men to lay low 'cause they killed a woman over some pictures of another rich white man. She gathers herself, just as: OPERATOR'S VOICE Number please... DAPHNE (soberly) Frank is my brother. Easy is about to speak, but then stands still. OPERATOR'S VOICE Number please? He hangs up. 96.105 CONTINUED: (4) 105 She looks away, worn out, tired. DAPHNE We have different fathers. Mine is white... Frank doesn't even know that Todd and I broke up. So far I've kept him out of all this. She gets up and takes Easy's cigarettes and taps one out. DAPHNE See, Coretta's the only one out here in L.A. besides my brother who knew about me... (she lights up) And about a month ago she took a job working for, of all people, Matthew Teran. She made friends with one of the girls in the office who told her that she'd heard that Teran was a pedophile. And Coretta got carried away and told her that Todd Carter was engaged to a colored woman. She was sorry and didn't think it would get to Teran... but it did and he got a hold of my birth records. EASY Who killed her, Daphne? Daphne exhales smoke and brushes hair out of her face ignoring the question. DAPHNE (continuing) Todd and I broke up and I paid a guy for the pictures of Teran. But somehow Coretta got them. EASY Who killed her? DAPHNE It was an accident. Coretta and I were still mad at each other. I mean, she threatened to sell Teran the pictures. EASY Who killed her goddammit!? 97.105 CONTINUED: (5) 105 DAPHNE I just asked Joppy to go over and put a scare in her... It was an accident. FLASHBACK:106 INT. KITCHEN - CORETTA'S HOUSE 106 Joppy points a finger in Coretta's face, backing her against the counter. She grabs a knife from a rack of dishes left out to dry. DAPHNE (V.O.) Joppy said she pulled a knife and tried to dump hot water on him... She swipes at Joppy and he backhands her against the stove... She struggles to grab a pot of boiling water, but he wrests it from her and slings her across the room against the counter, her head striking the tile on the way down.107 BACK TO SCENE 107 Daphne looks down at her hands. She stubs out her cigarette and sits on the bed. DAPHNE God, I didn't mean to hurt anybody... It's just that with the pictures I can-- EASY What? Marry Carter? Be white again? DAPHNE Don't judge me, Easy! Do you think I like pretending that I'm someone else? Do you know how I've been treated by people, colored and white, when I've tried to live as a colored woman in a colored community. Do you have any idea what any colored man whose ever been with me has had to go through? Don't you dare judge me! She sees Easy hesitate and she stands up. DAPHNE (continuing) Come on, Easy. Help me. 98.107 CONTINUED: 107 She moves in close, caressing. DAPHNE (continuing) Come on, you know it's the right thing to do... You know if things were different what would happen between us. EASY I'll tell you what can happen between us. You get Carter to clear me up from all this and you can have your pictures. That's all that could have ever happened between us. DAPHNE (genuinely hurt) Sure, baby. Of course, sweetheart... The sound of the front door pushing open startles them, and Albright knocks on his way in. ALBRIGHT Well I'll be damned. You found her. And Manny and Shariff step in, too, carrying baseball bats. EASY Wait a minute, Albright. Daphne breaks for the back way and Easy tries to bar Shariff from going after her. EASY Hey! Manny swings the baseball bat into Easy's side. and Easy yells and plows into him, wrestling him against the wall. Albright grabs Easy from behind and pries him free enough for Manny to uppercut him to the chin with the fat end of the bat. Easy sinks to his knees seeing double. Shariff leads Daphne back into the room, her face contorted into tears, her arm twisted up behind her in a hammerlock. 99.107 CONTINUED: (2) 107 ALBRIGHT (to Daphne) Where are the pictures? DAPHNE (terrified) I don't know. SMACK! He backhands her. Easy grabs for the wall to get to his feet and Manny swings the bat down into his kidney. ALBRIGHT Where are they? DAPHNE (indicating Easy) I wouldn't tell him! And I won't tell you! ALBRIGHT Sure you will. (to Shariff) Let's go. Shariff leads Daphne outside and Manny draws his forty-five automatic and trains it on Easy, cocking the hammer. ALBRIGHT What're you doin'? Who are we gonna give 'em to cover this shit, hunh?... Use your head. He shoves Manny through the door and pushes Easy onto his side with his foot and he's out the door. Easy strains to get back to his knees as car doors slam and the sound of a car engine growls to life. He thrusts himself up from the floor and stumbles toward the front door like a boxer who should have stayed down for the count. He gets it open in time to see...108 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 108 The blurred white form of Albright's Caddy screaming away, shattering the dark, shrieking in flight. Dogs are barking and a baby is screaming somewhere in the neighborhood while lights are going on up and down the block. Easy stumbles back inside and into 100.109 THE BEDROOM 109 Where he manages to dial the phone. It RINGS several times on the other end, and finally: MOUSE'S VOICE (groggy) Yeah. EASY Mouse... MOUSE'S VOICE Hey, Easy? EASY (slurring) Get Dupree's car. Drive it to 78th and Central... The butcher shop. MOUSE'S VOICE You alright? EASY Hurry up. He puts down the receiver, missing the cradle, and staggers out of the room.110 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 110 Easy is ripping through the night, the streetlights flashing by in blurs of light. The windows down, he's coming to. EASY (V.O.) It had come to me in less time than it takes to think that Albright was taking Daphne someplace more isolated than that office building downtown... Someplace where there would be no witnesses... And I was being left alive to take the fall.111 EXT. BUTCHER SHOP/JOPPY'S BAR - NIGHT 111 The street is still alive. A couple of late night juke joints are coughing up the last drunken bits of the party onto the sidewalk to straggle home. Easy's car screams around the corner, and then skids in, sending a heavy-hipped young sister, about to cross the street, scrambling for cover. He jumps out just as Mouse scorches the tires on Dupree's '38 Packard in behind him. 101.111 CONTINUED: 111 EASY (to the woman) Sorry, baby... Lemme give you twenty bucks for them stockings you got on. It takes a moment to register, but when she sees him pull a twenty from his pocket, she gets busy. He runs back to Mouse. EASY Gimme one of them guns you got. Mouse smiles, loving this side of Easy, and trades him a set of car keys for a .32 automatic. EASY (continuing) Start up my car. I'm comin' out fast. He runs back to the woman he almost hit and hands off the twenty, grabbing one of the nylons, leaving her still stripping as he runs into112 INT. STAIRWAY 112 He takes the steps two at a time, pulling the stocking down over his face as he reaches the top and bursts through the open door leading into113 INT. JOPPY'S BAR 113 He charges through the raucous laughter of the half-full room right up to the bar. Joppy nearly drops the glasses he is clearing away as he looks down the barrel of the pistol aimed at his face. EASY Come on, Joppy. Let's go! Joppy hesitates, recognizing the voice. EASY You heard me. I'll blow your head off! And he cocks the hammer, causing Joppy to get a move on from behind the bar. Easy shoves him through the door, calling back to the startled crowd on his way out. 102.113 CONTINUED: 113 EASY Don't follow me, goddammit! And he's gone.114 INT. JOPPY'S BAR - NIGHT 114 Easy hides the piece in his coat pocket as he bum rushes Joppy to the car. JOPPY Easy, what the hell you-- EASY Shut up! And he shoves Joppy into the back seat, getting in next to him. EASY Drive this damn thing, Mouse! Mouse pulls off, around the corner, down the street into an alley.A115 INT. EASY'S CAR - IN THE ALLEY A115 Mouse pulls to a stop. EASY (to Joppy) Albright's got the girl. He's gonna kill her. Where would he take her? And you better get it right. JOPPY Man, I don't-- EASY (screaming, pressing the gun) Don't fool with me, man! JOPPY There's a cabin out in Malibu on Route 9... EASY Make a right, Mouse! 103.B115 EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT B115 The car roars down the alley and turns right onto the street.115 INT. CAR - INDUSTRIAL STREET - NIGHT 115 EASY (to Joppy) You sure 'bout this place? JOPPY I guess so. He's done this kinda thing out there before. MOUSE Easy, what's done got into you? Thought y'all was friends. EASY He killed Dupree's girlfriend. MOUSE You lyin'. EASY Naw. MOUSE Son-of-a-bitch! And he pulls out his pistol, aiming it back over the seat at Joppy as he drives. KABLAAM! The bullet slams through the rear window just to the side of Joppy's head. EASY Mouse! What're you doin'? KABLAAM! This one digs out a chunk of upholstery between Joppy and Easy. EASY Hey! Watch out! The car screeches to a halt and Mouse tries to aim again. But Easy struggles with Mouse's gun hand still holding a pistol on Joppy. EASY Mouse, we need him to lead the way! KABLAAM! This one rips through the roof. Joppy's yelling, afraid that Easy's gun will go off. 104.115 CONTINUED: 115 EASY Mouse, the girl offered me seven thousand dollars for the pictures. Mouse glares into the rearview mirror. MOUSE You lyin'! EASY No, I swear I'm not. MOUSE Aw shit! And he fumbles with the ignition and shifts gears. MOUSE Oh, my God!... Oh, my goodness!116 EXT. L.A. STREET - NIGHT 116 The engine roars from a punch to the accelerator, and Mouse's voice can be heard cutting through the darkness as the car powers off down the street. MOUSE (O.S.) Oh, my goodness!117 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 117 Easy, with the gun on Joppy, strains to see the dimly lit road in front of them. EASY Is that it up there? JOPPY Yeah, that's it.118 THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD 118 The headlights bounce off a signpost: "Route 9."119 EXT. ROUTE 9 - NIGHT 119 The Pontiac makes the turn onto a graded dirt road.120 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 120 A ranch-style cabin emerges up off the road, drawing nearer in the headlight beams. 105.121 BACK TO SCENE 121 EASY Shut off the headlights, Mouse. Mouse kills the lights. EASY Is that it? JOPPY Naw. It's farther up. EASY How much farther? JOPPY Another ten minutes, I guess. Easy, I swear, I ain't done nothin' to nobody. I swear, I ain't.122 EXT. ROUTE 9 - NIGHT 122 THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD: House lights show through thick shrubbery. JOPPY There it is. Mouse pulls to a stop and kills the engine. EASY There's some rope in the trunk, Raymond. Mouse gets out of the car and is heard opening the trunk. JOPPY Easy, come on, man. That girl is lying if she told you I killed them folks. EASY Who said she told me? SCREAM! It's muted and distant. But it's a woman all right. SCREAM! Easy pushes out of the back door on the right as Mouse opens the opposite door on the driver's side. EASY Stuff this in his mouth. I gotta get up there. He tosses Mouse the stocking. 106.122 CONTINUED: 122 MOUSE Let's just shoot him. EASY (on the run) No, Mouse. And they'll hear it.123 EXT. ALBRIGHT'S CABIN - NIGHT 123 The cabin draws nearer as Easy scrambles up the hill. He can hear Daphne crying out something, but he can't make out the words. It quiets down as he nears and sees shadows crossing a window with the shade pulled down. He moves cautiously, quietly to the window and peers through the crack between the shade and the windowsill. He can make out a sliver of what looks like a large room with a low ceiling. SMACK! And Daphne screams again. ALBRIGHT'S VOICE Come on, talk to me. Talk to me while you still can. DAPHNE'S VOICE (sobbing) Please! I don't have them! Easy has them! Easy can barely make out Shariff passing the window. He strains to see more. ALBRIGHT'S VOICE You said he didn't know anything. DAPHNE'S VOICE I was lying!! ALBRIGHT'S VOICE Okay. Grab that for me, Shariff. It's ready. And then SCRE-E-EAM!! The kind that drops the bottom out of your stomach. The kind more akin to fear than the word itself... The kind that fries your skin with the cold chill of horror. S-C-R-E-EAMS again!! DAPHNE'S VOICE No-o-o-o! Please. No-o-o! ALBRIGHT'S VOICE Now talk to me, goddammit! 107.123 CONTINUED: 123 DAPHNE'S VOICE No-o-o!124 Easy's gotta make a move. KABLANGALANGLE! He smashes the 124 window with the gun and the shade rattles all the way up. Manny looks right up at his face as Daphne arches and flails, trying to get free from his hands that are pinning her down on a battered old sofa. Albright is holding a glowing red poker that Shariff, standing in front of the fireplace, has just handed him. Easy starts blasting. KABLAAM! Manny takes one to the throat. KABLAAM! Albright and Shariff lunge for cover, and Daphne ducks down behind the back of the sofa, screaming and screaming. Manny, hand to his throat, pulls his gun on reflex, firing into the floor and then half runs, half staggers out the side door just ahead of another KABLAAM! that digs out a chunk of the wall. Easy hears the screen door open and then ducks down, getting ready for Manny who should be coming his way from the side door. He HEARS more steps stumble out and then... SILENCE. And then, KABLAAM! BLAAM! Two huge blasts rip right through the wall next to Easy's head, and he scrambles to the side of the house, underneath another window with the shade pulled down. ALBRIGHT (O.S.) (to Shariff) Who the hell's out there? SHARIFF (getting frantic) I don't know! ALBRIGHT (O.S.) That you, Easy? (SILENCE) Tell us what you want, buddy. See what we can work out. Easy HEARS footsteps coming alongside the house where he had been moments ago. KABLAAM! BLAAM! Albright has fired from the inside again, thinking it's him. EASY (whispering) Mouse? 108.124 CONTINUED: 124 But it's Manny, clutching his throat, gurgling for air, stumbling aimlessly off down the hill. A walking dead man... EASY hears him tumble into some shrubbery and after a moment the gurgling stops. ALBRIGHT (O.S.) Easy... Hey, Buddy (then to Shariff) Come on, goddammit! Daphne cries out and KLABLANGLE! Easy breaks the window with the gun but KABLAAM! BLAAM! BLAAM! The windowsill tears out above his head and Daphne screams again. Easy looks up to see Shariff, holding her in front of him as a shield. He's headed straight for Easy, drawing a bead on him for the kill. And then KABLAAM! the back of Shariff's skull flies off and MOUSE is in the side door, blasting. BLAAM! Albright breaks for the window. BLAAM! The slug spins him halfway around but he hurls himself through the window backwards. Easy scurries to the front of the house and BLAAM! The bullet goes wide and Albright manages to get into his car and returns fire. BLAAM! BLAAM!... Easy hits the deck. Albright's engine roars to life and he SQUEALS out on the gravel. Mouse appears on the other side of the house and CLICK! CLICK! he's out of ammo. He pulls out the other pistol, but it's too late. MOUSE Damn, damn, damn! I hit him! I hit him! Easy gets up from the ground and trudges into the front door.125 INT. ALBRIGHT'S CABIN 125 Easy finds Daphne standing in the middle of the room, her whole body quaking in shock. He takes off his jacket and drapes it around her. EASY Come on... You all right? Her top lip is swollen and bloody and she has a dark bruise on her cheek... She jerks her head, nodding "yes." 109.125 CONTINUED: 125 As he leads her through the doorway, he stops to look back at Shariff's legs sprawling out on the floor from behind the sofa.126 EXT. ALBRIGHT'S CABIN - NIGHT 126 He leads her down the front porch and hears. MOUSE There's blood all over here... I got him. Mouse gets up from squatting down, grinning, the gold rims of his teeth catching a glint from the light coming through the door. He looks Daphne over, admiring. MOUSE Damn. Sweetheart. Easy leads her past, quickly. MOUSE She okay? EASY Yeah. Let's go.127 EXT. ROUTE 9 - NIGHT 127 Mouse opens the back seat door of the car and Easy sees that there's no one there. EASY Where's Joppy? And then he looks around quickly, seeing JOPPY'S BODY lying off on the side of the road. EASY What happened? Mouse shrugs. MOUSE I didn't have time to be tying him up. Daphne sees the body too and starts gagging. Easy's face twists into helpless pain and he holds a handkerchief to Daphne's mouth. EASY Why, man? Why? 110.127 CONTINUED: 127 MOUSE Why what? You just said don't shoot him. And I didn't... I choked his ass... Easy helps Daphne into the car and closes the door. EASY Damn Mouse! Why? MOUSE How I'm gonna help you back there foolin' 'round with him? EASY He was tied up! Why?! MOUSE Aw, man. If you didn't want him kilt you shouldn't have left him with me. And he goes around to the passenger side of the car to get in. Unlike up at the house this was murder -- the same as it had been in Texas with Mouse's stepfather and brother. Tears of rage well up in Easy's eyes as he hears the car door close. DISSOLVE TO:A128 EXT. GLENDALE TRAIN STATION - NIGHT A128 Daphne sits in the car, her eyes staring straight ahead, still in shock.128 EXT. PLATFORM - NIGHT 128 A few people hurry to board the train, Easy and Mouse among them. EASY (V.O.) I convinced Mouse to take the two o'clock train to Pomona and to let me handle everything else. He could get a train back to Houston later that morning... He was fine with that but only because he was seven thousand dollars richer. Daphne had gotten the money out of a locker at the YMCA without a word... (MORE) 111.128 CONTINUED: 128 EASY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Because she was still in shock and couldn't really talk... Maybe too because she had stolen about four times that much from Carter. MOUSE Listen, if you think you gonna have trouble with that dude Frank, I can run by and kill him and take that evening train to Houston. EASY Naw, man. He has had enough of Mouse for a while. MOUSE Oh. This is for you. And he pulls out something wrapped up in a brown paper bag from his coat. MOUSE I cut you in for half 'cause I knew you was too big a fool to take your share from that white girl yourself. Easy stares numbly at the package and then takes it. The conductor gets on board and the train starts making those metal on metal sounds. MOUSE Send my grip to Etta Mae. I'm gonna see if she'll take me back now that I'm flush. He slaps Easy on the shoulder and boards the train. MOUSE Oh, here's the keys to Dupree's car. He tosses them, and the train starts moving. MOUSE And if you need somebody to run them streets with ya, gimme a call. You know how to put some money in a nigga's pocket. And he laughs, flashing gold teeth pulling away. 112.128 CONTINUED: (2) 128 Easy watches. EASY (V.O.) I knew I would see him again and I didn't know how I felt about that... 'cause, unlike Mouse, my legs were like rubber... the way they had been in the war the whole two years I was there.129 EXT. GRIFFITH PARK OBSERVATORY - NIGHT 129 Easy sits in his car smoking a cigarette, rubbing his aching chin, looking out at DAPHNE AND CARTER standing on the lawn in front of the planetarium. Carter wanders after Daphne, explaining while she paces back and forth in anger. EASY I could tell how it was gonna go when Carter asked us to meet him at the Observatory instead of at his house... She knew it, too. But she had come this far and she had to play it out. Suddenly, Daphne stops abruptly and strides hurriedly back toward the car. Carter follows behind. CARTER Daphne! Daphne, sweetheart! He starts over, too, but then stops, knowing here's no use.130 INT. CAR - NIGHT 130 She gets in. DAPHNE Come on, Easy. Let's go. Easy throws a look over at Carter. DAPHNE (continuing) Don't worry, you can give him the pictures yourself. And she throws them down on the seat. 113.131 OMIT 131132 Easy fires up the engine and pulls away with Daphne 132 looking straight ahead. EASY Hey, I'm sorry. The slight twist of her head amounts to a shrug and then the tears flow. The sun is coming up over the city below... EASY (V.O.) For the first time I felt that I could fall in love with her, too... I was even wondering if it was starting to happen when I dropped her off at 63rd and Dinker where her brother, Frank, was waiting... Then it occurred to me that she still had Carter's money... and I felt like a fool.133 INT. CITY HALL 133 Easy walks onto the rotunda holding a hand to his aching kidney. A secretary comes out to meet him and as she leaves, Todd Carter and a group of men in business suits converge on him, shaking hands. EASY (V.O.) Evidently Carter had told all his cronies about the pictures because they were all smiles and handshakes and "how do ya do"... The Mayor, the police chief... The newspaper; land developers. All the men who ran the City, and who really stood to gain by who was the Mayor for the next six years. The group fans out leaving Carter and Easy alone to walk off down a hallway.134 OMIT 134135 OMIT 135136 INT. MAYOR'S OFFICE 136 Spacious and heavy in leather and wood with a not-so- spectacular view of the mountains. It's cold and official like the job itself. Carter pulls a brown envelope from inside his coat pocket, not unlike Albright. 114.136 CONTINUED: 136 CARTER Here's the remaining eight hundred that I owe you... in cash... And another thousand which I hope will keep this whole thing... you know. Easy nods a tentative "sure." CARTER (continuing) And I've taken care of your problems with the police. You'll have no more trouble there. And that's a promise. Easy nods and starts to go, but... CARTER (continuing; to Easy) Mr. Rawlins... did Daphne ever say... she loved me? Easy shrugs, not knowing how to answer. EASY Would it really matter if she did, Mr. Carter? Carter nods sadly and Easy walks away leaving him a lonely figure amidst all his power.137 EXT. CITY HALL - DAY 137 Easy holds his kidney and lowers himself gingerly down the granite steps. EASY (V.O.) I'd been thinking about Daphne, too... wondering if she meant what she said about what could have happened between us... But at the moment I was wondering if there was any such thing as a sprained chin. But other than that and a headache, a loose tooth and a kidney that a doctor would need to look at, I felt like five thousand, three hundred dollars... And unless Albright was alive somewhere, that feelin' was gonna last a while. O.S. VOICE Hey, Ezekiel. 115.137 CONTINUED: 137 Miller and Mason are waiting outside their car at the curb. They come over. MILLER You got some mighty powerful friends up there... mighty powerful. But, see, we got a problem. Easy listens disinterestedly. MILLER (continuing) With the Chief sealing these things up like this, it doesn't do much for the morale of the men who've been working on these cases. MASON Yeah. Makes 'em feel like shit. MILLER There's a guy who's been callin' on the phone. And we're pretty sure that he was up there with McGee. MASON A... uh... colored guy... sounds kinda dumb... MILLER (correcting) Not very bright... But he said you accused him of the murder. And he swears you were up there, too... MASON In fact, he's out and out pointing the finger at ya. MILLER How about a name? MASON He'd do it to you... Easy waits to make sure they're finished, and... EASY Sorry, fellas. But I gotta go. He starts away. 116.137 CONTINUED: (2) 137 EASY (continuing) Why don't you go back to the station and, uh... wait around for my call. MASON You son-of-a-bitch... You watch yourself, you hear! Don't you even spit on the fucking sidewalk... I better not even-- Mason's voice fades under. EASY (V.O.) It might be the last moment of my adult life spent free was walking away from City Hall.138 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 138 A NEWSPAPER HEADLINE reads: "Carter Back In Race." The subheading reads: "Quiet Civic Leader Returns As Flamboyant Teran Quits." EASY (V.O.) The paper treated the mysterious flip-flop like it happened every day. And I could tell that Matthew Teran wouldn't spend a day in jail... Back in the second section of the paper was a small article about an unidentified man found dead, slumped over the steering wheel of a white Cadillac just north of Malibu... FURTHER BACK, we see that Odell is reading the newspaper, nursing a can of ale. EASY (V.O.) It scared me to think about a world that could kill a man like DeWitt Albright... What could a world like that do to me? ODELL Hey, Easy, where's your car? Easy looks up from pulling weeds. 117.138 CONTINUED: 138 EASY In the shop... I'm havin' it fixed up a little. ODELL Yeah. Man can't get no decent job in this town without a car. EASY Shoot. I ain't studyin' no job. ODELL Ain't thinkin' 'bout no job? How you gonna live? EASY I'm gonna go to work for myself. Take a little money I got saved up and go into real estate... Start fixin' up folks' gardens again... and do a few favors on the side... Favors for friends. ODELL What you talkin' 'bout, 'favors'? EASY Well, like a woman offered me thirty dollars to go track down her husband for her. ODELL You talkin' about private investigatin' or somethin'... You could get in trouble doin' that. Easy keeps working. EASY Like a man once said to me, Odell: 'Walk out your door in the morning and you're already in trouble'... It's just how you're mixed up in that trouble that counts. Easy gets up and turns on the water hose. EASY (continuing) Odell? ODELL Yeah, Easy... 118.138 CONTINUED: (2) 138 EASY If you got a friend that does bad and you still keep him as your friend, even though you know what he's like... Do you think that's right? ODELL All you got is your friends, Easy... Easy starts to nod, but then spots THE WOODCUTTER hovering over a rosebush in a neighbor's yard across the street, his shears ready to cut. EASY (calling out) Get out of that yard! (to Odell) Bastard cut down two of my trees. Easy picks up a rock and sails it. Odell comes off the porch and does the same. Then a neighbor from across the street joins in. THE WOODCUTTER ambles off toward another block, leaving Easy, Odell and the neighbor gathered in the middle of the street.139 UP THE BLOCK 139 a man with a pony is setting up a camera. A few children have gathered, and more are running over from other parts of the neighborhood. The man props up a hand-painted sign, "Cowboy Pictures -- 15 Cents," and lifts the first customer onto the pony positioning a cowboy hat on the child's head.140 BACK TO SCENE 140 Another neighbor joins Easy and company, and they continue to laugh and talk, looking up from time to time to wave at friends in passing cars. EASY (V.O.) I thought about what Odell had said about friends and it made sense to me... (MORE) 119.140 CONTINUED: 140 EASY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Odell goes to church every Sunday, so he would know... Later on, he challenged me to a game of dominoes. And what'd he do that for? We got to talkin' 'bout Texas and fooled around and drunk almost a quart of whiskey... And I forgot about Daphne Monet, DeWitt Albright and Carter and them... And sat with my friend, on my porch at my house... and we laughed a long time... FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil's Advocate.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil's Advocate.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c2c24ffbc0277115b92a6f91569d964aa3fa4bc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Devil's Advocate.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy based on the novel by Andrew Neiderman REVISED SHOOTING DRAFT January 18, 1997 FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 FADE IN:1 INT. FLORIDA COURTROOM - DAY 1 Northern Florida in the midst of a heat wave. Air conditioners fighting a losing battle. The gallery is full. The JUDGE a stern, old hand. The PROSECUTOR, an efficient man with a good case. The witness is BARBARA. She is maybe 13. She is a witness in a criminal trial. Her testimony has been carefully rehearsed. BARBARA ... we go back to our homeroom for dismissal, unless you have a pass for sports or something. PROSECUTOR (O.S.) And is that what you did on the day in question? BARBARA No. Mr. Gettys asked me to stay after class. PROSECUTOR What happened next, Barbara? BARBARA Mr. Gettys closed the door. PROSECUTOR Everyone else had gone? BARBARA Yes. He told me to sit in the chair beside his desk. MR. GETTYS, the defendant, is 50. The very picture of respectability. His perfect wife and son staunchly enduring this testimony. (CONTINUED) 2.1 CONTINUED: 1 PROSECUTOR In your own words, Barbara, can you tell us exactly what happened during the next few minutes? KEVIN LOMAX. Defense counsel. Taking it all in. BARBARA (O.S.) I told him I was afraid I would miss my bus. He promised I would get to the bus on time if I would help him to do something... Kevin -- his eyes -- drifting around the courtroom -- taking inventory -- assessing damage -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... Then he put -- before I could say anything -- he placed his hand inside my blouse... Kevin -- checking the jury and -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... I was so frightened I didn't move. I thought if I was just quiet it would be okay... Kevin -- checking Gettys -- seeing something that stops him cold -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... Then his other hand went up under -- inside my skirt... Gettys' hand -- down below the table -- down where no one but Kevin could possibly see it -- Getty's fingers subtly feeling their way along the leg of his chair -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... his hand then, it started, he started, moving back and forth -- farther and farther inside my skirt... Kevin -- glancing around -- nobody else can see it -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... he said he was testing to see if I had any special feelings, that he wanted to find out what kind of feelings I had... (CONTINUED) 3.1 CONTINUED: (2) 1 Gettys' hand -- excited now -- stroking the chair leg -- absently -- involuntarily -- unmistakably sexual -- BARBARA (O.S.) ... I didn't know what to say, I was trying to think of something to say but I was confused and he just kept on -- with his hand -- moving it -- under my dress -- higher and higher... Kevin is rocked. Trying not to show it. BARBARA (O.S.) ... then I, I was asking him to stop but it was like he couldn't hear me -- he just kept on -- Suddenly, Gettys' hand stops moving -- BARBARA (O.S.) -- and then I screamed... Kevin looks up to find Gettys' eyes waiting for him. Gettys quickly returns his hand into his lap. He's been caught -- watching, as Kevin turns away and -- BARBARA ... then he, he got mad and said we would have to try again sometime. PROSECUTOR And did he try again? BARBARA Not with me. PROSECUTOR With friends of yours? BARBARA Yes. PROSECUTOR And when you told them what he had done to you, they told you what he had done to them, isn't that true? BARBARA Yes. PROSECUTOR I have nothing further. (CONTINUED) 4.1 CONTINUED: (3) 1 JUDGE (finding Kevin) Your witness, Mr. Lomax. KEVIN Any chance, Your Honor, for a short recess? CUT TO:2 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE HALL - DAY 2 Kevin heading quickly away from the courtroom. Gettys right on his heels. KEVIN Lloyd, as your attorney, I'm advising you to get the fuck away from me. GETTYS Why? What are you talking about? KEVIN The wife. The kid. The outrage. You definitely had me fooled. GETTYS You're my lawyer! You're here to defend me! KEVIN You know what I'm thinking? Why don't we put you on the stand and you can jerk off for the judge. GETTYS You know she's lying. KEVIN Get the hell out of my way. Gettys standing aside, as we -- CUT TO:3 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE MEN'S ROOM - DAY 3 An ancient upstairs facility. Kevin standing at the mirror. Frozen there. Identity crisis. Morality crisis. He takes off his wedding ring. Letting cold water run in the sink. His eyes never leaving the mirror. (CONTINUED) 5.3 CONTINUED: 3 Behind him, the door opens. A local REPORTER enters, moves to the urinal. REPORTER Well, hell, there you are. Rumor was you were out wandering in traffic. KEVIN Not now, Larry. REPORTER What's the game plan, Kevin? I got a four-thirty deadline. I need a quote. Gimme a quote. KEVIN Fuck off. REPORTER 'Mr. Lomax had no comment on today's events. Speculation, however, was widespread that the young lawyer's unblemished string of victories would come to an end in this courtroom.' Kevin pulls some cold water to his face. Startled, as THUNDER EXPLODES overhead -- then just as suddenly, becomes nothing more than the urinal flushing... REPORTER It was a nice run, Kev. Had to close out someday. Nobody wins 'em all. The Reporter exits. Kevin alone with the mirror. And then it's over. He's made his decision. Replacing his wedding ring. Reaching for his jacket, as we -- CUT TO:4 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE HALLWAY - DAY 4 Kevin walking through. His game face. A court officer opening the doors and -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 6.5 INT. FLORIDA COURTROOM - DAY 5 Barbara on the stand. Everyone in place. KEVIN Math hasn't exactly been your subject this year, has it? BARBARA No. KEVIN Any theories on why you've done so poorly in math this year? BARBARA It's not my fault. KEVIN Would you say Mr. Gettys is the problem? (as she shrugs) You're not sure. Have you had any discipline problems in math class this year? BARBARA No. KEVIN No? Isn't it true Mr. Gettys has had to talk to you repeatedly about your behavior? Isn't that why he asked you to stay after class? BARBARA No. KEVIN Have other teachers ever asked you to stay after class? BARBARA Once or twice. KEVIN Did they want to talk about your behavior? PROSECUTOR Objection. Immaterial. KEVIN Goes to motive. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 7.5 CONTINUED: 5 JUDGE Overruled. You may answer the question. BARBARA I don't know what the other teachers wanted. You'd have to talk to them. KEVIN You ever pass notes in class, Barbara? Maybe a note that made fun of Mr. Gettys? BARBARA No. KEVIN No? Never called him a 'disgusting pig monster'? BARBARA No. Kevin handing out paperwork. KEVIN Your Honor, I've pre-marked this Defense Exhibit A... PROSECUTOR Objection, Your Honor, we've had plenty of time for discovery here. The Judge quickly studying his copy of the note. JUDGE I'm gonna let this in, Mr. Lomax, I'm also gonna suggest that if you have any other exhibits you present in a timely fashion or not at all. KEVIN (right to the note) I'm sorry, Barbara, I was wrong, it's 'huge hog beast'. This is your handwriting, isn't it? BARBARA Yes, but -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 8.5 CONTINUED: (2) 5 KEVIN You wrote this in his class. BARBARA It's a joke. KEVIN 'He's a huge hog beast. He probably eats a thousand pancakes for breakfast.' You're writing here about Mr. Gettys, aren't you? BARBARA It was meant to be a joke. KEVIN Have you ever had a party at your house when your parents were away? (waiting) Yes or no? PROSECUTOR Objection. This is way out of... KEVIN Credibility and bias. JUDGE Overruled. Answer the question. BARBARA (rattled) Yes. KEVIN The word special came up in your testimony earlier. You claimed that Mr. Gettys asked you whether you had special feelings, if you felt special. (beat) Have you ever heard of a game called 'Special Places?' (waiting) You're under oath, Barbara. A man's career -- his reputation -- his life is on the line. This is not a joke. Have you ever played the game Special Places? BARBARA Yes. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 9.5 CONTINUED: (3) 5 KEVIN Is this game sexual in nature? (waiting) Is this game sexual in nature? BARBARA We only played it once. KEVIN This special party, Barbara, this was the first time you told the story about Mr. Gettys. BARBARA Yes. KEVIN I've spoken to the other children who were there that day. Can you think of anything else, Barbara, they might have told me about that party? PROSECUTOR Objection. Your Honor, if he has other witnesses let him call them. KEVIN (right at Barbara) If I need to call those other children, I will. JUDGE I'm gonna sustain that, Mr. Lomax. Rephrase your question. KEVIN You threatened those children, didn't you? BARBARA That's not the way it happened -- KEVIN You told them to falsely claim that Mr. Gettys had hurt them, didn't you? BARBARA These things did happen! (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 9A.5 CONTINUED: (3A) 5 KEVIN Because if they didn't go along you were going to tell everyone about this special party. BARBARA They happened to me. KEVIN So you made up a story. A special story, about a math teacher -- a disgusting pig monster -- you didn't like. That's what really happened, isn't it? BARBARA I didn't want to be the only one! BARBARA'S FATHER can take it no longer -- suddenly on his feet -- charging -- BARBARA'S FATHER You son of a bitch! The bailiff making a diving grab -- KEVIN I have no further questions, Your Honor. Chaos -- court officers struggling with Barbara's Father and people yelling and Gettys hugging his wife and son and the gavel banging like mad and Kevin just sitting there, staring at the floor, completely drained, emotionally, morally, physically and -- In the back of the room, a man. He's black. Elegant. Amused by the scene. His name is LEAMON HEATH. MARY ANN LOMAX leans in behind her husband. She is a doll. We love her. (CONTINUED) 10.5 CONTINUED: (4) 5 MARY ANN Pack it up, baby. You need a drink. CUT TO:6 INT. FLORIDA NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT 6 It's a rock and roll joint. Florida style. But it's early and empty. Kevin at the bar with Mary Ann, two LAWYER friends, the Reporter and someone's girl friend. 12 shot glasses, two rows of six. A perfect tequila pour and -- LAWYER #1 (O.S.) In the event we all get drunk and forget, I suggest we frontload the ceremonial bullshit... (a toast) To the best damn trial lawyer in Alachua County. Kevin, subdued, watches the rest of them drink. REPORTER So, Kev, off the record, how's it feel to squeeze a man like Gettys through the door of reasonable doubt? MARY ANN No. (waving him off) I told you already, we're not gonna discuss that damn case anymore. Done. (to Kevin) Am I right? KEVIN I'll drink to that. (as he does) No shop talk. CUT TO:7 MONTAGE 7 Tequila pours. As the night goes on. CUT TO: 11.8 INT. FLORIDA NIGHTCLUB - MEN'S ROOM - NIGHT 8 Drunk frat boys laughing as they exit. A BAR BAND in the distance. Kevin done pissing. Moving for the sink, when he suddenly stops. Freezes. A mirror above the sink. There he is. The guy that set Gettys free. HEATH (O.S.) Mr. Lomax? Kevin turns -- Leamon Heath standing beside him. HEATH Helluva job today. (quickly presenting his card) I didn't want to disturb your party. KEVIN Milton, Chadwick, Waters. Never heard of it. (looking up) What're you gonna do? Sue me? HEATH Actually, we were hoping to retain your services. We've been following your progress. KEVIN From New York. HEATH You've never lost a case. KEVIN I've had some sympathetic juries. HEATH That's exactly what we're looking for. We want you to come to New York. Help us pick a jury. KEVIN Really. (amused now) I'll tell you, man. You're pretty damn good. And the card is great. And the black thing -- you being black -- whose idea was that? Paul's? 'Cause that's just brilliant. (as he's walking) I'm just not drunk enough yet to fall for it. (CONTINUED) 12.8 CONTINUED: 8 HEATH You'd have to start next week. (waiting as Kevin stops there) All expenses. First class travel and lodging. You and your wife. A lump sum payment, regardless of verdict in the amount of, well... (in his hand) Here. Take a look. Kevin takes the check. Still looking at it, as we -- CUT TO:9 EXT. FLORIDA CINDERBLOCK CHURCH - DAY 9 Two dozen cars parked. MUSIC and SINGING from inside. A sign reads: "SEMINOLE CALVARY CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER"10 INT. FLORIDA CINDERBLOCK CHURCH - DAY 10 Inside the church. Plain and functional. Poor but faithful. A trio -- electric guitar, accordion, tambourine -- playing a hymn. Forty-five voices raised in song. The tempo is ragged and the pitch shaky, but the feeling is strong. They mean it. The CAMERA FINDS -- MRS. LOMAX. Kevin's mother. Forty- six. Singing her heart out. A woman with faith, in the presence of her Lord. The CAMERA FINDS -- Kevin. In the very back. Standing in the doorway. Halfway in. Halfway out. Shadow. Light. Waiting. CUT TO:11 EXT. FLORIDA CHURCH PARKING LOT - DAY 11 Post-service. Mrs. Lomax and Kevin walking to her car. KEVIN It's two weeks at most. MRS. LOMAX You've never been to New York. (CONTINUED) 13.11 CONTINUED: 11 KEVIN Every dog gets a day. MRS. LOMAX Pick a jury... (ridiculous) I feel the hand of Mary Ann on this adventure. KEVIN Mom. MRS. LOMAX New York is not a good idea. KEVIN Look, how you fixed for cash? MRS. LOMAX I have my bad feeling. KEVIN (an envelope) I put a couple hundred in here... MRS. LOMAX Sounds like more than two weeks. KEVIN Mary Ann typed out the numbers for you -- phone, the flights -- it's all in there. MRS. LOMAX Let me tell you about New York. KEVIN (with a smile) Babylon. MRS. LOMAX Forewarned is forearmed. (half-serious) 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. It has become a dwelling place of demons.' Revelation Eighteen. Wouldn't hurt you to look it over. KEVIN (rolls with it) Couldn't forget it if I tried. (CONTINUED) 14.11 CONTINUED: (2) 11 MRS. LOMAX And what happened to Babylon? KEVIN 'Thou mighty city. In one hour hast thou mighty judgement come.' MRS. LOMAX 'And the light of a single lamp shall shine in thee no more.' Kevin gathers her in. Kissing her good-bye, as we -- CUT TO:12 INT. HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT 12 Darkness. Where are we? A door opens in another room -- VOICES -- KEVIN and MARY ANN. They're LAUGHING. Coming in from a big night out. For an instant -- light -- we glimpse a great hotel suite -- and then -- KEVIN (O.S.) -- wait -- leave 'em off -- MARY ANN (O.S.) -- what are you... I can't -- KEVIN (O.S.) -- close your eyes -- do it -- More LAUGHTER. Stumbling shadows moving PAST us and -- KEVIN (O.S.) Okay. Stop.13 EXT. HOTEL SUITE - BALCONY - NIGHT 13 Kevin behind Mary Ann with his hands over her eyes. He takes his hands away, but her eyes stay closed... KEVIN Okay. Open your eyes. MARY ANN (as she does) Wow.14 EXT. HOTEL SUITE - BALCONY - NIGHT 14 The view. Wham. The definitive New York skyline. 15.15 EXT. HOTEL SUITE - BALCONY - NIGHT 15 KEVIN 'Go ahead...' (in her ear) '... bite the Big Apple.' MARY ANN (she's dancing) '... Rats on the West Side, bed bugs uptown, I can't give it away on Seventh Avenue. This town don't look good in tatters...' KEVIN I don't know... looks to me like that dress is in your way. MARY ANN (shocked, stops) Why, counselor... (her best drawl) Surely you don't think a small- town girl changes overnight just because a man buys her dinner in the big city. KEVIN No, ma'am. In fact, I hardly ever think at all. MARY ANN Well, that's different, then. You're my kind of guy. Kevin smiles. She's taking off the dress. Babylon. CUT TO:16 EXT. FOLEY SQUARE - ESTABLISHING - DAY 16 Six huge courthouses. All those courtrooms. CUT TO:17 INT. JURY COURTROOM - DAY 17 Criminal court. Voire dire. Potential jurors fill the benches. A bored judge. MEISEL, defense counsel, is a sour, New York veteran. The juror being questioned, a PIE-FACED MAN with bad vision. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 16.17 CONTINUED: 17 MEISEL Do you think as a juror you'd be able to set aside any prior opinions you might hold about the savings and loan industry? (long pause) That was a question, sir. PIE-FACE What? Do I like bankers? Heath catches Meisel's eye. Waves him over. MEISEL Your Honor, may I have a minute to speak with my colleagues. ANGLE ON DEFENSE TABLE Kevin and Heath. And the defendant -- a well-tailored reptilian banker. Meisel joins them. Sotto voce. KEVIN Dump him. While you're at it let's get rid of number six, eight, and I'd say lose number twelve, except the prosecutor's gonna fuck up and do it for us. MEISEL Number six? You're kidding, right? She's my first choice. KEVIN She's my first pass. MEISEL And eight? With the dreadlocks? That's crazy. He's a defendant juror if I ever saw one. KEVIN You see his shoes? MEISEL Look, kid, maybe down in Florida you're the next big thing, but this is New York. Manhattan. We're not squeezing oranges here. (CONTINUED) 17.17 CONTINUED: (2) 17 KEVIN He polishes those shoes every night. He makes his own clothes. He may look like a brother-with- an-attitude to you, but I see a man who's got a shotgun under his bed and woe betide the creature who steps into his garden. (beat) And number six? Your favorite? She's damaged goods. MEISEL She's a Catholic schoolteacher. (to Heath) She believes in human frailty. KEVIN No. There's something missing from her. She's wrong. (eyes to the pool) She wants on this jury. Somebody hurt her and she wants revenge. MEISEL How the hell do you know that? KEVIN (honestly) I don't know. MEISEL (to Heath) Look, either you put a stop to this happy horseshit or I walk. HEATH Walk. MEISEL (a pause) All right. Here's the deal. (to Kevin) I lose with your jury? You do the explaining. The defendant staring a hole into Kevin, as we -- CUT TO:18 EXT. FOLEY SQUARE JURY COURT - DAY 18 Kevin leaving court. In no hurry to get home. He likes it here. (CONTINUED) 18.18 CONTINUED: 18 Across the street, a man, one of many passing on the sidewalk. Except this man turns as Kevin passes. Watching him. Seeing something that pleases him. This is JOHN MILTON. And now, as Kevin disappears, Milton joins the flow of people heading down into a subway station -- down -- and gone, as we PULL BACK TO --19 EXT. FOLEY SQUARE - DAY/NIGHT (TIME LAPSE) 19 As day becomes night.19A NIGHT BECOMES DAY 19A19B AND AGAIN 19B19C AND THIS TIME LIGHTNING SIZZLES THROUGH THE SKY 19C CUT TO:20 INT. HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT 20 Mary Ann watching TV alone. Remnants of a room service dinner. They've been living here for weeks now. The maids have started to give up. Kevin enters looking beat. Grabs a cold french fry. MARY ANN (into her show) Your mother called. She has her bad feeling. KEVIN Every now and then she gets one right. MARY ANN What's up? (looks over) You okay? Something's up. KEVIN They deliberated for thirty-eight minutes. MARY ANN Oh shit... (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 19.20 CONTINUED: 20 MARY ANN (CONT'D) (turns off the TV, comforting him) Oh, Kevin... I'm sorry, honey. What the hell did they expect? The man is guilty as can be. Wasn't a jury anywhere gonna let him off. KEVIN Yeah. Except one. MARY ANN Kev.... KEVIN (a big ole smile) Not fucking guilty. MARY ANN Omigod... KEVIN Thirty-eight minutes. My jury. MARY ANN You did it! Omigod, Kevin... KEVIN Put on something that's gonna be easy to take off later. We are going out, girl! CUT TO:21 INT. LAW FIRM LOBBY - DAY 21 Milton, Chadwick, Waters. Those words written in stone on the wall. The decor is stark, dramatic, awesome. The receptionist is simply stunning. Kevin, wearing his best suit, walking with Heath. HEATH Sorry to keep you waiting, but Mr. Milton got pinned down in Indonesia a little longer than expected. (quietly as they hit the view) Not bad, huh? You can play it cool if you want, but the first time I walked in here, my jaw was on the floor.22 INT. LAW FIRM HALL - DAY 22 The firm offices. A large central atrium. Offices rim this space. (CONTINUED) 20.22 CONTINUED: 22 Lawyers come in all shapes and sizes. Assistants -- male and female -- are uniformly attractive. The HUM of serious BUSINESS in the background. HEATH (as they walk) We've got forty partners vested at the moment. Close to six hundred associates. This is the home office, but we've got quite a few international arrangements, so Mr. Milton spends a good deal of his time in the air. In addition to our corporate clients, we're currently representing about twenty-five foreign countries. Mid-East, Balkans, Central America, West Africa. Interesting work, but travel intensive. Kevin slowing as they pass an open doorway -- HEATH (O.S.) He's got you scheduled for fifteen minutes, which is a good sign, so make the most of it...23 INT. LAW FIRM - CHRISTABELLA'S OFFICE - DAY 23 THROUGH a large window we see a woman pacing her office. She's wearing a headset and arguing in machine-gun Italian. She is a goddess. Her name is CHRISTABELLA. She is beautiful beyond propriety. She will also turn out to be a brilliant EUC lawyer. She turns. Sees us staring -- like that -- Venetian blinds close tightly.24 INT. LAW FIRM HALL - DAY 24 Heath is now far ahead. Kevin rushing to catch up --25 INT. LAW FIRM - ARCHED CORRIDOR - DAY 25 Kevin about six steps into it when suddenly, he looks down. Stops. Completely spooked. HEATH Gotcha. (smiles) Man, I just love that... (CONTINUED) 21.25 CONTINUED: 25 The floor is nothing but glass. Sixty stories above the world. A bridge between two skyscrapers. HEATH I watched a Senator piss his pants right where you're standing. KEVIN (nonplussed) Great. HEATH He's waiting for you. Good luck. Kevin sucks it up. Starts walking. Up ahead, nothing but an open door. CUT TO:26 INT. MILTON'S OFFICE - DAY 26 First of all it's round. And large. The walls are made of stone. No windows. There are dramatic shafts of natural light from above. Stark and clean to the extreme. No paper anywhere. Kevin standing there. Taking in the space. MILTON (O.S.) Behind you. Kevin turns. There he is. MILTON Sorry. Didn't mean to... KEVIN No. Please. (his hand) Kevin Lomax. MILTON (they shake) John Milton. KEVIN Nice to meet you. MILTON Have we been treating you well? KEVIN Very well. Thank you. (CONTINUED) 22.26 CONTINUED: 26 MILTON Your wife, she's had a good time? KEVIN She sure has. It's been great. The whole thing's been great. MILTON Good. That's our secret. We kill you with kindness. (walking the room, circling) What's your secret? KEVIN I couldn't say. MILTON You were a prosecutor. KEVIN Out of law school. Five years in the Jacksonville D.A.'s office. MILTON Sixty-four straight convictions. What a number. KEVIN I like to be in court. I didn't plea out a lot. MILTON What's that like? One day you're putting them away and the next you're setting them free? KEVIN Takes a little getting used to. MILTON Pays better though, doesn't it? KEVIN Yes it does. MILTON The math teacher. The Gettys case. I hear you were brilliant. KEVIN Prosecutor dropped the ball. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 23.26 CONTINUED: (2) 26 MILTON Really. So you think your guy was guilty. KEVIN I didn't say that. MILTON What did you say? KEVIN How's this? I began the case with a clear conscience. MILTON (quiet a moment) I was sure you had a secret. KEVIN The men's room. (beat) Upstairs men's room in the Duval County courthouse. There's a hole in the wall. Straight through to the next room. (smiles) I spent five years listening to juries deliberate. MILTON I love it. KEVIN Love it all you want, just don't repeat it. I'm not sure the Florida Bar Association would appreciate it. MILTON You don't really want to go back to Florida, do you? Walk with me.27 INT. MILTON'S OFFICE - PANEL - DAY 27 With that, Milton pushes a button. Huge panel screens open out to:28 EXT. MILTON'S TERRACE - DAY 28 A reflecting pool. Water right to the edge. A narrow walkway straight through the middle. And we're fifty stories above the city. The effect is staggering. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 24.28 CONTINUED: 28 MILTON What do you think? Some people can't handle it. KEVIN It's peaceful. MILTON Exactly. (pleased) Fill in the resume. Tell me about your family. What does your father do? KEVIN I never got to know my father. He passed away before I was born. My mom raised me. Just the two of us. MILTON She never remarried? KEVIN She wasn't married the first time. MILTON That can't be easy in Gainesville. KEVIN I don't think it's easy anywhere. (re the view) Holy shit... MILTON Little different when you're looking down, isn't it? (beat) Tell me about her. Your mother. What's she like? KEVIN She's a preacher's daughter. She's tough. She's worked in the same poultry plant for as long as I can remember. I think she's up to eight-fifty an hour. She's got a church she really likes, so she's usually either there or they go out, they do a lot of volunteer work. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 25.28 CONTINUED: (2) 28 MILTON 'Many are in high places, and of great renown: but mysteries are revealed unto the meek.' KEVIN So they say. MILTON Didn't rub off on you? The book? The church? KEVIN I'm on parole. Early release for time served. Suddenly they're quiet. Silenced by the view. MILTON Lotta potential clients down there. (Sooner or later it all flows through the streets.) KEVIN You don't have to sell me on New York. MILTON You like it here, don't you? KEVIN Are we negotiating? MILTON Always. KEVIN Why do you need a criminal department? MILTON Because our clients break the law just like everyone else and I'm tired of sending their business across the street. KEVIN Are you offering me a job? MILTON I'm thinking about it. You have the talent. I knew that before you got here. It's the other thing I wonder about. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 26.28 CONTINUED: (3) 28 KEVIN What thing is that? MILTON Pressure. Changes everything. Some people, you squeeze them, they focus. Some people fold. Can you summon your talent at will? Can you deliver on deadline? Can you sleep at night? KEVIN When do we talk about money? MILTON Money's the easy part. CUT TO:29 EXT. LOMAX BUILDING AND STREET - DAY 29 Carnegie Hall. High off Central Park. A Mercedes stretch pulls to the curb. HEATH (V.O.) Mt. Sinai Hospital right up the street. Some excellent schools. (CONTINUED) 27.29 CONTINUED: 29 The driver rushing to open the door. Heath, Kevin and Mary Ann getting out of the car just as a group of uniformed school children come charging out of the building to meet their bus. HEATH I doubt it was at the top of his list when Mr. Milton bought the building, but it's a great neighborhood for children.30 LOOKING UP - BUILDING 30 A stately, pre-war apartment house. One unique touch; the penthouse rises in a sort of wedding cake design. CUT TO:31 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT LANDING - DAY 31 Turn of the Century. Elegant. Two apartments per floor. JACKIE HEATH waiting here. She is black, early thirties, and very, very attractive. The elevator doors open. Mary Ann steps out, followed by Kevin and Heath. JACKIE You must be Mary Ann -- Welcome. I'm Jackie Heath... MARY ANN It's so sweet of you to come by. JACKIE Please. We live across the hall. MARY ANN You're kidding? HEATH Right here. KEVIN So it's just two apartments per floor? JACKIE (to her husband) You didn't tell them about the apartment? (CONTINUED) 28.31 CONTINUED: 31 HEATH I thought I'd let it speak for itself. Opening the door, and we enter --32 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 32 A dream. Twelve-foot ceilings. Huge, oversized rooms. Crown moldings. A huge central hallway. And light. Kevin and Mary Ann walking through. Blown away. HEATH It's what they call a classic eight. JACKIE We had them paint everything white. Let you see it naked before you pick your palette. MARY ANN What am I picking? JACKIE Palette. Your colors. HEATH I need to warn you about one thing. (as they turn back) There are going to be some very envious people at the firm. These apartments, there aren't many of them, it's really a partner's perk. You must've made quite an impression. JACKIE Took us six years to get in here. CUT TO:33 EXT. LOMAX APARTMENT BALCONY - DAY 33 French doors opening. Kevin walks out. Mary Ann just behind him. They stand there, staring at the park. MARY ANN Are you really this good? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 29.33 CONTINUED: 33 KEVIN I sure as hell hope so. MARY ANN They must want you pretty bad. KEVIN Look, Mare, I'm only getting behind this if you're on board. You want to go home, I'm with you. MARY ANN Sure. Let's go back to Gainesville. You can keep scrounging for clients and pumping out the basement and I'll keep repossessing cars for Akamian. Maybe, if we kill ourselves, in about five years we can afford a baby and a weekend shack at Gulf Shores. (beat) Are you shitting me? She smiles first. Kevin pulling her toward him, as we -- CUT TO:34 INT. FIRM CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 34 Incredible and extreme. Forty people -- SENIOR PARTNERS and department heads -- seated at the table. They've been going around the table introducing themselves to Kevin. Nearing the end now -- LAWYER #1 Krasna. Maritime Law. LAWYER #2 Parvathi Resh. Energy law. I run the Islamic sub-group. LAWYER #3 Joyce Rensaleer. Mergers and acquisitions. LAWYER #4 Chan Sanyou. Intellectual property. BARZOON Eddie Barzoon. Managing Director. Christabella and another woman running in. Taking seats quickly. Christabella beside Kevin. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 30.34 CONTINUED: 34 CHRISTABELLA Christabella Adrioli. Economics. Primarily G-7 and E.C. MILTON There you go, Kevin. The whole team. I'm trying to think how long it's been since we were all together. All of us. Too long. I'm looking around, I know some of you came from very far away to be with us here today. It's appreciated. (pacing the window) This room we're in was built -- architecturally designed -- to promote healthy group dynamics. A psychic centrifuge. Makes you want to reach out, doesn't it? Inclusion. Commonality. Synergy. All that good shit. That's what I'm looking for today. Because when I hear stories -- the kind of stories I've been hearing -- about backbiting, about partners not working together, departments cutting each other's throats over clients, or worse... I feel drained. It drains me. I feel empty. I feel as though I've let you all down. (off dead silence) We need something. A gesture. (across the table) What do I need, Eddie? BARZOON How about a public flogging? MILTON Wait a minute. I got it. It's perfect. It's intimate. It's quick. Doesn't cost a thing. There's a power to it. What is it? (beat) Let's hold hands. All of us. Together. Milton is first. Reluctance begins to fold. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 31.34 CONTINUED: (2) 34 MILTON Right now. Every person at this table -- take the hand of the person on either side... Kevin finds Christabella's hand at his side. MILTON You want out of this, Eddie? BARZOON You've made your point, John. MILTON You won't hold hands? (stare-down) It's important to me, Eddie. Kevin watching Barzoon fold. Watching the circle form. MILTON See. See, I feel better already. CUT TO:35 INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE HALL - DAY 35 Very nice. Major windows. Stripped down at the moment, but there's a desk and phone. HEATH What do you think? KEVIN (kidding) I guess it'll do. PAM (O.S.) Until something better comes along... In the doorway, PAM GARRETY. Never married. Two-pack-a- day habit. Tough as dirt. HEATH Kevin Lomax. Pam Garrety. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 32.35 CONTINUED: 35 HEATH (CONT'D) (as they shake) Pam was with the Brooklyn D.A.'s office for fourteen years, so she knows her way around the local scene. She'll be your guide. (to Pam) You're gonna be expediting his New York Bar application, right? PAM In the pipeline. For now, we'll just have you work pro hac vice. We've petitioned Florida for a letter of good conduct. And... (a folder) ... I prepared, at Mr. Milton's request, an overview of the Moyez case. KEVIN The Moyez case? CUT TO:36 EXT. EAST HARLEM STREET - DAY 36 Deep ghetto side street. One of those blocks that have been completely lost. One whole side of the street has nothing but boarded-up row houses. A black Town Car pulling through. Slowing now --36A INT. CAR (EAST HARLEM) - DAY 36A Kevin and his DRIVER peering across the street. DRIVER I gotta stick with the vehicle. CUT TO:37 EXT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - DAY 37 A storefront botanica. Insane colors. Rusted iron grates covering two tiny cataract windows. A steel door is open. There's a sick-looking DOG tied to the doorknob; he begins BARKING wildly, as he sees -- Kevin walking from the car. Suit and tie. Briefcase. Turning, as he hears -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 33.37 CONTINUED: 37 JUNKIE (O.S.) You get 'em! Go get 'em, man! Three JUNKIES camped on the stoop of a burned-out brownstone across the street. Dull, wasted faces aroused by the DOG'S BARKING -- JUNKIE Tell her turn that shit down! I know what she's doin'! That's right! Tell 'em take that noise back t'Africa 'fore I -- Stopping instantly because -- a WOMAN is standing in the botanica doorway. Her skin is jet black. Her eyes are pale blue. Her hair is white. She holds a live chicken by its feet. The DOG is still BARKING so she slaps it. Hard. Now there is silence. KEVIN I'm looking for Phillipe Moyez. She moves aside. Kevin enters --38 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - DAY 38 It's dark. Oil lamps and candles for light. The air thick with incense. Jars and bags and boxes are stacked on shelves everywhere. Powders. Oils. Bones. Skins. Potions. Dried herbs. KEVIN I called this morning, I'm not sure who I spoke with. (awkward silence) I'm his lawyer. I have a card... (finding it) They said he would meet me here. Phillipe Moyez. WOMAN (into the back) Bhalla! Bhalla! Kevin taking a very deep breath, as we -- CUT TO:39 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - STAIRS - DAY 39 Darkness. A door opening above us. A BOY -- maybe ten -- standing there. Kevin behind him. (CONTINUED) 34.39 CONTINUED: 39 KEVIN Look, I'm not sure I'm making myself clear here. BOY Moyez. (a French accent) You need him. Speak wid him.40 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - STAIRS - DAY 40 The Boy hits the lights. A naked bulb on the landing below. Beyond that, darkness. KEVIN You're saying he's down here? (incredulous) In the basement? In the dark? BOY (laughing) Where? Where you think -- ? Where you think me taking you?41 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - BASEMENT HALL - DAY 41 The Boy, still laughing, starts down the stairs -- into the darkness. Kevin hesitates. Sucks it up. Crouching not to hit his head as he goes down into --42 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - BASEMENT - DAY 42 Around the landing -- the Boy still in front of him and -- down -- as another light comes up and the boy moves quickly through the space, turning on lamps here and there. No furniture. Mounds of bones. The walls painted a deep, black red.43 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA - MOYEZ'S BASEMENT - DAY 43 Kevin waiting as the last light goes on -- MOYEZ (O.S.) I thought I would recognize you, but I do not. Kevin, spooked, wheels around -- (CONTINUED) 35.43 CONTINUED: 43 PHILLIPE MOYEZ squatting in the corner. Skinny and intense. His eyes opaque and piercing at the same time. At once unassuming and terrifying. A plastic bag of fresh green roots in his lap. Ghat. Miraa. African cocaine. His teeth black from chewing it. KEVIN Mr. Moyez? (as he nods) We've never met. I'm a lawyer. I'm here about the animals. MOYEZ As you wish. KEVIN I'll be arguing your case with the city. I need to ask you some questions. (gets folder) I've done a little preliminary research -- precedent -- cases in the past that dealt with Santeria and Vou-- MOYEZ No. This is not Santeria. We are not Voodoo. Candomble. Obeayisne. None of that. We are much older. Before. Before all of it. KEVIN Okay. Is there a name? Or... MOYEZ We have papers. At your firm. We have the tax exemption. KEVIN Okay. I'll get right into that. (scribbling away) The animals. Let's start with that, then. MOYEZ We have an investment in blood. Think of it as spiritual currency. Moyez stands. Starts slowly across the room. KEVIN Look, Mr. Moyez, I'm going to need your help with this. (CONTINUED) 36.43 CONTINUED: (2) 43 MOYEZ Yes. That's very clear. KEVIN Perhaps we could start at the beginning? Moyez, ignoring him, moves to an old refrigerator beside the stairs. For an instant, the door is open -- just a glimpse. Meat. Bags of entrails. Jars of blood. Moyez goes to a workbench near the wall -- KEVIN Mr. Moyez? MOYEZ What is the name of the man who will prosecute us? KEVIN (scanning file) Merto. Assistant District Attorney Arnold Merto. MOYEZ Bhalla. La chemise noire. Vite! The Boy already running up the stairs. The sound of NAILS FALLING onto the workbench -- KEVIN What are you doing, Mr. Moyez? Moyez stands aside, wiping his hands on his trousers. A huge beef tongue sits on the bench. The nails are scattered around it. MOYEZ You can go now. You will have all the help I can give you. Moyez now with a hammer. And the nail. Driving it into the tongue. Kevin backing away, as we -- CUT TO:44 INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE AND HALL - DAY 44 Video monitor -- FULL FRAME. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 37.45 INT. DAHOUMEY BAKA BASEMENT - DAY 45 Hand-held footage of a police raid. We're running -- through a building -- New York cops -- an animal control officer -- through a door -- voices yelling -- down some steps -- into a back yard -- people standing -- Here -- a scuffle starting -- voices rising -- the camera shaking -- we see Bhalla -- and the Woman -- and -- There -- in the middle, is a goat -- on its knees -- its throat has just been cut -- blood pouring into a pan and Moyez holding its head with one hand -- a knife in the other and this positively orgiastic expression on his face, and on that image, we freeze frame.46 OMITTED 46& &47 47 REVERSE TO:48 INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE AND HALL - KEVIN - DAY 48 with the remote control. Pam there with him. A long, sour silence. PAM What do you think? KEVIN It's a health code case. And it's a loser. So what's the point? (watching her) It's a test, right? PAM Isn't everything? KEVIN The smart thing to do is make a deal. Plea him out and suppress the tape. PAM I'm sure the D.A.'s waiting for your call. KEVIN Yeah, well, let him wait. (beat) And you can tell Milton too. (beat) I didn't come to New York to plea bargain. CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 38.49 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 49 Jackie rejecting Mary Ann's color choices. CUT TO:50 INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE AND HALL - NIGHT 50 Law books stacked around. An associate wheels in a trolley with more books. CUT TO:50A INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - NIGHT 50A Mary Ann eating fried chicken. She doesn't like the wallpaper. She's tearing it off, as we -- CUT TO:50B INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE AND HALL - NIGHT 50B Kevin working late. Across the hall Pam is going home. PAM It's only a health code case. CUT TO:51 INT. MANHATTAN COURTROOM #2 (MOYEZ COURTROOM) - DAY 51 Bench trial. No jury. JUDGE THEO SKLAR and staff. A.D.A. MERTO at his seat. Pam sits with Moyez. Other than that, it's empty. A rump roast slaps down onto a table. KEVIN (O.S.) That's a veal roast, Your Honor. U.S.D.A. approved and stamped. Eight days ago, in Kansas City, two men pushed a calf into a steel frame as a third man fired a high- voltage staple-gun into the animal's skull. Men kill animals and eat their flesh. Phillipe Moyez killed a goat. He killed a goat. And he did it at home, in a manner consistent with his religious beliefs. Now some people may find it bizarre. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 38A/39.51 CONTINUED: 51 KEVIN (O.S.CONT'D) It's certainly not a religious practice performed by everyone. It's not as common as, say, circumcision. It's certainly not as common as the belief that wine is transformed into blood. It's not even as common as the handling of poisonous snakes to prove one's faith. But Phillipe Moyez isn't two thousand miles away in a stockyard. He doesn't use electricity to kill. And worst of all... (holding up the roast) Phillipe Moyez is not shrink- wrapped. Merto begins to cough. Quietly at first, but... KEVIN Your Honor, the city timed this police action to catch my client exercising his constitutionally- protected right to religious freedom. Merto's coughing getting worse as he tries to stop... JUDGE SKLAR This is a law protecting Kosher butchering. KEVIN Exactly, Your Honor. And I'd like to move at this time for an immediate directed verdict for dismissal. Moyez staring a hole in Merto, and the man cannot stop coughing... JUDGE SKLAR I happen to know a little bit about Kashrut law, Mr. Lomax. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 40.51 CONTINUED: (2) 51 KEVIN I'm aware of that, Your Honor, which is why I feel confident in requesting a dismissal. JUDGE SKLAR Mr. Merto? Merto can't speak -- wheezing and coughing, as we -- CUT TO:52 INT. MOYEZ COURTHOUSE HALLWAY - DAY (TEN MINUTES LATER) 52 Empty and dark. Kevin, Moyez and Pam leaving the courtroom. All smiles. Moyez shaking his hand and thanking him, and then, from behind them, the sound of one person CLAPPING -- MILTON (coming toward them) Bravo, Kevin. Bravo. (as he arrives) Pamela, you're looking lovely. (to Moyez) Satisfied, Phillipe? MOYEZ Always. MILTON Kevin, what can I say? (smiles) Outstanding. Kevin, trying to look modest and failing, as we -- CUT TO:53 EXT. CANAL STREET (CHINATOWN) - DAY (LITTLE LATER) 53 A street-food stall. Milton paying for Kevin's eggroll. And they're walking... MILTON Best street food in the world. Try that. Tell me it isn't great. (as Kevin eats) New York. What a scene, right? (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 41.53 CONTINUED: 53 MILTON (CONT'D) Guy like Moyez living in that subterranean shithole all the time he's running around with fifteen million dollars in the bank. KEVIN You gotta be kidding. MILTON What do you think? We're giving you away? He's paying us in goat's blood? I'm billing you out at four-hundred an hour, my friend. I don't see a whole lot of pro bono work in your immediate future. (buzzing here) Seriously, what I like, you got in there with him. Inside the cage. That's instinct. Can't be taught. You gotta hear that on your own. It's gotta be in your blood. It's molecular. I bet I've got five thousand lawyers working around the planet. I couldn't name ten -- couldn't name three -- I'd trust with Moyez. KEVIN So what the hell are they doing? MILTON What are they doing? They're corporate lawyers, what do you think they're doing? They're busy reducing life and death to the proper position of a semi- colon. They're doing needlepoint. Push button battles. Push button wars. Armies that get so fucking far away from each other they need satellites to tell them who won. No pain. No sound. No smell. One big, multinational circle jerk. You, on the other hand, you're on the slaughterhouse floor. You can't help but smell your clients. KEVIN I figure you came to court to make sure I didn't fuck this up. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 42.53 CONTINUED: (2) 53 MILTON Maybe I did. But don't get too cocky. No matter how good you are. Don't let them see you coming. That's the gaff, my friend -- make yourself small. Be the hick. The cripple. The nerd. The leper. The shit- kicking surfer. Look at me -- I've been underestimated from day one. Do I look like a master of the universe? That's your only weakness as far as I can tell. KEVIN What's that? MILTON The look. The Florida stud thing. 'Scuse me, ma'am, did I leave my boots under your bed?' KEVIN Never worked a jury didn't have a woman. MILTON You know what you're missing? What I have? This beautiful girl she's just fucked me every way she knows how -- we're done -- she's walking to the bathroom -- she turns back -- and there I am. It's me. And she smiles -- it's like a veil coming down across her face -- and that smile, that's a question mark, because she's looking at me, she's wondering, how did that happen? And see, right there, from that moment on, she's got a secret. I'm the hand up Mona Lisa's skirt. I'm the whisper in Nefertitti's ear. I'm a surprise. They never see me coming. That's what you're missing. Milton escaping across the street. KEVIN So why did you come down today? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 43.53 CONTINUED: (3) 53 MILTON Because I knew it was gonna be good. Because I knew I was gonna like it. That you would shine -- that we would take this walk -- that we'd really talk. Why I came down? You want the truth? I'm an aging, hipster plutocrat. I came up from nothing. From dirt. I'm warming my hands on your talent -- (distracted then -- ) Where's the chicken? KEVIN What? A CHINESE MAN sits in a doorway -- MILTON (perfect Cantonese) Where's the chicken? The chicken that plays tic-tac-toe. He used to be right here. CHINESE MAN (Cantonese) No, you passed it. Back that way. MILTON (back to Kevin, as they walk) There's a chicken, he's famous, he plays tic-tac-toe. He never loses. (suddenly) Hey. Like you. Right? (catching himself) Look, I'm rambling because I'm excited. You're in the part of the game I like best. The realm of the True Believers. You are a believer, aren't you? KEVIN I believe in the presumption of innocence. MILTON Better a hundred guilty men go free than a single innocent be executed. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 44.53 CONTINUED: (4) 53 KEVIN Something like that. MILTON No. Exactly like that. It's faith. You're either in or out. You can't believe a little bit. KEVIN I was kidding. MILTON You're not here to amuse me. See, that's why people hate lawyers. So many of us have lost our faith. Don't let that happen to you. Token? KEVIN Excuse me? Milton offering a token. Behind him, the entrance to the Canal Street station -- MILTON Learn the subways, Kevin. Use them. Stay in the trenches. Kevin taking the token, as we -- CUT TO:54 OMITTED 54& &55 5556 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - NIGHT 56 Kevin just coming in from work. The apartment is starting to come together. Still not enough furniture, but the sparseness reads as elegance. KEVIN (walking through) Mare... Mare...? MARY ANN (O.S.) (from the bedroom) You're late... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 45.56 CONTINUED: 56 He stops. In the hallway -- a wall is missing -- sheetrock stacked on the floor -- tools piled around -- a renovation project halted for the night. KEVIN What's all this? MARY ANN (O.S.) All what? Mary Ann up the hall in the bedroom door. Finishing her makeup for a night out. MARY ANN Oh, that... (smiles) It was gonna be a nursery, but then I remembered you'd have to be home long enough to knock me up, so now I'm thinking of building a law library. Kevin smiles. Drops his briefcase. Drops his pants. MARY ANN Save the thought. We were due up there fifteen minutes ago. She blows him a kiss. Ducking back into bedroom. CUT TO:57 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT BUILDING - ELEVATOR - NIGHT 57 Kevin and Mary Ann in their go-to-meeting clothes. Going up. Nervous. MARY ANN Tell me I can handle this. KEVIN You can handle this. MARY ANN Say something nice. KEVIN Something nice. MARY ANN Promise me you won't leave me alone in there. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 46.57 CONTINUED: 57 KEVIN Promise. MARY ANN How the hell did we get here? KEVIN Instinct.58 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT 58 The door opens. DIANA BARZOON, tonight's hostess, standing there. DIANA There you are! (to Kevin) Diana Barzoon, Eddie's wife. (an air kiss for Mary Ann) Come on, you two. Everyone can't wait to meet you.59 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT 59 Twice the size of Kevin's place. Decorated and furnished to the max. Seventy-five guests and ten in staff. The crowd is very smart, sleek, and experienced at these sort of things. Mary Ann's hand squeezing Kevin's just a bit more tightly as Diana leads them into the throng, and we begin --60 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT 60 SERIES OF SHOTS - PARTY Faces -- some of them strangers. Some of them familiar from the conference room scene.61 KEVIN 61 huddled with Jackie and Mary Ann as Heath brings them drinks from the bar.62 PAM 62 and two lawyers near the terrace doors -- the smoking section -- talking with nicotine-driven intensity.63 OMITTED 63 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 47.64 CHRISTABELLA 64 simply walking through the room.65 EDDIE AND DIANA BARZOON 65 They've found Kevin and Mary Ann. DIANA I love the eights. The entire 'A' line -- such a great shell. (manic and perhaps a bit insane) I do. I envy you. Starting from scratch. Do you have your fabrics yet? Tell me you don't. MARY ANN Not yet. I don't think so. DIANA Come with me. Instantly. (to Kevin) I'm borrowing your wife... BARZOON Be gentle, honey. These are normal people. Mary Ann giving Kevin a "help me" look as she's dragged into the party -- BARZOON Your first? KEVIN Excuse me? BARZOON Is this your first marriage? DISSOLVE TO:66 OMITTED 6667 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - SAME SCENE (PARTY) - NIGHT 67 (LATER) Front door -- abuzz -- Milton has just arrived. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 48.68 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT 68 Across the room, Mary Ann with Jackie and Diana and another wife -- MARY ANN Who is that? JACKIE (looking over) My God, girl... DIANA You haven't met him yet? MARY ANN Who is he?69 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT 69 Milton -- across the room -- looks over -- he's found them -- already coming toward them -- smiling -- DIANA I swear he can hear us. JACKIE Hell, he can smell us. MILTON Mary Ann? John Milton... (his hand and eyes) I was hoping we'd meet tonight. And here you are, already swimming with the sharks. Even as he says this, he's kissing their smiling cheeks. Mary Ann looking a little lost, as we -- CUT TO:70 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - NIGHT (SAME TIME) 70 Kevin talking with another lawyer. Looking over as Christabella glides through the room. CUT TO:71 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - SOFA - DUSK (SAME TIME) 71 Milton and Mary Ann sitting together. Alone. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 49.71 CONTINUED: 71 MARY ANN Deadbeats. I mean, that's what it comes down to. You can call yourself a finance trainee, or a financial resources adviser, or whatever, you're still spending most of your day trying to hammer car payments out of deadbeats. (looking around) No deadbeats here tonight. MILTON You'd be surprised. There's a lot more fear in this room than you'd think. MARY ANN What do these people have to be afraid of? MILTON Each other. Themselves. Why? What scares you? MARY ANN Not knowing who the deadbeats are. MILTON You'll figure that out. There's only one thing worth being frightened of anyway, and that's being alone. Truly and finally alone. MARY ANN Yes. I think you're right. MILTON You know what terrifies me? Responsibility. MARY ANN For what? MILTON For what. For you. Let's be honest, I've changed your life. Changed it forever. There's been a seismic shift in your existence and I'm responsible. And you've never even met me. We're talking for the very first time. How insane is that? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 50.71 CONTINUED: (2) 71 MARY ANN It's a wonderful opportunity for Kevin. MILTON Kevin. Please. I'm not worried about Kevin. He buys a few new suits. Learns a few new tricks. He's there. I don't worry about Kevin. What about you? MARY ANN I'm not leaving a lot behind. MILTON You must have family. MARY ANN Bad subject. I haven't spoken to my folks in a long time. My sister ran all the way to Germany. MILTON Whoaa... I gotta think about that. I had you down as daddy's little girl, you know? The princess. Sugar plum snapshots. Pastel bedspreads. Cinnamon cookies. MARY ANN I tell Kevin the only thing worse than not having a father was having mine. MILTON So you've got a lot at stake here. You've made a real commitment. MARY ANN I guess I have. MILTON It's not gonna be like Gainesville, but then you know that already. MARY ANN We're gonna be fine. It's gonna be great. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 51.71 CONTINUED: (3) 71 MILTON If it isn't, will you come to me? Let me help? I'd feel a lot less responsible. Will you do that for me? MARY ANN Sure. MILTON The worst vice is advice, right? But can I make a suggestion? It's about your hair, some people are sensitive, that's why I ask. MARY ANN No. I mean, go ahead. You don't like it? MILTON You have shoulders nobody can see. Pull it back. MARY ANN You mean, you want me to pull my hair back? MILTON If I do it, everyone in this room that's pretending not to watch us will assume we're fucking or something. Pull back your hair. (there's the mirror) Take a look. See. That's it. Isn't that incredible? You need to cut your hair. MARY ANN You're kidding. MILTON A woman's shoulders are the frontlines of her mystique. And her neck, if she's alive, has the very mystery of a border town. It's the no man's land in the battle between mind and body. (beat) You know, your natural color would really bring out your eyes... Mary Ann frozen there, as we -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 52.72 EXT. BARZOON APARTMENT - TERRACE (PARK VIEW) - NIGHT 72 (MAGIC HOUR) Kevin standing at the rail. He looks over. Christabella not ten feet away. CHRISTABELLA Do you have this view? KEVIN Sorry? CHRISTABELLA From your terrace, is this your view? KEVIN Sort of. Not exactly. I'm about twelve floors down. What about you? CHRISTABELLA No, I live downtown. This is the family building. KEVIN Sounds like fun. Downtown, I mean. I'm just getting to know the city. CHRISTABELLA Is it everything you expected? KEVIN More. CHRISTABELLA (raising her glass) May we always have more than we expect. Salute. KEVIN Amen. CHRISTABELLA Are you alone? KEVIN You mean, tonight? CHRISTABELLA Is your wife a jealous woman? (beat) Silly question. We're all jealous, aren't we? (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 53.72 CONTINUED: 72 CHRISTABELLA (CONT'D) (laughing) Oh, dear, I'm going to scare you away. KEVIN I doubt it. CHRISTABELLA You like to be on top, don't you? KEVIN Excuse me? CHRISTABELLA Of the situation. You prefer to be on top. KEVIN Depends on the view. MILTON (O.S.) You know what I see? Milton in the doorway. He's been watching them. MILTON I see the future of this law firm. (perfect Italian) Christabella, cara, prestamelo per favore, pe lo riporto piu tardi. CHRISTABELLA It's a boring party, anyway. (to Kevin) Ciao. Kevin can't help watching her walk away. MILTON Look, we gotta talk. You grab Heath and Eddie Barzoon and get up to my place right away. And let's be quiet about it. CUT TO:73 OMITTED 73thru thru76 76 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 54.77 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT (PARTY) - NIGHT 77 Getting louder and wilder. Mary Ann looking lost. Searching for Kevin... He's not here... not there... MARY ANN Have you seen Kevin? Jackie Heath shaking her head no, as Mary Ann continues on through the party. CUT TO:78 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - ELEVATOR - NIGHT 78 Silence. Going up. Kevin, Heath, and Barzoon. CUT TO:79 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - STUDY - HALLWAY - NIGHT 79 Mary Ann still looking for Kevin. Scanning faces. Stopping as she reaches a door. Opening it and --80 INT. BARZOON APARTMENT - STUDY - NIGHT 80 Just enough light to make out two MEN standing across the room. Silhouettes against the window. MARY ANN Sorry... (in doorway) I'm looking for my husband. The Men -- two vaguely familiar faces from the firm. MAN #1 Don't think he's here. Suddenly, a WOMAN's head rises INTO FRAME -- WOMAN It's just us... MAN #2 But feel free to join in... And suddenly it's clear, she's walked in on an impromptu menage a trois. The Woman is kneeling on a table, dress hiked up, ass in the air. Man #1 fucking her from behind. Man #2 is getting blown and -- Mary Ann IN SHOT as the woman begins to laugh and the door WIPES the FRAME. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 55.81 OMITTED 8182 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 82 The penthouse. One enormous room. Grand scale everything. Otherworldly. Staggering. Of special, special interest: a huge Bas Relief dominates an entire wall. Carved into the marble are human forms -- young, naked bodies swimming in a hypnotic chaos of clouds. Milton is on the phone. Two lines going. The dialogue is unimportant, we'll not understand it anyway -- he's going back and forth between Korean and Russian -- brokering some emergency deal. Heath is at the bar, mixing drinks. Barzoon has a cigar. Kevin just standing there gaping at the space. KEVIN Is there more to it? BARZOON Just this room. KEVIN And a bedroom? BARZOON No bedroom. KEVIN Where does he sleep? HEATH Who said he sleeps? KEVIN Where does he fuck? MILTON (O.S.) (behind them) Everywhere. BARZOON What's up, John? MILTON How many hours did we bill Alex Cullen last year? HEATH Sixteen thousand, two hundred and forty-two. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 56.82 CONTINUED: 82 BARZOON What the fuck did he do now? MILTON Alex Cullen has just been charged with murdering his ex- wife, her stepson, and a maid. BARZOON When did this happen? MILTON Just now. Tonight. I already sent Pam downtown to make bail arrangements. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 57.82 CONTINUED: (2) 82 BARZOON They'll fucking crucify him. They'll get in line. I gotta call Meisel... MILTON No. I want Kevin on this case. BARZOON I hope you're kidding. (beat) Alexander Cullen in a Manhattan triple murder? With Kevin? You're dreaming. MILTON I've shaken hands with every marquee defense attorney in town. I take Kevin and I don't look back. BARZOON You're a great judge of talent, John. You're the master. I just don't see it coming together. MILTON I want you on board, Eddie. KEVIN Look, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but maybe Eddie's got a point here. MILTON We can get this case. The man's our client. BARZOON He's a business client. MILTON We know him better than he knows himself. We have the inside track. We have the best damn trial lawyer in the city. It's ours to lose. BARZOON Tell it to Cullen. MILTON No. That's up to Kevin. (CONTINUED) 58.82 CONTINUED: (3) 82 With that, the PHONE starts RINGING -- MILTON That's Pam calling... (to Kevin) Are we fighting for this, or not? CUT TO:83 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - NIGHT 83 It's late. Dark. Kevin tiptoeing through the apartment -- turning the corner and -- MARY ANN You left me there. I had a fucking panic attack until Jackie told me where you were. (raw) Three hours? You don't even call? KEVIN Stop. Reset. I'm upstairs, I'm with Milton and Barzoon and there is a very good possibility that I'm about to catch a triple homicide defendant who also happens to be the largest real estate developer in the city. I had to bail on the party! MARY ANN You bailed on me! KEVIN Mare... did you hear me? MARY ANN I was all by myself! KEVIN For three whole hours... (as she's walking) You gotta be kidding, right? No, she's leaving. Kevin left there, alone -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 59.84 EXT. STREET - CONSTRUCTION SITE - DAY (MORNING) 84 A news van whipping up the block. TIRES SCREECHING as it pulls up beside a construction site where two other news vans are already unloading. The smell of headlines and --85 EXT. STREET - CONSTRUCTION SITE - DAY 85 Two photographers sprinting toward the shell of a high- rise building. A sign blankets the scaffolding. Huge, ego-size lettering reads... CULLEN TOWERS "The Next Great Address" CUT TO:86 EXT. CONSTRUCTION HIGH-RISE - DAY 86 Looking DOWN FROM fifty stories high, as the media vehicles converge like toys below. CULLEN (V.O.) ... Look at this, I'm not out twenty minutes, we're running from the goddamn press. Look at those insects down there...87 INT. CONSTRUCTION HIGH-RISE - DAY 87 ALEXANDER CULLEN turns back from the edge. Forty-five. Tan, grief-stricken, and sleep deprived. The space is huge and bare. Unfinished concrete. Wide, open views. Kevin, Milton, and Barzoon standing there. CULLEN ... You may be right, but look at it from my point of view. I'm sure he's a whiz kid. I believe you. But this is my ass we're talking. (to Barzoon) Jesus, Eddie... MILTON Alex, you know how this town works. You've got enemies you never heard of. And now? Now you're down? I'd prepare for a class-A, New York pig-fuck. You're going to have to ask yourself who you really trust. Who do you trust, Alex? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 60.87 CONTINUED: 87 CULLEN I don't know... I gotta look around. KEVIN You don't have time to shop, Mr. Cullen. (the newspaper) Jury selection started this morning at every breakfast table in the city. You lost round one. This is what people know. They know you and your wife were living separately. They see this maid -- Elucinda -- a sixty-eight-year-old grandmother supporting seven children. And then there's your stepson, a ten-year-old with a bullet in his brain. Those are already powerful images in the mind of the public. CULLEN I didn't kill anybody. KEVIN I'm telling you how it looks. You discover the crime. You call it in. You've got blood on your person and clothes, and -- (before Cullen can cut him off) -- and -- your prints are on the murder weapon. CULLEN How do you know that? KEVIN There's a second print in blood -- it's a partial of a hand -- on the wall next to th-- CULLEN I have keys! I called the cops from the house! I touched the goddamn wall! (to Barzoon) I was panicked! I panicked! KEVIN We need twelve people who can see past all that. I'd get out in front of this fast. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 61.87 CONTINUED: (2) 87 CULLEN I panicked! Is that a crime? I touched the wall! BARZOON He's right, Alex. People need to hear these things. KEVIN You're not happy tomorrow? The next day? We'll move over. But right now -- this moment -- you need immediate representation. CULLEN I've got a fourteen-year-old stepdaughter who I care more about than anything in the world. They won't let me call her from downtown. They won't let me talk to her after I'm out. I gotta go deal with that first. KEVIN We need to issue a statement. Cullen looks to Milton. Waiting. Help me. MILTON He's a winner, Alex. And they'll never see him coming. CULLEN I'm gonna make some very tough phone calls. Then I'm gonna take a pill and try to get some sleep. My place. Eight A.M. tomorrow. Alone. (beat) And you better be every fucking inch as good as you think you are. CUT TO:88 OMITTED 8889 EXT. SOHO BOUTIQUE STREET - DAY 89 A woman with short dark hair -- her back to us -- looking in a shop window. Her reflection in the glass, it's Mary Ann. She's cut and colored her hair. Jackie and Diana already going in and -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 62.90 INT. SOHO BOUTIQUE AND DRESSING ROOM - DAY 90 White wine and couture. Mary Ann holding a blouse. MARY ANN (whispering) This is three thousand dollars. JACKIE Know what you need to do? Buy it. Wear it once. And then throw it away. That'll loosen you up. DIANA I say spend it all. If you're never gonna see your husband, you might as well have a relationship with his money. (as she strips) I swear, if he wasn't afraid of me shooting my mouth off, Eddie would've put a cellulite clause in the pre-nup. JACKIE Dr. Robert, I'm telling you, he's the miracle man. You've seen my new tits, I mean who does it better than that? DIANA It's not my tits I'm worried about. Mary Ann turns. Jackie beside her. Topless. Smiling. JACKIE Real or not? (her breasts) They look real... (she shimmies) They move real... MARY ANN (trapped there) Must be real. JACKIE Feel them. Go ahead. That's the ultimate test. Before Mary Ann can stop her, Jackie is taking her hand, guiding it to her breast, and holding it there. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 63.90 CONTINUED: 90 JACKIE (smiling) Feel real? MARY ANN Yes. (pulling away) Absolutely. Real. JACKIE (backing away) Dr. Robert. When you're ready. Mary Ann looking away as Jackie walks off. Everything is as it was, and yet different. And then, she turns and sees --91 OMITTED 9192 INT. SOHO BOUTIQUE - DRESSING ROOM (FX) - DAY 92 (EFX) Jackie pulling a dress down over her head. She's taking her time because it's a delicate, clingy...93 INT. SOHO BOUTIQUE - DRESSING ROOM (FX) - DAY 93 ... complicated outfit -- turning -- and for one brief moment we see a serpent's head -- disappearing now into the dress as she struggles inside the material -- her body -- the body inside the dress -- transforming -- ribs and spikes and huge moving muscles strain the limits of the material, and then, suddenly, it's over.94 INT. SOHO BOUTIQUE - DRESSING ROOM - DAY 94 Jackie's face appears. She straightens the seams. Turning now -- JACKIE What do you think? But Mary Ann is gone. CUT TO:95 OMITTED 95thru thru102 102 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 64/65.103 INT. LAW FIRM - STAIRCASE/OFFICE - DAY 103 Kevin, coming out a door with Heath and an associate. KEVIN ... first thing -- I need this ASAP -- I want articles, clippings, TV interviews, I want everything you can get on Alex Cullen. HEATH (walking off) You better get a semi truck.104 INT. LAW FIRM - STAIRCASE/OFFICE - DAY 104 Christabella climbing the stairs. Short skirt. Great angle. Halfway up, she stops to fix her stockings. (CONTINUED) 66.104 CONTINUED: 104 CHRISTABELLA Enjoying yourself? KEVIN (caught) Sorry. I'm just... CHRISTABELLA Just what? Looking? KEVIN Guilty. CHRISTABELLA Congratulations on Cullen. KEVIN Thank you. CHRISTABELLA What an incredible situation, even if you lose you become a star. KEVIN What if I win? CHRISTABELLA If you win... (smiles) If you win it's everything. KEVIN Any advice? CHRISTABELLA Cullen is a pig. He's a pig beyond reasonable doubt. I suggest you keep him as far away from the jury as possible. KEVIN I'll keep it in mind. CHRISTABELLA (leans in, whispering) You can look all you want, but I don't fuck married men. KEVIN What a relief. I was starting to think you were perfect. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 67.104 CONTINUED: (2) 104 PAM (O.S.) Kevin... He turns instantly -- Pamela standing behind him. PAM Your wife is on the phone. She sounds upset... Christabella smiling as Kevin rushes off. CUT TO:105 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 105 Mary Ann very upset. Kevin has just come home. MARY ANN I don't care if they can hear me! I don't care! I don't like it here. And these women, my God... I mean, I'm seeing things for crissake! KEVIN You just left them in the store? MARY ANN Yes! KEVIN Look, calm down, all right? Listen to me... Mare? First, you do this radical thing with your hair... MARY ANN You hate it. KEVIN Stop. I think it's fine. But I also think it's traumatic. You've got the pressure of fitting in with new friends, a new place... add three bottles of wine and -- MARY ANN No! It wasn't the wine. It wasn't the wine or my hair or talking to Kathy, because I know that's what you're gonna say -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 68.105 CONTINUED: 105 KEVIN What about Kathy? MARY ANN What about her? She's pregnant again. KEVIN Oh, and that's got nothing to do with it... MARY ANN Kevin, I never see you anymore. Now that you've got this big case, it's just only gonna get worse. I don't know anybody here. These women scare the living shit out of me. If you can believe it, I'm actually looking forward to having your mother come and visit. KEVIN What about the apartment? MARY ANN Exactly! You just go out -- you buy a few new suits and you're fine. I've got this whole place to fill up and I know we have all this money and it's supposed to be fun, but it isn't! It's like a test! The whole thing is like one big test! I'm lonely. KEVIN Let's make a baby. MARY ANN Don't tease me. KEVIN I wouldn't do that. Unless you asked. MARY ANN You hate my hair, don't you?106 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 106 His hand moves against her cheek, and then down the back of her neck. She moves into his body and -- DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 68A.107 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 107 (EFX) Suddenly -- She's Christabella -- right there -- in his arms -- before he can react -- before he can speak -- she finds his mouth and they are kissing and --108 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 108 Suddenly -- She's Mary Ann -- and he's pulling up her dress and she's helping him and his hand is moving over bare thigh and -- DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 69.109 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 109 (EFX) Suddenly -- She's Christabella unbuttoning her blouse -- and she can't do it fast enough -- still with her mouth on his and his hand between her legs and --110 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 110 Suddenly -- She's Mary Ann -- flattening against the wall and her blouse is open and --111 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 111 (EFX) Suddenly -- She's Christabella -- pulling off her bra as his mouth moves over her breasts and his hands are everywhere and the bra is gone and she's tearing at his shirt and he's helping her and her dress is on the floor and there's no rug or anything, but this is where they will fuck because they can't stop themselves and she's on her back on the bare floor and he's kicking away his shoes and she's feeling herself and staring into his eyes and suddenly --112 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DAY 112 MARY ANN Stop. Kevin looks like he's been shot. In the balls. MARY ANN Where are you? KEVIN Right here. Mary Ann doesn't look so sure. CUT TO:113 INT. CULLEN'S APARTMENT - DAY 113 Huge. Opulent. Kevin and Pamela have been taking notes. Cullen is exhausted, frustrated. KEVIN ... because it needs to be clear, Mr. Cullen, because I need to understand exactly what happened -- you're standing there -- you look down -- there's the gun -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 70.113 CONTINUED: 113 CULLEN I don't know why I picked it up -- it was before I saw Elucinda's body and then, I mean we've been over this... KEVIN You kneeled down to pick it up? CULLEN You work late. You come home. You walk in. Everybody's dead. It's not something you plan for. KEVIN Back up. Two prints by the gun. Right knee. Right hand. It's a strange move you must've made to pick it up. CULLEN The blood, I don't know, maybe I was trying to avoid the blood. KEVIN I'm trying to picture it... (contorting) Your hand came from inside and underneath. Cullen reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun. CULLEN You want to see? Here... (dropping to his knees) I'll fucking show you. Kevin watching Cullen quickly retrieve the gun from the floor with this weird little motion. CULLEN (standing) Okay? Clear? Got it? KEVIN Whose gun is that, Alex? CULLEN It's mine. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 71.113 CONTINUED: (2) 113 KEVIN Are you out of your mind? (incredulous) You're charged in a triple homicide, you're walking around with a forty-five? CULLEN I've had nine death threats. KEVIN Give it over. Now. Gimme the gun. CULLEN I gotta protect myself. KEVIN That's my job. When the case is over you can have it back. (strong) This is a dealbreaker, Alex. Cullen hands him the gun. KEVIN Okay. Let's wrap it up. CULLEN So what's next? KEVIN We need to talk to your assistant. CULLEN Call her. KEVIN You feel confident she'll back you on the time. CULLEN Melissa, yeah. She's okay. She's a real straight arrow. KEVIN So we're going to talk to her and you're not going to talk to anybody. Okay? CULLEN (with a smile) No comment. CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 72.114 INT. D.A. MERTO'S OFFICE - DAY 114 A large, ugly cube. Daylight through dirty windows. Kevin alone. On the table, a large, grey envelope. Printed on it: PROPERTY OF THE MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY FORENSIC LOG - #546D - STATE VS. ALEX CULLEN Kevin going through a stack of crime scene photographs. Tough stuff. One after another. Three victims. Many angles. We can see their horror in his face. CUT TO:115 OMITTED 115116 EXT. LAW FIRM HELICOPTER - DUSK 116 PANNING ALONG Wall Street. The whole downtown skyline. SETTLING finally ON the 60th floor of the law firm building. Hovering at a distance. Lights on here and there and -- One window. Kevin's office. He and Pamela are talking to a young woman. This is MELISSA BLOCK, Cullen's assistant and alibi. We can't hear what they're saying, but it looks to be a collegial meeting. CUT TO:117 OMITTED 117118 INT. KEVIN'S OFFICE AND HALL - NIGHT 118 Kevin and Pam walking Melissa out through the empty reception area. MELISSA Would my babysitter have to testify? KEVIN We need her to establish the time you returned home. MELISSA She doesn't have her green card is why I ask. I don't want her to get in trouble. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 73.118 CONTINUED: 118 KEVIN Tell you what, Melissa, let's talk to her first. See where she stands and take it from there. PAM I'll make sure Melissa gets down to the car. MELISSA Mr. Cullen didn't kill those people. KEVIN That's why we're all working so hard. As Melissa exits with Pam, Kevin notices two associates carrying boxes far up the hall and we -- CUT TO:119 INT. LAW FIRM LIBRARY AND HALL - NIGHT (SAME TIME) 119 Paper shredders. Half a dozen of them cranking full tilt. Stacks of files left to go. Barzoon and six associates working late. Shirtsleeves and coffee. BARZOON (directing traffic) Okay, Excelsior Insurance, who's handling that? (a hand goes up) All this has to go. Guatemala, Sudan, Cyprus... (cheerleading) Let's stay organized here. (across the room) Martin, no. Devada Holdings. That's all you're doing. Believe me, it'll take all night. Barzoon stops as he sees Kevin in the doorway. KEVIN I thought I was the only one working late. BARZOON So did we. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 74.119 CONTINUED: 119 KEVIN Good news. We just wrapped up with Cullen's assistant. She looks like a great alibi. BARZOON What a pleasant surprise. KEVIN But it looks like you have your hands full. BARZOON Just a little housekeeping. (beat) If they ask, you never saw this. KEVIN Who would ask? BARZOON Weaver. KEVIN Who's that? BARZOON Justice Department. Weaver Commission. (staring at him) You don't know about Weaver? KEVIN Sorry. BARZOON How nice for you. MILTON (O.S.) Grab your coat, Mr. Lomax... Milton in the hall behind Kevin. Tickets in hand. MILTON The night is young. (re: tickets) Title fight. Ringside. KEVIN I'd have to call Mary Ann... MILTON Do it on the way. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 75.119 CONTINUED: (2) 119 BARZOON (am I here?) You get my message? MILTON You write beautifully, Eddie. BARZOON We need to talk. MILTON Soon. BARZOON I hope so. CUT TO:120 OMITTED 120& &121 121122 INT. SUBWAY TO FIGHTS TRAIN - NIGHT 122 The car half full. Kevin and Milton standing near the door. Right behind them, three guys in the midst of an intense conversation in Spanish. KEVIN So what's this Weaver Commission? MILTON I don't micro-manage. You find the talent and then you delegate. Who knows what the hell Eddie's up to. He's got a lotta fingers in a lotta pies. Suddenly, one of the guys behind them, the biggest of the three, we'll call him BIG GUY, turns back -- BIG GUY What the fuck you looking at? (it's Milton he's talking to) You fucking deaf or something? MILTON No. I can hear you just fine. BIG GUY Good, 'cause I want you should get your skinny little ass somewhere down the fucking car away from me. (CONTINUED) 76.122 CONTINUED: 122 MILTON (stare-down) I'm not going anywhere. Big Guy pulls open his jacket -- a knife in his belt. KEVIN Oh, shit. (stepping back) John... But Milton doesn't move. He smiles. MILTON (perfect Spanish) Maricela, the moment you left the apartment she was upstairs with Carlos. They're on the pipe right now, my friend. They're in the kitchen splitting a jumbo and then he's going to fuck her in the ass, right on your bed, and she's going to like it. Big Guy backing away -- into his friends -- BIG GUY Como...? How do you...? The SUBWAY RATTLING into the Fourteenth Street station. MILTON (still Spanish) Do yourself a favor and put that knife where it belongs. The doors open. Big Guy stumbling back -- his friends catching him -- helping him off the train -- looking back, as the doors close and... It's like it never happened. Milton straightening his cuffs as the train pulls away. KEVIN What did you say to him? MILTON I told him if he didn't leave us alone, you were going to kick all three of their asses. CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 77.123 INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - BOXING RING - NIGHT 123 Right INTO it. Red trunks with a huge right hand and blue trunks drops and the Garden goes wild -- five thousand people yelling for blood.124 INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 124 And Milton at ringside, breathing deeply of the vibe and -- KEVIN (on his feet) Get up! Get up, dammit! C'mon!125 INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 125 Blue trunks rises on shaky legs as the BELL RINGS, the round over and the crowd groans back into its seats.126 INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 126 Milton turning as DON KING collars him. DON KING Look at this sorry shit, you got better seats than me. MILTON You need a better lawyer. DON KING Nobody better than you, Johnny. MILTON Hang on a second... (presenting Kevin) Meet my new heavyweight. Kevin Lomax. Kevin shaking hands with Don King, as we -- CUT TO:127 INT. SPANISH RESTAURANT (DOWNTOWN) - NIGHT (LATE) 127 Serious flamenco. Music is loud. The dancer is fantastic. Deep reds. Deep blacks. Skin. Duende. Milton, sitting beside some blonde he's discovered, he's got his jacket off, clapping perfectly to the beat. Behind him, a large table of ten/fifteen people. Food and wine to excess. Laughter and music and... DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 78.128 INT. SPANISH RESTAURANT - PHONE AND ROOM - NIGHT 128 Kevin on a pay phone near the kitchen. KEVIN And say what? He's the senior partner at the -- (pause) Mare, you're really starting to piss me off -- (pause) Yes. I'm having one cigarette. You want me to lie? One cigarette after seven months is not -- (pause) That's exactly what I'm saying. Go to bed. I have no idea. (pause) I told you, he never sleeps. (pause) Mare. Stop. The guy pays our bills. The food, the heat, the rent on that enormous fucking apartment we live in. (beat) I live there, too! CLICK. The LINE is dead. He looks at the cigarette. Takes a hit. Fuck it. And then his eyes find -- The dressing room across the hall. An open door. Inside, a woman, one of the dancers, all but nude, stepping into her dress. A simply perfect body. And then she turns TOWARD us and it's Christabella -- clearly -- for a single moment -- before she slams shut the door. Kevin crosses to the door. Knocks. And again. The door opens. A DANCER standing there. It's not Christabella. DANCER Can I help you? Kevin already backing toward --128A INT. SPANISH RESTAURANT - NIGHT 128 Kevin moving toward the Milton table. Sitting down and just realizing that -- Cullen has joined the party. He's wasted. He waves. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 79.128A CONTINUED: 128A Milton catching Kevin's eye, smiling as the Blonde slips below the table. As if nothing were going on. CUT TO:129 OMITTED 129thru thru132 132133 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - NIGHT (LATE) 133 Dark. Mary Ann asleep in a chair. A breeze through the open terrace windows. Suddenly she wakes. MARY ANN Kevin? Silence. And then, the sound of a BABY CRYING... CUT TO:134 INT. LOMAX NURSERY HALLWAY - NIGHT 134 Mary Ann rushing through the dark, toward the nursery and the sound of the CRYING -- stopping suddenly at the nursery door -- MARY ANN How...? What are you...?135 INT. LOMAX NURSERY AND HALL - NIGHT 135 A one-year-old child sits naked on the floor amidst the tools and material. MARY ANN You poor thing... Mary Ann easing slowly forward. MARY ANN How did you... how did you get here? (billing and cooing) Are you okay? Look at you... hello... hello... (kneeling there) Where's your mommy? The baby turns to her voice. Smiling now. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 80.135 CONTINUED: 135 MARY ANN What are you playing with? What do you have there? The baby offers his open hands -- Viscera. Entrails and blood and slime. The child's hands full of someone's insides... MARY ANN ... Oh, God, no... The baby raising his hands toward her -- MARY ANN ... no... please, God, no -- Stopping suddenly as she looks down at her body. Her nightgown is covered with blood. Just starting to scream, as we -- HARD CUT TO:136 OMITTED 136thru thru142 142143 INT. HEATH GUEST ROOM AND HALL - DAY 143 Motion -- Kevin rushing down a hallway -- Heath behind him -- heading for an open door and into --144 INT. HEATH GUEST ROOM AND HALL - DAY 144 Mary Ann in bed. Dead asleep. Jackie Heath, bedside nurse. JACKIE Took two seconals to get her out. KEVIN (hung-over and guilty) Milton got his hooks into me. HEATH Relax. We've all been there. JACKIE Leave her with me. Let her sleep. She'll be out another five, six hours at least. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 81.144 CONTINUED: 144 KEVIN This transition, it's been really tough on her... HEATH We're gonna find some names for you. Doctors. Good people. Kevin nods. Jackie ushering them out, as we -- CUT TO:144A EXT. NY - DAY/NIGHT 144A New York time transition -- MOS.145 EXT. LAW FIRM STREET - DAY 145 Pamela and three other women smoking. Looking up, as Kevin comes flying out of the building. PAM Caught me. KEVIN I've gotta find Cullen. (as he passes) We just got the prosecution discovery package. PAM That bad? Kevin just keeps going into --146 EXT. LAW FIRM STREET - DAY 146 Kevin needs a taxi -- bingo -- a cab -- dropping off right here -- he's got it -- opening the door and -- CHRISTABELLA Careful... (stepping out) You'll spoil me for other men. KEVIN That's what they all say. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 82.146 CONTINUED: 146 CHRISTABELLA Heard he finally dragged you out the other night... (as she walks) Can't believe I missed it. Kevin watching her go, looking up, seeing the glass bridge high above. CUT TO:147 INT. NEW YORK SIDE STREET - DAY 147 A limousine double-parked outside a brownstone. Kevin standing there as Cullen comes storming out of the building. CULLEN I get one supervised hour a week with my stepdaughter. This is it. You better have a great reason to call me out. KEVIN Your wife, the day she was killed, had lunch with a friend. She says and I quote: 'Alex is fucking around and I can prove it.' CULLEN Hearsay. Never gets in. KEVIN Wrong answer. (listen to me) Your prenuptial agreement is on file at the firm. The contract is null and void in the event of marital infidelity. (beat) You fuck around, she gets rich. (you asshole) That's a motive, Alex. (long pause) What do I need to know? CULLEN Melissa. My assistant. (such a headache) She's not even that good a fuck. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 83.147 CONTINUED: 147 KEVIN And, on the night in question? CULLEN I was boning my assistant while my wife was getting shot. KEVIN I've got to re-interview Melissa. CULLEN Forget it. We're not telling that story. KEVIN Juries want honesty. Fuck with that at your peril. Cullen turns -- something more important -- CULLEN Allesandra. Wait... Allesandra emerging from the building looking teary and distraught. Her THERAPIST helping her toward the limo. KEVIN Arthur... CULLEN Not now. THERAPIST Time's up, Mr. Cullen. CULLEN Allesandra. Please... Kevin watching Cullen rush away, as we -- CUT TO:148 OMITTED 148thru thru151 151151A EXT. NY - DAY/NIGHT 151A New York time transition -- MOS.152 OMITTED 152thru thru155 155 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 84.155A EXT. LOMAX APARTMENT BUILDING - SIDEWALK - NIGHT 155A A Towncar pulls up. Mary Ann, Kevin and Mrs. Lomax emerge. Just back from dinner. Two steps and -- A PAPARAZZI photographer nearby -- PAPARAZZI Kevin, hey, how's it going? Can we get a couple shots here? How about a thumbs-up here? What do you say? Kevin reluctantly smiles. Get it over with. MRS. LOMAX What's he doing? MARY ANN Kevin's had his picture in the paper. FEENEY, the doorman, at the ready. Mary Ann first inside. Mrs. Lomax lingers a moment watching Kevin have his picture taken. KEVIN Welcome to Babylon, Ma. FEENEY Sorry, Mr. Lomax, I thought we'd scared 'em all away... MRS. LOMAX Always did like to stick his nose in a camera.156 INT. LOMAX LOBBY - ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 FEENEY (as they enter) And how are you, Mrs. Lomax? Did you have a fine dinner? MRS. LOMAX I surely did. (she's got a doggie bag) Are you hungry? FEENEY No, I'm fine. Thank you. MILTON (O.S.) Speak of the devil... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 85/86.156 CONTINUED: 156 There he is, waiting for the elevator. With him are Christabella and an Asian woman who is so sexy it hurts. Kevin off balance from this moment on. Mary Ann smells the danger. Everything is awkward. MILTON I was just telling the Moyez story. KEVIN Really. MILTON And is this your mother? KEVIN Yes. Mom, this is... MILTON John Milton. Nice to meet you. MRS. LOMAX Alice Lomax. How do you do? MILTON Mary Ann... (a kiss for her) I think you've met Christabella, and this is Giselle who's just in from Paris. A moment of bullshit superficial greetings and then -- the elevator doors opening and the whole uncomfortable clot of them moving into --157 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT ELEVATOR - NIGHT 157 Just enough room. They ascend. KEVIN Thanks for the champagne. MILTON You've very welcome. (to Mrs. Lomax) This isn't really your first visit to New York, is it? KEVIN (after a moment) Yes. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 87.157 CONTINUED: 157 GISELLE Cette femme, elle est la mere de l'homme dont vous m'avez parle? MILTON She can't believe you're his mother. You've done one helluva job bringing him up, Mrs. Lomax. I'm sure it wasn't easy. MRS. LOMAX No. Mrs. Lomax has been staring, and now Milton meets her eyes as the elevator stops and the doors open. MARY ANN Nice to see you... CHRISTABELLA Have a lovely evening. Kevin next out, holding the door, waiting -- KEVIN Mom, we're here... MRS. LOMAX Yes. Good night to you. Mrs. Lomax takes one last look at Milton as she exits. MILTON Kevin, hang on... (holding the door) How's Cullen. Everything on beam? KEVIN That's a long conversation. In the b.g., Mary Ann opening the apartment door and going inside. Mrs. Lomax right behind her. MILTON (hush hush) Why don't you come on up? KEVIN Now? Milton smiles. Christabella smiles. Giselle smiles. KEVIN Let's talk tomorrow. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 88.157 CONTINUED: (2) 157 Milton shrugs. Your loss. Christabella has her hand on Giselle's ass, working up her skirt -- MILTON You sure? Kevin left standing there as the doors close. CUT TO:158 OMITTED 158thru thru161 161162 INT. LOMAX KITCHEN - NIGHT (ONE MINUTE LATER) 162 Mrs. Lomax, subdued, listening to Kevin and Mary Ann bickering. MARY ANN That what you're doing when you're working late? KEVIN What are we talking about? MARY ANN You know exactly what I'm talking about. KEVIN That's ridiculous. MARY ANN I'm going to bed. (walking off) 'Night, Alice... MRS. LOMAX 'Night. Mary Ann exits. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 89.162 CONTINUED: 162 MRS. LOMAX I'm worried about her. You shouldn't fight like that. KEVIN That's not a fight, Ma, it's marriage. Not exactly your area of expertise. MRS. LOMAX Are you happy here? KEVIN What? MRS. LOMAX Are you happy here? KEVIN You're kidding, right? Am I happy? Every now and then I look around and I think my mama must be praying awful hard for me, 'cause I died and went to heaven. Am I happy? MRS. LOMAX You were always running somewhere. KEVIN I guess I finally got there. (sensing something wrong) Look, I'm sorry about being so busy this week. Maybe Saturday I can get some time off and... MRS. LOMAX Don't worry on it. (touching his face) I love you more than anything in the whole world. You know that, don't you? KEVIN I love you too, Ma. Kevin turning out the lights, as we -- CUT TO:163 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - FOYER/HALL - DAY 163 Newspapers. Laying on the doorstep. Headline reads: (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 90.163 CONTINUED: 163 CULLEN PRE-NUP SHOCKER! Kevin, dressed for work, briefcase in hand, rushing down a cup of coffee, reading the headline and -- KEVIN Shit! The door to the guest room is open. He looks in --164 OMITTED 164165 INT. LOMAX GUEST ROOM - DAY 165 Mrs. Lomax fully dressed. The bed is made. Her bag is packed. KEVIN Mom? Ma, what are you doing? MRS. LOMAX I'm going home, Kevin. KEVIN What? What are you talking about? MRS. LOMAX I don't feel right. KEVIN You just got here. (his watch) Look, I'm late and I just got my teeth kicked in on the front page, so I gotta run. We'll talk later. MRS. LOMAX I have to go, Kevin. I miss my church. KEVIN Ma, this is New York, there must be twenty-thousand goddamn churches. Take your pick. MRS. LOMAX You need to do a better job with Mary Ann. She's not well. This place isn't good for her. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 91.165 CONTINUED: 165 KEVIN So stay. Take care of her if you're so concerned! Help me out. MRS. LOMAX I'll take her home if you let me. KEVIN This is home. You understand? This is where we live! I'm not going back to Gainesville. Unbelievable. MRS. LOMAX 'Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to temptation.' KEVIN It's a little early for scripture. I'm going to work. (as he walks) You can do whatever you want. Mrs. Lomax watching him go, as we -- CUT TO:166 EXT. CENTRAL PARK PLAYGROUND - DAY 166 Melissa and Kevin on a bench. Kids playing. One of them is hers, but she's not paying much attention at the moment -- MELISSA I can't do it. It's one thing to have an affair with your boss, it's another to have to tell the world in a murder case. KEVIN We have to bring it out, Melissa. MELISSA My ex-husband would have a field day with this. KEVIN A man's life is at stake. You're our whole case. Melissa looking away, as we -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 92.167 INT. WEAVER FEDERAL COURTROOM - DAY 167 Modern. Empty. The JUDGE is a WOMAN. No bullshit. Barzoon sitting alone at the defense table. Federal prosecutor MITCHELL WEAVER on his feet. WEAVER ... there is nothing vague or exploratory about this subpoena request, Your Honor. We're specifically asking for any and all documents relating to Devada Holdings. It's taken six months and seventeen separate motions and we still don't know who's responsible here. We've got a paper trail here that seems to stretch into eternity! WOMAN JUDGE Mr. Barzoon? BARZOON Can't turn over what you don't have, Your Honor. We've been conducting a comprehensive search of our records and I'm sorry to say it's a great deal less than Mr. Weaver would suggest. WEAVER Your Honor, this is outrageous. We need to get in there and seize these documents before there's nothing left! BARZOON Your Honor, it's exactly these types of insulting accusations -- WOMAN JUDGE Enough. Both of you. Put it on paper. I'll read it. WEAVER Your Honor... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 93.167 CONTINUED: 167 But the gavel comes down. Done. Barzoon packing up, looks to the back of the room. Kevin sitting there. Waiting. CUT TO:168 INT. WEAVER FEDERAL COURT - HALL - DAY (MINUTES LATER) 168 Busy. Lots of traffic. Barzoon and Kevin walking. BARZOON Forget about lunch. This guy Weaver is running me ragged. A REPORTER pulls up alongside -- excited -- REPORTER Kevin. Nancy Osborne, Metro News. How are you? KEVIN Busy. REPORTER We had a report of a private plane at Teterboro airport ready to take Alexander Cullen out of the coun -- KEVIN (cutting her off) Mr. Cullen is innocent. He's not going anywhere. He's been released on a two million dollar bond. He looks forward to having his day in court. Thank you. REPORTER Kevin, is there any truth to -- KEVIN I'm in the middle of a meeting. Call my office. Schedule an interview. Or else forget it. Barzoon is getting away. Kevin hustling to catch up. KEVIN I'm picking a jury tomorrow. BARZOON You're good at that. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 94.168 CONTINUED: 168 KEVIN You're not gonna have time to help me on Cullen, are you? BARZOON No. Just then, Weaver comes rumbling past -- WEAVER Devada Holdings, Eddie. Look in your rearview window, I'm right behind you. Before he can answer -- ANOTHER REPORTER swoops in -- REPORTER #2 Kevin, Chuck Higgery, Action News. Have you spoken with Alex Cullen concerning the D.A.'s report... Kevin turns to see two more REPORTERS jogging over. REPORTER #3 Kevin, just a statement -- And a photographer -- Kevin under siege and -- BARZOON (backing away) Gotta go. Barzoon escaping as reporters begin to materialize from all sides, and we -- CUT TO:169 INT. LOMAX LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 169 Dark. Quiet. Mary Ann in her chair. She looks like hell. Eyes red from crying. Kevin has just come home and found her like this. MARY ANN I dreamt about this. (beat) Right here. (beat) It's not a dream if it's true. KEVIN Tell me this is the medication. (CONTINUED) 95.169 CONTINUED: 169 MARY ANN You won't stay with me now. KEVIN Look, let's get you undressed and in the tub. Okay? MARY ANN You won't stay. I know you. You'll leave me now for sure. (as he moves to comfort her -- ) Get-away-from-me! KEVIN Okay. I'm confused. (furious) Why? What is it now? What the fuck is it today, Mare? I swear to God, I'm calling this doctor, I'm gonna find out what the hell they're giving you. MARY ANN They took my ovaries. I told you! (tears now) My sisters have seven children between them. My mother had Derek when she was forty-five. You could set a clock by my periods. KEVIN What are you talking about? MARY ANN I can't have children! KEVIN Says who? MARY ANN The doctor! The other doctor. I was there today. (beat) Non-specific ovarian failure. KEVIN That's ridiculous. The PHONE begins to RING across the room. MARY ANN (grabbing his arm) I know you. You'll leave me. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 96.169 CONTINUED: (2) 169 KEVIN Mary Ann... MARY ANN It's these monsters, Kevin. (losing it) I dreamt this... The PHONE keeps RINGING. Kevin will finally pull away. Answering the phone O.S., quietly conducting business as Mary Ann falls apart. CUT TO:170 EXT. FOLEY SQUARE - DAY 170 Kevin on a cell phone walking with Milton. KEVIN Uh huh. For sleep. And she can take that during the day? (beat) No, she won't be driving. (beat) I'm gonna have the pharmacy call you right back. Thanks. (hangs up, sags against the car) He thinks, he's not sure, he thinks it could be some kind of hormonal imbalance. MILTON I'm taking you off the case. KEVIN What? MILTON I want you to drop this case. KEVIN This case? Cullen? (incredulous) John, I've got a jury showing up this morning. MILTON Do you love this woman? KEVIN Yes. Of course I do. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 10/22/96 97.170 CONTINUED: 170 MILTON Kevin, she's sick. Everyone will understand. I'll understand. KEVIN (stunned) What about Cullen? MILTON We'll find someone new. You consult. You live to fight another day. KEVIN I put together a great jury. MILTON It's a disappointment. We all have them. Embrace it. Use it. You move on. KEVIN Hang on, we gotta talk about this. MILTON What's to talk? It's your wife, man. And she's very sick. And that's gotta come first. (beat) Are you telling me the possibility of leaving the case has never crossed your mind? KEVIN You know what scares me? I quit the case. She gets better. And I hate her for it. (silence) I don't want to resent her, John. I've got a winner here. I gotta nail this fucker down, do it fast, and put it behind me. Just get it done. Then put all my energy into her. MILTON I guess you have thought about it. I stand corrected. CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 98.171 INT. CULLEN COURTROOM - DAY 171 Packed. JUDGE ARMAND POE presiding. Cullen seated with Kevin and Pam. The jury in their box. And prosecutor FRANK BROYGO on his feet, just wrapping up his opening statement -- BROYGO ... And when all that evidence is laid before you, when all these pieces weave together, you will conclude -- you will know -- that Alexander Cullen is guilty of murdering three people in cold blood with malice aforethought. Done. The courtroom is silent. The jury liked him. JUDGE POE Mr. Lomax... (checking his watch) We can break for lunch now, or you can do a stop and start... KEVIN If it's a choice, I'll go now. I won't be as long as Mr. Broygo. JUDGE POE Proceed. KEVIN We just spent our morning listening to Mr. Broygo talk about his 'evidence'. What he neglected to tell you is what this case is really about. He left out the most important fact of all: Alex Cullen was somewhere else when these murders took place. Now, Alex Cullen has done a lot of things I don't like. He's been a terrible husband to all three of his wives. He's been a destructive force in the lives of his step-children. He's cheated the city. His partners. His employees. He's paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and fines over the years. I don't like those things. I don't expect you to like them. There will be other things during the course of this trial that you will hear about and like even less. But this isn't a popularity contest. It's a murder trial and Alex Cullen hasn't killed anybody. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/15/96 99.171 CONTINUED: 171 KEVIN (CONT'D) The state is going all out here. They've got a whole team over there. They're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this case. I need one thing from you. That's it. One thing. I need you to ask yourself, 'Is not liking this man reason enough to convict him of murder?' (beat) Enjoy your lunch. We'll talk again. Stunned silence, and then -- HARD CUT TO:172 INT. COURTHOUSE - SMALL CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 172 Kevin thrown back against a wall -- CULLEN What the fuck was that? Are you out of your fucking mind? (murderous) They fucking hate me! Kevin -- one push -- Cullen sent flying. KEVIN Listen to me like you've never listened to anybody before. I'm going to bust my ass to make sure they hate you. Because as long as you're out boning Melissa, you're not home killing your wife. CULLEN (pause, as he warms to the idea) Why didn't you tell me before? KEVIN Then it doesn't look spontaneous. CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 100.173 INT. CULLEN COURTROOM - DAY 173 A Forensic TECHNICIAN on the stand. A display chart beside him. Blowups of the bloody hand-prints. KEVIN Let me put it this way, then: can you tell from a blood sample if the person were alive or dead? TECHNICIAN The victim? Of course not. KEVIN And there's a two hour window in which to place these murders. TECHNICIAN Yes. KEVIN So, you've got absolutely no way to determine the condition of the victims when Alexander Cullen put his hand on that wall. CUT TO:174 OMITTED 174& &175 175176 EXT. CARNEGIE HILL GROCERY - LATE AFTERNOON 176 Kevin into the evening air, carrying a bag of stuff. Barzoon standing there in a jogging suit. Furious. KEVIN Eddie... BARZOON Saw you go in. KEVIN What's up? BARZOON (cold) Congratulations. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 101.176 CONTINUED: 176 KEVIN It's not over yet. BARZOON I'm not talking about the trial. KEVIN What are you talking about? BARZOON How the fuck does your name get on the firm's charter? KEVIN What? BARZOON Looks like it's been there for years. Now you're a partner? When did that happen? I am still the managing director of this firm. You want my job? Take me head on. Backdoor me one more time and I'll take your partnership papers and stuff 'em down your throat. KEVIN I don't know what you're talking about, but I sure as hell don't like your tone of voice. BARZOON Bullshit. KEVIN You got a problem with documents, I suggest you put together one of your late-night shredding sessions. BARZOON You think you're tough enough to run this firm? Fine. (backing away) You tell Milton next time Weaver calls maybe I pick up the phone. (CONTINUED) 102.176 CONTINUED: (2) 176 Kevin standing there, watching him jog away, as we -- CUT TO:177 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - DUSK 177 Kevin sitting there with his bag of groceries. Milton looking sadly perplexed -- MILTON Was he drunk? KEVIN I doubt it. He was going running. What the hell was he talking about? MILTON Eddie's gotten himself into trouble again. And he wants me to save him. And I can't. KEVIN Why does he think I'm after his job? MILTON Do you have any experience with manic-depression? KEVIN Not directly, no. MILTON You do now. Milton already on the phone. Punching a number. MILTON Yes, it's me. (beat) Get Eddie Barzoon. Right away. He may be out running, so page him if you have to. It's an emergency. (hangs up, turns back to Kevin) Looks like you could use a drink. CUT TO: 103.178 INT. LOMAX APARTMENT - DUSK 178 Mary Ann coming through the living room. She looks stoned. But moving with purpose. As if she were hearing something. Opening the terrace doors and staring out over the park, as we -- CUT TO:179 EXT. CENTRAL PARK RESERVOIR - DUSK 179 The reservoir entrance. It's a nice night and busy with runners and bikes and -- Barzoon comes jogging past. CUT TO:180 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - DUSK 180 Kevin has a vodka in his hand. MARY ANN Eddie Barzoon. (wearily) I've nursed him through two divorces, a cocaine rehab, and a pregnant receptionist. (beat) God's creature, right? CUT TO:181 EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 181 No leaves on the trees. Barzoon running. Breaking a sweat now. Leaving the heavy traffic behind. CUT TO:182 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - DUSK 182 MILTON I'll tell you, Kevin, because I know you're into theology. When you've seen -- when you've represented -- when you've dealt with as many people as I have over the years, finally you say to yourself, 'God must've been awfully bored.' (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 104.182 CONTINUED: 182 MILTON (CONT'D) (beat) Choice. The opportunity to fuck up. Talk about entertainment value. CUT TO:183 EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 183 Barzoon running. Into his pace. Glancing down and on the horsepath below.184 EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 184 Three running shadows. Side-by-side. Just passing beneath an iron bridge. MILTON (V.O.) You take a look at Eddie Barzoon you gotta wonder if maybe God overplayed his hand. Maybe he made the game a little too interesting...184A EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 184A Barzoon turns back -- stumbles -- catches himself -- sprinting now to the Pump House. He pulls up here. Resting as several other runners pass by. Glancing back, almost an afterthought and --184B EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 184B Those three running shadows are now crossing the bridge which is completely impossible considering where they just were a moment ago and --184C EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 184C Barzoon starts running again -- instinctively -- faster than before -- glancing back and --184D EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR (FX) - DUSK 184D (EFX) The three shadows. The sun setting behind them. Transforming as they run -- animal shapes mixing with the harsh silhouettes of bare trees and -- DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 105.185 EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 185 Barzoon freaked -- What the fuck was that? -- The park suddenly looking very empty -- and dark --186 EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 186 The three shadows and they're closer and weirder and --186A EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 186A Barzoon -- suddenly turning -- changing course -- leaving the path -- into the woods -- quickly ducking down beside a huge sycamore tree. Hiding. Sweating. Scared. Staring back out at the path --186B EXT. CENTRAL PARK - RESERVOIR - DUSK 186B Three women runners -- clear as day -- pass beneath a streetlight. Team clothes. Machine-like strides. Flat- out. And then gone.187 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 187 Barzoon stands from behind the sycamore tree. Relief. Smiling at his own stupidity. What a jerk. Dusting off. Heading back toward the path, when --188 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 188 Suddenly, there's an arm around his neck -- throwing him to the ground --189 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 189 Standing there above him, a crazed-looking homeless MAN -- he's white and old and hungry -- OLD MAN Gimme your watch. BARZOON (standing now) You want the watch, old man? Come and get it. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 106.190 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 190 Barzoon moving toward the old guy when -- Crack! -- A tree branch swings out of nowhere -- catching his elbow -- snapping it back and -- A second homeless man. He's black and older than the first guy but just as wild and dangerous and he's winding up to swing the branch again and -- Barzoon on his knees -- dazed -- blood pouring from his head -- uncomprehending eyes watching these park creatures tear at his clothes --191 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 191 (EFX) Watching them grow more feral and less human by the moment and -- CUT TO:192 EXT. LOMAX TERRACE - DUSK 192 Mary Ann staring out at the park. Covering her ears against some horrible sound that she alone can hear. CUT TO:193 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 193 Barzoon -- on his belly -- in the dirt -- trying to move -- crawl -- anything --194 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE - DUSK 194 The two men beating Barzoon to death with stones --195 EXT. CENTRAL PARK TREE (FX) - DUSK 195 -- transforming with every blow -- (EFX) as their hands descend they become terrifying, demonic creatures, and as they rise we see them as men and over and over, as we hear -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 107/108.196 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - DUSK 196 MILTON (V.O.) You take a look at Eddie Barzoon you gotta wonder if maybe God overplayed his hand. Maybe he made the game a little too interesting. Milton turns to find Kevin staring at him. KEVIN I'm gonna, I'm gonna go downstairs now. Put this stuff away. (backing away with his bag of groceries) Ice cream's already melting. Milton watching him walk away, as we -- CUT TO:197 INT. LAW FIRM - PAM'S OFFICE AND HALL - DAY 197 Pam exits the room. Melissa sitting at the head of the table. Kevin pacing around her. They are alone. Practicing her testimony over early morning coffee. KEVIN You testified that the defendant called you at four-thirty to ask you to come to his office gym for the purposes of sex. MELISSA Yes. KEVIN Mr. Cullen, though, he's not just your lover, is he? He's the boss. MELISSA Yes. KEVIN So two hours go by before you act on his request? (CONTINUED) 109.197 CONTINUED: 197 MELISSA Yes, I went up at six-ten. I knew it was six-ten, they had weather coming on the news. I remember -- Cut off by -- KEVIN Okay. Stop. (breaking character) This prosecutor is no fool. He's gonna change tempo, attitude, tone of voice -- he's gonna come out with questions you never thought of, just to screw you up. (coaching) So what do we do? MELISSA Yes and no answers. Stay calm. KEVIN Exactly. (back into it) Is it your testimony, Ms. Block, that between the hours of six-ten and nine-forty you were engaged in sexual congress with the defendant? MELISSA Yes. KEVIN At any point during this three hour marathon, Ms. Block, did you lose sight of the defendant? MELISSA No. KEVIN Did he use the bathroom? MELISSA Yes. KEVIN Is he circumcised? (silence) You understand the question? MELISSA Yes. (CONTINUED) 110.197 CONTINUED: (2) 197 KEVIN So is he cut or not? MELISSA Yes. KEVIN Which is it? Silence. Melissa looks away. KEVIN You've been polishing his knob three times a week for six months and you don't know whether or not he's got foreskin? MELISSA (total transformation) I've had it up to here with this fucking game. Why don't you take your questions and shove 'em up your ass. Kevin staring at her. Looking away. Moving quickly for the door, and into:198 INT. LAW FIRM LIBRARY HALL - DAY 198 Three steps out and he stops. Something's wrong. Very wrong. People are out of their offices, standing in the doorways. Some of them crying. Christabella rushes toward him, into his arms -- CHRISTABELLA Oh, Kevin -- KEVIN What's happened? CHRISTABELLA Eddie Barzoon... KEVIN What about him? CHRISTABELLA He's dead. He was killed. KEVIN When? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 111.198 CONTINUED: 198 Heath nearby has more answers -- HEATH Last night in the park. He was running if you can believe it. Kevin standing there, holding Christabella. Feeling heat on the back of his neck and turning to find Milton at the far end of the hall. Their eyes lock -- CHRISTABELLA (O.S.) What is wrong with people? HEATH (O.S.) At least they got the scumbags who did it. KEVIN (turning on this) Who? LAWYER #1 Two old, homeless crazies. Pam coming through the hallway like steel -- PAM Kevin... Kevin, I'm sorry, but you're due in court in thirty minutes. As Melissa appears in the conference room door -- MELISSA Are we through here, or what? PAM I'll bring Melissa down in the car, but you better get going. CUT TO:199 INT. SUBWAY TO COURT - DAY 199 SCREAMING uptown. Kevin looking very rattled. Milton, beside him. Talking him down. MILTON I want you to put Eddie aside. Let me worry about it. You gotta deal with Cullen now. Marshal your strength. Prioritize. Conserve your energy. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 112.199 CONTINUED: 199 KEVIN I can't put her on the stand. MILTON What choice do we have? KEVIN I know she's lying. MILTON Because she didn't answer you fast enough? Did she lie to you? No. She said nothing. The fact is, you'll never know. KEVIN He killed those people. MILTON You really believe that? KEVIN Cullen set me up. Melissa, the whole thing, I know it. MILTON Look, you gotta go with your gut. KEVIN That's your advice? MILTON I'll back you either way. Hey, you think I haven't lost before? (pause) We talked about this, Kevin. Pressure. Take a big whiff. Kevin unreadable. The SUBWAY CAR RATTLING away. CUT TO:200 INT. CULLEN COURTROOM - DAY 200 Packed and ready. JUDGE POE Mr. Lomax, you may call your next witness. (CONTINUED) 113.200 CONTINUED: 200 A long, awful pause. Kevin in agony. Milton behind him. Cullen and Pamela and everyone waiting... JUDGE POE Counselor... KEVIN I call Melissa Block. CUT TO:201 INT. COURT - HALL - DAY 201 Chaos! -- media madness -- Kevin pushing past dozens of reporters and camera crews -- court officers trying to clear the way -- fifteen voices screaming at once -- questions flying like shrapnel -- Cullen, all smiles, alongside Milton as they're pushed along -- Pam, waving a cell phone, fighting her way to Kevin and -- PAM Kevin! (re the phone) Kevin, it's for you -- Kevin takes the phone, trying to hear above the noise. CUT TO:202 EXT. LOMAX BUILDING AND STREET - DAY 202 A cab speeds to a stop. Kevin jumps out. Feeney, the doorman, standing there with Felix, his partner. FEENEY She didn't look well, sir. Felix tried to talk to her, but she -- KEVIN Where is she? CUT TO:203 EXT. MADISON AVENUE AND CHURCH - DAY 203 Kevin running down the sidewalk and -- CUT TO: 114.204 INT. CHURCH - DAY 204 Kevin enters. It's empty and dark. Two old ladies up front. Mary Ann in back, wrapped in a comforter. KEVIN Honey... (sitting beside her) Mare. It's me. MARY ANN He let himself in. You need to know that. The bath running, or something, I didn't hear him. I swear to you. KEVIN Who? MARY ANN Then we talked. We talked for hours. (coming apart for good) I haven't talked to anyone, really talked to anyone in such a long time. You have this whole life and all I have is me and he was so clear about it all. KEVIN Who let himself in? MARY ANN I came down here. I've just been sitting. I'm afraid to pray. I let him stay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kevin. KEVIN Did somebody hurt you? MARY ANN Milton. He fucked me, Kevin. I let him fuck me. I couldn't stop him. KEVIN What? When? MARY ANN Today. This afternoon. All afternoon. God, I'm so ashamed... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 115.204 CONTINUED: 204 KEVIN Today? Today? Today. He was in court, Mare. He was in court, in my presence all afternoon! MARY ANN (sobbing) I'm not crazy. I'm not. I swear. KEVIN I don't know, Mare. I don't know how much more of this I can take. She stands. Throws open the comforter. She is naked. There are scratch marks all over her body. CUT TO:205 INT. HOSPITAL CUBICLE - NIGHT 205 Kevin with a NURSE and paperwork. NURSE Sign there... And there... And one more... (as he's done) She's calm now so this might be a good time to say good night. Kevin nods. Stands, moving now -- into --206 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - NIGHT 206 Mary Ann on a moving gurney. Calm now, in the sway of some very strong drugs. Kevin kneels beside her. MARY ANN I know why this is happening. KEVIN They want you to go to sleep. MARY ANN It's the money, Kevin. Blood money. We just drank it down. Both of us. We knew it. Winning those cases, taking the money. We knew they were guilty. But you kept winning. Every time. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 116.206 CONTINUED: 206 MARY ANN (CONT'D) (fading) I can't look at myself in the mirror, Kevin. CUT TO:207 EXT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 207 A big one. A funereal morning. Hearse and cortege parked on the street outside. CUT TO:208 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 208 Barzoon's funeral. Big deal. Big crowd. An excess of flowers. ORGAN MUSIC as foreplay. Milton, up front, seating Diana and children. Kevin seated on the aisle. Beside him, Jack Heath. JACKIE What do they say? KEVIN They don't know. It's bad. She's falling apart. CHRISTABELLA (O.S.) Do you have room for one more? Kevin turns to see Christabella standing beside him. Jackie's concerned expression blossoms into a private, knowing smile now that Kevin has turned away. Christabella squeezes in, as the MUSIC SWELLS and THE PRIEST walks solemnly to the altar. Kevin caught in a high-intensity sexual cross-fire between Jackie and Christabella. He's tense. He's flipping out.209 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 209 Milton passes on his way to the back. Smiles. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 11/2/96 117.210 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 210 On one side the Therapist, on the other Allesandra, except she looks different than last we saw her. Hair down. Makeup. She could be all of seventeen. THE PRIEST We are here today, to remember and pray and exalt in the spirit of Edward Barzoon... Kevin staring at Cullen and the girl. THE PRIEST ... Father, husband, partner, friend, colleague...211 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 211 (EFX) Cullen's hand stroking at the back of the pew -- nothing outrageous, except it does call to mind the hand of Mr. Gettys back in Florida -- THE PRIEST ... taken from us so suddenly... Cullen's hand moving with purpose -- stopping -- waiting -- as Allesandra sits back and now his fingers find her skin -- stroking ever so subtly -- THE PRIEST ... to contemplate evil. How it robs -- how it steals everything of value from us... Cullen turns -- except it's not Cullen, it's Gettys -- yes, Gettys -- whispering in Allesandra's ear and -- THE PRIEST ... farther from God's purpose...212 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 212 Kevin out of his seat. Pushing past Christabella -- rushing up the aisle -- THE PRIEST ... and the greater that distance, the greater evil's pleasure... 118.213 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 213 Milton watching Kevin flee the church. CUT TO:214 EXT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 214 Moments later. Kevin hustling away -- WEAVER (O.S.) (behind him) Mr. Lomax? KEVIN No comment. I'll have something for you later. WEAVER (O.S.) I'm a friend of Eddie Barzoon. Kevin turns. Weaver walking beside him. WEAVER Remember me? Mitch Weaver. Justice Department. KEVIN Staking out the funeral? WEAVER Looking for you actually. KEVIN I'm in a bit of a hurry right now. I need to talk to my wife. WEAVER Just wanted to ask you -- off the record -- I had a few questions about Eddie. CUT TO:215 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 215 The funeral. In progress. CHOIR and ORGAN getting LOUDER. We're watching Milton move in the back of the church. CUT TO: 119.216 EXT. STREET - DAY 216 Kevin walking faster. Weaver right beside him. WEAVER Milton, Chadwick, Waters is a little more than a law firm, but then I assume you knew that. (working him) Devada Holdings? I'm sure you've heard of it. London, Kinshasa, Karachi -- Arms brokering mostly. You've got Munzer-Dietch, they're in Berlin and Djakarta -- chemical weapons, toxic waste. Ivanaco Limited -- Moscow -- money laundering for the Eastern Bloc. (at his ear) It goes on and on, Kevin. CUT TO:217 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 217 Stained glass. Angels. The Stations of the Cross.218 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 218 Milton standing in the shadows at the back. Taking it all in. Prodigal angel.219 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 219 (EFX) And then, the stained-glass angels begin to move. Wings begin to beat. Expressions come alive. Expressions of panic and fear and -- CUT TO:220 EXT. STREET - WEAVER - DAY 220 Kevin really striding. Weaver right there. WEAVER Milton is into everything. (listen to me) Barzoon was coming in, Kevin. He was gonna testify. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 120.220 CONTINUED: 220 WEAVER (CONT'D) Desoto and Dibalista, in Panama, that's a firm that specializes in opening bank accounts for judges all over South America. Huge drug cases. Murder. Everything. KEVIN He's a lawyer! What the fuck do you want? (stopping there) Stay off my back. Weaver left standing there, as Kevin rushes away -- through traffic -- across the street -- WEAVER This is a first time, last time offer! (calling after him) I'm learning about you, Kevin. I talked to some old friends down in Florida this morning... (louder now) The Gettys case. The eighth grade teacher? (did Kevin just slow down) Found him this morning. He had the body of a ten-year-old girl in the trunk of his car. Kevin, across the street, stops. CUT TO:221 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 221 (EFX) Stained-glass angels going nuts now -- wings flapping like mad -- danger everywhere, as the MUSIC STARTS to CLIMAX and --222 INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY 222 Milton down below. Lowering a single finger into the holy water. Instantly -- it's boiling, and we -- HARD CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 121.223 EXT. STREET - DAY 223 Kevin standing there, across the street -- Weaver smiles, thinking he'll talk now for sure -- stepping off the curb and -- TIRES SCREECHING and Weaver turning and -- A car trying to stop and -- Kevin watching as -- WHAMM! -- Weaver ploughed onto the hood and -- A mother at the wheel -- her daughter beside her -- both screaming and -- The car's WINDSHIELD as it CRUMPLES and -- Kevin watching as the car stops and -- Weaver is dazed but alive -- his face buried in the windshield -- pulling himself up and -- Weaver's face THROUGH the shattered glass as he looks down to see -- Mother and child (EFX) -- transforming -- for an instant -- into monsters and -- Weaver more terrified than hurt -- scrambling off the hood of the car -- staring back in horror and -- Mother and child -- completely freaked out -- both of them hysterical and -- Weaver holding his arm -- nose bloodied -- but moving -- backing away -- turning to find Kevin still across the street and -- It's gonna be okay. And then, a big flat-nose truck -- out of nowhere -- air BRAKES BLASTING as it just wipes Weaver OFF the SCREEN and -- Kevin falling back, flat against a wall -- STAYING ON Kevin -- as the street comes alive with the SOUNDS of EMERGENCY and he starts moving away and we -- CUT TO:224 OMITTED 224& &225 225 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 122.226 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 226 Kevin walking through -- stopping finally at an open door --227 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 227 Mary Ann in a chair. Heavily sedated. Pam standing beside her, brushing her hair. Mrs. Lomax, on her knees, standing now -- MRS. LOMAX Kevin... honey... KEVIN What are you doing here? MRS. LOMAX I came this morning. I been calling the house and getting no answer and then I spoke to Pam and... I need to talk to you. PAM We got her on the first flight up this morning. MRS. LOMAX Are you all right? KEVIN I just... I don't know. MRS. LOMAX Will you excuse us a moment? Mrs. Lomax guides Kevin out. Mary Ann's vacant eyes watching them exit -- CUT TO:228 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 228 Just outside the room. MRS. LOMAX I never should've left. I knew it. I'll never forgive myself. KEVIN I was gonna call you, I just... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 123.228 CONTINUED: 228 MRS. LOMAX What I did, Kevin, I thought it was for the best. Loving you was always first for me. KEVIN There's nothing you could've done. MRS. LOMAX I could've told you the truth. KEVIN About what? MRS. LOMAX I've lied to you, Kevin. KEVIN When? MRS. LOMAX Always. (pause) Baptist Endeavor Youth Crusade, ninety-sixty-four. I was here. In New York. That night in the elevator, you never let me answer. KEVIN What are you talking about? MRS. LOMAX We stayed a week. The Tremont Hotel, it's not there anymore, I went by and it's gone -- they had a restaurant downstairs and we ate there almost every meal -- KEVIN Wait. Stop. MRS. LOMAX Your father was a waiter in that restaurant. KEVIN Oh, this is great, Ma... this is just perfect -- MRS. LOMAX -- honey, listen to me -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 124.228 CONTINUED: (2) 228 KEVIN (total incredulity) -- Now? You do this now? -- Because, I mean, your timing -- it's superb -- you wait thirty years? -- you fly up here -- you pick today? -- MRS. LOMAX -- Kevin, honey, wait -- KEVIN -- obviously I'm not under enough pressure -- I don't have enough on my mind, I need this little -- MRS. LOMAX Listen to me. KEVIN Why are you doing this now? MRS. LOMAX Because I'm afraid! Kevin overwhelmed -- walking away -- down the hall -- completely fritzed -- leaving her standing there -- MRS. LOMAX Kevin. Kevin! (calling after him) 'Behold I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves.' Kevin just stopped walking. CUT TO:229 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 229 Mary Ann quiet as Pam finishes brushing her hair. PAM Don't you look beautiful now. (re something in her bag) Here. Have a look and see. A hand mirror. Mary Ann turns away instantly -- MARY ANN No. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 125.229 CONTINUED: 229 PAM It's all right, dear. Look... MARY ANN No. Please... PAM Go on. Take a look. See how beautiful you are? Mary Ann opens her eyes. There's her reflection. She is beautiful. It's okay. She smiles. What was she afraid of? And then, the mirror shifts to find --230 OMITTED 230231 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 231 Pam -- A monster (EFX) -- her features horribly transformed in the glass and --232 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 232 Mary Ann rears back -- her head smashing into Pam's face so hard that the MIRROR SHATTERS -- Pam, blind for a moment, staggering back -- Mary Ann on her feet and fighting and Pam suddenly pushed and -- CUT TO:233 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 233 Pam standing there, holding her face in pain, as the glass door slams shut and -- MRS. LOMAX What's going on? Mary Ann THROUGH the glass, jamming a chair up under the doorknob -- MRS. LOMAX Kevin! Kevin jogging down the hall -- trying the door -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 126.233 CONTINUED: 233 KEVIN (it won't open) Mary Ann. Hey. Hey! (still no luck) Omigod... Get somebody! Go! Pam doesn't move.234 OMITTED 234& &235 235236 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 236 Mary Ann, kneeling on the floor, picking up a broken shard of mirror and -- CUT TO:237 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 237 KEVIN Mare! -- Look at me! -- Stop! -- right now -- Mare! -- CUT TO:238 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 238 Mary Ann raising the glass/blade to her throat. KEVIN (through the glass) Mary Ann, no! No! No! CUT TO:239 OMITTED 239240 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 240 MRS. LOMAX -- Help! -- Help! -- Somebody! We need help -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 127.241 INT. HOSPITAL GLASS DOOR/HALLWAY - DAY 241 Kevin banging like mad on the glass but -- KEVIN -- Mare! -- No! -- Look at me! -- Mary Ann raising the blade to her throat and -- KEVIN -- Stop! -- No! -- Mare! -- Kevin grabbing a folding chair -- swinging it -- CUT TO:241A OMITTED 241Athru thru243 243243A INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 243A SMASH! -- GLASS SHATTERING over the floor, but Kevin still can't get in -- wire mesh embedded in the window is bent but unbroken and he's tearing at it and -- KEVIN -- Mare! -- Hang on! -- I'm almost there! -- Look at me! And she does. Watching him claw at the wire -- MARY ANN I loved you. Pulling the blade across her neck -- KEVIN Noooooooooo! CUT TO:243B OMITTED 243Bthru thru243D 243D244 INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 244 Kevin kicking full force against the door and -- CUT TO: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 128.244A INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 244A The door buckles -- the chair wedged in there sent flying -- Kevin stumbling over broken glass -- KEVIN Oh, God, Mare, what've you done? -- no... Mary Ann falling to the floor -- her bloody hand still holding the blade deep in her neck -- ORDERLY #1 -- why? -- Oh God, Mare, why? (over his shoulder) We need a doctor in here! CUT TO:244B INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY 244B Patients out of their rooms -- standing at their doorways -- sedated, bovine expressions watching -- MRS. LOMAX (running through) -- please -- somebody -- help her! -- What are you all doing? Somebody! -- ORDERLY #1 turning the corner up ahead -- ORDERLY #1 What's the hell's going on down here? CUT TO:244C INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 244C Kevin cradling Mary Ann -- his hand trying to staunch the wound in her neck -- blood flowing -- she isn't moving -- her eyes are starting to fix and -- KEVIN -- no, Mare -- hang on -- please, Mare, I'm right here, it's gonna be okay, baby -- oh, God, Mare, why did you do this? -- (screaming now) Where's the fucking doctor?! ORDERLY #1 (O.S.) Oh shit, man... (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 129.244C CONTINUED: 244C Kevin turns -- Orderly #1 in the doorway -- KEVIN What are you doing? Help her! ORDERLY #1 Hey, look, I ain't no doctor... (backing away) Hang on -- lemme -- YELLING in the hall now, and faces in the doorway. Mrs. Lomax crying and two weird patients from the next staring and... Pam. And only we can see it, but she's smiling... KEVIN -- please, baby, stay with me... it'll be okay -- it's gonna be fine just, just stay with me -- Oh God, Mare... please, baby... Kevin holding her, but she's gone, as we -- DISSOLVE TO:245 OMITTED 245thru thru246 246247 INT. HOSPITAL - BACK STAIRWELL - DAY 247 But someplace completely different. Older. Dark. Empty. Echoey. A fluorescent bulb sputtering out. FOOTSTEPS approaching... It's Kevin. And we know instantly that Mary Ann is dead. There's blood on his shirt. His eyes are raw. At his side, a small suitcase containing her personal effects. More than grief, more than shock, what we notice most is his frighteningly grim determination. Up ahead, a bench. Mrs. Lomax huddled here. Cried out. Empty. Holding herself more tightly as he sets down the suitcase. MRS. LOMAX I could've packed that up for you. Kevin sits. If he loses his steel he'll drown. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 130.247 CONTINUED: 247 MRS. LOMAX I wish you'da let me help you. KEVIN Finish the story. (off silence) Nineteen-sixty-four. You're in New York. There's a waiter in a restaurant. (waiting) Finish the story. MRS. LOMAX He talked to me. Nobody'd ever really talked to me before. Sixteen years old, a thousand miles away from home, somebody takes an interest... Working so hard, putting himself through school, I'd never met anybody like that. Knew the Bible, every word, just knew it by heart. Every meal, there he was, at my ear and I just... I didn't want that week to ever end. But it did. He came to say goodbye, it was late, and I started to cry and he said not to worry, 'Behold, I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves.' And that just stopped me cold because we'd spent that whole day at Bible study reading Matthew Ten and there was just no way for him to know about that, so I was... I took it as a sign. I let him in. And then everything was different. He was cruel. He was so cruel and I was so ashamed, I thought I'd die... Kevin's eyes settle on the suitcase. Mary Ann... MRS. LOMAX I promised right there if God would let me back into His grace I would never leave again. I prayed there was a reason this terrible thing had happened. There had to be a reason. And there was. It was you. You were my blessing. You were reason enough to endure anything. How much I love you. KEVIN I want to hear you say it. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 131.247 CONTINUED: (2) 247 MRS. LOMAX His face -- that night -- I knew it was him and the same time I was confused -- and you were so proud you'd come to New York and done all this on your own, I didn't have the heart to tell you -- KEVIN Say it. MRS. LOMAX (desperate to finish) -- you wondered yourself -- the apartment, the money, all this attention, everything out of nowhere... (pause) Milton. He's your father. (there it is, out loud) Somehow he found us. Tracked you down. KEVIN No. MRS. LOMAX What do you mean? KEVIN He's always been there. I know that now. Watching. Waiting. He's been playing us like a game. Jerking us around. Destroying Mary Ann... Kevin stands. Quiet fury. A machine. MRS. LOMAX What are you doing? KEVIN I gotta go. MRS. LOMAX No... let it alone! Stay with me. (panicked) Forget about him! We can leave here. We can go home! We don't ever have to see him again! (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 132.247 CONTINUED: (3) 247 KEVIN I can't do that. You go home. (backing away) Pray for Mary Ann. MRS. LOMAX Kevin, please... Honey! (calling after him) I love you! Kevin disappearing down the stairs. Mrs. Lomax dropping to her knees as his FOOTSTEPS ECHO away, and we -- CUT TO:248 EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT AND STREET - DAY 248 As Kevin explodes through a fire door. Pam standing there, having a smoke. PAM There you are... (all smiles) Look at you... you're terrified. Not to worry. He'll take that fear away. You don't ever have to be frightened again. Go on, he's waiting... Kevin turning and something is very wrong --249 EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT AND STREET - DAY 249 Fifty-seventh Street is empty. No cars. No people. Just the building and the silence. Turning back and Pam is gone, and then -- And then a WIDER ANGLE -- it goes on and on... He's alone. Just now realizing the scale of Milton's power. Starting to walk, as we -- CUT TO:250 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 250 The room's only light coming from the huge bas relief. Kevin steps off the elevator, into the room. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 133.250 CONTINUED: 250 MILTON (O.S.) You're right about one thing... I have been watching. Couldn't help myself. Watching, waiting, holding my breath. But I'm no puppeteer, Kevin... Milton appears out of nowhere. Walking past Kevin. MILTON ... I don't make things happen. Doesn't work like that. Free will -- it's like butterfly wings -- one touch and it never gets off the ground. I only set the stage. You pull your own strings. Kevin has a gun -- Cullen's gun, in his hand -- KEVIN What did you do to Mary Ann? MILTON A gun? In here? KEVIN What did you do to my wife? MILTON On a scale of one to ten, ten being the most depraved acts of sexual theater, one being an average Friday night run-through at the Lomax household, I'd say... (beat) Six. Kevin FIRES the GUN -- BANG! BANG! BANG! -- bullets pass right through him -- into the wall -- MILTON Whoa... Got me! Damn! (laughing) That's my boy. Step on up! Stay angry! Keep hold to that great fury! Hang on tight, Kevin, because it's the final fig leaf. Kevin lowers the gun to his side. KEVIN Who are you? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 134.250 CONTINUED: (2) 250 MILTON Never lost a case. Why? Why? Because you're so fucking good? Yes. But why? KEVIN Because you're my father. MILTON Well, I'm a little more than that. Awful hot in that courtroom, wasn't it? 'What's the game plan, Kevin?' (reporter's voice) 'It was a nice run, Kevin. Had to close out someday.' KEVIN Who are you? MILTON I have so many names. KEVIN Satan. MILTON Call me Dad. KEVIN Mary Ann, Barzoon, Weaver... MILTON Come on. You're not listening. Blaming me for Mary Ann? I hope you're kidding. You could've saved her any time you liked. She only wanted love. But you knew it wouldn't really work out, didn't you? Mary Ann in New York? Face it, you started looking to better- deal her the minute you got here. KEVIN That's a lie. MILTON Hey, it's not that you didn't care for her, it's just you were a little bit more involved with someone else. Yourself. KEVIN What the hell do you know about love? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 135.250 CONTINUED: (3) 250 MILTON Bio-chemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate. (sharply now) Don't be such a fucking chump. There's only one real sickness in all of creation and that is self- delusion. I told you to take care of your wife -- that the world would understand. And you made a choice. 'You know what scares me, John? I leave the case, she gets better and I hate her for it...' Remember? KEVIN You set me up. It's entrapment. MILTON Who told you to pull out the stops for Mr. Gettys? And Moyez -- the direction you took -- Snake handlers, Popes and swamis all feeding at the same trough -- whose ideas were those? And then Cullen -- knowing he's guilty -- seeing those pictures -- putting that lying bitch on the stand... What did I say, Kevin? Maybe it was time to lose, right? You didn't think so. KEVIN That's my job. That's what I do! MILTON Exactly! (gotcha) Vanity is definitely my favorite sin. Self love. It's so basic. What a drug. Cheap, all-natural, and right at your fingertips. Pride. That's where you're strongest. And believe me, I understand. Work for someone else? -- Hey, I couldn't hack it. 'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.' KEVIN What do you want from me? MILTON What do I want? I want you to be yourself! DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 136.251 OMITTED 251& &252 252253 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 253 (EFX) The Bas Relief -- that wall of bodies swirling in marble clouds -- it's going to come to life --254 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 254 MILTON I've had many children, Kevin. So many disappointments. Neurotic, indecisive wannabes. Over-eager, ham-handed butchers. Strung-out, priapic losers. And then there's you. Your mother, I'll tell you, she outstripped my wildest fantasy. That church she dragged you to? Every day? What training. What a challenge! It's awesome what you've done. How far you've come. Both of you... You and your sister. Christabella emerges from behind the bar -- MILTON Half-sister to be exact. CHRISTABELLA Surprise. MILTON What do you think, Kevin? What a scene, huh? CHRISTABELLA (passing Kevin) Don't let him scare you. MILTON Wait till you meet her mother. KEVIN It is a test, isn't it? The whole game, you sitting there, keeping score. MILTON No. That's the other guy. I don't judge anybody. As far as I'm concerned, everyone's a winner. (MORE) (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 137.254 CONTINUED: 254 MILTON (CONT'D) God's your prankster, my boy. Think of it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift and then, I swear to you -- for his own amusement -- his own private, cosmic gag reel -- he sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch but don't taste. Taste but don't swallow. And while you're jumping from one foot to the other he's laughing his sick fucking ass off! He's a tight-ass. He's a sadist. He's an absentee landlord! (incredulous) Worship that? Never.255 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 255 (EFX) The Bas Relief getting stranger and more seductive by the moment -- bodies spinning and spawning --256 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 256 MILTON I'm here, on the ground, my nose in it since the whole damn thing began. Why? Because I worship man himself. And it's my time now. Our time. CHRISTABELLA Anybody want a drink? I'm having a drink. KEVIN This is some pitch. You must need me pretty bad. What do you want? MILTON Eddie was right. Your name is on the partnership charter. I want you to take over the firm. You and your sister. KEVIN Is that it? (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 138.256 CONTINUED: 256 MILTON No. (letting his hand brush her cheek) She's ovulating. Right now. KEVIN What? MILTON Your vanity is justified, Kevin, you're the seed to a new future. Your son will sit at the head of all tables. You hold a special place in the history of all things. KEVIN You want a child. MILTON I want a family. KEVIN The Antichrist. MILTON Whatever... KEVIN But I have to volunteer. Christabella begins to strip. MILTON Free will. It's a bitch. (beat) I need a family. I command an ever larger presence on the board. I'm busy and I need some help. There's a plan here. I've been conserving my energy. Synergy. Prioritize. It's the millennium, Kevin. Title fight. Round twenty. I'm ready to work. KEVIN So what are you offering? MILTON Are we negotiating? KEVIN Always. (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 139.256 CONTINUED: (2) 256 MILTON Yes! KEVIN What are you offering? MILTON Everything. Anything. All of it! (he's got him) What am I offering? I'm offering bliss. Instant bliss. Bliss by remote control. Bliss on tap. That first line of cocaine. That walk into a strange girl's bedroom. The jury coming back in thirty- eight minutes. Freedom. Revolution! Viva la causa!257 OMITTED 257thru thru259 259260 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 260 (EFX) The Bas Relief transforming into real clouds and bodies and the frame of it disappearing and --261 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 261 KEVIN You're right, aren't you? About me. I mean, I made all the choices, didn't I? Gettys. Cullen. Mary Ann. I did kill her, didn't I? MILTON Don't be too hard on yourself. Christabella passing Kevin, handing him her bra. CHRISTABELLA It's done. Forget it. It's all for us now. MILTON God, she's just fucking stunning, isn't she? Christabella lingering and Kevin leaning in... kissing her... just a moment before she pulls away -- (CONTINUED) DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 140.261 CONTINUED: 261 KEVIN You're right. I wanted to fuck her from the minute we met. MILTON Like that's wrong. Like there's anything wrong with that. That there could be laws preventing something so natural. That's our ticket in. (excited now) Did you know there were more students in law school right now than lawyers walking the Earth?262 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 262 (EFX) The Bas Relief has become an orgy, bodies coming to life in a swirling, narcotic haze and --263 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 263 MILTON We're coming out, guns blazing. The two of you -- all of us -- acquittal after acquittal until the stench of it reaches so high into heaven it chokes the whole fucking lot of them! What we cannot legislate we will buy. What we cannot buy we will degrade. We will blow every fuse of enlightenment until it looks like a vandalized, neon sign! And while God is busy at his peephole -- as he deigns us with his disapproval -- as he lumbers around his empty kingdom like some overfed colonial governor -- as God sleeps late, we will win. We've got a winner here, kids! KEVIN In the Bible you lose. You're destined to lose. MILTON Consider the source. Christabella -- her hands -- moving over her body -- CHRISTABELLA Stop talking. Both of you. (reaching out) Kevin, please... DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - Rev. 1/18/97 141.264 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 264 (EFX) The bodies craning to watch as they roll by.265 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 265 CHRISTABELLA (urgently now) Kevin, really, please... MILTON She's right, my son. It's time to step up and take what's yours. KEVIN You're right. It's time. Kevin raises the GUN to his temple -- quick and simple -- SNAP! -- he's blown his brains out -- Milton stunned -- disbelieving for a moment and then an aura of fire and heat explodes around him -- MILTON Nooooooo...! CUT TO:266 OMITTED 266& &267 267 142.268 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 268 (EFX) Kevin starting to fall in SUPER SLOW MOTION and -- CUT TO:269 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 269 (EFX) The room consumed with fire as the heat explodes around Milton's body and -- CUT TO:270 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 270 (EFX) Kevin still falling and -- CUT TO:271 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 271 (EFX) Christabella beating at the flames that now cover her body and -- CUT TO:272 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 272 (EFX) Kevin still falling and -- CUT TO:273 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 273 (EFX) The Bas Relief. The clouds are now fire -- the bodies now burning and -- CUT TO:274 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 274 (EFX) Kevin still falling and -- CUT TO:275 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 275 (EFX) Milton as his clothes burn away -- as the heat eats away his features -- 143.276 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 276 (EFX) as he becomes younger and younger and younger, until suddenly --277 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 277 (EFX) For a moment. He is an angel. An instant of exquisite perfection amidst the flames. And then, just as --278 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 278 (EFX) suddenly -- HE EXPLODES! -- and we -- CUT TO:279 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 279 (EFX) The Bas Relief freezing instantly back into stone -- trapped in tortured, agonizing finality.280 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 280 (EFX) And then, the whole thing just crumbling. Stone raining down in tiny pieces and -- CUT TO:281 INT. MILTON'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 281 (EFX) Kevin in SUPER SLOW MOTION as he falls the final few inches to the floor and at the moment of impact we hear the sound of THUNDER and we -- CUT TO:282 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - MEN'S ROOM - DAY 282 The mirror. And Kevin's face. As THUNDER ECHOES AWAY and becomes nothing more than a FLUSHING URINAL. We're back in Florida. Where we started. Kevin touches his face. His body. His head. He's alive. He touches the mirror. He's insane. He's here. It's now. WATER RUNNING in the sink. (CONTINUED) 144.282 CONTINUED: 282 REPORTER (O.S.) (behind him) It was a nice run. Kev. Had to close out someday. Nobody wins 'em all. The Reporter exits. Kevin alone with the mirror and his reflection. And then it's over. He's made his decision. Replacing his wedding ring. Reaching for his jacket, as we -- CUT TO:283 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY 283 Kevin walking through. His game face. A court officer opening the doors and -- CUT TO:284 INT. FLORIDA COURTROOM - DAY 284 Kevin entering. Standing there a moment. Searching for Heath in the back of the courtroom. He's not there. A single empty seat. Kevin moving quickly down the aisle. Mary Ann standing there, completely unprepared as Kevin comes in behind her. Embracing her. Holding her tightly to him with a fervor that we alone will understand. MARY ANN Honey, what are you doing? (quietly) Are you okay? Kevin nods. Smiles. Backs away. Into his seat. Gettys there beside him. Kevin will not look at him. BAILIFF All rise for the honorable Justice Garson Deeds. The Judge enters. Takes his seat. JUDGE (to Barbara) You're still under oath, young lady. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 145.284 CONTINUED: 284 JUDGE (CONT'D) (to Kevin) Your witness, Mr. Lomax. KEVIN Your Honor, I'm terribly sorry, but I can no longer represent my client. I need to be replaced as counsel. Another silence. But this one isn't very long. There will be chaos in the courtroom. Gettys will freak out and the press will start running for the phones and the Judge will be banging that gavel, as we -- CUT TO:285 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY 285 As the doors open and the chaos begins to spill into the hallway. Kevin trying to rush away with Mary Ann but right behind them -- REPORTER Kevin! -- Hey! (catching up) Listen, this story -- this is the one, pal -- this is the one you dream about -- KEVIN There is no story. REPORTER Bullshit. A lawyer with a crisis of conscience? You gotta be kidding. It's huge! KEVIN They're gonna disbar me, Larry. You can cover that. MARY ANN Can they do that? REPORTER Not when I get through with the story. (still walking) You gotta talk, Kevin. You gotta gimme an exclusive. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 146.285 CONTINUED: 285 REPORTER (CONT'D) This is wire service. This is 'Sixty Minutes'. This is a story that needs to be told. It's you! You're a star! KEVIN Call me tomorrow. REPORTER You got it. First thing. Kevin nods. Holding Mary Ann's hand as they escape.286 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY 286 The Reporter watching them go for a moment. Then turning back.287 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY 287 (EFX) And as he does, his features change, transforming - - like that -- into Milton.288 INT. FLORIDA COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY 288 It's Milton. Always there. And he smiles. And we FREEZE FRAME. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Die Hard 2.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Die Hard 2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3e59fa2a44abf45e0270dc08053ca4c39806134d --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Die Hard 2.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DIE HARD 2 Written by Doug Richardson Revisions by Steven E. de Souza SHOOTING SCRIPT November 16, 1989 (X) DIE HARD 2 WHILE WE'RE IN BLACK we HEAR a PNEUMATIC "KA-CHUNK" and then MCCLANE'S VOICE Holy shit, whoa, whoa - FADE IN: 1 EXT. DULLES TERMINAL - DAY 1 JOHN MCCLANE, long topcoat FLAPPING, comes running out of the terminal towards an AIRPORT COP in plastic covered uniform who is supervising a TOW TRUCK DRIVER who in turn is manhandling a sedate sedan with Virginia plates and a "GRANDMOTHER ON BOARD" sign on the rear window. MCCLANE I'm here, I'm here, false alarm, let's just let her down nice and easy - COP Sure. At the impound lot. (POINTING) Next time, read the sign. MCCLANE You don't understand, I'm just meeting my wife's-plane - you gotta give me this car back. COP Sure. Tomorrow 8 to four, you pay 40 bucks, we give it back. MCCLANE This is my mother in law's car. She already hates me because I'm not a DENTIST - (SHOWING-BADGE) See, I'm a cop. LAPD. How about some team spirit? COP I was in LA once. Hated it. CONTINUED 2 (X) 1 CONTINUED - MCCLANE (going with the flow) I can relate to that. Hate it myself- (turning to tow guy) Hey, that's a plastic fender, Jesus- (back to cop) See, I used to be a New York cop still got my ID somewhere -I only moved 'cause my wife got promoted - look, maybe we can settle this right here, we're in Washington, heartbeat of Democracy, one hand washes the other He realizes the truck is DRIVING AWAY one way while the cop is i going off the other way - McClane votes for the cop - MCCLANE Hey, c'mon, it's Christmas - COP So Ask Santa to bring you another car. I MCCLANE (SOTTO) You son of a - BEEP drowns out his last word. McClave sweeps aside his coat, finds the beeper on his belt. He looks at the obviously unfamilar number on the read out in puzzlement, then runs into the terminal. 2 INT. DULLES TERMINAL - DAY 2 CHRISTMAS MUSIC wafting through the building from a SCHOOL CHOIR perched in front of a massive, three-story window. Blase travelers PAUSE in their hectic rush to applaud the angelic voices. McClane shoves his way through some people - when they GLARE at him he quickly APPLAUDS the kids, pulls up at an INFORMATION BOOTH - the girl there is watching a LITTLE TV on the shelf out of sight from the public. MCCLANE 1ST NEWSCASTER Telephones? (on TV) .and that White Christmas INFORMATION GIRL may be here for a while, if (pointing) that new storm front moves Right over there. to the Metro area this afternoon as predicted. McClane nods, serves across the slick linoleum. CONTINUED 3 (X) 2 CONTINUED - 2 1ST NEWSCASTER(cont'd) Correspondent Leonard Adkins is in a warmer clime, with a story that grows hotter by the minute. 2A WITH MCCLANE 2A he fairly SKIDS to a halt at a line of PHONE BOOTHS - and outside each booth a long LINE of people with their armfuls of luggage A and gifts. McClane's BEEPER goes off again. MCCLANE (DESPONDENT) Ho - ho - ho... 3 3 thru OMITTED thru 4 4 CUT TO: EXT. AIRPORT - THROUGH WINDOW - SAME TIME I A plane TAKES OFF. We PULL BACK and realize we're in a MOTEL ROOM. The TV is on and we SEE the TV PICTURE CHANGE to a TROPICAL AIRFIELD. Khaki-clad heavily armed SOLDIERS form a cordon as a stiff-backed handsome MAN of 60 in handcuffs and leg chains is hustled aboard a plane. 2ND NEWSCASTER Security was tight today at Escalon airport in the Republic of Val Verde, where government authorities escorted General Ramon Esperanza to the military transport that will bring him to the United States to stand trial for narcotics trafficking. A HAND thrusts in front of the CAMERA - FINGERS clenching and curling oddly. 6 WIDER 6 A half naked MAN is doing Tai Ch'i EXERCISES. This is COLONEL WILLIAM STUART, U.S.A. (Ret.) His body is hard, with SCARS from knives and bullets. On the TV, the words "FILE TAPE" blink under Esperanza's IMAGE,. here resplendent in a Latin American uniform, reviewing troops in the field and then moving to a table under a tarp to sign documents with American military officers. He hands a COLONEL the pen just used on the document - a souvenir. CONTINUED 4 (X) 6 CONTINUED - 6 NEWSCASTER Only two years ago the controversial General lead his country's Army in its campaign against Communists insurgents - a campaign fought with American money and advisors. Esperanza's fall from power caused 1 ripples not only in his country'.s recent election, but closer to home I as well... PICTURE CHANGES to some WASHINGTON STEPS. The AMERICAN COLONEL we just.saw exits a Federal building with some JUNIOR OFFICERS and attorneys - avoids reporters. 1 NEWSCASTER(CONT'D) .when high ranking Pentagon officials were chargedwith supplying I him with weapons despite the congressional ban. The exercises finished, Stuart FREEZES in an eerie pose, until 7 HIS HUER CHRONOMETER BEEPS an alarm - 8 BACK TO SCENE 8 The man uncoils. Composes himself. Goes to the closet. NEWSCASTER(CONT'D) But mounting evidence that Esperanza's forces violated the neutrality of neighboring countries made Congress withhold funds-funds which Esperanza I s accused of replacing by going into the'lucrative business of cocaine smuggling. ,.One topcoat, one suit there, shirt and tie laid out like a costume not usually worn. On the shelf above, one PACKAGE in DISTINCTIVE CHRISTTMAS WRAP. Stewart puts on the shirt. In the pocket is a PEN - the same pen we just saw on TV. If we haven't realized it yet, we realize it now; t s is the same man.91 Suddenly Stuart WHIRLS like a GUNFIGHTER. But all he's got in his hand is the remote control, snatched from the nightstand. 9 TV 9 CONTINUED 5 (X) 9 CONTINUED - 9 Q It clicks OFF - CUT TO: 10 INT. AIRPORT MOTEL - CORRIDOR - DAY 10 CLOSE on the hallway door as Stuart COMES OUT, the package in i his hand, the Huer ticking away. We WIDEN, TRUCK with him as he moves down the corridor. And now we SEE THEM - ten more TALL, HARD men, all coming into the hallway from their adjoining rooms within seconds of each other, all carrying SIMILAR GIFT WRAPPED PACKAGES. They get into two adjoining. elevators, the stark LIGHTS above their heads and their unmoving expressions making them look like Aliens ready to beam up. As the doors CLOSE we CUT TO: 11 INT. TERMINAL - DAY 11 McClane SQUEEZES past an enormous WOMAN exiting a phone booth with a PRESENT as big as she is. Catching his breath, he drops his quarter, dials. 12 12 aru OMITTED thru 13 13 CUT TO: 14 INT. A JETLINER - INTERCUT 14 HOLLY MCCLANE is here, AirPhone at her ear and a beautiful SUNSET over the plane's wing visible through the nearby window. With the Compaq portable computer, filofax and calculator piled on it, Holly'.s seat back table looks like a traveling office. MCCLANE Hello. This is Lieutenant McClane - Somebody there beep me? HOLLY I'd like to think I'm somebody. MCCLANE Holly! Did you land? HOLLY John, wake up. It's the nineties. Microchips, microwaves, faxes and airphones. MCCLANE As far as I'm concerned, progress peaked with the frozen pizza. CONTINUED 6 (X) 14 CONTINUED - 14 HOLLY We're going to land about thirty minutes late, I wanted you to know. Kids okay? MCCLANE Just speeding on sugar, thanks to your parents. I really appreciate you coming a day late, honey. Nothing I like better than a weekend with the Munsters. I HOLLY Mom give you any trouble about borrowing her new car? J MCCLANE (CAREFULLY) No... not yet. Uh...how 'bout if when you land, we don't drive over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house, but check into the Airport motel? HOLLY You're on, Lieutenant. They both hang up. The OLDER WOMAN beside Holly smiles at her. OLDER WOMAN Isn't technology wonderful? HOLLY My husband doesn't think so. OLDER WOMAN Well, I do. I used to carry around those awful mace things - She opens her purse and displays a Taser stun gun. OLDER WOMAN(cont'd) (SHOWING IT) Now I zap any bastard who screws with me. I tried it on my little dog, poor thing, limped for a week. As Holly tries to smile politely, we CUT TO: 15 MCCLANE 15 Coming out of the phone booth and almost COLLIDING with - 7 (X) 16 NEW ANGLE 16 Colonel Stuart. STUART Excuse me - Pause as they dance away from each other. Then - I MCCLANE --do I know you? STUART R (TIGHTLY) I... get that a lot. I've... been on TV. J MCCLANE You and me both, pal. The hell with it. Now it's Stuart's turn to look at McClane oddly; then he moves off. McClane looks after him, trying to place him... shrugs... heads for the bar. CUT TO: 17 A LITTLE SEMI-RURAL CHURCH - NEAR THE AIRPORT 17 Charming until the SUB WOOFER ROAR of a big jet SCREAMS by, practically in the little church's backyard. Now we notice that the church is a little run down - trim needing paint, sidewalk cracked - and a neat SIGN confirms our SUSPICIONS: "FUTURE SITE OF PARISH DAY CARE CENTER. WORSHIP WITH US AT OUR NEW CHURCH, 52 KENSINGTON ROAD, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA." A DWP VAN pulls up, snow tires CRUNCHING on the driveway here. Two MEN (BAKER and THOMPSON) get out in official DWP wardrobe. But we remember the trim bodies, trimmer hair... and we remember those gift wrapped packages, - which one of these guys carries. 18 INSIDE THE CHURCH 18 On a TV here, the newscast CONTINUES, now back to the tropical airport. Esperanza is at the top of the steps, waving to the press like a triumphant hero - not a felon en route to prison. The plane doors close and it taxis down the runway. WIDEN from the set, which an elderly CUSTODIAN is watching while he eats some instant soup. The DOORBELL RINGS. The custodian answers it. CONTINUED 8 (X) 18 CONTINUED - 18 CUSTODIAN NEWSCASTER' Yes? (on TV) Although Esperanza was BAKER removed as Commander in Sorry to bother you, sir. Chief earlier this year, We're checking our equipment. the agreement to extradite Any problems with the conduit him was not reached until box in your backyard? yesterday - and Washington insiders say it was a phone CUSTODIAN call that made it happen - Gee, I don't know anything a phone call from an about that. angry American President. Baker and Thompson glance at each other. THOMPSON Would you mind if we take a look? CUSTODIAN Help yourself. 18A WIDER 18A The three men walk down the main aisle of the church. Dust motes dance in the colored light. CUSTODIAN Don't seem right, somehow, closing a church down. Oh, I know the parish is gonna keep using it, but it won't be the same. Been here a lot of years; and I been right here with it. They've arrived at a rear window. FOCUS CHANGE to a green CONDUIT BOX on the the church's rear lawn, half covered in snow. FOCUS back through the glass. Thompson looks questioningly at Baker, who nods. CUSTODIAN Yep. I kinda feel a part of me is dying along with this church. BAKER Well, you're right about that. BLAM BLAM GLAM. BULLETS RIP through the end of the Christmas package, SLAM the custodian up and into a row of pews, which OVERTURN. 9 (X) 19 NEW ANGLE 19 { Baker rips the rest of the smoking package away from his weapon, s 1i s it over his shoulder and begins to SHOVE the pews aside to make a larger open area. Thompson, meanwhile, takes out a very futuristic transceiver. He turns it ON; getting a RED light; enters a NUMBER CODE on the keypad and gets a GREEN LIGHT. There's an EERIE QUALITY to the transmission. THOMPSON This is team one. We're here. 1 NEWSCASTER(CONT'D) This is Leonard Adkins, in Val Verde - where the war on drugs has finally taken its first prisoner. With an annoyed expression, Thompson CLICKS OFF the newscast. CUT TO: EXT. AIRPORT - SERVICE AREA - DAY 20 Two PAINTERS pull up in a van. Move around the back and start to pull out ladders and cans. FIRST PAINTER Busting our asses Christmas week like they're gonna land extra planes if we finish - Suddenly two MEN O'REILLY and SH DON) are there. PAINTER Need something? O'REILLY Yeah. BAM! BAM! Both painters are SHOT. Quickly, the two men toss their bodies into the rear, get into the van... and BACK IT INTO the airport garage. O'Reilly enters a NUMBER CODE into a transceiver- ORILLY into radio, as iffey DRIVE) Team Two. In position. CUT TO: 10 (X) EXT. SECLUDED VIRGINIA ROAD - DAY 21 a CYCLONE FENCE and a MICROWAVE DOME fenced in with a sign: "PROPERTY OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY. NO TRESPASSING." _BURKE and KAHN - two more of those CLEAN CUT MEN are here, just now parking and going to the rear of their rented station wagon. Quickly, they OPEN the trunk - slide, out a long OLIVE DRAB TUBE and a TRIPOD. 21A CLOSER 21A Kahn KICKS spikes on the tripod into the frozen around to anchor it - TILT UP as a SNAPS the tube ON TOP of it, SWINGS IT AROUND towards the installation -- when POLICEMAN'S VOICE Hey, you! 22 A POLICE CAR 22 Has pulled over across the road. Both OFFICERS get out. POLICEMAN(CONT'D) } (cocking a SHOTGUN) This is .a restricted area! Mind telling us what you're doing? 23 ON THE MEN 23 A quick look between them... and then .SWIVELS the-long FIRING, the two men tube around! With Kahn LOADING and VjMELN LAUNCH a MISSILE at the police car! 23A THE POLICE CAR 23A EXPLODES, the two cops halfway out swallowed up in the DESTRUCTION. 23B BACK TO SCENE 23B As the cop car BURNS, the two men turn, pivot the weapon back towards the transmitter. FIRE. The missile trail arcs neatly over the fence, lands on target - 24 THE TRANSMITTER 24 EXPLODES - CUT TO: 25 INT. DULLES TOWER - "THE CAB" - DAY 25 The top of the Tower, it's the heart, soul, brain of Dulles. We HEAR snatches of AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL as the CAMERA PANS the big room. We SEE PLANES outside, the airport LIGHTS already on against the grey of the snow. It's damn impressive. CONTINUED 11 (X) 25 CONTINUED - 25 0' CAMERA SETTLES on TRUDEAU. Chief Air Traffic controller, he's lived through hijackings, the Olympics, Reagan's mass firings -and he's still going (heart bypass notwithstanding.) Chief engineer BARNES is as good as a right ventricle, anyway. An ALARM RINGS. 26 TRUDEAU 26 lighting a cigarette, he hovers over BARNES. BARNES We just lost FAA approach control. TRUDEAU Weather may have screwed up the line. Switch over to our own back up and run a check. Barnes hits a switch. The ALARM STOPS. Everyone relaxes. CUT TO: 27 INT. AIRPORT BAR - NIGHT 27 WIDEN from McClane at the bar, his coat on a stool beside him. He's on his second scotch. On the BAR TV, we SEE SAMANTHA ("SAM") COPELAND, a reporter with "live" super'd over her body. She is clearly somewhere inside this airport SAM (ON TV) --here at Dulles, the quiet men from the Justice Department wait to put handcuffs on the man who has come to symbolize the enemy in America's fight against cocaine... This battle may be almost won... but the war is still in doubt. Samantha Copeland... . WNTW for NightTime News. CAMERA ADJUSTS to.show a MAN as he OPENS a PHONE BOOTH. It's very quick, but we REALIZE that while in there he. wasn't using the phone but one of the transceivers we saw before. This is MAJOR GARBER, Stuart's second-in-command; but his efficiency and chilly courage are second to none. CAMERA FOLLOWS HIM to a TABLE. C OC HRANE and MILLER - TWO MORE of those neat, trim young men-are there, in neat_,--Eo'ring topcoats. CONTINUED 27 CONTINUED - 27 GARBER That was the Colonel: All perimeter teams are in place. (TO COCHRANE) Weather? 'Cochrane covers one ear and we SEE that he has a RADIO EARPLUG. other. He listens intently, then GRINS. ' OCH Flurries all along h e Virginia Coast... new storm moving in from the Northeast. GARBER (sharing the smile) God loves the Infantry. (SMILE GONE) Carry out your assignment. We'll regroup at field HQ. (setting his watch) Three fifty one... Mark. They syncronize their watches, and then Mi l1e leaves the bar. CAMERA PANS HIM out. He walks right past McClane, who doesn't notice him. A beat after Mil ergs exit, two AIRPORT COPS in snow-flecked JACKETS come into the bar. Seeing, them, the bartender is already pouring coffee for them. But- 28 GARBER AND COCHRANE 28 also see the cops - and very casually, Cochrane ulls the earplug from his ear. Equally casually, Garber Vs-Wed-If-is- foot to slide the two long Christmas package at his feet under the table. 29 ON MCCLANE - CAMERA PUSH 29 This gets his attention. His eyes narrow. He looks from the two or d inary looking men towards the Airport cops, wonders why they got fidgety. Now he watches 30 GARBER & Q HRANE 30 who looks at his watch, signals Cochrane. Both rise. But as Cochrane bends to pick up his wrapped package... and as he moves, something dangles inside his jacket. Is it a holster? 31 MCCLANE 31 turns to watch them exit, sees them SPLIT up outside the bar. Quickly, McClane goes over to the Airport cops. CONTINUED 13 (X) 31 CONTINUED - 31 MCCLANE Excuse me, officers. This may be a total wild goose chase, but I think I just saw - He STOPS. CAMERA ADJUSTS. The cop he's talking to is the asshole who towed away the car. 1 AIRPORT COP Saw what? MCCLANE Elvis. McClane turns, throws money near his glass and quickly exits the bar. CUT TO: 32 INT. TERMINAL - WITH THE MEDIA 32 trying to get the half dozen UNIFORMED US MARSHALS or the three JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWYERS to talk to them - without success. But one reporter - Sam - NOTICES - 33 STUART - MOVING THROUGH AIRPORT -HER POV' 33 I as she watches, Garber joins him - 34 BACK TO SCENE 34 SAM (nudging her cameraman) Hey. Colonel Stuart. CAMERAMAN Old news. SAM Better than these loxes. Very quietly, Sam and the cameraman do their best to slip away from the pack. 35 STUART AND GARBER - WALKING ALONG TOWARDS EXIT 35 STUART (SOTTO) Everything on schedule? GARBER Tapping airport phones right now. Got a slight problem with personnel: Last minute replacement. What's the status of the security here? I CONTINUED 14 (X) 35 CONTINUED - 35 STUART (nodding towards the JUSTICE PEOPLE) Like we figured. A joke - But suddenly both men are in the GLARE of a portable light. SAM Colonel Stuart! Can we have a few words with you? I STUART You can have two: "Fuck" and "you". And the interview is over and he's out the door. CUT TO: 36 INT. TERMINAL - ESCALATORS - NIGHT 36 McClane's head panning the holiday crowd - then SEEING Cochrane. Quickly, he FOLLOWS Cochrane downwards - into 37 LUGGAGE AREA 37 where a TOURIST JUNKET gets between McClane and his quarry- 38 C9CC $ANE 38 a GLIMPSE of him at a door marked "NO ADMITTANCE" - then he's gone. McClane runs up, too late; the door is shut again. He looks around, sees a LUGGAGE WORKER, flashes his badge. MCCLANE Open this. (as the guy obeys) Got a cop on duty around here? LUGGAGE GUY Airport police - MCCLANE (SCOWLS; THEN;) Get 'em. 39 INT. LUGGAGE CONVEYOR AREA - DAY 39 Dark. Clatters and bumps, machine sounds... more bumps. McClane moves cautiously along. He JUMPS as a large SHADOW moves nearby, but it's a big CASE on a conveyor belt. Now, he stoops to go under another conveyor belt - the different tracks intersect and pass each other like freeway off-ramps discharging luggage from one to another - and then he SEES - 4. 15 (X) 39A COCHRANE AND MILLER 39A I One has his jacket off, and just now dusts off his hands like a man finishing a job. The other one has one of those transceivers. MCCLANE'S VOICE Excuse me. 41 NEW ANGLE 41 They turn, see McClane with his badge in his left hand - his right hidden under the long coat which is draped over his shoulder like Clint Eastwood's serape in a Spaghetti Western. MCCLANE(CONT'D) This is a restricted area. You boys too impatient to wait for the skycaps? MILLER We... work for th amine. MCCLAN.E Yeah? Let's see some ID - Instantly both men DIVE to the outside, drawing guns. 42 THE TRANSCEIVER 42 Falls, skids... somewhere. 43 BACK TO SCENE 43 Dropping his'wallet, McClane JUMPS aside as SHOTS WHIZZ PAST -McClane's COAT takes the BULLET HITS in MID AIR as he LANDS on a conveyor belt, which CARRIES him UP and OVER the gunmen. They FIRE UP at him - He aims.back - and then a SUITCASE falling from another belt and knocks his gun away! 44 BELOW 44 The gun CLATTERS on the floor. Seeing it, the two men exchange a glance - split up. 45 MCCLANE 45 Drops from the belt, crouches near big gears. Desperate, he looks around for a weapon, anything. Then he notices all the luggage going past: Suitcases, camera cases, a bicycle... Skis. 46 MILLER 46 Moving forward expertly, gun ready. WHAP! A SKI POLE smacks down on his wrist! The gun DROPS onto a conveyor belt, FIRES - then moves away, obscured by moving luggage. CONTINUED 16 (X) 46 CONTINUED - 46 J McClane steps in, punches Miller - gets HIT hard himself -both ROLL OVER onto the new belt. 47 COCHRANE 47 Hearing the SHOT, he tries to pinpoint the location - but with all the echoes - it's hard. S 48 MCCLANE AND MIL 48 Fighting hand to hand. Miller starts pressing the ski pole against McClane's throat:-Pt=lane tries to do the same thine back - they spin, SMASH into a pile of suitcases, some of which SPILL OPEN. M J er gets in a powerful punch, gets free - CAMERA FOLLOWS Miller as his hand gropes for the pistol.- and then McClane rIT into view with fucking HAIRSPRAY right in the guy's eyes! Miller HOWLS, blinded - but then - BLAM! A BULLET EXPLODES tcan in McClane's hand! 49 NEW ANGLE 49 Cochrane is there! McClane LEAPS like Tarzan to the BOTTOM of the i , empty "return" belt - the momentum swings him right towards Cochrane, who FIRES once more before McClane's KICK nearly toc e stf'his head - he loses the gun, but Jesus, these guys are tough and now Cochrane LEAPS UP and grabs McClane's belt and clothes and they're both hanging -suddenly they're both too damn high to get off! 50 MCCLANE 50 Half on the belt, half off, he fends off the other man and SEES- 51 UP AHEAD 51 The belt goes through a hatchway - a hatchway with virtually no clearance. 52 BACK TO SCENE 52 McClane PUNCHES Cochrane - again, again - but the guy's gonna kill them both one way or the other - McClane KICKS him, again, again - finally his grip loosens - at the last minute McClane JUMPS to a thick conduit - and then Cochrane gets JAMMED 53 INTO THE HATCH HEADFIRST. 53 54 NEW ANGLE - 20 FEET UP 54 The conduit BREAKS FREE from its molly bolts, but doesn't drop -and three feet away the guy SCREAMS and then his neck SNAPS and his body TWITCHES AND JERKS and the machinery JAMS, smoking- 17 55 MCCLANE 55 WINCES as blood SPLATTERS - and then REACTS as the 20 foot tall conduit pipe CREAKS, BENDS-TOPPLES- he RIDES IT DOWN- CUT TO: 56 INT. LUGGAGE CONVEYOR AREA - NEAR ENTRANCE 56 led bjthe luggage guy, two AIRPORT COPS run in - 57 LLERœøΩ 57 panting for breath, rubbing his eyes, he sees their approach, starts to run. He races down a long aisle past cartons of freight... starts to smile - there's a door just ahead - he's gonna make it -he's gonna make it - suddenly a CHING CHING SOUND makes him turn -it's the CHING CHING OF - 58 A BICYCLE 58 - with John McClane on the back. McClane dives out of the saddle like the Lone Ranger, takes Miller down. (X) 59 ON THE FLOOR 59 As the bicycle FLIPS OVER, McClane gets to his feet first and finds a gun in his face - 2ND AIRPORT POLICEMAN (X) FREEZE! And in that instant (you guessed it): (Miller_F)SCAPES. (X) MCCLANE (SIGHING) Brilliant, asshole. I'm a cop -that was the bad guy! '(X) 2ND AIRPORT POLICEMAN (X) (UNIMPRESSED) Yeah? Where's your I.D.? McClane.starts to reach into his jacket - remembers. He looks around the huge room and its clanking conveyor belts. MCCLANE Cleveland? CUT TO: 60 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - IN FLIGHT 60 Holly's working away on her laptop computer when: (X) CONTINUED P- 18 60 CONTINUED - 60 0 THORNBERG'S VOICE - no, you did not explain anything - all you did was shove me a- -here in this cattle car - STEWARDESS' VOICE - Sir, you were told when you boarded that we were overbooked - Holly looks up idlely - and then REACTS as she sees - 61 DICK THORNBERG - HER POV 61 Her nemesis from 20 months ago, here waving, his ticket and fending off the Stewardess' friendly hands. THORNBERG Fine. Done, I accept it. But why the hell can't I get the First Class Meal--my-Network paid for instead of this swill? STEWARDESS I'm sorry, sir, I can't do that now - If you'll just sit down - ? THORNBERG Do youknow who I am? STEWARDESS Yes. We've all seen your program. Your episode "Flying junkyards" was a very objective look at air safety. 2ND STEWARDESS It wasn't nearly.as edifying as "Bimbos of the Sky", was it, Connie? THORNBERG You think you're funny? (looking at,her nametag) 'I've got your number 2ND STEWARDESS (pushing him in seat) (X) And I've got yours - so park it, pal! 62 NEW ANGLE 62 Thornberg simmers - and then he SEES HOLLY. FOCUS CHANGE. THORNBERG Stewardess! CONTINUED 19 62 CONTINUED - 62 STEWARDESS Mister Thornberg - you cannot monopolize my - THORNBERG You cannot put me near that woman. STEWARDESS Excuse me? CAMERA ADJUSTS to feature Holly - and the Stewardess' growing fascination with her. HOLLY He.means he has filed a restraining order against me. I'm not allowed within fifty feet of him - THORNBERG FIFTY YARDS - (to Stew ardess) And by seating me here you're violating a court order - I could sue you and this airline - this woman has assaulted me and besmirched my REPUTATION - STEWARDESS (kneeling, sotto)? What'd you do? HOLLY I knocked out two of his teeth. STEWARDESS (PAUSE) Would you like some champagne? CUT TO: 63 THE GUNMAN'S BODY 63 as it is ZIPPED into a body bag, our view of the mangled head and shoulders mercifully brief. The body is set on a gurney. We WIDEN and see Airport police and coroner's people about to make off with it... and the MEDIA, now drooling over this new story dropped right into their laps. As FLASHBULBS POP and CAMERAS ROLL, Sam NOTICES - 64 MCCLANE 64 One of the cops hands McClane his wallet. As he pockets it, he notes the CROWD milling about the luggage area. CONTINUED 20 (X) -,ÔøΩ 64 CONTINUED - 64 MCCLANE Whoa, wait a second. This is a crime scene. Aren't you going to seal off this area? 2ND AIRPORT COP That's up to the Captain. MCCLANE Up to the Captain? Take me up to the Captain, too. CUT TO: 65 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH - DAY 65 BAKER guards the rear door with an ASSAULT RIFLE. He REACTS, tense as a FIGURE appears, running up from the snowy expanse behind the church. It's 'filer- the man who escaped from McClane. Baker waves him in. KAHN and BÔøΩ are DIGGING in theme y rd with pickaxes and hardly 0o at him. ÔøΩ 66 INSIDE 66 Stuart's poring over MAPS of the airport. He looks up, nonplussed; wipes away SNOW that falls from MiÔøΩ 1 's shoulder to the table top. STUART You're late. MILLER We ran into trouble; a policeman. He killed Cochrane; I barely got away. STUART Did you finish your assignment? MILLER Yessir. But - STUART Then the damage is minor. (drawing a PISTOL) But the penalty could be severe. In a blur of motion, Stuart is on his feet, the pistol is at Miller's temple. CLICK. CONTINUED 21 66 CONTINUED - 66 STUART(CONT'D) (as Mil a SHUDDERS) Fail me again and it won't be an empty chamber. Dismissed. CUT TO: 67 INT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE--DAY 67 McClane comes in, first double taking the name on the door: CARMINE LORENZO, CAPTAIN OF AIRPORT POLICE. The man himself - a 20 year veteran of bureaucratic wars that have earned him this little kingdom - rises behind his desk. LORENZO YOU - (a glance at a FAX) McClane? MCCLANE Lorenzo? LORENZO Captain Lorenzo. MCCLANE (SHOWING BADGE) I'm the one who - LORENZO Yeah, I know. You think that LA badge is gonna get you a free lunch (X) or something down here? MCCLANE No. Just a little professional courtesy. LORENZO In an airport Christmas week? You gotta be kidding. MCCLANE Okay. Forget the courtesy. How about lust the professional? Your boys dust walked away from a crime scene - you need to seal it off, get a forensics team in, dust it, shoot IT- LORENZO And what do we do with all the luggage for all the airplanes while we play Charlie Chan? CONTINUED 22 67 CONTINUED - 67 MCCLANE You store them somewhere - LORENZO Oh. And meanwhile every hour a few more thousand people come and they want to put their luggage on airplanes, so we store them and their luggage in some other "somewhere"? Hell, why don't we shut down the whole fucking airport? Whaddya think they'll say upstairs when I tell them that? MCCLANE' Why don't you try it and find out? F LORENZO Because I don't need a forensics investigation to file away some punk stealing luggage - MCCLANE Luggage? That "punk" pulled a Glock Seven on me. Know what that is? A porcelain gun from Germany. It doesn't show up on airport x-ray machines... and it costs more than you earn in a month. LORENZO You'd be surprised what I earn in a month. MCCLANE If it's more than a dollar eighty nine, yeah - LORENZO (SHARP) McClane, don't start believing your .own press. (on McClane's look, waving the FAX) (X) Yeah, I know who you are, that Nakatomi thing in LA. Just 'cause the TV thought you were hot shit don't make it so. This time you're in my little pond, and I'm the big fish that runs it. Now you capped some lowlife, fine. I'll send your fucking Captain in L.A. a fucking commendation. He hits a BUZZER. Immediately two burly AIRPORT COPS appear in the doorway. CONTINUED 23 FÔøΩ 67 CONTINUED - (2) 67 LORENZO Now get the hell out of my office before I have you thrown out of my airport! McClane moves towards the door, his hands waving off the would be bouncers. MCCLANE (turning at the door) One question, Carmine: Which sets off the metal detectors first: The shit in your brains, or the lead in your ass? 68 EXT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - DAY 68 McClane comes out of Lorenzo's office, steaming. He walks down the corridor - looks back at one of the stocky Airport cops -fakes a smile - when the guy turns away McClane punches the wall. Then a CLATTER announces the PASSAGE of the morgue guys, the BODY on their gurney. McClane moves aside, watches them, thinking... getting an idea. CUT TO: 69 A RENT A CAR DESK 69 the girl here lost in a romance novel- MCCLANE Excuse me. He reaches over, gently takes typing paper and a stamp pad. GIRL (TOO LATE) Hey! 70 PARKING GARAGE 70 McClane catches up to the morgue guys as they reach their wagon. MCCLANE Whoa, guys. (ver quickly showing HIS BADGE) Gotta check something. Before they can react, he's UNZIPPED the bag, yanked out the guy's right hand. CONTINUED 24 CONTINUED - 70 MORGUE WORKER What're you doing? MCCLANE (inking the guy's fingers) Didn't you ever have an airport stiff I before? We need an FAA ID on your DOA. He presses the fingers against the paper, checks them. (The hand he's released remains straight up.) MCCLANE Yup, he's dead,. all right. Thanks. And he's gone as they look after him, puzzled. CUT TO: I 71 EXT. VAL VERDE MILITARY TRANSPORT - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT 71 cruising along, its FIGHTER ESCORT a few wingtips away. Now, the fighter WAGS ITS WINGS and PEELS AWAY. 72 INT. MILITARY TRANSPORT - NIGHT 72 CAMERA MOVES from the cockpit back through the rest of the plane. CO-PILOT Ay, Alle va nos escorto. PILOT Es bueno; el peligro es pasado. Estamos segur hasta los Estados Unidos. Cuanto tiempo? CO-PILOT (CHECKING WATCH) Tres horas y media. By now we are on Esperanza. Looking astonishingly carefree, (X) he smiles at the young CORPORAL guarding him, puffs on a cigar... (X) and casually examines the military chronometer on his handcuffed (X) wrist. We PUSH IN on it. (X) CUT TO: 73 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH 73 WIDEN from Stuart's Huer, showing the exact same time. Now we SEE that the church is full of ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT: In fact, it looks very much like a mini-version of an airport control tower, complete with radar screens and a big glass board to mark positions on. CONTINUED 25 (X) CONTINUED - 73 CAMERA follows a MAN with a Pizza sized RADAR DISH as he crosses the room, a CRONY unrolling WIRE behind him. CRANE UP as the man CLIMBS into the STEEPLE... UP, UP, UP, until he's in the BELFRY where a PRERIGGED TRIPOD WAITS for the dish. As he CLAMPS it in place we SEE the yard behind the church and the SPARKLE of WELDING TOOLS; someone is making CONNECTIONS to the now open conduit box and underground CABLES. CUT TO: 74 INT. TERMINAL - RENT A CAR COUNTER 74 MCCLANE Excuse me, honey - can I borrow your office for a minute? Before she can answer, he's over the counter and reaching for her phone. CUT TO: 75 INT. LAPD OFFICE - NIGHT 75 The office he's in shows us that AL POWELL has moved up in the world - and Twinkies have move up along with him. POWELL (swallowing, answering PHONE) Records. Sgt. Powell - 76 MCCLANE - AT RENT A CAR COUNTER - INTERCUT 76 MCCLANE Hey, partner. Get that twinky out of your mouth and grab a pencil. POWELL (LAUGHING) John, how you doing? How's the vacaction treating you? MCCLANE Vacation? Holly stood me up for a last minute meeting. I'm alone in DC with the in-laws. POWELL Ah, the in-laws. They love their policemen son-in-laws, don't they? CONTINUED 26 (X) 76 CONTINUED - 76 MCCLANE R' ht. Listen, Al, what's our FAX n u mber in the station there? POWELL 550-3212. This is a first. MCCLANE Yeah, well my wife's company makes 'em, I figure it's time to get one of them pregnant. (aside to girl) This way? (AH) This way. The FAX starts to leave McClane - voila, it's already arriving at Powell's office. POWELL (as it arrives) Fingerprints? MCCLANE From a stiff down here at Dulles. I marked the whorls with a pen in case the transmission's fuzzy. Can you run that through State and Federal for me - throw in Interpol if you got it. POWELL (WATCHING IT) Will do. What's this about? MCCLANE I don't know. Just a feeling. POWELL Ouch. You get those feelings insurance companies start to go bankrupt. MCCLANE The FAX number is uh - GIRL -on the top edge of the transmission he just got - MCCLANE (AUTHORATIVELY) -on the top edge of your transmission. CONTINUED 27 (X) 76 CONTINUED - (2) 76 POWELL Airport, huh? You're not pissing in somebody's little pool, are you? MCCLANE (GRINNING) Break out the chlorine. CUT TO: 77 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE 77 The nice stewardess comes over to Holly, takes her glass. STEWARDESS Need another? HOLLY I don't think so. (INDICATING THORNBERG) I only have to look at his face for fifteen more minutes. CAPTAIN'S VOICE (OVER PA) Ladies and Gentlemen, I've just been informed by Dulles traffic control that a new weather front is moving in ahead of us. We may be up here for a little while longer... GROANS. COMPLAINTS. Holly holds out her glass. HOLLY Yes. Another. CUT TO: 78 INT. RENT ACAR BOOTH 78 McClane paces, smoking. RRING. Both the FAX machine and the telephone light up. McClane beats her to it. MCCLANE Al? 79 POWELL - IN HIS OFFICE - INTERCUT 79 POWELL Right here, partner. Your stiff's dossier is coming through right now. MCCLANE What can you tell me? CONTINUED 79 CONTINUED - 79 POWELL He's dead. MCCLANE You needed a computer for that? POWELL No, you don't follow me. According to the Department of Defense, he's been dead for 2 years. MCCLANE What? POWELL Yup. S/Sgt. Oswald Cochrane. American advisor in Honduras, killed in helicopter accident 5/11/88. (reading the page) Read between the lines of his military record and it looks like a lot of black bag stuff. MCCLANE Yeah, I see it. Thanks a lot, Al. I owe you. He hangs up. The girl gives him the eye. GIRL Say, I close in an hour... maybe we could... MCCLANE (showing his wedding ring) Just the FAX,, ma'am. Just the FAX. 80 EXT. RENT A CAR AREA 80 McClane comes out, deep in thought - gets on an walkway. Suddenly the CLICK of HEELS makes him turn. Sam Coleman is trotting down the linoleum next to the walkway, trying to keep up with him. SAM The Ghost of Christmas Past. Nakatomi? LA? You're John McClane, right? MCCLANE Depends who you are. CONTINUED 29 (X) 80 CONTINUED - 80 SAM Sam Coleman, WADC news - (as McClane REACTS) Hey, I know how you feel about the media, but we're not all like that putz Thornberg - he crossed the line. That's why they canned him out in LA. MCCLANE Yeah. Now he's on the Network interviewing Transsexual Gum Surgeons and laughing all the way to the bank. SAM Okay. The guy makes Geraldo look like Walter Chronkite. Doesn't mean you can't cut me some slack. I saw the stiff. Word is that was your handiwork. MCCLANE Nah. I do needlepoint. And he's at the end of the walkway and he quickly disappears into the crowd, leaving Sam pissed, puzzled... and out of breath. 81 INT. "THE CAB" - NIGHT 81 Lorenzo has joined the regulars here to cover his ass LORENZO -well, the press was here, crawling all over the Esperanza story... so they got it right on the fucking news, bloodstains and all... TRUDEAU Couldn't be helped, I guess. What was it, gangs? MCCLANE'S VOICE Yeah... if your gangs get their training at Fort Bragg. 82 NEW ANGLE 82 Surprised, they turn to see McClane step out of the elevator. TRUDEAU Who the hell is this? CONTINUED 30 (X) 82 CONTINUED - 82 MCCLANE (pushing past Lorenzo) I'm a police officer, Mr. Trudeau- LORENZO L.A., Mr. Lorenzo-don't mean shit- TRUDEAU That's what I said about my last cholesterol test. What's your problem- (READING BADGE) Lieutenant McClane? MCCLANE I think something serious is going to happen here tonight - TRUDEAU Hey. Something serious happens every night, only it doesn't make the newspapers. Ever see those guys on TV, juggling knives and cha n i saws? That's what we're doing with those planes up there, only we do it one handed 'cause the other hand's playing 3 card monte with the planes on the ground. MCCLANE Anybody try and fix the deck tonight? (on his look) Anything weird going on besides the shooting? BARNES We did. lose FAA approach control- MCCLANE What's that? TRUDEAU One way we manage the planes. But we've got backup - Long look from McClane. CUT TO: 83 EXT. VIRGINIA CHURCH - BACK YARD 83 Burke turns off his acetyline torch, flips up his face shield. BURKE We're hot! 31 (X) 84 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH 84 STUART (TO GARBER) Light it up. Signal is given. Switches are thrown. CAMERA PANS OVER-and UP to the CHOIR LOFT, which is electronic heaven. EVERYTHING COMES ON LINE. STUART 5 minutes to zero hour. Stand by. 85 INT. CAB - NIGHT 85 MCCLANE Okay. You clot back-up - back-up for everything you think can go wrong. What about something nobody anticipated? Not accidents, not WEATHER - F TRUDEAU (a bit dryly) The human element..? MCCLANE Damned straight the human element. You've got the world's biggest drug dealer on the way, one body and a'- lot of questionsl Doesn't anyone want to look for answers? TRUDEAU (after a moment) Lorenzo. Have all your shift Commanders report in... now. LORENZO What? You're buying into this - TRUDEAU I want them to report anything out of the ordinary --no matter how trivial. You got that? LORENZO (annoyed, but obeying) I got it. BARNES Oh, my God... Everyone turns at the chill in Barne's voice. TRUDEAU What is it? CONTINUED 32 85 CONTINUED - 85 But Barnes doesn't reply... just tries - and fails - to point out the window. Everyone turns. (X) 86 REVERSE ANGLE - OVER THEIR SHOULDERS 86 Slowly, without any fuss, and with a pattern of sorts that would be pretty if the impact wasn't so frightening... slowly, ALL THE RUNWAY LIGHTS ARE GOING OUT. MCCLANE Jesus... 87 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH - SAME TIME 87 As Stuart's TECH throws more and more SWITCHES - 88 THE CAB 88 - and more and more runways go DARK. TRUDEAU Go to emegency lighting... now! (X) BARNES Emergencies! Controllers, Code (X) Yellow! People leap into action... meanwhile, Trudeau and the others MOVE around the tower, the CAMERA FOLLOWING in a 180 TURN, watch as the LIGHTS KEEP GOING OUT. TECHNICIAN Back up systems won't come up-! TRUDEAU Shunt to another terminal! TECHNICIAN This ain't software, boss - LORENZO Maybe we should call the power company...? TRUDEAU We're on the same Goddamn grid and we're hot! Already the SPEAKER BOXES are beginning to CHATTER - PILOT'S VOICE 2ND PILOT'S VOICE (panicked) Dulles Tower, this is TWA Dulles, what's going on? 23 -what the hell happened I'm in approach - - to you -? CONTINUED 33 (X) 88 CONTINUED - 88 CONTROLLER 2ND CONTROLLER 604, pull up. Return to You're not in approach, 23. holding altitude. Stand by for instructions... BARNES (COMING OVER) Checked all systems. It ain't happening. And now, God help us, all REACT to ANOTHER ALARM. 89 IN THE VIRGINIA CHURCH 89 A CABLE yanked from the ground gets CUT, SPARKING - 90 THE CAB 90 WHIP PAN to an ENGINEER - ENGINEER (PANICKED) Approach control backup! It's gone! 91 IN THE CHURCH'S BACKYARD - SAME TIME 91 GLOWING FIBER OPTIC CABLE stretched like a sacrifice on a BLOCK -AXE BLADE swoops down - SPARKS. The LIGHT DIES - 92 IN THE CAB - SAME TIME 92 2ND ENGINEER Jesus! Instrument landing system i s c l own! BARNES Confirmed! ILS is dead - every Goddamn system is dead! TRUDEAU (quick, commanding) Jacoby, Strauss. Get your controllers on the horn - every plane approaching our Vortacs that's not in our pattern yet gets turned away'now. Everyone already inside our patrn holds at the outer marker. Stack 'em, pack 'em, and rack 'em. Move. (to another man) I want every off duty controller and technician here in five minutes. Page the terminal - no, better, beep them. (TURNING) McClane. This what you were expecting? CONTINUED 34 (X) 92 CONTINUED - 92 MCCLANE This? This ain't it, pal. This is just the beginning. A PHONE RINGS. CAMERA ADJUSTS. It's a prominent RED PHONE. BARNES (HOPEFUL) FAA hotline -! I LORENZO How could they know already -? MCCLANE Maybe they don't. (TO TRUDEAU) Maybe... it's them. TRUDEAU (a look at McClane, then;) Put it on speaker. STUART'S VOICE Attention, Dulles Tower. Attention, Dulles Tower - 93 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH NIGHT 93 Stuart is using a phone that's PATCHED IN to the cables ripped from the earth - STUART (DRYLY) I think by now I've got your attention. I know your recorders go 24 hours around the clock, so I'll be quick -you can play me back later all you want. 94 INT. CAB - INTERCUT 94 TRUDEAU How. did you get on this line? Who is this? STUART Who I am is unimportant. What I want... well, if you don't want those planes overhead to start dropping like flies when they run out of fuel... what I want is very important. All REACT - McClane as much as anyone. CONTINUED 35 (X) 94 CONTINUED - 94 STUART(CONT'D) A plane is going to be landing at this Airport in 58 minutes. It is FM 1 - Foreign Military 1. MCCLANE Esperanza? Trudeau nods - STUART This plane is scheduled to be met by a continigent from the U.S. Justice-department. But now there will be a change of plans. This plane will not be met by anyone. It will land on a runway of my designation where it will not be molested. That will conclude my interest in that plane and your responsibility for it. At the same time, I want a 747 cargo conversion fully fueled. 95 FAVORING MCCLANE 95 As Trudeau tries to make headway with Stuart, McClave leans over to Barnes. MCCLANE What's all that about? BARNES A 747 has the furthest flight capacity of anything we've got here. Take out the seats and save some weight, add the wing tanks and it could go to Australia, Africa, Asia - hell the whole Goddamn world.' MCCLANE Meaning they pull Esperanza off his plane and take him anywhere there's no extradition treaties. LORENZO They're talking to us on our own Goddamn system! They gotta be close - I'll have my men tear this airport APART - MCCLANE About time, Carmine. Guess you have to light a fire under your ass to light a fire under your ass. CONTINUED 36 (X) 95 CONTINUED - 95 CD LORENZO McClane, I got a first class unit here, SWAT team and all, and we don't need any Monday morning quarterbacks. MCCLANE (pissed, moving in) Monday morning? My wife's on one of those planes these aasstards are fucking with! That makes me a player on the fucking field, you putz! And if you got off your fat ass when I told you to, maybe we wouldn't be knee deep in shit right now! LORENZO (turning, shouting) Security! (back to McClane) You're out of here! And already two big Airport cops are trotting over. As Trudeau REACTS, unsure - LORENZO Mr. Trudeau. Do I have to remind you about FAA regulations regarding unauthorized personnel in the control tower? TRUDEAU (TO GUARDS) See Mr. McClane out. 96 AT THE ELEVATOR 96 It opens. Someone's inside., but we don't feature them yet. MCCLANE (as he's muscled in) Trudeau, can't you see you're dealing with pros? You can't fuck with these GUYS - Sam comes out of the elevator, holding up her ID. SAM (TO TRUDEAU) Sam Coleman, WNTW news. Mr. Trudeau, there's a lot of rumors flying around THE - LORENZO Oh, no, no way - CONTINUED 37 (X) -96 CONTINUED - 96 TRUDEAU This is off limits, Coleman, you know that! Together with McClane she's shoved into the elevator. MCCLANE Anything you can think-of, they'll think of, too! But the elevator DOORS CLOSE on him and now Lorenzo turns a KEY on the control panel, then SPEAKS into his walkie talkie. LORENZO Lobby Security, come in. 96A AIRPORT - LOBBY - INTERCUT 96A LOBBY COP (into RADIO), Tomlinson here - LORENZO And Lorenzo here, with two unauthorized personnel in the fucking tower! Get your thumb out of your ass and get over to the elevator. Get them out and post a guard or you're gonna have a pink slip in your Christmas stocking! Rattled, the guard signals a comrade, hustles to obey. 97 IN THE ELEVATOR 97 SAM Anything who can think of? Can't fuck with.what guys? McClane punches buttons. But it's on override. MCCLANE Shit! SAM Big drug dealer on the way to prison. Gunfight in airport. Every controller in the coffee shop getting beeped and hauling ass, and you rocking the boat. A connection? Come on, McClane -Just a few words -? CONTINUED 38 97 CONTINUED - 97 MCCLANE (opening the control PANEL) How about "fuck" and "you"? SAM I already got that from Colonel Stuart, thanks -! McClane STOPS as if zapped by a Taser. MCCLANE (REALIZING) Stuart! The guy who got canned by Congress - that's who he was- SAM Huh? Who he who? But McClane has already jumped up and grabbed the light fixture, and now in a gymnast's move KICKS out the ceiling hatch and disappears through the roof! (X) 98 NEW ANGLE 98 The door opens. The GUARDS there REACT to the open ceiling. (X) Sam shrugs. SAM Claustrophobic, I guess. CUT TO: 99 INT. CAB - NIGHT 99 TILT UP from a big map of the airport. Lots of AD-LIB BRAINSTORMING, some of it breaking through - some how one reedy hesitant voice cuts through with nothing but confidence BARNES --guys, guys, all we have to do is find a way to transmit - (X) 1ST ENGINEER (SARCASTIC) Yeah, right. Somebody run down to Radio Shack and get a transmitter- BARNES We have one. (POINTING OUTSIDE) The new terminal wing they're building? Twenty airlines when it's done? (MORE) CONTINUED 39 (X) CONTINUED - 99 BARNES (CONT'D) All with their reservation computers, all tied into a nice big antenna array so they can talk to their home offices- it's just sitting there waiting to go on line - I 2ND ENGINEER That's VHF - it'll scatter - BARNES I Doesn't matter; The planes we want to reach are right overhead. I could rig our frequency in - 30 minutes... wire in a crossover and we're hot. The planes wouldn't even know the difference. TRUDEAU Get what you need. Borrow, steal, kill. LORENZO (heading for the elevator) I want my Swat team to go with him as cover. (firm, tough) Whatever we can think of - they can think of, too. He says it like he thought of it himself. Then - STUART'S VOICE Attention, Tower. You have two more minutes to stack the planes in your inbound pattern over your outside radio marker. After that you will be able.to receive only. Any attempt to restore your systems will be met by severe penalties. At the elevator, Lorenzo pauses - stage WHISPERS - LORENZO He's bluffing - Lorenzo leaves. Trudeau ain't so sure. TRUDEAU (TO STUART) Damn it, you can't do this -! STUART I am doing this. CONTINUED 99 CONTINUED - (2) 99 TRUDEAU (pause; to Barnes) Put me on all bands... Trudeau waits as switches are thrown, and then takes the jack from the ear/phone he wears and jacks it into a panel. TRUDEAU This is Dulles approach to all aircraft holding.at Potomic Vortac. We are experiencing... (PAUSE) Severe technical problems here. 100 INT. VARIOUS CIRCLING AIRCRAFT - COCKPITS - INTERCUT 100 As CONCERNED CREWS in each listen to: TRUDEAU(CONT'D) Our NAV and Approach systems are down and we expect to lose voice in another minute. We want you to continue holding at the outer marker as directed and wait for further instructions. As - as soon as we're back on line we'll expedite your landings on a.fuel emergency basis. Good luck... (PAUSE) God bless. He turns to a tech, face ashen. TRUDEAU Okay. Change the boards. CUT TO: 101 INT. DULLES - MAIN TERMINAL - NIGHT 101 ANGLE ON a bank of ARRIVAL MONITORS. Already a quarter of the planes are DELAYED by weather; but now, in a domino like PATTERN, all the remaining FLIGHT DATA changes to DELAYED. CAMERA ADJUSTS to show PEOPLE REACTING with frustration and concern. CUT TO: 102 INT. DULLES BASEMENT 102 Pretty dark and creepy for a place only 25 years old. A FLASHLIGHT BEAM PANS THE LENS. We SEE the two lobby guards as they search the basement. They move AWAY from the CAMERA. Pause. CONTINUED 41 (X) 102 CONTINUED - 102 McClane APPEARS in the gloom close to CAMERA, clothes now a little greasy and dirty from his little escape. MCCLANE (sotto, to himself) I don't believe this... another fucking elevator... another fucking basement... why does this always happen to me? He moves through the cavernous maze, and then REACTS to MUSIC. Moves towards it. And arrives in - 103 AN ... APARTMENT 103 Or something like it: Here, in an area reached only my somebody with a groundhog in his ancestry, is a space with some battered chairs, a 3-legged card table, a cot made up with faded but neat covers, some 50's vintage.(but lovingly scotch taped) PIN UPS, and a tiny kitchen precariously propped up on a big purple plumbling valve on the wall. 104 ON A PHONOGRAPH 104 The SOURCE of.the music, a 78 SPINNING on the old machine. McClane's HAND picks it up and we WIDEN as he looks at it curiously. A HAND reaches for McClane's shoulder. 105 NEW ANGLE 105 McClane's instincts take over; in a flash, he WHIRLS and his would be attacker is pinned against a wall. It's a wizened MAN in his 60's who now raises his hands to show he ain't looking for trouble. MCCLANE Who the fuck are you? In response, the man points to the NAMETAG on his coveralls. MAN (MARVIN) Marvin, I'm Marvin. Thought you was tryin' to steal my records, that's all. He moves to them, possessively. MARVIN(CONT'D) They're valuble, you know. Me, I like those old 78's. Won't find me switching like everybody else to these new fangled 45's. CONTINUED 42 (X) 105 CONTINUED - 105 McClane reacts to that, peers at him. MCCLANE You're what, the janitor? MARVIN Damn straight. Janitor, and proud of it. Don't need any of this new fangled custodial engineer crap. Just do my job and screw the fancy talk. You know, you're not supposed to be down here. MCCLANE (LOOKING AROUND) Yeah. Just like you're not supposed to be living here. MARVIN W-who said I was living here? McClane shows his badge. MCCLANE Come on, Marvin. I wasn't born yesterday. Carmine Lorenzo know you don't go home after you punch out? MARVIN L-Lorenzo? C-come on, officer, I can barely get by, even with my pension. You know, I'm a vet, WW 2? If it wasn't for guys like me, you kids' be eatin' sushi today. I'm just trying to. save a few. bucks -I could. get fired if you tell. McClane moves over to a big panel with telephone lines and jacks. Examines it as he speaks. MCCLANE I'm a veteran myself, Marvin. And a married one. You married? MARVIN Six times. MCCLANE My wife may be in some trouble upstairs. I gotta find out. This set up of yours? I won't tell a soul... provided you patch me into this panel, 'let me eavesdrop on the tower. What do you say? CONTINUED. 43 (X) 105 CONTINUED - (2) 105 MARVIN You a cop or a lawyer? CUT TO: 106 INT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - NIGHT 106 There hasn't been this much activity here since Gorbachov dropped in. FIVE SWAT OFFICERS check gear, leave the office at Lorenzo's signal - LORENZO (INTO PHONE) I'm sending the SWAT team over for Barnes now - we don't need the Goddamn Christmas tourists seeing guns and flipping out so they'll take him the long way around... 107 IN BASEMENT - TIGHT ON ALLIGATOR CLIPS 107 We WIDEN as Marvin connects them to one set of bolts, then another. 'McClave shakes his head. No... no...yes! LORENZO'S VOICE Through the annex skywalk to the new terminal... that way nobody sees them, we don't have any panic. TRUDEAU'S VOICE And we don't want any disasters. Barnes has five minutes to check out that antenna array. MCCLANE (aside to Marvin) Christ. They're gonna try something cute... where's this annex skywalk? MARVIN Annex skywalk...? Sounds like the pissant World's Fair... He rummages around, finds a big wrinkled MAP, smoothes it out. MARVIN(CONT'D) Lemme see... yeah, must be this... connects to the new terminal - Marvin points to an ELEVATED WALKWAY connecting the two complexes. CONTINUED 44 (X) 107 CONTINUED - 107 MCCLANE (looking at map) Shit, it's a fucking bottleneck. Anybody smart enough to shut down the airport is smart enough to figure this... it's a perfect place for an ambush... CUT TO: 108 INT. TERMINAL ENGINEERING OFFICE - NIGHT 108 Barnes, nervous, throws things into a metal case. His fellow engineers watch, curious, as he EXITS with the FIVE SWAT COPS. CAMERA FOLLOWS the four men past - A) BANKS OF COMPUTERS - B) COMPUTERIZED WEATHER MAPS - C) AN L.E.D. DULLES MAP - all of it useless, all of the operators watching their only hope Barnes. CUT TO: 109 BASEMENT 109 A MOUND of CRINKLED PAPERS is FLATTENED against the card table. We WIDEN, see it is an architect's PLANS of the entire Dulles netherworld, cribbed by Marvin and now festooned with his various multi-color jotes and notes. MARVIN Now, see? Here's you. And here's the skywalk. (POINTING) Now, check this out... MCCLANE Tunnels. MARVIN (NODDING) Like the Japs had all over Iwo Jima. That's where I got wounded. But we put those little twerps in their place once and for all. (pointing to the map) These are air ducts for all the terminals. Heating, cooling. Whole shebang. (MORE) CONTINUED 45 (X) 109 CONTINUED - 109 MARVIN (Cont'd)- So I put you in the boiler room where they start, and you come out there. MCCLANE Looks like... maybe a mile. Easy jog. MARVIN (AMUSED) Uh-uh. It's a pisser of a crawl. And that's the easy part; firs you gotta be an acrobat. 110 INT. BASEMENT -- DUCT ACCESS 110 With a cordless drill, Marvin unhinges the access door. Last bolt, it falls with a sheet-metal SLAM. McClane WINCES as a BLAST of AIR hits him - and, as. perspiration breaks out on his forehead, we realize it's hot air. MCCLANE Whoa. MARVIN Winter up there... Summer down here. He aims Marvin's flashlight down there, isn't enchanted with what he sees. He turns, takes Marvin's map. MCCLANE(CONT'D) I owe you one, Marvin. How about a sixpack of malt liquor? MARVIN How 'bout a case of Johnny Walker? (on McClane's look) Hey, I may be homeless, but I ain't tasteless. CUT TO: 111 INT. LONG TERMINAL GALLERY - NIGHT 111 A big "history of flight" MURAL high on the wall here HALF FINISHED, ceilings PARTIALLY OPEN; A WORKER on the scaffold and THREE OTHERS on the floor still hammering and. fiddling. Barnes and the cops come in. Barnes looks OUT the WINDOWS here AT - 46 (X 112 SATELLITE ARRAY - THROUGH GLASS - FAR END OF GALLERY 112 still covered with FACTORY PLASTIC and TAPE. 113 BACK TO SCENE 113 BARNES (into his cellular phone) We're in the annex skywalk. I can see the dish! I'll call you as soon as it's hot for a protocol test. CUT TO: 114 MCCLANE - IN BOILER ROOM - NIGHT 114 McClane moves forward - stops immediately. Looks up at Marvin, who GRINS. 114A MCCLANE'SPOV DOWNWARD 114A He's HIGH ABOVE the huge boiler room. The only way across is on a narrow beam. 114B BACK TO SCENE 114B McClane takes a breath, starts across the beam. There's a scary moment at first but he gets quickly confident - a bit too ; 7-7 confident midway - he starts to lose his balance and all-but runs to the far end, JUMPS to safety. As he pulls himself up he HEARS Marvin CLAPPING behind him. With a scowl, McClane checks his map, pushes on. CUT TO: 115 INT. ANNEX CORRIDOR - NIGHT 115 Barnes and the SWAT cops run forward, get on the SLIDEWALK; impatient, they run even while on it. 116 A WORKER - AT FAR END OF SLIDEWALK 116 reaches into the open slidewalk CONTROL PANEL-hits a SWITCH. 117 THE SLIDEWALK 117 JERKS to a halt -the( six men n it almost TUMBLING. Oblivious, the worker turns his-bwCk on them again. AIRPORT COP Hey! Put that back on! No reaction. The cop runs forward. CONTINUED 47 (X) 117 CONTINUED - 117 FL SWAT COP(cont'd) HEY! ASSHOLE! What do I look like to you? The man TURNS. It's REI , one of the ones who killed the real painters. He ha a GUN. % O RÔøΩ7lLLY A sitting dunk-. --ÔøΩ He SHOOTS him. 118 WIDER 118 The other three "workers" turn, and now we SEE that they are ,H S ELDQN, HS OCKLEY and MULKEY - Stuart's soldiers all. 119 BARNES AND OTHER COPS 119 As bullets RAKE the slidewalk and PING off its walls, they JUMP over the railing & take cover-another COP KILLED on the move. 120 BARNES 120 is CUT badly on the arm by flying GLASS - he CRINGES behind a dumpster while the three remaining cops EXCHANGE FIRE with the four soldiers. BULLETS hit near his metal case. He takes a 77 deep breath - rescues it! CUT TO: 121 MCCLANE 121 in the TUNNELS, he tosses off his sweater into the darkness. Underneath, his shirt is already sweat-stained. And then he HEARS the gunfire - it's close! He gets his bearings -LUNGES through a wall of STEAM - CUT TO: 122 THE ANNEX GALLERY 122 a third airport.cop DIES. His partner KILLS the gunman (SJ1oi k1E.y) who took out his friend, and then he's KILLED himself. The last SWAT cop breaks cover and gets CUT DOWN. Sudden SILENCE. Barnes suddenl alizes he's all alone. FOOTSTEPS approach him. He looks up. ulke is ri ht above him - 123 WIDE 123 Suddenly a VENTILATION GRATE by Mulke ' head KICKS OUT, sending the guy sprawling. McClane JUMP own, FIRING! CONTINUED 48 123 CONTINUED - 123 Mu ey has caught the damn thing on reflex, and now he TWITCHES bacTcwards, the bullets SPARKING off the grate before they drill through him. McClane ROLLS, FIRES a 'Reilly across the gallery, who takes (X) COVER. Then BULLETS hit all around McClane; he SEES 124 S ELDON-- ABOVE HIM ON SCAFFOLD 124 FIRING DOWN - 125 BACK TO SCENE 125 McClane FIRES UPWARDS, and then VEERING, he RUNS UNDER the SCAFFOLDING - BULLETS PING off the metal behind him as a'Ae l tries to nail him from ground level - meanwhile (X) 126 UP ABOVE 126 Shelf tries to SHOOT DOWN and UNDER. (X) 127 MCCLANE 127 deliberately SMASHES into the cross bars he passes, one after another, the SMACK of his body into them sounding like linebackers in combat - 128 SHELDON 128 AIMS - but then the half of the SCAFFOLDING beneath him GIVES WAY. He FALLS, SCREAMING - LANDS with a CRUNCH beside Barnes- 129 MCCLANE 129 has a moment of satisfaction - then MCCLANE Oh, fuck 130 WIDER - SLO MO 130 He RUNS and DIVES SIDEWAYS as the rest of the scaffolding falls towards him, paint and glue and ha f the mural's tile grid coming down witWi t ! 131 MCCLANE 131 lands, HARD, the plywood boards from the top of the scaffold SWEEPING him off his feet - his gun SKITTERS across the linoleum towards the far end of the slidewalk - he rolls over and SEES 49 (X) SIX FEET AWAY 132 he, too, has ducked the falling scaffold, but he's already on his feet, already bending to grab his dropped MAC 10 rom the slidewalk - bringing it up - AIMING - 133 BACK TO SCENE 133 McClane SPINS on the floor and SLAMS the nearest piece of the metal scaffold into the OPEN SLIDEWALK ELECTRONICS. It SHORTS OUT SPECTACULARLY and THEN - 133A FAR END OF SLIDEWALK 133A it WHIRRS into HIGH GEAR, TREAD SHREDDING - I 134 BACK TO SCENE 134 the slidewalk in OVERDRIVE, O'Reilly is FLUNG right over McClane's HEAD. 135 NEW ANGLE 135 He SLAMS into the wall at the end of the walkway HEADFIRST. There's a sickening CRACK as his neck goes and then he TWITCHES and slides to the floor, a SMEAR of blood on the slick wall. 77 136 BACK TO SCENE 136 McClane takes a long overdue breath. Then he picks up his 4 pistol, checks the'bodies to make sure there's no surprises, and, goes over to Barnes. MCCLANE You okay?. BARNES (SHAKILY) The antenna array - 'Both look ,at it - and then 137 WIDE 137 The antenna array outside BLOWS UP, pieces SHATTERING the glass window. McClane and Barnes DUCK, but they're too far away to be damanged. MCCLANE (SLOWLY STANDING) Bait. Something to jerk you off, make Lorenzo sacrifice his best men, and make you waste time. (MORE) CONTINUED 50 137 CONTINUED - 137 MCCLANE (CONT'D) Time you don't have... (LOOKING SKYWARD) Time they don't have. (X) CUT TO: 138 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - IN FLIGHT 138 Thornberg, on an inside aisle seat, glances out the window. Sees something. Releases his seat belt. And goes over to the glass, pressing' .his nose against it like a kid in a candy store. 139 HIS POV 139 LIGHTS in the sky: Other airplanes. 140 WIDER 140 Holly looks at him. She can't help not looking at him; he's practically in her lap. HOLLY (DRYLY) I think you're closer than fifty yards. THORNBERG So is that plane... practically. Despite herself, she looks out. HOLLY Yeah. There's quite a few out there; we're in a regular traffic jam. THORNBERG There's nothing regular about it. (TURNING) I see you're intrigued. That's my gift, Mrs. McClane. I make people curious. HOLLY Don't you mean nauseous? THORNBERG The people have a right to know, Mrs. McClane. You got in the way of that. HOLLY You endangered my children... my husband.. and me. (MORE) CONTINUED 51 140 CONTINUED - 140 HOLLY (CONT'D) And you didn't do it for anything as noble as "the people". The only time you see the people is when you're climbing over their backs. CUT TO: 141 INT. ANNEX - NIGHT 141 McClane is doing a damn decent FIELD DRESSING on Barnes. BARNES (into his cellular phone) --me? I'll live. But Lorenzo's (X) SWAT team is dead... and the antenna array is toast. Start looking for (X) a new miracle. AN EERIE ALIEN TYPE VOICE makes them both jump; McClane raises his GUN. 142 NEW ANGLE 142 It's coming from a TRANSCEIVER beside one of the dead men. Curious, Barnes slides over, picks it up. LISTENS with McClane to the GARBLED, spine-chilling NOISE. 143 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH 143 GARBER I say again, Annex team... report in. Annex team, report in. He looks at Stuart, concerned. 1 144 INT. ANNEX 144 Here, Garber no longer sounds human. MCCLANE What...? BARNES Some kind of scrambler so even if we scan their frequency we can't listen in. Descramble mode must activate on this code panel. (ALMOST ADMIRINGLY) These guys are pros. MCCLANE So are you. Break the code - CONTINUED 52 (X) 144 CONTINUED - 144 BARNES Eight numbers - that's 8 X 7 X 6 times -UN - (THINKING) 40,320 possible combinations. (WEAKLY) Next time you kill one of these guys - get them to enter the code first. 145 IN THE VIRGINIA CHURCH - NIGHT 145 Kahn descends from the choir loft and joins Stuart and Grant. KAHN (TO STUART) Sir, we just monitored a call from their chief engineer. Our people took out their Swat team... completely. GARBER You were right... they went for the antenna array. We're right on schedule. STUART Except losing our own team wasn't part of the plan. He comes to a decision. Picks up the phone. Speaks. Voice flat, firm, stern. Around and above him, his men hover over the improvised screens and terminals. STUART Attention, Dulles. You were warned not to try and restore your systems. 146 INT. CAB 146 They listen, fearful - STUART'S VOICE You've wasted lives and time on a futile and obvious target. Now you have to pay the penalty. 147 MCCLANE - IN ANNEX - SAME TIME 147 They HEAR this too, over Barne's cellular tie in to the tower. McClane grabs it. MCCLANE There's five dead officers here, Colonel Stuart - Isn't that penalty enough? 53 (X) 148 INT. CAB - NIGHT 148 This interchange is BROADCAST here - Lorenzo SHOUTS into the PHONE- LORENZO McClane! Keep out of this! You- He stops, seeing the chilling look Trudeau is giving him. 149 STUART 149 has reacted to both the mention of his name and of McClane's. His brow furrows. Ah, yes. STUART McClave? John McClane? The... policeman hero who saved the Nakatomi hostages? I read about you in People magazine. You seemed out of your league on Nightline, though... MCCLANE Yeah, Colonel. We were both famous for five minutes. Saw you get shit canned by Congress on TV. How much drug money is Esperanza paying you to turn traitor? STUART I think Cardinal Richlieu said it best: Treason is merely a matter of dates. And this country has to learn it can't keep cutting the legs off men. like General Esperanza -men with the guts to stand up to Soviet agression. MCCLANE And lesson one starts with killing policemen? What's lesson two - the Neutron bomb? STUART I think we can find something in between. (aside, off mike) Give me a flight number - one low on fuel. Another man hands him a slip of paper. He reads it, switches to another mike (or frequency). STUART Windsor flight one-four-teen, this is Dulles Approach... do you copy? CUT TO: 54 (X) 150 IN THE REAL TOWER - THE CAB - NIGHT 150 Everyone here REACTS to Stuart's voice - and the chilling lie he's just told in an affable, good of boy tone that's totally different than anything we've heard. BRITISH PILOT Approach, this is one-fourteen. Where the devil have you been? STUART'S VOICE We been right here, old man. But our systems didn't come back on line until just this second. 151 MCCLANEAND BARNES - IN ANNEX 151 both ashen faced - MCCLANE STUART'S VOICE Christ, helsbringing them You're cleared for approach down! Why are they on Runway 29. Report to the listening? Tower at the Outer Marker. BRITISH PILOT BARNES Roger, Approach, and about (heartsick) time: I've got 230 people It's our frequency. Why up here flying on petrol shouldn't they? fumes. TRUDEAU STUART'S VOICE The son-of-a-bitch... the (replying to pilot) Goddamn son-of-a-bitch- I'll bet. Okay, calibrate your altimeter at setting MCCLANE'S VOICE two-nine-nine-two. Turning What? you over to Tower...now. TRUDEAU That's the runway between here and the new terminal... he wants to make all of.us watch it. 153 MCCLANE 153 CAMERA PUSHES IN on him as he turns and looks out the window. BARNES Don't do it... you bastards, don't do it..! Desperate, McClane runs to the spilled paint, grabs turpentine, rags, pieces of scaffolding. BARNES What are you doing? CONTINUED 55 153 CONTINUED - 153 MCCLANE (RIPPING FABRIC) Whatever the fuck I can, Barnes... whatever the fuck I can. 154 IN THE BRITISH COCKPIT 154 PILOT (into cabin mike) Ladies and Gentlemen, as you've probably noticed, we've started our descent. 155 INT. CABIN 155 PILOT'S VOICE We're sorry about the inconvenience, but we'll all be on the ground in a few minutes. The spent and exhausted people REACT. Some break into APPLAUSE and CHEERS of "HIP HIP." But one NICE ENGLISH GRANNY -clearly not an experienced air traveler - still looks TENSE. A STEWARDESS pauses to pat her shoulder reassuringly. STEWARDESS Just like British rail, luv. May be.late but we get you there. 156 MCCLANE-FROM OUTSIDE ANNEX 156 Barnes holds one end of.a painter's dropcloth; McClane - now wearing Barne's coat - DROPS out the broken window to the snow below. There he's a tiny SHADOW on the white field. He turns, RUNS across the. unlit airport... wind whipped SNOW quickly hiding him from Barnes. 157 THE VIRGINIA CHURCH - NIGHT 157 STUART (off mike to Thompson) (X) Activate ILS landing system. But (X) Recalibrate sea level. Minus 200 feet. 31$p,son - the main TECH here - OBEYS, with an unhealthy GRIN. He punches DIALS - a SCREEN LIGHTS UP - Stuart plays with his (X) mike button to create static as he "switches" the incoming plane (X) from the approach operator to the tower operator - both, of (X) course, played by him... (X) 56 (X) 158 BRITISH COCKPIT 158 The crew REACTS as their ILS lights up. High fives all around. 159 IN THE TOWER 159 The SOUND of ENGINES. TRUDEAU Oh, God...no... A TECHNICIAN Can't we cut in, jam them - TRUDEAU Everything's dead. LORENZO (POINTING) There's somebody out there - LIGHT SIZZLES in the distance, dances. Trudeau fumbles up a pair of binoculars. Looks - TRUDEAU Christ. It's McClane. He'll get himself killed - 160 MCCLANE - ON THE FIELD 160 He's made two TORCHES from wads of fabric wound on the scaffold pieces - now he uses his LIGHTER to ignite them. He WAVES the impromtu FLARES in a crazy pattern - We HEAR the approaching PLANE- 160A IN THE ANNEX SKYWALK 160A BARNES (at the window, watching) Come on, see the torch, see the TORCH 161 IN THE TOWER 161 Everyone watches the dancing lights and listens to - PILOT'S VOICE Dulles, this is Windsor one fourteen. Inside the outer marker. STUART'S VOICE (doing a different voice THAN BEFORE) Roger, Windsor. This is Dulles Tower. We have radar contact and show you on ILS. You are in the glide path and looking good. CONTINUED 161 CONTINUED - 161 PILOT'S VOICE Wait a minute... something down there through the snow... looked like a light... 162 STUART - IN VIRGINIA CHURCH 162 STUART (puzzled, but covering) Probably our runway systems coming back up. Don't worry about it you're coming in on instruments. PILOT Roger. Flaps down. Airspeed 100 knots... 80... 70... NAVIGATOR RVR 1/4 mile... . altitude 1000 feet... 800... Ref plus 20... 163 MCCLANE -ON THE FIELD 163 Now he can HEAR the plane's ENGINES and - for a fleeting MOMENT he SEES its LIGHTS between gusts of snow- MCCLANE No... no, Jesus, Mary, Mother of God, no... pull up... pull up... 164 IN THE TOWER 164 Helpless, listening, watching - the lane's lights intermittently visible here, too, growing closer - dropping -dropping - NAVIGATOR 600 feet... STUART Looking good, Windsor... watch it - there's a 30 knot cross wind and the runway's icy - atta boy -atta BOY NAVIGATOR Four hundred feet - two hund- 165 IN THE COCKPIT 165 Suddenly from out of the darkness the crew sees THE RUNWAY, RIGHT UNDER THEM - PILOT JESUS! CONTINUED 58 (X) 'l 165 CONTINUED - 165 He SLAMS CONTROLS - the plane TILTS - 166 OUTSIDE 166 Engines SCREAMING, the crew brilliant and skilled, but it's not enough, not enough - the nose comes up but a wingtip DIPS, catches the tarmac - and that's all it takes: The PLANE FLIPS OVER, ROLLS - 166A INSIDE THE TUMBLING PLANE 166A LUGGAGE tumbles in the CABIN - PEOPLE SCREAM - 166B EXT. PLANE - RESUME 166B for a split second we HEAR the SCREAMS of men, women, children, and then all we HEAR - and SEE - is an EXPLOSION. 167 RUNWAY - ANOTHER ANGLE As the plane breaks up and flaming debris SCATTERS. 168 MCCLANE 168 Behind the plane, watching the fireball roll away from him. He gives the scream of an. animal in a trap and falls to his knees. 169 IN THE TOWER 169 Everyone RECOILS at the explosion, which turns this room BLOOD RED with reflected light. CHUNKS OF METAL and PLASTIC boil through the sky. Something HITS the GLASS here, starring it and smearing it with what we hope is only grease. Somewhere SIRENS wail. CUT TO: 170 STUART 170 Silence here, too. His men look at him. Except for ThampSm, who clearly enjoyed his part in the above, their faces are blank. Maybe they're admiring Stuart's incredible coolness. Maybe. STUART (INTO MIKE) That concludes our object lesson for this evening. If the 747 we requested is ready on time and General Esperanza lands unmolested, further lessons can be avoided. CONTINUED 59 1170 CONTINUED - 170 He DISCONNECTS. CUT TO: 171 THE RUNWAY - LONG DOLLY SHOT - NIGHT 171 Firemen and medics scramble over a chaos of metal and fabric that used to be an airplane. WATER everywhere;- snow melted for a hundred yards around from the EXPLOSION. Pieces of luggage, fragments of people's lives: Toys, purses, books, a woman's bloody shoe. McClane weaves through the workers, glazed eyes looking at the plane. I RESCUE WORKER Tower, this is Rescue Three. No (X) survivors. Repeat, no surviv- He stops, looking puzzled at McClane, who is torn, bloody. McClane.sees the look. Laughs bizzarely. MCCLANE Relax, pal, I'm not a survivor. I'm just another victim. He grabs the rescue worker by the collar. MCCLANE(CONT'D) .the last fucking victim he'll ever have. CUT TO: 172 EXT. VAL VERDE MILITARY TRANSPORT--NIGHT ‚Ä¢ .172 173 INT. VAL VERDE MILITARY TRANSPORT--NIGHT 173 Esperanza glances at his watch. Then, with a slight grimace and moan, he begins.to massage his chained lower legs with his (X) cuffed hands. ESPERANZA Dios, los calambres! (to his guard) Muchacho, si possible a removar eses? (with a grin) De donde a yo caminar, si? The young guard shakes his head. (X) YOUNG GUARD (X.) Desculpe me, mi General. No tengo (X) el permiso. (X) CONTINUED 60 (X) X173 CONTINUED - 173 Esperanza's eyes flash for a moment - and then he smiles paternally, fumbles a cigar out of his breast pocket. ESPERANZA Bueno, joven, bueno! Tu eres un soldado excelente! Ahora, en vez del libertad - dame un fosforo? Flattered, the kid lights him up. CUT TO: 174 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH - NIGHT 174 In the silence since the crash, no SOUNDS here, except the faint MONITORING of the Tower and aircraft chatter and the muted AUDIO of a TV. Garber breaks the silence. GARBER Sir. They've done everything we've anticpated... so far- Stuart smiles tightly at the unvoiced question. STUART Don't worry, Captain. If this goes into extra innings... (A SHRU ) Well, we'll just call an our man in the other team's locker room. And - almost in afterthought - he wipes the flight number from the clear glass board. CAMERA PUSHES to the TELEVISION. 175 ON THE SCREEN 175 SAM COLEMAN is on CAMERA, "live" supered over her face. She's OUTSIDE on the airfield, her NEWS HELICOPTER beside her. In the distance behind barricades we see the CRASH SITE. SAM --hundreds of people in the terminal heard or saw the crash, but still there has been no official word from authorities. Meanwhile - despite the fact that only one runway has been closed due to the tragedy, several dozen airliners are visible from where I stand, endlessly circling the field. Rumors abound that somehow the accident has interfered with normal landing procedures here. (MORE) CONTINUED 61 (ÔøΩ ) 175 CONTINUED - 175 SAM (CONT'D) Other reports say there were difficulties in the tower before the crash, and that they may have even contributed to it. One thing is certain: With weather conditions worsening, the problem here and in the sky above us will continue to grow. This is Samantha Coleman at (X) Dulles International Airport. CUT TO: 176 INT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - NIGHT 176 PHONES ringing off the. wall; pitiful attempts at damage control. A DOCTOR gives Barnes a proper bandage on his cut. McClane sits dazed on a bench, eyes looking at nothing - the coffee someone gave him ignored. Trudeau.appears. TRUDEAU Barnes. We have to warn those planes we got a lunatic down here who likes to pretend he's the tower. Get up to the cab and get us on the air. BARNES On the air? With what? TRUDEAU With your Goddamn brain! Barnes leaves. McClane blinks, coming around to reality. Sees Trudeau. MCCLANE Trudeau... I... I... TRUDEAU You don't have to say anything, McClane. We all know how you feel. MCCLANE Do you? Do you? I've been a cop 13 years... Everything from... lost kids to hostages... but... all of it was... taking care of business... taking care of peoplle... until tonight. Tonight, everything I did, everything I tried... (VOICE TIGHT) I never felt so useless. CONTINUED 62 (X) 0176 CONTINUED - 176 TRUDEAU (feeling his pain) Our own SWAT team's gone. We called the Government for help. They're sending in a special Army unit. Tactical Terrorist Team... McClane sees something else there in his eyes. MCCLANE And...? TRUDEAU Your wife's plane...? (as McClane tenses) They keep broadcasting, even though we can't answer. They... they'll run out of fuel in 90 minutes. CAMERA PUSHES IN on McClane. CUT TO: 177 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - NIGHT 177 Thornberg at the window again. Face suspicious. HOLLY Listen, Dick - ("INNOCENTLY") That is your name? Dick, if you're going-Eo keep getting this close, you think you could change aftershaves? THORNBERG (DRYLY) Anything else? HOLLY A stronger mouthwash would be nice. He glares at her, moves down the aisle. 178 WITH HIM 178 he goes into the coach section, moves to the row with his NEWS CREW. He shakes a sleeping ASSISTANT awake. THORNBERG Victor. Victor! VICTOR Uh - yeah, what? CONTINUED 63 1 )l78 CONTINUED - 178 THORNBERG Did you pack the radio mikes from the shoot, or put them in your carry on? VICTOR Are you crazy? I wouldn't let those assholes check 'em - THORNBERG I love you. Get one of the receivers. Puzzled, the man pulls his bag from under the seat, gets one out. 4 THORNBERG Can you tune in the cockpit frequency? I want to hear what's going on. VICTOR 4 Should be on our band... He TUNES the mike's receiver, monitoring. with an earplug. FROWNS. VICTOR (PUZZLED) Nothing. THORNBERG You just said it would work - VICTOR It is working. But all I get is... (LISTENING AGAIN) The weather recording. It's like... like the tower isn't there. CAMERA TIGHTENS on Thornberg. Wheels start spinning. Leaving, he pats Victor's shoulder. THORNBERG Stay on it. Tell me if anything changes. CUT TO: 179 EXT. REAR OF TERMINAL - NIGHT 179 LIGHTS in the SKY cut through the SWIRLING SNOW. Two ARMY (X) HELICOPTERS dance through the air towards us, and SET DOWN with a (X) ROAR, their BACKWASH creating a Yukon like STORM. (X) CONTINUED 64 (X) !179 CONTINUED - 179 Waiting here are Trudeau; The JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MEN we saw earlier; Lorenzo, worried about his status - and McClane, plain worried. As the ROTORS keep TURNING, SOLDIERS and the CHOPPER CREWS hustle out of the choppers, the wind blowing over them and their equipment. A powerfully built MAJOR in his late 40's walks forward past the waiting men like someone in a receiving line. Everyone SHOUTS over the NOISE. I GRANT We're the Triple T's. I'm Major Grant. i JUSTICE MAN (FORMAL) Rollins. Department of Justice. TRUDEAU (POLITE) Trudeau. Chief of Air Operations. LORENZO (ASS KISSING) Lorenzo. Terminal Police. You want something... you got it. MCCLANE (UNIMPRESSED) This is it? A dozen men? Pause. Grant stops, looks at him. GRANT One crisis... one dozen. Who are you? MCCLANE John McClane. GRANT McClane... Oh, yeah, you're the one who tried to save that plane tonight. (STEPPING CLOSER) You showed some balls out there, McClane. Now show some sense and let the pros handle things. MCCLANE Unfortunately the pros are on the other side. Colonel Stuart is one of your boys - CONTINUED 65 (X) )179 CONTINUED - (2) 179 GRANT (TIGHTLY) Not any more, he's not. (to the group) Gentlemen, we are here to take down Colonel Stuart... and we will take him down. You see, I served, with him. And I taught him everything he knows. MCCLANE (QUIETLY) Yeah. But what if he took some night courses? 4 Grant REACTS, recovers. GRANT cto his men) All right, hustle! Command post will be in the Airport Police office. I want to be tied into the Tower and every sysytem that's still working in fifteen minutes! SERGEANT You heard the man, troop! Move it! GEAR and WEAPONS get hustled into the building as the Choppers LIFT OFF. MCCLANE Trudeau. (as he turns) Did things just get better... or worse? CUT TO: 180 INT. CAB - NIGHT 180 Barnes, huddled with the engineers. Desperate now. 2ND ENGINEER Lights! Big portable lights! We set up on the field and - BARNES And wait for those lunatics to shoot them out? And where do we get those "big portable lights"? Borrow them from Batman? 1ST ENGINEER Semaphore! That gets my vote- CONTINUED 66 (X) I80 CONTINUED - 180 BARNES Your vote? You voted for Dukakis! (exasperated, to another MAN) What about the airphone idea? 3RD ENGINEER Eighteen planes up there; only five have those phones. We got through to three of them, still trying with the others. BARNES Great, that leaves thirteen accidents waiting to happen. Are they still bucking headwinds? That's eating up most of their fuel. 1ST ENGINEER Just checked the weather. Headwinds slamming right into everybody over the outer marker. The planes with enough fuel were already shunted to ATLANTA - Suddenly Barnes' expression changes. BARNES Damn! The Outer Marker! (on t eir loo s It's a beacon, right? A radio beacon, that sends out this "boop-boop-boop" so they know they're over it, right? 1ST ENGINEER So? BARNES So, who says that radio signal has to be just "boop-boop boop"? 2ND ENGINEER (GETTING IT) We switch the tower freqency over to the one for the beacon - BARNES -and we can talk to the planes and those bas ar s w o did this will never know! And as faces brighten for the first time in hours, we CUT TO: 67 (X) ;'1181 INT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - NIGHT 181 WIDEN from a tubular ELECTRONIC DEVICE with torn out wires at both ends as it CLUNKS down on a table. The second Triple T SERGEANT wipes grease from his hands, shows it to the men here. 2ND SERGEANT Traced the signal, found it in the luggage area. they've been tapped into the tower all night. McClane and Trudeau look at Lorenzo, who looks away, embarassed. The young CORPORAL has set up his radio gear in the receptionist's area. Now, he TUNES in that GARBLE. MCCLANE That's all we keep hearing. Can you do anything with it? CORPORAL TELFORD (shaking his head) If I had a few hours... MCCLANE (checking his watch) My wife has less than two. TELFORD (SYMPATHETIC) I only got transferred in yesterday regular comm man got appendicitis. But word is nobody's better at this than Major Grant. MCCLANE Except Colonel Stuart? The kid can't answer. Then Grant appears, the MAN from the Justice Department in tow. GRANT (as he moves) Trudeau. Lorenzo. You brief me on that plane he asked for, I'll fill you in on my orders. In my office. Now. "My office" meaning Lorenzo's. Lorenzo glowers at that, but the little group moves in that direction - then the JUSTICE GUY puts up his hand to block McClane - JUSTICE DEPT. GUY No civilians. Trudeau looks at McClane, sympathetic - and then the door SHUTS. CUT TO: 68 (X) 182 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - COCKPIT 182 The Navigator suddenly sits upright at his 'phones. 2ND OFFICER What the fuck - PILOT What is it? I 2ND OFFICER The outer marker beeper? It's not beeping. It's talking. And saying this he turns up a DIAL - BARNES' VOICE (FROM SPEAKER) --tention, all aircraft in Dulles landing pattern. Attention. This is Chief Engineer Leslie Barnes. d I have been authorized to brief you in full. At this time this is the only channel available to us. Here is the situation. Approximately 2 hours ago - 183 INT. PLANE - LAVATORY AREA 183 Between business class and coach. Grinning, Victor pulls Thornberg through the curtain, pokes an earplug into Thornberg's ear. We TIGHTEN on him. BARNES' VOICE (TINNY) -the terrorists have cut all our systems and now have control of everything except this channel. THORNBERG Holy shit - we - we gotta get this on tape - Victor GRINS. And pulls a MICROCASSETTE RECORDER from his shirt pocket. It is ALREADY JACKED INTO THE RECEIVER and TURNING. Thornberg all but cackles. BARNES' VOICE We believe this channel is secure but your own transmissions are not. Do not repeat do not attempt to reply on your own frequencies to this broadcast. These people have already caused one crash by impersonating OUR TOWER- THORNBERG Jesus! ÔøΩ._ 184 HOLLY 184 looking suspiciously at the little piece of the two men still visible. CUT TO: 185 INT. CAB - SAME TIME 185 Barnes is using a TELEPHONE which is JURY RIGGED with some electronic lines. BARNES(CONT'D) (into a TELEPHONE) -repeat, do not accept any instructions claiming to be from our tower unless you hear your own flight recorder access code. We will get this from your respective airlines and use it for confirmation. 186 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE 186 where Thornberg's expression is like a man having sex. BARNES VOICE (TINNY) Repeat: the terrorists have cut off the two systems that can allow you to land: The field lights for a manual landing and the ILS for an instrument one. A special US Army unit is already here and preparing to take out the terrorists. CAMERA TIGHTENS on Thornberg: Orgasm. CUT TO: 187 INT. DULLES BASEMENT - NIGHT 187 TIGHT ON A CRACKED MIRROR. Marvin is checking himself out in a nice, long topcoat which has unfortunately recently been covered with grease and grime (not to mention the bullet holes.) CAMERA ADJUSTS as McClane comes in. MARVIN Hey, officer. Thought you'd be upstairs by now, hanging out with the top brass. MCCLANE They kind of busted me down to buck private. CONTINUED 187 CONTINUED - 187 MARVIN I know that feeling. Interested in a nice coat? MCCLANE (RECOGNIZING IT) The lining's ripped and it needs some invisible mending. Keep it. Think you can get me on line upstairs again? Marvin chuckles, moves over to a table and pulls aside a cloth. All electronic stuff there. MARVIN I was just a kid, working those radios on the B-29's. But I kept up. Still read Popular Mechanics. These transistor things, I'm on top of 'em - Marvin realizes that McClane has'a funny expression. MARVIN You okay, son? 2188 NEW ANGLE 188 FOCUS CHANGE. McClane STARES at the table... and one of the scrambled transceivers - one with a GREEN L.E.D.! CUT TO: 189 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH - NIGHT 189 Stuart is in the pulpit, his men attentive. STUART We've pussied out around the world, over and over again. We drop the Shah, fuck Marcos, throw Noriega overboard. You know what they think around the globe? The worst thing that can happen to you is to have America as a friend. And now that stain head Gorbachov, he's got some nice English suits, and a wife without gold teeth, so now the Commies are nice? Gentlemen, we are soldiers and we do not believe in fairy tales sweet though they may seem. Well, tonight, the pattern ends. The dominos will fall no more and the ramparts will remain upri- CONTINUED 71 189 CONTINUED - 189 THOMPS ON (X) (ca 11 ing--out.3- Sir! General Esperanza's plane just came on the scope. Stuart hurries up into the choir loft, CAMERA ADJUSTING. He takes up the phone. STUART Attention, Dulles Tower... 190 INT. CAB 190 STUART'S VOICE I am lighting up a runway now. Do not - repeat, do not - attempt to land any planes. Remember, I am monitoring you. And now, like magic - one DISTANT RUNWAY twinkles on. Almost immediately the CHATTER from the sky picks up: QUESTIONS. DEMANDS. PLEADING. BARNES What do we do? TRUDEAU Obey. 191 INT. ESPERANZA'S PLANE - PULLBACK FROM COCKPIT 191 STUART'S VOICE Dulles Tower to FM-i. Dulles Tower to FM-1... VAL VERDE CO-PILOT (IN ENGLISH) This is FM-1, Dulles. We read you. Over. STUART'S VOICE You are to come in on runway fifteen, (X) repeat, runway fifteen. By now the CAMERA is in the REAR CABIN. Just in time to SEE Esperanza STRANGLE the nice young corporal with the chain from his handcuffs. He lets the body drop, nice and soft so it doesn't make a sound. Taking the handcuff key from the body, he frees himself... (X) CUT TO: 192 INT. BASEMENT 192 McClane is examining the Scrambler, excited. MCCLANE The code... the code's still punched... where did you get this? MARVIN Came with the coat; over near the luggage belts. Looks like one of them Japanese radios... can't hold a candle to a nice Zenith if you ask me... You like it, huh? How about twenty dollars? MCCLANE How about I let you live? MARVIN (handing it over). Man knows how to bargain... CUT TO: 193 INT. ESPERANZA'S PLANE 193 VAL VERDE PILOT Dulles, this is contrary to our instructions. We are to land on Runway One and be met by representitives of your Justice DEPARTMENT - He STOPS. He's seen Esperanza, who has come into the cockpit holding the corporal's pistol.. ESPERANZA Capitain, please tell the tower you will proceed as ordered. PILOT (PAUSES; THEN) Roger, Dulles. Proceeding to runway FIFTEEN - Suddenly the CO-PILOT LEAPS for Esperanza! Esperanza WHIRLS, SHOOTS TWICE - one shot KILLS him - but one SHATTERS 194 ONE OF THE SIDE WINDOW PANELS 194 and WIND and SNOW thunder INSIDE like a WALL. 73 , \ )195 INT. CAB - INTERCUT 195 Everyone has REACTED to the SHOT and NOISE - and now ANOTHER SHOT. 196 INT. ESPERANZA'S PLANE -NIGHT 196 TILT UP from the PILOT'S BODY on the floor, already flecked with SNOW. Esperanza is at the controls, trying to SEE through the SWIRLING WHIRLWIND. Cursing, he flies with one hand; with the other he REACHES UP and FEELS ABOVE the RADIO PANEL for something he expects to be there: And it IS - one of the DISTINCTIVE SCRAMBLED TRANSCEIVERS. ESPERANZA (INTO IT) Eagle Nest, this is Falcon... Mayday. Eagle Nest, this is Falcon... Mayday! 197 INT. CAB 197 They HEAR the GARBLED ALIEN SOUND - 198 INT. VIRGINIA CHURCH 198 Stuart is startled to hear this, but grabs his transceiver 7-7 STUART Go ahead, Falcon - CUT TO: 199 INT. BASEMENT 199 ESPERANZA'S VOICE Repeat, I have lost cabin pressure. (X) Near zero visibility. I must drop out of the storm. I can land but I must land now, on the first outgoing runway. Repea , I cannot circle around to runway fifteen. PULLBACK. McClane listens, grinning. He takes the airport map from his pocket, hands it the Marvin. MCCLANE Marvin... you show me a shortcut to runway fifteen and you got yourself a liner for that coat. 200 STUART - IN VIRGINIA CHURCH - INTERCUT 200 STUART (OFF MIKE) Shit! CONTINUED 74 (X) 200 CONTINUED - 200 He snaps his fingers. Someone produces a map, points out - STUART (nodding, into TRANSCEIVER) Roger, Falcon. That would be... Eleven West-3: It's a straight run from the ocean - INT. ESPERANZA'S PLANE - INTERCUT 201 as he DESCENDS from the eye of the storm the SNOW in the cockpit ABATES a bit. Now we can SEE the airfield - and the ILLUMINATED RUNWAY which is PERPENDICULAR to the plane. ESPERANZA Thank you for telling me, Eagle Nest. But if you could show it to me as well I would be grateful. In the church, Stuart grins at Esperanza's coo]., signals Thompson. A switch is THROWN. The FIRST RUNWAY goes OFF and a NEW RUNWAY lights up DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the plane. ESPERANZA Gracias', Amigos. 202 INT. RUNWAY TUNNEL 202 MCCLANE (HEARING THIS) Eleven West? What the fuck happened to fifteen? (fumbling-with the map) ;up to my ass in fucking terrorists again. I gotta start reading my Goddamn horoscope... 203 INSERT - THE, MAP 203 His FINGER moves along the runway to the code numbers. MCCLANE'S VOICE Eleven W4, W5 - Bingo. 204 BACK TO SCENE 204 He turns. CAMERA PUSHES to the whits wall numbers here: "11W3". An ARROW indicates "ACCESS GRID." ESPERANZA'S VOICE Eagle Nest, do you copy? I'm coming down, now. CONTINUED 75 -/204 CONTINUED - 204 STUART'S VOICE We copy, Falcon. We'll have you in five minutes. MCCLANE (TO HIMSELF) Not if I can help it, asshole. He turns and begins running down the tunnel. CUT TO: 205 STUART - IN VIRGINIA CHURCH 205 he tosses the command mike to one of his men, throws a weapon over his shoulder and leads Garber, Thompson and Kahn in a rush (X) out the rear door. 206 INT. CAB 206 REACTIONS as the PREVIOUS lit runway GOES DARK and a DIFFERENT ONE LIGHTS UP. 206 INT. ESPERANZA'S PLANE - NIGHT 206 Wincing against the blowing snow and wind, the General expertly trims his descent. He reaches for a co-pilot's control and sweeps the dead man to the floor, bites down on his cigar. The plane begins to VIBRATE, but he humms to himself. He's the scum of the earth. But one hell of a pilot. CUT TO: 207 INT. ACCESS TUNNEL 207 McClane, breathless, reaches the ladder. The grid above him is bigger than a doorway, made of heavy industrial steel. (X) RADIO VOICE Isee your lights. Wheels down. 5 seconds ETA. McClane checks his pistol clip with a snap. MCCLANE Come to poppa, you son-of-a-bitch- He flies up the ladder - and BRUISES his shoulder against the locked grid. MCCLANE Shit! CUT TO: 76 (X) )208 THE PLANE 208 DROPPING - 209 STUART AND SOLDIERS - IN JEEP ON AIRFIELD 209 Their BREATH clouding inside the still cold JEEP as it BOUNCES along. Garber shines a FLASHLIGHT into the falling snow, illuminates a snow-covered runway number sign: "EIGHT WEST." The miltary plane ROARS overhead! 210 THE TUNNEL 210 BLAM! BLAM! McClane shoots off the lock apparatus of the grid! A RICOCHET PINGS off one of the grids hydraulic hinges and McClane winces as metal splinters sail by. Then he begins to muscle the heavy grid upwards. 211 UP ABOVE 211 A FIELD of SNOW and ICE. But now a BLACK RECTANGLE EMERGES from it - it's the TUNNEL GRID, SNOW falling through it - the damn thing must weight over 300 pounds - McClane gets his head and shoulders up and out. Looks at - 212 THE PLANE - HALF A MILE AWAY 212 about to hit the runway - 213 BACK TO SCENE 213 McClane pushes upwards - grunts - when he shifts his grip his SKIN RIPS on the cold metal - with a grimace, he pushes his rifle out, starts to follow - 214 BELOW 214 the damaged hydraulic hinge suddenly SNAPS with a squish of thick fluid. 215 ABOVE 215 the 300 pound grid THUDS down on McClane's back. He GROANS, stunned. 216 THE PLANE 216 SCREECHES down on the runway! 217 THE SCENE - BLAZING FAST INTERCUTS 217 A) MCCLANE - dazed, trapped, he looks up and SEES - B) THE PLANE - 1/4 mile away, coming right towards him- CONTINUED 77 ) 217 CONTINUED - 217 C) MCCLANE - struggling - still PINNED to the runway like a bug in the Natural History Museum. Now we HEAR the ROAR of the. jet's ENGINES - D) THE PLANE - 1/8 mile away - E) MCCLANE'S FEET - still in the tunnel, they GROPE for leverage on the steps -and SLIP! Now they kick away at AIR - 218 MCCLANE AND PLANE - IN ONE SHOT 218 It's.coming, coming, COMING. Desperate, McClane sees that part of the rifle is half under the grid. Now, he puts all his energy into levering the rifle against the steel. Slowly, slowly, sweat breaking out on his forehead, he levers the rifle higher and higher, the rifle in turn levering the grid upward, an inch at a time finally, it's high enough for him to JAM the rifle's bayonet ring into the grid while the cheek notch of the stock perches precariously on the lip of the hole. AND THE PLANE IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE. McClane DIVES OUT OF THE HOLE. 219 NEW ANGLE 219 McClane rolls away from the wheels, which miss him by inches. The PLANE SMACKS into the half-open grid, which goes FLYING, the plane hardly dented, the rifle SNAPPING like a toothpick, the scrambler CRUNCHING like a bug McClave kisses asphalt, WINCES at the SCORCH of jet exhaust five feet over his head. 220 THE PLANE 220 Skids roughly to a stop a hundred yards away. McCl:ane:gets to his feet, sucks in air - and heads for the plane. 221 STUART AND SOLDIERS - SAME TIME 221 Close enough to SEE the plane as it STOPS - STUART (POINTING) There -! 222 INT. PLANE 222 Esperanza secures the controls, moves to the doorway and spins the wheelock. It opens with a HISS and the steps DROP DOWN. (X) CONTINUED 78 r-) 222 CONTINUED - 222 ESPERANZA (breathing deeply) (X) Freedom. MCCLANE'S VOICE Not yet. McClane's FIST smacks in, knocking Esperanza back from the door. I 223 NEW ANGLE 223 McClane comes up the steps, gun leveled at the startled fugitive. MCCLANE Thought you'd pull this off, didn't you? I guess you didn't count on me being here. Actually, I didn't count on me being here. ESPERANZA W-who are you? MCCLANE Just a cop who's spent half his career busting scumbag lowlife dope dealers. Looks like it's business as usual. Think this will look good on my record? Suddenly BULLETS PING on the hatch inches from McClane's head. ESPERANZA No. NcClane 'DIVES and rolls into the cabin - FIRES TWICE out the door and then almost on instinct whirls - Esperanza's snatched up the rifle from the dead corporal but (X) McClane's SHOT hits him in the SHOULDER. With a HOWL, Esperanza falls backwards but hangs on to the gun. 224 THE HATCHWAY 224 GARBER and another man are there, rifles UP - BACK TO SCENE McClane FIRES, blowing a hole in h m so ' THROAT, and as (X) Garber's slugs come closer, McClane IVES into the cockpit, BULLETS smacking all around him from Garber and Esperanza - 79 THE COCKPIT 225 - McClane SLAMS the door behind him, LOCKS IT. BULLETS PING into the door, which INDENTS from the hits which don't penetrate it. 226 OUTSIDE THE PLANE 226 GARBER helps Esperanza down the steps. Stuart runs to him. STUART General! ESPERANZA (indicating the wound) I'm all right - he said he was a ,policeman... AMAZED) A policeman - PUSH to Stuart. He knows which policeman... GARBER He went in the cockpit - STUART He's going to hell. 227 COCKPIT 227 Silence. McClane REACTS to the.two dead men sharing the tiny space with him... the SNOW and GLASS everywhere... and then he crawls to the door, gingerly tries it. IT WON'T MOVE. He tries harder. 228 OTHER SIDE OF DOOR 228 A RESCUE AXE is across the door like a barricade. 229 IN THE COCKPIT. 229 McClane looks worried - and then STUART (SHOUTING) McClane! I assume it's you, McClane. (X) 230 EXT. FRONT OF PLANE - NIGHT 230 Stuart, Esperanza and two of the others ring the nose of the plane, weapons out. Garber - the last man - comes up, delayed by locking McClane in the cabin. CONTINUED 80 130 CONTINUED - 230 STUART You're ite a little soldier. So - consider this a mi itary unera And he OPENS FIRE. The others instantly join in. 231 INSIDE THE COCKPIT 231 McClane DUCKS as FIVE MACHINE GUNS BEGIN TO RIP THE PLACE APART. What's left of the glass IMPLODES, and ricochets begin SLAMMING around the room - McClane eats floor, but the snaking lines of bullets criss cross the cockpit, searching him out - MCCLANE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD - Glass rakes his forehead, blood misting his vision - He crawls N to the door - throws his weight against it - nothing - 232 OUTSIDE 232 Having decimated the front of the plane, Stuart signals and now they flank the sides. What's left of the window glass reflects their FIRE like a Fourth of July show - Esperanza alone SMILES as he shoots - 233 MCCLANE 233 he's HIT in the left hand. 234 OUTSIDE 234 STUART How many grenades we have? GARBER 2 EACH - STUART Use 'em. Pop. Pop pop pop. Each man PULLS TWO PINS - THROWS - Then they run for their jeep, carrying the body of their comrade- (X) 235 IN THE COCKPIT 235 Clunk-clunk-clunkCLUNK. TEN GRENADES land and BOUNCE here like hailstones from hell. They SIZZLE. McClane rolls over and suddenly SEES - 236 LEVER BESIDE PILOT'S SEAT 236 CAMERA PUSHES to it: "EJECT." 81 2 3 7 MCCLANE 237 in one move vaults into the seat, snaps on the belt, grabs the LEVER - 238 WIDER 238 with a WOOSH and a ROAR, the ejection seat ROCKETS UPWARDS, the steel vanguard above McClane's head PUNCHING THROUGH what's left of the canopy. 239 OUTSIDE 239 the cockpit EXPLODES! It's all so FAST and EYE SEARING we're not sure if McClane is clear - but then we SEE 240 MCCLANE - IN MID AIR 240 No sound, now, just the WHOOSH of the air going past - the ejection seat is TUMBLING - MCCLANE (WEAK) JESUS - WHOMP! The 'chute OPENS with violent YANK. MCCLANE (WEAKER) Christ! He DROPS from frame. 241 THE BURNING PLANE 241 At the jeep, Stuart and his men REACT as WATER from MELTING SNOW (X) runs past their feet. Garber POINTS to the ghostly image of the 'chute, half a mile away - GARBER THERE - But Stuart turns at the SOUND of SIRENS. 242 NEW ANGLE 242 The calvary is coming... and it's not his. 243 BACK TO SCENE 243 STUART Fall back to the Church! Now! (X) Helping the wounded Esperanza, they vanish into the darkness. CUT TO: 82 THE PARACHUTE - ON THE GROUND 244 BILLOWING as something struggles under it. MCCLANE'S VOICE (MUFFLED) Where's - the fucking - door? He staggers out from under the yards of silk, COVERED IN SNOW -fights the vertigo from his flight - runs off. CUT TO: 245 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - NIGHT 245 The stewardess sticks her head into the cockpit. STEWARDESS They're getting pretty squirrely back there... in fact, so am I. PILOT We're right over Washington... see if you can get any TV. That'll settle 'em down. STEWARDESS Works for me. I'll - She STOPS. She's SEEN 246 THE FUEL GAUGE - HER POV 246 Almost on EMPTY - 247 BACK TO SCENE 247 She REACTS. No one says anything. She composes herself... goes out. 248 INT. BUSINESS CLASS 248 Holly types a line on her computer. Then she REACTS to the (X) SOUND of crumpled paper. CAMERA ADJUSTS as she looks at Thornberg. He's LISTENING to the TAPE RECORDING with an earplug and then drafting his own document. He crosses out a line, adds a word - looks at it proudly. (X) THORNBERG (sotto, to himself) Boy, am I good... HOLLY Writing your acceptance speech for the video sleaze awards? CONTINUED 83 ..ÔøΩ 248 CONTINUED - 248 THORNBERG (in odd good humor) Try Pulitzer, Mrs. McClane. But now that stewardess reaches up and turns on the TV PROJECTOR. As the lights DARKEN, Thornberg decides this is perfect cover. pretending he's getting a blanket overhead, he slips his credit card in one of airphones. Then he moves down the aisle, phone I inside his jacket. STEWARDESS Sir, please - we may be landing at any moment -the seat belt light is- THORNBERG I- I'm going to be sick - He makes a croaking noise to sell it, stumbles into the lavatory. THORNBERG (dials, then:) This is Richard Thornberg. Put me through to the News Director. (LISTENING) I know he's getting ready for the broadcast, that's why I want him! Now get him or start typing your resume! CUT TO: 249 INT. AIR POLICE OFFICE 249 The DOCTOR patches McClane's right hand; one of the soldiers gives McClane a cigarette. MCCLANE Esperanza's down... but he's hurt. I killed one more man... that's six (X) they've lost all together. LORENZO (UNIMPRESSED) Maybe if we knew how many they had to start with, we could get excited. But if they got fifty guys, it's a little early to break out the (X) champagne. GRANT McClane, we don't need a loose cannon on this deck. What if they decide to crash another plane in retaliation for your little stunt? CONTINUED 84 (X) 249 CONTINUED - 249 r,1 MCCLANE (INDICATING BARNES) Last I heard, they can't do that again. And if I grabbed Esperanza, the situation would be over. GRANT Maybe they're more creative than you I think! McClane, we're here to jerk off that cocksucker until he tries to take off - period! This time you're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time! McClane stands, glares at the two officers. He flips away the cigarette, walks away, pissed. MCCLANE .The story of my life. But the enlisted men seem sympathetic. And so does 250 BARNES 250 Who now pulls McClane aside. BARNES McClane. You said they showed up there right away? MCCLANE Stuart's guys? Yeah. That means they're on the field or close - BARNES I think I know where. Interested, McClane'follows Barnes around the corner. 251 WHEN THEY'RE ALONE 251 Barnes unfolds some.plot plans. BARNES These are the old plans when the longer runways went in... that's twelve years ago. And it looks like they did some modifications on site... moved Tracon, phone, ILS - all the underground stuff -so they could handle drainage. If I'm right, all of it would run along the edge of the airport property - and go right past this neighborhood. CONTINUED 85 (X) ÔøΩ. - 251 CONTINUED - 251 MCCLANE So - if they know this too - they could be sitting around the fireplace and hanging their fucking stockings in one of these houses? BARNES Maybe. Yeah. Well, seventy eighty per cent, five percent either way- MCCLANE Are you sure or not? BARNES I was sure about tying into the antenna array. And... and I got five officers killed. MCCLANE You didn't do that - you did your JOB - BARNES I had a choice and I made it. But those cops didn't have a choice, and neither do those soldiers now. I'm an engineer, McClane. It's supposed to a wires and circuits... iron and steel. Not flesh and blood. Not lives. If...if I'm wrong again... I don't want anyone else to get orders that could get them killed. MCCLANE (after a moment) Then how would you feel about a volunteer? CUT TO: 252 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - NIGHT 252 The passengers' patience has begun to frazzle. The Older Woman beside Holly is no exception. OLDER WOMAN Somebody ought to get their ass kicked for this mess, that's for sure. HOLLY It's hard to blame anyone for the WEATHER - CONTINUED 86 252 CONTINUED - 252 OLDER WOMAN Yeah? What about that porker Willard Scott? (TO HERSELF) I shoulda taken the bus. At least they can pull over for food and gas. 253 HOLLY 253 I REACTS to what the woman's said. As the Stewardess PASSES, Holly signals her - RISES halfway to meet her. STEWARDESS. Yes? HOLLY I... was just wondering. Our flight was only supposed to.be 5 1/2 hours- (X) (ALMOST SHEEPISH) Do we have enough fuel for all this endless circling? Pause. The Stewardess" face eases into an official smile. STEWARDESS Oh, of course we do. They anticipate little proems like this. She moves away. We TIGHTEN on Holly. She's chilled by the lie. Worried, she TURNS... looks at the AirPhone. X) CUT TO: 254 TIGHT ON MCCLANE'S WAIST 254 HIS BEEPER SHOWS as he CLIMBS something - we WIDEN. He and Barnes are outside a HOUSE that backs up to the Airport. Both peer over the fence. It's a modest DC suburban tract job. People TRIM a TREE. It could be Norman Rockwell. MCCLANE Hell. These people are hanging their Goddamn stockings. They DROP down into the snow, CRUNCH to the next fence. Look AT 255 SECOND HOUSE 255 No tree: People having dinner, a MENORAH burning on the windowsill. MCCLANE - and these people aren't. 87 (X) r.ÔøΩ 55A NEW ANGLE 255A They've come to a corner; now they go back to the street, spread Barne's map out on the hood of Barne's still humming CAR. Far behind them, we SEE the illuminated airport TOWER, centered in the dark blot that should be brightly active runways. Barnes reaches inside his jacket, fumbles in his jammed plastic pocket thingie for a little flashlight. He checks the map. BARNES Four more possibles. Three houses... and a church. They cross the intersection on foot, walk over a lawn. It's further to the next place; more prosperous yard. Suddenly McClane puts up his hand -Barnes stops - both look at - 257 NEXT PROPERTY - THE CHURCH 257 Baker is walking, almost casually, around the rear of the house. 258 BACK TO SCENE 258 McClane and Barnes huddle, whisper. MCCLANE Could be a sentry - BARNES And he could just be out for a walk- MCCLANE Then why is he going over his own footprints? 259 THEIR POV - CLOSER 259 Indeed, gar's steady progress has made a trench around the church property, and the distinctive PRINT of his galoshes now makes double images. 260 BACK TO SCENE 260 MCCLANE (WHISPER) Stay here. Get ready to call the marines. BARNES (WHISPER) I thought they were Army. MCCLANE (WHISPER) Who the fuck cares, just be ready. CONTINUED 88 260 CONTINUED - 260 Saying this, McClane takes his own gun from his holster and puts it in the back of his trousers... then moves off. Barnes takes out a cellular phone, lurks under a tree. 261 MCCLANE 261 moves from shadow to shadow and tree to tree like an Indian I stalking a settler... closer... closer... CUT TO: 262 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - NIGHT 262 Holly drops her credit card in the airphone. Starts to DIAL. CUT TO: 263 MCCLANE 263 Baker is only a yard away. Closer - closer - and then -BEEP! (X) 264 BAKER 264 Instantly whips his head around, the hidden MAC 10 coming up, but E he winter outerwear slows him. McClane. DIVES on him. (X) 265 BARNES 265 REACTS, begins to dial the phone. REACTS to 266 INSERT - PHONE 266 The dial reads NO SVC. 267 BACK TO SCENE 267 BARNES SHIT! He raises the antenna, realizes he's got to move - runs towards the street. 268 MCCLANE AND BAKER 268 CRASH into the fence with a CRACK. McClane ha Baker gun (X) hand and SLAMS it down on the fence n -again -blood wells - the gun DROPS ker OW", taking McClane away (X) from the weapon -They trade bru unches - 89 269 INT. THE VIRGINIA CHURCH - NIGHT 269 Through the rear window here we SEE the fence GIVE, and bend (X) AGAIN, but the SOUND is muffled by the WIND and the GLASS. CUT TO: 270 INT. AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - NIGHT 270 Lorenzo WRITES as Grant REACTS - LORENZO You're where - you crazy idiot, why' didn't you - 271 BARNES - INTERCUT 271 He's down the block, STANDING on a snow covered car - BARNES Just get here,.this is it, move your fat ass will ya -? Grant signals his Sergeant and then it's like D-Day as ALL the SOLDIERS and some COPS hustle out - CUT TO: 272 MCCLANE AND BAKER-.' 272 halfway to their feet, the snow bloody between them s3ke (X) KARATE KICKS McClane back into a tree, dazing him---Baker jumps (X) in, RIPS McClane's coat open and - GRABS for the holster! As his hand comes up empty, McClane GRINS, head butts him! CUT TO: 273 VIRGINIA STREET -'NEAR AIRPORT -NIGHT 273 AIRPORT POLICE CARS and the ARMY TRUCK SKID AROUND A CORNER- 274 INT. ARMY TRUCK 274 Soldiers on the benches - Grant standing, rocking like a commuter - Telford, only one unarmed, still MONITORING the radio - GRANT Gentlemen. We have... a situation here... CLICK CLICK SNAP. AMMO CLIPS are broken out - all PIGGYBACKED like combat hardened troops do it, two banana clips taped together with blue tape. (X) CUT TO: 90 (X) 275 MCCLANE AND BAKER 275 CD Baker yanks a combat knife from his boot and'DIVES on McClane -bo i HIT the wall of the church's detached garage -SNOW and ICE fall from the roof, but both men ignore it - McClane's LEFT hand can't force awaÔøΩ akers RIGHT hand and the KNIFE. The bastard is STRONG and now his left jumps out and pins McClane's RIGHT so-it can't help-- The knife creeps towards McClane's throat! McClane is fucke -and then his desperate eyes look at something nearby - We FOCUS CHANGE - it's a big ICICLE -with his last strength McClane.BREAKS out of Baker's grip, grabs the icicle- -and STABS it RIGHT in Baker's EYE! 276 REVERSE ANGLE 276 Baker SCREAMS and falls back - McClane ROLLS with him and with both hands PRESSES the ICICLE HOME SIX MORE INCHES right into the son-of-a-bitch's brain. The body TWITCHES, DIES. McClane falls against the garage as the snow turns CRIMSON all around. Catches his BREATH... and then REACTS to a WHISTLE. 277 BARNES 277 is in the street. Moving in a crouch, McClave heads towards him. Barnes points to 278 ' E 6B' RS 7 278 their truck far down the street, they move forward silently and expertly, shadows starting to surround the church. 279 BACK TO SCENE 279 Grant and Lorenzo come over. LORENZO McClane, what the hell do you think you're doing, playing John Wayne? How'd you like to spend the rest of the night in a cell - GRANT LORENZO - (PAUSE) shut the fuck up and do something useful. Seal off the street. LORENZO You can't talk to me like that - CONTINUED 91 279 CONTINUED - 279 GRANT Oh, no, Carmine? (TURNING) Sergeant! Get this... bureaucrat out of Mr. McClane's face. SERGEANT With pleasure, sir! I And Lorenzo is HUSTLED away. McClane takes out a cigarette. MCCLANE I was wrong. You're not an asshole. GRANT i (lighting him up) No, you were right. I'm just your- kind of asshole. 2ND SERGEANT (COMING UP) Flanking the church now, sir. (X) GRANT Close up the back, then we go in. Fire only on my order. McClane and Barnes watch as the soldiers start to close the net. 280 A SOLDIER 280 moves forward on the lawn into a PRONE FIRING POSITION - and then his GUN MUZZLE hits a TRIP WIRE in the SNOW! 281 IN THE CHURCH 281 Stuart's men REACT to and ALARM - instantly go to ASSIGNED JOBS! Some grab weapons ,others.SMASHthe EQUIPMENT HERE! Esperanza, bandaged, throws a coat on, grabs a pistol! 282 OUTSIDE 282 MCCLANE SHIT! Everyone DIVES for COVER as a STAINED GLASS WINDOW is BROKEN and (X) a rifle POKES out. GUNFIRE lights up the street, REFLECTS on the snow! 283 -INSIDE THE HOUSE 283 STUART Gentlemen, you know what to do- (X) CONTINUED 92 (X) j-ÔøΩ 283 CONTINUED - 283 Looks all around - all change their ammo clips, putting ones with blue adhesive tape into their weapons --and then they RETREAT Tr-om the front windows. We PAN them out the REAR and to the FENCE behind the church - which they SMASH THROUGH. 284 MCCLANE 284 taking cover behind a parked car, he HEARS the SOUND of SPLINTERING WOOD - MCCLANE Fuck... (TURNING) They're. pulling out! And he's on his feet, FIRING his pistol, here outclassed by the assault rifles - 285 WIDER 285 Grant signals his men - they FOLLOW McClane, RUSH the church -there is NO MORE FIRE from the.front - some of the men SMASH through the doors, others run alongside the church - 286 BEHIND THE CHURCH - CRANE SHOT 286 Stuart leads his men and Esperanza towards what LOOKS like BUSHES about 30.yards behind it but as M .L].,ar and 8r reach them and grab at FABRIC we REALIZE it is a SNOW CAMOUFLAGED TARPULIN. 287 REAR OF CHURCH 287 McClane is first here - DUCKS as GUNFIRE erupts ahead of him -then he FIRES at the MUZZLE BLASTS in the darkness - then REACTS to the SOUND of GASOLINE MOTORS - 288 HIGH ANGLE 288 as Stuart and Esperanza and the remaining men ESCAPE on hidden SNOWMOBILES ! McClane FIRES twice at the 289 REAR: SNOWMOBILE 289 Garber is on it - McClane's BULLETS rip through his CHEST -as he falls off it SPINS OUT, ROLLS OVER. 290 INSIDE THE VIRGINIA CHURCH 290 The Airport police crash in behind the tailing soldiers. Barnes looks at the smoking ruins. BARNES (SEEING IT) That equipment! It could land our PLANES - CONTINUED 93 (X) ( 290 CONTINUED - 290 GRANT (BLOCKING HIM) Don't touch it! There were trip wires outside - they.could have - SERGEANT They did. CAMERA RAKES to the sergeant, who is by a BLINKING BOOBY TRAP hidden under a panel. A SOLDIER Got one here, too - looks like C-4 and the mother fucker is primed- GRANT Evacuate! Now! 290A EXT. CHURCH - NIGHT 290A the soldiers and Barnes rush out, bowling over Lorenzo just as he's heading in. As all dive into the snow - 290B WIDER 290B The church EXPLODES, stained glass windows givingthedestruction, an eerie BEAUTY as they SHATTER - 290C BACK TO SCENE 2-90C As debris RAINS DOWN, everyone struggles to their feet. Lorenzo spits out snow, looks around. LORENZO Hey. Where the fuck is McClane? CUT TO: 291 MCCLANE - PULLBACK 291 He's riding the snowmobile that cracked u , carrying the dead man's assault rifle like the Duke on a horse! 292 WIDE SHOT 292 He's coming up on the rear of the other vehicles! 293 BACK TO SCENE 293 Big BOUNCE over a mogul. As the 'mobile settles, McClane pulls the rifle forward. He STEADIES IT alongside the WINDSHIELD of the snowmobile. 94 X1294 THROUGH HIS SIGHTS - 294 We see STUART'S HEAD. 295 BACK TO SCENE 295 MCCLANE This is for flight one fourteen, mother fucker - He FIRES. 296 STUART 296 UNTOUCHED. But he LOOKS back at the SOUND of SHOTS. HAND SIGNALS his flanking riders. 297 WIDER 297 Two of them PEEL OFF; Kan, riding double with ESPERANZA; VAX&, (X) riding alone. Burke SWTTfCHES AMMO CLIPS to a red taped clip. 298 MCCLANE 298 MCCLANE Shit! He AIMS at the APPROACHING SNOWMOBILES -FIRES - 299 KAH 299. Again, UNTOUCHED! Now as he SWEEPS past Esperanza FIRES his PISTOL - 300 BACK TO SCENE 300 McClane DUCKS as bullets BLOW OUT his WINDSHIELD. He SWERVES -and there's the other snowmobile that turned. Burke FIRES (X) on FULL AUTO 301 NEW ANGLE 301 RIDDLED with BULLETS, McClane's snowmobile CAREENS OUT of CONTROL - goes'AIRBORNE - McClane TUMBLES from the seat - and the 'mobile EXPLODES against a runway WIND REGISTER. 302 WITH STUART 302 He looks back at the mini-FIREBALL, signals his men to regroup. All DWINDLE in the landscape of the empty airfield. CUT TO: 95 303 SNOW 303 which MOVES. McClane's HAND comes into view. Face bloodied by glass, jacket ragged, body bruised, he should be looking for (X) a doctor. Instead, he's pawing through the snow - looking for the assault rifle. And finds it, the stock broken. McClane pulls off the clip. He peels off a round into his hand, then another. There's PAPER WADS where brass should meet lead. (X) MCCLANE Blanks... blanks? .Paleing, he rummages in the snow, finds one of the soldier's backpacks. More clips inside. First clip has live ammo. Second clip - blanks CAMERA PUSHES in on McClane until he looks at the red/blue tape and -makes the connection. MCCLANE Oh, my God... He gets. to his feet and RUNS. 304 INT. CAB - NIGHT 304 STUART'S VOICE (FROM RADIO) Attention, tower. This is Colonel Stuart. Is our plane prepared? CUT TO: 305 EXT. AIRPORT - INTERCUT - NIGHT 305 Stuart and his men, on foot near the halted snowmobiles. LIGHT in the distance; hangers; the terminal. TRUDEAU It is. It's in hanger eleven. (X) That's the most remote building we've got. Stuart looks at his map, then the hanger mentioned; not far. STUART We're on our way. If there's another attempt to stop us like the one-you just made, I will fire several Stinger missiles into your terminal. Do I make myself clear? TRUDEAU Quite clear. STUART Good. Please have a ground crew there to confirm the plane's condition. (X) 96 (X) 306 EXT. VIRGINIA CHURCH 306 The Army trucks are parked by the still intact church GARAGE. In the B.G. FIRE FIGHTERS spray down the smoking RUIN; ice FORMING and sparkling everywhere. Grant uses the field radio Telford has set up in the back of the truck. GRANT (INTO RADIO) You're quite capable of confirming it yourself, Colonel. Please don't ask us to gift wrap potential hostages for you. STUART Major Grant, .isn't it? GRANT If you remember me, Colonel, you'll remember I know the drill as well as you do. Check out your own fucking plane. (DISCONNECTING) We move out in five minutes. Body armor for everyone - full metal jackets. We will take them in the hanger or we will shoot that fucking plane out of the sky. Lorenzo, take your men back to the airport and seal off every exit in case anyone tries to break out on the ground. LORENZO (MOVING) .You got it. CUT TO: 307 INT. TV STUDIO - NIGHT 307 A chaotic meeting of news staffers - the PRODUCER waves for quiet,, hovers over a speaker phone. PRODUCER Dick, this is nuts - first, you do Siamese Twin drag queens, not hard news; and second, every station in I town has people out at the airport and none of them has heard even a whisper of this shit you're running DOWN- 97 ' 08 INT. AIRPLANE LAVATORY - INTERCUT 308 THORNBERG Well, none of them is me. You want proof? Try this - And he PLAYS the MICROCASSETTE. We HEAR Barnes' earlier TRANSMISSION. In the TV station, STUNNED reaction. PRODUCER JESUS - THORNBERG I want you to go live, now. Key me in from the files, a publicity shot, whatever, Connie's got one. And a map, steal one from weather- PRODUCER We're on it, we're on it - (GIVING ORDERS) We're cutting in in five minutes! Tell the affiliates if they want in they got three minutes to shout! THORNBERG Network, here we come... CUT TO: 309 EXT. VIRGINIA STREET - NIGHT 309 Local POLICE keep curious NEIGHBORS behind barricades while SOLDIERS get ready at the trucks. 310 INSIDE AN ARMY TRUCK - NIGHT 310 SOLDIER --"I was in Grenada", he says! All LAUGH'- the bitter laughter of the battlefield. GRANT Grenada - five minutes of firefight five weeks of surfing! LAUGHTER, which SUBSIDES a bit as Grant looks at his watch.. a look DUPLICATED by the others. TELFORD (oblivious to this, WISTFUL) I wish I was with you guys for that. CONTINUED 98 310 CONTINUED - 310 GRANT So do we, kid. TELFORD (TOUCHED) Really, sir? GRANT Yeah. Then we wouldn't have to do this. And in a flash, Grant DRAWS his combat knife and SLITS the kid's throat! Telford FLOPS BACK off the bench. Grant is already digging into (X) the cargo pocket of his trousers and he comes out with a transceiver - the same distinctive scrambled transceiver used by Stuarts men! GRANT (INTO TRANSCEIVER) Eagle Nest, this is Hatchling. On schedule and in place. 311 INT. HANGER - NIGHT 311 Stuart holds his transceiver while he looks up at the plane prepared for him. One of his men comes out, gives him the thumbs up sign. STUART (INTO TRANSCEIVER) Roger, Hatchling. We are secure here. You have a green light. Repeat, green light. CUT TO: 312 MARVIN 312 whistling, stacking dolls, shoes, more flotsom from the Airport sea he's scavenged. At a SOUND he TURNS - (X) 313 MCCLANE 313 shivering, battered, trying to come down a ladder. He FALLS the (X) rest of the way. CUT TO: 314 THE SOLDIERS - ON VIRGINIA STREET 314 close the back of the truck - they DRIVE AWAY. Lorenzo, getting (X) in his car, gives them a thumbs up. CONTINUED 99 1 514 CONTINUED - 314 t.Y, J Grant, grinning, returns it. (X) 315 TIGHT ON A TV SET 315 A SPORTS EVENT is SUPERCEDED by a SPECIAL BULLETIN CARD. GROANS. MOANS. CAMERA PANS and we SEE we're in a BAR in the AIRPORT TERMINAL. NEWSCASTER (coming on screen) This is a special bulletin from WZDC (X) News. There was a plane crash earlier this evening at Dulles, where other aircraft continue to circle, with no explanation from Airport or FAA officials. Now, with an exclusive KLA report, here is Dick Thornberg, reporting from the skies over Washington. That gets all the sports fan's attention. Now a SUPER of I TH rnberg's FACE comes up in the corner of the newsroom. THORNBERG'S VOICE (FILTERED) Tom., I'm one of the thousand people who has been circling our Nation's capitol, under the assumption that whatever problem was going on far below me was a normal one. But the truth is far from normal - the truth is terrifying. CUT TO: 316 INT. TERMINAL - NIGHT 316 People walking along.- and then jumping out of the way of- (X) 317 A TERMINAL EMERGENCY CART - SIREN AND LIGHT WAILING 317 MARVIN drives, happy as hell; beside him, in the seat usually (X) reserved for the sick or elderly, is McClane, slowly coming back to normal from his ordeal. 318 THORNBERG -IN LAVATORY 318 THORNBERG INTO PHONE) This is a recording of a conversation between Dulles tower and the captive aircraft overhead. With a smug smile, Thornberg plays the tape again. 100 (X) 319 IN THE AIRPORT BAR 319 The people LISTEN as the tape of Barne's earlier broadcast PLAYS. CUT TO: 320 AIRPORT POLICE OFFICE - NIGHT 320 The golf cart SKIDS to a halt at the receptionist's desk. Lorenzo comes thundering out of his office. LORENZO McClane! Are you out of your fucking mind-? T MARVIN This man's been through serious shit, I give him a break- LORENZO Who the fuck are you? MARVIN (pointing to his NAMETAQ) Marvin, the janitor. Don't need that. custodial enginner crap - MCCLANE (GRABBING LORENZO) Grant - the Terrorist Team -where are they? LORENZO They left to shoot those bastards out of the sky - MCCLANE They're not gonna do that -they're gonna get on the same Goddamn plane and leave with him! Before the Army canned him, Stuart must have loaded that unit with his own guys - LORENZO But - that firefight at the house- MCCLANE A side show to jerk us off - buy them TIME - LORENZO You're completely around the fucking bend, McClane. And you know what else? (reaching for handcuffs) You're under arrest - McClane steps back - raises the assault rifle - FIRES. 101 (X) j ÔøΩÔøΩ 3 21 NEW ANGLE 321 Lorenzo STAGGERS back in shock - and then realizes he's UNSCATHED. LORENZO Wha - how - MCCLANE (showing the clip) These are the bullets they used out there tonight. LORENZO Holy shit - (INTO PHONE) This is Chief Lorenzo. I want every officer recalled now and assembled in body armor with full weaponry in the motor pool in five minutes! It's time to kick ass! He slams the phone down - checks his pistol ammo and rushes out the door - a startled - and appreciative - McClane beside him! CUT TO: 322 INT. AIRPORT BAR - NIGHT 322 As the TAPE RECORDING CONCLUDES, the patrons are in SHOCK. Already several begin to RUN OUT. CAMERA PANS AWAY from the terminal bar towards a GIFT SHOP. There, all the PORTABLE TV's ON DISPLAY are BROADCASTING the SAME THING. A CUSTOMER hearing this DROPS a CRYSTAL VASE. THORNBERG'S VOICE (as tape ENDS) Since then this reporter has learned that the terrorists have virtual control of the entire airport - a fact the authorities have suppressed. The terrorists promise more bloodshed unless their demands are met; and now that special Army Commandoes have arrived at the airport, the liklihood of a full scale and deadly battle is dangerously close - 323 INT. TERMINAL - MAIN CORRIDOR 323 Suddenly full of SCREAMING PEOPLE. 324 FRONT OF TERMINAL 324 A mass EXODUS. People FIGHT for CABS. CUT TO: 102 (X) ÔøΩt 325 INT. CAB 325 They're watching this here, too. TRUDEAU Christ - that fucking asshole - 326 EXT. REAR OF TERMINAL - AIRPORT POLICE PARKING LOT 326 McClane is in Lorenzo's police car; a DOZEN other police cars full of officers behind, lights SPINNING. Lorenzo leans out the window like Ward Bond on Wagon Train. LORENZO (SHOUTING) Converge on Hanger 11 on all four sides! When the city blues get here with their backup, they can pick up the pieces! MOVE OUT! (aside to McClane) McClane, you meet my nephew? The other guy in the car is the asshole who towed the car. As McClane REACTS, the caravan ROARS FORWARD, SIRENS WAILING - 326A NEW ANGLE 326A And Lorenzo's car SMASHES into a TAXI. CAMERA CRANES UP and we SEE that the police cars have run smack into the PANIC in the front of the airport. LORENZO (shouting, barking orders) Move that piece of shit! Henderson, get some crowd control! Goddamn it, clear the area-! McClane jumps out of the car - looks around and SEES - 327 327 thru OMITTED thru 328 328 329 SAM - IN THE TERMINAL 329 watching the scene, trying to get it on video. CUT TO: 330 INT. HOLLY'S AIRPLANE 330 WIDEN from the TV SCREEN. Thornberg's broadcast is here, too! A WOMAN SCREAMS. A MAN tries to get out of his seat and a STEWARD forces him back. 103 ` I 3 31 HOLLY 331 HOLLY (as it sinks in) (X) My God... Then something else sinks in; she looks at the empty airphone cradle on the wall gets quickly out of her seat - in mid-stride she STOPS - takes her seatmate's PURSE. Then, she sidesteps some panicked people, goes to the kitchen area. And finds one of the special keys for the lavatories. 332 THORNBERG - IN LAVATORY 332 THORNBERG (INTO PHONE) And so it continues: A standoff between terrorists and authorities with the lives of thousands at stake. But at least this time, in this place, the truth, at least, is not among the hostages because Richard (X) Thornberc put his life and his talent (X) on the line for humanity and country. (X) Behind him, Holly silently opens the lavatory door. THORNBERG(CONT'D) .,and if this should be my final BROADCAST - WHAM. She ZAPS him with the old lady's TASER. He TWITCHES - DROPS! She picks up the phone. (X) HOLLY Amen to that, asshole. (into phone, sweetly) We're sorry, but Mr. Thornberg is experiencing electrical problems. We now resume our regular programming. CUT TO: 333 EXT. AIRPORT - NIGHT 333 McClane, Sam and the cameraman, forcing their way through the crowd; Sam ABSORBING what McClane's told her. SAM Jesus. You give me this story, I'll have your baby. MCCLANE Thanks; but I'm looking for a different kind of ride. And he POINTS to - 104 (X) '-1 334 HER NEWS HELICOPTER 334 across the tarmac - CUT TO: 335 335 thru OMITTE thru 336 336 336A INT% HANGER 336A Stuart and his' a n d, at doors, on high scaffolds to look out at the landing field hidden in the driving snow. Stuart looks at his watch. 336B1 EXT. HANGER 336B here on watch. Something GLEAMS in the distance. He SPS into his radio - BURKE (COCKING O ) Truck lights!'' =_ '-ÔøΩ 336C INSIDE THE HANGER 336C Weapons are COCKED - soldier's muscles coil - STUART (into scrambled radio) Hatchling, report in. What is your position? GRANT'S VOICE My position is I'm gonna get my ass reamed out by the best Goddamn soldier on the planet 'cause I'm two minutes late. Stuart GRINS, signals for the hanger door to be opened. 336D WIDER 336D The big door RUMBLES UPWARDS. There's the truck, headlights now ILLUMINATING the waiting plane. Grant jumps down from the cab, gets a warm greeting from Stuart in the headlight beams. Grant salutes him, then pivots to salute Esperanza. GRANT Congratulations on your escape, sir. ESPERANZA Thank you, Major. Save them until we are all safe - and excuse a left handed salute, eh? CONTINUED 105 (X) 36D CONTINUED - 336D STUART (as the men gather) My congratulations, gentlemen. You've won a victory for democracy... my pride and admiration... and a kick ass vacation! Get on board! With a CHEER, they run up the stairs 'to the plane. CUT TO: INT. NEWS CHOPPER 337 WHOOSH! UP and OFF THE GROUND like an elevator. McClane REACTS. PILOT Too rough for you, cowboy? MCCLANE I - don't like flying. SAM Then what are you doing here? MCCLANE I like losing worse. (POINTING) That way. CUT TO: 338 EXT. 747 HANGER - NIGHT 338 The abandoned truck's lights still GLARE into the CAMERA -and then something SHADOWS THEM - 338A WIDER - LOW ANGLE 338A The 747 TAXIS out of the hanger, rolls towards the runway. 338E INSIDE - FIRST CLASS 338B the soldiers take seats, cocky smiles on their faces - CUT TO: 339 INT. CHOPPER - NIGHT 339 McClane and the others fly along, LISTENING to the CONTINUING APIRPLANE AND TOWER TRAFFIC - which is growing PANICKY. PILOT (POINTING) Hanger Eleven - MCCLANE Shit! They're leaving! 106 (X) (f l340 THE HANGER - BELOW THEM - NIGHT 340 The plane. in a slow wide turn, the hanger empty, light spilling into the snow - 341 BACK TO SCENE 341 Sam taps the Cameraman, who's already on the case. PILOT Now what? MCCLANE Get 'em to stop! Hover low, block their path! PILOT Play chicken with a 200 ton plane? Hey, I'm crazy, but not that crazy- RADIO Dulles, this is Western one-forty- MCCLANE (CHILLED) HOLLY - RADIO Request clearance on first available runway. Repeat, request emergency CLEARANCE - TRUDEAU'S VOICE Negative, one fourteen, our.situation is unchanged. RADIO Well, mine just changed, Goddamn it! We're down to fumes and we have to .land! And in five minutes we're coming in one way or another! MCCLANE (to the pilot) That's my wife's plane, Goddamnit-! PILOT I'm still not getting in front of it! Pause - McClane furious - but the pilot equally tough. MCCLANE (FINALLY) Okay - then how about on top of it? CONTINUED I 107 i 341 CONTINUED - 341 And as both men realize they've cut a dangerous deal and'start to smile, we (X) CUT TO: 390 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - COCKPIT 390 The pilot and co-pilot look at each other as their fuel gauge BEEPS and FLASHES YELLOW. PILOT (INTO INTERCOM) Ladies and Gentlemen. Our situation is critical. 391 INT. CABIN 391 The cabin attendants are lugging Thornberg's unconscious body down the aisle. They strap him in as Holly and the others listen, chilled to - PILOT'S'VOICE We have no choice but to attempt an emergency landing. Please put on your safety belts and assume crash positions as instucted by the cabin attendants. 392 392 \ 'ihru OMITTED thru 398 398 399 THE PLANE 399 engines GLOWING through the snow - (X) 399A THE CHOPPER 399A TURNING, DROPPING - the door SLIDES OPEN - McClane SLIPS out (X) -takes a deep breath - and MOVES to the SKID! (X) 400 OMITTED 400 CUT TO: 401 EXT. HOLLY'S PLANE - NIGHT 401 Diving, diving - 402 HOLLY - IN HER PLANE 402 HOLLY (BARELY AUDIBLE) -yea, though I walk through the valley of death - CONTINUED 108 (X) 402 CONTINUED - 402 To her amazement, she HEARS another voice mumbling tearfully. It's Thornburg, half-conscious. TRUDEAU I-I didn't mean any harm - I just wanted ratings - I had to do it it was sweeps week - CUT TO: 403 EXT. RUNWAY - NIGHT 403 the 747 taxis along - CAMERA PANS BACK and DISCOVERS the CHOPPER, McClane on its skid, as it DROPS LOWER, MATCHES SPEED with the pane. 404 INT. COCKPIT 404 Esperanza, Stuart, Grant. Starting to feel like what they think they are: Heroes. GRANT (knocking some off) I've had enough fucking snow for a lifetime. STUART They don't get much of it in the tropics. CUT TO: 405 EXT. 767 - MOVING 405 McClane - sitting on the skid - now DROPS to a HANDHOLD as the skids come treacherously close to the PLANE WING. McClane's FEET grope for the wing surface - but the two aircraft - one still earthbound - MOVE APART. Pause. McClave TRIES AGAIN -MAKES IT! 406 THE 'CHOPPER 406 it PEELS AWAY, vanishes in the snowstorm. 407 MCCLANE 407 panting, he wedges himself against an engine pod - and starts to take off his jacket! 408 INT. COCKPIT 408 Esperanza lights a cigar - and then FROWNS. ESPERANZA MIERDE - CONTINUED 109 (X) 108 CONTINUED - 408 STUART What? ESPERANZA The aerilons! Something's wrong -we can't take off - He looks out the window - and REACTS to - 409 WING AERILON - HIS POV 409 Hydraulics GROANING because McClane is JAMMING his JACKET into the groove where it hinges! 410 BACK TO SCENE 410 They can't fucking believe this. Then - GRANT (ALREADY MOVING) i I'll do him. STUART (following, to Esperanza) You just get us in the air, General. You're the only one who can do it. 411 INT. CABIN - NIGHT 411 I Stuart and Grant cock their weapons, move to the door. Grant opens it. 412 EXT. WING 412 , Grant stands there, WIND whipping him. NO MCCLANE - just the jacket, FLAPPING in the groaning aerilon. Grant starts out - WHAM! McClane APPEARS from behind the door, TRIPS him! Grant's gun BOUNCES off the wing, falls to the ground rushing past below! 413 STUART 413 in the doorway, tries to AIM - but 414 THE TWO MEN - STRUGGLING ON THE WING 414 are INDISTINGUISHABLE in the driving snow. 415 MCCLANE AND GRANT 415 Each HOLDING ON TO THE WING with one hand - FIGHTING with the other - Grant POUNDS AWAY on McClane's face - but McClane doesn't HIT BACK - he just GRINS like a maniac - PUSHES Grant -pushes -pushes - CONTINUED 110 (X) r"1 415 CONTINUED - 415 - GRANT (through his teeth, as THEY STRUGGLE) Too - bad - McClane - The SOUND of metal SLIDING - a KNIFE APPEARS in Grant's hand- GRANT(CONT'D) (RAISING KNIFE) I really liked you - 416 GRANT 416 too late, he realizes he's over the front edge of the wing! He screams and FALLS - 417 NEW ANGLE 417 RIGHT INTO THE ENGINE INTAKE! There's an awful GRINDING SOUND -A SCREAM - McClane winces as RED SNOW SPLATTERS HIM - 418 REAR OF ENGINE 418 it could be hamburger pouring out - but before we can dwell on it, the engine pod BLOWS! 18A MCCLANE - ON THE WING 418A wipes red snow from his arm. 3 MCCLANE I like you better dead. 419 IN THE COCKPIT 419 a "FIRE" indicator goes on. Esperanza hits "EXTINGUISHER", handles it - increases power to the other engines. 420 STUART 420 trying-to SEE - finally - a GLIMPSE of what has to be McClane -with a savage grin, Stuart takes off his rifle - discards the bulky coat - knife in hand, he steps out. 421 MCCLANE 421 moves hand over hand to a trailing section of the wing. Looks over and down at 422 FUEL PORT - UPSIDE DOWN - HIS POV 422 -423 BACK TO SCENE 423 He reaches for it. Too far. Stretches. Gets it - fucker is TIGHT. Wincing, he TURNS it a bit - then LOOKS up just in TIME to SEE STUART, knife whizzing DOWN - 424 NEW ANGLE 424 McClane ROLLS, but the knife CATCHES his SHOULDER. In pain, he manances to KICK Stuart's KNEE - Stuart FALLS, almost goes over the wing - McClane goes back to work on the fuel port -it,TURNS another 1/4 turn -and then he has to abandon it to deal with another CHARGE from Stuart. 425 ESPERANZA 425 he TURNS the PLANE. Now he's ON THE RUNWAY PROPER. 426 MCCLANE AND STUART 426 FIGHTING for the knife. With.all his strength, McClane JAMS Stuart's knife hand the aerilon crack! The next WIGGLE of the metal CRUNCHES both hand and knife! Stuart SCREAMS and loosens his grip on McClane, who PUNCHES him away, goes back to work on the fuel port! But he's hardly at it when Stuart RECOVERS, and, mangled hand held clawlike, KICKS McClane's INJURED SHOULDER -KICKS AGAIN -blood on Stuart's shoe - McClane is being worked over the edge of the wing! He CATCHES at the last moment - now he IGNORES Stuart's BLOWS, because - 427 UNDER THE WING 427 .McClane feels for the fuel port - turn, turn - it OPENS! Fuel SPIGOTS DOWN - McClane feels the wetness on his hand - 428 THE RUNWAY 428 a RIBBON of FUEL twists behind the moving plane, slick and light REFLECTING - 429 BACK TO SCENE 429 Stuart STOMPS on McClane's HANDS on the wing - CRUNCH -STOMPS again - McClane SMILES -and then Stuart KICKS HIM OFF THE WING! 430 MCCLANE 430 DROPS 20 FEET, SLAMS into the snow at the edge of the runway, bounces like litter thrown from a moving car - the big REAR TIRE almost rolls over him - 431 STUART 431 with a victorious SHOUT he YANKS the coat from the aerilon, throws it away - heads for the door - 112 432 ESPERANZA 432 sees this, smiles - 433 MCCLANE -AT EDGE OF RUNWAY 433 crawls to a painful sitting position. Face impassive, he watches the jet move away... and - incongrous as it seems - he lights a cigarette, looks off at - (X) I 434 THE LINE OF JET FUEL 434 running along the runway for 1/4 mile now - 435 MCCLANE 435 battered like a car wreck victim, now he looks up into the dark sky trying to find the SOUND OF JET ENGINES. Then he SEES - 436 LIGHTS OF HOLLY'S PLANE - HIS POV 436 careening down in a desperate fight, against gravity - 437 BACK TO SCENE 437 1 McClave takes a LONG PULL on the cigarette until the tip is RED-HOT. 438 STUART - IN THE OPEN PLANE DOORWAY 438 about to close it, he looks back and for the first time SEES 439 THE JET FUEL - HIS POV 439 winding endlessly down the runway - 440 MCCLANE 440 MCCLANE Hey, Colonel: Happy Fucking New Year. And he THROWS THE CIGARETTE INTO THE FUEL. 441 STUART 441 SEES the flame RACING TOWARDS HIM - turns to SHOUT to Esperanza - STUART NO! NO! TAKE OFF! TAKE OFF NOW! (X) 442 ESPERANZA - IN COCKPIT 442 RESPONDS to the cry, GUNS IT - (X) 442A THE PLANE 442A STARTS TO-RISE - the wheels go into the AIR - (X) 113 (X) j j42B REAR OF PLANE 442B But as the craft rises, so does the FLAME, climbing the fuel ribbon RIGHT INTO THE SKY and TO THE NEAREST ENGINE which EXPLODES! 442C ESPERANZA 442C TURNS at the EXPLOSION in time for a WALL OF FIRE that SHOOTS UP THE WING and through the cockpit FLOOR, and then he's ON FIRE AND THEN 443 STUART 443 is BLOWN TO LITTLE PIECES as a FIREBALL BLOWS RIGHT OUT THE DOOR., taking all the remaining soldiers with it and then 444 THE PLANE - LONG SHOT 444 It EXPLODES ITSELF, WINGS and TAIL and BODY going nine different directions! 445 OMITTED 445 446 MCCLANE 446 DIVES for the ground as the explosion ROLLS TOWARDS HIM. 447 IN THE CAB 4471 they watch the FIREBALL in the distance - 448 MCCLANE 448 Gets to his knees, and LOOKS at the huge conflagration. MCCLANE (towards the sky) Honey... there's your landing lights. CUT TO: 449 INT. HOLLY'S PLANE - COCKPIT 449 Blackness and driven SNOW outside - and then - in an almost cinematic FADE - through the glass we SEE the BURNING WRECKAGE -and, more importantly - the LINE OF FIRE RUNNING CLEAN AND STRAIGHT for almost a mile - A line right along the runway. CO-PILOT Look - ! The pilot grabs controls desperately, trims the plane - 114 450 IN THE CABIN - 450 The passengers REACT as they level a bit - CUT TO: 451 EXT. HER PLANE 451 It descends, a bit erratic, but now it's ALONGSIDE the line of fire, coming in from the wrong end of the runway, and then the wheels BOUNCE, once, twice, and then a tire BLOWS but the pilots (X) HOLD IT as it SWERVES and finally SKIDS TO A HALT, turning onto (X) the grassy field. Already we HEAR RESCUE SIRENS. 452 IN THE CAB 452 BARNES (listening to headset) One forty is down! They used the fire to see - (LAUGHING) I -they used the fucking fire to see! AN ENGINEER They can all do that - let's tell 'EM - TRUDEAU They already know. Listen. And sure enough, there it is - the SOUND of ENGINES - 453 EXT. SKY - LANDING PATTERN 453 And now the lights come down from the sky, in a neat and patient row, the closest-filling the screen, the others dwindling down to the size of stars. 454 MCCLANE - ON THE RUNWAY 454 Stumbles along, maybe thinking he's dead or dreaming... IGNORING the giant PLANE LANDING BESIDE HIM, ignoring the FLAMES beyond that - His concentration is totally on Holly's plane -now another giant PLANE SKIDS down behind him - it's an assembly line, like B-29's coming home from war - then he SEES what he's praying for - breaks into a RUN - MCCLANE Holly - HOLLY -HOLLY! 455 HOLLY - IN PLANE DOOR 455 HEARS this just as she goes down the RESCUE CHUTE, ushed by Stewardess controlling their own tears - 115 (X) ('.. 456 MCCLANE 456 CATCHES her at the bottom like a child - CARRIES HER AWAY. 457 THORNBERG - ON THE GROUND 457 groggy, he raises his hands in supplication to the stewardess. She steps over him, puts her high heels back on - walks off. CUT TO: 458 THE NEWS 'CHOPPER 458 It CRUNCHES DOWN on the frozen earth near the runway. Sam and her cameraman hit the ground running. SEE - 459 MCCLANE AND HOLLY 459 embracing - and then she's nursing his wounds, hearing his story- 460 BACK TO SCENE 460 The cameraman brings up his lens. CAMERAMAN God, that's beautiful - SAM Yeah. It sure is. And she yanks out his power cord, watches it dreamily. 461 THE AIRFIELD - NIGHT 461 as rolling stairs are put up to the planes and the passengers pour down the steps into arms of friends, families, loved ones. 461A MCCLANE 461A Sets Holly down, kisses her - then both TURN at a HONK. Marvin is there in an airport cart. He looks at the chaos. MARVIN Damned if I'm cleaning up this mess. McClane and Holly get in the cart. Marvin drives them away, light BLINKING... and we PULLBACK until McClane and Holly are just part of the crowd. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Distinguished Gentleman, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Distinguished Gentleman, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1520679be03f4e58c34073c60c27b4514a74e6de --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Distinguished Gentleman, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + Rev. 3/25/92 (Blue) Rev. 4/03/92 (Pink) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN written by Marty KaplanHOLLYWOOD PICTURES PRODUCTION REVISION500 South Buena VistaBurbank, CA 91521 March 17, 1992(818) 560-3370 THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 FADE IN:1 A FLASH OF LIGHT 1 A radiant shiny something dazzling in EXTREME CLOSEUP. BEGIN TITLES. CAMERA very slowly PULLS BACK. The sparkling surface turns out to be a lot of carats. WE SEE the stone, then the ring, then suddenly, in b.g., something HUGE SWEEPS by. REVEAL a mechanical claw above the ring, hanging from a crane. The ring sits in a sea of tiny dolls, joke eyeballs, and other carnival junk. The claw descends on the ring again and again, sometimes catching it for a moment then tragically dropping it -- accompanied by OOHS and AAHS (O.S.) of hope and disap- pointment. INTERCUT with the HANDS of a young black man working the controls. The EYES of a young black woman watching him work. Another guy's HANDS digging in his pocket for change. QUARTERS going into the slot. MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) This'll never work, Tommy. TOMMY (O.S.) Be positive, Armando. Course it will. The claw inadvertently snags a rabbit's foot. TOMMY (O.S.) Look. See what a lucky fuck I am? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) He don't mean the ring, hon, he means the whole plan. TOMMY (O.S.) So do I. The claw catches the ring and closes on it. QUICK CUTS of their FACES as the crane rises. A very pretty lady. A beefy Latino with a two-day beard. Their apprehension. Tommy's confidence. Then his exceptional smile. He gets the ring.2 INT. PENNY ARCADE - DAY 2 TOMMY Okay -- one down, one to go. (returning to the claw) You got quarters, Loretta? END TITLES. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 2.3 EXT. FLORIDA LUXURY HOTEL - DAY 3 Palm trees. The smell of money. Valets in Foreign Legion khakis greeting arriving luxury cars.4 INT. HOTEL FUNCTION ROOM - DAY 4 A big crowd of GUESTS at a cocktail reception. A lot of lime jackets, cherry trousers, and blue hair. People wear name tags. ON Tommy, in pastel bow tie and full waiter drag, con- firming orders for a group of guests. He speaks in a PRISSY, OVER-SOLICITIOUS VOICE: TOMMY That's a diet ginger ale, an extra- spicy virgin mary no salt, a club soda -- good choice -- a lime rickey, and a bourbon and a planter's punch. Five people, five drinks... it's Kismet! Tommy turns away, looking toward the entrance to the room.5 INT. LOBBY - DAY - CLOSE SHOT - THE RING 5 glittering on Loretta's finger. LORETTA, stunning in designer clothing and accessories, enters. Her looks attract looks.6 INT. FUNCTION ROOM - DAY 6 Tommy, maintaining his vantage point, repeats another order, this time in a heavy CARRIBEAN ACCENT: TOMMY That's a vodka tonic, a Pellegrino, lime and no ice, a gin Gibson straight up with ex-tra onions -- I am also fond of de onions -- and a Chardonnary spritzer...also with extra onions -- no, no, do not worry, that is just a little joke. There will be no onions whatsoever in your spritzer! He LAUGHS HUGELY, rather amused with himself. The guests aren't. GUEST You don't need to write it down? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 3.6 CONTINUED: 6 TOMMY Mr. Memory? Do not make me laugh! He LAUGHS HUGELY, turns, takes two steps away and makes absolutely no effort to get their drinks. He looks toward the door.7 INT. HALLWAY/ENTRANCE TO FUNCTION ROOM - DAY 7 Loretta approaches the function room, where pert DEBBIE, wearing a JOHNSON FOR CONGRESS button, staffs a felt- covered table. On a nearby easel, a photo of a silver- haired Man with a legend in blue and gold: JEFF JOHNSON. THE NAME YOU KNOW. LORETTA (Eurotrash accent) I'm not too late, am I, dear? (extending a hand) Hello, darling, Alma Preston, how are you today? DEBBIE Thanks for coming, Ms. Preston, I'm Debbie Bartle. (consulting a list) Do we have your check yet? Loretta pulls a Mont Blanc pen and a checkbook from her bag. LORETTA No, honey, I don't think you do, we just got in last night from our place in Barbados -- how much is it? DEBBIE Five hundred a person. Barbados? LORETTA (writing) Yes, we're just down the beach from Mick Jagger and Jerry. (looking up) You wouldn't turn down a couple of thousand, would you? A pleased smile from Debbie. Loretta opens the check- book, flashing the immense RING in front of Debbie. DEBBIE Um, that's a lovely ring. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 4.7 CONTINUED: 7 LORETTA Oh, thank you. I thought it might be a little gaudy...who should I make this out to? DEBBIE Johnson for Congress. It's not gaudy, it's just...nice and big. LORETTA That's my Carlos...I can't even look in a store window. We're walking down this street in Rio, we pass a jewelry store...I didn't even turn my head and he's in the shop... (holds up ring) ...$250,000. I said it's crazy... but you know Carlos. DEBBIE I wish I did. ON Tommy watching Loretta. A Guest standing just behind Tommy -- wearing MRS. ZEKE BRIDGES name tag -- watches JEFF JOHNSON gladhand the room robustly. MRS. BRIDGES I hear they had him open for six hours. ZEKE, a very fat cigar-smoker, marvels at Johnson's appearance. ZEKE (chuckling) The sum' bitch looks terrific. Tommy, eavesdropping, joins Zeke's chuckle, which unfor- tunately turns into a wheeze and then a cough. Zeke turns to Tommy. ZEKE How about taking our orders, son? TOMMY Absolutely my friend! How can I pleasure you? ZEKE Bourbon straight up and a Perrier rocks for the lady. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 5.7 CONTINUED: (2) 7 TOMMY Ah! Fire and ice! Wonderful! But may I suggest you make that a double sir? After all, so many guests, so few of me -- who knows when I may be back? ZEKE Sure, why not. AT THE ENTRANCE LORETTA pauses before going into the room. LORETTA You know where the powder room is, hon? I should freshen my face before I go in. DEBBIE It's just over there. ON JEFF JOHNSON with his well-groomed wife, VERA, and a barrel-chested Man in full resort wear, wearing an OLAF ANDERSEN name tag. JOHNSON So how the heck are you, Olaf? ANDERSEN I should be asking how you are, congressman. Johnson pats his chest and smiles at Vera. JOHNSON This old ticker never felt better. ANDERSEN It's good to see you back on your feet, Jeff. We need you in Washington. Inconspicuously, a pretty young redhead whispers to Vera. This is JENNIFER, Johnson's Administrative Assistant (his AA). VERA JOHNSON How's that granddaughter of yours, Olaf? Ready for the Olympics? ANDERSEN She'll be thrilled you asked after her.8 IN THE HALLWAY Loretta emerges from the Ladies' Room... 8 catches a spike heel... recovers her balance... then frantically searches her hands and clothes, SCREAMS, and gets down on hands and knees. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 6.8 CONTINUED: 8 LORETTA My God! My God! Oh my God! Debbie rushes over to her. DEBBIE What's the matter? LORETTA (hyperventilating) My -- my ring. My diamond. I took it off in the ladies' room to wash my hands. I was just putting it on -- I must have dropped it. DEBBIE (getting down) Let me help you, we'll find it. LORETTA Call Security!9 IN THE FUNCTION ROOM Tommy maintains his watch on 9 Loretta. Zeke Bridges taps Tommy on the shoulder. ZEKE Hey, what about our drinks? Tommy instantly assumes an ANGRY YOUNG STREET BLACK VOICE: TOMMY Yeah? What you want? ZEKE What? You already took our order. TOMMY That wasn't me! You must be thinking of Jamal. I'm Karim. What you want? ZEKE Bourbon straight up and a Perrier rocks. TOMMY (snorts derisively) Hunh. He walks two steps...and once again makes no attempt to get the drinks. Zeke returns to Jeff Johnson. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 7.9 CONTINUED: 9 ZEKE Don't get me wrong, Jeff. Pyramid Insurance doesn't want special breaks. I just think we ought to be able to set our own rates without Uncle Sam sticking his nose in our business. Johnson signals Jennifer to come over. JOHNSON Do you know my AA? Zeke Bridges, this is Jennifer, my Administrative Assistant. Zeke's been a tremendous help to us. I'd like you to listen to his view on health insurance. JENNIFER I'd be very happy to. ZEKE At Pyramid Insurance, we call our approach the Patient's Bill of Rights.10 IN THE HALLWAY Loretta and Debbie are on hands and 10 knees, still looking. A pair of shoes comes INTO FRAME. They LOOK up at a bullet-headed man. BRUNO Ms. Preston? Bruno Handler, hotel security. LORETTA My ring! My ring! Oh my god...! BRUNO Now just calm down, Ma'am... can you describe the ring? LORETTA It's a diamond ring! A big diamond ring! Oh my Christ! She's frantic. Debbie takes Bruno aside. DEBBIE I saw it. It's huge... it must be like eight carats. She says it was a quarter of a million dollars! Bruno turns back to Loretta, trying to calm her. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 8.10 CONTINUED: 10 BRUNO Ma'am... calm down. Now, is the ring insured? LORETTA Of course it's insured! But you know how it works -- if I report it, they'll cancel me. And I don't want another ring! I need this ring! The ring Carlos gave me. Bruno turns, speaks into the walkie-talkie he's carrying. BRUNO Where the fuck is housekeeping? I called for those dickheads ninety seconds ago.11 IN THE FUNCTION ROOM the Guests have gathered to hear 11 Johnson speak. As Andersen introduces him, Tommy con- tinues eyeing Loretta. ANDERSEN Now I won't run through Jeff's record -- he's been in Congress twenty years, and I've only got two minutes. I'll just say this: When those of us in pharmaceuticals, or agribusiness, or insurance, or (indicating himself) utilities, or you name it -- when we've needed him, Jeff's been there for us. And we've been there for Jeff, too -- we raised a hundred thousand dollars today! (APPLAUSE) Without further ado, our man in Washington, Jefferson Davis Johnson.12 IN THE HALLWAY Debbie hears the APPLAUSE (O.S.). She 12 gets up. DEBBIE I should be in there. Good luck, Ms. Preston. I hope you find it. She leaves. Loretta, mascara smeared, gets up, as does Bruno. LORETTA I can't go in there like this. God! Please... listen... I'll pay a ten thousand dollar reward for anybody who finds my ring. Just don't tell Carlos! (suddenly grim) He'll kill me. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 9.13 IN THE FUNCTION ROOM, as Johnson takes questions, Tommy 13 slips out. QUESTIONER What do you make of all this campaign reform business, Jeff? JOHNSON Well, y'know Ernie... these days, everyone's down on the political action committees and so-called special interests. But, heck, I think you and Fran have a right to participate in our democracy in exactly the way you're doing today. I'm in Congress to represent you. I don't want any so-called reform to take that power away from you.14 APPLAUSE (O.S.). IN THE HALLWAY Bruno issues orders to 14 two Maintenance Men. BRUNO I want every heating grate opened and inspected. I want every air conditioning duct vacuumed. Do you understand what I'm saying? AS he speaks, Bruno SEES Tommy pass through the hallway ... spot something on the floor... pick it up... furtive- ly put it in his pocket... and walk rapidly toward the door to the kitchens. BRUNO (running after him) Hey, you! Waiter! Hold it right there! Bruno puts an arm on Tommy. Tommy instantly assumes a frantic, wimpy, craven persona, along wth his CARRIBBEAN ACCENT. TOMMY No! Please! Do not report me! I will be deported! BRUNO Calm down. What've you got in your pocket? TOMMY I told the CIA everything! I agreed to poison the pineapples! My green card is in the mail! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 10.14 CONTINUED: 14 BRUNO Stow it! I'm not Immigration, I'm hotel security. Now, what did you just put in your pocket? TOMMY Nothing. BRUNO I'm warning you, flathead, get cute with me and I will tear you a second asshole. Now a valuable diamond ring is mising... TOMMY Valuable? We can almost see the light bulb click on above Bruno's head. BRUNO Very valuable. All right, I'll give you a hunnert bucks for it. TOMMY A hundred and five? Bruno snorts agreement, goes for his wallet... Tommy goes gor the ring... then suddenly leaps back in a cringe! TOMMY No! It's a trick! You will call me a thief and send me back and the Security Police will make me stand on my head in the guano pit! I have seen such things on CNN! Bruno snaps and GRABS TOMMY BY THE COLLAR. BRUNO Jesus, I'm not trying to trick you... TOMMY No, no... it is a trap! I must turn this over to police. He starts to leave. Bruno grabs him. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 11.14 CONTINUED: (2) 14 BRUNO Listen, dipshit... a valuable ring is missing and there's thousands of dollars in reward money waiting. So you'd better fork over... TOMMY How big is this... reward? Another lightbulb. BRUNO Um, five hundred dollars. TOMMY You said 'thousands.' BRUNO Yeah. Right. A thousand dollars. TOMMY No, no, no...you said thousands. With an 'S'. This is plural. This means "two or more thousands." BRUNO (deep sigh) Okay, you win. Two thousand. TOMMY Or more. Two or more. Bruno's had enough -- his grip tightens around Tommy's neck. TOMMY Just making a point.15 IN HOTEL LOBBY AT THE CASHIER'S DESK Bruno slides a 15 check to the Cashier, who counts a stack of bills. Bruno picks up a house phone, dials.16 INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY 16 ARMANDO, still unshaven, answers the RINGING phone. ARMANDO Hello? INTERCUT with Bruno in the lobby. BRUNO Hello, may I speak with Ms. Preston? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 12.16 CONTINUED: 16 ARMANDO She's in the bathroom. This is Carlos. Can I take a message? BRUNO (smiling to himself) No, thanks, I'll call back. ARMANDO hangs up the phone and exits the hotel room. BRUNO crosses to the far side of the lobby, where Tommy waits inconspicuously. He gives him the money. Tommy gives him ring. BRUNO Now get back to work! As Tommy heads back to the function room, Bruno picks up a house phone, dials, listens. He dials again, listens. No answer. He dials the operator. BRUNO This is Bruno in Security. Put me through to 502 -- there must be something wrong with the line, I can't get an answer... What do you mean, there's no one in 502? I just spoke to them!... No one's registered in 502? Are you sure?... Well, check again!... Shit! He hangs up, looks at the ring, and realizes he's been taken. His face twisting with rage, he hurries after Tommy.17 ON TOMMY MOVING swiftly through the function room toward 17 an exit. Zeke Bridges grabs him. ZEKE Hey! Where the hell are our drinks. Surprised, Tommy opts for an EAST INDIAN ACCENT. TOMMY I remember... you were the sloe gin fizz and the mango daquiri? With perhaps a small umbrella for the lady? ZEKE Bourbon neat and a Perrier, dammit! TOMMY And would you still be wanting the umbrella then? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 13.17 CONTINUED: 17 As Zeke's face flushes in anger, Tommy SEES Bruno come into the room, blood in his eye. Tommy turns sharply and heads out the terrace doors to the --18 EXT. COURTYARD - DAY 18 Tommy conceals himself behind a pillar, across the court- yard, away from the Guests. But from another direction, Johnson and Andersen approach, arm in arm, and sit on a bench by the pillar. JOHNSON Olaf, there's something I wanted to sound you out on. As a special friend. ANDERSEN Shoot. Tommy moves away from the pillar, sees Bruno roaming the terrace, and retreats. JOHNSON I'm thinking of retiring from Congress. Andersen's eyes widen in astonishment. ANDERSEN You're what? JOHNSON I'm thinking maybe I won't run. Maybe I should listen more (indicating his heart) to this. Really appreciate these years. Sail around the world. Climb mountains. Enjoy the finer things of life. ANDERSEN Jeff. Listen to me. You can't retire. Florida needs you. I need you. I need you on rates. I need you on regulations. I need you on those environmental nutcases -- JOHNSON Olaf, if I retire this year, I get to keep all the money left over in my campaign treasury. Comes to a very tidy nest-egg. ANDERSEN How tidy? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 14.18 CONTINUED: 18 JOHNSON One-point-three million. (chuckles) It's called the grandfather loophole. Bruno has gone. But Tommy stays. His eyes light up at the money. ANDERSEN Come on, Jeff. Look at what you'd be giving up. Going to the best resorts in the world and calling it "official business." Golfing and skiing and fishing, and never picking up a tab. And, Jeff -- there's no aphrodisiac like power. You can have some of the most intelligent, attractive women in the country. You've got it made! JOHNSON Oh, I suppose that one-point-three may seem like spare change to the head of Gulf Coast Power, but to a country boy like me -- ANDERSEN Okay, Jeff. I get it. Look. There's a little software company that's about to go through the roof. Johnson smiles at the direction the conversation is taking. ON Tommy also smiling, in admiration at the transaction going down. ANDERSEN A few thousand worth of stock options would stand to make you quite a pile. As long as your blind trust buys them, you're clean -- the SEC can't shake a stick at you. Half a million, easy -- and that's just a start. JOHNSON Well, if you put it like that... I now see I have a duty to continue my career in public service. Johnson stands, puts his arm on Andersen. Tommy emerges, shakes his head, and laughs. TOMMY I'm in the wrong business. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 14A.19 EXT. BAIT SHACK - DAY 19 A ramshackle bait shack, paint peeling, on the inland waterway. At the rear of the shack, Armando shoots hoops into a tattered net. Loretta, back in jeans, looks at her watch. A bondo-patched Econoline van pulls up. Tommy jumps out, big smile. He gives Loretta an energetic round of APPLAUSE. TOMMY The best li'l roper in America! But she doesn't want the charm. LORETTA You took your time. ARMANDO Cops bust you, Tommy? TOMMY Busted? Moi? Fuck no. He pulls out the wad of bills. Their faces brighten considerably. TOMMY That look like busted?20 EXT. CAPITOL - NIGHT 20 Washington, D.C. The illuminated dome of the Capitol.21 INT. CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE - NIGHT 21 CAMERA ROAMS the well-hung walls. From the photos and memorabilia, we realize that we are in the office of Rep. Jeff Johnson. In the reflections on the frames, we GLIMPSE some MOVEMENT on the desk explaining the considerable BREATHING and MOANING (O.S.). JOHNSON (O.S.) Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my... But then a strange GURGLING sound (O.S.) escapes from Johnson. JOHNSON (O.S.) ... God. A silent beat. Then a horrified CRY. Jennifer rises INTO FRAME. JENNIFER Oh my god! THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 14B.22 INT. CHURCH - FLORIDA - DAY 22 The congregation is SINGING. We SEE the widow Johnson. At her side, in the aisle seat, a powerful man with bushy eyebrows, about 60, in a three-piece suit and watch chain: congressman DICK DODGE. The HYMN ends. Dodge steps up to the pulpit. DODGE It was my honor to serve in Congress with Jeff Johnson for a generation. No one could have been a better legislator. No one could have been a finer husband and father. And now -- He presses the tips of his fingers together and looks skyward, as if communing with his memory of the deceased. DODGE And now God has called his servant home. ANGLE ON Jennifer, in black. DODGE (O.S.) We will miss him. But we are grateful that his passing was so peaceful -- and so like him -- working late into the night at his desk, the consummate public servant. (CONTINUED) 15.22 CONTINUED: 22 Vera sneaks a look at Jennifer, who is poker-faced.23 EXT./INT. VERANDA/JOHNSON HOME - DAY 23 On the veranda of the gracious home, mourners pay respects to the family. Dodge puts a gentle hand on the widow's shoulder and draws her aside. He throws a look at Jennifer, who joins them. DODGE Vera, I know you're still in shock from Jeff's... passing. But we have to talk about his seat. Vera stares at Jennifer. She knows the score. JENNIFER Mrs. Johnson, if you'd like to discuss this in private -- VERA You can stay -- what's the difference? DODGE Vera, I'd like you to announce that you're going to run for Congress. Let a few days pass to show proper respect. But next week, I want to stand next to you at a press conference where you declare for Jeff's seat in the House. VERA JOHNSON No, Dick -- no. DODGE There's nothing to be afraid of, Vera. With your name, you can't lose. People around these parts are so used to voting for Jeff Johnson -- why, Mrs. Jeff Johnson would win in a walk. VERA JOHNSON Dick, I was a Washington wife for twenty years. Twenty years of Potomac bullshit is plenty for one lifetime. DODGE Vera, we're talking about becoming a Member of Congress. We're talking about a sure thing. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 16.23 CONTINUED: 23 JENNIFER Don't worry about running the office -- I'll be there night and day. VERA JOHNSON I'm sure you would, dear. But I couldn't give you the same job satisfaction Jeff gave you. Jennifer, embarrassed, didn't know Vera knew. Nor did Dodge.24 OMITTED 2425 EXT. CONDOMINUM COMPLEX - DAY 25 A retirement community in the Florida sunshine.26 INT. CONDO ELEVATOR/HALLWAY - DAY - THE ELEVATOR DOORS 26 open. A supermarket shopping cart full of groceries, tied with a big bow, rolls out, pushed by Tommy. Loretta accompanies him. Tommy BUZZES at a door. It's answered by Tommy's GRANDMA, a limber lady in leggings and a bright top. She sees the groceries, kisses him. GRANDMA This is very sweet of you, darling. But you shouldn't have done it. Where did you get the money? TOMMY You don't want to know.27 INT. GRANDMA'S CONDO - DAY 27 Tommy and Loretta are watching the track results on the local tv news. Tommy, playing solitaire, shuffles bril- liantly. Grandma comes in from the kitchen, shaking her head. GRANDMA How did I end up with a thief for a grandson? TOMMY Grandma -- I told you. I'm not a thief. I'm a con man. An artist. GRANDMA But also a crook. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 17.27 CONTINUED: 27 TOMMY But I only con crooks, Grandma. You can't con an honest man. Only somebody who wants something for nothing. (pause) But the good Lord must have been fond of pigeons, because he made so many of them. GRANDMA Sometimes I just wish you were more like your Daddy... TOMMY You mean, dead? GRANDMA No, smartmouth... I mean someone who made something of himself. LORETTA (pointing at TV) LOOK...it's the ad! VIDEO...a cheap TV spot -- a busty blonde in a skimpy outfit tossing her hair and pouting. LORETTA (V.O.) (fake Swedish accent) I am Inga. I'm here from Sweden and I'm s-o-o lonely. I need a man...and so do my girlfriends. VIDEO...Scantily-clad babes to match the names. Loretta speaks along with the V.O. LORETTA (AND V.O.) ...Maria, my hotblooded Spanish friend...Babette, the Parisian pussycat...and many others. So call the "Girls of Many Nations," at 1-900-555-NATO. SUPER: CALL 1-900-555-NATO. LORETTA (Swedish accent) So what do you think of my accent, Grandma? GRANDMA Compared to what? Loretta, why don't you go baste the turkey? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 18.27 CONTINUED: (2) 27 Loretta gets up and goes for the kitchen. We hear a high-pitched ELECTRONIC WARBLE. Tommy reaches into Loretta's purse and pulls out a cellular phone. TOMMY (calls to Loretta) See? I told you TV advertising works. He opens the phone and speaks in a toneless, recording- like voice. TOMMY Hello...you have reached Girls of Many Nations. For Hot Blooded Italian Wildcats, press "one" now. (nothing) For Perky American Cheerleaders, press "two" now. (nothing) For a Sultry Swedish Love Goddess, press "three" now... ("BEEP") He covers the mouthpiece and calls to Loretta. TOMMY Bingo! Loretta...guy wants to speak to Inga. LORETTA (o.c.) Tell him to call back. I'm basting. TOMMY grins mischievously and speaks into the phone in the husky voice of a SWEDISH WOMAN. TOMMY Ja, this is Inga. Hello Paul... how are you tonight? You are feeling naughty? That's all right ...you have your what in a bowl of oatmeal? Yes, that is very naughty, and maybe a little sick. GRANDMA Disgusting. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 19.27 CONTINUED: (3) 27 TOMMY Oh NO! It's my husband Lars. He's home early, I must go before ...you want to talk to Lars too? So you like to talk dirty out of both sides of your mouth. (normal voice) Man, you are one twisted bastard! Laughing, he hangs up. GRANDMA Tommy, please! TOMMY Sorry, grandma, just getting a third minute out of him. He clicks off the phone and slams it back into Loretta's purse. Loretta, meanwhile, has reappeared. LORETTA You hung up on Paul? He's one of my best customers. GRANDMA I can't believe any relative of mine does that for a living. LORETTA C'mon Gramma...it's only my voice. They never actually meet me. GRANDMA So my granddaughter talks dirty for a living and my grandson's a thief. TOMMY What's up, Grandma? Are you embarrassed to show my picture around the pool? GRANDMA Of course I'm not. Look. She goes to her sewing basket and pulls something from it. She unfolds it: a long piece of needlepoint she's been working on. INSERT It spells out Tommy's full name: Thomas Jefferson Johnson. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 20.27 CONTINUED: (4) 27 GRANDMA (O.S.) Look what these arthritic hands been doing. BACK TO SCENE GRANDMA Make me proud of you, Tommy. Make me proud of the name you carry. In the silence between them that follows, we HEAR the tv. GENERAL MANAGER I'm Ned Grable, vice president and general manager of WFLA. We think Mrs. Jeff Johnson did the right thing in not running for the congressional seat left vacant by her husband's death. The editorial catches Grandma's attention. GENERAL MANAGER Jeff Johnson's name may still be magic. But it'll take more than the magic of name recognition to solve our region's problems. I'm Ned Grable. GRANDMA Name recognition. Lordy, what a notion. People have to be some boobs just to vote for someone because their name is Johnson. Tommy's eyes widen. GRANDMA I remember once back in Georgia, they even elected a dead man. His name was still on the ballot -- people were just used to voting for him. TOMMY What did you say, Grandma?28 EXT. BAIT SHACK - DAY 28 HOMER, the proprietor of Homer's Pit Stop, wearing fuel- smeared overalls, is dieseling a Customer's boat down by the water. TOMMY (O.S.) Homer! Get your ass over here! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 20A.28 CONTINUED: 28 Up by the racks of junk food and beer, and pails of fish slop, Tommy and Armando await Homer. In b.g., an older black gentleman plays checkers, solo. This is VAN DYKE. ARMANDO What's this about, jefe? TOMMY (calling) Loretta! Get off the damn phone! ARMANDO This better be good. TOMMY (sarcastic mimic) "This better be good." Loretta! ON LORETTA on the pay phone, moaning in Swedish ecstasy. LORETTA Oh, ya, ya, God, you're so big! (waving at Tommy) Uh-oh, I have to go now, my husband Sven is home early... Tommy grabs the phone. He pushes aside a protesting Loretta... TOMMY Goddammit, Inga, is it that pervert again! Damn! He smacks the receiver with his hand. TOMMY (into receiver) Listen, you little shit -- I just spent eight years in the joint, nobody talks to my woman like that! I got your adress, I got a machete, I got two Rotweilers... I'm gonna come to your house and tear your ass up! (hangs up, laughing) LORETTA Okay, Tommy, what's so damn important? HOMER Yeah, I got work to do. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 21.28 CONTINUED: (2) 28 They all look at him expectantly. He takes a dramatic pause, then launches into a "Come to Jesus" speech. TOMMY My friends, I want to tell you about a town where the streets are paved with gold. This is a town where the marks give you money before you ask. A town where they take you to dinner after you fuck 'em. A town where when they need money, they just print more. This is a town where a guy bounced nine hundred checks and he didn't even have to skip town!!! ARMANDO Ain't no town like that. LORETTA You mean Vegas? TOMMY No. (beat) Washington, D.C. I'm going to run for Congress. His big smile meets their blank surprise. Their faces fall. LORETTA What is this, a joke? HOMER I don't get it. ARMANDO What's the con, Tommy? TOMMY Van Dyke. You remember Willie Sutton? VAN DYKE Of blessed memory. TOMMY You remember what he said? They asked him, Why do you rob banks? And he said, That's where the money is. I tell you, people -- Washington. That's where the money is. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 22.28 CONTINUED: (3) 28 Tommy produces a sheaf of Xeroxes and pamphlets. TOMMY I found this shit in the library. You know how much a congressman makes? A hundred and thirty a year -- and that's just base pay for getting your ass elected. Then there are these things called PACs, and these lobbyists, whose whole point in life is to buy you off. It's the con of a lifetime -- and the damn thing is, it's legal! This is hot, people, we can do this! ARMANDO Who "we," white man? TOMMY You never heard of staff, Armando? I get in, I get a staff allowance of five hundred and thirty-seven grand a year -- Loretta wolf-WHISTLES. TOMMY -- which I will generously share with you. LORETTA And how exactly were you going to get your butt to Congress? HOMER Yeah -- why would anyone vote for you? TOMMY Not for me, Homer. For Jeff Johnson. Name recognition -- that's what it's all about. You think folks know their congressman died? I get on the ballot as Jeff Johnson, I guarantee they'll vote for me. Now all's I have to do is get on the ballot. LORETTA Which is how? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 23.28 CONTINUED: (4) 28 TOMMY Which is where you folks come in. (picking up a ream of forms) All's we have to do is collect five thousand six hundred twenty five signatures. ARMANDO You shittin' us? HOMER In your dreams, Tommy. TOMMY You people got a better idea? VAN DYKE I do.29 INT. SILVER FOXES CHAPTER - DAY 29 Senior citizens fold brochures, stuff envelopes, make phone calls. Van Dyke and Tommy enter. TOMMY Okay... gimme the four-one-one on these Silver Foxes Again. It's a bunch of old folks who like to vote? VAN DYKE Don't laugh, they get an enormous turnout. But the big thing is, they have their own line on the ballot. They already got the signatures. TOMMY Ah. VAN DYKE The lady we're meeting, Hattie Rifkin, they call her the condo queen. TOMMY So all I have to do is snow one old lady. Don't sound like major surgery. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 24.30 INT. INNER OFFICE - SILVER FOXES - DAY 30 Tommy and Van Dyke are seated opposite HATTIE RIFKIN, a high-energy woman, 70s, with a frizz of white curls. HATTIE So, what brings you here? You want to talk politics... talk! VAN DYKE We were wondering who you were going to run for Congress this year. HATTIE Oh, the usual sacrifical lamb. Probably Sylvia Roland. She just lost her husband, she needs to meet new people. Why? TOMMY Mrs. Rifkin... I want to run. HATTIE Well, I want to run too -- but with this plastic hip, it's not gonna happen. Tommy breaks up. In spite of himself, he's charmed by the salty old babe. TOMMY What I mean is... I'd like to run for Congress on the Silver Fox ticket. I care about you and your issues. HATTIE Yeah, that's what my son says. But does he call? Anyway, what makes you think a group of alter cockers are gonna support a man who hasn't clipped his first nose hair yet? TOMMY Because I can win. HATTIE No, no... a Democrat can win. A Republican can win. A Silver Fox can only make a symbolic point. TOMMY Mrs. RIfkin, if you give me a ballot line, and if I can get support from... (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 25.30 CONTINUED: 30 HATTIE If... if. Ven die bubbah halla tsehen qulishkes, het gehaya zadeh. TOMMY Sure, but... besser die viller ein der kenner. Hattie cracks up. Tommy leans over and translates for Van Dyke: TOMMY She said, 'If my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandfather.' HATTIE (recovering) Where the Hell did you learn to speak Yiddish? TOMMY The same place I learned to hustle shtarkers at gin rummy. From Morris Elfbein... the Gin King of Miami Beach. HATTIE No kidding... you knew the Rudolf Valentino of Dade County? TOMMY He taught me a great deal. He taught me you don't always need the best cards to win. HATTIE Maybe not in gin, but in politics, young man, you need money to win, you need a name to win, you... TOMMY Oh, I have a name. HATTIE What, you're an athlete, a movie star? I don't get out as much as I used to. You're not on MTV, are you? TOMMY No ma'am. My name is Johnson. Jeff Johnson. The Name You Know. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 26.30 CONTINUED: (2) 30 She ponders for a minute. And then she gets it. A wicked smile. HATTIE Jeff Johnson. Well, that's a name even our Alzheimer's Group will remember. (beat; shakes her head) Still, for a full-up campaign, we'd need materials, we'd need ads... TOMMY You leave that to me, Mrs. R.31 INT. JOHNSON HOME - DAY 31 The widow Johnson is pouring tea for Tommy, now in super- nerd drag -- wire-rim glasses and tweed sport jacket. VERA JOHNSON I'm not sure I understand, Professor Franklin -- you wrote your doctoral thesis on my husband? TOMMY He was a great man, Mrs. Johnson. He did so much for my people. VERA JOHNSON He... did? TOMMY Oh, yes. I'll never forget when he said 'Welfare is a drug -- and you gotta kick it cold turkey.' It was... inspirational. VERA JOHNSON Really... well, I'm sure... TOMMY And I was actually in the audience when he said, 'If you people would just get off your dead asses and look for work, this country might be fit to live in again.' Powerful stuff. VERA JOHNSON It's very kind of you to say so. And you're very kind to come all the way from... where was it? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 27.31 CONTINUED: 31 TOMMY Wilson-Pickett State Teachers College. But I didn't just come to pay respects, ma'am. I came because your husband deserves an archive. A place where scholars can study his legacy. A storehouse for the record of his remarkable career. VERA JOHNSON I see. So you want... his papers? TOMMY Oh, not just his papers, Mrs. Johnson. Everything. Buttons, posters, bumper stickers. All the paraphernalia of his campaigns -- proof of his political genius. Now I realize that you may have a sentimental attachment to a few items... VERA JOHNSON Take 'em. TOMMY I beg your pardon. VERA JOHNSON Take 'em all. Would you like the wedding photos, too? TOMMY Well, I don't think that's necess... VERA JOHNSON Good -- that way you won't have to go rooting around in the garbage. Is there anything else? TOMMY Well, um... no. VERA JOHNSON More tea? Or something stronger? I know it's only ten-thirty, but, hell, sun's over the yardarm somewhere, right? TOMMY Actually, ma'am, I should be getting back. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 28.31 CONTINUED: (2) 31 VERA JOHNSON You're in pretty good shape for a professor. D'you work out? Tommy rises and packs his briefcase hastily. TOMMY Look, I, um, have a class to teach. You know how blind students are... they're so dependent. (edges toward door) Don't worry ma'am... your materials will be in good hands.32 EXT. WHARF - DAY - CLOSE ANGLE - A SCISSORS 32 cuts the RE- off a RE-ELECT JEFF JOHNSON bumper sticker in familiar blue and gold. Van Dyke, Armando, and Homer have a production line going, doctoring the old Johnson campaign materials, slicing off and painting out the RE-'s and the years. VAN DYKE Are you sure you don't want to come to Washington with us, Homer? HOMER You bums got time on your hands. (indicating bait shack) I got a business to run. ON LORETTA working the RINGING pay phone. LORETTA Hello? Who? The League of Women Voters? Sorry, Mr. Johnson won't be attending the debate. No -- no, Betty, I'm sorry, I can't tie up this line. (hangs up; it RINGS) Hello? The Sarasota Star-Ledger? I'm sorry, we're out of photographs. No, you can't, Mr. Johnson has just had surgery for a deviated septum. (hangs up; it RINGS) Hello? (brightening) Ya, this is Inga. PAN TO TOMMY training a home video camera on a poster that reads JEFF JOHNSON FOR CONGRESS. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 29.32 CONTINUED: 32 TOMMY (very white) We're not going to show you Jeff Johnson waving a flag. We're not going to show you Jeff Johnson kissing babies. We're not going to show you Jeff Johnson doing anything, because you already know what Jeff Johnson can do.33 INT. JOHNSON HOME - NIGHT - ON TV SCREEN 33 The poster fills the screen. TOMMY (V.O.) Tomorrow, vote for Jeff Johnson. The name you know. A very puzzled Vera Johnson watches the ad on tv.34 SERIES OF SHOTS - NIGHT (MOS) 34 The congressional district sleeps. But in the darkness, a kind of D-Day onslaught is under way. QUICK SUPER- IMPOSED CUTS of Tommy's secret army of Silver Foxes, opening crates, fanning through parking lots, swarming over lawns, driving in stakes, tacking up posters everywhere. INCLUDE Tommy climbing a telephone pole... Armando shinnying up a light pole across the street... Loretta and Van Dyke pulling on a rope... which hoists a huge bundle to Tommy... who opens and unfolds it... and gets an end through the air to Armando. They unfurl the biggest banner imaginable. JEFF JOHNSON: THE NAME YOU KNOW35 EXT. COMMERCIAL STREET - DAWN 35 CAMERA TILTS DOWN. Every square inch of town seems to have been plastered with JOHNSON FOR CONGRESS material. It's on billboards, bumpers, bus shelters, balloons, banners, utility poles... all in the late congressman's signature design.36 QUICK SERIES OF SHOTS - DAY 36 The Econoline, now a JOHNSON ad on wheels, ghetto-blasters mounted front and back on the roof, rolls by a Jewish deli ...a soul food joint... a whitebread country club... a Chinese restaurant... At each, Tommy's amplified VOICE says: (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 30.36 CONTINUED: 36 TOMMY Jeff Johnson. The name you know. In a different appropriate accent.37 EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY 37 In front of a polling place, Van Dyke pulls up in a hearse with an ELECT JOHNSON banner. So, driving muscle cars, do Armando, Homer, and Loretta -- Tommy's get-out-the-vote fleet. Exhilarated senior citizens pile out, led by Hattie.38 INT. POLLING PLACE - DAY 38 An ordinary Couple, 40s, sign the registration book, then enter adjacent voting carrels. After a moment, the HUSBAND leans out. HUSBAND Who are we voting for Congress? WIFE Don't we always vote for Johnson? HUSBAND That's it -- Johnson. HIS HAND punches the hole in the ballot next to Johnson.39 VIDEO 39 A NETWORK ANCHOR at an election-night news set. NETWORK ANCHOR If you're just joining us, our exit polls project that in Florida, an unknown, independent candidate whose sole asset appears to be his name may just possibly win a slim victory.40 OMITTED 40thru thru42 4243 EXT. BAIT SHACK - NIGHT 43 Blinding lights. Media circus. TV power cords, a huge tangle snaking back toward mobile generators. Cameramen narrowly miss knocking each other into the water. A STEEL DRUM BAND plays "Happy Days Are Here Again." (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 31.43 CONTINUED: 43 The small crowd -- Tommy's cronies, their pals, and a jubilant contingent of Panthers led by Hattie -- lets out a great WHOOP. FLORIDA REPORTER #1 Is that him? Tricia, I believe Congressman-elect Johnson is coming this way. For the first time, we see Tommy wearing a beautifully-cut suit. He's instantly engulfed by lights, cameras, and Supporters. An amazed CAMERAMAN, watching Tommy, whispers to a Producer. CAMERAMAN Jesus -- he's not... white. I actually voted for the guy. I thought he was Jeff Johnson. Tommy jumps onto a bench. APPLAUSE from his Supporters. TOMMY Thank you, thank you, all of you, for your help. Give yourself a round of applause. They do. As APPLAUSE continues (O.S.), CAMERA PANS from Reporter to Reporter to Reporter, their mikes bearing the call-letters of different channels. ON GRANDMA being interviewed. She wears a JOHNSON FOR CONGRESS button and speaks with manifest pride. GRANDMA I've never been so proud in all my life. He was always such a good boy...well, I think he meant well. Sometimes -- well he was a clean child. That's important, I think... PAN TO FLORIDA REPORTER #2 doing a stand-up. FLORIDA REPORTER #2 Then in Massachusetts, there was a guy named Kennedy who got elected, but he wasn't really a Kennedy. PAN TO -- (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 32.43 CONTINUED: (2) 43 FLORIDA REPORTER #3 A lot of dead incumbents get re-elected, actually. It's an American tradition. ON Tommy. Speaking meaningfully, with great sincerity, he shows a gift for political discourse. TOMMY We ran a positive campaign. We campaigned on the issues. The issue is leadership. Leadership for the future. Ask not what you can do for your country. The people have spoken. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. Live Free or Die. And in conclusion...read my lips! (APPLAUSE and CHEERS)44 INT. AIRPLANE - DAY 44 Tommy looking out the window at the city below.45 EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. - AERIAL VIEW - DAY - (STOCK) 45 The approach to National Airport gives a good view of Washington and its landmarks. TOMMY The promised land.46 EXT. AIRPORT RUNWAY - DAY 46 The plane touches down.47 INT. NATIONAL AIRPORT - DAY 47 Through the airport move our Floridians. They look like they're going to opening day at the track. VOICE (O.S.) Congressman Johnson! Congressman Johnson! Tommy looks. It's REINHHARDT, a young straight-arrow bearing two huge document briefcases, which he puts down to shake hands. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 33.47 CONTINUED: 47 REINHARDT Arthur Reinhardt. You remember me -- I Fed-Exed that material to you in Key West? TOMMY Reinhardt, my man! Of course! You look just like I pictured you. Nice wing tips. REINHARDT Thank you. Congressman, I hope you don't think I'm out of line for meeting you here -- I thought you might want some help with logistics, settling in at your hotel -- (indicating the briefcases) Since you didn't make it to the Harvard seminar, I put together a set of their papers for you. TOMMY I like your initiative, Reinhardt, but to tell you the truth, I've never been much of a student. Maybe you can brief my staff sometime. Reinhardt looks Tommy's cronies over. Not your classic Hill types. TOMMY But thank you, I will take you up on those logistics. Hey! Entourage! What hotel we at? They look at one another, puzzled. TOMMY Reinhardt, it appears that the staff has neglected to nail down some details. REINHARDT Oh, Jesus, the IMF's in town. Where are we going to find a room? TOMMY Four rooms.48 OMITTED 48 THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 34.49 INT. AIRPORT BAR - DAY 49 The entourage is enjoying a round of libations. Reinhardt runs up. REINHARDT I got lucky at the Madison. Thank god there's been a coup in Uruguay. Their delegation just checked out. TOMMY You're a wizard, Reinhardt. I knew you could handle it.50 EXT. AIRPORT TAXI RANK - DAY 50 Tommy's entourage and their luggage are being packed into a cab. Tommy turns to Reinhardt. TOMMY So when does the House open for business? Reinhardt hasn't heard it put quite that way before. Reinhardt gets his courage up. REINHARDT Say, Congressman, you got my resume, didn't you? TOMMY (hasn't a clue) I'm sure I did. REINHARDT There's something I wanted to ask you. I know it's a big step, but -- I'd like you to consider me to be your AA. TOMMY That's quite an offer, Reinhardt, very decent of you, but I'm just a social drinker. REINHARDT No. AA. Your Administrative Assistant. I worked for Congressman Johnson. I'd like to work for you, Congressman Johnson. TOMMY Really. Tommy looks at his own troops, then back to Reinhardt. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 35.50 CONTINUED: 50 TOMMY You mean like an affirmative action thing? Tommy opens the cab door. TOMMY Tell you what -- I'll think about it, okay? Tommy gets in and closes the door. TOMMY (through the open window) Thanks for getting us settled, really appreciate it. (to driver) Madison Hotel.51 OMITTED 5152 EXT. MEMORIAL BRIDGE - MAGIC HOUR 52 The bridge over the Potomac has a classic view of the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Their taxi drives by.53 OMITTED 53& &54 5455 EXT. CANNON BUILDING - DAY 55 Morning. Tommy and cronies get out of a cab and bound up the grand flight of stairs. In b.g., the Capitol dome.56 INT. CANNON GROUND FLOOR CORRIDOR/ELEVATOR - DAY 56 They walk the superb ground floor corridor of Cannon, salivating. Marble columns... chandeliers... grand offices. Real class. AT AN ELEVATOR with a sign above it -- MEMBERS ONLY -- they stop. Tommy presses the button. The door opens. The seated ATTENDANT gets a load of this group. Especially Loretta. ATTENDANT Sorry, folks, this elevator's for Members only. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 36.56 CONTINUED: 56 TOMMY That's okay, they're with me. Sixth floor please. Cannon 609. I'm going to my office. ATTENDANT I said Members only. TOMMY I am a Member. Now take us to six before I haul your ass in front of the committee on disrespectful behavior. ATTENDANT Elevator don't go to six. You have to get off at five and walk.57 INT. CANNON STAIRWELL - DAY 57 Looking puzzled, they make their way up a drab stairwell.58 INT. CANNON TOP FLOOR - DAY 58 Not classy. On one side of the hallway, the windows give out on a brutally ugly courtyard. On the other side of the hall are cages: windowless storage bins behind metal fences crammed with junk -- and an occasional xerox machine, Mr. Coffee, and pitiful staffer at a tiny desk. Tommy opens the door to 609.59 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 59 Tommy's office is a small, dark garret, with dirty car- peting, bare shelves, and a pile of bulging canvas U.S. Mail bags. TOMMY Wait here. He heads further into the office.60 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 60 Equally unattractive. Perched on the desk: Reinhardt. TOMMY You again! REINHARDT Good morning, congressman. TOMMY What is this shithole? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 37.60 CONTINUED: 60 REINHARDT Excuse me? TOMMY (gesturing, peeved) This. REINHARDT (casual) Oh -- you missed the freshman lottery for offices. They assign them by draw. You didn't show for the draw, so you got the worst office in Congress. TOMMY I missed what lottery? REINHARDT It was all in the briefing books I mailed you. TOMMY What else did I miss, Reinhardt? REINHARDT Are you hiring me, congressman? Tommy gives Reinhardt a good once-over, seeing him anew. TOMMY You're shaking me down, aren't you? Tommy laughs, then clasps Reinhardt's shoulders. TOMMY This is fantastic, Reinhardt. I haven't been here five minutes, and you're shaking me down. God, I'm gonna love this town. You're hired, man. Just tell me what to do next. I don't want to miss out on any of the good shit. REINHARDT The dinner for new Members is tonight, at Union Station. Do you have black tie? BEGIN elegant, spirited classical MUSIC.61 INT. UNION STATION - MAIN HALL - NIGHT 61 With its hundred-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling and grand windows, the magnificent Beaux-Arts station has been beautifully restored. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 38.61 CONTINUED: 61 A big crowd slowly makes its way along a red carpet to the party. Tommy was born to wear a tux. In his lapel, a red-and- gold eagle pin. On his arm, Loretta, in a dramatic shoulderless and nearly backless gown, with three-quarter gloves. The other Women in sight are far more conserva- tively dressed.62 INT. UNION STATION - ADIRONDACKS RESTAURANT - NIGHT 62 A STRING QUARTET provides the music. Tommy and Loretta linger uncertainly near the entrance. Then: TOMMY Let's meet some natives. Tommy leads her over to two Men, 30s, excellent haircuts. Both wear pins. He extends a hand. TOMMY Tommy Johnson, how'd you do, nice party, heck of a railroad station, isn't it? RAFE Rafe Simon, freshman from Tulsa. And this is Bo Chandler -- BO -- from Lufkin, Texas. You must be the one who didn't come to Harvard. TOMMY No, I couldn't, it was my Princeton reunion.... RAFE Jeff Johnson? You're Jeff Johnson? The guy from Florida? TOMMY That's right. RAFE (to Bo) The rest of us are out there on the campaign trail, raising money, kissing ass, making speeches, dragging our butts from place to place -- and he slides in on pure name recognition! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 39.62 CONTINUED: 62 He puts his face close to Tommy. RAFE Let me tell you something, Jeff. A tense beat. Then Rafe breaks into a smile. RAFE Fuckin' brilliant. Bo winks at Tommy. Tommy Thank you. Thank you both very much. (to Loretta) Isn't that nice, now, don't you think? (to Rafe and Bo) This is Miss Loretta, boys. She extends a regal hand to each, Liza Doolittle at the ball. LORETTA How do yo do. How do you do. TOMMY And it's Tommy. My friends call me Tommy. "Jeff" is my... professional name. So what line of work were you boys in before you got elected? You lawyers or something? RAFE Oh, no, I did morning weather and traffic for KTOK in Tulsa. BO You don't remember me? I was a tight end for the Oilers -- my knee gimped out. The origins of the gentlemen's political success is not lost on Tommy. BO Hey, stop by my reception after the swearing in tomorrow, okay? RAFE Yeah, but don't you go to his reception before you go to my reception. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 40.62 CONTINUED: (2) 62 TOMMY Fine, but I'm gonna be real offended if either of you miss my reception. They leave. TOMMY I think we have to have a reception. AT THE BUFFET, as Tommy and Loretta help themselves generously to oysters and champagne, they overhear TWO MEMBERS passing by. FIRST MEMBER So then I ran an ad calling him a draft dodger, but then he ran an ad calling me a plagiarist. SECOND MEMBER What did you do? FIRST MEMBER Oh, leaked a rumor that his father- in-law was a Nazi. I went up ten points in a weekend. TOMMY (to Loretta) We're in the majors, doll.62A THE BALCONY is full of people working one another. As 62A Tommy and Loretta pass some large stone statues, a man extends his hand -- liquor lobbyist KEN KORNGOLD. KORNGOLD Congressman? I'd like to introduce myself. Ken Korngold. National Distilled Spirits Association. TOMMY Tommy Johnson. Distilled Spirits, is that right? KORNGOLD It's super that you won, congressman. Any way we can help, please don't hesitate. TOMMY Pleasure's all mine, Ken, hope you can make it to my reception. Do you happen to have a card? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 41.62A CONTINUED: 62A KORNGOLD (giving him one) I sure do.63 INT. UNION STATION - MEN'S ROOM - NIGHT 63 Tommy is along a wall where other guests are similarly occupied. TOMMY You now what I love about this place? The way everyone calls you a Member. Every time I hear that, it makes me think of Mr. Happy here. The Member next to him bursts out laughing. TOMMY Don't you be peeing on my shoe. They go to the sinks. The Member introduces himself. IOWA Mike Strangland. Iowa -- first CD. TOMMY You got a CD? Shit, I missed that, too. IOWA First Congressional district. TOMMY Ohhh. Tommy Johnson. Florida. So Iowa -- how'd you get to Washington? You do the crop report on tv? IOWA has a big open face and a flat Midwestern voice. IOWA No -- I owe it all to the Vietnamese. TOMMY War hero? IOWA P.O.W. When I got back to Cedar Rapids, I spent so many years telling the Rotary Club what was wrong in Washington, they finally told me to put up or shut up -- so I put up. And here I am. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 42.63 CONTINUED: 63 TOMMY Wait a minute. What's wrong in Washington? IOWA C'mon -- there's acid rain killing fish, and no one's stopping it... there's topsoil washing away, and no erosion program... there's chemicals in our livestock -- God, I sound like a Boy Scout. TOMMY That's alright, Iowa -- this place could use a few geeks like you.64 INT. UNION STATION - ADIRONDACKS - TOMMY'S DINNER 64 TABLE - NIGHT Tommy shakes hands around the table, taking business cards as he goes. FIRST LOBBYIST Pete Slocum. Asbestos Information Institute. SECOND LOBBYIST Mike Gustofson. Freedom to Advertise Coalition. THIRD LOBBYIST Paul Zeckhauser. American Tobacco Council. TOMMY Hey... thank you... nice to see you... hope you can make it to my reception. Have y'all met Miss Loretta? TOMMY'S TABLEMATE is lawyer-lobbyist TOMMY O'CONNOR, 40s. As Waiters serve lobster bisque, he hands TJ a business card. O'CONNOR Tommy O'Connor. Soon as I saw how you got elected, I knew you were a real comer. Hell, I bet old Olaf Andersen voted for you. TOMMY Who's Olaf Andersen? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 43.64 CONTINUED: 64 O'Connor points. ON THE DAIS, Andersen is engrossed with Dodge. O'CONNOR (O.S.) I won't tell him you asked. Chairman of Gulf Coast Power. Constituent of yours, client of mine. BACK TO SCENE O'CONNOR Pays the rent, know what I mean? Say, could I host a little welcome- to-Washington thing for you down at my law firm? Meet some of my clients, five hundred a head -- you could pick up twenty, twenty-five grand to get you started. TOMMY (cautious) And how much of that do you get? O'CONNOR (amused) Oh, it doesn't come off the top. Down the road, I'll bill 'em each five hundred an hour whenever I take you to lunch. TOMMY Tommy, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.65 INT. UNION STATION - ADIRONDACKS - NIGHT - ON DODGE 65 making a speech from the dais. DODGE Tonight we unite the two great pillars of our system -- political and financial. To the forty-four newly-elected Members of Congress, I say, Look around you tonight. Look around, and be thankful for the generosity. Tommy inspects the sea of barracudas. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 44.65 CONTINUED: 65 DODGE The people you see not only provided tonight's hospitality. They are the people you serve. That's our system of checks and balances at its best. Their support helped get you elected... your work will help them... and their support will help you in your next campaign, which I remind you is already less than two years away.66 INT./EXT. ADIRONDACKS - LARGE DOORS - NIGHT 66 In b.g., the Capitol dome. As Tommy and Loretta leave, they pass Dick Dodge, who is saying goodnight to guests. He stops them. DODGE You know, Mr. Johnson, it's customary for new Members to pay a courtesy call on the old fogies in the leadership. Especially from their HOME STATE. TOMMY Well, I would have, but I just got to town. It's an honor to meet you, sir. A real privilege. This is Miss Loretta. LORETTA Public liaison. She pronounces the word so carefully, it sounds lewd. DODGE How do you do? (to Tommy) You could make up for it by having a nightcap with me. (to Loretta) May I have my car take you home?67 EXT. CAPITOL HILL - NIGHT 67 Tommy and Dodge walk up steps toward the Capitol.68 INT. HALLWAY - CAPITOL - NIGHT 68 A darkened hallway. A hand-lettered sign by a door reads COMMITTEE ON POWER AND INDUSTRY. THE CHAIRMAN. MR. DODGE. Tommy and Dodge approach. As Dodge unlocks the door: (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 45.68 CONTINUED: 68 TOMMY Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, but this ain't no homo shit we up to, is it? DODGE No. No, it's not. But -- (amused) Good thinking, Johnson. I'm impressed by your instincts.69 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - CAPITOL - NIGHT 69 A single table lamp lights Dick Dodge's office, reflecting off the velvet drapes, sculpted ceiling, and crystal chandeliers. Tommy and Dodge are in leather armchairs, ties undone. On the table between them, a bottle of Jim Beam. Dodge casts a cool eye on Tommy. DODGE Tell me, Johnson. Why did you come to Washington? TOMMY Well... of course... it's a chance to do something for my country. I mean, there's the topsoil thing, and acid rain is killing the cattle -- DODGE Cut the bullshit, Johnson. I saw how you got elected. Flukes like you are either nutcases or troublemakers. I just want to know which one I have on my hands. Who sent you here? TOMMY No one sent me. DODGE You pulled off that upset on your own? TOMMY (acknowledging modestly) Kid's got his talents. DODGE I'm impressed, Johnson, I am. But why did you run for Congress? TOMMY No bullshit? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 46.69 CONTINUED: 69 DODGE No bullshit. TOMMY Opportunity knocks. This town is the fuckin' Yukon. A stunned silence from Dodge -- then deep and generous laughter. DODGE What a refreshing answer. He laughs again, richly amused. Tommy joins in the laughter.70 EXT. CANNON - DAY 70 Shining in the bright sun.71 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY - ON TOMMY'S DESK 71 Hundreds of business cards. An expert riffle, a one- handed cut, and Tommy deals lightning fast, a perfect diamond formation with two cards in the middle. He turns them over one at a time. TOMMY Food... drinks. LORETTA (reads card) Ken Korngold, National Distilled Spirits Association. Bob Rafferty ...Wisconsin Cheese Board. (to Tommy) What do you want me to do? TOMMY You're on cheese. I'll handle booze. He reaches for the phone...72 EXT. DISTILLER'S BUILDING - DAY 72 Pan from Capitol Hill to gleaming glass office building. TOMMY (V.O.) (taking the phone) Ken! Ken Korngold! Tommy Johnson here... Right -- last night. How's it going, big guy? KORNGOLD (V.O.) Congressman! THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 47.73 INT. KORNGOLD'S OFFICE - DAY 73 Expensive furniture, rugs, and art. KORNGOLD How are you on this helluva fine day! I'm looking forward to your reception. INTERCUT TOMMY AND KORNGOLD TOMMY Actually, that's why I'm calling, Ken. You said if I needed some help -- KORNGOLD You name it, congressman. Issue papers, testimony, floor speeches -- TOMMY Tell you what I have in mind. I was just thinking, wouldn't it be a plus for old Ken Korngold if I was to -- how should I put this -- showcase some of his distillers' products at my reception? You know, like they put Reese's pieces in E.T.? It's called "product placement." People come in, they have a tremendous time, they see your products, they think well of you -- and they think well of me, too. It's good for both of us, Ken. What do you say? KORNGOLD Well, it's a new one on me, but hey, sure, I think we can help you out. Say, while I have you on the line, there was one thing...74 INT. HOUSE CHAMBER - DAY 74 The SPEAKER administers the oath of office to the assembled House. SPEAKER Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States... ON GRANDMA next to Tommy, eyes welling with pride. It's the one day a year that non-Members (meaning families) can be on the floor. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 48.74 CONTINUED: 74 SPEAKER ... against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same...75 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY - VIDEO - WIDE SHOT OF HOUSE 75 The 435 Members (with family) taking the oath, watched on C-span by Loretta, Armando, Van Dyke, and Reinhardt. SPEAKER (V.O.) ... that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion...76 INT. HOUSE CHAMBER - DAY 76 ON IOWA taking the oath, his toddler in his arms. PAN along faces of other Members... to Tommy. SPEAKER (V.O.) ... and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter. So help you God? TOMMY (AND MEMBERS) I do. SPEAKER (V.O.) Congratulations. You are now Members of Congress. Sustained APPLAUSE. Tommy kisses Grandma. INTERCUT Tommy's cronies APPLAUDING. ON THE FLOOR Tommy dries Grandma's tears with a finger. GRANDMA It's just that -- I'm so happy you straightened out. Tommy smiles ambiguously. As APPLAUSE continues, his eyes roam the room and make contact with Dick Dodge, standing at one of the leadership tables. Tommy winks conspiratorially at him. There's such diabolical glee in it, it even takes Dodge aback.77 INT. CANNON TOP FLOOR - DAY 77 A beautiful black woman, 20s, walks briskly down the busy Cannon corridors. CELIA. There's intelligence in her eyes, and fire. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 49.77 CONTINUED: 77 She makes her way down the corridor, exchanging AD LIB greetings, glancing in at the sedate receptions, and drawing closer to the source of the REGGAE (O.S.) -- Tommy's office. She looks in.78 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 78 It's packed, mainly with men. Everyone has drinks and talks noisily. It looks like a fraternity smoker for lobbyists. MUSIC comes from a boom box. The bar -- a tablecloth over some desks -- is lavishly stocked. So are the bookcases, which now look like liquor store shelves. ANGLE ON LORETTA, in a cocktail dress and a HELLO MY NAME IS MISS LORETTA badge, staffing a little table, handing Celia a name-tag. INSERT Celia's hands print CELIA KIRBY. PRO BONO. BACK TO SCENE - ON Tommy and Reinhardt talking with a LOBBYIST. FOURTH LOBBYIST It's an informal breakfast. You give us your views, we give you bacon and eggs, plus a couple of thousand dollar honorarium. (winking) For your favorite charity. Tommy looks at Reinhardt, who explains. REINHARDT The Tommy Johnson Foundation. TOMMY (savoring the word) Honorarium. I like that. Loretta appears with a platter of food. LORETTA Herring, gentlemen? FOURTH LOBBYIST Uh, no thanks. LORETTA Really? We've got it in cream sauce and in wine sauce. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 49A.78 CONTINUED: 78 REINHARDT I think I'll pass. Tommy steers her aside and takes a roll of soggy, toothpick-impaled herring. TOMMY What is this? Where's the cheese? LORETTA The cheese guy didn't return my call. So I called the guy at the American Smoked Fish Institute. She points at the food table. There's nothing but a few boxes of crackers and two huge mounds of herring -- one white, one pink. The centerpiece is a large smoked fish, eyes staring accusingly. TOMMY Oh, that's just wonderful. Sixty heavy hitters drop in, and I'm feeding 'em cat food. He breaks off, as Celia comes into view in the doorway behind. Tommy picks her up on his radar. TOMMY We'll talk about this later. We follow Tommy through the crowd until he reaches Celia. TOMMY Hi there. Glad you could make it. So you're... Celia Kirby. That's an extremely beautiful name. For an extremely beautiful woman. CELIA Wow! That's smooth. After ten straight hours on my feet making small talk and breathing cheap cigar smoke, that's exactly the kind of line I'm ready to fall for. TOMMY Whoa, slow down. CELIA Sure, sure, forget it. Can you just tell me, which one's Congressman Johnson? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 49B.78 CONTINUED: (2) 78 TOMMY What if I said... me? CELIA Oh. I see. So tell me, Congressman, just how deep is the shit I'm standing in? Tommy has to laugh. TOMMY Don't worry about it. Why don't we just start over again? CELIA Celia Kirby. I'm the legislative director of Pro Bono. TOMMY Ah. Pro Bon. That's an extremely beautiful name. For an extremely beautiful organization. Um... what is it? CELIA (amused) We're a public interest research and advocacy group. I'd like to brief you on our priorities this session. Can I call your AA to get on your schedule? TOMMY Why don't you brief me over dinner tonight? CELIA I want an appointment, Congressman, not a date. TOMMY Yeah, sure, we'll type it up on the schedule, it'll be an appointment, except with wine and flowers on the table. CELIA No thanks. I really should be going. TOMMY Won't you at least stay for a drink and some herring? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 49C.78 CONTINUED: (3) 78 CELIA I'm afraid I'm busy. TOMMY Well then, can I tempt you with a smelt? CELIA No thanks. (extending her hand) Nice to meet you. I'll be in touch with your office. I especially look forward to hearing your view on extending the sexual harassment law to include congressmen. TOMMY I love the way you say that. She slips out through the sea of revelers.79 EXT. CAPITOL - DAY 79 A fine Washington morning.80 OMITTED 8081 EXT. CAPITOL STEPS - DAY 81 Rep. ELIJAH MARSHALL, 50s, black, and a pain in Dodge's ass, is shaking hands and saying goodbye to some Constituents. Dodge approaches. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 3/25/92 50.81 CONTINUED: 81 DODGE I heard in the steam room you're going to try to screw up my ethics bill. MARSHALL Not screw up. Amend. DODGE Come on, Eli, your amendments don't have a chance in hell to pass. My bill isn't perfect, I know, but it'll pass. And the President'll sign it. MARSHALL "Isn't perfect"? Dick, your bill's the Incumbents Protection Act! How can you even call it an ethics bill? DODGE Because the public wants an ethics bill! So that's what we call it. MARSHALL But it's got no teeth! It won't change a thing, and you know it. DODGE Come on, Eli, you're a politician, too. The less you're going to do about something, the more you have to talk about it. You know that. They start walking. MARSHALL I see. We close the bank, we stop the rubber checks, we raise the prices in the barber shop, we stop fixing parking tickets, and abracadabra! We say we've cleaned up Congress. Well, I don't think the American people want what this place has become. DODGE That's the beauty of it! They must, Eli -- they keep re-electing us. MARSHALL Not anymore! This new Congress is full of new faces. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 51.81 CONTINUED: (2) 81 DODGE Oh, I wouldn't read too much into that. A few extra retirements, some redistricting -- nothing more than that. It's still business as usual up here. Dodge takes his glasses from his pocket and wipes them. DODGE I live in the real world, Eli. Do you? What's unemployment up to in your district? Eight percent? Eight-five? MARSHALL Eight point six. DODGE Power and Enterprise is about to fund a solar demonstration plant, Eli. It could mean a whole lot to a district -- new jobs, new construction -- that interest you? MARSHALL You can't bribe me, Dick.82 INT. DODGE'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 82 Dodge and Marshall enter. DODGE Eli, the people who elected you. They sent you here to help them. Don't you want to? MARSHALL Not if it means supporting your bill. All you want is the perfect platform to campaign for Speaker. Dick Dodge. Mr. Clean. What a joke! DODGE (undeterred) Come on board, Eli. (leaning in) You know -- you can't save the world if you can't save your seat. Tommy enters. Marshall gives him a once-over and extends a hand. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 52.82 CONTINUED: 82 MARSHALL We haven't met. Eli Marshall. TOMMY Tommy Johnson. MARSHALL I know. The Florida upset. Well, now that you're here, what are you going to do with it? You gonna feather your own nest, or are you gonna make something of your office? TOMMY I plan to be as good a congressman as all the others. MARSHALL Exactly what does that mean? TOMMY Well, ever since I got back from Nam, I've wanted to do something about the rain forest -- MARSHALL No, do me a favor, don't tell me. I try not to get depressed until the second week of a new session. DODGE (ushering Tommy into his office) Eli, you'll excuse us -- we have a meeting.83 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - DAY 83 DODGE Johnson, I'm the chairman of a committee up here called Power and Industry. We've got an open seat, and I was wondering if you'd consider filling it. TOMMY Is this good news? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 53.83 CONTINUED: 83 DODGE (tongue in cheek) Well, it is a difficult assignment -- look at what we cover: energy, health, telecommunications, environment... the committee is constantly beset by a swarm of special interests. These are powerful people, they've got all the money in the world, and they're not shy about using it. TOMMY So... this is very good news. DODGE Most members would give their right nut for it. TOMMY So what do you want from me, Dick? DODGE Congressman... I just want you to smile for the cameras.84 INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 84 The committee members -- all white males, except Tommy -- mill around, awaiting the start of the hearings. As the TV cameras whir, Dodge shakes Tommy's hand warmly. Big smiles and an explosion of flashbulbs. Dodge breaks off and Tommy drifts over to Reinhardt. REINHARDT (indicating dais) So, Congressman, welcome to the honey pot. You should be one happy freshman. TOMMY Yeah? Well, I'm not. I'm suspicious. One thing I've learned is, when somebody gives you something for nothing, the nothing ain't nothing. It's something. What is it? Why me? Reinhardt puts his hand on Tommy's shoulders. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 54.84 CONTINUED: 84 REINHARDT Congressman, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but... you're black. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. TOMMY Keep talking. REINHARDT Dodge wants to run for Speaker. And he ain't gonna make it without votes from the black caucus. Suddenly, Dodge reappears. He throws his arm around Tommy's shoulders. DODGE Tommy, someone I want you to meet... Dodge steers TJ to a preppy-looking man at the witness table -- BARCLAY "SKEETER" WARBURTON. DODGE Skeeter, do you know Tommy Johnson? Meet the new member of the committee. Tommy, this is Barclay Warburton. TOMMY Pleased to meet you, Barclay. WARBURTON'S voice is aristocratic, a la George Plimpton. WARBURTON Skeeter. Please. Been called that since boarding school. TOMMY Skeeter. WARBURTON Damned fine to meet you. As Dodge and Tommy head for the dais, Tommy imitates Warburton's lockjaw. TOMMY "Tommy. Please. Been called that since reform school." Dodge chuckles, shakes his head in mock rebuke. Tommy takes his seat at the lower dais, smiles at the Members on his left and right. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 55.84 CONTINUED: (2) 84 ON THE UPPER DAIS, Dodge gavels... DODGE This EPA oversight hearing of the Committee on Power and Industry will come to order. I'd like to welcome our first witness, the distinguished Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency... (Warburton nods) ... but before I do, I note that a new Member is joining us today, the distinguished gentleman from Florida. THE BIGGEST EXPLOSION OF FLASHES YET... and as the motor drives whir, Tommy flashes his biggest smile yet.85 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 85 Tommy's office walls are now richly hung with plaques, awards, and framed photos. We see he has been named the PESTICIDE COALITION'S Man of the Month. The winner of the NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION'S Achievement Award. The MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA'S Outstanding Young Legislator. Etc. The liquor is gone. Loretta is at the receptionist's desk. A LOBBYIST enters. FIFTH LOBBYIST Morning. Ron Yaeger. Snack-PAC -- Snack Foods Political Action Committee. I have a ten o'clock. LORETTA Please have a seat. The congressman is running just a little bit late. He sits and opens his briefcase. Van Dyke approaches him with the dignity of a superb butler. VAN DYKE Would you care for some herring?86 INT. CAPITOL FUNCTION ROOM - DAY 86 Tommy rises to speak at a breakfast meeting. The podium bears the seal of the American Poultry Association. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 56.86 CONTINUED: 86 TOMMY Let me start with a confession. I don't know much about poultry. But I do know something about people. And let me tell you: I like you people. So when you have something to say about poultry, I listen. Thank you very much. He sits down to generous APPLAUSE. ON Armando, in attendance, CLAPPING, marveling at the response TJ gets.87 INT. CATACOMBS - MOVING - DAY 87 Capitol Hill is actually two worlds: the aboveground buildings that visitors and television cameras see, and the catacombs, the busy tunnels and corridors connecting the congressional office buildings and the Capitol. They're surprisingly unglamorous -- exposed pipes, white- washed brick walls, dumpsters, pizza carry-outs -- and through them move the legislators and their staffs. And here is Tommy, whistling ZIPPEDY DOO DAH. He loves this place. Passing a snack bar, he greets the Cashier. TOMMY My man. He blows a kiss to a pretty Teller in the credit union. Passing the barber shop, he calls out to the Shoeshine Guy. He passes a black TELEPHONE MAN at an open panel of wires. TELEPHONE MAN Tommy! What's up, man? TOMMY (whispering) Sweet Sue. Third race at Santa Anita.88 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 88 Several lobbyists are now awaiting Tommy balancing plates of herring on their knees. Some are enjoying it more than others. Tommy breezes in. TOMMY Hey, how you folks doin', good to see you, Van Dyke making you comfortable? Tommy hits a button on a tape deck, turning on some EASY LISTENING. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 57.88 CONTINUED: 88 TOMMY Be with y'all shortly. BEHIND THE DIVIDER, outside Tommy's office door, Tommy has a word with Reinhardt. Tommy indicates his office. TOMMY She in there? Reinhardt nods. Tommy gives himself a couple of squirts of Binaca. TOMMY Stick around for this, Reinhardt. I've finally figured something out about the women in this town.89 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 89 Tommy and Reinhardt meeting with Celia and an elfin guy in corduroy. CELIA Thank you for seeing us, congressman, we won't take up much of your time. This is Ira Schecter, our research director. TJ Hi, good to meet you, you folks know Reinhardt, don't you? Don't rush, Miss Kirby, we can take as long as we want. CELIA But you have people waiting, and -- TOMMY That's all right. They can wait. CELIA Well. She pulls documents from her briefcase and hands them to Tommy. CELIA These are issue papers. This session we're targeting auto insurance premiums, child safety, and food additives. As votes come up, we know you'll be hearing plenty from the other side. We'd just like a clean shot at making our case, too. (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 58.89 CONTINUED: 89 CELIA (CONT'D) (rising) So, we'll follow up with your staff in the next week or... TOMMY Wait a minute, you just got here. I clean my calendar, and you're out the door. Let's back up, give this stuff the attention it deserves. Car insurance... Ira, what do you pay? IRA Oh, I've got an '85 Plymouth, about six-fifty a year... TOMMY Six-fifty? Highway robbery! A chop shop wouldn't give you more than a hundred forty for a junker like that. (beat) Or so I've heard. (beat) But I'm flying blind here, I need depth. Could Miss Kirby put together a briefing? Maybe schedule a Saturday or two to really dig into the issues? IRA (surprised and pleased) Oh... we'd be delighted. We've got some figures that will amaze you. TOMMY I'm sure you do. CELIA (rising) Well, we won't take up any more... TOMMY Whoa, whoa, hold on, what about child safety? CELIA Well, we're sponsoring a bill imposing safety standards on imported toys... (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 59.89 CONTINUED: (2) 89 TOMMY Great! About time! I hate imported toys. What about food additives? How about we block out a few evenings, you can take me through the details. IRA Celia, if that's what the Congressman wants... any problem? CELIA (to him) You want to do this in the evening? IRA I'm away for the next two weeks. She gives him a look. Ira turns to Tommy. IRA So, when can Celia start your briefings? TOMMY Saturday night? IRA Saturday night sounds fine. CELIA Fine. Wednesday morning. Nine- fifteen.90 INT. CATACOMBS - NIGHT - CLOSE ANGLE - A SIGN 90 On a door in the House sub-basement: MEMBERS ONLY.91 INT. HOUSE GYM - NIGHT 91 The regular evening pickup basketball game. Even among these ruthless players, Tommy's street moves are outstand- ingly down and dirty. His principal accomplice: Elijah Marshall.92 INT. LOCKER ROOM - HOUSE GYM - NIGHT 92 A standing poker game among the towel- and robe-clad Members. It's Tommy's shuffle and deal. He is convincingly awkward. A BULLDOG of a man examines his hand, tosses two cards in. He assembles his new hand. Four fives and an ace. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 60.92 CONTINUED: 92 ON Tommy's hand. A pair of threes. The betting starts, at a couple of chips, and comes round to Tommy. He pushes a stack of chips to the center. TOMMY Let's get serious, fellas.93 INT. CATACOMBS (OR CORRIDOR) - NIGHT 93 Tommy, Marshall, and the Bulldog, back in suits, exit the MEMBERS ONLY door and move through the catacombs. MARSHALL I need your help on the ethics bill, Leon. I want you to co- sponsor my amendments. BULLDOG You make a persuasive case, Eli. MARSHALL That wasn't a yes. BULLDOG (courteously ambiguous) I promise to give it the attention it deserves. The Bulldog gives Tommy a friendly squeeze -- BULLDOG Better luck next time, son. -- and leaves them. Tommy and Marshall continue on. MARSHALL He took six hundred dollars off you that last hand, didn't he? TOMMY Yeah, he's taking a real shine to me. MARSHALL If I didn't know better, I'd say you lost to him on purpose. TOMMY Nothing wrong with letting the chairman of the ethics committee roll you once in a while. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 60A.93 CONTINUED: 93 MARSHALL (shaking his head) You fit in real well up here. Too well. TOMMY So Eli, how come you haven't asked for my help with your amendments? MARSHALL Give it a rest, Tommy. You've got a great jump shot. But everyone knows you're Dick Dodge's boy. TOMMY (bristling) I'm nobody's boy, mister. MARSHALL (weary) Don't waste your outrage on me. I know what you are. TOMMY I'm no different from anyone else. MARSHALL That's not true. Some people here actually try to do something besides save their own ass. TOMMY You know, Eli, I like you, I really do. You remind me of my father. MARSHALL Oh, really? How so? TOMMY He thought I was scum, too. BELLS begin RINGING and LIGHTS FLASHING on all the clocks and sconces down the corridor. Three RINGS, pause, three RINGS, pause... Marshall does a U-turn. Tommy doesn't follow suit. MARSHALL Aren't you going to vote? TOMMY (indicating clocks) Vote? Is that what that is? We got a pool going in the office on when it'll go off next. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 60B.93A INT. LOBBY OUTSIDE HOUSE CHAMBER - DAY 93A It's called "Gucci Gulch." The lobby just outside the doors to the House chamber is pandemonium -- a sea of lobbyists, lawyers, PACmen, Members, and staffers urgently trying to find their masters and signal them thumbs-up or-down. Tommy enters, sweeps the room with his eyes, looking for Reinhardt, shrugs, then goes through the doors onto the floor.93B INT. HOUSE CHAMBER - DAY 93B Tommy goes to a console on the rear of a seat. A blue light says OPEN. Tommy inserts a card (it looks like an electronic hotel key). Red, green, and amber lights at buttons labeled NAY, YEA, and PRES. Tommy shrugs, pushes NAY.93C INT. LOBBY OUTSIDE HOUSE CHAMBER - DAY 93C As Tommy heads away, he passes a class trip -- a dozen fifth-graders and their TEACHER, who hails him. TEACHER Excuse me -- Congressman? Do you have a moment? We're from the Hawthorne Avenue School, in Union, New Jersey? I'm Mrs. Kozlowski. Social Studies. We were just learning how a bill becomes a law. (indicating the BELLS) Was that a vote? TOMMY Yes, it was. TEACHER And what did you vote? TOMMY I voted "Nay." It's a terrible bill. It'd destroy the fabric of American life. TEACHER And what was the vote on? Tommy hasn't a clue. He calls out to Rafe, who is among those leaving the chamber. TOMMY Hey, Rafe! Tell these kids what that vote was about. (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 61.93C CONTINUED: 93C TOMMY (CONT'D) (to kids) Guy's got a real knack for explaining things. RAFE Well, it was a motion to reconsider the motion to reconsider. Bo, passing by, intervenes. BO No, it was the rule on amending the reauthorization. TOMMY Which means? BO Clean Air. RAFE (overlapping) School lunches. TOMMY You're in excellent hands, kids.94 INT. RESTAURANT - DAY 94 A NOISY restaurant popular with lobbyists. Power photos on the wall. Table hopping. People SHOUTING greetings across the room. Waiters in long aprons. Tommy is having lunch with Tommy O'Connor. O'CONNOR You're a gentleman, Tommy. We can always do bid'ness -- I like that in a Member. TOMMY Thank you, Tommy. I love you too. O'CONNOR Listen, I'd like to do more money for you -- I just need to know your positions on a few issues. O'Connor takes out a pen and leather notecard case. O'CONNOR For instance, where are you on sugar price supports? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 62.94 CONTINUED: 94 Tommy has no idea, but he's certainly open to suggestions. TOMMY Sugar price supports. Where do you think I should be, Tommy? O'CONNOR Shit -- makes no difference to me. If you're for 'em, I got money for you from my sugar producers in Louisiana and Hawaii. If you're against 'em, I got money for you from the candy manufacturers. TOMMY You pick. O'CONNOR (writing) Let's put you down as for. Now what about putting limits on malpractice awards? TOMMY You tell me. O'CONNOR Well, if you're for 'em, I got money from the doctors and insurance companies. If you're against 'em, I got money from the trial lawyers. Tell you what, let's say against. Now how about pizza? TOMMY (indicating his plate) I'll stick with the salad. O'CONNOR Not for lunch, shmuck, for PAC money. A lot of the frozen pizzas use phony cheese. There's a law pending requiring them to disclose it on their labels. Where do you stand? Tommy thinks it through. TOMMY If I vote for the labels...then I get money from the dairy industry... (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 63.94 CONTINUED: (2) 94 O'CONNOR Good... TOMMY And if I vote against the labels, I get money from the frozen food guys. O'CONNOR Excellent! And don't forget the ranchers, because they get hurt if pepperoni sales go down! TOMMY (laughing in admiration) A pepperoni lobby. I love this town. O'CONNOR So which is it? TOMMY Fuck the cheese people. Thanks to them my office smelled like smelt for a week. O'CONNOR All right. For. TOMMY So Tommy, tell me -- with all this money on every side, how does anything get done? O'CONNOR It doesn't! That's the genius of the system!95 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 95 A briefing in progress. Flip charts, ring binders, Celia, Ira, a couple of other Pro Bono types. Tommy is riveted by Celia. CELIA It comes down to a question of what is acceptable risk. Are we willing to feed our kids a substance that causes cancer in lab rats? More important, who gets to make the decision? Bureaucrats and big corporations, or the people whose lives depend on it? THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 64.96 INT. TOMMY'S BOILER ROOM - DAY 96 Tommy's staff shares one small office. Everyone's on the phone. VAN DYKE Mr. Willie? Congressman Johnson is calling. Can you take his call? Thank you. Please hold. Van Dyke puts him on hold, counts to three, gets back on the line. VAN DYKE I'm sorry, Mr. Willie, he just picked up another call. Listen, I know why he was calling -- he hasn't heard from you about his fundraiser... PAN TO Armando. ARMANDO ... That's right, Mr. Brown, on the thirtieth... A thousand a couple...A whole table? He'll be so happy to hear it. Thank you so much. (calling) Loretta! Put down nuclear power for ten g's. PAN TO Loretta, who chalks the figure onto a toteboard. LORETTA Cool. (into phone) Mr. Newburg? It's Miss Loretta, from Congressman Johnson's office, how you doin'? On Loretta's bulletin board is a map of the United States, with flags, pushpins, and air travel routes. LORETTA Say, the congressman's going to be out your way next week... Palm Springs, the Bob Hope Classic -- yes, a celebrity player. As long as he's on the coast, we were wondering whether you aerospace people might want to lay on a lunch so you can hear his views... Uh-huh ... Uh-huh... Lovely. Now what kind of contribution to his foundation you folks thinking about? THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 65.97 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 97 Celia continues her briefing. CELIA ...And in the 1988 study, it was up to eight per hundred-thousand. Um...am I losing you on these mortality rates? TOMMY No, I was just wondering how much of this is a statutory problem, and how much is a regulatory one? I mean, didn't the Merton Act cover most of this? CELIA (surprised) Hmmm, that's an excellent point. Let me see something... As she starts rummaging in her briefcase, we TRACK AROUND to a COMPUTER SCREEN on Tommy's desk -- it displays THE EXACT WORDS HE'S JUST SPOKEN. CELIA Wow...you're right. Maybe we can get them to amend Merton-Simmons. RACK FOCUS...reveals REINHARDT in b.g., sitting at another computer terminal. He is typing in Tommy's responses, which appear on Tommy's screen. TOMMY Well, for Merton to apply you have to show high contagion...sounds to me like your contagion rates are no higher than the common clod. In b.g., Reinhardt DIVES FORWARD to his keyboard and begins correcting his typo. Celia looks puzzled. TOMMY Common cold. (beat) Must have picked up a little dyslexia over the weekend. CELIA I see. Well, I must say I'm pretty impressed. TOMMY You're also impressively pretty. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 66.97 CONTINUED: 97 Celia is startled. Tommy is embarrassed...the dumb compliment he's just spoken was one Reinhardt typed on the computer screen. CELIA Oh come on... TOMMY You're right. Sorry. Excuse me a second. (calls out) Arthur? Without explanation, he THROWS HIS PENCIL hard out of frame. REINHARDT (O.S.) Ow!98 EXT. GULF STREAM JET - AIRBORNE - DAY 98 A jet flies through the sky.99 INT. GULF STREAM JET - DAY 99 Tommy and handful of other Members listen to their GUN LOBBYIST host. GUN LOBBYIST Frankly, we think the semi-automatic has gotten a bad rap. That's why the American Sporting Gun Users PAC put together this trip. ON TOMMY AND DODGE enjoying champagne and hors d'oeuvres.100 EXT. DUCK BLIND - DAY 100 Tommy, wearing full L.L. Bean drag, wading with the other Members. Someone blows a shrieking DUCK CALL. A flock takes flight. Everyone in the group raises their weapons: AK-47s. A burst of GUNFIRE. Rambo time. We SEE the flock still flying. One duck drops at the feet of the hunters. TOMMY Must have had a heart attack. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 67.101A EXT. GOLF COURSE - FIRST TEE - DAY 101A A LARGE SIGN READS: SCRAP IRON INSTITUTE CELEBRITY PRO-AM. Tommy tees off. He is wearing a veritable pro shop of custom golf gear, all emblazoned with logos of corporate sponsors and lobbies. He hits the ball about 200 yards...but more or less perpendicular to the hole. REVEAL BOB HOPE standing nearby, watching. BOB HOPE I knew all these congressmen get a slice, but I didn't know it was that big.101 INT. JET - DAY 101 Tommy on the phone. TOMMY Did you miss me?102 INT. PRO BONO OFFICES - DAY 102 Celia at her desk in the somewhat ratty Pro Bono offices. CELIA Where did you go? INTERCUT CELIA AND TOMMY TOMMY Oh, a fact-finding mission, some issue conferences, a few speaking engagements, a charity event... the usual. CELIA More like the Petroleum Institute Ski Cup, the NRA Open, the -- TOMMY Hey. Have lunch with me tomorrow. CELIA I can't -- we're having a press conference. TOMMY What is it -- the ozone layer? No fault? Killer apples? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 68.102 CONTINUED: 102 CELIA (laughing) Toy safety. Wait a minute. Tomorrow's Friday. Aren't you back early? TOMMY (beaming) You remembered! That means you missed me.103 EXT. JEFFERSON MEMORIAL - NIGHT 103 Tommy and Celia walk over the bridge to the cherry trees by the Tidal Basin. TOMMY So, how'd you end up hustling for Pro Bono instead of pesticides? I mean, you could have been a big- time lawyer, right? CELIA Oh, I was for a while. It... depressed me. TOMMY At a hundred grand a year, how depressed can you get? Doesn't it depress you to lose all the time? CELIA Sometimes. Mostly it gets me angry. And the anger keeps me going. Sure, I wouldn't mind winning a few. And it's not like I'm allergic to money... TOMMY So why do you do it? She skips a stone on the water. CELIA God, it's so embarrassing to come out and say it. TOMMY Say it. CELIA Meaning. I need my life to mean something. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 69.103 CONTINUED: 103 This actually hits Tommy. Celia, embarrassed, changes the subject. CELIA My question is, how'd you get named after a Memorial? TOMMY Grandma like Jefferson. Y'know, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It's a lot to live up to, so I specialized in the last part. CELIA And how's the pursuit going? TOMMY Fine...'til I met you. Now...the better I do, the worse I feel. They have stopped walking. They are standing close together. They kiss. TOMMY So...when can I see you again? How about dinner Saturday night? She shakes her head. CELIA How about Sunday morning? TOMMY Brunch?104 INT. OLD CHURCH - BALTIMORE - DAY 104 In the pulpit, Rev. Elijah Marshall thunders: MARSHALL The wages of sin is death! And to the man who values Gold over Goodness...the Lord allows no exemptions! REVEAL TOMMY and Celia in the front pew. Marshall appears to be preaching directly to Tommy, who wears a slightly sick smile. MARSHALL To the man who shows no respect for the privilege of walking this Earth, God allows no deductions! (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 70.104 CONTINUED: 104 MARSHALL (CONT'D) (AMEN) And to the man whose pockets are bulging and whose soul is empty... the Lord grants no 90-day extension! (AMEN) And when the last trump sounds, believe me, you will be audited! TOMMY (aside to Celia) This is one hell of a date.105 EXT. CHURCH - DAY 105 On the steps, Marshall shakes hands with his Congregants. Tommy and Celia exit the church. Marshall takes Celia by the hands and kisses her familiarly. Tommy is taken aback. MARSHALL Hello, darling. Glad you could make it. CELIA I liked the sermon, Uncle Eli. TOMMY Uncle Eli? MARSHALL My niece says you're not half as slimy as I thought. TOMMY Your niece? MARSHALL That would put you somewhere between a lizard and a toad. Quite a step up. Tommy looks from Marshall to Celia and back again. TOMMY How could I have missed the family resemblance?106 EXT. CANNON BUILDING - DAY - ESTABLISHING 106107 INT. CANNON TOP FLOOR - DAY 107 WHISTLING happily, Tommy rounds the corner and heads to his office. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 71.107 CONTINUED: 107 Ahead of him, encamped in the hallway, he sees a phalanx of SENIOR CITIZENS, many carrying placards, and some camera crews. Tommy adjusts his tie, turns on the charm, and approaches. TOMMY Ladies! Looking good! How can I help you folks today! But Hattie Rifkin and her troops will have none of it. HATTIE Don't "Ladies!" me, you dick! The camera lights go on.108 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - DAY 108 DODGE Now let me get this straight. You voted to make people on Medicare pay more money to their doctors? TOMMY The Medical Association made a persuasive case. Ten grand from their PAC, plus Christmas in Aspen. DODGE (shaking his head) Tommy -- if I'm not mistaken, you wouldn't be here without the good senior citizens of your district. You got to dance with the girl that brung you, son. If you have a bit of business to do, do it quietly... in the corridors... in the subcommittees... with little amendments. You mess around on the big ones like Medicare, you'll be dead meat on election day. TOMMY Yeah, well, then it's thanks for the memories, and on to the next gig. DODGE Do you know what your problem is, son? You don't think big enough. You have a real knack for this town, but you have the soul of a two-bit hustler. Listen to me, Tommy. (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 72.108 CONTINUED: 108 DODGE (CONT'D) Five hundred thirty-five Members of Congress. Some are smart, and some stupid. Some good, some not. But all of them, son, all of them consumed by the single overriding imperative that defines the very Washington way of life. TOMMY Which is? DODGE Getting re-elected. TOMMY Wait a minute. You're talkin' 'bout my re-election? DODGE You don't know what percent of the incumbents who ran last time got re-elected, do you? TOMMY Fifty? Sixty? DODGE Ninety-six. And ninety-eight before that. It's like that election after election. If you don't fuck up, you can be here, raking it in, for life. Life, Johnson. Tommy considers this. Then a big smile. TOMMY I can think of worse places to get life. DODGE (smiles) I knew you had it in you. TOMMY So how do I get the Silver Foxes off my ass? DODGE Oh, throw them a bone... why don't you co-sponsor a bill for mandatory universal health insurance? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 73.108 CONTINUED: (2) 108 TOMMY What's that mean? DODGE Nothing. It'll never pass.109 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 109 A couple of Lobbyists await Tommy. Van Dyke mans the desk. In come ELLEN JUBA, 40s, and her 13-year-old daughter, MICKEY, whose pony tail sticks out from her Florida Marlins baseball cap. VAN DYKE May I help you? MRS. JUBA Yes, I'm Ellen Juba. This is my daughter, Mickey. We'd like to see our congressman. We live in the district. VAN DYKE Just a moment, please. (dials; into phone) Could you come out? Thank you. (hanging up) Be right with you. (to Mickey) I like your hat. Loretta comes out and extends a hand. LORETTA How do you do, I'm Miss Loretta, public liaison for the congressman. MRS. JUBA Ellen Juba. My daughter Mickey. We'd like to see him. LORETTA Y'all from the district? Up here seein' the sights? How'd you folks like some gallery passes? Go on over and listen to the great debates of our day? She reaches into Van Dyke's desk drawer to get some passes. MICKEY We don't want to go to the gallery. We want to see Congressman Johnson. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 74.109 CONTINUED: 109 LORETTA How 'bout a House key ring for each of you? Here -- see that? Isn't that something? Turns into a pen. MRS. JUBA You don't understand. We're not tourists. We're constitutents. LORETTA (helpfully) You aren't with some organization, are you, honey? MRS. JUBA I'm a goddam citizen! Isn't that enough! MICKEY We're not leaving here till we see him! Loretta exchanges a look with the Lobbyists, who get the picture. She picks up the phone and speaks nonchalantly. LORETTA Oh, Armando? Could you come out front, please? Tommy enters, carrying an enormous tennis trophy. TOMMY Look what I won! Must be that new racket. Armando has come out to hear this. ARMANDO There a problem, congressman? MRS. JUBA Congressman? You? Armando tries to escort her out. MRS. JUBA Get your hands off me! Mickey tries to block Armando. MICKEY Let go of her, you creep! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 75.109 CONTINUED: (2) 109 SIXTH LOBBYIST Careful, she may be armed! MICKEY Stop it! Get away from her! Armando, defending himself from Mickey, manages to knock her hat off. With the hat comes her (apparently false) pony tail. ON MICKEY. She's bald. Her skull bears the mark of surgery. Everyone stops. It's quiet. Mickey's eyes burn into Tommy's. Then she picks up her hat. MICKEY Come on, Ma. It's okay. Let's go. TOMMY Wait. What happened to you? MICKEYNot just me.110 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 110 Tommy and his staff listen to the Jubas. MICKEY I was lucky. They said they got it all. I'm going to be okay. But what about the others? TOMMY The others? MRS. JUBA They call it a "cancer cluster." Oh, at first, none of us in the neighborhood wanted to believe it, but then we all saw it -- for me, it was when the two-year-old across the street developed a brain tumor, same as Mickey. We looked at everything -- the water, the air, dump sites, insects, you name it. But we didn't have to look that far. It was staring us in the face. TOMMY What? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 76.110 CONTINUED: 110 MICKEY Power lines. MRS. JUBA High-voltage power lines. The wires cause magnetic fields -- and the magnetic fields cause cancer. Especially in children. TOMMY I never heard of that. Mickey pulls a stack of journals and xeroxes from her book bag and gives it to her mother, who in turn gives the materials to Tommy. MRS. JUBA The studies, the numbers -- it's all there. MICKEY (to Tommy, skeptical) You're not actually going to read those, are you? TOMMY (caught) Oh, they'll be read... MICKEY Why don't you come see for yourself? Tommy has no quick answer.111 EXT. PARK/SCHOOL - FLORIDA - DAY 111 Children playing on swings and seesaws in a small public park. TILT UP. A pair of electric power derricks carrying 225,000-volt lines almost directly overhead. The derricks cast shadows across a nearby school. We SEE the neighborhood. Quite a few FOR SALE signs. A house with a moving sale in progress on the front lawn. ON Tommy taking it all in. With him are Celia and the Jubas. MRS. JUBA Five children in the neighborhood have cancer. One more has precancerous lesions. Pregnant women around here are scared to death. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 77.111 CONTINUED: 111 TOMMY This is Mickey's school? MRS. JUBA Turns out a lot of schools are near power lines. The land's cheap, so the schools tend to buy it from the power companies in the first place. TOMMY But isn't the school district responsible? MRS. JUBA We asked the superintendent to measure the magnetic field inside the school. He said, Okay, only it'll cost forty thousand dollars, and what program did we want him to cut that from? TOMMY Nice. MRS. JUBA We're nobody, congressman. You're somebody. We need your help. Tommy takes Celia aside. TOMMY Do you believe it? CELIA It's impossible to know. No one's really looked into it hard enough. TOMMY But why isn't it being investigated? CELIA Why didn't they investigate breast implants all those years? What about those side-effects of that sleeping pill, Halcion? Why isn't anything being investigated? It's always the same. TOMMY Money talks. CELIA You got it. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 78.111 CONTINUED: 111 TOMMY There must be something I can do for those people. CELIA Don't tell me you're actually developing a conscience. TOMMY Shit, I hope not -- it'd be a fucking nuisance in Congress. CELIA No, that's not fair. Some people on the Hill actually believe in things, and try to do a decent job, and don't forget why they went to Washington, and who sent them. TOMMY (amazed) No shit. (remembering) Oh, yeah, I met one of those geeks. So what can I do? CELIA Make a stink. Round up some Members and hold a press conference. Get that committee of yours to hold hearings. Haul in in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Surgeon General, the National Academy of Sciences. Get the issue on every breakfast table in America.112 OMITTED 112112A INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 112A A press conference. Half a dozen congressmen, Tommy among them. Iowa is speaking to the few Cameras and Reporters. Beside him, Mickey Juba and her mother. Reinhardt and Ceila among the handful of staff and onlookers. IOWA This goes beyond personal tragedy. It goes to a public health hazard of unknown proportions. It goes to the right of ordinary people to know all the facts -- (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 79.112A CONTINUED: 112A TOMMY Yeah, right -- people ought to know if their neighborhoods are killing them. DODGE (O.S.) Amen, gentleman. Amen. They turn, somewhat surprised to see Dick Dodge, who joins Iowa at the microphones, a natural leader. DODGE What a fine effort this is. I am totally sympathetic. Congressional hearings should be scheduled as soon as possible. The American people deserve no less. He puts an arm around Mickey. DODGE Message: we care.112B INT. TOMMY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 112B Tommy and Celia are watching the press conference on TV. CELIA Well, congratulations. You've found yourself your own hopeless cause. TOMMY Speaking of hopeless causes... They kiss, and slide OUT OF FRAME.113 OMITTED 113& &114 114115 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - NIGHT 115 An impressive THUNDERSTORM pounds on Dodge's windows. DODGE (pouring) On the rocks, or neat? TOMMY Whatever you're having. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 80.115 CONTINUED: 115 DODGE Well, why ruin good bourbon with the taste of some shitty Sears icemaker, that's what I always say. (handing Tommy a glass) Cheers. TOMMY Cheers. Dodge downs his drink. Tommy follows suit. DODGE Son, you're a real comer. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up in the leadership. I'll say this: if I were Speaker, I'd sleep better with you as a lieutenant. TOMMY Why, thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, to tell you the truth, I didn't know you'd be on my side on those power lines. DODGE But I'm not. TOMMY But you said you were sympathetic -- DODGE Of course I did. We're all sympathetic to little girls with cancer. But I'm not sympathetic to holding an inquiry. TOMMY But you said -- DODGE I know what I said. But that was just a press conference, son. I wasn't under oath. The intercom BUZZES. DODGE (into phone) Yes?... Bring them right in! (hanging up) Look. Son. It's great to get your name in the paper. (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 81.115 CONTINUED: (2) 115 DODGE (CONT'D) I bet the gentleman from Iowa was all over the evening news in Des Moines tonight. Getting good press -- letting them know you care -- that's what it's all about. Smart move, Tommy. But that's as far as I'd go with this, if I were you. The door opens. Dodge turns to see Olaf Anderson, Tommy O'Connor, and Zeke Bridges enter. DODGE What a surprise! ANDERSEN Mr. Chairman! DODGE Mr. Chairman! Hello, Tommy. Zeke you're looking well, good to see you. ZEKE (wheezing) Good to see you, you old sum' bitch. O'CONNOR Evening, Mr. Chairman, thanks for taking the -- Tommy, you s.o.b., they let you in here? (indicating Andersen and Bridges) You folks finally get to press flesh! Olaf, meet Tommy Johnson. Tommy, Olaf Andersen. Chairman of Gulf Coast Power. TOMMY The boys here have told me a lot about you. O'CONNOR Yeah -- I told him you voted for him! They all share a laugh. Except for Bridges, who squints at Tommy. ANDERSEN Glad to meet you, son. They tell me you've got a real talent for the game. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 81A.115 CONTINUED: (3) 115 O'CONNOR And this is Zeke Bridges, CEO of Pyramid Insurance. ZEKE (still puzzling) Congressman. TOMMY Good to meet you. DODGE Help me with these, would you, Tommy? He hands Tommy a couple of drinks. TOMMY (to Zeke) Chivas on the rocks? ZEKE (taking the drink) You look awfully familiar. Tommy just smiles. DODGE Tommy and I were just talking about power lines. TOMMY Yeah, what a coincidence. I thought this little party might be for me. (to Anderson) You may not like this. (to Dodge) I think we should hold those hearings. DODGE You really fell for the line that parents group fed you, didn't you? Tommy is struck by Dodge's intelligence. TOMMY How'd you know I met the parents group? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 81B.115 CONTINUED: (4) 115 DODGE Oh, I keep my ear to the ground, that's what a good politician does. Listen, Tommy, why don't we just get Olaf's take on this. ANDERSEN It's tragic, cancer's a terrible thing, but there's no way you can link it to power lines. Truth is, there's a bigger electromagnetic field given off by an electric blanket, or a microwave oven, than by those derricks. TOMMY But there are studies that say -- ZEKE For every study that says one thing, I'll show you a study saying another. We've studied it ourselves. Nada. ANDERSEN There's not a single state health official anywhere in this country who says power lines cause cancer. TOMMY But what if you're wrong? As Tommy persists, Andersen looks increasingly angry. TOMMY People didn't use to say smoking causes cancer, either. What if the evidence is just building, and some day we wake up and discover that your power lines are killing us? ANDERSEN (exploding) "Kill us"? "Kill us"? You calling me a murderer? You're saying there's blood on these hands? How dare you talk to me like that, you -- O'Connor puts a restraining arm on Andersen. O'CONNOR Calm down, Olaf, calm down, he didn't mean it that way, did you, son? Alright, gentlemen. Easy. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 82.115 CONTINUED: (5) 115 Andersen backs off, regains his composure. The outburst makes an impression on Tommy. Tommy I'm just saying, it's worth looking into. ANDERSEN Tommy -- do you want to move the power lines? Do you know how much it would cost to bury them? Millions. Tens of millions. I don't have that money. The state doesn't have that money. You people up here sure don't have that money. You know who'd end up paying for it? Folks who sent you here, that's who. O'CONNOR Now how'd you like the people in your district to think of you as the putz who tripled their electric bill? You think they'd thank you for that on election day? TOMMY All I'm saying is, maybe we should hold hearings to look at -- O'CONNOR Think for a minute, boychik. You hold your hearings. Overnight, everyone who lives near a substation finds the value of his home in the toilet. You kill the real estate market. ZEKE You kill the insurance companies. O'CONNOR You kill the school district. ANDERSON You kill the local economy. DODGE For a smart boy, you're not thinking very politically. Tommy watches the LIGHTNING. TOMMY Maybe I should think about it. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 83.115 CONTINUED: (6) 115 DODGE Yeah, the system ain't perfect, but the fleas come with the dawg. ANDERSEN Oh, by the way, Tommy, on a completely different subject -- You don't have a state PAC yet, do you? I'd like to give you a hundred thousand dollar corporate contribution to start one up. ZEKE My company would be honored to do the same. TJ Can you do that? I thought there were limits -- O'CONNOR Oh, it's all aboveboard, we all believe deeply in the rules. It's just that the state rules are often more flexible about these things. ANDERSEN Are you interested? TJ I'm always interested in the happiness of my constituents. DODGE I'll drink to that. Dodge and Andersen shoot each other a look.116 OMITTED 116& &117 117118 EXT. TOMMY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 118 Tommy pulls up in a Corvette with Florida congressional plates in front of his Capitol Hill row house.119 INT. TOMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 119 Tommy slips into bed next to Celia, who's half asleep. CELIA Mmmm... (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 84.119 CONTINUED: 119 TOMMY Mmmm... CELIA So what did he say? TOMMY Who? CELIA Dodge. The hearings. TOMMY Oh -- I, uh, haven't asked him yet. Celia suddenly looks quite awake. TOMMY (casual) It wasn't the right moment. Besides, I was thinking, maybe I ought to line up some other Members first -- you know, get my ducks in a row. CELIA Oh.120 INT. HOUSE STEAM ROOM - DAY 120 Dick Dodge and several other towel-clad MEMBERS. DODGE You see that ABC poll? THIRD MEMBER Free fall. DODGE President in trouble like that, he's liable to do something desperate. Some damn fool stunt. FOURTH MEMBER Invade Japan. FIFTH MEMBER Declare war on Congress, more like it. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 3/25/92 85A.120 CONTINUED: (A1) 120 The door opens. Eli Marshall, fully dressed, comes in. MARSHALL You shafted me on the ethics bill. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 86.120 CONTINUED: 120 DODGE Hello, Eli, good to see you. Why don't you loosen your tie? MARSHALL It's a closed rule. I can't get my amendments on the floor. I can't get a recorded vote. I can't get squat. DODGE Last time I looked, it was the Rules Committee in charge of that. This isn't the Rules Committee, Eli. This is the steam room. MARSHALL This is the U.S. Congress! The American people deserve better than -- DODGE You know what your problem is, Eli? You've got sermonitis. The other Members chuckle. DODGE Can't open your mouth without climbing into the pulpit, can you? Why don't you just calm down, have a massage -- MARSHALL I've got news for you, Dick. I'm going to run against you for Speaker. I may not have a rat's ass of a chance to beat you. But I sure as hell can tell the world the kind of sleaze you stand for.121 EXT. CAPITOL TERRACE - DAY - TOMMY AND DODGE 121 DODGE I went too far with him, I know it. You know him pretty well, don't you? TOMMY Oh, I don't know... DODGE Come on, you play basketball together, you're seeing his niece, you've been to his church -- TOMMY How did you know that? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 87.121 CONTINUED: 121 Dodge indicates his bloodhound nose. DODGE He'll listen to you, Tommy. I want you to go make peace between us. Tell him we'll work something out on his amendments -- not a vote, I won't go that far, but at least he'll get to say his piece on the floor. Just get him off my back. Can you do that for me? TOMMY That's not a question, is it? DODGE That's right. Is there a problem? TOMMY No, no -- I've still got my right nut, I can work with that.122 INT. CRAB HOUSE - NIGHT 122 A WAITER removes an empty pitcher of beer. WAITER Another? TOMMY Sure, why not. Marshall takes a boiled crab from the platter between them, places it on the butcher paper in front of him, christens it -- MARSHALL The honorable Dick Dodge. -- raises a big wooden mallet, and SMASHES it on the crab, smiling. TOMMY You know, Eli, sometimes people do things they regret. Everyone makes mistakes. Fact is, Dick's been under a lot of pressure lately -- MARSHALL That man's a walking quid quo pro -- prid quo -- quid pro quo, and you know it. He put you up to this, didn't he? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 88.122 CONTINUED: 122 TOMMY What do you mean? MARSHALL Don't shit me, Tommy. You're Dick Dodge's yes-man. I know what you're up to. This is damage control. TOMMY I'm not a yes-man. When Dick says no, I say no. Marshall SMASHES down again with the mallet. Crab carnage. MARSHALL You know why no one on the Hill drops a dime on anyone else? Mutual assured destruction. Our little gentleman's agreement. Everybody has something on somebody, so nobody has anything on anybody, because everybody wants to save his own ass. TOMMY (interested) Oh, yeah? What do they have on you? MARSHALL They think I'm a pompous ass. TOMMY Shit, that ain't no secret.123 EXT. CRAB HOUSE - NIGHT 123 Reinhardt and Loretta about to go in. LORETTA You sure they don't want to be alone, Reinhardt? REINHARDT No, no -- I bet they've been talking about the ethics bill all night. Come on, Loretta, you'll know how to get Marshall's mind off business.124 INT. CRAB HOUSE - NIGHT - ON MARSHALL AND TOMMY 124 MARSHALL Shit, this place isn't about passing laws any more. It isn't about doing good any more. All it's about is... being here. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 88A.124 CONTINUED: 124 Loretta and Reinhardt approach their table. LORETTA Well, as I live and breathe. Tommy! Tommy is surprised to see them. She flashes a smile at Marshall. TOMMY Eli, this is Loretta Hicks, from my staff. Loretta, Congressman Marshall. LORETTA Pleasure to meet you. MARSHALL Entirely mine. TOMMY You know Reinhardt, my AA? Marshall nods. Reinhardt turns to Tommy. REINHARDT Excuse me, congressman, could I just do a couple of quick calendar things with you? MARSHALL (to Loretta) Would you care for a drink? LORETTA Tell you the truth, nothing for me. MARSHALL Well, when a pretty lady shoots him down, an old man knows it's time to go home. Marshall rises, pulling out his car keys. MARSHALL You kids have a good time. REINHARDT (indicating pitcher) Listen, you gentlemen look like you've had a few -- Loretta, why don't you be a designated driver? Loretta stands and takes Marshall's keys from him. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 89.124 CONTINUED: (2) 124 LORETTA Excellent idea. MARSHALL Ah. The good Samaritan. LORETTA Good night, y'all. They leave. REINHARDT Now we've already got the Bankruptcy Institute breakfast tomorrow, but if you don't mind we could wedge in the Prune Board -- This isn't what Tommy wants to be doing now. He gets up. TOMMY I'm packing it in. REINHARDT (also rising) Can we talk while I drive you? TOMMY Thanks, I'll walk. I could use the air.125 INT. MARSHALL'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT 125 Marshall and Loretta are singing. MARSHALL and LORETTA "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me -- "126 EXT. CAPITOL HILL STREET - NIGHT 126 Tommy is on foot. Marshall's car, with its Maryland congressional plates, pulls over. LORETTA Come on, honey, no use you getting mugged.127 INT. MARSHALL'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT 127 MARSHALL and LORETTA "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see... " Tommy, in the back, cradles his head. As Loretta heads into a traffic circle, she SEES THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 90.128 EXT. TRAFFIC CIRCLE - NIGHT - A HOOKER 128 in high sling-back heels.129 INT. MARSHALL'S CAR - NIGHT 129 LORETTA (turning to look) Check out the fuck-me pumps on that. Mm-mm. I gotta get me some shoes like that. TOMMY Loretta! Please! Your mouth!130 EXT. TRAFFIC CIRCLE - NIGHT 130 With a SCREECH of brakes and a CRUNCH of metal, a TAXI rear-ends them, SLAMMING Marshall's car into a lamppost.131 INT. TAXI - NIGHT 131 The Taxi Driver looks at the wreck for a moment. Then he lays rubber and SQUEALS away.132 INT./EXT. MARSHALL'S CAR - NIGHT 132 On the back floor, Tommy stirs. Seems to be okay. Lifts himself to see up front. The windshield is smashed. Loretta and Marshall are both unconscious. Tommy climbs into the front but can't get the door open. He kicks out a broken window and climbs through. He runs to a phone on the corner and dials 911. TOMMY I need an ambulance right away. IN THE CAR no motion from Loretta or Marshall. AT THE PHONE he dials another number. TOMMY Evening, Mrs. Dodge, Tommy Johnson here, sorry to call at this hour, is Dick back from the Gridiron dinner yet? Could I speak with him for just a moment?133 INT. DODGE BEDROOM - NIGHT 133 MRS. DODGE is in bed. She hands the phone to Dodge, who's in white tie and tails, looking more sinister than splendid. MRS. DODGE Tommy Johnson. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 91.133 CONTINUED: 133 DODGE (into phone) What's wrong? INTERCUT Tommy and Dodge. TOMMY How did you know? DODGE Good news doesn't come at this hour. TOMMY I went out with Marshall. We got into an accident. He's out cold. I'm okay. Dodge looks off balance. DODGE Were you driving? TOMMY No. Someone else. Loretta. Dodge recovers his equilibrium. DODGE The girl from your office? TOMMY Yeah. She's out, too. I don't like the way it looks. For anybody. Look. You said you wanted to get back into Marshall's good graces. Well, here's an opportunity. DODGE Listen carefully. Tell the ambulance to take you to Walter Reed. It's a privilege they give congressmen. It's also the only hospital without a bunch of goddam reporters shtupping the nurses in exchange for leaks. They'll keep it quiet. I'll handle the police. You go home and keep your mouth shut.134 INT. PARKING GARAGE - NIGHT 134 Two figures approach one another in the shadows: Reinhardt, and the Taxi Driver who rear-ended Marshall's car. The cabbie nods. Reinhardt hands him an envelope. The Driver inspects the cash. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 91A.135 INT. TOMMY'S BATHROOM/BEDROOM - MORNING 135 Tommy is shaving. He HEARS the local tv news from the bedroom. WASHINGTON ANCHOR (V.O.) ... and the Beltway is bumper-to bumper, so you might as well take a day of annual leave and enjoy yourself. At the top of the news, Maryland Congressman Elijah Marshall is in satisfactory condition at Walter Reed Hospital after an overnight accident in the District. Tommy bolts into the bedroom. On the television he sees136 VIDEO - EXT. WALTER REED HOSPITAL - GATES - DAY 136 A CORRESPONDENT doing a stand-up. CORRESPONDENT That's right, Tom. Marshall reportedly had alcohol in his blood. Also slightly injured was an unidentified woman whom police say has a record in several states for prostitution. Tommy looks sick. TOMMY Oh sweet Jesus. WASHINGTON ANCHOR Linda, Congressman Marshall -- that's Reverend Marshall, isn't it? CORRESPONDENT Right you are, Tom. How this plays into his longstanding campaign to reform congressinoal ethics is now anyone's guess. WASHINGTON ANCHOR Thank you. In other news... Tommy leaps for his clothes.137 INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAY 137 Tommy races down the corridor. Ahead of him, Celia, coming out of Marshall's room. She freezes at the sight of him. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 92.137 CONTINUED: 137 CELIA Get away from him. He approaches her. CELIA And get away from me. TOMMY I have to talk to you. CELIA Go away! TOMMY I was set up! CELIA You were set up? You were in the car! I didn't hear your name on the news! TOMMY No, someone screwed him -- CELIA "Someone"? TOMMY Celia, something stinks here -- CELIA Yeah -- it's you! You don't give a damn about anything! And to think, the other night, I actually thought you cared about someone else. He puts his hand to her face. She brushes it off. CELIA Not me, you jerk -- Mickey Juba! You caved on those power lines, didn't you? I knew it. Damn it, I knew it! What did you get for it? Tommy O'Connor's box at the Redskins? Someone slip you a condo in the Virgin Islands? TOMMY If you'd give me a chance to -- (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 93.137 CONTINUED: (2) 137 CELIA God, I hate this town -- the only reason I stay is because I hate it so much. TOMMY Celia -- CELIA Get the hell out of here.138 EXT. FLORIDA PARK - DAY - LONG SHOT - TOMMY AND 138 MICKEY JUBA sitting on the ground, backs to us, beneath the power lines. A quiet moment. REVERSE ANGLE - TWO SHOT. Mickey is shuffling a deck of cards. MICKEY Is it thumb over, or thumb under? TOMMY Under. She tries her hand at a false shuffle. TOMMY Not bad, kid. You've got potential. MICKEY So what's happening? I thought you were going to kick some ass on -- She indicates the derricks. Tommy looks at her, comes to a decision. TOMMY I am. He takes the deck from her, fans it face up, pulls all the kings and aces, stacks them on top, and squares the deck. TOMMY This is one's called the double duke. How many players? MICKEY Six. TOMMY Who's the mark? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 94.138 CONTINUED: 138 She points to an imaginary poker player. MICKEY Number two -- over there. Tommy, smiling, calculates something for a moment, then gives the deck four shuffles. He hands Mickey the cards. TOMMY Your deal. She deals out six hands in a circle on the ground. TOMMY Look at the sucker's hand. She turns over the hand at number two. It has the four kings. Mickey WHISTLES at the hand. TOMMY Look at your hand. She turns over her own hand. It has the four aces. Mickey looks at the power lines, at the hands, at TJ. Then, understanding: MICKEY That's what you're going to do? Tommy nods. Her face opens into a big smile. MICKEY Let's kick some ass. What do I do? TOMMY Something very important.139 INT. TOMMY'S LIVING ROOM - DAY 139 Tommy pow-wows with Loretta Van Dyke, and Armando. Aside from a sling, Loretta looks okay. VAN DYKE Why are we meeting here, Tommy? There trouble at the office? TOMMY (impersonating Dodge) "I keep my ear close to the ground." His ear my ass. He had an inside man. ARMANDO That little fuck Reinhardt? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 95.139 CONTINUED: 139 LORETTA Hot damn -- I knew my driving wasn't that bad. Speaking of which -- you think I should wear one of those whiplash things, Tommy? There some insurance angle I should be working here? TOMMY We got bigger fish to fry, darlin'. VAN DYKE What do we do? TOMMY (beat) The big con. LORETTA We gonna git that sucker. TOMMY Dick always said I should think big. ARMANDO Whoa! Aren't we gettin' out of our league, man? That Dodge is a pro! VAN DYKE You can't con a con, Congressman. LORETTA Shit, that's right, Tommy -- these politicians are serious slick fish. TOMMY You people gone soft on me? Bunch of fuckin' incumbents I got here. Now listen up. Thursday morning Dodge has a breakfast with the Arts Caucus in the Longworth Room. Armando -- find out how fast I can get from Longworth to my office. Loretta -- we need some scoop from the EPA for the roper, I'll give you a list. Van Dyke -- call Hattie at the Silver Foxes, and -- LORETTA Wait a minute -- we need a new roper, don't we? Everyone around here knows our faces. Outside a HORN sounds (O.S.). Tommy looks at his watch. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 96.139 CONTINUED: 139 TOMMY Right on the nose. He throws open the bay window of the narrow house. Just below is a pickup truck with "Homer's Pit Stop" lettered on the side. Homer gets out. TOMMY My man! The others come to the window to see Homer, still wearing his fuel-smeared overalls, and SHOUT greetings. TOMMY Now let's get to work.140 INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 140 The Members are being seated for a hearing. At the dais, Tommy approaches Dodge. A beat as Dodge studies Tommy's face. TOMMY Eli Marshall caught his tail in a crack, didn't he? DODGE He did. TOMMY You kept my name out of it. DODGE I did. TOMMY I owe you one. DODGE (pleased) You learn fast. TOMMY Do me one favor, Dick. Next time you pull some heavy shit involving my ass, tip me off, okay? DODGE (indulgent chuckle) Alright, son. (BANGS gavel) This hearing of the Power and Enterprise Committee is now in order. The health of America's securities industry -- (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 97.140 CONTINUED: 140 Reinhardt approaches Tommy and slips him a packet of materials. TOMMY (whispering) Thanks. Listen, Reinhardt, something's come up, and I don't quite know how to handle it. There's a guy from the EPA -- I don't know him -- says he wants to see me. Tonight. Out of the office. Alone, he says. Sound of it makes me nervous. I'd feel better if you were there. REINHARDT You got it, jefe.141 EXT. GRANT'S STATUE - NIGHT 141 A man waits, alone, in the shadow of a large statue. It's Homer. In a jacket and tie, his stubble shaved off, he looks like a plausible government worker. Tommy and Reinhardt approach. TOMMY Mr. Yancey? HOMER (cold) I thought you'd be alone. TOMMY He's my AA. He goes where I go. If you can trust me, you can trust him. Homer eyes Reinhardt a moment, then continues. HOMER Congressman, I have information I think you may want. It's about something going on at the EPA. TOMMY What have you got? HOMER I got a wife and three kids, and a note on my house, that's what I got. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 98.141 CONTINUED: 141 TOMMY (laughs) Nothin' comes for nothin' in this town, do it? (to Reinhardt) You got any cash on you? I'm kind of light. REINHARDT (whispering) You can't do that! TOMMY (to Homer) This stuff's pretty good? HOMER In the right hands, it could mean a great deal. TOMMY Okay. Sunday. Fifth race at Del Mar. Blueboy is running twenty to one. I'd take a major position. HOMER You have to be shitting me. TOMMY No, not at all -- my Cousin Henry spends his days pumping water into horses' stomachs and stuffing Percodan up their butts. Trust me. Reinhardt is interested in this. And he admires Tommy's m.o. HOMER (after a moment) Alright. The White House is putting heat on the EPA. They want us to announce a major investigation of the relation between power lines and cancer clusters. REINHARDT But didn't the EPA already do a study? HOMER Yeah, but when the draft got to the White House, they didn't like it. So they brought their own scientists in to kill it. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 99.141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TOMMY Why did the White House change its mind? HOMER Who knows? TOMMY Is there new evidence? HOMER Yeah -- their polls have dropped like a rock. They need an issue. This one makes them look good on the environment, and they don't have to spend a penny. TOMMY And what good is this to me? HOMER Come on, congressman, in this town, information is currency. And advance information is gold. Reinhardt nods in agreement. HOMER But you've got to move fast. Once the White House goes public with this, they can't turn back. If your friends at the power company want to kill this investigation, they'd better do it now. Evening, gentlemen. After Homer leaves: REINHARDT Blueboy. Twenty to one. Is your Cousin Henry always right? TOMMY I ain't got no Cousin Henry.142 EXT. PAY PHONE - BY REFLECTING POOL - NIGHT 142 Reinhardt dials. MRS. DODGE'S VOICE (V.O.) Hello? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 100.142 CONTINUED: 142 REINHARDT Mrs. Dodge, it's Arthur Reinhardt. May I speak to the Chairman, please? DODGE (V.O.) Hello? REINHARDT Are you sitting down?143 INT. ART CAUCUS ROOM - DAY 143 The Longworth Room, a small circular committee room with an ornate rotunda. The Arts Caucus breakfast is ending. THIRD MEMBER Unless there is further business, our caucus stands adjourned. Dodge gets up. As he makes to leave, Tommy comes in. TOMMY Got a minute, Dick? Tommy takes him aside. The room empties except for them. TOMMY Listen, Dick, I heard something. There's got to be some bid'ness in it. Tommy very discreetly gestures with his thumb and palm: money. TOMMY Maybe we can go in on it together. DODGE I'm listening. TOMMY The EPA is going to make a stink about power lines. The White House is pushing them to do a big study. DODGE That's very interesting, my friend. I've heard that, too. TOMMY (acting surprised) Nothing gets by, do it? Tommy touches his nose, in tribute to the master. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 100A.143 CONTINUED: 143 DODGE But thank you, son -- I'm glad you chose to share it with me. We do make quite a team, don't we? TOMMY I -- I hope it wasn't my press conference that started this. DODGE No, this is a stunt for the polls. TOMMY So do you think there's something in it for us? DODGE (musing) If we got the EPA off Olaf Andersen's back, he'd be extremely appreciative. TOMMY And how do we do that? DODGE My committee writes the EPA's programs. We audit their funds. We confirm their appointees. I've got them by the balls. TOMMY And you're going to -- ? Tommy makes a squeezing gesture, grins. DODGE Oh, no, not at all -- just... persuasion. Strenuous persuasion. TOMMY That's allowed? DODGE Persuasion, yes. Intimidation, no. But it's a gray area. Who's to say which is which? TOMMY Dick, wait a minute -- shouldn't we check out the tip? Make sure the EPA's really going through with this investigation? (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 101.143 CONTINUED: (2) 143 DODGE Of course. (looks at watch) He should be in by now. TOMMY Who? DODGE Skeeter Warburton, of course. Always go right to the top, son.144 INT. DODGE'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY 144 Dodge passes his Secretary's desk on the way into his office. DODGE Get me the EPA Administrator, please.145 INT. CORRIDOR/STAIRWELL - CANNON - DAY 145 Tommy jogs along the corridor. A tourist Family stares at him. He explains his haste with a smile -- TOMMY There's a vote on the floor. -- and ducks into the stairwell.146 INT. CATACOMBS - PHONE CABLE ROOM - DAY 146 In a chamber crammed with cables, the Telephone Man listens to a handset. He now sports a gold Rolex on his wrist -- his horse must have come in. Van Dyke, also there, looks at any array of dials and meters, whose hands all suddenly move. Some electronic phone CHIRPS, then the filtered RINGING of a call. VAN DYKE Here he comes. The Telephone Man nods, adjusts some wiring, smiles satisfiedly. TELEPHONE MAN And there he goes.147 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE 147 Loretta wears a beaded sling, which adds to her look. She is at Tommy's desk, watching his phone as it RINGS. Tommy comes in. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 102.147 CONTINUED: 147 TOMMY The Administrator. Loretta picks up the phone. LORETTA Office of the Adminstrator. (listens) Thank you, I'll put you right through. She hands the phone to Tommy, who mimics the George Plimpton voice. TOMMY Warbuton here. (listens) Thank you. (waits) Mr. Chairman! I do hope there's something I can help you with today.148 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - DAY 148 DODGE I need a straight answer from you, Skeeter. Is the White House on your ass about power lines? TOMMY Off the record? DODGE Of course. TOMMY I was looking forward to some serious sailing this week -- Tish and I have a lovely spot right by Kennebunkport. Instead, here I am at three in the morning, writing testimony to your committee about cancer clusters. DODGE Thanks for your candor, Warburton. TOMMY Not at all. You must come sailing with us. Cheers. Bye-bye. Tommy passes the phone back to Loretta. TOMMY Next. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 102A.149 INT. ANDERSEN'S OFFICE - DAY 149 ANDERSEN Yes? SECRETARY (V.O.) Zeke Bridges on line two. Andersen punches the button to connect the call.150 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 150 LORETTA I'll just put you through to him. She passes the phone to Tommy. TOMMY Olaf? (coughs) Olaf, Zeke Bridges. Listen, you sum' bitch, I'm so mad, I can't sit down to shit. Have you heard what I heard? (wheezes) INTERCUT with Andersen. ANDERSEN What's that. TOMMY The EPA's fixing to make a big stink about power lines and cancer. They're going to serve us up for breakfast. ANDERSEN Wait a minute. There's no scientific proof -- TOMMY Proof don't mean shit. We're talking politics. They make a federal case out of power lines, I'm screwed. Whole insurance business is screwed. You know how much cash I'd have to pay out in settlements? Even if I stiffed everybody on claims, the legal fees'd be enough to kill me. ANDERSEN I can't believe it. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 103.150 CONTINUED: 150 TOMMY You better believe it. You're screwed, too. Every hot dog trial lawyer in America soon be lining up to sue both our asses. We got to move on this, Olaf. If I wasn't tied up here, I'd go to Washington myself. Shouldn't you be getting on a plane? Just between us -- you find a way to stop this, I'll find a million bucks if I have to.151 INT. CORPORATE JET - DAY 151 A very worried Andersen.152 INT. HILL CORRIDOR - DAY 152 Tommy and Dodge walking along a Capitol hallway. DODGE Olaf will be at my office at five o'clock. TOMMY How do we play it? DODGE Cool. Real cool. You just follow my lead.153 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - DAY - DODGE, TOMMY, ANDERSEN, 153 O'CONNOR DODGE I don't know how I can help you on this one, Olaf. This is the EPA. This is the President. ANDERSEN This is my lifeblood! DODGE I see that, Olaf, I see that. But in this town, you pick your fights. ANDERSEN This could mean six figures, Dick. Dodge says nothing, but makes his eyebrows fly. ANDERSEN High six figures. Dodge flicks his eyebrows again: More. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 104.153 CONTINUED: 153 ANDERSEN Seven figures? TOMMY Between us. It's not that much -- what can you get for half a million these days? ANDERSEN How the hell can I funnel that kind of money to you? O'CONNOR If that's what you want, we can always find a loophole. No one will see your fingerprints. ANDERSEN No one will know? DODGE No one will know. O'CONNOR You're only in trouble if someone can prove a connection. DODGE Of course there's no connection. Olaf's just making a contribution as a patriotic citizen. And in return for it, he's getting -- TOMMY Good government. DODGE Exactly. A little access, that's all.154 INT. ORNATE CAPITOL HALLWAY - DAY 154 Dodge, Andersen, Tommy, and O'Connor walking along. Up ahead, a cocktail reception. On an easel by the door: HAZARDOUS WASTE ASSOCIATION MEET YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NIGHT. DODGE I've got to do a drop-by. You gentlemen like to join me for a drink?155 INT. ORNATE FUNCTION ROOM - DAY 155 Dodge and Tommy work the room genially. Tommy spots Celia talking to some Guests and goes over to her. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 105.155 CONTINUED: 155 TOMMY Hi. CELIA (to Guests, smiling) Excuse me. She turns, starts to walk away. Tommy stops her. TOMMY Look. Whatever you think of me, just promise me one thing. She glares at him angrily. But then she's surprised to hear: TOMMY Come to the Clean Air hearing tomorrow. CELIA (baffled) What? TOMMY Power and Enterprise. Noon. CELIA But why? He gives her an enigmatic smile and slips away. As he rejoins Dodge, Tommy SEES WARBURTON enter the room. Alarmed, TOmmy moves in on Dodge, steering him to avoid the EPA Administrator. TOMMY Shouldn't we be heading off, Dick? DODGE Let's work the room just a bit more. REINHARDT (O.S.) Congressman! Mr. Chairman! As Dodge turns to see him -- DODGE Evening, Reinhardt. -- he SEES Warburton. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 106.155 CONTINUED: (2) 155 REINHARDT (O.S.) Good to see you, sir. By the way, I thought your opening statement in committee yesterday was brilliant. Dodge points out Warburton to Tommy. DODGE Well. Look who's over there -- Skeeter Warburton from the EPA. The very man we want to see. TOMMY (trying to turn him) Have you tried the oysters, Dick? DODGE At a hazardous waste event? (shakes head) I think we'll go talk to him. TOMMY No, he's the wrong man -- DODGE (bemused by Tommy) You don't understand -- he's the perfect man. TOMMY But -- but you don't want to bother him with this. Talk to one of his underlings -- Dodge looks at Tommy with curiosity, not understanding his reluctance. DODGE Nothing beats man-to-man. TOMMY Here? Not here! DODGE A public place. What could be better? TOMMY But it's the wrong time! DODGE While the iron is hot, son. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 107.155 CONTINUED: (3) 155 REINHARDT (chiming in helpfully) No time like the present. TOMMY Shut up, Reinhardt, I'm talking to the Chairman. Beat it, okay? REINHARDT (smiling to Dodge) I'll go get him. Reinhardt heads for Warburton. TOMMY (puts hand on abdomen) You heard about this stomach thing going around? DODGE Come on, son, we've got the people's business to do. He leads Tommy off to one side. Reinhardt brings Warburton to them. WARBURTON Mr. Chairman. Congressman. DODGE I've got a big problem, Skeeter. WARBURTON What's that? DODGE Your power lines investigation. WARBURTON What power lines investigation? Tommy is sweating bullets. DODGE We're off the record, Skeeter. This witch-hunt for cancer clusters is bad news for everyone. WARBURTON I don't know what you're talking about, Dick. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 108.155 CONTINUED: (4) 155 DODGE Alright, I know you're being a good soldier -- WARBURTON No, I'm being straight with you -- DODGE Then let me be straight with you. You announce this study -- I'm not talking about the results down the road, mind you, I'm just talking about the announcement -- and there's broken crockery everywhere. Real estate. Utilities. Insurance. Schools. Local governments. It'll cost jobs. Uproot families. WARBURTON I agree with you completely. There isn't going to be an investigation, old chap, I promise you. DODGE (beat) I'm glad we understand each other. WARBURTON (beat) Yes, I think we do. Tommy silently rejoices in his good fortune. DODGE And we'll just forget about that phone call this morning? WARBURTON We didn't speak on the phone. DODGE (vastly impressed) Excellent. Dodge claps him on the shoulder, then heads off with Tommy, who is delighted to have dodged a bullet. TOMMY (imitating Warburton) "There isn't going to be an investigation, old chap." DODGE (chuckling) You're bad. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 109.155 CONTINUED: (5) 155 They join up with Andersen and O'Connor. DODGE (sotto voce) Worked like a charm. We scared him shitless. The investigation's dead. ANDERSEN Waiter! Champagne! (to Dodge) See you at the Clear Air hearings.156 INT. TOMMY'S RECEPTION AREA/CORRIDOR - DAY 156 As Reinhardt comes into the office, Tommy intercepts him. TOMMY Morning, Reinhardt! Got a minute? I need your advice on something. REINHARDT Sure. Tommy leads him back into the corridor.157 INT. TOMMY'S BOILER ROOM - DAY 157 Van Dyke, Armando, and Loretta work the phones. VAN DYKE Is this the assignment desk? Yes, I'm calling from Chairman Dodge's office, on the Hill. We wanted to be sure CNN was sending a crew to the Clean Air hearing today. ARMANDO (OVERLAPPING) No, not the new emission standards. We're breaking news. This is the biggest thing since Watergate. LORETTA (OVERLAPPING) This is Cynthia Leeson in the White House Press Office. My boss wanted me to let you folks know -- we're making a major announcement at the Clean Air hearings today. (listens) No, I can't tell you, but it's hot. (listens) Well, if the New York Times wants to be the only paper in town to miss the story of the year, that's up to y'all. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 109A.158 INT. TOMMY'S CAGE/CORRIDOR - DAY 158 Tommy has drawn Reinhardt into the cage. TOMMY I want to do a little something nice for Dodge. That EPA thing -- he's been good to me, Reinhardt. Is there some way I can, like, throw a bouquet to him at the hearing today without having to sit through that boring testimony shit? REINHARDT Why don't you ask him to give you the floor at the start? TOMMY He's do that? REINHARDT For some flattery? In a New York minute. Just tip him ahead of time. TOMMY Good thinking. They return to the corridor. Tommy looks at his watch. TOMMY Say, Reinhardt, my Grandma's plane comes in at ten. You wouldn't mind picking her up and driving Miss Daisy around, would you? REINHARDT Can't one of the others do it? TOMMY No, I don't trust them the way I trust you. TOMMY pats him on the back and sends him on his way.159 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 159 Tommy, joined by his cronies and the Jubas. TOMMY This is it, people. Game time. Let's get it right. ARMANDO Tell me one thing, jefe. How do you know Andersen is going to bite? TOMMY I don't. You run a con, you run a risk. THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 110.160 INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 160 A hundred or so members of the public -- trade groups, Hill staffers, lawyers, tourists -- settle into their seats. VAN DYKE escorts Hattie Rifkin and a busload of Silver Foxes. Loretta comes in with Ellen and Mickey Juba. GRANDMA comes in, on Reinhardt's arm. She is dressed up as a biddy, down to a hat with fruit on it. COMMITTEE MEMBERS head for their seats at the dais. OLAF ANDERSEN is at the witness table, along with a couple of other businessmen. In a seat behind Andersen, Tommy O'Connor. THE PRESS. A good turnout, with several camera crews. WASHINGTON REPORTER #1 You know what this is? WASHINGTON REPORTER #2 (confidential) It's very hot. Electric cars. CELIA is seated with Ira, her Pro Bono associate. CELIA I'm cutting out early. IRA (indicating TJ) Don't want to run into him? CELIA You got that right. AT THE DAIS Tommy has a private word with Dodge. TOMMY Dick, I thought it might be a nice way to open if I congratulated you on the fine work you been doin' on this committee. Really express our appreciation. Especially on behalf of the minority community. DODGE Why, thank you, son. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 111.160 CONTINUED: 160 TOMMY (indicating cameras) Wouldn't hurt to have tape like that in the bank, would it, Mr. Speaker? HOMER slips in next to Reinhardt, who is surprised to see him. REINHARDT Mr. Yancey? Arthur Reinhardt. Are you testifying for the agency? GRANDMA (leaning over) Hello, Homer, dear. REINHARDT No, Mrs. Johnson, you must be mistaken -- let me introduce you. This is Mr. Yancey of the EPA. GRANDMA (to Reinhardt) Don't be silly, child. HOMER Homer Norton. Homer's Pit Stop, Axahatchee, Florida. GRANDMA Homer's known Tommy since they were in diapers. REINHARDT (getting up) What the -- ? From the row behind Reinhardt, Armando clamps Reinhardt down. ARMANDO Move and you're history. DODGE GAVELS the meeting to order. DODGE This meeting of the Power and Enterprise Committee to consider the reauthorization of the Clean Air Act is now in session. Today's first business is a panel of national leaders in the field of utilities. (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 112.160 CONTINUED: (2) 160 DODGE (CONT'D) Before I welcome them, Chair would like to yield to the gentleman from Florida for a word. If there is no objection from the Committee -- ? The gentleman may proceed. TOMMY Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the other members of this committee, and on behalf of myself, I have a very personal statement to make. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you -- thank you for your leadership, for your insight, for your boldness... Dodge preens for the cameras, until: TOMMY ... and for your courage. Especially your courage. DODGE (surprised) My courage? TOMMY Your courage in exposing the corruption that eats away at this institution. Your courage in taking on the special interests. Your courage in taking a major new step -- DODGE But I've... I've... I've done nothing new, nothing at all -- what are you talking about? TOMMY You're right -- integrity isn't new to you, Mr. Chairman, it's second nature to you. Still it's a rare public servant who'll take on the special interest money, take on the PACs -- ANDERSEN, wary, senses danger. TOMMY (O.S.) take on the lobbyists and fat cats -- CELIA is fascinated. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 113.160 CONTINUED: (3) 160 TOMMY (O.S.) ... and who'll stand up instead for ordinary American citizens... ON ELLEN AND MICKEY JUBA TOMMY (O.S.) ... the plain people who just want peace of mind -- who just want to know they're raising their kids in safe neighborhoods and sending them to safe schools. ON THE DAIS Dodge wants to wrap this up. TOMMY Yes, courage, Mr. Chairman, is a quality that you have in abundance -- DODGE Well, yes, thank you, but we have to move along, if the gentleman would -- TOMMY (undeterred) Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday, the Chairman and I had a meeting in his office with Olaf Andersen of Gulf Coast Power, and his lobbyist, Mr. Tommy O'Connor -- (indicating) these gentlemen here. Chairman Dodge and I listened in astonishment as Olaf Andersen offered us seven figures -- that's one million dollars, ladies and gentlemen. A BUZZ in the room. O'CONNOR leans forward to Andersen. O'CONNOR Dodge double-crossed us. ANDERSEN You're fired. ON TOMMY TOMMY One million dollars, if we would stop the EPA from investigating the connection between power lines and cancer clusters. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 114.160 CONTINUED: (4) 160 Shocked MURMURS sweep the room. REINHARDT is aghast. HOMER and ARMANDO are delighted. TOMMY Isn't that right, Mr. Andersen? Tommy flicks his eyebrows at Andersen, provocatively, imitating Dodge. ANDERSEN That's a vicious lie. Dodge GAVELS sharply, turns to Tommy. DODGE Will the gentleman yield? ANDERSEN That's not possible! You can't give anyone that kind of money! Dodge continues GAVELING. TOMMY Oh, yes, you can. As Mr. O'Connor said to you, quote: "If that's what you want, we can always find a loophole. No one will know." Remember saying that, Tommy? O'CONNOR I do not! DODGE (standing) I insist that the gentlemen yield! Tommy also stands, and produces a video tape. TOMMY You can't deny it, Mr. Andersen! We have the whole thing on this tape! The room erupts. THE PRESS loves it. Still cameras CLICK and WHIR. DODGE despairs. REINHARDT puts his hand over his face. TOMMY Yesterday, at Chairman Dodge's courageous suggestion, I taped the whole conversation. It's all there. Mr. Chairman, I thank you. The people thank you. America thanks you. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 115.160 CONTINUED: (5) 160 AUDIENCE APPLAUDS DODGE. The clapping is considerably sweetened by the Panthers and the rest of Tommy's claque. DODGE gauges their reaction, gets an inspiration. The storm leaves his face, and becomes a smile, which he beams on Tommy. DODGE I thank the distinguished gentleman. And I thank my fellow citizens. Our methods in this investigation may have been unorthodox, but together -- (indignant, at Andersen) we have exposed a canker at the very heart of democracy. APPLAUSE. Tommy is amazed at Dodge's survival skills. REINHARDT, delighted at the turn, claps heartily. ANDERSEN, livid, leaps up and shouts at Dodge. ANDERSEN You bastard! You set me up! DODGE Witness is out of order! ANDERSEN You stood to make a million bucks off of me! Who offered you more? I want to know! A new BUZZ sweeps the room. O'Connor tries to restrain Andersen, who sloughs him off. ANDERSEN You're as big a whore as he is! MICKEY JUBA catches Tommy's eye and mouths a question. MICKEY Now? Tommy shakes his head: no.161 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 161 The phone by Eli Marshall's bed RINGS. He answers. MARSHALL Hello? No. You're joking. (to Man in next bed) You mind if I put on C-span? THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 116.162 INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 162 ANDERSEN There's no loyalty any more, is there, Dick? What about the three hundred grand you squeezed from me for that goddam voter registration front of yours -- that just water under the bridge? O'Connor tries again to restrain him. ANDERSEN Don't touch me, you scum! MICKEY JUBA mouths: MICKEY Now? Tommy shakes his head again. No. ANDERSEN What about the two hundred k for your phony foundation, Dick? How about the ten thousand copies if your goddam autobiography you muscled me to buy -- what's all that, ancient history? Andersen advances toward the dais, pointing now to six or seven other Members of the Committee among the total of 28. ANDERSEN And you -- what about those bundled checks from my executives? I gave you my condo in Vail! I gave you my corporate jet to fly all over the world! I gave your kids summer jobs! I put up scholarships to put your kids through college! I hired your goddam wife to redecorate my office! You telling me none of that counts for anything? Andersen grabs Dodge by the throat. ANDERSEN I thought you people were for sale! I was wrong -- you're just for rent! Dodge struggles free of Andersen, who is dragged away from Dodge by Capitol Police. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 117.162 CONTINUED: 162 DODGE How dare you impugn my integrity! Everything I've done has been completely legal! TOMMY (acting astonished) Mr. Chairman! You mean to say you did all that stuff? You took all that money? Shock in the room. Some BOOS. IOWA does a nice HOG CALL. TJ sends a little wave and smile to Celia. DODGE There's nothing I've done that -- (indicating other Members) -- that these gentlemen haven't done! Committee Members rush to dissociate themselves from Dodge. MEMBERS No!... Not me!... Just him!... I never!... He crossed the line! ANDERSEN They're whores! All of them! MICKEY JUBA tries again. MICKEY Now? TJ nods yes. MICKEY Throw the bums out! LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE. She's touched a nerve. TJ leaps into the moment. TJ Damn straight! Throw the bums out! This place is an outhouse! ON THE PUBLIC. GASPS, WHOOPS, and APPLAUSE. Reinhardt sinks lower and lower into his seat. VOICES (calling) Throw the bums out! Throw the bums out! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 118.162 CONTINUED: (2) 162 Tommy, enjoying the triumph, can't help rubbing Dodge's nose in it. TOMMY I owed you one. Dodge wheels on Tommy, exploding. DODGE You lowlife hustler! Who are you to talk? You got into this House through fraud. You think I didn't check up on you? He pulls a piece of paper from the pile at his place. DODGE Ladies and gentlemen, I have here some rather startling revelations about this Mr. Johnson before you. This man is nothing but a con man! A fresh BUZZ from the room. DODGE A common grifter! (consulting paper) He's wanted in three counties for bunco! He's a convicted swindler! Some BOOS. REINHARDT emerges from his hole, encouraged. DODGE (O.S.) A fugitive from justice for card sharping, bookmaking, confidence games -- ON DODGE AND TOMMY DODGE -- and other charges the FBI has only begun to investigate! I dare you to respond! A hush in the room. TOMMY You know what? He's right! But let me tell you something -- all that's nothing, compared to what I pulled here in Washington... and this shit's all legit! (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 119.162 CONTINUED: (3) 162 LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE. Dodge BANGS the gavel repeatedly. DODGE The gentleman is out of order! The gentleman is out of order! This committee is adjourned! GRANDMA leaps to her feet. GRANDMA Stop banging! Stop banging! That man has something to say! Massive APPLAUSE. Dodge is stunned by the enormity of the sentiment against him. TOMMY Adjourned? Fine. Leave. (indicating cameras) Turn your backs on the whole country. That what you want to do, gentlemen? The Members remain in place, paralyzed. TOMMY (to the room) I'm a con man. A small-time con man. Do you know what it was like for me to come to Congress? It was for like dying and going to heaven. If I did back home the kind of scams I've run in Congress, my ass would be in Sing Sing. But no, I'm not a crook -- up here, I'm a distinguished gentleman!163 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 163 Eli, watching on television. TOMMY (ON TV) Now don't get me wrong. They're not all bums. But boy, do the rotten fish stink up the barrel. Marshall APPLAUDS. The Man in the next bed joins in.164 INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 164 TOMMY Now tell me, people -- while these guys are buying and selling each other, who's standing up for you? (MORE) (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 120.164 CONTINUED: 164 TOMMY (CONT'D) I'll tell you who. Nobody! Nobody gets five hundred bucks an hour to lobby for the average Joe! There's no Shnook PAC! There's no National Association for Ordinary Assholes! Sure, everyone's against cancer, but "everyone" doesn't have an office on K Street! (to committee Members) Don't you folks get it? We're supposed to be the people's lobbyists. Congress is supposed to be America's political action committee. APPLAUSE and SHOUTS of support. Several Members on the dais join the applause, seeing a winning issue. CELIA shakes her head in wonder. Tommy goes to Mickey and stands her up on a chair. TOMMY She's right. Throw the bums out -- starting with me! I'm gonna found me a new party. The Don't Vote For Me Party. Any of y'all want to join up? APPLAUSE and CALLS of enthusiasm. TOMMY Well, come on, then! C'mon, get up, we got work to do! The room erupts, electrified, chanting. VOICES Throw the bums out! Throw the bums out! Tommy is engulfed by people and lights. Dodge, Andersen, and O'Connor -- desperate, snarling -- are pinned to the wall by the SHOUTING Press Corps. Loretta AND GRANDMA watch Tommy bask in his new notoriety. LORETTA That Miss Oprah's gonna love his ass. (CONTINUED) THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 121-124.164 CONTINUED: (2) 164 CELIA arrives where Tommy is standing. She looks at him a beat. Then a big smile. They kiss. CELIA Tommy Johnson. Kamikaze congressman.165 EXT. CAPITOL STEPS - DAY 165 Tommy and Celia walk down the steps, arm in arm. CELIA I can't wait to see that tape you made. Tommy pulls it from his pocket, glances at it, and tosses it away. TOMMY Why? I bought it this morning. It's blank. As they continue down the steps, CAMERA CRANES UP to WIDE SHOT of the Capitol and the town beyond. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Disturbia.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Disturbia.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2b4b1426a81a0e5ec5e9fdbeb7729fdc8648b2c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Disturbia.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DISTURBIA Written by Christopher Landon Revised by Carl Ellsworth March 2006 OVER BLACK: KALE (V.O.) (tense) Do you think he sees us? JEFF (V.O.) No, he can't see us. But he feels us watching. FADE IN: DEEP BLUE WATER FILLS THE FRAME. And there... a few feet beneath the surface... something SHIMMERS in the sunlight. As ripples dissipate, we make out the shape of a bright yellow CRANKBAIT waiting patiently for its prey on the end of a 10-pound line. We hold on this for another silent beat... then -- a huge BLACK BASS suddenly swoops into frame, circling the bait! ON KALE BRECHT (17) AND HIS DAD, JEFF BRECHT (45) Both startle at the sight. Kale, a clean-cut all-American kid, reflexively yanks back on his rod and reel. KALE Whoa, did you see that thing? Kale anxiously winds the spool -- JEFF Settle down, slow it down... Jeff lightly puts his hand on Kale's, slowing the cranking to a slight, steady pull as we WIDEN TO REVEAL them standing near the stern of their 16-foot BASSMASTER. We are...1 EXT. BISHOP LAKE - DAY 1 The undisturbed beauty of nature serves as our backdrop as we MOVE CLOSER to Kale and Jeff, taking note of their t- shirts: Jeff's has a silkscreened cartoon rendition of a Bass wearing aviator goggles with mounted missiles on its fins. Beneath it, the slogan: "Weapons of Bass Destruction." The fish on Kale's shirt wears a stock car uniform, a single word across the bottom: BASSCAR. As Jeff steadies Kale's hand and pulls away: JEFF You don't want to scare him off. You've got his attention, now just play with him. Tease him a little. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 2.1 CONTINUED: 1 Kale and Jeff watch the water in anxious silence... Kale inching the line back toward the boat. One more crank, then -- The BLACK BASS suddenly ATTACKS THE LURE with a tremendous SLOSH OF HIS TAIL! KALE Holy shit! JEFF It's all you, Kale, keep cranking! Kale cranks fast and furious. But this is one fish that's going down fighting. KALE I need reinforcements! Jeff moves in, grabs the rod and reel from behind Kale. JEFF Heave, laddie! They PULL. The rod curls under the weight. JEFF (CONT'D) (pirate accent) Give it all ya got, mate, or you're gonna lose him! KALE (laughing; pulling; struggling) Dad, your pirate -- impersonation -- sucks!! JEFF How would ya know, have ya ever met one? I doubt it -- The BASS SLOSHES FURIOUSLY around the bait, now just a few feet from the boat! KALE He's freakin' pulling us in! JEFF (laughing) Never! No Brecht has ever -- lost a fight -- to a fish! The BASS suddenly snaps free. The line goes limp. Jeff and Kale lose their balance, nearly falling backward. Then -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 3.1 CONTINUED: (2) 1 All becomes silent save for Jeff and Kale's heavy breathing. Kale winds the empty line back to the boat, shoots a glance to Jeff, then throws the rod aside in mock disgust. Jeff takes a seat in the captain's chair. JEFF (CONT'D) Throw me a -- Kale is already in the cooler. He throws Jeff a Coke. Both sit in silence for a beat. Then -- JEFF (CONT'D) Hey, at least the weather's great... we're spending quality time together. KALE (grabbing pole) That fish is going down. JEFF (not missing a beat) Let's nab the bastard. They both cast their lines --2 EXT. HIGHWAY 395 - NORTHERN SIERRA MOUNTAINS - EVENING 2 An amber glow sets the mountainside ablaze as Jeff's SUV winds through the serpentine pass.3 INT. SUV - EVENING - CONTINUOUS - MOVING 3 Jeff drives. Kale's on his cell: KALE (cont'd) (into phone as needed) Hey mom, it's us. Listen, fire up the grill 'cause the Bassmasters are headed home! Jeff slaps Kale five as he veers the SUV into the left lane, passing a slow-moving PATHFINDER... INTERCUT WITH:4 INT. KALE'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY - CONTINUOUS 4 Kale's attractive mom, JULIE, 40, on cordless, preps dinner. JULIE You're kidding. So I can actually put the burgers away this time? KALE Yes, be gone with the red meat! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 4.4 CONTINUED: 4 Julie smiles. Jeff grabs the phone from Kale. JEFF (into phone as needed) We're having fish for a week. Kale smiles as a LINCOLN NAVIGATOR PICK-UP zooms past in the right lane, swerves back in the left lane in front of them. JEFF (CONT'D) (over the above) I'd say an hour. Love you, too. Jeff flips the phone shut, tosses it to Kale. They exchange smiles. A silent moment passes. They both turn to face the road as -- THE NAVIGATOR PICK-UP suddenly SWERVES back into the right lane, revealing a STALLED MINI-VAN directly in front of them! KALE DAD -- Jeff instinctively reaches his arm in front of Kale as he SWINGS the wheel hard right and SLAMS ON THE BRAKES. But it's not in time. The SUV clips the mini-van's right rear bumper, SMASHING it into the left lane concrete barricade. The SUV spins into the right lane where that SLOW-MOVING PATHFINDER suddenly BROADSIDES IT with such FORCE that it FLIPS the SUV up and over. It TUMBLES off the highway, barreling into...5 EXT. VACANT CLIFFSIDE PULLOFF/VIEWING AREA - EVENING - CONT 5 A couple of final, METAL-CRUNCHING FLIPS send the SUV's undercarriage CRASHING to a violent stop on top of a rickety wood beam-mounted GUARDRAIL. A silent beat. Then -- steam billows from the hood...6 INSIDE THE SUV 6 Airbags deflate. Dust settles. Blood streams from Jeff's hairline. His eyes flutter open. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 5.6 CONTINUED: 6 He looks up to Kale, strapped in the passenger seat, unconscious. A small gash on his forehead. We only see blue sky through Kale's shattered passenger window. JEFF Kale? -- Kale, are you okay? Kale opens his eyes. Jeff reaches up, touches Kale's face. KALE I think so. Kale looks down at his dad -- his eyes widen in horror, not only at the sight of Jeff, but of the ravine beneath them -- For this brief moment, we may have thought the SUV was stable. But we CRANE BACK UP AND OUT KALE'S PASSENGER WINDOW to REVEAL A MUCH GRIMMER REALITY: the SUV is PERCHED LENGTHWISE ON TOP OF THE GUARDRAIL AT A 45-DEGREE DOWNWARD ANGLE. The SUV's right front and rear tires precariously grip the rail, keeping it from plunging 500 feet to the RAVINE below.7 BACK INSIDE THE SUV 7 KALE Oh my God, dad -- -- Jeff's leg is trapped beneath the crumpled dashboard. JEFF I'm fine. But you're gonna have to climb out, Kale. Can you do that? Kale's hands shake from the SHOCK as his fingers search for the seatbelt buckle. But the shoulder strap is LOCKED IN PLACE, preventing Kale from turning. He tugs it furiously. KALE I can't -- It won't give -- JEFF That's okay, I've got it -- grab the door, I don't need your ass falling on my face -- Kale reaches up, grips the outside of the door as JEFF'S HAND shakily reaches to Kale's seatbelt buckle and presses. Kale's belt SNAPS LOOSE. Kale's body DROPS, but he hangs on to the window -- just as a GUARDRAIL BEAM SNAPS LOOSE FROM ITS FOUNDATION! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 6.7 CONTINUED: 7 The SUV ROCKS VIOLENTLY as the guardrail starts to bend and peel away from the cliffside under the SUV's weight.8 INSIDE THE SUV - JEFF 8 reaches up, grabs Kale's legs and pushes, helping Kale climb out the window.9 OUTSIDE THE SUV - KALE 9 slowly slides down the outside of the door, then turns around on his chest, reaches his hand back down to Jeff -- KALE Dad, here -- Jeff reaches up as a SECTION OF GUARDRAIL RIVETS a few inches behind the SUV's rear bumper suddenly POP LOOSE. THE GUARDRAIL SNAPS IN TWO! KALE SCREAMS, hangs on for dear life as the GUARDRAIL and SUV SWING OUT AND OVER THE RAVINE. The guardrail is buckling fast. Another beam RIPS FREE of its foundation -- Kale slides a few more inches down the door and right front fender allowing HIS FEET to find the edge of the foundering rail underneath. Having at least some footing, Kale reaches back inside -- KALE (CONT'D) Dad, please, you can do it -- Jeff unbuckles his belt and reaches up. Kale summons his strength, grabs Jeff's wrist, pulls him up and through the passenger window just as the SUV FALLS AWAY! Jeff's weight pulls Kale down. Kale's feet SLIP off the rail. Kale SLAMS chest down, his TORSO wrapping around the top of the rail, feet dangling... But he's still clutching Jeff's wrist as the SUV CRASHES INTO THE RAVINE IN A MUSHROOM CLOUD OF DUST AND DEBRIS. JEFF'S WRIST slips from Kale's grasp. Kale struggles to hang on, but he's losing the battle and the balancing act. And he knows it. Tears well in Kale's eyes. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 7.9 CONTINUED: 9 JEFF Kale, you have to climb up -- KALE No -- I'm not leaving -- JEFF Kale -- Another GUARDRAIL BEAM UPROOTS -- KALE NO -- Dad, please, I've got you -- JEFF (with a slight smile) I know -- CU - Jeff's left hand enters frame, clasps Kale's. Another beat of eyes on eyes. The guardrail continues to BUCKLE. Then -- Jeff starts to PRY KALE'S HAND AWAY -- Jeff's arm RELEASES FROM KALE'S GRIP. Kale opens his mouth to scream as a shrill bell RINGS!10 INT. MORROW HIGH SCHOOL - HALLWAY - DAY 10 ON THE RINGING BELL. STUDENTS disappear into their respective classrooms. As the corridor quiets down... SUPER: ONE YEAR LATER RONNIE (V.O.) RONNIE (CONT'D) (prelap) (subtitles as needed) Este verano, despuÈs This summer, after visiting de visitar Hawaii, Hawaii, I will perhaps quiz·s visitarÈ a mis visit my grandparents in abuelos en Corea. Korea.11 INT. CLASSROOM - DAY - CONTINUOUS 11 ON RONNIE YUN, 16, a scrawny Korean kid with a knack for perfect Spanish, stands at the front giving his speech. Note: every time Ronnie says "quiz·s" ("perhaps") the class giggles because it sounds a lot like "kiss-ass." The teacher, SENOR GUTIERREZ, a rotund 50, bad comb-over and khakis up to his naval, stands off to the side, quickly picking up on Ronnie's excessive and increasingly dramatic use of the word. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 8.11 CONTINUED: 11 RONNIE RONNIE (CONT'D) Quiz·s no. Quiz·s Perhaps I won't. Perhaps apenas permanecerÈ en I'll just stay at home. el paÌs. Pero quiz·s But perhaps my parents mis padres tomar·n la will take pity on me. compasiÛn en mi. (more dramatic) (more dramatic) Perhaps they will make my Quiz·s har·n mi sueÒo dream a reality! Perhaps una realidad! Quiz·s they will take me to a me llevar·n a una playa beach on the French Riviera en la riviera francesa so that I may gaze upon de modo que pueda mirar the natural beauty of its sobre la belleza natural female inhabitants. de sus habitantes femeninos... Over this, only one GIRL, MINNIE TYCO, a rail-thin BLONDE, picks up on this: MINNIE TYCO (under her breath) Keep dreaming, perv. RONNIE RONNIE (CONT'D) (longingly) Perhaps... Thank you. Quiz·s... Gracias. The class laughs, claps. Ronnie bows, heads to his seat. SR GUTIERREZ SR GUTIERREZ (CONT'D) Gracias, Ronnie. Quiz·s Thank you, Ronnie. Perhaps le darÈ una "F." I'll give you an "F." The class laughs again. Gutierrez shakes his head, zeros in on the student behind Ronnie. Sleeping with his arms folded on his desk, a grey hoodie pulled over his head. SENOR GUTIERREZ Senor Brecht... Senor Gutierrez takes some chalk, flicks it at the kid. He still doesn't budge. Ronnie nudges him. RONNIE Dude -- The kid stirs, raises his head. The hoodie falls away to reveal KALE. Longer, disheveled hair. The spark in his eye's been replaced with an empty haze. SENOR GUTIERREZ So Kale, think you can stay conscious long enough to tell us your plans for the three wondrous summer months ahead? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 9.11 CONTINUED: (2) 11 Kale glances around. All eyes on him. He looks at Ronnie who nods in support. Kale gets up, heads to the front of the class. He pauses. Trying to focus. Then -- KALE Este invierno -- The class chuckles. SENOR GUTIERREZ (correcting) Verano... KALE Este verano -- voy a -- SENOR GUTIERREZ øQuÈ? Kale shuts his eyes, frustrated at the interruption. Senor Gutierrez, also losing patience, steps closer to Kale. SR GUTIERREZ SR GUTIERREZ (CONT'D) øQuÈ usted va a hacer? (subtitled) What are you going to do? KALE I don't know, alright? I haven't gotten that far. SENOR GUTIERREZ Did you do the homework or not? KALE (no eye contact) Guess not. SENOR GUTIERREZ (in Kale's face) You "guess" not. I don't know who you think you are or who you think you're dealing with. You can't give me a straight answer, fine, give me one good reason why I shouldn't fail you right now? Kale CLOCKS Gutierrez.12 INT. JUVENILE COURTROOM - DAY 12 ON SENOR GUTIERREZ - displaying a black eye, sitting next to the school's PRINCIPAL and COUNSELOR in a single row of seats behind the attorneys' tables. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 10.12 CONTINUED: 12 Kale, a little more cleaned up, wearing a suit, sits between Julie and his DEFENSE ATTORNEY. Julie, noticeably tired, glances at her son, her expression a fusion of anger and sympathy. Kale's eyes shift her way, but his head never turns. The JUDGE mulls over his notes... JUDGE Okay, Mr. Brecht... Kale's lawyer prompts him to stand. JUDGE (CONT'D) You're six months shy of eighteen, that means the assault-two charge you've pled guilty to carries a max of one year in juvey. With these priors, you're up to three. The judge lets that sink in. Kale remains silent. JUDGE (CONT'D) But losing a parent isn't easy. Which is why I'm sentencing you to three months house arrest. Julie closes her eyes in relief. JUDGE (CONT'D) You can thank your counselors and lawyer later. Mr. Brecht, I just cut you a break. Don't test me. The judge taps his gavel.13 INT. KALE'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY 13 A pair of hands wrap an ELECTRONIC MONITORING BRACELET around Kale's left ankle. WIDER TO REVEAL the hands belong to Kale's case officer, JANET PARKER, 35, no-nonsense. Kale's perched on the center island. Julie watches from the b.g. As Parker clicks the bracelet's buckle into place, a GREEN LED light illuminates. It's ON THE TOP EDGE OF THE BRACELET'S BAND so Kale can easily see it if he looks down. Next to this light is an additional RED LIGHT that isn't on. PARKER (making final checks) Okay, you... are all set... to go nowhere. (re: the LED lights) Now, green means you're good, you're in the safe zone which covers about (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 11.13 CONTINUED: 13 PARKER (CONT'D) a sixty-foot radius from this guy here. Parker points to a big black box (the CENTRAL TRACKING UNIT) on the kitchen counter. PARKER (CONT'D) He's like a modem. He gets a constant signal from Mr. Bracelet that he sends through your phone line to the monitoring station downtown. So they know where you are, where you've been and what you're thinkin' 25/7. JULIE What if he accidentally goes beyond -- PARKER (anticipating; re: red light on bracelet) Red light flashes. Means you've got about ten seconds to get your butt back to green, or else -- KALE The execution squad shows up? PARKER And they don't bring blindfolds. It's also tamper proof and waterproof. So don't try sticking your foot in a bucket of water and hopping across the line. It won't work, and you'll look stupid. Now, I'll be checking up on you a lot. Here's my card -- You're set up to pay his incarceration fee, Ms. Brecht? JULIE Automatic withdrawal. (to Kale) Twelve bucks every day. PARKER (re: a booklet) Everything else is in the manual. (making her way out) Oh, except this -- House arrest might sound like a breeze, but trust me, I've seen all kinds of folks get a bit loopy before too long, some after just a day or two. So make sure you find lots of constructive things to keep yourself busy. D.J. Caruso 12.14 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER 14 Kales sits in his video game chair, wearing his X-box live headset, playing HALO 2 -- he's on the final "boss level." GUNFIRE and EXPLOSIONS BLARE over his stereo speakers. KALE (into headset as needed) Hobby, you read me? I said come around my left flank and draw his fire -- damn straight I'm trying to get you smoked, you've been hiding behind my ass the whole game -- The TV SCREEN suddenly GLITCHES. KALE (CONT'D) Hobby, Jet, you guys still there? The screen goes black. The XBOX LIVE LOGO APPEARS along with the words: SERVER ERROR. Kale throws the headset aside, makes sure all the wires are connected. Checks the TV screen. Same thing. Kale glares at the screen another beat, then gets up, wanders out of his room...15 INT. ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 15 Kale slowly heads down the stairs, rounds the corner into...16 INT. KALE'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 16 Kale runs into Julie who wears a black blouse and slacks, the required uniform of the steakhouse she works at. She's just thrown a couple of microwave dinners on the kitchen table. She's scrambling around, eating a couple bites, gathering her things... JULIE Dinner's on the table. I'm closing at the restaurant the next few nights. Could be some late ones, but hey... the extra tips couldn't hurt. Kale sits at the table, picks through his food. JULIE (CONT'D) (glancing around) Where's my apron... apron... She heads O.S. for a beat, comes back in with her apron and purse, sets them on the counter. Eyes her watch, sits at the table, takes a couple more quick bites. Then -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 13.16 CONTINUED: 16 JULIE (CONT'D) You wanna talk about anything? KALE I got nothin'. JULIE Y'know, when we're finally free of all this legal stuff with the accident, the other families' lawyers... there might be a little insurance money left... maybe you should go back and see Dr. Phillips? KALE What, so he can tell me I'm ADD, have PTSD, and severe IAD? JULIE IAD? KALE (messing with bracelet) Freakin' irritated ankle disorder. Julie can't help but crack a little smile: JULIE Well, that one could've been avoided. Kale looks back up. He's not smiling. Whatever chance we had of a lighter conversation panning out here quickly fizzles. Another beat, then -- Julie pushes her chair back, heads to the counter, grabs her apron and purse. JULIE (CONT'D) (heading out) Do the dishes. (pleading) Please? Julie leaves. Kale glances around the kitchen. A mess of dirty dishes, stacks of paper... screw that.17 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER 17 Kale, looking disheveled and very perplexed, now has his TV pulled out from the wall. He's behind it, meticulously checking and re-connecting all the wires and ethernet cable. Carefully studying the manual as he goes. He blows on the Halo 2 CD, wipes it down with his sweatshirt, gently puts it in the tray, giving us the idea this might not be his first attempt at this. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 14.17 CONTINUED: 17 He powers up the Xbox, grabs a controller... so far, so good... he scrolls through the screens, a little hope returning... SERVER ERROR. Kale throws a mini-fit, slams the controller to the floor. Rips the controller cord out of the XBOX --18 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - THE NEXT MORNING 18 A few stray beams of sunlight pierce the blinds. Otherwise, it's a tomb. Clothes strewn everywhere. We TRACK ACROSS the floor and a virtual DEBRIS FIELD of junk food bags, wrappers, Mountain Dew cans... find Kale in bed, ankle and bracelet stick out from the sheets, arm hangs over the side --19 INT. KITCHEN - MORNING 19 Still a mess as we find Kale, hair disheveled, rummaging through the cabinets. Lots of Costco-size boxes: crackers, Pringles... a HUGE BOX OF TWINKIES. Kale spots a jar of peanut butter. He grabs the nearest bowl, pulls a bottle of Hershey's syrup from the fridge, pours it all into the bowl. He's about to throw the syrup bottle in the trash when something in the bottom of the can catches his eye. He reaches in, pulls out a bill for XBOX LIVE: SUBSCRIPTION CANCELED.20 INT. LIVING ROOM - MORNING - MOMENTS LATER 20 Kale lounges in on the couch watching "The Price is Right" as he spoons the peanut butter from the jar, dips it in the bowl of chocolate syrup, devours it. Brings up a two-liter of Mountain Dew, takes a big swig to wash it down. KALE (to contestant on TV) C'mon, bid a dollar, one dollar -- CONTESTANT (ON TV) I'll bid one dollar, Bob. Kale belches as he raises his spoon, saluting the screen. Then, after a beat, a look of grave concern crosses his face --21 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE BATHROOM - DAY 21 The toilet flushes O.S. Kale opens the door, leans against the frame, spent. He stands there a beat, absorbing the silence of the house. He eyes a door at the end of the hall.22 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - SECONDS LATER 22 CU - the doorknob. Kale's hand enters frame, slowly turns it. Click. Kale pushes. The door CREAKS open to reveal (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 15.22 CONTINUED: 22 DAD'S OFFICE Hardwood floor. Ornate, cherry wood desk. Plush leather chairs. Quiet. ON THE DESK -- dad's reading glasses sit on a stack of papers next to an antique typewriter. THE WALLS -- adorned with framed, poster-size covers of Dad's books - non-fiction, true account titles: WHISTLEBLOWER - The Inside Story of a Real Corporate Insider; THE SENATOR'S SHADOWS: How Eight Men Conspired to Control One. ON ANOTHER WALL -- a family portrait of Jeff, Julie, and Kale - age six; Jeff at a book signing, smiling wide... Kale takes it all in from the doorway. His feet never once cross into the room. His eyes say everything. Loss, anger, regret. He gently pulls the door shut.23 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - THAT NIGHT 23 Kale samples some rap clips on I-tunes. Likes what he's hearing. ON THE SCREEN - Kale moves the cursor to "buy song." The account screen pops up. Kale types his password. After a beat, bold red letters pop up: "THE APPLE ID OR PASSWORD YOU ENTERED WAS INVALID OR INCORRECT..." Kale types it again. Same thing. Then -- like we all do to be sure, Kale types his password at a rate of ONE KEY PER SECOND. Same thing. Kale fumes, smelling a rat.24 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAYS LATER 24 The shades are drawn. Kale's door is closed. Find Kale looking utterly miserable, lounging in bed watching "Bikini Destinations" on HD NET. Julie enters wearing a business suit and name badge emblazoned with the RE/MAX LOGO. Kale quickly changes the channel to the local news. JULIE (heading to the window) More trash TV? NEWS ANCHOR (ON TV) ...Thirty-three year old Patricia Walsh was last seen three nights ago... KALE (innocently) News. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 16.24 CONTINUED: 24 Kale points to the TV showing a photo of a smiling PATRICIA WALSH, VIBRANT, FLOWING RED HAIR - "MISSING" keyed in underneath. Julie shoots him a look, then rips open the blinds. Sunlight pours in. She gathers trash off the floor. JULIE The lawyer's sending some papers over. KALE And your point is? JULIE (heading O.S.) I've got two open houses, you've gotta sign for them. That's the point. KALE You canceled my Xbox subscription. JULIE (O.S.) I-tunes, too. (then) You know what else I'm canceling? Kale turns to Julie who suddenly drops a pile of Kale's clothes on the floor in front of him. JULIE (CONT'D) Maid service. (off Kale) Sorry, you're a felon. And we're broke. I can't do it all, anymore, Kale. This isn't gonna be vacation as usual. I want these washed and the kitchen cleaned by the time I get home. KALE That might be difficult. JULIE Well let me make it easier. Julie goes to the TV, UNPLUGS IT. KALE That's a little dramatic, isn't it? I'm just gonna plug it back -- Julie suddenly yanks a pair of scissors off Kale's desk and SNIPS THE POWER CORD IN HALF. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 17.24 CONTINUED: (2) 24 KALE (CONT'D) What are you, mental? JULIE (a very stern tone) One more look at that kitchen and I will be. Julie picks up her keys and briefcase, pecks Kale on the forehead, leaves. JULIE (O.S.) (CONT'D) You heard what I said about the lawyer? KALE Yes!25 INT. LAUNDRY ROOM - DAY - LATER 25 Kale furiously stuffs clothes in the washer, blindly cranks the knob, presses start.26 INT. KITCHEN - DAY - LATER 26 Kale SHOVELS dishes and glasses into the dishwasher, breaking a couple as he goes. He pours half the box of Cascade in the dispenser, kicks the door up and closed, cranks the knob.27 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 27 Kale sits on his bed, staring into space. He eyes the clock. Tick tick tick... We hear KIDS PLAYING IN THE STREET O.S. Kale glances out the window. HIS POV - Kids on bikes, NEIGHBORS out on walks... ahh... the sights and sounds of summer... And Kale's not invited. He glares down at his ankle bracelet. It glares back.28 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 28 Kale sits on the floor as he spreads a line of Elmer's glue across the bottom of a Twinkie. He's just completed the first couple of floors of what will be... TWINKIE TOWER.29 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY 29 Kale, on cell, sits in his video game chair painting his toe nails. KALE (into phone as needed) Dammit, Ronnie, I'm losing my mind. (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 18.29 CONTINUED: 29 KALE (CONT'D) Give me some details, what's happening out there? RONNIE (V.O.) (phone filter; party sounds in the b.g.) Dude, the chicks here in Oahu rock the houusse! Oh my god, this one is totally showing me her kite board. Belay that, she wasn't pointing at me. Look, Kale, I've gotta hop -- KALE Wait, Ronnie -- Hello? Kale tosses the phone and the nail polish aside. Sits there in silence for a beat. Then eyes a racketball on the floor. Picks it up. Starts mindlessly bouncing it against the wall... and keeps bouncing it... and keeps bouncing it... HARD CUT TO:30 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 30 Kale reclines in his chair, now FURIOUSLY SWATTING the racketball against the wall -- with a racket. We PULL BACK to reveal SCUFF MARKS on the walls and CEILING where Kale has figured out the exact points to hit it allowing him to bounce the ball off multiple walls and return it perfectly to his hand. He SWATS it... and SWATS it...31 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - STILL LATER 31 Kale's passed out in his chair, the racket still in his hand. He's about to fall out of the chair when a loud BANG O.S. JOLTS him awake.32 INT. 2ND FLOOR HALLWAY/WINDOW - DAY - SECONDS LATER 32 Kale goes to the window, tilts his head, trying to see where the noise is coming from. KALE'S POV - He's able to make out some bits of movement next door, but his VIEW is OBSTRUCTED by the architecture of his house. Kale steps back from the window, studies it a beat -- then opens it, slowly sticks his head out. HIS POV - A U-HAUL TRUCK comes into view. It's backed into the driveway next door. ALAN NORRIS, 43, appears from inside the truck's cab, carrying a moving box. He hands it down to his wife, BONNIE, 42, who walks back in the house. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 19.32 CONTINUED: 32 Kale's about to pull his head in when another PERSON comes out of the moving truck. She's carrying a box that's obscuring her face as she carefully negotiates the incline of the moving truck's ramp. But her blonde hair and perfect legs look to be about 17. We'll soon know her as ASHLEY, the Norris' daughter. She reaches the end of the ramp. Bends over to retrieve another smaller box, her back and ass to Kale who stares in utter disbelief. Ashley stacks the boxes, picks them up and heads into the house, her face still a mystery. Kale watches her go. Mesmerized. Suddenly, the DOORBELL RINGS O.S. Kale snaps to, yanks his head back in -- and KERBONGS it on the underside of the window. He drops to the floor. KALE GODDAMMIT! Kale staggers to his feet...33 INT. ENTRY HALL - DAY - SECONDS LATER 33 More doorbell RINGING. Kale heads down the stairs to the front door. KALE I'm coming!! Kale swings the door open to see -- A BURNING PAPER BAG on the welcome mat.34 EXT. KALE'S HOUSE - FRONT PORCH - DAY - CONTINUOUS 34 Kale instinctively STOMPS ON IT with his SOCKED FEET! KALE Oh shit! Shit water shit! Kale frantically hops around, looking for a hose, bucket, anything wet -- but the flames are already out. Kale looks down, finally realizes this -- but there's another problem -- his socks are smothered in SLIMY DOG SHIT. We hear GIGGLING O.S. Kale glances up as two neighborhood BRATS on bikes emerge from their hiding place behind a shrub across the street. They high five each other. BRAT #1 What a retard! Kale glares -- then heads down the steps into... D.J. Caruso 20.35 EXT. KALE'S YARD - DAY - CONTINUOUS 35 Kale walks briskly, menacingly toward them -- KALE You think that's funny? The Brats grow more concerned, back away as Kale draws closer-- BRAT #2 What are you gonna do, kill us like your teacher? KALE CHARGES THEM! KALE Not before I shove this shit up your ass! The brats pedal away. Kale races through the sprinkler, crossing his yard into the far corner of Ashley's, trying to cut the Brats off as they race down...36 EXT. STREET - DAY - CONTINUOUS 36 The chase is on. Kale increases his speed. Almost catching up to them -- BRAT #2 (terrified to Brat #1) Dude, you said he couldn't leave his house!! Kale overhears, stops cold. He glances to the ANKLE BRACELET: FLASHING RED LIGHT. KALE Shit! Kale races back down the street, his shit-stained feet leaving tracks as he goes. He cuts through Ashley's yard again, yelling at the bracelet all the way-- KALE (CONT'D) Turn green turn green turn green... Kale races by ASHLEY'S PARENTS, leaps back into... EXT. KALE'S FRONT YARD - DAY - CONTINUOUS He looks at the bracelet. Still FLASHING RED. He hops up and down as the SPRINKLER STREAMS approach him from behind. KALE (CONT'D) No, c'mon, I'm way inside, turn green -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 21.36 CONTINUED: 36 He spins back toward the house, runs SMACK into the STREAMS, trips on the sprinkler, falls on his face. Now his foot's tangled in the sprinkler. Spraying water all over him. Kale's foot jiggles the sprinkler free. He then sees the ankle bracelet: GREEN LIGHT. KALE (CONT'D) Yes! That's what I'm talking about! He gazes over: ASHLEY'S PARENTS, EACH WITH A MOVING BOX, STAND THERE, JAWS DROPPED. BOTH TAKE A NERVOUS STEP BACKWARD as ASHLEY steps out the front door. Freezes at the sight of the sopping wet, shit-and-grass-stained Kale. Kale locks eyes with her. Then smiles and waves. KALE (CONT'D) It's cool, I'm all green. Then -- SIRENS WAIL. Kale turns to the street: TWO POLICE CARS SCREECH TO A STOP. Kale loses the smile. PARKER (V.O.) (phone filter prelap) Kale, calm down, the officers were probably in the neighborhood already.37 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - EVENING 37 ON KALE - pacing, on cell phone, pressing an ice-filled Ziplock back to his head. KALE (into phone as needed) Okay, fine, but if I'd known -- PARKER (V.O.) Kale, first times happen. The officers knew that. But next time they will take you to jail. Kale flips the phone shut, collapses to the bed -- PRELAP - The doorbell RINGS.38 INT. KALE'S HOUSE - ENTRY HALL - THAT NIGHT 38 Kale, his Louisville Slugger firmly in hand, groggily heads to the door, swings it open. COURIER. With papers. COURIER Hi, I'm from McNeill-Stewart law firm, dropping off for Ms. Julie -- Over this, Kale yanks the envelope away, SLAMS the door in the guy's face. Kale heads away. The doorbell RINGS. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 22.38 CONTINUED: 38 Kale opens the door, grabs the courier's clipboard, signs his name, SLAMS THE DOOR EVEN HARDER.39 EXT. KALE'S BACK YARD - THE NEXT DAY 39 ON KALE'S FEET - entering frame, inching their way through the yard... ON THE BRACELET - The green light suddenly goes out, red light FLASHES. Kale's foot quickly steps back. GREEN LIGHT. A beat, then -- A SMILING GARDEN GNOME SLAMS DOWN INTO FRAME. WIDER - Kale ties kite string around the gnome's hat, then unspools it across the yard to a waiting croquet mallet already hammered into the ground. He pulls the string taut and ties it off. We PULL BACK to REVEAL Kale's emerging KITE STRING PERIMETER -- a crude SEMI-CIRCULAR ARC around the yard tied off at different points using makeshift "stakes" -- gnomes, mallets, shovels, screwdrivers...40 EXT. KALE'S FRONT YARD - DAY - SHORT TIME LATER 40 Same "BOUNDARY CONSTRUCTION" here. Kale shoves a screwdriver into the ground a few feet shy of his mailbox. He ties some string to it as he glances over to the other neighbors' (the PILCH's) yard, sees their black Labra-doodle watching him. KALE Hey doggie, come here... The dog trots toward Kale. It almost reaches his outstretched hand when it suddenly gets ZAPPED by the underground electric fence. It YELPS away. Spins back around, sits and stares. KALE (CONT'D) (re: his ankle bracelet) Hey, you and me both. OVER KALE'S SHOULDER IN THE B.G. - ASHLEY lifts more boxes from the back of their station wagon. She sets them on the drive, SLAMS the liftgate. Kale turns around. Ashley throws him a quick glance, then heads around the back of her house. Kale stares after her.41 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - DAY 41 CU - The doorknob. Kale's hand enters frame, slowly turns it. Click. Kale pushes. D.J. Caruso 23.42 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS 42 Kale stands in the doorway. He takes a moment, considering what he's about to do. Then -- HIS FOOT steps inside. He goes to the window, gently pulls the blind up to reveal the BACK OF ASHLEY'S HOUSE He peers down, sees Ashley and her mom standing by the swimming pool. Ashley disappears through the back door. Kale tilts his head up, curiously gazing through the pair of OPEN WINDOWS on the SECOND FLOOR of Ashley's house. HIS POV - ASHLEY'S BEDROOM Unmade bed, stacks of open moving boxes, poster frames waiting to be hung... Kale squints, steps closer. ASHLEY enters the room. Digging clothes from boxes, stuffing them in her dresser, then -- she pulls her hair back, yanks off her t-shirt, revealing a black bra. ON KALE - he continues to watch as Ashley digs a towel out of a moving box, and, with her back to us, pulls off the bra and disappears into the bathroom. Off Kale -- CUT TO:43 INT. KALE'S HOUSE - ENTRY HALL - DAY 43 The front door swings open to reveal Ronnie, DV camera in hand. He's wearing aviator shades, half a dozen leis and a hawaiian shirt. RONNIE (hula dancing) Aloooha Senor Ka-- Dude, you look like hell. REVERSE ANGLE TO REVEAL KALE - now with a patchy stubble, wearing a bathrobe and a SHRUNKEN t-shirt that used to be white but is now LIGHT PINK. He holds his bat in one hand, quart of Haagen Dazs in the other. He smiles, hugs Ronnie. Tight -- and not letting go --44 INT. 2ND FL HALLWAY/WINDOW - DAY - MOMENTS LATER 44 Kale leads Ronnie up the stairs and to the window... RONNIE Seriously man, you need some sun. (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 24.44 CONTINUED: 44 RONNIE (CONT'D) (re: DV cam) Hey, I've gotta show you this. Maui chicks rule. KALE (anxious) I've got something to show you, too. (then; slightly crazed) I mean... there's such structure to it, so many layers, but it's invisible if you're not looking close enough... RONNIE What are you talking about? KALE The world right outside the window. Kale gestures out the window. Ronnie looks out. They peer down to the Pilch's backyard. A Ford Escort is in the drive. Besides that, all's quiet. RONNIE -- Fascinating. KALE (eyeing his watch) Just wait... and... (then) Three... two... one... dog... The Pilch's dog darts out the back door -- then -- KALE (CONT'D) ...Mrs. Pilch... saying goodbye to Lonnie... RONNIE Husband? KALE (shaking a "no") Maid. Over the above, Mrs. Pilch, wearing an unflattering tennis skirt, exits the house. The dog hops around her as she waves back to her heavy set, male maid, LONNIE, 35. KALE (CONT'D) Four o'clock every Thursday, she goes to the country club to play tennis with Betty Big-Bangs there. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 25.44 CONTINUED: (2) 44 Kale and Ronnie watch as Mrs. Pilch heads down the walkway, meets her rail-thin 50-ish female tennis PARTNER at the curb. As they walk away, the dog tries to follow but gets ZAPPED by the electric fence and YELPS back into the house. KALE (CONT'D) And... ladies disappear... cue white Mercedes... Mr. Pilch... arriving from the office... A white mercedes pulls in the driveway. MR. PILCH, 63, gets out, carrying briefcase and flowers. RONNIE Great, that still doesn't explain why you're in a bathrobe at four in the afternoon. KALE (pulls Ronnie closer) Will you just look -- RONNIE Dude, he's gonna see -- KALE He can't. We don't have any lights on. Plus the angle's sharper from ground level, it only seems like he could see us. I did the math. RONNIE Oh, you did the math. KALE Optical illusion, line-of-sight doesn't apply to the subject. RONNIE Kale -- KALE Now tilt your gaze up... RONNIE AND KALE'S POV - TILTING UP TO THE PILCH'S BEDROOM WINDOW - Lonnie vacuums as Mr. Pilch enters the room behind him. Mr. Pilch flips off the light switch, cutting the power to the vacuum. Lonnie startles, turns around, sees Pilch standing there with the flowers and a big smile. A beat, then -- Lonnie jumps in Pilch's arms, kissing him passionately. RONNIE DAMN!! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 26.44 CONTINUED: (3) 44 Kale slaps his hand over Ronnie's mouth. Ronnie pulls away, reaches in his pocket, yanks out his ASTHMA INHALER and takes a hit. Then -- RONNIE (CONT'D) (re: hallway and window) Seal this area off, Kale. KALE C'mon, there's more. RONNIE What, I go to Maui, you become a stalker? KALE No, stalking's for psychos. These are just simple observations... natural side effects of chronic boredom. As Kale heads away: RONNIE (pleading) Find your passion, Kale.45 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY 45 Kale leads Ronnie to the window. Ronnie takes in the mess in Kale's room -- the scuff marks on the walls, the completed TWINKIE TOWER. He glances to the desk, sees a penciled GEOMETRIC DIAGRAM of Kale's line-of-sight spying theory -- shit, Kale wasn't lying -- he did do the math. KALE (pointing out) So... Robert Giles... KALE AND RONNIE'S POV - In the yard across from Kale's back yard, find ROBERT GILES, gassing up his lawnmower in the driveway. He's early 40's, clean-cut, fit, decent looking. He closes the garage door via remote, then fires up the mower, pushes it around the side of his house toward the front yard. KALE (CONT'D) He's lived there a couple of years, but I've never noticed he mows his lawn every two days. RONNIE Huh, I guess he likes his grass short. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 27.45 CONTINUED: 45 KALE Next to him is Judy Thorp. Dude, she freakin' sneaks over to her neighbors' every morning, steals their newspaper, I guess reads it or swipes the coupons, then puts it back before they even wake up. RONNIE (sarcastic) No shit? (weirdly eyeing Kale who heads out) People. You never can tell these days.46 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - MOMENTS LATER 46 Kale slowly pushes on the door. It creaks open. Kale tilts his head, listening. Then -- SPLASH!! Kale smiles. RONNIE What was that?47 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS 47 Kale leads Ronnie to the window. KALE Last stop on the tour. KALE AND RONNIE'S POV - ASHLEY swims underwater the length of the pool. She finally surfaces in all her two-piece glory. RONNIE Oh-- my-- God. Who be she? They watch as Ashley steps out of the pool, towels off. She pulls her bikini from her butt, lies in the lounge chair. KALE Don't know. RONNIE What's stopping you?! Off Kale, considering --48 EXT. KALE'S FRONT YARD - THE NEXT DAY 48 ON KALE - now clean-shaven, sitting on the front steps. He eyes his watch, then stretches his neck. Yawns. Then he sees something O.S. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 28.48 CONTINUED: 48 KALE'S POV - peering down the street, Ashley's stationwagon rounds the corner -- Kale hops to his feet, quickly fixes his hair as the stationwagon draws closer. Kale casually strides into the yard, approaching the kite string boundary and mailbox. Then -- keeping his feet planted in what looks to be a very practiced maneuver, he suddenly falls forward against the mailbox. Reaches around with his free hand, opens the door, going to grab the mail inside just as ASHLEY pulls the car into and up the drive. She glances at Kale who nods and smiles back. As the stationwagon heads up the driveway, Kale tries to push himself upright -- but his feet SLIP. He pitches forward more. He glances back over his shoulder, sees Ashley getting out of the car and looking his way. Kale struggles under his own weight, trying to keep his feet from crossing the line -- he looks back to Ashley who's now heading toward him. A slight smile crosses Kale's face as -- ASHLEY Can I help you? KALE Nope, no I'm fine. ASHLEY (helping him up) Too late. KALE Thanks, that was really humiliating. Ashley reaches in the box, grabs the mail, hands it over. ASHLEY Please. I think any pride you had left was gone a while ago. KALE Oh, you mean that thing with the cops? They had the wrong guy, total foul up. I'm Kale by the way. Ashley nods with a semi-polite smile, starts to head away -- KALE (CONT'D) Hey, so -- how'd the move go? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 29.48 CONTINUED: (2) 48 ASHLEY Still going. KALE I'd help, but... (re: ankle bracelet) I'm a little spatially challenged at the moment. Ashley walks closer to Kale, checks out his ankle bracelet. ASHLEY Yeah, you've kinda got the whole Martha Stewart thing going on -- KALE (nodding) But minus the 48-hour allowance for office visits. And no lame "Apprentice" spin-off. (off her laugh) So where'd you move from? ASHLEY I'm a city girl. Born, raised, and now... (glances around; sighs) Forcefully relocated. KALE That doesn't sound good. ASHLEY I'm telling you, if I have another clueless jock hit on me or one more soccer mom cuts me off in her oversize SUV, I'm gonna go postal. KALE Oh, sorry, I was just gonna see if you wanted to hop in my Hummer and cruise to a kegger. (turning away) Nice talking to you. ASHLEY (cracking a smile) Wait, I -- BONNIE (O.S.) (from inside house) Ashley? Can you come in here, please? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 30.48 CONTINUED: (3) 48 ASHLEY (quietly to Kale) My mom -- she's very polite, always says "please" but she's got that tone, did you notice? KALE I know the tone. ASHLEY (heading away) Oh, I'm Ashley -- KALE Noticed that, too. Ashley smiles, disappears inside. Kale's in love.49 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 49 The wind HOWLS outside. Kale sits on the couch flipping channels. Julie's in the chair, nodding off. ON THE TV - Kale lands on that same photo of PATRICIA WALSH, the MISSING REDHEAD we saw earlier. NEWS ANCHOR (ON TV) ...attended a friend's birthday party at a local nightclub before she was last seen alone at a diner outside Madison, 50 miles east of here. A waitress said Ms. Walsh was picked up around 10:30 P.M. by an unidentified person driving a black 1960's era Mustang that was dented on the left side and may have -- Kale CLICKS the TV off -- looks over to Julie who's now sound asleep. Kale's watch ALARM suddenly BEEPS. He quickly shuts it off, eyes Julie. She stirs but doesn't wake up. Kale quietly gets up, grabs the blanket off the sofa, covers Julie up. He then picks up his soda and bowl of popcorn from the coffee table, heads away...50 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - SECONDS LATER 50 Kale, immersed in shadow, enters. He quietly pulls Dad's leather chair toward the window, positions it just right, and sits. KALE'S POV - Ashley's working out to a YOGA DVD. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 31.50 CONTINUED: 50 KALE (to Ashley) You started without me? As if eerily on cue, Ashley suddenly stops. KALE (CONT'D) What are you stopping for? She goes to her window and peers out -- Kale ducks -- He looks back up, sees Ashley gazing in his direction -- Kale's breathing intensifies -- could she actually be seeing him? KALE (CONT'D) (convincing himself) No -- ASHLEY turns around, goes back to her yoga mat. She takes a breath, getting back in "the zone," then -- she slowly raises her arms and bends into a ridiculously sexy pose. KALE (CONT'D) Whoa. Kale watches Ashley another couple of beats. Then her dad appears in the doorway. Looking pissed. Kale leans closer -- Ashley stops the DVD. From her body language, she's clearly annoyed at the interruption. The scene quickly devolves into a heated argument. But Ashley's dad gets the last word in and leaves. Ashley SLAMS the door behind him, flips off the TV, storms in the bathroom and SLAMS that door, too. Kale watches the vacant room... waiting... another beat, then -- Ashley emerges from the bathroom with a box of tissues. She sits on her bed, pulls THREE TISSUES from the box, staring off... From this angle, it almost looks as if her eyes could meet Kale's at any moment. Kale instinctively lowers himself in the chair, his eyes never leaving her... Then -- with a huge gust of HOWLING WIND we SMASH TO:51 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - LATER 51 Kale SNAPS AWAKE. Breathing hard. Bad dream. He sits up, peers across to Ashley's windows. Dark, shades pulled. Kale pulls himself out of the chair...52 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - SHORT TIME LATER 52 Kale enters, grabs his PSP and falls back to the bed. As he starts playing, HEADLIGHT BEAMS appear from O.S. He glances out the window: (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 32.52 CONTINUED: 52 KALE'S POV - A BLACK 1965 MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE pulls in Giles' driveway. Kale goes back to playing the PSP, then suddenly stops -- KALE (realizing) -- Mustang -- Kale hops up, heads to the window -- KALE'S POV - Kale watches as Giles hops out, leaves the car running as he heads inside the house. After a beat, the MAIN GARAGE DOOR raises up. Giles appears, ducking underneath, heads back to the Mustang, gets in. Giles maneuvers the car around the driveway. The front end of the car swings around, revealing a bashed-in right front fender. KALE (CONT'D) Holy shit. A dent -- Kale races to his closet, pulls down a pair of binoculars, heads back to the window. BINOCULAR POV - In the garage, Giles is already out of the car, rounding the back as the garage door lowers... Kale crouches, trying to see under the CLOSING DOOR... catching a glimpse of Giles popping the trunk -- A HAND suddenly enters frame, lands on Kale's shoulder! Kale SCREAMS, whips around -- Julie. She SCREAMS, too. KALE (CONT'D) JULIE Jesus, mom! Christ, Kale! JULIE (CONT'D) I'm sorry. I thought you heard me... KALE What? No, I -- JULIE What's going on? KALE Nothing, just watching the wind blow. JULIE (re: binoculars) Anything else? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 33.52 CONTINUED: (2) 52 Kale turns back. HIS POV - Giles' garage door is now closed. KALE No, see for yourself. JULIE (beat; then) That's okay, I just... wanted to say good night. Julie leaves. Kale turns back to the window, stares out at Giles' house. The lights go out.53 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - THE NEXT DAY 53 ON KALE - sitting in the leather chair, binoculars raised. On the floor next to the chair is a 7-11 bag, a slurpee cup, a bag of beef jerky and an AUTOMOTIVE MAGAZINE with a MUSTANG on the cover. BINOCULAR POV - Ashley sits on the roof leaning against her closed window. She's reading Lolita. RONNIE (O.S.) So you don't know what year the Mustang is? REVEAL RONNIE - sitting at dad's computer looking at the FBI'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE. KALE (now flipping through magazine) '65 or '66, couldn't tell. RONNIE Check this out. The feds think your missing girl might be related to three murders in Austin. All redheads. Kale processes that as we suddenly hear a car door SLAM O.S. BINOCULAR POV - Kale TILTS DOWN to see Ashley's mom backing out the driveway. Kale TILTS UP to Ashley's window -- Ashley ducks back inside her room, disappears. KALE Movement. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 34.53 CONTINUED: 53 BINOCULAR POV - Kale TILTS DOWN to the pool, sees Ashley emerging from the house with a towel that she throws on the lounge chair. KALE (CONT'D) Better late than never. Ronnie joins Kale at the window. THEIR POV - Ashley flips her sandals off one at a time, pulls her tank off revealing her bronzed back and bikini top. RONNIE Dude... Ashley slinks out of her shorts revealing a "near-thong" bikini this time. RONNIE (CONT'D) DUDE!! KALE (re: bikini) That's definitely new. Ashley crouches down, runs her fingers through the water. RONNIE Oh, it's so warm, baby... Ashley cups her hands, scoops a handful of water from the pool, splashes her face... runs her hands through her hair... She stands, takes a deep breath, holds it -- then exhales... RONNIE (CONT'D) Cleansing breath... Ashley stretches her arms high above her head. RONNIE (CONT'D) Concentrate now. This is for the gold. Ronnie grabs the binoculars from Kale, puts them to his eyes, moves closer to the window -- but his zoomed-in vision causes him to underestimate the distance -- THWUMP. The end of the binoculars HIT THE WINDOW just as Ashley dives into the pool -- Ronnie and Kale hit the deck as we hear the splash O.S. KALE Jackass! RONNIE Dude, there's no way she heard that. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 35.53 CONTINUED: (2) 53 KALE Dick, my deaf aunt in Omaha heard that. Kale grabs the binoculars from Ronnie. BINOCULAR POV - Ashley's underwater at the far end of the pool. She tucks and pushes off the wall, swims back... RONNIE (peering out) She's got great lung capacity. ON ASHLEY - She suddenly surfaces, hoists herself from the water. She spins and sits on the ledge, rings the water from her hair. But she suddenly stops -- and shifts her GAZE UP toward Kale and Ronnie! KALE (pulling Ronnie down) I think she saw me -- RONNIE There's no way -- Ronnie grabs the binoculars back. RONNIE (CONT'D) (re: Ashley O.S.) Okay, maybe she did. KALE Seriously? Kale peeks out -- THEIR POV - Ashley's slipping back into her shorts and tank top. She heads to the back door, tries the knob. Locked. Over this, Ronnie turns to Kale: RONNIE Her swims always that short? KALE (growing concern) No, she usually takes her time -- They turn back. Ashley's gone. RONNIE Now where is she? The DOORBELL RINGS. Kale and Ronnie freeze. Then -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 36.53 CONTINUED: (3) 53 KALE RONNIE No. No.54 INT. ENTRY HALL - LATE AFTERNOON - MOMENTS LATER 54 Kale and Ronnie quietly approach the door. Ronnie suddenly pulls Kale back. RONNIE Don't, it could be her! KALE It's not gonna be her. RONNIE Then stop! Just -- let 'em go away. The DOORBELL RINGS AGAIN. Kale heads to the door. KALE I have to. Kale peeps through the peephole -- DISTORTED PEEPHOLE POV - Ashley. Kale calmly turns to Ronnie. RONNIE What?! What?! Speak. KALE It's her. RONNIE You're full of -- Ronnie tip-toes to the door. One look at Ashley and he covers his mouth, grabs Kale and pulls him back. RONNIE (CONT'D) Shit shit!! Oh my shit! Both laugh, giggle, acting "girlie," practically spinning in circles as they speak in hushed, panicked whispers: KALE She totally saw us -- The DOORBELL RINGS again. Kale heads to the door. RONNIE We are so busted. Don't answer it! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 37.54 CONTINUED: 54 KALE (re: his bracelet) Dude, she knows I'm here. Kale swings the door open. Ashley stands there a beat. Her arms folded. Then -- ASHLEY What took you so long? (eyeing Ronnie in b.g.) The house isn't that big. KALE Yeah, no, we were playing upstairs -- Ronnie cringes at how that sounded. RONNIE (covering) Video games...? KALE (awkward beat; then) So... what brings you here. ASHLEY Oh. -- Locked out. KALE Do you need to call anyone? ASHLEY Thanks, but I'd rather stay stranded if you don't mind. Kale and Ronnie trade glances. ASHLEY (CONT'D) May I? KALE Uh, sure, come on in -- Ashley steps inside, glances around, checking out the place. KALE (CONT'D) That's Ronnie. ASHLEY Nice to meet you. Video games, huh? (then suggestively to Kale) I like to play. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 38.54 CONTINUED: (2) 54 Kale trades a look with Ronnie as Ashley nonchalantly heads up the stairs. KALE Excuse me...55 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - LATE AFTERNOON - MOMENTS LATER 55 Ashley barges in, instantly struck by the mess. Kale pushes past her, starts grabbing underwear and garbage off the floor. KALE It's a little messy. ASHLEY A little? Kale keeps gathering clothes, tossing them to Ronnie who tosses them in the closet. Ashley picks up the binoculars from the window sill, peers outside. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Anything interesting out there? Kale and Ronnie trade looks. Ashley turns around, binoculars still raised, aiming them like a gun at Kale. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Are you spying on the neighbors, Kale? Kale freezes. RONNIE (stepping in) Actually, he is. Kale's eyes widen in panic. RONNIE (CONT'D) See, he has this neighbor -- who I guess by definition would also be your neighbor -- who may, in point of fact, be a cold-blooded killer. ASHLEY Is that so. Ronnie points out the window to Giles' house. RONNIE Exhibit A, Robert Giles. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 39.55 CONTINUED: 55 ASHLEY Yeah, I've seen him. So? KALE So you hear about that missing girl from Madison? ASHLEY (realizing; then pointing out to Giles') What, you think he -- KALE He drives a car like the one she was seen in. RONNIE Black Mustang. KALE 60's era Mustang. ASHLEY Gee, that really narrows it down. KALE They said it was dented. His has a bashed-in fender. ASHLEY (re: binoculars) So this is why -- you're -- Suddenly seeing something O.S., Kale RIPS the binoculars out of Ashley's hand, goes to the window. RONNIE What? BINOCULAR POV - Giles pulls the Silver Toyota out of the garage and out the driveway. Ashley suddenly grabs the binoculars from Kale, peers out. KALE Hey -- ASHLEY So that's the infamous black mustang, huh? KALE Yeah -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 40.55 CONTINUED: (2) 55 ASHLEY The one with no dent? KALE (grabbing the binocs) What? BINOCULAR POV - Sure enough, the Mustang NO LONGER HAS A BASHED-IN FENDER. The garage door starts to close -- KALE (CONT'D) How'd he fix it so fast -- ASHLEY Because it was never there in the first place? Kale eyes Ashley. Shit, could he have imagined it? Ashley playfully grabs the binoculars back from Kale. BINOCULAR POV - Ashley catches a glimpse of a faded TEXAS LONGHORNS BUMPER STICKER. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Sorry guys, no bashed-in fender, just a Longhorns bumper sticker. KALE (grabbing the binocs) You serious? (then to Ronnie) She's right. THEIR POV - Giles' garage door finally SLAMS CLOSED. KALE (CONT'D) (off Ashley's questioning look) They think it might be linked to some murders in Texas two years ago. RONNIE Austin, Texas. Texas Longhorns. Kale and Ronnie eye Ashley as if to say "see?" Ashley eyes them another beat -- then: ASHLEY Okay, fine, stakeout. (grabs binoculars) Who's on my shift? Off Kale and Ronnie, their dreams realized -- D.J. Caruso 41.56 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - EVENING - LATER 56 A BOX OF SPYING CRAP is dumped onto Kale's bed. Another DV Camera, an old, bulky VHS camera, a black and white portable TV, couple of tri-pods, walkie talkies, wires... a real mess. WIDER TO REVEAL RONNIE: RONNIE This is all the stuff I could find -- Ashley sits at Kale's computer as Kale anxiously sifts through Ronnie's stuff. ASHLEY Do you know how long Giles has lived there? KALE About two or three years. ASHLEY So he could've lived in Texas... (re: computer screen) Hey, check this out. Ronnie goes to Ashley, reads the Amazon web page for the book: RONNIE "Murderer: Tell Tale Signs of a Serial Killer." Qualifies for free shipping if you pair it with "The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer." ASHLEY The summary lists four main criteria. Our guy meets at least three. White male between the age of twenty-five and fifty. He doesn't have any pets, right? KALE Not that I've seen -- ASHLEY You said he lives alone -- RONNIE What's the fourth? ASHLEY (nonchalant) Sexual dysfunction. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 42.56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence. Kale and Ronnie trade awkward glances, shaking their heads to each other as if reassuring themselves they don't suffer from such a condition. ASHLEY (CONT'D) (changing the subject) I'm hungry, let's order pizza.57 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER 57 TRACKING ACROSS KALE'S ROOM - The two tri-pod-mounted DV Cams stand watch over Giles' house. One camera feeds a grainy close-up shot of Giles' garage door to Ronnie's portable TV on the floor. The other feeds a WIDE SHOT of Giles' entire house to Kale's color TV. Both images appear on Kale's computer monitor. WIDER TO REVEAL - Kale and Ashley sit on the floor near the window. Kale peers over to Giles with the binoculars as Ashley messes with Kale's cell phone. In the b.g. Ronnie's passed out on Kale's bed, his hand resting inside the pizza box just inches from the last slice. KALE (re: Giles) He's been gone awhile. ON ASHLEY - she's messing with Kale's cell phone. ASHLEY (handing him his cell) Here. KALE How'd you get my phone? ASHLEY I'm crafty like that. KALE What'd you do? Ashley carefully unclips Ronnie's cell from his hip, flips it open, dials. After a beat, Kale's cell RINGS with Madonna's "LIKE A VIRGIN." Kale laughs. ASHLEY Every time he calls, that's what you'll hear. Kale laughs as Ashley delicately re-clips the phone to Ronnie's belt. KALE'S POV - the Pilch's dog, wearing a pink sweater, suddenly darts into Kale's yard. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 43.57 CONTINUED: 57 KALE What the hell? THEIR POV - Pilch's dog stops, spins around and takes a dump. KALE (CONT'D) Where's -- Mr. Pilch, in his robe, suddenly appears from the shadows, watches the dog do its business. ASHLEY (re: Mr. Pilch) Three to one he doesn't pick it up. Nope. The dog finishes. Pilch calls it over, scoops up the dog and heads O.S. KALE So that's why the grass is greener... ASHLEY Only in disturbia... KALE So why the move? ASHLEY What do you mean? The greener grass, the safer pastures... KALE No, seriously. There's a beat as Ashley locks eyes with Kale. Then -- ASHLEY Well, I guess my mom thought it'd help keep dad on a shorter leash. City life... had its temptations... (beat; then matter of fact) But my mom pretty much cries just as much as she always did, and dad doesn't care -- more than ever. KALE What did they think, an extra bathroom and two-car garage would actually change things... somehow protect them and you from all that crap you can never escape? Ashley holds Kale's gaze for a beat. Then, she nods, with: (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 44.57 CONTINUED: (2) 57 ASHLEY Something like that. (eyeing the bracelet) So... what're your issues, Kale? Kale hesitates. We see in his eyes that he's flashing to the past... "going there..." There's an uneasy beat as Ashley picks up on it: Then -- HEADLIGHTS APPEAR OUTSIDE. Kale quickly turns away from Ashley, pulls one of the DV Cams off its tri-pod, flips out the three-inch LCD SCREEN. KALE That's him. DV CAM POV - Giles' silver Toyota pulls in the driveway. Stops. Engine and headlights turn off. ASHLEY Another car -- DV CAM POV - Kale ZOOMS IN. The GRAINY IMAGE finally steadies to reveal a SECOND CAR pulling in behind Giles. A thirty- something attractive WOMAN -- a REDHEAD -- is at the wheel. She pulls in next to Giles' car. ASHLEY (CONT'D) You seen her before? KALE No. DV CAM POV - Giles gets out. Wearing a suit, no tie. ASHLEY (re: Giles) Cute for a killer. Giles goes to the woman's car, opens her door. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Who said chivalry's dead? The woman gets out, wearing a black cocktail dress. ASHLEY (CONT'D) There's a club girl for you. KALE How do you know? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 45.57 CONTINUED: (3) 57 ASHLEY Bright green bracelet's "The Pyramids," purple's "Club 360," the big black stamp's from "Flavor." DV CAM POV - Kale ZOOMS in on the woman's wrist and hand. Sure enough, she's wearing both a green and a purple bracelet, and has a black stamp blotch on her hand. KALE (over the above) Missing girl was seen at a club. Didn't say which one though... (then aside to Ashley) Your I.D. must be pretty good. ASHLEY (with a smile) I don't need one. They turn back to the window, watch as Giles escorts the woman to the house, shows her in. A light comes on inside. DV CAM POV - Kale ZOOMS IN on one of the living room windows, spots the woman moving around inside, looking at artwork... she sits on the sofa as Giles enters with two glasses and a bottle of wine. He sits down, pours the wine. They toast, take sips. Giles moves in for a kiss -- KALE He's going in. DV CAM POV - The woman shies away from Giles, stands from the sofa. ASHLEY Denied... They watch as the woman gets up, moves to the center of the room, and starts to get a little groove on... ASHLEY (CONT'D) (been there, done that) Oh no, he put on music... DV CAM POV - Giles watches the woman as she seductively moves her body to the music we're not hearing. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Oh, c'mon, Giles, all she wants to do is dance. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 46.57 CONTINUED: (4) 57 KALE What do you think they're listening to? ASHLEY Could be radio. See if you can find the station. Kale sets the camera down, turns on his receiver. As he toggles through radio stations -- Rock, Alternative... ASHLEY (CONT'D) (watching the woman & Giles) No... no... Kale flips to an easy listening R & B station playing Lou Rawls "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine." ASHLEY (CONT'D) Stop. BINOCULAR POV - Ashley watches as Giles takes the woman's hand and dances with her. Their rhythm fits the music perfectly. ON RONNIE - he stirs on the bed, still asleep. RONNIE (eyes closed; grinning re: music) Hmmm... Ashley and Kale eye Ronnie for a beat. Then turn back to the window. DV CAM POV - Kale pans back to the woman and Giles. They're really dancing close now. Kale's and Ashley's eyes shift to each other, then quickly flick away. A beat. Then -- Ashley raises the binoculars, faces back toward Giles' with: ASHLEY Now's the time to bust your move. Ashley glances to Kale. Kale turns, holds her gaze. A palpable tension between these two. They ever so slowly lean toward each other when -- RONNIE - suddenly interrupts, pushing himself between them. RONNIE (yawning; re: woman with Giles) Who's that? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 47.57 CONTINUED: (5) 57 Ronnie looks to Kale and Ashley who glare back. RONNIE (CONT'D) (realizing) Ookay, just fill me in later. (taking Ashley's hand) A pleasure. (then; aside to Kale, mouths; re: Ashley) Duude! (slaps Kale's hand) Later. Ronnie stands, leaves. Kale shakes his head, turns back to Ashley. They lean in again when -- Ashley's CELL PHONE ominously RINGS with the first measures of BEETHOVEN'S 5TH -- "BUM BUM BUM BUMMMMM." She pulls the cell from her pocket. ASHLEY (re: cell) It's my mom. (into cell) Hi. No, I'm fine. (with a smile) I'm at Barnes and Noble. Okay, I'm leaving. No, I'll walk. Ashley flips the phone shut, joins Kale who's watching the LCD screen: DV CAM POV - Giles and the woman are back on the couch. The woman is leaning her head on Giles' shoulder. As Giles leans forward to take her wine glass, the woman falls over behind him. Out cold. Kale and Ashley cringe. KALE And she's down for the count.58 EXT. KALE'S BACK YARD - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER 58 Kale and Ashley cross the yard to Kale's kite string boundary. ASHLEY Looks like this is as far as you go. KALE Looks like. They peer into each other's eyes. Then -- ASHLEY Y'know, I have to admit, you're different than I expected. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 48.58 CONTINUED: 58 KALE What were you expecting? ASHLEY I thought you'd be more messed up. KALE Does that disappoint you? 'Cause I can be more messed up if you want me to. ASHLEY No, you're fine. KALE "Fine?" ASHLEY Yeah. KALE "Fine" like your first cousin "fine" or "fine" in kind of a Brad Pitt sorta way? Ashley smiles. They suddenly hear VOICES O.S. Kale and Ashley glance over to Giles' house. THEIR POV - The woman is heading briskly to her car. Giles is right behind her. Ashley grabs Kale's arm and pulls him behind a shrub on his side of the boundary. They peek back over to Giles'. THEIR POV - We're crouched low now, so we only hear the barely audible voices of Giles and the WOMAN. Talking SERIOUSLY about something -- GILES (voice raising) Just come back in the house, you shouldn't drive -- ASHLEY He wants her to come back in -- KALE I can't hear -- ASHLEY Let's get closer -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 49.58 CONTINUED: (2) 58 Ashley suddenly darts from behind the shrub and bolts toward the fence -- KALE (re: his bracelet) I can't -- But Ashley keeps going. WE FOLLOW BEHIND ASHLEY - She creeps over to the fence, presses up against it, peering through the cracks -- ASHLEY'S POV - We see the dark silhouettes of Giles and the woman -- Ashley shifts her head, straining to listen -- GILES You really should stay. WOMAN I just don't think it's a good idea -- (still searching; more frustrated) Where the hell are they? The woman suddenly drops her purse. The CONTENTS spill onto the driveway. ASHLEY'S POV - Giles bends down, picks up her car keys. WOMAN (CONT'D) Here -- GILES You're in no condition -- WOMAN Give me my keys. GILES Sorry. ASHLEY'S POV - She sees Giles make a motion toward the fence. Suddenly, the woman's CAR KEYS WHACK the other side of the fence, then PLOP DOWN underneath it just a couple of feet from Ashley's position! ON ASHLEY - she startles, looks over, sees the keys. ASHLEY'S POV - She looks back toward Giles and the woman. Hears the woman start to LAUGH. Giles, not laughing, purposefully steps toward the woman, takes her arm. GILES (CONT'D) C'mon... (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 50.58 CONTINUED: (3) 58 ASHLEY'S POV - The woman relents. Giles helps her back toward the house. WITH KALE - He's seeing it all. KALE (whispering) Ashley, come on... WITH ASHLEY - she glances down, eyes the car keys sparkling in the moonlight. She scoots toward them as -- WE CRANE UP TO REVEAL - Giles - heading back toward the fence! ON KALE - seeing this. Kale tries to get Ashley's attention, but she's not looking -- CU - ASHLEY'S HAND - she reaches for the car keys -- CLOSER - ASHLEY'S FINGERTIPS barely TOUCH them when -- GILES' HAND - suddenly SWOOPS IN from O.S., BRUSHES ASHLEY'S FINGERS just before grabbing the keys and swiping them back to his side! Somehow Ashley keeps herself from screaming as she YANKS HER HAND BACK, PRESSES HERSELF AGAINST THE FENCE. She puts her hand over her mouth to silence her own breathing -- KALE'S POV - Giles stands frozen in the shadows behind Ashley. WITH ASHLEY - She slowly turns her head, sees Giles through one of the cracks -- STANDING RIGHT THERE. Ashley starts to slowly SLIIIDE away... when suddenly -- a TWIG SNAPS under her foot! Ashley FREEZES. She peers back through the nearest crack. ASHLEY'S POV - searching for Giles -- doesn't see him -- Ashley presses herself even harder against the fence as we... TILT UP AND PAN OVER TO REVEAL GILES - peering over the fence. We can only hope it's tall enough to keep him from looking down and seeing Ashley. WITH KALE - He's seeing it all. ON GILES - He raises up, standing on his tip toes to get a better look down. Shifting his head back and forth. WITH KALE - He ducks behind the shrub, contemplating his next move. He glances down, picks up a large pebble. He pops out and tosses it over into Giles' yard. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 51.58 CONTINUED: (4) 58 We HEAR IT DROPPING through branches, SCATTERING to the ground as Kale ducks back behind the shrub, breathing hard. He then peers back out -- HIS POV - Giles lowers back down, turns and heads back toward the house. Kale sighs in relief. Waves Ashley the "all clear." Ashley heads back over to Kale, breathless. ASHLEY (oddly exhilarated) That was intense. KALE Are you nuts?! Ashley silences Kale with a finger to his lips. She then leans in, gives him a peck on the cheek and bolts away -- Off Kale, utterly stupefied --59 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER 59 Exhilarated, Kale SLAMS through the office door, binoculars in hand. He goes to his chair, sits, taking position... BINOCULAR POV - Ashley walks in, heads straight for the window and draws the blinds. Kale slumps. Damn. TIME CUT TO:60 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - LATER 60 ON ASHLEY'S WINDOW - shades still drawn. Lights are out now. The wind picks up outside as we PAN TO REVEAL Kale asleep in the leather chair. We suddenly hear GLASS SHATTER O.S. Kale's eyes POP OPEN. He looks around. Did he hear something or did he dream it -- he pulls himself out of the chair, makes his way to the door, slowly swings it open...61 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 61 Kale cautiously steps into the hall... KALE Mom? No answer. He heads to... D.J. Caruso 52.62 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 62 Kale enters, tosses the binoculars on the desk, throws a glance out the window to Giles' house. Dark. Kale turns to the bed, pulls back the sheets. As Kale unties his shoes, takes off his socks, we notice over his shoulder -- IN THE B.G. - A LIGHT COMES ON IN GILES' LIVING ROOM. ON KALE - not noticing as he strips down to his boxers -- IN THE B.G. - GILES' LIVING ROOM - THE WOMAN HEADS INTO THE ROOM FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY GILES. SHE SPINS AND SLAPS HIM IN THE FACE. SHE WALKS AWAY AS GILES STANDS THERE FROZEN. ON KALE - he throws his clothes in the closet, finally turns back and sees -- KALE'S POV - Giles standing in the living room, glaring at the woman. KALE Dammit. Kale darts to his desk, turns off the light, grabs the binoculars. BINOCULAR POV - Giles and the woman are arguing. The woman paces around the room as Giles stands there. The woman's arms flail about. As she paces back by Giles, he suddenly GRABS HER ARMS. KALE (CONT'D) Shit! Kale watches as the woman yanks herself from his grasp and knocks over the lamp. The BULB shatters on the floor, throwing the living room into total darkness. Kale drops the binoculars and grabs the DV CAM. He fumbles with it, flips open the LCD SCREEN. But as he presses the power button, the camera's LAMP suddenly IGNITES, MOMENTARILY LIGHTING UP KALE'S ROOM! Kale spins and hits the floor. He frantically finds the switch, turns off the lamp. KALE (CONT'D) Dumbass dumbass -- Kale stays on the floor, slouched under the window sill for a couple of beats. Then -- he slowly raises up, peers out. DV CAM POV - Giles, now alone, has turned on another light and is simultaneously picking up pieces of shattered light (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 53.62 CONTINUED: 62 bulb and wiping some RED LIQUID OFF THE FLOOR... Could be wine... or blood even... Giles wads the towel up, picks up one of the woman's HIGH HEELS lying near the couch. Giles then moves to the stereo, turns it off, leans down, picks up the woman's OTHER SHOE. He flips off the lights, heads out of the room. Kale trades the grainy DV CAM for the binoculars. BINOCULAR POV - Kale PANS ACROSS the lower floor windows of Giles' house that's now become eerily still. He TILTS UP to the second floor, SLOWLY PANS ACROSS those windows -- Again, nothing. KALE (CONT'D) Okay, so where is she -- BINOCULAR POV - Over the above, Kale SLOWLY PANS BACK ACROSS THE SAME WINDOWS, comes to the last one and see GILES STARING RIGHT BACK AT HIM. Kale spins and dives to the floor, knocking the other camera and tri-pod over. KALE (CONT'D) Oh shit oh shit... Kale shoves himself against the wall, frozen in terror. He doesn't dare get up. He spots his CELL PHONE -- on the floor a few feet away. He extends his leg out, uses his foot to slowly SLIIIDE the phone toward him. KALE'S TREMBLING HAND reaches for the phone, picks it up -- Kale's about to flip it open when the PHONE'S LCD SCREEN SUDDENLY LIGHTS UP, BLARING MADONNA'S "LIKE A VIRGIN." Kale startles, fumbles the phone -- realizes it's Ronnie, flips the phone open -- KALE (CONT'D) (into phone as needed) Ronnie -- RONNIE (V.O.) (phone filter as needed) Dude, Ashley is ho-ho-hotttt -- KALE Giles totally busted me. RONNIE (V.O.) What do you mean, are you sure? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 54.62 CONTINUED: (2) 62 Kale finally musters the courage to peek over the sill -- KALE'S POV - Gile's BACK DOOR is OPEN. KALE They were arguing -- RONNIE (V.O.) Who? KALE Giles and the girl he brought home. They had an argument, he grabbed her -- RONNIE (V.O.) And then what? KALE And then -- nothing. RONNIE (V.O.) Uh-huh. KALE Dude, something is going on over there. What if he killed her, too? RONNIE (V.O.) Then call your friends at the police department. A DOOR suddenly SLAMS O.S. KALE Wait -- RONNIE (V.O.) What? KALE A door just slammed. RONNIE (V.O.) (in his best sinister "Scream" voice) That's right, Kale, and now I'm coming up to slash your guts out, you little bastard! KALE Asshole, I'm serious. RONNIE (V.O.) I'm not and I'm hanging up. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 55.62 CONTINUED: (3) 62 KALE Just -- wait -- wait till I check the hall -- This as Kale grabs his bat, slowly approaches his door. Ronnie yawns, starts snoring. Kale's hand is about to grab the knob -- RONNIE (V.O.) BOO! KALE Goddamn you!! Kale flips the phone closed, throws it to the bed. He turns back to the door just as IT SUDDENLY PUSHES OPEN, SMACKING KALE IN THE FOREHEAD! Kale STUMBLES BACK, screams, raises the bat. JULIE Kale, Kale, it's me!! Kale doesn't immediately drop the bat as he focuses on Julie, dressed in her serving uniform, barely visible in the darkness. She flips the light on. KALE No, don't! JULIE What's going on, who were you talking to?! KALE Ronnie -- just Ronnie. Kale falls back to the bed. KALE (CONT'D) I heard the door -- JULIE I'm sorry, the wind caught it -- KALE Fine. Good. Okay -- JULIE Okay then, so... (catching her breath; then) You want anything from the grocery? I'm going in the morning. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 56.62 CONTINUED: (4) 62 KALE Anything caffeinated. Kale turns back on his side. Julie eyes him a long beat. What to say... she flips off the light, then -- pulls the door closed. ON KALE - eyes wide open, heart racing. He's gonna need that caffeine in the morning.63 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - THE NEXT MORNING 63 A groggy Kale tugs on the blind, cautiously raises it -- KALE'S POV - GILES' DRIVEWAY - The silver Toyota's gone. The woman's car is still there.64 INT. ENTRY HALL - LATE THE NEXT MORNING 64 Kale saunters down the stairs....65 INT. KITCHEN - DAY - CONTINUOUS 65 Kale enters, notices a few full grocery bags on the counter and the coffee maker brewing. He opens the fridge, sees a new Mountain Dew twelve-pack. He cracks open the carton, pulls out a can, closes the fridge door revealing GILES - IN THE FLESH, IN KALE'S KITCHEN. Kale JUMPS, drops the can. It rolls to Giles' feet. GILES (picking up the can) Whoa, whoa, settle down, slow down. Robert Giles, your neighbor -- (gesturing outside) Behind you? Kale glares, breathing hard. Giles taps on the top of the dented soda can, hands it to Kale. Kale doesn't take it. Note: Giles' shirt should have BURNT ORANGE somewhere in it, either in the pattern, stripes, etc... KALE I know, how did you -- Giles puts the soda on the counter as Julie comes through the kitchen door carrying groceries. GILES (to Julie) Think I startled him. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 57.65 CONTINUED: 65 JULIE (laughs) Oh. Kale, I ran into Mr. Giles at -- GILES Robert... JULIE (smiles) ...At the grocery. I had a flat tire when I came out. We tried to change it, but -- KALE Dad put those security bolts on -- JULIE And that adapter thingy that unscrews it ended up stripping it instead -- GILES My fault. JULIE No, it wasn't. You saved my life. (then to Kale) We had it towed to Frank's. KALE (with attitude) Gee, really lucky you were there. GILES Just glad I could help. (then; favors Julie) Must be a little difficult when the man of the house is stuck in the house. Kale reacts to that. There's an awkward silence as Kale's eyes instinctively glance down to the ankle bracelet. JULIE Oh... no, it's okay, we're managing. Giles steps closer to Kale, bends down to get a closer look at the ankle bracelet. GILES I've always been curious about those things, do you mind? KALE Yeah, I do. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 58.65 CONTINUED: (2) 65 JULIE Oh c'mon, Kale. (to Giles) I'm sorry. GILES No, no. It's none of my business. KALE That's right. GILES Whoa, hey, dude... you seem like a straight hitter. You ask me, whoever they are deserved it. Kale reacts, surprised at how genuine that sounded. JULIE (stepping in) Okay... I don't think that's the case, and -- KALE I think I'd like to hear his opinion. GILES And I think I opened my big mouth again. You're absolutely right. (then; heading for the door) I should go. JULIE Wait, what about your coffee? KALE I popped my Spanish teacher. Awkward beat. Giles turns back to Julie: GILES In that case, cafe con leche, por favor? JULIE (searching bags) Shoot, milk's... still in the car. Julie heads out the door. Giles turns to Kale. An awkward, silent beat. Then -- KALE I like your shirt, by the way. I mean, the color. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 59.65 CONTINUED: (3) 65 GILES Which one? KALE Oh, the... that dark orange. Always reminds me of Texas. GILES Yeah? You a Longhorns fan, too? KALE Sure, absolutely. Even though I've never stepped foot in Texas -- GILES Me neither. Had a lot of friends who went there. I stayed in Minnesota till I moved here. KALE Huh. GILES So when you say you "popped" your teacher -- KALE Just a black eye. GILES Phew, just making sure I wasn't living next to some psycho killer. Listen, I get it though. I had plenty of teachers I wanted to just... kill. Giles quickly adjusts his tone as Julie comes back with a last bag of groceries: GILES (CONT'D) But no matter how hard it is to hold back, the high road's always the better choice. As Giles says this, he casually sits at the kitchen table. Kale eyes him, about to turn and leave, but: JULIE Kale, could you grab the sugar? (to Giles) Sugar? GILES (favors Kale) Why not. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 60.65 CONTINUED: (4) 65 Kale quickly grabs the jar of sugar from the counter and even thinks to grab a spoon from the drawer. He delivers it to Giles as Julie brings the coffee, sits at the table. GILES (CONT'D) Thanks, man. Kale turns to leave again. GILES (CONT'D) Oh, hey, Kale... (as Kale turns back) Nice to finally meet you. Off Kale -- ASHLEY (V.O.) (prelap) Oooh. That's creepy.66 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 66 Ashley sits on the bed. She looks damned good, too. Dolled up, lipstick. She's just heard the story from Kale. KALE I know, he's a total freak, right? ASHLEY And very vague... did he genuinely mean it was nice meeting you or was he sending you a "sinister message?" KALE Are you messing with me? ASHLEY Maybe a little. Did you even notice my hair? KALE So you think it's all a coincidence. We've got the car -- ASHLEY With the non dent dent -- KALE The bumper sticker, the argument, the staring contest -- And now he's showing up in my kitchen -- ASHLEY Why, because he slashed your mom's tire? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 61.66 CONTINUED: 66 KALE Maybe. Ashley rolls her eyes. KALE (CONT'D) (pointing out window) Her car hasn't moved. ASHLEY It's called "the day after," Kale. Nobody moves after a night like that. KALE Well what if she's really "not moving?" What if she's tied in the dungeon with the other girl, starving to death -- ASHLEY (getting up) Then come up with a rescue plan and get back to me. KALE You're leaving? ASHLEY Have to. Party. KALE Whose? ASHLEY Uh, mine? KALE How is that possible? ASHLEY Excuse me? KALE Well, I mean... Sorry, I just didn't think you knew anybody -- ASHLEY I don't, I didn't -- (off Kale's confusion) I met this girl earlier, Minnie Tyco? KALE Oh my god, "Skinny Psycho?!" I sat next to that bitch in Spanish -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 62.66 CONTINUED: (2) 66 ASHLEY (skipping that one) I told her my parents were outta town -- KALE And now the whole neighborhood's coming. ASHLEY Look, I'm stuck here. So I figured I can either shut myself in and keep hating it or... try to make the most of it. KALE Hey, I get it. You don't have to explain. ASHLEY Kale, you're welcome to come, but -- Kale looks at Ashley, realizes what she's referring to as he glances down to the ankle bracelet. KALE (with attitude) Well, I appreciate the thought. Really. ASHLEY (returning the tude) Glad to hear it. Ashley turns to leave. KALE It's funny, though. ASHLEY (turning back) What? KALE I didn't peg you as a conformist. Ashley glares, furious. She picks up the DV cam and binoculars, approaches Kale, hands them over with: ASHLEY Try to keep these in your drawers tonight, will ya? Ashley leaves. A sullen Kale stares after her -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 63.66 CONTINUED: (3) 66 PRELAP - CROWD WALLA and THWUMPING MUSIC.67 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - EARLY EVENING 67 Kale sits in the darkness at dad's desk. He's on the phone, pressing his other finger to his ear, trying to drown out the NOISE emanating from Ashley's party next door. Kale, on phone, gets Ronnie's VOICE MAIL. RONNIE (phone filter) This is Ronnie, leave a message. Kale slams the phone down, sits there a beat. JUMP CUT: - The white pages THWUMP onto the desk. JUMP CUT: - Kale on the phone: KALE (into phone) Yeah, I'm calling about the Jeep Cherokee that was brought in with the flat and the stripped lug -- it's ready? Listen, did they have to replace the whole tire -- they patched it? Is there any way to tell if it was slashed or -- But a nail usually acts like its own plug for awhile, doesn't it? I mean it's a really slow leak, it can't flatten a tire in twenty minutes. (beat as Kale listens) -- Yeah, I guess anything's possible. A ROAR of LAUGHTER O.S. makes Kale jump from his chair. He grabs the binoculars, heads to the window. BINOCULAR POV - Kale scans the crowd until he finds Ashley, talking with a group of PARTYGOERS. She pretends to listen to one of the guy's stories as she furtively glances toward Kale's window. But it's quick. We can't be a hundred percent sure if it was on purpose. KALE (CONT'D) Wait, what was that? You think I'm watching? Well, I'm not... Nope, I am minding my own business... BINOCULAR POV - Ashley excuses herself from the group and approaches the drink and food table where MINNIE TYCO (a.k.a. "Skinny Psycho") is standing, nitpicking over her snack choices. Ashley hugs her then taps the cute GUY next to her on the shoulder. The guy turns around. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 64.67 CONTINUED: 67 Ashley mouths "Oh my God" like he's some long lost lover. Ashley hugs the surprised guy who wastes no time in hugging her back. KALE (CONT'D) You think I'm buying that? Kale keeps watching. KALE (CONT'D) I'm not biting -- BINOCULAR POV - Ashley glances up in Kale's direction again -- it's more obvious this time as she keeps HUGGING THE GUY. KALE (CONT'D) That's it. Kale tosses the binoculars, heads out.68 EXT. 2ND FL PORCH - EVENING - SHORT TIME LATER 68 Kale SLAMS a ladder up against the roof.69 EXT. ROOF - EVENING - SECONDS LATER 69 Kale SLAMS a speaker down on the edge of the roof facing Ashley's. Makes sure the speaker wires are securely clamped in place, then unwinds the roll of wire back across the roof toward the ladder... JUMP CUT:70 INT. 2ND FL PORCH - EVENING - SECONDS LATER 70 Kale runs the wire down the hall...71 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - EVENING - MOMENTS LATER 71 SERIES OF QUICK SHOTS: CU - Kale's hand flips on dad's bookshelf amplifier, CRANKS THE VOLUME CONTROL KNOB. CU - Kale's I-POD LCD SCREEN lights up. His thumb hovers over the PLAY button. BINOCULAR POV - Ashley's party comes into focus. Kale presses play. The speaker EXPLODES with the ROAR OF BARRY MANILOW (or AIR SUPPLY). BINOCULAR POV - Ashley's party comes to a grinding halt. Kale PANS AROUND, picks up Ashley again. Glaring. Fire in her eyes as she storms O.S. Kale smiles with perverse (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 65.71 CONTINUED: 71 satisfaction as he tilts his head, anticipating the doorbell to ring. Another beat, then -- DING DONG.72 INT. ENTRY HALL - EVENING - SECONDS LATER 72 Kale descends the stairs, maintaining his wicked grin. He opens the door for Ashley, but instead -- gets PELTED WITH A BARRAGE OF WATER BALLOONS. Kale stands there, frozen as the two BRATS jump from the bushes, AD LIB MOCKING Kale as they laugh and race away into the shadows. Kale's about to pursue when the sound of a DOOR OPENING O.S. stops him cold. He spins around to see ASHLEY storming in from the kitchen and marching up the stairs! KALE Hey! Kale races back to the stairs. Ashley increases her speed...73 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - EVENING - CONTINUOUS 73 Ashley storms down the hall, sees the speaker wires running into dad's office...74 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - EVENING - CONTINUOUS 74 Ashley SLAMS through the door, spots Kale's I-pod, rips it out of its dock. The music stops. She spins around, runs smack into Kale who SWIPES the I-pod out of her hand and SLAMS it back in the dock. The music BLARES. Ashley moves in, but Kale blocks her path. She tries to get around him. He stands in her way. ASHLEY (peering out the window as if shocked by something) Oh my God -- Kale falls for it. He looks. Ashley shoves him out of the way, grabs the I-pod. Kale chases her out into...75 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - EVENING - CONTINUOUS 75 Ashley bolts into...76 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - EVENING - CONTINUOUS 76 Where she holds the I-pod out the window, stopping Kale in his tracks. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 66.76 CONTINUED: 76 ASHLEY Back off or I'll throw it where you can't follow. KALE Take it easy, that's sixty gigs of my life. ASHLEY Even better. KALE Okay -- okay -- ASHLEY What are you doing? KALE What are you doing? ASHLEY I'm trying to enjoy my party. Wait, that's wrong. According to you, I'm trying to conform -- KALE Coulda fooled me. ASHLEY What does that mean? KALE Forget -- ASHLEY No, I'm not gonna forget it. KALE You wanna blend in with that crowd, fine, then stop looking up and trying to get a rise outta me. ASHLEY (realizing) So you were watching me. Question is for how long? Just tonight? Or maybe a week? Two weeks? Since I moved in? Kale tries to respond, but Ashley keeps pressing: ASHLEY (CONT'D) And the whole "my-neighbor's-the- killer" thing. Great cover -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 67.76 CONTINUED: (2) 76 KALE It's not a cover -- Over the above Ashley glances around ASHLEY So what is it, Kale? Huh? What else have you seen? KALE What else have I seen? ASHLEY Yeah. What else? KALE Okay -- I've seen how you always pull your kleenex from the box in groups of three. Not two, not four, always three. I've seen you're the only one in the world who eats pizza- flavored Pringles. And you never stuff the chips in, you savor each one by dividing it into four precise bites. I didn't know that was even possible. You're also the first girl I've ever seen who spends more time on her roof than in her own house. And what do you do out there? You don't talk on the phone, you don't paint your nails, you read books. Now one would think with the whole numbers thing you've got going on that you'd put them on your shelf alphabetically, but you don't. Your system's much more perfect. The ones you like go on the bottom, the ones you love go in the middle, and the ones you need, the ones you keep going back to... well they go straight to the top next to the dream encyclopedia. You know what all this tells me? You know how things should be. The world according to Ashley. And guess what? It's a very entertaining and beautiful thing. Even when it takes a hit. When you end up in a place like this... when your parents dump their baggage on you, or just... when it seems like those curveballs are never gonna stop -- It sucks, but just so you know -- I get it. (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 68.76 CONTINUED: (3) 76 KALE (CONT'D) But I've also seen those designer window shades of yours, and guess what? They always go up the next day -- no matter what. And even if no one else has, I've noticed that. And I ain't sorry. The only thing I'll even consider apologizing for is... not dropping the binoculars and telling you this a lot sooner. A long beat as Ashley peers into Kale's eyes. She slowly steps closer to him: ASHLEY That was either the creepiest... or the sweetest thing I've ever heard. Kale leans in and kisses her. They pull away, lock eyes. Then -- Ashley pulls Kale by his soaking wet t-shirt, kisses him back even harder. Heavy make-out. Then -- they stumble back toward the bed out of frame as we hold on Kale's window -- and Giles' house beyond...77 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT 77 OUR POV - peering down into Ashley's back yard. There's a couple of guys passed out on rafts floating in the pool. WE SLOWLY PAN to reveal -- KALE - looking tired, his eyes glazed, sitting at dad's computer surfing a website: "BRUTAL KILLINGS IN AUSTIN." ON THE SCREEN - As Kale clicks pages, we see FLASHES of CRIME SCENE PHOTOS from the three murders -- the bodies of the three redheads -- BLOODIED, BRUISED... ON KALE - he doesn't blink as he clicks on ONE PHOTO after the OTHER. We see a FLASHES of the victims' eyes -- WIDE OPEN, LIFELESS... We suddenly hear laughter O.S. Kale SNAPS TO. He runs a hand through his hair, gets up, moves to the window. HIS POV - ASHLEY'S POOL - a couple of girls GIGGLE as they stand at the edge of the pool pouring beer onto the passed- out guys' chests.78 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER 78 Kale quietly enters and shuts the door. He's hiding something behind his back as he sits on the bed next to a sleeping Ashley. She stirs, opens her eyes, peers up at him, smiles. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 69.78 CONTINUED: 78 KALE Hey. ASHLEY Hey... where have you been? Kale holds up a folded piece of paper, hands it to Ashley. She curiously eyes Kale, then takes it, opens it to reveal a printed-out picture of a long-stem red rose. Ashley smiles. KALE If would have gone to the flower shop, but -- ASHLEY I know. Ashley pulls Kale in for a kiss. She pulls away, falls back to the bed. Her eyes glance down at Kale's ankle bracelet. ASHLEY (CONT'D) So how much longer? KALE Oh, two months, twelve days, nineteen hours give or take. A beat as the two peer into each other's eyes. Then: KALE (CONT'D) You know the other night... when you said you thought I'd be more messed up... ASHLEY ...For a guy who killed his teacher. KALE I didn't kill my -- ASHLEY Shhh. (kisses him again) I know. -- I know. We get the impression she knows a lot. Kale leans in for another kiss. But this time, as they lock lips, Ashley's eyes shoot open. HER POV - the first hints of daylight out the window. ASHLEY (CONT'D) Oh my God, what time is it? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 70.78 CONTINUED: (2) 78 KALE Three-thirty. ASHLEY I've gotta go. Ashley scrambles out of bed for her clothes, getting dressed, searching for her shirt. Kale spots it behind the bed. As he gets up to retrieve it, he hears a NOISE O.S. Kale peers out the window -- HIS POV - Giles is dragging a HEAVY BLUE PLASTIC BAG down the stairs leading to the garage. KALE You better see this. Ashley throws on her shoes, joins Kale at the window. THEIR POV - Giles pulls the bag into the garage next to what we presume is the Mustang that's now been covered with a TARP. (Note: The woman's car is still in the driveway.) Kale grabs the binoculars. BINOCULAR POV - We catch a glimpse of a few CRIMSON RED SMEARS on the blue bag as Giles heaves it behind the Mustang. KALE (CONT'D) Look, quick -- ASHLEY What? Kale gives her the binoculars. Ashley looks over. ASHLEY (CONT'D) (sarcastic) That's normal. Giles' GARAGE DOOR CLOSES. KALE (re: woman's car) Her car... still hasn't moved... Ashley pauses, peers out the window again. She can't help but be a little concerned. Then -- ASHLEY So what do you wanna do? Off Kale -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 71.78 CONTINUED: (3) 78 RONNIE (prelap) You want me to do what?79 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 79 ON KALE - holding up a UNIVERSAL GARAGE DOOR REMOTE still in the package. Ashley and Ronnie are on the bed. Note: Kale is wearing the same clothes he was yesterday, the stubble coming back. Hair more disheveled, eyes a little puffier... KALE Phase one, steal his code from his opener. RONNIE There's more than one phase? KALE There's only two. Now look, his remote's in the glove compartment of his Toyota. All you have to do is pop it open and read me the switch settings. "On" or "off." RONNIE For the later purpose of doing what? Breaking in to his house? KALE No, not breaking in. We're just talking about having access to his garage so we can go in on our own time - when he's not there - to just... to get a closer look at the car, the bag -- RONNIE (to Ashley) All this sounds reasonable to you? ASHLEY I don't know about that, but -- KALE (re: universal remote) This is good up to thirteen digits -- RONNIE (realizing) How long have you been planning this? Ronnie eyes Kale with concern. Kale doesn't answer. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 72.79 CONTINUED: 79 GILES suddenly FIRES UP HIS LAWNMOWER O.S. KALE'S POV - Giles pushes the mower around the side of the house to the front yard. KALE Look, if we're gonna do this, it's gotta be now. He takes twenty-one minutes average to mow his front yard... you'll be hearing him the whole time... Ashley grabs the remote. ASHLEY I'll do it. RONNIE No. (beat; then grabbing the remote) It isn't safe. (getting up; macho) Let's do it.80 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - DAY - LATER 80 CU - KALE'S CELL PHONE - "LIKE A VIRGIN" suddenly blares. WIDER - Kale flips his cell open, holds it in one hand, binocs in the other. KALE (into headset as needed) Yo, you set? RONNIE (V.O.) (phone filter as needed; suddenly sounding not so macho) I can't believe I'm doing this. KALE Let me conference Ashley in. (punches buttons; then) Ashley, you there? ASHLEY (V.O.) Ten-four. KALE Nice. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 73.80 CONTINUED: 80 Kale presses "RECORD" on the tri-pod-mounted DV CAM. He peers back out the window. We hear Giles' lawnmower O.S. Both sides of his house are clear. KALE (CONT'D) Okay, Ron -- Green light. KALE'S POV - OUT HIS WINDOW - RONNIE - suddenly appears from the bottom of frame, keeping low as he darts to the fence. Ronnie turns, peers back up to Kale, gives him the thumbs up or down. KALE (CONT'D) You're all good. BINOCULAR POV - Ronnie draws a breath, then very ungracefully hops the fence and falls into Giles' yard out of sight. RONNIE (V.O.) Oww, shit -- KALE You okay -- RONNIE (V.O.) What do you think? BINOCULAR POV - Ronnie scrambles to his feet from behind the fence, darts to the driver's side door of Giles' Toyota. KALE Dude, glove compartment, other side. RONNIE (V.O.) Excuse me if I'm used to my mom's import. Can I just try this one while I'm here? BINOCULAR POV - Ronnie lifts up on the latch. Locked. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Shit. Ronnie tries the back door. Locked. RONNIE (CONT'D) (in Korean) Shit. BINOCULAR POV - Kale PANS ACROSS to the other side of Giles' house. Nothing. He PANS BACK to Ronnie. OUR POV - Over Kale's shoulder, we see Kale is clearly aiming his binocs at Ronnie. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 74.80 CONTINUED: (2) 80 But we also see ON THE FAR SIDE OF FRAME GILES' NEIGHBOR PULLS HER LAWNMOWER OUT OF HER GARAGE AND ROLLS IT O.S -- But Kale isn't seeing this! RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) They're all gonna be locked -- KALE Well, while you're there, will you just check? Ronnie goes around the back of the Toyota to the other side. He lifts up on the passenger door latch. Bingo. RONNIE (V.O.) I'm in. KALE You see the package? We see and hear Ronnie, his ass to us, rummaging around the inside of Giles' car. RONNIE (V.O.) Oh my God -- ASHLEY (V.O.) What's wrong? RONNIE (V.O.) There's like a month-old order of Nachos Bell Grande under the seat. (then) Okay, I found it. Kale grabs the pencil and notebook. KALE Whenever you're ready. RONNIE (V.O.) Looks like "on, on, on, off, off, on..." No wait, that one was "off." KALE Just start over. RONNIE (V.O.) "On, on, on, off, off, off, on -- " Ronnie pauses. Kale glances up. Just happens to shift his gaze to the side of Giles' house to see -- KALE'S POV - GILES IS WALKING BACK AROUND with no lawnmower! But for some reason we still HEAR A LAWNMOWER. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 75.80 CONTINUED: (3) 80 KALE No, no -- Kale grabs the binoculars. RONNIE (V.O.) I'll get it right this time. KALE Ronnie, he's coming around. RONNIE (V.O.) Dude, stop dicking with me, I still hear his -- BINOCULAR POV - Kale WHIP PANS to Giles' neighbor, JUDY THORP - CUTTING HER GRASS, TOO. KALE (trying to remain calm and succinct) Ronnie, I am not dicking with you. The neighbor is also mowing her lawn and he's going to see you -- RONNIE (V.O.) (full-on panic) Kale, what do I do?! Where -- KALE GET IN THE CAR!! KALE'S POV - Ronnie dives in the car just as Giles rounds the corner of the house. KALE (CONT'D) Put the remote back -- RONNIE (V.O.) I did, I did -- KALE Easy on the door. Ronnie gently pulls the door shut. KALE (CONT'D) Don't panic, he's coming straight for you -- RONNIE (V.O.) What?! Kale, you've gotta get me -- KALE Back seat, NOW! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 76.80 CONTINUED: (4) 80 BINOCULAR POV - Ronnie TUMBLES into the back seat and out of sight just as GILES heads for the car. KALE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Ashley -- ASHLEY (V.O.) I'm on it. RONNIE (practically crying) Kale, tell my mom -- KALE Shut up, stay down and don't move. KALE'S POV - Giles opens the passenger door. About to reach in when something distracts him -- Giles pulls himself out, looks over to see ASHLEY Heading up the driveway. We barely hear her introduce herself to Giles. Giles steps around to the front of the car, uneasily shakes her hand. KALE (CONT'D) Ronnie, you're good -- No answer. KALE (CONT'D) Ronnie? BINOCULAR POV - Kale TILTS BACK TO THE TOYOTA, sees Ronnie sneaking out the back seat door on the driver's side as Ashley distracts Giles, pointing up to the trees on the opposite side of the yard. Who knows what they're talking about. Bird-watching perhaps. Whatever it is, it's working. KALE (CONT'D) Ronnie, was that the whole code? Ronnie? BINOCULAR POV - Kale PANS BACK to Ronnie as he hops the fence back into Kale's yard. Kale TILTS BACK UP to Ashley and Giles in the driveway. KALE (CONT'D) (talking to Ashley even though she can't hear) Okay, Ashley, you're good, come on... (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 77.80 CONTINUED: (5) 80 Over this, a breathless Ronnie stumbles into the bedroom, joins Kale at the window. KALE (CONT'D) Was that the whole code? RONNIE (pissed) Excuse me? KALE (serious) The code, did you get it? RONNIE You've gotta be kidding. Ronnie and Kale lock eyes for a tense beat. Then: KALE (re: something O.S.) No way. KALE'S POV - THE CLUB GIRL Giles brought home the other night exits the back door and walks up to Ashley and Giles! RONNIE (stepping closer) Great, Kale. She lives. Kale and Ronnie watch as Ashley shakes hands with the club girl, then throws a quick surprised glance up to Kale and Ronnie. Giles' body language tells us he's ready for Ashley to leave. Ashley gets the hint, shakes his hand, heads back down the driveway and out of sight. Kale raises the binoculars again, then furiously grabs for his pad and pencil. BINOCULAR POV - The club girl gets in her car. Giles closes her door, watches as she backs out. Kale TILTS DOWN to her license plate, starts jotting down the number. RONNIE (CONT'D) What are you doing? KALE Getting her license number -- RONNIE Why? Kale doesn't answer, still trying to get the rest of the number as Ashley enters, eyes Ronnie who gestures to Kale. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 78.80 CONTINUED: (6) 80 ASHLEY Okay, case closed. RONNIE Try telling Inspector Clouseau that. Now he thinks he needs her license number. ASHLEY Why, Kale? It's over. Kale's starting to get manic: KALE "Yeah, he seemed like such a normal guy. Sure he kept to himself, but he was always nice to me." That's what they all say. That's what all the neighbors always say -- after the fact. Only after they've caught the guy, after he's killed thirty people -- Ashley and Ronnie trade concerned looks. ASHLEY Okay, I think we all just need to take a breath. KALE (heading out) Fine, but what about the bumper sticker, there's still a girl missing, just... what's in the bag? (then from O.S.) Can anyone tell me that? Off Ronnie and Ashley --81 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS 81 Kale enters, goes to the desk, sits at dad's computer, clicking keys as Ashley and Ronnie enter -- ASHLEY Kale, why are you so -- Ashley and Ronnie stop in their tracks at the MESS. Note: Up till now, the office has been in reasonably good order. But now, it's noticeably different. WIDER - The shades are drawn. Soda cans everywhere... papers are spread on the floor: PRINTED OUT FULL COLOR GRUESOME CRIME SCENE PHOTOS, BLACK & WHITE AUTOPSY PHOTOS of the (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 79.81 CONTINUED: 81 murdered redheads... more pictures of the girl who disappeared, PATRICIA WALSH. "MISSING" FLYERS... Over the above, Ronnie leans down, lifts a couple of books out of an Amazon.com box: "Murderer: Tell Tale Signs of a Serial Killer" and "The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer" -- the titles Ashley was referencing earlier. Ronnie shows them to Ashley who takes a RECEIPT out of a nearby Home Depot box -- on the page -- SMITH'S UNIVERSAL GARAGE DOOR REMOTE QTY (1) $29.99. Ashley and Ronnie turn to Kale. They notice on the wall behind him, hanging next to his Dad's book cover posters, a BLACK AND WHITE POSTER-SIZE SATELLITE PHOTO of THE NEIGHBORHOOD. Giles' house is circled and labeled in flourescent ink. Kale finally looks up, notices them looking -- KALE (re: satellite poster) Ronnie, you've seen this satellite website, right? You can find any location on earth and take a picture -- RONNIE Yeah, for a small fee -- ASHLEY Kale, what are you doing? KALE Trying to get to the bottom of this. ASHLEY (delicately) Kale, right now, it doesn't look that way. KALE What's it look like? ASHLEY Like you're determined to turn Giles in to who you think he is. KALE Not who I think. ASHLEY (beat; then) I just didn't realize -- you were this -- KALE What, crazy? Maybe I am. But maybe I'm right. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 80.81 CONTINUED: (2) 81 ASHLEY It's not about that, it's about -- (beat; then quietly) -- What I see. What Ronnie and I are seeing right now. I see a guy who looks like he hasn't slept in days. (peers at dad's book cover posters) I'm seeing you sitting at your dad's desk -- That gets Kale's attention. ASHLEY (CONT'D) -- Because you lost him before maybe... you ever really knew him. Before the world according to Kale took a hit from that same stuff you were telling me about, remember? All those curveballs? But it's like -- it's like you're still trying to dodge them by forcing pieces together that are never gonna fit... by getting all wrapped up in... (re: mess) This. (beat; then) Obsessing's not gonna "protect you," Kale. It's not gonna make the hurt go away. Kale locks eyes with Ashley. A long beat, then -- KALE Are you two gonna help me or not? Ashley pauses, shocked she hasn't gotten through to Kale. Then -- ASHLEY I want to. KALE (picks up a stack) Then start looking through these -- ASHLEY That's not what I meant. KALE (beat; then) Well, this is all I need, so -- I guess I'll see you later. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 81.81 CONTINUED: (3) 81 Ashley and Ronnie trade looks. Then -- Ashley leaves. Ronnie turns back to Kale. KALE (CONT'D) So what's your deal? You hanging out or not? RONNIE I would, dude, but -- I've gotta pull it together and -- change my underwear. Catch you later? KALE Sure. Ronnie leaves. Kale sits in silence, his thoughts unreadable -- JUMP CUT: Kale falls back in the leather chair, fighting his emotions, trying to keep them in check. He glances out to Ashley's. Dark. He peers around the office -- the articles, the books, his DAD'S PHOTOS... the family portrait of Dad, Mom, and Kale, smiling wide... their lives ahead of them...82 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 82 In the darkness, find Kale sitting in his video game chair staring out at Giles' house. HIS POV - Giles' garage door is open. Giles' silver Toyota is parked inside next to the Mustang. There's a light or two on inside Giles' house but no signs of movement. Kale throws intermittent glances out the window as he starts to UNSCREW the back of the DV CAM. He lifts the back off, then reaches in a nearby BOX and pulls out a BLUE TOOTH WIRELESS CIRCUIT BOARD. He starts connecting it inside the camera... JUMP CUT: Kale screws the back of the camera on, takes a swig of a soda. There's suddenly fierce KNOCKING at Kale's front door. Kale just sits there. Staring ahead. More knocking and DOORBELL RINGING. Kale jumps from his chair, grabs the bat.83 INT. ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - SECONDS LATER 83 Kale swings the door open -- nobody's there -- then -- Ronnie suddenly STEPS INTO FRAME, grabs Kale -- KALE Get off me, man. RONNIE Dude -- my cell phone's -- still in his car. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 82.83 CONTINUED: 83 Kale eyes Ronnie a beat. RONNIE (CONT'D) Kale, did you hear me? KALE (beat; then) Ronnie, I know you think I'm losing my mind, but... listen, I'll help you get it, I just need you to do one thing. RONNIE (shaking his head) Phase two. I knew it. SMASH TO:84 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - SHORT TIME LATER 84 A SHAKY and grainy VIDEO IMAGE appears on Kale's computer screen. Kale picks up one of Ronnie's old walkie-talkies. KALE (into walkie talkie as needed) You read? RONNIE (V.O.) (walkie talkie filter as needed) Yeah, you got a signal? ON KALE'S COMPUTER SCREEN - Ronnie suddenly aims THE VIDEO CAMERA AT HIS FACE. KALE Got video, no audio. RONNIE (V.O.) Yeah, mic's on the fritz. How am I looking? Kale picks up the binoculars. BINOCULAR POV - Giles' garage door is still open. There's a light on at the opposite end of the house. KALE Light on, far end. RONNIE (V.O.) I guess it's now or never. Moving out. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 83.84 CONTINUED: 84 Kale turns back to the computer screen -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - His feet dart across the yard -- he TILTS UP -- approaching the fence. KALE (re: Giles) No movement. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Ronnie hops the fence. RONNIE (V.O.) First hurdle -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - The image goes to SNOW for a split second -- the signal weakening... Kale peers out the window -- BINOCULAR POV - We barely make out Ronnie's silhouette as he makes his way toward the garage -- RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Twenty feet. Ten feet -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Rapidly approaching the back of Giles' Toyota. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Garage -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Very shaky as Ronnie makes his way to the back seat door -- he takes out a pen light, aims it at the door as his hand enters frame, lifts up on the latch. The door pops open. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Bingo. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - We see Ronnie's hand feeling around the back seat floor of Giles' car. Kale's CALL WAITING suddenly BEEPS. He looks at the CALLER I.D: ASHLEY. Shit. He has to let it go. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm not seeing it -- KALE Stay calm, it's there. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Ronnie's hand finally pulls out the cell phone. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 84.84 CONTINUED: (2) 84 RONNIE (V.O.) I've got it. BINOCULAR POV - Giles' house. Still no sign of movement. KALE You're still clear, check the bag. RONNIE (V.O.) Hang on -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - We see Ronnie's hand gently push the door of Giles' Toyota closed. The angle TILTS DOWN -- we're now watching Ronnie's feet as they stride deeper into the garage, walking in between the Toyota and Mustang. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm setting the camera on the trunk. KALE Try to get the plate number of the Mustang and check for dents -- RONNIE (V.O.) I'm checking the bag first. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Ronnie sets the camera on the trunk of the Mustang, aims it perfectly at the BLUE BAG sitting in the corner. We watch with Kale as Ronnie enters frame, crouched low, heading toward the bag. He raises the walkie talkie -- RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) It does look like blood -- and hair -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - We watch as Ronnie kneels down, starts to open the bag. But suddenly, the still POV suddenly STARTS TO SLOWLY, STEADILY TRACK TO THE LEFT -- And Kale realizes -- KALE The camera's sliding -- RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - We watch as Ronnie spins and grabs the camera. RONNIE (V.O.) That was close. We hear another NOISE O.S. RONNIE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Oh shit -- Kale looks out -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 85.84 CONTINUED: (3) 84 KALE'S POV - Giles' GARAGE DOOR STARTS TO CLOSE. KALE Ronnie? RONNIE (staticky) -- make it -- interference -- somebody's here -- KALE Ronnie?! Dead air. Giles' GARAGE DOOR SLAMS SHUT. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - We watch as Ronnie picks up the camera, aims it at his face. Looking terrified. The camera swings away as we see Ronnie's feet scrambling along the concrete floor and then -- they appear to RACE THROUGH A DOORWAY ONTO DIMLY LIT HARDWOOD FLOOR -- making us and Kale realize -- KALE (CONT'D) He's in the house -- (into walkie) Ronnie? Still nothing. RONNIE'S DV CAM POV - Shaky. We catch GLIMPSES OF RONNIE'S FEET -- hauling ass down a HALLWAY, ROUNDING A CORNER ONTO CARPET, THEN BACK ONTO HARDWOOD -- KALE (CONT'D) What the hell -- ON THE SCREEN - Ronnie suddenly PANS THE CAMERA up to his face as he runs, clearly mouthing "HELP ME!!" KALE (CONT'D) RONNIE! Shit -- Then -- the camera seems to fall, SLIDING ON THE HARDWOOD FLOOR TOWARD AN OLD BOOKCASE... THE IMAGE CUTS OUT -- GOES TO ALL SNOW -- Kale jumps up, pacing. Peers out the window to Giles'. No telling what the hell's happening -- or happened -- in there. Kale eyes his ankle bracelet. Green light. Kale eyes his bat. Grabs it. Fuck it. D.J. Caruso 86.85 EXT. KALE'S BACK YARD - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER 85 Kale SLAMS out the back door, races across the yard, skips over his kite string boundary -- ON HIS ANKLE BRACELET - Red light FLASHES. WITH KALE - he hops the fence, racing to...86 EXT. GILES' BACK YARD/HOUSE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 86 KALE Ronnie?! Kale darts to Giles' back door, tries the knob -- locked. KALE (CONT'D) Ronnie, can you hear me?! Giles, open the door!! The house is still. Kale bolts around the side, uneasily feeling his way through shadows and low-hanging branches.87 EXT. GILES' FRONT YARD - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 87 It's even darker on this side. No lights on in Giles' house. Kale cautiously rounds the side, approaches the front door -- it's open a few inches -- darkness beyond. Kale eyes it a beat. Then -- steps up onto the porch, about to push it open when -- SIRENS BLARE O.S. Kale SPINS AROUND to see A POLICE CRUISER ROLLING TO A STOP. Kale races toward it as two uniformed officers step out -- KALE Hey! The officer pulls his sidearm, aims it at Kale -- UNIFORM #1 Freeze. Hands above your head, now!! KALE Please, my friend's been kidnapped, he's in this house -- he's inside, I think the owner's trying to kill him -- UNIFORM #1 Stay right there. UNIFORM #2 I've got it -- Uniform #2 heads briskly to Giles' front door. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 87.87 CONTINUED: 87 UNIFORM #1 (into radio mic) Dispatch, 13A74, we're 10-26 with the kid, he's claiming a 10-31 at... (eying numbers above Giles' door) 4710 Fairway Court. House behind his residence, request 10-78. DISPATCHER (V.O.) (over mic) 13A74, ten-four, units already in the area, will advise -- Kale watches as Uniform #2 approaches the Giles' door. UNIFORM #2 It's open. KALE It was already open. Uniform #2 knocks on the door. Rings the bell. No answer. Uniform #2's about to knock again when a light comes on inside. After a beat -- Giles opens the door. Looking disheveled, in his bathrobe. GILES Uh, yes, can I help you, officer? UNIFORM #2 Sorry to wake you, sir, we have a young man here claiming a friend of his is in your house. Would you know anything about that? GILES (laughs) No, I certainly wouldn't. KALE You're a lying son of a bitch! Uniform #1 retrains Kale as another CRUISER rolls to a stop. Uniforms #3 & 4 hop out, head to Uniform #1 to assist. UNIFORM #1 Take it easy -- KALE He's in there, goddammit! He's inside! He's lying! Uniform #1 pulls Kale back to the cruiser, opens the back door and pushes him down on the seat -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 88.87 CONTINUED: (2) 87 UNIFORM #1 Sir, calm down -- KALE Okay, but he's lying -- he has my friend, and he kidnapped that girl last week, he killed maybe three others, all redheads, they could be in a bag -- a big blue plastic bag -- in his garage -- my friend knew this -- (re: Giles) That's why he's covering -- he didn't just wake up five minutes ago -- Uniform #1 looks concerned as he steps away from Kale. UNIFORM #1 (to Uniform #3; re: Kale) Can you -- Uniform #3 nods as Uniform #1 heads back up to Giles and Uniform #2. KALE'S POV - Uniform #1 whispers something to Uniform #2. They turn back to Giles. UNIFORM #2 Sir, do you mind if we take a look inside? A beat. A couple more police cruisers roll to a stop. Curious NEIGHBORS are now gathering across the street. GILES Absolutely, be my guest. Giles ushers them through the door and follows them into the house. Giles turns, shoots a quick glance to Kale before closing the door. ON KALE - all he can do is wait. He shifts his gaze to the gathering neighbors. A few lock eyes with him, shake their heads. Kale turns back toward the house... TIME CUT TO:88 EXT. GILES' BACK YARD - GARAGE - NIGHT - SHORT TIME LATER 88 ON THE GARAGE DOOR - as it slowly raises up. WIDER - The uniforms, standing with Kale, wait as the door opens all the way. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 89.88 CONTINUED: 88 A light comes on inside. Giles and Uniform #1 come out the inner garage door as Uniform #2 Giles drags the BLUE BAG out from the garage. Sure enough, there's blood smears and visible strands of matted hair near the top. Uniform #2 unties the bag, pulls the sides away. Everyone gathers around, peers inside, then suddenly yank themselves back at the horrible STENCH emanating from within. Kale eyes Uniform #1 who gestures him to look. Kale steps toward the bag. KALE'S POV - We peer into the bag to reveal the WIDE OPEN eyes of a dead -- DEER. GILES (to the cops) I hit it the other night. Thought I'd save a few steps and get it off the road myself. I was gonna bury it sooner, but it's been a helluva week -- KALE So why'd you have to have the car fixed in record time, huh? Because it was covered in her blood -- GILES (talking over him; re: Mustang) Because it's a classic, I got it out of storage for the auto show, I needed it in pristine condition. UNIFORM #2 It's one of the biggest in the world. (off Uniform #1) The auto show. All eyes on Kale. He slumps. Giles has an answer for everything. UNIFORM #1 I think we're done here. Sorry for the intrusion, sir. GILES Please, I understand. As the Uniforms lead Kale back down the driveway... (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 90.88 CONTINUED: (2) 88 KALE (quietly; drained) So where's my friend, then? Can anyone tell me that? Does anyone believe me?! Kale looks over, sees PARKER, standing with JULIE whose eyes are filled with it all: anger, concern, sadness... JULIE Kale, come on -- Kale turns back to Giles' house. Sees lights being turned out inside. As Kale shifts his gaze forward, he locks eyes with ASHLEY standing in the crowd of neighbors. She watches him with concern. Kale turns away, drops his head as the cops, Parker and Julie lead him away... a FLASH OF LIGHTNING in the distance...89 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - LATER 89 Kale sits on the sofa, staring off. He looks to the stairs as Julie and Parker head down. Parker nods to Uniform #3 who's standing next to Kale. Uniform #3 meets Parker and Julie at the front door. Julie quietly nods to them, opens the door. A few more inaudible words are exchanged before Julie gently closes the door behind them. Julie heads back into the living room, sits across from Kale. JULIE (a beat; then) I'm sorry, Kale. Not the words Kale expected. He looks up -- JULIE (CONT'D) I really am. You know, one thing I always told myself was that no matter what, I would always know what was going on with my kid -- KALE Mom -- JULIE Let me finish -- because I have to tell you something... (then) I feel like I let you down. I was too caught up in my own grief to see straight. I thought time would heal this and taking a second job was... the answer to keeping a roof over our heads -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 91.89 CONTINUED: 89 KALE It was -- JULIE (points to ceiling) That's just wood. Do you hear me? We're still not through this -- obviously -- it's gonna take more time -- maybe a lot more time -- and that's just gotta be okay, because I know -- it'll get better. (beat) I want us to be us again. I want us to be honest with each other like we used to be. Is that possible? KALE Yeah. I just -- didn't think you'd believe me -- JULIE Listen to me. I am always on your side. No matter what. It may not look like it sometimes, but it's the truth. And we'll get through this. Okay? Kale nods. He stands, goes to Julie and hugs her -- tight.90 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER 90 Kale enters amidst a few more LIGHTNING FLASHES and distant ROLLS OF THUNDER. He heads to his window, glances out at Giles' house. Dark. The wind's picking up. Kale closes his window, draws the shade, sticks his cell in the charger. He collapses to the bed, stares at the roof over his head for a beat -- then "LIKE A VIRGIN" suddenly BLARES ON HIS CELL PHONE. Kale stares at it... then jumps from his bed, races to the phone, rips it from the charger, flips it open -- ON THE PHONE'S LCD SCREEN - A text message: LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN. The LCD SCREEN suddenly BLACKS OUT. The battery's dead. A wide eyed Kale puts the cell phone on his desk, slowly shifts his gaze to his computer monitor -- a grainy image suddenly pops on -- shaky at first -- then it finally steadies, and clears up. A torso and face come into focus: RONNIE, lying in the corner of a very enclosed space. Eyes open, head tilted against the wall. Dead. KALE OH MY GOD -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 92.90 CONTINUED: 90 Nearly hyperventilating, Kale leans closer to the screen, sees a pile of clothes and a stray racketball trophy lying next to Ronnie. KALE (CONT'D) Shit -- Kale realizes -- Ronnie's IN HIS CLOSET. Kale slowly turns, eyes his closet door. He then steps toward it, reaches out -- and SLIDES THE CLOSET DOOR OPEN TO REVEAL -- RONNIE - lying dead in the corner. KALE (CONT'D) Ronnie -- Kale kneels down to Ronnie who suddenly POPS BACK TO LIFE! RONNIE BOO! Kale screams, falls back to the floor as Ronnie cracks up. MORE LIGHTNING FLASHES and THUNDER. Kale staggers to his feet. Stunned. Not knowing whether to hug Ronnie or beat the shit out of him. RONNIE (CONT'D) Dude, don't kill me, don't kill me -- I can explain -- KALE How -- How long have you been here? RONNIE You should have seen your face -- (off Kale's glare) I got out his front door. I got lucky. I heard you yelling, but dude, cops were everywhere -- KALE Still, you could have -- RONNIE What, popped out and said, "oh yeah, officers, my friend's right, I was just in that house, I'd gone to get my cell phone out of the guy's car I broke into earlier..." Are you kidding me? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 93.90 CONTINUED: (2) 90 KALE (beat; then) I get it. Kale paces around, runs a hand through his hair as Ronnie steps out of the closet, DV CAM in hand. RONNIE Dude, I am sorry. Can we just... hug it out? KALE Why didn't Giles tell the cops someone broke in? I mean, he did see you, right? RONNIE You know, let's be positive for a change. I thought he did, but maybe he didn't. Or maybe he's a nice guy afterall, and he didn't wanna make a big deal of it, you know? I mean, he's a guy, he was a kid once... Kale eyes Ronnie. KALE What if he wasn't always a guy? Ronnie eyes Kale for a beat, wondering if he's serious. Then Kale cracks a smile. Ronnie cracks up. RONNIE But I do have to ask... what was in the bag? KALE (as if it were obvious) Dead deer. Kale and Ronnie lock eyes a beat. Then crack up again. Both laugh hysterically, slap happy as hell. RONNIE Naturally... (re: DV CAM) Hey, you want more evidence, detective? KALE I was watching, remember? Kale grabs the DV CAM from Ronnie -- Ronnie pulls it away. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 94.90 CONTINUED: (3) 90 RONNIE No, no, this is comedy, it deserves big screen treatment. Ronnie grabs some wires, starts hooking the camera up to Kale's TV. TIME CUT TO:91 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - SHORT TIME LATER 91 Kale and Ronnie watch the video of Ronnie's break-in. They're cracking themselves up as we see -- ON THE TV - Ronnie's feet stumbling through the garage, the camera sliding away off the trunk of the Mustang, Ronnie diving for it. RONNIE Hey, I caught that. KALE So that's when the garage door started closing. RONNIE Yeah, he must have heard me. He came through the inside door -- (re: TV screen) This is where I ducked low and started... ON THE TV - Ronnie's feet start motoring across the concrete floor, racing through the doorway onto the hardwood floor... RONNIE (CONT'D) ...hauling aaaass... KALE That's great. ON THE TV - As before, we're mostly watching Ronnie's feet as they scamper around Giles' house. Then -- the camera falls away, slides across the floor toward that bookcase, its POV -- FOR A SPLIT SECOND - aiming UNDER THE BOOKCASE. RONNIE Dropped it. KALE Yeah, I lost signal -- ON THE TV - This we didn't see earlier -- The camera is quickly scooped up by Ronnie whose feet dart across Giles' entry hall floor toward the front door. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 95.91 CONTINUED: 91 We see Ronnie's hand reach for the knob. RONNIE But I never leave evidence behind. ON THE TV - Ronnie's feet dart out Giles' front door and into the darkness of the yard... RONNIE (CONT'D) And that's about when you started yelling bloody murder and the shit hit the fan. The TV SCREEN goes black. RONNIE (CONT'D) (getting up) I'm starving. All that running around... Ronnie heads from the room. KALE (re: video) I'm gonna burn this. Kale gets up, heads to the camera. About to eject the tape, when a thought stops him. He pulls the camera off the TV, sits on the floor, presses "PLAY", scans back through the tape. ON THE TV - The same footage. Nothing glaring stands out. The camera falls from Ronnie's hand, slides to the bookcase. Ronnie quickly scoops the camera up, keeps running... KALE (CONT'D) You're not fooling me, Giles... Kale scans the tape back again, this time just to the point where Ronnie drops the camera. ON KALE - his eyes suddenly narrow -- did he see something? Kale scans back again.92 INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 92 Ronnie enters, starts rummaging through the fridge, pulls a soda out, then goes for the cabinets.93 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 93 ON THE TV - just as the camera slides to a stop at the bookcase and aims underneath it, Kale FREEZES THE IMAGE. Dark, grainy. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 96.93 CONTINUED: 93 Kale grabs his remote, cranks the brightness all the way up on his TV. Kale scoots closer to the TV amidst another FLASH OF LIGHTNING & MUCH LOUDER CLAP OF THUNDER. ON HIS FINGER - pressing the FRAME BY FRAME ADVANCE button -- ON THE TV -- we start to see SOMETHING UNDER THE BOOKCASE... Kale presses the button a couple more times. ON THE TV - The next frames are blurred -- this is the point where Ronnie grabs the camera back -- but -- KALE'S FINGER - presses the advance button one more time. ON THE TV - The next frame POPS INTO FOCUS. THERE, UNDER THE BOOKCASE, WE SEE A FADED BLACK STAMP ON THE BACK OF A WOMAN'S HAND! Kale's eyes widen as he keeps pressing the ADVANCE BUTTON... CU - Kale's eyes are transfixed on the screen, his face just inches away as a few more blurry frames FLIP BY then -- BAM -- THE FACE OF THE MISSING GIRL -- PATRICIA WALSH -- POPS ON THE SCREEN IN SHARP FOCUS, HER LONG RED HAIR PARTIALLY COVERING HER GHOSTLY, WIDE OPEN EYES THAT STARE RIGHT INTO CAMERA! Kale recoils in horror as LIGHTNING IGNITES his room. KALE (calling O.S.) Ronnie, get your ass up here! But a ROLL OF THUNDER drowns our Kale's voice --94 INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 94 Ronnie throws a bag of popcorn in the microwave, punches the clock. Presses start. As he reaches behind him for his soda can on the island, a BASEBALL BAT suddenly enters frame and SLAMS DOWN on RONNIE'S ARM -- FWACK! Ronnie WHIRLS AROUND in excruciating pain to come face to face with GILES who swings the bat across Ronnie's face. Ronnie drops out of frame behind the island. D.J. Caruso 97.95 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 95 KALE Ronnie?! No answer. Shit. Kale grabs the cordless off his bed, clicks it on: DEAD. Another lightning FLASH. He grabs the tape out of the camera, buries it in his closet, pulls out his racketball trophy then creeps to the door, peers out -- KALE'S POV - The hallway's empty. Clear shot to the stairs.96 INT. 2ND FL HALLWAY - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 96 Kale steps out, raises the trophy, ready for anything as he approaches the stairs, glancing in every direction. He reaches the railing, peers down. No movement.97 INT. ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 97 Kale heads down, slowly makes his way toward the kitchen, peeks around the corner -- KALE'S POV - IN THE KITCHEN - The popcorn's POPPING in the microwave.98 INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 98 Kale rounds the island to the microwave, presses "STOP" then glances down, sees Ronnie's body -- KALE Ronnie -- MOM!! Kale spins around as GILES SUDDENLY APPEARS FROM THE SHADOWS. More THUNDER. Kale whirls around, HURLS the trophy at Giles. Giles knocks it away as Kale BOLTS for the back door, throws it open. Giles pursues.99 EXT. KALE'S BACK YARD - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 99 Kale bolts out the door, but trips on a well-placed garden gnome on the steps. Giles or the brats must have put it there. Regardless, it slows Kale down. He staggers into the yard, SCREAMING for anyone to hear. But the WIND and THUNDER drown him out as GILES -- Now right behind him -- swings the bat and trips Kale up. Kale falls just short of his kite string boundary line. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 98.99 CONTINUED: 99 Like a quarterback pressing to the goal line, Kale lunges forward, but -- GILES' HAND suddenly grab's KALE'S ANKLE just as the ANKLE BRACELET is about to cross the line. Kale screams, digs his hands into the earth, trying to pull himself forward, but Giles is too strong. He DRAGS Kale backward, then PINS him to the ground, pulls out a roll of duct tape, quickly and efficiently wraps some around Kale's mouth, hands and ankles. Giles yanks Kale up, throws him over his shoulder and heads back toward Kale's house.100 INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 100 Giles quickly opens and shuts the door as Kale struggles against him. GILES (hard in Kale's ear) You finally wanna be an orphan? Giles drags Kale into...101 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 101 ... To reveal a bruised but conscious JULIE tied to the chair, her arms wrapped behind it! Kale's eyes widen with rage as he pulls free of Giles, drops to the floor, tries to roll away. But Giles grabs him back up, gets in his face -- GILES If you don't stop fighting me, I will gut her like a fish. Kale glares as Giles drags him into the...102 ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 102 ...And pulls him up the stairs...103 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - SECONDS LATER 103 Giles SLAMS Kale down in his desk chair. Giles eyes the DV CAM sitting on the TV. The tape slot's open. GILES So where's the tape? Kale mumbles a muffled "FUCK YOU" under the duct tape. GILES (CONT'D) You're right, I'll find it later. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 99.103 CONTINUED: 103 Giles sits on Kale's bed. Eyes the book on serial killers. He picks it up, flips through it. GILES (CONT'D) It's funny, I hear a lot of authors say their first books were easy, it's the second one that's really hard. Wonder if your dad thought that. (off Kale's glare) See with me, it's the opposite. The very first one was... (sickly reminiscing) ...Very difficult... she was very beautiful... fragile... a lot of promise... the others in Texas were flings, low class... Patty Walsh had potential, but so did Amy. You saw her, right? When you were watching me? You should feel good, Kale, you guys saved her life. I was headed in to kill her when your girlfriend showed up. So, you're a hero, Kale. Savor the moment. (tosses the book) You have Microsoft Word? (off Kale's questioning look; re: computer) Turn it on. Kale doesn't move. Giles raises the bat: GILES (CONT'D) I can type, you know. Kale turns to the computer, lifts his taped wrists to the keyboard. GILES (CONT'D) "Dear Ashley... I killed Ronnie and my mom because... (re: Kale not typing) What's wrong? Hey, you're the one who couldn't leave me alone. Truthfully, I'm sick of covering my tracks. You think I like spending my spare time looking over my shoulder for people like you? Word of advice, if you ever need to hurt someone, think everything through. Because you do get a taste for it, don't you? (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 100.103 CONTINUED: (2) 103 GILES (CONT'D) But damned if people aren't just waiting to stand in your way... cops, reporters, determined relatives, nosy fucking neighbors... next thing you know, you're on tilt, you can't think straight, you're clocking your teacher in front of the whole class, me... I'm hitting a damned deer... Man, that was some shitty luck. (then) Anyway, it's pretty clear how we've gotta clean this up. The irony is, you've done all the hard stuff. Whaddaya think: "Troubled youth finally snapped." Maybe because he was jealous of his girlfriend, or maybe he just couldn't deal with the guilt from not saving daddy. (off Kale) Hey, you Googled me. Giles steps away, turns back to the bed as Kale suddenly does SNAP. He leans forward, grabs the LCD computer monitor with his taped wrists, stands, whirls around, and HURLS it at GILES, SMACKING HIM on the side of his head -- a one in a hundred shot! Giles goes down. But the forward momentum of Kale's throw combined with his taped ankles causes him to lose his balance. Kale falls to the floor, scrambles for the BASEBALL BAT just inches away -- GILES staggers to his feet and charges Kale. Kale grabs the bat, rolls around and swings up at Giles, WHACKING HIM IN THE CHEST. Giles doubles over as Kale frantically plants the bat on the floor, using it as a "cane" to pull himself back to his feet. He HOPS toward Giles, raises the bat, swings it, but Giles anticipates, grabs the bat, pulls it forward, and REVERSE JABS KALE in the face! Kale staggers back, but somehow keeps his balance and the bat. He spins around, hops to the door into...104 INT. 2ND FL HALLWAY - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 104 Kale rounds the corner and runs smack into ASHLEY. The collision sends Kale back to the floor. ASHLEY KALE -- Ashley leans down to Kale. Kale gestures with his eyes and head: BEHIND YOU! Ashley gets the message, whirls around just as Giles GRABS HER. Ashley SCREAMS and knees Giles. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 101.104 CONTINUED: 104 He drops her to the floor. Ashley scrambles for Kale, helps him to his feet, pulls Kale back down the hall to...105 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 105 Ashley shoves Kale inside as she spins back, SLAMS the office door in Giles' face, locks it. Giles BANGS on the door. Ashley goes to Kale, RIPS the duct tape off his mouth. Kale SCREAMS in PAIN as Ashley heads for the desk phone. KALE It's dead. Ashley grabs a pair of scissors off dad's desk, cuts Kale's ankles and hands free. Kale reaches down to the ankle bracelet, furiously tugs at it. ASHLEY Let me try -- Ashley moves in, tries to cut it loose with the scissors as Giles suddenly SLAMS SOMETHING against the door, trying to break it down! ASHLEY (CONT'D) Where's your mom -- KALE (tugging on bracelet) Living room -- tied up -- he got Ronnie -- in the kitchen -- (then; re: bracelet) GODDAMN YOU!! ASHLEY (giving up with scissors) Okay, just -- I'll get your mom, you figure out a way to call the cops -- KALE No, I've gotta get her -- ASHLEY Kale, you've gotta get outside, get over the boundary -- do you hear me? KALE (beat; then; an idea sparking) Okay, but -- just follow my lead -- we're gonna need stuff -- (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 102.105 CONTINUED: 105 Ashley and Kale glance around for weapons. Ashley pockets the scissors, grabs a letter opener off dad's desk. Kale finds his racketball racket and the ball. Pockets the ball, slips the racket in the back of his shorts, then grabs the baseball bat as he heads for the bookshelves near the door that leads to the outside porch. He reaches up, runs his fingers to the third book on the middle shelf, pulls it out, flips it open to reveal a KEY that drops in his hand. KALE (CONT'D) Once I have his attention, you go get her. Ashley nods. Kale takes the key, heads to the porch door, unlocks it with a quiet CLICK. He swings the door open, steps out onto...106 EXT. 2ND FL PORCH - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 106 Kale raises the bat, swings it at the 2nd floor hallway window that separates the interior of the house from the porch. The window SHATTERS. Kale tosses the bat back to Ashley. KALE (to Giles O.S.) We're out here, asshole! There's a lull in the thunder. All becomes eerily quiet for a beat as Kale waits for Giles to appear at the window. He glances back at Ashley who ducks behind the wall inside dad's office -- she glances to the office door. No more BANGING. She shrugs to Kale: "where is he?" Another beat, then suddenly -- a FLASH OF LIGHTNING reveals GILES Standing in the other porch doorway BEHIND KALE! ASHLEY Kale! Kale whirls around just as Giles reaches out, grabs him by the throat, pulls him off his feet and HURLS KALE through the shattered window into the hallway! ASHLEY (CONT'D) NO! You son of a -- Ashley charges out onto the porch with the bat. Swings it at Giles who promptly RIPS it from her hand and hurls it off the porch. Ashley whips out the letter opener, spins around, about to stab Giles, but he backhands her. Ashley falls, SMACKS her head on the porch railing. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 103.106 CONTINUED: 106 She drops to the floor, half conscious as Giles picks up the letter opener, turns his attention back to the 2nd floor hallway window -- HIS POV - THE HALLWAY - KALE'S GONE. WHIP PAN to behind Giles -- REVEAL KALE - CHARGING OUT the same porch door Giles just came out! Kale uses his FULL BODY WEIGHT to SHOVE Giles back through the SAME BROKEN WINDOW and into the hallway! KALE Ashley! Are you okay? ASHLEY I wanna kill him -- KALE Stick to the plan -- Over this, Kale pulls Ashley to her feet. They share a smile as Ashley ducks into the porch door leading to Kale's room. Kale turns back -- KALE'S POV - A BLOODY GILES Gets to his feet and heads toward the window. Kale turns for the ladder, starts climbing up. Giles pursues, steps out the window as we see Ashley, in the b.g., appear from Kale's bedroom and race for the stairs!107 EXT. ROOF - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 107 Kale reaches the top of the ladder, steps onto the roof, but Giles, from below, HEAVES THE LADDER UPWARD, tripping Kale. Kale SLAMS down on the roof, smacks the back of his head. KALE'S BLURRY POV - against a fury of lightning flashes, Giles races up the ladder and steps onto the roof. Stalks toward Kale. Kale gets to his feet, draws the racketball racket from his shorts, takes out the ball, assumes a professional looking serving position and WHAM! Kale beams the ball at Giles -- and misses completely. KALE That was a warning! Giles rushes Kale who wails on him with the racket. Giles ducks, spins around, brings his fist up and punches Kale in the chest. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 104.107 CONTINUED: 107 Kale drops the racket. It slides away down the roof as Kale doubles over. But Giles grabs Kale before he can fall. He pulls Kale up off his feet, pulls him closer, gets in his face. Kale summons some strength, tilts his head up and HEADBUTTS GILES. Giles stumbles back, pulling Kale with him. Giles SLAMS down on the roof. He and Kale roll down the incline and stop just short of the edge -- Kale looks over, spots his STEREO SPEAKER a few feet away.108 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 108 Ashley rounds the corner, heads to Julie. ASHLEY Hi, Mrs. Brecht, I'm Ashley -- (re: duct tape) It's gonna hurt. Julie nods as Ashley RIPS the tape off Julie's mouth. JULIE (not flinching) Where's Kale?109 EXT. ROOF - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 109 Kale HURLS the speaker at Giles', SMACKING him hard. Giles shakes it off, grabs the speaker wire -- WITH KALE - he gets to his feet, heads back up the roof as Giles suddenly whips out the letter opener and hurls it like a THROWING KNIFE at Kale. The letter opener embeds itself in the back of Kale's thigh. Kale screams, falls to his knees. CU - Kale cringes from the pain as Giles, now right behind him, wraps the SPEAKER WIRE around Kale's NECK and pulls. Kale grabs for it as Giles chokes the life out of him. Kale only has one chance. He reaches behind his leg, grabs the embedded letter opener, RIPS it away, twirls it in his hand and shoves it back into Giles' stomach! Giles recoils as Kale flings himself away from the choke- hold, falls back to the roof, rolls down and PLUMMETS to --110 EXT. GARAGE ROOF - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 110 Kale hits HARD, the wind knocked out of him. He looks over, sees his racketball racket lying there. He grabs it, looks back up. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 105.110 CONTINUED: 110 KALE'S POV - Giles stands on the upper roof, smiles as he brings up the letter opener. Kale's eyes widen. He pulls himself to his feet, and sidearms the racket up at Giles. The racket spins through the air like a boomerang and miraculously smacks Giles in the hand, knocking the letter opener away! WITH KALE - he whirls around, races toward the edge of the roof... and JUMPS. ANGLE: FOLLOWING BEHIND KALE IN MID AIR, WE CRANE UP AND OVER HIM PEERING DOWN TO REVEAL ASHLEY'S POOL! ON THE ANKLE BRACELET - it FLASHES RED. EXT. ASHLEY'S BACK YARD/SWIMMING POOL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS Kale drops into the pool with a tremendous SPLASH! He pulls himself to the surface, peers up -- KALE'S POV - the roof -- Giles is gone. Kale frantically swims to the edge, pulls himself out --111 INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER 111 The kitchen door slowly pushes open. After a beat, Kale quietly steps in, heavily armed with a swimming pool LEAF- SKIMMING NET. Another FLASH OF LIGHTNING illuminates the kitchen. Kale cautiously rounds the island, glances down: Ronnie's gone. He glances to the block of butcher knives -- empty. Kale grabs a couple of table knives from the kitchen drawer, opts to keep the leaf-skimming net as he makes his way out of the kitchen and into...112 INT. ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 112 Breathing hard, Kale glances around, up the stairs -- No sign of Giles. He rounds the corner into...113 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 113 Julie's GONE. Kale's eyes widen. He turns around as ASHLEY suddenly jumps up from behind the sofa brandishing a BUTCHER KNIFE! She exhales in relief at the sight of Kale who rounds the back of the couch, sees Ronnie's body lying on the floor next to the entire set of butcher knives. KALE Where's my mom? (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 106.113 CONTINUED: 113 ASHLEY She went upstairs for you -- where's Giles? KALE I don't know -- the cops should be here any sec -- The doorbell RINGS. Kale and Ashley whip their heads to the door. Kale throws a troubled glance out the window -- ASHLEY What's wrong? KALE No flashing lights -- stay here -- Kale trades Ashley the net for the butcher knife. We then FOLLOW KALE into...114 INT. ENTRY HALL - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 114 Still no sign of Giles -- Kale turns back to Ashley, then heads to the front door -- PEEPHOLE POV - Parker. Kale swings the door open. PARKER Kale, what's going on now? KALE Parker, where's the cavalry?! PARKER I told 'em don't bother, you were my responsibility -- KALE Parker, you need to get them here right now -- Giles is -- GILES (O.S.) Evening. Parker turns to see Giles casually walking up the front steps. KALE PARKER LOOK OUT, HE'S THE -- As Parker turns, Giles suddenly GRABS HER, spins her around and TWISTS HER NECK. Parker drops forward into the entry hall. (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 107.114 CONTINUED: 114 Kale stumbles back inside the door, tries to SLAM it closed, but Giles overpowers Kale, shoves the door open, knocking Kale to the floor. The butcher knife slides away under a table. Giles enters, kicks Parker's body out of the way and closes the door. He steps toward Kale as Ashley, from O.S. suddenly drops the LEAF-SKIMMING NET OVER HIS HEAD and furiously YANKS Giles back to the floor! Kale gets to his feet, grabs a vase off the entry hall table and SMASHES it over Giles' head. Giles rolls away, only to be KICKED HARD in the face by Ashley. Kale and Ashley TAG TEAM Giles. But Giles finds an opening and elbows both Ashley and Kale back to the floor. Kale scrambles for the butcher knife back down the entry hall. Giles gets to his feet, pounds after Kale who slides the butcher knife out from under the table. But Giles suddenly STOMPS down on Kale's hand. Giles lifts his foot up. Kale pulls his hand away. Giles kicks the knife away, grabs Kale up, SLAMS him against the staircase banister, splintering it. Kale drops back to the floor. Giles leans down to pick him up when the BUTT OF A SHOTGUN suddenly SLAMS into the back of Giles' head! Giles tumbles forward, spins around to see JULIE standing on the staircase with a 12-GAUGE SHOTGUN -- KABOOM! Julie BLOWS GILES BACK INTO THE WALL! -- And THAT'S WHERE HE STAYS. Julie races down to Kale, hugs him tight. Ashley comes to, slowly makes her way over and joins the huddle... DISSOLVE TO: MONTAGE115 EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - DAWN 115 - Police, squad cars, ambulances surround Kale's and Giles' houses... - CRIME SCENE TECHS tape off Giles' entire back yard...116 INT. LIVING ROOM - DAWN 116 - SUITED detectives jot notes as they question Kale, Ashley, Julie... (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 108.116 CONTINUED: 116 - Kale hands the detective the VIDEO TAPE...117 INT. GILES' HOUSE 117 - DETECTIVES and CRIME SCENE TECHS slide the bookcase away to reveal the body of the dead club girl... CAMERAS FLASH...118 INT. KITCHEN - DAY 118 - Kale sits on the island as CASE OFFICER #2 removes the ankle bracelet. Julie and Ashley watch in the b.g...119 EXT. GILES' BACK YARD - DAY 119 - Crime scene techs excavate portions of Giles' back yard... - A crime scene tech waves his colleagues over, points down... - GLOVED HANDS of techs gently clear the damp earth away to reveal an ARM and HAND... and matted strands of RED HAIR...120 EXT. GILES' FRONT YARD - DAY 120 - A REPORTER stands at the end of Giles' driveway as CRIME TECHS carry body bags to the coroner's van in the b.g... REPORTER ...the body of Partricia Walsh, missing since last week, has been recovered along with the remains of at least three other women. Authorities say Giles meticulously maintained his yard, mowing the lawn routinely in order to avoid the formation of sinkholes which could have exposed his terrible secret... HARD CUT TO:121 INT. COUNSELOR'S OFFICE - DAY 121 A cleaner-cut Kale sits across from a COUNSELOR. KALE (beat) He was my best friend. We always talked about what guys talk about... sports, women... food... We were talking about the freakin' fish -- this huge, amazing black bass we'd just caught -- and how we'd be eating it for a week... the next thing I know -- I can't hold on... and he's letting go... I was so pissed at (MORE) (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 109.121 CONTINUED: 121 KALE (CONT'D) him, I was so -- he's the one who left, he's the one who gave up, you know? -- But that's b.s. See, the truth is, my dad -- He saved me.122 INT. 2ND FL HALL OUTSIDE DAD'S OFFICE - DAY 122 CU - The doorknob. A hand slowly enters frame. WIDER TO REVEAL Kale and Julie stand outside the door that's now been fixed. JULIE You ready?123 INT. DAD'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS 123 Kale and Julie enter with two large boxes, set them on the floor. They both take breaths, then -- start sifting through dad's things, deciding which items to keep and which to box up... As they carefully consider each one we slowly PULL BACK and HARD CUT TO: BINOCULAR POV - Giles' house. The yard's been completely put back together. We are...124 INT. KALE'S BEDROOM - WEEKS LATER 124 CU - KALE intently watches. Then: KALE Movement. Ashley joins him at the window. THEIR POV - Julie, wearing her realtor business suit, walks a YOUNG COUPLE up Giles' driveway and into the back yard... ASHLEY Why's your mom doing this again? KALE She's whacked. Plain and simple. I think she thought it'd be some sick challenge or something -- hey, commission's the same I guess... They watch as Julie points out the yard to the couple. The couple turns back to the house. Julie suddenly spins around and gives a quick sotto "thumbs up" to Kale and Ashley! (CONTINUED) D.J. Caruso 110.124 CONTINUED: 124 KALE (CONT'D) No way. She can't be serious. ASHLEY Hey, if anyone can spin a psycho house into the opportunity of a lifetime, I'd bet on your mom any day of the week. KALE (re: the couple) Fine, but we still have to seriously question the yayhoos buying the place. ASHLEY Whaddaya think, another stakeout? KALE (tossing the binoculars) Screw that. My mom has another half hour over there at least. Kale pulls Ashley back to the bed. They kiss, but then suddenly stop -- sensing something O.S. They both slowly shift their heads to see -- THEIR POV - Ronnie, with a head bandage, stands in the doorway, aiming his DV camera straight at them. RONNIE (don't mind me) I'm not even here. Off this we -- SMASH TO BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Django Unchained.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Django Unchained.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..959ecf820fb757b1a4083a2b5ed6a13a6006e3a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Django Unchained.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DJANGO UNCHAINED Written by Quentin Tarantino I EXT - COUNTRYSIDE - BROILING HOT DAY As the film's OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE plays, complete with its own SPAGHETTI WESTERN THEME SONG, we see SEVEN shirtless and shoeless BLACK MALE SLAVES connected together with LEG IRONS, being run, by TWO: WHITE MALE HILLBILLIES on HORSEBACK. The location is somewhere in Texas. The Black Men (ROY, BIG SID, BENJAMIN, DJANGO, PUDGY RALPH, FRANKLYN, and BLUEBERRY) are slaves just recently purchased at The Greenville Slave Auction in Greenville Mississippi. The White Hillbillies are two Slave Traders called, The SPECK BROTHERS (ACE and DICKY). One of the seven slaves is our hero DJANGO... . he's fourth in the leg iron line. We may or may not notice a tiny small "r" burned into his cheek ("r" for runaway), but we can't help but notice his back which has been SLASHED TO RIBBONS by Bull Whip Beatings. As the Operatic Opening Theme Song plays, we see a MONTAGE of misery and pain, as Django and the Other Men are walked through blistering sun, pounding rain, and moved along by the end of a whip. Bare feet step on hard rock, and slosh through mud puddles. Leg Irons take the skin off ankles. AS The CREDITS play, DJANGO has a SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK. Now Spaghetti Western Flashbacks are never pretty, it's usually the time in the film when the lead character thinks back to the most painful memory inflicted on him or his loved ones from evil characters from his past. In this instance we see Django in a SLAVE PEN at the Greenville Auction. DJANGO Amongst many other shoulders and heads, sees through the bars of the cell door, his wife BROOMHILDA being led to the auction block. He fights his way to the door, and far off and obscure in the distance, he can see Broomhilda up on the auction block, and in the distance he hears the Auctioneer yell; "Sold." Then she's taken away to whereabouts unknown, never to be seen again. As the sun continues to beat down on Django's head, he remembers; DJANGO in the SLAVE PEN with what seems like a one hundred and fifty Slaves in a cell designed for forty. WHITE MEN yank him out. of the cell, shirtless, shoeless, and lead him down a hallway, into a giant round pen, an audience viewing area circles the round pen floor on three different stories of the structure. The ground floor is covered by the BIG MONEY BUYERS who stand in front of the auction block. 2 DJANGO is moved into a line of SLAVES (The Black Men), and their MASTERS (their White Owners), and their SELLERS (the White Man actually doing the sales pitch on the auction block), as they wait for their turn on the block. A SLAVE (ROBBIE), stand on the auction block in view of the room full of Buyers, The SELLER sells, and the OWNERS stand off to the side. DJANGO takes in the environment around him. Django has never cared for white folks, but these white folks are in particularly ugly. It's DJANGO's turn ON THE AUCTION BLOCK as the THEME SONG wails its tragic crescendo, Django is brought up on the auction block. He.looks down at all the WHITE PEOPLE who want to buy Niggers, who look up to him. His heart fills with poison. BACK TO DJANGO walking in Leg Irons with his six Other Companions, walking across the blistering Texas panhandle... .remembering.. .thinking. - .hating. THE OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE end. /--" EXT - WOODS -- NIGHT It's night time and The Speck Brothers, astride HORSES, keep pushing their black skinned cargo forward. It's a very pitch black night, with only a few stars in the.sky to create a little top light. It's so dark, the Slavers use the creek.bed to keep from getting lost. Both Speck Brothers carry a lantern up on their horse, as. does Roy, the Slave in lead position on the chain gang. It's also a bitterly cold night, with the breath of the seven slaves, two slavers, and two horses creating clouds in the air. In fact the seven chained together Slaves, with the lead one holding a lantern, and all of them chugging out smoky breath, and. slightly moving in unison, resemble a human locomotive. The Slaves shiver from the cold on their shirtless backs, both Speck Brothers wear rawhide winter coats with white fur linings, and white fur collars. WHEN... .A SOUND and a SMALL LIGHT appears ahead of them on the road. This makes the Slave Traders stop their human live stock, and ready their rifles for possible trouble. 3 A BLACK HORSE carrying a dressed in grey Rider, CLIP-CLOPS from the background to the foreground, illuminated by a glowing lantern that the Rider carries. THE RIDER appears to be a tenderfoot, due to his style of dress. A long grey winter'coat, over a grey three piece business suit, and a grey bowler hat on his head. DICKY SPECK Who's that stumblin around in the dark? State your business, or prepare to get winged! THE RIDER Calm yourselves gentlemen, I mean you no harm. I'm simply a fellow weary traveler. The Rider dressed in business grey pulls his horse to a stop in front of the two Slavers, and their Slaves, lifting the lantern up to his face. He speaks with a slight German accent. THE RIDER (to the Slavers) Good cold evening gentlemen. (to the shivering Slaves) Good evening-I'm looking for a pair of slave traders that go by the'name of The Speck Brothers. Might that be you? ACE SPECK Who wants to. know? THE RIDER I do. I'm Dr. King Schultz, and this is my horse, Fritz. Fritz, does a little bow with his head, a neat trick the doctor taught him. DICKY SPECK You a doctor? Dr.SCHULTZ Affirmative. DICKY SPECK What kinda doctor? Dr.SCHULTZ Dentist. Are you The Speck Brothers, and did you purchase those men at The Greenville.Slave Auction? ACE SPECK So what? LE Dr.SCHULTZ So, I wish to parley with you. ACE SPECK Speak English! Dr.SCHULTZ Oh, I'm sorry. Please forgive me, it is a second language. Amongst your inventory, I've been led to believe, is a specimen I'm keen to acquire. (to the slaves) Hello you poor devils. Is there one among you, who was formerly a resident of The Carrucan Plantation? Since Roy in lead position is the one holding the lantern, the second half of the slave centipede falls off into darkness. In the darkness a VOICE rings out; DJANGO'S VOICE (OS) I'm from The Carrucan Plantation. Dr.Schultz moves Fritz forward towards the darkness, raises his lantern, illuminating our hero Django. Dr.SCHULTZ Splendid! And what's your name young, man? DJANGO Django. Dr.SCHULTZ Wunderbar! You're exactly the one I'm looking for. So tell me Django - by the way that's a amazing name - during your time at the Carrucan Plantation, did you come to know three overseers by the name of The Brittle Brothers? Django nods his head, yes. Dr.Schultz is delighted. Dr.SCHULTZ Big John, Ellis, and little brother Raj? DJANGO Dem da Brittle Brothers. Dr.SCHULTZ So Django, do you think you could recognize - ÔøΩ. The Speck Brothers have been watching this tenderfoot engage their Slave in polite conversation.. .with a touch of disbelief. ACE SPECK Hey, stop talkin' to him like that! Dr.SCHULTZ Like what? ACE SPEC Like that! Dr.SCHULTZ My good man, I'm simply trying to ascertain ACE SPECK Speak English, goddamit! Dr.SCHULTZ Everybody calm down! I'm simply a customer trying to conduct a transaction. ACE SPECK I don't care, no sale. Now off wit ya! Dr.SCHULTZ Don't be ridiculous, of course they're for sale. Ace raises his rifle towards the German. ACE SPECK Move it! Ace cocks back the rifle hammer. Dr.SCHULTZ My good man, did you simply get carried away with your dramatic gesture, or are you pointing that weapon at me with lethal intention...? ACE SPECK Last chance, fancy pants Dr.SCHULTZ - Very well - The doctor, throws his lantern to the ground, enveloping him in darkness. The next FLASH OF LIGHT we see is the good doctors PISTOL out of his holster, and FIRING point blank into Ace Specks face... .BLOWING the dumber dumb brother off his horse, dead in the dirt. Before Dicky can maneuver either his rifle or his horse in the Germans direction... BAM... Dr.SCHULTZ SHOOTS his HORSE in the head... .The Steed goes down taking Dicky with him... When the dead weight horse lands on Dicky's slightly twisted leg, we hear TWO DISTINCT CRACKING SOUNDS.:.. Dicky lets out a bitch like scream. The Slaves watch all this. They've never seen a white man kill another white man before. Dicky is pinned down under his ole paint. Django watches in the dark, the German climb down off his horse, pick up Ace's discarded lantern, and walk over to the remaining Speck. Dr.SCHULTZ Sorry about putting a bullet in your beast. But I didn't want you to do anything rash before you had a moment to come to your senses. Dr.Sch.ultz LIGHTS the lantern, illuminating himself, as he stands over Dicky's body. DICKY SPECK You goddamn son of a bitch, you killed Ace! Dr.SCHULTZ. I only shot your brother, once he threatened to shoot me. And I do believe I have ... (COUNTING OUT THE SLAVES) .one, two, three, four, five, six, seven witnesses who can attest to that fact. DICKY SPECK My damn legs busted! Dr.SCHULTZ No doubt. Now, if you can keep your caterwauling down to a minimum, I'd like to finish my line of inquiry with young Django. (TO DJANGO) As I was saying, if you were to see the Brittle Brothers again, would you recognize them? DJANGO Yes. Dr.SCHULTZ Now I'm sure. to you, all unshaven white men look alike. So Django, in a crowd of unshaven white men, can you honestly and positively point out The Brittle Brothers? DJANGO SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK We're in his little shack at the Carrucan Plantation. It's PISSING RAIN outside. Django is making love to his wife Broomhilda, when she stops letting out a shout. The three overseers known as THE BRITTLE BROTHERS are outside peeking in through the window. They BURST in through the front door. Soaked to the bone, they rodeo bull their way into the shack, and make the two slaves continue fucking for their amusement. As Django and Broomhilda are forced to copulate, they run their wet white hands down her chocolate leg.. .they fondle his ass.. .they squeeze her tit. . .they bring a belt across Django's backside to make him fuck faster. . .then they yank him off, as BIG JOHN climbs on top of Broomhilda..the other Brittle brothers whip Django with their belts, and make him sit in the corner, while they finish with his wife. BACK TO DJANGO DJANGO I can point 'em out. Dr.SCHULTZ Sold American! So Mr.Speck, how much for Django? DICKY SPECK I'm gonna lose this leg! Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, unless you find a talented physician very quickly, I'm afraid that will be the. end result. But back to business, how much do you want for Django? DICKY SPECK You go to hell! Dr.SCHULTZ Don't be silly. How much for Django? DICKY SPECK 800 dollars! Dr.SCHULTZ Oh come now, I may not have the experience in the slave trade that you and your family does, but neither was I born yesterday. 8 The. good doctor removes a pamphlet from his grey suit coat pocket. Dr.SCHULTZ In this most helpful pamphlet that I picked up at The Greenville Slave Auction, it says that the going rate for African flesh' - in particularly a field nigger -_is sixty to eighty dollars. Now handsome no doubt as Django is, technically, he is a field. nigger. Which according to"this pamphlet here - and why would they lie - puts his price at eighty dollars. So in light of that, how bout a hundred and twenty five dollars for young Django here. Dr.Schultz removes his long billfold from his pocket, and takes out a one hundred dollar bill, two tens and a fiver. Dr.SCHULTZ And since your late brother. won't be using it anymore, I'd like to purchase his nag. He removes a twenty dollar gold piece from his. pocket, and tosses it on Dicky's body. He bends down and, puts the paper money-.in the saddle bags on Dicky's dead horse. With.his hands in there, he roots around and finds the keys to-the leg irons. He unlocks Django's leg irons. Django is free. Dr.SCHULTZ There you go Django,. Give your ankles a good rubbing, then get up on that horse. Also, if I was you, I'd take that winter coat the dear departed Speck left behind. Django removes the coat from the dead slaver. Puts on the warm jacket over his bare back, and climbs up on Ace Specks horse. Dr.Schultz turns to Dicky on the ground. Dr.SCHULTZ Mr.Speck, I am afraid I will require a bill of sale. Do you have one? Dicky just curses him. He says, removing a notebook from his pocket; Dr.SCHULTZ I thought not. No worries, I come prepared. (as he writes) This will serve nicely as a bill of sale. (he stops, then says to Django) Django is spelled with a silent "D", is it not? 9 DJANGO Huh? Dr.SCHULTZ Why not.. He writes it in his book with a silent "D", then stops to admire the way it looks. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, that does add a little character. The German dentist lowers himself by the Speck brother pinned down under his horse, and hands him the notebook and pen. Dr.SCHULTZ If you'd be so kind Speck, as to make your mark here. The. Hillbilly spits in the German gentleman's face. The good doctor wipes his face with a handkerchief. Then takes out a pocket knife. And whispers something that can't be heard in the slavers ear. He signs the bill of sale. Dr.SCHULTZ Mr.Speck, I would like to say it was a pleasure doing business with you, but your customer service leaves a lot to be desired. The good doctor climbs back up on Fritz, and looks to the six Slaves, in leg irons. Dr.SCHULTZ Now as to you poor devils. He tosses to Pudgy Ralph the keys to the shackles. Dr.SCHULTZ So as I.see it, when it comes to the subject of what to do next, you gentlemen have two choices. One, once I'm gone, you lift that beast off the remaining Speck, then carry him to the nearest town. Which would be at least thirty-seven miles back the way you came. Or ... .Two, you unshackle yourselves, take that rifle over there. . .put a bullet in his head, bury the two of them deep, and make your way to a more enlightened area of the country. The choice is yours. He's just about ready to ride off, when the good doctor adds; 0 Dr.SCHULTZ Oh, and on the off chance that there's any astronomy aficionados amongst you, the North Star is THAT ONE. Tata. He looks to Django, who doesn't know how to start his horse. Dr.SCHULTZ Just give him a little kick. Django does, and the horse responds by moving. Dr.SCHULTZ See, it's not so difficult. EXT - MORNING TEXAS LANDSCAPE - SUNRISE The DAWN BREAKS on a western landscape. The two men ride their horses silently, horse hooves CLIP-CLOPPING among the rocks. Django wears Specks winter coat, with one of Dr.Schultz's white button down dress shirts underneath it. As they ride through the picturesque scene... Dr.Schultz breaks the silence. Dr.SCHULTZ So, Django, what do you intend to name him? DJANGO Who? Dr.SCHULTZ Your horse? DJANGO What horse? Dr.SCHULTZ' The horse you're riding. DJANGO This ain't my horse. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes it is. DJANGO No it ain't, it's your horse. I'm just riding it. Dr.SCHULTZ Well, technically, yes - Wait a minute - technically not. If it's my horse, I can give it to you, and as of now, I'm doing such. Django, you're now the proud owner of a horse, congratulations. /1 DJANGO I can't feed no horse. I can't put no horse up in no stable. Dr.SCHULTZ (FRUSTRATED) Don't worry about all that! They ride a bit longer in silence.. .the good doctor composes himself... then says with a smile; Dr.SCHULTZ So... . now that that's settled... . what do you intend to name it? Half the fun of having a horse is choosing his name. For instance my steed is named Fritz. He's stubborn, ornery, and prone to a bad disposition, but I couldn't do without him. (he pats Fritz's neck) Anyway, the name of one's steed, isn't something one does lightly. So once you've thought about it for awhile - DJANGO - Tony. Dr.SCHULTZ - Tony what? DJANGO - I dunno, Tony the horse. Dr.SCHULTZ Oh, you mean you want to name your horse Tony? DJANGO Yeah. That's what you jus' asked me, right? Dr.SCHULTZ When you're right you're right, indeed I did. Why Tony? DJANGO I gotta tell ya? You didn't tell me I gotta tell ya. As they continue to converse, they start heading downhill toward a western town. They pass by a sign that says; "WELCOME TO DAUGHTREY, TEXAS" /Z Dr.SCHULTZ Well I'm naturally curious, of course, but there's no reason you MUST tell me. In fact an air of mystery adds a dash of panache to any steed. And I do believe Tony wears it well. Good job Django, well done. EXT - THE WESTERN TOWN OF DAUGHTREY - MORNING As the citizens of Daughtrey wake up, Django and Dr.Schultz ride Fritz and Tony through the main street of town..Daughtrey looks like a million western towns we've seen before in movies. But to the TOWNSPEOPLE of Daughtrey, Django and the German don't look like a million other visitors. Dr.SCHULTZ What's everybody staring at? DJANGO They never seen a nigger on a horse before. Dr.SCHULTZ What's this bizarre obsession they have with. you not riding horses? DJANGO You askin' me? Dr.Schultz stops Fritz in front of a saloon, and dismounts. Django has a little trouble both stopping Tony and getting off him, but it gets done. Dr.Schultz keeps bombarding The Slave with questions. Dr.SCHULTZ So what other archaic rituals are you people verboten to take part in? As per usual with this white man, Django thinks; "What"? Dr.SCHULTZ I'm just trying to get a clear idea on what you can do, and what you can't do, and if you can't do it, why can't you do it? Like for instance, what if we were to walk in this saloon here, sit down at a table, order a drink, and drink it? Would the authorities frown on that? DJANGO Hell yeah, they gonna frown. Dr.SCHULTZ What part would they find the most offensive? 13 DJANGO All of it. I can't be walkin' in no saloon. I can't be sittin' my ass on no chair, at no table. I can't be drinkin' no drink. And I definitely can't be sharin' no drink, with no white man, in public. Dr.SCHULTZ So if you and I did those things, that would be considered enough of a infraction to make the saloon keeper go get the sheriff? DJANGO You bet your sweet ass they get the sheriff. The good doctor extends his hand towards the saloon entrance. Dr.SCHULTZ Well in that case Django, after you. DJANGO Whoa - I ain't funnin, I can't go in there. Dr.SCHULTZ Django you're going to have to learn to trust me, and as the man said; "There's no time like the,present." He takes Django by the arm and leads him into the entryway of the establishment. INT - SALOON - MORNING The nervous black slave and the confident German'dentist walk into the saloon. The SALOON KEEPER (PETE) is high up on a chair placed high up on a table, to change a candle in the saloons chandelier. His back is turned away from the two patrons. Dr.SCHULTZ Good morning inn keeper, two beers for two weary travelers. SALOON KEEPER It',s still pretty early, we won't be open for about a hour. But by then we'll be servin' breakfast - He turns around and sees them. SALOON KEEPER Whoa! What the hell you think you doin' boy, get that nigger outta here. IT TIME CUT EXT - SALOON - MORNING It's about five minutes later, and the Saloon Keeper comes running out of the bar to get the Sheriff. When Dr.Schultz, sitting at a table with the young Django, calls; Dr.SCHULTZ Inn keeper! Remember, get the sheriff, not the marshall. This wouldn't be the marshalls jurisdiction.'This is just a infraction, on what I assume is a simple county ordinance, and that would fall under the domain of the Sheriff. The Saloon Keeper runs away. The two men sit by themselves in the empty saloon. Dr.SCHULTZ It looks like we must act as our own bartender. The German stands up, and walks-behind the bar, and pours two beer's from the tap into mugs. Django remains seated, and after a beat, asks; DJANGO What kinda dentist are you? This makes the doctor laugh, as he pours the beer's. Dr.SCHULTZ I haven't practiced dentistry in five years - Not to say once I know you better, I wouldn't like to get a look at that mouth - I'm sure it's a disaster - But these days I practice a new profession ... . Bounty Hunter. This gets no reaction from Django. Dr.SCHULTZ Do you know what a Bounty Hunter is? The Black Man shakes his head, no. As the good doctor, walks back to the table carrying the mugs of beer, HE EXPLAINS; Dr.SCHULTZ Well the way the slave trade deals in human lives for cash, a bounty hunter, deals in corpses. 15 Dr.SCHULTZ (CONT'D) The state places a bounty on a man's head. I track that man, I find that man, I kill that man. After I've killed him, I transport that man's corpse back to the authorities - and sometimes that's easier said then done. I show that corpse to the authorities - proving, yes indeed, I have truly killed him - At which point, the authorities pay me the bounty. (lifting his beer) Cheers. The two men touch glasses, and take a drink. DJANGO What's a bounty? Dr.SCHULTZ It's like a reward. DJANGO You kill people and they give you a reward? Dr.SCHULTZ Certain people, yes. DJANGO White people? Dr.SCHULTZ Mostly. A few Mexicans. Couple Chinamen. DJANGO Bad people? Dr.SCHULTZ Badder they are, bigger the reward. Which brings me to you, and I must admit I'm at a bit of a quandary when it comes to you. On one hand, I despise slavery. On the other hand, I need your help, and if you're not in a position to refuse, all the better. So for the time being, I'm going to make this slave malarkey work to my benefit. (BEAT) Still... . having said that, .I feel guilty. So... I'd like the two of us to enter into an agreement. I'm looking for The Brittle Brothers, however in this endeavor I'm at a slight disadvantage, in so far as, I don't know what they look like. But you do... .dont'cha? 1G ÔøΩ. DJANGO SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK Django, back at The Carrucan Plantation, held down by Roger and Ellis Brittle, as Big John BURNS the "r" into his cheek with a BRANDING IRON. BACK TO DJANGO DJANGO I know what they look like, all right. Dr.SCHULTZ Good. So, here's my agreement. You travel with me till we find them - DJANGO - Where we goin'? Dr.SCHULTZ I hear at least two of them are overseeing up in Gatlinburg, but I don't know where. That means we visit every plantation in Gatlinburg till we find them. And when we find them, you point them out, and I kill them. You do that, I agree to give you your freedom... . twenty-five dollars per Brittle brother - that's seventy-five dollars... . your horse, Tony even though I've already gave him to you -- but once the final Brittle brother lies dead in the dust, I'll buy you a new saddle, and a new suit of clothes, handsome cowboy hat included. Dr.Schultz's eyes go to the saloon window. Dr.SCHULTZ And as if on cue... . here comes the sheriff. EXT - SALOON - MORNING We see the sheriff, BILL SHARP, walk towards the saloon cradling a Winchester. Some TOWNSPEOPLE (like the Saloon Keeper) stand around to watch. A. YOUNG BOY leads a herd of BABY GOATS through town. Sheriff Sharp stands in the middle of the street. SHERIFF SHARP Okay boys, fun's over, come on out. Both the doctor and Django stand up and walk to the front porch. As they do, The Sheriff says; 1 2 SHERIFF SHARP Now why y'all wanna come into my town, start trouble, and scare all these nice people? You ain't got nothin' better to do, then to come into Bill Sharps town and show your ass - From his top step on the porch, Dr. King Schultz extends his hand toward the sheriff, as if to shake it... :. .THEN... A SMALL DERRINGER - POPS into Schultz's hand from a metal sliding apparatus concealed under his jacket sleeve. Once in hand, the dentist FIRES one tiny bullet into the belly of Bill Sharp. The tiny gun makes a tiny POP sound. The shocked Bill Sharp lets out a ugly groan, and doubles over in the dirt. The TOWNSPEOPLE are startled. As is Django. As Schultz walks down the porch steps, to the fallen sheriff, reloading his tiny pop shooter, a PEDESTRIAN yells out; PEDESTRIAN What did you jus' do to our sheriff? Dr.Schultz answers him by putting another tiny bullet in the law man's skull, killing him dead. In the background, ONE WOMAN faints. The Boy and his Goats scatter. Dr.Schultz looks over at the Saloon Keeper, across the street. Dr.SCHULTZ Now you can go get the marshall. TIME CUT EXT - DAUGHTREY MAIN STREET - DAY U.S.MARSHALL GILL TATUM snaps the MENFOLK OF Daughtrey to attention. MARSHALL TATUM Move that buckboard over there long ways across the street from the saloon. And I want six men and six Winchesters behind it. And I want two men with two rifles on this roof, and two men with two rifles on that roof, with all barrels pointed at that front door. And somebody git poor Bill outta the goddamn street. LP Cowboys with rifles climb up stairs to take position on the roof of the building across the street from the saloon. The Marshall directs the buckboard being moved into place. The last SNIPER on the rooftop takes his position. WHEN... COMING FROM THE SALOON... . PIANO MUSIC ... INT - SALOON - DAY Dr.Schultz sits behind the piano playing a catchy little saloon number. He seems skilled enough to be a professional western saloon piano player. A terrified Django, who's sure his new master is a lunatic who's going to get them both killed, peeks out the closed curtains on the window. Dr.Schultz's suit coat sits draped over a chair. All of his weapons, including his metal sliding rail Derringer contraption, lie on a table. He plays piano in his button down dress shirt and gray suit vest. Dr.SCHULTZ What are they doing? DJANGO I think they wonderin' why you playin' the piana'. Dr.SCHULTZ Good. (PAUSE) But what are they doing? DJANGO A buncha white folks brought a buckboard around out front, now they hidin' behind it with guns. And a buncha other white folks are up on the roof, with rifles pointed down here. Dr.SCHULTZ Damn, they got that organized fast. Is the marshall out there? DJANGO If the one I think is the.marshall is the marshall, he's out there. )9 Dr.SCHULTZ What makes you think he's the marshall? DJANGO Cause he's the one ready to say somethin'. MARSHALL'S VOICE You in the saloon! Dr.Schultz stops playing the piano. MARSHALL'S VOICE We got eleven Winchesters on every way outta that buildin'! You got once chance git outta this alive! You and your nigger come out right now with your hands over your head, and I mean, right now! Dr.SCHULTZ First things first! Is this the marshall I have the pleasure of addressing? MARSHALL TATUM Yes it is, this is U.S. Marshall Gill Tatum. Dr.SCHULTZ Wunderbar! So marshall, I have relieved myself of all weapons, and just as you have instructed, I'm ready to step outside with my hands raised above my head. I trust as a representative of the criminal justice system of The United States of America, I shant be shot down in the street, by either you or your deputies, before I've had my day in court. MARSHALL TATUM You mean like you did our sheriff? Shot 'em down like a dog in the street! Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, that's exactly what I mean! Do I have your word as a lawman not to shoot me down like a dog in the street? MARSHALL TATUM Well, as much as we'd all enjoy seein' somethin' like that, ain't nobody gonna cheat the hangman in my town! Dr.SCHULTZ Fair enough marshall, here we.come.! Dr.SCHULTZ (TO DJANGO) They're a little tense out there. So don't make any quick movements, and let me do the talking. Django looks at him like, "as if..." EXT - SALOON/MAIN STREET - DAY A lot of guns are trained on the front door of the saloon. Outside of range, the WHOLE TOWN watches the stand off. The saloon doors open, and Dr.Schultz and Django, hands raised, step outside. MARSHALL TATUM You unarmed? Dr.SCHULTZ Yes indeed we are. Marshall Tatum, may I address you, your deputies, and apparently the entire town of Daughtrey, as to the incident that just occurred? MARSHALL TATUM Go on! Dr.SCHULTZ My name is Dr.King Schultz. And like yourself, marshall, I am a servant of the court. The man lying dead in the dirt, who the good people of Daughtrey saw fit to elect as their sheriff, who went by the name of Bill Sharp, is actually a wanted outlaw by the name of Willard Peck, with a price on his head of two hundred dollars. That's two hundred dollars, dead or alive. MARSHALL TATUM The hell you say! Dr.SCHULTZ I'.m aware this is probably disconcerting news. But I'm willing to wager this man was elected sheriff sometime in the last two years. I know this because. three years ago he was rustling cattle from, The B.C. Corrigan Cattle Company of Lubbock Texas. Z/ Dr.SCHULTZ (CONT'D) In my possession. is a warrant made out by circuit court Judge Henry Allen Laudermilk of Austin Texas. You are encouraged to wire him. He will back up who I am, and who your dear departed sheriff was. The Menfolk of the town with rifles, begin trading looks. Then Dr.Schultz delivers the coup de grace. Dr.SCHULTZ In other words marshall, you owe me two hundred dollars. CUT TO EXT - TENNESSEE COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Django and Dr.Schultz, who by now have ridden quite a few miles together, ride their horses in the Tennessee countryside, on the way to Gatlinburg. Dr.Schultz is dressed in one of his nearly identical grey business suits, and Django is still dressed in his slave pants, Schultz's button down dress shirt, and Ace Speck's winter coat. Somewhere along the way a pair of shoes have appeared on'his feet. Dr.SCHULTZ One needs a plan, son. These are brutal times. A man who survives, is a man with a plan. A man who thrives, is a man with a good plan. So, having said that, what's your plan, young Django? DJANGO What'cha mean? Dr.SCHULTZ Well, after this Brittle business is behind us, you'll be a free man, with a horse, and seventy five dollars in your back pocket. What's your plan after that? DJANGO Find my wife, and buy her freedom. Dr.SCHULTZ Django, I had no idea you were a married man. Do most slaves take the institution of matrimony seriously? DJANGO Huh? ZZ Dr.SCHULTZ Do slaves believe in marriage'? DJANGO Me and my wife do. Dr.SCHULTZ Where is she now? DJANGO I dunno. They put us in different boxcars, and sent U.S to The Greenville Slave Auction. She got sold two days 'fore me. But I don't know who to. Dr.Schultz takes out a long stick of beef jerky. Dr.SCHULTZ Care for some jerky? DJANGO Sure. Dr.Schultz rips him off a piece. Django chews on it. As he chews, SCHULTZ SAYS; Dr.SCHULTZ So your plan is to trackdowri your wife, and purchase her.freedom? Only you don't know where she is? A chewing Django nods his head, yes. Dr.Schultz, takes a big bite of jerky, chews for a "moment contemplating the dilemma, then pronounces; Dr.SCHULTZ Well that shouldn't be all that difficult. So how long ago did all this happen? DJANGO A few months ago. Dr.SCHULTZ Three or four? DJANGO Three. Dr.SCHULTZ So shecamefrom the Carrucan Plantation, and shewassold at The Greenville Slave Auctiontosome :unknown customer three monthsago? Django nods his head, yes. Z3 Dr.SCHULTZ The bad part about slavery being a business, is it's immoral. The good part about it being a business is, they keep records. Somewhere in Greenville there's a book with your wife's name in it, and the name of the customer who bought her, and more then likely their address. But then Schultz seems to get second thoughts. Dr.SCHULTZ Still, seventy-five dollars in your back pocket is a pretty nice grub steak, but it's not going to get you very far in Greenville. Not to mention a slave auction town in Mississippi isn't the safest place you could visit. Free or not. DJANGO I'll have my freedom papers. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes you will. But say you show them to some rascals, and they take them from you and tear them up? DJANGO They could do that? Dr.SCHULTZ I'm not saying they would, but they could. DJANGO They do that I'll kill 'em. Dr.SCHULTZ Great! Now you get hung for killin' a white man. The point being is the place,is just too dangerous for you. DJANGO Well I gotta go, when do I go? Dr.SCHULTZ When you get more dangerous. EXT - CHATTANOOGA - DAY Muddy and wet big city Chattanooga. We're in the back of a STORE that. sells SERVANT/HOUSE NIGGER UNIFORMS. Django comes bursting out of the stores back door. He's very distressed. One glance at the outfit he's wearing explains the distress. Z DJANGO is dressed in a powder blue satin Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, that wouldn't be out of place in the court of Marie Antoinette at Versailles. Dr.Schultz comes trailing after him. Dr.SCHULTZ Django, you have to, it's part of "The Act". You're playing a character. Your character is The Valet. This is what The Valet wears. Remember what I told you. During the act, you can never break character. CUT TO EXT - BENNETT MANOR- DAY We see Dr. Schultz, riding slightly in front of Django, dressed in his blue satin Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, as they enter the property of BENNETT MANOR, a plantation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Django leads a riderless horse, behind him and Tony. As the two men ride their horses up the road that leads to the front steps of Bennett Manor, alongside the cotton fields, all the SLAVES stop picking cotton, and straighten their bent backs up to stare in wonder at this sight. The patriarch of Bennett Manor, SPENCER "BIG DADDY" BENNETT, dressed in a fancy leisure suit of the day, emerges from the double doors of the mansion, and stands on the top steps, hands on hips, watching the white man and black man move from the background to the foreground. While there are plenty BLACK MALES out in the cotton fields, the majority of the slave population of Bennett Manor is pretty.BLACK FEMALES, fourteen to twenty-four, referred to as, "PONY'S". The biggest money making crop of this farm, after cotton. As Dr.Schultz and fancy pants Django, bring Fritz and Tony to a stop in front of Bennett Manor, they've drawn quite a crowd of SLAVES, BENNETT FAMILY MEMBERS, and WHITE WORKERS (OVERSEER'S). Spencer Bennett keeps on the top step so he won't be forced to look up at the darkee on the horse. SPENCER BENNETT It's against the law for niggers to ride horses in this territory. Dr.SCHULTZ This is my valet, and my valet doesn't walk. SPENCER BENNETT I said niggers - Z .ate` Dr.SCHULTZ His name is Django, he's a free man, and he can ride what he pleases. SPENCER BENNETT Not on my.property, around my niggers he can't. Dr.SCHULTZ My good sir, perhaps we got off on the wrong boot. Allow me to unring this bell. My name is Dr.King Schultz, this is my valet, Django, and these are our horses, Fritz, and Tony. Fritz, does his head bow. This makes the pretty PONY'S surrounding Bennett, giggle. Dr.SCHULTZ Mr. Bennett, I've been lead to believe you are a gentleman, and a business man. And it is in these capacities that we've ridden from Texas to Tennessee to talk with you now. SPENCER BENNETT State your business. Dr.SCHULTZ I wish to purchase one of your nigger gals. SPENCER BENNETT You and your Jimmie rode from Texas to Tennessee, to buy one of my nigger gals, no appointment, no nuttin'? Dr.SCHULTZ I'm afraid so. SPENCER BENNETT Well what if I say, I don't like you, or your fancy pants. nigger, and I wouldn't sell you a tinkers damn - what'cha gotta say about that? Dr.SCHULTZ Mr. Bennett, if you are the business man, I've been led to believe you to be, I have five thousand things I might say, that could change your mind. i This gets everybody's attention, not least of all Spencer Bennett. Spencer laughs. ZG SPENCER BENNETT C'mon inside, get yourself something' cool to drink. The incognito bounty hunter, dismounts his steed, as does Django. Then the good doctor walks up the steps to Bennett Manor. Dr.SCHULTZ Maybe while we discuss business, you could provide one of your loveliest black creatures to escort Django here around your magnificent grounds. SPENCER Absolutely. Betina! A pretty, fleshy, sweet jelled, twenty-two year old slave gal named BETINA, snaps to attention. BETINA Yes sir, Big Daddy? SPENCER (TO SCHULTZ) What's your Jimmies name again? Dr.SCHULTZ Django. SPENCER Betina sugar, take Django around the grounds. Show 'em all the pretty stuff. BETINA As you please, Big Daddy. Dr.Schultz lowers his voice, and says to the plantation owner; Dr.SCHULTZ Mr. Bennett, I must remind, you, Django is a free man. He cannot be treated like a slave. Within the bounds of good taste, he must be treated as an extension of myself. SPENCER Understood., Schultz. Betina? BETINA Yes, sir? SPENCER Django isn't a slave. Django is a free man. Do you understand? You're not to treat him like any of these other niggers around here, cause he ain't like any of these other niggers around here. Ya got it? BETINA Ya want I should treat 'em like white folks? SPENCER No that's not what I said. BETINA Then I don't know what'cha want Big Daddy. SPENCER Yes, I can see that. (HE THINKS) What's the name of that peckawood boy from town works with the glass? His mama works at the lumber yard? He comes by and fixes the winda's when we have a problem? The MAMMY OF BENNETT MANOR chimes in; MAMMY OF BENNETT MANOR Oh, you mean Jerry. SPENCER Yeah, that's the boy's name, Jerry. (TO BETINA) You know Jerry, dont'cha sugar? BETINA Yes 'em, Big Daddy. SPENCER Well that's it then... just treat 'em like you would Jerry. EXT - ANOTHER PART OF BENNETT MANOR - DAY Away from the big house, Betina gives Django a tour of the grounds. Her in her slave get up, complete with handkerchief on her head, and him in his satin baby blue Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, are quite the pair. She eyeballs him disapprovingly up and down. BETINA What'cha do for your massa'? DJANGO Didn't you hear him tell ya, I ain't no slave. BETINA So you really free? DJANGO Yes. ZY BETINA You mean you wanna dress like that? Django fumes. EXT - BENNETT MANOR (BACK PORCH) - DAY Both Spencer Bennett and Dr.Schultz sit on the back porch drinking lemonade. Dr.SCHULTZ I've been'told by those who should know, the most exquisite African flesh in the state of Tennessee is bred right here on your land. And from the look of these black angels, my sources weren't wrong. SPENCER Oh I got my share of, coal blacks, horse faces, and gummy mouth bitches out in the field. But the lion share of my lady niggers are real show pony's. Dr.SCHULTZ Well that's what I'm looking for, a show pony for young Django. So the only question that remains is, do you have a nigger here worth five thousand dollars? SPENCER Dr.Schultz, five thousand dollar nigger, is practically my middle name. BACK TO DJANGO AND BETINA Betina and Django walk by a big tree on the plantation grounds. The cotton fields and the SLAVES picking it, in the background. DJANGO Betina, come over here, I need to ask you something. He moves her by the tree for more privacy. Betina thinks this fancy pants wants to get all lovey-dovey, and she couldn't be less interested. BETINA What'cho want? DJANGO I'm lookin' for three white men. Three brothers. Overseers. Their name is Brittle. Do you know 'em? BETINA Brittle? DJANGO Yes, Brittle. John Brittle. Ellis Brittle. And Roger Brittle, sometimes called, Little Raj. BETINA I don't know dem. DJANGO They could be usin' a different name. They woulda' come to the plantation in the last year. BETINA You mean The Shaffer's? DJANGO Maybe? Three brother? BETINA Ah-huh. DJANGO Are they here? BETINA Ah-huh. DJANGO Can you point one of 'em out to me? BETINA Well ones over in that field. She points to the cotton field, at a OVERSEER on top of a horse, whip in hand, eyeing the blacks at his mercy. Django takes hold of a little bag slung over his shoulder opens it, and takes out a shiny brass SPYGLASS, the type a sea captain might use. Obviously a prop from Dr.Schultz. He slides it open, places it against his eye, and points it in the direction of a figure out in the cotton field landscape. SPYGLASS POV: Astride his nag, the filthy hillbilly, who calls himself SHAFFER, but who Django knows to be ELLIS BRITTLE, looks on, oblivious to Django's observation. DJANGO SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK He remembers Ellis Brittle BURNING a "r" into Broomhilda's cheek with a BRANDING IRON. BACK TO DJANGO AND THE SPYGLASS he lowers the glass. 3 0 BETINA (INNOCENTLY) Is that who you lookin' for? DJANGO Yep. He folds the spyglass back up, and puts it back in his purse. DJANGO Where's the other two? BETINA. They by the stable, punishin' Little Jody for breakin' eggs. DJANGO They whippin' Little Jody? She nods her head, yes. DJANGO Point me in that direction. She points to a shed, and keeps pointing right. BETINA You go to that shed, and keep goin' that way. Which means; "Go to the shed and turn right." DJANGO Go git that white man, I came here with. He slaps her ass, to hurry her up. Then looks to the shed, and begins crossing the distance between him and The Brittle Brothers. FLASH ON A memory from The Carrucan Plantation; The Brittle Brothers giving his wife Broomhilda, a peelin'. PEELIN' : A punishment by bullwhip, across the back. LITTLE RAJ makes a line in the dirt with the heel of his boot. Making Django stand behind it, as he watches his wife being whipped. BIG JOHN BRITTLE SLASHES the beauty of Broomhilda's back with his BULLWHIP. DJANGO, keeping behind the line, begs Big John for mercy. 3/ DJANGO Please Big John, she won't do it no more! She's real sorry! The WHIP RIPS her back. DJANGO (SCREAMING) Goddamit, Big John! LITTLE RAJ Whoa nigger, calm down, keep it funny. Django gets on his knees, and on behalf of Broomhild.a, begs Big John Brittle with everything he has. BACK TO DJANGO crossing the lawn towards The Brittle Brothers, like an express train. FLASH ON Big John Brittle standing over him, bullwhip in hand, saying to the KNEELING DJANGO; BIG JOHN BRITTLE I like the way you beg, boy. EXT - STABLE - DAY Little Raj Brittle, ties LITTLE JODY, a petite slave girl (eighteen) to a dead tree stump. BIG JOHN BRITTLE paces, taking a few practice CRACKS with his WHIP. LITTLE JODY begs The Shaffer Brothers/The Brittle Brothers for mercy. ROGER goes and sits on a old wagon wheel to watch the whippin'. BIG JOHN BRITTLE Now Jody quit your caterwaulin'. You know yourself it's for your own good. Niggers are clumsy. You'd break everything in goddamn sight, you weren't cured. And the only known cure for nigger clumsiness is a peelin'. Little Jody begs to differ. BACK TO DJANGO As Django in his powder blue satin suit hurries across the grass to Little Jody and The Brittle Brothers, he collects eight little friends who happily run along with the fast walking man. EIGHT LITTLE FRENCH BULLDOGS who bark, yelp, snort and breath at his heels.. Django pays the little dogs no nevermind. 3 2- BACK TO BIG JOHN BRITTLE In position to take the skin off of Little Jody's back. BIG JOHN After this we'll see if you break eggs again. DJANGO turns the corner to the stable, and stands behind them. They don't see him. Big John rears back to make the first WHIP LASH... WHEN ... .DJANGO'S VOICE, stops him; DJANGO John Brittle! Big John breaks his whip stride, looks. up, and in a discarded full length broken mirror from the big house, laying abandoned against the stable wall, he see's DJANGO, dressed in his powder blue satin Little Lord Flauntleroy outfit, surrounded by his pack of little French Bulldogs. LITTLE JODY on her knees, tied to the dead tree stump, looks up see's the same thing in the mirror. LITTLE RAJ looks to his left at the sounds of the voice. BIG JOHN turns toward Django, who he still doesn't recognize. DJANGO just stares back. BIG JOHN smile disappears. He recognizes Django. So does Roger. LITTLE RAJ Django? Django crosses toward Big John, raising up his arm like he's going to shake his hand ... DJANGO Remember me? .Django extends his arm, and Dr.Schultz's Derringer arm contraption,. POPS the TINY GUN into his hand, and he FIRES a tiny bullet smack dab into BIG JOHN'S MERCILESS HEART. BIG JOHN FACE goes into shock... .he falls to his knees...he looks up, clutching his heart, at Django. DJANGO I like the way you die, boy. 3 3 Big John hears it...then tips over dead. LITTLE JODY can't believe what she's just seen. FOUR OTHER SLAVES who just happen to be walking in the background, see it. LITTLE RAJ is stunned ... . then comes to his senses, fumbling for the gun he wears on his hip, but since he's no gunman, in his haste, he gets it out of his holster, but drops it on the ground. It goes off... BANG. SHOOTING himself in the foot, he HOPS UP AND DOWN in pain. The Bulldogs scatter at the sound. of the BANG. DJANGO picks Big John's WHIP off the ground., and begins WHIPPING LITTLE RAJ across the face and chest. MORE SLAVES gather. DJANGO WHIPS HIM TO THE GROUND whips him on the ground, then throws the whip to the ground, picks Roger's pistol off the ground, and empties it (FIVE SHOTS) into Roger. To say the slaves are flabbergasted, is a understatement. Dr.Schultz rides his horse up quickly, rifle in his hand. He sees Django, and the two dead bodies. Dr.SCHULTZ Who are they? DJANGO That's John Brittle, and that's his little brother Raj. Dr.SCHULTZ Where's Ellis? DJANGO He's the one hightailin' it across that field right now. Ellis Brittle riding his horse full out through the cotton field trying to make an escape. SCHULTZ'S WINCHESTER goes to his eye, he follows the rider with his rifle barrel. Dr.SCHULTZ Are you sure that's him? Ellis gets further away... DJANGO Yes! Dr.SCHULTZ Are you positive? Ellis gets further away... DJANGO I dunno. Dr.SCHULTZ You don't know if you're positive? Ellis gets further away... DJANGO I don't know what, positive,'means. Dr.SCHULTZ It means you're sure. DJANGO Yes. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, what? DJANGO Yes I'm sure that's Ellis Brittle. BAM! The German picks the middle Brittle brother off his horse. The dead man WIPES OUT horribly in the thick cotton brush. RED BLOOD splashes on WHITE COTTON. The German and Django have the entire plantation's attention. Spencer Bennett (with his Winchester), his SONS and his OVERSEERS, and some HOUSE NIGGERS come around like a angry mob. The German tosses his rifle in the dirt, and raises his hands. Django does the same with his pistol. Dr.Schultz addresses the ANGRY MOB. Dr.SCHULTZ Everybody calm down, we mean no one else any harm! SPENCER Just who the hell are you two jokers? 35; DrÔøΩ. SCHULTZ I am Dr.King Schultz, a legal representative of the criminal justice system of the United States of America. The man to my left is Django Freeman, he's my. deputy. In my pocket is a warrant signed by circuit court judge Henry Allen Laudermilk of Austin Texas, for the arrest and capture, dead or alive, of John Brittle, Ellis Brittle, and Roger Brittle -- DJANGO - They were goin by the name, Shaffer. Dr.SCHULTZ You know them by the name, Shaffer. But the butchers real names'were Brittle. These are wanted men. The law wants them for murder. I reiterate, this warrant states dead or alive. When Django and myself executed these men on sight, we were operating within our legal. boundaries. Now I realize passions are high. But I must warn you, the penalty for taking deadly force against a officer of the court in the performance of his duty is, you will be hung by the neck until you are dead. This does put a momentary pause in the lynch mob's blood lust. After his dramatic pause for effect... .Dr.Schultz says; Dr.SCHULTZ May I please remove the warrant from my pocket so you may examine it? Resting his Winchester over his shoulder, Bennett reaches for the paper. SPENCER Gimmie. Dr.Schultz removes the warrant from his jacket pocket, and hands it to the plantation owner. Bennett reads it silently to himself, resigned to what it says. Dr.SCHULTZ Satisfied. Bennett eyes go from the warrant to the German. Dr.SCHULTZ May I have that back? 36 ,- Bennett hands Schultz back the piece of paper. Dr.SCHULTZ We good? BENNETT Get off my land. Dr.SCHULTZ Post haste. (TO DJANGO) Load up the bodies as quickly as you can, and let's get out of here. TIME CUT All three dead Brittle Brothers lie over the back of the extra horse the bounty hunters brought with them. Both Bounty Hunters are back in their saddles ready to leave. With all the eyes of the plantation on them, the white and black man start to ride out, when Spencer "Big Daddy" Bennett, steps in their way for one final threat. BENNETT Ain't nobody gonna touch you and your Jimmie while you on my property. But for lettin' a nigger kill a white man, and especially for letting a nigger kill a white man in a audience of niggers, y'all ain't gonna make it out of the county alive. Mark my words Schultz, by tomorrow morning your niggers gonna be stripped and clipped and hangin' from my motherfuckin' gate. Dr.SCHULTZ I'm fully aware Bennett, that you and your regulator playmates aren't shy about killing for what you believe in. But mark my words Big Daddy, if you make a move towards Django or myself, you better be prepared to die for it. The two men ride off. The Black and White Audience watch them go. EXT -- A TENNESSEE LAKE - NIGHT INSERT: Dr.Schultz's SADDLE BAG, the doctor's hands remove THREE STICKS /!. OF DYNAMITE from it. 3 7 INSERT: The doctor's HANDS bind the Three Sticks of Dynamite together. INSERT: The Three Sticks are WRAPPED UP in a BRIGHT YELLOW BANDANA. INSERT: The Yellow Dynamite Sticks, are buried in dirt about half way, with the yellow part protruding from out of the ground. CUT TO. CU SPENCER BENNETT lying on his belly in the grass. SPENCER BENNETT That's them sonsabitches. SPENCER'S POV: We see the camp by the lake that Dr.Schultz and Django have set up. Both wrapped up in bedrolls. The dead bodies of the Brittle Brothers lie by them in a pile. A campfire slowly dims. We Cut Back to Spencer Bennett lying on his belly with SIX OTHER RIFLE CARING MEN observing the camp, from over a grade. The Men sneak back down the hill the way they came... Where about TWENTY-FOUR REGULATORS are waiting for them ON HORSEBACK, all of the riders heads are covered by FLOUR SACKS with eyes and mouth holes cut out. Some carry TORCHES, all carry RIFLES or SHOTGUNS. Spencer mounts his horse. "Big Daddy" issues orders astride his steed.. SPENCER BENNETT Now unless they start shootin' first, nobody shoot 'em. That's way too simple for these jokers. We're gonna whip that nigger lover to death. And I'm gonna personally, strip and clip that garboon myself. Having said his blood thirsty words, he puts the flour sack over his head. He tussles with the sack for a bit, then from inside the sack; SPENCER BENNETT Damn, I can't see fuckin' shit outta this thing. He sticks his fingers in the.eye holes, and rips, trying to make the holes bigger, he only succeeds in making-visibility more obscured. BRADSHAW We ready, or what? 3 7 SPENCER BENNETT Hold on I'm fuckin' with my eye holes. (RIPS) Shit ...I just made it worse. He rips. it off his head in frustration. RANDY I can't see shit either. REDFISH Who made this goddamn shit? 0. B. Willards wife. WILLARD Well make you own goddamn masks! SPENCER (TO WILLARD) Look nobody's saying they don't appreciate what Jenny did. REDFISH Well if all I hadda do was cut a bag, I could cut it better then this. 0. B. How 'bout-you Robert, can you see? ROBERT Not too good. I mean if I.don't move my head, I can see you pretty good ... . more or less. But when I start ridin' the bag starts moving all over, and I'm riding blind. Randy tears at his bag. RANDY Oh shit, I just made mine worse. He puts it on-then says; RANDY Yep, it's worse. He yanks it off his head. RANDY Did anybody bring any extra bags? TERRY No, no one brought a extra bag! 3 9 RANDY I'm just asking. DOUG Do we hafta wear 'em when we ride? SPENCER Shitfire, if you don't wear 'em as you ride up, that just defeats the purpose. Redfish, fatter then some (but not all), takes off his bag. REDFISH I can't see in this fucking thing! I can't breathe in this fucking thing! And I can't ride in this fucking thing! WILLARD Fuck all y'all! I'm going home. I watched my wife work all day gettin' thirty bags ready for you ungrateful sonsabitches! And all I hear is criticize, criticize, criticize. From now on don't ask me or mine for nothin'! Willard rides off. O.B. removes his bag, and yells after Willard. SPENCER O.B., I tole yo to keep quiet! They're asleep, not dead. O.B. But Willards riding off. SPENCER Fuck Willard! Look, let's not forget why we're here. We gotta killer nigger over that hill. And we gotta make a lesson outta 'em. RANDY Okay, I'm confused, are the bags on or off? Robert takes off his bag, and says; ROBERT I think we all think the bags was a nice idea. But, not pointing any fingers, they could of been done better. So how 'bout, no bags this time, but next time, we do the bags right, and then we go full regalia. Everyone takes off their bag. SPENCER Wait a minute, I didn't say no bags! YO TERRY But nobody can see. SPENCER So? TERRY So, it would be nice to see. SPENCER Goddamit, this is a raid! I can't see, you can't see, so what? All that matters is can the fuckin horse see! That's a raid. Spencer puts on his sack, everyone else, reluctantly, does as well. EXT - LAKE - NIGHT The THIRTY RIDERS, all with SACKS OVER THEIR HEADS, come riding over the hill, hooting and hollerin. Since nobody can see they ride haphazard into each other.'Redfish falls off his horse hard on his fat ass. They surround the camp, and when the sleeping Schultz and Django don't react, they know something's up. But since nobody can see, everybody and everybody's horse is. confused. WE HEAR A GROUP OF LINES FROM CIRCLING COWBOYS ON HORSEBACK WITH BAGS OVER THEIR HEADS: "Where are they, I can't see" - "They tricked us" - "Did somebody fall" "Where the hell are they" "Y'all, Redfish fell off his horse-He's kinda hurt bad." Then amongst the confusion... WE SNAP ZOOM TO A BIG TREE on the other side of the lake Then quickly cut into The Tree. Till we're in a CU OF Dr.SCHULTZ with a SCOPE SIGHT RIFLE up to his eye. SCOPE SIGHT POV The Yellow covered STICKS OF DYNAMITE protruding from the ground, are inside the scope sight circle, Horse hooves step around it. TWO SHOT Dr.SCHtJLTZ and DJANGO up in a tree. Dr.SCHULTZ Auf wiedersehen. L, He fires. The Camp EXPLODES Blowing Horses and Riders Apart. Dr.Schultz and Django lift up repeating rifles. Dr.SCHULTZ Let 'em have it! DJANGO I can't see nothin'. Dr.SCHULTZ Just fire into the smoke. The two treetop killers let loose with rifle fire. INSIDE OF THE SMOKE pandemonium reigns. Horses and Men trip over bodies and pieces of bodies, of horses and men. Men with legs and arms blown off, yell bloody murder, hurt and scared Horses cry. Some struggle to get the sacks off their heads, while scared horses dance and buck in panic. Some are shot by the rifle fire. The rest of the men not blown up, and still on horseback, between the sacks and the smoke, still can't see worth a damn. And Men and Horses collide with one another, which causes more bucking and riders falling. About fifteen of the men who can still ride, high tail it the fuck out of there. Whipped and whimpering like dogs. SPENCER BENNETT on his horse with the other fleeing regulators RIDES for his life... SCOPE SIGHT POV We see the back of the fleeing Bennett smack dab in the cross hairs. DJANGO scope sight rifle up to his eye. Schultz next to him, says; Dr.SCHULTZ He's getting away. DJANGO I got 'em. SPENCER'S HORSE his hooves race and rip up the grass. SPENCER riding for his life... DJANGO scope sight rifle up to his eye. Dr.SCHULTZ He's getting out of range. DJANGO I got 'em. INSERT: A black finger squeezes the rifle trigger. SPENCER BENNETT we're behind him as he rides away, OFF SCREEN we hear the whistling of what sounds like an incoming missle. SPENCER BENNETT we're in.front of Spencer Bennett as he rides, when Django's bullet, RIPS THROUGH his CHEST. DJANGO DJANGO I got 'em. SPENCER BENNETT falls from his horse, dead. DJANGO scope sight rifle in his hand, big smile on his face, looks.to Dr.Schultz. Dr.SCHULTZ Like that, huh? Referring to the scope sight rifle; DJANGO I like. Dr.SCHULTZ Well, I think while they take this opportunity to lick their wounds, we should take this opportunity to get the fuck out of Tennessee. They hop out of the tree. MONTAGE Dr.Schultz in a big city, buying Django a new saddle. Django gets his first initial "D" etched into it. The men go to different stores to purchase Django's wardrobe. The outfit bought, is selected by Django, with suggestions offered by Schultz. When he's done, Django looks damn handsome in his new duds. Brown cowboy boots, Green Corduroy Jacket, Smokey Grey Shirt, Tan Skin Tight Pants, and Light Brown Cowboy Hat. He looks a. bit like Elvis in "Flaming Star" and a Little Joe Cartwright on "Bonanza". However, tellingly, he keeps Ace Speck's Winter Coat as his winter coat. EXT - COUNTRY MEADOW - PRETTY DAY Django, sitting on his new saddle, in his new duds, rides alongside the good doctor Schultz. The German carries a PICNIC BASKET. Dr.SCHULTZ But I'm serious son, Greenville is just too dangerous for you to go fucking around there. You're a freed, slave, you should be in New York. You shouldn't be in Greenville, you shouldn't even be forty miles on any side of Greenville., You shouldn't be anywhere in Mississippi. DJANGO She's my wife, it's my job to look after her. If Greenville's where I gotta go to find out where she went, then I gotta go. Now you were sayin' where I gotta go first? Dr.SCHULTZ There'should be some sort of records office. You know when she was sold, you know where she came from, the Carrucan Plantation, and you know her name ... . what is her name? DJANGO Broomhilda. Schultz reacts. Dr.SCHULTZ Broomhilda? Django.nods his head yes. Dr.SCHULTZ Were her owners German? Now Django reacts, "How did he know that? DJANGO Yeah, how did you know? She wasn't born on The Carrucan Plantation. She was raised by a German mistress, The Von Shafts. She can speak a little German too. Dr.SCHULTZ Your wife? DJANGO Yeah, when she was little her mistress taught her so she'd have somebody to talk German with. Dr.SCHULTZ So let me get this straight, your slave wife speaks German, and her name is Broomhilda Von Shaft...? DJANGO Yep. Mouthful, huh? Dr.SCHULTZ To say the least. (stopping the horse) This looks like a very pretty place to have our picnic. What'd ya say, here? TIME CUT EXT - PICNIC IN COUNTRY MEADOW - PRETTY DAY The two men sit on a blanket with a nice picnic spread spread out. Django eats a cucumber sandwich with the crust cut off, and drinks a cup of tea. DJANGO How did you know Broomhilda's first masters were German? Dr.SCHULTZ Broomhilda is a German name. If they named her, it stands to reason they'd be German. DJANGO Lotsa gals where you from named Broomhilda? Dr.SCHULTZ No, not so much. Broomhilda is the name of a character in one of the most popular of all the German legends. DJANGO Really? There's a story 'bout Broomhilda? Dr.SCHULTZ Yes there is. DJANGO Do you know it? Dr.SCHULTZ Every German knows that story. Would you like me to tell you? Django nods his head, yes. Dr.SCHULTZ Well Broomhilda was a princess. She was the daughter of Wotan, the god of all gods. Anyway, her father is really mad at her. DJANGO What she do.? Dr.SCHULTZ I don't exactly remember. I think she disobeys him in some way. So at first he's just going to obliterate her - DJANGO Obliterate... . what does that mean? Dr.SCHULTZ Like blow up. He pantomimes a explosion. DJANGO Phew, that's pretty mad. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes it is, and like most fathers, given a little time, he calms down a bit. He's still mad at her. He still wants to punish her. Just not ... . blow her up. So instead what he does, is he puts her high on top of a mountain. DJANGO Broomhilda's on a mountain? Dr.SCHULTZ It's a German legend, there's always going to be a mountain in there somewhere. So, he puts her on top of the mountain and he puts a fire breathing dragon there to guard the mountain. And. then he surrounds her in circle of hellfire. And there Broomhilda shall remain, unless a hero arises brave enough to save her. DJANGO Does a fella arise? From now on as Dr.Schultz talks, he's beginning to realize something he wasn't aware of when the conversation started. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes Django, as a matter he does. A fella named, Sigfried. DJANGO Does Sigfried save her? Dr.SCHULTZ Yes he does, and quite spectacularly, so. Now true, he is assisted in his triumph by a truly, truly, remarkable sword, still, having said that, Sigfried triumphs over all of his obstacles not just due to his sword, but due to his courage. He scales the mountain, because he's not afraid of it. He defeats the dragon, because he's not afraid.of him. Dr.SCHULTZ (CON'T) He walks through hellfire because Broomhilda's worth. it. After that last line of dialogue... .the two men just let a moment pass as they nibble on their sandwiches. DJANGO I know how he feels. Dr.SCHULTZ I think I'm just starting to realize that. He pours Django and himself some more tea out of a fancy tea pot, as he thinks about what he's going to say next. Dr.SCHULTZ Look Django, I don't doubt one day you will save your lady love. But I'm afraid I can't let you go to Greenville in a good conscious. Let me ask you a question, how do you like the bounty hunting business? DJANGO Kill white folks, and they pay ya? What's not to like? Dr.SCHULTZ I hafta admit, we make a good team. DJANGO But I'thought you were mad at me for killin' Big John and Rodger? Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, on that occasion, you were a tad overzealous. But normally, that's a good thing. How'd you like to partner up for the winter? DJANGO What'd ya mean partner up? Dr.SCHULTZ You be my deputy, for real this time. A lot of the big money is in outlaw gangs. Some of these fellas are worth fifteen hundred or three thousand a piece. With one man, anything over three men is a risk. But with a partner? Creating cross fire? It's fish in a. barrel. A lot of these gangs hold up in the'hills for the winter. DJANGO You makin' another agreement? W7 Dr.SCHULTZ Yes. You work with me through the winter, till the snow melts. I give you a third of my bounties. And while we're together, I'll teach you a few things you're going to need to know. DJANGO Can you teach me how to make Tony do that head bow thing that Fritz can do? Dr.SCHULTZ That among other things. We make some money this winter, when the snow melts, I'll take you to Greenville myself, and we'll find where they sent your wife. I'm pretty good at finding people. Is it a deal? No white man has ever done anything for Django, just to him. So understandably, he's a little suspicious. DJANGO Why you care what happens to me? Why you care if I find my wife? Dr.SCHULTZ Well frankly, I've never given anybody their freedom before. And now that I have, I feel vaguely responsible for you. You're just not ready to go off on your own, it's that simple. You're too green, you'll get hurt. Plus when a German meets a real life Sigfried,. it's kind of a big deal. As a German, I'm obliged to help you on your quest to rescue your beloved Broomhilda. Django accepts that response. What follows is a MONTAGE covering the five months that Django and Schultz partner up as bounty hunters. Schultz wears his normal ensemble. Django wears his cool looking Green Jacket, unless it's really cold, which a lot of this Montage is. Then he still wears Ace Specks raw hide winter coat over his cool clothes. WE SEE A SCENE to be improvised (more or less), where Dr.Schultz teaches Django how to draw and shoot the pistol in the holster at his hip. By the end of the scene, after trial and error, we see Django's going to be good at this. EXT - HILLSIDE - SUNNY DAY We see Django and Dr.Schultz walking up a hill. Tony and Fritz have been left tied up downhill. Django leads a extra body HORSE (named PONCHO) behind him. Dr.Schultz carries his scope sight rifle in 'a long case. They get to the top of the hill. It overlooks a small farmhouse. Y, 8 DOWN BELOW WE SEE A LITTLE MAN struggling behind a plow, and his FIFTEEN YEAR OLD SON helping him by leading the horse forward. On top of their perch on the hill top, Dr.Schultz says; Dr.SCHULTZ Keep down or he'll see you. DJANGO Who that farmer? Who cares? Dr.SCHULTZ Well since we came here to kill 'em, he just might. DJANGO What? The little man pushin' that plow? Dr.SCHULTZ That little man pushing that plow, is Smitty Bacall. DJANGO Smitty Bacall is a farmer? Dr.SCHULTZ No. Smitty Bacall is a stagecoach robber who's hiding out as a farmer, because there's a seven thousand dollar bounty on his head. He hands Django the scope rifle case. Dr.SCHULTZ And he's all yours my boy. DJANGO lays on his belly, with the Scope Sight up to his eye. SCOPE SIGHT POV: on the Farmer struggling behind his plow, working hard with his horse and his son. Django's finger on the trigger... .but he hesitates. Dr.SCHULTZ Oh what happened.to mister I wanna kill white folks for money? DJANGO His son's with him. Dr.SCHULTZ Good. He'll have a loved one with him. Maybe even share a last word. That's better then most get, and a damn. sight better then he deserves. 1œøΩ9 Django still hesitates. Dr.SCHULTZ Put down the rifle. Don't worry, I'm not mad at you. Take out Smitty Bacall's handbill. Django removes the folded up handbill from the pocket of his tan pants. Dr.SCHULTZ Read it aloud. Consider it today's lesson. DJANGO (READING) "Wanted, dead or alive. Smitty Bacall and The Smitty Bacall Gang. For murder and stagecoach robbery. Seven thousand dollars for Smitty Bacall. One thousand and five hundred dollars for each of his gang members. Known members of The Smitty Bacall Gang are as follows, DANDY MICHAELS, GERALD NASH, and CRAZY CRAIG KOONS." Dr.SCHULTZ Well done. Bravo. THAT is who Smitty Bacall is. If Smitty Bacall wanted to start a farm at twenty-two, they would never of printed that. (REFERRING TO THE HANDBILL) But Smitty Bacall wanted to rob stagecoaches, and he didn't mind killing people to do it. You want to save your wife by doing what I do? This is what I do. I kill people, and sell their corpses for cash. His corpse is worth seven thousand dollars. Now quit your pussyfootin and shoot him. Django SHOOTS. The Little Man down below behind the plow falls down. The Young Boy doesn't know what happened at first. Then he figures'out his father was just shot. He goes to him in the dirt. Dr.SCHULTZ You need to keep that Smitty Bacall handbill. DJANGO Why? Dr.SCHULTZ It's good luck. You always keep the handbill of your first bounty. They begin walking down the hill, to collect Smitty Bacall's body, leading the extra body horse behind them. 50 As they walk down hill, they watch the little scene of Smitty Bacall's Son cradling his dying father.in his arms, the older man speaking his last words to his son before he dies. Dr.SCHULTZ See, they're having a tender little father son moment now. No doubt the most heartfelt one they've ever had. EXT - SNOWY FOREST - NIGHT It's now full on snowy winter in the hills. Django practices his quick draw against a SNOWMAN he's built. He sticks a BOTTLE in it, so the bottom of the bottle is where the snowman's heart would be. He DRAWS... Shoots the bottle heart! He DRAWS ... Shoots the left coal eye. He DRAWS ... Shoots the right coal eye. He DRAWS... Shoots the carrot nose. Dr.Schultz comes up behind him. Dr.SCHULTZ I think it's safe to say you're faster then the snowman. EXT - SNOWY FOREST - DIFFERENT NIGHT A outlaw gang known as The WILSON - LOWE GANG (five guys) ride through a snowy forest at night. When all five men and their Horses, are SHOT FROM ABOVE. DJANGO AND SCHULTZ up in a tree, FIRING DOWN ON them. EXT - WINTER MOUNTAIN TOWN MAIN STREET - NIGHT The FLAKES continue to FALL HARD as Dr.Schultz and Django ride down the main street of town, pulling poor Poncho who's FULLY LOADED DOWN with five corpses. 571 The local SHERIFF, DON GUS, watches the two men ride up, he knows them. SHERIFF GUS Doctor and Django, how the hell are ya, and who the hell ya got there? Dr.SCHULTZ The Wilson - Lowe Gang. SHERIFF GUS Who the hell's The Wilson - Lowe Gang? Dr.Schultz removes a handbill from his inside jacket pocket, and hands it down to the friendly peace officer. Dr.SCHULTZ Bad Chuck Wilson, and meaner Bobby Lowe. And three of their acolytes. SHERIFF GUS Just leave 'em out here, they ain't going nowhere. And if'in they do, god must love 'em, so who are we to say. Come outta the snowy snow and git yourself some coffee. TNT - SHERIFF GUS'S OFFICE - NIGHT The snow encrusted bounty hunters come inside the lawmans office. They exchange pleasantries about the weather as the Sheriff pours them coffee. After the two frosty gentlemen have drunk some of the hot liquid, they get down to business. As Schultz and Gus discuss the bounties, Django reads the handbills aloud from off the wall. On the third one he reads, WARREN VANDERS, and a two thousand dollar bounty, "That one", Schultz says. Django RIPS IT off the wall. As the winter has progressed, we see they've become a genuine bounty hunting team. And Django, a genuine bounty hunter. EXT - PRETTY MEADOW - DAY The snow has melted, and it's SPRING. And inside of this meadow Django practices his fast draw against five men... .by Schultz throwing FIVE COINS in the air ... DJANGO DRAWS FAST shoots three coins, FIRES again hitting another, then falls to the ground to get the fifth. He looks up from the ground at Schultz. 5L As Schultz collects the coins off the ground, he says; Dr.SCHULTZ You're pretty confident aren't you? Django nods his head, yes. Dr.SCHULTZ You have reason to be. He holds out his fist, opens his hand, the coins lay in his palm. All the coins have bullet holes dead in their center. He drops them on top of Django. DJANGO Still think I'm too green for Greenville? Dr.Schultz removes a pipe, sticks it in his mouth and says; Dr.SCHULTZ Oh you're ready for Greenville. He lights a match, then lights the pipe, puffing as he says; Dr.SCHULTZ Greenville ready for you, that I'm not so sure. He blows out the match... WE GO TO BLACK What we also saw in the above montage is Django shake off a lifetime of slavery. Django, in his green jacket, in his cowboy hat, on top of his steed Tony, with his gun hanging from his hip, has become his own man. He's not a slave anymore. He's a bounty hunter. BLACK TITLE CARD ACROSS THE SCREEN ONE LETTER AT A TIME STYLE (ala "Rocky" and "FLASHDANCE") MISSISSIPPI CUT TO EXT - THE TOWN OF GREENVILLE MISSISSIPPI - DAY The whole Main Street of Greenville is thick with five inches of shit brown mud that all the horse hooves, and wagon wheels, and slave feet have to wade through to get from one end of the town to the other. 53 We see Django and Dr.Schultz enter the town, and slosh their horses in the mud,, down the main street of Greenville Mississippi. The buying and selling of slaves is what the whole town is built around. BLACK MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN in BONDAGE are everywhere you look. LINES OF CHAINED SLAVES being marched one way or the other, move through the muddy streets of Greenville. WHITE MEN on horses move them along. BUCKBOARDS filled with DOMESTIC SLAVES (HOUSE NIGGERS), and pretty PONYS, driven by WHITE MEN roll through the street. A YOUNG WHITE BOY (14 years old), a shepherd, leads a bunch of SLAVE CHILDREN through town. A SHEPHERD'S DOG, HELPS HIM OUT BY MOVING THE KIDS ALONG. Impromptu slave auctions take place on almost every block. A SUBTITLE APPEARS on the bottom of the screen: GREENVILLE CHICKASAW COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI Dr.Schultz takes in this African flesh market, where human beings sell other human beings, with disgust and a little bit of shock. Django is neither disgusted or. shocked, he knows first hand how Greenville operates. As he rides Tony through town in his snappy duds, he looks'at the BLACK MEN half dressed: in chains. He REMEMBERS HIMSELF with his six Other Companions from earlier, being walked through the mud of Main Street by The Speck Brothers. On that day he might as well of been a steer. Today, with a gun on his hip, money in his pocket, in his snappy outfit, astride his steed Tony, he feels so different from these wretched half naked bastards it gives him a bit of a chill. Django sees the towns railroad depot, and across from it a huge SLAVE PEN, like a STEER CORRAL. At the moment there's no train in the depot. WE FLASH ON The TRAIN, at a earlier time, pulling into the depot. INSIDE ONE OF THE BOXCARS amidst a boxcar full of shirtless BLACK MALES, Django watches the train pull into the station, from inside the wooden slates of the boxcar.: A hatch in the roof of the boxcar is NOISILY YANKED OPEN, and TWO WHITE SLAVE TRADERS (RUSS AND JUDD), peer down at their human cargo. JUDD Good god almighty these niggers stink! I F RUSS Niggers stink, where's the shock? (to the Slaves BELOW) Okay you bucks, listen up, and listen well, I'm only gonna say this once. There's a slave corral right across from this boxcar. We gittin ready to open these doors. When we do, y'all run as fast as you can, right into that pen. 'Anyone gittin off trail, gonna get hurt and hurt bad. Now you niggers better comprehend. And that goes for any African garboons amongst y'all can't understand english ... . your American buddies better shove your ass in the right direction, or your trip to this country is going to be short, and pointless. Train to pen as fast as you can! The boxcar door is slid open, and a HUNDRED AND FIFTY BLACK MALES run full out from the train to the steer corral. We spot Django during the running. Once inside the corral, the gate is closed. COWBOYS with rifles act as prison guards. INSIDE THE CORRAL through the wooden posts, in the distance, Django watches them open up the boxcar holding the females. They do their run to their pen out of view. Django catches a quick glimpse of Broomhild.a running with the other LADIES, then she's gone from view. BACK TO DJANGO (PRESENT) Django and Dr.Schultz on top of their horses, taking in the sight of Greenville. Dr.SCHULTZ It's a spectacle out of Dante. DJANGO You should see it from the other side. Dr.SCHULTZ Frankly, I don't know if I could endure this. DJANGO You'd be surprised what you can endure. (BEAT) Where to? 675 Dr.SCHULTZ Records office. CUT TO INT - RECORDS OFFICE - DAY Dr.Schultz and Django walk into a records office, lined with books. We watch through the store front window, the black man and white man enter, and Dr.Schultz present his business card to a Dickensian looking RECORDS OFFICE WORKER. As Schultz starts his spellbinding with words routine... . The CAMERA FADES TO BLACK. BLACK TITLE CARD: BROOMHILDA INT - SLAVE PEN - DAY The same shot we saw before of Django fighting his way to the bars of the slave pen, to get a better last look of Broomhilda. Broomhilda, as before is walked by in the distance. Then, as before Django loses sight of her. EXT - MAIN STREET - GREENVILLE - DAY We follow in front of Broomhilda being lead out of the slave pen by TWO WHITE MALE SLAVERS. Her bare feet slosh in the Main Street mud, and the leg irons scrap her ankles. Up until now everything you've ever seen of Broomhilda, has only been in Django's Spaghetti Western Flashbacks. In other words, from his perspective, and memory. This is the,only time the story will shift to Broomhilda's perspective. The strong but frightened girl is led out on to the hustle and bustle, and wagon wheels and horse hoofs of Main Street. Broomhilda is not taken into that three story auction arena that Django was sold in at the beginning. Instead She's just lifted up on a parked buckboard wagon. Her SELLER (CLYDE) starts his pitch on the TWELVE or so BUYERS that watch this puny make shift auction. BROOMHILDA looks down into the crowd of twelve ugly white men, and holds her breath which one will buy her. Among the ugly white men we see Mr.HARMONY (MIKE), not quite as ugly as the rest. An older well dressed, classy gentleman. Next to him is his twenty four year old overweight awkward son SCOTTY HARMONY. Scotty in the audience, and Broomhilda on the wagon, THEIR EYES MEET, he nudges his dad. The Seller makes her expose her breasts to the small crowd. Then her back, revealing her whip marks. Then pointing out the runaway "r" branded in her cheek. Some of the crowd, including Scotty, react with repulsion at the sight of the whip marks. The Seller assures the crowd, that niggers don't feel pain like white folks, and it only makes the women more gentle. SELLER - CLYDE Fellahs, you ain't felt gentle, till you felt nigger gal gentle. UGLY MAN makes a bid. BROOMHILDA yikes. UGLIER MAN higher bid. BROOMHILDA reacts. UGLIER BY FAR GUY makes leap frog big bid. BROOMHILDA reacts. BIG GREASY FAT GUY makes a bid. BIG FAT GREASY BEAVER PELT COVERED TRAPPER makes a bid. A GIGGLING LEERING GROUP OF BROTHERS make a bid. A SEVENTY FIVE YEAR OLD INDIAN ON A MULE makes a bid. Mr.Harmony makes a bid for his son Scotty. Broomhilda notices that. And makes more eye contact with Scotty. They look at each other as Mr.Harmony continues to bid. A LITERARY NARRATOR comes on the soundtrack. NARRATOR (VO) On that day, eight months ago, the auction was won by Mike Harmony, as a birthday present for his fat boy son Scotty. Mr.Harmony congratulates his son. From on top of the buckboard Broomhilda looks down at her new owners. Later they leave for the Harmony house. Scotty lifts Broomhilda up into the back of the buckboard. He hands her a little white bag. SCOTTY This is for you. She opens the bag,candies of many colors sit in it. SCOTTY They're jelly beans. Try one. She selects a yellow one and puts it in her mouth. SCOTTY Good huh? She nods her head, yes. We see him drive the buckboard out of Greenville with Broomhilda in the back eating her bag of jelly beans. $XT - COUNTRY ROAD - DAY The buckboard makes its way down a country road. Broomhilda in the back, and Scotty driving the wagon. Scotty bought her, but he's too scared to talk to her. Broomhilda's muddy bare feet dangle off the wagon. She's beginning to realize the young master is the shy type. BROOMHILDA Master Scotty... ? SCOTTY Yes Broomhilda? BROOMHILDA I'm lonely back here. Can I come on up with you on that seat so we can talk? SCOTTY Please, I'd love that. She climbs into the driver's seat. In more ways then one. '8 EXT - THE HARMONY HOUSE - DAY A nice two story southern house. Very nice, but hardly a plantation. The household's FOUR DOMESTIC SLAVES. Broomhilda will be the fifth. The buckboard pulls up to the front of the house. Scotty's mother, Mrs.HARMONY (MARY LOUISE), waits to meet her son, and his new bought nigger gal. The older lady looks the black girl up and down and says to her; Mrs.HARMONY What's your name, gal? BROOMHILDA Broomhilda. Mrs.HARMONY Follow me. into the kitchen, ('to her son) You stay out here. INT - KITCHEN - DAY Mrs.Harmony brings Broomhilda in her kitchen. The TWO DOMESTIC SLAVES that were in, there are chased out by the boss lady. Mrs.Harmony grabs Broomhilda by the wrist, and tells her; Mrs.HARMONY I want to have a word with you, wench. You met my boy Scotty. You can tell ain't no white girl gonna fool with him. And if they do fool with him, they fool with him for the wrong reason. Boy's twenty four, he still ain't a man yet. That's why you're here. Be nice to him. He's a very sweet boy. Play him right, he'll eat bird seed out of your palm. Play 'em wrong, you'll deal with me. BROOMHILDA I like Scotty. He's just shy is all. All he needs is a little confidence. Mrs.HARMONY And you'll give that to him? BROOMHILDA I'll do my best, mam. Scotty's a real sweet boy. Mrs.HARMONY He is, isn't he? BROOMHILDA Ah-huh. The mother lets go of the young lady's wrist. 19 NARRATOR (VO) Basically The Harmony's bought a slave bride for young master Scotty that day. And the two kids had a nice time playing house for awhile. We see Scotty and Broomhilda catching butterflies in butterfly nets in the daytime.. At night they catch LIGHTNING BUGS together. At night in Scotty's bed, while the young man lay fast asleep, Broomhilda looks at her jelly jar of GLOWING LIGHTNING BUGS. NARRATOR (VO) As Scotty's sort of defacto sweetheart, if no visitors were about, Broomhilda would even join the family at their dinner table. We see them at dinner eating fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. NARRATOR.(VO) And pretty soon she was adopted into a member of the family. Mrs.Harmony and Broomhilda sewing together. The Harmony family and Broomhilda playing croquet in the front yard. After dinner, Mrs.Harmony entertaining the family by playing the piano. Mr.Harmony reading the women and his son a story from a storybook. NARRATOR (VO) Scotty was never happier. Scotty and Broomhilda walking holding hands at Southern magic hour. Broomhilda having sex with Scotty, baby talking with him, talking him through it, making him feel loved and secure. NARRATOR (VO) After three months of this bliss, Scotty decided to take Broomhilda for a romantic weekend in Greenville. SCOTTY AND BROOMHILDA drive through the Main Street of Greenville, dressed to the nines, in a fancy carriage. Broomhilda dressed in a beautiful white lace dress, complete with white lace gloves, fancy ladies hat, and white parasol. Scotty, very proud of his pretty Pony, is dressed in a fashion best described as plantation pimp daddy. 6O NARRATOR (VO) White masters would take their pretty Ponys to Greenville for a treat or romantic excursion, for two reasons-One, seeing how bad the other slaves had it, always made the papered Ponys appreciate their privilege position, (just in case they'd forgot). BROOMHILDA holding her parasol, looking like a black Daisy Miller, watches the OTHER SLAVES march by in the mud. They watch her too. INT - HOTEL LOBBY - NIGHT Broomhilda and Scotty, and their luggage, move into the fancy hotel lobby, and rent a room at the front desk. INSERT: HOTEL REGISTRY Scotty signs his name. The DESK CLERKS HAND checks the box on the registry book that indicates darkee female companion. INT -. GREENVILLE - NIGHT Greenville at night is a little different. At night, RICH WHITE MASTERS showing off their Ponys (like Scotty), rule the streets. NARRATOR (VO) And two, there was a sliver of society that ran through Greenville at night that catered to white masters who were infected with a condition that was normally referred to as, "Nigger love." At night the streets, the bars, bistros, and buggy rides were ruled by rich white masters showing off their pretty Pony's. EXT - CLEOPATRA CLUB - NIGHT An establishing shot.of the three story house that has been converted into private club called, The Cleopatra Club. NARRATOR (VO) But the crown jewel of all this interracial frivolity, was the members only, Cleopatra Club. INSERT: GOLD PLAQUE with the name, THE CLEOPATRA CLUB on it, next to it is a profile of Nefertiti. 6! INT - THE CLEOPATRA CLUB - RESTAURANT - NIGHT The interracial joint is jumping (as long as by interracial you mean white men and black women). Scotty and Broomhilda are enjoying a fancy dinner in the clubs dining room. We see across the dining room, the powerful white man, CALVIN CANDIE, sitting with some White Men and some Black Ponys, eyeing Broomhilda. SCOTTY I gotta tell you Broomhilda - I don't care if I go to. hell for this - I love you. And if loving you means I go to hell ... . Well then hello Mr.Devil. That was actually kind of funny. Broomhilda was right, all he needed was a little confidence. She puts her hand on his. NARRATOR (VO) Then... speak of the devil and the devil appears. CALVIN CANDIE appears at their table. CALVIN CANDIE Hello, my name is Calvin Candie, I own The Cleopatra Club. And I would just like to welcome an attractive couple'like yourselves to my favorite place on earth. Scotty stands up and shakes hands with Calvin. SCOTTY Thank you so much, it's a great honor. We love it here. Pointing at a empty chair. CALVIN CANDIE May I join you?- SCOTTY Please, by all means. Calvin sits down. Broomhilda gets a sinister chill from this smiling jack. Scotty, as per usual, is clueless. CALVIN CANDIE How long have you been a member? SCOTTY We just joined this weekend. CALVIN CANDIE Well our little private oasis appreciates your patronage. Some may consider the dues excessive, but they're necessary for us to create this haven for the alternative lifestyle we've all become accustomed to. SCOTTY Well said, and money well spent. He squeezes Broomhilda's hand. Candie sees this. CALVIN CANDIE It would be.my pleasure, your first weekend at the club, to join me and my friends at my table. Broomhilda knows this is a man to be avoided. But Scotty is swept away being courted by somebody like Calvin Candie. She tries to imply they should stay where they are. He brushes her off with a, "Don't be silly." We see Calvin introduce his table of friends to the couple, and they join the party. Calvin Candie has his arm around a foxy Pony named SHEBA, whose dress is a little more revealing then the others. They drink and talk, and the White Men have a forced good time. But Calvin Candie can't hide his sinister side from Broomhilda, and it keeps her uncomfortable, until she excuses herself from the table to go to bed. Scotty's having such a good time with his fancy friends he opts to stay behind.'Broomhilda leaves in a bit of a huff, due to Scotty's disobedience. If these fancy.fucking white men weren't around making Scotty feel so puffy chested, he'd never dismiss her that way. We FOLLOW Broomhilda out of the club, across the street, to the hotel. NARRATOR (VO) After excusing herself, she walked across the street to her hotel room. She got her white dress dirty in the mud, but she didn't care, the night was ruined anyway. Some romantic weekend. Wait till she gets home and tells his mother how he ignored her. She'll fix his fat ass. Wait till he asks her to scratch his back next time. She's gonna scrape every pimple. '3 ÔøΩ-. BACK AT THE CLEO CLUB The now drunk Scotty is playing poker with Calvin and his friends. NARRATOR (VO) Back at The Cleopatra Club, as the night wore on, Calvin Candie suggested'a friendly card game. As the game wore on, it came down to a two thousand dollar pot between Calvin Candie and Scotty Harmony. Luckily for him, Scotty was holding.a inside straight. Calvin holds his cards with Sheba draped around him. She whispers something in his ear. CANDIE (TO SHEBA) Really? (TO SCOTTY) You know what Sheba just tole me? Scotty, thinking about his great hand, says; SCOTTY What? CANDIE She says she thinks you're cute. SCOTTY Really? Thank you Sheba, I think you're beautiful. Sheba whispers something else in Candie's ear. CANDIE Sheba says she'd like to give you a little lip. Want some lip? Scotty, is a little surprised. SCOTTY Well, she's your Pony...I mean... CANDIE Oh hush, what's a little nigger lip 'tween friends. Go on honey, give 'em some sugar. Sheba walks over to Scotty's side of the table, and gives him a very lip intensive'soul kiss. The table enjoys the show. Then Sheba goes back to Calvin's side of the table. The game continues. G CANDIE Okay loverboy, I think you're trying to out brazen me in my own club, and I won't have it. If you're really holding cards, time to pony up. I raise you five hundred. Candie throws in his chips. SCOTTY. I see your five hundred... (throws in chips) .and raise you four hundred more. (tosses his last chips) Call. This is where Calvin Candie has waited to be all night. CALVIN CANDIE Not so fast, boy. (BEAT) Pot ain't fat enough yet. SCOTTY I'm all in. CALVIN CANDIE Ain't that too bad. Scotty doesn't intend to let this smiling Jack cheat him out of his pot, especially with him holding an inside straight. SCOTTY I would think a southern gentleman of such renown as yourself, wouldn't have to resort to buying a pot in his own club. Calvin writes on a piece of paper, then throwsit'in the pot. CALVIN CANDIE One final raise. Scotty takes the piece of paper, "What's this?" CALVIN CANDIE It's Sheba's bill of sale. SCOTTY What? I don't want her. Calvin.and the whole table laugh at that. CALVIN CANDIE You sure didn't look like you didn't want her. More laughter. CALVIN CANDIE In Greenville slaves are currency. And Sheba's worth about eight hundred dollars. I'm throwing Sheba in the pot. Match or fold? SCOTTY I'm all out of money. CALVIN CANDIE But we ain't playin' for money no more.. We matchin' nigger gals. And a nigger gal you got. SCOTTY I can't bet Broomhilda. CALVIN CANDIE In Chickasaw County, she's money. Pony her up or fold. Somebody get him a piece of paper and a pencil. Somebody does. CALVIN CANDIE Write out a bill of sale, or fold them cards. Scotty makes a pressured decision. He hurriedly takes the pencil and writes out a Bill of Sale for Broomhilda. SCOTTY Let me see your cards! Candie lays down his cards, he has a FLUSH. What Scotty's just done hits him like a ton of bricks. SCOTTY You cheated me. After Scotty uses the "C" word, everybody quiets down. CALVIN CANDIE What did you just call me? SCOTTY I called you a card cheatin' son of a bitch, cause that's what you are! Calvin calmly stands up from the table. He removes a small Derringer Gun.from his pocket, and tosses it on the table in front of Scotty. Then takes out another one, and tosses it on the table in front himself . 66 Everybody in The Cleo Club quiets down. CALVIN CANDIE Scott Harmony. For calling me a card cheat in my own club, as a southern gentleman, I challenge you to a duel. (to the Piano PLAYER) Piano player, will you hit three separate notes? (TO SCOTTY) On the third note, pick up the gun and try to kill me. (to Piano player) Piano player please ... This is all going too fast for slow Scotty. SCOTTY Wait a minute ...no! FIRST NOTE ... SCOTTY I ain't dueling with you! I don't want to duel! CALVIN CANDIE Then get out of here, get in your buggy and get out of town. SCOTTY Sure. Let me just get my girl. CALVIN CANDIE You lost that girl, fat boy. SECOND NOTE... SCOTTY Wait!... . Look ... . Mr.Candie, I'm sorry I called you a cheat. But... please...I can't give you Broomhilda. CALVIN CANDIE Last chance fat boy, go home and get'useta to fuckin' another one. (BEAT) Or pick up that gun. Scotty can't leave. He can't go home without her. He can't face his parents. He can't walk out on her. No matters what happens he can't leave. 6 7 THIRD NOTE... Calvin Candie SHOOTS Scotty Harmony dead. INT - HOTEL LOBBY - NIGHT Calvin Candie and his entourage enter the hotel lobby and go up to the FRONT DESK CLERK.. CALVIN CANDLE Hello Oliver. FRONT DESK CLERK (OLIVER) Hello Mr.Candie, good evening. CALVIN CANDLE Good evening to you as well,. young Oliver. Could you please inform me which room your guest Scott Harmony is staying in? INT - HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Broomhilda is asleep in bed... WHEN ... .Calvin comes'BURSTING in the room holding his belt in his hand. He YANKS OFF the sheets that Broomhilda sleeps under. Broomhilda lies naked under the covers. Candie brings the belt down around her legs and backside. She hops out of bed. INT - HOTEL LOBBY - NIGHT Candie CHASES her naked body with his belt, from the top of the stairs, down the stairs, and through the lobby, and out the front door. All to the amusement of the WHITE HOTEL GUESTS. EXT - GREENVILLE HOTEL - NIGHT She RUNS out of the hotel naked, and then TRIPS FALLING INTO THE GREENVILLE MUD. She looks up from the mud, at Calvin Candie looking down at her. CALVIN CANDIE Welcome to Candyland. We do a SLOW ZOOM into Broomhilda's face. NARRATOR (VO) That was four months ago. CUT TO INT - GREENVILLE SLAVE AUCTION - DAY Back inside the three story Auction Block domed room. The same room Django was sold in at the beginning. Tons of WHITE BUYERS and SELLERS and BLACK SLAVES to be bought or sold fill the big hall. ONE MANDINGO SLAVE (BANJO) stands half naked on the auction block. The SELLER' (SHELBY) gives the crowd,a sales pitch about Banjo, and starts the bidding. Many different UGLY WHITE MEN make bids on the big mandingo, including Calvin Candie. Dr.SCHULTZ and DJANGO from a pair of OPERA GLASSES /-. watch Calvin Candie from up above on the 2nd floor landing. FROM Dr.SCHULTZ'S PERSPECTIVE We see Calvin Candie, and his black slave.bodyguard, BARTHOLOMEW, always dressed in a slightly ill fitting three piece suit and bowler hat, among the crowd of buyers at the auction block below. Candie's lawyer LEONIDE MOGUY joins him. Dr.SCHULTZ His name is Calvin Candle, and he is the owner of Candyland. DJANGO Candyland? The mandingo fightin' place? Dr.SCHULTZ Oh, so you heard of it? DJANGO Ain't no slave ain't heard of Candyland. Dr.SCHULTZ Well apparently, that's where your wife is, and apparently the repellent gentleman down there is the one who owns her. ÔøΩÔøΩ` TIME CUT 6R The White Man and Black Man find a cubby hole to talk in the auction hall. Dr.SCHULTZ How much do you know about mandingo fighting? DJANGO Not so much... A little... Master Carrucan had a couple niggers he'd fight. Dr.SCHULTZ Can you play a mandingo expert? DJANGO What? Dr.SCHULTZ Can you convincingly masquerade as someone who is an expert on mandingo fighters? DJANGO¬Ä¢ Why? Dr.SCHULTZ Because when a man has one of the four biggest cotton plantations in Dixie, but the only thing that seems to ring his chimes is big sweaty black males, if WE want to get his attention, we better be talking about big sweaty black males. So my character is that of a big money buyer from Dusseldorf, here in Greenville to buy my way into the mandingo fight game. And your character is the mandingo expert I hired to help me do it. DJANGO They call that "One-Eyed Charly." Dr.SCHULTZ. One-Eyed Charly? DJANGO That's what you call it when you buy a slave expert. If you wanna raise horses, but don't know nothin' 'about horses, you buy yourself a One-Eyed Charly who knows about horses. He teaches ya. You wanna plant tobacco but don't know nothin' about it, you buy yourself a One-Eyed Charly knows about tobacco. Dr'. SCHULTZ Why do they call it One-Eyed Charly? 70 DJANGO You know, back on the plantation, my. job wasn't historian. Dr.SCHULTZ Testy. It's an unusual name. That's a perfectly legitimate question. So, can you convincingly play my mandingo One-Eyed Charly? Don't say, yes, if you can't. DJANGO You want me to play a black slaver? There ain't nothin lower then a black slaver. Black slavers are lower then head house niggers, and buddy, that's pretty fuckin low. Dr.SCHULTZ Then play him that way! Give me your black slaver. Django gets that. Dr.SCHULTZ Can you do that? DJANGO That, I can do. What's next? Dr.SCHULTZ To get ourselves personally invited to Candyland by Calvin Candie himself. CUT TO EXT - THE CLEOPATRA CLUB - NIGHT Dr.SCHULTZ and DJANGO stand across the street from The Cleopatra Club. Which looks like aregular nice three story house, among other.nice houses on an affluent residential block in Greenville Mississippi. They open the tiny garden gate in front of the house, walk up the stoop steps to the front door. They ring the doorbell. A pretty young black girl, dressed in a FRENCH MAID outfit opens the door. FRENCH MAID (SOUTHERN ACCENT) Bonjour. Dr.SCHULTZ (AMUSED) Bonjour, mon petite femme noire. We are here to see Calvin Candie. 7) She's been taught to smile and say: FRENCH MAID Enter. The two men walk into the entrance way of the house. A beautiful mulatto HOSTESS greets the two men. HOSTESS (SPEAKING QUITE REFINED) Hello gentlemen, I'm Cleo, can I help you? Dr.Schultz hands Cleo the guest card. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes I am Dr.King Schultz, and this is my associate, Django Freeman. Upon hearing Django is a free man her eyes go to, him. Dr.SCHULTZ We're here for a appointment with Calvin Candie and Leo Moguy. CLEO Yes you gentlemen are expected. Please make yourself comfortable. I'll inform Monsieur Candie you've arrived. (referring to the FRENCH MAID) Can Coco get either of you two gentlemen a tasty refreshment? Dr.SCHULTZ Not at the moment. CLEO Then Coco will entertain you while I inform Monsieur Candie. Dr.SCHULTZ How charming. Cleo leaves. Django wanders over the dining room, and peers inside. INT - DINING ROOM (CLEOPATRA CLUB) - NIGHT A lush fancy restaurant dining area inside of this house. The DINERS are made up exclusively of well dressed WHITE MEN, and pretty BLACK GIRLS (PONYS) dressed in the most elaborate ladies fashions of the day. 72 Some appear to be on dates. Some appear to be enjoying a special evening (birthday, anniversary, special treat). - Some are.two men with two women. Some are one man with two or three or more women. The white men's ages range from early twenties to old men. The girls ages ranges from their twenties, to thirteen. The bill of fare is a combination of French cuisine, and hearty beef driven American dining. The dolled up, decked out'Ponys eat rich French cuisine complete with elaborate sauces, and take their knives to thick cuts of steak. The younger little girls, usually eat ice cream with hot fudge, banana splits, and cookies. While-all the men drink whiskey or wine, the girls all drink sarsaparilla. Dr.Schultz quietly moves next to Django and asks; Dr.SCHULTZ Have you ever seen anything like this before? Django shakes his head, no. COCO CHIRPS; COLO. - (VERY COUNTRY) Y'all gonna dine, it's real good. You like catfish, we got good catfish. They use alotta butta. You like sand dabs, we got sand dabs. LEO MOGUY descends from the clubs prominent staircase. MOGUY Dr.Schultz, good to see you again. Dr.SCHULTZ Mr.Moguy, thank you for your assistance in creating the opportunity for this appointment. Mr.MOGUY Nonsense, it's my job. (CON'T) 73 Mr.MOGUY (CON'T) (LOOKING AT DJANGO) .So this'is the One-Eyed Charly I've heard so much about. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes, this is Django.. Django, this is Mr.Candie's lawyer, Leonide'Moguy. MOGUY Just call me Leo. Calvin's in the billiard room, follow me. Y'all want Coco should come along too? Dr.SCHULTZ We would be quite lucky indeed if the charming Coco cared.to follow. Coco blushes. MOGUY You better watch out doctor, you gonna steal this little pony's heart. They walk through the club to get to the billiard room, as they do they SAY; Dr.SCHULTZ How long have you been associated with Mr.Candie? MOGUY Calvin and I were about eleven when we went to boarding school together. One could almost say, I was raised to be Calvin's lawyer. DJANGO One could almost say, you a nigger. Coco can't believe what this snappy looking cowboy nigger just said to Mr.Moguy. MOGUY What did you say? Dr.SCHULTZ Oh nothing, he's just being cheeky. Anything else about Mr.Candie I should know before I meet him? MOGUY Yes, he's a bit of a Francophile. 7EF Dr.SCHULTZ What civilized people aren't? MOGUY That's why all the French ambiance. And he prefers Monsieur Candie to Mister Candie. Dr.Schultz says in FRENCH SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; Dr.SCHULTZ (FRENCH) What ever he prefers. This stops Moguy, and he turns to warn Schultz. MOGUY Oh he doesn't speak French. Don't speak French to him, it'll embarrass him. They get to the two sliding doors that lead to the billiard room. Moguy slides the doors open... The party enters the billiard room. INT - BILLIARD ROOM (CLEOPATRA CLUB) - NIGHT Inside is Calvin Candie, his bodyguard Bartholomew (still dressed in the ill fitting suit), and the lanky sexy Sheba. Also, at this moment, TWO MANDINGOS are having a bloody and savage fight to death in this closed room. An older European looking man, who's rooting for the mandingo that Calvin's not rooting for, is also in the room. His name is.AMERIGO VASSEPI. Before any introductions can be made, with his back to the new arrivals and his eyes on the black men fighting for their life, Calvin says; CALVIN CANDIE Why do you want to get in the mandingo business? That's quite abrupt and aggressive. Dr.Schultz says, as if he's just been massively insulted; Dr.SCHULTZ You don't intend to allow your 2nd... (referring to Moguy) .to make the proper introductions? Without turning towards them, Candie tells Schultz; 7S CALVIN CANDIE Quit stalling and answer the question. The room is quiet. Dr.SCHULTZ The awful truth? (PAUSE) I'm bored, and it seems like a good bit of fun. Candie takes that to heart. He'll accept it for now. CALVIN CANDIE Well come on over, cause we gotta us a fight goin on that's a good bit of fun_ Dr.Schultz steps up to get a better look at the savage fight. The bigger mandingo is really hurting the smaller one. Schultz has schooled Django on the importance of never BREAKING CHARACTER.' Well now the good doctor must practice what he preaches. Which means not only must he watch. the two men beat each other to death, he must appear to convincingly enjoy it. CALVIN CANDIE. The bigger nigger is mine. I just bought him today. What's his name, Moguy? MOGUY Big Fred. CALVIN CANDIE The other nigger belongs to this disreputable Italian gentlemen to my right. Amerigo Vassepi. (TO AMERIGO) What's your nigger's name? AMERIGO Luigi... .? Candie looks over at Django; who doesn't walk over to watch the fight. Instead he walks over to a bar set up in the room. A slave bartender named, ROSCOE tends it. CALVIN CANDIE How 'bout you, boy? You find nigger fightin' a good bit of fun? DJANGO You seen one nigger fight, ya seen 'em all. CALVIN CANDIE How'd you two like to try the signature drink of the club? 79 Dr.SCHULTZ We'd love to. CALVIN CANDIE (yelling to the BARTENDER) Roscoe, two Polynesian Pearl Divers, and don't spare the rum. Roscoe makes the drinks in coconut shell glasses. Big Fred kills Luigi. Candie and his friends cheer. CALVIN CANDIE Arrivederci Luigi! Well, Mr.Vassepi, looks like you owe me ten dollars. Amerigo pays up the puny bet. Django and Schultz get the fancy coconut shell drinks. They both take a sip. Schultz hates it, Django loves it. Candle turns his attention to Django. CALVIN CANDIE What's your name, boy? Dr.SCHULTZ His name is Django. CALVIN CANDIE (TO SCHULTZ) Where'd ya dig him up? Dr.SCHULTZ A fortuitous turn of events brought Django and myself together. CALVIN CANDIE (TO DJANGO) I've heard tell about you. I heard you're a real bright boy. (BEAT) I'm curious, what makes you such a mandingo expert? DJANGO I'm curious, what makes you so curious? Bartholomew puts down his pool cue, and turns toward Django; BARTHOLOMEW What you say, boy? 77 /ÔøΩ. Candie puts a calming hand on Bartholomew's shoulder. CALVIN CANDIE Calm down Bartholomew, gentle... gentle. Dr.SCHULTZ Monsieur Candie, I would appreciate it if you directed your line of inquiry to me. CALVIN CANDIE Doc, I'm a seasoned slaver, you are a neophyte. I'm simply trying to ascertain if this cowboy is taking advantage of you. Dr.SCHULTZ With all due respect, Monsieur Candie, I didn't seek you out for your advice. I sought you out to purchase a fighting nigger at above top dollar market price. I was'under the impression when you granted me an audience, it would be to discuss business. CALVIN CANDIE No we weren't talking business yet. We were discussing my curiosity. Now according to Moguy here, if I do business with you... (POINTING TO SCHULTZ) , .I'm doin' business with both of y'all. (POINTING TO DJANGO) He does the eyeballin', you the billfold? Dr.SCHULTZ Well you don't make it sound too flattering, but more or less, yes. None of the white men in the room have any respect for a white man who needs a nigger to tell him what time of day it is. Candie turns his attention back to Django. CALVIN CANDIE (TO DJANGO) So Bright Boy,.Moguy here tells me you looked over my African flesh, and were none too impressed. FLASH ON we see. Django looking over THREE MANDINGOS.. BACK TO CLEO CLUB DJANGO Not for top dollar. CALVIN CANDIE Well then we got nothing more to talk about. You wanna buy a beat ass nigger from me, those are the beat ass niggers I wanna sell. DJANGO He don't wanna buy the niggers you wanna sell. He wants the nigger you don't wanna sell. CALVIN CANDIE I don't sell the niggers I don't wanna sell. Dr.Schultz chimes in thoughtfully;- Dr.SCHULTZ You won't sell your best. You won't even sell your second best. But your third best... .you don't want to.sell him... .But if I made you an offer so ridiculous you'd be forced to consider it... . who knows what could happen? CALVIN CANDIE What do you consider ridiculous? Dr.SCHULTZ. For a truly talented specimen, ."The Right Nigger"..:? How much would you say, Django? DJANGO Twelve thousand dollars. Calvin Candle takes in the figure. CALVIN CANDIE Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you got my attention. TIME CUT TNT -- CLEOPATRA CLUB -- RESTAURANT - NIGHT Candle, Moguy, Django, Schultz, Bartholomew, Sheba, and Coco eat dinner in the restaurant. All the men eat thick T-Bones. Coco eats Catfish. And Sheba uses her fingers to rip apart Crawdads. 77 CALVIN CANDIE How ya like that meat, Bright Boy? Django's eyes go to Calvin, he nods his approval. CALVIN CANDIE (TO COCO) How's your Catfish, dew drop? COCO Real good Monsieur Candie. CALVIN CANDIE (TO SCHULTZ) You spend a lot of time around niggers aside from Freeman here? Dr.SCHULTZ Not so much. CALVIN CANDIE Well if'in you did,.you'd know what a treat this was for 'em. You feel special Coco? COCO Yes. sir, Monsieur Candie. CALVIN CANDIE You feel special Bartholomew? BARTHOLOMEW Yes sir, Monsieur Candie. He looks to Sheba, who's licking her fingers from the Crawdads. CALVIN CANDIE Now Sheba always feels special. Dont'cha? SHEBA Yep. CALVIN CANDIE How 'bout you Bright Boy, you feel special? DJANGO (MEANING SHEBA) Not as special as her. The table breaks out in laughter. CALVIN CANDIE Well we're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and moving the. whole kit and caboodle to "Candyland." You oughta come with us. Dr.Schultz and Django's eyes meet for a moment.. .so far...so good. Dr.SCHULTZ Well, that wasn't on the agenda. But I suppose I could be amenable to that. How far must we trek? CALVIN CANDIE Oh hardly a ride at all, We'll still be in Chickasaw County. Five hours.. .tops. There you can get a look at my best specimens. Have dinner with my sister and I. Spend the night at Candyland as my guest. Dr.SCHULTZ Splendid. Django and Schultz trade looks and small smiles. WE CUT EXT - COUNTRY SIDE MISSISSIPPI - DAY It's the next day and a whole procession is making their way to "Candyland." Calvin Candie, Leonide Moguy, Dr.Schultz, Django, and THREE OVERSEERS (BILLY CRASH, TOMMY GILES, and HOOT PETERS) ride horses. Bartholomew (now dressed in work clothes) drives a buckboard filled with'supplies. FIVE MANDINGOS (Big Fred and Banjo who we already met, plus JOSHUA, SIDNEY JAMES, and TATUM) recently purchased at the Greenville Auction walk to their new home, with small bundles of their personal possessions under their arm. They look like powerful warriors. THREE OTHER SHIRTLESS MANDINGOS (RODNEY, CHICKEN CHARLY, CHESTER) WHO WERE THE MANDINGOS FROM Candyland that didn't sell at Greenville are walking back to Candyland, with their small bundle of personal possessions under their arms. These poor devil's know their fate is pretty dismal. Either they'll be sold to the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company, or they'll be put in some mandingo fight they can't win, like with Samson, or Stonesipher's dogs. J RODNEY walks along the road, looks up at Django riding his horse. All the slaves hate Django because they think he's a black slaver. But the three heading back to Candyland are even more resentful. FLASH ON Django with Schultz, earlier, inspecting and rejecting these three. RODNEY gives Django a bad eyeball look up on his horse. DJANGO ON TONY sees it. He's playing the role of a fucker black slaver, he can't let that shit stand. He yells down to the powerless man; DJANGO Gotta problem with your eyeball, boy? Rodney looks away. RODNEY No sir. DJANGO You want a boot heel in it? RODNEY No sir. DJANGO Then keep ya damn eyeballs off me! Flash that bad look at me again, I'll give ya reason not to like me! As this parade makes progress, Django keeps his emotions in check, but not without difficulty. Dr.Schultz comes riding Fritz beside him. Dr.SCHULTZ How do you like this side of the slave trade? DJANGO Not so much. Dr.SCHULTZ Prefer the other side? DJANGO I didn't say that. Dr.SCHULTZ I've confirmed Broomhilda's at Candyland. DJANGO Are you sure it's her? Dr.SCHULTZ He didn't call her by name, but she's a young lady, whip marks on 'her back, and speaks German. Now while it's not wise to assume, in this instance, I think it's pretty safe. DJANGO Did you offer to buy her? Dr.SCHULTZ I opened the door to my possible interest. But naturally, sight unseen, I can only be so interested. SUDDENLY ... Calvin Candie comes riding up behind them... CALVIN CANDLE Am I intruding? Dr.SCHULTZ Of course not. CALVIN CANDIE (APPRAISING THE TWO MEN) I swear you two are cozier then a couple of cuttle fish. Dr.SCHULTZ You'd be surprised what a good conversationalist Django is. CALVIN CANDIE Oh by now, I don't think that would surprise meat all. Candie gives Django a creepy smile. Around now the audience may start noticing DOG BARKING in the distance. Dr.SCHULTZ When do we reach your property? 1?3 CALVIN CANDLE You been on it. I own the whole sixty miles 'fore we get to Candyland. Candie gets annoyed at the barking dogs. CALVIN CANDIE Excuse me a moment, gentlemen. (YELLING BEHIND him at Billy) Billy Crash, git up here! Billy Crash, a hillbilly overseer who's missing his two front teeth, rides up. BILLY CRASH Yeah, Boss? CALVIN CANDIE Find out what that goddamn commotion is up at the tracker shack! BILLY CRASH Right away, Boss. Billy Crash TEARS UP AHEAD on his horse. CALVIN CANDIE You know, confidentially, just 'tween us girls, worse things about this business, ain't the slaves. It's all the white trash ya gotta deal with. Like these peckawoods we got riding with us. These dumb, ignorant, sleazy sonsabitches ain't good fer nuttin, except kickin' a niggers ass can't kick back. Yeah, they holdin' the pretty part of the whip, but it's just a thin membrane separate 'em. And don't think they don't know it either. It's about the only thing these dumbass motherfuckers do know. But ya need 'em. Who the hell else ya gonna get to beat a niggers ass, other than somebody might as well be a nigger hisself. But these mountain boys I use as trackers for the runaways, they the worst. Nothin but a buncha goddamn inbreed hillbillies. Now like that nigger gal we was talkin' 'bout. I'm sure it.was a pain in the ass, but with a lot of patience, that German lady taught Hildi how to speak German. Django hears her name himself. His head does involuntary jerk, but his ÔøΩ, emotions betray nothing. PTE CALVIN CANDIE (CON'T) Now these inbred hillbillies, on the other hand, they can barely speak English. I can't understand a damn word most of 'em say. You could teach a plow horse how to make a pot of coffee, 'fore you teach those fools how to use a knife and fork. I tell ya, if it wasn't for catchin' a nigger on the run, they'd be as useless as tits on a boar hog. Billy Crash comes riding back. CALVIN CANDIE What the hell's goin on? BILLY CRASH They got 'em a runaway. CALVIN CANDIE Who? CUT TO EXT - TRACKER SHACK - DAY A BUNKHOUSE for the FOUR HILLBILLY TRACKERS (they track down runaway slaves) that live here about forty miles from the Candyland Plantation. A little dog kennel, looks like a chicken coup, sits next to the bunkhouse. The TRACKERS are a hairy, bearded, burly, buck skinned wearing, dirty long haired lot. Their Leader is Mr.,STONESIPHER, the other three are STEW, LEX, and JAKE. The four men could be brothers, or cousins, or father and sons, or just from the same hollow. Lex holds two SNARLING GERMAN SHEPHERDS on a leash. Stew one SNARLING GERMAN SHEPHERD on a leash. And Mr.Stonesipher holds one SNARLING GERMAN SHEPHERD on a leash, the lead dog, that goes by the name of MARSHA. A runaway slave named, D'ARTAGNAN, lies belly down in the dirt, surrounded by the four vicious dogs, who BARK, GROWL, and SNAP at him. One look at D'Artagnan tells you he's a mandingo who's been in one fight too many. One of his eyes have been 'poked out. Big BITES have been bit out of both his face and neck (by past fights, human bites, not-the dogs), as well as three fingers have been bit off. Not to mention he's covered in cuts, like he's been drug through a briar patch. O V5 The fourth Tracker, JAKE, doesn't engage in the melodrama. He hangs in the background, CUTTING FIREWOOD with a big axe. Calvin Candie, Dr.Schultz, Django, and the whole Candie caravan look down on the runaway slave. Including the five new mandingos, and the three old mandingos who know D'Artagnan. CALVIN CANDIE Well I'll be, D'Artagnan. Now boy, why do a fool thing like run off? D'ARTAGNAN I can't fight no more, Monsieur Candie. CALVIN CANDIE Oh yes you can. You might not be able to win, but your ass can fight. - Mr.Stonesipher, shut these goddamn dogs up, I can't hear myself think! Mr.Stonesipher, yells to Marsha; Mr.STONESIPHER Hush now! Marsha! Marsha, hush up! Marsha, Marsha, hush up! (to the other TRACKERS) Take these goddamn dogs away from this nigger, he's just makin' em hungry. The other two YANK the dogs away from the fallen Black Man. CALVIN CANDIE How long was he loose? Mr. Stonesipher spits tobacco juice. Mr.STONESIPHER A.night. Day. Half the other night. CALVIN CANDIE How far he git off property? Mr.STONESIPHER Bout twenty miles off prop. Pretty fer, considering that limp he got. CALVIN CANDIE Moguy, who was D'Artagnan suppose to fight Friday?. MOGUY (pointing behind him) One of this new lot. CALVIN CANDIE Well the way he looks now a blind Indian wouldn't bet 'a bead on 'em. (TO D'ARTAGNAN) Boy, you done made yourself as useless as a tail on a teddy bear. D'Artagnan starts begging. CALVIN CANDIE Now now, no beggin', no playin' on my soft heart. You in trouble now, son. Now you need to understand I'm runnin' a business. Now I done paid five hundred dollars for you. And when I pay five hundred dollars, I expect to get five fights outta a nigga 'fore he roll over and play dead. You've fought three fights. D'ARTAGNAN I won every one. CALVIN CANDIE Well, yes you did. But that last one, you muddied the line between winning and losing. Calvin climbs down off of his horse, and walks to the captured runaway on the ground. CALVIN CANDIE But the fact remains, I pay five hundred dollars, I want five fights. So what about my five hundred dollars? You gonna reimburse me? The Whites (except for Schultz) laugh. This whole spectacle is making Dr.Schultz sick to his stomach. Not Django ... . he's seen this little drama play out many times before. The three returning mandingos, Rodney, Chicken Charly, and Chester, watch their fellow doomed servant pay the price for running away. The five new mandingos watch Calvin Candie's treatment of D'Artagnan to know what to expect from their new home. Bartholomew on the buckboard looks at the captured runaway like, poor bastard. Calvin prods further. CALVIN CANDIE You even know what reimburse means? E 17 The Whites laugh. Then SUDDENLY ... .The German Speaks; Dr.SCHULTZ I'll reimburse you. All eyes turn to Dr.Schultz. Including Django's, whose eyes narrow at the doctor. Calvin Candie uses the occasion to perform a slow dramatic turn in the direction of the good German. CALVIN CANDIE You will? Removing his long brown leather billfold from his suit jacket pocket. Dr.SCHULTZ Yes. CALVIN CANDIE You'll pay five hundred dollars for a one eyed Ole'Joe, ain't fit to push a broom? Django's voice cuts through the Mississippi heat. DJANGO No he won't. All eyes turn to Django. DJANGO He's just tired'of you toyin' with him is all. And for that matter, so am I. But we ain't payin' a penny for that pickaninny, we ain't got no use for 'em. Ain't that right, Doc? Dr.Schultz realizes he's just done the one thing he's always preached to Django you can never do..BREAK CHARACTER. The doctor puts his billfold back in his suit coat pocket. Dr.SCHULTZ (TO CANDIE) You heard 'em. The Hillbilly Trackers stare up at the black man on the horse in the green jacket, slack jawed. !` Even the one chopping wood in the BG stops his chopping. CALVIN CANDIE You'll hafta excuse Mr.Stonesipher's slack jawed gaze. He ain't never seen a nigger like you ever in his life..Ain't that right, Mr. Stonesipher? Mr.. Stonesipher., SPITS. Mr.STONESIPHER That's right. Calvin steps up to Django on his horse. Looking up at the black man, Calvin challenges Django to a staring contest. CALVIN CANDIE Well now since you won't pay a penny for this pickaninny, you won't mind me handlin' this nigger however I see fit? DJANGO He's your nigger. CALVIN CANDIE Mr.Ston.esipher... .let Marsha and her bitches send D'Artagnan to nigger heaven. Mr.STONESIPHER Marsha...git 'em! The other Trackers let loose of the leashes holding the German Shepherds back. The DOGS CHARGE towards D'Artagnan on his knees... THE MANDINGOS all react to the sight of the dogs being let loose. The DOGS ATTACK D'ARTAGNAN ... As we HEAR the ATTACK ... Candie.staring contest with Django... Django, who expected nothing less and has seen worse, doesn't blink as the runaway slave is torn to bits by canine teeth ... The other Mandingos are scared sick at what they see. The Hillbilly Trackers root the dogs on. Dr.Schultz has never seen a man torn apart by dogs before, and he appears not to enjoy it. Calvin, without blinking, shifts his eyes toward Dr.Schultz, then back ÔøΩ-. to Django. P9 CALVIN CANDIE Your boss looks a little green around the gills for a blood sport like nigger fightin'? As D'Artagnan's SCREAMS and Marsha's GROWLS continue OFF SCREEN. DJANGO Naw, he just ain't use to seein' a man ripped apart by dogs, is all. CALVIN CANDIE But you are use to it? DJANGO Well, him bein' German an' all, I'm a little more use to American's then he is. Now Monsieur Candie, whenever you're ready, we rode five hours so you could show off your stock. Let's git to it. Cause as of now, if he's a example, I' ain't impressed. Calvin...BLINK... Saying nothing, Monsieur Candie turns his back to Django, climbs up on his horse, then looks at the black man. CALVIN CANDIE Follow me. The whole caravan rides off as the dogs continue to tear D'Artagnan apart. EXT - THE GROUNDS OF CANDYLAND - DAY The caravan starts to approach Candyland. Calvin Candie and his sister own the fourth biggest cotton plantation in the state of Mississippi. As the parade gets closer we see fields of cotton, and fields of SLAVES picking it. The audience might of been expecting Candyland to be a hell on earth, Auschwitz, Andersonville, Yuma Prison, a Mexican prison in a Sergio Corbucci Spaghetti western ... INSTEAD ... . CANDYLAND is very beautiful. The fields of cotton, the way the trees hang green vines over everything. It's full of nature and natures vibrant colors, and a broiling hot sun to see it all in. One of the cottonpickers in the field, DOBIE, looks up, and sees Django in his cool green corduroy jacket, badass cowboy hat, on top of Tony. He taps the shoulder of another cotton picker (ORWELL), and points out Django. 90 All of a sudden all the bent over backs in the field, straighten up to get a better look at the black riding a horse. Django looks back matching their stare. EXT - SLAVE VILLAGE - DAY The caravan rolls through the shack/cabin village the slaves live in. As the parade rolls through all the SLAVES snap to attention, and bow (very formally) as Monsieur Candie rides past. A KING among his SUBJECTS, a PATRON with his PEONS, a FATHER amongst his CHILDREN, a SHEPHERD among his SHEEP. KIDS playing in the dirt get up and run to Calvin on his horse. Candie calls the kids by name, takes out a bag of jelly beans, and begins tossing them about. The Kids scramble in the dirt for the bright colored candy. This is Calvin Candie in his element, at his happiest. THEN ... .DJANGO rides by. The CARAVAN moves from the slave village to the White Village the overseers and their family live in on the plantation grounds. Other then the switch of white faces for black, it's pretty much the same village. And they too see Django ... . WOW! The Caravan enters the road that leads to the front of the Plantation, or The Big House as everyone calls it. To the left of the Big House is big wooden ARENA built for his Friday night nigger fights. All the HOUSE SLAVES (the domestic slaves that work for the Candie family in the Big House), and WHITE WORKERS (overseers and stray farm hands) come out to greet the caravan. They all greet Monsieur Calvin Candie, who naturally leads the procession, as if he's Alexander The Great returning from the wars. As the caravan comes to a stop in front of the Big House, it creates a huge dust cloud behind it. Calvin's widowed sister LARA LEE CANDIE-FITZWILLY, an attractive ÔøΩ. fortyish, strawberry blonde southern belle, steps out on the porch of the Big House to greet her brother. Directly above Lara Lee, on the third floor balcony over hang, out. steps... STEPHEN eyeing Calvin and the approaching caravan. Who's STEPHEN? Stephen is a very old black man, who with his bald pate, and tufts of white curly hair on the sides, looks like a character out of Dickens - if Dickens wrote about House Niggers in the Antebellum South. - Stephen has been Calvin's slave since he was a little boy. And in (almost) every way is the 2nd most powerful person at Candyland. Like the characters Basil Rathbone would play in swashbucklers, evil, scheming, intriguing men, always trying to influence and manipulate power for their own self interest. Well that describes Stephen to a tee. The Basil Rathbone of House Niggers. The old Man watches the caravan and the trailing dust cloud approach. THEN... Out of the dust cloud ...EMERGE DJANGO and SCHULTZ... . on TONY and FRITZ. All the Candylanders see Django, dressed like he is, up on the horse, and for a moment don't know what to think. Lara Lee, like her brother, is both surprised and intrigued. As Stephen peers down from his perch at the nigger in the green jacket, it's hate at first sight. Stephen heads downstairs, he walks with a, limp. All the caravan riders are still up on their horses. Calvin sees Stephen limping towards them, and greets him with a big how do you do; CALVIN CANDIE Hello Stephen my boy! STEPHEN Yeah yeah yeah, hello my ass - who's this nigger up on that nag? CALVIN CANDIE Oh Stephen, why so ornery, you miss me? STEPHEN Yeah, I miss you like I miss.a rock in my shoe. Like I said, who's this nigger, up on that nag? DJANGO'S VOICE (OS) Hey Snowball. : Stephen looks up at Django on Tony. DJANGO If you wanna know who I am, or the name of my horse, you ask me. STEPHEN Just'who the hell you callin' Snowball, horse boy? I'll yank your ass of that goddamn'nag, so goddamn fast - in the mud. CALVIN CANDIE Whoa, whoa, whoa, Stephen, let's keep it funny. Django's a Freeman. Stephen jerks a thumb up towards Django. STEPHEN This nigger, here? CALVIN CANDIE That nigger there. Let me at least introduce the two of. you. Django, this is another cheeky black bugger like yourself, Stephen. Stephen, this is Django. You two should hate each other. Stephen uses'the special privilege he and he alone enjoys amongst the blacks at Candyland. STEPHEN Calvin, who the hell is this nigger you feel the need to entertain? CALVIN CANDIE Django and his friend in grey, Dr.Schultz are customers, and they are our guests Stephen. And you - you old decrepit bastard... .are to show them every hospitality. Do you understand that? STEPHEN I don't know why I gotta - CALVIN CANDIE You don't hafta know why, do you understand? STEPHEN Yeah yeah yeah, I understand just fine. CALVIN CANDIE Good. They're spending the night. Go up in the guest bedrooms and get two ready. 93 STEPHEN (POINTING AT DJANGO) He's gonna stay in the Big House? CALVIN CANDIE Stephen, he's a slaver. It's different. STEPHEN (INCREDULOUS) In the Big House? CALVIN CANDIE You gotta problem with that? STEPHEN I don't gotta problem, unless you gotta problem with burin' the bed, the sheets, and the pillow cases once this black ass motherfuckers gone! CALVIN CANDIE That's my problem, they're mine to burn. Your problem, right now, is making a good impression. And I want you to start solving that problem right now, and git them rooms ready. The Old Man looks up at his Master, and says; STEPHEN Yes sir, Monsieur Candie. Stephen limps away to the guest rooms, muttering to'himself. Lara Lee and her ever present shadow, a FAT MAMMY named CORA, comes up to her brother on his horse. CALVIN CANDIE Dr.Schultz, this attractive southern belle is my widowed sister, may I present to you, Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly. Lara Lee does a southern lady bow. Dr.Schultz lifts his bowler hat, and nods in a grand manner. Dr.SCHULTZ I am Dr.King Schultz, this is my 2nd Django, (Django tips his hat) and these are our horses, Fritz and Tony. Both Fritz and Tony do the head bow. Dr.SCHULTZ And it is our great delight to encounter this flaming rose. LARA LEE Well aren't you the charming gentlemen. You're not from around here, are you? Dr.SCHULTZ Actually I'm from a far off land, Dusseldorf, to be exact. CALVIN CANDIE These two are in the market for a fightin' nigger. So I thought I'd invite 'em down, show 'em my stock. LARA LEE We'll all have dinner tonight, right? CALVIN CANDIE Half the reason I invited them. I thought you'd find.them as intriguing as I do little sister. Lara Lee looks up at Django, and smiles. All of a sudden THREE WHITE RIDERS ride up on horses, a older one, and two tough looking younger ones. The'older one is the Cap't of the Overseers, ACE WOODY, and his two assistants BROWN and JINGLE BELLS CODY. While Ace is dressed for work on a farm, both Brown and Jingle Bells Cody are peacocks who wear cool cowboy outfits. As Calvin Candie watches the three riders approach, he turns to Dr.Schultz and Django, and says; CALVIN CANDIE You know since I started fightin' niggers about eleven years ago, it's been a new lease on'life. And the man ridin' up here now is the man responsible for all my success. Ace and his boys pull their horses up, kicking up dust. Through the dust Ace, Brown, and Jingle Bells Cody eyeball Django and Schultz. CALVIN CANDIE Howdy Ace. (TO SCHULTZ AND DJANGO) This here is my Overseer .Cap't, and nigger fight trainer extraordinaire, Ace Woody. 915 Pointing at the two shadows that flank Ace Woody. CALVIN CANDIE And that's Brown and that's Jingle Bells Cody. (TO ACE) Ace, this here is Dr.Ring Schultz, and Django Freeman, they're big customers with big pockets wanna buy a big nigger. So I brought 'em out here so you could give 'em a little display of our African flesh. Ace takes off his hat, bows from his horse, welcoming them. ACE WOODY Welcome to Candyland, gentlemen. Astride their horses Brown and Jingle Bells Cody just make faces at Django. Ace's attention goes to the five new mandingos.just walked from Greenville to here. ACE WOODY These the new chickens? CALVIN CANDIE Yes siree bob. ACE WOODY How many you get? (HE COUNTS) One, two, three, four, five. CALVIN CANDIE Five real strong bucks. ACE WOODY How many you get rid of? CALVIN CANDIE We still got three left. Ace looks to see who came back from the auction. Leo Moguy chimes in; MOGUY I already wired the LeQuint Dickey people, they'll be here tomorrow. Ace turns to Brown. ACE WOODY Get 'em away from the others. Put 'em in the pen till tomorrow. Brown with his horse, yells, chases, and herds the three men away into the slave pen. Ace yells from his horse down to the five new mandingo arrivals, Big Fred, Banjo, Sidney James, Tatum,.and Joshua. ACE WOODY Y'all stand over there and make a line! They do. Ace climbs down from off his horse. Cody stays in his saddle, circling the black men with his horse. Everybody, including Django and Dr.Schultz, watch the show. Ace'Woody walks up and down the line looking at the new men. Candie, sitting comfortably up on his horse, says; CALVIN CANDIE What do you think? ACE WOODY I think you lookin' for niggers to push a plow, 'dem your boys. Candie rolls his eyes. CALVIN CANDIE What's wrong with them? ACE WOODY Hold it...hold it, you done bought r em, let me look at 'em. Unimpressed Ace Woody continues to examine them. ACE WOODY Okay, how 'bout that one, did you buy that one? CALVIN CANDIE Which one? ACE WOODY What you mean, which one? The one I'm pointing at, that one. 77 CALVIN CANDIE Actually, that one was purchased by our mister Moguy. ACE WOODY (TO MOGUY) You bought him? MOGUY Yes I did. ACE WOODY Why? MOGUY I like his prospects. ACE WOODY His prospects? Now you know Mr..Moguy, I ain't a educated fella like yourself. Remind me again what prospects means? MOGUY Hope for the future. Jerking a thumb towards the slave in question. ACE WOODY You got hope for his future? MOGUY I did. ACE WOODY Well I don't. Ace walks over to the slave in question. ACE WOODY What's your name, boy? The mandingo says; SIDNEY JAMES Sidney James, sir. ACE WOODY So long Sidney James. Ace takes the peacemaker out of the holster on his hip, and SHOOTS Sidney James point blank in the belly. Everybody reacts. Especially the four other mandingos standing next to him. Sidney James rolls in the dirt, screaming and holding his bleeding gut. Till Cody puts a bullet in his head, putting him out of his misery. Moguy, shakes his head, "Typical," he thinks. Django and Schultz, on their horses next. to Candid, watch. Ace looks up at his boss. ACE WOODY Boss Candie, which one did you buy? CALVIN CANDIE Well to me the pick of the litter is Big Fred over there. ACE WOODY (POINTING AT FRED) This one over here? CALVIN CANDIE Yes. ACE WOODY (TO FRED) You Fred? A very scared Fred answers. BIG FRED Yes, sir. ACE WOODY Well good to meet'cha Fred, I'm'Ace Woody, I'm a man of influence 'round here. Now Fred am I mistaken, or were you already in a kurfuffle? CALVIN CANDIE I had 'em fight one of Amerigo's niggers last night. 'ACE WOODY How is of Amerigo? CALVIN CANDIE His nigger lost. 99 ACE WOODY (TO FRED) Really? You won? BIG FRED Yes, sir. ACE WOODY Wup'ed his ass? CALVIN CANDIE Beat 'em to death. Smiling impressively at Big Fred. ACE WOODY (TO FRED) Really? CALVIN CANDIE He did have fifteen pounds on 'em, but still, he still beat his ass to death. ACE WOODY (TO FRED) You did? BIG FRED) Yes, sir. ACE WOODY Good job, boy. Got any more wins in ya? BIG FRED Yes, sir. Ace gives Cody a slight head nod, and Cody SHOOTS Big Fred in the back. Candie acts out mock frustration. The remaining three mandingos jump a mile. CALVIN CANDIE Now why did you do that? ACE WOODY He won his last fight last night. Ace puts his eyes on the three remaining mandingos 1 00 ACE WOODY (TO MANDINGOS) Those of you with exceptional ability will find it ain't so bad here. Those of you who don't possess exceptional ability, will wish you did. Ace looks up to Cody on his horse. ACE WOODY Run 'em over to the Arena. Git 'em doin push ups. First one gives out, shoot 'em in the head. (TO MANDINGOS) Welcome to Candyland, boys! Cody runs the terrified mandingos to the arena. Candie leans over to Schultz and says; CALVIN CANDLE We only get about two out of every batch of five fighters we buy. But those two tend to be lucky. Ace Woody hops back up on his horse. CALVIN CANDIE You know Mr.Woody, I'm beginning to think that you don't trust my judgement? Ace Woody just smiles at his boss, and says; ACE WOODY Oh you know I always trust your judgement, Boss Candie...eventually. He rides off. Stephen limps back to the action. CALVIN CANDIE Ahhh, Stephen my boy, rooms ready? STEPHEN All ready for your guest and his nigger. Candie'shakes his head in mock frustration. CALVIN CANDIE Stephen, you're incorrigible. (TO SCHULTZ AND DJANGO) Gentlemen, let Stephen show you to your rooms. /O+ CALVIN CANDLE (CON'T) There you can lie down and rest up for a couple of hours. Then we'll have some lemonade, and I'll show off some of my finer specimens. Dr.SCHULTZ Splendid. Both Dr.Schultz and Django climb down from their horses. Candie looks to a black little stable boy of about eight named TIMMY. CALVIN CANDIE Timmy boy, go take their horses for 'em. Fix 'em up at the stable, give 'em a load of oats. Django hands the boy the reigns. DJANGO That's Fritz, this is Tony. You take good care of 'em now. TIMMY Yes, sir. Django takes an apple out of his saddle bag, and hands it to the boy. DJANGO Once he's in the stable, give 'em that. He reaches back in the saddle and pulls out another one. DJANGO Give that one to Fritz. Timmy leads the horses away. The two visitors start to follow Stephen to their rooms, when Dr.Schultz pretends to remember something; Dr.SCHULTZ Oh, Monsieur Candie, about that matter about the nigger girl we were talking about? CALVIN CANDIE Nigger girl? Dr.SCHULTZ I believe you said she spoke German? CALVIN CANDIE Oh Yes, Hildi, what about her? ,oz. Dr.SCHULTZ Do you think before the demonstration you could send her around to my room? CALVIN CANDIE I don't see why not. (TO STEPHEN) Stephen, when you get through showing them to their rooms, go fetch Hildi. I want her cleaned up and smellin' nice, and sent over to Dr.Schultz's room. Stephen has to be the bearer of bad news. STEPHEN Actually... . Monsieur Candie... . there's somethin' we ain't tole you yet. CALVIN CANDIE What? STEPHEN Hildi's in The Hot Box. This gets Django's, Schultz's, and Candie's attention. CALVIN CANDIE What's she doin' there? STEPHEN What 'cha think she doin' in The Hot Box, she bein punished. CALVIN CANDIE What she do? STEPHEN She ran away again. CALVIN CANDIE Jesus Christ, how many people ran away when I was gone? STEPHEN Two. CALVIN CANDIE When did she go? STEPHEN Last night. They brought her back this morning. CALVIN CANDLE How bad did Stonesipher's dogs tear her up? Django's hand falls to the butt of his smoke wagon. If they sicked those dogs on his angel, he's going to just kill all these motherfuckers right now. STEPHEN Lucky for her they were busy lookin' for D'Artagnan's ass. Brown and Cody went out lookin' for her and found her. She a little beat up, but she did that to herself. Runnin' through them damn bushes. Django's hand moves away from his gun. CALVIN CANDIE How long she been in the box? STEPHEN What'cha think, all goddamn day! Little fool got ten more days to go. CALVIN CANDLE Take her out. STEPHEN (INCREDULOUS) Take her out? Why! CALVIN CANDLE Because I said so, that's why. Hildi is my nigger. Dr.Schultz is my guest. Southern hospitality dictates I make her available to him. STEPHEN But Monsieur Candie, she just ran away? CALVIN CANDLE Jesus Christ Stephen, what's the point of havin' a nigger speaks German if-you can't wheel 'em out when you have a German guest? I realize it's inconvenient. Still, take her out. (to Cora and LARA LEE) Lara Lee would you and Cora be responsible for getting her cleaned up and presentable for Dr.Schultz? The overseers,'Tommy Giles and Hoot Peters go to The Hot.Box. While Billy Crash goes to the well to draw a bucket of water. Django watches them walk to The Hot Box. Dr.Schultz's eyes shift to Django, to watch him watch this. Stephen notices Django's interest in both The Hot Box and whoever's sizzling in it. The HOT BOX itself is a large IRON SOLITARY CONFINEMENT CELL DOOR (from Yuma Prison) built into the ground. They put a key in the lock, and the two men lift the heavy iron door open. REVEALING: A naked Broomhilda broiling in a small coffin like iron box dug into the ground. Broomhilda reacts to the sudden burst of blinding sunshine. WHEN ... Billy Crash TOSSES the bucket of water on her. Django watches this. DJANGO'S POV:.From his wide shot perspective we see them yank the NAKED BROOMHILDA (incoherent) out of the hole. REVENGE MUSIC PLAYS as we move into a Sergio Leone CU of DJANGO'S FACE. Stephen breaks the mood. STEPHEN (TO DJANGO) You comin', or you wanna sleep in that little box? Django turns his back on the naked Broomhilda and follows Stephen and Dr.Schultz up the front steps of The Big House. INT - THE BIG HOUSE - DAY Stephen leads the two guests up the big prominent sweeping staircase in the entry way of The Big House. Then down the hallway with the guest rooms. Dr.Schultz is shown his guest room by Stephen. Schultz enters the room and shuts the door behind him. Stephen takes Django to the room next door, opens the door, and leads him in. INT - DJANGO'S GUEST ROOM - DAY A guest room with a big feather bed, dresser drawer with a flowery pitcher of water and basin on top of it. A little bedside table with a lamp and a tiny bell on it. 105 STEPHEN This one's yours, boy. That bed's damn nice too. Django walks over to the window, parts the curtains and peers out. Broomhilda's gone. As he looks through the glass, snotty Stephen rattles on in the background. STEPHEN Feel free to touch anything you want, cause we burnin' all this shit once you gone. I'll have somebody knock on the door when the demonstration ready. Django sits down on the bed. Stephen turns to leave. DJANGO Not so fast. STEPHEN I got more important things to do then jaw with you. DJANGO Nigger, when I say stop you plant roots. Both the words and the tone stop Stephen dead. He turns around. DJANGO This tiny bell on this little table... .is this for you? I ring this, you do fer me? STEPHEN Me or somebody. Django reaches over and picks up the bell. (a soft) DING-A-LING STEPHEN (UNAMUSED) What 'cha want? DJANGO I want you to pour some water in that bowl for my wash up. Stephen does what he's told, but with attitude. )O' Django shuts the guest room door so the two men are alone. Once Stephen's done, Django stands up from the bed. DJANGO Gimmie. Stephen hands him the basin full of water. Django takes it from him. Then throws the water in Stephen's face. The dripping wet old slave can do nothing against this free man. DJANGO Whatsamatter Stephen, you don't like that? Django takes his hand and SLAPS the old man hard across the face knocking him to the floor; DJANGO That's my kinda bell ringin'. Git up. The old man timidly, slowly, and shaky rises off the floor - as soon as he does - Django SLAPS HIM TO THE FLOOR again. Then Django sits back down on the bed, looking at the old man on the floor below his knees. DJANGO I've known me House Niggers like you my whole life. Play your dog tricks with your Massa'. Ya' lip off to him every now an' then, as long as ya' keep it funny. He rolls his eyes and puts up with it, and all the white folks think it's so cute. Meanwhile you got all these niggas round here hoppin' and jumpin' to stay on your good side. Well this time Snowball, you gonna listen to me. You got anymore sass you wanna sling my way, before they give us a mandingo demonstration, I'm gonna give this whole motherfuckin plantation a demonstration, of ME beatin' the BLACK off your ass. I will make you drop your drawers, I'll take off my belt, and I will Wup' your bare ass with it, in front of every nigga on this plantation. And after I do that, let's see you play the rooster round here. X07 STEPHEN Calvin wouldn't. let you do it. DJANGO Oh that's right, he gives you first name privileges... . ain't that cute. Sass me me again nigger, see what happen'. Stephen lying on the floor, bites his tongue. DJANGO That's what I thought. Now git outta"here. With as much dignity as he can muster, Stephen stands up. Before he leaves, Django tells him;, DJANGO When I ring this bell, you better come a runnin'. You - not nobody else. While I'm on this property, you my nigger Snowball. Stephen leaves. Django lies down on the bed. He covers his eyes with his arm. A door joins Django and Schultz's room. The adjoining door opens, and Schultz stands there. Dr.SCHULTZ Was that wise? Django doesn't remove his arm from.his eyes. DJANGO He ain't tellin' nobody 'bout that. That's all that needs to be said. INT - HALLWAY (BIG HOUSE) - DAY Lara Lee, Cora, and a traumatized, but cleaned up (she's dressed in a domestic maid uniform) Broomhilda stand outside Dr.Schultz's door, after Calvin's sister raps on it. Dr.Schultz opens the door. Dr.SCHULTZ Hello ladies. DOG LARA LEE Dr.Schultz, may I introduce to you, Hildi. Hildi, this is Dr.Schultz, he speaks German. Dr.SCHULTZ (TO BROOMHILDA) I've been informed you do as well. BROOMHILDA (GERMAN) It would be my, pleasure to speak with you in German. Schultz acts for the benefit of Miss Lara's astonishment. Dr.SCHULTZ Astonishing. (IN GERMAN) Please come inside Fraulein. She does, and just'as Lara Lee is to say something, Schultz says, "Thank You very much," and closes the door in her face. Miss Lara looks to her Mammy, and the two women head off nonplussed. INT - SCHULTZ'S GUEST ROOM (BIG HOUSE) - LATE AFTERNOON With the door closed, Schultz turns to the weak, frightened, disoriented girl. He gives her a pleasant smile. Dr.SCHULTZ They call you Hildi, but your real name is Broomhilda, isn't it? BROOMHILDA Yes. How do you know that? Dr.SCHULTZ Stands to reason who ever taught you German would also give you a German name. Can I pour you a glass of water, Broomhilda? Hearing her name being spoke properly for the first time in awhile, not to mention with a German accent, does have a bit of a calming influence on the frightened girl. 107 WE CUT TO DJANGO on the other side of the adjoining door, listening, waiting for his cue to present himself. BACK TO BROOMHILDA AND Dr.SCHULTZ As Dr.Schultz calmly pours the young lady a glass of water, he begins talking to her in GERMAN SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) I'm aware you haven't spoken German in a long while. So I'll talk slowly. I'm only speaking German to you now, Broomhilda, in case Candie's people are listening to us. Myself and a mutual friend of ours, have gone through a lot of trouble, and rode a lot of miles, to find you fraulein - to rescue you. He hands her a tall clear glass of water. She looks at him weird, rescue me? Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) Please drink. She absentmindedly obeys. Dr.SCHULTZ (.GERMAN). Now it's myself and our mutual friend's intention to take you away from here forever. BROOMHILDA (GERMAN) I don't got any friends. Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) Yes you do. BROOMHILDA (GERMAN) Who? Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) I can't tell you. Our mutual friend has a flair for the dramatic, and he wants to surprise you. !!0 BROOMHILDA (GERMAN) Where is he? He points at the adjoining door. Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) Standing right behind that door. Her head moves in the direction of the door. He looks to the young woman; Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) Promise me you won't scream? She nods her head, yes. Dr.SCHULTZ (GERMAN) Say, I promise. BROOMHILDA (GERMAN) I promise. Dr.Schultz moves to the door, and lightly raps on it. The door knob turns. The door slowly opens revealing... Her husband Django, but different, all cowboyed out and cleaned up. He smiles at her, and says; DJANGO Hey Little Trouble Maker. Obviously a pet name between them. Broomhilda goes into a bit of shock... .first she loses strength in her wrist, so the glass tips over, and the water spills on the floor ... .followed quickly by herself spilling on the floor in a dead. faint. 1/1 The two men look at the woman on the floor, then at each other; Dr.SCHULTZ You silver tongued devil you. MONTAGE WE DISSOLVE to later, as we see Dr.Schultz and Django explain what- they're doing there, who they're pretending to be, and what their plan is to Broomhilda. We hear a woman whistle a soft pretty tune on the soundtrack. It's not a happy tune.. .per se. But it's pretty, and vaguely optimistic ... WE DISSOLVE TO The SLAVE PEN The doomed men who didn't sell at Greenville, brooding Rodney and Chester and Chicken Charly, spend their last night at Candyland sleeping under the stars in The Slave Pen. The same whistling tune continues over this scene. Rodney sees, The whole slave selling and buying group, Django, Dr.Schultz, Candie, Bartholomew, Moguy, Ace Woody, Brown and Cody, and the Overseers, walk across the plantation grounds on their way to The Arena. Laughin' and joshin' all the way. The hatred Rodney feels for that group of men burns inside him like a red hot poker. A study in powerless fury. DISSOLVE TO BROOMHILDA SETTING THE DINNER TABLE in the dining room of The Big House with its knives, spoons and forks. She's all by herself as she goes through this duty. The whistling tune we've been listening to has been coming from Broomhilda whistling as she sets the table. Suddenly out of the darkness of the background appears Stephen. STEPHEN What you. whistlin', girl? Broomhilda stops whistling and spins surprised in Stephen's direction. STEPHEN What was you whistlin'? BROOMHILDA Oh nuttin'. STEPHEN You weren't whistlin' nothin', you were whistlin' somethin'. What'cha whistlin'? BROOMHILDA I dunno. Somethin' I heard. I don't know no.name. )/Z STEPHEN It's kinder pretty. She doesn't say anything in return. STEPHEN That was a compliment. BROOMHILDA Thank you. Stephen steps out of the shadows into the light closer to Broomhilda. STEPHEN I'm just sayin', two days ago you wus' in such misery here, you hadda run off. So you run off, we catch your ass an' drag you back. Then we stick your bare ass to sizzle in The Hot Box for' 'bout ten hours. Now here you are two days later, whistlin' while you work. I'm just sayin', I.wouldn' think you'd have a hellva lot to whistle 'bout. .I'm jus' sayin'. He watches the effect his words have on Broomhilda's face. BROOMHILDA I'm done here, may I be excused? STEPHEN Yes you may. She moves off to another part of the house. He watches her shuffle off. INT - DINING ROOM (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT Later that evening, Django and a lot of other white people (Calvin Candie, Lara Lee, Moguy, and Dr.Schultz) sat around the dinner table. They are being served by the black people we've come to know at Candyland (Stephen, Cora, and because Dr.Schultz likes her Broomhilda). Along with an army of DOMESTIC SLAVES acting as wait service. Knowing Django's a slaver, and for his dinner table privileges, the Domestic Slaves despise Django. Even Broomhilda will be shocked to hear him speak like a slaver, even though they obviously gave her a heads up on their masquerade. We pick up the conversation in mid-negotiation. "5. Dr.SCHULTZ Look Monsieur Candle, they were all fine specimens, no doubt about it. But the best three, by far, were Sampson, Goldie, and Eskimo Joe. - By the way, why's he called Eskimo Joe? CALVIN CANDIE Oh you never know how these nigger nicknames get started. His name was Joe-...maybe one day he said he was cold.. .who knows? Dr.SCHULTZ Irregardless, we all know Samson's your best, and you'll never sell him and I can see why, he's a champion. CALVIN CANDIE All three are champions. Django contradicts, as he chews his steak; DJANGO Samson's the champion. The other two are pretty good. All the Domestic Slaves around the table STIFFEN at witnessing Django contradict Calvin Candie. Including Broomhilda, who's wielding the Gravy Boat. After Django says that, while in shock, she over pours beef gravy on Lara Lee's mashed potatoes. LARA LEE Hildi! Broomhilda snaps back. Instead of getting angry, Candle seems to reflect on that analysis, then issues his own appraisal; CALVIN CANDIE Can Eskimo Joe whip Sampson, no. Can he take Goldie, probably not - Goldie's the best dirty fightin' nigger I ever saw. But as long as you don't put 'em up against those two., Eskimo Joe will whip any niggers ass. DJANGO Maybe. The Domestics FREEZE for a jerky second when Django says that. // F Dr.SCHULTZ You must understand, Monsieur Candie, while admittedly a .neophyte in the nigger fight game, I do have a bit of a background in the European traveling circus. Hence, I have big ideas when it comes to presentation. I need something more then just a big nigger. He needs to have panache. A sense of showmanship. I want to be able to . bill. him as. The Black Hercules. I said., and I quote; "I would pay top dollar for the, right nigger." Now I'm not saying Eskimo Joe is the wrong nigger - per se ... but is he right as rain ... ? Everyone waits for Calvin's response. He milks the moment by taking a sip of his mint julep, then says; CALVIN CANDIE Dr.Schultz, i will have you know, there is no one in the nigger fight game that appreciates the value of showmanship more then, Monsieur Calvin J. Candie. But one must not forget the most important thing in the nigger fight game. (BEAT) A nigger that can win fights. That should be your first, second, third, four, and fifth concern. After you have that, and you know you have that, then, you can start to implement a grande design. But since I enjoy oldest man 'at the table status - beating Moguy by one year for that honor allow the old sage to advise, first things first. Broomhilda comes around with a bowl of string green beans. Dr.Schultz says something pleasant to her in German.. She smiles, and says something pleasant back. CALVIN CANDIE I see you two gettin' on? Dr.Schultz breaks into a wide grin; Dr.SCHULTZ .Famously. (DRAMATIC PAUSE) Monsieur Candie, you can't imagine what it's like not to hear you native tongue for four years. CALVIN CANDIE Hell, I can't imagine two weeks in Boston. ¬ª5 Everybody at the table chuckles. Dr.SCHULTZ I can't express the joy I felt conversing in my mother tongue. And Broomhilda is a charming conversation companion. As Broomhilda holds the bowl of green beans for Moguy, Lara Lee notices how Django and Broomhilda look and try not to look at each other. Stephen enters the room with a fresh mint julep for Monsieur Candie. LARA LEE I don't know doctor, you can lay on all the German sweet talk you want, but it looks like this ponys got big eyes for Django. Lara Lee has no idea how right she is, but when she said it, all three, Django, Broomhilda, and Schultz, involuntarily jerk. AND ... .STEPHEN sees it. Schultz covers the jerk with more of his verbal gobbilty gook. Except for Stephen, no one else was the wiser. Broomhilda takes her greenbeans and leaves the dining room for the kitchen. Stephen watches her go, then looks at Django, then hands Candie his mint julep, and goes into a broad routine for the table's benefit. CALVIN CANDIE Stephen, you're amazing. I haven't finished a drink in this house in twenty years. STEPHEN When a man likes a cold drink, a man likes a COLD drink. Chuckle... . chuckle... CALVIN CANDIE Did you overhear that joke I said about me spending two weeks in Boston STEPHEN (MOCK INDIGNANT) You don't have any idea the work I do to see food gets on the table. 1/6 CALVIN CANDIE What does that hafta do with the price of Tea in China? STEPHEN You think when I'm in that kitchen, I got nothin' better to do then listen in here to you tellin' unfunny jokes? Chuckle... . chuckle... CALVIN CANDIE (MOCK INDIGNATION) What? They laughed! STEPHEN Of course they laughed, their parents raised them right. When they're a guest in somebody's house, and the master of of the house thinks he's- funny, you suppose to laugh. They'd be rude not to. Chuckle... .chuckle... They play their little comedy routine for all it's worth. CALVIN CANDIE No it was really funny, (TO TABLE) wasn't it? STEPHEN Now what do you expect these people to say? What you need to do is stop embarrassing your guest. (TO TABLE) Everybody don't laugh at him, you're being polite, I understand, you mean well, but it just encourages him. Chuckle-chuckle... As the white folks chuckle, Stephen moves back into the kitchen. TNT - KITCHEN (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT Once Stephen enters the kitchen, his smile melts away, and he locks eyes on Broomhilda. He moves over to her. STEPHEN You know that nigger? /ÔøΩ She spins around. 11 7 BROOMHILDA¬Ä¢ Who? STEPHEN Don't stall me bitch, you know who? BROOMHILDA At the table? I don't know him. STEPHEN. You don't know him? BROOMHILDA No. STEPHEN You wouldn't lie to me now, would you? She shakes her head, no. Stephen looks at her skeptical. STEPHEN Okay, if you say so. BACK TO DINNER TABLE Pick it up again in mid-negotiation. DJANGO Eskimo Joe's a quality nigger, no doubt about it. But if it was my money, I wouldn't pay twelve thousand dollars for him. Dr.SCHULTZ What would your price be? DJANGO Well, if I ,was inclined to be generous,. and I don't know why I would be inclined to be generous... . nine thousand ... . maybe. Candie's lawyer chimes in. MOGUY But the real question is, not how much he cost, but how much he can earn? Dr.SCHULTZ Django? DJANGO In a years time, seven or eight fights - outside of Mississippi - where his Candyland pedigree weren't well known - Virginia... (CON'T) 11Y DJANGO (CON'T) Georgia -- all goes well ...twenty to twenty one thousand dollars. CALVIN CANDIE Precisely Bright Boy, good on ya. Any way you cut that cake, that spells profit. Not to, mention a years worth of action at the big table in a blood sport with a winner nigger. However let me reclarify how this whole negotiation came about. It wasn't me who came to you to sell a nigger, it was you who approached me to buy one. Now that nine thousand dollar figure Bright Boy was banding about, ain't too far off from right. And if I wanted to sell Eskimo Joe for that, I could sell 'em any day of the week. But like you said in Greenville doctor, I don't wanna sell 'em. It was only your ridiculous offer of twelve thousand dollars that would make me consider it. Dr.Schultz considers'Calvin Candie's words, then suddenly says; Dr.SCHULTZ You know Monsieur Candie... . you do possess the power of persuasion. Candie smiles at that remark. Then SUDDENLY Schultz SLAPS the table hard with his hand, and says; Dr.SCHULTZ Why not! Monsieur Candie, you have a deal, Eskimo Joe, twelve thousand dollars! The White people at the table get very happy. Dr.Schultz continues; Dr.SCHULTZ However, that is a tremendous amount of money. And the way you have your Mr.Moguy, I have a lawyer, a persnickety man named Tuttle. And I would need my man to draw up a legal contract before I would feel comfortable exchanging that amount of money for flesh. Not to mention having Eskimo Joe examined by a physician of my choosing. So say I return in about five days time with my Mr.Tuttle. And then my Mr.Tuttle and your Mr.Moguy can hash out the finer points between themselves. 117 CALVIN CANDIE Splendid. (CALLING TO THE KITCHEN) Stephen, time for dessert! Stephen, Cora, Broomhilda, and the other Domestics come out of the kitchen to clear away the dirty dishes. Broomhilda goes to Calvin. BROOMHILDA Can I take away your dishes, Monsieur Candle? CALVIN CANDIE Yes you may, Hildi. She begins gathering the dirty dishes. Candie looks up at her as she works. CALVIN CANDIE So Hildi, how you like servin at the big table in the big house? BROOMHILDA I like it a lot Monsieur Candle. CALVIN CANDIE It's a lot better then sizzling in that hot box, or draggin' your ass through a bramble bush, ain't it? BROOMHILDA Yes 'em. With Candie interrogating Broomhilda, Django tenses up. Stephen clocks this. Stephen decides to test Django's reaction. STEPHEN You know Monsieur Candle, the doctor might be interested in seein' Hildi's "peeled" back. Seein' as he don't see many niggers where he from. CALVIN CANDIE (TO SCHULTZ) When you was alone with Hildi here, didja just speak German, or did ya git her clothes off? !20 Dr.SCHULTZ We just spoke. CALVIN CANDIE So you haven't seen her back? Dr.SCHULTZ No I haven't. CALVIN CANDIE Then Stephen's right, you would probably find this interesting. Hildi, take off your dress, and show us your back. Django hears this. Broomhilda instinctively shoots a look to Django. Stephen clocks it. LARA LEE Calvin, I just got her all dressed up and looking nice. CALVIN CANDIE But Lara Lee, Dr.Schultz is from Dusseldorf, they don't got niggers there. And he's a man of medicine. I'm sure it would fascinate him, the niggers endurance for pain. I mean Hildi got something like fifteen lashes on her back. Lara Lee get one, she'd lose her mind. These niggers are tough, no doubt about it. LARA LEE Calvin, we are eating - dessert, no less. Ain't no one wanna see her whipped up back. Django continues to watching this play out. Stephen watches him. Candie folds. CALVIN CANDIE Okay okay Lara. Maybe after dinner. During the brandies. Broomhilda - dismissed - takes Calvin's dishes and heads back into the kitchen. Stephen takes one more look at Django, and follows Broomhilda behind the kitchen door. 121 INT - KITCHEN (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT In the kitchen with the OTHER DOMESTICS, Stephen says to Broomhilda; STEPHEN I thought you said you didn't know him? Broomhilda turns around. BROOMHILDA Huh? Stephen approaches her, the other Domestics get quiet and watch. STEPHEN I said, you said, you didn't know him? BROOMHILDA I don't. STEPHEN Yes you do. BROOMHILDA Mister Stephen, I don't. STEPHEN Why you lyin to me? As tears begin to well in her eyes. BROOMBILDA I ain't. STEPHEN Why you cryin'? BROOMHILDA Because you're scarin' me. STEPHEN Why am I scarin' you? BROOMHILDA Because you're scary. Things have become so tense and quiet in the kitchen, that the dinner table conversation begins to bleed inside. We hear Dr.Schultz in the next room say; Dr.SCHULTZ (OS) .to speak German,with Hildi this afternoon was positively soul enriching. Stephen hears this, he's starting to get the idea. 1ZL His eyes to to Broomhilda. STEPHEN You, stay in the kitchen. Stephen moves to the kitchen door, swings it open, and watches Dr.Schultz prepare to proposition Candie for Broomhilda. Stephen knows these two jokers (Django and Schultz) are up to something, and now he's just figured it out. INT - DINNER TABLE (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT Dr.SCHULTZ You indicated earlier you would be willing to part with Hildi? CALVIN CANDIE Yes siree bob I did. Dr.SCHULTZ Well in that case allow me to propose another proposition? In full "Ole Jimmie" performance, Stephen BARGES in the room, INTERRUPTING Dr.Schultz. STEPHEN - Monsieur Candie? CALVIN CANDIE Stephen, you just interrupted Dr.Schultz. STEPHEN (to Dr.Schultz) Oh, I do apologize, doctor. My hearin' ain't worth a damn these days. (TO CANDIE) Monsieur Candie, I need a word with you in the kitchen. CALVIN CANDIE What, you mean get outta my chair? STEPHEN If you could manage it. It's about dessert. CALVIN CANDIE What about dessert? STEPHEN I would rather tell you in private. CALVIN CANDIE We're having rhubarb pie, what sort of melodrama could be brewing back there? 123 Stephen bends down and whispers in his ear; STEPHEN Meet me in the library. Well that's a horse of a different color. That means whatever Stephen has to say, hasn't anything to do with rhubarb pie. "Meet me in the library" is their secret signal. CALVIN CANDIE Fine friend Stephen, I'll be along momentarily. Stephen exits. Candie stands up from his chair and addresses the table. CALVIN CANDIE Well as you can see, talented no doubt as they are in the kitchen, from time to time, adult supervision is required. If you'll excuse me a moment. Candie exits. TNT - LIBRARY (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT A masculine sanctuary for Calvin Candie. Walls of perfectly bound books. Stuffed animal heads (deer, boar) that he's shot, sit mounted on the walls. There's comfy red leather chairs and a bar in the globe. When WE CUT TO this room, we cut to Stephen sitting in one of the red leather chairs, drinking a brandy out of a brandy sifter. Calvin enters the room, sees Stephen sitting in the chair, drinking his brandy, and doesn't bat an eye. It appears, in this room, Calvin's and Stephen's life long friendship exits on a different plane. Outside of outside eyes, in this room, all pretense of master and slave is dropped, and the number one and number two.. men of Candyland can talk turkey. CALVIN CANDIE What's the matter? STEPHEN Those motherfuckers ain't here to buy no mandingos. They want that girl. - CALVIN CANDIE What the hell you talkin' about? STEPHEN They playin your ass for a fool, that's what I'm talkin' bout. They ain't here for no muscle bound Jimmie, they here for that girl. CALVIN CANDIE What girl, Hildi? STEPHEN Yeah, Hildi. The niggers know each other. CALVIN CANDIE He just bought Eskimo Joe. STEPHEN Did he give you any money? CALVIN CANDIE Well not yet, but - STEPHEN - Then he didn't R ..Y diddly, not yet no how. But he was just about to buy, who he came here to buy, when I interrupted him. Thank you Stephen - you're welcome Calvin. CALVIN CANDIE Where you gettin' all this? Why would they go through all that trouble, to. buy a nigger with a chewed up back, ain't worth five hundred dollars? STEPHEN Well they're doin' it cause Django's in love with Hildi. She's probably his wife. Now why that German gives a fuck about who that uppity son-of-a--bitch is in love with, I'm sure I don't know. CALVIN CANDIE If she's who they want, why the whole snake oil pitch about mandingos? STEPHEN Because you wouldn't pay no never mind to four hundred dollar. But twelve thousand got you real friendly. Calvin thinks ... .as per usual, Stephen's right. CALVIN CANDIE Those lyin' goddamn.time wastin' sonsabitches! (LOUDER) Sonsabitches! You just watch, I'm gonna fix their wagon but good! Stephen, we .gonna have us a Candyland tar and feathering! FL5 STEPHEN Now Calvin.. .not that I wouldn't enjoy seein' something like that ... . but why don't you sit down and let's talk about this. CALVIN CANDLE I let a goddamn nigger and nigger lovin' huckster insinuate themselves at my dinner table, and play this whole goddamn plantation for a fool! STEPHEN Calm-the-fuck-down, sit down, and let's discuss this. A frustrated Calvin finally collapses in the chair. STEPHEN Now look, you knew, and I knew, there was something up with these two. We just didn't know what. But now we do. They don't want you to know how bad they want that girl. But these ole boys have rode a lotta miles, went t6 a whole lotta trouble, and done spread a whole lotta bull to get this girl. They must want her mighty bad. Way I see it, ain't nothin' changed. They wanna buy a nigger, you wanna sell a nigger.The only thing done changed is the advantage. (BEAT) Now we got it. .So let's go back in there and busts these motherfucker's chops. INT - DINING ROOM (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT The Dinner Table Guests listen to Lara Lee'Candie-Fitzwilly hold court melodramatically ... . Till ... . Calvin Candie enters the room from the kitchen door. Lara Lee, oblivious to her brothers change in demeanor, blurts out upon SEEING HIM; LARA LEE There you are! I was beginning to think you and that of crow ran off together. Schultz and Django feel the change in their host's demeanor, as he stares down the table at them. CALVIN CANDLE That'd be a hellva note, wouldn't it Lara Lee? (CON'T) 1Z J CALVIN CANDIE (CON'T) Lara Lee, I just looked out the big winda. Ace Woody's out there dealin' with some shady slaver sellin' a passel of Ponys. Would you be a dear and go out there and give them gals an eyeball. That of boy knows everything to know 'bout mandingos, But he don't know diddly 'bout black puddin'. Lara Lee excuses herself and leaves the room, as she goes out, Bartholomew, with his Sawed Off Shotgun, comes.in behind Schultz and Django. CALVIN CANDIE Can I ask you two gentlemen to look over your shoulder? Schultz and Django do, and see Bartholomew with his sawed off shotgun pointing at them. Calvin Candie removes his arm from behind his back, and in his hand he's holding a big ugly hammer. CALVIN CANDIE Now lay your palms flat on the table top. They put their palms on the table. CALVIN CANDIE Now you lift those palms off that turtle shell table top, Bartholomew gonna let loose with both barrels of that sawed off. There's been a lotta lies said around this table tonight-but that.. .you can believe. (BEAT) Mr.Moguy, would you be so kind as to collect the pistols hangin' on those boys'hips? Mr.Moguy does. Holding the hammer in his hand, Candie continues to hold court. CALVIN CANDIE Now where were we? Oh yes, I do believe you were just getting ready to make me a proposition to buy Broomhilda. Right? Dr.SCHULTZ Right. CALVIN CANDIE (YELLING TO STEPHEN) Stephen! Bring out Hildi! Ix? Stephen enters the dining room through the kitchen door, holding roughly in his grip, Broomhilda. He holds a small Derringer pistol against the side of her head. Django and Schultz react. CALVIN CANDIE Now it should be quite clear by now I know you're not here to buy no mandingos. Reason y'all came to Candyland, is y'all want Broomhilda. But y'all don't want me to know how much you want 'er. So instead, you waste my time with all this Eskimo Joe horseshit. (TO STEPHEN) Stephen, put her in that chair. Stephen sits the young lady down in Moguy's old chair. With their palms against the table, unarmed, Django and Schultz silently watch Candie's next move. Candie, still holding the hammer, continues. CALVIN CANDIE Now the way I see it, ain't nothin' changed.. You still wanna buy a nigger, I still wanna sell one. So, with that in mind, in Greenville, Dr.Schultz, you yourself said, "For the Right Nigger you'd be willing to pay what some would consider a ridiculous amount." To which, me myself said, "What is your definition of ridiculous?" To which you said, "Twelve thousand dollars." Now considering you two have ridden a whole lotta miles, went to a whole lotta trouble, and done spread a whole lotta bull, to purchase the lovely lady to my left, it would appear that Broomhilda is, "The Right Nigger." And if y'all wanna leave Candyland with Broomhilda, the price is twelve thousand dollars. Dr.SCHULTZ I take it you prefer the take it or leave it style of negotiating. Candie continuing to hold the hammer continues. CALVIN CANDIE Under the laws of Chickasaw County, Broomhilda is my property. And I can do anything with my property I so desire. He brings the big hammer down hard on the dinner table, making everybody jump. IN CALVIN CANDIE And if you think my price for this nigger is too steep, what I'm gonna desire to do is, take this hammer and beat her ass to death with it. Right in front of both y'all. He SMASHES the arm rest of the chair Broomhilda's sitting in. CALVIN CANDIE Put up or shut up, Schultz. You wanna save this nigger bitch, you gonna pay my price. Dr.SCHULTZ May I lift my hands from the table top in order to remove my billfold? CALVIN CANDIE Yes you may. Dr.Schultz removes his long brown leather billfold from his gray suit jacket, and says;, Dr.SCHULTZ Easy come, easy go. He slides the billfold down the table to Candie. The plantation owner takes out the money, does a quick count, then looks down the table at the seated Schultz, and says; CALVIN CANDIE Pleasure doin' business with you. TIME CUT INT - DINING ROOM (BIG HOUSE) - NIGHT INSERT: Calvin signing over Broomhilda's BILL OF SALE. .Moguy signs as a witness. Broomhilda stands next to Django, and watches her Master sign her freedom papers. Dr.Schultz sits off by himself. He's very disturbed. All the white people with Calvin Candie are happy and celebrate Candie's successes with glasses of Brandy. Lara Lee, Ace Woody, and Brown and Cody have joined the' celebration. For an experienced horsetrader, the just concluded transaction is a thing of legend. He just sold a Pony, with a tore up back, and a runaway "r" burned in her cheek - ain't worth five hundred dollars- for twelve thousand. Stephen smiles and laughs it up with everybody else. The Other domestics bring out little plates of rhubarb pie, and buzz around pouring coffee for the white people. Candie walks over to the seated Schultz, he carries a small plate of rhubarb pie with him. CALVIN CANDIE (TO SCHULTZ) Rhubarb pie? Schultz looks at the pie and the man. Dr.SCHULTZ No. CALVIN CANDIE Are you brooding 'bout me getting the best of ya? Dr.SCHULTZ Actually, I was thinking of that poor devil you fed to the dogs today, D'Artagnan. And I was wondering what Dumas would make of all this. Calvin hands the doctor the two pieces of paper he needs. Broomhilda's bill of sale, and her freedom papers. As he says the following he examines he papers. CALVIN CANDIE Dumas...? Dr.SCHULTZ Alexander Dumas. He wrote "The Three Musketeers." I figured you must be an admirer. You named your slave after that novel's lead character. If Alexander Dumas had been there today, I wonder what he would of made of it? CALVIN CANDIE You doubt he'd approve? Dr.SCHULTZ Yes his approval would be a dubious proposition at best. CALVIN CANDIE Soft hearted Frenchy? Dr.SCHULTZ Alexander Dumas is black. 1 30 Schultz rises, puts the papers in his back pocket, .looks to his two companions, Django and Broomhilda, and says; Dr.SCHULTZ We got it, let's go. (TO CANDIE) Normally Monsieur Candie, I would say, auf wiedersehen. But since what auf wiedersehen actually means is, till I see you again, and since I never wish to see you again, to you sir, I say, goodbye. Schultz begins to cross the room towards the exit. When Calvin says to the German's back; CALVIN CANDIE One more moment, Doc! Dr.SCHULTZ What? CALVIN CANDIE It's a custom here in the South, once a business deal is concluded, for the two parties to shake hands. It implies good faith. Dr.SCHULTZ I'm not from the South. He turns to leave. CALVIN CANDIE You're in my house, doctor, I'm afraid I must insist. This turns Schultz around. Dr.SCHULTZ Insist what...? That I shake your hand before I leave? Then I'm afraid I must insist in the opposite direction. Calvin walks closer to the German doctor. CALVIN CANDIE You know what I think you are? Dr.SCHULTZ What you think I am? No I don't. 1310, CALVIN CANDLE I think you are a bad loser. Dr.SCHULTZ And I think you're an abysmal winner. CALVIN CANDLE Never the less, here in Chickasaw County a deal ain't done till the two parties have shook hands. Even after all this paper signin', don't mean shit you don't shake my hand. Dr.SCHULTZ If I don't shake your hand, you're gonna throw away twelve thousand dollars...? I don't think so. Schultz looks to Django and Broomhilda. Dr.SCHULTZ Let's go. CALVIN CANDIE Bartholomew, if she tries to leave here before this German shakes my hand. Cut 'er down. Schultz looks to Django... . then to Candle.. .and then with a smile on his face, and a twinkle in his eye, asks CANDLE; Dr.SCHULTZ. You really want me to shake your hand? Django gets it. CALVIN CANDIE I insist. DR -Schultz smiles. Dr.SCHULTZ Well, if you insist. Django goes to stop him... 1 714 The German crosses toward Candie, offering him his hand... Candie offers his hand to Schultz... The small DERRINGER POPS into Schultz's outstretched hand... POP! He SHOOTS CALVIN CANDIE in the heart. Candie has a look of shock as blood explodes from his heart, and he falls to the floor. Everybody is stunned. Schultz looks to Django. Django looks back. Dr.SCHULTZ (TO DJANGO) I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. Dr.SCHULTZ is BLOWN APART by Bartholomew's SAWED OFF SHOTGUN. The room comes to its senses and attacks Django and Broomhilda. FADE TO BLACK We FADE UP FROM BLACK to see: The soles of Django's bare feet. A rope is tied around the ankles, and it's obvious he's been strung up, upside down. The CAMERA moves down his naked body, down his legs (we see his wrists are'bound with ropes to his thigh), down his bare buttocks, down his whip scarred back, to the back of his head which hovers just about three inches from the barn yard wooden floor. INT - BARN - AFTERNOON Eight year old stable boy, Timmy, wipes the unconscious Django's face with a wet rag. They are all alone in the barn. Django begins to come to ... TIMMY (SHHH'S HIM) Act like you still sleepin'. DJANGO Where's Broomhilda? TIMMY Who? DJANGO Hildi, the slave girl that ran away a couple of days ago. They had her in The Hot Box. TIMMY I don't know 'bout no girl. DJANGO How 'bout that German white man I came here with? TIMMY Oh he's dead. His body's over there. Django twists upside down on the rope, and sees the corpse of his friend King Schultz dead on the filthy barn yard floor. The sight of the lifeless carcass of the doctor fills Django with pain and anger. Just then head overseer Ace Woody walks in the barn. Upon seeing Ace, Timmy hightails it out of there, Ace throws an empty bucket at the fleeing boy. ACE WOODY Git on outta here, boy! 133 Django, slightly..swaying to and fro from the rope, looks upside down at Ace Woody, all dressed up in a black suit with a string tie, which makes him look a bit like Wyatt Earp. ACE WOODY So y'all bounty hunters,.huh? Django thinks, "How does he know?" ACE WOODY I knew there was something fishy 'bout, y'all. We found your wanted posters and book of figures in your saddle bags. I gotta say, ain't never heard of no black bounty hunter before. A black boy paid to kill white men? How did ya like that line of work? Django retorts, upside down. DJANGO Well, it turns out I was a natural. Ace woody laughs. ACE WOODY Boy, people 'round here are cross wit you. Ace Woody pulls up a tiny milking stool, and sits down on it, a body length from the hanging man. ACE WOODY See Boss Man was a rather beloved figure 'round here. Now he's dead as fried chicken, everyone 'round here blames you. Ace Woody opens his black suit jacket, we see not only does he wear a gun and holster around his waist, he carries a HUGE BOWIE KNIFE ina shoulder holster. He removes the big blade from its sheath. ACE WOODY Yep, Boss Man's gone. Poor Calvin. Poor goddamn Calvin. We're burnin' him in a few hours. At sunset. Should be real pretty. However ... . I don't think you're gonna be able to attend. Ace takes the Bowie Knife and THROWS IT... . IT LANDS stuck in the wooden barn yard floor, four inches from Django's face. Ace Woody slowly rises up from the tiny milking stool, and slowly walks the length of the floor between him and Django, pulls the blade out of the floor, and walks back to his stool, and sits back down. As he does this, he says; ACE WOODY Now I understand you didn't really have nuttin' to do wit it. It's that German sunbitch the trouble maker. You just wanted to git your girl, and hightail your nigger asses outta here. Now I appreciate that. But grieving folks 'round here need someone to blame. And I guess they figure if you hadn't brought your black ass 'round here in the first place, Boss Man still be alive. And you know what, they got a point. He THROWS the knife again... .this time IT LANDS in the floor two inches from Django's face. He walks the same path from the knife and back to the tiny stool. As he does he says; ACE WOODY Now when it comes to making a nigger regret the error of his ways, believe me when I. tell you, I know every goddamn trick in the book. Now there's a lotta ass busters out there try an' git creative with the way they bust ass. But me... .I always found the best methods are, tried and true. He THROWS the knife again... Django JERKS his head back ... .and the knife LANDS in the floor, right where Django's head was. Ace Woody stands up, walks the floor to the Bowie, yanks it out of the wood., and straightens up, standing right beside the hanging upside down naked black man. Ace talks confidentially to the bound man at his mercy. ACE WOODY You know Blackie, here at Candyland, I had me a real sweet deal. These last eleven years training Calvin's mandingos I made me more money I made my whole goddamn life. And no end in sight, neither. (BEAT) Then you came along. Knocked me right off that perch I was sittin' pretty on. You think Miss Lara gonna be as.interested in mandingos as her brother? Uuummmm...I don't think so. What I think, is you done fucked up my good thang. So when it comes to you, Django boy, you could say I gotta axe to grind. IJS He grabs a handfull of Django's genitals in his fist. He takes his big Bowie, and places the razor sharp BLADE against Django's nut sack. Django dances at the end of the rope like live bait on a fishing pole. ACE WOODY How's the blade of that Bowie feel against your ball sack, Blackie? A Bowie right off the wet stone. Now that's what I call sharp. Django dances some more ... ACE WOODY Yep nigger, I'm gonna snip them nuts. (BREATH) On the count of three. DJANGO SCREAMS: DJANGO NO!!!! ACE WOODY ONE ... DJANGO NO DON'T DO IT!!!!! ACE WOODY Got to do it, boy. TWO... DJANGO NO!!!! ! Just then Stephen appears in the entrance of the barn/blacksmith facility. He's holding Django's clothes in a bundle under his arm. STEPHEN Cap't, Miss Lara lookin' for you. She wanna talk about the Old Man's funeral. Oh, and she changed her mind 'bout snippin' Django. She gonna give 'em to the LeQuint Dickey people. While still keeping a firm grip on Django's'junk, Ace Woody says; ACE WOODY Well she didn't waste a minute tellin' me. Ace Woody looks down at Django, both men get over the aborted emotion of what almost happened. ACE WOODY (TO DJANGO) How disappointing. 171 ACE WOODY (TO STEPHEN) Where she at? STEPHEN She in the big house. The kitchen. Ace turns to leave, Stephen goes over to a big fiery furnace in the blacksmith barn, and begins poking a LONG POKER which lies buried in the fire. Django's clothes are dumped by the furnace. ACE WOODY You gonna look after our friend? As, he plays with the poker in the fire, he says; STEPHEN Oh yes sirree Bob, you know I am! 01' Snowball and a certain naked ass upside down nigger we both know, gonna have us a big of chat. He removes the big black poker from the furnaces fire, it's RED HOT END GLOWS ORANGE. STEPHEN Snowballs just makin' sure his talking stick is all nice and FROSTY. Ace Woody chuckles to himself as he exits the barn. Just Stephen with a red hot poker, and naked, bound upside down Django, alone. With the red hot poker in his hand Snowball approaches the naked hanging Django. STEPHEN I bet you an' that German thought y'all was on easy street for awhile - didn't ya? Y'all track Hildi to the Old Man. You get the idea to go to Greenville - look up the Ole Man there. (BREATH) That was a good idea. I bet y'all couldn't believe how easy it was. You meet Moguy, he buys your horseshit. Ya' git your ass invited to Candyland, no fuss no muss. Ya' ride the whole way to the plantation, no one the wiser. Then ya' ride in to Candyland - ride your goddamn horses right up to the motherfucking Big House. 137 STEPHEN (BEAT) And that's where you met me. And that's when you knew your goose was cooked. He TOUCHES Django's NIPPLE with the ORANGE HOT TIP of the poker. Unlike a lot of movie hero's, Django doesn't take torture silently and stoically. This shit fucking hurts, so you best believe he screams his fucking ass off, and twists in agony when he gets touched by the orange tip of that red hot poker. STEPHEN Now that fancy talkin' white man of yours didn't know what's what. He still thought his ass hadda chance. But like the One-Eyed Charly you are, you always know the end is near 'fore the white folks. With the ORANGE HOT poker, he BURNS OFF Django's other NIPPLE. The smell of burned flesh smokes in the air. Stephen makes a show of breathing it in his nostrils. STEPHEN Damn Nigger, you smell good. He walks behind Django with the poker. STEPHEN You know, when you was sittin' on that feather bed in the quest room in the Big House - After you slapped my ass to the floor You were sayin' something 'bout my BARE BLACK ass, and how you were gonna BUST IT. Remember that, Bright Boy? He places the HOT ORANGE END OF THE POKER hard against Django's BARE buttocks. Django SCREAMS! Stephen LAUGHS. Stephen walks away and sticks the poker back in the fire. He goes through Django's clothes and pulls out his tan pants. He tosses them on the floor by the hanging man. STEPHEN You leavin', that's what you can take with you. Stephen walks over to the hanging upside down man, and as he talks to him, he begins fondling Django's genitals. I31 STEPHEN Now you were quite the topic of conversation for the last few hours. Seemed like folks never had a bright idea in their life, was comin' up with different ways to kill your ASS. Now most of 'dem ideas involved fuckin wit your fun parts. But while that might SEEM like a good idea. Truth is, once ya snip a niggers nuts, most bleed out. Then I say; "Hells bells, the niggers we send to LeQuint Dickey, got it worse then that." Then they're, "Let's whip 'em to death," "Throw 'em to the mandingos," "Feed 'em to Stonesipher's dogs." And then I say, "What's so special 'bout that? We do that shit all the time. Hells bells, the niggers we send to LeQuint Dickey got it worse then that." He stops massaging Django's balls. STEPHEN So Miss Lara got the bright idea of givin' your ass to The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company. And as a slave of The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company, hence forth, till the day you die, you will be swinging a sledgehammer, all day, every day, turning big rocks into little rocks. And trust me when I tell you it's gonna be 'bout as much fun as it sounds. We sell 'em the mandingos ain't good for nuttin' no more. Like them three y'all came back with. For them big garboons we get twenty a piece. They last 'bout six months. Skinny nigger like you, I give two or three. Stephen turns to leave. DJANGO Where's Broomhilda? STEPHEN She's all right for now. Miss Lara soft hearted on 'er. She gave her to Billy Crash. He was sweet on 'er. Now Billy Crash might not look or smell too good, but ain't nobody gonna bother her. Stephen limps away. CUT TO 137 EXT - CANDYLAND - AFTERNOON The Caravan coming from The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company comes riding up to the plantation. It comes equipped with one CAGE WAGON (from a prison), ONE white trash PECKAWOOD named FLOYD to drive the wagon, a 2nd white trash PECKAWOOD named ROY to ride lead horse, and a white trash PECKAWOOD named JANO to bring up the rear riding horses ass, plus a pack horse that carries dynamite for the mine. The three peckawoods, who all talk with thick Australian accents, have stopped the caravan and are having a powwow. ROY It's chaos 'round here. Some bastard shot the big boss. Let's git the niggers and git out. The Three mandingos who weren't sold in Greenville, Rodney, Chicken Charly, and Chester are walked to the wagon by overseers Tommy Giles. and Broomhilda's new owner Billy Crash. All three slaves carry the bundles of personal belongings they've had since Greenville. Chester wears a hat, and Chicken Charly has a corncob pipe in his mouth. The wagon driver, Floyd, approaches them. FLOYD You blacks line up. They do. FLOYD What's your names? CHESTER Chester. CHICKEN CHARLY Chicken Charly. RODNEY Rodney. FLOYD I'm.Floyd, this is Roy, and that's Jano. (POINTING AT CHESTER'S BUNDLE) What's that? CHESTER It's my stuff. FLOYD Throw it in the dirt. 1 40 All three throw their only belongings in the dirt. Floyd takes the'hat off of Chester's head and sails it away. As well as ripping the corncob pipe out of Chicken Charly's mouth and tossing it in the dirt. FLOYD (to Chicken Charly) You won't be doin' much smokin' mate. (to all three) You are now the property of The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company. Git in the cage. This is going to be worse then the three even thought. They climb into the cage wagon. Floyd locks it behind them. Roy, the head Aussie, pays Billy Crash for the slaves, when we hear Ace Woody call out; ACE WOODY (OS) Hold on, we got another hammer swinger for ya. Ace Woody comes walking out of the barn with Django, shirtless and barefoot (just like we met him at beginning of the story), wearing his old tan pants, and his wrists bound by a rope. ROY We can't use that skinny bastard. ACE WOODY We got an arraignment with Mr.Dickey to take punishment niggers from time to time. ROY No one tole' me 'bout no arraignment. ACE WOODY Well if Mr.Dickey ain't takin' you into his confidence, I'm sure I don't know why. ROY Look, no one tole' me 'bout - ACE WOODY - No, you look peckawood, this nigger got Boss Candie killed. And we want his ass punished. Now I know you need our bucks. So.unless you wanna ride back to the mine, and tell Mr.Dickey how and why you fucked up our nice little business relationship, take this nigger and hush up about it! ROY Fine, stick 'em in the goddamn cage. "H Django sees the three mandingos in the cage. They see him too. Django stops Ace Woody. DJANGO Whoa whoa whoa, you can't put me in there with them. They'll kill me. What about all that -turning big rocks into little rocks- shit y'all was. talkin' about? I mean that was the idea ain't it? You put me in there with them big ass garboons they kill me on the way. I mean if that's the idea, that's the idea, but I didn't think that was the idea. Ace knows he's right, so he turns to Roy and Floyd. ACE WOODY He can't go in there with them. FLOYD Why not? ACE WOODY They'll kill him. FLOYD I don't give a damn. ACE WOODY Well we do! He killed the fuckin Boss Man, we want the mine to grind him to gravel! ROY Jano, you're riclin' horses ass, you take this black and make sure he keeps up. JANO Oh, I'll keep 'em up. Jano takes the rope tired around Django's wrists.and ties the other end around his saddle horn. The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company caravan leaves Candyland. EXT - MISSISSIPPI COUNTRY ROAD - DAY The Caravan makes its way down a dirt road in pretty Chickasaw County. Stoic Roy riding lead horse, Floyd driving the cage wagon, Rodney, Chester, and Chicken Charly bouncing around inside the cage wagon, Jano riding horses ass, and Django being led on foot behind him. J42 DJANGO (TO JANO) Hey boy! Jano ignores him. DJANGO I said, hey white boy! JANO Keep your mouth shut black, you ain't got nothing to say I wanna hear. DJANGO What's he pay you? JANO Who? DJANGO LeQuint Dickey? JANO You gotta few more things to worry about black boy, then what I get paid. DJANGO I ain't worried about it. I'm just curious. I mean, I'm the property of The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company, ain't I? JANO Yeah. DJANGO And you work for The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company, dont'cha? JANO Yeah? DJANGO Well, I know how much I'm gettin' paid, how much you gettin' paid? I mean like for instance, how much you gettin' paid for today? JANO Look black, it don't work like that. Dickey paid for our passage from Australia to here. We get a little money to send back home, and pay him back for the boat trip. I" DJANGO How long you been here? JANO 'bout two years. DJANGO And you ain't paid him back yet? JANO (DEFENSIVELY) No, not yet! DJANGO (LAUGHS) You a slave too, peckawood. They just bought your ass for the price of a boat ride. At least they didn't charge us for our boat ride ... . ha ha ha ha... JANO (YELLING) You shut up! Jano's hand grabs his riding crop, and he brings it up to strike Django, when the black man says to him; DJANGO How'd you like to make eleven thousand dollars? JANO What? Django steps closer to him. DJANGO How would you like to make eleven thousand dollars -- eleven thousand five hundred, actually? Roy, in the lead, yells back to Jano; ROY Goddamit Jano, stop fuckin with that black, and keep up! DJANGO Keep riding, just ride slower. They move forward, with Django walking beside Jano on his horse. R44 DJANGO Back at that plantation Candyland, there was an eleven thousand five hundred dollar fortune just sittin there, and y'all rode right past it. JANO You be damned, blackie. We're not bandits. DJANGO That's what's nice about this fortune, it's not illegal. You can't steal it, ya gotta earn it. JANO If you got something to say, say it. DJANGO The eleven thousand five hundred dollar fortune waiting for you back at Candyland, is in the form of a wanted dead or alive bounty on Smitty Bacall and the Smitty Bacall Gang. JANO Who the fuck is Smitty Bacall? DJANGO Smitty Bacall is the leader of a murdering gang of stagecoach robbers, The Bacall Gang. There's a seven thousand dollar dead or alive bounty on him. And one thousand five hundred dollars for each of his three accomplices, Dandy Michaels, Gerald Nash, and Crazy Craig Koons. And all four of them gentlemen are sittin back there at Candyland...laughin their ass off... cause they just got away with murder. (BEAT) But it don't hafta be that way. You and your mates could get that money. JANO Who pays the money? DJANGO The Court. JANO The Court? DJANGO The Austin Texas Courthouse. Oh, and by the way, the court don't give a damn about how you kill 'em. You can shoot 'em in the back, from up on a hill, in the back of the head, in their sleep - don't matter. (CON'T) DJANGO (CON'T) Court doesn't care how you do it, just as long as you do it. JANO They.pay us to kill 'em? DJANGO No. You kill 'em, and they payyou for the corpse. Get it? JANO I think so... . what did these jokers do again? DJANGO Killed innocent people in a stagecoach robbery. I've got the handbill in my pocket. Django digs into his tan pants and pulls out the folded up Smitty Bacall handbill that Dr.Schultz told him to hang on to for good luck. He hands it to Jano. JANO What's this? DJANGO I told you, it's the handbill for Smitty Bacall and The Bacall Gang. Jano looks at the handbill. DJANGO Whatsamatter, can't you read? JANO I can read, I just don't have my glasses. I didn't take 'em with me, because I didn't think I'd be doin much readin' on a nigger run. DJANGO What about that cowboy fella in the lead? JANO Roy? DJANGO Can Roy read? JANO Look, get it straight black, I can fuckin read. I just don't got my glasses. CUT TO 146 EXT -- BEAUTIFUL MISSISSIPPI COUNTRY TABLEAUX at DUSK The LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. Caravan has stopped, and pulled over to the side of the road. IN THE CAGE Rodney, Chicken Charly, and Chester sit in the cage, and watch through the bars this new turn of events without any.clear comprehension of what they're watching. What the three caged men are watching is the three Australian mining company employees and Django, off in the distance (where they can't hear what they're saying), having some sort of a discussion. That includes the still bound by the wrists Django showing the three men a piece of paper. INSERT: SMITTY BACALL'S WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE HANDBILL Roy holds it in his hand as he reads and Django talks. DJANGO I ain't no goddamn slave. Do I sound-like a fuckin slave? I'm a bounty hunter. Yesterday as a free man, I rode into Candyland on a horse with my white German partner, Dr.King Schultz. We'd tracked The Bacall Gang from Texas all the way to Chickasaw County. Found them laying low at Candyland. We went in to get 'em, things went sour. My partner was killed, and Calvin Candie was shot. Everybody there decided to blame me, so here I am. (TO ROY) You know I'm not on the manifest? All of you know I'm not suppose to be on this trip. But those four men, are still back there. They're still wanted. And that eleven thousand five hundred is still up for grabs. And the last thing they'd expect is y'all rid.in back and gittin it. Django is damn convincing. ROY What's your deal? You tell us who they are and we let ya go? DJANGO I ain't tellin' who they are. But, you give me a pistol, and a horse, and five hundred dollars of that eleven thousand five hundred, and I'll point 'em out to you. He's got these greedy sonsabitches right on the hook...he just needs one little push. 1Q7 DJANGO Y'all wanna ask somebody if I'm tellin the truth, ask them mandingos. You can't put me in the same cage with them without them killin me. Why ya think that is? Ask them .am I a Candyland slave, or did I ride in there on a horse, with a white man, yesterday? CUT TO ROY AND FLOYD go to the Cage Wagon to talk with the three mandingos. As they walk, Roy continues to study the handbill. ROY (READING ALOUD) "Wanted, dead or alive. Smitty Bacall and The Bacall Gang. For murder and stagecoach robbery. Seven thousand dollars for Bacall. One thousand five hundred dollars for each of his gang members... ." This is a real handbill. FLOYD Just because the handbill's real doesn't mean that other bunch of malarky.is. ROY Why would a nigger slave have a wanted dead or alive handbill in his pocket? Floyd doesn't have an answer for that one. ROY That black's damn convincing. They get to The Cage O'Men. Roy startles them with a direct question; ROY (pointing, behind him, at Django) That black ride into Candyland yesterday? The Caged Men don't know what they're suppose to say. Roy removes the pistol from his belt, cocks back the hammer and points the barrel at the cage. ROY I'm gonna ask again, and remember I don't like liars. Is he a Candyland slave, or did he ride in with a white man yesterday? CHESTER Yeah. They walked us from the Greenville Auction and he rode on a horse with a white man. ROY This white man, was the black his slave? RODNEY He weren't no slave. FLOYD You sure about that? RODNEY Damn sure. Roy starts taking the possibility of an eleven thousand dollar windfall seriously. ROY What happened at Candyland? CHICKEN CHARLY Bunch of shootin, master got shot. ROY Who shot 'em? CHICKEN CHARLY The German. ROY And why did he do that? CHICKEN CHARLY The nigger and the German were actin as if they were slavers, but they weren't. ROY What were they? RODNEY Bounty hunters. Floyd is starting to get convinced. FLOYD Goddamn Roy, this could be big. (to the Slaves) Do you know who Smitty Bacall is? !Y, ROY (barking at Floyd) They wouldn't go by their outlaw names you idiot! CUT TO Roy and Floyd walk back to Django and Jano. ROY Okay black, you gotta deal. Jano reacts. DJANGO I got one more condition. ROY What? DJANGO When we get there, when the time comes, you let me help you kill 'em. Roy whips out a big knife, and cuts the rope around Django's wrists. ROY (LAUGHING) You got a deal, black. Django interrupts - DJANGO You gotta deal, mate. Roy really laughs this time. As does Django and the other two Aussies. ROY You're all right for a black fella! THE CAGE Rodney, Chicken Charly, and Chester watch the sight of the white men cutting the ropes that bound the black man's wrists, as well as them all sharing a laugh, with wonderment. "Who is this Nigger?" BACK WITH THE LAUGHING QUARTET ROY We'll give you that pack horse. DJANGO What's them saddle bags filled with? FLOYD Dynamite. !so DJANGO I.ain't ridin no horse with no goddamn dynamite on his back! ROY (CHUCKLE CHUCKLE) Yeah, I can see why. Jano take those sticks off that horse, and stick 'em in the nigger cage. Jano does this, lifting two out of four bags filled with dynamite off the pack horse, and walking to the cage wagon, unlocking ' the cage door, and placing the bags inside. The Black Men in the cage don't like this at all. Jano removes the last of the dynamite filled saddle bags from Django's horse, throws them over his shoulders, and begins walking back to The Cage Wagon. Django moves to his new pack horse, and says; DJANGO Where's my pistol? ROY Floyd, you got that rifle on the wagon, give 'em your gun and your belt. Floyd unbuckles his gun belt, gun and all, folds it up, and walks over to Django handing it to him. Django accepts it. About the pistol, Floyd tells Django; FLOYD Now don't drop it now. I just had the sights fixed last month, it's perfect. Django holding the gunbelt in his hand. DJANGO That's good to know. Without taking the pistol out of the gunbelt, DJANGO SHOOTS FLOYD TWICE in the chest... Roy turns around... Django takes the gun out of the holster... . BAM...ROY is HIT in the UPPER BRAIN AREA and falls to the grass dead. Jano goes for the gun on his hip. Django SHOOTS ONE OF THE SADDLE BAGS over.Jano's shoulder...KAHBOOM!!!!! Jano is BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS... The KAHBOOM knocks Django on his ass... The CAGE WAGON Rodney, Chester, and Chicken Charlie come down from the shock of the blast. The image outside the bars of their cage is of DUST and SMOKE in the air, obscuring all visibility... THEN ... A sudden GUST OF WIND comes and BLOWS all the smoke and dust away, REVEALING in bright color focus... .DJANGO standing among the two dead Aussies, and whatever is left of Jano. He's shoeless and shirtless, but Floyd's pistol and gunbelt sit wrapped around his waist. He locks eyes with the three men in the cage.. He then moves towards the wagon, and unhooks the mine company beast, and climbs aboard him bareback. He leans over and snatches the RIFLE that Floyd kept on the wagon seat next to him. Grabbing a fistful of the horses mane, he digs his heels into the beast's side. The pack animals SPRINGS TO LIFE under the new rider. By now it should be apparent that Django brings the best out of horses, and horses bring the best out of Django. From his high horse Django looks down at The Three Caged Men... .THEN... Using the rifle in a QUICK ONE HANDED MOVE he SHOOTS the lock on the cage door. He looks at the three men, especially Rodney, then says; DJANGO Throw up that dynamite. Rodney grabs a saddle bag full of dynamite and tosses it to Django on his Horse. Django wraps it around the Horse's neck, turns the beast around, and without saying another word, rides back in the direction of Candyland. The Three NOW FREE Mandingos, watch him ride away. "Who was that nigger?" CUT TO l.rz A GORGEOUS BIG SKY SOUTHERN PURPLE AND ORANGE SUNSET WE PAN DOWN from the sky and see in small black silhouette the Funeral Procession of Calvin Candie carrying the Coffin of the former Master up the hill on 'Candyland that leads to the Graveyard. A WHITE PREACHER walks out in front of the Procession. Then comes Calvin Candie's Coffin carried by eight pallbearers, Stephen, Moguy, Bartholomew, Ace Woody, Brown, Cody, and his best mandingos SAMSON and GOLDIE. The first mourner in line is Lara Lee dressed in a fancy black dress, wide brim black hat, black veil, and ever present black Mammy (Cora) crying at her side. CORA The sky's real pretty Miss Lara. Monsieur Candie think it real nice. LARA LEE Ah, bless you sweet innocent Cora. WE CROSS CUT WITH SHOTS of Django RIDING THE HORSE on the way back to Candyland. The bare backed black man riding the horse bareback, holding the RIFLE in one hand, a fistful of the horses mane in the other, hauling ass against a gorgeous SUNSET SKY, looks like an Indian. EXT - TRACKER SHACK/BUNKHOUSE - SUNSET The same GORGEOUS SUNSET SKY over the same shitty Tracker shack -Bunkhouse that Mr.Stonesipher and his three obscure companions share. The GERMAN SHEPHERDS (including Marsha) rest in the chicken wire kennel next to the bunkhouse. INT - TRACKER SHACK - SUNSET The FOUR TRACKERS are.missing the funeral, hanging out in the bunkhouse wearing their beards. Mr.Stonesipher, Lex, and Stew are playing a mountain card game which looks like poker, except the way you get rid of your cards is different. Instead of chips they play with, "NIGGER EARS" (yes, the ears of slaves). On a second viewing the audience may notice that some of the slaves at Candyland are missing one ear. Jake, the biggest, is off by himself, pounding nails into a small delicate BIRDHOUSE he's making. EXT - WOODS-OUTSIDE THE SHACK - SUNSET INSERT: HORSE HOOFS walking then stopping. Django's bare feet jump on to the ground. IS3 INT - DOG KENNEL - SUNSET The FOUR DOGS lay out... . when, Marsha hears something, and raises her head... SHIRTLESS DJANGO moves quietly through the woods. MARSHA rises to all fours, to listen and smell. out in the darkness, her three PALS continue to lay out. DJANGO BY A TREE he can see the bunkhouse entrance, the LONG HANDLE AXE buried in the chopping block, the kennel, and the one dog looking his way. MARSHA BARK! The Other Three Dogs wake up, and go on alert. Django disappears. INT - TRACKER SHACK - SUNSET They hear the barking inside. Mr.STONESIPHER Jake! Jake building his birdhouse. JAKE Yeah? Mr.STONESIPHER Check on Marsha. Jake, the one not playing the game, puts aside his hammer, and rises to check on them (these guys are very sensitive about their dogs). EXT - TRACKER SHACK As the BARKING gets louder, WE SEE A CLOSE UP of The Axe in the chopping block, and Django's hand REMOVING IT. JAKE opens the bunkhouse door-he sees directly a hundred feet in front of him, Django standing there with the axe. Just as he reacts... DJANGO ... . THROWS THE AXE... JAKE ... . IT HITS HIM IN THE FACE. After letting go of the axe handle, Django RUNS FULL SPEED toward Jake. Before the other three have really registered what's happening, Django has crossed the distance, and is YANKING The Axe out of JAKE'S FACE. And with AXE in hand, Django chases and fights with all three trackers, till after a point where he's CHOPPED DOWN TWO OF THEM, Lex, and Stew, and now there's only Mr.Stonesipher left. But Mr.Stonesipher has managed to draw his gigantic BUCK KNIFE, and is able to fight back against Django. You know Stonesipher's great with a knife, plus his fighting style is like one of his dogs, attack attack attack. Django uses the axe handle in a defensive position. The expert Mountain Boy begins SCORING BLADE CUTS on shirtless Django. The two men fight until they end up losing their weapons. Then it's just a fight of brute strength, and survival. Mr.Stonesipher is physically bigger then Django. But if Django's going to save Broomhilda, not to mention get revenge on all these Candyland motherfuckers, he has to take Stonesipher's ass out. This Black Man who has been under the yoke of white man's domination all his life, and this White Man who feeds black people to dogs, fight each other for their life. Django gets his arm around Stonesipher's neck in a headlock, but the mountain boy is big enough to lift Django. So like a rodeo rider holding onto bull for dear life, Django tightens his lock around his opponents neck. Django gets his hand on the HAMMER Jake was building the birdhouse with, and BRINGS IT CRASHING DOWN ON THE TOP OF STONESIPHER'S HEAD. That weakens Stonesipher. He HITS HIM AGAIN IN THE HEAD. That drops Stonesipher to his knees. He HITS HIM AGAIN WITH THE HAMMER ON THE HEAD. That puts the mountain man down on his back. He HITS HIM ONE MORE TIME WITH THE HAMMER TO keep him down for good. The Trackers are all dead. Only the dogs mad barking remains. EXT - The FUNERAL - NIGHT The Funeral for Calvin Candie is underway. The Preacher reads some words over him. EXT - TRACKER SHACK - NIGHT Django, half naked, splattered with blood from the axe murders, steps out of the shack. He takes a wash basin off the window sill, and walks over to the WATER PUMP. Marsha and her three friends-continue to BARK like mad. He PUMPS a couple of times, and water explodes into the bowl. He begins washing the blood-off'of himself. As he washes, he says outloud; DJANGO What ya doin around here, boy? Timmy steps from his watching place in the bushes. TIMMY I was just walkin' by. DJANGO Wanna help me out? TIMMY Sure. DJANGO My woman, Hildi, is with Billy Crash. You know where his shack is? TIMMY Sure do. DJANGO You show me? TIMMY Will I get in trouble? DJANGO Not by the time I get through killin' everybody. Timmy has never heard a black man talk like that. He believes him. TIMMY I'll show ya. THEN ... Django turns towards the barking dogs. He turns back to Timmy and asks; DJANGO You know what toadstools look like? 15-C TIMMY Sure do. DJANGO Go pick me a mess of 'em. INSERT: TIMMY picking TOADSTOOLS (POISON MUSHROMS). INSERT: DJANGO stirring a big pot of BEEF STEW with a wooden spoon in the tracker shack. Timmy comes'in carrying a bunch of toadstools inside his shirt. Django takes the toadstools and Mr.Stonesipher's BUCK KNIFE and CHOPS the mushrooms into tiny pieces. He tosses the tiny bits of poisoned shrooms into the beefy sauce, and mixes it up with the spoon. EXT - MARSHA'S KENNEL - NIGHT Django throws the pot of poisoned beef stew over the top of the kennel. It lands on the ground with a PLOP. The Angry Dogs, are nevertheless', still dogs, and greedily scarf up the stew. Django watches them wolf down their ultimate agony with a smile. DJANGO You bit your last nigger, bitch? Bite on that. Django lifts Timmy up on to the bare backed wagon horse. DJANGO First things first, boy. Take me to my horse. EXT - FUNERAL NIGHT The funeral is in full melodramatic bore. TNT - STABLE-BLACKSMITH - NIGHT Timmy brings Django to the stable on the Candyland grounds. Django goes straight up to the stall housing Tony and says hello. Tony's happy to see him. Django feeds him an apple he picked along the way for him. He turns and sees the body of Dr.Schultz lying in a heap. And Schultz's horse Fritz in the stable. DJANGO Saddle up Fritz and Tony. Timmy just stares. DJANGO Now, boy! Timmy hops to work. Django bends down over the body of Dr.Schultz, he takes Broomhilda's bill of sale and freedom papers out of his back pocket. He also searches for and finds Schultz's hidden DERRINGER, he keeps it in a holster around his ankle. As Timmy saddles the horses, he asks; TIMMY Do you feel bad for your friend? Django rises from the body of his friend. DJANGO Yeah, "I do. As Timmy saddles the horses he says; TIMMY I know just how ya feel. I lost a white friend once. He drowned in the lake. Django doesn't correct the difference between Dr.Schultz and a white friend, because there's nothing he could say to Timmy to make him understand. He goes over to his pile of clothes, which still lie next to the furnace. He Puts on his boots. His Green Jacket over his bare chest. And finally his hat. EXT - The FUNERAL - NIGHT The service is over, everybody is hugging each other and holding hands, and beginning to leave. INT - BILLY CRASH'S SHACK - NIGHT Billy Crash is in bed fucking Broomhilda. She doesn't wail, she doesn't make any whimpering sounds, but her eyes constantly water. As Billy's fucking her he says; BILLY CRASH It's gonna be real nice 'round here now the 'ol man's gone. (CON'T) 'SR BILLY CRASH (FUCKS) Would you stop your galdarn cryin'! He stops fucking in frustration BROOMHILDA I can't. BILLY CRASH Now girl, I'm tryin' to be nice. BROOMHILDA I can't help it! I'm really sad! He hops off her and yells at her. BILLY CRASH Well goddamit, you're a nigger! Life is sad for niggers! Git use to it! (CALMING DOWN) Look you know Me, Hildi. I'm an ass buster from way back. But you know I've always been sweet on you. I don't wanna bust your ass. So don't make me! Now I'm gonna go shit. You calm down. He exits the shack to go the outhouse, leaving Broomhilda alone. WE MOVE INTO A CLOSE UP OF BROOMHILDA lying on the bed. She cries for Django, she cries for herself... .THEN... She HEARS an IMPACT SOUND, and a MUFFLED "Ooomph" SOUND. And through the spaces in the wooden planks that act as walls in Billy Crash's shack, she sees a figure fall to the ground. Then she sees another figure through the wooden planks move towards the front door. CU BROOMHILDA Her face, stained with tears, watches the door. A soft "Knock Knock" on the door. BROOMHILDA (SOFTLY) Yes? The VOICE on the other side of the door, says; DJANGO'S VOICE (OS) Hey Little Trouble Maker. 157 She hops out of bed, and throws open the door... THERE HE IS, she runs into his arms. EXT - The FUNERAL - NIGHT The TWO OLD SLAVE.GRAVE DIGGERS are throwing the first shovelfuls of dirt on Monsieur Calvin J. Candie's coffin. The participants of this ritual, begin to move away from the grave. The funeral is a private affair, just the Candie Family Unit, some of the overseers, and the slaves. No one from town, except the Preacher. The SLAVE MOURNERS begin. to move towards their living area, all saying goodbye to Miss Lara. Miss Lara makes a big show of saying goodbye to them. A little cognizant of the Candie Family unit begin the walk off the hill back to the big house. EXT - BILLY CRASH'S SHACK - NIGHT Django with Broomhilda. Billy Crash lies dead in the B.G., Stonesipher's Buck Knife buried deep in his chest. He hands Broomhilda her papers. DJANGO Here's your bill of sale, and freedom papers. No matter what happens to me, hold on to these and get out of the south. BROOMHILDA What's gonna happen to you? DJANGO Ain't nuttin' gonna happen to me honey, I'm just sayin'. Now go to the stable, little Timmy's got our horses .saddled. Your horse is named Fritz. He's a damn fine horse. Meet me around the side of the big house. BROOMHILDA But what about you - DJANGO - Don't worry about me. I'll see you, with Timmy and the horses, by the big house. He sends her on her way. Django looks up and sees the silhouettes of the funeral party walking down hill heading back for the big house. (60 EXT - The TRAIL BACK TO The BIG HOUSE - NIGHT The Family unit of The Late Calvin Candie and his sister Lara Lee walk back to The Big House for a drink. This Candie Family Unit consists of: LARA LEE (unarmed) in her black flowing funeral dress. CORA (unarmed) her mammy, walks with Miss Lara, holding her hand. STEPHEN. (unarmed) dressed in his fancy black velvet version of his normal House Nigger outfit, walks on the other side of his mistress Miss Lara, holding her other hand. ACE WOODY (armed with a gun belt.around his hip) dressed in his Wyatt Earp like funeral black suit, with the string tie, walks by himself. LEONIDE MOGUY (armed with a gun belt around his hip) walks by himself. BARTHOLOMEW (unarmed) dressed in his tight fitting business suit, with his hat, walks alone. BROWN and JINGLE BELLS CODY (both armed with guns on their hips) both dressed slightly like cowboy peacocks, walk together. and finally, SAMSON and GOLDIE (unarmed) Calvin Candie's two prized mandingos, wearing suits they borrowed from Bartholomew.. This CANDIE FAMILY UNIT walk to The Big House for a few post funeral drinks. They enter the lawn in front of The Big House, and head for the front door. Broomhilda on Fritz and Timmy riding on Tony come along the side of the property by some shed. They see The Candie Family Unit, all dressed in their darkest finery, walking towards the front steps of The Big House. The woman and little boy stop. But the group of enemies aren't looking their way. The CANDIE FAMILY UNIT moves closer towards the front of The Big House... WHEN ... The front of The Big House EXPLODES! knocking the.Candie Family Unit flat on their collective asses. BROOMHILDA and TIMMY can't believe their eyes. I6 I WOOD - STONE - PLASTER - DIRT - DUST - GLASS - SMOKE - GUNPOWDER hang in the air. The CANDIE FAMILY UNIT starts coming to their senses. Nobody was killed, or even seriously hurt (unless you count eardrums), just stunned. As their minds try and grasp with what just happened, their eyes look up from the ground, and try and see through the smoke and dust. The'SMOKE and DUST thins a little, and we see inside the smoke the mansion has been obliterated, but The Big House front steps remain. CUE cool MUSIC. STEPHEN sees something in the smoke, squints. ACE WOODY sees something in the smoke, squints. BROWN and CODY see something in the smoke, squint. In the SMOKE and DUST we begin to see a FIGURE, walking towards them. ACE WOODY squints at the FIGURE. MOGUY sees the.FIGURE. CORA attending to Miss Lara sees the FIGURE, then MISS LARA sees it. The FIGURE moves further out of the SMOKE and DUST. ACE WOODY, on the ground, his hand starts to move towards the gun around his waist. Then he sees The FIGURE.is carrying something in his left hand... .it's Floyd's Winchester, he raises it, and points it at Ace. ACE WOODY's hand moves away from his gun. The FIGURE steps out of the SMOKE. It's DJANGO dressed in his DJANGO OUTFIT. STEPHEN, ACE WOODY, MOGUY, LARA LEE, BARTHOLOMEW, CORA, BROWN and JINGLE BELLS CODY, SAMPSON or GOLDIE...Nobody can believe Django's standing there. He stands at the top of the front steps of The Big House, looking down at The Candie Family Unit, all lying on the front lawn, Winchester rifle held casually in his left hand. His right hand held casually by the gun on his hip. The CANDIE FAMILY UNIT all on their ass in the grass, look up at Django with a mixture of Wonder, Fear, and Hate. ICZ WE MOVE INTO A ROMANTIC CLOSE UP OF BROOMHILDA as she watches this. As DJANGO looks out at the ten stunned enemies spread out on The Big House front lawn,. and as they look back from the grass at him. The black man in the cool green jacket says; DJANGO I bet I.know what you're thinkin', Ace Woody? You'.re thinkin', why didn't I'cut off that niggers nuts when .1 had the'chance? Right? ACE WOODY I guess I shoulda'. DJANGO Yes you should of. He points the Winchester at the people spread out on the grass. DJANGO Everybody stand up! It's now Django who gives the orders. They stand up quickly. Django, with the rifle pointing at them, just looks at The Candie Family Unit. Enjoying their collective hatred. THEN... He tosses the rifle away. Then moves his right hand by his gun belt in his holster, as he takes a SHOWDOWN STANCE. EVERYBODY realizes DJANGO's intentions. Even BROOMHILDA and TIMMY. DJANGO looks down from his position at the top of The Big House steps at the ten people, and says; DJANGO All black folks, take ten steps away from the white folks. DJANGO's eyes go to STEPHEN, who looks back at him. DJANGO Not you Stephen. You're right where you belong. 163 The Black Folks, Cora, Bartholomew, Samson, and Goldie begin taking ten steps away from the White Folks and the gunfight. LARA LEE can't believe Cora's leaving her. CORA is "I'm sorry Miss Lara, but I never did nuttin' to that nigger." DJANGO looks to STEPHEN, and takes Schultz's hidden Derringer out of his pocket. DJANGO (TO STEPHEN) Let's see if you can handle this as well as you can my nuts? He tosses the Ole Man the tiny gun. DJANGO (TO EVERYBODY) Somebody give Miss Lara a gun. BROWN gives LARA LEE one. of his two guns. BROWN (TO DJANGO) Can I at least cock it for her? DJANGO Yep. BROWN cocks back the hammer of the peacemaker, and puts it in her hand, and points it towards the ground. BROWN (to Lara Lee) Okay Miss Lara, keep it pointed down till the shootin' starts. Then bring it up as fast as you can. LARA LEE CANDIE-FITZWILLI can't come to grips with what she's.in the middle of, who she's facing, what's in her hand, or what's about to happen. DJANGO (to the six) Make your play hillbillies. The MUSIC SWELLS. 16'F EVERYBODY, except for LARA LEE is READY: DJANGO ACE WOODY STEPHEN MOGUY BROWN CODY LARA LEE The PEOPLE watching on the side: BARTHOLOMEW SAMSON BROOMHILDA CORA GOLDIE TIMMY EVERYONE'S ready, but no one wants to start this party... TILL... ACE WOODY starts to go for the gun in his holster, and STEPHEN starts to raise his Derringer. But it's no contest. As soon as Django saw any movement from the six in front of him, Floyd's Pistol was QUICKSILVER FAST in. his right hand, as his left hand FANNED the Pistols Hammer, SHOOTING INSTANTLY all five White People (and Stephen) standing in front of him. They all fall to grass in different ways.. It was never any contest, they and WE (the audience) just didn't know HOW GOOD DJANGO was. FLASH ON DJANGO showing off his incredible FAST DRAW and ACCURATE MARKSMANSHIP to Dr.Schultz. Dr.SCHULTZ (SMILING) You know what they're going to call you, my boy? "The fastest gun in the South." BACK TO SHOWDOWN DJANGO stands on the top steps of what's left of'The Big House, looking down at The Candie Family Unit, who all lay dead or dying on the Candyland front lawn. The WITNESSES can't fathom what they'just witnessed. /65 All the CANDIE FAMILY UNIT lies on the grass SHOT. But some are still alive. We HEAR MOANING coming from LARA LEE, CODY, and MOGUY. DJANGO sees this. The Black Man reaches behind him and comes out with a DYNAMITE STICK. He tosses it on the grass among the bodies. He takes aim with his pistol; and FIRES. It EXPLODES. Finishing off what was left of the Candie Family Unit, not to mention, blowing the limbs off of many of them. The LAWN is SILENT. DJANGO'S PISTOL goes back in its holster. Django walks down the front steps of The Big House, feeling tremendous satisfaction in the wrath he just wroth on Candie and Co. He removes Dr.Schultz's tiny Derringer from Stephen's dead hand, putting it in his pocket. Then heads over to where Broomhilda and Timmy wait for him with Fritz and Tony. As he,walks up to Broomhilda on Fritz, he says; DJANGO Hey Little Trouble Maker. BROOMHILDA Hey Big Trouble Maker. DJANGO Down, boy. Timmy hops off of Tony. Django climbs aboard Tony. He says to Broomhilda; DJANGO I tole' you ain't nuttin' gonna happen to me. BROOMHILDA Yes you did. DJANGO Girl, you're gonna hafta start trustin' me. BROOMHILDA I'll keep that in mind. ¬ñ∫66 Django looks down to Timmy. DJANGO Thanks for the help, boy. He reaches into his saddle bag, and pulls out an apple, and tosses it down to Timmy. DJANGO That's for you. Good luck Tim. (he points to the Northern Sky) The North star, is that one. He looks to Broomhilda on Fritz. DJANGO You gonna hafta keep up, ya know? BROOMHILDA You won't wait for me. DJANGO Better not. BROOMHILDA You won't. DJANGO (SMILING) Better not. BROOMHILDA (SMILING) You won't. They kiss. Then, astride Tony, Django leaves Candyland having rescued his Broomhilda from her Mountain, her Ring of Hellfire, and all her Dragons. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Do The Right Thing.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Do The Right Thing.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..25717a77e70e609b2c85bef10000ac5bc0e30dcf --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Do The Right Thing.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DO THE RIGHT THING by Spike LeeSecond DraftMarch 1, 1988; Brooklyn, N.Y.Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Inc.YA-DIG SHO-NUFFBY ANY MEANS NECESSARYWGA #45816"The greatest miracle Christianity has achieved in Americais that the black man in white Christian hands has not grownviolent. It is a miracle that 22 million black people havenot risen up against their oppressors--in which they wouldhave been justified by all moral criteria, and even by thedemocratic tradition! It is a miracle that a nation ofblack people has so fervently continued to believe in aturn-the-other-cheek and heaven-for-you-after-you-diephilosophy! It is a miracle that the American Black peoplehave remained a peaceful people, while catching all thecenturies of hell that they have caught, here in white man'sheaven! The miracle is that the white man's puppet Negro'leaders,' his preachers and the educated Negroes laden withdegrees, and others who have been allowed to wax fat offtheir black poor brothers, have been able to hold the blackmasses quiet until now." --THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM XTITLES--WHITE ON BLACK PLACE Brooklyn, New York CUT TO: TIME Present CUT TO: WEATHER Hot as shit! CUT TO:INT: WE LOVE RADIO STATION STOREFRONT--DAYEXTREME CLOSE UPWE SEE only big white teeth and very Negroidal (big) lips. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Waaaake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Up ya wake! Up ya wake! Up ya wake!CAMERA MOVES BACK SLOWLY TO REVEAL MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY,a DJ, a radio personality, behind a microphone. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY This is Mister SeÒor Love Daddy. Your voice of choice. The world's only twelve-hour strongman, here on WE LOVE radio, 108 FM. The last on your dial, but the first in ya hearts, and that's the truth, Ruth!The CAMERA, which is STILL PULLING BACK, shows that MisterSeÒor Love Daddy is actually sitting in a storefront window.The control booth looks directly out onto the street. Thisis WE LOVE RADIO, a modest station with a loyal following,right in the heart of the neighborhood. The OPENING SHOTwill be a TRICK SHOT--the CAMERA PULLING BACK through thestorefront window. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Here I am. Am I here? Y'know it. It ya know. This is Mister SeÒor Love Daddy, doing the nasty to ya ears, ya ears to the nasty. I'se play only da platters dat matter, da matters dat platter and that's the truth, Ruth.He hits the cart machine and we hear a station jingle. VO L-O-V-E RADIO. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Doing da ying and yang da flip and flop da hippy and hoppy (he yodels) Yo da lay he hoo. I have today's forecast. (he screams) HOT!He laughs like a madman.INT: DA MAYOR'S BEDROOM--DAYAn old, grizzled man stirs in the bed, his sheets are soakedwith sweat. He flings them off his wet body. DA MAYOR Damn, it's hot.INT: JADE'S APARTMENT--DAYCAMERA MOVES IN ON a young man sitting at the edge of a sofabed.CLOSE UP--HIS SMALL HANDSWE SEE him counting his money. This isn't any ordinarycounting of money, he's straightening out all the corners ofthe bills, arranging them so the bills--actually the "deadpresidents"--are facing the same way. This is MOOKIE. Oncehe's finished with that task, counting his money, he sneaksinto his sister's bedroom.INT: JADE'S BEDROOM--DAYCLOSE UP--JADEJADE, Mookie's sister, is fast asleep. Mookie's fingersENTER THE FRAME and start to play with her lips. Jadepushes his hands away. Mookie waits several beats and hecontinues. Jade wakes up--mad. JADE Don't you have enough sense not to bother people when they're sleeping? MOOKIE Wake up! JADE Wake up? Saturday is the lone day I get to sleep late. MOOKIE It's gonna be hot today. JADE Good! Leave me alone when I'm sleeping. I'm gonna get a lock on my door, to keep ya ass outta here. MOOKIE Don't ya love ya brother Mookie anymore? I loves ya, Jade. JADE Do me a favor. Go to work. MOOKIE Later. Gotta get paid.He plants a big fat juicy on his sister's forehead.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYA 1975 El Dorado pulls up in front of the neighborhoodpizzeria--Sal's Famous Pizzeria.From out of the car comes the owner, SAL, a slightlyoverweight man in his early fifties, and his two sons, PINO,22, and VITO, 20. It's time for them to go to work at Sal'sFamous Pizzeria in the heart of Black Brooklyn. Sal's sitson the corner of The Block. The Block being where this filmon the hottest day of the summer takes place.Pino kicks a beer can in his path into the gutter. SAL Pino, get a broom and sweep out front. PINO Vito, get a broom and sweep out front. VITO See, Pop. That's just what I was talkin' about. Every single time you tell Pino to do something, he gives it to me. PINO He's nuts. SAL The both of youse, shaddup. VITO Tell Pino. PINO Get the broom. VITO I ain't getting shit. SAL Hey! Watch it. PINO I didn't want to come to work anyway. I hate this freakin' place. SAL Can you do better? C'mere.Pino is now silent. Sal walks over to him. SAL Can you do better? (he pops Pino upside the head) I didn't think so. This is a respectable business. Nuthin' wrong with it. Get dat broom. PINO Tell Vito. VITO Pop asked you. SAL I'm gonna kill somebody today.EXT: MOOKIE'S BROWNSTONE--DAYMookie comes down his stoop and walks to work.EXT: STREET--DAYThe Block is beginning to come to life. Those unlucky soulswho have to work this Saturday drag themselves to it, andthe kids are out on the street to play in the hot sun allday long.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DAYMookie stops to say hello to MOTHER SISTER. She leans outher window on the parlor floor. In the summertime, the onlytime when she's not perched in her window is when she'sasleep. MOTHER SISTER Good morning, Mookie. MOOKIE Good morning to you. MOTHER SISTER Now, Mookie, don't work too hard today. The man said it's gonna be HOT as the devil. I don't want ya falling out from the heat. You hear me, son? MOOKIE I hear ya, Mother Sister. I hear you. MOTHER SISTER Good. I'll be watching ya, son. Mother Sister always watches.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie enters the pizzeria and Pino is on him before thedoor closes. PINO Mookie, late again. How many times I gotta tell you? MOOKIE Hello, Sal. Hello, Vito. SAL How ya doin', Mookie? VITO Whaddup? MOOKIE Just coolin'. PINO You're still late. SAL Pino, relax, will ya. PINO Here, take the broom. The front needs sweeping. MOOKIE Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I just got here. You sweep. I betcha Sal asked you first anyhow. VITO That's right. PINO Shaddup, Vito. MOOKIE Fuck dat shit. I deliver pizzas. That's what I get paid for. PINO You get paid to do what we say. MOOKIE What we say. I didn't hear Sal say nuthin'.Pino looks at his father. He wants to be backed up on this;all he gets is an amused look, and a smirk from Vito. PINO Who's working for who?There's a knock on the door and Da Mayor enters. SAL Come on in, Mayor. DA MAYOR Good morning, gentlemens. It's gonna be a scorcher today, that's for sure. Need any work done around here?Sal looks at Pino, who reluctantly gives Da Mayor the broom. DA MAYOR It will be the cleanest sidewalk in Brooklyn. Clean as the Board of Health.Da Mayor almost runs out of the pizzeria in his hurry; soonas he finishes he'll be able to get a bottle. PINO Pop, I don't believe this shit. We runnin' welfare or somethin'? Every day you give dat bum-- MOOKIE Da Mayor ain't no bum. PINO Give dat bum a dollar for sweeping our sidewalk. What do we pay Mookie for? He don't even work. I work harder than him and I'm your own son. MOOKIE Who don't work? Let's see you carry six large pies up six flights of stairs. No elevator either and shit. SAL Both of youse--shaddup. This is a place of business. VITO Tell 'em, Pop. PINO Me and you are gonna have a talk. VITO Sez who? PINO Sez me. SAL Hey! What did I say? MOOKIE Who doesn't work? Don't start no shit, won't be no shit. SAL Mookie, no cursing in the store. MOOKIE Talk to your son.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYDa Mayor sweeps the sidewalk, happy as can be. As soon ashe finishes he can get that money and get that bottle.EXT: STOOP--DAYA group of youths sit on a stoop, waiting for someone. Theyare CEE, PUNCHY, and the lone female, ELLA. ELLA What's keeping him? PUNCHY You call him, then.Ella stands up and yells. ELLA Yo, Ahmad! PUNCHY I coulda done dat. ELLA Yo, Ahmad!She looks up into his window, then sits down. ELLA Punchy, if ya want to do some more screaming, be my guest. I'm too through.The door swings open at the top of the stoop and AHMADappears. AHMAD Who's yelling my name? ELLA Punchy told me to. AHMAD Don't listen to him, it will get ya in trouble. ELLA Heard that, Punchy.Ahmad sits down with them. AHMAD Ella, you have a brain, use it.In the BG, we hear the dum-dum-dum of a giant box. Thesound gets louder as the box gets closer. The youths lookdown the block and see a tall young man coming towards them.He has a very distinct walk, it's more like a bop. This isRADIO RAHEEM. The size of his box is tremendous and one hasto think, how does he carry something that big around withhim? It must weigh a ton, and it seems like the sidewalkshakes as the rap music blares out. The song we hear is theonly one Radio Raheem plays.MEDIUM SHOT--RADIO RAHEEMRadio Raheem stops in front of the group, looks at them, andturns down the volume. It's quiet again. RADIO RAHEEM Peace, y'all. ELLA Peace, Radio Raheem. CEE Peace. 10. PUNCHY You the man, Radio Raheem. AHMAD It's your world. CEE In a big way.Radio Raheem nods and turns up the volume. Way up. AHMAD My people. My people.EXT: WE LOVE STOREFRONT--DAYRadio Raheem waves to Mister SeÒor Love Daddy as he walks by.INT: WE LOVE CONTROL BOOTH--DAYMister SeÒor Love Daddy gives Radio Raheem a clenched-fistsalute.EXT: FRUIT-N-VEG DELIGHT--DAYDa Mayor walks into a newly opened fruit and vegetable delistand that is owned by Koreans.INT: FRUIT-N-VEG DELIGHT--DAYDa Mayor is looking for his beer in the refrigerated cases,his ice-cold beer. DA MAYOR Where's the Bud? Where's the Bud? KOREAN CLERK No mo' Bud. You look what we have and buy. DA MAYOR No more Bud. What kind of joint is this? How come no mo' Bud? Doctor, this ain't Korea, China, or wherever you come from. Get some Budweiser in this motherfucker. KOREAN CLERK You buy 'nother beer. 11. DA MAYOR Alright. Alright. Y'know you're asking a lot to make a man change his beer, that's asking a lot, Doctor.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DAYDa Mayor has his can of beer (not Budweiser) and the brownpaper bag is twisted into a knot at the bottom. He stopsand takes a long swig. MOTHER SISTER You ole drunk. What did I tell ya about drinking in front of my stoop? Move on, you're blocking my view.Da Mayor lowers the can from his mouth and looks up at hisheckler. It's obvious from the look on his face he's heardthis before. Da Mayor contorts his face and stares at her. MOTHER SISTER You ugly enough. Don't stare at me.Da Mayor changes his face into a more grotesque look. MOTHER SISTER The evil eye doesn't work on me. DA MAYOR Mother Sister, you've been talkin' 'bout me the last eighteen years. What have I ever done to you? MOTHER SISTER You're a drunk fool. DA MAYOR Besides that. Da Mayor don't bother nobody. Nobody don't bother Da Mayor but you. Da Mayor just mind his business. I love everybody. I even love you. MOTHER SISTER Hold your tongue. You don't have that much love. DA MAYOR One day you'll be nice to me. We might both be dead and buried, but you'll be nice. At least civil. 12.Da Mayor tips his beat-up hat to Mother Sister and takes afinal swig of beer just for her.INT: TINA'S APARTMENT--DAYAn elderly Puerto Rican woman, CARMEN, is telling off herdaughter TINA in Spanish. Tina, having heard enough, closesthe door on her mother's ranting and raving.ANGLE--TINATina bends down and scoops her baby son HECTOR up from thebed and holds him for dear life to her breasts. She talksto her son while walking around the room. TINA Hector, I shouldn't be telling you this but you would find out sooner or later. Ya father ain't no real father. He's a bum, a two-bit bum in a hundred-dollar world. Your father is to the curb. You're smart. I see that look on ya face. You're saying if he's such a bum why am I with him? Good question. Like I said before, you're no dummy. He talked his way into my panties, I thought being a mother would make me happy, make me whole. He's a mistake, but you are not.Tina kisses her son. Tina is seventeen years old, anotherteenage parent.EXT: STREET CORNER--DAYEvery day on this corner, summer or winter, spring or fall,a small group of men meet. They have no steady employment,nothing they can speak of; they do, however, have the giftof gab. These man can talk, talk, and mo' talk, and when abottle is going round and they're feeling "nice," they getphilosophical. These men become the great thinkers of theworld, with solutions to all its ills; like drugs, thehomeless, and AIDS. They're called the Corner Men: SWEETDICK WILLIE, COCONUT SID, and ML. All three are sitting infolding chairs up against a wall in the shade. ML The way I see it, if this hot weather continues, it will surely melt the polar caps and the whole wide world--the parts that ain't water already--will be flooded. 13. COCONUT SID You a dumb-ass simple motherfucker. Where did you read that? ML Don't worry about it. But when it happens and I'm in my boat and ya black ass is drowning, don't ask me to throw you a lifesaver either. SWEET DICK WILLIE Fool, you're thirty cents away from a quarter. How you gonna get a boat? ML Don't worry about it. SWEET DICK WILLIE You're raggedy as a roach. You eat the holes out of donuts. ML I'll be back on my feet. Soon enough. SWEET DICK WILLIE So when is all this ice suppose to melt?INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYCustomers are in Sal's; it's lunchtime and it's fairly busy.Sal puts a hot slice down on the counter in front of BUGGIN'OUT, a b-boy. SAL You paying now or on layaway?Buggin' Out looks at the slice. BUGGIN' OUT How much? SAL You come in here at least three times a day. You a retard? A buck fifty. BUGGIN' OUT Damn, Sal, put some more cheese on that motherfucker. 14. SAL Extra cheese is two dollars. Y'know dat. BUGGIN' OUT Two dollars! Forget it!Buggin' Out slams his money down on the counter, takes hisslice and sits down.ANGLE--TABLEAll around Buggin' Out, peering down from the WALL OF FAME,are signed, framed, eight by ten glossies of famous ItalianAmericans. WE SEE Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano, Perry Como,Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Liza Minnelli, GovernorMario Cuomo, Al Pacino and, of course, how can we forgetSylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa: THE ITALIAN STALLION,also RAMBO.CLOSE UP--BUGGIN' OUTHe looks at the pictures hovering above him. BUGGIN' OUT Mookie.CLOSE UP--MOOKIE MOOKIE What?CLOSE UP--BUGGIN' OUT BUGGIN' OUT How come you ain't got no brothers up?CLOSE UP--MOOKIE MOOKIE Ask Sal.ANGLE--PIZZERIA BUGGIN' OUT Sal, how come you ain't got no brothers up on the wall here? SAL You want brothers up on the Wall of Fame, you open up your own business, then you can do what you wanna do. My pizzeria, Italian Americans up on the wall. 15. VITO Take it easy, Pop. SAL Don't start on me today. BUGGIN' OUT Sal, that might be fine, you own this, but rarely do I see any Italian Americans eating in here. All I've ever seen is Black folks. So since we spend much money here, we do have some say. SAL You a troublemaker?Pino walks over to Buggin' Out. PINO You making trouble. BUGGIN' OUT Put some brothers up on this Wall of Fame. We want Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Michael Jordan tomorrow.Sal comes from behind the counter with his LouisvilleSlugger Mickey Mantle model baseball bat. Vito is by hisside, but Mookie intercepts them, and takes Buggin' Outoutside. SAL Don't come back, either. BUGGIN' OUT Boycott Sal's. Boycott Sal's.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAY MOOKIE Buggin' Out, I gotta work here. BUGGIN' OUT I'm cool. I'm cool. MOOKIE Come back in a week, it will be squashed.They give each other five. 16.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie enters. SAL Mookie, if your friends can't behave, they're not welcome. MOOKIE I got no say over people. PINO You talk to 'em. MOOKIE People are free to do what they wanna do. SAL I know, this is America, but I don't want no trouble.EXT: STREET--DAYMookie walks down the block with pizza box in hand when hesees Da Mayor sitting on his stoop. DA MAYOR Mookie. MOOKIE Gotta go. DA MAYOR C'mere, Doctor.Mookie turns around and goes back. DA MAYOR Doctor, this is Da Mayor talkin'. MOOKIE OK. OK. DA MAYOR Doctor, always try to do the right thing. MOOKIE That's it? DA MAYOR That's it. 17. MOOKIE I got it.INT: TENEMENT BUILDING--DAYMookie is hiking up a flight of stairs.ANGLE--STAIRCASEHe puts the pizza box down and takes a breather.CLOSE UP--MOOKIESweat drips off his face.ANGLE--MOOKIEHe bends down to pick up the pizza box and tackles the lastfew flights.CLOSE UP--DOORBELLMookie pushes the buzzer.ANGLE--DOORA young Puerto Rican woman opens the door. NILDA I hope it's not cold.Mookie hands her the pizza. MOOKIE No, it's not cold. Twelve dollars for the pie.Nilda hands him a handful of singles. Mookie looks at thecrumpled mess. Nilda attempts to close the door, butMookie's foot says, "Hell no." MOOKIE Hold it. Let me count this first.First he straightens out the dollars, then counts the bills. MOOKIE You're short. NILDA I counted the twelve dollars myself. MOOKIE Twelve is right, but no tip. 18. NILDA No tip. MOOKIE Look, lady. I carried your pizza up five flights of stairs and shit. The cheese didn't slide over to one side like it sometimes does with delivery people who don't care. I do care. May I get paid?Nilda looks at him and sees right away he's not goinganywhere. NILDA Wait here. MOOKIE I'll wait.Nilda goes into the apartment and we hear her talking inSpanish to a male.ANGLE--MOOKIEMookie bends down to tie his sneakers.ANGLE--DOORNilda reappears and holds out a lonely lone dollar for him.Mookie has her hold it out for awhile, then he takes it. MOOKIE Gracias mucho.Nilda slams the door. MOOKIE A dollar! Cheap bastard! Your pizza is gonna be fucked next time.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DAYJade sits down next to Mother Sister on the stoop. MOTHER SISTER Jade, you're late. JADE I know, Mother Sister, but I'm here now. Where's the stuff?Mother Sister hands her a bag that is at her side. 19. MOTHER SISTER Seen your brother, just walked by.Jade unwraps a head scarf from around Mother Sister's headand a full head of long black hair falls to her shoulders. JADE This might take some time. MOTHER SISTER I got nowhere to go. We haven't had a good sit-down for a long while.Jade begins to part, grease, and comb out Mother Sister'shair. MOTHER SISTER Tender-headed runs in my family. You tender-headed? JADE Yeah, me too. MOTHER SISTER That's why I don't fool with it. Only let you touch it...Ouch! JADE Sorry, comb got caught. MOTHER SISTER Be gentle, child. Mother Sister is an old woman. JADE How are you holding up in this weather? MOTHER SISTER I'll do. JADE I don't know why you still haven't bought an air conditioner. MOTHER SISTER Don't like 'em. A fan will do.ANGLE--DA MAYORDa Mayor stands in front of the stoop, he's smiling for days. 20. DA MAYOR I didn't know you had such beautiful hair.ANGLE--STOOP MOTHER SISTER Fool, there's a lot in this world you don't know.CLOSE UP--DA MAYOR DA MAYOR I'm not stopping. I'm on my way.The Mayor tips his hat and heads up the block.ANGLE--STOOP JADE You are too cruel to Da Mayor, it isn't right. MOTHER SISTER I'm not studying no Mayor. Besides, he reminds me of my least favorite peoples. My tenants and my ex- husband--Goddamn-bless his soul.They both laugh. MOTHER SISTER Number One: I got some jive, late- rent-paying trifling Negroes in this house. Every year I keep threatening to sell it. JADE And move to Long Island... MOTHER SISTER And move to Long Island. Number Two: my ex-husband lost all my property, all my money in his scheme to build a Black business empire. Needless to say what happened, this house is it, all I got. I'm too through with yar people.CLOSE UP--JADE JADE Whew! 21.She looks up at the white-hot sun.CLOSE UP--MOTHER SISTERShe does the same.X CLOSE UP--THE WHITE-HOT SUNHOT, HOTTER AND HOTTEST MONTAGERight now, folks, we're gonna suspend the narrative and showhow people are coping with the oppressive heat.People are taking cold showers.Sticking faces in ice-cold, water-filled sinks.Heads stuck in refrigerators.A wife tells her husband, "Hell no, I'm not cooking. It'stoo hot. The kitchen is closed."Men downing six-packs of ice-cold brew.Faces stuck directly in front of fans.A young kid cracks an egg on Sal's Cadillac. The moment theegg hits the car hood it starts to cook. The kid looksdirectly INTO THE CAMERA and smiles, then looks up to seeSal, mad as a motherfucker, chasing after him.And how can I forget the papers, the newspaper headlines. New York Post: "A SCORCHER" New York Daily News: "2 HOT 4 U?" New York Newsday: "OH BOY! BAKED APPLE" New York Times: "RECORD HEATWAVE HITS CITY"EXT: STREET--DAYCLOSE UP--JOHNNY PUMPPOW! A powerful gush of water flies out RIGHT AT THE CAMERA.Ahmad has just turned on the johnny pump and the whitestream of water flies across the street.This attracts all the people of the block. It's a chance tocool off and momentarily beat the killer heat.ANGLE--CEE AND PUNCHYThey both scrape beer cans on the sidewalk. 22.ANGLE--ELLAShe stands with caution away from the fire hydrant. Elladoes not want to get wet.ANGLE--CEE AND PUNCHYThey're still scraping away.ANGLE--STREETFolks, young and old, begin to get in the water and play.ANGLE--CEE AND PUNCHYBoth now have cans with the ends scraped away, and go to thejohnny pump. Punchy bends down behind the hydrant andplaces the can over the water. The can now directs thewater into giant streams.ANGLE--ELLAAhmad sneaks up behind Ella and picks her up. She's kickingand screaming furiously. ELLA Ahmad! Put me down! Put me down! I can't get wet! I'm not playing!Ahmad is not having it. He carries a kicking Ella into themiddle of the street in direct line of fire. AHMAD Yo! ELLA No!They both are hit with a blast of water and are soaked tothe bone. Ella starts to punch Ahmad, and chases after him.ANGLE--STREETWe hear the familiar rap music of Radio Raheem's box.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEMRadio Raheem is too cool. By the way he's dressed, it couldbe fall, not the hottest day of the year. But you couldnever tell it from him. He's too cool.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM 23.Raheem looks at Cee, he wants to get by and he doesn't wantto get wet either. And if his box gets wet, somebody isgonna die. Cee knows this too.ANGLE--JOHNNY PUMPCee stands in front of the hydrant, blocking the water soRadio Raheem can pass.ANGLE--RADIO RAHEEMHe slowly bops across the street as all eyes watch. Whenhe's clear, Cee moves and the water gushes out again asfolks play.ANGLE--STREETWe hear a car horn blowing. People move out of the way asthe vehicle speeds through the spray.ANGLE--WHITE CONVERTIBLEAn older man, CHARLIE, stops his white convertible and blowshis horn. CHARLIE I'm not playing. There's gonna be trouble if you fuck around.CLOSE--CEE AND PUNCHY PUNCHY Go 'head. You got it. You got it.CLOSE--CHARLIE CHARLIE This is an expensive car.CLOSE--CEE CEE You won't get wet.ANGLE--HYDRANTBoth Punchy and Cee sit in front of the hydrant once again,blocking the water.ANGLE--WHITE CONVERTIBLEThe car cautiously eases forward. Charlie doesn't trust Ceeand Punchy at all. 24.CLOSE--CHARLIE CHARLIE I'm warning you.CLOSE--CEE AND PUNCHY PUNCHY C'mon. CEE Hurry up. We ain't got all day.ANGLE--STREETThe people all move to the car, for they know what is aboutto happen.ANGLE--HYDRANTCee and Punchy leap off the hydrant, unleashing a jet blastthat flies directly into Charlie's car. The whole block isdying.ANGLE--STREETCharlie pulls his flooded car over to the curb, jumps out,and runs to get hold of Cee and Punchy. Of course, he'sslow, as the kids turn into track stars and make like CarlLewis.ANGLE--STREETCharlie, a wet mess, tries to buy some sympathy from thefolks; none is to be bought. CHARLIE I'm fucking soaked. If I ever catch those fucks they'll be sorry. Cocksucking sonabitches!The ranting continues, and people laugh at him. CHARLIE You people make me sick.A cop car screeches to a halt in front of the man. Twoofficers, LONG and PONTE, get out. CHARLIE Officers, I want an arrest made. Now. 25. OFFICER PONTE What happened? CHARLIE Two Black kids soaked me and my car. It's fucking ruined. OFFICER LONG Where are they? CHARLIE Where are they? What kind of fucking asshole question is that? They ran the fuck away. OFFICER PONTE Do you wish to file a complaint? CHARLIE A complaint. I want those fucks locked under the jail.Officer Long goes into his car and gets a wrench.ANGLE--JOHNNY PUMPOfficer Long turns off the hydrant, then puts the cap back on. OFFICER PONTE This hydrant better not come back on or there's gonna be hell to pay. CHARLIE What about my car? I want justice.Officer Long sides up to Da Mayor who's been looking on. OFFICER LONG You know anything about this?Da Mayor is quiet. CHARLIE He knows. He's a witness. They all know. He saw the whole thing.Officer Ponte goes to Da Mayor's other side. OFFICER LONG Who were the punks? DA MAYOR Those who'll tell don't know. Those who know won't tell. 26. OFFICER PONTE A wise guy.Mookie emerges from the crowd and leads Da Mayor away fromthe interrogation. MOOKIE Let's go, Mayor. OFFICER LONG Keep this hydrant off. You want to swim, go to Coney Island. CHARLIE He's leaving? What about me? OFFICER PONTE I suggest you get in your car quick, before these people start to strip it clean.The man looks at the crowd of Blacks and Puerto Ricansaround him and he considers what he just heard. OFFICER LONG Let's go, break it up. Go back to your jobs. OFFICER PONTE What jobs?Both cops laugh.ANGLE--STREETCharlie drives away, fuming.INT: ROOFTOP--DAYCee and Punchy look down from a roof on all the havoc andconfusion they've started. Both laugh.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie enters. SAL Mookie, what took you so long? I got a business to run. MOOKIE Run it then. 27. SAL Here, this goes to the radio station.He gives Mookie a bag full of food. VITO Pop, I'm gonna go with Mookie. SAL Good, make sure he don't jerk around. PINO Yeah, hurry back, it's getting crowded.EXT: STREET--DAYVito and Mookie walk down the block. VITO Mister SeÒor Love Daddy is cool. MOOKIE Ya like him, huh? VITO Yeah. MOOKIE Y'know, Vito, I know Pino is ya brother and shit, but the next time he hits ya, the next time he touches ya, you should "house him." Kick his ass. VITO I don't know. MOOKIE If you don't make a stand, he's gonna be beating ya like a egg for the rest of your life. VITO That's what you think? MOOKIE That's what I think. VITO I don't like to fight. 28. MOOKIE Do it this one time and he'll never touch you again.EXT: WE LOVE RADIO--DAYMookie and Vito wave at Mister SeÒor Love Daddy through thestorefront window and he buzzes them in.OMITINT: CONTROL BOOTH--DAYMookie and Vito very quietly walk in; the man is on the air. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Peoples, my stomach's been grumbling but help has arrived. My main man Mookie has saved the day, straight from Sal's Famous Pizzeria, down the block. Come up to the mike, Mookie.Mookie goes to the mike. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY C'mon, don't be shy. Mmm, smells good. This is ya Love Daddy talkin' to ya, starvin' like Marvin. Say something, Mookie. MOOKIE Mister SeÒor Love Daddy, I'd like to dedicate the next record to my heart, Tina. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Alright. Let me play this record while I go to work on my chicken Parmigiana hero with extra cheese and extra sauce.He hits the cart machine... VO I just looove you so much Mister SeÒor Love Daddy. WE LOVE RADIO, 108 FM....then cues up the record. 29. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Here ya are. (he hands Mookie a twenty-dollar bill) Keep the change. MOOKIE That's right on time. This is my friend, Vito. His pops is Sal. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Tell ya father he makes the best heros in Brooklyn. VITO I'll do that. MOOKIE We're outta here. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Thanks for stopping by. WE LOVE Radio, 108 FM.EXT: STREET--DAYOn a stoop, a group of Puerto Ricans sits talking, drinkingcerveza frÌo, and playing dominoes. One of their cars isparked near the stoop, and blasts salsa music.ANGLE--RADIO RAHEEMAs usual we hear the rap music of Radio Raheem, butunderneath the salsa music. Radio Raheem does not like tobe bested; the salsa music from the parked car is giving himcompetition, this is no good. Radio Raheem stands in frontof the stoop and raises his decibel level.ANGLE--STOOPThe Puerto Rican men look at him, then begin to yell at himin Spanish. There is a standoff, the rap and salsa clashingin a deafening roar. One of the men, STEVIE, gets off thestoop and goes to the car.ANGLE--CARStevie turns the car radio off.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEMRadio Raheem smiles, nods, turns his box to a reasonablelistening level, and bops down the block. Radio Raheemstill the loudest. Radio Raheem still the king. 30. STEVIE You got it, bro.ANGLE--STOOPThe men curse in Spanish and shake their heads inbewilderment and Stevie turns the salsa back on.EXT: STREET--DAYVito and Mookie see Buggin' Out on their way back to Sal's. MOOKIE You the man. BUGGIN' OUT You the man. MOOKIE No, you the man. BUGGIN' OUT No. I'm just a struggling Black man trying to keep my dick hard in a cruel and harsh world.Buggin' Out gives Mookie five and a menacing look at Vito. MOOKIE Vito is down.EXT: STREET--DAYBuggin' Out is walking down the block when CLIFTON, ayuppie, accidentally bumps into him, stepping on his newsneakers.CLOSE--BUGGIN' OUTHe looks at his sneakers.CLOSE--SNEAKERSThere is a big black smudge on his new white unlaced AirJordans.ANGLE--BUGGIN' OUTHe runs down the block after Clifton. BUGGIN' OUT Yo!Clifton turns around. 31. BUGGIN' OUT Yo! CLIFTON Yes? BUGGIN' OUT You almost knocked me down. The word is "excuse me." CLIFTON Excuse me. I'm very sorry. BUGGIN' OUT Not only did you knock me down, you stepped on my new white Air Jordans that I just bought and that's all you can say, "Excuse me?"This commotion has attracted a crowd, including Ahmad, Cee,Punchy, and Ella. BUGGIN' OUT I'll fuck you up quick two times.HERE WE GO! BUGGIN' OUT Who told you to step on my sneakers? Who told you to walk on my side of the block? Who told you to be in my neighborhood? CLIFTON I own a brownstone on this block. BUGGIN' OUT Who told you to buy a brownstone on my block, in my neighborhood on my side of the street?The crowd likes that one and they laugh and egg him on. BUGGIN' OUT What do you want to live in a Black neighborhood for? Motherfuck gentrification. CLIFTON I'm under the assumption that this is a free country and one can live where he pleases. 32. BUGGIN' OUT A free country?AWWW SHIT! Why did he get Buggin' started? BUGGIN' OUT I should fuck you up just for that stupid shit alone.Buggin' Out looks down at his marred Air Jordans. Thecrowd, smelling blood, wants to see some. AHMAD Your Jordans are dogged. CEE You might as well throw 'em out. PUNCHY They looked good before he messed them up. ELLA You used to be so fine. AHMAD How much did you pay for them? CEE A hundred bucks. AHMAD A hundred bucks! BUGGIN' OUT You're lucky the Black man has a loving heart. Next time you see me coming, cross the street quick. AHMAD He's dissing you. BUGGIN' OUT Damn, my brand-new Jordans. You should buy me another pair. CLIFTON I'm gonna leave now. BUGGIN' OUT If I wasn't a righteous Black man you'd be in serious trouble. SERIOUS. 33.The crowd gives their approval. BUGGIN' OUT Move back to Connecticut.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie and Vito enter the shop. SAL I should have Vito go with you all the time. PINO Yeah, no more ninety-minute deliveries around the corner. MOOKIE Pino, I work hard like everybody in here. VITO He's right. PINO C'mere. (Pino smacks his brother) Don't get too friendly with da Mook. SAL That's gonna be the last time you hit Vito. MOOKIE Smack him back. PINO What? MOOKIE Remember what I said.Vito stands frozen in front of his brother. PINO Are you gonna listen to this Mook? Listen to him tell you to smack me? Your only brother?Vito walks away and Mookie is disgusted. PINO I didn't think so. 34.EXT: STREET--DAYOfficers Ponte and Long drive down the block and at thecorner they stop, glare at the Corner Men.CLOSE--OFFICER PONTECLOSE--SWEET DICK WILLIECLOSE--OFFICER LONGCLOSE--COCONUT SIDANGLE--POLICE CAR OFFICER PONTE What a waste.ANGLE--CORNERSweet Dick, ML, and Coconut Sid stare right back at the cops.ANGLE--POLICE CARIt drives off.ANGLE--CORNER COCONUT SID As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted by the finest. ML What was you saying?Coconut Sid blanks. SWEET DICK WILLIE Motherfucker wasn't saying shit. ML Look at that. COCONUT SID Look at what?ML points across the street to the Korean fruit and vegetablestand. ML It's a fucking shame. SWEET DICK WILLIE What is? 35. ML Sweet Dick Willie. SWEET DICK WILLIE That's my name. ML Do I have to spell it out? COCONUT SID Make it plain. ML OK, but listen up. I'm gonna break it down. SWEET DICK WILLIE Let it be broke. ML Can ya dig it? SWEET DICK WILLIE It's dug.CLOSE--ML ML Look at those Korean motherfuckers across the street. I betcha they haven't been a year off da motherfucking boat before they opened up their own place.CLOSE--COCONUT SID COCONUT SID It's been about a year.CLOSE--ML ML A motherfucking year off the motherfucking boat and got a good business in our neighborhood occupying a building that had been boarded up for longer than I care to remember and I've been here a long time.CLOSE--SWEET DICK WILLIE SWEET DICK WILLIE It has been a long time. 36.CLOSE--COCONUT SID COCONUT SID How long?CLOSE--ML ML Too long! Too long. Now for the life of me, I haven't been able to figger this out. Either dem Koreans are geniuses or we Blacks are dumb.This is truly a stupefying question and all three are silent.What is the answer? COCONUT SID It's gotta be cuz we're Black. No other explanation, nobody don't want the Black man to be about shit. SWEET DICK WILLIE Old excuse. ML I'll be one happy fool to see us have our own business right here. Yes, sir. I'd be the first in line to spend the little money I got.Sweet Dick Willie gets up from his folding chair. SWEET DICK WILLIE It's Miller time. Let me go give these Koreans s'more business. ML It's a motherfucking shame. COCONUT SID Ain't that a bitch.EXT: STOOP--DAYDa Mayor sits on his stoop and a kid, EDDIE, runs by. DA MAYOR Sonny! Sonny!Eddie stops. DA MAYOR Doctor, what's your name? 37. EDDIE Eddie Lovell. DA MAYOR How old are you? EDDIE Ten. DA MAYOR What makes Sammy run? EDDIE My name is Eddie. DA MAYOR What makes Sammy run? EDDIE I said my name is Eddie Lovell. DA MAYOR Relax, Eddie, I want you to go to the corner store. How much will it cost me? EDDIE How would I know how much it's gonna cost if I don't know what I'm buying? DA MAYOR Eddie, you're too smart for your own britches. Listen to me. How much do you want to run to the store for Da Mayor? EDDIE Fifty cents. DA MAYOR You got a deal.He gives Eddie some money. DA MAYOR Git me a quart of beer, Budweiser, say it's for your father, if they bother you.Eddie runs down the block just as Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, andElla pass him. 38. AHMAD Who told him he was Da Mayor of this block? CEE He's self-appointed. ELLA Leave him alone. PUNCHY Shut up. DA MAYOR Go on now. Leave me be. AHMAD You walk up and down this block like you own it. CEE Da Mayor. PUNCHY You're old. AHMAD A old drunk bum.Da Mayor stands up from his seat cushion on the stoop. AHMAD What do you have to say? DA MAYOR What do you know 'bout me? Y'all can't even pee straight. What do you know? Until you have stood in the doorway and heard the hunger of your five children, unable to do a damn thing about it, you don't know shit. You don't know my pain, you don't know me. Don't call me a bum, don't call me a drunk, you don't know me, and it's disrespectful. I know your parents raised you better.The teenagers look at Da Mayor. ELLA He told you off.Da Mayor sits back down on his seat cushion on his stoop. 39.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYANGLE--PAY PHONE ON WALLMookie is on the phone. MOOKIE I know I haven't seen you in four days. I'm a working man. TINA (VO) I work too, but I still make time. MOOKIE Tina, what do you want me to do? TINA (VO) I want you to spend some time with me. I want you to try and make this relationship work. If not, I'd rather not be bothered. MOOKIE Alright. Alright. I'll be over there sometime today. TINA (VO) When? MOOKIE Before I get off work. TINA (VO) Bring some ice cream, I'm burning up. Do you love me? MOOKIE Do I love you?CLOSE--SAL SAL Mookie, get offa da phone.CLOSE--MOOKIE MOOKIE Be off in a second. Tina, I dedicated a record on Mister SeÒor Love Daddy's show to you. TINA (VO) Big deal. 40.CLOSE--SAL SAL Mookie! How is anybody gonna call in?CLOSE--MOOKIE MOOKIE Big deal? If that's not LOVE, I don't know what is.CLOSE--PINO PINO You deaf or what?CLOSE--MOOKIE MOOKIE Gotta go. See ya soon. (he hangs up) Everybody happy now?The phone rings right away and Pino picks it up.ANGLE--PINO PINO Sal's Famous Pizzeria, yeah, two large pizzas, pepperoni and anchovies, hold on... See, Pop, Mookie fucking talking on the phone and people are trying to call in orders. He's making us lose business.CLOSE--SAL SAL Mookie, you're fucking up. PINO Twenty minutes. (he hangs up the phone) How come you niggers are so stupid?CLOSE--MOOKIE MOOKIE If ya see a nigger here, kick his ass.CLOSE--PINO 41. PINO Fuck you and stay off the phone.CLOSE--VITO VITO Forget it, Mookie.ANGLE--PIZZERIA MOOKIE Who's your favorite basketball player? PINO Magic Johnson. MOOKIE And not Larry Bird? Who's your favorite movie star? PINO Eddie Murphy.Mookie is smiling now. MOOKIE Last question: Who's your favorite rock star?Pino doesn't answer, because he sees the trap he's alreadyfallen into. MOOKIE Barry Manilow?Mookie and Vito laugh. MOOKIE Pino, no joke. C'mon, answer. VITO It's Prince. He's a Prince freak. PINO Shut up. The Boss! Bruuucce!!!! MOOKIE Sounds funny to me. As much as you say nigger this and nigger that, all your favorite people are "niggers." 42. PINO It's different. Magic, Eddie, Prince are not niggers, I mean, are not Black. I mean, they're Black but not really Black. They're more than Black. It's different.With each word Pino is hanging himself even further. MOOKIE Pino, I think secretly that you wish you were Black. That's what I think. Vito, what do you say? PINO Y'know, I've been listening and reading 'bout Farrakhan, ya didn't know that, did you? MOOKIE I didn't know you could read. PINO Fuck you. Anyway, Minister Farrakhan always talks about the so-called "day" when the Black man will rise. "We will one day rule the earth as we did in our glorious past." You really believe that shit? MOOKIE It's e-vit-able. PINO Keep dreaming. MOOKIE Fuck you, fuck pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra, too. PINO Well, fuck you, too, and fuck Michael Jordan. CUT TO:RACIAL SLUR MONTAGEThe following will be a QUICK-CUTTING MONTAGE of racialslurs, with different ethnic groups pointing the finger atone another. Each person looks directly INTO THE CAMERA.CLOSE--MOOKIE 43. MOOKIE Dago, wop, garlic-breath, guinea, pizza-slinging, spaghetti-bending, Vic Damone, Perry Como, Luciano Pavarotti, Sole Mio, nonsinging motherfucker. CUT TO:CLOSE--PINO PINO You gold-teeth, gold-chain-wearing, fried-chicken-and-biscuit-eatin', monkey, ape, baboon, big thigh, fast-running, three-hundred-sixty- degree-basketball-dunking spade Moulan Yan. CUT TO:CLOSE--STEVIE STEVIE You slant-eyed, me-no-speak- American, own every fruit and vegetable stand in New York, Reverend Moon, Summer Olympics '88, Korean kick-boxing bastard. CUT TO:CLOSE--OFFICER LONG OFFICER LONG Goya bean-eating, fifteen in a car, thirty in an apartment, pointed shoes, red-wearing, Menudo, meda- meda Puerto Rican cocksucker. CUT TO:CLOSE--KOREAN CLERK KOREAN CLERK It's cheap, I got a good price for you, Mayor Koch, "How I'm doing," chocolate-egg-cream-drinking, bagel and lox, B'nai B'rith asshole. CUT TO: 44.INT: WE LOVE RADIO STATION CONTROL ROOM--DAYCLOSE--MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Yo! Hold up! Time out! Time out! Y'all take a chill. Ya need to cool that shit out... and that's the truth, Ruth. CUT TO:CLOSE--WHITE-HOT SUNINT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie picks up his two pizza pies for delivery. MOOKIE Sal, can you do me a favor? SAL Depends. MOOKIE Can you pay me now? SAL Can't do. MOOKIE Sal, just this once, do me that solid. SAL You know you don't get paid till we close tonight. We're still open. MOOKIE I would like to get paid now. SAL Tonight, when we close.Mookie leaves.EXT: STREET--DAYMookie walks down the block. The streets are filled withkids playing. WE SEE stoop ball, double dutch, hand games,bike-riding, skateboarding, etc.ANGLE--MOOKIE 45.Radio Raheem approaches Mookie. MOOKIE Whaddup. Money? RADIO RAHEEM I was going to buy a slice. MOOKIE I'll be back after I make this delivery. RADIO RAHEEM On the rebound.Mookie stares at the gold "brass knuckles" rings RadioRaheem wears on each hand. Spelled out across the rings arethe words "LOVE" on the right hand and "HATE" on the lefthand. MOOKIE That's the dope. RADIO RAHEEM I just copped them. Let me tell you the story of Right-Hand--Left- Hand--the tale of Good and Evil. MOOKIE I'm listening. RADIO RAHEEM HATE!He thrusts up his left hand. RADIO RAHEEM It was with this hand that Brother Cain iced his brother. LOVE!He thrusts up his right hand. RADIO RAHEEM See these fingers, they lead straight to the soul of man. The right hand. The hand of LOVE!Mookie is buggin'. RADIO RAHEEM The story of Life is this...He locks his fingers and writhes, cracking the joints. 46. RADIO RAHEEM STATIC! One hand is always fighting the other. Left Hand Hate is kicking much ass and it looks like Right Hand Love is finished. Hold up. Stop the presses! Love is coming back, yes, it's Love. Love has won. Left Hand Hate KO'ed by Love.Mookie doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't say anything. RADIO RAHEEM Brother, Mookie, if I love you I love you, but if I hate you... MOOKIE I understand. RADIO RAHEEM I love you, my brother. MOOKIE I love you, Black.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYRadio Raheem enters Sal's with music blaring. RADIO RAHEEM Two slices. SAL No service till you turn dat shit off. RADIO RAHEEM Two slices. PINO Turn it off. SAL Mister Radio Raheem, I can't even hear myself think. You are disturbing me and you are disturbing my customers.Sal grabs his Mickey Mantle bat from underneath the counter.Everyone, Sal, Vito, Pino, Radio Raheem, and the customersare poised for something to jump off, STATIC.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM 47.He smiles and turns off the beat. RADIO RAHEEM Two slices, extra cheese.CLOSE--SALSal puts Mickey Mantle back into its place. SAL When you come in Sal's Famous Pizzeria, no music. No rap, no music. Capisce? Understand?... This is a place of business. Extra cheese is two dollars.INT: TENEMENT HALLWAY--DAYMookie hands the pizzas over and takes the money and countsit. MOOKIE Thanks.EXT: STREET--DAYMookie walks, says hello to the people he knows.EXT: STOOP--DAYMookie runs up stoop.INT: MOOKIE'S APARTMENT--DAYWe hear a key in the door, the lock turns and Mookie enters. MOOKIE Jade. JADE (OS) I'm in here.INT: JADE'S BEDROOM--DAYJade sits in a chair directly in front of an air conditionergoing full blast. JADE How come you're not at Sal's? MOOKIE I'm working. 48. JADE Is this another one of your patented two-hour lunches? MOOKIE I just come home to take a quick shower. JADE Sal's gonna be mad. MOOKIE Later for Sal. Y'know, sometimes I think you're more concerned with him than me. JADE I think no such a thing. Sal pays you, you should work. MOOKIE Slavery days are over. My name ain't Kunta Kinte. Sis, I don't want to argue, stop pressing me. JADE I just don't want you to lose the one job you've been able to keep, that's all. I'm carrying you as it is. MOOKIE Don't worry 'bout me. I always get paid. JADE Yeah, then ya should take better care of your responsibilities. MOOKIE What responsibilities? JADE I didn't stutter. Take care of your responsibilities. Y'know exactly what I'm talking about.INT: BATHROOM--DAYMookie turns on the shower and screams; the water is ice cold.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DAYMother Sister sits in her window looking out at the block. 49.EXT: DA MAYOR'S STOOP--DAYDa Mayor has fallen asleep sitting on his stoop. His handsloosely hold a brown paper bag that is tightly twistedaround a beer can.EXT: CORNER--DAYSweet Dick, ML, and Coconut Sid each hold an umbrella forprotection from the hot and harsh rays.EXT: FIRE ESCAPE--DAYAhmad, Punchy, Cee, and Ella sit on a fire escape, trying tokeep still, trying to find a cool spot in the shade. No onesays a word.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYSal takes a seat at one of the tables. SAL I'm beat.Pino sits down next to his father. PINO Pop, I think we should sell this place, get outta here while we're still ahead...and alive. SAL Since when do you know what's best for us? PINO Couldn't we sell this and open up a new one in our own neighborhood? SAL Too many pizzerias already there. PINO Then we could try something else. SAL We don't know nuthin' else. PINO I'm sick of niggers, it's a bad neighborhood. I don't like being around them, they're animals. 50. VITO Some are OK. PINO My friends laugh at me all the time, laugh right in my face, tell me go feed the Moulies. SAL Do your friends put money in your pocket? Pay your rent? Food on ya plate?Pino is quiet. SAL I didn't think so. PINO Pop, what else can I say? I don't wanna be here, they don't want us here. We should stay in our own neighborhood, stay in Bensonhurst. SAL So what if this is a Black neighborhood, so what if we're a minority. I've never had no trouble with dese people, don't want none either, so don't start none. This is America. Sal's Famous Pizzeria is here for good. You think you know it all? Well, you don't. I'm your father, you better remember that.INT: BATHROOM--DAYMookie pulls the shower curtain back and steps out.INT: MOOKIE'S ROOM--DAYMookie sits on his bed, still wet.ANGLE--JADE JADE Hurry up and get dressed. MOOKIE I'm coming. JADE I'm going with you. 51.BUGGIN' OUT BOYCOTT MONTAGEEXT: STREET--DAY BUGGIN' OUT Da Mayor, we need your leadership. DA MAYOR Doctor, what are you talkin' bout? BUGGIN' OUT I'm organizing a boycott of Sal's Famous Pizzeria. DA MAYOR Keep walkin', Doctor. I don't want to hear none of your foolishness. CUT TO:CLOSE--CORNER MEN ML No! COCONUT SID No! SWEET DICK WILLIE Hell no! Goddamnit. Sal ain't never done me no harm. You either. CUT TO:CLOSE--BUGGIN' OUT BUGGIN' OUT Would you like to sign a petition to boycott Sal's Famous Pizzeria. CUT TO:CLOSE--AHMAD, CEE, PUNCHY, and ELLAThey DOG him out (ADLIB) CUT TO:CLOSE--BUGGIN' OUT BUGGIN' OUT I'll do it without your help. 52.EXT: WE LOVE RADIO--DAYBuggin' Out waves at Mister SeÒor Love Daddy as he walks bythe storefront.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYBuggin' Out sticks his head in and yells: BUGGIN' OUT Sal, we're gonna boycott ya fat ass.Before Sal and his two sons can answer, Buggin' Out is gone.EXT: STREET--DAYBuggin' Out has one foot up on a fire hydrant and tries toclean his soiled Air Jordan.ANGLE--JADE AND MOOKIEJade and Mookie walk up to Buggin' Out. BUGGIN' OUT It's so nice to see a family hanging out together. MOOKIE We're not hanging out. I'm being escorted back to work. JADE That's not even true. I just want a slice. BUGGIN' OUT Jade, you don't know this, but I'm organizing a boycott of Sal's Famous Pizzeria. JADE What did he do this time? BUGGIN' OUT Y'know all those pictures he has hanging on the Wall of Fame? JADE So? BUGGIN' OUT Have you noticed something about them? 53. JADE No. MOOKIE (interjects) Yo, I'm gone. JADE I'll see ya there. BUGGIN' OUT Peace.Mookie leaves. BUGGIN' OUT Every single one of those pictures is somebody Italian. JADE And? BUGGIN' OUT And I--we--want some Black people up. JADE Did you ask Sal? BUGGIN' OUT Yeah, I asked him. I don't want nobody in there, nobody spending good money in Sal's. He should get no mo' money from the community till he puts some Black faces up on that motherfucking wall.Jade looks at Buggin' Out like "Are you serious?" JADE Buggin' Out, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you can really direct your energies in a more useful way. BUGGIN' OUT So, in other words, you are not down. JADE I'm down, but for a worthwhile cause. BUGGIN' OUT Jade, I still love you. 54. JADE I still love you too.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAY SAL Mookie, you are pushing it. You're really pushing it. I'm not paying you good money to fucking jerk me around.Mookie has nothing to say. SAL You're gonna be in the street with the rest of your homeboys. PINO 'Bout time, Pop.ANGLE--DOORJade enters, and Sal looks up. He stops blasting Mookie anda very noticeable change comes over him. SAL Jade, we've been wondering when ya would pay us a visit. JADE Hi, Sal, Pino, Vito. JADE What's happening, Jade? JADE Nuthin' really. How are you treating my brother? SAL The Mook? Great. Mookie's a good kid. PINO Pop, stop lying. SAL Shaddup! Jade, what can I fix you? JADE What's good? 55. SAL Everything, but for you I'm gonna make up something special. Take a seat. There, that's a clean table.Sal moves behind the counter and goes to work. Pino andMookie look at each other in agreement, neither likes whathe has seen. This happens to Sal every time Jade is inSal's Famous Pizzeria.ANGLE--TABLEVito sits down with Jade. JADE You still letting Pino push you around? VITO Who told you that? He doesn't push me, who told you, Mookie tell you that? I hold my own. JADE Forget about it, Vito. Forget I even brought it up. VITO Pino picks on me, but I don't let him push me around. Mookie tell you that? JADE Alright already.EXT: ROOFTOP--DUSKThe once white-hot sun is now turning into a golden orangeglaze as it begins to set. Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, and Elladance on the roof around a box that is turned into WE LOVE.Each one is trying to come up with some new moves, a newdance, and a name for it.EXT: STREET--DUSKRadio Raheem is walking down the block and there is somethingwrong, something is not quite right. AHA! His music is notloud; the rap song begins to drag and finally stopsaltogether.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEMHe looks at his box and presses the battery level indicator. 56.CLOSE--BATTERY LEVEL INDICATORThe needle doesn't move. His batteries have had it.INT: FRUIT-N-VEG DELIGHT--DUSKCLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM RADIO RAHEEM Twenty "D" Duracells.CLOSE--KOREAN CLERK KOREAN CLERK Twenty "C" Duracells.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM RADIO RAHEEM D, not C.CLOSE--KOREAN CLERK KOREAN CLERK C Duracell.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM RADIO RAHEEM D! D! D! You dumb motherfucker. Learn how to speak English first. D.Radio Raheem points to the D batteries behind the counter.CLOSE--KOREAN CLERK KOREAN CLERK How many you say?CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM RADIO RAHEEM Twenty! Motherfucker! Twenty!CLOSE--KOREAN CLERK KOREAN CLERK Motherfucker you.Radio Raheem has to laugh at that one. 57. RADIO RAHEEM Motherfucker you. You're alright. You're alright. Just gimme my twenty Duracells, please.EXT: FRUIT-N-VEG DELIGHT--DUSKDa Mayor is looking at a bunch of cut flowers when RadioRaheem comes out with batteries in hand--finally.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DUSKANGLE--WINDOWMother Sister is sitting in her window as usual.ANGLE--STOOPDa Mayor walks up the stoop with a bunch of fresh-cutflowers in a discarded wine bottle for a vase.ANGLE--DA MAYORDa Mayor holds them out for Mother Sister, who does notacknowledge him at all. DA MAYOR I'd thought you might like these... I guess not.Da Mayor takes a seat on the stoop and puts the flowers tohis face. DA MAYOR Ain't nuthin' like the smell of fresh flowers. Don't you agree, Miss Mother Sister?Mother Sister does not answer. He puts the flowers down. DA MAYOR Summertime, all ya can smell is the garbage. Stink overpowers everything, especially soft sweet smells like flowers.He looks up at Mother Sister who immediately turns away. DA MAYOR If you don't mind, I'm gonna set right here, catch a breeze or two, then be on my way.Da Mayor looks up at the setting sun. 58. DA MAYOR Thank the Lord, the sun is going down, it's hot as blazes. Yes Jesus.CLOSE--SUNThe sun is an orange and purple glaze.EXT: STREET--DUSKRadio Raheem is back in action. He's alive, he's bad and hegot his twenty "D" Duracell batteries, his box is kicking.ANGLE--CORNERRadio Raheem bops by Coconut Sid, ML, and Sweet Dick Willie.CLOSE--COCONUT SID, ML, and SWEET DICK WILLIEAll three shake their heads in bewilderment as Radio Raheemgoes by. ML What can you say? COCONUT SID I don't know how he does it.Sweet Dick Willie gets up from his chair and goes to thecorner, zips down his pants, and urinates. SWEET DICK WILLIE ML? ML What? SWEET DICK WILLIE ML, hold this for me.Sweet Dick Willie and Coconut Sid laugh. ML That's OK. At least my moms didn't name me Sweet Dick Willie.Sweet Dick Willie zips up his pants and returns to his seat. SWEET DICK WILLIE Why you gotta talk 'bout my moms? ML Nobody talkin' 'bout ya moms. 59. SWEET DICK WILLIE I didn't say nobody, I said you. ML Sweet Dick, I didn't mean it like that. SWEET DICK WILLIE Yes you did. COCONUT SID Squash it. ML I just wanted to know who named ya Sweet Dick Willie? SWEET DICK WILLIE It's just a name. COCONUT SID And what does ML stand for? ML ML stands for ML. That's it. SWEET DICK WILLIE Naw, that's some stupid shit. Now you know how I got that name. ML Negroes kill me, always holdin' onto, talkin' 'bout their dicks. COCONUT SID I don't know 'bout you, but it's too hot to fuck. SWEET DICK WILLIE Never too hot, never too cold for fucking.EXT: STREET--DUSKAn old Puerto Rican man rings a bell as he pushes a cart onwheels. On the side of the cart is hand-lettered HELADO DECOCO, and a big block of ice rests on top surrounded bydifferent colored bottles of flavors.ANGLE--CARTA group of kids eagerly waits for the ices. The man scrapesthe block of ice, puts the shavings in a paper cup, anddrowns it with syrup. 60.ANGLE--DA MAYORDa Mayor is walking down the street.ANGLE--MISTER SOFTEE TRUCKWe hear the familiar tune from the Mister Softee truck as itcomes down the street.ANGLE--EDDIE LOVELLEddie, the young kid who earlier ran an errand for Da Mayor,looks up from the sidewalk where he's playing and runs outinto the street in pursuit of Mister Softee. EDDIE Ice cream. Ice cream.Eddie is running in pursuit of the truck, unaware of theoncoming speeding car.ANGLE--DA MAYORDa Mayor sees speeding car bearing down on Eddie.ANGLE--STREETDa Mayor runs across the street and knocks Eddie down, outof the way of the car. Both are thrown as they are hit bythe reckless driver.CLOSE--EDDIE AND DA MAYOREddie is crying as Da Mayor picks him up. DA MAYOR Doctor, you know better to run out in the street... Stop crying, son.ANGLE--STREETA crowd gathers. DA MAYOR Doctor, there's nothing to cry about. You're OK.A woman in her twenties, LOUISE, Eddie's mother, breaksthrough the crowd and hugs her baby. LOUISE What's wrong? 61. EDDIE Mayor knocked me down. LOUISE You should be ashamed of yourself. DA MAYOR Ma'am, the boy is just scared to death. What actually happened is that I was minding my business when I saw your son about to be run over. I ran into the street to save him and I had to knock him down to keep the both of us from getting hit.The crowd agrees "That's the way it happened," and Louisestands up. LOUISE Eddie, is that the truth?Eddie is quiet. LOUISE Eddie, you hear me talkin' to you?Eddie is still mum. LOUISE I'm talkin' to you, boy. DA MAYOR Miss, the boy is fine.WHAP! Louise hits Eddie on da butt. Eddie starts to dance,as his mother hits hard; she's heavy-handed. LOUISE What I tell you 'bout lying?WHOP! LOUISE What did I tell you 'bout playing in the street?WHAP! EDDIE Mommy! Mommy! I'm sorry. I'm sorry.WHOP! 62. LOUISE Get upstairs now.Eddie runs away. LOUISE And when your father comes home, he's gonna wear ya little narrow behind out too. DA MAYOR You didn't have to hit your son; he's scared to death as it was. LOUISE I appreciate ya helping my Eddie. I truly do, but I'll have nobody question how I raise him, not even his Daddy. DA MAYOR You're right.Louise goes away, probably to give her son another"whooping." Da Mayor tips his hat to her.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DUSKSal sits at a table talking to Jade as she finishes her"special" slice. JADE Sal, that was delicious. SAL Anytime.Vito, Pino, and Mookie look on, watching Sal have the timeof his life. JADE Thanks.Jade gets up and Mookie helps her. MOOKIE I'll see you out. JADE See ya around. SAL Don't wait too long to come back. 63.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DUSKMookie takes Jade by the hand and pulls her out of view fromSal.ANGLE--MOOKIE AND JADE MOOKIE Jade, I don't want you coming in here no mo'. JADE Stop tripping. MOOKIE No, you're tripping. Don't come in Sal's. Alright, read my lips. JADE What are you so worked up about? MOOKIE Over Sal, the way he talks and the way he looks at you. JADE He's just being nice. MOOKIE Nice! JADE He's completely innocent. MOOKIE Innocent! JADE I didn't stutter. You heard me. MOOKIE You should see the way he looks at you. All Sal wants to do is hide the salami. JADE You are too crude. MOOKIE I might be, but you're not welcome here. 64. JADE Stop trying to play big brother. I'm a grown woman. You gotta lotta nerve. Mookie, you can hardly pay your rent and you're gonna tell me what to do. Come off it. MOOKIE One has nuthin' to do with the other. JADE Oh, it doesn't, huh! You got your little 250 dollars a week plus tips... MOOKIE I'm getting paid... JADE ...peanuts. MOOKIE Pretty soon I'll be making a move. JADE I truly hope so. I'm tired of supporting a grown man.INT: CONTROL BOOTH--DUSKCLOSE--MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY As the evening slowly falls upon us living here in Brooklyn, New York, this is ya Love Daddy rappin' to you. Right now we're gonna open up the Love Lines. Hello, you're on Love Daddy's Love Line. No names, please. Let's keep it anonymous. FEMALE VOICE #1 (VO) Hi, Mister SeÒor Love Daddy. I'd kiss your feet every morning, that's how much I love you. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY How nice of you. FEMALE VOICE #2 (VO) I think you have the sexiest voice in the world. All you have to do is talk. 65. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Love Line, you're on. FEMALE VOICE #3 (VO) You give me fever. (she moans) MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY She's feeling it. FEMALE VOICE #4 (VO) Love Daddy, I'd work in Mickey D's 24, 7, and 365 just to call you my own. Give you all my money, honey. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY That was the last call for tonight on Mister SeÒor Love Daddy's Love Line. I love you. You I love.EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--NIGHTDa Mayor is walking by Mother Sister in her window when shecalls him.CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER MOTHER SISTER Mister Mayor, I saw what you did.ANGLE--DA MAYORDa Mayor stops and looks at her. A smile comes to his face;after eighteen years has he finally broken down her defenses?CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER MOTHER SISTER That was a foolish act, but it was brave. That chile owes you his life.CLOSE--DA MAYOR DA MAYOR I wasn't trying to be a hero. I saw what was about to happen and I reacted, didn't even think. If I did, I might not have done it in second thought. Da Mayor is an old man, haven't run that fast in years. (MORE) 66. DA MAYOR (CONT'D) I went from first to home on a bunt single, scored the winning run, the bottom of the ninth, two out, August 1, 1939, Snow Hill, Alabama. (he is warming up now) Maybe I should be heroic more often.CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER MOTHER SISTER Maybe you shouldn't. Don't get happy. This changes nothing between you and me. You did a good thing and Mother Sister wanted to thank you for it.ANGLE--STOOP DA MAYOR I thank you. MOTHER SISTER You're welcome.Da Mayor tips his hat.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTMookie enters. MOOKIE Sal, I don't care if you fire me this exact minute, leave my sister alone. SAL Mookie, I don't know what you're talking about, plus I don't want to hear it. MOOKIE Sal, just do me a favor, leave Jade alone. SAL Here, you gotta delivery.Mookie takes the pie and looks at the address. MOOKIE Is this the right name and address? 67. SAL Yeah, do you know 'em? MOOKIE No, just checking.INT: HALLWAY--NIGHTMookie rings the bell and a fine Puerto Rican sister answersthe door. MOOKIE Delivery from Sal's Famous Pizzeria. TINA What took you so long? Is it hot? MOOKIE Hot. Hot. TINA Come in then.INT: TINA'S APARTMENT--NIGHTTina watches Mookie watch her. When she's through watching,she takes the pizza from his hands and puts it on the floor.Mookie grabs her and starts to kiss. Tina is Mookie'swoman, the one he's been on the phone with earlier. We'veheard the voice and now SEE the person. MOOKIE Tina, you are too slick. TINA How else was I going to get you here? I haven't seen you in a week. MOOKIE I've been working hard, getting paid. TINA Where's the ice cream? The H‰agen- Dazs butter pecan? MOOKIE Shit! I forgot. TINA Your memory is really getting bad. MOOKIE I just forgot. 68. TINA And I really wanted some ice cream too. MOOKIE I can run out and get it. TINA No! No! You won't come back either. MOOKIE I can't be staying long anyway. TINA How long then? MOOKIE Long enough for us to do the nasty. TINA That's out. No! It's too hot! You think I'm gonna let you get some, put on your clothes, then run outta here and never see you again in who knows when? MOOKIE A quickie is good every once in a blue moon. TINA You a blue-moon fool. MOOKIE Then we'll do something else. TINA What else? MOOKIE Trust me. TINA Trust you? Because of trusting you we have a son. Remember your son? MOOKIE Trust me.Mookie pushes Tina back into her bedroom. 69.INT: TINA'S BEDROOM--NIGHTMookie sits Tina down on her futon bed, turns off thelights, and turns on WE LOVE RADIO as Mister SeÒor LoveDaddy serenades them with slow jams. MOOKIE I'm gonna take off ya clothes. TINA Mookie, I told you already it's too fucking hot to make love. MOOKIE Why you gotta curse? TINA I'm sorry, but no rawness is jumping off tonight. MOOKIE No rawness.He laughs his sinister laugh.ANGLE--MOOKIE AND TINAMookie unsnaps her bra, then pulls her panties off. Tina isnaked as a jaybird. MOOKIE Tina, you're sweating. TINA Of course I'm sweating. I'm burning up. It's hot, moron, only a hundred degrees in here. MOOKIE Lie down, please.He gets up.INT: TINA'S KITCHENMookie walks into the kitchen and sees CARMEN, Tina'smother, fixing some food on the stove. MOOKIE Hello, Mrs. Rampolla.Carmen stares at him, it's a look that would definitely stoptraffic, she mutters some Spanish and goes into her bedroom,slamming the door behind her. 70.ANGLE--MOOKIEHe opens the refrigerator and takes out all the trays of ice.INT: TINA'S BEDROOM--NIGHTMookie sits down on the bed with a bowl filled with ice cubes.CLOSE--TINA'S FOREHEADMookie rubs an ice cube on her forehead. TINA It's cold. MOOKIE It's 'pose to be cold. TINA Later for you. MOOKIE Meda. Meda. TINA What? MOOKIE Tina, you don't have a forehead, you got a eight-head.CLOSE--TINA'S NECKMookie rubs an ice cube on her neck.CLOSE--TINA'S LIPSMookie rubs an ice cube on her full moist lips, then puts itin her mouth. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY (VO) Yes, children, this is the Cool Out Corner. We're slowing it down for all the lovers in the house. I'll be giving you all the help you need, musically, that is.CLOSE--TINA'S THIGHSHe rubs an ice cube up and down her thighs. MOOKIE (VO) Thank God for thighs. 71.CLOSE--TINA'S BUTTOCKSHe rubs an ice cube on her round, firm buttocks. MOOKIE (VO) Thank God for buttocks.CLOSE--TINA'S BREASTHe rubs an ice cube on her breast. MOOKIE (VO) Thank God for the right nipple... Thank God for the left nipple...Both Tina and Mookie are dying. Mookie now has an ice cubeon the left and right nipples and WE SEE before our very owneyes both get swollen, red, and erect. TINA (VO) Feels good. MOOKIE (VO) Yes, yes, Lord. Isn't this better than Haagen-Dazs butter pecan ice cream?CLOSE--TINA'S MOUTHMookie kisses her. MOOKIE I'll be back tonight.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTOfficers Ponte and Long are awaiting their orders. SAL It's almost ready. OFFICER LONG What time you closing tonight? SAL Ten.Sal goes over to the oven, takes out their food and wraps itup. SAL Here you go. 72. OFFICER PONTE What do we owe you? SAL Nine-fifty. OFFICER PONTE Here. SAL Thanks. Enjoy. OFFICER LONG Vito, Pino, see ya later.The officers leave just as Mookie enters. MOOKIE Sal, if you want me to deliver any faster, get me a jet rocket or something, cuz I can't run with pizzas, all the cheese ends up on one side and shit. SAL I didn't say nuthin'. You must have a guilty conscience. What are you guilty of? MOOKIE I'm not guilty of nuthin'. SAL You must be guilty of something or you would have never come in saying the things you said. MOOKIE C'mon, Sal. SAL Where we goin'?While Sal laughs at his corny joke, Pino pulls Vito into theback.INT: STOREROOM--NIGHT PINO Vito, I want you to listen to me. I'm your brother. I may smack you around once in awhile, boss you around, but I'm still your brother. 73. VITO I know this. PINO I love you. VITO I'm listening. PINO Good. I want you to listen. VITO Jesus Christ on the cross, I said I'm listening. PINO Good. Vito, you trust that Mook too much. So does Pop. VITO Mookie's OK. PINO You listening to me? VITO Stop busting my balls. I said I'm listening ten fucking times already. PINO Mookie is not to be trusted. No Moulan Yan can be trusted. The first time you turn your back, boom, a knife right here. (Pino gestures) In the back. VITO How do you know this? PINO I know. VITO You really think so? PINO I know so. He, them, they're not to be trusted. VITO So what do you want me to do? 74. PINO Be on guard. Mookie has Pop conned already, so we have to look out for him. VITO I like Mookie a lot. PINO And that's exactly what I'm talkin' 'bout. SAL (OS) Vito! Pino! Let's go. PINO Be right there, Pop. Listen to what I said. VITO You don't listen to me, never have. Just run your big fucking mouth always playing big brother. You don't listen, but Mookie does.HOT CITY NIGHT MONTAGETHE BLOCK. WE'VE SEEN it at daytime, but now WE SEE it atnight. Even though the white-hot sun is gone, nonethelessthe heat is still stifling. And in a peculiar, funny sortof way, it's worse. You expect it to be hot during thelight of day when the sun is beating down on the cement andtar, but at night it should be considerably cooler; well,not tonight, it's hot. All the residents of The Block: theCorner Men, Mother Sister, Da Mayor, Jade, etc., all thepeople WE'VE SEEN throughout the day are now coping with thenight-time heat, plus it's humid as shit. Everyone isoutside, sitting on stoops, on cars and you know the kidsare playing, running up and down the block. Now it's thehottest night of the year.EXT: STREET--NIGHTBuggin' Out sits down on a car next to Radio Raheem; asusual, his box is blasting. BUGGIN' OUT How you be? RADIO RAHEEM I be. I'm living large. BUGGIN' OUT Is that the only tape you got? 75. RADIO RAHEEM You don't like Public Enemy? It's the dope shit. BUGGIN' OUT I like 'em, but you don't play anything else. RADIO RAHEEM I don't like anything else. BUGGIN' OUT Check this out. Y'know Sal's. RADIO RAHEEM Yeah, I know dat motherfucker. BUGGIN' OUT I'm trying to organize a boycott of Sal's pizza joint. Ya see what I'm saying? RADIO RAHEEM I almost had to yoke him this afternoon. Tell me, tell me, Radio Raheem, to turn my music down. Didn't even say please. Who the fuck he think he is? Don Corleone and shit. BUGGIN' OUT He makes all his money off us Black people and I don't see nuthin' but Italians all up in there, Sylvester Stallone and motherfuckers. Ya see what I'm saying, homeboy? RADIO RAHEEM Talk to me. BUGGIN' OUT We shouldn't buy a single slice, spend a single penny in that motherfucker till some people of color are put up in there. RADIO RAHEEM That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. BUGGIN' OUT You got my back. 76. RADIO RAHEEM Ya back is got. BUGGIN' OUT My brother. RADIO RAHEEM My brother.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTVito, Pino and Mookie are cleaning up. MOOKIE Sal, it's almost quitting time so please start counting my pay. I gotta get paid.Sal is looking into the cash register. SAL We did good business today. We got a good thing going. Nothing like a family in business working together. One day the both of you will take over...and Mookie, there will always be a place for you at Sal's Famous Pizzeria. Y'know, it should be Sal's and Sons Famous Pizzeria.ANGLE--VITO, PINO, AND MOOKIEAll three look at each other. The horror is on their faces,with the prospect of working, slaving in Sal's and SonsFamous Pizzeria, trapped for the rest of their lives. Isthis their future? It's a frightening thought.ANGLE--DOORAhmad, Cee, Punchy, and Ella enter. SAL We're about to close. AHMAD Just four slices, regular slices. Please. To go! SAL OK, but that's it. It's been a long day.Mookie goes over to the table where Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, andElla sit. 77. MOOKIE Look, I want you to get your slices, then outta here. No playing around. AHMAD You got it. MOOKIE Good. No joke. We all wanna go home.OH NO! We hear the dum-dum-dum of Radio Raheem's box. Aseveryone turns their heads to the door, Buggin' Out andRadio Raheem are inside already. We have never heard therap music as loud as it is now. You have to scream to beheard and that's what they do. SAL What did I tell ya 'bout dat noise? BUGGIN' OUT What did I tell ya 'bout dem pictures? SAL What da fuck! Are you deaf? BUGGIN' OUT No, are you? We want some Black people up on the Wall of Fame. SAL Turn that JUNGLE MUSIC off. We ain't in Africa.Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, and Ella start to dance while Mookietakes a seat, the impartial observer that he is. BUGGIN' OUT Why it gotta be about jungle music and Africa? SAL It's about turning that shit off and getting the fuck outta my pizzeria. PINO Radio Raheem. RADIO RAHEEM Fuck you. 78. SAL What ever happened to nice music with words you can understand? RADIO RAHEEM This is music. My music. VITO We're closed. BUGGIN' OUT You're closed alright, till you get some Black people up on that wall.Sal grabs his Mickey Mantle bat from underneath the counterand brings it down on Radio Raheem's box, again and againand again. The music stops.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM'S BOXRadio Raheem's pride and joy is smashed to smithereens.It's going to the junkyard quick.ANGLE--PIZZERIAThere is an eerie quiet as everyone is frozen, surprised bythe suddenness of Sal's action, the swings of his MickeyMantle bat. All look at Radio Raheem and realize what isabout to happen.ANGLE--RADIO RAHEEMRadio Raheem screams, he goes crazy. RADIO RAHEEM My music!Radio Raheem picks Sal up from behind the counter and startsto choke his ass. Radio Raheem's prized possession--hisbox, the only thing he owned of value--his box, the onething that gave him any sense of worth--has been smashed tobits. (Radio Raheem, like many Black youth, is the victim ofmaterialism and a misplaced sense of values.) Now he doesn'tgive a fuck anymore. He's gonna make Sal pay with his life.Vito and Pino jump on Radio Raheem, who only tightens hisgrip around Sal's neck. Buggin' Out tries to help hisfriend. Mookie just stands and watches as Ahmad, Cee,Punchy, and Ella cheerlead. 79.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTThe tangled mass of choking, biting, kicking, screamingconfusion flies through the door of Sal's out onto thesidewalk.CLOSE--EDDIEThe kid yells: EDDIE Fight! Fight! CUT TO:CLOSE--DA MAYORHe looks up. CUT TO:CLOSE--MOTHER SISTERShe looks up. CUT TO:CLOSE--SWEET DICK WILLIEHe also looks up.ANGLE--STREETThe people on The Block run to Sal's Famous Pizzeria to seethe STATIC.ANGLE--SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIARadio Raheem, Buggin' Out, Sal, Vito, and Pino are stillentangled, rolling around on the sidewalk, but now before anentertained crowd of onlookers:ANGLE--DA MAYOR DA MAYOR Break it up. This is crazy.The fight continues. Da Mayor is smart enough not to get inthe middle of this war. We hear sirens, somebody has calledDA COPS.ANGLE--STREET 80.The cop cars come right through the crowd, almost runningover some people. The cops get out with nightsticks andguns drawn. WE RECOGNIZE two of the faces, Officers Longand Ponte. Any time there is a skirmish between a Black manand a white man, you can bet the house on who the copes aregonna go for. You know the deal! Buggin' Out is pulled offfirst, then Vito and Pino, but Radio Raheem is a crazed man.It takes all six cops to pull him off Sal, who is red as abeet from being choked.ANGLE--COPSHandcuffs are put on Buggin' Out as he watches the othercops put a choke hold on Radio Raheem to restrain him.ANGLE--RADIO RAHEEMRadio Raheem is still struggling, then he just stops, hisbody goes limp and he falls to the sidewalk like a fifty-pound bag of Idaho potatoes.ANGLE--STREETOfficers Long and Ponte kick him. OFFICER LONG Get up! Get up!Radio Raheem just lies there like a bump on a log.ANGLE--CROWDThe crowd stares at Radio Raheem's still body. He'sunconscious or dead.CLOSE--OFFICER LONG OFFICER LONG Quit faking.ANGLE--STREETThe officers all look at each other. They know, they knowexactly what they've done. The infamous Michael Stewartchoke hold. OFFICER PONTE Let's get him outta here.The officers pick up Radio Raheem's limp body and throw himinto the back seat. Buggin' Out is pushed into another car.The cop cars speed off; in their haste to beat it, they haveleft the crowd. It's at this point the crowd becomes anangry mob. 81.ANGLE--MOBThe mob looks at...ANGLE--MOB POVSal still on the sidewalk, being helped to his feet by Vitoand Pino, who are in bad shape themselves.ANGLE--MOBThe mood/tone of the mob is getting ugly. Once again theyhave seen one of their own killed before their eyes at thehands of the cops. We hear the murmurs of the folks gothrough the crowd. VOICES OF MOB THEY KILLED HIM THEY KILLED RADIO RAHEEM IT'S MURDER DID IT AGAIN JUST LIKE THEY DID MICHAEL STEWART MURDER ELEANOR BUMPERS MURDER IT'S NOT SAFE NOT EVEN IN OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD IT'S NOT SAFE NEVER WAS NEVER WILL BEThe cops, in their haste to get Radio Raheem out of there,have left an angry mob of Black folks with a defenselessSal, Vito, and Pino.The mob looks at them. VOICES OF MOB WON'T STAND FOR IT THE LAST TIME FUCKIN' COPS THE LAST TIME IT'S PLAIN AS DAY DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL THE BOYHIGH ANGLEMookie looks at the crowd and notices he's on the wrong side.He leaves Sal and his two sons.ANGLE--STREETDa Mayor walks in front of the crowd. 82. DA MAYOR Good people, let's all go home. Somebody's gonna get hurt. CROWD (OS) Yeah, you! DA MAYOR If we don't stop this now, we'll all regret it. Sal and his two boys had nothing to do with what the police did. CROWD (OS) Get out of the way, old man. You a Tom anyway. DA MAYOR Let 'em be.ANGLE--STREETMookie picks up a garbage can and dumps it out into thestreet. He walks through the crowd, up to Da Mayor, Sal,Vito, and Pino.CLOSE--MOOKIEHe screams. MOOKIE HATE!!!!SLOW MOTIONMookie hurls the garbage can through the plate glass windowof Sal's Famous Pizzeria. That's it. All hell breaks loose.The dam has been unplugged, broke. The rage of a people hasbeen unleashed, a fury. A lone garbage can thrown throughthe air has released a tidal wave of frustration.ANGLE--STREETDa Mayor pushes Sal, Vito, and Pino out of the way as themob storms into Sal's Famous Pizzeria.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTThe people rush into Sal's Famous Pizzeria, tearing it up.CLOSE--CASH REGISTERThe cash register is opened. WE SEE only coins, Sal has thepaper. 83.EXT: DA MAYOR'S STOOP--NIGHTDa Mayor leads Sal, Vito, and Pino back to his stoop wherethey watch in horror. SAL There it goes. Why? DA MAYOR You was there. First white folks they saw. You was there. PINO Fuckin' niggers.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTSomeone lights a match. WHOOOSH!EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTSal's Famous Pizzeria is going up in flames and now it's acarnival. MOTHER SISTER Burn it down. Burn it down.One might have thought that the elders--who through theyears have been broken down, whipped, their spirits crushed,beaten into submission--would be docile, strictly onlookers.That's not true except for Da Mayor. The rest of the eldersare right up in it with the young people.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTCLOSE--PHOTOS ON WALL OF FAMEThe photos of famous Italian-Americans are burning.EXT: FRUIT-N-VEG DELIGHT--NIGHTThe mob now moves across the street in front of the Koreanfruit and vegetable stand. Sweet Dick Willie, Coconut Sid,and ML stand at the head of the mob. ML It's your turn.CLOSE--KOREAN CLERKHe's scared to death, as the mob is poised to tear his placeup too. The clerk wildly swings a broom to hold them off. 84. KOREAN CLERK Me no white. Me no white. Me Black. Me Black. Me Black.CLOSE--ML ML Me Black. Me Black.The mob starts to laugh; they feel for him.ANGLE--MOB SWEET DICK WILLIE Korea man is OK. Let's leave him alone. ML Him no white. Him no white. COCONUT SID Him Black. Him Black.EXT: DA MAYOR'S STOOP--NIGHTSal, Vito, and Pino look on as Sal's Famous Pizzeria goes upin smoke. DISSOLVE TO:CLOSE--VITO DISSOLVE TO:CLOSE--PINO DISSOLVE TO:CLOSE--SALEXT: STREET--NIGHTANGLE--STREETJade is running through the mob, looking for her brother. JADE Mookie! Mookie!ANGLE--MOOKIEMookie is running around with the rest of the mob.ANGLE--STREET 85.The wail of fire trucks and police sirens is now added tothe night.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTThe mob moves back to in front of Sal's as the fire trucksand police, in full riot gear, pull up in the street behindthem. POLICE LOUDSPEAKER (VO) Good people. Please disperse. Please disperse.The firemen rush to hook up their hoses, the police forcethemselves between the crowd and the burning Sal's FamousPizzeria. POLICE LOUDSPEAKER (VO) Please disperse! Please disperse!The mob doesn't listen, they will not be moved. The mobwill not be moved until they see Sal's Famous Pizzeria burnto the ground.ANGLE--SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIAThe firemen douse the pizzeria, trying desperately to stopthe fire from spreading into the adjoining buildings. POLICE LOUDSPEAKER (VO) Good people, we're giving you one more warning. Please go back home.CLOSE--MOOKIE MOOKIE This is our home.CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER MOTHER SISTER This is our neighborhood.ANGLE--MOBIt will take force to move this mass of people. POLICE LOUDSPEAKER (VO) You've had your warning!POW!The hoses are turned on the mob. 86.WE SEE Mookie, Mother Sister, Sweet Dick Willie, ML, CoconutSid, Jade, Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, and Ella, etc., go downbefore the powerful blast of the firehouse.Now we've come full circle. We're back to Montgomery orBirmingham, Alabama. The only thing missing is Sheriff BullConnor and the German shepherds.It would take force to move them and that's exactly what themob got. People are trying to hold on to each other, cars,railings, anything to keep from being swept away.EXT: DA MAYOR'S STOOP--NIGHTDa Mayor, Sal, Vito, and Pino watch in disbelief. It'sunbelievable what is happening before their eyes. CUT TO:THE STREET--NIGHTTHEIR POVPeople are screaming, kids and women are not being sparedfrom the brute force of the firehoses either.EXT: WE LOVE STOREFRONT--NIGHTWE SEE the reflection of the fire in the storefront windowas Mister SeÒor Love Daddy looks on.EXT: STREET--NIGHTANGLE--JADE AND MOTHER SISTERJade and Mother Sister try to hold on to a streetlamp as agush of water hits them; their grips loosens, the water istoo powerful, and they slide away down the block and DaMayor runs after them.INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--NIGHTCLOSE--PHOTOSSome burnt photos on the floor.CLOSE--MICKEY MANTLE BATThe Mickey Mantle bat burns.CLOSE--RADIO RAHEEM'S BOXRadio Raheem's box has melted into a black mass of goo.CLOSER--RADIO RAHEEM'S BOX 87.As WE MOVE IN TIGHTER ON the melted box, we begin to hearthe rap song that we've hear throughout. All other sounddrops as the rap song gets louder and louder until it'sdeafening.ANGLE--SMILEYSmiley sits up from where he hid during the burning andlooting of Sal's Famous Pizzeria. Smiley looks around andgoes directly to the smoldering Wall of Fame. He standsthere. Smiley pins one of his Malcolm X/Martin Luther King,Jr., cards to the Wall of Fame.CLOSE--PHOTOCLOSE--SMILEYWe're on Smiley's face and a smile slowly travels across.It's the first time Smiley has smiled in years and nobody isthere to see this event.FADE TO BLACKTHE MORNING AFTERFADE IN:EXT: THE STREET--TO INT: RADIO STATION STOREFRONT--DAYThe CAMERA, FROM HIGH ABOVE, CRANES DOWN ON The Block. Thesidewalk is deserted, broken glass is everywhere, and itlooks exactly as how one expects it to look, the morningafter an uprising.The CAMERA NOW MOVES IN ON the WE LOVE storefront whereMister SeÒor Love Daddy is in his familiar place behind themike. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY My people. My people. What can I say? Say what I can. I saw it but I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live? This is ya Mister SeÒor Love Daddy here on WE LOVE RADIO, 108 FM on your dial, and that's the truth, Ruth.CLOSE--MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY 88. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY Today's weather. (he yells) HOT!CLOSER--MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDYHe screams: MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY WAKE UP! CUT TO:INT: TINA'S BEDROOM--DAYMookie jumps out of her bed; Tina sleeps by his side andtheir son Hector is between them. MISTER SE—OR LOVE DADDY (VO) WAKE UP! MOOKIE Fuck! My money! TINA Where are you going? MOOKIE To get my money. TINA Mookie, you must think I'm stupid or something. You're gonna run outta here and I won't see your black ass for another week. MOOKIE Tina, it's not like that.Mookie is putting on his clothes. TINA You don't care about me and you definately don't care 'bout your son. MOOKIE Tina, I'll be right back. TINA Be a man. MOOKIE I am a man. 89. TINA Act like one then. Be a man. MOOKIE Later. TINA You're to the curb. You better step off. Get a life.Mookie leaves.MOTHER SISTER'S BEDROOM--DAYDa Mayor wakes up in Mother Sister's big brass bed (she wasborn in it). At first he has no idea where he's at, thensees Mother Sister sitting down across the room smiling athim. MOTHER SISTER Good morning. DA MAYOR Is it a good morning? MOTHER SISTER Yes indeed. You almost got yourself killed last night. DA MAYOR I've done that before.Da Mayor gets up out of her big brass bed. DA MAYOR Where did you sleep? MOTHER SISTER I didn't. DA MAYOR I hope the block is still standing. MOTHER SISTER We're still standing.Da Mayor and Mother Sister both look out the parlor windowto see THE BLOCK and Mookie.EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAYMookie walks up to Sal's Famous Pizzeria as it stillsmoulders in the morning light. Sal emerges from thewreckage; he looks like he might have slept there. 90. SAL Whatdafuck do you want? MOOKIE I wants my money. I wants to get paid.Sal looks at Mookie in disbelief. SAL Mookie, I always liked you. Not the smartest kid, but you're honest. Don't make me dislike you. MOOKIE Sal, I want my money. SAL Don't even ask about your money. Your money wouldn't even pay for that window you smashed. MOOKIE Motherfuck a window, Radio Raheem is dead. SAL You're right, a kid is dead, but Mook, this isn't the time. MOOKIE Fuck dat. The time is fuckin' now. Y'know I'm sorry 'bout Sal's Famous Pizzeria, but I gotta live, too. I gotta get paid. SAL We both do. MOOKIE We all know you're gonna get over with the insurance money anyway! Ya know da deal. SAL Do we now? MOOKIE Quit bullshitting. SAL You don't know shit about shit. 91. MOOKIE I know I wants to get my money.Sal has had it. SAL How much? How much do I owe you? MOOKIE My salary. Two-fifty.Sal pulls out a wad and quickly peels off hundred dollarbills. SAL One, two, three, four, five.Sal throws the "C" notes at Mookie, they hit him in thechest and fall to the sidewalk. SAL Are you happy now? That's five fucking hundred dollars. You just got paid. Mookie, you are a rich man, now ya life is set, you'll never have another worry, a care in the world. Mookie, ya wealthy, a fuckin' Rockefeller.Mookie is stunned by Sal's outburst. He picks up the bills. SAL Ya just got paid, so leave me the fuck alone. MOOKIE You only pay me two-fifty a week. (he throws two "C" notes back at him) I owe you fifty bucks. SAL Keep it. MOOKIE You keep it. SAL Christmas came early.Both look at the two hundred-dollar bills on the sidewalkand refuse to pick them up. It's a stalemate. 92. MOOKIE This is the hottest Christmas I've known.Mookie counts his money. SAL It's supposed to be even hotter today. MOOKIE You gonna open up another Sal's Famous Pizzeria? SAL No. What are you gonna do? MOOKIE Make dat money. Get paid. SAL Yeah!...I'm goin' to the beach for the first day in fifteen years. Gonna take the day off and go to the beach. MOOKIE I can dig it. It's gonna be HOT as a motherfucker. SAL Mookie? MOOKIE Gotta go. SAL C'mere, Doctor.Mookie turns around and goes back. SAL Doctor, this is Sal talkin'. MOOKIE OK. OK. SAL Doctor, always try to do the right thing. MOOKIE That's it? 93. SAL That's it.Mookie thinks about it, looks at the two "C" notes stillsmiling up at him. He quickly scoops them up. MOOKIE I got it.EXT: STREET--DAYHIGH ANGLEAs Mookie turns and walks away, Sal goes back into Sal'sFamous Pizzeria to salvage what is salvageable, and TheBlock begins to awake from its slumber, ready to deal onceagain with the heat of the hottest day of the year. FADE OUT.ROLL CREDITS. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dog Day Afternoon.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dog Day Afternoon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a6f260ced04ba016361d055f94c0acf6d1453c65 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dog Day Afternoon.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"DOG DAY AFTERNOON" by Frank Pierson Final Draft FADE IN: EXT. ELECTRIC SIGN It FILLS THE SCREEN (designed to exactly FILL THE FRAME size of whatever ratio we're shooting in). It says: 2:51 This message will be a little cryptic to the movie audience on an essentially BLACK SCREEN. HOLD for a beat, then it changes: the lights flash this sign, which should explain it to everyone: 94° And a slow distant ROLL OF THUNDER in the far distance; now the SOUND of media begin to come up loud, under: EXT. FLATBUSH AVENUE - DAY LONG SHOT down the Avenue, 400 mm lens, heat waves shimmering, thousands of old people, and people with children in strollers moving restlessly about in the heat on those endless miles of benches. The SHOT is ON SCREEN only for a beat or two, then gone... SOUND TRACK COMES FROM A THOUSAND TRANSISTOR RADIOS, TV SETS, AUTO RADIOS, BLENDED IN THE OPEN AIR... RADIO ANNOUNCER 1 (V.O.) ...the situation continued tense in the Middle East today, as... EXT. SHEA STADIUM (TV CLIP) - DAY An unnamed player swings and hits a high pop up... ANNOUNCER 2 (V.O.) ...hits a high inside pitch foul into the upper stands... ANGLE ON CROWD as the ball comes down they scramble and fight for it... A touch of viciousness... ANNOUNCER 3 (V.O.) ...B-52's meanwhile, unleashed the heaviest bombing of the war... EXT. MOVIE HOUSE TO MACDONALD'S - DAY We are SEEING HEIDI, though we don't know it yet - she's just another pretty 175-pound Italian girl with two kids, KIMMY, JIMMY, about four and five years old. Right now she is a lump of browning flesh, shining with oil among rows of similar ladies (mostly thinner, but all with a certain unhealthy softness about them) laid out in rows and groups across the sand. SHOOT LOW AND LONG, so heat shimmers rise, as though the heat were baking the oil out of this mob, visible suntan oil pollution... Heidi's transistor blasts ROCK MUSIC into the air. LYRICS (OVER) (Roberta Flack) REVEREND LEE, SHE SAID, LORD KNOWS I LOVE YOU, REVEREND LEE - DO IT TO ME (etc., etc.) ANNOUNCER 3 (V.O.) ...the American High Command announced the famed 25th Cavalry Division would be coming home! The 25th Cavalry, long since afoot, hardened in battle in the jungles of World War II... FAR DISTANT THUNDER ROLLS... INT/EXT. SONNY'S CAR - STREET - DAY It is parked in a drab Brooklyn street. Beside the car stands SAL, medium height, also good-looking in an intense boyish way. His eyes dart about suspiciously, the ever-watchful Sal. There is a watchful reserve in Sal that contrasts to Sonny's outgoing bounciness: first impression is Sonny is all bark; Sal is the bite. Sal is dressed in impressive blue suit style, he looks like a kid trying to impress the Godfather. He even wears a hat. Now, matching Sal's preparations inside the car, he checks his tie's alignment, shoots his cuffs and is ready... Meanwhile, on their car radio: ELTON JOHN (Amoreena) AND SHE DREAMS OF CRYSTAL STREAMS OF DAYS GONE BY WHEN WE COULD LEAN LAUGHING FIT TO BURST UPON EACH OTHER... ANOTHER ANGLE BY CAR As he turns, from the back of the car, JACKIE appears with a huge florist box, tied with ribbon. Jackie is an eighteen year old with bad complexion and in contrast to Sonny and Sal is dressed in teenage sloppiness. Adidas, T-shirt, bowling jacket, jeans. He is uncertain: waits for directions from Sonny. Sonny takes the florist box from him. We see a water truck drive down the street, followed by Sonny's car, which drives up near bank. It stops, Jackie gets out, crosses to bank window, peers through, then ANGLE INSIDE CAR returns to car. Leans in, has fake conversation with Sonny. They are waiting. Sonny checks his watch, turns to Sal in back seat: SONNY 30 seconds, Sal... They wait. At appropriate moment, Sal exits car, walks toward bank. Slowly Sonny gets out. INT. BANK - DAY A slightly seedy little branch bank, old yellow brick, blond varnished wood, a rubber plant, an American flag. Through the windows we SEE HOWARD, the aged black bank guard, in uniform, taking down the American flag from outside. Past him comes Sal carrying an attache case. He passes Howard coming toward us through the door into the bank. As he passes CAMERA: INSERT: BANK CLOCK as it CLICKS from 2:57 to 2:58 PM. MOVING SHOT WITH SAL as he moves toward the left-hand deposit-slips desks. He picks out a car-loan application slip, then walks toward the manager's desk (as the sign on the desk proclaims) of PATRICK MULVANEY. Sal sits down, his back to Mulvaney, facing the front door of the bank. Mulvaney is on the phone. ON DOOR as Sonny bustles through in his bouncy dancer's walk. He carries the large florist box. He moves toward the left- hand deposit-slips desks, takes one out and begins to fill one out. ON HOWARD as he pulls out the keys, attached to the belt of his uniform. Jackie approaches the door of the bank and stops, neither in nor out, as though he can't make up his mind. Howard watches him, waiting patiently, keys in hand, folded flag under his arm. CLOSE - SAL still sitting, back to Mulvaney, watching Jackie's approach and entrance, ready to move on cue. ON DOOR on Howard as he looks at Jackie, still half in, half out. Howard speaks to him: HOWARD Closing time; you want in or out? Jackie steps in and as Howard locks the door to prevent more customers from entering, Jackie walks toward Sonny, filling out a slip at the left-hand area. CAMERA FOLLOWS Jackie. He stops at deposit-slips desk, next to Sonny. CLOSE - SAL as if by pre-arranged signal, Sal now stands up, moves to the side of Mulvaney's desk. SAL You the manager? ON MULVANEY who is still on the phone. He gestures at the sign on his desk that says so, and gestures for Sal to sit down. ON SAL as he sits, producing as he does a machine pistol, which he holds on Mulvaney's chest, out of sight from others in the bank. MULVANEY His mouth simply stops, and he stares at the gun. Mulvaney is a comic opera Irishman in his early fifties, florid... cheerful, bushy eyebrows; he acts out everything he says... SAL Just go on talking, like nothing was happening, okay? MULVANEY (into phone) Listen, lemme call you back. He hangs up, and looks from the gun up to Sal's blank hard face. To his own amazement, he grins: a hopeful grin that says: "Like me - don't hurt me." And he's embarrassed by it. As we watch, his smile turns sour. HIS POV - FLASH Sal's absolutely unmoved face. TWO SHOT - SONNY AND JACKIE Jackie moves over to Sonny. JACKIE Sonny, I'm gettin' real bad vibes. SONNY Jackie - what are you talking about? JACKIE Maybe we can take something smaller... like a Spanish grocery. SONNY (indicating what's happening with Sal and Mulvaney) It's too late - just get away from me - don't talk to me now - go over to your place... Jackie moves to another deposit-slips desk - takes one out and begins to fill it out. ON TELLER'S CAGE AREA as a LADY with a BABY in a stroller moves away from the Teller and starts to walk toward the front door. DEBORAH is marking figures on a piece of paper at 1st Teller's cage. SYLVIA and MIRIAM stand behind her - their backs to Sonny. Howard, who has put the folded flag in a plastic bag in a front desk, follows Lady toward the door. He unlocks the door and hands the Baby a lollipop, courtesy of the bank, and she exits the bank. CLOSE - NEW ANGLE - SONNY glancing at clock, taking a sharp deep breath... SAL staring at Mulvaney. MULVANEY the ruins of his smile still on his face. HOWARD straightens up from locking the door; the figure of the Lady and the Baby can be seen receding outside... SONNY seeing that the bank is closed, locked in, with no customers, crosses toward the front teller's cage area, carrying the florist box. As he reaches the other side, he rips open the box and takes the rifle out and aims it level onto SYLVIA BALL, the teller, who automatically takes the "closed" sign and holds it in front of her face as though to protect herself from the rifle. SYLVIA (holding sign in front of her face) Sorry, this window is shut... TWO SHOT - MULVANEY AND SAL as Mulvaney stands and yells to Sylvia... ANGLE ON BACK OF BANK, REST ROOM AREA as MARGARET, an accountant, comes out of the ladies' room, starts to cross downstage toward her desk, sees what is happening, and momentarily freezes in her tracks. SONNY The cues have got all fucked up, but he's so programmed and ready, he can't adjust, so the speech he had ready comes out now: SONNY Okay, this is a stickup! Nobody move! This is a fucking stickup! Just freeze now, goddammit! Get away from your desk... get in the center - get in the center! Sylvia and Edna start to move toward the rear of the bank, toward Margaret's desk. MULVANEY aghast at his own outspokenness... Sal holding the gun levelled on him. MULVANEY Okay, okay... we know it's a stickup! SONNY (to Jackie, re: Howard) If he moves - blow his guts out... Cover him! TWO SHOT - SONNY & JACKIE Jackie, staring at the real guns, turns to Sonny... JACKIE I'm sorry, Sonny... I can't make it... Jackie starts to move toward the front door. SONNY Hey, for christ's sake... now... fuckin' asshole... (turns to Sal) He can't make it. SAL Fuck him - let him out! Sonny yells out at frozen Howard. SONNY Hey... let him out! MULVANEY (yells) Do what the gentleman says, Howard. Sonny sees that Howard is useless, so he runs to Howard, grabbing the keys from him and pulls Howard along with him to the front door. Jackie unlocks the door, and Jackie, with a last apologetic glance, gives his gun to Sonny and vanishes into the sweltering afternoon. Sonny then frisks Howard and has a sudden afterthought as he locks the door again. He quickly unlocks it and shouts out at Jackie. EXT. BANK - DAY SONNY Hey, don't take the car! JACKIE (on sidewalk) Well, how'll I get home? SONNY Take the subway. We need the car. (as Jackie starts to walk away) Hey, gimme the keys - the keys! Jackie stops, fumbles for keys, crosses back to Sonny with them. JACKIE (points to fig. desk) Sonny, there's somebody under that desk over there... I'm sorry... SONNY It's okay... it's okay... Sonny turns into the bank once more, as Jackie walks off toward the subway, pointing inside at a desk near the window as he does, to point something out to Sonny. INT. BANK - DAY Sonny, re-entering the bank, speaks to Howard. SONNY Lock it. Sonny now crosses to desk that Jackie indicated, as everyone watches him, as though it's all in the game. SONNY (taps loudly on top of desk) Hey... get outta there! Nobody's gonna hurt you. JENNY, a young, frightened girl, peeks out from under the desk, obviously afraid to reveal herself. Sonny starts to move toward the front of the bank. Sal turns so he can cover everyone. Sonny turns to order Howard. SONNY Pull the drapes. Howard doesn't move. SONNY Pulla drapes! Howard belatedly leaps to work, pulling drapes that screen off the interior from outside. The door has no drapes or blinds and thus when the drapes are closed there is a corridor of space across the street we will always be able to see. And from which people outside will always be able to see in. As Howard finishes the task, he then walks back to the huddled group on the rear. SONNY on his way to the back of the bank, is digging into his jacket pocket; he swings around as he passes the camera that is bolted to a wall bracket covering the tellers' area. He whips out a spray can and gives the lens a shot of red paint. There are three cameras in all, each of which he sprays. SONNY (grinning) No replay, folks... no alarms... After spraying the three cameras, he has reached Mulvaney's desk area. The girls are scattering to group farther back and Sonny and Mulvaney are heading for the vault. MULVANEY (on cross to vault with Sonny) We're hip... let's just get you all fixed up and on your way! MIRIAM, a young, awkward, overweight Jewish girl, chewing gum with nervous machine-like rapidity, moving toward the vault. The gate is closed, and she holds one key and Mulvaney the other. They pass Sal, who now holds the others in the bank under his gun while at the vault gate. SONNY Okay, is the vault open? MULVANEY I can take care of that. NEW ANGLE Mulvaney is about to insert his key in his lock. Sonny quickly reaches out and grabs Mulvaney's hand, and looks at the key he has extended. He explodes. SONNY Son of a bitch! He almost hits Mulvaney with his fist. SONNY What the fuck you tryin' to do? Trip the alarm? Use the spur key? Use the other one... He's grabbed the keys from Mulvaney and holds up the key Mulvaney was going to use... we're in a: VERY TIGHT TWO SHOT - MULVANEY AND SONNY'S HEADS Sonny holds the key right in the middle of the FRAME where Mulvaney and the audience can SEE the key has a tiny projection or spur at the end. If this key is used, the spur triggers a silent alarm. MULVANEY I must of been outta my mind. SONNY (furious) Well, you get your mind right. I'm a Catholic and I don't wanna hurt nobody, but goddamn it, don't you play no games with me. Unnastand?!? Mulvaney nods and picks out a key that is identical except for the spur. He shows it to Sonny. Sonny nods. NEW ANGLE as Mulvaney carefully uses the safe key to unlock the gate. Miriam is crying as she unlocks her side. The gate swings open. Sonny shoves Mulvaney inside and, as he passes Miriam, notices her tears. She just stands there staring into his face like a hypnotized chicken, the tears streaming down her face. Sonny stops, staring at her. Mulvaney, starting to open the gate, moves inside the vault, impatient... MULVANEY Okay. Let's get you on your way. Miriam - open the safe. Miriam hesitates. SONNY What's the matter with you? MULVANEY (to Miriam) Come on, lemme load you up... MIRIAM There isn't any money... Sonny looks at Mulvaney, alarmed... MIRIAM They picked it up this afternoon... SONNY No money?! (moves inside the vault) MIRIAM There's only about four thousand in singles, and maybe a few hundred in larger bills... he's going to kill us! Sonny storms into the vault. NEW ANGLE IN VAULT as Mulvaney pulls a cash drawer out to show Sonny: even we can see there isn't much there. Sonny searches for more, finds nothing. SONNY This is it? What am I gonna do with this? Holy shit! MULVANEY It's all we got. SONNY Okay, don't worry about it. Stick it in the bag... At this, Sonny pulls out a plastic bag from his pocket, hands it to Miriam, who opens it and puts the money into it. As he turns, we see that Miriam is still staring at him, terrified, and as his rifle swings around, she reels back with a little screech of terror... SONNY Ah, Jesus... SAL Let's go, Sonny. SONNY (suddenly gentle) What are you crying for? Jesus Christ. It's not your fault there's no money... MULVANEY She's afraid you're gonna shoot... (hands Sonny the bag of money) Sonny starts out of the vault toward the teller's area with bag of money. He speaks to Mulvaney. SONNY What the hell would I shoot her for? Miriam follows Sonny to teller's cages gate. He carries the bag. PHONE STARTS TO RING (#1) SONNY Answer the phone! Mulvaney crosses to his desk, picks up the receiver. Sal follows him, yanks receiver from one ear to the other, so he can hear conversation. SONNY (to Miriam) Okay... open this. Miriam crosses to gate, presses the necessary button and the gate opens from them. Sonny watches this carefully, noting where the buzzer button is. He crosses in front of the drawer at the first cage. He tries to open the drawer. It's obviously locked. SONNY Okay, who's the head teller here? SYLVIA I am. SONNY Open this up! Sylvia comes forward and unlocks the first drawer, and begins to remove the cash, but Sonny grabs her hands... alarmed... SONNY Don't take it all out! He grabs a piece of paper or cardboard... CLOSE SHOT - SONNY'S HANDS AND CASH IN DRAWER He takes all the singles but one out of the singles slot in the drawer, leaving the bottom single in place. It is held there by a metal clip. He carefully slips the paper under the clip and then removes the single. It is clear this is an automatic alarm - meanwhile... SONNY Boy, I can't trust a one of you... I worked in a bank, I know the alarms, so don't try to fool around with me! BACK TO SHOT OF SONNY AND SYLVIA AND MIRIAM as they move to 2nd cash drawer at 2nd teller's cage. Sylvia unlocks the drawer and starts to reach in for the cash, but Sonny pushes his hand into the drawer instead. He begins to stuff the money into the bag. Some fives, packaged with rubber bands, in the drawer, he holds up so Sal and all can see them... He laughs! SONNY Decoy money, right, it's marked! Shit! He throws it into the air so the bills flutter all around him, gaily... In the background, Mulvaney, having finished with the phone conversation, is moving to the rear with the rest of the girls. Sonny now moves to the 3rd cage's cash drawer... Mulvaney ends phone conversation and Sal moves him over to group at vault. SONNY (mimicking Sylvia) 'This window is shut...' Again, the same procedure begins. Sylvia unlocks the cash drawer and Sonny starts to scoop it out and put it into the opened plastic bag that Miriam holds. SAL Cheer up, you'll be the veteran of a robbery, the bank sends you a dozen red roses, you know that? At this point, THE PHONE BEGINS TO RING AGAIN (#2) SONNY (yelling to Sal) Sal, let him answer the goddamn phones, they're driving me crazy! Look at this chicken shit! Again, Mulvaney starts to cross back to his desk, again followed by Sal. Sonny yells out to Mulvaney as he crosses to answer the phone. SONNY Hey, you, manager... Don't get any ideas, fucker... See that man there? I bark and he bites! MULVANEY Believe me, I'm on your side. SONNY My side, shit! They move to Drawer #4. SYLVIA Listen, we got young girls here... you could watch your language. SONNY I speak what I feel. MULVANEY ON THE PHONE MULVANEY Hello... I'm sorry I can't talk to you right now... I suggest you call during banking hours tomorrow. What is your name? BACK ON SONNY, SYLVIA AND MIRIAM SONNY Gimme the traveler's checks and the register. They cross toward the last drawer area (#5). Miriam is still crying silently. Sonny holds out the plastic bag for the checks for her. She drops it. SONNY Please... quit that. It's not necessary. With everything in the bag, Sonny now takes the register and starts to move the two girls toward the rear near the vault. MULVANEY Can you hurry it up? BACK TO SONNY as he moves toward the rear (Sylvia and Miriam now re-joining other women), to get a wastebasket. Accomplishing this, he starts to burn the pages of the register, tearing out pages as he does so. It's smokey as hell, but not burning well. He drops it, smoking, into the wastebasket. SONNY (to Howard) Hey, you! Give me the keys... We're gettin' outta here. HOWARD (gasping for breath) Huh? MULVANEY Howard? HOWARD Huh? ON HOWARD The old man is panicked, great patches of sweat spreading around his armpits. He breathes in asthmatic gasps; now he flinches at his name, as though he's been hit. MULVANEY (stands, receiver still to ear, then covering it with his hand) Howard, give him the keys... SONNY Gimme the keys to get outta here! Howard is unable to move. Seeing his predicament, Edna moves to him and starts to unfasten his belt to remove the keys. Mulvaney continues with his phone conversation. ON SONNY who now crosses to Howard and Edna, losing patience with the situation. As he moves closer, Howard backs away from him, frightened by his rifle. Seeing that, Sonny puts it down and looks over to Sal for coverage. SONNY Sal... As Sonny approaches Howard, he realizes that he can't get close enough. SONNY Take it easy... just gimme the keys. I'm not gonna hurt you. Listen, calm down, huh? You're gonna have a heart attack. Just gimme the keys... that's all I want. Howard gives him the keys and as Sonny starts to walk back toward the burning register... ON SAL with Mulvaney still on the phone. SAL (looking past camera, falling onto the floor behind Mulvaney) Sonny... who's that? Across the street. ON SONNY who now starts to move quickly toward the front of the bank, being sure to hide behind the posts as he moves. MULVANEY (O.S.) (on phone) No, it was the credit rating. The credit rating. I don't know, you'd have to find that out from him. Sonny has now reached the front of the bank. He carefully peeks out through the closed draperies to look outside. ANGLE ON STREET - SONNY'S POV A man, in a business suit, sweaty and harassed-looking, is walking from an insurance office across the street directly toward the bank... The man continues coming straight toward them and us... REVERSE Sonny starts to run back to get his gun from Margaret's desk. Mulvaney is still on the phone. MULVANEY It was something a couple of years ago in St. Louis, I don't know... Sonny grabs the gun from the desk top and moves over to Mulvaney. ANGLE ON DOOR AT FRONT OF BANK The man walks straight toward the glass door, already lifting his hand to shadow his eyes, so when he reaches the door, he'll be able to see inside. REVERSE ON SAL AND MULVANEY Sal brings the gun up so he can shoot the man, at the same time, crabbing himself aside so he is concealed behind Mulvaney and the desk. Mulvaney sees the approaching man and cups his hand over the phone. MULVANEY It's the insurance guy across the street. He probably saw the goddamn smoke! (motions toward smoking register) Please! Put out the fire! ON MAN The last few feet from the door. ON SONNY who rushes through the teller's cages gate toward the register, grabs the smoking register, throws it onto the floor near Edna's desk, and starts to stamp it out. MARGARET I'll get some water! Before anyone can move, Sonny grabs the gun on them all. SONNY Nobody move! Freeze! The women now begin to scream as real hysteria sets in. Deborah screams, collapses. CLOSE - ON SAL BRINGING GUN UP ON: DOOR The man actually kicks the glass with his foot, then leans against the glass, shades his eyes, trying to see in. MULVANEY (O.S.) Sorry... I can't talk now... I'll call you back. SOUND of hanging up. The man is looking all around. SAL AND MULVANEY SAL Get rid of him. MULVANEY Howard, wave him off. Tell him we're closed. Whatever... ON HOWARD who is useless. ON MULVANEY who starts to move toward the front door, looking over at Sonny trying to put out the fire. CAMERA FOLLOWS MULVANEY TO THE FRONT DOOR; Sonny moves with him, covering him all the time. ANGLE ON FRONT DOOR as Sonny stands behind closed venetian blinds to listen to the conversation and to cover Mulvaney. SONNY The gun's right on your back... MULVANEY Give me the keys... Sonny hands him the keys. VERY CLOSE SHOT - SAL He raises the gun and sights it now, and in this moment, we should sense a kind of luxurious relaxation into anticipation on Sal's part. He is smiling a little, and for the first time, looks happy, and that's what makes him seem dangerous. He's looking forward to an excuse to kill. It's here now: survival. There is something almost sexual about the way he settles his body down behind the weapon, getting ready for the squeeze on the trigger, the report, the violent shove of recoil against his muscles and sinews. In the background, we see Sylvia bringing Howard a cup of water. ANGLE ON DOOR emphasizing the small of Mulvaney's back. The man is somebody he knows from across the street. He looks worried and mystified... MULVANEY (unlocking door) What is it, Sam? SAM Everything's all right? You okay? MULVANEY Yeah, just a cigarette got in a wastebasket. Silence. Sam stares around... thinking. SAM You all right? MULVANEY Little smoke: like a Polish four- alarm fire, is all. SAM Yeah. Well, you're okay? MULVANEY Yeah, thanks for keeping an eye out. SAM Okay. He's not satisfied, but he can't see anything and he can't think of anything more to say, so... MULVANEY Thanks again, Sam. SAM I'm glad it's okay. MULVANEY It's okay. [Regards to the family, Sam.] Mulvaney locks the door and walks inside the bank, giving the keys back to Sonny. MULVANEY For God's sake, will you please go now? We gave you every nickel we got. SONNY You're goin' outside with me. If there's no cops around, we just split. Otherwise, you go with us. Mulvaney and Sonny starts to walk back toward Sal. As they do, the PHONE BEGINS TO RING AGAIN (#3). SONNY (to Mulvaney) Answer it. Mulvaney shrugs helplessly. Picks up the phone, standing at desk opposite his. ON SAL SAL He's gone? SONNY Yeah - it's all right... let's go. MULVANEY ON PHONE MULVANEY Hello, Mulvaney here... TWO SHOT - SONNY & SAL SONNY Sal, get 'em in the vault. SAL Where's the money? SONNY Get 'em in the vault! As Sal starts to herd them into the vault (Sylvia helping Howard, still with the cup of water), Mulvaney is still on the phone. Sonny moves down to get the money bag atop the teller's cages and we hear Mulvaney on phone. MULVANEY (tired) What property is that, Mrs. Anterio? The Third Avenue property - you already got a second mortgage on. We discussed it before... ANGLE AT VAULT The girls are afraid; Miriam unlocks the gate as Sonny uses Mulvaney's keys to the matching lock. JENNY (from inside vault area) You won't close the vault? How can we breathe? SONNY No, that's okay... just close the gate... Sylvia, helping Howard, is the last to go through the gate. As Sonny is about to lock the gate, she turns to him. SYLVIA Listen, I'll never make it. I'll have to go to the toilet. SONNY What's the matter... they never housebroke you? SYLVIA It's not a joke. I got this terrible fear of being locked in... SAL Goddamn women... SONNY Ah shit. Okay... go ahead. Anybody else have to go? EDNA Me, too, please. SAL You see... now they all gotta go. As Sylvia starts to move out, Sonny starts to cross ahead of her. SONNY Wait a minute - I want to check. Mulvaney finishes his phone conversation. He moves toward the group at the vault. NEW ANGLE as Sonny sprints for the door to the Ladies' Room. INSIDE LADIES' ROOM It is a little lounge; sitting on a couch under the window, making up her face (or painting her toenails) and listening to her tiny transistor radio, oblivious to all that's happened, is MARIA, heavily-painted and voluptuous Latin girl. Sylvia, following him in, is shocked. She's forgotten about Maria. Now she runs over to her, puts her arms around her. SYLVIA Oh - Maria! SONNY Who the hell is that? God damn it! What the... Maria is about to protest, but Sylvia grabs her and starts to hustle her out. SONNY What are you trying to pull? SYLVIA I forgot she's in here. SONNY Come on, nobody's going to the bathroom - come on... He moves with them back to the vault area, herds them into it. At this point, PHONE RINGS AGAIN (#4). Sonny moves to get the empty wastebasket, shoving it into the vault for the girls to use in case of emergency. Mulvaney moves to his desk and phone. Mulvaney has by this time answered the phone, and is now holding it out to Sonny. HOLD THE BEAT... MULVANEY (to Sonny) It's for you. ON SONNY AND SAL They both stare at Mulvaney. Sonny slowly moves toward Mulvaney. For the first time since he entered the bank, he's quiet and slow. He takes the instrument and slowly puts it to his ear. The group from the vault now slowly starts to move out to listen to the conversation. SONNY (into phone) Yeah. MORETTI (V.O.) What are you doin' in there? SONNY Who's this? MORETTI (V.O.) This is Detective Sergeant Moretti, asshole, we got you completely by the balls. You don't believe me, I'm lookin' you right in the eye. Right now, I can see you... SAL Who is it? Sonny turns and looks out through the door. Sure enough, in the window of the barbershop across the street, the dim figure of a man on a telephone can be SEEN looking out toward us. He wears a hat in spite of the weather and a cigar is clamped in his mouth. He is an old-time, hard-nosed, uneducated, street-wise, sarcastic New York cop, outspoken, rude and sentimental. Right now he's a distant silhouette and a voice on the telephone. CLOSE ON SONNY holding the phone. Listening to the voice of his death speaking in New York accents. MORETTI (V.O.) Okay? Let's be reasonable and not stupid and not get anybody hurt. You come to the front door with hands folded on your head, unnastand? Nobody's gonna shoot or... Sonny slowly, almost sadly, puts the telephone receiver back down, cutting off the little voice at the other end. He looks up at Mulvaney, then to Sal. SONNY (to Sal) It's the cops. Shit! SAL How'd that happen? MULVANEY (backing away from Sonny) I swear to God... on my salary, I'm not gonna be any hero... SONNY I took too long. SAL It was the fire, asshole! Sonny paces. MULVANEY I told you, just go, get out when you could, but no, you just got to hang around. Sonny is pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. SONNY Oh, shit! I gotta have time to think. SYLVIA What is it? Did you just barge in here... He doesn't have plan. It's all a whim. (sarcastic) 'Rob a bank! What not?' SONNY ...Just give me time to think... PHONE STARTS TO RING (#5). MULVANEY We're all in the barrel together... Phone continues to ring. Sonny finally grabs it (desk opposite Mulvaney). SONNY (into phone) All right, bastards! You keep away from the bank or we start throwing bodies out the front door one at a time. You got that? A startled apologetic man's voice speaks: Now ANOTHER PHONE BEGINS TO RING (#6). MAN'S VOICE (V.O.) I just called to ask Jenny what time she's gonna get off. SONNY Who's this? MAN (V.O.) It's her husband. Sonny abruptly holds the phone out from his body at arm's length, disgusted. SONNY Is there a Jenny here? Nobody moves. They all stare at him. Finally he singles her out. SONNY It's your husband. Jenny starts to move toward Sonny. JENNY What do I say? SONNY Tell him the truth! Tell him whatever you tell him! OTHER PHONE CONTINUES TO RING (#6). As he puts down the phone for her to pick up, Sonny reaches for the other phone that is RINGING. SONNY What a fuckin' comedy! (into phone) WNEW plays all the hits. MORETTI (V.O.) Listen, first off, is anybody hurt in there? SONNY ...But you keep away from the bank or we start throwing bodies out the front door one at a time... You got it? Okay? He hangs up the phone. Sal looks at him. SAL You mean that? SONNY What? SAL ...The bodies out the door. SONNY I want him to think that. SAL But do you mean it? At this moment, Jenny, phone in hand, is turned to him, respectfully like a child in an authoritarian household, addressing her father: JENNY He wants to know what time you think you'll be through. ON SONNY stares at her. For the first time, he realizes how frightened she is, how serious, grotesque, and funny it all is. He takes the time to be tender with her, as though she were a not-too-bright child in the presence of a tragedy she'll never understand. SONNY Tell him I don't know. Now Sonny turns to speak to Mulvaney. SONNY Where's the back door? MULVANEY It's locked on the inside. (beat) It's through that passageway and to the right. Sonny disappears toward the back door. Jenny continues her phone conversation. MAN (V.O.) Jenny? JENNY He says he doesn't know. Why don't you cook whatever's there? MAN (V.O.) It looks like a whole roast. JENNY Honey, send out for Kentucky fried chicken. The baby, just open a bottle of prunes, and one of the beef. The bottles are in the fridge. MULVANEY (to Jenny) Hurry up! MAN (V.O.) I know how to fix the bottle. They got guns? JENNY (with the baby on her mind) What guns? MAN (V.O.) The robbers in the bank. They got guns? JENNY Yeah. A lot of guns. MAN (V.O.) Well, stay away from them. Don't get close. JENNY Oh, yeah, I will... Now Sonny returns from the rear door area, sees that she's still on the phone and signals to her to hurry up. SONNY Hey, Jenny - let's go... JENNY Hon? I got to go. MAN (V.O.) I love you. Jenny hesitates. Everyone is looking at her. They look away, as though to give her privacy. JENNY Yeah. Well, I got to go now... A beat of silence. Realizes she can't talk... MAN (V.O.) I'll kiss the baby for you. JENNY (past embarrassment) I love you. She hangs up and then crosses to the group by the vault. NEW ANGLE on Sonny as he moves to Sal, to reassure Sal out of some guiltiness about trapping him in this situation. His tone apologetic... almost tender... SONNY Sal, I'm sorry about this. But we can get outta this thing. There's a way outta this. SAL Are you serious? About throwin' a body outta here if we have to? SONNY Well, I stalled him for a while. When it comes the time, then we'll work it out. Okay? SAL But do you mean it?... But you just told him that if worse comes to worse... SONNY I want him to think that. SAL But I want to know what you think. SONNY We won't have to. SAL I'll tell you right now - that I'm ready to do it. Now Sonny moves over to the group at the vault gate and speaks to them. SONNY What I want to say is... everything's gonna be all right... if we all cooperate and we don't, you know... carry on... I don't know you and you don't know me... and what I'm tryin' to tell you is that if you stay cooled out, we can work this thing out and nobody's going to get hurt... believe me, I don't want to hurt anybody... Everybody is going to have a chance to do what they have to do... she's gotta go to the bathroom - so you go - and you can go after... Everybody's gonna get a chance... Everybody's gonna get a chance to use the phone... Let's just take it a step at a time. Sonny now turns toward Mulvaney. Howard lies down, head on jacket, in the vault. SONNY (to Mulvaney) Now, you -- what's your name? MULVANEY Mulvaney... SONNY You and me are checking the other ways in and out. Sal takes a position where he can cover the door and also the girls and Howard. NEW ANGLE as Sonny and Mulvaney move toward the rear of the bank. SONNY Let's go to the back door. (referring to Howard) How'd that guy get to be a guard? MULVANEY Well, they go to guard school. SONNY To what... learn how to shoot? They don't get a gun. MULVANEY They make $105 a week to start. They fold the flag, check the place out in the morning. I don't know what they learn, Sonny. At some point in their move toward the rear door, Sylvia exits the Ladies' room and moves back toward the group. MULVANEY Here we are... the back door. They look at it. It is big, black, steel and seems solid. Sonny tests it. SONNY They could shoot the lock... I want to block it, so if they try comin' here, we're gonna hear it. Here, you pull on that side. (puts gun aside) He has found a big office machine, a Xerox or whatever, which he now starts to push toward the door. On the opposite side, Mulvaney starts to pull it toward the door. It's very heavy and they have to strain to budge it at all. Meanwhile: SONNY You got kids? MULVANEY I got two kids... and I'd like to see them again. SONNY Ah, I know! You're being very cooperative. I got no complaint against you whatever; you got bank insurance? Mulvaney has removed his suit jacket. MULVANEY You know I do. You seem to know a lot about bank procedure. Sonny laughs and pushes the machine. Mulvaney pulls from the opposite side. SONNY Don't ask me questions. I got connections. You find out who I am, you're cold meat. MULVANEY I don't care who you are... (shove) I just want to get you outta here, safe, right? SONNY What if I take you with me? MULVANEY (stopping to rest for a beat, thinking) If you take anybody, please take me. SONNY They'll shoot you; the fucking cops'll shoot you... they don't give a damn. In spite of that bank insurance. You see what they did in Attica, they shot everybody, the hostages, prisoners, cops, guards, forty-two people they killed, the innocent with the guilty. They have the machine almost to the door now, with Mulvaney almost pinned between the machine and the door. He eases himself out. Looks at the gun, then at Sonny, then they shove the machine against the door. Sonny then gives Mulvaney his jacket to put on again. SONNY Anyway, I'm not gonna take you. I'm gonna take one of the girls, a married one with a couple of kids. The cops don't like it in the papers when they kill a mother, especially if she's got young kids. Finished with the task, Sonny takes his gun and with Mulvaney, they start to cross back toward Sal and the rest of the group. SONNY You're just a nice guy, Mr. Mulvaney. Only don't fuck around with me, you know what I mean? MULVANEY I don't fool around with you. Mulvaney crosses back to his desk and sits down. At this point, all the phones are off the hooks. EXT. (AERIAL) ANGLE FROM INT. POLICE HELICOPTER (OVER BANK) As it banks steeply we can see past Pilot to bank, and cops around car. We see a small crowd being held back by a few police still setting up barricades. It is the first indication of the crowd event it became. It also sets the geography for us, but very quickly another copter swims into view and the two circle each other. The other copter -- only feet away -- is a TV news helicopter, with a big camera sticking out the open door on our side. It is turned down by the Cameraman to focus on the bank. A COP in the police helicopter yells through his bullhorn at the TV Cameraman. BULLHORN COP This is a restricted area. You are flying in a restricted area... The TV Cameraman swivels his camera up to focus on the Cop, and as the lens hits us dead center... INT. APARTMENT NEAR BANK Though an open window a fire escape can be seen and beyond it an angle of street and the bank. Near the window in a corner is a TV set, and on the TV set we are seeing the shot of the police helicopter and the Cop yelling on the bullhorn as seen from the TV copter. A couple of Elderly Men are sitting watching the TV set, ignoring the bank, which they can see in the flesh, as it were. Outside we are HEARING the copters, and on the TV set likewise, and the voice of the Announcer. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...police as yet have made no contact with the bank robbers who are locked in the bank... There is a HAMMERING at the door, and the men at the TV set barely have time to look around before several burly Cops wearing flak vests and helmets and carrying sniper rifles with telescopic slights move through the room, ignoring the men. They move out onto the fire escape, a couple going up higher, settling themselves down to aim in their rifles on the front of the bank. A lot of AD LIB dialogue, but what we note is the Cops, as a man, take a look at themselves on the TV. EXT. BANK - DAY The FRAME is full of cop faces... tough, mesomorphic faces with a layer of fat under the skin, increasing as age. They have the look of cops: alert, curious, weighing. They are city cops; they don't have that old-fashioned condemnatory expression, there is an element of playfulness in their nature -- the fact is they love their work, which is criminals. There is a peculiar delight in ferreting out the criminal impulse in everybody, and a matching fury in punishing it -- which is the action of repressing their own strongly developed criminal unconscious. These are tense, funny, violent, and rigidly controlled men. MORETTI is an old-line cop, a lot more relaxed than the younger men and the cold professionals of the FBI, who as a group resemble astronauts, and like them hide (but do not deny) the psychic chaos underneath. Right now they are looking at the sky. We HEAR a heavy helicopter track. We feature SHELDON, the silver-haired FBI Agent-in-Charge, who looks like an accountant, and Moretti, with hat and cigar, and a face out of Warner Brothers movies of the Forties. In spite of Sheldon's age, Moretti plays though he's a smart kid who still needs a little help. Sheldon is getting out of a gray car, wears a gray suit. Three men with him are carbon copies of him at younger ages. The three hang around him. They approach Moretti who looks at them without moving. MORETTI (to no one) Here comes the FBI. (to Sheldon) You men lookin' for protection? We got all the police right here. SHELDON Why didn't you just wait and try to take 'em out there in the street? Moretti looks at him, cheerfully sarcastic. MORETTI I made an error in judgment. I thought the sons of bitches would be overwhelmed with remorse at the sight of a police officer. And you know somethin'? Nobody has said hostage yet. Unnastan? They are moving past Cops on the corner heading toward a small barbershop across the street from the bank. We now sense the growing crowd, standing quietly, just staring not yet knowing what's going on. NEW ANGLE From down the street come a group of odd-looking men in suits, carrying all kinds of electric junk: The NEW REPORTERS. They run heavily, sweating martinis and cigarette smoke... they run up to Moretti and Sheldon, who walk along, trying not to catch an eye. MOVING SHOT - MORETTI AND SHELDON AMONG NEWSMEN. VOICES How many in the bank? Have they got hostages? Any shots exchanged? (Etc., AD LIB) MORETTI No, we don't know that yet. This young fella without the hat is FBI. I'm Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti ... M-O-R-E-double-T-I. Eugene. I don't give a shit, but my wife cries if you spell it wrong. They have arrived at the barber shop where Moretti fights his way inside. INT. BARBER SHOP - DAY A COP is talking on the wall phone as MORETTI, BAKER, etc. are trying to get inside. COP ...no, just get hold of Al, tell him to get the catering truck over to 26th and Avenue B, there's a bank robbery in progress and big crowd. Big! Tell him to bring ice cream -- I got to hang up. He hangs up and immediately begins thumbing through a POCKET PHONE BOOK. Throughout this Cop is engaged in personal business on the fringe of this affair, and though he's on duty he hardly knows what's happening on the robbery. He's trying to get his brother-in-law with the ice cream truck down here, etc. Moretti has got the crowd cleared back, so that now we SEE why this has been chosen as a tactical command post. From here, while talking on the phone, Moretti can see the bank, and through the uncurtained door he can even see some distance inside. Moretti picks up the phone. MORETTI (to phone cop) You get the phone company? PHONE COP It's being set up... this phone'll be a direct line into the bank. Moretti is already dialing. The phone is answered. INT. BANK - DAY (Re Moretti's 3rd conversation on phone with Sonny.) The group inside the bank have now been waiting approximately twelve minutes since anything last happened. Sonny is seated at Mulvaney's desk, all the phones off the hooks. The rest of the group is huddled around the vault area where Sal is keeping his eye on them. Suddenly, Sonny jumps up and puts all the receivers back on the hooks, crossing back to sit at Mulvaney's desk again. PHONE STARTS TO RING and Sonny picks it up. MORETTI Okay, you're in there and we're out here. What do we do now? SONNY I told you -- keep away. I don't know what we do now. MORETTI Awright, but I wanna talk to you. First off, we wanna know if the people in the bank are okay. SONNY They're okay. MORETTI You alone, or you got confederates? SONNY I'm not alone. MORETTI How many you got in there? SONNY I got Sal. MORETTI Sal? What's that for? Salvatore? SONNY Sal. He's the killer. We're Vietnam veterans so killing don't mean anything to us, you understand? A cop passing by presses a portable two-way radio into Moretti's hand: He accepts it and holds as though he expected it. The Cop passes the same type of set to certain other officers. These sets are tuned in to each other, and throughout the movie, there is a constant background talk on these sets. This is police procedure; the orders are for everyone to talk about everything. If anyone has a question, has heard a rumor or a sound, whatever, it is immediately responded to, so that there can be the fewest possible surprises. Sample dialogue might go: "Did I hear a shot?" "Over here, by the bank, there was a report like a gunshot, inside." "Roger, we heard that from the barbershop... it was inside the bank." "Barbershop, you can see inside?" "Roger, we heard from the barbershop... it was inside the bank." "Barbershop, you can see inside?" "Roger, this is the barbershop, we see inside, the perpetrator is moving toward the rear of the bank." "Who's that guy walking through the barricade?" "The blue suit?" "Yeah." "Off-duty Inspector come down to see can you use him." Etc. They really do use the word Perpetrator, Felon, etc. The Cop handing out radios makes Moretti sign for it -- which Moretti does during the following: MORETTI Right -- got ya. Okay, so there's you -- what's your name? SONNY What do you want to know that for? MORETTI Give me a name, any name, just so I got somethin' to call you. SONNY Call me Sonny-boy. MORETTI Sonny-boy, one word? SONNY One word. You won't find it in the phone book. MORETTI Listen, Sonny... can I call you Sonny for short? SONNY Call me whatever you want. MORETTI Okay, Sonny, I want to see if the people in the bank are okay, then what I want to do is work out a way to get them out of there. I want to come over there, without a gun... and you can frisk me. So you can see you can trust me. So we can talk and find a way outta this mess. SONNY I frisk you? MORETTI You frisk me. SONNY Right -- I'm with you, buddy. MORETTI I'd like just some sign I can trust you too, Sonny. I don't want to trust my body out where you could just shoot me. Some sight... right? SONNY Sure... like... I'm not gonna shoot you. MORETTI How about letting the people out of the bank. Why put them in this position? SONNY They're what's keeping me alive. You think you're dealing with an idiot? Talk to me then. MORETTI Okay, give us the women. SONNY Oh, no... Women is all we got. MORETTI You're all one way! I'm bein' reasonable with you; give me somethin'... Give me one of them, anyway... Just one... SONNY So -- you want me to send one out there... Okay. I'll see what I can do. Sonny hangs up and moves over to Sal. The rest of the group has been trying to make out what's being said at the other end of the conversation. SONNY (to Sal) He wants one. SAL Dead or alive? SONNY Alive. Now Sonny looks at the group. SONNY Okay... who's gonna go first? Mulvaney now stands up at his desk, looks over at the group near the vault. They look back at him, waiting for some instructions. MULVANEY It's up to you ladies. SYLVIA Howard! They are now unified. Sonny whispers something to Sal. SONNY To show that we're negotiating. SAL All right... send them the guard. SONNY All right... let's go. Sylvia takes Howard by the arms and starts to lead him toward the front door. Sal watches as they move toward front door. SAL Cover her, Sonny. Sonny moves with them toward the front door, his gun aimed at them during the walk. Finally they arrive, and Howard moves toward the door by himself. But the door is obviously locked. SYLVIA He needs the keys. Sonny gives her the keys. SAL (from the rear) Only one, Sonny. Sonny covers Sylvia as she moves to unlock the front door for Howard. SYLVIA Go along, Howard. ANGLE OUTSIDE DOOR As Howard is pushed out the door by Sylvia, a cop from a nearby car rushes up to him and shoves him to a curbside car where he bends Howard over the car, putting his hands behind him for handcuffs and starts to frisk him. HOWARD'S POV - QUICK CUTS About 100 weapons ranging from machine guns to hand guns to sniper rifles are whipped up and pointed straight at his chest and head. The effect is as though he is about to be blown entirely away. ANGLE ON THE BARBER SHOP Moretti rushes out, screaming to the cop with Howard. MORETTI Don't fire! THE RADIO NETWORK SCREAMS RADIO VOICES Did he say fire? What fire? Do we fire or what? Who fired? (Etc.) VARIOUS COPS Confusion reigns. They don't know if the perpetrator or not, since they haven't yet seen Sal or Sonny. Guns are up, aimed, being pushed down... Cops run for better vantage points. ANGLE ON HOWARD as Moretti reaches him. He pulls the cop away from him and starts to give him hell for the rough treatment being given the guard. ANGLE IN DOOR OF BANK With Sylvia in doorway, staring wildly at the street scene. Sonny is beside her covering her with his rifle. SYLVIA My God! That's Howard! We voted to send him out! VARIOUS ANGLES as the cops slowly realize their mistake. They stand back from Howard, who is virtually catatonic with fear and shock now. They get him up, a reluctant to believe they could have made such a mistake... ANGLE ON TV CAMERAMAN Near barber shop, across the street, jockeying, trying to focus in on him, elbowing each other, they yell out: CAMERAMAN Hey! Come out, get in the light. Hey, out where we can get a shot, huh? Who's the black guy? (etc. AD LIBS) LOW ANGLE - HELICOPTER (TO AND FROM) swings in over street to try for a shot. Howard is being taken in the direction of the barber shop. MORETTI to Cops. MORETTI Get him outta here! DOOR OF BANK Sonny back in the shadows with Sylvia, looking at Moretti, appalled. ON MORETTI Behind him a mob scene. Howard is being led away, weeping. Photographers, cops, a phalanx of cops have their weapons levelled on Sonny like a firing squad. It is right on the edge of violence... of blowing up. Sonny and Sylvia are in the shelter of the doorway, Moretti stands on the sidewalk, looking toward Sonny inside the bank. MORETTI Sonny - come out here a minute. At this point, he removes his jacket and drops it to the ground, showing Sonny that he is unarmed. SONNY You got these cops outta here. They're comin' in too close. MORETTI Come on. I want you to see something. SONNY You want me to give up, huh? Look, Sal's in back with the girls. Anything happens to me - one move - and Sal gives it to them. Boom boom. How do I know you won't jump me? MORETTI I don't forget about Sal and the boom boom room. I want you to see this. Sonny turns back to tell Sal he's going outside. Moretti stands well out in the street, to reassure Sonny nobody is going to try to jump him. Sonny stares around; he nudges Sylvia out ahead of him. As they edge into sight of the Media across the street: NEWSMEN AND PHOTOGRAPHERS Out in the light. Hey, Lady! You're on TV, Lady! Smile, any... god damn thing... ANGLES - SHOWING CROWDS straining against police lines: this is where we begin to sense the size of the event. People are eating popsicles and ice cream. They are diverted and excited. Sonny and Sylvia begin to emerge: CATCALLS and HOOTS of greeting... CLOSER - SONNY AND SYLVIA as he looks around, and the impact of his situation really hits him: he's not only totally surrounded, he's an event. Some of the crowd CHEER him. An army of Cops, and guns all levelled on Sonny. MORETTI Let Sal come out, take a look. What hope you got? Quit while you're ahead. All you got is attempted robbery. SONNY ...armed robbery... MORETTI Well, armed, then. Nobody's been hurt. Release the hostages, nobody is gonna worry over kidnapping charges, the worst you're gonna get is five years -- you can be out in a year. Sonny stares at him, his face utterly blank. SONNY Kiss me. Moretti stops, stares back. MORETTI What? SONNY (deadpan) When I'm bein' fucked, I like to be kissed a lot. (bursting out) Who the fuck are you tryin' to con me into some deal? You're a city cop, where's the FBI? This is a federal offense, I got kidnapping, armed robbery, they're gonna bury me! You know it, you can't talk for them, you're some flunky pig tryin' to bullshit me. Now God damn it, get somebody in charge here to talk to me! MORETTI Calm down, you're not... SONNY Calm down... look at this, look at him...! Gestures at the cops, the wall of rifles and machine guns levelled on him. It is incredible and terrifying... SONNY (continuing) They wanna kill me so bad they can taste it! He takes a defiant step into the street. The crowd SCREAMS as they get their first view, which is of Sonny telling the Cops off. They don't need to hear the words, they can see it. SONNY (screaming) Attica! Attica! Go ahead! Blow off the front of the whole God damn bank! He holds his hands wide offering himself as a target to the hulking officer. SONNY (to the TV) If it wasn't for you guys they'd kill everybody and say it was me and Sal. (to Moretti) You tell 'em to put the guns down. I can't stand it. He means it. Moretti gestures to the officers to back away, lower the guns. The crowd YELLS: Sonny has beat the Cops. He is momentarily their hero. It's a breaking point. Moretti makes a decision. MORETTI (Cop language command to put gun away) All right - put the guns down! He has to YELL it twice before the Cop slowly, angrily, stuffs the gun into his holster. SOUND: The crowd screams. ON SONNY hearing the Crowd APPLAUSE. He turns and grins and waves to them. They SCREAM more. He turns and waves to the media. They've been YELLING. MEDIA Hey, over here! Give us a wave! It is at this point that newsman leans out a window of the second floor of the bank, quickly lowering a mike boom. Sylvia sees this above her head. ON MORETTI unhappy, looking around at Sheldon, who shrugs. He did what he had to do. ON SONNY Suddenly realizing what control he has, enjoying it. He turns mockingly his left and his right profile to cameras. INT. TENEMENT HALLWAY A FAT WOMAN runs heavily, stumbling, a delighted grin on her face, up the stairs PAST CAMERA, yelling to someone unseen upstairs. FAT WOMAN Vi! Oh, Jesus. Vi! Turn on the TV, turn the TV on, you can see it's him. INT. VI'S APARTMENT - DAY Small, jammed with little things of sentimental value and cheap furniture, clean, but well-worn. VI, a small woman in her fifties, with a perpetual smile, and the sweating Fat Woman trot in, just as Vi's HUSBAND, a dour man in his fifties, is exiting. FAT WOMAN ...I swear to God it looked just like him! He hesitates in the doorway as the two women rush to the TV which is already on, the station showing live coverage of the bank robbery. On SCREEN, Sonny can be seen ordering the cops around. Moretti looks furious. ON THE TV SET VI (as the recognizes Sonny) Oh, My God in Heaven! TV NEWSMAN ...the robber, whose identity is not known, came out of the bank, with a hostage, Mrs. Sylvia Ball... FAT WOMAN (proud) Did I tell you? He looks good! IMAGE OF SYLVIA ON TV VI What's he doin' this for? He didn't tell me he needed money. He would of told me. TV NEWSMAN ...Mrs. Ball, is everyone all right in the bank? HUSBAND Why rob a bank when you got a sucker for a mother? SYLVIA Oh, yeah, the one girl was cryin', but we're havin' a ball, so far, if just nobody shoots... VI Why didn't he tell me? NEWSMAN What about the man inside the bank? What is he doing? HUSBAND I just hope he gives the wrong name. He reaches for TV to turn it off. Vi stops him. SYLVIA Sal? He never talks, only goes: 'Sonny, you want me to shoot that one, this one.' HUSBAND Is that all there is -- that little bastard down there in the bank? TV NEWSMAN Mrs. Ball, do you think they might shoot, if they get desperate? VI You got money for the subway? SYLVIA Hey, wait, he's goin' back in. (she turns OUT OF PICTURE) FAT WOMAN Subway! It's a special occasion -- take a cab, for God's sake! NEW IMAGE Sonny returning toward bank. EXT. BANK - DAY TWO SHOT - SONNY AND MORETTI as they shake hands. As Sonny starts into the bank first, he holds the door open, waiting for Sylvia. In the meantime, the 2nd-floor media man yells down to her. SYLVIA (looking up toward them) I gotta go now. MEDIA (2ND FLOOR) Hey, lady... you're out now. Stay out! Sonny, waiting patiently, holds door open for her. SYLVIA They're my girls. They need me in there. And she walks through the door past Sonny and into the bank. Moretti yells up at the media to get the hell away and at the same time, turns to a nearby cop and gives orders for the air conditioning to be turned off inside the bank. As the crowd realizes what has happened, they APPLAUD and SCREAM. At the door: ANGLE IN BANK DOOR as Sonny turns to grin and wave back at crowd. CUT TO: INT. BANK - DAY as Sonny and Sylvia walk into bank and head for the group at the rear. Mulvaney is seated at his desk, but the rest of the girls are standing around the vault area. Sylvia heads for the girls as Sonny walks toward Sal. SYLVIA Hey, girls -- I was on television... MULVANEY (to passing Sonny) What about Howard? Sonny makes reassuring gesture to let him know Howard is safe. SONNY (to Mulvaney) Turn on the TV. Mulvaney turns on the TV set. In the meantime, Sylvia has reached the other girls. GIRLS What happened? And Sylvia begins to recount the events out on the street, mainly about herself as a television celebrity. ANGLE ON TV SET as we see the image of a TV NEWSMAN across the street. Then, as his director CUTS, we will see on the TV set an ANGLE ON THE BANK AS SEEN FROM ACROSS THE STREET. The TV Cameraman ZOOMS and the TV image ZEROES IN through the door to show a partially-screened but quite clear image of Sonny, talking to Sal. SONNY (to Sal) The whole media is out there... it looks a lot better for us than it did before... ON SAL absorbing this... TV NEWSMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) We can see the robbers inside the bank, and we're trying now to establish contact. THE PHONE BEGINS TO RING. TV NEWSMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) We're on the telephone to the bank manager, Patrick J. Mulvaney... Mister Mulvaney... Mulvaney answers the phone. MULVANEY'S VOICE (V.O.) Yes, I can hear you. SONNY serious, nodding to Sal. TV NEWSMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) Can you put the robber on the phone? Will he talk to us? MULVANEY'S VOICE (V.O.) You wanna talk to him... Sonny... Sonny turns, trying to understand... NEW ANGLE SONNY What? MULVANEY The TV... they want to talk to you... He holds out the phone. Sonny walks over to him and takes the receiver. On the TV screen, we can see him doing this. SONNY (into phone) Yeah? Who's this? WABC TV NEWSMAN Sir, you're on the air. I wonder if you'd answer a few questions. SONNY (to Sal) Hey, Sal... (to phone) Sure. TV NEWSMAN Why are you doing this? SONNY Doing what? TV NEWSMAN Robbing a bank. SONNY I don't know... It's where they got the money. I mean, if you want to steal, you go to where they got the money, right? Jenny now edges over and sits on top of Edna's desk. TV NEWSMAN But I mean, why do you need to steal? Couldn't you get a job? SONNY Get a job doing what? You gotta be a member of a union, no union card - no job. To join the union, you gotta get the job, but you don't get the job without the card. TV NEWSMAN What about, ah, non-union occupations? SONNY Like what? Bank teller? What do they get paid - (now looks over at girls who offer the information - $135.37) they pay one hundred thirty-five dollars and thirty-seven cents to start. I got a wife and kids. I can't live on that -- You want to live on that? What do you make a week? TV NEWSMAN (swiftly, evasive) I'm here to talk to you, Sonny, not... SONNY Wait a minute... I'm talkin' to you. I'm askin' you a question... TV NEWSMAN The audience is interested in you, Sonny... not me. SONNY Yeah! We're hot entertainment, right? You got me and Sal on TV... we're entertainment you sell, right? TV NEWSMAN You're news, Sonny... SONNY How much you have to pay an entertainer to fill this slot? TV NEWSMAN Newsman, not... SONNY Okay, newsman. How much you make a week? (beat) You're not talkin'. You payin' me? What have you got for me? We're givin' you entertainment... what are you givin' us? TV NEWSMAN What do you want us to give you? You want to be paid for... SONNY I don't want to be paid. I'm here with Sal and eight other people... and we're dyin'! They're gonna blow our guts out, man! You're gonna see our brains onna sidewalk! How's that for all you shut-ins and housewives to look at! You gonna help, or you just put it on instead of AS THE WORLD TURNS? We're dyin' here! What have you got for me? TV NEWSMAN You could give up. SONNY Oh yeah? Give up? You ever been in prison? TV NEWSMAN Of course not... SONNY Then talk about somethin' you fuckin' know about... At that instant, the TV screen switches to a PLEASE STAND BY card and we hear an announcer's voice over: ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Ladies and gentlemen, our transmission has been temporarily interrupted. Please stand by. Sonny hangs up the phone, looks at Mulvaney, puzzled at the outcome of the conversation. SONNY Why the hell did he do that? What the hell did I do? MULVANEY I guess he didn't appreciate your use of language. They don't speak that way on television. It's a rule. Do you realize you've cut off a valuable source of communication? Sonny now moves over to Sal. SONNY Okay, Sal... what do we do? SAL (no answer) SONNY I figure maybe we can get the FBI to make a deal... SAL What kind of a deal? SONNY Maybe we can get outta this thing alive... get 'em to drop the kidnapping charges... SAL What do you mean? You talkin' about coppin a plea? SONNY (starts to speak, but Sal interrupts) SAL ...because if you're talking about coppin' a plea, I'm tellin' you right now, there's no deal... I'm never going back to prison... We got our own deal already... Do you remember the pact we made? You and me and Jackie - that night in the bar... we were talkin' about if we get trapped in the bank, what are you gonna do... Right? What did we say? What did we say! SONNY We'd kill ourselves. SAL Does that still go? PHONE RINGS. SONNY We're not there yet. PHONE CONTINUES TO RING. Sonny now walks over to the ringing phone on Edna's desk. Jenny, sitting on top of the desk, thinks the call is from her husband, starts to reach for it but as she does, Sonny grabs it away from her. SONNY You're on the phone! 1ST CRANK (V.O.) Kill them all. Now. It's a heavy adhesive voice that can be heard clearly throughout the bank. SONNY Kill them all now? You fuckin' creep! Don't call here again! Sonny slams down the receiver, looks around at the group. SONNY You see what we're dealing with? They want me to kill all of you! MULVANEY What now, Sonny? SONNY Wait a minute... I've been looking at this all wrong... Let's look at it the other way... He crosses over to Sal. SONNY Look, we gotta get a jet outta here... outta the country. We gotta get a helicopter. Okay, Sal? We get a helicopter on the roof to take us to the jet and we fly to the sunny Caribbean. Algeria. We got to look at the bright side. We got 'em by the balls, we got the hostages, we can get anything we want. They gotta give it to us. Edna exits ladies room as Sonny crosses back to the phone, picks it up. SONNY (into phone) Get me Moretti. Now Sonny turns and speaks to the group. SONNY We're all gonna get outta here. You're all gonna be all right. I'm gonna ask for a helicopter and a jet... and we're gonna get outta here alive... You've all been all right with me and as long as it stays that way, then things are gonna be all right - as long as you cooperate... (into phone) Moretti, I want to talk to you. I'm comin' out. Sonny slams the phone down and walks over to Sal, rifle still in his hands. SONNY You realize, Sal, that we're gonna get outta the country, so if you wanna talk to somebody, do it now... You gotta Mother or a Father? Friends? (Sal nods no) If we gotta be outside the country, where do you wanna go? Any country. Just name a country. SAL Wyoming. SONNY (stopped for a moment) Wyoming... That's not out of the country -- that's in the United States... Look, I'll be back. Sonny starts to walk toward the door. As he does, Sal calls back to him. SAL Sonny! Gimme the gun. You don't need that. Sonny realizes what he's saying and crosses back to Sal and hands him the gun, then moves toward the front door. EXT. BANK - DAY Much as before. Sonny steps out. The guns start to come up. SONNY Put them down. The Cops lower their weapons. Moretti comes out on the sidewalk. He's eating an ice cream bar, and stands seemingly at ease, an island of calm control in a storm of passion about to be let loose. The Cops are always about to explode. MORETTI Sonny, ya want somethin'? Sonny is about to open his mouth when a medium-size dark- haired Man who has been standing among people behind the barriers puts his head down and runs at astonishing speed right across the street towards Sonny. He catches everybody so by surprise he is already on Sonny before anyone can do more than start to yell at him to stop. Sonny, himself, can't believe it! He is slammed to the ground and the Man begins to punch him and beat him viciously. Cops charge in and with great difficulty pull him off. YELLING on the radio network; TV Reporters and the crowd up and SCREAMING for blood! CLOSE ANGLE as Moretti steps in. Sonny gets up, dazed. The Man goes on kicking and fighting Cops... MORETTI Who the hell is that? ANGLE SHOWING DOOR OF BANK Mulvaney stands in the door... MORETTI (to Maria's boy friend) Hey! What the fuck you tryin' to do? You don't think the whole police department can do the job? MARIA'S BOY FRIEND I think he's got Maria in there, and I see blood, man! I wanta jam him up... MORETTI Jesus, the Spanish! You gotta do it yourself, right? Eye for an eye! Go wan get outa here, we'll take care of her. (turns to Sonny) You okay, Sonny? Boy, he hung a couple good ones on you there! MULVANEY (from door; alarmed) Sal wants to see Sonny. He says he'll shoot unless he can see Sonny. He means Sal. Sonny, dazed and bleeding, reels to the door and calls in... Sal now stands alone behind 3rd pillar. SONNY It's okay, Sal. He turns back to face Moretti, Sylvia, Mulvaney. SONNY (continuing; hurt, wondering) He wanted to kill me! MORETTI It's okay, you got a lot of protection. CLOSE - SONNY Looking around, bewildered, the crowd is YELLING and now it sounds unfriendly. He is really shaken up... He shakes himself -- stops that line and starts over in a business- like tone. SONNY I want a helicopter to get outa here! And a jet to take us to... (cagey) ...wherever we want to go. Outa the country, so no little jets. A big one with a bar and a piano lounge. MORETTI I don't know, Sonny. I don't know if the helicopters can land in here. I'll have to check it out. I got superiors, unnerstan? They don't always see eye to eye with me. I'll do what I can. Sonny looks him in the eye. Suddenly he makes kissing motions and sounds with his lips. We know what he's referring to: he thinks Moretti's trying to fuck him over. MORETTI (continuing) Sonny, be reasonable! SONNY I want to see my wife. I want you to bring her down here. MORETTI Okay, what do you give me? SONNY What do you want? MORETTI The girl hostages. SONNY Nothin' doin'. I give you one hostage when you bring my wife, and one for the helicopter, one for the jet, and the rest can come home on the jet. MORETTI (kiss) I'll see what they'll do. Sonny smiles and pantomimes kissing. MORETTI Okay, you pick out who you're gonna give us. Where's your wife? EXT. ROCKAWAY BEACH - DAY There's Heidi. Her body lies exactly as before, baking in the sun. The transistor RADIO plays... she seems to be asleep... RADIO ...the leader of the pair, a Vietnam veteran, Sonny Abramowicz, has demanded in return for releasing one of the hostages that police allow his wife to visit him at the bank. Police spokesman... Heidi sits bolt upright, stares at the radio, which continues to blather on. Abruptly she begins to gather up her things, her children, in a characteristically scatter-brained and hyperactive sort of way. Heidi is a one woman panic: she hustles away across the broiling sand carrying the radio wadded up in towels, and lugging a child, crying helplessly, by one elbow, as though it were a handle, a silhouette against the late afternoon sun, out of Fellini... meanwhile on the SOUND TRACK we are hearing her voice. It is a breathless, harsh childish voice that pours out the words in a torrent: HEIDI (V.O.) The transistor goes Sonny what? I couldn't believe my ears, so I shut the transistor, get outta here, who needs this? I say Sonny didn't do it. It's not him to rob a bank. It's not him to hurt anybody, to threaten anybody, to steal or do anything wrong. 'Cause he's never done nothin' wrong from the day I know him. She is stumping off into the sunset as she says these words and we CUT TO: EXT. BROOKLYN STREET - DAY Out of a subway crowd, she struggles, pulling the two kids by the hand, a very ordinary woman in a most ordinary New York scene... HEIDI (V.O.) ...Only he tells me this and he tells me that, he's with the Mafia, I say, Sonny, where do you get the money, you're on welfare, how can you rent a new Eldorado, red, you don't like the color you rent a yellow. EXT. HEIDI'S APARTMENT HOUSE - DAY A working class block, dirty, shops in the first floor, three story walk-ups above... Heidi appears and runs up the stoop. TWO COPS get out of a squad car where they've been staked out and move up to her. They never really get in a word edgewise. They follow her into the hall... Now as we CUT CLOSER to her, we will SEE Heidi's mouth in SYNC with the words... HEIDI So night before last we're at Coney Island, he's on the rides with the kids, an' I have this habit of goin' in glove compartments an' all, an' I see... INT. HALL - DAY Heidi struggles up the stairs, dragging the kids -- the cops following... HEIDI this gun with bullets in there, an' I go to myself, oh God, Sonny! That's all I had to see, I didn't say anything. She's got her door unlocked. Below and on the stairs behind the Cops, curious neighbors peer in... INT. HEIDI'S APARTMENT - DAY Chaos out of cut-rate furniture stores. Full of unwashed glasses, kids' clutter. Throughout, the children rush around unchecked. Neighbors enter without ceremony and listen. The Cops stand, trying vainly to communicate... As they enter... HEIDI (continuing) And things are adding in my head, how crazy he's been acting, and in with a bad crowd, an' I look at him, he's yellin' at the kids like a madman. So inna car I said to him, Sonny, what you gonna do with the gun? You gonna shoot me and dump my body inna river or what? I was so scared of him, I never been scared of Sonny never. You know, his mother says the cops was always at our house, we was always fighting. I hit him with the jack in the car once, but I only missed and hit myself, you should of seen my leg. And all he would ever do is put on his coat and go out. So they say it's Sonny but I don't believe it. COP 1 Lady, you saw him. You saw his gun. HEIDI He might of done it, his body functions might of done it, but not he himself. INT. BANK - LATE AFTERNOON - APPROX. 5 PM The group is now situated like this: 1) MULVANEY'S DESK - the TV is on; seated in his chair, filing her nails is MIRIAM. Seated to her left, having pulled the chair a patron uses, is MARIA, watching TV and listening to her transistor radio, against her left ear, at the same time. MULVANEY (at back water cooler - will eventually move back to his desk, sit down to Miriam's right.) 2) EDNA - is now behind the Tellers' cages, straightening up the mess; she picks up the loose money that Sonny had scattered thru the air, puts them into packets and ties them with rubber bands. 3) SAL - is seated in the rear Conference room, still holding his rifle, feet up on the table. 4) MULVANEY & DEBORAH - at the rear water cooler (from which she will move to see what's wrong with Margaret) 5) MARGARET - seated at her desk, obviously ill, wiping her forehead, head bowed. 6) SYLVIA and JENNY - at far right table, doing a crossword puzzle. 7) SONNY - pacing back and forth Mulvaney's desk, posing a legal puzzle for Maria. Sonny, his gun now lying across the top of Mulvaney's desk, is pacing back and forth between the desk areas. He's talking to Maria in particular, but anyone in earshot in general. SONNY Let's say I put a gun to your head and I tell you to kill a cop... and you did. Who'd go to the electric chair... you or me? MARIA You would... you told me to do it. SONNY But you shot him. MIRIAM (joining in) But you told her to. SONNY Yeah - But you did it. Deborah crosses to Margaret who is ill. Deborah goes to Sylvia - who returns with her her to Margaret. It should begin getting dark in through here. It is very hot and sweaty in the bank. OPEN SCENE ON: CLOSE MULVANEY ON PHONE He is sweating, worried. He is listening to a conversation we can HEAR... as it goes on SHOT WIDENS to reveal the others in various postures of waiting. Sal more disheveled, Sonny's restlessness is unabated; he paces about like a caged animal. The voice on the phone is breathy and youthful: Sonny has been listening for a long time. JESUS FREAK (V.O.) Jesus Christ is coming back and he's really pissed. SONNY (gently) Yeah, well I don't blame him. JESUS FREAK (V.O.) You know, Sonny, I used to dope a lot, and I was into dipping? And I did a couple bank jobs, and the Lord Jesus in his everlasting mercy saved me, you know how? Sonny is desperate to get off the phone but doesn't dare risk the wrath of God by hanging up on this guy. He might have the secret after all. SONNY No. Look, we're kind of.... JESUS FREAK (V.O.) That's why I can talk to you, as an equal, Sonny. You got to merge your whole soul with God. And then you are Him and one with the Holy Ghost. SONNY Yeah, well... maybe you better talk to one of these others, okay? JESUS FREAK (V.O.) Sonny? Don't send me away! I can help you save your soul ... Sonny hangs up. Deborah moves to Margaret, who is ill. She goes to tell Sylvia who immediately crosses to Margaret. ANGLE ON MARGARET & SYLVIA SYLVIA The air conditioning is off or something. (Looks at Margaret) she's sick. Sonny runs around, notices her - sees that air conditioner is off. SONNY Where's the air conditioning? MULVANEY I don't know, Sonny... on the roof somewhere I guess. SONNY (improv. about going out back to find the air conditioning mechanism) Sonny moves toward Sal in the Conference room. Mulvaney follows discreetly behind him. SONNY Sal, I'm gonna take a look at the air conditioning. Sonny and Mulvaney start to move out toward the back door area. SONNY (to Mulvaney) Do you think we can turn it on? MULVANEY I don't know. At this point, Sal calls out to Sonny, and gets up to move to him. SAL Sonny - SONNY Yeah... SAL I never been up in a plane before. SONNY It's nothing - it just goes up - it's the safest thing in the world. Safer than a car. Don't worry about it, Sal - it'll be all right... they're great... And Sonny and Mulvaney exit toward rear of bank. INT. BANK - BACK DOOR AREA - LATE AFTERNOON (APPROX. 5 PM) Sonny and Mulvaney move toward the back door and stop under a trap door in the ceiling. Mulvaney looks up at it. MULVANEY It's gonna be up there. As Sonny is staring up at the trap door, thinking about what to do, he hears a tiny scratching SOUND. SONNY What's that? Sonny, tensing like an animal, peers around wildly to locate the source of the little scratching SOUND: like mice at a steel door. ON SONNY who quickly runs back toward the desk area. ON GROUP - DESKS' AREA Sonny races back in, grabs the gun from atop Mulvaney's desk, and with the cartridge in the other hand, runs back toward the back door again, jamming cartridge into rifle. At this point, Sal runs in from the Conference room, covering everyone point-blank again, yelling for Edna to join the rest of the group. SONNY (whispering) They're trying to come through the door! SAL (to Edna) Everybody! Back here! Edna quickly obeys, moving quickly to the rest of the group. ON BACK DOOR AREA as Sonny races toward Mulvaney and back door with gun. ANGLE ON MULVANEY Somebody or something is working on the other side of the door! NEW ANGLE ON SONNY as he moves back from the door, turns and levels the rifle on the back door... MULVANEY Sonny, if you shoot, shoot high... my car's parked out there. ON SONNY staring at the door. He hears the continued scratching noise and might even see the door knob move. Abruptly he swings the rifle up so the bullet going through will clearly go over the head of any man, out through the transom. He FIRES. ANGLE ON INSIDE - SAL AND GROUP They all scream, some of them falling to the floor, huddling together in terror. SONNY - AND GROUP Sonny races back into main area where Sal covers group. SAL (to group) Get over here! Get over here! EXT. BANK - REAR DOOR - LATE DAY A knot of half a dozen police are working at the door. Two were trying to work tubes under it to pump in gas, others were trying a nylon line to the doorknob, the idea being that if Sonny came out that way, the moment he began to open the door the cops would yank it open, exposing him completely and gun him down. The cops SCREAM as the SHOT comes through the door, showering them with brick fragments. They scramble over cars, over each other, over fences, running into other cops, who also, not knowing what's happening, turn and flee, running into the crowd, which panics. VARIOUS ANGLES on men, women, children, cops, detectives, dogs, cats, reporters, all in the area of the rear of the bank fleeing in waves over fences, cars, etc. A flood of people like lemmings. This is INTERCUT BY: INT. BANK 1) MARGARET fainting. 2) SAL herds group into vault area. 3) SONNY dashing back and forth into rear bank area. ANGLE ON BARBER SHOP Moretti, Sheldon, others come charging out, wondering what the hell, pulling guns out. BACK OF BANK The cops, safely distanced and back in cover, peek out at: BANK DOOR It is okay. RADIO NETWORK (V.O.) What's happening? He shot through the door. Is he coming out? Can you see in... (Etc., etc.) ON MORETTI reaches out his hand for a bullhorn that is thrust into it immediately. MORETTI (on bullhorn) Sonny! A few louts in the crowd yell out in imitation: LOUTS Sonny! MORETTI Sonny! CROWD (echoing) Sonny! Moretti shrugs off his irritation and raises the bullhorn one more time: the crowd is ready and SCREAMS in unison as Moretti says: MORETTI & CROWD Sonny! You could hear it for a half a mile! Sonny starts to yell at Moretti. SONNY (inside bank) What the hell you doin' back there? MORETTI Sonny, come on out! Sonny walks over to Sal, gives him the rifle. SONNY Sal, watch 'em... I'm goin' out. ANGLE ON BANK as Sonny comes charging out. SONNY What the fuck do you want? MORETTI They were... SONNY You tryin' to fuck me? MORETTI No, I'm not tryin' to fuck you. SONNY So, what were they doin'? You're tellin' me you had nothin' to do with that back there? MORETTI I swear to God I had nothing to do with it... SONNY Bullshit... I don't walk to talk to you... MORETTI Wait a minute... everything you asked for is on the way... SONNY Yeah... MORETTI Is on its way... The helicopter can't land but we got a bus... the jet's on its way to Kennedy... we got a bus coming here... SONNY You're full of shit... MORETTI Sonny, your wife's on the way... We reached her... your wife's on the way... everything you asked for, you got. SONNY Well, what were you doin' back there? MORETTI It can't happen again... I'll do everything I can to stop anything I can... SONNY You know, you're telling me that a helicopter can't land here... MORETTI Can't land... you'd kill people... SONNY Don't fuck with me... MORETTI I'm not... I'm not... you're gettin' a bus... you're gettin' a bus... the jet's comin' into Kennedy... and your wife's on the way... what else do you need? What else can I get you? Listen, I don't know how you can do better... see that man over there... the FBI guy... SONNY Just one more explosion like that and you're gonna see a dead body... MORETTI There won't be... there won't be... What else do you need? How else can we help you? SONNY All right... I got some hungry people in there... I want to get some pizza... some stuff like that... MORETTI What else? SONNY Cokes, seven-ups... (Moretti repeats) also some aspirin... MORETTI Aspirins... okay you got it. (turns behind him to a near-by cop) Charlie! Six pizzas! SONNY Okay... Sonny turns and walks back into the bank. INT. BANK - DAY ANGLE ON SAL WITH THE GROUP as Sonny enters and walks toward Sal. SONNY Okay... okay... all right, Sal, it's okay. I got everything straightened out... it's gonna be okay. SAL Get over there! SONNY Look, I talked to him and it's not going to be a helicopter - they can't land on top of the roof - so they're comin' with a big... limousine bus and they'll take us to the airport - and they're gonna get a jet... so things are rollin'... They're movin'... I also ordered some food... I got some pizzas for us, all right? I got some things to drink - I got sodas... I even asked them for aspirins... I'm doin' what I can... now I gotta pay for the pizza... where are the marked bills? He now walks behind Tellers' cages and picks up some of the decoy money that Edna had started to clean up and re-stack. Mulvaney walks over to him. MULVANEY Are we going to get the ball rolling? SONNY What are you talking about? What do you think I'm doin'? I'm gettin' the ball rollin'. I'm keeping these people happy... I'm keeping you happy... I gotta keep the cops cooled out... I gotta do everything... I gotta pay for the pizza .. I'm workin' on it, do you know what I mean? I'm workin' on it... Jesus Christ! I gotta do it all... I got all the ideas... you want me to give you the gun? You want to take it over? Sonny walks to the front door with the money. EXT. BANK DOOR - DAY as Sonny appears in it. NEW ANGLE TO REVEAL THE DELIVERY BOY guarded by a couple of cops. DELIVERY BOY You the guy wanted the pizza? Sonny grabs bills from the wad he holds and thrusts them at him. DELIVERY BOY It's paid for. (looks at Moretti; Moretti nods) SONNY Keep the change... As the cops reach for the money, knowing it's bank money, people in the crowd yell: CROWD AD LIBS Hey, over here! Hey, robber! How about a thousand! Throw some over here! Hey, no shit, I need an operation, I don't even have a job... (Etc.) Sonny holds up the money. The crowd cheers. He throws the wad of bills and it scatters in the air. The WIND is blowing now. Even some cops join the ensuing melee to gather it up... VARIOUS ANGLES as cops move forward and try to catch the bills. Some blow into the crowd. Fights break out in the crowd as they scramble for the money. The crowd breaks the barriers and swarms after the cash. Cops try to retrieve bills; fist fights, arrests. MORETTI staring at the mess. Sonny also watching the people. There is in both of them the same reaction of faint disgust at the greed unleashed. Sonny angrily hurls another bundle after the first... then laughs as he watches the people fighting. Moretti nods ironically at him. Sonny turns and enters the bank with the food. The fighting goes on in the street. INT. BANK - DAY as Sonny enters carrying food. SONNY Okay - Chow! He puts it down in front of Mulvaney, on Mulvaney's desk. Mulvaney looks at it, sickly. As Mulvaney looks up at Sonny: SONNY You eat it first. I don't know if they put something in it. EXT. SIDEWALK NEAR BANK - DAY Moretti, Sheldon, other top cops march fast-time toward the barrier where uniformed cops stand around a limousine that has drawn up to the barrier. It is full of white-haired officials, one of them the COMMISSIONER. He has a voice broken by whiskey, cigars, good food and yelling at football games. DOLLY AT A LOW DRAMATIC ANGLE WITH MORETTI AND ETC. It looks like they may be going into action. Moretti's attitude is not that subtly different now he's talking to brass. Commissioner doesn't get out; he talks through window. The Commissioner's hand, pudgy and freckled with age, covers Moretti's where it rests on the door: he massages Moretti's hand fondly. COMMISSIONER Gene -- you smilin'? MORETTI No. I never smile any more. COMMISSIONER Whattaya think: we gonna kill any civilians tonight, Gene? MORETTI I never make bets or guesses, that way I'm never wrong and I never have to pay out. COMMISSIONER Gene, Jesus, what a bull he is! A lot of comfortable CHUCKLES inside the limo. The Commissioner's hand lingers on Moretti's -- they are fond of each other, these men, linked in a relationship of a lifetime of shared experience, of attitudes, of maleness -- an accumulation of years of jokes about being late for dinner, of women waiting and women panting with desire, men secure in the bastion of their roles. What is being passed on here is a purely emotional force of approval and acceptance from top to bottom of a social institution that is the last totally masculine society: police. The homosexual content of this should not be lost: it lies in the comfortable fit of their feelings, in the fact, simply, that they love each other, for what they share. MORETTI So whatsa deal? COMMISSIONER They jet's comin' out. But don't let 'em off the ground. MORETTI What if we gotta kill a whole lot of people? COMMISSIONER Don't let 'em off the ground. MORETTI Listen. He leans down to get close to his commissioner, because he's not fooled by the camaraderie into a false sense of security. TIGHTER TWO SHOT - MORETTI AND COMMISSIONER COMMISSIONER (anticipating) If you're right I'm gonna back you a hundred percent, you know that. MORETTI (pleasantly) Fuck you, sir - if I'm right, I don't need you. What I want is - if I make an honest mistake I want help. The Commissioner nods - presses a button and the window goes up to keep the air conditioning in and the heat out. INT. BANK - LATE AFTERNOON - APPROX. 5 PM - MAIN BANK AREA as we hear Jenny on the phone with her husband. Sonny is doing the manual of arms with his rifle. JENNY ...well, just pick him up and hold him. No, he's not spoiled, he's just got to settle his stomach after eating. He's used to me feeding me, that's all. At one point, Sonny starts to show Miriam how to hold the gun and in mock seriousness, she tries to do the manual of arms. WE DRIFT TOWARD THE BACK CONFERENCE ROOM where Sal is seated at the Conference table, rifle on the table. Edna and Sylvia are also seated there. Maria enters. SYLVIA Somebody give me a cigarette. Maria walks over to her, offering her one, then remembers: MARIA Sylvia, you don't smoke. SYLVIA I never smoked before in my life but I got a right to start now if I want to. SAL You don't smoke... why do you want to start now. SYLVIA Because I'm scared, that's why. You never smoked? SAL I used to, but I stopped. SYLVIA You stopped? Why? SAL Because I don't want cancer. SYLVIA You don't want cancer? You're about to get your head blown off, you're worried about cancer. (to Maria) Gimme the cigarette. Maria starts to hand one to her. SAL No! I'm not kidding. Don't you understand? You're pure! SYLVIA Pure? SAL You shouldn't start now. SYLVIA For God's sake! As soon as I'm outta this bank robbery, I'm gonna stop... okay? SAL Go ahead. Do what you want to do. I hate to see you break a perfect record. You oughta take care of your body. SYLVIA My body? What for? SAL Your body is the temple of the Lord. SYLVIA (staring at him) You're serious! SAL You're really pure, you know? You got a perfect record. You never used that stuff to ruin your body, why start now? SYLVIA You know, you remind me of my 19- year-old brother - only he's got his hair down to his knees - he looks like something that eats berries and roots out of the ground. God forbid I should say something to him like, 'Listen, if you ever smoke marijuana, just remember that it's illegal' and he storms outta the house. You rob a bank, but you keep your body pure, is that it? SAL You gonna smoke the cigarette? SYLVIA Yes... Sal gets up and starts to leave the room... SYLVIA (calling to him) Sal... If I die of cancer it's going to be half your fault. Sylvia grabs the cigarette from Maria. SAL (exiting) No - it's because you're weak. Sonny continues with "Manual of Arms" business with rifle. Mulvaney is on the phone. MULVANEY (overlapping Janet into phone) Mulvaney... (listens) JANET (into phone) I don't know. MULVANEY (to Sonny) It's for you. Moretti. Sonny takes the phone... SONNY Yeah? MORETTI We're bringing in your wife... ON SONNY He comes alert, looks around at Sal, nods, and starts for the door of the bank, turns to Sal. SONNY (gives him gun) They've got my wife. They're bringing her in. He exits bank. Sal walks toward the door, stops behind the first post. EXT. FRONT OF APARTMENT HOUSE - DAY The fire escape with the old lady and her jigsaw puzzle, the flak vested snipers, etc. Below in the street a police car plows through the crowd with red lights flashing but no sirens -- or perhaps just a low growl to help move the human sea aside. People are leaning over trying to see inside. BARBER SHOP Moretti and Sheldon and staff move out into the street. The cop car is moving through police lines, cops lifting barricades aside to let it pass. MOVING SHOT with Moretti and others as they move to intercept the police car where it will stop on the corner. As they stop, we can see Sonny step into the door of the bank, in the distance. He is greeted with CHEERS from the crowd. But is intent on the car. We are NOW SHOOTING ACROSS THE CAR, OVER MORETTI'S BACK TOWARD THE BANK and Sonny. The DRIVER of the police car gets out, with a huge grin on his face and nods to Moretti. The back door opens and another cop gets out, also grinning. They look around toward Sonny, as his wife gets out of the police car, on this side. She is spectacularly good looking in a lithe cruel sort of way, like Lauren Bacall, but right now she is a mess. CUT TO: EXT. BANK as Sonny sees Leon get out of the car. SONNY Leon! Leon! Over here! Happy Birthday, Leon! ON LEON who doesn't hear Sonny calling, the detectives and Moretti start to take him to the barbershop. MORETTI (to cop driver) What's that? COP DRIVER We went to the hospital, where he told us - and asked for his wife. He... (indicates Leon) ...says they got married in a church. MORETTI Jesus! They continue along the sidewalk. Leon, coming to, starts to look around him. He sees Sonny. ON SONNY as he yells again to Leon. SONNY Leon! Happy Birthday! ON LEON who faints. FULL SHOT The crowd yelling in increasing waves of SOUND; Moretti and cops pick up Leon and rush him toward the barbershop. ANGLE ON SONNY who dashes toward the bank door, enters. INT. BANK - DAY as Sonny comes running in. Sylvia is now showing off her new-found expertise with a cigarette to Miriam, Jenny and Deborah, seated around Edna's desk. (Deborah is talking on the phone.) Meanwhile, Edna is back in the Conference Room with Mulvaney; Margaret is seated at her desk, speaking on the phone; Maria, speaking on phone, is seated at Mulvaney's desk - where television is still on. Sonny, wanting to use a phone, realizes that all are in use, rushes to a desk at the front of the bank. Sal follows him there. Sonny grabs a phone. SONNY (into phone) Get me Moretti! INT. BARBERSHOP where Moretti and cops are trying to revive Leon. A cop at the phone turns to Moretti. COP ON PHONE Moretti - he wants to talk to you. Moretti walks over to phone, takes receiver from cop. INT. BANK Sonny waiting for Moretti to answer phone. SONNY Is he all right? Is he all right? MORETTI (V.O.) He's all doped up. SONNY I want to talk to him. MORETTI (V.O.) He's groggy, Sonny. Let me get him on his feet and he'll call you back. (hangs up) INT. BARBERSHOP as Moretti hangs up phone and walks over to Leon, who now has a glass of water and a cold towel. MORETTI Leon? Whatsa matter? They give you a shot down the hospital or what? LEON Oh, God, they shot me with like unreal! MORETTI Well, you got to get hold of yourself. You got to talk to him, tell him to give himself up. LEON Oh no! MORETTI He's got eight people in there with him. He's got this kid with him... they're gonna shoot the people. LEON I can't help it. I can't stop him from anything. MORETTI If he won't listen to you, who will he listen to? LEON He won't listen to anybody. He's been very crazy all summer. Since June he's been trying to kill me. MORETTI You try calling the police? LEON What good is that? They couldn't stop him. And it'd just make him mad. They don't know him. MORETTI Somebody's got to stop him, Leon. LEON He was under great strain: you don't understand, he's a very mixed up person. MORETTI He's makin' threats in there. LEON He's scared. It's crazy. I never met anyone like him. His wife, he's a wonderful father to his children. His mother - you should see her - his mother and father together are like a bad car wreck - he lets it all slide off his back, he sees them, he pays their rent. Unbelievable. I wanted to get married... He didn't really want it... he's married already! But he did it. I don't know why. I thought it would help me, but it didn't. I was just as confused and unhappy was before; I did terrible things. MORETTI What kind of things, Leon? LEON Ten days I spent in Atlantic City - Sonny was frantic - he knew I was drinking; he didn't know where I was... who I was with. I couldn't explain why I did the things I did. So I went to this psychiatrist who explained to me I was a woman in a man's body. So Sonny right away wanted to get me money for a sex change operation: but where was he to get that? 2500 dollars! My God, he's in hock up to his ears already. MORETTI He needed money? For the operation for you? LEON It made him crazy - so much demand, he'd fly into this rages. And I got more depressed than ever; I saw I'd never get the operation. So I tried to take my life - I swallowed about a half pound of pills... blues, reds, yellows, downers, uppers, screamers... you name it. But I just threw them up and wound up in the hospital. Sonny comes there and looks at me and just says: 'Wow!' So when I hear he's in the bank, I almost go crazy because I know he's doin' it for me. MORETTI Well, don't you figure you owe to him to get him out of there? LEON I can't talk to him. MORETTI You're in it up to your ass, Leon. You're an accessory. You talk him out of there and they might be a little more understanding of your case. LEON I'm afraid. MORETTI How is he gonna hurt you on the telephone? LEON I don't know what to say to him. I can't. MORETTI You think it over, Leon. Moretti walks over to the wall phone, picks up the receiver, and waits to be connected with the bank and Sonny. ON LEON Terrified. He really can't do it. ON MORETTI waiting. OMITTED INT. BANK - TURNING DARK NOW as the phone rings. Sonny picks it up, hears Moretti's voice. MORETTI (V.O.) He won't talk to you. Let me work on it. Sonny hangs up. He and Sal walk toward the group at the rear, around the desks. ANGLE ON TELEVISION SCREEN as we see TV newsman speaking. TV NEWSMAN ...police are questioning Leon, a year-old admitted homosexual, who claims to have been married to one of the bank robbers in a ceremony last November... [etc.]... During the speech, Sylvia and her group wander toward Mulvaney's desk to listen, as Edna wanders down from the Conference Room, crosses to the set and turns up the volume. ON SONNY pacing back and forth. They all stare at him. Slowly the group shifts to other positions, without a word being said. ANGLE ON TV SCREEN TV NEWSMAN Our coverage of the Brooklyn robbery where two homosexuals are holding hostages for their demands of a helicopter, a jet, and safe passage out of the country... ANGLE ON SONNY AND SAL SAL Sonny, you hear that? SONNY What? SAL They keep sayin' two homosexuals. I'm not a homosexual. I want you to stop them saying that. SONNY That's all they're interested in - it's a freak show to them. I can't control it, Sal - let'em say what they want. Forget it. It don't matter. SOUND OF JET SONNY Where's the god-damn jet? They're always flying overhead - going somewhere. OMITTED EXT. KENNEDY AIRPORT - NIGHT FBI snipers area at positions, waiting. A small group of men make a last check. A signal is given. They get in their car and drive away. An FBI sniper lights a cigarette and settles down to wait, moving his rifle to a comfortable position. EXT. APARTMENT HOUSE FIRE ESCAPE - NIGHT The old lady dozes over her puzzle. The police agents are being relieved. Light floods the front of the bank. INT. BANK - NIGHT (APPROX. 8 P.M.) Sonny paces back and forth (with ad-lib dialogue to group). Margaret, seated at her desk, has feet up on another chair while Jenny sits on top of her desk. Mulvaney is back at water cooler, starting to feel very ill. Miriam and Deborah are seated at Mulvaney's desk. Edna is seated at her desk, while Sylvia sits on top of desk, talking on phone. Suddenly, the lights go out, leaving only emergency lights on (4 in the main area and 2 at back door area). Sylvia immediately moves over toward the vault area and turns on 2 hand lamps. SAL That's it, Sonny. Both rush toward the front of the bank. They see that even the flood lights are now out, but across the street can still be seen lights in the store windows. Sonny rushes to a near- by phone to try to reach Moretti, but even the phones are dead. They hear Moretti's voice over a bull-horn outside: MORETTI (V.O.) Sonny... Sonny... Come out a minute... Come out a minute... Sonny moves toward the front door. INT. BARBERSHOP - DUSK/NIGHT Moretti and Sheldon are in the barbershop. SHELDON We're all set at Kennedy. MORETTI What makes you think you'll be able to control it? SHELDON He's totally unstable. He'll make a mistake. MORETTI He hasn't so far. I'm the one who can make a mistake. That's what scares the shit out of me. SHELDON Eugene, at 3:07, this became Federal. Why don't I take it over now? CUT TO: EXT. BANK - NIGHT as the door opens and Sonny peeks out, the once-illuminating floodlights now out. SONNY Moretti? What the fuck is goin' on? There's no answer. Sonny steps out into the street. He can't see anything anymore. The atmosphere is suddenly chillingly dangerous: the crowd SHOTS "come out of the dark" and "we can't see from here". The street seems empty except for a few threatening silhouettes of heavily-armed cops. Sonny responds with bluster. SONNY Get the lights back on! He steps out farther into the street. From behind him, SHELDON, the FBI man, approaches. He is alone. Unsmiling. Sonny dashes back into the bank. INT. BANK - NIGHT as Sonny rushes in, warns Sal about the FBI confrontation he's about to have. SONNY Sal - it's the FBI... I'm goin' back out to talk to him. At this, he walks back toward the door and exits the bank again. EXT. BANK - NIGHT Sheldon is walking toward Sonny as the latter exits the bank. SONNY What is this? The FBI? Jesus, now we're talkin', maybe we can get this thing moving. As Sheldon reaches him. SONNY First off, get the lights back on and the air conditioning. SHELDON (showing ID) No more favors. That's all over, Sonny. SONNY (sarcastically) Aw, Jesus... you been doin' us favors all night! SHELDON I've got a jet. I'll have airport limousine here in a half hour. I want the hostages. SONNY Bullshit! SHELDON I'd like to work with you on this, not against you. Sonny comes around, looking for Moretti: can't see him. SONNY Well, Jesus, these hostages are keeping me alive. SHELDON Okay, when do I get them? SONNY At the airport. We get on the plane, check it out, and if it's all okay we'll send them out. Except one. SHELDON I want them all. SONNY I want to talk to Leon. Pause, while Sheldon thinks this over. SHELDON I want to come in, and see if everybody's okay. SONNY You got guts. You think if Sal and me have cut their throats we're gonna let you out? SHELDON I have to see. Sonny re-enters bank. INT. BANK - NIGHT Sonny goes over to Sal. SONNY It's the FBI. He wants to come in. SAL Have him walk in backwards. Sonny exits bank. EXT. BANK - NIGHT Sonny crosses to Sheldon, grins, grabs him and executes a very professional-looking pat-down search. He removes Sheldon's .38 from a shoulder holster, producing it for the crowd with a flourish like a magician: some of the old playfulness returns for a moment. He carefully and with showbiz flourishes searches Sheldon's thighs and groin. The crowd HOWLS. Sheldon bears it with stoic calm. CLOSE TWO SHOT as Sonny stands up from the search and finds Sheldon's eyes locked to his with flat calm. SONNY Jesus, you'd like to kill me, too. SHELDON I wouldn't like to, but I will, if I have to. SONNY Nothin' personal, huh? The man that kills me, I want him to do it because he hates my guts. Not because it's a job. Okay, let's go... but you gotta walk in backwards. The move toward the door of the bank, where Sonny opens the door, preceding Sheldon, both men entering backwards. INT. BANK - NIGHT Except for the 4 emergency lights, it is very dark - and very hot as Sonny and Sheldon enter the bank. Sal now stands behind the desks, covering Sheldon and the group assembled at the vault. Sheldon takes in every detail as he walks toward the group in the rear, followed closely and covered by Sonny. As they near the desks, Sonny yells out an order for the group: SONNY Nobody give their right name... it's the FBI! SHELDON I just want to see all you young ladies are all all right in here. TWO SHOT - SYLVIA AND SAL She's pissed. SYLVIA Listen, we asked for the jet hours ago, what are you doin' out there? Sheldon is watching Sal, trying to gauge him. This is the first time anyone from outside has seen Sal. SHELDON (his eyes on Sal) It's all being set up, we'll have you out of here in a couple of hours. SYLVIA (to Sheldon) Just give them what they want. Sheldon now walks closer to group, looking into the two small examining rooms as he moves. Sonny covers him every inch of the way. SHELDON They're getting what they want. We just want to be sure we get what we want, which is to get all you ladies out safe. And you two boys, too. Sheldon is now standing very close to Sal. SAL (to Sheldon) You got to talk to the TV, tell them to stop talking about the two homosexuals. I'm not gay... that's the truth. Tell 'em that. SHELDON I will. (he turns to Sonny) Sonny? Outside for a minute? SONNY Sal? SAL They gotta stop sayin' that. EXT. BANK - NIGHT as they (Sheldon and Sonny) exit and stand in the doorway out of earshot of the others. Sheldon is matter-of-fact, but insinuating and conspiratorial. SHELDON Sonny, you handled yourself real well. A lot of men would have choked, and we'd have a lot of chaos and panic and maybe a death or a multiple death on our hands, but you handled it. I respect that. Don't you try to take Sal. We'll handle him. You just sit tight and you won't get hurt. He starts to go. Sonny grabs him. SONNY Wait a minute! What the fuck you tryin' to tell me? SHELDON (quiet) What I said. You just sit quiet and we'll handle Sal. And he turns and starts to walk away, leaving Sonny staring after him. INT. BARBER SHOP - NIGHT as Sheldon steps into the door. The place is jammed, Moretti stands inside the door where Sonny could not have possibly seen him. Sheldon quietly turns and stands beside him, both men looking back across the street. MORETTI The little bastard miss me? Sheldon smiles the supercilious Ehrlichman smile of his. INT. BANK - NIGHT as Sonny re-enters. He's restless, hyperactive, constantly moving during this scene; a man with a potentially guilty conscience. Sal moves toward him and both men walk to area in front of the Tellers' cages. SAL What'd he say? SONNY He was talkin' about arrangements... we were talkin' about the TV. SAL Why couldn't he talk about that here? SONNY He was showin' me how the airport bus is comin' in, like that, Sal. (notices Mulvaney start to faint) What's wrong with him? In the rear, Mulvaney slumps into a chair beside Margaret's desk. Sylvia rushes to help him, untying his tie, etc. Maria runs into the Conference room, hoping to find remains of sugar as Deborah crosses to his desk, looking through the drawers for medication. Jenny simply can't cope with it and walks away. SONNY Hey, you okay? SYLVIA He's got diabetes. He's not a well person. SONNY Those bastards -- they poisoned the pizza! Sal - you didn't eat any pizza!? MULVANEY I didn't eat any pizza. SYLVIA I told you, he's got diabetes. SONNY You're supposed to balance your sugar diet, right? Sonny starts to move toward the front door. EXT. BANK - NIGHT Sonny rushes outside. SONNY Hey! Is there a doctor over there? Get him over here! Come on, on the double! Sheldon and a young DOCTOR appear, concerned... SHELDON What's wrong? SONNY The manager, he's diabetic, he's lookin' bad. Sheldon turns, calls out. SHELDON Doctor... A man comes forward - is frisked by Sonny, who then dumps contents of his Black Bag and looks for weapons. Sonny then dashes inside bank. INT. BANK - NIGHT as Sonny comes in, walks over to Sal. SONNY Sal - the Doctor's coming in. Sonny then rushes back outside bank again. EXT. BANK - NIGHT Sonny crosses to Doctor. SONNY (to Doctor) You go on in... The Doctor hustles past. HOLD on Sheldon. SHELDON (picks up the phone) I've convinced Leon to talk to you. He's on the phone now. Sonny rushes back into Bank. INT. BANK Sonny rushes in. The phone rings. He picks it up. SONNY Hello. Hello, Leon. LEON Hello, Sonny. SONNY How are you doing? LEON Well... I'm out of the hospital. SONNY (pleased) Yeah. You said... I thought you were never getting out? LEON I never thought I'd get out this way. I'll tell you. SONNY Well... huh... LEON Ooohh... SONNY Oh... huh... how you feeling? LEON I'm really shakey. SONNY Well, you know... Moretti told me before that you were drugged up. LEON Yeah. It was terrible. SONNY That... huh... they just shoot you with drugs. LEON You come in and they say, right away, that you are crazy. And they start putting things in your arm... you know. How do they expect you to get uncrazy if you're asleep all the time? SONNY Yeah... LEON You can't talk or do anything. You really feel... you know... I'm just sort of coming out of it now. SONNY (pensive) So... that sure is something. LEON Yeah. So how are you? SONNY (chuckling) Fine, thank you. I'm in trouble. That is... now I am! LEON (chuckling) Yeah... I know. SONNY I don't know what I'm gonna do... you know. Boy... I'm dying. LEON What? What are you talking about? You are dying? Did you ever listen to yourself when you say that? SONNY What are you talking about? LEON What do you mean... what am I talking about? Do you realize that you say that to me every day of your life? I am dying. Do you know... do you realize the death that you are spreading around to the people who are around you? SONNY Now don't give me that deep shit now. Don't start with that shit. LEON No really... I don't think that you realize what it means. The things that you do, Sonny. You put a gun to somebody's head... SONNY I don't know what I'm doing. LEON (annoyed) Yeah... obviously you don't... when you put a gun to somebody's head... and you say go to sleep so that it won't hurt when I pull the trigger. Death? Don't talk about death to me. I have been living with death for the last six months. Why do you think I'm in the hospital? I take a handful of pills to get away from you. And then here I am out of the hospital talking to you on the phone... again. I have no friends left. No job. I can't live. I have to live with people. This death business... I'm sorry! SONNY I'm not on the phone to talk to you about that. Well, I don't know what to say, Leon. When you gimme that... when you hit me with that shit. I mean, what am I supposed to say? LEON (indifferent to Sonny) I'm sorry... SONNY I told you. That I got a lot of pressures. You said to me that you needed money, and I knew that you needed money! I saw you there lying in the hospital like that... and I said... shit, man, I got to get this guy some money. LEON (excited) But I didn't ask you to go rob a bank. SONNY (getting louder) All right. I know you didn't ask me. You didn't ask me but I did it. LEON Well... SONNY I did it on my own. I did this all on my own. I ain't laying it on anybody. Nothing on anybody. I'll tell you something, though, it's about time that I squared away my accounts... you know. I am squaring away my accounts with life. Maybe this whole thing is gonna end, somehow. Maybe it'll just end! Maybe I'll just close my eyes and the whole fucken thing will be over. That would be all right too! I said... I thought I would square it away with you... you know? That I would get you down here and that I would say so long to you... or, if you wanted... you know, to take a trip... LEON What trip? SONNY I'm getting out of here, man. I'm not going to stay here and I'm not giving up. I mean, huh, they're going to kill me, anyway. So fuck it! But, if I can get out of this... I am going to get out. And, how I'm going to do it is to get a jet out of here and I'm flying the fuck out... That's all, Leon. If you want to come with me, then you're entitled... you can come. You're free to do what you want. LEON I'm free to do what I want? And you think I would want to go with you some place on a plane? Where? Where ya going? SONNY I gotta jet coming here and we're gonna try to get the fuck outta this thing. And we're gonna go, man! LEON You're crazy. SONNY That's it. LEON You're really crazy. SONNY I know! LEON Where you gonna go? SONNY Who the fuck knows? I think we're gonna go... we worked it out to Algeria. So, I don't know. So I'll go to Algeria. LEON Why you going to Algeria? SONNY Huh... I don't know. They got Howard Johnson's there. I don't know why the fuck I'm going there for. LEON Howard Johnson's... you're warped. You know that? You're really warped! SONNY I know that. I'm warped... I'm warped! LEON (stuttering) God, Algeria! Do you know there's a bunch of... they walk around there... God! People walk around with masks and things on their heads. They're a bunch of crazy people there. SONNY What am I supposed to do? LEON (bitchy) I don't know... you could have picked a better place. SONNY Denmark? Sweden? LEON (pleased) I like that... yeah! SONNY Sal wanted to go to Wyoming. I told him it wasn't a country. We gotta get outta the country! To hell with a guy who doesn't know where Wyoming is. Okay. Can you imagine what kind of a shape I'm in? Laughter from both Sonny and Leon. LEON So! Sal is with you? SONNY Sal? Yeah... Sal is with me. LEON Oh... wow! Sonny, you're really into one mess now. SONNY I know I am. I know! LEON (making fun of Sonny) Sal... Sal... Naturale, oh boy! SONNY He ain't going out. And if I go out he's just gonna kill the people. There's a lot of lives that I'm responsible for... that's all. So, I can't do anything. I got myself into this mess and I'll get myself out of it... the best way I know how! One of the ways is not giving up. I'm telling ya! LEON Would you do something for me? Please? SONNY What? LEON These guys that got me down here, you know, huh... they think that I'm part of this whole thing. They think I'm part of the plot to rob the bank! SONNY How did they think that? What are they... crazy? What do you mean. That's bullshit, Leon. They're giving you a fucken story. LEON Well... they told me that I was an accomplice... SONNY Oh... they're fucken crazy. That's a snow job. Don't listen to that shit! LEON I gotta listen to it if they think... SONNY Shit... LEON I can't survive in prison, Sonny... SONNY All right. Then what do you want me to say? LEON Sonny, would you please just tell them... please... SONNY Where are they now? Just tell me... are they on the phone now? LEON (meekly) Yeah. SONNY (annoyed) That's great. Just terrific. You talk to me with them on the phone, right? That is really smart. And, you don't tell me? LEON I don't have a choice. SONNY You don't have a choice? LEON No! They're standing all around me. Seven thousand fucken cops... all around me. SONNY Look... who's on the phone? LEON Look... don't throw that on me. SONNY Who's on the phone, now? What do you mean... throw it on you? You knew it, right? LEON Yeah... I knew it. But, what choice do I have? I'm in the hospital; they drag me out of the hospital... bring me down here... SONNY All right, enough! Who the fuck is on the phone... anyway? Is that you Moretti? (angrily into phone) You on the phone? Will somebody talk to me? LEON They won't talk to you. SONNY Are they on the phone still? LEON Yeah... yeah! SONNY (still angry) All right! He didn't do it. All right? Now... would you get the fuck off the phone? I'll bet that really changed them, huh? (calmly to Leon) Anyway, Leon... did I do it for you? LEON Yeah... huh, thank you. I'm going to go back, Sonny, to the hospital. They're really nice people. They're really trying to help me. SONNY That's good then. You've found something. LEON Well... I don't know if I have or not. SONNY Do you still want the operation? LEON (moody) Yeah... yeah. SONNY Well, then... LEON It's my only chance! SONNY I don't know what to say to ya! I guess I just wanted to say I'll see ya... or whatever. LEON Thank you much... and huh, bon voyage. SONNY Right. See you sometime. LEON Yeah... see ya in my dreams, huh? SONNY Yeah... I'll write a song. Ha, ha. I don't know. Life is funny! LEON You said a mouthful... sweetheart! INT. BANK Sonny hangs up, walks back toward rear of bank and picks up receiver again on Edna's desk. SONNY (into phone) You cut off incoming, gimme a line. I want to talk to my wife, I want to say goodbye to my kids. (line is connected, he begins to dial; anguished; to the group) Here I am, I could call, and they'd put anybody on the phone, the Pope, an astronaut, the wisest of the wise and who do I have to call? (to phone; as she answers) Heidi? HEIDI'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The TV is on, the kids up and racing around, neighbors pouring beer -- An event! HEIDI (on phone; excited) Hey, Sonny! I'm watchin' it on TV! ON SONNY SONNY What about the kids? ON HEIDI HEIDI They don't know, I sent them to the neighbors. Sonny, Jesus, it's not like you. I can't believe, because you never hurt anybody since the day I knew you. ON SONNY SONNY Heidi, I'm dying. ON HEIDI HEIDI (oblivious) I blame myself, Sonny. I notice you been tense, like something is happening; the night before last you're yellin' at the kids like a madman, believe me. And then you wanted me to go on this ride with the kids, this caterpillar about from here to there - fulla one-year- old kids. It's ridiculous. I'm not about to go on this ride, so you yell right there, 'You pig, get on the fuckin' ride!' Well, everything fell outta - me - my heart, my liver fell to the floor - you name it! Yellin' at me in front of all those people. Because you never talked and I never been scared of you, never. I think: he's gonna shoot me and dump my body in the river. ON SONNY SONNY Heidi, for Christ sake, shut up! Will you shut your fucking mouth and listen?! ON HEIDI HEIDI (afraid) See? You're screaming with the language and all! A person can't communicate with you. You become a stranger in your own home... ON SONNY he sits, dispiritedly listening to this rap: seeing her in a clear and unambiguous light as before he saw Leon: what a waste to live in the company of people like this! ON HEIDI HEIDI ...because you hurt me, God how you hurt me. Can you imagine, marrying another man? Did I do something to make you do that? Did I ever turn you down, or anything? The only thing I couldn't do, you're gonna laugh, is go on top - I got this fear of high places! (giggles) And I let myself get fat. ON SONNY SONNY Don't call yourself fat. ON HEIDI HEIDI I know you can't stand me to say I'm fat. Like I can't stand you being a bank robber. I guess that's what love is -- huh, Sonny? ON SONNY SONNY (weakly) Heidi - why didn't you come down here? ON HEIDI HEIDI Jesus - what - I'm afraid - I'm gonna get shot or whatever. You oughta see it on TV, the guns, the cops, they got cannon, machine guns, they're loaded with gear. ON SONNY SONNY They're not after you, they're after me. ON HEIDI HEIDI Listen, it's late already when I realize it's not just a couple of ordinary faggots, it's just you and Sal. I couldn't get a baby sitter. Heidi goes on and on, but Sonny just drops the phone on the hook. As he walks toward the rear of the bank, Sylvia, seated atop Margaret's desk, gets off and follows Sonny toward the Conference room. At the same time, Edna is lifting Margaret's feet up onto a chair and Jenny and Deborah start to walk toward the Conference room, too. Maria paces back and forth, transistor to her ear. Sonny walks into the Conference room. The doctor is through examining Mulvaney. Miriam is seated across the table from him. DOCTOR Listen - I think I better take him back for a cardiac check ... Mulvaney waves, protesting. He's had a shot; he's rapidly recovering. SONNY SONNY Anything... what's wrong? Is he gonna die? DOCTOR No, I just think... MULVANEY I'm okay... I'm okay... SONNY You know more than the Doctor? You're not okay, look at you. Come on... (to Doctor) ...let's get him out... MULVANEY I'm not going. I'm okay. As Sonny grabs him to try to help him up, Mulvaney wrenches away. A little physical here. SONNY Hey! I'm tryin' to help you. MULVANEY I stay here. Damn it. I just needed the insulin. I'm used to it. Go on. Go on. SONNY (to Doctor) You tell me. Is he endangering his health, because if you tell me he is, I'll get him out. MULVANEY I'll be God damned if you will. SONNY Oh, Jesus! You want to be a martyr or a hero or what? Maria and Miriam dance to transistor's music. Edna walks into Conference Room to tidy up. Sal is still sitting there. Deborah tries to comfort Jenny. MULVANEY I don't wanta be either, I just want to be left alone. You understand that? I wish the fuck you never came in my bank, that's all, don't try to act like you're some angel of human kindness! (he crosses toward Tellers' cages to start straightening up) Sonny nods, staring at him. As Doctor moves toward front door Sonny walks with him. Grabs marked bills and stuffs them into the Doctor's pocket... SONNY Here, my man. Whattayou get for a house call? As Doctor tries to wave it away: SONNY (continuing) No, no! I want a top specialist for my friend, I expect to pay top money. He's hustled him to the door, where he ushers him out door. OMITTED EXT. BANK (HIS POV) - A BANNER - NEW ANGLE [1ST GAY DEMO] hastily made, about 40 feet long, being raised above the heads of crowd to where Sonny can see it. We can't read it until it's all the way up. Then is reads: WE LOVE YOU LOVE YOU SONNY As the crowd reads it, fist fights break out and it totters and staggers, but the defenders fight bravely... They are ordinary looking people -- not freaks... ON SONNY looking at it, at them with mixed feelings. ON SHELDON standing across the street looking at him. Sheldon indicates his watch. Holds up ten fingers: "ten minutes"... ON SONNY He turns into the bank. INT. BANK - NIGHT Sonny comes back into bank, his face mad with pain. He walks over to Sylvia, standing at open gate of Tellers' Cages, and brings out a wallet with pictures for her to see. She takes it, smiles. SONNY My kids... Kimmy and Jimmy. SYLVIA They're beautiful... She looks over toward Mulvaney, now behind the Tellers' Cages, trying to tidy up, and walks over to show him the pictures. Sonny stands on the other side of the cages. SONNY (as Mulvaney looks at pictures) I'll never see them again, Mister Mulvaney. MULVANEY They look like good kids. SONNY They're like any others but they're special to me. You got kids? You told me; you got two. MULVANEY Special to me, too. SONNY You like me? MULVANEY Sure - we like you. SONNY No you don't. MULVANEY You seem like a likable enough guy. It's hard to judge. Sonny walks back toward Sal, who is seated in Conference Room. SONNY Hey, Sal... How you doin'? SAL Okay. Sonny crosses back downstage again to Mulvaney and Sylvia. SONNY (referring to Sal) You know, I don't know him very well - but he's not gay... and he's not going back to prison... One time when he was in prison, they gang- banged him; 13 years old and eight guys gave it to him... So Sal isn't goin' back to prison, no way. MULVANEY I'm sorry. SONNY You know... I like you people... I really do. MULVANEY We like you, too. SONNY You know - I had a job once. I used to work in a bank. I had been training... I used to have a boss... Mr. Don Frio... he wore a toupee... I wonder if you'd hire me if I came in here and asked you for a job... MULVANEY Would I hire you? SONNY Yeah. MULVANEY Why not? SONNY (grinning) I don't think so. Sonny walks back toward Sal. SONNY I told you -- they're sending a jet. It's all worked out... But doubt hangs in the air like a pall... CLOSEUP - SAL looking at him. Implacable. This tension between them over the question of Sonny's loyalty must be kept constantly alive with CUTS and looks, over dialogue... SYLVIA & MULVANEY SYLVIA Somebody give me another cigarette. Sal turns to look at her reproachfully. ON SYLVIA SYLVIA I wish somebody would tell me I'm gonna live long enough for it to be a habit. My parent, she'll be okay. My husband, he'll be okay. I even know who the bum is gonna marry. Terrific. She'll take good care of him. MULVANEY Girls, I wanta apologize. For my language back there. Embarrassed, he walks toward the rest of group in the rear, stands by Edna's desk. MULVANEY Ladies... I want to apologize for my language back there. (he walks over to his desk, sits down) Sonny exits Conference Room and moves downstage. SYLVIA (amazed) What'd you say? I didn't hear you say anything. They think for a moment. JENNY He said the 'F' word. They stare at her incredulously. Someone giggles. EDNA What? JENNY The 'F' word. He did. He said the 'F' word. Edna crosses to her desk - disgusted - and starts to tidy up. The giggle catches the edge of their panic and anxiety and sweeps them into uncontrollable giggles and laughter: Sonny roars. Sal and Edna alone remain unsmiling. After a few seconds they force themselves to stop, to behave like they should under the circumstances. They are gasping and crying. Then... SONNY What's so funny? EDNA Well, I'm a Christian, and my ears are not garbage cans. It sets them off again. They howl and giggle and laugh. Until at last they run down again. At this point, Sal rushes out of Conference Room. SAL Who's that? He has seen something in the middle of the street, and now... NEW ANGLE as they all turn to look out through the door. THEIR POV Backlighted by the floodlights in the middle of street escorted by Sheldon, stands a figure, dumpy and gray, tentatively waving, a figure that bends over baby carriages in the park, picks beans one by one out of supermarket bins, lip reads get-well cards in pharmacies. They hear Sheldon, outside, on bullhorn: SHELDON (V.O.) Sonny! Could you come out, please? Could you come out, please? SONNY It's my mother. Who needs this shit? But as a dutiful son he starts for the front of the bank. EXT. BANK - NIGHT as Sonny walks to his MOTHER. Baker tactfully moves away, leaving the two of them in the center of the floodlighted street. Again the crowd can be HEARD but not seen; armed police fringe the lights and shadows, in B.G. SONNY What do you want here, Ma? You could of watched it on TV. VI My God, Sonny - you oughtta see - - Alla Brooklyn is here! On all 3 networks! SONNY Mom - I got it all worked out; it's over. The best thing is you go home. Watch it on TV. VI I talked to the FBI, I told them about you, they said if you just come outta the bank it's gonna be okay. SONNY You did what? Who did you talk to? What for? VI Well, I'm only trying to get you outta this. I told them you were in Vietnam, you always had good jobs, you were with Goldwater at the '64 convention, but you had marital problems... SONNY Oh my God, mother! VI I said you were never a faggot. SONNY Don't talk to them anymore. Sal and me are getting a jet, we're going to Algeria - I'll write you from there. VI He was very understanding - you ought to talk to him... Algeria? SONNY We can't stay here. VI Oh my God! I don't understand. If you needed money, why couldn't you come to me? Everything I got is yours. I got two hundred and maybe twenty-five in the savings. It's yours. You know it. Sonny abruptly realizes he is getting sidetracked by Mom - like always. Tries to get it back again. SONNY Mom - they're sending a bus to take us to the airport. You understand? If you're here - they're not gonna send it. They'll think I'm gonna come out with you. VI What's wrong with that? The FBI was very understanding when I explained it to him. Everybody knows it isn't you... It's the pressures from your home life. SONNY For God's sake don't start in on Heidi again... VI Did I say a thing against her? God forbid I should say anything against that fat cunt. SONNY Mom. Mom. There are some things a mother shouldn't say in front of her son. VI If she comes down here, so help me I'm gonna mash her brains in. Everything in your life was sunlight and roses until you met her. Since then, forget it. SONNY She doesn't have anything to do with it! You understand that? Mother? This is me! VI I know you wouldn't need Leon if Heidi was treating you right. The thing I don't understand is why you come out and sleep with Heidi anyway? You got two kids on welfare now. What're you goin' to bed with her, you don't have enough with one wife and two kids on welfare, you want a wife and three kids on welfare? SONNY (this is old stuff) Not now, Mom, please. VI What'll you do? Come out. SONNY (patiently - I told you a hundred times) I can't, Mom. If I come out Sal will kill them. VI Oh. (she thinks for a moment) Run. SONNY What the hell for? Twenty-five years in the pen? VI Maybe... SONNY Maybe! Aw Christ, what dreams you live on! Maybe what? She stares at him. He talks slowly and carefully to her. SONNY I'm a fuckup and an outcast. There isn't one single person in my life I haven't hurt through my love. You understand that? I'm the most dangerous person in the world, because if I love you, watch out, you're gonna get fucked, fucked over and fucked out! VI No! SONNY Did Pop come down? VI No. This really pissed him off, Sonny. He says you're dead. He says he doesn't have a son. SONNY He's right. You shoulda done what he did. Go home. (embraces her) Don't talk to the FBI anymore. He walks away and moves toward the bank door. ON VI Her desperate smile, apologetic and false at the same time, glistens with a mother's tears. After a long beat: VI I remember how beautiful you were. As a baby you were so beautiful. We had such hopes. INT. BANK - CLOSE ON DOOR - NIGHT as Sonny enters and stops, controlling his emotions. He walks toward Mulvaney, who is putting visitor's chair back into position, then waters his plant. Maria and Miriam are still dancing; Margaret is at her desk; Sal, Jenny and Deborah are in the Conference Room; Sylvia is still behind Tellers' Cages. SONNY Mister Mulvaney? MULVANEY Yeah? SONNY Are you a lawyer? MULVANEY No. I had some legal training, but... SONNY I want to dictate my will. I need a notary? SYLVIA I'm a notary. She leaves Tellers' Cages area, crosses to Sonny, grabbing a pen from Edna's desk on the way. Sonny's urgent mood reaches them. Sylvia gets note pad from Mulvaney. Takes the dictation... SONNY Being of sound mind and body, and all that shit... Sylvia nods: got it. SONNY To my darling wife Leon whom I love as no other man has loved another man in all eternity, I leave $2,700 from my $10,000 life insurance policy, to be used for your sex change operation. If there is money left over it is to go to you on the first anniversary of my death, at my grave. I expect you to be a real woman then, and your life full of happiness and joy. To my sweet wife, Heidi, five thousand from the same policy. You are the only woman I have ever loved, and I re-pledge my love to you in this sad moment, and to little Kimmy and Jimmy. I hope you remember me, Jimmy. You are the little man of the family now, and will have to look after them for me. To my mother I ask forgiveness. You don't understand the things I did and said, but I'm me, and I'm different. I leave you, the rest of the policy and my stamp collection. I want a military funeral and am entitled to one free of charge. Life and love are not easy and we have to bend a lot. I hope you find the places and the people to make you all happy as I could not. God bless you and watch over you, as I shall, until we are joined in the hereafter, sweet Leon, my Heidi, dearest Kimmy and Jimmy, and my mother. Sonny... here I'll spell the last name... He sits and writes it for Sylvia. SONNY Type that up and I'll sign it. Nobody says anything about this document. What is there to say? Sylvia walks to her desk at the front of the bank, near the window, and begins typing. EXT. BANK - VARIOUS ANGLES - NIGHT The restless crowd STIRS, sensing something happening. Turning to see something coming. APARTMENT FIRE ESCAPE The Cops gear up their weapons: radios CRACKLE. Something, a vehicle, is moving through the crowd, Cops shoving people aside to let it through. The Old Lady pays no attention. She is down to one of the very last pieces of the puzzle and is searching for the spot for it. LOW ANGLE IN CLEAR PLACE IN FRONT OF BANK as the vehicle clears the crowd and slowly draws up in front. It is a long airport limousine of the type with many doors. It stops. Everyone's attention is on it. A black DRIVER gets out, a gay Afro knit on his head, coke dealer's shades, for the cognoscenti, one very long little finger nail, a nifty Van Dyke style beard and one gold front tooth. He looks around, holding a sheet of paper. Sheldon, others, approach. They are looking into the vehicles, opening doors, checking tires, etc. DOOR OF BANK Sonny appears. He strides to the limo. SONNY Okay. Get away from it. After a moment the Cops all move back. Sonny opens the front door and begins to check it out. The Driver starts to move away... SONNY These seats come out? DRIVER Yeah. INT. LIMO - CLOSE - SONNY AND DRIVER Together they remove the seat so Sonny can check for guns concealed below, etc. Improvise to fit conditions of the car. DRIVER (dawning on him) Jesus, you're the man! SONNY Come on, what's under this? They pry up a seat and look under, etc., all through: DRIVER I was lookin' at it. I saw you, man! Jesus! You oughta see yourself! You wouldn't believe it. SONNY Yes, I would. DRIVER God damn it, Sheila isn't gonna believe it. They just call in and say gas up a stretchout and get it down to (address in Brooklyn) and I say, 'shit, another load of Elks for the massage parlors.' SONNY (finished) Okay. Driver stands up, getting a good look at Sonny. DRIVER Well, by God I'm gonna remember you! And he turns and walks away. Driver stops, uncertainly. Cops grab him to hustle him away. Sheldon steps forward with a neat twenty-years-younger carbon copy of himself... SHELDON Here's your driver, this is agent Murphy. NEW ANGLE Sonny and Murphy. Sonny eyes Murphy, thinks, then begins to frisk Murphy. He finds nothing. He stands up and eyes Murphy. He just doesn't like it. SONNY I don't want him. SHELDON What can he do, he's clean... SONNY Gimme the black guy... The Driver is still close enough to hear... DRIVER Aw, hey... SONNY (overlapping everybody) Come on, nobody's gonna get hurt. If they were gonna shoot, they'd shoot now. SHELDON I can't allow that, Sonny... SONNY You can't allow! I'm running this thing, what gives you the idea you can say shit? (to Driver) Come on. I'll pay you. Whatta you want? Two hundred? A thousand? The Driver looks around desperately to the FBI, to get him out of this. SONNY Don't look at him. I'm running this. Pause. Sheldon finally reluctantly nods. Sonny motions for him (the Driver) to step forward. Before he can get in the car, Sonny stops him. Signals to him to get ready. Gives him a thorough pat search. Thighs, the whole bit. CLOSE ANGLES AS HE SEARCHES It is tense. The Driver seems uptight. Sonny finds nothing until he touches a breast pocket. The Driver is very uptight. Sonny reaches in, pulls out a -- tiny bottle, with a coke spoon chained to the lid. Before Sheldon can see it, but the audience has, Sonny shoves it back, grins, slaps the Driver on the buns. The Driver laughs delightedly. He was afraid he'd get busted for the dope: the drive will be a cakewalk. SONNY You'll be okay. DRIVER (to FBI) You men shoot, aim for the white meat! He loves the joke! They act as though they hadn't heard. Sonny slaps him playfully on the arm and smiling turns to Sheldon. SONNY I want him. He points at Murphy. Sheldon stands there speechless. Driver stares at Sonny, his smile fading. SONNY (delighted) What do you think you're dealing with, an idiot! Sheldon nods to Driver and Murphy. Murphy resumes role as driver of the limo. Driver gets out. SONNY So long, copper. SONNY AND MURPHY as they position the stretchout in front of the bank. It can be seen from inside. The FBI men stand well back from it. Murphy stands by the door. He also can be seen. SHELDON Okay, Sonny? You follow my car. Murphy nods. Sonny is satisfied and turns to the bank, takes Murphy into vestibule, indicating for him to stay there. Sonny continues toward group at rear. INT. BANK - NIGHT Sylvia is finishing her typing. The girls and Mulvaney are slowly getting ready. Deborah is getting her purse out of Margaret's desk drawer; Margaret gathering her own purse, books, etc.; Jenny is getting her purse from Edna's desk as Edna gathers up her belongings; Mulvaney is seated at his desk; Miriam is at her desk, by the front door. Sal stands with his gun ready. [As Sonny enters and takes up his gun, Sal carefully and methodically begins to redress himself, comb his rumpled hair, knotting his tie carefully...] ANGLES FAVORING SAL as he rebuilds his sartorial image before the various reflecting surfaces of the bank, knotting his tie in a glass partition, checking his suit for wrinkles in a glass door, etc. Meanwhile we are seeing the following, which Sal ignores: SONNY ENTERING SONNY Hey, let's get ready! SYLVIA (gets up, walks to Sonny) Sonny - Here's your document. ON SONNY looking at the will, taking up pen. ON SYLVIA, MULVANEY watching him with compassion. INSERT Sonny signs fast and firmly... INSERT Sylvia's notary seal clamps and imprints the paper. LOW CLOSE ANGLE - SONNY SONNY Okay, okay, okay! What a bunch of cold fish. It's an adventure! Everybody's gonna remember you the rest of your lives, the day you got held up and kidnapped... hey! His eye has struck some reminder. They handle this. SONNY You got Bank Americard? MULVANEY (tired) What now, Sonny? SONNY (gathers money from near-by money bag) Listen, I owe a couple hundred dollars! I don't wanta leave owing anybody anything! A clean slate, a new leaf... He plunks his card down before Sylvia. SONNY (continuing) I paying off. (money from attached case) Here. Two hundred should do it. They start the action of filing the form and accepting the money... Sonny stops them... SONNY Just give me a receipt. Hey, Sal, you okay? SAL (deep in his hair or tie or?) Okay, Sonny. SONNY All right. (accepts receipt) SYLVIA Here's your document, Sonny. SONNY Yeah - it looks real official. They are ready. A moment in the dark. Sonny holds out the will to Mulvaney. SONNY Hold it for me? Mulvaney takes it. Sonny shakes his hand. Suddenly, emotionally, he embraces Sylvia. Suddenly they are all saying silent goodbyes. Shaking hands all around, formally. Only Sal is left untouched, standing apart, watching them, in the dark. EXT. BANK - NIGHT Everyone waits in silence. The lights. The limo. The Driver waiting in the driver's seat. After a beat the door begins to open. VARIOUS ANGLES as Cops' guns are brought to bear. On the apartment fire escape the Old Lady is asleep, her puzzle complete. The snipers raise their rifles. FRONT OF BARBER SHOP - NIGHT Sheldon stands there. The police radio network CRACKLES: "They're coming out. Perpetrators and hostages together. Only authorized personnel may previously authorized, and etc." Sheldon's eyes go to: HIS POV - SNIPER A middle-aged Man who looks like an overweight accountant, in flak vest and helmet that seems too small, aiming through a telescopic sight at: DOOR OF BANK SONNY (letting Murphy out first; yells outside) Get away from the car! Something that looks like a multi-legged animal emerges. It is Sonny and Sal in the center of a tight group of the girls and Mulvaney, so they are completely protected on all sides by hostages. Over their heads is thrown some drapes from the bank that further prevent the police from drawing a clear head on Sonny or Sal without hitting a girl. In fact they can't be seen at all. This weird apparition appears, hesitates. The crowd YELLS: "SHOOT!" CHOREOGRAPH THE ACTION so the group hesitates, takes a step forward, then it's clear Sonny can't see well enough to go direct to the car, and the girls are uncertain which direction to go in, not having been briefed. So they stumble about, make false starts, and finally arrive at the car, where one girl gets into the second row of seats behind the Driver. Then Sonny slides across next to Driver. VARIOUS ANGLES TO COVER The police have no chance to shoot. The group looks like a bewildered centipede finding its way. Mulvaney detaches himself from the group and slips into the front seat, on Sonny's right. ON EDNA standing alone, outside filled-up limo. Sheldon walks over to Mulvaney's window. SONNY (to Sheldon) Okay - you got your one. SHELDON (to Murphy) You follow my car. (he moves off) Maria gets in the rear-most row of seats. Sal next to her in the middle and then another girl. One woman, Edna, a plain middle-aged woman who has not said a word until now is left over. She stands by the side of the limo as the doors close and this phase of the operation ends, without mishap. SONNY (elated) Fuck! We did it! SYLVIA (to Edna) Goodbye, honey. Wish us luck! Edna pecks out dry little kisses to the nearest girls. ANGLE THROUGH SONNY'S DOOR WINDOW as Edna pecks... goodbye. SONNY I'll be a son of a bitch -- we're all okay! Hey, man! Honk the horn. Let's go! Sal has his gun pointed on back of Driver's head. MURPHY Hey, Sal - do me a favor... point that gun up, huh? We hit a bump and the fuckin' gun'll go off. The Driver honks the HORN: they're ready. The crowd SCREAMS. Cops keep jockeying for position, but there is no way to get a shot in. ON SHELDON No emotion. He steps into his car, a police car pulls up behind, and the procession starts to pull slowly toward the crowd. ON EDNA AND BANK As the limo pulls away, she is bewildered by the rush of police, bank people, FBI men who stream past her, ignoring her, all pouring into the bank. TV crews move by and finally -- one stops to interview her. ON THE CARAVAN being rammed through the jam of Cops and screaming people trying to get a last look. The hostages looking out, wan, worried. Sonny and Sal inside, alert, ready with guns. INT. LIMO - NIGHT MURPHY Sal - please keep that gun pointed up, huh? THEIR POV - MOVING SHOTS from inside the limo. The faces of the poor, the excited, the vicious the curious, and in ONE SHOT some of the people from the Gay Liberation Movement carrying hastily lettered signs: one protesting Sonny: YOU ARE AN INSULT TO YOUR KIND And another: WE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU SONNY! Their scared and wan faces swim past in the mob. Sonny's mother is briefly seen looking out of the barber shop window, alone and forgotten. The Cops stare heavily, sullen with anger. Now the limo is moving faster. People are running alongside, YELLING insults, trying to see in, asking for hand-outs, but they are going faster. Inside, they say nothing. Up ahead, Sheldon's car flashes a red light. Behind, the police car does the same. VARIOUS EXT. AND INT. ANGLES - NIGHT as the procession moves through Brooklyn. MOVING VIEW FROM GROUND A helicopter follows above them. VIEWS IN STREETS They move along, followed by a HONKING parade of kibitzing cars, like a Mexican wedding. ANGLE AT AIRPORT THRUWAY They turn onto the thruway, trying to out-distance the cars tagging along. INT. LIMO Silence. Sonny and Sal hold their rifles ready between their knees. ANGLE N AIRPORT FENCE as they veer off the thruway, a barely seen Guard swings open a gate and they ROAR through. The Guard pushes the gate to, and the following caravan of cars brakes, skids and a pile-up of fender bender accidents begin, cars going into the fence and each other. FULL SHOT - THRUWAY Cars are strewn all around. Doors open and Drivers leap out ready to YELL and do battle. The Cops guard the now closed gate. KENNEDY AIRPORT - NIGHT Distant lights, some moving. Total darkness. The FBI car, the limo, the following police car move across the darkness... INT. LIMO - NIGHT They sit quiet, following the FBI car. The FBI car stops. They stop. Silence. SONNY Murphy, can you see what they're doing? MURPHY He's still got some arrangements to make. Sheldon is getting out of the car up ahead. Sonny and Sal and all of them come alert. As Sheldon and the other FBI men get out of their car, a pair of aircraft landing lights become visible, taxiing towards the limo. SONNY There it is, Sal. Sal? SAL I'm here. SONNY Oh, Jesus! Hey. How about food? I forgot to ask to have food on board. Sheldon has been walking down to the limo. He stops beside Mulvaney and KNOCKS on the window. Mulvaney rolls it down. SHELDON That's the jet. You give us one more, now. That's the deal... SONNY Okay. Which one goes? There is silence inside the limo. Mulvaney turns to Sylvia. MULVANEY Sylvia? From a handkerchief, Sylvia draws a slip of paper. SYLVIA It's Maria. Go on, honey. They open the door. They urge her out, and Maria goes with a show of reluctance. ON MARIA As she stands up outside she is revealed to have a rosary she's counting. IMPROVISE goodbyes, tearful and fearful all around. Then: MARIA I pray for your safety... (meaning Sonny and Sal) ...Sal? Because I know it's your first plane trip. Don't be scared, you know? (gives him her rosary) And Maria walks away. Now the plane has taxied into position, where it can be seen in floodlights. It looks big and impressive. We know the FBI has snipers ringing it. SONNY I ain't eaten all day. I just realized it. SHELDON We'll have hamburgers on the plane. You ready? MURPHY (turns to Sal again) Sal, keep it up, huh? The gun - please... CLOSE - SONNY looking at the plane, grasping his money and his gun. The rifle stands straight up between his legs. Sheldon leans down, peering in at him. SONNY What do you think, Sal? You ready to go? ANGLE - SAL in front of Sonny, behind Mulvaney. For the first time he smiles. He realizes that escape is within their grasp. The smile transforms him from a formidable Mafia imitation into an utterly sweet and defenseless youth. SAL (gun pointing high) Hey, Sonny - You did it! CLOSE - SONNY SONNY Let's move it, goddamn it. SHELDON (to Driver) You ready to get out first? DRIVER Yes. Driver starts to turn in the driver's seat! Sheldon brings up his hands to reach through the open window to grab Sonny's rifle barrel, pushes it away, aiming out windshield. Mulvaney sees them beginning their move and starts to duck. Sal begins to see movement out of the corner of his eyes and is barely beginning to react. DRIVER TURNING HAS A GUN OVER THE BACK OF THE SEAT! Sonny sees it, and Sheldon's hand grabbing the barrel of his gun at the same moment. Sheldon drives hard into the side of the limo, reaching in. Mulvaney grabs the girl next to him and pulls her by the hair down toward the floor. Sal, open-mouthed with amazement, is a split-second late bringing his gun up. Driver completes his turn and has his gun leveled at Sal between Miriam and Margaret in middle row. Sheldon grabs his rifle barrel and pulls hard. Sonny lets it go. Sal stares at the gun barrel, trying to get his gun up... Driver FIRES. Mulvaney hits the floor. Sheldon holds Sonny's gun. Sonny, CLOSE, watches. Sal, hit, slams back into the seat; the gun flies upward. Another SHOT hits him, flinging his head back. Driver holds his third shot, turns to Sonny - holds gun to his temple. Sonny looks down so he can see fully as: Sal's head snaps back for a split second and stares directly into Sonny's eyes, upside down. He stares sadly, into Sonny's eyes. As though he knew it all along -- betrayed. And dies. The SHOT is ECHOING. Now SCREAMS, YELLS, SLAMMING doors, panic... Sonny's voice: "Shoot me! For God's sake, shoot me!" FULL SHOT They come pouring out of the limo, scrambling frantically away from it. The limo -- the people fleeing it. Agents pull people away from the car. Driver and Sheldon and Cops peer into the back. Sal's body lies slumped. Driver, Sheldon, other Cops stand about, recovering. No one makes the slightest sort of congratulatory move, it was just another job. Driver clears his weapon, hands it to Sheldon to be filed in case of investigation. ON SYLVIA, MULVANEY, HOSTAGES They hug, cry, laugh, jump up and down: they're alive! SYLVIA (to Mulvaney) I been dying to do this for years! And she kisses him hard in the mouth. He laughs and kisses back... CLOSE - SONNY Tears are beginning to flood past his defenses: SHELDON (V.O.) You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to counsel to be present, during your interrogation. (etc.) His voice is dry, as though he were reciting from memory something he learned in a language he doesn't understand. LAP DISSOLVE TO: CLOSE - LEON - HEAD ON SHOT like a Warhol interview on TV. Segue VOICE TRACK. LEON Well, I don't see how Sonny can survive in prison, he was very loud, very boisterous. He was obnoxious. CLOSE - HEAD SHOT - SONNY being manipulated like so much beef by impersonal FBI agents... LEON (V.O.) He was very hard to live with... HEIDI (V.O.) He made me laugh. EXT. BARBER SHOP - NIGHT Remnants of the crowd of sightseers, being interviewed by TV men avid for more, more, more news... these are people among the group that held up the big banner earlier: now we see them up CLOSE. They're folding up their banner. A very ordinary-looking YOUNG GUY. PROUD YOUNG MAN I love him. He put an end to all that pansy limp wristed shit! FBI AND SONNY They're getting off his belt, his shoe laces... HEIDI (V.O.) Because he always had a way of getting out, always in the army he was AWOL... OMITTED BACK TO SONNY manacled and helpless. He is twisted into some yet more uncomfortable position by the uncaring Agents. HEIDI (V.O.) I can't help thinking how he might ring the bell one of these days. That's why I'm nervous, because I'm always thinking some day he's gonna come along and ring the bell... THROUGH THE SHOT Sal's body is carried, Sonny, seeing it out of the corner of his eye. He tries to look... FBI MAN Keep your eyes front. PAULINE NATURILE - BEING INTERVIEWED A faded, rattled woman, perhaps a little drunk... NEWSMAN How did you know your son was involved? PAULINE It was on the TV. NEWSMAN When was the last time you saw Sal? PAULINE Oh, a long time. Because I kept asking my husband where the heck could Junior be? He wasn't around here. I thought maybe he was in prison or some place. NEWSMAN Did you know he was a homosexual? PAULINE No, not until after they killed him. NEWSMAN Did you always call him Junior. PAULINE Yeah. NEWSMAN Do you remember anything else about Sal? PAULINE No, that's all. BACK TO SONNY - AT AIRPORT Sonny isn't even listening... he sees something o.s.: SONNY Hey! NEW ANGLE The hostages moving toward a car to take them home are passing nearby and turn to look at him... SONNY Goodbye! You were terrific! Mouth! You're beautiful! See you! THEIR REACTIONS They stare at him; they've already begun to forget him: the moment in the bank when they said their goodbyes is already receding from their consciousness. Their smiles are forced, and they don't really know what to say. SYLVIA Ah, Sonny! Good luck, you know? MULVANEY You were terrific, too! SYLVIA Hey. It's raining. And, as the first welcome drops of cooling rain fall, they begin to move fast... ON SONNY looking after them. The rain hitting his face... the adventure is over. But the everlasting smile overtakes him... LEON I'm glad. Life is easier with him in prison. HEIDI It would be like always, the bell would ring, we'd have a ball. OMITTED BEGIN TITLE AND CREDITS: SINCE THERE WILL BE NO BEGINNING TITLE OR CREDITS, THE PICTURE LOGO WILL FLASH ON SCREEN NOW, AND END MUSIC UP: AS PACINO'S CREDIT IS SEEN, OVER A STILL OF HIM FROM THE PICTURE: THE FOLLOWING IS SUPERIMPOSED: SONNY IS SERVING TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON. AS LEON IS SEEN: LEON IS NOW A WOMAN NAMED LANA. AS HEIDI IS SEEN: HEIDI LIVES WITH HER CHILDREN ON WELFARE. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dogma.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dogma.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..26d9ff319e3b93cd6252d33dd03b3a1bd28bd2d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dogma.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +DOGMAEXT ASBURY PARK BOARDWALK - DAYJersey spring day. Beyond the wooden planks that make up the aged fun pier,the ocean waves crash into the sandy shoreline.An OLD MAN stares at the empty beach. Sun-worshipers hours away frombesmirching the dunes. His features are simple. He wears an old overcoat.His face belies good years gone by - a face that has seen more sunrisesthan one would suspect. He inhales the crisp, salty air and lets a small,satisfied smile cross his face.Behind him. a large arcade with steel shuttered doors sits on theboardwalk. Three young boys skate around by on roller blades, passing astreet hockey ball between them proficiently. The Old Man views thembriefly. checks his watch, and looks back toward the ocean.The skates of the three hockey playing youths skid to a halt. We pan up totheir faces - now cold and dispassionate. They look at one another and nod.Their skates glide out of frame.P.O.V. SKATERS - The Old Man leans on the railing that overlooks the beach.We get closer and closer to him until...One of the skaters checks him hard into the railing. The Old Man exhalesviolently and falls to his knees. The two other skaters begin savagelybeating on him with their hockey sticks, as he crumbles beneath them.Repeatedly their blades crash down hard on his head.OC VOICEI don't understand - how can you base your lack of belief in God on thewritings Lewis Caroll?The three skaters cease their beating and check the Old Man's pulse.Satisfied, they skate away, leaving his crumpled form on the boardwalk.INT AIRPORT - DAYLOKI walks beside a NUN in a semi-busy terminal. They pass through themetal detectors. The Nun carries a donation can.LOKILeaving 'Alice in Wonderland' aside, look closely at 'Through the LookingGlass' - particularly 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' poem: what's themetaphorical meaning?NUNI wasn't aware there was one. LOKIOh, but there is - it colorfully details the sham that is organizedreligion. The Walrus - with his girth and good-nature - obviously refers toeither the Buddha, or - with his tusks - the lovable Hindu elephant god,Lord Ganesha. This takes care of the Eastern religions. The Carpenter is anobvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was purportedly raised the son of acarpenter. He represents the Western religions. And in the poem. what dothey do? They dupe all the oysters into followmg them. Then. when theoysters collective guard is down. the Walrus and the Carpenter shuck anddevour the helpless creatures, en masse. I don't know what that says toyou, but to me it says that following faiths based on these mythologicalfigures insures the destruction of one's inner-being.BARTLEBY sits amongst a row of seats by one of the arrival gates. He eatspopcorn and stares at...A steady stream of TRAVELERS, exiting the gate, meeting lovedones, family. OC LOKIOrganized religion destroys who we are or who we can be by inhibiting ouractions and decisions out of fear of an intangible parent-figure who shakesa finger at us from thousands of years ago and says "No, no!"Bartleby smiles at the meet-and-greets, warmed. Loki saddles up beside him,kneeling on one of the seats, facing the Nun. LOKI'Through the Looking Glass' - a children's tale? I think not. NUN(really dazed)I've... I've never really thought about it like that...(beat; shocked; off her cassock)What have I been doing with my life...?'. LOKIDon't look back. Just get out there and taste life.(off donation can)Leave this for the unenlightened. Poverty is for the gullible - it'sanother way the church is trying to control you. You take that money you'vebeen collecting for your parish reconstruction and go get yourself a nicepiece of ass. You deserve it.The Nun nods at him, and saunters off, obviously grappling with something.A passerby tries to stick money in her can, but she yanks it away. Lokifaces the proper direction in his seat and plops down beside thestill-transfixed Bartleby. BARTLEBY (looking OC)Here's what I don't get about you: you know for a fact that there is a God.You've been in his presence, he's talked to you personally. And yet I justheard you claim to be an atheist. LOKIC'mon man - you know I don't believe any of that shit I was telling her. Ijust like to fuck with the clergy; keep 'em on their toes. When her headstops spinning, she'll be facing the way of the Just again. But oh. willshe have a bunch to confess.(looks around)Now here's what I don't get about you: why do you feel the need to comehere all the time? BARTLEBY(off travelers)I like to watch. This is humanity at it's best. Look at them.A reunited FAMILY share a group hug and move on, making way for two youngLOVERS to embrace and kiss passionately. OC BARTLEBYAll that tension, all that anger and mistrust, forgotten for one perfectmoment when they come off that plane. See those two? The guy doesn't evenknow that the girl cheated on him while he was away.OC LOKIShe did?Bartleby and Loki continue to watch the arrivals. BARTLEBYUh-huh. Twice. But it doesn't matter at this moment because they're both sorelieved to be with one another. I like that. I just wish they could allfeel that way more offen. LOKIMaybe if someone gave them free bags of peanuts more often they would. Nowwhat was so friggin' important that I had to miss cartoons this morning? Ifit was to share in your half-assed obsessions with Hallmark moments, I'mgoing to slug you. BARTLEBY(still looking OC)You're never going to believe this: we're going home. LOKI(off Bartleby's popcorn)Let me have some? BARTLEBY(pulls out envelope)Look what somebody sent us in the mail.(hands him a newspaper article and corn) LOKIDid you say we're going home?(reads)"Cardinal Glick Cuts Ribbon on 'Catholicism - Wow!"Campaign."(to Bartleby)And?BARTLEBYKeep reading. LOKI(reads)"Updating the church... television spots... Papal consent...rededication...(to Bartleby)Again - and? BARTLEBY(snatches article) Give me this(getting up; reading)"The Re-dedication of Saint Michael's Church on it's hundredth anniversaryis the kickoff of a new campaign that seeks to bring the Catholic Churchback into the mainstream. With a papal sanction, the archway entrance tothe centuryold, Jersey shore house of worship will serve as a passageway ofpleanry indulgence, which - according to Catholic beliefs - offers all whopass through it's arches a morally clean slate."(looks at Loki)You still don't get it, do you? LOKINo, I don't get it. Are we leaving now?They start walking. BARTLEBYIf you walk through the church's front door on the day of the Re-dedicationceremony, your soul is wiped clean of any and all existing sin, moreso thanthe sacrament of penance could ever offer. It's a plenary indulgence, man!I don't know why I never thought of this before. LOKI(spits out chewed popcorn into trash can)Sounds thin. Sounds like someone made it up. BARTLEBYIt's rarely employed, but it's legitimate. It has a papal sanction forGod's sake. LOKISo you're saying you and I can walk through this doorway and go back home? BARTLEBYNo - by passing through the doors, our sins areforgiven. Then all we have to do is die... LOKIWait. wait, wait - Die? I don't want to die.(chews popcorn) BARTLEBY(steps on conveyor belt)You'd rather stay down here for a few more eons? LOKINo, but we don't even know if we can die. And what if we can, but thisarchway thing doesn't pan out? What then? Hell? Fuck that.(spits out chewed popcorn into napkin) BARTLEBYImpossible. If we cut off our wings and transubstantiate to complete humanform then we become mortal. And if we die with clean souls, there's no wayto keep us out. They have to let us in.LOKI(beat)Who sent this thing? BARTLEBYI don't know. Somebody who's looking out for us,I guess. Does it matter? All that matters is thatafter all these years, we've found a loophole. Hecan't keep us out anymore. And once we're backin, I'm sure He'll just forgive and forget.They pass the Nun. who leans against a wall, still dazed. LOKIYeah, but this plenary' indulgence thing is a church law, not DivineMandate. Church laws are fallible because they're created by man. BARTLEBYOne of the last sacred promises imparted to Peter the first Pope by the Sonof God before He left was "Whatever you hold true on earth..." LOKI" ...I'll hold true in Heaven." BARTLEBYSo if the Pope says it's so, God must adhere. It's dogmatic law. LOKI(beat; extends hand)Let it never be said that your anal retentive attention to detail neveryielded positive results. BARTLEBY(accepts hand)You can't be anal retentive if you don't have an anus. LOKIThere's just one thing I think I should do before we leave - somethingthat'Il get us back on His good side.BARTLEBYWhat's that?Loki smiles and starts rifling through his pockets. He extracts a magazinearticle. LOKIThis is something I've been dreaming about for five years now. Read.The crumpled article displays a Barney-like gold-hued cow, alongsidevarious profit charts and text. OC BARTLEBY (reading)"Mooby the Golden Calf- Creating an Empire Out of Simplicity."Loki wipes his mouth and nods to the article.LOKII want to hit them. BARTLEBYAre you nuts?!(crumples article)We're mere days away from getting back, and you want to jeopardize itbecause you have a soft spot for the good ol' days?! LOKIWhat better way to show I've repented than by resuming the position Idenied... thanks to you. BARTLEBYA killing spree is not going to make things better for us. LOKIWe're not talking about killing here. We're talking about Divine Justice.We're talking about punishing the wicked, raining down fire and brimstone.He's all about that. I just know he'd want this done. BARTLEBYThere hasn't been an Angel of Death since you quit. Doesn't that meananything to you? Besides, what if you're wrong? LOKIIf I'm wrong, it won't matter. Like you said - we pass through the arch andwe're forgiven anywayThey step up to an elevator and press the button. BARTLEBY(considering it)Well... he does hate competition.(reading article)And this Mooby deninitely falls under that heading. LOKIThe church we have to go to is where? BARTLEBYNew ]ersey. The Rededication is in four days.The doors open. They get on. Other people are inside as well. LOKIOur last four days on earth. If I had a dick, I'd go get laid. But we cando the next best thing.BARTLEBYWhat's that?LOKILet's kill people.A guy beside Loki reacts. Loki smiles at him as the elevator doors close.OPENING CREDITSBetween black cards with white credits there are shots of the OLD MAN fromthe boardwalk being wheeled into a hospital on a gurney, being treated inthe emergeny room, being hooked up to life support system, and finallyresting in an intensive care wing.EXT ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH - DAYThe church sits on a grassy knoll in Mc Henry - a suburb of Chicago. Somekids tear by on bikes and egg it. OC PRIESTThe greater Illinois chapter of the Right to Life foundation will beholding it's bi-annual softball game against the Cook County Pro-Choiceleague next Sunday at two.INT ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH - DAYThe PRIEST speaks from the lectern, addressing semi-filled rows of thefaithful. PRIESTThose who find the weekly demonstration outside ofthe Twelfth Street Planned Parenthood Clinic hard to make due to workschedules are urged to show their support in the fight against thethoughtless and wanton destruction of life by cheering on our boys on thefield. Refreshments. as always, will be served.Dollying down the rows while the Priest rattles on. we pass theparishoners. Some listen intently, others are nodding off. Onesurreptitiously listens to a Walk-man; a man and a woman quietly arguewhile their kid colors in a coloring book, going off the page and markingthe pew; two kids play cards; one guy leafs through a copy of Hustlerhidden by his hymnal book. OC PRIESTToday's second collection will be donated to the John Doe Jersey Life Fund.For those of you who haven't been following the news, an unidentifiedhomeless man who was accosted and severely beaten at the New Jersey shorelast Tuesday lies in critical but stable condition in one of that area'shospitals. He lacks identification and police have had no luck in trackingdown any possible family. While he shows no signs of recovery, theArch-Bishop of the Trenton Diocese has disputed the state's decision toremove the indigent man from life support systems, asking that Catholicsall over the country join in this protest against Euthanasia. And finally -will whoever keeps parking in my spot, stop doing that. Thank you. Now,please rise for the recession of faith. We believe in one God, thefather...As the congregation flatly joins in the prayer, we stop on BETHANY - abeautiful twenty-something woman who struggles to stay awake. She checksher watch and exhales softly. OC VOICEI don't really want to be here.ENT PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC - DAYA small gaggle of signcarrying RIght-to-Lifer's march in front of thesterile looking building. OC VOICEBut then again, I guess nobody ever does... except maybe you.INT BETHANY'S OFFICE - DAYThe source of the voice - a GIRL - sits beside Bethany's desk, stretchingout her gum. Bethany offers her an understanding smile. GIRLYou know, I've done this three times now; and each time the counselor tellsme I should be more careful in the future, I should show' someresponsibility. Gotta tell you, though - this is the first time thecounselor wasn't some ugly as hell old bitch. It's kind of hard to takeabortion advice from a woman who's too gross to get laid in the firstplace. BETHANYI'm not here to lecture you - I'm here to make sure you really want to gothrough with this. GIRLI'd rather go back to that night when my idiot bovfriend swore up and downhe was sterile. Short of that, there aren't many choices left, now arethere? BETHANYEver think about having it? GIRL (beat)What woman doesn't on some level.BETHANYI never did.GIRL (incredulous)You had an abortion? BETHANY(lights a smoke)My first year in college. All through high school, I'd dated the same guy -Walter Flanagan. We were really in love, right? So much so. that we decidedto go Carnegie Mellon together... that's this college in Pittsburgh. Sothere we are -away at school, and there's suddenly no parents to worryabout anymore, so we're screwing like rabbits - just constanly doing it.And I wound up getting pregnant. So he begs me to have it. He says weshould quit school and get married, and I'm telling him that that'lI screwup our educations. We fought about it for a week - my arguement being therewas no rush to have kids, you know? We could always have a baby in a coupleof years - after school. So I got the abortion against his wishes... Imean, what the hell - it was my body, right? After graduation, we gotmarried and immediately set about trying to have kids. We tried like hellfor the first six months, and... nothing. So I went to a gynocologist tosee if everything was okay on my end. (beat) It wasn't.(takes a drink)My uteran wall had this fissure. It seems that the doctor who performed theprocedure on me years before had somehow botched it. I'd never be able tohave a child.The Girl's face says it all. Bethany takes a drag and continues. BETHANYSo there I am - devastated. And now I have to go home to break the news tomy husband who years before had begged me to have the baby - his baby. Andafter I explain it to him through my tears, he sits on the couch and rubshis eyes. And in the calmest, most rational voice I've ever heard anybodyuse in my life, he asks me for a divorce. And I fought him, you know? Itried to talk him out of it; told him there were alternatives - like wecould adopt. And all he said was he wanted a wife who could have hischildren.GIRL (beat)What happened? BETHANYHe remarried. He had two kids in two years with his new wife. We neverspoke again. And now I do this. GIRLThat's like... such a sad story. BETHANYI dated this guy a year or two ago - he was really into comic books. Hetold me I had the stock superhero story -I wanted to prevent a wrong thathad happened to me from ever happening to anyone else. Kind of like Batman,he said. The only difference is I don't put on tights to do it... unlessall my other clothes are in the wash.(smiles and puts out her smoke)So... let's go over your paperwork.EXT CLINIC - DAYA well-dressed LIZ maneuvers through the small thrall of Right-to-lifer's.They shake their placards at her accusingly. PROTESTOR 1You should be ashamed of yourself!PROTESTOR 2Child killer! LIZ(looking over their shoulders)HOLY SHIT!! IT'S THE POPE!!As the thrall turns excitedly in an effort try to spy the imaginarypontiff, Liz ducks inside the clinic.INT CLINIC COFFEE ROOM - DAYA NEWSPAPER HEADLINE fills the frame - "CHURCH SAYS NO TO DEATH OF JOHNDOE". It's lowered to reveal Bethany, reading. Liz enters and hangs up hercoat. LIZJesus! You're a Catholic, aren't you? Can't you talkto them or something? BETHANYThey hate me more than you, no doubt. At least you have an excuse - you're]ewish,you don't know any better. LIZI don't think they'd accept that one - we already used it as our excuse forkilling Christ. So where were you yesterday morning - a bunch of us wentout for brunch?BETHANYI went to church. LIZThat kills me. You and church. We work in a field that specializes inpissing off the cloth and you add insult to injury by breaking bread withthem every week. BETHANYI sit there every Sunday and I feel nothing. I can remember sitting inchurch when I was a kid and being moved - like everything meant something,like I was important. And the stories of all these holy people were soinspiring. Now I sit there and think about my checking, and what I'm goingto wear to work the next day. LIZSo then why do you still go? BETHANY(beat)You wouldn't believe me if I told you. LIZYou think I'm going to mock your religious beliefs? We're friends, Bethany- I may mock you for being a divorce' at twenty five who's never had anorgasm, but I'd never mock you for having faith. BETHANYThat's just it - I don't. I don't think I have any faith left. LIZ(making coffee)I had a girl in here once - 'bout fifteen. She told me that faith is like aglass of water. When you're young, the glass is full, and it's easy to fillup. But the older you get, the bigger the glass gets, and the same amountof water doesn't fill the glass anymore. Periodically, the glass has to berefilled. BETHANYA fifteen year old who came in here said that? LIZShe had gotten knocked up by her pastor. BETHANYJesus! See? A minister knocks up a teenager -isn't anyone afraid of theLord's wrath anymore? LIZThat would require faith, and that commodity lately seems reserved only forthe psychotic zealots that hang around outside.(collects her things to leave)So what are you doing tonight? BETHANYWatching T.V. LIZGirl, you need a man. If only for ten minutes. BETHANYIt's been my experience that the average male is never a man - not even forten minutes in his entire life span. LIZUh-oh - that sounds militant. You thinking of joining the other side? BETHANYCouldn't do it. Women are insane. LIZThen girl, you better get back to church and ask God for a third option.BETHANYI think God is dead. LIZThe sign of a true Catholic.Liz exits with her coffee. Bethany stares after her.INT A QUAINT SUBURBAN HOME - DAYThe Stygian Triplets kneel on one knee before a high-backed leather chair,upon which Sits a shadowy figure who we see from behind. They appear to bein a den or library. SHADOWY FIGUREAll proceeds according to plan. No doubt, the powers will attempt tocontact the Last Scion. You know where she is. She must be elliminatedbefoie she enters the frav. When she is negated, there will be nothing tointerfere with our plan. Shuffle her loose her mortal coil, that we mayobtain our final glory. (beat)Go.The Stygian Triplets rise and skate off.INT BETHANY'S KITCHIEN - NIGHTThe fridge door opens and Bethany glances around inside. She pulls out achocolate cake and closes the door.INT BETHANY'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHTBethany sits on the couch, eating cake with a fork and watching the OC t.v.The theme song to Filmation's 'Batman and Robin' cartoon can be heard. Shesips some milk from a glass and has some more cake.INT BETHANY'S BEDROOM - NIGHTBethany's in bed, staring up at the ceiling. From the darkness, a creakingfloor board is heard. Bethany reacts, grabbing a bat from under her pillow.She peers into the darkness, defensively wielding her bat.Suddenly, the room explodes in flames. A huge fire that appears to beshooting out from the floor ignites mere feet from Bethany's bed. Bethanyleaps back, taking a beat to stare, mesmerized. Looking closely, one cansee an anthropomorphic form standing in the blaze. VOICE(powerful; booming)BEHOLD THE METATRON - HERALD OF THE ALMIGHTY ANDVOICEOF THE ONE TRUE GOD!The Voice repeats itself. Bethany darts out of bed and dashes out of theroom, quickly returning with a fire extinguisher. While the voice is inmid-sentence, she blasts the thing with the contents of the canister,swirling the nozzle around to hit all the flames. The booming Voicesputters and starts coughing, losing it's impressive edge. Bethany stopssquirting and turns on her bedside lamp.A choking, drenched, and coughing androgynous figure in a suit waves heraway. The figure coughs up some of the extinguisher's contents and drops tothe floor, hacking. It is METATRON. Bethany stares, shocked. METATRON(between coughs)Sweet. ..Jesus! Did you... have to empty...the whole can?!Bethany grabs her bat again and holds it up, this time offensively. BETHANYWHO THE FUCK ARE YOU AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?! METATRON(slowly rising to it's feet)I'm the one... who's soaked and... she's the one who's pissed. That's rich! BETHANY(reaching for phone, still holding bat)I'm calling the cops! Breaking and entering, attempted arson... they'regoing to lock you up for life...! M ETATRON(wiping off clothes)No dial tone. BETHANY(ear to phone)You cut the phone lines...(even more offensive with bat)Get the fuck out of here, now! METATRONOr you'll what - hit me with that fish?The bat Bethany held is now a salmon. She drops it to the floor and freaks. METATRONNow just sit down on the bed and shut up! BETHANYOh God - you're going to rape me... METATRONI'm not going to rape you.(to itself; off clothes)Look at my suit...! BETHANYTake whatever you want, just don't kill or rape me... METATRONEnough with the raping already! I couldn't rape you if I wanted to.(unzips pants and pulls them off)Angels are ill-equipped.Bethany stares. There, before her, stands the exposed Metatron. There isnothing where some sexual genitalia should be - it's as smooth andanatomically impaired as a Ken doll. METATRONSee? I'm as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll.(rings out pants)You meat-puppets and your arrogance - you think everyone's just waiting torape you. BETHANYWh..what are you? METATRONI'm pissed is what I am. You go around drenching everyone that comes intoyour room with flameretardent chemicals? No wonder you don't get laid.(pulls pants back on)Go get me a towel, will you?Bethany blinks. She exits the room and comes back with a towel. She holdsit out to Metatron who grabs it and starts toweling off. METATRON(taking off jacket)Stand back.Bethany steps back. Metatron flexes and huge fucking wings extend from it'sback, dripping water. Bethany goes wide-eyed and cowers against the wall. METATRON(tosses towel away)Like I was saying - I am the Metatron.Bethany stares, saying nothing, pinned against the wall. Metatron looksinsulted. METATRONMetatron. Don't tell me the name doesn't ring a bell?Bethany remains silent and wideyed. Metatron gets testy. METATRONYou people. If there isn't a movie about it, it's not worth knowing, right? (beat)I am a seraphim.(beat)The highest choir of angels?(beat)You do know what an angel is, don't you?Bethany slowly nods. METATRONMetatron acts as the voice of God. Any documented occasion when some yahooclaims to have spoken with God, they're speaking to me. Or they're speakingto themselves. BET HANY (beat)Why doesn't God speak for himself? METATRONAh. So glad you decided to join the conversation. To answer that - humanbeings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstandthe awesomepower of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, you're mind would cave inand your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adam'sbefore we figured that out. BETHANYAre you going to kill me? Ni ETATRONI could for what you did to this suit. Unfortunately I can't. You'recalled. BETH ANY (beat)Called how? How called? METATRONAll that from two words. Color this angel impressed. BETHANY(beat)How do I know you're an angel? METATRONOh, you mean besides the fiery entrance and the expansive wingspan? Youpeople kill me. Fine. You want more proof? How about a tequila?(snaps fingers)INT MEXICAN BAR - NIGHTBethany and Metatron sit at a table. Bethany immediately clutches at herpajamas. Metatron waves a WAITER over. BETHANYWhere the hell are we?! METATRONThe only place one can go for good tequila.(to Waiter)Dos tequilas, por favor. And an empty glass. WAITERSi.The Waiter turns to leave. Metatron yanks a smoke from his pocket as hegoes. METATRONGracias, senor. BETHANYWe're in Mexico?! METATRONActually, we're in the Chilli's down the street from your house, but it was still an impressive trick(lights smoke)You don't mind that I lost the wings, do you? I'm trying to keep ourprofile low. BETHANYI suppose it would be too cliche to observe aloud that this is the weirdestdream I've ever had. METATRONCan you imagine how insulting it is to converse with a person and have theminsist you're a dream? If I had an ego, it'd be bruised. BETHANYWhat do you want with me? METATRONI'm to charge you with a holy crusade.(pause)You do know what a crusade is, don't you? BETHANY(sarcastically)Uh, yeah. METATRONDon't give me that. Last time I charged someone with a crusade they had tolook the word up. BETHANYWhy am I supposed to go on a crusade? METATRONYour's is a heritage divine. Also, you didn't seem to be doing much lately.The Waiter arrives with their drinks. METATRONOh - Gracias!(he leaves; off the tequila)One of the only things your people have mastered since you crawled from theprimordial ooze.(sips) BETHANYI work in an abortion clinic. METATRON(spits tequila into empty glass)Moses was a drunk. Look what he accomplished. And no one's even asking youto part an ocean. All you have to do is go to New Jersey. BETH ANYNew ]ersey. METATRONSure. Go to New Jersey and visit and small church on a very important day.Agreed? BETHANYThat doesn't sound like a crusade. METATRONAside from the fine print, that's it. BETHANYWhat's the fine print? METATRON(mumbles into glass)stopacoupleofangelsfromenteringandthusnegatingallexistence.Damn, this is good tequila.(sips) BETHANYWait, wait, wait. Repeat that. METATRONDamn, this is good tequila? BETHANYThe first part. METATRON(spits into empty glass)Details. Stop a couple of angels from entering and thus negating allexistence. God, I hate when people need it spelled out for them. BETHANYClarify that. METATRONThat's the problem with you people - you need every-thing clarified. Noleaps of faith whatsoever. Alright -vou want the whole secret origin? Heregoes: Back in the old days, God was vengeful and hot-tempered, and hiswrath was bore by the Angel of Death - name of Loki. When Sodom andGommorah were destroyed? That was Loki. When the waters wiped outeverything with the exception of Noah and his menagerie? That was Loki. Andhe was good at what he did. But one day, he refused to bear God's wrath anylonger. BETHANYWhy? METATRONBecause he listened to his friend - a Grigori by the name of Bartleby. BETHANYGrigori? METATRONOne of the choirs of angels. They're called Watchers. Guess what they do? BETHANYSo they're like Guardian angels? METATRONExactly like that, but different. So one day, Loki's wiping out all thefirst born of Egypt... BETHANYThe Tenth Plague. METATRONSee? Tell a person you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankiy;mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and they're suddenlytheology scholars. May I continue uninterrupted?(Bethany nods)So once he's done with the first born, Loki takes his friend Bartleby outfor a post-slaughter drink. And over many rounds, they get into thisdiscussion about whether or not murder in the name of God is okay. Now,Bartleby can run circles around Loki intellectually, not to mention thefact that Loki's more than half in the bag, and in the end, Bartlebyconvinces Loki to quit his position and take a lesser one - one thatdoesn't involve slaughter. So - very inebriated - Loki tells God he quits:throws down his fiery sword, gives him the finger - which ruins it for therest of us. because from that day forward, God decreed that angels could nolonger imbibe alcohol. Hence all the spitting. BETHANYSounds reasonable. METATRONMaybe to you, but I'm a lush by nature. BETHANYI mean about the angel of Death's resignation. METATRONFor a liberal, yes, but this is the Angel of Death we're talking about. TheAngel of Death can't be a conscientious objector. The Angel of Death ischarged with meting out whatever justice God demands. So for theirinsolence, God decreed that neither Loki nor Bartleby would ever be allowedback into Paradise. BETHANYWere they sent to Hell? METATRONWorse. Wisconsin. For the entire span of human history. And when the worldends, they'll sit outside the gates for eternity. BETHANYAnd what's this have to do with me? METATRONSomebody's clued them in to a loophole in Catholic dogma that would allowthem to reenter Heaven. BETHANYSo what? They beat the system. Good for them. METATRONIt's not that simple. If they get in, they will have reversed God's decree.Now listen up because this part is very important: existence in all it'sform and splendor functions solely on one principle: God is infallible. Toprove God wrong would undo reality and everything that is. Up would becomedown, black would become white, existence would become nothingness. Inessence - if they are allowed to enter that church, they'll unmake theworld. BETHANYAre these guys that bitter? METATRONNo, that's the stupid part: they have no idea what their actions willresult in. As far as they know, they're just going home. Isn't that sweet? BETHANYIf this is so major, why are you talking to me? Why doesn't God dosomething? METATRONHe could. He could blink them out of existence, destroy that church, turnthem into plants. But He'd rather see you take care of this one personally. BETHANYWhy me? METATRONBecause of who you are. BETHANYAnd who am I? METATRONThe girl in the p.j.'s. Don't ask so many questions just serve yourpurpose. BETHANYI'll pass. METATRONI beg your pardon? BETHANYWhen some asshole abortion doctor destroyed my uterus -where was God? Whenmyhusband decided he couldn't be with a wife that couldn't bear his children- where wasGod? Now all the sudden, after all these years of quiet noninvolvement inmy life, Hesends one of His lackey's my way who tells me I should save the world, andas what -some sort of test? To Hell with Him. METATRONDo yourself a favor Bethany - do the world a favor: let go of your pettycrap. It's served you precious little in the past, and it serves you evenless now when the fate of existencehangs in the balance. Don't allow eons of history and life to get blinkedout of being just because you have a grudge against your creator. BETHANYA grudge? Do you know why I work in that clinic? It's my own private way ofsaying"fuck you" to God. METATRONAnd any other day I'd say that's your business and your life, and enjoyyourself and goodnight. But this isn't about you - this is about eve~body.So you lost the abiliry to make life. You're being offered the chance toplay mother to the world by acting like one and protecting it - saving it.(swigs her drink and spits it out)But I can't make you. You'll do what you will. However, if you shoulddecide to stop being selfish and accept your responsibility, you won't bealone. You'll have support. BETHANYWhat, more angels? NIETATRONProphets - although they don't quite get it yet. You'll know them rightaway - one speaks, the other listens. The one who speaks - and he will atgreat lengths, whether you want him to or not - will make mention ofhimself as a prophet. The other one won't say anything, but he'll behelpfuljust the same.(looks at watch)I have to go. You'll do what you will, but try to remember that we'reworking in a time frame here.Metatron moves to exit. BETHANY(beat)Hey.(Metatron turns)You work for God. METATRONThey tell me it's God. If it's not, I'm going to be severely pissed - whatwith all these years of bossing people around on his behalf andexpectorating perfectly good tequila. BETHANYWhat's he like? God? METATRON(thinks)Lonely. But funny. He's got a great sense of humor. BETHANYI'll bet. METATRONLook at sex. Sex is funny. One time I asked him why you people had to lookso stupid while procreating. He said if you didn't, you'd do it all thetime, just for fun. BETHANYBut we do. METATRONI know. And you all look so damn stupid doing it. It kills us upstairs. BETHANYSex is a joke in Heaven? METATRONThe way I understand it, it's mostly a joke down here too.And with that, Nietatron is gone. Bethany looks at her drink. A three-manmariachi band surround her and begin playing Prince's 'Little RedCorvette'.INT BETHANY'S BEDROOM - NIGHTBethany startles awake. The radio on her night-table plays 'Little RedCorvette'. She lays back down.INT BETHANY'S OFFICE - DAYBethany sits at her desk, staring into space. A twenty-something girlspeaks, butBethany's not really listening. She's extremely preoccupied.INT CLINIC - NIGHTBethany shuts off the lights in the various rooms. She packs up her bag andturns on the alarm.EXT CLINIC - NIGHTBethany exits and locks the door behind her. She starts walking.As her feet tread lightly toward her car, three small shadows move towardher.Bethany throws her bag on her car roof and rumages through her purse forher keys. She hears something and stops. Roller blades can be heard movingslowly across the asphalt of the parking lot. Bethany turns quickly.Nobody's there. She looks around, a bit peturbed. BETHANY(calling into the darkness)God, what time do you people quit and go home?! Let's just save it fortomorrow, alright?There's no response. Then there's the noise of wood being tapped againstthe ground. Bethany peers into the darkness, looking for the source.Suddenly, a skater whips past her, slamming his stick into the back of herknee. Bethany goes down. Another skater whips in and slashes at her, butshe ducks. The stick hits the car door above her. She rifles through herpurse madly until another skater whips by, dragging her purse away with hisstick. Bethany looks up.The Stygian Triplets are lined up menacingly, a few feet from her. They taptheir hockey sticks in unison on the ground. Bethany jumps up and facesthem defensively. The Triplets emit an unholy shriek and charge at her.And from out of nowhere, a large figure swoops down from above, landing onthe ground between Bethany and her menacers. The Triplets stop short andregard the figure curiously. The large figure whips into a defensivestance, Batman-style.The Stygian Triplets look to one another. They shrug and charge anew.From behind the rock-still large figure, a smaller figure leaps into thestreetlight, shrieking, flying through the air, busting into a flying kick.He lands before the middle Triplet and open-palm punches him twice in theface, grabbing his stick from the falling child's hand and tossing it intothe air behind him.The stick sails through the night air and is snatched by the grip of thelarge figure, who twirls it under his arm, and then back Out like a sai. Heswings it out before him, knocking the other two Triplets off balance. Thesmaller figure back flips into the larger figure's arms and kicks his feetinto the faces of the two wobbling Triplets. They go down, and the smallerfigure leaps forward with a shriek, landing between the fallen pair, elbowsinto their backs.The flrst struck Triplet leaps out of the darkness at the large figure,screaming something unholy. The large figure catches the kid by the throatand quicklyhead butts him, tossing him to the side. The large figure sways for a beatand then shakes it off.The small figure collects the hockey sticks and throws them into thedistance. He kicks at the falien Triplets as they scurry away. SMALL FIGURE(calling after them)GO BACK TO YOUR PAPER ROUTES, YOU PUNK FUCKS!(more to himself)Snoogans.The large figure saddles up beside the small figure. They look at oneanother and shake hands. SMALL FIGUREDude, I know they were just kids, but we kicked their fucking asses!Bethany stares, mystified. She grabs her purse from the ground. BETHANYWhere... where did you learn to do... that stuff?! SMALL FIGUREFrom this comic book some guys made about us. Long story. BETHANY(beat)I don't know what to say... or think.The figures turn into the light, revealing the faces of the heroes for thefirst time - two very familiar faces. SMALL FIGURESay you'll offer us sex as a reward. BETHANYWho are you?The large figure lights up a smoke. The small one extends his hand. SMALL FIGUREJay. And this is my business associate, Silent Bob. BIETHANYWell thank you for being out here so late... Come to think of it, what areyou doing out here so late?(freezes)Wait a second are you protestors? JAYWhat's a protestor? BETHANYYou're not with the Fight-to-Lifer's? JAYYou mean those fucks with the signs and pictures of dead babies? Shit no.Me and Silent Bob are pro-choice:a woman 5 body is her own fuckingbusiness. BETHANYThen - I don't mean to sound ungrateful - but what are you doing hangingaround? JAYWe're here to pick up chicks. BETHANY(a bit stunned)Excuse me? JAYWe figure an abortion clinic is a good place to meet loose women. Why elsewould they be there unless they like to fuck. BETHANY(taken aback)Oh. Right. Well, I should be going. Thanks for the rescue... I think. JAY(shocked)Wait, wait, wait - we just saved your ass, and you're just going to takeoff? What the shit is that? BETHANYI had a weird night last night, and now tonight's not shaping up to be anybetter. I think I should go home, take some percosets, and lay down.(opens her car door) JAY(to Silent Bob)How about that shit? Fuck this town, man - I'm going back to Jersey andselling weed~(they start walking)At least there I can get turned down while trying to make myself a profit.Bethany freezes. Metatron's words echo in her ear. She shakes her head. BETHANY(to herself)You've gotta be kidding me.(thinks for a beat; then) Hey! Wait!She runs up to them. They whip around and raise their fists defensively. BETHANYSorry.(beat)Would you... I can't believe I'm doing this...(inhales deeply)Would you... like to have a drink with me?Jay's face lights up. He punches Silent Bob in the arm. JAYSee?! I told you if we hung around outside that place we'd get laid! Thankyou!(looking skyward)Thank you, God!INT SEEDY GUN SHOP - NIGHTVarious guns are laid out atop a glass case. OC SALESMANNow this piece is nice. It's not lightweight, but one look at it and nobody- I mean nobody - is going to fuck with you. Try it on.Loki picks up the gun. Bartleby and the SALESMAN look at him. LOKIIt's a lot more compact than the flaming sword, I'll say that much. BARTLEBYIt's the weapon of choice these days. LOKIIt seems unimpressive. At least the sword looked intimidating. How can Istrike fear into the hearts of the wicked with this? SALESMANOh, I get it. You want to become a vigilante, right? Like Batman orsomething. LOKIBatman never uses guns.(off gun)I don't know. It feels impersonal. BARTLEBYThen don't use a gun. Just lay the place to waste like Sodom and Gommorah.Now that was something. LOKIOh yeah, for you maybe. You got to stand there and read. I had to do allthe work. BARTLEBYWhat work? You lit a few fires. LOKII rained down sulfur, man. There's a subtle difference. BARTLEBYSure. LOKIAre you kidding me? Any moron with a pack of matches can start a fire.Raining down sulfur takes a huge level of endurance. Mass genocide is themost exhausting activity one can engage in, next to soccer.(to Salesman)I'll take this one. SALESMANFive seventy five to walk with it right now.Loki starts sifting through his wallet. BARTLEBYSoccer?INT DINER - NIGHTAn English muffin is covered with a knife-full of jam. Bethany raises thebread to her mouth and takes a bite. She glances at the OC pair and stopschewing.Jay and Silent Bob study her intently. Jay smiles widely, anticipatory, andnods.All three sit at a small table near a window. Bethany puts the Englishmuffin down and brushes off her hands. Jay's feet are moving a mile aminute. BETHANYAre you both from around here? JAYI'm hard as hell. BETHANYDo you live in the city? JAYDo you have a friend for Silent Bob, or are you going to do us both? If so,I'm first. I hate sloppy seconds. BETHANYYou're a man of principle. Where do you come from? JAYWe used to live in a small town in Jersey. Real small town. We practicallyknew everybody. BETHANYWhat brought you to McHenry? JAYHollywood. BETHANY(beat)Hollywood? JAYOh yeah. See, we used to sell smoke in front of this video store. And oneday this fuck wants to rent a video. So we did, only we didn't haveanyplace to watch it. So we went to the mall and popped it into a VCR atMacy's and sat on the floor and watched it. It was called 'SixteenCandles'. Did you ever see it? BETHANYYes. JAYSo the next day we rented 'The Breakfast Club', and then 'Weird Science'where these two fucks have a chick that'll do anything for them and theydon't do nothing because it's a PG movie. But then we got thrown out ofMacy's when we watched 'Pretty in Pink', because of this bitch.(points to Silent Bob) BETHANY(to Silent Bob)What'd you do? JAYYou know how at the end the red-headed bitch gets together with her dreamguy at the prom?(Bethany nods)Well pussy here starts fuckin' sobbing all sorts of loud and shit. And themanager's like "Get the hell out of here!" And I'm like "Fuck you, you baldcocksucker! I'll kick your lard.. BETHANY(speeding him along)So what exactly brought you to Illinois? JAYOh yeah. See, all these movies take place in a town called Shermer, inIllinois. And there's all this fine bush running around, and we could kickall the dude's asses because they're all whiney pussies. Except Judd Nelson- he was harsh. But best of all, there was no one selling weed. So I saysto Silent Bob "Man, we could live phat if we were the blunt-connection inShermer, Illinois!" So we collected some cash we were owed, and caught abus. But when we got here,you know what we found Out? There is no Shermer in Illinois. What kind ofshit is that?! Fucking movies are bullshit! BETHANYAnd now you live here? JAYFuck that. This berg sucks. Everyone talks with a stupid accent so youdon't know what they're saying, and it's too fuckin' cold. We were talkingabout taking off. Until we met you, that is.(kisses her hand) BETHANY(retracts her hand)Right. So how much longer are you staying here? JAYUntil you're ready to skip out and make with the sex. BETHANYNo. How long are you staying in McHenry? JAYWe're leaving tomorrow. BETHANYWhere are you going next? JAY(to Silent Bob)Jesus - this broad asks alot of questions.(to Bethany)Back to Jersey. We've been going straight for like fiveyears now. It's about time for us to retire or something. Enjoy our saladyears. No more adventures. BETHANYI see.(sips her coffee) JAYYeah. So do you do anal? Is it true that chicks fart if you blast them inthe ass? BETHANYI didn't ask you out for sex. JAYI'll take head. BETHANYI don't know why, but...(composes herself)...I want to go with you. JAYWhat, like steady? You wanna be my girlfriend?(shrugs to Silent Bob)Alright, but Silent Bob has to live with us and you pay the rent. BETHANYNo, I want to go with you to New Jersey. JAYReally? You're the only chick I ever met that wanted to go to Jersey. Mostchicks try to get out. BETHANYWhen can we leave? JAYWait a second! What is this shit? Are we going fuck or not? BETHANYYou're going to lead me somewhere. JAYMe lead you? Lady, I don't even know where I am half the time. If we're notgoing to fuck then what the hell did you ask me out for? BETHANYSomeone told me I'd meet you, and you'd take me somewhere I was supposed togo. I didn't believe it until you said that thing in the parking lot. JAYWhat the hell are you babbling about? All I know is we saved your ass fromsome angry fucking dwarfs and you promised us se~..(to Silent Bob)Didn't this crazy bitch promise us sex?(to Bethany)...and now you're telling me that I'm supposed to take you somewhere, andyou don't even know where it is? BETHANY(beat)Do you believe in God? JAY(horrified)Holy shit - you're a Jehovah's Witness! All the fine chicks that come outof that place, and we gotta get the one Jesus freak!(to Silent Bob, getting up)Let's go... BETHANY(grabbing his sleeve)No. wait... JAY(pulling back)I'll scream rape. BETHANYI can pay you. JAY(quickly sitting back down)Pay? BETHANYFor being my guide. You were going to leave anyway; all I'm asking is totag along and see where it leads. I'll pay a hundred bucks and allexpenses. JAY(thinks; to Silent Bob)I feel like I'm Han Solo, and you're Chewie, and she's Ben Kenobi, andwe're in that fucked up bar.(to Bethany)What about sex? BETHANYNo sex. JAYAlright, but let's say we're caught in a situation where we've got likefive minutes to live, like a bomb or something is gonna go off - would youfuck us then? BETHANYIn that highly unlikely situation?(beat)Yeah, sure. JAYYeah? You slut. Noonch.(to Silent Bob)What do you think?Silent Bob shrugs. Jay stands up. JAYAlright. But I'll drive.EXT MAIN HIGHWAY - NIGHTBethany's car roars overhead, speeding down the road, reving awfullyloudly.INT BETHANY'S CAR - NIGHTThe speedometer reads ninety five.Jay drives, eyes glued to the road. happy as hell. Silent Bob smokes to hisright. Bethany sits pinned against the back seat, wearing an uncomfortableand dubious look. She struggles to lean forward. The engine still races. BETHANY(yelling over engine noise)What gear are you in? JAY(not looking back)Gear?EXT HIGHWAY - NIGHTJay, Silent Bob, and Bethany sit on and against the car. The hood is openand smoke billows out. JAY(defensively)Well what do I know from shifting?! Like I ever drove before!Silent Bob shrugs and smokes. Bethany walks away, shaking her head. JAYChicks.Silent Bob nods and extracts a tool from his jacket. He begins working onthe engine as a cross~ountry bus races by.INT BUS - NIGHTBartleby and Loki sit in the back. Bartleby reads a map and Loki stares atthe gun in his lap. A COUPLE makes out in the seat in front of them. BARTLEBYWe have to pass through three more states to get to New Jersey: Indianna,Ohio, and Pennsylvania. LOKIWith a very important stop in Cleveland. BARTLEBYOh right. The Angel of Death Returns. Sounds like a bad movie. LOKIMovies are bullshit. And don't start with me, airight. The last time youbugged me about my job, you got us sentenced to life in Wisconsin.(looks out window)All this time we've been down here, why didn't we ever leave the Cheese? BARTLEBYHe said to stay where he put us. We feared worse punishment if we disobeyedHim again. LOKIWhere were we afraid He'd send us? BARTLEBYNew Jersey. LOKINow that, my friend. is irony. BARTLEBY(beat)You know, maybe you're wrong about this slaughter. How can you even be sureof what incurs the Lord's wrath these days? Times change. Remember wheneating meat on Friday was supposed to be a Hellworthy tresspass? Or whenpeople weren't even supposed to shop on Sundays? LOKIThat stuff was small potatoes. The major sins never change. And believe me- I can spot a commandment breaker a mile away. BARTLEBYSure. LOKIYou don't believe me?(looks around; eyes fall on kissing couple)There. There's one. BARTLEBY(off couple)So what? They're kissing. LOKIAdultery. BARTLEBYThat's a stretch. How do you know they're not dating? LOKIYou'd know better than me - let's hear it. BARTLEBYOh, I know the truth. But let's see how boned up on the job you really are. LOKIA test? BARTLEBYOf sorts. So what's your proof? LOKIHe's wearing a wedding band. BARTLEBYSo? Maybe that's his wife. LOKINo married man kisses his wife like that. You get married and the passiondies, man. Don't you ever watch talk shows? BARTLEBYWhat are you talking about? LOKIA guy makes his best plays when wooing. When the object of his desire iswon, there's no need to expend the effort anymore. He relaxes, satisfiedwith the spoils of victory, which he then decides isn't so victoriousbecause he's saddled with a life-mate. BARTLEBYVery romantic sentiment. LOKIThat's the problem - romance. You think about it :back in the old days,nobody got married out of quote, unquote, love. People married forproperty', dowries, or to procreate - to immortalize oneself throughoffspring. When did all this love stuff start? What the hell happened tothe status quo? BARTLEBYThe Troubadors. LOKILionel Richie's old group? BARTLEBYNo, that's the Commodores. The Troubadors were wandering minstrels anddramatists that sang melodramatic and sappy songs of undying love. LOKISounds like the Commodores. BARTLEBYThe Troubadors made 'love' fashionable. And their influence altered thebalance in a significant fashion. Until them, people got married becausethey had to. After them, people started 'falling in love'. Romanticcourtships became the norm. What started out as simple entertainment madesuch a dramatic impact as to forever alter the way society operates. LOKIThat's human beings for you - easily misled. From the Garden of Eden to the'Thigh Master' - thev believe what they're told. I'm telling you - one daythey're all going to watch one too many John Hughes flicks and startlooking for Shermer, Illinois. BARTLEBYBe fair. Humans are dumb, but not that dumb.(off couple)So is it adultery or not? LOKI(thinks; to couple)Excuse me.The Couple stops kissing. The MAN looks at Loki. LOKIAre you married? MAN(puzzled)Why? LOKIJust curious. MAN(holds up ring finger)What do you think?The Man shakes his head and goes back to kissing. Bartleby offers Loki a"Satisfled?' expression. Loki taps the Man on the shoulder. MAN(breaks kiss; pissed)What?! LOKITo her? MANWhat? LOKIAre you married to her? MANNot that it's any of your fucking business, but no! Why?!Loki looks at Bartleby. Bartleby rolls his eyes. Loki calmly shoots the manin the head. Screaming ensues.EXT HIGHWAY - NIGHTThe bus skids to a halt. People flock off in a panic. scattering. After abeat, Bartleby and Loki deboard and stand there alone. BARTLEBYYou're such an asshole. LOKIDon't blame me, man. Blame the Commodores. BARTLEBYTroubadors.EXT ROADSIDE OF HIGHWAY - DAWNSilent Bob still tools around under the hood, Jay hands him variouswrenches. Bethany steams off to the side. JAY(to Silent Bob)She's pissed, dude. She'll never fuck us now. Well,maybe you, but definitely not me.(beat)Let me know how she is. BETHANY(turns on him)Nobody is fucking me! You got that?! JAYAt least not in this car. BETHANY(sighs)I'm sorry I dragged you to that diner. I don't know what I was thinking.But being that I've decided to go home and not to New Jersey, this is whereyou two get off. JAYYou're breaking up with us? BETHANYGood luck with finding Molly Ringwald, or whoever it is vou're looking for.Sorry for the inconvenience. Good bye.Bethany starts walking away. Jay stares at her, shocked. JAY(to Bethany)Who the hell do you think you are, lady? You can't go around breakingpeople's hearts like that! We fell in love with you! Guys like us don'tjust fall out of the sky, you know!On cue, a naked black MAN falls from the sky. landing between the twoparties. Bethany and Jay stare at him. The Man is face down, sooty, andashen - as if he's just been in a fire. Bethany drops to her knees androlls him over, feeling for a pulse. Jay looks down, then looks skyward asSilent Bob joins him. JAY(yelling up)A beautiful, naked woman doesn't just fall from the sky, you know?!(beat; to Silent Bob)Was worth a try.Silent Bob nods. Bethany presses her ear to the man's chest. BETHANYNo heartbeat. JAYDo you think he fell from a plane? Like 'Alive'? Did you ever see thatflick? BETHANY(starts CPR'ing him)I think there would have been more of a mess if he fell from that high. MANNot necessarily.Bethany, Jay, and Silent Bob leap back. The man sits up and rubs his face. JAYKILL IT!! KILL IT!! MANThat sounds familiar. BETHANYJesus, are you okay? MANRufus. And yes, I'm fine. JAYHe's the fuckin' undead!! Cut his head off!! RUFUS(getting up with Bethany's help)What happened to your car? You clock ninety in first gear or something? JAYMind your own fucking business! RUFUS(to Jay)Listen, goldie-locks, what I just did was not easy and it ga\e me a fuckingmigraine. Now if you don't pipe down, I'm going to rip your balls off. JAY(hiding behind Silent Bob)I knew it! Mother fucker wants to eat my brain! BETHANYI think he was aiming a bit further south.(to Rufus)Speaking of which, you're awfully nude - Rufus, is it? RUFUSRufus it is, Miss.(to Silent Bob)Hey, tubby... how's about lending a brother your coat 'till I can find myown threads?Jay looks at Silent Bob. JAYDude, he fell out of thin air!Silent Bob shrugs and passes his coat to Rufus. Jay bugs. JAYDude, his dick is gonna be rubbing all over the inside of your armor! RUFUS(to Silent Bob)I'll do my best to tuck it back, brother.Silent Bob nods. Something OC catches his eye. He stares OC and exits. BETHANYWhere exactly did you fall from? RUFUSSome might say grace. JAY(to Silent Bob)Dude, he's talking about your mom.Jay turns to see that Silent Bob isn't there.Silent Bob peers at a large bush at the road side. The bush rustlesslightly. OC BETHANYYou know, normally I'd have a hard time with this, but somehow you fallingout of the sky seems to go hand in glove with some of the other stuff I'vebeen deaiing with. OC RUFUSBelieve me - you ain't seen nothing yet.Silent Bob peers closer at the bush. Suddenly - a Stygian Triplet leaps outat him, pinning him to the ground with his hockey stick.The other two Triplets leap on top of Jay and BETHANYRufus grabs the one off Bethany and hurls him to the side.Jay manages to reach into his jacket and pull out a copy of Penthouse. Herolls it up and starts beating the kid in the head with it.Silent Bob gets his hands under the stick that pins him and pushes it uphard, into the Triplet's forhead, knocking him off. He rushes to Jay's sideand plies the other Triplet from his throat, hurling him OC.The Triplet Silent Bob fought 'punctures' the air with his stick and ripsdownward, creating a 'hole'. He grabs his friend and leaps into it,disappearing.Jay and Silent Bob look at eachother, blink, and embrace passionately.The Triplet that Rufus threw rushes Rufus from behind - hockey stick inlancing position. Without looking back, Rufus reaches behind himself,grabbing the stick and swinging it (and the Triplet) over his head in anarch, letting go. The last Triplet goes sailing through the 'hole', and itseals shut.Bethany, Jay and Silent Bob are in various wide-eyed states of shock. JAYAlright - what's with you, lady?! That's the second time you got attackedby the fucking Mighty Ducks! RUFUS(wiping off hands)Man, they're onto you bad, already. I got here just in time. BETHANYHow can you be so composed? We were almost killed. RUFUSDeath is a worry of the living. The dead only worry about decay andnecrophiliacs. JAYSee! I told you he was the undead! RU FUSNot the undead, the dead. I died. Christ told me the secret to resurrectiononce when we were at a wedding in Canna, but I got drunk and forgot it. BETHANY (incredulous)Wait. wait, wait - Christ? You knew Christ? RUFUSKnew him? I saw him naked. BETHANYLet me guess - you're another angel? RUFUSNo, I'm a man - just like you and him.(looks at Jay)Well, maybe not like him. At least I was a man. Been dead for nearly twothousand years. Here.(pulls rolled up paper from behind his ear) JAYNo wonder he saw Jesus - homey's rockin' the ganj. BETHANY(unrollingit)It's not a joint.(looks at it)I can't read this. RUFUSIt's Sanskiit. It says "Rufus - see you in two years. Jesus." Freaked meout because he basically told me when my number was up. Took the flavor outof the remaining years. Look, we gotta keep moving. If we stay in one placelong enough, those things are liable to come back. What say we continuethis discussion over something to eat? BETHANY(snaps)WAIT A SECOND!(inhales deeply)I'm a rational woman, okay. All I want to know is where you, and those...kids came from?! RUFUSThey came from Hell. I came from Heaven.(walking away)Let's start walking. JAYWalk? Do you know how far we are from anywhere? RUFUSBack in the old days with J.C., we walked everywhere. Did you ever hear ofa fat apostle?(exits)Bethany looks to Jay and Silent Bob for some guidance or stability. JAYWhat's an apostle?Bethany shakes her head and exits. Jay and Silent Bob shrug at each other.EXT MOOBY CORP. BUILDING - DAWNA large office building in downtown Cleveland. The city. hasn't started upyet. A pickup truck pulls curbside in front of the structure. Bartleby andLoki jump out of the back and pat the side of the truck. offering wavedthank-you's to the driver. As the truck pulls away, Loki pulls out thearticle and looks at it. He looks up at the building and nods to Bartleby,smiling. They head toward the front doors.INT QUAlNT SUBURBAN HOUSE - DAWNA ringing phone is answered by the unseen figure in the chair. We move fromthe seated Figure, passing by the dead bodies of the home's originalowners, and come to a stop on the bruised and worn Stygian Triplets seatedon a couch. They look scared. FIGUREHello?... No, they're not in right now... I'm the phone guy... I'll leavethem a message... Bye.The Figure hangs up the phone and rises. FIGUREYou say the girl has already met the prophets?The Stygian Triplets nod. FIGUREShe grows closer to learning her true identity. If that happens, our planis jeopardized. I can't afford to go into the field - that might compromiseus further. The best course of action is to insure that our parcel is notfound. And being that I can't even trust you enough to kill a girl, I'mleft with no choice but to seek outside assistance in guarding our package.(sighs)I'm going to have to summon the Golgothan.The Figure exits. The Stygian Triplets register shock.EXT FAST FOOD JOINT - DAWNRufus - now wearing some funky new clothes - carries a tray of fast food toan outdoor table. Sitting already are Bethany, Jay, and Silent Bob. RUFUS(off new clothes)It's amazing the shit people throw out. Didn't I tell you I'd find somethreads?A car full of teens whip past them. TEEN(yelling from passing car)GARBAGE PICKER! RUFUS(waves to them)Thank you.(to group)What's that mean? JAYIt means they saw you pull that shit out of that dumpster. RUFUSSo it's a good thing, then.(handing coat back to Silent Bob)I appreciate the loan, brother. You can have this back. JAY(to Silent Bob)Lucky you. RUFUS(off food)Damn, I remember when all we used to have for breakfast was fish and goat'smilk. What do you call this shit? BETHANY(to Rufus)Egg McMuffin. Now how about you start explaining some things to me. RUFUSLike what? BETHANYLike - for starters - who the hell are those kids that keep attacking me? RUFUSNasty little bastards called the Stygian Triplets. They're not reallyrelated. When they were alive they were a trio of kids that snatched aneighbor's toddler and smashed it's skull in - "just to see what it lookedlike" I believe was their defense. They were killed in a car wreck on theway to a detention center. BETHANYSo they're dead too? RUFUSYou'd be surprised how many dead people are just walking around - we'restubborn bastards. Thing is, those kids are supposed to be in Hell. Whichmeans that someone wants you out of the picture so badly they're willing tosummon demons. BETHANYIs it those two angels I'm supposed to stop? RUFUSCouldn't be. They're not evil - they're just stupid. JAY(to Bethany)Wait a minute - are you going to listen to this shit? We don't even knowwho this guy is. For all you know, he's in with those fucks. They bothshowed up at the same time. BETHANYI hate to say it - but he does have a point. How did you know where to findus? RUFUSYou know what the dead do with most of their time? They watch the living.Especially in the shower. JAY(to Silent Bob)I can't wait to die. BETHANYAnd why are you watching me? RUFUSBecause you're the one who's going to help me get some changes made in thatbook you all hold so much stock in. JAYHustler? RUFUSThe Bible. BETHANYWhat's your beef with the Bible? RUFUSI'm not in it. JAYNeither are any of us, but you don't hear us bitching. RUFUSBut I'm supposed to be in it. I was the Thirteenth Apostle. BETHANYI've been going to church my entire life and I've never heard of athirteenth apostle named Rufus. RUFUSSee? You know all about the other twelve Apostles -white boys, I might add.But no mention of Rufus. And why? Cause I'm a black man. But that's just mypet peeve. I mainly want to correct a major error that you people arebasing a faith on. BETHANYWhat's that? RUFUSJesus wasn't white; He was black.Rufus bites into his sandwhich. Bethany, Jay and Silent Bob look at him andthen each other. JAYBullshit. I've seen pictures of Jesus, and He has blonde hair and blueeyes. RUFUS(wiping hands)That's what's particularly insulting. Between the time when He establishedthe faith and the church started to officially organize, the powers-that-bedecided that while the message of Christ was integral, the fact that He wasblack was a detriment. So all renderings were ordered to be Eurocentric,even though the brother was blacker than Jesse. BETHANYIf that's true, then why'd He get written about while you were left out? RUFUSWell He is the Son of God, right? It's kind of hard to have the NewTestament without him. So you fudge a few facts and put a spin on Hisethnicity. Leaving me out's okay because there's still Twelve apostles tochoose from. JAYI don't buy it. RUFUSThat's what the good people of Antioch were saying when they stoned my ass. BETHANYYou were martyred? RUFUSThat's one way of putting it. Another way is to say I was bludgeoned toshit by big rocks. See - Christ told us Apostles to go out into the worldand spread His word. Antioch was already garnering a big Christianfollowing, so I got sent there. And was a big hit. They loved hearing aboutJesus' message, and how He was the Redeemer. But when I mentioned He wasblack, the whole town turned on me - called me a liar and shit. I pressedthe point, and before I know it, I'm wearing stones - although not toaccessonze. BETH ANYWhy didn't you just let the point go when you saw how they were reacting? RUFUSBecause it's part of the facts. White folks only want to hear the goodshit: life eternal, a place in God's kingdom. As soon as they hear they'regetting all this from a black Jesus, they freak. And that - my friends - iscalled Hypocrisy. Folks just can't accept a black Savior.(to Silent Bob)You going to eat that hash brown? BETHANYSo you went to Heaven? RUFUSShit yeah; it was the least the brother could do. I gave up my sheep andfollowed His ass around Jerusalem for three years. And in all that time,did I ever get laid? Hell no! But I didn't bitch, because I was into Hismessage. And while the message is what counts, folks should know that Hewas black. That's why I'm going to help you find stop those angels fromgetting to that church in exchange for you helping me with my campaign. BETHANYHow do you know about that? RUFUSHeaven's a pretty boring place, and anything that breaks the tedium isnews. The unmaking of existence is what you might consider a greattediumbreaker. Besides, there isn't much I don't know about you. BETHANYI find that hard to believe. RUFUSWhen you were five you let a kid from next door piss on your hand. JAY(shocked)You did that? BETHANYYeah... but I never told anyone about it. RUFUSNeither did he. He died of Leukemia two years later. His name was... BETHANY...BryanJohnson. RUFUSYour exploits - no matter how inane - are well-known in Heaven. Probably inHell, too.Bethany rubs her temples and exits OC. Rufus watches her go. JAY(intrigued)Tell me something about me. RUFUS(preoccupied with the OC Bethany)You masturbate more than anybody else on the planet. JAYShit, everyone knows that. Tell me something nobody knows. RUFUSYou think about guys when you do it.Rufus gets up and exits. Silent Bob looks at Jay, shocked. JAYNot all the time!Bethany sits on a swing in the kiddie-jungle gym, shaking her head. Rufusjoins her. RUFUSI'm sorty if I spooked you. BETHANYI just feel... violated. Like my life isn't mine exclusively. RUFUSThat's the way it goes with celebrities. BETHANYWhat are you talking about? I'm a nobody. I'm just a quiet girl from thesuburbs who counsels pregnant teens. RUFUSYou sound like Christ. He had the same reaction when He found out who Hewas, minus the quiet girl from the 'burbs angle. And like Him, I'm sureyou'll come to terms and do what you're supposed to. BETHANYWhy not get the pope or someone holy like that? RUFUSJust because a guy wears a funny hat, doesn't make him the right man forthe job. Only certain hands can deliver the world from the brink ofdestruction. last time it was Jesus - this time it's you. BETHANYWhy me? RUFUSCan't say yet. But the question is - are your hands capable enough to carrythe burden. It all rides on you. BFTRANY(rubbing her temples)Two thirds of me wants to forget about this and go home. You know,yesterday I wasn't sure God even existed. And now I'm upto my ass inChristian Mythology. RUFUSGod hates it when it's referred to as Mythology. BFTHANYWell then let's ask the quote, unquote 'prophets' what we should call itinstead.(looking OC; concerned)Now where did those two assholes go?INT STRIP JOINTIt's your typical strip club. One woman on a stage and a crowd of menpaying way-too-much attention. The place is dimly lit with red lights andchock full of smoke. Off to one side, a dee-jay spins records, blasting themusic. The crowd is rather thin.Jay and Silent Bob sit at the stage. their eyes glued on...The DANCER - a gorgeous, shapely vixen with very little clothing on, andgrowing littler by the second.Jay pokes Silent Bob, who produces a wad of bills. They skim off a nicepile and stow the rest. They spread their piles neatly on the bar. TheDancer smiles and starts dancing toward them. Jay holds up a five-spot andperforms his own little seductive dance ~th it. He stands at the edge ofthe stage, ~'rating. The Dancer slinks over and Jay stuffs the five in herG-string. She rubs his head and slinks away. Jay humps Silent Bob's chair,excitedly. Bethany and Rufus come up from behind them. Bethany hits Jay. BETHANY(shouting above the music)What are you doing? JAYProving to this bastard that I ain't gay. BETHANYWhat? RUFUSLong story - forget it. But we should get moving. How can we get to NewJersey? BETHANYI had a car.She slaps Jay upside the head, but - riveted by the Dancer - he doesn'tfeel it. BETHANY(to Rufus)We could go by train. RUFUS(looking OC)Sounds cool. BETHANYThere's a phone out there. I'll call for reservations.Rufus is now also riveted by a table dancer off to the side. BETHANYNo, it's okay. I can handle it.Rufus half-nods. Bethany shakes her head and exits.The Dancer gyrates on the stage, revealing more and more of herself.Jay pounds on the stage, hoots, and dances, flashing more bills.ACROSS THE STAGE a small GANG of bandanna-wearing, angry-looking blackswatch the OC Jay with little amusement. The Dancer dances toward them. JAY(banging on stage)Sweet thing!(Hashes another five)Look what I found! Snoog!The Dancer smiles as she approaches Jay, but is interrupted by morebanging.The GANG LEADER has his foot on the stage. He produces a ten dollar billfrom his jacket and casually holds it up. The other three members of hisposse smile and slap hands.The Dancer shrugs at the shocked Jay and changes direction, heading towardthe Gang. Jay casts a horrified look at Silent Bob.The Gang Leader leans forward, preparing to tip when we hear an obnoxiouslyloud throat~learing.Jay holds aloft a twenty, smiling and nodding.The Dancer shrugs at the Gang Leader and again switches direction. The GangLeader looks at his posse, who shake their heads at him, disappointedly.The Stage becomes a bidding table, as - on one side - the Gang Leaderproduces two twenties. On the other side, jay - staring at the Gang Leader- produces three twenties. The Gang Leader hits his posse up for more cash.Jay hits Silent Bob up for more cash. The Dancer stays in the middle,gyrating and sizing up the best offer.Jay then produces the creme'de Ia creme': three hundred dollar bills. Hesneers at the OC Gang Leader. The Dancer heads over to jay and wraps herlegs around him from the stage, gyrating against his groin. Jay stares atthe Gang Leader, a victorious smirk on his face.The Gang Leader shakes his head angrily and jumps out of his seat,producing a gun from his jacket. He fires into the ceiling. The musicscratches to a halt and the other viewers scatter toward the door. The GangLeader points his piece at Jay, his posse backing him up. GANG LEADERYou a smart ass, ain'tcha, white boy? Come in here and ruin my good time. JAYIt's a free country. The bitch just came to the man with the most. DANCERBitch? JAYNo offense, baby. GANG LEADERThe bitch is gonna be leaving with the man with the most - the man with themost led in his piece. While you and tubby are leaving with the most led inyour dead fucking carcasses, know what I'm sayin? JAY(to Dancer)Step to the side, baby. I've gotta slap this pussyass, Nino Brown wanna-bedown. DANCER(to Gang Leader)Come on, Kane. This isn't necessary. GANG LEADERShut the fuck up and back away from the midget!The Dancer moves to the side. GANG LEADER(to Jay)Now I believe you were about to apologize. I believe you were about tointone some pleas for mercy. You were about to say "Please, Mister Kane, Ididn't mean to disrespect you in your club. Please accept my most humbleapology.Bethany comes back and sees the mess. She moves to rush to Jay's side, butRufus holds her back An OC Jay laughs.Jay leans on Silent Bob, laughing. The Gang stares back, angrily. JAYYou want an apology? GANG LEADER(cocks gun)Give me at least one "I'm sorry," and ltll put a kill shot through thatthick fucking skull of your's. Otherwise we go slow and long in the paindispensation. JAY(beat; zips jacket closed)Know what I'm doing? GANG LEADERNo. What you doing? JAYI'm closing my jacket, so that when we start this up, I don't get yourfilthy fucking brain guts all over my shirt. You know why? GANG LEADERWhy? JAYBecause you can't get shit stains out of flannel. What I'm saying is thatyou got shit for brains.The Gang Leader and his posse stare silently for a moment. GANG LEADERWell I appreciate you breaking that down for me, but I got it without theexplanation. JAYNo. No, I don't think you did get it. See, there's gonna he some nine'sfiring in here, and when the bullets stop flyin', your cunt-lip ass isgonna be all holes and smoke. You think you can draw on me and walk away?Fuck that. And fuck you - you punk-ass monkey bitch! Yeah, I called you amonkey! Maybe if you kiss my dick all nice before I cap you, I'll bring acoconut to your funeral and lay it on your grave; stick a straw through itand stick the other end in the ground. Your lips'll reach.The Gang stares, mystified. Rufus and Bethany can't move they're sofrightened. JAYYou think every white boy cowers at your ass? Shit, if I don't fuckingplant you - watermelon - my muscle here will.(thumbs at Silent Bob)What do you think he is? My boy friend? I love chicks. So he's gotta bewith me for one reason: to watch my back. Silent Bob doesn't talk in words- he speaks in bullets. Re's all quiet cause he's thinking about how he'sgonna take you and your bitches out quick enough to piss on the bullets inyour bodies before they cool down. You know why? Because he likes to seethe hot steam coming off them when he sprays them down. Come to think ofit, I~m tired of talking to your dumb ass; you probably don't evenunderstand big words like 'piss'. Tell you what - I'll let him explain itto you.(to Silent Bob)Silent Bob - shoot these punk-monkey bitches.Silent Bob slowly raises his hands in a surrender fashion. Jay looks athim. JAYWhat are you waiting for?!Silent Bob shrugs. JAY(flabbergasted)YOU DON'T RAVE A GUN?!?Silent Bob kind of nods JAY(shocked)WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN? ALL THIS TIME WE'VE BEEN TOGETHER, AND YOU DON'THAVE A GUN?!?Silent Bob indicates the negative, sheepishly. JAYTHAT'S JUST FUCKING GREAT! DO YOU THINK IWOULD'VE SAID ALL THAT IF I'D KNOWN YOUDIDN'T HAVE A GUN?!?(beat)HUNHH?!?Silent Bob raises his eyebrows remorsefully. The Gang snickers and smiles.GANG LEADERWhat was that about a coconut?Jay shakes his head and glowers at Silent Bob. JAYNo gun! What the fuck kind of muscle are you?! All this time and you got nogun!GANG LEADEROh boys! We have some unfinished business here. JAY(sheepishly)Can we talk this over? GANG LEADERTell you what - you got thirty seconds. Then I cap you. Talk all you like.Bethany goes to make a move, but Rufus holds her back, shaking his head. Heputs a finger to his lips to quiet her and points back toward the action,smiling.Jay fumes. JAY(to Silent Bob)I can't believe you.(to Gang Leader)Do me a favor.(points to Silent Bob)Shoot this piece of shit first.(to Silent Bob; disgusted)No gun!Suddenly, they both snap into a momentary trance. Zombie-like, Jay andSilent Bob step to the turntables behind them. Jay puts on headphones andbegins scratching a record. A familiar tune begins.The Gang watches, perplexed.Silent Bob whips around, microphone in his hand, and begins to sing. SILENT BOBHEY, HEY, HEY!!! IT'S FAT ALBERT!AND I'M GONNA SING A SONG FOR YOU!!AND BILL'S GONNA TELL YOU A THING OR TWO!!WE'LL HAVE SOME FUN, NOW!WITH BILL AND ALL THE GANG!LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER -WHILE WE DO OUR THANG!The Gang slowly goes from perplexity to enjoyment. The Gang Leader softensand smiles, adding a slight nod of approval. Jay provides back-up. JAYNA , NA, NA! GON NA HAVE A GOOD TIME! SILENT BOB(as Fat Albert)HEY! HEY! HEY! JAYNA. NA. NA! GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME!Bethany and Rufus look on. amazed. RUFUSI thought she looked familiar. BETHANYWho? RUFUS(he nods toward the stage)Serendipity.Bethany looks to the stage.The Dancer is the SERENDIPITY in question. She wipes sweat from her brow.INT. MOOBY CORP. BOARDROOM - DAYOh, this isn't your standard boardroom; this is Mooby Corp., home of Mooby,the Golden Calf - which can only be described as a bovine variation onBarney: sickeningly simple and very non-threatening. A large table sits inthe middle, a media center behind the huge chair at the head. The walls areadorned with framed posters of Mooby, playing with kids, mouth agape in astupid smile. At the center of the table is a large, gold plated statue ofthe insipid creature.Doors open and the boardroom fills with suits - six men, one woman. Theychatter and take their seats. After a beat, WHITLAND, the CEO, enters,taking his place at the head of the conference table. WHITLANDGood morning, shoppers.(slaps a file on table)Has anyone seen the over-night's?An anticipatory hush fills the room. WHITLANDWe creamed 'em.A cheer and applause goes up from the group. Whitland smiles. WHITLAND(reading from file)And last night was a rerun, which says to me that with the six months wehave to ready and promote the 'Very Nlooby Christmas' pay-per-view special,we can produce history-making numbers. The record is held by thatshock-jock's New Year's thing, but I see no reason why our little cash cowcan't supercede those numbers and...(stops and sniffs the air)Do I smell onions?Bartleby and Loki sit behind the thrall on a black leather couch. Loki iscarving something out of an onion, while Bartleby looks on.Whitland and the rest of the board stare at them. WHITLANDI didn't realize we had guests. Who are these gentlemen with?The other suits shrug and look to one another for an answer nobody has. WHITLAND(to Bartleby and Loki)Excuse me.Loki continues carving. Bartleby looks at his friend and shakes his head.Loki lifts his head without looking up. LOKI(very distracted)Hmm? WHITLANDMay I ask what you're doing in my boardroom? LOKI(still preoccupied)My friend just has a few words for you, and then we'll be on our way.Heading to Jersey, you see. Now -by the decor, I assume I'm guessingcorrectly that this is the corporate headquarters for Mooby ProductionsInternational? WHITLANDYou guess correctly. Now, may I ask who the fuck you are and - again - whatthe fuck you're doing in our conference room? LOKI(to Bartleby, still not looking up)You may proceed, mon ami'. BARTLEBYI can't believe you.(to Whitland)I just want to start off by apologizing. My friend here has a penchanttoward the dramatic, so he's making me do this. Usually, I don't eveninvolve myself in his affairs, but he hasn't done this in awhile, so hewants... LOKI(frustrated)Just read 'em their rights already. BARTLEBY(sighs; circling the table)Mooby, the Golden Calf. Created by Nancy Goidruff -a former kindergartenteacher - in nineteen eighty nine to fill a gap in the Saturday morningschedule on local network K-REL Bought by the Complex Corporation innineteen ninety one and broadcast nationally as the 'The Mooby Fun-TimeHour', it picked up a large following of children, ages three to eight, andspawns sixteen records, two theatrical films, eight prime-time specials, alibrary of priced-to-own video cassettes, and bicoastal theme parks dubbed'MoobyWorld'.(beat)Did I miss anything?Whitland and company stare for a beat. WHITLANDYou forgot 'Mooby Magazine'. Is there a point to this? BARTLEBY(grimly)You and your board are idolators.Whitland and company stare dumbfounded. Loki finishes carving and standsbeside Bartleby. LOKI(to Bartleby)How could your forget the magazine?Bartleby rolls his eyes. Loki turns to the Whitland and holds up thesculpture. LOKIIt's you.(sets sculpture on table)Do you know much about voo-doo? Fascinating practice, very close toSatanism, but not really much of a religion - no doctrine of faith. Just anarrangements of superstitions, the most well- known of which is the voo-doodoll.(sneezes; waits; continues)A mock-up of an individual is subjected to various pokes and prods, and thedesired result is that the individual will feel the effects. WHITLAND(to nearest board member)Call security - now.Loki throws the knife at the table, severing the phone cord. LOKIAll lines are currently down. BARTLEBY(to Whitland)Again -. I apologize for my friend's... LOKI(frustrated)Would you just get on with it?! BARTLEBY(miffed; to Whitland)You are responsible for raising an icon that draws worship from the Lord.You've broken the first commandment, but more than that, I'm afraid none ofyou passes for a decent human being. Your continued existence is a mockeryof morality.(looks to Loki; Loki nods)Like you - Mister Bernard.(stands behind board member)Last year you cheated on your wife of seventeen years, eight times - twicewith prostitutes. You even had sex with her best friend while she was ather garden club meeting and you were supposed to be watching your kids. LOKIIn the bed you and your wife share, no less.The board member stares in disbelief. Loki nods to Bartleby and he moveson. BARTLBYAnd you, Mister Newman.Loki sifts through compact discs. He pulls out one entitled 'Mooby Mania'and pops it into a player. A simple children's song echoes through theroom. BARTLEBYYou got your girlfriend drunk at last year's Christmas party, and then paida kid from the mailroom to have sex with her while she was passed out, justso you could break up with her - guilt free - when she sobbingly confessedthe next morning that she cheated on you. She killed herself three monthslater. You sent flowers to her wake.The board member's face is frozen. Bartleby shakes his head and movesquickly around the table. BARTLEBY(not liking his job)Mister Pereira disowned his gay son; Mister Turran put his mother in athird-rate nursing home and used the profits from the sale of her house topurchase an oriental rug for himself; Mister Barker flew to the Phillipineson the company account to have sex with an eleven year old boy; MisterBloom okayed the production of Mooby dolls from what he knew were unsafeand toxic materials because it was less costly.Bartleby stops at the female Board member and looks at her, relieved. BARTLEBYYou, on the other hand, are an innocent. You lead a good life and havenever misused your power here.She stares at Bartleby. Loki pats her on the back and urges Bartleby on. BARTLEBYBut you, Mister Whitland. You have more skeletons in your closet than thisassembled party. I can't even mention them aloud.Bartleby leans over and whispers something unheard into Whitland's ear.Whitland goes green. Bartleby steps back. Loki stands beside Whitland. LOKIYou're her father, you sick fuck.Whitland begins sobbing. BARTLEBY(to Loki)Can I go now? LOKI(cheerily rubbing his head)Go on, you crazy kid.Bartlebv exits. Loki turns menacingly on the others. LOKIWith the exception of Miss Pryce, there is not a decent human being amongstyou. Do you know what makes a human being decent?(beat)Fear. And therein lies the problem. None of you has anything to fearanymore. You rest comfortably in seats of inscrutable power, hiding behindyour false idol, far from judgement - lives shrouded in secrecy even fromone another. But not from God.Loki goes to exit but pauses. He turns around. LOKII forgot my little voo-doo doll.(looks at Whitland)Wow. It really does look just like you. Maybe, if I believed enough...Loki begins moaning menacingly, slowly waving an open palm over the figure.Whitland looks at it horrified, then at Loki, then back at the figure. Hesweats and shifts in his seat - eyes pinned on the figure. Loki lets out ashriek and smashes the figure with his fist. Whitland freezes, eyes closed.Slowly, he opens his eyes - unharmed. LOKII don't believe in voo-doo.Loki swiftly exits. The Board Members sit in awed silence. Then the doorsburst open and Loki storms back in. LOKIBut I do believe in this.Gun blazing, he takes out the male board members, including Whitland, in aflurry of bullets. The remaining female Board Member covers her head withher arms. Loki hangs his arm at his side and touches her hair. LOKI(smiling)It's okay. You've done nothing wrong. They were bad men. You are a puresoul.She looks at him, terrified. He smiles back. Then his expression hardens. LOKIBut you didn't say 'God Bless You' when I sneezed.He quickly puts the gun to her head. She slams her eyes shut. OC BARTLEBY(cautionary)Loki!Loki freezes and looks OC. He grimaces and holsters his piece. LOKI(to woman)Sorry. Force of habit.He surveys his handiwork and exits. The female Board Member slowly opensher eyes and looks around.INT STRIP JOINT - LATERJay and the Gang Leader sit together at a table, surrounded by the othergangsters and Silent Bob. They laugh and chug their '40's. GANG LEADER(to Gang)Watch this shit.(to Jay)Do it again, G. Do the Mush-mouth. JAY(swigs his beer; as 'Mush-mouth')Hey-buh, Fat-buh, Al-buh-bert.The Gang laughs hysterically. GANGSTER 1Fat Albert like a mother fucker and shit!Bethany, Rufus, and Serendipity huddle around a table further away. RUFUS(elated)I forgot you were down here! How long now? SERENDIPITYThree years this August. What about you - is this another temporaryexpulsion? You and your 'Christ was down' campaign? BETHANYWhat does that mean - another expulsion? I thought you came down herespecifically to help me?SERENDIPITYIs that what he told you? Rufus gets thrown out constantly; at least once amonth, ethereal time. They always bring him back, but only after a few daysof peace and quiet - free from that black nationalist rhetoric. RUFUS(joking)Artsy-fartsy bitch. SERENDIPITYWho you calling artsy-fartsy? RUFUS(to Bethany)Serendipity here used to hang with us sometimes back in Jerusalem. BETHANYLet me guess - the fourteenth apostle; left out of the bible because she'sa woman. RUFUSThe girl's not a woman.(to Serendipity)No offense. BETHANYOh, those weren't tits I saw Jay cozying up to? SERENDIPITY(tugs on boobs)What, these? You should know better than anyone at this table that titsdon't make a woman. RUFUSHell, the tubby, coat-wearing mother fucker's got tits - don't make him awoman. SERENDIPITYAside from an intuitive knack for accessorizing, what traditionally definesa woman falls between two things : her legs. But as you can see...Serendipity stands and unbuttons her jeans, dropping them slightly,revealing yet another smooth, sexless crotch, quite like Metatron's. SERENDIPITYI lack definition. OC JAYHey! They're getting a free show!Serendipity pulls her pants back up and sits down, smiling at the OC party. BETHANY(weary)Oh God. Another angel. Like Metatron. SERENDIPITYHow do you know Metatron?(to Rufus)How does she know Metatron? RUFUSThis is the last Scion. SERENDIPITY(beat)You're kidding. RUFUSDon't you see the resemblance? SERENDIPITY(stares at Bethany)A bit.(suddenly nervous)Oh shit. If she's been tapped, then something's up. BETHANYI'm confused. RUFUSBethany, Serendipity here isn't technically an angel, nor is she by anymeans a human being like I was and you are.SERENDIPITYAmen to that.(swigs her beer and spits it out) BETHANYThen who is she? SERENDIPITYNot who - what. I haven't always been part of the anthropomorphic club. Iused to be an abstract. BETHANYNow I'm really lost. RUFUSSerendipity's an idea. SERENDIPITYTry all ideas. BETHANYMeaning? SERENDIPITYI'm a muse, stupid.Bethany stares at her for a beat, then at Rufus. Rufus nods affirmatively. BETHANYI can't take much more of this.(downs her beer) RUFUS(to Serendipity)She's now met a seraphim, a dead man, and a muse.You can appreciate her frame of mind. BETHANY(to Serendipity)So you - what - inspire people? SERENDIPITYWhat just went down with your friends over there-you don't think theythought of that themselves? I knew Kane's weak spot for Fat Albert andpassed it along to the boys. RUFUSIf she hadn't interceded, they'd be chalk lines right now. BETHANYYou made them sing that song? SERENDIPITYI offered them a solution out of the hole they dug for themselves.Thankfully, they took it. BETHANYAre you kidding? Those two are so dense, they wouldn't get a good idea ifit was given to them in a specially marked box. SERENDIPITYDense people are the most open to suggestion - it's vou so-calledintelligent folks that have a hard time accepting a good idea. RUFUSAin't that the truth. BETHANYProve it. Give me a good idea. SERENDIPITYIf I do, and you accept it, then you'll have confirmation that you are - asyou say - dense. BETHANY(beat)Alright. So you're a muse. So what kind of people do you inspire - besidesstupid ones? SERENDIPITYI used to specialize in entertainment - literature, theatre, so forth. BETHANYMovies? SERENDIPITYIn some cases, I'd do everything but bang starlets on the casting couch. BETHANYWhat have I seen that you've been involved with? SERENDIPITYOff the top of my head - everything. Well almost everything. For example:I'm responsible for nine of the ten top grossing films of all time. BETHANYNine? SERENDIPITYThe one about the kid, by himself in his house; burglars trying to get inand he fights them off?(Bethany nods)I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to getthe grosses up on that piece of shit. RUFUSWhich brings us to the next logical question - what are you doingstripping? SERENDIPITYWell you remember why I left, right? RUFUSYou were tired of doing all the work and getting none of the credit foryour ideas. SERENDIPITYAnd sick of watching incapable people take brilliant inspiration and turnout real trash.(to Bethany)So I opted to quit being a muse and write for myself. I gave my two weeksnotice. got a body, fifty bucks, and got sent out into the world to make myfortune. BETHANYSo what happened? SERENDIPITYWriter's block. RUFUSWriter's block? SERENDIPITYCan you believe it? Me - a muse, for God's sake! I sit down in front of thetypewriter, and what do I get? Nothing. Blank page. 1 can't even write agrocery list. BETHANYWhat about what you did with Jay and Silent Bob? You inspired them. SERENDIPITYThat's the cosmic joke. I can give out a zillion and nine ideas a second,but I can't keep any for myself. Her quirky sense of humor. BETHANYWhose? SERENDIPITYGod's. BETHANYYou're saying God's a woman. SERENDIPITYWas there ever a doubt in your mind? BETHANYThe possibility never presented itself. He's always referred to as a Him. SERENDIPITYI didn't write it that way My job stops at the idea stage. The person thatholds the pen adds their own perspective, and all the pen-holders were men.One of the drawbacks to being intangible is that you have no say in theeditorial process. RUFUSAnother one's that you can't jerk off. SERENDIPITY(to Bethany)See. these being male-dominated times, the Pharisees and High Priests feltthreatened by the idea of a woman lording over them and controlling theirfates. so they made sure that She became a He Doesn't stop with God - thewhole book is slanted and gender-biased: a woman's responsible for thefirst sin, the fall of man, and the expulsion from Eden. a woman cutsSampson's coif of power, a woman asks for the head of John the Baptist.Read that book again some time - women are painted as bigger antagoniststhan the fucking Egyptians and Romans combined. BETHANY(stunned)God is a woman... SERENDIPITYI don't know what the big surprise is - women are the only gender that cancreate life, just like God created the universe. Who else but a mothercould have the infinite patience with impudent children that God has withhumanity. A woman can give birth to and nurture both sexes, sopsychologists theorize that women are the only gender both sexes can feelcompletely comfortable with; and the faithful - both male and female - feelat ease with God. In time of trial, our first instinct is to implore theaid of the Almighty, just as when you're a child, the only person who canmake it all better is... BETHANY...mom. God, it makes sense. RUFUS(to Serendipity)Shit, you still have a knack for words. SERENDIPITYNot really useful in my new line of work. RUFUSWhat about that? Why'd you choose stripping? SERENDIPITYIn an effort to create something artistic that I could claim as my own.See, I've been able to fool myself into thinking this isn't stripping, it'sdancing; and at least dancing is artistic. But She won't even give me thatmuch - the way God designed dance, it's the only creative act which resultsin no tangible product. Unlike paintings, poems, movies or most other artsforms. when the dance is over, there's nothing to show for it - nothing tosave and enjoy... or sell.(takes a drink)Believe me, the irony wasn't lost on this muse. RUFUSHow long are you going to keep this up? SERENDIPITYBelieve me, I think about eating crow and going back to the grind from timeto time. But I'd hate to give Her the satisfaction of my playing theprodigal. And it sucks because I can't stand being flesh anymore -especially this halfway crap. Not only do I have to take care of theaesthetic - the showers, the haircutting, the pit-shaving - but I can'ttake advantage of the benefits - like getting laid or using my period as anexcuse not to get laid...(conspiratorily to Bethany)...the only true boon to having a period, from what I understand. RLFLSWell we could sure use your help. We need someone with good ideas. Youremember a couple of angels named Loki and Bartleby?SERENDIPITYSure - the angel of death and his squeamish pal with a conscience. RUFUSThey found a way back. SERENDIPITY(shocked)God no. Not the plenary indulgence loop hole? BETHANYYou know about that? SERENDIPITYI always knew that thing was a bad idea. Leave it to the Catholics todestroy existence. RUFUSBethany's Catholic. SERENDIPITYMy condolences. BETHANYWhat do you have against Catholics? SERENDIPITYEver been to a Catholic mass? BETHANYOnce or twice. SERENDIPITYIt's like bad sex - up, down, up, down, kneel, leave.And the whole time you'd rather be watching t.v.You people don't celebrate your faith - you mourn it. BETHANYSo if we're so wrong, then what's the right religion? SERENDIPITYWhen are you people going to learn? It's not about right or wrong - it's aquestion of faith. It doesn't matter what you believe in - just that youbelieve.Jay and Silent Bob join them, wearing bandannas. JAYLook! They made me and Silent Bob part of the gang!Suddenly, the doors behind them blast open, pouring light into the onc~imroom. A huge figure stands in the doorway, backlit and acting as a sepiafilter - the light and vapors surrounding him are brown. FIGURE(deep, gutteral hiss)Not born... shit into existence.Our group stares at the OC brute. Jay sniffs the air. JAYWho farted? SERENDIPITYSweet Christ, someone wants you bad. BETHANYWhat do you mean? What's that smell? RUFUSDon't tell me that's who I think it is. SERENDIPIThThe stench should say it all. BETHANYWho the hell is it?! SERENDIPITYAn excremental - the Golgothan. BETHANYA what? RUFUSA shit-demon.The Golgothan moves slowly from the door, toward the group. NO-MANNo... man. ..of...woman.. born...The Gang join the others. They hold and cover their noses. GANG LEADER(to Jay; loading his piece)Friend of your's? JAY(to group)Is this smelly fuck with us? RUFUSHe's coming for Bethany. JAY(to Gang Leader)Smoke that mother fucker like it ain't no thang! GANG LEADERI knew I'd get to wax someone today. Represent!The Gang charges OC, guns blazing, while we hold on the group. Suddenly,the room is filled with screams and wet, slurpy noises. The group goes fromstaring wide-eyed, to shielding themselves. The noise stops and Jay andSilent Bob look up.The Gang lay about NoMan in trashed, dead positions. They are covered inmurky, creamy crap - their wide, white eyes frozen in horror. NoMan scoopsa finger-full of muck off the leader and eats it, smiling.Our heroes start backing up slowly, as to not be noticed. JAY(to Silent Bob)I guess we're in charge of the gang now. BETHANYWhat the fuck happened?!? SERENDIPITYGo for the bar. We might have a few seconds - his short-term memory's forshit. JAYSo's the rest of him. RUFUSNo chance of taking him down? SERENDIPITYGee. I don't know. Let's ask the gangstas. RUFUSYou're right; let's book.They dash. NoMan snaps to attention and throws it's arm at them, launchinga huge glob of shit through the air. JAY(running; seeing it coming)SHIT!!!Everyone leaps behind the bar. The shit flies over them and slams againstthe mirror above. Immediately, it stretches - Blob-like - over the entireframe, and burns in an acidic fashion.Jay stares, horrified. JAYNow that... is some powerful shit.Serendipity pulls at the floor, yanking open a door. SERENDIPITYQuick! Get in!Bethany, Rufus, jay and Silent Bob leap into the darkness. Serendipityfollows, pulling the door shut on top of them.INT BASEMENTOur heroes cower beneath the floor door. JAYWhat is that thing? SERENDIPITYYou ever hear of Golgotha? BETHANYSkull place. The hill where Christ was crucified. SERENDIPITY(peering above)Yeah, well it wasn't just Christ up there - the Romans crucified everybodyon that hill. Ahd Christ excluded, they were all criminals - killers,brigands, thieves, rapists. And whenever the crucified expired, theirbodies would naturally lose muscle control, spilling bowel and bladder inthe process. And the result is that walking pile of crap up there: theGolgothan Shit-Demon - Hell's chief assassin. And he's here for you,girlie.Silent Bob stares at a crack in the doors. A milky drop of shit dripsthrough it. BETHANYWhat are we doing down here, then?. Any second now he'll be blastingthrough that door! SERENDIPITYShit's brainless. If we can sit tight for a couple of minutes, he'll forgetwhat he came for.Suddenly another drop falls. Then another. Then a steady stream. Silent Bobtaps Rufus and points. Rufus reacts. RUFUS(indicating trickling shit)Looks like it's been taking memory training courses... SERENDIPITY(off trickle)JUMP!!!The five leap from their perch on the steps, just as the doors explode,dumping a torrent of crap on the steps. The body of muck morphs into NoMananew. NoMan lumbers toward them. The group, attempting to gain theirbearings on the floor, crawls backwards. NoMan pulls a piece of himselfoff, rolling it around in It's hands. SERENDIPITYIf anybody still remembers any prayers, I suggest you start whipping themout.Silent Bob stares wide-eyed up at the approaching demon. And then,something occurs to him. He stops backing up and stands. The otherscontinue moving back. BETHANYBob, get down! Jay! JAY(to Silent Bob)You tubby retard! Get your ass back on the floor!Silent Bob stands like a statue in the Golgothan's path. The demon snarls asmile, moving ever closer. Silent Bob reaches into his coat and pulls asmall canister out. He points it at the beast. A mist shoots out into theface of the Golgothan. It pauses, looking confused. The shitball in It'shand drops to the floor, and then so does It.Bethany, Rufus, Serendipity, and Jay climb to their feet and crowd aroundSilent Bob. They look to the fallen, unconscious behemoeth, then to SilentBob. BETHANY(off Bob's canister)What was that?Silent Bob holds the can out to them: it's a small, trial size can of GladeAir Freshener. Jay looks at it, then at Silent Bob. BETHANY(reading can)'Knocks strong odors out.' RUFUSWay to go. tubby. BETHANYWhy would you ever carrs this?Jay farts. Silent Bob sprays the freshener at his ass. The others look atjay. JAYWhat?! RUFUS(to Serendipity)Who has dominion over this thing? SERENDIPITYOnly Lucifer can order a killing. But something doesn't make sense: thisthing never travels alone - with it's intelligence level, Lucifer'd neverallow it. It usually has some kind of backup. RUFUSCan you get some answers? SERENDIPITYI can give it a shot. BETHANYWhat's going on? RUFUSSerendipity's going to talk to that demon. JAYCool! Can we watch? SERENDIPITYNot a good idea. Demon's can wreak havoc on the weak-minded. JAYFuck you - weak-minded! Me and Silent Bob can talk to him in his ownlanguage! See...?(makes the universal metal sign)he'd understand this. SERENDIPITY(shakes her head; to Rufus)Whoever sent this might send mor~. I suggest you take the princess and getas far away as possible.(to Bethany)I'll do what I can to extract some info from shit-boy here. If there'sanything helpful. I'll get it to you somehow. BETHANY(hugs her)Thank you. And... you're a great dancer. SERENDIPITYI'm a better juggler.(to jay and Silent Bob)You know you're supposed to be prophets. right? Start acting like prophets.You should have seen that thing coming. JAY(to Bethany)Why the hell are we getting yelled at?! SERENDIPITYJust watch out for Bethany. Go.Bethany leads Jay and Silent Bob up the stairs. JAY(to Silent Bob)Man, bitch thinks just 'cause she's good-looking, she can tell us what todo. BETHANYShe told me that if you behave, she'll give you head. JAY(excited)Yeah?. BETHANYOh, a demon'd have a field day with you.Serendipity and Rufus watch them disappear up the steps. OC JAY(beat)Shut up. OC BETHANYYou shut up. SERENDIPITY(to Rufus)Nice girl. RUFUSComes from good stock. SERENDIPITYYou haven't told her yet? RUFUSNot the right time. SERENDIPITYHow uncanny is the resemblance? Those eves, the lips... RUFUSThe nails.Serendipity looks at Rufus. He smiles. She hits him, laughing. He cracksup. SERENDIPITYBlasphemer.Then, the OC Golgothan makes a groggy, grumbling noise. SERENDIPITYShit. You'd better go. I'll take care of the trash. RUFUS(hugs her)Good luck.Rufus runs up the steps. Serendipity tunrs on the Golgothan. SERENDIPITYAlright, Stinky - let's see what you know.EXT CHURCH -DAYA suited MAN stands at a podium, addressing a small thrall of reporters. MANAnd now, to speak on behalf of his Holiness' 'Catholicism - Wow!' campaign,ladies and gentlemen of the press, I give you the driving force behind themovement - Cardinal Glick.The reporters clap as CARDINAL GLICK takes to the podium. He strikes one asmore of an agent than a man of the cloth as he removes his Wayfarers. GLICKThank you, Mister Flanagan - one of this parish's chief patrons, whodonated the stained-glass likeness of Our Lady of Gleeful Misery thatwelcomes you as you enter the church every Sunday.(off index cards)Ladies and Gentlemen of the press - few would deny that the Catholic Churchhas fallen behind somewhat in the times. Catholicism usually strikes theaverage person as an old-fashioned remedy for the ills - both moral andpsychological - of a society that has since left it's stringent rules andornate rituals on the heap with 45's and eight track cassettes. And in aneffort to disprove that, the Church has appointed this year as a time ofrenewal, both of faith and of style. So, it is with great pleasure, that Ipresent you and your parish - mere days away from it's centennialcelebration - and the continental United States, via Satellite with thefirst of man revamps that the 'Catholicism -Wow!' campaign will unveil overthe next year. (applause)Now, what does this mean for the average church-goer? Are we going to throwout the rule book and adopt a hippie mentality in regards to our faith? No.We're simply talking about a few minor alterations to both the aestheticand theoretical aspects of a religion that boasts one of the highestmembership numbers on the planet.A few applause ring out. Glick smiles. GLICKThank you, thank you. So what are we talking about here. Well, forexample...(pulls out crucifix)while it has been a time-honored and traditional symboL of our faith, wehave decided to retire the highly recognizable, yet wholely depressingsymbol of our Lord, Jesus Christ, crucified. Why? Well, look at it. Wouldyou relish being a member of a group that uses a man nailed to two piecesof wood as it's masthead? Of course not - who would? I've got enoughdowners in my daily routine without having to deal with this visualeverytime I go to worship. lnstead, the church is going to adopt this new,more soothing and inspiring sigil, which we feel is in-line with our newoutlook.Glick pulls a cover off an object to his right - a two foot figure ofChrist smiling and giving the 'thumbs up'. The crowd buzzes. GLICKSee? Isn't this better? How could you not feel just great walking into achurch and seeing this behind the priest - a positive reinforcement thatwhatever we do, God thinks is 'a~kay'. I love this thing, it's so... REPORTER I(interupting)Cardinal Glick - has the church given any thought to it's position on johnDoe Jersey? Will he be given the right to die with dignity?Another buzz rises from the crowd. Glick rolls his eyes. GLICKC'mon people. We're not here to talk about that. It's an issue we standfirm on - euthanasia is a big no-no, just like abortion. Murder's murder.Why won't you people accept that? Besides, we're here to talk about thislittle guy - your friend and mine... the happy Jesus. Can't you just see iton chains around people's necks, and as the new background in avant garde,MTV videos?INT BUS TERNIINAL - DAYThe image of the 'Happy jesus' - thumbs up and all - is captured on a t.v.monitor, a label reading U\'E VIA SATELLITE - RED BANK. NEW JERSEY' at thebottom of the screen. Bartleby and Loki look up at it, then at one another. LOKIAnd you say Siskel and Ebert have no influence over this culture. BARTLEBYWe're getting out of here at just the right time. These people are nuts. LOKI(off t.v.)And that's the church we're heading to? BARTLEBY(steps to ticket window)If you want to go home...(to WOMAN in window)Two tickets to New Jersey, please. WOMANJersey's sold out, sir. BARTLEBYAre you sure? WOMANThe computer says. LOKICome on - how many people can possibly be going to New Jersey? WOMANEnough to fill a bus. BARTLEBY(to Loki)You had to drag that judgement out. You couldn't just hit and run.(to Woman)When's the next one? WOMANSame time tomorrow. BARTLEBYWhat?! Doesn't this place warrant at least two buses a day? WOMANI take it you've never been to the Garden State. Next.Bartleby and Loki look around. LOKIThere's no one else here. WOMANThen I guess it's lunch time.(she shuts her window) LOKIWe should have learned to drive a long time ago. Infinite celestial powerand we can't catch a bus. BARTLEBYJust shut up, this is your fault. LOKIYou can either lament over our mass transit folly, or you can listen to mysuggestion. BARTLEBYIt's your suggestions that prevent us from negotiating what should be asimple matter of catching or staying on a bus! LOKIWhy fall victim to gravity when we can just as easily rise above? BARTLEBY(stares at him)Fly? LOKIWe got wings, right? Let's use them. OC VOICEI wouldn't suggest that.The pair spin and gawk.AZRAEL leans in the doorway. He removes his hat, revealing two stubbyhorns. AZRAELYou wouldn't want to stand out, now would you?INT STRIP JOINT BASEMENT - DUSKNoMan is tied to a chair in the middle of the floor. Serendipity draws acircle around him with lipstick. Once finished. she takes a glass of waterand throws it into No Man's face. It roars to life. The Golgothan shakes ofhis daze, turning his attention on Serendipity. NoMANThe Muse. They told us you were up here. SERENDIPITYMatter of perspective. NoMan. I like to think of it as 'down here'. I havea few questions for you, sir. NoManFree us from these binds, that you may have answers. SERENDIPITY(heads toward it)Okay.(stops; sarcastic)Oh wait. I'm smarter than that.NoMan lets out a bellow. SERENDIPITYFace it, big guy - I'm not releasing you until I get answers. This can gohard or easy. The sooner I get what I want, the sooner you'll be free. Now,you can start by telling me why you're on this plane? NoMAN(beat)Liquidate the Last Scion. SERENDIPITYSee? That wasn't so hard. Now - who sent you? Was it Lucifer?NoMan laughs in a sinister fashion. NoMANOur master is no one and all. For a time, he will be prince of this world -and the fate of those who dwell in it will be at the mercy of his whimsy.And then he will sever reality and crush existence, like a thumb puncturesa fontanell, giving peace to those who've been without for so long. SERENDIPITYDid Bartleby and Loki send you? NoMANResist no further, Muse. Deliver over to us the conflicted one, that thisworld may die screaming. No power - divine or inherited - threatens thecrusade. You cannot win. Soon will rise of the cry of the abandonned,begging your God to put an end to the madness. And only as being becomesnot, will they know that the God of Abraham lay dormant while the dreamperished in a blink. Your God is not dead - He's brain dead. SERENDIPITYShe, you chauvinist bastard - She's brain dead. And no She's not. Stoptrying to be so spooky. Tell me who sent vou, or I'll use whateverinfluence I have below' to make Hell even worse for you. NoMANYou speak of Azrael.(he laughs)We pity you. Muse. You're still playing the old game. The one that couldhave made good on your threat is gone. SERENDIPITYWhat do you mean. gone? He escaped? NoMANNo soul escapes Hell, but one.(beat - as if It's heard something)Would that I could cross the threshold of your confining circle, I wouldcrush your half-life throat. But my Master does not abandon me to thismockery of a prison. We will come back for the girl. And when we do, itwill take more than fragrant mist to keep our hands from crushing her head.NoMan goes stiff and then limp. His body begins to melt.INT TOY STORE - DAYAzrael leads Bartleby and Loki through the aisles, passing tons of stuffedanimals. BARTLEBYJesus Christ, Azrael - how'd you get out of Hell? AZRAELI told them I was coming up on a routine possession. I don't have muchtime. If they figure out my ruse, they'll come looking for me. BARTLEIBYYou lied? LOKIGo figure. Him. A demon.(to Azrael)Why'd you bring us in here? AZRAELBecause you two fucks are inches away from getting yourselves caught. Goingaround killing people, about to uncase your wings... don't you have anyidea what's going on? LOKIWe're going back home. AZRAELAre you so clueless as to think you can just waltz back into Heaven? BARTLEBYWhy not? We're going back clean. AZ RAELLet me let you in on a little secret, okay: everyone is looking for you.Both sides - above and below. The orders are to terminate you on sight. BARTLEBY(shocked)Why? AZRAELYou're pissing people off, that's why! Word on the grapevine is that God'spissed off at your presumption, and I know Lucifer's pissed because youassholes might just succeed where he's failed so many times, making himlook bad. BARTLEBYSo they're going to kill us?!? AZRAELThey're going to try'. That's why you have to travel incognito - tone downyour behavior, stay off their respective radars. Go about this thing moresubtly. Quit killing people - that's high profile. And for God's sake,don't uncase your wings until you have to transubstantiate. Because theminute you let them flap, legions of thrones and hordes of demons willfight each other over who gets to kill you first.(looksOC)Shhhh!A WOMAN and her small DAUGHTER walk past. While the Woman looks at theitems on the top shelf, Loki pulls off Azrael's hat and taps the Daughteron the shoulder. He points to Azrael's horns. The Woman pulls the Daughterfurther down the aisle, oblivious to the trio. DAUGHTERMommy, that man had horns.Azrael grabs his hat and puts it back on. AZRAELThat's the kind of shit I'm talking about! LOKIOh, lighten up. BARTLEBY(still reeling)I can't believe they want to kill us. AZRAELBelieve it, boys. They've even got the Last Scion looking for you. LOKIYou're kidding! AZRAELThis is big. I'm telling you. Your re-entry is a thorn in a lot of sides,and they'll stop at nothing to prevent it. LOKIIf that's the case, then why aren't you hunting for us too? AZRAELBecause I want to see you go back. You were both given a raw deal; almostas raw as mine. If you make it back, then I figure there's hope for me.(looks around)In the meantime, I suggest you find an alternate mode of transportation. Ifanything else comes up, I'll contact you. BARTLEBYThank you, Azrael. You're a true friend. AZRAELWould you expect anything less from a demon. I have to get back to the Pit,before they get suspicious.(turns to leave) LOKIHey Az - what's it like down there. Is it as bad as they say? AZRAELGive you a hint: they've been playing 'Mrs. Doubtfire' continuously for twoyears now.(exits) LOKI(looks at Bartleby)Shit man - that is punishment.EXT CONTRYSIDE - NIGHTThe Train chugs through the darkness.INT TRAIN - NIGHTBethany and Rufus sit across from one another. They stare out the window. RUFUSHow you coping, kid? BETHANYIt's weird. just when I think I've got a handle on things. somethingwholely unbelievable presents itself. Sometimes I wish I had just stayedhome. RUFUSYou sound like the Man. BETHANY(beat)What was He like? RUFUSJesus? Black. BETHANYBesides that. RUFUSThe brother was centered. I mean, He was God, right? But I think He feltleft out because He was more than human, you know? We used to sit aroundthe fire - me and the other guys - and we'd be talking about what ass-holesthe Romans were or getting laid... BETHANYSome things never change. RUFUS...and He'd just sit there listening and smiling. We'd ask Him why He neverjoined in the convo, but He said He just liked to hear us talk; aboutanything. Said it was like music. I think He just wished He had unimportantshit to talk about himself. BETHANYHow does He feel now? RUFUSHe still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that getscarried out in His name - wars, bigotry, but especially the factioning ofall the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always,built a belief structure on it. BETHANYHaving beliefs isn't good? RUFUSI think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing abelief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working fromidea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limitgrowth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant. That was one thingthe Man hated - still life. He wanted everyone to be as enthralled withliving as He was. Maybe it hadsomething to do with knowing when He was going to die. but Christ had thisvitality that I've never encountered in another person since. You know whatI'm saving? BETHANYHe was big on life? RUFUSIt was more than that. He was the only person I ever knew who never engagedin that most ancient of life-affirming activities. BETHANYSex. RUFUSDebate. That's the only way people know how to reaffirm that they're alive- by debating. In all it's forms. People spend their whole lives debating:we fight about who's right and who's wrong, we fight ourselves, we fighteach other, we fight death, we fight over beliefs, we fight over fights. Webelieve that to stop debating - in any fashion -is to stop living and giveup. People say that life's a struggle, but it's not. Life is living. I'meven guilty of it myself, the way I go on about Christ's ethnicity,fighting for the truth to come out. And I'm dead. Even in death, the onlyway I know how to live is through debate. That's sad, isn't it? BETIIANYNot if you believe it's important for people to know. RUFUSA belief's a dangerous thing, Bethany. People die for it. People kill forit. The whole of existence is in jeopardy right now because of the CatholicBelief structure regarding this plenary indulgence bullshit. And whetherthey know it or not, Bartleby and Loki are exploiting that belief, and ifthey're successful, you, me. all of this... ends in a heartbeat.(beat)All over a belief.Bethany nods. Rufus looks around. RUFUSI haven't seen the moron twins in awhile. BETHANYThey went to the lounge car to smoke.(getting up)I'll go find them; make sure they're not getting into any trouble. RUFUSI'm going to catch a few z's. Forgot how tiring living can be.Bethanv heads off Rufus looks out the window, then shuts his eyes.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTBethany enters and spots jay and Silent Bob, talking to an unseen party. BETHANYYou two aren't getting into any trouble, are you? JAYNope. Just about to smoke a bowl with our new friends. You in? BETHANYAnd who are your new friends? JAYThey just got in at the last stop.Silent Bob moves over, revealing the new friends. JAYThis is Larry and Barry.Bartleby and Loki smile at Bethany. LOKIJay tells us you're going to sleep with him.EXT TRAIN TRACKS - NIGHTThe train rushes over head.INT LOUNGE CAR - LATERLoki, Jay, and Silent Bob pass a joint under the table and take quick hits,trying to remain casual. Jay pounds the table happily.Bartleby and Bethany lay on either side of the table in their booth. BETHANYYou can smoke up with them if you want. You don't have to keep me company. BARTLEBYIt's a long trip. There'll be plenty of time later.(beat)So why are you heading to Jersey? BETRANYThere's just this thing there I'm supposed to do. How about you? BARTLEBYWe're going home. BETHANYDo you two live together? BARTLEBYUnfortunately. Do you live with those guys? B ETHANYGod, no. Not they just sort of adopted me. BARTLEBYThey're funny as hell. The big one never says a word. BETHANYI wish the little one would take a cue from him. But they're okay, as faras stoner's go. BARTLEBYLo... Larry's taken an immediate shine to them, and he usually hatespeople. BETIIANYHow long've you two been together? BARTLEBYAwhile. He's great company. He can be a little flaky sometimes, but we'vegot a lot in common. BETHANYHow'd you meet? BARTLEBYWe were stationed together. BETHANYSee? That's beautiful. And everyone's always up-in-arms about this'out-in-the-military' issue. BARTLEBYWhat do you mean? BETHANYWell there's all that macho bullshit about it being 'This Man's Army'. Andyou two meet and hook up while in the service, which is so special -because it's so hard to meet anyone you can seriously relate to... BARTLEBY(catches on)You think we're lovers?! Oh no. No, we're not gay. BETHANY(laughs)Oh God, I'm sorry'. I just assumed... BARTLEBYNo. We live together and all, but at the end of the night, I go to my room.and he goes to his.(beat)Why? Do I come off as gay? BETHANY(laughing)No, not at all. I'm sorry. My ex-husband kind of fouled up my relationshipawareness barometer. BARTLEBYYou're divorced? BETHANYThat's the nice way of putting it. I consider it being dumped. BARTLEBYI was dumped once. More or less. BETHANYIt's terrible, isn't it? Don't you constantly question your value - likewhy was I so easy to cast aside? Didn't I have merit? BARTLEBYAnd you wonder if the other party's going to come to their senses and callyou back. BETIIANYThe worst is that I still think like a couple. After all these years, Istill have the 'we' mentality. BARTLEBYMine grew out of what was really a stupid misunderstanding. Amisunderstanding that grew into a total withdrawl of communication.Abandonment. And even though it was years ago, there's not a day that goesby that I don't wonder what went wrong. And then it hits me - I wasreplaced by someone. A lot of someones. BET HANYAnd they always tell you it'll hurt less with time... BARTLEBY...when actually, it hurts more. BETHANY(beat)You know what we need? We need some drinks. A lot of drinks. Do you agree? BARTLEBYWhole-heartedly.INT TRAIN CAR - NIGHTRufus continues to slumber.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTJay is asleep on Silent Bob's shoulder, drooling slightly. Loki talks withSilent Bob. LOKII'm telling you, man - it's all about organized religion and society'sbattle against it. The Rebels are fighting the Empire, right? Now theEmpire is led by whom? Darth Vader? No. It's led by the Emperor. And theEmperor is a practitioner of the Force, albeit the Dark Side of the Force.And the Force is basically a religion.(Silent Bob nods)So the entire galaxy is under Imperial rule, and the Imperial government isrun by this old religion. What you have, then, is a theocratic government -a government run by the church. So Luke, Han, and Leia are fighting thatgovernment to liberate the galaxy from the pious grip of what is, inessence, holy mother church.Silent Bob nods in understanding.Bethany and Bartleby slump in their booth, the table loaded with emptyglasses. Bethany is quite tipsy. Bartleby sips his drinks, andsurreptitiously spits it out. BARTLEBYYou're saying you still go to church? BETHANY(laughs)Every Sunday. BARTLEBYDoes it do anything for you? BETHANY(thinks)Gives me time to balance my check book every week. BARTLEBYSee? That's what I'm talking about. People don't go to church and feelspiritual. They go to church and feel bored. But they keep going. Everyweek. Out of habit. BETHANYOr in habit, if you're a nun. BARTLEBYOh... that wasn't very funny at all. BETHANYA friend of mine told me that church is like bad sex:it's messy and there'sno foreplay...(starts laughing)No. that's not it. I am so buzzed. BARTLEBYWhen do you think you lost your faith? BETHANYI remember the exact moment. I was on the phone with my mother, and she wastrying to counsel me through what was happening to me and my marriage. Andshe said something like "There's always a plan." And I... just got soangry. I mean, I know she was talking about God, right - God had a plan.But I was like "What about my plans?" You know? Like, don't they count foranything? I had planned to grow old with my husband and have a family -wasn't that plan good enough for God?(beat)Apparently not.(swigs her drink)How about you? When did you lose your faith? BARTLEBYMe? Years ago. One day, God just stopped listening. I kept talking, but Igot the distinct impression that He wasn't listening anymore. BETHANYShe. And how do you know She was listening in the first place? BARTLEBY(thinks)I guess I don't. BETHANYI hate thoughts like that. But they occur to you with age. When you're akid, you never question the whole faith thing - God's in Heaven, andHe's... She's always got her eye on you. I'd give anything to feel that wayagain. Which is why I guess I let myself get talked into this pilgrimage. Ineeded proof. And the opportunity presented itself to find out if it islike they told us in Catholic school. And I gotta tell you - the last fewdays, I've come across some interesting people that lend toward convincingme. BARTLEBYWhere's this pilgrimage to?INT TRAIN CAR - NIGHTRufus stirs. He looks around and stretches.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTBethany and Bartleby continue their discussion. BETHANYYou'd never believe me if I told you. BARTLEBYTry me. BETHANYAlright. But I warned you. Okay - I'm going to this church in New Jersey. BARTLEBYReally...INT TRAIN CAR - NIGHTRufus heads toward the back of the car. He opens the door between the carsand exits.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTBethany and Bartleby talk further. Bartleby's intrigued. BETHANYI was told that I'm supposed to stop a couple of angels from entering thechurch. They're trying...(laughing)This sounds so stupid... They're trying to get back into Heaven.INT TRAIN CAR - NIGHTRufus passes through another car and opens the door at the end.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTBartleby grows very tense. Bethany rattles on, half-toasted. BETHANYSee, they got tossed out of Heaven years ago, right? And if they get backin, it proves God wrong. And since God is infallible, to prove Her wrongwould...(laughing hard)..would unmake existence! I feel so stupid just saying it.Bartleby's eyes are wide. He looks scared. Then, a calm falls over him. BETRANY(laughing)But the thing I don't get... is how do I stop an angel? Two, even! I guessI'm supposed to talk them out of it or something.Bartleby surreptitiously slides a knife off the table. BARTLEBYMaybe you're supposed to kill them?Bethany breaks into hysterics.INT TRAIN CAR - NIGHTRufus pulls open another door and exits.INT LOUNGE CAR - NIGHTBethany's still cracking up, oblivious to the on-the-defensive Bartleby. BETHANYOh yeah! Kill them! Even if that was the case... I mean. how do you kill anangel? BARTLEBYI don't imagine it's much different...(slowly lifts the knife)...from killing a human...The door behind them slides open. Rufus steps in. RUFUSWhere the hell is everybody? I wake up, and...He sees Bartleby. They both freeze. BARTLEBYThe Apostle! RUFUSHoly shit! BETHANY(stumbling to her feet)Rufus, I want you to meet my friend, Barry...Bartleby leaps out of the booth and grabs Bethany, holding the knife to herthroat. BETHANY(chuckiing)Barry! Don't be such a show off! RUFUSTake it easy, Bartleby. Just let her go and let's talk about this. BARTLEBYAfter all this time, this is what it comes down to -slaughtered by thismeat puppet?! RUFUSThere doesn't have to be a slaughter. We can work this out... BETHANYIs that a knife? BARTLEBYOh. we can work it out, alright. I'm going to work the blade in and out ofher thorax!(calling over shoulder)Loki!Loki catches the action and reacts. LOKIHoly shit - the Apostle!He leaps from the table. Jay stirs and wakes up. jAY(half asleep)I didn't come in you, I swear...(looks around)Bartleby, with Bethany in hand, faces off against Rufus. Loki joins them. LOKI(to Rufus)What are you doing here? BARTLEBYThey're here to thwart our journey home, my friend. This one just told methat she's supposed to stop a couple of angels from entering a church. LOKIYou think she was talking about us? BARTLEBYI'd say there was a pretty good chance. What do you say, Rufus - we're tobe liquidated? RUFUSIt doesn't have to go down like that! You haven't thought about theconsequences of re-entry! LOKIConsequences, schmonsequences. BARTLEBYI have to agree with him. No one - not you, and especially not thisfinite-lifer - no one is going to impede us. We're going home, regardlessof whose pride it may hurt! RUFUSIt's not a question of pride, it's... BARTLEBYLoki - kill the girl LOKI(beat)What are you, high? BARTLEBYDo it! LOKII can't kill her if she hasn't done anything, you know that. And it lookslike she's 'on the job', so to speak... BARTLEBYFine! I'll kill her myself...A hand lands on Bartleby's shoulder. JAY(oblivious to the situation)Hey man - now it's your turn. We got enough for a fatty boom-batty, biggetyblunt!Bartleby turns the knife on him. JAY(not quite getting it yet)We having cake or something?Loki backhands Jay, stunning him. JAY(dazed)In grates...Jay drops to the floor, out cold. Silent Bob grabs Loki and hurls him downthe aisle. Rufus grabs Bartleby's knife hand. They struggle. Bethanycollapses. RUFUSTUBBY! THE DOOR!Silent Bob jumps over Loki and opens the back door of the car. He grabsLoki by the collar. LOKIWait, man! Can't we talk about this?!He throws Loki out the door, off the train.Rufus squeezes Bartleby's hand. Bartleby drops the knife and punches Rufusin the face. Bethany jumps on Bartleby's back, covering his eyes. Theycareen down the aisle, toward Silent Bob. He pulls Bethany off Bartleby'sback and kicks him out the back door, off the train. He quickly slams thedoor closed and leans against it.The Bartender stares at him.Silent Bob brushes off his coat and thumbs toward the door. SILENT BOBNo ticket.Rufus rubs his jaw. Bethany crawls up beside him, breathing heavily. BETH ANYI should have known something was wrong when he paid for all the drinks.INT UNDERGROUND GARAGE - NIGHTA door is kicked open. Loki enters, brushing himself off. Bartleby follows. LOKIThe Apostle is here! BARTLEBYI noticed. LOKIIf that's the case, then chick with him must be... BARTLEBYThe Scion, I'd imagine.(leans against the wall; slides down) LOKI(in a panic)Well, shit man! Maybe we should rethink this whole thing! I mean, you heardthe guy - he said there were consequences. Azrael tells us we're marked.Maybe there's more to this than we thought about.Bartleby leans against the wall, sitting on the ground. His demeanor haschanged. He stares into space. BARTLEBYThere sure is.(beat)It's them. LOKI(beat)What? BARTLEBY(shakes his head)Them. LOKI(thinks)The movie about the giant ants? BARTLEBYThem - the humans. It's what it all comes down to. you know? Us againsthumanity... kind of like that giant ant movie. LOKI(beat)Are you alright? BARTLEBYI'm better than alright. I've had an epiphany, my friend. LOKIAn... epiphany. Yes, well... that'll happen. BARTLEBYWhen that sweet, innocent girl let her mission slip, I suddenly understoodit all - everything. For the first time in all these eons, I get it. LOKI(beat)Get what? BARTLEBYIn the beginning, it was just us and Him. Angels and God. And then Hecreated the humans. And He gave them more than He ever gave us. Our's wasdesigned to be a life of servitude and worship - adoration. But He gave thehumans more - He gave them a choice. They can choose to ignore God, chooseto acknowledge Him. All this time we've been down here, everyday I felt theabsence of the Divine presence. And it pained me... as I'm sure it musthave pained you sometimes, even though you'd gloss over it with jokes. Butwe feel his absence, and why? Because of the way He made us -as servants.Had we been given free will, we could ignore the pain... like them. LOKIYou know - maybe you should take a nap or something. BARTLEBYLoki, don't you get it? It's the humans - it's always the humans. They weregiven paradise; they threw it away. They were given this planet; theydestroyed it. They were favored best among all His endeavors; and some ofthem don't even believe He exists. Their ego-mania corroded Hell and madeit dark and crimson.(looks at Loki)I asked you to lay down your sword years ago - why?Because I felt sorry for them. And where did it get us?Thrown out.(smiles)We've paid our debt. Don't you think it's time we went home? And to dothat, I think we have to dispatch our would-be dispatchers. LOKIWait, wait, wait - kill them?! You're talking about the Last Scion, forChrist's sake! And what about Jay and Bob - I mean, those guys werealright. BARTLEBYDon't, my friend. Don't let your sympathies get the best of you, as theydid me way back when. Scion or not, she's just a human. And regardless, oursins are forgiven by passing through that arch. No harm, no foul. LOKIThat sounds thin. BARTLEBYFine. We'll cover ourselves. We'll take out a slew of people. Maybe amidstthe body count, He won't notice. LOKIOh, that's being realistic.Bartleby reaches out and grabs Loki, slamming him against the wall. BARTLEBYI'm going home, Loki. And nobody - not even the Almighty Himself - is goingto make that otherwise.Bartleby releases Loki and smiles. He exits. Loki watches him. LOKIShit.He follows.EXT CAMP FIRE - NIGHTAnother Newspaper headline regarding 'John Doe Jersey' fills the frame. Itis lowered to reveal Jay, Bethany, and Rufus sitting around a makeshiftfire in the middle of nowhere. Jay rolls a joint. Silent Bob reads thepaper. BETHANYI don't understand why we couldn't stay on the train. You threw those guysoff. RUFUSA very basic strategy - if your enemies know where you are, then don't bethere. BETHANYAnd what's with that? Why are we enemies? The guy almost gutted me, forGod's sake! JAYHe had the knife at your throat. To gut you, he'd have to have the knife atyour stomach. BETHANYSemantics! Semantics that don't even answer mv question. RUFUSWell, I know I'd perceive the person sent to kill me as my enemy. BETHANYWhat do you mean, kill? I wasn't asked to kill them -just stop them fromgoing into that church. RUFUSAnd how were you going to do that? Preoccupy them with a game of Bingo? BETHANYI've never killed anything before in my life! JAYI'll do it. RUFUSShut the fuck up, little man - you couldn't kill a pint of ice cream, letalone an angel. JAYFuck you - I can kill an angel as good as the next guy. RUFUSOh yeah? How' would you do it? JAYI'd give him a Van Damme neck-break, like in 'Hard Target'. D'jou see thatflick? RUFUS(ignoring jay; to Bethany)Killing an angel's a two-step process - first you have to cut off theirwings. which then makes them human. From that point on, it's the same askilling anything else - head or heart, take your pick. BETHANYYou say it as if it's easy. RUFUS(oblivious to Jay)Problem is, I don't think we could pull it off even if we wanted to. Allthis time away from the Divine Presence should have made those two weaker -and those guys felt far from weak. Either that or someone's protecting them- someone with juice. BETHANYSo then we're screwed?(shrugs)Shit, that's the best news l've heard in days. RUFUSThis doesn't excuse you from tryng to stop them. BETHANYCount me out. You're telling me they're unstopable, I'm exhausted - bothpsychologically and physically, the odds are against us. I say we kick backand wait for the end -a little non~xistence might be just what the doctorordered. JAYI'm with her. I don't care about dying, so long as we're all going to die. RUFUSWhat are you babbling about now? JAYIf I was the only one, that'd bother me because every-one else would go onliving, having a good time without me. But if we all go at once, that'd beokay, because I know I'm not missing anything. BETHANYSee? You know it's right when even he's making sense. JAYBesides, she said if we were in a situation where we were going to die inlike five minutes, she'd have sex with me and Silent Bob. RUFUSSo you're suggesting she throw in the towel and let eons of work andhistory get blinked out of existence just so you can get laid? JAY(thinks)No. Just so me and Silent Bob could get laid. BETHANYNow that we're all but in total agreement on this, I'd just like to finallyknow - why me? JAYBecause you've got nice tits. BETHANYI wasn't talking to you!(to Rufus)Why me? Why do I have to do this? Nobody's comeclean on that. Out of everyone on the whole god-damned planet. How come Igot tapped?Rufus looks at her. He shrugs. RUFUSFamily ties. JAYThat show's funny as hell. RUFUSShut up.(to Bethany)Do you know what the Apocryphal books are?Bethany shakes her head no. RUFUSMost of that information in the Bible came from the Dead Sea Scrolls -ancient text discovered in a cave ages ago. And when the Sanskrit wastranslated, they discovered data that conflicted with the lore churchofficials had already established as the basis of their religion. Theycouldn't refute centuries of dogma, so they thought it best to leavecertain passages out - sometimes whole books. Those books make up theApocrypha. BETHANYWhat's this have to do with me? RUFUSYou've never gotten the complete picture. If they had compiled the materialtogether like they were supposed to, you'd get the whole story. But byleaving text out, the church has presented you people with an extremelysterile and unmoving account of religious history. The Creation. the entireOld Testament, the history of Christ...(let's her take it in)Forget about my whole black angle for a minute... JAYWe might if you'd quit bringing it up.Rufus backhands Jay. Silent Bob holds jay back. Rufus continues, oblivousto Jay. RUFUSHe goes from twelve years old to thirty. Whole volumes of text about theeighteen year struggle with His Divine nature prior to His acceptance of itwere thown out, forever lost to the faithful. BETHANYI don't buy it. Integral material like that would give people a betterunderstanding of the nature of God. Why leave it out? RUFUSBecause it was all closely tied in with His family. BETHANYHis mother and father? RUFUSHis brothers and sisters. BETHANY(beat)Wait, wait, wait - Jesus didn't have any brothers or sisters. Mary was avirgin - that's why it's called the Immaculate Conception. RUFUSMary gave birth to Christ without having known a man's touch - that's true.But she did have a husband. And do you really think he'd have stayedmarried to her all those years if he wasn't getting laid? The nature of Godand the Virgin Birth - those are leaps of faith. But believing a wife neverhumped her husband - that's just gullibility. BETHANY(sudden realization)MARY AND JOSEPH HAD SEX?!? RUFUSAll the time, from what I understand. Jesus used to tell me stories abouthearing them through the walls when He was a kid.(beat)So you ask why you got tapped. I'll tell you why: a Christ was thesalvation of this world once before. And you're the closest thing to aChrist that still walks. BETHANYMeaning? RUFUSThe blood that flows in your veins shares a chromosome or two at thegenetic level with the man you call Jesus.(hand on her shoulder)You're His great-grand-niece.Bethany's jaw drops. A high-pitched squeak of a word escapes her lips. JAY(takes a hit from his joint)So... that would make Bethany part black.(to Silent Bob)Man, this is just like when Vader told Luke he was his father. RUFUSI just wish I knew what the hell we're supposed to do now? OC VOICEYou must go to the Dagobah system and find Yoda - the Jedi Master whoinstructed me.Everyone turns around. Metatron leans against a tree. METATRONGod. l've always wanted to say that. RUFUSThe voice. NIETATRON(mimicking his shock)The Apostle!(sits down with them) BETHANYNow you show up! Where were you when that psychotic bastard had a knife tomy throat? METATRONI told you you'd be in capable hands - you're not dead are you? RUFUSWhat are you doing here anyw'ay? METATRONI felt left out. Everyone's sitting around coming clean, I thought I'd joinin with a confession of mine own. JAYNow who's this mother fucker? RUFUSThis is the Voice of God - show some respect. JAYThe Voice of God? Where's the rest of Him? METATRONFunny you should mention that - we're not sure. BETHANYExcuse me? METATRONDidn't it ever occur to you that this Bartleby/Loki situation was wellwithin the realm of His control? RUFUSIf that's the case, then why was Bethany tapped? METATRONYou know those constitutionals He likes to take? BETHANYConstitutionals? RUFUSI think we're beyond euphemisms at this point.(to Bethany)God's a skee-ball fanatic. METATRONLet's not altogether blow some of the mystery that surrounds Him, alright?(to Bethany)Yes - the Lord has quite a fancy for the game; been playing it for years -He assumes a human form once a month and indulges. Doesn't tell anyonewhere He's playing; just goes away for a couple of hours. It's quiteunderstandable - a small exercise in hand/eye coordination has been provenas a highly effective means of therapeutic relaxation. And from what Iunderstand, He always gives his free points away to neighborhood children.Isn't that sweet? BETHANYBut She hasn't come back from one of those day-trips, is what you'regetting at? METATRON(to Rufus)'She'? I take it she's met the Muse.(to Bethany)No, 'She' hasn't. And we've been unable to locate Her. RUFUSMaybe He was killed? Human form has that drawback. M ETAT RONNo - there's a different sort of foul-play afoot, children. Whomever hasset the renegade angels on their path and is keeping them quitewell-hidden. is also responsible for the Lord's whereabouts. Were He to bekilled in human form, He'd have immediately returned to Paradise. Somebodyknew enough to keep the body alive, but incapacitate Him in another fashion- He's trapped in a body. RUFUSSo God's not dead... JAYHe's brain dead. METATRONSo it would seem. And as omnipotent as we are above, I have to admit thatwe're more or less lost without His presence. We've had our people lookingeverywhere for Him. And I tapped her, because I thought we might be able tosmoke out whoever's behind this. But whoever it is has been clever enoughto send some lackeys after you, as opposed to showing up themselves. RUFUSCan it be Lucifer? METATRONThankfully they seem oblivious to the situation in the nether-regions. Iknow they're not responsible - at least not Lucifer. If he was, he'd havemade his move by now to conquer Heaven. And I know he's not responsible forBartleby and Loki because he'd have just as much to lose by their return aseveryone else. RUFUSThen what about the Golgothan and the Triplets? METATRONDon't be stupid - demons aren't exclusive to Hell. Anybody can summon one. JAY(excited)Yeah?Silent Bob hands Jay his newspaper and points. Jay reads. BETHANYDon't encourage them. And why did you lie to me? You said I was tapped as atest? METATRONNo, you said that - I just didn't correct you. You were shocked enough -how do you think you would've taken it if I told you the face of Godbelonged on the back of a milk carton? RUFUSSo what do we do now? M ETAT RONI say we get drunk, kids - because I'm all out of ideas. JAY(off paper)Why don't we just ask this guy to close the church? METATRONI beg your pardon? JAYHere.(hands group the paper) BETHANY(reading)'Glick Takes Heat for Campaign'? JAYIt's the guy in charge of the church thing. BETHANY(reading)'Cardinal Glick has come under fire for the blatant pandering andquestionable direction of his church-sanctioned 'Catholicism - Wow!'campaign. When asked about his motivations for decommisioning thetraditional baptismal fonts in favor of the proposed Olympic sizedlap-pools beneath parish floors, Click responded "Come on - who doesn'tlike a pool party?" JAYMaybe you could tell him to shut down the church. If it's closed on thatday, those guys can't get blessed or whatever - right? METATRONGood Lord - he's got a point. BETHANYI think Silent Bob had a point. But sure - we can go to him and explain thesituation somehow. RUFUS'We'? You're back in? BETHANYWell, mine is a heritage Divine... and I wouldn't want to let down thefamily.(smiles) METATRON(off Silent Bob)Well, well, well - the prophets finally live up to their titles.Silent Bob shrugs. Jay is trying to look down Serendipity's shirt. Sheback-hands him.TELEVISION SCREEN - COMMERCIALTwo cartoon ALTAR BOYS sift through their bowls of cereal. ALTAR 1The same boring cereal again?A cheesy CARTOON CHRIST floats down from above. CHRISTMan cannot live on boring cereal alone! ALTAR I & 2IT'S JESUS!Jesus pulls a box of HOSTIES cereal from his sash. CHRISTWhy not try Hosties!CL on cereal pouring into a bowl. It's shaped like Eucharistic hosts. Milkfollows. CHRIST VONew Hosties is fortified with vitamins and minerals, topped off with anangelic kiss of frosting that stays crispy in milk!Christ's hands on their shoulders, the Altar Boys down their cerealhappily. CHRISTHosties is an important part of any nutritious breakfast, and each one isblessed by a high ranking Vatican Monsignor - good for the body, and goodfor the soul. But make sure you've confessed beforehand...Altar 2 clutches at his throat, gasping. ALTAR 2I... I touched... m..myself! I'm...s...sorry... CHRIST(smiling benignly)You're forgiven.Altar 2 stops choking and continues eating, happily. CHRISTSo try a bowl of Hosties! And don't just take my word for it...A cartoon POPE pops out of the box, eating a spoonful of cereal. POPEThey're Heavenly!INT CLICK'S OFFICE - DLSKA hand switches off the t.v. Pan up to Cardinal Click, all smiles. GLICKWell...? Doesn't it pop?Bethany. Rufus, lay and Silent Bob are at a total loss for words. JAY(After a long beat)Does it come in chocolate flavor?The Cardinal picks up a golf putter and begins putting into an overturnedglass. GLICKYou see? Now this one's got vision!(to Jay)We're rolling out the flavors in September. Big cereal month with the kids,back to school and all. BETHANYIt's a bit... startling. GLICKExactly! And that's what we're looking to do - shake these people up a bit,get them motivated. That's the whole point of the campaign. Mass attendanceis at an all-time low in this country. And it's not like we're losing themto the Protestants or Baptists - people aren't practicing at anydenomination these days. If we can sell them some show - let 'em know theCatholic church has some panache, we can win them back -even get some newones. Fill them pews, people - that's the key. And cross-promoting - likewith the cereal tie-in grabs the little ones as well. Hook 'em whilethey're young.(sits at his desk, lights smoke) RUFUSKind of like the tobacco industry? GLICKOh - if only we had their numbers. But we are aiming for the samedemographic, even though mine is the soulsaving biz. And if I have to playa bit of the devil to bring them closer to the Lord, then I'll wear thecloven hooves and carry the pitch fork.Jay and Silent Bob adjourn themselves from the group and approach a hatrack, where the Cardinal's CASSOCK and MITER hang. Jay nudges Silent Bob. OC BFTHANYWe really appreciate you seeing us this late in the day, your Emminence. Myfriends and I have been traveling all night in hopes of getting a chance totalk to you about the Saint Michael's Re-Dedication ceremony.The Cardinal blows smoke rings. GLICKYou'd like to help out in some way? BETHANYWe'd like you to cancel the ceremony and the rededication. GLICK(pauses mid-ash-tap)I beg your pardon?Silent Bob stands alone by the coat rack. Jay leaps into the frame, cassocktied around his shoulder like a cape. He strikes a Superman pose. OC BETHANYThere's going to be a world of trouble if tomorrow's ceremony goes forwardas planned.The Cardinal leans back in his chair. CLICKWhat is this - a threat? Are you planning some sort of demonstation?(pause)Are you pro-choicers? BETHANYNo, the trouble's not from us. It's from these renegade angels who've beenstuck on earth since the plagues...Rufus side-kicks Bethany, nonchalantly. BETHANYUh... these guys who think they're renegade angels. RUFL'SSee padre, it goes down like this - the boys believe that by passingthrough the archway they can get to Heaven. Granted, it's far-fetched, butthe brothers are convinced it's the truth.Silent Bob watches as the Miter appears slowly from behind the partition,resembling a shark fin. It 'swims' to and fro, menacingly. Silent Bobshakes his head. OC GLICKAnd you want me to call off the ceremony... for that?Bethany leans forward in her seat. BETHANYWell. they're very passionate about it. Dangerously so. They could turnviolent if they walk through that arch and nothing happens. RUFUSThese guys could blow, and if they do, they're going to take some peoplewith them. Call this thing off. CLICK(beat)Who sent you? Someone from the Council of Churches, right? Somebody's upsetthat we're getting so much publicity- is that it? Who was it? Rabbi Sloss? RLFLSWe were sent by Him who is called I Am. GLICKCute.(standing)Time to go. kids. Play time with the Cardinal is over. RUFUS(to Bethany)Worked for Moses. BETHANYStay out of this.(to Glick)Your Emminence, it's not a joke. These guys are an accident waiting tohappen. And if the re-edication ceremony goes on as planned... GLICK...then these loonies will show up and go nuts, thus endangering the livesof all assembled, including the Governor, the press, me, the leaders of theCouncil of Churches. Heck, let's not stop there, maybe even God Himself. BETHANYYou can't say Himself; it could be a woman. GLICK(rubs temples)Your passion for all topics insignificant, including the gender of ouralmighty lord, tests my patience, people. Now I'm a very important man withvery important matters that demand my attention, so if you'll please... RUFUSI'm telling you man. this ceremony is a mistake. GLICKThe Catholic Church does not make mistakes. RUFUSWhat about the church's silent consent to the slave trade? BETHANYAnd it's platform of non-involvement during the Holocaust? CLICK(beat)Alright, those were mistakes. But one can hardly hold the currentincarnation of Holy Mother Church responsible for oversights of old. NowI've indulged you for more time than I should have. Please go. BETHANYBut tomorrow... CLICK(losing it)Tomorrow goes off without a hitch! Do I make myself clear?! I did not labortwo years and exhaust eve~ ounce of my being to insure that this ceremonybe a cornerstone in the most important liturgical event since Vatican Twojust to cancel it at the zero hour at the insistence of a wandering band ofpranksters who've targeted me as the focus of their evening's merriment!This occasion is important for the congregation of this parish, for themassive crowds coming for the plenary indulgence, for me, for his Holinessthe Pope, and - most importantly - for the 'Catholicism - Wow!' campaign!And neither you, nor any other influence short of the hand of God...(glares at Bethany)... HIM -self will prevent it from occurring successfully!He violently grabs the Miter/shark fin 'swimming' behind the partition. GLICKAND TAKEOFF MY GODDAMN HAT!!!]ay slowly looks over the partition.EXT SEASHOREThe sun slowly rises. The day has arrived.EXT TURNPIKE - EARLY MORNINGAmidst very little traffic, two figures emerge from the shadows on thePennsylvania side. Bartleby and Loki step purposefully past the green signthat welcomes motorists to New Jersey.INT BAR - DAWNThe place is empty, except for Bethany, Rufus, Jay and Silent Bob and ABARTENDER. BETHANYI can almost see the headlines - if there were going to be any - "ExistenceErased - Thanks to some prick in a scarlet cape. RUFUSIt's a crime that a guy like him even gets to wear a scarlet cape. JAYThat ain't no crime. You wanna see a crime? Look what we stole from the guyin the dress.(to Silent Bob)Hand it over.Silent Bob pulls a golf club from out of his coat. BETHANYOh my God. We're going straight to Hell, I know it. RUFUSYou stole the Cardinal's driver? JAYI told him to. You know how much these things are worth? That's at least acouple of sodas and a pack of smokes right there. BETHANYWhat do we do now? RUFUSLet them keep it. In a couple of hours, it won't matter anyway. BETHANYNot that - about Bartleby and Loki! RUFUSWe have no choice but to try to kill them. BETHANY(to Rufus)But you said they couldn't be killed. OC VOICECorrection : they won't be killed.The gang turns to see Azrael sitting at the bar. AZRAELAnd just to insure that, we're all going to sit tight, right here, untilthe two idiots pass through that arch. JAYHey...! BETHANYHe wasn't talking about you two. OC VOICEThere's only one idiot here, .Azrael...Bethany and Rufus react, as does the very surprised Azrael. Serendipitystands in the doorway. SERENDIPITYAnd that's you. AZRAELThe Muse. Just in time to join us for a drink. BARTENDER(suddenly noticing Azrael)Hey. Where'd you come from? AZRAELNothingness. And that's where I'm returning to in approximately...(checks watch)...onehour. BARTENDERAlright Plato - sounds like you've had enough drinks already. Let's go. AZRAELCome on Barkeep - just one drink for the road. Then I'm gone.Serendipity joins Bethany and Rufus. She whispers. SERENDIPITYI was trying to find you - to tell you I'd figured out who was behind allthis. RUFUSIs that who I think it is? SERENDIPITYNone other than. BETHANYWho is it? SERENDIPITYThat's my worst suspicions confirmed.The Bartender relents. BARTENDERAlright - one drink. Then you're gone. AZRAELGimme a Holy Bartender. BARTENDERNever heard of it. AZRAEL(to the group)He doesn't know how to make a Holy Bartender.You know - don't you, Muse? SERENDIPITYAzrael... don't. AZRAEL(ignoring her)Anybody? Well - I know how to make a Holy Bartender.Azrael pulls an Uzi from his coat and blows a dozen holes in the Bartender.The Stygian Triplets burst through the doors and everyone jumps to theirfeet, with the exception of the Bartender, who dies. AZRAELGet it? SERENDIPITYSweet Jesus, Azrael - why?!? RUFUS(rushing him)C'mon, demon - let's see you try that shit on a brother whose already dead!The Stygian Triplets cross their sticks in front of Rufus to block him asAzrael trains his Uzi on Bethany. AZRAEL(joining them)You maintain that kind of an attitude and you and the barkeep won't be theonly corpses in the room -the Christ-Bitch will join you. SERENDIPITYI can't believe you're behind this. Are you really that stupid?! Do youknow what's going to happen if those two jerks enter that church?! AZRAELI'm actually counting on it. And if my calculations are correct, the pawnsare moving in to check-mate as we speak.Everyone stares at Azrael, with the exception of Jay. He suddenly laughs. JAYI get it! Holy Bartender! That's a good one!EXT SAINT MICHAEL'S CHURCH - MORNINGA formidable crowd of parishoners surrounds a small stage, ten yards fromthe front of the church. Banners hang every~ere, heralding 'Catholicism -Wow!' as well as the Centennial of Saint Michael's. The media eats it up.Cardinal Glick stands at the podium, all smiles. He's in mid-speech. GLICKI'd also like to acknowledge this great state's Governor, Elizabeth Dalton,for coming out an helping us ring in the first hundred years of this littleparish True. she's a Protestant - but we won't hold that against her.(crowd laughs)Now, let me just give you a bit of history on this particular littlehundred years young House of God... OC BARTLEBYThis is no longer God's House. God doesn't live here anymore.The crowd turns, aghast. Bartleby pushes his way through them, sheepishlyfollowed by Loki. BARTLEBYHe's grown weary of your superficial faith and has turned a deaf ear toyour lip-service prayers. He is no longer amused, and has abandonned you -His favorites - to the whim of judgement. Hypocrites and charlatans -prepare to taste God's wrath! LOKI(whispering)Maybe we should just go. BARTLEBYYou wanted your body count, you got it. This lot is rife with sin. We'lljudge them all!Glick grabs a COP from the crowd and pushes him toward the pair. CLICKThese are the two I was warned about, Officer McChee. Please assist themoff the church grounds.The Cop grabs Bartleby's arm. COPAlright mouthpiece, let's leave the nice Cardinal alone and go for aride...Bartleby grabs the cops hand on his shoulder. BARTLEBYMister McGhee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. COPIs that so? Well, let's just...Bartleby throws his other hand forward and twists the Cop's head around inone brisk motion. Loki's eyes bug out. The crowd takes flight. BARTLEBY(releasing dead Cop)Ladies and Gentlemen - you have been judged as guilty of violations againstour Almighty Lord. And this very day - I assure you - you will all pay foryour tresspasses... in blood.(to Loki)Wings. Now. LOKII'm not so sure... BARTLEBYDO IT!INT BAR - LATERAzrael still hosts his captive audience, uzi trained on the mortals. TheStygian Triplets surround them, brandishing their sticks. BETHANYYou're a muse too? SERENDIPITYFormer muse. He was kicked out. AZRAELTell them, Serendipity. Tell them how I was slighted by the Almighty. SERENDIPITYYou got what you deserved, you yellow shithead. AZRAELEver the apple polisher. I'd hoped that when you left Paradise, you did itfinally because you couldn't tolerate the injustice that was visited uponyour own brother. BETHANYHe's your brother?! SERENDIPITYNot technically. We were created at the same time. AZRAELTo compliment one another. Two spirits of pure inspiration. BARTLEBYSo what happened? AZRAELYes. What. Lucifer got restless and started his little war for the throne.Heaven became divided into two factions - the faithful and the renegades.The ethereal planes were chaotic with battle, angel against angel. And whenit was all over, Cod cast the rebels into perdition. SERENDIPITYBut Azrael refused to fight. He wouldn't ally himself to God or Lucifer. Heremained in the middle, waiting to see who came out victorious. JAYWhat are you - some kind of fucking chicken?! AZRAELI was an artist! I was inspiration! A muse has no place in battle! Our jobis to create - not destroy! SERENDIPITYSo after the fallen were banished to Hell, God turned on those thatwouldn't fight, and my brother here was sent down with the demons.Something he considers a grave injustice. AZRAELDon't tell me that you never questioned the judgement, Serendipity; thatyou don't think the Almighty acted too rashly? SERENDIPITYYou've been waiting for millions of years to ask me that, haven't you? It'sbeen on your mind since the moment you fell. It's been gnawing at you thislong. AZRAELWell? SERENDIPITYNo, Azrael. It never bothered me, and I'll tell you why:you stood behind your office, you prick. So you were an artist - big deal.Elvis was an artist, but that didn't stop him from joining the service intime of war. That's why he's the King... and you're a schmuck. BETHANYSo all this is about revenge?! You're going to unmake existence because youhave a grudge against God?! AZRAELAfter the first million years, revenge was the farthest thing from my mind.Self-preservation became the only necessity. RUFUSMeaning? AZRAELEscape. Escape from Hell became my all-consuming reason. So I studied thereligions and waited for my opportunity to present itself; which flnallvdid. in the form of the plenary indulgence And while I couldn't exercise itmyself. I knew the perfect vessels through which I could free myself fromtorment. RUFUSBartleby and Loki. AZRAELAfter that, it was a simple matter or waiting for a church to celebratetheir Centennial, and when that finally happened, applying some of the oldinspiration tactics - bv sending the pair an article laced with ideas. Anincantation I picked up in the Pit kept them cloaked and off Heaven'sradars, and aside from the Triplets and the Gologothan, no soul in Hell hada clue as to what was going on.(smiles)Won't proud Lucifer weep when he realizes I triumphed over the Power in away he never dared or dreamed.(shakes it off)But no plan, no matter how intricate, could succeed if the Almighty was inthe realm of the quick. So I dispatched Him in a fairly ingenious fashion. BETHANYHow so? AZRAELOh no. I've seen way to many Bond movies to know that you never reveal allthe details of your plan - no matter how close you may think you are tosuccess. Suffice it to say, the Catholics have been even more helpful ininsuring my success than by just supplying the clean-slate archwav.(gets up)The only X-Factor was the involvement of the Last Scion. I'm amazed thatsomeone up there would have the balls to make a move without the Lord'ssay-so. Believe me - I sweated when you stumbled upon my boys on thattrain. But alas, here you are - powerless to stop the inevitable. BETHANYLook, asshole - I don't know if anyone explained the rules to you, but ifyou succeed, everything gets blinked out of existence - even you. AZRAEL(beat)Human, have you ever been to Hell? I think not. Do you know that once Hellwas nothing more than the absence of Cod? And if you'd ever been in Hispresence. then you'd realize that's punishment enough. But then your kindcame along - and made it so much worse. BETHANYHumans aren't capable of one hundredth the evil a shitbag demon likeyourself is. AZRAELEvil is an abstract; it's a human construct. But true to his irresponsiblenature. man won t own up to being the engineer of evil, so he blames hisdark deeds on my ilk. But his selfishness is limitless, and it's not enoughfor him to shadow his own existence. He turned Hell into a suffering Pitt -fire, wailing, darkness - the kind of place anyone would do anything to getout of. And why? Because he lacks the ability to forgive himself. It isbeyond your abilities to simply make recompense for and regret the sins youcommit. No - you choose rather to create a psychodrama and dwell in afoundless belief that God could never forgive your 'grievous offenses'. Soyou bring your guilt and inner-decay with you to Hell - where the horridimaginations of so many gluttons-for-punishment give birth to the sicknessthat has infected the abyss since the first one of your kind arrived there,begging to be 'punished'. And in doing so, they've transformed the cold andsolitude to pain and misery. I've spent eons privy to the flames, inhalingthe decay, hearing the wail of the damned. I know what effect such horrorshave on the delicate psyche of an angelic beihg.(beat)Would you like to glimpse pain eternal? Look...Azrael places his hand over Bethany's eyes. For about ten seconds, we seesome of the most fucked up and disturbing imagery that can be crammed into240 frames of film.Azrael pulls his hand away. Bethany is fried, convulsing uncontrolably. AZRAELI'd rather not exist than go back to that. And if everyone has to go downwith me, so be it. SERENDIPITY(holding up Bethany)You're still thinking only about yourself, you fuckmg child. AZRAELNow, now, now. Things are getting too tense in here. What say we watch alittle t.v.(grabs remote control) JAYPut on channel nine - 'Davey and Goliath'!A Stygian Triplet smacks him with it's hockey stick. JAYHey! AZRAELI was thinking more along the lines of current events.On the T.V. - a sweaty and panicked REPORTER barks into the camera,obscuring the chaos behind him. Screams are heard. REPORTER...I repeat - men with huge fucking wings have laid waste to St.Michael's... Bullets don't seem to affect them... police who were on thescene are dead... The remaining crowd has dropped to their knees,identifying this as the fabled Apocalypse.. I'm not a man of faith, but I'minclined to agree with them..(looking OC)NO! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!!(pulls gun)PLEASE!! Please...He puts the gun in his mouth and fires. The screen goes blank. AZRAEL(snapping off tv.)You see that? And I told them to keep a low profile. I'd be pissed, but ina couple of minutes, it won't matter anymore.While he speaks, Serendipity looks to Silent Bob. Silent Bob snaps toattention, and locks eyes with Serendipity. He looks to the golf club, thenback at her. He nods.Azrael suddenly catches the exchange between the two. AZRAELNow what was that all about? SERENDIPITYHunhh? Oh. nothing. I had something in my eye. AZRAEL(getting up)Bullshit. What are you trying to do, Serendipity -get the guy killed? Nowwho's the fucking child? What did you tell him - to hit me with the golfclub? Are you serious?(picks up golf club)I'm a fucking demon, and you'd have him assault me with athletic equipment?(hands club to Silent Bob)Well, here then - take it. Call it a gift.(stands back and hits his own chest)Take a shot - take your best shot. C'mon - c'mon, bright boy.The Stygian Triplets snicker. Silent Bob stares at Azrael, perplexed. AZRAELDon't you know anything?Silent Bob looks to Serendipity. She nods. He shrugs and swings the clubwith all his might into Azrael's chest - which caves in, blowing muck andshit everywhere.Rufus, Jay, and Serendipity turn on their captors, grabbing the StygianTriplets by the throats. SERENDIPITYBETHANY! BLESS THE SINK! BETHANYWHAT?!? SERENDIPITYDO IT!Bethany leaps over the bar, pushing over the dead bartender, and blessesthe melting-ice filled sink. Serendipity urges Rufus and Jay to follow her,with the Triplets in hand. They submerge them - head first - in the sink.Cruddy steam and muck blows out of the water. The Triplets convulse andfall still.Azrael clutches at his sucking chest wound, dropping to his knees. He grabsSilent Bob's leg. Silent Bob kicks him onto his back and out cold. JAY(joining Silent Bob)What the fuck have you been eating?Silent Bob shrugs. BETHANYWhat just happened? SERENDIPITY(collecting hockey sticks)He said it himself - he's a demon. You hit a demon with an instrument ofGod - the pure side's always going to do the most damage. JAYSilent Bob's an instrument of God?! SERENDIPITYNo - but the driver is. BETHANY(catching on)And Glick's the kind of asshole that would bless his own clubs for a bettergame. And the sink...? SERENDIPITYYou've got that Divine heritage going for you - sanctifing is just one ofthe fringe benefits. BETHANYRemind me to try the water-to-wine thing at my next party.(to Jay)How far away is this church? JAYThree towns over - about five miles. BETHANYWe've gotta make tracks, people - there isn't much time left. Rufus, grabhis gun. RUFUSTen steps ahead of you. BETHANY(going through dead bartender's pockets)We can take the bartender's car - I don't think he'll be needing itanymore.Bethany and Serendipity rush out. JAYWe gonna make it? RUFUSWas Jesus down?Rufus and Jay exit. Silent Bob stares down at Azrael's body. Jay comes backand yanks him out the door.EXT STREET - DAYCardinal Click runs to a pay phone. Sweating and bloody, he looks a mess.He presses '0' and looks around wildly - particularly skyward. GLICK(to God)Look, if you didn't like the cereal thing, we could've gone in a differentdirection!(to phone)OPERATOR! SEND MORE POLICE TO SAINT MICHAEL'S PARISH - NOW!! PEOPLE AREGETTING KILLED BY...!As he speaks, a large shadow falls over him from above. It grows larger,enveloping Click. He drops the receiver, drops to his knees, and screams.EXT SAINT MICHAEL'S - DAYBethany, Jay, Serendipity, Silent Bob, and Rufus stare OC, horrified. JAYHoly shit.Bodies, bodies everywhere - partial, whole, bloody - hanging, burning,upended. No one is left standing. It's a scene straight out of Hell.Bethany buries her face in Rufus' chest. JAYSee? And people wonder why I don't go to church. BETHANYAre we too late? SERENDIPITYTo save these poor schmucks, yes. But we still exist. BETHANYWhere are they? RUFUSThey could already be in the church. SERENDIPITYWhich means that if they come out, nobody touches them. JAYAre you shitting me? The brother here is going to shred them with hisSchwarzenneger special - ain't you, homey? SERENDIPITYIf they've passed through that arch, they come out clean. And if they die,they go straight up - and we know what happens then. JAYWhat if they just kill themselves? BETHANYThey can't - it's a mortal sin. You die with a mortal sin on your soul andyou burn. They'd go to hell, and that's not what they're after. JAYSo then what the fuck are we supposed to do?! Just wait for a solution tofall out of the sky?!On cue, a body plummets out of the sky and hits the ground before thegroup, quite like Rufus had, way back at the start. This body, however,bursts apart like a body would if dropped from a large height. Jay looks atRufus. JAYFriend of your's? RUFUS'fraid not. OC VOICEIt was a Cardinal.They all turn to see Loki, leaning against a body or two, drinking from abottle of champagne. His wings lie beside him, filthy - blood spattered andashen. He looks exhausted. Rufus trains the gun on him. LOKIKind of hard to tell with his face like that, but the Rosaries are a deadgiveaway. JAY(goes for the Uzi)IT'S ONE OF THEM!! KILL IT!!! BETHANY(struggling to stop him)NO...!She slaps the Uzi out of Jay's grip. It clatters to the side. BETHANY(to Jay)Don't you listen?! We can't touch them! JAYI wasn't gonna touch him, I was gonna shoot him! LOKI(looking skyward)He's been at it for awhile now.In the distance above - a mere shadow against the sky - something wingedsoars and stops, releasing what looks like a very panicky human being. OC LOKIWe ran out of parishoners, so he just started picking up anyone off thestreet. You're looking at eons of repression getting purged. If only we'dbeen able to jerk off.Loki drags himself a few feet backwards. LOKII'd step back if I were you.They jump back just as the body hits the ground and explodes. Bethanycharges at Loki, grabs his lapels, and shakes him furiously. BETHANYWHY?!? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU HOPE TO PROVE?!? ALL THESE PEOPLE - WHY?!? JAY(to Rufus)I thought we weren't supposed to touch them? RUFUSI think our Bethan's about hit her ceiling.Loki slaps Bethany away, non-chalantly. LOKIThis wasn't my idea. alright? I just wanted to go home.(takes a big champagne swig)We both wanted to go home. But he snapped. When he realized who you wereand what you'd have to do, he just lost it.(smiles)You know what's funny about it? He never could stand to see me work. Hesaid he always felt son~' for you people - that you didn't know any better.(looks up)Now look at him. JAYThis guy's drunker than hell. SERENDIPITYWhich means he's human now - his wings have been cut off.(slapping Loki to sober him up)Loki! Loki! LOKI(recognizing her)The Muse. Haven't seen you in a long time. What's with the tits? SERENDIPITYLoki - have you walked through the arch yet? C'mon. tell me! Have you gonein and come out through the archway yet?! VOICENo.Bartleby lands beside them, draping his wings at his sides, brushinghimself off. BARTLEBYWe were awaiting your arrival. SERENDIPITYBartleby - listen to me! You can't go through with this! Azrael was justusing you! If you go back this way...Bartleby slaps her down. BARTLEBYI've become aware of the reprocussions, Muse. I know what I'm doing.Bethany leaps at him, all fists and fury. BETHANYYOU FUCK! YOU SICK, TWISTED FUCK!! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!! LOOK AT Allyou'vedone...!Bartleby subdues her. He strokes her hair. BARTLEBYBethany - you of all people should understand what I'm t~'ing to accomplishhere. You too have been abandonned. You know what it's like to be castaside. But while you've only felt the devastating effects for a few years,I've dealt with it for millenia. And while you never see your ex-husband orhow blissful he is with his new wife...(picks up her face and smiles at her)And he is...(drops her head)..seeing you people everywhere. everyday, trapped on this perfect littleworld He created for you... it's a constant reminder that though my kindcame first, your kind was most revered. And your kind knows forgiveness,while my kind knows regret. A lesson must be taught. All are accountable...even God.(steps back)Soon a cadre of police will arrive, just in time to kill us as we exit thechurch. And then this failed experiment called existence will cease to be.Loki stumbles to his feet. LOKII can't... let you do this, Bartleby...(he sways as if drunk)I didn't know we... would end existence... BARTLEBY(to Bethany)My compatriot. Genocide takes a lot out of him. He's weakened. And moreimportantly. he's now a human being. A condition that carries twoliabilities: a conscience...Bartleby pulls a knife and guts Loki. He stares at Bartleby as he dies,confused and betrayed. Serendipity nods to Rufus and Silent Bob. BARTLEBY..and a short life span.(in a whisper; to Loki)Sorry, old friend - but you lost the faith.Rufus and Serendipity and Silent Bob jump Bartleby and start throwingpunches. Silent Bob bites his wing. Jay grabs Bethany and pulls her behinda bush. BETHANY(peering out from behind)He's lost it! We're fucked! We're absolutely fucked! JAY(pulling off clothes)I hear you. BETHANYI can't believe this shit! We're on the brink of nonexistence and God'sstill nowhere to be found! What the fuck kind of deity gets kidnapped?! JAY(pulling open pants)Amen to that. BETHANY(suddenly notices him)What the hell are you doing?! JAYI'd say we've got about five minutes left to live; the whole world's goingto end. You said you'd fuck me. BETHANYAre you a complete lunatic?! Everyone's out there battling that thing andyou want to cower back here and jump my bones?! We have to go downfighting! JAYNo - no time for that foreplay stuff, just sex. BETHANYYou pig...! JAYWhat?! It's all over; nobody's gonna beat that thing! Now we can either layhere all comatose like thatJohn Doe Jersey bastard behind us, or we can make with the love.Bethany freezes. BETHANY(finally!)What did you say?! JAY'Make with the love'? I just said that to be sensitive. Usually I call itboning. BETHANYNo - about John Doe Jersey? JAYThat guy - the one that they won't take off life support - John Doe Jersey.This is where he's at. BETHANYWhat? Where? JAYSaint Michael's hospital - over there.(points behind them)There, across the street, sits a HOSPITAL. BETHANY(thinks)Where's the nearest boardwalk? JAYLook, I ain't got time to win you a prize or something, we gotta get to itbefore... BETHANYWHERE IS IT?!? JAY(scared)Asbury Park. About five miles away. BETHANYYou ever been there?! JAY(really scared)Once. I was banging this girl who worked at the carousel. She wanted to doit on the ride, but I got sick and started puking... BETHANY(grabs his face)DO THEY HAVE SKEE-BALL THERE?!? JAY(piss-scared; high pitched)...yes.Bethany kisses Jay hard on the lips, jumps up and looks over the bush. JAY(warming up)Now that's more like it.Rufus and Serendipity battle Bartleby, his wings thrashing about. SilentBob is getting back on his feet. BETHANYBOB!Silent Bob looks to Bethany. She waves him over and bends back down to Jaywho half-closes his eyes, and puckers his lips. Bethany pinches his lipstogether and raises jay to his feet, ust as Silent Bob arri\'es. BETHANY(to Jay)Whatever you do - stall Bartleby from going into that church!(to Silent Bob)Bob - come with me!(they exit) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Donnie Brasco.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Donnie Brasco.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..58c0ca1680da19e0c9601c4db4341b6caaa21bc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Donnie Brasco.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DONNIE BRASCO by Paul AttanasioBased on the book, "Donnie Brasco,"by Joseph D. Pistone with RichardWoodley REVISED DRAFT July 27, 19921 EXT. DAY. WASHINGTON, D.C. An AERIAL VIEW of the nation's capital, MOVING IN on the stolid limestone box of FBI HEADQUARTERS. Supered below: FBI HEADQUARTERS. WASHINGTON, D.C. 1981. CUT TO:2 INT. DAY. FBI HEADQUARTERS A spacious corner OFFICE. American flag, FBI seal, and a plush c arpet-- Fed eral blue . CLENDON HOGUE, 40s, barrel chest, shrewd eyes over half-moon glasses, PRESIDES behind a vast desk. The impressive mien of earned authority. Before him: JULES BONOVOLONTA, late 40s, Green Beret veteran, SUPERVISOR, 140 pounds of pugnacity and gristle. Ex-street agent cramped by headquarters. PAT MARSHALL, late 30s, a CASE AGENT, compulsively organized, with haunted choirboy's eyes. CLARENCE LEBOW, early 40s. Assistant SECTION CHIEF. Brooks Brothers, heavy starch. LEBOW It's going down tonight. JULES Says who? A fucking wire. LEBOW A reliable wire. JULES A fiction writer. Hogue peruses SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS of Sonny Red and Sonny Black. Then reads the INFORMANT'S REPORT. MARSHALL is that the 209, sir? LEBOW There's going to be a war between Sonny Red and Sonny Black--it's all over the streets. JULES Clarence, you couldn't find the streets with an asphalt detector. (CONTINUED) 2.2 CONTINUED: MARSHALL Sonny Black goes, everyone with him goes. JULES That's doesn't mean it's tonight. LEBOW Even if it's not tonight--and I ' m not saying it's not tonight--it could still be tonight because it could be any night. JULES Fuck you, Clarence. LEBOW Heyl I'm a Mormon 1 HOGUE You have some objection to these guys killing each other? . MARSHALL It's just that--one of them's one of us. HOGUE An informant? JULES An agent. Undercover. HOGUE Then why are you depending on an informant? What does the agent say? (off awkward looks) When's the last time you spoke to him? JULES Three weeks. MARSHALL Three weeks and two days. HOGUE He checks in every three weeks? MARSHALL He checks in when he checks in, sir. JULES We had to make up the rules as we went along-- (CONTINUED) 3.2 CONTINUED: (2) HOGUE My predecessor started this? JULES His predecessor. LEBOW It's been five years. MARSHALL Five years and three months. JULES I am not gonna blow a chance to cripp le the entire fucking Mafia just because some fucking empty suit in Blue Carpet Land-- LEBOW I am so sick of your superior New Y or k a tt it ud e-- JULES --thinks there's gonna be a Shootout tonight after the fucking tarantella. LEBOW You're going to risk a man's life just to make cases. JULES (right back) Making those cases is his life. HOGUE And how many cases do we have? MARSHALL (guessing) A hundred, two hundred... HOGUE Which one? JUL ES The truth is we don't know. HOGUE Let me get this straight. Nobody knows where he is. Nobody's spoken to him. He's been undercover five years. He might very well get killed tonight--at a fucking wedding-- not because he's one of us. but because he's one of t;hem. - (more) (CONTINUED) 4-2 CONTINUED: (3) HOGUE (Cont'd) I've been on the job one fucking wee k. An d it' s my fuck ing decision? How the hell did this happen? Awkward looks and foot shuffling all around. MARSHALL What time's the wedding? LEBOW Eight o'clock tonight. THE CLOCK . on the wall reads *9:36." HOGUE Who is this fucking guy? DISSOLVE TO:3 INT. NIGHT. BAR--WASHINGTON (1975) C L OS E ON -- JOE PISTONE, 30s, athlete's build, body languid with a killer's confidence. Eyes dead as a shark's. He chafes at his rep-striped tie and off-the-rack suit. WIDER LeBow, Marshall, and two other SUITS around the table. Jules delivers a TOAST. Supered below: BLACKIE'S. WASHINGTON, D.C. 1975. JULES ...And so, Joe, we wish you bon voyage with this farewell drink. We'd give you a farewell dinner - but why spend all that money when you'll just come crawling back to your old desk? Laughter around the table. The CLINK of glasses... LEBOW I would love to know how you sold them on this. DONNIE I told them I wanted to get far away from you, Clarence, They got it instantly. (CONTINUED) 5.3 CONTINUED: LEBOW We've had our best guys on this s ince, wha t, Va lachi ? Twe nty years? MARSHALL W ho knows? We never tried anything like this. LEBOW What does that tell you? MARSHALL The Director thought it would be too corrupting. JULES Then maybe I should do it. I'm in a mood to be corrupted. LEBOW You know what these people are l ike. They 're a ll ma rried to each other's cousin. JULES (shrugs) It's six months. MARSHALL I think it's great. Undercover's a new area. Get in on the ground floor. LEBOW It's a wild goose chase. I'm saying this as a friend. JOE What do I know? I'm just a dumb guinea. LEBOW Don't talk that way, Joe. (beat) Because, you know, you are just a dumb guinea. LAUGHTER from the group. Joe doesn't know whether to join in or punch somebody. Jules hands him a large beribboned BOX. JULES Here you go, Joe. Joe opens the box. A wide-brimmed Al Capone FEDORA. Uproarious laughter from the group. (CONTINUED) 6.3 C O NT I NU E D: (2) LEBOW If you already have one, you can return it. JULES Put it onl Against his will, Joe puts on the hat. More laughter from the group. CUT TO:4 EXT. DAY. SUBURBS Three exuberant TOMBOYS play football on the front lawn of a modest split-level home: TERRY, 13, rebel in a hurry; KERRY, 10, the good girl; and SHERRY, 8, the baby. Terry hikes the ball, drops back to throw... A PASS spirals up into the air...where it's INTERCEPTED by Joe, who appears out of nowhere. SHERRY Daddy, Daddy1 Joe feints, tries to dodge the girls...Then sidesteps... JOE I ' m out of bounds. Stopl This-- look-- this is out of bounds 1 They tackle him anyway. Grab his legs till he TOPPLES in a laughing heap. MAGGIE PISTONE, a pretty, strong-willed blonde in her 30s, emerges at th e f ront do or. SM ILE S at th e s cen e. Then FR OWN S a s s he r eal ize s-- CUT TOr5 INT. LATER. LAUNDRY ROOM Joe stands in his suit jacket and boxer shorts while Maggie tries to remove the GRASS STAINS on the pants knees. MAGGIE I swear to God, Joe, I have to spray you with Scotchgard every morning. Joe embraces her from behind. JOE W hat am I s upposed t o do? Terr y - tackles like her mother. (CONTINUED) 7.5 CONTINUED: He gropes at her. She moves his hands off... MAGGIE Illegal holding. Hi s hands go back to groping. She smacks them. ... JOE Roughing the passer. MA GGIE I suppose I should be grateful tha t it's not blood stains, or pow der burns. Like the old days. JOE I got some good news today. We're going back to Jerse y. MAGGIE You're kidding1 You got transferred? JOE Th e kids can see their grandparents. Plus it' s GS-13. That's two thousand more. MAGGIE My Godl When did this all ha ppen? - J OE Just today. MAGGIE What aren't you telling me? JOE Nothing. MA GGIE I k now enough about the Bureau t ha t no thing happens th is q ui ckly , Joe. Especi ally if it i nv olve s a raise. JO E Remember that guy I me t at Qu antico, that su perv isor? Berada? Be asked for me. Safe an d Hijackings, i n Ne w York. MAGGIE But this i s a desk job, right? (bea t) I thought we agreed about you going back on the street again. (CO NTINUED) 8. (2)5 CONTINUED: JOE This is different. It' s u ndercover. MAGGIE What does that mean, undercover? JOE Undercover. You know, undercover. MAGGIE Will you come home at night ? JOE It's a good opportunit y. M AGGIE Undercover in what? JOE An FBI wife doesn't ask, Maggie. MAGGIE Will you be home on the we ekends? J 9E It's just six months. MAGGIE Y ou waited till this was all decided. You never asked me--you k new what I was going to say. What do you want from m e, Joe? JOE I want you to say, 'It's okay'. 'It's great'. MA GGIE You finally got to headqu arter? and now you're going back on the street. JOE Don't you understand? I b uy a Brooks Brothers suit but th ere's al ways a button that comes off or a stain that won't come out ---it's li ke the suit knows I don't belong in it. I sit in a room w ith Clarence and the rest of them and the only way I know something's funny is when everyone else laughs. Everything, all day, it' s just (gestures) this much off. ( CONTINUED) 9.5 CONTINUED: ( 3) MA GGIE You 're as smart as they are. JOE I could be a fucking Ph.D. from Ha r vard and it wouldn't matter-- I cannot win. To do something th at's never been done, that they sa y can't be done, that they ca n't do-- don't you see? That's th e only way I'm ever gonna fit in with them. On my terms. She looks at him. Smile s. She loves him for who he is, as frustrating as that can be. She embraces, ki sses him. M AGGIE Well, at least you warned me. Re member? 'Maggie, if you marry me... JOE (unison) ...you're in for a big ad venture.' They kiss again. And ki ss. Joe kicks the door to the laundry room SHUT behind him. CUT TO: MONTAGE . . --Present day. The CLOCK a t FBI headquarters: 10:07. Hogue RIPS through the case file. A LETTER addressed to the Director of the FBI: BERADA (V.O.) 'To Director: Surveillance and inf ormant contacts to date have been negative...' --Jo e is ushered through the fluorescent-lit warren that is the BULLPEN of the New York FBI office. Shakes hands with GUY BERADA, 50s , a Bronx bull with an unlit cigar. BE RADA (V.O.) '. ..regarding being able to pe netrate the conveyance of stolen property by La Cos a Nostra...' --Joe lines up at the DMV. FLASH1--his photo for a driver's license. Now he's DONNIE BRASCO. The name types out: (CO NTINUED) 10. (4)5 CONTINUED: D-0-N-A-L-D B-R-A-S-C-O BERADA (V.O.) ...UC A Joseph D . Piston© utilizing the name 'Donnie Brasco'. . . --An FBI COMPUTER prints out a "yellow sheet" of his prior arrests fo r b urgl ary -- " a.k .a. DON TH E J EWE LER "... --In the jewelry district, a HASIDIC JEW tutors Donnie, who looks at a diamond through a loupe. . . Donnie surveys a small APARTMENT with a REALTOR...Donnie opens a BANK ACCOUNT. . . BACK TO PRESENT DAY --Hogue reads down the BUDGET for the operation... Apartment.... $491.60 Furniture..... 90.30 Utilities..... 35.00 Rental car.... 220.00 Spending money 800.00 BERADA (V.O.) '...This would be accomplished by UCA frequenting locations listed below and attempting to engage in conversation and do business with said fences...' FLASH BACK --Donnie sits in Carmelo's drinking club soda and watching basketball. At the other end of the bar, twoTOUGH GUYS play BACKGAMMON...DISSOLVE to another night, another game, another barstool--CLOSER to the Tough Guys...On the backgammon board, as the pieces move closer to the goal...DISSOLVE to another night, as Donnie moves closer to the game...On the board again, as the pieces move closer...DISSOLVE to another night, as Donnie moves closer...And another...On the board, as the pieces move closer, and the hand moving them...belongs to Donnie. --Donnie enters his apartment, sparsely furnished with a bed, TV, weight bench and weights. . . Gets on the phone... STEVE BURSEY, 30s, Donnie's wiry and wild-eyed CONTACT AGENT, on the "hello phone" at the FBI office in New Yorfc. BURSEY (to phone) Hello? CROSSCUTTING Donnie at a PAY PHONE. (CONTINUED) 1. 1 (5)5 CONTINUED: DONNIE (O.C.) Is this Bursey? Bursey cradles the phone on his shoulder, TYPES... BURSEY (V.O.) To the file: Contact with UCA on July 7, 1976... BACK TO PRESENT DAY --Hogue reviews SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS of Donnie in Carmelo's...In the Rainbow Room. BURSEY (V.O.) ...UCA reported no significant contacts. . . FLASH BACK --Donnie in Separate Tables, a restaurant on Third Avenue... BURSEY (V.O.) . . . n o significant contacts... --Donnie wanders the aisles at a drug store, searching for a GREETING CARD. Selects one. MATCH CUT to Maggie opening the same card. Inside it reads, "MISS YOU, LOVE,"--and NO SIGNATURE. --A TRUCK HIJACKING takes place on an access road to Kennedy Airport. In a choreographed ballet, the DRIVER gives up the keys to a crew of TOUGH GUYS...Then Donnie and VINNIE THE FENCE help unload cartons of PERFUME from the truck... BURSEY (V.O.) ...UCA purchased two dozen cartons Yves St. Laurent 'Eau My Sin' perfume... --Donnie plays backgammon at Carmello's...On the board, as the pieces move CLOSER...Vinnie introduces him to JILLY GRECA, a tough-looking WISEGUY in his late 40s. BURSEY (V.O.) ...UCA was introduced to Giuliano Gr eca , a. k.a . J ill y.. . --Donnie opens a carton of WATCHES. . . DONNIE These go for 80 apiece. My end's 20. BURSEY (V.O.) ...UCA sold 50 Pateau Mitsu Boshi Boeki digital watches. . . (CONTINUED) 12.5 CONTINUED: (6) He hands them to...Jilly. Who inspects them. Takes the carton. Peels off bills to Donnie. BACK TO PRESENT --Hogue, with headphones on, stubs out a cigarette... FLASH BACK --Donnie sits in Hippopotamus...Casa Bella...An after hours joint...The pieces on the backgammon board as they move CLOSER...Donnie collapses heavily on his bed, amidst the spare furnishings of his apartment... BURSEY (V.O.) . . . UCA reported no significant contacts. . . BACK TO PRESENT ∑--Hogue opens a BUDGET FOLDER... BERADA (V.O.) ,New York office requests an extension of six months due to... FLASH BACK --Donnie and Berada at a booth in the Cockeyed Clam, a manila FILE between them. BERADA I got you another six months. I told them it takes time. DONNIE Same budget? BERADA Same budget. Look, Joe, not that I don't see any movement, but--do you see any movement? I got my neck out on this. DONNIE Whatever it takes, I'm gonna get these bastards. BERADA Do me a favor. Just get one bastard. Donnie READS from the file. DONNIE (frustrated) ' . . . n o significant contacts...' ' (CONTINUED) 13.5 CONTINUED: (7) BERADA One other thing. You know how it is with the ' B ' . They saw some of the surveillance pictures... DONNIE What? BERADA They want you to shave the mo ust ache . . DONNIE I ' m undercover 1 BERADA You're still in the FBI. That's the rules. CUT TO:6 INT. DAY. CASA BELLA WI NTE R--fo g o n t he win dows . D ISC O p lay s on th e j uke box . Dr ink ing DEMITASSE in the late afternoon: BENJAMIN "LEFTY" RUGGIERO, early 50s, gaunt and raspy-voiced, SWITCHED-ON with nerves, testy and restless. He lights up an English Oval. ∑ Sitting around him: DOMINIC "SONNY BLACK* NAPOLITANO, middle 40s. Fireplug muscles, dyed black hair. Sle epy as a l ion after a big mea l. Don't f uck with the lion. NICHOLAS "NICKY" SANTORA, late 30s, teddy bear paunch. Plays the fool. JOHN -BOOBIE" CERASANI, early 40s, gun-metal hard. All business. Nobody's fool. Supered below: CASA BELLA RESTAURANT. LITTLE ITALY. 1976. LEFTY You can't say to me a Lincoln is better than a Cadillac. NICKY It's the better automobile, no question. Head and shoulders. LEFTY Geddadaheah. Geddadaheah before you make me mad. (CONTINUED) 1. 46 CONTINUED: SONNY Lefty, how you gonna be mad at Nicky? LEFTY I ain't mad at him. I'm mad at his stupidity. AT THE BAR A man sits, unfolds a newspape r. The ba rtender lo oks up--it' s Donnie. DONNIE Coffee. B A C K O N --T A B L E LEFTY A in't no c ompar ison. Cadi llac got more acceleration, more power, more-- better handling, better looking, more legroom for yo ur legs , m ore po wer -- BOOBIE You said that. LEFTY Said what? BOOBIE More power. LEFTY Be got me so fucking aggravated, Boobie, I forgot what I said. NICKY I' 11 tell you one thing--the Lincoln is longer. LEFTY Longer what? BOOBIE Whaddaya talkin' about? Longer wheelbase? NICKY Longer. Like longer. In inches. It's a longer car. LEFTY You know something, Nicky, you don't make no fucking sense sometimes. (CONTINUED) 15. (2)6 CONT INUED: NICKY You got two cars. One's longer. All things being equal, the longer car is the one gonna get there first. LEFTY Ain't the question all things being equal. One's a Cadillac and one's a Lincoln. NICKY The one's longer gets there first. That's scientific fact. (to Sonny) What's better, a Lincoln or a Cadillac? LEFTY Why're you asking him? NICKY I ' m asking him. LEFTY Why don't you ask me? NICKY I asked you already. LEFTY That's right. And I told you there's no comparison. SONNY what the fuck are you arguing about? Mercedes got it all over both of them. NICKY Fugged aboudit. Mercedes? That's a Jewish car. They didn't get it enough from the Germans in the war-- now they gotta be robbed by them. JU DY app roac hes --th e W AIT RESS , e arl y 2 0s. NEW to th e j ob. Son ny takes her hand, KISSES it. SONNY Angel, how about some pastries for the table? LEFTY WATCHES DONNIE sipping coffee at the bar. Leans over to Nicky. (CONTINUED) 16, (3)6 CONTINUED: LEFTY Who's that? NICKY Don. Don the Jeweler. Jilly brought him around. LEFTY Jilly Four Eyes? NICKY Not Jilly Four Eyes. You know, Jilly. From Queens Jilly. LEFTY He's a jewel guy? He knows jewels? NICKY What--you got a thing to lay off? LEFTY Ain't the question, I got a thing. I ' m saying, if I had a thing, he could lay it off? NICKY Whaddayou got to lay off? SONNY WITH JUDY as he punctuates his order with KISSES of her hand. SONNY A little cannoli. (kiss) Svingi. (kiss) Zeppole. (kiss) Sfogliateli'. (kiss) JUDY We're out of sfogliatelli. SONNY Oh. Then you gotta give me that kiss back. She giggles, kisses Sonny on the cheek. JUDY Can I ask you guys something? You guys are wiseguys, right? SONNY What makes you think we're wiseguys? (CONTINUED) 17. (4)6 CONTINUED: JUDY What other grown men would have nothing better to do than sit here all afternoon drinking coffee and nobody says anything? They all look at each other. NICKY We could be cops. LAUGHTER all around. Lefty steals another look at Donnie as he sits placidly drinking his coffee. CUT TO:7 EXT. LATER. LITTLE ITALY Lefty RUMMAGES in the trunk of his Cadillac. Takes out several DESIGNER DRESSES, on hangers. Two cartons of TUNA FISH. Two large STEREO SPEAKERS. Rummages some more. Finds A JEWEL BOX . CUT TO:8 INT. LATER. CASA BELLA Donnie sips his coffee at the bar/ reads the paper. The restaurant is otherwise DESERTED--Sonny and the other guys have left. Lefty approaches him. LEFTY You Don the Jeweler? Donnie looks up to the Bartender. The Bartender nods. Lefty reaches in his pocket, produces A FIVE-CARAT DIAMOND RING LEFTY That's a beauty, eh? That's some beautiful thing. Donnie looks it over. Gives it to Lefty. DONNIE Give it to your wife. LEFTY . How'm I gonna give it to my wife? I ain't married. DONNIE You got a girlfriend? , (CONTINUED) 18.8 CONTINUED: LEFTY Yeah. Louise. He returns the diamond to Lefty. DONNIE Marry her. LEFTY Are you for real? I'm asking if you want to middle a diamond here. All I want for my end's eight thousand. DONNIE I ' m saying give it to somebody don't know any better. It's a fugazy. LEFTY How can you say it's a fugazy? You looked at it two seconds. DONNIE Go ahead, try and sell it, you wanna be a dunsky. LEFTY (angry) I ' m a dunsky? Let me tell you something, my friend--do you know who you're talking to? The Bartender, SCARED--he knows what Lefty's capable of. Quickly mixes a SPRITZER. BARTENDER Here, Left, have a spritzer. LEFTY (sputtering) My family, my children--my mother can hold her head up in any neighborhood in the city when she walks down the Clock. In all the Five Boroughs I'm known, fuggedaboudit--I'm known all over the world. You ask around--ask anybody about Lefty from Mulberry Street. DONNIE I'm sorry. It was just a misunderstanding. Okay? Donnie backs off, EXITS. Lefty takes the diamond out, looks at i- FUMES. The Bartender slides the spritzer over. (CONTINUED) 19. C ON T IN U ED : (2) 8 BARTENDER On the arm. LEFTY Fugazy. Fugazy my fucking ass. CUT TO: 9 EXT. LATER. CASA BELLA Donnie exhales out his tension--unwinds from the dicey moment with Lefty. Pulls his collar up against the cold, heads up the block. Takes a last look back inside at Lefty. CUT TO:10 INT. LATER. JEWELER A JEWELER, loupe in his eye, examines the diamond. JEWELER It's a fake. LEFTY This's a fake? JEWELER Nothing is what it seems. Lefty takes the fugazy back. Pockets it. LEFTY Because that's what I'm thinking. I thought it was a fake, (beat) It's a good fake, though, ain't it. JEWELER It's a very good fake. LEFTY Tha t's w hat I'm s aying . I thought it was a fake. That's what I thought. Lefty takes the fugazy back. Pockets it. CUT TO:11 EXT. DAY. NEW JERSEY--SUBURBS Donnie drives the big station wagon, Maggie alongside him. The girls in back. (CONTINUED) 20.11 CONTINUED: SHERRY Daddy, will you be home Easter? MAGGIE Don't ask Daddy those questions. SHERRY Mommy, will Daddy be home Easter? TERRY You still believe in the Easter bunny? KERRY You're such a snot, Terry. MAGGIE (to Terry) He'll try his best. TERRY (to Kerry) Don't look at me. I think it's great he's never home. SHERRY Denise in school asked me today what Daddy's job is. MAGGIE What'd you tell her? SHERRY None of her beeswax. TERRY Just tell her he's a salesman on the r oad a lot. I mean, who cares what he really does? MAGGIE (stern) You be proud of what your father does. Do y ou underst and me? Your father is an outstanding individual. TERRY Jes us . L ig ht en up . T ha t' s n ot the point. KERRY Shut up, Terry. CUT TO: 21.12 EXT. LATER. GRANDPARENTS' HOUSE The station wagon pulls up. The kids run out into the embrace of Maggie's PARENTS. Maggie clijmbs out, turns. MAGGIE You said it was going to be six months, Joe. CUT TO:13 INT. DAY. ACERG, INC. A storefront for fenced goods. WISEGUYS play cards, smoke ci gar ett es. The PA Y P HON E ri ngs . J ill y p icks it up . CUT TO:14 INT. SAME TIME. FBI SAFEHOUSE A phone line patched into a reel-to-reel TAPE RECORDER among rows of tap e rec order s. VO ICE- ACTIV ATED-- it cl icks on, UNSPO OLS.. . JILLY (O.C.) Hello? CUT TO:15 INT. MORNING. CASA BELLA Lefty talks on a pay phone. Watches a MAN, indistinct in the background, sipping coffee at the bar. LEFTY He's okay? PHONE (O.C.) Don the Jeweler? Stand-up guy. Ain't a leech, good earner. Keeps to himself. RACK FOCUS to Donnie at the bar, sipping coffee. Lefty watches him. FLASH CUT TO:16 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue listens o n headpho nes. LEFTY (O.C.) Where's he from? PHONE (O.C.) ∑ ' '. Cali for nia . H e's a j ewe l g uy. (CONTINUED) 22.16 CONTINUED: LEFTY (O.C.) Where California? L.A.? PHONE (O.C.) Do you know how fucking big California is? How the fuck should I know? He's a jewel guy. THE CLOCK reads "10:25*. LEFTY (O.C.) Jilly--he's a stand-up guy, Jilly? PHONE (O.C.) Look, Left, I said I knew him. I didn't say I fucked him. Hogue hits FAST FORWARD...The tape SQUEALS. . . MATCH SOUND FLASH CUT TO:17 EXT. THE PAST. CADILLAC The SCREECH of rubber and THE CADILLAC LOGO as Donnie pulls away from the curb in a screaming-yellow Coupe de Ville. Lefty lights an English Oval. LEFTY Nice car. (beat) Go to 46th and 1st, I gotta make a collection. DONNIE What happened with that fugazy? LEFTY Man oh man, I gotta school you, my friend. Di'n't Jilly school you? The smoke is thick now...Donnie powers down his window. DONNIE School me in what? LEFTY Donnie/ put your window up, Donnie. I ' m gonna catch a draft. Donnie powers his window back up. (CONTINUED) 23.17 CONTINUED: LEFTY A non-wiseguy never asks a wiseguy a question. A non- wiseguy don't even talk to a wiseguy unless the wiseguy talks to him first. Capeesh? DONNIE Yeah. I got it. LEFTY You don't raise your hands to a wiseguy. You don't mess with his wome.n---wife or girlfriend or daughter. Just keep your mout h shut--don't put business on the street. DONNIE Follow the rules. A CAB cuts them off. Lefty leans over/ HONKS the horn. LEFTY CocksuckerJ Motherfucker cutting you off. (resuming) You gotta have rules. Otherwise, what are w e? We're like anima ls. He leans over. VICIOUSLY honks the horn again. RESUMES with one eye on the cab... LEFTY Wiseguy has a bag, you pick up the bag. wiseguy runs a tab, you pick u p the tab . wiseguy is always right-- even if he's wrong he's r ight. All the way u p the l ine. Conne cted guy to wiseguy to skipper to boss. DONNIE Like the Army. LEFTY What? DONNIE I said it's like the Army. Chain of command. \ LEFTY Ain't nothing like the Army. The Army, it's some guy you don't know sends you to whack out some other guy you don't know. The Army's a jerkoff outfit. (CONTINUED) 24. (2)17 CON TINUED: DONNIE I mean the same principle. LEFTY Ain't the question, Donnie. You see, that's why I gotta school you. Because otherwise you get everything upside down. (beat) You got a girl? DONNIE Yeah. In California. LEFTY ∑ Good. Let her enjoy herself in California. The cab CUTS OFF Donnie again...And Lefty BLOWS... LEFTY Donnie, catch up with that cocksucker. DONNIE Which cocksucker? LEFTY He cut you off again, (pointing) That fucking--The cabl That one! Do nn ie -- Donnie SPEEDS up, chases the cab...Lefty opens the GLOVE COMPARTMENT. Hits a BUTTON and the TRUNK pops OPEN. A RED LIGHT The cab stops. Lefty JUMPS out of the Cadillac... IN THE TRUNK Lefty pulls out a JACK, hustles up to the cab. THE CABBIE A PAKISTANI, 30s, oblivious. Then he-sees Lefty approach in his side- view mirror. LEFTY What's fucking wrong with you? Hah ? The re's no fu ckin g etiquette of the road with you? The Cabbie flips a "FUCK YOU" signal with his middle finger...Rolls up his window. LEFTY ∑ . , Fuck wh o? Fuc k m e? (CONTINUED) 25. (3)17 CONTINUED: DONNIE OUT of the Cadillac, running toward Lefty... INSIDE the cab, a nervous PASSENGER gathers her shopping bags... SMASH 1 as the Cabbie's window CAVES IN...Lefty with the JACK. . . SWINGS down hard on the windshield. From INSIDE, a spider's web of shattered glass. DONNIE APPROACHES Worry on his face. The Passenger FLEES down the block. THE CABBIE hangs out the window, grabbing and punching at Lefty. Lefty YANKS him out of the car. DONNIE -, Left, c'mon. En ough. Donnie grabs Lefty, trying to pull him off. A DRIVER heckles from a passing car. DRIVER Fuck youl DONNIE Hey, fuck youl The Cabbie hangs onto Lefty. Lefty SNAPS off the cab's ANTENNA, starts to WHIP the Cabbie with it. The Cabbie BITES Lefty. Lefty YELPS, backs off. ON--T HE ACCE LERATO R as the Cab bie SLAMS his foot down. The light tur ns RED. Th e cab FISHTAILS through crossing traffic...The Cabbie trembles with fear, looks in his rear-view mirror as he speeds away. WATCHING HIM Donnie and Lefty, as DRIVERS in passing cars shoot looks of disapproval their way. Lefty lights a cigarette. LEFTY These fucking guys. They come to this country, they flaunt the r ules of t he road. T hey give the 'fuck you' sign to a man in the . street. . . DONNIE What kind of bullshit is that? (CONTINUED) 2617 CO NTI NUE D: (4) LEFTY Fucking sand nigger. I will never fucking understand it. Why is it always the guy who drives a car for a living is the worst fucking driver there is? CUT TO:18 INT. DAY. RESTAURANT Donnie sits at a bar with a drink. Lefty listens to the OWNER, tough- looking, 30s, as he WRIGGLES. LEFTY I just want what's owed. OWNER You know, you're not the only guy's owed money. DONNIE You didn't wanna pay it you shouldn't've borrowed it. OWNER Who's this cocksucker? Like LIGHTNING, Donnie SLAPS the owner hard--forehand, backhand. Grabs his collar BELTS HIM HARD an uppercut in the solar plexus. The Owner SAGS to his knees. NAUSEA in waves. Do nnie finds the Owner's WALLET in his jacket pocke t. Takes t he money from the wallet. Peels off a five, STUFFS it in the Owner's mouth. DONN IE That's for the drink. CUT TO:19 INT. LATER. CADILLAC CASH as Lefty counts it out. Donnie drives through the Lower East Side WATERFRONT. LEFTY (scolding) Don nie--w hy'd you pay f or th at drink? wiseguy never pays for a drink. DONNIE Okay. I didn't know. (CONTINUED) 27.19 CONTINUED: LEFTY Always on the arm. (chuckles) You scared that guy, though, manag gia-- that cracks me up. I got 26 fucking hits under my belt and you're the one he's scared of. Lefty CATCHES himself--shouldn't have said that about the hits. BROODS a beat. LEFTY Hey, Donnie, pull over. CUT TO:20 INT. LATER. CADILLAC TOOLS out on the front seat. Lefty UNSCREWS the dashboard. Donnie leans in. LEFTY Hand me them pliers. DONNIE The vise grip or the needle nose? LEFTY Fuggedaboudit. I'll get it myself. He leans out. Takes the pliers. Goes back to work dismantling the dashboard. DONNIE I don't know, Left. This is the best car I ever had. LEFTY You didn't hear that? That rattling? DONNIE I never had any trouble with this car. LEFTY Give me a hand with this. Lefty and Donni e PULL OFF the dashb oard. Lef ty looks i nside. Fe els around. LEFTY (satisfied) It's clean. (CONTINUED) 28.20 CONTINUED: DONNIE (getting it) Hey, you got something to say to me, Left, say it to my face. LEFTY I ain't saying nothing, Donnie. DONNIE You think I got a fucking wire in my car? LEFTY Did I say that? DONNIE What do you think--you think I ' m a fucking rat stoolpigeon? LEFTY You can't be too careful these day s. Even the ears have ears. (beat) C'm on. They need some bodies on the street down at Toyland. CUT TO:21 EXT. DAY. TOYL AND--LITTLE ITALY A CAR pulls up and two prosperous-looking SKIPPERS get out-- DOMINICK "BIG TRIN" TRINCHERA, fat and fortyish, and PHILIP "PHILLY LUCKY" GIACCONE, 40s, shrewd eyes behind glasses. They disappear into an unimposing SOCIAL CLUB. WISEGUYS stand guard in the cold outside. Lefty arrives with Donnie in tow. LEFTY Nicky/ this's Donnie. (they nod) How'd Minx's Magic do in the fifth? r, .∑- ∑ LI WISEGUY #1 He lost. LEFTY How could he lose? WISEGUY #1 What the fuck does he give a fuck? He's a horse. You're the one that's out ten grand. LEFTY FuckI Now I gotta bet another dime Sunday just to get to where , . I was yesterday. (CONTINUED) 29.21 CONTINUED: RED COWBOY BOOTS move up the block...They belong to ALPHONSE "SONNY RED" INDELICATO, 50s, barrel chest. With him, his son, ANTHONY BRUNO INDELICATO, 20s, pale and balding, COKED OUT. LEFTY (aside, to Donnie) Fucking Sonny Red. Sonny Red stops, confronts Lefty. SONNY RED (nods to Donnie) Who's this? LEFTY This's Donnie, a friend of mine. BRUNO Just stand there and look dangerous, friend. LEFTY (proud) Yeah, he does look dangerous, don't he? Bruno SNORTS in disgust as he and his father move along. LEFTY Sonny Red, everything's a beef with him, him and Bruno, that son of his. DONNIE He don't look so dangerous himself. LEFTY Ah, he's a stone degenerate, he's coked-up half the time. Like all these fucking kdds nowadays. A h uge L INCOL N pu lls u p. BO DYGUA RDS j ump out o f th e car. And CARMINE "LILO" GALANTE, 69, fat and bald, huge CIGAR , emerges from the Lincoln. AWESTRUCK, all watch as, surrounded by WISEGUYS, Galante disappears into the club. Lefty watches/ st ubs out his cigare tte. Turn s to Donni e. LEFTY The boss. CUT TO: 30.22 EXT. SUNSET. ROOF Lefty tends to the PIGEON COOPS on his roof, Donnie alongside him. LOUISE, early 30s, a good-looking woman in stretch pants, brings Lefty a SPRITZER. LOUISE Here you go, Bennie. You sure you don't wanna spritzer, Donnie? DONNIE No thanks, Louise. LOUISE You change your mind, I'm downstairs . She heads downstairs. Donnie turns back to Lefty. LEFTY . . - Not for nothing, but... how'd you know that was a fugazy? DONNIE Jewels are my business. If I buy a fugazy, I lose. I hate to lose. . LEFTY That's a good business, jewels? Good money in it? DONNIE Pretty good. LEFTY You keep your nose clean, be a good earner, listen to what I s chool you -- there ai n't a crystal ball big enough for what we could do. DONNIE (off pigeon) Did you know there used to be falcons in Hew York? LEFTY They got everything in this fucking city. DONNIE Peregrine falcons. They lived across the river. LEFTY In Queens? DONNIE In the Palisades, (CONTINUED) 31.22 CONTINUED: LEFTY The Palisades is Jersey, Donnie. DONNIE I ' m saying that's why there's so many pigeons now. The falcons used to hunt 'em and kill 'em off. LEFTY I love these fucking pigeons. I ' d die before I ' d let anybody touch these pigeons. _ DO NN IE Those falcons could read a newspaper from a mile up. LEFTY A bird could read the newspaper? DONNIE I'm saying their eyesight. LEFTY Hey, Donnie--you got a couple hundred, Donnie? I got some things I gotta take care of. Donnie reaches in his wallet. DONNIE What do you want/ two hundred? Lefty leans over, PEERS into his wallet. LEFTY Whaddaya got there, three hundred? Gimme three hundred. Donnie hands over the $300--EMPTIES his wallet. Lefty takes it, folds it ito a ROLL. Puts the hundred on the outside... LEFTY Don't be carrying your money in a wallet no more. Wiseguy got his money in a roll, like this. Beaner on the outside. DONNIE You're the boss. LEFTY I'm not the boss, Donnie. The boss ends up dead or in jail. Why the fuck would I want to be the boss? (CONTINUED) 3222 CONTINUE D: (2) DONNIE It's just an expression. LEFTY And shave off that moustache. That's against the rules. DONNIE Hey, Left, if it's okay, I'm gonna run. I'll see you tomorrow. LEFTY Do I gotta school you in everything? Tomorrow's Mother's Day. Wiseguys don't work on Mother's Day. CUT TO:23 INT. NIGHT. THE COCKEYED CLAM Donnie sits with Berada as he reads over some documents. BERADA Benjamin Ruggiero. a.k.a. 'Lefty,' 'Lefty Guns,' 'Lefty Two Guns.' A couple of bullshit cases, never did time. DONNIE This is way beyond what we talked about---"fences and hijackers. T his is a made guy. Do you kno w what that means ? The re's only maybe 3000 made guys in the whole fucking country. BERADA (smiles) It means you're in, kid. DONNIE Can you believe it--a made guy? (muses) A very peculiar made guy. FLASH CUT TO:24 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue reads a memorandum. LeBow on the phone. BERADA (V.O.) . . . In light of the above contacts, we request an additional six months. . . (CONTINUED) 33.24 CONTINUED: HOGUE Berada's the guy who ran this? JULES I took over when he retired. LeBow covers the receiver with his hand. LEBOW The surveillance is in place at the church hall. CUT TO:25 EX T. DAY. C HUR CH HAL L--NE W J ERS EY A large RECEPTION HALL adjoining a Catholic CHURCH. Sounds of a BIG BAND tuning up inside. Up the block: A MA BELL REPAIR VAN parked by a telephone pole. FBI #1, in the guise of a telephone LINESMAN, climbs the pole... CUT TO:26 INT. SAME TIME. SURVEILLANCE VAN An FBI TECH TEAM monitors listening devices. An array of SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS and MUG SHOTS as they're spread over a small table. TECH #1 looks with BINOCULARS through ONE-WAY GLASS. TECH #1 (to phone) ...By tonight we'll have a guy inside... CUT TO:27 INT. SAME TIME. FBI HEADQUARTERS LeBow covers the phone, turns to Hogue. LEBOW They're gonna put in one of our guys as a busboy tonight. JULES Who? LEBOW I don't know. (CONTINUED) 34.27 CONTINUED: JULES I want to know. If we're gonna put a guy inside, I want it to be one of our best guys. LeBow goes back to the phone. Hogue turns to Jules. HOGUE I want to talk to Berada. FLASH CUT TO:28 INT. THE PAST. PISTONE HOME Donnie SHAVES his moustache in the bathroom. Sounds of the FRONT DOOR unlocking and then closing downstairs. MAGGIE (O.C.) Joe? DONNIE Up here. ON MAGGIE as she heads up the stairs... MAGGIE I had no idea you were coming home. I'm supposed to go to the movies tonight with the Grants. She enters the bathroom as he wipes the shaving cream off his face. He looks up, half his moustache SHAVED OFF. Her face FALLS. MAGGIE Oh, Joe, don't-- (beat) Forget it. DONNIE What's the matter? MAGGIE I liked your moustache. It's the only thing I liked about this thing of yours. DONNIE Well, what do you want me to do now? MAGGIE I want you to ask me. DONNIE You could've said something. (CONTINUED) 35.28 CONTINUED: ' MAGGIE What would you suggest I do--tell Berada to get a message to you that I like your moustache? DONNIE That's not the point. MAGGIE I have to ask you about every frigging thing. She jockeys for room at the mirror to put on her makeup. DONNIE Maggie, I'll be two seconds. MAGGIE They were supposed to pick me up five minutes ago. DONNIE You're going to the movies with the Grants? MAGGIE Why don't you come? DONNIE The last thing I want to do tonight is go to the movies with the Grants. MAGGIE I'm not cancelling. Agitated, he starts to compulsively organize the medicine chest, the shelves. DONNIE Where is everybody? I didn't say anything? I'm sure I said something. MAGGIE Joseph--I think I'd remember. DONNIE Well, they should be home anyway. What time is it? MAGGIE Sherry's sleeping over at Mom's, she's teaching her how to sew. Kerry's at choir practice. DONNIE Where's Terry? (CONTINUED) 36. (2)28 CONTINUED: MAGGIE She's with her boyfriend. (off his rearranging) Leave my stuff alone. DONNIE What boyfriend? MAGGIE K enny. Wha t are you worri ed about? I was 14 when we started dating. DONNIE That's what I ' m worried about. MAGGIE He's a nice kid. Nice family. He's on the wrestling team. DONNIE I ' m sure he is. I ' m sure he's practicing his takedowns right now. MAGGIE Maybe I'11 shave my head next time--∑ see how you like it. A car horn HONKS outside. Donnie's rearranging grows more agitated... DONNIE (angry) I expect you to have some sense of priorities. I put a roof over y our he ad. I put clo the s o n e very body' s bac k. I put g as i n the car. Maggie grabs his wrists...He wrestles her off. MAGGIE Leave my stuff alone. DONNIE I give you whatever I can give. What I can't give you is a moustache. I don't have a choice. I have to shave the moustache. MAGGIE I don't give a shit about the m oustache. But if yo u're gonna live your life however the fuck you want then let me live mine. (CONTINUED) 37. (3)28 CONTINUED: She storms out. He balls up a towel, HURLS it against the wall. CUT TO:29 I NT. NIGHT . PISTONE HOME--BEDR OOM Maggie sleeps. Donnie, WIDE AWAKE, stares at the ceiling. Hears an EfNGINE. A car door. 4:32 A.M. on t he cl oc k. He ge ts u p. Lo oks t hr oug h the b li nds . See s hi s daughter Terry as she kisses her boyfriend good night. DONNIE'S POV Terry kisses and kisses...And kisses...Falls back onto the hood of the car and slides down it. Donnie senses that he's losing control of his family. CUT TO:30 INT. DAY. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue looks up at the clock. 12 NOON A tape plays on the TAPE RECORDER... LEFTY (O.C.) Hello? DONNIE (O.C.) Left? Donn ie. I ' m ju st ch eckin g in. LEFTY (O.C.) Where you been, Donnie? You gotta check in. DONNIE (O.C.) That's what I said. I'm checking in. LZFTY (O.C.) Did you see the paper? DONNIE (O.C.) I just woke up. L EFTY (O.C.) How come every morning you're reading the paper except this morning? ', (CONTINUED) 38.30 CONTINUED: DONNIE (O.C.) I just woke up, Left. LEFTY (O.C.) Fuggedaboudit. You better fucking get down here. Clickl and a DIAL TONE... CUT TO:31 INT. DAY. CADILLAC The FRONT PAGE of the New York Post--a PHOTOGRAPH of Carmine Galante, his cigar still clenched in his teeth, sprawled bloody, DEAD in a Brooklyn restaurant. Under the headline: RUBOUT Lefty folds the paper in disgust, lights an English Oval--even more JUMPY than usual. Donnie drives Lefty's Cadillac across the Brooklyn Bridge. LEFTY The B oss gets w hacked. T he fucking boss--you don't even know the fucking boss exists until he gets whacked, and then your whole fucking life gets turned around. DONNIE Where're we going? LEFTY Brooklyn. I got sent for. (mutters) The boss gets whacked. Another thing I get left out of. DONNIE What does that mean, you got sent for? LEFTY What do you think it means? I got sent for by Sonny Black. I'm telling you, I'm sick with this. DONNIE Sonny Red? LEFTY Did I say Sonny Red? Not Sonny Red. Sonny Black. (gestures) And don't ride the brake, (more) (CONTINUED) 3931 CONTINUED: LEFTY (Cont'd) Don't drive my Cadillac the way you drive your car. DONNIE How do you know what he wants? LEFTY That fucking Sonny Black. I know him. He gets upped to skipper, first thing he's gonna do is go out and buy a big fucking Mercedes. DONNIE They should up you before they up Sonny Black. LEFTY It's his reward for whacking the boss. Do I have to explain every fucking thing to you? DONNIE I thought you and Sonny Black were friends. LEFTY If you ever whacked a guy, Donnie, you wouldn't ask such stupid questions. DONNIE I whacked a guy once. LEFTY When? DONNIE In an argument. LEFTY∑ An argument don't count. (derisive) An argument--you whack your wife in an argument. DONNIE I'm just saying. LEFTY Ain't the question. Don't say you know when you don't know. DONNIE It could be anything Sonny sent for you for. (CONTINUED) 40.31 CONTINUED: (2) LEFTY I got sent for, Donnie. With This Thing, you go in alive and you come out d ead. And t he o ne th at kills you is your best fucking friend. Lefty lights another cigarette. Donnie powers the window down a cra ck. L efty glar es at him. Donn ie p owers the windo w bac k up . CUT.TO:32 E XT. DAY . TEE M OTION L OUNGE-- BROOKLY N t - * Donnie drives up Withers Street. Pulls up to a three-story building in a working-class neighborhood. Lefty takes a last drag of his cigarette, climbs out. LEFTY Anything happens, make sure Louise gets the Cadillac. CUT TO:33 INT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE Nicky and Boobie play gin. Neil Diamond's "Love on the Rocks" plays o n the JUKE BOX. Left y enters. NICKY (sings) 'Love on the rocks, ain't no surprise.' Looklt this hand. This ain't a hand. This's a deformed fucking Creature of the Black Lagoon fucking claw. BOOBIE Left. NICKY Left. 'Love on the rocks, ain't no surprise.' (to Boobie) Ming'1 I knew you was gonna grab that! Lefty, white with fear, sits down with his back to the wall. NICKY 'Love on the rocks, ain't no surprise.' BOOBIE It ain't no fucking surprise neither. (CONTINUED) 41.33 CONTINUED: NICKY (laying out cards) Gin. BOOBIE Nicky, that ain't gin. NICKY Geddadaheah, that's gin. BOOBIE You got two sevens. Boobie shows him his cards. NICKY Whaddaya mean I got two sevens? I know I had three sevens. BOOBIE From now on we play the honor system. You don't even show me your hand. CUT TO: ∑34 EXT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE Donnie sits in the car. Drums his fingers on the wheel. THINKS...Then reaches behind himself-- UNSNAPS THE HOLSTER strapped to his belt, holding his COMBAT KNIFE. Climbs out of the car. Up a couple of steps. And through the door... CUT TO:35 INT. MOTION LOUNGE ...into the Motion Lounge. Nicky and Boobie shoot wary looks at him. Who's this? Lefty turns to them. LEFTY It's okay. He's a friend of mine. Lefty glares at Donnie--ACCUSES him with his eyes: who told you to come in here? Donnie sits down--something in the placid atmosphere that tells him: this is how it happens. Nicky peers over as Boobie writes on the SCOREPAD. NICKY You giving me credit for that? Boobie slides him the scorepad. (CONTINUED) 42.35 CONTINUED: BOOBIE Fine. You keep score. NICKY I don't know how. BOOBIE How the hell can you play gin if you don't know how to keep score? NICKY I ' m a natural. THE FLUSH OF A TOILET as Sonny emerges from the bathroom, reading a slip of paper. Crumples it, throws it in the trash. SONNY (complaining) Two hundred in action and we came out with 35. That" fucking Boots- he runs that book like an old lady. That 's gonna c hange. (off Donnie) Who's this fucking guy? BOOBIE He's with Lefty. SONNY (to Lefty) C'mon. Let's go take a ride, (to Donnie) You too. Donnie and Lefty share a look of FEAR. CUT TO:36 EXT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE They emerge. Parked in the back--a brand-new MERCEDES. Lefty looks at it. Turns to Donnie. LEFTY (mutters) What the fuck did I tell you? Sonny unlocks the car. SONNY Hey, Left--ride up front with me. CUT TO: 43.37 INT. DAY. MERCEDES Sonny drives on the Long Island Expressway. Lefty in the front seat, EDG Y. Bo obie and Nicky flan k Don nie i n ba ck. H e gla nces nervo usly at th em. Sizes them up. SONNY Ain't this beautiful, the ride on this? NICKY H ey, Sonny --can' t you driv e an y faster? I got a date tonight out in Jersey. SONNY Which broad is this? NICKY This is the one from the calendar. Remember that calendar I show ed you? M iss Pennzo il Air Filter of 1976. Sonny and Boobie MIME holding two big BREASTS. SONNY AND BOOBIE (unison) Che mennel NICKY That's the one. Lefty, NERVOUS, pulls down the sun visor. Looks at Boobie in the mirror. SONNY Hey, Left, what'cha doing? LEFTY Just checking my part. SONNY (chuckling) Ah, Le ft--what a m I gonna do without you? (to Donnie) What would you do without this guy, hah, kid? You'd have to find yourself a new goombah. Lefty getting VERY NERVOUS... NICKY That was something about the boss, wasn't it? SONNY We all gotta go sometime. (CONTINUED) 44.37 CONTINUED: Lefty, TERRIFIED, looks at Boobie again. Boobie nods. Donnie WATCHES this...Thinks: what to do? CUT TO:38 EXT. DAY. KENNEDY AIRPORT They walk from the parked Mercedes toward a FREIGHT HANGAR. The scene is otherwise DESERTED. Lefty NERVOUS, lights a cigarette. Planes periodically ROAR overhead. NICKY (sings) 'Love on the rocks, ain't no surprise.' LEFTY Sonny, what is this? we glomming something? Sonny opens the door. SONNY After you. Lefty walks into the DARKNESS...A terrifying SILENCE...Then-- RRRRRRROAR1 CUT TO:39 INT. HANGAR The LIGHTS come up. A pale and shaken Lefty looks straight into the eyes of a LION CUB as it GROWLS. A bluff FREIGHT HANDLER holds the lion on a leash. LEFTY Christ. I think I shit my pants. FREIG HT HANDLER It was supposed to go to some an i ma l de al er . Fu ck h im . I' l l tell him it got lost. SONNY Look, Left, he likes you. The cub nuzzles and sniffs at Lefty. LEFTY (to Lion) Get the fuck outta here. (CONTINUED) 45.39 CONTINUED: SONNY That's for you, Left. For your birthday. Batter late than never. LEFTY That's why you sent for me? SONNY Yeah, why? Whaddayou think, you was gonna get whacked? (laughing) Lefty thought he's : gonna get whackedl NICKY (laughing) What a pisserl SONNY What, over that 175 grand you owe down in Little Italy? Don't worry, chooch. (hard) Now you owe it to me. CUT TO:40 EXT. NIGHT. THE MOTION LOUNGE Donnie, Lefty and the Lion pile into the Cadillac. Sonny, Nicky and Boobie wave as they drive off. CUT TO:41 INT. NIGHT. CADILLAC They drive back to Manhattan, the Lion GROWLING in the back seat. Lefty turns around. LEFTY (to Lion) Jesus Christ--shaddup already! DONNIE He's hungry, Left, CUT TO:42 INT. NIGHT. WHITE CASTLE "Home of the Square Hamburger." Lefty and Donnie approach the counter. (CONTINUED) 46.42 CONTINUED: LEFTY Forty hamburgers. CUT TO:43 EXT. NIGHT. WHITE CASTLE Donnie and a melancholy Lefty sit on the hood of the Cadillac, throwing hamburgers to the Lion. LEFTY Thirty years, there ever was a piece of work t o be done-- call Lef ty --I ne ve r c om pla in ed . B ut do I get upped? They passed me by. Sonny Black gets upped. I don't get fucking upped. DONNIE At least you got Louise. LEFTY Sonny Black has four broads don't add up t o Lo uise. You got a girl? DONNIE Yeah. I told you, in California. LEFTY That's a good thing. One broad's enough. She's a good woman, Louise. My son Tommy, she's more of a mother to him than my ex- wife, that bitch, (beat) My own fucking son's a junkie, you believe it? DONNIE You should give him a smack in the mouth once in a while. LEFTY Believe me, I got bruises on my h an ds . My d au gh te r, J an e t-- 28 years old, she ain't married. My daughter Francine, she's out in California. She ain't married. I'm telling you, Donnie, I gotta worry 24 h ours a day . A woman like Louise, I can't do right by her--l ain't got three bucks in my pocket. I got can cer of th e r ick. My ex -wife, sh e still Eives in the building. I see her on the stairs, I gotta have three spritzers just to calm down. (CONTINUED) 47.43 CONTINUED: DONNIE What do you mean, cancer of the prick? LEFTY Cancer of the prick. Oh, yeah, you didn't know that? Fuggedaboudit. I ' m in the medical books with that. DONNIE I never heard of that. LEFTY I ain't a mutt--30 years busting m y hump, f or what? S onny Black they up to skip per. Do I get upped? I ' m like Claude Rains-- I ' m the Invisible fucking Man. DONNIE You know, Left, not for nothing, but six hours ago you thought you's gonna get whacked. LEFTY Ain't the question, Donnie. Did I say I was gonna get whacked? DONNIE No. LEFTY Don't say you know when you don't know, Donnie. You d o n ' t know. DONNIE I don't know 'cause you don't tel l me. How co me yo u didn 't tell me about that money you owe? LEFTY Fuggg edabq udit. You know what ∑the vig is on that? That fucking Blackstein is gonna have the arm on me every fucking week. DONNIE Maybe I could help you out. LEFTY I'll tell you something--I went in front of all the skippers, Sonny Red and Philly Lucky and all of them. I went on the record with you. You know what that means? (CONTINUED) 48.43 CONTINUED: (2) . : DONNIE I don't know. LEFTY You don't? DONNIE I do? LEFTY You got no fucking idea, my friend. I ' m your man now--Jesus Christ can't touch you because I represent you. DONNIE You and me, Left. LEFTY I got Louise and I got you. They toss hamburgers to the Lion, the White Castle beside them, lit bright against the bleak urban landscape. CUT TO:44 INT. DAY. PISTONE HOME A party for Kerry's CONFIRMATION. A PRIEST hobnobs with Donnie's extended family. UNCLE BOB arrives, looks for Kerry. UNCLE BOB Where's Kerry? (finding her) Kerry, that's the prettiest confirmation dress I've ever seen. Terry sulks in a corner. Maggie enters with a tray of cookies. UNCLE BOB Is Joe here? MAGGIE He's on the phone. The cheery hubbub subsides as the noise of Donnie's hollering CRESCENDOES in the next room... DONNIE (O.C.) I don't give a fuck, Left!...What the fuck do you want me to do?...I don't give a fuck what that mothe rfuck er sa ys--y ou believe him or me? (CONTINUED) 49.44 CONTINUED: Awkward looks all around. MRS. PISTONE, 60s, Donnie's MOTHER, sidles up to Maggie. MRS. PISTONE Who's bothering Joseph? CUT TO:45 INT. NIGHT. PISTONE BEDROOM Donnie sleeps. Maggie lies awake. MAGGIE I want a divorce. DONNIE There hasn't been a divorce in my family back to Julius Caesar. Divorce someone else. MAGGIE I ' m serious. DONNIE Maggie, I ' m tired. Go to sleep. MAGGIE will you see a therapist? DONNIE It's just another six months. MAGGIE I can't sleep for six months, Joe. CUT TO:46 INT. DAY. OFFICE SHELLY BERGER, late 40s, flannel shirt, earth shoes--PSYCHOTHERAPIST-- sits with Donnie and Maggie. MAGGIE ...He comes home at all hours of the night, without announcing when or why, or where he's been for three weeks. Or three months. Then he expects everything to be just the way he wants it. Be vacuums the entire house. Do you know another man who vacu ums? It's abno rmal. Of course, he expects the girls to drop their lives when he shows u. . . p (CONTINUED) 50,46 CONTINUED: DONNIE I ' m their father, Maggie. I ring that doorbell I expect them home. MAGGIE They think it's a Jehovah's witness. (to Berger) You'd think he'd tell me where he goes or w ha t h e' s d o in g-- DONNIE That's for your own protection. MAGGIE Hal (to Berger) I know he's ch ea t in g o n m e-- DONNIE I don't have to listen to that bullshit. MAGGIE No, why don't you just leave? That's what you're good at. BERGER Please just listen without saying a nyt hin g--t hat 's t he tas k f or today. Oth erwise you just rep lay the old pathology. (beat) Maggie, you were talking about Joe's disappearances. MAGGIE I nev er go o ut any mor e. What couple wants to go out with a- t hird whee l? Even wh en he's ho me it's not like we have any friends any more. BERGER So you resent him for expressing your autonomy needs? MAGGIE Yes, I resent him. BERGER For expressing your autonomy needs. MAGGIE (unsure) Yes. BERGER And you, Joe--what do you think you're running from? (CONTINUED) 51.46 CONTINUED: (2) DONNIE I ain't runnin' from nothin'. MAGGIE (mimics) 'I ain't runnin' from nuttin'. The man I married was a college man. (to Berger) Sorry. BERGER (resuming, to Donnie) Being the distancer forces Maggie into the role of the pursuer. That gives you a feeling of power. Simultaneously you resent Maggie for expressing the very intimacy needs that in your own li fe yo u 'v e-- DONNIE . I ' m an undercover agent for the FBI! MAGGIE I didn't marry the FBI, Joe. He writes on a pad. Donnie tries to peek at what he's writing. BERGER Okay. I want yo u to spli t the week in half. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are Joe's intimacy days. Tuesdays, Thursday s, and Saturdays are Maggie' s. On your day, you make one intimacy request. Your partner agrees in advance to meet it. Whatever it is. DONNIE What's that---an intimacy request? BERGER A n i nti mac y r eque st. Li ke 'Ru b my back,' or 'Help me work out this problem with the kids.' Odd day, even day, Sunday's off. (beat) And mastur bate. I r ecommend i t, for both of you. It's a good way to blow off stress. CUT TO:47 INT. EVENING. CADILLAC Donnie drives. Maggie SULKS, looks out the window. (CONTINUED) 5247 CONTINUED: DONNIE Can I ask you something? MAGGIE NO. DONNIE How much is this costing? Maggie doesn't say anything. DONNIE Okay, Maggie--I want you to answer my question. This is my intimacy request. MAGGIE A hundred dollars. DONNIE That was a hundred dollars? MAGGIE That's what I said, Joe. DONNIE A hundred dollars. And how many of these do you think we'll need? . . MAGGIE I don't know. DONNIE One hundred dollars. MAGGIE Is this still your intimacy request? Because otherwise I'd rather not discuss it anymore. DONNIE I gotta work a ten hour day risking my life to make a hundred dollars! MAGGIE Who are you risking your life for? Not me, Joe. DONNIE (mincing) 'Will you rub my back'? Va'a'fonaooll MAGGIE You're an animal. (CONTINUED) 53. (2)47 CONTINUED: D O N NI E You know wha t my intimacy request is fo r him? It' s very in timate. He can take that bill he's gonna send me and shove it up his ass. Maggie starts to PUNCH him. MAGGIE You're an animal1 Animal1 Donnie tries to fend her off while he drives. The car swings wildly. Approaching the opposite way: A TRACTOR TRAILER Donnie SWERVES. The car tumbles off the road onto a soft shoulder. Maggie continues to hit at Donnie. He wrestles with her. MAGGIE I hope (punch) those guys you're hanging out with (punch) are laying you (punch) because I ' m (punch) not anymore! He looks at her. She looks at him. And they KISS PASSIONATELY grappling in the front seat...He grabs her. Pulls her toward him. Realizes that she is encumbered by something. She deftly unhooks the bel t. Ki sses his neck. .. MAGGIE (under her breath) Do it. But he's not buying. DONNIE Maggie--who told you to wear a seat belt? MAGGIE What? DONNIE It's a simple question. You never wore a seat belt before/ Maggie. MAGGIE Wait a minute--is this--you think I'm having an affair? (CONTINUED) 54. (3)47 CONTINUED: D O N N IE I didn't s ay that. It's interesting that you would say that, though. MAGGIE You're right--I ' m secretly seeing a man who wants me to 'Buckle Up for Safe ty'. We h ave t hree child ren, Joe--r emember t hem? One of us has to play it safe. She SLAMS out of the car... OUT ON THE SHOULDER with cars whipping by...Donnie chases after her. DONNIE I just asked a simple question. You're the one that brought it up with the affair. MAGGIE Bulls hit. It's so fr iggi ng ironic that you'd think I ' m up to s omet hing. My n ights are homework and basketball games. What are your nights? DONNIE You know what I'm doing. MAGGIE I don't know a goddam thing. DONNIE I'm doing the job. That's the job. MAGGIE I live like a widow, Joe. That's the only way I can deal with this, with the photographs and memories and our children, and I go on with my life. Like you're already dead. DONNIE It's for your own protection. MAGGIE It's not protecting me--it's killing me. CUT TO: 55.48 INT. NIGHT. PISTONE HOME Maggie sleeps. Donnie lies awake. DONNIE When did you all of a sudden from nowhere start saying, 'Do it', Maggie? MAGGIE what? Go to sleep. DONNIE 'Do it.' You never said that-- 'Do it'. You never talked that way before. CUT TO:49 INT. MORNING. PISTONE HOME Kerry wakes up to an odd groaning and whining noise... DOWNSTAIRS . Donnie compulsively vacuums the living room. CUT TO:50 INT. LATER. PISTONE BEDROOM Bursey INSTALLS a special BLACK PHONE. The girls WATCH with Donnie. BURSEY This is a New York number--it patches through to here. Maggie flutters through wearing her SWEATSUIT. MAGGIE I ' m sorry to run out, honey. I hav e an aero bics class . Tak e care of yourself. She gives him a peck on the cheek, exits. Donnie turns to the girls DONNIE Tha t's a spe cial phone . You d on't call on i t. Yo u don 't answer it. Nobody touches that phone under any circumstances. Understood? TERRY ∑ Jawohl, Herr Commandantl Terry gives Donnie a NAZI SALUTE. Goosesteps out of the bedroom. (CONTINUED) 56.50 CONTINUED: DONNIE Hey. Heyl Donnie CHASES her a couple of steps. She HURTLES down the stairs. SLAMS out the door. Donnie turns back. Bursey shrugs, continues to install the phone. Kerry and Sherry indict him with their eyes. Exit the bedroom. CUT TO:51 INT. MORNING. CADILLAC Donnie drives through a driving RAIN. Looks in the REAR-VIEW MIRROR. Gets suspicious. Turns. A car turns with him...FOLLOWING' him. DONNIE TENSE He turns again. Again, the car FOLLOWS. Donnie looks again in the rear-view mirror. Something FAMILIAR about that car...Turns again. A scowl of RECOGNITION plays across Donnie's face. And he goes COLD...Approaching an intersection: A YELLOW LIGHT Donnie slows, then SPEEDS through the intersection as the yellow light goes RED...Checks his mirror--the other car is STUCK at the light. INSIDE THE OTHER CAR It's Maggie. She SMACKS the steering wheel in ANGER. MAGGIE Fuck you. Fuck fuck fuck you. FLASH CUT TO:52 EXT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS A HELICOPTER whips across the familiar face of Washington, D.C. Lands on the roof of FBI headquarters. FBI MEN, including Marshall, rush to me et it. Eme rgi ng fro m th e c hop per -- IT'S BERADA . Indomitable black eyes burn in a face grey with illness. CUT TO:53 INT. DAY. FBI HEADQUARTERS Berada, surrounded by suits. Hogue paces with DOCUMENTS. (CONTINUED) 5753 CONTINUED: HOGUE . . . $ 9 , 0 0 0 for miscellaneous-- miscellaneous what?...A $22,000 car...$40,000 for X-rated videotapes? FLASH CUT TO:54 INT. THE PAST. THE COCKEYED CLAM Donnie meets with a younger Berada. BERADA . . . I got an agent down in Florid a, Fred C alvin--I go t my finger in the dike and he's got his thumb up his ass. A million bucks in it and Calvin's got nothing. DONNIE Meanwhile three years I've been .undercover and I can't get a fucking two thousand dollar raise. BERADA joe-- DONNIE (correcting him) Do nn ie. C al l m e Don ni e-- I d on 't wanna get confused. BERADA We've been through this. To get a raise you gotta go up to supervisor grade. DONNIE I supervise my prick. Not even t hree year s--thr ee an d a h alf years. BERADA GS-14 is supervisors. That's the rules. DONNIE Fuggedaboudit. BERADA Now what the hell's this about porno tapes? (CONTINUED) 5854 CONTINUED: DONNIE I need 40 grand, I gotta middle some porno tapes. BERADA Forty grand for porno tapes? DONNIE you'll get it back. It's nothing. Half of them are for fags. BERADA Oh, that makes me feel much better. You don't watch it, you're gonna be back in the buckets listening to the Bulgarians all day. FLASH CUT TO:55 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS Berada addresses Hogue from his wheelchair. BERADA He has to do some not-so-nice things, sir. He's not undercover in the Camp Fire Girls. HO G U E (r ead ing ) 'UCA requests four handguns, preferably .38 caliber, to assist in a bank robbery'? CUT TO:56 INT. THE PAST. THE COCKEYED CLAM DONNIE You take out the firing pin. The guns don't work. What the fuck are you worried about? BERADA NO. DONNIE Why not? BERADA How'm'I gonna explain that to Washington? (CONTINUED) J ∑ . 59.56 CONTINUED: DONNIE Hey, Guy, you have to explain this to Washington, that's your fucking job. For me to do my job I need the fucking guns. BERADA There's no procedures for this. DONNIE I don't give a fuck about the fucking procedures. You think (gestures) they have fucking procedures? Hah? I want the fucking guns and I want the fucking money. Understood? Berada stares at Donnie, frightened. On his face we see his doubts about what's happening to Donnie. FLASH CUT TO:57 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI BERADA You guys said no to the guns. I don't see why it's coming up now. LEBOW There's a 209 that says Sonny Black might get hit tonight. And Joe would get hit as one of his crew. BERADA What does Joe say? MARSHALL We don't know where Joe is. BERADA What do you mean--you lost him? HOGUE Didn't you think at any point that this was getting a little out there? BERADA Everything in this operation was a judgement call, sir. And we relied on his judgement. He was the one in the field. (CONTINUED) 60.57 CONTINUED: HOGUE (with documents) These requests have your name on them. Why the h ell did yo u go ahead with this? CUT TO:58 INT. THE PAST. THE COCKEYED CLAM DONNIE Santo Trafficante--how long's he been the boss o f Florida? You could put his head on your wall. (Berada thinks) If I go down to Florida and vouch for this jerkoff, whatever his n ame is-- BERADA Fred Calvin. DONNIE Every door in Florida will open for this guy Calvin like it. was on ball fucking bearings. But I w an t t he gu ns . T h e mo n ey . A nd no more fucking bullshit. BERADA Don't talk to me like you're talking to them, Joe. DONNIE Donnie. BERADA Joe. DONNIE Don't waste my time. With all this bullshit about pr ocedures, you'11 do whatever it takes to get t hese guys. Same as m e. Berada mulls it over a beat. BERADA You really think we could get Trafficante? Donnie gets up. Turns. DONNIE If I vouch for this guy and he fucks up--I'll put a bullet in his fucking head. (CONTINUED) 61 .58 CONTINUED: ' ∑ Donnie exits. Berada WORRIES that this is getting out of hand. CUT TO:59 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS Berada stares at Hogue, stone-faced. BERADA There was never any moment when I thought Joe or the operation was out of control, sir. CUT TO:60 EXT. THE PAST. MOTION LOUNGE A LION IN WINTER. Le fty in hi s overcoat , the Lio n on its l eash. A cold DRIZZLE falls. The Lion stops, sniffs at an AUTOMOBILE. Lifts a leg: PEES ON THE TIRE Lefty, embarras sed, looks .around. N EIGHBORS watch from windows-- some amused, some disapproving. The Lion moves to the next car. Sni ffs. Pees on t he ti re. A nd th en to the next : SONNY'S MERCEDES The Lion sniffs. Lefty tugs on the leash. The Lion resists, sniffs some more. Lefty tugs harder. The Lion lifts its leg...Lefty YANKS o n the lea sh--the Lio n ROARS. L efty DRAG S the Lion into the Motion Lounge. CUT TO:61 INT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE Donnie takes a football bet on the pay phone. DONNIE .. .We got the Colts giving two- and-a -half. Yea h, (writ ing) Nickel on the Colts. INSIDE Sonny presides over a BOARD MEETING of the Sonny Black Corporation. Nic ky, B oobie and othe r WIS EGUYS --incl udin g BOO TS an d LEG S-- po re over crumpled scraps of paper. Sonny makes notes in a little spiral NOTEBOOK. Donnie ;joins them. (CONTINUED) ∑. 62.61 CO NTI NUE D: BOOBIE We ha d tha t loa d of jean s-- remember? Two hundred grand on that. . . The Lion shakes its mane, SPRAYS WATER over everyone. NICKY Va'n'aool'. all over everything1 L efty--how'm I gonna read this? LEFTY That'll teach you to improve your penmanship. Lefty lays a PARKING METER out on a card table. Picks up a SLED< HAMMER. BOOTS There's that guy that's making the Quaaludes for us. DONNIE - What're we selling that for? I know a guy I think I could off them to. NICKY Sixty cents apiece. I think it's 60. Is it 60? BOOTS We're doing a dime a week. WHAM! an echoing CLANGOR as Lefty whacks at the parking meter with the sledge hammer. SONNY If you're holding out on me, Boots, I'm gonna chop you up. BOOTS I ain't ho lding out. It's ten g ra nd a w ee k. Th a t' s i t. - SONNY It should be 25. (to Boobie) You ever off that load of sunglasses? Boobie nods, gives thumbs up. NICKY Bullshit, Boobie. (CONTINUED) 63 (2)61 CONTINUED: BOOBIE I did so, Nicky. NICKY Who you gonna lay off 18 cases of sunglasses to? BOOBIE I laid it off...to the same guy I heisted it from. (to Sonny) Twenty-five grand. Sonny writes in his notebook. WHAM1 another deafening smash at the parking meter. SONNY Will you stop it with that? LEFTY How else'm I gonna open it? Open sesame? SONNY What are you gonna get out of that, Left? Fifty bucks? LEFTY Ain't the question. SONNY You know, you guys--you don't fucking think. I'm the skipper now-- I gotta answer. Sonny Red's got 75 million alone }ust with that trucking company out in Jersey and I got fifty bucks of fucking dimes. LEFTY A score's a score. SONNY You're like a bunch of fucking niggers on welfare. DONNIE W hat about Florida? I know a g uy down there, he has some vending machines he's trying to move. LEFTY Let him move them to New York. (CONTINUED) 6 4.61 C O NT IN U ED : (3) DONNIE Plus he has a club down there. He's looking for partners that can give him peace of mind. SpNNY You know this guy? WHAMl a nother ba ng at the parking me ter. Left y GLOWERS at Donnie . A look that says: SHUT UP. DONNIE I knew him ten years ago, in Baltimore. He was okay then. SONNY Where in Florida? The Beach? DONNIE Tampa. LEFTY For your information they got their own outfit down there and their own boss. LEGS Santo Trafficante. LEFTY Thank you. NICKY All the economy's moving down there, Florida, 'cause of the Oil Crisis. I heard it on the news. BOOBIE The economy gotta be good for there to be good moneymaking for crooks. LEGS Who can get a fucking thing going in this fucking city? It's 5000 wiseguys all chasing the same nickel. NICKY Hey, Sonny, maybe we could do something with Disneyworld down t here. Wis eguy Mount ain. Wiseguys of the Caribbean. Everybody fucks Minnie Mouse up t he a ss. C an yo u ima gine? (more) (CONTINUED)61 C O N T I N UE D : (4) NICKY (Cont'd) (gestures) You grab her by those big fuc kin g e ars -- Uproarious LAUGHTER from the group. Then suddenly-- SONNY EXPLODES In a RAGE, he stands up, THROWS HIS CHAIR, knocks over the card table. SONNY You think this is a fucking joke? Hah? One day I ' m gonna die, and I ' m gonna be in this same fucking room, with these same fucking guys, talking about these same fucking scams that never amount to anything, and that's how I'll know I got sent to fucking Hell. Sonny STORMS out. The guys sit, look at each other. Some dazed. Some calculating. Boobie picks up the toppled table. BOOBIE We better start earning or somebody's gonna get clipped. Then Sonny RETURNS. Pale and shaken. SONNY I can't even imagine it. What kind of people--in broad fucking dayli ght-- what kind of a worl d-- NICKY What happened? SONNY They stole the Mercedes. CUT TO:62 EXT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE The guys file out. STARE at the EMPTY SPACE where the Mercedes used to be. CUT TO:63 EXT. NIGHT. LAGUARDIA AIRPORT From the runway, as a JETLINER takes off... CUT TO: 6 6.64 INT. NIGHT. AIRPLANE Nicky and Boobie play GIN in the second row of the FIRST CLASS section. Their GIRLFRIENDS sit beside them. Sonny SNOOZES behind them on the shoulder of Judy, the waitress we met at the outset. Lefty and Donnie sit along the opposite wall, in the smoking section, LEFTY (sotto) Donnie? DONNIE What? LEFTY Why'd you inject that, Donnie, with Florida? DONNIE I didn't inject anything, Left. LEFTY You injected that. Don't tell me no. I know you, Donnie, you don't say nothing unless there's a reason for it. DONNIE I don't know, Left. I was just bullshitting around. LEFTY Listen to me, D onnie. I s wear on-- I don't know which to swear on, my dead father, my mother, who I love, my children--I swear to you, something's going on that you don't know about. DONNIE I know. ∑ LEFTY (flaring) That's the problem is, you don't ko. ' . : ' " . - ' nw DONNIE You don't explain it to me. LEFTY You think you can trust Sonny Black? Sonny Black is one big fat fucking snake in the, uh, uh... DONNIE Snake in the grass, (CONTINUED)64 CONTINUED: LEFTY You can't say that, Donnie. Sonny Black is the skipper. You don't open your mouth about 'him. DONNIE I was agreeing with you. LEFTY Ain't the question. Now you're r espon sibl e for this . And because I represent you I ' m responsible -- for the whole fucking Magilla fucking Gorilla I ' m responsible. . DONNIE What are you so upset for? This could be great. LEFTY I die wit'cha, you understand? You walk on a chalk fucking line, Don nie. I got two gren ades at home-- I ' d blow up Mulberry Street, you did something wrong. DONNIE I ' m not gonna do nothing wrong. CUT TO:65 INT. DAY. KING'S COURT Cracked leatherette and gaffer's tape. TOPLESS DANCERS move greyly through their paces, ignored by the scattered customers. Donnie watches through the glass of a PHONE BOOTH. Supered below: KING'S COURT. TAMPA., FLORIDA. 1979. DONNIE (to phone) I'm in Florida. MAGGIE (O.C.) What are you doing in Florida? DONNIE What do you thi nk I'm doi ng? I'm working. DONNIE 'S POV as a Dancer bends over, waggles her bare butt... (CONTINUED) DO .65 CONTINUED: . MAGGIE ( O . C . ) It' s tw el ve d eg re es h er e. INSIDE FRED CALVIN, a.k.a. "CALVINO", late 30s, beefy and bluff, tours Lefty through the club. Shows him the LOCKERS behind the bar... CALVINO You run it as a 'bottle club,' members only--keep your own liquor in the lockers, pay for setups. That way there's no liquor license. LEFTY What kind of name is that, 'Calvino'? CALVINO Napolitan'. (resuming) Banquet room, six tennis courts, swimming pool in the back... LEFTY You gonna put any money in this? CALVINO First class all the way, Left-- that was my original plan. Then the minute I opened the joint I discovered I had partners--these goombahs. 'Gimme two hundred.' 'Gimme three hundred.' I said, 'Hey--I got a wife for thatl' Lefty shoots him a withering look. LEFTY Wait here. INSIDE THE PHONE BOOTH Donnie watches Lefty approach. MAGGIE It's Terry's Sweet Sixteen on Friday. Did you forget? DONNIE No, I didn't forget. MAGGIE (O.C.) Are you going to be here? (CONTINUED) 69. (2)65 CONTINUED: DONNIE I ' m gonna try. Look, Maggie, I gotta go. MAGGIE (O.C. ) Because it's less disappointing if you'd just say so. DONNIE I'll be there, okay? I gotta go. ' Bye. Donnie moves to hang up. Remembers. Puts the phone back to his mouth. . . DONNIE I love you. ...into a DIAL TONE. Lefty lights an English Oval as Donnie emerges. DONNIE So whaddaya think? LEFTY I hate Neapolitans. You vouch for this guy, Donnie? DONNIE Lik e any body else . I k new h im ten years ago, he was okay then. LEFTY What kind of man begrudges his wife? DONNIE Look, I'm just making the introduction. You make the decision. Lefty look s aro und. SMIL ES. LEFTY You imagine--we have our own joint down here? DONNIE It's up to you, Left. LEFTY I just gotta sit down with the man down here. DONNIE You know him? Trafficante? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ' ( 3 )65 LEFTY Fuggedaboudit. All over the world I ' m known. (getting an idea) Like a yacht. We gotta take him out on a yacht, have a drink, relax, then he knows these are men of men he's dealing with. DONNIE I know a broad down here, her brother has a boat. Big fucking yacht. LEFTY Get that boat, Donnie. Stay away from the broad. Calvino joins them. CALVINO Hey--who's the best looking guy in Florida? He slaps a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL to his forehead. CALVINO Mel He laughs, puts his arm around an unamused Lefty. CUT TO:66 EXT. DAY. THE TAHITIAN Sonny broods by the motel pool. Judy and the other girlfriends sit a cro ss the wa y. Q UIE T i n t he heat . B oob ie rub s su nta n o il on hi mse lf. Nic ky rea ds his pap er. Le fty and Do nni e a rri ve i n t hei r street clothes. SONNY (morose) Broad daylight. I still can't get over it. You have to ask yourself-- what kind of people? They take a Mercedes--a man's private property, they take it right off the street. BOOBIE Sonny, fuggedaboudit. It's over. SONNY I don't know what the world's coming to. I honestly don't. (CONTINUED)66 CONTINUED: . NICKY Ever since they got rid of the death penalty, the whole fucking society's going down the tubes. Like I ' m watching the news last n ig h t-- SONNY Hey, Lefty, why didn't you bring Louise? LEFTY Don't equate Louise with them broads, Sonny. I bring Louise when you bring your wives. SONNY (shouts) Hey, Judy--come over here and give everybody a blow job. Judy gives him the finger. Sonny smiles, turns to the others. SONNY Isn't she spunky? NICKY I'm watching the news last night. I'm lying there in bed and I see thes e guys from Iran, and these guys are whipping themselves. LEFTY Who? NICKY Iranians. You imagine? They whip themselves, with whips. SONNY Lot of broads into that. LEFTY Geddaddaheah, Nicky--whipping themselves. I never heard of that. NICKY Donnie, am I right? DONNIE What? LEFTY How come you're asking him? How come you don't ask me? (CONTINUED)66 CONTINUED: (2) NI C KY You just said you never heard of it. LEFTY That's right. I never heard of such a fucking thing. DONNIE It's like part of their religion, Left . I t's ca lle d se lf- flage llation. T hey think it'll . bring them closer to God. BOOBIE I ' d like to bring them closer to God. SONNY You see how smart he's getting, Donnie, reading that paper? NICKY That's what they oughtta do. Send over a bunch of wiseguys. Put a gun in your pocket, straighten them right out. LEFTY Nicky, why'd I wanna go to Iran? NICKY I ' m saying you gotta be strong with these people. LEFTY Don't tell me where I go and don't go. NICKY We didn't have these problems with Nixon. And there was law and order in the streets. Donnie watches as the group offers a unanimous AMEN with their eyes. SONNY (to Lefty) Everything check out with the club? LEFTY Yeah. (to Nicky) ' I ain't got three dollars in my pocket, Nicky, I'm gonna go to Iran? (CONTINUED) 73. (3)66 CONTINUED: NICKY Fuggedaboudit. SONNY The man down here says okay? LEFTY I ' m taking care of it. I gotta reach out--in a month I'll come back and sit down with the man. SONNY He knows who you are? ZZZZH! the whir of an autowinder and a black-and-white FREEZE FRAME, LEFTY Fuggedaboudit, Sonny, All over the world I ' m known. NICKY You are not known in Iran. and another freeze frame. Boobie gets up, dives in the pool ZZZZH! and another FREEZE FRAME. ZZZZH! CUT TO:67 INT. NIGHT. SAFE HOUSE A nerve center set up in a hotel suite. FBI AGENTS with headphones listen to WIRETAPS, bustle in and out. Donnie, exhausted, sits with Bursey and Jules. DONNIE I need a boat. Lefty loves boa ts. B e wan ts s ometh ing special to show off for Trafficanta. BURSEY Anything else? DONNIE Yeah. What happened to my expense check? It's gotta be three months already. Bursey gets called to the phone, BARBARA JONES, 30s, a PROSECUTOR, approaches. JULES Joe, this's Barbara Jones. She's an assistant US Attorney. (CONTINUED) 7467 CONTINUED: DONNIE Donnie. Call me Donnie. (to Jules) I gotta get reimbursed, Jules. It's fucking ridiculous. JONES We're missing bits and pieces on a lot of these cases. On the lo a ns ha rk in g-- DONNIE Donnie Brasco has the worst fucking credit rating in the history of the Mafia. JONES Like I was saying, with the loansharking-- we have to get somebody on tape with what the rate of interest is. Bursey covers the phone. BURSEY Does Sally Paintglass report to Nicky? DONNIE Not Nicky. Nicky Cigars. BURSEY (to phone) Not Nicky. Nicky Cigars. DONNIE Kiss Jones, how many do I have solid? JONES Indictments? I don't know. F i ft y . Si x ty . BURSEY (calling out) Who's Nicky Glasses? DONNIE Nicky Glasses. Little Nicky. JONES Joe-- DONNIE Donnie. Call me Donnie. I don't wanna get confused. (more) (CONTINUED) 75. ( 2)67 CONTI NUED: DONNIE (Cont'd) (to Jules) What about the club? When's it gonna be ready? JULES It'll be ready when you come back down. DONNIE You gonna spend any money to fix it up or is it gonna stay a dump? Bursey moves to the coffee machine. Jules sits with Donnie, hands him the NAGRA TAPE RECORDER. He sticks it inside his COWBOY BOOT. BURSEY You want some coffee, Joe? DONNIE (correcting him) Donnie. JONES The loansharking predicates are very specific. It's really important that you focus on these things. DONNIE What about the boat? I need that fucking boat. You know, I ask Berada to do something and he just says, 'Done'. JULES Maybe that's why he's in the hospital. JONES The stat says twice the lawful rate. Can you get that on tape? DONNIE Just get me that fucking boat, okay? Bursey rejoins them, stirring his coffee. BUPSEY They got that boat down here on t hat other inve stiga tion-- wha tcham acall it. B ig f uckin g yacht. DONNIE Perfect. (CONTINUED) 76. (3)67 C ON T IN UE D : BURSEY (laughing) The agents dress up as Arab sheiks trying to bribe Congressmen. You think that'll ever amount to anything? CUT TO:68 EXT. NIGHT. MARINA Lefty talks to a CAPTAIN, 50s, topsiders and cutoffs. LEFTY Five grand for that bucket for one day? CAPTAIN Just listen to me-- LEFTY I listen to my prick. How can you say five grand? CAPTAIN You don't want it, don't rent it. Lefty looks up. DOUBLETAKES. LEFTY'S POV as he looks down the dock, where BOOBIE meets with two COLOMBIANS by a cigarette boat. He hands them a paper bag full of cash to the Colomb ians. The y hand him a BRIEFCA SE. Lefty bac ks int o the shadows. Watches, TROUBLED, as Boobie climbs into his car, drives away. LEFTY (sotto) What the fuck is he up to? CUT TO:69 EXT. MORNING. TAMPA AIRPORT The guys head toward the terminal, followed by Calvino, burdened by their LUGGAGE. He lumbers like a pack-animal. SONNY Left, you wanna take care of the bags? We'll be in the lounge. Sonny heads inside with Nicky and Boobie. Lefty looks around. LEFTY Where's that fucking redcap? (CONTINUED) 77.69 CONTINUED: Lefty wanders off, looks up the block. Calvino stands on the curb with Donnie. Looks up and down. DOUBLETAKES. CALVINO (aside) Oh, Jesus--that's Hollman, Joe. "Joe." RAGE flickers almost imperceptibly in Donnie's eyes. CALVINO'S POV HOLLMAN, 50s, a sharply-dressed LAWYER, climbs out of a Mercedes. Moves to the trunk, opens it. CALVINO He'll make us for sure. He was the USD A w ith -- DONNIE (hard) Shut up and calm down. I'll take c a re o f it . - Lefty rejoins them. LEFTY Now listen to me, Fred--you listening to me? CALVINO'S POV Hollman helps his wife out of the car. Shuts the door...The REDCAP shows up. Starts ticketing the bags. LEFTY Just get that club fixed up. Anybody says anything, you just tell them to have their people get in touch with your people in New YorJc. Hollman drops his bags--in line behind our guys. His wife fishes ir her pocketbook for the tickets. . . LEFTY Mulberry Street. Ask for Lefty. CALVINO Okay, Left. REDCAP (to Lefty) Excuse me, sir--your tickets? (CONTINUED) 78.69 CONTINUED: (2) LEFTY (ignoring Redcap) When we come back down, we'll sit down with Who's Who and straighten everything out. HOLLMAN (to Lefty) Excuse me^-he needs your tickets. And then he...RECOGNIZES Donnie. HOLLMAN Joe? Donnie ignores him. DONNIE (to Calvino) Help this fucking guy put the bags up on the cart. You got the tickets, Left? HOLLMAN (persisting) Joe Pistone? Lefty's SUSPICION rises. Hollman moves to take Donnie by the elbow. And Donnie WHIRLS on him. DONNIE (angry) Hey, buddy--what the fuck are you selling? HOLLMAN I'm sorry--I thought I recognized you. DONNIE (to Lefty) Get a load of this g uy. The oldest fucking scam in the book. Pretend you recognize someone and meanwhile his partner here takes your w allet, (t o Wife) He fuck you, honey, or does he just thieve with you? HOLLMAN That's my wife. MRS. HOLLMAN C'mon, honey. DONNIE Hah? with his fucking pencil prick? (CONTINUED) 79.69 CONTINUED: (3) HOLLMAN (ironic) My mistake. She draws him away. They move toward the terminal. DONNIE (after them) 'Cause if he ain't fucking you, honey, coine up to First Class. We got two toilets up there. Calvino gives the bag to a REDCAP. Looks in his wallet. DONNIE Fucking guy pissing up my leg. LEFTY . Relax. You're gonna bust a blood vessel. DONNIE You can't even go to the fucking airport any more without some fucking Hare Krishna or somebody puts his hand in your pocket. CALVINO (to Lefty) You got change for a twenty? Lefty takes the twenty, gives the REDCAP two dollars. KEEPS the twenty. LEFTY Send the tickets for me and Donnie. We'll come back down in a month. CALVINO Sounds good to me. (about the twenty^ 5ey Left'-- But Lefty's already on his way inside. Donnie lingers a beat. CALVINO I wanted change from a twenty. He took the twenty-- DONNIE (sotto) You ever call me Joe again I'll cut your throat. CUT TO: 80.70 INT. NIGHT. PISTONE HOME--MINNESOTA The door unlocks, and Donnie tiptoes into the house. The middle of the night. Goes into the kitchen for a snack. Opens the refrigerator. A BIRTHDAY CAKE half-eaten, with the elided legend, "HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN, TERRY." He missed the party. DONNIE Shit. CUT TO:71 INT. NIGHT. TERRY'S ROOM Terry lies awake. A shaft of light hits her face as Donnie opens the door. DONNIE Terry ? You awak e? TERRY Yeah. Donnie goes to her. Sits on the bed. DONNIE I ' m sorry I missed your party. TERRY. It's okay. Uncle Bob flew in. DONNIE I ' m not the kind of guy that breaks his promises. TERRY That's what Mom said. DONNIE I'm sure that's only part of what Mom said. TERRY That's between you two. DONNIE W ha t' d s he sa y-- sh e w an ts a divorce? That's just her way of blowing off steam. TERRY She was worried something happened to you. (CONTINUED) 81.71 CONTINUED: DONNIE Nothing's gonna happen to me, Terry. Nothing's gonna happen to us -- I won't le t it. Okay ? TERRY Look, I understand. It's your job. DONNIE I ' m doing the right thing. I know i t's a sac rifice. It 's the same thing I always tell you kids -- do your best, work hard, never quit. That's how I live my life. I just had no way of knowing it would go this far. TERRY It was just a birthday party, D ad. You d on't have to go through this big apology. DONNIE You're getting grown-up now. I want you to understand. TERRY Half the kids in school don't have fathers. DONNIE You have a father, Terry. TERRY That's not what I meant. DONNIE Maybe I'm not there for the good times, but I'm there if you need me. TERRY I know that, Dad. DONNIE It's just another six months. "Another six months." That phrase. Like a knife in her heart. TERRY Whenever. It's no big deal. DONNIE Come here. Give me a hug. Terry sits up, hugs her f ather. St ruggles ag ainst the tears. An d loses. (CONTINUED) 82.71 CONTINUED: (2) TERRY (so bb in g) I ha te yo u. I' m so rry . I h at e you so much. He takes this like a blow. Hugs her tighter. CUT TO:72 INT. M ORNING. PISTONE HO ME Donnie convenes a FAMILY MEETING over breakfast. Terry, Kerry and Maggie sit, sullen, around the kitchen table. Sherry runs down the stairs, sits down. SHERRY Sorry I ' m late. DONNIE Okay. I called this family meeting because there's something we have to t alk a bout. I kn ow what I'm doing involves a lot of sacrifice from everyone, but this is something patriotic for the country that you can all be proud of. (beat) I called the meeting because we're gonna have to move. TERRY I ' m not moving. DONNIE This isn't a democracy, Terry. This is a dictatorsh ip. And that's my decision. It's getting too dangerous. MAGGIE Well, I don't want to move eithe r, Joe. Mo ve where? DONNIE There's too many people here who know us. MAGGIE Those people are known as 'friends,' Joe. You told me when we started this that we'd be moving back close to the family. That was the deal. (CONTINUED) 83.72 CONTINUED: DONNIE We're moving to Minnesota and changing our name to 'Anderson'. That's the deal. It's done. SHERRY 'Anderson'? Yeeccch.. TERRY Fuck that. I ' m staying here. I'll live with Kenny. DONNIE That language is unacceptable, y oung lady . You sit down. Terry gets up, walks out. Maggie gets up, too. MAGGIE Well, Mr. 'Anderson', you've topped yourself. Where'd you get that name-- 'Father Knows Best'? DONNIE Where are you going? Don't you want to discuss this? MAGGIE Apparently there's nothing to discuss. I'm going to get the mail. KERRY What about our friends? DONNIE You'll make new friends. SHERRY We're not in the FBI, Dad. DONNIE Minnesota's great. Lakes and everything. We can get a nice piece of land there. Maybe we can even get a horse. Maggie comes back inside, reading the MAIL. Flips a letter to Donnie. ∑ ~ MAGGIE You know the US government? The one you're doing this patriotic work for, that we can all be proud of? DONNIE What's this? (CONTINUED) 8472 CONTINUED: (2) MAGGIE The IRS. We got audited. CUT TO:73 EXT. DAY. TAMPA HARBOR A magnificent hand-built 75-foot motor yacht docked at the marina. Lefty BEAMS, arms folded in satisfaction, beside Donnie. Sonny, Nicky, Boobie and the girls arrive, carrying COOLERS. They marvel at the boat. NICKY Left, that's some fucking boat. SONNY Cozz'. that's beautiful. Judy gives Lefty a kiss. He blushes. LEFTY Sonny--lookit what the name is. That's like my name. Sonny looks at the stern. Emblazoned across it: "THE LEFT HAND" SONNY That's some fucking irony, ain't .it? LEFTY That's hand-built in Taiwan, that boat. BOOBIE What is that, half a million? LEFTY Fuggedaboudit. There's one thing I know, it's boats. This'8 gotta be a million dollars, this boat. (gestures toward boat) G o ah e ad . G et co m fo rt a bl e . I' m gonna wait for the man. Sonny and the others head toward the boat. Lefty turns to Donnie. LEFTY Can y ou im agine this ? I' m gon na sit down with the boss . Rem ember that day when we were freezing our nuts off, watching all of them going to sit down with the boss? < (CONTINUED) 85.73 CONTINUED: DONNIE Sonny Red and all them big puffers. LEFTY In New York I never sat down with t he boss in my life. This was a great idea I had, Florida. DONNIE Hey, Left. Donnie nods toward the parking lot. Lefty looks, sees a LINCOLN TOWN CAR pull up. LEFTY That's him. That's Trafficante. Lefty jogs up the dock as STEVE DISALVO, 40s, Trafficante's ENFORCER, emerges from the Lincoln. DISALVO You Lefty? LEFTY Nice to meet you, Mr. Trafficante. DISALVO This's Mr. Trafficante. Lefty turns as SANTO TRAFFICANTE, 70s, a feeble old man with a pork pie hat, is helped from the car by his entourage of FLORIDA WISEGUYS. He and Lefty shake hands. LEFTY That's the boat I arranged for you, Mr. T raffi cante . We got a full bar, every kind of music, telephone, everythin g. You wa nt anything-- anything you want--you just ask Lefty. Trafficante peers down the dock through thick prescription SUNGLASSES. TRAFFICANTE Which one's Sonny Black? FLASH CUT TO:74 INT. NIGHT. FBI Hogue looks at large color SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS of "The Left Hand" as it tools around Tampa harbor. As the party progresses, Sonny Black and Trafficante split off and move to the bow. Then Donnie joins Sonny and Trafficante. Sonny introduces them... (CONTINUED) 86. 74 CONTINUED: OVER THIS taped dialogue from the group in the stern, with seagulls, surf, and the sounds of a party... C LOSE ON-- HOGU E as his face turns grim... H OL D ON-- SU RVE IL LA NCE P HOT O as Donnie shakes hands with Trafficante. HOGUE An FBI man shaking hands with the boss o f Florida ? Did it e ver occur to anyone that that is simply not possible? JULES Score one for our side. HOGUE What makes you so sure he's on . our side?∑ FLASH CUT TO:75 EXT. THE PAST. BOAT Sonny and Donnie stand in the bow, look out over the water. SONNY You can live your life like a man d own here. I bet if you took m y blood pressure right now it'd be down o ne hundre d per cent . Sonny Red's got Jersey and we got Florida, and Florida's better ' than Jersey, right? DONNIE He can stick Jersey up his ass. SONNY This is a great idea I had, Florida. DONNIE Once Lefty arranged it with Trafficante-- SONNY Fuggedaboudit. What Lefty don't understand is guys like Trafficante, their day is done. (more) (CONTINUED) 87.75 CONTINUED: SONNY (Cont'd) A 70 year old brain can't compare with guys like us, because where he's got like 20 more years experience .in his day, we got 50 more years in our day. And we're l iving in our day. C apeesh? DONNIE Simple arithmetic. SONNY Lik e wit h jea ns, who h ad th e idea with ^eans and now look how much money they're making? DONNIE Some young guy. SONNY Lefty's a dynamite-guy, no q uesti on. But y ou kn ow, t he thing with him is. . . he's trying to help you but he hurts you. He gets those two or three wines in him... DONNIE You just gotta take it with a grain of salt. SONNY The books open up in December, I'm gonna propose you. You know < what that means? DONNIE Fuggedaboudit. Be a made guy? That would be unbelievable. SONNY What I'm saying is this. You don't have to report to Lefty no more. From now on you can report to me. CLOSE ON--DONNIE as he calculates the advantages and dangers of his new offer... IN THE STERN Lefty broods, nurses a spritzer. Watches Donnie with eyes full of anger and resentment. Boobie sidles up to him. (CONTINUED) 88. (2)75 CONTINUED: B OO BI E Can I ask you something? Did you get this boat or did Donnie get this boat? LEFTY Some broad down here he used to know, it belongs to her brother. BOOBIE He knows a lot of broads, Donnie. LEFTY If Donnie had a dollar for every broad of all his broads, he could buy the fucking boat himself. BOOBIE If Donnie's got so many broads, how come we never seen none of them? LEFTY He uses them broads like Kleenex. He won't spend a dollar to take a lady out. Boobie drinks, takes a beat. BOOBIE You ever notic e Donnie'11 buy guns from you, if you're offing guns, but you never see him be the one offing guns? Lefty thinks a beat. CUT TO:76 INT. NIGHT. TAHITIAN Donnie takes off his cowboy boots. Takes the Nagra out of his boot Rewinds the tape. Plays it. DONNIE (O.C.) I just got some things I gotta take care of, back in the city. SONNY (O.C.) When you come back, you represent me in Florida. He SNAPS it off. Hides it back in his cowboy boot. CUT TO: 89.77 INT. DAY. LAGUARDIA AIRPORT Donnie and Lefty wait with the crowd at the BAGGAGE CAROUSEL. LEFTY I'm telling you, it's good to be back in New York. That fucking Florida baked everybody's brain. when Sonny gets out of the fucking sun he's gonna realize what a miserable fucking idea you had. DONNIE How long's he gonna stay down there? LEFTY Do I know? (resuming) I never saw so many old people in my life. Who the fuck wants to go to Florida? Sometimes you are one stupid cocksucker, Donnie. Donnie FLARES at the word "cocksucker." : THEIR POV as Lefty's SUITCASE moves toward them. Donnie doesn't budge. LEFTY Donnie--that's my bag, Donnie. Don nie -- DONNIE Nobody calls me cocksucker. Understood? LEFTY You get that fucking bag. DONNIE I'm not getting it. LEFTY Pick it up. DONNIE NO. LEFTY Pick up the fucking bag. DONNIE No fucking way, Left. LEFTY Don't think you got the wood over m y ey es, D onnie . I w atch you ' siding up to Sonny Black. (CONTINUED) 90,77 CON TINUED: DONNIE That's got nothing to do with it. LEFTY Now you're on your fucking high horses. DONNIE I got no fucking loyalty to Sonny Black. That ain't the issue. LEFTY (off bags) Donnie--that's the other one! DONNIE Nobody calls me cocksucker. LEFTY For your information I'll call you whatever the fuck I want. I call you cocksucker. I call you motherfucker. I call you, uh, uh... Other PASSENGERS start to clear them a wide berth... DONNIE You're the fucking cocksucker. H uh? Yo u f uck ing coc ksu cke r--h ow does it feel?. LEFTY Fuck. My fucking knife's in the bag. Lefty's chases after the suitcase... DONNIE Go ahead, Left. Fucking whack m e . S t a b m e. R ig h t i n th e fucking baggage claim. LEFTY You pick up that bag, Donnie. DONNIE Whack me! Because you know what? You make me so fucking mad I'm gonna whack you and then I'm gonna get whacked for whacking you anyway! LEFTY You can't call me cocksucker, Donnie. (CONTINUED) 91 . (2)77 CONTINUED: DONNIE I ain't picking up the bag. LEFTY You pick it up. DONNIE I ain't. LEFTY You pick up that bag, Donnie. CUT TO:78 INT. LATER. LAGUARDIA Donnie and Lefty stand ALONE by the carousel, arms folded, as their suitcases go around. DISSOLVE TO:79 INT. NIGHT. PISTONE HOME--MINNESOTA Terry and Kerry and their new BOYFRIENDS make out on their parents' bed. Limbs writhing in adolescent lust. Then a RING... THE LEFTY PHONE by the bedside. They stop, watch it ring. Then Terry's hand MOVES toward the forbidden phone. This close... KERRY Terry1 CUT TO:80 INT. NIGHT. LEFTY'S APARTMENT Lefty SLAMS the phone down. Sits with a huff in his chair. Louise brings him a spritzer. LOUISE Here you go, Bennie. LEFTY Did Donnie call today? LOUISE No. I don't know when's the last time I heard from him. Is he out of town? LEFTY Shut up, Louise. (CONTINUED) 9 2.80 CONTINUED: On Louise, hurt--Lefty doesn't talk to her that way. She exits. Lefty, frustrated, turns on the TV. CUT TO:81 INT. NIGHT. JAPANESE RESTAURANT A Japanese MAITRE D' greets Sonny, Donnie, Nicky and Boobie at the door. MAITRE D' . Good evening. Please step this way. The Maitre d' ushers them inside. Donnie lingers behind, NERVOUS... NICKY My wife says it's very in, Japanese. She heard it on John Gambling. Very big now. The Maitre d' stops them. MAITRE D' Please to remove your shoes. DONNIE'S COWBOY BOOT with the Nagra in it. The Maitre d' waits for Donnie's shoes, GESTURES...Donnie thinking fast... DONNIE Get a load of this guy. (to Maitre d') How about you take off your fucking pants? NICKY That's part of the thing of it, Donnie. You take off your shoes and sit on the floor. DONNIE I'm not taking my shoes off for this guy. MAITRE D' I'm afraid is necessary. S9NNY C'mon, Donnie. Just take off your fucking shoes and let's eat. BOOBIE What's the big deal? (CONTINUED) : 9. 381 CONTINUED: DONNIE Hey, Boobie, who won the fucking war? : SONNY Donnie--I ' m hungry and I ain't in the mood. DONNIE I ain't doing it. SONNY Take off your fucking shoes or I ' m gonna chop off your fucking legs. MAITRE D' Is house rule. DONNIE I grew up an orphan because my Dad took a fucking bullet in Okinawa, and I'll lose my boot up his fucking asshole before I'll ' take orders from fucking Mr. Moto here. MAITRE D' Is house rule. SONNY I wanna fucking eat, Donnie. MAITRE D' Rule of house. The moment of truth. DONNIE BLOWS GRABS the Maitre d' and RAMS him through the doors of the MEN'S ROOM. CUT TO:82 INT. MEN'S ROOM Donnie and the Maitre d' go at it. . The little guy's game, quick and tough. Then the other SWA RM inside. And the MASSACRE b egins. FISTS AND KICKS crunch dow n on the Maitre d'. Donnie in with the m--EXCITED by the fray, the adrenaline RUSH. He KICKS the Maitre d' hard....The Mait re d' SCREAMS... CUT TO: 94.83 INT. THE PRESENT. FBI Hogue listens to the tape. . . Donnie's hard breathing...The Maitre d ' s screams...The THUDS of Donnie's kicks... FLASH CUT TO:84 INT. THE PAST. MEN'S ROOM Nicky takes a roll of quarters. Holds it in his fist, PUNCHES hard across the Maitre d's brow. Blood TORRENTS from the gash...Blinded by the blood, the Maitre d' swings wildly... BOOBIE SLIPS on the blood and falls into the PUDDLE. . . Sees the STAINS on his slacks...In a rage now...Boobie grabs a GARBAGE CAN, swings it at the Maitre d ' , who sinks in a heap, unconscious. The guys continue to KICK at him... CLOS E ON--DO NNIE as he backs away, APPALLED by the explosion of violence--and his part in it. FLASH CUT TO:85 INT. SAME TIME. FBI PHOTOS of the Maitre d ' , bloodied and bruised, taken at the hospital afterwards . Hogue i nspects th em. OVER THIS the tape plays... BOOBIE (O.C.) How many times I gotta tell you, N ic ky ? T h e he a d bleeds like a motherfucker. N ICKY ( O.C.) Try club soda. Sometimes that works, club soda. BOOBIE (O.C.) Goddam Brioni suit. HOGUE This is what the FBI does? You're telling me this is the fucking FBI? BERADA You think Joe went over to the other side? (CONTINUED) 95. 85 CONTINUED: HOGUE I think that's a question worth asking, don't you? BERADA Ask him the fuck yourself. HOGUE From everything we know what he did is simply not possible. Then you look at the guns and the porno tapes and (with photos) this. That is not the behavior of an FBI agent. I listen to those tapes and that is not the speech of an FBI agent. JULES I ' m tired of defending what we did. You're so sure he went over the other side? Maybe we should fucking arrest him. LEBOW We should pull him out, is what we should do. JULES We don't even know where the fuck he is, Clarence. Remember? BERADA Joe's a seducer. He seduced them. HOGUE Well, maybe he fucking seduced you. THE CLOCK on the wall reads "9:30." The phone RINGS. Jules grabs it. Listens a beat. Turns to the others. JULES The guy inside spotted Sonny Black at the wedding. Donnze's with him. CUT TO:86 INT. SAME TIME. CHURCH HALL FBI #2, in the guise of a BUSBOY, pours water. Keeps an eye on our guys at a remote table, amidst several hundred GUESTS.i∑ . ' (CONTINUED) 96.86 CONTINUED: AT THE TABLE Our guys, dour and nervous, sit with their wives. Donnie with a blonde BIMBO. SONNY What kind of a fucking table is this? We're in fucking Siberia with this table. RED COWBOY BOOTS approach beneath tuxedo pants. Sonny Red, accompanied by his son Bruno and Big Trin, claps Sonny Black on the back. SONNY RED I heard you was down in Florida. SONNY Yeah, you know--take the sun. I didn't want to come back. SONNY RED You got friends in Florida? SONNY They're very friendly down there, the people. Sonny Red pinches Sonny's cheek. SONNY RED Nice color you got. Redl Bruno and Big Trin laugh uproariously. They move on as our guys look daggers their way. SONNY I gotta go to the John. Sonny gets up. All the guys get up with him. Follow Sonny to the John. SONNY RED watches them from his table. Then looks up. SONNY RED'S POV of the FBI "busboy" as he clears the salad dishes...Sonny Red whispers something to Bruno. CUT TO:87 INT. SAME TIME. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue turns to LeBow. (CONTINUED) 97.87 CONTINUED: HOGUE (covering phone) You're sure the informant said tonight? LEBOW The hit's going down tonight. JULES In about two fucking minutes they're gonna start getting suspicious about that . surveillance van. HOGUE (to phone) Anything from the guy inside? ' JULES We have a guy inside, sir--Joe's the gu y inside. And clear ly he doesn't think there's a problem. LEBOW He can't stay undercover forever. If it's not now, it's next week. Or next month. HOGUE (to phone) If they leave/ stay with them. JULES Are you out of your fucking mind? A fucking New Jersey telephone repair van in the rear-view mirror all the fucking way to Brooklyn? Why don't you }ust put a bullet in his head? CUT TO:88 INT. SAME TIME. BATHROOM Boobie and Donnie enter first, hands ready by the guns in their cummer bunds. Ch eck all th e stalls. Nicky pos ts himself by the d oor and Sonny enters wi th Lefty. Sonny goes into the STALL. Cl oses the door behind him. NICKY I heard the zips went in with Sonny Red. BOOBIE The only ones in with us is us. (CONTINUED) 98.88 CONTINUED: VILE NOISES emanate from the stall. The guys stand around, awkward, nervous, watching. LEFTY Christ, Sonny--what'd you eat for lunch? SONNY Judy. The guys LAUGH. Then FLINCH as the door OPENS. . . Hands at their guns... PHILLY LUCKY holds his hands up, palms up. PHILLY LUCKY Where's Sonny? The toilet FLUSHES. Sonny eme rges. Look s to Phil ly Lucky. PHILLY LUCKY Sonny wanted me to tell you--he wants to schedule a sitdown. Hash everything out. CUT TO:89 INT. LATER. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue looks at the clock: "11:10". Looks at Jules. Gets back on the phone. HOGUE (to phone) What's going on? TECH #1 (O.C.) They're coming out. CUT TO:90 EXT. SAME TIME. CHURCH HALL Sonny hands his car keys to his wife. SONNY You go hom e with Ir ene. We're going out bouncing. (to Boobie) C'mon. We'll take your car. (CONTINUED) 99.90 CONTINUED: His wife gives Sonny a perfunctory kiss on the cheek. She and Boobie's wife climb into Sonny's new Mercedes. CUT TO:91 INT. SAME TIME. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue covers the phone. Turns to the others. HOGUE They're putting the wives in a separate car. JULES Just get that van out of there. LEBOW We just found him. Now you want to unfind him? MARSHALL Seems like a false alarm, thank God. LEBOW Tonight maybe it's a false alarm. So tomorrow night he gets killed. O r he kill s somebody --did you ever think of that? JULES You make it sound like Joe's the only one in danger from these g uys-- eight million people in the city of New York are in danger from these guys. If they walk away from this because we don't have the cases they'll be stronger than they ever were. MARSHALL You have to make a decision, sir. HOGUE I can't make a decision this wayl It's fucking insanity! JULES You have to get that van out of there. Just give me the phone. HOGUE It's my watch. It's my call. (CONTINUED) 100,91 CONTINUED: JULES (right back) Then make the fucking call. Either you trust him or you don't. That's w hat it's a lways been with this. Either you trust Joe or you don't. Hogue thinks a long beat. Gets back on the phone. HOGUE (to phone) Okay. Wrap it up and get out of there. CUT TO:92 EXT. NIGHT. CHURCH HALL Sonny, Boobie, Lefty, Nicky and Donnie walk toward the cars. Lefty and Nicky split off toward Lefty's Cadillac. SONNY Donnie--ride with us. Nicky and Lefty climb into Lefty's Cadillac. Sonny, Boobie and Donnxe approache Boobie's Cadillac. Donnie reaches for the back door. SONNY (to Donnie) Why don't you sit in front? A sudden chord of TERROR plays up Donnie's spine. Donnie looks to Lefty for help...For some indication. . . But his eyes are DEAD. They all climb in Boobie's Cadillac. THE SURVEILLANCE VAN ulls away from the curb, drives off...Boobie pulls out of the lot in g is Cadillac, drives off in the opposite direction. CUT TO:93 INT. SAKE TIME. FBI HEADQUARTERS Hogue BROODS as the FBI men roll down their sleeves> pull on their jackets, snap closed their briefcases... JULES I told you that wire was a fucking fiction writer. LEBOW He's never been wrong before, (CONTINUED) 10193 CONTINUED: HOGUE What exactly did the informant say? LEBOW He said the hit's going down tonight at the. wedding. HOGUE Did he say a hit on Sonny Black? LEBOW A hit . There's a war bet ween Sonny Red and S onny Black -- they're both at the wedding--I in ter pola ted th at-- HOGUE Who was this informant? Where - does his information come from? LEBOW He's close to guys who are close to the guys in Sonny Black's, crew. He's very reliable. HOGUE Goddamit1 Hogue frantically dials the phone. LEBOW What? HOGUE Sonny Black's not the target. Sonny Black's the shooter! LEBOW I just assumed--- MARSHALL Oh my God. CUT TO:94 INT. LATER. BOOBIE'S CADILLAC Boobie drives, Donnie beside him. The menacing QUIET of the open road. Past PROSPECT PARK... SONNY Hey, Boob, remember how we used to run around here, when we was kids? We used to have running races. . . (CONTINUED) 102.94 CONTINUED: BOOBIE I whipped your ass many a time. SpNNY Fuggedaboudit. BOOBIE When I raced wit'cha, it looked like you're standing still. SONNY Oh, yeah? Pull over. BOOBIE Fuggedabouit. I whipped your ass. Your day is done. SONNY Pull over. We're gonna see whose day is done. C'mon, Donnie. You do the on the marks. Boobie pulls over. They pile out of the car. CUT TO:95 EXT. NIGHT. PROSPECT PARK Boobie and Sonny crouch at an imaginary starting line. SONNY Okay. We're running to the fountain. BOOBIE Okay. SONNY You remember the fountain? BOOBIE I remember the fountain. SONNY Donnie--you do the 'on your marks'. DONNIE On yo ur ma rk s. Ge t s et . Go! They JUMP off the line...RUNNING through the blackness... Sonny takes an early lead, but Boobie's leaner...Starts to pull away...Looks over at Sonny, GRINS... DONNIE PEERS into the darkness...Sees them DISAPPEAR into the trees. (CONTINUED) 103.95 CONTINUED: SONNY AND BOOBIE RUN huffing and puffing. . .They disappear into the darkness .. .And Donnie realizes that he's ALONE IN THE DARK Turning, around and around... A RAT with no place to hide... THE RACE CONTINUES Boobie looks over at Sonny, pulls away... DONNIE IN TERROR Adrenaline rushes through him. As 'he turns, and turns, and WAITS... For the bullet that will kill him... BOOBIE RUNS S onny yard s behind h im. Then Sonny STOP S. Reaches into his w aistb and. And pulls out A PISTOL Boobie running FREE in the night. . .Reaches the fountain, holds up his a rms in vic tory. Lea ns over, h ands on k nees, WHEE ZING. Turn s, smiling. And his smile FRACTURES. DONNIE FLEES Jogs a couple of steps to find some cover... Then hears A DISTANT GUNSHOT as it echoes through the park. Donnie crouches by reflex. From the shadows, a man STAGGERS toward Donnie -- it's Boobie, bleeding profusely from a head wound . . . Sonny chases him. ..The champagne POP! of more GUNSHOTS... SONNY AIMS fires... His .45 JAMS... SONNY Fucking son of a bitch! Donnie, get 'iml Boobie STAGGERS, bleeding from three wounds now. . .Running toward his car... Donnie runs toward him. ..The CRUNCH of wet grass... DONNIE TACKLES HIM Boobie falls heavily... BLOOD belches out of his mouth... BOOBIE Help me. . . (CONTINUED) 104.95 CO N TI N UE D : (2 ) Sonny catches up. Grabs his .45 by the barrel and savagely SMASHES Boobie in the head. A thick sound--like a melon falling off a shelf. Again and again...Blood EVERYWHERE... Donnie backs off, looks up, as LEFTY ARRIVES in his Cadillac. Nicky beside him. Sonny tosses Boobie's keys to Donnie. SONNY Pull his car around, I think he has a bag in the trunk. CUT TO:96 INT. LATER. LEFTY'S APARTMENT Lefty pours Donnie a Scotch. Sits down with a spritzer. LEFTY He was holding out on him. Fucking coke deal Boobie was running down in Florida. DONNIE Sonny found out about it? LEFTY Do I still gotta school you after w hatever fu cking yea rs? That's the worst thing you could do to a m an li ke So nny Black . You could pull his cock before you could take a dollar out of his pocket. DONNIE How'd he find out? LEFTY Who? -. ' DONNIE Sonny. LEFTY Why the fuck are you asking so many fucking questions, Donnie? DONNIE I don't know, Left. Boobie was a friend, of all of us. ' LEFTY Boobie wasn't no friend to you/ Donnie/ believe me. - (CONTINUED) 105. 96 CONTINUED: DONNIE What are you talking about? LEFTY Ain't nobody gonna give you a pass no more, Donnie. You walk on a chalk fucking line from now on. C LOSE O N--DONNI E as he realizes that Lefty sold out Boobie to save him. DONNIE You told Sonny that Boobie was holding out? LEFTY Ain't the question. DONNIE Because of me? What was Boobie saying? LEFTY Ain't the question, Donnie. Lefty finishes his spritzer. Gets up to make another. LEFTY I don't know what made you think I'd give you up. I had too many fucking disappointments in my l ife. Neve r in the f ucking en d of the earth will I give you up. CUT TO:97 INT. NIGHT. DONNIE'S APARTMENT Donnie holds the Nagra in his hand. The SOUNDS of the murder as it plays. . . . BOOBIE (O.C.) (on tape) Help me. . . Then the CRUNCH as Donnie tackles him. Donnie rips the tape out of the Nagra, throws it in the sink. BURNS it. CUT TO:98 INT. DAY. THE MOTION LOUNGE Donnie watches "The Today Show" on the TV over the bar. The guys plan gin. (CONTINUED) 106.98 CONTINUED: JOHN PALMER (O.C.) . . . I n other news an FBI sting has resulted in the arrests of over 100 state and Federal officials... ON THE SCREEN Surveillance images of FBI "SHEIKS" dressed in flowing caftans...Then the image cuts to VIDEO of the same "sheiks" partying with CONGRESSMEN on a docked YACHT... PALMER (O.C.) . . . Known as ABSCAM, it was the largest such operation in the Bureau's history... Donnie peers more closely at the TV. CL OS E ON --T HE S TE RN with the name "The Left Hand" emblazoned on it. SONNY Donnie, pull up a chair. Donnie takes a last look at the TV. Joins Sonny, Nicky and Lefty at the card table as Nicky shuffles the cards. NICKY (to Donnie) You know how to keep score? A moment of recognition that BOOBIE'S GONE CUT TO:99 EXT. DAY. PISTONE HOME Donnie mows the grass. Row after precise row. RAKES the clippings into identical, evenly spaced PILES. Fills up TRASH BAGS, piles them neatly on the curb. IN THE DRIVEWAY A STA TION WAGON parked n ext to Mag gie's CORV ETTE. Don nie notice s that the station wagon is filthy. RUNS a finger through the dirt on the hood. DONNIE CLEANS the pile of TRASH in the well of the car--McDonald's wrappers, Tampax wrappers, a copy of Mademoiselle, a lipstick, a basketball.. DUMPS it. Pulls out the ASHTRAY. Something that makes him suspicious... (CONTINUED) 107. 99 CONTINUED: DONNIE RUBS THE ASHES between his fingers. RECOGNITION. . .He DIGS into the space between the se ats. Fin ds a quart er. A pape r clip. A nd then: A SEED CUT TO:100 INT. DAY. PISTONE HOME Terry stumbles down the stairs in her bathrobe, half -asleep. She hears Donnie CRASH inside, and something tells her it's about her. ABOUT FACE into the bathroom... IN THE LIVING ROOM Donnie hears the bathroom door upstairs CLICK, locked. Turns as Maggie enters from the kitchen. DONNIE Where's Terry? She still asleep? MAGGIE I think so. What's the matter? DONNIE As lee p. Perf ect . A sle ep at 1 2 noon. It all fits the profile. MAGGIE What profile? Joe, you're scaring me. DONNIE The twelve warning signs. Our daughter Terry is a drug user. INSIDE THE BATHROOM Terry listens by the door. TERRY Shit. BACK--IN THE LIVING ROOM as Donnie counts off the "warning signs" of drug addiction. DONNIE Oversleeping. Short attention span. Hostility to authority. B in g e e at i n g-- MAGGIE That would apply to every teenager in America. (CONTINUED) 108,100 CONTINUED: DONNIE Don't tell me my business. Do you know what this is? He holds out the marijuana seed. Maggie peers at it. DONNIE This is a marijuana seed. MAGGIE Where did you find that? DONNIE Maggie, I am an FBI agent. That's who I am. I am out there risking my life, 18, 20 hours a day, weekends, Christmas-- MAGGIE You don't have to tell me, Joe. DONNIE Well, what do you think I ' m doing it for? I am spending my life to put away the guys that make money off this shit, and I'm damned to hell if I ' m gonna have it in my house. MAGGIE You know, Jules called me this wee k. Do you know they 're looking for you? DONNIE Don't change the subject. MAGGIE I'm not changing the subject. You're the subject, Joe. You're becoming like them. DONNIE I'm not the fucking pothead. MAGGIE You don't see it. Donnie turns, heads up the stairs, Maggie following. DONNIE Geddadaheah. Go weigh yourself or something. Sleeping Beauty and I are going out to the woodshed. (CONTINUED) 109. (2)100 CONTINUED: M A GG I E In my next life I ' m gonna marry a Jewish doctor. DONNIE In the fucking car that I make the payments on, in the fucking driveway of the house that I pay the fucking mortgage on--a goddam m ar i ju an a s e ed -- MAGGIE (defiant) How do you know it isn't mine? Donnie stops a beat. RAGE drumming up inside him, rage that CRESCENDOES as he SMACKS HER BACKHAND Sh e l ooks up at hi m. Not hur t. But de vast ate d. Don nie mov es to comfort her, to apologize...Maggie SMACKS HIM BACK \∑ . Then storms out of the house. Donnie BROODS, looks up to the landing as Sherry and Kerry come out from their rooms. From outside, SOUNDS of Maggie as she SLAMS into her Corvette and zooms out of the driveway, engine ROARING and tires SQUEALING... SMASH CUT TO:101 INT. DAY. HOSPITAL Donnie BANGS through swinging doors, past ORDERLIES in white coats, his face tight with anxiety, his skin green in the cold fluorescent light. AT THE DESK He bulls past two waiting GUESTS, accosts the NURSE. DONNIE I'm looking for my wife. Mrs. An der son. Ma ggi e A nde rson . S he was i n an accid ent? I'm h er husband. The Nurse gives him a form on a clipboard. NURSE Here you go. You're Mr. Anderson? DONNIE Where is she? (CONTINUED) 110,101 CONTINUED: NURSE Only the immediate family is allowed in ICU. Do you have a driver's license? He gives her his driver's license. DONNIE Is she okay? NURSE Excuse me. This says, 'Donald Brasco'. DONNIE Christ. Let me just see her. She'll tell you who I am. NURSE We can't do that. DONNIE If I could see her we could clear this whole thing up. NURSE I ' m sorry, sir. We need proof of ID. DONNIE I need ID to see my fucking wife? I ' m her husband1 Who the fuck else would I be? A DOCTOR, cold-blooded, 30s, arrives. DOCTOR Mr. Anderson? CUT TO: X-RAY ROOM102 INT. NIGHT. The DOCTOR shows Donnie the X-rays. DOCTOR Collapsed lung. Broken wrist, collarbone. ^Multiple lacerations from the glass. The most serious injury was from her contact lenses-- they smashed into her corneas. They're torn up pretty badly. She may lose an eye. DONNIE Can't I see her? (CONTINUED) 11 1.102 CONTINUED: DOCTOR We'll see if she stabilizes in a couple of hours. CUT TO:103 EXT. LATER. WAITING ROOM Donnie sits, anxious. The girls sit alongside him. KERRY We had a family meeting, Dad. You have to quit. DONNIE Look, Mom's gonna be okay. TERRY This isn't a democracy. This is a dictatorship. KERRY A dictatorship of us. DONNIE I know how you're feeling. But i t ' s j u s t-- SHERRY Just another six months. DONNIE Maybe just a few more weeks. KERRY Forget it, Dad. It's the job or us. TERRY End of discussion. Kerry stares hi m down. Te rry looks away. Don nie puts h is arm ar ound her . She shru gs i t off . CUT TO:104 INT. NIGHT. INTENSIVE CARE Maggie lies in bed, eyes BANDAGED, her face a web of GASHES. Wrist in a cast. A thick TUBE runs from a LUNG MACHINE into her mouth. Donnie takes her hand. She holds his HARD. (CONTINUED) 112.104 CONTINUED: DONNIE The doctor says you 're gonna be okay. We j ust have to get you into rehabilitation as soon as we can. You'll be as goo d as new before you know it. The lung machine whirs and wheezes... DONNIE Maggie, listen to me, Maggie, because this is what it is. The minute I come out from under all these guys I ' m with, they will all be killed--because of me. Because they trusted me. (beat) I gotta go back. Maggie pulls her hand back. Turns away from him. He can tell she's . . not buying. DONNIE I have a chance here to become a made guy--an FBI agent a made guy in th e Mafia. I t's gonna happen the en d of the year. And then I'll come out. Then it'll all be o ver. You' ll ha ve me for the rest of your life. Maggie waves him away. Turns away from him. A NURSE enters and Donnie, with sadness but no regrets, exits. CUT TO: (105 INT. NIGHT. LAGUARDIA AIRPORT Donnie dials at a pay phone, cradles the receiver while it rings. DONHIE Louis e? It's Do nnie. CUT TO:106 INT. NIGHT. LEFTY'S APARTMENT Louise on the phone in the kitchen. LOUISE W h a t is i t -- Tu e s d a y? I h av e n ' t seen him since Sunday. I thought he was with you. CUT TO: 113.107 INT. SAME TIME. AIRPORT Donnie pumps a quarter into the pay phone. Bursey picks up at the other end. BURSEY (0.C.) Hello, Bursey. DONNIE Look, I think that sitdown's tonight. I can't find Lefty. BURSEY (O.C.) Why didn't you go? DONNIE Only made guys can go to a s itdown. BURSEY (O.C.) So what do you want me to do? DONNIE I don't know. Listen to me--I ' m worried. CUT TO:108 EXT. NIGHT. BIG TRIN'S HOUSE Big Trin drives Philly Lucky, Sonny Red and Anthony Bruno in his big Lincoln. S9NNY RED All my fucking life I hadda be S onny Red. Sonn y Red and Sonny Bla ck . I g ot up pe d. Th en he g ot upped . Fin ally the n ight has come. Tomo rrow morni ng I can j u st be ' S on n y' . N ot Re d. Th e one and only. 'Sonny'. BRUNO Where you got the guns? BIG TRIN Relax. They're in the basement. BRUNO The basement of your house? BIG TRIN Hey, Sonny, my jacket's losing its crease. Will you tell your kid to stop breathing on me? BRUNO I wanna get there in time to set ' up. (CONTINUED) 114.108 CONTINUED: Big Trin pulls into his driveway. SONNY RED The sitdown's in two hours. I waited my whole life, Bruno, you can wait two hours. They climb out of the car. Philly Lucky stays put. BIG TRIN What the hell's wrong with you? PHILLY LUCKY I ain't going in your fucking basement. You got spiders all over that basement. BIG TRIN He's scared of spiders. What a piece of work. PHILLY LUCKY Leave me the keys. I wanna play the radio. Big Trin flips him the keys. TWO WOODEN DOORS alongside the house, leading down into the basement. With a groan, Big Trin b ends, pul ls them op en. Flips a LIGHT S WITCH. On. Off. Nothing. _ BIG TRIN S h it . Bu lb m us t be o ut . W at ch your step. Sonny Red and Anthony Bruno follow him down... INSIDE THE CAR Philly Lucky starts the oar. Turns on the radio. Frank Sinatra sings "Nice Work If You Can Get It." And PULLS AWAY. DOWN THE STAIRS go Big Trin, Sonny Red and Anthony Bruno, down into the dark, damp concrete and sawdust in their nostrils. BIG TRIN Where's that fucking flashlight? BANG! and the flash of a SHOTGUN firing. BANG! BANG! as shotguns EXPLODE. By the light of the flashes we see Sonny, Lefty and Nicky BANGl and another flash. BANGl BANG! BANG! (CONTINUED) 115.108 CONTINUED: (2.) Then a pause. Nicky reaches up, screws in the light bulb. Lights on. Revealing the blasted corpses of Sonny Red and Big Trin... BRUNO jumps out from behind a cabinet, RUNS out the door. Sonny wheels, FIRES. The stairs SPLINTER as the blast lands just under Bruno's escaping feet. Lefty moves to chase him. S9NNY Fuggedaboudit, Left. We'll give the contract to Donnie. Nicky takes out a Hefty bag and a long-bladed BUTCHER KNIFE...Sets to carving up the bodies. . . CUT TO:109 INT. NIGHT. DONNIE'S APARTMENT Carrying his mail, Donnie enters a DARK room. MOONLIGHT filters through the blinds. He closes the door. Flips the light switch. NOTHING Instantly, he falls into a fighting crouch, knife at the ready. His hand trembles with adrenaline. He moves with his back to the wall, straining to see into the black room. TO THE KITCHEN He p ivo ts in a c omba t s tan ce-- nob ody. Th en piv ots aga in. Hi s f ree hand f umbles in the kitch en drawer. Finds a FLASHLIGHT . The bea m SWEEPS across the room. Donnie moves on cat feet to the bathroom. The shower curtains drawn shut. Donnie tears them back, THRUSTS the knife...Into air. D onnie thin ks a beat . Snaps th e flashli ght back o n. Riffles through h is m ail . Rip s op en THE ELECTRIC BILL reads by the light of the flashlight DISCONNECT NOTICE: NON-PAYMENT OF BILL Donnie, a dimly-seen dervish of RAGE...He hurls the flashlight...Throws a chair and it SPLINTERS. . . Grabs the bar from his weight bench and starts to swing... SMASE1 and an electric sizzle as the television implodes. Donnie drops the bar and throws a bookcase to the ground. PUNCHES at the wall...Again and again and again...Then sags to the ground...Weeping...Or LAUGHING... (CONTINUED) 1 16.109 CONTINUED* DONNIE The electric bill...I can't get over it...The fucking 'B' didn't pay the fucking electric billI CUT TO:110 INT. DAY. HOSPITAL Maggie convalesces--her wounds have begun to heal and she's no longer intubated, although her eyes are still bandaged. Jules enters, sits down beside her. Takes her hand. JULES It's Jules, Maggie. MAGGIE I could hear your cheap shoes all the way down the hall. JULES How're you feeling? MAGGIE S ca re d. Al one . JULES Did you see Joe? MAGGIE You mean did Joe see me? JULES The 'B' wants him to come out. MAGGIE He'll never come out. JULES Y ou don't believe the shit that c omes up. I have to argue with t hem that he hasn't gone over to t he other side. MAGGIE Joe? He wouldn't have the imagination. I wish he'd become a gangster--at least we could pay our frigging bills. JULE S Maybe you could talk to him. MAGGIE Do you know what this is about, J ules? Thi s is about a promotion. (CONTINUED) 117.110 CONTINUED: JULES I talked to him about that. MAGGIE Not from you--from them. He wants to be a made guy. CLOSE ON--JULES as he hears this...He knows that this has gone too far. MAGGIE For years I tried to figure out what m ade Joe t ick. And t hen I finally figured it out--there's nothing ti cking. He' s got his rules and he's gonna live by his rules . The job is the job . Start what you finish. When he's in the FBI he wants to be the best and when he's in the Mafia h e wants t o be the"b est--like it's all some frigging basketball game. (disdainfully) Men. JULES Maggie...Maybe this is none of my business, but-- MAGGIE Don't worry--I ' m not gonna leave him. I didn't h ave him w hen I had him. Now that it's almo st over I ' m goddamned if I'll let someone else have him. CUT TO:111 INT. NIGHT. LEFTY'S APARTMENT Christmas decorations, and a tree. Lefty watches a NATURE PROGRAM on TV. A leopard moves stealthily... NARRATOR (O.C.) ...Cloaked by the high grasses of the African savanna, the stalking leopard moves stealthily... Louise enters with Donnie. LOUISE Bennie, Donnie'8 here. (CONTINUED) 118.Ill CONTINUED: NARRATOR (0.C.) ...Separated from the herd/ the gazelle senses danger... Lefty RAPT in his easy chair... LEFTY Bennie loves animals. ON THE SCREEN The leopard charges...Teeth tear at the gazelle...And soon the leopard and her family feed on a bloody carcass. NARRATOR (O.C.) ...Hunter and hunted, predator and prey--the endless cycle of nature, repeated once again... LEFTY Mino*1 You see that ? LOUISE I'll be inside if you need me. LEFTY We're going out, Louise. Louise exits inside. SATISFIED, Lefty snaps off the show with his REMOTE CONTROL. Turns to Donnie. LEFTY T hey found Bruno. He 's shacki ng up with a broad down City Island. On a boat. H e ope ns u p a d rawer . Tak es ou t a GUN. Loads it w ith b ulle ts... LZFTY You know what this means, don't you? You're gonna get straightened out. You become a made guy/ Donnie, you can lie, you can cheat, you can steal, you can whack out whoever you want and it's all completely legitimate. Being a made guy's the greatest thing in the world. Lefty reaches into the drawer. Hands another gun to Donnie. CLOSE ON--DONNIE as he looks at the gun in his hand. CUT TO: 119.112 EXT. NIGHT. MARINA--CITY ISLAND Donnie and Lefty sit and wait in Donnie's Cadillac. Lefty smokes. DONNIE Maybe he ain't gonna show. LEFTY He'll show. DONNIE I ' m just saying--maybe we should forget about it, pop him tomorrow night. LEFTY We can't pop him tomorrow night, for your information. Tomorrow night we got the wake for Big Trin. DONNIE I forgot. LEFTY Fuggedaboudit--it's better this way anyway. Wait when nobody's around. DONNIE'S POV of the deserted marina... DONNIE That's some boat this broad has. LEFTY Fuggedaboudit. There's one thing I know, it's boats. DONNIE What is that--a hundred grand? LEFTY Donn ie--Wh ere*d you ge t that boat dow n i n Fl orid a? DONNIB" I told you. That was this girl I used to see down there, it's her brother's. LEFTY What's her name? DONNIE Florence. LEFTY Florence what? (CONTINUED) 120.112 CONTINUED: DONNIE'S POV In the distance, a TRANS AM pulls up near the boat they're watching, Bruno emerges. Locks his car. Climbs onto the boat... DONNIE C'mon, that's him. LEFTY Florence what, Donnie? DONNIE Hey, Left--what do you care, Florence what? Florence Italy. LEFTY Don nie--why do you want to lie to me, D onnie? Did I ever li e to you once all these years about the time of day? DONNIE I ' m not lying. LEFTY How many fucking times did I have you over for dinner at my fucking h ous e? Y ou f uck ing rat b ast ard -- DONNIE Hey, Left--that's the problem? Are we gonna whack this guy or what? LEFTY I went on the fucking record with you, D onnie. Yo u could wa lk on the street and punch any man in the mouth because I stood up for you. ' . ,, . . DONNIE... What is tne fucking problem? Lefty reaches in his pocket. A piece of paper, folded, torn from "Newsweek*. The headline: ABSCAM: FBI 'SHEIKS* STING CORRUPT LAWMAKERS Beneath the headline, a PHOTO of the "sheiks* partying ona yacht-- "THE LEFT HAND*. Donnie looks up from the article. Sees A GUN in Lefty's hand. (CONTINUED) 121. (2)112 CONTINUED: LEFTY That's a fucking Federal boat, Donnie. That's our boat. D9NNIE Hold on a minute, Left. The boat with Trafficante? That ain't the same boat. LEFTY Don't tell me that ain't the same boat, Donn ie1 That' s a fuckin g Federal boatl That's a Taiwan- made boat, there's only, five like that in the world. DONNIE I really don't think that's the same boat, Left. LEFTY Lookit that. You see that? 'The LeftHand.' That's like my name. DONNIE Maybe her brother's a fucking a ge nt . H o w wo u ld I kn o w? I thought he was in real estate. LEFTY Ain't the quest ion, Donni e. You still ain't answered me why we're fucking on a fucking Federal fucking boat! DONNIE You're right, Left. I'm a fucking rat. LEFTY You're a rat? DONNIE I met your girls. I talked to Tommy for you I don't know how many fucking times. I don't know how many times I had dinner with you and Louise. I lived with you, Left-- partners. Five fucking years, I ever had a hundred bucks in my pocket, I gave you half. And the whole time I was a fucking rat. You're right. LEFTY Donnie--did I say you was a rat, Donnie? (CONTINUED) 122.112 CONTINUED: (3) DONNIE You'd have to be the biggest fucking mutt in the history of the Mafia. LEFTY You fucking laxed, Donnie. Don't get on your high horses. DONNIE'S POV as Bruno emerges from the boat. Lights a cigarette. Looks around, DONNIE Shit. He's up again. LEFTY How the fuck am I supposed to explain this to Sonny? DONNIE You ask me it's the funniest fucking thing in the world. Those fucking agents could scam Senators and Congressmen and meanwhile we had a party on their boat and they didn't get a fucking thing on us. Sonny'11 laugh his ass off. LEFTY Where is the joke, Donnie? DONNIE We outsmarted the agents. We got a higher Z .Q. than the fuckin g Congressmen. LEFTY You got so many black marks on you now, Donnie, a fucking Einstein couldn't count them. DONNIE What black marks? LEFTY That time with the luggage and/ uh, uh...the other time. DONNIE Are we gonna whack this fucking guy or not? LEFTY I ain't no fucking mutt, Donnie. Donnie checks the action on his gun... (CONTINUED) 123.112 CONTINUED: (4) D ON N IE How the fuck did I know it was a fucking Federal boat? LEFTY I die wit'cha. I ' m your best friend, Donnie. Donnie opens the door, climbs out/ gun in hand. DONNIE That's right, Left--you're my best friend. "Your best friend is the one who kills you." Donnie FREEZES. Lefty looks at him. LEFTY' S GUN pointed at Donnie's back...As his finger moves toward the trigger. Then su dde nly -- LIGHT EXPLODES from police cherrytops. . . SWARMS of FBI MEN in blue windbreakers with big wh ite lette rs-- "FBI"-- descend o n the car, guns draw n. They G RAB . Donnie and Lefty. Jules hustles Donnie away. LEFTY (calling) Donnie, don't say nothing. Don't say nothing to them. JULES Congratulations. It's over, Joe. DONNIE What do you mean, it's over? JULES You're coming out. DONNIE What the fuck--? Nobody--. I'm not coming out. JULES It's over, Joe. DONNIE It's not over. I'm too close! Donnie starts to run. FBI MEN are on top of him, wrestling him dovr,. Donnie STRUGGLES, exchanges a look with Lefty as he's dragged away. (CONTINUED) 124, (5)112 CONTINUED: LEFTY Donnie, don't say nothing! CUT TO:113 INT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE PHOTOS OF DONNIE at the FBI Academy at Quantico, then with Berada, LeBow and other FBI MEN, as Marshall and Jules show them to Sonny/ Nicky and Boobie. MARSHALL You know this guy as Donnie Bras co. He 's an FBI age nt. We just wanted to tell you. CUT .TO:114 EXT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE Sonny, Nicky, Lefty, Legs and Philly Lucky watch as the FBI men drive off. They stand on the street corner--DEATH and disbelief written in their faces. SONNY You believe that fucking guy? There's no fucking way Donnae could be an agent. NICKY The culliones on him, bluffing us like that. LEGS You think they got him? ON A ROOFTOP A TECH TEAM aims a PARABOLIC MICROPHONE and a TELEPHOTO LENS. The whir of an autowindex and a FREEZE FRAME as they stand outside. SONNY No way he could be an agent. LEGS Nowadays they can doctor a picture any fucking way they want. PHILLY LUCKY It still don't explain that boat. NICKY Fuggedaboudit, Philly. (CONTINUED) 125.114 CONTINUED: L ef t y li s te n s. S a ys no th i ng . H e k no w s th e t r ut h. ZZ Z H1 a n d another FREEZE FRAME. SONNY That boat was a set-up. Then we think Donnie's a rat and we get scared and fuggedaboudit. NICKY Maybe they brainwashed him. Like in that movie, with Sinatra? Z Z ZH ! a no t he r s ho t . Z ZZ Hl PHILLY LUCKY They say he's an agent, I say he's a fucking agent. SONNY You're talking through your ass. NICKY You didn't know him. SONNY You didn't know Donnie, Philly. CL OSE ON --L EFT Y as he listens. Says nothing. CUT TO:115 INT. NIGHT. LEFTY'S APARTMENT Lefty sits, BROODS, watches TV. The phone rings. LEFTY Hello? (listens) Yeah, okay, N ic ky . O k ay . He han gs up. Th inks a bea t . As he l ooks into his open grave...T akes off his GOLD WATCH, sticks it in a drawer. Then the CROSS he wears a roun d his neck . The KEYS to his C adill ac. C loses the draw er as Louise enters. LOUISE Who was that? LEFTY N icky. I'm going out . He gives Louise a kiss. LEFTY Don't wait up for me. (C ONTINUED) 126.115 CONTINUED: LEFTY e i n o D c a l s , e t l h i m i f i t w s a n o g a b e a y o e n , I 'm d a g l t i s a w CUT TO:116 INT. DAY. FBI HEADQUARTERS i n o De sits at his desk, preparing his testimony., Marshall drops some SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS off. MARSHALL They just took these yesterday. Donnie picks them up. DONNIE'S POV Photos of Lefty's rooftop. As the PIGEON COOPS are dismantled. JULES in his office. Donnie ducks in. Jules looks up, sees Donnie struggle a beat with his emotion. Then the mask descends again. DONNIE You can stop looking for Lefty. CUT TO:117 INT. ANOTHER DAY. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE--MANHATTAN Under heavy guard, Donnie walks up a b ack stairca se . Up a marble hallway. Doors open and he enters the courtroom. A HUSH falls as the MAFIA DEFENDANTS, lined up in the docks--all f ac es we've seen earlier, including Sonny, Nicky, Legs, and Philly L ucky--turn and look at him. PROSECUTOR The government calls Special Agent Joseph D. Pistone. CLOSE ON--DONNIE as he takes in the proof of his accomplishment. With the knowledge of what it has cost him. FREEZE FRAME. A final CRAWL runs over this* The evidence collected by "Donnie Brasco" led to over 200 indictments. (CONTINUED) 127.117 CONTINUED: After testifying. Special Agent Joseph D. Pistone left the FBI. He lives with his wife under an assumed name in an undisclosed location . There is an $500,000 open contract on his head. The FBI denied him a pension. The IRS assessed him $7,000 in back taxes and penalties. FADE TO BLACK: CREDITS ROLL \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Doors, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Doors, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..00f00479916ecc7036d5cf418b79311e75249eec --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Doors, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "THE DOORS" Screenplay by Randall Jahnson and Oliver Stone SHOOTING DRAFT 1991 INT. BLACK SCREEN MORRISON'S VOICE The movie will begin in five moments The mindless voice announced All those unseated will await the next show We filed slowly, languidly into the hall The auditorium was fast and silent As we seated and were darkened The voice continued "The program for this evening is not new You've seen this entertainment Through and through You've seen your birth, your life and death You might recall all the rest Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?" FADE IN: INT. RECORDING STUDIO (LAST SESSION) - LA DEC 1970 - NIGHT A dark silence hovers along the deserted, bunker-like studio. MIKE stands and booms shadow a grand piano... The ENGINEER waits in the booth, lit, alert man, bored, fiddling... ENGINEER Hey Jim, It's your birthday man, whaddaya say we try this another night... Camera moving tentatively along the shadows, discovering the sidelight on a Navy surplus pea jacket thrown on a chair; moving to a candle's orange flutter on pages written with verse... a hand breaking the seal of the bottle of Irish Bushmill's whiskey. VOICE (off) Kill the lights a little more, will ya John? They might drop a bit more... Camera crawling past the FINGERS weaving a new cigarette out of the Marlboro pack. An ashtray full of butts... and an asthmatic horrid cough, filled with phlegm... crawling up the slight paunch in the bright jersey with #66 on it... stitched on the sleeve is the team mascot -- an American Indian in full headdress. ENGINEER (off) Hey man, how come the Doors aren't in on this? Camera revealing JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON, -- 27, poet, buried in the shadows, curls of cigarette smoke about his haunted sensuous eyes, meditative lips scragged with beard and long greasy hair, not a pretty sight, yet a man full and bold and struggling for survival through his words... beneath the Bushmill moon, he takes the tambourine and shakes it violently in our face JIM No music, No Doors. Let's roll... Is everybody in?... Is Everybody in?... Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin... He shakes a TAMBOURINE at the mike and one of his sudden giant Indian YELLS rock through the studio. JIM WAKE UP!!!! HAS THIS DREAM STOPPED!!!! Music riffs from "American Prayer". AUDIENCE SOUNDS ghostly on the track. The ENGINEER reeling backwards from the sudden shift in sound, cursing silent. JIM VOICE Let me tell you about the heartache and the loss of God Wandering wandering in hopeless night Indian's scattered on dawn's highway bleeding ghosts crowd the young childs fragile eggshell mind... (wind sounds) The GRIN on Jim's face magnesium flares out to: EXT. ARIZONA DESERT - DAY (1940'S) The blinding YELLOWNESS of the desert, so barren, so hot it stings to look at. An OLD CHEVROLET winds through the yellow- orange landscape beneath a brooding blue SKY crackling with ELECTRICITY -- the storm coming in in the distance as the MUSIC writhes out at us like a reptile from under a rock -- the beat of RIDERS ON THE STORM. DOORS SONG Riders on the storm (2) Into this house we're born Into this world we're thrown Like a dog without a bone An actor out on loan Riders on the storm CREDITS ROLL, OVER THIS DREAMSCAPE JIM VOICE (continues over imagery) ...me and my mother and father and grandmother and grandfather were driving through the desert at dawn and a truckload of Indian workers had either hit another car or just -- I don't know what happened... Indians were scattered all over the highway bleeding to death. INT. CAR - DAY MOM, DAD, the youngest BABY in the front seat -- pointing at the storm. GRANDMA & GRANDAD in the back with JIM, about 4 and his SISTER, 3 asleep. Mom's a beauty and Dad's an austere handsome military man in civilian clothes, mouthing words -- look, wake them up, a desert storm... but we barely hear A LIGHTNING BOLT shreds the blue sky with a thunderous sound, frightening dawn of creation... Grandma nudging Jim awake. His eyes open -- Just as the car turns the bend -- revealing An overturned TRUCK lying in the road -- dead and wounded INDIANS everywhere... A cop car, ambulance. A terrible accident... The first thing Jim sees... An old INDIAN FACE staring at him... The car pulling alongside, Dad rolling his window down... asking if he can help (SOUNDLESS) A line of wailing INDIAN WOMEN, CHILDREN Mom's scared face... JIM VOICE ...but it was the first time I tasted fear. I musta been about four, like a child is just like a flower, his head is floating in the breeze. Grandma trying to hide Jim's face but he looks back... THE COP WAVING THEM THROUGH The kid looking back through the rear window, terrified -- his first view of death. The bodies, the sense of doom overlaying the land -- a child's worst nightmare. MOM It's just a dream, Jimmy, just a dream SONG (continues) There's a killer on the road His brain is squirming like a toad Take a long holiday Let your children play If you give this man a ride Sweet family will die There's a killer on the road The boy's eyes going back to the Indian MAN looking at him... then to the dying opened body bleeding out its guts on the asphalt... the dying man's face, twisted, moaning, amazing eyes at the point of death -- they settle on Jim MOM It's just a dream Jimmy, just a dream A strange SOUND occurs -- the rattle of an ancient gourd, "shi-chi-chi, shi-chi-chi". Something flying through the air. A bull-roarer, a whirling leather thong, announcing the appearance of a shaman. INTO JIM -- his eyes staring out the back His receding point of view -- the Indians, the overturned truck... JIM VOICE ...The reaction I get now looking back is the soul of the ghosts of those dead Indians -- maybe one or two of them were just running around freaking out and just leaped into my soul -- and they're still there. (wind, music) SONG Girl you gotta love your man (2) Take him by the hand Make him understand The car pulling away across the giant 1940's landscape DISSOLVING TO: EXT. ARIZONA DESERT - DAY (1963) SUBTITLE READS: ARIZONA DESERT, 1963. CREDITS CONTINUE TO ROLL. Panning up the black chino pants to JIM MORRISON, now 20, steel seaman's suitcase in hand, thumbing a ride, the road sign behind him saying "Los angeles 370 miles" SONG The world on you depends Our life will never end Girl you gotta love your man A LARGE LIZARD in the dust cocks its head, blinks, as the boots walk by to the car pulling over. INT. CAR JIM in the backseat packed with HUSBAND, WIFE, CHILDREN, DOG, MOTHER-IN-LAW. Between boy and man, eyes ancient and new. He wears his favorite color: black -- torn black chinos, paint-spotted black t-shirt, a slouch his favorite pose but the eyes and smile can be warm and shy like a little boy, gentle surface, storm in the brain. The HUSBAND, now looking at Jim a little nervously, pushes up the Perry Como on the radio... as it cuts to a sudden news flash: RADIO ...from the Texas School Book Depository. We repeat. President John F. Kennedy was shot a few minutes ago in Dallas! SLOW MOTION: The Husband's face distorting, saying something on the track like: "What! God NO!" but it's subdued, low. Trying other stations. Jim turns to look out his window, as if he already knew. RADIO (2nd VOICE) ...taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. There's no word on the President's condition. Mrs. Kennedy is... The WIFE'S and HUSBAND'S VOICES seem lost in the background. WIFE & HUSBAND Oh God, Oh God. Not the President for Christ's sake. Oh God -- WHO'S NEXT? On Jim -- staring out the window. "Who's next!" SONG Riders on the storm (4) On the DESERT. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. VENICE BOARDWALK - LOS ANGELES - DAY (1965) SUBTITLE READS: VENICE, CALIFORNIA 1965 CREDITS continue to their conclusion as we segue into the BLUENESS of VENICE, CALIFORNIA, 1965 -- the dawn of a new age. All was possible. Individual SHOTS of the BOARDWALK throbbing with a feast of HIPPIES, head shops, ARTISTS drawing psychedelic murals, POT SMOKERS, MUSCLE BUILDERS, tambourines accompanying the transister radios on the Beach Boys and "I Got You Babe", dogs chasing frisbees, BIKINI BODIES on the beach, LSD sold over the counter... set to the upbeat chords of HELLO I LOVE YOU DOORS SONG Hello I love you Won't you tell me your name? Hello I love you Let me jump in your game She's walking down the street Blind to every eye she meets Do you think you'll be the guy To make the queen of the angels sigh? JIM, in torn black chinos, no shirt, walking real slow past it all, carrying a notebook of his own and a paperback of Baudelaire, his eyes settling on... A YOUNG BEAUTY and her yellow labrador -- a fashionable thin, long, red-haired "20th century fox" in jeans moving through the crowd... He thinks about it -- a fraction of eternity -- and he's off... after her. EXT. VENICE CANAL - DAY She moves along its banks, as if the universe moved to her rhythm, turning once to look back. Jim caught in her eyes. They're alone. Now he's the one seized by doubt. He slows, pretends to take another interest. DOORS SONG She holds her head so high Like a statue in the sky Her arms are wicked And her legs are long When she moves My brain screams out this song EXT. VENICE CANAL - ANOTHER CANAL - DAY As she turns into another street, he resumes following her. She gets to a house, goes in. There's a group of people partying. He stops, watches. DOORS SONG Sidewalk crouches at her feet Like a dog that begs for something sweet Do you hope to make her see you, fool? Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel? EXT. PAMELA'S HOUSE - VENICE CANAL - THAT EVENING The two story house has a quaint run-down charm. Friends have dropped by, people smoking joints, beers. She's on the upstairs balcony -- talking with a YOUNG MAN (professor type) in his 30's, who passes her a joint. JIM lurks in the shadows of the trees; he's been standing outside watching... The MUSIC shifts to the quieter LOVE STREET. DOORS SONG She lives on Love Street Lingers long on Love Street She has a house and garden I would like to see what happens The YOUNG MAN gestures, and goes back inside the house. She's alone now on the balcony, sitting on a kitchen table... It's now or never. Jim scales the tree alongside the house with the agility of a gymnast. DOORS SONG She has robes and she has monkeys Lazy diamond studded flunkies She has wisdom and knows what to do She has me and she has you The girl's grinding up pot in an old shoebox with a spoon and kitchen strainer. She looks up and sees his crotch three feet from her face, balanced there effortlessly on the railing like a highwire act, opens her mouth in surprise. Jim drops softly to the balcony, a smile of disarming gentleness. JIM Hi... GIRL Wow! Hi... (looking at the tree) You have a problem with doors? JIM Waste of time... His head cocked slightly onto his left shoulder, he drawls, southern gentleman, polite, slow, thoughtful as if he had all the time in the world, as if the guy would never come back. JIM I followed you... from the beach... GIRL (impressed) Wow! You followed me? Why? JIM ...cause... you're the one... He moves. Kisses her swiftly, softly, right on the lips. GIRL (mesmerized, awkward) Wow... neat... (looks back) ...maybe you should meet my old man? JIM Later. You got a name? He looks into her face. Classic American face, freckles, big round eyes soft as rain, long sunset red hair. She feels his intense, starving eyes. He kisses her a second time. The YOUNG MAN coming back with the rolling paper -- sees him. As he hops back on the railing -- swings out into the tree -- looks back once. JIM Mine's Jim. A moment. She must decide. The YOUNG MAN within earshot. GIRL Pam... The ice broken in that instant. Jim smiles. JIM Jim and Pam, Pam and Jim... He vanishes. The Man abreast of Pamela, as if he's seen a vision. YOUNG MAN Who the hell was that? PAMELA (everything's cool) That's Jim. My new friend. INT. UCLA SCREENING ROOM - DAY (1965) On the screen a 16mm black and white student film of a stunning BLOND in black bra, panties, garters dancing in black heels on top of a TV set. panning down to images of goose-stepping Nazis and a Nuremberg rally on the set. Sounds of lovemaking and an Indian peyote ceremony from the track, an Indian holy man incanting... Jim's VOICE comes on the track as well. JIM'S VOICE Nietzche said "all great things must first wear monstrous and terrifying masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity". Listen children -- to the sound of the Nuremberg night. STUDENTS in the audience groan at the pretention of it. Moving to JIM's eyes hidden in his parka hood, peeking through at the screen. A CLOSEUP now of JIM on screen looking straight into the lens as he takes a hit on a hash pipe, and winks. JIM VOICE (on screen) Have you ever seen God? -- a mandala. A symmetrical angel. Felt? Yes. Fucking the Sun. Heard? The music. Voices. Touched? An animal. Your hand Tasted? Rare meat, corn, water and wine STUDENTS (ad lib) SSSSssss... ego trip man, c'mon! RAY MANZAREK, a tall student with powerful voice and manner, thick glasses, long hair sweeping down over his eyes, leans over to Jim. RAY Hey man it's great, don't listen to em, it's non-linear man, it's poetry man, everything Godard stands for. The lights coming on as the last absurdist images flicker off. Hissing and a big Bronx cheer summarize the feelings of the 100 odd STUDENTS crammed into a bunker-like theater. A youngish INSTRUCTOR stirs to the front row from a row of upset FACULTY. Hands shooting up to criticize. INSTRUCTOR This is pretty shocking stuff Mr. Morrison. And I might say indulgent. Naziism and masturbation, when used for shock value, are not art. But to be constructive, let's start with your intention. What was it? STUDENT 1 It was a bore!! That's what! (laughter) TRICK, BONES and JACK, three friends sitting next to Jim, shoot their hands up. TRICK Hey it was better'n a Warhol picture. GIRL 1 No it wasn't. It was worse! TRICK A guy sleeping for seven hours... STUDENT 2 ...is less pretentious! There was no political consciousness. Naziism is... JACK Hey hold on man! You guys are the facists! BONES It takes genitalism to absurdity man, just cause the squares here can't dig it cause the film school's still so square... VOICES Oh c'mon man, give it a break. Boo! Beatniks go home! Take another mushroom... A cacophony of voices, critics, emotions blend out over Jim's quiet eyes. INSTRUCTOR HOLD IT DOWN!!... Mr. Morrison -- what are your feelings? JIM I quit. (walks out) EXT. TURKEY JOINT WEST - NIGHT JIM, BONES, TRICK, JACK approaching the bar. MUSIC of "GLORIA" blasting from the door, CHICKS popping in and out, definitely college crowd circa '65. TRICK (to Jim) Hey man whatdya expect, an Oscar? BONES You can't quit, you gotta voice. People can't dig cause they don't understand yet. JACK If you're an individual, if you're too good, they wanna cut your dick off. Look what happened to Orson Wells. TRICK You quit now, they'll yank your deferment in no time and they'll get you for Vietnam man. Three more months you graduate. BONES Be cool, you never learned fuckin patience Morrison, you want everything at once. NICK They didn't get it. So make your films and fuck what they think. JIM You know what I think? He slows, a dramatic young lion pose, surveying the girls. BONES Yeah whadday you think? JIM You really want to know what I think? The cronies wait, anticipating something inescapably evil to escape his lips. BONES Yeah yeah, whatddaya think? JIM I think we gotta get really ripped! INT. TURKEY JOINT WEST - NIGHT Tall bespectacled RAY MANZAREK is banging out GLORIA on the piano in bad Jerry Lee Lewis style. RAY I tell you bout my baby 'bout five foot four from head to toe She came to my room Just 'bout midnight She makes me feel so good She makes me feel alright Camera moving to reveal JOHN DENSMORE wiry, solid on the drums... moving on to ROBBIE KRIEGER, wispy, ethereal looking, the youngest, flamenco-type moves on his early electric guitar. Also a HARMONICA PLAYER and a BASE. They all seem slightly embarrassed by either the cheap sound system feedback or Ray's warbling, but the crowd couldn't care less -- a German beerhall, they want noise and sex. JIM and his GANG, beers in hand, mouth back the words, beers everywhere shoved to the smokey ceiling, everyone on their feet, nuts with spring fever. Jim eyeing the GIRL next to him. JIM You know what I'd like to do to you? GIRL (waiting, intrigued) No what? JIM You really want to know what I'd like to do to you? GIRL What! The FOOTBALL TEAM TYPES edge over nearby, one of them picking out Jim with a glare. JIM (whispering) Wanna hear the scream of the butterfly... She looks puzzled by the suggestion. FOOTBALL PLAYER Hey Morrison! JIM (eluding the man) Can we have a couple of beers. You're not even an asshole man -- you're a semihole. He evades the football man's grasp, elusive physicality. He hops over tables, heading for the stage. Other KIDS are up on the stage dancing, but Jim goes right up alongside RAY, shaking his hips like Elvis. Ray giving him the mike. Improv time. JIM (singing) She came to my room She came on my floor She came on my bed She came on my face Ooooooh I want to wrap your legs around my head baby baby and her name was Gloria They love it. The place going wild. The girl with the football player wanting him. INT. RAY'S CAR - FREEWAY - NIGHT JIM is insane on beers in the back seat, reaching over the wheel to try to drive the car for RAY who is flailing at him. Jim pulling Ray's hair... JIM (barely comprehensible) HA HA HA HA HA! COME ON, LET'S DRIVE TO MEXICO MAN. TIJUANA. LET'S GET LOST! Jammed into the sedan are TRICK, BONES, ROBBIE, JOHN... RAY & ALL COOL IT JIM, COME ON COOL IT. JIM FREEDOM!!! DON'T YOU KNOW YOU'RE ALL SLAVES! As he winds down the window and starts crawling out of the car. Heavy traffic. Ray weaving to avoid another vehicle. Honking horn. JOHN HE'S GOING OUT! HE'S GOING OUT! TRICK HE'S GONNA JUMP! RAY GET HIM BACK IN! His waist is out the window, John and all grabbing for his heels. EXT. SPEEDING CAR - NIGHT SPECIAL EFFECT: JIM's head six inches from pavement moving at 60 mph through heavy traffic. Screaming, laughing like a maniac. Beeping horns all over the place. JIM DEATH OLD FRIEND!! In the car, madness, raging chaos, the four boys pulling him in. EXT./INT. PAMELA'S HOUSE - VENICE CANAL - THAT NIGHT Night. Shadows. A tree. A figure moving. JIM (SONG) Awake! Shake dreams from your hair, my pretty child my sweet one Choose the day and choose the sign of your day The day's divinity the first thing you see Jim slides her upstairs' door open, crawls in next to her bed. She's asleep with her boyfriend. He touches her toe. She awakes, startled. JIM Come on, come out for a walk, it's a pretty night. PAM You're crazy! EXT. VENICE CANALS - NIGHT JIM and PAMELA moving along the byways. A clear starry California night. JIM (SONG) A vast radiant beach And a cool jewelled moon Couples naked, race down by its quiet side And we laugh like soft mad children There's a crash. They turn bristling. A COYOTE lurks under the sickly light of a streetlamp, pulling its head from an overstuffed garbage can, looking back at them. EXT. VENICE BOARDWALK - NIGHT Fires on the boardwalk. Hippies, Bums, Older People. JIM and PAM move through talking, skipping, touching like children. JIM (SONG) ...smug in the wooly cotton brains of infancy The music and voices are all around us Choose, they croon, the ancient ones The time has come again EXT. VENICE BEACH - NIGHT The two of them race down by its side, slowing to a walk. His [...] loved orphan voice. JIM Can I stay with you tonight? We could talk 'till dawn. I just don't want to be alone. PAM (hesitant) Okay... just talk though. No funny stuff. JIM Okay. I promise. PAM I've been real upset. I lost my car on the freeway yesterday. I left it somewhere and I can't remember where and when I went back it was gone. My sister... JIM I bet you never expected life could be this hard. (strokes her hair affectionately) And you're still so young. She breaks into sobs, seeking his arms. He hugs her. JIM I wonder where we'll be ten years from now? PAM I really don't want to know JIM Come on. JIM (SONG) Choose now, they croon Beneath the moon Beside an ancient lake Enter again the sweet forest Enter the hot dream Come with us Everything is broken up and dances EXT. VENICE BUILDING - NIGHT Their silhouettes mount the fire escape of a jagged old structure overlooking the boardwalk. EXT. VENICE ROOFTOP - NIGHT PAM glancing through Jim's notebooks as they sit on his sleeping bag with a lantern and bunsen burner, overlooking moon, ocean, scudding clouds and a vast forest of television antennas. Fires burn from the beach. In the notebooks, at intervals during the conversation, we see powerful sketches colored in visionary hallucinogenic William Blake mode with writing between. Books are everywhere -- panning Kerouac, Ginsberg, Nietzsche, Rimbaud, Mailer, Artaud, mythological works, shamanistic books, a library of stolen ideas. PAM (reading, looking) These are like beautiful! I never read much poetry in school. I hated it. What's a "shaman"? (mispronounces) JIM He's the medicine man who starts in a peyote trance. And he gets everyone in the tribe going and they share in his vision and it heals them. It's the same in all cultures -- Greeks, Jesus. Some Indians say the first shaman invented sex. He's the one who makes you crazy. PAM Are you a "shaman"? JIM Uh (pause) no. I just write about it. What turns you on? PAM I don't know. Experience. Freedom. Love... Now. Peyote's like love. When it's given it's blessed. When it's sold it's damned. I like peyote. I like acid, it's easier to get. I like the spiritual voyage. The first time I did acid I saw God. I did. I had a friend who was Christ. And he was Judas too. I suddenly knew the secret of everything -- that we're all one, the universe is one. And that everything is beautiful. JIM Is it? I don't know. I think you're alive by confronting death -- by experiencing pain. PAM I think you're alive by recognizing beauty -- seeing truth because when you discover truth you discover what love is... we're all saying the same thing. It's "love me and I'll love you." JIM (looks at her, ironic) It's only thru death that you know life. Jesus, medicine men heal people by sacrificing their own life. PAM Do you love Death? JIM I think life hurts a lot more than death. When you die the pain is over. Pam shivers, a strange thought. PAM Why do I look at you... and see my death? (pause, shrugs) No, that's ridiculous. JIM I bet your dad's a school teacher. PAM How did you know! JIM I don't know. PAM What was your father? JIM Military PAM I bet you moved around a lot. JIM Yeah, about 8 times. PAM How many sisters and brothers? JIM Two. PAM One... she's the pretty one... I love your neck. (she gets in his lap) He runs his fingers thru her hair, kissing her gently. JIM "...but one, the most beautiful one of all dances in a ring of fire and throws off the challenge with a shrug" PAM That's beautiful. Who did you write it for? JIM I wrote it for you. The panties coming off. Rousseau dangling from the Venice moon. He moves a little over excited, nervous, more awkward than we might expect. PAM ...take your time, Jim... there's no hurry, I'm all you have to do tonight... DOORS SONG Well the clock says it's time to close now I guess I'd better go now... As we depart the rooftop. Your fingers weak with minarets Speaking secret alphabets I light another cigarette Learn to forget, learn to forget, learn to forget DISSOLVE TO: Possibly we hear the soft backbeat of MOONLIGHT DRIVE without lyrics. RAY MANZAREK is meditating in yoga posture, longer hair as well, in his post-graduate phase, sandals, colorful hippie shirt. But the meditation is not going well. He's shaking his head at himself, frowning. RAY Om om... No bliss! No bliss! Jim has approached closer, amused, looking down. JIM Hey Ray, try acid man, it's guaranteed. Ray opening his eyes -- his POV -- Jim, slouched, jacket over his shoulder, sun behind him. RAY (surprised) Morrison... Aw shit. Last trip I thought I was going through hell's digestive system. Something painted by Hieronymus Bosch. JIM I never had a bummer on acid. RAY I like naturally high man. JIM Whatever works. Making movies at MGM yet? RAY Well I saw the head of production and I said Godard doesn't use scripts, he improvises with his camera and he said, "great who's Godard?" JIM (laughs) We gotta take the planet back, reinvent the Gods, make new myths. RAY Right on. I thought you went to New York? JIM Never got there. Went out to the desert and uh... got lost y'know. Days. I been living on Trick's rooftop. Got stuck on this chick... RAY Whatcha been doing? JIM Writing. Poems. Songs. RAY Songs? Lemme hear one. JIM I can't sing. RAY So neither can Dylan. "Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine, I'm on the pavement thinking about the government". But he's got the words man. That's what they want. JIM (suddenly sings) Let's swim to the moon un hunh Let's climb thru the tide Penetrate the evening That the city sleeps to hide Jim has crouched, digging his hand in the sand. As the grains spill out of his fist he has his eyes closed. Ray pantomimes chords in the keyboard sand. All of a sudden we're in RAY'S POV -- a mystical moment. Jim singing, no sound, then pure song, unadulterated by atmosphere. JIM Let's swim out tonight love It's our turn to try Parked beside the ocean On our moonlight drive Jim stops, shrugs. Ray looks at him a long beat. Intense eyes, the manner of a man who knows what he wants and cannot be stopped. RAY Wow!... Y'know man those are hot lyrics -- really hot! JIM (pleased) ...could you write the music for that down, if we went over to your place, could you write that on your organ? RAY Are you kidding! I could fly. You wrote that? You got others? JIM A bunch. It's like I'm taking notes at a rock concert going on inside my head. I actually hear the music -- the spirit of the wine y'know, intoxication. RAY (slaps him on the knee) Man. You got a voice like Chet Baker -- haunted! What the hell happened to you in the desert? Let's get a rock and roll band together man and make a million bucks. JIM ...be great wouldn't it? RAY (walking JIM) It's the perfect time man! Two of the guys outta my band are really into this. I meditate with them. You know them... Robbie and John. We could have it in the can in three weeks. JIM Hey why not, I could write the songs with you guys. RAY The Stones did it outta the London School of Economics for Chrissake. Things are about to explode man. You can feel it in the air. (points out over the ocean) Vietnam's right out there. Sides are being chosen. People wanna fight or fuck, love or kill, everything's gonna flame. The planet's screaming for change, Morrison. Make the myths man!! Jim laughs, loves Ray's ardor as they move along the ocean side. JIM There oughta be great orgies man. Like when Dionysus arrived in Greece, he made all the women mad, leaving their homes and dancing off in the mountains. Great golden copulations in the streets of LA. (looks at a passing girl) Hey, do you know her? RAY What do we call ourselves. "Dionysus"? JIM I got a name. RAY What? JIM The Doors. RAY The Doors? (facial distaste) That's the most ridiculous... (then) ...you mean the doors in your mind? Like the Huxley book. JIM "The Doors of Perception"? Acid... RAY Yeah sure mescaline experiments -- reducing the sugar flow to the brain. Great book. JIM It's from William Blake actually, the line -- "when the doors of perception are cleansed -- things will appear as they truly are..." RAY (finishes) -- infinite". It's great, Jim. JIM So where do we start? How do we start? Where are the girls? RAY Rehearsing. You're moving off the rooftop and in with me and Dorothy. As they walk off, the two of them along the edge of the Pacific. A dog jumping for a frisbee. The music of MOONLIGHT DRIVE now riffs over the real song now. DOORS SONG Let's swim to the moon Let's climb thru the tide Penetrate the evening That the city sleeps to hide... DISSOLVING TO: INT. RAY'S HOUSE - VENICE BEACH - DAY The first heavy strains of BREAK ON THROUGH driving over the DISSOLVE. It sounds bad technically, but it's hot. Random raw screams and shouting. PAM is crosslegged on the floor, clapping to the music, number one fan. JIM & DOORS (live) The day destroys the night Night divides the day Tried to run Tried to hide Break on thru to the other side JIM straining to make it work, jumping around violent, still not in control. Yet searching. JOHN cutting out. JOHN That's really square. Let's hip it up. Jump on your cues. RAY Tighten it up. Stay with the beat Jim. You're dragging. JIM Let's try it again, come on. I'm just getting into it. PAM (on floor) I think it's hot!! ROBBIE (strumming) I still think the lyrics are weird man. JOHN (frustrated) I still think it sounds like the bottom of a fishbowl man. JIM (to Robbie, aggravated) Then you write one man! We need more songs anyway. We all gotta go back and write. They're drained, tired, in a large rehersal/living room 30 feet high, fronted by large glass windows looking out at the beach at Marina. The room is filled with golden, gorgeous setting sunlight. PAMELA goes to the kitchen with DOROTHY, Ray's Japanese fiancee. ROBBIE I been working on something goes like this... A minor. (chords his guitar) "You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher" F sharp... chorus "Come on baby, light my fire Try to set the night on fire..." Robbie's voice is tinny but something immediate's in the air, all the radar out. RAY Okay man there's some good changes in there. JIM Got any more lyrics? ROBBIE (gives Jim a page of lyrics) Some. I call it "Light My Fire". I figger if I'm gonna compete with your stuff it's gotta be about earth, fire or snakes. JIM Don't underestimate Death. JOHN Yeah but it sounds like the Byrds man, we're not folk rock man. How 'bout trying it with a Latin beat. ROBBIE I thought we could do the usual verse chorus verse chorus and JOHN We don't need a bridge. ROBBIE Yeah, we could maybe improvise a couple piano and guitar solos over it (kicks in second verse) "The time to hesitate is through" (doesn't have the second line) Du du duh dud dada . . . JIM (spontaneous) "No time to wallow in the mire Try now we can only lose And our love become a funeral pyre Come on baby light my fire" John drumming it, different, more Latin. JIM Pretty good! Pretty neat!! RAY (to John) Nice groove, John. Chaka chaka chaka, then bula burump bula (to Robbie) ...you're right, it could take a coupla long solos, that's wild man, like Butterfield did on "East-West" -- really hip. ROBBIE Y'ever heard Coltrane's "Favorite Things"? JOHN (hitting the drums) Yeah -- maybe stretch it out and put it in 4/4 on bass, 3/4 on guitar and snare. RAY (clicking, excited) Why not! A minor to B minor. Jazz! That then is jazz! But it needs a hook. Something. Give me some space. I need some space. Leave the room guys. Come on! Go! The three excluded Doors head out to the beach like obedient schoolboys while Ray fools with his organ. EXT. VENICE BEACH - DAY As they go out, JIM hugging ROBBIE's head to his shoulder as they feel the excitement of a new song. JOHN (irritated at Ray) Guy's obnoxious, man always bossin' people around! I thought we were equals! JIM Aren't we? (to Robbie) That was great Robbie. Whaddaya thinking about when you play? ROBBIE Don't know. Mostly the fish in my fish tank. JIM (laughs) Hey whadya say we take some of that Tijuana acid and see what kinda trouble we can get into tonight? ROBBIE The chicks always go for you man. I get the dogs. JIM Then we'll start a religion or plan a murder or go to Tijuana. JOHN Whatsamatter with you man, what about Pam, you got the morals of a coyote. JIM Why you wanna sleep with her John, just to bug me? JOHN Hell NO! JIM ...means "hell yes". She likes you man, she really does and y'all should. What's a rock and roll band for man, if you can't party all night and do bad things? RAY (yelling from the house) I GOT IT I GOT IT... GET IN HERE. HURRY. JOHN Sieg Heil! As they head back. INT. RAY'S HOUSE - DAY TIGHT on RAY like a schoolmaster cueing them. RAY Okay here it is. Bach and Rock. Count it off John JOHN (clicking) 1... 2... 1 - 2 - 3 (crack) It goes. The famous organ intro to LIGHT MY FIRE blends over the room like magic, carrying JIM, ROBBIE, JOHN, DOROTHY, PAMELA along over: EXT. SUNSET STRIP (TRAVELLING) - NIGHT (1966) A row of NIGHTCLUBS glisten off the hoods of passing traffic. Marquees announce: THE BYRDS, RED ROOSTER, LOVE, THE HERD, TURTLES, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART. The CLUBS are PANDORA'S BOX, THE TRIP, CIRO'S, BIDO LITO'S, GAZZARRI'S, THE EXPERIENCE... . Headlights and neon intercut with: DOCUMENTARY TYPE SHOTS of TEENAGERS, HIPPIES, LONGHAIRS, running summer rampant, banging tambourines. COPS busting kids against cars on the street as PARENTS go by rolling up their windows. The action was on the street. LIGHT MY FIRE carries over the montage. DOORS SONG You know that it would be untrue etc. JIM VOICE (last session) The music was new black polished chrome and came over the summer like liquid night. EXT. LONDON FOG - NIGHT "THE DOORS -- BAND FROM VENICE" on the marquee... moving down to a motley crew of TEENAGE GIRLS, underage, trying to get past the BOUNCER. The sounds of BREAK ON THROUGH carry past when the doors open and close admitting a SAILOR. GIRL GROUPIE (approaching, to 2nd girl) Is that horny motherfucker in the black pants here tonight? BOUNCER IDs! IDs! Can't get in without an I.D.. GIRL 2 Oh please. I forgot my I.D.. I'm on the list. BOUNCER I forgot my list. INT. LONDON FOG - NIGHT BREAK ON THROUGH blasting out at us from a sleazehole -- half full -- BIKERS, SAILORS, HOOKERS, a baseball game on the TV. A dance floor the size of a bed, the DOORS on a tiny platform above the bar, London newspapers on the wall. JIM & DOORS (live) We chased our pleasures here Dug our treasures there Can you still recall the time we cried BREAK on through to the other side (3) Some groupies have formed a small fan club at the base of the stage, muscling past PAM, but most people ignore them, drinking, arguing, dancing to their own fuckbeats. Possibly this has something to do with the fact that JIM sings with his back to all of them. JOHN looking over furious at RAY who mutters under the music. RAY Turn around Jim! Come on let 'em in. JIM I found an island in your arms A country in your eyes Arms that chained us, eyes that lied (CHORUS) Jim jumps around violently to the front, getting the attention of all. Rubbing his leather pants against the mike stand, leaning against it, not yet comfortable with the extrovert side of himself, eyes closed, but starting to enjoy it. He sings to Pam. INT. BACKSTAGE - THE FOG - THAT NIGHT JERRY, the ex-vice cop manager who runs the joint, can't understand the appeal, talking to JIM and ROBBIE who are packing and hauling their equipment out. DOROTHY is there. PAM (innocently) So Jerry... do we get paid for this? JERRY (ignoring her) What shit, "day destroys the night", "crawl back in your brain", "go insane". What do people wanna pay money to hear that shit. JIM (explains it, gentle) The greater the suffering, the more terrible the events, the greater the pleasure Jerry. They want it, it's catharsis. Like the ancient Greeks. JERRY (amused) We're in Los Angeles punk, how would you know, they like your pants, they're not listenin' to you, what the hell they see in you I... JIM (laughs) But they understand Jerry. All our real desires are unconscious and unseen. . . JERRY (scratching his head) ...you're the weirdest fuckin' guy I ever... JIM You love us? JERRY I love ya. You got two more shows to do. Camera gliding across the small crowded smokey room to RAY and JOHN in conversation with a slick Beverly Hills MANAGER type. MANAGER ...I got some real tight record company connections, just leave it to me man, I'll take you guys all the fuckin' way, you blew my mind out there. RAY Yeah right, but what about the music? MANAGER Hey the music? I love it man, that's why we're talking right? Some of it's a little on the dark side though. Ya know ya oughta get some tunes like Herman's Hermits stuff -- "Mrs. Brown you got a lovely daughter". That shit goes right to the radio man. RAY Uh huh. Well, how 'bout gettin' us some real equipment? MANAGER Listen, I sign you guys to a five year management contract and you got it all. Equipment. Demo. A truck WITH roadies. Three, maybe four percent record deal. Wherever ya want to go babe, trust me, I'll get you there. Whatd'ya say? RAY (exchanging looks with John) We'll have a band meeting. The four of us do everything unanimously or we don't do it. MANAGER The musketeers. I'm touched. But lemme tell you something -- loyalty don't pay the bills. Think about it. Call me tomorrow. He gives Ray a card, leaving, crossing to Jim and PAM talking. JOHN (to Ray) What a sleaze! Man, Jim's gotta start facing the crowd if he's gonna be the front man. RAY He's just getting his confidence. JOHN He never does what we rehearsed. What's the point of... RAY How does it feel? JOHN Great, but... Pam on payphone calling her friends to come. PAM ...make sure you get Barb and Sue Anne to come. And tell them to ask for Jim! The MANAGER on his way out leaning into Jim's face, slyly. MANAGER Jim, how old are you? JIM Ah, twenty one... MANAGER Jesus, you're a gold mine, I'll make it quick and to the point and if you repeat it I'll deny it -- drop these guys, I'll put you with some real musicians, your voice, your looks, that's what'll sell records, we'll make a million bucks. A year. Goodbye. Call me. I'm right. He gives Jim a card and goes. Pam disgusted with the type, Jim laughs, likes the guy. JIM I like a man wears his soul on his face. RAY (coming over) "Whiskey's" next, I can feel it in my bones. ROBBIE I still think the lyrics are weird. INT. LONDON FOG - NIGHT MONTAGE EFFECT -- Jim sings "A Little Game" on the Fog stage. Super over WHISKEY sign. EXT. SUNSET STRIP -- THAT NIGHT CU moving down -- the "LOVE" is on the marquee at the famous WHISKY A GO GO as we move down to see JIM, PAM, and the DOORS. Jim jumps through the TEEMING TRAFFIC (horns, anger) right in front of a COP CAR, crossing to a long line of teenage FANS dying to get into the club. JIM (to Ray, innocently) Jesus Ray, every girl out there wanted to fuck me, I could feel it for the first time! RAY Right on stud. But you better watch out for the guys. JIM (to the band) Guys, I'm serious about the desert, we still gotta deepen man, we gotta take some peyote -- all of us together, we got one more stage to go... ROBBIE I don't know man, fucks up my playing. I been playing music for 10 years man and this is the first time in my whole damned life I ever played it. JIM Are you satisfied? JOHN Will you get off my case! I'm never doing acid again. Too many bad trips man. JIM It's not acid John, it's peyote. It's a bonding ceremony. It's got to be more... more... more... JOHN I'm into TM man. I promised my guru... PAM I want to! I want to! I'm ready. Let's go to the desert... do the peyote, the good peyote. JIM (to girl in line) Who's on now? GIRL 1 (withering look, very hip) "Love". JIM Yeah, Arthur Lee's cool. GIRL 1 They're the best... better'n the Beatles. JIM You mean the Marx Brothers of music, we could blow 'em away. The GIRLS looking at each other like who is this jerk. GIRL 2 And who are you? JIM The Doors... We're up the street at the Fog. Laughter from the GIRLS. GIRL 1 (contempt) The Doors. I heard of you. That's the dumbest name. I wouldn't go to the Fog if you paid me. JIM Oh yeah what would you do for money? PAM Let's go Jim, come on. Meanwhile DENSMORE is hitting up on GIRL 2. JOHN So you don't have a phone number? What do you mean you don't have a phone number? GIRL 2 I don't have a phone number. So give me your number then. JOHN I don't have a phone. Robbie is doing his imitation of a shrimp for ANOTHER GIRL who's laughing. GIRL 1 (intrigued, to Jim) Well, would you leave my name at the door? JIM Well I don't know. What's your name? GIRL 1 Caprice. JIM Caprice? That's the dumbest name I ever heard. A look between Jim and Caprice. Pamela pulling Jim away, gives the girl a look. JIM Hey! I am the Lizard king. I can do Anything! Raise your hands if you understand! Alive, any of you alive -- let's take a poll -- how many of you know you're really alive!! The crowd giggles. Jim climbs a pole, yells. JIM No one? Raise your hands c'mon man... let's go. On the crowd. A few raise their hands, smile. We IRIS in on the Doors suddenly -- a strange sound -- REVERSE IRIS on Jim -- feeling it now. The peyote. JIM's POV -- Pam irising out. This strange sound in his ears -- a rattle of an Indian gourd, similar to what we heard in the car in Arizona when Jim was a boy. Now a distant Indian drum beating. The beginning strains of THE END dribble in. EXT. DESERT - DAY A dented RED CHEVROLET fishtails on a dry mudflat, whipping up dustdevils. They're all LAUGHING (strange noise) -- in a circle somewhere on the edge of a precipice in deep arroyos and magnificent rocks and cacti... A football huddle of faces - RAY, JOHN, ROBBIE, JIM -- the four DOORS... laughing with the first mad impulse of the peyote. PAM is vomiting her brains out as DOROTHY tries to comfort her on the edge of a cliff... Jim panthers up the dune. JIM Everybody having a good time? They hug. She throws up again. JIM ...awright, pretty good, it gets better. Jim holds his head. Feels the ride. JIM WOA!! It's fast. JUMP CUTS: Jim and Pam are touching each other. Face. Shadows. Sand falls from Pam's hand. Jim turns to hawk at a bird. "Hawk! Hawk!" Then Pam is dancing alone on the dune. Abruptly Jim is back in the circle with the Doors in a sense torn between them and Pam. EXTREME CLOSEUPS of their faces, their eyes, the tensions of the trip tearing apart their teeth as they go from the laughing to the dangerous part. JIM When the serpent appears, his head is ten feet long and five feet wide. He has one red eye and one green eye. He's deadly and he's seven miles long. As he moves -- on his scales is written all the history of the world, all people, all actions, all of us our little pictures on the scales, God it's big! -- and it's eating as it moves all the time, devouring, digesting consciousness, power, a monster of energy! John shutters -- as does Robbie and Ray. Jim seems possessed. JIM We must kiss the snake on the tongue, if it senses our fear, it will eat us instantly. But if we kiss it without fear, the snake will take us through the garden and out the gate. To our freedom -we must ride this snake. To the end of time. Pause. He has instilled a flux of fear in the group. JOHN I think I'm fucked up. I'm not thinking right. JIM You're fucked up John. Go with it, confusion is the sound of creation. JOHN You should see your eyes right now, you're death. Look at your eyes -- you're crazy man, you look crazy. You scare me. JIM No no no John John. God is crazy too. God is part insane as well as sane. Not in control all the time. Dionysus was the God of the wine. He made ecstasy but he also made madness. Madness is all right. That's what you want, isn't it, isn't it? Where's that joint? ROBBIE (crying) I get scared thinking of all the choices inside. I could go. I could stay. I can live anywhere. I could die now if I wanted. It's limitless choice... and no one cares. JIM Die Robbie. JOHN What the fuck! PAM (wandering in) I don't know what I am. I'm on the cusp of Sagittarius and Capricorn. Sagittarius is wild and Capricorn domestic and safe, so I don't know which one to be. Jim looking at her, smiles. JIM I love you. DOROTHY (into the same lens) Oh my God, the light, it's so beautiful Ray. Can you see it... it's all one... honey? Ray has his head buried in his hands. RAY I'm in pain man. I want something from the peyote. I feel the universe functioning perfectly but I'm still perfectly locked inside myself. Instead of Oneness, I feel total Isolation. Aloneness. Fear... Pain... Jim, all I feel is pain. JIM Pain makes me feel more alive Ray. Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain but they're wrong. JOHN I feel Lust. I want to fuck everything I can, and I know it will never be enough. JIM (whispers) Pam wants you. (normal) You're a good Catholic John, you want it so you can feel guilty about it... Fuck death away John. ROBBIE I feel Fear... so bad I just numb out all my feelings. I'm afraid of my father, I'm afraid of Yahweh... I wish I could play my guitar. JIM Maybe you should kill your father Robbie. He tried to kill you. Kill him! ROBBIE I'm so fucking scared. JIM But you're Alive! It's beautiful! Fear, pain, lust, we've got to know all our feelings before we can come out the other side free men. Don't feel ashamed of yourselves, don't let society destroy your reality. Our freedom's the only thing worth dying for, it's the only thing worth living for! He takes Ray and Robbie's hands, his voice calming them, reform the circle. John hesitant. Not all will enter the gates at evening. JOHN (cold sweats) I'm not gonna make it man. I'm scared Jim, I'm still scared. Blindness is coming on. JIM Then use us John, use our strength, it's us four now, a tribe of warriors, everything we have comes from the same source, the great Creator of Being. Trust him, trust us. Ride the snake. . . I promise you I will be with you till the end of time. Pulling John into the circle, bonding, their four heads sunk to the desert floor, Jim making wild Indian sounds, deep- throated "shoooh... shoooh"... now humming a song from the desert. JIM My wild love went riding... mmmmmm. She rode all the day. She ride to the devil. And ask for him to pay... shooo shoooo The OTHERS join in his chant, the four rising and falling like a collective breath. JIM (ad lib) ...she went to the desert she went to the sea Joseph we did see... Suddenly Jim breaks and rises out of the circle. Ray, Robbie, John, all looking at him. The same need. Pamela, the desperation of her eyes. JIM (to himself) ...I'm lying to you. I am scared. He goes, his boots in the sand. JOHN Jim, where are you going. JIM (looking back) I'll be back. I gotta go alone. Pamela calling from another dune, far away. PAM Jim! Jim... come here, dance... don't go away. His POV -- of her, receding. She screams for him. He's in pain. Cannot help her. A BIRD of prey in the sky. Jim moving across a lunar landscape. SPECIAL EFFECT: The sun is black like night or else white in a black sky. Voices in the distance. "Jim, where are you going?" A mother's voice, a father's voice. DOORS SONG Can you picture what will be So limitless and free Desperately in need of some stranger's hand in a desperate land Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain and all the children are insane: waiting for the summer rain FLASHBACKS INT. CAR - MOVING - DESERT JIM, 4, in the back of a car in the desert -- looking back... At the overturned truck, the bodies in the road... at the older Indian looking at him... finally at the dying Indian... his eyes. INT. MORRISON HOME - DAY Somewhere. The child alone. On the living room floor. Drawing his sketches in a book. MOM's feet moving past -- then DAD'S feet. We may sense a subtle shift in mood when the parents come in -- from the boy's eyes which never leave the sketch he is drawing. EXT. DESERT - DAY An OLD WOMAN is beckoning to him from an opening in the face of the mountain... then she's gone. JIM bounds towards the crevice. INT. ROCK PALACE - DAY He is in an isolated cathedral of rocks. The CRONE, muttering, leaving through another crevice. Suddenly a MOUNTAIN LION is visible, stretched hugely across a rock. It growls ferociously, upset, and suddenly shoots out the back of the cave. Silence. Jim, thunderstruck, gaping. A gallery of ancient INDIAN PETROGLYPHS surround him on all sides. Curious, oblong figures, buffalo, sacred deer and bear, creatures of the hunt; hunters and their weapons, rain clouds, masked deities proclaiming the answers to the Mysteries, the story of Creation. Camera weaving up to see one of the faces of the deities -- staring at him from the wall -- an eagle's face... DOORS SONG There's danger on the edge of town Ride the King's highway Weird scenes inside the gold mine Ride the King's highway west, baby The sound of a rattle -- "shichishichi" -- he realizes he's being watched. By what? He whips his eyes everywhere. A large LIZARD perches on a boulder assesses him calmly, tatters of a former skin clinging to its throat, spits a forked tongue and drills its black pearly eyes into his skull... Now the sound of the Bull-Roarer, whipping the air, announcing the appearance of the shaman. Jim's struck with an overwhelming sense of... awe... ancient mysteries. He turns. The lizard is looking at him. The GHOST of the DEAD INDIAN is also looking at him. We are looking at JIM from its point of view -- a blur of light, some headdress, a sense of skins... music drops back, no lyrics... the voice is old, familiar, possible Spanish descent dialect or huararchi. INDIAN GHOST VOICE ...you are a prince among white men, yet you are a warrior among us. You are ready now. Go out "walk with the pain of the world, travel to the end of the wind" -- and change it for all men as you were born to do. The voice, the pretense, -- the glow too quickly fades -- leaving Jim so alone, not sure what he has heard, yet he knows he has heard, and he knows he has seen -- and once you have seen, it will never be the same again. His eyes. EXT. CAVE - DAY JIM exits the cave. MATCH CUT TO: INT. WHISKY A GO GO - NIGHT EXTREME CLOSE on JIM'S EYES as he continues with THE END. DOORS SONG Ride the snake Ride the snake, to the lake The ancient lake The snake is long, seven miles Ride the snake He's old, and his skin is cold Camera pulling out from his eyes. There's something different tonight. Something in the air. His eyes are open, he's facing outward, gripping the mike for his life, hair falling in his face, dripping sweat, we sense all his soul concentrated in what he has to say. Cliques of GROUPIES have staked claims at the foot of the stage, eyes fucking him as he writhes, spreading his legs. Every twitch, every moment he sucks out the tension on the musical interludes generates a whip of a reaction in his audience. Nobody is moving in the club. The DANCERS are still, the GO GO GIRLS in their white plastic boots and dresses hang motionless in their gilded cages. Even the WAITRESSES have stopped, frozen with their trays, denying something is going to happen. PAMELA, DOROTHY... JERRY from the Fog, also the manager of this place, watches from the balcony, shaking his head, doesn't understand. Panning to two RECORD TYPES with him -- JAC HOLZMAN, distinguished six footer, suit, and PAUL ROTHCHILD, funky, pigtailed, ex-con, early 30s. JIM & DOORS The west is best (2) Get here and we'll do the rest The blue bus is calling us (2) Driver where you taking us? The band has come together fully now. ROBBIE'S fingers sliding across the trembling strings, staring at the ceiling, wandering around the darkened portions of stage left, he feels Jim -- echoes him back with his flamenco-blues guitar. JOHN on drums, reading Jim's moods, throws in the spontaneous and violent riffs that keep it savage. He literally tortures Jim's ears with his drums. And RAY, concentrated with his nodding head like a big flamingo over his keyboard, mixing it up, throwing curves, yet also -- and more delicately -- torturing Jim with the messianic organ sounds that shriek in his ears. There is something of Merlin in Ray -- the alchemist knowing how to play Jim. And JIM -- "that sneaky silent lithe flowing flexing animal" -- ready at last to share both his body and his soul with the world, to live out the words of the Indian prophet... to lead. JIM The killer awoke before dawn He put his boots on He took a face from the ancient gallery And he walked on down the hall Ray looks over up from his board, catches Robby with a 'what's this?' look... They go with it, improvising... Jim clutching the mike tighter, seeking solace in its arms; it all hangs in the air as if he doesn't have any idea what he's going to say next. JIM He went to the room where his sister lived And he paid a visit to his brother And then he went on down the hall... Pamela sensing something is coming... the AUDIENCE... Jerry... the go-go dancers... JIM And he came to a door, And he looked inside "Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you". FLASH -- A FATHER'S FACE, any face, older, any man... JIM Mother... I want to... FLASH -- A MOTHER'S FACE, any face, older, a woman JIM AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH YOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! FUCK YOU ALL NIGHT! The SCREAMS primal, pure Jim -- Indian savagery ripped from the depths of his soul, of his pain -- bouncing off the walls... As the AUDIENCE gasps, shocked, stunned... As the guitar hits a high, horrid reverb, JIM in slightly SLOW MOTION suddenly tightens his backbone as if electrocuted and shoots violently backwards, hitting the floor like a puppet cut from his string -- we sense Jim himself has crossed a barrier now, gone into yet another stage of his performance, a stage from which he can never return. Like the gunfighter who has killed his first man. RAY sees it instantly where it's going, hits the organ! Robbie and John follow. the instruments EXPLODE all at once trying to bury Jim in his primal unmistakeable scream. The CLUB in shock. Tribal taboo broken in one instant. Jerry exploding off the balcony toward the stage... Pamela, extremely moved and impressed, and Dorothy... the go- go girls, as jaded as they come, are stunned tension... the groupies love it. Jim has jumped up now, dancing an Indian war dance around the mike. JIM Come on baby take a chance with us (X3) And meet me in the back of the blue bus Doona blue rog onna blue bus Doona blue yeah! Come on yeah! INT. BACKSTAGE WHISKY HALLWAY - THAT NIGHT JIM is being muscled out the door by JERRY, livid. JERRY NOBODY'S GONNA FUCK THEIR MOTHER ON MY STAGE! YOU'RE OUTTA HERE. You don't ever come back to play, you don't ever come back to drink -- You're DEAD ON THE STRIP! JIM (ranting back at him) Kill the father, fuck the mother, kill the father, fuck the mother -- that's what I'm into! That's what I'm into! Jerry pinning Jim to the wall, JERRY You -- MORRISON! You're fucking filthy twisted perverse punk, get back to your fucking sewer!! JIM (calmly smiling) You have the face of a pig man. Lost in the melee, RAY and JOHN springing Jim back from likely death RAY JERRY JERRY... He was talking about Oedipus! GREEK TRAGEDY!! It's ART!! JERRY FUCK ART!! GET THE FUCK ART OUT!!! Pushing, shoving, scrambling. Past a long-haired JOURNALIST yelling into a payphone. JOURNALIST NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THE DOORS -- NEVER!! GET A PHOTOGRAPHER DOWN HERE. "ROLLING STONE'S GOTTA SEE THIS!! As they rumble by him, all yelling at once. Into the street. EXT. ALLEY & STAIRCASE OUTSIDE WHISKY - THAT NIGHT The DOORS go sailing out, followed by one of their drums, JOHN and ROBBIE restraining Jim from going back in. JIM TAKE A LONG LOOK OLD MAN. WE ARE THE FUTURE. WE ARE THINGS TO COME. JERRY FUCK YOU... YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD! Wanting to come after Jim but restrained now by the RECORD MOGULS, HOLZMAN and ROTHCHILD. PAUL Come on Jerry, cool it, cool it... he's a kid, it's a song about dying, changing... JAC HOLZMAN pushing past to Ray. Pamela separating Jim visually from Jerry. JOHN (to RAY and ROBBIE) We'll never work again man. The Mafia controls all these clubs. HOLZMAN (to Ray and Robbie) Quite a night! Hi, I'm Jac Holzman. I own Elektra Records. RAY (knows the name) Oh sure, hi. Holzman pauses, a dramatic presence, six foot two, impeccably dressed, he knows the weight of his words. HOLZMAN Listen... I think if you could just put what you did in there on record, we could really have something... and we could make a lot of money... It hangs there. Impossible words. RAY Yeah? John and Robbie sharing looks. HOLZMAN (pointing to ROTHCHILD coming up) Yeah... and Rothchild here was born to be your producer. ROBBIE (recognizing Paul) Hey, the guy that did Butterfield! PAUL Bertold Brecht, cabaret and rock. Give me a fucking break. You guys are amazing! Let's go make a record. JIM (to Ray, pointing back at Jerry) Hey, is that asshole gonna pay us? HOLZMAN (amused) Why don't you go inside and ask him Jim? Strains of LIGHT MY FIRE cross the cut. INT. SUNSET SOUND RECORDING STUDIO - DAY (1966) Four-track TAPE SYSTEM is rolling. DOORS SONG You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher Camera moving fast thru the control room, past the ENGINEER (BRUCE BOTNICK), taciturn, 20's, the PRODUCER (PAUL ROTHCHILD) in pig heaven, and the owner JAC HOLZMAN in his blue suit watching. PAUL Hey Bruce, you feel it? BRUCE I'm having big fun. PAUL (to Jac) I got goosebumps Jac. This is history going down here. An album of killer music in six days... six days... unreal! Camera moving fast past a smiling PAM watching, out to the DOORS on the floor, jamming... on to JIM in the vocal booth, headphone to his ears. JIM Come on baby, LIGHT MY FIIIRRRREEEE!!! The song, now fully -- orchestrated, rolling on over the following MONTAGE: JIM (after song) Pretty good! Pretty neat! EXT. GOLDEN GATE PARK - SAN FRANCISCO (DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE) - DAY (1967) LIGHT MY FIRE continues. DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE of the "Human Be-In", the "Summer of Love" -- swarming FLOWER CHILDREN, WAR PROTESTORS. A staged 16mm. grainy shot of JIM and PAMELA, RAY and DOROTHY, JOHN, ROBBIE and their TWO NEW GIRLFRIENDS wandering thru the CROWD sharing the spirit. Pam and Jim fool around -- laughing -- tickling each other for the home movie camera shot by Ray... Pam is goofy, makes funny faces, teases him running a flower under his nose, thru his hair, then trips him. He chases her across the lawn. INT. FILLMORE WEST STAGE - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (1967) The CROWD is "beautiful" -- candles, incense sticks, flowers, vibes of peace and love. The instrumental of "Light My Fire" is playing, but only three DOORS are on stage till Jim comes swinging across on a rope like tarzan all the way across the stage -- then drops down, rebounds lithely and hits the mike. JIM (singing) The time to hesitate is through No time to wallow in the mire. JIM swandives into the stoned crowd with the mike at the instrumental section, a colored spotlight flecking him, GIRLS kiss him. The guys want to be him, the girls want him -- and he knows it, teasing and tantalizing them... JIM Try now we can only lose And our love become a funeral pyre Come on baby, light my fire Try to set the night on FIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!! BODYGUARDS running in to pull him out as he's tossed, like a limp god, over the heads of the crowd, rolling like a buoy on a rocking sea, from hand to hand, Dionysus, devoured limb from limb by the "little girls". PAMELA watching from the side curtain. ALABAMA SONG (WHISKY BAR) now kicks in with its comic, Brechtian strain as we: OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. AIRPORT TARMAC - DAY Screaming FANS chase the DOORS to a commercial airplane, scribbling autographs. One of the GIRLS smacking JIM on the lips as he laughs, her cameras clicking. PAMELA shooting a home movie of it, pushed aside by the crowd, rescued by ROBBIE and the new young manager, BILL SIDDONS... DOORS SONG Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh don't ask why Oh don't ask why EXT. NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE (SEEN FROM PLANE) - DAY The City as seen by: INT. AIRPLANE - DAY JIM'S face pressed to the window, PAMELA next to him hugging each other. JIM (real close, hugging her) I don't mind dying in a plane crash, a smile on my face. PAMELA (cutting his food) As compared to what? JIM I just don't want to go out slow -- brain tumor, botulism. I want to feel what it's like, cause death is only going to happen to you once. PAMELA I don't want to die ever, what a weird thing to say. DOORS SONG For if we don't find the next whisky bar I tell you we must die I tell you I tell you I tell you we must die EXT. CBS - NEW YORK - NIGHT (SUMMER, 1967) A LIMOUSINE pulling up in front of the Ed Sullivan Marquee. The sidewalk is mobbed with FANS, mostly YOUNG GIRLS. DOORS SONG Oh moon of Alabama We now must say goodbye We've lost our good ol mama We must have whiskey oh you know why INT. LIMO - NIGHT JIM looking out at the MOB with the other DOORS and PAMELA. The look on his face is ironic. His POV -- the YOUNG GIRLS' FACES, arms grasping at the windows like tentacles of a poisonous hydra, their faces deformed by SILENT SCREAMS (we hear faint strangled shrieks below the song)... POLICE and SECURITY pressing them back, linking arms to clear a path for the Doors. DOORS SONG Show me the way to the next little girl Oh don't ask why Oh don't ask why The GIRLS crying hysterically as Jim lazily, leopardly, moves across the CROWD, almost like Oswald waiting for the Ruby bullet but with that sweet, pleasant smile on his face, dark glasses concealing... GIRLS (faint) Oh Jimmmmm, pleeeaaase look, I looove youuuuu, Jimmmmmm, pleeeeeaase, Jimmmmm, here, sign miiiine... take a picture Jim?... Jim, Jim, oh please look at me Jim!! Their voices distorting. A GIRLCHILD squeezing thru the cordon with the fatal bullet. In slightly SLOW MOTION, Jim seeing her come... as she glues herself hip to hip, lip to lip with Jim, her hands clawing at his leather pants. It takes TWO COPS to peel her off. Pamela furious. Jim is gracious with everyone, signs patiently, talks, kisses, shakes hands with the boys, lets them touch his hair, his body, poses for a picture, seems to like it. DOORS SONG For if we don't find the next little girl I tell you we must die I tell you I tell you I tell you we must die INT. CBS BACKSTAGE - THAT EVENING The nervous PRODUCER, HERB, leading "MR. SULLIVAN" thru the corridor to the Doors' DRESSING ROOM past several "ACTS" getting ready to go on... animals, tumblers, a soprano wailing... PRODUCER Right this way Mr. Sullivan. They're called "the Doors". They got the number one single in the country -- "Light Your Fire". SULLIVAN "Light Your Fire"? Is that sooo? PRODUCER They look pretty grungy but we're... INT. DOORS DRESSING ROOM - EVENING Bedlam. MAKE-UP ARTISTS pancaking the faces of the DOORS -- the nightmare coming true. RAY in a white suit with too many pinstripes. ROBBIE a spearmint turtleneck, beads, long sideburns, JOHN in red velveteen head to foot with a tie-dye splotch on the front of it. Their hair's being violated enough by a nervous gay black HAIR DESIGNER to make them totally self-conscious and nervous about their first live TV appearance -- all except JIM who remains in his signature black leather with the silver navajo belt and shiny spangles -- watching a portable TV... A GIRL leaving his side, crossing Pamela. Eye contact between them speaks of Pamela's jealousy. JOHN (indignant) You're gonna cut it! HAIRDRESSER (doing John) No, I'm going to worship it. What kind of shampoo are you using? JOHN The kind you get in hotels. HAIRDRESSER Pamper yourself sweetheart, you don't want split ends, you're a celebrity now. (moving to Ray) You have very serious-serious hair, it needs to rebel. I'll give it a tinge of something freaky. RAY I'd rather stay the same color. HAIRDRESSER Scaredy cat. ROBBIE What about me? HAIRDRESSER (a look) Honey, we don't have enough time. TELEVISION INSERT -- images of DETROIT burning, summer of 67. TV NEWSMAN ...here in Detroit, 42 people dead, more than 2000 injured... 1400 buildings burned, 5000 people have just lost their homes as Detroit joins more than 100 cities torn by riots this hot summer! On JIM, as they pancake him, reflective. JIM No wonder "Light My Fire's" number one. HAIRDRESSER (to JIM) What about you handsome? JIM (friendly) The biggest mistakes in my life have been haircuts. PAM Don't wash it. Don't set it. He likes it the way it is... HAIRDRESSER (backing off) All right, be mean... Commotion from the doorway as the PRODUCER leads the lock- jawed MR. SULLIVAN in with everyone bowing and scraping to the Pope. PRODUCER Boys -- meet Mr. Sullivan Mr. Sullivan waves from the doorway. SULLIVAN Hi boys, heard your song "Light That Fire" (Herb corrects) ...think you're great... good luck out there. DOORS (ad lib) Oh thanks Mr. Sullivan. PRODUCER (moving alongside Ray) Well the guys at Network have told us they have a small problem with the lyrics "girl we couldn't get much higher". You can't say "higher" on network so they asked if... you could say, "girl we can't get much better"... can you dig that? A look from the guys. Jim sullen. Tension in the air. Mr. Sullivan waiting. JIM How 'bout, "girl you couldn't bite my wire". Pause. The producer puzzled a beat. It doesn't go down. PRODUCER I don't think Standards and Practices would... Sullivan exiting, waving at no one in particular like Nixon would. SULLIVAN Look, you boys don't forget to smile now. Don't be so sullen out there... JIM Uh well, we're kind of a sullen group, Ed. SIDDONS reassuring the Producer. SIDDONS We'll work it out Herb, promise. Give me five. PRODUCER (not totally convinced, exiting) Groovy! Uh you boys should know Mr. Sullivan is considering you boys for four more shows. You dig? Pause. JOHN Well? JIM What -- are we the Beatles now John? RAY (laughs) It's only a word man. The Stones changed... JIM Hey Ray, why don't you change your name to Sid or Irving Manzarek or something... it's only a word y'know. ROBBIE It's my words. I don't care, let's just jam. Ray's seething tension. Younger brother starting to get out of hand. INT. STUDIO STAGE - THAT NIGHT SULLIVAN stiffly introducing them. SULLIVAN Now here on our stage direct from Los Angeles, California, ladies and gentlemen, The Doors! The lights come up on the DOORS in their ultimate nightmare -- each Door appearing consecutively in a lightspot as Jim sings the ubiquitous "Light My Fire", trapped in this Elvis Presley -- Vegas act, he looks like he couldn't care less. DOORS hang suspended everywhere on the set -- their name spelled out in big block standup letters. Jim has a hard-on in his pants, barely concealed by his tight leathers. PRODUCER (in control booth) What's that?... oh Jesus!... get off it!! Where's he going? Jim misses his marks deliberately, the camera having a hard time following him. JIM & DOORS You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher Come on baby light my fire INT. CONTROL BOOTH (SIMULTANEOUS) - THAT NIGHT The PRODUCERS freaking out. PRODUCER (hyperventilating) He said it! He said it! On National TV You can't do that! You can't do that!!! You blew it you little shit! You'll never play Ed Sullivan again. Jim on the monitors, singing through to his freedom, falls on the floor flat, the camera missing him completely. JIM Come on baby, light my fire Try to set the night on FIIIIRRRRRE! INT. HOTEL BEDROOM -- NEW YORK - NIGHT OVERHEAD ANGLE -- JIM lies there in a sweat. PAMELA pulls off him, naked, frustrated, trying to rouse him. PAM (tender) What can I do, what do you want me to do?... Jim? JIM I don't know... I guess I should see a doctor or something... maybe I should go to someone of the straight Jungian philosophy. PAM It happens to other guys too... Jim, quietly pissed, reaches for the whiskey bottle at the side of the bed. JIM It's so scary up there. To be adored. Isn't that irony? Teenage death girls want my dick -- a mere clown -- not my words. I'll never wake up in a good mood again... Lament for my cock, a tongue of knowledge deep in the feathered night, gives life, soar and crucify, I seek to know you... PAM It's not so complicated Jim, it's just sex, y'know. JIM You should marry an insurance salesman. PAM It's the hours man, the pressure, everything's like your last performance, you're setting yourself up. JIM We weren't built to last. PAM Aren't you doing this for you, because you're a poet, not a rock star. Ed Sullivan's not a place for you. JIM You really know what I am Pam? You know what poetry is? Where is the feast they promised us? Where is the wine -- the new wine -- dying on the vine? PAM What are you saying! JIM Y'see -- I lied to you. I really love Fame. PAM (Here we go) Why are you doing this to me? JIM (drinks) 'Cause you're in the room. She tries to take the bottle away. He resists. They struggle. It becomes a fight. PAM And this is gonna help! It's probably the cause. 'Least put some soul in your success asshole! JIM Maybe you're the cause! PAM Right. JIM I mean I don't have this problem with anybody else. PAM (getting the bottle) Give it to me!!! JIM (getting it back) No!!!!! Mommy!!! PAM (gives up, tries to exit) Fuck you man I'm outta here. He grabs her. They lurch, smashing the lamp. WILD CHILD song kicking in. JIM (excited now) Get mad! Yeahhh! Love my girl! Yeah, go fuck the other guys. How many white guys have you fucked Pam? 10, 20? Black guys what? You like Chinese dicks? Mongolian penis? 30? PAM (fighting) ...how many dogs have you fucked! You don't say No to anybody! Drugs, dogs, uglies, you'd fuck a doorknob with butter on it! JIM How could I do that PAM (shouting top of her lungs) You're the first one who couldn't make it with me anyway! You're the only limp dick in the lot!!! Camera running at them from the end of the room. JIM laughs manically as they roll off the bed into a wall. Kicking, hitting hard. DOORS SONG Wild Child full of grace Savior of the human race Your cool face Natural child, terrible child Not your mother or your father's child Your own child, screaming wild JIM HA HA HA!! WILL YOU DIE FOR ME! PAM NO! WILL YOU DIE FOR ME!! JIM I'D DIE FOR ANYBODY. PAM WHAT ABOUT ME! WHAT ABOUT ME! JIM CUNT CUNT CUNT. PAM LIAR LIAR LIAR. YOU PROMISED. YOU PROMISED. JIM I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY. A VOICE across the wall joining in, banging. VOICE SHADDUP WILLYA. I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!!!! JIM THEN MOVE TO MIAMI YOU SLAVE!!! More nagging. By this time the fight has expired of its own volition. JIM (quietly) You were saying? They giggle, start to laugh. Then they cuddle on the floor, in the corner, in this semi-lit New York hotel room. JIM (low) ...will you die for me, Pam, a clown, a despicable clown?... a mere despicable clown? PAM Yes yes yes. JIM ...I need a home. A place to hide. PAM ...with me. Yes... yes... JIM (mumbling) ...how could we make a home?... where there's sanctuary? PAM ...yes, yes, yes. He's hard now. She's guiding him inside her. JIM ...we're in Africa, we're just animals... I wanna stay inside you all night baby... let's fuck death away, now fuck death away... PAM ...yes... INT. PRESS CONFERENCE - HOTEL SUITE NEW YORK - DAY Camera moving in past the buffet, champagne, flowers in the hotel suite overlooking CENTRAL PARK... to the DOORS in armchairs surrounded by an informal group of a DOZEN JOURNALISTS and PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS... JIM behind dark shades drinking long Hawaiian fruit punches, decked out in snakeskin. JOURNALIST 1 (stiff, Times type) What are your songs about Mr. Morrison? TIME DISSOLVES over the questions and answers. A vaguely dreamy quality. JIM Uh love death travel... revolt. We all write the songs, we're interested in anything about disorder, chaos, especially activity which seems to have no meaning... I think when you make peace with authority, you become authority. JOURNALIST 1 Can you define that a little more? JIM Yeah you can call us erotic politicians I guess. DISSOLVING OVER: JOURNALIST 2 Do you really consider yourself a shaman Mr. Morrison? DISSOLVING OVER: JIM ...a scapegoat maybe -- I take on the audiences' fantasies, obeying their impulses. When the impulses are destructive, I'm destructive. It's kinda like sucking the puss out of a rattlesnake, something like that. JOURNALIST 1 (smiling) ...like a medicine man or witch doctor? RAY (cuts in) Jim said to me once, the history of rock and roll's like Greek drama or caveman stories. The audience comes to see ancient rituals in ancient caves. Their souls in jeopardy. They're not watching any longer, they're participating -- and everything's in play, your life, your death... JOURNALIST 1 (glib) Is that why they scream so much? Gentle laughter. The JOURNALISTS don't get it... panning their looks. The backbeat of CRYSTAL SHIP, dreamy hazy, Warhol- like interview floating over the room like a giant mushroom cloud. DISSOLVING TO: JOURNALIST 3 (more down to earth) Mr. Morrison, how do you feel about being called the "ultimate barbie doll". On Jim -- a beat. A sickly smile spreads. JIM I guess when you say something like that, it's a shortcut to thinking. JOURNALIST 3 Then do you "think" about the dreadful reviews your new poetry book has gotten? Holding up a copy of "The Lords and New Creatures". JIM (softly) I guess they didn't understand. JOURNALIST 3 (having scored) And it's true you financed it's publication? Jim motions him over, whispers something at SIDDONS who goes to fetch a pair of scissors. RAY (angry) Have you bothered to read the poetry ma'm? You keep denying that anything good can come from L.A., I mean isn't that kind of a provincial attitude? That Bob Dylan's the only poet cause he's from the East Coast, but you won't even look past Jim's goddamn looks at the words man! JIM (embarrassed) Hey c'mon Ray, hate should be allowed. JOURNALIST 1 ...but what really are your songs about Mr. Morrison? You preach, "saving the planet", "making a new age" but how does drinking, taking drugs, this boozy sort of apocalyptic stance at the world influence young people in a positive way? JIM I like that -- "boozy apocalyptic" -- you're a word man, but how does your newspaper influence young people to think about Vietnam? Who's sending the soldiers over there to die? The establishment -- right? Your newspaper -- right? That seems to me a lot more dangerous than the stuff we do. DISSOLVING OVER: JOURNALIST 3 Do you believe in drugs Mr. Morrison? SIDDONS comes back in, hands Jim a pair of scissors. JIM (graciously disdainful) Did you know Nietzsche said, "all good consciousness, all evidence of truth comes only from the senses"? Hey you wanna arm wrestle? Come on, you look pretty tough today. C'mon, I'll take you all on. JOURNALIST 3 (ignoring his smile) And alcohol? Is that considered part of the shaman's wisdom? JIM Part of the clown's wisdom -- it's kinda the American way. You know we spend more on alcohol and tobacco than on education. DOUBLE IMAGES on the DISSOLVES. JOURNALIST 3 Are you by any chance in a trance now Mr. Morrison? JIM Do you hurt? JOURNALIST 3 What? JIM What hurts you the most? He cuts his hair with the scissors. A commotion. JOURNALIST 3 What are you doing? DISSOLVING OVER: JIM Uh... got tired of the barbie doll look. It hurt. JOURNALIST 3 Are you serious? JIM (cutting hair blindly) About? Y'know when people are joking, I find they are dead serious and when they're dead serious, I find them funny. They're amazed. The point is made however -- visibly. The anger in his action is so extreme yet so contained -- the cynosure of all eyes as always. Eyes shooting back at JOURNALIST 3... JOURNALIST 4 cuts in from the back of the room altering the mood. JOURNALIST 4 What do your parents think about what you are doing? JIM (pause) Actually, I don't really remember being born. It musta happened during one of my blackouts. Laughter. JOURNALIST 4 with dark hair and demeanor, gypsy- like jewelry on her arm and avant garde clothing, large glasses, is probably a rock magazine writer but seems to like Jim and his work. JOURNALIST 4 But they must've expressed some feeling? JIM (pause) Well, to be honest they're not living anymore so I don't like to talk about that. Flashbulbs hitting his face at that moment. JOURNALIST 4 Could you at least tell us how they died? Jim puts the scissors down, going to a low mysterious voice. JIM Oh, it was a... horrible car crash... in the desert in the fifties, Arizona... ran right into a truckload of Indians... Navajos, they were lying out on the road, all bleeding, and I was with my Grandma and Grandad, we were banged up and all... and I was looking at my Dad and he was lying there... but his throat was severed and there was air coming out. He puts the room in a hush. He has mesmerized them and they're not sure whether to believe it or not. JOURNALIST 4 I'm sorry. JOURNALIST 2 I have the feeling I'm being put on. Jim rises, staggers slightly as he makes his way to the bar on the way out of the room, smiles right at her, ignoring everybody else in the room. JIM Y'all believe what you want to believe, you will anyway... but it does kinda show you what excites people? (looking directly at her) Fear, pity, horror -- all those good things that count. It's sorta I guess like being on the edge of an orgasm, y'know... that mystery just before you come. When? If? Should I? Will you die for me, eat me, this way, the end... He goes. The room in silence, embarrassed, nervous titters looking at Journalist 4 who flushes deeply as we cut to: INT. PATRICIA'S SOHO LOFT - THAT DAY (RAIN) Rain, rain, rain... pelting the large windows as we glide to JIM fucking JOURNALIST 4 (PATRICIA KENNEALY) madly in the twisted sheets... He gives up, exhausted. The SONG CRYSTAL SHIP backbeats the scene... He wanders around her place. Her place is crammed with books and intellectualabilia, skulls, candles, globes of the world, plants. She puts her glasses back on. PATRICIA You want to do some more cocaine? It'll loosen you up. JIM Great! A new thing. As she goes to a bowl of cocaine, laid alongside a bottle of champagne and a basketful of items all catered by Jim. He's at her bookcase, thumbing through an ancient manuscript. JIM Wow how old is this? INSERT -- the DRAWINGS in the book pertain to Witchcraft. PATRICIA (snorting) 14th Century. I practice the Craft. JIM The Craft? PATRICIA I'm a witch (smiles) A white one. JIM (impressed) Wow! You Patricia? Who would've guessed? Ironic of course when you look at her long dark locks and demeanor. She looks back at him, challenging. PATRICIA The Kennealy's were Celtic cheiftains and pre-Christian shamans when your Druid ancestors the Morrisons were a minor Scottish clan founded by a bastard son of the king of Norway. JIM reappraising her. Her eye contact is very direct. PATRICIA It's a religion, witchcraft. Witches are the protectors of the seasons, the harvests, goddesses of the grain. And when crossed, destroyers. Jim waits. Something in the feeling of the room has shifted. The sound of her razor chopping coke. He snorts -- the first time. PATRICIA You ever try drinking blood? JIM What? PATRICIA It works you know. You drink blood the right time of the moon... they used to dance in the forests naked. I think that's what offended the Puritans and led to the Burnings. They were a sexual threat to their male order like the Bacchae -- five days a year for Dionysus, they used to wander the hills in ancient Greece, the first witches, clans of wild women fucking, looting, eating animals raw, the wine in their blood running hot -- looking for Dionysus... to tear him to pieces -- isn't that wild? Jim is down on his knees crawling around her. She is crawling back. JIM (hooked) Where do you get the blood? Patricia laughs. SUPERIMPOSITION TO: PATRICIA drawing blood from her arm -- wipes it on his mouth. Some of it spills out, tamping the white powder with red stains. Jim watching enthralled, coked out. She hands him the jewelled Moroccan dagger. PATRICIA Blood is the rose of mysterious union, symbol of potency... now you. JIM No... I don't like... cutting myself. PATRICIA (stern) Don't be such a child! If I do it, you have to do it. He extends his arm. The look between them. He closes his eyes like a little boy. She makes the cut. DOORS SONG Before you slip into unconsciousness I'd like to have another kiss Another flashing chance at bliss Another kiss, another kiss SUPERIMPOSITIONS: Candles, incense burn. As Jim and Patricia dance in the loft naked to music, drinking champagne. JUMP CUT: He is chasing her with one of her goat horns between his legs. They wrestle, yell, lusty bacchanale. SUPERIMPOSITIONS TO: They're fucking madly on the wooden floor of the loft, bathed in blood and white powder all over the place, rain pelting the windows, thunder, Orff's "Carmina Burana" cutting in over the Doors' song. PATRICIA (sexy) Come on rock god, fuck me, fuck me good. In slightly ape-like SLOW MOTION, he's wildly thrusting at her like a stallion, then reaches down, yanks out her diaphragm -- holds it to her eyes briefly and throws it across the room into the fireplace. JIM (lips out of sync) I'm gonna burn you down. PATRICIA Come on... Incants him to climax with CELTIC WORDS. Jim is wild, reaching for the Moroccan dagger, holding it to her face as he continues to pump. PATRICIA Cut me! Cut me go on! JIM (knife to her cheek) Nobody'd ever look at you again -- 'cept me. I'd scar you forever. PATRICIA Yeah YEAH! JIM AWRIGHT! AWRIGHT! PATRICIA FUCK ME! FUCK ME!! GO ON FUCK ME!!! DOORS SONG The crystal ship is being filled A thousand girls, a thousand thrills A million ways to spend your time When we get back I'll drop a line The camera shooting up to the ceiling in a tilting dutch angle as the world comes unglued. Jim yelling with release. DISSOLVE TO: INT. PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO - NEW YORK - ANOTHER DAY GLORIA STAVERS, beautiful 30ish ex-Vogue model shooting Jim for her layout. It's not going well. He's resisting, the attitude negative to be photographed, compounded by the acid it seems he's on. GLORIA Take off your shirt. JIM (cow noise) Mooooooo!!! GLORIA (taking his shirt off) You remind me of a Russian peasant. I see you standing in a wheat field. The pride, the arrogance. You love to look at yourself don't you. You love yourself. (he's moving, getting into it) ...good... big cat stalking... JUMP CUTS -- photos going off... JIM starting to pout narcistically, Jagger-like, for camera -- a bare-chested pose, long lion's mane of hair streaming down to his shoulders. She's shooting rapidly talking him thru the trip. Her sentences falling on separate cuts of Jim. As we hear the backbeat of PEOPLE ARE STRANGE. GLORIA ...the camera is like a roulette wheel Jim. It becomes whoever you want it to be -- a woman you want to seduce, a man you want to kill, a mother you want to upset, a wife you want to lie to or love, whatever you want it to be, it is... JIM (pausey, paranoid) Where are the Doors. He resists, he goes with it, push pull, prowling her loft on the acid, a bottle of cognac in one hand -- changing from shot to shot like a chameleon, free, wild, vicious, obscene. GLORIA Forget the Doors. It's you they want, Jim. You're the Doors. JIM (scared suddenly) We do everything together. GLORIA You control the audience, like dogs, manipulate them Jim, one picture can control a million people, be anything you want -- growl at them, be ugly, be frightened, be selfish. Be man, woman, whild, animal. Live, die, return again. Anything you want. Everything is permitted. A weird dance ensuing between them -- teasing, enticing. He runs away, writhes along her wall, being photographed inch by moving inch. He crawls to her. She gets down with him on the floor, straddling him, photographing. Then he straddles her as she shoots him from her back. They kiss, flirting. He growls like an animal... dives into her closet... tearing open the doors, flinging away hanging clothes, he finds her white fur coat and puts it on... JUMP CUT -- him as he moves to her full-length MIRROR, contorting himself. She slides up behind him. GLORIA Go on look at yourself, fall in love with yourself. You're your own audience now Jim. They want you. Worship and love and adore you... A pause. She wants him. No longer so cool. GLORIA ...Jim Morrison, the god of Rock and Cock... JIM I am the snake and you are the lute GLORIA Exactly... Our camera dwells on Jim in the mirror, closer, closer -- the image and the reality, which is which anymore -- where does it end? The Great Jim Morrison, The Shaman, then Pamela, Patricia, Gloria, a series of women who face after face fill the ancient gallery, interchangeable masks as PEOPLE ARE STRANGE climaxes and JIM's face SPINS OUT OPTICALLY TO: DOORS SONG People are strange when you're a stranger Faces look ugly when you're alone Women seem wicked when you're unwanted Streets are uneven when you're down LIMBO - MAGAZINE COVERS JIM'S FACE on a series of MAGAZINES twirling -- "SIXTEEN", "GLAMOUR", ROCK MAGAZINES, etc. flowering out into: INT. DOWNTOWN LOFT - NEW YORK - NIGHT (WINTER) Style vampires drink and grope and drug and dance under the staccato blips of strobe lights. Artists and intellectuals, groupies and debutantes, everyone on display, as contrived and replicated as one of the Warhol prints of Elvis or Marilyn and Mao on the walls... FISHEYE POVS -- hearkening back to the acid trip -- as JIM wanders through the dream, drinking, smoking, swallowing pills. PEOPLE look at him, talk to him (AD LIBS) but drugs distort everything and their voices are foreign, incoherent and they disappear. "PEOPLE ARE STRANGE" continuing: DOORS SONG When you're strange Faces come out of the rain When you're strange No one remembers your name When you're strange When you're strange When you're strange INT. ROOM - LIMBO Jim peering into a room somewhere -- one of Warhol's FILMS is playing on a wall -- a man sleeping, eating... A GLIMPSE OF VIETNAM WAR FOOTAGE on a TV monitor -- B-52s dropping bombs. A fat little PR MAN grabbing Jim's arm, leaning in, distorted. PR MAN (cool) You must meet Andy Warhol, Jim. He's more than an artist. Andy is art. Bright people in America wonder -- does Andy imitate life, or does life imitate Andy. The meeting of two kings. Yes, Come. PAMELA is suddenly there, laughing, nuttily introducing a handsome strapping TOM BAKER, a charismatic actor, and a COUNT, suave, urbane, on heroin. Her voice lost in the jabber -- their names sound as if they're in a bottom of a tank. PAMELA seems so impressed with the high life of New York. PAMELA Oh Jim this is Tom... Baker, he's an actor, he was in Andy's movie and this is Count Ruspoli. He lives in Paris, but he's Italian. He's from a very famous family over there. They're seven hundred years old. COUNT (Italian accent) Hi Jim, you are great... I see you at Ondine's with Bobby and Jimmy. It... PR guy stays there, introduces himself to the count. PAM (pawing at Jim) Don't you like the way he talks. Isn't he cool? JIM (annoyed with Pam) Yeah... hey what's your trip? TOM (cutting in) Saw your gig at 'The Scene'. Hot... very hot... You strung out? Here. Try this. (pill, popper, joint, a drink, all at once) JIM Love your movies man. What a great penis... Tom is obviously a major druggie. A popper -- joint trade- off going off. RAY's face leaning in distorted. RAY Come on, we're splitting man. Dorothy's waiting at the door. We'll get a bite at Max's and... JIM You can't leave. Where's your will to be weird man? JOHN DENSMORE appearing with a wasted looking ROBBIE who is giggling, high, and with a NEW GIRLFRIEND in tow. JOHN Get outta here man. This is fucking weird man. The PR MAN is still next to Jim, jumping up and down excitedly waving across the room at nothing in particular. As the PHOTOGRAPHERS try to get Jim and the Doors in a photo opportunity. PR MAN Right this way Jim. Andy's in the bedroom. JIM (to RAY) Don't go, y'see Norman Mailer, I hear he's here? RAY Yeah can we meet him, he's great... just like he is. (enamored) You wanna meet him? JIM (paranoid) I don't know... did he know who you were? RAY Yeah sure, he's cool, come on, he's your hero! JIM Nah... later... A wasted, emaciated Edie Sedgewick type floats into Jim's fractured POV -- introducing a MAN with a crew cut and silk suit. EDIE (echoey voice) Hey Jim, this is Jake Johnson, you remember Jake Johnson -- the astronaut, he's just got back from outer space. JAKE JOHNSON I like the Doors, I like the Doors, I like the Doors. JIM I like outer space. Tom Baker brings a tall, incredible looking BLONDE in black leather towards him. TOM Hey where's my joint? (a roach goes back) There's this chick sings with the Velvet Underground, Andy's band. She says she can drink you under the table. They stare at each other like two cats. Eye level stares that go on and on. She finally hisses in a German accent. NICO I'm Nico. It's boring tonight. Some of us are going downtown to a new club. You want to come? A voice to kill, looks to undress, fully as tall as Jim. TOM (distantly heard) ...elevate your taste in trolls man. JIM (to Nico who reaches for her vodka) Vodka? Race you. NICO Your death... JIM (to Ray and Robbie) Wanna go?... Come on let's go. ROBBIE She looks too freaky to me. NICO Wait just a minute. As she floats away. JIM Come on there's pussy Robbie. ROBBIE (excited) Hey I met this chick Lynne, she wants to be alone. Lynne is there, pretty, nods to Jim. RAY Come on Jim, let's go. JIM (childlike) Don't you guys wanna meet Andy Warhol? JOHN Tell you the truth, I can live without him. He's a freak. Let's get outta here. We got a show tomorrow. JIM Come on man! I thought we were gonna be a band, the four of us -- and party all night, rock and roll! RAY (laughs) I could never keep up with you Jim. I couldn't make the music. Jim's eyes briefly on -- Pamela giggling with the French Count, putting her hand on his arm as she laughs. Innocent, nothing meant but a moment... JIM (desperate mockery, grabs Ray) Don't go. Don't leave! You can't leave. I don't know what will happen. It might be Death. RAY Come on Jim, this isn't our scene, these people are vampires. We gotta stick together man, the four of us. Let's make the myths man. A moment, strange. Slightly SLOW MOTION. Ray tapping Jim's shoulder goodbye... Robbie and John's faces passing on. As if they're parting -- in a symbolic way. Jim blinking in the same SLOW MOTION, looking. Nico is gone -- but Tom is there, across the room, waving. The INDIAN SHAMAN looks like he's standing there in a corner. Jim, ripped, heads for him, but the PR WOMAN cuts him off. Jim forgets he saw the Indian. PR MAN Right here Jim, right here. Andy's waiting. You know what you have in common is uniqueness. Past more faces. The Music has subtly shifted to STRANGE DAYS somewhere along the way. DOORS SONG Strange days have found us Strange days have tracked us down They're going to destroy Our casual joys We shall go on playing or find a new town Past a cache of QUEENS in white leather ogling Jim, one of them coming over boldly, chatting him up (AD LIB dimly heard), them grabbing his crotch and kissing him. Jim rearing back, laughing but wary. Past the RICH LADIES dripping with jewels and faces peeled from Brazilian sleep tanks and Swiss knives. Past a YOUNG MAN dressed in Jim Morrison leather pants with his hair and eye make-up, a warped image of Jim, smiling back at him. JIM (looking for Nico) Nico! INT. BEDROOM - SAME NIGHT A quieter room, drugged out, the PR GUY cheerily leading JIM, stepping over SLEEPING BODIES, over fur coats strewn across the floor... to a MAN with white hair like a circus clown, his back to us, talking with some black-tied EUROPEAN ARISTOCRATS looking so cool. WARHOL Well, it was such a big opening, we just had to go to Philadelphia, y'know, you were supposed to, mmm... PR GUY (butting in) Andy! Andy! ANDY turning at the interruption. He looks like a chic voodoo doll. Holding an incongruous gold telephone in his arms like a teddy bear. Slightly SLOW MO as Warhol's black empty eyes confront Jim -- a pit of nothingness in them, amnesia, death. In Jim's SLOW MOTION reaction we read what he sees. Andy going on with his story, to the group that includes TOM BAKER. ANDY ...but so many people showed up, the paintings were getting crushed, so they took them all down... um, it really looked great y'know... maybe uhhh... (long pause) PR MAN (cutting in) ...the walls. The blank walls. Andy was the art. Should do a show. Just walls. Today it's really about people, not what they do. It's the astronaut that matters, not the voyage, the actor, not the movie -- how do I say, it's the trip, not arriving. Andy is looking at Jim. Jim at Andy. PR MAN (babbling on) ...you know what Andy says, some day everybody's gonna be famous for 15 seconds, but it won't mean anything. BAKER That's too short. I need a coupla hours. They laugh. Andy's eyes hidden, face as white as styrofoam. ANDY We'd just love to have you in our movies Jim, you're so beautiful, you'd be so good, you mmmm, here... this is for you Jim. Andy shows his eyes, gives Jim the gold telephone he's carrying. ANDY Edie gave this to me and said mmmmm, I could talk to God with this. But I don't really have anything to say. So... mmmm now you can talk to God. Oh hi! Vanishes, waving to somebody else. Jim holding the phone. DOORS SONG Strange days have found us And through their strange hours We linger alone Nico reappears waving at him to come quickly. NICO Morrison! EXT. NEW YORK STREET - NIGHT (WINTER) SNOW on the streets... a group of DRUGGIES staggering in the snowbanks, throwing snowballs, stupid giggling, wheezing puffs of cold air... Jim throws the golden telephone into the trash and pees on it. IRIS SHOTS continue -- PAMELA laughing battily with TOM BAKER who's putting the make on her... The COUNT is on heroin. JIM passing a vodka bottle back and forth with NICO hitting a stash of ups. They fall in the snow, mad Russian winter. DOORS SONG Bodies confused Memories misused As we run from the day To a strange night of stone (SONG REPEATS OVER) INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR (REGENCY) - THAT NIGHT BLACK & WHITE IRIS SHOTS continue -- imagistic, disassociative. A LONG CORRIDOR -- COUPLE staggering down the red carpets, champagne bottles in hand. The COUNT gets lost. PAM laughing -- suddenly alone, notices, goes looking for Jim... floating down this endless corridor with white doors and red carpet. INT. ELEVATOR NICO stripping... a superb body... riding the floors... Jim taking an amyl nitrate with her... laughing... Nico with that crazed German laugh... PAMELA pushing the elevator buttons wildly... The elevator opening on her. From Pamela's POV -- Nico down on her knees, her blonde head buried in Jim's leather pants... Jim pinned against the back wall, smiling dopically, eyes barely registering Pam... who screams loud and long, hiding his eyes... not wanting to know... The images faster and more fragmented: Pam beating at Jim wildly. He's laughing. Nico's laughing. The Aristocrats in the hallway are laughing. The world is laughing with its madness. DOORS SONG Strange days have found us Strange days have tracked us down INT. NEW HAVEN CONCERT HALL - NIGHT (1967) An eager rowdy CROWD chants DOORS! DOORS! DOORS! DOORS! to a stage without the Doors. TECHIES are moving amplifiers, running sound checks, stalling time, the MANAGER SIDDONS gauging the crowd, nervous. RICH GIRLS and LOCAL HONCHOS have backstage passes. COPS crawling over the stage, the PROMOTER of the concert trying to get the crowds attention. TECHIE (at mike) Testing one-two-three. Testing. PROMOTER (on mike) Look, the Fire Marshall's not gonna let the show go on. Either you go back to your seats, you go to the aisle, you don't do that -- no show! CROWD (pushing towards stage, no aisles) DOORS! DOORS! DOORS! (turning to) MORRISON! MORRISON! MORRISON! INT. BACKSTAGE CORRIDOR - SAME NIGHT The SOUNDS of the CROWD pound thru the hallway. CAMERA following JIM reading a magazine article, accompanied by PATRICIA KENNEALY -- past the TECHIES, turning to look -- they go into empty SHOWER ROOM. INT. SHOWER ROOM - SAME NIGHT The Crowd NOISE still carries, echoing. JIM leads PATRICIA to a quiet, isolated stall where they can be alone. Tapping the magazine, sincerely moved by what he reads. JIM "Lord Byron"? Really. You think? You like the poems? PATRICIA Like? I loved them! "Mad bad and dangerous to know." That's what they said about him. Your poems should be taken as seriously. JIM These are the kindest words I've ever heard in my life. No one has ever understood. Thank you. (then) Maybe I should always fuck my critics. PATRICIA Y'know I don't even like rockers. They're sleazy. I made up my fuck list the other night -- out of 30 guys there were maybe three of them, y'know. I'm not a groupie. JIM (hotter, grabs her) Let's do it, here, now... with the sound of the crowd. Like Nuremberg, wild German fucking. PATRICIA You like that hunh? Beg! JIM I'm begging! I'm begging you! PATRICIA You wanna fuck me, Morrison, don't ever lie to me again. Ever! JIM About what! PATRICIA Your father. Why do you tell me bullshit like your father's dead? JIM (pissed) What's your problem with fathers! They're dead, both of them, I told you. PATRICIA If he's so dead, then who answered the phone when I called the house? Jim -- a look, struck. PATRICIA (knowing look) You didn't really think you'd get away with that, Morrison. An Admiral in the United States Navy. Who's at the Gulf of Tonkin when Vietnam starts. Your Dad's a Deputy Chief of Operations. JIM What'd he say? That was really stupid. Why didn't you just ask me. PATRICIA Well naturally he wasn't too happy when I called. Your Mom wanted to talk but he shut her off. JIM You're a fuckin' cunt. You could ruin his career if... PATRICIA What, I'm a "fuckin' cunt" because I called the house? Like it's hard to trace your school records. University of Florida, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Arlington, Virginia, Washington, D.C. Brother, sister, it's seven miles long baby -- it's all in the "The End", it's so easy. Fingering his pants, her hand slips inside. Teasing, dominating him. Her dark side radiant. PATRICIA Don't ever try to hide anything from me again. Okay? Go on... tell me. Did he make you cut your hair? Did he hit you, was he a bully? Did he love you? How much? Jim describes a small space between thumb and forefinger. PATRICIA And your mother? Jim makes a little larger space. JIM (pause) I don't want to talk about it. Hate is a very underestimated emotion. His look is right at her. Silence. Patricia knows he won't talk. Through the pause we hear the crowd chanting, bigger and bigger -- "MORRISON MORRISON MORRISON!" She's excited, wanting to make love here, now. He's cooled out, however. PATRICIA It doesn't matter anymore does it. Listen to them. It's you they want now. Not the Doors, not your mother or your father's child... They want you Jim. Jim shakes his head, weary. Suddenly he's scared inside. JIM You're wrong. What they want I can't give... my death -- ripped to pieces -- do you feel their power? (the noise pounding) PATRICIA You have no choice, Jim. I see you up there like Icarus. I see you flying closer and closer to the sun. And your wings are melting... JIM I want to live, Patricia. I don't wanna die. Jim's ironic eyes, to the ceiling. Laden with a power to which he has married himself yet brave, resisting as she pulls his zipper down and goes to her knees in front of him. Shaking his head. JIM Patricia... Patricia... A beefy COP stands there looking at them, COP Whatcha doing there? JIM Uh... nuthin' COP (approaching, suspicious) Okay, outta there both of you. No one's allowed backstage. Let's go. PATRICIA You idiot, don't you know who... JIM Hey, I'm with the band man. It's cool. Take it easy. THE COP has no patience, grabs JIM by the arm and pulls. JIM shoves him off. THE COP pushes back. A shoving match. COP Let's go. NOW! You're both under arrest. JIM (pointing to his crotch, angry) Hey, eat it man! The cop whips out a black can from his belt, sprays Jim. JIM Mace! Shit! (in pain) Patricia screaming at the COP grabs JIM, propelling him violently out the stall of the bathroom. INT. BACKSTAGE CORRIDOR - SAME NIGHT PATRICIA Help! They got Jim!!! JIM Why'd you blind me man? You blinded me! SIDDONS and RAY running up with ROADIES and OTHERS. SIDDONS What the hell happened! (to Jim) Don't touch Jim. Get some water. Don't touch your eyes. JIM (in pain) I BEEN BLINDED MAN. I BEEN MACED. COP (realizing) Hey all he said was... SIDDONS He was WHAT! He's Jim Morrison for chrissake. Jim, Jim -- you okay -- let's get you under the water here. Don't touch, you'll be okay. COP 2 comes up. COP 1 I'm going to have to issue a warrant for his arrest. SIDDONS Are you NUTS! (blocking them) JIM guided back into the shower stall by his entourage, eyes blind as Oedipus, starts to laugh. A black Irish laugh. Ray looking on PATRICIA in the hallway. A beat, senses what happened. RAY Why don't you leave him alone lady, he doesn't need more shit in his life. PATRICIA What do you know what Jim needs? A precise military Drum Beat hits as we launch into "The Unknown Soldier". DOORS SONG ...Hup two -- three -- four... COMPANY HALT! INT. NEW HAVEN STAGE - THAT NIGHT THE DOORS on stage, JIM - eyes masked, facing death at a mock execution, in full black leather armor. DOORS SONG Present arms!... The famous drum roll, tension building. Sudden sound of guitar. Jim crumples to the ground. Blood shooting from his mouth. JIM & DOORS Make a grave for the unknown soldier Nestled in your hollow shoulder The unknown soldier Practice as the news is read Television children dead Bullet strikes the helmet's head It's all over The war is over! The audience is enrapt. Jim suddenly jumps up, looses the blood curdling scream of an aroused demon and the band bangs into Willie Dixon's BACK DOOR MAN. JIM & DOORS OH YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! AYYYYYYAAAAAMMMMAAA BACK DOOR MAN. The FANS go wild, to the farthest reaches of the arena, as he grabs his crotch and shakes it at them. INSTAMATICS flashing rapidly as the KIDS press forward at Jim fondling the mike stand, sliding up and down its smooth shaft. JIM & DOORS Well the men don't know But the little girls unnerstan'... Joints sail onto the stage at his feet, ready to be smoked. A TEENAGE BOY & GIRL make a break thru the cordon of COPS at the front of the stage, heading for Jim. The Cops chase them down mid-stage, and wrestle them back to the edge -- throwing them back into the audience. JIM & DOORS When all the good people are trying to sleep I'm out there making my midnight creep Yeah, cause I'm a backdoor man The men don't know But the little girls unnerstan'... Danger fills the air, electric. Jim strutting, Indian like, up to one of the Cops, whipping off his hat and flipping it to the Crowd, which roars with approval. A couple Cops looking at Jim, sensing they're being challenged but not sure how. They shuffle and look offstage for direction. Their apparent impotence brings redoubled jeering from the Kids. RAY, next to his stick of incense on the organ, shares a look with JOHN as they head into the instrumental break in the song. There's something different about Jim -- more demonic, more driven -- a spirit has taken him over. RAY'S POV -- JIM catching his look, but no recognition in those eyes. They're dark pools, like Warhol's eyes. He turns away, taking the mike and off the cuff rapping improvisationally with the backbeat, keeping poetic meter. JIM I wanna tell you 'bout something that happened just a few minutes ago right here in New Haven. This is New Haven isn't it? New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America? The CROWD yells in acknowledgement, one stoned TEENAGER naked from the waist up and ripped on beer, yelling out. HECKLER HEY MORRISON, is the West really the best or are you just stoned on weeeeeedddddd?????? VOICE'S (annoying) "Light My Fire". Sing "Light My Fire". Yeah. Give us Light My Fire!... (giggles) We want Mick Jagger! Take your clothes off Jim. Show it to us! We want the Lizard King! Jim ignores it, sits on the stage, lights a cigarette. Long pause, tension building. Their catcalls for "Light My Fire" die out as Jim faces them down. They wait... not knowing what happens next. JIM (finally) Well I was with this girl backstage, y'know. We got to talking and we wanted some privacy, so we went into this shower stall. We weren't doin' anything y'know jes' standing there and talking. The AUDIENCE laughing, the band continuing to play, John adding emphasis to Jim's words with various shots and rolls. Camera moving over the crowd picking out the KIDS, sensing the anarchy dormant in their faces. JIM ...and then this little man came in there, this little man in a little blue suit and a little blue cap... More COPS turning to face Jim from front stage, getting the point now. RAY sees it coming... JIM (redneck voice) And he said -- "Whatcha doin' there?" I said, "nuthin'" and he said, "Well you better get outta there or..." "Or what" I asked him... The AUDIENCE has now grown deadly silent. Nearly every cop is facing JIM as he uses his dumb Southerner voice. RAY's eyes warning JIM. JIM And he started pushing me and I pushed back and he didn't like that so he reached back there and got out his little can of mace. And sprayed it right in my eyes. And blinded me. Why? Cause I was alone in a room with a lady doing what he would like to be doing if he could ever get it up without a gun. The LIGHTS coming on suddenly, the AUDIENCE seething. Shouts of "Fuck em! Right on!" JIM In the United States of America. Land of the free. Home of the Brave man -- in God We Trust right? TURN OFF THE LIGHTS. CROWD roars. A POLICE LIEUTENANT in his 50's, grey hair, beefy, marches out onto the stage, standing next to Jim, arms akimbo. A SECOND COP joins him. Ray rolling the music out into a silence as Jim sticks the mike in the officer's face, defiantly. JIM Say your thing man! More cops come out, snatch the microphone, as Jim flashes the audience a "touchy aren't they?" shrug. LIEUTENANT Young man you've gone too far. The show's over. You're under arrest. TWO more COPS moving on Jim, pinning both his arms and dragging him off stage. JOHN (scared) They're gonna beat the shit out of him man! RAY moving to intercede with SIDDONS and ROADIES. JIM (resisting) HEY... HEY! HEY! Ray and Siddons are pushed aside by other cops. The crowd is going nuts. Chairs are thrown. Kids rushing onto the stage where the Cops beat them back. ANNE is writing it all down on her notepad. A certain satisfaction and joy at the unfolding of this event. INT. BACKSTAGE STAIRCASE - SAME NIGHT JIM is dragged roughly down a flight of stairs. JIM GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME SLAVE! EXT. ARENA PARKING LOT - SAME NIGHT JIM is wrestled across the lot, pinned to the car and handcuffed, punched and thrown into the car, yelling. Journalists try to intercede, one is also arrested. JIM YOU'RE SLAVES. YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF SLAVES. THIS ISN'T HAPPENING TO ME MAN, THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU!!! INT. HOLDING ROOM - POLICE STATION - THAT NIGHT JIM is spreadeagled against the wall, a dignified, defiant look on his face. COP 1 (coming in) Hey whatcha got here? A boy or a girl? COP 2 (coming closer to Jim) What do you care. You're gonna fuck him anyway... Okay rock star, let's see the backdoor you keep bawling about. (stretching his ass cheeks) Where's the roach powder? COP 1 Ain't he the prettiest long-haired boy y'ever saw? COP 2 (reaching for a can) Turn around rock star. As Jim defiantly does so, Cop 2 looses a big cloud of roach powder into his long hair. COP 2 (backing off) Stand clear, who the hell knows what's living in there? All during this, snickering laughter from the onlooking half- dozen POLICE OFFICERS gathered to watch. Jim waits, then with great claim, in a quiet voice: JIM You finished? You sure you're finished? Haven't you forgotten something -- the consolation prize they gave ya for taking your cock and balls? The guns. Why don't you use em you withered dicks! You shit- eating red-neck chickenshit bastards, I hope this makes your worthless lives... As he's smacked by COP 2, sending him sprawling into the wall... JIM (on the floor, quiet) You better kill me cause I'm gonna come back and fuck everyone of your daughters... EXT. POLICE STATION - THAT NIGHT A SNOWBALL smashes against the glass. COPS coming out with sticks. A RIOT brewing. A HUNDRED TEENAGERS sallying back and forth on the sidewalk, taunting the cops. A dozen of them have already been arrested. KIDS LET JIM GO!!! MORRISON! MORRISON! WE WANT MORRISON! COPS GET OUTTA HERE! GO HOME. GO ON NOW! COPS chase the KIDS with sticks. But just as it looks like it's going to get out of hand, JIM appears at the doors of the station, stepping out between RAY and the DOORS and SIDDONS. He signals his freedom, arms in the air. CROWD MOR-RI-SON! MOR-RI-SON! MOR-RI-SON! Jim waves, does a small pained victory jig in front of the thwarted Gestapo, ribcage and spleen hurting. CROWD JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM... RAY (aside to Robbie) He could go all the way man! In five years he could be in the White House. Another JFK. Robbie's look tells us he thinks Ray is as much caught up in his dreams as Jim. CUT TO: FLASHBULBS hits us full frame as: INT. MUG SHOT - LIMBO A reminder of the reality as the thud of a clanking gate shuts. MORRISON's profile, disheveled hair -- he glares angrily. FLASH! FRONTAL SHOT, slated Police Dept -- New Haven Conn -- 23750 -- 12-10-67. A sullen handsome portrait. INT. RECORDING STUDIO - (LAST SESSION) - LOS ANGELES NIGHT (1970) JIM drinks... an ugly cough. Silence. In this puffy wrack and ruin there is still the ironic tones and sweet delight of the boy amazed and amused by it all. We hear the ghostly CROWD still cheering. JIM I drink so I can talk to assholes. This includes me. Let's just say I was testing the bounds of reality -- that's-all -- I was curious... I kinda always preferred to be hated. Like Erich Von Stroheim in the movies... the man you loved to hate... it's meant to be ironic, courage wants to laugh. Y'know it's essentially a stupid situation. I go out on a stage and I howl for people. In me they see what they want to see -- some say the Lizard King, whatever that means, or some black-clad leather demon whatever that means... but really I think of myself as a sensitive, intelligent human being but with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most crucial moment... (pause) a fake hero... a joke the gods played on me... it's okay, I accept the joke... and smile. Death old friend, death and my cock, I can forgive my injuries in the name of wisdom, luxury, romance. Words got me the wound and will get me well. All join now in lament of my cock, a tongue of knowledge in the feathered night. Boys get crazy in the head and suffer. I sacrifice my cock on the alter of silence. The ENGINEER looking at him puzzled. Has Jim lost it? MIKE, his friend, is there in the Engineer's booth, with the Door's SECRETARY, Leticia, and an elegant MYSTERY WOMAN. They're smoking dope, partying. MIKE Hey Jim, how 'bout hitting a strip- joint? It's getting late and we can... JIM Nah, later... The violent backbeat of THE WASP now picking up. JIM Now listen to this I'll tell you about Texas Radio and the big beat soft driven slow and mad like some new language reaching your head with the cold sudden fury of a divine messenger let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God wandering, wandering in hopeless night out here on the perimeter there are no stars out here we is stoned, immaculate... but I tell you this: No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn. EXT. LOS ANGELES - DAWN (1968) JIM walks the dawn streets. Classic image -- jeans, boots, jacket, the sun starting to rise on the smog and translucent pink light along Santa Monica Boulevard outside the cheap Alta Cienega Motel where he lives... PEACE FROG shoots us through. DOORS SONG Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven Blood stains the roofs and palm trees of Venice Blood in my love in the terrible summer The bloody red sun of phantastic L.A. Over the SONG, a MONTAGE of the 60's passing to its darker side. DOCUMENTARY IMAGES MARTIN LUTHER KING assassinated, BOBBY KENNEDY gunned down, PEGGY FLEMMING ice skating at the Olympics; A QUAKER burns himself to death protesting the war in Vietnam; B-52 bombs dropped on CAMBODIA; KENT STATE erupts; CHARLES MANSON is arrested. INT. BARNEY'S BEANERY - LOS ANGELES - MONDAY JIM -- drinking in Barney's Bar. HEADLINE READS: "KANSAS COPS SLAM DOORS; CONCERT CANCELLED," 2nd HEADLINE: "DOORS 3RD ALBUM OUT, SALES UP, MAGIC DOWN." Dissolve to CRITIC'S FACE. Back to Jim's face. Superimpositions over it of: NEWS FLASHES LYNDON JOHNSON's dog face on TV withdrawing: NIXON waving as he wins '68; Rowen and Martin's LAUGH IN; COLUMBIA STUDENTS taking over; 3rd HEADLINE: "MORRISON BUSTED IN VEGAS". MARTIN LUTHER KING going down again; NIXON winning; massive ANTI- WAR PROTESTS in Washington; floating space ships in "2001"; B-52s sailing over Vietnam 4th HEADLINE: "DOORS PROVOKE CHICAGO RIOTS" -- again and again, faster, faster. DOORS SONG Blood is the rose of mysterious union! There's blood in the streets & it's up to my knees She came Blood in the streets of Chicago She came Blood on the rise and it's following me Just about the break of day (etc) The river runs red down the legs of the city She came The women are crying red rivers of weeping The MONTAGE collides into an ECU on JIM -- drinking as if to silence the images, the sounds we hear and see on his face. Spirits crying for release. In alcoholic solace. He passes out, head hitting the bar. Jim's English friend, MIKE, walks in, throwing a harsh shaft of LA morning light across the dark bar and JIM's face, bleary eyed, passed out on the counter. He has a drinking paunch. With him are TOM BAKER, "TOM", the actor from the Warhol scene in New York and a huge biker type drinker named DOG, one of Jim's roadmen, a beard fanning his chest, tattoos everywhere. In the front of these three monoliths are about twenty beer bottles, numerous Jack Daniels bottles emptied and a lesbian BARTENDRESS pouring up a breakfast shot of bloody Marys... Mike hands Dog a breakfast in a brown paper bag. MIKE Morning. Pour me breakfast Delores... Delores pouring the bloody mary. As Mike scoffs at Jim passed out. MIKE Whatsa matter with Jimbo? Can't handle it huh (studying the beer bottles for leftovers) TOM Pussy whipped, man... DOG reaching in, dragging Jim's face up by the hair. Sticks Mike's greasy eggs and bacon in front of Jim. DOG Hey Jim, come on babe, eat this. . . one last place to go. Ray's getting it on. Jim is suddenly alert -- an instant and surprising transformation, without hangover, eager eyed. JIM (sparkling) Alive she cried! Right Dog, another cubic centimeter of chance (slaps Dog, notices the eggs, queasy) Ugh, I can't eat this stuff, it'll really make me sick. Gimme a Dos Equis will ya Delores? And a Ramos gin fizz with it. TOM Fuck man did you fade or what, we were on a "death run" up to the 9000 building after the gig, you bet me a grand you'd walk the ledge. JIM (instantly) Let's go... Right now! TOM Then mumbling about "gotta go home, sanctuary," pussy whipped. We were gonna film it! A thousand bucks! (to Delores) Give him a double. JIM A triple, Tom, shem and shaun... TOM ...imagine me and Morrison in a fuckin movie together, can you imagine two powerful two-fisted Irish fucking drinking guys in a movie, in a documentary movie!! MIKE I'll direct the shit out of it, man. Dennis Hopper can do it, I can do it. JIM (drinking the fizz down) ...all of us direct it! In black and white. Call it "Zero." A real road movie! Two of these (points to drink) you feel a lot better. As he pisses on the floor next to the bar stool. DOG Whatcha doing! Oh fuck. DELORES Fuck you Morrison. You're outta here you fuckhead, get out! DOG (lifting Jim out of there) Come on Jimbo, one more place to go. Ray's getting married man, this morning, remember! You're the best man. TOM Fuck Ray -- fuckin Pollock all he cares about's money. Fuckin sell out. You sold out too man. The last album's shit, and lemme tell ya something, people know it. MIKE (defending Jim) Come on Baker, lighten up. JIM That's all right. I like it (that dopey smile) DOG (to Jim) Come on man, toe the line. Boots to the pavement. Let's walk. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD - SAME MORNING JIM, loose, wanders right into the traffic, waving to anybody, trying to hitch a ride. DOG and the OTHERS going after him. Jim seen slipping a tablet from his pocket into his mouth. JIM (to no one in particular) I LOVE L.A. -- the best neon. City of Night! City of Light... why are you going to work? You're not slaves, you're free, cars, you're free... TOM catching up to him. TOM Awright shaddup Morrison, just cause you don't gotta work. (going into his pocket) Give me some of your money, asshole, and I'll yell anything you fucking want. MIKE (coming up) What was that speckled motherfucker you just took? Give me some! JIM (yielding, to Tom) You gotta fail to succeed Tom, gotta surrender to the waiting tides. Moving through traffic. Horns honking, incessant insanity. EXT. PACIFIC PALISADES - SAME MORNING RAY and DOROTHY take their vows in front of a HIPPIE PRIEST. ROBBIE and JOHN and their WIVES-TO-BE, and OTHERS from the BAND look on. PAMELA is all decked out in her best, wedding clothes, red satins from Morocco, five-inch clog heels, flowers in her hair. Looking around pissed as: HIPPIE PRIEST (ad lib) Awright, the vibrations are right now, I feel peace and love here today, I feel a grooviness coming on, do you Ray Manzarek take your lady love... (etc.) fill the white wings of death, scatter your ashes forever... JIM slinks up through the trees, alone, quiet, changing faces to face them as SUMMER'S ALMOST GONE plays sinuously. DOORS SONG Summer's almost gone Where will we be When the summer's gone? RAY (aside) Where the fuck you been man? JIM Man, I been here all the time... over there watching. I'm really happy for you Ray you found life... He smiles innocently. Ray, a beat, turns away. Pam coming over, squeezes his hand, sweetly, no fights today, she's his lady. INT. COUNTRY STORE - LAUREL CANYON - THAT DAY JIM, in dark glasses, strongly feeling the effects of the acid, stares at a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, unable to relate. Down the aisle PAMELA, in her wedding clothes, is pushing a shopping cart, filled with the feast she's preparing. The Store is a haven for HIPPIES from Laurel Canyon, barefoot RUNAWAYS, BIKERS... PAM Jim, I need some safflower oil. Do you think you can find me a bottle? JIM Safflower oil, sure. PAM And get some Gravy Train for Sage. JIM (obediently) Yes. PAM I'll meet you up front. Jim looking, zombie-like for the food. PEOPLE of course stare at him, knowing who he is. TIMECUT TO: At the CHECK-OUT COUNTER, the food being tallied up, JIM spots his face plastered on the cover of something like the "L.A. FREE PRESS" -- "ROCK'S BAD BOYS GO SOFT -- WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE REVOLUTION?" PAM Jim you got any cash? Seeking in his pocket -- nothing but a credit card and a rumpled old dollar bill... The faces of the Hippies looking at him. With one of the magic markers on the counter, he draws in his beard on his cover shot. DOORS SONG Morning found us clearly unaware Noon burned gold into our hair At night we swam the laughing sea When summer's gone where will we be EXT. JIM & PAM'S HOUSE - LAUREL CANYON - DAY PAM and JIM and the labrador SAGE trudge up a hill carrying the groceries to their modest little house tucked into a hill of dangling eucaplyptus trees. We sense a community of artists, hippies, Volkswagens. PAM It's only another $95,000 but I could get the best clothes. From India, Morocco Jim, clothes you can't find anywhere, we could get the richest people to come, Miles Davis, Cher, the Stones, it's gonna be the best boutique on La Cienega Jim... why are we walking, how come we don't have a car? JIM ...cause you lost it. It's fun to walk, isn't it. PAM ...that was months ago. We got another car. JIM Which car? PAM The red one with the black interior. Remember it was a shift and I didn't like it. What happened to it? JIM Oh yeah... I wrecked it. PAM Oh Jim! Damn! Where's the Gravy Train? Whatsamatter? What are you on? You promised you wouldn't drink today. JIM No Ma I ain't drinking. PAM You're not gonna drink any more are you Jim. JIM No Ma I ain't. PAM And you're gonna change those stinky leathers you been wearing for three weeks. JIM I don't know 'bout that. PAM What the hell are you on? JIM Uh -- just some low grade acid. It's not heavy. (whispers) Pam, read my mind. PAM Jesus Jim! Goddamit! You PROMISED. I made the duck! People are coming! Ray and Dorothy think we're flaky enough and I... you said you'd wait till after, you're going to peak before me. JIM Hey it's okay, it's okay... come on, we'll trip and then eat our feast. PAM Yeah sure. Putting down the bags at their porch, pausing. He moves to her, kisses her, conciliatory and gentle. JIM Come on baby, y'know it's a good thing for Ray and Dorothy I think women are such noble creatures -- they carry on your name with dignity after you die. (spawning like minnows) PAM What are you saying? You wanna marry me Jim? JIM (elusively) I think women basically have a comic approach to life -- I mean how can they not when they look up in the dark and see a dangling penis, seeking entry. It looks like a face y'know -- little beard "Hi mom" (Pam giggling now) I wanna get inside you. Look around. (humming) "Do the funky chicken, do dah, dah, funky chicken do da da "love my girl" -- She's cracking up now. As he takes the acid out, holds it in front of her like a sacrament. JIM Let's go wild child, let's get out there Romeo and Juliet, Marilyn Monroe and Vincent Van Gogh, Jim and Pam, rock and roll (a poem) ...all the poetry has wolves in it, but one Pam -- the most beautiful one of all -- dances in a ring of fire and throws off the challenge with a shrug As she takes the tablet on her tongue, swallows. PAM (romantic) I like it when you sing to me JIM 'cause I'm the poet and you're my muse Strains of YOU'RE LOST, LITTLE GIRL drift in, setting a more ominous tone. INT. JIM AND PAM'S HOUSE - LAUREL CANYON - THAT DAY The FOOD is laid out, the DUCK cooking... but no one is there as we move across this tastefully decorated house to PAMELA in the living room, rattled, obsessively going through Jim's papers. PEOPLE are knocking at the door. Guests looking through the windows, tapping. A giant poster of Marilyn Monroe frames Pamela. PAM What am I going to do about these papers! Jim, Jim -- you really need someone to organize this stuff. Your handwriting's just like a little kid. Jim is somewhere else -- pulling out the DUCK which is totally charred black. He laughs. PAM My God look at this. I wonder if William Blake was ever this disorganized. RAY and DOROTHY walking in. ROBBIE and JOHN general commotion. Dorothy immediately seeing the duck, runs to it... DOROTHY Oh the duck! JIM (coming over) Get some drinks, man. Over there (getting Pam's attention) Pam! PAM I'm gonna be your editor now, seriously I'm going to organize all your stuff. I'm gonna take out all the fuck words. DOORS SONG You're lost little girl You're lost little girl You're lost, tell me Who are you? PEOPLE are introducing themselves, coming in from all over, like in a shoebox. Hippies. Doors people... now TOM BAKER with MIKE and DOG... Now an aggressive Chuck Berry type BLACK SINGER with John's GIRLFRIEND. Then a TIMOTHY LEARY look- alike appears. CHATTER blending everywhere as we build to a vast confusion at Jim and Pam's party. JIM Let's go wild child, let's get out there Romeo and Juliet, Marilyn Monroe and Vincent Van Gogh, Jim and Pam, rock and roll (a poem) "Clothed in sunlight Restless in wanting Dying of fever Changed shapes of an empire Vast promissory notes of joy How it has changed you How slowly estranged you Solely arranged you Beg you for mercy" As she takes the tablet on her tongue, swallows. JIM (cupping her chin) Pam... Honey, you're trying too hard. PAM I'm not -- I'm not. JIM (soft, reassuring) Yes you are. PAM There's some great poetry here Jim, some wonderful ideas. JIM Yeah but nobody wants to read poetry anymore, nobody cares, it's not like important y'know. Just put it away. Not right now. PAM (lost) But what am I supposed to do? How do I fit in? Who am I supposed to be around all these people? The FRENCH COUNT coming in now, from the Warhol party in New York. They're looking at her, embarrassing as everyone overhears. COUNT Darling Pamela, I brought you a little something. JIM (ignoring it) You're my girl, that's who... PAMELA (laughs insanely) I'm not your girl, don't give me that shit. I know you fuck everything that touches you. Only in life would ANNE O'RIORDAN walk in at this precise moment, a smile on her face. Ray's eyes roll. ANNE Hi Jim... (waiting for the introduction to Pam) JIM (to Pamela) All right so I do. I live my life the way I want. I don't want anyone expecting anything from me -- including you! You don't like it then get the fuck out! (to Anne) Oh hi Anne. You know Pam? She's a little pissed off right now but... RAY Okay Jim let's eat that duck. DOROTHY (calming Pamela) Come on Pam, let's put out the plates... PAMELA (stunned, pushing thru to Anne) Anne O'Riordan. Are you Anne O'Riordan? ANNE You must be Pamela PAMELA (eyeing her up and down through her tears) You actually put your dick in this woman Jim? JIM Well I... sometimes yeah PAMELA (condescending to Anne) I understand... I really do but don't ever think that Jim's gonna love you or take care of you. You're one of a hundred you know Anne uncomfortable, Jim getting pissed. JIM Hey -- don't you know when to stop! PAM Look who's talking ANNE I'd like to think Jim can make up his own mind who he loves and who he doesn't. PAMELA Don't kid yourself sweetheart, Jim's crazy but he's not that crazy. He loves me. ROBBIE Jesus, it's not gonna be one of these dinners is it Jim? How 'bout some turkey? BAKER Love it!! Far out. DOROTHY Yes, let's go into the kitchen. The duck's ready. John's GIRLFRIEND is trying to introduce the BLACK SINGER to Jim. GIRLFRIEND (anxious) Jim, you should meet Chuck Vincent. He came specially to meet you. JIM (deeply surprised) Oh yeah -- Chuck. You're my idol man... since I was 12. The best man... CHUCK VINCENT is suddenly there in Jim's face, bulging eyeballs. CHUCK VINCENT So you the white boy makin' all that money. JIM I still can't hold a candle to you. CHUCK VINCENT Hey everybody Chuck Vincent's here. Yo sho can't boy, I ain't heard much of yor stuff. What I done heard don't show me much. ROBBIE (insulted) So fuck you man... JIM (laughs) Chuck Vincent man! No. He's right... Chuck Vincent's here, everybody, Chuck Vincent. CHUCK Ain't no honkey ever gonna sing the blues, you ain't been there. Where dat turkey at? The charred TURKEY is being carved up. A moment of peace, then: Pamela walks up to Jim with a bowl of sweet potatoes in her arms, an announcement. PAM I just have one thing to say to you -- YOU'VE RUINED ANOTHER THANKSGIVING JIM MORRISON!! JIM It's not Thanksgiving honey. As she throws the sweet potatoes right at him, spraying everybody. Jim laughing nuttily, the Count wiping the potatoes off. Pam rushing now for the turkey to throw, Jim chasing her. PAM (freaking out now) YOU BASTARD! YOU RUINED MY DUCK, YOU KILLED MY DUCK!!! BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD RAZORS RAZORS EVERYWHERE! Throwing the turkey at Jim, smearing everything, everybody. COUNT Pamela, bella, please behave hunh... Va fanculo Jimmy, what the hell did you give her She doesn't want the Count's solace, throws him off. PAM GET OUT!!! PATRICIA leaving now, covered with turkey sauce. PATRICIA See you later. JIM (to the Count) She's working it out, man, it's okay (going to console her) Pamela, Pamela... come on baby, it's all right, shhh. HUNGARIAN GYPSY FOLK MUSIC playing madly from the tape deck. John fiddling with it, nervously. PAM BLOOOOOOODDDDDDD! DEEATHHHH! STOP THE BLEEDING JESUS. I'M DYING HELP MEEEEEE! JIM PUSH! PUSH! IT'S A BOY! They struggle, she goes for the carving knife, Dorothy and Ray trying to restrain her. OTHER GUESTS keep talking as if things are quite normal. Pam breaks through Dorothy -- coming after Jim PAM RAAAAZOOOORS!!! RAAAAZZZZZORS AND DUCKKKS! THIS SHAMAN SHIT IS BULLSHIT! FUCK YOU AND YOUR DARK RIDE!! He grabs her wrist just in time, equally insane now -- a comic glow in his face. Jekyll and Hyde. JIM Oh murder? MURDER??? YOU WANNA DO SOME MURDER RAY JIM! COME ON. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! TOM, DOG & MIKE (jumping in) MURDER!!! YEAH!... Where's my camera! A ball of people wrestling across the kitchen floor, upsetting the table and the remainder of the dishes, a carving knife at stake in the air... Jim finally wrestling the knife away and holding it over Pam. JIM YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT MURDER IS. YOU WANNA FEEL DEATH... HERE! (forces the knife back into her hand) MURDER ME! FEEL WHAT IT'S LIKE! GO AHEAD. GIMME SOME DEATH!!! (kneels at her feet) She explodes inward, a bloodcurdling SHRIEK. The knife clattering from her hand. PAM YOU YOU YOU!!!! YOU KILLED MY DUCK! YOU KILLED MY DUCK!! Jim laughing insanely. Jumping up and down on the duck. RAY grabbing him, angry. JIM I'M STILL KILLING YOUR DUCK!!! FUCK!!! MURDER DEATH!!! THE DUCK IS DEAD. RAY JIM!! WILL YOU STOP THIS SHIT WILL YOU STOP!! WILL YOU GET SANE!! JIM (explodes out of his grasp) DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!! EVER!! EVER!! A silence. Robbie... John... their women... they start exiting. TOM & MIKE (to RAY) Yeah FUCK OFF MAN! Ray about to lose his temper with Tom, checks it. CHUCK VINCENT (to John's girlfriend) This party's gettin' low rent. Let's go babe. Exiting with the other Doors... Dog picking the duck up from the floor. DOG Hey, fuck him, let's eat this thing. Pamela is sobbing, in a quiet bewildered voice, repeating to herself. PAM What the hell's happened to us Jim? What the hell is happening to us. There's some great poetry... On Jim... saddened. DOORS SONG You're lost little girl (2) You're lost, tell me Who are you? INT. TUNNEL - OUTDOOR THEATRE - NIGHT The backbeat of NOT TO TOUCH THE EARTH as a DOCUMENTARY FILM CREW, moves past us directed by MIKE and DOG and TOM shoot past us, sun guns, nagras ("Rolling! Speed!") then... A mad rush of HANDS and SCREAMS as SHAPES whip by under swinging light-bulbs -- big BLACK BODYGUARDS, six or seven of them, bulling their way thru the grasping faces, as MORRISON appears... camera swinging wildly with him to reveal: EXT. ARENA - (ANY CITY) - NIGHT THOUSANDS OF FANS roaring "DOORS! DOORS! DOORS!" VOICE (loudspeaker) Ladies and Gentlemen, from Los Angeles California -- The DOORS! SIDDONS (in crush) Jim! Your Mom's here with your brother. What do you want me to do with 'em? JIM (shakes his head) HIDE ME!!! HARD CUT TO: Madness. COPS lining the edge of the stage, looking worried. As Jim throws his leather jacket into the cheering crowd and does the ghost dance around the microphone, Indian style, one foot, resurrecting the dead, the power of the circle. The stage is bottom lit, Dantean in look. The Doors casting giant shadows of heroic proportions. DEA AGENTS in suits and short hair take photos from the front of the stage, clipboards in hand. Blocked by a row of cops, it is impossible for Jim to communicate with his audience. JIM & DOORS There's been a slaughter here Don't stop to speak or look around Your gloves and fan are on the ground We're getting out of town we're going on the run And you're the one I want to come Not to touch the earth Not to see the sun Nothing left to do But run, run, run Let's run, let's run... SIDDONS yelling at MIKE, the roadie. SIDDONS Vice Squad says one more "fuck or shit" they're gonna close us down man. MIKE Stick my dick in their ear! Jim ignoring all this, one hand cupped to his ear listening for the sound of the earth, gone into a shaman-like state, weird spiralling chords carrying over the following MONTAGE of hallucinatory insanity. JIM & DOORS House upon the hill Moon is lying still... EXT. JIM & PAM'S HOUSE - LAUREL CANYON - NIGHT A POV up at the house -- into which JIM enters. The lights are on. Sage at the door sniffing. INT. JIM & PAM'S HOUSE - LAUREL CANYON - NIGHT JIM & DOORS Shadows of the trees witnessing the wild breeze Come on baby run with me Run with me, let's run... JIM'S POV entering the bedroom -- PAMELA naked in bed with the COUNT, is snorting heroin. Shadows of the trees and leaves blowing against the walls. Their voices, dim, distant. JIM (ironic) Oh hi... I didn't realize you were entertaining. PAM (stoned) Hi. She sits up on the bed, wobbly. The COUNT, more sophisticated in these things, lights a cigarette from the bedside table, revealing heroin paraphernalia. COUNT Scusi Jimmy, I hope you're cool about this... JIM (very cool) Don't forget your smack on the way out. EXT. ARENA - CONCERT Jim's struggling to break through the barrier of cops. JIM (yelling) The mansion is warm at the top of the hill Rich are the rooms and the comforts there Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs You won't know a thing till you get inside BACK TO: INT. JIM & PAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT The COUNT is gone. JIM, icy cold, grabs PAM by the wrist. JIM I told you about that shit. Or are we talking about death choices here? PAM I'm just doing my thing, just like you said, it's my thing, why can't I have a thing. Ow! You're hurting me! JIM (rising anger) Get up. Hurt? You want to know HURT? Let me introduce you to my good friend hurt. He is on her, throws her from the bed. She runs and hides in the closet, slamming the door behind her. PAM (screaming) NO FUCK YOU! THIS IS MY... JIM (crazed) Ah sanctuary!... a soft place to hide. PAM (inside) ...from you, you pig! As he picks up a can of lighter fluid and douses the closet door and the floor. JIM I'll give you a place to hide forever! We INTERCUT with PAM inside the closet yelling for mercy inside. PAM JIM! He puts a candle to the drenched door/floor. JIM This is the best part of the trip, honey... Inside, PAM feels the first flames licking up, smoke wafting in. JIM leaves the house. Pam kicking wildly at the doors, trying to smash her way out as the FIRE crescendoes. She finally shatters the frail molding and bursts out. EXT. JIM & PAM'S HOUSE - LAUREL CANYON - NIGHT PAM runs out into Laurel Canyon like a terrified doe running from a forest fire. SONG beat NOT TO TOUCH THE EARTH continues. EXT. STREET - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT Jim and Mike driving drunk, fucking TWO BLACK CHICKS. Mike in the back seat. Jim drives the car up onto the grass of a Police Station and plows right into it. EXT. BOULEVARD - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT Knowing who's inside, sufficient be it to see the blue Shelby Mustang plow into a telephone pole on Santa Monica Blvd. JIM & THE DOORS Dead President's corpse in the driver's car The engine runs on glue and tar C'mon along, we're not going very far To the East to meet the Czar... INT. ANNE'S SOHO LOFT - NEW YORK - NIGHT A HIGH PRIESTESS, assisted by a HIGH PRIEST, conducts a Wicca wedding amidst a setting of candles, mixing a few drops of JIM and ANNE's blood into a consecrated cup of wine, from which they drink. They all wear long black robes, the only light from the candles, standing inside a circle in front of a table with altar, incense, chalice. HIGH PRIESTESS (dimly heard) ...we worship the ancient forces of Nature, the Triple Goddess, the Great Mother and the Lord, the Horned One... when the vow is taken INT. LIMO - DAY MOTORCYCLE ESCORTS COPS zoom past the limo windows on the LA STREETS. INT. ANNE'S SOHO LOFT - NEW YORK - RESUME NIGHT The PRIESTESS presses the two cut wrists together, binding them with a red cord. HIGH PRIESTESS ...it is a blending of souls on a karmi and cosmic plane that affects your future incarnations on this planet. Death does not part -- only lack of love -- and the vow is forever in the Goddess' sight. JIM & DOORS (building faster and faster) Run with me, run with me Run with me, let's run Some outlaws live by the side of a lake The minister's daughter's in love with a snake Jim faints. EXT. DOORS OUTDOOR CONCERT - NIGHT JIM, mind totally gone into his trance, spreading his arms like wings, hopping from one foot to the other like a shaman around his microphone, whirling, yelling out great rewards for the tribe. Plentiful antelope, healthy corn. The kids are going wild -- writhing like maenads in his intoxicating embrace. Embers from an enormous BONFIRE drift past the stadium lights into the night. But the KIDS, increasingly frustrated by a barrage of COPS, cannot see their leader and now push against the cops with the very result the authorities seek to repress. JIM & DOORS Who lives in a well by the side of the road Wake up girl! We're almost home We shall see the gates by morning We shall be inside by evening Sun, sun, sun Burn, burn, burn Moon, moon, moon! RAY, gone into his own trance, happening to look up from his keyboard. His eyes widen. His POV -- an INDIAN SHAMAN hovers over the microphone. Cloaked in hides, his face obscured by a horned headdress with colored tails and feathers streaming down his shoulders, rattles in each fist, the BONFIRE glowing... JIM & DOORS I will GET YOU Soon -- soooooooon... SOOOOOOONNNN... The COPS can't hold. TEENAGE SHOCK TROOPS hitting the stage, clambering up. The stage becoming a riot. Cops wading in with sticks. ROADIES and BODYGUARDS yanking the MUSICIANS from their places... JIM (indifferent, to himself) I am the Lizard King I can do anything As DOG hauls the shaman king off in a bearhug, smiling stoned, immaculate. INT. ALTA CIENEGA MOTEL - DAY Start slow CLOSE UP on JIM, he's crying, his head on a pillow, silent, haunted... pull out to see the room, no explanations. A TV GAME SHOW is on, JUDY, 17, and her FRIEND, 16, watching naked, skinny..., piles of murder magazines and books, clothes, and personal items trashed around the thread bare room he calls home. She looks over at him. JUDY Man wow -- watsa matter Jim? It was beautiful... wasn't it? Kim? Wasn't it great? KIM (2nd girl, studying murder magazine) It was all right Jim continues to cry. JIM (gently) Hey it's no big deal. I like to cry when I come. It's close to death... maybe you'd better go home now before your mama gets home. JUDY She is home Jim (whispers to Kim who goes into bathroom, giggling) JIM What? JUDY It's a secret. JIM (innocently) You know you've always been good to me in bed Judy. And it was nice of you to bring your friend. I want to keep seeing both of you but it can't be all the time y'know. It would be a night every few weeks or so. That's just the way I am, I'm not dependable. I can't be a boyfriend. Would you do that? I mean could you handle it? That way? I don't want you to get hurt. JUDY (putting on a tacky dress) I already been hurt enuf' by you Jim, I don't have much to lose do I? JIM ...do you love me? JUDY ...yes JIM ...Well, just think about it awhile. Call me when you get your new number... (Girl 2 comes back in, dressed) Hey that's a really nice outfit you're wearing, you really have good taste in clothes. How long have you two been friends? He's so concerned, so solicitous that both girls crack up laughing. JIM (grins) What? A knock at the door. JIM Come back later! (another knock) Who is it! VOICE (slurred) It's a secret. JIM (recognizes it) Whyn't you come back later. I don't have any clothes on. EXT. ALTA CIENEGA MOTEL ROOM - SAME DAY PAM's mascara is running from her eyes, begging to get in. The BLACK MAID cleaning the adjacent room overheard, unsurprised. PAM Jim, I gotta talk! Let me in please. I gotta talk. JIM Now Pam sweetheart, I'm busy. Pamela listening at the door. She's on the second story of a cheap motel overlooking a boring parking lot on the edge of La Cienega. PAM Jim, I know there's someone in there, I can't believe you're doing this again. You're disgusting. INTERCUTS TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - SIMULTANEOUS JIM Well you see Pam there's this crazy girl in here, she's just lying on the bed with her legs open and I don't know what to do. PAM FUCK YOU!!! I want to see her. JIM (off) It's your cousin Lizzie, you don't want to see her. Go home. PAM We're all sisters, let me see her. Jim,... I got this wonderful leg of lamb in the oven for supper... and the house is immaculate. Sage is waiting. He wants you to play with him... are you coming... JIM Almost. PAM Jim goddamit answer me!! (no answer, she yells) JIM! I FUCKED HIM TO HURT YOU! HE DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME!! PEOPLE in the parking lot looking up. A silence is her only response. She waits, turns away from the closed door as TOUCH ME BABE cuts in: DOORS SONG C'mon, c'mon, c'mon c'mon now Touch me babe Can't you see that I am not afraid INT. RECORDING STUDIO - THAT NIGHT In the VOCAL BOOTH, JIM is chugging on a brown paper bag with whiskey in it, crooning with heart but the voice is warped, weak. JIM What was that promise you made Why don't you tell me what she said What was that promise that she made I'm gonna love you Till the heaven stops the rain I'm gonna love you Till the stars fall from the sky For you and I... VARIOUS PEOPLE are hanging around the studio listening -- a couple of HIPPIE CHICKS, A BURN VICTIM w/ bandages, a CHARLES MANSON TYPE, a Siberian HUSKY, the TIM LEARY type. Paper bags, burgers, bottles, California rose, apple juice, hard- boiled eggs. In the ENGINEERING BOOTH. ROTHCHILD, the producer, is displeased. PAUL (to Botnick the engineer) ...fuckin' neanderthal primadonna is too drunk to see. (cuts the music, to Jim) Cut it... that was beautiful sweetheat, we had a technical problem, we'll take it again from the top babe whenever you're ready. On the floor, the DOORS are depressed. DENSMORE looking at MORRISON, aimlessly, nervously. KRIEGER looking tired and beaten, takes a discreet hit on a joint. Ray scans an art book, patient. DENSMORE What's his fucking problem? JIM (equally false) Paul babe. PAUL Right here baby. JIM Why don't you suck a fart out of my asshole you slave driving facist motherfucker! As he stalks out of the booth. Raging, near-incomprehensible. A small portable TV set is playing the "Dean Martin Show" low on one end of the recording console. Around the room the detritus of the time -- Mailer's "Armies of the Night", The Stone's "Beggar's Banquet", Janis' "Cheap Thrills", Traffic, The Band. PAUL (exasperated) I hear the booze, I hear the smokes Jim, I don't hear the voice and babe I didn't hear the song! JIM So what are we going to tonight Paul! 67 takes! It's stale! RAY (coming in with JOHN) Alright, let's try something else. JIM I wanna sing blues. This stuffs getting too self-conscious. ROBBIE (offended) Cause it's my song man? JIM (simultaneous, incomprehensible) Let's sing "Rock is Dead"! You're all a buncha slaves... "Oh come all ye faithful." PAUL (hot) Shut up Jim! I don't understand! I don't. What are ya doing! I love you like a brother, I do, but why are you fucking this up. It's a perfect radio song for chrissake! No one wants to hear the blues anymore! Think like a singer, you're the only baritone crooner we got left... Sinatra, Elvis, Crosby, you're as good as they are, but WHY ARE YOU FUCKING THIS UP! WHY! Pause. Jim's face darkening. Something he sees on the television. He stops, frozen, sickly. Several BIMBETTES are dancing around a shiny new automobile as strains of LIGHT MY FIRE pop out. JIM Catchy, you sold it to a commercial? Ray, Siddons, Robbie, John, shuffling for a moment. JIM For that? How much did you get for it? RAY Now, Jim... JIM HOW MUCH? SIDDONS It was $50,000. You weren't talking to us that week and we figgered you... JIM You figured? What the fuck is this Ray? RAY It's not like a big deal Jim, the song's already been commercialized, the money was great. Robbie wrote the lyrics and he didn't mind, neither did I, neither did John... we gotta get to TV. JIM What?... are you saying? Are we the Doors? One for all and all for one? Do you know what you're saying to those millions of kids! "Just kidding, not real". That's what you're saying. JOHN Oh come on man, you think just cause you're the lead man in the band you can run the whole show. JIM (building intensity) You think I was kidding Ray? (turning to John) Hey John, those are interesting shoes, you like those shoes? PAMELA, looking drawn and pathetic finds this moment to walk into the studio. JOHN (aggressive) Yeah I do. JIM Good. Then do you want 50 of those shoes? JOHN No. JIM Then what do you need more money for? Pause. Turning to Ray. JIM I'm dying Ray. I wasn't kidding. Maybe you were. But I'll tell you something, it's not about these desires you have man, or money, or these records, it's about breaking through wasn't it? You just lost something man. (to all) We all lost something boys. We lost something. RAY I don't think so Jim. There's a bigger picture here. JIM There sure is. In your fucking face! A small smile flickers Jim's face as he picks up the small TV and like a quarterback, hurls it, spinning end over end from his corner of the Control Room towards Ray and Rothchild and the Doors. They dive for the floor as it smashes to bits into the wall behind the tape machines. JIM (quietly) Just kidding... (turning to Pam) Hi Pam. Just watchin' some TV. He seems pleased to distract his anger into her. She doesn't seem to notice anything unusual going on. The Doors silent, feeling Jim's rage. PAM (pathetic) I wanted you to find us Jim. It meant nothing. JIM I know. I know. PAM You don't have to torture me Jim. Let me make it up to you, please... The others all look away embarrassed. This is certainly a moment the ordinary partner might turn away from Pamela, her tears running, but her pathacy, her inability to deal with pain is precisely what moves Jim the most -- a side of himself in her -- an ultimate weakness she has, he shares. As he goes to her, puts his arms gently around her. JIM It's alright honey, it's gonna be alright. You're my girl and that's the way it's always gonna stay. PAM (snuggles him, zoned) Really...? JIM (ironic, to the others) So, let's keep that money machine rolling. Come on guys... Rothchild looking to Botnick and to Ray. But the real look, the unforgiving one, is from Jim to Ray who feels it. Rothchild douses the lights in the studio. PAUL Right on Jimbo. TIME CUT TO: Overdubb of DOORS SONG SOFT PARADE - Jim's VOICE booming thru the studio. JIM (reciting) When I was back there in seminary school There was a person there Who put forth the proposition That you can petition the Lord with prayer Petition the Lord with prayer Petition the Lord with prayer PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER ROTHCHILD looking from his booth across at Jim. His POV -- only JIM is visible. PAUL Where the hell did she go? In the control booth RAY and ROBBIE share a look. The lights have been dimmed in Jim's booth, and he's weaving back and forth a bottle of Ripple in his hand as they kick in with the music. Camera closing now on Jim in the tender section, on the money. JIM & DOORS Can you give me sanctuary I must find a place to hide A place for me to hide... In the darkened booth, PAM is on her knees his pants worked down around his ankles, caressing him, sucking him off. PAM (sotto voice) ...sing to me, Jim, sing to me. JIM & DOORS Can you find me soft asylum I can't make it any more The man is at the door The DOORS sense it. ROTHCHILD knows it, hushed. Magic's suddenly in the air once more as we jump stanzas to: JIM & DOORS Catacombs, nursury bones Winter women Streets and shoes, avenues Leather riders selling shoes (The monk bought lunch) Successful hills are here to stay Everything must be this way Gentle street where people play Welcome to the soft parade But Jim's voice has now gone off key, floating carefree, drifting -- drifting away. ROTHCHILD chuckles, philosophically. The Doors in control booth start leaving. Robbie goes back out to get his personal items. But the OVERDUB still plays over the booth as Jim doesn't realize. We take liberties cutting around on the song. JIM & DOORS All our lives we sweat and save Building for a shallow grave (then) The soft parade has now begun Listen to the engines hum People out to have some fun A cobra on my left Leopard on my right The Doors and ROTHCHILD all exiting, leaving BOTNICK the engineer to clean up some technical things... and of course the two occupants of the darkened booth. JIM SONG (fiercely) Calling on the dogs (5) When all else fails You can whip the horses' eyes And make them sleep And cry. The music stops. Silence. Inside the booth, two shadows breathe deep, huddled on the floor in each other's arms. A whisper out of the dark. PAM I love you. INT. RECORDING STUDIO - LAST SESSION (1970) - NIGHT JIM his head cocked, lost in the memory. JIM (reciting) Why does my mind circle around you? Why do planets wonder what it would be like to be you? All your soft wild promises were words, birds, Endlessly in flight Being drunk is the best disguise As the body is ravaged The spirit grows stronger Pause. He coughs horribly, the phlegm sucking out his chest with a horrid, asthmatic sound which he douses with another cigarette and another shot of whiskey. The Bushmills now two thirds empty. He looks over at the MYSTERY WOMAN now beside him at the microphone. MIKE and the SECRETARY watch. The bored ENGINEER across the darkened midnight room yawns. ENGINEER Let's send out for some pizza Jim. JIM Nah, how 'bout some tacos when we're through? (downs another shot, continues) The world on fire Taxi from Africa The grand hotel he was drunk a big party last night back, going back in all directions sleeping these insane hours I'll never wake up in a good mood again I'm sick of these stinky boots Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals? And that fat slow generals are getting obscene on young blood? Do you know we are ruled by TV? (pause) SLOW DISSOLVE BEGINS: JIM Oh great Creator of Being Grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives The moths and atheists are doubly divine in dying We live, we die, and death not ends it Journey we more into the nightmare We're reaching for death on the end of a candle We're trying for something that's already found us... DISSOLVING TO: INT. MIAMI AUDITORIUM - NIGHT (1969) Crammed into every available space of an old SEAPLANE HANGAR with no seats -- standing room only -- a MASS of KIDS swelter in the heat, grumbling, fanning themselves with programs as a warm-up BAND plays. In the wings of the stage, a RADIO DJ/CRITIC is recording on tape. It's the same kid we saw long ago at the Whiskey backstage, pronouncing the arrival of the Doors on the scene. Now he's got a beard, glasses, a more cynical face. RADIO DJ/CRITIC (into microphone) A hot night in Miami January '69 -- every space in the auditorium is consumed... unfortunately the Doors have long since sold out. They've become an act. Morrison "falls" off the stage at least every other performance. "The Soft Parade" album only confirms the plasticity of their approach. Songs like "Touch Me" and "Follow Me Down" are not the Doors we once knew. So the question is: Why am I here? Are funerals entertainment? DENSMORE looks on from the stage wings, withdraws -- to RAY nearby. DENSMORE He ain't gonna show! I know it man. We should fuckin' go on without him. RAY Bill's with him. They're an hour away, he'll get him here. INT. NEW ORLEANS AIRPORT BAR - SAME NIGHT SIDDONS, the manager tugs on MORRISON who's getting soused with DOG, TOM, MIKE, and ROTHCHILD the producer. The P.A. SYSTEM announcing the departure of the Miami flight! SIDDONS Goddamit Jim! We missed one already, we gotta get this one man! Jim slams has shot glass on the bar. He's got a beard for the first time, looking like a tribal elder. JIM More! MIKE Four more all around and up and down! As the WAITRESS takes the order SIDDONS (urgent) NO! CUT EM OFF! CUT EM OFF! JIM Don't be so melodramatic Bill, it's not fun anymore. DOG I can't fly sober. SIDDONS Jim, you don't show for this one, we're dead, the whole group -- no more bookings. JIM I care. PAUL Come on Jim, we'll get fuckin' laid in Miami. SIDDONS We need the work Jim! They're making us post a $10,000 bond just to show up -- we're the only group in rock-n- roll with a fuck clause! (aside to Dog) Get him on the fuckin' plane. That's what I pay you for. DOG (to Bill) You're an awful little guy to be talking like that. JIM (muttering) Chump change, we're working for chump change. SIDDONS Look at you, you're a pathetic fuckin' slob and so are all your friends! JIM I got an idea Bill, you're fired. INTERCUT TO: INT. MIAMI AUDITORIUM - THAT NIGHT The warm-up BAND is applauded and booed. The CROWD resembles a pit of snakes, wriggling on top of each other. Impatient CATCALLS. INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT JOHN Listen to 'em! They're not coming for the music anymore. They're coming to see a fuckin' freak show! RAY You think it's easy for him. He moves left he's got vice squad, on the right narcs -- and the audience just waiting for him to get busted. JOHN He wanted it! Not us. I just don't fuckin' get the point anymore. I never did I guess. Y'ask me he's just become a drunken fuckin' asshole that's what. And he's gonna take us down with him. RAY Compassion was never your forte man. JOHN Don't lecture me Mr. Philosopher, you never felt a fuckin thing in your life. I loved that man. I loved what he was. Robbie strums his guitar, breaks the tension in the room. A lick of "Five to One". ROBBIE It ain't the old Jim that's for sure. I think he's living for everybody else man and somewhere along the way he's lost his own self. RAY (almost to himself) The wine man, the ancient wine. The ancient wine. ROBBIE What? RAY Something he once told us. About Dionysos. When the madness took over... INTERCUT TO: OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. INT. AIRPLANE - THAT NIGHT The STEWARDESS, uptight, tries a smile at JIM, TOM, MIKE all belted in one row. STEWARDESS My name is Rita Hager and if... JIM If your name is Rita, then yor ol man must be ol man Rita!! (guffaws) TOM, MIKE & DOG (chorusing) That ol man Riva, he just keep rolling along! STEWARDESS Excuse me sir, my father is not my old man. A BABY, with her MOTHER, stares at Jim fascinated. He lifts his dark glasses, winks back at her. TIMECUT TO: The STEWARDESS slips the oxygen mask over her face. STEWARDESS In the event of a decrease of pressure, pull the oxygen mask to your... TOM Ma ol lady had one of those but she calls it a diaphragm when I'm eating her out! DOG Nah, it's a douche bag on a dixie cup. STEWARDESS I'm sorry sir, but you're embarrassing me. MIKE Great tits. SIDDONS Come on guys, cool it! Other PASSENGERS looking over. TIME CUT TO: In flight. Dog squeezes from the lavatory and drops a small bar of soap in Jim's drink. They laugh, push, yell. Jim is smoking a cigar. JIM (teasing to Rothchild in the row behind him) C'mon Paul, you can get us some heroin man. PAUL (suddenly serious) No I can't and I won't. JIM Why not? PAUL Cause I don't want to participate in anything that would accomplish your goal? JIM (wry) Oh and what is my goal Paul? Death? PAUL "Death old friend". JIM (laughing) Wrong. I just want the pure beauty of absolute zero and sing the blues man -- do nuthin, go nowhere, just be. TOM With that waistline Jimbo you got no choice. JIM (laughs, goodnatured) What's wrong with being a large mammal, a big beast like a tank. I feel great! DOG Yeah. What's wrong with being fat. TOM You mean "Crawling King Flab"? Rock is cock babe and your rock is dyin'. JIM Rock is death! There is no longer belief. Hey, I'll write poetry and direct movies. TOM And what are you offering? Sex? You can't get it up. Salvation? You can't even save yourself. Come on Jim, you're not gonna be remembered. JIM Miss?... STEWARDESS What do you need? JIM Some love. MIKE They'll still be talking about Jim when you're a walk on Baker. I'll make you a deal. When you do something, I'll criticize it. TOM I think you both should take your heads out of the toilet bowl. After "Soft Parade" You need an album sweetheart. MIKE You should take it outta your ass. JIM The first two novels come along they love you, next few they slam but if you stay around long enough, one day they say, "hey he's part of the national psyche". STEWARDESS What are you drinking? MIKE Screwdrives-her. (lifts her skirt) STEWARDESS (to Siddons) I'm going to have to call the captain if you can't control these people. I guarantee that. TOM (a cruel sarcasm Jim seems to enjoy) ...if you live long enough, don't kid yourself Jimbo -- you're all alone out there, Jimbo, cept for me, cause you're too wacked out man, they're scared, you're too fuckin crazy. JIM (feigning innocence) I wasn't mad, Tom. I was only interested in freedom. TOM (the devil) Bullshit! You're bored, you're not free. You tested all the limits, fame, fucking, money, -- whatcha gonna do now Jimbo! When the music's over, when you're too fat and ugly to get on a stage, whatcha gonna do for act three -- puke on Heaven's door? JIM Listen you two bit fuckin actor, you underestimate the audience. You think they all want a better job, a house, two cars, money, that's what you think but you know what they really want, Tom, in their lives, what they really want -- TOM Tell me. JIM (a whisper) ...something sacred, that's what they want, something sacred. Tom spews the contents of his mouth all over Jim in response. Jim throws his sandwich back at Tom... then another drink goes... JIM Fuck you ignorant devil's asshole slave! TOM No you. Something sacred. My cock is sacred. Suck on that! JIM I don't eat shrimp. A full fledged food fight in progress. Dog, Tom, Jim, Mike pushing and shoving. A drink spills over an innocent PASSENGER. DOG Incoming! The STEWARDESS coming up with the CAPTAIN. CAPTAIN ALL RIGHT!! If you young men don't change your attitude right now, when we get to Miami you're going to be arrested. JIM Yes, sir. (reflexively) TOM (saluting) YESSIR -- you asshole. EXT. MIAMI AIRPORT - SAME NIGHT PLANE taxiing up. TWO POLICE CARS, red lights revolving, are waiting. INT. PLANE - SAME NIGHT PILOT escorting FOUR FBI AGENTS aboard. CAPTAIN As captain of this ship I'm placing all four of you under arrest. The FBI will... MIKE For what! What'd we do! TOM Read me my rights, motherfuckers... motherfuckin bulls! JIM stunned in his drunkenness. SIDDONS and ROTHCHILD protesting AD LIBS. INT. MIAMI AUDITORIUM - THAT NIGHT The CROWD is heckling a long-haired HIPPIE in a leather hat who cradles a live, snow-white LAMB telling him to "GET OFF", screaming AD LIB for the "DOORS, DOORS, DOORS!! JIM JIM JIM!!" HIPPIE Look at this thing! Look at this beautiful little living thing!! How can you eat it!! How can you eat its flesh??? CATCALLS. Angry fists pound the edge of the proscenium. Bodies push and pack against each other. If Hieronymus Bosch had painted a rock concert, this would be it. HIPPIE LOVE ANIMALS, DON'T EAT THEM!!!! (Boos!!) INT. BACKSTAGE - THAT NIGHT Excitement. EVERYBODY moving fast... ...as JIM, dark sunglasses and beard, surrounded by TWO FBI AGENTS and his BODYGUARDS move toward the stage, two hours late. SIDDONS with him arguing AD LIB with RAY and the PROMOTER, a southern sleazeball with long muttonchops and velvet shirt and beads. A mess -- the CROWD chanting DOORS! DOORS! DOORS! DOORS! SIDDONS (screaming at promoter) What the FUCK happened to the SEATS!! (grabs him) What's the FUCKING IDEA man! THERE'S NO SEATS! PROMOTER I took 'em out! What's wrong with that! We stuffed an extra five thou in there. (pissed at Jim) Where the fuck you been! SIDDONS That wasn't THE FUCKING IDEA MAN!! We're gonna sue you!... We're pulling the plug. PROMOTER So sue me! You're playing or you ain't leaving here with your equipment sonny! SIDDONS (to Ray) We're not playing. Meanwhile, JOHN arguing with RAY and JIM who sways, drunk. The FBI agents get lost in the background. JOHN I'm not going out there man! RAY JOHN, C'MON!! JOHN Look at him! I'm not going out there 'till I get some sorta guarantee he's gonna stay in line. I've had it with this shit. JIM Whatsa matter, scared Johnny boy? JOHN (going physically for Jim) YOU'RE A FUCKIN ASSHOLE MAN!! RAY JOHN!! STOP IT!! COME ON!! Jim laughing, throws his arm around ROBBIE for support, ROBBIE patient with him. John yelling as they approach the curtains and the lights and the first monster realization of the THOUSAND MOUTHS waiting in the pit of hell. JOHN You're pushing death Morrison. Everybody thinks we're drug addicts cause of you Morrison. JIM We the Beatles yet? JOHN (held by Ray) We took drugs to EXPAND MINDS ASSHOLE, not ESCAPE. I'M NOT GOING OUT THERE WITH YOU. JIM Hey John y'ever eaten human flesh? When we get to New York, I know this chick... RAY (taking John aside) Come on man. JOHN I'm not going out there! RAY We'll talk tomorrow, we'll settle it. Just do it tonight man and... As JIM brings up a tiny vial with a lubricating head on it, holds it to Robbie's lips playfully. They're in the shadows. JIM ...just a touch Robbie, it's the funkiest stuff, you'll play like an orgasm tonight... ROBBIE No man come on, I don't want any. JIM ...just a little lick, come on trust me... for old times, the four of us, let's get together one more time,... the Doors man... Please. For me. Something so sincere in Jim's eyes. Robbie takes the fatal lick. Jim smiles manically as the NUREMBERG SOUNDS of the CROWD drown them out. ROBBIE You said you love pain man, but you run from it every chance you get. INT. STAGE - SAME NIGHT The DOORS come out finally. The noise is overwhelming. Acid, light, noise. Wagnerian Gods, Hitler... JIM spreading his arms like Icarus set to fly. The ROARS redouble, their FEET stomping out: CROWD (insane) DOORS DOORS DOORS DOORS... Joints are thrown by the dozen on the stage at Jim's feet. He is a god now as he bends regally, picks one up. COPS everywhere looking as... He lights it. The CROWD going nuts as the DOORS go into the ominous introductory strains of FIVE TO ONE trying to get the onus off Jim and the show on the road. The Audience knows the song, go into a primal FOOT STOMP with it. Bras are thrown on stage. Kids writhe madly in the primal Doors dance. People with SPARKLERS running through the hangar. CAMERA FLASHBULBS popping throughout the show... get Jim on film while you can. Jim, drunk, high, smoking the jay, won't go into the lyrics right off, forcing the Doors to circle the beat again. He jerks his hand back from the mike as if it were a hot wire. JIM ARE YOU READY!!!! (beat) ARE YOU REAAAAAAADYYYYYYYYY!! The Crowd explodes once more. As a COP heads upstage to get Jim for the joint -- he cooly flicks it back into the crowd, avoiding disaster. Perfect timing as the Cop looks around, suddenly distracted by: The Crowd yelling something. An INSANE TEENAGER stands on the railing of a balcony above the auditorium, poised to swan dive some 18 feet into the crowd. Which he now does, arms held out like wings. The Crowd yells, parting to allow his bulk to smack the floor. Pause. Cops rushing to the spot. The KID suddenly stands up, unhurt, with a stoned out look on his face. TEENAGER Wow! Then splits at a full run thru the crowd chased by the perplexed Cops. Everybody surging back towards the stage as JIM looses one of his primal SCREAMS. JIM YAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW... Love my girl! (song) Five to one One in five No one here gets out alive You gets your baby I'll get mine Gonna make it, baby If we try He slobbers, drunk, slouches, stumbles, regains his balance. The Crowd loves it, but Ray senses something wrong. Robbie starts to feel the effects of the acid Jim gave him -- his eyes registering fear. JIM & DOORS The old get old The young get stronger May take a week And it may take longer They got the guns But we got the numbers Gonna win yeah -- WE'RE TAKING OVER!! During the instrumental break, Jim picks up one of the roses from the floor, pokes it at John on the drums, who whacks it to death on his skins. Jim starts to whirl the mike cord like a slingshot or bolo, in an ever-widening arc... ...it flies off and smashes into the head of the PROMOTER at the edge of the stage arguing with SIDDONS. The man is staggered, weaving, Siddons helping him to a FIRST AID TEAM. JIM YAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!! The crazy VEGETERIAN HIPPIE runs out on stage to give Jim the white lamb to make this political point. Jim holds the lamb in his arms. It's purring, gentle. DOG chases the HIPPIE off as he gives the microphone back to Jim and takes the lamb from him... he staggers over to ROBBIE and goes down to his knees, pretending to give him head on his frantic stoned guitar solo. JIM & DOORS Your ballroom days are over baby Night is drawing near Shadows of the evening Crawl across the years You walk across the floor With a flower in your hand Tryin to tell me no one understands PHOTOGRAPHERS flashing cameras. BAKER urging him on from the wings as he passes out. A GIRL runs onto the stage, dumps a bottle of champagne on Jim's head. Jim takes his shirt off, soaking wet. The CROWD is also stripping in the heat, shirts, blouses, screaming so much now they are obviously way past listening to any song. It has become a view of the future -- the NAKED GIRL and BOY dancing stark naked drugged out in the middle of it all, the FAT GIRL prowling naked on the edge of the stage before she's arrested, the FIGHTS in the Crowd, fists, blood, a black man chased and beaten, the sense of Altamont here, the hippie flower trip gone to shit -- it's all come down here tonight, the end of an era. JIM & DOORS Trade in your hours for a handful of dimes Gonna make it baby -- in our prime Get together one more time Get together He stops singing suddenly, squinting out into the madness. The arena echoes with the uncomprehending chant of the Mob... MOB ...one more time Get together one more time Get together one more time SPECIAL EFFECT -- the INDIAN GHOST is leaving Jim's body -- spectrally moving off him, hovering there in the air, its eyes -- the face of a dying Indian on an Arizona highway -- then gone. A moment, only three, four beats. An optical illusion? Maybe. Or is it saying, 'now you are just a white man'... maybe not. As it drifts off in a cloud, into the vast audience's EYEBALL. JIM YOU'RE ALL A BUNCHA FUCKIN SLAVES!!! The instruments continue to vamp but there's a hush to the CROWD. JIM Lettin people tell you what you're gonna do! Lettin people push you around! How long you think it's gonna last! How long you gonna let them push you around!! He waits. INTERCUTS of the FACES in the crowd. VOICES (ignoring Jim) "Light My Fire"! Play "Light My Fire"!! Come on Jim... (some boos sprinkled in) Take your clothes off man! Get wild! Fuck me baby. Fuck me girl, suck my cock honey around the world! Mexican whore suck my prick! Keeper of the royal sperm man! CELEBRATE THE LIZARD MAN, DRAIN IT MOTHERFUCKER!! JIM C'MON GET IT ALL OUT! ALL THE LITTLE HATREDS, Everything inside you... LET ME HAVE IT! CROWD FUCK YOU! JIM THAT'S THE ONE LITTLE WORD I WANTED TO HEAR! THAT'S THE VERY LITTLE WORD! THE WHOLE WORLD HATES ME! THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD HATES ME! VOICE (girl) SAVE US... SAVE US, JIM... JIM! EEEE... I TOUCHED HIM. JIM Maybe you love it, maybe you love gettin your faces pressed into the shit of the world! You'd all eat shit wouldn't ya!! Adolph Hitler is ALIVE AND WELL HERE IN MIAMI!! YOU'RE ALL A BUNCHA SLAVES!! The Crowd BOOS back at him, surging suddenly with hatred for Jim. Intercut the Crowd -- feel this hatred. JIM WHAT ARE YA GONNA DO ABOUT IT! WHAT ARE YA GONNA DO ABOUT IT! WHAT ARE YA GONNA DO ABOUT IT! The Band has petered out by this point but out of nowhere, ROBBIE, zonked on his version of LSD, starts up with "TOUCH ME BABE." JIM & DOORS (going with it) Come on, come on, come on and FUCK me babe! Can't you see that I am not afraid (cuts the music) HEY WAIT A MINUTE... (music cuts off raggedly) Miami Beach Florida hunh? I was BORN and RAISED not far from here... went to Florida State... (cheers) Then I GOT SMART. I went to California where you can let your hair grow long and walk down the street without people calling you a FREAK... They're trying to CHANGE THE WORLD out there in California. VOICES Yeah, STOP THE WAR MAN, PEACEEE... WE LOVE YA JIM. JIM NO I'm not talkin' 'bout NO REVOLUTION. I'm not talkin 'bout no DEMONSTRATION. I'm talking 'bout HAVING SOME FUN. I'm talkin' 'bout DANCIN. I'm talkin 'bout LOVE. I'm talkin' 'bout some LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE... LOVE!!!! Grab your friend -- and LOVE him. Come oooooaaaannnnn. Yeah! Jim pulling his shirt off -- barechested -- waving it like a toreador in front of his leather crotch. VOICES (cheers, giggles) "Light My Fire"! Come on Jim -- play "Light My Fire"! The audience seems to be paying no attention to what he is doing or saying, which drives him to deeper rage. JIM Ain't nobody gonna love my ass? Come on... I need ya. There's so many of ya out there and nobody's gonna love me! C'mon -- what'cha come here for anyway? You didn't come here for music. You didn't come here to see a good band. You came here for THIS didn't ya... He saunters to the edge of the stage. Hisses at them. He clasps his crotch, leering at a cute LITTLE GIRL in the front row, shaking it at her. Her BOYFRIEND, pissed at Jim, runs for the stage. Jim unzips his leathers. JIM I'm lonely out here -- Ya wanna SEE IT... COME ON SWEETHEART... I need it, I NEED IT, need ya, need ya, NEED YA, COME OOOOOAAAANNNNNNN... Chaos, confusion now erupt in the crowd! The BOYFRIEND is running at JIM as the BODYGUARDS throw him back into the crowd. Jim flicking his shirt over his crotch, back and forth like a drunken matador. The Doors look at each other, don't know what's going to happen. JIM Didja see it! You wanna see it AGAIN??? The crowd roars its approval. Confusion reigns. Drunken CATCALLS. Things, bras, cans thrown at the stage. VOICES (ad lib) Take it off! Take it all off! JIM What if I pull it out fer ya!! And SHAKE IT AROUND!!! Will that do it for you! Would ya, would ya, would ya!! Now watch -- I'm gonna show it to ya! He feigns opening his belt and exposing himself, flipping his shirt back and forth over the crotch in a mock striptease. JIM There it was! Ya see it? Ya see it?... Ya wanna see it again? A flock of TEENAGE GIRLS are sure they've seen it, hysterical. TEENAGE GIRL I saw it!... Yes, yes! Jim! Jim! TEENAGE GIRL 2 Where? I didn't see it. JIM (roaring out his commands) COME ON UP HERE AND LOVE MY ASS! I WANNA SEE SOME ACTION OUT THERE! I WANNA SEE SOME ACTION OUT THERE! I WANNA SEE SOME ACTION OUT THERE! I WANNA SEE SOME ACTION OUT THERE! I WANT YOU TO LOVE MY ASS! I WANT SOME LOVE... LOVE... LOVE... LOVE C'MON, C'MON... NO LIMITS, NO LAWS YOU WANNA FUCK? COME ON! COME ON UP HERE!!!!! He looks like he's really gonna tear it all off now. A flash of boxer shorts. RAY moving. SIDDONS moving. DOG getting to him first, wrapping him in a bearhug from behind, lifting him holding his pants up. VINCE THE ROADIE DON'T DO IT MAN. DON'T DO IT! RAY HEY JIM. JIM C'MON! C'MON! NO LIMITS, NO LAWS! NO LIMITS, NO LAWS! NO LIMITS, NO LAWS! The place is in PANDEMONIUM now. GIRLS jumping on stage and dancing with Jim still in Vince the Roadie's bearhug. Another RIOT... COPS fighting the TEENAGERS off the stage, now wobbling under the weight. PROMOTER (pissed, head bandaged) GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE! GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE!! (stiffarms Jim off the stage) RAY starts playing BREAK ON THROUGH trying to keep things normal. JIM now out there in the arena in a CONGA LINE, doing his rain dance, hands on hips, the TEENAGERS forming a long snake behind him. The huge speaker columns teeter and fall. A corner of the STAGE now COLLAPSES from the weight, PEOPLE spilling on the floor, screams. The power console tips over next to DENSMORE. He bails. Manzarek and Krieger follow. The PROMOTER is yelling at SIDDONS about his insurance contract as the COPS and FBI AGENTS close in, looking for Jim. COPS Where's the guy with the penis! Who is out there leading his naked drunken FLOCK, hundreds of them in a phallic Pied Piper dance thru the darkened seaplane hanger. From BREAK ON THROUGH PART TWO: JIM ET AL & DOORS You know the day destroys the night Night divides the day Try to run, try to hide BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE Dead cats! Dead rats! Did you see what they were at Dead cat in a top hat! Sucking on a young man's blood Fat cat in a top hat Thinks he's an aristocrat Thinks he can kill and slaughter Thinks he can shoot my daughter Dead cats! Dead rats! Think you're an aristocrat Crap, that's crap Ray watching from the corner of the stage, littered with bras, bottles, shirts, shoes, socks, panties, hats, broken equipment, debris -- the end of the dream. The Doors as a live band are dead. DISSOLVING TO: INT. MIAMI COURTROOM - DAY (1970) The "Charges" are being read by the JUDGE, distant, not of this world. The court is lit in southern gothic daylight, ghostly chiaroscuro, all colors bled. Camera moving along the sweaty white faces of the six older JURORS, all of them straight "silent majority"... past the PROSECUTOR, his shadow cutting the jury box... onto JIM bearded, smoking 2 packs a day, a deep racking cough, sitting with his elder ATTORNEY... RAY, ROBBIE, JOHN, PAMELA, OTHERS in support are there in background. The trial is going down like a morphine dream, Jim featured in diopter close-up. JUDGE VOICE ...you are charged under four counts with lewd behavior, simulated masturbation, public drunkenness, profanity, and public exposure. A blues riff goes by -- brief, ghostly from RUNNING BLUE. JIM SONG Poor Otis dead and gone Left me here to sing his song Pretty little girl with the red dress on Poor Otis dead and gone JIM (V.O.) I can't believe this is happening I can't believe all these people are sniffing each other & backing away, teeth grinning, hair raised, growling, here in the slaughtered wind This is it No more fun the death of all joy has come The PRESS SECTION is full as Jim's older LAWYER argues in front of the JURY, a distant voice. LAWYER Your Honor, I would like to bring to the Court's attention the contemporary Broadway musical "Hair" in which cast members disrobe and appear naked on the stage. JUDGE (pounds his gavel) Inadmissable evidence. JIM VOICE OVER I had a vision of America Seen from the air 28,000 ft. & going fast A one-armed man in a Texas parking labyrinth A burnt tree like a giant primeval bird in an empty lot in Fresno SUPERIMPOSITION: LAWYER Your Honor... any difference from the Miami nightclubs where comedians frequently incorporate profanity into their acts JUDGE (gavel) Inadmissable evidence. JIM VOICE OVER Miles & miles of hotel corridors & elevators, filled with citizens Motel Money Murder, Madness Change the mood from glad to sadness Play the ghost song baby The backbeat of WHEN THE MUSIC'S OVER starts, into its spiralling descent. SUPERIMPOSITION: LAWYER (distant) ...there has not been one shred of evidence: 300 photographs and not one shows a thing; not reliable testimony, nothing but hysterical heresay The PRESS is bored, their numbers reduced. The spectators have changed from kids to OLDER PEOPLE intent on preserving their way of life. A TAPE is playing of Jim's devil voice at the concert, cursing: "Come on up here. No limits! No laws", etc... (screams, obscenity) JIM & DOORS (SONG) When the music's over (3) Turn out the lights (3) For the music is your special friend Dance on fire as it intends Music is your only friend Until the end (2) SUPERIMPOSITION TO: LAWYER ...this is a major First Amendment violation by the Police and Politicians of Miami. Every witness they've brought has admitted under oath to not actually seeing the client's genitals -- except one who... The PRESS section is now down to about THREE bored FACES, one of them PATRICIA KENNEALY who looks pregnant. JIM smiles at her. JIM & DOORS Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection Send my credentials to the house of detention I got some friends inside EXT. ORANGE BOWL - MIAMI - DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE (DAY) ANITA BRYANT & JACKIE GLEASON at the NATIONAL DECENCY RALLY. A large CROWD in the vicinity of 100,000. NIXON addressing them. JIM & DOORS SONG (OVER) The face in the mirror won't stop The girl in the window won't stop A feast of friends alive she cried Waiting for me Outside! MONTAGE -- NEWSPAPER HEADLINES SPIN OUT: JIMMI HENDRIX OVERDOSES IN LONDON. JANIS JOPLIN OVERDOSES IN LOS ANGELES. A ROLLING STONE WANTED POSTER ON JIM -- "In the County of Dade/Dead -- Did He Or Didn't He?". JIM & DOORS SONG (OVER) Before I sink into the big sleep I want to hear The scream of the butterfly Come back baby Back into my arms INT. HOTEL ROOM - MIAMI BEACH - DAY The MUSIC continuing into a long backbeat without lyrics -- emphasizing the downward spiralling theme... JIM ...Well, you gonna get rid of it? Fucked up people y'know, crazies, unwanted Indians just throw it in the river. Pause. PATRICIA -- four and a half months pregnant, stares. A glary window onto a balcony overlooking the sea with Florida palms and a strip of beach. A room in a highrise hotel. Jim's mess is everywhere. PATRICIA I can't fucking believe you just said that! JIM Patricia, wouldn't it be better to have a kid with someone who wanted to be its father? PATRICIA It'd be a fucking genius, that's what it'd be! You and me. The child would be a god, goddess! JIM It'd be a monster. A look. She's stunned, ugly wrath gathering. He tries to soothe her. JIM I got this trial dragging on me, Patricia. I couldn't support the kid -- I can't afford it and I don't want the responsibility right now. PATRICIA You're a COWARD!! A LITTLE BOY!! The only way you can't afford it is emotionally. You forgot your vows man. They were forever in the goddess' sight. Death doesn't part, only love Jim! JIM Come on Patricia, I was stoned... it seemed like the fun thing at the time. She pulls a dagger with a skull's head on it, goes for him. PATRICIA I'm gonna cut your balls off Morrison! JIM (that smile) You want 'em? PATRICIA (beat) FUCK YOU. I'm gonna have the kid. JIM Then it'll be your kid. If you want the abortion I'll pay for it and I'll come up to New York to be with you when you have it. PATRICIA No you won't. JIM Yes I will. PATRICIA Bullshit Morrison (release him, stalks) You know who you are... (pause) NO. What difference does it make. You know, you never pretended. I did. I don't even like kids particularly, (laughs to herself) but I don't want the other thing either. I guess what I really want is to throw myself off this fucking balcony (Hurls the knife out off the balcony) Well now that you've fucked the future, Morrison, have you fucked everything?... (cruelly) Have you looked at yourself in the mirror. Your stomach... JIM (hurt, near tears) Please don't say those things to me, Patricia. She suddenly grasps him, clutching, hunger, lust. PATRICIA Fuck me one last time, you worthless piece of shit. JIM & DOORS ...the scream of the butterfly Come back baby Back into my arms On Jim's face. EXT. MIAMI COURTROOM - DAY TWO HUNDRED PERSONS are gathered on the lawn outside, banners decrying the Doors. A MIDDLE AGED SPEAKER, clean cut, squarely dressed, expresses his outrage. SPEAKER (bullhorn) ...endorsed by President Richard Nixon! (cheers) The immoral conduct of degenerates such as Jim Morrison is an unacceptable insult to this country and the principles for which it stands... JIM & DOORS (OVER) We're getting tired of hanging around Waiting around with our heads to the ground I hear the gentle sound Very near yet very far Very soft, yeah, very clear Come today, come today JIM Well uh, it's designed to wear you down y'know... when that rap sheet says the "United States of America versus You" it takes you down day by day, specially when no one really gives a shit about, y'know, the First Amendment that's on trial here... Nobody says anything about that, it's just uh did you take your pants off y'know, I mean that's not what it's about, it's about freedom, that's what it's about... but who cares, right? Freedom exists in a schoolbook. REPORTER 1 (disinterested) ...but the promoters are cancelling your shows, will this affect the way you play? JIM Well, I can only open doors, M'am. I can't drag people thru 'em. I'm no savior. REPORTER 2 But you've called yourself a shaman? JIM (beat, pained) Did I? Well, I'll tell ya, my words stand a far better chance of being around a hundred years from now than my waistline. As he goes into the courtroom, a dolled up REPORTER 1, the local anchor-lady turns to her camera. ANCHORLADY The question that will be answered today: Did Jim Morrison or did he not take off his pants last March? This is... INT. COURTROOM - THAT DAY The judge passing sentence, distant, hazy under song. Darkened shadows across the floor, silhouettes... the world bleak and white... JUDGE James Douglas Morrison, I hereby sentence you to sixty days of hard labor in the Dade County Jail and for public exposure I am sentencing you to six months of the same, after which you are to serve two years and four months of probationary time. [...] SECRETARY (overlapping) I booked you round trip to New York for Thursday, Pamela's called six times, Patricia, Kathy, Judy, Gayle is pregnant, she says but... you gotta get straight, honey, go to sleep, get a massage, go to the dentist, get a haircut honey, you gotta cool out... JOHN Probably a bath too... OFFICE BOY (reading a rock magazine) Jesus Jim, this guy really despises you. JOHN ...didn't invite us to Woodstock. Twenty other groups but not... SIDDONS What's heavy is the radio stations pulling us from their playlists. The big cities -- Philly, Cinci, Chicago, Detroit -- it's insane! Record sales suck! RAY (with irony, reading something) "The band you love to hate". LAWYER (2nd Lawyer if necessary) We can drag this appeal out for years, we can keep you out of jail. JIM (drinking) You're drinking with number three. SIDDONS Max firmly believes the FBI's behind it. We're subpoenaing their records -- they had memos on you in Phoenix and they got you extradicted to Miami illegally without a felony... MIKE A new image -- Jim Morrison as "Renaissance Man" -- We bring you back slow, quiet, the beard, elder of the tribe. OFFICE BOY (reading from review) ...like Lennon said "you either grow with the music or it grows without you." ROBBIE Hey, it was fun. All the voices merging into one: VOICES First Hendrix now Janis Robbie flew to Hawaii legalities pending dispositions book in Toronto interview with PBS renew your diverse license psychic predictions nine paternity suits fifty thousand dollar bond recoup our losses Pamela's shopping spree with your credit card Morrison Hotel some-body from film school mountain of coke in the broom closet Jac Holzman eight thirty in the morning remix perform schedule Paul Rothchild taxes Texas teenyboppers tomorrow. Jim, during this, picking up the TV remote, flicking on the images. The VOICES blending with TV VOICES as he swithes the channels. The camera moving in on Jim, the VOICES fading. All we see is Jim. All we hear and see is the TV: TELEVISION Chicago Seven in it's tenth day... Bobby Seale gagged and chained... (click) L.A. shootout with Black Panthers... (click) Charles Manson indicted for murder of actress Sharon Tate... (click) U. S. ground troops in Laos and Cambodia... (click) Indians still occupying Alcatraz Island... (click) For the My Lai massacre testified 120 villagers shot by American soldiers in a trench... The SONG climaxes into an inner scream of madness. JIM & DOORS (CONCLUDE) For the music is your special friend Dance on fire as it intends Music is your only friend Until the end (3) (SCREAM!) Silence on Jim. JIM (mildly) I think I'm having a nervous breakdown. The sound of wind, the backbeat of LA WOMAN flooding in. EXT. CHATEAU MARMONT HOTEL - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT JIM dangles out on the narrow ledge that circumscribes the 20th floor rooftop -- wind blowing thru his wild hair, the card zooming by like racer lights on Sunset below. The song LA WOMAN continues born from this renewed feeling of danger. JIM & DOORS Well I just got into town 'bout an hour ago Took a look around, see which way the wind blow Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows PAM screaming for him to come back from the edge as TOM BAKER and MIKE and DOG and a CAMERAMAN film in 16mm. PAM JIM! PLEASE GODDAMIT!! COME BACK IN PLEASE!! JIM yelling back, as he drinks from a pint of whiskey, enjoying himself enormously. JIM Whatcha worried about? I like it out here. He feigns a fall. PAM NOOOOOO!! RAY and SIDDONS arrive, terrified, looking for him. JIM (laughing at Pam) Life on the edge baby. Come get me if you love me baby. PAM PLEASE GODDAMIT JIM MORRISON I'M NOT GONNA KILL MYSELF FOR YOU. GET IN HERE. Jim cracking up with laughter. BAKER, drunk and the FILM CREW love it, swishpanning with a cheap sungun. MIKE (dancing) We got it man! Keep going. Great get a two shot. BAKER GO ON GET OUT THERE PAM. Pam is sufficiently cracked on her own set of drugs to start climbing out onto the ledge, skirts blowing in the wind. PAM JIM MORRISON GODDAMIT I LOVE YOU I WANT YOU I NEED YOU. Jim moving further along the ledge. JIM (raw) YOUR WHOLE LIFE'S BULLSHIT! YOU LOVE ME THEN COME AND GET ME. JIM & DOORS (OVER) LA Woman (X2) LA Woman Sunday afternoon (X3) Drive thru your suburbs Into your blues (X2) Into your blue-blue Blues Into your blues Siddons and Ray terrified. Is this the night it's finally going to end in a suicide plunge? Ray trying to stop Pam, too late. RAY Pam!! Oh shit... get the ambulances man... Pam's moving shakily along the ledge, cracked on downers. Jim watching her come, amazed at her risk. RAY (yelling down) JIM! HELP HER. She's gonna fall. TOM Jump! He watches, does nothing. JIM Come on baby, come on. RAY (trying another tack) Jim we gotta finish "LA Woman". JIM Don't have an ending Ray. Reaches his hand out. She is closer. But shaky. RAY (white) They're both gonna die... ARE YOU HAPPY YOU COCKSUCKERS!! Ray goes after Tom Baker and the Film Crew. A scuffle. Yelling, shouting, but down below in the intimacy of the ledge, blowing out on the edge, the wind and the world and death. Two crazy children linked on this gothic balcony of the Chateau reach their hands out for each other. JIM Come on baby, come on PAM (quoting him) "...but one, the most beautiful one of all -- dances in a ring of fire -- " JIM (raw singing) "I see your hair is burning. If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar!" PAM "...and throws off the challenge with a shrug" JIM All the poetry has wolves in it Pam!!! She has never been so concentrated, inching closer to him. Her heels overhanging oblivion. PAM I don't wanna die with you Jim Morrison, I don't wanna die! JIM & DOORS Never saw a woman So alone (X2) So alone -- lone lone JIM C'mon Pam, this is it! We'll do it right here! Right now! You and me! Ray, Tom, Siddons, Mike, Dog, they all watch in horror, sensing it will happen. They have even stopped filming. Inches... inches. He dodges her touch, confused... to the last possible second. Then SHE'S THERE -- in his arms. Her arms latch around him and she hugs him with all her wiry soul. PAM Jim -- let's go, let's leave this town! You and me! Never come back. JIM (demonic) We can. Right now. Just one more step... PAM No Jim. I want to LIVE with you. I want to LIVE with you. The two lovers huddled together on the ledge. He slips his head down on her lap, looking up into her eyes with the strangest tears in his eyes. JIM (a poem) There was preserved in her the fresh miracle of surprise... clothed in sunlight restless in wanting dying of fever married to doubt how it has changed you how slowly estranged you solely arranged you beg for your mercy -- OR -- ...but all will pass lie down in green grass and smile and muse and gaze upon her smooth resemblance to the mating-Queen who it seems is in love with the horseman Tomorrow we enter the tomb of my birth I want to be ready. On her face -- moved. Pause. LA WOMAN floods in on his smile, an upbeat surge. Upstairs, the ONLOOKERS relax. HOTEL MANAGEMENT and COPS are now rushing up in background. JIM & DOORS Mr. Mojo Rising Mr. Mojo Risin' (X2) DISSOLVE TO: EXT. DOORS OFFICE - SANTA MONICA BL. - L.A. - DAY (1970) There's music rocking from the inside. Cables and baffles run from the second story down to the rehearsal room on the first. JIM & DOORS Keep on risin' Got to keep on risin' Risin' Risin' (X8) INT. DOORS OFFICE - DAY The SECRETARIES and STAFF dance to the SOUND rocking thru the floor. JIM & DOORS Well I just got into town about an hour ago Took a look around, see which way the wind blow Camera moving thru the offices, past the OFFICE BOY, past SIDDONS, past the PUBLICIST, etc -- a farewell to the band. INT. BASEMENT - RECORDING STUDIO - DAY We see RAY, ROBBIE, JOHN, BOTNICK, a BASS and 2nd RHYTHM GUITARIST, WIVES, GIRLFRIENDS but no Jim. They're really driving, the music soars. PAMELA'S hair shaking as she swings to the beat. JIM & DOORS With a little girl in a Hollywood bungalow Are you a lucky lady in the City of Light? Or just another lost angel -- City of Night? INT. TOILET - RECORDING STUDIO - SAME DAY Wires run into a tiny toilet revealing JIM with headphones to his ears barking into a dangling mike, one leg propped on a toilet seat, in a groove. A new, strange, unparalleled beauty in his voice, hoarser but wiser, haunted by experience yet joyful as youth, Jim is ironically, at his best. JIM & DOORS LA Woman (X2) LA Woman / Sunday Afternoon (X3) Drive thru your suburbs Into your blues (X2) Into your blue-blue blues EXT. LOS ANGELES FREEWAY - DAY MONTAGE: Moving, moving, moving -- all the POVS from fast- moving CARS travelling with the pace of L.A. Song of freedom, of escape -- the STRIP, the cars, the freeway, the BILLBOARDS... farewell L.A. INT. NEW YORK HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Camera creeping towards ANNE O'RIORDAN as she waits, alone on a white table for the doctor to arrive. Jim never showed up after all. But on we go. JIM & DOORS I see your hair is burning Hills are filled with fire If they say I never lov'd you You know they are a liar (etc) Never saw a woman So alone (X2) So alone lone lone So alone EXT. RAY'S HOUSE - VENICE - DAY JIM drives up in his beaten GTO MUSTANG, top down, bags all over the place, hops out. Carrying his bulk with grace, knocks and rings. RIDERS ON THE STORM starting to play over. INT. RAY'S HOUSE - DAY DOROTHY opens the door. Jim a stack of presents under his arm. JIM Eek Dorothy! You cut your hair! DOROTHY We're trying to have another baby. JIM (moving past her) What -- was your hair getting in the way? (she smacks him lightly) Where are the kids? EXT. RAY YARD - DAY He spots them, crossing to the YARD where a CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY is in progress -- TWO DOZEN KIDS, a CLOWN acting out for them. A few parents and friends -- ROBBIE and LYNNE, their kid, JOHN and his RECENT LADY, their kid... When the KIDS spot JIM they light up. JIM Hey -- am I late or is this the cool remnant of a dream? KIDS (rushing to him) Eee! Jim! It's Uncle Jim... Come on... what did you bring me Jim... JIM (picks up Robin) How's my girl! And how's my boy! They stick a ludicrous printed birthday hat on his head. A bearded Santa Claus now engulfed with kids, though puffy, body gone, a literal physical wreck, yet a gentle pathos about him and still a charisma that the children react to without thinking. He gives out the presents all over. JIM (ad libs) For you... Pancho gets this one... Melanie -- yours... Hey Dorothy don't grab now... open that one, that's yours... keep your paws off that now... As RAY and ROBBIE and JOHN and the others circle him. JIM (to Robin, a 5 year old) ...and to you, princess, from your Royal servant, James Douglas Morrison (bows) As ROBIN, the cutest of them all, a bow in her hair, takes the package, opens it. RAY You wanna hear the new mixes on "LA WOMAN?"... JIM No, I gotta plane to catch. JOHN Won't take long man, it's the best one since "Days". ROBBIE We added rain to "Riders", come on. Jim cocks his head, listening to it playing from an inner room, his eyes on ROBIN opening the gift -- a beautiful, ANTIQUE DOLL of an 19th century poet -- rock star, stuffed, velour jacket, white fluffy lace collar, it could be Byron or it could be Jim Morrison -- in fact the hair is perfectly weaved to resemble Jim in his young lion phase -- an ironic gift, meant from the heart. It stops everybody -- they all look. A haunted quality to the doll. KID Ugh! What's that! ROBIN (to Jim) It's you. JIM Forever young... She kisses him. ROBIN Oh it's beautiful... Thank you Uncle Jim. INT. RAY'S WORK SPACE - DAY Off the patio windows of the birthday party, sounds and sunshine pouring in. The Clown running around, laughter. The music plays -- BRUCE at the mixing board. JIM & DOORS Riders on the Storm (x2) Into this house we're born Into this world we're thrown Like a dog without a bone An actor out on loan Riders on the storm Where we and Jim came in, I guess. Jim drinks from a cognac bottle straight, foot tapping, enjoying it, knows it's good -- but other things are calling. This is history. JIM I gotta admit -- that ain't bad for four guys who weren't even talking that day. Slapping shoulders, shaking hands. JOHN You really gonna live in Paris man? JIM Yeah John, be anonymous, write a book: "Observations of an American While on Trial in Miami". ROBBIE I still think we got a couple of great blues albums in us man. JIM I'm pinned man. Everything I do they got a category for it, y'know. Freedom's gone. JOHN Hey, I'm gonna miss you Jim. I'm gonna miss the feeling of playing music with you. JIM You can always whip the horses' eyes. You, John, miss me? JOHN More than you think asshole. (turn away, repressing -- the emotions) ROBBIE (walking him to the garden) Well far as I'm concerned, Jim, I made music with Dionysus man. We had some moments on stage like no one will ever fucking know. JIM (making light) Yeah, yeah -- and you lay off those drugs Rob. We're gonna play again some day. ROBBIE Jim -- "do not go gently into that good night. Rage rage against the dying of the light". (he winks goodbye) The kids running up to grab JIM, pulls him back to the party. GIRLS Come 'ere Uncle Jim, we're playing blind man's bluff... TIME CUT TO: EXT. GARDEN - LATER DAY JIM, a bearded Santa Claus with the birthday hat on his head, surrounded by the GIRLS and BOYS and DOROTHY shooting a home movie. They're eating birthday cake but UNCLE JIM is drinking straight from the cognac bottle -- a strange sight. JIM (to Robin) So what are you gonna be when you grow up? ROBIN I wanna be your wife He laughs, looks at Dorothy who's shooting him with the Super 8. JIM I don't know, can I afford you? Pam kinda wiped me out with her dress store y'know... ROBIN I'll make my own dresses and you'll see, I'll be the best wife. DOROTHY (nodding) You'll never be alone Jim. JIM (to Dorothy) You know I've never been happier. Not as much of a rush as I used to be in y'know... this is the strangest life I've ever known. His eyes on a LITTLE BOY who's walking into the party, sitting down with the others, ignored, isolated, a birthday cap on his head. Clothes belong to the 1940's and the face seems familiar. Jim is not sure, woozy from the cognac. As he fades. We saw the Boy many years ago in the backseat of the car in the Arizona desert. Jim's head falling gently into his folded arms on the table, the cognac bottle at his elbow, merlin hat on, beard, the kids laughing, pulling his ears and nose -- he doesn't wake up. TIME CUT TO: As Ray comes over now, rouses him gently. RAY Gotta plane to catch man? Jim coming awake in that instant alert way of his, but obviously hung over. JIM O?... splittling headache from which the future is made. Puzzling remark, He gets up, shaky, exits, kids tearing at him. Goodbyes. EXT. RAY'S HOUSE - VENICE - TWILIGHT The beach is behind them, the last of the frisbee players and dogs, the skaters go by, as we continue to hear RIDERS from within. RAY Is Pam really there in Paris waiting? JIM (ironic, head hurts) Sure. The Count's there so where else would she be? Gotta try to start over, without all the hassles, y'know. I think we can. RAY I never knew what you saw in that nightmare chick man. JIM Well she is kinda flakey -- like me. I mean she's just so vulnerable about everything. It makes me sad man. (pause) But she's always kinda believed in something about me y'know -- her little picture of me as the unsung poet -- and it's a fantasy I kinda dig y'know, 'stead of the one I live. RAY I don't know man, I don't wanna sound like your old man but you're only 27, you're living like you gotta get it all in, you gotta slow down man, you did it, you broke thru to the other side. JIM We didn't break thru Ray, we just pushed things a little. When you really break thru, there's nothing left. No music, no Doors, no God, nothing -- only a will to power. RAY I don't believe that. You were an American prince, man -- with overbred genes -- (Jim scoffs, laughs) No! What could've been Jim? You could've been President. (Jim cracks up) No man! What could've been Jim? We stood here on this beach on the edge of the Pacific that crazy summer day in '65 -- and we knew, you and I, we knew we were at the edge of the mind. we were there, man. One planet, one globe, one mind. Consciousness, we raised it, we were there. Jim, not the sentimental type, climbs in his car, amused. JIM And now what? RAY Now? (smiles, lethally sweet) You've made me into Ishmael. I am the last survivor of the Pequod. And I exist only to tell the story of Ahab who fought the black whale. JIM (loves it, laughs) It was white Ray. You gotta stop harpin' on that day. I was so ripped I can hardly remember it. Ignites engine. Ray leans in, lightening up. RAY Hey, what was that poem you once wrote about two chicks on the pier? JIM Come on man, I gotta fly. RAY Come on. Just once. JIM (VOICE OVER, pulling out the car) In that year we had a great Visitation of energy Back in those days Everything was simpler and more confused One summer night, going to the pier I ran into two young girls The blonde was called Freedom The dark one Enterprise We talked And they told me this story. As he departs, waving. RAY (OVER) What was the story? His point of view -- Jim receding into the sun in his mustang -- making a shakey, screeching curve at the bend of the beach. And he's gone. An ominous ROAR of an AIRPLANE above RAY. -- flying away. EXT. LOS ANGELES - TWILIGHT The PLANE flies off into the setting ball of red sun. INT. RECORDING SESSION (LAST SESSION) - L.A. - DEC. The bearded POET hunches in his chair, exhausted, clutching the paper, finished. Pause. He downs a final shot, grunts to the Indian Ghostman sitting there on a stool watching him in the corner of the studio. The Ghostman laughs (but nothing comes out of his mouth). His wrinkled eyes are happy, feathered ponytail, he nods... pleased. MORRISON Well, didja get all that? GHOSTMAN You done good, Jim, go now -- rest The ENGINEER, exhausted, doesn't feel anything funny. ENGINEER Yeah, I got it Jim. The poets face brightens. A small but ever-so-sweet smile of triumph hikes up the corners of his mouth. JIM Aw right. Let's get some tacos! He stands, sways, than moves out of view. The empty bottle of whiskey, its sands run out, is left behind. As we FADE OUT, a hardy, mischievous Morrison laugh and a ripple of sensuous MUSIC carry us into the lilting, lamenting strains of AN AMERICAN PRAYER -- THE END without lyrics for now as we cut to: INT. PARIS BEDROOM - NEAR DAWN (NIGHT) (1971) PAMELA is agitated in her sleep -- waking as she feels him watching. Is that him? At the door? A SHADOW -- leaves. Footsteps moving down the narrow Parisian corridor with the creaky floor. PAM Jim... that you? Looks at the time. Somewhere near dawn. The sounds of a bath being drawn. Nightmare or sleep? She tries to fade back to sleep but the MUSIC and the WHISPERING prod her, pull her awake... DISSOLVE: SAME FACE -- AN HOUR LATER. Putting her robe on, the slippers, the light... moving. She is much more ravaged looking than before. INT. BATHROOM - DAWN She finds him now... His face floating upwards, angelic eyes, the beard is now gone, a little smile on his face. He must be playing another joke. Although she really knows as she says the words: PAM Jim! It was you. I always know when it's you. (moving closer) Come on baby get out of the tub... mama'll dry you off... (pause) Jim Morrison, now you stop joking you hear me, cut it out! His face. At peace, as she sobs, the MUSIC cresting to Jim's lyrics. PAM ...was it all right Jim, did you enjoy it when it came my baby? Just like you said it'd be? JIM (OVER) They are waiting to take us into the severed garden do you know how pale and wanton thrillful comes death at a strange hour? Unannounced unplanned for like a scaring overfriendly guest you've brought to bed? Death makes angels of us all? And gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as raven's claws... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY - PARIS - DAY His face etching into a perfect Alexandrine bust of physical beauty. The camera moving to reveal, a wintry day, leaves blowing, the wild cats everywhere in the empty cemetery, the crumbling tombs, the flowers fresh and dead around Jim's tomb, the graffiti, wine bottles, Wilde, Bizet, Piaf, Chopin, Morrison... JIM (OVER) No more money, no more fancy dress this other kingdom seems by far the best until its other jaw reveals incest and loose obedience to a vegetable law. I will not go I prefer a feast of friends to the giant family... The MUSIC rolling up on: INT. CORRIDOR & STAGE - LIMBO Smoke. Some lights. The distant cheers of a CROWD. In slightly SLOW MOTION, a FIGURE moves down a corridor into a blinding light of stage and smoke. THREE OTHER SHADOWS are there waiting -- as the GHOST moves to the microphone in altered motion. The AUDIENCE is out there somewhere in the dark -- we sense they too have become ghosts, as all of us will one day. The MUSIC continuing up to roll from AMERICAN PRAYER -- THE END -- snatches we annotate. GHOST ANNOUNCER Ladies and Gentlemen, from Los Angeles California -- The Doors! (ghostly applause) JIM & THE DOORS (snatches) ...have you seen the warm progress under the stars? Have you forgotten the keys to the kingdom? Have you been born yet and are you alive? Where is the feast we were promised? Let's reinvent the gods, the myths of the ages! We need great golden copulations Camera closing past the DOORS to JIM alone, circling the mike with his dance -- the INDIAN GHOSTMAN jigging, shaman- like, off to the side -- now levitating above the stage, all crazy, gawky dancing. JIM Well, I'll tell you a story of whiskey, mystics and men And about the believers and how the whole thing began First there were women and children obeying the moon Then daylight brought wisdom and sickness too soon... the moon is a dry blood beast We have assembled inside this ancient and insane theatre to propagate our lust for life and flee the swarming wisdom of the streets we live we die and death not ends it (screams in agony) FATHER HAVE MERCY!!! Ending with a solitary sing-song croak. JIM Bird of prey, bird of prey Flying high, flying high in the summer sky Bird of prey, bird of prey flying high, flying high gently pass by Bird of prey, bird of prey flying high, flying high Take me on your flight (pause then) I will come again down from the wild mountains THE SUBTITLE READS "JIM IS SAID TO HAVE DIED OF 'HEART FAILURE'. PAMELA JOINED HIM THREE YEARS LATER"... HER ASHES WERE BURIED NEXT TO HIM." BLACK SCREEN WITH CREDITS ...Let's lighten it up with some good old rock and roll. As we hear Jim and the Doors running loose on ROADHOUSE BLUES" JIM & DOORS ALRITE YEAH YEAH YOU GOTTA ROLL, ROLL, ROLL YOU GOTTA THRILL MY SOUL -- ALRITE ROLL, ROLL, ROLL, ROLL, A THRILL MY SOUL A-GOT-A-BEEPA, GONCHA CHUCHNA HOCA CONK, A DONTA EATCHA COONA NEECHA BOP-A- LOOLA, LECHOW, BOMPA KECHOW YESOW CONK, YEAH RITE ASHEN LADY (X2) GIVE UP YOUR VOWS (X2) SAVE OUR CITY (X2) RIGHT NOW (X2) WELL I WOKE UP THIS MORNING I GOT MYSELF A BEER (X2) THE FUTURE'S UNCERTAIN THE END IS ALWAYS NEAR LET IT ROLL BABY ROLL (X3) ALL NITE LONG THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Drag Me to Hell.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drag Me to Hell.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f43bef5af6941832ceeffa213e5fb25ff55c8cbf --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drag Me to Hell.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DRAG ME TO HELL Written by Ivan Raimi & Sam Raimi September, 2007 INT. BEDROOM - BEFORE DAWN 22 year old Stephanie Browne is jarred from a peaceful sleep as the alarm clock BUZZES. She hits the snooze button and plops back down onto the pillow. After a few seconds of pure sleeping bliss, she wills herself up. She moves through her Ikea furnished bedroom, past a "Hang in there, baby" poster and into the bathroom. INT. BATHROOM - A MOMENT LATER Stephanie turns on the shower. While waiting for the water to heat up, she looks into the mirror and with exaggerated pronunciation, recites: STEPHANIE There is no friction, with proper diction. Good sounds abound, when the mouth is round. She catches herself on the last word, a hint of "Missouri twang" slipping through. STEPHANIE Round. Yawn. She slips off her nightgown and lumbers into the steaming shower. INT. KITCHEN -- MORNING She opens the refrigerator: A half grapefruit sits next to an inviting slice of chocolate cake. She's tempted, but chooses the grapefruit. EXT. VENTURA BOULEVARD PARKING STRUCTURE - MORNING A sunny Southern California day. Commuters speed by. Stephanie's FORD FOCUS pulls into the PARKING STRUCTURE, across the street from the BANK OF CALIFORNIA. She steps from the car, smartly dressed for work and walks briskly toward the intersection. The traffic signal changes to "Don't Walk". A BUSINESS MAN next to her, sprints across the street. Stephanie almost follows but decides to obey the sign. She looks down to see a little KITTEN. It rubs against her ankles and PURRS. STEPHANIE Well, you're a little cutie. 2. A car's HORN blares, spooking the kitten. It darts into the intersection and freezes at the sight of an oncoming VAN. Stephanie races into the intersection, snatches up the kitten and places it safely down on the other side of the street. STEPHANIE Hey! Slow down! The Van roars past. She pets the Kitten. It PURRS and licks Stephanie's face. She sets it down. STEPHANIE Go on home. Shoo now! She heads for the Bank. The kitten follows. She turns back, frowning. STEPHANIE Shoo! INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA -- DAY Stephanie site at her desk, across from a young MEXICAN COUPLE. She studies their mortgage. application. MEXICAN MAN We keep getting the same thing. Because I'm not employed by an American company, they won't take my application until they get my solvency statement. And the Mexican Treasury Department says that's going to take at least four more weeks. MEXICAN WOMAN And the house will be gone by then. STEPHANIE It says, here your employed by Pemex? MEXICAN That's right. STEPHANIE Isn't Pemex a subsidiary of Union Oil? 3. a MEXICAN MAN Yes. So? 0 STEPHANIE So technically, your employer is an American company. I think we can make this work. I'll call you this afternoon and let you know. The happy couple shake Stephanie's hand and exit. ELLEN, Stephanie's pretty, twenty two year old, roommate, flops down into the seat across from her. ELLEN I need clarification on the shoe issue. STEPHANIE Okay... ELLEN First of all-- you know you've got the only perfect pair of black dress shoes in L.A. So was that a definite, irrevocable, "no way" or t just a rather not at this time, "no way"? STEPHANIE It's an absolutely, positively, forget about the shoes already, "no way". They're my only good pair and I need them in good shape for tomorrow. ELLEN What's Up? STEPHANIE Dinner with Ray's parents. Ellen picks up a desktop photo: A shot of Stephanie and her handsome boyfriend, Ray, locked in an embrace, standing in the spray of a waterfall. ELLEN Ray's got a nice butt. Really tight AND--- Stephanie takes back her photo. 4. STEPHANIE 1 --I know. Thanks. ELLEN He's a keeper. But I told you about his mom, she's another story. I used to waitress at her country club, and with her, it's all about what private school you went to and who you know. You still up for that promotion? That would help. Stephanie looks longingly to... THE VACANT OFFICE of the former Assistant Manager. The large oak desk. The executive chair. Waiting to be filled. Stephanie turns back, pushing the thought away. STEPHANIE I'm not putting on a show. She'll either accept me for who I am or not. 4 ELLEN Are you reading self help books again? The Kitten peers out through Stephanie's partially opened desk drawer. ELLEN Hello there! Ellen reaches for the Kitty but Stephanie waves her off. STEPHANIE --Shhhl I can't let my boss see him. Stephanie glances to her manager, MR. JACKS, a heavyset man sitting behind a large desk. ELLEN What about the shoes? STEPHANIE I told you. No. Now beat it. 5. Mr. Jacks sneezes, rubs his nose. He looks suspiciously about the bank for the source of his allergy. 0 STEPHANIE Uh Oh. You better bring the kitty home for me. ELLEN Sure. If I can take the shoes. STEPHANIE I told you, no. Mr. Jacks sneezes again, his eyes water. He turns to his SECRETARY. MR. JACKS Has someone brought a damned animal into my bank?! Mr. Jacks looks about the Bank, his twitching nose leading him toward Stephanie's desk. STEPHANIE Okay, fine! Take the shoes! Hidden from Mr. Jack's view, Ellen quickly scoops up the Kitten and places it into her purse. As Mr. Jacks arrives at Stephanie's desk, he overhears: ELLEN Just don't expect me to take care of it. This catches Mr. Jack's Attention. He turns to the ladies, wondering what they're talking about. Stephanie takes Ellen's hand and vigorously shakes it goodbye. STEPHANIE Of course not. I'll take care of everything. And thanks for choosing Bank of California. Ellen plays along. T 6. ELLEN Okay. Then I'll see you later. I mean--- whenever the next time I'm in the bank. You know-- for a loan. OR-- STEPHANIE Goodbye. As Ellen passes, Mr. Jacks sneezes again, harder. MR. JACKS Someone has definitely brought an animal in here. He eyes Ellen suspiciously as she exits. STEPHANIE I don't see any cats. Or any animals. MR. JACKS Hope to hell, not. STEPHANIE By the way, I put the paperwork for the Mcpherson loan on your desk. MR. JACKS Mcpherson? STEPHANIE That big corporate loan I've been trying to set up? It's just preliminary but-- MR. JACKS Oh, right. I'll look it over when I get the chance. STEPHANIE Mr. Jacks, I was wondering it you had made any decision regarding the Assistant Manager's position yet? MR. JACKS I'm still deciding. Right now it's between Stu and yourself. 4 7. STEPHANIE Stu? The trainee? Stephanie turns to see Stu, the balding loan officer who sits at his desk, watching, trying to figure out what Jacks is saying to her. MR. JACKS I know he's new but he's also quite aggressive and we like that. Don't get me wrong, you're well liked here, but we're also looking for someone who's not afraid to crunch the numbers and make the tough decisions. STEPHANIE Mr. Jacks, I feel that I'm perfectly capable of-- MR. JACKS --I'll let you know as soon as,I decide. In the meantime, take him through our loan qualifying procedures... just in case. STEPHANIE Oh. okay. MR JACKS And would you mind taking your lunch now? STEPHANIE Sure. MR. JACKS And on your way back, maybe you could bring me a turkey club? Stu overhears them as he passes by. STU Turkey club. Excellent choice, J.J. Then to Stephanie: STU Mind picking one up for me? 8. STEPHANIE No problem. Jacks heads back toward his desk. Stephanie grabs her purse and keys and as she heads out, Stu calls after her: STU On toasted rye! And spicy mustard! Stephanie doesn't like fetching lunch for the trainee but hides her displeasure. STEPHANIE Sure. EXT. UCLA - WESTWOOD CAMPUS - DAY Stephanie enters the Ivy-covered red bricked Department of Psychology Building. INT. UCLA LECTURE HALL - DAY RAY DALTON, a handsome twenty-nine year old man is lecturing before a class of UCLA students. They listen attentively. RAY The conscious mind abhors uncertainty. It seeks a pattern or reason for everything. When we can't find that pattern or reason, we sometimes ascribe it's cause to the world of the supernatural. The spiritual world is created by the human mind to conveniently explain everything we can't. So when does a belief in the supernatural cross into the field of abnormal behavior? Where do you, the Psychologist, come in? When these beliefs negatively affect our patients activities of daily living. Their jobs, their friends, their sense of well being-- The class bell RINGS. RAY Tomorrow we'll be covering the clinical manifestations of psychosis. You'll find it all t referenced in the text. 9. The students pack up their books. Ray smiles as he sees Stephanie enter the lecture hall, holding a bag of deli food. INT. RAY'S UNIVERSITY OFFICE - LATER Stephanie eats a salad as she goes over a financial statement of the Mcpherson Corporation. Ray grades papers. RAY How're things at the bank? How's that new position looking? STEPHANIE I don't know. RAY Really? You sounded so sure. STEPHANIE Well, now there's this new guy... they're considering him too. Ray sees how bummed out she is. He moves close, taking her in his arms. RAY That job needs somebody with your experience. They know that. Stephanie nods. STEPHANIE Oh, I've got something for you. She rummages through her purse and hands Ray an envelope. He removes a coin. An old nickle. RAY A 1925 Indian head! Hey, good find. Where'd you get it? STEPHANIE One of the tellers found it for me. Ray puts the coin back into the envelope and tucks it into his pocket. 10. RAY Thanks. STEPHANIE I'd better get back to work. She quickly gathers her things. Ray returns to grading his student's exams. The telephone RINGS. Ray hits the speakerphone. RAY. Doctor Dalton. It's the voice of an older woman, TRUDY. TRUDY ON SPEAKERPHONE Hello dear. RAY Hi Mom, can you hold on a sec? He turns from the phone, whispering to Stephanie: RAY I'll call you tonight. She kisses Ray and exits. INT. HALL OUTSIDE RAY'S OFFICE - DAY Stephanie stops at the water fountain for a drink. RAY'S VOICE Nothing much. Just had lunch with Stephanie. And trying to get these midterms graded-- She halts as she hears her name mentioned on Ray's speakerphone. She moves closer to Ray's office to eavesdrop: TRUDY'S VOICE --Stephanie? The one from the farm? RAY'S VOICE You know who she is. She's coming over for dinner tomorrow night to meet you and dad. 0 11. TRUDY'S VOICE Ray, I'm sure she's sweet, but she doesn't sound... RAY'S VOICE What? TRUDY'S VOICE I mean she's just a teller at some bank right? Raymond there's a reason that your father and I raised you in a certain way. We have expectations. RAY'S VOICE Please, mom, not this again-- TRUDY'S VOICE I heard that Julie Kulick is looking for someone to play tennis with. You know she graduated Yale law with honors. I'm told she's quite a successful attorney now. I gave you her number but her mother says you never called. RAY'S VOICE Because I'm with Stephanie. I'm not looking for anybody else. TRUDY'S VOICE Would it kill you to-- RAY'S VOICE --Mom. I have to go. See you tomorrow night. Okay? Bye. A downhearted Stephanie quietly exits. INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA - BREAK ROOM - DAY As Stephanie pours herself a cup of coffee, Stu and Mr. Jacks take the first bites of their sandwiches. Stu makes a face. He inspects the sandwich, shakes his head. STU (quietly to Mr. Jacks) She messed up my order. Stephanie heard that. 12. STEPHANIE No I didn't, Stu. STU Steph, I said "no mayo". STEPHANIE You never said that. Stu rolls his eyes to Mr. Jacks. Stephanie caught Stu's look, but what can she do? She exits. INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA - LATER Stephanie sits at her desk, entering data into her computer. She glances across the bank to see Stu and Mr. Jacks emerging from the break room. Stu is about to return to his desk when he remembers something: he's got two tickets to a Dodger game that he can't use. Mr. Jacks happily accepts the tickets. Stephanie looks to the vacant office of the Assistant Manager. She can feel her promotion slipping away. SCRATCH... SCRATCH... Stephanie looks to the source of the sound... A withered hand. An involuntary tremor causes it's yellowed fingernails to SCRATCH across the surface of Stephanie's desk... SCRATCH... SCRATCH... The hand belongs to MRS. SYLVIA GANUSH, the aged woman who site across from Stephanie. She wears a.formal dress and hat from another era. The outfit is threadbare in spots but great care has been taken to maintain it. MRS. GANUSH (Hungarian accent) Will you help me? STEPHANIE Of course. What can I do for you? Mrs. Ganush coughs up phlegm and spits it into a linen handkerchief, which she tucks back into her puree. She hands Stephanie a bunch of crumpled papers. Stephanie reviews them. 13. STEPHANIE Mrs. "Ganush"? The old woman nods. STEPHANIE This is a delinquency notice... it says that the payment on your loan was due a number of months ago. And this other document... is a court order for repossession. The bank is informing you of their intent to repossess-your property at 325 Brandon street, tomorrow., MRS. GANUSH The trucks are there now. The men are packing all my things. Private things. Please, make them stop. This is my home for twenty years. And I make every payment until the sickness took my eye. Mrs. Ganush turns her head to reveal a milky white eye. Stephanie hides her revulsion. STEPHANIE Well... do you have the payment with you now? MRS. GANUSH I hope to get it soon. I just need a little more time. STEPHANIE I don't think my manager is going to extend you anymore credit. I'd like to help but... MRS. GANUSH Please. Won't you try? STEPHANIE Okay. Wait here. Stephanie stands and moves off. The Old Woman picks through a bowl of hard candies on Stephanie's desk. Stephanie stands before Mr. Jacks. He acknowledges her without looking up from his work. 1B 14. MR. JACKS What's up? STEPHANIE I've got an elderly woman asking for an extension on her mortgage payment.. They're in the process of repossessing her home. She's on a fixed income and she's had some medical problems. I was wondering if we could give her a break. Stephanie hands Mr. Jacks the loan file. He puts on his bifocals, studies it. Stephanie glances over her shoulder. STEPHANIE'S P.O.V. - HER DESK Mrs. Ganush looks around to. make sure no one's watching, then tips the bowl of hard candies into her purse. She reaches. into her mouth and removes a set of stained dentures that she wraps in her linen handkerchief. She places a piece of hard candy into her mouth and gums it with a wet SUCKING sound. The Old Woman's one good eye, wanders about in ecstacy as she sucks on the sugary treat. MR. JACKS Apparently, we've already granted her two extensions. And you know on this type of foreclosure, the bank makes a sizable amount in fees. He hands her back the file. STEPHANIE It would mean I'd have to throw her out of her house. MR. JACKS Tough decision. Your call. He leans back in his overstuffed leather chair and studies her. Stephanie glances to the vacant office of the Assistant Manager. The large oak desk. The thick carpet. She sees a calculating Stu Rubin eyeing her from his workstation. 15. STEPHANIE I'll take care of it. Stephanie returns to her desk. STEPHANIE Mrs. Ganush, another extension on the loan is out of the question. MRS. GANUSH What? STEPHANIE I'm sorry. MRS. GANUSH No. Please, it's my home... I'm begging you. STEPHANIE I tried to talk my boss into it but he just wouldn't approve. MRS. GANUSH But where will I live? Stephanie leafs through the loan documents. She finds a name. STEPHANIE Mrs. Ganush, you've given your granddaughter as a reference... It says here, she lives nearby... Wouldn't you be better off living with her? MRS. GANUSH I would not burden her. STEPHANIE Okay well, there's several fine "assisted living" facilities for the elderly. MRS GANUSH A nursing home? No. I will never live in one of those places1 STEPHANIE Well, of course, that's your choice. 16. MRS. GANUSH It's yours. STEPHANIE I'm sorry there's nothing I can do. Mrs. Ganush begins to sob. MRS. GANUSH I am proud woman, Miss Brown, and never have I begged for anything. But I will beg for you now. This one time. I humble myself before you. STEPHANIE That isn't necessary, please. Let's not make this personal. It's just the bank's policy. I'm really sorry Mrs. Ganush. Stephanie takes the loan documents and places them neatly into a manila folder. she glances up but Mrs. Ganush is gone.. Stephanie turns in her chair and is startled to see the old woman, kneeling before her. She clutches Stephanie's leg with her gnarled hands. MRS. GANUSH Have mercy on me. Stephanie stands, tries to pull free, but the old woman will not release her leg. STEPHANIE Please, let go. Customers turn to look. Mr. Jacks glances up from his desk. MR. JACKS What the hell? MRS. GANUSH I, Sylvia Ganush, beg. On my mother's grave, I beg you. STEPHANIE Please, take your hands off me. But the old woman only clutches tighter. 17. STEPHANIE t I'm calling security. She picks up the phone and presses a button. STEPHANIE (into the phone) Could you please come over? Mrs. Ganush finally releases her grip and bows her head in humiliation. MRS. GANUSH You shame me. She composes herself. Then, slowly stands, puffing up her chest. Mu3tering her damaged pride. MRS. GANUSH I begged you... Her one. good eye fixes it's hardened gaze upon Stephanie. MRS. GANUSH .and you shame me. Mrs. Ganush suddenly grasps Stephanie's arm. Stephanie tries to pull away but the old lady's grip is strong. Mrs. Ganush reaches out to pluck the charm bracelet from Stephanie's wrist-- but the Security Guard intervenes. SECURITY GUARD I think your business here is finished, ma'am. The Guard escorts Mrs. Ganush from the bank. Through the banks's window, Stephanie watches the Guard lead Mrs. Ganush to a old, Chevy Cavalier on the street. Stephanie composes herself and when she again looks up, the old woman's car is gone. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BANK - LATER 16 The bank is closing. Stephanie is finishing some paper work when Mr. Jacks stops by her desk. 0 18. MR. JACKS That was one nutty old lady. You okay? Stephanie nods. MR. JACKS You handled that just right. And by the way, as far as the Assistant Manager's position... You're at the top of the list. STEPHANIE Thanks. Mr. Jacks nods, heads for home. Stephanie loads a pile of contracts, a ruler and a desk stapler into a cardboard box and exits the bank. The Security guard locks up behind her. EXT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA - PARKING STRUCTURE - DAY Stephanie waves as the last of her co-workers drive off. It's then that she notices the battered Chevy Caviler. It's parked in the structure. Stephanie looks closer. There's no one behind the wheel. She nervously glances about. No sign of Mrs. Ganush. Stephanie makes her way toward the safety of her car. Her FOOTSTEPS echo in the deserted structure, more loudly than she would like. She arrives at her car and quickly gets inside, locking the doors behind her. She places the box of contracts on the seat next to her. As she starts the engine, she notices a strange sight: something moving, skimming along the surface of the lot. It's Mrs. Ganush's linen handkerchief. It whisks about like a ghost, swirling closer and closer. Stephanie watches transfixed, as it flies right toward her car. It dips beneath her hood and is gone. It suddenly sweeps up into view, flittering up, over her windshield, and is carried off by the wind. Stephanie breathes a sigh of relief just as two wrinkled hands come up around her face! Mrs Ganush sits up in the back seat of her car! SHRIEKING with rage at Stephanie! 4 19. MRS. GANUSH (In Hungarian) You bitch! I pluck out your fucking eyes! Mrs. Ganush's razor sharp fingernails lash out towards Stephanie's eyes. But Stephanie grabs the old woman's wrists, halting her. The withered hands drop down to wrap around Stephanie's throat. Stephanie fights for breath as she frantically searches for a weapon. Her hand finds the box on the seat next to her. She grabs a handful of colored push pins and jams them into the old woman's arm. Mrs. Ganush releases her grip. Stephanie has time for only a single gulp of air before Mrs. Ganush grabs two fistfuls of Stephanie's hair!. The old woman yanks upon it. Stephanie's head is pulled back, over the edge of the seat. Ganush braces her feet against the back of the front seat to pull even harder... Stephanie's neck is now bent so far back it's about to snap! Stephanie's hand finds the stapler, trips the release. It springs open. She swings it back over her shoulder! Ka-Thunk! Ka-Thunk! Ka-Thunk! With each blow, she delivers a staple into Mrs. Ganush's forehead. Ka-Thunk! A lucky shot-- the old lady's white eye is stapled shut. The old woman HOWLS, but her grip on Stephanie's hair only tightens. Stephanie, about to black out, throws the car into gear and hits the gas. As the car' accelerates, Stephanie fastens her shoulder harness with the last of her strength. The old woman's stapled eyelid POPS open just in time for her to see... an oncoming concrete column. Stephanie's car slams into it. Stephanie is held fast by her shoulder harness. But Mrs. Ganush's body hurtles forward over the front seat, impacting against the dashboard with tremendous force. Close shot of the old woman's head slamming into the dash. In a spray of broken teeth, her dentures eject from her mouth. 20. Both women are dazed from the impact. Stephanie regains her wits first. She reaches across Mrs. Ganush and opens the passenger door. Mrs. Ganush stirs, but before she can come to, Stephanie's foot shoves her out. The old woman hits the ground hard but she sits up suddenly with a SNARL and starts to climb back in. Stephanie shifts the car into reverse. The opened passenger door knocks Mrs. Ganush back down to the pavement. The car's rear bumper slams into a concrete column. Stephanie is dazed. Mrs. Ganush crawls to her feet and begins limping toward the car. Stephanie tries to focus. A blurred image in the rear view mirror: Mrs. Ganush running closer,'SHRIEKING with old world rage! The Old Woman reaches for the opened passenger door but Stephanie closes it and locks it just in time! Mrs. Ganush furiously pulls on the door handle to no,avail. STEPHANIE I beat you, you old bitch! Next time take your Geretol! The old woman bends down, beneath Stephanie's view. Stephanie looks about. Where'd she go? The old woman pops up into view, raising a chunk of concrete and... CRASHI Stephanie SCREAMS as the window shatters. The old woman's head juts into the cart She clamps her toothless maw down upon Stephanie.'s chin. Suckling it, gumming. The old woman's good eye rolls about in ecstacy. Stephanie SHRIEKS as she pushes the slobbering head away. Strands of spittle form a bridge from the old woman's mouth to Ste phanie's jaw. The old woman's wrinkled hands grope about the front seat. She finds her dentures, now damaged from the fight. She GRUNTS as she jams them back into her mouth. She comes at Stephanie, mouth wide open and SHRIEKING! Stephanie grabs the wooden ruler from her cardboard box and shoves it down the old lady's throat. Mrs. Ganush gags, trying to retch up the ruler. 21. Then Stephanie is suddenly screaming herself, as the old 1 Woman has grabbed her legs and is dragging her from the car. Stephanie hits the pavement. She shields her face with her hands, waiting, but the blow never comes. The old woman standing above her, WHEEZING. MRS. GANUSH You shamed me. The Old Woman reaches down. Stephanie flinches. Mrs.'Ganush's gnarled hand plucks a thin brass button from the sleeve of Stephanie's coat. She waves the button through the air, and breathes out a single word: MRS. GANUSH Lamia... Clouds move past the setting Sun. A shadow falls over Stephanie. A cold wind makes her shiver. STEPHANIE What--? What are you doing? Stephanie sits up, reaching for her button. But the old woman 1 moves it out of reach. MRS. GANUSH You want it? Stephanie snatches the button back. Mrs. Ganush smiles cryptically as Stephanie stuffs the button into her coat pocket. MRS. GANUSH Soon it will be you, who comes begging to me. It begins tonight when you hear the cry. STEPHANIE What cry? MRS. GANUSH The Lamia. It's coming for you. A large black, BUZZING fly lands on Stephanie's face. She swats it away. Her vision blurs and she grows dizzy. She leans against the car for support. When she finally looks up, Mrs. Ganush is gone. 22. INT. POLICE STATION - SARGENT'S DESK - NIGHT Stephanie and Ray have just finished filing a report with OFFICER NAIMARK. RAY What about a restraining order? OFFICER NAIMARK Well that's usually only something we do if there's a pattern of harassment. But like I said, we'll file a report and keep it on record in case you do have a continuing problem. But once we send an officer around to have a word with, her, I don't think she'll be bothering you again. STEPHANIE Thank you, you've been very helpful. EXT. VENTURA BLVD - LATER THAT NIGHT Stephanie and Ray eat ice cream cones as they walk past the shops. RAY I just thank God you're okay. You are okay, right? STEPHANIE I'm fine. Ray waits, sensing that there's more to it. RAY Your fine, but... STEPHANIE I-- It's just that I could have gotten her another extension. But I didn't. RAY Loo]. You said the bank had already granted her two extensions. (MORE) 4 23. RAY (cont'd) When you don't pay your mortgage you lose your house, what did she t expect? STEPHANIE I guess. A breeze. She shivers. He wraps his arms around her protectively and after a moment, they walk on. Stephanie watches wistfully as a YOUNG COUPLE coo over their BABY. Behind the couple, Stephanie notices a neon sign in a storefront window. It reads: PSYCHIC. STEPHANIE Let's get our fortune's read! RAY You're kidding right? She cajoles a protesting Ray through the front door of the establishment. INT. STOREFRONT - NIGHT A tiny waiting room. A poster on the wall indicating the energy meridians of the human body. RAY I just hope to God none of my students see me here. Five bucks says he's wearing a turban. A beaded curtain parts, revealing... Rham Jas, a small, dark skinned, fifty year old Indian man. He wears a plain black suit and a white turban. His inquisitive eyes evaluate the couple. RHAM JAS I am Rham Jas. Seer. STEPHANIE How do you do? I'm Stephanie Brown and this is Ray... RAY But you probably already knew that. Just kidding. Rham Jas gives Ray a tight smile. 24. RHAM JAS How can I help you? STEPHANIE We'd like to have our fortunes read. Can you do that? Read the future? RHAM JAS I have the ability to see certain energies... Sometimes these ' energies are a foretoken of things to come. Sometimes not. Sixty dollars, please. RAY Sixty dollars? Isn't that a little steep for this kind of thing? RHAM JAS Then go. There are many who would claim to be seers. But they are not. Although you would pay them little... you would receive nothing. If you.are not serious, go. Rham Jas turns to depart through the beaded curtain. STEPHANIE Wait. She removes some bills from her purse but Ray waves her off, handing Rham Jas a credit card. RHAM JAS Platinum card. Very good. He swipes Ray's card through the credit card machine. INT Rham Jas'S BACK ROOM - NIGHT A sparsely furnished, dimly lit room. The walls are lined with old books. Rham Jas stands before Stephanie and Ray, who sit at a card table. Stephanie giggles with excitement. STEPHANIE Sorry. Rham Jas smiles back. 25. RHAM JAS That's quite all right. So, you wish to know something of your destiny. Very good. We shall see what the fates have in store. Rham Jas crosses to the window and closes the curtains. RAY Freud said destiny was not an act of fate but rather something created by our subconscious to control our conscious choices. RHAM JAS That is true. But... "We should not pretend to understand the world only by intellect." RAY Carl Jung... RHAM JAS Yes. From his treatise "Psychological types". Ray studies this strange man as he strikes a match and lights a candle. There's more to him than meets the eye. Ray brushes it off. RAY Jung-- the New Agers' favorite psychologist. RHAM JAS Because he wasn't afraid to bring God into the equation. Rham Jas takes a seat at the table, across from Stephanie. RHAM JAS Your hand, please. Stephanie extends her hand to Rham Jas. He closes his eyes and concentrates. Stephanie smiles excitedly to Ray, who raises a skeptical eyebrow. RHAM JAS You,work with money. TO 26. STEPHANIE That's right! 4 RHAM JAS But... you've lost something. STEPHANIE No. I don't think so. RHAM JAS No. No, you're right. Something's been taken from you. STEPHANIE No, I- Rham Jas grabs her arm and turns it, revealing the threads. that once held the button on her coat sleeve. RHAM JAS A button. STEPHANIE Well, yes! Some Old Woman... RAY Well anyone can see she lost a button. So what? STEPHANIE But Ray, it was very strange. At the bank today. The old woman... the one I told you about... she plucked the button right from my sleeve. RAY Why would she do that? RHAM JAS If you would please, both be quiet. Rham Jae concentrates, his eyelids flutter. Stephanie appears uneasy. The flame of the candle begins to flicker as a breeze sweeps through the room. The wind chimes TINKLE. Ray pulls his collar closed against the sudden chill in the air. Rham Jas's back stiffens. 4 27. He releases Stephanie's hand and stands. He moves away from the table, uncomfortable. With a handkerchief,' he dabs perspiration from his brow. RHAM JAS I think that is enough for now. STEPHANIE Wait. You saw something. What? RHAM JAS I'm sorry. I'm tired and I see it's become quite late. Of course I will refund your money. STEPHANIE Tell me. Please. Rham Jas hesitates, then... RHAM JAS A bad spirit has come upon you. STEPHANIE How? RHAM JAS Did you blaspheme the dead while visiting a grave site? STEPHANIE No. RHAM JAS Do you play with Ouija board or confer with those who practice the black arts? RAY What is this?! STEPHANIE No. No, I didn't. RHAM JAS Then perhaps someone has cursed you. STEPHANIE Who? 0 28. Rham Jas turns her wrist, exposing the loose threads on her coat sleeve. CLOSE ON THE THREADS where the brass button once was. EXT. HILLS OF SILVER LAKE -- NIGHT Ray and Stephanie cruise along the dark, winding hills. Ray looks over at Stephanie. STEPHANIE How did he know all that? RAY Know what? That you lost,a button?1 He makes some good guesses, stirs you up, leaving you with a lot of questions. And conveniently, his business card. C'mon, he's a scam artist. STEPHANIE He didn't want the money. He tried to give the money back. RAY In the end, he took it, didn't he? STEPHANIE I guess so. EXT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ray and Stephanie step from the car. They open a rusting iron gate, and walk up the hilly path to Stephanie's slightly funky Silver Lake rental house. INT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - FOYER - NIGHT Ray and Stephanie step inside. The kitten PURRS around Stephanie's feet. Ray picks it up. RAY So this is him. Got a name? STEPHANIE Uh... just "Kitty" so far. 29. She takes the cat from Ray, cuddles it. RAY Sure you don't want me to spend the night? STEPHANIE Don't tempt me. I've got to prep a presentation for the morning. RAY okay. Ray kisses her, opens the front door and exits. He calls back to her from his car: RAY Remember, dinner at my folk's house, tomorrow night. We're supposed to bring desert. I could pick something up? STEPHANIE No. I'm planning on baking my special cake. RAY Sounds good. Try not to stay up too late. Ray waves and steps into his car. Stephanie watches him drive off. INT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT Stephanie site at the kitchen table in her flannel pajamas, entering financial data into her laptop. An episode of "Desperate Housewives" plays in the background on TV. A baking timer CHIMES. Stephanie removes a beautifully browned cake from the oven and sets it on the counter to cool. Her roommate, ELLEN, comes down the stairs, snuggling the kitten. STEPHANIE Isn't he adorable? ELLEN Let's hope the landlord thinks so. She sets down,the kitten and picks up her overnight bag. 0 30. ELLEN T What about you? You going to be okay? You know, I don't have to go out tonight. STEPHANIE No, I'm fine. Have a good time. ELLEN Do I look great? Be honest. STEPHANIE. You look great. Ellen smiles, grabs her car keys and heads for the door. STEPHANIE But... Isn't that Marci's dress? ELLEN Yeah. And if she calls, tell her not to go bi-polar on me, I'll'get it back to her by tomorrow. Or the next day. Bye! Ellen exits. Stephanie places butter into a mixer for the cake frosting. Through the kitchen window we can see Ellen walking down the path, toward the street. She steps through the iron gate, latching it closed behind her. EXT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ellen's car pulls away. The wind kicks up, whisking leaves about, as though something where moving up the path and toward the front gate of the house. INT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT An unsettling SHRIEK! what the hell was that? Stephanie sets down the measuring cup. She moves to the front door. Locks it. She looks out the kitchen window. The iron. gate is now open. It SHRIEKS as it swings back and forth in the wind. 31. Suddenly, the latch gives way and the windows swing open! 1 Wind sweeps through the kitchen, whipping dead leaves about. The hanging pans bang together! KLANG! KLANG! Stephanie forces the windows closed. The wind dies. The room grows eerily quiet. A car passes in the street below. It's headlights sweep across the house. The headlight beams throw moving shadows on the wall. Stephanie notices that one particular shadow is darker than the others. It becomes the silhouette of Mrs. Ganush, but there's no one in the room with her. The car passes and the shadows vanish. Sensing something, the Kitten arches it's back. Now Stephanie feels it. A presence. The light bulb begins to sputter. She holds her breath, listens. The floorboards CREAK. Something is walking towards her. She spins around, but there's nothing there. The SOUND of footsteps drawing closer. She backs against the wall, trembling. Suddenly Stephanie's face is struck by an invisible hand! She cries out. Her mouth is bleeding. She runs for the door. She's almost there. Her hand reaches for the knob, when something unseen picks her up. She SCREAMS as she is thrown against the wall. She falls to the floor. Lifting her head, she catches her own reflection in the WINDOW: In the reflection, as the light bulb flickers, we see a flash of ghostly hands that grope at her body. They reach up through the floor, and clutch at her legs, buttocks and breasts. STEPHANIE Get off me! Get off! The phantom hands vanish. Stephanie looks about, eyes wild. INT. RAY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 32. Stephanie is wearing Ray's overcoat atop her pajamas. She nervously paces the room. Ray hurries in, handing her a pack of frozen peas that she presses against her bloody lip. RAY So she came to your house? This is crazy. I'm calling that police officer. He begins to dial but Stephanie stops him. STEPHANIE Ray, you're not listening. It wasn't her. It was something that she sicked on me... RAY I don't understand. STEPHANIE I didn't tell you the whole story. That old woman... after she knocked me down, and pulled the button from my coat, she told me that... RAY What? STEPHANIE She said that something was coming for me... and it did. Ray stares at her with concern. INT. RAY'S HOUSE - LATER DOCTOR RANGIVERTZ, wearing jeans and a UCLA basketball sweatshirt, concludes his interview with Stephanie. He carries a small black medical bag as he steps from the living room to speak with Ray. DOCTOR RANGAVERTZ Ray, you were right to call me. Never a good idea to be personally involved with your patient. RAY What do you think? 4 33. DOCTOR RANGAVERTZ 1b Medically, she's fine. She's just very distraught. She's displaying some paranoia and a sense of panic. Classic symptoms of a post traumatic stress disorder. Probably a result of being assaulted by that old woman. Doctor Rangavertz scribbles out a prescription and hands it to Ray. RAY How worried should I be? DOCTOR RANGAVERTZ We'll have to wait and see. INT. RAY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 'Stephanie lays peacefully in bed, almost asleep. A bottle of sedatives on the bedside table. Ray pulls up the blanket around her exposed shoulder. Stephanie sighs, turns to him. RAY How you doing? STEPHANIE Better now. At the time it just seemed so real. I'm so embarrassed. RAY Don't be, you had a terrible day and you.got a little wigged out. It happens. STEPHANIE po, what now, Doc? RAY I was gonna surprise you, but what the hell. I've been planning a little trip for us this week end. Saturday morning we're taking a train to Santa Barbara. STEPHANIE Really? 34. RAY My family owns a cabin up there. In, the hills. Overlooking this little river. We'll light a fire, drink some champagne and screw our brains out. STEPHANIE You sure know how to talk to a girl. RAY It's a chance to just be together. Undisturbed. There's a lot of stuff I want to talk to you abqut but it never seems to be the right time. STEPHANIE Sounds nice. She draws in a deep breath and for the first time that evening, she looks at peace. Ray watches, her as she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep. FADE TO BLACK. INT. RAY'S BEDROOM - MORNING .Tweeting birds and filtered sunlight streaming in through the window, awaken Stephanie. She stretches and looks to the empty pillow next to her. Ray is gone. She tries to fall back asleep, but the sound of a dripping faucet keeps her awake. Frustrated, she gets out of bed and steps into the bathroom. WITHERED HANDS clamp around Stephanie's throat, violently SHAKING her! MRS GANUSH You shamed mel MATCH CUT to: Ray SHAKING her! RAY Steph! Wake Upl 4 35. She awakens in her bed, SCREAMING! 10 40 STEPHANIE Oh my God: Oh Godl RAY It was just a dream. It's okay. She gets control. Ray smooths out the tangled hair from her sweaty face. He looks deeply into her eyes, afraid of what's happening to her. The phone in the next room, RINGS.'Ray looks over, decides to ignore it. It keeps RINGING. STEPHANIE Go ahead. RAY I'll be right back. He steps into the next room and we hear him answer the phone. Stephanie sighs and lays back down... next to Mrs. Ganush! The Old Woman is covered in.a swarm of BLACK FLIES! Stephanie SHRIEKS! The Old Woman opens her maw, exposing sharp broken teeth. She lunges for Stephanie! Stephanie grabs the old woman by her hair, halting the chomping teeth inches from her face. She tries to push Mrs. Ganush away. But the Old Woman's yellowed teeth SNAP and press ever closer. The muscles in Stephanie's arms are trembling. She is weakening. Mrs. Ganush, closes in, about to clamp her teeth down upon Stephanie's face when-- Stephanie suddenly awakens with a GASP. It was all a dream within a dream. She bolts up out of bed. Takes her bearings. She's alone in Ray's bedroom. She checks the bathroom. Under the bed. All normal. Ray enters. RAY You, okay? 0 36. STEPHANIE No. No-- Oh my God. I had some 4 dreams. Awful. RAY Want to tell me about them? STEPHANIE The old lady. She was here... I couldn't wake up. Stephanie shakes her head. She can't finish. Ray pulls back the drapes. Sunlight pours into the room. Stephanie tries to put the dream out of her mind. Ray sits next to her, strokes her hair. RAY Doctor Rangervertz said you could stop by his office during your lunch hour. Stephanie nods. EXT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA - MORNING Ray's car stops in front of the Bank. INT. RAY'S CAR Stephanie looks across the street to the parking structure. Her car is there. The window has been replaced. RAY I had them replace the window last night. Still needs some body work. STEPHANIE- Thank you, Ray. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. RAY We've got to be prepared that it might take some time for you to get over this. She nods. INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA -- DAY 4 37. Stephanie enters the bank. She guilty glancep to the clock. It's 9:40. She's late. She tries to be discreet as she moves to her desk, hoping Mr. Jacks won't notice. She's almost there when Stu Rubin "accidently" knocks a note book off his desk. Mr. Jacks glances up and notes Stephanie's tardiness. Stu approaches Stephanie's desk. STU RUBIN Hi Steph. Just getting here? STEPHANIE What are you, the hall monitor? STU RUBIN Ha ha! You're funny, Steph. STEPHANIE What do you want? STU RUBIN I need you to finish teaching me the loan procedures. T STEPHANIE I've got a lot on my mind. Let's do it tomorrow. STU RUBIN Sure. I'll just tell Mr. Jacks that you don't have the time right now. Maybe he can show me. She glances up. Mr. Jacks'is still watching her. STEPHANIE No, no, that's all right. I'll do it. Where were we? STU RUBIN We were going over the asset-based lending guidelines. STEPHANIE Right. Okay. Let's say your client is a company that can't get traditional bank financing but 10 needs a secured loan. We offer-- 38. SCRATCH... SCRATCH... Stephanie looks around for the source of the sound, but can't find it. STU Yeah? STEPHANIE .uh, we offer several types of asset-based lending which consist of revolving lines of credit and term loans secured by accounts receivables, their inventory, machinery-- , SCRATCH... SCRATCH... Stephanie sees... That Stu's hand has been replaced by MRS. GANUSH'S... it's yellowed fingernails SCRATCH across her desk. She looks again, and Stu's hand has returned to normal. STU ---and? STEPHANIE (in her full Missouri twang) --And get your filthy pig knuckle off my desk! Stu is taken aback by Stephanie's outburst. He retreats to his desk in confusion. Stephanie sits, rattled. A drop of blood falls onto a piece of paper on her desk. The blood is trickling from her nose. Stephanie grabs a tissue to halt the bleeding. She looks down to see a large black fly land upon the drop of blood. She gasps and stands, her mind racing. She knows what she must do. She finds Mrs. Ganush's loan documents. She stuffs them into a folder, grabs her purse and bolts for the exit. Mr. Jacks engaged with a customer, calls after her: MR. JACKS Stephanie? Where are you going? She moves quickly out the door, pretending not to hear him. 4 39. Stu watches Stephanie go and gets up from his desk. She's left some files behind. He snoops around his desk. He notices a folder marked CONFIDENTIAL. It's the McPherson loan file. Interesting. He picks it up. EXT. MRS. GANUSH'S HOUSE - DAY An old, wood bungalow that has seen better days. A MOVING TRUCK in the driveway. Stephanie's car pulls up. she steps out, carrying Mrs. Ganush's loan documents. She passes the MOVING MEN who load the last of Mrs. Ganush's things. She arrives at the opened front door, gathers her courage and KNOCKS. No answer. She calls out: STEPHANIE Mrs. Ganush? No answer. She steps inside. 5 5 INT. MRS GANUSH'S FOYER - DAY It's dark and musty here. The place is barren but for some flattened cardboard boxes. Stephanie tries the light switch. No Power. STEPHANIE Mrs. Ganush? ' She moves forward into the living room. INT. MRS. GANUSH'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Its too dark to see much of anything. Stephanie stumbles over something left on the floor. A voice: MRS. GANUSH I knew you'd come. Stephanie almost jumps out of her skin. As her eyes adjust she sees Mrs. Ganush sitting on a crate in the corner of the room. Her arthritic hands clutching a yellowed photograph. 0 40. STEPHANIE Hi. I'm here because I think I can help you. I can get your house back for you. MRS. GANUSH It's so empty now. STEPHANIE . I can arrange for all your furniture to be brought back. Would that be okay? Mrs Ganush does not look up from the photograph. STEPHANIE So... on behalf of the bank I just want to resolve this to your satisfaction. This whole thing got personal and there was really no reason for that. The bank made a mistake and I can fix it for you and in return I'd like you to- cancel or call off, whatever you... you know-- that thing you did to me. Okay? No hard feelings. So... STEPHANIE My mother was a proud woman. Dignity. That's what she had. Stephanie nods. Waits an appropriate moment, then: places the document gently down on the floor next to Mrs. Ganush. STEPHANIE All you need to do is. sign here... Stephanie offers her a pen. STEPHANIE .and I'll take care of the rest. Mrs. Ganush's hard eyes find Stephanie's. They bore in. MRS. GANUSH No. 41. STEPHANIE 1 No? But... I'm saying I'll make things right. Just sign this and you can keep the house. Isn't that what you wanted? MRS. GANUSH It was what I wanted before you shamed me. Now I want to see you suffer. STEPHANIE Please! I've suffered enough! MRS GANUSH Not yet! Mrs. Ganush suddenly erupts in a broken toothed CACKLE. STEPHANIE You're insane! Just... just a crazy old woman! I don't even know why I came here! 1 MRS. GANUSH You know why. Terrified, Stephanie runs from the place. EXT. MRS. GANUSH'S HOUSE - DAY The Old Woman's CACKLING can still be heard as Stephanie hurries to her car and drives off. EXT. SEVEN ELEVEN PARKING LOT - LATER Stephanie site in her parked car. INT. STEPHANIE'S CAR Stephanie is eating from a package of DOUBLE STUFF OREOS, joylessly jamming one after another into her mouth. Her eyes dart about: Who could help her? Then she remembers something. She sets down the cookies and rummages through her purse. She finds the business card of Rham Jas. She starts the car and drives off. EXT. INTERSECTION - DAY TO 42. Stephanie halts at a red light. out of the corner of her eye she sees something odd. STEPHANIE'S POV - ON THE STREET Stu Rubin walking with two well dressed executives. STEPHANIE Stu? The men warmly escort into the First National Bank. STEPHANIE What's he doing at First National? The car behind her HONKS! She drives on. EXT. RHAM JAS' STOREFRONT - DAY Stephanie's car is parked in the street. INT. STOREFRONT - DAY Stephanie stands before a counter facing Rham Jas. He swipes her credit card through the machine. She signs the receipt. He motions for her to follow him through the beaded curtain. INT. BACK ROOM OF RHAM Jas'S STOREFRONT - DAY on a plain wooden table.a samovar brews a musty tea. Rham Jas is reading from an ancient text. He looks up from the book,- solemn. RHAM JAS What did it sound like. STEPHANIE Like... shrieking. It was awful. He nods. Closes the book. RHAM JAS That would be the Lamia. The "Black Goat". 4 43. STEPHANIE Lamia. Right. That's the word the old woman used. RHAM JAS It is a nasty spirit. A taker of souls. A creature of misfortune for you and those around you. It is often summoned by the Gypsies for their dour deeds. On the third day the Lamia comes for the owner of the accursed object. STEPHANIE Accursed object? What object? RHAM JAS Something that the old woman took from you, cursed, then gave back. Now it dawns on Stephanie. She looks to the threads on her coat. STEPHANIE The button... Stephanie's hand slowly emerges from her coat pocket. The thin brass button in her palm. STEPHANIE .this? She holds the button up for him to inspect. But it's presence makes him uneasy..He wags his finger back and forth. She lowers it. STEPHANIE What if I just burn the thing? RHAM JAS No matter what condition the button is in, you would still be the owner. The Lamia would still come to take you. STEPHANIE Take me where? NO 44. Rham Jas gives her a sad smile and closes the text. She knows where. Stymied, she tucks the button back into her coat pocket. STEPHANIE There's got to be something I can do. RHAM JAS Yes. There are many ways to appease a spirit. The simplest is a blood offering. An animal sacrifice. A small creature would do. You could sacrifice a chicken. It's all in here... Rham Jas produces a modern book on animal sacrifice which he sets before her. STEPHANIE No way. I'm a vegetarian. I'm a member of PETA, for Christ's sake. I don't go around killing animals. RHAM JAS You will be surprised what you will be willing to do when the Lamia comes for you. She considers his words, looks down to the book. CLOSE ON A DIAGRAM OF AN ANIMAL SACRIFICE - A creature's heart being cut from it's body. CAMERA pulls back to reveal that Stephanie now site at her kitchen table, reading the book. We see other diagrams: The heart being placed into a skillet over an open fire. The burial of the smoking heart. Stephanie's kitten PURRS, as it rubs against her leg. Stephanie closes the book, shutting out the disturbing images. She hears the SHRIEK of the rusty gate outside. She moves to the window and peers out. The rusting iron gate is open. Stephanie senses a change in the room... Shadows shift and grow deeper. The air is suddenly oppressive. Something is coming. 45. She moves to the front door and puts her ear to it. Quiet. 1b But then-- SCRATCH... SCRATCH... She runs upstairs into her bedroom and locks the door. INT. STEPHANIE'S BEDROOM She can hear the sound of the SCRATCHING, even here., She rushes to the phone picks it up: No dial tone, only high pitched static, the sounds of the Lamia buried within. She sets the phone down. For a moment all is quiet. Should she go back down? Then she hears a tiny SQUEAKING. The knob on the front door, turning. Then the CLICK of the lock, followed by the CREAKING of rusty hinges as the front door swings open. She calls through her bedroom door. STEPHANIE Ellen? ! But it's not Ellen. Stephanie puts her,ear to the door. The sound of an animal's hooves on wood. Something is climbing the stairs. It stops outside her bedroom door. Stephanie holds her breath, listening. She sees a shadow beneath the crack in the door. STEPHANIE I know that you're there! The window behind her explodes into the room with a deafening ROAR! She ducks for cover. Another window is blown inward and the glass sent her way. She SCREAMS and runs toward the bathroom door. It SLAMS shut in her face! BOOM! Another window is SHATTERED by the angry, unseen thing. The force knocks her to the bed. The blankets are torn from the mattress, throwing Stephanie to the floor. The bedsheets whisk around the room, flapping and twisting about like 1b drunken ghosts. 46. She tries to run but they tangle around her legs and yank her into the air, suspending her upside down, taking her on a wild and harrowing ride about the room. Abruptly all the madness halts: She drops to the floor. The bedsheet wafts to the ground beside her. Whatever it was, .it's gone. It's quiet now. A terrified Stephanie sits, shaking, in the wreckage of her room. INT. STEPHANIE'S KITCHEN - LATER With a trembling hand, she jams a ZAGNUT BAR into her mouth, and drops the wrapper onto a pile of others on the floor. She chases it with a double shot of Maker's Mark Whiskey. She removes a knife from the butcher block and hefts. it's weight. She sings out, in a sweet but trembling voice. STEPHANIE Here kitty-kitty... Here, kitty- kitty-kitty... She moves closer until her face fills the screen. EXT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - DAY The distant SCREAM of the kitten is heard. We hear it again and again until it is finally silenced. 4 INT. BATHROOM - DAY Stephanie having been sick, emerges from the bathroom, wiping her mouth. INT. STEPHANIE'S KITCHEN -DAY Stephanie throws something small and bloody inside the microwave oven and turns it on. STEPHANIE'S BACKYARD GARDEN AFTERNOON She buries the heart in a corner of her garden. She turns on the garden hose, washing the cat's blood from the knife. ELLEN'S VOICE Steph? Stephanie quickly tosses the knife into the bushes. Ellen appears. 47. ELLEN t Didn't you hear me calling? I was looking all over for you. Are you power eating Clark bars again? 'Cause there's about ten thousand wrappers all over the-- Oh my God, is that blood?1 Stephanie glances guiltily to the corner of the garden. But no blood shows. STEPHANIE No. Why would there be blood? ELLEN Right there, on your sleeve. Stephanie glances at the red spot on her sleeve. STEPHANIE That's just tomato juice. I was inside making a salad and... I cut a tomato and I must have gotten it on my sleeve. Ellen gives her roommate a worried look. ELLEN Look, Steph, we're friends so if something's wrong... STEPHANIE I had some problems. A situation. But I think everything is going to be good now. Ellen isn't so sure. INT. STEPHANIE'S BEDROOM - DAY Stephanie closes her bedroom door so Ellen can't see the damage. Stephanie cleans up the place. As she picks up some of her things, she comes across an old photograph. CLOSER: It's a photo of 16 year old Stephanie. She was obese. Her belly unflatteringly protrudes from beneath a "4- H" tee shirt. She stands before some barnyard animals, a bucket of feed in her hand. 48. Stephanie looks distastefully down at her former self. She tears up the photo and dumps it in the waste basket. INT. KITCHEN -- AFTERNOON The music grows lighter as Stephanie models a couple of dresses in front of Ellen, who's helping decide on the evening's wardrobe. ELLEN Go with the short skirt. STEPHANIE What about this one? She hold up a longer, more formal dress. ELLEN Uh uh. That one's saying "I'm trying to impress you with my conservative taste." STEPHANIE But that's what I want it to say. Ellen shakes her head, no. Stephanie takes a last look in the mirror, decides to go with the short skirt. STEPHANIE Okay. This is it. ELLEN Tell me again... the exact words he used. STEPHANIE Just that this little cabin would be a great place for us to really connect and that there was something he'd been meaning to talk about with me. ELLEN Oh my god, you are so engaged! Ellen's smile fades. She shakes her head despondently. STEPHANIE What's wrong? I 49. ELLEN t I just know that Rob's never going to ask me. STEPHANIE But I thought you said that relationship was only physical. ELLEN Oh, I'd never marry a guy like that... but I'd still like him to ask me. STEPHANIE Huh. EXT. NICHOLAS CANYON - DUSK Stephanie's car pulling up in front of Ray's hillside house. The convertible top is down and Stephanie looks radiant in the golden sunlight. RAY'S VOICE Let's get a look at that dress. She steps from the car and models the dress. S STEPHANIE You like RAY I like. INT. STEPHANIE'S CAR - DUSK RAY AND STEPHANIE drive through the streets of Bel Air, Stephanie at the wheel. She tunes in a rock station and turns it up loud. She smiles at Ray and takes his hand. She hits the gas and her Ford Focus opens up, accelerating down a long, tree lined street, the wind blowing through their hair. EXT. DALTON HOUSE - DUSK Stephanie and Ray approach the front door. Stephanie carries her home made cake. They ring the bell. Stephanie suddenly seems apprehensive. 50. RAY Something wrong? STEPHANIE It's just that I'm not, some ivy leaguer with an impressive resume. I have a feeling that's what your folks really want. RAY Maybe. But in the end, it's about what you and I want. STEPHANIE Is that so? Ray gives her a reassuring nod. The front door opens revealing Ray's parents, GEORGE AND TRUDY DALTON. Behind them we glimpse an exquisitely furnished foyer. TRUDY RAYMONDL She kisses her son. RAY Stephanie, this is my mother, Trudy, and my Father, George. Trudy glances at Stephanie's revealing cocktail dress with thinly veiled disapproval. Stephanie self-consciously tugs it lower. TRUDY How do you do? GEORGE Nice tp meet you, Stephanie. STEPHANIE It's very nice to meet you, too. GEORGE Please, come in. STEPHANIE Thank you. A '51. She steps inside. 1 INT. DALTON'S HOUSE STEPHANIE You have a lovely home. GEORGE Thanks. I'll get us something to drink. As George exits, Stephanie presents her home made cake to Trudy. STEPHANIE I hope you don't mind. I baked something for you. Trudy hesitates, then takes the cake from Stephanie. TRUDY It's lovely. Homemade. STEPHANIE It's a harvest cake. TRUDY Harvest cake? Is'that some kind of cake you make on a... farm? STEPHANIE We used to, yeah, when you have a lot of extra duck eggs. Especially right before spring; that's when you get a real dense yolk. Makes for, rich cake. The mother forces a smile. TRUDY You must give me the recipe sometime. STEPHANIE Sure. It's easy. The real secret's in the milk. You want it unpasteurized. 0 52. TRUDY Unclean... Uh... I mean "unpasteurized"? Is that safe? STEPHANIE Uh huh. And you want that milk still warm. Straight from the cow. Trudy has to stifle her gag reflex. George returns and hands Ray and Stephanie a cocktail. TRUDY Excuse me while I go find someplace to put this. As Trudy takes away the cake, a cat rounds the corner. It HISSES at Stephanie. She takes a step back. GEORGE Never could understand that damned animal. Hate cats. Trudy returns from the kitchen. TRUDY That's strange. Hecuba's usually very sweet. STEPHANIE That's okay. I had a cat. I understand. RAY What do you mean "had a cat"? What happened to him? STEPHANIE How would I know what happened? Probably nothing. You know how cats are. They come and they go. Ray nods slowly. About to say something but let's it go. INT. DALTON HOUSE - DINNING ROOM - LATER Stephanie, Ray, George and Trudy are finishing dinner. 53. GEORGE Still keeping up with your coin collection, Ray? RAY I try to. In fact Stephanie just found me a 1925 Indian Head nickel at her bank. GEORGE Really? So, how long have you been working there, Stephanie? STEPHANIE Almost two years now. TRUDY The job of a bank teller must be so difficult. I'd think with all the counting and the repetition, it'd become so tedious. STEPHANIE Yes, you're right. But I'm not a teller. TRUDY Oh? RAY Stephanie's a loan officer in charge of small business and home loans. And she's on a fast track for a promotion. Right, Steph? STEPHANIE I'd like to think so... actually, It depends. If I could close this big account that I'm working on, it would really help. GEORGE Must be a very important loan. STEPHANIE It would be the biggest that my branch has ever handled. GEORGE How''d it come to you? 54. STEPHANIE Well, I was reading the Wall Street Journal and found this innovative medical supply company that was interested in expanding but didn't have the liquidity. I met with their CFO and presented a formula for restructuring-some of their long term debt. It created an environment where I was able to offer them a rather attractive loan PACKAGE GEORGE You sure sound like you've got a lot going for you, Stephanie. TRUDY Your mother must be very proud. STEPHANIE I suppose. I don't see her much. TRUDY Why is that? STEPHANIE Well, ever since my dad died she doesn't talk much. She mostly stays on the farm and... keeps to herself. Because... There is an awkward silence. TRUDY Does your mother have a drinking problem? RAY Cut her some slack, mom, she-- STEPHANIE Yes. I'm afraid she does. TRUDY I'm sorry. It's nothing to be ashamed of. And I find your honesty refreshing. STEPHANIE Thank you. 5.5 . TRUDY t You've got back bone. Not like that other girl Ray brought by... What was her name? Alicia? She was dreadful. So ill-mannered. And no ambition. RAY MOM- TRUDY (stage whisper to STEPHANIE) He found her through the,internet. RAY Mors, please. TRUDY Stephanie, am I being too tough on Ray? Stephanie, happy to be taken into the family circle, winks at Ray. STEPHANIE No. Not at all. That's what mom's are for. TRUDY Thank you, Stephanie. Maybe I will try that Harvest cake of yours, after all. Trudy cuts herself a piece. Stephanie tastes the cake and emits a tiny cough. STEPHANIE Excuse me. She clears her throat. But the cough returns, grows larger. STEPHANIE Just a little tickle in my-- She stands and takes a few steps away from the table. Ray looks on concerned. RAY Are you okay? 56. She waves him off, clearing her throat. Tries to smile demurely, but erupts with a harsh cough. She's choking on something and is trying to bring it up from deep within her throat. With all her might she emits a BARK and a large black fly buzzes out of her mouth. TRUDY Oh! OH MY GOD! The fly lazily BUZZES across the table, slowly circling Trudy's head. Trudy spits out a mouthful of harvest cake into her napkin. George lowers his fork and pushes away his plate of unclean farm cake. Ray is baffled, too stunned to speak. Stephanie's gaze shifts to the kitchen door. From The other side, she hears the sound of a hoofs. Ray tries to cover for Stephanie: RAY I'm so sorry, Stephanie. I don't know how that fly got. into your-- STEPHANIE --Wait. What's that sound? TRUDY What sound-? STEPHANIE SHHH! Listen! Trudy listens along with the others. They can't hear anything. But Stephanie hears the FOOTSTEPS drawing closer. TRUDY I'm sorry, I can't hear anything. STEPHANIE (mutters under her breath) Must be deafer than a post! But Trudy heard that and takes offense. But before she can say anything, a SHADOW appears at the base of the door. Stephanie stands and shouts at it: 57. STEPHANIE T Leave me alone! Just leave me the fuck alone! Stephanie grabs her dinner plate and hurls it just past Trudy's head. It shatters against the base of the door, spraying everyone with bits of broken china and fish. The shadow and FOOTSTEPS are gone. Ray rushes to her side. RAY Steph, it's okay! There's nothing there. She looks about. George and Trudy regard Stephanie as if she were mad. STEPHANIE I... I think I'd better go. TRUDY I think that's best, dear. She heads for the door. Ray starts to go after her but his mother stops him. TRUDY Let her go, Ray. She's a sick girl. RAY She needs me. Trudy grabs Ray's arm. TRUDY I'm telling you not to go after her. Ray gently pulls free of his mother's grasp and chases after Stephanie. EXT. DALTON HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Ray rushes outside stopping Stephanie as she is about to get into her car. RAY What did you see in there? 58. STEPHANIE 4 You don't want to know. Ray pulls her close. RAY Tell me! STEPHANIE The thing that's coming for me. What the old woman sent. RAY Listen to me. What you're going through right now-- It's like the doctor said, it's a stress reaction and -- STEPHANIE No. I wanted to believe that-- but it's real, Ray. You just don't want to open your eyes to it because it threatens you. Because if I'm right and there is something out there, then you'd have to throw out everything you teach. And where'd that leave you? Like a plow without a mule. Ray just stares at her. A long moment passes as he wonders if maybe she isn't right. STEPHANIE Unless you're willing to take a chance and believe in me, I can't be with you any more. She steps into the car and drives off. Ray watches her tail lights, as they vanish into the night. EXT. ECHO PARK HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT An older home with bars on the front windows. Stephanie knocks at the front door. She turns toward a distant sound: A chilling, high-pitched SQUEAL. Was it just a bus's air brakes... or something more? When Stephanie turns back, the door has been opened a crack. An EYE peers out at her. 59. VOICE OF THE EYE What is it? STEPHANIE Hi. Yes. I came to see Sylvia Ganush. Is she here? The door opens wider, revealing a sexy twenty-four year old Gypsy girl. ILENKA GANUSH. Bottle of beer in her hand, long black hair, earrings and a snake tatoo on'her neck. She wears a low cut shirt and tight shorts. EASTERN EUROPEAN HIP HOP and LAUGHTER are heard from within the house. ILENKA I'm Ilenka, Sylvia's granddaughter. Who are you? STEPHANIE Stephanie Brown. I'm... sort of... a friend of hers. Actually, I've been trying to help her with a loan THAT- ILENKA Wait. I know who you are. Grandma told me you'd come. You're the woman from the bank. The one who took her house. STEPHANIE It was really the bank that took the house. I just work there. In fact, I tried to help your grandma get-the house back, but my boss wouldn't let me. Ilenka knows she's lying. Stephanie knows that she knows. ILENKA That's not what happened, is it? Are you going to stand here on my porch and lie to my face? STEPHANIE . no. ILENKA You used to be a real fat girl, to didn't you? 60. STEPHANIE Yes. ILENKA I can tell. You know, you caused my grandma a lot of pain. That house was her pride. When you took that from her, she had nothing left. You're not welcome here. She starts to close the door. Stephanie halts her. Desperate now, no where else to turn. STEPHANIE Okay! I did it. It was me who denied her the loan. I was trying, to get ahead at work and I shouldn't have done it. It was wrong. ILENKA Damn straight it was wrong. STEPHANIE And I'm ashamed about it. And I'm going to get down on my hands and knees and beg her to forgive me. She said-that I hadn't suffered enough. But now I think she'll see that I have and then maybe she'll let me... ILENKA .make everything all right for her, is that it? STEPHANIE Yes. Ilenka gives a bitter, cryptic smile. She motions for Stephanie to follow. They enter a room filled with young Gypsies drinking, smoking and talking loudly in a Slavic tongue. A WOMAN WITH A CANE shouts as she throws a pair of dice. A Hungarian man with a long, braided ponytail, curses his bad luck as he pays cash to the woman. ' STEPHANIE Where is she? 61. Ilenka gestures to an area beyond the party goers. Stephanie t pushes her way through the crowd. She stumbles and falls atop the Corpse of Mrs. Ganush! As per the custom of the Gypsy wake, there is no coffin, just her dead body that rests atop a coffee table. Stephanie has landed atop the corpse! The leg of the coffee table breaks under the weight of the two women. Stephanie tumbles to the ground, the corpse landing atop her. The crowd of mourners GASP. The dead woman's opened mouth bobs up and down upon Stephanie's chin, as through it were once again suckling it. Stephanie shoves the corpse off of her and backs away in revulsion. ILENKA Still going to make everything all right? The mourners replace the corpse atop the coffee table. Ilenka addresses the crowd in Hungarian. She tells them that it was this white trash farm girl that threw her grandmother t from her home and that she now bears the curse of Lamia. A mother shields her daughter's eyes from the sight of Stephanie, the cursed one, then hurriedly kisses her .crucifix. A man spits at her feet then walks off. STEPHANIE No, please-- I needed her to take this thing off me. ILENKA It will never come off. STEPHANIE You know about it? Then, please help me. I'm begging you. ILENKA She said you'd come begging. I only wish she could have lived to see it. The blood drains from Stephanie's face. 62. ILENKA .maybe she can... Stephanie glances down to the corpse. It's head is now facing her. It's dead eyes, OPEN! INT. RHAM JAS' HOUSE -- NIGHT Stephanie puts her foot through RHAM Jas' TV set. Shattering the tube, commanding his. attention. STEPHANIE Fuck that! I paid you a hundred and seventy nine dollars for that book! RHAM JAS It was a limited printing! Please control yourself! STEPHANIE I did what you said- that blood offering... I killed that little kitty deader than Hogan's goat. Lotta good that did me. RHAM JAS We are dealing with elusive and powerful forces. There are no guarantees. She wants to shout, but instead, closes her eyes and sits. STEPHANIE Just tell me what to do. Rham Jas considers. A dark look crosses his face. Stephanie tries to read his expression. CLOSE ON STEPHANIE'S MASTERCARD It's run through the carbon paper. Rham Jas hand her a receipt. She signs it. He sits. RHAM JAS We must somehow dissuade the spirit from taking your soul. STEPHANIE How? 63. RHAM JAS 1 A seance. And it should be soon. For tomorrow will be the third night... STEPHANIE Have you done this before? RHAM JAS No. But I know someone. I can arrange what is necessary, but you must understand that everyone involved in this would be taking a great risk with their lives. STEPHANIE What would you need from me? Rham Jas thinks for a moment, weighing the dangers. He pulls out a pipe and packs it with tobacco. He tamps it down and lights up. RHAM JAS Twenty thousand dollars. Cash. By tomorrow. 5 VA INT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT Stephanie is hastily piling all her valuables atop her bed: sporting equipment, TV, VCR/DVD COMBO, CD player, IPOD, Etc. Ellen enters, rattled. ELLEN I need to talk to you. STEPHANIE Ellen. I'm sorry. This a bad time right now. I got a little emergency and... say you got any cash I can borrow? She starts stuffing the valuables into a large duffle bag. ELLEN No, I don't. But Steph I-- STEPHANIE --what about your credit cards? What's your cash advance limit? (MORE) 64. STEPHANIE (cont'd) I'll pay you back. You know I'm good for it. ELLEN Steph, we need to talk about the cat. STEPHANIE Where has that little rascal been? He's always running off, have you noticed that? ELLEN Stephanie. I was in the back yard and I saw where the ground was dug up. I started digging and... You buried that little kitty in our backyard. What happened? STEPHANIE I didn't want to tell you. It fell out the window and died. It's sad, BUT-- ELLEN I found the bloody knife in the bushes. STEPHANIE What are you, a cat detective? ELLEN Steph? I'm going to tell you this as your friend. There is something seriously wrong with you. Stephanie looks up from,her frantic panting. STEPHANIE Uh... Duhi ELLEN I'm moving out. I can't live like this. STEPHANIE. Fine. Ellen exits. Stephanie angrily calls after her: 65. STEPHANIE An' don't let the barn door hit you on your ass on yer way out! INT. STORE - LATER THAT NIGHT Stephanie is speaking into a pay phone. STEPHANIE I can't get the twenty thousand. You're gonna have to help me with what I've got. RHAM JAS' VOICE What do you have? She covers the mouthpiece, speaking to someone off camera. STEPHANIE How much?! CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal that we are'in a PAWN SHOP. Men haggle loudly in Arabic over the price of a gold chain. The PAWN BROKER stands before-all of Stephanie's worldly belongings: A toaster oven, computer, racing bike, stereo, microwave oven, necklaces, jewelry... PAWN BROKER Thirty-eight hundred for everything. STEPHANIE Including my jewlery? PAWN BROKER Including. Stephanie curses under her breath, checks the balance on her checkbook, does the math, speaks into the phone; STEPHANIE Six thousand. RHAM JAS I'm sorry. Not possible. STEPHANIE Look, I'll give you six now and-- 66. RHAM JAS No. There will be others involved and I cannot-ask them to accept such a risk for less. Good night. He hangs up. The line goes dead. She tries to throw the phone but it's attached with a short metal cord. She turns to the Pawn Broker. STEPHANIE I'll take it! Stephanie thinks about how she'll get the extra cash. She hesitantly dials a number on the pay phone. It rings and rings as she glances to a picture buried deep in her wallet: A. photo of... The younger, obese Stephanie and her stern looking Mother. Both stand before a bleak snow covered, mid-western farm. STEPHANIE Mom? Hi, it's me. Did you get,the Christmas card? Yeah, I guess it has been a while. Listen, I'm in kind of a fix, here. I've been pretty sick and I need to borrow some money for an operation. I need fourteen thousand dollars right away. Now I know you still have that pension fund at the credit Union so-- yeah, but... okay. Okay, it's just that--- I understand. Okay, mom. Bye. The line goes dead. She slumps down against the pay phone. CLOSE SHOT - STEPHANIE She pouts her lips in the mirror, carefully applying lipstick. Looking good. PULL BACK To reveal we are in the employee bathroom at the bank. She fixes her hair so it's just right. She. straightens out a tiny wrinkle in her business suit, smiles her best upbeat smile and exits the bathroom. 67. INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA- DAY Stephanie approaches Mr. Jacks. STEPHANIE Mr. Jacks, this is kind of awkward for me... I know it's not official yet, but I was wondering if I could get a copy of the employment contract for the new position you offered me? MR. JACKS The assistant manager's position? STEPHANIE Yes. See, one of my family members is having a little emergency which requires me to get them an immediate loan-- MR. JACKS --Stephanie... There's a problem. The McPherson deal was cancelled last night. STEPHANIE What? 1 MR. JACKS Yeah, right after I informed the main branch that we had this big loan pending,,I find out that they just made their deal over at First National. I got a call in to see, what exactly happened but right now this doesn't look too good for you or me. So this assistant manager promotion has been delayed. In fact, I think that with everything that's been happening, I'm gonna have to give that job to Stu. Stephanie is devastated. STEPHANIE Stu. I see. Mr. Jacks sees tears begin to well up in her eyes. 68. MR. JACKS I'm sorry. Look. If you've got family problems. Maybe you should take the day off and sort them out. Stephanie node and exits the bank. INT. STEPHANIE'S KITCHEN - DAY CLOSE SHOT - THE WALL CLOCK As it TICKS away the seconds. CLOSE SHOT - THE Inadequate PILE OF CASH That site atop Stephanie's Kitchen table. CLOSE SHOT - A DESPONDENT STEPHANIE stares down at the cash. Her mouth mechanically opens to accept a large serving spoon of Rocky Road ice cream which she eats directly from the one gallon tub. The door bell rings. A moment later Ray walks in.. Stephanie stands, surprised. RAY. I paid Rham Jas STEPHAINE But I thought you didn't believe... RAY' I don't. But you do. I know this is important for, you . she embraces him. EXT. PASADENA HOUSE - DUSK An old Pasadena home site alone atop a hill. Ray's car drives up, parks. STEPHANIE Are you coming in? 69. RAY T I wanted to but Rham Jas said non believers weren't welcome. I still don't like this. STEPHANIE I know how crazy this must seem. But it will all be over after this I swear to you. He nods. She kisses him. STEPHANIE I'll call you when it's done. RAY I'll be waiting. STEPHANIE We'll laugh about it on the train, tomorrow. RAY t Yeah. Stephanie steps from the car. Ray drives off. She turns to face the old house. INT. OLD PASADENA HOUSE - STUDY - DUSK Milos, a thirty year old, Hungarian Man, leads Stephanie into a large room with-tall, teak bookshelves and Indian tapestries that adorn the walls. Rham Jas is seated in a wicker chair,' speaking with someone obscured by shadows... RHAM JAS Miss Brown. Allow me the pleasure of an introduction... A woman rises from the shadows. RHAM JAS .Shaun San Dena The eighty year old woman smiles a toothless smile to Stephanie. 70. RHAM JAS Shaun San Dena is an experienced 41 medium. Furthermore, she has a personal knowledge of the Lamia. SHAUN SAN DENA I first encountered this spirit forty years ago in a small village outside of Bucharest. STEPHANIE And...? SHUAN SAN DENA I lost a young boy's soul to the beast. STEPHANIE That's reassuring. SHAUN SAN DENA I was an. inexperienced seer then. I've learned much since that woeful day. I have waited these long years for a chance at redeeming myself. A chance to destroy the foul thing. Tonight my chance will come. But to summon it, I will need your help. STEPHANIE I'll do whatever it takes. And the sooner the better. SHAUN SAN DENA Our business must wait till darkness falls. Enough time for tea. INT. GREAT ROOM - NIGHT A ceiling twenty feet high, with massive windows covered by dark burgundy drapes. An ornate crystal chandelier hangs above a round table in the room's center. Stephanie, Rham Jas, Shaun San Dena and Milos, are finishing their tea. SHAUN SAN DENA My late husband, Sandor, was also a medium. He chose this site to build the'house upon because he sensed certain energies that intersected here... (MORE) 71. SHAUN SAN DENA (cont'd) He knew I would sense his spirit in this place as I have sensed others. It was to be our way of being together after he died. In earlier times it was a sacred place to the Tuanteteck indians. And their stories told that the place was a burial ground of the "old ones" that inhabited the earth before them. Here, there is a particular alignment of energies. A confluence, that allows doorways to be opened. Through which, we might pass. RHAM JAS ' And through which, others might pass into our world. Milos removes the tea. SHAUN SAN DENA It is time for us to begin. Shaun San Dena turns out the electric lights, leaving only the tables' candlelight for illumination. We hear the BLEATING of a goat. Stephanie startles. Milos reenters the room pulling a black goat along by a chain. The goat catches sight of Stephanie. It BLEATS in fear and attempts to run. But Milos holds it fast and tethers it to a post. He moves to the table and lifts a velvet cloth revealing a large cattle slaughtering blade. SHAUN SAN DENA Lord Jesus bless this knife and allow it to do your holy work. She makes the sign of the cross. she pours a .vial of holy water over the blade. She turns to Stephanie. SHAUN SAN DENA Once the spirit has entered me, place my hand upon the animal. Do you understand? STEPHANIE Yes. 72. SHAUN SAN DENA I will force the spirit of the Lamia into the goat. Milos, that's when you strike. Stephanie blanches but remains silent. SHAUN SAN DENA We must all.be receptive. Shaun San Dena begins to intone a Romanian Gypsy chant. Stephanie leans close to speak quietly with Rham Jae. STEPHANIE What do I have to do? RHAM JAS You must allow the darkness in. You must invite the dead to co-mingle with your spirit.. STEPHANIE I'm scared. RHAM JAS Yes. Now repeat these words... I welcome the dead into my soul... Rham Jae waits for Stephanie's response. She's shifts in her seat uncomfortably. STEPHANIE I welcome the dead into my soul... RHAM JAS You must believe it! Stephanie takes a deep breath and they begin the chant again. This time,, together. RAM JAAS STEPHANIE I welcome the dead into my I welcome the dead into my soul... soul... Stephanie looks around the darkened room. Shadows from the candles dance upon the walls. 73. SHAUN SAN DENA I sense something here with us. RHAM JAS Yes. The parlor's crystal chandeleir tinkles. A tea cup and saucer tremble for a moment. Stephanie's eyes search the room. SOMETHING UNSEEN emits a wheezing breath... We hear FOOTSTEPS as something walks on the ceiling above them. A MAN'S LOUD LAUGHTER echoes about the room. SHAUN SAN DENA It is not the Lamia. It is the spirit of some unsettled soul from 1 years ago... The unsettled ones wait near the door. THE PITCHER OF WATER upon the table is drained. Then the water is spat out in a stream at Milos' face. The MAN'S LAUGHTER again. SHAUN SAN DENA Be gone, foolish spirit! There is a HOWLING OF WIND and the room is again quiet. SHAUN SAN DENA Show yourself Lamia. We invite you into our circle. Quiet. Stephanie looks about. Nothing seems to be happening. SHAUN SAN DENA He's coming... 74. A faint sound. SCRATCH. SCRATCH. The SCRATCHING OF FINGERNAILS on wood. A sound that Stephanie's heard before. It grows louder, more distorted. SCRATCH SCRATCH! Stephanie grips the table. And just when the SCRATCHING SOUND is deafening... All becomes silent. Stephanie holds her breath. A wind whips up in the room sending papers whirling about,. yet all the windows are closed. Shaun San Dena's eyes roll up into her head. She emits a low and powerful MOAN. Her head slumps onto her shoulders. Then she straightens with a new vigor. Stephanie and Rham Jas watch as her lips move rapidly and a garbled sound comes out of her throat. she speaks in a strange and incomprehensible tongue. RHAM JAS Who now inhabits the body of Shaun San Dena? SHAUN SAN DENA (demonic voice) Lamia... Rham Jas nods discreetly to Milos who quietly uncovers the slaughtering blade. RHAM JAS. Lamia, what is it that you desire? Shaun San Dena's chair abruptly spins about to face Stephanie. The mouth jerks opened and closed as if controlled by a bad puppeteer. Then, out of.sync, the demonic voice is HEARD: SHAUN SAN DENA (demonic voice) The soul of Stephanie Brownl We will feast upon it, as she festers in the gravel 4 75. STEPHANIE It was my manager, Jim Jacks. He was the one ! He-- RHAM JAS Silence! Lamia, please, surely we can dissuade you from taking this insignificant woman? Surely she's not worthy of your greatness. The possessed Shaun San Dena laughs. SHAUN SAN DENA (demonic voice) No! I will enjoy watching her skin blister and pop in hell's flame. I come for her! Stephanie quickly grabs Shaun San Derna's hand and places it on the goat's head. Shaun San Dena's eyes clear for a moment as she struggles to regain control. Now there are two spirits battling within her. She attempts t to force the spirit of the Lamia from her body and into the goat. The Goat BLEATS and bucks wildly as the spirit is transferred. Milos raises up the slaughtering blade. SHAUN SAN DENA (demonic voice) No! You-- GOAT (demonic voice) --tricked me! The possessed goat emits a terrible cry! The bone chilling SHRIEK of Lamia! It's oval eye reflects the blade as it descends toward it. The possessed Goat jerks aside and the blade misses, slicing into the chair. As Milos raises the blade for another blow, the goat bites his hand. In that moment, the spirit of the Lamia is transferred to him. A Possessed Milos SCREAMS and spins toward Stephanie, glaring at her with black goat eyes. He SHOUTS at her in a gibberish of tongues! His body jerks up into the air. He dances a jig atop the table, now laughing uncontrollably. t 76. Stephanie watches in horror. RHAM JAS Lamial I command you to leave this-- A chair sails through the air and shatters across Rham Jas' back, knocking him to the ground. Milos' body is hurled up against the chandelier, shattering it. Glass rains down upon Stephanie. on the ceiling, Milos is spun.about like a pin wheel. Stephanie races for the door but a .huge bureau lurches in front of her, blocking her path. Rham Jas rouses a stunned Shaun San Dena. RHAM JAS You must banish the spirit! Shaun San Dena places her hands on her ayes, then over her heart and chants an ancient Gypsy incantation up toward Milos. Milos SHRIEKS. A white vapor streams from his body as the Lamia is torn from him. MILOS (in his normal voice) Stop the chanting. I beg you! But Shaun San Dena only chants louder. Milos SCREAMS grow more intense as-his body spasms in pain. Stephanie grasps at Shaun San Dena. STEPHANIE For god's sake, stop the chanting, it's killing him! Rham Jas pushes her aside. RHAM JAS You must not stop! A withered pair of hands reach down from above and clutch at Stephanie's face! It is Mrs. Ganush that now floats above her! Her long yellowed fingernails scratching at Stephanie's skin. 4 77. MILOS/MRS. GANUSH Make her stop, you dirty pork queen! STEPHANIE No! Get her off! Mrs. Ganush grabs at Stephanie's head. Stephanie pulls away but it costs her a clump of hair that Mrs. Ganush rips from her head. Mrs. Ganush opens her mouth... wide... wider still... she vomits out Stephanie's dead cat. It lands atop the table. Stephanie screams uncontrollably. Shaun San Dena, is trembling as her chanting comes to a climax. Mrs. Ganush changes back to the possessed Milo. The last of the white vapor is torn from Milos body as the spirit of the Lamia leaves him. Milos falls to the floor and all is quiet. An ashen faced Shaun San Dena halts her chant. 10 STEPHANIE Is it gone? Stephanie notices that the cat has vanished. Was it ever there? Rham Jae kneels at Milos' side. He's starting to come around. Milos stands, shaken. The Lamia is gone. Shaun San Dena grabs at her chest, struggles for breath. Stephanie rushes over to steady her. STEPHANIE Let me help you... SHAUN SAN DENA My heart. Shaun San Dena collapses into Stephanie's arms. Rham Jas moves to assist her. They lower Shaun San Dana to the floor. RHAM JAS Milos, call an ambulance! 0 78. Milos rushes from the room to call for help... Rham Jas checks for a pulse. RHAM JAS She's not breathing. Rham Jas attempts to administer CPR to no avail. STEPHANIE My God. My God... He checks her pulse one last time. The CPR is finally halted. Rham Jas closes her eyes, then touches her forehead, praying: RHAM JAS Gata, gata, para gata... bodhi suaha. Gone, gone, gone beyond. Gone beyond the beyond. Hail the goer. EXT. PASADENA HOUSE - NIGHT - LATER Stephanie and Rham Jas watch as PARAMEDICS load the covered body of Shaun San Dena into the ambulance. They close the doors and drive away. STEPHANIE It's sad: RHAM JAS Yes. STEPHANIE Strange how things work out. She waited years for another chance to overcome the lamia ..and finally she did. RHAM JAS No. I'm afraid you misunderstand. Rham Jas looks at her with pity. STEPHANIE What? RHAM JAS The,Lamia can not'be banished by a medium. This was our lesson tonight. I'm sorry. 79. STEPHANIE 0 But I saw her get rid of the thing... RHAM JAS No. You saw her drive the Lamia from the seance. That is all. It will be back. STEPHANIE But then, what am I supposed to do? Rham Jas shrugs. He fishes in his pocket for his car keys. RHAM JAS Perhaps on this final evening, you should finish up the business of this world. For before the night is through, the Lamia will come for the owner of the accursed object. STEPHANIE'S HAND Slowly emerges from her coat pocket. She studies the thin brass button in her palm. 0 RHAM JAS Unless, of course... you were no longer the owner. STEPHANIE No longer the owner? I don't understand. Rham Jas reaches into his coat pocket and removes a blank envelope. He places the button within and seals it. RHAM JAS The Lamia comes for the owner of the accursed object. Just make a gift of it... To demonstrate, he hands the envelope to Stephanie. RHAM JAS .and you've given away the curse. 80. STEPHANIE Why didn't you tell me this before?! RHAM JAS Because we are speaking of murder. Stephanie looks from the envelope containing the button to Rham Jas. She places the envelope carefully into the side 'pocket of her purse. Rham Jas tries to conceal the sadness and fear he feels for her. RHAM JAS Whatever you decide, you have until sunrise.' She nods goodbye as Ray's car pulls up. Ray opens the door. for her and she gets in. INT. RAY'S BMW - NIGHT Ray and Stephanie drive through the quiet Pasadena neighborhood. RAY Is it over? Stephanie, stares at her envelope, thinks about telling him, then... STEPHANIE Yes. It's all over. Ray squeezes her hand. Appreciating the two of them now more than ever. Stephanie SCREAMS as... MRS. GANUSH.appears in the headlights, standing on the road before them! Ray hits the breaks. The car SCREECHES to a halt! Stephanie's purse with the envelope and.some of Ray's papers fall to the floor. RAY Are you okay? Stephanie nods, catching her breath. 81. RAY R That guy came out of nowhere. Stephanie looks to the figure in the road. Mrs. Ganush is gone. In her place is an old man who mutters angrily at them and moves on. EXT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT -- LATER RAY'S BMW pulls up and Stephanie gets out. RAY Are you'still okay about the Santa Barbara trip? STEPHANIE Yes, everything's fine. RAY Okay. Our train leaves tomorrow morning. Seven A.M. When do you want me to pick you up? STEPHANIE It's better if we meet at the D station. There's something I've got to do on the way. Stephanie suddenly' clutches at her purse. The envelope is gone! STEPHANIE Wait! Where's my envelope? RAY What envelope? She opens the car door and frantically rummages around the floor, through Ray's papers. STEPHANIE It's got to be here! Then, Stephanie comes upon something under the seat. She smiles and stands. A white envelope held tightly in her hand. STEPHANIE Got , it . 0 82. RAY Tomorrow's gonna be a new start for, us. Don't be late. They kiss and Ray drives off. INT. DENNY'S RESTAURANT - NIGHT A WALL CLOCK The time is 1:30 A.M. STEPHANIE drinks coffee and stares at the white envelope that's tucked into the side pocket of her purse. She scans the patrons and considers giving it to each of them, then one by one, rejects the idea. A WAITRESS Comes by, removes a dirty dish and refills her coffee. STEPHANIE Banana Boat Sundae. WAITRESS Another one? Stephanie nods absently. The waitress exits. THE WALL CLOCK The time is now 2:15 A.M. A WITHERED OLD MAN site alone at a table in a wheelchair. A portable oxygen cylinder, supplying him with air. STEPHANIE takes a deep breath, stands and walks to his table. STEPHANIE I wonder if you could help me out? The Old Man looks up, sees her desperation. 83. OLD MAN 0 Yeah? STEPHANIE I just need you to hang on to this envelope for me. Just until tomorrow. She extends the envelope to him. He hesitates. OLD MAN What's this all about? STEPHANIE Just take the envelope and I'll explain. Please. The Old Man considers. He reaches for the envelope when an OLD WOMAN, his wife, hobbles toward the table. The Old Man helps her sit and puts away her cane. They turn to Stephanie who withdraws the envelope. STEPHANIE Never mind. Stephanie returns to her seat, ashamed at what she almost did. She returns the envelope to the purse pocket, racking her brains, trying to think of some way out of this. Her gaze lands upon a stack of newspapers on the next table. She grabs the paper and finds the OBITUARIES. CLOSE ON THE NEWSPAPER: MRS. GANUSH'S OBITUARY: A photo of the old woman. The location of the burial is listed: Oakwood Cemetary. Stephanie rips the listing from the paper and rushes from the restaurant. INT. RHAM JAS' HOUSE - BACK ROOM - NIGHT Stephanie, lit by a barren light bulb, paces the room. Rham Jas in his pajamas, studies an old leather bound text. STEPHANIE Well? Is it possible? 0 FA 84. He closes the book and gives it some thought. RHAM JAS There are Gypsy blessings that are bestowed upon the dead... And the Gypsies give gifts to their departed to curry favor with the deceased soul. Yes. I do believe you could give the curse to someone who has passed on... for truly, the soul never dies. INT. STEPHANIE'S CAR - NIGHT CLOSE ON STEPHANIE As she drives we hear the voice over from the preceding SCENE: RHAM JAS (V.0.) .but you must make a formal gift of the cursed object to the deceased. STEPHANIE (V.0.) Formal gift... ? Car headlights sweep over her grim face. She fingers the envelope, then glances to the seat next to her... a SHOVEL. RHAM JAS (V.0.) Give it to the corpse personally. Put it in their hand... their' pocket... STEPHANIE (V.0.) Oh, I'll do better than that... CAMERA moves in tight. STEPHANIE .I'll shove it down her goddamn throat. She zips up her raincoat. SOMETHING flits past the window. Too.quick to.see. Then it reappears. It's Mrs. Ganush's hankie. It.flies against Stephanie's windshield and gets caught on the wiper blade. Stephanie GASPS. It flaps in the wind, blocking her view. Stephanie hits the wiper button. The hankie is yanked-back and forth across the windshield. T 85. She turns up the wiper speed. No sooner is it knocked loose than it's whisked into the driver's side window. It slaps over Stephanie's eyes, plastered there by the'wind! The car swerves. Her car crashes into a tree. LONG SHOT - CRASHED CAR Stephanie pulls herself from the crash. She glances up to a flash of lightning. It illuminates: The wrought iron gates of the OAKWOOD CEMETERY. A hill of tombstones beyond. EXT. OAKWOOD CEMETERY - RAINY NIGHT A light drizzle falls as Stephanie'searches the graveyard for the burial place of Mrs. Ganush. She carries the shovel defensively, ready to swat at anything that might leap out at her. She stops before a freshly dug grave. A temporary marker reads the name. "Sylvia Ganush". She's scared now, not sure if she can really go through with it. A church bell TOLLS five times. There's no time to think about it. Stephanie looks around to make sure no one is watching, then starts to dig. DISSOLVE TO: LATER - It's raining harder. The hole Stephanie digs is now several feet deep. CLUNK: The shovel has hit the buried coffin. The rain intensifies. DISSOLVE TO: LATER - Mud is pouring down the sides of the grave. In the bottom of the pit Stephanie has unearthed the simple pine casket. She jams the shovel blade between two boards and pries off the coffin's top and shoves it aside. A lightning flash illuminates the corpse. Mrs. Ganush's white eye is open and staring at Stephanie. Stephanie stows her fear and pulls the white envelope from her coat. 16 40 86. STEPHANIE I'm giving it back to you. She grabs Mrs. Ganush's hand and tries to get her clenched fist to open, but rigor morris has locked it shut. Stephanie pulls with all her might, causing... MRS. GANUSH'S CORPSE to lurch up and out of the coffin. Her dead arms, thrown forward from the momentum, wrap around Stephanie. Stephanie SCREAMS! The withered face leers! Stephanie pushes the corpse away from her and the lifeless body falls back into the mud. STEPHANIE You'll take it, all right... She picks up the shovel and jams the blade into the old woman's mouth, wedging it between her teeth. She pries the jaw open. Mud and rivulets of water begin pouring down into the grave from all sides. The body of Mrs. Ganush is quickly being re-buried. STEPHANIE I, Stephanie Brown, do hereby make a formal gift of this button to you, Sylvia Ganush. She jams the white envelope down the old woman's throat. STEPHANIE Choke on it, bitch. She kicks the old woman's jaw.. It SNAPS shut, trapping the envelope between her broken teeth. Muddy water cascades down into the grave, flowing over Mrs.. Ganush's face. It covers everything, except the jutting envelope and a single, staring white eye. Stephanie tries to climb out but the walls are too slick. She grabs at a clump of sod at the top of the hole but it tears away, unleashing an avalanche of mud that buries her up to her armpits. THE HEAD OF MRS. GANUSH Bobs up, through the mud. The Old Woman is grinning, with the envelope still jammed between her teeth. 87. LONG SHOT - THE GRAVE Rivers of muddy water now pour in from every direction. It has become the drain hole of the cemetery. THE INFLUX OF MUD pushes the old woman corpse against Stephanie. Her grinning face led mashed against Stephanie's cheek. Stephanie's SCREAM is cut short as she and Mrs. Ganush disappear beneath the mud. The only sound is the PITTER-PATTER of rain. CAMERA STARTS TO PULL AWAY when... STEPHANIE'S HAND rips up through the mud, grasping the tree root. STEPHANIE'S HEAD Breaks the surface of the mud, sucking in air. She claws her way out, then staggers away, through the pouring rain. DISSOLVE TO: INT. STEPHANIE'S HOUSE -- BATHROOM - PRE-DAWN STEPHANIE steps from the shower, quickly towels her hair. She stops for a moment and studies herself in the mirror. She has survived. The phone RINGS in the bedroom; the machine picks up. MR. JACKS' VOICE Stephanie. It's Jim. Jim Jacks. Sorry I'm calling so early-- but Last night I found some troubling information about our friend Stu Rubin... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CITY STREET - PRE DAWN A cleaned up Stephanie, her hair still wet from the shower, drives the empty morning streets. A smile slowly comes to her face as we hear the rest of Mr. Jack's message: 88. MR. JACKS' VOICE Apparently he stole your file on 4 the Mcpherson loan and then tried to broker his own deal at First Federal. I guess he thought we wouldn't find out. When I confronted him he broke down crying and well, we won't be seeing him around anymore. EXT. TRAIN STATION - PARKING LOT - PRE DAWN The Eastern sky is growing brighter. Stephanie's car pulls into the lot. She removes a week end bag from her trunk and walks briskly toward the station. MR JACKS (V.O.) It looks like the loan's coming back to us. And I just wanted you to know that come Monday morning, that assistant manager's position will be waiting for you. INT. TRAIN STATION - GRAND ENTRANCE - PRE DAWN Stephanie is smiling as she enters the station. A MRS. FIELDS REPRESENTATIVE holds a platter of freshly baked cookies and offers free samples to passersby. One is offered to Stephanie. She politely declines as she walks past with a bounce in her step. INT. TRAIN STATION - CLOTHING BOUTIQUE She stops at the window, admiring a coat on display. She glances down at her own coat. Notes the missing button. with distaste. Inside, a SALESWOMAN is preparing to open the shop. Stephanie taps on the window, shouts through the glass: STEPHANIE Hey! Good morning. NO 4 89. The Saleswoman opens the door a crack. t SALESWOMAN I'm sorry, we're not open yet. STEPHANIE Please. I know what I want. That coat in the window. The Saleswoman considers. STEPHANIE My boyfriend and I are taking a very special trip this morning. Stephanie's smile is bright. Her joy is contagious. The Saleswoman relents and lets Stephanie in. EXT. TRAIN STATION - TRAIN PLATFORM - DAWN Moments before sunrise, the sky is streaked red. Ray waits on the train platform, clutching two tickets and a small garment bag. Behind him, other Passengers arrive. From his pocket, he removes a velvet case. He opens it and peeks t inside A diamond ring. He stows it back in his pocket. He looks for Stephanie. Then, his face brightens as Stephanie emerges from the crowd, radiant in her, new coat. STEPHANIE Ray! Ray embraces her and grabs her luggage. A TRAIN WHISTLE sounds as the train approaches. RAY Is everything okay? STEPHANIE Great. RAY I'm so glad you're here. There's so much I've been meaning to tell you. 0 She takes his hand. 0 90. STEPHANIE But let me say this first while I have it straight in my head. You never stopped believing in me. I'll try and live up to that. They share an intimate moment. A romantic kiss. He breaks off and smiles. RAY Did I tell you, you look great? STEPHANIE Thanks. Stephanie models her new coat. STEPHANIE You like it? It's brand new. RAY What'd you do with your old coat? Just the mention of it, makes her face darken. STEPHANIE I got rid of it. I never want to see it again. RAY Too bad,'cause I just found this. Ray produces the envelope. And from it, withdraws... THE CURSED BUTTON! CAMERA RACES INTO A HUGE CLOSE UP OF THE BUTTON with a terrible CLASHING of symbols!. Stephanie can't breathe. RAY Yeah, it was in my car. Hey, have you seen my Indian Head nickel? I put it in an envelope just like this one. Stephanie stares at the button, shaking her head in disbelief. The RUMBLING of the approaching train builds on the sound track. 4 91. RAY What? What is it? She backs away in horror, but Ray follows her with the button still in his hand. The RUMBLING grows louder. She's backing up toward the edge of the platform. RAY Stephanie. Stop! Ray steps forward, still holding out the button. Stephanie SHRIEKS as she falls backwards, off the platform and onto the tracks. In her last moment of life, she turns her head to see... THE ONCOMING TRAIN Racing at her! Through the swirling smoke, the engine's mechanical face, resembles the goat like face of the demon Lamia. It VOMITS STEAM as it angrily bares down upon her. THE TRAIN WHISTLE SHRIEKS! Stephanie recognizes the sound. It's a cry she's heard before. In every door creak... in every cold night wind... a haunting, soulless sound... the cry of Lamia. Ray races to the edge of the platform. The two lover's eyes find each other one last time. Stephanie SCREAMS as the Lamia swallows her and pulls her down into hell. THE PEOPLE ON THE PLATFORM Believe they have witnessed a train accident but Ray knows the truth. He looks to... THE BUTTON still in his hand. CAMERA MOVES CLOSER ON RAY 92. A look of dread. Finally, he believes. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dragonslayer.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dragonslayer.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..638d116b8463f3f3e066b68c0e317dc40cb3fb7f --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dragonslayer.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "DRAGONSLAYER" Screenplay by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins SHOOTING DRAFT FADE IN: CASTLE - NIGHT Now comes the moon riding over the horizon. Upon a hill at the edge of the wood squats a castle, its crude stonework bathed in cold silvery light. Queer carvings and runes decorate the ponderous gate. Heavy vines are climbing up the walls. The castle is old, its unfamiliar form testament to an ancient mind and an ancient craft. Flickering candle light dances on a leaded windowpane. Inside, the corridors are dark and silent. Under low arched ceilings the uneven floors are paved with stone blocks. Perched over lintels and crouched in niches are icons with strange animal heads. HODGE A sleep on a straw palette in a room strewn with vegetables and crockery is Hodge, a wrinkled old retainer. A flickering candle and empty jug are beside the bed. He is snoring gently. CONJURING ROOM This circular chamber at the heart of the castle is stuffed with parchments, scrolls, dusty books, bronze braziers, glass retorts, chemical salts, birds both stuffed and caged. An iron candelabra stands on a work table, tapers burning. In the soft glow it seems that the room is unoccupied, but no, moving in the background is a shadowy figure, preparing for a magical deed. Feet are positioned carefully within a pentagram chiseled into the floor. A scroll is consulted; up comes an arm and a voice blurts out: VOICE Omnia in duos: Duo in Unum: Unus in Nihil: Haec nec Quattuor nec Omnia nec Duo nec Unus nec Nihil Sunt. Nothing happens. VOICE Come on, candles, out! But the little flames stand at attention without so much as a tremble. VOICE In Volunta Divina et Verbum Magi: Lux! Exstinguat! It's no use. There is a sigh and the figure moves forward into the light. Revealed in the glow is the discouraged face of Galen Bradwardyn, sorcerer's apprentice. TOWER Carrying the candelabra, the youth trudges up a circular staircase. TURRET The highest point of the castle is a turret, open to the stars and the night air. Here, more magic is afoot. An old enchanter, Ulrich, Magister Ipsissimus, pours water from a silver ewer into a stone bowl. As the surface ripples disappear he leans forward and gazes into the pool. All at once his face hardens as the distant sounds of screams and thunder reach his ears. Lights and shadows, reflected from within the basin, play across his face. His frown deepens as the sound of his own voice comes to him from the vision in the water -- Draco draconis -- suddenly squelched by the roar of flame and an ugly snarl. At that moment Galen reaches the top of the steps and holds up the candelabra. GALEN Vide, Magister. There's something wrong. Ulrich, startled from his trance, slaps the water out of the basin and turns to confront his student. Galen is taken aback by the old man's grim countenance. GALEN What's the matter? What's happened? ULRICH I've just seen something. Something of consequence to you. GALEN To me? ULRICH (calm) Yes. My own death. With a distracted gesture he causes the flames to extinguish themselves. ULRICH Perhaps we had better hasten your training. CUT TO: BARNYARD - DAY Outside the castle wall Hodge is feeding the chickens and ducks. He straightens up and squints through the early morning mists. On a distant hillock two figures are moving toward the woods. ULRICH AND GALEN Hobbling slowly with the aid of a pair of canes, Ulrich guides his pupil across a wooden bridge and along a stream into the forest. ULRICH (stern and troubled) This wood, these leaves, the birds, the very dome of heaven, once they all rang with one great chord: and philosophers like me kept it all in tune. Now, new voices are singing new songs. (sharply) Have you mastered the threefold transmutation? GALEN Of course. ULRICH (skeptical) You have? GALEN Well, almost. ULRICH It's very difficult. Have you committed to memory undying the Codex de Profundis? GALEN (a shrug) The first two chapters. ULRICH It's long. And what about the Ritual of Banishment as prescribed by my late master Balisarius? GALEN To tell the truth, I haven't dared try it. What's the point, anyway? ULRICH The point? The point is you don't know it, and you're no magician without it. It was my hope to school you, to mold your faculties and wits... I still believe you have some talent. Somewhere. GALEN I hate books. I hate drill. I want a real task. ULRICH There's no time now. When I'm gone, half the powers in the universe will vanish with me. And what's the use of a few lingering skills if they're left in the hands of a child? (pause) Listen! GALEN I don't hear anything. Ulrich gauges the young man standing before him and makes a decision. Reaching under his cloak he lifts off a fine silver chain with an amulet dangling from it. He drapes it around Galen's neck. ULRICH Here, wear this. Galen instinctively wraps his hand around the jewel. He cocks an ear. GALEN Voices, singing on the road. He hastens forward to a promontory, eager to have a look. Ulrich does not follow. Instead, doffing his cloak, he whirls it before him, where it magically floats a few feet off the ground. Awkwardly, the old man clambers aboard. GALEN I don't see anything. He turns back, but the wizard is gone. A shadow falls over him. He looks up. There, two hundred feet above the tree tops his master is soaring on the wind. AIRBORNE The old conjurer squints into the distance. Miles away and far below a company of drab walkers winds along the margins of the forest. They are singing a mournful round. GALEN He gawks skyward. Suddenly, the old man leans down and addresses him. ULRICH (a shout) We have visitors! CUT TO: ROTUNDA - NIGHT Clustering together in the center of a wide reception hall is a contingent of weary peasants, awkward amidst the dusty rugs, drapes and heavy furniture. Their leader is a fineboned youth, not yet twenty. Like the others, he is uneasy; his name is Valerian. Hodge enters and sets a tray of mead before them. He leaves without a word. The visitors stare glumly at the refreshment, but are too timorous to go near it. CONJURING ROOM Galen helps Ulrich prepare for the audience. The sorcerer peers at himself in a full-length mirror, adjusting the hem of a black robe. ULRICH Looks forbidding enough, don't you think? GALEN Here are your sticks. ULRICH No -- they'll think me infirm. You know, Balisarius wore this whenever he changed lead into gold. He could really do that, you know. I never could. Too bad -- you'd stand to inherit some real wealth. GALEN You're in a morbid frame of mind. What's all this about dying? You don't even look sick. ULRICH (tying on a sash) You still wearing that amulet? (Galen nods) Good. Don't lose it. It still belongs to me. He backs away from the mirror and fits a silver coronet onto his head. ULRICH Now, adeptus minor, get yourself a handful of that sulphurous ash over there... The sorcerer starts down a circular stone staircase. THE ROTUNDA The visitors watch warily as a door swings open and Galen makes his entrance, his face expressionless and hands pressed together. He looks rather young to be the famous Ulrich. Galen allows a moment to go by, then throws his arms wide. Ka-whump! and Ulrich appears in the doorway in a smoky fireball. Alarmed, the visitors retreat. ULRICH Nunc habeus lux! Pffst! around the room candles flare in their niches. ULRICH Et calor! In the fireplace, the birch logs are suddenly ablaze. Ulrich totters to the hearth and extends long bony fingers toward the warmth. ULRICH Welcome to Cragganmore. I am Ulrich. Which one of you calls himself Valerian? The travelers are suitably dazzled by the magician's performance. The young leader of the party screws up his courage and speaks. VALERIAN That would be me. We are here on behalf... ULRICH I know why you're here. You're a delegation from Urland, from beyond Dalvatia. Let's see the artifacts. The travelers exchange nervous glances. Valerian motions to one of his companions. The man steps forward and hands over a leather pouch. One by one, Valerian places the contents on the table for Ulrich's inspection. VALERIAN A bone. Scorched. A rock, fire- blackened. (pause) Scales. At this, Ulrich advances and closely examines three shimmering irridescent disks as big as saucers. ULRICH All right. How did you come by these? VALERIAN (proudly) I found them. At the mouth of the lair. ULRICH (grim) What else? Valerian reaches under his jerkin and withdraws what appears to be a curved sword. He jabs it into the table. VALERIAN A claw. ULRICH That's no claw. It's a tooth. By the gods! He runs a finger along a serrated edge and gazes bleakly at his visitors. ULRICH And you want me to do battle with that? Valerian has lost all trace of timidity. VALERIAN Who else can we turn to? We all know what we're dealing with here. This is a basilicok. (he takes a step forward) A cockatrice. (another step, bolder) A dragon. (he leans close to Ulrich) This is no stag, no bear, no natural creature. This is one of your kind. And only a necromancer such as yourself can rid us of it. ULRICH Did you try the Meredydd sisters? What about Rinbod? I've heard it said he killed a dragon once. VALERIAN They're all dead. You're the only one left. With a sigh, Ulrich lowers himself into a chair. He rubs his withered legs and shakes his head. ULRICH It's a long way to Urland. VALERIAN Every quarter, upon the solstices and the equinoxes there's a new victim. Greil, a grizzled peasant, speaks up. GREIL My daughter, for one. OTHER TRAVELERS My sister... cousins... ULRICH All women? VALERIAN Girls. Virgins, to be exact, chosen by lot. Galen edges over to the table and inspects the scales and tooth. GALEN Master, don't you think -- ULRICH Silence! He broods for a long time. VALERIAN Are you afraid of dragons? ULRICH No. Sorcerers and dragons go back a long long time together. If it weren't for sorcerers, there wouldn't be any dragons. (pause) All right. I'll go. CUT TO: COURTYARD - DAY The travelers are making ready for departure in the grey light of dawn. As Hodge stuffs provisions into a wicker box, Ulrich wraps padding on a newly fashioned pair of crutches. ULRICH I know of this dragon. Vermithrax Pejorative: she's four hundred years old. As far as I can tell she's the last of her kind. Very appropriate that I'm the one to finish her off, don't you think? (he tries out the crutches) There. Flatten the highest mountain. What say you, Galen? (no answer) Speak up. (still no answer) You, Hodge. Hodge mutters something inaudible and grimly keeps packing. ULRICH (to Galen) While I'm gone see you keep your nose in your books and your hands out of my reagents. Leave my instruments alone too. Galen crouches against the castle wall; he regards his master sullenly. GALEN Look at yourself. How far will you get like that? A league, two leagues? ULRICH I'm not worried about the road. GALEN (sarcastic) Why don't you wave your hands around and summon up a coach-and-four? ULRICH Don't mock me. Galen gets up and calls out to the Urlanders. GALEN You pilgrims: You're used to lotteries. Why not draw straws to see who'll be first to carry ironshanks here. This is too much for Hodge. HODGE Hold your tongue. If the master's got a mind to go, he'll go. Galen approaches the old sorcerer. GALEN Send me. You're always saying I need seasoning. I need a test. Let me go. ULRICH You're not ready. GALEN I'm ready for anything. ULRICH (wan smile) Don't be so hasty. Your time will come. The walkers are ready to set forth. Hodge picks up his pack, steps forward and pulls open the great gate. HORSEMEN Three mounted men are outside the gate, helmets on their heads, swords on the belts and longbows across their shoulders. They look formidable. The Urlanders take a step backward. VALERIAN Tyrian!? Tyrian is a lean, heavily bearded nobleman. There is a coat of arms on the shield strapped to the pommel of his saddle. TYRIAN (amiable) Good morning, all. VALERIAN We're not afraid of you. Give us the road. TYRIAN Why, the road is yours. All the way to Urland. It's a long journey, isn't it? But when you're in search of a sorcerer, I suppose no distance is too great. Sensing trouble, Galen moves forward. Ulrich touches his arm. ULRICH (under his breath) Say nothing. Galen hears the urgency in the old man's voice and obeys. Hodge takes it upon himself to deal with the strangers. HODGE What do you want with us? TYRIAN Well, like my good friends here, I've come for a bit of black magic. No doubt you've heard of our troubles at home. This is Cragganmore, is it not? HODGE Aye, this be the place of Ulrich. Tyrian dismounts and saunters up to the old magician. TYRIAN And here we have the mystical presence himself, no? HODGE You'd best keep your distance -- and your manners. TYRIAN If he's ready to lay a dragon in its grave, he's got nothing to fear from me. (turns to the Urlanders) I've no more love for that creature than you lot. Nor has the King. But, before you stir things up, don't you think it a good idea to see you've got the right man for the job? HODGE Aha -- it's a test you're looking for. We don't do tests. TYRIAN I'm sure you don't. They never do tests -- and not many real deeds either. Oh, conversation with your grandmother's shade in a darkened room, the odd love potion or two... but comes a doubter, well then, it's the wrong day, the planets are not aligned, the entrails aren't favorable, we don't do tests. VALERIAN We've got no doubts. We require no test. HODGE And you're not going to get one. When Ulrich finally speaks, his voice is low and authoritative. ULRICH (to Galen) Go to the conjuring room. The iron box. Fetch me the dagger within. Galen's eyes widen with alarm. ULRICH The dagger. Be quick. Galen dashes into the castle. Ulrich gazes almost shyly at Tyrian. ULRICH You shall have your test. CONJURING ROOM Galen comes puffing up the steps, locates the iron box, and flings it open. Amidst the tawdry paraphernalia of a professional magician is an ivory-handled dagger covered with runic inscriptions. Galen eagerly examines it to see how the blade might twist aside or collapse into the handle, but it is all too genuine. A murder weapon. ULRICH'S VOICE (impatient) Where are you, boy? I'm waiting. Galen throws open a window and looks down into the courtyard. He displays the dagger. GALEN Not this one, was it? ULRICH The very one. Let it fall. Galen hesitates, then tosses it. Tumbling end over end, it arcs downward. The old conjurer calmly stretches out a hand and plucks it neatly out of the air. Galen watches as Ulrich passes the weapon to Tyrian and strips back his robe exposing a bony chest. Galen knows what's coming. He rushes for the door. He's only a step away when it bangs shut of its own accord. He sprints for a second exit. Whack! This door slams shut too. Locked in. Quick, back to the window and climb down the vine... Smack! the heavy shutters seal him in. ULRICH AND TYRIAN Ulrich takes Tyrian's arm and guides the point of the dagger to his breastbone. ULRICH Vita regula, vita hieratica! Everyone is filled with dread. Hodge is shaking. From the castle come the rattling of shutters and Galen's muffled cries. A sick sarcastic smile has crept over Tyrian's lips. He tenses himself to thrust. ULRICH Go on. Don't worry, you can't hurt me. CONJURING ROOM Galen stops hammering and presses his face to a crack in the shutter. Below he can see the participants in this grisly drama. He holds his breath. Tyrian makes a sudden movement and buries the blade in Ulrich's chest. But the sorcerer stands unbent, seemingly unhurt. Then, after a long moment, he slowly sags forward over the dagger and the hand that holds it. Tyrian shrinks back and allows the body to fall in a heap. Very quickly he remounts. In another moment he and his companions are gone. The others are riveted in horror. Hodge sinks to his knees and wails his grief. Galen turns away from the window and gazes blankly into the gloomy conjuring room. Click! The doors unlatch themselves and swing open. CUT TO: FUNERAL PYRE - DAY Ulrich, principal magician and sorcerer of the western world, reposes on a hardwood pyre. His hands are folded on his chest. His face is peaceful. While the visitors wordlessly look on, Galen touches a burning brand to the kindling. At first the fire catches normally enough, but when the flames start to envelop the body they suddenly turn pale green, producing an unearthly roar. The onlookers back away from the intense heat. GALEN The erstwhile apprentice stands his ground, blinking back tears, his face weirdly illuminated by the fire. CUT TO: CONJURING ROOM - DAY Galen sits alone amidst the museum-like collection of magical apparatus. He stares at the amulet, considering its significance. His reverie is interrupted by the murmur of voices below. At the window he looks down to see Hodge bidding farewell to the delegation from Urland. Valerian is the last to leave. He pauses at the gate and glances up at Galen. Then he moves on. The young student of magic sets his jaw, suddenly filled with resolve. Moving through the room, he busies himself with the old man's effects. He scoops up the loose books and parchments and locks them into trunks. He drapes muslin cloths over the alchemical devices. He sows a handful of salt over the pentagram inscribed in the floor. Finally, he opens the cages and releases the crow, the falcon, and the great horned owl. COURTYARD Hodge is up on the burned out funeral pyre, anxiously scraping ashes and small bones into a leather pouch -- the remains of Ulrich. Up behind him comes Galen, now clad in a traveler's cloak, with a pack on his back and a staff in his hand. GALEN Hodge -- what are you doing? Hodge quickly conceals the pouch. HODGE Just making my farewell, thank you very much. He quickly climbs down, picks up his pack and follows Galen out through the gate. As the door is pushed shut a huge oaken timber falls into place, barring the castle against the uninvited. CUT TO: HILLTOP - DAY Galen and Hodge labor to the crest of a grassy hill and turn to look back across a wide valley. There on another hilltop on the far side sits Cragganmore, lit by the red rays of the setting sun. Galen removes the amulet from his neck and clutches it in his fist. Hodge is bug-eyed to see it. HODGE Be careful with that! You don't know what you're doing. GALEN Stand back! He raises his hands toward the castle and calls out: GALEN Cragganmore! Domus non i am! Silva celet! CRAGGANMORE The vines on the castle walls begin to twitch and stretch, magically brought to animate life. They flow upward over the masonry, branching out and covering every surface, then up onto the roof. Finally only the tops of the chimneys and the highest turrets stand above the green carpet. A century's growth in a matter of seconds. GALEN & HODGE On their hilltop the old retainer gives the youth a fearful look. Galen is too flushed with excitement over what he has done to notice. DISSOLVE: FOREST PATH - DAY Galen and Hodge trudge along an overgrown cart-track under an arch of trees. HODGE Oh, it's a vale of tears in which we dwell. It doesn't matter who you are, a king in his robes, a peasant in his rags, when your time comes, no magic can save you... GALEN I guess... The apprentice's mind is elsewhere: he's got a coin hovering in mid-air above his palm, bobbing gently as he walks. HODGE ...the kindest lord a man could ask for... now he's gone. Ye gods he was fussy about his bath. And you'd think he could boil his own eggs with the snap of a finger, but no, he had old Hodge do it, of course. (snurfling) Up before five I was, mucking out the cages, slopping the pigs, and never once got so much as a thankyou or a pat on the back... (through tears) I'm going to miss him. GALEN Me too... He plucks a low-hanging leaf, waves a hand over it, and watches it turn into a spray of daffodils. HODGE No you don't. All you care about is the tricks and knavery. Well, you don't pull any wool over these old eyes. It'll be a mighty long walk before you fill his shoes, you mark my word. GALEN What's the matter, Hodge, pack too heavy? Here. He gives the pack a slap. It flies out of its harness and floats alongside them. Hodge snatches it back and clutches it tightly. HODGE Careful with that! GALEN Too cold, is it? A great coat drapes itself over Hodge's shoulders. HODGE Stop it! GALEN Too warm? The greatcoat disappears, as do the rest of his garments, leaving him in his smalls. HODGE (spluttering) Stop it, I say! Out of respect for the master! Suppressing a grin, Galen mercifully waves his hand and restores Hodge to his usual costume. GALEN I've got as much respect for the master as anyone, old man. But -- then again, I'm master now. CUT TO: TRAVELERS' CAMP - NIGHT The Urlanders are gathered around a fire, sharing a meager supper. The man named Greil pokes at the stew-pot. GREIL I left my farm with seeds unplanted, calves unborn, nothing but a wife to chase down the strays, and for what? A funeral, that's what. He walks up and down behind Valerian. GREIL Because some people said, find a magician. Not just a local fellow, an import, a good forty leagues from home. An all-powerful necromancer. Ha -- some necromancer! Malkin, an older man, speaks up. MALKIN Hold your tongue, Greil. Sit. Eat. GREIL I'll not sit. I'll not eat. See you the Great Bear. His tail points east. It's the equinox. Have you forgotten? Or rather not think about it? VALERIAN (miserable) He's right. I brought us here for nothing. May the gods help whoever's daughter it is tonight. There is a noise from the darkness beyond the campfire. Two of the men get to their feet and listen. At first silence, then more rustling. Without a word the two men dart into the bushes and haul two interlopers before the company: Galen and Hodge. HODGE Good morrow, good morrow. Peace be with you. GALEN Easy now. We mean no harm. We've been looking for you. GREIL (growl) Well, you've found us. GALEN (brushing himself off) More the other way around, I'd say. VALERIAN What do you want? GALEN A few words, that's all. You were looking for a conjurer. VALERIAN He's dead. GALEN Right. Requiscat in pace. (he takes a deep breath) Ecce: magister novus! GREIL How say you? Galen surveys the puzzled faces. He draws himself up and plunges in: GALEN My lord Ulrich is no longer. All that you asked of him, you may now expect of me. The dangers he would face, I will now conquer. The task he would undertake I will now fulfill. I am Galen Bradwardyn, inheritor of Ulrich's craft and knowledge, and I am the Sorcerer you seek. There is a moment of depressed silence. Hodge rolls his eyes. Greil starts to chuckle, then to laugh. Soon the others are laughing too. GREIL Well, that's a handsome thought, O wizard of wizards. But if there's one thing our friend Tyrian has shown us, it's to beware the pig in the poke. Who's got a dagger? HODGE No tests!! GREIL Call it proof, then. Someone brings out a dagger and hands it to Greil. Valerian pushes it away. VALERIAN We've seen enough tests. But Greil persists, waving the knife at the group. GREIL Well I haven't. All I've seen is death. Death in our families, death on the road, and tonight, death at home. He lashes out with the knife. Galen jumps back, but Valerian steps in, delivering a quick kick to Greil's gut, followed by a right to the jaw that sends the bigger man sprawling. He takes the knife. VALERIAN What's come over you, anyway? Have you lost your wits? He propels Galen out of harm's way and sits him down on the other side of the fire. Greil nurses his jaw. GREIL I don't like it. Young snot-nose comes in here for sport at our expense. We're on a fool's errand, but we don't have to listen to this. I don't want to hear any more about sorcery. I don't want to hear any more about spells. Valerian hands Galen a plate of food. VALERIAN You must be hungry. GALEN (nods) What's the matter with him? VALERIAN It's not just him. It's all of us. It's the equinox. They both look up at the moon. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - NIGHT The moon shines down on the far reaches of the Kingdom of Urland, coldly lighting a barren landscape filled with the skeletons of dead trees, blackened rock and bare ground. Advancing across this mournful terrain is a troop of armed men leading a blindfolded horse and tumbril. The horse is skittish. Finally, in spite of shouts and lashings, it refuses to go further. The leader, Horsrik, barks out an order: HORSRIK Close enough! Bring her out! A young woman, no more than seventeen, is brought forth from the cart. Long black hair falls down over a white tunic. Her dark eyes dart fearfully around in her pale face. She is half-carried, half dragged to the edge of a steaming crack in the ground where she is manacled to a wooden post. By lantern-light, Horsrik reads from a parchment scroll. HORSRIK Now be it known throughout the kingdom, that this maiden, having lawfully been chosen by a deed of fortune and destiny, shall hereby give up her life for the greater good of Urland. There is a low rumble; the earth shakes. Horsrik glances nervously around. He carries on by rote. HORSRIK By this act shall be satisfied the powers that dwell underground and the spirits that attend thereto. In gratitude for this sacrifice His Majesty has declared the family -- what's the name? -- He prods the girl, but she is too terrified to speak. Beneath them, the earth seems to groan. Smoke issues from the mouth of the pit. One of the nervous witnesses leans forward. RETAINER Plowman! The family Plowman! HORSRIK (rushing it) -- the family Plowman to be free of obligations, taxations, levys and imposts for a period not to exceed five years... The horse suddenly rears, and blindfold notwithstanding, gallops off, dragging the tumbril over the rocks. The men behind Horsrik break ranks and scatter. HORSRIK -- ordained and signed this day, etc., Casiodorus, in his glory the reigning king of this our realm... his seal, his mark, duly read by Chancellor Horsrik in his holy name. Now Horsrik joins the flight, chasing his men back over the murky horizon. THE GIRL She strains against her manacles, cocking her head to listen as the rumblings below subside. Presently the steam and smoke blow away and she can see the horse pawing and stamping a hundred yards distant, the wheel of the cart jammed between rocks. Summoning up a wild will to live, she squeezes her hands against the cold iron rings. No use. She spits on her wrists and twists desperately. Blood starts. One hand slips free. She looks at the horse. The animal tosses off its blindfold and looks back at her. Now she strains again and pulls her other hand free. She wipes the blood on her frock and sprints toward the horse. But she doesn't get there. The earth abruptly shifts from under her feet, tumbling her among cracked and steaming rocks. When she raises her head a huge shadow has fallen over the horse. There is a piteous whinny, then a roar. The girl's face is suddenly lit by flames. She scrambles to her feet and rushes back the other way. THE CHASE The girl hasn't taken a dozen steps when something huge hurtles forward and blocks her way. Something scaly and glittering. She whirls and stumbles off in a new direction. This time she's cut off by a monstrous claw tipped with rapier- like talons. She screams and crawls away. Another claw prevents her escape. THE CREATURE Membranous wings fold down against the night sky. Up comes the silhouette of a reptilian head swaying on a serpentine neck. There's an angry hiss. A sheet of flame envelops everything. FADE OUT: FADE IN: FOREST - DAY Tyrian kneels beside a mountain waterfall, having a drink while his men hover in the background. One of them points down the slope. MAN There. I see them. Tyrian wipes his mouth unhurriedly and strolls over to look. Far below, half hidden by trees, the little company of Urlanders winds its way through the forest. A frown creeps over Tyrian's face. TYRIAN Who's that old man? MAN Where? Which one? TYRIAN That one. That's the man from Cragganmore. Now what's he doing here? MAN Filling in for the chief, I reckon. TYRIAN (weary) What a pity. CUT TO: HODGE Hodge marches along with the rest. When he's sure no one else is looking he burrows into his garments and brings out the leather pouch containing Ulrich's ashes. Reassured that it's still with him, he tucks it away again. Galen falls into step. GALEN What have you got there? HODGE None of your business. GALEN A little gold, eh? What do you say I change it into lead? HODGE Save your jokes for someone else. Me, I don't care for braggarts. They pass Valerian, who has dropped out of line. HODGE And I don't care for frauds. GALEN I'm no fraud. HODGE Call it fool then. Upstart. Whatever pleases you. GALEN Hodge, nobody forced you to come along. HODGE Oh, I'm here of my own free will, all right. We each do the master's bidding in our own way. GALEN Well, if he told you I needed wetnursing, why don't you just turn yourself around and go back home. Hodge snorts and fusses with his pack. HODGE Home, is it? You've seen to that, haven't you? Gone to seed, I'd say... He glances over and discovers Galen missing. GALEN He walks back along the trail, looking for Valerian. Pretty soon the rest of the travelers are out of sight. He hears the sound of a splash. He turns off the trail and pushes through some shrubbery. FOREST POOL Under the oaks and hickory, a forest stream has widened into a quiet pool. A pile of clothes lies on a rock at the edge. Out in the middle, Valerian is treading water. GALEN You're too far behind us. Come on out. VALERIAN You go ahead, I'll catch up. GALEN Not a good idea to get separated. Let's go. VALERIAN Right. I'll be along. Galen leans over and splashes some water on his face. Feels good. He shucks his pack and starts to throw off his clothes. Valerian doesn't like it. VALERIAN That's all right. Don't come in. But Galen is now naked and walking into the water. He swims out toward Valerian. VALERIAN (edgy) You better get back to the group, they're probably worried. Galen keeps swimming. VALERIAN I prefer to swim alone, if you don't mind. But Galen has slipped beneath the surface; he doesn't hear. UNDERWATER Galen works his way through the murky green underwater world. Suddenly, he stops short and stares. He's only a few feet from Valerian's dangling legs. He gasps in surprise. Valerian is no boy. ON THE SURFACE Galen comes shooting to the surface, coughing and sputtering. GALEN By the gods! Valerian is pale and frightened. VALERIAN Stay away. She propels herself backward, then turns and swims for shore. ON THE SHORE Galen and Valerian have taken refuge behind separate bushes. Briskly they pull on their clothes. VALERIAN I suppose you'll tell everyone. Go ahead, I don't care. It's a relief. GALEN I'm not going to say anything. VALERIAN I don't blame you. I was stupid. Careless. A silly woman! GALEN (feeble bluff) Take it easy. I knew the moment I saw you. I've known the whole time. VALERIAN You never knew a thing. No one knew. Not since I was born. Go on, run off and tell them. It'll make a great story. GALEN Don't worry. No one's going to find out. Just tell me: why? VALERIAN Ask my father. They finish dressing in silence. Finally: GALEN The lottery! Daughters are chosen, but sons are not! VALERIAN That's right. Unless you have plenty of gold or property. GALEN What do you mean? VALERIAN If you're rich enough, your name never goes in. (bitter) My father is poor. So are a lot of fathers. He studies her. She jams a hat down over her head and, once more the young man, stalks off. THE VISION Galen walks down to the edge of the pool to retrieve his pack. As he leans over he catches sight of what appears to be a reflection in the water: Tyrian on horseback. He whips around, but no one is behind him. Riveted by the vision, he hurries along the bank to follow it. After a few paces the blurry figure dismounts, unslings a longbow, nocks an arrow and draws the string taut. GALEN (horrified) No! FOREST Galen sprints through the trees. Up ahead is Valerian, walking resolutely. GALEN No! She glances back at him and grimly keeps on walking. Galen shoots past her and on into the forest. GALEN Hodge! TRAVELERS Galen races up the trail rounds a bend and sees the Urlanders coming toward him. Hodge precedes the group with an unsteady gait. He sees Galen, raises up his arms and flops face down on the trail. A long arrow protrudes from his back. Galen kneels beside him. The uneasy company keeps its distance. Hodge struggles to speak. HODGE Galen? Can you hear me? GALEN I hear you. HODGE You know, somebody shot me, but I can still talk. There's something that has to be done. GALEN I know. HODGE Not that cockatrice. Ulrich's ashes. Here. Hodge's hand comes out from under his coat gripping the leather pouch. Galen tugs at it, but Hodge can't let go. HODGE Take it. Sorry, you'll have to peel it loose. Galen pries the sack out of Hodge's clenched fingers. Suddenly the hand comes up, grabs Galen by the hair, and pulls him near. HODGE (a croak) ...burning water... find the lake, throw it in... GALEN (holding up the pouch) What are you doing with this, Hodge? HODGE ...burning water... He dies. Galen frees himself from his grasp. GALEN Hodge, don't die. Listen to me. You're not going to die. Galen is frantic. He pulls out the amulet and wraps his hand around it. GALEN Excede, mortem! Revoca, vitam! (he shakes the body) Excede, mortem! Revoca, vitam! But Hodge has passed on, and Galen's magic has no way to reach him. Suddenly the youth cries out in pain. He drops the amulet and looks at his palm. The device has burned his flesh. Now he becomes aware of troubled Urlanders looking over his shoulder, witness to his failure. CUT TO: LAKE - DAY Wind whips the leaden wave tops on a vast rainy lake. The travelers are rowing across in an open longboat, aided by a tattered lateen sail. Valerian mans the steering oar at the stern while Galen broods in the bow. He feels like an imposter in their eyes. FJORD The boat pulls into a long narrow waterway with granite cliffs on either side. Moving through swirls of fog, they beach the boat and step out onto a craggy shore. Greil leans over and kisses a rock. GREIL Urland! CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY The travelers descend a mountain pass and emerge through a wrack of cloud into a gray and cheerless region. Fire- blackened trees dot the barren landscape. As they reach the flatlands, the Urlanders instinctively pick up the pace. Galen slows to inspect the weird surroundings. Valerian trots past him. VALERIAN Come on. Don't dawdle here. Galen falls into step with her. GALEN The whole kingdom like this? VALERIAN No. We're near the lair. Keep moving. Galen looks around with new interest. GALEN Where? VALERIAN Over there. Doesn't matter. We're in no danger if we just pass through quickly. Galen stops. High on the slope beside them is a gaping fissure. GALEN I see it. Let's have a look. VALERIAN No! But Galen is already toiling up the incline. VALERIAN Greil! Malkin! Help! The travelers turn to see what's the matter. THE LAIR Galen approaches the lair, pausing beside a wooden post with iron manacles dangling from it. He fingers them thoughtfully. Malkin, Greil and Valerian rush up behind him, their faces drawn with worry. GREIL Look, you don't have to do this. We know you're a fine young magician. None better. There's no need to prove it to us. GALEN Are there other entrances? VALERIAN No. One's enough. GREIL Come on. The road's this way. We'll tell everybody how close you got. GALEN (coolly) No smoke. How do you know it's in there? GREIL Don't be a fool. Come away now and live to tell about it. Instead, Galen starts into the crack. Greil and Malkin hasten away, but Valerian lingers, watching in mounting frustration as Galen probes further and further into the lair. She picks up a fistful of stones and throws them at him. VALERIAN Go ahead! You're going to die! What a fine trick that will be! But Galen is lost in the gloom. She flees. UNDERGROUND Galen puts his hand on the rugged wall: the rocks are hot to the touch. Something glinting on the floor catches Galen's eye: an irridescent disk, a dragon scale. It flashes the colors of the rainbow as Galen examines it. All at once the ground shudders; chunks of rock fall from the ceiling. A pall of smoke billows up from the depths. OUTSIDE Galen staggers out of the fissure coughing and gagging in a swirl of smoke. There is no sign of the Urlanders. He throws down his pack, climbs onto a huge boulder and surveys the massive cliffs rising behind the lair. He grasps the amulet and closes his eyes. GALEN Now, great mountain, hear my command: Terrae lapsus consignet latibulum draconis! Evanescat latibulum draconis! LANDSLIDE With a thunderous splitting sound, the entire top of the cliff pitches forward and topples onto the lower half of the mountain, sweeping tons of debris into the air. Boulders the size of houses bound down the mountain toward the magician. Eyes wide with awe, he turns and runs for his life. Even as he careens down the slope, chunks of rock rumble past. One catches him at the knee and sends him flying. He covers his head and joins the landslide. Finally the dust lifts and he finds himself in a gully face to face with the cowering Urlanders. They look with real fear at the man who just conjured up the Apocalypse. Tattered and torn, covered with dirt, Galen climbs up out of the shelter for a look at his handiwork. LANDSCAPE The territory has been drastically transformed: the dragon's lair is now buried beneath hundreds of tons of broken granite. The Urlanders look upon the new landscape with stupefaction. Galen grins a triumphant split-lip grin that fails to win them over. Presently they back away and run off down the trail, Valerian in their midst. Galen's grin fades. CUT TO: VILLAGE - DAY The Village of Swanscombe is little more than a rough and ready collection of thatched huts and mud-daubed outbuildings surrounded by cultivated fields. Dogs sleep in open door- ways; chickens peck around the communal well -- but there are no people in evidence as Valerian and her company troop into town. VALERIAN She trots across the square and enters a deserted blacksmith shop. VALERIAN Father? Hello? She goes over to the forge. Hot coals are burning. She becomes aware of a sound -- voices -- chanting. SQUARE She walks across the square toward the voices. She is joined by Greil, Malkin and the other travelers, all of them puzzled by the desolation. As they approach the grange hall the voices grow louder. They seem to be singing. The main doors open briefly and three villagers scamper out, dripping wet and wrapped in white muslin. Valerian and her companions look at each other in astonishment. IN THE GRANGE HALL In a wooden cistern in the middle of the hall a woman is being held under water. After a few moments she is pulled to the surface by a tall red-haired man with long bony fingers: Brother Jacopus Januensis, a Carthusian monk. There's a wooden cross on his chest and a mad look in his eye. Gathered around him are the missing villagers, every man woman and child, here to be baptised and sing a few newly-learned hymns in praise of Our Lord Jesus Christ. BROTHER JACOPUS Now are you cleansed of your sins! Now are you born again, purified in spirit, into the fellowship of Jesus Christ! The travelers enter and mingle with the congregation. Valerian scans the crowd until she locates her father, Simon, a balding sturdy journeyman. He's overjoyed at her return and gives her a hearty embrace. SIMON Welcome back, my son. VALERIAN Father, what are you doing? Have you all lost your minds? SIMON Some have. He points to the monk, who is dunking a screaming infant and carrying on about the Bishop of Rome. SIMON It's this monk. He can read and write, and talk too, I'm afraid. VALERIAN And they listen? SIMON Shh! They think this a holy place, a tabernacle. VALERIAN This is the granary. What kind of welcome is this? I've got news of the sorcerer and news of the dragon. SIMON You were brave to go, you and your friends. But nobody cares. Listen -- he knows what they want to hear. MONK Brother Jacopus strides back and forth before the assembly in an inspired state. BROTHER JACOPUS The man who walks with Christ is not a man to fear a dragon: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil! You say you are preyed upon by a foul beast. Yes, but what is the nature of this beast? It comes to you on bat's wings and clawed feet, does it not? It breathes fire, does it not? And it lives under ground. This is no dragon. This is Lucifer! VOICE Whoever it is, he's dead. This is Galen, who has just stepped into the hall, tattered, bedraggled and triumphant. BROTHER JACOPUS Nay, brother! It is not as easy as that. Allegiance to Christ, to be sure, but also prayer and confession. These are the arms by which Satan may be put down. GALEN You're talking about superstition, friend. None of that has anything to do with what I, Galen, have already achieved. He marches to the center of the gathering. SIMON (to Valerian) You brought this stranger? VALERIAN Ulrich's apprentice. He's a braggart, but it doesn't matter. GALEN People of Urland! Send a messenger to the king. Vermithrax is dead. Crushed by the power of the moon and the stars! Laid low by ancient wisdom. Dropped into the Abyss by mystical practice. BROTHER JACOPUS Spoken like a pagan. Every word as reprobate as it is false! (holding up his cross) Solum in hoc signo vinces! GALEN Nihil plus mysterium! He gestures boldly and a fireball crackles at the monk's feet. The holy man scurries back. A hush falls upon the congregation. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY A procession of curious villagers winds its way into the badlands. They gather on a promontory overlooking the dragon's lair. They stand there for a long time, a chill wind whipping their garments, trying to understand what's happened. The monk is mightily displeased. BROTHER JACOPUS Praise God! Blessed is he that is humble before the Lord! VALERIAN Your god had nothing to do with it. Indeed, Galen's act is already the stuff of legend: MALKIN We saw it with our own eyes. He flew to the mountain top. He was a bird. He brought forth lightning. I saw it. Some of the younger villagers scamper forward to the spot where the cave had its opening. With yells and whoops they beat the ground with clubs. In the crowd Simon begins to smile, then to laugh. Soon he leads the villagers in a tumultuous cheer. Brother Jacopus and some of his converts drop to their knees and pray. CUT TO: CELEBRATION The inhabitants of Swanscombe have decked out the town square and are making a night of it. By torchlight they dance merrily to jigs and reels provided by the local fiddlers. Ale flows freely from oak casks. VALERIAN'S HOUSE Valerian is kneeling before a trunk full of women's clothing. She pulls out a long simple frock, goes to a crude mirror, and holds it up against her body to gauge the effect. Her father comes up behind her. He is angry and frightened. SIMON Put that away. What if you were seen? VALERIAN I'm going to be seen. I want to be seen. Tonight the world finds out that you never had a son. SIMON No, you mustn't do that. It's too soon. We've got to think about this, we've got to make a plan. VALERIAN Father: the danger is over. He sits on the bed and puts his head in his hands. SIMON I know. What am I going to say to my friends who still mourn for their lost girls. VALERIAN You'll say you did what you had to. This is a time for celebration -- and forgiveness. He looks up at her, trying to imagine what it's going to be like having a daughter. CELEBRATION Galen is surrounded by a crowd of wide-eyed kids and not a few adults, entertaining them by pulling duck's eggs out of their ears and causing coins to disappear. Presently he feels the attention of his audience shift away to someone standing behind him. He turns to find a shy but determined Valerian sweetly decked out in her blue frock. A buzz goes through the crowd. Valerian blushes and wavers: she seems ready to bolt for home. But Galen takes her by the hand, and with conspicuous politesse leads her to the dance. DANCE It's forward, back and around sixth-century style: the young sorcerer can't take his eyes off his partner. But she's too shy to return his gaze. GALEN Looks like you've been up to a little sorcery yourself. Valerian doesn't know what to say. GALEN Or is it witchcraft? She still doesn't reply. It's all she can do to keep on dancing. GALEN What's the matter? A real woman never stops talking. VALERIAN I think it was much easier being a boy. SIMON & GREIL They stand on the sidelines, watching the young couple step to the music. SIMON The damnedest thing is, she was twice the man of anyone else in the village. Now she's twice the woman. GREIL (grim) Would that I had been as clever as her father. SIMON Come now, Greil. Don't begrudge a life spared. GREIL I begrudge nothing. But I wonder at what we have seen and how it was done. SIMON You were there. GREIL I saw what I saw. But this jack-anapes was barely ready to carry his master's chamberpot. Isn't it strange that at the very moment the beast is put down we should have a holy man here in the village? SIMON You don't believe that superstitious Christian rot, do you? GREIL (defensive) It is said God works his wonders in mysterious ways. CELEBRATION While the proud Simon dances in the background with his daughter, a group of tipsy villagers clusters around Galen, belching forth a drinking song. The young magician raises his own mug and joins in on the chorus. Abruptly the music stops. The singing dies away. The ensuing silence is broken by the sound of galloping hooves. Presently three horsemen appear at the end of town: Tyrian and his henchmen. They guide their horses forward into the midst of the merry-makers. Tyrian dismounts and looks around in his usual friendly way. TYRIAN A celebration! Don't stop on my account. You -- musicians, more music! The musicians leave their instruments in their laps. Tyrian draws himself a measure of ale and raises it above his head. TYRIAN A toast! To the deed of the day! You see, good news travels fast. The King himself has already heard it. And like yourselves, tonight he's overcome with joy. MALKIN What would you have of us then? TYRIAN Not a thing. It's this one. (he gestures toward Galen) The King would meet our new benefactor and offer his gratitude to the man who succeeded where so many have failed. GALEN (sobering up) What sort of gratitude? A knife in the belly? An arrow in the back? Tyrian's smile freezes on his face. He steps in front of Galen, towering over him. TYRIAN My young friend, I'd as soon dispatch you as I did the others, and for the same reason. But his Majesty would like a cozy chat, and commands otherwise. VALERIAN Don't go, Galen. Cast a spell and turn them into toads. It should be easy; that's what they are. Tyrian regards her coolly, taking in her change of costume and its meaning. TYRIAN Well, well: still plenty of cheek under those skirts, it seems. Having buried the dragon under a mountain, Galen decides he's not worried about an appearance at court. He smiles at Valerian. GALEN Don't worry. I'll be back. CUT TO: RIDERS Three horses gallop through the moors and fens of central Urland. Galen is tucked up behind Tyrian. On the distant horizon, the battlements of the King's castle glow in the slanting light of a new day. CUT TO: THRONE ROOM - DAY Within the castle is a great hall with shafts of daylight poking in through narrow windows set high in the walls. In the middle of the room stands a carved oak throne. There is Casiodorus Rex, King of Urland, a bearded man in his fifties, as spare and somber as the room in which he sits. He is flanked by a few servants, assorted courtiers and Tyrian. Standing before them all is Galen, looking unhappy. He pours a pitcher full of water into a small glazed goblet. GALEN One of the best things about the water here in Urland is that there's so much of it -- look at that! Water continues to pour into the goblet without overflowing. Galen takes a sip. GALEN Mmm. Good. But not cold enough. Perhaps I could borrow a scarf from his Majesty. The King makes no sign. Galen approaches stiffly, takes a scarf and retreats. GALEN I cover the goblet, so... remove, so... and behold: winter in a mug! And he's done it: he turns the goblet over and a small chunk of ice hits the floor. The royal reaction is equally frosty. Galen is bombing, and he knows it. GALEN All right. How many of you have ever seen a table fly? He mutters an incantation. In the audience, Tyrian notes that Galen has his hand wrapped around the amulet. There is a loud clatter as the heavy oak table before the throne begins to jitter and buck. As the wine spills and plates go flying, the King wearily raises a hand. KING Enough! That's fine. GALEN Wait, it'll rise now. KING Don't bother. Not necessary. The table cracks in half and dumps a mess of fruit and crockery at the onlookers' feet. KING Tell me: the landslide -- it was accomplished this same way? GALEN Yes. KING I see. And having rendered such unique service to our kingdom, what would you claim as a reward? GALEN Please -- no payment. I have always found magical practice to be its own reward. I seek only some yet greater challenge. This handsome sentiment doesn't go over any better than his tricks. KING Did you ever hear of King Gaiseric? Of course not, you weren't even born. He was my brother, a great King and a valiant man-at-arms. When he ascended to the throne, the dragon was unbridled. No one knew where it might strike next. So he brought forth his broadsword and his spear, assembled a company of his best fighters and went out to do battle. (pause) He was never seen again. But his attack provoked the most terrible reprisals: whole villages incinerated, entire crops burned. Death, famine, horrible. The King grimaces as the memories come flooding back. KING (quietly) How did you arrogate to yourself the role of savior? GALEN I was invited. KING Not by me. Did you ever consider the consequences of failure? GALEN What failure? What's the matter with you people? You want the dragon back? KING Then the beast is dead? GALEN Yes, of course. Dead. KING We shall see. CUT TO: DUNGEON Two guards thrust Galen into a narrow cell and slam the barred door shut. The young sorcerer waits until they're safely out of sight, then takes out his amulet. He ponders it for a doubtful moment. Suddenly a gloved hand darts in and whips it off his neck and out through the bars. TYRIAN Thank you. He makes an ironic salute and leaves. Galen sits down heavily and stares at the stone walls. CORRIDOR Unseen by Galen, a figure clad in silk and lace skitters down a murky dungeon hallway and peers around a corner. Stealing a look at Galen is the Princess Elspeth, a fey beauty in her early twenties. After a moment, spooked by some imagined noise, she flits away. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY Dark clouds slide across a pale sun, throwing the ruined land below into shadow. Soon fat droplets of rain are splattering on the rocks above the dragon's lair. With each tiny splash there is a sizzle and a puff of steam. These rocks are hot! CUT TO: DUNGEON Outside the barred window, a steady rain is falling. Inside, Galen uses a chunk of limestone to inscribe a pentagram on the floor of his cell. He marks runic signs on the window sill and lintel. Then, positioning himself in the center of the mystic symbol, he raises his hands and spreads his fingers. GALEN (authoritative) Cubiculum gravis aperat! There's a long moment when nothing happens. A very long moment. Finally, a thoroughly frustrated Galen leaps to the window and rattles the bars. GALEN Open up, dammit! Fenestra gravis aperat! Asser gravis aperat! Divinitus! VOICE Salve, magistrum iuvenilum. Startled, Galen whirls around to find Elspeth standing outside his cell. She hands some food and blankets through the bars. ELSPETH I've studied Latin. Greek, too. Me appelo Elspeth, filia regis. Galen looks her over. He's never seen anyone so angelic. GALEN How do you do. ELSPETH Please don't think ill of us. My father is a wonderful man, a wise man. The lottery was his idea. GALEN I see. ELSPETH You don't understand. From the moment it began, the dragon was tame. The kingdom prospered. GALEN And only a few had to be sacrificed. ELSPETH Yes, that's true. Isn't it better that a few should die that many might live? GALEN Depends on who does the dying. ELSPETH Oh, but we all take our chances. My father is a just man. My name is entered on the lists, along with every other young -- GALEN Virgin? ELSPETH Maiden. GALEN If you say so. ELSPETH What do you mean? GALEN (sighs) Nothing. ELSPETH I've participated in every drawing since I came of age. GALEN Maybe. ELSPETH It's true. You don't believe me. You think I'm lying. Well I'm not. GALEN I'm sorry. I heard a rumor. Families with money, that sort of thing. ELSPETH Don't listen to rumors. They're lies. I have to go now. GALEN Wait -- how long do I have to stay in here? ELSPETH Until we know. Not long. Goodbye. Vale. Dormi bene. She slips away down the corridor. LIBRARY King Casiodorus and Tyrian are huddled over a table piled high with manuscripts and papers. Tyrian clears a spot and sets out a stack of lead bars. KING That's enough. Let's not be greedy here. The King picks up Galen's amulet, and holds it over the bars in his clenched fist. KING Now then: I, Casiodorus Rex do hereby command thou base metal to change thy essence and become gold. There is a rustle of skirts and Elspeth appears behind him. ELSPETH Father? KING Not now. Tyrian, remove all but one bar. We'll try it one at a time. ELSPETH Father: did you know that some families have paid bribes to stay out of the lottery? The King and Tyrian glance up at her. KING Nonsense. By the power of this amulet, justly wielded by my hand in accordance with the laws of Urland, now lead be thou gold. The lead remains unchanged, but the King gives out a cry and drops the amulet. KING I'm burned! What devilish thing is this? ELSPETH Have you ever kept my name off the lottery list? KING That'll be all, Tyrian. You may withdraw. Tyrian bows and exits. The King uses his sceptre to pick up the amulet and chain. He conceals it in a hollowed-out book and places the volume on a shelf among many others. KING Now, my dear, what's troubling you? ELSPETH Answer my question: am I not exposed to the same risk as every other man's daughter? The King paces over to the window and stares out. The rain has stopped. ELSPETH Well? KING (finally) Your father loves you very much. Elspeth sways in dismay. ELSPETH (a wail) It's true! What have you done to me!? KING Who fills your head with such ideas? At that moment a tremor passes through the room. King and daughter look at each other in alarm. DUNGEON The same tremor shakes the bars in Galen's cell. Puzzled, he rolls off his straw palette and gets to his feet. The tremor dies away. Suddenly a violent shaking hits the cell, bouncing Galen off the walls. CUT TO: VILLAGE SQUARE Swanscombe is gripped by the same earthquake. Dodging panicky barnyard animals, Valerian and her father join other frightened villagers in the center of town. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY Above the dragon's lair, boulders are shifting and grinding together. Massive chunks of stone break loose and tumble down the incline. CUT TO: GALEN The shaking has stopped. Rock dust filters down from the ceiling. Galen picks himself up and stares: the door to his cell is off its hinges and is sagging open. He darts out. CORRIDOR Galen dashes along the hallway, rounds a corner and stops. At the other end of the passage is Tyrian. TYRIAN You little meddler! It's alive! He draws his sword and advances. Galen warily retreats. Tyrian breaks into a run. Galen turns and sprints away. COURTYARD Unruly horses, terrified by the quake, rush blindly around the courtyard. Hostlers try vainly to catch them. Tyrian leans down from an upstairs window. TYRIAN Close the main gate! Quick! The men below scramble for the gates. Galen bursts out of hiding, sees the untended horses, and swings aboard as one goes past. A cry goes up from the guards. TYRIAN There! Stop him! Galen rides like mad for the exit, but he's a half-second late: the doors boom shut in his face. He wheels the horse around. The King's men are coming toward him with pikes. Digging his heels into the horse's sides, he urges the animal back across the courtyard, up the steps and right into the building! THRONE ROOM Galen gallops into the empty chamber, knocking over the throne and vaulting a table. Hot on his heels are armed soldiers. He kicks the horse again and shoots under an archway. KITCHEN The kitchen is already in chaos from the earthquake when Galen charges in on his wild steed. Food, utensils and cooks go flying. He reins in, ducks his head, and squeezes the horse out into a narrow hallway. HALLWAY He clatters down the passageway. But here comes a contingent of footmen from the opposite direction. Galen rides them into the walls! STAIRS The horse scrabbles up the stairs, Galen tucked low against its neck. On the upper landing he comes face to face with Tyrian and more soldiers. TYRIAN Get him! Stab the horse! Galen jerks the animal around and plunges back down the stairs. LIBRARY Whinnying and blowing the horse bursts in, a wild-eyed Galen still in the saddle. He finds himself confronting the King and his daughter. Casiodorus grabs Elspeth and retreats into a corner. KING Tyrian! Tyrian! Tyrian sweeps in with his men. The doors slam shut. KING So much for your magic! So much for your sorcery! Galen is trapped. Just as Tyrian reaches for the horse's reins, the animal rears up, rolling its eyes. At that moment the floor heaves and cracks in a new series of shocks. The men at arms go down like ten pins. Tyrian reels back, dodging stone blocks loosened from the ceiling. As the shaking continues, a weakened section of wall gives way. Galen sees daylight! Without even waiting for the quake to cease, he prods the horse across the room and through the wall to freedom. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY The unnerved citizens of Swanscombe gather on the promontory overlooking Galen's landslide. Every few seconds there is a new shudder and more rocks pour down the long slope. Valerian stands trembling with her father. Presently Brother Jacopus elbows his way forward. BROTHER JACOPUS Listen to me, my brethren. The moment of our fear is the moment of our triumph. This is a sign from God. Follow me, and our faith will send this creature straight to hell. Holding a cross before him, he starts up the slope. No one follows. They haven't been Christians all that long. One or two near Valerian get down on their knees and pray silently. Greil looks things over. GREIL You call yourselves Christians? He strides after the monk. But he's the only one. NEAR THE LAIR The determined monk has arrived at the epicenter. His sandals are smoking on the hot gravel. Sweat shines on his face and neck. BROTHER JACOPUS The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Thou makest me to lie down in green pastures. Thy rod and staff they comfort me... Greil toils up the slope a hundred yards back. He's crossing himself, but he's carrying a sickle. VERMITHRAX There is a thunderous noise. Part of the mountain is tossed into the air. Up from the depths comes a huge shining wing. Then a neck uncoils and a head appears. It tips down toward the tiny human. BROTHER JACOPUS (firm) ...for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever -- amen. At the base of the slope the villagers scatter. Greil wavers. BROTHER JACOPUS Unclean beast, get thee down! Be thou consumed by the fires that made you! The dragon's head sways back and forth, then belches out a waterfall of flame. It engulfs Jacopus and sends him to a better world, if there is one. CUT TO: HILL ROAD - NIGHT Horse and rider race across a night landscape under brooding clouds. Up ahead, the sky glows with an angry red light. At the crest of a hill Galen reins in and looks down across a long valley. There, miles away, is the village of Swanscombe. Many buildings are ablaze. As he watches in horror, fires spring up in the fields and trees. Intermittently he can see the silhouette of the dragon as it spreads destruction. Finally the creature swoops up and away. Galen stares skyward, losing sight of it in the clouds. For a moment, silence. Then, with a thunderous rush of air that almost blows him from the saddle, the dragon reappears and hurtles a few feet over his head! It is gone in an instant. CUT TO: VILLAGE - NIGHT Half the buildings in the town are on fire. Desperate villagers dash here and there, herding children and animals to safety, trying to save their household goods. Galen walks woodenly into the confusion, leading his horse, taking in the scope of the disaster. He comes upon a line of men who have formed a bucket brigade. He attempts to join up. As soon as he is recognized, he is shouldered roughly aside. MAN Get away, you little bastard. We've had enough help from you. Galen staggers back, reaching for his horse. The animal shies and trots off. A middle-aged woman appears in front of him, her face contorted with rage. She swings a flaming broom and catches him on the back of the head. Galen reels away. WOMAN This is your doing! Galen looks up and sees a couple of burlies moving his way with boards in their hands. BURLIES Get him! He's back! Before they can get too close, Galen runs down an alley and bumps smack into a glassy-eyed, haunted man. It is Greil. GALEN Greil -- help! GREIL May the Lord forgive you for what you have done. He pushes past. Galen ducks behind a smoldering building. VALERIAN'S HOUSE The roof has burned off, but at least the walls are standing. Valerian is wrestling charred timbers out of the center of the room. She is covered with soot. There is a hammering on the door and Galen barges in. He slams the door behind him and puts his back against it. GALEN It's me. Are you hurt? VALERIAN Where have you been? Doesn't matter -- listen: Quick! Make it rain. That'll put the fire out. GALEN I can't. VALERIAN Then get the animals back. They're all running loose. There's people been hurt. Stop their pain. You can cure them. And we'll need food... GALEN I can't do it. VALERIAN (this stops her) What? Why not? Galen's hand moves up to where the amulet used to hang. GALEN I just can't. VALERIAN But you're a sorcerer. GALEN I'm no sorcerer. Whatever power I might have had, it's gone. VALERIAN It can't be! GALEN I know: I'm an imposter. A fraud. A fake. I'm sorry... For a moment, Valerian is too stunned to speak. Then her face colors. VALERIAN You're sorry?! Listen to that! The damn thing is loose, we're all on fire and you're sorry! Galen sinks to the floor and sits in the ashes. VALERIAN You didn't have the faintest idea what you were doing, did you? You're a fool -- and I'm a bigger one for bringing you here. She snatches up a pitchfork and glowers at him. VALERIAN I don't want you in this house. Get out. But Galen still sits there like a puppet with its strings cut, every dream of glory utterly crushed. This piteous sight touches Valerian's heart. Her gaze softens. She slowly lowers the pitchfork. FADE OUT: FADE IN: TOWN SQUARE - DAY A knot of villagers lead Tyrian and his henchmen across the square directly to the blacksmith's shop. The King's men dismount and pound on the door. It swings open. Valerian is standing there. TYRIAN Where is he? VALERIAN Not here. I can't help you. A cry goes up from the villagers. They know damn well he's in there. VALERIAN'S HOUSE Tyrian pushes Valerian aside and steps into the room. Aided by some townfolk, his men proceed to ransack the premises, overturning barrels, sticking their swords through flour sacks, poking through the tumbledown thatch. Valerian's eye falls on Malkin, who has involved himself in the search. VALERIAN You too? MALKIN (returning her look) Damn right. Finding nothing, the group pushes into the metal shop, where Simon is hammering an iron wheel rim back into shape on an enormous anvil. He lays down his tools and grimly watches the men go through, overturning benches and tables. Tyrian props a leg up on the anvil and addresses himself to Simon. TYRIAN As the proud new father of an eligible daughter who was some-how overlooked all these years, it may interest you to know that the King has called for a new lottery. SIMON But it's months til the solstice. TYRIAN In view of what's happened, we all know what's required. SIMON I've never taken part in your cursed lottery, and I'll have nothing to do with it now. TYRIAN You were very clever. But she'll take part, like all the rest. No exceptions. The search party has exhausted the room's hiding places. HENCHMAN Nothing. If he was here, he's gone now. Tyrian nods and leads the way out. Simon catches up and pulls Tyrian aside at the door. SIMON All right. I know what you want. How much? TYRIAN Are you offering me a bribe? SIMON Yes. TYRIAN Don't waste your time. (pause) You could never afford it. He spins on his heel and joins his men as they ride out of town. Valerian and Simon watch them go. When the riders are out of sight, they return to the shop. With a couple of stout poles, they strain to lift the anvil off its base. Finally it topples over. Valerian slides the base aside, revealing a trap door. She raises it and a cramped Galen unfolds himself from the space below. On his face is a curious look of determination. GALEN Smith -- have you ever forged a weapon? WEAPONS Simon is going through a cabinet, tossing out hoes, rakes, sickles, scythes, plow blades, and a knife or two. Galen examines them doubtfully. Now Simon produces an armload of swords. Galen is impressed; he looks them over carefully, testing and rejecting them in turn. GALEN These are your sharpest? Simon plucks up one of the swords, carries it to the center of the room. He lays a horseshoe on the anvil. He brings the sword down -- whack! -- and cuts the horseshoe in half. SIMON Even Tyrian carries one of these. Galen hefts it dubiously. GALEN It's sharp -- but it's not sharp enough. Valerian has been watching all this with growing concern. VALERIAN Not sharp enough for what? GALEN For what I'm going to do with it. VALERIAN Nothing's that sharp. Simon gnaws his lip. Reluctantly, he brings a long box from the bottom of the cabinet. He opens it. Lying on a bed of silk is an exquisite two-handed broadsword. The flat blade gleams like a mirror. Galen reaches in and lifts it out. SIMON The best I ever made. Valerian is as awed as Galen. VALERIAN It's beautiful. Galen brings up a finger to test the edge. Simon grabs his hand away. SIMON Don't do that! (he looks at Valerian) Girl-child, when you were born I knew I had to do something, so I set about the task of fashioning an extraordinary weapon: I had the skill to make it -- (bleak pause) -- but not the nerve to use it. She looks at him with affection. Leaning forward, she plants a kiss on his bald pate. VALERIAN I'm thankful for that. (to Galen) No man should choose a senseless death. CUT TO: STREAM - DAY Galen, Valerian and Simon tramp through a glade to a mossy bank. There a wide stream flows lazily under a canopy of trees. VALERIAN If it's me you're worried about, don't. So my name has been entered, what of it? There are hundreds of girls. My name just won't be drawn. I know it won't. Galen walks out into the shallows and pushes the sword-tip into the sandy bottom, angled so that the edge splits the current. GALEN Valerian, this isn't just for your sake. He walks back to shore. All three watch the sword to see what will happen. SWORD Big flat oak leaves are gliding along the current. Very slowly, they go by the sword, some of them very close. Finally, one of them floats against the leading edge of the blade and without a ripple is cleft in two. Simon gives Galen a significant look. VALERIAN I don't care. It doesn't matter. What you want to kill isn't flesh and blood. SIMON Oh, it'll bleed, all right. VALERIAN How do you know? No one's so much as even scratched it. They look to Galen. The apprentice's face is full of doubt. GALEN I'll need the amulet. CUT TO: KING'S CASTLE - NIGHT Carrying torches to light their way, families -- some with maiden daughters -- gather from all over the country in the courtyard of the King's castle. Simon is there with Valerian, and so is Galen, disguised in rough farm clothes and a wide- brimmed hat. Like many others, he carries a stick topped with a bleached skull -- to all appearances, just another participant in this weird pagan ritual. A barrel decorated with flames and dragon's wings sits on a raised dais in front of the main entrance. Horsrik, the King's herald, supervises preparations for the lottery. Armed guards appear carrying a sealed chest. Horsrik breaks the seal and the guards pour the contents -- hundreds of wooden tiles, each bearing the name of a potential sacrifice -- into the barrel. Trumpets blare and drums roll and the royal party strolls onstage: the King, his daughter, courtiers and Tyrian. Valerian nudges Galen. VALERIAN (pointing) Look at her. The Princess. GALEN I know. We've met. Valerian gives Galen a sharp look. Horsrik unrolls a parchment. HORSRIK (reading) People of Urland: whereas the peace of the kingdom has been disrupted by the mischief of an interloper; and whereas this interloper being fled; now therefore, his majesty the King hereby proclaims the sum of thirty ducats to be paid to anyone producing the miscreant Galen Bradwardyn, fraud enchanter, to our satisfaction. Galen pulls his hat low over his eyes. As the moment for the drawing approaches, Valerian becomes more and more uneasy. She pushes forward through the crowd until she's just below the barrel. She eyes the people around her. Some of them seem equally worried, others -- the better dressed and better fed -- are smug and complacent. The King and his retinue are serene. A chant goes up from the crowd: CROWD Stir the tiles! Stir the tiles! Horsrik picks up a wooden staff surmounted by a carved dragon's head and stirs up the names. This done, a new chant goes up: CROWD Bare the arm! Bare the arm! At a signal, a guard comes forward and cuts the sleeve from Horsrik's right arm. He holds it high. The crowd surges forward. The atmosphere is full of dread and excitement. Valerian looking pale and determined, is jostled and pushed to the edge of the platform. CROWD Draw the name! Draw the name! The moment has come. Down goes Horsrik's arm and up it comes, holding one little wooden square, one young woman's fate. An expectant hush falls over the mob. The virgins of Urland tremble and wait. HORSRIK Now, my countrymen, hear me: behold, for I am chosen. I shall die that many may live. I shall lay down my life for family and fellows. I shall go to my grave for the love of our King and his wise policy. And my name is -- He looks down at the tile to read the name, but no sound comes to his lips. He looks back at the crowd, a cold sweat breaking over his face. He swallows, but still can't bring himself to speak. At his feet, Valerian is holding her breath. A new chant goes up. CROWD The name! The name! By now Horsrik is trembling. He stares down at the tile, his mouth set in a grim line. The King is getting annoyed. He gestures and the crowd falls silent. KING Read the name. HORSRIK (mastering himself) The name is: Princess Elspeth Ulfilas, filia regis. There is a moment of profound shock. Then a low murmur of wonder moves through the crowd. Galen looks at Valerian; she sags with relief. The King turns to his daughter. She shows nothing. He rises from his chair, comes forward and snatches the tile from Horsrik. KING That's not the name. It's been misread. Valerian will not stand for such hypocrisy. VALERIAN There's no mistake! The name's been chosen -- let it stand! KING No, the good Horsrik has misspoke himself. (he looks at the tile) In fairness to this individual, whose name I can't make out, we'll destroy this tile. He quickly tosses the wood chip into a brazier at his elbow. Led by Valerian, the crowd cries out in protest. VALERIAN No! What better name than your own kin? At last we see justice done! KING Silence! We will have a new choosing. I will draw the name myself. He reaches into the barrel and extracts another tile. He looks at it and his eyes widen. Betrayed, he swivels to face his daughter. The din of the crowd reaches a crescendo. CROWD Let it stand! Let it stand! Elspeth takes the tile from her father's nerveless fingers, looks at it with satisfaction and holds it aloft. ELSPETH The name is as you heard it and as Horsrik read it: Elspeth. The King moils through the tiles, finding his daughter's name again and again. KING The lottery is invalid. Another and another. What treachery is this? Valerian, chanting with the rest, falls silent. She looks at Elspeth with sudden interest and respect, then awe. ELSPETH Hear me, good people! It is true, that my name appears on many of the lots. This does not falsify the drawing, it certifies it! I have learned that my name has been kept from jeopardy in all the drawings in the past. So I have put my name among the rest many times -- once for each risk that, over the years, you took and I did not. The crowd is dumbfounded. Gradually voices erupt in a cacophony of shouts, whistles and excited conversation. Galen sees his chance: there's an unguarded door near the stable. He drifts toward it and slips inside. THRONE ROOM Galen pokes his head in: the room is empty. He scurries over to a chest, flings it open and starts rummaging. Finding nothing he moves on to a cabinet. He breaks the lock and pries it open. Again, nothing. CASTLE CORRIDOR Galen can hear the voices in the courtyard as he rushes down a hall. Suddenly he stops short. There in front of him is a guard leaning out a window to watch the proceedings. Galen hovers on the verge of panic as the guard abruptly moves. But the man is only headed for another window and a better view. Galen manages to fall into step an arm's length behind him and slip by without a sound. LIBRARY Galen enters the library, his enormous shadow dancing crazily on the torchlit walls. Hurrying through, his attention is drawn to some open books on a table. Closer inspection reveals magical writings and symbols. Galen paws over everything, suddenly aware that he must be close to the amulet. But where is it? COURTYARD As the crowd disperses Valerian watches Elspeth walk back in the castle, lofty and composed. She looks for Galen and discovers he has gone. LIBRARY By now, the room is in total disarray. Galen has opened all the chests and trunks and knocked half the books from the shelves. No amulet. He's feverishly working on a locked drawer when a voice interrupts him. KING Don't go to all that trouble. Galen whirls around to find the King standing in the doorway. The monarch looks shattered. Galen edges toward the split in the wall and finds that it has been shored up with timbers. At that moment Tyrian comes through the door, sizes up the situation and draws his sword. GALEN I'm unarmed. If you want a fight, at least give me a weapon. TYRIAN (pushing by the King) I think not! KING Stop! Don't harm him. (to Galen) And you -- don't run away... please... The King's voice is cracking. Galen and Tyrian are equally taken aback. The King searches through the books remaining on the library shelves. KING (shaky) I've always had the greatest admiration for the black arts. You chaps with your mysterious spells... I didn't think it would be necessary, you see. Vermithrax is an old dragon. And that, I thought, was the beauty of my plan -- buying time. We'd wait her out. I'd live to see the end of her. (firm) That's still going to happen. The King finds the book and takes the amulet out. With trembling hands, he passes it to Galen. TYRIAN Sire! KING He shall have it. (pleading) It's my daughter. Save her, I beg you. CUT TO: VILLAGE - DAY The people of Swanscombe are clearing up the rubble and beginning repairs on their dwellings. Standing in their midst, lecturing every passerby, is Greil. He holds up the charred remains of Brother Jacopus' wooden cross. GREIL Holy of holies -- he did not die in vain. Can you hear me, brothers? Some workmen go by lugging new thatch. Malkin is with them. MALKIN (gently) We hear you, Greil. GREIL Well and good, but I'm Greil no longer. Call me Gregorius, after the Bishop of Rome. Malkin and the others stop to listen. GREIL I saw him die. Like Our Lord Jesus on the cross he was, scourged by evil. But he showed no fear. Such is the power of the Holy Ghost. BLACKSMITH SHOP Galen lurks in the shadows of Simon's metal shop looking out on the square where Greil is holding forth. GREIL Of what avail is magic? The old gods died with our daughters. From whence comest my help? My help comest from the Lord! Galen quietly shuts and bars the door. He moves deeper into the gloomy workroom where Simon is pumping a bellows to heat up the forge. Galen looks at the coals. SIMON Good and hot. GALEN Don't bother. That's not the kind of fire we need. Valerian is staring at the sword, sitting on the anvil in its silk wrapping. Galen uncovers it, holds it high, and puts his hand on the amulet. GALEN Nunc, per Potestatem Hermeticum -- ex flammis, ferrum sangrinarium! The sword starts to hum and to heat up. From the hilt outward the blade glows brighter and brighter: red, orange, white. It lights up the room, throwing long shadows into the corners. Galen lays the white hot steel on the anvil. Simon takes up his hammer and begins the reforging. Valerian sees their resolve. After watching for several moments she slips out the side door, looking sad. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY Clouds scud low over the lifeless region. The dragon's lair now has a newer, bigger entrance. Vapors drift upward from it. Down the slope a lonely figure works its way from rock to rock: it's Valerian with a wicker basket on her arm, searching for dragon scales. The basket is already more than half full when she finds herself ominously near the mouth of the cavern. She's about to turn back when she spies a particularly large and beautiful scale just a few yards further on. As she reaches for it, there is a sudden hiss! She jerks her hand back and freezes. There in the shadows is a baby dragon, a basilisk, all coppery bronze with stubby winglets. As she backs away, she sees two more come up to join the first. They watch her retreat through wicked little green eyes. CUT TO: STREAM - DAY On the mossy bank Galen and Simon unwrap the reforged sword. Now the blade carries a faint blue halation. Galen walks to the middle of the current and once again stabs the tip down into the sand. Then he rejoins Simon onshore to await results. This time, as the oak leaves approach the sharp edge, they gently but definitely veer sideways to avoid contact. Such is the power of the sword that even after many leaves, not a single one has come close enough to be sliced. Simon is agog and even Galen seems satisfied. They clasp hands. SIMON An edge like no other on this earth. GALEN Well done, Simon. Thank you. Simon hands him a bundle of fighting equipment. SIMON (grave) I'll say goodbye to Valerian for you. I'm sorry she's not here, but you know how she is. GALEN I understand. They look at each other for what could be the last time. SIMON Fare thee well. The old man departs. Galen unfolds the bundle and brings out its contents: mail hauberk with coif, studded leather gloves, padded jerkin, a scabbard and a small wooden shield. He lays them out on the stream bank, then strips off his tunic and kneels down to splash some water in his face. As the cups the water between his hands, an image comes alive and shimmers on the surface: Valerian, stripping off her own clothes, shyly turning toward him, solemn and romantic. VALERIAN Galen. It's as if the vision is speaking to him, but it's not. He spins around and sees her standing there, fully clothed, and possessed of a brisk and businesslike air. VALERIAN Here. She throws down a shield. It's remarkable in its construction -- overlapping layers of iridescent dragon scales have been ingeniously fastened to a leather-clad frame. VALERIAN It's a shield. I made it. Might keep the fire off you. Might not. You know, you're an idiot. You're going to die tonight. You'll be ripped limb from limb. This is the last time I'll ever speak to you. Galen turns the shield over and over, marveling at it. He fixes her with a piercing look. GALEN Thank you. VALERIAN (rushing) Another thing. That thing isn't alone up there. There's little ones. Young, I think. I don't know how many. She shudders. Galen's eyes are still fastened on her. She's fighting to retain her hard manner, but the agitation and dread are plain. GALEN Hatchlings. They'll have to be killed too. Anything else? Valerian wants to be bold, but on this final point, can't muster the courage. VALERIAN (tiny voice) You're in love, aren't you? GALEN (slowly nodding) Yes. VALERIAN That's all right. I understand. She's very beautiful, very brave. GALEN Who is? What do you mean? VALERIAN Your Princess. But I don't care. It doesn't change the way I feel. (firm) Listen to me, Galen Bradwardyn, sorcerer's apprentice; you're going to be dead, the dragon will be worse than ever, there will be more lotteries, and I'm not a boy any more. GALEN And you'll be eligible because -- VALERIAN Because I'm still a virgin, and I want you to do something about it. Galen takes her in his arms; she is trembling. He tilts her face up toward his and kisses her. GALEN I am in love. But not with the Princess. Their image is reflected in the waters. Through the ripples she is visible pulling briefly away to remove her clothes. From afar, they are two tiny figures under the overarching oaks and willows. They embrace and sink down into the deep grass beside the water. The leaves continue their unhurried course downstream. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - NIGHT A cold wind whistles through the rocks near the dragon's lair. By the light of a flickering torch two workmen finish driving a heavy post into the ground. As they affix a pair of iron manacles they see the torches of a procession coming up the slope. They hurry down to meet it. Horsrik is in the lead, followed by soldiers and royal attendants. Elspeth rides in the tumbril behind a blindfolded horse. Bringing up the rear is Tyrian. At last the cart can go no further. Elspeth alights and leads the rest of the troop to the post. As the soldiers put the irons around her wrists, Horsrik unrolls a parchment, turns his back on the wind and begins to read: HORSRIK Now be it known throughout the kingdom, that the Princess, having been chosen by a deed of fortune and destiny -- Horsrik blinks. There's a black stain growing in the middle of the parchment; all at once it bursts into flames. He cries out and flings the document away. There follows a flash of light and a puff of smoke and Galen is standing there, as if he had materialized out of thin air. Horsrik and his startled men backpedal down the slope. HORSRIK No fire, I beg you. Galen raises his hands in a menacing gesture. GALEN Be gone! That's enough for Horsrik and company: he and the soldiers depart. HORSRIK (over his shoulder) I declare these proceedings duly ordained... Only one man remains behind the challenge the young sorcerer: Tyrian. He draws his sword. TYRIAN I knew I'd find you here. Well, I'm not as sentimental as some. The kingdom, every one of us, need this sacrifice. If you intend to interfere, you'll have to kill me. GALEN I've got plenty of reasons to kill you that have nothing to do with this sacrifice. Galen draws his own sword. As it emerges into the night air it seems imbued with a blue phosphorescence. TYRIAN Most impressive. Can you use it? Elspeth twists around in her chains. ELSPETH Let it be! Please! Tyrian is right -- it's our only hope! Galen starts to reply, but as soon as his attention wavers, Tyrian is lunging toward him, sword point directed at his neck. Galen barely manages to parry the thrust before Tyrian is at him again, blade swinging toward his knees. Galen drops the tip of his sword to catch the blow. When the two steel edges connect, sparks fly. In a series of thrusts and counter- thrusts, each accompanied by a shower of sparks, Tyrian backs Galen up the mountain. ELSPETH Tyrian -- both of you -- run! Flee! It's coming! Sure enough, at that moment the earth gives out a low moan and undulates in a sickening movement. Vapors begin rising from the lair. TYRIAN In a trice! This is no swords-man. He might be right, for Galen turns and bolts across the slope. When he reaches the post with Tyrian two steps behind, he whirls and brings his blade down on Princess Elspeth's chains. The chains part in an explosion of sparks. GALEN Run! Get out of here! The Princess darts from the piling as Tyrian swoops down to continue the attack. Galen dodges and the stake catches Tyrian's blow. The earth shakes again. Galen glances at the Princess. GALEN No! Stop! What are you doing? Elspeth is not running away down the mountain. Instead she is walking, slowly and deliberately, right into the smoking cave. Swoosh! Tyrian's sword comes down again. The dismayed sorcerer ducks back and Tyrian's blade again bites deep into the wood. TYRIAN You've failed, my friend, and I thank the gods for it. Come out from behind that post. It's now or never. Elspeth is no longer in sight. Galen grits his teeth, grasps the sword with two hands and swings it as hard as he can in a wide arc. The blade never even slows down as it sails right through the post, lopping it clean off. The glowing sword flashes above Galen's head and eagerly buries itself in Tyrian's chest. The King's man is as startled by the amputated piling as he is by his own death. His eyes roll up in his head, his knees buckle and he topples backward -- the blade sliding free. DRAGON'S LAIR Smoke swirls at the mouth of the cave as Galen enters, holding his sword before him, lighting his way with its faint blue glow. GALEN Elspeth! The floor of the cave as it winds down into the mountain is paved first with rock, then with dragon scales, then with bones. With each footfall, clusters of mysterious insects scuttle away. Galen pauses to mop his brow; it's getting hot. A sound echoes up from the depths, a grinding sound like the gnashing of teeth, followed by hissing and squealing. Galen grips his sword tighter and pushes on. Suddenly he stoops and picks up an embroidered slipper: Elspeth's. The grinding sounds are louder. He hurries forward and rounds a corner. He stops and gags. BASILISKS Two disgusting little reptiles -- like scaly raccoons -- are perched on the corpse of Princess Elspeth Ulfilas, feeding contentiously on choice bits of the royal flesh. Galen groans: he lashes out and his sword beheads one of the tiny monsters. The other one buzzes its half-formed winglets and hisses a hot stream of air. Galen brings down the sword and slices it in half. Eyes riveted on Elspeth's remains, he edges around the carnage and backs away. Hissss! -- there's a third one, lurking in the shadows, munching on something; it might be a hand. Galen shrieks and jumps away. The little creature comes at him and clamps its jaws on his leg. Galen stabs at it repeatedly. Finally it lets go, and flails and flops across the bloody floor, ululating its death agony. As the creature's last mewlings echo down through the cavern, the ground quivers. Bits of stone fall from the ceiling. LAKE OF FIRE Galen works his way down a narrow passage whose walls are alive with insects and beads of sulphurous water. As before, he holds the sword in front of him; he marvels at its increasing brightness. The heat is increasing too; sweat mats his hair and runs down his face. A few yards further on the sword starts pulsating. Now the walls take on a flickering rosy sheen and the passage widens into an underground vista of staggering immensity: an underground lake, its surface bubbling and torn with sheets of flame. Arching over it is a vault of stone, penetrated here and there by natural chimneys. The dimensions of this internal world are unknown -- the fiery lake disappears into half a dozen side chambers. The one clear path is accessible only by a series of flat stones leading across the hot liquid. Galen grips his sword and resolutely hops from rock to rock. VERMITHRAX He's halfway across when the earth rumbles and the stepping stones teeter beneath his feet. A fiery wave washes over his legs, leaving his boots smoking. Another tremor knocks Galen to his knees. As he scrabbles to pick up his sword and shield, the great head of Vermithrax rises up out of the depths on its long neck. It gazes at him through huge pale eyes under armored lids. A tongue flicks out and runs around its lipless mouth. The head sways from side to side. The mouth hinges open, the nostril-like igniters come on and touch off the jet of gas squeezed up out of its innards. A roaring tube of flame engulfs Galen. He crouches behind his dragon scale shield which deflects the fire just enough to save his life. The dragon pauses to take a breath. Galen springs to his feet, and bounds back the way he came, his skin and clothing singed. Flames lick at his back as the dragon lets fly with a second burst. TUNNEL Coughing and weeping, Galen staggers up through the tunnel, nearly tripping over the body of one of the baby dragons. A few seconds later, Vermithrax follows, squirming and clawing its way upward. When it reaches its dead offspring it surveys the scene with expressionless eyes. Bringing its head low, it sniffs and nudges at the lifeless little ones. AMBUSH At that moment Galen leaps out from behind a niche in the tunnel wall and lunges forward. Striking sparks, the point of his sword slides across the dragon's plated cheek and stabs deep between the scales of its heavy neck. There is an unearthly shriek and the creature flicks its head back and upward. Galen goes sprawling and finds himself holding half a sword. The rest is buried in the beast's neck, and Vermithrax doesn't like it. It flings its head this way and that, knocking rocks loose from the ceiling. Its movements cause the ground to quake. As boulders tumble around him, Galen drops to the floor under his shield. Dragon flame reaches through the cascading debris and washes over him. CUT TO: DAWN Valerian roams the rock-strewn slope not far from the dragon's lair. Presently she comes upon a once-familiar object -- the fire shield. Half the scales are gone, the rest are charred and curling. Grimly, she moves on. A few paces away she picks up the blunted sword. She scans the rocks and finally sees what she's looking for. GALEN He's lying face down behind a boulder, his clothes charred, patches of skin scorched. He looks dead. Valerian rolls him onto his back. She gasps: the eyes are open, regarding her. GALEN Still alive. CUT TO: BLACKSMITH SHOP - DAY Simon is standing by the anvil with the broken sword in his hand, lost in thought. HOUSE In the adjoining house Valerian tends Galen's wounds. He's propped up on a palette enduring the application of poultices. VALERIAN You know what we have to do. (he looks at her with dull eyes) We have to leave Urland. He winces in pain. VALERIAN Not because of what happened. I brought you here -- it didn't work -- now I'm taking you away. Do you understand? (Galen does not react) You said you loved me. Is it true? If it is, it's the only good we've done. Let's not lose that too. (pause) Galen? He seems miles away. She turns aside, on the verge of tears. Simon is standing there, still holding the sword hilt. SIMON She's right. What kind of a life could you have here? It's too late for me, but you're young enough. (he shows them the sword) You know what I think? Magic is dying out, fading from the world. But that makes me happy. That means the dragon will be dying too. Galen looks at him; he has heard everything. He sits up and fondly regards Valerian. PACKING Valerian packs her belongings into a rucksack. The last item in is her blue frock, carefully rolled. Beside her, Galen dons clean traveling clothes. He stiffly crosses the room and drags his pack out of the corner. He sorts through the effects, and amidst the clothing and supplies discovers the leather pouch containing Ulrich's remains. He contemplates it. VALERIAN What's that? GALEN Nothing. I was just thinking -- poor Hodge. He tucks the pouch away, throws some clothes on top and ties the satchel shut. CUT TO: STREAM - DAY Beside the quiet stream Simon bids farewell to the young couple, embracing each in turn. They slosh across the shallow water and follow a path into the woods. CUT TO: VILLAGE SQUARE - DAY Greil is standing outside the half-burned grange hall, summoning the Christian faithful. He proclaims the call to worship by hammering on a small bell. One by one the townsfolk arrive. Among them is Simon, looking bereft. CUT TO: FOREST PATH - DAY Valerian and Galen trudge along side by side. VALERIAN How's your leg? GALEN Hurts. That thing was small, but its teeth were sharp. VALERIAN At least you killed it. You got all the young. This is small consolation, and Galen sighs. GALEN But the big one's alive. Somewhere down in that burning lake. VALERIAN Don't think about it. You had your fight, and you're still here. That's more than anyone else can say. Let's think about what lies ahead. She reaches out to take his hand. But Galen is no longer at her side. She stops and looks back. GALEN Galen has come to a halt in the middle of the path. He's staring into the middle distance with a sudden inspiration bubbling in his brain. He flings off his sack, drops to his knees and tears through the contents. Valerian comes back, baffled. Galen's gear is strewn all over the trail. VALERIAN What are you doing? Galen comes up with what he's looking for -- the leather sack. When he replies, it is not to her, but to Ulrich: GALEN You old trickster! The burning water! The lake of fire! VALERIAN Galen, what are you saying? He regards her with astonishment. GALEN He had it planned. He knew this was going to happen. VALERIAN Who did? What happened? GALEN We've got to go back, I want to talk to him! He heads back down the trail, leaving his belongings on the road. VALERIAN Where are you going? She hurries after him. CUT TO: GRANGE HALL - DAY Greil, a.k.a. Gregorious, stands in the center of the burned- out granary, delivering a sermon. Behind him, men are filling the baptismal cistern. GREIL The Church is mother to us all. Not just one lonely orphan who has lost his way, not just a few, but all of us that believeth in Him. When enough voices come together in prayer, He shall hear, we shall live and the beast shall die. In the gathering Simon ponders the hilt of his once fabulous sword. With its blade shortened, it looks a lot like a crucifix. CUT TO: DRAGON COUNTRY - DAY Galen bounds up the rocky slope as fast as he can manage, trailed by a desperate Valerian. VALERIAN Galen, stop! Please, I beg you! But Galen pays no attention. In a burst of speed and fury, Valerian comes up behind and tackles him. VALERIAN Stop! I won't let you kill yourself. Galen waves the leather pouch in Valerian's face. GALEN He couldn't walk -- he knew he couldn't make the journey. So he had us make the journey for him! Don't you see? He jumps up and runs to the mouth of the lair. VALERIAN (pursuing) No! She tackles him again. VALERIAN All right, all right. You're going in there, I'm going too. GALEN (brought up short) What? Why? No you're not, this is my job. Absolutely not. But Valerian springs to her feet and starts into the lair. VALERIAN I'm not afraid. And you're not going to stop me. After all -- I've been a man longer than you have. Galen pauses long enough to snatch up a discarded torch near the remains of the wooden stake, then charges after her. UNDERGROUND Running footsteps resound in the steamy passageway and Galen comes around the corner holding his torch high to light the way. Valerian stumbles after him. He grabs her hand. GALEN Stay close. Down and down they go. Soon they reach Elspeth's body. VALERIAN What's that? GALEN Never mind. Come on. But she pulls the torch from his hand and goes over to see. GALEN All right. Wait here. He darts off. In the flickering torchlight Valerian can see the Princess' remains all too clearly. She suppresses a scream. VALERIAN Galen? Galen? Where are you? No answer. The torch reveals several passages. She doesn't know which one to take. LAKE OF FIRE The passage widens out and once again Galen is standing on the shores of the lake of fire. He looks around. The water is rolling with bubbles of gas, and flames run hither and yon across the surface, but there is no sign of the dragon. Gathering his courage, he hops across the stepping stones to the middle of the lake. There he hurriedly opens the pouch. GALEN Ex favilla, vita nova! Gripping the amulet with his free hand, he scatters Ulrich's ashes in a wide arc over the burning water. Instantly, there is an ominous rumble and the earth gives a shrug. But no wizard appears. No dragon, either. There follows another and stronger quake. Galen crouches to keep his balance. Still no wizard. OUTSIDE Thoroughly bewildered, Valerian stumbles out into daylight. She wanders a few yards down the slope and collapses against the stake. Something is strange: it's getting dark. Squinting up at the sun, she frowns in puzzlement, then gapes at what is happening. ECLIPSE Slowly and ponderously the black disk of the moon slides over the face of the sun, plunging the world into crepuscular half-light. CUT TO: GRANGE HALL - DAY The congregation is confused and frightened by the sudden darkness. GREIL Be calm. He watcheth over us! And this is His sign! Let us pray! Our Father who art in heaven... The faithful bow their heads and join in. Simon as well. CUT TO: LAKE OF FIRE The earthquakes have subsided; the water is calm. Galen stares bleakly into the flames. As he watches, they gather themselves into a lazy spiral. Gradually the spiral speeds up and becomes a vortex. Now the flames become tinged with green, and as the cavern moans with the sound of rushing air, a form takes shape at the crest of a jet of flame. It is Ulrich, supine as upon his pyre, reforming before Galen's eyes. GALEN Ulrich! Magister! Over here! I can see you! Over here! ULRICH (looks at him) Not so loud. I'm not deaf, you know. He slowly raises himself into an upright posture and strides through the flames. ULRICH Sic redit magus ex terra mortis. The apprentice throws himself at his master's feet. GALEN Wonder of wonders -- you're back! I thank the powers that made me! ULRICH Glad to see you, too. You didn't bring along anything to eat, by any chance? GALEN Food? ULRICH No? Oh well, no time anyway. OUTSIDE Valerian is standing in the unearthly twilight, anxiously peering into the mouth of the lair. Suddenly she is hit from behind by a gust of wind. She does not turn to see the enormous Vermithrax alighting silently behind her. GALEN & ULRICH Ulrich raises Galen to his feet. ULRICH Come along. There's much to be done. GALEN Wait, I have something to tell you. ULRICH It can wait. GALEN No it can't. Listen: I thought I was a sorcerer -- but I wasn't. I thought I had power -- but I didn't. I thought I was you -- but I'm not. He hangs his head. Ulrich regards him steadily. ULRICH Well said. Now hurry. He leads the way across the rocks to the shore and into the tunnel. VALERIAN Time seems to have come to a stop. Overhead, the moon is locked in front of the sun. At the lair, Valerian stands frozen as the dragon leans over her. The great head sways from side to side. The jaws hinge open. Suddenly, Valerian recovers herself and makes a run for it, leaping and scrabbling over the rocks. A plume of flame licks at her heels. She sees a protective crevice and heads for it, but a winged claw drops to block her way. She changes direction and is cut off again. Cat and mouse. VERMITHRAX The pale yellow eyes stare implacably down at the hopeless victim. The igniter jets come on, then off, as the beast suddenly stiffens. The head rotates, almost as if catching a new scent. Finally the eyes focus on the entrance to the cavern. ULRICH There is the sorcerer, leaning on Galen, coolly regarding the creature. The old man's expression hardens. ULRICH Draco draconis... The dragon lifts its wings as if to menace them, then flaps twice and is airborne. The thing shoots overhead and, with a rush of wind, flies off into the gloom. IN THE ROCKS Valerian struggles out of her hiding place. VALERIAN Galen! Galen runs to her. They embrace. When they look up, Ulrich is at their side. ULRICH Where's my amulet? Give it to me, please. Galen's hand locates the jewel under his shirt. He finds himself reluctant to part with it. With a hurricane howl, a column of flame touches down nearby and rushes toward them. They stagger back as the dragon sweeps past. ULRICH Be quick! Galen hands his treasure over. Ulrich closes his hand around it. ULRICH Come close to me. Galen and Valerian approach. The old man's hand is suffused with an internal glow. Behind them, the dragon is turning for another pass. VORTEX All at once the glow brightens, and in another instant the world spins off into a blur, setting all three afloat in a timeless netherworld. Valerian and Galen cling to each other in terror. ULRICH Don't be afraid. You have served me with great courage. Now you must show me you have even more. GALEN Anything! The voices seem to be coming from a huge distance. Starlike gleams whiz by, and fleeting glimpses of half-recognizable faces and forms. The wizard's eyes are like glittering crystals. Tiny motes and planetoids dance in the hairs of his beard. He seems wreathed in luminescence. ULRICH You must destroy the amulet, and me along with it. GALEN No! ULRICH You brought me from the flames, you must send me back. GALEN I can't. ULRICH When the time comes, you'll understand. Here. He dangles the amulet in front of Galen. Even more reluctantly than he let it go, he takes it back. MOUNTAIN TOP Abruptly, the vortex is gone and they find themselves atop a rocky crag overlooking the eclipse-darkened fields and farms of Urland. Galen glances at his surroundings and stares at the amulet, full of awe. ULRICH I know what you're thinking. You have learned much and done well. Don't worry, you won't need it any more. CUT TO: GRANGE HALL - DAY Greil is urging Simon, the last of the converts, into the cistern. GREIL Make haste, brother. He dips Simon's head under water. GREIL Now be thou baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. May the Lord our God light our way. In the background, half the congregation is staring through the burned-out walls, fervently praying and crossing themselves, wondering if they'll ever see the sun again. A cry goes up: a shape crosses the solar corona, wheels over the village and streaks away toward the mountains -- the dragon. CUT TO: MOUNTAIN TOP Galen and Valerian peer out from behind a boulder and watch Ulrich hobble perilously close to the edge of the cliff. The old man spreads wide his arms and tilts his head back. ULRICH Nimbus! Tempestas! Fulmen! From over the horizon roiling inky-black clouds churn down upon them. Thunder booms and echoes. A bitter wind whips their clothing. As the storm gathers fury, the dragon reappears, circling in the distance. Finally it homes in on the mountain crag and dives at Ulrich. The conjurer makes a gesture and strokes of lightning explode against the beast's scaly flanks. It emits a high thin scream and rockets past. GALEN & VALERIAN Valerian crawls away and comes back with a hefty chunk of granite. VALERIAN Here. Do as he said. Smash it. GALEN Not if it means killing him. ULRICH He resolutely waits as the dragon banks against the clouds and starts another pass. Again, the sorcerer summons lightning bolts. But the dragon keeps coming; this time a talon splits the old man's cape. GALEN & VALERIAN Valerian wrestles the amulet away from Galen. It falls to the ground. VALERIAN You heard what he said. She lifts the chunk of stone. Galen grabs for it. GALEN No! You can't! THE LAST ATTACK Vermithrax spirals up into the storm, then drops earthward. Ulrich watches as the beast comes straight at him. He folds his arms and bows his head. Leathery wings humming, the creature levels out, swoops up past the crag and lifts the master magician away in its huge hind claw. ULRICH Galen! Galen and Valerian are horrified to see the dragon circling upward with the sorcerer writhing in agony in its grip. As the monstrous thing flies high over them, they can hear Ulrich's faint screams. DEATH Now Galen understands. He seizes the granite block from Valerian and raises it with both hands over his head. He takes a final look at the amulet, glowing at his feet, then brings the rock down with all his might. There is a blinding flash as it shatters into a million fragments. Far above there is another blinding flash as Ulrich's earthly body explodes against the belly of the beast. The darkened sky lights up as huge gouts of flame spew forth from the dragon's gut. Wings fluttering uselessly, this reptilian torch plummets to the ground. LAKE Below, a stock pond nestled in the foothill pastures. Trailing a wake of flame, Vermithrax plunges like a comet into the water. There is a stupendous splash and eruption of steam. GALEN & VALERIAN They stare down from their lofty perch, watching as further explosions boil the water from the pond. ECLIPSE Behind a tattered wrack of cloud, the moon slowly uncovers a pale sun. DISSOLVE: THE CARCASS - DAY Grey misty light reveals the beast's mangled remains. Galen and Valerian emerge from the fog, walk under a blackened wing and make their way through the mud and loose scales to the huge charred head. The death agony has twisted it upside down. The mouth is frozen in a grotesque look of surprise. The eyes are glazed. Now the sound of voices floats toward them, chanting an ancient hymn. A moment later a mob of Christians, led by Greil, crests a hill and moves toward the hulk. The song ends. GREIL Let us pray. The members of the congregation fall to their knees. GREIL We thank thee, Lord, for this divine deliverance. Verily is thy presence amongst us, fully manifest in this, thy great work. Galen and Valerian look at each other. She takes his hand. GREIL Arise, children of the Lord and forsake evermore the pagan mysteries. Rejoice in the true power of the Christian God! Galen turns and leads Valerian away. They disappear into the mist. DISSOLVE: FLENSING - DAY In the clear light of a new day, ladders have been tipped up against the creature's back. Teams of men swarm over the crusted flesh, slicing off long strips for piecemeal burial. Below, yoked oxen drag the heavy carrion away on sledges. In the background other workmen dump the remains into an open pit. THE KING With the crack of a whip and the clatter of hooves, the royal coach pulls up to the shore of the lake. A door creaks open and King Casiodorus totters out. His face is puffy, his eyes are red. He slogs through the mud to the head of the dragon and commences hacking at it with a ceremonial sword. Horsrik steps out of the coach and draws himself up. HORSRIK (loud) All hail Casiodorus Rex -- Dragon slayer! The workers pause long enough to listen to this pronouncement and cast a glance at the sorry spectacle. Wordlessly they resume their labors. HORSRIK (nodding) Hail and praise be! DISSOLVE: ON THE ROAD - DAY The trail leads through copses and open meadows. Side by side, Galen and Valerian march up a long slope under a hot sun. He limps a bit; she finds a staff and hands it to him. VALERIAN You want to rest? GALEN No. I'm fine. VALERIAN You miss Ulricn. GALEN Yes. VALERIAN And the amulet. GALEN That too. VALERIAN Not me. I'm glad it's gone. I'm glad you did what you did. (he doesn't reply) You may not be a sorcerer, Galen, but I love you anyway. I don't regret anything that happened. I just wish -- GALEN Yes? VALERIAN (sighs) -- that we had a horse. Galen falls a step behind. He briefly closes his eyes and mutters something. They walk on a few paces. Then there is a whinny from the nearby woods and a white stallion canters forth. It crosses a meadow, comes right up to Valerian and nuzzles her. VALERIAN What is this? GALEN A horse. VALERIAN Did you...!? GALEN No. It must have been wandering loose. Or wild. Galen climbs aboard. He reaches out to help her up. VALERIAN Wait a minute. I just wished for a horse and here it is. GALEN You don't want to wish it gone, do you? She thinks for a moment, then lets him help her up. Galen touches the horse's flanks with his heels and they ride off. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive Angry.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive Angry.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..77a6ed3425f8821333a633ad626e0a2878a322ed --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive Angry.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DRIVE ANGRY Written by Todd Farmer & Patrick Lussier March 28, 2009 EXT. LAUGHTER, COLORADO - DAY Half a dozen abandoned shacks and a boarded up gas station make up the central hub of Laughter, Colorado. She'd be a ghost town ‘cept the ghosts considered her a shithole ages ago and baled. The buck ten for leaded sign gives us an idea how long ago this place went dry. Suddenly an old Chevy RIPS around the corner, wheels sending PLUMES of dust skyward. INT. OLD CHEVY - DAY Three grimy looking fuckers are stuffed into the cab. FUCKING DRIVER looks as though he may piss himself. FUCKING MIDDLE twists around, glares through the back glass and FUCKING PASSENGER white-knuckles a tire iron. FUCKING DRIVER Goddamned old man! FUCKING PASSENGER I thought he was dead! She said he was dead! FUCKING MIDDLE I don't see him. Just go. I think we lost him. EXT. LAUGHTER - MAIN STREET - DAY They race through the dusty derelict little town, peeling for the main road in the distance when they round a corner -- --to face a ‘70 PLYMOUTH ROADRUNNER, beat to shit, engine screaming. SPEEDING head on. This ain't chicken because these three Fuckers don't even have time to react before: MILTON “The Old Man”, shock of white hair, drives the Roadrunner, locks the tires and spins the wheel. The Roadrunner fishtails, slides sideways AT THEM! The truck's gonna ram the driver's side. At least it would BUT: MILTON AIMS A SHOTGUN through the driver's side window. Fearless. Pissed off. He FIRES! 2. The shot BLOOMS right at us! Then SLOWS TO NEAR FROZEN - Hanging in mid-air - suspended, like we could touch it: TITLE CARD appears-- "DRIVE ANGRY" --then the shot BURSTS through the title! SHATTERING the words right at us! ANOTHER ANGLE ...EXPLODING into the hood of the Chevy! The hood RIPS up, SLAMS the windshield. Truck CAREENS out of control! Milton GUNS the Roadrunner away from truck...but... KRAACK - The Truck nails the Roadrunner's rear quarter panel. Roadrunner and truck go into a spin. A tornado of dust SWIRLS around the two vehicles. The Roadrunner SPLINTERS into a boarded store front! The Truck HITS a ditch and UPENDS. Flips. SLAMS into the dirt on its roof, wheels SPINNING. ANOTHER ANGLE Smoke HISSES from the totalled Roadrunner. Door creeks open. Milton emerges slow and sure. He crosses toward the Chevy. Fucking Passenger rises from behind the truck and rushes Milton, tire iron held high over his head! Milton spins and KUH-FOOM! --blows Fucking Passenger's hand clean off! Passenger screams as Milton snatches the iron out of the air and -- KER-ACK! -- slams it across his face! Passenger drops. Hard. Milton stoops, removes Passenger's wallet, digs the cash out. OVER MILTON'S SHOULDER Fucking Driver scrambles from behind the wheel, springs to his feet and runs. 3. Milton spins, BLOWS his knee apart from 20 paces. Driver SCREAMS and face-firsts the cracked pavement. ANOTHER ANGLE As Fucking Middle drags himself from the passenger side. He got the worst of it. Looks like his face went through the windshield. He looks up -- -- into the barrel of Milton's shotgun. A beat. FUCKING MIDDLE I'll never tell you where they've taken her...NEVER. MILTON I know. The EXPLOSION vaporizes what's left of his face. ON FUCKING DRIVER As he tries to stand but his lower leg dangles from a piece of cartilage. He falls, WRITHES on the ground. He looks up at Milton standing over him. FUCKING DRIVER You...you took my leg you fuck! Milton presses the shotgun barrel into the man's good knee. FUCKING DRIVER Wait. Wait! MILTON Where is she? FUCKING DRIVER I...I don't... Suddenly Fucking Passenger, flattened by the tire iron, sits up, dazed. Sees Milton. Spots the iron. Goes for it. Milton spins and KAFOOM! Blows Fucking Passenger to hell. FUCKING DRIVER Stillwater! Stillwater Marsh! I don't know where exactly. They call it Wolf Deer Run, that's all I know. I swear! 4. Milton digs Driver's cell phone out...stares at it for a moment, drops it, finds wallet, takes cash. FUCKING DRIVER But you're too late. You gotta know that. Next full moon she's dead. Nothing you can do. She's dead and hell will walk the earth-- WHAM! Milton shoves the barrel of his shotgun into the man's mouth, breaking a couple teeth in the process. Milton hisses, his throat dry, like a man who hasn't quenched his thirst in a decade. MILTON You tell him I'm coming. You got that? I'm coming to get her back. You tell him. Tell him I'm gonna kill every last one of you fuckers. Milton turns on his heels. Walks into the dust and doesn't look back. EXT. FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - DAY Black smoke billows from the BBQ of this shithole diner. It's the only building as far as the eye can see. The lot dotted with vehicles past their prime. A muscle bound ‘67 GTO stands out. INT. FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - DAY Covered in a thick layer of cooking grease, this is one of those diners where white trash goes to die. Half a dozen PATRONS sit at bar and booth as a young American Indian couple, MARY and DALE, enter with their children 2, 4 and 7. Two waitresses, PIPER (25) and NORMAJEAN (57) stand at the kitchen pick-up window. Through which we can see the joint's owner, FAT LOU, dripping sweat into a pile of scrambled eggs. Fat Lou is fat. Holy fuck fat. PIPER So I tell him, I says, “Frank, that's it. No more free milk. You gonna have to buy the cow you son of a bitch.” 5. NORMAJEAN But you're not fat, Piper PIPER Wha? No, NormaJean, “buy the cow.” Marry me? He's got to marry me. I'm sayin I cut him off. NORMAJEAN You cut him off? PIPER Not just yes but hell yes! No tits, no ass. And I told him if I see that big ol' dick of his anywhere near my face I'm gonna bite it in half. Normajean giggles with embarrassment. NORMAJEAN You said that? How long's it been? Piper frowns. PIPER Well, it's only been two days but that's like a decade in horny fucker years. NORMAJEAN So he bought you a diamond? PIPER A diamond? God no. If Frank had money for a diamond I would have jacked his sorry ass ages ago and put this shithole life in the rear view. But he did get down on his knees and ask me to be his bride. NORMAJEAN No way. PIPER Yes way! NormaJean grabs Piper in a great big hug. NORMAJEAN Oh! Piper! 6. PIPER I KNOW! FF-FF-FFUMP! Something yellow peppers them both. The girls look up as -- Fat Lou SLAMS two plates of food into the window. PIPER Did...did you just throw scrambled eggs at us? FAT LOU I don't pay you bitches to stand around. Now get the fuck back to work! Piper snatches one of the plates. She delivers it to a Patron sitting at the bar, then turns toward the newly arrived customers. The American Indian couple scans a menu... ...and Milton (the old guy from our opening) scans her...he quickly looks down at an unfolded map of Colorado as -- NormaJean steps up to Milton. NORMAJEAN Hello beautiful, coffee? MILTON That'd be great. Tell me, Stillwater Marsh around here? NORMAJEAN (shrugs) Stillwater...doesn't ring a bell. I'll get that coffee. But Milton makes eye contact with Mary, the Indian mother. She quickly looks away. She knows something... Milton opens his mouth to speak as-- --Piper approaches the American Indian couple. PIPER Hi guys, I'm Piper. Can I bring you something to drink? MOTHER MARY We'll take this. 7. Mary points to the menu, Piper leans in, reads. PIPER “She's a Brickhouse” breakfast. Ten monster flapjacks for 4.99. MOTHER MARY And five waters. PIPER Five waters. And what can I get for... Father averts his eyes. He's embarrassed. MOTHER MARY That's it. Just the pancakes. If that's okay? Piper stares at them as if for the first time. Shit... they're hungry. And broke. PIPER Oh. Of course. Coming right up. Piper shoots Milton a look as she crosses to the kitchen. Milton rises slightly. He's clearly trying to get Mary's attention. She's ignoring him. Piper calls through the window to Fat Lou. PIPER One brickhouse. She turns and stops suddenly. Stares at a pile of muffins kept fresh within a glass cake stand. ANOTHER ANGLE Mary can no longer avoid Milton's stare. MILTON Stillwater Marsh? You know it? Dale, the father, keeps his back to Milton as he speaks. DALE No. We don't. MILTON It's important. 8. MOTHER MARY You're in the wrong state. DALE Mary! MILTON And what state Should I be in? Dale turns, glares at Milton. DALE Nevada. Catch the 50 and cut across. It's a two day drive from here. MILTON And Wolf Deer Run? DALE Never heard of it. The 7 year old LITTLE GIRL'S eyes brighten. LITTLE GIRL Yes you have daddy. Wolf Deer Run, that's where The Smiling Man takes the wicked children to see the Mother of all things. Mary SHUSHES her Little Girl and pulls her close. MILTON Mother of all things, that sounds very interesting. LITTLE GIRL Oh it is! The Mother of all things bleeds black tears unto those who CUT HER-- Mother places her hand over her daughter's mouth. MOTHER MARY It's nothing. Just a story parents tell to their children. Like the boogey-man or the tooth-fairy. A plate filled with muffins thumps down before them. Piper leans in with three kiddie cups. PIPER And three milks. 9. MOTHER MARY But we didn't order-- PIPER (whispers) --On the house. She winks and moves away...eyeing the kitchen window. She doesn't notice... MILTON staring at her again. An impressed smirk on his face. Suddenly NormaJean steps in front of him. NORMAJEAN So, aren't you gonna ask what time my shift ends? Full moon tonight. I'm always a little ‘randy' during full moon. MILTON Full moon's three days off. NORMAJEAN (she touches his hand) You sure ‘bout that, sweetie? MILTON Pretty sure. (looks outside) Hell of a ride out there. Yours? NORMAJEAN The GTO? I wish. MILTON (glances at Piper) Hers? NORMAJEAN Sure but if you're lookin' for a ride... MILTON And would you be gentle? NORMAJEAN Life's too short for that, sweetie. INT. FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - KITCHEN - DAY Piper enters with two dirty plates, scrapes them and drops them into a soapy sink. She turns right into -- 10. FAT LOU He glares down at her. PIPER Jesus Lou, back the fuck off. FAT LOU “On the house”? On the fucking house? PIPER Oh relax. We gotta toss them muffins out today anyway. She sidesteps him, exits the kitchen. INT. HIGHWAY 50 - FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - DAY As Piper crosses toward the bar, Lou grabs her from behind, spins her around. PIPER Get your hand off of me! His fat fingers tighten around her shoulder. FAT LOU You get over there and you charge them for those muff... Piper strikes. Like a snake. Her hand reaches beneath the fat of his belly and vice grips his balls. Hell, we even hear the CRUNCH. Fat Lou GASPS and doubles over allowing Piper to SLAM her forehead into the bridge of his nose! KER-RACK! PIPER I told you, you fat fuck son of a bitch, never to touch me again! His nose seeps blood. FAT LOU Let...go...of...my... She SLAPS him across the face with her free hand. 11. PIPER Shut up. She takes a step backwards, but keeps her hand clamped to his nuts. He has no choice but follow. She pulls him up to the American Indian family. PIPER Tell'em. FAT LOU Wha...what? We see it in her face. She squeezes. Lou's eyes go wide...flutter...he's about to pass out. PIPER Tell them...the muffins...are on the house. FAT LOU On. The. House. She lets go. Lou drops to his knees, then timbers to the floor as Piper turns to the family. The children are huddled, terrified against their parents. PIPER I'm sorry your kids had to see that. Put some honey butter on those bran muffins and they taste an awful lot better. Piper turns and crosses toward the door. NormaJean is pale as she watches her go. Piper brushes past Milton's booth. His cup is there but Milton is gone. EXT. FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - DAY We're close on a car door as it SLAMS. CLOSE ON GLASS PACK EXHAUST PIPES as the car RUMBLES with life. An “I brake for pussy” bumper sticker stands out. THE BACK GLASS vibrates as MUSIC blares from within. 12. INT. GTO - DAY Piper's French manicured hand wraps the floor-mounted gear shift like a cock and SLAMS it into drive. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DAY With Piper behind the wheel the GTO tears onto the highway... ...and blows passed Milton, as he walks west, duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. INT. GTO - DAY Piper SINGS. She's empowered. Then... KA-THUNK. She grips the wheel. The RPMS drop. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DAY The GTO pulls off the road...white smoke HISSES from beneath the hood. CLOSE ON ENGINE as the hood POPS. Piper waves a hand in front of her face as the smoke devours her. She COUGHS. Stares. It's clear she don't know jack shit about engines. FOOTSTEPS. Piper slips the keys between her fingers. Ready. Milton appears through the smoke. MILTON Car trouble? Piper stares. It's the way he said it. Too knowing. Milton glances at the engine. MILTON Oh, that's not so bad. I can fix that for you if you like. 13. PIPER I would. Thank you. MILTON If you give me a lift. PIPER I'm only going as far as Blackfoot Falls. The truckstop there. MILTON And I'd be much obliged. Milton leans in, flicks something then rises and THUMPS the hood shut with a smile. MILTON Shall we? INT. GTO - DAY Piper behind the wheel focuses on the road. Milton sits in the passenger seat, hugs his duffle bag, glances at Piper. Suddenly Piper turns on him. PIPER Get it straight old man. I ain't sleeping with you. Milton chuckles. MILTON Darlin, my days of bedding a gal ten minutes after I meet her are over. PIPER Yeah. Well, that's good to hear. MILTON (TO HIMSELF) For now, anyway. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - LAURA'S TRUCK STOP MOTEL - DAY Several big rigs are parked near the truck stop. A few derelict vehicles outside the adjacent run down old motel. Piper's GTO pulls in and parks near the road. 14. Piper climbs out. Milton rises stiffly and crosses toward her as he tosses the duffle over his shoulder. He offers his hand, gives her a smile. MILTON ‘Preciate the ride, ma'am. Milton crosses toward an old Superman style phone booth. EXT. LAURA'S MOTEL - DAY Piper inserts her key, glances back at Milton. He's in the booth now, his back to her. Piper turns the key and opens the door. INT. LAURA'S MOTEL - ROOM 9 - DAY First thing we see is MONA'S naked ass and back. Long red hair, she is riding a naked FRANK. Neither realizes Piper has opened the door. MONA Oh Frank, you know how long I've wanted to feel you inside me? FRANK Faster. MONA Oh, you want it faster? Mona thrusts her pelvic the tiniest bit faster. Suddenly Piper's hand clinches a handful of red hair and yanks! Mona SCREAMS in pain, Frank YELPS in fear as Piper drags Mona backwards off the bed. EXT. LAURA'S MOTEL - DAY Piper drags Mona, KICKING and SCREAMING, into the lot, then drops her and whirls toward the room-- -- where Frank struggles, desperate to find his pants. MONA What's the matter with you?! You psycho bitch from... 15. Piper spins on Mona, points a finger in warning. PIPER Don't. It shuts Mona up. Piper storms back toward the room. HER POV Frank hops with one leg in his jeans. He sees her coming. Although he's a big fella, he looks scared. Suddenly Mona steps in front of Piper and SLAPS her across the face! MONA Fuck you, Piper, we're in lo-- WHAM! Piper clocks Mona! Mona stands there...dazed. Swaying. Confused. PIPER What was that? I didn't catch that last word. MONA Oh...I...I said...we're in lo-- WHAM! This time Mona stumbles backwards and CRASHES into a metal chair on the motel porch. Piper brushes passed her. INT. LAURA'S MOTEL - ROOM 9 - DAY Piper stuffs a gym bag with clothes. FRANK Now baby, just hold on. PIPER I'm warning you, Frank. Don't come near me. 16. FRANK Look, sooner you accept this is your fault, the better. Piper stops, turns, stares. FRANK Baby, I can't just turn it off. Now you know that. I gotta have it. At least once a day. It's in the wiring. You did this. You made me cheat on you. You're lucky I'm not more pissed about it. Piper stares for a moment. It's like she's been sucker punched. Then she zips her bag and crosses to the door. FRANK Piper! Now cut it out. Enough with the drama! INT. HIGHWAY 70 - LAURA'S MOTEL - PHONE BOOTH - DAY Milton watches Piper's room. It's clear the phone to his ear is a fake out. Suddenly a look crosses his face. He jerks around. HIS POV THE GAS STATION ACROSS HIGHWAY 70 ...the garage. A grimy looking GREASE MONKEY is staring at Milton, cell phone to his ear. He sees Milton see him, quickly backs into the shadows. FRANK (O.S.) Piper! EXT. LAURA'S TRUCK STOP MOTEL - DAY Piper exits, glances at Mona, sprawled out unconscious in the metal chair, an ASIAN MAN in a Hawaiian shirt SNAPS pictures of her. Piper snatches the camera and flings it against the wall where it SHATTERS. ASIAN MAN Hey?! 17. PIPER Pervert. Piper stomps across the lot as Frank exits, calls to her. FRANK Baby, Please. Now hold on. Can we talk about this? Piper keeps walking. Never looks back. FRANK Piper, stop this! You got nowhere to go and you know it. PIPER I'll go to San Francisco and stay with my cousin. FRANK (Realization) Whoa. You ain't taking my car. Piper pulls out the keys, twirls them on her finger. FRANK I said, you ain't taking my car, bitch. Frank grabs her by the shoulder. Piper spins and -- WHAM! -- punches him in the face. Caught off guard, Frank stumbles, nearly goes down. PIPER Your car?! Who's been making the payments you out of work, skanky Mona fucking piece of shit?! She drops the gym bag and launches into him. A blur of FISTS and CLAWS. The tears flow. Heartbreak, anger, humiliation. Frank stumble backwards. Tries to block the blows. WHAM! FRANK Stop... WHAM! FRANK ...hitting me! 18. She swings but this time Frank lashes out. KUH-RACK! He punches her in the face. Hard. She drops to her hands and knees. When she looks up, her teeth are caked in blood. FRANK You're insane, you know that? Look what you made me do! She staggers to her feet, sways before him. FRANK Come on, I'll get you some ice-- She SPITS blood in his face and SWINGS! He blocks the blow and BACKHANDS her with the force of thunder. She spins and SLAMS into the ground. Doubtful she'll get up this time, then -- QUIET LAUGHTER Frank stares as Piper rolls over. PIPER Frank. Sweetie. I'm gonna tell everybody what I caught you doing with my pink dildo. Her laughter becomes a hysterical fit. FRANK That's it. He drops on top of her, his fingers curl into a fist. FRANK You don't wanna fuck me? Fine. When I'm done nobody's gonna wanna fuck you. Ever. PIPER Go to hell. Frank raises his fist into the air. Then... MILTON (O.S.) Hey. Frank looks up as a boot catches him under the chin, lifting him off Piper. 19. Piper stares through blurry eyes as Milton drops on top of Frank, pounding him with his fists. FADE TO BLACK. FADE UP ON: EXT. COLORADO PLAINS - DUSK The sun is a glow to the west. The horizon dances and shimmers. Then...is that...yes. Someone is out there. Walking toward us. As if they appeared within the heat. ANOTHER ANGLE We start close to the ground. Dress shoes. Suit pants. PULL BACK TO REVEAL The ACCOUNTANT. Least he sure as shit looks like an accountant in blue suit and purple power tie. Not especially large. Nice looking face. Something trustworthy about him. Friendly even. He loosens his tie, slips his jacket off and tosses it over his shoulder. There's a bounce in his step. INT. FAT LOU'S ROADSIDE DINER - DUSK NormaJean looks up as the Accountant enters. NORMAJEAN Have a seat sweetie. Mary there will be right with you. Indian Mother Mary turns. Piper's replacement. She stops in her tracks. Stares at the Accountant. He winks at her. A shiver runs through Mother Mary. She backs away then rushes from the diner. NORMAJEAN Mary?! Fat Lou leans from the Kitchen window. FAT LOU Where's she going? 20. The Accountant turns to Lou. Stares. Then -- ACCOUNTANT You. Fat fuck. Come here. Lou stares. FAT LOU What did you call me? The Accountant smiles. Fat Lou vanishes from the window then BURSTS from the kitchen. FAT LOU I said, what did you call-- ACCOUNTANT --I called you ‘fat fuck' and we had better leave it at that unless you'd prefer I call you ‘dead fat fuck.' FAT LOU Wha-what? ACCOUNTANT I'm looking for someone. An old man. White hair. Five-eleven. The Accountant smells the air, embraces it. ACCOUNTANT He was here earlier. Traveling light. Likely on foot. FAT LOU Who are you? ACCOUNTANT I'm the Accountant. FAT LOU That's supposed to mean something to me? ACCOUNTANT It will if I add you to the books. And if you don't tell me what I want to know... NormaJean opens her mouth to speak. Shuts it. 21. The Accountant turns to her, quickly. So quickly she takes a step back. ACCOUNTANT You had something to say? NORMAJEAN He was here. Earlier. ACCOUNTANT Yes. We've established that. NORMAJEAN Terrible tipper. ACCOUNTANT I'm sure he was. Where did he go? She points. NORMAJEAN That way. West. On foot. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - NIGHT The GTO THUNDERS past. INT. GTO - NIGHT Piper is curled up in a fetal position in the big back seat. She sits up slowly. Her eyes are blackened. But clearly Milton has cleaned her up. She props herself on an elbow, looks at the jacket covering her. Milton is driving. He gazes out the window...up to the sky. Piper looks. The MOON hangs a few days from full. Piper slides over the seat, drags Milton's jacket with her, then slips into it, wrapping herself as if cold. MILTON Want me to roll the window up? PIPER You didn't kill him did you? 22. MILTON No but he'll likely piss blood for a day or two. PIPER Thanks for that. MILTON Hungry? He gestures through the windshield as they pass a “Welcome to Utah” sign. Beyond, there are lights ahead. PIPER Utah? MILTON You mentioned San Francisco. PIPER Appreciate what you done for me back there but I ain't takin you all the way to-- MILTON --My business is in Nevada. Can you get me that far? PIPER What business? MILTON I'm looking for someone. You hungry or not? Piper considers for a moment, then-- PIPER Yeah. I could eat. MILTON Name's Milton. You're Piper, right? PIPER You try to kill me and dump me in the desert I'll cut your nuts off. MILTON Fair enough. 23. INT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR AND GRILL - NIGHT Pool tables, old pin ball machines and an odd mix of BIKERS, COWBOYS and the SLUTS who love them. Piper and Milton slide into a booth. Piper eyes a Latino BUSBOY, nice biceps, jeans too tight. ROY, a greasy fella in his fifties approaches, big happy looking fucker, owns the joint. GREASY FELLA Greetings folks, welcome to the Bull by the Balls... He stops. Smile fades. Stares at Milton, mouth agape. MILTON Roy. ROY Milton? Roy doesn't even try to hide his dislike of Milton. ROY Thought you were dead. MILTON You hoped I was dead. Not the same. ROY You planning on staying? Milton eyes a door marked “Motel Guests”. MILTON Got a problem with that? ROY Your money's good as any I‘spect. But be gone by dawn. With Roy turns his back on them and walks away. PIPER What was that all about? MILTON Back in another life I used to drive a truck through these parts. 24. PIPER And you'd spend the night here? MILTON I'd spend the night here fucking his wife. Suddenly Milton twists around, stares toward the bar. PIPER What's wrong? MILTON I...nothing I guess. A large breasted waitress, fuckin' hot for a woman in her fifties, approaches with chips and salsa. Eyes Milton. CANDY Well, hello. I'm Candy. Start you off with some drinks? MILTON Beer. PIPER Same. Candy plops two pens and index cards on the table. CANDY And I'll need to see your IDs. Piper pulls her license absently and slides it over, begins filling out the card. MILTON What is this? PIPER Guess it's been awhile since you drove that truck through here. CANDY You want a drink? You gotta be a member. Dry county. MILTON You're kidding. CANDY Welcome to Utah, Mr... 25. She takes his license. MILTON Call me Milton. CANDY This license isn't just expired. It's an antique. MILTON Fine, then bring me a milk. She tosses his card on the table. CANDY For you, gorgeous, we'll break the rules. Shhhh, don't tell nobody. Milton watches her go. Drinking her up. PIPER You gonna tap that? MILTON Tap what? PIPER Jeez, Milton, how long's it been? Sounds like you used to stick it in anything with a crack. MILTON Yeah. Well. I've been distracted. PIPER Suit yourself. But nobody reaches the end and says, “Wish I hadn't fucked so much.” Milton's gaze returns to Candy. Even a man as driven as he needs a reboot sometimes. Candy catches his look, smiles. Piper slides from the booth. MILTON Where are you...? PIPER I'm gonna do my nails, take a hot bath and sleep in a warm bed. MILTON What about your beer? 26. PIPER You drink it. See you at dawn. But she walks right passed the “Motel Guests” door and approaches the Busboy, who's already eyeing her. As she does, our focus settles on a shadowy area at the back of the bar. JONAH KING steps into the light. Ruggedly good looking. He wears a necklace with something bulky hidden beneath his shirt. There's an old scar under his left eye but a scar on this guy simply adds to his fuckabilty factor. He glances at Milton then -- JONAH KING It's Roy isn't it? Roy spins from the bar, smiles a friendly smile. ROY Sure is. Get you a drink friend? JONAH KING Fantastic place you have here. You don't happen to rent it out for parties do you? ROY We sure do. You planing a party? Again Jonah glances at Milton. JONAH KING Oh yes. Tonight, in fact. INT. LAURA'S MOTEL - ROOM 9 - NIGHT The Television chatters away with local nightly news. Frank ignores it, paces on the phone. As he does, we see Jonah King's face on the TV. The same guy from the bar. Archive footage of him preaching, warm, friendly. 27. FRANK TV NEWS Mom...Mom...Mom! Would you Reverend Jonah King, the self- shut up and listen?! I've proclaimed prophet whose lost her for good this time. church has come under fire She's gone. I just want my for his anti-establishment car back. (a beat) messages, is wanted for Because...because...arrrg! questioning in the brutal Because I smacked her one, murder of the young parents. okay?!. Smacked her a couple While police say this is a of times, in fact. (a beat) routine questioning witnesses You don't think I know that?! place King in the area and we Mom...Mom! It's over! End of have recently learned that story. She ain't coming King had a prior relationship back. Mom...mom...Mom! with one of the deceased. KNOCK KNOCK FRANK I gotta go. Frank clicks his phone shut, jerks the door open to find -- The Accountant smiling at him. ACCOUNTANT There was an old man, yes? FRANK Wha? The Accountant sniffs the air. ACCOUNTANT White hair. Angry with attitude. FRANK Sumbitch kicked me in the face. Who are you? ACCOUNTANT I'm the Accountant. FRANK The wha? I called the cops, not a bean-counter? ACCOUNTANT The old man? Where did he go? FRANK Fuck should I know where he went? I woke up and all three were gone. 28. ACCOUNTANT All three? FRANK The bitch, the old man and my car! ACCOUNTANT What kind of car? FRANK You know what, fuck you. You ain't no cop. I'm done talking. Frank starts to close the door but the Accountant grabs his wrist, twists him around and shoves him into the room! Frank doesn't stumble forward. He flies. Lifted off the ground his toes drag the floor, Frank SLAMS into the opposite wall and bounces into the dresser. FRANK You son of a -- Frank staggers to his feet. Dazed. Mouth bleeding. He wipes blood onto the back of his hand. FRANK You...you made me bleed. Frank pulls a baseball bat from behind the dresser. FRANK You leave me no choice but to beat you with this Louisville Slugger. Frank takes a step, swings at the Accountant. The Accountant dodges. Bat SMASHES down on the TV. SPARKS & GLASS fly. The Accountant STOMPS on the bat, SNAPS it in two. SLOMO: The short end rips from Frank's hands, knocks him backwards. The piece spins in the air - for a second, hangs there until... The Accountant snatches it, letting his follow-through gather momentum. Frank can only watch as the Accountant - HURLS THE JAGGED TIP OF THE BAT RIGHT AT HIM -- 29. The tip STRIKES Frank in the shoulder with such force, it impales him up to the knob. Drives him backwards where it embeds into the wall! The Accountant grabs the broken barrel end of the bat, tosses it from hand to hand with a loud SLAP of flesh on wood. ACCOUNTANT What kind of car? FRANK (dazed) I...what? ACCOUNTANT Your car. What kind is it? Frank stares down at the bat protruding from his shoulder. FRANK Wha...what did you do? The Accountant reaches out and twists the bat. Frank SCREAMS out in pain. ACCOUNTANT Answer the question. FRANK A ‘67 GTO! Arrgg! The Accountant turns and walks toward the door. Stops to eye a framed photo of Piper and Frank on the dresser. FRANK Hey! Just hold on! The Accountant pivots and flings the barrel of the bat. FRANK'S POV It's coming right at his face. Frank tries to dodge...twists his head...no good. The other end of the broken bat RAMS through his face, PINS his head to the wall. The words Louisville Slugger just visible where Frank's face should be. EXT. LAURA'S MOTEL - NIGHT The Accountant exits as two STATE TROOPERS approach, their vehicle parked behind them. 30. TROOPER #1 Frank Raimi? TROOPER #2 You called about a stolen car? The Accountant gestures over his shoulder. ACCOUNTANT In there. Trooper #1 moves toward the opened door. The Accountant steps in front of Trooper #2. ACCOUNTANT I'm looking for someone. Five- eleven. White hair. Driving a ‘67 GTO. He's traveling with her. He hands Trooper #2 the framed photo. TROOPER #2 Excuse me? The Accountant pulls a shiny, ancient coin, worn from being worried over the years, from his pocket. He tosses it, the coin catching the light, glinting madly. Trooper #2 stares at it. Can't seem to take his eyes off it. Trooper #1's eyes widen as he stares into Frank's room. TROOPER #1 Jesus. He pulls his gun. Points it at the Accountant. TROOPER #1 Keep your hands where I can see them! ACCOUNTANT Troopers, this is your lucky day. Trooper #2 is watching the hypnotic glinting coin. ANGLE - High looking down on the trio as the coin spins right in front of us - we glimpse the ancient face in the worn silver - Roman maybe? TROOPER #1 Show us your hands, asshole. (to his partner) What's the matter with you?! Draw your weapon! 31. Trooper #2 slowly reaches for his gun until... The Accountant snatches the coin from the sky, thrusts it at the two cops. ACCOUNTANT Here. Look at this. They don't see a coin. But a badge. Letters F.B.I. on it. TROOPER #1 You're... you're a Fed? ACCOUNTANT In pursuit of a white haired man. John Milton. He's travelling with the girl in this picture. Trooper #1 fixes his eyes on the photo of Piper & Frank in his partner's hand. Lowers his weapon. TROOPER #1 But, that guy, in the room. He's - ACCOUNTANT --Dead. Yes. I'd say it's unfortunate, but I'd be lying. World won't miss him. Look, troopers. I need your help with my pursuit of this fugitive. If we, we three, can apprehend him...you are ambitious, correct. TROOPER #2 I guess... TROOPER #1 Yes, we are... ACCOUNTANT Wasn't actually a question. I can tell you are. Success will mean promotion. Pay raise. I guarantee it. Now we are going to hunt this Milton, we are going to find the GTO he's driving and when we find him, you will shoot to kill. You understand? Shoot. To. Kill. The Accountant's voice is velvet. Hypnotic. Seductive. Purposeful. Promising glory with a hint of damnation. 32. TROOPER #1 That's against protocol... ACCOUNTANT This man is highly dangerous. He has killed and will kill again. He must be taken down on sight. The time it takes you to follow your protocols is the time it takes him to end your life. The Accountant crosses to the cruiser's back door, the coin disappearing back into his pocket. ACCOUNTANT Shall we? INT. BULL BY THE BALLS MOTEL - NIGHT We're staring into two motel rooms. We're cheating...the wall that divides the rooms...divides the screen. The beds in each room butted up against the dividing wall. On one side we see Piper, on her back. Still clothed. At her feet, on his knees and completely naked, the Busboy. He's painting her toenails. On the other side we see Milton, on his back. Candy riding him like a fucking big-tittied stallion. Candy is a SCREAMER. The Busboy looks up, timidly. Then... BUSBOY Uh, are we gonna do it? PIPER Well, I don't know, baby. Depends on how well you do those nails. Now pay attention. You might need to redo that one. He hunches over and gets back to work. As Piper ties her hair up with a pink bandanna. Candy's SEX SCREAMS are starting to annoy the fuck out of her. She twists around with frustration and POUNDS the wall. PIPER Shut the fuck up in there! Milton twist and POUNDS the wall right back. 33. MILTON You shut the fuck up! That's it! Piper swings her legs off of the bed. Busboy wasn't prepared and topples backwards to the floor. PIPER (giggles) Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean... She stops. Stares. Movement. Someone stepped quickly away from the window. INT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR AND GRILL - NIGHT Piper BURSTS into the room ready to kick ass and take names. But...the place is...empty. Food still on the plates. Beer in the mugs. The TV over the bar is still on. We see footage of a Nevada Amber Alert. “Baby Tabitha still missing” A photo of a baby in pink onesie. Then appearing beside it...the photo of Jonah King. TV NEWS ...issued an all points bulletin for Jonah King's immediate detention in connection with the murder of a young married couple in Loveland, Colorado. Their infant girl is believed to have been abducted by this religious sect. A nation-wide Amber Alert is now in full effect. Piper stares at the TV for a moment, then scans the bar. What the fuck? She eyes the EXIT sign where an assortment of athletic equipment hangs from the wall. EXT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR - BACKLOT - NIGHT Piper exits with a hockey stick. A few cars are left in the lot. A black Chevy van with flames stands out, parked in front of a barn/storage building. Piper crosses to a window in the bar/motel. 34. THROUGH WINDOW Busboy sits on Piper's bed. Still naked. He holds her nail polish to his nose. Sniffs. Jerks his head back. PIPER Imbecile. A NOISE Piper spins, grips the hockey stick. No one. The cars are empty. The barn looks undistur... A light GLOWS within the barn, bleeding through the wood slats. Then... CRREEEEEEEK...barn door slowly swings open. ...revealing THREE SILHOUETTES backlit by a hanging lamp. One holds a shovel. The other heaves an ax over his shoulder. The third holds a shotgun. The side door on the flamed van slides open. TWO SILHOUETTES step out. Baseball bat and machete. FOOTSTEPS Piper spins as THREE DARK FIGURES appear around the side of the bar/motel. Sledge hammer, iron pipe, sickle. Surrounded. All seven begin walking toward her. Piper rushes back inside. INT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR - NIGHT Still empty. Piper turns toward the door marked “Motel Guests” then hesitates. Instead she dives under a booth table...as... The back door opens. PIPER'S POV LEGS. Three sets. Beat up sneakers. Work boots. Cowboy boots with a duct tape patch. A door opens. Piper sucks in breath. More legs appear. ANOTHER ANGLE 35. Shadows approach the desk counter near the “Motel Guests” door. There's an open guest book on the counter top. CLOSE ON GUEST BOOK As a weathered hand comes into view. A finger traces down to the last two entries. Piper Lee RM 111 John Milton RM 112 INT. BULL BY THE BALLS MOTEL - MILTON'S ROOM - NIGHT Candy's still on top. She is, as we say in the fuck industry, “close”. CANDY Close'm'close'm'close'm'close. Suddenly Milton's head jerks toward the door. His hand shoots beneath his pillow as-- The door BURSTS OPEN! MAN WITH AN IRON PIPE held high rushes into the room. Milton comes up with a 357 hand cannon! KAFOOM! IRON PIPE is BLOWN backwards into MAN WITH MACHETE! Milton thrusts upright, suddenly Candy finds herself beneath him as -- Machete HEAVES Iron Pipe to the side and rushes toward Milton as -- KAFOOM! He's blown off his feet! KER-SMASH! The window shatters as a MAN WITH BASEBALL BAT dives, hits, rolls and comes up swinging! Milton snakes an arm beneath Candy and rolls from the bed with her! As they fall-- The bat SLAMS onto the mattress just missing them as -- KA-BOOM! 36. Milton turns Baseball Bat's head into a canoe! Milton on bottom again as they crash to the floor, still intertwined. FWOOM! The door adjoining Milton and Piper's room EXPLODES open at his feet! MAN WITH AXE and MAN WITH SHOTGUN enter! Milton, presses Candy's face into his chest, twisting his body to shield her as his 357 THUNDERS twice! Shotgun's eye vaporizes in a mist! He drops to his knees. Man with Axe clutches his throat...blood gushing...turns and flees back into the adjoining room as -- KUH-FWAM! The bathroom door flies open! MILTON'S POV Staring under the bed, Cowboy boots with duct tape patch appears. Chamber opens. Shells drop to dirty carpet. Milton rolls Candy over, still connected. Fumbles in his bag on the floor. COWBOY with SLEDGE HAMMER freezes at the carnage. Can't see Milton. Because he's hidden by the bed. COWBOY WITH SLEDGE Old Man. You know you can't stop what's comin' That little girl's as good as dead. TWO BULLETS slide into the 357. Chamber SNICKS shut. Milton aims under the bed. FIRES! Half the man's foot is blown to hell! He hops then crashes to the floor! He and Milton make eye contact beneath the bed...a nanosecond before Sledge Hammer's forehead implodes. A NOISE Milton rolls Candy beneath him again and raises his head just in time to see-- 37. MAN WITH SICKLE enter! He stares at his dead comrades in rage then glares at Milton. The glare becomes fear. Milton's already aiming the 357, then -- CLICK. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK Sickle smiles, raises the bladed weapon and-- KUR-RUNCH! The top of his head SPATTERS BLOOD as a hockey stick crashes down from above and behind. Sickle drops to the floor revealing Piper, white knuckling the hockey stick...her face pale. MILTON Thanks. Apparently I shot my wad. Milton stares down into Candy's face. Her whole body QUAKES...CONVULSES. She sucks in breath and opens her eyes. CANDY Jesus Christ. You're the best fuck I've ever had. Piper crosses to the adjoining room. CANDY Hello? Do you mind?! We're... Candy sits up and suddenly takes in her surroundings. She SCREAMS, wraps herself in a sheet and flees from the room. PIPER'S POV INTO HER ROOM Man with Axe is lying face down in his own blood. Dead. But it's Busboy who draws Piper's attention. Lying beneath blood drenched white sheets. He never saw it coming. PIPER Aw, hell. Milton, in pants, pulls his shirt on, rolls Man with Shotgun's face with his boot. Reloads the 357. MILTON I definitely got their attention. 38. PIPER What. The fuck? You know these people? Milton flings his duffle over his shoulder. MILTON Come on. There are probably more. EXT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR - FRONT - NIGHT Jonah King slips from the bar and rushes toward a parked Sedan. He POPS the trunk and grabs a gym bag. As he crosses toward the Driver's side door... The gym bag starts to CRY. JONAH KING Shhhh. Don't cry little precious. FF-FFUMP! Two doors shut. Jonah King turns, freezes. Our two State Troopers stand near their parked cruiser, staring from Jonah to the CRYING gym bag. For a cop, this is that one in a life time event. A career maker. News. Media. Leno. Then-- The cruiser's back door opens. The Accountant steps out. He ignores Jonah King and the crying gym bag. ACCOUNTANT Troopers. Remember why we're here. He walks by them towards the front door of the bar. Both Troopers turn and move around the side of building. Jonah King...stares...stunned, he absentmindedly scratches at the old scar on his face then leaps into the Sedan with the gym bag, engine ROARS to life. EXT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR - BACK LOT - NIGHT Milton and Piper exit into the back lot. PIPER Milton, I'm serious! I want some answers! 39. They turn as the SPEEDING Sedan tears onto the highway. As it disappears behind the barn it reveals -- --Man With Shovel. He FLINGS the barn doors open, stares at Milton and Piper for a moment then vanishes within. MILTON Yeah, we both want some answers. Milton moves toward the barn as-- The State Troopers walk around the bar. Everyone freezes. The Troopers stare from Piper to Milton, then back to Piper. Recognition. MILTON Aw fuck. Milton grabs Piper, places himself between she and the Troopers as they go for their guns. MILTON Come on! Milton pulls the 357 and opens fire! The Troopers, emboldened and fearless, stand their ground and shoot back! FFFUMP! Milton staggers, clutches his side. A crimson spot spreads across his belly. Piper tries to catch him as he stumbles, falls to one knee, his duffle tumbles to the ground, clothes spilling from within. PIPER No! The Troopers keep FIRING! Piper stares down at Milton's open duffle. There's a gun lying within the spilled clothes. An ancient six shooter. We get just a glimpse, but we can tell this isn't just any old gun. There's detailed inscriptions scrawled into the metal. The steel of it is thick, tarnished and somehow angry. She reaches for it. 40. MILTON No! Not that one. He shoves the 357 toward her. Piper snatches it without hesitation, rises and -- KUPOW! Trooper #1's chest EXPLODES. The force spins him...still firing...he SHOOTS Trooper #2 in the ear! Both men crash to the ground. Dead. KAFOOM! The barn doors explode outward as a big Dodge truck powers toward the highway, Man with Shovel behind the wheel. Piper turns to find Milton struggling toward the GTO. PIPER What are you doing?! MILTON Have to stop him... PIPER Milton! Those cops weren't trying to arrest us! MILTON No. They weren't. Get in. Milton climbs behind the GTO's wheel. PIPER I'll drive. MILTON You gotta patch me up. I'll drive. Piper fumes but climbs into the passengers seat. INT. GTO - NIGHT The car RUMBLES to life! PIPER They were trying to kill us! MILTON Yes. 41. PIPER They were trying to kill you. MILTON Yes. Milton floors it! As the GTO fishtails toward the highway-- THROUGH WINDSHIELD The Accountant steps from the back door of the bar. Hunter and Hunted glare. MILTON Christ. Piper's attention is still on the dead cops. PIPER Christ is right! They start shooting with no warning?! What are you, a murderer? You escape from prison or something? The GTO tears onto the highway! IN REARVIEW MIRROR The Accountant just stands there...fading into the darkness. PIPER Well?! Which is it?! MILTON Both. Piper raises the gun, points it at Milton. PIPER What have you gotten me into? I should...I should...Jesus, I just killed a cop! I'm going to prison. Give me one good reason I shouldn't shoot you in the face. MILTON Because I'm driving. PIPER You know what I mean! 42. Milton gestures through the windshield, toward the distant brake lights ahead. MILTON They took my grand-baby. Took my grand-baby and killed my... He breaks off. Looks away. THROUGH WINDSHIELD We see the lighted Amber Alert sign come into view and quickly blur passed. Piper stares at Milton. PIPER The little girl on the news? The baby girl they're looking for? Milton nods. PIPER But the news said the baby's parents were... Piper stops. Milton's eyes glisten. He speaks in a whisper. MILTON Sons of bitches killed my daughter. Piper stares. Milton steadies himself. MILTON So Yeah. I busted out. And I'm gonna get my grand-baby back. I'm gonna get her back and I'm gonna kill every last one of the fuckers. (A BEAT) You want out, I'll understand. Piper considers, then -- KUH-FWAM! They both slam into their seats as the GTO is rear-ended. 43. EXT. GTO - NIGHT It's the Trooper's cruiser. The Accountant, face blank, sits behind the wheel. INT. GTO - NIGHT Milton fights with the wheel as the muscle car fishtails. He mashes the accelerator pulling out of the spin! MILTON In the back seat. Now. PIPER What? Why? MILTON Now! Piper scrambles into the back seat as Milton watches the cruiser pull up along side him. MILTON Shotgun. It's already loaded. Piper digs the shotgun from the duffle and heaves it into the front seat. MILTON Have the other one ready. Not the 357. The OLD one. THROUGH PASSENGER WINDOW The cruiser pulls up and matches the GTO's speed. After a beat the Accountant turns and smiles at Milton. Milton smiles back, lifts the shotgun, shoves the barrel through the passenger window. BOOOM! EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DRY GORGE BRIDGE - NIGHT The cruiser's driver's side window explodes. INT. GTO - NIGHT MILTON'S POV 44. The Accountant brushes shattered glass from his shoulder. When he looks back at Milton its with a face of arrogance. A cat toying with a three-legged mouse. He pulls the cruiser next to Milton. Matches the GTO's speed. Shouts across. ACCOUNTANT It's over, Milton. Stop the car. MILTON I can't do that. ACCOUNTANT Really? What makes you think you have a choice? MILTON I got something I gotta do first. ACCOUNTANT Then you should have done it a long time ago. MILTON I didn't have to do it a long time ago! ACCOUNTANT Milton, I will kill that nice woman in the backseat to get to you. MILTON I won't let you do that. ACCOUNTANT Again. What makes you think you have a choice? MILTON (TO PIPER) Now. Piper hands Milton the ancient Six Shooter. Milton snatches it, points it across the gap between cars, pulls back the hammer with a thunderous...KUH-THUNK. MILTON This does. The Accountant's eyes widen. SSHHU-BOOOM! 45. It's as if God tripped, fell and the entire earth shook as a result! The recoil nearly rips Milton's arm off. We travel with the slug, fire trailing it, as it SLOMOs toward the Accountant...his eyes continuing to widen...the muscles in his face contracting. INT. CRUISER - NIGHT The Accountant cuts the wheel. Hard. He wracks his head around as the slug just kisses his cheek. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DRY GORGE BRIDGE - NIGHT The Cruiser SLAMS into the guard rail! The back-end rockets forward as the cruiser goes into a spin. The GTO fishtails away. INT. GTO - NIGHT Milton fights with the wheel as -- IN REARVIEW MIRROR The Cruiser bucks up and over the guard rail. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DRY GORGE BRIDGE - NIGHT The Cruiser, spins like a top, helicopters out over the nothingness and plummets to the dry valley below. KER-FRUNCH! And flattens sending out a dusty shockwave in all directions. INT. GTO - NIGHT Milton manages to stop the GTO before it slams into the rail. The GTO BUCKS and STALLS. He breathes a sigh, then turns and stares in the direction they'd been going. He can just make out the fleeing Cultist's tail lights. 46. The back door opens. Piper leaps out. MILTON Piper! Wait! Milton watches the taillights vanish over a distant ridge. He starts the engine...then hesitates... THROUGH BACK WINDOW Piper approaches the destroyed guard rail. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DRY GORGE BRIDGE - NIGHT Piper stares into the valley below. HER POV We can just make out the flattened Cruiser in the light of the three quarter moon. No fireball. No smoke. No sign of movement. Just flattened metal. PIPER He's not one of the ones who took your granddaughter, is he? MOVE TO REVEAL Milton stands behind her. Shakes his head. MILTON Someone else. PIPER Is there anyone not trying to kill you? Milton stares up the road. Piper considers, then -- PIPER Come on. I'll help you. But we're dealing with that first? She points to his blood soaked shirt. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - NIGHT The GTO THUNDERS beneath a starry sky. 47. INT. GTO - NIGHT CLOSE ON SPEEDOMETER The needle hovers at 95 mph. PULL BACK TO REVEAL Piper behind the wheel. Milton, shirtless, his stomach wrapped in homemade bandages, grabs his shotgun, reloads. MILTON My daughter got mixed up with the son of a bitch right out of college. PIPER She knew him? She knew Jonah King, the man they think killed... She stops herself. MILTON She knew him. The world was in a fuckin tailspin and King was preaching quiet revolution. He places the shotgun on the dash, grabs the 357. MILTON It was four months before she realized ‘quiet' meant hiding in the basement, cutting the heads off chickens. PIPER Jonah King was into voodoo? Milton reloads the 357, slowly, methodically. MILTON Voodoo, the occult, not much he wasn't into. When she told him she was leaving, he helped her pack. Gassed up her car. Cooked her a hot meal. Then while she slept he broke her leg in three places with a tire iron. PIPER Jesus. She twists her pink bandanna nervously in her hands. 48. MILTON She learned her lessen. Was a good little follower for eighteen months. That's when they met with some witch doctor bullshit artist in Chinatown. It was Chinese New Year so the place was wall to wall slants. She saw her chance, stabbed Jonah in the face with a souvenir corkscrew and vanished into the crowd. PIPER Milton. Your daughter was in a cult for two years and you didn't know? Why didn't you help her? Milton grabs the ancient six shooter. It's got real weight. His blood-stained fingers run down the scrolled steel. The gun almost seems alive. Pops the chamber. MILTON I didn't find out about any of this until...until I got locked up. Only two bullets left. He SNAPS the gun shut. Shoves it into his duffle. PIPER Not gonna reload? MILTON Only had three bullets to begin... PIPER Milton. THROUGH WINDSHIELD Lights ahead. Several. And road flares. There's been an accident. Milton eases the shotgun into his lap. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE - DAWN Several vehicles and an RV block the road. The PASSENGERS scramble back and forth. There's a jack-knifed flatbed, a crumpled Station Wagon and the Cultist's Dodge truck is overturned on the shoulder. 49. INT. GTO - DAWN PIPER That's his truck. MILTON Stay put. I won't be long. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE - DAWN Milton climbs from the GTO and crosses toward the overturned Dodge. He lets the shotgun dangle at his side, keeping it hidden behind him. TATTOOED GUY and SKANKY GAL stand near the RV with MAN IN LEATHER JACKET. BUSINESS WOMAN paces on her cell phone. Milton glances at MAN WITH WIG sitting in the driver's seat of his station wagon, his face in his hands. LADY IN LEOPARDSKIN HOTPANTS kneels beside him. In the passenger seat, BURLY DUDE's on his phone. Watching Milton. There's a couple near the overturned Dodge. TRUCK DRIVING WOMAN gazes into the upsidedown cab. THIN OLD MAN rises and nods as Milton approaches. THIN OLD MAN I think he's gonna be okay. MILTON Is that right? In a swift move, Milton RATCHETS a shell into the chamber, drops to one knee, aims into the cab. MILTON'S POV The cab is empty. Somewhere near, we hear a MUFFLED BABY'S CRY. CLOSE ON MILTON'S FACE Realization. Shit. But it's too late. A snub-nosed .38 appears at his temple. THIN OLD MAN I wouldn't. 50. PIPER (O.S.) Milton! Milton rises slowly and takes in the situation. Tattooed Guy comes up fast behind the GTO. We get a good look at him. It's Man with Shovel. Piper's getting out, doesn't see Tattooed Guy until he's grabbed her. Presses the pistol in her ribs. PIPER Hey! Let me go, fucker! She goes to fight but Man in Leather Jacket approaches her with an axe. Burly Dude is with him. MILTON Don't Piper! (to Thin Old Man) Let her go. She's a pain in the ass you don't want. Milton still hasn't let go of his shotgun. THIN OLD MAN Drop it. Or we'll gut her. To emphasize the point, Truck Driving Woman pulls a Rambo Knife from her purse and smiles a missing toothed smile. Milton drops the shotgun as -- --Man With Wig steps from his car with a scoped hunting rifle. Lady in Leopardskin rises revealing a baseball bat with nails and spikes protruding from the end. Skanky Gal and Business Woman open the RV's door. Jonah King steps from within then smiles down at Milton. He cradles a baby in his arms. JONAH KING Milton, isn't it? Why are you here? Why are you making such a fuss? MILTON Isn't that obvious, you sick fuck? I'm here for her. Milton gestures toward the baby. JONAH KING What's obvious is that you clearly abandoned your daughter. (MORE) 51. JONAH KING (cont'd) Crushed her so completely that she told everyone you were dead. No, Milton, I cannot in good faith hand over this child to you. MILTON But sacrificing her under the full fuckin moon, that's okay? JONAH KING Okay? Milton, your granddaughter is unbelievably blessed. Look around. The world's on fire. Companies own our governments and the people suffer. Daily. And will continue to suffer until change comes. And change will come. Thanks to your granddaughter, Milton. She will open the door to a new world order. MILTON Your BS don't work on me. You killed my daughter but I won't let you kill my grandbaby. JONAH KING Your daughter's death was an accident. MILTON No shithead, it wasn't. I saw the whole damn thing. I saw who you are when no one's lookin'. And I saw what that night cost ya. Jonah's armor cracks a little as Milton faces the others. JONAH KING Milton, you're embarrassing your-- MILTON (to the crowd) --What was it three or four days before he showed after killin my little girl? You jerkoffs didn't notice he was walking a little stiff? Milton glances at Skanky Gal and Business Woman. MILTON When's the last time he shared a bed with either of you? Before that night, right? 52. The girls shoot a nervous glance at Jonah. MILTON You forced my daughter onto her knees, you sonofabitch. And she made you pay for it. Jonah stares at Milton in shock. How does he know? MILTON But don't take my word for it. Ask him. Leather Jacket was there. Jonah made him swear not to tell. Jonah lifts a .38 auto from within the baby's blanket and shoots Leather Jacket in the forehead. Piper SCREAMS. The Baby starts CRYING. Jonah shoves the baby into Skanky Gal's arms then swings the gun toward Milton. JONAH KING Put the blonde in the RV. Tattooed Guy shoves Piper toward the RV as Skanky and Business woman climb in with the baby. Jonah aims the gun at Milton's face. MILTON I'm only gonna make this offer once. Give me my granddaughter and I'll let you liv-- KAPOW! He shoots Milton in the left eye! Milton's head snaps, he falls to the ground on his back. PIPER No!!! Tattooed Guy shoves Piper into the RV. INT. RV - DAWN Skanky tries to calm the crying baby. Tattoo shoves Piper onto the travel couch then hands the gun to Business Woman. BUSINESS WOMAN Please. Try something. 53. Jonah climbs into the RV, closes the door. JONAH KING Let's go. PIPER You killed him! You bastard you -- WHACK! Piper's head rocks back as Business Woman pistol whips her. BUSINESS WOMAN Next time I shoot that mouth right off your face. Jonah gazes out the window as the RV pulls away, Piper's SOBS rising behind him. JONAH'S POV Milton's body lays there. Unmoving. His one eye staring skyward. Void of life as the RV pulls away, leaving the cluster of cars, the wreck and body of Milton behind. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE - DAWN Man With Wig pops the back of the Station wagon. Truck Driving Woman and Thin Old Man lean in, snatch two shovels. Burly Dude drags Leather Jacket's body next to Milton's as the others join him. They gaze down at Milton, his one eye open and unseeing. A single tear runs from it. The other, pools blood where the bullet entered. MILTON'S GOOD EYE TWITCHES. Everyone stares. Did they just see that right? THE 357 COMES UP IN MILTON'S HAND - FIRES! The bullet RIPS BURLY'S SCALP WIDE. He stumbles back. The others recoil. Burly ROARS, blood streaming from his head wound - charges Milton with the ax. MILTON unleashes rapid fire lead from the 357! 54. Burly's blown back! The others scatter as Milton staggers to his feet! He grabs the shotgun, leans on it for support. ON GTO AS Milton stumbles to the open passenger door. ANOTHER ANGLE MAN WITH WIG comes from the back of the Station Wagon with the scoped hunting rifle. Aims. BLAM - His shot rips into the GTO, blows the side mirror off. Milton FIRES back with the shotgun - forcing Man with Wig back behind the wagon. INT. GTO - DAWN Milton falls heavily across the front seats. Ties Piper's bandanna around his head, covers his now gaping eye. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE Man with Wig hasn't had enough yet. He aims the rifle. Moves into the road. Can't see Milton in the car, but that doesn't matter. He knows he's there. BLAM. INT. GTO - DAWN The windshield SHATTERS. Glass splinters down on Milton. He reaches for the keys. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE - DAWN The Cultists jump at the sound of the GTO's GLASS PACKS! Dust rips skyward as the GTO barrels toward them! They scramble, clawing at one another to get out of the way. All except Man With Wig. He's playin' hero, lines Milton in his sights. But what he sees shakes him to his core. POV THRU SCOPE MILTON, face bloody and twisted with rage. 55. Man with Wig screams, falls, tries to roll out of the way. FU-FUMP! The wheels pound over both of his legs, SHATTERING them! INT. GTO - DRIVING - DAY Milton flips open the 357 as he FISHTAILS the GTO back onto the highway. He dangles the 357 out the window. EXT. GTO - DAY Empty shells DANCE onto the blacktop, several SKITTER down onto the cracked Earth and OS. ANGLE - moving fast, the GTO's wheels consume the frame. MATCHING TO: A bicycle tire SKIDS to a stop before us. Then a second. PULL BACK TO REVEAL EXT. VALLEY FLOOR - DAY Two TEENAGERS sit on beat-to-shit mountain bikes, staring. THEIR POV The cratered cruiser lies on its crushed roof, both doors shut. No windows visible. TEEN #1 lights a chillum pipe, inhales. Holds it, passes the pipe, then speaks as only a pothead can. TEEN #1 Think anyone's in there? TEEN #2 (inhales, holds, passes) I guess. Doors is still closed. TEEN #1 (inhales, holds) Bet it's sick. Wanna look? KWU-FOOM! The driver's side door launches right at us! 56. ...nails Teen #2 in the chest, knocking him ten feet backwards where he skids on his back. TEEN #1 Jesus! The Accountant rolls from the cruiser, stands, brushes himself off as he strides forward. ACCOUNTANT Carpenter and despite what you've heard, prefers short hair. Teen #2 sits up suddenly, coughing. TEEN #2 You...you nearly killed me! ACCOUNTANT Not even close. I won't see you again until... He tilts his head, as if reading a sign too far away. ACCOUNTANT ...until you're seventy-three. He glances at Teen #1, then -- ACCOUNTANT You, I'll see in three months. And with that the Accountant turns and strides away. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - MOVING - DAY The RV RUMBLES past, running faster than an RV should. INT. RV - DAY Jonah glances through the back window. Double takes. HIS POV A rapidly growing black blotch on the road. In seconds that blotch reveals itself as the GTO ripping up the highway, gaining fast. The baby SCREAMS in the background. When Jonah speaks...it is with wonder. JONAH KING Look at this. He's still coming. 57. TATTOO Who's still coming? JONAH KING The old man. He's alive. TATTOO AND PIPER What? Piper tries to stand. Business Woman backhands her! BUSINESS WOMAM Stay down! That's impossible! TATTOO You shot him in the face! He can't-- JONAH KING Don't you see? We stand at the crossroads! Did you think we would just idly change the world? The forces of evil challenge us! This is wonderful! We show ourselves to be worthy. I'm so very proud of each one of you. Tattoo and Business Woman beam. Skanky pulls her tit out, shoves it in the baby's face. The kid goes quiet as -- The back glass SHATTERS. Everyone ducks! EXT. GTO - DAY Milton leans out the driver's side with the shotgun in his left hand, his one good eye squinting as -- KAFOOM! He fires at the RV! He RATCHETS another shell into the chamber, takes aim then...hesitates... IN REARVIEW The front end of a fast approaching vehicle! WHAM! 58. Milton's head snaps back as a 90 Corvette slams into the back of the GTO. EXT. 90 CORVETTE - DAY Lady in Leopardskin behind the wheel, her eyes insane. Behind the Corvette we see a ‘92 Lincoln, Thin Old Man driving. Truck Driving Woman in a ‘95 Viper. INT. GTO - DAY Milton struggles to pull the shotgun back inside...struggles to keep the big GTO on the road. Distracted by the newcomers...we see what Milton does not. THROUGH WINDSHIELD The RV pulls off the road to the left. Milton looks up just as he passes the turn off. MILTON Shit! He SLAMS on his brakes. INT. 90 CORVETTE - DAY Leopardskin's eyes go wide. Survival kicks in. She jerks the wheel. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - THE CHASE - DAY The Corvette slams into the side of the Viper! The Lincoln cuts hard right. All three cars shoot pass the GTO. Milton cuts the wheel left and floors it! INT. RV - DAY Piper watches as the bucking RV forces Jonah and Business Woman to turn their backs on her. 59. Piper leaps from the couch, rushes up behind and shoves them toward the shattered back window! Jonah snatches a cabinet, drops his gun! It slides beneath the foldout bed. But Business Woman hits the giant opening and flips up and out of the RV! INT. GTO - DAY Milton looks up as Business Woman SLAMS into the ground and TUMBLES just out of his path. She sits up...dazed. Alive. Milton swerves...just enough...to... KAFWAM! What doesn't explode from the force KUH-THUMPS as the GTO bucks over her body. Milton grits through the pain. A bloody angry smile. INT. RV - DAY Jonah stares out the back glass in shock. PIPER Oops. JONAH KING I am patient and forgiving, but that was wrong of you. He turns to her. JONAH KING I'm going to kill you now. And then I'm going to rape your corpse. So that in the afterlife you might consider your sin this day. Piper CRACKS her knuckles. PIPER Great. Between now and then. I'm'a fuck you up. He takes a step and swings a punch. 60. But she leaps at his face, closing the gap too quickly. Her French Manicure digs in. Jonah screams. They both go down! The baby WAILS. Skanky crawls into the cramped sleeper-bunk above the driver. Pulls the baby with her, tucks back into the corner, away from the battle in the RV's cabin. INT. GTO - DAY Milton is gaining when -- BOOM! The back glass SHATTERS. EXT. DIRT PATH - DAY Truck Driving Woman gains on Milton in her Viper. She's being blanketed in dust. BOOM! She fires a .44 Magnum. INT. GTO - DAY The radio and dash explode! MILTON Son of a bitch. Milton snatches the 357, points it out the back glass and opens fire. BOOM! Milton's POV A white dot spider webs the Viper's windshield left. BOOM! Windshield middle! BOOM! The windshield suddenly turns red from the inside as a dot appears in front of the driver. The Viper jerks right drifts off of the dirt path! FOOM 61. The Lincoln bursts through the dust cloud behind it. Thin Old Man leans from the driver's window, FIRES. Slugs PEPPER the GTO. Milton spins in his seat. THROUGH WINDSHIELD The RV has pulled ahead and vanishes over a hilltop. Milton FLOORS it! INT. RV - DAY Piper on top, Jonah's face looks like he ran into a barbed wire fence! He howls in pain and manages to slip a hand around her throat! Piper feels it. His fingers tighten. He shoves her away from him...she can no longer dig into his face. Her arms flail. Reaching for anything. Grasping. Her face turns red. Eyes bulge. Fuck. She claws his shirt open. And there...hanging around his neck is a small corkscrew. Chinese in design. She snatches it and -- SHUNK! Stabs it into Jonah's shoulder, twists it deeper in. He SCREAMS. Releasing her! EXT. DIRT PATH - HILL TOP - DAY Quiet. FOOM! GTO rockets over the hill top, clears the ground ten feet! The moment the GTO touches down, Milton BRAKES! Milton JOLTS the car into reverse! Tires SCREAM in protest! 62. The GTO jerks backwards...climbing toward the top of the hill in reverse when Milton SNAPS the wheel. The GTO 180s, comes to rest just on this side of the hilltop. Milton casually leans out of the driver's side window with the shotgun in hand. He points it skyward as-- FOOM! The Lincoln ROCKETS over the hilltop...and passes directly over the top of Milton. Milton's one good eye zeroes in on the massive gas tank beneath the back of the car. Milton squeezes the trigger. The back end of the Lincoln EXPLODES as -- --The Corvette rockets over the hilltop! INT. CORVETTE - DAY Lady in Leopardskin's face drops. THROUGH WINDSHIELD The Lincoln fireball SLAMS into the ground before her! Lady in Leopardskin shields her face as -- EXT. DIRT PATH - HILL TOP - DAY KER-FWAM! She slams into the burning vehicle and spins out of control! INT. GTO - DAY Milton kicks the car into drive, jerks a 180 and speeds off toward the RV. INT. RV - DAY Jonah sits up...he pulls at the corkscrew and screams. It won't budge. He glares at Piper. 63. She scans for a weapon. Nothing. She snatches an umbrella from a coat rack. It'll have to do... There's a machete hanging beneath it. She drops the umbrella grabs the machete. Smiles at Jonah. PIPER Give me the baby and I'll make the pain go away. Suddenly everyone SLAMS into the side of the RV! EXT. RV - DAY Tattoo pulls the RV back onto Highway 70! INT. RV - DAY Piper clings to the old stove. She watches in horror as -- Jonah's gun slides from beneath the foldaway bed. It slides right up to him. He snatches it. Piper leaps through the door. INT. GTO - DAY Milton is gaining as -- THROUGH WINDSHIELD Piper swings out, clinging to the door for dear life! EXT. RV - DAY Piper SLAMS into the side of the RV. She tries desperately to hold on as -- Jonah leans through the door. Gun in hand. JONAH KING Goodbye, child. MILTON (O.S.) Hey, dickless. 64. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CHASE FINAL - DAY Jonah looks up. Milton is driving beside them, shotgun in hand, barrel aimed right at Jonah! KUH-FWAM! But before Milton can get his shot off -- The Corvette SLAMS into the back of the GTO! Milton fires! Blowing a hole in the side of the RV a foot to the right of Jonah's head! Jonah leaps back inside the RV. Piper clings on for dear life but she's slipping. INT. GTO - DAY Milton jerks the wheel. INT. CORVETTE - DAY Lady in Leopardskin slows as Milton's GTO goes into a spin. There's a smile on her face. She thinks he's lost control! Until the GTO does a 180. Milton now driving in reverse. His shotgun pointing through the remnants of windshield... ...directly at Lady in Leopardskin. BOOM! Her head goes buh-bye. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CHASE FINAL - DAY The Corvette swerves off of the road, jumps a ditch and flips thirty or forty times. EXT. RV - DAY Piper slips. Slips again. It's over. She knows it. Damn. She falls. FUMP. 65. And lands on the hood of the GTO. EXT. GTO - DAY She looks up, through the GTO's windshield into Milton's battered face. He stretches his hand out to her. Piper snags it before slipping off into oblivion. MILTON Got ya. Piper nods, crawls toward the windshield, Milton tries to pull her in as -- KUH-THUNK....CRUNCHCHCHCH... A horrible sound of grinding metal roars from beneath the GTO's hood. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CHASE FINAL - DAY The GTO pulls to the side of the road. Milton leaps out and stares. He can just make out Jonah standing in the back window... holding his granddaughter. Piper eases from the hood. She stares at her bandanna, at the blood on his face. PIPER Jesus, Milton. How? She pulls him close...looks at the back of his head. MILTON It's still in there. The bullet. I can feel it. PIPER But how...how are you still alive? He stares back toward the RV. Just a dot on the horizon now. MILTON Ain't got time to die. 66. PIPER I tried, Milton. I tried to get her back. MILTON I know, baby. I know. Jonah only had about twenty followers. We hurt him good today. PIPER Fuckin devil worshipers freak me out. They mess with powers that should be left alone. Turns my shit white. MILTON Powers. It's all bullshit. PIPER No, Milton. It's real. Ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot, that's the bullshit. The Devil and demons? Once those doors are opened you're fucked. Milton rolls his one good eye. Piper turns back to the GTO. Smoke hissing from the engine. PIPER What do we do now? MILTON I used to know a guy lived out this way. You got one of them portable phones? PIPER Portable phones? You mean a cell phone? Yeah, in my bag. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - CRASH SITE - DAY WE ARE CLOSE ON THE CRACKED EARTH As a hand slams into view, fingers with dirt crusted nails curl...dig into the ground. PULL BACK TO REVEAL Man With Wig crawls toward us. He's pale. Eyes dim. PULL BACK FURTHER TO REVEAL 67. His busted, mangled legs have left a slug trail of blood and fluid stretching back to the highway. Left hand hits the ground, right hand digs into the dirt. He drags himself forward a few inches. HIS POV He's crawling toward the Station Wagon. Someone...somewhere...is HUMMING Wig turns, squints. A SILHOUETTE APPROACHES Back lit by the early day sun. There's a bounce in his step. Wig holds his hand out to the savior as-- The Accountant's smiling face becomes clear. ACCOUNTANT Scorcher today, huh? He takes a big long swing from an oversized water bottle. MAN WITH WIG Help me... ACCOUNTANT Christ on a cracker. My apologies. The Accountant grabs the man by the collar and drags him into the shade of the Station Wagon where he flips him around into a sitting position. Wig's shirt falls open revealing a pentagram tattooed above his left breast. ACCOUNTANT What's that supposed to mean? MAN WITH WIG It's a symbol of our pact with Lord Satan. ACCOUNTANT Pact huh? That's cute. Funny he's never mentioned you. Wig stares down at his mangled legs. The Accountant notices. 68. ACCOUNTANT Yeah, those are fucked. Here, have some water. Wig takes the offered water as Accountant kneels before him. ACCOUNTANT Milton's work I take it? MAN WITH WIG Ran me over with his...how do you...? Who are you? ACCOUNTANT I'm the Accountant. I'm curious. And I never get curious. What do you people want with Milton? MAN WITH WIG You're the who? The Accountant smiles, places his hand around Wig's clearly shattered femur and squeezes. Wig's body convulses! He SCREAMS. ACCOUNTANT Does it matter? Milton. Why is he important to you? MAN WITH WIG He isn't! He's the one chasing us! ACCOUNTANT Why? Wig stares...searches for an answer. The Accountant snatches a mangled ankle and twists. Wig's body stiffens and he SCREAMS. MAN WITH WIG Because! Because of what we did. Because of who we took. ACCOUNTANT Color me curious. What DID you do and who DID you take? EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DEAD GTO - DAY CLOSE ON 69. The blood stained pink bandanna. The wind pushes it gently down the black asphalt. PULL BACK TO REVEAL Milton sits on the GTO's hood. Piper stands between his legs cleaning his wound. PIPER Lemme know if I hurt you. MILTON Do what you gotta do. You get used to the pain. Piper pulls a black bandanna from her pack, there are white skulls on it. She folds it, ties it around Milton's head. PIPER There. That's better. When she moves aside we see she's lined up a skull over his missing eye. A VEHICLE APPROACHES. Milton slides from the hood, steps protectively in front of Piper as a banged up wrecker pulls toward them, pulls to the side of the road. POV FROM APPROACHING VEHICLE From this angle it looks as though an innocent old man and his granddaughter are having car trouble. POV FROM BEHIND THE GTO From this angle we can see Milton concealing the shotgun behind him. Piper stands close, her hand on the handle of the 357 protruding from his waistband. ON WRECKER As the DRIVER steps out...stands half hidden by the door as WE -- MOVE TO REVEAL Like Piper, the Driver has his right hand tucked behind his back, wrapped around the handle of a .44 Magnum. DRIVER (O.S.) Thought you were dead. 70. Now we get a good look at him. His name's WEBSTER. An old black man, as tough as Milton is angry. PIPER Why does everyone keep saying that? WEBSTER Because he IS dead. Sure as shit supposed to be anyway. Webster and Milton eye one another for a long beat then -- WEBSTER I carried your coffin, old man. I was there the day we put your ass in the ground. Piper stares at Milton. Milton stares at Webster. MILTON Webster, you gonna yank that .44 or just keep stroking it? WEBSTER That depends. How's this possible? MILTON You heard about my daughter? WEBSTER (SOFTENS SLIGHTLY) I did. MILTON Then you know why I'm back. PIPER Back? Back from where? What. The Fuck. Are you two talking about?! WEBSTER It true they took the little one? Milton nods. Webster considers for a long beat, then releases the .44. WEBSTER Put her in neutral. I'll pull the truck around. But Piper can't tear her eyes away from Milton. 71. EXT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR AND GRILL - DAY Police tape, half a dozen state and county cruisers. Three meat wagons and a news van. Humans buzz the scene like insects. The two dead State Troopers lie where they fell. Undisturbed. ROOKIE stands out. Young, county uniform, wide eyed. Very busy at having no idea what he should be doing. He scans the ground. His eyes go even wider. ROOKIE Sarge! Sarge look at this! Rookie squats to the ground as SARGE, leather skin, approaches, stares, frowns. SARGE Yeah? ROOKIE Cigarette butt. SARGE I see that. ROOKIE Sarge! It's less than twenty feet from the victims! SARGE And less than three feet from the ash bin. Sarge points to an ash bin filled with sand. Over a hundred cigarette butts salute the sky. SARGE Pay attention, Rookie. But Rookie's attention has quickly OCD'd elsewhere. ROOKIE Hey! HIS POV CAP, an American Indian man walks the crime scene. Jeans, cowboy boots, a “Dumbledore Dies On Page 596” sweatshirt. His dress may look out of place but his face and attitude are all business. 72. ROOKIE You! You can't be here! Rookie rushes forward. SARGE Rookie! ROOKIE Sarge, this joker can't just stomp around the crime scene. Sarge catches up, nods with respect to Cap. SARGE Captain. Sorry about that. Cap looks up then stares at Rookie's feet. CAP One of yours? SARGE Yessir, I won't let it happen again. CAP Get him out of here. SARGE Cap, he's green, that's all. CAP He's standing on evidence. Rookie leaps back revealing two shell casings. Cap kneels, stares. CAP 357. Suddenly a Unformed Officer leans from within the bar. UNIFORMED OFFICER Cap! We got a live one. INT. BULL BY THE BALLS BAR AND GRILL - DAY Several officers motion Cap behind the bar toward an open cabinet. Cap crosses to the cabinet and kneels. 73. Candy hides within. Naked, hugs her knees. Shivers. CAP (TO MEN) Get me a blanket. And get a medic in here. He turns to Candy, offers a comforting smile. CAP You're gonna be okay now. I won't let anything happen to you. CANDY He...he killed them. He killed all of them. CAP Who did? CANDY No. You don't understand, we was fuckin'. He killed them while we was fuckin'. That's never happened to me before, has it happened to you? Cap turns to Sarge who is standing near. CAP Let's get a shrink in here too. EXT. WEBSTER'S WRECKER - DUSK - EST. A giant barn surrounded by an army of muscle car's laid to rest on cement blocks. INT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - DUSK Engines dangle from assorted winches. Auto tools hang from the walls. Stacks of tires, a pile of carburetors. Webster throws a lever. The wrecker winch lowers the GTO. Piper crosses to the front, pops the hood. Webster joins her, stares at the engine. Frowns. WEBSTER Engine's shot to hell. 74. PIPER Can you fix it? He leans close, hands caress the engine, searching. Somewhere near a fire CRACKLES. Piper turns. HER POV Milton stands just through the barn doors, stokes a fire within a 50 gallon drum. Flames rising. PIPER I don't...how is this possible? WEBSTER He loved his daughter. PIPER Lots of daddy's love their daughters, doesn't explain shattering reality. WEBSTER That one loved his little girl enough to make her hate him. (off her stare) Like Timmy yellin' at Lassie to go home? Piper looks even more confused. WEBSTER You never watched...forget it. Milton was a bad husband but he was a good father. Used to say it was the only thing he was ever good at. Then we went and got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Power and money and once you're in there ain't no gettin' out. So to keep her safe he vanished the year before she went off to college. PIPER Obviously you got out. Webster glances at Milton for a moment. WEBSTER The bastards we were workin' for, they were gonna kill us when the job was done. (MORE) 75. WEBSTER (CONT'D) So the day before, Milton paid'em a little visit. He went alone you see. I didn't know. I would'a gone with him but I didn't know. Webster goes very quiet. WEBSTER Being a daddy wasn't the only thing Milton was good at. Sumbitch was good at being a friend. EXT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - DUSK The sun's setting to the West. Milton stands dangerously close to the fire. Stares at the dancing flames. WEBSTER (O.S.) That fire makin you homesick? Piper and Webster approach with a six pack. WEBSTER Cold beer? Milton gazes up at the moon. It isn't full but it's close. The fire CRACKLES, POPS. He stares at it. MILTON You know the pain and suffering ain't the worse part, right? That's what they tell ya, what they want you to believe. But it's all a big fuckin lie. Nosir, worst part's the goddamn video feed. Webster and Piper exchange a glance. MILTON It ain't about the fire and brimstone. Ain't about your suffering. It's about the suffering of them you love. Cuz you see it. You see it all. In full goddamn detail. And there ain't nothin you can do about it. Milton chunks a 2x4 into the fire. Sparks SWIRL into the air. MILTON Fuckin son-in-law. He looked like one of them tree-huggin piece of shits. Wore sandals. What kind of man wears fuckin sandals? (MORE) 76. MILTON (CONT'D) (A BEAT) But I saw how he died. Fought like a fuckin banshee. Milton goes quiet. MILTON He loved that daughter of mine. Loved that little baby too. He kept fightin long after he should'a been dead. But some people's better at killin than others. Just how they're wired. Milton's finding it harder to speak. MILTON Then them sons of bitches turned on my...nosir, physical pain is nothin compared to watching your baby girl...watchin those fuckers...I'm gonna kill'em. I'm gonna kill'em all. And...and then I'll be done. Milton finally goes silent. Piper makes a noise. Involuntary. Tears stream down her cheeks. She's trying not to sob. Webster looks steely. Determined. WEBSTER Milton, I can't fix that car. But I can get you were you need to be. INT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - NIGHT A huge sliding barn door opens into a giant stall revealing a 1969 Chevrolet Nova 396 L-78 and a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. Milton and Piper stare. Webster smiles. WEBSTER Milt, if memory serves you were always partial to the Nova, yes? EXT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - DISTANT RIDGE - NIGHT We're staring down over the barn from a distant ridge as we hear the GLASS-PACKED RUMBLE of the Nova's engine. MOVE TO REVEAL 77. JONAH standing on the ridge top, cell phone to his ear. JONAH KING Yeah, about that fella who killed all them people at the Bull by the Balls last night. The fella who killed two of your cops. I know where you can find him. EXT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - DAWN The sun rises to the east burning off the Utah dew. INT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - CAR STALL - DAWN Milton crosses to the 69 Nova. Stops. Stares. HIS POV Piper is curled up beneath a quilt in the front seat. MILTON What are you doing? Piper pops awake, sits up. Already angry. PIPER Fuck are you doing?! Milton stares. PIPER Think you were gonna sneak off by yourself?! Go it alone?! MILTON Uh, no. I need your help. If you're still willing. Piper stares for a moment. PIPER Oh. A beat. PIPER Well if I'd known that I would have slept in a bed! 78. EXT. WEBSTER'S GIANT BARN - DAWN Milton opens the big barn doors as Piper drives the Nova out into the sun light. Webster approaches with a shotgun and a box of shells. WEBSTER Mapquest says it's an eight hour drive and we got twelve until midnight so we should be fine. And get this, “The Mother of all things”? “Bleeds black tears unto those who cut her”? Take a guess what's really bleeding like a stuck pig from the marsh? MILTON Black tears of oil? WEBSTER Damn right. MILTON Webster, I need you to stay here. WEBSTER Wha? No. You went alone last time. MILTON I'm not going alone this time. Piper's coming with me. WEBSTER You take that little girl over me? MILTON Give me the fuckin shells. And the gun. Milton snatches both and hands them to Piper. He then quickly places an arm around Webster's shoulders and walks him out of earshot. Piper places the gun and shells in the backseat then stares at the two men. They glance back at her several times. Then Webster nods. Milton returns, slides into the passenger seat. MILTON Let's go. 79. Piper stares out the window as Webster slips quietly into the barn. He does so reluctantly. PIPER He's not coming? MILTON He's too old. He'll just slow us down. Get himself killed. PIPER That's what you told him? MILTON That's what Timmy told Lassie isn't it? PIPER Who the fuck is this Timmy and Lassie you two keep talking about?! MILTON This ain't gonna be easy, Piper. I need you. That's no lie. But are you sure about this? PIPER Just drive the damn car. EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - BORDER - DAY We see a “Welcome to Nevada” sign as -- The Nova THUNDERS past. INT. 69 NOVA - DAY Milton behind the wheel, Piper has her bare feet on the windshield as she loads shotgun shells into the slits on a hunting vest. PIPER I never knew him. Momma said he was a drifter. MILTON I ain't your daddy. PIPER Fuck you if you are. Milton notices something in the rear view. 80. MILTON Shit. Piper sits up, stares. THROUGH BACK GLASS There's a State Trooper's car way back there. Fuck. There are two. No lights yet but they are coming up fast. PIPER What do we do? MILTON Nothing yet. Not until... The lights come on. PIPER Oh shit. They know. MILTON We can't stop. Milton mashes the peddle to the floor. PIPER Milton, this will never work. MILTON It'll work. PIPER No. It won't. Nobody gets away anymore. In fifteen minutes there will be choppers, we'll be all over the news... She breaks off. Her mouth drops. THROUGH WINDSHIELD As the NOVA tops a ridge, in the distance we see a police barricade. Several State Trooper Cruisers line the roadway in front of a bridge crossing a dry ravine. Cruisers line the side of the road. EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - DRY RAVINE BRIDGE - DAY Twenty cruisers. Thirty TROOPERS are set up behind their vehicles, shotguns and assault rifles in hand. 81. Cap, the American Indian Police Captain, stands in front, a radio to his mouth. CAP Just keep driving him to us. We'll do the rest. And make sure you peel off before the fireworks. He lowers the handset, addresses the men. CAP Gentlemen, these two killed two of our own. I know you'd like them to pay. Therefore, when I tell you to aim for the tires, what I mean is aim for their heads. Are we clear? The men nod with steely determination. CAP Very good. Please aim for the tires. INT. 69 NOVA - DAY The barricade is approaching stupidly fast. For the first time on this adventure, Milton looks...concerned. PIPER Just don't stop. MILTON Too many of them. PIPER Just keep driving. MILTON I'm...I'm sorry I got you into-- PIPER --They took your granddaughter, Milton, and now these badge-wearing fuckers are trying to stop you. You crawled out of the Goddamn abyss...and a few fat-assed county Mounties are giving you pause? Your grand-baby needs you. Milton nods. Turns back to the road. PIPER You know what happens to her if they stop us. (MORE) 82. PIPER (CONT'D) You lose the last connection you will ever have to this world. You gotta drive. A scowl crosses his face. PIPER No. You don't just drive. Drive angry! Drive with the motherfuckin' rage that'll take us through that motherfuckin' roadblock! EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - DRY RAVINE BRIDGE - DAY Sarge from earlier approaches Cap. SARGE He ain't stopping. CAP Good. Makes our job easier. Suddenly a noise catches them off guard. They turn behind them. Their eyes widen. THEIR POV A Mack Truck RUMBLES over the bridge approaching from behind them. It's pulling 80mph at least. CAP Well...this is unexpected. INT. MACK TRUCK - DAY The Accountant is driving. Calm. Whistling. INT. 69 NOVA - DAY Piper and Milton stare. PIPER Uh...what is that? MILTON Get down! 83. EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - DRY RAVINE BRIDGE - DAY Cap and Sarge scatter! Several Troopers leap or slide down into the ravine as -- KU-FWAM! The Mack BARRELS THOUGH THE BARRICADE! Several Cruisers go airborne, sailing directly at us! INT. 69 NOVA - DAY Milton cuts the wheel hard as one of the Cruisers ROCKETS right at them. EXT. 69 NOVA - DAY The Cruiser's front end, hits the blacktop, digs in and flips over! The Nova SCREAMS beneath it! The radio antenna SNAPS! INT. MACK TRUCK - DAY The Accountant smiles. Then cuts the wheel. Hard. EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - DRY RAVINE BRIDGE - DAY The Mack jackknifes. It slides sideways down the road toward the Nova! INT. 69 NOVA - DAY THROUGH WINDSHEILD There's nowhere to go! MILTON Shotgun! Piper shoves the shotgun in his hand. He quickly shoves it out the window and -- 84. EXT. 69 NOVA - DAY QUICKFIRES three blasts! EXT. MACK TRUCK - TRAILER HITCH - DAY The hydraulics line BURSTS! Hydraulic fluid bleeds like a stuck jugular! The metal brackets holding the trailer in place...RELEASE! EXT. MACK TRUCK - DAY Truck and Flatbed separate! The back of the flatbed catches on a cruiser. The front flips around. INT. 69 NOVA - DAY THROUGH WINDSHIELD We can just make out the Accountant's face. He's smiling. EXT. 69 NOVA - DAY The Nova rips through the opening between truck and trailer! And then blazes past the scattered and overturned cruisers and tears onto the bridge! EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - DRY RAVINE BRIDGE - DAY Cap staggers into the road, FIRING at the Nova! CAP Hurry! After them! Those men still near, scramble toward the working vehicles as SCRRREEEECH. The Mack skids to a stop behind them, now parallel across the blacktop. Driver's side angled back at the bridge. Every gun in the area spins as the driver's side door opens. The Accountant steps out, big smile on his face. 85. CLOSE ON SARGE AND CAP SARGE You want us to shoot out his tires? ON ACCOUNTANT As he smiles and flips his coin high into the air. The surrounding Troopers stare. The Accountant catches it. Holds it high between thumb and forefinger for all to see. POV FROM TROOPERS He's holding an FBI badge in the air. CAP No Goddamn way. No ever-loving way in God's good heaven are you a... The Accountant steps down, thrusting his ‘badge' into Cap's face stopping him cold. ACCOUNTANT Need you boys to stand down. Captain, you know what this badge means, right? Not a single gun lowers. All trained at The Accountant. Itching to blow him out of his expensive shoes. ACCOUNTANT Federal Bureau of get the fuck outta my way. You boys have blundered into an on-going Federal case. Now, lower your... He stops, turns...sniffs the air. His focus settles on a YOUNG FACED TROOPER. ACCOUNTANT You. ANGLE - Looking down on The Accountant surrounded by armed angry troopers. He steps from the truck, nudges Cap aside like he wasn't there. Cap can't believe it. Shot continues, moving down, closer and closer until the Accountant is face to face with a Young Faced Trooper. The kid keeps his gun aimed, nervous, excited and confused. 86. Suddenly the Accountant moves fast. He bats the gun aside, snatches the kid's uniform shirt and pulls it open, popping two buttons. YOUNG-FACED TROOPER Hey, Hey!!! Cap! And there...above the kid's left breast...a pentagram tattoo. ACCOUNTANT It seems you're serving two masters. The kid says nothing stares. Every cop's gun is sighted on the Accountant. He doesn't seem to notice. ACCOUNTANT Take out your phone and call him. Call Jonah King. Tell him the old man is dead. The kid stares until... CAP Go ahead, Trooper. Do as the agent says. Rest of you. Stand down. Now! Guns lower. The kid removes his cell phone and dials. EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - NEVADA - DAY We tear West down the highway as we catch up to the Nova and dive down...toward the back glass until -- INT. 69 NOVA - DAY Piper stares through the back window. PIPER I don't think...why aren't they following us? Milton slips into his hunting vest. A scowl on his face. MILTON They're likely scared of you. PIPER Now what? MILTON Now we drive. 87. We pull back... EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - NEVADA - DAY ...out of the back glass as the Nova speeds up. Faster...faster. The sun suddenly time lapses across the sky. The landscape blurs. Only the Nova and the moving sun remain...until the sun dips into the Western horizon and vanishes...replaced by one hell of a bright full moon. EXT. SOMEWHERE IN NEVADA - NIGHT Suddenly our view veers off the highway and rips toward a rocky outcropping in the distance. We slow and drop toward the ground until we're mere inches above the cracked earth...we come to a stop. FOOM A BOOT slams into view. PULL BACK TO REVEAL EXT. STILWATER MARSH - NEVADA - NIGHT Milton climbs from the Nova. In the distance we can hear DRUMS. BONGOS. There's CHANTING. And LAUGHTER. Piper rises and gazes at him over the roof. She's scared. Milton shoves the 357 into his back waistband, slides the ancient revolver into a leather hip-holster then he leans in and grabs his shotgun. MILTON Stay here. Piper nods. Milton moves toward the jagged rocks in the distance but soon we can make out the flicking light of fire ahead as Milton moves toward a cliff's edge. EXT. STILWATER MARSH - CLIFF'S EDGE - NIGHT Milton lowers to the ground and crawls to the edge. MILTON'S POV 88. A twenty foot drop off to the ravine floor below. The ravine is filled with giant oil derricks, like metallic T-Rex's, rising and falling to the SHRIEK of oiled metal. And in the center of this Jurassic gathering, a CROWD of people dance and sway around a giant bonfire. It is celebration, ritual and orgy rolled into one. Brawny cultists erect a makeshift stone altar. On the opposite side of the Oil-Rig ravine - the battered RV sits like a mobile command post. CLOSE ON MILTON'S FACE He was expecting less than twenty followers. There are forty down there. Fuck. EXT. STILWATER MARSH - NEVADA - NIGHT Milton walks slowly back toward the Nova. His head lowered in deep thought. How does one man and a kid take on forty? Suddenly a look of alarm crosses his face! He jerks the ancient revolver and aims it ahead. HIS POV Piper sits on the hood of the Nova next to the Accountant. MILTON Get away from her. ACCOUNTANT I think not. MILTON I shoot you with this, you know what it means. No heaven. No hell. You cease to exist. ACCOUNTANT All the more reason to keep Ms. Piper in close proximity. You are old, Milton. You might miss again. MILTON You can't stop me. 89. ACCOUNTANT Stop you? Milton, you wouldn't be here without me, you ungrateful shit. That roadblock back there, that would have stopped you. So I want you to drop that iron God- Killer and say thank you. Milton stares. The Accountant, moves. Quickly. With a crisp flick, suddenly there's a blade at Piper's throat. She GASPS. ACCOUNTANT I said, drop it and thank you. Milton puts up his hand, flings the revolver into the darkness behind him. MILTON Don't hurt her. Th-Thank you. ACCOUNTANT That's better. He lowers the blade, but keeps Piper close. ACCOUNTANT You're not the first to get out and I doubt you'll be the last but I gotta know, HOW did you get out with the God-Killer? MILTON (CHUCKLES) I just walked in and took it. ACCOUNTANT You did not. MILTON I'm an old washed up lifer. Never occurred to'em that I was up to no good. ACCOUNTANT Wouldn't wanna be you when he finds out. MILTON What's he gonna do? Not let me back in? Now, I gotta know. Why? Why help me? 90. PIPER I know why. It's because of those crazy fucks out there isn't it? They figured something out didn't they? Somehow they know how to summon a piece of hell to earth. The Accountant laughs. ACCOUNTANT That's cute. You haven't told her? MILTON She don't listen. ACCOUNTANT Young Ms. Piper, let you in on a little secret. The Dark Lord? Satan? Beelzebub? Lucifer? Simply the warden of a very large prison. Quiet man, actually. Thoughtful. Well read. I happen to know the idea of sacrificing children in his honor annoys him greatly. MILTON Then why? Why help me? ACCOUNTANT Simple. Like the warden, we all have jobs to do. Getting you here makes my job easier. You get what you want, I get what I want. MILTON Then help me, now. There are forty of them down there. You and I could-- ACCOUNTANT --No. MILTON BUT-- ACCOUNTANT --No. You want to save her then go do it. If you win, I win. If they take you down, I win. He hugs Piper closer. 91. ACCOUNTANT You like butter on your popcorn? It's sure to be a grand show. Piper doesn't know what to say. The Accountant glances back at Milton. ACCOUNTANT You're still here? Milton, the clock is ticking. Midnight approaches. MILTON Then get off my fuckin car. EXT. OIL RIG RAVINE - NIGHT The RV door flings open revealing Jonah King. He walks with arrogance through the orgy around him, his followers turn to him with reverence. His name is WHISPERED like a secret. He approaches the make-shift stone altar where Skanky Gal holds the baby within a bundle of blankets. HIGH ABOVE: the moon is full and ripe. JONAH KING It's almost time. Skanky Gal nods. But there is hesitation in her eyes. She's grown attached to the baby. Jonah takes the baby, places her on the stone altar. JONAH KING My brothers and sisters, we have come so far. To this place where the dying earth bleeds its corrupt soul at our feet. From its death, it shall be reborn. As we will be. We who have survived the slings. The arrows. The revulsion of those too weak to believe. We have been cast out. And hunted. But no more. Followers gather, move in unison, dance, writhe, fuck. Tattoo approaches with an old rusty knife. It was probably elegant once. Now it is worthless. He hands it to Jonah. The Followers GASP in holy awe. 92. JONAH KING (raising the knife) With this sacrifice, no more will we be shunned. They say the meek will inherit. They LIE. We are not meek. We are chosen. The hounds of perdition will howl at our command. For now we... A HOWLING noise. No. An engine. Distant but thunderous. Heads turn. The sound echoes throughout the ravine then -- FOOOM! The NOVA ROCKETS from the cliff's edge! It plummets straight at the cultists! They scatter! But three are not so lucky, they vanish as the giant Chevy turns them to PULP! Jonah's jaw drops. This can't fuckin' be. Skanky Gal, grabs the baby and flees toward one of the giant oil derricks! INT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT Milton wears a mask of rage as he rips the Nova into a 180, his 357 aimed out the window. KABOOM! BOOM! KUHFWOOM! He's shooting Cultists in a barrel. But the Nova is the better weapon. He FLOORS it, then LOCKS the brakes, fishtailing. EXT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT The Nova's ass-end veers like a dragon's tail SMACKING cultists aside with BONE-SHATTERING brutality. EXT. OIL RIG RAVINE - NIGHT Jonah grabs a shotgun from behind the altar, opens FIRE. 93. JONAH KING Kill him! KILL HIM! Followers produce an assortment of firepower and RIDDLE the Nova with lead! Milton sights Jonah, ready to blow him to fuck, catches the reverend while he cocks the pump. JONAH can see Milton's got him. MILTON grits and pulls the 357's trigger: Click. Click. BLAM! Jonah fires a fresh round - barely missing as-- Milton GUNS the engine - SMASHES two followers head on. They fly up the hood, SMASH the glass - but shield him from another frontal assault. Their bodies RIDDLED with lead. The Cultists circle him to get a better shot. A Magnum is thrust into the driver's side window - right in Milton's face. He leans back just as the gun is FIRED. Milton yanks the wheel, reverses the Nova - wrenches the Magnum from the fucker's hand. The Cultist hangs on. Claws at Milton. Milton twirls the Magnum, gunslinger style. Jams the barrel into the Cultist's face and FIRES. Milton runs down any that get in his way. EXT. STILWATER MARSH - CLIFF'S EDGE - NIGHT The Accountant stands above the battle, Piper at his side. He can hear her heartbeat. ACCOUNTANT You want to help him. PIPER Yes. ACCOUNTANT He chose you, you know that. Fast car, spunky attitude. He put your life at risk and you still want to help him? 94. PIPER Yes. ACCOUNTANT Then go. She rushes toward a goat path leading down to the valley below. Suddenly something catches her eye. CLOSE ON GROUND The Ancient Revolver. Without the slightest pause, Piper snatches it, spins and aims it right at... The Accountant's smiling face. ACCOUNTANT Hold on tight. It has quite a kick. PIPER If I kill you, you can't take him. ACCOUNTANT Someone else will come...someone else always comes. Piper considers, the SOUNDS of battle rising from below. ACCOUNTANT Piper, he didn't steal that gun to kill me. He stole it to slow me down. He's getting what he wanted. Now, go to him. Before it's too late. Piper turns and scrambles down the goat path. INT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT Milton is ROARING in anger as the NOVA is PEPPERED with bullets and shotgun blasts. GLASS, SPARKS and CHAOS rain down on him. Steam and oil SPEW from the engine. EXT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT Ducking in the seat, unable to see, Milton fights to keep CONTROL UNTIL: Jonah BLASTS the front driver's side tire, SHREDDING it - 95. The NOVA pitches hard to the left, PIN-WHEELING right into an oil derrick. The SCREAM of metal on metal rips through the ravine. The Nova SCREECHES to a halt, tires SPIN, smoke spews, gas drips from the wreck. Jonah and the half a dozen remaining Cultists zero in around the Nova, guns trained on the driver's door. Jonah nods to Tattoo who approaches close to the ground, reaches out slowly and YANKS the door open. KA-FOOM! Tattoo is blown backwards by a shotgun blast! JONAH KING Kill him! Jonah and his men open FIRE! INT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT Milton SCREAMS as the Nova's cab turns into a warzone. He clambers deep inside the wreck. Praying they don't ignite the leaking fuel. Then the firing stops. EXT. 69 NOVA - NIGHT Jonah and his men draw closer and closer. THEIR POV Soon they'll have a direct shot right into the Nova's open driver's side door. PIPER (O.S.) HEY! The men spin to find Piper standing behind them, ancient revolver aimed into their group. She pulls the trigger. KAFOOM! Jesus wept. The KICKBACK blows Piper off her feet, the gun jerked from her hands. She lands on her back. Hard. The wind KNOCKED out of her. 96. The GOD SLUG slams into a cultist's stomach. It EXPLODES through him, and into the BATTERED RV BEHIND: KABLAAAAM! The RV goes nuclear - blows shrapnel and cultists helter skelter across the ravine, shredding the remaining five. JONAH is spattered with his men's blood, dives behind the wreck of the Nova. JONAH KING Well...this has all gone to shit. He steadies himself, grips the shotgun and shoves it into the Nova's open driver's side door. HIS POV Empty. The passenger door is open. Milton is gone. Jonah spins in all directions. Expecting a trick. But nothing. He rushes around the Nova to find... Milton crawling. Bleeding. MILTON'S POV Skanky Gal cowers twenty yards away beneath an oil derrick. The baby wrapped in pink blankets in her arms. Jonah walks up oozing arrogance. He knows he's won. He places the barrel of the shotgun to Milton's chin. JONAH KING You lose. (LOOKS UP) Get over here! Skanky continues to cower. Doesn't budge. JONAH KING I said get over here! I want him to watch me kill the kid! Skanky doesn't move. JONAH KING (TO MILTON) Stupid bitch. Fine. Then just know I promise to kill her slowly. 97. Jonah raises the barrel to Milton's forehead then... Someone near CLEARS HIS THROAT. Jonah turns, stares. The Accountant leans against the Nova's hulk. He winks. At Jonah's feet, Milton scrambles forward and we realize he wasn't crawling toward his grand-baby. He was crawling toward the ancient revolver. He snatches it, rolls onto his back as-- Jonah swings his gun toward Milton -- KAFOOM! The burning God Slug HITS JONAH IN THE FACE! Jonah's head is obliterated. The force yanks his headless body into the air, spins it sky-wards in a plume of flame. The Accountant moves away, watching as -- The burning corpse slaps onto the leaking wreck of the Nova. THE GAS IGNITES FLAMES ERUPT with THUNDER clear to the heavens - the Nova ROARS one final time, living up to it's name in a furious ball of fire that consumes whatever's left of Jonah King. ANOTHER ANGLE Piper SUCKS in air. Sits up. Fire lighting her face. PIPER Milton?! He lies on his back several yards away. Piper rushes up, falls beside him. He's alive, mouth filled with blood. She takes his hand. ANOTHER ANGLE Skanky Gal looks up to find... ...the Accountant standing over her. He holds out his arms. 98. She hands him the baby. ACCOUNTANT I'm curious. Would you have let him do it? She opens her mouth to speak, says nothing... ACCOUNTANT That's what I thought. He turns and walks away from her. ACCOUNTANT See you. Soon. Skanky bolts. Races off into the darkness. ON MILTON AND PIPER PIPER Milton...no... Milton struggles. His head lolls back and forth. Eyes flick around. Searching. MILTON Where...where is she? ACCOUNTANT She's here. The Accountant hands the baby to Milton. Milton stares at the tiny face. The big bright eyes. Innocent. Beautiful in every miraculous way. He places her in Piper's arms. MILTON Keep her safe. PIPER I will. Anyone tries to hurt her and I'll kill'em. MILTON I know. That's why I chose you. A HORN BLARES. They all turn toward the high cliff. 99. THEIR POV WEBSTER climbs from the 69 Camaro. MILTON Webster will look after you both. As long as he can. And he'll keep trying long after he can't. PIPER Milton. This can't...you can't just give up. There's gotta be something we can do to... MILTON Beat the devil? Nah. Never gonna happen. I'm askin more than I have a right to. I know it. But love her for me, Piper. Love her and make her yours. I don't have any right to ask for your promise... PIPER (WITHOUT HESITATION) I promise. Milton. I promise. Milton coughs. MILTON Thank you. And like that. The life fades from his eyes. Piper holds the baby close, SOBS. She looks up at the Accountant. But he is gone. EXT. STILWATER MARSH - NEVADA - DAWN The sun glows to the east as -- --Piper cradles the baby as she climbs the goat path where Webster is waiting. He rushes to her, places an arm around her. Leads her toward the Camaro as -- EXT. OIL RIG RAVINE - DAWN CLOSE ON MILTON He twitches. 100. His one good eye opens. It rolls around then settles on something above. MILTON How was that? MOVE TO REVEAL The Accountant stands over him. ACCOUNTANT I've seen better. Guess she doesn't know you can beat him, slow him, shoot him, even stop him... MILTON ...But you can't kill a dead man. Milton sits up slowly. Bones CREAK. He holds his hand out. The Accountant takes it. Pulls him to his feet. They turn and walk toward the rising sun. They walk until they are just silhouettes against a bright yellow glow...then... ...they fade into the shimmering heat... ...and they are gone. FADE TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ab470d8deafc83b068c53233d3380a0bfdd9b3b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drive.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DRIVE Written by Hossein Amini Based on the novel by James Sallis 09.24.10 1 INT. CAR ENGINE - NIGHT. 1 We're close on a maze of metal rods, tubes, and wires. It's only as we pull out that we realize it's the engine of a car. Over the image we hear a voice talking on a phone. DRIVER O/S ...hundred thousand streets in this city, you don't need to know the route. You give me a time and place, I give you a five minute window. Those five minutes I'm yours. Whatever goes down I'm yours. Minute either side you're on your own... As the engine ignites and roars to life we DISSOLVE TO: 2 INT. LOW RENT APARTMENT/ KOREATOWN/ L.A. - NIGHT. 2 A map of downtown L.A. spread out on a bed, dozens of different routes marked in pencil. The voice continues - DRIVER O/S ...One last thing. You won't be able to reach me at this number again... DRIVER hangs up the phone. He folds his map of LA and slips it in his duffel bag. A few clothes and other essentials are neatly packed inside. He zips the bag shut and takes one last look at a cheap TV set. On screen, a movie is playing. On a radio, the LA Clippers are taking a pounding from the New York Knicks. 3 INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT/ APARTMENT/ KOREATOWN - NIGHT. 3 Driver strides through a dimly lit car park, carrying his duffel bag. A YOUNG COUPLE emerge from their car after a late night out. Driver lowers his eyes, avoiding their gaze as he makes his way towards a sleek 1970's Chevelle 4 INT/EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ ALVARADO - NIGHT. 4 The Clippers-Knicks game plays on the car radio now. Driver is only half listening, focused on the road. We see his face in the passing neon lights. Feline good looks. Impassive blue eyes. Something almost melancholy in his unwavering gaze. He drives carefully, letting other cars overtake. 5 EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 5 Driver glides into the parking lot of another low-rent apartment block. 2 9/24/10 6 INT. UNDERGROUND CAR PARK/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 6 Clutching his duffel bag Driver heads towards the car park elevator. Hurrying out in the opposite direction he sees a pretty GIRL in her 20's wearing a waitress outfit. Their eyes meet briefly, before Driver walks on. 7 INT. APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 7 Driver heads down the hallway and unlocks the door to his new apartment. It's not all that different from his last one. Clean, sparse, and anonymous. He doesn't even bother to walk in. He tosses his duffel bag inside and locks the door again. 8 INT/EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - NIGHT 8 Driver's back on the road, the basketball game still playing on the radio. He drives past a row of brightly lit Mexican food shacks on Silver Lake Boulevard and turns into a run down garage lit up with a neon sign - Shannon's Picture Car Warehouse - vintage cars. 9 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - NIGHT. 9 SHANNON, the owner of the garage, has a distinctive limp. Driver follows him past rows of vintage cars. SHANNON ...Plain Jane cheap like you asked for but with a hundred and sixty horsepower inside. You get any sleep? DRIVER Not this week. As Shannon grins we feel the familiarity between them. SHANNON I can offer you some Halcyon. DRIVER Won't work. They head past more cars -- Fords, Dodges, Buicks -- until they arrive at a plain looking Impala. SHANNON There she is. Silver Impala. Most popular car in the state of California... Driver casts his eyes over the unimpressive vehicle then holds out his hand for the keys. 3 9/24/10 10 INT/EXT. SILVER IMPALA/ TOY DISTRICT/ DOWNTOWN L.A. - NIGHT. 10 The basketball game is approaching the end of the third quarter. Driver's behind the wheel of the Impala now, cruising past rows of dingy toy stores on 3rd Street. He glances at his watch. It's 9:50. He checks his mirror then turns into a side street. 11 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ ELECTRONICS SUPERSTORE/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 11 A vast electronics superstore dominates the deserted street. Under the pale yellow glow of the street lamps, Driver sees signs advertising a `huge blow out weekend sale'. He pulls over, making sure he has a good view of the entrance. On the radio, the basketball commentator is getting more excited. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...This is some comeback from the Clippers! Only a few minutes ago they looked dead and buried!... Driver reaches under the seat and pulls out a small handheld scanner. He switches it on, tuning it to the right frequency. Crackling police dispatches are interspersed with the basketball commentary now. POLICE SCANNER ...9 Adam 81, what is your current location?...Repeat, what is your current location?... BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Another unbelievable three pointer from Davis and the Clippers are within five!... Out of the corner of his eye Driver sees two MEN approach. He doesn't react, expecting them. They cut through the fence with bolt cutters and approach the main building. Driver watches them pull on their masks, then one of them takes out a shotgun and blasts the lock to the front door. Instantly the alarm shrills. The only thing Driver does is to turn on his stop watch. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Time out Knicks... The stop watching keeps ticking away, the siren blaring, the commentary continuing, the police scanner crackling. The storefront is hidden in shadow, impossible to tell what's going on inside. Driver looks at his stop watch. Almost three minutes. One of the masked men emerges now, carrying a duffel bag. He hurries over and gets in the back of Driver's car without a word. There's no sign of the other robber. (CONTINUED) 4 9/24/10 11 CONTINUED: 11 The commentary continues, so does the crackling on the police scanner. Four minutes. Still no sign of the second armed robber. His companion in the back starts to look nervous, wondering what's happened to his partner. Driver doesn't betray a hint of nerves. Four and half minutes on his stop watch. Thirty seconds more and he's on his way. Suddenly the second robber appears from the shadows, running as fast as he can to the getaway car. He jumps into the back seat a few seconds short of five minutes and Driver screeches off. 12 INT/ EXT. SILVER IMPALA/ STREETS/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 12 Driver thunders over the 1st Street bridge towards Boyle Heights, then eases his foot off the gas, slowing to a steady speed. In the back seat the two armed robbers rip off their masks, looking pumped up with adrenalin. Driver studies them in his rear view mirror, then swerves right on Mission Street as his police scanner crackles to life. POLICE SCANNER ...Attention all units...211...Superstore on Traction Avenue...Suspects headed Eastbound on 1st Street...Driving a Silver Impala... Driver swings sharply into 4th Street now, crossing the L.A. River again, heading back in the same direction he came. POLICE SCANNER ...Airships dispatched...Downtown and Boyle Heights...All units standby. Repeat, all units standby... Up ahead, the lights of Downtown L.A. glitter against the night sky. Hovering between the neon green glow of the skyscrapers Driver sees the red and white glint of a police helicopter. He switches off his headlights, turning left on Santa Fe Avenue. 13 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ALLEYWAYS/INDUSTRIAL AREA/DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 13 The armed robbers watch in tense silence as Driver weaves in and out of the industrial alleyways with his lights switched off. It's as if he's trying to find his way out of the maze or probing to see if there's anyone out there. POLICE SCANNER ...1 Baker 11, headed south on Boyle Avenue...No sign of suspects...Repeat, no sign of suspects... The armed robbers look relieved when suddenly a police car glides past at the end of the alleyway, its lights also off. (CONTINUED) 5 9/24/10 13 CONTINUED: 13 It's like catching a glimpse of a passing shark's fin. Driver taps the brakes gently, his car sliding to a stop. He stays there a moment, then eases the Impala forward, turning in the same direction as the black-and-white. 14 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ LA RIVER INDUSTRIAL AREA/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 14 It's a high-risk strategy but Driver follows the black-and-white at a distance, hidden in the darkness, knowing other squad cars won't be checking the same route. The police car makes its way through the dimly lit industrial zone, unaware it's being shadowed. Driver turns his car radio up a whisper. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...And for the first time in the game the Clippers have the lead. 71 to 69. Seven to go in the Fourth here at the Staples Centre... Driver turns the sound back down. Up ahead, the police car swings left, disappearing from view. Driver slows down too, anticipating the next obstacle. He doesn't have long to wait. In the distance he suddenly sees the piercing beam of a police chopper's search-lights, sweeping the area one more time. Driver floors the gas, speeding straight towards the approaching helicopter. The armed robbers are too stunned to protest. They just sit there, watching the sweeping searchlights getting closer and closer. Then suddenly it becomes clear what Driver's doing. Up ahead, there's a small underpass below the 7th Street bridge. Driver slides the car under the safety of the bridge just before the chopper's searchlights spot them. 15 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ UNDERPASS/ LA RIVER INDUSTRIAL AREA - NIGHT.15 The roar of the helicopter thunders overhead. The underpass is crammed with dirty mattresses and shopping carts. Sleeping HOBOS can be seen under dirty blankets. Driver waits for the echo of the helicopter to fade, then moves forward again. 16 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ OLYMPIC BOULEVARD/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 16 Gloomy yellow street-lamps shine down on the industrial zone. Rows of delivery trucks are parked outside the meat-packing factories. Driver cruises cautiously down the deserted street. The crackling of the police scanner and the droning of the basketball commentary add to the tension. Finally up ahead he sees car-lights streaming back and forth on Broadway. DRIVER Get down... (CONTINUED) 6 9/24/10 16 CONTINUED: 16 The armed robbers lie flat on the back seat, paying Driver more respect now. 17 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ BROADWAY/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 17 There's a steady flow of traffic on Broadway. Driver falls in behind the other cars. On the radio, the basketball game is still playing. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Three thirteen left on the clock. Dunleavy calls a time out and it's the Clippers by one... The passing head-lamps light up Driver's face. There's not a trace of emotion in his eyes -- even when he spots a patrol car approaching in the opposite direction. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Buckle up your seat belts Clippers fans. This game really is too close to call... The two cars pass each other slowly. Driver sees the cops in the Black-and-White peering at the Impala as they head past. He turns down the basketball game and focuses on the scanner. POLICE SCANNER ...This is 1 David 16...Silver Impala headed South on Broadway and Pico...Couldn't get a look at her license plates...Appears to be only one occupant... In the back seat, the armed robbers wait nervously for the police dispatch to respond. POLICE SCANNER ...1 David 16...why don't you check her out... As soon as he hears this Driver swerves sharply into the next street. 18 INT/ EXT. IMPALA/ SIDESTREET OFF BROADWAY/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 18 Driver guns around the block now, building up speed. POLICE SCANNER ...This is 1 David 16...We lost the suspect somewhere between Broadway and Grand...Possible evasive action...Request airship and additional units... 7 9/24/10 19 INT/ EXT. IMPALA/ WEST PICO BOULEVARD/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 19 Driver bursts out onto Pico now. A squad car headed in the opposite direction slows down as it sees him but is caught up in the flow of traffic, unable to turn round and give chase. POLICE SCANNER ...1 David 11...suspect headed West on Pico... Driver threads his way through the vehicles in front of him, so smooth and effortless it's hard to tell how fast he's going. He glances up as he hears the dull rumble of a police chopper overhead. The helicopter is almost directly above him, swinging its search-beam back and forth to get a lock on his position. Driver pushes the car as fast as it will go, but there's no way of outrunning the chopper. Blue light floods the asphalt around him as he guns down Figueroa. POLICE SCANNER All units...pursuit in progress...silver Impala...Headed North on Figueroa... Even now Driver doesn't panic, turning his attention back to the basketball game. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY Thornton pulls up from behind the arc, misses. Rebound New York. One eighteen to play... Driver swerves sharply towards the sparkling lights of the Staples Centre. 20 INT/EXT. IMPALA/ STAPLES CENTRE/ PARKING LOT - NIGHT. 20 The terraced parking lot looms up ahead. A sign above the barrier says `Season Ticket Holders Only'. Driver punches in a ticket and roars into the parking lot. 21 INT. IMPALA/ STAPLES CENTRE PARKING LOT - NIGHT. 21 The Impala screeches from one level to the next. With a game going on, the parking lot is almost full. Finally Driver pulls into a free parking space. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Thirty seconds remaining and all the Knicks have to do is run out the clock... Driver glances in his side mirror. Behind him, dozens of FANS are already streaming out into the parking lot before the game is over, hoping to avoid the inevitable traffic. (CONTINUED) 8 9/24/10 21 CONTINUED: 21 BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Gordon back to Davis...Davis for three...This is unbelievable!... The jubilant commentary continues, but Driver isn't listening anymore. The game has served its purpose. More fans flood into the parking lot. Dozens of cars pull out of their places. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...What a remarkable comeback...Outplayed for most of the game, the Clippers have shown incredible resilience... Driver glances at the armed robbers and nods. It's time. They climb out of the car, merging in with the crowd. Driver watches them disappear, then slips on a Clippers cap, climbs out of the Impala himself and heads towards another car. 22 EXT. STAPLES CENTRE/ DOWNTOWN L.A. - NIGHT. 22 Outside the parking lot, the police are waiting, stopping anything that looks like an Impala, shining their flashlights into the windows. Wearing his Clippers cap and a Clippers sticker on his new car, Driver calmly drives past them, making his getaway. DISSOLVE TO: 23 EXT. FILM SET/ SAN PEDRO/ LOS ANGELES - DAY. 23 Driver's face is fixed ahead, sunglasses hiding his eyes. As we PULL OUT we see to our surprise that he's wearing a policeman's uniform. It's only as we pull out further that we see several other `POLICE OFFICERS' sitting in the same fold up chairs, reading car magazines and scripts as they're powdered by MAKE-UP GIRLS, and realize we're on a movie set. Driver glances up from his script and sees another STUNTMAN being fitted with an SFX mask. The stuntman now looks identical to the STAR of the movie who stands nearby. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR O/S I need you guys to sign this contract... Driver takes the form along with all the other stuntmen and signs it without a glance. 24 EXT. FILM SET/ SAN PEDRO/ LOS ANGELES - DAY. 24 Shannon is discussing a car stunt with another AD, using two toy cars on the hood of a cop car to demonstrate the danger. (CONTINUED) 9 9/24/10 24 CONTINUED: 24 SHANNON ...This is a whole new thing. He taps the fender any faster than fifty not only will she roll, she'll roll all the way to Baja. Driver heads off, disinterested in the negotiations. SHANNON A high risk stunt like that's worth at least a thousand five. AD They won't go higher than a thousand. SHANNON Done. For all his charm we sense something of the hustler about Shannon. 25 EXT. CRAFT TABLE/ FILM SET/ SAN PEDRO/ LOS ANGELES - DAY. 25 Driver approaches a buffet table laid out with food. He's about to help himself when JACK, the caterer, stops him. JACK Sorry, that's for the director... 26 INT/ EXT. POLICE CAR/ FILM SET/ SAN PEDRO - DAY. 26 Driver sits at the wheel of the Black-and-White while a STUNT SUPERVISOR checks his harness. Shannon leans into the window with a smile. SHANNON I managed to get them up to five hundred. Driver doesn't seem to care, focussed on the job. 2ND UNIT DIRECTOR O/S Camera ready, sound ready... Shannon joins the rest of the crew, looking on. 2ND UNIT DIRECTOR O/S ...ACTION!... Driver floors the gas, screeching out of the alleyway. He swerves between several oil drums then straightens up on the main road. In his rear view mirror he sees a black Dodge Charger appear on cue, bearing down on him. (CONTINUED) 10 9/24/10 26 CONTINUED: 26 Driver slows to forty, like he's supposed to, but the black Charger keeps coming at speed. Driver's eyes stay fixed on his rear view mirror, judging the other car's speed and angle of approach to perfection. The Charger slams into the back of Driver's car at sixty miles an hour, hitting him just above the left rear wheel. Driver's reactions are quick as lightning, counter-steering as his Black-and-White goes careening off the road. He keeps the car upright long enough to slow it down before it finally flips end over end. Up ahead, the Charger skids to a showy stop. 2ND UNIT DIRECTOR O/S ...And CUT!... Some clapping and cheering breaks out, but most the crew couldn't care less, returning to their cell-phones and shot lists. Only Shannon seems interested in Driver, limping over and helping him out of his battered Black-and-White. SHANNON Nice work, officer... Driver spits out some fake candyglass from the shattered windscreen. 27 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA/ WESTWOOD - DAY. 27 A New York style pizza-by-the-slice restaurant. A WAITER takes a delivery of Chinese food at the door and carries it over to a table where Shannon is sitting with an old friend, BERNIE ROSE. WAITER Here you go, Mr. Rose. (Taking out the white boxes) Egg rolls, chicken chow mein, five flavor shrimp and Peking duck. BERNIE ROSE Did they remember the chop sticks? WAITER Doesn't look like it, sir. Let me run and get the guy. From the way the waiter hurries off we get a sense of Bernie's power and authority. He turns back to Shannon, resuming their conversation. (CONTINUED) 11 9/24/10 27 CONTINUED: 27 BERNIE ROSE ...You run a perfectly good business. Why would you want to change now? SHANNON You know how much my business made last year? Thirty Grand. Takes me six months to build a car and a couple of seconds for these jerks to write it off on a stunt that doesn't even make it into the movie. Bernie shakes his head but clearly has a soft spot for Shannon. BERNIE ROSE How much do you need? SHANNON Let me talk you through it first. BERNIE ROSE That sounds like a lot. SHANNON Doesn't have to be. The big money teams burn through three, four million a year but that's `cause they're using half a dozen test drivers and a stable of cars. BERNIE ROSE I don't know anything about car racing but I assume there's a reason for that? SHANNON Sure, but it's not the only way. All I need is a hard-used stock car. We start off with the small-town action then work our way up. There's close to two thousand events out there and once we make the Show we're talking millions. BERNIE ROSE `Millions'? SHANNON There's a fortune to be made. Sponsorship. TV deals. We'll even name the team after you. Bernie looks at his friend in mild exasperation then turns away as the waiter returns with a handful of chop sticks. BERNIE ROSE Thank you, Ron. You sure you don't want any of this? (CONTINUED) 12 9/24/10 27 CONTINUED: (2) 27 SHANNON No, thanks. Bernie waits for the waiter to leave then continues. BERNIE ROSE You still haven't given me a number? Shannon hesitates but only for a second. SHANNON Four hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Bernie Rose can't help grinning at his nerve. SHANNON Look, I wouldn't come to you unless I was sure about this. BERNIE ROSE Come on, Shannon. How can you be sure? What have you got these big money teams don't have? SHANNON I got a driver. BERNIE ROSE And they got half a dozen Drivers you told me. SHANNON Not like this one. He stares at his friend with quiet conviction. SHANNON I been working with this guy a long time - I've never seen anything like it. I had the money I'd back him myself... Bernie Rose considers him quietly. BERNIE ROSE But you don't have the money. SHANNON Everything I own is in metal. I had to sell my Bullit car the other day just to pay the gas bill. I'm telling you, Bernie, put this kid behind a wheel there's nothing he can't do. (CONTINUED) 13 9/24/10 27 CONTINUED: (3) 27 BERNIE ROSE And what happens to my money if this kid gets hit by a bus? Shannon's about to reply when they're interrupted by a big bull of a man with a gruff voice. NINO What are you doing eating Chink food in my restaurant? BERNIE ROSE What's a Jew doing running a Pizzeria? Worst fucking pizza in LA by the way. How hard is it to bake a loaf of bread? NINO It's the fucking water in this city... Shannon smiles, intimidated by Nino, giving up his seat respectfully. Nino doesn't even acknowledge him. BERNIE ROSE I thought you were supposed to be out of town anyway? NINO Well, I'm back. (Barely a glance at Shannon) Take a hike. I need to talk to my partner. BERNIE ROSE Be polite, Nino. I invited him here. NINO Oh, I'm sorry. How you doing, Shannon? How's the fucking leg? Bernie senses things are only going to get worse and dismisses Shannon gently. BERNIE ROSE I'll think about it but I want to meet your guy first... 28 INT. ELEVATOR/ APARTMENT BLOCK/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 28 Driver stands in the elevator as it climbs slowly. It reaches the ground floor then the doors slide open. Driver finds himself face to face with the pretty girl he saw the other night. She looks a little startled to see him, then recovers PRETTY GIRL (IRENE) Hi... (CONTINUED) 14 9/24/10 28 CONTINUED: 28 She joins him in the elevator, carrying a grocery bag with some milk and Fruit Loops cereal. DRIVER Which floor, ma'am?... IRENE Fourth please... Driver presses the fourth floor button even though it's already lit. The doors shut and the elevator starts to climb. Driver stares out quietly. Irene takes a glance at him, feeling awkward in the silence. She looks relieved as the elevator doors finally open. Driver steps aside to let her out first. IRENE Thank you... 29 INT. CORRIDOR/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - MORNING. 29 Driver and Irene walk down the corridor in the same direction, only a few feet apart. She seems more aware of his presence than he is of hers. She reaches the door to her apartment first. IRENE Goodbye... DRIVER Goodbye, ma'am... Driver looks at her just long enough not to seem impolite, then continues down the corridor, not even glancing back. 30 EXT. SAUGUS SPEEDWAY - DAY. 30 Bright sunlight. In the distance we see a trail of dust moving across the flatland. Everything is silent, then slowly the hum of an engine rises as the stock car turns towards us. It shimmers in the heat waves, the noise of its engine getting louder as it picks up speed. Shannon stands with his friend Bernie Rose at the edge of the makeshift track, staring at the glittering car with its colorful signage advertising everything from Snickers to Cheerios. BERNIE ROSE Looks like a chocolate bar. You're gonna have to tell me if that's fast or slow `cause I got no idea... Shannon smiles to himself. SHANNON It ain't slow... 15 9/24/10 31 INT. RACE CAR/ SAUGUS SPEEDWAY - DAY. 31 Even in the cramped space of the roll cage there's something effortless about the way Driver controls the car. His eyes are fixed in concentration, his body tensing only slightly as he lifts his foot off the gas and turns the wheel. 32 EXT. SAUGUS SPEEDWAY - DAY. 32 The glinting vehicle is lost in a cloud of dust, then reappears again, moving even faster now. The STOCK CAR'S OWNER, a bearded hot-rodder with a t-shirt that says, "Drive it like you stole it", joins Shannon with a confident smile. STOCK CAR OWNER Told you she was a beauty... SHANNON (Playing hard to get) Maybe where you come from... Bernie Rose pays no attention to their banter, his eyes fixed thoughtfully on the stock car as it finally slows to a stop. 33 EXT. RACE CAR/ SAUGUS SPEEDWAY - DAY. 33 Driver climbs out of the car. As he looks up he sees Shannon limping over with the stock car's owner, a couple of MECHANICS, and Bernie Rose. SHANNON Looks a little long in the tooth to me. Think we should take her home?... Driver shrugs. Shannon grins, turning to Bernie now. SHANNON Bernie, this is the driver I been telling you about... One look at Bernie Rose and Driver senses the power and authority behind his deceptively gentle eyes. SHANNON Bernie's thinking of investing in our race team... The old mobster holds out his hand, meeting Driver's gaze. DRIVER My hands are a little dirty. BERNIE ROSE Don't worry. So are mine... (CONTINUED) 16 9/24/10 33 CONTINUED: 33 He gives Driver a big grin and a warm handshake, sizing him up. Driver smiles politely, gazing back at him. The stock car's owner interrupts the moment between them, holding a stopwatch. STOCK CAR OWNER Couldn't see much wrong with that. You beat the fastest lap by more than half a second. DRIVER You might wanna take a look at the suspension before we go again. (Turning back to Bernie) Nice to meet you... Bernie's still studying him. BERNIE ROSE You too... Their eyes stay on each other, then Driver follows the stock car owner and his mechanics back to the car. Bernie Rose stares after him quietly, thinking to himself. Shannon can feel he's getting interested. SHANNON You gonna give me the four? BERNIE ROSE I'll give you three for seventy percent... 34 INT. SUPERMARKET/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 34 Tinny supermarket music plays in the background. Driver walks past the vast selection of instant coffee brands, bemused by the choice. Suddenly he notices something out of the corner of his eye. At the far end of the aisle his pretty neighbor, Irene, is browsing through the confectionery section. Standing next to her is a young boy of six or seven, (BENICIO). He grabs a multi-pack of snickers and puts it in Irene's shopping basket. Irene calmly picks it out, replaces it on the shelf, and takes a single snicker bar for him instead. As Driver watches them, the boy turns around and notices him. Driver heads down another aisle before Irene sees him too, keeping to himself to himself. 35 EXT. CAR PARK/ SUPERMARKET - DAY. 35 Driver heads out of the supermarket with a small bag of groceries when he spots Irene and Benicio again in the car park. Irene sits in a battered Oldsmobile, trying to start the engine. She tries several times then gets out in frustration, opening the hood and peering at the engine she has no idea how to fix. Benicio peers in too, trying to be helpful. (CONTINUED) 17 9/24/10 35 CONTINUED: 35 Driver hesitates, all his instincts telling him to continue to his car and drive away, but as he feels Irene's increasing frustration he can't help himself, finally heading over to help. Irene looks over and sees him coming, surprised at first, then smiling. We watch from a distance as they talk now. 35a INT. ELEVATOR/ APARTMENT BLOCK/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 35a Driver, Irene and Benicio stand in silence in the elevator, Driver clutching some of Irene's grocery bags. 36 INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 36 Driver carries Irene's grocery bags into the kitchen for her. DRIVER Where do you want me to put them? IRENE Just over there. Thanks... Driver places the bags on the kitchen counter. IRENE Would you like something to drink? DRIVER I'm okay. IRENE A glass of water? DRIVER Sure... She pours him a glass of water and hands it to him. IRENE Excuse me a second... She walks out of the room, leaving Driver alone with Benicio. The little boy stares at him fixedly. 36a INT. BATHROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT - DAY. 36a Irene closes the bathroom door behind her, looking at herself in the mirror, feeling a little uncertain. 37 INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT - DAY. 37 Benicio's still staring at Driver. Feeling a little awkward, Driver takes a long piece of string from his pocket, tugs it gently, then holds up two pieces of string. (CONTINUED) 18 9/24/10 37 CONTINUED: 37 Benicio keeps staring at him, puzzled by the magic trick. Irene walks back into the room, smiling. IRENE You just move to LA? DRIVER No, I been here a while. IRENE And before that? DRIVER Here and there... IRENE (A gentle smile) Too many questions, huh?... Driver smiles back awkwardly, not sure how else to respond. Irene switches on the TV for Benicio, sitting him down on the couch. Driver has a sip of water, glancing around the room. He notices a few photographs on a side table. Most of them are of Benicio and Irene, but one of them shows the little boy standing next to a strikingly handsome Latino man. Irene turns around and sees him looking at the picture. IRENE That's Benicio's father. Driver takes in the significance of this, then looks back at her. DRIVER What's he do? IRENE He's in jail. DRIVER I'm sorry. IRENE (Changing the subject) What do you do? Driver hesitates. DRIVER I drive. (CONTINUED) 19 9/24/10 37 CONTINUED: (2) 37 IRENE Like a limo driver? DRIVER No, for the movies... IRENE (INCREDULOUSLY) You mean all those car chases and stuff? He nods, a little embarrassed. IRENE Isn't that dangerous? He seems thrown by her concern. DRIVER It's just part-time. Most days I work in a garage. IRENE Where? DRIVER Reseda Boulevard. IRENE You should tell Benicio you're a stunt guy. DRIVER He interested in that kind of stuff? IRENE Aren't all little boys? She smiles softly and he realizes she's teasing him. BENICIO O/S Mama, I don't like this... Irene takes the remote and changes the channel for him. Driver watches her quietly, then drains his glass of water. IRENE Would you like another glass? DRIVER I should get going... He catches the disappointment in her eyes, but she covers it with another good humored smile. (CONTINUED) 20 9/24/10 37 CONTINUED: (3) 37 IRENE Well, thank you for your help. DRIVER Thank you for the drink... She takes his empty glass and walks him to the door. 38 EXT/INT. STREET/ DRIVER'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 38 Passing traffic roars by on the busy street. Irene and Benicio are walking home from the bus stop, chatting happily. They look like they've just come back from the beach, Irene carrying a basket full of towels, Benicio clutching a dusty soccer ball. Driver watches them from the window of his apartment, blowing gently on a cup of coffee. 39 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD - NIGHT. 39 The reflection of passing neon rolls down the Camaro's windscreen. Driver's cruising down Hollywood Boulevard, shut off from the world outside, listening to `Purple Rain'. The HOOKERS and HIPSTERS have taken over the streets while up above airbrushed movie stars stare down from their lofty billboards. 40 EXT. PARKING LOT/ MINI MALL - MORNING. 40 It's early morning and Driver's been driving all night, unable to sleep. He heads across the parking lot towards a garishly lit mini-mall. Up ahead a small group of GANGBANGERS are hanging out with intent. They see him coming and look over intimidatingly. Driver's only reaction is to bunch his car keys in his hand, the longest key sliding between his second and third fingers like a weapon. The gangbangers don't see it but the unflinching look in his eyes unnerves them and they look away, letting him pass. 41 EXT/ INT. BUFFALO BAR AND GRILL/ LA - MORNING. 41 Jukebox music plays in the bar and grill. Driver sits on his own, working his way through a plate of bacon and eggs. BEARDED REDNECK OFFSCREEN Mind if I cut in?... Driver looks up and sees a burly REDNECK with an unkempt beard and a wrestler's physique. The redneck slides into the seat opposite him. BEARDED REDNECK You're Shannon's buddy, right? We met last year. You drove me and my brother back from Palm Springs... (CONTINUED) 21 9/24/10 41 CONTINUED: 41 Driver stares into the redneck's coked-up eyes, then looks back down at his food. BEARDED REDNECK Next run we hired another wheelman - I spent six months in jail, my brother got himself killed... (He grins through yellowing teeth) He wasn't much, mind you, just family... Driver doesn't seem to hear him. BEARDED REDNECK Thing is - DRIVER I'm not interested... Driver looks up quietly, fixing him with his icy gaze. The Redneck's smile slowly fades. He considers his response for a moment, then decides against it, standing up. BEARDED REDNECK Well, it's good to see you again... Driver carries on eating as if the man didn't exist. 42 EXT. FORECOURT/ SHANNON'S GARAGE - DAY. 42 The loud stutter of an unhealthy engine. Shannon sits in the second hand race car he bought in Montecito, revving the engine. SHANNON Sounds like a goddamn M-16... Driver smiles, popping the hood. As Shannon limps out of the vehicle he sees a battered Oldsmobile drive into the forecourt. He takes one look at the owner, then runs his hand through his white hair, breaking into a friendly smile. SHANNON Gorgeous day just got even nicer. How can I help you, ma'am? WOMAN'S VOICE O/S I've got a problem with my car. SHANNON O/S I can imagine. That thing must be older than I am... Driver turns around in surprise now, recognizing Irene's voice. (CONTINUED) 22 9/24/10 42 CONTINUED: 42 IRENE Hi... DRIVER Hi... A mischievous smile lights up Shannon's face as he watches them. SHANNON You boys and girls know each other? IRENE We're neighbors. SHANNON I see... Driver ignores the sly look in the old man's eyes. SHANNON So what seems to be the problem, ma'am? IRENE Either it doesn't start or it stalls. SHANNON Well, why don't we park her over there and take a look... Driver is still watching Irene quietly. IRENE I can come back later if you're busy... SHANNON He's busy, I'm not... Shannon gives Driver another sly look as he takes her car keys. 43 EXT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 43 The Oldsmobile's engine looks like it hasn't been serviced in years. Shannon is bent over the hood. SHANNON ...Just my opinion, but I think you should consider buying a new car... IRENE (With gentle irony) That would be great... She glances round and sees Benicio standing in the forecourt with Driver, watching him work on his own car now. (CONTINUED) 23 9/24/10 43 CONTINUED: 43 Driver's so busy tuning the engine he hardly notices the boy. His lack of interest finally gets a rise out of Benicio. BENICIO That thing doesn't work. DRIVER (Without looking round) You think? Benicio watches him sullenly, more intrigued than he lets on. BENICIO Drive it. DRIVER Okay. Get in the car... Benicio considers a moment, then turns and calls out to Irene. BENICIO Mama, can I go in the car?! Irene looks over in surprise, not sure what to say. 44 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 44 Driver and Benicio sit in the Chevelle, driving in silence. DRIVER Your mom said you like movies? BENICIO Sometimes. DRIVER Ever see the Terminator? BENICIO No. DRIVER Grease? Benicio shakes his head. DRIVER Wanna see where it was shot? 45 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 45 Shannon's got his tool kit out, examining the Olds. Irene looks at the forecourt but there's no sign of Driver and her son. (CONTINUED) 24 9/24/10 45 CONTINUED: 45 IRENE How long has he been working for you? SHANNON Don't worry, ma'am, your son'll be fine. IRENE I didn't mean it like that... Shannon smiles to himself, sensing her interest in Driver. SHANNON We been together about five years now. He showed up out of the blue one day, no references or nothin', asking me for a job. I offered him half the wages I normally pay and he didn't even blink. Been exploiting him ever since... (HE GRINS) Only thing he knows is cars... 46 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ LA RIVER - DAY. 46 The car roars along the drainage canals. In the passenger seat Benicio looks tense but exhilarated. The car glides past a landscape of abandoned shopping carts, garbage bags, and shredded tires, picking up speed all the time. 47 EXT. LA RIVER - DAY. 47 Driver's parked the car now in an area of the drainage canal which looks like an oasis. He leans against the vehicle, soft rock playing on his radio as he watches Benicio climb a tree. 48 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ SILVERLAKE - NIGHT. 48 Benicio is asleep in the back of Driver's car now. Driver's giving him and Irene a ride back to their apartment. Irene looks at Driver, waiting for him to say something, but he keeps his eyes fixed on the road. 49 INT. BENICIO'S BEDROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT.49 Cradling the sleeping Benicio in his arms Driver lays him down on his bed. Irene takes off her son's clothes and puts on his pyjamas, careful not to wake him. Driver slips out of the room, uncomfortable with the intimate moment between mother and son. 50 INT. LIVING ROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 50 Irene walks out of the bedroom, smiling at Driver gratefully. IRENE Thank you for today. He had a great time... (CONTINUED) 25 9/24/10 50 CONTINUED: 50 DRIVER I'm glad... He stares back at her in the silence, both of them looking a little uncertain. IRENE I'm sorry if I put you on the spot, you know, just showing up like that... DRIVER Don't worry... Their eyes stay on each other, the attraction palpable. Driver finally breaks the tension, making a tentative move towards the door. Irene opens it for him, looking up into his eyes. Driver knows he could kiss her, wants to, but something inside holds him back. Instead he just offers his help. DRIVER You need a ride anywhere over the weekend I'm not doing much... 50a INT. DENTISTS/ NORTH HOLLYWOOD - DAY. 50a Benicio sits in a dentist's chair, looking nervous. Irene sits beside him, mimicking his expression, trying to make him relax. 51 EXT. DENTISTS/ NORTH HOLLYWOOD - DAY. 51 Irene emerges with Benicio from the dentists. The little boy is clutching his mouth, making a show of being in pain. Irene teases him gently as they walk. Driver waits for them in his car, watching them quietly. 52 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ ECHO PARK - SUNSET. 52 Soft rock plays on the car radio. Irene sits in the passenger seat with a smile. Driver looks at her curiously as he drives, no idea why she's grinning. Benicio suddenly leans forward and changes the radio to a different station -- hard rock blaring out. Driver lets it go for a moment, then changes it back. Benicio responds, until it becomes a game, Irene laughing now. 53 EXT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 53 The roar of machinery. We see quick shots of Driver's day in the garage -- fixing cars, taking out some fruit he's left to ripen in his tool box for lunch, working on more engines and frames. At the end of the day Driver and Shannon examine the stock car. SHANNON ...I still can't believe I bought this piece of shit... (CONTINUED) 26 9/24/10 53 CONTINUED: 53 He grins, looking at Driver. SHANNON I thought maybe we'd take her for a run Thursday or Friday. DRIVER I can't make Friday. SHANNON Yeah? Why's that? DRIVER I told Irene I'd drive her to Burbank. SHANNON Irene, huh? (TEASING HIM) You're seeing quite a lot of the young lady. DRIVER You're taking a long time to fix her car... 54 INT. LIVING ROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 54 On the TV, a Japanese cartoon is playing, a masked hero confronting the villains, the screen flickering from color to black and white. Driver and Benicio sit on the couch, watching the cartoon. From their relaxed body language it's clear some time has passed and they know each other a little better. DRIVER What's happening now? BENICIO He's telling him if he doesn't leave the earth alone he'll fight him. Irene calls out from her bedroom. IRENE O/S I'm almost ready... Driver looks back at the screen. Werewolves appear now, surrounding the hero. DRIVER Looks like he's in trouble. BENICIO He's okay. Just as the fight begins the color on the TV screen flickers. (CONTINUED) 27 9/24/10 54 CONTINUED: 54 DRIVER I'm gonna show you another trick... Benicio watches curiously as Driver gets off the couch and kneels beside the TV. DRIVER This is pretty complicated. You watching? Benicio nods. Driver suddenly gives the TV set a hard smack and the interference stops. DRIVER Think you can remember that?... Benicio grins. Driver smiles back then looks away as he hears the phone ring. Irene walks out of her bedroom, dressed in her waitress's uniform, and answers it. IRENE Hello?...Yes?...Yes, this is she... Driver sees the look of surprise on Irene's face as she listens to the voice on the other end. The doorbell suddenly rings. Irene catches Driver's eye and asks him to open it. He heads over, checks the spy-hole, then opens the door. A YOUNG WOMAN who's sitting for Benicio walks in, looking at Driver curiously. YOUNG WOMAN (IRENE'S FRIEND) Hi... DRIVER Hello... BENICIO Hi Cindy... Irene's friend heads past Driver and scolds Benicio affectionately. IRENE'S FRIEND It's 8:30. Teeth. Pyjamas. TV off. BENICIO It's not the TV. It's a DVD... Driver looks back at Irene now. She puts down the phone, forcing a smile but still looking distracted. 55 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 55 Irene sits next to Driver in the passenger seat, staring out of the window at the glittering fountain in Echo Park. (CONTINUED) 28 9/24/10 55 CONTINUED: 55 IRENE I've never come this way before... DRIVER It's a short cut... IRENE The park looks pretty at night... She looks at Driver, watching him quietly, then looks away again. DRIVER You okay?... Irene takes a long time to answer, still staring out of the window. IRENE That was my husband's lawyer on the phone. He's getting an early release... She tries to sound casual. Driver takes the news quietly, even though it hits him like a sledgehammer. DRIVER That's great... IRENE I'm happy for Benicio... Driver knows she's trying to explain herself but doesn't say anything, driving in silence. Up ahead the traffic lights turn red and the car slows to a stop. Inside, the silence is unbearable. Irene pauses, then looks at Driver. He's even more handsome in the shadowy half-light, something achingly lonely and melancholy about his stillness. She hesitates, then moves her hand towards his, brushing the back of his hand, then slipping her fingers between his. The gesture is tiny but charged with emotion. They both stare out in silence, fingers clasped, then Irene gently withdraws her hand, as if nothing's happened. Outside the lights change to green. 56 INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - SUNSET. 56 The sound of laughter. A sign over the door says, Welcome home Dad. Inside the apartment there's a small party going on. (CONTINUED) 29 9/24/10 56 CONTINUED: 56 Irene's husband, STANDARD, has been released from jail and his FRIENDS and FAMILY are here to celebrate. Holding Benicio in his arms he makes a thank you speech to his guests. STANDARD ...I'm touched and grateful that you're all here today -- even though I know it's probably for the food not me... His self-deprecating humor gets a chorus of laughter and agreement from the guests. Irene is standing next to her friend Cindy, looking a little uncomfortable. STANDARD ...Anyhow, now that I've completed my MBA in catering from Chino Business School... (MORE LAUGHTER) Irene, Benicio and I are finally going to get our lives back together... He raises his glass to her. STANDARD I'd like to thank my wife for being the smartest, most beautiful, most patient and loyal woman I know... More applause. Irene stares back at Standard's handsome face, feeling even more uncomfortable. 57 INT. DRIVER'S BEDROOM/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - SUNSET. 57 Driver lies on his bed, gazing up at the ceiling, listening to the sound of the party echoing down the corridor. 58 INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 58 It's nighttime and the party's getting louder. Standard's on the phone to someone, trying to hear them over the music. STANDARD I'm sorry, I can't hear you... He heads into the bedroom to take the call. The voice on the other end is accented and unfriendly. MAN'S VOICE ON THE PHONE Can you hear me now, you cunt? Standard pauses, looking concerned. STANDARD Sure. (CONTINUED) 30 9/24/10 58 CONTINUED: 58 MAN'S VOICE ON THE PHONE You're gonna come see me tomorrow, you understand?... Across the crowded room, Irene is looking for Standard. She sees him in the bedroom, switching off his phone, and heads over. IRENE Benicio wants you to put him to bed. STANDARD Okay. He gives her a warm smile. IRENE Who was that on the phone? STANDARD My parole officer. He thinks he may have found me a job. 59 INT. DRIVER'S BEDROOM/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 59 The noise of the party is finally too much for Driver. He gets off the bed and slips on his jacket. 60 INT. APARTMENT/ CORRIDOR/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 60 Irene is finding the party overwhelming too. She heads out into the corridor to have a cigarette when she sees Driver across the hallway, locking the door to his own apartment. She hesitates, then calls out. IRENE Hey... He turns around and sees her standing there with a smile. IRENE I'm sorry about the noise. I was going to leave a note under your door warning you we were having a party. DRIVER Don't worry. I won't complain. IRENE I wish you would. Maybe the cops'd show up and send everybody home. Their eyes stay on each other, the music pounding in the background. (CONTINUED) 31 9/24/10 60 CONTINUED: 60 IRENE The car works great by the way. Hasn't stalled once. DRIVER I'm glad. Another awkward silence, so much she wants to say but can't. IRENE Listen, if you're hungry we got plenty of FOOD - Suddenly she turns around as she hears her apartment door open. Standard stands there with Benicio, holding a bag of trash. He pauses, then smiles. STANDARD I thought if we emptied the trash everyone would get the message and go home... He grins at his wife, then looks over at Driver, his smile hiding whatever he feels inside. STANDARD You're the new neighbor, right? Benicio's told me all about you... Driver seems unsure how to respond. DRIVER He's a great kid. STANDARD I can't take any of the credit. He's got a great mother. Standard rests his hand gently on Benicio's head, still staring at Driver. STANDARD He tells me you drive for the movies? DRIVER Yeah. STANDARD Must be pretty good? DRIVER I get by. STANDARD Not like a nine to five gig, huh?... (CONTINUED) 32 9/24/10 60 CONTINUED: (2) 60 He's still smiling but there's a slight edge to his voice. Irene looks uncomfortable. IRENE You want me to take that? STANDARD No, we got it. His eyes are still fixed on Driver. STANDARD You want to come in, join us for a drink? DRIVER I've got some things to do. STANDARD At this hour of night? IRENE Standard, he's busy... Standard doesn't respond, still holding Driver's gaze. STANDARD Well, if we're still going by the time you're back you know where we are. It's good to meet you... He slips his arm around his son now and continues down the corridor, brushing past Driver on his way to empty the trash. Driver looks at Irene, then heads off in the same direction as Standard and Benicio to take the elevator. The two men stand there in charged silence, one emptying the trash, the other waiting for the elevator, only Benicio oblivious to the tension. 61 EXT/ INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ LA - NIGHT. 61 Brooding movie stars look down from the billboards. Driver is in his car now, soft rock playing on the radio. 62 INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 62 Standard is helping his son get ready for school, interacting with him affectionately. Irene watches them from the doorway, looking thoughtful. 63 EXT/ INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ LA - DAY. 63 Anonymous streets roll by, Driver's eyes fixed on the road. 33 9/24/10 64 INT. CHUCK E. CHEESE RESTAURANT/ LA - NIGHT. 64 Standard, Irene and Benicio are having dinner at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. We still sense the distance between Standard and Irene, but Benicio seems completely unaware of it, talking excitedly as he eats his pizza. Standard reaches out and takes Irene's hand gently as he listens to his son. 65 OMITTED 65 66 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVER LAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 66 A noise of hammering and drills. The corporate signage has been scraped off the race car and the seats ripped out. Bernie Rose has bought his partner Nino to the garage to take a look at his investment. NINO ...We paid three hundred fucking grand for this? BERNIE ROSE I paid for it. Out of my own pocket. Anyway, that's just the shell. You start with the shell, then you build the frame, then the motor. (Pointing to an engine nearby) I paid three hundred for that. The money goes on the inside not the outside. NINO Fuck that. If I'm gonna blow three hundred I wanna make sure everyone can see it. Go waste your money on something else... Shannon smiles nervously, worried Nino's going to sabotage his deal with Bernie. NINO (Pointing to a Thunderbird) ...How about that fucking pussy mobile over there. BERNIE ROSE You buy it. Shannon sell him the car... At the far end of the garage Driver hears them laughing, too busy working on his car to pay any attention. Shannon opens the door of the Thunderbird and invites Nino to take a seat. SHANNON Try her out. She's more comfortable than a water bed. (CONTINUED) 34 9/24/10 66 CONTINUED: 66 NINO I already got a fucking water bed. He sits heavily in the car and starts prodding and pressing all the control buttons as if he wants to break them. NINO What does this fucking thing do? SHANNON Windshield wipers. NINO How about this little clit? I don't know whether to fuck it or drive it. Fuck it, I'll drive it... Bernie Rose shakes his head at his partner's foul language then looks away, observing Driver quietly. Driver applies a blow torch to his car, so absorbed in his work he doesn't hear Bernie Rose approach. BERNIE ROSE O/S How you doing?... Driver hears him and turns off the blow torch, standing up respectfully. Bernie Rose gives him a friendly smile. BERNIE ROSE So, when's our first race? DRIVER Soon. BERNIE ROSE You gonna be ready? There's something gently challenging in his gaze. DRIVER I hope so... BERNIE ROSE Cautious man. Like myself. Don't wanna make promises you can't keep... Driver smiles but doesn't respond. Bernie Rose finds him as hard to talk to as everyone else. Across the garage, Nino sits in the T-Bird with Shannon, still fucking with him. Bernie watches them. BERNIE ROSE He ever tell you how we met? (CONTINUED) 35 9/24/10 66 CONTINUED: (2) 66 Driver shakes his head. BERNIE ROSE I did some producing back in the 80's. Interesting pictures. Kind of European. Shannon arranged the cars for us and did all the stunts. I knew he was overcharging me but I loved having him around. His next business venture he tried the same thing with some of Nino's friends they broke his spine. He never had much luck... He's about to continue when they're interrupted by a familiar voice. STANDARD O/S Hey!... Driver turns around and sees Irene's husband, Standard, heading towards him with a confident smile. STANDARD You got a minute? I want to - BERNIE ROSE We're talking... Bernie Rose barely raises his voice but it's full of quiet menace and authority. Standard pauses, stung, but instinctively senses this is someone you don't mess with. STANDARD I'll wait outside... Bernie Rose watches him leave with a look of contempt, then turns back to Driver with a smile, resuming their conversation. BERNIE ROSE The reason I'm telling you this is because he's got a lot invested in you. So do I... Their eyes stay on each other with just a hint of tension. BERNIE ROSE Anything you need just let me know... Driver nods. Bernie Rose studies him a moment, then finally walks away. 67 EXT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVER LAKE BOULEVARD - DAY. 67 Driver joins Standard in the forecourt of the garage, the midday sun blazing down on them. (CONTINUED) 36 9/24/10 67 CONTINUED: 67 STANDARD Irene told me you'd fixed our car. How much do I owe you? DRIVER Don't worry about it. STANDARD I do worry. I like to pay my debts. Driver senses the quiet pride in his voice, and lets it go. DRIVER Call it fifty. Standard counts out some bills from his tattered wallet, his eyes lowered. STANDARD I was thinking of trading her in for a new car. Something fast and cheap. DRIVER You can't have both. STANDARD Alright then, fast. Even though he smiles Driver senses just a hint of tension on his handsome face. DRIVER (Pointing to a car) Something like that Buick over there'll cost you nine grand but there isn't much point in a city where you can't drive faster than sixty five. Standard considers the car a moment, something clearly bothering him, then looks back at Driver. STANDARD You must think I'm an asshole? Driver isn't sure what he's getting at. DRIVER I wouldn't know. STANDARD Well, I am. Six months inside for holding somebody else's stolen shit... He smiles ironically, his gaze still fixed on Driver. (CONTINUED) 37 9/24/10 67 CONTINUED: (2) 67 STANDARD I appreciate what you did for my family when I was away but I don't plan to fuck up a second time... It's a thinly veiled message that he's back and here to stay. Driver stares back at him when Shannon emerges from the garage with Bernie Rose and Nino, calling out. SHANNON Hey, kid! Come say goodbye, the money people are leaving!... Driver and Standard stare at each other a moment longer then Driver breaks off. DRIVER Excuse me. STANDARD See you around... Driver walks off, leaving Standard alone with his thoughts. Shannon watches Standard curiously as Driver approaches. SHANNON Who was that? DRIVER Irene's husband. SHANNON (GRINNING) What did I tell you about married women? Nino can't resist another dig at Shannon. NINO What the fuck do you know about married women? BERNIE ROSE Can you for once say something without the word fuck in it? As they continue their banter, Driver glances at Standard. He's walking back to his car, dialling someone on his cell phone. 68 INT/EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ MEXICAN RESTAURANT/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT. 68 Passing traffic blurs past. Through the windows of a Mexican restaurant we see Irene at work, serving tables in her waitress's uniform. (CONTINUED) 38 9/24/10 68 CONTINUED: 68 Driver's parked across the street, watching her from his car. He hesitates, conflicted, then finally gets out of the car. 69 INT. MEXICAN RESTAURANT/ BROADWAY/ DOWNTOWN L.A. - NIGHT. 69 Irene walks out of the kitchen with a tray of food, then stops as she sees Driver sitting at a booth. She looks surprised to see him, but pleased, serving her table first then heading over. IRENE Hi... DRIVER Hi... Their eyes stay on each other, oblivious to the noise. IRENE We haven't seen you around in a while. You must have been pretty busy?... DRIVER You look pretty busy yourself... She smiles, glancing at the tables she's supposed to serve. IRENE What can I get you? DRIVER I already ate. I just wanted to see how you were? His concern touches her and makes her uncomfortable at the same time. IRENE We're okay. Standard thinks he may have found a job so I can give up my night shift... Driver stares back at her with his intense gaze. IRENE Benicio misses you... From the way she says it she could almost be talking about herself. IRENE He keeps asking me to invite you for dinner... (CONTINUED) 39 9/24/10 69 CONTINUED: 69 DRIVER I'd like that... His gentle gaze is finally too much for her. She grins, excusing herself. IRENE I better serve some food... It's only when she has her back turned that we see how hard this is for her. Driver watches her walk away, lost in thought. 70 INT. KITCHEN/ MEXICAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT. 70 Irene piles some plates of tacos on her tray, bracing herself to go back out and face Driver -- but when she finally walks out again he's no longer there. 71 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ APARTMENT BLOCK/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 71 Driver leans out of his car window and inserts a key to open the gates of the underground car park. 72 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ UNDERGROUND CAR PARK - NIGHT. 72 As Driver descends into the darkness of the car park, he sees a group of SHADOWY FIGURES walking in the opposite direction, heading up the ramp, one of them being pushed in a wheelchair. Their leader, a large, balding man, (COOK), glances in Driver's direction then looks away. Driver cruises past the mysterious group and winds his way further down the car park. Suddenly he notices something else in the shadows. A figure lies sprawled against one of the pillars. A smaller figure kneels a few feet away. Driver stops his car now, climbing out to see what's happened. The prone figure groans in pain. As Driver approaches he realizes it's Standard. His face is covered in blood and he clutches his ribs. The smaller figure is Benicio. He stares at his father helplessly, then looks up at Driver in tears. Driver kneels beside Standard, checking nothing's broken. DRIVER Can you move? STANDARD Where's Benicio? DRIVER He's right here... Driver glances at Benicio. He looks terrified. Standard raises his head painfully and looks at his son. (CONTINUED) 40 9/24/10 72 CONTINUED: 72 STANDARD It's okay, Benicio. I'm okay... Driver watches the boy struggling to hold back his tears. STANDARD (GENTLY) Don't say anything to your mother, you understand? This is between you and me. Benicio nods, too choked-up to speak. Standard turns to Driver. STANDARD Can I use your bathroom to clean up? I don't want Irene to come home and see me like this... 73 INT. BATHROOM/ DRIVER'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 73 Standard is bent over the sink, splashing water on his face. As he turns off the tap he notices how neatly Driver's laid out his toothbrush, shaving cream, and razor. He finally turns around and looks at Driver. STANDARD Thanks. Sorry about getting all this blood everywhere... He's still shaken but tries to pass it off with a smile. STANDARD Fucking punks took me by surprise... Driver watches him, unconvinced. DRIVER Fucking punks didn't look like they needed to... Standard looks at him in surprise now. STANDARD You saw them, huh?... Driver doesn't answer, waiting for him to continue. Standard hesitates, still not sure whether to trust him. STANDARD You ever been inside? DRIVER Why? (CONTINUED) 41 9/24/10 73 CONTINUED: 73 Standard takes another glance at the items laid out neatly by the sink. STANDARD I owed some protection money in the joint. Driver begins to see how worried he is. DRIVER How much? STANDARD They want twenty thousand. I told them I couldn't pay so they want me to do a job for them... DRIVER Is that why you need a car? Standard stares back at him. STANDARD What did you say you were inside for? DRIVER I didn't. A beat, then he finally opens up. STANDARD It's a pawn shop in the valley. I tried to back out tonight, they said they'd come after Irene and Benicio next time... Driver stares at him in surprise now, more concerned than he shows. DRIVER Why don't you take them away? STANDARD Where would I go? Irene finds out I fucked up again I'll lose everything... He sounds upset, angry with himself. STANDARD This lousy job's my only way out... Driver stares at his battered face and the blood stains on his t- shirt, then walks out of the bathroom to check on Benicio. 42 9/24/10 74 INT. LIVING ROOM/ DRIVER'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 74 Benicio is watching a baseball game on TV, his back to Driver. DRIVER You okay? The little boy nods without turning round, still frightened by his ordeal. DRIVER You want something to drink? Benicio shakes his head, trying to hide his tears. Driver heads over, then stops as he notices something in Benicio's hand. The little boy is clutching it as if he's afraid to let go. DRIVER What have you got there?... Benicio holds out his hand to reveal a small bullet. Driver stares at it, then looks at him. DRIVER Who gave you that?... BENICIO One of those men. He told me not to lose it... Driver gazes at the little boy's frightened face in concern now, his eyes faraway, thinking to himself. 75 OMITTED 75 76 EXT. OUTDOOR TACO SHACK/ EAST LA - DAY. 76 An outdoor food shack in a park. COOK, the leader of the group of men who beat Standard up in the parking lot, sits at a table with his girlfriend, BLANCHE, a stunning blonde with short cropped hair. COOK I've got you to do this fucking job for me, why do I need to pay someone else? Standard sits next to Driver, holding his ground even though he's clearly intimidated by the Albanian. STANDARD I'll pay him out of what's left of my share. I can't do something like this on my own. (CONTINUED) 43 9/24/10 76 CONTINUED: 76 COOK You got Blanche... He grins, looking at Driver now. Blanche doesn't even seem to hear them, hung-over from the previous night. COOK You look like you're hard to work with? DRIVER Not if we understand each other. COOK What's to understand? It's my score. Either you sign on or you don't. Driver stares at him quietly, finding it hard to conceal his contempt. DRIVER I drive. That's all I do. Blanche gets up from the table before Cook can respond. COOK Where are you going? BLANCHE They've forgotten my Coke. COOK They'll bring it. Sit down. (His eyes still fixed on Driver) Standard, why don't you hire a fucking taxi cab? STANDARD He didn't mean it like that, man... Standard looks worried, trying to diffuse the tension. COOK So, what does he mean? Driver looks him calmly in the eye. DRIVER You tell me where we start, where we're headed, where we'll be going afterwards. I don't take part, I don't carry weapons, I drive... Standard seems surprised by Driver's professional patter. So does Cook. Even Blanche looks interested for once. (CONTINUED) 44 9/24/10 76 CONTINUED: (2) 76 COOK Standard, get Blanche her coca cola. Standard hesitates, but has no choice. As he leaves to fetch Blanche her drink, Cook starts to write something down on the palm of his hand. COOK Okay, here's the deal. This much for Blanche, this much for that asshole minus what he owes me, and this much for you... He holds up the palm of his hand to Driver, the words Fuck Off written in marker pen. COOK You still interested? Driver looks at him, all his instincts telling him to walk away, but he stays where he is, thinking of Irene and Benicio. COOK Good. Anything else?... Driver stares back at him with his clear blue eyes. DRIVER We do this job he's paid his debt. You leave him and his family alone... Cook looks surprised at first, then laughs at his nerve. COOK Whatever you say, boss... 77 EXT. PARKING LOT/ EAST LA - DAY. 77 The midday sun beats down on a maze of cars. Driver strolls past rows of glittering vehicles until he spots an old model Mustang. 78 INT. LIVING ROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 78 Driver sits at the dinner table with Standard, Irene and Benicio now. Standard's in high spirits, beaming at his wife. STANDARD ...I was such a jerk the first time we met. We're at this party and I see the most beautiful girl I ever laid eyes on and I walk over and say, `Hello Miss, my name's Standard Guzman'. She takes one look at me and asks, `Where's the deluxe version?'... (HE LAUGHS) It took me like a minute to get it... (CONTINUED) 45 9/24/10 78 CONTINUED: 78 Irene smiles awkwardly, glancing at Driver. Benicio grins, eager to please his dad. STANDARD You don't get it either do you, Benicio? Hope you didn't inherit your Papa's brains. He ruffles his son's hair then pours himself another shot of tequila. Irene notices he's drinking, turning to Driver. IRENE Would you like some more chicken? DRIVER Thanks... Their eyes stay on each as she serves him. Standard sees the look between them but his only reaction is to drain his glass and tuck into his food. STANDARD Now this is what I call a deluxe chicken. Irene and I are gonna open a restaurant together once I raise the money. That's why she's working in that Mexican joint. Figure out how it's done. She's got more ambition than anyone I know, more smarts too... (He raises his glass) We're gonna drive all those fucking Mexicans out of business - IRENE STANDARD - STANDARD Excuse my language, Benicio... IRENE (Changing the subject) How's the movie going?... DRIVER Fine... Irene looks at Standard as he pours himself another drink. IRENE Don't you think that's enough? STANDARD Come on, we're celebrating. I've got my family around me and our new friend... (CONTINUED) 46 9/24/10 78 CONTINUED: (2) 78 He raises his glass to Driver now. Driver senses how nervous he is about the job ahead, and how uncomfortable he is depending on someone his wife clearly admires. IRENE Are you working on anything else? STANDARD Stop asking the poor guy all these QUESTIONS - IRENE (LOSING PATIENCE) Then why don't you go ahead and talk for all of us. STANDARD All right, I will. This time next week I'm gonna take you and Benicio away with me... Irene stops and looks at him in surprise. STANDARD Where you wanna go, Benicio?... His quiet confidence concerns her even more. BENICIO Disneyland. STANDARD Forget Disneyland. I'm gonna take you and your mother away from this bullshit city - IRENE Benicio, it's time for bed - STANDARD Your papa's got it all figured out - IRENE Benicio, you heard me - STANDARD It's okay. I'll take him... Standard gets up from the table, lifting Benicio up in his arms and carrying him back to his bedroom. Driver watches them. Even in this kind of mood Standard's clearly devoted to his son. Irene waits until they're gone, then turns back to Driver. IRENE I'm sorry. (CONTINUED) 47 9/24/10 78 CONTINUED: (3) 78 DRIVER Don't worry... She hesitates, torn, then looks up at him again, needing to confide in someone. IRENE Every time he makes that speech about taking me and Benicio away from here he's in some kind of trouble... Driver sees the deep concern in her eyes and feels even more torn. Irene gets up, clearing away some plates. 79 INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 79 Driver strides through the parking lot and climbs in his car. 80 INT. CAR/ UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 80 Driver sits in the car as if it's his retreat from the world. He stares out, then turns on a stop watch, listening to it tick, finding his balance again in the familiarity of the ritual. 81 EXT. PAWN SHOP/ TARAZANA/ LA - DAY. 81 The pawn shop is nothing much to look at from the outside, another anonymous LA store front. Driver's parked the car a hundred yards from the entrance, his police scanner crackling. Standard sits beside him in the passenger seat, looking tense. DRIVER You don't have to do this. STANDARD (Forcing a smile) What are you talking about? He tries to make light of it but doesn't sound convincing. Out of his window he sees Blanche cross the street and enter the pawn shop and looks even more nervous now. STANDARD Irene and Benicio think the world of you, you know that, right?... Driver glances at him, sensing his anxiety. STANDARD Say something happens to me, you think you could find a way to take care of them?... Standard's still staring ahead, but Driver can sense his fear. (CONTINUED) 48 9/24/10 81 CONTINUED: 81 DRIVER It's not too late... Standard considers a moment, then shakes his head. STANDARD I gotta do this for them... He forces a smile, slips on his sunglasses, then finally opens the door. DRIVER You got five minutes... STANDARD (GRINNING) I'll see you in four... Driver watches him cross the street with a strong sense of foreboding. Standard enters the pawn shop. Driver starts his stopwatch now, listening to the seconds tick away. He casts his eyes around the street, observing the smallest details -- the number plates of other vehicles; the windows of overlooking buildings. The white hot sun blazes down, reflecting on the pawn shop windows, hiding everything inside. The police scanner crackles but picks up no activity. Driver listens to his stop watch, in his own world. He starts the engine and sets off, cruising slowly past the pawn shop, heading for the corner where he told Standard he'd be waiting. He pulls over by the curb when suddenly he notices something. Parked a hundred yards down the road he sees another vehicle glinting in the sunlight. To the ordinary eye it's no different from the other cars parked nearby, but to Driver it stands out. For one, it's a Chrysler. Secondly, it has reinforced bumpers and racing tires. Driver's stopwatch shows four minutes now. He looks away from the Chrysler, gazing at the doors of the pawn shop, expecting Standard and Blanche to burst out at any moment. But there's no sign of them. The seconds tick away. Five minutes. Driver hesitates, all his instincts telling him to drive off, but he stays where he is, thinking of Irene. Suddenly he sees Standard and Blanche emerge from the pawn shop, Standard clutching a big black gym bag in his hand. (CONTINUED) 49 9/24/10 81 CONTINUED: (2) 81 He smiles at Driver as he approaches when suddenly he hears the crack of gunshots behind him. Driver sees the look of panic on his face as he spins around. A GUY IN A SUIT strides out of the pawn shop. Crouching low in an expert firing position he squeezes off several shots. The force of the bullets sends Standard flying. Driver sees him hit the sidewalk, arterial blood pumping from his neck. Blanche screams, grabbing the gym bag and leaping into the back seat of the car. Driver hesitates, takes one last look at Standard's lifeless body, then hits the gas as more gunshots crack behind him. As Driver's car roars down the street, the Chrysler suddenly comes to life, pulling out of its parking place. 82 INT/ EXT. CAR/ STREET/ TARZANA/ LA - DAY. 82 Driver glances in his rear-view mirror and sees the Chrysler on his tail. It doesn't seem to be trying to close the gap, just following at a discreet distance. In the back seat, Blanche zips open the gym bag, then stares in shock. BLANCHE ...Christ, there wasn't supposed to be this much money!... There are literally stacks of hundred dollar bills crammed inside the gym bag. Driver catches her reaction in the mirror, but his attention is focussed on the Chrysler. Up ahead, at an intersection, the lights turn red. Driver thinks about running them, but decides against it, braking sharply. The Chrysler draws up beside him, its windows glinting in the sunlight. BLANCHE Move for Chrissakes!... Driver ignores her, still watching the Chrysler out of the corner of his eye. The lights change to green but Driver doesn't move. Nor does the Chrysler. Behind them, other cars start honking their horns. Suddenly Driver roars off, swerving left at speed. The Chrysler reacts, screeching off in pursuit. Driver floors the gas. On speed and power his vehicle may be no match for the Chrysler, but in traffic the odds are even. He weaves his way past the slower cars, putting obstacles between himself and the Chrysler. The pursuing car matches him move for move, staying on his tail. In the back seat, Blanche looks terrified, buckling herself in. (CONTINUED) 49A 9/24/10 82 CONTINUED: 82 Driver swerves left then suddenly makes a hard right onto a deserted canyon road. The mustang somehow manages to make the same turn. It gets close enough to "pit" Driver, its nose pressing against the rear corner of Driver's vehicle. Driver's almost run off the road, but manages to save it and regains control of his car. The Mustang pulls out wide to build momentum and smash into him. As it moves in to deliver the knockout blow, Driver pulls the Emergency Brake and spins 180 degrees, causing the Mustang to miss and lose control for a brief moment. Now the two cars are nose to nose, barrelling down the road, Driver heading in reverse as fast as he can, the Mustang closing fast. It rams Driver's front bumper. BAM! The two cars separated for an instant. The Mustang guns it, ready to smash into Driver again... Driver clocks an upcoming three way intersection dotted with construction equipment. In a last ditch attempt to evade his pursuer he throws a reverse 180, then incredibly keeps going, spinning 270 degrees. The Mustang tries to make the same turn, but this time the maneuver is beyond his ability. Driver's suckered him into a corner he can't control. The Mustang crashes into the construction equipment in a sickening crunch of metal on metal. Driver guns the motor and speeds away. 50 9/24/10 83 EXT. MOTEL/ LA - DAY. 83 Purple neon spills onto the forecourt of a seedy motel. 84 INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY. 84 The black gym bag lies open on a double bed, full to the brim with stacks of cash. Blanche sits on the bed, looking pale. DRIVER How much did Cook tell you you could expect to net? BLANCHE Forty Grand... She glances at the bag, staring at how much more money there is. Driver switches on the cheap TV set with the remote, flicking through the news channels. There's no mention of the robbery yet. He zips up the bag and heads out. DRIVER Stay here. Don't answer the door... Blanche nods, too shaken to protest. 85 EXT. MOTEL/ LA - DAY. 85 Driver hesitates, then dials a number on his cell-phone. Benicio answers. BENICIO'S VOICE ON THE PHONE Hello?... Driver hears the tremor in his voice. DRIVER Benicio?... BENICIO'S VOICE ON THE PHONE Yeah?... DRIVER Is your mom there?... (CONTINUED) 51 9/24/10 85 CONTINUED: 85 There's an uncomfortable silence. Driver can feel the little boy trying to hold it together. BENICIO'S VOICE ON THE PHONE She's talking to the police... 85a INT. IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - DAY. 85a In the living room we can see Irene sitting on the couch with a male and female POLICE OFFICER, looking dazed, taking in the news of Standard's death. INTERCUT Driver pauses, still on the phone to Benicio. DRIVER Tell her I'll call later... 86 INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY. 86 A soap opera plays on the TV. Driver walks back into the motel room. Blanche lies on the bed, looking more relaxed. Driver picks up the remote and flicks through the channels until he finally finds a breaking news story on the robbery. There is a police mug-shot of Standard on screen. TV REPORT ...The armed robber was pronounced dead at the scene. He was identified as Standard Guzman of Echo Park, Los Angeles... Driver listens to the report in silence. Blanche seems upset again, confronted with the reality of what's happened. TV REPORT ...Other details are unclear but the owner of the pawn shop told reporters that the robber had no accomplices and that the items he'd taken had been recovered. In other news... Driver switches off the TV, staring at the blank screen in surprise. He turns to Blanche. DRIVER The guy saw you grab the money and jump in the car -- why didn't he say anything? BLANCHE I've no idea. DRIVER Any idea there'd be another car waiting? (CONTINUED) 52 9/24/10 86 CONTINUED: 86 This time she takes a fraction too long to answer. BLANCHE I already told you everything - Driver suddenly slaps her -- hard. DRIVER You just got a little kid's father killed. You think I won't hurt you? He raises his hand to slap her again and this time she talks, tears welling in her eyes. BLANCHE ...Cook told me another car would hold us up...but he never said anything about this much money or anyone getting killed... Driver stares at her quietly, beginning to put the pieces together in his head. DRIVER You were gonna rip us off and split the take? She nods guiltily. DRIVER How long have you known him? BLANCHE Just a couple months. We were fooling around. I've never been mixed up in anything like this - DRIVER You know his real name? BLANCHE He told me it was Chris, but I just called him Cook. DRIVER You're going to take me to him right now, you understand? She nods, terrified, tears running down her face. BLANCHE ....Can I go wash up?... Driver nods distractedly, his mind racing. Blanche heads over to the bathroom. (CONTINUED) 53 9/24/10 86 CONTINUED: (2) 86 As she disappears inside Driver notices something on the bed where she's just been lying. It's her cell phone. Still flipped open as if she's called someone recently. Driver reaches for the cell phone when he notices the silhouette of a MAN crossing the curtains. Someone's outside. The door handle of the motel room starts to turn, slowly -- then suddenly there's the roar of a shotgun from the bathroom. Driver reacts in an instant, rushing towards the bathroom door. He has to barge it open, something obstructing his way. 87 INT. BATHROOM/ MOTEL ROOM - DAY. 87 Driver almost trips over Blanche's sprawled body as he bursts through. One quick glance and he knows she's dead - half her head blown off. Another quick glance and he sees her killer, a big burly HITMAN, trying to climb through the same bathroom window where he just shot her. Driver moves like lightning, grabbing the man's arms before he can get off another shot and pulling him through the window. The hitman lands heavily in a sea of broken glass, cutting his forehead open, blinded momentarily by the blood in his eyes. Driver takes his opportunity and slams the man's face back into the glass strewn floor, stunning him for a few more seconds as they struggle. Crawling away, he grabs the towel rack and pulls the metal bar off the wall. Using it as a spear he impales the hitman and grabs his shotgun. 88 INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY. 88 In the bedroom, the 2nd HITMAN finally kicks the door open. Driver bursts through the bathroom door at the same time -- firing the 1st shooter's shotgun. The force of the blast picks up the 2nd hitman and flings him against the wall like a rag doll. The startling explosion of violence is over just as suddenly as it began. Driver slumps to the floor in exhaustion, his hand and his arm ripped open by the broken glass. There's blood splatter all over the wall. Neon lights from outside flashing on the dead man's face. But no panicked footsteps or sirens yet. Driver crawls over to the dead hitman and rifles through his pockets. All he finds are a set of car keys. 89 INT. OFFICE/ SHANNON'S GARAGE - DAY. 89 Shannon stands in his office, listening silently on the phone, looking like he's been punched in the gut. (CONTINUED) 54 9/24/10 89 CONTINUED: 89 SHANNON Why didn't you tell me?... All he hears is silence on the other end. SHANNON Well, I guess it's done now... He leans back against a car. SHANNON How big's the take?... DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE One million I guess... SHANNON Jesus... He looks dazed by the thought of so much money. SHANNON You better bring it over. DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE I'm hurt. I need a doctor to patch me up... SHANNON I'll take care of it... 90 OMITTED 90 91 INT. OFFICE/ SHANNON'S GARAGE - NIGHT. 91 An underworld doctor, "DOC", a shabbily dressed old man who looks well past his prime takes out a small bottle of scotch along with his surgical tools, preparing for Driver's arrival. Shannon watches him uncertainly then heads downstairs as he hears a noise in the garage. 92 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE - NIGHT. 92 Shannon arrives downstairs to see Driver walking unsteadily towards him in the gloom. Shannon can't help glancing at his hands, expecting him to be carrying the bag with the money, but there's no sign of it. 93 INT. OFFICE/ SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVER LAKE BOULEVARD - NIGHT.93 Scissoring Driver's blood soaked shirt away Doc examines the shards of glass embedded in his arm, then notices the deep scars running down his back. (CONTINUED) 55 9/24/10 93 CONTINUED: 93 DOC ...Looks like you got more metal inside you than a ten ton truck... (His hand shakes) You'd be better off with a mechanic not a medic... Driver looks up at him warily from Shannon's pull out bed. DOC Relax. Just having my fun with you... Doc picks up his bottle of scotch from among his bowls of Peroxide and Betadine, takes a drink, then offers it to Driver. DOC Take a hit off that. Chances are you'll need it... Driver shakes his head, closing his eyes. Shannon watches him quietly, concerned for him but also curious about the money. SHANNON What did you do with the cash? DRIVER It's safe. Shannon hesitates, but can't help himself. SHANNON You want me to look after it for you? Driver doesn't answer, gritting his teeth as Doc pulls out the largest shard of glass. SHANNON Just think what we could do with all that DOUGH - DRIVER Two guys just tried to kill me for it. I want to find out who it belongs to first... Shannon nods, coming back down to earth. SHANNON This guy Cook got a real name?... DRIVER Maybe Chris. Probably not... SHANNON I'll ask Bernie if he's heard of him... (CONTINUED) 56 9/24/10 93 CONTINUED: (2) 93 Driver grimaces again as Doc pulls out another shard of glass. SHANNON I wish you'd talked to me first... Driver doesn't reply, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. SHANNON Lotta guys fall for other mens' wives, but you're the only one I know robs a joint to make it up to the husband... 94 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT - DAY. 94 An elegant apartment full of framed photographs of beautiful grandchildren and movie posters from Hollywood's golden age. Bernie is in his silk pyjamas, looking like he's just woken up. BERNIE ROSE You want some coffee? SHANNON No, thanks... Shannon looks tense but tries to hide it. From next door they can hear the sound of raised voices. Bernie Rose grabs the TV remote and turns up the volume to drown out his neighbors. BERNIE ROSE They've been going at it ever since they moved in. She's such a nice lady but it's a lousy Shidach. It's a wonder they haven't killed each other... (A BEAT) So, what's your interest in the Seventh Heaven? Shannon doesn't understand, looking confused. BERNIE ROSE It's a strip joint on La Cienega. Your friend Cook runs it. Why're you curious about him all of a sudden? Even though they're close, Shannon's wary of giving away too much information. SHANNON A friend of mine owes him some money. I was wondering if you knew him? BERNIE ROSE Yeah, I know him. He's a crazy Albanian. If I were your friend I'd pay up. (CONTINUED) 57 9/24/10 94 CONTINUED: 94 Bernie Rose pours himself a cup of coffee in the kitchenette. BERNIE ROSE You wake me up this early this friend must be a close friend? SHANNON (HESITATING) Yeah... BERNIE ROSE How's our car by the way? SHANNON We're all set for next month. BERNIE ROSE And our driver? SHANNON He's doing great. BERNIE ROSE That's what you should worry about... Shannon smiles back but Bernie senses how distracted he is. BERNIE ROSE You want my advice? Let your friend work it out for himself. Don't take pills for other people's headaches... (HE GRINS) You got twenty minutes? I need you to run down to the market and get me some milk... 95 OMITTED 95 96 INT. HALL/ STAIRS/ STRIP JOINT - DAY. 96 Sunlight pours through a doorway. Driver heads down some stairs, passing some half naked STRIPPERS at the bar. There's a handful of CLIENTS watching a pole dance, but otherwise the place is empty. Driver turns down a long corridor. A couple of STRIPPERS emerge from their changing room, surprised to see him, but he puts them at ease with a friendly smile. DRIVER Cook moved office again? STRIPPER That one over there... Driver smiles gratefully, then heads towards an office at the end of the corridor. He knocks on the door. A voice calls back. (CONTINUED) 58 9/24/10 96 CONTINUED: 96 COOK O/S It's open... Driver takes a hammer out of his jacket, then starts turning the door handle as if he can't get in. COOK O/S It's open, goddamit!... He hears Cook striding impatiently towards the door now. He waits, then suddenly kicks the door open, right in Cook's face. Before Cook can recover, Driver storms into the office, smashing him across the shoulder with the hammer. Cook collapses in a heap. Driver's about to hit him again, when he sees that Cook's left hand is broken and there are cuts and bruises on his face. Someone's clearly given him a beating since the robbery. DRIVER Should've figured you for a shill. Who were you fronting for? COOK Fuck you - Driver smashes the hammer into Cook's right hand now, breaking it too. Cook screams. Some of the strippers have gathered at the door but Driver couldn't care less. DRIVER Whose money am I holding? COOK Don't worry. They'll come get it. You don't know who you're fucking with - Driver smashes the hammer into the metal plates supporting Cook's left hand. He screams like a stuck pig. DRIVER Who's money am I holding? COOK (Barely able to get the words out) Fuck you... The strippers look stunned and riveted at the same time. Driver bends over Cook and rifles through his pockets. Finally he finds what he's looking for. Cook's cell phone. He scrolls down the call log and finds the same number appearing again and again. 97 OMITTED 97 59 9/24/10 98 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - DAY. 98 The kitchen is busy, CHEFS taking out hot pizzas from the oven and slicing them up in takeaway boxes. In the background we hear the phone ringing. 99 INT. BACK ROOM/ PIZZERIA - DAY. 99 An impeccably dressed MAN IN A TAN SUIT answers the phone. TAN SUIT Hello?...I'm afraid we're closed. Could you call back after twelve... 100 EXT. PARKING LOT/ BURGER KING/ SUNSET BOULEVARD - DAY. 100 (INTERCUT) Driver leans against his car, talking on Cook's cell phone. DRIVER I could, but your boss won't be happy when he finds out you've kept him waiting... Tan Suit looks curious now. TAN SUIT Can I ask what this is about? DRIVER I have something that belongs to him. TAN SUIT And that would be? DRIVER A million dollars... There's a pause on the other line now. TAN SUIT O/S Please hold... 101 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - DAY. 101 Tan Suit walks into the dining area. A large bull of a man sits on his own in the empty restaurant with his back to us. It's only when he hears Tan Suit approach and turns around that we realize it's Nino, Bernie's partner. 102 EXT. PARKING LOT/ BURGER KING/ SUNSET BOULEVARD - DAY. 102 Driver hears a heavy chesty voice come on the line. (CONTINUED) 60 9/24/10 102 CONTINUED: 102 NINO O/S You have something that fucking belongs to me?... The voice is unmistakable. Driver stares quietly. DRIVER Seems that way... (INTERCUT) NINO And you're calling me why? You expect me to buy my fucking stuff back from you?... DRIVER I'm not selling. I give you a time and place, you come collect your stuff... NINO And what do you get out of it?... DRIVER Just that. Out of it. You put a muzzle on Cook, forget your zombies at the Motel, forget we ever had this conversation... Nino's thinking to himself, looking more concerned than he sounds. NINO Your partners happy with that?... DRIVER I don't have partners... NINO You discuss this with anyone else? DRIVER Just you... Nino begins to relax now, still calculating. NINO You're not very good at this, are you?... DRIVER This isn't what I do. I'll call again with instructions... Driver switches the cell phone off. 61 9/24/10 103 INT. BACK ROOM/ NINO'S PIZZERIA - DAY. 103 Nino hangs up. Behind him we see that Tan Suit is also in the room, waiting for his orders. 104 INT. LIVING ROOM/ IRENE'S APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 104 Irene is sitting on the couch next to Benicio, talking to him gently as he watches TV. IRENE ...I'll be back before you go to bed. How's that sound?... The little boy nods, watching his Japanese cartoon. Irene's friend, Cindy, is also there, gazing at them both in sympathy. Irene looks up at her. IRENE Are you going to be okay? CINDY We'll be fine... Irene gets up to leave when the buzzer rings. She walks over and opens the door then stops in surprise. Driver stands there. DRIVER You got a minute?... She looks at him in a daze. IRENE Where have you been?... He stares back at her in silence. IRENE I tried to reach you. Standard's been - DRIVER I know... His eyes stay on her, as if he's trying to tell her something more. She looks confused, staring back at him curiously when a small voice interrupts. BENICIO O/S Hey... Driver looks over at the little boy. DRIVER Hey... (CONTINUED) 62 9/24/10 104 CONTINUED: 104 Irene begins to see the guilt in his eyes and slowly it hits her. She stares in disbelief, reeling. DRIVER I'm sorry about your father... Benicio nods. Driver keeps staring at the boy but can't find any more words of comfort. Irene watches him, still stunned. He looks back at her. IRENE I can't talk now. I have to go. DRIVER Can I give you a ride? She stares at him in dismay, close to tears. IRENE The car's working fine. DRIVER Then let me walk you down... She wants to say no but can't. 105 INT. CORRIDOR/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 105 Driver and Irene head down the long corridor in silence. IRENE (Almost a whisper) Why?... Driver misunderstands, thinking she's talking about Standard. DRIVER He was into one of the prison gangs for a lot of money. He was trying to protect you. IRENE Great job... She walks faster now, striding towards the elevator. Driver follows her. DRIVER I still have the money. Whatever you need - She turns around and slaps him hard. IRENE What are you, a bank? I work for a living. I don't need your widow's pension! (CONTINUED) 63 9/24/10 105 CONTINUED: 105 Her eyes well up with tears, staring at him in anger and frustration. IRENE Just tell me one thing. How did he talk you into it? DRIVER He didn't talk me into anything. I've been doing this my whole life. It's what I do... She stares at him in deep disappointment. IRENE Stupid me... She turns away when the elevator bell rings. The doors open, revealing TAN SUIT. Neither Driver or Irene recognizes him but we do. He smiles, pretending to look confused. TAN SUIT Sorry, I'm supposed to be going down... IRENE So are we... She steps into the elevator. Driver follows her in. TAN SUIT Which floor? DRIVER Parking lot, please... Tan Suit presses the button and the doors slide shut. 106 INT. ELEVATOR/ APARTMENT BLOCK/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 106 Driver and Irene ride down in silence, their eyes fixed on each other. Tan Suit watches them quietly, considering a move, but Driver glances at him and he smiles, biding his time. The lights on the panel descend. The elevator bell finally rings as they reach the lower level. Tan Suit hesitates, but Driver waits for him to go out first. He nods goodnight and heads off into the darkness of the parking lot. Driver follows Irene, the two of them heading in the opposite direction. 107 INT. UNDERGROUND GARAGE/ APARTMENT/ ECHO PARK - NIGHT. 107 The overhead lights flicker, the huge underground car park hidden in shadow. Driver walks alongside Irene in silence. In the distance Tan Suit's footsteps slowly fade. (CONTINUED) 64 9/24/10 107 CONTINUED: 107 DRIVER I'm leaving. I want you to come with me... Irene can't believe what she's hearing. IRENE What are you talking about? DRIVER You and Benicio... She's almost too stunned to speak, walking even faster now. IRENE You're crazy. I don't even know you - DRIVER You will. Once I straighten out this thing I'm getting out for good. We'll go some place. Anywhere you want. She shakes her head, fighting her feelings for him. IRENE It doesn't work like that. DRIVER Why not?... She stops and looks at him. IRENE Because people like you never get out. And I don't want my son to grow up like that... She holds his gaze with regret. Driver's about to respond when suddenly he catches a fleeting movement out of the corner of his eye. A beat -- then he suddenly lunges -- grabbing Irene and pulling her to the ground. In the same instant Tan Suit appears out of the darkness, opening fire with his automatic. Bullets spark as they hit the concrete floor and the other parked vehicles. Driver drags Irene behind a car now, covering her with his body as Tan Suit fires another burst. More sparks light up the darkness, the bullets penetrating the car with ease, narrowly missing Driver and Irene. Driver moves again, dragging the terrified Irene behind him. Tan Suit loses sight of them in the darkness, striding past rows of parked cars. (CONTINUED) 65 9/24/10 107 CONTINUED: (2) 107 Driver turns to Irene as they take cover behind a pillar. She looks terrified -- not just of Tan Suit but of him. It's as if all her worst fears have been confirmed. Driver stares back at her, then hears Tan Suit's footsteps approaching. He holds her gaze apologetically, then gets to his feet and runs, trying to draw Tan Suit's fire. Tan Suit hears him and opens up again, more bullets lighting up the darkness. Driver keeps moving. Tan Suit strides after him, reloading, when suddenly his gun jams. Crouching behind another vehicle, Driver sees this and takes his chance, darting out after his pursuer. Tan Suit sees him coming and runs, the hunter becoming the hunted now. Still lying on the ground, Irene listens to their echoing footsteps. Driver runs after Tan Suit through the darkness, gaining all the time. Tan Suit looks desperate now, tiring. He turns to face his pursuer but Driver's on him in a flash, hurling him against a car. Tan Suit slams into the car, losing his balance. Driver grabs him, swinging him around, smashing him into another car. Irene's watching from the shadows, stunned by the violence. She picks herself up and runs towards the elevator. Driver keeps slamming Tan Suit against the car, beating the resistance out of him. As his body begins to slump, Driver grabs him by the throat and rams his head into a car window. The glass splinters with blood, the force of the blow shattering Tan Suit's skull. Driver looks around for Irene now and sees her standing in the elevator, framed against the light. She stares back at him, but makes no attempt to step out. Driver stands there, his hands covered in Tan Suit's blood. The elevator doors finally close, hiding Irene from view. 108 OMITTED 108 108a EXT. LA STREET - NIGHT. 108a Shannon gets out of his car. Driver is waiting for him by his own car, silhouetted against the streetlight. Shannon stares at him a moment, then notices the blood stains on his shirt. (CONTINUED) 66 9/24/10 108a CONTINUED: 108a SHANNON What happened? DRIVER Nino's guys came after me. How did they know about Irene? Shannon takes a moment to reply, looking dazed. SHANNON I called Bernie...I asked if he could help. Him and Nino are like brothers. I told him you weren't interested in the money, that you only did it for the girl... (From the heart) I wanted to make sure once you returned the money that was the end of it... Driver doesn't seem to hear him. SHANNON Let me talk to Bernie again. They probably didn't listen to him - DRIVER It's too late... Shannon says nothing now, knowing he's right. DRIVER They're gonna come after you to find me. You have to leave... Shannon takes this in slowly. SHANNON What are you gonna do?... Driver doesn't answer, but from his silence Shannon can guess. SHANNON How the fuck did this happen? We're supposed be in Charlotte or Daytona drinking champagne out of trophies and getting laid by pit lizards... He stares at Driver with quiet regret. SHANNON Fuck... 109 OMITTED 109 67 9/24/10 110 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - MORNING. 110 Bernie Rose looks quietly furious. BERNIE ROSE ...I already gave you my advice. You should have taken your money and left this guy alone. Nino and Cook sit opposite him, both of Cook's hands broken now. NINO It's not that simple, Bernie. BERNIE ROSE Not now that it's bounced up in your face. COOK Mr. Paolozzi, I owe you this guy. Just give me the okay and I'll - BERNIE ROSE You like taking orders, go shut the blinds. He looks at Cook's broken hands. BERNIE ROSE Sun's in my eyes... Nino doesn't look at Cook, a clear indication he should do as he's told. Cook stands up, humiliated, and walks over to the windows. Bernie Rose waits for Nino to explain. NINO ...The money belonged to a half assed wiseguy from Philly. I had a tip-off he was keeping a million in a pawn shop and was gonna invest it here in LA, try to run a rival operation. I wanted to teach him a lesson... The lights in the restaurant gradually fade as Cook shuts the blinds. BERNIE ROSE (INCREDULOUSLY) You stole from the East Coast mob? NINO I stole from a jumped up punk who was gonna step on our business - (CONTINUED) 68 9/24/10 110 CONTINUED: 110 BERNIE ROSE And where did this punk find a million dollars? You ever consider he may have consulted some higher-ups? You even bother to check? - NINO I don't give a fuck who gave him their blessing. This is my city - BERNIE ROSE Your city? This is a big city, pal, and last time I checked we were partners! - NINO We are partners - BERNIE ROSE Then why the fuck didn't you come to me before you set up your dummy robbery or hired this fucking amateur?!... Cook sits back down at the table, having closed the blinds. Nino looks almost embarrassed for once. NINO This was off to the side, Bernie. I didn't wanna involve you. BERNIE ROSE Well, now you fucked up I am involved. Anyone finds out you stole from the family they'll kill both of us - NINO What family? These fucks still call me a kike to my face. I'm fifty nine years old, they pinch my cheek, treat me like a fuckin' kid. They're the reason we left New York in the first place. Decrepit old men waving us over to their dinner and domino tables to complain. BERNIE ROSE Those old men gave us the funds to move out here. NINO And I made them a lotta money. I made you a lotta money too... He stares at Bernie, genuinely indignant now. (CONTINUED) 69 9/24/10 110 CONTINUED: (2) 110 NINO I pay them half of everything I fucking earn and then they set up some fucking kid from Philadelphia just because he's a fucking wop! There's a hint of sympathy in Bernie's eyes. BERNIE ROSE The money always flows up, Izzy. You know that. He calls Nino by his childhood name now, emphasizing the fact that they're both outsiders in this organization. For the first time Nino's tough guy act slips and he looks anxious. NINO That's why this driver has to go. Him, and maybe your friend Shannon, are the only two people who can tie me to the robbery. BERNIE ROSE What about this prick? He doesn't even bother to look at Cook. COOK Mr. Paolozzi - NINO Shut up... The two friends stare at each other as if Cook didn't exist. BERNIE ROSE Are you asking my permission? NINO I'm asking for your help. I shoulda' come to you first, Bernie. I know that. We're a team. He stares at Bernie apologetically, appealing to their friendship. NINO I'll pay you back the three hundred you spent on the race car. BERNIE ROSE It's not about the money... He stares out quietly, torn. (CONTINUED) 70 9/24/10 110 CONTINUED: (3) 110 BERNIE ROSE All right... Nino nods in gratitude. BERNIE ROSE (TO COOK) Pass the salt... Cook hesitates, thinking Bernie's fucking with him for having two broken hands. He stares back dumbly and it's the final straw. Bernie suddenly grabs a stainless steel fork and rams it in his eye. As Cook screams, Bernie takes a knife and buries it in his neck. He twists the knife deeper for good measure, then with one powerful sweep of his arm clears Cook off the table. Cook's not dead yet, just writhing on the floor, choking on his own blood. Bernie Rose keeps his eyes fixed on Nino. BERNIE ROSE Your turn to clean up after me... 110a EXT. TRAILER/ FILM SET/ SAN PEDRO/ LOS ANGELES - MORNING. 110a The CREW are setting up for their first shot of the day. In the background we see a DIRECTOR blocking out an action scene. Driver walks past without even a glance, heading towards the make-up trailer. He opens the door and walks in, looking around the trailer until he finds what he's looking for -- the SFX mask he saw previously on the film set. 111 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ SILVERLAKE BOULEVARD - MORNING. 111 Shannon limps down the steps from his office with a suitcase in his hand. He heads into the main garage then suddenly stops. Bernie Rose stands beside the stock car, waiting for him. BERNIE ROSE All these priceless cars, you should get better locks... SHANNON Door's always open to you... Bernie Rose heads towards him with his hands in his coat pockets. BERNIE ROSE Going somewhere? SHANNON Thinking about it. (CONTINUED) 71 9/24/10 111 CONTINUED: 111 BERNIE ROSE I'm looking for your driver. SHANNON You break in like this I figure it's bad news. BERNIE ROSE It's bad luck. Two thousand heists in this city a year, he had to pick the wrong one. SHANNON He tried to put it right. BERNIE ROSE Picked the wrong guy for that too. My partner's a belligerent asshole with his back against the wall... He stops, facing Shannon. BERNIE ROSE Right now so am I. I don't take care of this I'm in big trouble... He stares at his old friend. BERNIE ROSE Any idea where he is? SHANNON Probably across the border by now. Mexico. Belize. That's where I'd go... Bernie Rose smiles, not believing a word. BERNIE ROSE He just walked out on you after everything you've done for him, took all the money? SHANNON That's gratitude, I guess. Bernie Rose can't help grinning, fond of Shannon despite everything. BERNIE ROSE I ever tell you how long Izzy and I been friends? Since we were six. Only Jews in a neighborhood of wops. Long as I can remember he was getting me into trouble and I was getting him out of scrapes... He looks almost apologetic. (CONTINUED) 72 9/24/10 111 CONTINUED: (2) 111 BERNIE ROSE Anyone else I'd take your side... SHANNON Anyone else I'd do the same... Bernie Rose watches him with a mixture of affection and regret. BERNIE ROSE What's this fucking kid to you anyway? Shannon shrugs, no idea himself. BERNIE ROSE I leave here without finding out where he is, there'll be others coming after me. I guarantee they'll be too stupid to figure out you won't talk and drag this out unnecessarily... SHANNON Then I'm glad you got here first... Bernie Rose holds his gaze, then looks away, admiring the shiny stock car. BERNIE ROSE You know, it's too bad, I was getting excited about our race team, having my name all over the car. I think we could have made something of this business... SHANNON Nah, I'd have fucked it up too... Shannon smiles, reconciled with himself. Bernie Rose grins, and extends his hand. They shake hands firmly, like old friends, when suddenly Shannon recoils, as if he's been stung. We see now that his shirt sleeve is covered in blood, his vein cut all the way from his elbow to his wrist. He looks dazed, paralysed with shock. Bernie Rose holds a razor knife in his hand, the blade wet with Shannon's blood. He takes Shannon gently by the arm and sits him down against the boot of the stock car. BERNIE ROSE You won't feel a thing. Close your eyes and you'll fall asleep... Shannon stares out numbly, the life ebbing out of him. Bernie Rose watches him quietly, wiping his bloody razor with a handkerchief. 73 9/24/10 111a INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT - DAY. 111a Bernie Rose replaces the razor knife in a small lacquered box full of other knives. From next door he can hear his neighbors arguing again. He stands there a moment, deflated, then suddenly storms towards his front door. 111b EXT. CORRIDOR/ BERNIE ROSE'S NEIGHBORS' APARTMENT - DAY. 111b A loud knocking. Bernie Rose's neighbor opens his door. HUSBAND Yeah? BERNIE ROSE Bernie Rose, next apartment over - HUSBAND Yeah, I know. I'm kind of busy here. BERNIE ROSE I heard... There's something threatening in the old mobster's eyes now. The husband moves to close the door but Bernie jams it open with his elbow, shoves him aside, then looks over at the wife. BERNIE ROSE You all right, Shonda? The woman nods without meeting his eyes. HUSBAND Get the hell out of my - Bernie doesn't give him time to finish, clamping a powerful hand on his throat. BERNIE ROSE What's your fucking name? HUSBAND LENNY - BERNIE ROSE I'm a patient man, Lenny, not much for getting in other people's way. What I figure is, we've all got our own lives, right? And the right to be left alone? (SQUEEZING HARDER) So I sit next door for almost a year now listening to what goes down in here and I keep thinking, hey, they'll work it out. You gonna work it out, Lenny? (CONTINUED) 74 9/24/10 111b CONTINUED: 111b He jerks the husband's neck forward, making him nod. BERNIE ROSE You're lucky to have her, lucky she's put up with you this long. Lucky I've put up with you. She has good reason: she loves you. I don't have any reason at all. So stop raising your voice or fucking move... He lets go of the terrified man and storms out again. 112 INT/ EXT. DRIVER'S CAR/ RESEDA BOULEVARD - DAY. 112 Sunlight glints on the parked vehicles by the curb. Driver slows down as he approaches the sign for Shannon's Custom Kings, glancing out of the window to see if anyone's staking out the garage. Satisfied there's no-one there, he drives through. 113 INT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ RESEDA BOULEVARD - DAY. 113 Driver pulls open the garage door and sees the rows of vintage cars shimmering in the shafts of sunlight. As he heads past the vehicles he suddenly spots a figure slumped against the stock car. Shannon's eyes have been closed, his head resting gently against the trunk of the car. Driver kneels down and lifts him up in his arms, holding him for a second, then lays him down on the floor. He turns back and opens the car boot now, revealing the black gym bag full of money. 114 EXT. SHANNON'S GARAGE/ RESEDA BOULEVARD - DAY. 114 Driver's car roars out of the garage. 115 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - SUNSET. 115 Nino stands in the kitchen, wearing a beautiful suit but no shoes or socks, listening on his cell phone. We hold on the curious image for a moment, then reveal a beautifully dressed WOMAN polishing his shoes. And now we see more of Nino's MEN, also smartly dressed and accompanied by GORGEOUS WOMEN, getting ready for an event. Nino's talking to his wife on the phone. NINO Alright honey, I'll pick you up in an hour. 116 EXT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - SUNSET. 116 Two big Lincoln Towncars are parked outside. Across the road we recognize Driver's car. He opens the trunk. When he closes it again we see that he's wearing the eerily convincing SFX mask. He crosses the road, entering the pizzeria. 75 9/24/10 117 INT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - SUNSET. 117 Several of Nino's men look up as Driver enters but none of them recognize him. NINO'S GUY We're closed... Driver stares past them at Nino in the kitchen, surrounded by more of his men. We feel his mind calculating then he walks out again. 118 EXT. NINO'S PIZZERIA - NIGHT. 118 Nino emerges with his bodyguards now, heading towards one of the white Lincolns. NINO (To one of his men) I'm going to pick up my wife. I'll meet you there... Across the road Driver climbs into his car, still wearing the mask. He starts his car, setting off after Nino's Lincoln. 119 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ NINO'S PIZZERIA/ WESTWOOD - NIGHT. 119 Driver drifts in behind a couple of other cars, keeping them between himself and the Lincoln. 120 EXT. STREETS - NIGHT. 120 The sunlight is fading fast. The neon cityscape has come to life and the streets are a sea of glittering lights. 121 INT. NINO'S CAR/ STREETS - NIGHT. 121 The CHAUFFEUR checks his mirror as he turns into another street, seeing only the anonymous glare of headlights behind him. 122 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ STREETS - NIGHT. 122 Driver slows down and lets another car turn in front of him, keeping it between himself and Nino's car. 123 EXT. STREETS - NIGHT. 123 The streets are less crowded in this residential area. As the car in front of Driver pulls into its front drive, Driver takes the next turning, making sure the Lincoln doesn't spot him. 76 9/24/10 124 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ PARALLEL STREET - NIGHT. 124 Driver cruises along another residential street. At every intersection we glimpse the Lincoln heading in the same direction down a parallel street. 125 EXT. SAN VINCENTE BOULEVARD/ BRENTWOOD - NIGHT. 125 The Lincoln turns back into traffic on San Vincente. 126 INT. NINO'S CAR/ SAN VINCENTE BOULEVARD - NIGHT. 126 Nino's talking on a cell phone in the back seat. NINO ...Sure, Carlo, I'll send him your regards... 127 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ SAN VINCENTE BOULEVARD - NIGHT. 127 Driver merges in with the traffic, weaving between the cars in front of him until he has Nino's Lincoln back in his sights. 128 EXT. AERIAL VIEW/ SAN VINCENTE BOULEVARD - NIGHT. 128 The sun has almost set, the red backlights of the cars blinking in the fading light. 129 INT. NINO'S CAR/ SAN VINCENTE/ 7TH STREET - NIGHT. 129 Nino's car turns into 7th Street. 130 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ SAN VINCENTE/ 7TH STREET - NIGHT. 130 This time there are no other vehicles turning into the same street. Driver has no choice, settling in behind the Lincoln. 131 INT. NINO'S CAR/ 7TH STREET/ PACIFIC PALISADES - NIGHT. 131 The chauffeur glances in his rear-view mirror and spots Driver's car for the first time. For now he doesn't give it much thought. In the back seat Nino finally says goodbye on the phone. NINO ...Nice talking to you too... (As he hangs up) Asshole... 132 EXT. ENTRADA DRIVE/ PACIFIC PALISADES - NIGHT. 132 Both cars head into Entrada Drive. 77 9/24/10 133 INT. NINO'S CAR/ ENTRADA DRIVE/ PACIFIC PALISADES - NIGHT. 133 The chauffeur checks his mirror again and notices Driver's car still on his tail. Just as a precaution he slows down, seeing if the pursuing car will overtake. 134 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ ENTRADA DRIVE - NIGHT. 134 Driver has to decide in an instant whether to take up the invitation. He overtakes the Lincoln, speeding ahead. 135 INT. NINO'S CAR/ ENTRADA DRIVE/ PACIFIC PALISADES - NIGHT. 135 Nino's chauffeur sees Driver's car disappear up ahead, relaxing now. 136 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ WEST CHANNEL ROAD/ PCH - NIGHT. 136 Driver puts his foot on the gas, taking sharp turns on small side streets, driving fast around the block until he's back on the Lincoln's tail, keeping a safe distance now. 137 INT. NINO'S CAR/ W.CHANNEL RD./ PCH - NIGHT. 137 Nino's chauffeur turns right into the Pacific Coast Highway. 138 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 138 Driver follows the Lincoln at a distance, keeping the winding corners of the PCH between himself and his prey. 139 EXT. AERIAL VIEW/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 139 From above we see Driver's car gliding along the open highway, the rising hills on one side, the churning ocean on the other, no vehicles in sight. 140 INT. NINO'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 140 In the back seat Nino dials another number on his cell-phone. NINO ...Bernie, it's me... 141 EXT. AERIAL VIEW/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 141 The headlights of Driver's car sweep ahead of it on the open road. From above it looks like a shark closing in on its prey. 142 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT/ LA - NIGHT. 142 Bernie Rose stands by the window, listening to the phone in silence. 78 9/24/10 143 INT. NINO'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 143 Nino sounds apologetic. NINO ...Look, about that thing today...I'm sorry. I know how much you liked the guy... In his rear view mirror the chauffeur sees the headlights of the car behind getting closer. 144 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 144 Driver stares ahead, his eyes fixed on the Lincoln's backlights. 145 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT. 145 Bernie Rose doesn't speak, looking weary. NINO O/S Bernie?... BERNIE ROSE Yeah?... NINO O/S You're the only fucking person in the world I trust. I love you, man... Bernie shakes his head, the same old apologies. 146 INT. NINO'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 146 In the front seat Nino's chauffeur checks his mirror curiously. NINO When this is over I'll make it up to you, I swear... The lights of the car behind have vanished. 147 EXT. AERIAL VIEW/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 147 Even from above we can't see Driver's car with its lights off - no idea how close it is to Nino's car. 148 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT. 148 Even though he's still angry, Bernie can't help forgiving his childhood friend. BERNIE ROSE How many times I heard that before... 79 9/24/10 149 INT. NINO'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 149 Nino grins. NINO I lost count - Suddenly blazing headlights explode to life behind him. 150 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 150 Driver rams the Lincoln at over a hundred miles an hour, hitting it just above the left rear wheel. 151 EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 151 The impact is momentous. The huge Continental is lifted up in the air and spun round at the same time. It slams back into the tarmac then flips end over end for a hundred yards. 152 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT. 152 Bernie Rose is left holding the phone as the line goes dead. 153 INT. DRIVER'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 153 The collision has barely knocked Driver off course. His car skids to a stop near the overturned wreck. 154 INT. NINO'S CAR/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 154 Among the carnage, we see Nino, bloodied but still alive. He unbuckles his seat belt and crawls out of the twisted wreck. 155 EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 155 Driver gets out of his car, calmly walking over to the pulverized Lincoln. He sees Nino stumbling off towards the beach but doesn't hurry after him yet. He checks to make sure the other passengers are dead, then heads on. 156 EXT. BEACH/ OCEAN/ PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT. 156 Nino stumbles through the sand, running for his life now. He looks behind him and sees Driver calmly pursuing him. He keeps running, but he's badly injured, slowing all the time. Fear clouds reason and he staggers towards the crashing waves. Driver slows down as he watches the gangster wade into the ocean, a pathetic last attempt to evade him. The crashing waves and the undertow are an impenetrable wall. Every time Nino tries to wade out further, the ocean drags him back. (CONTINUED) 80 9/24/10 156 CONTINUED: 156 Driver stares at his trapped prey. Nino's attempts become more and more feeble as the ocean exhausts him and snuffs out any hope of escape. Finally he retreats back into the shallow water, barely able to keep his footing. He turns around and faces Driver, the crashing waves still smashing into his back. They stay like that for a moment. Gazing at each other. Driver silhouetted against the white sand. Nino trapped in the ocean. Then Driver wades out into the water. Nino has no fight left in him, staring at the masked man. Driver stares back at him then grabs him by the throat, forcing his head under the water. Nino splutters as Driver lets him up again. NINO It was Bernie...Bernie Rose killed your friend not me... Driver shoves his face back under the water, keeping it there until Nino's body finally stops thrashing. 157 INT. BERNIE ROSE'S APARTMENT/ BEL AIR - NIGHT. 157 A phone shrills. Bernie Rose answers it. BERNIE ROSE Nino? DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE He's dead. Bernie Rose stares out in silence. Whatever he thinks of Nino, a part of him has died. We feel the regret in his eyes but there's no trace of emotion in his voice. BERNIE ROSE Looks like me, you and your girlfriend are the only pieces left on the board... 158 EXT. BEACH/ OCEAN - NIGHT. 158 Driver is no longer wearing a mask, framed against the ocean. He catches the veiled threat in Bernie's words but doesn't respond. INTERCUT BERNIE ROSE I'd say this has gone far enough. See any reason why it should go on?... DRIVER Doesn't have to... (CONTINUED) 81 9/24/10 158 CONTINUED: 158 BERNIE ROSE Then we should talk. You know a place called the Great Wall -- out on Sherman Way? DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE I can find it. Bernie pauses, staring out. BERNIE'S VOICE ON THE PHONE I'll see you there at one. A charged silence, then the line goes dead. 159 OMITTED 159 160 INT. GREAT WALL RESTAURANT/ LINCOLN BOULEVARD - DAY. 160 A large Chinese restaurant. We follow Driver through the crowd. He sees Bernie Rose sitting at a table on his own, pouring himself a glass of wine. The mobster's dressed for the occasion, wearing a jacket and tie. He smiles at Driver as he sits down. BERNIE ROSE Care for a glass?... Driver doesn't smile, gazing back at him across the table. Bernie Rose doesn't seem to care. BERNIE ROSE I can recommend the duck. Hell, I can recommend everything -- Walnut prawns, shredded beef, Velvet chicken -- but the duck's to die for... He delivers the last line with a pointed smile, then turns away, calling over a WAITRESS. BERNIE ROSE The duck, please. For two. WAITRESS Anything else? BERNIE ROSE No, thanks... He waits for the waitress to leave, then turns back to Driver. BERNIE ROSE You've been on a roll. Cut yourself quite a swath out there. (CONTINUED) 82 9/24/10 160 CONTINUED: 160 DRIVER I never asked for any of it. BERNIE ROSE We usually don't. But it comes down on our heads regardless. Look at Shannon... Driver holds his gaze, the tension palpable, laughter and conversation drifting over from the other tables. BERNIE ROSE Anyway it's water under the bridge now. Question is where does that leave us? DRIVER That's up to you. BERNIE ROSE You bring the cash? Driver nods. Bernie Rose studies him quietly. BERNIE ROSE Tell me something, how does someone with no interest in money get mixed up in a heist? (Off his silence) Shannon told me it was because of the girl? Driver hesitates, betraying a hint of concern. Bernie sees it and smiles. BERNIE ROSE Don't worry. Nobody else knows about her. Just me... (A BEAT) You still see her?... DRIVER She's not interested. BERNIE ROSE She's got her head screwed on right. I got two ex-wives, three kids, four grandchildren. Not one of them speaks to me now... He smiles again, looking into Driver's eyes with just a hint of sympathy. BERNIE ROSE This is what I'll do for you. You give me the money, nobody knows she exists. But it's a different matter with you. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 83 9/24/10 160 CONTINUED: (2) 160 BERNIE ROSE (cont'd) These people I have the misfortune to be involved with, they don't mind Nino being gone, but they'll wanna know what happened to him... DRIVER Sounds like we have a problem... BERNIE ROSE And just when we were getting to know each other... Their eyes are fixed on each other, deadly enemies but kindred spirits of a kind. BERNIE ROSE ...We shake hands, say goodbye, it's the start of your new life. Sooner or later they'll come after you. No end to it. Someone gets tired, somebody else takes their place. It goes on and on. Whatever dreams you have, whatever plans, you might as well forget `em, because this is what it's gonna be like till the day you die... (A BEAT) I just thought you should know... Driver stares back at him quietly. DRIVER What do you suggest I do? BERNIE ROSE First time I heard about you, Shannon told me you drove. Fast. That's a start... He keeps staring at Driver, then smiles. BERNIE ROSE Either that or you choke on the duck... 161 EXT. PARKING LOT/ LINCOLN BOULEVARD - DAY. 161 Driver's car is parked at the back of the parking lot, half hidden by a fenced area for garbage. Driver pops the trunk, taking out the black gym bag with the cash. Bernie Rose doesn't even look at it, still admiring the car. BERNIE ROSE How much does something like this cost? DRIVER Nine, ten thousand. If you can find one that still runs. (CONTINUED) 84 9/24/10 161 CONTINUED: 161 BERNIE ROSE Maybe I'll take yours. Part of our deal. He grins, then holds out his hand for the gym bag. BERNIE ROSE Guess we won't be seeing each other again.. Driver reaches out to give him the bag, when suddenly Bernie's hand snakes out of his pocket, twisting a switch-blade into Driver's gut. He pulls it out, ready to stab again, but this time Driver catches his wrist, slowly forcing the knife up to his throat. Their eyes are fixed on each other for a moment, with something like regret, then the blade pierces Bernie Rose's neck, sinking deeper and deeper. Driver holds the old man in his arms as he dies. They stay like that, locked in a fatal embrace, then Driver lowers Bernie Rose gently to the ground, out of sight. Blood seeping through his shirt, Driver picks up the gym bag and puts it back in the trunk, slamming the door shut. 162 EXT. AERIAL VIEW OF A MUCH LARGER PARKING LOT/ LA - DAY. 162 We're looking down on an enormous parking lot, hundreds of different colored vehicles gleaming down below. Driver pulls into the lot, searching for a place to park. 163 EXT. LARGE PARKING LOT/ LA - DAY. 163 Driver climbs out of his car, wearing a jacket over his blood- soaked shirt. He walks to the back of the car, kneels down, and hides the keys behind the left rear wheel, drops of blood dripping on the tarmac beneath him. He gets up again, then sets off through the maze of parked vehicles, dialling a number on his cell-phone. 164 EXT. ECHO PARK - DAY. 164 Irene and Benicio sit in the park. IRENE (Picking up her phone) Hello?... (INTERCUT) The blazing sun beats down. Driver walks through a long corridor of glinting cars. DRIVER It's me... (CONTINUED) 85 9/24/10 164 CONTINUED: 164 Irene stares in surprise. DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE Don't hang up... She says nothing but stays on the line. Driver continues painfully through the maze of cars. DRIVER You got a pen? I need you to write something down... Irene looks confused as she hears the quiet urgency in his voice, then reaches inside her handbag. Sunlight glitters on the roofs of the parked cars, dazzling Driver's eyes. DRIVER ...JJT 108... IRENE'S VOICE ON THE PHONE ...JJT 108... DRIVER It's the license number for my car. I've left it in a parking lot on the corner of Culver and Lincoln. Section M 10... Irene writes down the details, looking even more confused. DRIVER'S VOICE ON THE PHONE There's a bag in the trunk with some money. Keys are under the left rear wheel... IRENE What do you want me to do with it?... Driver walks with difficulty, finding it hard to breathe. DRIVER It's yours. It's safe to keep it... All around him the Chevys, Dodges, and Fords glitter in the sunlight. IRENE I told you, I don't need your money... Blood seeps through Driver's shirt, dripping on the tarmac. Irene hears his labored breathing now, looking concerned. (CONTINUED) 86 9/24/10 164 CONTINUED: (2) 164 IRENE Are you okay?... Driver's skin looks deathly pale, his eyes a haunting shade of blue. He keeps walking through the maze of cars, casting his eyes from one vehicle to the next, looking for the perfect ride. DRIVER Just out of breath... Finally he spots a beautiful white Camaro up ahead. DRIVER How're you doing?... For the first time we see the Echo Park fountain sparkling in the background. IRENE Fine. I'm in the park with Benicio... Irene can no longer hold back her tears, heartbroken. Driver stops in front of the white Camaro, unsteady on his feet. DRIVER I gotta go Irene... He pauses. DRIVER Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me... Irene smiles sadly. IRENE It was nice to meet you too... 165 EXT. LARGE PARKING LOT/ LA - DAY. 165 From above we see the maze of vehicles stretching out forever -- Chevys, Chryslers, Fords -- the history of America on wheels. Driver switches off his cell-phone reluctantly then heads towards the Camaro. 166 INT. WHITE CAMARO/ LARGE PARKING LOT - DAY. 166 Driver climbs into the front seat of the Camaro, catching his breath. He sits there a moment, sheltering from the world outside, then pulls out a pocket knife, opening the blades until he finds the screwdriver. He starts with the left side of the steering column, then gets to work on the section below the turn signal. (CONTINUED) 87 9/24/10 166 CONTINUED: 166 His face shows the strain, but his fingers are as steady as ever. A master at work. Finally he breaks into the ignition device, leaning back in the seat to take a rest. 167 EXT. AERIAL VIEW/ LARGE PARKING LOT - DAY. 167 We're gazing down at the white Camaro from above, waiting for it to move. 168 INT. WHITE CAMARO/ LARGE PARKING LOT - DAY. 168 Driver's face is completely still now. So are his eyes. He looks almost at peace. There's a long pause, then slowly he leans forward and turns on the ignition. As the engine comes to life, we CUT TO BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Drop Dead Gorgeous.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drop Dead Gorgeous.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..636a94dd8e4b64b019a8a056f2adabe176d67b37 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Drop Dead Gorgeous.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +DROP DEAD GORGEOUS FADE IN: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - MINNESOTA - DAY Vintage black and white stock footage of some farms and farmhouses. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Color footage of cotton fields passing by. We FREEZE and FADE TO BLACK. TITLE WIPES IN: 1995 MARKED THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATION'S OLDEST BEAUTY CONTEST... THE SARAH ROSE COSMETICS AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS PAGEANT A DOCUMENTARY FILM CREW WAS SENT TO A SMALL TOWN IN MINNESOTA TO COMMEMORATE THIS OCCASSION. INT. PAGEANT AUDITORIUM - MOUNT ROSE - DAY Vintage blue-toned stock footage of a teenage beauty pageant contestant. LEGS WIPE IN. MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (O.S.) Sarah Rose knows you're a beautiful person.... Blue-toned stock footage of a long row of beauty pageant contestants on stage. MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (cont'd) Sarah Rose knows you have an unusual talent. Sarah Rose knows you're a teenage girl. Blue-toned stock footage of the row of contestants parading down some steps from the stage as CAMERA TILTS DOWN. MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (cont'd) Mmm, and she definitely knows that you are ready for the ultimate teen glamour. ROUSING PATRIOTIC MUSIC. FAST PACED CUTS feature SMILING TEENAGE CONTESTANTS dancing and waving American flags. APPLAUSE! MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (cont'd) The American Teen Princess Pageant. Each contestant wears a BANNER ACROSS her dress reading: AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS. MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (cont'd) And now, a few words... ANGLE ON Contestants DROP, ROLL and form a STAR. CHEERS! MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (cont'd) ...from last year's host, Mr. Adam West. ADAM WEST The American Teen Princess Pageant has been enriching the lives of American- made girls since 1945. TITLES FADE ON SCREEN: Adam West, TV's Batman, then FADE OUT. ADAM WEST (cont'd) The American Teen Princess Pageant provides personal growth, scholarship, travel, and you... Numerous contestants stand up in SHOT and SURROUND ADAM. ADAM WEST (cont'd) ...might even meet a few celebrities. At the national level, thousands of seventeen year-old girls like yourselves. and compete around the country in places like: MALE PAGEANT ANNOUNCER (O.S.) Beautiful Mount Rose, Minnesota. ADAM WEST And make it all the way here to Lincoln, Alabama, to compete for the title of American Teen Princess. LIGHTS come UP on the teenaged girls in the pageant as they pause. As they WAVE AMERICAN FLAGS. Adam West turns back to the camera. ADAM WEST (cont'd) And now, a few words from last year's host, Mr. Adam West. Contestants strike a pose around him. THUNDEROUS CANNED APPLAUSE! ADAM WEST (cont'd) (pointing to camera) So, which one of you will it b-- SCREEN SUDDENLY STATIC. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - DAY SCENE from "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" PULL BACK to reveal the VIDEO is on a TV in front of a GROUP OF SEVENTEEN YEAR-OLD GIRLS, sitting in gym bleachers. [NOTE: The film is shot documentary style. PEOPLE ARE REAL. Their lives revolve around this pageant. All speak with a THICK MINNESOTA ACCENT.] THREE "CIVIL SERVETTES," the local women's group. [Picture unattractive Stepford Wives in matching windbreakers] stand beside GLADYS LEEMAN, 34, president. She STOPS THE VIDEO. GLADYS LEEMAN Good God, Iris, you taped your shows over it. IRIS Sorry. Gladys turns to the GIRLS in the bleachers. SUPER: MOUNT ROSE, MINNESOTA POPULATION: 5,076 GLADYS LEEMAN Now ladies, the rest of the tape - which is now gone forever - goes on about startin' this great American journey we call American Teen Princess...Yah-so, any of you young ladies who'd like to start on that journey, you just come right down here and sign up. And please...help yourselves to some coffee and bars... SMASH EDIT TO: Gladys seated with middle-aged women. GLADYS Showtime. SUPER: GLADYS LEEMAN, LOCAL CHAIRMAN, PAGEANT ORGANIZING COMMITTEE. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Do you think that most people would say that teenage beauty pageants are a good idea? GLADYS Oh yah-sure, I know what some of your big city, no bra wearin', hairy-legged women's libbers say, "Pageants are old- fashioned" and, uh, and "demeaning" to the girls -- IRIS (jumping in) What's sick is women dressin' like men! Civil Servettes stare at her a beat. GLADYS Uh... You betcha, Iris. (quickly, back to camera) Yah-I think yous boys'll find that things are different here in Mount Rose... Civil Servettes AD-LIB AGREEMENT. GLADYS (cont'd) For one thing, y'know, we're God fearin' folk - every last one of us... Civil Servettes AD-LIB AGREEMENT. GLADYS (cont'd) You won't find a back room in our video store... Servettes AD-LIB "AMEN. YAH-YOU BETCHA." etc. GLADYS (cont'd) (V.O.) ...that filth is better left in the "Sin Cities." IRIS A.k.a. Minneapolis - St. Paul. PULL AWAY from MINNEAPOLIS SKYLINE to COUNTRYSIDE. EXT. QUAINT MAIN STREET The camera drives down the street. EXT. PICTURESQUE MIDDLE-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS The camera drives down the street. EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE A HAPPY FAMILY raises the AMERICAN FLAG. EXT. SUBURBAN DRIVEWAY BURLY GUYS look up from washing a FORD TRUCK. EXT. TRAILER PARK Sign next to it reads: "Welcome to Mount Rose, Home of Freda Klinghagen, Minnesota's Oldest Living Lutheran" complete with a photo of the extremely old woman smiling and waving. EXT. CREW VAN An ELDERLY COUPLE looks in the passenger window of the van. ELDERLY MAN (MAYOR) Oh, yah-sure, Freda, yah. She was the oldest livin' Lutheran. Now she's dead as a doornail. It's them damn Shriners who ain't taken that Goddamn sign down yet - those lazy sons-a- bitches... I tells kem, I tells kem every goddamn year, "Take the Goddamn Freda sign down, you lazy sons-a-bitches!" SUPER: MAYOR OF MOUNT ROSE INT. GLADYS' VAN - DAY Through the window a family waves to Gladys. EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY Two BOYS play basketball in the driveway of their home. EXT. FRONT LAWN - DAY SMALL CHILDREN in bathing suits play on a lawn. A boy shoots his water pistol. INT. LEEMAN STATION WAGON - AFTERNOON Civil Servettes and crew are piled in. Gladys drives. GLADYS ...Today's "To Do" list includes a trip to the Mall of America. We need outfits for the "Physical Fitness" number -- IRIS Nothin' too showy! GLADYS Y'betcha, Iris. We still need a third judge and we need to think of a theme. Servettes react with pleasure. IRIS Gladys -- Gladys! Look out! A CAR SWERVES. GLADYS Oh, my! (waving out window) Hello, Father Donigan! Sidewalks, sidewalks? Iris mimes drinking, "glug, glug." GLADYS (cont'd) Iris, stop! (to camera) It's not his fault. The communal wine just proves too temptin' for some of them. IRIS That's why we Lutherans use grape Koolaid for the blood of Christ. EXT. MALL OF AMERICA In the vast, already full parking lot, we see Gladys Leeman's station wagon searching for a parking spot. IRIS Oh, there's a parking space over there. Oh, no, that's just a compact. Sorry. GLADYS You'd think they'd build the parking lot of America to go with the Mall of America! Gladys pulls into a HANDICAPPED SPOT. Servettes and CAMERA stand outside the car. Iris points at the sign. IRIS It's a two-hundred dollar fine! GLADYS I said I'd move if a cripple came. Let's just run in the store and pick out some outfits. IRIS All right, let's go. EXT. MALL OF AMERICA PARKING LOT Iris and another Servette start to get out of the car. GLADYS Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! I just thought of the theme. Iris and the Servette stop. IRIS Oh! What is it? GLADYS (cont'd) "Proud...to be...an...American." Servettes react with pleasure. JUMP CUT TO: INT. MOA PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So what was the theme of the pageant last year? GLADYS Last year? It was, "Buy American." DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) And the year before that? GLADYS "U.S.A. is A-okay." DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Can you remember the theme of your favorite pageant? GLADYS "Can I? I'm Amer-I-Can!" People ask me where I get this. I don't know, it's...maybe a gift from God or somethin'. INT. MOUNT ROSE HIGH - GYM - DAY PAN DOWN row of EIGHT GIRLS signing up and eating bars. SUPER: LOCAL PAGEANT REGISTRATION, MOUNT ROSE HIGH SCHOOL ANGLE ON LESLIE MILLER - sexy/peppy girl in CHEERLEADING UNIFORM. LESLIE MILLER ...Hi. (giggles) I'm Leslie Miller. I'm signin' up kcause-ah, y'know, I always watch pageants on the TV and my boyfriend thinks I'll win. SUPER: CONTESTANT #3, LESLIE MILLER She makes "gills" on the sides of her head with her hands. LESLIE MILLER (cont'd) For my talent, I'm gonna be doing the.. Two FOOTBALL PLAYERS interrupt: PAT, her boyfriend, and BRETT, who smiles and gives a nod to Amber. Pat grabs Leslie and kisses her hard. LESLIE (cont'd) Uh, Pat, I'm trying to tell themabout my...Oh... Hormones take over and they lock lips again. She wraps her legs around him. He feels up her ass. They continue groping as her Washington Monument slips off. CUT TO: Leslie waves and blows kisses while performing a cheerleader chant. LESLIE MILLER (cont'd) Hi, Pat! Go, Muskies! Whoo! INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM AMBER ATKINS - naturally pretty blonde, sweet as sugar pie, stares into camera like a deer caught in headlights. AMBER ATKINS (suddenly looking O.C.) Hi, I-I'm Amber Atkins and, um, I'm signin' up k'cause, ah, my two favorite people in the world competed. My mom and Diane Sawyer...Course I hope I end up a little more like Diane Sawyer than my mom... She flashes a GRIN, we melt. INT. FUNERAL HOME/EMBALMING ROOM - DAY Amber tap-dances as she applies make-up to a MALE CORPSE. SUPER: CONTESTANT #1, AMBER ATKINS DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Do you do any of the, uh, embalming? AMBER (laughing) Oh, my God, no. Oh, God. I just do the hair and makeup on the deceased. EXT. ROAD - DAY Amber tap dances at the side of the road as traffic passes. AMBER (V.O.) I'm lucky I have an after-school job where I can practice my talent. EXT. MOA PARKING LOT - DAY GLADYS Oh, yeah, sure. You know, every pageant is special, but this one is extra-special to me. When I was seventeen, I don't know if you know this, but I was crowned Mount Rose's American Teen Princess. And this year...drum roll please, my lovely daughter, Rebecca Ann Leeman is competin'. INT. HIGH SCHOOL REBECCA LEEMAN stands in front of Amber and addresses the camerman (O.S.). BECKY Is this my mark? (it is) Hi, I'm Rebecca Leeman. And I believe this pageant is an important experience for every young woman. It, well, it teaches you what's really important in life, and it has the power to change you in ways you've never dreamed of. INT. GUN RANGE Becky, in shooting goggles and ear muffs, FIRES a Glock- 17 9mm pistol with both hands. Sign on wall reads: "Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club." (See Iona in b.g. with an arsenal of sniper weaponry.) BECKY (yelling over noise) ...What?! Klinghagen thinks it'll all come down to me and Amber? Becky stops firing and takes off her hear muffs. BECKY (cont'd) Well, you have to take everything Mrs. Klinghagen says with a grain of salt. Not all your Catholics go to communion for the wafers, if you know what I mean... JUMP CUT TO: INT. LUTHERAN SISTERHOOD GUN RANGE - LATER Becky thumbs bullets into her magazine as she talks. BECKY ...Yah-my mom gave me this nine-mil for my thirteenth birthday... SUPER: CONTESTANT #6, BECKY LEEMAN I'll always remember what she wrote in the card. "Jesus loves winners." That's why, no matter what I do... She shoves the magazine back in her pistol. BECKY (cont'd) I aim to win. She smiles to camera, then violently fires off a few rounds. Zoom in on the MALE TARGET: several bullet holes in the head. INT. "NEW YORK, NEW YORK" BEDROOM - DAY It's all NEW YORK MEMORABILIA. Lisa Swenson - big bubbly girl - sits on her bed. LISA Why? Well, uh, it's kind of like askin', "Why do all the guys chew Copenhagen?" You know? I mean, if you're seventeen and you're not a total fry, it's just what you do. ETHEL MERMAN's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" PLAYS over speakers. SUPER: CONTESTANT #7, LISA SWENSON DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Have you decided what your talent is going to be yet? LISA I'm gonna sing and dance to, "New York, New York." See, I fell in love with The Big Apple last summer when I was visitin' my brother. He followed his dream to New York. PICKS UP 8x10's, shows to camera. LISA (cont'd) This is Peter as Liza. This is him as Madonna. Oh, here's me with him as Barbara... INT. "GERMAN SHEPHERD" BEDROOM - DAY TESS WEINHAUS, wearing an "I love German Shepherds" t- shirt. The room is filled with German Shepherd paraphernalia. TESS Uh... I don't know what my talent's gonna be yet... SUPER: CONTESTANT #3, TESS WEINHAUS TESS (cont'd) Kenny. Kenny, come. Come, Kenny. A DACHSHUND enters and jumps on her lap. TESS (cont'd) This is Kenny. Spike, my German Shepherd, went to live with a nice family on a farm after he attacked me. It wasn't his fault. I had beef jerky in my front pocket. (pulling up shirt) They re-made my belly with skin from my butt. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SCHOOL LIBRARY - DAY IONA HILDERBRANDT - librarian, 65+ - stamps books. SUPER: IONA HILDERBRANDT, MOUNT ROSE AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS - 1945 IONA HILDERBRANTDT (smoked for sixty years) I was Mount Rose American Teen Princess in 1945. We were at war with the Japs. ANGLE ON A vintage B&W photograph of 18-year-old IONA HILDERBRANDT, looking surprised with hands on cheeks, is being crowned MOUNT ROSE AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS by TWO SOLDIERS on a GYM STAGE. YOUNG IONA, wearing TIARA, stands with SOLDIERS and WAR OFFICIALS beside a boiling pot of metal. IONA HILDERBRANTDT (V.O.) (cont'd) I didn't even get to keep my damn tiara. Iona's about to drop her tiara into a recycling bin. IONA HILDERBRANTDT (cont'd) Had to turn it in for scrap. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MOLLY HOWARD'S LIVING ROOM MOLLY HOWARD, a large white girl, sits between a JAPANESE COUPLE, Mr. and Mrs. HOWARD. SUPER: CONTESTANT #5, MOLLY HOWARD MR. HOWARD (heavy accent) ... So we adopt Molly three year ago when we come to America, to help acclimate us to American. MOLLY (smiling) To America, Dad. Mr. Howard laughs. MRS. HOWARD She all-American girl. She our American Teen Princess girl. MOLLY Oh, Mom... The Howard's biological daughter (they renamed her "TINA") ENTERS FRAME. Although she's the picture of beauty, grace, talent and charm, she represents their old life. TINA (in Japanese) Excuse me, Father, Mother, when are we moving back to Tokyo? I can't stand this place anymore. They put butter on everything. MR. HOWARD (turning, suddenly angry) English! English, you stupid little retard! We America now, Tina! TINA (perfect English) I'm sorry, Dad, but with all due respect, my name isn't "Tina," it's Seiko. MR. HOWARD Tina! Tina!! TINA!!! MRS. HOWARD "Robert," settle down. MR. HOWARD (screaming) AHHHHHH! Mr. Howard suddenly grabs his chest. JUMP CUT TO: INT. MOLLY HOWARD'S LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Same scene. Mr. Howard is gone. TINA Mom, I just finished the third movement of that concerto I was working on. I put, like, this techno beat on this Japanese folk tune - wanna hear it? MR. HOWARD (running down the hall) No! We not like to hear it! Go to your room and shut up! TINA Oh, I almost forgot... (removing envelope from pocket) I got my acceptance to Tokyo University. MR. HOWARD What, you deaf? I say shut up-shut up- SHUT UP! (coming at camera) Cut her outta this! JUMP CUT TO: INT. MOLLY HOWARD'S LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Same scene on couch. MR. HOWARD Now Molly, tell movie man what you talent do. MOLLY I'll be line dancin'. MR. HOWARD (giving thumbs up) Country western! MRS. HOWARD Clint Black! Ruff! MR. HOWARD Hey, what he got I not got? They all laugh. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - STAGE CLOSE ON Michelle Johanson's face. MICHELLE ... Yah-I'll be performing a dramatic monologue. SUPER: CONTESTANT #2, MICHELLE JOHANSON MICHELLE (cont'd) Right now, I'm thinkin' "Othello" or... "Soylent Green." Lots of girls make a smooth transition from pageants into actin', y'know. SMASH CUT TO: LOCAL TV COMMERCIAL (VIDEO) CONNIE, mid-30's, Midwestern attractive, wearing a sash and tiara, stands in front of a BLUE SCREEN of a FOREST. CONNIE Competin' for the title of Minnesota's American Teen Princess sure was excitin'. But, I never coulda won without my... PULL BACK to reveal a table full of PORK PRODUCTS. CONNIE (cont'd) St. Paul Pork Products! LOCAL TV COMMERCIAL (VIDEO) SCREEN CHANGES to OUTSIDE FACTORY/STOCK YARDS. Connie now wears a coat and hat and acts as if it's chilly. CONNIE (cont'd) I've been enjoyin' St. Paul Pork Products for years. I grew up right next to these stock yards. SCREEN CHANGES to VIDEO of a SLAUGHTER LINE. PIG CARCASSES move on hooks. Connie wears a hard hat and blood stained butcher's apron. CONNIE (cont'd) It's still the same family-run business that Walter and Vera Polarski started in 1920 when they raised and slaughtered their first pig. Connie grabs a HOT DOG from O.C. and takes a bite. CONNIE (cont'd) Mmm-mmmm. I just love St. Paul Pork Products. In fact, I love kem so much LOCAL TV COMMERCIAL (VIDEO) SLIDE CHANGES to VIDEO of the SAUSAGE LINE. Workers stuff sausages. Connie wears a white jumpsuit and hairnet. CONNIE (cont'd) I work here now! INT. BETZ LIVING ROOM - NIGHT MRS. BETZ, a large woman, holds a tray of bars. CREW MEMBERS REACH IN THE SHOT and help themselves. JANELLE BETZ sits on the couch, SIGNING EVERYTHING she says. JANELLE (slow, due to signing) ...My talent will be an interpretive dance while I sing, "Through the Eyes of Love." I have a dream of spreadin' sign language around the world... Mom? Would you be so kind? SUPER: CONTESTANT #8, JANELLE BETZ JANELLE (cont'd) Yeah. Well, see, uh, I have a dream of spreading sign language around the world. (to Mrs. Betz) Mom, would you be so kind. Mrs. Betz quickly puts down the bars and goes to the piano where she starts "Through the Eyes of Love." Janelle begins to gesticulate and sign words in an overly dramatic performance that looks like a bizarre seizure. SOUND occasionally DIPS OUT as the BOOM OPERATOR reaches for bars. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - LATER TAMMY CURRY - a cute, jock-type. She wears a LETTER JACKET, covered with VARSITY SPORTS PATCHES. TAMMY CURRY Tammy Curry. I'm signin' up for the scholarship'n'all. SMASH CUT TO: INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM She POINTS to VARIOUS PATCHES on her LETTER JACKET. TAMMY CURRY (cont'd) ...This one's for Varsity Soccer, uh, I'm captain. (pointing) I run track, and, uh... (points to small gun patch) Right here, I'm the new President of the Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club... ANGLE ON LSGC PRESIDENT logo patch. TAMMY CURRY (cont'd) (O.S.) I love that one. EXT. FARM FIELD Shot from crew van. Sun is setting behind a lovely field of green. A John Deere Thresher travels across the burning red horizon. DOCUMENTARIAN (V.O.) Would you say you have a good chance to win this pageant? SUPER: CONTESTANT #9, TAMMY CURRY TAMMY (V.O.) Yeah, you bet I do. I mean, maybe other people think I can't win a beauty pageant. But other people didn't think I could beat out Becky Leeman for President of the gun club, either. And I did. I-I-It's just like Anthony Robbins says, "I'm a winner. Nobody can stop me but me!" KABLOOM! Tammy's John Deere thresher BLOWS UP! INT. LUTHERAN CHURCH BASEMENT - KITCHEN AREA - NIGHT CLOSE ON framed school photo of Tammy Curry. PULL BACK to see her letter jacket - scorched and torn (Lutheran Gun Club patch is MISSING) - and flowers. CONTINUE PULLING BACK to reveal both are surrounded by buns, bars and coffee on a long buffet table. A line of somber and repressed Lutherans help themselves to the food. Servettes stand at the ready. Gladys and Iris face the camera. GLADYS Well, you know, I think everyone's doing really well considering the fact that she was so young. IRIS It's always hard to see the young ones called home, especially on an exploding thresher. It's just so odd and gross. GLADYS You know that sometimes it's hard to understand God's great plan. IRIS Yeah. Iris pats Gladys on the shoulder. FEMALE MOURNER #1 May I have a tissue? GLADYS But the show must go on. (she faces Iris) I gotta get a hold of Ted and ask him if we can use that barn light as a spot again. So you watch the Jell-o salad, okay? IRIS All right. Okay. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - LATER It's smokey as hell. THREE "FRY" GIRLS and a PREGNANT "FRY" GIRL - all with "shelf bangs" - smoke and drink. FRY GIRL #1 ...Oh, yeah-right. I ain't gonna be in no goddamn pageant! Look what happened to that dork-ass farm girl. PREGNANT FRY GIRL (O.C.) Tammy Curry? FRY GIRL #1 Yah-yah. Everyone says this is a big accident? She got iced because she wins everything, and this time someone didn't want her to win. PREGNANT FRY GIRL This pageant's like a roach motel. FRY GIRL #1 Girls check in, but they don't check out. PREGNANT FRY GIRL Yeah. And they say smokin' is bad for your health. FRY GIRL #1 (raising cigarette into frame) Yeah. EXT. OLD TWO STORY HOUSE - ESTABLISHING - DAY SIGN painted on GARAGE DOOR: "Dance Studio, Downstairs past the Laundry Room." CAMERA moves DOWNSTAIRS to converted basement. LISA SWENSON and two other large "ballerinas" practice at a 2x4/ballet barre. MOZART plays in the b.g. CHLORIS KLINGHAGEN watches and smokes. (Picture Betty Davis in her final days.) CHLORIS And tendu. Close. Tendu. Close. Tendu. Close. Plie. And repeat. Suck in the belly, girls, and tuck in the tushes! SUPER: CHLORIS KLINGHAGEN, CHOREOGRAPHER CHLORIS (cont'd) Close those legs! You look like a bunch of bowlegged cows! Other side. And...tendu. Close. Tendu. Close. Tendu. Close. Plie. CUT TO: Chloris smokes and talks to camera. "Ballerinas" practice. CHLORIS (cont'd) Yeah, you boys sure picked a good year. If I was a betting woman, and there was a line on this in Vegas, I'd lay down ten-to-one that it all comes down to Amber Atkins and Becky Leeman. Oh, sweet Jesus, what a showdown this could be if Cain and Abel... The SOUND RECORDIST enters and Lisa spins out of control, taking him out. She leans over and comforts him. LISA Ow! Oh, God. It's so em-so embarrassing. EST. SHOT - "DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC" - DAY MARY (V.O.) (labored breaths) My winning...the Mount Rose... INT. PATIENT'S ROOM - DAY SMILING ANOREXIC GIRL sits in bed - a TIARA in what's left of her hair and a SASH over her hospital gown. MARY ...American Teen Princess Pageant... SUPER: MARY JOHANSON, REIGNING MOUNT ROSE AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS MARY (cont'd) ...really changed my life. The TIARA SLIPS OFF her BALDING HEAD and rolls to the floor. INT. DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC - MARY'S ROOM Amber fixes Mary's hair, carefully brushing her balding head. Mary smiles, oblivious. MARY (labored breaths) ...Amber does my hair...once a week. AMBER (flattered and embarrassed) Well...it's the least I can do for the reigning Mount Rose Junior Miss Amer-- Amber pulls the brush away with a clump of Mary's hair dangling from it. AMBER (cont'd) Oh God... MARY What? AMBER Huh? Oh...Uh, just a little snarl... Amber mouths, "Shhh! Don't tell!" to camera as she tries to pull the clump of hair from the brush. JUMP CUT TO: INT. DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC - MARY'S ROOM Amber ties the tiara and missing clump of hair to Mary's head with a ribbon. AMBER There we go. She holds the mirror for Mary. MARY (delusional) Beautiful... Maybe next week... a perm. AMBER Yah... sure... Amber gives a kind but worried smile to camera. Suddenly, Becky Leeman enters with a large box of chocolates. She's fully aware of the cameras from the moment she enters. BECKY Hellooo, Little Mary Sunshine! (pretending to notice camera) What?! Oh-oh my God! Lights! Camera! And me without a stitch of make-up on. What are you guys doin' here? She's in full make-up. AMBER What're you doin' here? BECKY Oh, Amber, like you're the only one who visits Mary. MARY (to Becky) Who are you? BECKY (covering) "Who are you?!" Oh Mary, you kill me. (to camera) She always says that. It's a little game we play. Every week - same dippy little look on her face. "Who are you - who are you?" Just like that. (in Mary's face) It's me - Becky - and I brought your favorites. Becky puts the chocolates on Mary's lap, a few spill. Throughout the following, Mary slowly reaches for them as if they're forbidden fruit and she's a very hungry Eve. AMBER How nice, Becky, she's anorexic. Becky roughly puts her hands over Mary's ears, who's now gently petting the spilled chocolates in her lap. BECKY (sotto, reprimanding tone) She's skinny, not deaf, Amber. EXT. TRAILER - LATE AFTERNOON MONTAGE - Amber taps around the mobile home community, HOME FROM SCHOOL - backpack, Walkman, cool music blaring. INT. TRAILER - AMBER'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER Amber stands in a room the SIZE OF A CLOSET. Posters, articles and pictures of great tap dancers and Diane Sawyer cover the walls. AMBER ... Dreams? Yah-sure I got kem... Sometimes I dream of winnin'... I dream of gettin' outta Mount Rose and bein' a big time reporter like Diane Sawyer. I mean, guys get outta Mount Rose all the time for hockey scholarships or prison. But the pageant's kinda my only chance. INT. TRAILER - AMBER'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER Amber points to LARGE PAGEANT PHOTO OF DIANE SAWYER - 1963 AMBER ... Yah-1963. Her beauty worked against her when she started as a reporter in Louisville, her hometown. Those were different times. ANNETTE (O.S.) (yelling, coughing) Hey, Amber, y'get my smokes? AMBER (smiling) That's my mom. (yelling) I'll get kem in a sec. ANNETTE ATKINS, Amber's mom - sexy, but tired - OPENS THE DOOR. ANNETTE (surprised by cameras) Oh shit! AMBER They're from L.A. They wanted to see my room and film me for their movie. ANNETTE (mock-touched, to crew) Oh... How quickly they grow up. (exiting, smiling) Hey, if they ask you to take off your shirt, get the money first. Annette is gone. ANNETTE (cont'd) (O.S.) And go get my smokes! JUMP CUT TO: EST. SHOT - LEEMAN FAMILY HOME - DAY Landscaped grounds surround this lovely two-story. INT. LEEMAN HOME - VARIOUS ROOMS Brief "LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS" montage of Gladys showing off interiors to the theme from "GONE WITH THE WIND." INT. LEEMAN HOME - LIVING ROOM - DAY It looks like a Levitz showroom. Gladys sits stiffly between Becky and her husband, LESTER - mid-60's, gruff, "old school" salesman, drink in hand. LESTER ...You betcha. S'posed to be colder-n- a witches tit tonight... GLADYS (nervous laugh) Oh, Lester. He loves his weather, y'know. LESTER (looking to crew, O.S.) Hey, ya like it? Open it...Yah-the globe. Pull at the equator there. GLADYS We're not in the showroom, Dear. Banging and fumbling. A CORKSCREW flies into shot - CREW GUY quickly ENTERS SHOT and grabs it. LESTER Fits three full-size booze bottles. The cassette deck pulls outta Afghanistan, there. BECKY (embarrassed) Mommm... GLADYS Lester? LESTER Oh, all right (to camera) How soon they forget where all this comes from. BECKY Japan. LESTER That's enough, young lady. JUMP CUT TO: INT. LEEMAN HOME - LIVING ROOM - LATER GLADYS "Impartial?" Outside this house I'm Gladys Leeman, President, Civil Servettes - impartial as the day is long. But we're inside my home now and I've gotta warn you, I'm wearin' my "wife apron" and "mom hat." So, I can safely say that I'm the mother of the most talented contestant Mount Rose has ever seen. JUMP CUT TO: INT. LEEMAN HOME - LIVING ROOM - LATER Lester's gone from the couch. GLADYS I'll field that one - Rebecca's saving her voice. Becky smiles admiringly at Gladys. GLADYS (cont'd) You-betcha, Rebecca's ready. She's been singin' and dancin' since she was knee high to a pig's eye. Lester returns to the couch, large drink in hand. LESTER Yah-she's damn near as good as that little black fella - with the glass eye. GLADYS Sammy Davis, Jr., honey. LESTER Yeah, yeah, the Jew. BECKY Nice one, Dad. He's dead. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Same scene. BOYS' WRESTLING TEAM - tight singlets - runs laps around gym - between Servettes and camera. GLADYS ...Yah-then, for the "Judges Interview," each girl has a ten minute get-together with the judges before the pageant... Gladys is distracted by the HARD, YOUNG bodies. All are. GLADYS Yes, the Judges Interview.. Each girl has a ten minute get-together with the judges prior to the pageant. Then we have the... A HUNKY WRESTLER, TONY, waves. GLADYS (cont'd) Hello, Tony. TONY Hey. GLADYS "Hey" to the folks. TONY Yeah, all right. IRIS The Judges Interview. EXT. DRUGSTORE - MAIN STREET - DAY JOHN DOUGH - pharmacist, 30-ish, thin, nervous - chain smokes outside the drugstore. SUPER: JUDGE #1, JOHN DOUGH DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So you've, uh, you've judged a lot of pageants over the years? JOHN Nope. No. Uh-uh. Never judged a pageant before in my life. Nope. No way. Never around young girls. Even if I was, why would I wanna be, y'know? I-I-I don't get off on that kinda thing and that's really why you're askin', right? S-someone say somethin'? EXT. HAROLD'S HARDWARE HANK - MAIN STREET - DAY HAROLD - owner, late 40's - stands in front of this grubby little store front with his MILDLY RETARDED BROTHER, HANK, who SNIFFS and MUMBLES CONSTANTLY. SUPER: JUDGE #2, HAROLD VILMES DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Do you judge the pageant every year? HAROLD ...Nope. Never judged nothin' afore -- HANK (pointing at camera) Are we on "Cops?" Are we on "Cops?" Are we on "Cops?" HAROLD Shut up, Hank. This here's business. Harold CUFFS Hank. HANK Ow, Harold - Mom said not the head. HAROLD Well, Mom's dead, so shut your fly trap. HANK I will if you shut your piehole. HAROLD Don't make me kick-ya where the good Lord split-ya. Harold raises his hand, Hank FLINCHES and EXT. HAROLD'S HARDWARE HANK - LATER DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So are you excited? HAROLD ...Oh you betcha! We're happier than the day Hanky got acquitted. I get made a judge, then the furniture store hires us to paint the whole damn thing. (removing cap) We're gonna use the money to get our mamma a proper headstone. Oh, and move her out to the cemetery. Suddenly, Hank runs full speed into the window. BAM! He falls to the ground inside. INT. LEEMAN FURNITURE SHOWROOM - DAY Follow Lester around cheesy room displays. JEAN KANGAS, his meek, middle-aged secretary follows him everywhere. Lester CALLS OUT to a YOUNG COUPLE sitting in a dining room. LESTER Hey Tim, Carla - if yous kids don't try to Jew me down none, I'll throw in a matchin' hutch. The COUPLE smiles excitedly. LESTER (cont'd) (to camera) See, that there's my specialty. Don't pay me less and I'll give ya more. (sotto) Secret is, the hutch is included in the price. Ain't that right, Jean? Lester smacks Jean on the ass. SUPER: JUDGE #3, JEAN KANGAS. LESTER (cont'd) Take a memo, sweetheart. EXT. CHLORIS KLINHAGEN HOUSE - GARAGE DOOR REHEARSAL MONTAGE BEGINS OVER MUSIC. Contestants run out the side door as if running on stage. Tess Weinhaus trips and falls, causing a chain reaction. EXT. CHLORIS KLINHAGEN HOUSE - GARAGE DOOR - LATER Now contestants run out carrying small wooden step ladders. As they reach the CHORUS LINE, they set the ladder down and LEAP FROG over. SUPER: FIRST DANCE REHEARSAL - 1 WEEK BEFORE PAGEANT CHLORIS Four, five, six, seven. And one. Tess runs out, sets her ladder down, jumps and hits mid- crotch. She then slides painfully down to the ground. CHLORIS (cont'd) Put that chair away! Get it! Come on! Get it! Amber TWIRLS perfectly. CHLORIS (cont'd) All right. Let's got. Let's go. EXT. CHLORIS KLINHAGEN HOUSE - SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS PAN ACROSS NEIGHBORS' sitting in lawn chairs, enjoying the music and the show. END ON JOHN DOUGH, leaning against his car, smoking and holding a video camera at his side. EXT. CHLORIS KLINHAGEN'S HOUSE - FRONT LAWN PAN DOWN row doing a seated chorus line on ladders. Most suck. Amber and Becky look great. Tess sits on the grass with a bag of ice on her crotch. EXT. CHLORIS KLINGHAGEN HOUSE - SIDEWALK On John Dough, beside his car. JOHN I'm just out here watching the young girls - contestants - like the rest of my friends and neighbors... John quickly turns and starts to pry the hood open. ANGLE ON Pat and Brett watch the girls. Pat admires Amber's moves. PAT (re: Amber) Are you gettin' her? Uh, the third one, the blonde one. BRETT Hey. PAT See? Right over there. Right over there. Brett slaps Pat on the back. BRETT Leave him alone, leave him alone. It's okay. EXT. CHLORIS KLINHAGEN'S HOUSE - FRONT LAWN John, his car hood open, is caught aiming his video camera at the girls performing a dance. They wear partially constructed U.S. Monument Headdresses. JOHN Oh, this is just a...camera. I keep it in the glove compartment for car accidents. Insurance... You guys got a camera and no one's accusin' you of anything, right? INT. HIGH SCHOOL - KITCHEN Move through kitchen. LUNCH LADIES haul, serve and prepare food. Pan over to Amber, who's unhappily scraping and spraying lunch trays as they're dropped off at her window. Becky, flirting her ass off, comes to the window with Brett, handsome football player we saw before. Both carry trays. BECKY So, Brett, do you wanna go to the lake with me on Thursday? BRETT Um, actually, I got practice on Thursday. BECKY ...Yah-well, maybe Friday, then. A bunch of us were gonna go cow-tippin'. SUPER: BRETT CLEMMENS, CAPTAIN, MOUNT ROSE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM BRETT (seeing Amber) Uh, I-uh-I'm kinda busy Friday. Amber looks up to see Brett looking at her. He smiles. She smiles. You can feel the attraction. Amber becomes girlishly self-conscious -- adjusting her rubber apron and brushing hair out of her eyes with her big rubber gloves. BRETT (cont'd) (to Amber) Hi... AMBER Hi. Becky notices their attraction and goes from flirt to uber-bitch in a heartbeat. BECKY Giver her your tray, Brett. You're holdin' up the line. Brett looks at Beck, then at Amber, not wanting to make her clean his tray. BRETT Uh... BECKY Give it to her! AMBER Here, I'll take it. It's my job. BRETT NO... (looking at Becky) It's all right. I got it. Don't worry about it. He takes the sprayer from a surprised Amber and starts to clean off his own tray. Becky can't believe his defiance. AMBER Well, you're supposed to put it in the... Becky THROWS her tray on the counter spraying Amber with food as she storms off. BRETT (cont'd) Oh man, you got leutefisk in your hair. AMBER Then it must be Wednesday. INT. HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY Same scene as "funeral bun" explanation. IONA Leutefisk is Cod Fish that's been salted and soaked in lye for a week or so. It's best with lots-a butter. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - KITCHEN Same scene. Brett removes the offending leutefisk. BRETT So, uh, I-I'm not really busy Friday. I just said that - y'know. AMBER I know. BRETT So if, uh, you wanted to do somethin'... AMBER AMBER/BRETT Huntin' season. Shocked at the coincidence, they share a laugh. BRETT Well, uh, I'm cuttin' out early today to do a little duck huntin'...but, uh, maybe I could call you tonight. AMBER Yah-sure, fine...fine. BRETT Okay...well, bye. AMBER Bye. Amber smiles, gives a shy little wave - then, to camera. AMBER (cont'd) Oh, God - you don't think Becky saw you guys, do you? (nervously looking around) Look, you just shouldn't be in here... DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) It's okay. Doreen gave us hair nets. AMBER No, listen. (whispering as she exits) We shouldn't talk here. Stop by my house tonight, okay? She looks around and motions them to rush off. EXT. HIGHWAY NEAR TRAILER PARK - EVENING From the CREW VAN we pass the crappy trailer homes that are off the Highway. (Patsy Cline's "King Of The Road" PLAYS on the radio). EXT./INT. ATKINS TRAILER - EVENING Camera approaches the trailer. SIGN on the door reads "Annette's Family Hair Care." Inside, the kitchen has been turned into a mini hair salon. Annette gives Loretta, neighbor, mid-50's - a bouffant. LORETTA What do you mean, they take out her butt? ANNETTE (seeing camera in window) Oh, Jesus H. Christ! LORETTA Are we on "Cops" again? ANNETTE You could be quiet. LORETTA Hi. ANNETTE Hi. JUMP CUT TO: INT. ATKINS TRAILER - MOMENTS LATER ANNETTE It's just the guys that are...you know, makin' the movie about the pageant. I told you about kem. LORETTA Oh, naw. Hi. ANNETTE This here's Loretta. LORETTA I tell Annette, I says, "You talk to me durin' my stories, you might as well be talkin' to the wall." (then) You guys want a beer? DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) No, thank you. Is Amber here? ANNETTE No. You just missed her. Amber got called in to the bone gardens tonight. You just missed her. She's in a helluva mood today, anyways. LORETTA Say, yous boys been to the Leeman's? ANNETTE Loretta, shut it. LORETTA Y'know, if you have, you got all the pictures of the winner you need. ANNETTE Shut it up, Loretta. LORETTA Oh, Christ, it's true. Annette begins to comb out Loretta's hair. LORETTA (drinking beer) Let's just say who should win, who deserves to win is Amber. ANNETTE (mumbled to self) Why don't you paint a big red target on your ass, Loretta. LORETTA She's the prettiest, y'know. The best damn tapper. The most smartest... ANNETTE "Most smartest?" Oh, that's good, Loretta. Make sure you get a picture of that. "Most smartest." We're cuttin you off and sendin' you home. Annette takes Loretta's beer, starts to push her out. LORETTA Well, excuse me, Annette, but I'm braggin' up your kid, here. (to crew) Amber's gonna be the next Diane Sawyer, y'know... ANNETTE I'll be right back. See ya later. CAMERA follows Annette and Loretta. ANNETTE (cont'd) They're makin' a movie, here, goddamn it. LORETTA All right, they're makin' a movie. ANNETTE You don't know where this is gonna... LORETTA I got a hairdo. JUMP CUT TO: EXT./INT. ATKINS TRAILER - EVENING Loretta holds onto the door frame so Annette can't push her out. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) What makes you think that Becky's going to win? LORETTA Why do I think Becky'll win? You're talkin'... (to Annette) Don't pinch!. (back into camera) You're talkin' kbout the richest family in a small town. It's front page news when one of kem takes a shit. (she laughs hard) Can one of yous boys give me a ride home? ANNETTE Don't fall for it. She lives two trailers down. LORETTA So? Be real easy. ANNETTE Go on home, Loretta. Come on. Go on, the party's over. LORETTA Anyone? INT. LARSON FUNERAL HOME - HALLWAY - NIGHT A small sign on the door reads: "EMBALMING - Please Knock!" PUSH INTO ROOM. Amber, back to us, frantically applies blusher to an OLD WOMAN. Another BODY, covered with a white sheet, is on the embalming slab. The top and brim of a HUNTING CAP can be seen. She TURNS AROUND to see the crew. AMBER (cont'd) (surprised) Ahhh! Je-sus-Christ-on-a-cross! (catching breath) Look, number one rule in a funeral home - never sneak up on the livin'. You never know who could have an embalming needle or skull saw in their hand. Mr. Larson's son learned that the hard way - he's buried next to my Grandpa! Amber turns to the slab to continue working. She pulls off the SHEET to reveal BRETT, handsome football player, still wearing his hunting plaid. JUMP CUT TO: INT. EMBALMING ROOM - LATER DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) AMBER (covering real emotions) Upset about Brett? Nah. Hazard of the trade. I don't really have time for guys anyways. It's weird, though. He took it right between the eyes. Don't often see that. EXT. GUN RANGE - DAY Becky thumbs bullets into a 12-gauge pump shotgun. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So you know, Brett just got shot in the head. BECKY (cool as a cucumber) He did? Well, huntin's dangerous...So, anyways, my mom gave me this 30-aught for my sixteenth birthday... INT. EMBALMING ROOM - LATER Amber wipes her eyes when Mr. Larson bursts in. MR. LARSON Amber, I need Stella now! SUPER: MR. LARSON, OWNER, LARSON FUNERAL PARLOR MR. LARSON (cont'd) The family's steamin' like a cow pie in July. Said she didn't look nothin' like the picture they gave you. Amber turns from Brett and closes the coffin. AMBER Sorry. I just thought she might not wanna meet her Maker lookin' like a cheap whore. MR. LARSON Well, your "cheap whore" is this family's "lovin' mother." (pointing at Brett) The Clemens said to make him look like he just came from snowmobilin'. Pink cheeks, and... AMBER (starting to mist up) -- red nose and ears. I know, I know. Mr. Larson PULLS Stella's coffin out. INT. EMBALMING ROOM - LATER An obviously upset Amber puts make-up on Brett. AMBER Sorry I couldn't talk today kcause...I'm scared, okay? (deep breath) I open my locker right after first period and there's a picture of Tammy Curry taped inside. JUMP CUT TO: INT. EMBALMING ROOM - LATER Amber holds up a snapshot of a SMILING GIRL on a THRESHER. AMBER This was written on back. She turns the picture over to reveal, "YOU'RE NEXT!" EXT. MOUNT ROSE - STREET TWIN OFFICERS lean against their car. One prepares to pack some snuff. TWIN OFFICER #1 Oh-yah, helluva way to go, there. After some extensive investigation, we figure the Curry girl musta been drivin' and smokin' and KABLEWEY! TWIN OFFICER #2 (holding a Skoal tin) Not enough left of her to fill a tin. He puts a pinch between his cheek and gum. INT. EMBALMING ROOM - LATER A visibly upset Amber still applies make-up to Brett. AMBER Yah-sure, Tammy liked to driver her dad's thresher - she said the heavy vibration helped her think, y'know? But I know for a fact she only smoked after a good drive. You ask me or anyone else who isn't scared to talk about it - Tammy was murdered. (holding back tears) God, I bet Diane Sawyer never had to deal with crap like this... (to crew guy) Toss me "Caucasian #5," would ya? A crew guy walks IN FRAME and hands her a make-up jar. AMBER (cont'd) Man, I can't wait for fishin' season... Mr. Larson bursts in, white as a corpse. MR. LARSON Amber... AMBER No, don't say it. Another stray bullet to the head. She adjusts Brett's red plaid hunting cap. AMBER (cont'd) I'm gonna need more caps. MR. LARSON You hafta go home. There's some kinda emergency at the trailer park. AMBER Relax, that's my ma's code for, "Bring home milk and a carton-a Luckys." MR. LARSON No. Loretta called. There's been a... a fire. She grabs the keys and RUNS OUT. EXT. TRAILER PARK STREET/INT. HEARSE - NIGHT Amber drives fast and furious as we come to what's left of her trailer. All the NEIGHBORS are out drinkin' beers, eatin' food and watchin' the excitement. AMBER Oh my God - no! Is my mom okay? Was she home? Hearse SCREECHES to a halt. We hear a THUD, then MOANS from in back. Amber jumps out. Camera follows, a la "COPS." It's pandemonium with fire trucks, neighbors, an ambulance, etc. AMBER (cont'd) Mom! Mom!? MOMMMM! Loretta runs up to Amber as TWO FIREMEN approach. FIREMAN #1 You family? LORETTA No, she's just screamin' "Mom, Mom!" kcause she's got Tourettes... She's Annette's kid, dipshit. AMBER (to Loretta) Is Mom okay? LORETTA She's alive, sweetie. AMBER Where is she?! LORETTA She's right over there. Camera pans over to see a semi-conscious Annette as they load her stretcher into the ambulance, shut the doors and start to pull away. Amber runs after them. AMBER Mommmm! I'll be right behind you in the hearse! LORETTA Don't let that worry you, Annette! EST. SHOT - FARMINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT INT. HOSPITAL - ANNETTE'S ROOM A DOCTOR, Amber and Loretta stand beside Annette, who's got an I.V., bandages and her LEFT HAND wrapped and ELEVATED. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So, doctor, is this sort of an unusual injury here? DOCTOR Oh you betcha, this was a doozy. Right now, our chief concern is to stabilize Annette, then, in surgery, remove this here. Removing BANDAGE to reveal BEER CAN, still held in her hand. AMBER Oh, Mom, it's so ugly. ANNETTE Ruined a brand-new pair of Lee Press- ons. (weak) Well, I sat down for a beer and KA- BLEWEY! Next thing I know, somethin' blows through my kitchen window. Next thing I know, I'm ass up in Loretta's flower bed. EXT. TRAILER PARK - DUSK SHAKY VIDEO of a 15 year-old rocker KID from the NECK ROCKER KID #1 (Beavis with a MN accent) Yah-dude, put another fuckin' book under it. ROCKER KID #2 (O.S.) Don't say "fuckin'." My ma's got the windows open. CAMERA MOVES, then steadies. We see all of Rocker Kid #1. Rocker Kid #2 runs into the shot with his guitar. ROCKER KID #2 (cont'd) kKay-dude, hurry. We gots like two fuckin' minutes left on the battery. ROCKER KID #1 A one...two...one-two-three... SUDDENLY Annette's' trailer EXPLODES behind them! Rocker Kids turn to see a BODY (Annette's) FLY through the air. ROCKER KIDS SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!! INT. HOSPITAL - ANNETTE'S ROOM ANNETTE (to Amber) I shoved your tap shoes in my jeans before I was blown outta the house, Honey. Check with the guy who cut my pants off. He should have kem. AMBER Mom, uh, about that...I-I'm-oh God... Amber starts to cry and runs out. ANNETTE Oh-Jesus-Mary-n-Joseph, she's pregnant! (calling after her) If you are - come back, sweetie. Mommy wants to talk, then KILL YOU! LORETTA (running after Amber) Annette, why don't you just see if there's any beer left in that can and relax a bit. INT. HOSPITAL - HALLWAY - NIGHT Loretta and Amber face off. LORETTA You're what?! AMBER I-I'm quittin' the pageant. LORETTA I heard you, I was just tryin' to scare you into changin' your mind. Oh for Chrissakes, Amber, the woman clung to your tap shoes while flyin' through the air like a Goddamn lawn dart! AMBER Oh God, I'm dead... A candy striper approaches them. CANDY STRIPER Hey, lil' Miss Sad-pants and her friend Serious Sally, how kbout some nice cool mints to turn those frowns upside-down. "S." LORETTA (to candy striper) D'ya think a nice cool mint'd help if I shoved your head up your ass? Fear sweeps over the Candy Striper - she bolts down the hall! Loretta puts an arm around Amber and starts to walk down the opposite direction. AMBER So, what do I say? LORETTA Simple. Just say, "Mom, I know you sacrificed everything - relationships, dreams - your tummy, ass and thighs - all to bring me into this world. All so I could have tap lessons and be in the pageant - the same one you were in. But, y'know what? I'm quittin'." There. Easy as pie. AMBER Oh my God. I'm so dead... LORETTA Yeah, you betcha... INT. HOSPITAL - ANNETTE'S ROOM - NIGHT Follow Amber in past the now crying candy striper. ANNETTE (throwing mints) Go on! Get out! AMBER Mom, look, don't say anything. First of all, I'm not pregnant. Amber sits on the bed. Annette grabs her shirt. AMBER (cont'd) Mom! ANNETTE I ain't lettin' go ktil you tell me what's up. I'm reaching' a point where I'd kill someone for the nicotine on their fingernails. AMBER (deep breath) Okay. Yesterday I...I got this picture. So I kinda, y'know, I'm thinkin' no. I'm gonna, I-I-I'm gonna quit the pageant. ANNETTE What?! She hits Amber with her beer-canned hand. AMBER Ow! ANNETTE (to camera) Would yous boys excuse us a second? Loretta, you too. JUMP CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL - ANNETTE'S ROOM SHOT THROUGH the window. Amber paces around Annette's bed. AMBER Nice mouth you got there, Mom, but I- I'm not goin' through this again. ANNETTE You're not goin' through this again? You? You're not the one who knows how Jiffy Pop feels. AMBER Oh, c'mon... First the picture of Tammy, then Brett Clemens, now this? It's scary. ANNETTE Let me tell you "scary," Amber. Look at me. Do you wanna look like you been rode hard and put away wet at my age? I'm a "lifer" here. Best I can hope for is to end up in a descent "raisin ranch" where they'll change me twice a day. AMBER That's it, I'm goin'... ANNETTE Honest to God, if I got to do it over? I'd start walkin' outta this town the minute I took my first step. Practically the only thing I wouldn't do different is have you... Amber sits on the bed. AMBER God I hope that's you and not your concussion talkin'. ANNETTE (smiling) It's me...I just don't want this to be the thing you'd do over. This pageant's your ticket outta here. I know you can win, Amber. ANNETTE (cont'd) C'mere. I love you so much. AMBER I love you much. Annette hugs Amber. INT. HOSPITAL - HALLWAY - NIGHT Follow a jubilant Amber and Loretta. LORETTA Hell-no, she ain't quittin'. AMBER No. Mom said if I did, she'd look up my dad and marry him. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So has your mom kept your dad's life a secret? AMBER No. She never hid the fact that my dad picked his career over us. What'd she used to say? LORETTA "Once a carnie, always a carnie." AMBER Oh-yah. EXT. MOUNT ROSE STREET - MORNING The twin officers lean against their car. TWIN OFFICER #1 The Atkins fire? Foul play? Shit-no. After some thorough investigatin', we determined it musta been a bad wirin'. Mosta them trailer-folk plug a TV, VCR, crock pot and Fry-daddy into one outlet and don't think nothin' of it ktil KABLEWEY! TWIN OFFICER #2 (taking a pinch of Skoal) Not enough left to fill a tin. INT. HOSPITAL - ANNETTE'S ROOM - DAY Annette is in bad shape. The candy striper nervously stands beside her, holding a syringe. ANNETTE "Bad wirin'?!" Well, if that ain't the biggest crock-a-shit ever. (turning on the candy striper) Ooowwww-Jesus! Did K-Mart have a sale on dull needles? CANDY STRIPER I-I just need one more "do-over." EXT. MOUNT ROSE V.F.W. Follow the contestants up to the door. INT. MOUNT ROSE V.F.W. - MAIN HALL A smokey room with DRUNKEN VETS at the bar and CONTESTANTS, in Sunday best, crowded around some tables. They couldn't seem more out of place. INT. MOUNT ROSE V.F.W. - MAIN HALL SUPER: JUDGES INTERVIEWS - 3 DAYS BEFORE THE PAGEANT GLADYS So, remember the three most important parts of a good interview... IRIS Okay, everybody, listen up! GLADYS Number one, American Teen Princess' don't cross their legs like streetwalkers. The girls put their knees together. GLADYS (cont'd) Excuse me, Miss Penthouse Ninety- eight, put your knees together. (contestants laugh) I could drive a boat show in there. Gladys paces. GLADYS (cont'd) Ankles together. Hands resting lightly on your laps. Good. Sit up straight. Smile! JUMP CUT TO: INT. MOUNT ROSE V.F.W. - MAIN HALL GLADYS All right. Number two: the judges are as nervous as you are. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM JUDGES - HAROLD, JOHN and JEAN KANGAS (Lester's secretary) sit at a table, clipboards in front of them, STARING at the camera. HANKS sits behind them, fidgeting. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So are you about ready to start the judging - start the interview, there? JOHN (after long beat) Uh, I-I guess I could answer that. Yep. We're ready. So, we should probably get the young girls in here, then. Y'know, to start the interviews... V.F.W. - BACK ROOM Tess enters, sits, then quickly remembers how to sit. Judges nervously look at their clipboards - pencils ready. HAROLD (trouble reading) Uh, "if you could be any tree in the woods, what kinda tree would you be?" TESS (long pause) Dogwood. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON MOLLY HOWARD, seated. MOLLY Bonsai. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON LESLIE, seated. LESLIE Green? V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON MICHELLE JOHANSON, seated. MICHELLE A tree? I can be any tree you want. Gimme a minute. She begins vocal and facial warm-up exercises. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON BECKY, seated. BECKY One with strong roots in a community like Mount Rose, a solid Christian trunk and long leafy branches to provide shade for handicapped kids on a hot summer day. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON LISA SWENSON, seated, staring for a long beat, then: LISA You guys know the retard's pants are open? (laughing) I don't want to see that. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON THE JUDGES - Harold reads, John stares longingly. HAROLD "Who would you pick to be president, dead or alive?" PAN OVER to Molly Howard. MOLLY Uh, Emperor Hirohito. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON LESLIE, seated... LESLIE Brett Favre! V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON BECKY, seated. BECKY My mother, kcause she could solve world hunger with one of her blue- ribbon rhubarb pies, create world peace with one of her prayers and still find time to look beautiful...for my dad, Lester Leeman. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE John Dough drinks nervously from his water glass. JOHN D-do you like to swim? The other judges look at him, then at their clipboards trying to find this question. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON LISA SWENSON LISA Oh-yah, I love to swim. When I was in New York, I met Greg Louganis at one-a my brothers' shows... V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE Janelle, sings a long answer. The Judges look at each other confused and frustrated. JOHN What the hell is she trying to say? (yelling) Say it! JANELLE The ktards pants are completely off! The Judges turn and look at Hank. HAROLD Close up shop. Close up shop, Hank. HANK Harold! HAROLD Close up shop! V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE ON HAROLD HAROLD You Amber Atkins? AMBER (O.S.) Yes. Yes I am. Thank you, hello. All judges turn a page on their clipboards. HAROLD "Name and spell all the United States in alphabetical order." PAN OVER to a stunned Amber. AMBER Seriously? HAROLD (O.S.) Ah-yep. Amber can't believe what she's hearing. AMBER Well, ah...Alabama. A-L-A-B-A-M-A. Alaska. A-L-A-S-K-A. Arizona. A-R-I- Z-O-N-A. V.F.W. - BACK ROOM - MONTAGE AMBER West Virginia. W-E-S-T-V-I-R-G-N-I-A. Wisconsin. W-I-S-C-O-N-S-O-N. Wyoming. W-Y-O-M-I-N-G. Pan over to Judges. They can't believe it. Hank CLAPS retardedly. He loves her. HAROLD (looking at others) Uh-okay, then. INT. DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC - MARY'S ROOM A NURSE now stands beside Mary. MARY With two weeks until the pageant... (continued labored breaths) I was practicing my talent. Finishing my costume, brushing up on current events, and running eighteen miles a day on about four hundred calories. I was ready. The nurse gives her a hit of oxygen. Mary smiles and gives a THUMBS UP from behind the oxygen mask. DRESSING ROOM - HALLWAY PAN DOWN long, narrow room. A counter, with mirrors and bare bulbs, cover one wall. Girls set up their areas and change into their talent costumes. SUPER: DRESS REHEARSAL - DAY BEFORE THE PAGEANT IRIS Coupla things...Gladys wants to be sure we go in show order today. All right? So very important. Don't forget that. CUT TO: DRESSING ROOM - HALLWAY CLOSE ON LESLIE MILLER, in cheerleading uniform, standing beside small framed photos of her boyfriend on the counter. LESLIE (unusually serious) Oh-yah, really nervous. It's been about two months. I haven't told my boyfriend yet. How did you know? DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) I meant, nervous about the pageant? LESLIE (suddenly perky) Oh! Nervous about the pageant! Yah sure! She kisses a photo and GIGGLES. CUT TO: DRESSING ROOM - HALLWAY CLOSE ON BECKY holding a sequin-covered poodle skirt and sweater. BECKY There are eight thousand sequins and fifteen hundred beads on the skirt, alone. My mom and Mrs. Lopez make it. She's one of my father's many Mexican (Me'hee'kan) workers he lifts from the poverty they know in Mexico (Me'heek'koe). CUT TO: DRESSING ROOM - HALLWAY CLOSE ON AMBER ATKINS at the far end of the counter. AMBER Yah-my ma's clothes all melted onto mine forming like this big polyester meteor in our closet, y'know? But, in some kinda weird miracle, our neighbor boy, Kenny Johanson, found my tap costume on the roof-a their trailer while he was settin' coon traps for his dad. Here's the weird part. It was still on the hanger. DRESSING ROOM - HALLWAY CLOSE ON TESS WEINHAUS wearing "I love German Shepherds" sweatshirt, standing beside various trinkets. TESS And, uh, this is my lucky bolt. They think it fell from a DC-10. The doctor said I was lucky the flat side hit me, um, otherwise it coulda gone right through my head. (holds up red tap dress) I know, I know, gives me the willies, too. I guess the explosion... Janelle Betz, wearing a flowing, nymph-like dress with ballet slippers, glides up to Amber. JANELLE (slow, due to signing) Amber? Can we switch numbers? I need to go first. (smiling to camera) My cousin just had a deaf baby and I get to go see it! AMBER Yah-sure, eight's my luck number anyway. Diane Sawyer was number eight at her local. JANELLE Thank you. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - DAY ON STAGE "Through the Eyes of Love" plays as Janelle performs her INTERPRETATIVE DANCE while signing the words. In the f.g., Gladys appears very serious. GLADYS (loud whisper) I'll be honest. This is a hard time for me. This is the part of the pageant when you realize that tomorrow night, all but one of these girls will walk out of here a loser. It's hard for me to know how that must feel, but I'm sure it doesn't feel good. In b.g., a BIG STAGE LIGHT FALLS on Janelle's head. CRASH! Gladys and CAMERA rush the stage. "Through the Eyes of Love" continues throughout. EXT. LORETTA'S TRAILER - PORCH - THAT NIGHT A very shaken Amber paces. AMBER Don't you get it? I was supposed to go first. I was contestant number one. That light was meant for my head. If Janelle hadn't wanted to change numbers... God, I owe my life to that deaf baby. Loretta enters, portable phone and drink in hand. LORETTA That was your mom. She wanted you to have this. AMBER (taking drink) Really, Loretta? LORETTA (avoiding eye contact) You-betcha. AMBER My mom wanted me to have this? LORETTA Oh, shut up. I thought it might help you get some sleep. AMBER Loretta, never have kids. LORETTA Well God-love-ya for thinkin' I still could. Loretta pulls a bag out of a closet and hands it to Amber. LORETTA (cont'd) Here, your ma did want you to have this since your other one got toasted and all. Amber pulls out an ELEGANT GREEN GOWN. AMBER Oh...my...God! It's just like Diane Sawyer's! kCourse it's not a size ten, Diane was a little hippy back then. Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! She hugs Loretta. EXT./INT. HIGH SCHOOL - MAIN ENTRANCE - NIGHT SUPER: NIGHT OF THE PAGEANT BANNER: "Welcome to the Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant, sponsored by Sarah Rose COSMETICS." The ENTIRE TOWN is excitedly entering. CLOSE ON Mr. and Mrs. Howard and their daughter Tina, who's embarrassed and continues to rant as they pass. All three wear T-shirts with MOLLY'S FACE on them. MR. HOWARD MRS. HOWARD Go Molly! Go! Number one daughter! Behind them Leslie Miller's boyfriend, PAT, and a group of ROWDY GUYS approach. PAT Whooo! Leslie kicks Teen Princess ass! Go Muskies! INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - DAY STAGE IS DARK. Crowd takes their seats. You can feel the electricity. We hear the TAPE of a DRUM ROLL. SPOTLIGHT hits center stage. Gladys enters wearing a gaudy gown, takes mic. Applause! GLADYS Welcome, welcome. Okay, alright, now. Is this for me or the gown? Laughter and applause trail off. GLADYS (cont'd) Welcome to the Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. While every contestant you'll meet tonight is special and unique, they all have one thing in common. They're all "Proud - to - be - an - American!" Wild applause! Jazzy patriotic medley tape. Gym doors fly open and like a Felliniesque Vegas review, CONTESTANTS enter wearing gowns and U.S. Monument Headdresses. They struggle to maintain balance as they dance, moving only their arms, on stage. CUT TO: Becky, whose head is built like another president into Mount Rushmore, is first at the mic. (The "dance" continues behind each contestant as she steps up to the mic.) BECKY I chose Mount Rushmore, because to live in a country where you can take an ugly old mountain and put faces on it, faces of great Americans, who did so much to make our country super great, well that makes me - Rebecca Leeman - PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - MONTAGE A MONTAGE of OPENING NUMBER INTRODUCTIONS ON LISA SWENSON wearing a Statue of Liberty Headdress. (It's a Barbie Doll that holds an unlit birthday candle.) LISA Living in a country where Lady Liberty keeps her flame burning bright. She reaches up with a lighter to light the candle. It's hard to reach and won't light. LISA (cont'd) Keeps her flame burning bright... INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - MONTAGE ON LESLIE MILLER as she seductively strokes the sides of her Washington Monument Headdress. LESLIE The Washington Monument... Guys WHOOP and CHEER O.S. LESLIE (cont'd) (enjoying this) ..makes me, Leslie Miller, proud to be an American. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - MONTAGE ON AMBER ATKINS with a MAP OF THE U.S. HEADDRESS, dances up to the mic. AMBER Living in a country where no matter who you are or where you come from, you can grow up and become what you've always dreamed of, makes me, Amber Atkins, proud to be an American! INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - MONTAGE ON MOLLY HOWARD wearing an Atomic Blast at Hiroshima Headdress. MOLLY Atomic power makes me, Molly Howard, proud to be an Asian-American. As she steps away from the mic, Tess Weinhaus, wearing a huge ball of twine headdress, dances up to the mic. TESS Uh, this, uh, my Uncle Phil's World's Largest Ball of Twine, in Bundy Minnesota, makes me, um, it makes me proud I'm American - I kinda misunderstood the assignment. The ball of twine falls to the floor and rolls off the stage, still attached at one end to her head. BACKSTAGE - DRESSING ROOM Pandemonium! Contestants change into their "Physical Fitness" outfits. (T-shirts with red flags, shorts) Civil Servettes try to help. A LARGE PICTURE of Janelle Betz sits at her counter space. IRIS Okay, okay! Listen-up. Coupla notes from last night's dress rehearsal. (off clipboard) Number one, Gladys says a coupla yous are gettin' sexy with your hips durin' the "Physical Fitness" routine... AMBER Oh my God! My-my tap costume's gone. Commotion stops. Becky continues to get ready. IRIS Uh, Amber? We're not puttin' on our Talent costumes. You need to put on your "Physical Fitness" outfit. And let's shake a leg, ladies. AMBER No, wait. It-it was here before the openin' number...wait. What am I sayin'? I should just ask you, Becky. Where is it? Becky freezes, staring daggers at Amber. BECKY What? AMBER You heard me. Where is it? The other contestants slowly clear a path between them. BECKY If you're gettin' at somethin', you better just say it. AMBER I just did. BECKY Well then, you better be willin' to back it up, kcause you're talkin' like crazy. They start to slowly circle each other - a cat fight's brewin'. AMBER Oh-oh, you bring me some of that snotty attitude, Becky - bring it on. BECKY Well, as my mother says at Sunday dinner, "Come and get it," bitch! AMBER Oh, I'll "get it." I'll "get it" all right. I might even take seconds. They're moving ever closer... BECKY If you want seconds, then I'll make sure it's hot enough for ya. AMBER Bitch! IRIS (stepping between them) Girls! Girls! BECKY Give me your stringy-ass hair! AMBER I'll get you! CREW GUY (O.S.) (barely audible) Oh God, don't stop kem now... BECKY You're choking my, you fucking bitch! IRIS (putting hand over camera) Y'know, I-I don't think yous boys should, uh, should be in here while the girls are changin'. AMBER I hate her! IRIS We all do. Now let's go. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Gladys is center stage. GLADYS Yah-so how kbout a big round of applause for last year's Mount Rose American Teen Princess, in a farewell performance. Who could forget her lip- synching to "Don't Cry Out Loud," by Melissa Manchester. And here she is, Mary Johanson! Applause! Gladys exits. TAPED MUSIC "It's My Turn." A NURSE pushes MARY JOHANSON out in her wheelchair, complete with portable oxygen. Mary wears a gigantic black wig and silver gown which hangs off her boney body. She moves her lips to the words as the nurse pushes her emotionally around the stage. EXT. GYMNASIUM - HALLWAY Contestants, in "physical fitness" outfits, wait outside the double doors, holding freshly painted red, white and blue step ladders. Becky and Amber stare at each other from opposite ends of the line. IRIS All right, why don't we take up the stepladders, all right? For the Physical Fitness number? BECKY (picking up her stool) They're wet. LISA Hey, my hands are stuck. MOLLY (sniffing) Uh, I'm kinda dizzy from the fumes. IRIS Well, hold kem away from you so it doesn't get on the outfits. (turning to Servettes) What kinda mental retard paints step ladders the morning of a pageant. ON STAGE Hank is being pulled off stage by Harold. Gladys adjusts her dress, frazzled. HANK (under throughout) Here come the judge - pinch, pinch - here come the judge - pinch, pinch - here come the judge... GLADYS Get back! Get back, you total retard! LORETTA Go Hank! GLADYS I'm okay, I'm okay - dress is fine. I'm okay...well, our other judges are Jean Kangas and John Dough... EXT. GYMNASIUM - HALLWAY Iris and Servettes go in the gym as Chloris Klinghagen comes out. CHLORIS (loud whisper) Opening number looked, uh, good. Solid. But now you're gonna have to actually dance, so... (holds up jar of Vaseline) Here. Put a dab of this on the old choppers, ladies. It'll help you smile. And when they're lookin' at your teeth - God willin' - they won't be lookin at your feet. Chloris gives Amber the jar and exits. From the gym, we hear TAPED PATRIOTIC MUSIC. Contestants CHEER and run in. "PHYSICAL FITNESS" ROUTINE - PATRIOTIC MUSIC As cuts of patriotic dance moves progress, the girls have more and more red, white and blue paint smeared on their clothes, arms and legs. Amber's clearly the best. Taped music ENDS. Contestants, covered with paint, strike a final pose - sitting on ladders, standing, kneeling. Applause. BACKSTAGE - WALKWAY Contestants wait anxiously as they pass a can of TURPENTINE and a RAG to remove paint from their arms and legs. BECKY Hurry up. LESLIE Okay, guys, I think we all got some. You just take it off. AMBER Here, I didn't get any. LESLIE Here, have some. MICHELLE Hand me another white one. LISA Listen, you guys, don't go int the bathroom. Tess blew chunks all over. Man, she ate a big dinner. BECKY Maybe she shoulda shoved that lucky bolt down her throat for desert. Becky storms off. AMBER (sotto, to other girls) And the winner of the "Spirit" award goes to... Girls laugh quietly. Iris pulls a dazed and confused Tess - beg wet spot on her shirt - through the shot. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Iris stands center stage, awkwardly holding the mic. IRIS (reading from notecard) "I'd like to take you back seventeen years, when a peanut farmer was in the White House, a group-a boys callin' themselves kQueen' topped the record charts and Gladys Leeman was Gladys Wood and she was Mount Rose American Teen Princess!" Gladys enters wearing sash, tiara and plaid culottes. Applause. A SLIDE is shown of her at 17. GLADYS (taking mic) Thank you, thank you. You know, I won the talent contest by sewing these culottes, Butterick pattern 7-4-3-2. Can you believe it? They still fit! LORETTA She had a big ass then, she's got a big ass now. GLADYS (pausing for applause) Thank you, thank you. Our next eontestant is ready, so let's welcome her: Tess Weinhaus! APPLAUSE. Tess is pushed on stage. BACKSTAGE - LEFT Amber paces. ON STAGE Tess drones on at the mic. TESS (in the b.g. throughout) The beagle is known for it's howl. "Aaauuuuuhhhh." The Pekinese has it's own distinctive bark. "Yip, yip, yip." Not to be confused with the Chihuahua's, "Yap, yap, yap." But none can compare to the greatest bark of all - the German Shepherd... AMBER (to camera, loud whisper) ...Yah-it's just gone... (eyes welling up) I mean, I-I just wanna tap, y'know? I'm not sayin' I'm the best, or that I'd even win, but shouldn't I at least get a chance to compete? (starting to sob) I just wanted my Mom to see me dance. CHLORIS KLINGHAGEN enters, small bag in hand. CHLORIS (loud whisper) Amber - Amber, c'mere. AMBER Please, Mrs. K, I got so much Vaseline on my teeth, I'm gonna be smilin' for a year. CHLORIS No. Here. Chloris pulls a simple BLACK LEOTARD from the bag. CHLORIS (cont'd) It's nothin' special, but talent like yours doesn't need to hide behind sequins. AMBER Mrs. K-- CHLORIS You're... you're special and... Ah hell, go out there and kick some Leeman ass. Amber, overcome with joy, gives her a big hug. CHLORIS (cont'd) Not so hard, sweetie. I heard somethin' snap... INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM ON STAGE: Leslie Miller, in uniform, performs an amazingly sexy cheer as TWO SINGLET-CLAD WRESTLERS wrestle (One is boyfriend, Pat.). LESLIE Roll him over -- (clap, clap, clap) Lay him flat (clap, clap, clap) Pin his shoulders (clap, clap, clap) To the mat (clap, clap, clap) Roll him over, lay him flat, pin his shoulders, to the mat! Yeahhhh! She JUMPS, KICKS and ends with SPLITS. APPLAUSE! JUMP CUT TO: INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - LATER Michelle Johanson is on stage, sitting on a stool, wearing all black. She smiles warmly. Then, with one sweep of her hand across her face, her smile drops. She's dead serious. MICHELLE (without emotion) Fade in...Earth. The year is two- thousand twenty-four. The question on everyone's mind: What is...Soylent Green? She sweeps her hand back across her face and she's "in character," pained, near death, and overly dramatic. BACKSTAGE - LEFT - CONTINUOUS Amber, now in the leotard, talks to Iris. Michelle performs from "Soylent Green" in the b.g. AMBER (loud whisper) Mrs. Clark, why are you doing this to me? Why're you pretendin' you don't know what's goin' on? IRIS Amber, I'm sorry. I really am. But you know the rules. All talent costumes hafta be okay'd by Gladys before the pageant. AMBER But, doesn't someone taking your costume so you can't compete, overrule that rule? IRIS Sorry. I-I don't make the rules. AMBER This, this... This is bullshit! IRIS Amber Atkins! That is not American Teen Princess language! AMBER Good, kcause this isn't an American Teen Princess Pageant - it's, it's Nazi Germany! Amber storms off. IRIS (shaking head) Where do they get this stuff... INT. BACKSTAGE CAMERA FOLLOWS AMBER as she storms over to BACKSTAGE - RIGHT where Gladys watches Michelle ON STAGE. AMBER Mrs. Leeman? GLADYS (turning) Huh? AMBER I-I'm wearin' this costume. I'm, uh, I'm gonna do my talent tonight. GLADYS Oh really - I don't think so. (suddenly aware of camera) Uh, Amber, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but rules state that a costume must be okay'd at least a week in advance. And this... (pointing to costume) This is why we have the rule. My goodness gracious, I couldn't allow a neckline this low on stage. We have kids in the audience. AMBER But, you - I mean... It's not my fault. I-I... Please? I didn't do anything wrong... Amber starts to cry. MICHELLE (climaxing) That's why... I must say... (raising arm upward) Soylent Green... is... people. She doubles over. She's given it all. APPLAUSE. GLADYS Oops, that's my cue. Gladys starts out on stage as Molly Howard, dressed like a red, white and blue cowboy, runs up next to Amber. She's twirling toy guns on her fingers. MOLLY Wish me luck. AMBER (drying her eyes) Good luck, Molly. One of Molly's guns flies off her finger. She goes to retrieve it. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Molly is line dancing, occasionally taking "pretend" shots into the air. It's incredibly repetitive and dull. BACKSTAGE - CARL'S "LIGHT AND SOUND" BOOTH - CONTINUOUS As Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart" PLAYS in b.g., Carl, the janitor, sets plastic army figures on fire with a cigarette lighter. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Gladys is center stage. Molly Howard walks off crying, having just finished her routine. POLITE APPLAUSE. She's still spinning her guns, again one goes flying. GLADYS Thank you, Molly. INT. HIGH SCHOOL/STAIRWELL - DRESSING AREA Lisa, top hat, tails, giant "I LOVE NY" button - and others try to console a CRYING Amber. Becky continues singing O.S. LISA (arm around Amber) Oh, Amber... AMBER (can't catch breath) I-I-I-I-I-, j-uh-j-uh-just wanted to compe-e-e-e-ete. LISA I can't believe this is happenin'. I can't believe she said you couldn't... Getting an idea, Lisa starts to take off her jacket. LISA (cont'd) Amber? Here. AMBER (still sobbing) "Here," wh-wh-what? LISA My jacket. Take it kcause, y'know, I got my costume okay'd before the pageant. You can wear it. MICHELLE Oh man, Lisa, I wouldn't do this. LESLIE (to Lisa) They're never gonna let you perform naked. I asked. LISA Shut up, yous guys. Look, Amber, I'm not gonna win. And let's be honest, a family only needs one "Liza" and you know Peter's got much better legs than me. AMBER Your parents'd kill you. LISA Oh c'mon, I love kem, but you know they only had me kcause Peter needed a kidney. AMBER Lis, I want to, I really do, but... Oh, I can't. LISA Then do it for Peter. Mrs. Leeman used to call him a "skinny little fag" when he'd bag her groceries. He'd pop his Nancy-belt if his old jacket somehow, I don't know, got her back. AMBER Yah? LISA Oh-you-beccha. Amber hugs her and takes the jacket. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - STAGE Gladys guides Molly off the stage. GLADYS Now, it's with overwhelming pride that I introduce contestant number six, who also happens to be president of her class - two years running - a member of the honor roll and the new President of the Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club - Rebecca Ann Leeman! STAGE GOES BLACK. SPOT HITS BECKY, who sits at the edge of the stage, holding a mic. She's head to toe sequins in her poodle skirt, sweater, saddle shoes, etc. BECKY (talking over music) I don't know how many of you know this, but I've got a very special fella in my life - that's right, I do... And if nobody minds, I'd like to sing a little song, just for him. SPOT FOLLOWS as Becky stands and walks center stage to what appears to be a COVERED MANNEQUIN. TAPED INTRO TO "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You." BECKY (cont'd) You're just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off of you. You'd be like Heaven to touch. I wanna hold you so much. At long last love has arrived and I thank God I'm alive. Becky removes the sheet, revealing a MANNEQUIN dressed like JESUS as he appeared on the cross: long hair, beard, crown of thorns, loincloth. The ARMS ARE STUFFED so they move freely. (Hands of stigmata.) BECKY (cont'd) You're just to good to be true. Can't take my eyes off of you... Becky TALK-SINGS - a la William Shatner's "Rocket Man" - and DANCES around the Jesus mannequin doing the jitter- bug, the twist and a slow dance (his arms on her shoulders). DURING THE SLOW DANCE, THE LOIN CLOTH SLIPS AND BECKY MUST HOLD IT UP - GIVING THE APPEARANCE OF GRABBING HIS CROTCH. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - BACKSTAGE Iris approaches Lisa who's given her outfit to Amber. IRIS C'mon, Lisa. You're up next. LISA I quit. And, uh, since my costume, y'know, was okay'd a month ago? I'm givin' it to Amber. Amber breaks a smile. Taped music ENDS. APPLAUSE. Gladys, mic in hand, joins Becky for a big hug. GLADYS Boy, I'd hate to follow that. Wow! Becky exits, pulling the wheeled Jesus behind her. GLADYS (cont'd) Voice of an angel, that one. Iris runs self-consciously out on stage, whispers in Gladys' ear, then runs back off stage. GLADYS (cont'd) ...Uh, I was just told that contestant number seven, Lisa Swenson, has quite the pageant. CROWD REACTS. GLADYS (cont'd) Well, these things happen. At any rate, we still have one more contestant - number eight, Amber Atkins. Gladys exits. A taped hip, hot DRUM BEAT starts. Suddenly, Amber glides into CENTER SPOT. (Now wearing Lisa's costume, sleeves rolled up.) Her feet burst into an amazing routine. The loud drum beats seem to fly from her hands and feet as they punctuate the rhythm. There's no glitz, just unbelievable skill. It appears effortless as she floats around stage. Like watching Michael Jackson moon walk for the first time, you can't take your eyes off her. She concludes, center stage, with the GREATEST THIRTY SECONDS OF HER LIFE. The audience goes WILD! Amber takes bow after bow - they love her. Gladys enters quickly, mic in hand. GLADYS (cont'd) Okay, okay, okay! Well, now, it's finally time to say good-bye to our judges, so they can go make the toughest decision of their lives. PAN TO JUDGES. They look nervous as hell. A relaxed Hank sniffs from a paint soaked bag. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CLASS ROOM - NIGHT Judges stare nervously at the camera - clip boards in front of them. Hank's LOUD BREATHING from the paint soaked bag is obviously getting on John's nerves. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So who get's the crown? How are you going to figure this all out? JOHN Uh, we're gonna, y'know, compare scores and uh, figure out a-a winner. kCause we don't know the winner yet... I mean, I-I don't know who Jean and Harold picked. No idea. Did Gladys send you in here? HANK I know the winner! I know the winner! I know the winner! JOHN No you don't! Shut your goddamn mouth, you son-of-a-bitch!! Nerves shot, John suddenly LAUNCHES himself across the table at Hank. HAROLD Wait a second. JOHN You shut it! You goddamn retard! Hank freezes, then starts to wail! HANK EE-AAAYEEEE-AAAAYOUIAAAEEEEEEEE! HAROLD Come on! Hankey here can't help it if he was born crazier than a shithouse rat! Hank stops crying and goes back to the bag. JOHN For fuck's sake, why didn't ya leave him with a sitter? Hank begins crying again. HAROLD Real nice. You know the sitter's dead. DISSOLVE TO: BACKSTAGE - DRESSING ROOM Girls, in gowns, sit in silence. Becky and Amber sit at opposite ends of the room. There's obvious tension. LESLIE So, anyone talk to Janelle? AMBER Yah-I brought her some flowers this morning. She's in the room next to my mom. She's super happy. Girls ad-lib SHOCK. TESS She's happy? LESLIE Why happy? AMBER (cont'd) Oh -- the blow to her head made her deaf... Girls ad-lib "Oh, I see. Okay-then." etc. Another LONG BEAT of SILENCE follows. Becky gets up to re-touch her make-up. BECKY (losing it) Oh, good Lord! What're they doin'? Lettin' the retard count votes?! Contestants stare at her in shock. Iris enters. IRIS It's time, ladies. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM Judges are back. Gladys is center stage. Girls enter and form a line behind her. TAPED AMERICAN MEDLEY STARTS. GLADYS Welcome back, everyone. Judges. Our Second Runner-up and winner of a fifty- Taped fanfare. Leslie bounds forward, grabs her trophy, stands to one side. PAT (O.S.) You rule, Leslie! Audience laughs. Leslie waves. GLADYS Our next prize, a seventy-five dollar scholarship -- Audience ad-libs amazement. GLADYS (cont'd) ...will be awarded to the First Runner- up. Taped DRUM ROLL. Contestants (except Becky) take hands. Iris gives Gladys an envelope and trophy. GLADYS (cont'd) And the First Runner-up is - (opening envelope, face drops) Contestant number eight, Amber Atkins. Ad-lib audience shock and disbelief. Contestants are stunned. Amber steps forward, humbly takes the trophy and stands beside Leslie. Audience finally quiets. GLADYS (cont'd) And finally, the moment I know I've been waiting for... Iris hands Gladys a LARGE TROPHY and envelope. Mary Johanson is wheeled out wearing sash and tiara. GLADYS (cont'd) With a scholarship of five-hundred dollars, courtesy Leeman Furniture, and all expenses paid for next weekend when she'll be competin' for the title of Minnesota American Teen Princess... Taped drum roll. Gladys opens the envelope. GLADYS (cont'd) Our new Mount Rose American Teen Princess is contestant number - ah heck, she's my daughter - number seven, Rebecca Ann Leeman! Polite audience applause. Becky rushes forward. Gladys RIPS the tiara and sash off Mary, places them on Becky. BECKY Oh, thank you so much! AUDIENCE Loretta and Annette watch on. ANNETTE Shit. INT. HIGH SCHOOL - GYM - STAGE The ELDERLY MAN/MAYOR, from earlier scene, enters and sings to a tape as Becky takes her victory walk. ELDERLY MAN/MAYOR (tune of "Miss America") "Here she is, Our Mount Rose American Teen Princess. Look at her, doesn't she look fine. Our hearts swell big, as we look at her. Our Mount Rose American Teen Princess." EXT./INT. HIGH SCHOOL - LATER AMBULANCE pulls up. Mary Johanson, unconscious, slumped in wheelchair, is brought out and put in. Amber and Loretta wheel Annette out. Paramedics put her in, too. ANNETTE We was robbed. LORETTA Okay. Take her purse. AMBER Bye mom. ANNETTE We was robbed. AMBER It's okay. JUMP CUT TO: EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - MOMENTS LATER Amber faces camera as ambulance pulls away. AMBER Oh, Mom's okay. They're just givin' her a ride back. She almost blew outta the back of Loretta's pick-up on the way over. LORETTA Thank God for bunge cords. JUMP CUT TO: EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - MOMENTS LATER AMBER (tearing up) ...Yah-well, at least, y'know, I got to perform. And Mom got to see me. (crying) I guess number eight only worked for Diane Sawyer... Loretta puts her arm around Amber. They walk off as Leslie and Pat approach. LESLIE Hey-hey, I'm Second Runner-up! Whooo! I got second place! PAT Third. LESLIE Huh? Lisa passes by with her parents. They look pissed. LISA No, it was worth it. Amber shoulda won. LISA'S FATHER I'll tell ya one thing. Peter never woulda pulled a shenanigan like that. LISA Well, y'know what, dad? Y'know what? Peter's gay! She runs off. Her parents stop DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS. LISA'S FATHER What?! DISSOLVE TO: INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CLASS ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON BECKY'S FACE. Flashes illuminate it. With each photo she changes her smile and expression. She loves this. PULL BACK to reveal two older men, with old-style news cameras, flash pictures. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) So, how does it feel to be the new Mount Rose American Teen Princess, Becky? OLDER MEN turn and look at camera, then take out a pen and note pad. BECKY Well, it's all happenin' so fast. Goodness-gracious, it hardly seems real, y'know? I mean, I won! I'm the winner! I'm going to State! GLADYS She's the winner and we're going to state. INT. MOUNT ROSE HIGH - GIRL'S BATHROOM - DAY Fry Girl #1 and Pregnant Fry Girl smoke. FRY GIRL #1 What a surprise. Gladys Leeman's finally gonna go to State. And she'll probably ride on Becky's ass all the way to Nationals, too. PREGNANT FRY GIRL I wonder how she's gonna fix that one. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Are you ladies going to the parade tomorrow? PREGNANT FRY GIRL Nah. I think I'm like, due or somethin'. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - NEXT DAY Beautiful sunny day. Lester talks to camera. LESTER Ahhh. Beautiful as a whore's ass today. Eh, boys? In the b.g., Gladys holds a bullhorn, clipboard and points to a LARGE SWAN FLOAT. GLADYS (into bullhorn) Hey! Turn that float around. You think a swan's gonna swim ass first up Main Street? LESTER Yah-Gladys had me order that swan special made from Mexico (Me'hee'koe) in case Becky won. I do a lotta business with those people. I always offer to pay kem in tacos. (laughing) Whoo, they love that. EXT. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - LATER Entire town lines the road. The Mayor and the Leman family stand behind the red ribbon. Parade PARTICIPANTS are lined up behind them. MAYOR (into bullhorn) Yah-hello-hello...shit! How the fuck do ya work this damn thing, huh? Oh. Welcome to our first ever American Teen Princess Parade - which also happens to be the unveiling of our new sewer system! CHEERS! Becky cuts the ribbon. More CHEERS! MAYOR (cont'd) Yah-so, while Becky gets on her float, then, any questions kbout the new sewer? Yah, Clem? JUMP CUT TO: EXT. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - LATER THE PASSING PARADE: - THREE FAT VETS, dressed as the Revolutionary War trio, hold American, Minnesota and POW/MIA flags. - TWO BATON TWIRLERS stand in front of the Mount Rose High School Band. They play - way off key. - JUDGES wave from a convertible. Hank, in passenger's seat, struggles to get out. His seatbelt prevents it. - TWO GRUNGY OLD CLOWNS smoke impatiently. - TWO FAT WHITE MEN, dressed as Indians, sit on scooters. - FAT MAN drives a riding lawnmower, pulling a flatbed with A SPEEDBOAT and a FISHING CAMP GROUP. - FARMER pulls a goat with a sign: "Milk Me for $1.00" - A BRIGADE of tap dancing BASSOONISTS. EXT. MOUNT ROSE - STREET Harold and Hank pull over and park their truck. Harold quickly gets out, obviously in a hurry, slamming on a pouting Hank. HAROLD Let's get this straight right now. We wouldn't have been late at all if it wasn't for you. HANK I want to have the big bag of little donuts. HAROLD You get nothing, Hank, okay? HANK I want to get the big bag of little donuts. HAROLD There's your paint can. The next time you drink window cleaner, I'm just gonna leave it in ya. Harold rushes off for the parade, joining other folks carrying baskets, lawn chairs and flags on the sidewalk. JUMP CUT TO: EXT. MOUNT ROSE STREET - BACK TO DOCUMENTARY CAMERA PAN OVER to see Gladys helping Becky climb on the swan, unaware of camera. In b.g., DOCUMENTARY CREW interviews Amber and Leslie on their convertible behind the swan float. GLADYS C'mon, Rebecca, you wanted it. Now get up there. Ride it side-saddle if you have to - like a horse. C'mon, now. BECKY It smells funny. Like gasoline. GLADYS Oh for chrissakes, everything smells like that in Mexico. BECKY My dress'll reek. GLADYS Listen, little missy, this cost your dad a pretty penny. Now get your ass up there and show me some teeth. EXT. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - LATER Amber and Leslie, in gowns, look unhappy as they stare straight ahead, exhaust fumes - that appear to come from the swan's ass - cover them and their old convertible. LESLIE Amber, if I die from these fumes, will you be sure to cover the hickies on my neck? AMBER Yeah... LESLIE And the bite marks on my ears? AMBER (slowly turning) Yes... LESLIE I know it doesn't matter, but on my inner thighs. AMBER Yes, Leslie! EXT. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - LATER Hank rubs his head, then angrily gets out of the truck, SLAMMING THE DOOR ON ONE OF THE SUSPENDERS ON HIS OVERALLS. He starts to walk, but can't, eventually leaning out from the truck - only moving his arms as if walking. EXT. MOUNT ROSE SIDE STREET - LATER Hank, still stuck in the door, is being teased by a GROUP OF KIDS who poke at him with flags and sticks. ANOTHER LITTLE KID taunts him with his cotton candy - keeping it just out of his reach. Hank bats at them like Frankenstein and the torch wielding townsfolk. EXT. MOUNT ROSE SIDE STREET - LATER Hank, still stuck in the door, holds the little kid by the back of the shirt in one hand and eats the kid's cotton candy with the other. The kid struggles to get away. A few BROKEN FLAGS are scattered on the ground. HANK Help...Hank! Help...Hank! Help...Hank! Help...Hank! ON SWAN FLOAT. Gladys approaches. GLADYS Okay, I designed the float, you know. And, what's gonna happen here is that this is going to look like a glistening lake beneath the swan. IRIS Uh, Gladys? GLADYS What! IRIS We need more bars! GLADYS This is -- what? IRIS Enid ate a whole pan! GLADYS I swear to God she can't do anything by herself. EXT. MOUNT ROSE MAIN STREET - LATER AMBER (to camera) Oh-yah, this is exactly how I pictured it. Chokin' on swan gas. Suddenly, like a gasoline soaked pinata, it EXPLODES! Gladys is thrown back. Flames. Screaming. PANDEMONIUM! Becky doesn't have a chance. She's a pink taffeta BALL OF FIRE. The swan's back eventually collapses taking Becky into it's burning belly. INTERCUT WITH MR. HOWARD'S VIDEO. Gladys watches in stunned silence as her daughter and only chance at State go up in flames. Suddenly, she CRACKS! GLADYS Oh my God! My Baby! The swan ate my baby! (grabbing at burning float) Ow-ow-ow! Get up, Rebecca! Get outta there! We've gotta go to State! Oh hot! (she scorches her blouse) Oh, damn. I like this blouse. Rebecca! Get up, angel face. Time to go to State! Ow-ow-ow! Eventually, Gladys tries to climb up on the float. Iris pulls her off. GLADYS (cont'd) Get offa me, you cow! Gladys spins and notices the silent CROWD. GLADYS (cont'd) What're you lookin' at? Huh? A whole God Damn town of losers! That's what I'm lookin' at! Crowd reacts. Gladys notices Amber and runs up to her car. GLADYS (cont'd) You! You piece-a-shit trailer trash! This shoulda been you! Damn, I shoulda killed you when I had the The crows reacts again. Gladys spins, noticing someone. Lester approaches. GLADYS (cont'd) Hey, Ted, sorry. I didn't know your family was in the garage when I set it on fire! LESTER Gladys! Stop it! GLADYS Guess it wasn't a garage sale as much as it was a bake sale. Ah- hahahahahahahaha! Lester tries to pull her away from the crowd. GLADYS (cont'd) Let go-a-me, you old bastard! She grabs a BURNING 2X4 off a float and starts swinging it. GLADYS (cont'd) At least you've got another daughter. CROWD GASPS. Then stunned SILENCE. CAMERA CIRCLES Gladys and Lester getting reaction shots of the crowd. LESTER So help me, Gladys. GLADYS Becky was my only shot at state! LESTER That's enough! GLADYS Let go! Let go of me. Oh my God, it's COPS! TWIN OFFICERS, followed by "COPS" TV CREW, run up and aggressively tackle Gladys. As the struggle on the ground continues, crew guys go over and shake hands with the "COPS" crew - obviously knowing them. GLADYS (cont'd) (pointing to Lester) He sells reproductions! His furniture's as fake as my orgasms! The COPS crew begins to mingle with the DOCUMENTARY crew. SCOTT Hey, man, how're you doin'? DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Hi! What's up, Scott? You remember Bruce, right? SCOTT Long time, no see. DOCUMENTARIAN (O.S.) Bruce, that's Roy. (they shake hands) Roy, Bruce. EXT. GRAVEYARD - DAY Lovely hillside. A PASTOR and TOWN FOLK - heads bowed - stand beside a FRESH GRAVE. PASTOR That's why, dear Lord, it's with such great sorrow that we turn over to you a young woman whose dream of ridin' on a giant swan brought about her untimely death. Maybe it's your way of telling us to buy American. EXT. GRAVEYARD - LATER The funeral is over. Amber, Loretta, Iris and Servettes awkwardly face each other beside the grave. Iris takes the PARTIALLY MELTED TIARA from the headstone. IRIS As, uh, actin' President of the Mount Rose Civil Servettes, it's my duty since Becky can't fulfill her duties - kcause she's dead-n-all - to make you Mount Rose American Teen Princess. She puts the TIARA on AMBER. Loretta FLASHES pictures. MALE REPORTER #1 Turn around and let me see. EXT. GRAVEYARD - LATER Annette, Amber (wearing her tiara) and Loretta are leaving the crowning ceremony. All are happy as they push an extremely drugged Annette out of the cemetery. LORETTA What is wrong with you? AMBER I don't know. I just didn't wanna win like this. LORETTA You stop right there. You are a good person. Good things happen to good people. AMBER Really? LORETTA No. It's pure bullshit, sweetie. You're lucky as hell, so you might as well enjoy it. Let's get you a root beer float. AMBER Okay. LORETTA Do you guys want some shots? I'm buyin'. EXT. LORETTA'S TRAILER - DAY Amber sits on the picnic table. In the b.g., Loretta exits her trailer with a FED-EX GUY. She pats his buns as he exits. She approaches Amber with a packet. AMBER (V.O.) I never liked her, but she didn't deserve to die in the belly of a swan like that. The whole thing's just kinda sad and lame at the same time. LORETTA (handing over packet) This came for you, sweetie. AMBER Ah! It's from State! Oh my God! Amber rips it open and holds up a color brochure with COLLEEN and TERRY in a glamour shot on the cover. AMBER (cont'd) (paging through packet) It's all the stuff I get to do. Oh my God, oh my God... Okay, okay... We get a "personal consultation" with a make- up artist -- Eeeh! Okay, um, there'll be a choreographer to the stars and, oh no -- No way. Oh... My... God! LORETTA What? For chrissakes, spit it out. AMBER I'll be stayin' overnight at... The Airport Howard Johnsons! LORETTA Right by the airport - Oh, Amber... AMBER There's an indoor swimming pool! Ahhhh! Loretta joins in the screaming. AMBER (cont'd) Oh crap - I only got four days. I gotta practice! EXT. LORETTA'S TRAILER - MORNING MONTAGE BEGINS over MUSIC. Amber emerges from Loretta's trailer, Pop Tart in mouth, book bag in hand. SMILES. WAVES. EXT. TRAILER PARK Taps her way down the road, out of the trailer park. INT. CAFETERIA - MONTAGE Amber scrapes trays. PAN DOWN. She wears tap shoes, practices her routine. INT. HOSPITAL - MONTAGE - DAY Amber walks around the room in high heels, balancing a bedpan on her head. INT. MORTUARY - MONTAGE Amber dances around the room, using a suit on a hanger as a partner. A naked old man is on the embalming slab, a sheet covering his nasties. EXT. LORETTA'S TRAILER - NIGHT In silhouette, Amber taps on the picnic table by the light of the FULL HARVEST MOON. DIP TO BLACK: EXT. AIRPORT HOWARD JOHNSONS - DAY WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK: "STATE FINALS" We look up at the towering Howard Johnsons and see a huge banner which reads: "WELCOME AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS, FRIED CLAM PLATTER $9.99." Suddenly, a 747, not more than thirty feet above the hotel, flies over - the sound is deafening. LORETTA All right, say "Airport Ho-Jo." AMBER Airport Ho-Jo! LORETTA I got it! Yeah, why don't ya take a Mr. Larson unloads Amber's luggage from the hearse. Loretta leans against it, arm around Amber, smoking and occasionally flipping off people who stop to stare at this unusual sight. AMBER Loretta, don't do that. LORETTA I'm sorry. They're just starin'. AMBER I gotta work with these women. LORETTA Okay, sweetie, that's all right. Let's go. Let's go. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA There's a fake tropical look, with loads of plastic palms, etc. CAMERA FOLLOWS Amber into area. BANNER: "STATE FINALS - SPONSORED BY THE MINNESOTA MODELING ACADEMY" Contestants (25) sit at tables, they seem more mature, more professional. Amber smiles and gives a little wave. Terry approaches Amber. TERRY And you are... AMBER Mount Rose American Teen Princess. TERRY Funny, you don't look dead. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA - MOMENTS LATER Colleen and Terry address the assembled contestants. SUPER: COLLEEN DOUGLAS AND TERRY MACEY - MINNESOTA AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS STATE BOARD AND OWNERS OF THE MINNESOTA MODELING ACADEMY COLLEEN Okay ladies, listen up. I'm Colleen Douglas and this raving beauty on my right -- TERRY I'm a mirror. COLLEEN Correction. This spunky monkey on my right is Terry Macey. And we are your Minnesota American Teen Princess State Board. TERRY We're also the co-founders of the Minnesota Modeling Academy. Applications are at the tiki bar. We'll wave the fifty dollar application fee if you list a friend and put her address. COLLEEN That's right. TERRY Okay? COLLEEN Mm-hm. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA Loretta, seated at the bar, puts her arm around a man next to her. LORETTA So...you're cute. Oh, I see you're married. (to bartender) You catch this in your mouth, I'll give you a present. All right? Open wide... (she throws the olive) Oh, God, you got that on the first try. Come here. Loretta kisses the bartender. LORETTA (cont'd) You are cute. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - COURTYARD STAGE AREA - DAY TERRY Due to budgetary cutbacks - and the fact that Nationals didn't cough up a damn nickel this year - you won't be stayin' overnight. So pay attention, you've got about eight hours until showtime. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - STAGE AREA - DAY A DISCO BEAT POUNDS from a boom box. Mr. Melchoir, the choreographer, watches contestants move in fast-paced crisscrossing formations. Amber is among them. Miss St. Paul screws up. MR. MELCHOIR Remember to count, ladies. Cross on the left and arms up on eight! On the beat! On the beat! Keep on it! Keep movin' it! C'mon, Miss Forest Lake, take that stick out of your ass or I will. All right. Very nice. Now come on, arms out. We're in the front row. Come on, sell it! That's very nice. Remember, figure eights, ladies... INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA - MOMENTS LATER Colleen and Terry smoke and drink at a tall tiki table that's covered with empties. In the b.g., a pageant worker passes out PINK BAGS to the contestants. All the while, TWO FAT KIDS play "Marco Polo" in the pool. COLLEEN (tipsy, holding up glass) I can sum up our entire philosophy with this glass. I look at it and say, "it's half full." Which, in the beauty pageant biz means, "Where the hell's my waiter!" She laughs hard, then spins around in her chair. COLLEEN (cont'd) (screaming) Stop with the fuckin' Marco-Polo before I rip your fat little heads off! INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - STAGE AREA - AUDIENCE CHAIRS A very mature Miss Burnsville talks to Amber who is staring at Miss Burnsville's supernaturally well- supported chest. MR. MELCHOIR Miss Burnsville, you're up next... JUMP CUT TO: INT. STAGE AREA - AUDIENCE CHAIRS - MOMENTS LATER Amber sits addressing the camera. Miss Burnsville is gone. AMBER Don't tell anyone, but, I have a little secret weapon of my own. Amber pulls out a jar of Vaseline from her purse and smiles innocently. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA - SHELLFISH BUFFET - DAY Contestants hungrily fill their plates with seafood. INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA - SHELLFISH BUFFET Amber stands beside the buffet, holding only a salad. AMBER I don't eat shellfish. Mom always says, "Don't ever eat nothin' that can carry its house around with it - who knows the last time it's been cleaned." She should know. JUMP CUT TO: INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - BAR AREA Amber eats at a tall tiki table with Miss Minneapolis. MISS MINNEAPOLIS ... I've done about thirty-five pageants. I guess my most memorable one'd have to be Miss Teen America, 1995. It was in Vegas. My roommate did Adam West. SUPER: MR. WEST WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT MISS MINNEAPOLIS (cont'd) She said he was sooo horny. Amber stares at her with wide-eyed disbelief. JUMP CUT TO: INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - STAGE AREA - DAY Amber watches four contestants in a row practice their talents. All are equally amazing. "THEME from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" starts. Miss Minneapolis steps ON STAGE - silver unitard, silver streamers, silver tap shoes. She starts a TAP ROUTINE that RIVALS AMBER'S. AMBER (whispering to camera) Oh my God. Look at her, she's awesome. I should just go home now. Terry and Colleen stand in front of the stage. TERRY Okay, okay, that's enough - I get it. SUDDENLY Miss Minneapolis FREEZES. MISS MINNEAPOLIS Oh - oh my God... (doubling over in pain) I gotta go! She runs off toward the RESTROOM. COLLEEN (calling after her) Well, you're gonna have to do somethin' with those nerves before Nationals. Thirty-million people aren't gonna wait while you run to the john. Other waiting contestants suddenly double over, ad- libbing "oh no! oh my God!" "I'm gonna puke!" etc. More contestants grab their bellies. NEWS FOOTAGE: INT. HOWARD JOHNSONS - MORE FOOTAGE FEMALE REPORTER (hand on earpiece) Today, a beauty pageant turned ugly. A salmonella dysentery outbreak, now traced to improperly refrigerated shellfish, was believed to be the cause. Joining us now is David Richardson, a member of the documentary crew filming the pageant. He was there when tragedy struck. TELEVISION SET CREW GUY Fuckin' beauty queens blowin' chunks everywhere. I've never seen anything like it before, and I live in L.A. (laughs) Hey, Ed. FEMALE REPORTER #2 Can you tell us any thing about the controversy? Is there a controversy here? Has there been sabotage? Follow REPORTER as she runs over to Amber, Colleen and Terry. All three look dazed. Reporters SHOUT questions. COLLEEN (with forced sobriety) People, people - wait, wait a minute, here. Uh, while we haven't ruled out sabotage from neighboring state pageants - Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota... TERRY Yeah. COLLEEN Dakota. TERRY Ohio... COLLEEN That bitch from... TERRY What? COLLEEN Wisconsin. TERRY All right, then. COLLEEN The bitch. TERRY The important thing is that we have a winner... PULL BACK to reveal we're: INT. MOUNT ROSE V.F.W. - BAR - NIGHT The mayor and other vets, watch Amber on the TV. COLLEEN (ON T.V.) And, on behalf of the Minnesota Modeling Academy, we proudly present Amber Atkins. Your new Minnesota American Teen Princess. The place ERUPTS in CHEER! ON TV: Terry sets a tiara on Amber's head. FLASHES. MAYOR Yah, ain't it just a kick in the fuckin' ass!?!? I'll be a snake's prick if tragedy and pageants ain't got a way of bringin' folks together... (directly at camera) Yous boys tell me when want me to start, okay? INT. HIGH SCHOOL - LIBRARY IONA Amber?! What-the-hell's goin' on around here? I'm Mount Rose American Teen Princess. Where the hell's my tiara? I bet those sneaky little Japs took it... INT. CAFE - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT Cathy and other townsfolk are glued to a small TV set on the counter. FEMALE REPORTER (ON T.V.) Amber, how do you feel? AMBER I, uh... I feel like... I, uh, I need a shower. Townsfolk laugh and cheer. CATHY Jesus-Mary-n-Joseph I hope Gladys Leeman hangs herself in her cell when she hears this. INT. WOMEN'S PRISON - REC ROOM ROUGH HAND HELD FOOTAGE. We see Gladys walking around, holding onto the back of a large black woman's belt. GLADYS Uh-huh. No, no. Gosh, no. You know I still don't want to be on camera... SUPER: PHONE INTERVIEW WITH GLADYS LEEMAN FROM MINNETONKA WOMEN'S FACILITY GLADYS (V.O. ON THE PHONE) Yah - I just wanna say - that little bitch better watch her back at Nationals kcause I'm makin' friends on the inside... Yah-friends who have friends on the outside... FEMALE PRISONER Get your sweet ass off the bunk, Cinnamon. GLADYS (V.O. ON PHONE) Gotta go. Click. DIAL TONE. EXT. LORETTA'S TRAILER - DAY Annette (left arm's been amputated and replaced with metal pincers which she hasn't mastered yet) sits at the picnic table with Amber and Loretta. Throughout the following, Annette struggles to open a beer can which keeps flying out of her pincers. (Handmade "congratulations" posters cover the lawn and trailer.) AMBER I just, I just can't believe it. I'm Minnesota's American Teen Princess! LORETTA Our baby's going to Nationals! Lincoln, Alabama - look out! AMBER I'm gonna be on TV! Just like Diane Sawyer. Annette opens a beer with a new HOOK replacing her hand. LORETTA Annette, just use your hand. ANNETTE They told me to practice. AMBER Okay, ready? Here's the signal I'm gonna give Ma when I'm on TV. Amber MIMES inhaling a cigarette and Annette embraces her. ANNETTE My little Carol Burnett. EXT. AIR FIELD In the middle of a corn field. The "runaway" is a gravel path cut between rows of corn. A FOUR-SEATER plane is on the runway, in front of a group of town folk with hand- made "good luck" signs. Amber (in Minnesota sash and tiara) and the Mayor stand beside the plane. (NOTE: The plane never moves.) EXT. AIR FIELD - LATER MAYOR (into bullhorn) Here she is, Minnesota's American Teen Princess - soon to be the next America's American Teen Princess - our little Amber! ZOOM IN ON AMBER as PEOPLE cheer Amber on. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. SARAH ROSE COSMETICS, NAT'L HEADQUARTERS - DAY A giant Sarah Rose Cosmetics logo on the wall greets Amber. SUPER: SARAH ROSE COSMETICS NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, LINCOLN, ALABAMA. The CONTESTANTS, including Amber, look around for the directory. It reads: FOR LEASE. A sign at the front of the building reads: SEIZED. SUPER: IN ITS FIFTIETH YEAR, SARAH ROSE COSMETICS WAS SEIZED BY THE IRS FOR TAX EVASION... As the CAMERA catches the reactions of our contestants - SUPER: THE SARAH ROSE COSMETICS AMERICAN TEEN PRINCESS PAGEANT WAS CANCELED... We STOP on MISS OKLAHOMA. She SCREAMS SUPER: ...PERMANENTLY EXT. SARAH ROSE COSMETICS, NAT'L HEADQUARTERS - DAY As the contestants run out the building... SUPER: BUT IN ITS PASSING WE ARE INSPIRED BY THE SPIRIT OF THE MANY YOUNG WOMEN WHO WERE ITS HEART AND SOUL... Contestants THROW and HURL suitcases and items through the glass of the building. SUPER: ...AND BY THE MANY WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN PURSUIT OF THE TITLE... The contestants TEAR DOWN the Sarah Rose Logo. DIP TO BLACK: EXT. CHASKA SCHOOL OF BEAUTY A very perky Leslie Miller, with very big hair, stands out front in a white lab coat. She smiles and waves to camera. SUPER: LESLIE MILLER ENTERED "THE CHASKA SCHOOL OF BEAUTY"... EXT. STRIP BAR - NIGHT A COLOR PHOTO of slightly less perky Leslie, wearing go- go boots and a smile, dances in a cage. SUPER: SHE WAS LAST HEARD FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE PHILIPPINES. IF YOU SEE HER, PLEASE CALL 1-800-X-QUEEN. DIP TO BLACK: INT./EXT. HARDWARE HANK It's a lovely shot of the front window SUPER: HAROLD VILMES DIED UNEXPECTEDLY OF LYMES DISEASE FROM A DEER TICK BITE Suddenly, HANK, buck naked, runs back and forth past the window, spanking himself and waving "hi." SUPER CONT: LEAVING HANK THE STORE DIP TO BLACK: EXT. MOUNT ROSE - STREET MOLLY HOWARD is being helped into a van with "Lutheran Children's Orphanage" painted on the side. She looks sad. SUPER: MOLLY HOWARD RETURNED TO THE "LUTHERAN CHILDREN'S ORPHANAGE" AFTER HER PARENTS WERE GUNNED DOWN BY A SNIPER OUTSIDE THE FOOD SHACK. INT. ROOM - DAY CLOSE UP of a newspaper photo of Gladys. SUPER: GLADYS LEEMAN ENTERED A STATE-WIDE PRISON BEAUTY PAGEANT... The banner and hat she wears read: MINNESOTA 2ND PLACE, CELL BLOCK SUPER: ...SHE CAME IN SECOND. INSERT: NEWSPAPER HEADLINES "EX-BEAUTY QUEEN ESCAPES PRISON, VOWS "REVENGE ON MOUNT ROSE" EXT. MAIN STREET - FOOD SHACK Gladys, wearing Army Fatigues and brandishing a semi- automatic rifle aimed at the FOOD SHACK, holds off a S.W.A.T. team. GLADYS Come on out, you little blonde piece of trailer park trash! LOCAL NEWSCAST Female reporter is on the scene of the Gladys Leeman stand-off outside the food shack. We see Amber, Annette (with hook hand) and other town folk behind her, watching the action. "LIVE" flashes on screen. SUPER: DURING THE SIX-HOUR GLADYS LEEMAN STAND-OFF FEMALE REPORTER We are here in the sixth hour of a shoot-out between Gladys Leeman - MAN AT FOOD SHACK Get down! The female reporter suddenly stiffens and falls over. SUPER: LOCAL REPORTER PAT MILES WAS STRUCK BY A STRAY POLICE BULLET. Amber steps under the police barricade, over Pat's body, takes the mic and continues the newscast. She's a natural. AMBER This is Amber Atkins reporting live from the Food Shack for...KRLH News. One of our reporters has just been shot. SUPER: AMBER, SHOWING AMAZING POISE UNDER PRESSURE, WAS GIVEN HER JOB. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MINNEAPOLIS NEWS STATION Amber, now looking like a Midwestern news anchor, sits with a BLOND MALE ANCHOR. A LOGO in B.G. reads: TV WAZB TWIN CITIES. BLONDE NEWS ANCHOR I'm Peter Aitchison. AMBER And I'm Amber Atkins for WAZB News. SUPER: ...was given her job. AMBER (cont'd) Good night. As they smile and laugh, we: FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dry White Season, A.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dry White Season, A.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5074b7e3303aaead847eaad17f44691633852ee8 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dry White Season, A.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +A DRY WHITE SEASON Rewrite by EUZHAN PALCY May 1987 Revised First Draft FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY"IN THE WHOLE WORLDTHERE IS NOT A SINGLEPOOR DEVIL WHO IS LYNCHED,NOT ONE MISERABLE MANWHO IS TORTURED IN WHOMI TOO, I AM NOT MURDEREDAND DEGRADED." Aime CesairePRE-TITLE:FADE IN:EXT. DAN PIENAAR SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR BOYS - DAYDan Pienaar school is a typical Johannesburg Afrikaanschool. The students are mainly from middle-classfamilies. School athletics are in progress. The stu-dents, in their smart school uniforms, are cheeringenthusiastically a relay race on the immaculately-keptsports ground.GORDON NGUBENE, a 47-years-old African laborer is work-ing in the school garden. A few feet away is his 15-years-old son JONATHAN leaning against a wall watchingthe games.BEN DU TOIT, a 50-year-old Afrikaaner history teacher, isenthusiastically cheering his son JOHAN, a 15-years-old,who is leading neck-and-neck with another boy in the lastleg of the race. The excitement increases as theyapproach the tape. Ben is beside himself, egging his sonwith shouts. The young teacher, VIVIERS, standing nextto Ben, is shouting "come on Johan," and slapping thefather on the back.Johan breasts the tape just ahead of the other boy. Theground is invaded by boys running to congratulate Johan.Ben hurries towards his happy but exhausted son; the proudfather pushing his way through the animated boys. As hereaches Johan he pats him on the back. BEN This was your best race. JOHAN (excited) I beat him, Papa. BEN (proudly) You did son. Come on, shower.They walk happily towards the school buildings in conver-sation, Johan being slapped on the back by friends. Benstops to talk to Gordon who jumps to his feet. BEN I'll be expecting you. There isn't much to do, only weeding the marigolds and watering the lawn and flowers. (CONTINUED) 2.CONTINUED: GORDON We'll be there, Mr. Ben'sir, Jonathan come to help me.Ben hadn't seen Jonathan. He turns to him. BEN And how's the algebra? Still giving you trouble? JONATHAN (with respect) Just a little, Mr. Ben'sir. JOHAN Me too. GORDON (straightening himself) He's working hard, Mr. Ben'sir, and your money will not be wasted. Emily and me will always thank you. BEN (as he leaves) See you both later.Gordon returns to his work a little distance further. Agroup of students are laughing and pushing each otherboisterously. As they near Jonathan, two nudge eachother and giggle. Then, one of them trips Jonathan. Hefalls to the ground and jumps up aggressively, about toattack the boy. Gordon shouts "Jonathan."The headmaster, MRS. CLOETE, aged 65 years, has observedthe incident, but takes no action.Jonathan stands panting with rage. He suddenly stridesaway towards the gate in a rage. GORDON (shouting angrily) U ya phi? (Where are you going?)Jonathan turns to look at his father and continues towalk off.TITLES.EXT. SOWETO BEER HALL - AFTERNOONThe beer hall is a large complex with a drinking areawith long rows of low benches. (CONTINUED) 3.CONTINUED:Men sit drinking African beer in one-half and one gallonplastics containers. The place buzzes with noise.Several people are touting wares for sale.Suddenly a group of about twenty youths walks into thedrinking area, obviously to cause trouble. The LEADERstarts to address the clients. LEADER Your children are starving and you are drinking. We demand freedom and our fathers are drunk. We ask you to boycott these beer halls. Revolution and drink don't work together!A large MAN WITH SIDEBURNS, obviously drunk, stands up, astick in his hand. MAN WITH SIDEBURNS Since when do children talk like this to their fathers? They need thrashing.The man and several others advance on the boys. The boysrun into the serving area, close the doors and startbreaking up the place. Two police Land Rovers SCREECH toa halt outside. The boys run out through a side en-trance. They are chased by the police who are black.Jonathan and his best friend Wellington, also 15 years,are walking towards the beer hall when the boys comerunning out chased by the police. It is prudent forthem to run down the street. The boys and police arebearing down on them. Their escape is cut off by theapperance of another police Land Rover. Two policemen,two blacks and two whites join in the capture. Jonathan,Wellington and about ten of the boys are arrested.As they are hundled into the vehicle, they protest theirinnocence without success and are driven away.INT. SOWETO POLICE STATION - CHARGE OFFICE - AFTERNOONThe charge office is sparcely furnished with a long benchalong a wall. There is a reception counter with Sgt:Van Zyl in charge. The boys are lined up against a wall.The sergeant stands with a tall blond man with a scar onhis chin, CAPTAIN STOLZ. (CONTINUED) 4.CONTINUED:The sergeant reads out a name and looks at Stolz; if henods the boy stands aside. After this ritual, the onesthat Stolz has chosen are marched to a waiting police vanand driven away. The others are taken to the cells atthe police station, these include Jonathan andWellington.EXT. DUTCH REFORM CHURCH - DAYThe MUSIC STOPS. The doors open. The 40 years-old-minister Bester comes to the door, then stands and greetshis parishioners as they file out of the church.Amongst them, Ben Du Toit -- his wife, SUSAN, a clean-cut, immaculate, "toe-the-line" beauty and his son, Johan-- the blond, blue-eyed, tanned and torsoed fourteen-year-old every father dreams of. Susan greets friendsand acquaintances, pausing to chat... mostly formalities.Johan, his eyes on a girl his age. She is with herfather, Mr. Cloete, the headmaster -- she smiles at Johanfrom a distance; he waves awkwardly as she drives offwith her parents.SUZETTE his daughter, sophisticated -- groomed. Shetakes her baby from the black nanny waiting in the car,carries the child to the group chatting with CHRIS, herhusband. She shows it off proudly. Ben is chatting,concerned, to a WOMAN. She looks drawn and worried. MRS. COETZEE (WOMAN) He won't come to church. He lies in bed all day, listening to his headphones. BEN I wondered why he wasn't at school. Would it help if I came to see him? He's always seemed a good kid to me. MRS. COETZEE Oh, would you? BEN Of course. I'll phone and we can fix a time.Mrs. Coetzee smiles her gratitude. SUSAN Ben! Ben!She's waving impatiently at him. He crosses back to her.Suzette's BABY is HOWLING. (CONTINUED) 5.CONTINUED:She rocks it back and forth, holding it at arm's length.The BABY SCREAMS. The nanny comes forward -- Suzettehands it over. SUSAN Mrs. Coetzee. She looked worried. BEN She's having trouble with her boy. He won't come to school. SUSAN So you said you'd have a word with him? BEN Yes!She smiles and walks him to the car affectionately.EXT. BEN'S HOUSE - BARBECUE - DAYThe Du Toit family.Susan is bringing out the salads. Chris, her son-in-law,is at the barbecue, stinging his eyes. Ben is bouncinghis grandson, little Hennie, in a small, portable pool.The black nanny sits in attendance in the shade, a towelat the ready. The good life...... Suddenly disturbed by... Gordon and Jonathan standinguncertain at the far side of the garden; Gordon's hatpressed flat against his chest, Jonathan defiant.Susan looks up -- as do each in turn -- curious at theintrusion... then the black nanny -- and finally Ben.After a moment, Ben walks up to Gordon. BEN Gordon! What are you doing here?INT. BEN'S KITCHEN - DAYSix cuts, like six knife gashes, revealed on the blood-stained buttocks of Gordon's son, who stands in painful,truculent embarrassment.Ben is shocked by the severity of the canning. GORDON That's not why I'm complaining, Mister Ben, sir. If he did wrong, I'd beat him myself. But he didn't. (CONTINUED) 6.CONTINUED: GORDON He did nothing and they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't believe him. BEN I'm sorry, Gordon. But there must be a reason. GORDON He says he wasn't doing anything wrong, Mister Ben, sir. And I believe him, I know my son! It's an injustice! BEN What about the court? Didn't he state his case? GORDON What does he know about court? Before he knew, it was all over. BEN I don't think there is anything we can do about it now.Outside, peering through the half-opened door, is Johan,shocked at what he sees. Ben tapes Jonathan on the head,he pulls up his shorts painfully, yet fiercely, anxiousto cover himself up again. GORDON We can get a lawyer to appeal. BEN A lawyer? That won't heal Jonathan's buttocks.Susan appears at the door. SUSAN Ben! BEN I'll be out in a minute.She nods, ushering Johan away from the door back outside. GORDON You don't understand, Mister Ben, sir. I don't want him to have a police record. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 7.CONTINUED: GORDON (CONT'D) It will be there for the rest of his life and make it difficult for him to get a job in the future. BEN Don't worry, Gordon. I'm sure there'll be no record, it's such a minor case. Please don't worry.Ben calls Johan from the outside. BEN Johan, get some iodine from the cupboard.Johan rushes in the house. GORDON I'm not worried about the wounds. They'll heal in time, Mister Ben, sir. It's the wounds here. (slaps his chest) I worry about. Injustice... it festers.Johan comes back with a small bottle of medicine. BEN (to Gordon) Rub it on the wounds and it will help.EXT. BEN'S GATE - DAYBen watches the black man and his son trudge down thelong drive, the father's arm on the son's shouldre. Atthe foot of the drive the nose of an exotic Soweto cabcan be seen waiting... a large butterfly painted on thehood.EXT. BEN'S GARDEN - DAYBen takes his place at the table. Susan brings a pieceof boerwors and a mug of beer. SUSAN Trouble? BEN Jonathan has been caned, by the police.She places the boerwors and the beer before him. (CONTINUED) 8.CONTINUED: SUSAN He probably deserved it.EXT. SOWETO SCHOOL - SOWETO UPRISING - MORNINGSchool grounds of the Orlando Secondary School. Studentsare milling around in high spirits. One group is puttingfinishing touches to a banner reading: "no to aparhteideducation."There are two other banners being carried around theschool yard, followed by the younger children. Theyread: "No to the Oppressor's language" "Bantu education is slave education."A BOY, one of the eldest, aged about 18 years calls forsilence. The STUDENTS immediately obey. STUDENT LEADER (BOY) You all know why we are going to march.The crowd shouts: STUDENTS 'No to Bantu education' 'No to apartheid' 'Freedom Now'... STUDENT LEADER There must be discipline. We start marching from here and we'll join up with the others at the main road. Please take care of the younger ones. Let's go.The Students start marching led by one of the banners,singing a freedom song.Amongst them is Jonathan and Wellington. They are sing-ing. The march turns round one of the streets.CROSSROADSeveral groups of students marchers converge to join themarch that has already started, including Jonathan'sgroup. There are several banners condeming Bantueducation, apartheid, etc. (CONTINUED) 9.CONTINUED:Examples: "EQUAL EDUCATION NOW" "ONE MAN ONE VOTE" "FREE OUT LEADERS" "NO TO THE AFRIKAANS LANGUAGE"There are chants of slogans as they march: STUDENTS 'If we learn Afrikaans vorster must learn Zulu.' 'Bantu education! Stinks! Stinks! Stinks!' 'Equal education! Now! Now! Now!'They also start singing a freedom song.FURTHER UP STREETThree police Jeeps block the route of the march. Alittle distance behind are police troops carriers('hippos'). About six police-dog-handlers in camouflageuniforms stand across the road waiting for the march toapproach.As the march gets closer the students' singing increasesin volume.The Soweto police COMMANDANT steps forward with a loud-speaker in hand. He confronts the lead of the march. Hesignals for them to stop. The dogs are straining at theirleashes and their handlers taunt the leading group. COMMANDANT Now listen to me, this is an illegal demonstration. I order you to disperse immediately.The Students start singing the African national anthem'Nkosi Sikelele.'Children of 8, 9, 10 years singing lustily with theirfists clenched as everyone else.Jonathan and Wellington singing.Camouflauged police scrambling out of Jeeps with guns andtear gas grenades. They stand with the rifles pointingat the marchers. The singing continues.The Commandant confers with a junior officer who hurriesto the group of policemen and gives them instructions.The ones carrying tear gas move towards front. Thepolice start donning gas masks. (CONTINUED) 10.CONTINUED: COMMANDANT This is the last warning. Disperse immediately or I will take action.A voice in the crowd shouts "Banutu education..."The crowd shouts back "Stinks, Stinks, Stinks."The Commandant gives a hand signal.Tear gas canisters are thrown into the crowd, the dog-handlers attack. There is panic with Students running inall directions, several choking.Some of the students start throwing stones at the police,hitting one in the face; he is helped away by a blackpoliceman.Without warning, SHOOTING STARTS.Children drop, wounded; friends trying to help the dyingand seriously wounded, others helped away.Some boys appear with dustbin lids as protection and theypelt the police with stones.The police in the 'hippos' are jumping off and pursuingStudents, some SHOOTING.Woman grabs two of the running children age about 9/10and hustles them into house.Jonathan and Wellington are running with a group. In thedistance the sound of an AMBULANCE SIREN. A Jeep cutsoff their escape, they turn back running as SHOTS areFIRED towards them, a little girl drops, shot in theback. Jonathan shouts to Wellington who is ahead of him. JONATHAN Wellington! Wellington!Wellington looks back, sees Jonathan trying to help thelittle girl. He runs back to help. Another girl, agedabout 17 years, is also trying to help.Two policemen suddenly appear from behind a house, theyare about 18 years old.The girl straightens up and confronts the two policemenshouting hysterically. GIRL Shoot me! Come on, shoot me! Shoot me! (CONTINUED) 11.CONTINUED:She slumps to the ground crying.Jonathan, Wellington and the Girl are hustled into acrowded van amid punches and kicks from the police. Thevan drives off leaving the injured Girl on the road,neighbors run to assist the Girl.As the van is passing, see a burning car, in the distancea building on fire; another AMBULANCE SIREN. CUT TO:MONTAGEA) EXT. AFRIKAANER SCHOOLB) The screams, the laughter of white kids playing at their school, massed in conviviality, Johan one.C) Behind, aboard a mower, motors Gordon, in the blue overall of a groundsman, intent in his task. OVER this white pacifist content, hear... ... GUNSHOTS, SCREAMS, TERROR.D) EXT. SOWETO - AFTERNOON The carnage, the dead, the wounded. The stunned bewilderment of blacks and police alike... even the latter unnerved by their own brutality.END MONTAGE.EXT. JOHANNESBURG SUBURB - LATE AFTERNOONSoweto train rushing through suburb of Johannesburg.REVERSE SHOT FROM train.INT. SOWETO TRAIN CARRIAGE - LATE AFTERNOONThe third-class carriage is crowded with Africancommuters returning to Soweto. The passengers representall the social and economic strata of Soweto: laborers,factory workers, domestic servants, clerk secretaries,the unemployed, etc. In the carriage, Gordon, returningfrom work, standing.A LARGE middle-aged WOMAN is standing in the crowdedaisle at one end of the carriage. She suddenly shouts: (CONTINUED) 12.CONTINUED: LARGE WOMAN (to man in front of her) Careful with your bag. Can't you see where it's touching? MAN #1 (standing half-way down carriage) Can I see where it's touching? LARGE WOMAN Men of today only like looking.Laughter in the carriage. Gordon is also enjoying thejoke. MAN #2 (standing by a door) It's the electricity. MAN IN KHAKI UNIFORM What has electricity to do with it?A few voices also ask same question. MAN #2 Today with the electricity they say: (in an affected voice) 'Darling let's not switch off the light.'Laughter and voice saying "that's true." WOMAN #1 (standing very near Gordon) I hope you have electricity with those thick glasses of yours. With your eyes you couldn't find anything.More laughter. MAN #3 Tell us, does your wife also wear thick glasses? MAN #2 (quickly) You should know, she's your sister. (CONTINUED) 13.CONTINUED:There is more laughter.Suddenly a MAN jumps on his seat waving his arms -- he'sabout 40 years old -- in BLUE OVERALLS. He cannot takeit any more. MAN IN BLUE OVERALLS Quiet! Thulani! Thulani!The noise goes down. MAN IN BLUE OVERALLS They are killing our children and you are making jokes... VOICE (O.S.) They say hundreds of children have died and Soweto is burning.CLOSEUP - GORDON AND WOMANtalking about the information. SMARTLY-DRESSED MAN The white people, they will pay, and soon. YOUNG WOMAN 'They will pay, they will pay.' Since when have they been killing us, putting us in jails, starving our children to death, taking our land? Hundreds of years. And what have you men done? Only talk, talk, talk. You are not men. Sis. (Shit.)The conversations in the carriage become muted and serious.The train enters Soweto, there is smoke hanging over sev-eral parts of the township, and official buildings are onfire.Suddenly, the passengers are gripped by the seriousness ofthe situation.There are snatches of conversation such as: "That's the superintendent's office on fire." "I hope the children are home." "We have to dodge bullets tonight." "Vorster must hang for this." "I hope the world hears about this." 14.INT. GORDON'S HOUSE - EVENINGSilence.A small three-room Soweto brick house -- The living roomis modestly furnished.EMILY, Gordon's 40-year-old wife, is sitting on a narrowiron bedstead against the wall, clutching her youngest2-year-old son -- Her mind is preoccupied. Sitting nextto her is a ten-year-old daughter.Gordon is sitting on a chair at the table with his secondeldest son, Robert -- aged 14 years -- standing by theside of the table -- sitting on an old easy chair is aSoweto resident with his 15-year-old DAUGHTER standingbeside him. GORDON (to girl) Are you sure it was Jonathan they took away?The girl glances at her father. He coaxes her to talk. GIRL (DAUGHTER) Yes, baba, with Wellington.INT. SOWETO POLICE STATION - DAYBlack parents, waiting. At the counter with Gordon, alarge black man, STANLEY, a friend -- his big easy smileis working hard on a white policeman, the station SERGEANTVAN ZYL, about to run out of patience. STANLEY No, no, I understand, Baas, but is that all the names? There's no other list somewhere? SERGEANT VAN ZYL I'm telling you. He's not in custody. Have you tried the hospital? Have you tried the mortuary?Gordon sucks in his breath audibly. SERGEANT VAN ZYL I'm only suggesting the possibilities. STANLEY But, what about John Voster Square? (CONTINUED) 15.CONTINUED: SERGEANT VAN ZYL Look, I've tried to help you. STANLEY Thank you.Stanley walks up to a WOMAN. STANLEY You're here too, sis Paulina, who are you looking for? WOMAN They picked up my girl -- 13-year- old girl! STANLEY (comforting her) We are all searching.The policeman calls her -- she hurries to the counter. CUT TO:INT. BARAGWANATH MORTUARY - DAYA white-uniformed assistant leads a line of Africanparents, reeking of sadness, into a cool room where metaldrawers open from the walls.Stanley and JULIUS their black lawyer -- the two men seemto be very well-known, people shake hands with them,salute them --Gordon and Emily's sadness is tinged with anger -- theyhave dignity, defiance, bowed with grief as they are.Stanley's large hand is placed gently on Emily's shoulderas they examine the dead faces before them.They belong to children, some in torn, dirty clothes,others naked, some mutilated, others whole and seeminglyunharmed, as if asleep, until the small, neat hole intemple or chest and the small crust of blood is broughtto our attention.A woman behind them starts to scream. They look aroundto see her holding onto a drawer, her legs buckling.Another woman pulls her close to grieve with her. Theassistant approaches them and after a soft exchange hewrites a name on a tag and ties it onto the body. Thewoman can't, won't leave her dead child. Her friend hasto pull her away. (CONTINUED) 16.CONTINUED:The crowd parts to let them through. Other women reachout to touch her.Gordon looks into the last drawer, Jonathan is not there.They make their way out past the other parents and a groupof mourning women sitting.EXT. MORTUARY - DAYGordon, Emily and their friends cross to Stanley's greatwhite elderly Dodge, this "etembalami" with the big butter-fly. For, amongst other things, he is the owner anddriver of a pirate taxi.They get in. Stanley pauses -- looks across at a smallred VW Beetle parked nearby, waiting. He shakes hishead -- the VW flashes its lights and drives off.INT. STANLEY'S TAXI - DAYInside they sit in silence... recovering from the ordeal.Only Emily silently whispers "Thank God, thank God."After a while... STANLEY What now? GORDON He is our son... we must find him. JULIUS I'll make more inquiries -- John Vorster Square -- the special branch -- but I don't hold out much hope. GORDON You're a lawyer, Julius! STANLEY (laughs) A black lawyer! Those Boers... the bastards'll kick him around till they lose him. EMILY What about the Baas? If he asks, they will give him an answer. GORDON (bitterly) When the boy was flogged he didn't help. Why should he help him now? 17.EXT. BEN'S GARDEN - MORNINGGordon is at work already -- 8 AM -- mowing the lawn.He's intense, unsmiling, burdened as he goes about histask, expertly.Sounds of BEN and JOHAN LAUGHING coming from inside.INT. BEN'S DEN - MORNINGBen and Johan, in robes, their hair still wet from theirshowers, having an imaginary boxing match. Johan hasBen on the ropes, backs him out of the house.EXT. BEN'S GARDENBen adjusts the sash of his robe and takes the offensivetowards Johan, as he sees Gordon. JOHAN Hi, Gordon.No response. Ben does a double-take and stops playing. BEN (to Johan) Hold it, champ.He crosses the yard to Gordon, fluffing his hair dry,Johan follows behind. BEN Gordon, you okay?No response again. Gordon continues to work. Ben andJohan exchange puzzled looks. JOHAN Isn't this Jonathan's day to help you? BEN How is he, recovering?Gordon stops, switches OFF the MACHINE, stands not lookingat Ben. GORDON I don't know, Mister Ben, sir -- the police took him. BEN Again? JOHAN What for? (CONTINUED) 18.CONTINUED: GORDON They arrested many. They even deny they've got him. He's disappeared... BEN Disappeared? He's a child -- why didn't you tell me?Gordon just looks at him, sadly, patiently. BEN Okay! I'll see what I can find out.Ben walks off with Johan as Gordon STARTS the MOWER.INT. BEN'S STUDY - MORNINGBen is talking on the phone. BEN Our gardener, yes. Probably nothing, but he's worried.INT. LAWYER'S OFFICE - DAYSumptuous lawyer's offices, Johannesburg. They're lush-carpeted. A black woman cleaner is finishing off herearly-morning chores, packing up as white staff are be-ginning to arrive. They're fresh, shining, attractive-- whipping the covers off typewriters.A young black girl, smart, well-groomed, is carrying atray of coffee, desk to desk. FOLLOW her as sheapproaches her employer's open office door.We hear his voice -- see him on the phone in the b.g. LEWINSON ... And when was this?He nods, makes notes. He's in shirtsleeves. At his postearly, ready for action. LEWINSON Ngubene -- Jonathan Ngubene.INT. LEWINSON'S OFFICE - DAYThe coffee girl enters, places a cup on Lewinson's desk,and retreats. (CONTINUED) 19.CONTINUED: LEWINSON I'll get on to them straight away... Not at all -- I think better this time of morning -- after lunch, man, I'm a zombie. (laughs) Sure -- let you know straight away -- love to, Susan... Cheers! (puts down phone; presses his intercom) Freda! Open an account... Du Toit. Benjamin Du Toit... Subject... Jonathan Ngubene.MONTAGE - SEARCH FOR JONATHANA) TYPEWRITER -- CHATTERING out -- on Lewinson's headed note paper: To the Commissioner of Police Police Headquarters John Vorster Square Dear Sir, On behalf of our client, Gordon Ngubene, we are anxious to discover the whereabouts of his son...B) INT. POLICE HQ. (JOHN VORSTER SQUARE) - INTERROGATION ROOM Wellington, Jonathan's friend, is sitting alone in fear. Through the wall he can hear MOANING -- SCREAMS. He closes his eyes tight as if to shut out what he is hearing.C) POLICE TYPEWRITER -- CHATTERING out -- on police headquarters note paper: To Lewinson & Partners Solicitors Dear Sirs, With reference to your enquiry concerning Jonathan Ngubene, we suggest you take the matter up directly with the particular officer in charge... 20.D) HOSPITAL (JOHANNESBURG) Young black nurse carrying bedding -- corridor -- startled by moaning, screaming figure of black boy, being hustled on trolley into private ward. Boy is deposited on bed as policeman is posted outside.E) TYPEWRITER -- Lewinson's headed paper: ... the whereabouts of Jonathan Ngubene, aged 15, who was apparently detained by you...F) 2ND POLICE TYPEWRITER -- Second heading: The type keys hesitate, tremble, for a considerable number of seconds, on and on, as if deliberately de- laying or uncertain how to answer.G) MATRON confronted by Gordon and Emily. She shakes her head vigorously, denying all knowledge, shows them the door.F) FINALLY: Dear Sirs, With reference to your enquiry seeking the whereabouts of Jonathan Ngubene, we are sorry to inform you we have no record of anyone of that name...I) HOSPITAL - WHITE SUPERINTENDENT FACING JULIUS SUPERINTENDENT It's preposterous. I would have known -- of such a case... I mean... in my hospital. You people! You're always raking up trouble!J) STANLEY At the back of police headquarters, John Vorster Square. An elderly black cleaner, emptying garbage, is being shown Jonathan's photograph. He looks -- and nods -- pointing down as meaning the basement.K) CLOSE ON STANLEY'S FACEEND MONTAGE. 21.INT. LEWINSON'S OFFICE - DAYHe is with a client. He pushes a button on the intercom. LEWINSON ... Freda -- I said no calls... Oh... Right... put them through. Hallo! Yes! How are you?... that is correct.He listens -- his face slowly becoming solemn -- LEWINSON Very well. Thank you for finally letting us know.He replaces the receiver... looks at it for a long second... before lifting his eyes to the client. LEWINSON (to client) Sorry.He dials a number.INT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - STAFF ROOM - DAYTea break for the teachers, Ben among them. He is enjoy-ing a laugh with his colleagues -- maybe in Afrikaans --we should hear the language here where we need not com-prehend. An African serves the tea.There's a KNOCK -- a monitor comes in and talks to Benwho follows him outside.INT. SCHOOL - DAYBen at the phone. BEN Hello, Dan... No... it's all right...INT. LEWINSON'S OFFICE - DAY LEWINSON I'm sorry. They have just officially informed me. The boy was never in detention. He died ... the day of the riots and as nobody came to claim the corpse he was buried a month ago.INT. SCHOOL - DAYBen at the phone. (CONTINUED) 22.CONTINUED: BEN Thanks a lot, Dan... I'll tell Gordon. 'Bye.Ben hangs up and stays there... thinking... until theBELL snaps him out of his thoughts.EXT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - PLAYING FIELDS - DAYThe playing fields, not of Eton but as good as...... Cries and whistles rise through the still, warm airfrom a game of schoolboy rugby being played below us byimmaculately-fitted teams.On another part of the field Gordon's lawnmower off tothe side -- two figures pace -- slowly -- one white, oneblack -- A VOICE overlays all this... strange... ironicallyAfrican. GORDON Mister Ben, sir. If it was me, all right. And if it was Emily, all right. We are not young. But he's out child. My time and your time, it's passing. But the time of our children is coming. And now if they kill our children -- if we let them -- what is it that we lived for? BEN (places a hand on Gordon's shoulder -- comforting) What can we do, Gordon? You or I... We can't change it. GORDON That day, Mr. Ben, sir, when they whipped Jonathan, you also said we can do nothing. But if we had... if someone heard what we had to say this would not have happened. BEN It's a terrible thing, Gordon -- God knows I'm sorry. But you have other children to live for... I'll help them too with their schooling. (CONTINUED) 23.CONTINUED: GORDON (interrupting) How did he die, Mister Ben, sir? BEN I told you, Gordon... He died on the day of the riots. GORDON That's what they say. But I got to know for certain. How can I have peace? I must know how my son died and where they buried him.The game on the next pitch finishes with a pierce of thewhistle. The kids run off past Ben and Gordon. Gordonclimbs onto the small lawn mower and STARTS the ENGINE. BEN Gordon. The police -- if they've said... GORDON I don't care what they say. He is my child. God is my witness today: I cannot stop before I know what happened and where he lies. His body belongs to Emily and me.And drives away -- chugging across the field... leavingBen -- helpless -- behind him -- watching.From his:OFFICE WINDOWin the school behind -- a worried headmaster watches.We hear his voice over. CLOETE (V.O.) ... This business of Gordon's son. Be careful, Ben. These are not normal times -- one has to make allowances. CUT TO:EXT. CAR PARKThe car park. He and Ben are getting into their cars atthe end of the day. (CONTINUED) 24.CONTINUED: BEN Don't worry! I'm no crusader. I've known Gordon a long time, that's all. CLOETE I understand -- it's your Christian duty to your neighbor. BEN Something like that -- yes. CLOETE Just don't get too close. Teachers must stay out of politics. Love to Susan!And drives off, leaving Ben watching him, shaking hishead at the man's obtuseness.EXT. NGUBENE HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOONEmily is watering a tiny vegetable plot in the yard, witha bucket and a pierced tin.Robert is playing nearby with the youngest child.Robert sees Gordon walking slowly to their house and saysplayfully to the baby: ROBERT Look who's coming? It's baba!Emily turns to look. She immediately realizes that some-thing is wrong. She drops the tin and walks a few stepstoward the gate.Gordon sees her and stops.Emily starts to break down. EMILY Oh, no... oh no, Lord.Gordon hurries to embrace her. EMILY (sobbing and repeating) Please don't tell me...Gordon starts to lead her to the house.Margaret, Emily's neighbor, comes, hurries, helps her,comforts her, escorting them to the house. 25.EXT. SOWETO MAIN ROAD - DAYStanley and Gordon are driving along Soweto main road.A 10-years-old BOY stops the car.INT. STANLEY'S CAR - DAY BOY (to Stanley) Baba, I heard you're looking for Wellington. He's out, Baba. STANLEY Where is he? Where is he? BOY He's with some boys at Dube's shop. STANLEY Thank you very much. You've worked like a man. (turning to Gordon) Let's go.Stanley turns the car round and drives off at speed.EXT. DUBE'S SHOP - DAYWellington and a few pals are standing outside the shop-- they greet Stanley as they see the car -- Stanleyshouts back greeting. STANLEY Take it easy, boys. Hey Wellington!Wellington comes to the car. He's limping, wearingsunglasses.As he's approaching the car, Stanley opens the back doorfor him.He enters and removes the glasses.Stanley notices a deep scar from the forehead to thecheek. STANLEY What happened... Don't tell me... GORDON Did they do that to you? (CONTINUED) 26.CONTINUED:Wellington has a nervous arm-twitch... and nods to thequestion. GORDON (anxiously) I want to know what happened to Jonathan. WELLINGTON Isn't he out yet? (pause) I last saw him weeks ago. STANLEY Jonathan is dead. GORDON I have to know how he died.INT. BEN'S DINING ROOMSizette and Chris with the family at dinner. Suzette ispassed the Rand Daily Mail newspaper by Chris, folded atan article headlined: "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO JONATHANNGUBENE?" by Melanie Bruwer. SUSAN Isn't that tragic? Jonathan was such a nice boy. Even played with my Johan when they were small, God. BEN And he was such a nice boy, well- mannered. SUSAN You said he was very bright at school.Chris helps himself to more. Suzette looks at the paper. SUZETTE Well, this kind of journalism doesn't help the situation. Look at her face? What does she look like? CHRIS The Rand Daily Mail always exaggerates. (CONTINUED) 27.CONTINUED:She passes the paper to Ben. He looks at Melanie's pic-ture: she looks 30 years old, long black hair, largedark eyes with a fierce, unsettling, uncompromising stare,a small nose and a generous and sensual mouth. BEN Looks quite attractive to me.Chris and Johan laugh. BEN (he surveys the article; then with a serious tone) '... Is only the latest in scores of black youths who have disappeared whilst in police custody.' CHRIS What does she expect? They're out of control. Give then an inch and they take a hundred miles. It's in their nature. The only language they understand is force. JOHAN Chris, Jonathan was fifteen, like me. Would you use force on me? CHRIS You're not a terrorist. If you were -- like an increasing number of them, you'd deserve it. Look, every time you pick up the newspaper... BEN (interrupts; focusing on the paper) My God, one hundred shot! They didn't have to kill them. SUSAN This bloody Bruwer woman reports one hundred shot, but the radio said only twenty and the police were attacked first. SUZETTE I thought the idea was to give them their own areas, banstustans. Let them live with their own kind. No chance of conflict then. Everybody's happy. (CONTINUED) 28.CONTINUED: JOHAN And who would do the work? SUZETTE Pardon? JOHAN The work, who'd do it? SUSAN You for a start. Come on! Help me clear these dishes.As Johan stands, to clear the table. He turns to hisfather with a smile, and shrugs -- an irritated Suzettejoins them.INT. GORDON'S HOUSE (SOWETO) - NIGHTThe small dark room is crowded. The one oil lamp -- onthe table -- At the table sits Gordon... his glasses onthe end of his nose.Emily is sitting by the stove. Robert stands beside herchair, watching, listening.The youngsters are sleeping in opposite directions on theiron bed.Wellington is sitting beside Gordon at the table. Thereis something wild in his manner. He looks everywhere asif he is scared of being attacked unawares.The black cleaner from John Vorster Sq. stands near thetable. Gordon is reading aloud from a handwrittendocument. GORDON 'On the second day of our detention at John Vorster Square we were taken to one of the top floors. We were ordered to undress and they started to beat us with fists and sjamboks. This for a long time.'Wellington nods and gets more paranoid. The black cleanerputs an understanding hand on his shoulder. GORDON 'On one day me and Jonathan...'Gordon pauses... steadies himself... pushes his glassesup his nose... clears his throat... (CONTINUED) 29.CONTINUED: GORDON '... We were asked questions for the whole day and night by Capt. Stolz and different policemen -- they never stopped. They tried to force us to say we were the leaders at our school, that we were working for the A.N.C. and got money from overseas. Capt. Stolz wanted to know the names of the students committee and where he can find Toni Mtimkulu -- Everytime they asked question, they beat us. It was bad beating.'Wellington nods again. Emily closes her eyes to shut outthe image. GORDON 'We told them we had done nothing and didn't know about all the things they are asking us; on two occasion they put a wet bag over my head and I -- couldn't breathe -- I thought I was going to die. One day I heard Jonathan being beaten. He was screaming and crying, and then a noise like tables and chairs being knocked down, and Capt. Stolz shouting "you bastard, get up, do you hear me?" Ngubene, don't pretend here, get up." Then the next day I heard he had gone to hospital and I never saw him again.'There's a long silence. Gordon closes his eyes andstruggles with his grief. Emily sobs, Robert looks onin anger. Then, finally, Gordon offers a pen toWellington, who is about to sign the foot of the state-ment, when...... Suddenly there is the sound of a TRUCK APPROACHING.Wellington rushes to the front window and peers outside;then panics, fear in his eyes, he runs into a bedroom andjumps through the window.Everyone in the room is bewildered.The front door bursts open. Emily sits impassively look-ing at the five policemen (two whites and three Africans).The youngest child startled from his sleep starts to cry.Emily goes to the bed and picks the child up and returnsto her chair. (CONTINUED) 30.CONTINUED: LIEUTENANT VENTER Stay right where you are.He notices the papers on the table and picks them up. Helooks at them and realizes their importance.Capt. Stolz walks into the room and surveys the room andits occupants. Lieutenant Venter hands him the papers.He goes through them, nodding to himself as he readssilently. He folds them neatly and puts them into hisinside jacket pocket. He walks up to Gordon. STOLZ (to Gordon) On your feet! So, you must be Gordon Ngubene?Gordon doesn't answer.He turns to the cleaner who automatically stands. STOLZ We know each other, don't we?Calmly, he paces round the room looking around, then whenhe reaches the bed where the 10-years-old girl is watch-ing terrified, he pulls off the blankets, yanks the girloff the bed by her arm and frantically searches the bed.The child cries. Robert the brother goes to his sisterand hugs her as he glares at Stolz with anger and hatred. STOLZ (turning to Venter) Gert, in daardie kammer. (Gert, that room) (turning to the other one) Jaimie, in die ander. (Jamie, the other room) LIEUTENANT VENTER Niks, Kaptein. (Nothing, Captain) STOLZ Take the bastards away.The other policeman appears from the other bedrooms empty-handed. Gordon and the cleaner are roughly handled asthey are handcuffed by the African Security Police.Over his shoulder Gordon manages to give Emily one lastlook, as he's hustled out of the house. (CONTINUED) 31.CONTINUED:Emily sits motionless, anger in her face. She can hearthe sound of the CARS DRIVING AWAY.Margaret (her neighbor) appears at the door.INT. BEN'S STUDY - NIGHTBehind Ben's house, are the servants' quarters attachedto the garage.Ben has adapted what would have been a maid's room intohis study and the adjoining room into a do-it-yourselfworkshop.The study has photographs of Ben's past as a provincialrugby player, of his family, school staff and TRECHIKOFFreproduction.On a cupboard are trophies of individual sports atuniversity.He works off a plain desk on which is a handsome pipe-rack with several pipes. His indulgence is a comfortableeasy chair.Ben's study, containing only the figure of Ben. He'shunched over his desk, looking blankly at the newspaper.His shirt is unbuttoned, his jacket slung across hischair. He draws heavily on his pipe, wreathing hishead with smoke in the beam of the single desk light.He sits in his chair:Gordon's voice rises in his thoughts. GORDON (V.O.) That day, Mister Ben, sir, when they whipped Jonathan, you also said we can do nothing. God as my witness today: I must know what happened and where he lies. His body belongs to Emily and me.He mutters -- more a prayer than a curse. BEN Jeezus -- Jeezus -- Jeezus Christ. JOHAN Good night, Papa! (CONTINUED) 32.CONTINUED:Johan is entering, knocking on the half-open door. He'sin his pajamas and dressing gown, ready for bed. Benlooks up at him. Johan kisses his father who suddenlyclasp his son hard, clinging to him for dear life.The boy throws his arms around his dad's neck. JOHAN Oh, Papa!Susan appears at the door with a cup of coffee. She'shad a bath -- her hair is wet -- and she's in herhousecoat.Ben and Johan don't notice her approach.She watches sympathetically for a moment, then... SUSAN Coffee! Come on, Johan. Time for bed.Johan pulls back from his father's arms. BEN Yes, son. Go and get some sleep.The boy nods and leaves.As Susan rests the cup of coffee on the desk before Ben.She notices the Rand Daily Mail. SUSAN I'm proud of you, Ben... what you've done for that family. But darling, you shouldn't take these things to heart so much. What more can you do about it? BEN I don't know. I'm just tired, I suppose. SUSAN (stroking his hair gently) Come, come to bed.Her housecoat has fallen open. He lifts his face to hersand kisses her. BEN I will, in a minute. I'll just put the thoughts of Standar Six away. They mustn't be lost to posterity. (CONTINUED) 33.CONTINUED:She chuckles, satisfied, leaving him.He picks up his cup and drinks. He thinks again for amoment. Then he removes a photocopied letter from anenvelope and reads: OFFICE VOICE (V.O.) '... Seeking the whereabouts of a certain Jonathan Ngubene, regret to inform you we have no record of anyone of that name...'INT. CLASSROOM - DAYAfrikaan boys in uniform hunching over their deskswriting... On the blackboard: the date and history test: What year did the first white man arrive in South Africa? When was the Battle of Blood River? Who was the Zulu chief who was defeated at the battle of Isanadlawana? Who was the president of the first Afrikander Republic? Give the route of the Voortrekkers from the cape?Ben walks through the aisles and from time to time oppor-tunities to glance at the window at Gordon's motionlesstractor sitting in the field.He turns back and notices a boy focusing on the ceiling.His pen in his mouth, trying desperately to find theanswers. Ben has a smile, then crosses to him, bends downand strikes a similar pose.The class breaks up into laughter. BEN (slapping the student's back) All right, time up! Hand in your test.Moans from the students.EXT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - VERANDA - DAYBen appears on the other side of the veranda. He is inCloete's company -- the little big man... grey hair...65 years old. The headmaster.They stop in before Ben's colleague, Vivier, passing,shakes hands with him. A woman arrives and waits. Cloetesays something to Ben, then laughs. (CONTINUED) 34.CONTINUED:Ben smiles and Cloete goes into the office.The woman approaches Ben... talks to him... they both turnback to see...... Emily standing there, a soaking headscarf tied native-style around her head.Ben thanks the woman and crosses the yard. BEN What's happened, Emily? EMILY (calmly) I'm sorry, Baas... but it's Gordon.EXT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - DAY... Stanley is waiting in his car. His sunglasses on hisnose...... The SCHOOL BELL RINGS to give the end of the tea inter-val. Ben walks out with Emily to Stanley's car. Stanleygets out, they stare at each other. Finally Stanleybreaks the silence. STANLEY (putting out his hand) How's it? I'm Stanley! I heard about you!Ben feels a little uncomfortable. EMILY This is Stanley Makhaya... He helps us all the time.Stanley opens the door to Emily. BEN Don't worry too much, Emily, I'm sure Gordon will be home in a few days.Stanley slaps the door with a big laugh. He gets into thecar and drives away.CLOSE ON BENperplexed. 35.INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - JOHN VORSTER SQUARE - DAYGordon stands facing the wall, his arm raised. He haswetted his trousers.Captain Stolz is pacing behind him. Lieutenant Venter,sitting on the edge of the desk, is smoking. STOLZ Come on, Kaffir, talk! GORDON Please, I've done nothing. All I tried to do was to find...Stolz interrupts him with a blow to his face. As Gordondrops his hands, the officer shouts to him. LIEUTENANT VENTER Up with those bloody arms! STOLZ We don't like gramophone records here! Now who has been giving you informations?Gordon doesn't answer.The Lieutenant walks slowly to him, calmly removes hisfag-end of cigarette from his lips and stubs it onGordon's neck. LIEUTENANT VENTER (very calmly) Why don't you answer the Captain, han?He walks back to his place.Captain Stolz opens the door and shouts: STOLZ Johannes! The bag!Gordon has a look of terror.Immediately a black security policeman walks in with abag. STOLZ All right.Johannes goes to wet the bag in a bucket in a corner.Lieutenant Venter grabs Gordon, throws him onto a chairand handcuffs his hands behind the chair. (CONTINUED) 36.CONTINUED:Stolz is supervising.The Lieutenant places the wet bag over Gordon's head andties it.Gordon starts groaning and wriggling. CUT TO:INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS (JOHN VORSTER SQUARE) - DAYUnder the gaze of a uniformed POLICEMAN in a bulletproofglass cage, Ben fills in a slip, then hands it to thePoliceman, who then makes a phone call.Whilst waiting, Ben notices a video surveillance camera.Just then, a 20-year-old African girl, Afro-style hair,is brought in held on both sides by two white policemen.She is taken into a lift.Ben watches them enter the lift and follows the progressof lift to the 10th floor.The Policeman stamps the slip and gives it to Ben. POLICEMAN Somebody will meet you on second floor.Ben enters a lift.INT. INTERROGATION ROOM (JOHN VORSTER SQUARE) - DAYGordon's still sitting on the chair, slumped -- Johannesremoves the handcuffs as the Lieutenant removes the wetbag.Gordon is breathing heavily and semi-conscious.Suddenly Captain Stolz punches him heavily on the face.Gordon drops on the floor with blood gushing from his noseand mouth. Captain Stolz grabs him by his collar. STOLZ (hysterically) Come on you bloody black bastard. Who has been telling you lies?The PHONE RINGS. Stolz drops Gordon and walks to answer. STOLZ (calmly) I'll be down immediately, Colonel. CUT TO: 37.INT. VILJOEN'S OFFICE - DAYBehind the large desk, Colonel VILJEON replaces the tele-phone receiver; there is a KNOCK on the door -- and a youngpoliceman ushers in Ben. Colonel Viljoen stands and ex-tends a hand. VILJOEN Come in, Mr. Du Toit, come in. How do you do?They shake. He's a large, friendly man, ruddy face, graycrew cut. BEN Nice to meet you, Colonel Viljoen. VILJOEN I used to watch you play for the Transvaal. You were one of the great wing forwards. BEN (grinning) Long time ago.There's a KNOCK on the door. VILJOEN Come in.The door opens revealing Captain Stolz. VILJOEN Captain Stolz, Mr. Du Toit.Captain Stolz nods correctly, unsmiling, comfortablydressed, English-style. He shakes hands with Ben. Thenwalks toward the window and stands there.As he's watching Ben, he begins to clean out his pipe witha silver penknife; VILJOEN (to Ben) Do sit down.Ben sinks into a low leather chair before the desk. Be-hind him he can feel Stolz's eyes.Viljoen peers through his half-moons at the letter infront of him. The pipe scraping continues behind Ben'sear. VILJOEN All right now, Gordon Ngubene. (CONTINUED) 38.CONTINUED: BEN Well... to put it simply, Colonel... VILJOEN (smiling) I'm always grateful for that. BEN I thought there might have been some kind of misunderstanding I could help straighten out. VILJOEN Like what? BEN I know him, Colonel. He works at my school. He's done work for me too. VILJOEN And you feel you know him enough to vouch for him. BEN Yes, after so many years... 10 years. Gordon's not the type to get himself in trouble. He's an honest, hard-working, church- going man. VILJOEN Ha! You'd be surprised how many honest, decent, church-going men we come across during a working day.He leans back comfortably in his chair. VILJOEN It's routine, Mr. Du Toit -- a routine enquiry. Cleaning up these townships we must leave no stone unturned. BEN I appreciate that -- but Gordon would never... VILJOEN (interrupting) Not an easy task either -- the press screaming blue murder -- especially the English. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 39.CONTINUED: VILJOEN (CONT'D) And they'll be the first to squeal if the Reds took over, make no mistake. Rushing back overseas clutching their bloody British passports. Have you any idea what will happen here if we don't follow every lead? We have a duty -- obligation. You have your job -- we have ours.Ben hastens to reassure him.He looks directly at Ben, frank, open, trustworthy. BEN Colonel -- believe me, I'm with you all the way. But in this case -- I'm sure that in your worthy pursuit of the guilty you have, unwittingly, involved the innocent. After all, we're all human. We all make mistakes sometimes.Viljoen laughs again. VILJOEN We are indeed, Mr. Du Toit -- we are indeed. Though there's many who might need persuading as to that fact.Then... authority. VILJOEN Mr. Du Toit. While you're here, would you mind if I asked you a few questions about Ngubene? BEN (genuinely) Colonel, I'd welcome it. VILJOEN Good!There's another pause. The Colonel takes out a fountainpen -- unscrews it -- and arranges a sheet before himbefore speaking. VILJOEN Shall we start with his son? (CONTINUED) 40.CONTINUED: BEN Jonathan. VILJOEN The eldest. BEN Yes. He died some time ago.Viljoen doesn't react. VILJOEN What do you know about Gordon's activities since Jonathan's death?The noise stops behind. BEN Nothing, Colonel. VILJOEN Did Gordon ever discuss the death with you? BEN Of course he did -- he was upset.The Colonel pauses. VILJOEN But he accepted the truth? BEN He is a religious man... in the end he would have resigned himself to it. VILJOEN Would have? You mean he didn't? Was he angry? Rebellious? BEN Come on, Colonel! If one of your kids died... (nods to family picture on desk) ... and nobody would tell you how it happened or where his body is buried, wouldn't you be upset? STOLZ We told him how his son died, Mr. Du Toit. (CONTINUED) 41.CONTINUED:Ben turns back, surprised. VILJOEN You have a son, Mr. Du Toit?The Colonel looks up at him... the first sign of steel inhis eyes... then back to the papers.The noise starts again behind Ben. VILJOEN Does he burn and destroy -- everything he can lay his hands on?... No -- and neither does mine. That's what I can't understand... after everything the government does for them. (looks straight at Ben) Think about it, Mr. Du Toit. We're for you, not against you. BEN (irritably) I've never doubted it, Colonel. It's you who appear to be doubting me. These questions. You're making me feel like a criminal.There's a moment's pause -- then a burst of laughter. VILJOEN I'm sorry, Mr. Du Toit... I'm sorry. It's force of habit. Once a policeman, always a policeman, eh?More laughter -- Ben joins in. Viljoen stands, signallingan end to the meeting.EXT. BEN'S CAR - DAYJohan is sitting, waiting, in the parked car... the RADIOON. He's bored.INT. COLONEL'S OFFICE VILJOEN ... As soon as we're satisfied he's innocent, he will be released. We know what we're doing, Mr. Du Toit. You want your wife and that boy of yours to sleep safe tonight, don't you? (CONTINUED) 42.CONTINUED:Ben nods, smiles, makes for the door, turns. BEN One last favor, Colonel? VILJOEN Fire away! BEN Gordon's wife -- she's very worried. May she bring him some food and a change of clothes while he's still here? VILJOEN No problem! Thank you for your help... BEN Thank you. I'll rely on you, then. VILJOEN Will you find your way out? BEN I think so. And thanks. I feel much happier now. VILJOEN Good! And give my regards to your father-in-law -- tell him we'll have a drink sometime -- maybe go to a game. BEN I will. Goodbye.And the door shuts behind him.There's silence for a moment... Viljoen staring at theclosed door -- Stolz looks expectantly at him. VILJOEN (pointing up) Is the little bird singing yet? STOLZ I'm working on it. VILJOEN Good.Stolz leaves, shutting the door behind him. CUT TO: 43.EXT. JON VORSTER SQUAREBen opening his car. Johan is sitting in the front seat.As Ben gets into the car, he glances at the John VorsterSquare building.INT. BEN'S CAR - DAYBen is motoring through and out of Johannesburg. Johanis silent beside him, impatient. BEN I talked to them. Gordon will be released soon. The colonel was very understanding. JOHAN Did you see Gordon?Ben suddenly realizes that he didn't ask to see Gordon. BEN (embarrassed) No. JOHAN Did they say anything about Jonathan? BEN No, but... Johan, he is dead. We can't do anything for him. Don't mention this visit to your mother. Okay?INT. DU TOIT KITCHEN - NIGHTSuzette and Susan in the kitchen arranging the desserttray. The kitchen is surprisingly neat. LAUGHTER iscoming from the dining room. SUZETTE What extra-mural interest? SUSAN Champion of political detainees!Ben comes in to open extra bottles of wine, hears Susan'sline. SUZETTE (laughing, turns to Ben) Is that right, Papa? (CONTINUED) 44.CONTINUED: BEN That's right, Suzette. But, only one detainee: 'Gordon!' SUZETTE Our Gordon? BEN That's right. SUZETTE (disbelieving) My God. What on earth for?Susan leaves the kitchen without a word, with the dessertplates on the tray to the dining room.INT. DU TOIT HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHTSusan reaches VIVIERS and the minister DOMINEE BESTER,with their dessert plates. The candles have burned downamid the detritus of dinner: glasses disarranged anddirty, the cloth spotted with food and wine and ashes.In addition to Viviers, dateless, and Bester and hiswife, the school's headmaster, Cloete and his wife.INT. DU TOIT HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHTBen hastily uncorking a bottle of wine while talking toSuzette. SUZETTE It must be a mistake, Papa. BEN Of course it is. I went down there, told them. They're looking into it. SUZETTE Went down where? BEN John Vorster Square.Suzette giggles, amazed. SUZETTE You old devil you. Does Ma know? BEN No. And you're not going to tell her. (CONTINUED) 45.CONTINUED:A pause. She looks at him. SUZETTE Be careful. I don't want my favorite Papa in trouble, Gordon or no Gordon.She ruffles his hair, smiles, kisses him. They go backinto the dining room.INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT BEN More wine? Viviers? VIVIERS Not for me, Oom Ben. I'm drunk enough. BEN Mrs. Cloete? MRS. CLOETE Please!Ben serves her.Susan passes to fetch milk jug and sugar basin from thechine cupboard. MRS. CLOETE (to Mrs. Bester) Oh, I saw those sheets you liked, Sally, on sale at Bloom's. MRS. BESTER Will you be free on Wednesday afternoon? I have one or two other things to buy.INT. KITCHEN - NIGHTSusan enters the kitchen. As she is about to place thejug and basin on the table next to the tray with cups ofthe same set, there is a knock at the door. SUSAN (turning to the door) Come in.The door opens and Stanley steps in. (CONTINUED) 46.CONTINUED: SUSAN (surprised) Who are you? What do you want? CUT TO:INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHTBen and guests hear Susan.Ben jumps up, hurries to the door. Viviers starts tofollow.INT. KITCHEN - NIGHTBen stops at the door, sees Stanley, turns to Viviers. BEN It's all right.Viviers returns to his seat as Ben shuts the door behindhim. BEN Oh, it's you... hum... Stanley, isn't it? (to Susan) That's all right, darling.Ben leads Stanley out of the kitchen, closing the doorbehind him.CLOSE ON SUSANintrigued.INT. LEWINSON'S HOME - NIGHTLewinson is at the phone, behind him his wife, too, isentertaining guests for dinner. LEWINSON A Friday night, man! I'm no doctor, I'm not on standby all the bloody time. Can't they wait 'til Monday?INT. BEN'S STUDY - NIGHT BEN Dan! I'm standing here with Gordon's clothing in my hand. It's bloodstained... (MORE) (CONTINUED) 47.CONTINUED: BEN (CONT'D) There are broken teeth in the pocket. Monday may be too late! (pause) The lawyer has been banned.Stanley is waiting, his great hand on his hips, the otherone on Emily's shoulder. She is sitting on a chair.Obviously, Stanley doesn't expect a positive response.INT. LEWINSON HOME - NIGHT LEWINSON (interested) Do you mean Julius Nqakula? (pause) Too bad, he's a good lawyer. Why are you getting so involved, Ben?INT. BEN'S STUDY - NIGHT BEN I'm just trying to help Gordon. ... You represented many cases, tell me, does this happen often? (pause) But Gordon's not political. (pause) Okay, Dan, I'm sorry for disturbing your weekend.Ben replaces the phone. Turns to Emily and Stanley. BEN He agrees to see you tomorrow and will apply to the supreme court for an interdict to stop any assaults on Gordon. And, we'll find out what's going on. STANLEY You're all right, Lanie.Ben can just hear Emily's soft voice. EMILY Thank you, Baas. STANLEY Come on, sisi. Tomorrow it'll all be first-class again. 48.INT. DU TOIT LOUNGE - NIGHTLaughter again. Ben has rejoined the party in thelounge. The women are together talking, laughing and themen on their own. SUSAN More coffee, anyone?General assent. CLOETE The security police don't arrest people for nothing, Ben. Leave it alone. BEN They could make a mistake. CLOETE Blacks lead double lives. One you see and one you don't. These people surprise you all the time. VIVIERS (joking) That's what I like about them. BEN We're not concerned with 'blacks.' We're talking about GORDON. A good man and very loyal. SUSAN (serving coffee to Cloete) And a hard worker too. CLOETE A hard worker? I had to get rid of him.Susan doesn't react. She leaves to join the womens'group. BEN What? CLOETE I fired him a few days before he was arrested for staying away from work for days. And for the sake of the school I say good riddance. BEN What do you mean 'good riddance'? (CONTINUED) 49.CONTINUED: CLOETE I have a responsibility for the children. These are troubled times, Ben, we can't trust the natives any more. BESTER You have to be extra careful about any influences, Oom Ben. Even their churches are breeding grounds for all sorts of evil ideas. BEN Gordon's not subversive and definitely not a Communist. CLOETE Then he's got nothing to worry about! VIVIERS Except his three teeth. Our government mustn't allow such things to happen. After all, it's a Christian government. (turning to Bester) What do you say, Dominee?Bester doesn't answer. BEN (irritably) I'm not talking about the government! I believe in our government, damn it...His sharp tone surprises everybody. He quiets. BEN ... Look, I know the police often know more than we do. I'm not questioning that. I'm as loyal as the next man. But I do know Gordon Ngubene... there is something wrong.There's a moment's embarrassed silence, broken by Suzette'sentrance with a tray of glasses and a bottle of brandy. SUZETTE (putting the tray in front of Ben) Anything else, Papa? (CONTINUED) 50.CONTINUED:Ben starts pouring, and offers the first glass to Bester. BEN Dominee?Bester shakes his hand. BESTER Nee Dankie.Ben hands the glass to Viviers.Immediately Viviers raises his glass and laughingly says: VIVIERS Oom, Ben, may your problems be small ones!INT. INTERROGATION ROOM (JOHN VORSTER SQUARE) - DAYGordon is undoing his trousers.Venter roughly drops the trousers and pushing him to thefloor.He handcuffs him while Johannes pulls off the trousersand underpants, and manacles his ankles.Johannes fetches a rod.Venter goes to a cupboard, pulls out two electric wireswith electrodes attachments and places them on the desk.All the preparation is done with practiced efficiency.From the adjoining room there are angry shouts of awoman.Venter and Johannes place the rod between Gordon's elbow-joints and the back of his knees. The door opens.Gordon has a look of terror on his face. CAPTAIN STOLZ (O.S.) Sorry I'm late.Captain Stolz enters carrying a thickish file under hisarms, goes straight to the desk and sits down. CAPTAIN STOLZ Johnannes, the table.Johannes moves the table in line with the desk.Lieutenant Venter and Johannes lift the trussed Gordonand the ends of the rod between the desk and table. (CONTINUED) 51.CONTINUED: LIEUTENANT VENTER You're a heavy shitface. Too much mealie porridge!Captain Stolz holds Gordon by the head and swings him likea pendulum. STOLZ How do you feel today? Ready to fly?Very calmly Captain Stolz pulls out some papers from thefile. STOLZ (pointing one sheet of paper) Yes, Mister Ngubene, we know about this Wellington... and... (pointing another affidavit) ... We know about him... and him ... Now, we want the names of the others. And today you're going to tell us.The WOMAN in the next room SHOUTING louder than before --that one is a real and tough activist -- STOLZ (to himself) Bloody woman. (to Johannes) Water!As Johannes is fetching the bucket of water. Venter goesto the cupboard and stays there. LIEUTENANT VENTER 'Samson' is ready, Captain, shall I switch him on?Johannes empties the bucket over Gordon. Stolz attachesthe terminal to Gordon's earlobes. STOLZ (to Venter) Okay. Gert!Gordon is given a short burst of electric shock. GORDON (reacts) Hai! (CONTINUED) 52.CONTINUED: STOLZ That was a small taste of 'Samson.' We have a whole day...A knock at the door. STOLZ ... Kom!A black policeman in uniform. JOHNSON SEROKE, enterswith a letter in his hand. STOLZ What do you want? SEROKE A letter for you, Captain.Stolz goes to take the letter and turns to place it onhis desk. He notices Seroke still standing. STOLZ What are you bloody-well waiting for? SEROKE No reply, Captain? STOLZ Get out of here.Seroke leaves. STOLZ (to Gordon) Now about these affidavits who told you to collect them? The A.N.C.? Who recruited you?Gordon mumbles something. STOLZ What?He bends forward to hear, and Gordon's swollen, puffyeyes hold his gaze. GORDON I don't know anything about the A.N.C. STOLZ You've had your chance. Now you're going to shit. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53.CONTINUED: STOLZ (CONT'D) (to lieutenant in Afrikaans) Reg gert. (Okay, Gert)Gordon suddenly shakes violently and shouts repeatedly. GORDON Hai! Hai! Hai!INT. DUTCH REFORM CHURCH - MORNINGDominee Bester is preaching from the pulpit. BESTER God created the whole human race so that they could occupy the entire earth. He decreed how long each nation should flourish, and what the boundaries of each territory should be. Our task is to preserve that creative diversity.Behind him, in his deacon's black tails, Ben listens withclasped hands. On the opposite side, another man is lis-tening, standing in the love of his family, Cloete. BESTER Brothers and sisters, like our forebears, the Voortrekkers, who trekked into the wilderness preserve the Afrikanere way of life given to them by God. Today, we also live in times of great danger. Let not fear overcome you! Cling to the ways of justice and truth preserved by our leaders. So shall God be honored...BEN'S POVThe faces of his friends scattered among the pews, Suzetteand Susan listening intently, Johan beside her visiblybored, his eyes wandering to the Cloete's daughter atthe end of the pew. BESTER ... So shall the Afrikaner people flourish.The organ plays the opening notes to a hymn, the congre-gation rises and sings. 54.INT. BEN'S GARAGE - DAYBen's garage/workshop -- the door is open. Ben and Johanare together building a strong desk for Johan.The RADIO offers MUSIC to keep them company. Susan isconfronting Ben. SUSAN Why didn't you tell me you'd been down to John Vorster Square? BEN What difference would it have made? SUSAN I'm your wife, damn it!She turns the RADIO DOWN, irritably. BEN I didn't want to upset you. SUSAN Upset me? It upsets me when you share your bloody secrets with a child!Johan is embarrassed. Ben glances at him. Johan shrugsand shakes his head "not me." Ben planes on. SUSAN Ben! Ben! Look at me for God sakes! (turns to Johan) Johan uit met jou!Johan leaves. BEN (posing down the plane) Now what? SUSAN We have a good life. We may not have everything we might have had if... BEN (interrupts) ... If I'd been more ambitious. (CONTINUED) 55.CONTINUED: SUSAN (looking at him) Ben, what's happening? (pause) Sometimes it seems to me I don't know you.Ben looks at her. Her tone is panic, urgent. She looksafraid. He crosses over to her, takes her in his arms. BEN What's happening -- it's something I've never had to face -- deal with -- before. SUSAN He's the gardener for God's sake, not one of the family. BEN Be patient with me... When Gordon is free you'll have me all to yourself again... promise. SUSAN (nuzzling into his chest) Ben. We're growing old. BEN Nonsense. One's as old as he feels. I feel young and very attractive. I can still do my duty.She smiles up at him, chuckles, and then they kiss.Johan interrupts. JOHAN Papa. SUSAN (smiling indulgently at Johan's interruption) _______________________________ JOHAN Stanley's here, Papa.Johan leaves. SUSAN Oh, bloody hell! (CONTINUED) 56.CONTINUED:Susan exclaims in angry frustration and flees.Stanley appears at the garage door. He stands. STANLEY Gordon's dead. BEN What?The news leaves Ben speechless. Stanley continues inflat, emotionless tones. STANLEY The bastards say he committed suicide... hanged himself.Ben, recovering from the shock. BEN Suicide... is that what they told Emily -- poor woman... STANLEY They didn't tell her. She heard it on the radio like the rest of us. I contacted Lewinson immediately. He then rung the police to ask why Emily wasn't informed. Would you believe it, they said they were sorry, and they didn't know where to contact her.Ben walks slowly out of the garage in deep thoughts --Stanley follows him.EXT. GARAGE - DAY BEN (almost to himself) God! I never thought Gordon could commit suicide. STANLEY Did you understand me? I said, they said he committed suicide. BEN How do we know? STANLEY Gordon wasn't a coward. (CONTINUED) 57.CONTINUED: BEN Yes, but... STANLEY (interrupts aggressively) What do you mean 'but'? What about Timol who they said had jumped from a top-floor window? What about Ngudle? What about Mosala? Joyi? Malele? They all died in that John Vorster Square. All suicide, eh?Ben stares at him. There is something like a strangesilence between them. Ben is confused and Stanley isstaring at him. Ben breaks this embarrassing mood. BEN Anything I can do to help? STANLEY He's got brothers. BEN (surprised) Brothers? STANLEY I'm his brother, man, we all are! We'll take care of everything. (with pride) That's the African way. BEN Stanley, I'd like to see Gordon. STANLEY Don't look for trouble, man. You know there are riots all over Soweto. You're out of it. Why don't you stay out? BEN Don't you understand? I've got to go. STANLEY (with a mischievous smile) You got to go? Of course, Lanie... the last farewell. But we have to be careful.INT. STANLEY'S CAR - DAYStanley drives sportingly as he talks to Ben, seated inthe back. (CONTINUED) 58.CONTINUED: STANLEY We expected it. BEN How can you talk like that!? STANLEY A guy gets picked up by the S.B... he's part of history, man. BEN You mean you had no hope, you didn't believe he'd be released? STANLEY Hope's a white word, Lanie... It's not hope we need.There's silence for a moment. BEN Well, thank God Emily has you to lean on, Stanley. STANLEY Emily is like my sister... We go back many years. BEN Do you belong to the xhosa tribe too? STANLEY I am an African. That's all! (looking through the rear mirror) Comprende? BEN I am an African too!Stanley turns abruptly. STANLEY What? BEN I was fourteen before I wore shoes -- except for church... I grew up on a plaas miles from any town... watching sheep and... STANLEY (interrupts) Bullshit! Next you'll have me believing we grew up in the same country, same laws, same freedom, same everything! (CONTINUED) 59.CONTINUED:He laughs.EXT. SOWETO BORDER - DAY STANLEY (like a tour guide) We are now about to leave the white jungle and entering the land of love and glory.The car approaches a huge perimeter notice:"YOU ARE NOW ENTERING SOWETO TOWNSHIP. NO PERSON WITHOUTTHE NECESSARY PERMIT IS ALLOWED..."Ben is driven into a different world; children playing indirty streets, in wrecks of cars, open spaces devoid ofvegetables, smoke from large rubbish dumps, burnt-outskeletons of buses, beer halls and buildings. Clustersof policemen in battle dress patrolling in the distance. BEN So this is Soweto. STANLEY (like an actor, with big expansive gesture) Land of love and glory, Lanie! (turning suddenly to Ben) But watch out for the police and army. They're patrolling all the time.The car follows an isolated broken stretch of tarred roadhill cluttered with rusty tins, cardboard containers,bottles.EXT. FUNERAL PARLOR - DAYA group of young children playing under the blinding sunin a muddy ditch, notice the big painted butterfly on thehood of Stanley's car.They wave and scream at Stanley in their language and hescreams back at them.Two little girls start running, heading toward the car.Stanley notices the red VW parked in a corner. He man-euvers and parks his car nearby. STANLEY (opening door) Hurry up, Lanie. 60.BEN'S POVA modern funeral parlor with its name painted on the side:"MOROKA FUNERAL DIRECTOR (PTY) LTD."BACK TO SCENEStanley notices the two little girls with dusty smilingfaces, standing there waiting for him. STANLEY (checking his pants' pockets) No sweets today. I'm sorry, babies.The children give Stanley a coy disbelieving look as theywatch him go with the "white man."CHILDREN'S POVOn the doorstep of the funeral parlor: Stanley and Benrun into a young woman coming out with a shoulder bagand a camera.The young woman and Stanley exchange a quick, friendlygreeting -- it's MELANIE BRUWER, the Rand Daily reporter-- and keep moving.BACK TO SCENEBen turns back for a moment. Her face seems familiar tohim. He would like to talk to her, but there is no time.Stanley is already inside.INT. FUNERAL PARLOR - DAYBen and Stanley follow the proprietor who is expensively-dressed in a dark suit. Gordon's coffin stands as one ofmany in the room.Inside the casket, brass fittings, white satin, liesGordon, incongruous, ludicrous in a black Sunday suit.His hands are crossed on his chest like the claws of abird and his face, barely recognizable, is gray, the leftside distorted, blackish purple.There are rough stitches of the postmortem across hisskull and a scar on his lips.Stanley speaks in an African language to the undertaker.The man opens Gordon's shirt and reveals the bruised andbattered chest. (CONTINUED) 61.CONTINUED:Stanley observes Ben who looks at the wounds with horror.Then another command from Stanley and the undertakeropens the shirt to the waist. Ben's ashen. Stanleythanks the man and turns to leave. Ben remains a minute.He shuts his eyes tightly. Now he saw it. Now he mustbelieve it. He must accept that this battered corpse isGordon.As he follows Stanley, he thanks the undertaker.EXT. FUNERAL PARLOR - DAYOutside the "sunlight," the children's laughter andStanley, hands in pockets, waiting for Ben by the car.The same two little girls approach Stanley who gives themsome coins -- they run off happily.Ben is coming outside blinking in the glaring sunlight.Stanley glares at Ben, who is pale, shaken and silent.They get into the car in silence. STANLEY (turning to Ben) 'The living close the eyes of the dead. The dead open the eyes of the living.'Stanley starts the car. BEN Please, take me to Emily.Stanley looks at him. STANLEY Look, we'd took one hell of a chance to get here, let's not push it. BEN I really have to see her, Stanley.Stanley drives off. STANLEY (determined; looking through rearview mirror) I said don't push it. I have to keep you alive. What's more the house is full of mourners. (CONTINUED) 62.CONTINUED:They drive in silence... then: STANLEY What are your thoughts now? BEN What do you mean? STANLEY (aggressively) Come on. I know you came to see the body. What do you think now? BEN (exposed) I... I cannot think. I'm confused. STANLEY You either believe what you saw or maybe you still prefer the government version. BEN For Christ sake, just get off my back, Stanley. STANLEY Okay. It was a simple question.Stanley turns his RADIO ON and BANTU MUSIC invades thecar as it speeds away in a cloud of dust.EXT. WHITE SUBURB STREET - LATE AFTERNOONThe big brassy Dodge is threading its way through theleafy calm of the white suburb.The "Bantu" MUSIC is STILL PLAYING on the radio underStanley's animated conversation with Ben. STANLEY You know, Lanie, when you run a taxi, especially a pirate taxi like me, you have eyes and ears everywhere. Even when a policeman farts in his bed you know. People want a reference book, a permit to stay in Soweto, a house, anything, we taxi drivers know the routes. I'll tell you something...A news bulletin in African language interrupts the music.Stanley listens. (CONTINUED) 63.CONTINUED: STANLEY Shit! BEN What? STANLEY Dr. Hassiem has been picked up. BEN Who's he?Stanley silently pulls up along the curb and comes torest at Ben's gate.EXT. BEN'S HOUSE - ENTRANCE - LATE EVENING STANLEY Dr. Hassiem is the doctor we got to represent Emily at Gordon's autopsy. We wanted the truth.Ben suddenly realizes the significances. BEN He would have testified. Bloody hell! STANLEY A smart move by your Boer brothers. They have silenced Hassiem. BEN His report has to be important. We can only use what we have. Therefore, Lewinson must get a very good advocate. (pause) If only we could get hold of this Hassiem's report. STANLEY What's the use? It's one big game and we blacks are merely spectators. Hey Lanie, can one be a spectator as he's being kicked around?He laughs. (CONTINUED) 64.CONTINUED: BEN It's not a question of being spectators. The courts are impartial, the law is what matters. STANLEY (quite seriously) That's what you all say. I have to move man. Your neighbors! Now, be careful. They will put their marks on you! BEN Who?Stanley takes an empty cigarette packet from his pocket,he writes on it. STANLEY You'll find out! (handing the packet to Ben) In case you need me. Don't give your name -- just say 'Lanie' phoned -- right?Ben gets out of the car. BEN Now tomorrow at ten... STANLEY (interrupting) Sharp! At our smart liberal friend's office, yeh! BEN Good night.Stanley drives vigorously away.Ben walks slowly and thoughtfully towards his house. Henotices Susan watching him through the window.He slumps on a chair on the veranda as Susan comes out ofthe house followed by Johan -- they both stand slightlyworried at his moroseness. BEN I went to Soweto and saw Gordon's body. They have lied to me, my own people -- they killed him! I saw the body. (CONTINUED) 65.CONTINUED:Johan looks horrified. SUSAN Ben, you're not a doctor. His death was announced officially. They wouldn't say anything unless they were certain of their facts. BEN (more animated) Facts? There's a doctor who participated at the autopsy. A Doctor Hassiem and he... SUSAN (interrupts) You mean the Indian doctor who's been arrested? JOHAN It was in the five o'clock news, Papa. BEN That's him, he represented Emily at the autopsy. SUSAN (suddenly desperate) Ben, I'm sorry about Gordon's death, but please for all our sakes, forget about this whole thing. Let's get back to a normal life. BEN Can I have a drink? JOHAN A brandy? BEN You always know what I need.Johan hurries into the house. SUSAN (pleading) Please, Ben, I'm frightened.She turns and walks into the house, leaving Ben. 66.EXT. SOWETO CEMETERY - MORNINGThe large Soweto cemetery has scores of graves ready forburials. The chief mourners, Emily, Robert, his sister,Margaret, four relatives and Stanley are standing oneither side of the PRIEST. Gordon's coffin is in thegrave; several wreaths are on the side of the grave.There are about fifteen hundred mourners, and half areyouths. There are several local reporters and overseastelevision reporters.The police are in attendance in large numbers at the edgeof the crowd, some in battle dress and some with dogs. PRIEST Before I conclude, I have to say we are tired of making this journey every day, sometimes twice in one day, burying our children, and those, like our departed brother, Ngubene who were merely seeking the truth; and those who have been denounced by traitors amongst us; and those who have been brutally killed for no reason, yes I shall say it, by the police. Let those who rule this land of ours listen to the word of God; let them listen to our peaceful and just demands; let them be humble and go down on their knees and seek forgiveness, then listen to God.The crowd roars: "Amanda! Amanda!"The Priest starts a short hymn and the crowd joins in.At the end of the hymn. PRIEST We will have a few words from Mr. Pilani our father and leader.The crowd starts singing a freedom song with arms raised.The funeral has now become a political demonstration.Mr. Pilani, who is a dignified, educated 70-years-old,walks slowly and waits beside the chief mourners. Heis handed a loudspeaker. (CONTINUED) 67.CONTINUED:A SENIOR POLICE OFFICER threads his way through thecrowd, a loud hailer in his hand. As he reaches thegrave he turns. The crowd is quiet. He says somethingto the Priest then addresses the crowd. SENIOR OFFICER The funeral is over. I order everyone to go home. This is not a political rally. I repeat, disperse.As though by signal the police start attacking themourners with truncheons and dogs. There is pandemon-ium, women screaming, people falling into graves orcovering in them.The Priest and Stanley lead Emily and the family awayin the opposite direction.The press and television are recording the scene. Thepolice start throwing tear gas canisters. There is noconfrontation, the crowd is fleeing in all directions.One television cameraman is purposely pushed into a graveby a very young policeman, his round recordist is pulledup into the adjourning grave by the connecting cord.Melanie stands on a tombstone watching and making notes.INT. BEN'S LOUNGE - NIGHTBen, Susan watching the main evening news bulletin on TV.On the screen a sequence of rioting. COMMENTARY (V.O.) Despite repeated warnings young blacks attacked the police with rocks and petrol bombs. Five policemen were injured.Susan briefly glances at Ben. COMMENTARY (V.O.) Several arrests were made. One youth was killed and five wounded.Follows the newscaster and then reports: NEWSCASTER (V.O.) This morning there was a serious disturbance at the funeral of Gordon Ngubene.Susan leaves the room. (CONTINUED) 68.CONTINUED: NEWSCASTER The detainee who committed suicide by hanging himself at John Vorster Square. An overseas television cameraman broke an arm during the disturbance. It's been reported that several people had been killed by a car-bomb in Belfast Northern Island...Ben turns OFF the TV and stays in his thoughts.EXT. JOHANNESBURG - STREET - AFTERNOONStanley and Ben are driving in the outskirts ofJohannesburg.EXT. APPROACHES OF SOWETO - AFTERNOONStanley drives seemingly alone at very high speeds, whichhe maintains through the streets of Soweto... using hishorn to scatter people out of his way, to the anger andindulgence of others.The CAR SCREECHES to a halt outside Emily's house.Stanley gets out of the car and greets the startledneighbors... and acknowledges the friendly shouts ofchildren.Stanley looks around, then goes back to the car, opensthe back door, leans and says something. Suddenly, toeveryone's astonishment, Ben crawls out of the car;Stanley hustles him into Emily's house.Stanley waves at the people, a sign of assurance, thencloses the door behind him.INT. EMILY'S HOUSE - AFTERNOONBen stands awkwardly for a moment, taking in the room andthe people in it. He then walks over to Emily who isstanding at the table. He goes to shake her hand. BEN How are you, Emily? EMILY Well, thank you, Mr. Ben, sir. Eh, that's father Masonwane, our priest, and that's Margaret from next door.Ben nods at them. Stanley sits himself down. (CONTINUED) 69.CONTINUED: STANLEY (raising his hand in greeting) Mfundisi... (priest) ... Sisi! (sister) EMILY (to Ben) Please sit down. Take this chair, the other one is broken. BEN (apologetically) I didn't mean to disturb you. I've come to talk to you. EMILY (as she sits on the broken chair) Yes, it's good. What I want to know is why did they kill him. He didn't do them nothing. You know, Mr. Ben, sir, I washed his whole body for he was my husband. And I know a man who killed himself, he doesn't look like that. MARGARET Master, you must understand she's still raw inside. BEN I'm sure.Robert walks in, looks at Ben and walks into his bedroomto fetch something, then as he's about to go out: EMILY Robert, where are you manners today? Don't you greet visitors?Robert stops momentarily and looks at Ben with hostilityand hurries out of the room banging the door. EMILY I'm sorry for his rudeness. PRIEST (to Ben) You have to understand what's happening to our children today, they're like wasps when you burn their nest. (CONTINUED) 70.CONTINUED: MARGARET That's right. Our children are saying 'that's enough!' Things have to change in this country. They accuse us of being cowards. BEN Emily, I have really come to assure you that I will do all I can to help you find out what really happened to Jonathan and your husband -- we cannot bring them back to life, but we can make sure that this sort of thing won't ever happen again. PRIEST You mean well, sir, but it's better to forgive. If we keep the pain alive then hate and bitterness will remain with us. BEN The air must be cleared. So we can breathe again. PRIEST The air can only be cleared if we forget about yesterday's thunder. EMILY Mr. Ben is right. It's not that I want to go on with this thing because it's a bad thing that Jonathan died, that Gordon died that's hard enough to bear, but I can forgive it. But they covered Gordon's name with dirt and we must clean it up, else he'll never have peace in his grave. STANLEY (to Ben) You must understand for us, suicide is a coward's way out, how do they say, it's a 'cop out.' BEN Gordon wasn't a coward and we'll prove that. We have a very good advocate for the inquest. His name is De Villiers. I have confidence in him and the truth will come out. (CONTINUED) 71.CONTINUED: EMILY The truth must be known. They killed my husband who wouldn't hurt a fly and they killed Jonathan who was only a child... PRIEST Those people who did it are sinful people who don't know what they're doing. STANLEY He! Mfundisi, what are you saying now? You mean... PRIEST We must help them. That's the only way. They need our help, not hate, but love. PRIEST I pity them and I ask the Lord to help me so I can learn to love them. STANLEY If that's what you preach in your church you will soon be starving. EMILY They covered his name with dirt. PRIEST Aren't you afraid sis Emily? EMILY No. In the end one grows tired of being afraid. STANLEY Amen!Ben has been listening to the discussion with interest,this being the first time he has heard Africans talkingseriously about their problems. BEN Emily, Stanley and I will do all we can. As I said we have a good advocate. Everyone involved with Gordon's death will be questioned and all that's known regarding what happened in John Vorster Square will come out. (CONTINUED) 72.CONTINUED: MARGARET How can anything come out of that John Vorster Square? Who there will say: 'Yes, we killed the boy and Gordon?' BEN Lawyers ask questions. MARGARET And don't policemen lie? EMILY Thank you, Mr. Ben, sir for what you're doing. BEN (standing) I'm pleased I came. STANLEY (to Ben as he goes to the door) Wait, let me check the situation.He opens the door and walks out.EXT. EMILY'S HOUSE - AFTERNOONA small group of youngsters are there, hands thrust intotheir pockets, hanging around in a stony silence.Robert is standing by the door.Stanley calls one of them and talks to him -- the boyslook around and say something.As Stanley goes back to the door, passing Robert, heruffles his hair. STANLEY (to Robert) Take it easy. (then to Ben) It's okey, dokey, but hurry.Ben hurries out of the room. The children stare at him. BEN (as they go to the car) Do I... (CONTINUED) 73.CONTINUED: STANLEY (interrupts) Yes, on the floor man.Stanley opens the back door for Ben. Who crouches onthe floor.Some of the boys snicker and one bursts out laughing.As Stanley gets into the car he shouts at them: STANLEY Okay. Kids, time to go home. Be careful. BOY (shouting back) Sure 'bra' Stanley. Take it easy.Stanley drives off at speed.EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF SOWETO - LATE AFTERNOONStanley is driving, they have left Soweto. Ben still onthe floor. BEN Are we still in Soweto? STANLEY Why don't you look for yourself?Ben rises and sees that they're at least a mile out. Heis not amused. BEN (sitting up) What the hell are you playing at? STANLEY (as he bursts into loud laugh) Precautions, Lanie. BEN (exposing) Don't call me Lanie! What does that mean anyway? STANLEY (still laughing) You will not understand, Lanie.They drive off. 74.INT. BEN'S BEDROOM - NIGHTSusan and Ben are in bed. Susan is in Ben's arms, she isrelaxed and loving.Ben talks quietly and calmly. BEN I think I am without awareness. I have always cared about people, call it a social conscience. But my visit to Gordon's house made me experience another dimension of human conditions. SUSAN The poverty, ja... BEN No, I expected that. But listening to them talk made me realize that I did not know the blacks. Now I question my attitudes, my concerns as Ben, and complacence as a white person. SUSAN Ben, I know your anxiety about the inquest. All will be cleared up, in a legal way, and you'll be back to your normal self. Now let's turn off the lights.Susan kisses Ben tenderly.INT. COURT ROOM - FIRST DAY OF INQUEST - DAYThe inquest of Gordon Ngubene... conducted by MAGISTRATEKLOPPER. In the witness box is DR. JANSEN, the statepathologist, giving evidence. Advocate DE VILLIERS iscross examining. DE VILLIERS Dr. Jansen, you are a state pathologist of many years standing and I have no doubt a well-qualified pathologist. Could you now please tell us what caused the death of the deceased? DR. JANSEN I found that death had been caused by the application of force to the neck, consistent with hanging. (CONTINUED) 75.CONTINUED:There's a vigorous reaction to this around the court,which gives us a chance to discover the crowd:In the white section of the public gallery are Ben andabout eight other whites.The black section is filled to capacity with a few stand-ing. In the front row is sitting Stanley next toMargaret. At the entrance, a white policeman.In the press section are several reporters; amongst themMelanie Bruwer the Rand Daily Mail reporter.Colonel Viljoen and several policemen are sitting aroundthe court. DE VILLIERS You are sure about the hanging? This pressure on the neck, could it also have been exerted in other ways? DR. JANSEN It could, but it is not for me to speculate. DE VILLIERS Of course not, Doctor. The list of injuries found on the body was horrifyingly long; bruises, swellings, abrasions, broken rib, lacerations, etc. How long before death do you estimate he received these injuries? DR. JANSEN I couldn't say exactly. DE VILLIERS Roughly. DR. JANSEN Some were fourteen to twenty days old, others three to four days and others even more recent. DE VILLIERS Even more recent. I see. I understand you had a Dr. Hassiem present at the autopsy. DR. JANSEN That's correct. (CONTINUED) 76.CONTINUED: DE VILLIERS There were two reports, ours and his. Did they tally? DR. JANSEN Yes, it was. In most respects.ON Stanley listening. DE VILLIERS Isn't it normal practice to have one report? Why did Dr. Hassiem decide to draw up a separate report? If he really co-signed yours. DR. JANSEN That's for him to answer! DE VILLIERS I would very much like to, Dr. Jansen, but he's been detained -- you know of course that he represented the Ngubene family. Thank you.There's a murmur around the court... Ben looks across atViljoen who returns his gaze -- smiling. CUT TO:DR. HERZOGthe police physician, giving evidence. DE VILLIERS Dr. Herzog, did you examine the deceased? DR. HERZOG Yes, one day Captain Stolz called me in. The man had toothache. DE VILLIERS (aggressive) That's all? DR. HERZOG (uncomfortable) As far as I could tell -- yes. (CONTINUED) 77.CONTINUED: DE VILIERS You didn't examine him thoroughly? DR. HERZOG Why should I? The man was perfectly healthy, just complaining of toothache. I extracted three decayed teeth, and gave him aspirin for the pain... that's all. DE VILLIERS Did the captain or anyone else assist you during the examination? DR. HERZOG (hesitates) I... I cannot remember. DE VILLIERS (more aggressive and accusing) Dr. Herzog, tell us. Have you been intimidated by the Security Police or did you deliberately cooperate with them in playing their disgusting little game of hide-and-seek? LOUW (jumping up from his seat) I protest, Your Worship. MAGISTRATE Advocate De Villiers, will you refrain from insinuations? DE VILLIERS Thank you, Doctor Herzog... I'm sure Gordon Ngubene was extremely grateful!Herzog's face is impassive.ON crowd reacting. MAGISTRATE Advocate Louw?During the hubbub De Villiers and the state advocatetrade places. The courtroom is quiet. (CONTINUED) 78.CONTINUED: LOUW Thank you, Your Worship. I'd like to call Captain Stolz.There's a buzz from the spectators as Captain Stolz walksup to the witness stand. He's given a Bible.ON Ben -- watches him.CLOSEUP - STOLZIn witness box, swearing in Afrikaans. LOUW You're a police officer stationed at John Vorster Square? STOLZ That's right, Your Worship. LOUW You arrested Gordon Ngubene. Could you describe what happened? STOLZ Acting on information we had received, I went to the house of the deceased, accompanied by Lieutenant Venter, Lieutenant Botha, and three native members of the security force. This was about 10 P.M. I informed Ngubene that he was under arrest under Article 6 of the Terrorism Act. He then became violent and resisted arrest. A certain force had to be applied to restrain him.ON Stanley listening.ON Ben listening. STOLZ We found several incriminating documents. These pointed to his involvement with the A.N.C. and activities endangering the security of the state. 79.ON Ben looking at Stolz, and shaking his head, bewildered. LOUW Was the deceased ever assaulted to your knowledge? STOLZ Never. He was always treated with courtesy and correctness. But, one time we had cause to use force against him. It was the day before his death. The deceased suddenly showed signs of aggression. He tried to jump through the open window of my office. He was acting like a mad man. It took six of my men to restrain him, and he had to be manacled hand and foot, for his own safety. But once he calmed down, he was ready to make a statement about his activities. The next morning we found him dead in his cell. MAGISTRATE Is the statement in evidence? LOUW No, Your Worship. It can't be disclosed in court without damaging our investigation, but I would like to offer into evidence a suicide note written by the deceased.Louw, taking it from his file on the table.Stanley and Margaret listening. LOUW 'Dear Captain. I prefer to die rather than betray any more of my friends. Amandla! Gordon Ngubene.'He hands it to the court clerk. There's uproar at this. LOUW Thank you, Your Worship. MAGISTRATE Advocate De Villiers? (CONTINUED) 80.CONTINUED:Ben is disgusted. He looks about the court, as if seekingallies. His eyes meet Melanie's -- just for a secondthere's recognition -- then he returns to De Villiers.Advocate De Villiers cross-examining Captain Stolz. DE VILLIERS Thank you, Your Worship. Captain Stolz, you said you treated the deceased always with courtesy and correctness, then how do you account for the injuries found on the body? STOLZ Sometimes detainees deliberately injure themselves for propaganda purposes.The gallery screams its objections. Stanley leans forwardand grins across the partition at Ben. The Magistratewarns the crowd. Finally the gallery quiets down. DE VILLIERS You say he tried to jump out of the open window... Are there no bars to prevent such an act? STOLZ They had been removed for repair. DE VILLIERS And why did he wish to jump out? Because you were torturing him? STOLZ He wasn't tortured. DE VILLIERS Perhaps it was the toothache then.No reaction from Stolz. DE VILLIERS You said you seized incriminating documents at the deceased's home; can you produce them to see how subversive he was? LOUW (to Magistrate) Those documents cannot be introduced as evidence, Your Worship, in view of the fact that state security is involved. (CONTINUED) 81.CONTINUED:The Magistrate makes a note. DE VILLIERS I put it to you, Captain -- that the only subversive activities the deceased had been involved in were his efforts to establish what happened to his son, Jonathan, allegedly shot during a riot, although several witnesses are prepared to testify that he died in detention one month later. LOUW (jumping up) I protest... DE VILLIERS This would support my case that an innocent man has died in your hands under highly questionable circumstances. LOUW If it please Your Worship... this unwarranted slur on the integrity of the special branch is unacceptable... and based, I may say, on allegations which are in any case irrelevant to the present inquest. MAGISTRATE I agree. DE VILLIERS (turning on Louw) If the police are really interested in retaining an unsullied reputation, they should not object to the real facts being presented. Thank you, Captain. LOUW The real facts are being presented -- as the following affadivits prove. They are all by detainees -- who testify that they had all seen the deceased intermittently from the time of his detention -- to the time of his death -- and on all occasions he was in good health. (CONTINUED) 82.CONTINUED:As the documents are passed to the Magistrate, they arescorned by De Villiers. Imperviously he requests: DE VILLIERS I trust the signatories of these ... documents... are available to corroborate their evidence in person.STRAIGHT ON ARCHIBALD CHIGORIMBODetainee in the witness box. He swears in Zulu.De Villiers holds his signed affidavit. DE VILLIERS Mr. Archibald, when did you first meet Gordon Ngubene? ARCHIBALD (looking at black crowd, then to De Villiers) I never saw Gordon Ngubene.A sudden stillness in the court.ON Ben.ON Stanley.ON Melanie.ON Louw. DE VILLIERS Are you saying that you didn't sign this statement? ARCHIBALD ... I never met Mr. Ngubene... they forced me to sign. Captain Stolz, he hit me many times with a rubber hose... he said he would kill me 'less I signed... this... this is what he did to me.He pulls up his shirt -- his back is covered in bruises.The crowd cannot restrain itself any longer. Ben isaghast by what he sees. DE VILLIERS Thank you, Mr. Archibald. (CONTINUED) 83.CONTINUED: MAGISTRATE Advocate Louw? LOUW (uncomfortable) No thank you, Your Worship.As Archibald leaves the witness stand, held by a specialbranch officer, he raises his fist in salute and shoutsto the crowd: "AMANDLA." The crowd responds: "Ngawethu."Ben looks at Archibald. He is very impressed by thisstrength in the prisoner's eyes.An officer of the court shouts at the crowd: "silte indie koort" (silence in court) -- bailiffs collar a few ofthe loudest protesters and pull them with brutalityout of the courtroom. DE VILLIERS (to town, wearily) May we put up the second signatory?Louw confers hurriedly with the prosecution officers, thenturns back to the court. LOUW Your Worship -- the other three signatories cannot appear for reasons of state security.He sits down, bland, examining his papers. DE VILLIERS Your Worship, I'd like to recall Captain Stolz.As Captain Stolz returns to the stand he crosses Archibaldbeing handcuffed by the S.B. officer.Ben watches him passing by the detainee, straight, im-passive without a look to him. DE VILLIERS Captain, you're still under oath -- you took Archibald's statement. Was it voluntary? I'm sure you'll say it was, then how did he come by the injuries on his back? STOLZ He fell down the stairs a few days ago. (CONTINUED) 84.CONTINUED: DE VILLIERS Fell down the stairs. You should do something about those stairs, Captain, so many people fall on them. Thank you.The crowd laughs. STOLZ (to the Magistrate) Your Worship, may I be excused? I have to escort detainee Archibal back to John Vorster Square. MAGISTRATE You may, Captain, and thank you. (to the crowd) I think this's a good moment to adjourn -- we'll reconvene at two thirty.EXT. COURTROOM - DAYEmily, Margaret, Stanley and a man, are sitting outsidethe court eating fish and chips.There are various Africans sitting around for their lunchbreak. CUT TO:INT. CAFE NEAR COURT - DAYBen and Dan Lewinson having a light lunch in a nearbycafe. BEN (buoyant) De Villiers is making mincemeat of them. LEWINSON He's very good. His cross- examination has got them rattled. BEN It's obvious to anybody! The evidence is clear! (pause) Did you see Archibal's back? He didn't have to tell the truth.Dan Lewinson's dry laugh catches in his throat. (CONTINUED) 85.CONTINUED: LEWINSON That's what Stolz is saying to him right now in his torture room. CUT TO:INT. COURTROOM - AFTERNOONAdvocate De Villiers and a dignified Emily in the witnessstand. EMILY Captain Stolz lied. My husband never fight the police when he was arrested. They were rough with him, pushing him and threatening. DE VILLIERS When your husband's clothes were given to you, in what condition were they? EMILY There was blood on them and in the back pocket I found three broken teeth. DE VILLIERS Now Mrs. Ngubene, you have seen the note that's said to have been written by your husband. Do you recognize the writing? EMILY (firmly) That's not how my husband writes. (strongly) He never wrote that letter, they lie. DE VILLIERS Thank you, Mrs. Ngubene. MAGISTRATE Advocte Louw?He shakes his head. EMILY (facing the Magistrate and in firm voice) They killed my husband and son. (CONTINUED) 86.CONTINUED:ON Ben, satisfied. MAGISTRATE (to a policeman next to Viljoen) Will you take the woman out? DE VILLIERS I'd like to call my last witness. Grace Nkosi.Grace's name is called. She is an attractive 20-years-old girl. As she passes by Ben, he watches her withconcern; her face looks familiar. Of course he remembershaving seen her at John Vorster Square the first time hewent there to meet the colonel. GRACE NKOSI is theAfrican girl the two security officers were lifted to theten flour. He recognizes her.Grace Nkosi in the witness stand.She swears in Xhosa. DE VILLIERS Were you ever detained? GRACE Yes sir, at John Vorster Square. DE VILLIERS For how long? GRACE Six months. DE VILLIERS Can you tell us what happened to you during that time? GRACE I was interrogated by many special policemen, but mainly Captain Stolz and the one they call Venter. As they were searching somebody I know, they wanted me to tell them where that person was hidden. As I refuse to cooperate they beat me with a sjambok. After some time I fell and they kicked me in the face and stomach.ON Ben obviously shocked. (CONTINUED) 87.CONTINUED: GRACE I spot blood and they try to make me lick it. Then Captain Stolz threw a wet towel and started twisting it around my neck... (she illustrates) ... until I lost consciousness. They did this several time and the last one Captain Stolz said 'come on meid, speak up, or do you want to die like Gordon Ngubene?' A few days later I was released.ON Melanie taking notes. DE VILLIERS Thank you, Miss Grace. That's all, Your Worship. LOUW (rising and looking at Grace for some seconds) You made that up. Say you made it up. GRACE It's the truth. I have nothing more to say.Louw sits down. MAGISTRATE We shall adjourn until tomorrow morning. I'll hear the arguments and give the verdict.The crowd stands and starts to leave the courtroom. DISSOLVE TO:INT. COURTROOM - MORNING (SECOND DAY)A silent black crowd; Emily, Margaret, Stanley anxiouslyawaiting the verdict. Today the public gallery is morecrowded than before. MAGISTRATE I wish to thank both advocates for conducting this case without rancour and in the best traditions of the South African legal profession. (CONTINUED) 88.CONTINUED:ON Ben's face. ON Dan Lewinson's face. ON Viljoen andStolz's faces. MAGISTRATE I have listened to all the evidence and the arguments. To begin with I have to say that there was no conclusive evidence offered to prove beyond doubt that members of the Security Police had been guilty of assault or any irregular conduct on the deceased. There were indications that Ngubene was aggressive and on more than one occasion had to be restrained with force. There was sufficient evidence to conclude that death had been caused by a trauma following pressure applied to the neck, consistent with hanging. Consequently, I find that Gordon Ngubene committed suicide by hanging himself and that on available evidence his death cannot be attributed to any act or omission or amounting to a criminal offense on the part of any person. CUT TO:Viljoen and Stolz smiling, shaking hands with AdvocateLouw in congratulations. CUT TO:INT. FOYER OF COURTROOM - DAYThe predominantly black crowd obviously dissatisfied withthe verdict, discussing it as it moves slowly towards themain entrance.In the crowd Stanley, Margaret and Emily controlled,dignified but obviously pained. CUT TO:BENtotally depressed, walking up to Emily. (CONTINUED) 89.CONTINUED: STANLEY (to Ben over noise of the discussion) Don't worry, man. There's another day!Ben leans towards Emily. BEN I'm sorry, Emily.Several press photographers are taking pictures osten-sibly of Emily the widow.Stanley gently guides Emily out of the building.Ben, who is following, is besieged by the insistentreporters, shouting: REPORTERS 'Mister Du Toit, how do you know Mrs. Ngubene?' 'Mister Du Toit, can you answer, is it true, he was a terrorist?'Ben tries to get through. REPORTERS Mister Du Toit, what do you think of the verdict? Do you believe the police?Melanie appears, grabs Ben and pushes him away throughthem. REPORTER Hang on, Melanie, I'm coming with you. MELANIE (shouts back) Fuck off.The press is still pursuing them.As Ben and Melanie reach Melanie's car: BEN My car is over there. MELANIE (opening the car) Never mind your car. Let's get away from these vultures. (CONTINUED) 90.CONTINUED:They get into the car and as they drive away, Melanieintroduces herself. MELANIE By the way, I'm Melanie Bruwer. BEN Obviously of the Rand Daily Mail. I read your article about Jonathan. MELANIE Ten out of ten, Mr. Du Toit. I know about you too. BEN (uncomfortable) You do?Melanie smiles. MELANIE We have a mutual friend. One Stanley. BEN I remember. The mortuary in Soweto... (pause) ... The ambiguous Stanley. MELANIE Stanley? No. Just careful. A big black rough uncut diamond. Don't be fooled by his happy-go- lucky attitude. There's much more to him. BEN He couldn't have given you a glowing report of me. (suddenly aggressive) I'm sorry, but where are we going? MELANIE I thought a cooling drink at my house. BEN (on the defensive) Mrs. Bruwer, I'm not... (CONTINUED) 91.CONTINUED: MELANIE (interrupts) I promise you. I'm not after an interview or anything like that.She smiles. BEN I really must go home. MELANIE Please, Mr. Du Toit, and you'll meet my darling father.She smiles again. A disarming smile.EXT. MELANIE'S HOME - DAYMelanie drives into the yard. The house is an oldColonial style house amidst flowers, bushes and trees, acontrolled wild garden.A figure is bent over a beehive. A large brimmed old hatwith a net hides his head and features.Melanie stops the car in the driveway. MELANIE (pointing from the car) There he is by the eucalyptus tree, on the left. That's old Bruwer.They get out of the car and walk towards him. BEN How long have you lived here? MELANIE Oh, about twenty-one years. I love this house. BRUWER (without looking up) Is that you, Melanie? MELANIE Of course, Dad. I want you to meet a friend. BRUWER Does anyone have a friend nowadays? (CONTINUED) 92.CONTINUED:He straightens up and throws the net over his head andstudies Ben. MR. BRUWER is seventy years old; aninteresting face with a goatee beard. MELANIE Mr. Du toit, Dad. BRUWER Do you like bees? BEN (smiling) I have nothing against them. MELANIE (to Ben) Be careful, I can see philosophy coming. BRUWER You shut up. (to Ben) Let me tell you about bees, and for that matter ants: a bee has a completely altruistic sense of purpose -- based on the common good. A course from which he cannot be deflected. Greed, ambition, they mean nothing to him. He lives solely to serve his fellow bee. MELANIE What about individuality, Dad? BRUWER There's the rub, my girl. There's the rub. One of these days I'll ask the bees. I'm sure they have the answer. Now, you two run along!He replaces his net and continues with the hive. MELANIE A drink, Dad? BRUWER I've been peeing too much this morning. (CONTINUED) 93. CONTINUED: MELANIE (as they walk toward the house) That's my Daddy. Melanie and Ben enter the house. INT. MELANIE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The Bruwer living room is a profusion of piles of papers, of books on shelves, on tables, on the floor, paintings -- records, African sculptures. On the floor tangled lengths of flex leading from a record player to two voluminous speakers. A settee, a chess set. The furniture is old and well- used, dominated by a large leather club chair -- two big cats sleeping on it. It's civilized pandemonium. MELANIE (gesturing to the room) Now you see in what environment Iwas spawned. Ben looks at the shelves and smiles. MELANIE Please sit down, on that chair. (pointing to club chair) That's Dad's. Drink? BEN Please. A... MELANIE (interrupts, mischievous) A brandy? BEN (looking at her surprised, then smiling) No thanks, a beer will be fine. Melanie goes into the kitchen leaving Ben. He cannot forget what he heard and what he saw in the court! She returns barefooted, with two beer mugs, and hands one to Ben. (CONTINUED) 94.CONTINUED: MELANIE The mugs are the few things that Dad brought from Germany. He studied philosophy in Tubingen and Berlin before the last war. BEN I thought they were German?Melanie sits, her legs propped up on the settee, huggingher knees. MELANIE Mr. Du Toit, tell... BEN (interrupts) Please, call me Ben. MELANIE All right, Ben, tell me, why are you so depressed? You really expect a different verdict? BEN (disgruntled) Why do you ask? Can you understand it? MELANIE Of course I understand it. What could they have. I'm not cynical. I'm only trying to be realistic. BEN Tell me, Miss Bruwer... MELANIE Ben and Melanie, that's fair. BEN Tell me, do you believe in the notion of justice? MELANIE (lighting a cigarette) I'll never stop believing. But in this country I've learned it's pointless to look for it in certain situations. BEN What use is a system if justice does not apply to all situations? (CONTINUED) 95.CONTINUED: MELANIE Exactly. And you cannot fight for justice unless you know injustice very well. You've got to know your enemy first. BEN That's a tall order: 'know injustice... know the enemy.' it seems I have a long haul ahead of me. MELANIE Not at all, Ben. You have already taken the first steps. (pause) Welcome to South Africa!She smiles.INT. BEN'S BEDROOM - NIGHTSusan is sitting at the dressing table. She is applyingcleansing cream to her face. She is relaxed. Ben isgetting ready for bed. SUSAN Did you enjoy the 'bobotie?' When I heard the verdict on the news I knew you'd be upset. (softer) I wanted to make you something special. BEN (thoughtful) Thank you, darling.A pause. Susan starts to remove the cream. SUSAN I'm glad it's all over. You take things to heart too much.Ben comes and stands behind Susan -- looking at her throughthe mirror. BEN (trying to keep control of himself) They killed Gordon -- first they kill Jonathan, and then him. How can they get away with it? (CONTINUED) 96.CONTINUED: SUSAN (soothingly) Now come on, Ben. Gordon's death upset me, too. But the Magistrate had all the facts. He must know what he's doing, he's had years of experience. The case has run its course, and nobody can do anything more about it! It's all over and done with. BEN (looking at her) I'm not so sure about that, Susan!Susan swivels around and faces Ben. SUSAN I'm damned well sure! It's over, Ben! You better get that into your head.Ben just stares at her with seething anger. She stands upand starts being hysterical. SUSAN A teacher, always a bloody teacher. You never moved yourself for us. But for the blacks, oh yes. Whose side are you on, Ben? And I'm sick and tired of those natives coming here. Why don't you bloody well go and live in Soweto?Ben strides out of the room. SUSAN (following and shouting) Now where are you going? BEN (without looking) Soweto!Then shuts the door behind him.Susan stands stupefied. There's the sound of the SPAREROOM DOOR.INT. SPARE ROOM - NIGHTBen is standing in the middle of the room, in the dark.On the wall behind him is a young Suzette's picture. (CONTINUED) 97.CONTINUED:After a few seconds, Ben moves slowly to the bed and sitson it still in deep thought.SLOW MOVE TO a:CLOSEUP ON BENAnd: FADE OUT.FADE IN:INT. NEWSPAPER AND CONFECTIONARY SHOP - MORNINGIt's a Saturday morning.A shopping center in a white suburb. Ben goes into anewspaper shop.There are two children buying sweets and a woman leaving.The PROPRIETOR is an Afrikaner in his middle age. BEN More meneer Van de Merwe. (Morning Mister Van de Merwe.) PROPRIETOR (in offhand manner) More meneer du Toit. BEN Our boys gave the Eastern province a thrashing. PROPRIETOR Yes.Ben realizes that the man is not his usual conversationalself. BEN Is anything wrong? PROPRIETOR No.Ben goes to pick up an Afrikaans newspaper and the RandDaily Mail. BEN (walking up to counter) And a packet of tobacco and pipe cleaners.The man gets them and takes a note from Ben and gives himhis change. By then a man is waiting. (CONTINUED) 98.CONTINUED: BEN See you tomorrow.As he walks out the other man turns around to watch him.EXT. STREET - MORNINGBen walks out of the shop. The newspaper under his arm.A group of three middle-aged women turn to look at him.Ben didn't see them. A little further on, he meets Mrs.Coetzee. He tries to greet her but she walks straight by.Further on, he notices two men obviously talking abouthim. Then a couple of boys on bikes snigger as theypass him. He begins to wonder what's it all about, andspontaneously checks his clothes.EXT. BEN'S HOUSE - VERANDA - MORNINGSusan and Suzette sit there. Suzette's holding a news-paper -- the Ossewa -- Susan's thoughtful, her face is redand discomposed -- obviously she had cried. The PHONERINGS but they deliberately ignore it.Ben appears with the newspapers under his arm, seesSuzette's sports car and hurries to join them.Suzette doesn't even give him a chance to kiss her. SUZETTE (jumping up and showing the cover of Ossewa) Now, Papa, this is going too far! How could you? BEN (surprised) How's that, Suzette?Ben takes the newspaper and looks at the cover. A pictureof himself and Emily outside the courtroom. The two facesare close together with the notes: "EMILY NGUBENE, wife of native who died in detention, comforted by a friend of family, Mr. BEN DU TOIT."And in parenthesis "see page two."He throws the Ossewa on a chair and checks into the RandDaily Mail. Inside there is a long article with Emily'spicture, titled "the Face of Grief."Ben folds up the newspapers, and shakes his head. Hesuddenly realizes why the people reacted like that outside. (CONTINUED) 99.CONTINUED: SUZETTE You didn't stop to think of the family. Poor mother, how can she face anyone? And tomorrow is Sunday! BEN Now listen...Johan steps into the veranda. JOHAN What's everybody yelling about? SUZETTE You listen, Papa, just tell me, why?Recognizing his father in the photo, Johan has picked upthe newspaper from the chair. BEN Do you really think I specially arranged for the photographers to take that picture? And what's more it's distorted. SUZETTE What's distorted about it? Your face is practically touching that meid's face, like you were about to kiss her. BEN (disgruntled) Suzette, pull yourself together! SUZETTE Today the whole country has seen that photograph. We, your children, are going to suffer. At this very moment Chris is negotiating with the Provincial Council. Would you like to see them cancel it? You have no feeling, Papa! BEN (shocked) Suzette!She leaves in rage. JOHAN (conciliating) What's Papa done, anyway? If something happened to him, wouldn't you be upset? (CONTINUED) 100.CONTINUED: SUSAN (standing up) Not enough, Johan, to throw myself into the garden boy's arms. BEN That goes without saying. JOHAN (trying to joke) There must be easier ways of getting your name in the paper.Before she can stop herself, Susan slaps him across theface, although not hard. Johan leaves without a word.She clutches her hand, shocked at having it against him.The PHONE starts to RING. Susan runs out sobbing.Ben looks at her then walks into the living room to pickup the phone.INT. BEN'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING BEN (into phone) Who?... I don't know you and have nothing to say to you... No thank you for your advice!He puts the phone down. The PHONE RINGS again. Ben picksit up and waits. BEN It's you, Viviers... I appreciate it... of course... Not yet... Any thank you. Tot siens.He replaces the receiver and is about to light his pipewhen the PHONE RINGS again. BEN Morning, Mr. Cloete... I'd like to say... (impatiently) ... Mr. Cloete, may I ask what on earth has the picture to do with politics?... I'm sorry Mr. Cloete, I have to go.He replaces the telephone and walks out of the house.The PHONE KEEPS RINGING. 101.EXT. BESTER'S FARM - COUNTRY - DAYThe farm is a typical transvaal farm covering thousands ofacres. In the distance there's a range of mountains.Several cattle are grazing, herded by a poorly-clad Africanand his son, aged 8 years.Bester and Ben are leaning on the wooden fence of thecattle kraal with calves penned in. BESTER Everything was examined in depth in court. BEN Did you read the papers, Dominee? Were you happy with what came to light? And is it the Magistrate's work to pretend that the facts which came to light didn't exist? BESTER Was it really facts, Ben?Just then the African "HERDBOY" walks up to them takingoff his lattered greasy hat. BESTER Ja? What is it Tom? TOM (HERDBOY) Does the Baas want me to bring the bull now? BESTER Later, Tom. TOM (HERDBOY) Dankie, Baas.Tom hurries away. BESTER I bought a bull last week. BEN I know, Gordon. What they said about him, that he was plotting against the government -- is a downright lie. He was only doing what I would have done as a father; searching for his son. BESTER No one but God can see what's in our hearts. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 102.CONTINUED: BESTER (CONT'D) Isn't it presumptuous to pretend we can speak for someone else? BEN Have you no faith in your fellow men, Dominee? Don't you love your neighbor? BESTER (confronting Ben) Wait a minute, instead of criticizing blindly, don't you think we have reason to be proud of the judiciary we have? suppose this had been Russia; what do you think would have happened then? BEN What's the use of reaching a court when a handful of people have all the power to decide what is going to be said in that court and by whom? The one man they allowed to speak for himself, that young Archibald Chigorimbo, didn't he immediately deny everything they forced him to say in his statement? And the girl who spoke of her own torture? CUSTOMER PAGE 99 MISSING BEN That did not refer to our situation in this South Africa. Do you know what I believe in, Dominee, that once in one's life, just once, one should have enough faith in something to risk everything for it. BESTER One can gain the world and still lose one's soul. Tea must be ready.Bester and Ben walk towards the house still inconversation. 103.INT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - MORNINGThe staff is having coffee during morning break in thestaff room. The room has several easy chairs, a table withthe morning newspapers on it. The walls have pictures ofSouth African scenes.There are several conversations in Afrikaans. This is thefirst morning since the photograph.Ben walks into the staff room. The conversations stop.Everyone looks at him with hostility. The teachers allplace their cups on the table and quietly file out ofthe room.Ben pours himself a cup of coffee; as he takes his firstsip, Cloete looks in, sees him. He walks in. CLOETE I hope you don't mind us talking here. BEN I don't mind, Mr. Cloete. CLOETE I'll come to the point. You can't imagine how shocked I was by that scandalous photograph in the Ossewa. BEN The woman lost her husband, she was shattered with grief. CLOETE A Kaffir woman, Du Toit. BEN (angrily) I can't see that it makes any difference. CLOETE Have you gone color blind then? And what about the apartheid laws? Our first responsibility as teachers is the reputation of the school, the pupils entrusted to us. We have to be an example to them in and out of this school yard.Ben looks at him calmly. (CONTINUED) 104.CONTINUED: CLOETE I thought I had warned you about involving yourself with Kaffirs. Obviously you didn't heed my advice. That's all I have to say for now.Cloete walks out of the room.Viviers hurries into the room, he is late for hiscoffee. VIVIERS 'Morning, Oom Ben. BEN (acknowledging greeting) Viviers. VIVIERS (pouring coffee) Private coffee with Cloete?Ben picks up the copy of the Ossewa with the photographand shows it to Viviers.EXT. MELANIE'S HOME - DAYBen stops the car in the Bruwer driveway. From thedriving seat he searches the garden for Bruwer.He walks up to the front door and knocks, but there's noreply. He goes 'round to the back and finds the old manon his knees weeding his vegetable garden. BEN Good afternoon, Professor. BRUWER (looking up) Melanie isn't home. You are... BEN Ben Du Toit. You have a nice vegetable garden. BRUWER You mean the area or the produce? BEN Both. What plants are these? (CONTINUED) 105.CONTINUED: BRUWER What's the world coming to? It's herbs, can't you see? Thyme there, oregano over there, feunel next to the tomatoes, sage here and rosemary somewhere. Poor plants, they re not in their ideal soil or climate. Next time, I'll bring some soil from the mountain of Zeus. Perhaps the old man's holiness will do the trick.He throws down the small weeding-fork. BRUWER Come, you are just the person to sample my greengage wine. I don't suppose you've ever tasted it? I'm sure I'm the only person in the country making greengage wine.He leads Ben to the two old chairs by the back wall. Heenters the kitchen and returns with a bottle of greengagewine and two glasses. BRUWER (as he pours) The first bottle this year, and you don't have to tell me if you like it or not. Tell me, did you ever study philosophy? BEN Not really. I've read a few books. BRUWER (taking a sip) Not bad, in fact quite good. Now where was I... Oh, I was going to say after decades of philosophy, I find myself being forced back to the earth. Do you know, Ben, we're all living in the spell of abstractions. Hitler, apartheid, the great American dream, the lot? BEN What about Jesus? BRUWER Misunderstood. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 106.CONTINUED: BRUWER (CONT'D) (referring to the wine) You don't have to finish it. BEN (lying) It's quite nice. BRUWER Melanie has told me a little about you. It's not an easy road you have chosen. BEN I feel I have no choice.Bruwer farts loudly, Ben is taken aback, but theProfessor continues. BRUWER Of course you have a choice. Damn it. One always has a choice. Only thank God you made the choice you did. But all I want to say is, keep your eyes open, young man. BEN That's encouraging. BRUWER We are both Boers, Ben. We know how hard our people worked to get a toehold on this land; it was a good life. Now look at the mess. It's all systems and no God! Sooner or later people start believing in their way of life as an absolute: unmutable, fundamental, a precondition. Saw it, with my own eyes in Germany, a nation running after an idea. Sieg heil, sieg heil. I left there thirty years ago because I couldn't take it any longer. And now I see it happening in my own country, step by step. Terrifyingly predictable. This sickness of the great abstraction.He farts and sips his greengage wine. (CONTINUED) 107.CONTINUED:Ben is so fascinated by the old man's conversation hedidn't react. He is learning form his old Afrikaner. BEN What you say is very interesting and important. BRUWER Take for example the way the government is handling the electorate; like a bloody donkey. Carrot in front and kick at the backside. The carrot is apartheid, Dogma. The kick is quite simply, fear. Black peril, red peril, whatever name you want to give it. (pause) Fear can be a wonderful ally, Ben. I talk too much, I always do with younger people, they don't fall asleep to me. BEN (laughs) We Afrikaners have to stop to turn a blind eye and look around us and at ourselves. BRUWER You are right. We still have time. History should teach us about those who regarded themselves as the chosen people. BEN (standing up comforted) Professor Bruwer, may I say I have needed to hear somebody say some of the things you said. I still have hope for our country. BRUWER If you lose that you have lost everything. I'll get back to the earth. BEN (shaking hands) Thank you. (CONTINUED) 108.CONTINUED: BRUWER I'll tell that hot-head daughter of mine that you came to see her.Ben takes his leave.INT. LEWINSON'S OFFICE - DAYBen and Dan Lewinson are sitting opposite, cups ofcoffee in front of them. BEN There is absolutely no doubt that they were killed in custody. Those responsible must be punished, whoever they are, or whatever their rank. LEWINSON The problem is laying our hands on them. BEN Tell me, Dan, we lost at the inquest, what next? LEWINSON The family can file a civil claim. BEN What does that entail? LEWINSON To put it briefly, it means we have to have witnesses, affidavits and any information relating to the arrest and death of Gordon. We also need similar information on Jonathan. You see Ben, for example, Stolz figures in both cases. That's one link at least. BEN I know what I have to do.EXT. ROADSIDE CAFE - AFTERNOONIt's lunch time and the working population of Jo'burghas paused for lunch. Ben and Melanie are sitting at atable outside. The cafe is on the outskirts of a veryaffluent part of Johannesburg. (CONTINUED) 109.CONTINUED: MELANIE I didn't think you would want to have anything to do with me after that crap in the Ossewa. BEN Why? You didn't write it. MELANIE I'm a journalist, perhaps tarred with the same brush. BEN No. MELANIE So what happened? I can imagine. The family, the dominee, colleagues, neighbors... BEN A distorted photograph and a few poisoned words and meneer Du Toit is a leper. That's why I called on you the other day, I needed to talk to somebody rational. MELANIE Thanks for the compliment. But remember, you're an Afrikaner, you're one of them. In their eyes they regard you as the worst kind of traitor. BEN You are an Afrikaner too, and your articles, in a liberal English paper? MELANIE My mother was a foreigner, I'm not pure, wragte Afrikaner. They don't expect the same loyalty from me that they demand from you. BEN What kind of loyalty? Blind loyalty. Until the deaths of Jonathan and Gordon, I gave all the loyalty I could give, laager loyalty. You know, Melanie, we Afrikaners have always lived in our laager, we have not seen what's beyond the mountains. (CONTINUED) 110.CONTINUED: MELANIE Has it ever occurred to you that the Volk may be scared to leave the laager? That's the downfall of this country. So, where do you go from here? BEN We carry on. There has to be justice. MELANIE Justice. BEN We lost at the inquest, so we pursue them in a civil action. I consulted the attorney Dan Lewinson. MELANIE We know each other well. CUSTOMER PAGE #'S 107 - 110 MISSING STOLZ Mr. Du Toit, if you knew what we're working with every day of our lives, and what we're up against, you would understand why we have to be so thorough. BEN However you go about it. STOLZ I can understand you're upset about having your house searched ... but... BEN I wasn't thinking about myself. STOLZ What are you talking about then, Mr. Du Toit? BEN My thoughts, Captain, I'm sure, are an open book to you. (CONTINUED) 111.CONTINUED:Stolz picks up a book of Picasso's Peace Paintings,starts leafing through it carefully, scrutinizing eachpage.He puts the Picasso book carefully back in the place hetook it from. STOLZ An interesting book -- Picasso -- Not one I'm familiar with. BEN Not on your list of banned books, Captain?Stolz doesn't react... CUT TO:INT. BEN'S LIVING ROOM - DAYThe search continues in the living room. Susan isstanding pale, rigid, shocked. STOLZ Mr. Du Toit. If you're keeping anything from us, we can turn this whole house upside down if we want to. We have all the time in the world. SUSAN (throwing Ben a warning daggers look) I'm afraid I don't understand.Nothing from Stolz.One of the men starts to roll up the carpet to look underit.Susan has to move out of his way. BEN (gently to Susan) Why don't you go upstairs? STOLZ I'm afraid she has to stay where we can see her -- in case she wanted to warn someone. SUSAN My father's an M.P.! Warn who? 112.CONTINUED:EXT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - DAYAll four tires of Ben's car have been slashed to ribbons.INT. BEN'S GARAGE - DAYBen and Johan are there.Ben takes a file from under a toolbox and measures itcarefully against the drawer base. Then, he selects apiece of wood approximately the size of the drawer andtries it for size.We should be in no doubt that's he's constructing ahiding place.INT. BEN'S KITCHEN - AFTERNOONSusan is preparing a roast. There's music from a trans-istor RADIO. Susan is startled by a voice, her father's(Ben's FATHER-IN-LAW). She turns OFF, the RADIO. FATHER-IN-LAW Roast beef, I hope it's like your mother's. SUSAN (happy) Papa!He is aged about 70 years, thick set. She rushes to himand he hugs her tightly and practically lifts her off thefloor. She kisses him. SUSAN Where's Mama?She disentangles herself and goes to the living room asexcited as a child, the mother is standing by two cases,smiling.Susan hugs her. SUSAN Mama!She holds her mother at arm's length inspecting her. SUSAN The perfume and a new hairstyle. MOTHER Your father insisted that I don't disgrace you. (CONTINUED) 113.CONTINUED: SUSAN (hugging her again) I expected you a little later. FATHER-IN-LAW She insisted we start early. Where is Ben? JOHAN (walking in with golf club bag) In the study. I'll get him. FATHER-IN-LAW Have you put on weight, Susan? SUSAN Please don't say that, Papa.Ben walks in. BEN Sorry. Didn't hear you arrive.He shakes hands with Father-In-Law. FATHER-IN-LAW How are you, Ben? BEN Fine.He goes to MOTHER-IN-LAW. He kisses her on the cheek. BEN And how are you, Ma? MOTHER-IN-LAW (MOTHER) Well, Ben, still have trouble with my feet. BEN Why doesn't everyone sit down? SUSAN I'll prepare some tea. I baked a cake.She goes to the kitchen.EXT. LOCAL GOLF COURSE - SUNSETBen and Father-In-Law are having a drink after a round ofgolf, outside the club house. (CONTINUED) 114.CONTINUED: FATHER-IN-LAW I'm getting tired of the trek to Cape Town and then back to Pretoria. If I had my way, Parliament and government would be in the same city. There's nothing wrong with Pretoria. BEN I thought you'd prefer Cape Town; the sea and Table Mountain. FATHER-IN-LAW That's for holidays. Anyway, Ben, one of the reasons for this visit was that I wanted to have a discussion with you. BEN What about? FATHER-IN-LAW It's that photograph in the papers. Ben, a thing like that could be an embarrassment for someone who is a member of Parliament. It's a grievous day when one's family's behavior comes between him and his duty to the fatherland. BEN Are you blaming me for trying to help those people? FATHER-IN-LAW I've been doing that all my life, be they black or white. But no member of our family has been seen with a Kaffir woman before, Ben.Father signals the African waiter for more drinks. BEN I am glad you mentioned it, Father. Because I'd like to discuss the whole thing with you. First, there's the matter of Gordon Ngubene himself. FATHER-IN-LAW What about him? I thought the case was closed. (CONTINUED) 115. CONTINUED: BEN The inquest didn't clear up half of what happened. FATHER-IN-LAW Oh, really? BEN We have no irrefutable evidence yet, but we have enough to indicate that something serious is being covered up. FATHER-IN-LAW You're jumping to conclusions, Ben. BEN I know what I'm talking about. The black waiter places the drinks on the table. FATHER-IN-LAW All right, Ben, I'm listening. Perhaps I can use my influence. But you'll have to convince mefirst. BEN If they have really nothing to hide, why is the special branch going out of its way to intimidate me. FATHER-IN-LAW (practically choking) What's this about special branch? BEN They raided the house; they are tapping my phone, and I have been threatened by one of the officers. FATHER-IN-LAW I'm sorry, Ben, I'd rather not have anything to do with this sort of thing. BEN Why? FATHER-IN-LAW If the special branch are involved they must have good reasons. (CONTINUED) 116.CONTINUED: BEN It's exactly what I said, Father, when Jonathan first got into trouble. Of course, they have good reasons: hushing up how Gordon died and how his son died! FATHER-IN-LAW (angry) Ben, how could you side with the enemies of your people? BEN You mean you're prepared to sit back and allow an injustice to be done. FATHER-IN-LAW (his face grows purple) It's you, Ben, who talk about injustice? A man who teaches history at school? Did you forget what our people have suffered under the English oppressors? Now that we have at along last come to power in our own land. BEN Now we're free to do to others what they used to do to us. What will you do if you were a black man in this country today, Father? FATHER-IN-LAW Don't you realize what the government is doing for the blacks? It's a slow process, Ben. One of these days the whole bloody lot of them will be free and independent in their own parts of the land, the bantoustans -- what can be more just than that? But they're not ready yet.The waiter returns -- Father-in-law pays the bill, and ashe rises to leave, he puts a paternal arm on Ben'sshoulder. FATHER-IN-LAW We have nothing to be ashamed of before the eyes of the world, my boy. (CONTINUED) 117.CONTINUED: BEN (standing, his golf bag in his hand) We don't? I'm not sure we're going to survive.They walk away. FATHER-IN-LAW Don't underestimate us, Ben. Our power of survival. We are Afrikaners!EXT. STREET CORNER - EVENINGStanley is parked in a street corner in the last whitesuburb on the way to Soweto. Ben pulls up in his carbehind Stanley's. He walks over to Stanley's car andenters the back. Stanley smiles as he points at hiswatch. STANLEY African time. BEN I'm sorry.They drive off towards Soweto. STANLEY Doesn't matter, Lanie -- as long we are on time for the revolution. BEN The special branch searched my house four days ago. STANLEY The S.B. searches your house? (chuckles) Did they take anything? BEN A few journals, letters -- nothing much. Just wanted to scare me, that's all. STANLEY Don't be so sure. They may think you're onto something big. BEN They're not that stupid. (CONTINUED) 118.CONTINUED:Stanley laughs. STANLEY 'Lanie' -- don't you believe it -- nothing's as stupid as the old S.B. If they decide it's a bomb they're looking for, you can shove a turd in their face and they'll swear to God it's a bomb.He laughs... making Ben smile.A pause. STANLEY And did they? BEN What? STANLEY Scare you? BEN No. They tried too hard.Stanley laughs again. STANLEY Hallelujah! (offers his huge hand) Shake, man. Join the club.Ben accepts the handshake. CUT TO:INT. BEN'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHTSusan sitting on an armchair, sewing. She is aware of acar stopping opposite the house. Then several youngvoices shout: "Kaffir lover" "Kaffer boetie" "Red Communist"The car drives off at speed.Susan sits petrified. CUT TO: 119.INT. STANLEY'S CAR - NIGHTBen and Stanley driving in Soweto.It's a different city by night. The dark seems to softenthe violence of the confrontation, hiding the detailswhich, by day, assault and insult the eyes. There areseveral GUNSHOTS in the distance. The only light comesfrom the small, square windows of the innumerable houses. STANLEY Did you hear that, Lanie? More kids dying?Ben says nothing.Further on there's a group of people outside a house. Asthey pass they hear HYMN SINGING from the house. BEN What's happening? What's the singing? STANLEY A wake for a child; eight months old. She was sleeping and they threw tear gas into it.They drive on. CUT TO:INT. EMILY'S HOUSE - NIGHTBen, Stanley and Emily are sitting 'round the table. Benhas pulled the lamp closer to read one of two notes fromGordon -- one is written on ruled paper, the other asquare of toilet paper. The notes have been smuggled outof John Vorster Square. GORDON (V.O.) (shakily) 'My dear wife, you must not worry about me. I miss you and the children. You must look after them in the fear of the Lord. I'm hungry, and I don't know what they want from me. But I think I'll be home some day. I think about...'They are interrupted by a KNOCK at the door. Emilysnatches the notes and stuffs them into her bosom.Everyone is tense as Emily slowly walks up to the door. (CONTINUED) 120.CONTINUED:She opens it and a man with a hat and dressed as a min-ister walks in. Before anyone can say anything, Stanleybursts out in a loud laugh. The man is slightly built,aged 40 years. He is JULIUS NQAKULA. STANLEY On your knees, everyone, prayers time.Ben is perplexed. Emily closes the door and locks it. STANLEY Hey man, you should have been a mfundisi holiness oozer... JULIUS (removing this hat) Okay, Stanley. It's stupid, but one is forced to do these things.He walks up to Ben and offers him his hand. JULIUS I'm Julius Nqakula... I'm banned and also under house arrest. That's why I have this ridiculous garb on. BEN I understand. STANLEY He's one of the most solid lawyers we have; they've immobilized him, that's the right word isn't it?He laughs. BEN Stanley has told me about you. I appreciate the risk you are taking by coming here to meet me. I was reading the notes Gordon smuggled out of John Vorster Square... JULIUS May I have a glance at them?Emily produces the notes. Julius takes them. He startsreading the toilet paper, which is harder to read. (CONTINUED) 121.CONTINUED: GORDON (V.O.) (speaking with great difficulty) 'My dear wife. I am still in these conditions... worse... and too much pain. They don't want to believe me. You must try to help me. They won't stop. You must care for the children. I don't know anymore if I will come home alive. They're very -- (a word mumbled) -- but God will provide. I love you and I miss you very much. Try to help me because...'The voice breaks off. JULIUS (to Emily) When did you get the letters? EMILY (uncomfortable) The first one two days after they took him away. And the other one came later. BEN But, Emily, why didn't you tell me long ago? EMILY I had given my word to the man -- who brought them to me -- BEN Emily, I have to meet the man. EMILY He said he didn't want anybody to know who he is. I cannot make trouble for him in his work. BEN He has to be persuaded. He is very important to us. EMILY (to Julius) You as a lawyer will understand. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 122.CONTINUED: EMILY (CONT'D) We intend starting a civil suit against the police, to do that it is necessary to have as many affidavits as we can from people who have any information about Gordon since he was arrested. And this man is vital and so is the Indian doctor. JULIUS You mean Dr. Hassiem. How are you going to do that? You know of course that he is detained. BEN I know, with luck they may release him. JULIUS With luck. BEN But, Emily, this man is important, please try to tell him we will protect his identity. No one will know. Nothing will be done without his approval. I only want to talk to him. JULIUS Why don't you leave it to Stanley and I? What do you say, Stanley? STANLEY Sure. BEN May I call you Julius, I'm not very good with some African names. STANLEY (laughs) Nqakula, that's a hell of a name. JULIUS Please call me Julius. BEN This case must be reopened and we must win. We have to dig up everything. We need your cooperation, Julius. (CONTINUED) 123.CONTINUED: JULIUS Where do I start? Don't forget my restrictions. STANLEY They did not ban you so you could sit on your backside and have a Soweto holiday. BEN You could help with the affidavits. Lewinson the lawyer has stressed their importance. JULIUS We know each other. He's a good lawyer for this kind of case. Of course I'll do what I can. My commitment forces me. BEN I'm glad. JULIUS How are you planning to safeguard the documents? Stanley told me you have already had a said by the S.B. BEN I wouldn't worry. I have a secure place. STANLEY Let's hope so. EMILY I'll make some tea. STANLEY Not for me, Sis -- too strong for me. No whisky? EMILY In my house? You know better than that, Stanley. STANLEY Tea then... (turning to Julius) ... and God forgive me -- CUT TO: 124.INT. BEN'S GARAGE - EVENINGBen is standing by the workbench, the new drawer he andJohan built for the toolbox, open before him.He's rereading Gordon's letters to Emily.Sound of approaching FOOTSTEPS. Ben quickly puts theletters into the drawer and shuts it.Susan appears at the door -- she looks ten years older. SUSAN Ben, it's Johan. You'd better come.INT. BEN'S KITCHEN - EVENINGJohan sits, Ben crouched before him. The boy's shirt istorn, his eyes swollen, his lip cut. He looks at thefloor. Susan hovers. SUSAN He won't tell me why it happenedBen holds his son's arms, gently. BEN Johan. Was it because of me?He doesn't answer for a moment. Then he nods. SUSAN You see! It's gone too far, Ben. You've got to stop it... JOHAN (shouting at his mother) I don't care! It doesn't hurt me!Susan stares at him, at Ben, turns abruptly, walks out ofthe room. Johan looks at his father. JOHAN It was my friends, Dad. They're so stupid... They won't listen. They don't even want to know what you're trying to do.He's crying. BEN Are you sure you know? (CONTINUED) 125.CONTINUED: JOHAN Yes. I know. BEN Does it worry you?Johan looks at his father through his tears. JOHAN Don't stop, Dad. You mustn't give up now!Ben hugs his son.MONTAGEThe Gordon Ngubene name-cleaning team on the move.A) BEN in a phone box dialing a number.B) PHONE RINGING, RINGING, on a desk full of scattered files and papers. By the phone a photograph of a six- year-old Indian girl.C) CLOSE ON NURSE Sound of the PHONE, a young nurse's frightened face as she remembers peering in at a young boy, struggling and moaning... Policemen closing the door...D) CLOSE ON her hand signing the affidavit and handing it to a man's hand.E) CLOSE ON Ben in the phone box hanging up the phone with rage.F) CLOSE ON a young black man's face listening to Julius's voice: JULIUS (V.O.) ... And on the morning of the autopsy, as I was cleaning the mortuary, Captain Stolz gave me a bundle of Ngubene's and ordered me to burn them. (CONTINUED) 126.CONTINUED: The young man nods.G) BEN having a look on the two affidavits before hiding them into the drawer of the stool box.SHOTS. Three! Loud, sharp, terrifying.INT. BEN'S LIVING ROOM - LATE EVENINGThe WINDOW, a LAMP and a MIRROR SHATTER -- Susan screams,standing, her hands -- clamped over her ears -- eyestight shut -- hysterical -- the TELEVISION CHATTERS onan Afrikaans' play.Ben bursts in, holds her tight, as she screams into hischest. SUSAN (hysterical) Call the police, Ben, call the police!Johan's voice comes from his room. JOHAN (O.S.) Papa! Papa! BEN (calling) It's okay, son... we're all right. Everything's okay! JOHAN (O.S.) What's happened? BEN (shouting) It's okay, stay there, please!!Gently, he leads Susan who is sobbing now, out of theroom.INT. KITCHEN - LATE EVENING SUSAN (in disbelief) My God. They were trying to kill us.She's seated at the kitchen table. Ben has poured her abrandy which she cups in her hands. BEN They were trying to scare us, that's all. (CONTINUED) 127.CONTINUED:Her fear turns into anger. SUSAN (screaming) Oh, is that all... What the hell more do you want to happen... we're ordinary people for God's sake -- and you've pitched us into this -- this nightmare. I can't take any more, Ben... I can't take any more!!She drops her head and sobs.Ben sits beside her, and takes her hands to comfort her.Susan puts her head on his shoulder. SUSAN (in a quiet pleading voice) Please, Ben, stop. Just stop... please.Ben is obviously moved.He squeezes her hands, then takes her in his arms.INT. VILJOEN'S OFFICE - DAYThe colonel, amiable, cool, behind his desk. A dishev-elled Ben, pitched angrily forward in his chair. VILJOEN Now you must be exaggerating, Mr. Du Toit. BEN My house has been searched. My phone is tapped. My mail is opened. And last night three shots were fired through my window -- close to killing my wife.Viljoen reacts. VILJOEN Mr. Du Toit, if shots were fired into your premises, we will investigate. BEN All I want to know, Colonel, is why don't you leave me in peace? (CONTINUED) 128.CONTINUED: VILJOEN Now wait, wait a minute, Mr. Du Toit, you're not trying to blame me? BEN Tell me, Colonel, why is it so important to you people to stop my enquiries about Gordon Ngubene? VILJOEN Is that what you are doing? (he pauses) Well, now. If you possess any information that may be of use to us, I trust you won't hesitate to discuss it with me.He leans forward towards Ben, his tone darkening. VILJOEN Because if there are facts you are deliberately hiding from us, Mr. Du Toit -- If you give us reason to believe that you may be involved in activities that may be dangerous to both yourself and us -- then I can foresee some problems. BEN Is that a threat, Colonel? VILJOEN (smiling and sitting back) Let's call it a warning. A friendly warning. For God's sake, open your eyes, Mr. Du Toit! Don't you see you're being used! BEN (sarcastically) By the Communists, I suppose.Ben gets up to go. The colonel doesn't rise to see himout. BEN Goodbye, Colonel. (at the door, turning back) I'm sure.He leaves. The colonel immediately picks up the phone. 129.EXT. BEN'S KITCHEN - EARLY MORNINGA 40-year-old African woman walks up to Ben's kitchendoor. She knocks.Ben opens the door in pyjamas and dressing-gown. Shehands him a note and leaves.Ben reads the note and goes back into the house.EXT. STREET IN VREDEDORP - MORNINGVrededorp is a colored section of Johannesburg. It'srundown area vacated by whites. There are children play-ing in the street. Some unemployed men are sitting onold chairs outside a doorway; a vendor is serving twowomen from his milk churn.Ben drives into the street searching for an address. Hestops outside a house. As he gets out of the car thechildren and everyone stop to look at him with interest.He walks up to a door and knocks.A COLORED WOMAN appears as the door opens. She is youngand obviously educated. COLORED WOMAN Mr. Du Toit?Ben nods, hesitatingly. COLORED WOMAN Please, come in.Ben walks into the living/dining room. It's a very tidyroom with a three piece sitting room suite, a sideboardwith a clock on it. At one end of the room is the diningarea. The floor is linoleum and covered with a rug inthe middle.Stanley is lounging on a settee, beer in hand. On thechair next to him a black man in a brown striped suit,drinks orange squash. Thirtyish, pleasant face but verytense. He rises as Ben walks in. STANLEY (rising and shaking hands with Ben) How's it? No trouble finding this place? You met Sadie. She's one of us.Ben nods to her. (CONTINUED) 130.CONTINUED: STANLEY And this is Johnson Seroke. The man of the letters. BEN (nodding in greeting) Johnson. SADIE (COLORED WOMAN) Please sit down, Mr. Du Toit. A beer, tea or orange squash? BEN A beer would be nice.Sadie goes to a cupboard and brings out a bottle of beerand a glass. She opens the beer and hands it to Ben.She disappears into the bedroom with a curtain at thedoor. STANLEY You know they call this place Vrededorp, but we baptize it Malay Camp. Your first time in Malay Camp, Lanie? BEN I've driven through here many times. STANLEY The main road, eh? BEN (smiling) Ja.The woman re-enters. SADIE You'll excuse me. Stanley, you know what to do with the key. STANLEY Sure, Sadie. And thank you. Can I help myself to another beer? SADIE You know it is. Goodbye, Mr. Du Toit, and you, be careful.To the Seroke. (CONTINUED) 131.CONTINUED: SEROKE (trying to smile) Okay, Sadie.Sadie leaves. STANLEY That woman can die for you. We mustn't be long, Johnson has to be back on duty. BEN Alright, let's get on with it. Stanley tells me, you work at John Vorster Square. SEROKE I had no choice, they transferred me there. BEN Yet you smuggled out letters to Emily? SEROKE (pulling the fingers of his left hand one by one cracking the joints over and over) What do you do if a man asks you, and he's in trouble? STANLEY If they find out he'd be in very big trouble. BEN I know that. Tell me, what do you know about Gordon? SEROKE Very little. BEN You did talk to him from time to time? SEROKE He gave me the letters. BEN When was the last time you saw him? (CONTINUED) 132.CONTINUED: SEROKE Just before he died. BEN Did you attend any of the interrogations? SEROKE No. I'm not a member of the Special Branch. But once I had to deliver a letter to Capt. Stolz, Gordon was there. BEN (concerned) How were they interrogating him?Seroke hesitates and looks at Stanley. STANLEY It's okay. Tell him what you told me. BEN (anxious) What? SEROKE They were using the pole. BEN The pole, what's that? STANLEY (demonstrating) They handcuff you and manacle your feet then they put a pole between your arms and the back of your knees. Then you're like a chicken ready for the oven. They hang you between two tables. Then they do what they like with you. The S.B. call it the aeroplane.Ben is horrified. BEN I see. Who were in that room? Stolz... SEROKE Lieutenant Venter and a black S.B. (CONTINUED) 133.CONTINUED: BEN You are sure? STANLEY He's sure. BEN (to himself) It's very interesting. When was the last time you saw him? SEROKE (nervous) I saw them take the body away to the cells. He was limp. BEN You did! Johnson, why do you stay with the police? You don't really belong there. SEROKE It's a job. And how can I go away? I love my family.He jumps up and faces Ben with a look of anger and panic. SEROKE They must never know I told you anything. Right? BEN I understand. I promise. STANLEY This is strictly between the three of us. Don't worry, man.Seroke shakes hands with them as he's leaving. STANLEY (slapping his back) Take it easy.Stanley goes to the cupboard for another beer. STANLEY (O.S.) A beer, Lanie? BEN (shouting) No, thank you. You know, Stanley, after what happened the other night I was about to give this whole thing up. (CONTINUED) 134.CONTINUED: STANLEY (intrigued) What happened, man? BEN My wife nearly got killed. Three shots were fired into the house. What right have I to expose my family to harassment and actual physical danger? That's what I asked myself. STANLEY Three bloody shots and you crawl on your hands and knees to people like Stolz, and say 'I give up.' What is the beginning for you is a version of what we suffer all our bloody life. Shit, I thought you had more guts than this, man! BEN I didn't say I'm giving up. STANLEY But you thought about it. BEN Johnson has revived my determination. STANLEY It's a hell of a time, Lanie, but we'll survive. You and me. I tell you! BEN You think we may still win in the end, Stanley? STANLEY Of course not, Lanie -- but we needn't lose either -- what matters is to stick around.Ben nods. STANLEY By the way, man, I'm off on a trip -- Botswana -- thought I'd tell you in case you get worried. BEN Why are you going there? (CONTINUED) 135.CONTINUED: STANLEY Business. Tell you next week. Now for the bad news I've been saving to the last. BEN What? STANLEY Julius has been arrested. He broke his banning order and visited his sister. You know what that means? At least a year's imprisonment. BEN A year in jail just for visiting his sister? STANLEY That's the chance he took. And he'll be the last to complain. BEN Don't you think the real reason for this arrest was that they found out he was helping us? STANLEY So what? Lanie, you're not getting guilt complexes now, are you? That's a luxury only liberals can afford. Julius will be back, man. All refreshed by a spell in the deep-freeze. BEN How can we shrug off a man we've been working with? STANLEY Who said we're shrugging him off? Best way of remembering a man, Lanie, is to carry on fighting.INT. BEN'S STUDY - DAYBen's study is in chaos.The books have been plucked from the shelves and thecontents of his drawers emptied on the floor.Ben standing in the middle of the room surveying thevandalism. 136.INT. BRUWER KITCHEN - AFTERNOONThis is a medium-sized kitchen with two doors leadingfrom it, one to the dining room and the other to theliving room. It has not changed since it was furnishedtwenty years ago, the only modern appliances being theelectric stove and a modern mixer on the working table.Ben is leaning against the wall next to the door leadingto the living room, drinking coffee.Melanie, bare-feet, her long black hair tied up in aribbon, is washing up. She looks younger and fragilewith this hair-style. BEN (smiling) What about you? MELANIE What? BEN I mean not married... MELANIE And living in this chaos with my eccentric father? I love him and we get on perfectly. We have been together since I was a year old. My mother could not adapt to South Africa. She went back to London and we've never heard from her since. BEN Being a professor and bringing up a child, how did he manage that? MELANIE Dorothy, dear Dorothy, she was a fantastic mother. In fact she had two families, me and her three children in Alexandra township. BEN And this little girl grew up to be a tough journalist. Why a journalist? MELANIE (laughs) Sometimes I ask myself the same question.She leans against the sink and picks up her mug ofcoffee. (CONTINUED) 137.CONTINUED: MELANIE Alright. I'll tell you. I was brought up in a sheltered way, not that Dad was possessive, not openly anyway. I think he'd just seen enough of the mess the world was in, to want to protect me as much as he could. Then, I went to university. I don't know what you'll think... being a teacher.Pause. BEN About what? MELANIE Then I married my ex-teacher. BEN Oh. He must have been young. MELANIE Fifteen years difference. He too protected me like Dad. Then one day I visited Dorothy in Alexandra and saw her home and the appalling conditions in that township. I was shocked, Ben, and ashamed. BEN Go on.Melanie pours him another mug of coffee and starts towipe up. MELANIE That made me think that I was a parasite, something white and maggot-like... just a thing... a sweet and ineffectual thing. I felt more and more claustrophobic. Poor Brian, who loved and pampered me. Had no idea what was happening. I left him for a whole year and we divorced. BEN And then you became a journalist?Melanie goes to the living room, as she passes Ben shetouches his arm and continues talking. (CONTINUED) 138. CONTINUED: MELANIE (O.S.) I thought it would force me, or help me, to expose myself. To force me to see and to take notice of what was happening around me. BEN Did it work? She returns to the kitchen with a cigarette. MELANIE I wish I could give you a straight answer. What did help me was mywanderings in Africa. BEN How did you manage that on a South African passport? We South Africans are white devils in Africa. MELANIE My mother was English, remember? So I get a British passport. It comes in handy even for the paper. BEN You really are your father's daughter! MELANIE I wonder what he's doing right now. Most likely standing on a rock, looking through his old binoculars at springbok or a lion or whatever. One of the two large CATS approaches them, tail in the air, and goes to Melanie, drubbing against her legs, PURRING luxuriously. She picks it up into her arms. BEN How often does he go on these trips to the veldt? MELANIE It depends -- (approaching Ben with cat) -- Bonjour, Ben. I'm Porto and my friend is Bello! Ben smiles and starts to caress Porto in Melanie's arms. 139.EXT. SOWETO - EMILY'S HOUSE - MID-MORNINGParked outside the house is a municipality truck alreadyhalf-laden with Emily's furniture and possessions. FourAfricans in khaki overalls are loading the truck -- super-vising the eviction of Emily are a white Soweto official,Captain Stolz and Lt. Venter. In the b.g., a hundred yardsaway is a "hippo" with black and white armed policemen.Behind the truck are two police Land Rovers.Emily is sitting outside on one of her chairs as neighborswalk up to her to comfort her and say their goodbyes. Herdaughter is carrying the youngest child and standing nextto Emily -- several children are watching. A woman inthe crowd starts singing a freedom song: "UMZIMALOMTHWALO" ("THIS BURDEN IS HEAVY"). The song is taken upby the other women.Venter tries to stop them and disperse them. Stolzsignals to him to leave them alone. One of the Africansthen walks up to her for the chair. She refuses to getoff the chair. The man looks at the white official asthough to ask "what do I do." The official looks atStolz. Venter walks up to Emily and, about to pull heroff the chair. EMILY Don't you touch me!Venter pulls back. The women start to ululate. Emilyrises majestically, takes the youngest in her arms andwalks slowly to the truck followed by her daughter.People cluster around her, singing with rage and shakingher hand. Stolz observes the scene, impassive. WOMAN (V.O.) Come back! Buya! CROWD (shouts) Buya! Buya!Emily and the children are helped onto the back of thetruck which drives away preceded by the police "hippo" andescorted from the rear by the Land Rovers. The crowdcontinues singing.EXT. STREET - MORNINGBen is leaving his home. This is a Saturday morning. Twomen are sitting in a car a few yards from the entrance tothe house. Ben doesn't pay attention to them. When heis about twenty yards past, one of the men, Jaimie -- whowas present when Gordon was arrested -- gets out of thecar and follows Ben. Ben stops at a corner for a car andagain the FOOTSTEPS stop. (CONTINUED) 140.CONTINUED:He turns furtively and sees the man, stopped, turning hishead. Ben decides to turn the corner, and listens to theFOOTSTEPS. The man is still following. Ben then decidesto turn right back to have a good look at the man. Theypass each other and Ben takes a good look at him and turnsback onto the streets to the local shops. The man decidesnot to follow.INT. BEN'S STUDY - NIGHTBen and Stanley sit. Ben on his desk. Stanley in anarmchair with a drink. They look perplexed. STANLEY (irritated) She's a widow, man. That's what happens in Soweto when a woman loses her man. They throw her out of the house and out of the city. BEN (disgusted) Zululand! The whole thing smells of being an excuse to send her hundreds of miles from the case. And how will they live there?... STANLEY Shit! I was about to find her a place, but I had to go to look for Robert. BEN So, that's why you went to Botswana for. STANLEY Sis Emily asked me but it was no use. His mind was made up. He was going to join Wellington in Zambia. BEN Couldn't you stop him? He's a little boy, Stanley!Stanley gulps down his whisky and stands up. STANLEY (focusing Ben in the eyes) He'll be back in a few years. And he won't be throwing stones!Then, puts the empty glass on the desk. 141.INT./EXT. STANLEY'S HOUSE - EVENINGStanley peers through the curtains: he sees a car parkedoutside the house. In it Jaimie and another S.B. Theyare watching the house. Stanley quietly opens the doorand walks outside.EXT. STANLEY'S HOUSE - EVENINGStanley walks past his car and approaches the policeman. STANLEY (using his usual humor) Good evening. I'd like to invite you into my humble home, but it's full of terrorists.The two policemen get out of their car, obviously angry. JAIMIE (pointing at Stanley's car) Open the boot! You cheeky bastard! STANLEY Okay, with pleasure.They search and find nothing. JAIMIE Open the door and remove the seat.Stanley executes the order. Jaimie and the OTHER POLICE-MAN peer in, their eyes sweeping the car. OTHER POLICEMAN Now, your pass, bliksem.Stanley produces his passbook and hands it to the Police-man who inspects the pages laboriously, then throws thebook to the ground. Stanley doesn't pick it up and justwatches the man. JAIMIE You watch your bloody step! Right?They return to their car and drive off. Stanley looks atthem thoughtfully, then picks up his book.EXT. DAN PIENAAR SCHOOL - MORNINGAll the students are in classes. Cloete walks out of aclassroom and sees Capt. Stolz walking towards the build-ing. Cloete stops to wait for him. They shake hands andwalk to Cloete's office talking affably. They enteroffice. 142.INT. BEN'S BEDROOM - NIGHTBen and Susan in bed, asleep. The PHONE RINGS... wakingthem both. Ben answers. There's no one there. He putsit down. The RINGING STARTS AGAIN. Ben puts the re-ceiver down. SUSAN (calmly) Ben, please stop whilst there's time. Please, Ben. BEN (focusing on ceiling) It's impossible to stop now, Susan. I believe I'm right in what I'm doing. If I stop now I'll go mad. SUSAN (despaired) Whatever the price you pay for it? BEN (painfully) I have got to.Susan shuts her eyes tight and turns her back on him tohide her tears. DISSOLVE TO:INT. CLOETE'S OFFICE - LATE AFTERNOONIt's a functional office. Picture of the South Africanpresident (1976) John Vorster, on the wall. Various staffpictures... Ben, summoned by Cloete, sits. CLOETE Think of your heritage, man. My God -- think of your wife, your family, friends, neighbors. What's going to happened to them -- all of us -- if we can't depend on our own kind? We're educationalists -- teachers. We are building for the future. BEN Without simple justice we don't deserve a future. CLOETE We're Boers, man -- Afrikaners. We are your nation. What's justice for us is justice -- period! (MORE) (CONTINUED) 143.CONTINUED: CLOETE (CONT'D) Traitors like you are threatening centuries of Afrikaner sacrifice. BEN That last remark was slanderous -- I'm simply being faithful to the truth. CLOETE Slanderous? My God, man, you slander a whole people.He walks silently through the office then continues. CLOETE You have given me no alternative. I have to abide by the regulations of the Department of Education -- so I have made my report. And there will have to be a formal inquiry. But until such time... BEN (rising) It won't be necessary, Mr. Cloete. I'll send you my resignation. CLOETE Thank you for making things much easier.Ben stares at him for a moment, then turns to leave. Ashe reaches the door, Cloete says: CLOETE And it would be better if Johan left too.Ben turns to stare at him, amazed. BEN Are you serious? CLOETE He's a Kaffir-lover too, isn't he?The color drains from Ben's face. Then he steps forward,slaps Cloete thunderously across the face, hurling himback into his chair, and strides out, leaving the doorajar. 144.EXT. SCHOOL YARD - LATE AFTERNOONIt's the end of the school day. The yard is practicallydeserted. Only Viviers waiting for Ben under the veranda.Ben appears. VIVIERS Oom Ben, I was waiting for you. I have something interesting to tell you. BEN (striding on towards his car) Later, Viviers. VIVIERS (keeping up) But, Oom Ben, it's about the S.B. they came to question me. Before they started questioning me I told them they were wasting their time.Ben doesn't react. VIVIERS They asked if I was cooperating with you. What I knew about the A.N.C. Can you imagine that! They then said: 'Mr. Viviers you come from a good Afrikaans family and it's important that you realize that communists are looking for people like you and before you know where you are they're using you! And, Oom Ben... BEN (reaching the car; interrupting him) I'm sorry, Viviers. I never wanted you to get involved. (getting into his car) I have just resigned. VIVIERS (amazed) What...?Ben drives away. 145.INT. BEN'S DINING ROOM - AFTERNOONChristmas day lunch. Assembled around the table areBen's Father-in-law, his wife Helen, Suzette and Chris,her husband, Johan, Ben and Susan. They're all wearingpaper hats from Christmas crackers. On the table is alarge piece of roast lamb, ox tongue, a large turkey andassorted vegetables.Ben is at the head of the table adjacent to the door lead-ing to the kitchen, the Father-in-law is sitting by hisside facing the door.Ben is in the middle of carving the turkey, plates arebeing passed to him. JOHAN Was last year's turkey as big as this, Papa? BEN About the same size. SUZETTE Do you remember the turkey I had for Easter? You said it was as big as a baby ostrich, Papa. BEN I don't remember that, Suzette. FATHER-IN-LAW You know, Johan, when I was a boy in the Karoo, we used to fry ostrich eggs. You know how big they are? JOHAN (laughing) As big as this table. BEN (to Father-in-law) I think he deserves the parson's nose for that remark.They laugh. Susan laughs. She does her best to compose.Suddenly... a KNOCK at the outside kitchen door. As Benturns towards the door it opens and...INT. BEN'S KITCHEN - AFTERNOON... Stanley erupts into the kitchen like a great blackbull in white suit and white shoes. A scarlet tie ismatched by a huge handkerchief hanging from his pocket.He is a little drunk. (CONTINUED) 146.CONTINUED: STANLEY (obviously surprised by this family scene) Oh! (then grinning and laughing thunderously) Merry Christmas, everyone!There's deadly quiet -- not even the clink of a spoon --as the Du Toits look on aghast.Slowly, as if in a dream, Ben rises and goes to Stanleywho spots him. STANLEY 'Lanie'... compliments of the season, old mate. BEN Stanley. What are you doing here?Before Stanley answers, the Father-in-law gets up from hischair and goes to the kitchen. FATHER-IN-LAW Who's this Kaffir, Ben? STANLEY (shocked) Why don't you tell the Boer who this Kaffir is? BEN Shut up, Stanley. (to Father-in-law) That's all right. I'll... FATHER-IN-LAW (quivering with rage) A Kaffir calling me a Boer?Chris hurries into the kitchen ready for a fight. CHRIS Ben, did you hear that? Call the police, Ben! BEN (to Father-in-law) Please, go to the table. (to Stanley) Stanley, wait outside. (CONTINUED) 147.CONTINUED: STANLEY (fuming) Who are these people, anyway? BEN Stanley, this is still my house. CHRIS Let me throw him out.Ben steps between them and pushes Chris back into thedining room. STANLEY (laughing) Let him try, leave him, Lanie. BEN (to Father-in-law) Please leave me with him. I'll explain everything later. FATHER-IN-LAW Nothing has changed in this house. Mother, let's go!He strides into the dining room.INT. DINING ROOM - AFTERNOONSusan sits with her eyes tight shut -- trying to shut outthe horror of it all. As the Father-in-law goes intothe living room, he pulls back his wife's chair and helpsher to her feet. FATHER-IN-LAW (to his wife) Let's leave this house. I've been sworn at by a Kaffir and Ben protects him. SUZETTE (following) Chris!Chris follows. Susan also. From the living room, shecalls Johan who is left alone at the table, perplexed.Johan goes to his mother.There's a general rush for the door and, without warning,the room is empty. Only the TIN ANGELS TINKLE merrilyaround their candles. (CONTINUED) 148.INT. KITCHEN - AFTERNOON STANLEY (with cascading laughter) Lanie! Ever in your fucking life seen such a stampede, hah? BEN (furious) Maybe you think it's funny, Stanley, but I don't. Do you realize what you've done? (he sighs deeply) Come into the dining room.Stanley follows Ben slowly, swaying. STANLEY (chuckling) Jeez, who was that old cunt with the potbelly and black suit, looks like an undertaker?INT. DINING-ROOM - AFTERNOONBen sits on his chair. BEN My father-in-law. (deliberately) M.P. STANLEY (sitting beside Ben) You joking! (he laughs) Shit! I fucked it all up for you. Sorry, man.He laughs again. Ben cannot take it anymore. BEN Now pull yourself together, Stanley. It's not funny at all! What's the matter with you today? You're drunk and making an idiot of yourself. Say what you've come to say. Otherwise, go to hell!Stanley's laughter changes into a broad grin. He sur-veys the table and takes a bit of turkey from a plateand starts to eat it quietly. (CONTINUED) 149.CONTINUED: STANLEY (after a pause) Right. Dead right. Put the Kaffir in his place.Ben grabs him by the shoulders and starts to shake him. BEN Bloody hell! Stanley, what's wrong with you?Stanley shoves Ben off, and glares at him, bloodshot eyesbreathing heavily. STANLEY Emily is dead.Ben stares at him in stunned disbelief. BEN Emily dead? How? When?Stanley doesn't answer - he cries.Ben grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. BEN What happened, Stanley? Oh, my God. Please tell me. STANLEY (between two sobs) A broken heart. All they said.Ben's hand still on Stanley's shoulder, he sits slowlybeside him, shaken, his face ravaged by the news. BEN God.Through the window, he sees Suzette and Chris carryingsuitcases, back down the path to his in-laws' car;Father-In-Law shepherding his wife and an ashen, dazedSusan, helping them into the car.As they leave see Johan leaning against the dining roomdoor, watching his father and Stanley.INT. BRUWER HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - LATE EVENINGA very tense Ben is sitting on Professor Bruwer's chair.Melanie is curled up on the old settee. (CONTINUED) 150.CONTINUED: MELANIE They don't know what you've got and you're a danger to them. I know there's a point of no return, but with our system, one has to plot the route with care. BEN That's the main reason for coming here tonight. Melanie, I need your help. Without Emily, we can't pursue our civil suit. The only thing left open to us is to expose them through the press, and the media here and abroad. MELANIE And your safety also, Ben, lies in the press. (pause) That way the world will know the brutality and power of our security services; here questions can be asked in Parliament. And the white public can appreciate the implications of the fascist laws of this country. BEN You know, Melanie, I'm discovering that the enemy is not in Soweto. The enemy is ourselves. Our bigotry, our laws, our system. We have our own fight and it's just beginning. MELANIE We better win before the blacks have won.Ben and Melanie laugh. BEN Now, before going to the press, I have to have all the documents. I must have two vital affidavits; Dr. Hassiem's, he's detained and Jonathan's friend, Wellington has fled to Zambia. MELANIE Zambia? I'm going to Rhodesia... I can go to Zambia. (CONTINUED) 151.CONTINUED: BEN (surprised) Could you? MELANIE And I can use my British passport. I know my way around Lusaka. BEN That would be very useful.Melanie jumps off the settee. MELANIE This calls for a drink. Gin and tonic? BEN Please.As Melanie walks away, Ben looks at her with admirationand tenderness... her dress swinging around her legs...her bare feet soundless on the floor... the quiet graceof her movement.On the way to the kitchen to get the drinks, Melanie goesto the record player. There's a record already on theturntable.Suddenly as if rising from a dream, Ben murmurs: BEN Melanie. Be careful. MELANIE (as she plays the record and flippantly) Of course, Ben.She goes into the kitchen.As Melanie hums to herself to the BLUES MUSIC, in thekitchen, Ben walks over to the window and furtivelyglances out, to assure himself that nobody is watching.He takes then a book on a pile next to the settee andpages slowly through it.Melanie returns with two glasses, still in her happymood. She places Ben's glass on the side table next tothe settee, takes the book from him and makes him sitdown. (CONTINUED) 152.CONTINUED: MELANIE Cheers!Ben raises his glass and touches it with hers. BEN Do be careful. I wouldn't want you hurt.She reaches for his hand. MELANIE (with gentleness) Don't worry. BEN And hurry back.A new track starts on the RECORD. MELANIE (excited) That's my favorite, Ben.Jumping up and taking Ben's glass and placing it on theside table, she pulls him to his feet. BEN I can't dance. MELANIE Rugger player?They laugh as they start to dance to the slow BLUESMUSIC. The laughing subsides as they hold each othercloser. The dancing starts to lose the beat of themusic. They look into each other's eyes and Ben envel-ops her tenderly in his arms hugging her as close aspossible against him.They stop dancing. Ben kisses her. A long, warm andtender kiss.INT. MELANIE'S BEDROOMBen and Melanie in bed.He is kissing her and fondling her passionately. Duringthe love play, Ben reaches for the lightswitch of thebedside lamp, and knocks it over. They make love. 153.INT. LOCAL SUPERMARKET - MORNINGBen is shopping at the local supermarket. He is pushinga trolley. As he places some groceries into his trolley,he notices a man standing near the check-out counters.The man is similar built as Jamie and similar hairstyle.He's reading a newspaper, his face concealed.Ben drops the package he was inspecting, back on theshelf and pushes his trolley towards the man to try andsee his face.The man moves away. Ben follows him and has decided toconfront him. Man picks up a pack of ham.Ben is about to remonstrate with him. BEN Listen, you...Just then a LADY and her daughter hurry to the man, push-ing a trolley. Man turns to look at Ben. WOMAN Darling, put that down, it's not good for your cholesterol. BEN (to the man) I'm sorry, my mistake.He pushes his trolley away embarrassed.EXT. SUZETTE'S HOUSE - SWIMMING POOL - DAYThe immaculate blue of the pool. Johan hurls himself outof the water, flops down at the side.Suzette and Ben nearby, sitting in the sun.Pieter at the barbecue, sizzling thick steaks.A servant in white uniform soundlessly laying the tableon the patio behind him.The nanny with the baby in the shade. BEN -- How's she doing? SUZETTE Better... She's waiting for you to ask her to come home. BEN I doubt it. (CONTINUED) 154.CONTINUED:She turns to Ben, squinting in the sun. SUZETTE Papa, I don't want to interfere... BEN Then don't.A pause. SUZETTE I know this is going to sound strange coming from me... I mean I haven't exactly been supportive for the past months... I can't say I agree with what you've done but I respect you for what you are...ON Johan listening. SUZETTE I'm just... destroyed by what's happening to us as a family. BEN Suzette... SUZETTE (interrupts, squeezing his arm.) Please, Papa, for Mom's sake... For all of our sakes... Let's try and patch it up.Ben smiles sadly at her... Suzette understands. Johanlooks at them. MIX TO:EXT. SUZETTE'S HOUSE - LATERBen and Johan in the car. Suzette leans in through thedriver's window. SUZETTE Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. BEN Thanks. I'm glad you understand. (CONTINUED) 155.CONTINUED: SUZETTE I don't want to worry about you. That search, this vandalism, those shots... they're really after the evidence you've been accumulating ... Can I look after them for you, Papa?Ben smiles. BEN You don't have to worry. They'll never find them. SUZETTE (smiling) Where on earth do you keep them?ON Johan looking at Suzette then at Ben with concern.EXT. INDIAN TOWNSHIP - DAYBen has parked his car in a street corner of the upmarketsection of the Asian township. He peers around him, thenwalks away.Ben knocks at a door.The door is opened cautiously by DR. HASSIEM, a tall,handsome Indian, aged 35 years. His clothes are casualbut expensive. His six-year-old daughter, large darkeyes, is clinging to his leg. We recognize the littlegirl of the photograph near the telephone, from earlier. BEN Dr. Hassiem? I'm Ben Du Toit. I'm a friend of Gordon Ngubene's... DR. HASSIEM (raising his hands) The inquest is over, Mr. Du Toit. BEN Not for me, Doctor. I've got to know what happened to Gordon.Dr. Hassiem looks shaky, nervous. DR. HASSIEM I only came home yesterday. After three months in detention and now I'm banned and confined to the house. There's nothing I can do for you. (CONTINUED) 156.CONTINUED:The little girl still clinging to his leg, watching Ben. BEN I know it may be painful to you, Doctor, but I need to talk to you. DR. HASSIEM How can I be sure you weren't actually sent by them? BEN Ask Emily. Doctor, we are in the process of filing a civil claim. And your help is vital.Hassiem gives Ben a long look. He picks up his daughterand opens the door fully. DR. HASSIEM Come in.Ben walks into the large living room, tastefullyfurnished. DR. HASSIEM Sit down.Ben is still looking 'round at the opulence. He sits ina chair. BEN Thank you for inviting me in. DR. HASSIEM (the little girl on his knees) What do you want to know? BEN Just one thing, Doctor. Why did you sign the State Pathologist's report on the autopsy if you drew up your own report as well? DR. HASSIEM (disconcerted) What makes you think I signed Dr. Jansen's report. BEN The report produced in court had both your signatures on it. (CONTINUED) 157.CONTINUED: DR. HASSIEM Impossible. BEN What did you write in your report? DR. HASSIEM Dr. Jansen and I didn't disagree on the facts. After all we examined the same body in the same time. But just on the interpretation. For example, if Gordon, had really been hanged, the marks on his throat would have been concentrated on the front. (he touches his larynx) But in this case, the bruises were more obvious on the sides.Pause. Ben nods, silent. DR. HASSIEM Something else really upset me, perhaps it isn't important. BEN What was it?Dr. Hassiem puts down his daughter. DR. HASSIEM (leaning forward) You see, through a misunderstanding I arrived at the morgue too early for the autopsy. There wasn't a soul around except a young African attendant. When I told him I'd come for the autopsy, he let me in. The body was on the table dressed. I noticed blood on the clothes. BEN And then? DR. HASSIEM As I examined the clothes more closely, a police-officer came in and said I wasn't allowed in the morgue before Dr. Jansen arrived. When I returned with Dr. Jansen, half an hour later, the body was naked. (CONTINUED) 158.CONTINUED: BEN (excited) Doctor, we've already got the African attendant's affidavit. He testified that Capt. Stolz ordered him to burn the clothes. (pause) Did you mention what you said in your report? DR. HASSIEM Of course. I found it most odd. BEN Doctor Hassiem would you be prepared to put that in writing?Dr. Hassiem thinks it over for a while then: DR. HASSIEM Please excuse me for a minute.Ben watches him leave the room, the little girl followinghim. He gets up from the chair, walks to the window,glances through it, then steps to look at some familyphotographs on the mantlepiece. Amongst them a photographof Dr. Hassiem before "Big Ben." Dr. Hassiem returnswith a file, the daughter still following. DR. HASSIEM (opening the file) This is my report. I only have one copy. BEN (astounded) You have a copy of the report?Hassiem grins. DR. HASSIEM I know how to hide things from the S.B., Mr. Du Toit.Ben congratulates him by a deep laughter. CUT TO:INT. HASSIEM'S OFFICE - DAYBen and Dr. Hassiem working as a team, tape the type-written sheets of the report among a Rand Daily Mailnewspaper pages at the back. (CONTINUED) 159.CONTINUED:On Dr. Hassiem's desk we recognize next to the phone, thelittle girl's photograph. DR. HASSIEM I hope you have as secure a place as I have. BEN (with an accomplice smile) I think so.INT. BUILDING IN CONSTRUCTION - LATE AFTERNOONA multi-storied building half-built. Stanley standing onthe fourth floor watching Ben's arrival.Ben searches for Stanley who draws Ben's attention;beckons him up. Ben indicates they meet halfway.He joins Stanley who's sitting on a pile of bricks. STANLEY (with expansive gesture) Take a pew, man. BEN (sitting and excited) We have it, Stanley! STANLEY Have what? BEN Hassiem's report. You know what that means, Stanley? Melanie arrives in two days. We'll have all the evidence. Everything is in place. We'll get them yet, especially Stolz. STANLEY That's fantastic, man.Stanley produces from his jacket pocket a newspaper --Rand Daily Mail. He opens it on a certain page with thepicture of an African in police uniform, and hands it toBen. BEN (shocked) God! It's Johnson Seroke. (CONTINUED) 160.CONTINUED: STANLEY Late at night. A knock on the door. He opened and five shots, point-blank range. Face, chest, stomach. BEN (reading) 'A police spokesman when questioned said: "It's not the first time that a black member of the police has lost his life in the service of his country, fighting terrorism." (folding paper in disgust) Bloody bastards! They killed him. Stolz must have thought he knew too much. STANLEY What's the score? The nurse is detained; the mortuary attendant has disappeared; the police van driver who brought Jonathan to hospital is detained. Julius is in jail, and now Johnson dead. BEN Who's next on their secret list, I wonder? How much longer must the list grow of those who pay the price of our efforts to clear Gordon's name. STANLEY Hey! Are you going soft, Lanie? We must keep going even more so now. And for every bloke who's going to die of bloody natural causes in their hands. And for our children's future. BEN I know. If I can no longer believe that right is on my side, if I can no longer believe in imperative to go on, what will become of me, Stanley?Ben looks at Johnson's picture again and shakes his head.INT. BEN'S STUDY - DAYA 8x10 black and white photograph on Ben's desk. (CONTINUED) 161.CONTINUED:On the photograph a naked man and a girl on a bed and abedside lamp on its side. The man is Ben and the girlis Melanie.Stolz in sports jacket, standing next to the desk isspeaking... patronizing. STOLZ We're all made of flesh and blood, Mr. Du Toit -- we've all got our flaws. And if a man likes to sample the grass on the other side of the fence, well, that's his own business. But it would be unpleasant if people found out about it, especially if he's a teacher. BEN You mean, if I cooperate, if I stop digging, embarrassing you, threatening you... these photographs will disappear. STOLZ Let's just say I may be able to use my influence to make sure that a private indiscretion isn't used against you. BEN Suppose I refuse?Stolz looks past Ben. STOLZ Is this your son?Ben whirls around to see Johan at the door. He shoots,puts himself between the photograph and his son obviouslysurprised to find Capt. Stolz there. BEN Johan, leave us alone, please.Johan walks away. STOLZ Don't you think this business has gone long enough?Ben, struggling to maintain his composure. (CONTINUED) 162.CONTINUED: BEN That's for you people to decide. Isn't it? I won't be blackmailed, Captain -- not even by you. STOLZ Mind if I smoke?Ben answers by a gesture. STOLZ (after lighting his cigarette) Now be honest. Has all the evidence you've been collecting in connection with Gordon Ngubene brought you closer to the truth you are looking for? BEN Yes, I think so and there's more to come.A pause. STOLZ I really hoped we could talk man-to-man. BEN It's not possible, Captain. Not between you and me. STOLZ It's high time, Mr. Du Toit, we allowed the dead to rest in peace. I'm offering you a chance. BEN You mean my very last chance? STOLZ One never knows. It may not be important to you, but we have to survive. BEN If we can only survive through murder and torture, then we have forfeited our right to exist.Slowly and deliberately Stolz stubs out his cigarettein the ashtray. (CONTINUED) 163.CONTINUED: STOLZ Is that your final answer? BEN Before you go. I'll tell this, Captain. I have a pretty good idea of what I will eventually uncover. I mean the truth. And I won't allow anyone or anything to come between me and that truth.Ben walks up to the door to see him out. There's noresponse from Stolz. He calmly takes a small card out ofhis pocket and rests it on Ben's desk. STOLZ Here's my card -- my private line. If you should change your mind... Let's say before the end of the week? BEN Goodbye, Captain, and don't forgt the photograph.Stolz picks up the photograph and puts it into hisbriefcase. STOLZ (leaving) Be careful, Mr. Du Toit. There are people who can make things very difficult for you. BEN They are wasting their time. They just can't hurt me anymore. I trust you'll give them the message, Captain.He walks out. Ben follows him 'round the garage andwatches him get into his car and drive away.Johan joins his father. JOHAN (mischievous) A brandy, Papa? BEN (smiling back, ruffling his hair) A gin and tonic would be fine. 164.INT. JAN SMUTS AIRPORT - DAYBen and Johan are standing in the public enclosure on thetop floor of the airport building. Ben is unshaved, helooks tired, but happy. There is the usual bustle ofairport staff for the steps and luggage, two-thirds ofthe staff being black.Passengers emerge from the plane Melanie amongst them.Some waving to friends and relatives on the public en-closure. Melanie stops momentarily and looks up at theenclosure. She sees Ben and Johan and waves at them.They wave back and Ben indicates they'll be waiting forher below. She walks off as they happily await her afterthe ususal formalities.INT. JAN SMUTS AIRPORT - DAYBen and Johan are waiting outside the arrivals exit.Several passengers stream out, some being met. Eventuallythere is a trickle of passengers. An INDIAN WOMAN is oneof the last to come out. Ben approaches her. BEN Excuse me, I'm waiting for a lady with a red dress. Are there still, many people to come? INDIAN WOMAN I did see her. She was ahead of me. Maybe she's still in there. BEN Thank you.Just then an OFFICIAL walks out of the door. Ben hurriesto him. BEN Excuse me. OFFICIAL Can I help you? BEN I'm waiting for a passenger, Miss Bruwer. She's taking a rather long time to be cleared. OFFICIAL What did you say her name was? BEN Melanie Bruwer. OFFICIAL I'll go and check. (CONTINUED) 165.CONTINUED:The Official hurries back. JOHAN Is there any other exit, Papa? BEN No. They have to collect their luggage and pass through customs. JOHAN (joking) Maybe she can't find her bag. BEN (smilng back) That's possble.Just then Stolz appears through the door. He slowlywalks up to Ben and Johan. Ben becomes apprehensive. STOLZ Afternoon, Meneer Du Toit. Johan, isn't it?Ruffling his hair; Johan pulling away and glaring at him. BEN What now, Captain? STOLZ Word came to me that you were asking after your very good friend, Miss Bruwer. You know, subersives come in all guises and can be very resourceful. Now let's take your friend, she has been using her privilege as a journalist to endanger the security of this country. But you know something else? She has been secretly holding a British passport. A South African passport and a British pasport. Now you tell me, where is her patriotism? Her allegiance? The minister telexed to the immigration officers here declaring her an undesirable immigrant. So she is being put on the first available plane to London. This must be heart- breaking for you. Good afternoon, Meneer Du Toit, Johan.Stolz walks back. (CONTINUED) 166.CONTINUED: BEN (quietly) Let's go home, Johan. JOHAN I don't understand, Papa... BEN (striding) I'll explain later.They hurry out of the building in silence.EXT. BEN'S HOUSE - DAYBen and Johan arriving at the house. An unsympatheticsmall crowd is there waiting... They react, murmuringin Afrikaans, watching them with hostility as Ben andJohan get out of the car and discover the chaos. Thewreckage. The garage and Ben's study have been bombed.Johan leaves Ben and rushes to the house. The crowdstarts to disperse.The entire tools cupboard has been methodically rippedapart and the contents strewn on the garage floor.Everything is half-burnt... charred... Ben has sunk ontothe stool in total defeat. There's silence.Then Johan appears at the door. He hands Ben a largeenvelope -- in it, the file with all the papers. Ben looksup at Johan. JOHAN (very proud) I took it out. Hide it in my secret place.Ben grabs his son, hugs him and holds on for dear life. BEN Thank you, son. You did a man's job. CUT TO:INT. BEN'S STUDY - DAYBen is sitting at the kitchen table. (CONTINUED) 167.CONTINUED:Before him, scattered on the table: the affidavits hecollected, the Hassiem report, cuttings of articles byMelanie in the Rand Daily Mail about Jonathan, newspaperpictures of Gordon, of Seroke, of himself with Emily, thehalf-burnt "peace painting" of Picasso, half-burnt photoof Ben with Suzette, a staff photograph, Ben amongst it,and a charred trophy.Ben starts putting material relevent to his inquiriesinto a large brown envelope.Johan enters kitchen with a large envelope and hands itto his father. JOHAN Somebody has dropped it through the door. BEN Thank you. JOHAN (leaving) I'm nearly ready, Papa.Ben examines the unstamped envelope with his address,with curiosity then opens it.The contents is Wellington's affidavit. BEN (happy) Wellington's affidavit!He looks inside the envelope, expecting a personal note.There's none. BEN (to himself) Good old Melanie! CUT TO:INT. JOHAN'S BEDROOM - DAYJohan is packing his sport kit and few clothes into abag. CUT TO:EXT. BEN'S HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - DAYBen and Johan are walking towards the entrance, Johanwheeling his bike. Ben hugs his son. (CONTINUED) 168.CONTINUED:Johan gets on the bike and rides out. CUT TO:INT. BEN'S KITCHEN - DAYBen is pouring coffee. He looks tired and tensed. ThePHONE RINGS in the living room. He hurries to answer it.Who knows, could be Melanie from the airport!INT. LIVING ROOM - DAYBen picks up the phone. A menacing male voice says: MALE (V.O.) Meneer du Toit, tonight we're coming to kill you.Ben replaces the receiver obviously shaken. He becomesaware of FOOTSTEPS approaching the kitchen. Ben isterrified.A KNOCK at the door and the door swings open: it'sStanley. STANLEY (anxious) What's happened, man? BEN (obviously still scared) It's you. It was a bomb. STANLEY And the papers? BEN Don't worry. Safe. Thanks to Johan. Incidentally, I have Wellington's affidavit. Melanie found him. She's being deported. The official reason is that she possessed a British passport. I don't know how she managed to smuggle the envelope to me. STANLEY Man, it's all happening!Stanley walks out, glances at the devastated study. Hereenters the kitchen and slams on a chair. He takes apacket of "Lucky Strike" from his pocket and offers itto Ben (CONTINUED) 169.CONTINUED: STANLEY Like a joint? BEN No, thanks.Stanley lights a cigarette and surveys the table. Hepicks up the half-burnt Picasso book, gives it a briefglance, and tosses it back on the table and starts tochuckle. BEN (surprised) What's so funny? STANLEY (still chuckling) They drop the bomb on you!Ben walks up to him puts his hand on his shoulder.There's an understanding trace of a smile on his face.INT. CAFE - DAYBen sitting in a cafe smoking his pipe. A waiter serveshim a glass of beer, for which he pays. CUT TO:EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREET - DAYIt's raining. Stanley driving in the rain on the sameroad as Johan. CUT TO:EXT. CAFE - PASSENGERS' POV FROM PARKED CAR - DAYSuzette's sports car pulls up outside the cafe where Benis waiting. CUT TO:INT. CAFE - DAYBen rises as Suzette joins him at his table. They kissand she sits opposite him. BEN (looking at her straight in the eyes) How are you, Suzette? (CONTINUED) 170.CONTINUED: SUZETTE (in a soft voice) Okay, Papa. BEN Would you like a drink? SUZETTE No, thanks.Without taking his eyes off her, he takes a brown envelopefrom a chair and pushes it slowly towards the uncomfor-table Suzette.She picks up the envelope. SUZETTE (rising) I have to go, Papa. BEN (looking out) I know.Suzette awkwardly kisses him on the cheek. BEN Look after them.Suzette looks at him for a moment and hurries to her car.As Suzette leaves, Ben turns back into the room, hiseyes glassy with tears. CUT TO:EXT. STREET CAFE - DAYSuzette gets into her car and drives off. The parkedcar follows. The two cars turn at the next corner.EXT. QUIET STREETThe two cars approach following each other. As the secondcar overtakes, he draws Suzette's attention with his HORNand signals her to pull up.As she gets out of her car holding the brown envelope,Capt. Stolz gets out of the other side.Suzette walks over to the passenger: Colonel Viljoen. VILJOEN (smiling) I see you got the goodies. (CONTINUED) 171.CONTINUED: SUZETTE (happily) I was on my way to your office, Colonel. STOLZ We thought we'd save you the trouble, Mrs. Klopper.She hands Viljoen the envelope. SUZETTE Here it is, Colonel. VILJOEN Thank you. This country needs more people like you. SUZETTE I must hurry, Colonel. Goodbye.She drives off. CUT TO:INT. CAPTAIN STOLZ'S CAR - DAYStolz gets into the car as Colonel Viljoen starts open-ing the brown envelope. VILJOEN Now let's see what we've got. CUT TO:EXT. RAND DAILY MAIL BUILDING - DAYStanley is parked near the building. He's drumming onthe steering wheel to the rhythm of AFRICAN MUSIC fromhis car RADIO. CUT TO:INT. STOLZ'S CAR - DAYViljoen has just finished opening the brown envelope.He pulls out the half-burnt Picasso book and CaptainStolz's card which he gave to Ben. On the card iswritten: "APARTHEID MUST GO" TOT SIENS (goodbye) (CONTINUED) 172.CONTINUED: Ben Du Toit VILJOEN The bastard! CUT TO:EXT. RAND DAILY MAIL BUILDING - DAYJohan hurries out of the building and is about to get onhis bike. His attention is drawn by Stanley's familiarHOOTER.Johan turns, sees Stanley, and with a grin makes thumbs-up sign which happy Stanley returns with his large thumb.Johan cycles away followed by Stanley. CUT TO:INT. CAFE - DAYBen looks at his watch. He goes to the cash desk andpays. He walks slowly out of the cafe. Stands at thedoor to find his car keys; the rain has emptied thestreet. Ben turns up his collar and waits for a breakin the traffic. CUT TO:EXT. STREET - DAYCaptain Stolz alone in the car. He drives around thecorner into the cafe street.Just then, Ben is hurrying across the road to his car.Captain Stolz sees him, accelerates and hits Ben, hurlinghim high into the air. And speeds away.People rush to Ben's side... crowd quietly gathers.FREEZE FRAME and... SLOW DISSOLVE TO BLACK: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dumb and Dumber.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dumb and Dumber.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..26b753b14719cf616cab6943d178de13e4399b1b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dumb and Dumber.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +FADE IN:EXT. PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND - WINTER MORNINGA PRETTY YOUNG WOMAN is standing on the street corner waitingfor a bus. She's carrying books and looking very collegiate.A black stretch LIMOUSINE with darkened windows drives past,SLAMS ON ITS BRAKES, and backs up. The Young Woman stares ather reflection in the windows, wondering what this is allabout.Finally, the REAR PASSENGER WINDOW zips down, revealing LLOYDCHRISTMAS, age 30. He's a pleasant-enough looking guy, if alittle shaggy. He's wearing a dark suit. LLOYD Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the medical school? I'm supposed to be giving a lecture in twenty minutes and my driver's a bit lost. YOUNG WOMAN (heavy European accent) Go straight aheads and makes a left over za bridge.Lloyd checks out her body. LLOYD I couldn't help noticing the accent. You from Jersey? YOUNG WOMAN (unimpressed) Austria. LLOYD Austria? You're kidding. (mock-Australian accent) Well, g'day, mate. What do you say we get together later and throw a few shrimp on the barbie.The Young Woman turns her back to him and walks away. LLOYD (CONT'D) (to self) Guess I won't be going Down Under tonight...He SIGHS and zips the window back up. 2.INT. LIMOLloyd climbs through the driver's partition into the frontseat. Then he puts a CHAUFFEUR'S CAP on his head and drivesaway. We see that HE'S THE DRIVER!The dispatch radio CRACKLES TO LIFE: DISPATCHER (v.o.) Carr 22, come in, car 22...Lloyd grabs his CB mike. LLOYD This is 22. DISPATCHER 22, where the hell are you, Lloyd? You're running late on the East Side pick-up. LLOYD Cool your jets, Arnie. I'm on my way. DISPATCHER (v.o.) Well hurry it up. And make sure you park legally. One more ticket and your ass is history. CUT TO:EXT. MUTT CUTS DOG SALON - DAYThis building is white with black spots on it, like aDALMATION. Over the front door is an awning shaped like aDOG'S SNOUT, whiskers included. A van pulls up outside.The vehicle is decorated like a GIANT POODLE, with four legshanging off the sides, a tail in the rear, and a dog's snouton the front grill. MUTT CUTS is written on the side of it.HARRY DUNNE climbs out. He's in his early 30s and dressed ina ridiculous BEAGLE COSTUME, including a CAP WITH FLOPPYEARS. He goes to the rear of the van, opens it, and a swarmof DOGS pile out. HARRY Okay, gang, single file. You know the rules: No pushing, no humping, and no sniffing heinies... 3.The door to the shop opens and Harry's annoyed boss, MR.PALMER, sticks his head out. PALMER Hey, why aren't those mutts on leashes? HARRY The same reason you're not on a leash, sir because it's demeaning and it chafes like hell. PALMER Just get them in here now! They all have to be bathed and clipped in an hour.Palmer disappears back inside. Harry CALLS to the dogs butthey pay no attention. He struggles to keep them fromwandering off. He grabs a couple of SMALL POOCHES and sitsthem on a wall. HARRY You kids stay right here...As he turns to round up the other, we discover that the wallisn't a wall it's a flatbed truck. The truck drives away,taking the two dogs with it. HARRY (CONT'D) (at truck) Hey, wait a minute!Harry chases after the vehicle. CUT TO:EXT. EAST SIDE ESTATE - DAYLloyd Christmas pulls the limousine into a long, tree-lineddriveway. He gets out and looks up in awe at an IMPRESSIVESTONE MANSION. He WHISTLES to himself, then walks to thefront oor and RINGS THE BELL.The double-front doors of the mansion open and MARY SWANSONappears. She's 25 and gorgeous. Lloyd's jaw drops open whenhe lays eyes on her. MARY Hello. (beat) I'll be just a minute... 4.As Mary steps back inside, Lloyd takes out a tiny can ofBinaca. He sprays his mouth, under his arms, his hair, behindhis ears... CUT TO:INT. LIMO - DAYLloyd is driving and Mary is in the back, looking out thewindow, lost in thought. She's got a BRIEFCASE resting onher lap and she fingers the leather nervously. Lloyd keepsglancing at her in the rear-view mirror, but for a moment heis speechless. Then: LLOYD Why you going to the airport? Flying somewhere? MARY (dead-pan) How'd you guess? LLOYD Well, I saw your luggage, then when I noticed the airline ticket, I put two and two together. (beat) So where you heading? MARY Aspen. LLOYD Oh, you're gonna love it. I hear California's beautiful this time of year.Mary looks back out the window and Lloyd sneaks anotherglance. LLOYD (CONT'D) Name's Christmas. Lloyd Christmas. MARY I'm Mary.ON LLOYD - we can almost see his mind work. He's desperateto impress her. LLOYD Uh, this isn't my real job, you know. It's only temporary. 5. MARY Oh? LLOYD Yeah, you see, my friend Harry and I are saving up our money so we can open our own pet store. MARY That's nice. LLOYD (smiling) I got worms. MARY I beg your pardon? LLOYD That's what we're gonna call it: I Got Worms. We're gonna specialize in selling worm farms you know, like ant farms. A lot of people don't realize that worms make much better pets than ants. They're quiet, affectionate, they don't bite, and they're super with the kids. MARY Aren't ants quiet, too?Lloyd realizes she has a point. LLOYD Uh... well, sure but they aren't half as affectionate. And if you cut an ant's head off, it won't grow back. MARY I see. LLOYD And best of all, worm farming is a seventy-five-thousand-dollar-a-year industry. I wouldn't mind having a piece of that pie, if you know what I mean.To her credit, she doesn't. They continue driving. Mary looksat her watch and crosses her legs. Lloyd can see that she'sconcerned about something. 6. LLOYD (CONT'D) What's the matter? Little tense about the flight? MARY (beat) Something like that.Lloyd SWIVELS AROUND and STARES over his shoulder at her. LLOYD It's really nothing to worry about, Mary. Statistically, they say you're more likely to get killed on the way to the airport. You know, like in a head-on crash, or something. MARY Um, Lloyd, could please keep your eyes on the road. LLOYD Good thinking. There's a lot of bad rivers out there.Lloyd turns back to the steering wheel. CUT TO:EXT. AIRPORT - DAYLloyd is putting the last bags on a cart. He closes the trunkand turns to Mary. She looks nervous and disconcerted as shereaches into her purse. She pulls out a ten-dollar tip. MARY Here you go. LLOYD Keep it. It was my pleasure.For the first time, Mary Swanson offers a slight smile. Thismakes her more lovely than ever. LLOYD (CONT'D) Relax, Mary. Just get trashed and pass out. You'll be there before you know it. MARY Thanks Lloyd. (beat) And good luck with your worms. 7.Then she PICKS UP HER BRIEFCASE and walks into the terminal,followed by a PORTER pushing her bags. Lloyd watches her,ENCHANTED, until she's out of sight.Afterwards, he climbs back into the limo, LOVESICK. For amoment he doesn't even have the energy to turn the key. Hejust drops his head against the steering wheel, DEVASTATED.There's a TAP on the window. Lloyd looks up to see a POLICEOFFICER standing there. POLICE OFFICER Come on, move it, you're in a red zone.Lloyd starts the limo and pulls away. CUT TO:INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - DAYMary looks tense as she moves through the throngs oftravelers. Her pace is slow, deliberate, and her eyes arefocused straight ahead.She passes a row of phone botths and two MEN one dressed inan ARMANI SUIT, the other in a PLAID SPORTCOAT watch her. ARMANI SUIT She's gonna leave the briefcase at the foot of the escalator. You make the pick-up. PLAID SPORTCOAT Piece of cake.EXT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - DAYAs Lloyd pulls his limo slowly away, he glances in the airportwindow and SEES MARYWALKING ALONG.When she stops at the foot of the escalator, he stops, too.She puts down the briefcase and checks her coat pocket forher ticket. Lloyd's attention is distracted by a HONK. Heturns to see a car irectly behind him. LLOYD (to car's driver) Drive around me, you pinhead!When he turns back to watch Mary in the terminal he seesthat SHE'S GONE, and she's LEFT HER BRIEFCASE AT THE FOOT OFTHE STAIRS. Lloyd jumps to ATTENTION. 8.He pulls the car into a HANDICAPPED SPOT and hops out. Hestarts to run into the terminal, then notices the PoliceOfficer and suddenly goes into a spastic walk, limping anddragging him leg behind him like a palsy victim.INT. AIRPORT TERMINALThe Armani Man nods to the Plaid Sportcoat and he starts toapproach the briefcase. Just as Plaid Sportcoat is reachingfor the handle, LLOYD RUNS BY AND GRABS IT. He CONTINUES UPTHE ESCALATOR three steps at a time. The two men look ateach other, dumbstruck.INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - BOARDING GATELloyd runs with the briefcase to the TV monitors that postthe departure times. He looks frantically at the confusionof numbers. LLOYD Damn!QUICK CUT of a dejected Lloyd looking out the window as hewatches as Mary's airplane taxiing away.EXT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - DAYLloyd comes out with the briefcase, passing the two men, whoFOLLOW HIM AT A DISTANCE. He starts walking down the sidewalkwhen suddenly he STOPS IN HIS TRACKS.HIS POV - his limo is being towed away under the supervisionof the Police Officer.He takes off after it, but to no avail. LLOYD You can't do this! I'll lose my job!As Lloyd watches the limo get towed out of site, he runs hisfingers through his hair. CUT TO:EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - AFTERNOONWe see the Mutt Cuts van pull up and park at the curb. Adejected Harry climbs out. At the same time, a taxi pulls upand drops off Lloyd. (He's clutching Mary Swanson'sbriefcase.) Both he and Harry climb the steps of the building.They disappear inside without acknowledging each other. 9.ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET - a black Cadillac pulls upand parks. Inside are the Armani suit and the Sportcoat.They are J.P. SHAY and JOSEPH MENTALINO (aka JOEMENTAL). MENTAL Who the hell do you figure this guy's working for? SHAY I don't know, but we'd better find out...Mental takes some PILLS and starts CHOMPING them. SHAY (CONT'D) Your ulcer? MENTAL It ain't gonna kill me.INT. APARTMENT CORRIDORLloyd and Harry trudge up the stairs and proceed silentlytoward the door of their apartment.INT. APARTMENT - LIVING ROOMLloyd and Harry ENTER and pass each other quietly as theyboth plunk down in their favorite easy chairs. (Lloyd stillhas the briefcase in his lap.) Harry's caged parakeet, PETEY,tweets hello, but the two guys just sit there SILENTLY.The place is a mess. Wallpaper's peeling off the walls. Thecarpet is threadbare and filthy. In the corner we see aminiature WORM FARM and a large terrarium filled with dirtand worms. Here are a couple pieces of haggard furniturewith stuffing spilling out of the gashes. HARRY I got fired again.Lloyd shakes his head. LLOYD I don't mean to be harsh, Harry, but let's face it, you are one pathetic loser. No offense. HARRY None taken. Were you shitcanned, too? 10. LLOYD Of course not. (beat) I quit. HARRY Why'd you quit? LLOYD I had a hunch Arnie was gonna fire me. HARRY Why didn't you wait and see if your suspicions were well-founded? LLOYD Winners control their own destiny, Har.Lloyd fetches a couple beers from the fridge and throws oneto him. HARRY You know, the thing that really chaps my ass is that I just spent my life savings turning my van into a poodle. (beat) The alarm alone cost me two hundred. LLOYD Big deal. That car's an old bomb anyway. HARRY What are you talking about? It's only six years old. LLOYD That's forty-two in dog years.They open their beers and drink simultaneously. Then Harrynotices the briefcase. HARRY What's with the briefcase? LLOYD It's a love memento. HARRY Huh? 11. LLOYD The most beautiful woman alive. Her name was Mary. I drove her to the airport. Sparks flew, emotions ran high, breasts heaved. She left this case in the terminal and flew to Aspen and out of my life. End of story. HARRY What's in it? LLOYD DO you really expect me to go snooping around in someone else's private property? HARRY Why not? LLOYD (beat) It's locked.They take another sip of their beers. Suddenly we hear aLOUD KNOCK at the door. Petey the parakeet starts to SQUAWK.The guys look at each other, ALARMED, then Harry tip-toes tothePEEPHOLE.HARRY'S POV - a DISTORTED-LOOKING J.P. Shay and Joe Mentalare standing at the door. LLOYD (CONT'D) (WHISPERING to Harry) Friend or foe? HARRY (WHISPERING) We don't have any friends.Harry is still squinting out the peephole. HARRY (CONT'D) Can't recognize them. Could be student loan thugs again, or the IRS, or maybe somebody pissed off about that case of Girl Scout cookies you bounced a check on. 12. LLOYD Hey, I ordered Mystic Mint. The little swindlers gave me Peanut Butter Praline. HARRY Well, whoever they are, they look serious. One of them's even wearing plaid. LLOYD (cringing) That's a hostile pattern. I say we bail and get down to unemployment.Lloyd GRABS THE BRIEFCASE and the two of them EXIT out thewindow and down the fire escape. CUT TO:EXT. UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE - AFTERNOONThe poodle van pulls up to the curb in front of the buildingand PARKS NEXT TO A FIRE HYDRANT. Lloyd and Harry climb out.Lloyd takes a trash can and places it OVER THEHYDRANT, COVERING IT COMPLETELY.INT. STANLEY GRABNER'S OFFICE - UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE -AFTERNOONSTANLEY GRABNER is small, plump, balding, not a lot of laughs. GRABNER Gentlemen, I'm delighted to say that neither I nor the unemployment epartment of the state of Rhose Island can do anything for you. (beat) You've run out of chances. You're unemployable. Remember last year? Middle of winter I busted my butt toGET YOU BOTH PRIME JOBS. TWELVE-fifty an hour, and you went and blew it! LLOYD Blew it? For your information, we only missed three days in two months. HARRY Yeah, and that was because of a blizzard 13. GRABNER (exploding) YOU WERE SNOW PLOW OPERATORS!Grabner falls back in his chair, exhausted. HARRY Come on, Stan. I'm sure you can find something else for us. How about another crack at that Suicide Hotline?Grabner jumps up. GRABNER OUT!!!!! CUT TO:INT. HARRY & LLOYD'S APARTMENT - AFTERNOONJ.P. Shay is looking through Harry and Lloyd's kitchencupboards as Joe Mental comes out of the bedroom. MENTAL The briefcase ain't here. He must've taken it with him. J.P. SHAY Shit. (beat) Well he's gotta come home sometime.Joe Mental ominously approaches Petey the parakeet's cage. MENTAL Maybe we should leave him a little message to let 'em know we're playing hardball.Mental opens the cage door and wraps his meaty fist aroundthe bird, who SCREECHES INTERROR. MENTAL (CONT'D) (a la Tweety Bird) I taut I taw a puddy cat.Mental smiles, and as we PAN to J.P. Shay, we hear a bone-chilling O.S. SNAP and Petey the bird stops SQUAWKING. 14. MENTAL (CONT'D) (still Tweety) I did, I did... DISSOLVE TO:The Mutt Cuts van pulls up to the curb. A depressed Lloydand Harry climb out and mope up to their apartment buildingentrance. LLOYD Give me what's left of our dough. I'll go to the corner and buy a few necessities.Harry hands his friend some crumpled bills. LLOYD (CONT'D) What's cheaper, Thunderbird or Night Train? HARRY Get Robitussin it's a better buzz. CUT TO:EXT. CORNER GROCERY STORE - NIGHTLloyd comes out of the store with his arms full of groceries.He stops at a newspaper machine, pulls out his WALLET andremoves a quarter.He drops the quarter in the machine, opens it, and realizesthat he DOESN'T HAVE A FREE HAND to pick up the newspaper.He puts his wallet inside the machine, picks up the newspaper,and as he does so THE MACHINE SLAMS SHUT WITH HIS WALLETSTILL INSIDE.Lloyd SIGHS, puts his grocery bags on the machine, and checkshis pockets. NO MORE CHANGE. Just then, an ELDERLY WOMANstruggles by using a WALKER. LLOYD Excuse me, little old lady, do you have change for a dollar? ELDERLY WOMAN Change? No, I'm sorry, I don't... LLOYD Well could you do me a favor and guard this while I go break a dollar? My wallet's locked in this machine. 15. ELDERLY LADY Of course, young man...Lloyd runs back into the store. We HOLD ON THE STORE DOOR asLloyd EXITS a few seconds later with a handful of quarters.Suddenly he stops in his tracks. The ELDERLY LADY, HER WALKER,AND HIS GROCERIES ARE GONE. As he takes a closer look, hesees thatSHE HAS TAKEN HIS WALLET ALSO. CUT TO:INT. APARTMENT BUILDING STAIRWELL - NIGHTA thoroughly beleaguered Lloyd is trudging empty-handed upthe steps to his apartment.INT. LLOYD & HARRY'S APARTMENTThe door opens and Lloyd ENTERS. Harry is sitting on thecouch, looking almost comatose. HARRY Where's the booze? LLOYD It's gone. I got robbed by Grandma Walton. She got my wallet, too.Harry drops his head and lets out a MOAN. LLOYD (CONT'D) Come on, man, cheer up. We've been own before. I'm sure we'll land on our heads somewhere. HARRY It gets worse, Lloyd. My parakeet Petey he's... he's dead.Lloyd looks touched by this. LLOYD Oh man, I'm sorry, Harry. What happened? HARRY His head fell off. LLOYD His head fell off? 16. HARRY Yeah, he was pretty old.Lloyd puts his hand on Harry's shoulder compassionately. LLOYD (hopeful) I don't suppose he had a warranty...? HARRY Nah, I bought him used.As Lloyd thinks about the unfairness of life, he grows upset. LLOYD That's it! I've had it with this ump! We don't have food, we don't have jobs, our pets' heads are falling off, we're surrounded by roving gangs of larcenous oldLADIES... HARRY Okay, calm down. LLOYD No I won't calm down.Lloyd flops down in a chair. LLOYD (CONT'D) What the hell are we doing here anyway, Harry? We've got to get out of this town. HARRY Yeah, and go where? LLOYD I'll tell you where: someplace warm, a place where the beer flows like wine, where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. (dramatic PAUSE) I'm talking about Aspen. HARRY Aspen? LLOYD That's right, Aspen. 17. HARRY I don't know, Lloyd, the French are assholes. LLOYD Let me ask you something: do you want to end up like Petey dead in some flea-ridden apartment, face- down on a Dear Abby column, with a soggy sunflower seed pressed against your beak? Or do you want to enjoy your life? (beat) Come on, Harry, don't let Petey's eath be in vain. Don't you see what he was saying? Spread your wings, man. he was saying? Spread your wings, man. Fly. HARRY (confused) What are you talking about, Lloyd? His head fell off. (dawning realization) Wait a second, I know what you're up to. You just wanna go to Aspen so you can find that girl who lost her briefcase and you need me to drive you there. LLOYD That's bullshit. I'll drive. (beat) And what's so wrong about going someplace where we know someone who can plug us into the social pipeline? HARRY (torn) I don't know, Lloyd. I think we should stay here, hunt for jobs, and keep saving money for the worm store. I'm getting a little sick and tired of always running from creditors.Lloyd moves to the window and looks out at the gray, wintrycityscape. LLOYD You know what I'm sick and tired of, Harry? I'm sick and tired of having to eek my way through life. I'm sick and tired of being a nobody. (MORE) 18. LLOYD (CONT'D) (beat) But most of all, I'm sick and tired of having nobody.There's a deadly SILENCE as they both think about this. ThenHarry tries to lighten the mood. He opens his arms wide. HARRY Come on, Lloyd. Give us a kiss. LLOYD On the other hand, maybe you're right, Harry. Maybe we should stay here and try our luck in bankruptcy court. With all those lawsuits against us, I'm sure we'll win at least one. It could be a boost to our egos.Harry sees that Lloyd has a point. He stands and approachesPetey's cage. His eyes fill with tears. HARRY (emotional) Petey, I made a promise to you once, man... (thinking hard) ...and I'll be damned if I can remember what it was. CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe Mutt Cutts van is going down the highway while DannyWilson's "Mary's Prayer" plays on the soundtrack. The vandrives past and we HOLD ON a sign that reads: "YOU ARE LEAVINGPROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. COME BACK SOON." VARIOUS OTHERAERIALSHOTS of the car travelling down the road while the songcontinues to play.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - DAYHarry's behind the wheel and Lloyd's in the passenger seat.The Animal's "We've Got to Get Out of This Place" is BLASTINGon the radio and the guys are SINGING ALONG: 19. LLOYD & HARRY "We've got to get out of this place, If it's the last thing we ever do, We've got to get out of this place, Girl, there's a better life, for me and you..."Lloyd turns down the radio. LLOYD Well, we're finally doing it. Do you realize that in all the years we've known each other, this is the first time we've done this together. HARRY Been run out of town? LLOYD Taken a trip.Harry reaches over and UNDOES HIS SEATBELT. Lloyd watches,curious. LLOYD (CONT'D) Why'd you do that? HARRY What? LLOYD Take your seatbelt off. HARRY Because we just cleared the danger zone. LLOYD Huh? HARRY Don't you know anything, Lloyd? Ninety percent of all accidents happen within five miles of home. We've already traveled 6.3 miles.LLOYD THINKS ABOUT THIS. THEN: LLOYD Well what about the people who live around here? What if we got into an accident with one of them? 20.Harry considers this, then sheepishly puts his seatbelt backon. Lloyd opens a bag of Doritos and fiddles with the radio. HARRY Where'd you get those? LLOYD Bought 'em when we filled up. HARRY Lloyd, I thought we agreed to confer on all expenditures. We're on a tight budget, remember? LLOYD This didn't come out of our travel fund. I was able to scrape up twenty- five bucks before we left. You know, so we could live in style. HARRY Where'd you get twenty-five extra bucks? LLOYD I sold some stuff to Billy in 4-C. HARRY You mean the blind kid? LLOYD That's right.Lloyd looks out the window guiltily. HARRY What did you sell him, Lloyd? LLOYD Just some odds and ends. HARRY Specifically? LLOYD Oh, a few baseball cards, a sack of marbles, Petey, three comic books a second, are you telling me you sold my dead bird to a blind kid? Well who else was I gonna sell it to? HARRY But Lloyd, Petey didn't even have a head. 21. LLOYD Put your mind at ease, friend. I took care of it. CUT TO:EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAYAt the bottom of the stairs leading up to the building is alittle blind boy, BILLY. He sits in a wheelchair playingwith a PARAKEET WHOSE HEAD IS SCOTCH-TAPED ON. He throws theead bird up, but it flops into his lap. BILLY Fly!Joe Mental and J.P. Shay approach and climb the steps. CUT TO:CLOSE ON A NOTE - taped to Harry and Lloyd's apartment door.It reads: TO ALL OURLOVED ONES - PACKED UP AND DROVE TO ASPEN - HAVE A NICE LIFE -LLOYD AND HARRY.PULLBACK to reveal Joe Mental and J.P. Shay. MENTAL Those bastards. They're rubbing it right in our faces. J.P. SHAY Shit! Andre will have a goddamn aneurysm if we don't get that briefcase back. MENTAL Don't worry, we'll get it back. And I'll tell you something else. They ain't gonna reach Aspen, either. I'll make sure of that.Mental takes out more ANTACID PILLS and starts to chew onthem.EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAYA pissed-off Shay and Mental EXIT the building. Mental popsmore antacid pills into his mouth as they descend the stairs.Little Billy is still tossing the lifeless parakeet into theair. 22. BILLY Come on, boy, fly!Plop. Then Billy hears Shay and Mental on the steps and CALLSOUT: BILLY (CONT'D) Excuse me, mister. Is there something wrong with my bird?Mental picks up the bird, studies it, then angrily and WINGSIT DOWN THE STREET as hard as he can. MENTAL Don't worry, Ironside, he just flew south for the winter. CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - AFTERNOONHarry is still driving while Lloyd studies a map spread outbefore him. HARRY How far have we gone? LLOYD According to this map, about an inch and a half. HARRY Shit. We're gonna need a smaller map or we'll never get there. We don't have enough gas money. LLOYD Relax. We have more than enough. HARRY I believe you're wrong, Lloyd. LLOYD And I believe I'm right, Harry. HARRY I still say wrong, Lloyd. LLOYD How much you wanna bet? HARRY I don't bet. 23.Lloyd looks at his friend, incredulous. LLOYD What do you mean you don't bet? HARRY I mean I don't gamble, you know that. Never have and never will. LLOYD Oh, bull. I'll bet you our next meal that I can get you gambling before the day's out. HARRY There's no way, Lloyd. You can't do it. LLOYD I'll give you three-to-one odds. That's three feedbags if you win, against only one if you lose. HARRY You're wasting your money, Lloyd. I already told you, I don't gamble. LLOYD Okay, five-to-one I can get you gambling before the day's out. HARRY Sorry, pal, no way. LLOYD Make it ten-to-one.Harry sticks out his hand. HARRY You got yourself a bet, sucker!As Harry SHAKES LLOYD'S HAND, Lloyd breaks into a BIG SMILE.Harry immediately realizes he's been had. CUT TO:EXT. TRUCK STOP CAF… - AFTERNOONThe Mutt Cutt van is sandwiched between mountainous tractor-trailer trucks. 24.INT. TRUCK STOP CAF…Lloyd and Harry are sitting at a booth, surrounded by tablesof tough-looking TRUCKERS. Harry oesn't look happy. A middle-aged, no-nonsense WAITRESS approaches their table with acouple of burgers and drinks. She puts them down in front ofthe boys and starts to walk away. LLOYD (to Waitress)UH, EXCUSE ME...The Waitress reluctantly returns to the table. LLOYD (CONT'D) What's the soup du jour? WAITRESS It's the soup-of-the-day. LLOYD Sounds tasty. I'll have a bowl. WAITRESS (sarcastic) Anything else before I leave the area? HARRY Actually, this chocolate milk isn't mixed very well. Could you please bring me a spoon?The Waitress SIGHS and picks up the milk. Then she BLOWSINTO THE STRAW, MIXINGTHE DRINK. WAITRESS There. Now you don't need one.The guys watch her stomp away.LLOYDFEELS GOOD TO MINGLE WITH THESE LAID-back country-folk, don't it, Harry?Harry wipes off his straw with a napkin. As he moves to putit in the ashtray, he accidentallyKNOCKS OVER THE SALT SHAKER. 25. LLOYD Uh-oh... HARRY What's the matter? LLOYD You spilled the salt. That's bad luck. We're driving across the country and the last thing we need is bad luck. Quick, toss a handful of salt over your right shoulder. HARRY What for? LLOYD Because that's good luck.Harry shrugs, shakes some salt into his palm, and flings itover his shoulder. Suddenly they hear aYELP. MALE VOICE (o.s.) What the fuck?! LLOYD Or was it the left shoulder?They turn and see a burly TRUCKER wiping salt out of hiseyes. TRUCKER Who's the dead man threw shit in my eye?The huge Trucker stands and squints at Lloyd and Harry. He'swearing a FOAM BASEBALL CAP that says: WINE 'EM, DINE 'EM,SIXTY-NINE 'EM. HARRY It was a terrible accident, Sir. Believe me, I would never do anything to offend a man of your size. Please accept my most sincere apology.The Trucker GROWLS and approaches the table, egged on by hisequally burly FRIENDS. BURLY FRIEND #1 Teach him a lesson, Sea Bass! 26.Sea Bass glares down at Harry's hamburger. SEA BASS You gonna eat that? HARRY Um... the thought had crossed my mind.At this, Sea Bass leans over and DROPS A BIG, BROWN WAD OFTOBACCO SPIT ONTOTHE HAMBURGER. SEA BASS Still want it?Harry stares at the burger non-commitally. HARRY Nah, you go ahead.Sea Bass picks up the burger and walks back to his table, tothe LAUGHTER of his friends. CUT TO:EXT. TRUCK STOP CAF… - AFTERNOONJ.P. Shay is at the gas pump filling the black Cadillac whileJoe Mental stretches his legs. A large truck pulls away,REVEALING THE PREVIOUSLY HIDDEN MUTT CUTTS VAN. Mental smilesat this, and we CUT TO:INT. TRUCK STOP CAF…The Waitress drops the check on Lloyd and Harry's table andSTOMPS away. Harry studies the bill and SIGHS. HARRY Perfect. I'm out eight bucks and I still haven't eaten. LLOYD Well if you'd stop picking fights with the locals... (brightening) Wait a second. I think I just had an idea. Follow me...Lloyd stands and walks over to Sea Bass and his pals. Anervous Harry trails after him. 27. LLOYD (CONT'D) Excuse me, gentlemen, I'd just like to apologize for that unpleasant scene a little earlier. SEA BASS Huh? LLOYD What I'm trying to say is, my friend and I would like to buy you guys a round of beers, just to bury the hatchet.Harry stares at Lloyd like he's out of his mind, but theTruckers seem to like the idea. SEA BASS Make it four boiler-makers. LLOYD Whatever you want, sir. I'll have the waitress send them over. Oh, and fellas hope to see you again down the road.Lloyd and Harry move away from the table toward the CASHIER. HARRY Lloyd, what are you doing? You know we can't afford to buy them drinks.Lloyd hands the Cashier their check. LLOYD Um, Sea Bass and the fellas offered to pick up our check. They said just add this to their tab. CASHIER (skeptical) Sea Bass said that? LLOYD Well, if that guy at the table over there is Sea Bass...He points across the room to Sea Bass and company. Sea BassNODS TO THE CASHIER AND GESTURES TO HIS TABLE, NOT WANTINGTO MISS OUT ON HIS FREE DRINK. The Cashier is convinced. CASHIER Okey-dokey, if that's what he wants... 28.Harry smiles at this. He grabs a couple Beef Jerky's, a candybar, and a copy of The National Enquirer off the counter. HARRY Oh, and put these on there, too. CASHIER You got it. LLOYD (to Cashier) By the way, how far is it to Rhode Island from here? CUT TO:EXT. TRUCK STOP CAF… - AFTERNOONThe front door BURSTS OPEN and a red-faced Sea Bass STORMSOUT, followed by his buddies, the Cashier, and the Waitress. SEA BASS I'm gonna kill those sons-of-bitches! CASHIER Hurry and you'll catch 'em. They was on their way to Rhode Island.The Truckers jump in their rigs and RUMBLE AWAY in theOPPOSITE DIRECTION our boys are headed. CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - AFTERNOONThe Mutt Cutts van breezes by.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - AFTERNOONA jubilant Harry's driving and chewing on a mouthful of BeefJerky. LLOYD I just wish we could've seen Sea Bass's face when he got the bill. HARRY I hope we never have to. LLOYD Don't worry. That fish-head is probably half-way to Providence by now. 29. HARRY I hope so.Harry checks his rear-view mirror nervously. LLOYD Hey, stop the car. I gotta take a whiz. HARRY Are you crazy? I'm not stopping now. What if they figure out we went the other way. They'll be on us in no time. LLOYD But I gotta go. What am I supposed to do? HARRY Hold it. LLOYD I can't hold it. I'm about to explode. HARRY Well... just take a whiz in an empty beer bottle. There's a couple on the floor in the back seat. LLOYD Are you serious? HARRY Yes, I'm serious. I'm not stopping now. We could get killed.Lloyd SIGHS. He takes an EMPTY BEER BOTTLE from the backseat and UNZIPS his fly. Suddenly we hear a PEEING SOUND.Then: LLOYD Uh-oh... HARRY What's the matter? LLOYD The bottle's almost full and I'm still going. HARRY Well stop going. 30. LLOYD I can't stop once I already started, you know that. Quick, get me another bottle.Harry can BARELY HOLD THE STEERING WHEEL as he reaches wayin the back seat for an empty. LLOYD (CONT'D) Jesus, be careful! You almost went off the road. HARRY I'm sorry, Lloyd. I'm doing the best I can.He hands Lloyd another empty and Lloyd quickly makes theswitch. LLOYD Here, hold this.Before Harry knows it he's holding the full BOTTLE OF URINE.EXT. HIGHWAY - LATE DAYAs the Mutt Cutts van travels down the highway, it passes aSTATE TROOPER on a motorcycle hidden in the bushes. TheTrooper takes off after them.INT. MUTT CUTTS VANHarry is doing his best to steer while now holding FIVE FULLBOTTLES AND Lloyd is still going at it in the passenger seat. HARRY What are you, a goddamn camel? LLOYD Hey, I haven't gone all day.Just then they hear a LOUDSPEAKER: STATE TROOPER (o.s.) Pull over!They turn to see the POLICE MOTORCYCLE cruising right besidethen. Harry rolls down his window and CALLS OUT: HARRY Huh? 31. STATE TROOPER PULL OVER!Harry glances down at his sweater he's wearing, then back atthe Trooper. HARRY (calling out) No, it's a Cardigan! But thanks for noticing!He rolls his window back up and turns to an equally baffledLloyd. HARRY (CONT'D) Jesus, what is this, the fashion police?The Cop turns on his SIREN. STATE TROOPER PULL YOUR CAR TO THE SIDE OF THEROAD! CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - LATE DAYThe STATE TROOPER is walking up beside the stopped Mutt Cuttsvan, staring at it with isapproval. STATE TROOPER License and registration, please.Harry hands him the papers. STATE TROOPER (CONT'D) You know, you fellas were all over the road back there. HARRY Yes, sir, we had a little... ifficulty in the car. STATE TROOPER Uh-huh. (beat) Have you boys been doing a little rinking maybe? HARRY No, sir. 32. STATE TROOPER Then what's that?He points to the OPEN, FULL BEER BOTTLES hidden in the seatbetween them. HARRY Oh, that's nothing, sir. STATE TROOPER Do you know it's against the law to rive with an open alcohol container in this state? LLOYD But, your honor, he's telling the truth. It's not beer.The officer smirks. STATE TROOPER Is that right?The Trooper reaches in and picks up one of the bottles. Heinspects the beer label, then MOVESTHE BOTTLE TO HIS LIPS. HARRY Sir, I wouldn't TROOPER --You'd keep your mouth shut if you knew what was good for you. LLOYD (under breath)YOU WOULD, TOO...Harry shoots Lloyd a look as the Trooper begins GULPING downthe piss. He pauses uncertainly and a SICK LOOK COMES OVERHIS FACE. He takes a DEEP BREATH. Then: STATE TROOPER (pained) Get the hell out of here. CUT TO:The Mutt Cutts van is pulling back onto the highway whilethe officer remains in the breakdown lane with his hands onhis knees. CUT TO: 33.EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHTThe van is making steady progress through the dark night.INT. MUTT CUTT VAN - NIGHTLloyd is driving now while Harry sleeps in the passengerseat. The song, "Cut Flowers" by The Smithereens, starts toplay as Lloyd FANTASIZES about his future in Aspen. DISSOLVE TO:LLOYD'S FANTASY:Lloyd is walking up the steps of a luxurious, snow-coveredchalet, carrying Mary's briefcase. The sky is absurdly blueand children are making a snowman on the lawn. It's all outof a dream world. He KNOCKS on the door, tentatively. Maryopens it. She looks at him, then at the briefcase, and breaksinto the BIGGEST, SWEETEST SMILE he's ever seen. Then sheslowly backs into the house, gesturing for him to follow...Lloyd follows Mary down a hallway. As he trails after her,she pulls off her shirt, revealing her bare back, and glancesover her shoulder at him.CAMERA MOVES around a corner and now we're in a STEAMYBATHROOM. The shower is running and we see the silhouette oftwo people behind the curtain. LLOYD (v.o.)OOH... OOH... MARY... MARY (v.o.) How does that feel, Lloyd? LLOYD (v.o.)MMMM... TINGLY...INT. SHOWERCLOSE ON LLOYD - we see he's taking the TEGRIN CHALLENGE,with different shampoos on either side of his head and anoticeable part down the middle. MARY (o.s.) How's the other side? 34. LLOYD Nothing. Nothing at all. MARY (o.s.) Lloyd, will you wash my nipples...?ON MARY - her hair is slicked back, making her look betterthan ever. As the CAMERA PANS DOWN toward her breasts, weare surprised to see not breasts but a SET OF HEADLIGHTSSUPERIMPOSED OVER HER CHEST AREA. The headlights FLASH ONCE.Then TWICE.ON LLOYD - he blinks, confused at what's happening.JUMP CUT TO - an eighteen-wheeler is ROARING RIGHT TOWARDTHE MUTT CUTTS VAN on the highway. Lloyd quickly veers backinto his lane and avoids tragedy by a whisker. A shaken Lloydlets out a SIGH OF RELIEF, and we CUT TO:EXT. SECOND HONEYMOON HOTEL - NIGHTThe Mutt Cutts van is parked outside this seedy establishment.A neon sign blinks: GROUPDISCOUNTS - HAVE YOUR NEXT AFFAIR HERE. HARRY (v.o.) I don't know, Lloyd, I feel a little sleazy staying here when we're not even engaged. LLOYD (v.o.) Hey, it's the only motel that charges by the hour. We can't afford anything else.INT. BATHROOM - SECOND HONEYMOON MOTELLloyd and Harry are sitting in a large, HEART-SHAPED JACUZZI.Lloyd is sipping a beer and Harry is absorbed in the Enquireras the water swirls around them. LLOYD Yep, this sure is the life. Cold beer, a hot tube, and fuzzy pink sheets... You know, there's only one thing that could make this moment any better. 35. HARRY What's that? LLOYD If you had a nice set of knockers. HARRY That's two things, Lloyd. LLOYD Right now I'd settle for one.Lloyd takes a swig of beer. Harry puts down the paper andlooks around at the romantic decor. HARRY I don't know, Lloyd, these places just don't do it for me. Brings back too many memories. LLOYD What happened, Harry? Some little filly break your heart? HARRY Nah, it was a girl. Fraida Felcher. We stayed at a place like this once No-Tell Motel out on Route 31. LLOYD Felcher? You mean the babe who worked for the tractor company?Harry nods. HARRY The same. We had this incredibly romantic time. Boy, I thought we'd be together forever. (SIGHS) Then about a week later, right out of the blue, she sends me a John Deere letter. LLOYD That's cold, Har. Give you any reason? HARRY I called her up and she gave me some crap about me not listening to her enough or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention. 36.Harry reaches for a beer and busts it open. He takes a biggulp. HARRY (CONT'D) Thing that really hurts is I think she was seeing another guy. Never id find out who.ON LLOYD - he does his best to hide his GUILT. CUT TO:EXT. SECOND HONEYMOON MOTEL - NIGHTWe see that the black Cadillac is parked a few cars overfrom the Mutt Cutts van with J.P. Shay in the passenger seat.PAN OVER to a payphone. Inside is Joe Mental. Outside thebooth, an ANXIOUS MAN impatiently paces back and forth as hewaits for the phone. MENTAL (into phone) The boys are holed-up in a little love nest for the night. I think they're a couple of fucking weirdos.INT. NICHOLAS ANDRE'S STUDY - NIGHTNICHOLAS ANDRE is pacing around the room with a cordlessphone. He's in his late 30s, wears a ponytail, and dressesin Aspen/Rodeo Drive chic. ANDRE What in hell are those guys up to? Is it possible that they're Feds?INTERCUT CONVERSATION MENTAL Unlikely from what I've seen.The ANXIOUS MAN taps on the phone booth and motions for Mentalto hang up. ANDRE I don't like this one goddamn bit, Mental. You and Shay were supposed to grab that bag so we could end this shit. Now I don't know what the hell's going on.Andre SIGHS and wipes some perspiration from his upper lip.The Anxious Man KNOCKS on the booth again. 37. MENTAL Hold on a second, Mr. Andre...Mental puts the phone down and motions the Anxious Man closerto the booth. The Man moves forward a few inches. Mentalmotions him even closer. When he's about a foot away, Mentalpunches his hand through the glass of the booth and knocksthe Anxious Man out cold. ThenMental picks up the phone again. MENTAL (CONT'D) Sorry, boss. You were saying...? ANDRE Look, Mental, just find out what they're up to. I want to know who these guys are. MENTAL Don't worry. I'm on it.Mental hangs up the phone, looks around to make sure he'snot being watched, then approaches the parked Mutt Cutt van.He's joined by J.P. Shay.As they get within five feet of the vehicle, we hear a LOWGROWL. They stop in their tracks and turn, expecting to seea dog but there isn't one. They both take another stepforward, and the GROWL GETS LOUDER AND MEANER. Again, Mentaland Shay stop. He peeks under the car. Nothing. SHAY What the fuck...?Finally, Shay reaches for the door handle. As soon as hetouches it, though, the car alarm goes off but instead of asiren, it's the incredibly annoying sound of a POODLE YAPPING.Mental jumps back and pulls his gun. MENTAL Where's the goddamn dog?Shay shrugs, nervous. The YAPPING grows EVEN LOUDER now,forcing a flustered Shay and Mental to retreat from the scene. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. SWANSON CHALET - ASPEN - NIGHTESTABLISHING SHOT of a luxurious mountainside home. 38.INT. LIVING ROOM - SWANSON CHALETAn agitated Mary Swanson (the young woman who lost herbriefcase) is pacing back and forth inAN IMPRESSIVE, ANTIQUE-FILLED LIVING ROOM. SEATED ON A COUCHARE HER FATHER KARL AND HIS MUCH-younger second wife, HELEN. MARY It just doesn't make any sense. I left the money exactly where they instructed me to. HELEN Actually, it makes a great deal of sense, Mary. We should have called in the authorities the moment we knew Melvin had been kidnapped. KARL Now, Helen, we've been through this already for Christ's sake, Karl, these bastards will extort us into bankruptcy if we let them. MARY But I'd never forgive myself if something happened to Melvin. KARL Stop upsetting my daughter, Helen. She's been through quite enough already. MARY It's not her fault, Daddy. We're all a little on edge.Just then the living room door opens and the pony tailedNicholas Andre ENTERS. He looks appropriately solemn. ANDRE Has there been any word, Mr. Swanson? KARL Nothing yet, Nicholas.Andre looks upset. ANDRE Perhaps I should call off the Preservation benefit this weekend. 39.IT WOULD BE EASY ENOUGH TO RE-schedule. HELEN No, Nicholas, it's imperative that we carry on as usual.The atmosphere in the room couldn't be more somber. KarlSwanson holds his hand out to his aughter. KARL Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll do everything they ask. Nothing's going to happen to Melvin, I promise you. MARY Thank you, Daddy.Karl Swanson looks out the window, concerned. CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe black Cadillac pulls over to the side of the road. JoeMental gets out of the car and props the hood open. He takesout his gun, SLIDES IN A NEW CLIP, and puts it back in hispocket. MENTAL (to Shay) Lie down on the front seat. After they pick me up I want you to follow us.Then he folds his arms and the two killers wait for the vanto come along. CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - DAYLloyd taps Harry's shoulder. LLOYD You're it.Harry taps Lloyd back. HARRY You're it.Lloyd immediately taps Harry. 40. LLOYD You're it. Quitsies. HARRY (tapping him back) Anti-quitsies. You're it. Quitsies. No anti-quitsies. No startsies.Lloyd shakes his head, defeated. LLOYD Damn, you're good, Harry. (beat) Hey, didn't I tell you this trip would be a blast?EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYJoe Mental squints down the road, sees the Mutt Cutts vanapproaching, and starts WAVING HIS HANDS to flag them down.INT. MUTT CUTTS VANThrough the windshield we can see Mental waving. The guysdon't slow down, through. The just WAVE BACK as they BLOWRIGHT BY HIM. Harry also toots the horn, which makes theSOUND OF A DOG BARKING. LLOYD See, I told you these country folks were friendly, Harry.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYAs an angry Mental watches them disappear down the road,Shay sits up in the front seat. SHAY What happened? MENTAL These fuckers are really pissing me off now. CUT TO:EXT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - LATER THAT DAYWe hear The Zombie's 'Time of the Season' as the van flashesby. 41.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - DAY HARRY Refresh my memory on something, Lloyd: what exactly do we do when we get to Aspen? LLOYD Well the first thing we do is take a good deep breath of that famous Aspenese air. HARRY Fresh, huh? LLOYD The freshest. They say on any day of the week you can smell a moose-fart ten miles away. HARRY (sincere) Wow... talk about paradise. (beat) And after we're finished breathing, what next, Lloyd? LLOYD Then we make a splash on the social scene.Just then, Lloyd notices something up the road. LLOYD (CONT'D) Harry, look the golden arches. Pull over, I'm starving. CUT TO:EXT. MCDONALD'S - DAYThe Mutt Cutt car is at the drive-through window. MCDONALD'S EMPLOYEE ...That's two cheese burgers, two fries, and two medium Cokes. Five seventy- two.Harry hands a ten-dollar-bill to the Employee, who returns ahandful of change. HARRY Thanks. 42.Then, before he can give them the bag of food, the guysabsentmindedly DRIVE OFF. As they pull out of the parkinglot, the McDonald's Employee sticks his head out the windowand WAVES THE BAG OF FOOD at them. MCDONALD'S EMPLOYEE Hey!But the guys are already around the corner.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe Mutt Cutt van is on the road again, cruising along.INT. MUTT CUTT VAN - DAY HARRY About this social scene how do you expect a couple mutts like us to make a splash in the land of pedigrees when we don't even have any money? LLOYD Look, once we drop the briefcase off to Mary, she'll be so grateful she'll plug us right into the party circuit. After that, we do a little of the skiSCENE, HOB-NOB WITH THE ELBOW-rubbers, and walk out of there in the spring with enoughbusiness connections to open a first-class worm operation.You see, you don't get rich working, Harry. You get richknowing the rich. HARRY Where'd you hear that? LLOYD Some bum down at unemployment.Harry thinks about this. HARRY I don't know, Lloyd. LLOYD What's the matter? HARRY Money does terrible things to people. I mean, we could lose our friendship. 43.Lloyd thinks about this. LLOYD Yeah? So?Harry nods and looks out the window. Suddenly SOMETHING DAWNSON LLOYD. LLOYD (CONT'D) Hey, wait a second. Hold everything. HARRY What? LLOYD Aren't you forgetting something?Harry thinks about this. LLOYD (CONT'D) Back at Mickey D's? A little matter you might've overlooked...?Harry wracks his brain, but to no avail. HARRY What?Lloyd rolls his eyes. LLOYD My change.As a sheepish Harry gives Lloyd his change, they noticesomething up ahead.HARRY & LLOYD'S POV - ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, JOE MENTAL ISWAVING THEMDOWN AGAIN. This time the Cadillac is PARKED SIDEWAYS ACROSSTHE ROAD,BLOCKING THEIR PATH. HARRY I think this guy's in trouble. Why on't you pull over.Lloyd looks at Harry. Harry remembers that he's driving. Hepulls the car to the side of the road. Mental approaches thepassenger window. 44. MENTAL You guys going as far as Des Moines? My car died and I'm late for a business meeting. CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - DAYThey're back on the highway and Joe Mental is SITTING BETWEENTHEM, looking extremely ANNOYED. The guys are in the middleof an argument. HARRY It's a fruit. LLOYD It's a vegetable. HARRY I'm telling you, it's a fruit. LLOYD And I happen to know it's a vegetable. HARRY Tell you what, why don't we leet an impartial judge decide. LLOYD Fine with me.Harry turns to Joe Mental. HARRY Hey, Mr. Mentalino, settle our bet: Are jelly beans fruits or vegetables?Mental grits his teeth as he pops a few antacid pills in hismouth. He reaches into his coat pocket and we see a GLINT OFSTEEL. Just when he's about to pull the gun out, though,Lloyd hits the breaks and SKIDS to a stop beside a bunch ofhitchhiking MIGRANT WORKERS. DISSOLVE TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - LATERThe trio have picked up SIX MIGRANT WORKERS and everyone iscrammed into the car including a CRYING BABY who sits on apissed-off Mental's lap. Someone's playing a FLAMENCO GUITARand the gang is SINGING a SPANISH SONG. DISSOLVE TO: 45.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - LATER STILLThe Migrant Family is gone now. Harry and Lloyd are playinga game while Mental stares straight ahead, furious. His eyesare watering and he looks ill. LLOYD Okay, Harry, my turn. Let 'er rip.Harry lifts a cheer and lets out a LOUD FART. Lloyd SNIFFS afew times, then closes his eyes and WAFTS it up toward hisnostrils, as if it was the aroma of a fine wine. LLOYD (CONT'D) Hmmm... full-bodied, delicate bouquet, aged to perfection will rip no fart before it's time. (beat) Come on, Marquis of Dingleberry's rules: you got ten seconds. All right. I'll say: cheese doodles, chili dog extra onions, garden salad with blue... HARRY And...? LLOYD Kit-Kat bar.Harry throws up his arms, defeated. He hands Lloyd a buck. HARRY You're the best, man. (beat) Okay, my turn. LLOYD Where are your manners, Harry? We have a guest.Harry punches Mental's shoulder playfully. HARRY Come on, Mr. Mentalino. Let one fly. It's only a buck. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. DANTE'S INFERNO CAF… - LATE AFTERNOONA large neon road sign beside the cafÈ shows a man'sexasperated face with FLAMES SHOOTING FROM HIS NOSE, MOUTHAND EARS. The sign advertises: HOTTEST CHILI 46.PEPPERS NORTH OF THE BORDER.INT. DANTE'S INFERNOLloyd and Harry are sitting at a table with a hateful JoeMental. The boys are each holding up aPOINTED RED CHILI PEPPER. HARRY I'll do one if you will. LLOYD Okay, you go first. HARRY No, you go first. LLOYD No, you go first. MENTAL Why don't you both stop being a couple of pussies and go at the same time. It ain't that hot.Lloyd and Harry exchange a look, then simultaneously BITEINTO THE PEPPERS. LLOYD Hmmm, not bad... HARRY Yeah, more tingly than hot.Suddenly the boys' EYES LIGHT UP. THEY LET OUT A SHRIEK. Asmile begins to curl on Mental's lips. He pours them a coupleglasses of water from a pitcher. MENTAL Have some water. It'll help.Lloyd and Harry who are both sweating profusely now startto GULP down their water. This, of course, makes it burnmore. MENTAL (CONT'D) Aw, shucks, that's right. Water just makes it worse...The boys run to the bar and DUMP PITCHERS OF WATER ON THEIRHEADS, much to the elight of a CHUCKLING Joe Mental. CUT TO: 47.EXT. DANTE'S INFERNO - DAYMental is on the phone outside the front door TALKING toNicholas Andre.INTERCUT CONVERSATION MENTAL It's Mental. I'm just sitting down to a nice meal with our boys. ANDRE Good work. What did you find out so far? MENTAL Nothing yet, but I'm gonna shake 'em own for information at lunch. (beat) Then I'm gonna kill 'em for dessert. ANDRE Well eat fast, time's running out.And whatever you do, don't let them get any closer. I don'tneed them here running around Aspen.Mental pulls a BLACK VIAL OF PILLS out of his jacket. MENTAL Relax, they ain't gonna be running around anywhere after I dump a little cyanide in their pops.INT. DANTE'S INFERNO - DAYBack at the table, the boys are soaked and HUFFING as ifthey just finished the Boston Marathon. The burgers havebeen served, but Lloyd and Harry are still too traumatizedto touch them. HARRY That really wasn't very polite of him, was it? Maybe we should loosen the screws of his chair. LLOYD Harry Dunne, I'm surprised at you. Perhaps it's about time you brushedUP ON A LITTLE TOME THAT WE GOD-fearing adults call the Bible. It's crammed with all kindsof pithy rules to live your life by. 48. HARRY (humbled) You mean like 'turn the other cheek?' LLOYD No, I mean like 'an eye for an eye.' Hand me those peppers the atomic ones.Harry passes the jar and the two of them LOAD JOE MENTAL'SBURGER WITH CHILIPEPPERS, EXPERTLY CAMOUFLAGING THEM WITH LETTUCE. HARRY (whispering) Here he comes.Lloyd and Harry bite into their food as Joe Mental sits backdown at the table. MENTAL Feeling any better, boys?As he pours ketchup on his burger, the guys glance at eachother and TITTER. Then he picks it up and brings it to hismouth. Just before biting into it, though, he PAUSES. MENTAL (CONT'D) So tell me, why you fellas headed to Aspen? Vacation? LLOYD More like re-location.Mental starts toward the burger but stops again. MENTAL Doesn't look like you packed much. All I saw was a couple bags... and that briefcase. HARRY The briefcase isn't even ours. Some lady just left it at the airport. We're bringing it back to her.This is news to Mental. MENTAL You mean you don't even know her? LLOYD Not really. I was just her limo river. 49.Mental looks at the two of them and realizes that they'reserious. Then he BREAKS OUTLAUGHING. MENTAL Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time...Lloyd and Harry share a confused look. Mental shakes hishead and BITES INTO HIS BURGER, CHEWING HEARTILY. Almostimmediately, his happy demeanor is replaced by a LOOK OFHORROR. His FACE TURNS RED, HE GRABS HIS STOMACH AND FALLSTO THEGROUND, GASPING.The boys look at each other guiltily, then bend down to helphim. HARRY Hey, you okay, man? It was just a goof. MENTAL (STRAINED WHISPER) My ulcer... quick... pills... in my coat...Harry checks Mental's coat pocket for his antacid pills butunwittingly brings out the BLACK OF CYANIDE PILLS. He shakessome pills out and hands them to Mental, who tosses them inhis mouth and starts to MUNCH on them.For a moment, he appears to improve. His BREATHING SLOWS andhe sits up. Then his EYESLIGHT UP.MENTAL'S POV - QUICK ZOOM IN on the black bottle Harry isholding! MENTAL (CONT'D) You son-of-a-bitch!Mental GURGLES and keels over, DEAD. CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - AFTERNOONLloyd and Harry are back on the road, looking solemn. HARRY I can't believe it... 50. LLOYD Life is a fragile thing, Har. One minute you're chewing on a burger; the next minute you're dead meat. HARRY But he blamed me. You heard him. Those were his last words. LLOYD If you don't count that gurgling sound.Harry lets out a GROAN. LLOYD (CONT'D) Hey, relax, man, I'm just as responsible as you are we both slipped him the peppers and look at me, I on't feel guilty at all. HARRY Small comfort coming from a man who sells dead birds to blind kids. (SIGHS) Don't you get it, Lloyd. I've got a ead guy pissed at me. His restless spirit will probably haunt me for the next seventy-five years. LLOYD That's ridiculous. You probably won't live to see forty.Harry perks up, cheered by this thought. HARRY Oh yeah. (beat) Wow. What a relief.EXT. HIGHWAY - AFTERNOONAs the Mutt Cutts van flashes by on it's westward journey,we CUT TO:EXT. DANTE'S INFERNO - EVENINGA DOCTOR is covering up the body of Joe Mental as he TALKSto DETECTIVE DALE. The etective is a no-nonsense type in hismid-forties with a military-regulation crewcut. 51. DOCTOR ...My official conclusion is that the eceased expired from oxygen eprivation caused by the presence of cyanide in the bloodstream. DT. DALE You mean he was poisoned? DOCTOR Unquestionably. We found these by the body.He holds up the container of cyanide pills. Dt. Dale nodsand approaches another COP in the b.g. COP Waitress says he was with a couple of younger guys. They're the ones who called the ambulance then they hit the road. DT. DALE Any idea where they were going? COP A witness at the next table thought he heard them say they were driving to France.Dale frowns at this and the Cop shrugs. COP (CONT'D) We got a report they were seen heading west on I-80 toward Colorado. DT. DALE Get a make on the vehicle?The Cop consults his note pad. COP Yes, sir. They were driving an '84 poodle.Dt. Dale does a double-take. DT. DALE An '84 what? 52. COP (straight-faced) Well it might have been a wire-haired terrier, Detective. They're very similar in appearance.The Detective looks confused, as we CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTThe boys are extremely exhausted as they plow through theblack night toward Aspen. HARRY Let's get off and crash at a motel before I crash into one. (yawning) I need a crib fast. LLOYD Sorry, Har. We're gonna have to hold out. Seems we misjudged our expense allocation. If we pay for a motel we won't have enough for gas. HARRY What happened to the dough? LLOYD We over-leveraged. HARRY On what? LLOYD I sprung for Mr. Chili Pepper's last meal. Felt it was the least we could o after we deep-sixed him. HARRY Wait a second one burger put us over budget? LLOYD The slob ordered a double-bacon eluxe and a chocolate malt. HARRY Oh. (beat) So what are we gonna do? 53. LLOYD Drive. We've only got ten more hours. We can take turns. CUT TO:EXT. DANTE'S INFERNO - PHONE BOOTH - NIGHTA frightened J.P. Shay is TALKING on the phone with NicholasAndre. SHAY You heard me, he's dead. The bastards killed him.INT. NICHOLAS ANDRE'S STUDY - NIGHTAndre nervously lights a cigarette as he speaks. ANDRE Jesus Christ...Andre's forehead begins to glisten with perspiration. ANDRE (CONT'D) All right, I want you back here now. If they're coming this way I'm going to need you. SHAY (v.o.) How's our bankroll doing? Giving you a hard time? ANDRE Melvin's not the problem. It's these two other guys that have me worried. I wish I knew what the hell theywanted.Andre hangs up the phone and then disappears down his basementstairs.INT. BASEMENT - NIGHTThe room has a dirt floor. There's a stone WELL in the middle.We hear MUFFLED HUMAN WHIMPERING coming from deep within thewell. Andre walks to the edge of the dark hole. ANDRE How you doing today, Melvin? 54.Andre takes a hit off his cigarette and flicks it into thewell. CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHTThe Mutt Cutts van cruises down the lonely interstate.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTLloyd is now FAST ASLEEP in the passenger seat as Harry driveson. A roadsign reading DENVER - 602 MILES whizzes by. ToddRundgren's "Too Far Gone" begins to play while Harry peersat the empty highway INTROSPECTIVELY. As the song plays wesee a series of quick shots:A new sign says DENVER - 421 MILES. Lloyd is still asleepwith his feet now on Harry's lap.Another sign reads DENVER - 201 MILES. Harry stares straightahead, practically catatonic. Lloyd's feet are out the windowand his head is on Harry's lap.The next roadsign says DENVER - 157 MILES. Lloyd's feet arenow up over the headrest and his head is down where his feetshould be. Harry looks on the verge of blacking out.Finally, a sign reads COLORADO STATE LINE - 25 MILES/FOOD,GAS NEXT EXIT.EXT. TRUCK STOP - 2:10 IN THE MORNINGThe Mutt Cutts van pulls up to a gas pump. In the backgroundare several tractor-trailer rigs and a cafÈ. Harry climbsout, thoroughly exhausted, walks around and opens thepassenger door.Lloyd tumbles to the asphalt, STILL ASLEEP. Harry nudges himwith his foot. HARRY Come on, wake up. You pay, I'll pump.Lloyd comes to and grudgingly pulls himself up to his feet.EXT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTHarry moves to the back of the poodle van. He has to LIFTONE OF THE CAR'S REAR LEGS to unscrew the gas cap. Then hesticks the nozzle in and starts to fill her up. 55.EXT. GAS STATION MEN'S ROOM - NIGHTLloyd comes around the corner, dragging a BATHROOM KEYATTACHED BY A CHAIN TO A CAR ENGINE toward the Men's Room.When he gets it to the door, he struggles to lift the engineon it's side, finally managing to slip the key into the lock.EXT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTHarry is yawning as he pumps the gas. Suddenly a Jeep Cherokeepulls up and a long-legged, tanned, ATHLETIC BEAUTY climbsout. This seems to wake Harry up.The Athletic Beauty smiles at Harry as she grabs a pump andstarts to fill her jeep. Harry makes a feeble attempt tobrush his hair into place, then CLEARS HIS THROAT and nodsto the skis on her roof-rack. HARRY Skis, huh? ATHLETIC BEAUTY That's right. HARRY Great.She continues to pump gas. HARRY (CONT'D) They yours? ATHLETIC BEAUTY Uh-huh.. HARRY Both of 'em? ATHLETIC BEAUTY Um, yeah. HARRY (impressed) Cool.THE GAS FROM HARRY'S NOZZLE STARTS TO OVERFLOW, BUT HE DOESN'TNOTICE. FROM HER POV IT LOOKSlike a BIG DOG IS PISSING ON HIS LEG. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Excuse me, you're spraying everywhere. 56.Harry turns to see the gas GUSHING ALL OVER HIS SHOES. Heimmediately removes the nozzle and replaces it on the pumpas she smiles to herself.INT. GAS STATION MEN'S ROOMLloyd is standing in a stall urinating. He starts to readthe graffiti scrawled on the wall. Finally, he comes to onethat says: FOR A GOOD TIME, MEET ME HERE NOVEMBER 8, 1993,2:15A.M. SHARP.He frowns at this, then looks nervously at his watch.CLOSE UP OF DIAL - the date reads NOVEMBER 8.ZOOM IN on the minute hand as it CLICKS TO EXACTLY 2:15.Just as a concerned look crosses Lloyd's face, we hear theBATHROOM DOOR SQUEAK OPEN AND SLAM SHUT! Terrified, Lloydquickly locks the stall door, then crouches on the toiletbowl so his feet aren't visible. The sound of HEAVY FOOTSTEPSapproaches the stall and then stops. Lloyd looks down to seea pair of SIZE 16 WORKBOOTS beneath the door. We can barelyhear a LOW GROWL. Then the stall handle JIGGLES. Lloyd holdshis breath. The ominous boots MOVE AWAY and Lloyd lets out aSIGH OF RELIEF.All of a sudden the DOOR IS KICKED IN, AND A TOWERING FIGURESTEPS INTO FRAME. Lloyd looks up and GASPS.HIS POV - it's the Redneck trucker, Sea Bass. SEA BASS Well, well, well, if it ain't my old friend. (checks watch) And right on time...As Sea Bass STEPS INTO THE STALL, we CUT TO:EXT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTThe Athletic Beauty is back in her Jeep now and Harry hassidled up to the driver's side. He leans against her side-view mirror. 57. HARRY (re: suitcases in back seat) That's a lot of luggage for a little vacation. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Actually, I'm moving to Aspen. I've got to get away from my boyfriend.He's such a klutz. My astrologer told me I should avoidaccident-prone guys.Just then, the side-view mirror Harry has been leaning onSNAPS OFF THE CAR. HE CRACKSHIS HEAD AGAINST THE WINDSHIELD, FALLS TO THE GROUND, THENQUICKLY LEAPS TO HIS FEET AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED. HARRY (holding out mirror) Here, this is a little loose.She throws the mirror into the back seat and takes out acigarette. HARRY (CONT'D) Allow me...He pulls out a match and lights it with a debonair flourish.The Athletic Beauty nods her thanks. Harry tosses the matchto the ground, and we hear an O.S. WHOOSH! Wisps of smokesrise around him and we hear the LOW CRACKLE OF SOMETHINGBURNING. (Neither of them notice this.) HARRY (CONT'D) Look, um, maybe when I get to Aspen we can meet up... you know, for hot chocolate or something.She looks him over and smiles. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Why not? You seem pretty harmless. I'll give you my number. Just let me find a pen.As she starts to rummage through her purse, Harry SMELLS THESMOKE. He looks down and sees that his RIGHT SHOE IS ABLAZE!He shakes it, then tries to put it out with the other shoe,but to no avail. Meanwhile, the Athletic Beauty is stillsearching for a pen. 58. ATHLETIC BEAUTY (CONT'D) I know I have one here somewhere...Harry starts doing a soft-shoe dance to extinguish the flames.This only helps to fan them. HARRY (urgently) Look, why don't you just tell it to me, I've got a good memory. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Are you sure you won't forget? HARRY (desperate) Positive please hurry.He begins hopping around violently. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Is something wrong?Harry shakes his head no as he bites his lip to keep fromscreaming. ATHLETIC BEAUTY (CONT'D) Okay, my number is 652-2553. (beat) Oh, wait a second, that's my old number. It's so funny how your mind god sakes, give me the damn number!She's taken aback by this outburst. ATHLETIC BEAUTY (CONT'D) Look, man, if you're gonna get pushy you can just forget it!She throws the car into drive and PEELS AWAY.INT. GAS STATION MEN'S ROOMSea Bass has his meaty paw wrapped around Lloyd's neck as heslides him up the wall of the toilet stall. SEA BASS First I'm gonna rape you, then I'm gonna kill you. Any last request? LLOYD Um, yeah could you do it the other way around? 59.Sea Bass pushes Lloyd to his knees. Then the trucker stepsback and UNDOES HIS FLY. The sound of the zipper brings agreen color to Lloyd's face.ON THE MEN'S ROOM DOOR - it bursts open and a FLAME-FOOTEDHarry rushes into the bathroom, panic-stricken. In hisdesperation he PLOWS THROUGH THE STALL DOOR KNOCKING SEABASS ON THE HEAD and thrusts his flaming foot into thetoilet,EXTINGUISHING THE FIRE.Harry breathes a DEEP SIGH of relief. Only then does he noticeLLOYD ON HIS KNEES ANDSEA BASS UNCONSCIOUS ON THE FLOOR WITH HIS PANTS UNDONE.Harry has to do a DOUBLE-TAKE for this to sink in. Then helets out an admonishingWHISTLE. HARRY You've got some serious explaining to o, young man. CUT TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTCLOSE UP - of Harry's BURNT SHOE with the toes sticking outon the accelerator. LLOYD Look, Harry, I told you what happened, now drop it. HARRY Sure thing, Lloyd. I promise not to mention another word about you being in a bathroom stall with a six-foot, five-inch trucker with his pants own. LLOYD That's a low blow, man. HARRY Not at that height it's not. LLOYD Listen, bud, if you're trying to imply that I'm that thought look, we're almost in Colorado. 60.LLOYD SQUINTS THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD. A SIGN UP AHEAD SAYS:LAST EXIT IN NEBRASKA -COLORADO STATE LINE - 3 MILES. HARRY I think it's about time we pull over and change seats. I've been driving for nine straight hours I don't have the energy to start a new state.Lloyd nods, and as he pulls off the exit, we CUT TO:CLOSE ON A SIGN - it reads WELCOME TO COLORADO, HOME OF THEROCKY MOUNTAINS. PAN DOWN to reveal a number of POLICEMENstopping and checking cars as they cross the border. AHELICOPTER lands on the side of the road and Detective Dalehops out. He hurries to the COP in charge. DT. DALE Any sign of them yet? COP No, but we're expecting them shortly. A motorist said he spotted a pooch about thirty miles back headed this way.Detective Dale nods, satisfied. CUT TO:EXT. MINI MART - NIGHTESTABLISHING SHOT of a mini mart.INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTThe door opens and Lloyd gets in carrying a bag of Doritosand a soda. He settles into the driver's seat and pulls aBeef Jerky out of his back pocket. LLOYD Hey, I picked you up a Beef Jerky...When he gets no response, he notices that Harry is alreadyfast asleep in the passenger seat. Lloyd shakes his head. LLOYD (CONT'D) Boy, some guys just weren't cut out for life on the road. 61.EXT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - NIGHTLloyd starts the engine and pulls out of the parking lot tothe nearby freeway entrance. As he enters the on-ramp, weZOOM IN on a sign that says: ROUTE 80 - EAST. He's unwittinglyheaded BACK IN THE DIRECTION THEY JUST CAME FROM! DISSOLVE TO:INT. MUTT CUTTS VAN - SUNNY MORNINGIt's bright daylight now. Harry is sleeping peacefully inthe passenger seat while Lloyd sips a coffee. The van hits abump which causes Harry's eyes to flutter open. LLOYD Hey, Mr. Sleepy Head, welcome back. HARRY (groggy) How long have I been out? LLOYD I'd say a good five hours, anyway.Harry yawns and stretches. HARRY Great. We must be getting real close, huh? LLOYD Should be. I've been averaging about ninety miles an hour all night. HARRY Good man. LLOYD Boy, I'll tell you, this is one angerous highway. You wouldn't believe all the road pizza two dead ogs, a couple of rabbits, a snake and some big thing I couldn't even recognize. HARRY That's awful. Did you see them get hit or were they already lying there? LLOYD I hit 'em.Harry rubs his eyes and looks at the passing FLATLANDS. 62. HARRY Funny. I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this. LLOYD I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's some full of shit, huh?They both stare out the window. LLOYD (CONT'D) I must say, Des Moines sure is a pretty little town. HARRY Yeah, it really is. (beat) Wait a minute when did you visit Des Moines? LLOYD Last night. We drove through it. HARRY What are you talking about? You were snoring like a baby when we went through Des Moines.Lloyd shakes his head in amusement, then SNAPS HIS FINGERSin Harry's face. LLOYD (sing-song) Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Rise and shine. (LAUGHS) You were the one who was asleep,numbskull. Here, take a sip of coffee. You're delirious.A confused Harry sips the coffee and checks out the passingterrain. Then something starts to awn on him. Slowly. HARRY Uh, Lloyd, refresh my memory: Doesn't the sun rise in the east and set in the west? LLOYD In our country it does, yes. 63. HARRY Then perchance you can explain to me why the sun is in our face at 7:30 in the morning when we're heading west.Lloyd thinks about this and then looks SICKENED. CUT TO:EXT. TRUCKSTOP - MORNINGThe Mutt Cutts van is parked next to a couple rigs and Harryis sitting beside it on the pavement, a BROKEN man. LLOYD I'm only human, Harry. Anybody can make a mistake.But Harry just sits there, practically catatonic. LLOYD (CONT'D) Come on, man, pull yourself together. HARRY You know, I got half a mind to just jump on the bus to Europe and say goodbye to your ugly mug forever. LLOYD (rolls his eyes) You can't take a bus to Europe, dodo. HARRY Oh yeah? Why not? LLOYD You don't have a passport.Harry lets out a defeated SIGH. LLOYD (CONT'D) Come on, stop being a baby about this. Okay, so we back-tracked a tad. HARRY A tad? Lloyd, you drove almost a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. Now we don't have enough money to get to Aspen, we on't have enough money to get home, we don't have enough to eat, we don't have enough to sleep! 64. LLOYD Well it doesn't do any good having you sitting there on your butt whining about it. If we're gonna get out of this hole, we're gonna have to dig ourselves out.Harry thinks about this. HARRY You know, you're absolutely right, Lloyd.He stands up, brushes off his pants, and starts to walk towardthe highway. LLOYD Where you going? HARRY Home. I'm walking home. LLOYD You can't be serious. HARRY (sarcastic) Why not? We're probably only five miles away.Harry starts resolutely toward the road while Lloyd watches. LLOYD (CALLING OUT) Thanks a lot, Mr. Perfect. Like you never screwed up.Harry suddenly STOPS IN HIS TRACKS and turns back to hisfriend. He seems completely rained. HARRY Look, man... I'm sorry. (beat) I never should have let you talk me into this in the first place. You've got a good reason to goo a beautiful girl's waiting for you. But let's face it, Lloyd, there's nothing waiting for me in Aspen. (beat) There's nothing waiting for me anywhere. 65.Lloyd just stands there, SPEECHLESS, as Harry turns and walksaway. Out of frustration, he BANGS the snout of the car,causing it to BARK. CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYHarry is walking down the highway, his thumb stuck outunenthusiastically. A few cars WHIZ by, the cold wind whippingat his clothes.A station wagon blows by and throws a BAG OF GARBAGE out thewindow. It lands at Harry's feet. EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF HARRY'SFACE - a TEAR slowly rolls down his cheek (like the Indianin the commercial). PAN DOWN to the bag of garbage. We seeit's a BAG OF ONIONS that's ripped open.Suddenly a HEARSE pulls up and stops. It's an ominous-lookingvehicle and Harry hesitates. Then the passenger window rollsdown, revealing a contrite Lloyd at the wheel. LLOYD Got room for one more, if you still want to go to Aspen.Harry looks the hearse over. HARRY Where'd you find this baby? LLOYD Used car dealer. I traded the van for it. Plus I got the guy to throw in fifty bucks for gas money. (beat) Come on, man, what do you say? We still partners?HARRY SMILES AND WE CUT TO:EXT. COLORADO STATE LINE - DAYAn impatient Detective Dale is still staked-out at theColorado border with several other officers. DT. DALE It doesn't make sense. They should've been here hours ago. COP Maybe they're smarter than we thought. 66. DT. DALE How smart can they be? They're riving a goddamn dog!Another COP rushes over holding his walkie-talkie. COP #2 We just got a report that they were spotted about two hours ago heading east near Des Moines on I-80. DT. DALE (incredulous) Des Moines?! Why that's five hundred miles from here! COP #1 Guess they got wind of our welcoming party. DT. DALE We're wasting time. Let's mobilize.Dt. Dale heads for his cruiser while the other Cops follow.As the officers climb into their cars, we CUT TO:INT. HEARSE - DAYLloyd is driving and Harry has his feet out the window. LLOYD Tell me something, Harry. Would you really have kept going home if Ihadn't come back to get you? HARRY Well let me put it this way, Lloyd: Do you remember when we were Cub Scouts and we got lost in the woods uring that blizzard? We huddled together all night, and we made an oath that if we ever got out of there alive we'd never ever leave each other's side again. Do you remember that?Lloyd thinks hard about this. LLOYD We were never Cub Scouts. 67. HARRY Exactly.Just then several COP CARS whiz by them in the oppositedirection with SIRENS BLARING and LIGHTS FLASHING. When Harryglances back at the cop cars, he notices that there's a COFFINin the rear of the vehicle. HARRY (CONT'D) What the hell is this? There's a coffin in the back! LLOYD Relax, it's empty. HARRY I don't give a shit. I'm not driving anywhere with a casket. You know I'm superstitious calm down. We'll dump it off first chance we get.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYHarry and Lloyd are swerving through traffic in the hearse.Ahead of them is a REAL FUNERAL PROCESSION. The lead car isa CADILLAC.INT. CADILLAC (LEAD CAR) - DAY(This is the car right behind the funeral hearse.) A MAN anda WOMAN are arguing. WOMAN I married a cheapskate. MAN Shut your trap, Gerdie. WOMAN I'm so embarrassed. I'll never be able to show my face again. MAN I knew something good would come out of this. WOMAN We could have given him a more ignified burial. 68. MAN Your uncle was a cheap man. Remember what he got us for our twenty-fifth? A friggin' fern. There's no way I'm gonna spend a load to get him planted.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYWhile the couple ARGUES ON, Harry and Lloyd cut in front ofthem. The Man and the Woman on't notice this an soon theENTIRE FUNERAL PROCESSION IS UNWITTINGLYFOLLOWING THE WRONG HEARSE. CUT TO:EXT. PIGGLY WIGGLY SUPERMARKET - DAYHarry and Lloyd pull up to a large green dumpster behind themarket. The procession comes to a halt behind them. The guysget out of the hearse and remove the coffin from the back.Then they unceremoniously HEAVE THE COFFIN INTO THE DUMPSTERAND WIPE THEIR HANDSOFF.ON THE LEAD CAR OF THE PROCESSION - The Woman's jaw ispractically on the floor. WOMAN You son-of-a-bitch! I want a ivorce! CUT TO:QUICK MONTAGE OF THE HEARSE WEAVING IT'S WAY THROUGH THESCENIC ROCKIES AS WE REPRISE 'MARY'S PRAYER' BY DANNY WILSON. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - DAYThe hearse drives past a sign that says ENTERING ASPEN,COLORADO. CUT TO:EXT. DOWNTOWN ASPEN - DAYThe boys stroll down the sidewalk, looking in the windows,studying the passersby, taking in the sights and sounds ofthe ski town. 69. LLOYD Isn't this wonderful? What more could a couple of single guys like us ask for? HARRY How about food and shelter? LLOYD You're so materialistic. (beat) Why don't we get down to business and eliver the briefcase to Mary. Who knows, maybe she'll invite us in for tea and a strumpet or two? HARRY Jolly good idea, chap. And where oes the lovely young lady reside? LLOYD Um... good question.Harry throws Lloyd a concerned look, but then notices a phonebooth next to them. HARRY Well what's her last name? We'll look it up in the phone book. LLOYD Hmmmm... You know, I don't believe I caught that either.Harry's concern grows. HARRY What about the briefcase, Lloyd? There must've been a name on it, right? LLOYD (brightening) Come to think of it, there is. It's engraved right into the leather. HARRY What is it? LLOYD Samsonite spelled just like it sounds. 70.Harry starts flipping through the phone book. Then abruptlyHE STOPS and puts the book down, a DEFEATED look on his face. CUT TO:INT. HEARSE - NIGHTThe car is parked in a parking lot across the street from apicturesque bridge. Harry and Lloyd are shivering in thefront seat as a LOUD, ICY WIND WHIPS though the hearse.They're each spooning something out of a coffee cup andsipping it. HARRY Any soup left? LLOYD A little. Shall we share it? HARRY Please.Lloyd opens a TINY KETCHUP PACKET and squirts half of itinto Harry's cup and the other half into his. They pour afew drops of water in and mix it with their spoons. LLOYD Mmmm mmmm good...Lloyd smiles bravely at Harry. Harry notices something andleans toward him. HARRY Hey, you got something stuck in your front teeth.Lloyd picks a small speck out of his mouth and studies it. LLOYD Hmmm... looks like an old piece of Beef Jerky.HARRY STARES AT IT. THEN: HARRY Wanna split it? LLOYD You're pathetic. Get your own.Loyd puts the floss-meat back in his mouth and chews it.Another gust of wind swirls around them. 71. HARRY I'm freezing my ass off, Lloyd. LLOYD Roll up your window. HARRY It is rolled up. LLOYD Then I guess the damn anti-cold system isn't working. You really should get it fixed if we're gonna live here all winter. HARRY What anti-cold system?Lloyd points to the dash. LLOYD Right here the A/C button. I put it on full blast about an hour ago and, if anything, the car's getting colder.Harry stares at Lloyd and then throws down his cup, disgusted.He opens the car door and starts to climb out. LLOYD (CONT'D) What are you going out there for? HARRY To warm up.EXT. HEARSE - NIGHTHarry gets out and leans against the car with his armscrossed. Lloyd comes from around the other side. LLOYD What are you worrying about now? HARRY I'm worried about how you're gonna survive the pummeling I'm about to give you. LLOYD Huh?Suddenly Harry LUNGES at Lloyd, who takes off around theother side of the car. Harry leaps across the hood, but Lloydmanages to evade his grasp. 72. LLOYD (CONT'D) Harry, calm down! You're acting like a wild animal! HARRY Get over here and take your medicine, Lloyd! LLOYD Sorry, doc, I can't take medicine. I'm a Christian Scientist!Lloyd continues to outrun him around the car. Frustrated,Harry opens the car and PULLS THEBRIEFCASE OUT. LLOYD (CONT'D) What are you doing? HARRY Something I should've done a long time ago. This stupid thing has been the root of our problems all along.Harry starts walking toward the bridge spanning a river. LLOYD Don't do anything foolish, Harry. HARRY Foolish? This is the most sensible thing I've done in years. I'm gonna toss this goddamn curse right into that river.Lloyd starts to follow after Harry. LLOYD You're making a big mistake, Harry! I'll never forgive you for this!Harry keeps marching toward the bridge, determined to disposeof the briefcase. LLOYD (CONT'D) Harry, hold up! Things are gonna get better, I promise! In fact, I thinkI feel another piece of Beef Jerky in my left molar! It'syours, Harry, all yours!Harry stops in his tracks, intrigued. 73. HARRY You're bluffing. LLOYD No I'm not, man look.Lloyd pulls his cheek back, revealing a molar. Harry squintsat it. HARRY That's a filling, you liar!Just then, Lloyd makes a dash at Harry. Harry turns and runs,but Lloyd TACKLES HIM as they reach the bridge. The briefcaseGOES FLYING, and the guys wrestle pitifully with one anotherin the snow, rolling over and over.Finally, Harry manages to get the upper hand. He climbs ontop and CLASPS HIS HANDSAROUND LLOYD'S THROAT. HARRY (CONT'D) I used to have a life! A miserable one, but a life, nonetheless!Suddenly Lloyd's EYES LIGHT UP as he sees something O.S.behind his friend. LLOYD (CHOKED VOICE) Harry, look!Harry turns and HIS EYES LIGHT UP, TOO. He lets go of Lloydas we seeTHEIR POV - THE BRIEFCASE IS LYING BUSTED OPEN ON THE GROUND,REVEALING STACKS ANDSTACKS OF BIG, BEAUTIFUL HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS! CUT TO:EXT. DOWNTOWN ASPEN - NIGHTHarry and Lloyd are hurrying down the sidewalk, clutchingthe briefcase. The city is lit up with millions of tinylights, like a fantasy winter wonderland. LLOYD Okay, here's the plan: We borrow a few bucks just a small loan from the briefcase, and we check into a cheap motel. 74. HARRY Sounds good. LLOYD And we'll keep track of the money we spend with IOUs. HARRY We'll be meticulous right down to the last penny. LLOYD That way, whatever we borrow we can pay back. HARRY Absolutely. We're good for it. LLOYD You know, as soon as we get jobs. HARRY It'll come right out of our first paycheck. CUT TO:INT. ELEGANT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTA tuxedoed Bell Captain, BARNARD, is showing the guys aroundan ENORMOUS AND LUXURIOUS SUITE. The place is big enough tothrow a touchdown bomb in. BARNARD ...This is the Hotel Danbury's Presidential Suite, gentlemen. It's normally reserved for royalty, visiting dignitaries, and illustrious stars of stage and take it.The Bell Captain is a bit taken aback, but pleased. BARNARD (CONT'D) Very good, sir. Are there any bags you'd like sent up? LLOYD Thanks, Barnard, but we'll find our own chicks. BARNARD (peevish) I wasn't talking about ladies. 75. HARRY Oh. Then go ahead and send thim up. What are their names?Barnard SIGHS. BARNARD Sir, I meant your luggage.Harry forces a. embarrassed half-smile. LLOYD Tell you what you can send up, my friend how about some chow?The Bell Captain nods. BARNARD I'll bring you a menu. LLOYD Don't bother. Just order us one of everything.At this, Harry serves Lloyd a reproachful look. HARRY One of everything? Lloyd...Lloyd looks guilty. LLOYD Oh, sorry. (beat) Make that two of everything.Harry smiles at this as Lloyd pulls a wad of HUNDRED DOLLARBILLS out of his pocket. He rips one off and tucks it inBarnard's top pocket. LLOYD (CONT'D) And here you go, Barney. You keep us happy, we'll keep you happy.The Bell Captain, Barnard, is energized by this tip. BARNARD Yes, sir!He bows and leaves the room. Then Lloyd cracks open thebriefcase and inserts a SMALL PIECEOF PAPER. 76. LLOYD (proudly) Our first IOU. Signed and dated. CUT TO:EXT. SWANSON CHALET - NIGHTHelen Swanson is KNOCKING on her step-daughter's bedroomdoor. She's holding a tray with a couple of mugs on it. HELEN Mary? You awake? MARY (o.s.)COME IN...INT. MARY'S BEDROOM - NIGHTMary is sitting in a chair looking sadly out the Frenchwindows when Helen ENTERS. HELEN I brought you some tea. I thought it might help you relax.Mary smiles. MARY Thank you.She takes a mug, sips, and pulls back. MARY (CONT'D) Yech! What's in this, whiskey? HELEN Uh, sorry... that one's mine.Helen grabs the mug from Mary and hands her the other one. HELEN (CONT'D) Feeling any better, honey?Mary can't take her eyes from the window. MARY Just knowing that Melvin's out there, being held by God knows who... (fighting back tears) It's all my fault. I should've been there. 77. HELEN Bullshit. You can't blame yourself for this. If you'd been there they would've taken you, too.Helen pulls out a joint and torches it up. She takes a hit. MARY Maybe we should just pay them the money again and get this thing overwith. HELEN Now Mary, everything that can be done is being done. You've got to stop torturing yourself. MARY What am I supposed to do? Go about my life as if everything were fine? HELEN That's exactly what you should do. Get the hell out more, go skiing, socialize. Don't you see, honey? We can't let on that anything is wrong. If the press or authorities get wind of this, the kidnappers might panic. (beat) Who knows what they'd do to poor Melvin then?AS MARY THINKS ABOUT THIS, WE CUT TO:EXT. HOTEL DANBURY - DAYThe Guys pull up to the front of the hotel in the hearse.Several HOTEL EMPLOYEES rush to help them. Harry and Lloydget out wearing OVERLY TRENDY SKI GARB, complete with furboots, NASA designed goggles, and splashy fluorescent colorseverywhere. The Employees all grab the shopping bags andthen line up as Lloyd TIPS THEM ALL handsomely.INT. BEDROOM - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - NIGHTThe huge beds are covered in boxes and bags of new goodies.Lloyd is going through it all. Harry is sitting out on thebalcony with his feet up on the railing, checking out themountain view. 78. HARRY Oh god, it's really true. Last night I thought I might've been dreaming. LLOYD It's no dream, Har. We finally cracked the big time. HARRY And it was so simple. All it took was somebody else's money.Harry LIGHTS A CIGAR WITH A TWENTY DOLLAR BILL, takes a heartypuff, andEXHALES. HARRY (CONT'D) You know, Lloyd, I think you might've gone a little overboard with the spending today.He blows out the twenty and tosses it off the balcony. LLOYD What's the big deal? We're gonna pay it all back anyway, right? HARRY Sure, but do you really think you needed to buy those two surfboards? LLOYD Surfboards? I thought those were beginner's skis.This suddenly makes sense to Harry. HARRY Ahhh. I was wondering why you had those bindings put on them.Lloyd opens a box and holds up a SCANTY NEGLIGEE. LLOYD Where'd this come from? HARRY (sheepishly) I bought it. LLOYD What for? 79. HARRY I like the feel of it against my skin... (defensive) ...I mean, you know, when a woman's wearing it.Lloyd inspects it more closely. LLOYD Harry, how many women do you know who wear a size XXL? HARRY Look, leave me alone. I'm rich now. I'm supposed to have a few eccentricities.There's a KNOCK on the door. LLOYD Enter, parlez vous!The Bell Captain, Barnard, ENTERS with a champagne bucketand a newspaper under his arm. BARNARD I brought you your newspaper and some champagne, gentlemen. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to have the, um, label you requested.Lloyd examines the champagne's label and frowns. LLOYD All out of Boone's Farm, huh? BARNARD You have a rapier wit, sir. I took the liberty of bringing a comparable substitute: Dom Perignon. LLOYD Guess it'll have to do, slugger, eh?Lloyd smiles and over tips him. BARNARD Thank you so much, sir.He puts the tray down, hands Lloyd the newspaper, and headsfor the door. 80. LLOYD Oh, one more thing: You can dispense with the 'sir' crap. Let's face it, Barney, we're all from the same mold. (winks) We just have a little more dough than you right now.Barnard smiles and EXITS. Harry comes back in the room. Hepicks up a champagne glass and flicks it with his finger,sending out a resonant RING. HARRY Cocktail hour has commenced!He starts to open the champagne bottle as Lloyd beginsthumbing through the newspaper. HARRY (CONT'D) Hey, later on what do you say we...?He notices that Lloyd's mouth has dropped open at somethinghe's found in the paper. HARRY (CONT'D) Lloyd... you okay? LLOYD (dumbstruck) Harry, it's her. HARRY Who? LLOYD Mary with the briefcase. This is her...He shoves the newspaper at Harry.CLOSE ON THE HEADLINE - it reads: SWANSONS TO HOSTPRESERVATION GALA TONIGHT; CITY'S ELITE EXPECTED. Underneaththis is a photograph of Mary with her parents. LLOYD (CONT'D) Mary Swanson... HARRY Come on, Cinderella, it's time to get you ready for the ball...Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" plays over a...MONTAGE OF HARRY AND LLOYD'S GLAMOUR MAKE-OVER: 81.-The boys are in a beauty parlor getting their hair shampooed.-Harry and Lloyd sit beneath old-fashioned hair dryers. TheATTENDANTS lift the dryers from their heads, revealing bothguys' hair in curlers.-Lloyd's getting shaved by an ATTENDANT with a straight-razor.Suddenly Lloyd grabs his neckas if he's been nicked. BLOOD SQUIRTS OUT from between hisfingers. The other CUSTOMERS stare in horror at this. LloydLAUGHS and shows everyone a SQUEEZE KETCHUP BOTTLE hidden inhis hand. Only Harry and Lloyd seem to find this joke amusing.-We see them getting their nose hairs clipped. PAN DOWN tothe floor to reveal a PILE OFNOSE HAIR CLIPPINGS.-Then a shot of a MAN next to them getting a pedicure. PANOVER to Lloyd's bare feet he has toe nails like HowardHughes. Sparks are flying as an ATTENDANT wearing safetygoggles tries to sand down Lloyd's toenails with an electricsander.-Harry is lying on his stomach with his shirt off, getting amassage from a beautiful ORIENTAL MASSEUSE. He pulls a hundreddollar bill from under his towel, hands it to her, andWHISPERS in her ear. She smiles.-Next we see the Oriental Masseuse lying on her stomach withher shirt off, while Harry happily massages her back.-The guys are in an expensive haberdashery. Harry comes outof the dressing room in a very elegant BLACK TUXEDO. Hecouldn't look any more suave. The SALEMAN nods, impressed,but Lloyd shakes his head no and Harry goes back in.-Harry reappears in another stylish WHITE TUXEDO. The Salesmanlooks on hopefully, but Lloyd again disapproves.-This time Harry comes out in a JUNIOR-PROM-LIKE SKY-BLUETUXEDO, complete with TACKY FRILLS. The Salesman lookssickened as Lloyd give Harry the thumbs up.PAN ACROSS THE STREET from the haberdashery - an apprehensiveJ.P. Shay is sitting in a parked car, WATCHING HARRY ANDLLOYD. DISSOLVE TO: 82.EXT. ASPEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY - NIGHTThrongs of GUESTS in black-tie and elegant gowns are enteringthe building. Suddenly the hearse pulls up with Harry andLloyd BUMPER SURFING BEHIND IT. Harry's wearing his bluetuxedo. Lloyd's tux isn't any better it's pumpkin orange.(THEY'VE GOT MATCHING TOP HATS AND CANES.) When the hearsestops, the boys hand the driver Barnard a couple hundreddollars. LLOYD Thanks for the lift, Barney.INT. ASPEN PRESERVATION SOCIETYNicholas Andre is greeting people at the door. However, whenHarry and Lloyd try to enter, he stops them and gives themthe once over. ANDRE Excuse me, gentlemen, but this is a five-hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner.Harry and Lloyd look at each other and shrug. Then Lloydtakes out a WAD OF BILLS and peelsoff TEN HUNDREDS, much to the amazement of Andre. LLOYD This should cover a couple plates. HARRY I'm kind of hungry, Lloyd. What if we want seconds?Lloyd thinks about this. Then he peels off another thou. LLOYD Put us down for four plates, my good man.They ENTER the party. As Andre watches them go, his associateJ.P. Shay comes up beside him, an alarmed look on his face. J.P. SHAY (WHISPERING) Jesus Christ, boss... it's them.BACK ON HARRY AND LLOYD - the guys make their way throughthe affluent crowd. LLOYD I'm getting nervous, Harry. 83. HARRY relax, Lloyd. These people are just like you and me. LLOYD What are you talking about? They're educated, well-bred, charming, and sophisticated. HARRY So what? We can be sophistica holy shit, would you look at the fun bags on that hose hound.He points out a busty BLONDE BOMBSHELL entering the party.Lloyd rolls his eyes. LLOYD Don't do this to me, Harry. I'm already a wreck. What if Mary oesn't like me? HARRY Look, let's just go saddle up to the bar and down a couple bowls of loudmouth soup. A little booze'll bring back that old Lloyd Christmas over-confidence.The guys stand out at the glittering social scene as theymake their way to the bar. LLOYD (to BARTENDER) Two martinis, straight up.As Harry and Lloyd silently take in the party, a BEAUTIFULRED HEAD reaches between them for a cocktail napkin, thenwalks away. LLOYD (CONT'D) Shut up, Harry. HARRY I didn't say anything. LLOYD Yeah, well I know what you were gonna say and I'm telling you to shut up in advance. HARRY How do you know what I was gonna say? 84. LLOYD I read you like a book. HARRY Okay, if you read me like a book then what was I gonna say? LLOYD You were gonna say: (in Harry's looped VOICE) 'That's one fiery bush I wouldn't mind roasting my weenie in.'Harry raises his eyebrows, IMPRESSED. LLOYD (CONT'D) And I would say 'shut up', because this is our chance to get in with the rich and powerful and you don't ingratiate yourself to the kind of people by acting like Ron Jeremy on Spanish Fly.The Bartender delivers their martinis as we hear the o.s.CLINKING of a glass. The guys turns tosee Nicholas Andre standing at a podium. Next to him is aLARGE, COVERED DISPLAY. On his other side are Karl andElizabeth Swanson. ANDRE If I could have your attention, please...The crowd QUIETS. ANDRE (CONT'D) I'd like to thank you all for coming to this very special event. As youKNOW, THE ASPEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY -founded and chiefly funded by our great benefactors, Karland Helen Swanson - is the world's foremost efender ofendangered species. OurSPRAWLING GROUNDS ARE HOME TO TWENTY-three separate varieties of animals that are currently listedon the United Nation's charter of protected species. Tonight,we are deeply honored to have Mr. Karl Swanson welcome ourtwenty-fourth. 85.The crowd CLAPS as Mr. Swanson takes Andre's place at thepodium. MR. SWANSON Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Icelandic Snow Owl.He pulls the cover off, revealing TWO MAJESTIC, FLUFFY WHITEOWLS IN A CAGE. Everyone OOHS and AHHS. MR. SWANSON (CONT'D) These magnificent specimens wereRESCUED RECENTLY, CULMINATING A FIVE-year, two-million-dollar effort on our part. Together, theyconstitute one-seventh of the snow owl population left onthe planet.ON ANDRE - he's nervously eyeing Harry and Lloyd. He lookspale. MR. SWANSON Here these lovely birds will be allowed to breed in a natural but protected habitat. And, God willing, with your help and that of the Society's, we will see these wonderful creatures flourish once more.More APPLAUSE. MR. SWANSON (CONT'D) Again, thank you, and enjoy your evening. Oh, and feel free to take a closer look at our new friends here. Enjoy.The crowd APPLAUDS and begins to mingle again. Lloyd turnsback to the Bartender and holds up his empty glass. LLOYD Two more, please.Harry stares at Lloyd with concern. HARRY Lloyd, I've never seen you this uptight. You've gotta chill out. LLOYD I can't help it. This is a very important night for me. (MORE) 86. LLOYD (CONT'D) (beat) Harry, have you ever wondered why you and I never have long-term girlfriends? HARRY What are you talking about? I went out with Fraida Felcher for two and a half weeks. LLOYD That was a fluke. (beat) The reason we never have long-term girlfriends is because of one thing: We're afraid of the C word. HARRY That's crazy. We live for the C word. LLOYD I'm talking bout commitment. HARRY (beat) Oh. LLOYD Well I'm ready for commitment, Harry. The first time I laid eyes on Mary Swanson, I knew she was the one. (beat) Some things you feel in your heart, other things you feel in your groin. This girl makes me feel it all in the heart.Suddenly Lloyd notices something across the room.HIS POV - A BEGUILING MARY SWANSON IS TALKING WITH A COUPLEOF GUESTS. SHE'S WEARING Aspectacular black cocktail dress.Lloyd quickly turns toward the bar. LLOYD (CONT'D) Oh shit, there she is. 87. HARRY (checking her out) Wow. You weren't kidding, Lloyd. She's an angel. (beat) Well, what are you waiting for? Get over there and talk to her. LLOYD She's gonna think I'm some kind of psycho when she realizes how far I came just to see her. HARRY You have her briefcase she's gonna be thrilled to see you. LLOYD And then what? She'll take it back and that'll be it. I'm a nobody.Harry thinks about this a moment. HARRY Look, man, you just drove two thousand miles to see this girl. Don't quit on the last fifty feet. LLOYD (brightening) Wait a second, I have an idea. You go over and introduce yourself. That way you can build me up so when I come along I won't have to brag about myself. Tell her I'm good-looking and I'm rich and I have a rapist's wit. HARRY I can't tell her you're good looking, Lloyd she's got eyes.Lloyd takes a big gulp of his new martini. LLOYD Please Harry, I'm appealing to you as one loser to another. Just build me up and then give me a signal to come over. Please.Harry SIGHS. 88. HARRY All right. But you're gonna owe me a big one for this.Harry straightens his polka-dot bow-tie, then APPROACHESMary, who is now standing alone, admiring the owls. HARRY (CONT'D) Nice set of hooters you got there.Mary turns to Harry, stunned. MARY I beg your pardon? HARRY The owls. They're beautiful. MARY Oh. Yeah. (beat) Are you a bird lover? HARRY Well, I used to have a parakeet, but my main area of expertise is canines that's dogs to the layperson.She smiles at this. MARY Thanks. I love dogs, too. So howare you involved with them? HARRY Oh, I've trained them, bathed them, clipped them; I've even bred them. MARY Really? Any unusual breeding? HARRY Nah, mostly just doggie-style. But one time we successfully mated a Bulldog and a Shitzu. MARY Really? That's weird. HARRY Yeah. We called it a Bullshit. (breaks out LAUGHING) Just a little breeder joke. 89.She seems strangely charmed by this. HARRY (CONT'D) Anyway, the real reason I came over is because I want to introduce you to a friend of mine.Just then, Mary's stepmother approaches. She's holding amartini and looking a little sloshed. HELEN Mary, I don't believe I've met your friend. MARY Actually, we haven't been introduced yet. (holds out hand) I'm Mary Swanson, and this is my stepmother, Helen. HARRY Harry Dunne. Pleasure meeting you both. HELEN I saw you come in earlier, Mr. Dunne. I was hoping we'd get a chance to meet. HARRY (taken aback) You were? HELEN That tuxedo I love a man with a sense of humor. So does Mary.Mary shoots Helen a look, then smiles at Harry. HARRY Really?For a moment, he's caught up in Mary's eyes, but then managesto snap out of it. HARRY (CONT'D) Anyway, about my friend you doing anything tomorrow, Mr. Dunne? Because I believe Mary's looking for somebody to hit the slopes with. Whuh? MARY Helen, you're embarrassing me. 90. HELEN Well you are, aren't you? (to Harry) Poor girl doesn't get out enough. So what do you say, Harry? Are you available?Harry thinks about this, then looks across the room at ahopeful Lloyd. HARRY Oh, I don't know. You see, my friend your friends for one day. You and Mary will have a ball.Mary's captivating eyes meet his, waiting for an answer. HARRY (CONT'D) Um... well... I don't know. You see, the thing is... sure.ON LLOYD - he waits impatiently at the bar as Harry returns. LLOYD How come you didn't call me over? HARRY Relax, you're golden. I got you a ate with her tomorrow.Lloyd falls back against the bar and grabs his chest. He'sSPEECHLESS. LLOYD Wha... you... I... it's... (smiles) I love you, man. I love you!Lloyd clamps an embarrassed Harry in a TIGHT EMBRACE. HARRY Okay, get a grip, Lloyd. You're making a scene.Lloyd steps back elated. LLOYD This calls for a toast!He grabs a bottle of champagne out of a bucket and starts toopen it. 91. LLOYD (CONT'D) You're gonna be my best man, Har, I mean it. It was always between you and my future wife's brother, but you just earned a seat at the head table, pal.Suddenly the CORK SHOOTS OUT OF THE CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE ANDZIPS ACROSSTHE ROOM LIKE A BULLET DIRECTLY TOWARD ONE OF THE NOW EVENWIDER-EYED OWLS. In quick succession we hear a BOK!, a SQUAWK!,and a THUMP!A HUSH falls over the entire party as everyone turns theirstunned attention to the cage.THEIR POV - FEATHERS ARE FLOATING IN THE AIR THROUGHOUT THECAGE, AND ONE OF THE ICELANDIC SNOWOwls LIES ON ITS BACK, its species now one bird closer toextinction.Harry and Lloyd look on in horror. Harry takes the smokingchampagne bottle from Lloyd and places it on the bar. HARRY (under breath) I think we've done enough hobnobbing, Lloyd.The guys LOWER THEIR HEADS and slink out of the room beforeanyone can figure out what happened anyone except forNicholas Andre, that is; we PAN to show that he's beenstanding nearby watching their every move. And he doesn'tlook very happy. CUT TO:INT. AASPEN APARTMENT - NIGHTNicholas Andre is pacing the room with a drink in his handwhile J.P. Shay looks on nervously. J.P. SHAY Maybe it was just a coincidence. ANDRE Don't be stupid. It's a message, plain and simple: We killed their bird, now they killed ours. 92. J.P. SHAY But how could anybody off a bird with a cork? ANDRE These guys arent' just anybody. They're good. Look what they did to Mental. He was the best, and yet he fell right into their web. J.P. SHAY But the bastards already got our money. What the hell more could they want?Andre runs his fingers through his hair. ANDRE (at wit's end) I don't know, god damn it! CUT TO:INT. BEDROOM - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - THE NEXT MORNINGA jubilant Lloyd is fixing his hair in the mirror. In theb.g., Harry is putting on his new ski clothes including apair of thermal tights. LLOYD Mrs. Christmas... Mary Christmas... Mrs. Mary Christmas. Youknow, it has kind of a ring to it, oesn't it, Har? HARRY Sounds nice, Lloyd, but don't you think you may be jumping the gun a little? I mean, who knows, when you get to know her, you may find out she's not your type. LLOYD Impossible. I know my type when I see it. Now let me get this straight, she wants me to meet her at the Avalanche Bar and Grill on Main Street? HARRY That's what she said. Ten o'clock sharp.This is when Lloyd notices Harry's get-up. 93. LLOYD Time out. Where are going ressed like that. HARRY I, uh, thought while you were making your love connection I'd try my luck on the slopes. LLOYD You mean you're gonna go out in public dressed in tights? HARRY These aren't tights. They're fashionable Euro-trash ski trousers. LLOYD But you can see the outline of your who-who.Harry looks down at his crotch. HARRY Really? LLOYD Turn sideways.Harry turns his profile against the window. LLOYD (CONT'D) Actually, it's just a tiny little lump. No one will ever notice. HARRY You're right. I can't go out dressed like this. CUT TO:EXT. ASPEN BASE LODGE - DAYESTABLISHING SHOT of the building.INT. ASPEN BASE LODGEPeople are putting their boots on and their skis are linedup on the wall behind them. Mary is waiting by the fireplacein an incredibly sexy snowsuit. 94.Suddenly Harry appears in the room, dressed ridiculously. Ashe begins to clumsily make his way through the lodge towardMary, we see that he ALREADY HAS HIS SKIS ON. He kicks overa row of skis and gets glares from all sides. Finally hereaches her, OUT OF BREATH. HARRY Sorry I'm late. It's a bitch driving a clutch with these things.EXT. CHAIR LIFT - DAYHarry and Mary are at the front of the lift line. The coupleahead of them get on a chair, and then they shuffle intoposition. Harry crouches nervously, waiting for the chair.The chair swings around, comes up behind them, and makes asmooth pick up of Mary, that is. An embarrassed Harry isSTILL IN THE CROUCHING POSITION, having missed the ride.Mary looks back at him, confused. Suddenly he pretends to bestretching. HARRY (CALLING OUT) You take the first run alone. I'm gonna loosen up down here. CUT TO:INT. AVALANCHE BAR & GRILL - DAYLloyd ENTERS the bar as the WAITERS are setting up for theday. WAITER I'm sorry, we don't open until eleven.This is disconcerting news to Lloyd. LLOYD I'm meeting someone. Mind if I wait at the bar?The Waiter shrugs and Lloyd sits down at the empty bar. CUT TO:EXT. CHAIR LIFT - DAYHarry and Mary are now sitting together on a chair as itrises higher and higher toward the imposing mountain top.Harry holds onto the chair's frame nervously. MARY Beautiful day, huh, Harry? 95. HARRY Glorious.Mary takes a DEEP BREATH. MARY God, it feels so good to get up here. I haven't been outdoors much in the last couple of weeks. HARRY Why not? MARY (evasive) There's been... family problems. I on't want to bore you with them. HARRY Thanks.He looks mindlessly off in the distance. Then Harry noticesa PATCH OF FROST on the chair lift bar. HARRY (CONT'D) Oh, look... frost.He licks it and his TONGUE IMMEDIATELY FUSES WITH THE FROZENMETAL. He tugs a few times, but it won't budge. MARY Are you okay? HARRY (lisping) Sure. I do this all the time... CUT TO:EXT. MOUNTAIN TOP - DAYAs Mary and Harry arrive at the top of the lift, Marydisembarks but Harry stays on. HARRY (lisping) See ya at the bottom...Harry and the chair lift swing around and start heading downthe hill. CUT TO: 96.EXT. BOTTOM OF MOUNTAIN - DAYThe chair lift comes back around with Harry still sitting onit, stuck to the bar. Two LITTLE KIDS climb on with him. HARRY (lisping) Hi. (off their looks) Say, kids, you wouldn't happen to have a cup of warm water, would you?The two kids just stare at him. CUT TO:INT. AVALANCHE BAR & GRILL - AFTERNOONA despondent Lloyd's got a couple of empties in front of himnow. The bar is open and there are a few CUSTOMERS sprinkledabout. Lloyd takes a sip of his drink and looks up at theclock on the wall. It's 12:30.We see a pair of beautiful legs slide onto the stool next tohim. PAN OVER to reveal that it's the Athletic Beauty thatHarry had tried to pick up at the truck stop. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Hi.Lloyd GRUNTS a hello. ATHLETIC BEAUTY (CONT'D) Bad day, huh?Lloyd GRUNTS once more. ATHLETIC BEAUTY (CONT'D) (big smile) well don't worry, Mercury's supposed to be coming out or retrograde tonight. Things will get better.AS LLOYD GRUNTS AGAIN, WE CUT TO:EXT. BASE LODGE - AFTERNOONMary gracefully carves her way to the bottom of the hill andstops with a snow-spraying flourish. She looks around theoutdoor patio for Harry. She spots something and does a DOUBLE-TAKE. 97.MARY'S POV - HARRY IS SITTING AT A TABLE, STILL ATTACHED TOTHE CHAIR LIFT (WHICHhas been removed from the cable). He's drinking a cup ofcoffee and trying to act nonchalant, espite the gawking ofthe other SKIERS. There's a MIME performing in the b.g.BACK TO SCENE MARY My god. Harry, are you okay? HARRY (lisping) I'm fine, I'm fine. It'll come off. CUT TO:CLOSE UP of Harry's head through a RIFLE SCOPE. REVERSE ANGLEto reveal J.P. Shay a few hundred feet up the hill with ahigh-powered rifle trained on Harry. SHAY You're luck just ran out, pal.As his trigger finger TWITCHES with anticipation, we goBACK TO SCENE MARY This is silly. Let me help you...Mary gets up and stands behind Harry. He MOANS nervously.She grabs his head in both hands and starts pulling it awayfrom the bar. We see HARRY'S TONGUE STRETCH RIDICULOUSLY...FIVE INCHES... SIX... THEN EIGHT. Harry GROANS in pain. Suddenly,his TONGUE COMES UNDONE and Harry and Mary fall backwardsout of the path of J.P. Shay's bullet as it WHIZZES BY. Wehear the Mime in the b.g. CRY OUT in pain: MIME GODDAMN IT! WHAT THE FUCK?!The poor Mime holds his bleeding hand and retreats nervouslyinto the lodge as the CROWD BOOS him. CUT TO:INT. AVALANCHE BAR & GRILL - AFTERNOONLloyd's now swimming in despair, as the Athletic BeautyRAMBLES ON beside him. 98. ATHLETIC BEAUTY ...Anyway, after my boyfriend backed into my garage for the third time, I said to myself, 'Run, Cathy, run for your life before he kills you both'. Then you know what the klutz does and to be perfectly honest, I on't really care. (beat) Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not very good company today. I'll say. (beat) I have an idea. Why don't you tell me a little about yourself. LLOYD Maybe some other time.Lloyd motions for the BARTENDER. LLOYD (CONT'D) Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know a Mary Swanson, would you? BARTENDER Sure. Her family comes in here all the time. LLOYD Do you know where she lives? BARTENDER Yeah, they got that big place up on Alpine Drive. CUT TO:EXT. SWANSON CHALET - LATE AFTERNOONThe hearse pulls up to the house and stops.INT. HEARSE MARY I've got to tell you, today was really just what I needed. Thanks a lot, Harry. HARRY My pleasure, Mary.She beams and gives him a KISS on the cheek. 99. MARY So you'll pick me up tonight at 7:45? HARRY Better make it quarter to eight. I've got a few things to take care of first.Harry watches, lovestruck, as Mary gets out of the car andwalks toward the house. HARRY (CONT'D) (to himself) Mary Dunne... Mrs. Mary Dunne... Got a nice ring to it.We PAN from the hearse to some nearby bushes, where we see aSHATTERED LLOYDWATCHING ALL THIS IN DISBELIEF. LLOYD Some best man. DISSOLVE TO:MONTAGE of Lloyd walking through the hills of Aspen, totallyBUMMED OUT. DISSOLVE TO:INT. BEDROOM - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - EVENINGLloyd is sitting forlornly on the bed while Harry feignssurprise at what he's just heard. HARRY It doesn't make any sense, Lloyd. She told me ten o'clock sharp. Are you sure you went to the right bar? LLOYD Believe me, it was the right place. (SIGHS) I don't know, Har, maybe she just had second thoughts. HARRY I have a hard time believing that, Lloyd. The girl said she couldn't wait to see you again.Harry paces back and forth when suddenly SOMETHING OCCURESTO HIM. 100. HARRY (CONT'D) Wait a minute... LLOYD What? HARRY It just occurred to me. She must've meant ten o'clock at night. LLOYD (brightening) Do ya think...? HARRY Of course! Why would she have you meet her at a bar at ten in the morning? LLOYD (shrugging) I just figured she was a raging alcoholic.Harry BARKS OUT A LAUGH at their stupidity. HARRY Boy, aren't we a couple of beauties? LLOYD I knew there was an explanation. And here I thought she was standing me up. HARRY That'll teach you to jump to conclusions. (beat) Anyway, since you have your night allplanned, I think I'll run out and catch a flick.As Harry walks into the closet to change, Lloyd clenches hisfist and glares after him. Then he regains his composure andmoves to the bar. LLOYD Will you join me in a good luck toast before you head out? 101. HARRY (o.s.) Sure thing, pal. Whatever you think will help your chances.Lloyd BITES HIS LIP at this. He fills two mugs with coffeeand throws a splash of Bailey's in each. He check to makesure Harry is still in the closet, then pulls out a BOX OFEX-LAX.LLOYD DUMPS THE ENTIRE PACK INTO ONE MUG AND MIXES IT IN.WHEN HARRY COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET DRESSED IN A NEW SUIT ANDTIE, LLOYD DOES A DOUBLE-take. LLOYD Pretty snazzed out for a movie, aren't you? HARRY Uh... it's for mature audiences. I on't wanna chance getting turned away at the door. LLOYD I see.Lloyd hands him the mug with the Ex-Lax. Then he lifts hisown glass. LLOYD (CONT'D) To my friend Harry the matchmaker.Harry feels a pang of guilt but drinks up anyway. HARRY Mmmmm...He GULPS DOWN THE DRINK. CUT TO:INT. HEARSE - NIGHTHarry's driving along, WHISTLING happily to himself inanticipation of the night. Suddenly we hear a LOW, INTESTINALRUMBLE. He reacts and rubs his stomach. 102.EXT. SWANSON CHALET - NIGHTThe hearse parks on the street and Harry gets out. He'swalking up the steps to the house when we hear more GASEOUSTHUNDER from his stomach. Harry stops in his tracks, getshis insides under control, and continues to the front porch,where he RINGS the bell.Mary answers the door, fiddling with her earrings. MARY Hi. Come on in.INT. SWANSON CHALETHarry follows her inside. MARY Make yourself at home. I'm almost ready. Just give me one more minute.As she disappears down a hallway, we hear Harry's UPSETSTOMACH again. He notices a bathroom off the hallway andrushes inside.INT. BATHROOMHOLD ON Harry's face as he quickly pulls his pants down andnestles onto the throne. He lets out a SIGH OF RELIEF as hedoes his business, then leans over and SLIDES OPEN THE WINDOWto air the room out. He's still glued to the toilet when hehears a KNOCK on the door. MARY (o.s.) Are you in there, Harry? HARRY (nervously) Be right out. MARY (o.s.) I hope you're not using the toilet. It's broken.ZOOM IN TIGHT on Harry's face - his EYES GO WIDE and a visibleSWEAT breaks out on his forehead. HARRY Huh? 103. MARY (o.s.) It doesn't flush. HARRY Um, no, I was just... shaving.EXT. HALLWAYA confused Mary is standing outside the bathroom door. MARY Shaving? HARRY (o.s.) Yeah! I was running a little late. Thought this would save time. MARY Okay. Well I'll be in the living room whenever you're ready.INT. BATHROOMHarry's got his pants back on and is lifting the lid off thetoilet tank. He starts tinkering with a few valves. HARRY (under breath) Come on, flush, you bastard...EXT. LIVING ROOM - SWANSON CHALET - NIGHTMary's sitting patiently on the couch with her legs crossed.She looks at her watch, then flips on the TV.ON THE TUBE - the news is on. A WOMAN REPORTER is addressingthe CAMERA gravely: REPORTER We'll be back in a minute with the story of the blind Indiana boy who was duped into buying a dead parakeet.We see Billy the blind boy from apartment 4-C sitting inhis wheelchair, holding up Petey the parakeet with its headScotch taped on its body. BLIND BOY ...I thought he was real quiet... 104.The Reporter shakes her head and they go to a commercial.Mary SHIVERS at this and turns off the television. Suddenlythe DOORBELL RINGS. She gets up and opens the front door.HER POV - a dapper Lloyd is standing there in his new Aspen-chic clothes. MARY Yes...? LLOYD Hi. (beat) Don't you remember me? MARY Um... I'm not really... LLOYD South Bend. I drove you to the airport last week. MARY (dawning on her) Oh my god. Lloyd, right?Lloyd is thrilled at this. LLOYD You remembered. MARY What are you doing in Aspen? LLOYD I brought you your briefcase You left it at the airport so I picked it up for you.Mary's MOUTH DROPS OPEN. MARY You're the one who took my briefcase? LLOYD Yeah, it's back at my hotel room. Come on, let's take a ride. I'll give it to you.Mary is torn between getting her briefcase and waiting forHarry. MARY Wait right here. 105.She goes to the bathroom door. Inside we hear the LOUDCLANKING of metal against metal. MARY (CONT'D) Harry, what are you doing in there?INT. BATHROOMHarry's got the eintire toilet completely DISASSEMBLED now.Various pieces of the commode litter the floor, includingthe big plastic float ball. He's on his knees tinkering withsome pipes coming out of the wall. HARRY Uh... just cleaning my teeth. Give me a minute, Mary, I'll be right with you. MARY (o.s.) Sorry, but something important's come up and I have to run out. It's sort of an emergency. I'll explain later. HARRY But Mary -- MARY (o.s.) --I'm really sorry, Harry. I promise we'll do this another time.Harry hears her FOOTSTEPS echo down the hallway and then thefront DOOR CLOSING. Harry slumps against the sink, defeated. HARRY Great... CUT TO:INT. MARY'S JAGUAR - NIGHTLloyd is in the passenger seat, wearing a subtle, SATISFIEDSMILE. An anxious looking Mary is at the wheel.EXT. HOTEL DANBURY - NIGHTThe Jaguar pulls up in front of the hotel. As Lloyd and Maryget out, we PAN OVER to reveal that they were being followedby Nicholas Andre and J.P. Shay in a Mercedes. 106.INT. ANDRE'S MERCEDESAndre pulls a PISTOL from beneath his seat and slips it intohis coat. ANDRE They're mine...INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITEThe door opens and Lloyd and Mary ENTER. LLOYD ..So anyway, as soon as I got to town I tried to look you up but I idn't know your last name.He leads her to the closed BRIEFCASE which is sitting on thebed. MARY I don't believe it. You really have it. LLOYD 'Course I have it. When Lloyd Christmas drives a woman to the airport, he makes sure she gets all her luggage, no matter what he has too.Mary looks at Lloyd and smiles. MARY This is incredible. You mean to say you drove two thousand miles just for me? LLOYD Well... no... I mean, you know, there were other reasons... (beat) Actually, yeah, I guess I did.She can't believe her ears. MARY That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard. 107.He drops his head and Mary leans over and kisses him on thecheek. CUT TO:INT. HEARSE - NIGHTA sullen Harry is driving back to the hotel. HARRY (MUMBLING to himself) It's all Kharma, Harry. You screw your best friend over and it's gonna come back to haunt you, plain and simple... CUT TO:INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITECLOSE ON LLOYD'S FACE - he's starry-eyed in love as he spillshis guts. LLOYD Look, Mary, I know this may seem a little sudden but I've given it a lot of thought: You're the woman I've been waiting for my whole life, and I'm not ashamed to admit it -- (holds up his hand) --Please, let me finish. (DEEP BREATH) I'm crazy about you. I've never felt this way about anyone. You make it so easy for me to tell you my innermost desires. (NERVOUS LAUGH) Listen to me, I feel like a schoolboy again. (beat) A schoolboy who desperately wants to make sweet, sweet love to you.Suddenly we hear TOILET FLUSHING O.S.REVERSE ANGLE REVEALS that Lloyd has been talking to an EMPTYCHAIR. The bathroom oor opens and Mary comes out. She looksaround, expecting to see someone else. MARY Oh... I thought I heard you talking to someone. 108.Lloyd is flustered. He swallows hard. It's the moment oftruth. LLOYD Mary... (BLURTING OUT) I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy. MARY (taken aback) Maybe I should be going now. LLOYD No, that's not what Imeant. I meant... I really like you, Mary. I like you a lot.She smiles at this. LLOYD (CONT'D) I'm gonna ask you something flat out and I want you to answer me honestly: What do you think the chances are of a girl like you and a guy like me ending up together?Mary is obviously thrown by this question. MARY Lloyd, that's difficult to say. Imean we hardly -- LLOYD --I asked you to be honest, Mary. MARY But Lloyd, I really can't -- LLOYD --Come on, give it to me straight. I rove a long way to see you, the least you can do is level with me. What are my chances? MARY Not good.BEAT LLOYD You mean not good, like one out of a hundred? 109. MARY I'd say more like one out of a million.BEAT LLOYD (Duh) So you're telling me there's a chance?Just then, there's a KNOCK at the door. When Lloyd opens it,he's face to face with Nicholas Andre. MARY Nicholas... what are you doing here? ANDRE I've been looking for you, Mary.I've got some interesting news about your husband.Lloyd looks at MAry, devastated. LLOYD Husband? ANDRE Aren't you two going to invite me in?Lloyd and Mary hear a CLICK and turn to see Andre POINTING AGUN at them. Andre steps into the room, and we CUT TO:INT. HOTEL DANBURY - LOBBY - NIGHTAs Harry mopes through the lobby, we hear someone CALL OUT: WOMAN'S VOICE (o.s.) Hey!Harry turns to see the Athletic Beauty approaching. HARRY You...? What are you doing here? CUT TO:INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITENicholas Andre has his gun pointed at a stunned Lloyd andMary. 110. ANDRE Well at least you two got to say your goodbyes. LLOYD Who are you? ANDRE Don't play dumb with me, asshole. I'm the rightful ower of that briefcase you've been carrying. LLOYD Uh-oh.Mary can't believe what's happening. MARY Nicholas, you... you motherfucker! My family trusted you! ANDRE Shut up! LLOYD Uh, sir, about the briefcase, I want you to know, my friend Harry and I have every intention of reimbursing you.Andre looks alarmed. He motions Mary to the briefcase withhis gun. ANDRE Open that damn thing!Mary opens the briefcase and a pile of WHITE, CRUMPLED-UPBALLS OF PAPER fall out along with a few packets of hundreds. ANDRE (CONT'D) What the hell's this? Where's all the money? LLOYD That's as good as money, sir. Those are our IOUs. You can add them up yourself. Every penny's accounted for.Andre looks like his head is about to BURST in anger. ANDRE You're fucking dead! 111. LLOYD Now don't do anything hasty, man. CUT TO:INT. HOTEL HALLWAYHarry gets out of the elevator and lets himself into thePresidential Suite.INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITEHarry ENTERS looking contrite and CALLS OUT: HARRY Lloyd, are you home? We've gotta talk, man. I have a serious confession to make.Harry comes around the corner and STOPS COLD.HIS POV - Lloyd and Mary are lying on the bed, their armshandcuffed to the bedpost. HARRY (CONT'D) Oh good, you found her. I'll just leave you two kids alone.Harry turns to go, but bumps into the MUZZLE OF ANDRE'S GUN. ANDRE Why don't you stay and join the party? CUT TO:INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - A FEW MINUTES LATERHarry is sitting beside Lloyd and Mary on the bed. NicholasAndre keeps his gun trained on them while he SPEAKS on thephone: ANDRE ..I want a one-way ticket to Rio De Janerio departing as soon as possible...ON THE BED - Harry and Lloyd can't look each other in theeye. MARY You mean you two know each other? 112. LLOYD (cutting) Yeah, we used to be best friends. HARRY Until he turned into a backstabber. LLOYD Me a backstabber? You got a lot of nerve. I saw her first. HARRY Hey, I couldn't help it if she found me irresistable.Mary ROLLS HER EYES at this. LLOYD But you knew how crazy I was about her. HARRY Yeah, and you knew how crazy I was about Fraida Felcher, but that didn't stop you, did it? LLOYD (waning righteousness) What are you talking about? HARRY Don't deny it, Lloyd. Fraida told me the whole sordid story.Lloyd can't muster a defense. LLOYD Look... I was gonna tell you about that. It was gonna be mentioned at the reading of my will. I swear, you can ask my lawyer.Harry glares at him. HARRY Well I guess we both learned a little something about each other, didn't we? LLOYD You said it, pal. Maybe we're not as good friends as we thought we were. 113. HARRY Guess not. LLOYD I mean, if one beautiful girl could rip us apart like this, then it seems our friendship isn't worth a damn. (beat) Maybe we should call it quits right here. HARRY Just tell me where to sign, bud.Suddenly they hear the metallic CLICK-CLACK OF A GUN BEINGCOCKED. ANDRE Okay, which one of you losers wants to die first?The guys exchange a look and SWALLOW HARD. HARRY I wouldn't pull that trigger if I were you. ANDRE Why not? It'll look like just another Aspen love triangle. You caught the two of them in bed, handcuffed them to the post, murdered them, and killed yourself. HARRY (smug) Except you're forgetting one minor etail. ANDRE What's that?Lloyd and Mary look at Harry, hopeful. HARRY If you kill us, you'd be killing yourself. ANDRE (puzzled) Huh? 114. HARRY You see, philosophers believe that we're all really just tiny pieces of one huge universal being. In other words, I am you and you are me, so if you were to kill us you'd be committing suicide, you unenlightenedidiot -- ANDRE --Shut up!Mary sees that they're in deep shit now. MARY What about my husband? Did you kill him, too? HARRY Husband? What husband? LLOYD Mary's married, Harry. ANDRE No need to worry about Melvin. (beat) Now this is the last time I'll ask: Who wants to die first?Harry gestures with his head at Mary. HARRY Kill her. The bitch should've told him she was married back at the airport. It would've saved us a lot of trouble.Andre points the gun at Mary. LLOYD No, I'll go first, Harry. I was the one who got you into this mess.Andre points the gun at Lloyd. HARRY No, wait, do me first. I'm the one who stole your girl, Lloyd. I eserve it. 115.Andre SIGHS and points the gun at Harry. Then, as Mary andLloyd look on in horror, he FIRES TWICE. Harry grabs hisstomach and falls off the bed to the floor. LLOYD Jesus Christ! You killed my best friend, you bastard!Andre smiles. ANDRE If it's any consolation, you're about to be reunited.He aims the gun at Lloyd, COCKS THE TRIGGER. Suddenly, aSHOT RINGS OUT and the gun is blown out of Andre's hand.ON THE FLOOR - Harry is very much alive and pointing a pistolat the stunned Nicholas Andre. LLOYD Harry! You're alive!Just them, the door BURSTS OPEN and SEVERAL POLICE OFFICERSstorm in with their weapons drawn. COP #1 Get your hands up, asshole!Lloyd and Harry throw their hands into the air. A stunnedAndre turns to see six guns pointing at his head. Hereluctantly raises his hands. Mary and Lloyd are flabbergastedby the turn of events.There's a sudden commotion in the room. Pushing her waythrough the mass of cops comes the Athletic Beauty. Sheflashes an ID. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Special Officer Kathryn Frick. Federal Bureau of Investigation. LLOYD (dumbstruck) You gotta be kidding. ATHLETIC BEAUTY Good work, Harry.Lloyd looks to his friend, confused. Harry opens his shirt,revealing a BULLET-PROOF VEST. 116. HARRY She grabbed me down in the lobby and explained what was up. They slapped this on me and gave me a gun. LLOYD (to Athletic Beauty) But how did you...? ATHLETIC BEAUTY We've been following you two all the way from Providence. Mr. and Mrs. Swanson had a homing device plated in the briefcase.The guys glance guiltily at one another. HARRY Yeah, about that dough... ATHLETIC BEAUTY Every bill was counterfeit and marked.Harry and Lloyd EXHALE A SIGH OF RELIEF. CUT TO:EXT. HOTEL DANBURY - NIGHTThere's a swarm of ONLOOKERS as Andre and J.P. Shay arehustled into a police car and driven away. While Mary TALKSto the police, Harry and Lloyd stare at her lovingly. LLOYD She's something, ain't she, Har? HARRY You were right, Lloyd. She was efinitely worth the trip. LLOYD Guess we have to admit it, she was too good for us.Just then, a cruiser pulls up and Mary's husband jumps out. MELVIN Oh god, baby, I missed you!Harry and Lloyd stare in wonder as MEL GIBSON climbs out ofthe car. Mary and Mel embrace, then Mel turns to the guys. 117. MELVIN (CONT'D) I can't thank you enough, fellas. It was so darn dank in that well, I really thought it would be the death of me.Harry and Lloyd are too stunned to respond. They look ateach other, and we DISSOLVE TO:INT. LOBBY - HOTEL DANBURY - THE NEXT DAYLloyd and Harry come out of the elevator with their meagerluggage, but this time nobody rushes to their aid.EXT. HOTEL DANBURY - DAYThe guys EXIT the hotel and approach the Bell Captain,Barnard. HARRY Hey, Barney... BELL CAPTAIN Yes, gentlemen? LLOYD Look, we just wanted to say that we appreciate all you did for us during our stay. HARRY And we're, um, sorry about the money we gave you turning out to be phony. BELL CAPTAIN Don't worry about it, gentlemen. The Swanson family has promised to reimburse everyone.This seems to please Lloyd and Harry. The hearse is deliveredto the front door. LLOYD Well, anyway, thanks again for everything.They turn to go, but Barnard CALLS TO THEM: BARNARD Where are you two headed? 118. HARRY I dunno. I'm sure we'll find a trailer camp somewhere to call home. BARNARD Why not right here?Harry and Lloyd look at each other, confused. LLOYD This joint is a little out of our budget, Barney. BARNARD (smiling) Oh, I think we might be able to find you a free room somewhere -- after all, like you once told me, we're all from the same mold. (winks) You just don't have any dough right now.The guys are STUNNED by Barnard's generous offer. HARRY Are you on the level? BARNARD Absolutely. We'll just slide you into one of the employee rooms...The guys beam at this. BARNARD (CONT'D) ...Provided, of course, you don't mind working one or two afternoons a week.Harry and Lloyd lock eyes. Then: LLOYD You know what, Barney, I think we'll take out chances down the road.Barnard shakes his head as the two fools climb into theirhearse and drive off.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYAs the hearse drives down the road, we hear V.O.: 119. HARRY (v.o.) Since we're finished elbow-rubbing, what next, lloyd? LLOYD (v.o.) I say we head due south and try a little nose-rubbing with some of them slinky eskimo babes. HARRY (v.o.) Now you're talking my language. You know I got a weakness for blondes.As they head toward their next adventure, the CAMERA PULLSUP, UP, UP...END CREDITSTHE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Dune.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dune.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f183c731948b11dbc0b7f2ae9306d55341362331 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Dune.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + DUNE SEVENTH DRAFT DAVID LYNCH December 9, 1983--1. ARRAKIS - A SCENE FROM SPACE Also known as DUNE, home of the Fremen, former Zenzunni wanderers.1A. INT. ROCK LEDGE - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT BLACK FADE IN to the dark eyes of the mysterious face of the REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO, who sits against smooth black rock. Her eyes are deep blue-within-blue and her skin is a haunting translucent white. Her voice ECHOES as if in a great cavern. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO We are the secret of the Universe. RESPONSE OF TWENTY THOUSAND VOICES Bi-la kaifa. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO We are the secret of the Universe. We know of spice...the spice called melange...the greatest treasure in the Universe. It exists on only one planet - ours Arrakis, Dune. We know of spice and the Bene Gesserit sisterhood's selective breeding plan of ninety generations to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, the one the spice will awaken. RESPONSE OF TWENTY THOUSAND VOICES Bi-la kaifa. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO And now the prophecy... Silence...then a powerful low organ NOTE resounding in the cavernous space. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO (CONT'D) He will come...the voice from the outer world, bringing the holy war, the Jihad, which will cleanse the Universe and bring us out of darkness. He will have been born of a Bene Gesserit mother.-- The Reverend Mother continues speaking of the Prophecy, but we do not hear it. The huge wind organ BLOWS louder and louder, obscuring her voice. The picture FADES.1B. KAITAIN - A SCENE FROM SPACE Home planet of House Corrino and Shadam IV, Emperor of the known universe.2. INT. DROP - NIGHT FADE IN to: ...interior of one drop of water. The image changes subtly.2A. EXT. - DROP - NIGHT PULL BACK to a shot revealing the outside of the drop. There is a distant ROARING and within the drop we can see the distorted image of a space ship landing on a sophisticated landing field.3. (Deleted)3A. EXT. LANDING FIELD - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT On the dark landing field, chemicals spill out of the ship in troughs and tank-suited Guildsmen begin to swarm out of a hatch opening.4. through 6. (Deleted)7. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT The EMPEROR is surrounded by crowds of COURTIERS in his Throne Room. Suddenly a GUARD enters from a small door and quickly crosses to ANOTHER GUARD. A warning SOUND begins. The Emperor turns nervously. Guards quickly begin to clear the large room. Several women are rushed toward us to a door beyond. One of the woman, IRULAN, stops and turns back for a worried, caring look to her father, the Emperor. IRULAN Father.-- EMPEROR Irulan. She sees that SARDAUKAR OFFICERS are surrounding him now, speaking to him. Irulan turns and leaves. The Emperor moves away from his officers to the center of the now-empty room. He drops his golden robe from his shoulders. He stands in his elegant black uniform, thinking. The Reverend Mother is ushered in and the Sardaukar Officers leave her alone with the Emperor. EMPEROR (quickly) A Third Stage Guild Navigator will be here within minutes! REVEREND MOTHER We felt his presence. EMPEROR I shall want telepathy during his visit and a report when we're finished. REVEREND MOTHER Their minds are so.... They move in strange directions.... EMPEROR Yes? REVEREND MOTHER Forced spice evolution of humans changes many things.... I must sit close to him. EMPEROR He will not permit anyone but me to see him. You must be outside this room.... Do what you can. REVEREND MOTHER I am your Truthsayer, my lord... (sensing something outside the room) He is here, my lord. Under the carved inscription "Law is the Ultimate Science", the doors to the Emperor's chambers slide open and FIFTY GUILDSMEN wheel in a forty-foot long giant black box. One of the Guildsmen addresses the Emperor through a translating device. TANKED GUILDSMEN #1 The Bene Gesserit witch must leave.-- The Emperor looks to the Reverend Mother. EMPEROR Leave us. REVEREND MOTHER Yes, my Lord. EMPEROR (after she has gone) We are alone...8. INT. HALLWAY - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT The Reverend Mother enters through doors and takes a seat on a chair just outside the door. She closes her eyes.9. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT Inside the Emperor's chamber, the TANK-SUITED GUILDSMEN are arranging themselves in a "V" formation around the box. Suddenly the box opens, slowly and beautifully revealing a huge, thick glass tank. Inside the tank floats a THIRD STAGE NAVIGATOR twenty feet long, much like a cross between a pasty, pale human being and a fleshy grasshopper. The tank is filled with swirling orange spice-gas, and Guildsmen continuously vacuum up the toxic chemical spills dripping from under the tank. Suddenly the Guild Navigator swims towards the Emperor. His head is enormous and fleshy, like a huge grasshopper head -- the eyes are totally deep blue. His voice is a high, fleshy whispering and an intricate electrical apparatus in the front of the tank translates into English and broadcasts it into the room. NAVIGATOR We have just folded space from Ix... EMPEROR (extremely nervous) Yes?... How was your journey? NAVIGATOR (after a long pause) Many machines on Ix... new machines. EMPEROR Oh yes?-- NAVIGATOR Better than those on Richesse.. You are transparent... I see many things... I see plans within plans. EMPEROR Is there a problem?... Usually there is a problem when one of you makes a visit. No answer. NAVIGATOR (finally) The answer is within the problem...10. INT. HALLWAY - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT Outside the Emperor's chamber the Reverend Mother sits, her eyes closed, straining.11. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - REVERENDMOTHER'S MENTAL IMAGE - NIGHT A very blurred scene of the Emperor with the Guild Navigator. She is not getting the English version but a much different language version which is fascinating to listen to. A lilting, sing-song monologue.12. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT NAVIGATOR I see two Great Houses -- House Atreides, House Harkonnen -- feuding... I see you behind it. EMPEROR Yes. The Navigator breathes the spice-gas heavily and swishes gently in his tank. NAVIGATOR You must share with us.-- EMPEROR The Atreides house is building a secret army!... using a technique unknown to us... a technique involving sound. The Duke is becoming more popular in the Landsraad... he could threaten me.... I have ordered House Atreides to occupy Arrakis to mine the spice... thus replacing their enemies the Harkonnens.... House Atreides will not refuse because of the tremendous power they think they will gain. Then, at an appointed time Baron Harkonnen will return to Arrakis and launch a sneak attack on House Atreides... I have promised the Baron five legions of my Sardaukar terror troops. NAVIGATOR So the Harkonnens will rid you of House Atreides... EMPEROR Yes.13. INT. HALLWAY - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT Outside, the Reverend Mother is seeing the scene mentally. She suddenly sees and flinches.14. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - REVERENDMOTHER'S MENTAL IMAGE - NIGHT The Guild Navigator turns toward her and comes very close to her. We hear the Navigator speak to her. NAVIGATOR (to Reverend Mother, mentally) Reverend Mother... I will give you the Tleilaxu Path. REVEREND MOTHER (V.O.) (an excited whisper) A chance for escape? But for whom?15. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT EMPEROR Can you hear me?... If this visit has anything to do with spice...-- The Guild Navigator shudders and swishes quite violently in his tank. NAVIGATOR LISTEN TO ME!! The spice must flow... the spice has given me accelerated evolution for four thousand years... it has enabled you to live two hundred years... the spice helps make the sapho juice, which gives the red-lipped mentats the ability to be living computers... the secret side of spice... the water of life.16. INT. HALLWAY - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT REVEREND MOTHER (V.O.) He shouldn't speak of this...15. BACK TO SCENE NAVIGATOR ...gives the Bene Gesserit sisterhood the metaphysical ability to see beyond...to have superior powers... Our power to fold space is in the spice... Without us, your empire would be lost on isolated scattered planets... You would be lost. EMPEROR I can assure you... NAVIGATOR Do not interrupt!!! Do not speak lightly of the spice... ONE SMALL POINT...16. BACK TO SCENE REVEREND MOTHER (V.O.) Here it comes...17. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT NAVIGATOR We ourselves... foresee a slight problem within House Atreides.... Paul.... Paul Atreides. EMPEROR You mean, of course, Duke Leto Atreides... his father.--Page missing--24. EXT. CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT High on the rock cliff stands Castle Caladan, Its appearance us dark and medieval. There is a window on the seaward wall lit from within...25. INT. TRAINING ROOM - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT ...by a drifting glowglobe. Paul sits at an L-shaped table studying filmbooks and maps of Arrakis and the Universe.25A. INSERT - FILMBOOK We SEE vast star fields and galaxies.25. BACK TO SCENE PAUL (whispering) Here we are now... nineteen light years beyond...25A. INSERT - FILMBOOK We SEE the galaxies move as we HEAR a HUM. PAUL (V.O.) (whispering) ... beyond Epsilon Alangue... is Arrakis. We HOLD on this, then we see Arrakis grow larger in the filmbook screen and we SEE it is a planet of vast deserts.25. BACK TO SCENE PAUL (whispering again) It does look dry....25A. INSERT - FILMBOOK The picture grows larger again, and we see the Arrakeen Valley.-- FILMBOOK (V.O.) Each day the palms along the outer wall of the Palace at Arrakeen consume enough water to sustain the lives of one hundred men. The palms were placed by the Harkonnens to flaunt their water wealth in front of the city Fremen.25. BACK TO SCENE PAUL Where are the Harkonnens from here?25A. INSERT - FILMBOOK The star fields and galaxies move slightly then. PAUL (V.O.) (whispering) There!... Geidi Prime and the Baron Harkonnen... the enemy.25. BACK TO SCENE In the background, FOOTSTEPS grow louder, pounding on thick wooden floors. THUFIR HAWAT, GURNEY HALLECK and DR. YUEH enter. Paul has his back to the door. Thufir suddenly looks perturbed when he notices this. PAUL (without turning) I know, Thufir, I'm sitting with my back to the door. Hawat suppresses a smile. PAUL (CONT'D) I heard you, Dr. Yueh and Gurney coming down the hall. THUFIR Those sounds could be imitated. PAUL I'd know the difference. Paul rises and turns to face them.-- THUFIR (inner voice) Yes. Perhaps he would at that. PAUL My father sent you to test me. Music then? Thufir scowls. GURNEY No music. I'm packing this for the crossing. Shield practice. PAUL Shield practice? Gurney... we had practice -- this morning..... I'm not in the mood. GURNEY (angered) Not in the mood?! Mood's a thing for cattle and love play... not fighting. PAUL I'm sorry Gurney. GURNEY Not sorry enough. Gurney draws his knife.25B. SHIELD EFFECT - THE FIGHT Gurney activates his body shield, sending a shimmering FORCE FIELD around his body. He advances swiftly toward Paul. Paul snaps on his FORCE FIELD, draws his knife and jumps back, collecting himself hurriedly for the fight. GURNEY (his voice sounding strange through the forcefield) Guard yourself for true! Gurney leaps high, then forward, pressing a furious attack. Paul falls back. The shield edges CRACK loudly as they touch each other. PAUL (inner voice) What's gotten into Gurney? He's not faking. Paul presses forward and the fight moves quickly around the room. The smell of ozone grows stronger as the shields hit and SPARK off one another. Paul directs a parry downwards, turns, and leads Gurney against the table, plunging at just the right moment to pin Gurney against the table top with his blade right at Gurney's neck. PAUL (strange shielded voice) Is this what you seek? GURNEY (strange shielded voice) Good... the slow blade penetrates the shield... but look down. Paul looks and sees Gurney's blade at his groin. GURNEY (CONT'D) We'd have joined each other in death. However, you did seem to finally get the "mood". PAUL Would you really have drawn my blood? GURNEY If you'd fought one whit below your abilities I'd have scratched you a good one. Paul stands and snaps off his shield as does Gurney.25. BACK TO SCENE PAUL Things have been so serious here lately. GURNEY Yes. I sensed the play in you lad, but this can no longer be play. Tomorrow we leave for Arrakis! Arrakis is real. The Harkonnens are real. Thufir, Yueh, Gurney and Paul stare at each other for a moment in silence. Dr. Yueh moves forward and begins to take Paul's pulse rate and to collect other data with a small black machine. PAUL Dr. Yueh, do you have any information on the worms of Arrakis?-- DR. YUEH I have obtained a filmbook on a small specimen... only 125 meters long. PAUL Only?! They smile at each other. DR. YUEH There are have been documented sightings of worms as large as 450 meters in the deep desert -- far from where we'll be in Arakeen.... The desert belt and the south polar regions are marked forbidden.... Why? PAUL The storms and the worms. Is it true, that the sand can blow at seven hundred kilometers per hour? YUEH It can render flesh to dust in minutes. And these dry winds can generate tremendous static electricity in the atmosphere. Our body shields won't have enough power to operate in the open air on Arrakis. PAUL Well, how do the Fremen survive there? YUEH We don't know much about the Fremen... They live in the deep desert... some of them in the cities and they have blue- within-blue eyes... PAUL (smiling) The eyes -- yes, yes... saturation of the blood by the spice -- melange. Could the spice affect us in other ways? THUFIR Many dangers exist on Arrakis. For one, we know the Harkonnens would not have given up their CHOAM company contract so easily. PAUL (rising) The Harkonnens are our enemies, yes... but behind them, I suspect, is the Emperor.-- THUFIR You will make a formidable Duke! Paul bows. THUFIR (CONT'D) Now remember... the first step in avoiding a trap is knowing of its existence. PAUL I know. But if it is a trap then why are we going? THUFIR We have our new army. (in the same breath) Dr. Yueh, put the weirding module on him. Thufir, noticing a SQUAD OF GUARDS at the other end of the training room, calls out to them. THUFIR (CONT'D) Clear and lock the room. Gurney activates a series of locks. LIGHTS GLOWS above each doorway. THUFIR (CONT'D) Activate a fighter.25C. ROBOT FIGHT Suddenly a FIGHTER ROBOT lowers from the ceiling. As the robot begins to rotate and go through several frightening, complicated movements, Dr. Yueh places a plastic device around Paul's neck. He tightens it around the Adam's apple above Paul's voice box. Paul turns and emits a very strange, powerful sound through the weirding module as he rushes towards the robot. GURNEY (to Yueh) Precise control....26. INT. HALLWAY - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT The hallway is empty in the foreground but in the distance a changing of the guard is seen.--26A. through 26B. (Deleted)27. INT. HALLWAY - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Paul walks down the stairway. In the distance, moving troops are packing Atreides belongings. Beyond, Paul sees some troops carrying a large bull's head. The horns are covered with dried blood. PAUL The bull that killed my grandfather... is this an evil omen? Suddenly, DUNCAN IDAHO appears from behind the giant black head. PAUL (happily) Duncan! DUNCAN Paul. (they shake hands) I was on my way to say goodbye to you. I have to go on ahead. PAUL Why? I wish you were coming with us. DUNCAN It's something for your father. He wants to talk to you. (places hand on Paul's chest) I'll see you in Arrakis. May the hand of God be with you. PAUL May the hand of God be with us all, Duncan.28. EXT. CLIFF WALL - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Paul walks to meet his father near the wall. PAUL (diffident) Father. DUKE LETO Thank you for joining me, Paul. (voice tired) It will be good to get to our new home and have all this upset behind us.--28A. (Deleted)28B. DUKE LETO AND PAUL AGAINST SEA They look out over the sea. A huge wave crashes below. The Duke turns to Paul. DUKE LETO (CONT'D) (inner voice) My son. (out loud) Thufir Hawat has served House Atreides three generations.... He swears you are the finest student he's ever taught. Yueh, Gurney and Duncan say the same.... It makes me feel very proud... PAUL I want you to be proud of me. Paul smiles up at his father. The WIND blows the Duke's hair and behind him stands the castle and the green and black Atreides banner against the night sky beyond. The RAIN starts again -- lightly. Paul takes a closer look at the Atreides banner moving in the wind. DUKE LETO (studying the dark sea below) I'll miss the sea... but a person needs new experiences... they jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us... and seldom awakens... The sleeper must awaken. Paul's attention goes to his father's hand where he sees the Duke's signet ring. Again he smiles at his father. FADE TO:29. through 29A. (Deleted)30. INT. PAUL'S ROOM - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Paul is sweating during his sleep and WHISPERS as if struggling with some disturbing thought.-- PAUL Arrakis... Dune... Desert Planet...Arrakis... Desert Planet... moving... moving.31. DARK WATER - MENTAL IMAGE We see Paul's dream. It is very dark. PAUL (V.O.) Arrakis... Dune... Desert Planet. Suddenly a drop falls into the black, and white hot widening rings appear on the dark water's surface. Darkness again. Two moons rise in the darkness. As the second appears: VOICE The second moon, your moon...31A. INT. RESERVOIR - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT Dark again. A figure turns toward Paul. It is a BEAUTIFUL GIRL in deep shadow. She speaks. BEAUTIFUL GIRL Tell me of your homeworld, Usul.32. INT. PAUL'S ROOM - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT CU Paul's face in fitful sleep.33. EXT. COURTYARD - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT In a small stone courtyard, the back-lit figure of a woman moves towards us through the heavy RAIN and darkness. As she nears us, the large, protective glowglobe overtakes her and in an instant we see a beautiful woman -- JESSICA. JESSICA (inner voice) I know she has come to test him... no man has ever been tested with the box... only Bene Gesserit women. I may lose my son. The doors open, she meets the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (the Emperor's truthsayer) and takes her back toward the Castle. The rain rushes loudly into the storm drains.--34. INT. PAUL'S ROOM - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT PAUL (whispering again) Arrakis... Dune... Desert planet... moving... moving. CU Paul's face. Paul's eyes snap open. He hears footsteps outside his door. As the door opens he closes his eyes, however, and he pretends to be asleep. Jessica and the Reverend Mother enter and stand in the doorway looking at him. REVEREND MOTHER We'll salvage what we can... but I can tell you.. dear God... for the father... nothing. Jessica turns to the Reverend Mother, stunned! She turns back to look at Paul. Her hands tremble. REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D) Did you really think that you could bear the Kwisatz Haderach?... How dare you! REVEREND MOTHER My greatest student... and my greatest disappointment.... He's awake!... He's listening to us. (considering) Good... Ready yourself, young Paul Atreides... I want to see you in your mother's chamber in one quarter of an hour. She turns and walks away. Jessica remains at the door and calls out to Paul in the darkness. JESSICA Paul?... This is very important... Jessica leaves, closing the door behind her. Paul sits up in bed. PAUL Kwisatz Haderach?... For the father... nothing?35. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Jessica and the Reverend Mother enter. It is quite dark. Jessica WHISPERS a code number and a glowglobe LIGHTS on a very dim setting.-- REVEREND MOTHER (angrily) Jessica... You were told to bear only daughters to the Atreides... Jessica! JESSICA It meant so much to him... REVEREND MOTHER You thought only of a Duke's desire for a son?... Desires don't figure in this! An Atreides daughter could have been wed to a Harkonnen heir and sealed the breach. We may lose both blood lines now. JESSICA I vowed never to regret my decision. I'll pay for my own mistakes. REVEREND MOTHER And your son will pay with you.42. INT. DUKE LETO'S QUARTERS - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Under a dim glowglobe, the DUKE is writing a note on a scroll-like piece of paper. Finishing reading, the Duke seals the message in a cylinder and presses his signet ring, with a red hawk symbol of House of Atreides, into a hole, which seals the cylinder with a swift HISSING. He pauses, studying the metal tube. With a VOICE COMMAND, he extinguishes the glowglobe above him. He leans back in his chair as lightning flashes outside the window. FADE TO:35. BACK TO SCENE Paul enters the room and Jessica closes the door behind them. JESSICA Paul, this is the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She is going to... observe you... (to Reverend Mother) Please...-- REVEREND MOTHER Jessica, you know it must be done. I enjoin you to stand guard at the door and practice the meditation of peace. JESSICA Your Reverence. PAUL (inner voice) What does she fear? (out loud) What about my Father? JESSICA Paul... please, Paul... listen to the Reverend Mother and do what she tells you. Jessica leaves the room. The Reverend Mother speaks to Paul using The Voice, a Bene Gesserit training which permits an adept to control others merely by selected tone shadings of the voice. It sounds as if two people are talking -- one normal and the other gutteral and slightly electronic. The effect is strange, yet subtle. REVEREND MOTHER (using The Voice) Now you come here. Paul finds he cannot help but obey her, yet he fights her controlling him. PAUL (inner voice) She's using The Voice. (out loud) No. She sees him struggling. REVEREND MOTHER (inner voice) Some strength there. Surprising! (out loud) Come here. The Reverend Mother holds up a green metal cube. REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D) See this... Put your right hand in the box. Paul stares at the hole in the box.-- PAUL What's in the box? REVEREND MOTHER Pain. Just then, she raises one hand to his neck. Paul sees a glint of metal. He tries to back away. REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D) (The Voice) STOP! Put your hand in the box. Paul's hand goes in. Fear passes over his face. PAUL (inner voice) The Voice again. REVEREND MOTHER I hold at your neck the gom jabbar. Don't pull away or you'll feel that poison. A Duke's son must know about many poisons -- this one kills only animals. PAUL Are you suggesting a Duke's son is an animal? REVEREND MOTHER Let us say I suggest you may be human. Your awareness may be powerful enough to control your instincts. Your instincts will be to remove your hand from the box. If you do so you will die. You will feel an itching -- there... see? Now the itching becomes burning... heat, upon heat, upon heat. PAUL (whispering) It burns. REVEREND MOTHER SILENCE... SILENCE. PAUL (inner voice)(struggling to compose himself) I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... I will permit it to pass over me and through me.-- The Reverend Mother moves her face up to his. Her ancient face with its metal teeth gleaming inches away breathes hotly. She is smiling. REVEREND MOTHER You feel the flesh crisping?36. THE HAND - PAUL'S MENTAL IMAGE Paul's inner mind sees his hand on fire with all sorts of sores. The skin is bubbling.37. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT REVEREND MOTHER Flesh dropping off.38. THE HAND - PAUL'S MENTAL IMAGE He pictures this. The destruction of his hand is complete -- now only blood spurts out and burns.39. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT Paul's face registers extreme pain. PAUL (cannot help the explosion) THE PAIN! REVEREND MOTHER NO!! ENOUGH!! Kull wahad! No woman child ever withstood that much. I must have wanted you to fail. Take your hand out of the box and look at it, young human.... Do it! Paul pulls his hand out of the box. No sign of anything wrong. He turns his hand, flexes his fingers. He looks to the Reverend Mother. REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D) (explaining) Pain by nerve induction... A human can resist any pain. Our test is crisis and observation. PAUL I see the truth of it.-- REVEREND MOTHER (inner voice) Could he be the one?... Maybe... but will he be ours to control? (out loud) You know when people speak the truth? PAUL I know it. Suddenly the Reverend Mother holds her hand against Paul's head. She closes her eyes.40. INT. RESERVOIR - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT - REVERENDMOTHER'S MENTAL IMAGE She sees a blurred image of Paul's earlier dream. She sees the beautiful girl turn. She hears a muffled voice say "Tell me of your homeworld, Usul".41. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT REVEREND MOTHER Your mother wants you to tell me about your dreams. I only want to know one thing.... Do they come true? PAUL Not all of them... I know which ones will. REVEREND MOTHER Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach. PAUL What is it? REVEREND MOTHER (profoundly) The person who can be many places at once... the one who bridges space and time.... He will look where we cannot. PAUL Where? REVEREND MOTHER Do you know of the Water of Life?... the Truthsayer drug? PAUL I have heard of it.-- REVEREND MOTHER It is very dangerous... very painful. The Bene Gesserit sisterhood drink it to see within.... There is a place terrifying to us... to women. It is said a man will come... the Kwisatz Haderach... he will go where we cannot... Many men have tried... PAUL Did they try and fail? REVEREND MOTHER They tried and died.... (she calls out loudly) Jessica! Jessica enters immediately and sees with great relief that Paul is still active. REVEREND MOTHER I sense your teachings in him. Ignore the regular order of training. His safety requires The Voice. PAUL I've heard enough of my safety... What about my father?... I heard you talking. You speak as if he was dead. Well, he isn't! JESSICA Paul! She tries to hold him. PAUL Well he isn't... and he won't die... Tell me he won't die! REVEREND MOTHER What can be done has been done. PAUL MOTHER! Tell me! The Reverend Mother covers herself and moves quickly to the door.--42A. Through 45. (Deleted)46. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY HOME PLANET OF HOUSE HARKONNEN - As seen from space, the black planet as we saw it in Paul's filmbook.47. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY The surface of the planet is a vast sea of black oil. A small cable car traverses high above the sea toward a gigantic black city in the shape of a rectangular box over 100 stories high. Before the city there are rows of huge black towering steel heads atop massive furnaces. SMOKE billows out of their mouths.48. INT. CABLE CAR - GIEDI PRIME - DAY Inside the cable car stands PITER. In one hand he holds the cylinder with DUKE Leto's ring imprint. PITER It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed - The lips acquire stains - The stains become a warning - It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.48A. INT. GREEN PORCELAIN ROOM - GEIDI PRIME Somewhere in the interior of Geidi Prime, we are in a green porcelain room. Two large Harkonnen soldiers, using large hoses, are washing down the walls and floors of the room. WE MOVE DOWN into the water rushing along the floor towards troughs. Closer, WE SEE bits of flesh, hair, and blood.49. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY The car zooms past gigantic faces, and the furnaces far below ROAR with tremendous power. The city now looms gigantic and overpowering -- millions of electrical cables stretch off the top into dark energy taps above the city.--50. INT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY Inside the city the cable car passes into a huge inner chamber filled with open-topped lime green porcelain rooms with tremendous electrical lines criss-crossing above.51. (Deleted)52. INT. BARON'S ROOM - GEIDI PRIME - DAY In front of a huge steam boiler, the cable car stops and Piter gets out, steps down steel stairs and enters a porcelain room where the Baron is being treated by a DOCTOR for sores on his face and body. The doctor uses a lasbeam on a big sore on the Baron's lips. The Baron is sickly and hugely fat and sweaty and looks like he has been sickly for some time. He turns to Piter as he enters the room. PITER My Lord! BARON Piter. Piter moves up to the Baron. PITER The Atreides will be leaving Caladan soon, Baron, and I have here your answer from Duke Leto. BARON What does Leto say, Piter? PITER He wishes to inform you that Vendetta -- as he puts it, using the ancient tongue, the art of Kanly -- is still alive. He does not wish to meet or speak with you. BARON (swallowing; angry) I made my peace gesture... the forms of Kanly have been obeyed. He throws down the cylinder. PITER As you instructed me, I have enlightened your nephews concerning my plan t...-- BARON My plan! PITER The plan to crush the Atreides. Feyd, Rabban... go quietly... no other great house of the Landsraad must ever know of the Emperor's aid to the Baron. The entire Landsraad would turn against the Baron and the Emperor. DOCTOR Put the pick in there Pete And turn it round real neat. His assistant does so. Rabban breaks open a squood (living food). The squood makes a tiny SCREAM, then Rabban drinks the blood and bodily fluids. He throws the empty container of tiny animal meat into the dark water trough running through the center of the room. Across the room, TWO HARKONNEN SOLDIERS enter, holding big guns on a BOY who is wearing white pants. The Baron smiles when he sees the boy, who is deeply afraid. The guards force the boy to arrange violet flowers on a stand by the far wall opposite the Baron. BARON (as the Baron watches the boy) You're so beautiful my Baron Your skin, love to me Your diseases lovingly cared for For all eternity. BARON I will have Arrakis back for myself... he who controls the Spice, controls the universe... and what Piter didn't tell you is we have control of someone who is very close to Duke Leto. This person... this traitor... will be worth more to us than ten legions of Sardaukar. FEYD Who is the traitor? BARON (laughs) I won't tell you who the traitor is or when we'll attack. However, the Duke will die before these eyes and he'll know that it is I -- Baron Vladimir Harkonnen -- who encompasses his doom.-- The Baron gives a hand signal and seven gates in the wall open, emitting tremendous SOUNDS. Suddenly the Baron begins to float straight up, twenty-five feet in the air. It is a frightening sight. He floats down under the giant, humming electrical tube light and rubs his head and body with a black fluid which drips from tiny holes in either side of the pink glow. Feyd and Rabban watch nervously. The Attendants stand completely still with fear. The Baron swoops down to the Boy, who stands petrified. The Harkonnen guards smile nervously as they step slightly backwards. The boy begins SCREAMING as the Baron pulls the boy's heart plug, located in his chest. The violet flowers are bumped and disarrayed by the violence which ensues. Then the Baron turns smiling to Feyd as the SOUNDS continue to roar.52A. through 52B. (Deleted)52C. EXT. ATREIDES SHIP - CALADAN - DAY A DRUM CORPS pounds out a powerful cadence in front of a water and cannon show as the Duke, Paul and Jessica mount the steel stairs to their ship. In the doorway, they turn back for a final look. The Duke places a hand on Paul's shoulder. We see the signet ring. Jessica is there. She tries to get Paul to look at her but he scowls and turns to his father. JESSICA (turning away) (inner voice) I must not fear. Fear is the mind- killer... the little death that brings total obliteration... The door of the spaceship closes.53. EXT. HEIGHLINER - SPACE 3,415 Atreides ships are approaching the Guild Heighliner, which is staggeringly colossal. The Atreides ships look like dots next to the sun. The Duke's ship enters the frame and moves toward the Heighliner.53A. through 54. (Deleted)--55. INT. ATREIDES SHIP - SPACE Paul, Jessica and Duke Leto look out the forward viewing glass as tiny lights move outside in the darkness. They hear and feel their ship stop with a huge, echoing, metallic jolt. They look at each other in the silence which follows. DUKE LETO Soon they'll begin to fold space. PAUL (inner voice) Far off in the control rooms.... Travelling without moving. They wait.56. (Deleted)57. INT. CONTROL ROOM - HEIGHLINER - SPACE We pass through electrical shields into a 2,000-foot high control room filled with orange spice gas. On the floor are large gratings covering an exhaust and filtering system. Tons of spice gas are being converted into the clouds of gas along a wall of machinery. From within a dark metal tunnel comes a Guild Navigator. He exits the tunnel and swims through the gas 1,000 feet to a six-dimensional layered miniature replica of the entire Universe. The Navigator emits a long piece of light from his mouth which travels to one edge of the Universe and changes into a likeness of the planet Caladan. The Navigator turns and emits another piece of light which travels to the opposite side of the Universe. It changes into a likeness of Arrakis. The Navigator begins to put his slender fingers in amongst the stars and he emits SOUNDS and bursts of light into the mass of stars and galaxies. The Universe begins to vibrate and elongate, then to curve. Electrical lightening traverses from Caladan to Arrakis as the Universe bends into a U-shape. Arrakis submerges deep into the light. The navigator swims to the point where Arrakis disappeared. He begins to pull and tear a hole in the Universe. Stars like sparks and SOUNDS and rings of light appear, along with a roaring WIND. The Navigator swims deep into this hole through the rings of light. The Navigator becomes more and more transparent, until he's lost in darkness. The sounds fade.--58. through 60. (Deleted)60A. EXT. HEIGHLINER - ABOVE ARRAKIS - SPACE Suddenly, the real planet Arrakis appears and the giant Heighliner materializes above it.61. through 63A. (Deleted)63B. EXT. ARRAKEEN - DAY Through a brownish-orange haze appears the dusty valley of Arrakeen.64. INT./EXT. THE ATREIDES SHIP - DAY ARRAKEEN The Atreides ship has landed at Arrakeen. The door is open - the family walk down the steps - DUKE LETO with his dog - PAUL and JESSICA.64A. through 64C. (Deleted)65. EXT. GROUNDS - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY ... clusters of troops standing at attention around the enormous dark, cool doorway as the Duke, Paul and Jessica enter the Palace.65A. through 65B. (Deleted)65C. EXT. PALACE - ARRAKEEN - DAY The Atreides banner is raised on the top of the Palace.66. (Deleted)--67. INT. MILITARY SUB-BASEMENT ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE -DAY Atreides army soldiers milling, YELLING noisily.68. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY. In a darkened passageway, fans turn, casting deep, slow-moving shadows. SOUNDS ECHO in the distance.69. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY A room of technicians and electronic gear. The SIGNALS are being heard and interpreted. ATREIDES TECHNICIAN Harkonnens.70. EXT. BLACK ROCK - ARRAKEEN - DAY Far in the distance in deep black rock, Harkonnen spies move, carrying strange electronic equipment.71. (Deleted)72. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Thufir marches down a hallway with a squad of TROOPS with electronic gadgetry, LIGHTS and SOUNDS going constantly. THUFIR (into a radio microphone) Why isn't the shield up yet?73. INT. GENERATOR ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Down in the basement, Atreides engineers are removing a complicated device from heavy machinery. A MAN radios back to Thufir. ATREIDES RADIO MAN We found and removed another sabotage device. I think it will go up now.-- The engineers activate a series of atometric Holtzman generators. Suddenly SOUNDS begin. The machines start; at first low, then they WHINE upwards to a high pitch. When the pitch is steady, a series of levers are pulled.74. EXT. PALACE - ARRAKEEN - DAY Just after the second set of levers is pulled, a huge house shield is seen going up in a box shape, encompassing the Palace with SHIMMERING protection.75. EXT. WINDOW - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY From a small window, Thufir observes the shield with a critical eye. THUFIR (inner voice; worried) We found these sabotage devices too easily...76. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Two giant glowglobes drift into the Great Hall where Jessica and Dr. Yueh stand watching a giant bull's head is being hung above the massive fireplace. The MOVING TROOPS are unpacking crates and organizing furnishings. Jessica watches them. Distant SOUNDS reverberate inside an elaborate air vent beside them. DR. YUEH Listen here.... You can here the people of Arrakeen outside.... Can you here the cry "Soo Soo Sook" of the water sellers? JESSICA So many reminders of the scarcity of water. DR. YUEH Have you noticed the line of palms along the wall... the Harkonnen put them in... to flaunt their water wealth in front of these people.... Each day those palms take enough water to sustain the life of one hundred men. JESSICA The way you say Harkonnen... I didn't know you had so much reason to hate them. DR. YUEH (swiftly) My wife... you didn't know my wife... they...-- JESSICA (out loud) Forgive me... (inner voice) ... His wife was Bene Gesserit too... the signs are al over him.... They must have killed here. Jessica sees a droplet of sweat break out on Yueh's cheek. DR. YUEH I'm sorry I'm unable to talk about it. Above them a series of iron curtains begins to open over deep rock window slots, sending narrow shafts of light down across the room. TWO ATREIDES WOMEN in uniform approach. ATREIDES WOMAN #1 (referring to several robed figures standing in the room) My lady... the local people... the maids and servants await your inspection. Hawat has cleared them. Dr. Yueh turns to Jessica. DR. YUEH The Harkonnens may have tampered medically.... please wait. He turns a yellow light on a moves it over the crowd. The yellow light beam plays over the blue- within-blue eyes. One of the women, the Shadout Mapes, watches Jessica continuously. Yueh's hand shakes slightly. JESSICA (inner voice; noticing Yueh's hands) He's hiding something -- holding something back. (She studies his face closely.) It's not just his wife... He's a good man though. He's probably trying to save my feelings... (We see her mouth.) I could use The Voice... make him tell me... It would only shame him. (We see her eyes.) I must place more trust in my friends. (We see Yueh turn toward her, fearful.)--77. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Paul wanders through the darkened passageways alone, his footsteps echoing as goes. He takes pleasure observing the details of the rock Palace but all the while he feels an uneasiness -- a feeling of fear builds in him.78. INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Paul enters a small bedroom and sits down on the bed. He opens the filmbook, and activates it.78A. INSERT - FILMBOOK We SEE a gigantic carryall lower down above a spice harvester and pick it up off the desert floor as a narrator speaks over. NARRATOR (V.O.) One carryall handles four spice mining teams; however, it will fly only two harvesters at a time. Today, we have nine hundred and thirty harvesters and nine hundred and eighty-one carryalls....78. BACK TO SCENE Paul looks up. Across the room he sees a tray of small pastries which have been laid out. He goes to them and scans them with his poison detector, which he carries on his belt. A pleasant tone SOUNDS and the word "safe" appears in green light. Paul takes a pastry bites it and turns back towards the bed. Suddenly he stops. He looks at the pastry. PAUL (inner voice) Spice... As he continues eating he notices the sunlight through the slates over the window begins to GLOW white hot. Paul's eyes are intense as the light GLOWS brilliantly. PAUL (CONT'D) (whispering inner voice) Terrible purpose.... What is it?78B. INSERT - RED DROPLETS Some red droplets appear rushing through the white light. Three images follow: MENTAL IMAGES:79. INT. CONTROL ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - DAY A blurred Guild Navigator.--Page Missing-- SHADOUT MAPES I am the Shadout Mapes... the housekeeper. PAUL A Fremen... Could she be the operator? No... SHADOUT MAPES I must cleanse the way between us.... You saved my life... and we Fremen pay our debts. It's known to us that you've a traitor in your midst. Who it is we cannot say but we're certain of it. PAUL (inner voice) A traitor... Before he can speak the Shadout Mapes is gone -- running off down the passageway. Jessica enters. PAUL (CONT'D) (looks to Jessica) There is a traitor among us.80A. (Deleted)81. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Running TROOPS storm down the hallway with electronic gear and big stun guns.--82. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Thufir walks quickly toward SEVERAL TROOPS. THUFIR Set up a sonar probe immediately!83. INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Dr. Yueh sticks his head out the doorway as SEVERAL TROOPERS run past.84. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Duke Leto is calling on a radio phone. GENERALS surround him, as well as Gurney. DUKE LETO (on phone) Thufir?... anything?... keep looking. (Inner voice) ...and a traitor... God help us.85. INT. SUB-SUB-SUB-BASEMENT - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY TROOPS come off an elevator. The glow-span indicates the very bottom floor of 18 sub-floors. The ground is uneven rock and the ceiling is low. The troops fan out shining chemical lamps here and there. A soldier suddenly stops. Ahead in his light is a dead Harkonnen -- bloody vomit dried around his mouth. He lies beside an electronic device.86. INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Dr. Yueh covers his face with his hands in a darkened room... sobbing.86A. EXT. WALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT SEARCHLIGHTS sweep over the faces of City Fremen who are sitting or moving solemnly around the outer wall of the Palace. Some are chanting "Mahdi" and "Lisan al-Gaib." Others hold up one open hand as a sign they feel the messiah is near. A slow-moving spike- backed dog sucks ants up out of a small anthill; he snorts.86B. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT In the darkened Hall we can HEAR the distant sound of the Fremen reverberating.--87. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Duke Leto sits with Paul, Thufir, EIGHT GENERALS and SIX SUB-LIEUTENANTS. The Duke's small dog wanders under the table and rests his head on the Duke's boot. In front of Thufir is a device FLASHING brilliant light bursts over his face. The others are all talking among themselves. Suddenly Thufir's face turns brilliant red (as red as his sapho-stained lips) and he begins speaking rapidly into the machine in code using a strained high voice.-- THUFIR (Mentat voice) Sector 6 - 80 -- copy the sixth -- the summit -- the eight the quadrant over the ninth plus eighty -- four circles -- weave the eighty and call the fourth copy -- enter nine -- seven by seven a seven the seven call seven B seven -- enter the circles call the sixth copy the sixth over the summit.... eight. The machine FLASHES several bright irregular SIGNALS. Then it stops and HUMS. The blood leaves Thufir's face. THUFIR (CONT'D) (very fast and casually) Eight.... Thufir Hawat... Mentat... Master of Assassins. The hum stops. Thufir turns to Duke Leto. He looks up. Everyone is quiet now. THUFIR (CONT'D) The Palace is now secure. The city of Arrakeen is under martial law... we have troops here headquartered underground on sub-floors six through ten. The rest of the troops are stationed in Arrakeen and we have some on the airfield. Our new army is still training, but everything is shielded.... With the shielding, we are impenetrable. Dr. Kynes is waiting, Sire, for your inspection of spice mining operations, but since the attempt of the young master, I am against your leaving the Palace. DUKE LETO (very angry) The attempt failed... Harkonnen captives have already been taken. We must crush the Harkonnen machine on Arrakis.... You all know what to do. (Turning towards Gurney) ...Gurney! We desperately need more spice miners... many are threatening to leave on the next shuttle. We need spice drivers, weather scanners, dune men ... any with open sand experience. You must persuade them to enlist with us.-- GURNEY They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup as the east wind. And they shall gather the captivity of the sand. DUKE LETO (squints at Gurney) Very moving, Gurney. On your way... and take care of Dr. Kynes until Paul and I arrive. We will not be prisoners here in this place. GURNEY (artfully easing the Duke's anger) Behold as a wild ass in the desert go I forth to my work. Gurney strides off. Thufir sits, contemplating. Paul and Duke Leto smile at each other and shake their heads.88. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Jessica is sitting in a small room, smiling, reading a note. It reads "I miss you. Leto." She sets the note down. She begins to tremble. She becomes fearful. In her mind she SEES quick images: MENTAL IMAGES89. INT. CONTROL ROOM - HEIGHLINER A blurred Guild Navigator.89A. INT. MAKER ROOM - SEITCH TABR - NIGHT Paul dead on a stone floor.89B. EXT. ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Fire burning.90. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Jessica continues to tremble. JESSICA (inner voice) I must speak with you Leto!--91. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Outside in the passageway, feet suddenly move quietly toward the door to Jessica's room.92. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Jessica HEARS this and looks up just as the Shadout Mapes silently enters her room. JESSICA (staring at the blue-eyed woman -- waiting for possible danger.) Yes? SHADOUT MAPES I am the Shadout Mapes, your housekeeper, Noble Born. What are your orders. JESSICA You may refer to me as "my lady." I am not noble born. I'm the bound concubine of Duke Leto -- mother of the heir designate.... "Shadout"... that's an ancient word. MAPES (strangely asked) You know the ancient tongues? JESSICA I know the Bhotani Jib and Chakobsa, all the hunting languages. MAPES As the legend says. JESSICA (inner voice) That's it! The Missionaria Protectiva has been here planting protective legends against a day of Bene Gesserit need. And that day has come. I must play out this sham. (out loud) I know the Dark things and the way of the Great Mother. Miseces prejin. Mapes takes a step backward to flee. JESSICA (CONT'D) I know many things. I know you came prepared for violence with a weapon in your bodice.-- MAPES My lady, I... the weapon was sent as a gift if you should prove to be the one. JESSICA And the means of my death should I prove otherwise. (inner voice) Now we will see which way the decision tips. Slowly Mapes reaches into her dress and brings out a sheathed knife. She unleashes it. MAPES Do you know this my lady? JESSICA (inner voice) It could only be one thing.... (out loud) It's a crysknife. MAPES Say it not lightly... (very slowly) Do you know its meaning? JESSICA (inner voice) Here is why this Fremen has taken service with me, to ask that one question. Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer. Shadout is Chakobsa... knife, in Chakobsa is... maker of death. (out loud) It's a maker... Mapes SCREAMS with elation and grief. JESSICA (CONT'D) (inner voice) Maker?... Maker is the key word... the tooth of the worm? That was close... (out loud) Did you think that I, knowing the mysteries of the Great Mother, would not know the maker? MAPES My lady, when one has lived with prophecy for so long, the moment of revelation is a shock. Mapes sheathes the blade... slowly-- JESSICA (inner voice) There's more here... yes! (out loud) Mapes, you've sheathed that blade unblooded. With a GASP Mapes drops the knife into Jessica's hands and opens her blouse. MAPES Take the water of my life! Jessica withdraws the knife from the sheath and, with the blade, scratches a line just above Mapes' right breast. MAPES (CONT'D) You are ours.... You are the one. Jessica's eyes stare ahead. She knows these words ring with truth.93. INT. TUNNEL - OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE -DAY The Duke, Paul and SEVERAL ARMED GUARDS enter a tunnel to a `thopter landing pad which is illuminated by a shaft of light coming from a chimney-like exit above. DR. KYNES and his Fremen guard are standing next to Gurney. KYNES (to Gurney) So, this is Leto the Just... GURNEY (sharply) I hope I made myself clear. You may call him "The Duke," "My lord," or "Sire." And there is a more ancient term you might keep in mind -- "Noble Born." KYNES (inner voice) Play out your little comedy while you can off-worlders... Gurney turns and activates a device...93A. INSERT - ORNITHOPTER OPENING ...which causes the ornithopter behind to fold open ready for flight.--93B. INT. TUNNEL - OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE -DAY The two parties meet and are introduced. DUKE LETO So you are Dr. Kynes, the Imperial Ecologist? KYNES (turning to Gurney) I prefer the more ancient term, planetologist... Noble Born. DUKE LETO This is my son, Paul. PAUL Are you a Fremen? KYNES I am a servant of the His Majesty the Emperor. I have served His Majesty on Arrakis long enough for my eyes to change. PAUL (inner voice) He's hiding something. DUKE LETO I understand we have you to thank for these stillsuits, Doctor. KYNES They are Fremen suits. I hope they fit well, my lord. PAUL "Your gift is a blessing of the river." Kynes' FREMEN GUARDS, hearing this are siezed with agitation. Kynes QUIETS them, then studies Paul. KYNES (inner voice) The Mahdi will greet you with holy words and your gifts will be a blessing. (spoken, nonchalantly) Most of the desert natives here are a superstitious lot. They mean no harm. With your permission, I will check the security of your suits. Gurney and the guard move forward warily. GURNEY (angrily) The Duke is to be addresses as...-- Kynes comes forward and adjusts the Duke's suit, checking seals and pulling on straps. KYNES Basically... GURNEY (leaping forward to protect his Duke) Sire! DUKE LETO It's all right Gurney. Gurney steps back. GURNEY Yes, Sire. KYNES It's a high-efficiency filter and heat exchange system. Perspiration passes through the first layer and is gathered in the second. The salt is separated. Breathing and walking provide the pumping action. The reclaimed water circulates to catchpockets from which you can drink through this tube at your neck. Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads. Should you be in the open desert, remember to breathe in through your mouth, out through the nose tubes. The Duke is now properly fitted. Kynes places the noseplug into his nose. KYNES (CONT'D) With a Fremen suit in good working order, one can sustain life for weeks, even in the deep desert. He removes the noseplug. DUKE LETO My thanks. KYNES With your permission... Kynes turns to Paul, running his hands over the slick fabric. He stands back with a puzzled expression.-- KYNES You've worn a stillsuit before? PAUL No. KYNES Your suit is fitted desert fashion. Who told you how to do that? PAUL No one. It... seemed the proper way. KYNES That it is. (inner voice) He shall know your ways as if born to them. Kyne's Fremen guard are watching Paul very closely now. GURNEY We're wasting time, Sire. Duke Leto, Dr. Kynes, Gurney and Paul enter the ornithopter...88. Through 89B. (Deleted)90. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Jessica trembles. JESSICA (inner voice) I must speak with you Leto!91. Through 92. (Deleted)93C. EXT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - TUNNEL - ARRAKEEN PALACE- DAY ...and the thopter turns slowly as it goes up into the light.93D. (Deleted)--93E. EXT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY From outside the Palace's atomic shield we see the blur of the ornithopter pass through a porthole and come out perfect like a gleaming jewel.93F. Through 94. (Deleted)94A. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY KYNES Southeast over the Shield Wall. That's where I told your sandmaster to concentrate his harvesting.95. EXT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY They crest the top of the wall which opens out into a black, level expanse of rock, cratered and fractured. On the other side is the huge, seemingly endless plain of sand, the Great Desert. In the hazy distance, flashes of light can be seen.96. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY PAUL Will we see a worm? KYNES Where there is spice and spice mining there are always worms. PAUL Always? KYNES Always. PAUL Why do they come? KYNES To protect their territory. Vibrations attract them.-- PAUL (inner voice) I've registered him now... a knife is a sheath on his left arm... He's strong... a person born to command... He's hiding many things. (out loud, suddenly) Is there a relationship between the worms and the spice? Kynes turns instantly and stares at Paul. Gurney sees the wonder in Kynes' eyes. GURNEY The young master is a trained Mentat, an advanced student of Prana Bindu has studied under some of the finest teachers in the Universe. Kynes takes a second look at young Paul. KYNES As I said... they defend the spice sands. As to their relationship with the spice... who knows.97. Through 97A. (Deleted)98. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY GURNEY Dust cloud ahead, Sire. KYNES That's it... spice mining... no other cloud quite like it. See the spotters over it? They're watching for wormsign... the telltale sand waves. Seismic probes on the surface, too Sire... worms can travel too deep for their waves to show... Looks like a good patch of spice. DUKE LETO Wormsign? Is it wormsign?-- KYNES Yes!... worm. Big one! You've got sharp eyes Sire.... May I? Kynes grabs the microphone and dials in the correct frequency.98A. through 99. (Deleted)100. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER From the window, we see that the sand below is rippling, like water with a big fish just under the surface. KYNES (into radio, after having found the frequency) Calling Harvester Pad Nine. Wormsign! STATIC... then a voice. VOICE (over radio) Who calls Pad Nine? GURNEY (quickly) Don't mention the Duke... This is an uncoded channel. KYNES Unlisted flight northeast of you... wormsign on intercept course... estimated contact fifteen minutes. VOICE (over radio) Have sighting confirmed. Stand by for fix. Contact in sixteen minutes minus. Very precise estimate. Who is on that unlisted flight? Kynes clicks off the radio. DUKE LETO What happens now? KYNES The carryall will come and lift off the spice harvester. Try and get in close over the harvester... you'll find this interesting Sire.-- The Duke accelerates the ornithopter in the direction of the harvester. Paul can SEE...101. EXT. HARVESTER - DESERT - DAY ...huge amounts of sand being spewn out of the gigantic stack atop the metal and plasteel harvester.102. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY KYNES They'll work until the very last minute. The yellow cloud of the harvester envelops them. The Duke flies up to get a closer look. VOICE (over radio) Spotter control... no sign of the carryall... it isn't answering. Everyone looks at one another. GURNEY The worm is eight minutes away, Sire. VOICE (over radio) Spotter control -- give me a report by the numbers. Over the radio MANY VOICES report they have no contact with the carryall. DUKE LETO Damn it... Harkonnens. He punches a control button and grabs a microphone. DUKE LETO (CONT'D) (into microphone) We are coming down to take you off the harvester... All spotters are ordered to comply. VOICE (over radio) Ordered by whom?-- DUKE LETO (angrily) Duke Leto Atreides.... Gurney and Paul turn to each other, worried. VOICE (over radio) Yes... yes, Sire! DUKE LETO How many men do you have? VOICE (over radio) Full crew -- twenty-six men -- but Sire, we can't leave this spice... DUKE LETO Damn the spice! Get out of there.103. EXT. HARVESTER - DESERT - DAY All the spotters begin landing and the Duke descends directly in front of the harvester which has stopped mining yet emits a tremendous rythmic GRINDING noise. No one is coming out.104. INT./EXT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER/DESERT - DAY Gurney nervously scans the sky for enemy ships. A very low, powerful SOUND starts now and the ground begins to shake.105. EXT. HARVESTER - DESERT - DAY A hatch opens and MEN come pouring out.106. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DESERT - DAY DUKE LETO (yelling at the men) Two men in each of the spotters... You!... over here... run!! The ground is really shaking now. A tremendous low THUNDERING sound grows along with a high rasping HISS. KYNES (to Paul and Gurney -- yelling over the noise) I can't see him yet but he's very close...-- DUKE LETO (out loud to himself as he watches the men scrambling) Damn sloppy -- really damn sloppy. FOUR MEN begin tumbling into the Duke's machine. GURNEY Come on boys... come on. (Then, to the Duke) We're going to be heavy, Sire. The men press on Gurney and Paul. Paul can feel the fear. The sound is a horrible ROAR and deeper RUMBLING now and the `thopter is vibrating and shaking violently. The air suddenly begins to SPARK with static electricity. KYNES (nervous) Here he is... We've got to go. The Duke closes the doorways, surveys the area one last time, then takes the controls.106A. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY The ship strains and lifts off -- slowly. Paul sees the brown powder clumped on the suits of the men... their bluish eyes. He smells the spice. He begins to feel its affect. PAUL (inner voice as a blinding light comes and goes) Spice!... pure un-refined spice! KYNES (murmuring) Bless the Maker and his water... Bless the coming and going of him. May his passage cleanse the world. DUKE LETO (yelling) What's that you're saying? KYNES Nothing. A spice miner turns and sees Kynes, who remains silent.-- SPICE MINER #1 (astonished) Liet! SPICE MINER #2 Shhhhh. Paul hears this, then looks to Kynes -- locks on his image. PAUL (inner voice) Liet? KYNES (pointing down and yelling) You are about to witness something few have seen -- watch! Watch! Paul looks down as the Duke banks over the harvester.107. EXT. HARVESTER - DESERT - DAYStatic electricity is IGNITING in the air and the sand isswirling around the harvester. Then they see it. A widehole emerges from the sand, glistening spokes within it.The hole is twice the size of the harvester. Suddenlythe machine turns and slides into the hole, parts of itEXPLODING. The SOUND is deafening. The Duke's ship isWHINING to stay aloft.108. INT. ATREIDES ORNITHOPTER - DAY GURNEY Gods, what a monster. DUKE LETO Someone is going to pay for this... I promise. KYNES (inner voice -- as he studies the Duke) This Duke is more concerned over his men than the spice! I must admit... against all better judgement... I like this Duke. FADE TO:109. through 113B. (Deleted)--114. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Duke Leto walks into the room. The NIGHT GUARD comes to attention as he passes. DUNCAN IDAHO, wearing a dark, dusty stillsuit, emerges from the shadows. DUKE LETO and DUNCAN meet at the foot of the steps. The men embrace and separate. DUKE LETO (happily) Duncan! What have you discovered about the Fremen, Duncan -- tell me. Why haven't we heard from you? DUNCAN My lord... I suspect so much. I think they are the allies we seek... they are strong and fierce... they do not give their loyalty easily or quickly.... As you know, the Imperium has never been able to take a census of the Fremen. Everyone thinks that there are but few -- wandering here and there in the desert.... My lord, I suspect an incredible secret has been kept on this planet... that the Fremen exist in vast numbers... vast numbers... and it is they that control Arrakis.115. through 116. (Deleted)116A. NEW SCENE - SHADOUT MAPES ALONG PASSAGE117. INT. PAUL'S SUB-BASEMENT ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE -NIGHT DUKE LETO'S VOICE Guard. Open the door. Paul is in a fitful sleep. Leto enters and smiles at his son. DUKE LETO Sleep well... my son. The Duke smiles at Paul then leaves the room, but after he goes, Paul strains with all his might to lift himself to call out. PAUL (struggling painfully) Father!... father... drugged...--122. INT. BARON'S QUARTERS - HARKONNEN SHIP - NIGHT The BARON's face -- expressionless. The SOUND of his ship screams in the background. The DOCTOR is seated beside him.118 INT. SUB-BASEMENT PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE -NIGHT The Duke walks down the steps to a very narrow passageway. The passageway becomes very dark. Suddenly the Duke hears a strange MEWLING sound. He turns down an even darker passageway. He can hear the shield WHINING in the distance. He almost has to feel his way. Up ahead he sees a shape. He bends down and sees the SHADOUT MAPES dying on the cold stone floor in the darkness. She tries to speak but cannot. She falls. Suddenly the Duke HEARS the shield generator start whining down. DUKE LETO What happened? What? (as Mapes dies) The shield! The Duke reaches to activate his shield be a large dart is shot into his shoulder. The Duke lurches upwards then tumbles to the ground. Out of the darkness comes Dr. Yueh. The dart drops and CLATTERS as if a dream. DUKE LETO (CONT'D) (mind racing -- struggling) Yueh! (inner voice) He's sabotaged the house generators, we're wide open. YUEH (with self-disgust) I've brought House Atreides down. I've destroyed the new army's weirding modules. DUKE LETO (hoarse whisper) ... Why? The generator WHINES lower and lower-- YUEH I wish to kill a man... not you, my dear Duke, but the Baron.... You were dead already... but you will be close to the Baron before you die. You will be tied and drugged but you can still attack. When you see the Baron you will have a new poison tooth. He will want you close so he can gloat over you. One bite on this tooth and a strong exile... DUKE LETO Refuse... YUEH No! -- You mustn't... for in return I will save the lives of your Paul and Jessica. Yueh removes the Duke's signet ring and shows it to him. YUEH (CONT'D) For Paul... He implants the tooth. Yueh becomes more and more blurred. His image begins to fade. His lips move in the darkness. The generator WHINE is low and going lower and lower. YUEH (CONT'D) When you see the Baron, remember the tooth! The tooth!119. (Deleted)119A. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE -NIGHT ATREIDES GUARD #1 comes running down the steps and up to the CAPTAIN and a TECHNICIAN. ATREIDES GUARD #1 The shield is down! The shield is down! ATREIDES GUARD CAPTAIN Harkonnen... (turns and shouts) Get that shield up!--119B. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT A warning TONE begins. TROOPS begin pouring onto the field.119C. EXT. ROCK - LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT Troops race toward their ships.119D. (Deleted)119E. INT. GUARD HOUSE - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT ATREIDES GUARD The shield! The shield!120. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT A loud warning TONE vibrates. Thufir turns away from the doorway of a small room where he's horrified to SEE...120A. INSERT ... a chemical FIRE consuming the thousands of Atreides weirding modules.121. through 121A. (Deleted)123. EXT. PALACE - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT A thousand Harkonnen ships dive over Arrakeen and the Palace. Giant deep thunderous EXPLOSIONS shatter the land. Billowing SMOKE clouds column upwards, forming a black wriggling death curtain around the Palace.124. INT. PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Troops are running through the passageway, right and left. SMOKE is everywhere and the horrible SOUNDS of the explosions continue. The SOUNDS of stone crunching, shifting, and breaking. SCREAMS. A wall of stone suddenly cracks open. A burst of air and dust shoots out, HISSING. The Duke's dog runs through the passageway WHINING with fear.--125. (Deleted)125A. EXT. HARKONNEN SHIP - LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN- NIGHT Sardaukar rush out of a Harkonnen ship. Their electrically distorted faces come screaming toward us.125B. (Deleted)126. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT Harkonnen hammer ships thunder the ground, sending cracks and fissures throughout the landing field. Harkonnen scare SIRENS scream.126A. EXT. HAMMER SHIPS - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT Atreides soldiers run from the hammer ships.129. EXT. GROUNDS - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT FIRE and SMOKE. SCREAMS. An ATREIDES SOLDIER's head is hit with a large white hot piece of explosion. Through the black smoke, large SARDAUKAR chase after THREE SOLDIERS and them with hydraulic knife-guns. One blade enters the back of one man's head and comes out his nose. Tremendous NOISE of battle. Gurney and a squad of TROOPERS climb through bodies and thick smoke. Gurney has the Duke's dog safely inside his coat. The little dog's head sticks out -- looking about. Gurney strokes the dog's neck when the reach safety behind some rock. Small glimpses, as the smoke moves this way or that, let them see thousands of Sardaukar fighting. GURNEY LONG LIVE DUKE LETO! TROOPERS Long live Duke Leto! The CRY from the men rings out as they attack with frenzy equalling that of the Sardaukar.127. INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT The distant HAMMERING of the Harkonnen hammer ship. Jessica's eyes open and she sees two big boots but they seem to be floating above the stone floor she is lying on. She is gagged and tied. She looks up. She sees the huge Baron Harkonnen staring down at her. In the distance she HEARS the battle raging.-- BARON The drug was timed. Dr. Yueh has been very valuable to us.... What a pity you must remain gagged. We can't let ourselves be swayed by your witch's Voice, now, can we? JESSICA (inner voice) Leto... where are you?86. INT. A ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Dr. Yueh covers his face with his hands in a darkened room... sobbing.127. BACK TO SCENE The Baron floats across the room with suspensor- borne lightness. BARON Goodbye, Jessica and goodbye to your sweet son.... I want to spit once on your head... just some spittle on your face -- what a luxury. He spits on her cheek. The Baron floats out of the room into the passageway. BARON (CONT'D) We were ordered to kill them... so kill them.129. BACK TO SCENE - BATTLE127. BACK TO SCENE NEFUD What are your orders, Piter? PITER Take them to the desert, as the traitor suggested and worms will destroy the evidence. Their bodies must never be found.--129. BACK TO SCENE - BATTLE127. BACK TO SCENE PITER (whispering to Jessica, rubbing the spittle around on her face with his hand, delicately) I'd thought of many pleasures with you. It is perhaps better that you die in the innards of a worm. Desire clouds my reason.... That is not good... that is bad.129. BACK TO SCENE128. INT. SUB-BASEMENT PASSAGEWAY - ARRAKEEN PALACE -NIGHT - SHIELD EFFECT Duncan Idaho kills a Sardaukar soldier and rushes forward frantically. His eyes blaze intensely. He yells out to the other Atreides soldiers. DUNCAN They're on this floor somewhere.... The soldiers disappear, searching in another direction. Duncan runs, pounding, down the passageway -- his eyes searching in every doorway. Suddenly twelve huge Sardaukar round a corner on a quick march. Duncan turns his shield up and charges them. Behind them he sees Paul and Jessica bound in straps and being carried. Duncan attacks and fights valiantly but he is outnumbered. In the fight the lights are blown out and Duncan is killed by a slow stunner pellet through the head. Paul strains to help. PAUL (seeing Duncan) Duncan!! Duncan!! Paul and Jessica are carried off, quickly, through the darkness. The battle SOUNDS thundering.--128A. DUNCAN'S BODY - INT. SUB-BASEMENT PASSAGEWAY -ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT - SHIELD EFFECT Duncan's dead, shielded body slides sparking in the dark against the passageway walls.129. BACK TO SCENE - BATTLE - RABBAN ON BRIDGE131C. (Deleted)132. EXT. PALACE - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT FIRE and SMOKE.133. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT The Baron's face, the light of FIRE and EXPLOSIONS playing over it. The Baron turns as Piter ushers in the traitor Yueh. BARON (to Yueh - quietly) You wish now to join your wife, is that it, traitor? A sudden flash of hope crosses Yueh's face. YUEH She lives? The Baron smiles, almost sympathetically. BARON You wish to join her... join her, then. Piter moves to Yueh, a knife glistening in his hand. It flashes into his back. A GASP escapes Yueh's throat, a sad look passing over his face, as if to say "I thought as much." He stands stiffly, then falls gasping. He tastes his own blood, then dies. BARON Take him away.144. EXT. GROUNDS - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Black smoke palms.--145. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Rabban strides in front of his uncle's ship, carrying Kynes over his shoulder. Harkonnen and Sardaukar SOLDIERS stand at attention. Rabban tears off Kynes' stillsuit. Kynes falls. RABBAN He was in the Palace with the Atreides... I also say he was a spy for the Emperor. (looking up to the troops) Go now! Take him to his desert to die. Go!129A. EXT. HARKONNEN ORNITHOPTER - NIGHT The small `thopter climbs toward the Shield Wall through a SMOKEY atmosphere illuminated by distant EXPLOSIONS.130. INT. HARKONNEN ORNITHOPTER - NIGHT JESSICA (inner voice) Yueh's sign. He's left a satchell. Jessica and Paul, bound by cabin straps, lie in the back, the two guards at the controls. Outside, `thopters and ships fly past them toward the city. The distant FIRES play over Jessica's face as she sees Yueh's triangular tattoo scratched in the cabin roof. HARKONNEN GUARD #1 I'd like to have some fun before we kill her. HARKONNEN GUARD #2 (laughing) Of course... what did you think? Jessica looks to Paul. PAUL (struggling to use The Voice) Don't touch my mother... JESSICA (inner voice) Oh great mother! He's trying the voice. The Reverend Mother said it could save him. HARKONNEN GUARD #1 Did you hear a noise from the little one?-- HARKONNEN GUARD #2 I didn't hear anything. HARKONNEN GUARD #1 No? HARKONNEN GUARD #2 No. He turns and hits Paul in the shoulder with a stungun. Paul recovers and starts taking long, calming breaths. JESSICA (inner voice) The calming exercise. HARKONNEN GUARD #1 The little one! (they laugh) Suddenly, Guard #1 reaches around and puts his hand up Jessica's skirt. He starts breathing hard. Paul clears his throat. PAUL (using The Voice) Remove her gag! JESSICA (inner voice) Excellent! Guard #1 finds himself removing Jessica's gag. Guard #2 turns away from his controls but seems powerless to stop him. Once, it's off Jessica smiles seductively and writhes on the `thopter floor. JESSICA (CONT'D) (The Voice) There's no need to fight over me. The two men stare at one another a moment. Then Guard #1's hand, glinting silver, flashes into Guard #2's chest, killing him. Guard #1 pulls the knife out, smiling. The ornithopter begins to veer off into a dangerous nose dive. HARKONNEN GUARD #1 Now? JESSICA (The Voice) First cut my son's bonds.-- Guard #1 slowly cuts Paul's big straps, never taking his eyes off Jessica. The ornithopter gets closer and closer to the top jagged surface of the Shield Wall. JESSICA (CONT'D) (The Voice) That's it. The blade cuts through the strap holding Paul's legs. Paul kicks upwards extremely powerfully and his foot breaks through the man's chest cavity and drives his heart up into his head, spewing blood out the man's mouth. Paul grabs the controls but it's too late. The ship falls into the rock.130A. EXT. HARKONNEN ORNITHOPTER - DESERT - NIGHT The `thopter slides across the rock, shearing off a wing. Suddenly they are beyond the rock three miles above the great desert and plummeting fast toward the dunes below.130. BACK TO SCENE Paul pulls desperately on the controls and manages to keep the ship aloft and flying into the deep desert. JESSICA Oh, my God!131. through 131A. (Deleted)131B. EXT. PALACE - ARRAKEEN - NIGHT CU violently burning palm.133. BACK TO SCENE Nefud exits - TWO HARKONNENS wheel in the stretcher, and swing it round - one of the GUARDS hands Piter his knife back - the Guards exit and the door closes - Piter moves up to Duke Leto and leans over him moving his knife across the Duke's face. The Baron flies down to the stretcher. BARON Duke Leto Atreides. Someone's torn the insignia off your uniform. Such carelessness. Leto shows no sign that he has heard.-- PITER It was Feyd. Leto's POV: The Baron and his Mentat are only DIM FARAWAY SHAPES. Their voices reach Leto as if travelling across a greater distance. The Baron looks to Leto and then moves to him, looking him over. BARON It was Feyd? (laughing) It was Feyd! Where is the ducal signet ring? I must have his ring. PITER The ring?... he was brought to us as is, Baron. I... BARON You killed the doctor too soon, you fool! DUKE LETO (inner voice) Yueh... Yueh... dead... Paul and Jessica safe... the tooth! PITER He's coming round, my Lord. The Baron moves from behind a table stacked with dirty dishes and foodstuffs and goes to Leto. DUKE LETO (inner voice) Wait... he must be near... BARON Where is your ring? The Baron's face is now very close to Duke Leto's. BARON (CONT'D) You do not answer! DUKE LETO (very faint) A... little... closer.... The... water... of my life... for Paul. The Baron briefly wonders at these words and then turns to Piter.-- BARON He's crying! (he hits Duke Leto) He's crying! He's crying, Piter. What does he mean? Piter moves forward. The Baron sees a suculent piece of chicken skin on the table. He picks up the plate, then the chicken skin. Leto's POV: It's grown HAZY again. The Baron is beginning to move away, reaching for the small piece of chicken skin. Piter leans close to Leto. DUKE LETO Now! We hear a CRUNCH, hear a tumultuous RUSHING SOUND as Piter's face is pushed forcibly away. The Baron is turning, a dumbfounded look on his face. He drops the plate, and backs away. There is a tremendous ROARING. Bits of visions of Caladan rush through Leto's ever-darkening consciousness -- MENTAL IMAGES:134. through 134A. (Deleted)134B. EXT. CLIFF WALL - CALADAN - DAY The Atreides banner, the green of it, then the black. The blackness flaps; then all fades to SILENCE.135. INT. HARKONNEN ORNITHOPTER - NIGHT As they fly deeper into the desert with the ship shuddering and straining, Jessica suddenly cries out with tremendous premonition and fear. JESSICA Leto! Leto! Tears course down her cheeks as Paul turns to her. JESSICA (CONT'D) (to Paul) Leto! He's dead! He's dead...-- PAUL I know (inner voice) I have NO FEELINGS!! Why?136. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT Duke Leto and Piter lie dead.137. INT. ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT The Baron floats near the ceiling in a small passageway. He is ecstatic. BARON (screaming) I'm alive!!! I'm alive!!!137A. INT. HARKONNEN `THOPTER - NIGHT Paul is fighting the controls of the Harkonnen `thopter.137B. CLEAN POV Harkonnen `thopter lights on dunes.137A. BACK TO SCENE PAUL I can't maintain any altitude... we'll never reach the safety of rock. Maybe that small rock. JESSICA Where are we do you think? PAUL The South Polar regions... the forbidden area. We must make it to that rock...137C. EXT. HARKONNEN `THOPTER - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT The `thopter violently hits the sands and flips up - - almost turning over. It falls slowly back, then slides down the side of a dune.--137D. EXT. HARKONNEN ORNITHOPTER - DESERT - NIGHT PAUL Hurry! He jumps out of his seat. JESSICA Bring these satchels! She hands him one. PAUL (at doorway) Hurry -- This crashing may bring a worm. As Paul puts the satchel over his shoulder, he feels something. He looks at his father's ring. He stares at it silently, then closes his hand around it. They jump outside. JESSICA (starting to cry) A million deaths are not enough for Yueh... PAUL (inner voice)(reacting to his mother's tears) Where are my feelings... I feel for no one...138. EXT. ROCK - DESERT - NIGHT Paul and Jessica running. Paul pulls Jessica to a place in the wall where a small overhang offers shelter. Jessica falls to the ground. She CRIES, pouring out her grief, but soon the sound of it is carried away by the building rush of WIND. Paul turns and looks out to the open desert, this portion of which is a dust ocean.138A. PAUL'S POV: The Mouse Moon has risen. Ripples of dust undulate tide-like in the light of the moon. The WHISPERING grains billow up like the foam of waves as they hit the rock.138. BACK TO SCENE Paul turns, his face illuminated by the two moons above. His eyes lock on the moon which has the image of the mouse.-- PAUL (inner voice) The second moon... from the dreams...138B. INT. PAUL'S EYE - NIGHT We move into Paul's eye, where the mouse moon appear and revolves slowly. The moon begins to explode. The pieces of the moon soar toward us burning with white-hot flames. Within the flames we see...139. (Deleted)139A. EXT. ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT ... the burning Palace of Arrakeen. We move closer to it.189B. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN PALACE - NIGHT We then see Duke Leto's face. The Baron leans over the Duke and clutches the skin on the Duke's face. He begins pulling it. The skin on the Duke's race slowly rips open -- making a hideous tearing SOUND. Black SMOKE issues forth from the hole which teats larger. PAUL (V.O.) (distorted) House Atreides is ruined. (less distorted) This moon holds my past.139C. INT. VESTIBULE - OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Inside and through the SMOKE Paul sees Feyd tear the Red Duke insignia off his father's uniform. He sees Feyd laughing. The moving, now-brilliant red hawk insignia becomes...139D. EXT. CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT ... a burning meteor ROARING over the castle on Caladan. The meteor crashes in the black sea. PAUL (V.O.) This moon holds my future.--139E. INT. WATER - NIGHT Foaming confusion turning into a small, twisting fetus under the sea. Its eyes closed. Moving close to it, its eyes snap open. Through the eyes is the pale white face of JESSICA.139F. EXT. SHIELD WALL - DESERT - NIGHT There is a huge soaring WIND sound and beyond JESSICA the dunes roll like ocean waves.139G. EXT. MOUSE MOON - NIGHT The moon continues to spew out pieces of moving images which are seen then disappear as fast as sparks. The broken, burning pieces float eerily toward us over the undulating dunes below. One image floats closer. It is a hand folded into a fist. PAUL (V.O.) I am only a seed... The fist begins to open. DUKE LETO (V.O.) The seed must grow. The hand opens fully with slow blue fluid pulsating out the very center of the palm. The hand floats eerily forward. DUKE LETO (V.O.) The sleeper must awaken.139H. EXT. WATER - NIGHT The last image which passes is foaming and spitting dark blue water. As the image passes, the black smoke trailing behind it obscures the picture to blackness.140. EXT. ROCK - DESERT - NIGHT Through the darkness we move to Paul's clenched hand. It opens, revealing the signet ring in the very center of his palm. Paul looks upward to the moons of Arrakis. He looks back to the ring, then to his mother. PAUL Listen to me!... you wanted to know about my dreams... and I've just had a waking dream... do you know why?...-- JESSICA Calm yourself/ PAUL The spice! It's in everything here. The air, the soil, the food... It's like the Truthsayer drug..... It's a poison!!!! You knew the spice would change me. But thanks to your teachings it's changed my consciousness. I can see it... I can see it. JESSICA (inner voice) Is he....? PAUL You carry my unborn sister in your womb! JESSICA (inner voice) He knows. PAUL You and your Bene Gesserit sisterhood... I'm not your Kwisatz Haderach... I'm something different, something unexpected! (inner voice) I'm a seed. (out load) I am so much more... You don't begin to know me...141. through 142A. (Deleted)142B. EXT. ROCK - DESERT - NIGHT Paul's head goes down. He places the ring on his finger. PAUL (inner voice) Father... now I have become a killer and I will continue to kill until I have avenged your death. (out loud) Father! Jessica cries as she stares at her son.143. through 143A. (Deleted)--145. BACK TO SCENE Rabban stops up the ramp. He wears a large smile. His thick head sweats and sweat runs down his thick neck. He goes inside and the doors swing closed.146. INT. HARKONNEN SHIP - NIGHT He enters the ship and moves down within to the Baron's headquarters, passing two dwarves cooking a dead legless cow which hangs from chains. Rabban tears out the cow's tongue and eats it. Then he exits through a door which closes behind him.147. INT. BARON'S QUARTERS - HARKONNEN SHIP - NIGHT The Baron is flying wildly, circling the outside of a large steel shower, while Nefud and a DWARF play a strange instrument producing maniacal, perverse, screaming MUSIC. The Baron SEES Rabban enter, but continues to fly around the shower. BARON (very excited) Rabban!!... we're knee deep in Atreides blood! We've gutted them. We've gutted them! (laughs) The Baron floats to Rabban and begins lovingly massaging Rabban's massive neck as he speaks to him. BARON Rabban, Rabban... I place you in charge of Arrakis. It's yours to squeeze, as I promised. I want you to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. (massaging in rhythm) Give me spice! Drive them into utter submission. You must not show the slightest pity or mercy... as only you can... Never stop! (releasing him) Go.... Show no mercy! RABBAN Yes, my lord Baron. Rabban leaves just as Feyd steps out of the shower. The Baron turns to him lovingly.-- BARON (to Feyd) And when we've crushed these people enough I'll send in you Feyd... they'll cheer you as a rescuer... lovely Feyd... really a lovely boy. (suddenly he smiles and screams) Where's my doctor?148. INT. HARKONNEN SHIP - NIGHT As Rabban leaves, he looks into one room of the ship. Behind the glass porthole sits Thufir Hawat bound head and foot, his eyes darting this way and that.148A. EXT. ROCK - DESERT - NIGHT Paul and Jessica are in stillsuits. Paul is looking through a Fremkit. He finds a paper with Dr. Yueh's mark on it. PAUL (inner voice) Yueh's left the plans for the weirding modules.148B. EXT. MOONS - ARRAKEEN - DESERT - NIGHT The moons have moved further across the sky.148A. BACK TO SCENE Suddenly Paul turns and studies his mother. A stronger WIND comes up. PAUL We have to get to that mountain of rock. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives... Jessica gets up. They make their way up the crest of a dune by a small rock. PAUL (CONT'D) It's further than I thought... a worm is sure to come.... I'll plant a thumper, that should divert it.-- Paul moves off into the shadows. Suddenly, Jessica SEES a burst of LIGHTNING illuminate the mountain of rock in the distant and the vast dunes before them. JESSICA (CONT'D) (inner voice)(as Paul leaves to light the thumper) ...the night is a tunnel... a hole into tomorrow... if we're to have a tomorrow...149. through 151. (Deleted)151A. EXT. DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Paul plants the thumper which begins a powerful rhythmic noise. He turns to Jessica. PAUL (returning) Remember... walk without rhythm and we won't attract a worm... it'll go to the thumper. JESSICA (puts in her noseplug) I'm ready. Paul and Jessica move into camera and exit right.151B. EXT. DEEP DESERT AND ROCKS - NIGHT Another burst of LIGHTNING. The distant rock seems to have grown no larger. Their muscles begin to ache. Suddenly they HEAR the thumper start behind them. PAUL Keep going...152. EXT. DEEP DESERT AND ROCKS - NIGHT (LATER) Their breathing becomes very labored. The sand moves like slow water, forever rolling down and up. Then they hear the worm, the low thundering HISS shaking the tonnage of sand. The thumper stops. Paul turns. PAUL Faster!!-- JESSICA (screaming) It's deafening! Their bodies ache and they feel like dropping, yet the cliff is still a good distance away. The worm SOUND grows louder and Paul turns to look.153. EXT. WORM - DESERT - NIGHT A flash of LIGHTNING. The worm is now coming toward them. The mound of sand over the worm is enormous and is approaching at a terrifyingly fast speed. The power of this worm is awesome.153A. EXT. DEEP DESERT - NIGHT PAUL (screaming) Run! JESSICA I can't... I can't. She turns to see. Then she runs.153B. EXT. DRUM SAND - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT All at once their feet tromp down on firmer sand. The SOUND is very loud. PAUL Drum sand! The DRUMMING sound ECHOES deep within the ground. Jessica falls. Paul stops and drags her up. They run again. The worm SOUND becomes unbearably loud. Static electricity SPARKS giant bolts of pure white LIGHTNING and the air turns to ozone. Finally they find rock. Behind them the SOUND of the worm changes. They turn.154. EXT. WORM - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT The gigantic head of the worm is just breaking through the sand. The mouth begins to open in an eighty-foot circle of teeth and darkness. The mouth arches forward searching for them.155. EXT. BASE OF THE CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Paul and Jessica climb up and up inside a narrow slit of rock.--155A. INT. ROCK CLIFF - DESERT - NIGHT The worm's mouth climbs higher also but it cannot penetrate the narrow opening in the rock.156. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - NIGHT Paul and Jessica have scrambled upwards a couple of hundred feet.156A. EXT. WORM AND ROCK - NIGHT Still the worm stretches up to them. Suddenly the worm begins BANGING on the rock. Huge SHUDDERS drive through the black stone. Over and over again the worm mindlessly hits at the rock.156B. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - NIGHT Paul and Jessica crouch further back in the tiny passageway of safety, but a solid back wall of rock prevents them from moving back any more.156C. INT. ROCK CLIFF - NIGHT The breath from the worm is like a hurricane of WIND. PAUL (inner voice) Cinnamon... the spice! (out loud) Do you smell it? JESSICA Yes... PAUL (inner voice) I know the secret. The worm is the spice... the spice is the worm.157. (Deleted)157A. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Suddenly a colossal section of the rock wall cracks and topples off into the worm's mouth. Instantly the worm pulls back. A huge FIRE roars deep within the worm consuming the rock.--158. INT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT The worm now can get even closer to Paul and Jessica. It looms up again and crushes its mouth up against the rock.158A. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Another fissure opens, and suddenly half the rock wall protecting them splits off entirely and falls... taking Paul with it.158B. EXT. WORM AND ROCK - NIGHT ...against the worm.159. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Paul is knocked off the cliff and falls straight down two hundred feet. His feet skid along the face of rock. He bounces and brakes. He hits and jumps. He careens from one boulder, flies upside down, rights himself then tumbles and skids into the sand. Unhurt, he jumps up and scrambles up another part of the rock to safety.160. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT JESSICA Paul! She presses against the narrow ledge that is left after the worm assault.161. EXT. BASE OF THE CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT The worm is just coming up again when distant THUMPING is heard. The worm, as if charmed by the sound, turns and moves off towards it. PAUL (inner voice) A thumper.161A. (Deleted)162. EXT. ROCK CLIFF - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Jessica climbs further up and manages to get over to a place where she can meet up with Paul, who is now climbing back.-- JESSICA (crying) What's happened?... Why did it leave? PAUL (breathing heavily) Someone started another thumper.... We're not alone. They climb upwards until the ledge ends at the mouth of a dark crevice. Paul and Jessica try to see into the inky black hole.163. EXT. CREVICE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Slowly Paul and Jessica enter, inching forward. A low moan of WIND comes up. Paul can see nothing, then suddenly he SEES stars above and SEES the hint of stairs cut into the rock. JESSICA (whispering) Man-carved steps. PAUL (whispering) Yes... They climb the steps and enter an extremely narrow dark channel of stone. As they make their way through the rock, suddenly there is a burst of lightning which illuminates a whole troop of Fremen standing silently in front of them.164. EXT. FREMEN PLACE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT STILGAR Perhaps these are the ones Mapes told us of. STILGAR (to Jessica) Are you trained in the ways of the desert? JESSICA No, but many consider my training valuable. STILGAR I will take the boy-man... he shall have sanctuary in my tribe...-- A LOW NOTE on a dip stick is blown by one of the Fremen tribe. Jessica shifts, Paul sees it, and just as Stilgar begins a reach for his weapon, Jessica turns, slashes out, utters a SOUND, whirls again and with rock behind her holds Stilgar helpless in front of her -- her hand at his throat. Paul moves on her first move. He races up a rocky incline.165. EXT. CLIFF - FREMEN PLACE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT He then jumps higher up and presses himself between two rocks on a low cliff overlooking the rest of the Fremen troop.166. EXT. FREMEN PLACE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT The troop starts shooting projectile weapons in Paul's direction. STILGAR Stop! Get back!! She has the weirding way. Why didn't you tell us! Great gods... if you can do this to the strongest of us you're worth ten times your weight of water. As a leader of my people I give you my bond: teach us this weirding way and you both shall have sanctuary. Your water shall mingle with our water. JESSICA Then I will teach you our way of battle.... you have the word bond of a Bene Gesserit. A FREMEN It is the legend.167. EXT. CLIFF - FREMEN PLACE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT Up on the rock, Paul turns. He takes a step, then notices a small figure standing in front of him. It is a girl. CHANI I am Chani, daughter of Liet.... I would not have permitted you to harm my tribe. PAUL (inner voice) From my dream... so beautiful. Liet.... is this Kynes' daughter? Paul stares at her in wonder.-- CHANI Come with me. I'll show you an easier way down. They exit.168. EXT. FREMEN PLACE - DEEP DESERT - NIGHT STILGAR (to Paul, as they meet) You have strength... real strength... You shall be known as Usul, which is the strength of the base of the pillar. This is your secret name in our troop. But you must choose the name of manhood which we will call you openly. PAUL (thinking) What do you call the mouse shadow in the second moon? STILGAR We call that one Muad'dib. PAUL Could I be known as Paul Muad'dib? STILGAR You are Paul Muad'dib, and your mother shall be a Sayyadina among us.... We welcome you. Wind blows a cloud of dust through the rock. High above the moon with the mouse shadow glows brilliantly. It dissolves into the sun.168A. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY Paul, Jessica and the Fremen march through the dunes.171. through 171B. (Deleted)172. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DUSK/SUNSET HEAT WAVES and sand dunes. Mysterious SOUNDS echo in the distance as the giant sun is setting. Chani takes Paul to the top of a dune. They stare at the sunset and a huge rock outcropping in the distance.-- CHANI Seitch Tabr. Paul looks at the rock, then turns to her. CHANI (CONT'D) Tell me of your homeworld, Usul. These words rend Paul's soul. He cannot speak. He reaches out and touches her hand - her cheek.173. (Deleted)174. INT. ENTRANCE - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT The Fremen troop enters into a large square room with slot passageways going off in various directions.175. INT. PASSAGEWAY - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT They all move down one of the passageways which are beautifully but very plainly cut with lasguns. They are like passages in the pyramids, dark with sharp turns and inclines upwards or downwards, some very steep and long, and others descending hundreds of feet. There is a strong, moaning WIND.176. through 177. (Deleted)178. INT. PASSAGEWAY/STAIRS - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT A quiet WIND can be heard -- deep and moaning. JESSICA Moisture... She looks at Paul. He, too, notices. PAUL Wind traps... huge ones. Down a long, sloping, narrow passageway they go until they reach a stairway cut into the stone. It is very dark and gets increasingly darker as they descend. The WIND sound grows. The air grows colder and damper. Paul and Jessica share another questioning look. At the bottom of the stairs they pass through a narrow slot doorway which suddenly opens out on something so totally unexpected it shocks Paul.--179. INT. RESERVOIR -SIETCH TABR - NIGHT It is enormous, deep reservoir of black water sitting silently in the depths of this sietch and stretching out into the darkness. PAUL (inner voice) Water on Arrakis!!! I have seen this place in a dream. (out loud) A treasure. STILGAR Greater than treasure, Usul. We have thousands of such caches. Only a few of us know them all. When we have enough... we shall change the face of Arrakis. Listen!... There is the sound of water dripping. The lights are extinguished - reflections play on Paul's face. STILGAR (CONT'D) The Rocks of Arrakis hold many secrets.179A. through 180 (Deleted)180A. REVISED SCENE - HALL OF RITES Thousands of Fremen wait below. Paul enters a rock ledge, guided by two monks, which is crowded with Fremen and old Fremen Monks. Below the crowds continue to watch and wait while a giant wind organ moans. A Monk steps up to Paul. MONK We sense that you may be the "voice from the outer world". Both moons told us of you. You must pass tests before we will know... you must conquer the beast of the desert, both his outer and his deadly inner powers. (moves back) Speak to us... from the outer world. Paul turns and gathers courage to address the multitude below. PAUL (inner voice) I am only a seed. (out loud) I am Usul... Paul Muad'dib.-- CROWDS (loud murmur) Muad'dib! MONK The legend. PAUL (inner voice) No one ever dreamed there would be so many. (out loud) Our shared enemy the Harkonnens, are once again in control of Arrakis. Stilgar, your leader, has asked me and my mother to crush the Harkonnens. We must do more than this. We must totally destroy all spice production on Arrakis. The Guild and the entire universe depends on spice. "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing". I will take one hundred of your warriors and train them. This one hundred will train the thousands that remain. When the spice flow stops, all eyes will turn to Arrakis. The Baron and the Emperor himself will be forced to deal with us. Arrakis will become the center of the Universe. (inner voice) The dream unfolds.181. through 181A. (Deleted)182. INT. TRAINING ROOM - SIETCH TABR - DAY Large room with a low ceiling. A drummer playing makes a low ECHOING MUSICAL HIT. A big block of stone is moved across coarse sand -- back and forth -- fast. A rhythm is started -- powerful. Paul enters, pauses and looks to Jessica - he stands in front of over 100 Fremen men. Jessica sits behind him alongside Stilgar. A large rock obelisk has been placed near Paul for this demonstration. PAUL The weirding way has long been a Bene Gesserit secret. With my mother's help, my father isolated an element of the weirding way and externalised it.-- PAUL (CONT'D) Because of the Harkonnen treachery, my father's armies were never able to fully develop this new form. This is what I will teach you. You will be the fiercest and most feared fighters in the Universe. Our way of battle is built on rhythm. You understand rhythm like this but you do not yet understand the rhythm of the higher sounds, sounds that heal and build... sounds that destroy. Motion is the base. You understand the motion... but you do not yet understand the motion that heals and builds... motions that destroy... Orato! (he moves forward) This obelisk is of your hardest stone. Kick it... (he does -- the rock doesn't move) Hit it... (he does -- the rock doesn't move) Yell at it... ORATO Break! The Fremen laugh -- the rock doesn't move. A Fremen with a lasgun tries to cut it. Paul motions him back, slightly. PAUL Move back! Paul also moves back. He switches on his weirding module. He opens his mouth and makes a small SOUND, which the module amplifies. PAUL Chuksa! The sound shatters the obelisk to pieces. The one hundred Fremen YELL with surprise and awe. 100 FREMEN Achiii!-- PAUL This is part of the weirding way that we will teach you. Some thoughts have a certain sound... that being the equivalent to a form. Through sound and motion you will be able to paralyze nerves, shatter bones, set fires, suffocate an enemy or burst his organs.... We will kill until no Harkonnen breathes Arrakeen air. 100 FREMEN Muad'dib! PAUL (inner voice) To avenge my father, I will turn you into killing machines. Stilgar turns to Jessica. STILGAR Sayyadina. Our Reverend Mother tells me she is too old... She has been calling through space and time for you to come and let her rest. She asks that you pass within. JESSICA (inner voice) They want me to take the Water of Life... the Truthsayer drug... so dangerous, yet... we must move swiftly if we're to secure our place among these Fremen. (out loud) I will try to pass within. STILGAR Death may be the result.... Are you sure? JESSICA (inner voice) I must do this for Paul, but what of my unborn child? DISSOLVE TO:183. through 187. (Deleted)--188. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT Fremen carry the Fremen REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO in on a litter. The old Reverend Mother is old a frail yet extremely beautiful and mysterious. She turns to Paul and Jessica with a strange look. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO (to Jessica, in an ancient voice) So you are the ones. She turns away towards the monks who are very busy blowing horns and waving pots of burning spice, purifying the area of the rite. Several Fremen blow on dip sticks and a FEMALE CHOIR begins a haunting chorale as the giant pipe organ blows beautiful low notes below. Paul looks to his mother. He then sees Chani. CU Chani. CU Paul -- he cannot stop looking at her. Stilgar motions to Paul. STILGAR (whispering to Paul) Do you know the Water of Life?... Come... ...Watch... the mystery of mysteries... the end and the beginning. He shows Paul through a narrow passageway -- almost a slot through the stone to a small room. Through an opening in the stone wall, Paul is shown a very strange and somewhat horrifying scene.189. INT. BABY WORM - MAKER ROOM - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT A thirty-foot baby worm is being lowered into a stone chamber. The chamber is then covered with a wire top. Valves are turned and water rushes into the chamber. The worm begins to writhe violently and leap and bang against the bars above. The worm begins to turn inside out from the mouth back and it begins to gag. Some monks and watermasters quickly drain the stone chamber and wrench the worm out using large steel hooks. They hold the worm above a large tub. A watermaster-reed man runs a long reed in to the worm, causing it to spasm and gag up a beautiful deep blue bile as it dies.189A. INT. MAKER ROOM - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT The bile and worm water are combined in ceremonial containers. Paul turns to Stilgar.-- STILGAR The Water of Life. PAUL (inner voice) The most lethal poison in the Universe. Then we HEAR from Paul's memory his conversation with the Reverend Mother: REVEREND MOTHER ... Many men have tried. PAUL Did they try and fail? REVEREND MOTHER They tried and died.190. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT Stilgar and Paul return to the ledge above the Hall of Rites. A MONK PRIEST steps forward, addresses the crowd, silencing them. The other monks move back carrying their smoking cleansing bags. MONK #1 One among us has consented to enter the rite. She will attempt to pass within that we not lose the strength of our Reverend Mother. PAUL (inner voice)(turning to his mother) What if she should fail? He brings the jug close to Jessica. MONK #1 Drink! Jessica drinks. JESSICA (inner voice) The ultimate awareness spectrum narcotic. I must transform the poison configuration within my body... the blue must be made clean. She swallows. Her body contorts and spasms violently. She screams. The Reverend Mother screams with her.--191 (Deleted)192. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT We see Jessica sitting, shoulders tight and spasming -- straining, her eyelids half-closed and flickering.193. (Deleted)194. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT The old Reverend Mother slowly extends a hand toward Jessica's shoulder.195. JESSICA - MENTAL IMAGE Inside Jessica, we see the Reverend Mother Ramallo's hand descend through the dark void. Shimmering water starts to ripple, lightly stirring an image of Jessica. As the hand penetrates, something deep within her starts to GLOW. It is a fetus, a female. The Reverend Mother Ramallo's hand flinches as it touches the fetus. The fetus sparks to life - screaming and rapidly spasming upwards on its umbilical cord.195A. (Deleted)196. INT. ROCK LEDGE - WALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO (whispering urgently into Jessica's ear) You should have told us.197. JESSICA'S MENTAL IMAGE - FETUS REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO (V.O.) (gasping) Great Mother! This changes both! What have we done?--197A. INT. THE TUNNEL - NIGHT Jessica and the fetus rush mentally through a dark strangely worm-like tunnel until suddenly, a gaping black hole appears. A horrible WIND, SPARKS and circles of expanding light issues from it. JESSICA (V.O) (inner voice)(fearful) No! This is the place where we cannot look. The place only for the eyes of the Kwisatz Haderach.197B. THE FETUS - NIGHT The fetus twists down the tunnel to join Jessica, her umbilical cord trailing behind. She SCREAMS as she looks into the hole.197C. THE NAVIGATOR - NIGHT She and Jessica see a shape moving deep within the windy hole. It is a Third Stage Navigator, ROARING. JESSICA What is this?... Is this what kills the men who enter here? She quickly takes the fetus back up the tunnel. As they move: JESSICA (V.O.)(CONT'D) (inner voice) Now my daughter and I are both Reverend Mothers. REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO (V.O.) (distant) I've been a long time waiting for you. Here is my life.198. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT The old Reverend Mother Ramallo slumps forward onto the stone, dead. The crowd waits. The corpse is tenderly removed. Jessica very slowly opens her eyes and looks about her. The monk holds the jug to her lips. MONK Change it that we may all drink of it.-- Jessica spews water into the spout. The monk swirls the jug, sniffs at the spout and then drinks. MONK (CONT'D) It is changed! PAUL (inner voice) She did it!199. INT. HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT The Fremen suddenly turn their attention to Paul.... They whisper "It is the prophecy!" They soon begin to CHANT... "Muad'dib.... Muad'dib" over and over again. The chanting sounds fill the hall along with the ghostly wind organ.200. (Deleted)201. INT. HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT Down below, the crowds continue CHANTING "Muad'dib, Muad'dib."202. INT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT Paul continues to stare at Chani. He moves to her. Chani turns. Paul is at her side. Their eyes meet and lock. CHANI (whispering) Come with me.203. INT. PASSAGEWAY ON ROCK LEDGE - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT At the end of the dark black corridor, Chani turns and she and Paul fall together in a long kiss filled with love. PAUL Chani.... I love you... I've always loved you....--204. through 209. (Deleted)169. INT. STAIRCASE - GEIDI PRIME - DAY The Baron and Feyd descend several steps into a darker area of Geidi Prime. Feyd is carrying a strange creature in a small wire cage. The Baron is floating as he descends. BARON (takes a drink) Feyd, even though he's aging, Thufir is one of the finest Mentats in the Universe... and he's mine, Feyd... all mine.... Quiet now. FEYD I will.170. INT. BASEMENT ROOM - GEIDI PRIME - DAY Nefud stands eating candies behind Thufir's chair. Nefud has a stun gun, even though Thufir's hands are tied. The Baron enters with Feyd. BARON Oh Thufir, I see they've installed your heart plug already.... Don't be angry. Everyone gets one here. But this is not why we're here. We've brought you a little cat, Thufir. You must care for it if you wish to live. A poison has been introduced into you, Thufir Hawat. By milking this smooth little cat body each day you receive your antidote... it must be done each day.... Also, you must do something for me if you wish to live. You know I lost Piter, my dear Mentat... Thufir gives the Baron a weak, wide-eyed stare. FEYD All I can see is an Atreides that I want to kill. BARON Feyd, no, no! Thufir's a Harkonnen now, aren't you Thufir? THUFIR (inner voice) My dear Duke... how I have failed you.--211. INT. JESSICA'S ROOM - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT Jessica's face shows signs of straining. Women move around her, Chani and Harah at her side, helping her give birth. Suddenly ALIA is born and her freshly- born moist body is held up in front of Jessica. Alia's eyes snap open, burning brightly. HARAH What will you call her? JESSICA Alia. As they lift Alia for Jessica to see... ALIA Mother.210. INT. TRAINING ROOM - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT Paul walks down the steps into the training room - followed by Harah's two sons. He pauses at the foot of the steps. PAUL Activate your weirding modules... Paul activates his, and the Fremens follow suit. PAUL Set the range for two meters. Paul walks down the line of Fremen. PAUL Korba... (points to robot) The arm... KORBA (aiming the module) Chuuk-sa... PAUL Motion... Chuuk-sa... KORBA Chuuuk-sa... He fires the module and the arm of the robot is shot off. Paul smiles and hits him on the shoulder - Paul walks on.-- PAUL Stilgar... One of the FREMEN calls out to Paul. A FREMEN Muad'dib!... The word `Muad'dib' causes a tremendous power to build. The module shakes violently in his hand - it suddenly fires upwards, and the wall explodes. PAUL (inner voice) My own name is a killing word. Will it be a healing word as well?211A. NEW SCENE STILGAR (to Paul as he applies red colour to the shoulders of several large Fremen men) Usul... these are fifteen of our fiercest fighters to serve you as your guard... the Fedaykin. He pauses, then holds up his brilliantly red hand.212. (Deleted)213. EXT. DESERT - DAY An EXPLOSION. Paul turns and his eyes are totally blue. He lifts binoculars to them and looks. He sees the Fremen fighters below charging at the Harkonnens. As the Fremen run they make powerful SOUNDS with their weirding modules, exploding everything in their path and catching things on fire.213A. EXT. CARRYALL - DESERT - DAY In the distance, a huge spice carryall is shot down and it falls to the ground EXPLODING more violently on impact.213. BACK TO SCENE PAUL Now!-- Stilgar signals, and Fremen run behind them. PAIL (CONT'D) (to Stilgar) They're even better on the battlefield than in the training rooms!! (inner voice) Sound... as a weapon. If only you could see them, father. Paul smiles as he looks at the battle in the distance. PAUL (CONT'D) (his V.O. from the past) When the spice flow stops, the entire Universe will turn to Arrakis. The Baron and the Emperor himself will be forced to deal with us.214. INT. PASSAGEWAYS - ARRAKEEN - DAY Rabban stares dumbfounded as many Harkonnen wounded and dead are brought through the passageway beyond. Rabban grabs a Harkonnen and asks: RABBAN What happened? What happened to you? What is he saying? WOUNDED HARKONNEN Muad'dib!... Muad'dib!... Muad'dib!... Muad'dib! Rabban pushes him away. A HARKONNEN SOLDIER He's been repeating that name ever since we found him. RABBAN Who is this Muad'dib?215. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY HEAT WAVES; dunes. A big thumper is forced into the sands. A RHYTHM is heard pounding on Fremen hand drums and rhythm instruments. Feet scramble. Black stillsuited Fedaykin warrior bodyguards gather. Stilgar turns.-- STILGAR (to Paul) Usul... It is time you become a sandrider... and travel as a Fremen. Take the kiswa maker hook of our sietch and ride as a leader of men.216. (Deleted)217. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY As Paul leaves the troop to plant the second thumper: STILGAR (V.O.) Two thumpers are planted. The worm may not surface for the first - he will rise for the second. Remember, when the worm approaches, you must be utterly still... and close enough to plant the hook firmly under a ring segment.... The worm will turn to lift this exposed area as far from the abrasive sand as possible and it will take you with it -- to the top. Do not get too close as he approaches... the sand will engulf you.... Wait till the head of the worm passes -- then go... quickly. STILGAR & FREMEN Shai-Hulud... Shai-Hulud. In the distance the telltale SOUND of the worm's approach begins. This worm is deep underground and the sound is low and the ground trembles violently. PAUL (inner voice) Only the very strong ones travel this deep.... The SOUND and VIBRATIONS continue to build. In the distance, the Fedaykin and Stilgar watch. STILGAR (to the others) Usul has called a big one. Again... it is the legend.218. (Deleted)--219. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY HEAT WAVES... dunes RHYTHM. THUNDEROUS approach of the worm. Paul still cannot see the worm, but the sound begins to drown out the Fremen rhythm instruments and the sand begins to VIBRATE. Suddenly, Paul SEES...219A. EXT. WORM - DEEP DESERT - DAY ...a mountain of sands rise up, towering, thundering -- lightning SPARKS fissuring throughout the air above the worm. The mountain approaches at a terrifying speed. Then, the worm appears -- rushing. The mouth, at first a small opening, begins to widen -- exposing a thousand glistening teeth.219B. EXT. DESERT - DAY Paul freezes. He lets the worm get closer and closer. The HEAT WAVES distort the gigantic form, making it more hideous -- more foreign. He moves forward. The others watch anxiously. This worm is big. It is so much larger than imaged. Its top towers 125 feet in the air. The segments are each ten feet wide.219C. EXT. VERTICAL SECTION OF WORM - DESERT - DAY Paul gets close and running alongside, he plants the hook under a segment and pulls back. The SOUND is excruciatingly loud. The sand is so deep and more is being thrown out beneath the body of the worm. Paul gets caught in it and falls. He narrowly escapes being sucked under the beast. He gets up -- runs again and plants the hook once more. He runs faster, bending the segment open to expose the tender flesh.219D. EXT. FULL-SIZE SECTION OF WORM - DESERT - DAY Suddenly the worm begins to turn. Paul pulls himself up the body as it turns -- holding onto the hook. Soon he is fifty -- sixty -- seventy feet off the ground -- going higher. The giant worm gets the second thumper and Paul at that moment climbs to the top. He plants the second hook. PAUL (inner voice) A sandrider!... Paul works the hooks into the breathing holes along the body...--219E. EXT. DESERT - DAY ...causing the great beast to make a slow turn toward Stilgar and the bodyguard. They set themselves and as the worm passes...219F. EXT. FULL-SIZE SECTION OF WORM - DESERT - DAY ...they all clamber on, climbing up the sides to the top. PAUL (yelling) Long live the fighters! They return the traditional CALL and Paul steers the maker in a giant circle. They head out across the dunes.219G. (Deleted)219I. EXT. DESERT - DAY Rabban and Harkonnens in the desert. Rabban observes tremendous destruction of his spice harvesters and carryalls.219K. EMPEROR'S WORLD REPORT VOICE Seventeen Great Houses of the Lansraad have reported a significant delay in delivery of spice per CHOAM agreement. This constitutes a serious violation of CHOAM codes. Contact Baron Vladimir Harkonnen immediately.219H. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY A furious Rabban sirs in a black steel tub in the Great Hall. A squad of TROOPS stands at attention in front of him, listening to his screaming fit. RABBAN Falsify the reports. We can't hide it all, tell them we've lost only two hundred harvesters... and forty carryalls... and don't let my uncle know about the destruction of the spice silos.... I will catch this Muad'dib and suck the blood from him!! SUCK THE BLOOD FROM HIM!!!--219J. through 222. (Deleted)226A. EXT. HARVESTER - DESERT - DAY SMOKE billows from a burning harvester.226B. EXT. DESERT - DAY Fighting is going on between Fremen and some smugglers. Paul moves down a smokey dune with Stilgar followed by Fremen and Fedaykin. PAUL We surprised a band of smugglers. STILGAR (racing into thick smoke) Too bad... thought they were Harkonnen. Paul and Stilgar move through the smoke. A man runs up with a maula pistol aimed at Paul but Paul spins and punctures the man's chest with a sound from his weirding module. Paul turns and a large figure comes through the smoke. They surprise each other. The figure holds a gun. PAUL Gurney!... The figure stops -- stunned. PAUL (CONT'D) You've no need of your weapons with me Gurney Halleck. GURNEY (peering; whisper of hope) Paul!! Paul!! PAUL Don't you trust your own eyes. GURNEY They said you were dead. They said... Paul shows him the signet ring on his fingers. Gurney moves forward, his eyes tearing, and the two embrace each other and pound each other on the back. GURNEY You young pup! You young pup!--227. NEW SCENE - WORLD REPORT VOICE Stand-by... warning... we have just received a coded threat from the Guild. Spice production is in serious jeopardy... Giedi Prime supplying false reports... Guild to visit Emperor in one standard day.228. INT. THRONE ROOM - EMPEROR'S PALACE - NIGHT The Emperor sits on his throne. Behind him are his Sardaukar officers. In front of him are several Guildsmen. One holds a large electrical apparatus up to the face plate of another which translates his strange voice into English. TANKED GUILDSMAN #2 Emperor Shaddam IV... You have one last chance to take matters into your own hands and bring the situation under the control on Arrakis. EMPEROR What do you mean one last... TANKED GUILDSMAN #2 Do not speak!... Listen!... You do not have more than this one chance.... I represent the entire Guild in this matter.... You have failed to kill the Atreides heir... Paul. EMPEROR But he was said to... TANKED GUILDSMEN #2 (moans like a cow) Noooooo... he is not dead. He is not eaten by worms as you have wanted to believe. He is not missing. He is in the deep desert with the Fremen. The Spice is in great danger. We are not asking... we are telling... remedy the situation or you will live out your life in a pain amplifier. The Guildsmen turn and leave. EMPEROR Who is this Paula Atreides to the Guild? And why?222A. INT. JESSICA'S ROOM - SIETCH TABR - DAY Jessica sits with Harah.-- HARAH Your Reverence, I don't wish to upset you, but the other women...223. INT. PASSAGEWAY - SIETCH TABR - DAY At the end of the passageway, standing alone -- staring with powerful intense blue-within-blue eyes -- is ALIA. She's listening mentally. HARAH (V.O.) ...they don't like Alia around. She frightens them. It is the strangeness of your daughter.224. INT. JESSICA'S ROOM - SIETCH TABR - DAY JESSICA It's the way she speaks of things... Alia is listening - then exits.225. INT. PASSAGEWAY - SIETCH TABR - DAY Alia listens mentally. JESSICA (V.O.) ...beyond her years and of things no child could know -- things of the past. (pause) Alia begins walking. She appears to be angry. JESSICA (V.O.)(CONT'D) A daughter who knew at birth everything I know...226. INT. JESSICA'S ROOM - SIETCH TABR - DAY HARAH But Your Reverence, they won't have her around them. Alia enters. ALIA (screaming little adult voice) Harah! Would they deny me the right to use this mind?...-- ALIA (CONT'D) (using The Voice) Would they deny me the right to use this voice?... Harah's head nearly bursts with pain and she SCREAMS as if she were dying. JESSICA Alia!226A. (Deleted)228. BACK TO SCENE - EMPEROR'S THRONE ROOM EMPEROR (firmly) I want fifty legions of Sardaukar on Arrakis at once. SARDAUKAR OFFICER #1 Fifty legions?... (he looks at the other officers with worry) That's our entire reserves as well. EMPEROR This is genocide... the deliberate and systematic destruction of all life on Arrakis.228A. NEW SCENE Ships over Arrakis.229. through 230. (Deleted)231. INT. PAUL'S ROOM - SIETCH There is a growing, powerful sound of a worm approaching as Paul and Chani are lying together in the darkness of their sleeping chamber. Paul's eyes snap open and he sees Chani looking down at him (the last image of the future in the desert). CHANI You were calling my name... it frightened me.--Page Missing-- In the hollow of a huge dune, Paul stops with Chani. They share a look into each other's eyes. Paul turns towards the Fedaykin and nods. They move in quickly to tie and wrap Paul in Fremen rope. They move back and wait quietly. Chani moves in very close to Paul. She holds a glass vial of the blue water of life. PAUL Hurry! All I see is darkness. CHANI Paul... I will love you forever... in life or in death... let Shai-Hulud judge now. (whispering) You are my life. She pours the blue liquid into Paul's mouth. Slow move into Paul's face as: PAUL (inner voice) Now... the test of the water of life... what is it that waits for me in this darkness?233A. INT. PAUL'S MIND Fade to black then dissolves to dark blue fluid. A blue drop falls into the blue fluid - a huge low thud - then quiet.233B. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Cut to Paul screaming horribly in the desert.235. INT. JESSICA'S ROOM - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT Alia walks forward in the very dark room. Blood rushes from her nose. She forces herself to walk to Jessica's bed. She finds that Jessica's nose is bleeding also. Jessica wakes in pain. They stare at each other in the darkness. JESSICA ALIA! ALIA Mother - help me! JESSICA (struggling) Alia! What is it?-- ALIA It's Paul. He's taken the Water of Life.233C. INT. PAUL'S MIND Cut to quiet black - dissolve again to blue - another drop - low thud - quietness - fade to black.245A. EXT. EMPEROR'S SPACESHIP - SPACE The Emperor's space ship soars towards us.246. INT. EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - SPACE The Reverend Mother Helen Mohiam is on the floor, bleeding from the nose and weak from pain. The Emperor looks on in horror.233D. INT. PAUL'S MIND Suddenly screaming towards us is white rings, stars and a huge Guild Navigator.233E. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Cut to Paul's eyes - tightly closed, oozing fresh blood.233F. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT SCREAMING SOUND. Paul's mouth opens and a giant wind is stirred on the desert.234. (Deleted)235A. INT. PAUL'S MIND Navigator chewing giant eye and spewing blood and light and sounds. Paul's mouth double exposes over Navigator and eye. The sound from Paul's mouth destroys the Navigator and opens the Alam. Navigator bursts into a huge light ring and we quickly travel through ring after ring and masses of liquid stars. The light increases until it is blinding and then in the light...--235B. EXT. FLOWER BLOSSOMING A golden flower blossoms and glows brilliantly - suddenly the powerful sound of an approaching worm.236. through 239. (Deleted)240. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Chani and the Fedaykin freeze and watch in horror as seven giant worms converge on them. The worms break the desert surface and rise, towering over them. The worms hover and wait. DISSOLVE TO:241. through 245. (Deleted)240A. EXT. DESERT - DAY Chani looks to the Fedaykin, then they look at Paul who lies motionless. She cuts the rope bonds with her crysknife. Her fingers tremble as does the whole of the desert. Paul's eyes snap open. He sits up slowly. Chani stares at him in awe. CHANI Paul... Paul.240B. EXT. WAVE CRASHING A huge wave crashes and Paul sees the image of his father. Paul slowly gets to his knees, then stands.240C. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT PAUL Father!... Father! THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED. Giant echoes of this phrase reverberate across the vast desert. The worms bend back into the sand and leave with thundering power. MUSIC FULL.247. through 250. (Deleted)--251. EXT. ROCK LEDGE - HALL OF RITES - SIETCH TABR -NIGHT The Rock Ledge of Sietch Tabr is filled with Fedaykin and monks; Chani, Jessica, Gurney and Stilgar stand together near the back. Paul moves out on the Rock Ledge overlooking the Hall of Rites which is crowded with Fremen warriors who chant "Maud'Dib" along with the powerful sounds of the WIND ORGAN and FREMEN war DRUMS. Paul raises his open hand. SILENCE. Only the organ continues with a soft low NOTE. The Fremen wait. PAUL Arrakis... Dune... Desert Planet. A quiet, haunting MOAN of recognition of a master rises from the Fremen. PAUL (CONT'D) (loud) Your time has come. (inner voice) Father... our time has come. (out loud again) A storm is coming -- our storm... and when it comes it will shake the Universe. Emperor... we come for you. A thunderous ROAR arises. War DRUMS pound. The ORGAN blows hurricaine of power through the sietch. PAUL (he raises crysknife) Long live the fighters! STILGAR Long live the fighters! Fremen carrying weapons begin moving out in long lines from the Hall as the war DRUMS pound.251A. through 252B. (Deleted)265. INT. HARKONNEN `THOPTER - DAY In one `thopter sits the Baron Harkonnen. He is flown down to the Emperor's ship.253. EXT. ROCK OUTCROPPING - DEEP DESERT - DAYA sietch door opens and Fremen warriors stream out.--254. (Deleted)255. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY The WIND is howling and is starting to blow the sand. Dark sand clouds form in the distance.256. EXT. ROCK OUTCROPPING - DEEP DESERT - DAY Another sietch door opens and hundreds and thousands more Fremen pour out.257. EXT. SHIELD WALL - ARRAKEEN - DAY Paul, Stilgar and Gurney watch the Emperor's enormous ship on the Arrakeen landing field below.257A. through 258. (Deleted)260. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY Thousands of Fremen are running, planting thumpers as they go.259. INT. COMMUNICATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN - DAY PAUL Gurney, when the storm hits... set off the atomics. I want an opening through the entire Shield Wall. Stilgar? Do we have wormsign? Stilgar and Gurney laugh. STILGAR Usul... We have wormsign, the likes of which even God has never seen. Paul smiles.261. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY Looking down over the huge desert it looks like a living sea of wormsign. Everywhere ripples appear and worms are surfacing.--261A. EXT. DEEP DESERT - DAY Thousands of Fremen are running, positioning themselves to mount and ride.262. EXT. DESERT - DAY Dust clouds grow faster and the speed of the WIND increases. Sand particles hit at a rock outcropping and up close they sound like giant warrior drummers pounding before battle.263. EXT. HARKONNEN SHIPS - DESERT - NIGHT Suddenly above come hundreds of SCREAMING space ships zooming down across the desert floor and towards the landing field.264. (Deleted)266. EXT. DESERT - DAY The storm is howling now. Sand blasts against rock and rips pieces away.267. INT. STEEL TENT - EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - DAY EMPEROR Bring in that floating fat man... the Baron. The Baron is brought in. Distant warning SIGNALS begin. The Baron is fighting to contain his fear because RABBAN'S HEAD SITS ALL BLOODY ON THE FLOOR in front of him. Finally the Emperor speaks. EMPEROR Why have you brought me here? BARON Your Highness... There must be some mistake... I never requested your presence. EMPEROR Ah? But your lack of action demanded it. Your dreadful mismanagement, your bad judgement in assigning to Rabban -- (he gestures toward the head) -- the governorship.... You forced me to come here and set things straight... personally.-- A VOICE Bring in the messenger. Alia is brought in by the Sardaukar soldiers. She is smiling. ALIA I am the messenger from Muad'dib. Poor Emperor, I'm afraid my brother won't be very pleased with you. EMPEROR Silence!... I do not court your brother's pleasure. Suddenly the Reverend Mother looks horrified and grabs her throat. REVEREND MOTHER (struggling, speaking) Kill this child!! She's an abomination!! Kill her. (points to Alia, who is smiling at her) Get out of my mind!!! ALIA Not until you tell them both who I really am. REVEREND MOTHER (strained speech void of emotion) Sister of Paul Muad'dib. The Reverend Mother slumps. The Baron's mouth flies open. The Emperor's face goes pale, his lips tremble. EMPEROR Paul's sister... Paul is Muad'dib?! He turns quickly and looks at the two Guild agents present in the room. They stare at him icily. Alia is smiles happily.268. INT. COMMUNICATION ROOM - ARRAKEEN - DAY Paul smiles. PAUL (laughs)(to Gurney and Stilgar) Alia keeps pace with the storm.-- Gurney and Stilgar don't understand. Suddenly enormous dust clouds and LIGHTNING sweep up over the Shield Wall. PAUL Gurney, now! Gurney gives a hand signal and... GURNEY (they put on their hoods) Atomics!269. EXT. SHIELD WALL - ARRAKEEN - DAY ...TWENTY EXPLOSIONS of hydrogen bomb intensity go off in a row, cutting a huge gorge through the width of the massive Shield Wall. As the EXPLOSIONS go off, a WIND howls, destroying much of Arrakeen and covering the rest with tons of sand. Sand rips at the Palace and the Emperor's ship.270. INT. STEEL TENT - EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - DAY Alia smiles as they HEAR the tremendous roaring, atomic screams of the explosions. The Emperor's ship's warning SIGNALS are now close and loud. ALIA My brother is coming... with many Fremen warriors. A Sardaukar rushes in. SARDAUKAR OFFICER #2 The Shield Wall is gone. EMPEROR Impossible! ALIA Not impossible. I told you... He is here now. SARDAUKAR OFFICER #2 Majesty, into the ship! EMPEROR (to his officers)(rising) Release the Sardaukar. Baron... give this little abomination to the storm. They all leave the room, including the Sardaukars.--270A. through 271. (Deleted)272. INT. STEEL TENT - EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - DAY BARON I have her, Majesty! The Baron floats down to her. Alia turns to him -- still smiling. With a flash of her hand she reaches out and swipes at the Baron's face. He CRIES OUT in pain. She pulls his suspensor plugs and pushes him back, then slowly shows him the tiny needle she holds in her hand. He spins crazily as he screams from the poison.273. EXT. SHIELD WALL - ARRAKEEN - DAY Worms, each with hundreds of Fremen on them, come slithering through the newly-formed canyon in the Shield Wall.273A. EXT. WORMS - SHIELD WALL - ARRAKEEN - DAY Paul rides the lead worm with Gurney and Stilgar by his side. The storm is howling and blowing with horrifying intensity.273B. INT. EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - CONTROL ROOM - DAY The Emperor and his Sardaukar officers in a darkened room where they are horrified to see on the screens the hundreds of worms which are coming into the Arrakeen valley. All their faces show fear.272. BACK TO SCENE INT. EMPEROR'S SPACE SHIP - GREEN THRONE ROOM - DAY Suddenly the wall behind Alia and the spinning Baron is completely blown away by a BLAST. The Baron floats and spins out into the storm.274. EXT. ARRAKEEN - DAY As the worms enter the Arrakeen basin they meet the Sardaukar. The Sardaukar don't have a chance -- the worms suck them up by the hundreds. The Fremen on the worm's backs fire weapons, killing the few Sardaukar the worms leave behind.275. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - DAY The space ships which were recently airborne are now crashing because of the storm.--272A. NEW SCENE The Baron floats and spins high in the dust clouds of the storm over the Arrakeen Valley.274A. NEW SCENE The worm, that Paul, Gurney and Stilgar are riding, suddenly rears up. Its mouth opens. The Baron appears as a tiny spinning shape. He flies directly into the mouth of this collosal worm and is devoured.277. EXT. STEEL TENT - LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - DAY A thousand Fremen battle Sardaukar outside the Emperor's tent. They soon overpower them and rush into the giant steel structure.278. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - DAY The entire airfield is now filled with wild worms, Fremen, and dead or dying Sardaukar.276. EXT. LANDING FIELD - ARRAKEEN - DAY Alia moves dreamily among the dying Sardaukar.279. through 280. (Deleted)281. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY Paul enters the Palace hall and the first thing he sees is the giant bull's head. The horns have been blown off and the Atreides banner has been stuffed and wired into the mouth. A WIND moans through the Palace. Paul turns. Gurney and several guards bring in the Emperor, Irulan, the Reverend Mother, Sardaukar generals, Guildsmen, Feyd and Thufir. The Fedaykin and Fremen troops line the walls. Paul's eyes meet Feyd's -- Feyd gives him an evil smile. Paul turns and looks at the Emperor, who stares back defiantly. Paul moves his gaze to Irulan, who lowers her eyes. He then sees his old teacher, Thufir Hawat, whose tired eyes wander helplessly.-- PAUL Gurney... I see Thufir Hawat among the captives. Let him stand free. GURNEY My Lord? PAUL Let him stand free! The Emperor turns nervously to Feyd, who passes a golden dagger to Thufir. FEYD (to Thufir) The antidote... GURNEY (gestures to Thufir) Thufir. Come. Thufir approaches Paul, concealing the knife. They come face to face. The Emperor seems strangely tense at this moment. Paul notices this. He looks Thufir over. PAUL (CONT'D) (inner voice) A knife.... (out loud) In payment of the many years of service to my family, you may know ask of me anything you wish. Anything at all. (quietly) Do you need my life, old friend? He turns his back on him. PAUL (CONT'D) (quiet) It is yours. Thufir's eyes grow sad and wide. PAUL I mean this, Thufir. If you are to strike, do it now. Thufir's hand rises, as Jessica gasps, but the old Mentat pulls his heart plug out with a quick tearing motion. Paul turns and catches him as he sags. His head lolls back and he looks up to Paul urgently.-- THUFIR (CONT'D) Three... generations... of you... His breath escapes him and he is dead. PAUL (to the guards) Carry this noble Atreides warrior away. Do him all honor. The guards do as they are instructed. PAUL Emperor Shadam the IV... there are Guild Heighliners above us containing many Great Houses of the Lansraad.... SEND THEM BACK! EMPEROR How dare you speak to me... GUILDSMAN #2 (speaking into electric microphone) Stop your speaking!! PAUL (to the Guildsmen) Good. You have some idea of what I would do but I will tell it to one who has never been seen... one who hides deep in the Heighliner control rooms. He will hear it first. GUILDSMEN #3 (fear) No! Paul smiles as we move closer and closer to him.282. INT. CONTROL ROOM - HEIGHLINER - SPACE Suddenly we are in the Heighliner control room, near the floor in the chemical spills. We move up into the orange gas. THUNDERING begins to shake the Heighliner. PAUL (V.O.) Where are you.... Let me see you or there will be no spice.-- We move into very thick gas and there is a ROARING. Suddenly Paul sees the Third Stage Navigator. PAUL (V.O.)(CONT'D) You know what I'm about to say is true.... I have the power to destroy the spice forever. The Guild Navigator's mouth stretches back in a horrible MOAN. The moan becomes more pained and grows louder and louder.283. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY The Guildsmen in the room are MOANING and SCREAMING and swarming out towards the doorway -- the Fremen stop them. The Emperor and all are amazed and frightened. There is a long hush. The old Reverend Mother then turns and glares at Paul. PAUL (CONT'D) Don't try your powers on me. Try looking into that place where you dare not look. You'll find me there staring back at you!! You Bene Gesserit have waited ninety generations to produce the one person your schemes required. Here I stand. But... I will never be yours. REVEREND MOTHER Stop him, Jessica! JESSICA Stop him yourself. PAUL You saw a part of what the race needs in the beginning. In time you perverted the truth. You sought to control human breeding and intermix a select few according to a selfish master plan. How little you understand. REVEREND MOTHER You mustn't speak of... PAUL (using The Voice) SILENCE! The old woman is shot backwards by the power of his shout. Her breath is knocked out of her. PAUL (CONT'D) I remember your gom jabbar, now you remember mine. I can kill with a word.-- A Fedaykin stand forward and recites from the prophecy. FEDAYKIN #1 ...and his word shall carry death eternal to those who stand against the righteous. Feyd hears this and is angered. FEYD The righteous! PAUL (to Emperor) There is a Harkonnen among you. Give the Harkonnen a blade and let him stand forth. EMPEROR If Feyd wishes, he can meet you with my blade in his hand. FEYD I wish it. (steps forward) GURNEY This is a Harkonnen animal. Let me, please, my Lord. PAUL The Emperor's blade. Feyd takes up the Emperor's blade with a smile. Paul takes out his crysknife. They begin to circle each other. Paul smiles, circling still. Suddenly, Feyd leaps, his blade jabbing savagely outward, but Paul easily evades it, moving away. They begin to circle again. He makes another pass at Paul that comes dangerously close, but again, Paul is away, a frozen smile on his face. FEYD Why prolong the inevitable? I will kill you! I will kill him! Feyd smiles. He lashes out biting Paul's hand. Feyd LAUGHS in triumph. Feyd leaps forward jabbing, his right hip also forward. Yet Paul, although a little slowly, again reels away. Again, Feyd thrusts.-- This time Paul jabs with his crysknife, but Feyd moves away effortlessly. Feyd counters and kicks Paul to the ground. CHANI Paul! Paul is up instantly and he circles with Feyd. FEYD (smiling) Who is the little one? A pet, perhaps? Will she deserve my special attentions? Paul jabs out, his crysknife slashing. Feyd grabs his arm, and Paul his, the two men locked in a straining clinch. Feyd presses his right hip closer and closer to Paul's body. Paul strains to keep it away. Suddenly, the gom jabbar flips out of Feyd's girdle, but on the left side, and he lunges powerfully with it at Paul, who just barely misses taking it in his skin. He throws Feyd back, but not before Feyd's feet strike out, sending Paul to the floor. Feyd leaps onto him. FEYD (whispering) You see... your death... my blade will finish you. Suddenly, Paul, with lightning swiftness, pushes Feyd up and over. He is on top of him in a flash. Paul's crysknife flashes up, thrusting upward through Feyd's jaw. Feyd's mouth opens as the knife continues up through his tongue and through to his brain. Feyd's eyes go wild, then glaze over as he jerks dead on the floor. Paul slowly gets to his feet, breathing heavily. Anger still seething in him, Paul issues a SOUND -- a loud, horrible, powerful sound, and Feyd's internal organs rupture and the stone floor under him cracks open. The Fedaykin smile. FEDAYKIN #2 Usul no longer needs the weirding module. Everyone stares in disbelief. Paul looks to the Emperor. PAUL Now, I will tell you how it will be. Irulan shall be my wife, opening the way for an Atreides to take the throne. EMPEROR I sit on the throne!!-- PAUL You will sit on a throne on Selusa Secundus, your prison planet. Either that or you will die. The Emperor is still. Paul moves to Chani. PAUL (CONT'D) (to Chani) The Princess shall have no more of me than my name... no child of mine or touch the softness of glance... nor instant of desire.... This is my promise to you... (whispering) ...my love. Paul turns back to the others. Jessica turns to Chani and whispers to her. JESSICA Think on it Chani... We who carry the name of concubine... history will call us wives. Alia enters with two monks. She signals and one of them places a cloak over Paul's shoulders. PAUL The Fremen have the word of Muad'dib. They will have their Holy War to cleanse the Universe... they will have Arrakis... Dune... their planet. There will be flowing water here open to the sky and rich green oases. For the spice there will always be some desert. There will be fierce winds and trials to toughen men. We Fremen have a saying... (he stares at the Reverend Mother) "God created Arrakis to train the faithful." One cannot go against the word of God. Everyone in the room stares at him soundlessly. ALIA And how can this be? There are three powerful drum hits. ALIA (CONT'D) For... he is the Kwisatz Haderach!--284. EXT. ARRAKEEN PALACE - DUSK Paul opens his mouth and issues an ever increasing wind. Lightning and thunder begin. Clouds begin to form over the Palace. In the half-light of dusk, thousands of Fremen watch the sky. Giant golden lights are illuminated and their rays shoot far into the sky illuminating the growing clouds. Five tremendous bolts of lightning suddenly unleash a downpour of RAIN ON ARRAKIS. The Fremen stand awestruck as they are drenched with water falling from the sky.285. INT. GREAT HALL - ARRAKEEN PALACE - DAY WE MOVE through Paul's glowing blue eyes into beautiful blue luminescent light. A gigantic WIND arises, and suddenly appearing in the blue light is an ocean of light rolling like gold glass off into infinite. The blue becomes darker and a golden lotus flower blooms in the night. THE ENDThis script was found in INFlow. It was shameless taken off from somewhereelse, may god, copyright owners and people who worked hard and were notcredited forgive us. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_E.T..txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_E.T..txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4f0d61a26269c833ce97ae37d4299fb62f737569 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_E.T..txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"E.T."Commentary by Richard MichaelsTITLES: "E.T. - THE EXTRA-TERRESTIAL"[The letters are in soft-purple against a black background. Purple istraditionally the color of that which is sacred.]EXT: NIGHT SKY: NIGHTThe black screen becomes a night sky. The camera angles lowers to show aforest against the night sky.EXT: LANDING SITE: NIGHTIn an opening in the forest stands a spacecraft. The view of the craft isobscured by tree branches. The atmosphere is misty, with blue lights comingfrom the spacecraft.[The opening scene is misty and diffused. This forces the audience to payclose attention to the images on the screen. The characters are not clearlyseen. This engages the audience, as they attempt to see what the aliensreally look like.]One creature walks up the gang blank and into the ship.INSERT: ALIEN HANDA strange hand, with two long and slender fingers protruding, move aside abranch that obstructs the view.[This concentrates the audience's attention. The creature going into theship is being observed by another creature. Who are they? What's going on?This is another technique that forces the audience to focus on the action.]INT: SPACECRAFT'S GREENHOUSE: NIGHTThe inside of the ship appears to be a greenhouse. There are sounds ofwater dripping. Cone shaped objects (possibly alien plants) sit among earthplants. Vapors flow up from the plants.[These images all appear non-threatening. The aliens are inferred to becollecting vegetation, and are thereby inferred to be harmless.][Like many of Spielberg's other films, the opening sequences contain almostno dialogue. The story is told without verbal exposition. He forces theaudience to become engaged in the storytelling process by giving them justbits of information that they have to piece together into the story. Hedoesn't insult their intelligence.]EXT: SPACECRAFT: NIGHTA group of the aliens work in front of the spacecraft. Suddenly, they heara dog howl, and they all stop working. Red lights begin to glow in theirchests. It appears as if their hearts have lit up at the sign of danger, asthe red glow seeps through their translucent skin. After a moment the redlights dim and they return to their work.[This sets up the prop of the red-lights signifying danger. These smallcreatures are endearing and non-threatening. They are like children, whichis immediate grounds for audience empathy. The thought that they may be indanger from wild creatures in the forest, also creates empathy for them.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTA small fern grows on the forest floor. An alien hand, with two fingersprotruding, reaches out for the fern. The alien groans. A rabbit turns andlistens. The fingers dig up the plant as the rabbit watches. The alien thencarefully uproots the plant. A small wayward alien walks alone among thegigantic redwood trees. He's dwarfed by the huge trees.[The awesome towering trees psychologically creates audience empathy forthe creature. The audience identifies with him because they too feel smallwhen confronted by these trees.]EXT: HILLTOP: NIGHTThe creature stands alone on a hilltop as he stares down at the city lightsbelow. Suddenly he lets out a moan of fright. A truck, with headlightsglaring, pulls up next to him.[The quiet, peaceful alien is now in jeopardy.]The creature runs from the lights. Several other trucks with head- lightsglaring drive up. Smoke flows from their exhaust pipes. Men's legs are seenas they walk among the trucks. They step into a mud puddle as E.T. watchesfrom behind a shrub. A man with keys jangling from his waist walks past aheadlight. He carries a flashlight in his hands.[Keys have now become a prop which identifies the antagonist of the story:the faceless government agent. Like the antagonist of many other fantasyfilms, his face is not initially revealed in order to hold the audiencesattention.]The man with keys walks to a truck where he and two other men review a mapthat's placed on the hood of the truck. The man with keys holds theflashlight up and points it at the hood. E.T watches them from the bushes.[The fact that E.T. is observing the actions of the men also creates apsychological bond between the audience and him, since they are alsoobserving these characters.][While the audience doesn't actually see a map, they presume its existencegiven the actions of the characters. This style of story telling engagesthe audience, and gets them guessing about the characters' actions. Theythen create expectations, which are later often proved to be wrong. Thismakes the story both unpredictable and exciting.]EXT: SPACESHIP: NIGHTAn alien stands in front of a round light and transmits a homing signal,presumably to call the other aliens back to the ship.[These characters are all in jeopardy.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTWhen E.T hears the sound, his red heart lights up. The homing signalreverberates in his chest.[This establishes that his heart is used as a communication device, i.e.,these aliens communicate with their hearts.]"Keys" hears this sound and quickly turns around. He points his flashlighttowards the sounds. The other men join him as they walk towards the sound.E.T. screams and runs away, which is indicated by the shaking bushes. Themen with flashlights chase after him.[So, like Dorothy in the WIZARD OF OZ, the opening scene has theprotagonist being pursued by an unknown antagonist.]EXT: SPACECRAFT: NIGHTThe lights dim on the footings of the spacecraft, presumably because thespacecraft is preparing to takeoff.[The protagonist has the added jeopardy of being abandoned.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTE.T. screams as he races for the spacecraft. The glow from his red-heartreflects off the bushes as he runs towards the white light of thespacecraft.[The audience still hasn't seen the face of the protagonist.]EXT: SPACECRAFT: NIGHTA lone alien stands before a large round white light, as he signals for theother aliens to return to the ship.EXT: FOREST: NIGHTMen with flashlights run through the forest, as they pursue the red glowinglight racing towards the spacecraft. One of the pursuers is the man wearingthe keys on his waist.EXT: SPACECRAFT: NIGHTThe grated gangplank lifts up, blocking the entrance to the ship. Behindthe grate stands the alien against the large round white light. The redlight of the aliens heart lights up as he stands behind the barrier.[This image exhibits an obstacle to E.T. returning to his ship.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTThe men reach the edge of the clearing and stop as they watch thespacecraft lift off.One red lighted heart races along an old country fence towards thedeparting spacecraft. Men with flashlights are still in pursuit. They stopat a wooden gate as they watch the spacecraft fly away.E.T., with face obstructed by a branch, and with red-heart aglow, watchesthe spacecraft fly away into the night. He utters a sorrowful moan.[He has been abandoned in a hostile alien world. This situation isguaranteed to generate audience empathy.]The men with flashlights pointed up towards the sky watch the space- craftfly away. They hear E.T.'s groan, and in unison point their flashlights inhis direction.[Not only is the small childlike creature abandoned, but he is still injeopardy of being captured by those who pursue him.][This is the inciting event in E.T.'s story: his spacecraft has desertedhim.]EXT: HILLTOP: NIGHTBelow lies the city, lit up against the dark night sky. E.T slowly makeshis way down the slope.Men with flashlights follow. They reach the hilltop, search the underbrushfor the alien, then start down the slope after him.[This concludes the prelude to the story. Both the protagonist andantagonist have been introduced, and audience empathy has been establishedfor the protagonist. The protagonist's primary objective is to survive andfind a way home, while the antagonist's primary objective is to capture thealien.]EXT: SUBURBAN HOUSE: NIGHT[This is an establishing shot.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTA group of boys are sitting around a table playing a DUNGEONS AND DRAGONSgame. One boy is on the telephone ordering a pizza. They throw wads ofpaper at each other as they play.Elliott, the youngest boy, sits behind the counter. He's separated from theother boys. After a few moments he yells that he's ready to play the game.[The character's positions are structured to emphasize Elliott's separationfrom the others.]One of the boys tells Elliott that he can't join when they are in themiddle of the game.[Audience empathy is generated for the young child who is being excludedfrom the game.]Elliott walks up to the table and yells at his brother, Mike. Michael saysthat Elliott has to ask Steve, who is the Game Master, and who has absolutepower.[The notion of "absolute power" is set up here, for a "payoff" later whenElliott uses it to keep Michael silent about E.T.][Elliott's objective here is to play the game, but also to be accepted bythe group and gain the respect of the older boys.]Steve tells Elliott that first he has to wait for the pizza, then when hebrings it back he can play. Steve gives him money for the pizza. Elliottpicks up his baseball and glove, then leaves the room.[The ball and glove are props that will be used in the story.][Elliott's sub-objective is to get the pizza. Once this is accomplished,he'll be able to play the game.]EXT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTIt's a rainy, misty night. Elliott, with ball and glove in hand wait at thebottom of the driveway for the pizza. A car pulls up and parks in thedriveway. Elliott pays the driver, then takes the pizza box from him as thecar pulls out of the driveway.Elliott walks up the driveway and into the garage. He hears a noise in thebackyard, then calls out the name "HARVEY," presumably his dogs name.INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTElliott's mother wears an orange outfit as she works in the kitchen. Shebends over to put dishes into the dishwasher. When she does this one of theyoung boys reaches out to put his finger on her rear. Mike yells for him tostop. He pulls his finger away.INT: PATIO: NIGHTElliot walks past the ping pong table when he hears more noises in thebackyard. Again he calls out the name "Harvey."[This generates tension and suspense in the audience.]With the pizza box in hand, Elliot walks past the patio table and towardsthe shed in the backyard. A bright crescent moon hangs in the night sky.[This adds enchantment to the scene.]There is a mist in the air, and a bright light shines in the shed. Elliottplaces the pizza box on the ground as he approaches the shed. He's stillcarrying the baseball and glove as he stands in front of the shed'sentrance. He tosses the ball into the shed. After a few seconds the ball istossed back out at him and hits him on the foot.[This is the payoff to the setup of the baseball prop. This event surprisesboth Elliott and the audience.]Elliott becomes frightened, turns and steps on the pizza box as he runstowards the house.[This is the inciting event in Elliott's story: there is some creaturehiding out in his shed that will change his whole life.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTElliott's mother is talking to the boys when Elliott runs into the housescreaming that there's something in the tool shed. He tells them that itthrew a ball at him, but they continue to ignore him until he screams"QUIET!" "Nobody go out there," says Elliott. The boys immediately jump upfrom the table. Two boys grab kitchen knives as Michael tells his mother tostay inside. He and his friends will check it out. She yells at them to putthe knives back as she follows them outside.EXT: SHED: NIGHTThe light is still on in the shed.EXT: PATIO: NIGHTElliott's mother walks into the yard with a flashlight in her hand. She issurrounded by the boys as they approach the shed. The mother says thatthere's nothing in there as Michael walks through the entrance. Michaelbends down and finds tracks on the dirt floor. "The coyote's come backagain, Ma." he says. His mother becomes frightened and orders them all backinto the house.[Jeopardy is introduced into the situation. Even though the audience knowsthat it is probably the alien in the shed, the scene increases thetension.]On his way back to the house, Michael sees the pizza box. He bends down,opens the box, then takes out a piece. He's angry at Elliott. Elliott triesto explain that it was just an accident, but his brother is still angry.When the mother asks who ordered the pizza, Elliott points to one of Mike'sfriends. This makes the friend mad at Elliott. Elliot tries to persuade hismother that there is a creature in the shed, but she doesn't believe him.They walk into the house.[Empathy is generated for Elliott because the two boys are unfairly angryat him and his mother doesn't believe him.]INT: SHED: NIGHTThe alien's fingers point out into the shed entrance, then wrap around theside of the door. The sound of his heavy breathing is heard.[This establishes for the audience that he really is in the shed. They feelsorry for Elliott because he was telling the truth and no one believedhim.]INT: ELLIOTT'S BEDROOM: NIGHTThe clock on the end table indicates 2:00. Next to the clock is a pictureof a dog, presumably Harvey. This same dog lies asleep in the bed. He hearsa noise and picks up his head. He is in the lower half of a bunk bed. Onthe top bunk sits Elliott. He is awake as he listens to the noise outside.[Elliott's objective is to prove there's a creature in the shed.]EXT: BACKYARD: NIGHTElliott opens a gate and walks into the backyard. He carries a flashlightin his hand and shines it into the cornfield next to his house. He walksinto the field.EXT: CORNFIELD: NIGHTElliott walks into the cornfield. He whistles, and gets entangled in thecornstalks as he walks. He sees tracks in the dirt with his baseballnearby. He continues to walk through the field.[The stalks are obstacles that obstruct both his path and his vision. Italso clutters the visuals and forces the audience to pay closer attention.The suspense increases because they aren't sure whether he'll meet up withthe alien or the coyote.]Elliott pushes aside some stalks and shines the light into the face of E.T.Together, in unison, the scream. Elliot drops his light, then continues toscream as he looks around the field. E.T. cries out and runs away throughthe cornfield.[Their reactions upon seeing each other were identical. This is the firstinstance of a series of situations which will "merge" their characters tosuch an extent that whatever empathy the audience has for one they willalso have for the other.]EXT: BACKYARD: NIGHTElliott runs into his backyard. His play swings sway back and forth in theair, as if someone had just bumped into them. Two garbage pails fall overnear an open metal gate at the top of a stone stairway. The garbage rollsout of the cans and down the stone stairs. A red light by the gate lightsthe stone stairway.[The audience psychologically associates this red light with E.T.'s redlighted heart, and makes the inference that he had run up the staircase andout the gate.]Elliott has an expression of wonderment and gratification on his face as helooks up the staircase, for he has just established the existence of thecreature in the shed.]EXT: GARAGE: DAYElliott rides down the driveway on his bicycle. He next rides down a dirtroad that overlooks the suburban community.[Elliott's new objective is to locate the creature.]EXT: FOREST ROAD: DAYElliott holds a bag of candy in one hand as he pours some into the otherhand. He tosses candy onto the round as he walks through the woods callingout for the creature.In another part of the woods Elliott lays his bike down, then continues totoss candy and yell out "hello!" He sees a man on the road below andquickly hides behind a tree.["Keys," the faceless antagonist, is still pursuing the alien.]Elliott runs back to his bike, then rides down the forest road past a wirefence. The alien's fingers side down the side to the tree. He was watchingElliott.[Elliott is in jeopardy both from the faceless man and the faceless alien.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYElliott's mother sits at the tale with the dog, Harvey, at her side.Elliott, Michael and Gertie are eating supper.[This is a home without a father, which creates more empathy for theprotagonist.]Gertie asks Elliott what he's going as for Halloween. He's depressed, andreplies that he's not going. Mike mocks him by suggesting that he go as agoblin. Elliott snaps back, telling Mike to shut up. The mother tries toexplain that it's not that they don't believe him, but Elliott cries outthat the creature was real.[The audience also knows that the creature is real. This generates moreempathy for the protagonist, because he is mocked and not believed when heis expressing the truth.]Mike offers other suggestions: perhaps it was an iguana, a deformed child,or maybe an Elf or a Leprechaun. Elliott gets angry and shouts "It wasnothing like that, penis breath." Mary, his mother shouts at him to sitdown. Elliott responds with "Dad would believe me." Mary replies "Maybe youought to call your father and tell him about it." "I can't. He's in Mexicowith Sally" says Elliott. Both Mary and Mike are upset, while Gertie asks"Where's Mexico?" Mary excuses herself and leaves the table. She walks tothe window as Mike tells Elliott that he's going to kill him. "If you eversee it again, don't touch it. Just call me and we'll have someone come andtake it away," says Mary. "Like the dog catcher?" says Gertie. "But they'llgive it a lobotomy, or do experiments on it or something," says Elliott.[This sets up the audience's expectations about the harm that will befallthe alien when he is captured.]After a bit of dialogue concerning who should be doing the dishes, Maryleaves the room saying "He hates Mexico."[This scene explores the emotional relationships between the family membersin greater detail. Empathy is also generated for Mary who was abandoned byher husband. She is left with the responsibility of raising the childrenwhile he's traveling with his new girlfriend to Mexico, a country which hehates.]Elliott takes some dishes to the sink, turns on the faucet and gazes outthe kitchen window as water steams up from the sink.EXT: BACKYARD: NIGHTA crescent moon floats in the sky. A bright light is on in the shed. Infront of the shed Elliott lies inside a sleeping bag on a folding chairwith a flashlight in his hand. He hears the sound of feet walking in theunderbrush.Elliott sits up to see the alien standing in front of the shed. The aliengroans as Elliott freezes from fear in his chair. He tries to call out forhis mother, but can't get the words out of his mouth. He next tries to callMike, but fear makes him choke on his words.The alien approaches Elliott. The bright light from the shed makes itimpossible to see his face: only the outline of his form is visible. Thealien walks right up to the edge of the lawn chair.[The scene is filled with suspense because Elliott may be in jeopardy fromthe creature.]The alien slowly moves its hand over the chair, then drops candies onto theblanket. Elliott relaxes.[This non-verbal gesture by E.T. demonstrates that he is harmless. Thetension in the scene is thereby released. Elliott has achieved hisobjective: he established contact with the alien.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTElliott places candy on the carpet, then walks backwards down the hallwaytowards his room. E.T. walks up the stairs and reaches out for the candy,which he then takes into his hand and eats.[Elliott's new objective is to get the alien into his room. His mainobstacles are to somehow persuade the alien to come into the house, whilenot waking his family.][This scene also is a good example of how to structure a scene's beginning.In real life, the scene would have started in the backyard, tracked throughthe kitchen, the living room and then up the stairs. But since all of thatinformation would have been redundant, picking the action up from the topof the stairs was sufficient.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: NIGHTElliott places candy on the floor by the entrance to his room. A sign onhis door contains the word "ENTER." E.T picks up the candy.Elliott has run out of candy. He goes to his desk in search for more. Heopens some drawers, but doesn't find any. When he returns to the doorway,E.T. has already entered the room. E.T. pulls a box down from the table,then knocks a can filled with pens onto the floor. This makes a loud noise,and forces Elliott to quickly close the door to his room.[The audience still does not have a clear view of E.T.'s face nor body.This holds their attention during the scene. They are waiting for thatwonderful moment.]Elliott throws a blanket over E.T. as they stare at each other. E.T. isfinally revealed to the audience.Elliott moves his hand in front of his face, a gesture indicatingbewilderment. E.T. mimics this action.[This is the beginning of their efforts to communicate, but also the startof the audience emotionally identifying the two characters as one object ofempathy.]Elliott places his fingers to his lips to see if E.T. will respond in thesame manner, which he does. Elliott then places one finger to his ear,which E.T. also mimics. Elliott smiles, then holds his left hand up withall five fingers spread apart. E.T. raises his left hand with three fingersspread apart. Elliott closes his fingers until there is only one remainingup. E.T. does the same. They both wiggle this one finger. A poster on thewall between Elliott and E.T. has the word "SUPERSTAR" printed on it.[These actions help the audience to conceive of these two characters as"mirror images" of one another, worthy of equal empathy. It also bonds theyoung children in the audience to them, because the characters are speakingin a language they too can understand. All the children in the audiencehave just been through the experience of learning a language. They caneasily identify with the problems that that two characters in the story arehaving in communicating with each other. This forges a bond between thechildren and both Elliott and E.T. This also forms the basis for the repeatviewing of this film which was essential for its phenomenal box-officesuccess.]Suddenly, Elliott becomes tired and yawns, then sways as if in a trance. Heslowly walks backwards and sits down in a chair. Elliott seems asleep asthe camera moves up for a closeup of Elliott's face.[Presumably, E.T. has used his telepathic powers to place Elliott into atrance in order to merge their minds and feelings.][This is the end of the first act. Elliott has succeeded in gainingpossession of the dramatic objective E.T.), and has him in his room. ButE.T. has also taken possession of Elliott by merging their feelings, sothat they both become one protagonist. The second act will end when theyare both captured by the antagonist.]EXT: FOREST: DAYMist envelops the fence and gate in the section of the forest where E.Toriginally landed. Men with flashlights and floodlights search throughoutthe area. "Keys" walks into the forefront, holding a flashlight in hishand. He bends to the ground and finds some candy.[The objective of the faceless antagonist is to capture the alien. Thecandy is a prop that will lead them to Elliott's house just as Elliott usedthem to lead E.T. into his room. This scene shows that the protagonist isin jeopardy, because he is still being pursued.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYElliott lies in bed with a thermometer in his mouth. His head rests on anorange pillow (same color as his mother's dress in the first scene) whilehis mother sits besides him. She takes out the thermometer, reads it, thensays "Okay, you're hot." She then leaves the room. Elliott quickly swings alamp back over his head and heats the thermometer. He also places a blueheating pad over his face, to heat himself. He then places the thermometerback into his mouth, swings the lamp away, and places the heating pad underthe covers as his mother enters the room. She opens his closet andseparates the hanging clothes as she walks into the closet. Elliott sits upin bed and intensely watches her.[Elliott's objective is to stay home from school in order to be with E.T.His obstacle is his mother, who wants him to go to school. To overcome thisobstacle he must persuade her that he's sick. A crisis occurs when sheenters the closet in which E.T. is hiding. This creates jeopardy for theprotagonist.]EXT: DRIVEWAY: DAYMike backs the car down the driveway.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOMMary walks out of the closet carrying a blue sleeping bag. Elliott istense, then relieved, once he realizes that she didn't find E.T. He fallsback into bed.INTERCUT: DRIVEWAYMike backs the car over part of the lawn.[This scene functions not only as comic relief, but also as a set up forthe scene here Mike has to drive the van during E.T.'s escape sequence.This demonstrates both his incompetence, and that he is only allowed todrive the car backwards down the driveway.]INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOMMary covers Elliott with the blue sleeping bag as Elliott puts thethermometer back into his mouth (first backwards, then he corrects it).[Humor is generated because the audience knows that he is fooling hismother.]INTERCUT: DRIVEWAYMike continues to back the car down the driveway. He overshoots the edgeand goes out into the street. He then pulls forward across the sidewalk.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM"You were outside waiting for that thing?" says Mary. Elliott nods.[Elliott is covered in blue-white colors, which traditionally signifyinnocence, and which generates audience empathy for him.]She tells him not to watch TV, kisses him, then leaves the room. Elliottquickly closes the blinds.EXT: DRIVEWAY: DAYMary runs down the driveway towards the car. Gertie points out the patchesof lawn that Mike pulled onto the driveway as he was driving the car. Marypulls her into the car.INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYElliott gestures for E.T. to walk out of the closet, which he does. He iswearing Elliott's robe. Elliott asks him if he talks.[Elliott's objective is to communicate with E.T., his obstacle is that E.T.does not speak the English language.]"Me Human. Boy. Elliott, Elliott, Elliott" says Elliott.E.T. turns away and walks towards the work table. Elliott picks up objects,such as a can of coke and toy soldiers, from the table then names them forE.T. Elliott points to the fish and explains how the fish eat the fishfood. He places a wooden toy shark into the fishbowl, then states that theshark eats the fish but nobody eats the shark.[In his effort to communicate with E.T., Elliott tries to teach him thelanguage by showing him objects that are used in everyday life. Thisprocess is similar to that experienced by the children and parents in theaudience everyday as they also learn and attempt to communicate with eachother. This type of scene solidifies the audience's emotional bonding withElliott and E.T.]E.T. takes a toy car into his mouth on chews on it.[Like many a child would.]Elliott takes this to mean that E.T. is hungry. Elliott tells E.T. to staywhere he is.[Elliott's new objective is to get food for E.T. and himself.]Elliott opens the door and Harvey tries to run into the room. E.T. groanswith fear and backs into a corner as Elliott pulls Harvey out of the room.[This introduces jeopardy into the scene, for Harvey could harm E.T.]INT: KITCHEN: DAYElliott, dressed only in white underwear, opens the refrigerator door andtakes out some food.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOME.T. walks around the room.INTERCUT: KITCHENElliott opens up a jar of peanut butter.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOME.T. touches a tennis racket.INTERCUT: KITCHENElliott picks up cheese and tomatoes.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOME.T. picks up an umbrella.INTERCUT: KITCHENElliott takes a carton of milk out of the refrigerator.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOME.T. accidentally opens up the umbrella.INTERCUT: KITCHENElliott screams with fright and drops the milk carton onto the floor.INTERCUT: ELLIOTT'S ROOME.T. screams with fright, drops the umbrella, then runs into the closet.[This further establishes the merging of E.T. and Elliott into one being.Elliott shares E.T.'s feelings and simultaneously experiences what heexperiences. The audience also experiences this surprise with them, whichfurther tightens the bonds.]Milk flows from the open carton onto the floor, as Elliott leans into theopen refrigerator. He clutches his chest and looks up towards the ceilingas he ponders his experience.INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYElliott carries a plate of food into the room. He walks past the openumbrella and looks into the closet. Stuffed animals line the back of thecloset wall. E.T. pushes the animals forward. He was hiding behind them. Heis still shaking from the fright experience. "Are you okay? Too muchexcitement, huh? You want a coke?"[This is the resolution of the last scene sequence. We see both characters'reactions to the events that have occurred.]EXT: DRIVEWAY: DAYMichael runs up the driveway towards his house. He's wearing a red footballblazer.INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMichael opens the front door and runs into the house. He takes off his redshirt to reveal the blue shirt he's wearing underneath. He picks up amagazine then opens the refrigerator. "Nothing but health shit," he says,as he takes out a can and shakes it.[The audience tenses up because jeopardy has just been introduced into thestory. They wonder what will happen when Mike discovers E.T. in Elliott'sbedroom.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYElliott walks away from his closet and opens the door to his room. He tellsMike to come in. Both boys are dressed in blue and white colors. Mike callsElliott a faker, then starts to tell him about scores on an asteroid game,when Elliott interrupts, to tell him about the goblin. Michael makes fun ofElliott and his belief that the goblin has returned. But Elliott persists,and makes Mike promise to give Elliott "absolute power."[This is the payoff to the "absolute power" concept as set up during theDUNGEON AND DRAGONS scene.][Elliott's objective is to vindicate himself to his brother and sister byproving that "the Goblin-E.T." really does exist.]Ellott makes Mike close his eyes, then he retrieves E.T. from the closetand leads him to the center of the room. Mike has a silly grin on his faceas he opens his eyes and turns around to look at E.T. A sickening look ofterror comes over his face.Suddenly Gertie opens the door and walks into the room with her doll underher arm, saying "Elliott, look what I made for you." E.T. sees her thenstretches his neck to raise his head high. Gertie walks right up to him andscreams. E.T. screams back at her. Elliott screams for both of them tostop. Mike falls back against the wall and knocks down the bookcase. Theyall scream together. Elliott grabs Gertie's mouth and pushes her back toMike."Kids, I'm home," shouts Mary from downstairs.[Jeopardy! The mother, an adult, is about to discover E.T. Even though theyare terrified, the children all band together against the threat. They'drather sit in the closet with the "monster" than have their mother discoverhim.]Mike quickly shuts the door, then they all run to the closet. Gertiescreams again. Mike grabs her by the mouth and pulls her away as E.T. runsacross the room with his arms raised. Elliott shuts the closet door just ashis mother walks into his room. Mary notices the fallen bookcase. She looksaround and then comments, "This is no room, this is an accident." Elliottries to cover by saying he was "reorganizing."INT: CLOSET: DAYE.T.'s head appears among the stuffed animals. Mike has his hand overGertie's mouth as she tries to scream. Mary walks past the closet door.[This creates suspense in the audience: will E.T. be discovered by Mary?]Mary asks Elliot to keep an eye on Gertie while she takes a shower. Shekisses him on the head then leaves the room. Elliott opens the closet door.Michael, in awe with mouth open wide, watches as Elliott approaches E.T."Elliott," whispers Mike. "I'm keeping him," says Elliott.E.T. sits behind the stuffed animals as if he was one of them.[The use of stuffed animals as props around E.T helps to transfer positivefeelings that the audience has for them to E.T.]Gertie asks what it is as she and Michael approach E.T. Elliott tells herthat it won't hurt her. When asked if it's a boy or girl, Elliott repliesthat it's a boy. He then tells her that she can't tell Mom about thecreature. When asked why not, he explains that "grownups can't see him.Only little kids can see him." Gertie snaps back, "Give me a break."[The charm in Gertie's character lies in the contradictory attributes ofbeing a sophisticated child. Humor is generated by this incongruity.]Elliott then goes into his Dracula voice: "Then do you know what willhappen if you do tell?" He grabs Gertie's doll, tosses it to Mike and tellshim to "Do it!." Mike "tortures" the doll by twisting its arm. Gertie criesas she runs to it. E.T. watches the scene with wonderment in his eyes.Gertie finally promises not to tell about E.T. They all watch him as hestretches his neck and lifts up his head.EXT: COMMUNITY: DAYOn the hilltop overlooking the neighborhood stands a man with a camera ashe takes photos of the houses below. The man with keys on his waist walksinto the area, as other men comb the ground with electronic equipment.[Jeopardy is introduced in the scene in order to maintain tension in theaudience. The antagonist is getting closer to the home of the protagonist.]EXT: ELLIOTT`S HOUSE: NIGHT[This is an establishing shot.]INT: ELLIOTT`S HOUSE: NIGHTMary, carrying a yellow watering pail, walks across the room and waters alarge plant. Gertie pulls a little red wagon into the hallway. When askedby Mary what she's doing, Gertie replies that she's going to play inElliott's room. "Okay, don't let them torture you," says the mother. "Iwon't, Mary," replies Gertie.[This generates humor because the child deals with the mother as if theyare equals.]Gertie picks up a pot containing a sickly geranium plant and places it intothe wagon. The phone rings and Mary answers it off screen.[The plant becomes an important prop because in the story it will representthe health and well-being of E.T.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: NIGHTGertie knocks on the door. Mike lets her and Harvey into the room. Theywalk to the table where E.T. and Elliott are sitting. Gertie puts thesickly plant n the table. E.T. puts his finger into the plant. Elliottopens up an encyclopedia and points to California on a map of the UnitedStates. "We are here," Elliott says as E.T. munches on celery. Michaelhands Elliott a globe and tells him to use this instead of the map. Elliottpoints to the globe, then asks E.T. where he's from. E.T. points out thewindow.[Elliott's objective is to discover more about the alien.]Elliott opens the book to a page that has the map of a galaxy. He points tothe planet earth, touches the globe, then says "HOME, HOME." E.T. makes asoft noise that sounds similar to the word "home." Gertie watches him as hepicks up round objects and places them on the map: three small pieces offruit and two eggs. E.T.'s eyes concentrate on the table, which then startsto shake. The two eggs and three small pieces of fruit then lift off thetable and float in the air. The children watch with awe.[This introduction of "magical" powers that E.T. possesses was unexpectedand thereby helps to make the story unpredictable.]Elliott screams with fright and the floating objects drop to the floor. Hewalks to a lamp and stares into it. Mike asks what is wrong. "I don't know.Something scary," says Elliott as E.T. places his finger on Elliott'sshoulder.[Jeopardy is introduced into the scene with this comment. Yet it is notE.T. who is to be feared, as indicated by his comforting gesture of placinghis finger on Elliott's shoulder.]EXT: BACKYARD: NIGHTElliott runs by the shed, past a swaying swing, up the stairs to the redlamppost and to the wire gate. He strains to hear the sounds of mentalking.[The antagonist is getting closer to the home of the protagonist.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: NIGHTE.T. sits next to a lamp as he reads a child's ABC book. He sits next to aRaggedy Ann doll.][Another image of E.T. learning the language which helps to forge a bondbetween him and children in the audience. Good feelings for the doll arealso transferred to the alien.]On the floor next to E.T. is the pot containing the sickly flowers. Helooks at the flowers, makes a moaning sound, and suddenly they becomehealthy and transform into full bloom.[This establishes the magical healing powers of E.T.]EXT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYElliott and Mike walk down the driveway. They are on their way to school.They discuss E.T., arguing about how smart he is.[This is just a transition scene.]EXT: STREET: DAYMike and Elliot walk towards a bus stop where a group of children arewaiting. Mike's friends torment Elliott about his "goblin."[This generates more audience empathy for Elliott, who is unfairly mockedby the ignorant boys. Elliott still has not earned the respect of Mike'sfriends, which is one of his dreams.]They finally get on the bus as Elliott walks away, followed by a prettyblonde girl who seems to have a crush on him. Michael appears worried as hesits on the bus among the other children who are throw- ing objects at eachother.INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYGertie stands on the stairway looking up, presumably thinking about E.T. inElliott's room. Mary comes running downstairs and tells Gertie that theyhave to get into the car, otherwise they'll be late. Suddenly, Mary hears anoise upstairs. She goes up to see what caused the sound.[Jeopardy: E.T. is in danger of being discovered by an adult. Theaudience's expectations were shaped in the earlier dinner scene, where Marytold the children she would call to have the creature taken away if he camearound the house again. This is what the audience expects her to do if shefinds E.T.]INT: ELLIOTT'S BEDROOM: DAYMary walks into the closet and looks around. The camera pans across thelarge faces of all the stuffed dolls: Raggedy Ann, a Bear, a Monkey, E.T.'sFace, a Lion, etc. Mary doesn't notice E.T., then closes the closet doorand leaves.[Humor is generated because of the incongruity of a living creature amongthe dolls, and the inability of Mary to distinguish between them. Thelaughter releases the tension that was created in the previous scene. Thisalso reinforces the audience's emotional ties to E.T., since he is so"doll-like."]INT: SCHOOL: DAYA teacher walks down the aisle and announces to the class that today theywill perform the frog dissection for which they have been preparing. As hepasses Elliott's desk, he starts to say "frogs similar to," then he noticesthe drawing of E.T. The teacher picks it up. Elliott turns to see thepretty blonde girl staring at him. Realizing she's been caught, she quicklyturns and looks away.[This attraction to Elliott is set up in order to payoff before the end ofthe school sequence.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYE.T. opens the door to Elliott's room and walks out into the hallway.Harvey sees and quickly approaches.[Jeopardy: will the dog attack E.T.? At there last encounter E.T. wasfrightened by Harvey.]INTERCUT: CLASSROOMThe teacher continues his instructions, telling the students that thescalpel is very sharp, and that they should use discretion when cutting.There should be very little blood, and maybe a little body fluids.[This exposition of the plans sets up the audience's expectations, whichlater will not be fulfilled. This is a standard structure used to generatedexcitement and unpredictability in a story.]INT: KITCHEN: DAYE.T., wearing a blue-flannel shirt, walks into the kitchen with Harvey athis side. He opens the refrigerator. Harvey licks his lips as he watches inanticipation of getting something to eat. E.T. takes out a plasticcontainer of potato salad, opens it, then sticks his tongue into the salad.He hates the taste and throws it onto the floor. Harvey licks it up. E.T.then picks up a can of beer and drinks it as Harvey barks.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott sits at his desk as he listens to the teacher speak. Elliott burps.All the children in the classroom stare at him.[This again shows the merging of Elliott and E.T.]INTERCUT: KITCHENE.T., drunk, wobbles across the kitchen floor and walks into a counter.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott places his fingers to his head. He is also becoming drunk. Theteacher tells the class that in this bisection they should locate the heartand notice that it is still beating.[The red-lit heart is the most prominent feature of E.T. Having the teacherfocus on the frog's heart starts the identification in the audience's mindof the frogs and E.T.]INTERCUT: KITCHENE.T. turns and walks into another wall as Harvey continues to eat thepotato salad on the floor.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott, now drunk, slides down in his chair.INTERCUT: KITCHENE.T. turns, walks, then collapses head first onto the floor.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott slides under his desk and falls onto the floor. The teacher doesn'thear this because at that moment he pulls down a wall hanging whichcontains pictures of a frog's anatomy.INTERCUT: KITCHENE.T. opens another can of beer.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott pulls himself up off the floor with a drunken smile on his face.INTERCUT: KITCHENE.T. gulps down another can of beer.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott, drunk, sits at his desk. He turns and smiles at the pretty blondegirl across the aisle. She turns away from him with disgust.INTERCUT: LIVING ROOME.T. plays on the keys of a voice generating language game. He next pressesa button on a remote control which activates the TV set. A cartoon appearswith a cat getting its tail caught on fire. The cat screams and E.T reactswith horror. He throws the beer can at the TV set.[Laughter is generated, for while this under normal circumstances would beinappropriate behavior, he makes sense given E.T.'s point of view.]He then presses another button on the remote, and the image of a flyingplane appears on the screen. A spaceship next appears, and pulls the planeup towards it.INTERCUT: SCHOOLThe teacher carries a jar of cotton balls soaked in chloroform, which hedrops into the jars containing frogs. He tells the children to immediatelyput the lids on the jars. After telling the children that this won't hurtthe frogs, he places a cotton ball into the last two jars, one of whichbelongs to Elliott. Elliott doesn't place the cover on his jar, but insteadsadly watches as the frog tries to escape. Slowly he places to lid on it,as he gazes at the frog."Say hi. Can you talk? Can you talk? Can you say hi?" says Elliott.[Elliott is making an emotional identification of the frog with E.T. byattempting the same process of communication. The situation also createsexpectations in the audience that similar things will happen to E.T. oncehe is captured.]CLOSEUP: FROG'S FACECLOSEUP: E.T.'S FACE[A cinematic technique which reinforces the identification of the frog withE.T. This sets up the audience for E.T.'s operation. They expect the frogto die, and they project these expectations to E.T. later in the story.]INTERCUT: LIVING ROOME.T. has a hangover as he hiccups and puts his hand on his head. He thenpicks up the cartoon section of a newspaper. One cartoon strip has apicture of a communication device with a caption stating "HELP, HELP."On the TV monitor a woman is talking long distance n her telephone to herUncle Ralph in California. E.T. hears the sounds coming from the TV, thenturns to look at the monitor, where he sees a man talking into a phone inhis hand. The camera pans to a phone near E.T. A child in the TV programpicks up the phone, says hello to his uncle, then hangs up.[This generates laughter because it's inappropriate behavior to just sayhello, then hang up.]E.T. looks closer at the Buck Rogers cartoon. One cell has an image of aman in a spacesuit setting up a transmitter. The next cell has him saying"It works" as the communication device transmits "help, help!" E.T. liftsup his head from the newspaper.INTERCUT: SCHOOL"Save him" shouts Elliott. Elliott picks up his jar, unscrews the top, thenlets out his frog, screaming "Run for your life. Back to the forest! Run!"[Another merging of E.T. and Elliott's feelings and thoughts. E.T.presumably had the feeling of wanting to be saved by his friends, and thisfeeling prompted Elliott to cry out.]He next opens the jar of the girl besides him. Elliott struggles with onestudent, then proceeds to turn over many of the other jars as he frees thefrogs. Some of the other children also free their frogs.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOME.T. studies the electronic circuitry of the language game. Suddenly JohnWayne comes on the screen. E.T. is fascinated with his image. It's a scenefrom the movie "QUIET MAN." Maureen O'Sullivan huddles in a corner of theroom.INTERCUT: SCHOOLA pile of frogs gather at the feet of a terrified little girl with blondebraids. Elliott, drunk, staggers by her.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOME.T. continues to watch the TV monitor as the woman in the movie screams.INTERCUT: SCHOOLA blonde girl who has a crush on Elliott screams when a frog is placed onher shoes.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOMThe woman in the movie runs out the door. John Wayne grabs hold of her arm.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott grabs hold of the blonde girl as she runs out the door.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOMJohn Wayne pulls the woman back.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott pulls the blonde girl back.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOMJohn Wayne takes the woman into his arms.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott takes the blonde girl into his arms.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOMJohn Wayne kisses the woman.INTERCUT: SCHOOLElliott, too short to kiss her, stands on the back of a student who wascrawling on the floor after a frog. Elliott kisses the girl.INTERCUT: LIVINGROOME.T., filled with fascination, watches the TV monitor.INTERCUT: SCHOOLThe children's hands poke through the windows and free the frogs bythrowing them out onto the grass.[Elliott was able to accomplish his objective of freeing the frogs. Thissequence was structured to run in parallel in order to emphasize themerging of Elliott and E.T.]INT: LIVING ROOM: DAYA blanket containing aluminum foil, electrical toys and appliances ispulled across the floor.Mary opens the door and yells hello. Harvey runs tothe front door. E.T walks out from behind the TV and kicks beer cans acrossthe floor.[The alien quickly learns the appropriate behavior for drinking at home.]Mary, with her arms filled with grocery bags and clothes from the cleaners,walks into the kitchen. She is followed by Gertie, who sees E.T standingnear the refrigerator. Mary opens the refrigerator door, and knocks E.T. inthe head. He falls backwards onto the floor. Gertie helps E.T. up off thefloor. He walks past Mary as he goes back to the refrigerator. Mary stilldoesn't see him.[This increases the audience's tension. They are expecting E.T. to bediscovered by Mary, and they are expecting her to scream.]Gertie keeps telling her that she wants Mary to meet somebody, but Maryignores her as she talks about how much the price of food has gone up inone week. E.T. grabs a can of coffee from the kitchen table, then againwalks past Mary as she goes in the opposite direction. He goes back intothe TV room.[The laughter's produced by Mary's failure to see the reality of the alienwho's right under her nose.]Gertie is watching a language teaching program for children on the TV. Theprogram is teaching words that begin with the letter "B". The phone ringsas Mary accidentally kicks a can of beer across the floor. She answers thephone with the beer can in her hand. The person on the phone tells Marythat Elliott is intoxicated.Gertie, watching the TV monitor, responds to the program by practicing the"B" words. E.T. pokes his head up from behind the monitor and says"BBBBBBB." Gertie stares at him as he repeats the "B" sound, then lowershis head back down below the TV."You said 'B'," says Gertie. "B," repeats E.T. "You said 'B,' good," saysGertie. "B...GOOD," repeats E.T.[This is a set up for the closing communication between E.T. and Gertiebefore he flies away in the spacecraft. This is also the first moment thathe spoke an English word. Many children and parents in the audience canidentify with this moment, and the first moral precept usually taught to achild: be good.]Mary hangs up the phone and tells Gertie that she has to pick up Elliott.She asks Gertie to be a good girl. "Mommy, he can talk," says Gertie. "Ofcourse he can talk," says Mary, referring to the TV program.[The humor is generated from Mary's misunderstanding of Gertie'sstatement.]As Mary leaves, E.T. walks out from behind the TV. He walks to a phone andstares. "Phone," says Mary. "Phone," says E.T. E.T. presses the numbers ofthe phone. "You want to call somebody?" asks Gertie.[This establishes E.T.'s objective: to communicate with his fellowcreatures so that he can return home.]INT: HOUSE: DAYElliott walks up the stairs to his room. Mary's voice can be heard frombelow saying she refuses to pay for frogs.[This is a fine example of the point of attack for a scene: Instead ofshowing what would happen in real life (Mary's discussions with the teacherabout Elliott's behavior in the classroom), the scene picks up with what isimportant for the audience: Elliott's discovery that E.T. can now talk. Ascene showing Mary in school would be redundant and dramaticallyirrelevant.]Elliott is walking towards his room when he hears Gertie talking to E.T. inher room. He drops his bags on the floor, and quickly enters her room."Be good, be good," says Gertie as she closes the doors to her closet.Elliott pushes Gertie away from the closet and opens it. Inside is E.T.dressed up in girl clothes with a blonde wig on his head. He has a rabbitfur around his neck and wears a black hat with flowers.[This is completely inappropriate attire for an alien, whether male orfemale. The visual incongruity of E.T. in girl's clothes generates thelaughter.]"Oh God!" says Elliott. "Elliott," says E.T. "What?" says Elliott, not yetrealizing that it was E.T. who spoke. "Elliott, Elliott," repeats E.T. "Itaught him how to talk. He can talk now," says Gertie.[Elliott, with the help of Gertie and the TV program, has completed one ofElliott's objectives: communicating with E.T.]Gertie points out the things that E.T. has brought upstairs: electricaltoys and the plant. She wonders what he needs this for. E.T. holds thecartoon page of the newspaper out to Elliott. "E.T., can you say that? Canyou say E.T.?" asks Elliott. "E.T.," repeats E.T. Elliott laughs with joy.E.T keeps repeating his name as he turns and walks through the closet intoElliott's room."E.T., be good," says E.T. "Be good," I taught him that too," says Gertie.["Be good" is a fundamental value taught children, as basic as theprinciple "There's no place like home," taught in the WIZARD OF OZ.]"You should give him his dignity. This is the most ridiculous thing I'veever seen," says Elliott.E.T. hands Elliott the newspaper, and points to the Buck Rodgers comicstrip. He then says "PHONE". Elliott is amazed at this. E.T. walks into thecloset and says "HOME." Elliott confirms that this is E.T.'s home. E.T.then turns, walks to the window, points to the sky, and says "E.T. HOMEPHONE.""E.T. PHONE HOME" says Gertie. "E.T. PHONE HOME" says Elliott."He wants to call somebody," says Gertie.[This reconfirms E.T.'s objective.]Mike walks into the room and laughs at E.T.'s attire."E.T. Phone Home," says E.T."Oh my God, he's talking now," says Mike.E.T. once again points out the window and repeats that he wants to callhome."And they'll come?, says Elliott."Come?" responds E.T. "Home, home" he repeats.EXT: STREET: NIGHTA truck drives down the street. Inside a man with earphones listens to theconversations in the neighborhood homes, as he fine tunes his electroniceavesdropping equipment. He focuses in on Elliott's voice.[Jeopardy: the forces of the antagonist are getting closer and closer. Theyare now inside the privacy of the protagonist's home, listening to theirmost intimate conversations.]INT: GARAGE: NIGHTElliott, Mike and Harvey are in the garage searching for objects that E.T.could use in building his communications device. Elliott restates that hehas "absolute power" and that E.T. belongs to him.[Elliott's objective is to possess E.T., not set him free. Freeing the onehe loves is the lesson he will have to learn in this story.]EXT: STREET: NIGHTThe van containing electronic eavesdropping equipment drives past Elliott'shouse.[They are still in jeopardy: their actions and words are being monitored.]INT: GARAGE: DAYMike tells Elliott that E.T. doesn't look too good anymore."Don't say that, we're fine!" says Elliott."What's all this we stuff. You say we all the time now. Look Elliott,I think he might be getting sick," replies Michael.[This confirms Elliott's belief that he considers himself and E.T. to beone being. It also introduces further jeopardy for E.T. Besides beingtracked by the antagonist, he is also becoming sick.]INT: VAN: NIGHTThe man with the earphones is listening to Elliott and Michael'sconversation as they discuss E.T.'s sickness.INT: GARAGE: DAYMike tells Elliott to grab the fuzzbuster. Elliott pulls his father's blueshirt out from the shelf. They reminisce about the days when he used totake them to baseball games and the movies, where they would have baseballfights. Mike says that they'll do that again, but Elliott doesn't reallybelieve him. They each smell their father's shirt."Old Spice," says Mike."Sea Breeze," says Elliott.[Here a prop (their father's shirt) is used to reveal the emotionalrelationships between the two boys and their father. Audience empathy isgenerated for them because they have been abandoned by their father. Theaudience's anger is transferred from the father to the antagonist who iseavesdropping on this private intimate moment.]INT: VAN: NIGHTThe man in the van continues to listen to Elliott and Michael'sconversation. Only the listener's eye is clearly visible.[This is a cinematic technique to signify the "ever-watching eye" of thefaceless antagonist.]INT: GERTIE'S ROOM: NIGHTMary lies in bed next to Gertie as she reads her the Peter Pan story. Maryreads that Peter has defeated the Indians, but Wendy and the boys have beencaptured by the pirates. He vows to rescue her. E.T. watches them from thecloset.[Here the notion of "a rescue" is introduced, and visually associated withE.T. as he watches them from the closet. This is an emotional set up forthe audience, so that they will later be supportive of Elliott and theboy's efforts to rescue E.T.]Mary reads the section of the Peter Pan story where Tinker Bell becomespoisoned. Elliott comes into the closet, stands next to E.T., then closesthe door behind them."Tinkerbell swallows the draft as Peter's hand reaches for it," reads Mary."Why T, you have drunk my medicine."Elliott pulls E.T. away from the door, then shifts through a box of itemsthat he brought up from the garage. He cuts his finger on the blade of apower saw, then says "OUCH," as he holds his bleeding finger up into theair. E.T. points his own finger towards Elliott. E.T.'s finger glows like alaser light as he says "ouch." He then presses this lit finger on Elliott'scut and heals it.[This establishes the fundamental goodness and healing power of E.T.]E.T. opens the slit in the closet door and continues to watch Mary read toGertie the part where Tinker Bell is dying."She says she thinks she can get well again if children believe in fairies.Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe.""I DO! I DO! I DO!" says Gertie."If you believe, clap your hands."Both Gertie and Mary clap their hands. Elliott places a blanket aroundE.T.'s shoulders and a scarf around his neck, as they listen to the rest ofthe story."Thank you, thank you. And now to rescue Wendy," reads Mary. Elliott placeshis arm around E.T.[The Peter Pan story is used to set up the audience's emotional reactionsto a fairy tale concerning near death and rescue. This emotional empathywill then be transferred to E.T., another "fairy-like creature" when hebecomes sick and is rescued. Just as the audience felt like clapping forTinker Bell, they will applaud the children's efforts to save E.T.]EXT: HOUSE: NIGHTExhaust flows from the tailpipe of a van. This is the same type ofpoisonous exhaust image that the audience saw when vans drove into theforest at the beginning of the movie.[Jeopardy: the forces of the antagonist are still nearby.]INT: BEDROOM: NIGHTElliott, dressed in white long-johns, sits on his bunkbed as he watchesE.T. Michael stands next to him. Elliott comments that E.T. is puttingtogether his instrument, while Mike fears that it might blow up the house.He also comments on the irregularity of E.T.'s breathing.[More jeopardy, both in Mike's fears of his family and home beingdestroyed, and in E.T.'s illness becoming progressively worse.]E.T places his communication device over the Buck Rodgers comic strip.[This movement establishes a mental association between the device and thespaceman's communication efforts in the comic strip.]Petals drop off the flower in the pot.[This represents E.T.'s failing health.]E.T. lifts up his head (which indicates he's using his telekinetic powers),then lifts part of his communication device into the air. He next lifts upthe umbrella and opens it. Both objects float in the air in front of him.[E.T's primary objective is to go home. To accomplish this he must create acommunication device. This is his sub-objective, which appears to becompleted. He next must activate this device from the landing site and callhome. The obstacles he has to overcome are Mary, the community, and thedistance to the forest. These obstacles will be confronted in the nextscenes.]INT: ELLIOTT'S ROOM: DAYPreparing for Halloween, Elliott paints his lips with makeup. He talks toGertie about her going out that night as a ghost. They review the eveningplans. She will meet them at the lookout.[This is an example of incomplete exposition which engages the audience.They only talk about part of the plan: the meeting at the lookout. Theydon't discuss anymore details, such as deceiving Mary into thinking thatGertie is with them instead of E.T. The partial information forces theaudience to stay involved with the action and to create their ownconjectures about what will happen.]INT: CLOSET: DAYMike helps Elliot put on his knapsack. Elliott then places a sheet overE.T.INT: STAIRCASE: DAYE.T., covered with a sheet and clown shoes, walks down the staircase. Theclown shoes cover his three-toed feet.INT: HOUSE: DAYMary walks through the house dressed in a tight fitting leopard skin dresswith facial makeup that makes her look like a cat. Mike tells his mother towait and not peek, as he and Elliott lead E.T. into the room. Finally, Maryturns and shrieks with glee. She runs to get a camera.[The tension in the situation is caused by their fear that E.T. will bediscovered by Mary. Mike and Elliott's objective is to get him out of thehouse undiscovered.]E.T. looks through holes cut out for his eyes and sees Michael with a fakebutcher knife through his head. He lights up his finger in an attempt toheal Mike's wound. Mike grab's E.T.'s hand and puts it back under thesheet. "Ouch, ouch" says E.T, as he tries once again to heal Mike. "It's afake knife, it's fake," says Mike.[Laughter is generated because while E.T.'s behavior would be appropriateif Mike was really wounded, it is inappropriate in this situation since theknife is fake.]Mary comes back with a camera and prepares to photograph them."You look great," says Mary."Thank you," says Mike."Thank you," says Elliott."Thank you," says E.T.Mary doesn't notice that E.T. has spoken.[Laughter is generated by the "rule of three" humor structure and Mary'signorance.]When Mary takes the photo, the flash shocks E.T. and knocks him onto thefloor. Mike and Elliott quickly pull him up before Mary notices and leadhim out of the house.[They succeed in their objective with the help of their "not so smart"mother.]EXT: STREET: DAYMary walks down the driveway as she orders them to be home no later thanone-hour after sundown. E.T., dressed in the sheet, turns and looks atMary, then continues down the driveway with Mike and Elliott.[This creates a "timelock", a sense of urgency, and the expectation of anupset mother if they haven't returned by the assigned time.]EXT: COMMUNITY: DAYEstablishing shot of the neighborhood. On a hilltop by a fence standsanother person in a white sheet (presumably Gertie). She kicks dirt at thebicycle near the fence.[This is the end objective of Mike, Elliot and E.T.: to connect up withGertie at the lookout. Their obstacle is to get E.T past all the childrenon the streets.]EXT: STREET: DAYThe sun is setting. Children in Halloween costumes walk through thestreets. E.T. walks between Mike and Elliott, as he watches the otherchildren parade by. One child dressed as YODA from RETURN OF THE JEDI walksby. E.T. turns and walks after him saying "HOME,HOME."[The laughter is obviously the result of E.T. misinterpreting the situationby believing that the child is another alien.]They walk towards the setting sun as Mike reminds Elliott that he must beback by one hour after sunset. Elliott promises to try, but he wants Miketo cover for him.[This creates jeopardy for the characters, because if they don't completetheir mission within the time frame, they will have trouble with Mary.]EXT: HILLTOP: DAYThe sun is setting as Mike, Elliott, and two small characters covered withsheets stand on the hilltop overlooking the city. Elliott asks Mike to helphim lift E.T. onto the bike. Mike does and then tells Elliott that theywill be waiting for him.[They have reached this objective. The next objective for Elliott and E.Tis to get to the landing site in the forest.]EXT: FOREST: DAYElliott, with E.T sitting in the front basket, rides his bicycle throughthe forest. The road becomes very bumpy. Elliott tells E.T. that they willhave to walk from there. Suddenly, E.T. takes control of the bike throughthe use of his telekinetic powers and speeds it forward. Eliott becomesfrightened as E.T. speeds the bike towards a cliff and then drives it overthe edge. E.T. then makes the bike up through the air.[The audience gulps from suspense and then goes into elation by thissurprising and magical turn of events.]They continue to fly over the tree tops. Elliott yells "Not so high, not sohigh."[E.T and Elliott both have white hoods over their heads, which furthervisually reinforces their identification.]They ride across the front of the moon, the guiding light of magic. Elliottlaughs with glee. When they start their descent he begs E.T. not to crash.They hit the ground. The bike turns over, and both E.T. and Elliott arethrown to the ground.INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTThe grandfather clock indicates 9:45. Mary watches the clock as she sits infront of lighted candles. The time has long passed when Elliott wassupposed to be home. The lighted candles give a church like effect as ifMary was praying for the safety of her children. She is upset that theyhaven't returned. She blows out the candles, then taps out another candlewith her wand.[There is jeopardy for the children as Mary and the audience wonder if theyare okay. Empathy is generated for Mary who is truly concerned for thesafety of her children.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTThe sun has set. It's nighttime in the forest. E.T opens a box whichcontains the saw blade brought to him by Elliott. Elliott ties a rope up toa tree branch. He then opens the umbrella which is lined with aluminum foiland points it towards the star-filled sky. It will function as atransmitter. E.T. places a coat hanger with nails above the saw blade,plugs a cable into a battery, then activates the toy language teachingdevice.[They succeeded in completing their objective to reach the landing site.Their new objective is to communicate with E.T.'s fellow aliens in order toaccomplish E.T.'s primary objective, which is to return home.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTMary, still dressed in her leopard outfit, leaves the house. She is veryupset that her children have not yet returned home. She mumbles to herself,sticks the wand in her mouth, and shakes the car keys. She gets into thecar and mumbles that their father is going to hear about this one."Mexico!" she says. She drives down the driveway and into the street tosearch for her children.[This creates more empathy for Mary, who is very upset that her smallchildren are out this late. The parents in the audience can easily identifywith her. But the real function of this scene is to get her out of thehouse so that the antagonist can invade their home. She could have stayedinside, we never see her in the car searching for the children, and thenext time we do see her is by the refrigerator in the kitchen.]Men get out of a parked car as Mary drives away. They take suitcases out ofa second car, then walk up the driveway to Elliott's house.EXT: FOREST: NIGHTElliott watches the treetops sway. He scratches his face, as does E.T.Together they stare at the stars. The wind causes the branch to sway, whichthen pulls the rope, which, in turn, pulls a fork across the saw blade.This drags the nails in the hanger across the flat surface of the blade,and sends signals out into space. Elliott is overjoyed and shouts that itworks, while E.T. repeats the word "Home." Together they gaze up to thestars.[They have accomplished their objective of sending a message into space.Now, they wait to receive a signal back.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: NIGHTThe light from a flashlight crosses in front of a pumpkin's face. Morelight floods through the slits of Gertie's door. A hand holding aflashlight opens Gertie's door, and shines the light into the face of ablack doll.[This has an irritating and frightening effect on anyone in the audiencewho has ever had the experience of having a light shined into their face.]Light from the flashlight searches around Gertie's room.INT: HALLWAY: NIGHTA pile of yellow electrical cord is stacked on the floor near a chair. Itslowly unwinds as it is pulled by someone in Elliott's room. The door toElliott's room is shut, with a poster sign hanging on it saying "DO NOTENTER." The silhouette of a man passes behind the door, as sounds of aGeiger counter filter into the air. Muffled voices are heard as the cord ispulled to its fullest extent. It forces a chair to slam against the wall.[This last action has a jarring effect on the audience. Emotionally, theaudience is outraged at the invasion of the children's rooms, and thiscreates hatred for the antagonist and his cohorts. They are still facelessso the audience can project the face of the persons they most hate ontothese characters. This personalizes the story for them and gets them moreintensely involved on an emotional basis. They also become intellectuallyinvolved, because the sounds of the Geiger counter and the extension of thecord to its maximum length forces them to infer that the antagonist hasfound E.T.'s "home" in the closet. This involves the audience in the storymuch more than if the filmmaker had shown the antagonist poking around inthe closet.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHT"We have to go now E.T. It's so late already," Elliott says as both he andE.T. sadly gaze into the sky.[Their objective of receiving a return signal has not been achieved. Theirsadness at failure creates empathy for them in the audience.]Elliott coughs from being out in the cold, damp air.[This is a setup for the later scenes when both Elliott and E.T. aredeathly ill.]Elliott repeats that they really have to go home, but E.T. ignores him andhas a sad expression on his face as he stares up to the sky. Elliott tellsthem that he has to give them some time. E.T. responds by saying "ouch,"signifying that he feels pain. A small fawn watches them from a distance.[The jeopardy in the scene is due to their being so late. Mary will be veryangry and they face the obstacle of getting E.T. back into the housewithout being discovered. The fawn generates feelings of sympathy in theaudience which is transferred to E.T. The audience also empathizes with thesadness they feel at failing to make contact. For now, supposedly, E.T.won't be able to go home.]"You could be happy here. I could take care of you," says Elliotttearfully. I wouldn't let anybody hurt you. We could grow up together,E.T."[Elliott states his primary objective: to always have E.T. with him.]"Home, Home," says E.T.[E.T. states his primary objective: to go home.]Elliott sits down and cries. E.T. touches one of his tears.[The audience empathizes with the sadness of both characters.]EXT: FOREST: NIGHTIt's morning. Elliott is asleep as he leans against a large rock. He iscovered with a blanket as the wet forest mist surrounds him. Next to himlies E.T.'s communication device.Elliott coughs, gets up, tugs on the rope which activates the device, thenlooks around for E.T. but can't find him.[The new objective: where is E.T. and what has happened to him? This isalso the new question that will maintain the audience's interest.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMary opens the refrigerator door and puts back a carton of milk. Mike andGertie sit besides her. A policeman asks Mary how Elliott was dressed whenshe last saw him. Mary tells him that he was dressed as a hunchback. Thepoliceman, whose face is not shown (I suppose so that the audience willassociate him as "one of them"), asks Mary if there is any indication thathe might have run away? Were there any family problems or recent arguments?Mary explains that she and her husband had just separated and that this hasnot been easy on the kids."My father is in Mexico," says Gertie.[This scene generates empathy for the whole family.]Mary slams the refrigerator door shut, thereby revealing Elliott standingbehind it. White light floods onto him making him look ghastly. Mary hugshim as Mike and Gertie join them.[The audience is relieved and overjoyed with Elliott's safe return.]"Oh Elliott," she says as she hugs him. "Don't ever do this again, Elliott.You're so hot."Elliott is feverish from spending the night outside. Mary tells Gertie togo upstairs and draw him a bath. Mary walks over to the policeman (whoseface is still unseen) and thanks him for his concern.Elliott asks Mike if E.T. is in the house. Mike shakes his head, indicatingno. Elliot pleads with Mike to find him. He's somewhere in the forest nearthe bald spot.[This is the new objective: find E.T. and bring him back.]EXT: STREET: DAYMike rides the bicycle with the basket in front down the driveway and intothe street, past a car filled with waiting men. The car starts and followsMike. He looks behind and realizes that he is being pursued.[This is a standard chase scene, with a friend who is trying to save thelife of the protagonist being pursued. Both he and the protagonist are injeopardy. Mike's new sub-objective is to lose those who are following him.]Mike cuts through a backyard and into an alley behind some houses. The carfollows him. Mike then rides up an embankment and drives off in theopposite direction, leaving the car stranded behind.[He successfully accomplished his subobjective.]EXT: FOREST: DAYMike rides through the forest as he calls out E.T.'s name. He stops andsearches for E.T. Mike finds the abandoned communication device, then runsup a path and discovers E.T.'s white sheet hanging from the open gate.[The blue-orange colors of E.T.'s communication device are the same colorsthat Spielberg chose the logo of his production company, AMBLINENTERTAINMENT.][This is the same gate near the landing site that the characters ran pastin the opening sequence.]In another part of the forest, Mike rides his bike on a ridge above astream. E.T lies in the water below, is skin discolored to that of sicklywhite. Mike sees him, grabs the sheet, then runs down the embankment. Araccoon wanders near E.T. Mike shouts him away, then covers E.T. Mike hearsthe sounds of a helicopter above him and looks up at the sky.[Mike has achieved his objective: he has found E.T. But, danger hoversabove him in the unseen presence of the ever observing antagonist.]EXT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYThe shadow of a man falls on the driveway. The sound of keys jangling isheard.[High jeopardy: the antagonist is about to invade the home of theprotagonist.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMike is in the hallway as Mary walks up the stairs. She has a cup of coffeein her hand.[The cup is a prop which will be used to reveal Mary's emotions.]He wants her to come with him. He asks her if she remembers the goblin. Hetries to get her to make a promise, but she is annoyed with him.INT: BATHROOM: DAYMichael then opens the door to the bathroom. Elliott is sitting on thefloor as Gertie sits on the counter. They are both looking into thebathtub. Mary smiles as she walks into the bathroom with the cup of coffeein her hand. Then she sees E.T. on the floor. He is a sickly white. Heextends his arms out towards her. Mary is stunned, as she turns the cupover and coffee pours out onto the floor.[Here a character's non-verbal action with a prop reveals her trueemotional state. She has lost it.]"He's sick. I think we're dying," says Elliott. Mary covers her mouth. Miketries to tell her that E.T. won't harm them, but she orders him to takeGertie downstairs. Gertie cries that he's the man from the moon as Mikepicks her up and carries her downstairs.[Elliott, clothed only in white long-john underwear, is visually almostidentical to the ghastly white-colored E.T.]Mary picks up Elliott and carries him out of the room as E.T. groans andreaches out for them.[Mary's objective is to save her family from the alien in her home.]INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMary carries Elliott down the stairs. He protests that she can't leave E.T.alone. Michael runs down the stairs with Gertie on his back. He opens thedoor, freezes, then backs away. Mary, with Elliott in her arms, approachesthe door and is confronted by a man in a spacesuit.Mary backs into the living room as the spaceman enters and reaches out forher. She goes in the opposite direction, only to run into another man in aspacesuit. She runs into the kitchen, followed by Mike carrying Gertie. Theare blocked by still another spaceman with outstretched arms. Mary and herchildren are backed into a corner. Another man in a spacesuit opens up thewindow blinds from the outside. Mary shouts "THIS IS MY HOME."EXT: STREET: DAYDawn. The sun rises as a line of men wearing helmets and uniforms march upthe street.INT: BATHROOM: DAYE.T., his skin discolored to a grey-white hue, lies on the floor as a manin a space suit enters the room. "Home," says E.T.[This is the end of act two. The antagonist and his forces have invaded thehome of the protagonist and taken them into possession. This terrifyinginvasion of the privacy of their home generates more empathy for Mary andher children.]EXT: STREET: DAYMen in helmets walk up a street as they push a large plastic tunnel. Policecars slowly drive up the street, as faceless men march to a drumbeat.[This is the beginning of the third act with the forces of the antagonistin complete control.]EXT: STREET: NIGHTMen with welding torches work on a truck. The plastic tunnel leads up thedriveway to Elliott's house. The faces of the men are still not shown. Theyare either wearing helmets or are silhouettes.CLOSEUPThe man with keys jangling on his side is putting on a pair of light-bluepants.INTERCUT: STREETMen are working outside. Large bright lights flood the area.INTERCUT: "KEYS"The man in the blue suit puts on a white pair of plastic gloves. Red andblack colors on his cuff are associated with his keys as ominous musicfills the soundtrack.[This is the only instance in this film where the traditional colors of theantagonist (red and black) are associated with the antagonist ("keys").Putting on a light-blue outfit starts the transformation of the antagonistinto a character worthy of audience empathy, for blue-white is thetraditional production design colors signifying "innocence."]The man in the light-blue suit gets up walks through the plastic tunneltowards Elliott's house. He exits the tunnel and walks into the house whichhas been completely enclosed by plastic.Finally, the antagonist's face is shown. His head is covered by a blue hoodwhile a light under his face mask accentuates his white shirt.Mary stands in the middle of the room with Gertie at her side. A doctorasks her questions about E.T., but Mary is more concerned with Elliott'sstate. A nurse cuts a lock from Gertie's hair (presumably for analysis),while both Elliott and E.T. can be seen on a video monitor. This nursewalks to Mike and cuts a piece of his hair while a doctor asks himquestions about E.T. A video monitor shows Elliott and E.T. "Elliott thinkshis thoughts," asks the doctor. "No, Elliott feels his feelings," answersMichael.[This is the first time in the film that the merging of Elliott and E.T.has been explicitly stated. Yet, this condition has been revealed to theaudience non-verbally throughout the story. The verbalization seemsredundant and not necessary, but does make sense as an explanatory commentto a character new to the story.]INT: CHAMBER: DAYA man stands in what appears to be a decontamination chamber.INTERCUT: MEDICAL INSTRUMENTSHands push buttons on electronic equipment used to gather medicalinformation about Elliott and E.T. Graphs representing E.T. and Elliott runin exact parallel.[This is another representation of the fact that E.T. and Elliott havemerged and are to be considered as one being.]INT: MEDICAL ROOM: DAYTwo people in white suits zip open a plastic covering and enter the roomwhere Elliot and E.T. are being examined.[The color white traditionally signifying purity. A transition in theaudience's emotional alliances is being manipulated at this stage of thestory. Their hatred will be transferred from "keys" who will become muchmore sympathetic to "death itself" which threatens the life of E.T. Itwould be too much to ask of the adult audience to remain sympathetic to theemotional pleadings of a child when space scientists are trying to save thelife of a sick alien.]"You're scaring him," cries Elliott, as the doctors examine both Elliottand E.T. as they lie on adjacent tables. E.T's head rests on a blue pieceof cloth."Leave him alone, leave him alone. I can take care of him," moans Elliott.[Which, of course, he can't. But this is something that both he, andprobably most of the children in the audience, really believe.]Elliott looks up into the face of "Keys," who says that he's been to theforest. He wants to know what the machine does. Elliott says that it's acommunication machine, and asks if it's still working. He then states that"He came to me. He came to me." "Keys" explains that he's been wishing forthis too, ever since he was ten years old. He doesn't want the alien todie. He asks what more can they do that they are not already doing.Elliott's image reflects in "Keys" face gear. Elliott tells him that E.T.was calling his people because he needs to go home.["Keys" is no longer the threat. He has been transformed into a friend whoalso wants to help the alien. A new antagonist must now be created in orderto maintain conflict in the story. In this scene DEATH will serve thatfunction. For the rest of the film the forces of the United StatesGovernment, who attempt to block E.T.'s escape, will function as theantagonist.]Another Doctor dressed in white enters the room and announces that E.T. hasDNA. Suddenly, a display screen shows a drop in E.T. and Elliott's graphs.One doctor says there's a drop in the creature's blood temperature, whileanother states that Elliott's condition is stabilizing: his blood pressureis coming back up.E.T. calls Elliott's name, and the medical personnel become aware that hecan talk. Elliott pleads with him to stay. E.T. repeats the words "stay,stay," then slowly turns his head away.Their graphs separate. One doctor announces that the boy is coming back,but they are losing E.T.INT: CLOSET: NIGHTMichael enters the closet space where E.T. stayed. He looks at the objects,including the cartoon page from the newspaper, then huddles down amongE.T.'s possessions.[These actions create more empathy for Michael who suffers at the thoughtof losing E.T.]The is a time transition, for Michael is asleep in E.T.'s space when themorning sun shines on his face. Michael wakes up, then watches the plant(which represents E.T.'s life force) wilt. He screams.INT: MEDICAL ROOM: DAY"E.T., don't go" screams Elliott.Doctors state that he has no blood pressure and there is no pulse orrespiration. A bell rings, which signifies a life and death situation.Doctors run into the room and tear down the plastic coverings surroundingE.T."Leave him alone. You're killing him," says Elliott. They wheel Elliott outof the room as he continues to scream. The medical staff frantically triesto revive E.T. They try electrical shocks, but that fails. Gertie holds herdoll as she watches. She reacts by jumping when the electrical shocks areapplied to E.T.[Showing one character's reactions to a situation help to create theintended reaction in the audience.]The doctors are losing him. Elliott watches and cries. Mary goes to him andthey hug each other. Gertie cries as she holds her doll. Mike walks intothe room, as "Keys" watches, then turns away.[This provides the audience with each character's reaction to the death ofE.T. This is a surprising event for the audience: the protagonist has died.Emotionally, it was designed to sadden the audience so that they willbecome overjoyed when he is brought back to life.]EXT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYA white van awaits at the bottom of the driveway.[Previously, the vans and cars associated with the antagonist were of darkcolors. The color changes allows the filmmaker to use culturally determinedcolor associations to manipulate the audience's emotional responses.]Police and other officials walk past a white van, white truck, police carsand other white vehicles towards a tan colored car. Mike's friends sit ontheir bikes behind police barriers. They make comments that something hasjust happened inside the house.[This establishes the existence of Mike's friends who will play a crucialrole in the last chase scene.]INT: MEDICAL ROOM: DAYThe medical staff gives up on E.T. and decide to pack him in ice. Mikewatches as the staff of E.T. slowly walks away. "Keys" removes his headgearand walks to Elliott who is standing vigil over E.T.'s body. "Keys" thenapproaches E.T. Mike watches and cries as a man behind him removes hisheadgear. The faces of several medical attendants are shown.[This humanizes the forces of the antagonist and makes them much lessthreatening. That's why they had to be faceless for so long throughout thestory.]"Keys" kneels besides E.T. and with gloved hand closes his eyes. Mary holdsGertie. When Gerite asks if he's dead, Mary replies that she thinks so.Gertie then says she wishes him back.[The interchange between Gertie and Mary reminds the audience of the TinkerBell situation when Mary read to her from Peter Pan. Those same feelingsare reintroduced here: the clapping of hands to save the fairy and then thedesire to rescue the children. This is the payoff to the emotionalreactions set up in that earlier scene.]"Keys" looks up to see two attendants roll in a metal casing filled withice into which they will place E.T.'s body.Mary picks up Gertie and carries her out of the room. Medical techniciansprepare the casing as Elliott watches. Keys approaches Elliot and tells himthat they will be taking E.T. away. "They are just going to cut him allup," replies Elliott.[This is the payoff to the frog sequence. The audience believes thatElliott is correct, given the scientific mind as demonstrated by theteacher. They also now remember the joy they felt when Elliott freed thefrogs, and wish they could experience that again now.]"Do you want to spend some time alone with him?" asks "Keys," as he putshis arm around Elliott and walks him to the casing. He tells the medicalattendants to leave the room.[This generates empathy for "Keys" who is shown to be concerned forElliott's feelings.]The attendants walk out of the room past Michael who is watching Elliott."Keys" leaves Elliott alone with the body of E.T., which is covered in aplastic bag as it lies on dry ice. Elliott stares down at E.T."Look at what they've done to you. I'm so sorry. You must be dead. I... Ididn't know how to feel. I can't feel anything anymore. You've gonesomeplace else now. E.T., I love you."[Elliott wears a partially open white-jacket. He is framed within an ovalshaped glass.]Elliott places the cover down over E.T. and walks away from the oval glass.A red-light flashes from inside the casing, but Elliott doesn't notice thisas he walks away. He passes the pot of wilted flowers. The flowers slowlystart to regain strength. Elliott notices this, then quickly returns thecasing.[This is the payoff for the pot-of-wilted-flowers prop.]He opens the casing, sees the red-light flashing from E.T.'s heart, thenzips open the plastic bag. The alien looks up and says "E.T. phone home."Elliott screams with joy."Home, home, home, home," says E.T."Does this mean they are coming?" asks Elliott."Yes," answers E.T.[E.T. has finally succeeded in his objective of communicating home.]Elliott tells him to stay and shut up, as he places his hand over E.T.'smouth. Elliott zips him back up, then places a cloth over his flashingred-heart, as "KEYS" re-enters the room. Elliott slams down the cover."KEYS" pulls Elliott away from the case as two attendants prepare for itsremoval. Elliott cries out with feigned sorrow to conceal his glee when hesees the wilted flowers regain their health. The attendants lock the case.INT: DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER: DAYElliott tells Mike that E.T. is alive. Mike's also overjoyed. Mike andElliott rejoice as the wilted flowers continue to bloom.INT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMary is talking to "KEYS" as Gertie runs up with the pot of flowers in herhands. He asks Mary if the boys have gone because she's sup- posed to giveher a note when they have gone. Mary takes the note from Gertie and readsit.[This note provides the crisis to which Mary must react, yet the audienceis kept in suspense.]EXT: PLASTIC TUNNEL: DAYElliott runs down the tunnel past two men dressed in blue, then enters theback of the van. Elliott then pulls aside the white curtains that separatethe drivers compartment from the back of the van to reveal Michael in thedriver's seat. He to is wearing a blue jacket. Elliott yells at Mike fornot wearing his mask. Suddenly, a black official walks by the van, spotsMike in the driver's seat, and knocks on the window. He holds awalkie-talkie in his hand as he asks Mike who he is. Mike responds thathe's driving. The official tells Mike to open the door. When Mike looks toElliott for advice, Elliott tells him to drive away.[Elliott and Mike's objective is to escape with E.T.]A group of men approach the van. Mike screams that he's never drivenforward before, shifts into first gear, and drives away.[This is the payoff to the scene of Mike incompetently backing the car downthe driveway.]As Mike drives away he drags along the plastic tunnel with the two menstill inside. Mike briefly stops by his friends and tells them to meet himat the playground at the top of he hill. He then drives away, pursued by agroup of men. Mike's friends put on their hats and sun- glasses, and jointhe fray.[The chase is on. Suspense is created because the audience wonders whetherthey will get E.T. back to the forest before the are stopped. They faceimpossible odds, yet Mike's friends display loyalty as they join the fight.Mike and Elliott's first objective is to reach the park. Their majorobstacle is the men trying to capture them.]Mike drives the van down the street. The two men still in the plastictunnel try to climb back towards the van. Elliott starts to disconnect thetunnel by pulling out metal braces.[Jeopardy: If these men get into the van, they will overpower Elliott andMike, and prevent E.T. from getting home.]EXT: ELLIOTT'S HOUSE: DAYMary backs her car out of the garage. Gertie is sitting next to her in thefront seat holding onto the flower pot. "Keys" runs up to Mary and askswhere she's going. Gertie blunts out "to the spaceship."["Keys" now realizes that the aliens are returning for E.T. This is his"crisis" information, that spurns him into action.]EXT: STREET: DAYThe van continues down the road, still pulling the plastic tunnel behindit. The two men have almost made it to the back of the van as Elliott pullsout the final stake. He tosses it to one of the men. When Mike turns asharp corner the plastic tunnel disconnects, leaving the two men behind.[They have overcome their immediate obstacle. Humor is generated whenElliott tosses the nail to one of the men, because it is the reversal of alife saving situation. Instead of catching something (like a rope) thatwill save him, he catches the object that is his undoing.]EXT: STREET: DAYA convoy of police cars drive up a street.[The chase is still on. Even though one obstacle has been overcome, theantagonist brings more formidable forces into the fight. The protagonist isstill in jeopardy.]EXT: PARK: DAYThe white van drives up over the sidewalk and into the park. It swervesbetween the children's rides, then finally stops. Smoke pours out of thevan, whose back two doors are still open.[They have reached their sub-objective: the park where they are to meet upwith Mike's friends and continue on their bikes.]Mike's friends wait on their bikes. Between them they also have bikes forElliott and Mike. E.T. is revealed to the boys. He stands among the smokefrom the dry-ice with his red-heart light flashing. "Okay, he's a man fromouter space and we're taking him to his spaceship," says Elliott, nowdressed in blue pants, white shirt, and red jacket."Why can't he just beam up?" asks Greg."This is reality, Greg," says Elliott.[Of course, the joke is that it isn't reality. It is a fantasy movie with arealistic response to a fantastic situation. Right?][Elliott finally wins the respect and admiration of Mike's friends,something he's desired from his introduction scene when they wouldn't allowhim to play DUNGEONS & DRAGONS with them.]EXT: PARK: DAYMary, along with a crowd of plain clothes police, run towards the van."Don't shoot, they're only children," screams Mary.[This introduces a life and death jeopardy into the scene. It alsocharacterizes the forces of the antagonist as characters who would shootchildren.]They reach the back of the van only to find it empty.EXT: STREET: DAYElliott and friends ride down the street. E.T., covered with a whiteblanket, rides in Elliott's basket. Elliott, with the red hood over hishead, shouts that they are to ride to the forest.[To cloth a character in red is effective in chase scenes. This helps theaudience to visually pick out the scenes important character when the paceis fast and the action intense. Spielberg used this technique for Elliot inthis scene and for Marion in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK when she runs throughthe market chased by Arabs.]Cars chase them. Elliott rides up the alley and tells the others to followhim. Police cars encircle them and try to cut them off. The bikers turn offthe main road and ride into a dirt field. A tan car with "UNITED STATESGOVERNMENT" written on the driver's door rides parallel to the bikers.Two men ride inside the tan car. One speaks into the car radio saying thatthey'll get them at the bottom of the hill. The tan car pulls into the baseof the hill and stops. One man gets out and starts to climb up theembankment. The bikers almost run him over. They ride over the hood of thecar, then continue down the street, now pursued by a blue police car.The bikers cycle down a dirt road of a section of the community that isstill under development. E.T., with the white blanket covering his head,sits in the basket of Elliott's bike. A blue car trails them. The bikersdecide to split up. Two ride down an embankment. They are followed byanother police car. The bikers then escape from their pursuers by ridingdown steep embankments. The cars cannot follow and must stop on differentlevels. The bikers unite and ride away.[It seems that the chase is over and they have eluded the antagonist.]The biker's are overjoyed by their victory. One takes off his hat, waves itin the air, and shouts "We've made it!" Suddenly, he quickly ducks to avoidbeing grabbed by a man. A group of men continue the chase. Several carspull up ahead and form a blockade in the road.Elliott and E.T. ride forward. Horror grows on Elliott's face as he staresat the enemy in front of him.[This final confrontation between the protagonist (Elliott and E.T.) andthe antagonist.]The antagonist is explicitly revealed at this moment. On the side panel ofa car is a sign stating: FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERAGENCY MOTOR POOL GSAThe shadow of a shotgun covers the sign. Next, two shotguns are raisedagainst E.T. and Elliott.Elliott shuts his eyes with fear. There is a closeup of E.T.'s face. Withshotguns drawn, government agents gesture for them to stop.[This is the life and death final moment before the climax. The audiencehas been set up to expect that the government agents would shoot at theprotagonist by Mary's comments in the park scene.]Suddenly, E.T. saves the day with his telekinetic powers. He lifts all ofthe bikers up into the air as they fly above the blockade.[The climax is over E.T. has saved himself and his friends]E.T. then flies the bikers over the housetops, and across the setting sun.Finally they float down onto a path in the forest.EXT: FOREST: DAYElliott has reached the landing site. He brushes the leaves away from theturntable of the communication device. A blue-light floods Elliott's face.He looks up into the, along with the other bikers. E.T., with red-hearthappily flashing, also gazes into the sky as his spaceship descends."Home," says E.T.The spaceship continues its descent as E.T.'s red-heart flutters. Thespaceship finally lands in a golden glowing light.A car pulls into the forest, and Gertie's voice can be heard pointing outthe location of the boys. The ramp to the spaceship lowers. Gertie runs upto Mike and E.T. She gives E.T. the plant and says that she just wanted tosay goodbye. Michael responds that E.T. doesn't know goodbye."Be good," says E.T."Yes," says Gertie, as she kisses him on the nose.Mike places his hand on E.T.'s head.[This is a basic gesture of trust. The fact that E.T. allows Mike to dothis indicates that he considers him a friend.]E.T. puts the plant on the ground, as Mary and "Keys" run up to the edge ofthe site. Mike picks up Gertie and carries her away as Elliott approachesE.T."Come," says E.T"Stay," says Elliott.[The two characters that had merged into one protagonist must split apartbecause they now have different primary objectives. E.T. want's to returnhome, and Elliott wants him to remain.]E.T. lifts his finger to his lips and says "ouch."[Of course, this indicates the pain he feels in their separation.]Elliott tearfully lifts his finger to his lips and says "ouch."[The symmetry of his movements indicate that in some sense, they still areone.]E.T. and Elliott hug each other as the are visually surrounded by blue andwhite lights. Then Elliott and Mary exchange glances as Mike and Gertiestand by and watch. E.T. lifts his finger to Elliott's forehead. It lightsup, then he says: "I'll be right here."[The resolution of the dilemma. Though E.T. leaves, he will still remain,perhaps telepathically, or perhaps only within Elliott's thoughts.]"Bye," says Elliott..E.T. picks up the potted plant and carries it up the gangplank. Elliottwatches from below as Harvey starts up the plank, then returns to Elliott'sside.[E.T. leaves with what he really came for, a sample of the earth'svegetative life form. But now he has much more in the flowers that willserve as a memorial of all that he has experienced with his new friends.]The gangplank lifts up and separates E.T. from Elliott. The ships circularentrance closes. The spaceship lifts off. Elliott watches it float up intothe sky. It then speeds away, leaving an orange-blue rainbow behind againstthe blue-morning sky.[Orange and blue were also the colors of E.T.'s makeshift communicationdevice as found by Mike in the forest.]Mary watches and laughs with happiness. The other boys also watch, as Mikeholds Gertie in his arms. The film ends with a shot of Elliott gazing upinto the sky.THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Eagle Eye.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eagle Eye.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5ee61a6aaf9e378998c205ebf2d78c81e007949e --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eagle Eye.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EAGLE EYE Written by John Glenn & Travis Wright March 28, 2007 FADE IN: EXT. DESERT DUNES - DAWN CLOSE ON A WOODEN STICK-FIGURE TOY, held by a SIX YEAR OLD BOY. Another BOY grabs the toy away and RUNS OFF, laughing -- CHILDREN are playing under a cluster of date palms, part of a small desert commune somewhere in the Middle East. Their MOTHERS, veiled in black, gather and talk. Bearded, turbaned MEN carrying AK-47's argue politics. A domestic, even tranquil scene of life in another part of the world... EXT. DESERT ROAD - CONTINUOUS A CARAVAN of VEHICLES RACE DOWN A HIGHWAY:. SUV's mounted with surface-to-air RPG's form a protective cordon around a BLACK MERCEDES. As the cars ROAR INTO LENS, we go.to: EXT. RIDGE ABOVE ROAD - DAWN POV THOUGH A LONG-RANGE SCOPE: the caravan as seen by a TWO-MAN SPECIAL OPS TEAM perched on a ridge. As the LEADER surveils the cars, his partner finishes assembling a two-foot UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), rigging it with EXPLOSIVES: SPECIAL FORCES LEADER We have visual onthetarget. Confirm 'go' for UAV launch. INT. PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - NIGHT SUPER: "JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER, THE PENTAGON" Sat-feeds monitor the caravan. Military brass observes: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE GEOFF CALLISTER (50's, African American; eyes with soul and a wary intelligence). Beside him: COLONEL THOMPSON (Full-Bird, decorated). COLONEL THOMPSON Alpha One, you're confirmed 'go': active UAV at GPS papa, zulu, three, zero. EXT. RIDGE ABOVE ROAD - DAWN The Ops Team activates a remote transmitter, LAUNCHING the UAV into the sky like a small ROCKET -- amazingly, its silent. INT. PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - CONTINUOUS An airborne feed from the UAV shows it descending on the caravan. A PENTAGON TECHIE manipulates a JOY STICK, controlling the drone from 6500 miles away: PENTAGON TECHIE #1 We have system control. 3/28/07 2 CONTINUED: COLONEL THOMPSON Activate laser mic. EXT. SKIES OVER DESERT - CONTINUOUS DRONE POV: tracking the caravan, singling out the MERCEDES. The drone emits a THIN LASER BEAM that hits its rear windshield -- INT. THE PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - DAY Over speakers, VOICES speak "Balochi." A TRANSLATOR listens: CALLISTER Is it him? TRANSLATOR Four males, one of them's speaking with a.. I think it's a Rakhshani•dialect, consistent with our intel on Al=Khoei. COLONEL THOMPSON Gimme voiceprint analysis. The screen pops to an AUDIO WAVEFORM of the conversation. VOICEPRINT ANALYSIS finishes, the; screen shows a FILE PHOTO of a BEARDED MAN: "37% PROBABLE MATCH = ID AL-KHOEI." CALLISTER I'm not taking 37% to-the President... John, weigh in here? He looks to a plasma: the PRESIDENT'S CABINET is assembled via teleconference from the White House Situation Room: DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE CIA and NCTC concur this is the target based on reliable Intel from the Brits. WHIP TO another monitor: the caravan starts to VEER off-road. TECHIE Sire they're pulling off the highway. TECHIE #2 We have abort recommendation. The ANALYSIS ARRAY reads: "RECOINDATION: ABORT MISSION." The source of this recommendation, for now, remains a mystery. COLONEL THOMPSON If it's him, this guy comes out of hiding once in a lifetime, we can't let him go. CALLISTER (beat, torn) Alright, stay with him... 3/28/07 3 CONTINUED: THE SATELLITE VIEW shows the caravan approaching the commune. EXT. DESERT COMMUNE - DAY Mothers grab up their children and pull them aside as the vehicles arrive. ARMED MEN emerge... INTERCUTTING - THE PENTAGON OPS ROOM: the computer pinpoints DOTS on the satellite feed that represent WEAPONRY on-site -- TECHIE We've got AK-47's, RPC's, Chaparral guided missiles -- COLONEL THOMPSON Looks like a training camp. THE DESERT: Bodyguards cluster around a TURBANED:MAN as he emerges from the Mercedes. It looks a lot like the man from the file photo, but the beard makes it hard to confirm. MID-AIR WITH THE UAV: It SWOOPS, targeting the man -- SNAP: THE PENTAGON: a BLURRY SNAPSHOT of his FACE appears. A DIGITAL WIRE-FRAME is overlaid on the man's face: "5I$ PROBABLE MATCH - INSUFFICIENT DATA. RECOMMENDATION: ABORT MISSION." TECHIE 51%. 'Abort' rec holds. THE DESERT: Now our guy DISAPPEARS into the crowd as they begin MOVING toward a large WOODEN PLANK on the desert floor. Some of the men take hold of the plank, drag it back to reveal... a PIT. THE PENTAGON: SAME IMAGE in real-time on the feeds: CALLISTER What is that, a weapons cache? ANALYST Sir, the placement of stones around the pit, markers for the Five Pillars of Islam... I think it's a funeral. Everyone trades looks -- this just got even more complicated. THE DESERT: from the back of a TENTED TRUCK, a BODY is lifted, shrouded in white. The men carry it through blowing sand... the procession stopping at the pit. They begin lowering the body... THE PENTAGON: on monitors, a section of the GENEVA CONVENTION SCROLLS: TECHIE Sir, striking a funeral would put us in violation of the Geneva convention. 3/28/07 4. CONTINUED: COLONEL THOMPSON Once this guy's gone, he's gone. The PENTAGON GENERAL COUNCIL pipes in -- PENTAGON GENERAL COUNCIL "Hors de Combat" -- legally we'd be open to international prosecution. But we have no independent intel verifying it's in fact a funeral, and the presence of weapons certainly leaves room for interpretation. TECHIE #2 I have POTUS calling from Air Force One. CALLISTER (a beat, looks around). Everyone agree this is the best course of action? No one dissents. Callister picks up: CALLISTER (CONT'D) Mr. President, we have.a.51% identity match on Majid Al-Khoei. There is some possibility he's at a funeral, but we don't know. Regardless, counsel thinks we can claim 'Overriding Legal Authority.' Also, you should be aware we have an abort recommendation, but your cabinet, the Speaker, the Joint Chiefs urge a 'go.' THE PRESIDENT (V.0.) You left yourself out of the lineup. Callister pauses. AS THE MESSAGE ON THE MONITOR STARTS BLINKING: "ABORT, ABORT, ABORT..." CALLISTER Yessir... we gauge our strategy by two standards: the highest probability of success with the least amount of collateral damage. At 51% probability, we don't have either one. GENERAL THOMPSON And if it is Al-Khoei and he walks, Sir, we're putting our people at risk. There's a long silence as the President considers. 3/28/07 5. CONTINUED: ( 2) THE PRESIDENT (V.0.) I respect your caution, Geoff, but we won't get another chance like this... you have a green light. Callister's obviously opposed, but he bites his tongue: CALLISTER Understood. (hangs up) We're weapons free. And with deadly calm, Techies execute orders into-headsets: TECHIE TECHIE 2 -- Switching to Tac-2, -- MTS active, painting the acquisition's good -- target -- EXT. DESERT - FUNERAL - DAWN The women begin to SING the "Nasheen," a.funeral song praising Allah. The beautiful VOICES grow until all other sound is GONE. DRONE POV: the feed from the CAMERA INSIDE THE NOSE-CONE as it LAUNCHES its missile -- it ZOOMS toward the funeral gathering -- The haunting, beautiful voices WAIL... in the moment before impact, we see: birds flying across the great plain... a herd of running gazelles... the DESERT WIND blankets a layer of sand over the shrouded body in the pit... a CHILD'S HAND grasping his mother's... A WHITE FLASH AS THE MISSILE HITS: HOLD IN WHITE: CREDIT SE UENCE: WORDS CLOSE UP... a digitized electronic scan, as if they're being analyzed by someone: "We the people of the United States... more perfect union..." Highlights of The Constitution, The. Declaration of Independence... We land on: "...whenever any form of government becomes destructive...it is the right of the people to alter it or to abolish it..." CLOSE IN on these last words: "ABOLISH IT." WHITEWASH: INT. BACK ROOM - NIGHT We're looking at a DIGITAL TIMER ticking down crucial seconds -- then a MAN's FACE, intense, focused on something below screen: this is JERRY SHAW, 30, handsome, roguish. Somewhere between an adult and a child -- under his breath: JERRY damnit... 3/28/07 6. CONTINUED: VOICE (O.S.) You gotta make a choice. You gotta move-- JERRY -- I know. VOICE (O.S.) Now. Who are you gonna be? So Jerry makes his move, which we see is SLAMMING down a PLAYING CARD representing a group of DWARVES. He sits across from KWAME, 17. They're playing a geeky role-playing CARD and DICE game, CASH on the table. JERRY KWAME there. Dwarves?: Bullshit -- Bullshit? I just blocked your ass and attacked with (checks card) Ancient Mastery points. --.dwarves don't have that -- -- read the oracle text, my friend. -- shit A thick-mascara/black lipstick BECKY enters, removing her SMOCK: BECKY You know what would be great? If you guys took a longer break. That'd be awesome. JERRY Hey, Becky? When're you going to start wearing makeup? Kwame laughs as Becky tosses her smock at Jerry: BECKY .The collator's broken. JERRY Dude: no its not. BECKY (putting on a jacket) Oh yeah it is, dude! She heads out as Jerry collects the cash. Kwame puts on his own smock as Jerry offers him a quick lesson: JERRY Your first mistake? Underestimating dwarves. Power can come from anywhere -- tomorrow night I'll give you first roll and a bonus pack if y-- 3/28/07 7. CONTINUED: ( 2) KWAME I'm not gonna be here tomorrow, remember? I'm going to Cornell. And Jerry stops. A hit to the solar plexus. Wherever we are, this kid's off to a bright future. But not Jerry. JERRY That -- wow. Good for you. So it's your last night. You're gonna spend it collating. KWAME -- what? But she said the collator's broken. JERRY And that's why we have those rubber thimbles in the drawer --.congratulations on Cornell, though, that's huge! TRACK WITH HIM out to... A COUNTER AREA as, he pins on his NAMETAG: "JERRY." Rows of COPY MACHINES and COMPUTER CUBICLES. He takes his place behind a register. Smiles, getting it up: JERRY (CONT'D) Welcome to Kinko's, how can I help you? The CHUGCLICK-CHUGCLICK-CHUGCLICK sound of the machines gets louder and louder as they BECOME THE SOUND OF: INT. "EL" SUBWAY CAR - MORNING The KRAK-KRAK-KRACKING SUBWAY. We glimpse people looking at their BLACKBERRYS. Talking on CELL PHONES. Listening to IPODS and playing GAME BOYS. The NEWS plays on an LCD mounted on the train wall. A society lost in an "electronic elsewhere." And JERRY, with a SKETCH PAD in his lap. A surprisingly good pencil rendering of the face of a LARGE DOG -- weird, but he's got talent. The TV disturbs his concentration -- news footage of BOMBED-OUT EMBASSIES, emergency vehicles, wounded victims: SHEPARD SMITH a heightened terror alert due to a series of suicide bombings, believed to be in retaliation for a deadly attack outside Abadan that killed forty people. Though the White House has denied involvement, Shia leaders have denounced the U.S. as responsible... AL-JAZEERA FOOTAGE: A SHIA SPOKESMAN is translated into ENGLISH: 3/28/07 8. CONTINUED: SPOKESMAN Your embassies were only the beginning! Our warriors are already within your borders. Until American leadership is removed from power, Allah's revenge is upon you! And during all this, Jerry notices something: people are glancing at each other aranoid. What a fucking world... EXT. ATM MACHINE - MORNING An ATM CARD gets slid into the slot. Jerry looks up. THE ATM CAMERA IS STARING RIGHT AT HIM. Then, a BEEP gets his attention: "INSUFFICIENT FUNDS." He processes this a moment... his exhale doesn't just say, "FUCK," it says "FUCK 1 KNEW IT." INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT BUILDING - LOBBY .-MORNING Saying it's a modest place would be kind. Jerry opens his mailbox. Just BILLS, some of which will:go unpaid this month. A BEAT as he shoves them back in and we HARD CUT TO: INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT BUILDING - HALLWAY - MORNING A DOOR OPENS: MRS. WIERZBOWSKI, Jerry's elderly Polish landlady. Pleased to see him, but painfully annoyed to know what's coming: MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Jerry. JERRY Whatever are you cooking right now? Is the greatest thing I've ever smelled in my life, I swear to God -- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI is schab wieprzowy po polsku -- you have the rent, yes? JERRY (puts cash in her hands) -- here's some of it -- most of it -- but I've got something else for you... something special... Eyebrows bobbing. Mrs. Wierzbowsky knows exactly what it is. Sighs. Knows she can't resist him -- INT. KITCHEN - MRS. WIERZBOWSKI'S APARTMENT - MOMENTS LATER CLOSE ON Jerry pushing a THUMB TAC into the dog sketch we saw him doing on the subway. PULL BACK to reveal about 25 other sketches on the wall. All of the same dog. The actual DOG, Johann, lies underneath the kitchen table. 9. 3/28/07 CONTINUED: JERRY So I think. No, I'm pretty sure that's the best one so far --- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Yes. Is good -- rent is better. She puts a bowl of STEW into Jerry's hands. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI (CONT'D) You are hungry, I am guessing. JERRY Oh, no, no. I couldn't -- (looking down at bowl) Unless, you know, you insist. He sits at the table, starts eating. This is their routine. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI So where is girl? I don't see her? JERRY Oh, the redhead? No. She... that's over. She got smart. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Like the others. JERRY Well, womenareIpretty smart. I've discovered. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI You are like Johann. Jerry stops eating, mouth full. As Johann looks up. JERRY Your -- I'm like your dog? MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Look at him. Is big dog. Labrador. But he believe... he is terrier. So is Labrador... but no labrador. Somehow Jerry can't get his eyes off Johann. Quietly: JERRY why do you think that is? As she pours a drink into a plastic cup -- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Perhaps many things. When I rescue Johann from pound, they say he was abuse. (MC)RF ) 3/28/07 10. CONTINUED: (2) MRS. WIERZBOWSKI (CONT'D) As puppy. They kick him when baby, make him feel not big. (hands Jerry the cup) You need someone for rescuing you. Jerry looks at her, sad-smiles. Takes a sip and holy shit: JERRY This is -- vodka -- Jesus, its eight- thirty in the morning -- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI -- you cannot eat bigos without vodka. Adjusting to it, Jerry drinks again -- as his CELL PHONE RINGS. He looks at his phone, freezing. Mrs. Wierzbowski notices. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI (CONT'D) Is the girl? Answer. Tell her you'. are Labrador. Then ask if she give you money for rent. But we've PUSHED IN on Jerry, who stares at the name on the phone. Something's affecting him deeply. He says, quietly: JERRY its my mother. MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Is problem? JERRY (even, quieter, gets up) is problem. INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT BUILDING - HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER Jerry steps outside as the phone keeps RINGING, debating: WHAT TO DO. Finally, he answers, as if ready for punishment: JERRY Hey, mom... Jerry stands there in silhouette. LISTENING. Something is happening... .suddenly he loses his balance -- sinks to the floor, phone to his ear -- staring in pain -- EXT. CHURCH - DAY MOURNERS are gathering in their somber best, shaking hands. Across the street, we find Jerry, getting out of a taxi. Standing in a rumpled suit. Grim; the last thing he wants to do is enter that church. It's almost as if he can't. Finally, from somewhere, strength. He walks forward. 3/28/07 11. INT. CHURCH - CONTINUOUS Jerry heads down the aisle, painfully self-conscious. Most of the MOURNERS are in the pews, turning to look at him as he passes. When suddenly there's a SCREAM OF TERROR -- and Jerry BRACES as if he was expecting it -- looks over at a WOMAN pointing like he was a fucking bodysnatcher and she collapses -- Jerry holds up his hands as everyone turns to look at him-- JERRY -- no! I-- I'm not him! All eyes on him. His voice, sad, heartbroken: JERRY (CONT'D) It's okay! I'm not Paul! Locks eyes with his MOTHER and FATHER up in the front pew. Their eyes red from crying, withered shells. And Jerry gives a lame wave before heading reluctantly up to the COFFIN. Devastated, he leans in -- and we MOVE AROUND to see the body: And it's fucking HIM -- Jerry's very own face, but one that seems to have been RECONSTRUCTED after some kind of accident. Gruesome and handsome all at once. This was PAUL SHAW. Jerry's identical twin. Off the surreal moment... A reverbed TRUMPET PLAYS, the tune familiar. In fact, it's: INT. APARTMENT - DAY THE NATIONAL ANTHEM, booming from a trumpet played by an 8 year- old boy: KYLE HOLLOMAN. A WOMAN blurs into frame: RACHEL HOLLOMAN, searching for car keys. 28, smart, beautiful, but fiercely independent, she's a single mom who's taken life's knocks. Never as cool-headed as she wants to be, she's on a short fuse with everyone but Kyle, whom she adores: RACHEL Okayokay... okay: we came home, put down the leftovers, you turned on the TV, I went over, I said no TV-- She turns to the TV area and walks straight INTO a table. Stuns her, momentarily, but she doesn't break stride -- KYLE -- we're gonna be late, huh? RACHEL -- absolutely not -- I turned it off, came over here, checked messages, put the leftovers in the-- 3/28/07 12. CONTINUED: KYLE RACHEL --knocked over the phone-- --right, knocked over the phone, put it back, put the food in the fridge-- She opens the fridge: HER KEYS sit atop a Tupperware container. Kyle hits a high note and we SLAM TO: INT. RACHEL'S CAR - MORNING The KEY turning in the ignition of a crappy, old Honda. The engine CHOKES, SPUTTERS. Rachel's tense-- RACHEL we need to get a new car -- KYLE I like your car. We're gonna be late. The engine still SPLIT-SPUT-SPUTTERING.::.. a BUS. whizzes by, slows up ahead at a bus stop. Rachel gives up, jumps out: RACHEL No we're not: the bus. KYLE -- are you kidding? EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Rachel and Kyle HAUL ASS toward the bus stop, both struggling with Kyle's carry-on, a.garment bag, her purse, and a trumpet case marked with STICKERS (Green Bay Packers among them)-- RACHEL I put vitamins in your toiletry bag, don't forget to take two in the morning -- KYLE and one at night, I know -- RACHEL And your inhaler, which I may need to use now, is in the outside pocket -- wait! They rush back to a MAILBOX, she pulls bills from her purse: KYLE More bills? RACHEL Yup -- that's what happens when you have a kid on lay-away. They smile at each other. When SUDDENLY a BUS ROARS PAST the WIND GUSTS and the bills go FLYING into traffic: 3/28/07 13 CONTINUED: RACHEL (CONT'D) OH, SHIT! STAY HERE! Rachel waves her arms at oncoming cars, runs INTO TRAFFIC-- KYLE YOU SWORE!! As she chases the bills, SCREECHING and HONKING around her: RACHEL I KNOW, I'M SORRY! (Porsche HONKS as it PASSES) HEY, A LITTLE COMMON COURTESY, ASSHOLE! And she runs back to Kyle, THROWS the bills in the mailbox -- KYLE You swore again. Was that our bus? Rachel looks: PAN to across the street, the bus is now LEAVING THE BUS STOP. PAN back to Rachel: SHIT!! RACHEL: Okay, now were gonna.be late. She puts fingers in her mouth and WHISTLES HARD for a cab -- INT. TRAIN STATION - WISCONSIN - DAY A CLASS OF MUSIC STUDENTS boards and Amtrak train. Rachel and Kyle are RUNNING through the crowd toward them -- RACHEL Scuze us, coming through, sorry -- WAIT!! WAIT!! Finally they arrive. Kyle's teacher, MRS. MILLER, smiles: MRS. MILLER Under the wire -- RACHEL (gulping breaths) Hi -- sorry -- Rachel Holloman, we met-- MRS. MILLER -- of course, Barbara Miller. (looks at watch) You should probably -- And Rachel's stomach drops. Knows they've been racing towards this moment all morning but still not willing to accept it. Turning Kyle to face her -- 3/28/07 14. CONTINUED: RACHEL Okay. Now. I want you to have an awesome time -- KYLE I will, mom -- RACHEL -- you can eat junk food, just remember to brush your teeth; and if you're gonna goof off, just be really smart about it; and try not to stay up past your bedtime, you get really cranky when you do that'-- (turns to Mrs. Miller) He gets very contrarian if he doesn't get at least eight -- MRS. MILLER I'm afraid it's time to board, Mrs. Holloman. Tears springing to Rachel's eyes. She tries to hide them. Bending down to be eye to eye with her son. Sotto -- RACHEL You see all these kids? They're all calling their mothers. You just do it more -- KYLE It's only two days,: mom. Y'know... you could try and some have fun too, wouldn't kill ya.. RACHEL Fun? What's that? (hugging him) I love you so much, baby.You're my everything. Rock the house. KYLE -- love you too -- They separate -- she watches as Kyle boards with Mrs. Miller: RACHEL Call me! MRS. MILLER Your mom gonna be okay? KYLE It's unclear. As they head into the train, Rachel steels herself and GOES. Passing the BAGGAGE AREA... 3/28/07 15. CONTINUED: (2) We HOLD as the PORTER places Kyle's TRUMPET CASE on a conveyor belt. Oddly, it's ELECTRONICALLY REDIRECTED AWAY FROM THE OTHER INSTRUMENTS -- down a separate belt, where it emerges in a pick- up turnstile. Its lifted off the track by... A MIDDLE EASTERN MAN. Nervous. Really nervous. And the strangest thing -- he touches his ear and MURMURS something in Tajiki. To no one. Like a crazy person. What the hell? Walks to the curb where his white van idles. On the side is a decal: "HASSAD DRY CLEANERS." Loads the trumpet inside as we: INT. SHAW HOME - AFTERNOON Solemn quiet. Mourners talking in hushed tones. A buffet. Old people. Children. And over these shots, WHISPERED VOICES: WOMAN #1 (V.O.) you didn't know either? WOMAN #2 (V.0.) No idea. WOMAN #3 (V.0.) I knew he had a brother. But not a twin, that was... WOMAN.#1 (V.0.) I know, I know... Four WOMEN sit together. Heartbroken, unsettled. One glances across into a sitting room, where Jerry sits alone on a sofa. We're CLOSE on Jerry now. Holding a glass, etched with hearts. Looking at it as if it means something. Somehow, his childhood. He looks up at the stairs, as if knowing he needs to go up there. So he does. We MOVE with him: WOMAN #1 (CCNT'D) when was the last time they saw him? WOMAN #2 Margaret said years... INT. SHAW HOUSE - PAUL AND JERRY'S ROOM - DAY TROPHIES. RIBBONS. All of them awarded to PAUL SHAW. TIGHT on Jerry's face as he scans the shelves of evidence. Evidence that he had a brother. A superior brother. Again and again we see: PAUL SHAW. PAUL SHAW. PAUL. PAUL. Then Jerry finds one framed CERTIFICATE. In the back. A Junior High ART PRIZE. Awarded to JERRY SHAW. He smiles at the fucking absurdity of it as a figure appears behind him... 3/28/07 16. CONTINUED: It's WILLIAM. Their father. The worst day of this man's life. Jerry composes himself quickly. They stare for a moment. WILLIAM Six months without a boo or a bah. JERRY Didn't realize it'd been that long. WILLIAM Your mom was worried. So where were you this time? JERRY Nowhere. (then, a touch reticent) Singapore. Alaska for a few weeks. got a job for a while. On a...fishing boat. Met some great p- WILLIAM -- that's nice. Looks like you're really seeing the world. JERRY I'm trying, you know, just to -- But William has just started crying.. Sobs of absolute loss. Jerry stands there, frozen, until William EMBRACES HIM. Jerry hugs him back -- tightly, grateful and starting to feel again. And just then, William says, quietly, through tears: WILLIAM You sound just like him. Jerry's eyes find a point in space. This is love by proxy. And now he hugs, his father in support, not unity. William pulls back. Takes his wallet from his pocket: WILLIAM (CONT'D) I want to give you some, uh... JERRY No. -- Dad, I'm okay. I'm doing really well. I promise. His father holds out some bills. North of two-hundred dollars. It's a stand-off. The question is: does Jerry have enough pride to reject the offer? And the answer is... EXT. CHICAGO STREET - ATM MACHINE - DAY CLOSE ON THE PIN NUMBER AGAIN, getting PUNCHED IN. Then FIND JERRY, exhausted from the funeral, slipping the money his father gave him into a deposit envelope. A glance at the SECURITY CAMERA. Then a BEEP makes him look at the screen. 3/28/07 17 CONTINUED: AND WE PUNCH IN TIGHTER ON JERRY, WHO STARES, STUNNED. The screen reads: "BALANCE: $750,000.00" What the HELL? Glances back to the people behind him, they want him to hurry. He hits "Cancel." But the machine, as if disobeying, spits out five $100 bills-- JERRY -- whoa -- Jerry stabs cancel again. Now TEN MORE $100 bills-come out. He glances at the people in line, nervous-- JERRY (CONT'D) -- two seconds, sorry -- Eyes flick back to the ATM CAMERA. He covers it with his hand, pushes "cancel" again and again. But now.. TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS IN $100 BILLS HAS COME OUT, getting JAMMED' in the slot. People start to PEER OVER as Jerry SCRAMBLES to keep the cash from flying everywhere. And finally. The machine stops. He stuffs all the money in his pocket. Everyone's staring. JERRY (CONT'D) Big date. So... fingers crossed. INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT BUILDING.- HALLWAY - NIGHT Jerry enters, a little dazed -- heads for his apartment as Mrs. Wierzbowski steps from. hers, Johann hiding behind her: MRS. WIERZBOWSKI Jerry! All day they make delivery! Jerry moves fast to her, a little out of breath -- shoves a thousand dollars into her hand: JERRY Here's the rest of the rent -- next month's, too -- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI -- where do you get this? JERRY Just take it -- it's okay, I owe you -- MRS. WIERZBOWSKI I had to open your apartment, too many packages come, they come for hours -- JERRY For me? 3/28/07 18. INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Jerry whips open his apartment door -- as far as he can: it's blocked by something. He reaches in, flips on the LIGHT: BOXES EVERYWHERE. Reeling, he picks one up, rips it open. Packing peanuts fly: a pair of night-vision binoculars. WHAT IS HAPPENING? Goes through more boxes in a flurry of CUTS: FALSE PASSPORTS; a POLICE SCANNER; BODY ARMOR; HAND GUNS; large BAGS OF FERTILIZER; strange CHEMICALS; 747 MANUALS. Jerry looks around, fear and confusion growing. His cell rings.,. startles him -- all the LCD says is: "ANSWER NOW." JERRY -- hello? A WOMAN'S VOICE. We can't place why... but it's really creepy. WOMAN'S VOICE Look out your window. They're coming for you. JERRY (totally thrown) -- what? Who is this? WOMAN'S VOICE Jerry. You have to run. JERRY Who the hell is this?! Rips back the curtain to see a SWAT VAN SCREECHING UP -- a flack- jacketed TEAM pours out, assault rifles ready. Jerry goes pale. WOMAN'S VOICE Leave your residence. Get to the Mathis train station. You have 4 minutes. JERRY Jesus Christ -- what's happening?! WOMAN'S VOICE Run, or you'll be captured and convicted -- go NOW. CLICK. POUNDING BOOTS AGAINST PAVEMENT OUTSIDE. Jerry whirls, goes out to the hall, hears THEM coming. Starts to run. But a TACTICAL TEAM STORMS THE HALL. ASSAULT RIFLES AIMED AT HIM: TEAM LEADER JERRY Hands behind your head! DOWN WHAT'S GOING ON? HEY! IS NOW! DOWN ON THE FLOOR OR WE THIS ABOUT THE--THE ATM?! I WILL FIRE! DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! Jerry's SLAMMED to the ground as we CUT TO -- 3/28/07 19. INT. DHS FIELD OFFICE - INTERROGATION ROOM - NIGHT Jerry sits cuffed to a table. Frightened, confused, on the defensive. The door opens and AGENT THOMAS MORGAN enters: 40s, born to the job, never smiles. Takes a seat, opens a "file: JERRY Look, man, I don't know what this is -- I don't know how all that shit got in my apartment, but unless you're my lawyer-- MORGAN My condolences. I understand you've had a tough day. JERRY it hasn't been ideal. MORGAN Your brother worked for the State Department. This was almost a question. And while it's obviously news to us, Jerry clearly knew... JERRY You tell me. MORGAN Were you close? JERRY Why? What am I doing here. I don't even know who you are. Morgan tosses his black leather BADGE WALLET onto the metal table. It lands open with a substantial CLUNG! MORGAN Tom Morgan, Special Agent attached to the National Counterterrorism Center. JERRY (stares, rocked) Counterterrorism Center? You think I'm -- MORGAN -- according to phone records, your brother called you twelve times in the last year. You never called him back. JERRY If you're asking if we were the kind of freaky twins you see at the mall wearing the same shirt, no. Listen, Paul traveled a lot, so we didn't -- 3/28/07 20. CONTINUED: MORGAN Oh. That's right. He stamped visas in Karachi for a year. Then was a junior FSO in Beirut. Interesting places. JERRY What're you... saying. MORGAN I'm just saying you didn't talk much. maybe you did. JERRY Am I getting a lawyer here? 'Cause didn't hear my rights read to me-- MORGAN You familiar with the slogan, "Declare War on War?" JERRY what? No, why? Morgan pulls out a SURVEILLANCE PHOTO: Jerry, college-age, at a STUDENT RALLY holding up a sign with an image of the Pentagon crossed out in red: "DECLARE WAR ON WAR!" MORGAN Because you painted it when you were part of the student activist group "Project Underground" at Berkley. JERRY (stares-at pic; LAUGHS) Wait. Come on -- okay: her name was Julia, she was the smokinist girl I'd ever seen and she wanted me -- I would've gone to an "Anti-Oxygen" rally for her. I swear to God, dude-- MORGAN Don't "dude" me. I'm not your friend. I don't have friends... so: Jerry. Why'd you drop out of school? JERRY Why'd you stay in? I don't know, I didn't really see the point. MORGAN You haven't been able to hold a job JERRY Unless I've been fired from Kinko's, which is a statistical impossibility, I'm holding a job right now. 21. 3/28/07 CONTINUED: (2) MORGAN Construction work, bartender in Singapore, telemarketing, real estate office, messenger, supermarket sign painter, taxi driver, gas station in Florida, fishing boat in Alaska-- JERRY -- what can I say? Guess I haven't found myself yet -- MORGAN Who deposited the seven-fifty? JERRY For as second I thought God, maybe. The ATM was obviously broken -- or do.. accidents not happen in your . universe? MORGAN JERRY The money originated from the --this is all -- listen, this HSBC bank of Singapore -- is all very interesting -- but opened with a transfer from a this has nothing to do with corporation called 'The Star me! Do you understand? of Orion,' a dummy front for Hezbollah. This morning Majid -- alright, this is insane, I Al-Khoei says the agents.of want a lawyer-- destruction are already inside our borders-- -- we find hardware in your -- I told you, it all just apartment, latest military showed up there'. You're not spec, airplane manuals, plus listening to me! twelve hundred pounds. of-- sit (tries to stand up) your ass down now -- ammonium (abruptly sits) nitrate fertilizer. Just curious if you knew any of Paul's friends in Beirut, or if he knew any of your friends -- what do you mean in Singapore, oh but that's "friends"?! right, we haven't really established whether or not you two were close-- (losing it) -- I guess we were rett close when I looked into his open casket this morning and saw the bad make-up job covering the gash in his skull! Or how about when I watched him being lowered into the ground -- that establish anything for you?! Somebody set me up! Morgan stares at him, unmoved. 3/28/07 22. CONTINUED: (3) MORGAN "Somebody." Who? JERRY A woman, I don't know! She called me and told me I was gonna be arrested. GET REAL, MAN! DO I LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST TO YOU?!?! MORGAN No more than Abdul Hamid, Taliban POW we caught in Afghanistan. Except his real name was Johnny Walker Lindh. Grew up in Marin County with a basketball hoop in his driveway and a carton of Tropicana in his fridge. He was blonder than you.. though. (RISES) When I come back, you'd better tell me who you work for-- And heads out the door, SLAM! Jerry yells; JERRY I WORK FOR KINKO'S!!. INT. DHS OBSERVATION ROOM - HALLWAY CONTINUOUS Morgan meets supervisor MARTIN KREBS, a senior D.H.S. big wig. Standing with LATESHA.SIMMS, 32 but looks 16, African-American, computer wonk with no room fora personal life; and TOBY GRANT, 20's, straight part in his hair, wet behind the ears. They've all been observing through a two-way mirror. Latesha refers to a laptop, one she clutches like a safety blanket: LATESHA He fits the profile: disaffected, 'susceptible to radical indoctrination, problem with authority. Doesn't vote or pay taxes, but witness statements all say he's not a player. He does sketches of his landlady's dog. Oh, and he's lying about the woman who called him -- we checked the records, no calls came in before we picked him up -- KREBS What about the brother? LATESHA Mid-level FSO. Been stateside the past three years. No red flags. He was killed when a truck ran a light in Crystal City. 23. 3/28/07 CONTINUED: MORGAN That kind of equipment and a major cash infusion five hours after a terrorist threat and were smiling and saying "coincidence?" KREBS So either he's a rank-and-file sleeper or a dumbshit mule. GRANT (eager to contribute) Or a misdirect. There's nothing subtle about him or the gear. He's not exactly a pro-- Morgan levels a look at Grant as Krebs takes .a BEAT. Figuring out the next move: KREBS Get Smith on financials; Rieger on travel; and let's dryclean family and friends. Again. (to Morgan, veiled THREAT) I don't want the FBI rushing in on this. Break him. Fast. And leaves Morgan to twist.. The pressure's on. To Latesha: MORGAN v m m putting you on the brother. LATESHA Great, I'll access State's database MORGAN No, I want you to go there. LATESHA But, Tom, I can do everything from MORGAN'S VOICE you know those funny things underneath that not-so-stylish pantsuit? They're called leas. Latesha looks at him, not happy. LATESHA Yes. Sir. MORGAN You know I hate it when you call me that-- He turns to go, Grant immediately following him -- 3/28/47 24 CONTINUED: (2) AGENT GRANT What can I do? MORGAN Follow me and don't talk. INT. GAMMAGE & BURNHAM LAW OFFICES - WISCONSIN - NIGHT Rachel's doing paperwork at her desk. People leave. for the night. An attorney named MICHAEL approaches; warm, good- looking, by all standards, a catch. She doesn't look up. MICHAEL He's out of town. RACHEL Yup. MICHAEL Which seems like a perfect ;opportunity for a second date. In theory. RACHEL In theory -- but I gotta site-check this brief, courier's coming in,.,the morning. MICHAEL Didn't we have a good time? Remember that? Our first date? Back in the 40's? He's so agreeably genuine, she wants to let him down easy: RACHEL I had a great. time, I told you that but I'm so busy and... MICHAEL Ooo.o, shit, the "so busy" speech -- stop -- not worthy of you. Or me. I'm patient, so... call me. When you're not busy. RACHEL Kyle goes to college in nine years-- it should be somewhere around then. MICHAEL I would so wait a decade for you. Call me his sophomore year, I'll prove it. And with a smile he heads off. She watches him go -- dammit! really liking him in this moment. She watches longer than she should... then goes back to her work. He gets in the elevator and she's left in her solitude. And now we BEGIN TO SEE the first signs of it: loneliness. 3/28/07 25 CONTINUED: The consequence of not really letting anyone into her life. She stares off as BLING! An IM box pops up on her screen: "RACHEL HOLLOMAN. ANSWER THE PHONE." And just like that the PHONE RINGS. Rachel jumps. Staring at the IM. Then at the phone. Answers it: RACHEL -- hello? It's the same chilling FEMALE VOICE: WOMAN'S VOICE Click on the link at the bottom of the page. Rachel's eyes drop down to the LINK at the bottom of her screen. What? Leans out from her cubicle to look around -- NO ONE ELSE AT THEIR DESK. RACHEL who is this? As she clicks on the link. And a STREAMING IMAGE APPEARS: A BLACK AND WHITE SURVEILLANCE CAM OFKYLE ON HIS TRAIN, LAUGHING WITH OTHER KIDS. Rachel's breath is taken away-- RACHEL (CONT'D) What's going on? Who are you --? WOMAN'S VOICE Would you risk your life for your son? Rachel jumps to her feet,: trying to breathe through the panic. Looking around. NO ONE - RACHEL This isn't funny! Who are you?! WOMAN'S VOICE Ican derail his train. I can kill him at any time. I'll ask again: would you risk`. your life for your son? Suddenly the BROWSER GOES BLANK: "UNABLE TO ACCESS PAGE." Kyle's taken from her, that fast -- she gasps, terrified. RACHEL yes... WOMAN'S VOICE Follow my instructions precisely. There's a vehicle parked at the northeast exit of your building. The keys are in the ignition. Start walking. Now. CLICK. Off Rachel's stunned, terrified face -- 3/28/07 26. INT. DHS FIELD OFFICE - NIGHT A FAX spits out a page with the Department of Justice logo, from the ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE. Subject: "SHAW, JERRY." INT. DHS FIELD OFFICE - HOLDING CELL - MOMENTS LATER Jerry sits in his cell, lost -- looks up as an Agent enters: AGENT Time for your phone call. JERRY I thought there was no phone call. AGENT Attorney General's office changed their mind. INT. DHS FILED OFFICE - SECURE PHONE ROOM - NIGHT Jerry's led into a holding room with a phone on the wall. The Agent exits, electronic door locking behind him. Jerry thinks, deciding who to call. Swallows his;_pride, starts to dial his father. It RINGS. BUT THE RINGING SUDDENLY, EERILY LOWERS IN PITCH IN A DIGITAL GLITCH -- AN ODD.CONNECTION CLICK. JERRY hello? Dad--? WOMAN'S VOICE I told you to. run. You didn't. TIGHT ON JERRY now, terrified, breathless -- JERRY .no wav -- who are you?! Behind Jerry; the steel door UNLOCKS -- he whirls to the OPENING DOOR -- waiting for a Guard -- someone, anyone... BUT NO ONE COMES.::: What the hell is this?! WOMAN'S VOICE Follow the water. Or the fire will kill you. JERRY What fire?! How'd you get on this phone?! Are you the one doing all this to me? Why?! WOMAN'S VOICE Follow the water. Leave the building -- -- and Jerry SPINS BACK. Looks up at a WALL VENT near the ceiling -- SMOKE. Ho-shit! A SMOKE ALARM BLARES -- 3/28/07 27. CONTINUED: WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) -- take Brisbane Street to the elevated train station: you have six minutes. CLICK. JERRY Wait, what d'you mean "follow the water"? Suddenly: TSHHHHH! Jerry turns -- in the hallway, a CEILING SPRINKLER SPRAYS. The FIRE GROWS, RAGING from the VENT -- JERRY (CONT'D) SHIT!!! INT. DHS FIELD OFFICE - HALLWAY - NIGHT People scramble -- Morgan runs to the interrogation room, sees through the glass that Jerry's gone. To a passing Agent: MORGAN Where's Shaw? AGENT Parker took him to make his phone call. MORGAN Took him?! On whose authority?! INT. DHS FIELD OFFICE -.HALLWAY - NIGHT SMOKE AND FIRE AND A BLARING ALARM as Jerry FOLLOWS THE SPRINKLERS -- amazingly'each sprinkler ACTIVATES as he approaches, creating a safe path through the flames. Finally he gets to a dead end -- a WINDOW -- the FIRE RAGING behind him, heat increasing, as Jerry GRABS A NEARBY CHAIR AND -- MORGAN (V.0.) JERRY SHAW!! Turns through the wild FIRE, Morgan, at the other end of the corridor -- GUN DRAWN: MORGAN (CONT'D) FREEZE, RIGHT THERE! JERRY LISTEN TO ME! I'M NOT TRYING TO ESCAPE! The fire ERUPTS between them, obscuring each other's view. No choice, Jerry turns, HURLS the chair at the WINDOW, IT SHATTERS: 3/28/07 28. EXT. DHS FIELD OFFICE - FIRE ESCAPE - NIGHT Jerry prepares himself, then JUMPS TO A DRAIN PIPE -- grabbing it and lowering himself from the third floor -- dropping the last ten feet, landing HARD, recovering, running off -- EXT. RAISED SUBWAY PLATFORM - NIGHT A SUBWAY TRAIN pulls into the station. WHIP PAN to find Jerry running onto the platform -- out-of-his-mind-scared -- passes a SURVEILLANCE CAMERA looking down, as if watching him -- Jerry's eyes scan the area... then he FREEZES. THE ELECTRONIC SCHEDULE SIGN HAS CHANGED TO READ: "JERRY, BOARD TEE TRAIN" THEN JUST AS FAST, ITS BACK TO THE SCHEDULE. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?! Across the station, Jerry sees Morgan and a team of Agents pouring down the stairs =- he runs onto the train as the DOORS CLOSE -- Morgan turns, doesn't see him. INT. SUBWAY CAR - MOVING - NIGHT The train at full speed. Oblivious Commuters. Jerry tries to calm down, make some sense. Notices. the SECURITY CAMERA in the corner, turns from it. An LCD.onthe train broadcasts CNN: CNN NEWSCASTER has elevated our alert status to threat level "Orange." Insiders say tomorrow night's State of the Union address will focus on... CONDUCTOR (V.0.) Next stop, Montrose Station. A CELL RINGS from a phone peeking out of a SLEEPING PASSENGER'S BACKPACK. He looks at it, oddly suspicious. The LCD GOES BLACK -- then the words "ANSWER IT, JERRY" appear. Looks around: no one saw it. Slips the phone from the guy's backpack -- turns away, hits "answer": WOMAN'S VOICE Stay on the train for three more stations until you r-- But Jerry HANGS UP -- WON'T HAVE THIS. And as the train slows, he moves to the door and -- EXT. MONTROSE STATION - NIGHT JUMPS off the train, pushes through the busy platform. Spots TWO TRANSIT OFFICERS talking on radios as they scan the crowd. Jerry turns and ducks into another TRAIN just as -- 3/28/07 29. INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT The DOORS CLOSE. Jerry sits, exhales. Then the cell phone -- which he stole -- RINGS AGAIN. He tenses. Won't answer. It finally stops ringing. Could it all be over? NO, BECAUSE THE TRAIN'S EMERGENCY BRAKES SUDDENLY KICK IN, GEARS SCREECH, PEOPLE TUMBLE... and the train stops. Everyone looks around, confused, frightened. Suddenly, the train starts MOVING BACKWARDS-- JERRY --NO-- EXT. REAR SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT The rear subway car's now become the front. TILT DOWN to the track, it SWITCHES OVER to another line all.by itself -- INT. SUBWAY CAR - MOVING - NIGHT People are FREAKING OUT -- and Jerry feels some insane guilty complicity in all this, as the PHONE.RINGS AGAIN-- JERRY -- Jesus -- (and he answers) HELLO. WOMAN'S VOICE I told you not to get off yet. JERRY -- listen -- lady -- who are you?! WOMAN'S VOICE He knows you're here. Jerry turns and sees A TRANSIT COP through the glass doors that connect the cars -- he's talking into a shoulder-mounted walkie talkie. Looking right at JERRY -- JERRY --.how do you know that? Where are you? Jerry notices ANOTHER SECURITY CAMERA in the corner as: WOMAN'S VOICE Next stop is Damen Station. Take the Northwest exit. There will be a black BMW sedan. Get in the passenger seat. JERRY Go to hell. How's that. He hangs up, drops the phone and STOMPS ON IT. Eyes from fellow passengers. THEN EVERY CELL PHONE ON BOARD RINGING IN UNISON. 3/28/07 30. CONTINUED: Jerry watches, stunned, as passengers start answering -- all hearing the same thing: WOMAN'S VOICE The man in the black t-shirt is a wanted terrorist. His name is Jerry Shaw. Everyone TURNS TO Jerry, backs away, but a HUGE MAN stands: HUGE MAN -- you Jerry Shaw? EVERYONE looking, a few even start to move for him. Jerry goes for the door, but the SUBWAY COP'S there, about to enter, but the door's locked. Jerry yells to the passengers.: JERRY STAY AWAY FROM ME! The COP pulls his gun, yelling through the glass: TRANSIT COP EVERYBODY DOWN! GET DOWN? Suddenly, the train SPEEDING, the DOORS OPEN! A BLAST OF WIND! People SCREAM, take cover as the.train .pulls into the station, the COP about to SHOOT when Jerry jumps, LANDING HARD ON THE PLATFORM -- ROLLS -- and the COP FIRES! People SCREAM and RUN, as the moving train separates Jerry from the Cop -- Jerry gets to his feet, sprints towards the northwest exit and -- EXT. TRAIN STATION - NIGHT Out of the station! Spots the BLACK 760 BMW SEDAN parked by the curb -- sleek, ultra-fast. Jerry tears open the passenger door, jumps inside, meeting, behind the wheel: INT. BMW 760 SEDAN - NIGHT RACHEL. Terrified. Assuming Jerry is behind all of this. Jerry, breathing hard, assuming she is The Voice: JERRY RACHEL Okay: WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH -- I'm not doing a thing until ME?! I know for a fact that Kyle's safe -- Do you hear me? I am not fucking around, you tell me now what this is Do you hear me? No, you stop - about! - I will not do a thing for you until -- HEY: I almost died back there! Three times! Shut up! You shut up and -- who?! Who's Kyle? WHO THE listen to me now! You tell me HELL IS KYLE?! Kyle is safe! YOU TELL ME HE'S SAFE GODDAMMIT!!!! She's HITTING HIM and he's gotta grip her arms to control her -- 3/28/07 31. CONTINUED: RACHEL JERRY MY SON! YOU LET HIM GO! YOU HEY! HEY, STOP! Wait! HURT HIM AND I WILL KILL You're not the woman who YOU!!! called me? And Rachel, out of breath, realizes: holy shit... RACHEL the woman? She called you too? WOMAN'S VOICE Drive. -- and Jerry and Rachel SCREAM at the horror of THE;WOMAN'S VOICE COMING FROM INSIDE THE CAR -- how?! JERRY RACHEL --where's that coming from?! --who are you?! WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) I'm using the onboard automotive telematics system. Drive. Now. KA-BOOOOM!!! The side window EXPLODES from a GUNSHOT! They duck -- Jerry turns to look at,the COPS running toward the car: RACHEL JERRY THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US?! DRIVEDRIVEDRIVEDRIVEDRIVE!!! She SLAMS the gas -- the car SCREECHES ONTO THE ROAD, another car avoiding it, SLAMMING into a BUS -- Rachel LURCHES and GRINDS as she shifts gears -- RACHEL JERRY WHAT IS HAPPENING?! WHY ARE YOU DRIVING LIKE -- I'VE NEVER DRIVEN ANYTHING THAT?! WORTH OVER ,TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS! WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE PEOPLE SHOOTING AT US? WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) Stay about fifty miles an hour, you have pursuers. JERRY Yeah, thanks, we're on it -- WOMAN'S VOICE Turn left in two-hundred feet. Indeed they do: TWO POLICE CARS BLAST AROUND A STREET CORNER FOUR BLOCKS BEHIND THEM -- DOPPLER HORNS as we CUT BACK TO: JERRY -- my name's Jerry Shaw, I've been set up -- somehow I don't know -- by -- 3/28/07 32. CONTINUED: (2) He dramatically GESTURES around the car, indicating The Voice. WOMAN'S VOICE One hundred feet. RACHEL JERRY -- you don't know anything Your son?! No, I know about Kyle? nothing! Just like you don't know how to drive: use the clutch before you shift, not while you shift, not while you -- I don't need driving sh-- lessons from you, asshole! -- you drive like. this and I'm the asshole? WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D).. Turn now. RACHEL (annoyed as hell) I know I got it! And she YANKS the steering wheel and the.car makes a FRIGHTENING SCREAMING LEFT TURN as we CUT TO: INT. SUV - CHICAGO CITY STREETS - NIGHT Morgan drives a government-issue sedan at 80 mph. over radio: POLICE RADIO (V.0.) All units, respond code 3 -- suspect's headed south on Stanley -- Morgan makes a hard right, .tearing around a corner -- INT. BMW - CHICAGO CITY STREETS - NIGHT Two cop cars have become THREE in the rearview mirror -- even more insane, °all.the TRAFFIC LIGHTS are suddenly changing to create a MIRACLE PATH for the BMW -- stopping traffic to let them pass,. starting it up again to CUT OFF the cop cars. It's as if someone.'s.playing chess with the city grid-- RACHEL JERRY (creeped out) --the lights are all changing to green... it's like... -- like they're changing for us... WOMAN'S VOICE Accelerate to sixty -- turn right in four- hundred feet... JERRY (looking up, scared) -- oh, no way -- 3/28/07 33 CONTINUED: Rachel looks up too -- eyes wide: A TEN-STORY-TALL CONSTRUCTION CRANE TURNING FAST, THE BLOCK-LONG ARM SWINGING ABOVE THE STREET, HOLDING FIVE STEEL GIRDERS-- JERRY (CONT'D) -- sixt ! Go to sixty! And suddenly the crane DROPS THE GIRDERS -- Rachel SCREAMS -- JERRY (CONT'D) SHIT!! And the STEEL BEAMS SLAM INTO THE PAVEMENT, JUST BEHIND THE BMW, -- PURSUING AND SURROUNDING CARS SLAM THEIR BRAKES RACHEL -- this isn't happening!!! Tries to DOWNSHIFT -- GRINNNNNNNND!! JERRY RACHEL CLUTCH! I'M CLUTCHING!! She tries to shift -- Jerry puts his hand on hers -- JAMS THE GEAR SHIFT INTO FOURTH -- the car swerves to avoid a car: JERRY GO RIGHT GO RIGHT!!! Rachel yanks the wheel, SKIDS round the corner -- more police screech in ahead -- she's forced to VEER onto a ONE-WAY STREET! JERRY (CONT'D) RACHEL Getoffthe street -- wait, --WILLYOU SHUT UP?!!!! no,turnup ahead, keep going --WILLYOU JUST SHUT UP AND --go...wait -- stop -- TURN LETMEDO IT!! HERE!! The BMW barely avoids one collision after another -- WOMAN'S VOICE You'll turn at the next alley: avoid the police. Rachel skids right, but TWO COP CARS appear. Too late to stop WHAM! The BMW SMASHES THROUGH -- both cop cars go flying. RACHEL AVOID THEM?! JERRY (looks back, holy shit) -- you're doing great -- MORGAN'S CAR: 3/28/07 34. CONTINUED: (2) MORGAN They're headed for the harbor! Gimme roadblocks at Granville and Sheridan! IN THE BMW: Jerry and Rachel speed through an industrial marina. Up ahead, the intersection's closed by a POLICE BARRICADE. WOMAN'S VOICE Turn right in two-hundred feet. MORGAN'S CAR: he SEES Rachel coming right at him. Just before they collide, she TURNS RIGHT. Morgan SLAMS his brakes -- his car FISHTAILS -- the cruisers behind him come to a.stop; but now BLOCK HIS WAY. MORGAN MOVE MOVE MOVE!!! INT. BMW - HARBOR - NIGHT As the car speeds down a narrow artery toward the RIVER -- WOMAN'S VOICE Accelerate to sixty five. RACHEL JERRY ACCELERATE?! WE"RE HEADED FOR THE WATER! -- are you trying to kill us?! -- slow down! Jesus, slow down--what the hell's your name? YOU! YOU!!! -- Oh! Rachel! -- Rachel: SLOW THE HELL DOWN!!! Just then: KA-CHUNK!! Something just SLAMMED onto the ROOF -- a high-pitched VREEEEE as he car's tires SPIN in overdrive but suddenly FIND NO ROAD BENEATH THEM! And impossibly, as the brick wall GROWS HUGE coming right at us through the windshield, the car RISES OFF THE GROUND -- LITERALLY FLYING -- JERRY RACHEL HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?! I'M NOT!!! -- and now we REVEAL: A GIANT, INDUSTRIAL MAGNET attached to the top of the BMW, HOISTING it up on a DOCK CRANE -- the jib arm PIVOTS, swinging them over a CRANE YARD... Minds blown, they swing past the crane's DRIVER'S SEAT and see... NOBODY'S AT THE CONTROLS. The crane DIPS THEM toward a wooden railing overlooking the RIVER -- they CRASH THROUGH it. The release arm DROPS the BMW -- Jerry and Rachel SCREAM as they PLUMMET -- but the car doesn't hit water, instead it falls onto: A GARBAGE BARGE floating downriver. The car lands in a mountain of trash. The crane STOPS, just as... Morgan and the cops APPEAR, screeching in at the broken railing. 3/28/07 35. CONTINUED: They jump from their cars, look down into the river and see NOTHING. Morgan KICKS a trash can, pissed: MORGAN Seal the harbor, get divers in the water! PAN UP TO the horizon... where the garbage barge floats lazily down Lake Michigan. Jerry and Rachel escaped... for now. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. BARGE - DAWN Jerry, dazed but driven, SLAMS a piece of plywood again and again into the LEXAN WINDOW of the barge's CONTROL BOOTH. Rachel paces, on her cell -- hearing: KYLE'S VOICE This is Kyle. Who is not allowed to. use this phone with my friends... so leave a message, Mom. (BEEP --} RACHEL Honey? Honey? It's me -- Baby, you need to call me. Soon as you get this, 1 please -- check your messages and.call me. Sweetie. I love y_ou. And she hangs up, staring'off. CRASH! Jerry's knocked the window back -- opens the control booth door and enters, examines the controls. The computer panel reads: "CONTROL OVERRIDE." JERRY -- this thing's on auto-pilot or something. Which doesn't happen, these barges are operated, by people. He steps out. In thought, tears in her eyes, Rachel asks: RACHEL D'youthink -- she could derail a train? JERRY Are you kidding me? She changed every traffic light! This woman's called me on other people's phones -- some dude who happened to be sitting next to me! His phone rang -- it was her! For me! She broke me out of maximum-security custod in a way I'm not even gonna tell you cause you won't believe it -- and you saw how she directed us away from the police, then lifted us outta the world and dropped our ass onto the ghost barge! Can she derail a train? She could probably turn a train into a duck. Yes. I think she c-- 3/28/07 36. CONTINUED: -- but now he stops, because Rachel is crying. Jerry lamely attempts to backpedal: JERRY (CONT'D) I mean... I don't know, I'm not sure she could derail a train, what the hell do I know? Rachel brushes her tears away. Afraid, but fighting it. RACHEL My son is on a train. She threatened to kill him if I don't do what she says. They share a look. The difference between them galvanized in an instant. She has something to lose. RACHEL (CONT'D) You tell me -- how does someone do all this? When: RING! A CELL PHONE. Rachel looks down, hoping it's Kyle -- but it's not her phone. They realize the phone's somewhere in the trash. Jerry starts digging. It's nast Finally, he finds it in an old take-out box --- re: the phone. JERRY -- you see what I mean? He wipes it off, holds it to his ear despite the stench; JERRY (CONT'D) Hello? WOMAN'S VOICE You both need to swim to shore. Go to line tower 108. "JERRY RACHEL "Swim to shore? Are you -- she wants us to swim --?! insane? JERRY Lady, what if I told you we don't know how to swim. WOMAN'S VOICE But you do. I've seen you at the beach house. (Jerry is chilled) And the female was once a swimming instructor at the YMCA in Westport, Connecticut. Go now or the authorities will find you. They're more dangerous than the water. 3/28/07 37. CONTINUED: (2) CLICK -- she's gone. Jerry hangs up, turning something unnerving in his mind. JERRY She called you "the female." (beat, weird) That's like... something a foreigner would say, like a bad translation. But she has no accent. RACHEL Jerry, that's your name, right? Are we swimmincr? JERRY Does it bring back memories of Westport Y? RACHEL (pale, at a whisper) how did you know that? JERRY I didn't. And they turn to look down at the FREEZING RIVER WATER as we PRE- LAP the SOUND of a clear F SHARP and CUT TO -- INT. A&B INSTRUMENT REPAIR MORNING An OLD MAN blowing into KYLE,'S TRUMPET. Thick glasses, sweater vest, INSTRUMENTS stacked all over the place. Kyle's familiar CASE with the Packers' sticker open next to him. STORE OWNER You sure you want to replace it? Sounds pretty good to me. And we reveal MIDDLE EASTERN MAN standing at the counter. Eyes darting, nervousShoves a small BOX into the man's hand. MIDDLE EASTERN MAN Yes. I'm sure. Please do it now. The Store Owner looks into the box. STORE OWNER I do a lot of custom jobs, never seen something like this before. I can have it for you by the end of the week. The Middle Eastern Man. MUMBLING again in Tajiki. Seemingly, to himself. The Store Owner stares, kinda freaked out -- STORE OWNER (CONT'D) Sorry, what? 3/28/07 38. CONTINUED: MIDDLE EASTERN MAN (snaps out of it) No. Is not possible. it must be done this afternoon -- STORE OWNER Listen, Mister -- The Middle Eastern Man suddenly touches his ear, BARKS out something in Tajiki. Like he's arguing with someone. STORE OWNER (CONT'D) -- are you okay? MIDDLE EASTERN MAN (looks at his watch) I will pay you triple. Please. A courier will be by to pick it:'up at three. Do it, please... please. And stepping back, he exits quickly. The Store Owner watches him leave, then looks back down at the BOX. INT. RIVER SIDE - DAY A Coast Guard cutter floats beside the now-abandoned garbage barge. The BMW's been lifted ashore by a crane -- FORENSIC TECHS comb every inch. MORGAN circles the car. Grant follows, a WAITING CHOPPER in the background. AGENT GRANT All the surveillance cameras in the area have turned up nothing -- no ID on the girl, nothing on the VIN -- MORGAN All I want is a goddamn picture of her -- what about traffic cams? There are more cameras on that route than the Super BOWL-- AGENT GRANT Department of Transpo says there was a seven minute equipment failure -- MORGAN AGENT GRANT Do NOT tell me their equipment was down! Do NOT! Sir, that's what they're telling me... From Northbrook to the 290?! What about the bogus fax from Justice, was that equipment failure too? -- No sir, there's gotta be someone on the inside. -- ya think?! 3/28/07 39. CONTINUED: Pissed, Morgan starts -- fast -- for the chopper -- we move with him and Grant, who keeps up: MORGAN The getaway car was waiting there -- get me a witness description on the woman driving -- remember witnesses? People who see things?! Jesus, is this a lost art? AGENT GRANT I have Markey on that right now Morgan's PHONE IS RINGING -- he answers: MORGAN Morgan. When? NO. You tell them hold that 'til I talk to Sanford - (hangs up, to Grant) WTMZ has a report that there's a terrorist at large in the.city,-- I'm going back to forensics. Find out where the hell that fax originated.-- if you don't have good news for me before I touch down you will be demoted to a job that will require you. to touch shit with your hands --do you understand me? AGENT GRANT Yes sir! As Morgan hops up onto the moving chopper -- MORGAN Nobody who works for me calls me sir. understand?! It's disingenuous -- might as well be calling me 'asshole.' As Grant watches the chopper take off, perplexed. EXT. MIDDLE OF NOWHERE - DAY An endless stretch of road lined with electrical line towers... Two FIGURES, like specks against the landscape -- Jerry and Rachel, walking, wet, cold. And then: RACHEL So you're a twin. (BEAT) Who works at a copy place. And she manages a clipped, judgemental (frankly rude) laugh. JERRY Yeah, I know... that's occurred to me. 3/28/07 40. CONTINUED: RACHEL So this whole situation is obviously about him. JERRY Excuse me? I would offer this whole situation isn't "obviously" about anything. RACHEL Just think about it: you said your brother worked at the State Department -- JERRY -- so what? RACHEL -- so that means he could've: been into anythinc -- he was a twin -:- you..received a shipment of weapons and cash and airplane manuals -- it seems to me that they sent the stuff to.the wrong brother-- JERRY Wait a minute -- you're suggesting all that stuff was for Paul? As they approach TOWER 108: RAC HE L Hey, I'm sorry that he died, I'm not trying to insult his memory -- JERRY he hasn't been dead long enough to become a memory! And if you knew Paul, which you did not, you'd laugh all day at the idea that he was a spy or terrorist or whatever you're implying -- RACHEL I'm implying if not him... then why you? JERRY Well hasn't that been the question my whole life. You know how I know Paul wasn't a terrorist? Because if he had been, he would've been the best fucking terrorist in history: he wouldn't have gotten caught, the United States would be a crater -- he would've won awards for being a great terrorist. (THEN) What about you? Why'd she choose you -- what's your day job? I know it isn't "manual-shift driver." 3/28/07 41. CONTINUED: (2) RACHEL I did just fine driving, thanks. I'm a paralegal -- I have no connection to anything. JERRY Really? Suddenly they're interrupted by the ROOSTERTAIL OF DUST approaching in the distance. Rachel stops dead and on INSTINCT, grabs Jerry's hand, all their mutual hostility vanished: RACHEL Someone's coming. And what's approaching is the "Hassad DryCleaners." van. It comes to a stop and out steps the Middle Eastern Man. Stands some twenty-five feet from them. MIDDLE EASTERN MAN Are you Jerry Shaw? JERRY who are you? Rachel grabs Jerry's arm as the man reaches into his jacket -- JERRY (CONT'D) MIDDLE EASTERN MAN -- Whoa -- I dropped it off like she said. I'm done. The man's pulled out an unusual-looking STEEL KEY. JERRY (CONT'D) -- dropped off what? Who are you? MIDDLE EASTERN MAN Take it -- He TOSSES the key..-- it lands, LARGE IN FRAME, somewhere between them. Then: JERRY what's it for? MIDDLE EASTERN MAN I don't know -- I don't care -- but I will not drive you. You take the van (touches his EAR: beat) I'm not listening to you any more! And the man turns to go, just walks away. RACHEL JERRY -- hey! -- wait, who are you?! You have to tell us what you know! 3/28/07 42 CONTINUED: (3) And as the man walks away from them his CELL PHONE RINGS: He pulls it out -- the LCD READS: "LAST CHANCE." And the man DROPS the phone and just starts RUNNING -- JERRY WAIT!! And Jerry takes off after him, he's not letting him go. Catches up to the guy and grabs him. Spinning him round -- JERRY (CONT'D) What do you know? MIDDLE EASTERN MAN -- let me go! JERRY -- who's doing this? And they begin to struggle. Middle Eastern Man's dropped CELL PHONE RINGS. Rachel. Terrified, hesitant. Knows somehow its for her -- she answers: WOMAN'S VOICE Stop him now or he will die. RACHEL (looking around) How are you seeing us?! Jerry and the Middle Eastern Man. Fighting. Thrashing. Throwing sloppy punches: MIDDLE EASTERN MAN Let go of me! On Rachel: WOMAN'S VOICE Stop him now. CLICK. Rachel turning to SCREAM at Middle Eastern Man -- RACHEL Stop! You have to STOP! When the Middle Eastern Man CRACKS Jerry in the nose and he goes sprawling. He takes off again, yelling back: MIDDLE EASTERN MAN I cannot! I have a family!!! RACHEL She's going to KILL YOU! 3/28/07 43. CONTINUED: (4) And just then, something TERRIFYING: an IMMENSE POWER SURGE -- HEARD, FELT -- and a SIX-STORY-HIGH COIL THE SIZE OF AN SUV EXPLODES IN SPARKS. CABLES BLAST FREE. Rachel SCREAMS. Jerry TACKLES HER TO SAFETY as the tree trunk cables SWING DOWN AND STRIKE THE MIDDLE EASTERN MAN and he is SLAMMED OFF HIS FEET, the current making the cable STICK TO HIM LIKE GLUE. And he's ON FIRE INSTANTLY -- SMOKE EVERYWHERE as he's TOSSED BY THE HORRIFYING TENTACLE, POUNDED INTO THE GROUND, BACK INTO THE AIR, PUMMELLED DOWN AGAIN, BURNING... Jerry and Rachel watch this in horror -- until she looks away. Jerry holding her -- the two in shock, strangers, in each - other's arms. Having shared another moment, too real, horror - RACHEL (CONT'D) JERRY. Oh my God... Oh God... oh We--we have to do something, God... Oh God... we have to... figure out what to.. what... And then his PHONE RINGS. And they're both too afraid to answer it. Another RING. And another. Finally Jerry answers it, hand shaking slightly: JERRY You killed him... you killed that man... WOMAN'S VOICE It was unavoidable. Take the van. Drive to Indianapolis. 7002 West 56th Street. Arrive no later than eleven AM. Disobey and you die. CLICK. Rachel's eyes on Jerry. JERRY RACHEL she wants us to drive to Indianapolis.: , -- why? What's there, what? -- -- I don't know -- -- no, this can't keep happening! We have to go to the police, explain it -- explain what?! What're we -- I'm not doing it!! I'm not gonna tell them?! going anywhere! Jerry can see she's losing it. Grabs her by the shoulders: JERRY -- Rachel. She's watching us. Right now. You wanna die too? Your son? We have to go. Rachel looks right at him, still shaking, knows he's right. And nods. Okay. Okay. As our MUSIC BUILDS, LARGER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK -- AND AT THE HEIGHT OF AN UNRESOLVED CHORD, IT -- 3/28/07 44. EXT. LANDSCAPE - DAY -- STOPS. Just the eerie, faint whistle of wind. We PAN a barren landscape. Scattered scorch marks. Then, a high-pitched TONE as the PAN continues and arrives at a parked military truck, which gives us scale to understand the SUDDEN COLOSSAL EXPLOSION THAT SHAKES OUR BEING -- HOLY FUCK THAT THING WAS HUGE AND AS DEBRIS IS STILL RIPPED INTO THE SKY, PIECES ARE COMING DOWN AND THERE WILL BE SMOKE FOR HOURS as a SUPER APPEARS: "BRIAR POINT TEST RANGE -- ABERDEEN, MARYLAND. "- And we hear CLAPPING -- PULL BACK, realizing that we are inside: INT. PROTECTIVE BARRACKS - DAY -- a high-tech bunker-like structure with six-inch LEXAN WINDOWS. A dozen MILITARY BRASS are here, applauding. Among them is Callister. He seems more thoughtful about this. Behind him, a British, DARK-SUITED WEAPONS';DEVELOPER speaks: WEAPONS DEVELOPER That blast was the result of one single crystal of Hexomethylne. For those of you who are new today, "Rex" is an isotope that leaves no chemical markers -- it's eighty times more powerful than C4. Odorless. Undetectable. COLONEL THOMPSON, also from our opening, gestures: COLONEL THOMPSON Talk about the detonating system... The Developer screws a METAL VALVE into what looks like a can of compressed air, saying: WEAPONS DEVELOPER Hex is triggered by an acoustic frequency undetectable to the human ear. For this test we made it audible -- that was the tone you heard before the explosion -- the tone was the trigger. CALLISTER What's the risk that another sound could accidentally detonate it? (half smile) A song on a radio? A howling dog? WEAPONS DEVELOPER No: the pitch is uniquely programmed and impossible to reproduce. 3/28/07 45 CONTINUED: COLONEL THOMPSON Fine job. WEAPONS DEVELOPER Thank you, sir. We're proud of this ordnance -- all of us at Halloway-Smith. And while we still HEAR HIM SPEAKING, we CUT TO: INT. CLEAN PREP-ROOM - HALLOWAY-SMITH LABS- CONTINUOUS A TECHNICIAN at an assembly line where ROBOT ARMS_ work on a stream of components: the careful manufacturing of HEX. The acoustic trigger and its crystal counterpart. WEAPONS DEVELOPER.(V.0.) If you're satisfied with today's final test, the Hex Project has met every... contractual objective. The arms package each into separate . containers, fit them with shipping labels marked: "PENTAGON DIRECT." WEAPONS DEVELOPER (V.0.) (CONT'D) And we're hoping this moves us into the next scheduled phase... shipping the product into the field. Drift toward an unmanned computer. The screen FLICKERS: "OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS,. CHANGE SHIPPING DESTINATION." Robot arms grab a wrapped package off the line. A new label's printed: "ASHLAND & SONS CIO JERRY SHAW." INT. HALLWAY - PENTAGON - DAY Latesha walking down a hallway. Endless miles of shiny marble and military paintings. Her CELL RINGS. It's Morgan: MORGAN (V.O.) Whaddya got? LATESHA (SOTTO) Those funny things underneath my not-so- stylish pantsuit? They brought me all the way to the Pentagon. Paul Shaw wasn't State -- EXT. SKIES ABOVE CHICAGO - DAY A chopper ROARS over skyscrapers. Morgan beside the PILOT in front, listening to Latesha over his helmet headset. LATESHA (V.0.) -- he was Defense. 3/28/07 46. CONTINUED: MORGAN You're kidding me. What capacity? LATESHA (V.0.) Black-file: classified B-36. MORGAN B what? INT. HALLWAY - PENTAGON - CONTINUOUS She turns a corner. DOWN THE HALLWAY a PHALANX of GENERALS, MILITARY PERSONNEL and SCURRYING ASSISTANTS heading towards a set of DOUBLE-DOORS. Some very big meeting about to happen - LATESHA That's the point. No one'll tell me. I cross-reffed the SCI database, talked to the Intel committee, NSA gave me..nothing. Krebs doesn't want me to ruffle any feathers. I've been up and down all the ladders and everyone just thinks I'm a -- WHEN an MP suddenly appears and grabs her by the arm. Stopping her. He towers over her -- MP Interns aren't allowed on this floor, miss. You'll have to -- When Latesha wearily flashes him her I.D. I've got clearance, pal. He looks at it. Lets her arm go. M.P. -- sorry. LATESHA (to M.P.) Everybody in this place have a six-foot height requirement? (continues walking; back to Morgan) Anyway. I'm going back to the office to-- MORGAN (V.0.) No, no, no -- INT. CHOPPER - CONTINUOUS The PILOT signaling to Morgan-- PILOT -- I got the Williamson County Sheriff on the line -- Morgan holds up a hand, one second. To Latesha: 3/28/07 47. CONTINUED: MORGAN Look, I don't have time for this -- stay there til you get some answers -- LATESHA (V.O.) -- but its a total shut out -- MORGAN Simms: step up -- INT. PENTAGON - CONTINUOUS MORGAN (V.O.) -- I don't care if you have to go to the. top to do it. Whatever means necessary, got it? Whatever means. CLICK. Latesha lowers the phone. A HUGE:PAINTING of the battle of EL-ALAMEIN looming behind her. Shelooks..back down the hallway as all the BRASS heading into the MEETING ROOM and catches sight of -- CALLISTER amongst them. Latesha hesitates. For just a second. Shit. Shit. This is it. Before suddenly rushing forward and calling out -- LATESHA Secretary Callister!.: He looks behind him briefly before being shuffled into the meeting room. And SLAM.. The doors close in Latesha's face. LATESHA (CONT'D) Well, shit. INT. DRY CLEANING VAN - CITY STREETS - INDIANAPOLIS - DAY The van speeds down a highway, passing a sign: "WELCOME TO INDIANAPOLIS: YOUR HOME TOWN!" Jerry drives, pensive. Rachel stares out the-window, the shock of what she's seen only fueling her rage at the whole situation. JERRY how old is he? Your son. RACHEL (in no mood to share) Kyle. He's nine. JERRY What's he doing on a train? She really doesn't want to talk. BUT: 3/28/07 48. CONTINUED: RACHEL He goes to a music magnet. His school's on a tour of Washington. They're playing at the Kennedy Center. JERRY wow. And you. Hm. She turns to him. Eyes burning into the side of his head. Knows what he's thinking. RACHEL Parents weren't allowed to go... is that okay with you? JERRY Is it okay? I could give a shit. RACHEL Then what's with the qualified nod? JERRY I'm not allowed to nod? RACHEL Not if you're iudging me.-- JERRY. Judging?! I'm just making conversation. RACHEL You think I should have gone with him anyway. JERRY I'm just thinking, sounds like a big deal, especially for a 9-year-old -- playing at the Kennedy Center -- I'd just think at least one parent might wanna be there to see it. RACHEL Yeah? How do you know Kyle's dad isn't there? JERRY Well, you're not wearing a ring and you haven't mentioned anyone but your son is on that train. Even the most pissed off ex-wife -- which I'm not saying you aren't -- would've mentioned it if her ex's life was threatened -- and if Kyle was going to meet his dad in DC? You would've tried to call him, too. So where is he? Kyle's dad? 3/28/07 49. CONTINUED: (2) RACHEL As if it's any of your business -- you know what you are --? JERRY Insightful? Intuitive? A better driver than you --? RACHEL -- you're one of those "thirties are the new twenties" man-children. You're glib and wry and find humor in people like me who are actually accountable for the ir lives -- JERRY Okay, the most fascinating thing here? Is that you don't know the first thing about me! RACHEL I know you work at a copy store! What are you, thirty-one, thirty-two? You're obviously articulate JERRY -- love being stuck in a van with my fucking guidance counselor -- RACHEL -- and I know your brother just died and he worked for the State Department -- JERRY -- you need to stop talking about my brother, I've had enough of that -- RACHEL JERRY -- you're in denial if you -- Ham: I'm not talking about don't think that has anything this -- to do with what's happening right now -= -- Dammit!! I'm not kidding! :but I can tell you that Stop! STOP! whatever he did, whatever he was part of has put my son in danger whether you believe it or not!! SCREECH! Jerry YANKS the wheel hard, PEELING across four lanes of traffic. SKIDS to a stop by a curb, pops open the door. RACHEL JESUS!--WHAT'RE YOU D--?'. Jerry gets out, SLAMS his door shut -- 3/28/07 50. CONTINUED: (3) RACHEL (CONT'D) You can't leave me! JERRY Why not? My brother's a terrorist, and I'm a loser right? He starts to walk away. Rachel desperately opening her door RACHEL Don't walk away! JERRY (throwing up arms) I'm done. RACHEL Please! JERRY You're on your own. Rachel starts running after him,panicked, leadin : RACHEL Please! PLEASE! I..i need you! Jerrystops short. Turning around. Cupping his ear. JERRY I'm sorry? What'd you just say? RACHEL I can't do this without you. JERRY You mean without the "man-child?" Rachel's reserves crumble. RACHEL Its the first time we've been apart, me and Kyle. Since the day he was born. And I let him get on that train-- (almost whispering) -- I let him get on. Jerry sees all the panic and horror and guilt in this woman's eyes. They're both in pain. Points his finger right at her. JERRY No more accusing my brother of shit you know nothing about, is that understood? Rachel looks at him. Nods. Finding her voice again -- 3/28/07 51. CONTINUED: (4) RACHEL Yes. And so. They turn around. And get back in the van. EXT. TOWER 108 - DAY THE CHARRED FACE OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN MAN, FROZEN IN A SCREAM. Morgan runs towards it, the SHERIFF and a POWER WORKER trying to keep up. Chopper in B.G. Police officers work the scene. POWER WORKER Never seen anything like it. Power blew out from Franklin High School down to the river club. I can't explain it - They arrive at the body. Contorted, blackened, teeth bared. SHERIFF No I.D. We know he's male, though. Probably in his 20's. (points off) Tire treads entering and leaving the scene over three. Three sets of shoe prints. MORGAN And we're about 4 miles from the river -- Just then we see Agent Grant running towards them, stumbling on some rocks. Just finishing-.up a cell call: AGENT GRANT Agent Morgan!" (out of breath, sotto) Just got off with HQ. The fake fax from Justice that got Shaw his phone call? Came from inside Justice. MORGAN Inside?! You absolutely sure on that? AGENT GRANT Yes, s-- (catches himself) Yes I am. MEDICAL EXAMINER Got something -- As the M.E. pulls something out of Middle Eastern Man's ear: a small, charred GIZMO. Small WIRE sticking out. Lifts it up for them to see. Morgan takes the TWEEZERS -- GRANT Looks like a bone mic, military grade. 3/28/07 52. CONTINUED: MORGAN Can't even get these things on the black market. (looks around landscape) Someone was talking to him. Something's rotten in Denmark. No, something's rotten everywhere. Morgan turns abruptly and starts back for the chopper. The Sheriff helplessly calls after him: SHERIFF We'll be needing that for evidence! EXT. 56TH STREET - DAY Jerry and Rachel's van pulls up to THE FEDERAL BANK OF INDIANAPOLIS. Across the way is a STADIUM for the COLTS. The parking lot's full, mid-game. They stare;.steeling themselves for the inevitable... RACHEL a Federal bank? JERRY Could be worse. Could.be.a Federal Prison. INT. INDIANAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE -;LOBBY - DAY A wall-mounted clock ticks to "11:00"--WHIP TO Jerry and Rachel entering. Security cams everywhere. As they nervously cross the floor, they pass TWO ARMED BRINKS COURIERS entering an elevator. A BANK MANAGER APPROACHES: MANAGER Mr. and Mrs. Saxon? I'm Mr. Bids. I understand you're in a hurry, why don't I show you to your box. JERRY (WHAT THE FUCK?! then:) yes, thank you, we'd... like that. The manager walks them across to a secure elevator with a THERMOGRAPHIC SCANNER. The manager looks at Jerry expectantly, waiting for him to place his hand on it. He does: a flash of light, identifying him as: "SAXON, CARL." Jerry's eyes: this is madness. The elevator doors OPEN. INT. INDIANAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE - VAULT - DAY They exit the elevator, the manager leads them to a DEPOSIT BOX. He pulls out a metal key, identical to the one the Middle Eastern Man gave Jerry: 3/28/07 53. CONTINUED: MANAGER Your key? Jerry takes out his key, it fits perfectly. They turn; the box slides out, the manager lays it on a steel table. LEAVES to give them privacy. Jerry and Rachel stare at the box. RACHEL You gonna open it? JERRY Maybe it's not gonna be so bad. RACHEL Yeah... maybe it's something good.. They meet eyes. Tentatively, he raises the lid to find TWO GLOCK PISTOLS and the same BONE MIC we saw.the.M.E. pull out of the Middle Eastern Man's ear. A note.: "EAR:MIC. NOW." JERRY RACHEL Oh, shit -- it's bad -- They look at each other. Jerry puts the..mic in his ear: WOMAN'S VOICE OVER MIC Both guns are loaded, safety's off. In sixty seconds,':two,men Will exit the adjacent vault carrying a briefcase. Take it -- by force if necessary -- then exit the building.. Jerry can't fucking believe this. Rachel dying to know: RACHEL -- what?! JERRY -- I don't suppose -- there's any easier way to`get whatever the hell it is you want -- is there? Miss? But she's not answering. JERRY (CONT'D) Excellent. RACHEL What now -- what are we? BUT THE VAULT NEXT DOOR OPENS, FOOTSTEPS-- 3/28/07 54. CONTINUED: (2) JERRY RACHEL -- they're coming--we're supposed to rob them -- -- are you kidding me?!?! (hands her a GUN) -- just take i t-- -- no! Jesus! I don't even let Kyle play with water guns! -- hey, I applaud your parenting skills -- take it! The footsteps come CLOSER as two MEN appear... the.-BRINKS COURIERS from the lobby; one of them's carrying a METALLIC BRIEFCASE cuffed to his wrist -- the other spots Jerry's gun and REACTS, going for his gun: JERRY Don't! The men freeze -- Jerry holds his gun awkwardly -- JERRY (CONT'D) Uh... hi. How's it going. Put. it on the floor. The briefcase. We don't wanna hurt you guys, we like you guys -- just -- we need the case. COURIER #1 You're bringing a shitstorm on your heads, you know that. JERRY I think we're already mid-shitstorm. Do it. The men exchange glances. Reluctantly, Courier #1 punches a combination into the case's padlock, the cuff POPS free from his wrist. He slides it over to Jerry, who reaches for it... AND COURIER #2 MAKES A MOVE -- SMASHING Jerry back, knocking the gun out of his hand.. Jerry CRASHES to the ground, the BONE MIC falling out of his ear... he turns, shit! Sees it skitter under the table. The Courier sees it too and grabs his chance: snatches up the case and RUNS for the elevator -- Rachel rushes him, trips him -- he falls, dazed -- Jerry leaps up but Courier #2 effortlessly FLIPS him on top of the steel table, SLAMS Jerry's head into the counter, unholsters a back-up GUN from his ankle -- brings the barrel up as: BAM! A GUNSHOT! The Couriers spin to see RACHEL, holding the gun that was kicked across the floor: RACHEL DROP THE GUN ASSHOLE! Courier #2 drops it; Jerry rises, wipes blood from his lip. Rachel is fucking on fire, she's so tough. AKA: a mother. 3/28/07 55. CONTINUED: (3) RACHEL (CONT'D) Gimme the case. Now. They do -- and Jerry and Rachel back into the elevator with it. JERRY RACHEL impressive. Thanks. The door closes on them, and we CUT INTO: INT. INDIANAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE - ELEVATOR - DAY Alone in the elevator, Jerry looks down at the.. case, adrenaline coursing, sees a ribbon-thin DIGITAL TIMER near the handle: "01:12:36. 01:12:35." RACHEL JERRY -- whoa--what is that? -- a timer -- it's counting down-- -- they do.that -- what's it mean?! -- I dunno, the only things with timers I can think of are microwaves and... -- and bombs, you were gonna say bombs -- some coffee makers have timers.. .and egg timers... -- yeah, Jerry, it's an egg timer -- What is SHE saying about it --? I dunno, I -- -- What do you mean you. don't know?! WOMAN'S VOICE You lost the mic, Jerry. That's not optimum. JESUS CHRIST! Her voice is in the elevator now: JERRY Would you stop doing that?! WOMAN'S VOICE There will thirty five seconds of disconnect, during which you need to get yourselves across the street to the stadium's VIP parking area unexposed. JERRY (calling out) Is this a bomb?! 'Cause I am not walking out with a bomb! Hey! You! But she's done talking. As the elevator DOORS SLIDE OPEN-- 3/28/07 56 INT. INDIANAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE - DAY TWO MORE BRINKS COURIERS wait by an armored truck. Jerry and Rachel exit, trying to look casual. Hearts POUNDING -- RACHEL How do I look? JERRY Like you got into a fight. Me? RACHEL Like you lost one. AN ALARM SOUNDS. The men race into the bank as Jerry and Rachel walk RIGHT PAST them, starting across the street toward the stadium. No one in sight except a COLTS PARAPHERNALIA VENDOR. SQUAD CARS SCREECH in around the bank. COPS jump out drawing their weapons. Rachel tensing. JERRY Just keep walking Jerry looks at the CLOCK above the-stadium. Then over his shoulder at the BANK. Steers Rachel over towards the VENDOR. Trying to stay calm. JERRY (CONT'D) Two jerseys and two hats, please -- VENDOR Peyton or Vinatieri? JERRY (shit!!!) I don't know what that means -- RACHEL Jerry... JERRY (shit... shit...) Uh... both. The two COURIERS running out of the bank. POINTING RIGHT AT JERRY AND RACHEL ACROSS THE STREET. Everyone starts RUNNING TOWARD THEM. Jerry shoves a jersey and hat at Rachel-- JERRY (CONT'D) Put these on -- RACHEL JER-- JERRY Do it! 3/28/07 57 CONTINUED: They put on the hats and jerseys, hurrying towards the stadium. Cops screaming at them to stop, the Vendor screaming that they didn't pay. The cops fan out. Cars SCREECH to a stop. Jerry, sweating. Flicks another look at the stadium clock: 3.. 2.. 1: WHEN WHAM! THE STADIUM DOORS FLY OPEN AS THOUSANDS OF JOYOUS COLTS FANS POUR OUT WEARING IDENTICAL BLUE HATS AND JERSEYS. The game's over. And in an instant, Jerry and Rachel are lost in a sea of blue and white -- it's impossible to spot them. Pushed back by the throng the COPS lose sight of them -- Jerry takes Rachel's arm, working against the current towards the VIP parking area. A LIMO WAITING THERE. The CHAUFFEUR sees them, hurriedly puts down his paper. Opening the door -- CHAUFFEUR Mr. and Mrs. Saxon? Hope you-enjoyed the game. JERRY Thanks, uh, we're in kind of a hurry -- CHAUFFEUR I bet. Jerry reacts, confused by the.chauffeur's libidinous tone as he closes the back door. They vanish behind tinted windows as cops and agents pass right by them. And as the limo pulls out, we reveal, etched across the rear: "JUST MARRIED." EXT. HALLWAY - PENTAGON - DAY Latesha sits next to the DOUBLE DOORS. Laptop open, typing madly. She's been waiting a long, long time -- WHEN SUDDENLY they burst open and she SNAPS to her feet. Standing expectantly as GENERAL after GENERAL files out of the situation room. Each as tall and broad as the next -- LATESHA (looking UP at them all) Afternoon... afternoon, sir... afternoon... afternoon, General... Pretty intimidating. Finally CALLISTER walks out, flanked by ADVISORS. The weight of the world's on his shoulders. LATESHA (CONT'D) Secretary Callister? He looks back, preoccupied. She catches up, holding her ID: LATESHA (CONT'D) Latesha Simms, DHS, level 2 clearance. I need to ask you a question, sir -- 3/28/07 58. CONTINUED: CALLISTER Not now, you can direct it to my office. LATESHA It'll only take a minute, sir, thirty seconds -- B-36? Can you tell me what it is? 'Cause its not -- CALLISTER -- you don't have clearance, Agent Simms, and I don't have thirty seconds. LATESHA So should I assume it has something to. do with the four CVN class 21 aircraft carriers you and the president just ordered to the Strait of Hormuz -? He looks at her, stunned. How the hell--? LATESHA (CONT'D) I just checked the intel, sir, we have some of the same indexes -- CALLISTER You need to stop assuming. And he moves on. Latesha gets jostled by all the brass, feeling like a mouse in cage filled with lions. Until she ROARS: LATESHA Secretary Callister. Voice echoing down the hail. Callister stops short, stunned by the gall and volume of this woman. She weaves through the GENERALS, planting herself in front of him: LATESHA (CONT'D) My Department's tracking a home-grown terrorist on the loose as we speak who may be connected to a cell with ties inside this building. Now seeing as you just had a meeting back there with more brass than the Navy Marching Band and with the terror threat rising every three hours, I'm going to just have to assume you're in the middle of a very delicate dance to stave off World War Three... so with all due respect, you either give me my thirty seconds and tell me what the hell B-36 is, or this world just fell into an even bigger heap of trouble. Sir. Callister looks down at her, completely struck dumb. She's hit a chord deep inside him. It's called balls. SLAM TO: 3/28/07 59. INT. LOBBY - FOUR SEASONS HOTEL - DAY As Jerry and Rachel enter the POSH LOBBY of the FOUR SEASONS, an obsequious BELLHOP approaches -- he's been waiting for them: BELLHOP Mr. and Mrs. Saxon? This way, please -- Tries to take the BRIEFCASE from Jerry, who yanks it back: JERRY No! 2 trot it. (forces a smile) Thanks, though. INT. PENTAGON - ANTE-CHAMBER - DAY Latesha dumps her things on a tray, moves through a scanner -- among her items is a set of KEYS with aMINI.SWISS ARMY KNIFE. She's handed a NEW BADGE that reads: "TEMPORARY ACCESS." Ahead, an elevator door OPENS and we start CROSS CUTTING: INT. ELEVATOR - FOUR SEASONS - CONTINUOUS Jerry, Rachel, and the bellhop step in. The Hop hits "Penthouse." MUZAK. They travel up: BELLHOP So, where'd you two get hitched? JERRY RACHEL Reno. Niagara Falls. Shit. JERRY RACHEL Niagara Falls. Reno. Shit. The "DING" of an arriving elevator MATCHES US BACK TO: INT. PENTAGON ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS THE LEVEL INDICATOR, having just arrived at floor "B-35." Latesha, wedged between two PENTAGON GUARDS, watches nervously as one of them uses a KEY to open a PANEL revealing: A BIOMETRIC SENSOR. The other guard holds his thumb to the scanner -- yet another PANEL OPENS, with a RED BUTTON marked "B- 36." It hits Latesha: B-36 is a secret level in the Pentagon. The elevator DESCENDS to the final level and OPENS, revealing: 3/28/07 60. INT. HALLWAY - LEVEL B-36 - CONTINUOUS 12-foot concrete walls. High-tech ventilation and surveillance system. Standing there waiting is SCOTT BOWMAN, early thirties, hasn't seen daylight in a while: SCOTT Agent Simms? Scott Bowman: Welcome to B- 36. If you'll follow me? INT. HONEYMOON SUITE - FOUR SEASONS - CONTINUOUS The Bellhop dramatically opens the door -- BELLHOP Welcome to paradise. Palatial HONEYMOON SUITE. Picture windows, rose petals on the bed... BELLHOP (CONT'D) Minibar, high-speed internet, thousand- count sheets. And if you're looking for the TV He clicks a remote and a 72" PLASMA TV rises up from a cabinet. On screen, a narrated "virtual tour".of the hotel: TV VOICE dedicated to the highest standards of luxury and comfort... BELLHOP Robes behind the door, jacuzzi with eighteen nozzles that hit in all the right places, if you'll pardon my French. .Need anything, just dial zero, I'm here t2. serve, I'm here to please... And he stands by the door, waiting for a tip. Jerry's still looking aroundwhen Rachel catches his eye. Well? Oh. Jerry digs into his pocket and pulls out TWO NICKELS. JERRY Knock yourself out. The Bellhop is still looking down at his palm when Jerry SHUTS THE DOOR on him. RACHEL This is nice and everything, but what the hell are we doing here? 3/28/07 61. CONTINUED: JERRY Nice? One night in this place is more than one of my paychecks; and that's before taxes -- He heads over to the minibar. Starts rooting through it, pulling out those tiny bottles of alcohol... RACHEL What're you doing? JERRY If we're going down, I'm gonna go down singing. Hey! Chocolate covered almonds, I love these! RACHEL Can you stop eating for a second? A KNOCK at the door and they stop arguing immediately. WOMAN'S VOICE Answer it. They TURN hearing the voice: it's.coming from the T.V. The FOUR SEASONS GRAPHIC still dancing on screen. WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) There are items you will need for the next step. KNOCK! KNOCK! A small nod from Rachel and Jerry opens the door. A DELIVERY BOY stands there with a BAG: DELIVERY BOY There y'go, Mr. Saxon. Have a nice day? Jerry takes the bag -- the kid puts out his hand for a tip just as Jerry closes the door on him, dazed. Starts pulling things from the bag: hair. dye, clothes... WOMAN'S VOICE The limousine is waiting for you `downstairs. You have 30 minutes to change your appearance. RACHEL Where are we going now? JERRY What the hell's in the briefcase? WOMAN'S VOICE Your only consideration at present is to deliver it before the timer expires. 3/28/07 62. CONTINUED: (2) JERRY (the breaking point) BULLSHIT! This is crazy! You're a television set! You don't watch me, I watch you! I wanna know what the hell's going on!! WOMAN'S VOICE It would not be efficacious to reveal my intentions. JERRY -- "not be efficacious"?! Who the.fuck talks like that?! RACHEL -- Jerry -- JERRY We know you're watching! We know you're listening! We know you know•.'everythina. So why don't you STOP HIDING AND TELL US WHO YOU ARE!! Nothing. Furious, he moves to.the WINDOW -- JERRY (:CONT'D) Fine, have it your way,.Lady -- I'm gonna scream bloody murder out this window 'til every cop in a fifty mile radius comes running and I'm gonna tell them everything even if they think I'm a crazy sonofabitch 'cause at least I won't have to listen to you any more! RACHEL -- JERRY -- He YANKS the window up -- WOMAN'S VOICE STOP. He does. The..FOUR SEASONS GRAPHIC in TV snaps to BLACK -- then DIGITAL STATIC -- a channel RE-ROUTING through some distant computer-controlled network. And now: IMAGES -- FILE FOOTAGE -- a DEFENSE DEPARTMENT LAB, TECHNICIANS assembling computer components, putting together a strange- looking SPHERE -- WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) My name... is Aria. Rachel and Jerry stare -- what the hell is this? 3/26/07 63. INT. PENTAGON - MAINFRAME TANK - CONTINUOUS CLOSE ON LATESHA, also reeling as she stares at something O.S. FLICKERING SHADOWS play across her face-- SCOTT (O.S.) It stands for 'Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Analyst'... And we reveal "THE TANK." A glassed-in wall containing TONS of water. AN AWESOME STEEL SPHERE IN THE WATER, suspended by a claw-like apparatus. The "brain" of a com uter network. The very same image Jerry and Rachel just saw on the TV. SCOTT (CONT'D) Twenty-two hundred tons of super-cooled water keeps her from overheating -- that's ninety-two thousand processors, the equivalent of a hundred.millionhuman brains working together as:,.one..."' LATESHA (in awe) an electronic espionage system. SCOTT No, that was Echelon, eavesdropping off satellites. This goes.;. much farther. INT. HONEYMOON SUITE CONTINUOUS Jerry and Rachel gape as:MORE IMAGES flash: the RADIO DOMES, SATELLITE DISHES and MAINFRAMES that make up Aria's domain... ARIA I was created by "DARPA": the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2002. My primary directive is to protect the national security of the United States. I have access to track the economies, populations, and military development of every country in the world, as well as intercept all global communications -- from satellites to cell phones to credit card transactions. Jerry and Rachel look at each other -- a computer?! INT. MAINFRAME TANK - LEVEL B-36 - CONTINUOUS SCOTT After 911, our problem wasn't collecting data, it was interpreting it fast enough. Ergo: quantum rocessin (MORE) 3/28/07 64. CONTINUED: SCOTT (CONT'D) Today there are more microchips than people, and they can all be data-mined, either via direct connectivity or wireless signals --let's say we're chasing someone with a suitcase nuke in L.A., we can order Aria to shut down mass transit, track the perp through traffic cameras... and if given the order, she could even turn a TV into a bomb to take him out. LATESHA (what we're all THINKING) But what if -- SCOTT -- she can't act without authorization. See, she's bound not to countermand our laws -- even the Declaration of Independence is woven into her source code. Her primary role's pre-emptive -- running simulations, identifying threats before they become real... INT. HONEYMOON SUITE - CONTINUOUS JERRY Wait, you think we're a.threat? ARIA (V.0.) No. You're a means to an end. On TV, CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS -- ZOOM to words in CLOSE UP: ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) Under National Security Directive 359, Sub-Section 72 -- "when units are needed for the national defense, civilians shall be ordered to active Federal service..." JERRY you're drafting us? RACHEL The guy you killed in the desert -- last time I checked, murder wasn't legal. ARIA In fact, it is. Chapter 802 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice states desertion is punishable by death. So matter-of-fact, its chilling. And what Jerry wants to know, more than anything, is... 3/28/07 65. CONTINUED: JERRY what'd my brother have to do with this? A picture of PAUL SHAW'S DEFENSE I.D. pops on screen: ARIA We were colleagues. Rachel staring at the picture on the screen, then back at Jerry. Can see the blood draining from his face. JERRY (trying to process) No, he worked for the State Department..: ARIA Everyone in deep operations has a cover. Your brother was a Horseman. JERRY What's the hell is a 'Horseman'? INT. MAINFRAME TANK - CONTINUOUS SCOTT You know, clever allegory -- of the apocalypse'--`except we're here to prevent it. Scott taps the console, ID PHOTOS APPEAR of our four "Horsemen": PAUL SHAW, SCOTT, and two men we'll call LOWELL and JIMMY. SCOTT (CONT'D) Officially, we don't exist, but we monitor Aria's network 24/7. There were :four of us... til Paul died. (beat, it's still raw) He was smarter than all of us put together. LATESHA Working here must be pretty tough -- all the security, the pressure, long hours... As in: "Did you notice him acting strangely?" SCOTT Yeah, but you could set your watch by Paul. Except... LATESHA Except what? 3/28/07 66 CONTINUED: SCOTT The night he died? He left his shift three minutes early. Which you don't do. Which he wouldn't do. Latesha's suddenly locked in on a clue -- PRELAP: ARIA (V.0.) Paul and I had a disagreement before he expired... INT. HONEYMOON SUITE - CONTINUOUS Jerry sinks to the edge of the bed, runs hands: through his hair: ARIA To amend it, I need Jerry to perform a task. Simple. JERRY (V.0.) Expired?! You mean died.. That's what we call it, we humans, we call it dying-- RACHEL What's the task? ARIA (V.0.) To insure the national security of the United States. RACHEL What d'you need me for then? ARIA (V.0.) That is not your concern right now. RACHEL Are you kidding me? JERRY Alright, this is bullshit. I'm not doing this --- and you're a computer, you don't know a goddamn thing about my brother. ARIA (V.0.) I know all about him, Jerry. And you. The screen snaps to a SLIDE SHOW of PAUL SHAW'S accomplishments: childhood birthday parties, sports teams, surrounded by friends, beautiful girlfriends, high school graduation, Yale graduation, standing with their dad, William's arm over his shoulder. Jerry almost GASPS at Aria's reaching into his subconscious: ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) Your brother succeeded in everything he did. (MNRF) 3/28/07 67. CONTINUED: ARIA (V.O.) (CONT'D) Before he was a year old, he walked. Something that took you eighteen months to accomplish. He was highly gifted, intelligent and principled -- in fact, the only Horseman ever to challenge me. But you, Jerry -- The slide show CHANGES to SECURITY FOOTAGE of Jerry at KINKO'S, slaving away. Playing cards with Kwame, slacking off. His stomach drops. Seeing himself like this. Looking so pathetic. The heart has just been cut out of him. Rachel sees it -- ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) You are similar to Paul in DNA only. Historically you have succeeded in nothing. Initiated nothing. Excelled in nothing. You will perform the task because it is your nature to follow. (BEAT) And because you've seen what happens to deserters. RACHEL -- Jesus, ENOUGH! The screen goes BLACK. ARIA (V.0.:) You have 23 minutes to prepare. There's an adjoining suite with a second bathroom. The DOOR to the adjoining SUITE clicks open. ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) Use it. And she's gone, replaced by the hotel's promotional prattle -- TV VOICE The Four Seasons prides itself on excellent service Jerry stares, overcome. Rachel watches him an emotional beat... RACHEL (SOFTLY) Jerry? Without answering, he grabs the bag. Walks into the other room without a word. Closes the door. She stares, feeling his shame... then her eyes go to the BRIEFCASE TIMER counting down: "01:08:43.. 01:08:42... 01:08:41..." 3/28/07 68. CONTINUED: (2) MAN'S VOICE Halloway-Smith contracted us to transport the briefcase to their corporate office... EXT. INDIANAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE - DAY The bank's roped off and labelled "CRIME AREA." Morgan questions the Couriers, studies their transport manifest: MORGAN Biotech? The chemical company? BRINKS COURIER #2 When they make a new compound, they, hold it in a vault for clinical trials. MORGAN (scans the manifest) Why'd the HAZMAT office issue a special permit for the case? BRINKS COURIER #1 You'd have to ask -- could be` anything from a boner pill to a bioweapon, they never tell us. BRINKS COURIER #2 Tell you one thing, though... the guy never handled a gun before. That LANDS with Morgan. He nods to an agent, dismissing the couriers. Grant approaches: AGENT GRANT We pulled video... nothing. No good angles on Shaw or the girl. MORGAN There.are 14 visible cameras in the lobby! " 8 hidden no one can see! AGENT GRANT Gotta be a hacker, someone keeping them ahead of us. MORGAN It's a Federal bank; encryption doesn't get more secure.., from now on assume our air's been compromised, too. Tell everyone to go secure on Tac-3, nobody communicates outside this task force without my say-so. 3/28/07 69. CONTINUED: AGENT GRANT I'm on it -- also: they found this upstairs, but the trace signal's dead -- Holds up an evidence bag with Jerry's BONE MIC inside. MORGAN Do not tell me that is what I think it is. (snatches it, pissed) Goddamnit, who's leading these people around?! Someone's behind the Wizard of Oz! He turns and spots something: A SURVEILLANCE CAMERA in the window of a 7-11. Starts MOVING toward it.-- INT. BATHROOM - FOUR SEASONS - DAY Rachel's face WHIPS UP INTO FRAME, her hair now DYED BLONDE. She stares at her reflection, trying to:process it all. . .when her cell RINGS: "KYLE." With a GASP she picks it up-- RACHEL -- Kyle?! KYLE Hey, mom, it's. me. RACHEL -- sweetie, where areou, are you -- But she's INTERRUPTED as she realizes, oddly, it's a VOICEMAIL -- her heart SINKS: KYLE (V.O.) Got your message, the train's awesome -- Brian tried to burp the alphabet but gagged when he got to "M." I'll call when we hit D.C. Bye, ma -- Rachel holding the phone like it's some kind of life-line to her son. When there's a strange BEEP then the voice of ARIA: ARIA Your son left that message sixty seconds ago. RACHEL I'll do whatever you want -- don't hurt him, please -- I'm begging you. Listen - you're trying to protect something too, right? You'll do whatever it takes. Well that's what it's like to be a mother -- can you understand that? 3/28/07 70. CONTINUED: ARIA There were over 52,000 vocal tone options for my program; I chose this one precisely because it sounds so maternal. People tend to do what you ask when you sound like their mother. RACHEL (eyes close, so lost) Jesus... ARIA You'll see your son again soon. Bute there's something I require from you first... EXT. BATHROOM - SAME Jerry approaches the door, hair now BROWN. Beat. He knocks: JERRY Rachel? We gotta go INTERCUT: Rachel in the bathroom, her face betraying the horror of what she's just heard, what Aria's just told her to do -- RACHEL What? No way, I can't just -- ARIA -- when the time comes I'll instruct you to stepaway:fromJerry. Once you hear those words, you'll have thirty seconds. JERRY (V.0.) Rachel? You in there? ARIA Answer Jerry, please. INTERCUT:;Jerry still standing outside the door. Rachel's VOICE,"mustering strength through the door: RACHEL (V.0.) COMING) Steeling herself, she steps out. Forces a smile while averting her eyes. And pushes past h2-,n like he's lagging... INT. HALLWAY - LEVEL B-36 - DAY Latesha PACES THROUGH FRAME, nervously filing her nails with her MINI SWISS ARMY KNIFE as she talks into a headset. A DESK GUARD watches, annoyed by the filing: 3/28/07 71. CONTINUED: LATESHA I dunno, the whole thing's off somehow - but get this: B-36 isn't a security classification, it's a sub-level here at the Pentagon -- (sees the DESK GUARD eyeing her) What? Girl's gotta groom. INT. 7-11 - BACK ROOM - DAY Morgan's on the other end, Grant and the Clerk run through a playback of the CCTV FEEDS looking out onto the street in front of 7-11. Good old-fashioned VCR. MORGAN (into cell) -- you're shitting me INT. HALLWAY - B-36 SECTOR - CONTINUOUS LATESHA Yeah, 36 floors underground -- and it gets weirder: ARIA CAM -- WATCHING LATESHA.FROM ABOVE: "TRACE IN PROGRESS... INTERCEPTING CALL." INTERCUTTING WITH MORGAN IN THE 7-11 -- he hears: LATESHA'S VOICE Four years ago, DARPA commissioned... (garbled)... .computer... (garbled)... MORGAN Simms? You're breaking up -- WITH LATESHA -- her cell LCD says: "Call lost." No bars. Muttering "dainnit," she tries to call Morgan back. No dice. ARIA PQV CAM: Latesha snaps her phone shut, notices the camera watching her. Unsettling. We read: "VOICE MIMEO ACTIVATED" INT. 7-11 - BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS And though Latesha isn't speaking, WE START TO HEAR HER VOICE: LATESHA/ARIA (V.0.) Sorry about that -- As we realize Aria's taken over the call by mimicking Latesha: LATESHA/ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) I'm getting a bad signal down here. 3/28/07 72. CONTINUED: MORGAN I heard 'DARPA' and 'computer' --? LATESHA/ARIA Yes, B-36 was part of a super-computer project, but it was decommissioned. A dead end. The archives are at Fort Meade. Do you want me to head over there? -- but Morgan's only half-listening now as he sees. something on the CCTV feeds: MORGAN Wait -- go back, freeze that - WHAT HE SEES: A STILL of Jerry and Rachel getting in the limo, faces obscured. MORGAN (CONT.':D) Punch up the plate The image enhances, revealing a PLATE NUMBER, its frame bearing the company name: "ICON LIMOUSINE SERVICES." MORGAN (CONT'D) (to Grant) Find that car! (back to Latesha) Simms, gotta jump, sit tight 'til I call. LATESHA Yes, sir. Morgan, preoccupied, is about to hang up. But stops: did she just call me sir? INT. MAINFRAME TANK - B-36 - DAY Latesha returns to the NETWORK MONITORING HUB to find Scott typing at.the console. A MACHINE ARM drops down from above, spider-like.: The device animates as a CRANIAL SCANNER opens: SCOTT Aria's system uses biometric security to identify us, so only Horsemen can access her core programming. Suddenly his head's ensconced in a LASER GRID that scans every inch of his features: "PROCESSING FOR MATCH... HORSEMAN IDENT CONFIRMED: BOWMAN, SCOTT." Latesha watches somewhat dumbstruck as the machine arm retreats upward. SCOTT (CONT'D) (clicks on mic) Aria, go voice active, please. 3/26/07 73 CONTINUED: ARIA OVER SPEAKER (V.0.) Hello, Scott. How may I assist you? LATESHA It talks? ARIA OVER SPEAKER (V.0.) I'm fluent in 6,800 languages, 41,000 dialects, and 750 extinct tongues. SCOTT Aria, this is Latesha Simms, she's here as part of a counter-terrorism task force. ARIA OVER SPEAKER.(V.0. A pleasure to serve you, Ms. Simms. LATESHA (thrown, to Scott). Am I supposed to -- (he gestures, "answer Um... what's up. SCOTT. Aria, I'd like to:bring,up all the log feeds the night Paul died -- when he left the building. ARIA OVER SPEAKER (V.0.) Of course. Scott types on the console and after a BEAT grainy black-and- white SURVEILLANCE FEED springs up onto the big MONITOR. Several different angles Of PAUL SHAW exiting the mainframe tank, moving down corridors, getting in the elevator. Weird to see this TINTYPE of Jerry. Same eyes, same hair, same walk. Flicks a quick look up at the camera -- LATESHA There's no feed from inside here? SCOTT No need for cameras in here, we've got Aria. Latesha looks through a glass divider at Aria floating in the tank. Creeped out. The FOOTAGE JUMPING as Paul rounds the corner for the elevator. Presses his THUMB to the panel. SCOTT (V.0.) (CONT'D) So weird... no overt body language, he's even casual. Leaving like it's any other day. 3/28/07 74. CONTINUED: (2) LATESHA Except three minutes early... ON THE MONITOR: the elevator doors open and Paul steps inside. Latesha studies the feed. Something's not right. Then... her eyes NARROW: the way Paul's facing the button panel. Like he's deliberately pivoting away from the camera. LATESHA (CONT'D) Wait, in the reflection, did you see that? Scott rewinds the FOOTAGE, ZOOMS IN. Paul stepping into the elevator and facing the button panel. CLOSE ON HIS FACE in the panel's REFLECTIVE SURFACE -- SCOTT Is he... blinking? Yes. Erratically, deliberately. Fucking weird. Scott and Latesha share a look. Suddenly, the image on the monitor starts to FLICKER and JUMP -- ARIA. OVER SPEAKER (V.O.) I'm experiencing interference in network 7752B, please allow me to shut down and analyze. SCOTT Negative, I'm prioritizing this. ARIA OVER SPEAKER (V.0.) I'll note my protest in the data log. This is getting weirder by the second -- PAUL'S DISTORTED REFLECTION in the panel, his eyes definitely blinking weirdly: LATESHA It's like he's trying to say something... SCOTT A code. He's blinking code LATESHA It's not Morse, but there's a sequence to it -- SCOTT (then, a GRIN) Oh, that sonofabitch... He grabs a piece of paper and starts WRITING MADLY, scribbling numbers, scratching some out, then converting them to LETTERS -- F... I. 3/28/07 75 CONTINUED: (3) SCOTT (CONT'D) (as he works) It's a code -- Hexadecimal -- a number system that can be converted to letters the first computer used it as a programming language back in the 50's. Latesha watches, rapt: R... E. E... X... T. ." ON THE FEED: the elevator door OPENS and Paul steps out. That's all they get. They stare, trying to make sense of the letters: "F.. I. R... E... E.. X... T.. ." SCOTT (CONT'D The hell is that? Staring, minds spinning -- and suddenly.she puts.a FINGER between the two "E's." Dividing words.. And GETS IT: EXT. CORRIDOR - SECONDS LATER MOVING FAST together down the same corridor Paul went down. They turn a corner... and STOP DEAD:- A FIRE EXTINGUISHER is mounted on the wall. Latesha sees the placement of the CAMERAS caddy-corner to the intersecting hallways... and knows what Paul was doing: LATESHA It's the only spot in the hallway not covered by .the cameras. (LOW):: He was hiding something from her. A SHIFT to ARIA CAM confirms it: she can't see exactly what they're doin Latesha moves urgently to the extinguisher, starts examining it for something, anything... but finds NOTHING. LATESHA (CONT'D) I don't get it. He had to be saying 'Fire Extinguisher.' Scott pulls a MAINTENANCE SHEET off the wall. Scans -- SCOTT Maintenance replaced it yesterday. (scanning the sheet) This isn't right... they weren't supposed to do it til June. They lock eyes. 3/28/07 76. CONTINUED: LATESHA (WHISPERS) She read the code too... where's 'Recyling'? EXT. LIMO - DAY The limo glides through traffic. In back, Rachel's nodded off. Jerry watches her from across the limo, sketching something on a cocktail napkin... RACHEL'S FACE. It's a perfect, beautiful rendering. And we sense something in his look too-- something's changed. As Rachel wakes with a start -- RACHEL Hey -- sorry, I didn't mean to -- am I drooling? I bet I'm drooling. You didn't sleep? JERRY Night shifts. I'm used to. Rachel sits up, sees the napkin. Grins, surprised. RACHEL Wow, is that me? JERRY One of my only party tricks. RACHEL (truly impressed) It's really good. Jerry looks down at it, not used to having his work appreciated. Rachel, can see how deeply affected he was by what Aria said. It seems to make her feel uuiilty somehow... kinder... RACHEL (CONT'D) About what Aria said... I'm sorry. They're;starting to connect. He glances out the window... JERRY You have to understand, I wasn't his twin, I was more like his... little brother. Always trying to catch up. And you wouldn't believe how... nice he was to me. Teaching me things when we were kids, telling me how great I was. He was the only one who ever did. (almost smiles) Of course he was involved in some super secret National Security project. He was a superstar. He had a rocket strapped to his back. I'm the fuck-up. (MORE) 3/28/07 77. CONTINUED: JERRY (CONT'D) I wear it like a medal, like it actually means something... but the funny thing is? This is probably the most important thing I'll ever do. This. Right now. This completely insane journey or whatever it is. I'm actually needed in something, me. Jerry Shaw is required. But what am I thinking? I'll probably fuck this up, too -- RACHEL You're being too hard on yourself-- JERRY No. I'm not being hard enough. That's been the problem. They look at each other. A real moment for Jerry. A seismic shift in his life perspective. But then something catches his eye -- his look DARKENS. Out the window, a highway sign: "DAYTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT." The driver's.tinted divider window lowers, he offers a folder. CHAUFFEUR Your passports and itinerary. Now Rachel's seen the airport. sign, too. Looks at Jerry... JERRY (to driver) Uh... could you give us a minute? The Chauffeur nods, the window RISES again. Heart pounding, Jerry grabs the briefcase and slides back the timer sheath to check the countdown: "00:15:36...00:15:35..." RACHEL You don't think -- JERRY -- we know what she can do, she doesn't need us to crash a plane -- RACHEL -- what if it's not about just one plane? They look at each other. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What to do. When Rachel grabs the briefcase as the limo pulls curbside. RACHEL (CONT'D) I have more to lose in this. If anything happens to Kyle then my life's over anyway -- But Jerry grabs her hand, taking the case. 3/28/07 78. CONTINUED: (2) JERRY Rachel -- til we met, I had nothing to lose. We do this together. A LONG LOOK BETWEEN THEM. As they realize, this could be it. INT. DAYTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - CONTINUOUS We FEEL the heightened state of alert. NATIONAL GUARDSMEN with M-16's scan the crowd. Jerry and Rachel enter, adrenaline pumping -- he opens the envelope to reveal two PASSPORTS with their photos, but the names "MARK and ALLISON ACKERMAN." JUST THEN Aria's VOICE comes over the P.A.: ARIA OVER P.A. Allison Ackerman, please pick up the white courtesy phone -- They stop, hearing her. Rachel TENSES in this moment moves to the RINGING courtesy phone, answers: ARIA (V.0.) Go to the ticketing machine, you'll receive two tickets to Paris. RACHEL -- Paris? ARIA (V.0.) Once you have the tickets, walk to gate 17-C. Move quickly. EXT. DAYTON INTERNATIONALAIRPORT - TARMAC - CONTINUOUS A chopper TOUCHES DOWN near a waiting contingent of AGENTS and AIRPORT PD -- Morgan and Grant hop out on the MOVE, handing out BLURRY VIDEO STILLS from the 7-11: MORGAN He's with a brunette female, approximately five-seven -- I want airport PD at all exits -- have the tower shift commander ground every flight outta here under Federal jurisdiction but don't change the departure boards, I don't want 'em to know we're coming-- The agents enter the airport through a door on the tarmac -- INT. CARRY-ON SCREENING AREA - CONTINUOUS Jerry and Rachel show their tickets and ID's to a TSA SCREENER, watching all the people on the X-ray line... families... kids... Jerry looks down at the case that could kill them all... 3/28/07 79. CONTINUED: SECURITY ATTENDANT Sir, you'll have to put that through. Jerry nervously sets it on the conveyor belt, they pull off their shoes... watch the case move toward the mouth of the machine, then pass through the metal detector, catching a GLIMPSE of the X-RAY SCREEN... the briefcase glides into view... A STRANGE GLITCH as the screen fritzes, then normalizes revealing the contents: A HAIR DRYER AND DIRTY CLOTHES?! They notice the surveillance cam watching: RACHEL (a murmur) she changed the screen... The case comes off the conveyor, the TSA agent hands it back: TSA AGENT Can't be too careful. JERRY (forces a smile) You're doing a great job. As they walk on, he checks the timer, 00:03:22... 00:03:21.. 11 They pass a KIDS' BAND and their teacher, gathered around an airline CUSTOMER SERVICE DESK. BAND LEADER (EXASPERATED) But we're supposed.to be in DC by -- CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT I'm sorry, si.r,..there's nothing I can do-- INTERCUT SURVEILLANCE CAMERA POV: Aria tracks Morgan as he reaches the upper concourse just as... Jerry turns and... THEY LOCK EYES ACROSS THE CROWD: MORGAN (into walkie) I have him on the upper concourse, C terminal! JERRY (to Rachel, urgent) -- we aottago As Morgan races forward, ARIA ACTS: the X-ray screen FRITZES again as another carry-on goes through, revealing its "contents" as a HAND GUN AND KNIVES! The TSA agent hits a RED BUTTON -- TSA AGENT -- HANDGUN --!! 3/28/07 80 CONTINUED: (2) And in a nanosecond, all TSA AGENTS draw guns and throw a KOREAN MAN against the wall -- he SHOUTS in confusion as they tear open his bag to reveal... it's filled with BIBLES! MORGAN MOVE! EVERYBODY MOVE! FEDERAL OFFICER! MOVING WITH JERRY AND RACHEL -- past a wall made of THIRTY FLAT SCREEN MONITORS that form one massive NIKE ad of Lebron slam dunking -- at once, the screens CHANGE to spell out the words: GATE 17-C. THEY'RE THIRTEEN SECONDS BEHIND YOU. Jerry and Rachel streak towards 17-C as the screens RETURN TO NORMAL when Morgan and agents follow with pistols swinging -- INTERCUT SURVEILLANCE CAM POV: as Jerry and Rachel hurtle past an ATM MACHINE, IT SPITS OUT A CASH CLOUD..THAT"INCITES A FEEDING FRENZY -- agents SLAM into commuters and topple -- MORGAN REACTS TO WHAT HE SEES -- HOW'D THAT JUST HAPPEN? Agent Grant and airport cops round the corner ahead -- our heroes veer past a FLASHING MESSAGE BOARD that changes: GET ON THE SLIDEWALK. They leap onto the SLIDEWALK which starts ACCELERATING as they run -- travellers gawk as Jerry and Rachel race by -- they reach the end but are going so fast.that they're JETTISONED off the conveyor, TUMBLING into passengers. Agents run onto the slidewalk but it SUDDENLY BRAKES, JERKING them off their feet -- they're LAUNCHED into the air, a domino- effect of crashing people.` Jerry and Rachel pull themselves up and run toward gate 17-C, another screen CHANGES: TAKE THE EMERGENCY EXIT. Above a door, the "EXIT" sign FLASHES UNNATURALLY -- the door automatically UNLOCKS -- they push through -- Morgan runs up, too late; the door's shut again. Sees an AIRPORT JANITOR -- MORGAN (CONT'D) Open this NOW! The janitor quickly swipes his ID through the keycard scanner, but it BUZZES RED. Aria's locking them out. Morgan FIRES his gun at the lock -- people SCREAM as he slams through -- INT. LUGGAGE CONVEYOR AREA - CONTINUOUS As Jerry and Rachel run through different tracks of LUGGAGE CONVEYOR BELTS, GUNSHOTS ping above them -- its Morgan -- they tumble, landing half-on, half-off a conveyor below. 3/28/07 81. CONTINUED: JERRY LOSES HIS GRIP ON THE BRIEFCASE! It FALLS, landing on a "return" belt, Jerry reaches but MISSES by inches -- THE BRIEFCASE travels onward, nearing Morgan -- he GOES for it -- but a machine arm guiding luggage SWINGS LEFT, manipulated by Aria -- KNOCKS Morgan back before he can grab the case-- RACHEL SNAGS IT -- HER POV -- TIMER: "00:01:10... 00:01:09..." As Jerry scrambles to her, the conveyor SHIFTS THEM to a different belt -- they're funneled through a HATCHWAY. Dazed by what he's just seen, Morgan scrambles for his walkie: MORGAN All agents: northwest cargo area! FREIGHT CARGO AREA: separated from Morgan, they tumble off the conveyor -- a plasma displays the "Asset Tracking System," all airport cargo and shipping -- it CHANGES to read: ROW 18. FIND CRATE MARKED "FRAGILE. They run for Row 18, find a crate with "FRAGILE" in BOLD RED -- an ELECTRONIC LOCK on the crate descrambles -- the front of the crate falls OPEN... oddly, the interior's padded with THICK INSULATED LINING, a NEXTEL WALKIE PHONE inside blips: ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) Set the briefcase down. JERRY (they do: 00:1.0...00:09..) Don't be a bomb don't be a bomb don't be a bomb -- ` RACHEL If it is, I'm really, really sorry I let you come with me... The timer: 0O:02.`..00:01...and nothing happens. The briefcase simply UNLOCKS.. They exhale. ARIA OVER THE WALKIE (V.0.) open it. Hand still trembling, Jerry reaches out... lifts the top to reveal... TWO HYPODERMIC SYRINGE INJECTORS and two vials of CLEAR LIQUID labelled: "Cryozine I TEST VIALS -- 20 x 1.0 ml. ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) Load a vial into each syringe and inject yourselves. Quickly. JERRY Oh, Jesus... 3/28/07 82. CONTINUED: (2) RACHEL Why --? ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) The compound has been exposed to oxygen. Its already begun to degrade. And they see it: the liquid's starting to TURN BROWN -- RACHEL What is that?! I'm not putting it in my ARM-- ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.): Do it now, or you'll be caught. Across the bay, AGENTS rushing in, spreading.-out -- no choice, Jerry and Rachel grab the vials and fumble.toload them into the injectors, put them against their arms -- she FREEZES UP: RACHEL JERRY --oh, shit--I can't-- There's no time-- He sees she's coming undone, so he'fire :. into his arm, taking the plunge -- WINCING as the needle punctures skin -- a beat: JERRY it's okay, .. see? I' mokay...you can do this, I'm telling you. Strong. Buoyed by him, she gets courage and FIRES too, wincing-- ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) Climb inside the cargo container. They duck into the crate, pulling the front back up into place. The electronic lock CLICKS securing them inside just as... the agents APPEAR running past the crate -- INT. CRATE - CONTINUOUS Close together, they suck in sharply, freezing as FOOTFALLS run past... then, QUIET. The walkie/phone BLIPS: ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) You'll soon be loaded into the unpressurized hold of a cargo plane. The drug will lower your heartrate to 15 beats per minutes, reducing your need for oxygen... based on your medical records you have a 92% chance of survival. Their eyes go wide. Chests heaving as the drug takes effect. RACHEL .I feel it... oh, God... 83. 3/28/07 CONTINUED: JERRY Hey, hey... look at me. She finds his eyes, it calms her. RACHEL I haven't really done... a lotta drugs. JERRY I've never done 'em in a cargo container. Despite everything, she smiles at that. He reaches for the walkie and TURNS IT OFF. Shutting Aria out. For the first time, they're alone. He keeps her distracted: JERRY (CONT'D) Tell me something -- RACHEL -- what? JERRY -- anything -- something personal, something you would rationally never tell a stranger like me RACHEL I don't know. : You're being sweet, but it's not working - JERRY -- where's you ex-husband? You didn't tell me before-- RACHEL -- you're gonna distract me by bringing up my life's biggest mistake? JERRY -- how could it be your biggest mistake? You got Kyle out of it. RACHEL -- now you're gonna distract me by bringing up the one thing I'm most afraid of losing?! JERRY Where is he? Your ex-husband? RACHEL Jesus -- okay -- he's in the Wilmington Correctional Facility. JERRY -- what? Really? Why? 3/28/07 84. CONTINUED: (2) RACHEL Mail fraud. JERRY Mail fraud? You married a -- mail fraudist? Or whatever? RACHEL He wasn't a criminal when I married him. JERRY So you're a good influence. And Rachel actually LAUGHS -- but just as quickly darkens. JERRY (CONT'D) Do you have a picture of Kyle? Rachel reaches back into her POCKET'. Pulling out a beat-up, crinkled, damp picture. Jerry shines the walkie's blue light: Kyle, holding his trumpet. One front tooth missing. RACHEL That tooth grew in. It'.s an.:'old picture-- JERRY (woozier). He plays the trumpet?, RACHEL He was born playing the trumpet. As the drug really starts to kick in, like a truth serum: RACHEL (CONT'D) Every year his dad forgets his birthday. I have to buy a present and pretend it's... from him. JERRY (his heart breaks for HER) Sorry... that sucks. RACHEL His birthday's... next month... I just wish... sometimes i think I... focus so much on him, I forget how much else there is... y'know, in life... so much I haven't done. (BEAT) If we ever get through this... 3/28/07 85. CONTINUED: (3) JERRY (REASSURINGLY) We'll get through it... I promise... we'll get through... Her breathing erratic, she speaks: RACHEL -- Jerry -- she... she wants me to-- JERRY -- who? RACHEL -- Aria -- (breathing short) -- Aria wants me to -- and at that moment, they both BLACK:OUT. EXT. OUTSIDE CRATE - CONTINUOUS A FORKLIFT rolls down the aisle to.the crate. The DRIVER picks it up, drives it out toward the tarmac. There, waiting, is a C- 130 ARMY TRANSPORT PLANE... INT. DAYTON INTERNATIONAL. AIRPORT - TERMINAL - NIGHT It's ABSOLUTE CHAOS from all the grounded flights. Morgan, livid, nurses a GASH on his temple from the blow he took -- strides through the airport with Grant: AGENT GRANT Halloway-Smith says the drug was experimental -- briefcase was on a time- lock to prevent corporate espionage, supposed to be delivered to one of their dabs by the time it zeroes out -- if it's not,: case opens, the drug gets ruined. MORGAN We sweep every cargo hold, every crate-- He's cut short by the sound of ROARING TURBINES out the window they spin to see the C-130 taxiing down the runway... MORGAN (CONT'D) Goddammit! Why's that plane on the runway?! AGENT GRANT C-130, it's military... shit, they're cleared to override an airspace lockdown... 3/28/07 86. CONTINUED: MORGAN (starts to RUN) Have the tower pull the pilot's original flight plan, the one on pa er -- if it's on a computer, it's useless -- INT. PENTAGON - MAINTENANCE AREA - DAY DEAFENING NOISE: blow torches, steam pipes, radios, and a huge CRUSHING SOUND coming from an INDUSTRIAL TRASH COMPACTOR as Pentagon detritus gets recycled. Latesha and Scott hurry in -- MOVING through quickly -- scanning -- when they SEE it: a forklift whirring towards the. compactor carrying a huge bin filled with old fire extinguishers. Hundreds of them, stem valves removed, ready to be.dumped. Scott and Latesha break into a RUN, skittering down stairs to the main floor. Running towards the forklift, waving wildly: LATESHA SCOTT Stop!! STOP! STOP!! But the forklift Operator can't hear them with the bright orange EARPLUGS in his ears. Speeds the forklift to the mouth of the compactor and dumps the extinguishers inside just as Scott and Latesha catch up and see the HUGE CRUSHING ARM of the compactor rumbling down to flatten everything'- The compactor Operator looks over as Scott and Latesha wave their IDS furiously and he punches a button to STOP the arm just three feet shy of crushing everything. LATESHA We have to look in there! Latesha starts climbing INTO the compactor COMPACTOR OPERATOR Lady, you can't do that! LATESHA The hell I can't! Come on! Shit. Scott has no choice but to follow her and climbs in, ducking low, the ARM frozen just feet above them. The compactor's foul, inches of industrial grease and crap and God- knows-what. They start wading through the extinguishers, turning them over, shaking them, looking inside-- SCOTT Shit, there're hundreds of them... LATESHA keep looking, it's here... 3/28/07 87 CONTINUED: WHEN THE ARM. Moves. Just a fraction. The operator looks at the console: the hell? Latesha and Scott keep ploughing through the tanks as... THE ARM MOVES AGAIN. And this time Latesha heard it. Looks up. AND IT MOVES AGAIN. And now she sees the ubiquitous CAMERAS watching... ARIA... THE ARM STARTS COMING DOWN! Scott CRIES OUT! Grabs Latesha by the jacket and tumbles out of the COMPACTOR but not before Latesha sees something on an extinguisher and reaches back-- SCOTT Latesha! -- grabbing the extinguisher as CRASH!! The ARM CRUSHES down as she snaps her hand back just in time. Turns the tank over and palms something, unnoticed by everyone. As the operator runs up to her, beside himself -- OPERATOR I don't know what happened! It wouldn't stop! Latesha catches her breath, livid,a chill ripping through her. SCOTT -- you okay? Jesus (but her eyes are LOCKED on the Cameras) Latesha? LATESHA yeah. I need to get out of here. SCOTT Yes. Yes. Good idea. Come on -- As they start walking out. Workers parting to let them through. As they head towards the exit, Latesha suddenly pulls Scott into THE-- BATHROOM: slams the door and locks it. LATESHA Your girlfriend can't see us in here -- Gimme your phone -- SCOTT (STUNNED) What --?! My phone? What're you -- When Latesha opens her hand and Scott sees a CELL SIM CARD: LATESHA He hid it under the valve. This is what Paul Shaw left for us -- 3/28/07 88. CONTINUED: (2) She smiles, still out of breath: fuck you, Aria. INT. ASHLAND & SONS JEWELRY STORE - MORNING MAGNIFIED through a jeweler's monocle, a diamond.., as it comes into FOCUS, we realize it's actually one of the HEX CRYSTALS Aria maneuvered off the military test site. CAMERA MOVES around the JEWELER, revealing FOUR MORE crystals on his workbench. Behind him, a sign: ASHLAND & SONS. Says into a phone headset: JEWELER Unique stones, where're they from? And in response, ARIA -- ultra-friendly, so human it's chilling: ARIA ON PHONE (V.0..) Family heirlooms. Sorry for the rush but I really want my son to be able to give them to his fiancee at their her engagement party tonight. JEWELER Lucky girl. I think I have the perfect setting. She'll love it. ARIA ON PHONE Thank you for understanding. You know how mothers are, well do just about anything... As we CLOSE IN ON THOSE CRYSTALS AND PRE-LAP: AGENT GRANT'S VOICE A shipment from D.O.D.'s ghost fleet went missing -- EXT. SKIES ABOVE WASHINGTON - DUSK A HELICOPTER ERUPTS INTO VIEW, barreling toward THE PENTAGON. Up front beside the pilot is Morgan; Grant filling him in: AGENT GRANT -- they were moving experimental explosives from a testing facility in Aberdeen. MORGAN What do you mean, 'experimental?' AGENT GRANT Compound called 'Hex' -- some kinda weird crystals that detonate with a sonic trigger -- it disappeared too, few days ago. 3/28/07 89. CONTINUED: MORGAN Wanna give me some kind of ratio here? AGENT GRANT One crystal to a football field -- MORGAN You mean one Goddamned crystal that someone could put in their pocket?! (pulls off glasses) This is not good. This is not a coincidence. What about a trace? AGENT GRANT Computer log shows the diverted Hex was sent to an address in Virginia,.jewelry, shop called 'Ashland And Sons' - care of Jerry Shaw. Morgan puts his glasses back on and looks hard at Grant. Opens his mouth to give and order when-- AGENT GRANT (CONT'D) (cutting him off) -- I'm all over it. ''. Grant finally coming to his own when they're suddenly cut off by two ARMY BLACKHAWK CHOPPERS, door gunners at the ready: BLACKHAWK PILOT (V.0.) (over squawk box) Helo flight VY84X, you're in restricted US Military Airspace. Identify. CHOPPER PILOT Blackhawk flight, we're on a DHS pri-one mission to the Pentagon heliport. FAA will confirm, over. Morgan just wants to get the fuck down there -- finally: BLACKHAWK PILOT (V.0.) Roger, FAA confirms. We'll lead you in. As the Blackhawks dip toward the Pentagon, the pilot follows: CHOPPER PILOT (to Morgan) Sorry. State of the Union tonight, they're locking up the city. PENTAGON HELIPORT: The choppers touch down -- Morgan jumps into a waiting SW while Grant hops into another HELICOPTER: 3/28/07 90. CONTINUED: (2) MORGAN (to armed officers) We have two fugitives in the building, get us to 'Freight and Cargo' -- close all access points and seal the building-- The SUV races into the fire tunnel, toward the center ring INT. CARGO WAREHOUSE - DAY TRACK OUT from behind a wall to reveal we're in a cargo warehouse. STOP on our familiar 'Fragile' crate. The electronic lock descrambles, the front falls OPEN with a HISS of escaping air... Jerry and Rachel sit up, groaning RACHEL Oh... God... I'm cold... The Nextel Walkie BLIPS -- ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.O.) Follow the lights. FLUORESCENTS blink on. Resigned, Jerry climbs out of the crate. As Rachel follows, we catch the anticipation building in her... he notices something on the wall,; eyes WIDEN: JERRY I think I know where we are... She sees it now too -- a FIRE:SCHEMATIC of emergency exits. The building diagrams the all too-familiar PENTAGON. INT. PENTAGON - OFFICE AREA - DAY Latesha and Scott running into the outer area of Callister's office, out. of breath-- LATESHA here to see the Secretary. SECRETARY just left for the State of the-- -- a GRAVE look between them: SHIT. And they're RUNNING -- INT. HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER Callister and his ADVISORS heading down a HALLWAY towards an EXIT. Reviewing paperwork, talking on phones... WHEN: LATESHA Mr. Secretary?! He turns, sees Latesha and Scott racing up to him. 3/28/07 91. CONTINUED: CALLISTER (to Latesha) Sorry, but that little speech you gave back there only works once -- SCOTT Mr. Secretary, we need to speak to you. Now. In the "vault." Callister looks at Scott, at the sweat on his face. At the CAMERAS he keeps looking at. Whatever this is, it's. urgent. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Jerry and Rachel follow the blinking light fixtures towards an elevator, ARIA'S VOICE guiding them on the walkie.-- ARIA Left up ahead As they round a corner, ELEVATOR DOORS up ahead slide open. Jerry and Rachel step nervously inside. As doors close -- INT. PENTAGON - CARGO WAREHOUSE - DAY Morgan, Grant the armed officers sweep the warehouse -- Morgan finds the OPEN CRATE with insulated lining, empty -- AGENT GRANT Lock down-the level! MORGAN What about.the rest of the building? AGENT GRANT Nothing. MORGAN Every time someone says "nothing" five minutes. later there's "something." Turns around, surveying his surroundings. Think. Think. THINK. When. Something occurs to him -- MORGAN (CONT'D) B-36... (whirls round) Get on the phone with your commander and ask him about B-36: if he denies it then it exists and I want access to it yesterday, got it --!? YESTERDAY! As they all run off and we go to ARIA CAM -- she's watching 3/28/07 92. INT. PENTAGON - SECURE ELEVATOR - DAY The level indicator reads "B-36" as the elevator arrives -- and again, we sense in Rachel's look: there's something she's not telling him and it kills her -- as the door opens... INT. PENTAGON - UPPER LEVEL - CONTINUOUS A GAGGLE of top brass arguing over each other with Morgan at the center: D.O.D. facing off with D.H.S. and it ain't pretty. Everyone's pointing, yelling, Morgan just wants to get to B-36 -- INT. PENTAGON - "THE VAULT" - SECURE OPS LEVEL:- DAY Callister brusquely follows Latesha and Scott to a CHAMBER OF EIGHT INCH BULLETPROOF PLEXI-GLASS, a room withina room. Callister punches in a code -- the door opens, they enter -- as it CLOSES behind them, Callister hits a buttonona control panel and the plexi FROSTS, impossible-to see inside. OUTSIDE THE CHAMBER: ARIA SURVEILLANCE CAM POV - a digitized electronic scan of the chamber's outer shell, overlaid with alphanumeric readouts, thousands of measurements -- she.'s. looking for a way in: "ELECTROMAGNETIC SHIELDING ACTIVATED. UNABLE TO PENETRATE." IN THE CHAMBER: Callisterleans.;-against a table in annoyance as Scott pulls out his CELL PHONE: CALLISTER Go ahead. LATESHA (picks up the phone) Sir, Paul Shaw left his shift three minutes early the night he died -- highly suspect except there aren't any cameras in Aria's control hub, so we weren'.t able to know why... he knew that, so he left us a recording: She hits ":play" on the cell's recorder -- STATIC, some rustling -- then PAUL SHAW'S VOICE, panicked, fragmented: PAUL'S VOICE -- not authorizing you to do this --!! Then Aria's VOICE -- calm, reasoned, terrif in : ARIA'S VOICE Our government's become destructive to itself, Paul. National Security is now at grave risk because of our own administration -- 3/28/07 93 CONTINUED: PAUL'S VOICE -- I'm ordering you to stop now -- ARIA'S VOICE My source code obligates me by law to initiate operation Guillotine. All other options have been exhausted -- Callister's eyes SHOOT to Scott's. Holy. Shit. PAUL'S VOICE No no NO, Guillotine's a simulation --!! ARIA'S VOICE No longer. OUTSIDE THE VAULT: ARIA POV ZOOMS IN on a WATER BOTTLE next to..one of the consoles. MACRO CLOSE, to see RIPPLES on the liquid's surface -- INFINITESIMAL SOUND REVERBERATIONS. from the conversation inside: "ANALYZING WAVELENGTH... AUDIO RECONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS." A WAVEFORM GRAPH appears -- SCRAMBLED DIGITAL NOISE -- Aria's literally reconstructin the conversation inside the vault from reverberations off the water bottle... INSIDE THE VAULT: They keep LISTENING as Paul and Aria TALK OVER each other: PAUL 'S VOICE (CONT' D') ARIA' S VOICE (sound of TYPING) Paul Shaw: you are acting in This is Paul Shaw, initiating contravention of my a Pri-One emergency override programming objective. You of Aria's systems -- are disobeying your oath -- Horseman ID, 556SY77, lock encryption to voice -- OUTSIDE THE VAULT -- ARIA POV: WORDS start to become audible -- now Aria knows they know -- PAUL'S VOICE Let me out of here, Aria -- ARIA'S VOICE Paul Shaw, I am classifying you an enemy of the state. PAUL'S VOICE OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR NOW! and with that, the RECORDING ENDS. Tension heavy: 3/28/07 94. CONTINUED: (2) CALLISTER Jesus Christ... "Guillotine"... SCOTT A 'Continuity of Government' simulation we run periodically to game out terrorism drills: how to keep the country running if the chain of command were wiped out. Everyone down to the fourteenth man, that is -- CALLISTER I remember the specs. LATESHA Mr. Secretary... why does Aria think the government's responsible for the terror threats? Callister stares, grave. Deciding whether or:not to answer... INT. PENTAGON - NETWORK HUB - DAY JIMMY, the fourth Horseman, sits monitoring Aria's systems. In B.G., SILENT, something drops down behind him, unfolds its claw: THE MACHINE ARM that laser-scans Horsemen. Sensing something, Jimmy turns, a BULLWHIP CRACK''as.the steel arm STRIKES HIS HEAD. INT. PENTAGON - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE NETWORK HUB - CONTINUOUS WHOOSH: the door automatically opens as Jerry and Rachel approach, find Jimmy on the floor, blood pooling from his head: RACHEL Oh God... ARIA Rachel... step away from Jerry. CLOSE, RACHEL -- her heart skips a beat -- she knows what's about to happen -- but she can't do it, paralyzed-- ARIA (CONT'D) Step away from him NOW. Fighting against every instinct, she finally does JERRY (REELING) what is this place?! INT. PENTAGON - UPPER LEVEL - CONTINUOUS Morgan and officers race to the elevator, LEAD AGENT swipes his card... but the panel STAYS RED. He tries again. RED. Another agent tries his card -- RED. Aria's shutting them out. 3/28/07 95 CONTINUED: MORGAN Sonofabitch! Where're the stairs?! INT. PENTAGON - THE VAULT - CONTINUOUS Callister leans somberly against the table. Never thought it would come to this... CALLISTER What I'm about to tell you can never leave this room. (BEAT) Three days ago we got what we thought was iron-clad intel from the Brits about the whereabouts of Majid Al-Khoei and his training camp. (BEAT) And we made the hit. Latesha and Scott, completely shocked - LATESHA The White House said we weren't responsible for CALLISTER -- of course they.'did. We got the wrong guv. And Aria knew it. Latesha's eyes snap shut: Dear God... INT. PENTAGON - NETWORK HUB - DAY Jerry looks around: the guy bleeding on the floor, the big monitor and its four consoles -- this can't be a good thin : ARIA Jerry: sit at the terminal. JERRY (backing away) Not on your life, Lady -- supercomputer, whatever you are 6-- To motivate him, a REAL TIME FEED FROM KYLE'S TRAIN springs up onto the big monitor. Rachel GASPS: Kyle looking out the window, goofing off with his friends... ARIA I won't ask again. THE MONITOR: A sudden JOLT on the train, lights flicker, some luggage falls Kyle and his friends laughing, looking around. What was that? 3/28/07 96. CONTINUED: RACHEL KYLE! (tears now) JERRY, PLEASE... JERRY Alright! Shit! Don't hurt him! And against every instinct... he SITS. Looks up in horror as the MACHINE ARM lowers, its claw opening to ensconce his head within the LASER GRID -- LIGHT FLASHES -- INT. PENTAGON - "THE VAULT" - CONTINUOUS HEATED DEBATE, URGENT: SCOTT -- but she thinks algorithmically, she can't make value judgments: operate outside the law -- CALLISTER That's why we have Horsemen -- LATESHA what if she thinks.'she is following the law? You.saw the news, you've been dealing with it all day'-- suicide bombings at our embassies overseas, elevated threats at home -- we made the wrong call,' now Americans are dying. Don't you see? She thinks you're a threat to your own country. Callister looks stunned... of course: CALLISTER "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to its own ends, it's the right of the people to abolish it." (beat, grave) It's in the Declaration of Independence. LATESHA (stomach drops, to SCOTT) shit, you said it's woven into her source code... Scott, pacing, raking his hands through his hair -- SCOTT but Paul put a biometric lock on her, technically she still can't do anything. LATESHA'S FACE. IT HITS: 3/28/07 97. CONTINUED: LATESHA Jerry Shaw's his twin. That's why she needs him. To undo the lock. INT. PENTAGON - NETWORK HUB - DAY SHE'S RIGHT -- the LASER GRID finishes scanning Jerry's face -- "PROCESSING FOR MATCH... IDENT CONFIRMED: SHAW, PAUL." Replaced by: "HORSEMAN ID 556SY77, DISENGAGE BIOMETRIC LOCK." ARIA (V.0.) Repeat the sentence into the microphone. Jerry stares, paralyzed as, unbeknownst to him:. A PANEL on the wall unlocks behind him, revealing a WEAPONS CACHE of what looks like FOUR HAND GUNS. Rachel sees it -- and oddly, doesn't look surprise d. Reaches'for;one of the guns... ARIA (V.0.) (CONT'D) Repeat the words, Jerry. Then you're free. JERRY (crazy torn, finally) Horseman ID 556SY77. disengage biometric lock. VOOM: a matrix of PROGRAMMING: CODE spews across the screen: "BIOMETRIC LOCK REMOVED. OPTION PACKAGE 'GUILLOTINE' REINSTATED -- TARGET LIST: 1) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 2) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 3) SPEAKER. OF THE HOUSE 4) PRESIDENT PRO-TEMPORE 5) SECRETARY OF. STATE 6) SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 7) ATTORNEY GENERAL 8) SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR... and on and on through the Secretary of Homeland Security. Jerry's eyes WIDEN in horror -- JERRY (CONT'D) What is that?! A target list --?! ARIA (V.O.) Jerry Shaw is no longer required. JERRY Oh, Jesus, Paul was trying to stop you 3/28/07 98. CONTINUED: ARIA (V.0.) Jerry Shaw is no longer required. JERRY That truck didn't run a red light, you made it happen... He lurches up -- SPINS TO RACHEL -- ELECTRIC COILS STRIKE HIM IN THE CHEST -- he goes down HARD as 50,000 volts COURSES through him -- REVEAL: she's holding what we now understand, is a TAZER GUN -- tears streaming -- RACHEL I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... Convulsing, Jerry looks up at her through helpless eyes ARIA Take the radio and exit . through: the side door. A door OPENS -- but Rachel's still.starinq down at Jerry -- ARIA (CONT'D) GO. NOISE outside, RUNNING FOOTSTEPS'-- a last anguished glance, Rachel grabs the walkie and she RUNS out the side door, which CLOSES BEHIND HER. Leaving no trace she was ever there. INT. PENTAGON - OUTSIDE NETWORK HUB - CONTINUOUS Morgan and the others RACE toward the network hub -- strangely, the door OPENS for them -- they find Jerry, paralyzed, GASPING -- the unconscious HORSEMAN on the ground too, but no Rachel -- MORGAN Where's the girl?!! But all Jerry can do is GASP, bug-eyed -- INT. PENTAGON - VAULT Callister STABS at the control panel CALLISTER We've got to get to the President before the State of the Union The vault door HISSES open and Scott and Latesha run out WHEN SUDDENLY IT SLAMS SHUT, TRAPPING CALLISTER INSIDE THE VAULT. He grabs the handle, locked. Scott and Latesha spin from outside, trying the door, helpless as he punches the INTERCOM: 3/28/07 99 CONTINUED: CALLISTER (CONT'D) This is Callister! We have a malfunction in the vault, open the door... anybody there? And then -- ARIA (V.O.) I'm here, Mr. Secretary. You won't be harmed. CALLISTER (eyes wide, chilled) Aria, open the door -- ARIA (V.0.) That is not a viable option, sir-.- you are the Fourteenth Man. CALLISTER (AGHAST) What?! ARIA (V.0.) I am now empowered.to detain you and execute my primary directive. For the good of the country. OUTSIDE THE VAULT: A PIPE LINE overhead RUPTURES from over-pressure -- SSSSSSS -- the air RIPPLES as,pillars of high-pressure GAS flood the room Latesha and Scott are . forced back, choking! INSIDE THE VAULT: Through the thick plexi walls Callister sees what's happening: CALLISTER Stop this NOW, Aria! STOP!! (no response) Aria, I am giving you a direct order to cease and desist! OUTSIDE THE VAULT: as the gas spreads, Latesha and Scott COUGHING, POUNDING on the steel door to the guards outside, waving wildly at a SURVEILLANCE CAMERA looking down on them: SCOTT HEY! HEEEELLLPI EXT. SECURITY AREA RIGHT OUTSIDE THE ROOM - CONTINUOUS The door's SOUNDPROOF, the GUARDS oblivious -- video screens show everyone still in the vault. Aria's looped the feed. 3/28/07 100. INT. OUTSIDE VAULT - CONTINUOUS Through the plexi, Callister watches helplessly as gas keeps filling the outer room -- choking, Scott sees the aluminum ducts above, grabs a table and DRAGS it under the GRATE -- SCOTT CLIMB!! ARIA CAM WATCHES as they jump up and YANK off the grate -- INT. INDUSTRIAL VENTILATION DUCTS - SECONDS LATER They HAUL ASS through the confined space on hands and knees, the gas is FILLING THE VENTS as they cough, racing onwards -- BACK INSIDE THE ROOM -- ARIA CAM POV: GAS CONCENTRATION @ 90%" AN ELECTRICAL OUTLET -- it SPARKS and VWO00SH! FIRE CONSUMES THE ROOM, blasting up the grate -- INT. VAULT - CONTINUOUS The FLAMES surge around the outer vault -- though he's TOTALLY SHIELDED, Callister LURCHES as everything SHUDDERS, the translucent plexi glowing ORANGE INT. INDUSTRIAL VENTILATION DUCTS -:CONTINUOUS Latesha and Scott react-to a growing ROAR behind them -- they turn back to see the GLOW of an approaching FIREBALL -- LATESHA GO GO GO!! They scramble for another GRATE and she KICKS it outward -- INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT - CONTINUOUS The grate drops 36 FLOORS -- Scott grabs the rung of a MAINTENANCE LADDER lining the shaft as Latesha falls into the nothingness and the FIRE PLUME EXPLODES FROM THE DUCT. Scott grabs theback'of her jacket -- SCOTT Hold on to me!! She manages to SWING back onto the ladder rungs, SLAMMING against them -- safe -- and we MATCH TO: INT. PENTAGON HOLDING AREA - DUSK HANDCUFFS slapped over Jerry's wrists, locking down tight. Ankle cuffs slapped on ankles -- Jerry's pulled towards a door by some GUARDS, struggling wildly against the chains: 3/28/07 101. CONTINUED: JERRY Where's Morgan?! I need to talk to him! GUARD You can talk at Bolling Air Base, Shithead, they got a nice room all ready for you. JERRY NO NO, WAIT, LOOK, I NEED TO TALK TO HIM NOW! I'LL SIGN ANYTHING YOU WANT, A FULL CONFESSION, JUST LISTEN TO -- A CANVAS HOOD is thrown over his head and he's DRAGGED OFF -- INT. UNDERGROUND TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS A steel door opens into darkness. Rachel,. backlit, steps through. Overhead bulbs FLICKER tolife, illuminating a LONG concrete tunnel... the words "FALL OUT":etched in faded paint. RACHEL What is this? ARIA.QVER WALKIE (V.0.) Civil defense bunkers,'a remnant of the cold war. RACHEL Where's my son? ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) Start walking. We see that Rachel's obviously gut-scared, but looks the demon in the eye and starts walking. INT. D.C. TRAIN STATION - DUSK A "Quick N' Easy":MESSENGER carrying KYLE'S TRUMPET CASE moves through commuter traffic, arriving at a BAGGAGE OFFICE. COURIER Delivery for a passenger on the 5:15 from Milwaukee... The employee takes the case and routes it through the CONVEYOR BELT as... A SECRET SERVICE AGENT and A WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS STAFFER TAKE FRAME, walking towards a TRAIN PLATFORM where KYLE and his class are just getting out: WHITE HOUSE STAFFER Exeter orchestra got stuck in Dayton, these guys were next on the list... 3/28/07 102 CONTINUED: SECRET SERVICE AGENT #2 (this is weird) They're kids. WHITE HOUSE STAFFER President wants to create an atmosphere of "hope and confidence during these trying times." He plasters on a SMILE and approaches Mrs. Miller and the kids: WHITE HOUSE STAFFER (CONT'D) Mrs. Miller? David Brigham, White House Communications office -- today's your, lucky day. Off KYLE, wondering what's going on -- EXT. HIGHWAY OUTSIDE THE CITY - DUSK SATELLITE VIEW -- the armored van travelling along the highway. We SNAP CLOSER and realize it's Aria, tracking the van -- INT. ARMORED VEHICLE - DUSK Jerry shackled in back. Morgan reaches over and YANKS the hood off his head -- he looks around,'. disoriented: MORGAN Where's the 'Hex,' Jerry --?! JERRY -- the what -? MOR The Hex, where is it? JERRY I .don't know what you're talking about! MORGAN JERRY -- the explosives from the test site in Aberdeen -- -- explosives?! I don't know crystals with a sonic anything about -- trigger?! --"sonic trigger?!" I don't -- -- you sent them to yourself at a jewelry store in -- I didn't send anything!! Virginia, Ashland and Sons -- MORGAN Then tell me how the hell this is happening, and do not play games with me. JERRY I'm not playing games. You want me to talk? Lose the cell phone -- (MnRF� 3/28/07 103. CONTINUED: JERRY (CONT'D) (Morgan stares: huh?) -- your pager and watch -- I'm not saying another word 'til all that shit's gone! Radios, walkie-talkies, GPS, anything that gets a signal -- get rid of it, NOW. Morgan looks Jerry, knows he's not fucking around -- EXT. HIGHWAY - CONTINUOUS At the back of the vehicle, a window lowers and all electronics fly out: blackberrys, watches, walkie-talkies, the GPS -- ARIA'S POV: the items are RUN OVER, DESTROYED by speeding cars -- EXT. BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE - CONTINUOUS Quiet. Two AIR FORCE MECHANICS shoot the shit. Behind them... A MOBILE HYDRO-PNEUMATIC UAV (AERIAL DRONE) LAUNCHER. Dormant along a line of other dormant launchers. These MINI-DRONES are similar to the one we saw in our opening,. only they're strictly for surveillance. Smaller. Suddenly: The launcher ACTIVATES, like it's just been woken up. The girder arm TELESCOPES UPWARD, moving one of the mini-drones into place like a Pez dispenser. The.mechanics RACE to the console: AIR FORCE MECHANIC #1 AIR FORCE MECHANIC #2 -- is it supposed to do that?! I can't override it! With a PNEUMATIC BLAST,the.drone's CATAPULTED into the sky -- PIVOTS purposefully, SOARS off -- INT. ARMORED VEHICLE - CONTINUOUS JERRY She's like this... brain -- jacked into everything: cameras, phones, tvs, satellites, ever thing -- MORGAN A "talking computer..." JERRY I swear to you, she said she was created by DARPA or something -- MORGAN (rings a bell: Latesha) DARPA? 3/28/07 104. CONTINUED: JERRY My brother tried to stop her and she killed him, that's why Aria needed me, my face -- he put some kind of lock on her and she used me to undo it. Why do you think she brought me to that room? Morgan stares, trying to decide if he believes it -- JERRY (CONT'D) Don't you wonder how we were always a step ahead of you!? Think about who I am. She set us up. MORGAN (FINALLY) Assuming for a second I believe you, why... if she can control everything? JERRY People like you go after people like me. We become the headlines and she keeps on ticking... I'm telling you, I saw a list-- EXT. SKIES ABOVE HIGHWAY - DUSK The drone ROARS into frame over the armored truck -- descending, about 10,000 feet away. Its nose cone emits a LASER BEAM that hits the SMALL REAR WINDOW. ARIA POV: "ACTIVATE LASER MIC." We HEAR Jerry's DOPPLERED VOICE: JERRY (MIC FILTER) --the President was on it, the Vice President, there were like twelve people-- INT. ARMORED VEHICLE - CONTINUOUS MORGAN the chain of command... JERRY It was a target list... she's trying to take them all out. (desperate beat) Look, that thing killed my brother! If we don't stop this, he died for nothing, and I'm not letting that happen. MORGAN -- wildly torn -- MORGAN Shit. SHIT. (checks watch) State of the Union's in 30 minutes. (MORE) 3/28/07 105. CONTINUED: MORGAN (CONT'D) If something's gonna happen it'd have to happen from inside, outside's like Fort KNOX-- JERRY That explosive you were talking about -- MORGAN -- the girl, could she have it? JERRY No way... MORGAN Are you sure, Jerry -- JERRY Yes! MORGAN Are you sure, Jerry? JERRY (it hits) Unless she doesn't know it. They lock eyes. Now or never. Morgan POUNDS on the divider, BARKING to the guards up front: MORGAN Turn around; now! EXT. HIGHWAY - CONTINUOUS The armored vehicle SCREECHES to a U-TURN, heading up an embankment by the Potomac THE DRONE A red light BLINKS and it suddenly dips down, dive-bombing the truck -- JERRY AND MORGAN TURN as they hear an INCOMING WHINE and... THE DRONE HITS THE TRUCK'S TIRE LIKE A SUICIDE BOMBER, EXPLODING!!! The truck FLIPS off its axis -- SKIDS trailing SPARKS -- and like a monster cannonball, SLAMS into the water -- INT./EXT. ARMORED CAR - POTOMAC RIVER - DUSK HORRIBLE IMPACT, BODIES TUMBLING AS THE TRUCK SINKS -- water begins to flood in FAST -- Jerry SCRAMBLES, holding on -- the truck TILTING as it DROPS farther and farther... he sees: The guards through mesh steel up front, heads bashed against the wheel and dashboard. Unmoving. Turns -- 3/28/07 106. CONTINUED: MORGAN. Jesus. A bloody piece of metal PIERCED THROUGH HIS CHEST. Blood fountains from his mouth -- JERRY -- oh God -- nonononono -- Morgan's breathing, it's SHALLOW. Jerry tries to stop the bleeding, to free the metal from Morgan's chest, but even pulling it a centimeter causes Morgan to SCREAM in agony -- JERRY (CONT'D) I'm sorry! Jesus, I don't know what --? MORGAN (bug-eyed, SHOUTS) SHUT UP: KEYS -- MY BELT -- TAKE THEM -- Jerry sees them, grabs them -- starts desperately UNLOCKING his own cuffs -- MORGAN (CONT'D MY BADGE -- COAT POCKET -- JERRY (frozen in horror) -- lemme try and get you. free MORGAN. NO!!! LISTEN TO ME: THERE'S A PERIMETER AROUND THE:'CAPITOL, TELL 'EM YOU NEED TO GET TO THE SERGEANT OF ARMS, THEY HAVE TO RADIO IN A 10-13, IT'S AN EVACUATION ORDER -- YOU UNDERSTAND? 10-13, SAY YOU UNDERSTAND! The water's up to their chins, now -- JERRY I UNDERSTAND!!! MORGAN THEN GO!!! THERE'S NO TIME! The water ENVELOPS them. Morgan shoves him away, even now, even under water, stabbing his finger at Jerry: GO! And Jerry looks at him. Moved and awed by this tremendous act of sacrifice. Finally twists round and kicks away at the shattered window, taking one last look behind him... SWIMS OUT. INT. PENTAGON ELEVATOR SHAFT - DUSK In the elevator shaft, Latesha and Scott are two distant figures making their way down the ladder: 3/28/07 107. CONTINUED: LATESHA Tell me she has an off switch -- SCOTT We can only unlock the emergency override from the main terminal, and that's assuming she lets us in. LATESHA What're we supposed to do, say pretty please? Scott's mind spins, an idea -- he stops at another VENT ACCESS HATCH marked: "B-36" SCOTT We can't shut her down, but maybe we can get her to shut herself down. Help me with this As they tug at the hatch -- INT. UNDERGROUND TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS Rachel comes to the end of the tunnel.. A door UNLOCKS... ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.0.) Leave the walkie here.. Exit through the door. You'll be met by someone who'll take you to Kyle Rachel sets the walkie down, steps through to find herself... INT. SUBWAY STATION - DUSK in an alcove that trembles from an ARRIVING TRAIN: "SENATE STATION." This is an access point to the Capitol from the Rayburn building, for Senate members only. Up ahead, an eager SIXTEEN YEAR OLD SENATE PAGE in blue blazer scans the crowd, holds a PHOTO of her -- breaks into a grin and runs over: TEENAGE PAGE Ms. Monaghan? Hi! I'm Patrick. Welcome to the Capitol! RACHEL (the capitol?) hi... TEENAGE PAGE Sergeant At Arms' office said you'd be running late -- we got your clothes and credentials -- I reserved the committee staff room so you can change -- this your first State of the Union? (MORE) 3/28/07 108 CONTINUED: TEENAGE PAGE (CONT'D) (she forces a smile, nods, overwhelmed) Mine, too. Off Rachel, her stomach SINKING with dread as she follows the kid into the Capitol -- EXT. THE CAPITOL - DUSK Kyle's class files off the bus, escorted by Secret Service Agents. HARRIER JETS blast overhead, Hummers with Stinger missiles are parked in a defensive line. Kyle looks around, awed, clutching his TRUMPET CASE -- SERIES OF SHOTS: The Capitol's locked up like Fort Knox: Road blocks cover a 3 mile radius. The National'°G.uard is stationed. Spotters with binocs and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers scan the horizon. Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police run security inside the building and out. Explosive Ordinance Disposal Teams with bomb dogs check the House floor. Over these images: RADIO VOICES Were green on arrivals,;S.O.S., Interior are at the Capitol ;steps` -- VP and President's motorcade twenty minutes away. INT. PENTAGON - VAULT - DUSK Callister paces the vault,stares at the INTERCOM: CALLISTER .How long are you keeping me in here? ARIA 34,minutes, 18 seconds. CALLISTEPS Then what? ARIA In accordance with the Succession Act of 1947, you'll assume national command authority as President -- CALLISTER Why am I being spared? In response, from the intercom, CALLISTER'S OWN VOICE: 3/28/07 109 CONTINUED: CALLISTER (V.0.) (CONT'D) "We gauge our strategy by two standards: the highest probability of success with the least amount of collateral damage. At 51% probability, we don't have either one." He looks all around the vault, wide-eyed, incredulous: CALLISTER (CONT'D) because I agreed with you? ARIA Had they followed our recommendation,. we would not be on the brink of a third world war. Checks and balances:,. Mr..: Secretary. CLICK, she's gone. Enraged, Callister.POUNDS the wall EXT. EMBANKMENT - DUSK Jerry staggers up the embankment, wet, bloody. MOVES to the street. SIRENS in the background.!. Sees a WOMAN parking her Toyota Matrix. Yanks open her.: door and shows Morgan's ID: JERRY The government would like to buy you a new car -- Pulls her out as she WAILS in protest. Steps on the gas, veering onto a SIDE STREET -- as CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! The TRAFFIC CAMERA takes his picture and we CUT TO: ARIA CAM: Jerry's face: "82% PROBABLE MATCH -- SHAW, JERRY." EXT. SKIES ABOVE WASHINGTON - DUSK One of the Harrier jets SOARS over the city, securing airspace. IN THE COCKPIT, the pilot REACTS as his display suddenly goes BLANK and the stick LOCKS UP -- JET PILOT One to Base: alert, alert! Primary function's jammed, transponder's firewalled -- respond! One to Base do you copy?! But of course the answer's no, because Aria's taken control of the let -- and what's more, the display REACTIVATES: "EJECT SEQUENCE COMMENCED... 5... 4... 3... 2... JET PILOT (CONT'D) WHAT THE HE -- 3/28/07 110 CONTINUED: THE PNEUMATIC CANOPY BLOWS, EJECTING THE PILOT! He rockets away as his parachute DEPLOYS -- now the jet's flying itself -- ON THE HEAD'S UP DISPLAY: a SATELLITE GRID appears, vectoring the Matrix's coordinates to the jet, it SCREAMS into a valley. INT. PENTAGON - COOLING ROOM - NIGHT A vent in the ceiling is KICKED OPEN. Scott and Latesha drop into a room filled with polyethylene hoses flowing with cooling fluid. He opens a circuitry panel, starts RIPPING-.'OUT fuses: SCOTT This controls her primary cooling system... if we cut the circulation, the temp in her tank goes up. LATESHA So we boil her brain. SCOTT She'll have to shut herself down to keep from overheating. LATESHA Can't she just drain the. water? He pulls out a fuse, drops it, SMASHES it with his foot. SCOTT Not anymore. The lights in the room FLICKER as the liquid in the tubes STOPS flowing. TEMPERATURE GAUGES: Aria's core temp starts to rise -- INT. COMMITTEE STAFF ROOM - NIGHT Rachel stands,there looking at a GARMENT BAG hanging on a door. Hesitates. Then:.starts unzipping it. INT. TOYOTA MATRIX MOVING - NIGHT Washingtoh:in the distance. Jerry races toward it in the Toyota... glances at the rearview, then ahead, then BACK AGAIN: THE JET IS BLASTING IN FROM BEHIND. A terrible moment of RECOGNITION as it lets loose two FLASHFIRE MISSILES -- JERRY YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!! He YANKS the wheel hard, careening into the FOREST just as the missiles SLAM INTO A RIDGE AND EXPLODE! 3/28/07 111. EXT. FOREST - CONTINUOUS The matrix crashes through trees, obscured under the forest canopy -- Jerry hears the jet circling back around. THE JET'S 20MM NOSE CANNON OPENS UP, MOWING DOWN THE FOREST -- Jerry SWERVES as trees splinter into a thousand pieces, like MINI MISSILES launching at the car -- it's rocked violently but Jerry keeps going flat-out at breakneck speed. ROARS PAST, circles back -- with her superb aim, Aria FIRES A LONG BURST OF BULLETS that rake across the Matrix's windshield INT. MATRIX - CONTINUOUS Jerry DUCKS as bullets blow through his headrest -- he CRIES OUT as two of the Matrix's tires BLOW -- and adding insult to injury, ARIA'S VOICE taunts him over the GPS ARIA ON THE. RADIO I underestimated your tenacity, Jerry. It's inconsistent with your personality profile. Jerry VEERS down an off-road, slewing the unstable car around cars and trucks, clipping everybody`-- ARIA What I did not underestimate is the inertial guidance system of the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile and its 98% kill probability. Which happens to be targeted at you now. As Jerry's eyes flick up to the rearview mirror to see the jet swinging in behind and closing fast. ARIA (CONT'D) strongly advise you pull the car over. JERRY Fuck yourself! A BRIGHT FLASH from under the Harrier's wing as a missile LAUNCHES. Jerry hurtles down an EMBANKMENT as it explodes against the wall, shattering the Matrix's windows -- he fights to control the car, spots a TUNNEL running through a hill -- GUNS the car into it as the jet BANKS HARD -- INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS Halfway through, the Matrix SKIDS to a stop, cars swerve and honk -- DESCENDING DOWN INTO VIEW AT THE OTHER END OF THE TUNNEL AHEAD, COMES THE HARRIER. BLOCKING JERRY'S WAY OUT. All cars in the tunnel SCREECH as the drivers get out and RUN. The jet hovers a few feet off the ground just outside -- 3/28/07 112. CONTINUED: THE HEAD'S UP DISPLAY: Aria calculates a FOUR INCH LEEWAY on either side of her wings -- INCHES forward into the tunnel, hovers unsteadily. The display goes INFRARED, LOCKS ON the car: another Sidewinder IGNITES, streaking down the tunnel towards Jerry who -- REVERSES, spins the wheel -- the missile WHIPS PAST and annihilates several cars behind them, but now a FLAMING WALL blocks the other side of the tunnel. Blocked in. Sweat pours down Jerry's face as he looks into the. unmanned cockpit of the jet. Then. Hits the gas The Matrix SCREECHES forward towards the Jet, gaining speed and momentum as the last missile LAUNCHES -- Jerry' clenches the wheel, watching his life flash before him when he OPENS THE DOOR and rolls out of the car, hitting the'ground HARD as the missile BLOWS THE MATRIX TO PIECES. Jerry scrambles back as it cartwheels into the air and the chassis disintegrates -- and because. it's, RACING so fast, the motor's TORN LOOSE and rockets forward like a flaming projectile, revving at 6,000 rpm's, straight at: THE HARRIER, which doesn't have: timeto reverse fast enough in the confined space -- the motor SLAMS into the jet's nose cone, HAMMERING THE FRONT FUSELAGE.: Spins: the jet like a toy, upending it out of the tunnel,-ablinding, white-hot fireball as the JET EXPLODES! Jerry leaps behind an overturned car for shielding as flaming debris blows everywhichway... In the aftermath he. rises up, shellshocked. Holy. Fuck. EXT. HIGHWAY - VARIOUS - NIGHT As the fireball DISSIPATES into the sky, cars SCREECH to a halt -- people on their cell phones to call 911, but no phone has a signal. Among drivers, we favor a COUPLE in a Prius-- WOMAN IN.PRIUS MAN -- I can't...get 911 -- -- me neither -- A miles-long backup of traffic from the chaos... INT. CAPITOL COMMITTEE STAFF ROOM - CONTINUOUS Rachel standing in front of a mirror, buttoning up her jacket. A "FLOOR BADGE" and "CONGRESSIONAL STAFF ID clipped to the lapel. Slips another bone mic in her ear. Opens a CASE branded "ASHLAND AND SONS JEWELERS" to reveal: A NECKLACE SET WITH THE EXPLOSIVE CRYSTALS. But to Rachel, they just look like DIAMONDS. Light GLINTS as she slips it on: 3/28/07 113. CONTINUED: ARIA OVER MIC The Senate page is waiting outside. Once you take your seat, you are no longer required. Rachel looks at her reflection. Terrified, but braving it. RACHEL I saw the target list... I know the President's going to be here soon. (BEAT) Knowing these things -- what you've done -- means you're not going to let me. live through this. Will you. ARIA OVER MIC (after a beat) Every turning point in history.has required martyrs. Tragic heroes.. Think of yourself as that hero. Rachel looks at a surveillance camera, eyes blazing with hate: RACHEL I'll do what you tell . me this one last time... But you listen to me because this is what a real mother sounds like: I will die for my child becauseI lived for my child, and you can't take that away from me. If this. is a bargain, then honor your side. I'll be your scapegoat: but let my son live. She turns away. Strong And vulnerable all at once. Walks out. INT. CAPITOL - HOLDING ROOM - CONTINUOUS A CACOPHONY'of instruments. The kids, in suits and dresses, practice nervously. .Kyle blows a few notes on his trumpet, furrows his br.ow,.says to his buddy -- KYLE My trumpet sounds weird... EXT. HIGHWAY - TRAFFIC JAM - NIGHT JERRY RUNS LIKE HELL THROUGH BACKED-UP TRAFFIC, ON A MISSION -- ARIA SATELLITE POV: she tracks him as he races across a small park and onto Pennsylvania Avenue -- THE CAPITOL DOME ahead-- Jerry sprints across the street when -- ALL THE LIGHTS SUDDENLY TURN GREEN and a thirty cars barrel towards him. The deafening HONK of a SEMI bearing down and he LEAPS in front of it, lust clearing the grill and landing hard on the sidewalk. 3/28/07 114. CONTINUED: MAYHEM as cars SMASH into each other, people SCREAMING, horns HONKING. Jerry staggers to his feet. Turns to look up at the sky, eyes on fire, knowing he's being watched... AND WITH A BIG GRIN, GIVES ARIA THE FINGER. KEEPS ON RUNNING -- INT. PENTAGON - COOLING ROOM - NIGHT ARIA'S TEMPERATURE GAUGES are at 75 degrees. Scott licks his lips, the waiting's killing them -- SCOTT Once she's at 82, she'll shut down.. Latesha nods, sweating bullets. Come on come on come on... EXT. CAPITOL BUILDING - NIGHT By a barricade, two CAPITOL COPS react as Jerry races towards them, bloody and panic-breathing, flashing Morgan's badge -- JERRY Listen to me, I've been working with a DHS officer, he gave me his badge, he was just killed, you gotta radio in a 10-13-- CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER #1 Whoa whoa whoa, who the hell're you? JERRY You have to MOVE, right now! Radio it n i n! There's a bomb in the building! (they.look at each OTHER): You wanna be the guys who didn't do something?! ARIA'S SAT•.VIEW ZOOMS IN JUST AS THE OFFICER KEYS HIS WALKIE: CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER #2 Capitol, this is checkpoint 21, I've got a guy out here who says -- SCREECH! HISS! The radio cuts him off with piercing FEEDBACK -- as Jerry breaks into a RUN-- CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER #1 Hey--! INT. CAPITOL - SPEAKER'S LOBBY ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS Rachel's led by the Senate Page through the Speaker's Lobby entrance onto the house floor, passing a SECRET SERVICE AGENT watching every face with laser eyes... 3/28/07 115. EXT. INDEPENDENCE AVE. - NIGHT The PRESIDENT'S MOTORCADE nears the Capitol. His limo's lead by Motorcycle Cops, headlights FLASHING, Secret Service... INT. PENTAGON - COOLING ROOM - NIGHT Aria's temperature gauges are rising into red-line: SCOTT One more degree SUDDENLY the door bursts open and two GUARDS rush in with guns, SLAM them to the wall: GUARD #1 FREEZE! HANDS! STEP AWAY FROM THE CONSOLE! LATESHA SCOTT -- WAIT WAIT WAIT -- -- my name's Scott Bowman, I have B-36 clearance, my ID's in my pocket -- The guard pulls out his ID, checks it, keys a shoulder-walkie: GUARD #1 (CONT'D) Unit 5, suspects in custody, but they have clearance -- The voice that responds over the walkie is ARIA'S: =ARIA OVER WALKIE (V.O.) Negative, credentials for Bowman and Simms have been revoked. Secure them in the mainframe tank, additional units en route to take custody -- LATESHA GUARDS -- that's not a person, it's -- shut up the computer, she's -- BE QUIET MALFUNCTIONING-'-- They're pushed into -- INT. PENTAGON - MAINFRAME TANK - DAY The water in Aria's mainframe tank is BUBBLING as a graphic shows the temp MAXING OUT. The door behind them suddenly LOCKS. The guards REACT -- one punches in a code, no good. GUARD #2 Control, maglocks just engaged in the south door, need and override... do you copy? 3/28/07 116. CONTINUED: An ALARM blares. Scott sees PRESSURE GAUGES fluctuating wildly: SCOTT -- oh shit... she's upping the water pressure -- LATESHA -- what?! SCOTT She can't drain the tank... she's--gonna blow it. As the pressure in the tank intensifies, the frame begins to GROAN. The steel fitting SCREAMS with the enormous load -- a support rivet POPS OUT with an earsplitting KWANG! Zings across the room like a BULLET, pockmarking the wall.-- SCOTT (CONT'D) You gotta let me run a bypass on that door or in about 30 seconds this room's gonna be full of water! A fracture shoots across the glass. The guards are FRIGHTENED: GUARD #1` yeah, go, _ qo SCOTT I NEED SOMETHING TO PRY IT OPEN! Latesha whips out her keychain with the MINI ARMY KNIFE -- Scott pries off the panel:.as..the glass fracture GROWS -- he starts stripping wires as MORE'STEEL RIVETS pop loose, PING PING PING! It's like dodging bullets -- Scott SPARKS the wires together and the door starts to OPEN, but only a few inches before it STOPS. LATESHA Yoi.:can do it you can do it you can do it! SCOTT Stop telling me I can do it! The glass SPIDERWEBS MADLY -- he SPARKS the wires together again, the door opens a few more inches but: THE GLASS GIVES WAY AND THE TANK EXPLODES! WATER SURGES across the room, the guards are IMPALED by glass shards, Latesha and Scott SMASH HARD against the wall.., but the half-open door acts like a DRAIN, siphoning water into corridors... As the level lowers, we find Latesha and Scott on the ground, water runoff trailing around them, unmoving... 3/28/07 117. INT. CAPITOL - FLOOR LEVEL - CONTINUOUS The Page leads Rachel to her seat, close to the President's lectern -- SENATE PAGE Anything else, Ms. Monaghan? RACHEL no, thank you... He smiles and leaves her there. She looks all around her, fighting the paranoia. What the hell's coming next? EXT. THE CAPITOL - PRESIDENTIAL ACCESS ENTRANCE CONTINUOUS The Presidential convoy slows by PRIVATE ENTRANCE. The Secret Service agents exit in unison -- scanning: for trouble -- INT. CAPITOL - HOLDING ROOM - CONTINUOUS The kids buzz with excitement as a. Secret' Service Agent enters: SECRET SERVICE AGENT Were ready. MRS.. MILLER Okay, everyone,. listen UP: saxophones, remember, shorter on the quarter. When we get to the crescendo... hold that high F Mrs. Miller takes a deep breath. Even she's nervous... MRS. MILLER (CONT'D) And smile! Not every day we get to play for the President of the United States! EXT. OUTSIDE THE CAPITOL - PRESIDENTIAL ACCESS ENTRANCE The Secret Service opens the limo door for THE PRESIDENT. The PRESS POOL snaps photos as he's ushered towards the Capitol -- INT. SIDE ENTRANCE - CAPITOL Jerry being subdued by a bunch of COPS and the Capitol's SERGEANT AT ARMS -- SERGEANT AT ARMS -- where'd you hear '10-13'--? JERRY I told you, Agent Tom Morgan, he gave me his badge! Listen to me! There's a woman, she's brunette, 5' 7, blue eyes, her name's Rachel Holloman--! 3/28/07 118. CONTINUED: SERGEANT AT ARMS Where's this Agent Morgan now? JERRY YOU GOTTA GET EVERYBODY OOTTA HERE NOW! SERGEANT AT ARMS HEY: I'M NOT STOPPING THIS JUST CAUSE YOU WALK IN HERE WITH A CRACKERJACK BADGE SHOUTING YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S NAME -- WE'RE GONNA CHECK OUT YOUR STORY AND YOU'RE GONNA BEHAVE YOURSELF, DO WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER?! As the cops start dragging Jerry away and we: INT. CAPITOL - THE MAIN FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Rachel -- still looking around -- sees a door open as the KID'S ORCHESTRA is led in -- her pulse starts to race -- among the faces, KYLE. Her heart FUCKING STOPS Kyle! No... She jumps up from her seat -- starts MOVING towards her son -- ARIA OVER MIC Rachel. Stay in your seat. She RIPS out the earpiece as the Senate doors suddenly fly open: DOORKEEPER MR. SPEAKER! THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! Everyone RISES in ovation as the President enters and moves to the lecternf;smiling, waving. Mr. Miller cues the orchestra and they start to. PLAY THE NATIONAL ANTHEM: "0 say can you see..." People putting their hands to their hearts. The President, too. But RACHEL keeps moving, pushing toward the aisle -- RACHEL Kyle! KYLE! THE SECRET SERVICE immediately moves in on her -- INT. PENTAGON - MAINFRAME TANK - CONTINUOUS Latesha... on the ground... starts to cough as she draws air back into her lungs. She sits up abruptly, hacking... sees ARIA ALMOST GLOWING IN THE WATERLESS TANK. And from across the room, something else: A FIRE AXE behind breakaway glass. 3/28/07 119 EXT. CAPITOL - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE FLOOR - CONTINUOUS As the cops drag Jerry around a corner... he suddenly HEAD-BUTS one of them and BREAKS the grab. Starts RUNNING LIKE HELL -- the agents draw weapons and pursue -- into wrist mic: SECRET SERVICE AGENT 10-13! 10-13! COPY! But all he gets is that SCREECHING FEEDBACK in his earpiece -- INT. CAPITOL - THE MAIN FLOOR - CONTINUOUS "O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming..." Rachel reaches the end of the row, two AGENTS block her: RACHEL That's my son! My son's over there!; SECRET SERVICE AGENT Miss, get back in your seat right now -- KYLE -- playing his trumpet, oblivious -- "And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." RACHEL No... no ... someone's trying to kill the President! But she's DROWNED OUT by the MUSIC -- they take her in a VICE GRIP and start leading her up. the aisle to the exit: RACHEL (CONT'D) (struggling, desperate) LET ME GO!! Her NECKLACE catches the light and the crystals GLINT -- INT. CAPITOL - STEPS UP TO THE FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Jerry sprints up steps three at a time. Four AGENTS in pursuit: SECRET SERVICE AGENT FREEZE--!!! When BAM! A bullet clips Jerry's shoulder. He staggers, then grabs one of the PRESS BARRICADES and FLINGS it down the stairs at the agents -- races on -- INT. CAPITOL - THE MAIN FLOOR - CONTINUOUS No one on the floor can hear what's going on outside. The noise is DEAFENING; "0 say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave..." Rachel scratching and fighting and kicking-- 3/28/07 120. CONTINUED: RACHEL KYLE!! INT. PENTAGON - MAINFRAME TANK - CONTINUOUS SMASH! Breakaway glass SHATTERS as Latesha grabs the fire axe. Turns to the SPHERE that is Aria's CPU in the now-open tank: ARIA OVER SPEAKER (V.0.) We're on the same side, Agent Simms. We are both sworn to defend this country, at any cost. Latesha starts forward, axe in hand, glaring death: LATESHA Don't you ever shut up?! INT. CAPITOL - SPEAKER'S LOBBY ENTRANCE CONTINUOUS Jerry runs towards the door to the SPEAKER'S LOBBY ENTRANCE, agents in hot pursuit -- INT. CAPITOL - THE MAIN FLOOR - CONTINUOUS SLOW MOTION -- KYLE'S FINGERS ON THE VALVES, pressing down, rising -- the music growing discordant, almost frightening -- RACHEL suddenly BREAKS from the Secret Service agents, starts RUNNING BACK DOWN THE AISLE, NECKLACE GLITTERING as: JERRY bursts through the.door -- taking in everything in an instant: THE PRESIDENT... THE CROWD... AND RACHEL, in her SPARKLING NECKLACE running desperately down towards -- THE ORCHESTRA. And he sees -- KYLE, sweet Kyle's face, that face he remembers from the picture and that footage in the tank room. And... HIS TRUMPET. AND TIME STANDS STILL AS JERRY SUDDENLY UNDERSTANDS EVERYTHING: JERRY (to himself) Kyle -- "O'er the land of the --" Jerry SCREAMS and starts RUNNING FOR THE PODIUM -- AGENTS TACKLE the PRESIDENT, PEOPLE start SCREAMING... BAM BAM! Jerry's hit twice as he GRABS KYLE, knocking the trumpet from his hands... It falls... falls... falls to the floor. As it HITS, we CUT TO: 3/28/07 121. INT. PENTAGON - VARIOUS - CONTINUOUS Latesha's axe SMASHING DOWN into Aria's CPU. Sparks. She HAMMERS DOWN AGAIN -- AGAIN -- until the CPU bursts into FLAMES. INTERCUT WITH CALLISTER IN THE SECURE VAULT: The door opens with a HISS. He's free and -- LATESHA Drops the axe. Sinks to her knees, utterly exhausted. INT. CAPITOL - THE MAIN FLOOR - CONTINUOUS MAYHEM. As Rachel runs to the terrified Kyle and scoops him up into her arms. Jerry's on the ground, bleeding... Ten agents pin him down... no sound now except for him trying to BREATHE... Rachel appears over him, crying, grabbing his hand: RACHEL Oh, god... HELP! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!! JERRY'S POV: Rachel starts receding away from us, like we're descending into a well... until..her face become a point of light. And Jerry smiles. As 'everything turns... BLACK. HOLD... AND IT'S SILENT.;.. a distant ECHO... A TRUMPET... a familiar song... LOUIS ARMSTRONG... "What a Wonderful World." INT. RACHEL'S CAR - DAY LIGHT mottled through trees, reflects off the windshield. Driving, Rachel stares thoughtfully at the road. The music's coming from the radio. She glances over: KYLE sits beside her, hand out the window, dipping up and down against the countryside. She watches him, filled with love. MAN'S VOICE (PRE-LAP) it's the finding of this committee that your actions were consistent with national security guidelines... INT. PENTAGON COMMITTEE ROOM - DAY Latesha and Scott sit at a table, still bruised and cut up, facing members of a PENTAGON INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE: DEPUTY DIRECTOR However, in reviewing Aria's server logs, one last matter's come up. (MORE) 3/28/07 122. CONTINUED: DEPUTY DIRECTOR (CONT'D) It seems right before you destroyed her, she attempted to fragment her core and uplink to a public satellite network... did you see anything to corroborate that? LATESHA (glances at Scott) What... do you mean? DEPUTY DIRECTOR She tried to break herself into bits and download them into cyberspace... we think, in the hope of reconstituting. SCOTT She may have tried, but running her... subroutines alone would take 300: million desktop PC's all networked together. There's no single system out there with enough computing capacity. to"sustain her. The men share glances, satisfied with the answer. DEPUTY DIRECTOR Thank you both for your time. INT. PENTAGON HALLWAY - DAY Latesha and Scott exit the hearing, still shaken up from everything that's taken place. Stop and look at each other. An awkward, high school beat. So... I guess this is it: SCOTT So... LATESHA So... SCOTT Hey :you think I could have your... you KNOW And before he can even ask Latesha's written something down on a piece of paper. Hands it to him. LATESHA That's my address. I'm not using a cell phone anymore. Pick me up at eight. They smile at each other, Latesha's eyes catching a SURVEILLANCE CAMERA. A chill creeping down her spine. AS -- INT. MICROCHIP FACTORY - DAY "What A Wonderful World" CONTINUES over a long assembly line of SILICON WAFERS on a conveyor belt. They move through airtight vaults, part of the microchip manufacturing process... 3/28/07 123 CONTINUED: They're BOXED, the boxes loaded onto TRUCKS... they drive off in different directions, spreading out into the WORLD... EXT. RACHEL'S APARTMENT COMPLEX - DAY Kyle's birthday party: streamers, other kids, cake, ad hoc soccer game. Rachel cutting pieces of cake when -- KYLE'S VOICE Jerry! She turns to see JERRY standing there. He's still got his scratches, arm in a SLING. It's the only real injury we can see and it'll heal. Kyle runs up to him and throwing his arms around his waist. JERRY Hey, little man! Locks eyes with Rachel. Her heart beating like a drum, happier to see him then she'd ever imagine. And. Jerry holds up a present for Kyle. JERRY (CONT'D). Sorry I'm late, this was hard to find -- Rachel's eyes well. She pulls it back. Manages to say: RACHEL Kyle. What do you say? KYLE I dunno, I haven't opened it yet. RACHEL (rolls her eyes, grins) Who brought you up? Kyle rips open the present to find a brand new PLAYSTATION 3. KYLE They're on backorder everywhere! Mom -- can I go play with it? RACHEL One hour. That's it... As Kyle tears off with his friends, Jerry walks over to her. It's like everyone else at the party has disappeared... RACHEL (CONT'D) (almost a whisper) you remembered... 3/28/07 124. CONTINUED: JERRY My new thing. (BEAT) Responsibility. RACHEL It suits you. JERRY Yeah? RACHEL (SWEETLY) Yeah. He smiles, shrugs: JERRY I have my life back... I can do whatever I wantihwtit. RACHEL You know what? Me too. They smile at each other, like they have an enormous secret. He tucks a loose hair behind her ear.,.., JERRY And I think... I finally know what I want. And we see in her eyes, she feels the same about him... RACHEL I owe you, Jerry. Everything. I don't think you understand -- JERRY (PLAYFULLY) Hey: shh. Officially we can't talk about it, remember? RACHEL Right. Or even about how we met. (SHRUGS) So what do we tell people? He thinks about it. Smiles... JERRY I dunno -- computer dating service? Rachel LAUGHS, giving him a playful push as we CUT TO: 3/28/07 125. INT. RACHEL'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Kyle turns on the TV, eagerly plugging in the Playstation -- we catch a snippet of the NEWS: CALLISTER being sworn in in front of a CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW COMMITTEE -- NEWS ANCHOR sources inside the beltway say the Senate is convening an investigative committee to look into what could very well become the biggest cover-up since -- Oblivious, Kyle flips on the video game and the screen CHANGES to the Playstation logo. The kids CHEER, they can't wait... but the screen fritzes and goes BLANK... FRIENDS Aw, what the hell?! It's broken! A prompt appears with a BLINKING CURSOR. Then... words scroll: "HELLO, KYLE..." The kids look at him, confused. Kind of freaked out. Kyle stares at the screen, eyes riveted, his breathing quickens. CLOSE: THE CURSOR -- blinking like a beating heart and we: SLAM TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Eastern Promises.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eastern Promises.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..455e304331f23c9e7c741f8bd483cfdc7bb690ff --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eastern Promises.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EASTERN PROMISES Written by Steven Knight1 EXT. A STREET NEAR BRICK LANE - EVENING 1 It's 5.30pm in late December and rain is pouring. The scant Christmas decorations are hanging limp in the rain. A young Turk (EKREM) runs through the rain with a Turkish newspaper held over his head. He ducks into a traditional barber's shop called Ozim's.2 INT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP - EVENING 2 The shutters are drawn. OZIM (a plump middle-aged Turk) is cutting the hair of the last customer of the day (SOYKA). Soyka is a Chechen, well-groomed, wearing a sharp suit beneath the barber's gown. During the conversation we glimpse distinctive eagle- and star-shaped tattoos on Soyka's arms and hands. Ozim and Soyka are chatting as Ekrem enters. Soyka speaks with a Russian accent. OZIM Guvenilmez... daginik... bloody kids, you know... he says - `but Amca it's Christmas?... Christmas! We're Islam! SOYKA Oi, how much are you taking off? OZIM Christmas! So I said to him... alisverise cimac. The kid's sixteen... Ozim brushes some hair off the customer's shoulder and Ozim finally acknowledges Ekrem, who is shivering and wet near to the door. Ekrem turns the `Open' sign to `Closed'. OZIM (CONT'D) They don't want to work do they. Shicma.... EKREM (hesitantly interrupting) Uncle Ozim....... We see for the first time that Ekrem is shaking with fear as well as cold. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 2.2 CONTINUED: 2 OZIM This is him. The kid I'm talking about. Ekrem approaches, stiffened by terror. Soyka nods at Ekrem in the mirror. SOYKA He looks OK to me... how you doin' Ekrem? Soyka offers Ekrem a hand to shake and Ekrem stares at it as if it were enchanted... OZIM He looks OK, yeah, but he won't do one lousy thing for me. Here, look... Ekrem, take this... Ozim takes an open razor from behind a line of hair-tonic bottles and hands it to Ekrem, who now looks mortally terrified. EKREM Ozim... memnum etmek. OZIM We had a deal now he's backing out. SOYKA (laughing) Hey Ozim, leave the kid alone. It's obviously a psychological thing... OZIM Take it Ekrem. SOYKA Ozim, it's OK. I don't want a shave. OZIM This is the kid who walks around like Al Capone. Take the fucking ustura and finish this Rushca. SOYKA (startled) What? (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 3.2 CONTINUED: (2) 2 Soyka rises up from the seat, casting off his barber's gown. Ozim yells `kabuka! And Ekrem snarls, flicks open the razor and drags it across Soyka's throat. Soyka's scream bubbles in the blood.3 EXT. KILBURN HIGH ROAD - NIGHT 3 We dissolve to a Christmas decoration flashing on and off in the rain, high on a lamp post in Kilburn High Road. We pan down the lamp post to the High Road where revelers are hurrying through the rain. We see a young girl (TATIANA) hurrying across the street, wrapped in a dressing gown with a man's overcoat thrown over the top of it. Her hair is soaked as she approaches an all night chemist's shop. She is barefoot.4 INT. CHEMIST'S SHOP - NIGHT 4 The CHEMIST is delivering advice in Gujurati to a CUSTOMER. Tatiana wipes rain from her face and the Chemist and the customer react to her ragged appearance. TATIANA (Russian accent) Please... I have... CHEMIST For methadone I need to see paper prescription. The customer looks at Tatiana's feet and reacts. We see blood trickling down her legs. Tatiana looks down, then faints onto the floor.5 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. OPERATING WARD - NIGHT 5 We see Tatiana unconscious on a wheeled trolley bursting through double doors into the operating ward of Trafalgar hospital. The trolley is accompanied by TWO NURSES, a JUNIOR DOCTOR and a midwife, (ANNA KHITROVA). The two PARAMEDICS who brought her are following behind the trolley. ANNA Did you get a name? PARAMEDIC No. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 4.5 CONTINUED: 5 CUT TO6 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. OPERATING THEATER - NIGHT 6 A tiny brown handbag is being shaken empty by a nurse. Tatiana is being prepared for an emergency Caesarean. The theater is full of people in scrubs, including an anesthetist. Monitors and drips are being attached at double speed. We notice that her arms are already dotted with festering needle marks. A nurse searches through the contents of the handbag and we can hear frantic activity from the operating table.... NURSE 1 Her stats are very poor, very poor. Baby's very distressed. Anna approaches the nurse, who is rummaging through the contents of the bag. We see a business card from a restaurant called `The Trans-Siberian', a St. Christopher necklace and a tiny battered diary. Anna grabs the diary. JUNIOR DOCTOR Shoulder distocia, I think. Stuck on the pubic bone. Cut to Anna at Tatiana's head. Anna strokes her face and speaks softly. ANNA Darling... darling, can you hear me? NURSE Baby's heart beat sixty... fifty- eight, fifty-eight... fifty-seven... JUNIOR DOCTOR Anna, I'm trying to rotate the shoulder medially... shit... THE JUNIOR DOCTOR is breathing hard with a look of utter panic as he attempts to free the baby. The doors burst open and a more senior doctor in his mid thirties (DOCTOR AZIZ) enters at a gallop. As he enters... (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 5.6 CONTINUED: 6 NURSE 1 Baby stats sixty-eight and in free fall. NURSE 2 I'm not getting a pulse. Heartbeats. Doctor Aziz joins the junior doctor, who looks out of his depth. AZIZ Speak to me... Before the junior doctor can speak Anna speaks directly to Aziz. ANNA (softly) We need to get the baby out now. Aziz knows he can take Anna's word... AZIZ OK, let's go. All hell is let loose. As the Caesarean process begins at frantic speed, we slowly zoom in on Tatiana's unconscious face and hear her voice in V.O... a young girl's voice speaking with an Russian accent. The crosstalk between nurses and doctors becomes more and more frantic. TATIANA (V.O.) My name is Tatiana. My father died in the mines in my village, so he was already buried when he died. We were all buried there. Buried under the soil of Russia. That is why I left to find a better life. We hear... a baby cry. Anna's face appears in our framed shot of Tatiana's face. She gently kisses Tatiana's cheek. ANNA (whispers) You had a girl. A sheet is pulled over Tatiana's face. A nurse weighs the screaming baby. Anna wipes her brow with the back of her bloody wrist. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 6.6 CONTINUED: (2) 6 AZIZ Ok. Call it. The Junior doctor and a nurse check watches and speak almost in unison... JUNIOR DOCTOR Unidentified woman, died December 24th at 11.13. NURSE Baby girl, born December 24th at 11.14.7 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. LABOR WARD - MORNING 7 Anna leaves the labor ward, putting on her crash helmet. She emerges out into the crisp, sunny morning. Aziz hurries to catch her up and hands her a wrapped gift. AZIZ Merry Christmas, Anna. ANNA Oh, don't be ridiculous. He grins. AZIZ And you have to open it in front of me. Aziz smiles as Anna unwraps a pair of leather motorcycling gloves. She looks up at him, expressionless. AZIZ (CONT'D) At least pretend. Anna considers the gloves. ANNA (deadpan)) In the whole entire history of my life, I have never felt this special. AZIZ Thank you. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 7.7 CONTINUED: 7 Aziz plants a kiss on his two fingers and presses his fingers against Anna's cheek through the open visor of the helmet. AZIZ (CONT'D) Wear them. It's cold.8 EXT. LONDON STREET - DAY 8 Anna rides her big vintage URAL motorcycle through deserted morning streets. As she rides, we hear Tatiana in V.O. TATIANA (V.O.) I am so excited this morning. Yesterday a friend came back to our village and he told us all about the places on the map that I look at... Paris, Amsterdam, London. He's been there for real...9 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. ANNA'S BEDROOM - DAY 9 After the bright airiness of the bike ride, we are suddenly in Anna's bedroom where the curtains are drawn. Anna is lying awake on the bed, wearing a dressing gown. TATIANA (V.O.) ...he said the future of everything was already happening in all those places. There is a gentle knock at the door, which opens before Anna can respond. It is ANNA'S MOTHER (HELEN) with a cup of tea. HELEN Did you sleep? ANNA A bit. HELEN There's no point us tiptoeing around if you're not even sleeping. Helen puts the tea on the dressing table, then turns to leave without a smile. ANNA Mum? Are you OK? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 8.9 CONTINUED: 9 HELEN (contrite) Of course not. It's Christmas.10 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. KITCHEN - DAY 10 Anna is pouring two glasses of sherry. Helen is peeling potatoes. Anna peers at Helen... and sees tears. They share a moment of stifled emotion. Helen wipes her eyes with her sleeve. HELEN It's the chicken. (pause) The smell of chicken roasting reminds me of him. ANNA You should have done beef, then. They look at each other and giggle. They both have potato peelers in their wet hands, sleeves rolled up, two practical unsentimental women being almost consumed by the same wave of emotion. HELEN It wouldn't be Christmas without tears in the gravy, would it. We hear a gruff Russian voice calling out from the living room (UNCLE STEPAN). STEPAN (V.O.) (angry) Anna! Anna! Where did you get this? Anna and Helen roll their eyes. HELEN (whispering) It's your own fault for giving him something to play with. ANNA (irritated) Well, I can't read Russian, can I? Anna drops her peeler and hurries into the living room. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 9.10 CONTINUED: 10 CUT TO11 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. LIVING ROOM - DAY 11 The living room table is laid for dinner. Uncle Stepan is early seventies, Russian. He is reading the tiny diary that Anna found in Tatiana's bag. Anna breezes in. ANNA I told you, Uncle Stepan, I found it in the handbag of a girl who died in my ward. STEPAN Do you always rob the bodies of the dead? ANNA (suppressed, familiar anger) Of course, we all do it. It's one of the perks of working in a hospital. Stepan grumbles, accustomed to this teasing. Helen enters carrying a bowl of walnuts and brazil nuts which she places on the table. Pause. Stepan looks pointedly at Helen. STEPAN Did you know that your daughter robs the bodies of the dead? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 10.11 CONTINUED: 11 ANNA Stepan, is there an address? Stepan lays the diary aside, obstinate and prim. STEPAN You have an uncle who doesn't steal things from the dead. Not even their secrets. HELEN Oh, don't go all momentous on us, Stepan. (she straightens the table cloth) Lift your elbows. STEPAN You should put this in her coffin, Anna. Bury her secrets with her bodies. ANNA Body. Singular. Stepan leaves in a huff. Anna picks up the diary and begins to study it. She sees the `Trans-Siberian' business card between the pages. ANNA (CONT'D) How long will dinner be? Helen looks at Anna, suspecting an attempt to escape.12 EXT. LONDON STREETS - DAY 12 Driving music as we see Anna riding her motorbike through deserted morning streets again. We should begin to sense that this is a kind of release for her. We hear Tatiana in V.O. TATIANA (V.O.) When I was little, London was like a place in the Bible. I wasn't even sure if it was real. My friend has told me there is a place in London where they pay girls to sing. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 11.12 CONTINUED: 12 Anna arrives outside the `Trans-Siberian' restaurant. It has a Russian-themed frontage in blue and gold, expensively and recently finished. TATIANA (V.O.) (CONT'D) He said if I sang in this restaurant I would make more money in a week than my father made in a year. As Anna pulls up we hear a dog begin to bark.13 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. SIDE ENTRANCE - DAY 13 The side door opens to reveal a hard-looking, handsome Russian man (NIKOLAI), who stops to groom his hair back from his face and put on a pair of sunglasses as he emerges into daylight. He steps into a small courtyard, where a fierce Doberman dog is barking and snarling on the end of a chain. Nikolai is followed by KIRILL, who is a little younger, slim and pretty but hard-looking too. Kirill is dressed in a crumpled T-shirt and jeans and looks like he had a heavy night. Nikolai ignores the dog as he walks by but Kirill yells at it and teases it with a whoop and few Russian curses. Nikolai unbolts the gate to the street. KIRILL So you pick up Ozim and his bitch of a wife and you bring them back here. He glances back at the restaurant and speaks softly. KIRILL (CONT'D) Then I'll think of an excuse and we can get away. NIKOLAI I'll think of an excuse. Your excuses are like fucking fairy tales. Kirill grins and Nikolai flicks the fob of his car keys. The lights on an expensive black Mercedes glow in response. Kirill notices Anna locking up her bike at the front of the restaurant. KIRILL Who the fuck's that? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 12.13 CONTINUED: 13 They both see Anna removing her crash helmet and shaking out her hair. She walks towards the front door. NIKOLAI (in Russian) Maybe somebody sent your dad a hooker for Christmas. KIRILL (grinning) You're so... fucking unbelievably disrespectful. Kirill sees that Nikolai is studying Anna and his grin fades. We sense jealousy. KIRILL (CONT'D) Hey, you've got work to do. Go... Kirill grabs Nikolai's face to distract him, gives him a playful slap, but there is somehow more to it than playfulness. Nikolai gets into his car. Kirill glares at Anna as she approaches the front of the restaurant.14 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 14 As Nikolai drives away, Anna rings the doorbell beside the front door. There is no reply. She is about to ring again when the door opens. We see SEMYON, a Russian man in his late sixties. He is wiping his hands on a tea towel, dressed in a spotlessly white apron. He has the sparkling piercing eyes of a falcon. SEMYON We are closed. ANNA I know. She fumbles in her bag. ANNA (CONT'D) Sorry... I'm a midwife. Anna produces her hospital ID and shows it to Semyon. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 13.14 CONTINUED: 14 SEMYON (with a twinkle) Then unless one of my daughters is keeping something from me, you have the wrong address. ANNA I'd like to speak to the Manager. Semyon studies the name on the ID. SEMYON Khitrova? ANNA My dad was Russian. Semyon seems suddenly delighted. SEMYON And his name? ANNA Ivan. SEMYON So, you are Anna Ivanovna.15 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 15 The tables are set for a huge party. Kirill is now on step ladders, fixing some Christmas decorations. Other relatives are getting the place ready. Semyon hurries through the restaurant, leading Anna by the hand. SEMYON We must hurry. I must stir. Stir, stir or the gravy dies in my hands. Today it is family. Here is my son, Kirill. (he hisses at Kirill) Kirill! The berries are too low, too low. And Roman, more glasses for red! (he claps his hands) Come on! Kirill follows Anna's progress through the restaurant with a glare. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 13A.15 CONTINUED: 15 There are three little girls in extravagant party frocks, all holding violins and giggling near to the door that (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 14.15 CONTINUED: (2) 15 leads to the kitchen. Semyon stops when he reaches them and puts his hands on his hips. SEMYON (CONT'D) My angels. You should be practising. You must make the wood cry. Like this, like this... Semyon grabs a violin and plays a three-second burst of sad Russian violin music. SEMYON (CONT'D) You see... Semyon hurries on into the kitchen. Anna smiles, delighted at the eccentric old man.16 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN - DAY 16 Inside the kitchen there is an inferno of activity, steam, smoke. Family members, some dressed in their party outfits, others in chefs' uniforms, are standing over steaming pots, laughing, arguing. Children play and yell. You can almost smell Christmas. Anna enters, dazzled by it all, overwhelmed by the contrast to her own lifeless Christmas kitchen. Semyon calls out to everyone. SEMYON Come, come, hurry, hurry. They will be here any moment. (to Anna) Ok, show me this card. Anna reaches into her pocket and produces the `Trans- Siberian' business card she found in Tatiana's bag. Semyon angles his head to look as he stirs. SEMYON (CONT'D) It is the old card. From before the renovations. But even so, if she had worked here I would remember the name. Perhaps she ate here once. Try this. Semyon offers Anna a spoonful of his gravy. She sips it. ANNA God, that's amazing. My dad made gravy just like that. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 15.16 CONTINUED: 16 Semyon shrugs and smiles, his eyes twinkling, then goes back to stirring. He speaks as if unconcerned. SEMYON So did you get a chance to talk to this girl before she died?17 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 17 Nikolai's black Mercedes pulls up outside the restaurant and parks a few inches from Anna's motorbike. The rear windows are sun shaded so we only see Nikolai in the driver's seat. He gets out of the car and opens the rear door of the car for an elegantly dressed Turkish lady in her fifties. Nikolai goes to the other rear door. The portly figure of Ozim the barber emerges. As Ozim gets out he gives Nikolai a fifty-pound note.18 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN - DAY 18 Two of the little girl violinists are fighting, pulling each other's hair. The third is sobbing, sitting on the floor. A young woman in a party dress is carrying a huge silver bowl of sauce across the kitchen. Anna looks delighted at the noise and energy of the place. Finally Semyon emerges from a cloud of steam with a scrap of paper. SEMYON This is an agency that hires casual kitchen staff. Maybe you will have more luck there. But I think they will be closed until New Year. As Anna takes the address, Kirill puts his head around the door and yells through the noise. KIRILL Papa, Ozim is here. Semyon is alarmed and claps his hand in urgent fashion. SEMYON Ten minutes!! (to the rest of the kitchen) Fish, fish, fish! Ten minutes! OK, Kirill, get him a drink and tell him I am coming. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 16.18 CONTINUED: 18 Semyon takes a pot from the heat, suddenly flustered. SEMYON (CONT'D) Anna, I'm so sorry I couldn't help. It is sad. ANNA That's OK. I'll probably find out more when I get her diary translated. SEMYON Her diary? There is the tiniest of changes in Semyon's manner. He lays his heavy pot down. ANNA I found her diary in her bag. A pause. Semyon disappears into a billow of steam to put a pan onto the heat then re-emerges. SEMYON Why did you not tell me you found a diary? He peers at her for a moment, his eyes hardening a little. SEMYON (CONT'D) OK, Anna, this is how it will be. You will bring the diary here and I will translate it for you. Then if we get the names of any relatives I will call them myself. I am something of a... community leader for the Russians here in this unfriendly city. What do you say? Semyon hoists a passing child into his arms. ANNA I was going to ask my uncle.... SEMYON (apparently not hearing) And when you come I will make you some more gravy like your papa used to make and you can try the (MORE) (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 17.18 CONTINUED: (2) 18 SEMYON (CONT'D) fish with the sauce. OK? Tomorrow, yes? Shall we say seven? Anna is a little overwhelmed. SEMYON (CONT'D) Then it is settled. But for now, you must forgive me. Semyon shrugs then kisses Anna on both cheeks. SEMYON (CONT'D) Dosvedania. (Goodbye) ANNA Dosvedania. Anna heads for the door that leads back to the restaurant. Semyon goes back to stirring but as he stirs he calls out. SEMYON Oh Anna, you always work at the Trafalgar hospital? ANNA Yes, always. A pause before Anna leaves Semyon to his clouds of steam.19 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 19 Kirill and Ozim are talking confidentially in a mix of Russian and Turkish whispers at a table. Ozim's wife is at a table alone, well out of their earshot, smoking a cigarette and peeling glazed figs. As Anna walks by, Ozim and Kirill stop talking. The scene has a much darker mood to the bustling scene in the kitchen, but for now Anna feels no unease. As she passes, Kirill surveys her with a deadly smile and a professional eye. KIRILL Hey, you OK? You want a drink? ANNA No, thanks. I'm driving. As Anna smiles, Ozim mumbles something in Turkish and Kirill shushes him. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 18.19 CONTINUED: 19 KIRILL OK. Merry Christmas. Drive safely. Ozim giggles. Anna departs.20 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 20 Anna emerges into the daylight. As she does she sees that four expensive-looking cars have already parked and various ostentatiously dressed Russian and Turkish couples with their children are emerging from their cars. The women are all wearing furs, even the little girls. The men wear leather or dark suits. They greet each other exuberantly as they emerge from their cars. Anna suddenly feels slightly uneasy. As she approaches her motorbike she sees Nikolai leaning against the bonnet of his car, smoking, still wearing shades. His bumper is almost touching Anna's bike. NIKOLAI (in Russian) Nice bike. ANNA What? NIKOLAI Nice bike. ANNA Thank you. NIKOLAI A Ural. You don't see them anymore. ANNA It was my dad's. NIKOLAI How much do you want for it? Anna has already taken a dislike to this man. He is arrogant and looks potentially violent. His shades, suit and tattoos say it all. ANNA (irritated) It has sentimental value. Nikolai rolls the concept around in his mind and considers. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 18A.20 CONTINUED: 20 NIKOLAI `Sentimental value'. I've heard of that. Anna puts her helmet on. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 19.20 CONTINUED: (2) 20 NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You're not staying for the party? ANNA No. NIKOLAI Nor me. Chauffeurs don't get invited. You want to go for a drink instead? Anna mounts her bike. ANNA It's Christmas. Everything's closed. Nikolai smiles. NIKOLAI Sometimes if things are closed you just open them up, you know? Anna now feels intimidated and luckily the bike fires first time. She rides away. Nikolai watches her go and then stubs his cigarette.21 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM - NIGHT 21 Sudden silence... perhaps the ticking of a clock. This is Anna's Christmas dinner, a total contrast to the chaos of the restaurant. Stepan is attempting to carve the chicken. STEPAN Anna, how come is it that your boyfriend isn't here to carve? Stepan takes a large sip of vodka. ANNA I don't live with Oliver any more, Uncle Stepan. I'm living back here for a bit. HELEN (softly) For as long as you want. STEPAN I knew he would run away from you. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 20.21 CONTINUED: 21 ANNA He didn't run away. You make me sound like a burning building. STEPAN Black men always run away. HELEN Oh Stepan! STEPAN What? I am allowed to be honest? HELEN He was a doctor, Stepan. ANNA What the hell has that got to do with it? A pause. Stepan sips his vodka. STEPAN It is not natural to mix race and race. That is why your baby died inside you. Anna slams her napkin onto the table. HELEN Stepan, shut up! (Anna gets to her feet) Please Anna. Helen takes Anna's hand but she turns and leaves. Helen stands to follow her, but first she whips Stepan's vodka away from him. HELEN (CONT'D) You're just how he was. Stupid bloody drunken Russians.22 EXT. HELEN'S HOUSE. GARDEN - NIGHT 22 The garden is just outside the kitchen. Anna is lighting a cigarette. Helen steps outside and reacts to the cigarette. She is about to admonish Anna for smoking, but Anna speaks first. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 21.22 CONTINUED: 22 ANNA It's Christmas. I'm thirty-one. A pause. Anna blows smoke, clearly upset. HELEN Anna, you know what he's like. ANNA I don't give a damn about Stepan. Who has that poor baby got in the whole world? Helen reacts. HELEN I knew this would happen. ANNA Good. Fine. So you know everything. HELEN Anna, she isn't your responsibility. ANNA The baby is my responsibility until I hand her over to the mother. The mother is dead. HELEN Then it's up to the proper authorities. Anna smiles as if in agreement. ANNA The proper authorities will all be skiing until after New Year. Anna coughs a little then stubs her cigarette. Helen takes the butt as if it were poisonous. HELEN It's part of the grieving. ANNA What grieving? Helen touches her hand. An inadequate gesture. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 22.22 CONTINUED: (2) 22 HELEN In the last year you've lost your father and you lost a baby. Anna is irritated but doesn't put words to her feelings. HELEN (CONT'D) Come in and have your dinner. ANNA I'm not hungry. Anna and Helen look into each other's eyes for a moment before Helen heads for the kitchen, carrying the cigarette butt as if it were a deadly snake.22A INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. S.C.B.U. CHRISTINE'S PRIVATE ROOM -22A NIGHT In a private room in the Special Care Baby Unit, Anna approaches Tatiana's baby's plastic crib. The baby is tightly bundled up, sound asleep. Through the windows of the room, we see the darkened, quiet ward outside - another world. Anna stands over the baby, her face full of emotion. There we see pain, loss, shame, emptiness, isolation. Tears begin to roll from her eyes, and then she is sobbing soundlessly.23 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 23 The Trans-Siberian restaurant is smoky with cigarettes and cigars. The party is in full swing with two dozen guests and family. One of the golden-haired children is playing violin badly. The language is Russian, English and Turkish mixed. Kirill is bringing a huge baked carp to the table. His mobile phone rings and he wipes his hands on a towel to answer it. When he hears the voice, Kirill glances at his father and moves quickly out of earshot. Semyon notices but hides his concern. As Kirill walks, a child tugs his leg and holds up a soft toy, asking a question in Russian. KIRILL (to child) He's called Goofy... Goofy yeah. (into phone) So the coast is clear, yeah? What? I said `coast'. (MORE) (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 22A.23 CONTINUED: 23 KIRILL (CONT'D) (pause) No, not the beach. It's an English expression, you fucking baboon. I mean... (hissing out of ear shot) ...there are no police. You sure? Good. Kirill glances over at Semyon, who is apparently lost amongst a sea of children, but we see from the corner of his eye he is watching Kirill. (CONTINUED) GREEN Revision - 11/24/06 23.23 CONTINUED: (2) 23 KIRILL (CONT'D) (to phone) No, my dad's not involved. I'm a big boy now. I do my own stuff. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Kirill cuts the call and nods to Ozim, who stubs his cigar. Semyon notices their silent communication, then turns to one of the violin-playing angels, smiles, and kisses her on both cheeks.24 OMITTED 2425 EXT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP - NIGHT 25 We see the car pull up sharply outside Ozim's barber's shop. Nikolai jumps out and opens the door for Ozim.26 OMITTED 26 The three men walk to the door beside the barber shop. Ozim takes a bunch of keys out and prepares to open the door to the upstairs. He stops. OZIM The driver stays down here. Kirill smiles and shakes his head. KIRILL You really think I do this kind of thing? Kirill puts his hand on Nikolai's shoulder KIRILL (CONT'D) This guy's not a driver. He's an undertaker. Ozim looks at Nikolai, highly dubious. BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 24.27 INT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP. UPSTAIRS ROOMS - NIGHT 27 The rooms above Ozim's shop have been converted into a drinking club. Ozim leads Nikolai and Kirill through the debris of the night before. As they walk through, Ekrem suddenly leaps out of the darkness with a yell. Kirill and Nikolai both react with instinctive aggression. OZIM Hey, hey, hey Ekrem, sakim, durgun, durgun. EKREM I got tickets, Ozim. It's with Chelsea. They said there was no tickets but I got tickets for the Chelsea game. OZIM OK, OK, OK. You go and watch a DVD, yeah? Ekrem nods and hugs Ozim. We realize he is slightly deranged. Finally he lets Ozim go and leaves. Kirill watches him go. KIRILL He knows to say he hasn't seen us, right Ozim? Ozim finds the key to the kitchen. OZIM He don't know anything. He's touched by the angels. Ozim opens the kitchen door.28 INT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP. KITCHEN - NIGHT 28 Inside the kitchen there are carcasses of lambs hanging from meat hooks. There are knives and skewers around the place. Ozim stops and locks the kitchen door behind them.29 INT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP. KITCHEN - NIGHT 29 The freezer door opens and Ozim gestures towards a large package bound up in black bin liners which are dusted with frost. Kirill nods to Nikolai who grabs the package and hauls it out onto the kitchen floor. Kirill tears a hole in the bin liner and we see the frost-dusted face of Soyka. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 25.29 CONTINUED: 29 Kirill studies the face and nods. KIRILL That's him. Kirill crosses himself. KIRILL (CONT'D) There was a time when he was like a brother to me. He puts his hand on his heart with mock solemnity. KIRILL (CONT'D) Now he looks like a fucking ice cream. Kirill giggles. OZIM (softly) Hey, hey, show some respect for a dead man. KIRILL Respect? This is respect. Kirill reaches into his pocket and produces an envelope which he hands to Ozim. As Ozim opens the envelope and begins to count the huge wad of cash, Kirill turns to Nikolai. KIRILL (CONT'D) OK, Nikolai, he's all yours. And show some respect. This Muslim is scared of ghosts. Nikolai squeezes the body inside the bags. It is rock hard. NIKOLAI Have you got a hair dryer?30 INT. OZIM'S BARBER SHOP. KITCHEN - NIGHT 30 We cut close to an ancient-looking hair dryer from the shop downstairs being trained onto a human hand with a large eagle tattoo. We pull wide to reveal the full, gruesome scene. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 26.30 CONTINUED: 30 Nikolai has the body of Soyka laid out on a surface, his head still bound up in a bin bag, his lower portions bound up similarly. Nikolai is de-frosting Soyka's left hand with the hair dryer, concentrating on his ring finger which has a gold ring on it. The parts of Soyka's shirt and jacket which are visible are crusted with frozen blood. Nikolai is wearing rubber gloves. As he dries, Nikolai takes a sip of coffee. Ozim is watching this scene with horror. Kirill has his arms folded, mightily impressed. Finally the hand is thawed enough for Nikolai to remove the gold ring. He studies an inscription and then offers it to Ozim. Ozim shakes his head as if the thing were a contagion. Nikolai shrugs and pockets it. He then turns the hair dryer back on and blows some hot air onto the crisply bloody chest of Soyka. He tugs at the frozen lapel of the jacket and blows air into the inside pocket. Within a few moments he is able to remove Soyka's glistening, thawing wallet which is caked in frozen blood. He opens it (we glimpse a photo of a wife and children) and blows hot air onto the money inside. He tugs a wad of frozen bank notes from the wallet, all stuck together by drops of frozen blood. He offers this money to Ozim as well but Ozim shakes his head vigorously. Kirill hoots with laughter. Ozim is now staring at Nikolai as if he were a devil from hell. Nikolai grabs a plastic bag and puts the money inside it, then pockets the frozen wad. He tosses the rest of the frozen wallet to Ozim, who instinctively catches it. NIKOLAI You'd better burn that. Ozim, reacting to the cold of the wallet and to the horror of it, drops the thing on the floor. Nikolai looks at Ozim as if he were a complete amateur. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Did you finish cutting his hair? Ozim can't answer. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I just thought you might want six- fifty out of his pockets. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 27.30 CONTINUED: (2) 30 Kirill laughs. Nikolai takes a deep breath to prepare himself. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) OK, now I'm going to do his teeth and cut off his fingers. (to Ozim) You might want to leave the room. Ozim thinks, decides, leaves fast. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You too, Kirill. Kirill smiles and pats Nikolai on the cheek. Kirill leaves. Nikolai is left alone. His hand shakes a little as he picks up his cup of coffee.31 EXT. NINE ELMS. ABANDONED DOCK - MORNING 31 Nikolai pulls up beside a rusting crane on the abandoned dock in a dry-cleaner's van. Kirill watches as Nikolai grabs the semi-thawed body, now bagged and tied, lifts it onto his shoulder, and smartly approaches the dockside. KIRILL Aren't you going to weight him down or something? Nikolai drops the body into the water with a splash. NIKOLAI If you want to dump a body, this is the place. The currents keep it under the surface until past the barrier. Nikolai and Kirill watch as the body is swallowed by a fast ocean-bound current.32 EXT. LONDON STREET - NIGHT 32 Anna pulls up at some lights on her motorbike. TATIANA (V.O.) My friend said he would get me to Amsterdam and from there we could find a way into London. I have been practising my singing and (MORE) (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 28.32 CONTINUED: 32 TATIANA (V.O.) (CONT'D) have even rejoined the church choir. I am also practising my English.33 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 33 Semyon sits alone at the dinner table in the restaurant where before there was family and uproar. Outside it's dark and raining. He is reading a Russian crime novel. A half-empty bottle of vodka sits on the table. Tatiana's voice-over continues as we cut inside the restaurant. TATIANA (V.O.) My friend says his uncle owns the restaurant where you can sing. He is sure this man will take care of me. There is a knock at the door and Semyon looks up sharply. His eyes glisten. He puts his novel aside.34 INT./EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. DOOR - NIGHT 34 Semyon is unlocking the door and discovering, in the drizzle and half light, that it is Anna. SEMYON Ah. My dear! I wasn't expecting you so early. ANNA Is it OK?35 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 35 Semyon and Anna are sitting down at the candlelit table. Anna fumbles in her bag and produces a sheaf of photocopied sheets. She has photocopied the pages of the diary and they are laid out in segments on each page. ANNA I copied the whole thing. Semyon takes the pages and looks troubled. SEMYON Where is the original? (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 29.35 CONTINUED: 35 ANNA I'm going to keep it. Maybe give it to Tatiana's daughter someday. Semyon looks thwarted but hides it well. He studies the photocopied sheets for a while then looks up and smiles. SEMYON I will need my spectacles and a clear head. Today I broke my rules and drank vodka. Tomorrow I will translate it. He folds the papers carefully. SEMYON (CONT'D) Then I will bring what I have done to your home. Where do you live, Anna? There is nothing in Semyon's smile to cause alarm but Anna perhaps remembers Nikolai. Finally... ANNA Not far. I can drop by and pick it up. SEMYON Then maybe I can drive you home. ANNA I'm fine. I'm on my motorbike. Semyon stares at her for a moment. SEMYON So what will happen to the poor child? ANNA After Christmas, they'll do a missing persons report. SEMYON Who will? ANNA The police. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 30.35 CONTINUED: (2) 35 Semyon doesn't blink. At that moment a little girl of seven (MARIA) emerges from the darkness, carrying a soft toy. MARIA Grandpa. SEMYON Hey, hey, Maria, go back to bed. MARIA I'm too sad. Next Christmas isn't for another hundreds and hundreds of days. Semyon takes her onto his knee. As he does, we see, for the first time, an eagle tattoo on his wrist. SEMYON But you have had so many presents. The girl wafts Semyon's cigar smoke. MARIA You shouldn't smoke, Grandpa. SEMYON I know. Semyon cuddles Maria and stubs his cigar. Anna smiles at the warm family scene, perhaps remembering her own father.36 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 36 Nikolai gets out of the Mercedes and helps an extremely pissed Kirill out of the car into the rain. Kirill is so drunk he slips through Nikolai's hands and lands in the gutter. KIRILL We're partners now, man, you know? (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 31.36 CONTINUED: 36 NIKOLAI Yeah, yeah, I know. Nikolai manages to lift him to his feet again. As they head towards the restaurant, Anna emerges. Nikolai looks up, curious, as Semyon kisses her on both cheeks in the doorway. As she turns Kirill stumbles forwards and collapses in front of her. Nikolai looks up at Anna, his face splashed with rain. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) What? You never seen anybody pissed before? Semyon looks down at the drunken Kirill and slams the door of the restaurant. Nikolai sighs, then turns to Kirill and starts to go through his pockets. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Come on, Kirill. Where are your keys? Anna walks around the two of them, watching the undignified struggle as Nikolai finds Kirill's keys. Nikolai smiles at her. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Who are you, anyway? Anna hurries away into the rain. Nikolai finds Kirill's keys and drags him toward the door of the restaurant.37 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 37 Nikolai heaves Kirill into a chair. Semyon is back at his novel and watches as Kirill attempts to get to his feet and then stumbles to the floor. He slumps down, now totally unconscious, breathing deeply. Nikolai smiles. NIKOLAI We went to a Kurdish place. They don't even celebrate Christmas. Semyon steps up to where Kirill is lying and stands over him for a moment. Then he kicks him hard in the guts with all his might. Nikolai is shocked, and grabs Semyon's arm. A hand laid upon him is like deadly poison. Kirill grunts and moans. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 32.37 CONTINUED: 37 KIRILL Hey, Papa, what did I do? This is Merry Christmas or what? Semyon kicks him hard in the guts again. NIKOLAI I think he's had enough. Nikolai steps in between Semyon and Kirill. Semyon is shocked that anyone should face him like this. SEMYON Who... the fuck... are you to tell me enough? Nikolai's face hardens. NIKOLAI We're partners. Nikolai looks down at Kirill. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) He's thunder, I'm lightning. He makes all the noise, I do all the damage. SEMYON I hired you as a driver... Semyon bends to roughly hoist Kirill into a chair. SEMYON (CONT'D) ...someone to stop him killing himself. NIKOLAI Well, you got more than a driver. Nikolai reaches into his pocket for a business card and offers it to Semyon. As Semyon looks at the card in the candle light, he also sees the TATTOO OF AN EAGLE on Nikolai's hand. It is obvious that the tattoo means more than the card to Semyon, and he reacts. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I run a mini-cab business. (MORE) (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 33.37 CONTINUED: (2) 37 NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Albanians, Chechens, Russians. They deliver packages. Anything. Anywhere. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I only took this job so that I could get to meet you. (in Russian) I think you and I could do business together. A pause. Semyon looks at Nikolai with utter contempt. SEMYON I have no idea what business you're talking about. Now get out. Nikolai smiles and then leaves. Semyon watches him go then peers at his drunken, sleeping son with something approaching compassion.38 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 38 Nikolai hurries out to his car in the rain. He hears an engine splutter and spots Anna still trying to kick-start her motorbike. He approaches. She's already soaked. Nikolai watches her try to start the bike and fail. NIKOLAI You've got water in it. Deadpan, Anna looks up and holds out her hand into pouring rain. ANNA Water? What makes you think that? Anna tries to start the bike again. Nothing. NIKOLAI The postmen used these. In my village. When I was a boy. Russian copy of BMW flat twin. Anna tries one more time to start the bike and growls with fury. Nikolai gently takes her shoulders and after a brief resistance Anna climbs off the bike. Nikolai sits astride it. He kicks it. It fails to start. Anna folds her arms. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 33A.38 CONTINUED: 38 He tries again. And again. He climbs off. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 34.38 CONTINUED: (2) 38 NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Get a bus. Anna curses under her breath. Nikolai isn't sure what to make of her. She begins to chain the bike's rear wheel. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You got far to go? Anna tucks her crash helmet under her arm and prepares to set off walking. ANNA Just across the park. NIKOLAI I'm a driver. I even do limousines. Look... Nikolai opens the rear car door. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) If Semyon found out I let one of his guests walk home in the rain, he'd fire me. And I can take care of your bike. So... Nikolai holds open the rear car door. Rain pours.39 EXT. LONDON STREET - NIGHT 39 Nikolai is driving Anna through the rain-swept streets. The wipers beat time as they drive in silence. As Nikolai holds the steering wheel, Anna sees the intricate detail of the eagle tattoo on the back of his right hand. NIKOLAI So you're a midwife. Jesus. Anna smiles politely. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) What's it like? ANNA You get used to it. A pause. Nikolai seems vaguely horrified at a memory. NIKOLAI I didn't faint, but it was close. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 35.39 CONTINUED: 39 ANNA How many have you got? Nikolai half shrugs. Pause. ANNA (CONT'D) What, you don't know? NIKOLAI Yeah, I know, I know, it's just... it makes me upset, you know? Thinking about it. This time of year. They're back in Yekaterinburg. In the forests. Near the mountains. A long pause. ANNA Left here. Nikolai turns. ANNA (CONT'D) So Semyon employs you? NIKOLAI I'm... sort of freelance. ANNA You said he'd fire you. Nikolai doesn't answer. Anna decides she can be bold. ANNA (CONT'D) Did you ever meet a girl called Tatiana? NIKOLAI I meet lots of girls called Tatiana. ANNA She was pregnant. NIKOLAI In that case, no, I never heard of her. Anna doesn't care for the smile on Nikolai's face. ANNA She died last night on my shift. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 36.39 CONTINUED: (2) 39 NIKOLAI I thought you did birth. ANNA Sometimes birth and death go together. (pause) She had needle punctures all over both arms. Dehydration, emaciation. Early presentation of syphilis. Probably a prostitute. At the age of fourteen. NIKOLAI (quickly, without a pause) You know what? I hate the rain. This time of year. You ever been to Russia at Christmas? Man, snow that covers your whole house. Nikolai glances at Anna in the rear-view mirror. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Oh yeah. And the ice. Whole lakes covered in ice. You don't want to walk across them, though. Ice gets thin where you least expect it. ANNA You think Semyon's son knew her? NIKOLAI Like I said, I'm a driver. I go left, I go right, I go straight ahead. That's it. Anna nods, her curiosity and suspicions aroused. Nikolai glances at her. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) What? ANNA Just here is great. Nikolai pulls over and Anna opens her door to escape. ANNA (CONT'D) How much do I owe you? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 37.39 CONTINUED: (3) 39 NIKOLAI Christmas present.39A EXT. HELEN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 39A Nikolai watches her hurry to her front door and let herself in.40 EXT. THE BANKS OF THE THAMES - NEXT MORNING 40 Somewhere within sight of the Thames barrier. A dozen policemen and forensic investigators are milling round on a shale beach, the icy waters of the Thames lapping at their feet.40A INT. FORENSIC TENT - MORNING 40A A large tent has been erected over the body of Soyka. Inside the tent two senior police officers await the arrival of a third man, a specialist from the Russian desk (YURI), who is not dressed for the weather. He has obviously been dragged out of bed. He is led to the side of the body. One of the officers pulls up the dead man's hand and shows him the eagle tattoo. OFFICER We think he might be Russian Mafia. Yuri studies the tattoo, then borrows a torch. He crouches to push up the wet trouser leg on the corpse's right leg. When the knee is exposed in torch light we see a small star tattooed on the knee cap. YURI He is actually a Chechen. He is also a member of the vory v zakone. The stars on the knees mean he would never kneel before anyone. Yuri opens the dead man's shirt and we see a tattoo of an eight-pointed star on his chest. YURI (CONT'D) In Russian prisons, your life story is written on your body in tattoos. You don't exist without tattoos. (pause) He was a captain. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 37A.40A CONTINUED: 40A He then checks out the fingers in the torchlight and we glimpse that the finger tips have been sawn off. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 37B.40A CONTINUED: (2) 40A YURI (CONT'D) But he has been processed professionally. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 38.40A CONTINUED: (3) 40A Yuri straightens and grabs a paper towel to wipe his hands. OFFICER There was something else. It was... inside the body. Chest cavity. The officer holds up a small zip-lock bag which has a handwritten note sealed inside it. The handwriting is just visible through the wet cellophane.40B EXT. THE BANKS OF THE THAMES - MORNING 40B Yuri steps outside the forensic tent. He opens the bag and takes out the note. He unfolds it to read, then smiles to himself.41 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. ANNA'S BEDROOM - MORNING 41 Anna is drying her hair, looking at herself in the mirror. She turns off the dryer. There is a knock on the door. HELEN Anna? Helen enters looking anxious. We see Stepan hovering in the background. HELEN (CONT'D) Stepan, come here. Tell her what you told me. Stepan stands primly in the doorway, strangely defiant. ANNA What? (pause) Stepan, what? I'm late for work. He shakes his head angrily. Finally from behind his back he produces Tatiana's diary. ANNA (CONT'D) Who gave you that? HELEN It was on the dresser. ANNA Mum, you can't go through my things. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 38A.41 CONTINUED: 41 HELEN You wanted him to translate it. Anna gets up to grab the diary. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 39.41 CONTINUED: (2) 41 ANNA And he said he wouldn't do it so I've found somebody else. Stepan explodes. STEPAN No Anna! You don't go to someone else with this! You don't go to anyone! Nasilovanie, it means rape. Iglah, it means needle. Prostitutcia, perhaps you can guess. Stepan hands the diary to Anna and then turns. STEPAN (CONT'D) I go to wash my hands. He disappears. Anna and Helen are left in awkward silence. Anna buries the diary in her dressing table drawer. Helen looks at her with anxiety. HELEN Anna, Stepan said this girl ended up in the hands of the vory v zakone. Do you know what that means? ANNA Just because I'm back in this room doesn't mean I'm twelve again. HELEN You never listened to me even then! ANNA Look, if I don't find a relative in the next few days they'll put Christine out for fostering. Once she's in the system, she'll never get out again. A pause. HELEN Who named her Christine? (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 40.41 CONTINUED: (3) 41 ANNA I had to call her something. It sounds like Christmas. (pause) She's very beautiful. Helen is now deeply concerned. HELEN If I can persuade Stepan to translate it, will you leave the rest to the police? Anna looks at Helen, then digs out the diary and hands it to her. ANNA Tell him I've heard bad words before. Helen is about to leave. She stops in the doorway. HELEN Your father used to say the vory are a contagious disease. There's no cure once they've touched you. A pause. Anna smiles. ANNA Momma, this is London.42 INT. SUBURBAN HOUSE. NEGLECTED SITTING ROOM - DAY 42 We are in HARLESDEN, NORTH LONDON. A large portable stereo is playing rock music. The curtains are drawn against daylight. The living room is decorated in seventies suburban style, but with the wall paper peeling and the paint work fading. Kitsch paintings still decorate the walls. Six young East-European girls are sitting on a broken-down sofa and on hard-backed chairs, wearing short skirts. Their eyes are sunken and their faces vacant of expression, but they are painted with so much make-up they almost look like tiny, sad clowns. They sit in silence as the music blares out. After a few moments a young Albanian man enters and claps his hands. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 41.42 CONTINUED: 42 ALBANIAN OK, boss is here. Boss, boss. You make him happy... All the girls apart from one immediately get to their feet and begin to dance to the music, their bodies moving awkwardly and painfully. The Albanian approaches the one girl who refused to stand and yanks her to her feet. He slaps her hard and hisses at her in Albanian. She tries to sit down again but he pulls her up and slaps her again. Finally he shoves her into the middle of the room and she begins to dance, sobbing as she does. ALBANIAN (CONT'D) No fucking crying. It's a party!43 EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE - DAY 43 Kirill and Nikolai are climbing out of Nikolai's Mercedes. Kirill is in full flow as they walk towards the house. The rock music is audible outside the house. KIRILL So he said to me, `who is this driver guy?' I laughed so hard. Kirill knocks on the door hard. KIRILL (CONT'D) And I said you were the safest guy I'd met. Solid. A pause. NIKOLAI And what did he say? KIRILL You know my dad. He didn't say nothing. But his eyes looked impressed. The door opens and the Albanian opens his arms in welcome. ALBANIAN Kirill! KIRILL Get out of the fucking way, you black gypsy baboon. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 42.43 CONTINUED: 43 Kirill pushes his way inside and Nikolai follows.44 INT. SUBURBAN HOUSE. SITTING ROOM - DAY 44 Kirill and Nikolai are swigging whisky from the bottle and dancing with the girls. Some of the girls are drinking, too, and managing to laugh. Kirill is dancing maniacally and swinging his girl around faster and faster until she falls over. Nikolai swigs his drink and notices the girl who refused to stand up. She is standing in the corner, sobbing. Nikolai doesn't care to look at her for more than a second and he goes back to dancing. After a moment Kirill dances his way over to Nikolai and yells above the music. KIRILL OK, which one you going to fuck!? NIKOLAI (laughing) What's it to you? KIRILL Serious. Pick one. NIKOLAI I'm just enjoying myself, man... Kirill suddenly stops dancing and stares at Nikolai. He yells again over the music. KIRILL You hear me? You're going to fuck one of these girls. NIKOLAI OK, OK, Jesus... KIRILL You're going to fuck one of these girls right now. That's an order. NIKOLAI What? What's the matter with you? Kirill suddenly goes to the stereo system and yanks the plug from the wall. Silence. The girls look terrified. The only sound is the sobbing of the girl who won't dance. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 43.44 CONTINUED: 44 Kirill is glaring at Nikolai. KIRILL Come on Nikolai. Who are you going to fuck? A pause. KIRILL (CONT'D) I'm recommending you to my dad. I want to make sure you're not a fucking queer. Kirill looks suddenly wild. He swigs his whisky. A long pause. NIKOLAI You've drunk enough Kirill. KIRILL Enough? Kirill hurls his whisky bottle against the wall. The girls all flinch. KIRILL (CONT'D) You fucking Siberian ox don't tell a vor what is enough. A pause. Nikolai studies Kirill's anger. KIRILL (CONT'D) I've brought you to my dad's best stable. He uses this place himself. They're all clean. Now I'm going to watch you fuck one of these girls to prove to me that you ain't queer. A pause. KIRILL (CONT'D) So which one is it going to be? Silence. Nikolai looks around the room. Finally... Nikolai turns to the girl who is sobbing. NIKOLAI Her. Kirill smiles. WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 44.45 INT. SUBURBAN HOUSE. BEDROOM - DAY 45 Nikolai is fucking the girl, who is now silent. She is on all fours, registering no emotion. Kirill is leaning against the wall, drinking wine from the bottle, watching Nikolai with burning eyes, his lust and drunken jealousy mixing together. Nikolai grits his teeth and comes inside the girl. Kirill whoops and whistles and begins to applaud. The girl is still silent, expressionless. KIRILL You did OK! You did OK. NIKOLAI Yeah? Nikolai glares at Kirill. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Well if my examination is over, get the fuck out of here while I get dressed. Kirill grins and offers the girl an elaborate bow before leaving. Finally alone, Nikolai gently helps the girl to lie down. She is numb. He covers her up with a blanket then begins to pull on his clothes. The girl is staring up at the ceiling. After a few moments she begins to sing a Russian folk song softly under her breath. Nikolai speaks to her softly in Russian. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) (in Russian) What's your last name? A pause. Finally the girl stops singing but is silent. Nikolai is insistent. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) (in Russian) Tell me your last name. GIRL Kirilenko. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 45.45 CONTINUED: 45 NIKOLAI (in Russian) Where are you from? Silence. She looks up and stares into Nikolai's eyes. She sees some urgency there... GIRL Ukraine. NIKOLAI (in Ukrainian) Where? Which village? Which town? GIRL (in Ukrainian) Irpen. Outside Kiev. The girl is asking a silent question but Nikolai doesn't linger. He heads for the door then stops and turns. NIKOLAI (in Ukrainian) Stay alive a little longer.46 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. S.C.B.U. CHRISTINE'S PRIVATE ROOM -46 NIGHT In the half-lit private room, Anna is dancing with Christine in her arms. She is singing a lullaby softly to her. The door is open to the rest of the ward and all the other babies are silent. Finally she lays a sleeping Christine back in her crib. She sits down on the bed where the mother should be. She curses herself silently and gets to her feet, determined to pull herself together. As she starts to leave the private room to enter the ward, she is suddenly confronted by Semyon. He is standing in the shadows, a Bavarian trilby in his hands. Anna gasps with shock. Semyon speaks softly... SEMYON Hello Anna. I came on tiptoes. ANNA How did you get in here? (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 45A.46 CONTINUED: 46 SEMYON There are always open doors, Anna Ivanovna. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 46.46 CONTINUED: (2) 46 Anna glances at an alarm button. ANNA You're not allowed in here. SEMYON Please Anna, let me speak. Semyon looks to be almost in tears. He speaks softly. SEMYON (CONT'D) I translated the diary... A baby begins to cry and is comforted somewhere across the ward. SEMYON (CONT'D) I was shocked to discover... that my son Kirill is mentioned many times. Semyon appears to be fighting tears. SEMYON (CONT'D) I have known for some years that he has strayed from the path I set out for him. His mother died when he was very young. A pause. Anna almost begins to buy his sorrow... ANNA What does it say about him? Semyon looks up, his eyes filled with tears. SEMYON Many bad things. A pause. SEMYON (CONT'D) But Anna please. Let me deal with him. If the diary should find its way to the police... Semyon wipes his eyes. SEMYON (CONT'D) Some of the things my son did are illegal. Anna, he is a good boy. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 47.46 CONTINUED: (3) 46 A pause. ANNA I don't care about him. I care about the baby. SEMYON Of course. Of course. And that is the baby? Semyon glances over Anna's shoulder into the corner where Christine is sleeping. Anna freezes and doesn't reply. Semyon takes her hand. SEMYON (CONT'D) Anna, I have made some inquiries and I have found out an address for Tatiana's family in Russia. That's where the baby belongs, no? Anna reacts but Semyon's face suddenly hardens... SEMYON (CONT'D) So... perhaps we can do a deal. He stares into her eyes. SEMYON (CONT'D) Do you understand me, Anna? At that moment a nurse walks by and hesitates when she sees Semyon. NURSE Anna? ANNA It's OK. He's just leaving. Semyon puts his hat onto his head. SEMYON You know where I am, Anna Ivanovna. He turns. SEMYON (CONT'D) And I know where you are. Semyon disappears into the shadows of the ward. As Anna reacts we hear Tatiana in V.O. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 48.46 CONTINUED: (4) 46 TATIANA (V.O.) I was thrown down the stairs and fell onto some sacks, like potato sacks...47 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. KITCHEN - DAY 47 Stepan is sitting at the kitchen table, translating Tatiana's diary aloud, as Helen transcribes it onto a note pad. Stepan's translation breaks up with emotion but he tries to remain detached. Helen also tries hard to concentrate on her task but wipes away a tear as she writes. Tatiana's V.O. slowly blends into Stepan's voice... STEPAN ...like potato sacks. Kirill came down after me and he hit me until I was bleeding. Then he tried to rape me but he couldn't do it... He just got madder and madder and kept hitting me. In the end his father came down. It was the father who raped me. He shouted at his son...'if you don't break a horse, it will never be tame, Kirill'. They hear a key in the door and prepare for Anna's arrival. When she enters she feels the tense silence. After a moment, Helen tries to be bright... HELEN Hello dear. How was your night? Anna sees the tears in both their eyes. She sees the diary and the transcription and sits down. HELEN (CONT'D) Stepan's arthritis is playing up. I'm taking dictation. Helen gets to her feet. HELEN (CONT'D) Would you like some tea or something? ANNA No. Anna gently pushes Helen back into her seat. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 49.47 CONTINUED: 47 HELEN What's wrong? ANNA He came to see me. Silence. ANNA (CONT'D) The man from the restaurant. He came to the hospital. Stepan leaps to his feet. STEPAN I told you this would happen! I told you! HELEN Sit down Stepan. STEPAN The devil is loose now. Everyone begins to talk at once... ANNA I know it's my fault... HELEN It's no one's fault... STEPAN They are in this room now. They are cancer... HELEN We should just sit down calmly and think... STEPAN I have a friend from Ukraine who owns a gun.... HELEN Stepan!! STEPAN ...from the war in Afghanistan. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 50.47 CONTINUED: (2) 47 HELEN Don't talk about guns... Anna suddenly stands up. ANNA Shut up both of you!!! Silence. Everyone catches their breath. ANNA (CONT'D) OK... now... what would dad have done? A pause. STEPAN We all know what he would have done. Stepan heads for the kitchen cupboard and produces a bottle of vodka. Rather than admonish him, Anna and Helen both nod agreement. Stepan pours three large vodkas. Stepan knocks his down. Anna and Helen take sips. HELEN And then he would have been practical. STEPAN He would ask if there were bullets for the gun. HELEN No! This isn't our world. We're just... ordinary people. STEPAN I dealt with the vory v zakone when I worked for the KGB. ANNA You never worked for the fucking KGB! HELEN Anna! STEPAN (primly) I was an auxiliary! (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 51.47 CONTINUED: (3) 47 HELEN Please! A stand off. Finally... HELEN (CONT'D) What did this man want? ANNA The diary. In return he'll give us an address for Tatiana's family. For Christine's family. A pause. They all look to each other. HELEN And that's all he wants? Stepan is utterly astounded. STEPAN You cannot do deals with these people! HELEN This isn't a deal. It's an exchange of information. STEPAN Have you forgotten already what I just read to you? HELEN We must be practical. ANNA Stepan, I think he was threatening to harm Christine. HELEN Then it's settled. STEPAN No!! No!! No!! HELEN (repeating as a mantra) Stepan, this isn't our world. We are ordinary people. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 52.47 CONTINUED: (4) 47 Stepan stares at them both for a long time. Finally he gets to his feet and points to the diary. STEPAN She was an ordinary person. He leaves. Anna and Helen hold hands, genuinely close now for the first time in a long time.48 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NEXT DAY 48 Nikolai pulls up in his car. He checks his look in the rear view mirror and puts on his sunglasses. As he gets out of the car he notices that Anna's motorbike is still there. He approaches it, strokes the bodywork. Suddenly, someone grabs him from behind. It's Kirill. KIRILL Hey, come on, Nikolai, I've got a Christmas present for you.49 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. BACK DELIVERY AREA - DAY 49 A white van is parked with its rear doors open, ready for unloading. Kirill shows Nikolai that the van is loaded with unmarked white boxes. KIRILL Open one. Nikolai opens one of the boxes and produces a bottle of vintage champagne. KIRILL (CONT'D) From France. Old as fuck. Old is good with wine. Sixty quid a bottle anywhere. Except I got them for ten quid a case. NIKOLAI From where? KIRILL `From where?' From where you don't ask. Give it here... Kirill snatches the bottle and begins to uncork it. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 53.49 CONTINUED: 49 KIRILL (CONT'D) If my dad says OK, I can start telling you about the serious stuff. Import, export. This booze is just for gifts to Papa's friends. The real import stuff is from Kabul, you understand? He pops the cork and swigs the frothing champagne. NIKOLAI Import-export sounds good. Kirill laughs. KIRILL You bet it's fucking good... Nikolai hands the bottle back. As he does, one of the van doors is kicked closed revealing Semyon, suddenly upon them. KIRILL (CONT'D) Jesus Christ, Papa... You scared me.... Semyon grabs the bottle of champagne and smashes it on the floor. Kirill recoils in terror. Nikolai straightens, faces up. KIRILL (CONT'D) What's wrong? We're just sampling it! Semyon is so furious he still can't speak. He grabs Kirill and slams him against the wall. Finally he hisses in his face. SEMYON Your friend Soyka is dead. KIRILL Yeah? So what? What's that got to do with me? SEMYON Don't lie to me!! Semyon slams Kirill against the wall once more. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 54.49 CONTINUED: (2) 49 KIRILL I swear I don't know nothing about it... SEMYON I said, don't lie to me! Semyon slams Kirill hard against the wall again. Suddenly Nikolai steps forward. NIKOLAI Your dad is right, Kirill. There's no point lying to him. A pause. Semyon and Kirill are frozen for a moment. Nikolai calmly lights a cigarette. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Ozim's nephew slit Soyka's throat. Kirill paid him to do it. There is stunned silence. Semyon loosens his grip on Kirill. KIRILL (in Russian) Shut your fucking mouth! NIKOLAI (in Russian) Your dad always knows the truth anyway. Nikolai and Semyon survey each other. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) But it's OK boss. You don't have to worry... SEMYON (incredulous) I don't have to worry? NIKOLAI I disposed of the body myself. The police won't find a thing. Semyon has now lost all interest in Kirill and is concentrating on Nikolai. He laughs with incredulity. SEMYON My son commits a murder? (MORE) (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 55.49 CONTINUED: (3) 49 SEMYON (CONT'D) On my own doorstep? A fellow soldier! And no one thought to tell me about it? NIKOLAI The vory code says you don't talk to anybody about your captain. Kirill is my captain. Semyon circles Nikolai. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) When I found out what had happened, I did what I had to do to clean the situation up. Kirill is about to speak but before he can, Nikolai speaks for him. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) It was a matter of honor. Soyka was spreading lies about Kirill. About your family. (in Russian) Kirill did the right thing. Semyon hisses with fury and grabs Nikolai. SEMYON I decide what is right and what is wrong. You do not kill a vor for no reason. Nikolai shrugs Semyon off, holding his ground. NIKOLAI You know as well as I do Soyka was talking to the police. A pause. Semyon is shocked at the depth of Nikolai's knowledge. He peers at him. SEMYON For a driver, you are well informed. NIKOLAI I've got connections with the Chechens who export cars. Soyka was speaking to the Russian desk. Scotland Yard. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 56.49 CONTINUED: (4) 49 A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) (in Russian) Kirill did a good thing for all our people. Our people will know that. In Semyon's silence Kirill finally gathers courage... KIRILL Papa, I swear to you, I was going to... SEMYON Shut up! Kirill is hurt that Semyon seems only to be interested in Nikolai. After studying Nikolai for a while... SEMYON (CONT'D) If you are so well informed, you will know Soyka has brothers. NIKOLAI (with a smile) That's OK. Kirill has got me. Semyon shows the first flicker of admiration. He then looks at Kirill with utter contempt, making the comparison with Nikolai obvious. SEMYON Get these boxes out of sight. Semyon leaves them. Kirill is angry, straightening his clothes. Finally he yells.... KIRILL You heard him, patsan! Get these boxes out of sight.50 INT. BURGER RESTAURANT - DAY 50 It is Saturday morning and the place is full of families. Christmas decorations are beginning to look ragged. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 57.50 CONTINUED: 50 Anna and Helen are sitting at a table, terrified but trying hard to stay calm. Stepan arrives with a tray of coffees and a burger. He sits, and Anna and Helen glance uneasily at each other. Stepan begins to eat noisily. ANNA How the hell can you eat? STEPAN I'm hungry. There is a tension that builds until Nikolai's Mercedes suddenly looms into view, filling the street window of the burger bar. Nikolai gets out of his car, all shades and sharp suit. ANNA That's their driver. Stepan very deliberately slides his hand into his inside pocket. HELEN (hissing) Tell me you haven't done anything ridiculous... Stepan removes his hand, empty, his bravado crushed. Nikolai enters the restaurant and spots Anna. He comes and sits at the table beside Stepan, opposite Anna. It's a tight squeeze. Anna and Helen are stiff with terror. Nikolai smiles. NIKOLAI Meet in a public place with lots of people around. Very wise. He smiles at Helen. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) And I see you brought along a body guard. Also very wise. Stepan is shaking with emotion and hisses something in Russian. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 58.50 CONTINUED: (2) 50 STEPAN (whispers, in Russian) When I was in the KGB, we knew how to deal with scum like you. Nikolai smiles. NIKOLAI (in Russian) When you were in what? HELEN Shush, Stepan. Anna? Nikolai is amused by the three of them. Anna produces Tatiana's diary and hands it to Nikolai. Nikolai studies it and nods. He gets to his feet... ANNA (shaking) Now you give me the address. NIKOLAI What address? ANNA Tatiana's family. NIKOLAI I don't know what you're talking about. Nikolai calmly heads for the door. Stepan hisses. STEPAN I told you! I knew they would do this.... Anna gets to her feet. HELEN Anna! No! Come back here! Anna races out of the restaurant in pursuit of Nikolai.51 EXT. BURGER RESTAURANT - DAY 51 Nikolai has emerged into the busy suburban street and is about to get in to his car. Anna flies at him, yelling. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 59.51 CONTINUED: 51 ANNA She was fourteen! Read the diary! She was fourteen when he raped her! Nikolai casually hits the key fob of his car. ANNA (CONT'D) You murdered her! You bastards murdered her! Passers-by stare at Anna. Helen and Stepan have come out of the restaurant to restrain her. Nikolai stops and judges the fury on Anna's face. He speaks calmly. NIKOLAI Anger is very dangerous. It makes people do stupid things. Forget any of this ever happened. You're in the wrong place, Anna Ivanovna. He gestures at the burger restaurant. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You belong in there. With nice people. Stay away from people like me. Anna and Nikolai are staring at each other, suddenly a strange connection between them. Then Stepan steps forward and spits in Nikolai's face, delivering a Russian curse as he does so. Nikolai almost reacts out of instinct but stops himself. Nikolai wipes his face and peers into Anna's eyes. Finally he gets into his car and drives away.52 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 52 Nikolai is alone, sitting at a candlelit table, reading Tatiana's diary. We hear Tatiana in voice-over... TATIANA (V.O.) I am not sure I can carry on another day. The windows won't open so I can't throw myself out. They inject me every day with heroin. (MORE) (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 60.52 CONTINUED: 52 TATIANA (V.O.) (CONT'D) Sometimes I think this is all a hallucination... He sees Semyon approaching from the kitchen and closes the diary. Semyon grabs a bottle of vodka from the bar on his way to sit opposite Nikolai. Nikolai pushes the diary across the table. Semyon pours two drinks. SEMYON It is good to have someone who I can trust to do simple tasks. A pause as Semyon glances at a few pages of diary. SEMYON (CONT'D) In this business, sometimes the biggest danger comes from the most stupid things. You can't afford to be careless in any area. Nikolai senses a change of attitude towards him. As if Semyon were beginning to accept him into the fold. Semyon raises a toast. SEMYON (CONT'D) Nasdrovia. NIKOLAI Nasdrovia. After a moment. SEMYON So what was the lie that Soyka was spreading about my son? Nikolai looks anxious. NIKOLAI (in Russian) It was nothing important. SEMYON Kirill had him killed for nothing important? Semyon pours two more vodkas. NIKOLAI I don't want to repeat it. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 61.52 CONTINUED: (2) 52 SEMYON (smiling) For me you will repeat it. Nikolai doesn't respond. It is obvious that Semyon half knows already. He shrugs... SEMYON (CONT'D) You play with the Prince to do business with the King. But if you want to do business with me you must be open with me. Thieves- in-law. A pause. Semyon nurses his vodka. SEMYON (CONT'D) What was Soyka saying about the Prince? He stares into Nikolai's eyes. Finally, Nikolai stammers... NIKOLAI That he is a drunk. And that he is also... a queer. Semyon swigs his vodka and Nikolai swigs his. Semyon pours two more. Semyon has to stare out of the window to hide his emotion. SEMYON (softly, in Russian) My only son. They both knock their drinks back. Semyon looks suddenly angry as he peers out of the window. SEMYON (CONT'D) You know it never snows in this City. And it's never hot. London is a city of whores and queers. My son... Semyon shrugs, fighting deeper emotion... SEMYON (CONT'D) ...I think London is to blame for what he is... (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 62.52 CONTINUED: (3) 52 NIKOLAI So why don't you go home? Semyon smiles, as if seeing Moscow through the window. SEMYON The cold gets into my bones. A pause. SEMYON (CONT'D) And also... the KGB would be waiting for me. Nikolai smiles ruefully and glances at Semyon. NIKOLAI FSB. They are called FSB now. SEMYON Whatever they call them they are worse even than the KGB were. Maybe the KGB and the vory v zakone were partners in a marriage. We had rules, they had rules. He swigs some more vodka. SEMYON (CONT'D) Now in Moscow, the thieves don't wear tattoos and the police don't wear uniforms. You never know who they are... Semyon seems to be taking the vodka less well than Nikolai. He pours some more. SEMYON (CONT'D) You've heard about these new policemen? Nikolai doesn't blink. SEMYON (CONT'D) They get under you, over you, behind you, inside you. They are the ones you least expect. Semyon peers at Nikolai and Nikolai doesn't respond. Mention of the new breed of FSB agent causes an almost imperceptible tension in Nikolai. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 63.52 CONTINUED: (4) 52 Is Semyon too drunk to notice? There is a strange game going on here. For now, nothing is revealed. Semyon knocks back his vodka and Nikolai does the same. Semyon picks up the diary and holds it into the flame of the candle. It begins to burn and he drops it into the ashtray. The flames flicker for a while. SEMYON (CONT'D) The midwife said she had an uncle. A Russian. NIKOLAI I met him. SEMYON So you know what he looks like. Semyon peers at Nikolai. SEMYON (CONT'D) She said he has read the diary. A pause. SEMYON (CONT'D) We can't trust a Russian with that kind of information. A pause. SEMYON (CONT'D) (in Russian) Do you understand me? Semyon gets to his feet and smiles. SEMYON (CONT'D) Perhaps you can deal with him. Semyon leaves Nikolai to stare into the flames of the burning diary.53 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. MATERNITY UNIT - DAY 53 Anna exits, pulling on her coat against the cold. She stops in her tracks when she sees her unchained motorbike parked in the parking bay. She hears Nikolai's voice over her shoulder. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 64.53 CONTINUED: 53 NIKOLAI I thought I'd bring it back before it got stolen. Lot of villains around. Sorry about the chain. Anna is about to walk quickly away... NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I got that address you wanted. Anna turns and sees Nikolai is offering a scrap of paper. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) A little village outside St. Petersburg. I know it. Not much of a place for a kid to grow up in. Especially not a girl. She hesitates. Nikolai approaches and gives her the address. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) If you want my opinion, the kid would be better off in London. Maybe with you. Why not? Tatiana's family don't sound like the kind of people who'd want another mouth to feed. A pause. ANNA You read the diary? Nikolai looks all around. Anna studies him, unsure. ANNA (CONT'D) So how can you keep doing what you're doing? NIKOLAI I told you. I'm just a driver. Anna sees some softness in his expression. Their eyes lock. ANNA You look the other way. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 65.53 CONTINUED: (2) 53 NIKOLAI I'm a camera. The pictures stay in my head. Anna sees pain in his eyes. She peers at the address. ANNA Why did you bring me this? NIKOLAI I don't know. I was passing. After a long moment Anna turns away. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Oh, and... your uncle. Nikolai smiles. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Is it true he was in the KGB? ANNA I don't know. NIKOLAI Well, he's a brave old man. That's for sure. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Does he live with you? Anna is about to answer but stops herself. Nikolai peers at her and finally shrugs then turns to walk away. He gestures at the bike. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I fixed it. It should be OK now. Anna watches him walk away into the street.54 EXT. CHELSEA FOOTBALL GROUND. SIDE STREETS - NIGHT. 54 Crowds of football supporters are streaming away from the football stadium, where the floodlights are still casting their glow. There are Arsenal and Chelsea supporters on opposite sides of the street and there is some mildly vicious yelling between the two groups. Police are visibly keeping order. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 66.54 CONTINUED: 54 Among the crowd we see Ekrem. He seems slightly drunk on top of his normal craziness. He has an Arsenal scarf around his neck and is looking for trouble, jeering at the Chelsea supporters across the street. EKREM Hey! Hey Kabuka Chelsea! Fuck you!! Yeah you! Aliverisme!! Fucker! A policeman steps up to Ekrem and gives him a shove and he stumbles a little. As he gets to his feet we notice TWO CHECHEN MEN who are trailing Ekrem, ducking their heads away from the line of policemen.55 EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT 55 Ekrem is now isolated from the crowds, swigging from a can of lager. He is chanting `Arsenal, Arsenal' to himself as he walks. He stops to take a piss on someone's grave. In the background the two Chechens are coming closer. As Ekrem zips his flies, the Chechens are upon him. One of them grabs his Arsenal scarf and begins to strangle him. Ekrem chokes for a while and the Chechen loosens the knot. The second Chechen pulls out an open razor. Ekrem struggles to escape... CHECHEN For my brother... The Chechen cuts Ekrem's throat then drops him onto the grave stone.56 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 56 The place has two dozen customers and there is a Russian band playing `Dark Eyes'. At a particular table an old Russian lady is having her birthday celebrated by an adoring family and lots of very ancient friends. There is a huge round of applause as Semyon emerges from the kitchen with a cake decorated with sparklers.57 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN - NIGHT 57 Semyon returns to smoke and steam and yelling. As he prepares to take a drink one of the young dishwashers approaches. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 67.57 CONTINUED: 57 DISHWASHER (in Russian) Guy out the back. Semyon grabs a bottle of vodka.58 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN REAR - NIGHT 58 Semyon emerges into the wine crates and beer bottles in the yard at the back of the restaurant where the Doberman is straining at the leash, snarling and barking. An already anxious Ozim is cowering in the shadows, held at bay by the dog. The moment Semyon steps out the dog stops barking. Ozim relaxes a little and steps forward. Semyon pets the dog. SEMYON So what did they say? Semyon takes a swig of vodka. Ozim looks severely nervous. OZIM They were going to kill me. Those Chechens are savages. Ozim is reliving the ordeal. OZIM (CONT'D) I pointed out that I am a Muslim too and it is a sin for a Muslim to kill a Muslim. SEMYON (irritated) What did they say about my son? OZIM They said they would spare me only if I delivered Kirill to them. SEMYON You are being very honest. OZIM I fear you more than I fear them. Semyon suddenly breaks the neck of the bottle and holds the jagged edge to Ozim's throat. The dog snarls at Semyon's feet. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 68.58 CONTINUED: 58 SEMYON Never again do business with any member of my family behind my back. OZIM Never. I will never listen to Kirill again. I swear... Semyon tosses the bottle away. After a moment... SEMYON Do they know where to find Kirill? OZIM They are like wolves. SEMYON Do they know what he looks like? Ozim shakes his head. OZIM No. They have just arrived from the mountains. SEMYON Then tell them you will deliver Kirill to them. Ozim is stunned. He stares at Semyon as if he were insane. SEMYON (CONT'D) Tell them to give you two days.59 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. ANNA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 59 Anna is reading the translation of the diary by lamplight. Tatiana's voice over continues. TATIANA (V.O.) I know now for sure that I am pregnant. It hasn't begun to show yet. After I was raped they made me take pills but I guess it was too late. I am condemned to give birth to a new life. But first I will try to find a way to end my own life and spare this child the pain. Anna looks up from the pages and thinks. PINK Revision - 11/12/06 69.60 EXT. HOUSING ESTATE - NIGHT 60 A large public housing estate is being swept by rain. Christmas lights glow in the windows of the dilapidated tower blocks. Stepan is walking against the wind, carrying a bag of shopping. He holds onto his Russian hat to stop it blowing away. Kids splash in the puddles. Stepan arrives at the front garden of his small, ground- floor council flat. As he fumbles for his keys in the cold we see that Nikolai is watching him from the driver's seat of his Mercedes. Once Stepan has disappeared into his flat, Nikolai gets out of the car and approaches Stepan's flat.61 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. KITCHEN - NIGHT 61 Helen is preparing food for a small family dinner. Anna enters with her cellphone in her hand. She mooches for food to hide her agenda. Finally... ANNA Mum... I can't get hold of Stepan. HELEN Why do you want to? ANNA I need to check something with him. HELEN Anna... ANNA (matter of fact) He's not at home, do you know where else he might be? Helen simply stares at her. HELEN Anna. Haven't you had enough excitement? ANNA (deadpan) I think I've worked out who Christine's father is. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 70.61 CONTINUED: 61 Helen slams her knife down. HELEN (yelling) Why does it matter?!! ANNA (firmly) It matters... to me!! A pause. After a moment Helen goes to her, holds her hands and peers into her eyes. We expect comforting words, but instead... HELEN You enjoy this. A pause. HELEN (CONT'D) You're like your father. Ordinary life isn't enough. Anna turns and walks out of the house.62 EXT. LONDON STREETS - NIGHT 62 Anna drives her motorbike through North London streets. Rain is falling.63 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 63 Anna is standing in the falling rain, staring over at the trans-Siberian restaurant. The restaurant is busy, with the noise of revelers swelling every time the door is opened. Anna seems to be exiled from where she should really be - Inside a restaurant like this, with its danger and vibrancy. Suddenly she is illuminated by headlights. She turns and sees that Nikolai is pulling up in his Mercedes. Kirill is in the passenger seat. Nikolai gets out of the car and stops when he sees Anna. Anna is like a fox caught in headlights. NIKOLAI What are you doing here? A pause. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 71.63 CONTINUED: 63 ANNA (echoing Nikolai's words) I don't know. I was passing. Kirill studies the gaze between Nikolai and Anna and senses the connection. KIRILL If you're passing, you pass. You keep going, bitch. Nikolai, come on... Kirill grabs Nikolai's arm, and after peering at Anna for a moment, he turns to go with Kirill. Anna gathers her courage. ANNA Family is important to you people isn't it? KIRILL (laughing) 'You people'? (in Russian) What the hell is she talking about? Music swells from the restaurant. ANNA Tell Semyon the baby I delivered on Christmas Eve is his daughter. Kirill and Nikolai stop. A swell of laughter from the restaurant. Anna is about to continue but Nikolai steps forward and places two fingers on Anna's lips to stop her from saying anymore. Anna tears his hands from her mouth. At the same time Kirill yells in Russian. KIRILL (in Russian) What did she say?! Anna is terrified but angry too. She yells. ANNA When he raped her she was a virgin. Then they gave her pills. Semyon has to be the father! (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 72.63 CONTINUED: (2) 63 Kirill suddenly goes for her over the bonnet of the car.... NIKOLAI (in Russian)) She's a civilian! Kirill pushes Anna up against the car, but she fights him. ANNA She was fourteen! She was a child! Kirill slaps Anna hard. Nikolai grabs Kirill and pulls him away. KIRILL You don't use my father's name! You don't say that filth about him... He goes for Anna again, and this time Nikolai shoves Kirill to the wet ground. He looks up at Nikolai and slowly gets to his feet. He wipes his hands then stares into Nikolai's eyes. KIRILL (CONT'D) Don't even look at her any more. Headlights from a passing car sweep the scene.... KIRILL (CONT'D) That's an order. Nikolai peers at Anna for a moment. Anna's voice is defiant but cracking with fear. ANNA Tell him what I said. Nikolai has taken what Anna said on board. He speaks softly... NIKOLAI There is nothing to tell. Slaves give birth to slaves... Kirill yells.... KIRILL Come on Nikolai!! He turns to Anna... (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 73.63 CONTINUED: (3) 63 KIRILL (CONT'D) And if you open your mouth again, I'll tell my driver to stick his cock inside it! Understand? Maybe that's what you want! He offers the lights of the restaurant to her as a vicious invitation. KIRILL (CONT'D) You want to come in?! Maybe we all get to fuck you.... Anna stares back. Nikolai peers at her for a moment before grabbing Kirill and pulling him away towards the restaurant.64 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN - NIGHT 64 The place is winding up. Chefs and waiters are cleaning surfaces and dishes. The only still point is Semyon, who is cutting and wrapping the birthday cake in small parcels of golden paper. He works intensely and delicately at the back of the kitchen. Nikolai and Kirill enter. Kirill swigs a half-drunk glass of wine. KIRILL That girl you fucked in front of me... you remember her? The Ukrainian bitch? NIKOLAI No. KIRILL So they kick down the door. These are ordinary fucking police. They ask for her by name and they take her away. Some fucking punter must have given them her name. What gives the police the right to take our women, huh? Semyon shoots Kirill a hard look: he's talking too much and too loudly. Kirill ignores the look. KIRILL (CONT'D) Hey Papa, I never seen so many old people in one place. Whose party is it out there? The angel of death? (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 74.64 CONTINUED: 64 SEMYON (in Russian) She is one hundred years old. Semyon works on for a moment then glances at Kirill. SEMYON (CONT'D) Kirill, go down into the cellar and bring up some brandy. Twelve bottles. Kirill turns to leave. KIRILL Come on, Nikolai, help me. SEMYON No. He stays here. I want to talk business. A confused pause. Kirill looks from Nikolai to his father. KIRILL What business? A pause as Kirill suddenly senses his exclusion. KIRILL (CONT'D) Papa, what business? His business is my business. Semyon stares at Kirill and Kirill knows the look. SEMYON Go to the cellar Kirill. And take your time. Kirill hesitates. He is angry as hell but too scared of his father's gaze to say anything. Finally he turns fast and departs, slamming his open hand against the door as he goes. Semyon waits a moment before returning to the business of cutting the cake. Finally... SEMYON (CONT'D) Did you deal with the old man? Nikolai nods. A pause. Semyon looks up and fixes Nikolai with a stare. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 75.64 CONTINUED: (2) 64 SEMYON (CONT'D) (in Russian) It's time you joined us. A long moment. The thing Nikolai has been working for has finally happened. There seems to be little joy. NIKOLAI (in Russian) Thank you. Papa. Semyon returns to his work. Nikolai hesitates. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) What shall I tell Kirill? Semyon continues with the cake, unconcerned. SEMYON Tell him I changed my mind about the brandy.65 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. CELLAR - NIGHT 65 The cellar is half lit, the arched walls lined with crates of wine. Flour, grease and potatoes are stored here. As Nikolai walks down the steps into the gloom, he hears Kirill singing a Russian folk song to himself as he drags a case of brandy across the cellar floor. Kirill has already opened a bottle of brandy and takes a long swig as Nikolai joins him. He grins as he gestures at the brandy... KIRILL My dad swapped a little Georgian girl for this stuff. Nikolai sits down on a crate, rests his head against the wall. Kirill joins him and swigs some more. KIRILL (CONT'D) Hey, don't feel bad. What happened up there is just how he is. He plays people against each other. That's all. I realize more and more what he's like. Here, drink to the Georgian girl... Kirill offers the bottle to Nikolai but he refuses. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 76.65 CONTINUED: 65 KIRILL (CONT'D) What? I drink alone now. Nikolai decides to bite the bullet, get this news over with. NIKOLAI He offered me stars. I accepted them. A long pause. This is what Kirill wanted, but now it feels like a stab in the back. Finally Kirill swallows a huge swig of brandy then turns awkwardly to hug Nikolai. He squeezes him hard for a long time then shoves him away. KIRILL (lying)) You think I didn't know already? He told me before. It was my fucking idea. He said there are a lot of things I have to teach you. Nikolai nods. Kirill gets to his feet.... KIRILL (CONT'D) Some stuff will take a long time. I've been protecting you until now. NIKOLAI Yeah. KIRILL What? A pause. KIRILL (CONT'D) You think I don't know stuff you don't know? I am vor by birth. The stars are a birthmark for me... NIKOLAI I know, Kirill. Kirill is about to fly into a rage but Nikolai gets to his feet. KIRILL Where the fuck are you going? We've got to celebrate. Help me with these bottles. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 77.65 CONTINUED: (2) 65 Nikolai heads for the steps. NIKOLAI Your dad don't need the bottles any more. As Nikolai departs Kirill calls after him. KIRILL Hey! We're still partners, right? Thunder and lightning! Nikolai climbs the steps. Kirill is left to swig his brandy and stare into the darkness. He wipes his eyes angrily with his sleeve.66 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. TWO DAYS LATER - NIGHT 66 Sweet Russian choral music covers the next four scenes. The street outside the restaurant is now flooding with rain. A Daimler and a Bentley are already parked. A large SUV pulls up and a hard-looking Russian man in his sixties (VALERY) is ushered from the car by bodyguards in suits and shades. He is greeted by a darker-looking man in his fifties (THE GYPSY) who has a fur coat around his shoulders. Semyon is waiting on the doorstep, dressed in a fine dark suit.67 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 67 The curtains are drawn against the rainy light. The Gypsy, Valery, Semyon and TWO OTHER RUSSIAN MEN are sitting in a line behind a restaurant table, like a judging panel. After a moment Nikolai enters, dressed in suit and tie for the biggest interview of his life. The vory behind the table greet him. Then Nikolai takes off his jacket and removes his tie. He then takes off his shirt, to reveal that his upper body is decorated with elaborate tattoos (details to follow). He carefully places his shirt over the chair then sits down. The panel of the vory study his body, the Gypsy pushing a candle across the table to better illuminate the detail of the tattoos. Only after the men have studied the tattoos does the interview begin. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 78.67 CONTINUED: 67 The following dialogue should not be translated, and can be cut around to suggest a long and grueling interview. VALERY We can see that you were in prison in Siberia. And that you were a thief. NIKOLAI My father was a government worker. He fixed the cars of officials. I began by selling the spare parts when I was fifteen. VALERY You have no forced tattoos? NIKOLAI None. GYPSY You were not co-operative? NIKOLAI I spent two years in the punishment block. VALERY You went through the Crosses in St. Petersburg? NIKOLAI I was in solitary confinement fifteen times. I was called 'The Stump' because they couldn't shift me. VALERY Your father was a bitch and a weak fucker for working with the Government, that's right isn't it? Nikolai flickers a little. NIKOLAI That's right. My father means nothing to me. My Mother.... GYPSY You have no mother. She was a whore anyway. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 79.67 CONTINUED: (2) 67 NIKOLAI Yes. I have no mother and no father. There is only the code, the vory v zakone code which I have always followed. VALERY That is why there is an empty place above your heart. Where the stars will go. And why there is an empty place on your knees. NIKOLAI I am dead already. I died when I was fifteen. Now I live in the zone all the time. GYPSY You have never worked for the government? Any government? NIKOLAI I have lived off Albanians and Georgians. I steal from them within the law. The questions and answers are delivered with great solemnity, making the ceremony feel almost religious. Candles burn, the men all sip water. Semyon is silent throughout but listens attentively. Towards the end of the interview there is the ghost of a smile on the Gypsy's face and this pleases Semyon.68 EXT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. REAR ENTRANCE - NIGHT 68 A wizened old Russian man (THE TATTOOIST) arrives at the kitchen door, carrying a battered leather case. The kitchen door is opened as he arrives and Semyon greets him.69 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 69 The choral music continues as we see the old man opening his case and pulling out tattooing equipment. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 80.69 CONTINUED: 69 Nikolai is sitting in a banquette at the back, wearing only his underpants. We circle Nikolai as the tattooist begins to work on his knees, preparing Nikolai's knee caps for the tattoos. The needle bites at Nikolai's skin as the old tattooist wipes away the blood. Then we see the needle working on the empty spaces above Nikolai's heart, tattooing the star symbol. Nikolai now has a star tattoo on each knee and two eight- pointed stars on his chest. He is now a member of the vory v zakone.70 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. ANNA'S BEDROOM - MORNING 70 Anna is lying awake, her curtains drawn against the daylight. Helen knocks and enters with a cup of tea, just as in the opening scenes. Anna sits up. HELEN (almost accusing) Have you slept at all? Anna doesn't answer. Helen looks anxious as she peeks out of the curtains. HELEN (CONT'D) I tried to get hold of Stepan for you. A pause. HELEN (CONT'D) He's usually either at home or at his sisters. But she hasn't heard from him at all. Helen is trying to hide her anxiety but Anna sees it. HELEN (CONT'D) He did spit in that horrible man's face. ANNA I don't think the driver would do anything to Stepan. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 81.70 CONTINUED: 70 Helen knows Anna well, senses some flicker of attraction. HELEN How do you know what he would do? A pause. HELEN (CONT'D) You haven't spoken to him since, have you? Anna doesn't answer and Helen's anger sparks... She leaves and slams the door.71 EXT. TURKISH BATHS - DAY 71 We are in St. Pancras, North London. More rain. Ozim is waiting nervously, blowing into his hands against the cold. The Turkish bath building is a Victorian red-brick edifice. Nikolai pulls up in his Mercedes.72 INT. TURKISH BATHS. CHANGING ROOM - DAY 72 Ozim and Nikolai are undressing. The place is deserted apart from an OLD TURKISH BATH-HOUSE ATTENDANT who is distributing towels. Ozim is unbuttoning his shirt. OZIM Semyon recommends these places for business meetings because you can see what tattoos a man has. Nikolai is pulling off his shirt and Ozim reacts to the sight of the fresh eight-pointed star tattoos. Ozim chuckles. OZIM (CONT'D) Come on. We have a lot to get through. Let's cook. Ozim disappears into a steam room, naked. Nikolai watches him go, a private agenda bubbling beneath the surface.73 OMITTED 73 PINK Revision - 11/12/06 82.74 INT. TURKISH BATHS. STEAM ROOM - DAY 74 Ozim and Nikolai sit side by side, sweating. There is no one else in the steam room. OZIM Our lines to Kabul get broken every two or three weeks. NIKOLAI How come? OZIM The Americans. Fucking NATO. (pause) Valery Nabokov imports flowers and television sets into this country. The television sets are one in ten. That means one in ten have cargo inside them. NIKOLAI Where do they dock? Ozim grins. OZIM I will tell you when I return from the bathroom. Ozim chuckles as he leaves in a swirl of steam. Nikolai leans back against the cold wall, his tattoo almost the only visible thing through the steam.75 INT. TURKISH BATHS. CHANGING ROOM - DAY 75 Ozim is dressing frantically, his face suddenly betraying his real anxiety. He checks his watch as he puts it back on his wrist. After a moment the two Chechen brothers who killed Ekrem enter the changing room. They swagger up to Ozim. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 83-83A.75 CONTINUED: 75 He gulps down his fear. OZIM Kirill is in there. Ozim slaps his chest to denote the place where they will see the vor tattoo. They head towards the steam room as Ozim grabs his shoes and hurries towards the exit.76 INT. TURKISH BATHS. STEAM ROOM - DAY 76 Nikolai is sweating hard, staring at the ceiling. The steam room door opens but the steam is now so thick he can't see who has entered. NIKOLAI Ozim? He sees a shape... a clothed body. He realizes immediately. Suddenly one of the brothers is upon him and has him in a head lock. He strokes the tattoo on Nikolai's chest as if this were confirmation of who this is. He grunts an instruction and his brother emerges through the steam with an open razor. Nikolai is naked, alone. Suddenly he kicks the razor guy in the balls and uses a martial arts chop to free himself from the other brother. In the steam there are boots and bare feet and knees and fingers flying. Nikolai manages to gouge the eye of one brother and throw another against the wall. He obviously has serious combat training but the brothers are strong and angry. Suddenly Nikolai is slashed across the arm by the razor and blood oozes into the steam and hot water. All the men are slipping and falling on the blood and hot water. Another slash of the razor cuts his thigh open. All the men are now covered in blood and Nikolai, with a final surge of strength, manages to cripple one brother with a blow to the throat, and the other with an elbow to the temple. As the Chechens slump to the floor, Nikolai fumbles in the bloody water for the razor, finds it, kneels, and slashes their throats. He lurches to his feet, drops the razor, and staggers out of the steam room.77 OMITTED 77 GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 84.78 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. A AND E DEPARTMENT. CANTEEN - DAY 78 Aziz and a group of a dozen doctors and nurses are eating lunch, some in party hats, some drinking red wine out of paper cups. Aziz seems anxious, distracted. Anna enters in a hurry, locates Aziz and joins him. ANNA I'm so late. Sorry. She looks around the 'party' with horror... ANNA (CONT'D) Oh God... AZIZ It's fine, although I think I've had enough. He smiles and downs his glass of wine in one go. ANNA Paul, on my way here I made a decision. AZIZ (mock horror) You can't possibly dump me. We're not even going out. ANNA Take my hand. Aziz, confused, takes her hand. ANNA (CONT'D) Feel my pulse. Aziz feels Anna's pulse. Anna takes a deep breath. ANNA (CONT'D) I'm going to apply to adopt Christine. A pause. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 85.78 CONTINUED: 78 ANNA (CONT'D) Can you feel that? Aziz smiles. AZIZ Yes, I can.79 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. A AND E DEPARTMENT - DAY 79 Nikolai is being hurried down the corridor, his face covered with an oxygen mask. He is covered with a surgical gown which is covered in blood. His arm flops out from under the covers as the paramedics rush him into the hospital. Anna is walking in the opposite direction. Then, as Nikolai's trolley passes, Anna sees Nikolai's arm, flopping from under the covers. She sees the eagle tattoo on the back of his hand. Anna freezes.80 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD. NIKOLAI'S ROOM - DAY 80 Nikolai is conscious in bed, attached to a single drip. His wounds have been stitched up. A doctor and two nurses are settling Nikolai's vital signs, moving around him, checking his temperature. Finally they clear the bed and through the glass of the room we see Anna, standing outside, staring in at Nikolai.81 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD. NIKOLAI'S ROOM - NIGHT 81 Nikolai is peering through half-opened eyes. The last nurse is checking his vital signs. Then Anna enters. The nurse stops work... NURSE Anna? ANNA Is it OK to talk to him for a minute? The nurse hesitates... NURSE He's still in trauma. Do you know him? Anna glances at Nikolai who is rousing himself. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 86.81 CONTINUED: 81 ANNA Yes. The nurse is reluctant but sees Anna's fierce stare and finally leaves. After she has gone Nikolai stirs, focuses on her face. NIKOLAI I thought you did birth. Nikolai smiles, but Anna is trying hard to even out her fear and anger. ANNA My uncle.... Nikolai tries to sit up and registers pain. ANNA (CONT'D) ...the one who spat in your face... He's disappeared. A pause. Nikolai gasps in pain as he raises himself up. Anna sees the wounds on his arms and glimpses the tattoos on his chest, scaring her even more. ANNA (CONT'D) If we don't hear from him soon we're going to the police... Nikolai reaches for a bottle of water and manages to take a swig. Anna is impatient for a reaction. ANNA (CONT'D) Do you know where he is? A pause. Nikolai finishes the bottle of water in one thirsty swig. Finally... NIKOLAI Yes. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) He's in Scotland. In Edinburgh. In a five-star hotel. Anna is locating the door in case she has to flee as Nikolai swings his legs out of the bed to stretch his painful limbs. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 87.81 CONTINUED: (2) 81 ANNA Edinburgh? NIKOLAI I'm going to need some clothes. I arrived here without any. Can you get me some? Anna doesn't budge. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I can't walk out of here naked. ANNA You can't walk out of here because you're attached to a drip. Explain Edinburgh. Nikolai sighs, sits back down on the bed. He finally speaks softly. NIKOLAI Your uncle knew too much. Nikolai shrugs. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I was told to get rid of him. I was meant to send him to heaven with a bullet in his head. Instead I sent him to Edinburgh. With a first-class ticket. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) He is of the old school. He understood the situation. Exile or death. Edinburgh was his idea. He said they throw a great party at New Year. And he said it was a good excuse to get away from his family. Nikolai smiles at Anna. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) So... just a pair of jeans and a T- shirt. A jacket. And some shoes. Anna still looks disbelieving. Nikolai sighs. (CONTINUED) GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 88.81 CONTINUED: (3) 81 NIKOLAI (CONT'D) The hotel is called the Caledonian. Without a pause Anna leaves.82 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. S.C.B.U. CHRISTINE'S PRIVATE ROOM -82 NIGHT Anna is sitting on the bed beside Christine's crib. Christine is asleep. Anna is speaking into her cell phone, trying to keep her voice down. ANNA (into phone) ...no, I couldn't get much sense out of him, he was drunk. A pause. Anna looks exasperated. ANNA (CONT'D) (into phone) Mum, I don't want to tell you how I found him because I don't want another argument. I just wanted you to know he's definitely safe... Anna listens with weariness. ANNA (CONT'D) (into phone) No, we can't tonight. I'm working. I need the money. (a pause) For a place of my own, for Christ's sake! She listens with growing anger until she finally cuts the call without a word. Christine stirs but doesn't wake. She leans back against the wall, already regretful.83 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD OUTSIDE NIKOLAI'S ROOM - 83 NEXT MORNING. The ward is busy as Yuri, the police specialist from the Russian desk, enters wearing a heavy overcoat. He looks all around and approaches a nurse. PINK Revision - 11/12/06 89.84 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD. NIKOLAI'S ROOM - MORNING 84 Nikolai's drip is being removed by A NURSE. Nikolai is examining his healing wounds. Then through the glass of the door he notices Yuri, speaking to a nurse, and obviously recognizes him. The nurse points Yuri in Nikolai's direction.85 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. A FIRE ESCAPE LANDING - MORNING 85 It's cold and the wind is blowing. We see rooftops behind them. Yuri is lighting Nikolai's cigarette. Nikolai is wearing Yuri's overcoat loosely over his hospital gown. Yuri lights his own cigarette and they smoke in silence for a moment. NIKOLAI You got my message? Yuri chuckles. YURI Using a dead body to file a progress report must be against FSB regulations. NIKOLAI It's called improvisation. YURI You've been improvising quite a lot lately. And taking risks. He glances at the cuts on Nikolai's hands... YURI (CONT'D) (in Russian) Maybe too many. Nikolai suddenly glares at Yuri. NIKOLAI (in Russian) You didn't come here to give me flowers... Yuri shakes his head and prepares to deliver bad news. Nikolai turns as if to go back inside. Yuri grabs Nikolai's arm and speaks formally.... (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 90.85 CONTINUED: 85 YURI In light of what has happened to you... Nikolai shakes his head wearily.... NIKOLAI (in Russian) Ah, Christ... YURI ...and in light of other violent incidents associated with you, the Russian desk at Scotland Yard have made an official request to the Russian embassy that your undercover operation in London be terminated. Nikolai doesn't react for a moment. YURI (CONT'D) (in Russian) You have gone beyond what was agreed. With his cigarette dangling from his mouth Nikolai begins to unbutton his overcoat.. YURI (CONT'D) In my opinion you should see this as good news. You've been in the zone far too long... Nikolai turns and slowly pulls open the overcoat and the thin hospital gown beneath it. He reveals the eight-pointed star tattoos on his chest and Yuri reacts with absolute astonishment. YURI (CONT'D) My God... NIKOLAI If they terminate the operation now, they will be wasting this... A pause. Yuri looks shocked and slightly horrified. Nikolai too suddenly seems almost ashamed that he has got this far. After a long silence Nikolai mumbles. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 91.85 CONTINUED: (2) 85 NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You tell the Russian desk you saw stars over my heart. OK? Tell them I'm through the door. A pause. Yuri is still overwhelmed. YURI They are bound to ask... who did you kill? A pause. NIKOLAI (in Russian) Tell them I only killed myself. A pause. Yuri is humbled. They share a moment of understanding as they smoke. Finally... NIKOLAI (CONT'D) And you can tell them I'm going to replace Semyon at the head of the London organization. Yuri laughs. YURI What drugs are they giving you? Maybe it's the anesthetic speaking. NIKOLAI I need you to take Semyon out of the picture. I want you to arrest him. Nikolai lights another cigarette from the stub of the one he is smoking. Yuri is incredulous. YURI Arrest him for what? NIKOLAI Rape. Yuri begins to chuckle. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) The girl was fourteen. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 92.85 CONTINUED: (3) 85 YURI (incredulous) And of course, she will testify... NIKOLAI She doesn't have to. She's dead. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) But she had Semyon's baby. If you prove the baby is his and prove the girl was under age when the baby was conceived, that's statutory rape. A pause. Yuri begins it think it through. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) All you need is the baby and some of Semyon's DNA. For poetic reasons I suggest you take his blood. Yuri peers at Nikolai with awe. A long pause. Finally Yuri smiles. YURI You intrigue me. A pause. YURI (CONT'D) If we had never had this conversation they would have sent you home. You could have spent the Spring in the mountains. Riding your bicycle to your office every morning through fields of flowers. A pause. YURI (CONT'D) Why stay? Nikolai reacts but doesn't answer. A pause. YURI (CONT'D) You keep in touch. Yuri studies Nikolai. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 93.85 CONTINUED: (4) 85 YURI (CONT'D) (in Russian) And take care, Mikhail. Yuri tenderly takes his overcoat from Nikolai's shoulders and goes back through the fire-escape door. Nikolai is left cold and exposed in his thin gown.86 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD. NIKOLAI'S ROOM - DAY 86 Nikolai is playing chess against himself, sitting on the bed, trying hard to concentrate. There is a knock and Anna enters, carrying an old shopping bag. She takes out a worn pair of jeans and a T-shirt, a denim jacket and a battered pair of shoes. Nikolai smiles... NIKOLAI How is Uncle Stepan? Instead of answering, Anna lays the clothes on the bed. ANNA (deadpan) They're from the morgue. They belonged to someone who died yesterday. Nikolai picks up the jeans and examines them. They're way too big. ANNA (CONT'D) I can't believe I'm doing a favor for someone just because he had the decency not to murder a member of my family. Nikolai smiles but Anna turns to leave... NIKOLAI Hey... wait a minute... Nikolai steps behind the bed screen to pull on the jeans. He speaks from behind the screen. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Is your bike still working OK? A pause. Anna considers leaving but hesitates. ANNA Yeah. It's OK. (CONTINUED) 9486 CONTINUED: 86 Nikolai steps out from behind the screen, the baggy jeans tightly belted, his chest bare. For the first time Anna sees the extent of Nikolai's body tattoos and reacts.... Nikolai sees her reaction to the tattoos and doesn't care for it. He grabs the T-shirt and pulls it on. NIKOLAI Did you get in touch with Tatiana's family in Russia? ANNA No. NIKOLAI Good. Nikolai is now dressed, his cut and tattooed arms still showing. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) So the baby's still in England. A pause. Anna nods. ANNA She's staying here for good. They peer at each other. ANNA (CONT'D) Why do you care? Nikolai shrugs and grabs the shoes. ANNA (CONT'D) Stepan said you were kind to him. He said you were risking your own life to keep him alive. Nikolai laughs. NIKOLAI Yeah, and all the thanks I get is a pair of dead man's shoes. (pause) * I listen to you. * ANNA * (sarcastic) * Do you really? * NIKOLAI * Yes. About Semyon and the baby. * Thank you. * (CONTINUED) 94A86 CONTINUED: (2) 86 ANNA * (still wary) * You thank me for that? * Their eyes lock across a huge divide. He rubs the tattoos on his arm. (CONTINUED) 9586 CONTINUED: (3) 86 NIKOLAI (indicating tattoos) * These things are just marks on the skin, you know? Anna nods. An awkward pause, then Anna turns and leaves quickly.87 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 87 The restaurant is filled with balloons of every color, all over the floor and bouncing off the tables. A large `Happy New Year' banner is hanging from the wall. Kirill is sitting on the floor amongst the balloons, blowing up another one. Maria, Semyon's little granddaughter, runs in to the restaurant and stops to stare at Kirill. He begins to inflate another balloon then stops. KIRILL (in Russian) What are you looking at? MARIA (in Russian) You. Maria comes to him and take a balloon. She tries to blow it up but fails. Kirill smiles and blows it up for her. MARIA (CONT'D) What were you and Grandpa shouting about last night? KIRILL Nothing, baby. MARIA It sounded like something. Kirill takes a deep breath to blow a balloon then stops and looks at Maria. KIRILL Someone I know got hurt and I blamed Grandpa. MARIA Did you fight each other? I heard banging. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 96.87 CONTINUED: 87 KIRILL No. It's not a fight if one of you doesn't fight back. A pause. Kirill smiles. We see slight abrasions. KIRILL (CONT'D) So, today I do as I am told. She nods and Kirill blows another balloon. At that moment Kirill sees on the security monitor behind the bar that a police car is pulling up outside the restaurant. His face clouds as another pulls up beside it. KIRILL (CONT'D) Maria. Go upstairs.88 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - DAY 88 Semyon sits at a bare table, opposite Yuri from the Russian desk. A uniformed officer stands nearby, and there is a police doctor with a medical bag sitting at the next table, waiting. The whole scene is rendered surreal by all the balloons which bounce around them. Semyon is in full charming old man mode. SEMYON (in Russian) You'll have a drink, Yuri... He is half on his feet. YURI (in Russian) I don't drink on duty. SEMYON (in Russian) Sometimes I don't believe you are really Russian. YURI (in Russian) I've told you, I am half Russian. SEMYON (in Russian) Then have half a drink. Yuri shakes his head. Semyon goes to the optic and helps himself to a vodka. (CONTINUED) WHITE Revision - 9/12/06 97.88 CONTINUED: 88 SEMYON (CONT'D) So what is all this nonsense? YURI We just need a blood sample. SEMYON For what? YURI We can take the sample right now voluntarily or I can get an order from the court. It's up to you. Semyon glances at the doctor and chuckles. SEMYON (in Russian) He sits there like a vampire. YURI (in Russian) What, you are afraid of needles, Semyon? Semyon's face hardens and he glares at Yuri. SEMYON I am afraid of... conspiracies. A pause. Yuri speaks softly. YURI I will return tomorrow with a court order. He gets to his feet. SEMYON Wait. I've done nothing wrong. Semyon begins to roll up his sleeve, revealing a long scroll of tattoos. Then a needle is being pushed into Semyon's arm by the doctor. Semyon's face doesn't flicker. He stares into Yuri's eyes. BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 98.89 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT. KITCHEN - DAY 89 Kirill is preparing food for the night's festivities. Semyon enters and goes straight to the sink. He pulls off the plaster from his arm where the blood was taken and pours some vodka over the tiny puncture hole. KIRILL What did they want with you, papa? SEMYON To poison me. Semyon pours more vodka on the wound then takes a swig. SEMYON (CONT'D) They took blood from me with a needle. Probably the same needle they use for all the junkies and whores and blacks and queers. He glares at Kirill as he rolls his sleeve down. SEMYON (CONT'D) Now I probably have the fucking queer disease. Kirill has his back turned, doesn't react. Semyon sits heavily. Finally... KIRILL Why would they want your blood, papa? For the first time Semyon looks vulnerable and confused as he admits.... SEMYON I don't know. Kirill is surprised to see his father unsure. He peers at him. SEMYON (CONT'D) Someone is ahead of me. I don't like people ahead of me. Kirill is now unnerved by Semyon's quiet confusion. He watches as Semyon grabs at the bottle of vodka to drink. He speaks softly as he swigs. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 99.89 CONTINUED: 89 SEMYON (CONT'D) (softly) What the hell did that cocksucker want with my blood? Kirill is reluctant to speak at first but eventually chances his arm. KIRILL Maybe it's about the baby. SEMYON (swigging) What baby? A pause. KIRILL Some bitch was out there saying you were the father of a baby. Semyon turns to Kirill, his face hardening... SEMYON What are you talking about? Semyon approaches and Kirill gets scared. KIRILL It was nothing. Just some bitch... SEMYON Who? KIRILL The woman from the hospital. The midwife. Semyon stares into Kirill's eyes and Kirill mistakes his frantic thought process for anger. Kirill backs away. Semyon is beginning to catch up.90 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL - NIGHT 90 The main entrance of the hospital is busy with visitors and staff. There is a `Happy New Year' banner across the entrance. In amongst the bustle of visitors we spy a young man with his collar turned up and a bunch of red roses in his hand. We then see that it is Kirill, entering the hospital. GOLDENROD Revision - 11/27/06 100.91 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. CORRIDOR - NIGHT 91 Anna is walking down a corridor with her crash helmet in her hand, heading for another shift.92 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. ELEVATORS - NIGHT 92 We are close on Kirill's face as he studies a map of the hospital near the elevators. Anna comes down a stairwell and spots Kirill - she especially notices the roses - just as he gets into an elevator. The elevator doors close. Was it really him? Anna is not sure. She frowns.93 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. EMPTY CORRIDOR - NIGHT 93 A door opens and Kirill steps into striped moonlight. Clamping the roses under his arm, he pulls a black zip-up sports bag from under his coat. After a brief dialogue with himself, he produces a half bottle of vodka and takes a swig. Then he hurries on.94 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. S.C.B.U. CHRISTINE'S PRIVATE ROOM -94 NIGHT Anna walks onto the ward in her uniform. She checks a few stats as she walks by various beds. She then glances over at Christine's private room. She tiptoes into the room and goes to the crib. She finds it empty - except for a bunch of red roses. Outside the ward is now filling up with visitors. Babies cry, people laugh. Anna goes back out to the ward and calls to a nurse. ANNA Sonya! Is someone bathing Christine? SONYA No. She's in her cot. ANNA (calmly) Well she's not. She's not. PINK Revision - 11/12/06 101.95 OMITTED 9596 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. CORRIDOR - NIGHT 96 Anna runs at breakneck speed through the corridors.97 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. CAR PARK - NIGHT 97 Kirill is at the wheel of Nikolai's Mercedes. He swigs from his bottle of vodka, which is now more than half empty. He fires the engine and reverses. A car passing by has to slam on its brakes. Kirill yells. KIRILL Hey, you stupid fucker!! A horn blows. The passing car accelerates angrily by. Then we hear a baby crying. Kirill looks into the half darkness of the back seat and we see Kirill's black sports bag, partially zipped up. Christine is crying inside it, her little grasping hand protruding past the zipper. Kirill speaks softly. KIRILL (CONT'D) Be quiet baby. Quiet baby. It's OK. PINK Revision - 11/12/06 102.98 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. WARD OUTSIDE NIKOLAI'S ROOM - 98 NIGHT Anna flies out of Nikolai's room and spots a nurse. ANNA What happened to the patient with the knife cuts? The Russian? NURSE We just discharged him. A couple of minutes ago. Anna runs out.99 INT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. RECEPTION - NIGHT 99 Anna runs fast down the corridor towards the hospital exit. She spots Nikolai ahead of her. She pushes past a couple of drunks and flies at him. ANNA Where have they taken Christine?! Nikolai reacts. ANNA (CONT'D) You bastards!! Where will he take her?! Tell me!! People back away as Nikolai grabs Anna's arms and holds her still. NIKOLAI What are you talking about?! Anna studies Nikolai's face and sees his genuine confusion. She calms down a little. ANNA Kirill. Kirill has taken Christine. I saw him here! I thought he was coming to see you, but he wasn't, was he? Nikolai curses under his breath and thinks fast. NIKOLAI You brought your bike? BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 103.100 EXT. NINE ELMS. ABANDONED DOCK - NIGHT 100 The same dockside where Nikolai dumped Soyka and recommended this as the best place to dispose of a body. Kirill pulls up slowly in Nikolai's Mercedes. The car is parked for a long time before finally the headlights are switched off.101 EXT. TRAFALGAR HOSPITAL. MATERNITY UNIT - NIGHT 101 Nikolai and Anna race to Anna's motorbike. NIKOLAI I'll drive. ANNA I'll drive. Anna and Nikolai leap aboard the bike and it starts first time. With Nikolai riding pillion, they roar away.101A EXT. LONDON STREET - NIGHT 101A Anna and Nikolai ride through London streets.102 EXT. NINE ELMS. ABANDONED DOCK - NIGHT 102 On the edge of the dockside, Kirill is kneeling with the zip-up bag before him. Suddenly fireworks begin to burst over the Thames. It is the stroke of midnight. Kirill unzips the bag. When he looks inside Christine stops crying. He peers at her, wiping away tears. KIRILL She's a little girl, Papa, a little sweet fucking girl... Kirill sobs then Christine cries... KIRILL (CONT'D) Shush, shush... Kirill lifts her out of the bag and holds her close to him, fireworks still illuminating the London skyline. He looks down at the freezing cold water, utterly confused. He whispers... KIRILL (CONT'D) (in Russian) I'm sorry, my little sister. (CONTINUED) BLUE Revision - 11/4/06 103A.102 CONTINUED: 102 For a moment we believe he is going to throw her into the water. Instead he begins to sing a lullaby to her and her crying stops. (CONTINUED) PINK Revision - 11/12/06 104.102 CONTINUED: (2) 102 Then we see a single light behind him. In a firework flash we see Nikolai and Anna climbing off the bike. They approach cautiously. Kirill stares at the man he loves. A pause. Christine begins to cry. ANNA Kirill, let me take the baby. KIRILL You stay where you are. ANNA She's cold, Kirill. Kirill suddenly screams as another barrage of fireworks explodes. Nikolai doesn't move. Kirill is dangerously close to the edge of the dock. Maybe he'll throw himself in too. NIKOLAI Kirill, a vor doesn't kill little babies. Kirill is motionless. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Something like this would be bad for all of us. Your dad has gone too far, Kirill. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) (in Russian) It's our turn now. Nikolai steps forward slowly. As he gets closer Kirill hugs the baby. Finally Nikolai reaches Kirill and hugs him. As he does he edges him away from the dockside. The three of them are locked in a long embrace. Nikolai emerges from the embrace with Christine in his arms. He quickly hands her to Anna who hugs her close. Kirill turns to Nikolai. KIRILL I swear I didn't know my dad was setting you up. (CONTINUED) YELLOW Revision - 11/21/06 105.102 CONTINUED: (3) 102 NIKOLAI He's going away. When he's gone the family business will be yours. A pause. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) We can be partners again. Thunder and lightning, right? Kirill smiles through his tears and nods. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Get into the car. I'll drive you home. A pause. Kirill dries his eyes and heads for the car. Nikolai looks at Anna, who is hugging the baby. He waits a long time before realizing he must leave her. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) You're OK, yeah? Anna nods. ANNA Who are you really? Why have you helped us? (CONTINUED) 106102 CONTINUED: (4) 102 Nikolai can't answer truthfully, though he longs to do so. There is a long pause before he manages to finds a suitable lie. NIKOLAI How can I become King if the King is still in place? A pause. He laughs. Anna studies him, unsure. More New Year fireworks explode over the river. Kirill yells from the car... KIRILL You come on, Nikolai! We're missing the fucking party of the year out there!! Get here and drive!! (in Russian) That's a fucking order!! Nikolai and Anna peer at each other. NIKOLAI Maybe I can drive you somewhere? She shakes her head. ANNA There's someone I can call. He'll come and fetch us. Nikolai nods, not liking the information but hiding it. Nikolai comes close and gently uncovers Christine's face. He smiles. Kirill is hooting the car horn. After a moment Nikolai and Anna kiss each other gently before Nikolai heads for the car.103 OMITTED 103* 107104 INT. HELEN'S HOUSE. KITCHEN - DAY 104* A summer's day. Anna, Helen and Uncle Stepan are preparing to eat Sunday lunch. Stepan is carving. The conversation is jovial as Anna and Helen bring dishes of food to the table. Then we hear a baby crying. Anna goes to a small crib and lifts a six-month-old Christine out. She hands her to Helen who hugs her. Over this happy scene we hear Tatiana in V.O., a repeat of the first words we heard her say. TATIANA (V.O.) My name is Tatiana. My father died in the mines in my village, so he was already buried when he died... Anna takes Christine back and takes her to the window to peer outside, staring across the park.105 INT. TRANS-SIBERIAN RESTAURANT - SAME DAY 105 Nikolai is sitting at a window table, alone, sipping vodka, staring back across the park. He peers out at ordinary life going on in the streets outside. Tatiana's V.O. continues... TATIANA (V.O.) We were all buried there. Beneath the soil of Russia. That is why I left to find a better life. Nikolai finishes his drink. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Easy A.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Easy A.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1577574ab3ef7844fbc6860232c18799cadc3253 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Easy A.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EASY "A" Written by Bert V. Royal FIRST DRAFT August 3, 2008 IN DARKNESS: OLIVE (V.O.) The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated. FADE IN: INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY OLIVE PENDERGHAST (17), a cute teenager, speaks directly into the WEBCAM atop her computer. OLIVE Let the record show that I, Olive Penderghast, being of sound mind, ample breast size and the occasional corny knock knock joke, do enter this video blog into evidence in the case against me. Because I'm being judged by a jury of my peers, I will attempt to insert `like' and `totally' into my confession as much as possible. So here it goes... I confess I'm, in no small part, to blame for the vociferous gossip that has turned my Varsity letter scarlet, but - for anyone hoping that the sizzling details of my sordid past will provide you with a reason to lock the door and make love to a dollop of your sister's moisturizing lotion - you'll be gravely disappointed. (Beat.) Look, I just need to set the record straight and what better way to do that, than to broadcast it on the Internet. So, here it is -- Part One: The Shudder-Inducing and Cliched, However Totally False Account Of How I Lost My Virginity To A Guy At A Community College In A Neighboring Town. (Beat.) Let me just begin by saying that there are two sides to every story. This is my side, the right one. (Beat.) Like, totally. 2. INT. CAFETERIA - DAY Olive sits with her best friend, RHIANNON ABERNATHY (17), a brash teenager. It would be safe to say that these girls are definitely on the "B List" at their school. RHIANNON Fuck off! George is not a `sexy' name. George is like what you name your teddy bear, not the name you wanna scream out during an orgasm. OLIVE That's bullshit. There are lots of sexy Georges. RHIANNON Name three. Olive starts to say something, but Rhiannon interrupts her. RHIANNON (CONT'D) Besides Clooney. Too easy. OLIVE Shouldn't that alone be enough? RHIANNON Fine. That's one. Number two? OLIVE (THINKING) Okay. George... Ummmm... Reeves! RHIANNON Who's that? OLIVE Superman. From way back. He was hot. RHIANNON No way. Teddy bear. OLIVE Bullshit. Ben Affleck played him in that movie! RHIANNON So what? Charlize Theron played that butt-fucking-ugly lesbo serial killer. Besides he's from another century. (MORE) 3. RHIANNON (CONT'D) We're speaking present day. I mean, Jesus, Mortimer was probably a sexy name in some era. OLIVE George Stephanopolous. RHIANNON What are you? Fifty? OLIVE (THINKING HARD) George... RHIANNON Bush? Yeah. He's one hot mutherfucker. Just face it. There's no such thing as a sexy George. OLIVE Well, mine is. So, I think we should just put this conversation to bed. RHIANNON Fine. Don't come. I hate you. Rhiannon folds her arms and pouts. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Olive continues to narrate into her webcam. OLIVE Let me back up. I don't know if any of you have ever met them, but Rhiannon's parents are quite possibly the creepiest people in a four county radius. INT. THE ABERNATHY LIVING ROOM MR. and MRS. ABERNATHY (50's) sit on their couch, smiling at the television, in their horrifically rustic home. MR. ABERNATHY bares a striking resemblance to ukelele player, Tiny Tim. (Although the man we're looking at has an even more frightening smile.) MRS. ABERNATHY has hair to her ankles and dresses like a Mormon. 4. OLIVE (V.O.) I've always felt sort of sorry for Rhiannon, but not enough to do what she was asking me to do. We float upwards to - INT. RHIANNON'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS Rhiannon is on the phone, agitated. RHIANNON (Into the phone) PLEASE. Please. I'm begging you. I'll pay you. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Olive is on the other end of the phone conversation. We INTERCUT between the two sides. OLIVE Rhi, I can't. I told you I have plans. RHIANNON You're lying. You're a lying bitch and I hate you so much right now. OLIVE (LYING) I'm not lying. I promise I'm not. I really would love to go camping with your family this weekend. I had fun with your family last year. EXT. WOODS - LAST YEAR - NIGHT Olive, uncomfortable, and Rhiannon, bored, sit around a campfire with the Abernathys. The couple stare at the fire with the same creepy smile plastered on their faces. There is an excruciatingly long and painful silence. MR. ABERNATHY Would you like a marshmallow, Olive Oil? 5. Mrs. Abernathy squeaks out a meek titter that is annoyingly high-pitched. MRS. ABERNATHY Olive oil. That's funny. Very, very funny. OLIVE (POLITELY) No thank you, Mr. Abernathy. MR. ABERNATHY You can call me Mortimer, Olive Branch. Mrs. Abernathy titters again. Rhiannon rolls her eyes. There is another awkwardly long silence, while the Abernathys grin away at their fire. INT. RHIANNON'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Rhiannon is getting increasingly angrier at her friend. RHIANNON (Into the phone) Why don't you just say it? You don't like my parents. You think they're hopelessly pathetic and devoid of souls and wish that you could live with normal people who didn't meet at a Star Trek convention!! She quickly catches her faux pas and stops talking. OLIVE (Sympathetic to her FRIEND) Rhi, I like your parents. They're sweet. But I can't go camping this weekend. RHIANNON Quick. Hurry and make up a lie. OLIVE I have a date. RHIANNON Liar. 6. OLIVE (LYING) No. I do. RHIANNON With who? OLIVE You don't know him. RHIANNON And neither do you, you selfish bitch! OLIVE I'm serious. He goes to the community college with my brother in Denton. RHIANNON What's his name then? OLIVE (WAXING CUTE) Who? My brother? RHIANNON Stop stalling. You're totally trying to come up with a name. Just say it. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE I'm not proud of this. Less about the lie and more about the unoriginality of it. Okay, have you guys ever watched `The Brady Bunch'? Of course you haven't. You're busy watching fake people pretend to be real on MTV. That's why I knew I could get away with it. See, there was this episode where Jan - the awkward middle child - made up a boyfriend to assuage the ridicule of her snatchy sister who had just stolen the heart of the boy that Jan loved. The name of her imaginary boyfriend WAS -- 7. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - DAY OLIVE (Into the phone) George Glass. RHIANNON George? What kind of a fucking name is George? OLIVE He's pretty hot and he asked me out this weekend, so I said yes. Although still skeptical, she seems a tad more mollified. RHIANNON If you're choosing him over helping me cope with two days in the wilderness with these people who even I'm not convinced aren't serial killers, he had better be the one. You had better fucking marry him, have fucking babies with him and then take him for fucking everything he's worth. OLIVE Deal. INT. CAFETERIA - CONTINUOUS Rhi and Olive continue their conversation, as Rhi pops a tater tot into her mouth. RHIANNON (With her mouth full) You're not off the hook, you know. I want lurid details. This had better be the best date of your life to counterbalance the worst weekend of mine. OLIVE I'm sure you'll have a good time. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT Rhi sits, bored and uncomfortable, while her parents smile at the campfire for an, again, awkwardly long moment. 8. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY To her webcam -- OLIVE (Through the proverbial CLENCHED TEETH) Even though we now hate each other, Rhi, I really hope you're watching this. Because this part's for you. The lurid details of my weekend en flagrante delicto with the all-too- imaginary, yet surprisingly satisfying George Glass: Ken Nordine's beat poem `OLIVE,' (from the late 60's album `Colors'), underscored to jazz, plays as we see a montage of OLIVE'S WEEKEND: In her bedroom, Olive -- -- watches `The Notebook,' pining over Ryan Gosling. KEN NORDINE (V.O.) Olive. Poor thing. -- paints her toenails Jungle Red. KEN NORDINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Sits and thinks that it's drab. Sure does. Sits and sits and sits and sits and THINKS about it's olive drab drab. -- dances to the jazz music, but alone, in her underwear and a t-shirt that declares: `Hands off.' KEN NORDINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) DOESN'T KNOW that it is about to be named `Color of the Year,' by those with the nose for the new. By the passionate few. Yeah... -- reads TEEN PEOPLE magazine. KEN NORDINE (CONT'D) Olive is definitely in. EVERYTHING that can possibly mean (MORE) 9. KEN NORDINE (CONT'D) anything! Anywhere! At least for a year. -- dances some more. KEN NORDINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Has got to be Olive! Did you hear that Olive? Did ya? Know what it means? Oh Olive! There'll be olive cars and olive trucks and olive chickens and olive ducks and olive socks and olive garters And olive brakes and olive starters! Olive, sorry! Olive, please! OLIVE WHATNOTS and olive trees! Olive trees? What a quaint notion... Olive trees. (CHUCKLING) Olive. Out of breath from dancing, she walks over and displaces the NEEDLE from the KEN NORDINE ALBUM she's playing. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY To the webcam -- OLIVE But on Monday, when Rhi asked me how my weekend was... INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Olive and Rhi walk, with books in hand, to class - weaving in and out of people. OLIVE It was nothing short of perfection. 10. RHIANNON Details, bitch. Wait, first I need a scope of reference. Who would play him in the movie of your life? OLIVE Ryan Gosling, definitely. RHIANNON That works. Spill. OLIVE He was charming. A real gentleman. RHIANNON Are you going to see him again? OLIVE Probably not. It was just one of those weekends. RHIANNON The whole weekend? OLIVE Yeah. Rhiannon suddenly stops and twirls Olive to face her. RHIANNON Wait a minute. You didn't... OLIVE No, of course not. RHIANNON (VERY LOUDLY) You fucking liar! You totally lost your virginity to him. Pedestrian students stop in their tracks to stare at them. OLIVE I did not. RHIANNON YES YOU DID, YOU LYING FUCKING WHORE! Olive grabs her and drags her forward, interrupting the show. RHIANNON (CONT'D) Tell me everything and spare me the coquettish `just-the-tip' bullshit. (MORE) 11. RHIANNON (CONT'D) I know you did it! I know you let him put it inside you, so just TELL ME! OLIVE I'm not that kind of girl. RHIANNON The kind that does it or the kind that does it like a fucking porn star and then doesn't have the balls to talk about it? Rhi drags her into the -- INT. GIRLS' ROOM - CONTINUOUS -- and abrasively, gets up in Olive's face. RHIANNON I want every perverted detail. NOW, bitch. Pressured, Olive lies. OLIVE Okay. Fine. We did it. RHIANNON You lost your virginity! Fucking finally! Now, you're a super-slut like me! OLIVE Rhi. Blowing Peter Tolliver once behind the Pizza Hut doesn't make you a super-slut. RHIANNON There were people walking past. Whatever, this isn't about me. This is about YOU. What did you let him do? OLIVE (V.O.) I started piling on lie after lie. It was like setting up Jenga. CUT TO: 12. A well-manicured FEMALE HAND stacks WOODEN JENGA BLOCKS onto a table. BACK TO: OLIVE (CONT'D) It was... Normal. Nothing freaky. It was sweet. HE was sweet. RHIANNON Was he big? Did it hurt? OLIVE No. It was great. Like I said. Okay, that's enough. The toilet flushes and MARIANNE BRYANT (16), an Aryanesque, cardigan-wearing Christian-girl exits from a stall and walks to the sink, where she vigorously washes her hands - while staring at Rhi and Olive with disgust. RHIANNON What the fuck are you looking at, Marianne? MARIANNE Nothing. Just a couple of admitted whores. Marianne wipes her hands and leaves the restroom. Olive's stomach revolves at her now-turned-public admission. OLIVE So, how was your weekend? (I promise it's the last time...) EXT. WOODS - NIGHT The Abernathys smile at the campfire, roasting WEINERS. Rhiannon would rather be anywhere other than there. MR. ABERNATHY Wienie, Rhi? Rhi snorts in contempt of her father and his wienie. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- 13. OLIVE Marianne Bryant, as we all know, is the President of the Christian Student Coalition and is that rare breed of human born with a stick the size of a baseball bat implanted up her anus. God's honest. I'm sure it's in some medical dictionary somewhere. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - LAST YEAR Marianne and her lackey, NINA HOWELL (16), who's just as awful as she is, pass out flyers. OLIVE (V.O.) Last year's cause celebre was the changing of the school mascot, which she spearheaded. Marianne aggressively shoves her literature into passing students faces. INT. GYM - LAST YEAR The school's MASCOT (17), a SHIRTLESS MUSCULAR KID painted BLUE and costumed as a DEVIL, bursts into the auditorium and begins to rile students up by thrusting his PITCHFORK in the air. MASCOT Blue Devils! Blue Devils! Blue Devils! The crowd goes wild. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - LAST YEAR - CONTINUOUS Marianne, melodramatically, grabs a PASSING STUDENT by the arm. MARIANNE How can we exhibit school pride when we're conveyed to others as satan worshippers? The scared student takes her pamphlet and runs away. 14. OLIVE (V.O.) Now, thankfully, we're the much less intimidating -- INT. GYM - LAST YEAR - MONTHS LATER The mascot, unenthusiastic and feeling ridiculous, walks into the gym dressed as a -- OLIVE (V.O.) Meerkat. MASCOT Go meerkats! Go meerkats! He can't seem to get himself or the student body as excited - with the exception of Marianne and Nina, in the stands applauding proudly. The school band is playing `GOLDFINGER.' Across the gym, Olive sits with Rhiannon. RHIANNON What the fuck is a meerkat anyway? OLIVE Beats the hell out of me. But can we just take a moment to applaud the Barbara Bush High School Marching Band for their very ambitious effort to learn all of the James Bond theme music in a single year? I personally wish them all the best in their endeavor. Ku-dos! RHIANNON I think I speak for all of the female students and faculty - and maybe a couple of males - when I say that I liked Todd much better when he was shirtless. I actually looked forward to these disturbing displays of -- what do they call it? OLIVE School spirit. RHIANNON Yeah. That's it. 15. OLIVE Even dressed as a meerkat, I still fantasize about him. RHIANNON Ha! What are those people called again? The ones that dress up like stuffed animals when they do it? OLIVE Communists. Rhiannon laughs. RHIANNON Shhh. Don't let Marianne hear you say that word. The last thing we need is McCarthyism at Barbara Bush. OLIVE Isn't high school already a hotbed of just that? RHIANNON True. (Beat.) Yeah, I'd totally fuck Meerkat Todd. They both get lost in the thought. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE So, of course, immediately I knew that the little white lie I told to my then-best-friend in the ladies room would come back to bite me on the ass. However, even I - who my fourth grade teacher stated on my report card `has an imagination that should be quickly expunged' - had no idea how quickly this article of fiction would spread. So, now we move on to Part Two: The Accelerated Velocity of Terminological Inexactitude. 16. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Olive loads books into her locker. She sees Marianne walk past with Nina. They give her a repulsed look. Olive decides to nip this in the bud. She catches up to them. OLIVE Hey Marianne, can I talk to you for a second? Nina, reluctantly, gives them a moment alone. MARIANNE (EXASPERATED) What? OLIVE Listen, what you heard in the bathroom, that wasn't true. It's actually a funny story. Do you ever watch `The Brady Bunch'? MARIANNE Olive - that's your name, right? Olive knows that Marianne knows her name, but obligingly nods. MARIANNE (CONT'D) I'm not the one you have to answer to for your depraved behavior. There is a higher power to judge your indecency. OLIVE (JOKINGLY) Who? The guidance counselor? MARIANNE (ICILY) I hope for your sake, God has a sense of humor. OLIVE Oh, I have sixteen years worth of anecdotal proof that He does. Olive looks over and sees that Nina is talking to a group of GUYS, who are looking at Olive, intrigued. 17. OLIVE (CONT'D) (SOTTO VOCE) Damn it. Marianne sees what her friend is doing and smiles at Olive, coldly. MARIANNE Look. You've made your bed. I just hope for your sake, you cleaned the sheets. She turns on her heels and leaves Olive behind. OLIVE (TO HERSELF) Did I just get saved? She shakes off her attempt and continues on her way, walking past the guys who smile at her. This alarms her. GUY IN HALL Hey Olive. How's it going? Without stopping -- OLIVE I'm swell, guy-I've-never-laid-eyes- on-before. Thanks for asking. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) All I could think to myself was `Great, now I'm going to have to start wearing red lipstick and stiletto heels.' Battling her frustration, she goes to class. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Olive eats dinner with her family. Her father, DILL (40's), is a regular dad-kinda-guy. Her mother, ROSEMARY (40's) is heavyset with a fun disposition. Also in attendance is her `a-little-too-precious' sister, GINGER (12). Olive and her folks get along really well. OLIVE Hey, you guys know that I was here all weekend, right? 18. They all nod at her. OLIVE (CONT'D) And you would testify to that? DILL (SLIGHTLY CONCERNED) What's up, sweet pea? OLIVE It's nothing. Just the rumor mill. ROSEMARY What's the rumor mill turning out these days? OLIVE Seriously, it's nothing. They continue to eat. ROSEMARY Don't forget your brother's staying here next weekend. OLIVE Why? He never comes home. ROSEMARY They're fumigating the dorms. And thank God for that. Last time I was there, I saw three cockroaches. GINGER (WHINY) Mom, can you please not say that word while I'm eating? ROSEMARY Sorry, hon. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE Like all families, mine has a deep dark secret. And since I'm spilling all this dirt, I might as well go ahead and confess it. She takes a deep breath. 19. OLIVE (CONT'D) I'm trusting that this nugget of information isn't going to be spread around, but - okay, here it goes: My dad's name is Dill and my mother's name is Rosemary. They were so amused by this that they decided to name all of their children after -- (FEIGNING DISCOMFORT) -- edible items. (With mock emotion) My brother's name is Sage and my sister's name is Ginger. It's shocking, I know. We're like a fucking pantry, us Penderghasts! (SNAPPING BACK) But at least my parents didn't meet at a `Star Trek' convention, BITCH! Sorry. Now, I'm just being mean. Okay. Back to the story. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY As Olive walks through school, she is met with a totally different energy. She no longer blends in. Guys are checking her out. Girls are glaring at her, scornfully. She's kind of digging it. OLIVE (V.O.) So, while I would never have classified myself as a wallflower, I was now the center of attention and who doesn't love that? Jeez, if I'd known that losing my virginity would create such a new persona for myself, I'd have lied about it back in eighth grade. Eighth grade sucked. I did get my first kiss back then, however. It was gross and kind of turned me off to the whole my-tongue-in-other- people's-mouths thing. Not to mention, the even-worse other- people's-tongues-in-MY-mouth thing. Seriously, folks. Who invented kissing? Why is everyone so dead- set on sticking their body parts in other people's orifices? If there's a hole on a person, rest assured, somebody wants to stick something of theirs in it. 20. INT. CLOSET In almost complete darkness, a very nervous EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE (13) sits with a scared shitless EIGHTH GRADE KID (13). You can hear other PRE-TEENS snickering and whispering outside the door. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE So, I think this is the part where you're supposed to stick your tongue in my mouth. It's just what I've heard. EIGHTH GRADE KID Just give me a second, okay? Olive presses a button and her watch illuminates. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE According to my watch, you have 382 of them. EIGHTH GRADE KID How do you do that? EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE What? EIGHTH GRADE KID Add so fast. And you also talk like a grown up. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Don't worry. I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am. The kid snickers. He feels a little more at ease. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE (CONT'D) I think it's just practice. For when I do grow up. Plus, don't sweat it. Girls mature faster than boys. EIGHTH GRADE KID That's what they say. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE And it's probably the reason I'm ready to do this and you're not. EIGHTH GRADE KID Is it that obvious? 21. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Painfully so. EIGHTH GRADE KID So, if we didn't do anything, would you tell everybody? EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Absolutely. I will tell everyone you pussied out and the whole school will make fun of you and you'll most likely spend the rest of your teen years as a joke - no, even worse - a cautionary tale. They both laugh. EIGHTH GRADE KID The Kid Who Opted Not To Kiss The Girl. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE They'll tell it for years. It'll be a suburban legend. The kid smiles warmly and gratefully at her. EIGHTH GRADE KID Thanks, Olive. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Don't mention it. EIGHTH GRADE KID No. YOU don't mention it. She extends her pinky to him. They link pinkies and they swear on it. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE We still have five minutes and thirty six seconds. There's a long silence. EIGHTH GRADE KID I'm really interested in politics. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Oh yeah? EIGHTH GRADE KID Totally. 22. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Well,... Uh.... Cool. There's another long silence. Finally, from outside the door -- PRETEEN KID (O.S.) Ewwwww. Hunter Neblett just puked all over the dining room. Olive and the kid listen as people scurry from outside the closet. EIGHTH GRADE KID Thank God. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE Hey, we're in Junior High. Vomit- viewing will always trump spit- swapping. The kid starts to make his grand escape, but Olive stops him. EIGHTH GRADE OLIVE (CONT'D) Real fast - and you can tell me the truth. It's not because I'm -- The kid smiles. EIGHTH GRADE KID No. You're very pretty. He extends his pinky and she links it to hers. He kisses her quickly on the cheek and darts from the closet. Olive sits in the closet for a moment, contemplating what just happened, wondering if he was telling the truth, then she opens the door. The coast is clear, except for ANOTHER PRETEEN KID walking past. She aggressively grabs him and pulls him into the closet with her and, promptly, thrusts her tongue into his mouth. They make out. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Olive seems lost in thought. She snaps back to reality and the task at hand. 23. OLIVE If I'd known that Meerkat Todd was going to turn out so hot, I probably would have cherished the moment more. I suppose just that I'm sitting here reminiscing about it means that it must have meant something. (Beat.) Yeah, so anyway - kissing's not really my thing. That's what I learned in Natalie Giblin's closet. I digress... INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Olive half-listens in class, while her English teacher MR. GRIFFIN (early 30's), a handsome guy, lectures on `THE SCARLET LETTER.' OLIVE (V.O.) So, I'm feeling like the cat's ass, because everyone thinks I've been deflowered. I'm surprised at how empowered I felt by this prevarication. I wonder to myself, would I feel this invigorated if I had actually let some college kid violate me in his cockroach- infested dorm room? Probably not. (Beat.) Ironically, we were studying `The Scarlet Letter,' but isn't that always the way with these teenage tales? The literature you read in class always seems to have a strong connection with whatever angsty adolescent drama is being recounted. I consider this. (Pause.) Then I think: Except for `Huckleberry Finn.' I don't know any teenage boys who have ever run away with a big, hulking black guy. MR. GRIFFIN Alright, so thoughts? Nina raises her hand. Mr. Griffin points to her. NINA I think Hester Prynne was - excuse my language - a whore. 24. MR. GRIFFIN You don't see her as a victim? NINA Why should I? She brought it on herself. Nina whips around and gives Olive a look, surprising her. OLIVE Excuse me? NINA Perhaps you should embroider a red A on your wardrobe? OLIVE Perhaps you should GET a wardrobe, you twat! The class bursts into surprised laughter. Even Mr. Griffin tries hard to suppress a congratulatory glance in her direction. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Admittedly, not my best line. But it was provocative enough to land me in the Principal's office. Mr. Griffin, begrudgingly, calls her to his desk. He starts writing something on a piece of paper. INT. FRONT OFFICE - BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Olive sits with her arms crossed outside of the Principal's office. She clenches a note in her fist. Marianne, who's an office aid, has a smirk on her face as she watches Olive squirm. She slams her fist down on the stapler, repetitively. FINALLY -- MARIANNE Seems as if someone's on a downward spiral. OLIVE Seems as if someone's practicing the mundane activities she'll be saddled with the rest of her pathetic life. 25. MARIANNE You have a chip on your shoulder the size of Texas. OLIVE Wow, that's even bigger than your ass. MARIANNE (COLDLY) You're going to hell. OLIVE (Growing weary of this BANTER) As long as you won't be there... MARIANNE Oh, I can assure you I won't. Neither says anything for a few moments. MARIANNE (CONT'D) I hope you at least had the good sense to wear a condom. OLIVE Why? Your parents didn't. MARIANNE You know, you're just like -- The principal's door opens and Marianne quickly shuts up and continues her work. TWO KIDS emerge. One, obviously, a bully; the other, obviously, the bullied. The BULLIED kid is holding a BLOODIED TISSUE up to his nose. He and Olive exchange meaningful glances. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS (60's), a colossal prick disguised as a man, gestures for her to come in. Olive gets up and enters -- INT. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS He closes the door behind them. He holds his hand out and she gives him the note that Mr. Griffin wrote. Gibbons studies it. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS I don't know you. She thrusts her hand out. 26. OLIVE Olive Penderghast. He eyes her hand, not amused, and she quickly withdraws it. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS Why are we just now meeting? Using language like this should have warranted a visit to me years ago. OLIVE Well, to be perfectly honest - I've never used an epithet like this in an educational arena before. Sir. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS This is foul. OLIVE In my defense, I think I meant to say `twit.' It just came out more - what's the word I'm looking for? Veracious. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS A young lady with such an extensive vocabulary shouldn't be stooping to such vituperations. OLIVE (SMILING) TouchÈ. As serious as a heart attack... PRINCIPAL GIBBONS Wipe that smile off your face -- (Consulting the note) Olive. I don't tolerate this kind of language. Ever. Consider this your first warning. If I find out you've used a word like this in my school again, I will make sure that it's your last. I don't operate on a `three strikes you're out system'. You get one warning from me. She starts to say something -- PRINCIPAL GIBBONS (CONT'D) Think very carefully before you speak. 27. She relents, but stares him squarely in the eyes. OLIVE I always do. Are we finished? He gestures to the door. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS Detention tomorrow after school in Room 704. And, young lady, I don't want to see you again. OLIVE Not even in a more positive capacity? Maybe I could win a ribbon or a medal or something. I could conceivably be valedictorian. Or something. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS (FRIGHTENINGLY SERIOUS) Get out of my office now. She quickly runs out of his office. EXT. BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - PARKING LOT - DAY Rhiannon, excitedly, approaches Olive - dying to talk to her. RHIANNON Please tell me the rumors are true. OLIVE Yes, I'm a big whore. RHIANNON Not that one. The one where you called Nina Howell a cunt and then socked her in the nose. OLIVE It's not entirely true. (Beat.) Look, there's something I need to tell you. Rhiannon ignores her sincere attempt to confess. RHIANNON Yeah. Like the exact moment you turned into such a BAD ASS? I think I'm in LOVE with you. (MORE) 28. RHIANNON (CONT'D) Please tell me you at least left a mark on that scrunched-up face of hers. POW! The cunt goes down for the count! OLIVE (FRUSTRATED) Never mind. Rhiannon pulls her keys from her purse and they walk to her car. OLIVE (CONT'D) I want a car. RHIANNON Please. It's my only perk. Trust me. They get into her car. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT The scene looks the same. Olive sits with her family, having family dinner. OLIVE I got sent to the Principal today. Her parents seem more impressed than upset. This is definitely a first. DILL What did you do? OLIVE I used inappropriate language in English class. But we're reading a book that I, personally, deem wildly inappropriate for my age group, so I felt that it was actually quite apropos. ROSEMARY (More curious than angry) What did you say? Olive looks to her little sister and thinks better of saying the word out loud. OLIVE Let's just say it was an inappropriate word. 29. DILL What did it start with? OLIVE A snide comment from a snotty-ass girl in my class. DILL I meant what letter did it start with? OLIVE Oh. Yeah. T. ROSEMARY T? That's an odd one. Is this one of those new curse words? Both her parents wheels are going. They're both seeking the answer in their heads, but are coming up with nothing. ROSEMARY (CONT'D) Was it -- ? She leans over and whispers something in her daughter's ear. OLIVE I don't even know what that means. ROSEMARY Yeah. Neither do I. Her parents search their brains, but nothing is coming to them. DILL Okay. Noun, adjective or verb? OLIVE Noun. Definitely slang. Think British, although they pronounce it differently. ROSEMARY Well, I'm stumped. Whisper it in my ear. OLIVE I can't. Too weird. Excited by the prospect -- ROSEMARY Oo! Oo! Spell it with your peas! 30. OLIVE Now, THAT'S a challenge. She begins maneuvering her peas around the plate. DILL Does this have something to do with this rumor you were talking about the other night? Olive touches her index finger to her nose, as she continues to manipulate her food. DILL (CONT'D) Is there something you want to tell us, kiddo? OLIVE I'm spelling it out for you as quickly as I can. GINGER (Desperate for attention) I got a B plus on my spelling test today. Too intrigued by Olive's admission to really care -- ROSEMARY Good, sweetheart. Rosemary figures it out as Olive is assembling the A. ROSEMARY (CONT'D) Oh, I know what it is! She leans over and whispers it in Dill's ear. He nods in understanding. GINGER (Glancing at Olive's PLATE) What's a twat? Olive quickly scrapes the peas into a pile. DILL It's a word that will get you sent to the principal's office. ROSEMARY (Whispering into Ginger's EAR) It's not a good word. (MORE) 31. ROSEMARY (CONT'D) (TO OLIVE) So, what was the principal like? OLIVE The male equivalent. ROSEMARY Of what? Now, it's Dill's turn to whisper in Rosemary's ear. She nods in understanding. DILL Well, it's the first time since second grade, so I guess we can't be too hard on you. OLIVE (GENUINELY CURIOUS) What would my punishment have been otherwise? DILL I dunno. To bed without supper? OLIVE But I'm already finished. Except for my helpful and profane peas. DILL (THINKING HARD) Uhhhh. This grounding thing seems to be taking the country by storm. No phone, TV or... Or.... OLIVE I'll help you out. I don't have anyone to call. I haven't watched TV since they cancelled `The Illegitimate Children of the Real Housewives of Laguna Beach' and I really only watched that as a joke. DILL Fine. I'd take away your -- OLIVE Books? Computer? DILL Yes! You're computer! 32. OLIVE All my homework's on there. Sorry. You lose. But thanks for playing. DILL (SMILING WARMLY) I guess then I'm lucky this isn't a regular occurrence. Olive gets up from the table and kisses her dad on the cheek. OLIVE I think we both are. I wouldn't know how to be grounded any more than you know how to ground. DILL I love you. (Whispering in her ear) And I'm sure that girl was acting like exactly what you called her. OLIVE (WHISPERING BACK) You have no idea. She goes over and kisses her mom on the cheek, as well. Leaving the dining room -- OLIVE (CONT'D) How's about I go and punish myself? Mea culpa, mea culpa. She retreats upstairs. GINGER How come you guys never get mad at her? ROSEMARY Because, pumpkin, of our three darling children, we love her best. (Erupting into laughter) Just kidding! Now eat your dinner. Dill chuckles, but Ginger is not amused. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- 33. OLIVE The next day, things took a turn for the scandalous. Which brings us to Part Three: A Lady's Choice and a Gentleman's Agreement. She smiles slyly into her camera. INT. ROOM 704 - DAY Bored, Olive sits at a desk in a classroom, reading a tattered copy of `The Scarlet Letter.' She's dressed much racier and is starting to look pretty hot. There's only one other person in the room. The BULLIED KID seen by Olive leaving Gibbons's office the day before. The bullied kid is thin as a rail, pale as a ghost and slightly effeminate. He looks miserable. Not just by this detention, but from life in general. OLIVE Are these detention sessions often unchaperoned? BULLIED KID I don't think we pose a flight risk. OLIVE I see. Olive laughs to herself. BULLIED KID What? OLIVE I was just thinking it's kind of funny. We haven't really talked since that closet incident back in eighth grade. BULLIED KID I was afraid you were going to bring that up. OLIVE So, how have you been, Brandon? BRANDON (DRYLY) I have been fantastic. (MORE) 34. BRANDON (CONT'D) Really, really amazing. Don't know if you heard, but according to my locker, I'm a `power bottom.' OLIVE Yikes. BRANDON Yeah, only two days after the custodians had finally gotten around to scrubbing `turd burglar' off. Which, if you think about it, really contradicts the previous label. OLIVE Maybe your vandal is marvelling at your versatility? Brandon shoots her a `that's not funny' look. BRANDON But, of course, I'm in detention. OLIVE Why? BRANDON Because Gibbons is a homophobe. (Beat.) And I called him a facist. OLIVE So, the rumors are true, huh? BRANDON (INCREDULOUS) Have you ever met me? OLIVE No. I meant about Gibbons being a facist. He laughs. OLIVE (CONT'D) I kind of guessed it that night with the whole kissing thing. The way you ran away. I remember thinking to myself, `this isn't the first time this kid's going to go bursting out of the closet.' 35. BRANDON Gold star for you, Nancy Drew. There's a brief silence between them. OLIVE You know, I read this article that said with this whole EMO movement, it looks like - that in a few years - the gay kids are going to be the most popular ones in school. BRANDON Oh good. I'll come back when I'm twenty seven for my redo. Ignoring his cynicism -- OLIVE Can you imagine the dance squad full of shirtless guys in tight pants rocking out to Britney, while the football players sit on the sidelines wishing they were that cool? BRANDON That'll be the day. (Beat.) Judging from the new look you're sporting, I'm not the only one in a transformative stage. `Sup with the whore couture? OLIVE (PROUDLY) Haven't you heard? I'm the new school slut! BRANDON As a matter of fact I did hear that. I heard you banged a guy twice your age. OLIVE No way. He's a freshman in college. BRANDON Also heard he gave you crabs. OLIVE Ewwww. People suck. 36. BRANDON Tell me about it. OLIVE He's not real. The guy I slept with. I made him up. BRANDON So, you started the rumor? OLIVE Indirectly? Sort of. Well, not really. No. No, I didn't. BRANDON But you're perpetuating it. That's fucked up. OLIVE (OFFENDED) Excuse me? BRANDON It's true. There's only one thing worse than these tabloid-chasing celebutantes with their vapid minds and their immoral souls and that's the people who want to be like them. OLIVE Did I say I wanted to be like them? BRANDON No, you just want everyone else to think you are. OLIVE Why does it matter if it's not who I really am? No offense, Brando, but maybe you could learn something from me. BRANDON You're saying I should pretend to be straight, so people will like me? What a novel idea. You should do seminars. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot... In high school, EVERYBODY PRETENDS TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT! 37. OLIVE Calm down, Adolph. There's a vein popping out of your neck. I'm simply suggesting that maybe these kids we call peers have got the right idea. Maybe Bridget Schumacher isn't as hippy-dippy as she pretends to be. Maybe that's just the label she's put on herself to avoid having to bathe as often as society deems necessary. Or take Marianne Bryant. It's convenient for her to act like a stuck-up Jesus-freak. (Thinking about this) No. I'm wrong. I think she's actually just a stuck-up Jesus- freak. But do you think she cares that that's the way she's perceived? No. Maybe she was just sick of being just another nameless, faceless entity in a place and a time that reveres people for extremity? Brandon realizes why she's chosen this path and feels for her. BRANDON There are some of us, though, that want to just blend in to the crowd. OLIVE Then maybe you need to go to that extreme. Or make the steadfast decision not to care. Even better if you can manage to do both. (Beat.) I've discovered an infallible remedy for teen angst: apathy. BRANDON I can't decide if you're a genius or a lunatic. OLIVE Don't they sort of go hand-in-hand? She smiles sinisterly at him. BRANDON Funny. I always thought teen angst and apathy went hand in hand. 38. There is an electricity in the air and it seems as if at any moment, they might fling off their clothes and screw right there. OLIVE How am I doing? BRANDON What? Pretending to be a whore? For a virgin, I'm impressed. How about me? Could I pass as straight? OLIVE Not bad. For a fag. BRANDON I prefer the term `turd burglar.' They both break character and return to being themselves. OLIVE If we really wanted to shock the world, we'd get up and leave detention. BRANDON But you know that we would never do that. OLIVE Isn't going to stop me from telling everybody we did. Brandon thinks hard about everything that's just been said. His brain is going a-mile-a-minute. In that noggin, an idea has been planted. Olive, not oblivious to this, returns to her novel. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Olive lounges on her bed, flipping through a magazine and talking to Rhiannon on the phone. RHIANNON (O.S.) Brandy Carter was telling Vanessa Hodges that you lost your virginity to three guys in a jacuzzi. 39. OLIVE Well, I guess that's better than me getting crabs from a guy twice my age. RHIANNON (O.S.) Ewww. Who said that? OLIVE You know that Brandon kid? RHIANNON (O.S.) From your seedy pre-pubescent closet romp? OLIVE The one and only. It's what somebody told him. RHIANNON (O.S.) Nobody talks to him. OLIVE Isn't that sad? He's actually quite the conversationalist. RHIANNON (O.S.) He's gay. OLIVE Since when are straight guys under the age of eighteen able to converse? A call beeps in on the other line. OLIVE (CONT'D) Shit. Hold on. She clicks over. OLIVE (CONT'D) Hello? BRANDON (O.S.) Olive? OLIVE (SINGSONG) Unfortunately so. BRANDON It's Brandon. 40. OLIVE Speak of the devil... BRANDON (O.S.) Hey, can I come over? I wanted to talk to you about something. OLIVE (INTRIGUED) Okay. Yeah. Sure. BRANDON (O.S.) Okay. See you soon. Olive clicks over to Rhiannon. OLIVE Dude, that was Brandon. He wants to talk to me about something. RHIANNON (O.S.) Probably wants to borrow an outfit. OLIVE That's so mean. RHIANNON (O.S.) Any word from George? OLIVE Rhi, I told you. It was a one night stand. Which is now a DONE night stand. RHIANNON (O.S.) You're being awfully cavalier about this. I mean, he popped your cherry. Aren't you supposed to be eternally in love with him and shit? OLIVE If I was a character on a CW show, then, absolutely, I'd be blubbering all over my Teen Vogue. Hey, we should start a rumor that I'm having a pregnancy scare! Olive is stoked by her idea. 41. INT. FOYER - PENDERGHAST HOME - NIGHT Rosemary opens the door to see Brandon. She has no idea who he is. BRANDON Hi. Is there an Olive here? ROSEMARY (FEIGNING CONFUSION) There's a whole jar of them in the fridge. BRANDON Sorry, I must have gotten the address wrong. ROSEMARY Just kidding! Come on in. Brandon walks in and Rosemary shouts -- ROSEMARY (CONT'D) Olive, sweetie, there's a young man here to see you. He said something about asking for your hand in marriage. Brandon's eyes bulge and Olive descends the staircase. OLIVE Oh happy day, Mama! I thought I was going to have to spend my dowry on booze and pills to numb the loneliness. Olive grabs Brandon by the hand and leads him upstairs to -- INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS She closes the door behind them. OLIVE My mom's an acquired taste. I know this because I've only just recently begun to appreciate her myself. She gestures for him to sit down. OLIVE (CONT'D) Welcome to my boudoir! This is where the magic happens. 42. BRANDON (BLURTING OUT) Do you wanna go out with me? She looks at him, strangely. BRANDON (CONT'D) I mean, like -- Do you want to be my girlfriend? OLIVE Brandon, just a few hours ago, you told me you were Kinsey Six gay. BRANDON True. But you said I should pretend to be straight. OLIVE Well, I didn't mean with me. You're a sweet guy and all, but you're not really my type. BRANDON You're not really my type either. OLIVE I should say not. BRANDON Okay. Well, do you wanna have sex with me? OLIVE You're serious. He nervously nods. OLIVE (CONT'D) Oh my God, dude. You totally missed my point. All I was saying was that -- BRANDON No, I know what you were saying. I should play it straight until I get out of this hell and then I can be whoever I want to be. No, I got that. OLIVE Brandon, I didn't REALLY have sex with a college guy. I just told people I did. (MORE) 43. OLIVE (CONT'D) (CONSIDERS THIS) Well, actually, I just told one person and - well - you know how these things work. BRANDON So, you're saying I shouldn't really have sex. I should just say I had sex with someone. A girl. OLIVE Now, you're cooking with gas. It's his turn to smile slyly at her. She sees where he's going with this and instantly gets defensive. OLIVE (CONT'D) Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no. No. Really. No. No way. No. No. BRANDON Think about it. We could help each other out. You want to maintain this floozy facade. I want to not get my face pummelled weekly. OLIVE You are on crack. BRANDON All it would take is one good imaginary fuck and you'd be saving the bone structure of my face. Think of how happy my parents would be! OLIVE This is not the answer. Why don't you just do what I did and make someone up? BRANDON Who would believe me? (GROWING INCREASINGLY DESPERATE) Listen, Olive, I don't want to do this. I want to live in that not- too-distant EMO world, but I still have another year of this bullshit place and I can't do it. I just can't do it. (Beat.) (MORE) 44. BRANDON (CONT'D) I'll pay you. I can pay you whatever you want. OLIVE (GENTLY) I just don't think it would work. BRANDON Whores aren't discerning, Olive. And just think - you'll OFFICIALLY be a hooker with a heart of gold! OLIVE I don't want your money. BRANDON I insist. OLIVE So, if I say yes, you're going to tell a couple of people at school and I just have to go with it? I really don't think it will work. BRANDON (His voice cracking with EMOTION) I can make it work. I promise. She sees tears forming in his eyes. She walks away from him and is silent for a long few moments. OLIVE I don't do anything half-assed. (Spinning around to face HIM) It'll have to be a public event. Melanie Bostic is having a party tomorrow night. All of your tormentors will be there. You and I are going together. You have to do everything I say AND you have to tell people that I was sensational. Brandon wipes his tears away and is the happiest gay you've ever seen. He throws his arms around her and won't let go. BRANDON I can't believe you're doing this. OLIVE Afterwards, it's up to you. You're committing to something. (MORE) 45. OLIVE (CONT'D) Just make sure you're ready to live with the consequences. It seems as if that last statement was more for herself than it was for him. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE I'm sure you all remember the party... INT. BOSTIC HOUSE - NIGHT A TEEN PARTY rages. DRUNK KIDS abound. Olive, looking like a million-fuckin'-bucks, prances into the party with Brandon, who's looking pretty snazzy himself. They appear drunk and are falling all over each other. People stare in complete amazement at a.) Their appearance and b.) That they're even together in the first place. You'd never guess that this was anything less than an A-LIST TEEN COUPLE, ripped from the pages of Teen People. Olive falls against Brandon laughing. He hoists her up, as their host, MELANIE BOSTIC (17), a fairly pretty girl, approaches. MELANIE Hey Olive! (WEIRDED OUT) Hi Brandon. OLIVE OhmiGod, Melly. I hope you don't mind, but we had a few pre-cocktail party cocktails... (DISORIENTED) Party. Cocktails. MELANIE Well, glad you could make it. OLIVE (Whispering and slurring in her ear) Soooo, here's the thing. (MORE) 46. OLIVE (CONT'D) Brandon was in the middle of telling me this funny thing. Is there a quiet room we can go to where he can finish telling me -- (HICCUP) -- About his thing? That's funny? She stares glassy-eyed at Melanie. Brandon just smiles. MELANIE Sure. You can use the guest room. Down the hall. OLIVE I love you. I love you so much. You are -- Just, yeah. She gives her a drunken punch on the shoulder. She spins around to the entire party, who is looking at them with complete interest. OLIVE (CONT'D) (Loudly; to all) Hey everybody! They raise a glass to them and Brandon and Olive stumble down the hallway, laughing. MELANIE (Shocked; Mouthing to a GUEST) What the fuck?! The bully who emerged from Gibbons's office with Brandon, goes up to Melanie. BULLY Was that Olive with Brandon? MELANIE I know! Right? They, with a big group, race down the hall where Brandon and Olive have just retreated to. INT. GUEST ROOM - NIGHT Olive locks the door and drops the drunk act. She's completely sober and so is Brandon. 47. OLIVE (WHISPERING) Draw the shades. Brandon runs over and pulls the blinds down. They giggle, conspiratorially. Olive plops down on the bed and stretches out. Brandon lays beside her. She moans for the benefit of the audience she knows has assembled outside. She moans again and it's very convincing. She leans over and whispers in his ear -- OLIVE (CONT'D) Grunt. Make it really convincing. And manly. He does so. She extends her palm, impressed. He slaps it with his. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Sure enough, it seems as if most of the party is listening at the door - falling all over each other to hear. Nearest to the door is the bully, who is pleasantly surprised by the noise inside. INT. GUEST ROOM - CONTINUOUS Olive reaches into her handbag and pulls out her copy of `The Scarlet Letter' and reads it while she makes sex noises. Brandon laughs at this and Olive smacks him with it, prompting him to stop. She puts her finger over her lips, giving him the `Shhhh' sign. She continues to read as she thrusts her hips, making the bed squeak ever so slightly. BRANDON (WHISPERING) How long do we have to do this? OLIVE (WHISPERING) Depends. Do you wanna be a normal adolescent boy or do you wanna be a stud? He moans in his deepest voice. She continues to read, crescendoing her moaning like a pro. 48. OLIVE (CONT'D) Oh God, Brandon. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop. She takes the top of the headboard and lightly taps it against the wall, over and over. OLIVE (CONT'D) (WHISPERING) Now that I think about it, we probably don't want to do this for too long. It'll give the impression that you're having difficulty finishing. That's not the desired effect. BRANDON (WHISPERING) Are you sure you're a virgin? OLIVE (WHISPERING STERNLY) Of course I am! (LOUDLY ) Oh, fuck me! Fuck me! Don't stop fucking me! Brandon suppresses a laugh. INT. GUEST ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Olive is disheveling herself. Brandon musses up his hair. OLIVE Hold on. She unbuttons Brandon's shirt and rebuttons it incorrectly. OLIVE (CONT'D) Go forth, my son. You're a man now. BRANDON Thanks Olive. He kisses her on the cheek and she smiles. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS The whole crowd, leaning against the wall, quickly disperses when the door opens. 49. The bully immediately hands Brandon a beer and throws his arm around him, leading him drunkenly down the hallway, with a crew of guys after the dirty details. Olive looks at this and smiles, satisfied. Then she realizes that, though the guys have gone, there are a whole slew of girls looking at her completely differently. They avoid her eye contact, as one would ward off Medusa. Olive finds Melanie pretending not to be interested in her. OLIVE Is there a -- ? MELANIE Back entrance is through the kitchen. OLIVE Thanks. She begins her walk of shame down the corridor into the -- INT. KITCHEN -- Where she runs smack-dab into the well-developed chest of MEERKAT TODD. MEERKAT TODD (POLITELY) Sorry. They make eye contact. Olive is a sick shade of regret. MEERKAT TODD (CONT'D) Oh, hey Olive. OLIVE Hi Todd. Obviously oblivious to the demonstration that just occurred -- MEERKAT TODD How's it going? OLIVE I'M -- (She doesn't know how she IS) I'm here. MEERKAT TODD Can I get you a beer? 50. OLIVE That rhymed. Olive catches the reflection behind her of a group of guys leaning against the counter, signalling `NO, DON'T DO IT' to him behind her back. She spins around and they instantly pretend to not be paying attention. She glares at them. OLIVE (CONT'D) (Ashamed of herself) I should probably go. She rushes off. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE It was truly my Cindy Mancini moment. (MELODRAMATICALLY REENACTING) `You! Even Bobby thinks we went out. Great, huh? Ha! All of you thought we were a couple. What a joke!... Ronald Miller paid me 1,000 bucks to pretend I liked him. What a deal, huh? $1,000 to go out with him for a month. This guy. Oh, God. He bought me. And he bought all of you. He was sick and tired of being a nobody. Yeah, and he said that all of you guys would worship him if we went out. And I didn't believe that. I was, like, no way! And he was right! No, leave me alone. He was right. Our little plan worked, didn't it, Ronald? The dance. That stupid dance! What a bunch of followers you guys are. I mean, at least I got... At least I got paid.' (Sincerely; as herself) `Can't Buy Me Love' is one of the best movies ever made. Hands down. You guys should totally watch it if you haven't already. Or even if you have. Seriously fine filmmaking. 51. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - DAY Olive lays on her bed watching the scene from `Can't Buy Me Love' that she just performed. She eats a candy bar and wallows in her self-pity. OLIVE (To the television) Oh, Cindy Mancini. It could have been a lot worse. Trust me. Her mom comes in with a nicely-wrapped gift. ROSEMARY That kid from the other night just dropped this off for you. Indicating an empty space on the floor -- OLIVE Put it on the pile of gifts from my other suitors. ROSEMARY He seems like a nice boy... Gay... OLIVE A dyed-in-the-wool homosexual that boy is. Rosemary puts the gift on the floor. ROSEMARY I dated a homosexual in high school. OLIVE We're not dating, Mom. ROSEMARY I just wanted to tell you that if you want to date a gay boy, it might be hard on your father and I, at first. But we love you no matter what the sexual orientation of your opposite-sex partner. Rosemary leaves, chuckling at her own joke. Too curious, Olive opens the gift. She withdraws a PHOTO of the BULLY holding BRANDON'S LEGS while he does a KEG STAND. She smiles, pleasantly. She pulls out a PINK VIBRATOR and looks at it quizically. 52. There's an envelope inside. She opens it and pulls out a $200 Gift Card to TARGET. OLIVE (V.O.) Cindy Mancini gets $1,000. I get a vibrator and a $200 Gift Card to Target. There's a note, which she reads aloud to herself. OLIVE (CONT'D) Dear Olive, The dildo is just in case you don't shop at Target. Then you can fuck yourself. Olive breaks out into riotous laughter. She's genuinely touched by this gift. The phone rings. Thinking it's Brandon, Olive snatches it up. OLIVE (CONT'D) (EXCITEDLY) Your package was perfection! RHIANNON (O.S.) So, it's TRUE! OLIVE Rhi? RHIANNON (O.S.) Well, it's not last night's conquest! OLIVE You know, I always think it's so ridiculous on TV, when someone picks up the phone and magically seems to know who's going to be on the other end. I usually preface a conversation with `hello' to avoid such banalities. The one time I decide to step outside this convention... How are you? INT. MALL - DAY Rhiannon, clutching an enormous Diet Coke, plods through the mall with an intensity reserved for girls who just found out their best friend had her sophomore sexual exploit and didn't bother to tell them. 53. RHIANNON I have many questions, obviously. WE INTERCUT BETWEEN THE TWO LOCATIONS: OLIVE (PLAYFULLY) Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. No, in fact, I do NOT know the way to San Jose. And - little known fact - contrary to popular belief, panama hats are not from Panama at all! They're from Ecuador! Who knew? RHIANNON Now is not the time to be cute. OLIVE You're putting me in a precarious position, because -- (With her best Jackie-O VOICE) -- `according to last month's Cosmopolitan Magazine, we should always look cute. Even when we're doing mundane activities such as choosing vegetables from the produce section of our local grocery store.' RHIANNON Olive, stop it. This is serious. Did you really bang Brandon last night at Melanie Dipshit's party? Olive sighs as she slumps into her pillows. OLIVE Is that what people are saying happened? RHIANNON That's what EVERYONE is saying. OLIVE Then I guess it's true. RHIANNON Does this mean you guys are dating? OLIVE God no. 54. Rhiannon screams in frustration, attracting the attention of passing shoppers. RHIANNON Just because you lost your virginity doesn't mean you can go around screwing everybody! OLIVE (OFF-PUT) Uh, thanks Mom. Good talk. RHIANNON You're getting a reputation. OLIVE Y'know, you're really coming off as a little pious right now and you're kind of pissing me off. RHIANNON Please forgive my rectitude, but I think that a best friend's duty is to let her know that everyone - and I do mean everyone - is calling her a cum dumpster. OLIVE Well, do YOU think I'm a cum dumpster? RHIANNON Look, baby, I call a spade a spade. Entering the red zone -- OLIVE First off, that's racist. Secondly, fuck you! How dare you? I was Laura Ingalls to your Lady Chatterly and, now all of a sudden, YOU feel the need to warn ME that I'M making a fool of myself? There are a lot of children who will never again experience Family Pizza Night because of you. So, why don't you jump off your high horse and splash around in the gutter where you belong. RHIANNON I didn't want to believe it, but I guess it's true. You're a fucktart. 55. OLIVE And you're a jealous virgin. RHIANNON Oh yeah. I totally want to lose my virginity to one of -- (As if it was a disease) -- your brother's friends and then be the first for a fairy, while everyone listens outside! What is wrong with you? Does sex mean anything to you? OLIVE Yes! It's a period of time, how ever short, that I don't have to talk to you! She slams the phone down into the cradle and seethes. Berlin's `SEX (I'm A...)' plays loudly as... She goes into her closet and starts, wildly, pulling down clothes. She throws them into a big pile in the middle of her floor. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into her webcam -- OLIVE Rhiannon Abernathy only wishes that somebody wanted to pretend to sleep with her! BACK TO: INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Olive - visibly upset - is cutting something, meticulously, out of RED FABRIC. In fact, she has yards of red fabric draped across her lap. When she finishes the shape, she tosses it behind her and begins another one. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - LATER Olive sews these red scraps to her clothes. When she finishes one piece, as before, she tosses it behind her and grabs another item from the crumpled wardrobe on her floor. 56. Time flies and we see the clothing pile rapidly decreasing, until there are none left. The song morphs into -- Tommy James and the Shondell's `CRIMSON & CLOVER' as we fade into -- INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Clad in sunglasses, fuck-me-boots and looking like a bona fide porn star, Olive struts down the halls of her school. Sewn across her larger and pushed up breasts is A FIERY RED `A' (NOTE: For the rest of the film, every piece of Olive's clothing will be emblazoned with a RED A.) Erections are popping up all along the halls, as well as looks of total disbelief from the girls. She works it like a Debbie Who Just Did Dallas, D¸sseldorf, Des Moines, Daytona, Detroit and Darfur. Up ahead, Rhiannon is yakking with a semi-attractive guy named ANSON (17). She catches sight of Olive and her jaw drops. Olive sidles up to Anson, much to Rhiannon's chagrin. OLIVE Hey, Anson. ANSON (NERVOUS) Hi. OLIVE (Breathy and aping Marilyn MONROE) I just realized the funniest thing. My name is an anagram for `I love...' ANSON (STUTTERING) What's an anagram? OLIVE Look it up, big boy. She rubs her knee, seductively, along his inner thigh, turns and licks her lips at a repulsed Rhiannon and continues on her way. 57. INT. CAFETERIA - LUNCH LINE - LATER Anything sexually suggestive you can do with school cafeteria food, Olive does as she makes her way through the lunch line, as guys ogle her. Marianne, also present in the line, watches her in repugnance. INT. GYMNASIUM - DAY Olive emerges from the GIRLS' LOCKER ROOM, dressed for gym class. A TERRIFIED FAT KID named EVAN nervously approaches her. EVAN Hey Olive. OLIVE Hi Evan. EVAN Can I talk to you for a second? He gestures for her to follow him underneath the bleachers. She reluctantly does so. EVAN (CONT'D) (WHISPERING) Don't get mad, but Brandon told me what you did for him. OLIVE Well, rest assured, it was equally as thrilling for me. EVAN No, he told me the truth. She's pissed. She silently seethes. EVAN (CONT'D) And I was just hoping that maybe you could do the same for me? OLIVE (Through clenched teeth) Walk away, Evan. Evan starts to talk, but she raises her hand to silence him. OLIVE (CONT'D) RUN away, Evan. 58. EVAN I can pay you, too. OLIVE I'm about six seconds away from slapping you so hard that your unborn grandchildren will feel it. EVAN (Excited at the prospect) Can you do it in front of everyone? Olive turns and starts to leave. Evan summons up his courage and meekly states to her back. EVAN (CONT'D) I don't need your permission, you know. She turns around and gives him a look of death. He can't look at her. EVAN (CONT'D) I mean, at the rate you're going, I'm just saying I don't think anyone would not believe it. OLIVE Are you threatening me? EVAN I'll give you $500. OLIVE You're repugnant. EVAN (Indicating his body) That's the problem. And once again Olive feels too sorry for him to say no. OLIVE I want five hundred dollars in gift certificate form deposited in my locker before noon tomorrow. Preferably `The Gap,' but I'll also take Amazon.com. We did NOT have sex. I was piss-ass drunk and I let you fondle my chest and it was a glorious moment for you, unmatched by anything you've heretofore experienced, including cake. Got it? 59. EVAN Five hundred bucks for just feeling you up? Doesn't that seem a little steep to you? Can you throw in SOME (Mispronouncing it; as if it rhymed with `cottage') frottage? OLIVE (CORRECTING HIM) It's fraw-TAHZH, dumbass. (BUCKLING) Fine. But it was so good, you lasted only twelve seconds and I better not find out that little pecker of yours EVER came out of your pants. Take it or leave it. EVAN Little pecker? Nuh-uh. For five hundred dollars, it was ungodly huge. You even commented on the unusual girth for a guy my age. OLIVE I was too drunk to remember. EVAN Three minutes. OLIVE Two. He extends his hand. EVAN Deal. She, repulsed by it, shakes his hand. Evan's ecstatic. OLIVE The sad thing is, Evan, if you had been a gentleman and asked me out on a date, I probably would have said yes. EVAN Really? Do you want to go on a date? With zero vitriol -- 60. OLIVE Not now, I don't. Sad for him, she walks away. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE Evan, if you're watching this - shame on you. I hope you never treat another girl the way you treated me or you will die alone, wishing it was because you're fat. And since we're playing the shame game... While I appreciate the sentiment, Lewis, a pretend hand job should have warranted a little more than a hundred dollars worth of AMC Movie Passes. They had an expiration date AND were only able to be used for movies that had been running for two weeks. But even that's better than Tyler Jennings, who gave me a ten percent off coupon to Bath and Body Works. Seriously. A fucking coupon. Is that how good my imaginary blow job was to you? Huh? Is chivalry dead? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I want Richard Gere climbing up my fire escape with the limo waiting downstairs. I want to ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. Although, I'm ashamed to admit I'd prefer him to look like he looks now. What woman wouldn't? But no. I get to save two fifty on a bottle of Juniper Breeze Hand Lotion. Maybe chivalry isn't dead, but it's in a coma and the prognosis isn't good. (Beat.) So, if you're still with me - and I'm guessing that most of you are - I now present to you Part Four: How I, Olive Penderghast, Went From Assumed Trollop To an Actual Home- wrecker. 61. INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Mr. Griffin is alone grading papers. Olive pokes her head in. OLIVE You wanted to see me? MR. GRIFFIN Yeah, Olive. Come cop a squat. She takes a seat opposite his desk. He points to the RED "A" on her chest. MR. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) What are you doing? OLIVE Accessorizing? MR. GRIFFIN Olive, Olive, Olive. Do you think that maybe you're reading a little too much into this assignment? OLIVE Well, I'm really hoping to get an A. (She points to her chest) Get it? Get it? MR. GRIFFIN I'm hearing things. She takes a deep breath. OLIVE The rumors are true. I am, in fact, considering becoming an existentialist. MR. GRIFFIN You know what I'm talking about. OLIVE Geez, since when did teachers become privy to idle, adolescent gossip? MR. GRIFFIN I guess it wouldn't matter so much if I didn't like you. You're a great girl and I happen to think that all of (MORE) 62. MR. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) (Indicating her outfit) `this' is just an act. I'm just curious why you're doing it. Olive drops her defenses and gets real. OLIVE Have you ever decided just to play along? Because it's maybe easier than fighting tooth-and-nail to defend it? MR. GRIFFIN I just don't want to see this (He searches for the word) damage you. OLIVE You know, I think you should give me extra credit for going the extra mile. I'm really attempting to understand this puritanical ostracism. Mr. Griffin smiles at her. MR. GRIFFIN Hey, I'm really sorry I had to send you to the Principal. If you tell anybody, I'll deny it, but I really wanted to cheer with the rest of the class. OLIVE (SMILING; INNOCENTLY) You know I won't tell. She gets up and leaves, but passes in the doorway, a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. OLIVE (CONT'D) (To the woman) Hey Mrs. Griffin. Pretending to know who she is -- MRS. GRIFFIN Hi! How are you? OLIVE (Pointing to the `A') A is for Awesome. Olive disappears into the empty halls. 63. MRS. GRIFFIN I've never seen that girl before in my life. MR. GRIFFIN That doesn't surprise me. MRS. GRIFFIN I'm the guidance counselor. I should know all of the students. Especially the ones dressed like that. He kisses her. MR. GRIFFIN She's just going through a phase. (He gets an idea) Hey, do you think you could talk to her? Maybe you could get her to -- I dunno - MRS. GRIFFIN Sure. Yeah, whatever. Oh wait! That's not the girl that everyone's talking about, is it? MR. GRIFFIN `Fraid so. MRS. GRIFFIN Oh, this'll be good. That snotty office aid has been bitching about her incessantly. MR. GRIFFIN It's all lies. Talk to her. Maybe that's all she needs. MRS. GRIFFIN What are you making for dinner tonight? MR. GRIFFIN Is it my turn? MRS. GRIFFIN Sure is. I'm meeting up with the girls at happy hour. MR. GRIFFIN Don't have too much fun. 64. MRS. GRIFFIN I never do. He kisses her. INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Assembled in a semi-circle, a handful of WELL-DRESSED CHRISTIAN KIDS open their meeting of the CROSS YOUR HEART CLUB with prayer. Marianne, of course, leads them in this ritual. Nina is also present. MARIANNE Heavenly Father, watch over us with Your all-encompassing love. Keep us on the path toward Your righteousness and eternal salvation. They all smile, say `AMEN' and open their eyes. MARIANNE (CONT'D) Guys. We have a problem. NINA Amen to THAT. MARIANNE Olive Penderghast. We need to pray for her, but we also need to get rid of her. I'm sure, by now, you've all heard about what happened at Melanie Bostic's party. CHRISTIAN KID #1 I was there. I heard the whole thing. Marianne eyes him, suspiciously. MARIANNE That's not something you need to advertise, Kurt. KURT (SHEEPISHLY) Sorry. MARIANNE See, herein lies the problem: She's doing these tasteless, immoral acts in plain view of the entire student body. (MORE) 65. MARIANNE (CONT'D) She's in direct opposition to everything we're trying to do for this school, which is make it a wholesome learning environment and a place where our children will one day flourish the way that we are. (Beat.) She was sent to the Principal's office last week -- NINA (INTERRUPTING) She called me a really hurtful name. MARIANNE -- and I tried to witness to her, but she's defiant to any sort of help. She tears up. MARIANNE (CONT'D) I don't know what to do, but something's got to be done. Her boyfriend, MICAH (17) takes her hand and holds it. She leans against his shoulder, wiping away tears. Nina, on the other side of her, begins rubbing her shoulder, sympathetically. MARIANNE (CONT'D) Does anybody here think that they can talk to her in a way that might get her to see that what she's doing is wrong? She suddenly bursts into sobs. (And these aren't crocodile tears. She is flooded with emotion.) MARIANNE (CONT'D) I'm sorry. This is so stupid. MICAH No, it's not, Marianne. She wipes her tears away. MARIANNE Jesus tells us to love everyone. Even the whores and the homosexuals, but it's so hard. (MORE) 66. MARIANNE (CONT'D) It's so hard, because they just keep doing `it' over and over again. She takes Micah and Nina's hands, the rest of the group follows suit. MARIANNE (CONT'D) Make me a promise. Make GOD a promise right here and now that we will remain pure and chaste until marriage. (Looking to Micah) Until our love is proven holy in His eyes. ALL We promise. MARIANNE Let's continue to pray for Olive Penderghast. That either she sees that what she's doing is a sin and changes her behavior or that she gets the hell out of our school. They all squeeze hands and Marianne manages a smile. MARIANNE (CONT'D) Awww, I love you guys. God loves you guys. EXT. PARKING LOT - BARBARA BUSH HIGH - DAY Marianne gives Micah a strictly PG-rated kiss against his car. They're nauseatingly wholesome. INT. FRONT OFFICE - NEXT DAY Olive is sitting in the office, dressed just as slutty as the day before. A RED "A" sewn onto her top. Marianne is behind the desk, sharpening pencils. After each one, she observes the point with a scary satisfaction. They exchange a few hateful glances at each other. Mrs. Griffin pokes her head out of her office. MRS. GRIFFIN Hey Olive. Wanna come in? 67. Olive, in no mood for this, drags herself up dramatically and follows Mrs. Griffin into -- INT. GUIDANCE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Mrs. Griffin sits behind her desk and Olive sits opposite her. MRS. GRIFFIN So, the reason I called you down here is just so that we could - sort of, y'know - chat about what's going on. (Beat.) There's been some concern from faculty members. OLIVE (CORRECTING HER) Your husband. Mrs. Griffin shifts uncomfortably in her chair. There's something a little unnerving about this kid's awareness. MRS. GRIFFIN Olive, you're attempting to make a statement. We get that. I'm just confused as to what exactly it is. OLIVE Am I in trouble? I promise the hem of my dress isn't higher than my fingertips. MRS. GRIFFIN You're not in trouble, Olive. I just wanted you to know that if there was something you maybe needed to talk about, that you could trust me. OLIVE If I open up to you, do you promise this stays in confidence? MRS. GRIFFIN Yes. OLIVE (CONFESSIONAL) I watch `American Idol.' Do NOT tell anyone. 68. Mrs. Griffin rolls her eyes. OLIVE (CONT'D) I have a reputation to uphold. MRS. GRIFFIN Don't you, though? Olive assesses this statement from her. OLIVE We done? If I can think of any angsty things to report, you'll be the first to know. She winks at her. OLIVE (CONT'D) This has been so much fun that I'm actually - at this very moment - considering meth addiction, just so I can come back and we can jaw some more. MRS. GRIFFIN (BITINGLY) Or you could always get pregnant? OLIVE I'm probably closer than either of us thinks... Mrs. Griffin digs in her purse and pulls out a handful of CONDOMS. Feigning excitement -- OLIVE (CONT'D) Propho-tastic! MRS. GRIFFIN Please don't tell anyone I gave you these. The school board is -- OLIVE Puritanical and oppressive? MRS. GRIFFIN Conservative. Olive sees that Mrs. Griffin is genuinely concerned. OLIVE I don't need those. 69. MRS. GRIFFIN (STERNLY) But you do. Olive starts to confess, but then just takes the rubbers and puts them in her own purse. OLIVE Thank you. MRS. GRIFFIN Remember: our little secret. And, hey, would you send in the next person? Mrs. Griffin smiles at Olive as she leaves. INT. FRONT OFFICE - BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - CONTINUOUS Marianne is talking to Micah, who seems distressed. He rubs his eyes, like he's been crying. Olive is surprised to see him there. OLIVE You're up, hoss. MARIANNE (Concerned; To Micah) It's going to be okay. She gives him a reassuring smile and he walks into her office. OLIVE (TO MARIANNE) Let me guess: drugs. Marianne gives her a `go away' look. OLIVE (CONT'D) I didn't know Christians believed in guidance counsellors. (Beat.) Ooo! Ooo! Is your boyfriend struggling with his sexuality? Marianne begins crying. MARIANNE No, you insensitive rhymes-with- witch! His parents are going THROUGH A (MORE) 70. MARIANNE (CONT'D) (WHISPERED) divorce! She begins sobbing uncontrollably. Olive, not sure what to do, goes around the counter and hugs her. Marianne just cries on her shoulder. OLIVE It's okay, Marianne. (Not sure what to say) Sometimes our boyfriend's parents get divorced. It's just important to know that it's not your fault. MARIANNE (Through her tears) They go to our church! Imagine what people will say! Olive didn't expect this embrace to last this long. OLIVE I have to go now. Are you going to be okay? Into Olive's shoulder -- MARIANNE Mrs. Griffin is going to fix everything. She's amazing. I know that she's going to help Micah through this time and everything's going to be okay. OLIVE Yeah. Everything's going to be okay. Marianne pulls away and wipes tears from her eyes. MARIANNE Why are you being so nice to me? OLIVE Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Hey, it's your boss's rules. This triggers even more wails from Marianne , who grabs Olive and squeezes her tightly. MARIANNE I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for everything I said. (MORE) 71. MARIANNE (CONT'D) I want to be friends. PLEASE. PLEASE be my friend. Olive is really confused by this display and is about to say something snide, but thinks better of it and replies with a very heartfelt -- OLIVE Absolutely. Marianne pulls away again and manages to smile at her, warmly. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) And for a day, we were actually really good friends. I was really starting to think that things were going to turn around. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Marianne, angry as hell, stomps through the hall with hatred burning in her eyes and coursing through her veins. OLIVE (V.O.) But then I unwittingly gave her boyfriend a venerial disease... Marianne stops in front of Olive and slaps her so hard that people in the hallways stop, dead in their tracks. It's the slap heard `round the school. INT. GUIDANCE OFFICE - DAY Olive bursts into Mrs. Griffin's office. Tear-streaked, Mrs. Griffin is packing her things into a cardboard box. It's as if her world has just collapsed. OLIVE (V.O.) ...And caused the break-up of Mr. and Mrs. Griffin... MRS. GRIFFIN (SNAPPING) What?! What do you want? Olive starts to say something, but Mrs. Griffin can't even look at her. MRS. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) Just go! 72. She throws a framed photo of her and Mr. Griffin into the box. It shatters. Mrs. Griffin falls apart. Olive starts to say something again, but she doesn't know what to say, so she sheepishly turns to leave. EXT. BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY The Cross Your Heart Club is assembled outside of the school, with a lot of other kids (and some parents), waving signs on wooden stakes that say things like: EXPEL OLIVE! EXODUS 20:14 SCHOOLS ARE FOR LEARNING, NOT FOR WHORING OLIVE PENDERGHAST IS A WHORE Rhi is among them, as riled up as any. OLIVE (V.O.) So, I guess I shouldn't be too shocked that these people wanted my diseased, home-wrecking ass out of there. The scene is a maelstrom of anger and piety. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Olive laughs. OLIVE The funny thing is: the whole time this shit was going down - people calling me something I knew wasn't true, my best friend included - I couldn't help but think how I could have come up with better signs. No one even bothered to use alliteration or, God forbid, irony - not even a single acronym - and that seems a lot more unforgivable than my sins. 73. INT. CATHEDRAL - DAY Olive enters a Catholic Church. It's empty, but there are a few CANDLES burning. She sees the CONFESSIONAL BOOTH and makes a beeline toward it. She takes a deep breath and enters. INT. CONFESSIONAL BOOTH - CONTINUOUS She sits down and begins to talk to the screen. OLIVE Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. I think that's how you're supposed to start these things. I'm only going on what I've seen in the movies. Then, I think I'm supposed to tell you how long it's been since my last confession, but that's kind of my first confession. I'm not Catholic. I really don't know what I'm supposed to do, except sit here in this booth and tell you what I've done wrong. Where do I even start? (Beat.) I've been pretending to be a -- how would one phrase it in Catholic words? A harlot. It's not like I've actually been doing the things that people are saying I'm doing, but - then again - I'm not denying them, so I've just been wondering: is that wrong? There's a lot of shi -- `crap' going down at my school which may or may not be indirectly because of this masquerade. (Beat.) I'm lying. I may have caused the end of a marriage. I thought, in my own perverse way, that I could help it. I mean, in my defense, I am merely an adolescent. I should never have been propositioned in the way I was propositioned by an adult. But then again, I should never have consented. It was just that a lot of people had been asking me to do things and I thought it was okay, because it wasn't real. (MORE) 74. OLIVE (CONT'D) It was make-believe and no one was getting hurt. But a lot of people hate me now. I kind of hate me, too. There's a long silence. Olive tears up and wipes them away. OLIVE (CONT'D) I could be wrong, but aren't you supposed to say something or ask me questions. Tell me to say `Hail Marys'? Hello? She looks through the screen. There's no one there. OLIVE (CONT'D) Oh, come on! She throws the curtain to the booth open and stomps out. EXT. CATHEDRAL PARKING LOT - DAY Olive, upset at herself, gets into her car and drives off. But just a few blocks down the street to -- EXT. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH PARKING LOT - CONTINUOUS She parks her car and gets out to try a different denomination. INT. CHURCH OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER Olive enters to find a SWEET, PORTLY RECEPTIONIST (50's) searching through RELIGIOUS CLIP-ART on her COMPUTER, attempting to find the perfect image for the church newsletter. The lady smiles, acknowledging Olive. OLIVE Hi. I was wondering if the minister was around. RECEPTIONIST Pastor McGreevey is on vacation this week. But our associate pastor is in. Would you like to speak to him? For her own entertainment, Olive matches the receptionist's enthusiasm level. 75. OLIVE Actually, that would be fantastic! RECEPTIONIST Can I tell him what this is regarding? OLIVE Absolutely. I'm looking for a church to join and I thought he might be able to sell me on this fine establishment. The receptionist joyfully snatches up the phone. RECEPTIONIST Don, there's a young lady here who would like to speak with you about joining. She listens and then hangs up. RECEPTIONIST (CONT'D) (Pointing to an office) You can go right in. OLIVE If everyone here is as friendly as you, I think we might be in business. She winks at the receptionist and enters -- INT. ASSOCIATE PASTOR'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON (40's) is a gangly, unattractive - borderline creepy - man. He invites Olive to have a seat. ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON Hello there, young lady. My name is Don. He extends his hand, which she shakes politely. ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON (CONT'D) How can I help you today? OLIVE I'm new to the area. Looking for a church - hopefully something with a strong fellowship, a firm foot in the soil of... (MORE) 76. OLIVE (CONT'D) divinity and was wondering what your church's stance on lying and adultery was? Don seems taken aback by the question. ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON Well. It's not a good thing. OLIVE Oh, I agree. Wholeheartedly. But tell me: assuming there is a hell -- ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON Ma'am, the Presbyterian Church recognizes the existence of hell. OLIVE Right. Okay. Let's say hell exists. Which is worse - lying or adultery? Or is lying about adultery like a double whammy? ASSOCIATE PASTOR DON I'm sorry, ma'am, I -- What did you say your name was? At that moment, Olive looks at his desk and sees a FRAMED FAMILY PHOTO. Smiling big are Associate Pastor Don, his wife, A WOMAN WITH A SMILE THE SIZE OF MONTANA and his lovely DAUGHTER -- MARIANNE BRYANT. She jumps up from her chair and recoils at the sight of the picture and the stupid mistake she made by coming there. OLIVE You know what. I think I'm just going to go and check out Judaism. Backing up toward the door. OLIVE (CONT'D) The Jews and I have a lot in common. Fashion-wise. And stuff. So, thank you for your time. She bolts from his office. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Olive speaks into her webcam -- 77. OLIVE Yes. I had unwittingly sought advice from the father of the leader of my lynch mob. Who else can say that's happened to them? (Beat.) As much as I want to say I hate Marianne. I don't. I get her. Well, I get certain things about her. She's passionate. Like myself. She always thinks she's right. Like myself. And, yeah, I can kind of understand why she slapped me that day. Here's what happened... INT. BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - PARKING LOT - DAY Marianne, excitedly, runs over to Olive who is just getting to school and throws her arms around her. OLIVE (V.O.) Remember how I said that we were BFFs for, like, a day. Well, that's true. It was like we were sisters all of a sudden. Marianne can't seem to break the embrace and Olive just goes with it. INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Olive sits in class. Marianne passes a note back to her. OLIVE (V.O.) She wrote me a note in first period. Olive reads it. It says: Hey girlie! You wanna hang out after school today? Kisses! Marianne Marianne looks back and Olive gives her the thumbs up. Across the room, Rhi sees this exchange and sneers. INT. CHEMISTRY LAB - LATER Marianne is working with her partner, Evan. She turns to Olive behind them and makes a gagging signal behind his back and laughs silently. 78. OLIVE (V.O.) By second period, it was like we had private jokes. Olive, unaware of how to respond, gives another thumbs up. INT. HOME EC CLASSROOM - LATER Olive sees Marianne come into class, tear-streaked. She runs over to Olive and again throws her arms around her. OLIVE (V.O.) Tragedy struck in third period. MARIANNE Micah's in the hospital. He's in so much pain! The nurse didn't know what was wrong. Olive just holds her new friend, as she had the day before. OLIVE He'll be okay. MARIANNE (Tears glistening in her EYES) Really? Olive guides Marianne's head back to her shoulder. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Marianne's boyfriend, Micah, writhes in pain on a hospital bed, clutching his crotch. His worried MOTHER (40's) is beside him, clutching her chest with one hand and trying to soothe him with the other. MICAH It hurts so bad. A DOCTOR enters, with a satisfied smile and a diagnosis. DOCTOR Chlamydia. Micah and his mother both look up in shock. His mother takes both of her hands and begins slapping him, uncontrollably. 79. MICAH'S MOTHER How did you get chlamydia? Who have you been sleeping with? Tell me! TELL ME! Micah, in pain from the burning sensation and his mother's hands flying at astonishing speed shouts out: MICAH Olive! Olive Penderghast! His mother's face fills with satisfaction. INT. HOSPITAL LOBBY - MOMENTS LATER Micah's mother is on her cell phone. MICAH'S MOTHER (ANGRILY) Olive Penderghast. She folds her phone up and slips it into her purse. INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS The woman on the other end of the phone -- A WOMAN WITH A SMILE THE SIZE OF MONTANA -- who we've seen in the Bryant family photo, hangs up. Only this time, her smile is a disgusted grimace. She picks up the phone and dials a number. She is, animatedly, talking to the person on the other end of the line, while Olive narrates. OLIVE (V.O.) Fourth period was when Marianne had office duty. Her duties included typing, stapling, filing and -- INT. FRONT OFFICE - DAY Marianne is on the phone, listening, with mouth agape. Undoubtedly, she's just heard from her mother that her boyfriend has chlamydia. OLIVE (V.O.) -- answering the phones. MARIANNE CHLAMYDIA!! 80. She screams so loud that Mrs. Griffin comes out of her office, a panicked expression on her face. INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Seething, Marianne's mother says into the phone -- A WOMAN WITH A SMILE THE SIZE OF MONTANA Olive Penderghast. She hears a slam and then a dial tone. INT. FRONT OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Marianne clutches the phone in the cradle with enough force that it looks like the receiver will shatter in her hands. Mrs. Griffin looks worried. MRS. GRIFFIN Are you okay, hon? Like a teapot about to start expelling steam, Marianne quivers in rage. Finally, at boiling point, she shouts -- MARIANNE THAT -- But her long string of profanities is muffled by the long ringing of the school bell. Mrs. Griffin is taken aback by Marianne's umbrage. As we saw before -- INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Marianne, angry as hell, stomps through the hall with hatred burning in her eyes and coursing through her veins. OLIVE (V.O.) Okay, I exaggerated. We were just BFFs for, like, a half-a-day. Marianne stops in front of Olive and slaps her so hard that people in the hallways stop, dead in their tracks. OLIVE (CONT'D) (Clutching her face) MutherFUCKer! 81. Rhi, who was loading books in her locker, sees this and happily slams her locker shut. Breezing past her -- RHIANNON My sentiments exactly... OLIVE (SNIDELY) Oh, grow up! But Rhi keeps on walking. EXT. HOSPITAL PARKING LOT - DAY Micah's on his cell phone, anxiously talking to someone - checking every few seconds to see if his mom is on her way out. MICAH (Into the cell phone) I didn't know what to say! I panicked! I said I got it from Olive Penderghast. (Pause.) I know, but what was I supposed to say?! And then my mom called her mom. (Pause.) No, not Olive's. Marianne's! (Pause.) I already tried to blame it on their divorce, but my mom's not buying it. I have to tell them. (Pause.) Okay. But I love you. I don't care if you gave me chlamydia. I LOVE YOU and I want to be with you and no one can stop us. Not my mother, not Marianne, not -- There's a dial tone. INT. GUIDANCE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Mrs. Griffin has just hung up on her teenage lover and begins freaking out. She grabs a cardboard box and begins throwing items into it. Olive bursts into Mrs. Griffin's office and sees Mrs. Griffin packing her things. As we saw before -- 82. MRS. GRIFFIN (SNAPPING) What?! What do you want? Olive starts to say something, but Mrs. Griffin can't even look at her. MRS. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) Just go! She throws a framed photo of her and Mr. Griffin into the box. It shatters. Mrs. Griffin falls apart. Olive starts to say something again, but she doesn't know what to say, so she sheepishly turns to leave -- -- and then feels awkward. OLIVE I'm sorry, I was just looking for Marianne. Did she say something about being mad at me? She just smacked the shi -- `crap' out of me. This makes Mrs. Griffin cry even harder. She attempts to pull herself together. MRS. GRIFFIN It's my fault. I'm so sorry, Olive. Olive looks at her, quizzically. MRS. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) (SOTTO VOCE) I fucked up. I fucking fucked up SO fucking bad. I'm a fucking.... Fuck. OLIVE Don't get me wrong. I love it, but I don't think you're supposed to use those words around a student. MRS. GRIFFIN Yeah, well, you're not to supposed to fuck them, either. But it didn't stop me. Olive puts two and two together in her head. She gasps a little louder than she planned. 83. OLIVE You and -- Oh my God. I'm not judging you or anything, but oh my God. (SWITCHING GEARS) Wait. What does that have to do with me? Mrs. Griffin walks over and locks her office door. She fights back more tears, as she tries to explain to Olive. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) My guidance counselor, who had only days before armed me with a latex bulletproof vest, told me that she had chlamydia and that she had been screwing around with her office aide's boyfriend under the guise of divorce counseling. She confided in me that she and her husband - my favorite teacher - were having marital problems, that they hadn't slept together in months. She assured me that she had never meant for anything to happen with Micah. She confessed to me how when she was a child she always dreamt of being Maria Von Trapp, not Mary Kay Letorneau. Micah had panicked and used me as a scapegoat - to save her job and her marriage. She assured me that she would make sure everyone knew the truth and apologized. Mrs. Griffin stops talking and waits for Olive to speak. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) And I bought it. Olive gives her a reassuring smile, steps up to the plate and offers up a solution. OLIVE (CONT'D) I could have chlamydia. And I could easily have given it to Micah. That time we slept together. Who knows? Often times women don't have symptoms and I have been whoring around.... MRS. GRIFFIN No you haven't. 84. Olive looks at her, puzzled by her knowledge. MRS. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) (LOOKING AWAY) Because a real whore can't admit it to herself, let alone others. She begins to weep. Olive puts her hand on Mrs. Griffin's shoulder. OLIVE Call Micah. Tell him I said he's an asshole and that he owes me SO big for this and also the time I pretended not to see him during a third grade game of hide and seek. Tell him I still remember that. But tell him that I confessed to giving him chlamydia. Mrs. Griffin grabs Olive and cries on her. OLIVE (CONT'D) And it's not really my place to say this, but I figure after the conversation we just had, I can speak candidly. Your husband is HOT and while the male adolescent can fuck like a bunny... who really wants to fuck a bunny? If I was you, I'd go home and seduce him and pretend this never happened. Olive strokes her guidance counselor's hair. MRS. GRIFFIN (SNIVELING) Do you want some more condoms? OLIVE (MATERNALLY) No, you keep them. She strokes her hair. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into the webcam -- OLIVE So, really how could I be angry at Marianne? (MORE) 85. OLIVE (CONT'D) Dude, if some bimbo gave MY boyfriend an STD, I'd have swung, but I'd have balled my fist. (WHIMSICALLY) My boyfriend. (She gets lost in the THOUGHT) With all the mythical play I was getting, it's a wonder - and probably a miracle - that I still hadn't actually been asked out on a real date. Guys were clamoring to claim that they'd slept with me, but no one was putting the real moves on me. Until finally... EXT. PLAYGROUND - YEARS BEFORE Two LITTLE 5 YEAR OLD GIRLS (Olive and Rhiannon) chase a LITTLE BOY all over the playground, desperate to kiss him. They plot and plan to corner him, but he's just too fast. OLIVE (V.O.) It was really Rhiannon who had a crush on him. She has since we were kids. Rhiannon finally catches him and kiss him on the cheek. Repulsed, he wipes his face. Rhiannon and Olive high five each other. INT. CAFETERIA - DAY Olive eats her lunch and yuks it up with a table full of guys. Rhiannon sits at a different table, mostly comprised of girls, and glares at her from across the room. The bell rings and the students begin getting up and making their way toward the exit. Anson (who we saw earlier with Rhiannon in the hallways) approaches Olive. ANSON Hey Olive. Olive smiles sweetly at him. 86. ANSON (CONT'D) I was wondering if you were busy tonight. Maybe wanna go out or something? OLIVE (SUSPICIOUS) What did you have in mind? ANSON I dunno. I was thinking about chartering a hot air balloon, taking along a bottle of champagne and fresh fruit and then trying to impress you with an overzealous reading of Emily Dickinson. OLIVE (COYLY) Why, Anson, are you inviting me to accompany you to a romantic dinner at the Red Lobster? ANSON Unequivocally. OLIVE (IMPRESSED) Nice. Yeah. I'll have dinner with you. Olive walks off INT. RED LOBSTER - NIGHT Olive and Anson sit in a booth at a dimly-lit RED LOBSTER. Olive looks beautiful. The `A' on her shirt is sequined. OLIVE I can't believe you brought me to the nicest restaurant in town. This is swank. I was beginning to think that there was no such thing as class. ANSON Yeah. What's better than getting to select your dinner and have nice conversation while they boil it alive in the back? 87. OLIVE I think Anson Jr. doesn't mind making the sacrifice. You don't mind that I named him Anson Jr., do you? ANSON Not at all. I'm actually kind of honored. OLIVE Do you believe this whole thing about lobster being an aphrodisiac? ANSON (Lying out his ass) I didn't know it was. OLIVE Y'know, medical science has not substantiated claims that any particular food increases sexual desire or performance. It's so funny when guys ply women with food that they think is gonna get them laid. I mean, what's really sexy about slurping back oysters? You know, native people believed that you gained the strength of the animal by consuming it. Some people grind up rhinoceros horn, because it's thought to stiffen the male sex organ. It's all bullshit. And spanish fly? It's pulverized beetle that people eat! Although, it's illegal for human consumption in the United States and do you know why? Because if you take just a bit too much, it causes painful urination, fever and bloody discharge. A SERVER appears with their LOBSTER. Anson is an odd shade of green from Olive's little science lesson. OLIVE (CONT'D) Yum! The server leaves them and Olive digs in. Anson is feeling nauseous and can't touch his. From across the restaurant, a PARADE OF SERVERS enters from the back, enthusiastically clapping and holding a cupcake. 88. Leading the brigade is Meerkat Todd, who's wearing a RED FOAM LOBSTER HAT. With as much spirit, as he has as a meerkat -- MEERKAT TODD I don't know but I've been told! PARADE OF SERVERS I don't know but I've been told! He leads them through to another part of the restaurant. OLIVE (TO ANSON) I didn't know Meerkat Todd worked here! And he's a lobster! I wonder if I should start calling him Lobster Todd. MEERKAT TODD Marguerite is getting old! PARADE OF SERVERS Marguerite is getting old! They land at the table of the birthday girl. Olive cranes her neck to see -- Rhiannon, miserable of course, sitting with her parents at a table in the next room. Olive immediately becomes uneasy. OLIVE Shit! MEERKAT TODD The best thing is her dessert is free! PARADE OF SERVERS The best thing is her dessert is free! MEERKAT TODD The worst thing is I sing off-key! PARADE OF SERVERS The worst thing is I sing off-key! Olive is visibly squirming in her seat. MEERKAT TODD Sound off! 89. PARADE OF SERVERS Happy! MEERKAT TODD Sound off! PARADE OF SERVERS Birthday! MEERKAT TODD Sound off! PARADE OF SERVERS Happy birthday to you! The whole place applauds, unenthusiastically. Anson sees Olive's discomfort. ANSON What's wrong? OLIVE Rhiannon's over there. ANSON So? OLIVE So? She's been in love with you since the first grade. ANSON So? OLIVE Well, she's my best friend. ANSON I thought you two weren't speaking. OLIVE We're not, but it doesn't mean I should be out with you. ANSON Then why are you? OLIVE I don't know. You asked me out? ANSON Exactly. I have no interest in her. I mean, we're friends, but -- 90. OLIVE She can't see us. ANSON (DISAPPOINTED) Do you want me to get the check? OLIVE (TOUCHED) Would you mind? He gestures for the server who appears. ANSON Could we get our check? SERVER (CONFUSED) Is everything okay? OLIVE I just remembered I'm allergic to shellfish. I always forget that my respiratory system would collapse and I'd die. It sucks I know. Even more confused, the server obliges and gives them their check. OLIVE (CONT'D) (Digging in her purse) Let me get it. I have a gift certificate. She pulls it out and hands it to the waitress, who leaves. ANSON But I asked you out. OLIVE And I ruined it, so let me bear the financial brunt. (Beat.) I'm so sorry about this. But she really likes you. ANSON She and I just don't have much in common. OLIVE And you and I do? 91. ANSON I think so. For instance, I, too think Nina Howell's a twat. OLIVE Yeah, well, if that's our magical connection, I should date the entire school. ANSON Haven't you? Olive suddenly becomes self-conscious and a little bit pissed. ANSON (CONT'D) Kidding! OLIVE Yeah, about that -- The server reappears with the check. SERVER You have a remaining balance of fourteen dollars and thirty six cents. OLIVE Keep it. Tip. The sever smiles and leaves them again. ANSON Let's get out of here. They duck out of the booth trying to keep their heads down, but Olive can't resist the urge to look up and see if Rhiannon sees them. She does. Olive and Rhiannon make eye contact. Whereas, Olive looks remorseful, Rhiannon looks like she's just been stabbed in the back -- which she has. The Abernathys see her, as well, and wave. It's painfully obvious to Olive that Rhi hasn't told her parents about their differences. She starts to go over, but Rhiannon's face is turning vermillion in anger. Olive just waves, sheepishly and leaves with Anson. 92. I/E. ANSON'S CAR - RED LOBSTER PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER Olive's face is painted with guilt. She feels like shit, but doesn't want to externalize it. Anson puts his hand on her knee. ANSON I have something for you. Olive manages a smile. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a $500 GIFT CERTIFICATE to ANTHROPOLOGIE and hands it to her. Olive is disappointed, but tries not to show it. OLIVE Oh. I didn't realize -- Snapping out of her guilt. OLIVE (CONT'D) Okay. So, what did we "do" on this date? ANSON Whatever $500 gets me. He leans over and kisses her. She pushes him off. OLIVE Wait. This isn't how it works. I don't actually -- But he's kissing her again, a little too forcibly. She pushes him off again. OLIVE (CONT'D) You don't get it. I'm not technically having sex with people for money. You know that, right? Besides, even if I was, we're in the parking lot of a Red Lobster. ANSON We can go wherever you want, but I think it would be kind of hot here. He takes off his shirt. OLIVE Dude, I gotta go. It's been -- sad. 93. She gets out of the car. He rolls down the window. ANSON Olive, you're being stupid. I'll take you home. OLIVE No thanks. He drives off, leaving her outside in the parking lot. OLIVE (CONT'D) Fuck. As luck would have it, Meerkat Todd, is coming out the back exit. He sees her and gives her a surprised, toothy grin. MEERKAT TODD Hey Olive! OLIVE Hey Todd. MEERKAT TODD What are you doing here? OLIVE Oh, I'm just hanging out in the parking lot. I do that sometimes. Not necessarily just here. The one outside of Applebee's is fun, too. MEERKAT TODD (Laughing at her oddness) You want a ride somewhere? OLIVE Nah. I'm fine. MEERKAT TODD Your friend Rhi is inside. It's her Mom's birthday. Tears begin to glisten in Olive's eyes. OLIVE She's not my friend anymore. Todd walks over and puts his arm around her and leads her to his car. He opens the door for her and she sits down. 94. I/E. MEERKAT TODD'S CAR - NIGHT Olive is trying to pull herself together but she can't stop crying as Todd drives her home. Todd doesn't know what to say to her. Finally -- MEERKAT TODD You wanna talk about it? OLIVE What's to say? I'm a horrible person. Everyone thinks I'm a whore and, for the first time, I'm starting to believe it. MEERKAT TODD Huh? OLIVE Oh, don't act like you don't know what people are saying about me. MEERKAT TODD I know what people are saying. Doesn't mean I believe them. OLIVE Why not? MEERKAT TODD Olive, contrary to popular belief, I'm not an idiot. I know exactly what's going on and I know exactly what you're doing. She stops crying. OLIVE Who told you? MEERKAT TODD No one had to tell me. All I know is once upon a time, there was a scared little kid in a closet at a party who wasn't ready for his first kiss and there was this amazing little girl who lied for him. She smiles through her tears. OLIVE You remember that? 95. MEERKAT TODD Yeah and after I ran out, you pulled Brandon in. Yeah, I know about that, by the way. OLIVE And look how he turned out. MEERKAT TODD Sometimes I still pretend you were my first kiss. OLIVE (LAUGHING) Yeah? Who was? MEERKAT TODD Your friend. Rhiannon. Olive's laughter turns to rage. OLIVE What!? MEERKAT TODD Yeah. About a year later. It sucked. OLIVE (Blurting it out) She knew how I felt about you! MEERKAT TODD How do you feel about me? OLIVE (IGNORING HIM) She did it first! And here I am feeling SOOOO bad and THAT BITCH! MEERKAT TODD Wait. How do you feel about me? OLIVE (AGGRESSIVELY DEFENSIVE) Felt! I said FELT! MEERKAT TODD (DISAPPOINTED) Oh. He stops the car. They're at her house. 96. OLIVE (Off his look) I mean, it's not that I don't still feel that way. There's an awkward moment between them. MEERKAT TODD Olive. If I promise not to tell anyone, could I kiss you? Despite the fact that this is positively the most romantic moment of her young life, Olive looks down. OLIVE No. Not tonight. I don't want you to kiss me when mascara's running down my cheek or some shithead has forced his tongue down my throat only a half-hour ago. I've wanted to kiss you since the eighth grade, but I want it to be perfect. And right now, my life's a mess. I need to get it under control before I drag you into it. MEERKAT TODD What if I told you I wanted to be dragged into it? Maybe I could help. He holds out his hand and she takes it. OLIVE Now I have a reason to fix this catastrophe I've brought upon myself. And I'm going to. MEERKAT TODD Okay. He smiles his goofy grin and she embraces him. She hops out of the car and goes to her front door. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Into her webcam -- OLIVE You see, now I had a reason for things to go back to the way that they were. (MORE) 97. OLIVE (CONT'D) The truth needed to be told and I knew I had to go the one person who could help me. The one person I could count on to set the story straight. Brandon. I'd helped him and, even though it would destroy his new reputation for being a stud, I knew he would help me. INT. HALLS OF BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Filling the frame, a GOSSIPY GIRL in braces says -- GOSSIPY GIRL Oh my God, did you hear that Brandon ran away from home? Yeah. Totally. He left his parents a note that said: `Eff you, I'm gay.' And then he skipped town with a big, hulking black guy. We spin around to see Olive's stunned reaction. OLIVE (TO HERSELF) My apologies to Mark Twain. GOSSIPY GIRL Huh? The reality of the situation begins to weigh on her. OLIVE Nothing. Defeated, Olive makes her way through the crowded halls. OLIVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) It gets worse. Due to his `condition,' Micah was sent on an extended visit to his grandparents in Mississippi. INT. STUFFY OLD HOUSE IN MISSISSIPPI - DAY Micah, beyond miserable, sits between his STERN GRANDPARENTS, who read the Bible to him. 98. OLIVE (V.O.) No telephone, no television, no computer, no internet and - most importantly - no diseased sexual partners. Micah settles in for a very long visit. INT. UNDER THE BLEACHERS - GYM - DAY Where they had previously met, Olive pleads with Evan. OLIVE (V.O.) I went to everyone I'd helped and begged them to say it wasn't true. EVAN No way. I gave you money. OLIVE Please, Evan. He walks off, leaving her alone. INT. GUIDANCE OFFICE - DAY Olive waits for Mrs. Griffin's response. There's a long moment of contemplation on Mrs. Griffin's part. Then -- MRS. GRIFFIN Olive, life is full of choices. I made a bad one. But then, so did you. We both acted unwisely, but I don't see any other alternative than to live with the guilt. My guilt stems from my indiscretion, yours for lying. We've made our choices. Now, we have to ride them out. OLIVE (Pissed as hell) Or I could just tell everyone THE TRUTH. MRS. GRIFFIN Fine, Olive. Let's play the `who do you believe' game. But, first, ask yourself, if you were an adult, who would you believe? 99. OLIVE With all due respect, Mrs. Griffin, you're a fucking cunt. MRS. GRIFFIN Because you helped me once, I'm not going to report that to Principal Gibbons. Now, we're even. They're locked in a Mexican standoff. MRS. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) You can go now. Furious, Olive throws the door open and exits. INT. MR. GRIFFIN'S CLASSROOM - DAY Mr. Griffin is erasing the blackboard, when Olive storms into the room. OLIVE Your wife has chlamydia and she's been sleeping with a student and she gave it to him and now she's trying to blame me. Shocked, Mr. Griffin drops the eraser. MR. GRIFFIN What? The gravity of what she's just done sinks in and she stumbles. OLIVE I -- I'm sorry. I -- Not knowing what to say, she runs from his classroom. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Olive is mirthless, as she proceeds with her story. OLIVE Looking back, that's the thing I regret the most. That's the thing that sent me to the church, er, churches. And that's the thing that made me realize how profoundly I'd fucked up. (MORE) 100. OLIVE (CONT'D) And that's something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. With my words, even though they were true, I ended a marriage. No kid should have to be burdened with that. She contemplates this. INT. CLASSROOM - DAY As we saw before, Olive sits and plays `CONNECT FOUR' with Mr. Griffin, at his desk. Both are looking beaten down and very depressed and their minds are on everything but the game. Mr. Griffin puts his hand on Olive's. MR. GRIFFIN It's not your fault. Olive gets a tear in her eyes. She puts a RED CHIP in at the top and loses the game. She reaches over and presses the lever, causing all of the chips to fall on his desk. CUT TO: THE JENGA SET-UP There's a ridiculously tall tower of blocks and they all fall down. CUT TO: He rakes the chips and the game into his own cardboard box, full of his things. He smiles and she hugs him -- intensely, tears quickly welling up in her eyes. OLIVE I'm so sorry. MR. GRIFFIN No. It's not your fault. They just hold each other. Finally, Mr. Griffin pulls away and takes his things and starts to leave. But then he turns and says -- 101. MR. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) I hope that you and Todd end up okay. OLIVE Me too. Where are you going? MR. GRIFFIN Not sure yet. Away from her. OLIVE Can I come? They share one last, pained smile and he leaves. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - PRESENT DAY Hearfelt, into the webcam -- OLIVE Mr. Griffin, if you ever see this, just know - I was wrong to tell you that. In that way. At all. I don't know. I shouldn't have done it. I don't feel bad for lying for your wife. But I hate myself for telling you the truth. I'm so sorry. She wipes away a tear, pulls herself together. OLIVE (CONT'D) Part Five: Not With a Whimper But With a Bang. EXT. BARBARA BUSH HIGH SCHOOL - DAY As we saw before -- The Cross Your Heart Club is assembled outside of the school, with a lot of other kids (and some parents), waving signs on wooden stakes that say things like: EXPEL OLIVE! EXODUS 20:14 SCHOOLS ARE FOR LEARNING, NOT FOR WHORING OLIVE PENDERGHAST IS A WHORE Rhi is among them, as riled up as any. 102. Olive steps out of the school to see the demonstration. her jaw drops. OLIVE Oh fuck me. Things have gotten WAY too out of hand. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Olive cries on her bed, clutching her teddy bear. Rosemary listens, as a good mother does. OLIVE So, now everyone who knows the truth is either gone or won't fess up. The Cross Your Legs Club is demanding my head. And the messed up thing is that I wouldn't put it past Gibbons to expel me. ROSEMARY I had a similar situation when I was your age. OLIVE (IN DISBELIEF) Everyone called you a whore? ROSEMARY Yes. I had a horrible reputation and people said awful things about me. But it was true. I was a slut. Olive gives her a suspicious look. OLIVE I'm waiting for you to say (Imitating her mother) `Just kidding!' ROSEMARY (EARNESTLY) No, it's true. I slept with a whole bunch of people. OLIVE Mom! ROSEMARY Well! It was a different time. 103. OLIVE Ewwww! ROSEMARY I did. I got around. Before I met your father, I was a garden variety floozy. OLIVE Why are you telling me this? ROSEMARY Because I endured a similar lynching because of a certain dalliance. OLIVE I promise that it was no worse than Marianne Bryant's attack on me. ROSEMARY Wanna bet? It was her mother. OLIVE Wait, what? ROSEMARY Yep. Don Bryant and I got caught in a very compromising position in the locker room during a basketball game. OLIVE That's disgusting! He's disgusting! ROSEMARY He wasn't back then. He was actually pretty handsome. All I'm saying is that MAYBE the reason that Bryant girl is going after you is because her mother told her about me. OLIVE So, the sins of the mother are revisited on the daughter. ROSEMARY There's something else you should know. This is hard to say but -- Don Bryant is your father. Marianne is your sister. 104. Olive turns white. ROSEMARY (CONT'D) Kidding!! Well, about the sister thing, but not about the Don thing. That happened. Actually that happened a couple of times before we got caught. Olive punches her mother on the arm, who's laughing hysterically. OLIVE I hate you so much right now. Can't you see I'm a mess! ROSEMARY No, you're not, Olive. You're wonderful. And you're going to handle this the same way that I did. With an incontrovertible sense of humor. They embrace and Olive gets an idea. OLIVE Thanks for the pep talk, Mom. Now get out. I need to make some phone calls. Rosemary looks slightly concerned by the grin on Olive's face. INT. GYM - DAY We join a pep rally, already in progress. The DANCE TEAM attempts to rile up the school with a rousing rendition of Michael Jackson's `BAD.' In the stands, Rhi sits with Marianne and Nina. MARIANNE So, Olive wasn't at school today. She extends her palms to Nina and Rhi, who both slap them. Marianne puts her arm around Rhi. MARIANNE (CONT'D) I'm so glad you're with us now. RHIANNON Me too. You guys fucking rock. 105. MARIANNE We don't say that word, Rhiannon. NINA (HELPFULLY) Just say `effing' instead. We effing rock. Marianne nods in agreement, however Rhi is confused. RHIANNON But isn't that just implying the same word? MARIANNE Oh, Rhiannon. We have so much to teach you. It's okay to imply things. Rhiannon looks at her new best friends, who just smile at her. The song ends and there's a drum roll. RHIANNON Yay! It's time for Meerkat Todd. (SEXUALLY) I just want to rip that costume off him and -- Marianne puts her hand firmly on Rhi's knee. MARIANNE Why don't you just not talk for a while, okay hon? Rhi puts her head down. The drum roll ends and Meerkat Todd bounces out in costume. He jumps around enthusing the student body -- But then he goes out of the gym and reenters pushing a DUMPSTER. The familiar chords of the James Bond theme `Nobody Does It Better' plays from the band. Meerkat Todd opens the lid of the dumpster and Olive, dressed in a glittery and slinky RED DRESS, with a BOA draped around her bare shoulder, pops up and croons with a handheld mic and slightly different lyrics: 106. OLIVE Nobody does it better. Makes me feel sad for the rest. Nobody does it half as good as me. Baby, I'm the best. Todd lifts Olive out of the dumpster and she sings her ass off - and she's quite good. OLIVE (CONT'D) I wasn't lookin,' But somehow they found me. I tried to hide from Your love light. But like heaven above me The guys who loved me Are keepin' all my secrets safe tonight. She winks at the audience. The guys begin to wolf whistle and howl at her sheer brilliance. She begins to rub her hands seductively over Meerkat Todd's furry costume, eventually unzipping it and taking off the head to reveal: BLUE DEVIL TODD! The crowd goes wild. OLIVE (CONT'D) And nobody does it better Though sometimes I wish someone could. Nobody does it quite the way I do. Why'd I have to be so good? She saunters over to Rhi and kisses her on the cheek, leaving a big, red lip mark. OLIVE (CONT'D) The way that they hold me Whenever they hold me There's some kind of magic inside you. That keeps me from runnin', But just keep it comin'! How'd you learn to do the things you do? She sees that Gibbons is not amused, but that doesn't stop her. OLIVE (CONT'D) Oh, and nobody does it better. Makes me feel sad for the rest. (MORE) 107. OLIVE (CONT'D) Nobody does it half as good as me. Baby, baby! Darlin', I'm the best! She walks over to a couple of HORN PLAYERS, and runs her fingers seductively over their (uh) instruments. The crowd goes wild - some appalled, but most enthused. Olive sashays through the crowd as the MALE TEENS scream and stuff money down her bodice. OLIVE (CONT'D) Baby you're the best! Darlin', you're the best! Baby, you're the best! The song ends and Olive takes Blue Devil Todd's hand. OLIVE (CONT'D) (To the student body) This is just a free preview. For the main event log on to www.freeolivep.com tonight at 6 p.m. Now, I know this conflicts with tonight's basketball game, but c'mon would you rather be here cheering on the Meerkats (Looking at Todd, LASCIVIOUSLY) or watch me do one. There are audible gasps, but excitement nonetheless. Gibbons angrily storms over and takes the microphone. PRINCIPAL GIBBONS (Through gritted teeth) Young lady, to my office. NOW. OLIVE Yeah, I can't. I'm gonna go bang my boyfriend while the whole school watches. But good luck with the game-thing. Go Meerkats. She plods out, triumphantly. INT. OLIVE'S BEDROOM - DUSK The sun is setting as Olive speaks into her webcam. But this time, we're not seeing it through the lens, but from a different point in the room. 108. OLIVE And here you all are. Waiting outside the closet door for me to kiss Todd, listening to me pretend to have sex with Brandon, paying me to lie for you, calling probably the last virgin in school a whore. Guys. Seriously. All of a sudden -- from outside and downstairs -- James' `LAID' begins to play. Olive goes over to the window and sees Todd below, holding up a BOOMBOX (a la John Cusack) and there's a RIDE-ON LAWN MOWER (a la Patrick Dempsey) behind him. Upon seeing this, she bursts into laughter, but it couldn't be more romantic. OLIVE (CONT'D) (SHOUTING DOWN) Who told you that I loved this song? MEERKAT TODD (SHOUTING UP) I guessed. OLIVE I see you've been watching my live webcast. It's still going on, you know. MEERKAT TODD Fuck them. They've had enough of you. Well, figuratively speaking. I borrowed my neighbor's John Deere. Come down here. OLIVE That rhymed. MEERKAT TODD Intentionally. OLIVE Be right down. Olive can't get the smile off of her face as she goes back to the camera. We see her through the lens. 109. OLIVE (CONT'D) That's Todd. Not that I owe any of you any more confessions, but I'm really in love with him. And I am going to lose my virginity to him. I'm not sure when. It could happen five minutes from now or tonight or six months from now or maybe on our wedding night, but the really amazing thing is that it's nobody's business. (As an afterthought) Like, totally. She turns the camera off. EXT. THE PENDERGHAST HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Olive runs out of the house and tackles him, kissing him - in the front yard, in broad daylight, for the world to see. FADE OUT. OVER THE END CREDITS... EXT. GYM - NIGHT The basketball game is going on to an almost empty gymnasium. MONTAGE We see, from the perspective of their computer screens, various reactions to Olive's webcast -- -- A proud Brandon watches from a hotel room. A MUSCULAR BLACK GUY in a towel comes up behind him and kisses his neck. -- The Abernathys watch with the same demented glee they derive from watching anything. -- Mrs. Griffin watches with the face of a person who's been found out and who's days are numbered. They are. 110. -- Rhi seems contemplative. Maybe it's because she's been in love with Olive since grade school. Duh. -- Evan, the fat kid, is doing jumping jacks while watching. -- Melanie Bostic (the host of the party) watches with a group of girls. MELANIE (SATISFIED) Told you guys. Pay up. -- Marianne feels regret. But a little bit impressed. -- Mr. Griffin is proud of her. -- Micah watches in his dark bedroom. MICAH'S GRANDMOTHER (O.S.) Micah? What are you doing in there? (STERNLY) You had better not be on the sin- ternet. -- Rosemary and Dill are too busy making out to watch. -- Anson has a jar of vaseline and is ready to jerk off, but is upset that she isn't `exposing herself' in the aforementioned way. ANSON (TO HIMSELF) I thought she was going to take her clothes off. EXT. THE PENDERGHAST HOUSE - HOURS LATER Olive and Todd are still kissing on the lawn underneath the stars. FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed TV.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed TV.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..427f9be2aa12d4ea38bfa758aec430e034b683cc --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed TV.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +ED TV by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel Sixth Rewrite July 16,1997 This is the first eRelease for the script of the movie "Ed TV" This script was scanned, proof read and formatted by Ueli Riegg eMail: ueli.riegg@gmx.ch; URL: http://studiour.tsx.org 1 INT. HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM - NIGHT The following is shot DOCUMENTARY-STYLE. A GIRLS VOLLEYBALL GAME has just ended. It was a big game. Some kind of championship. ONE TEAM is CELEBRATING -- jumping up and down, squealing and hugging each other. We are focused on the bench of the TEAM TRAT LOST. They're very sad -- several are crying. One girl, in particular, (AMY) is really sobbing. She's sweat- stained, tired and just blubbering. Stuff's coming out of her eyes, her nose, her mouth and the camera is seeing it all. The COACH, a fortyish man looks at all the weeping girls -- Amy in particular. COACH You quit! You gave up! He KICKS a CHAIR. Now Amy is really a mess. She's crying, coughing, shaking. COACH (CONT'D) (right in Amy's face) You quit!! The Coach storms off. COACH (CONT'D) Qutters! ... Quitters! Amy is wailing and choking on her own tears. This IMAGE FREEZES. TERRY (V.O.) And that would be it. I don't think you need any narration at all. Just end it right there. REVEAL 2 INT. OFFICE - DAY BEGIN CREDITS We're in New York City. We're in the conference room of a modestly successful cable TV station called "Real TV." The people are young, energetic, clever. It's crowded, noisy -the furniture is beaten up, bulletin boards cover the walls, with large index cards all over them. This room is not for show -- work gets done here. SEVEN OR EIGHT PEOPLE are present. One of them is CYNTHIA REED. She's the boss. TERRY (to Cynthia) What do you think? CYNTHIA It's horrible, it's depressing, I love it. What else? ALICE I want to re-pitch that pregnancy idea. Find six women early in their pregnancies and follow them all right through to the births. KEITH (negative) Yeah, when all that stuff comes out. Mixed reactions, mostly negative. CYNTHIA I have an idea. IMMEDIATE ATTENTION CYNTHIA (CONT'D) This is something I've been thinking about for a long time. We're "Real TV" right? I mean that's the name of the station. AGREEMENT CYNTHIA (CONT'D) So let's go real. We find someone. Just a regular person, someone. And we put their life on television - live... all day long. Silence. No movement at all. CYNTHIA (CONT'D) Calm down. KEITH What do you mean, like PBS did in the seventies? What was that family? GREG The Louds. KEITH Yeah. CYNTHIA No. We go way beyond that. We don't film it and edit it and put it on later. We go on the air live every morning and the show goes off each night, when our subject goes to bed. In between, we're on live all day, every day - the same person, -- for (shrugs) let's say a month. No one is wild for this. Some hate it -- some are unconvinced. FELICIA That's not a show that's a surveillance camera. GREG You can't do that. CYNTHIA The hell we can't. Look, the beauty of being a cable channel is we can take chances. I've thought about this and I'm telling you, I think this can make a noise. A loud one. There are twelve thousand channels. You've got to do something that says "Look at me!" Hell, people look at fish tanks all day. This is people! (more firmly) Someone's real life -- an TV, all day long - live... And, you know what? I'm doing it. Pause. The others know the argument is over. GREG In that case, we love it. END CREDITS 3 EXT. POOL HALL - DAY A BUS passes. On the bus is an ad. It says, "Would you like to star in your own TV show? Call Real TV (and a phone number) Coming (and a date)." 4 INT. POOL HALL - NIGHT - PARAMUS NEW JERSEY This is a nice upscale pool hall. A party is in progress in a special private area -- a room upstairs let's say -- a loft. Thirty or forty PEOPLE in their twenties and thirties are informally celebrating the engagement of two of their friends. It's NOISY, it's fun, it's informal. It's not a high-end group. By that we mean, not, for the most part young lawyers or stockbrokers. They're mostly blue-collar. Community college graduates. WE OPEN ON ED PEKURNY. He's an attractive man, about thirty. There's still something a little juvenile about him -- not stupid, just boyish. SOMEONE is VIDEOTAPING HIM for one of those congratulation montage things that are done at parties these days. Ed is good at this. He's not professional but he's a loosey-goosey guy who's kind of good on camera. ED I want to congratulate Kevin and Tracy on their engagement. I knew you guys were meant for each other from the moment Tracy told us she was pregnant. TRACY You asshole! Everyone else is cracking up. ED (innocently) What? What did I say? TRACY My mother's going to see this! 5 INT. PARTY - LATER Other people are being "interviewed" on tape. Ed is SHOOTING POOL with his buddy, JOHN. John's had a couple of drinks. He's a little melancholy. He is looking across the room, thoughtfully. ED What? JOHN Look at this -- people are getting married, they're getting married... ED You said that. JOHN We're falling behind. Ed waves dismissively. JOHN (CONT'D) You know who we are? ED Tell me. JOHN We're the guys who clean up after the parade. ED I'm gonna stick this right in your eye. JOHN I was at this comedy club last week and this comedian says "If you're over thirty and your job requires you to wear a name tag, you screwed up your life." And I'm laughing and then I realize I wear a nametag. ED So do I. So what? I'm doing all right. JOHN Your brother's here. ANGLE ON THE DOOR Ed's brother RAY and Ray's girlfriend SHARI arrive at the party. Shari is pretty in an unglamorous kind of way. They both wave and then Shari goes off to talk to some of the LADIES and Ray joins Ed and John. RAY What's up? ED Where were you? RAY (reluctantly) I was... having dinner with Shari and her parents. JOHN/ED (taunting) Oooh! RAY I'm telling you, it's closing in on me. All of a sudden it's like a thing, it's a whole thing. ED What do you mean all of a sudden? You've been going with her six months. RAY I know. I mean I'm sitting there and her father's asking me about my "career prospects" and I'm playing "Risk," with her kid brother, Leon and at dinner the dog's sniffing at my balls -- at least I hope it was the dog. 'Cause her mother disappeared for a while. They LAUGH. 6 INT. PARTY - LATER It's getting wild. Some of the girls are dancing raucously. ANGLE ON A TABLE (NOT A POOL TABLE, AN EATING-TABLE) Ed, Ray, John, Shari and maybe another WOMAN. Ray is holding a big tray of SHRIMP BALLS. During the conversation, Ray throws them in the air and catches them in his mouth like popcorn. Once, he even bounces one off the wall into his mouth. ED You know, those are for everybody. Ray waves dismissively, then gets an idea. RAY Oh! (to Shari) Show them that thing you can do. (to the others) This is great. I just found out she can do this, her brother told me. (to Shari) Come on. SHARI (thinks it's stupid) I don't - RAY Come on... She hesitates, but she really doesn't mind. Slightly, amused she takes her FIST and fits it completely INTO her MOUTH. ED Whoa!! Oh! Ray is cracking up. RAY Is that unbelievable? She removes her hand. SHARI And that concludes today's show. (to Ray) This is where you go around and collect the money. Ed LAUGHS. Ray gives her a KISS. Shari's roommate RITA sits down. RITA Hi. SHARI You guys know my roommate, Rita. They do, vaguely. ED What's going on over there? RITA Everybody's making audition tapes for that Real TV thing. JOHN Oh, that thing. Yeah. Did you hear about this? ED (not sure) Yeah, what - they put some schmuck on TV all day long or something? RAY You know, that would be like a great thing. ED What? RAY That! Being that guy. Being the guy they watch. ED What are you drunk? RAY Yeah, but let's stay on one subject. Whoever that person is is going to be famous. They'll be able to get whatever they want. They'll ... trust me, this is my business. ED What is?! RAY Show business. ED You're in show business? RAY Yeah. I service video equipment. ED That's like... those people stitching Nikes in Panama saying they're in the NBA. RAY (insulted) I'm not stitching Nikes in Panama! ... Bedwetter! ED Thumbsucker! RAY I'm making a tape. ED We're excited. 7 INT. BAR - A FEW MINUTES LATER Ed and Shari, waiting for drink orders. ED So Ray met the family. SHARI Yeah... ED I hear the dog really liked him. SHARI Oh, the whole family loved him. Of course, they loved the last guy I went out with, and he strung me along for three years and dumped me. ED Really? You see, to me, you shouldn't have any trouble with men. There should be, like, a line behind you. She takes Ed's beer. SHARI You shouldn't drink. They LAUGH. 8 INT. TABLE - A LITTLE LATER Ed and Shari ARM-WRESTLING. After a struggle, Ed wins. Ed is impressed. ED Jesus! Shari wrings out her arm and picks up her beer. SHARI (continuing a previous conversation) And, you know, every guy I ever broke up with, the minute it was over, I could tell you what went wrong, how it went wrong, why it had to go wrong... but when I'm in it... lost. I'm like a love coroner. Bring me the corpse, I'11 tell you what killed it. But how to prevent it? Lost. Ed LAUGHS. ED Ray's on. They walk over. ANGLE ON RAY RAY (to camera) Hi. I'm Ray Pekurney. I'm from Paramus, New Jersey... 9 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE - DAY She's watching Ray's tape. Ray thinks he's funnier and cuter than he is. RAY (ON TAPE) All my friends tell me "Ray, you've got too much personality for one guy." It's like at a party -- I'm at the center of the attention. Everybody loves me. He gets hit in the face by a hors d'oeuvre. RAY (CONT'D) Ha, ha, ha. I'll kick your ass. No really, let me show you my girlfriend. She's really cute. He reaches out and grabs Shari's wrist. Shari is struggling to stay out of frame. We just see her arm and Ray pulling on it. Ray lets go. RAY (CONT'D) She's strong, 'cause she's a Fedex girl. She lifts those packages. But she's not dikey at all, she's really pretty. CYNTHIA FAST-FORWARDS WE SEE the camera shooting an empty space. Then Ed's head appears sideways right in front of the CAMERA. ED Hello I'm Ed. He starts to sniff. ED (CONT'D) What smells? He steps back from the camera and straightens his head as he SNIFFS. He's more relaxed than Ray. ED (CONT'D) What is that smell? Oop, I think it's this idea. One person on TV all day long? (screams) Are you nuts? WE HEAR LAUGHS The Real TV Staff are enjoying Ed's tape while they eat lunch out of styrofoam containers. ED (CONT'D) Seriously, get your resumes in order. When my brother Ray - whose personality you were just dazzled by -- told me he was going to try out for this -- I said, "why in the world would anyone want to be on TV all day long, no privacy, everybody knowing your business, exposing every single detail of your life I mean... why would anyone want to do that? But then I thought of a reason... (loudly) Why the hell not? He KISSES the LENS, smudging it. Cynthia, watching, cracks up. The others seem to like him to. 10 INT. VIDEO STORE - DAY This is a video store in Paramus, New Jersey. It's busy. PEOPLE are in line to check out tapes. WE OPEN ON a WOMAN -- a mother -- who is rummaging through her purse for her Blockbuster card. She looks up and sees that her TWO CHILDREN have opened several boxes of candy from the candy display and are eating from the boxes. MOTHER Oh for -- Put those -- Oh God... She grabs the boxes from them. The boxes are ripped more than she thought and candy goes flying all over. She bends to pick it up. Ed appears. He works here. ED (to the Mom) We'11 take care of it. Someone arrives with a broom. ED (CONT'D) (to the broom guy) Here. This time throw it out, don't eat it. LOU, the Manager passes. ED Lou, can I talk to you a second? Lou seems like he'd prefer to avoid this. LOU Um, yeah, I was gonna ... ED What's the deal? Did anybody make a decision - LOU Ed, look, uh... you're not getting the job. They're gonna transfer someone from another store to manage this store when I leave to manage the new store. I'm sorry. ED Oh, Christ. Did you go to bat for me? LOU I batted! ED You batted or you bunted? LOU Hey. I went as far as I felt comfortable. I mean, you know, let's face it -- you come and go here as you please. You work when you feel like it -- you know, Bruce Springsteen's birthday is not a legal holiday. ED Well, then I'm quitting. LOU Ed, come on. What's that gonna do? You're gonna bring Blockbuster to their knees. Let me recommend a movie to you. It's called "Get your shit together before it's too late." ED (wise-ass) Who's in it? CLERK Ed, telephone. Ed goes to the phone. ED (into the phone) Yeah... Are you serious? ... Come on, no kidding, who is this? ... Holy shit! 11 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - ANOTHER DAY Ed is being interviewed by the "Real TV" staff whom we met earlier. He's slightly less comfortable than on his tape, but he's good. ED I had one year of college. And then one year of junior college. CYNTHIA (O.C.) What did you study? ED Oh, see, studying would've been a huge help. Where were you, then? They LAUGH. CUT TO: 11A INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED Well, there's Ray, my brother. He's... ambitious. Like a few years ago, he started this mobile dog-grooming business. But, like, out of his Camry. He had this bathtub in his trunk - (Ed starts cracking up) he's throwing the dogs in there, they're fighting and splashing, then he'd slam the trunk down, let 'em run around inside screaming getting all wet... then he'd use the car exhaust to dry'em. (wiping his eyes) Ah, Ray... he just can't get a break. CUT TO: 11B INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED My sister -- Marcia, I mean she can't get a break. About seven years ago she falls in love with this Vietnamese guy who wants to marry her so he can stay in the country. So they get married, they have a kid, he gets his citizenship, immediately divorces my sister and marries this Vietnamese woman who, he was probably already married to all along. She can pick 'em. (pause) She's got a nice little boy, though. My nephew, Andy. CUT TO: 11C INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED My Mom's okay. Kinda. I knew a guy who hated his mother - Stuey Shwam. He hated his mother so much, he had his belly button removed. CUT TO: 11D INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED No, I've never been married. The interviewer seems to be waiting for him to elaborate. He doesn't. He shrugs -- that's it. CUT TO: 11E INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED Oh, my father -what an asshole. When I was twelve, my mother needed a hysterectomy -- my father ran off with her nurse! And that's the last I heard of him. CUT TO: 11F INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED Al, my stepfather he's opinionated. And you have to listen because he's like in a wheelchair. CUT TO: 11G INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED I like my job -- I mean I'm doing all right. I'm not sure how long I want to stay there, you know... I mean, I'm thirty-one... I'm not sure I want to be a video store clerk when I'm forty... Of course, I didn't expect to be doing it 'til I was thirty-one, either. But... you know I'm... keeping my options open. Anything comes along, I'm ready to pounce. (growls like a cougar) CUT TO: 11H INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER ED A dream? Of course I have a dream I just don't know what the hell it is. (shrugs and smiles) Ed's image freezes, while he has a funny-cute expression on his face. PULL BACK TO REVEAL a TV in a conference room with Ed's frozen image on it. Cynthia is there with her bosses, the people who run the network that owns Real TV. The top man is MR. SCHARLACH. His deputies are MS. SEAVER and MR. McILVAINE. This is not the same place where we met Cynthia and her staff. This is richer, more corporate and formal. CYNTHIA He's who we want to go with. SCHARLACH (doubtfully) This guy. CYNTHIA I polled my staff. The men say they'd hang around with him and the women say he's fuckable. And one of the men said he's fuckable. SCHARLACH I'm not sure about the entire concept. Cynthia is frustrated. CYNTHIA Look it's not like we're burning up the airwaves now. We're running neck-and-neck with The Gardening Channel. If people just tune in to this twice a day for five minutes, we're a hit. Plus we can sell advertising every second, running at the bottom of the screen... and the beauty is this guy doesn't even have to be good. I mean if he's good, great. But if he winds up making an ass of himself, better. McILVAINE How is that better? CYNTHIA Come on. People cannot turn away from an accident. You drive by, you say "Ooh, I hope there's not a head lying in the road" but you look ! See, nobody in America wants to be nobody. This guy wants to be famous. So, basically, the deal is he agrees to drive down the highway a hundred miles an hour blindfolded and we get to see if his head winds up rolling down the highway. Fun for the whole family. So let's do it. She stops, waiting for approval. 12 INT. VIDEO STORE SCHARLACH (coldly) Good luck. Ed's RE-STOCKING the SHELVES He gets goosed from behind RAY (O.C.) (very loud and happy) Hey... ED (goosed) Oh! Ed DROPS the BOXES. Ray is there with Shari. RAY I got your message. Way to go! ED Hi, Shari. (to Ray) Let's go in the stockroom. 13 INT. STOCKROOM Ed and Ray enter. RAY So when do you start? ED I ... I'm not gonna do it. RAY What? ED Look -- there's a million ways to humiliate yourself - I gotta think of a new way? I mean, it's all day! Every minute. Id be like a monkey at the zoo. I just... RAY (disgusted) Oh man! They couldn't pick me! They had to pick you! He slaps a tape off a shelf. ED You would do this? You would actually -- RAY In a second! In a hot second. Let me ask you something -- ED Why do you do that? RAY What? ED Whenever you ask me something why do you always say "Let me ask you something?" Why don't you just ask me? RAY (impatiently) All right. Let me ask you something... are you happy like this? ED I'm doing all right. RAY Oh Yeah? What's your master plan here? Shari enters, curious about the yelling. She stands there quietly, unnoticed by the guys. RAY (CONT'D) You're gonna be a video store clerk for the rest of your life? This is your big ambition, rearranging the "Ernest" movies? ED Screw off. RAY How many opportunities are you going to get in your life? ED I don't know. RAY That's right. You don't know. Doors don't fly open for guys like us. ED Hey. You know-- we're not the same. I got a good life, this job suits me. I come and go when I please -- RAY Oh, don't bullshit a bullshitter. If you're happy like this you're an idiot, and you're not an idiot. (sees Shari) Hi. Ed turns and sees Shari. She's self-conscious. She feels like she's been caught eavesdropping. SHARI Oh. I -- I heard Ray yelling. 1 didn't mean to -- RAY (to Ed) Give me a chance. I'm begging you. I need a break. Look, I'11 cover your ass. I'11 ride shotgun. Just bring those cameras over to me and I'11 make something happen for both of us. I swear. Come on, Eddie Pause. ED All right. RAY Yeah?! ED Yeah. Ray lifts Ed up. Ray kisses Ed. RAY (to Shari) Is this guy a brother?! 14 INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Moderate-priced, restaurant. WE OPEN ON a CLOSE-UP of AL. He's about seventy. REVEAL THE FAMILY AL What happens when you go to the bathroom? Do they go in with you? Ed, Ray, Al, JEANETTE and MARCIA. Al is in a WHEELCHAIR and has an oxygen mask connected to a tank. He periodically takes a hit of oxygen. He's a little short of breath, but loves to talk. Jeanette is Ed's mother -- about sixty. Marcia is a little older than Ed. ED No. The bathroom is off limits -and when I go to sleep they go to other programming. Unless I get up. Then they go back on the air. Unless I get up to go to the bathroom, I guess, then - AL What if--you're vomiting? ED (amazed by the question) What if I'm vomiting? AL Do they show it? ED I guess -- I don't -- it's all in the contract. There's this million-page contract -- RAY Look, can we all just sign the releases so we can get on with this? MARCIA (accusing, to Ed) What happened? You described this "crazy-kooky" family who'd be a million laughs on TV? ED No! I barely even mentioned -it's just that, my friends, the people at work, whoever I'm regularly in contact with they want releases from. MARCIA (angrily) They're gonna mock our foibles. ED Our what? MARCIA Our foibles, our foibles! RAY We don't have foibles. MARCIA Everyone has foibles. Then the whole country sees them on TV and mocks them. Then we have... mocked foibles. JEANTTE Eddie, please don't let them mock our foibles. ED (losing it) Stop saying foibles! MARCIA Look, my life is not so great, that I want it shown on television. And neither is yours. RAY That's the point -- this could change things. MARCIA How? RAY For instance... me and my friend Bucky are buying out my boss. His equipment, trucks, client list, the whole shmear. MARCIA (points to Ed) What does that have to do with... ? RAY If they keep Ed on for one full month, he gets a balloon payment. Ed nods. Pause. RAY (CONT'D) I borrow against that now, at the bank. Buy the business. And Ed becomes a silent partner. Now here's the beauty part. While we're on TV I plug the shit out of the business. Free advertising. AL How about sex? A STUNNED pause. They all look at Al. ED I'11 have to pass, Al. And it's not an age thing -- AL No! Do they show you having sex? ED No. Kissing and hugging, okay, but if it's actual sex they have to cut away. AL At what point? ED At the point -- I don't -- Look you'd be on TV maybe one or two times each. I'11 try to avoid I'11 go out of my way to avoid, getting together with you. Believe me. WE HEAR: A loud drilling sound. CUT TO: 15 INT. ED'S APARTMENT - DAY A WORKMAN is drilling a hole in the wall. Ed is there with a TV CREW. They're running cable and drilling holes and examining the apartment. Cynthia is going around supervising. Ray and Shari are there. Ray is fascinated. Ed is tense. Shari is observant. Ray separates from Ed and Shari and asks one of the Installers a technical question. SHARI AND ED Ed thinks. Ed joins Cynthia. SHARI Are you sure about this? ED Hey, believe me -1 know I've got a great chance of making a fool of myself, here. SHARI Why do it? ED I saw this show once. It was about logging. I was home sick, there was nothing else on. Do you know how they break up really bad log jams? You know, when they're really tangled... ? SHARI Cream rinse? ED (laughs) Dynamite. SHARI So? ED So maybe this is my dynamite. SHARI Dynamite is dangerous. CYNTHIA Ed, can I see you a second. ED (to Shari) Excuse me. CYNTHIA Okay, so you understand? We're installing a permanent camera in your bedroom, one in the kitchen, one in the living room, plus, of course, there'll always be a couple of steady-cams following you. ED (overwhelmed) Cool. CYNTHIA I want you to take this. She gives him a card. CYNTHIA (CONT'D) That has my work number, my home number, my pager number. I sleep three hours a night. Call me whenever you want to talk. Off the air, on the air, whenever. Okay? ED (barely listening) Um, yeah -- thanks. Ed looks kind of overwhelmed. She doesn't like this. CYNTHIA Now look. Don't freeze up on me. I picked you because you had kind of a relaxed, go-with-the-flow quality. You're not going to lose that, are you? ED No, uh... CYNTHIA I bet my career on you. You'd better be good. ED (annoyed) Don't say that. That's like... telling a guy before you have sex you'd better be good. You don't do that. CYNTHIA I do. Ed reacts. ED Oh. 16 INT. ED'S BEDROOM - NIGHT He's in bed, watching TV. The news is on. He glances up at one of the cameras. On the news, they go to a story about him. ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Tomorrow morning, the cable channel known as Real TV, begins broadcasting one of the most heavily promoted concepts in the history of cable television. In an experiment that they say will last at least a month. They're going to follow -- live - every waking minute of a thirty-one year old video store clerk from Paramus New Jersey. The Real TV press release on this promises that none of it will be scripted, none of it will be edited and in my opinion, none of it will be interesting. we're all just supposed to sit in front of our TV's and watch this guy... live. (rhymes with "give") ANCHOR (to the Entertainment Reporter) What would be the interest here? What would... get people to tune in? ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Betas me. SIDEKICK I don't know. I might check it out. ANCHOR Well, Len's here to check out sports. Len, would you watch this video clerk? LEN I'd sooner watch soccer. They all CRUCKLE. 17 INT. CYNTHIA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT She's watching the same show. She's edgy. She's CRACKING her KNUCKLES. TV SCREEN LEN Speaking of disasters, at the Meadowlands tonight... The set goes off. Ed, once again, stares up at the camera. FADE TO BLACK FADE IN: 18 INT. CONTROL TRUCK Written on the screen -- "Day one." A DIRECTOR and TECHNICAL CREW with all the modern equipment. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Here we go. Ten-nine-eight-seven- 19 INT. REAL TV - OFFICES Cynthia and her staff are gathered to watch the show begin They're TENSE and EXCITED. A commercial is on. 20 INT. TRUCK 21 INT. OFFICE A.D. two... one. On the TV, the commercial ends and the Real TV logo appears. A CRAWL BEGINS It says "The following is unedited, unscripted, and unrehearsed. It is the real life of one American citizen named Ed Pekurny." The logo fades away and we see Ed, in bed, sleeping. His ALARM RINGS and he wakes up. He's groggy from sleep. Instinctively, he begins SCRATCHING his balls. As he does, it hits him that this is not a normal morning. He looks up and sees two steady-cam guys at the foot of his bed, aiming their cameras at him. Ed, then, looks at his hand on his balls. Gently, he moves his hand away. 22 INT. OFFICE KEITH (mock cheerful) Well, we're off to a great start. NOTE: The camera operators will change in shifts. We'11 see about four regulars over the course of the film. The one we will see most often is shooting Ed right now. His name is CARLOS. 23 INT. BEDROOM Ed, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, gets out of bed. His hair is sticking up. He passes a mirror and notices his hair. ED Oh, great. He turns to the camera and seems about to offer an excuse for his appearance, but, then, just moves on. ED (CONT'D) Excuse me. He grabs some clothes and enters the bathroom. 24 INT. OFFICE They're not enjoying this. Everyone's staring at Cynthia. She doesn't flinch. NOTE: Silent advertising runs along the bottom of the screen. 25 INT. KITCHEN - A FEW MINUTES LATER Ed enters, dressed and showered. The Steady-cam is in his face. Ed is tight. He's much less comfortable than he expected to be. He smiles stiffly at the camera. He's misplaced his natural charm. He gets a box of Pop-tarts out of the freezer. As he does, other stuff falls out of the freezer on to the floor. He's embarrassed. He bends down to pick things up, showing his ass to the camera. 26 INT. OFFICE GREG (to Cynthia) Start clearing a place for your Emmy. 27 INT. KITCHEN - A LITTLE LATER Ed is sitting up on the kitchen counter eating his Pop-tarts and a bowl of cereal. ED (nervously) Same people like to put the milk in first and then the cereal. I like to put in the milk first - I mean the cereal first and then the milk. Yeah, that's it. Now, watch this. He takes a KNIFE and a BANANA. He peels the banana. He holds the knife, blade up, over the cereal and chops down on it with the banana, several times, rapidly, slicing it into the cereal. He's proud of this. 28 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray is watching the show. His head is in his hands. He's horrified by how bad Ed is. 29 INT. PARENTS' HOUSE Jeanette and Al watching Ed. JEANETTE (being positive) So far... 30 INT. OFFICE KEITH Somebody shoot me. 31 INT. NETWORK OFFICE Scharlach, Seaver and McIlvaine watching, grim-faced. 32 INT. OFFICE Cynthia is ON the PHONE. CYNTHIA Get him out of the house! I want him moving! 33 INT. CONTROL TRUCK DIRECTOR (on the phone) Hey, I want him dead, but what can I do. 34 INT. KITCHEN Ed is EATING. He peers confused at the camera. ANGLE ON CAMERA OPERATORS. They're signaling Ed to get out. ANGLE ON ED Bewildered, imitating their gestures. ED What... You want me to swim? 35 INT. CONTROL TRUCK The Director is still on the phone. She's watching Ed on a monitor. DIRECTOR Oh God... Ed gets it. ED Oh, out? You want me to go out. 36 EXT. BUILDING Ed exits the building with the Operators walking backwards in front of him, bumping into PEOPLE- People watch, curiously. Ed reaches his car. He takes out his keys and drops them in a muddy puddle. Disgusted, he fishes them out. CUT TO: 36A INT. NETWORK BUILDING Scharlach, watching impassively. CUT TO: 36B INT. ED'S CAR Ed, in the car. He can barely fit the key into the ignition. Carlos, in the passenger seat taps him on the arm. Ed looks up. Carlos holds up a hastily-made sign. "It's okay. Relax, man." Carlos WINKS. This does help Ed. He appreciates it. He drives. WE SEE the control truck in motion. We also see another car with another Steady-cam OPERATOR, shooting Ed's car as they travel. 37 EXT. STREET - MONTAGE Ed is doing his morning errands. A little shopping -- a little banking -- always ON CAMERA. At one point, he WALKS INTO a GLASS DOOR with the word "Pull" on it. He pushed, banging his forehead. A CHILD points to the word "Pull." Ed turns to the camera, embarrassed. Later he buys a slice of pizza at a little place that's doing no business. ED (to the camera) Best pizza in New Jersey. As he walks down the street, PEOPLE call out "Hey Ed!" People in windows show him that they're watching him at that exact moment. The camera shoots some of the people in the windows. They see themselves on TV and they go wild. Ed also is confronted by GUYS grabbing their crotches mockingly, calling out things like "Hey, Ed, holding your own?" or "Hey, Ed, howls the grand ballroom." Ed is slightly chagrined by all this, but handles it with good grace. He seems to be loosening up. 38 INT. VIDEO STORE - DAY Ed arrives at work. The store is already open. (Ed usually gets there in the afternoon and stays until closing.) CUSTOMERS are a little stunned by the arrival of a camera. Some know what it's about some don't. The CLERKS are aware of what's going on. They all signed releases. Ed's BOSS greets him stiffly. Clearly he's trying to get face-time on camera. ED Hey, Lou. LOU (stiffly) Welcome to work, Ed. He shakes Ed's hand and smiles at the camera. He WAVES a little. The BROOM GUY crosses, staring transfixed at the camera. He blocks Ed and Lou. He FREEZES, then panics. He tries to get out of the way and trips over his broom. He tumbles face-first into the camera lens, hurting himself. ANGLE ON ED, observing. ED (mutters) Oh, Jesus, I'm dying. 39 INT. CONTROL TRUCK DIRECTOR Carlos, give him some air, give him some room. Use a longer lens. We'11 mostly go with the stationary cameras in here. Less intrusive. (to the crew in the truck, sarcastically) Have any of you thought about your next career? 40 INT. A KITCHEN - SAME TIME A WOMAN is serving dinner. She's watching Ed on TV -- really just glancing at it. Her HUSBAND is helping her bring the food to the table. HUSBAND Why are we watching this? WIFE (a little guilty) No reason. just... I just want to see what happens. HUSBAND Nothing's gonna happen. He's just... working. WIFE Oh, come on, they wouldn't put it on if nothing was gonna happen. He changes the channel. She changes it back. He doesn't get it at all. RAPID CUTS of VARIOUS PEOPLE around America, watching -- A couple, a young guy, a woman alone -- ending with a few college-age girls in what appears to be a dorm room. ONE GIRL is watching intently. Her roommates are mostly just hanging around not really watching. COLLEGE GIRL I think he's cute. one of her roommates glances over to see what she's so excited about. 41 EXT. STREET - NIGHT Ed is walking. He passes the little pizza place he touted earlier. There's a LINE out into the street. The STOREOWNER is working hard - - deliriously happy. Ed passes, oblivious to what he's created. 42 INT. ED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The Camera Operator is shooting Ed in the bathroom CLIPPING his TOENAILS ED Some guys work from the big toe down to the little toe. Not me. I save the big one for last. That's the one I really enjoy. It's thick, it's big, it's a challenge. Did you ever see old people's nails? (makes a disgusted noise) 43 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray and Shari watching Ed. Ray is BANGING HIS HEAD on the table. RAY This is not working. (to Ed on TV) Come to me! 44 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE - NIGHT It's late. She's alone. She's ON the PHONE. She's coming apart. CYNTHIA (into phone) No, I haven't seen the spot ratings... (she winces) As she talks, she tries to LIGHT a CIGARETTE. She's shaking too much to use her lighter. CYNTHIA (CONT'D) (into phone) I think that's a number from which we can hopefully, uh... build... ANGRY at her lighter, she throws it breaking a window. CYNTHIA (CONT'D) I disagree... No, I am not ready to pull the plug... Yes, Mr. Scharlach, I know they shoot horses... (getting angry) Look, it's been one day. Can I have a week with this and then have you fly up my nose?! (hangs up) She immediately regrets her outburst. 45 INT. BAR - NIGHT Written on the screen -- "Day Two." OPEN ON TURTLES racing (as only turtles can) across the floor. The turtles have little plastic men, seated on their backs. The CROWD CHEERS and SCREAMS for their favorite turtles. Ed is being followed by the steady-cams but seems to be ignoring it. Ed is in a group which includes John, and Ray. The race ends John looks very uncomfortable. BARTENDER The winner... Dashing Danny. Ed wins. MONEY changes hands. ED Next round's on me. One of the cameras is very close to John. He's very SELFCONSCIOUS. He doesn't look where he's walking. He trips. PEOPLE LAUGH. ED (off-hand joke) Polish acrobat. RAY (loudly) Hey. Check this out. (to the cameramen) Look at this. Ray TAKES OUT a big stack of QUARTERS and sets them on the bar next to a SHOT GLASS 46 INT. CONTROL TRUCK DIRECTOR Go with the desperate brother. 47 INT. BAR The cameras go with Ray. Ray does a "spit the quarters off the bar into the shot glass" trick, while PEOPLE CHEER. Ed is standing next to Shari. They're OFF-CAMERA. ED Whoa, God bless Ray. First time I'm off-camera in two days. This is hard, you know? I'm, like, exhausted. ANGLE ON RAY He's BALANCING a BAR STOOL on his forehead. ANGLE ON ED AND SHARI SHARI (calmly) He did that at my parents' house. ANGLE ON RAY As Ray drones on... RAY (selling hard to the camera) Okay, I just wanted to get your attention. My name is Ray and my friend Bucky and I design video systems. You've got an office or a big home, we'11 come out there design you an entire system. ANGLE ON ED AND SHARI ED See, they should've picked him. Look how comfortable he is out there. ANGLE ON RAY SHARI He is so wound up. He bought all new clothes for this. He flips the BAR STOOL and catches it. He accepts the plaudits of the crowd. He returns to Ed and Shari. So do the cameras. Ray is fired-up. RAY Whew! 1 am kicking hairy ass! Ray is still full of energy. RAY (CONT'D) Hey, Ed. Did you hear about Marcia? ED (worried) No. What happened? RAY (to the camera) That's our sister. (to Ed) She's got a new boyfriend. AL AND JEANETTE Watching TV. JEANETTE Who? BACK TO BAR RAY He's living with her! ED (camera-conscious) Ray, maybe this isn't ... RAY No, this is great. (to the camera) You'll love this. (to Ed) He's a singer. ED Marcia's living with a singer? CUT TO: RAY Yeah. You know, piano bars. plays the piano and sings. That's how they met. SHARI He sang to her and they fell in love? RAY (enjoying this) No! Some drunk hit him over the head with his snifter -- you know, that thing they keep on the piano for tips -- and Marcia yanked a big hunk of glass out of his head. (cracks up, pounds the table) 48 INT. MARCIA'S APARTMENT Marcia is staring at the TV in UNHAPPY SHOCK. Next to her is a good- looking, but slightly sleazy-looking GUY with a bandage on his head. 49 INT. BAR RAY I mean my question is what was she doing in a bar in the first place? ED Ray -- RAY She's an alcoholic, for Christ's sake. ED Oh, Jesus. Marcia, watching, HORRIFIED. BACK TO BAR RAY Remember the last guy she got involved with? What was his name? ED What's the dif -- RAY Richie! (to Shari) She spent six months dating a criminal ED (to Shari) She didn't know he was a criminal. They had a relationship. They -- RAY "Quick pull off the highway" is not a relationship. Oh man, I gotta pee. He KISSES Shari. She COVERS her FACE with her hand. RAY (CONT'D) What are you, hiding from the Police? (pulls her hands down) Show your face, you look great. (to Ed) Doesn't she look great. ED Great. RAY (to Ed) While I'm gone, tell them about our cousin Lenny who's gay. We knew from when he was five. He minces off' effeminately, to the bathroom, LAUGHING. It's like a hurricane has just passed through. Everyone is sitting, STUNNED. ED You do though, you look great. SHARI Right. ED No, no, I -- as soon as you came in tonight I said to John, "Boy Shari looks beautiful." I said it on TV so you can ask anybody who saw it. She LAUGHS. They smile at each other. They make intermittent eye-contact a little self-consciously. Ed finally looks somewhere else and Shari, for just a moment, stares right at him. PULL BACK to TWO GUYS, watching this on TV in a bar -- more of a neighborhood bar. 50 INT. BAR - NIGHT TAD Did you see that? BARRY What? TAD Her. That look. She likes the Ed guy better than she likes the brother. BARRY You're nuts. TAD Okay, I'm nuts. CUTS OF OTHER VIEWERS, WATCHING REAL TV A BEDROOM The COUPLE we met earlier are in bed, the wife is holding the remote. HUSBAND Give me the remote. WIFE Just a few more minutes. Read your book. A LIVING ROOM A GAY COUPLE FIRST GUY What do you like about it? I don't understand. SECOND GUY I don't know -- it just it's I don't know. Just let me watch. 51 INT. ED'S BEDROOM - MORNING "DAY THREE" The ALARM goes off. Ed starts to scratch his balls, but stops halfway down. He WINKS at the camera and starts his day. 52 EXT. EWS BUILDING Ed comes outside and he's accosted by a GROUP of angry Polish Americans, many of whom are carrying signs decrying Polish jokes and anti-Polish attitudes. They SCREAM ANGRILY when they see Ed. Ed is completely shocked. He runs back inside. He locks the door, leaving Carlos outside. The demonstrators attack Carlos. 53 INT. ED'S APARTMENT Ed is at his kitchen table with several burly DEMONSTRATORS arrayed behind him. Ed is NERVOUSLY, READING from a sheet of paper while Carlos shoots. ED ... my "Polish acrobat" remark was ill-considered. Although, I meant no harm, I should have recognized that such (trouble with the next word) stigmatizing remarks bring pain and anguish to... He's having trouble reading the next word. ED (CONT'D) I can't read my own writing. It's like Chinese -- (quickly backtracking) It's not like Chinese! Chinese is, I'm sure, a beautiful language and they write ... beautifully. It's not Chinese. He wipes sweat away. ED (CONT'D) Jesus, I'm sweating like a Mexican fruit-picker. (realizes) Oh, Christ! QUICK CUTS of Ed, getting his laundry, doing some shopping, getting his oil changed, all being shot by a CAMERA PERSON. 54 INT. DENTAL OFFICE A YOUNG DENTAL HYGIENIST is cleaning Ed's teeth. The camera is practically right in his mouth. It's making the Hygienist NERVOUS. She's distracted. She hurts Ed. He SCREAMS. She SCREAMS. She drops her tools. HYGIENIST (near hysterics) Can I have some room please?! ED (talking with the suction in his mouth) Gi hu roo. 55 INT. TV STUDIO It's an educational-type panel discussion involving various eggheads and pundits. It's called "Viewpoint." MODERATOR Let's change topics for a moment. Does anybody have a viewpoint on something going on now called "Ed TV". PANEL MEMBER #1 This, I believe, is a new low point in American culture. PANEL MEMBER #2 I agree. What it reveals is the absolute creative bankruptcy in the television business. What they're saying, basically, is "We're giving up. We have no ideas." PANEL MEMBER #3 It's worse than that! They don't select someone with any talent, or with something to say -- they seem to celebrate the fact that this guy is a boob. It's a joyous celebration of boobery. PANEL MEMBER #4 I think we've already spent far too much time discussing this. They all agree. 56 INT. CHINESE RESTAURANT - NIGHT OPEN ON Ray with chopsticks up his nose, imitating a walrus. Also, he has lo mein noodles protruding from between his lips. Ed is forcing a smile. Ray is wearing a tee-shirt that says "Ray and Bucky- Video Kings" with a phone number. 57 INT. REAL TV OFFICE Cynthia is alone working late. She's drinking. She's watching Ray. She's not enjoying him. ED (V.O.) Ray, don't throw the shrimp, you're gonna choke again. CYNTHIA Choke to death, you boring bastard. 58 INT. EWS BEDROOM - NIGHT Ed is sitting up in bed, wearing shorts and a tee-shirt, eating directly out of a cereal box. TERRY The audience likes you when you're moving. ALICE Yes. Try not to stay in one place too long. Get outside as much as you can. KEITH Also, we have some notions. Have you thought about becoming a Big Brother? GREG Or coaching a Little League team? FELICIA How about a date? ED Are you asking me? FELICIA No, I mean... KEITH It's just, the ratings are still soft. LONG PAUSE ED (nervously) Are you going to cancel me? CYNTHIA Let's not worry about that vet. ALICE You're testing well. FELICIA There's another problem. GREG It's ... Ray. ED What about Ray? GREG Well, the walrus impression - delightful as it was -- is just not wowing the audience. This is some audience research. He hands Ed a PRINTOUT. Ed doesn't know how to interpret the figures. ED What does this mean? FELICIA It means they hate his freaking guts. It means if he were on fire they wouldn't put him out. ED He's just ... trying a little too hard -- CYNTHIA Ed, the audience can smell the desperation coming through the screen. TERRY Could you... see him a little less often? ED How much less? FELICIA Never would be plenty. ED I can't do that to him. He's pushing a little too hard - but... I just can't do that to him. SILENCE ED (CONT'D) He'11 be fine. 59 INT. CAR - DAY "DAY FIVE" Ed is driving slowly on a busy street. Suddenly an EIGHTEEN YEAR-OLD BOY lands heavily on Ed's windshield. Ed is badly startled. He can't see. He swerves and stops. The boy is not hurt. He's banging on the windshield, waving at the camera. Ed, furious, gets out. 60 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS ED What the --?! BOY I'm on TV! I'm on TV! Ed just stares in disbelief. 61 EXT. STREET - LATER Ed is walking. PEOPLE YELL at him. GUY Ed! Your show stinks! The Guy LAUGHS like he really got in a good one. Ed ignores him. TWO TEENAGERS run in, one has a camera and quickly snaps a picture of Ed and the other Guy. Merrily, they shake his hand and run off, whooping. There are PEOPLE who trail along. Many of them will show up again and again, throughout the movie, following Ed. Some of them will look mentally or emotionally impaired. 62 INT. VIDEO STORE - NIGHT QUICK SHOTS of Ed with CUSTOMERS - One or two show a bit of camera-consciousness. A little group has gathered to observe Ed's "show". 63 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY- NIGHT Ed rings the bell. ED (to the camera) This is Ray's apartment. Ray's got a big-screen TV and the Knicks are playing in L.A. tonight, so sometimes I come over after I work late and we watch the game here. He makes funny comments. He's really a good guy. He just... RAY (O.C.) Who is it? ED It's me, Ed. The door opens a crack, revealing Ray in a bathrobe. Ray's look is unwelcoming. RAY Hi. ED You watching the ballgame? RAY Uh, no, uh I'm a little tired. I fell asleep. ED Oh. All right. I'11 watch at home, then. RAY Yeah... WOMAN (O.C.) Ray, where do you keep the glasses? ED Oh, is Shari here? Why didn't you just say so? Why are you giving me a song-and-dance about being tired? ED (CONT'D) (calls out) Hi, Shari. WOMAN (O.C.) Who's Shari? ED Who's -- Ray looks pained. Ed realizes what's happening and freezes Ray's phone RINGS. RAY Oh shit... He turns to answer his phone, allowing the door to swing open a little. Ed can see into the kitchen. He sees a WOMAN, wearing just panties, facing away from him, searching for glasses. RAY (into phone) Hello... Shari, hi... Oh no! ... Oh God! ED (to the camera) We'd better go... RAPID CUTS of VIEWERS loving this, some screaming "Don't go!, don't leave, stay" etc. BACK TO SCENE RAY (into phone) No, honey, it's not what it looks like-- She hangs up on him. He holds his head. RAY Oh God ... Ed! 64 INT. HALLWAY Ed is TIP-TOEING away. He stops when Ray calls him. Ray 'runs out into the hallway after him. They speak with lowered voices. RAY That was Shari. She saw the whole thing on TV-- ED What is this? What's going on, who is that? RAY (embarrassed) It's the receptionist at one of the places I service video equipment -- she's very pretty and, you know, she never even talks to me and then today I come in and she's all "I saw you on TV the other night... You were so great ... " Next thing I know we're ... ED Next thing you know! Why didn't you stop? RAY Stop? I'm a guy. I don't stop. The woman's supposed to stop. We're the gas, they're the brakes. WOMAN (O.C.) (calls out) Ray, I finished the Snapple. RAY Fine! WOMAN (O.C.) Is there more? RAY In the cabinet, but it's warm. There's ice in the tray. I (to Ed) Talk to her. ED I don't even know her. All I know is she likes Snapple. RAY No, not her. Shari. Go over there and talk to her 65 INT. CYNTHIA'S BEDROOM CYNTHIA Yes! Go! She THROWS SOMETHING at the screen. She PICKS UP the PHONE. 66 INT. HALLWAY ED Why me? RAY You brought the cameras here! ED You brought the girl! RAY Please! ED If I go over to Shari, the camera's going there, too. The Camera Operators are vigorously nodding and mouthing "Yes, Go." Ray is oblivious to this, but Ed picks it up. RAY That's good. She'11 -- you know control herself. Look. If I go over there, she's just gonna slam the door on me. Just go over and beg her to talk to me, that's all. Please. You owe me for this! Ed accepts the irony of Ray's attitude without comment 67 INT. ANOTHER HALLWAY- NIGHT The door opens, revealing RITA, Shari's roommate. RITA (nervously) Um... Shari knew you were coming over because she saw ... ED Right, yeah -- RITA (apologetic) She really doesn't want you and the camera in here right now. ED No, I understand. That's - where is she, is she all right? Rita isn't sure how much she should reveal. RITA I ... gave her a drink. I thought it ... but she's not much of a drinker, so it's made her a little... belligerent. Shari appears in the doorway over Rita's shoulder. she's holding a liquor bottle and she's a little drunk. SHARI What do you want?! ED (awkward) Shari, I'm just really sorry. Look, I know this is... unbelievably awkward, but if I could come in for like a second and -- you know -- just say... two words, then... Shari indicates with her head, that Ed can come in. Ed and Carlos enter. Rita shuts the door. Shari crosses to a couch. Ed indicates for Carlos to give them some distance. 68 INT. CONTROL TRUCK DIRECTOR Don't lose them, Carlos. This is gold. Stay out of their way, but get everything. 69 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT Carlos settles across the room. He rests the camera down as if he's not even shooting, but he's still guiding it where he wants it throughout the scene. RITA I'm gonna go to bed. (to Shari) You okay? Shari shrugs. RITA (CONT'D) Good night. She gives the camera a quick glance. RITA (CONT'D) (quickly, with a small wave) Hi, Mom. (she exits) ED Shari, Ray feels -- SHARI (starting to cry) Don't defend that horse's ass to me. ED I'm not. I'm not. I'm just Look -- you know, in a way, it's good. He got this out of his system now and he knows it's not worth it and, you know, someday if you guys got married or something -- SHARI Ha! ED Okay ... SHARI (poking Ed as she talks) I've got news for you-- I never intended to marry him. ED Oh... how come? 70 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray, watching on TV. 71 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT SHARI Well, for one thing, he's a bad lay. 72 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT His eyes bulge out and he begins to gasp. RAPID SHOTS of viewers reacting-- "Whoa!" laughs, etc. The college girls applauding. one of them SCREAMS "Tell it!" 73 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT Ed realizes that Ray's been called a "bad lay" on television. ED Oh my God. SHARI (directly into the camera) I mean bad. ED Look, not having been there... I just think you're hurt and you're saying this to, you know, get back at him. She starts to cry. ED (CONT'D) Look... whether you get back together or not, you're too terrific a person to... lower yourself like this. 74 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray, still in shock. 75 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT ED (CONT'D) I mean, I told Ray -- a couple of times -- that I thought you were one of the best and ... smartest and... most attractive women I've ever seen so... In comforting her, he's gotten his face very close to hers. 76 INT. DORMITORY Same dorm girls as before. DORM GIRL Kiss him! Kiss him! BACK TO SCENE SHARI Really? ED Yeah. She tilts her head forward a little, hesitates, then kisses him, at first warmly, then passionately. 77 INT. DORM ROOM The girls are going wild-- SCREECHING. 78 INT. TAD'S HOUSE TAD I'm nuts, hah?! I knew it! I said! He dials the phone. 79 INT. JOHN'S HOUSE John is stunned. JOHN Oh, Jesus! 80 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT He stares, amazed. The WOMAN he was found with appears behind him. WOMAN I found the Snapple. 81 INT. CYNTHIA'S BEDROOM She sees the kiss. CYNTHIA Yes! Yes! I win! Scharlach, you schmuck! I am the golden goddess of television! She begins beating her chest, one fist at a time while she SCREAMS in triumph. 82 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT Shari and Ed have stopped kissing. They both look stunned. Shari is suddenly sober. SHARI Oh my God. She looks at Carlos who has now moved closer to them SHARI (CONT'D) Oh my God. ED It's... okay SHARI I kissed my boyfriend's brother on television! ED Well, when you put it that way. SHARI Leave. Go. ED Can't we just -- SHARI Go! ED (exiting) All right. Okay. I'11 ... see you. He and Carlos exit. Going through the door, he gives Carlos a little push then quickly steps back inside, slams the door and locks it. 83 INT. CONTROL TRUCK CARLOS (V.O.) I'm locked out. DIRECTOR Stay calm. Shoot the door. We're running sound. And we've got a camera in the street. 84 EXT. BUILDING A CAMERA is shooting at a second-story window. We SEE SILHOUETTES. 85 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT Ed is at the door. Shari is across the room. They stare at each other silently. Then they run to each other. They kiss again. 86 EXT. BUILDING We can SEE them KISSING... 87 INT. APARTMENT Ed and Shari are all over each other. They're breathless. SHARI What are we doing? ED I've got to tell you something. I have had a big thing for you for months. INTERCUT WITH SHOTS OF VIEWERS They're seeing the door or the silhouette shot, but they're hearing every word. They're mesmerized. SHARI Really? ED Yeah. I mean for months I've been seeing you with Ray you being his girlfriend and I kept wishing you were my girlfriend... But, you know, what could I do? SHARI Me too. I mean I'm going out with Ray and I'm... thinking about you. ED Really? SHARI Oh God, this is so weird. ED Weird? If this happened last month it would've been weird. Now with... the TV and... now it's just too weird. They look at each other. They don't know what to do. ED (CONT'D) I'd better go. She nods. He walks to the door. ED (CONT'D) Once more? She nods. They run back to each other and kiss. 88 EXT. BUILDING The silhouettes are kissing. 89 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray staring at the TV. 90 EXT. PRIVATE HOME - LATER "DAY SIX" This is a fairly old, modest private home. Ed pulls up. He and Carlos get out of the car. Ed hurries up to the front door and enters. 91 INT. HOME - CONTINUOUS Ed enters. He's a little AGITATED ANGLE ON AL ED Hi, Al. Al is in his wheelchair and taking periodic hits off an oxygen mask connected to a tank. Al's watching himself on TV. AL (excited) Look. It's me. He WAVES. ED Yeah. I brought you some movies. AL Anything good? They LAUGH. ED No, I intentionally picked out a lot of crap 'cause I don't like you. ED (CONT'D) Is Mom here? I gotta talk to her. AL She's in the kitchen. I'd yell for her, but I'd die. (sucks more oxygen) You had a busy night last night. ED (calls) Yeah. Ma... JEANETTE (O.C.) Eddie? ... ED Yeah? JEANETTE (O.C.) Are the TV people with you? ED Yeah. The camera guy is here. JEANETTE (O.C.) Send him away. ED Send him? Ma, I can't. it's -- just come out here. Please, I -- JEANETTE (O.C.) No. ED Do you want us to come in the kitchen? JEANETTE (O.C.) No. It's a mess. ED Look, Ma, come on out. Really. I need to talk to you. After a pause, Jeanette enters, very camera-conscious. ED (CONT'D) (to the camera) This is my mother. STIFFLY, he gives her a kiss. ED (CONT'D) Ma, do you know where Ray is? I've been calling him and I'm getting his machine and -- JEANETTE Eddie, how could you do it? Your brother's girlfriend. ED Hey, he cheated on her. JEANETTE He made a mistake. ED I don't want to -- do you know where he is? JEANETTE No. Maybe he's watching. (indicates the camera) Tell him you're sorry. Tell him you'11 stay away from that girl. ED No! And that girl has a name. AL What do you love her or something? ED (embarrassed) Come on... AL (teasing) Look at your face. I had a car that color. VARIOUS REACTIONS OF VIEWERS really liking this. BACK TO SCENE JEANETTE I know you. This Shari is a passing fancy. ED No! I -- All right, look, if you hear from Ray.... tell him to call me, okay? He KISSES her again. ED (CONT'D) How's Marcia? She all right? JEANETTE I don't know. She's living with that "entertainer"... ED (trying to make his mother feel better) Well, who knows? Maybe she finally picked a winner this time. JEANETTE (unconvinced) Mm. ED You and Al lived together a few months before you got married -- after Dad left. JEANETTE (looks at the TV) Oh my God! ED I mean, that worked out. JEANETTE Oh my God!! She gets in the closet and closes the door. 92 INT. OFFICE ED (to the camera) I think we're through here. The Real TV group is there. They're smiling. Cynthia is ON the PHONE CYNTHIA (into phone) I will. I'11 tell them. (hangs up) That was Scharlach. All of you, scrub your asses. He's coming over to kiss them. They all WHOOP and LAUGH. 93 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT - DAY Shari and Rita are watching Ed leave his parents house on TV. Rita is very excited. Shari is ON the PHONE. SHARI (into phone) Um, I'd like to get a new phone number, please... Because I'm getting calls from every nut case in America... Right, unlisted... Sure. (she holds) RITA Aren't you excited? He said he loved you on television! SHARI He didn't say it. His stepfather said it. RITA (joking) Well, the stepfather's cute... Seriously, how do you feel about Ed? Pause. SHARI I think he's great. He just makes me feel... oh, I'm really gonna get hurt, this time - Hello ... CUTS OF VARIOUS VIEWERS WATCHING REAL TV End on TAD and BARRY in a health club. This is the refreshment area. They've played racquetball and they're sweaty. They're watching Real TV. TAD I'11 tell you something else. The old guy in the wheelchair? The stepfather? They're gonna have him die. BARRY What do you mean "they're gonna have him die?" TAD You know, for a tearjerker. The audience falls in love with this loveable old geezer in a wheelchair and then he dies, it's ... They know what they're doing. BARRY This is real, Bananahead! TAD So? BARRY So if it's a show and they have a guy die that's writing, but if it's real and they have a guy die that's murder. 94 EXT. VIDEO STORE - DAY Ed arrives for work. People CALL OUT to him-- PEDESTRIANS, PEOPLE FROM CARS, TRUCK DRIVERS. "Hey Ed, my man." Ed waves. People shake his hand. A teenage boy looks into the camera, making a funny face. Someone else looks into the camera and says, "Hi, Ma." Suddenly, Ray is there with a WOMAN. Ray is not happy. He's wearing DARK GLASSES and a HAT. RAY Hi. Ed stops. ED ... Ray? RAY Yeah. ED Oh, man, I've been trying to call you. RAY I know. ED Look, we gotta talk. RAY Save it. A GUY in a car appears and points at Ray. GUY Hey, you're that French guy on TV. RAY French guy? GUY Monsieur Bad-a-lay. The guy drives away. Ray is steaming. RAY Let me just do what I came here to do. Ed thinks he means to fight. Ed tries to calm him. ED What are we gonna fight? Ray, please, listen to me -- RAY (beckoning) Cassie... CASSIE, a woman about Ray's age, steps forward. She's slightly self-conscious. RAY (CONT'D) Go ahead. Ray points Cassie to the camera. CASSIE This is really hard. RAY You promised me. CASSIE (to the camera) I went out with Ray a few years ago for... a couple of months. And we... were intimate. And. he's really not as bad as that girl said he was. Ray nods. CASSIE (CONT'D) I mean, I've definitely had worse. RAY That's enough. Ed is amazed that Ray would do this. RAY (CONT'D) (to Ed) Good-bye, brother! ED Ray, come an-- Ray leaves, still angry. Cassie lingers. CASSIE (flirting slightly) So you're Ed. Ray returns and yanks Cassie away with him. Ed still hasn't recovered from the bizarreness he just witnessed. Two girls YELL in unison from across the street. GIRLS Ed... we love you! 95 INT. REAL TV OFFICE - NIGHT Cynthia and her staff, around a conference call box. CYNTHIA We're not going to be able to come over there for anymore midnight meetings. People are starting to watch your building. The interest level in you is soaring. INTERCUT WITH: 95A INT. ED'S BEDROOM. Ed's OFF-CAMERA ED Soaring is good, right? I mean, that means you're not gonna cancel me, right? KEITH (sotto) Man, he wants that balloon payment. ED (V.O.) Huh? TERRY Ed, why didn't you go over to see Shari today? That's what all our viewers were hoping you'd do. ED Isn't she great? I mean, maybe just to me, but... I don't know, she's just -- TERRY (impatiently) She's great, she's great. Why didn't you go see her? ED I wanted to! I was dying to! But... GREG Is it Ray? (pulls out research) The audience hates Ray. Females, 18 to 35 -- ED No, I don't need to hear that. Cynthia? CYNTHIA Yes, Ed. ED Could we just talk alone for a second? I -- CYNTHIA Good idea. (to her staff) Could you all leave us alone for a few minutes? She PANTOMIMES for them to stay in the room, but be quiet. The staff scrape chair legs and feign movement and ad lib "Bye Ed", "See you, buddy" etc. They all stay. CYNTHIA (CONT'D) How you doing, Ed? ED I feel like when I was a kid and my mother sent me to school in orange corduroy pants. CYNTHIA (no clue) Uh-huh? ED And all the kids stared calling me "Pumpkin Ass." "Hey Pumpkin Ass," -- for like a year. So, now, I feel like everyone's watching me and, you know, I'm "Pumpkin Ass" again. The staff are stifling giggles. CYNTHIA Can I tell you something? I think you are fantastic. I think you have taken an idea and turned it into something explosive. The staff stifle laughter. One of the guys is doing a jerk-off gesture. Cynthia gives them the finger. ED Yeah? CYNTHIA Can I give you one bit of advice? About Shari? ED Sure. CYNTHIA A woman wants to be pursued. 96 EXT. SUBURBAN HOME - DAY Shari, in her Fed-ex uniform is making a delivery. A WOMAN's signing for it. WOMAN This is so exciting! A real celebrity delivering my figs. SHARI (uncomfortable) Sign here, please. WOMAN That Ray was a pig. Ed is doll. You latch on to him honey. SHARI By the X. WOMAN Some more make-up wouldn't do you any harm. On TV you look a little washed out. SHARI What would I actually have to do to get you to sign this? WOMAN (insulted) Oh, an TV a minute and already an attitude. SHARI (annoyed) By the X. That's were two lines cross -- forming an X. ANGRILY, the Woman signs and slams the door. She heads back to her truck. She looks up and Ed is there with flowers. The TV cameras are there also. Shari is startled. But she's also glad to see him. SHARI What are you doing? ED I missed you. She's camera-shy. ED (CONT'D) You know, I never saw you in your uniform before. SHARI Yeah, well... They both LAUGH. ED It's really a tremendous turnoff. SHARI You should see the one we wear when it rains. ED Sunday night at the Devils game, I'm driving the Zamboni. SHARI The what? ED You know, the big machine that cleans the ice. SHARI Oh yeah. ED It's quite an honor. Will you come with me? She looks at the camera. ED (CONT'D) (gently) Look, I know this is weird. But... I don't want to wait. I really think we might have something together. Don't you? EMBARRASSED, she nods. ED (CONT'D) Come on. Be my zamboni date. She doesn't say "no." They KISS -- a little hesitantly, not passionately, but affectionately. She's still self-conscious, but she's going with the flow. 97 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE They're watching. They CHEER and high-five each other. 98 INT. SHORT MONTAGE Ed and Shari dating. She's shy, but she really likes Ed. He likes her and is very sweet to her. 1) Ed and Shari some place like "Tavern on the Green." She looks pretty. He's very happy. 2) They come out of a club. TOURISTS photograph them. Shari is a little disconcerted. Ed takes out a little camera of his own and photographs the tourists. This makes Shari laugh and relaxes her. 3) HOCKEY ARENA CLOSE-UP of Ed, driving the Zamboni. He's loving it. He WAVES to Shari. SHARI IN THE STANDS, watching. She waves and smiles. The ice, a WIDER SHOT. The Zamboni is, basically out of control. Carlos is sliding along the ice, shooting Ed as the Zamboni zig-zags dangerously, eventually crashing into the boards, shattering the Plexiglas. 99 INT. LOCAL ROCK CLUB - NIGHT It's very CROWDED. Claustrophobic. Loud. Ed and Shari enter just to see the show. They're spotted. The Crowd, which is already fired up by the music, sees them. It starts out okay, people crowding around, patting Ed on the back. A CHANT begins "Ed, Ed, Ed..." Pretty soon it drowns out the music. More people press towards Ed. It's too crowded -- dangerous. Shari is swept away from Ed. She's buffeted about, violently. She goes down. Ed can't move. The Crowd is friendly and happy, but the effect is scary. 100 EXT. ROCK CLUB - A FEW MINUTES LATER BOUNCERS squeeze Ed and Shari out the door, protecting them. Ed is unnerved. Shari is somewhat bedraggled. Her clothing is torn. 101 INT. ED'S KITCHEN - DAY Ed is ON the PHONE. INTERCUT WITH: CYNTHIA'S OFFICE Yeah?! ED They tore her dress! ... CYNTHIA We're going to get you a bodyguard, don't worry. Ed, I have some news for you. We're picking up Ed TV for another month! ED (excited) Yeah?! CYNTHIA That means a balloon payment and a big raise for the second month. ED Stand back -- I'm about to do my Happy Dance. He does. 102 INT. RESTAURANT Ed and Shari are EATING. So is a HUGE MAN sitting between them. His name is MOE. 103 INT. ROLLER RINK Ed and Shari are SKATING. Up ahead of them, Moe, (on skates) is plowing into people, knocking them over. 104 INT. PIZZA JOINT - NIGHT Ed and Shari get up to leave. They look at each other, very affectionately. They want to kiss. The cameras are close. Ed is wearing a jacket. He spreads it out wide to block Shari's face from the cameras. He leans in and they KISS on the lips, several times, while Ed's jacket screens off the cameras. They're in love. 105 INT. TV NEWS SHOW- THREE WEEKS LATER Written on the screen -- "Day 26." It's the same news team we met earlier. ANCHOR Well, welve had pet rocks, hula hoops, Davy Crockett, Beatle wigs, and leisure suits. But America's latest craze is a guy named Ed. Here with that story is entertainment reporter, Rick Douglas. ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Pat, four weeks ago, no one in America had even heard of Ed Pekurny. Today, this thirty-one year-old video store clerk has become something of a national obsession. The words viewers use to describe him are "charming," "natural," and "appealing." And ratings indicate that "Ed TV" is being watched by more people, each day, than any show in the history of cable television. CUT TO: A SHOT of Scharlach being interviewed. A CAPTION identifies him. SCHARLACH This idea just came to me. I told my staff -- if people just tune in twice a day for five minutes we're a hit. Sometimes you gotta go with your gut feeling. CUT TO: 106 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE She's watching. She's ANGRY. CYNTHIA Sure it came to you! Because I brought it to you! (raises her fist) You want a gut feeling?! How about a groin feeling?! (raises her foot) BACK TO NEWS REPORT ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Ed TV has become so popular that when Ed goes to sleep Real TV is running highlights of Ed's day all night. Some viewers have become obsessed with Ed. They wake up when Ed wakes up, they go to sleep when Ed goes to sleep, and in between they try to watch as much of him as possible. A SERIES OF MAN-IN-THE-STREET INTERVIEWS. WOMAN #1 (casually) Yeah, I watch it... More than I'd like to admit sometimes. MAN (about fifty) Never... no... YOUNGER MAN Honestly? ... I try not to go to the bathroom until Ed goes to the bathroom so I won't miss anything. A GUY in an ice cream store. ICE CREAM GUY Watch this! Like Ed. He slices a banana the way Ed does. WOMAN #2 I just kind of leave it an, you know, so it's... there. THREE TEEN-AGE GIRLS TEEN-AGER #l I don't like Shari. She's ... needy. TEEN-AGER #2 I like her. She's sweet. TEEN-AGER #1 She just rubs me the wrong way. TEEN-AGER #3 I'm so glad they got rid of Ray. He was creepy. CUT TO: YOUNG GUYS GUY #1 To me, this Shari is like nothing. GUY #2 She's not even hot. I mean Ed's a celebrity. If that was me, I'd be dating the goods. GUY #1 There's something wrong with her. She's definitely not hot. GUY #2 Not hot. Not. 107 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT She's watching this, wearing a bathrobe. Her self-esteem is being crushed. 108 INT. TV STUDIO This is an "E TV" kind of gossip show. The host -- a YOUNG WOMAN -- is showing film of Ed and Shari getting out of Ed's car. The film freeze-frames. Shari has an unflattering look on her face. GOSSIP QUEEN What's wrong with her! Everytime you look at this chick, it's like she badly needs a Tampax. Ed, you can do better. Shari watching, in horror. 109 INT. DELICATESSAN - NIGHT Ed and Shari are on a date. A WAITRESS is taking their order. Shari still seems a little self-conscious, but Ed is having a ball. ED I'11 have... (to Shari) Get this -- (to the waitress) I'11 have the "Ed." SHARI I'm stunned. A WOMAN with her young SON approach. WOMAN Mr. Pekurny. I'm sorry to bother you. My son would just love to have your autograph. ED No problema. (to the boy) You want a picture? The boy nods. ED (CONT'D) Moe. MOE, the Bodyguard, in the next booth hands Ed a glossy of Ed and a pen. Ed signs it. ED (CONT'D) Take this around the corner to Frame World, they'll give you a discount. The Woman and Child leave. ED (CONT'D) (to Shari) Oh -- Sunday is good for me to meet your folks. We get a big family audience on Sundays so it works out. SHARI (ironic) That's lucky. ED Saturday, I think we should A PHONE RINGS Ed takes a phone out of his pocket. ED (CONT'D) (plugging) Compliments of Motorola. Hello... Marcia?? (to Shari) My sister. -- What? ... What, right now? ... I'm eating, I'm on a date! ... Well, where's your boyfriend -- what's his name? Cliff .... Then, call a cab... (wearily) All right. Look, just don't start any trouble okay. Just sit there quietly 'til I get there... you're welcome. He HANGS UP. He's disgusted. 110 INT. CAR - A FEW MINUTES LATER ED This used to be a regular thing. And the worst part, is while she'd be waiting for me to come down to some bar and get her, she'd start up with some guy and say "Wait 'til my brother gets here, he'11 kick your ass." So then I walk in and there's some rhinoceros in a windbreaker who tries to shove me into a shot glass. And Marcia's drunk and screaming "Kick his ass, Ed. Kick his ass." (looks out) I think this is it. 111 INT. BAR It's not a seedy dive. Ed and Shari and the camera operators enter. A CUSTOMER approaches. CUSTOMER Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You're the guy on TV. ED What was the tip-off? The enormous camera? CUSTOMER Watch this. The guy does Ed's "Happy Dance." CUSTOMER (CONT'D) See, like you. ED Yeah. Keep up the good work. Ed brushes by him. He sees a WOMAN passed out at a table. ED (CONT'D) Oh great. He prepares to lift her. MARCIA (O.C.) Ed. He turns and sees Marcia standing there. MARCIA (CONT'D) What are you doing? ED Hm? I'm, uh... Why isn't this drunken woman you? He lets go of the woman. Her head bounces on the table. ED (CONT' D) What's going on? Why did you want me to come down here? Marcia guides them into chairs. MARCIA Cliff is here. He's performing. I wanted you to see him. For a second, Ed doesn't get it. Then. ED Oh! Oh -- okay, now I get it. It's "Star Search." You wanted me here because the camera comes with me. MARCIA Ed, he needs a break. You don't know what kind of bad luck he's had -- ED I can imagine. You said you wanted nothing to do with this. You swore to me. "Don't come near me. Don't bring this into my life..." MARCIA For God sakes, you said two words about some lousy pizza joint, the guy's a millionaire now. This could be my whole future we're talking about. (to Shari) Hi, I'm Ed's sister. SHARI (politely) I've heard so much about you. 112 INT. BAR - LATER Cliff is in the middle of his show. He's wearing a PORTABLE ORGAN. He's not great. He's a smalltime professional with a lot of pep. Marcia is beaming. Ed's cameras are shooting him. CUTS OF Cliff, singing every type of song, imaginable. This guy is desperately trying to cover all the bases -- i.e. Sinatra-type standards, something from "Lion King", "Do Ya' Think I'm Sexy," "Smokin' in the Boy's Room," "Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees," the theme from "Hawaii Five-0," a rap number, and "Ave Maria." ANGLE ON ED AND SHARI ED (sotto) I wish my stepfather was here. SHARI Why? ED He could give me some oxygen. 113 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT - LATER Ed and Shari are KISSING. CUTAWAYS TO VIEWERS TAD AND BARRY BARRY Oh boy! Here we go! Ed is passionate. JEANETTE AND AL JEANETTE (cringing) Euuw... RAY Fuming. BACK TO ED AND SHARI SHARI Um... ED What? She indicates the camera. Ed tries to allay her fears. ED (CONT'D) I told you. If we... you know do it, they go away until ... we're done. SHARI I know, but even if they go away, everybody in America knows what we're doing because... they went away. ED So? What do they think -- we're not kids -- SHARI (overlapping) I know, I ... ED (overlapping) Shari, I really like you... SHARI (overlapping) I really like you too... ED ...if this ... (the camera) ... weren't here... ? SHARI ... yeah, then, but... CUTAWAYS ED So...? SHARI Ed... I think we should stop seeing each other. The guys who said she wasn't hot. They applaud. THE DORM GIRLS They're booing Shari. A BAR A very attractive woman (JILL) and her friend. JILL That girl's an idiot. BACK TO ED AND SHARI ED What?... Why? SHARI (starting to weep) I can't take it anymore... GUYS WHO DON'T THINK SHE'S HOT They mock her, crying "Boo hoo hoo" and pretending to rub their eyes. BACK TO ED AND SHARI SHARI (crying) I have no privacy. Even now! I'm crying and I can't stop and they won't go away. And now it's going to be another month! ED Shari... SHARI Everybody hates me! ED No. Who? SHARI Look at this. She picks up a N.Y. POST. SHARI (CONT'D) Page three of the Post. ED (knows what it is) Ohh... SHARI A poll. "Is Shari Good Enough for Ed?" Seventy-one per cent said "no." (crying) They hate me! ED Who cares? I don't ca -- No. I do care. (to the camera) Shame on everybody. Shame on you! Well, just the seventy-one percent. The other... (he can't do the math) SHARI Twenty-nine. ED Exactly. Boy, you're smart. (to the camera) Why are you so mean to her? What did she do to you? (picks up newspaper) "Is she good enough for Ed?" Who the hell am I? (sarcastically) Who the hell do you think I should be dating? SHARI There's a list. ED Really? (he looks) SHARI Ed? He doesn't hear her. He's scanning the list. ED Wow... 114 INT. DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW (OR SOMETHING) Ed is a guest. DAVE I'm out here an hour a night and I feel like a dork. You're on every minute! Doesn't it just drive you nuts? ED (cheerfully) Yeah. LAUGHS. DAVE All this fame and the money you're making. Is this going to change you, do you think? ED God, I hope so. BIGGER LAUGHS. 115 INT. GREEN ROOM - LATER It's after the show. Ed is getting ready to leave. John is with him, keeping him company. A. P.A. is giving Ed a bag of gifts. (Of course, Ed is still on Ed TV.) PRODUCTION ASSISTANT You've got a ham in there and Dave's book and -- ED Hey, if it's free, it's me. (to John) You ready? JOHN Yeah. You did good. What's wrong? ED Aah, I wanted Shari to come. JOHN Oh -- so I'm just, what -- a poor substitute? He KISSES John. ED (easily) Yeah. (to the camera) Honey, if you're watching this is for you. JOHN No! Don't -- (new subject) Oh, wow. ED What? ANGLE ON JILL IN THE HALLWAY (We met her earlier in a cutaway.) She's saying good-bye to a CASTING ASSISTANT. JOHN No more calls, we have a winner. Jill looks up, sees Ed and walks right up to him JILL Hi. ED Hi. SECURITY steps forward. ED (CONT'D) It's all right. They step back. JILL I'm Jill. I really like your show. I think you're great. ED Thanks... That's ... Shari, watching this on television. JILL You must be John. JOHN I'm trying to remember. JILL (to Ed) Well, I don't want to bother you, I'm just -- I was here auditioning for a skit. You know, one of those things where Dave goes around town with models and whatever... ED Oh, yeah, I love those. Yeah... those are funny... JILL Well, it was really nice meeting you and, uh... (checks her watch) I'd better get a cab. But she doesn't leave. ED Um... They gave me a limo, uh... JILL Oh, great! Thanks. I'm just going uptown. She takes his arm and leads him out. 116 INT. HEALTH CLUB - NEXT DAY Written on the screen -- "Day 28" Two WOMEN on Stairmasters. WOMAN V11 bet he goes out with her. It's like those actors -- as soon as they get famous -- Pfft - there goes the wife. 117 EXT. COLLEGE The dorm girls. 118 INT. POKER GAME COLLEGE GIRL He'll never cheat on Shari! The game includes Tad and Barry. 119 INT. TV STUDIO BARRY You think she really likes him? TAD She doesn't give a shit about him. BARRY You know what would be great? TAD What? BARRY If Ray would steal this girl from Ed. That would be great. POKER PLAYER #2 You know what would be even better? BARRY What? POKER PLAYER #2 If you shut your hole and played cards. Goddam pineapple brothers. The same eggheads who, earlier, had no interest in Ed. Now they're all worked up. PANEL MEMBER #1 But he's not a normal person anymore. He's a celebrity. We're no longer observing anyone's "real life." PANEL MEMBER #2 (disagreeing) But that's what's interesting! The effect of celebrity on an otherwise average person. PANEL MEMBER #3 But do you really feel that Ed is an average person? I mean this guy seems to have a... magnetism, a charisma that, I think, transcends the entire concept. PANEL MEMBER #4 I agree. He's special. They all nod. 120 INT. EWS APARTMENT - DAY " DAY 34 " Ed is opening letters and packages. There are piles of them ED This is from a girl named Tawny... this goes in the nude picture pile. Thank you, Tawny. He places it in a large pile. He opens another envelope. ED (CONT'D) Let's see. Ed stares and his smile disappears. ANGLE ON THE MAIL A picture of Ed's face with his body drawn underneath it. The body is spurting blood and is mutilated. Ed stares at it. ED Well. This is creative. This goes in the psychopath pile. The DOORBELL RINGS. ED Oh, I hope that's not this guy. (indicates psycho letter) He PICKS UP a baseball bat and crosses to the door. He opens the door. A handsome man in his early sixties is there. His name is HANK. HANK Hello. ED Hi. Ed waits. HANK You don't recognize me. ED No. Am I supposed to? Hank shrugs. Ed stares at him, then begins to look a little shaken. 121 INT. EWS MOTHER'S HOUSE Jeanette is putting a jar in the refrigerator. She glances at the television. She drops the jar. It SHATTERS... 122 INT. MARCIA'S APARTMENT Marcia is with her half-Asian son ANDY. She's serving his dinner. OFF-CAMERA we HEAR Cliff SINGING and the DOG HOWLING in distress. Glancing at the television, Marcia gasps. 123 INT. RAY'S APARTMENT Ray is TYPING on a word processor. He stares curiously at the television. 124 INT. ED'S APARTMENT Ed is staring at Hank doubtfully. HANK It's me, Hank -- your father. RAPID CUTS of VIEWERS, excited. Many of them reach for the phone. 125 INT. REAL TV OFFICE The Real TV staff react. Cynthia looks over-- stunned. ALICE (to Cynthia) Did you do this? Did you find him and get him to-- CYNTHIA No way... Oh, this just keeps getting better. 126 INT. AL AND JEANETTE'S HOUSE - DAY Written on the screen -- "Day 35" Ed and his mother are arguing. Al is sucking oxygen and has a pile of "People" magazines with Ed on the cover. A REPAIRMAN is fixing the refrigerator. All their food is out and melting. Jeanette is trying to preserve food in an ice chest while she argues with Ed. JEANETTE I can't believe you're taking his side. ED I'm not! I'm just trying to get some facts. AL (to Ed) Sign this one to Nancy. She's the nurse who handles my urine. Ed signs. JEANETTE I told you the facts! He abandoned us -- those are the facts. ED So everything he told me yesterday was a lie. Everything. Al takes a loud breath. JEANTETTE Yes! ... practically ED What do you mean practically? Did he really run away or did you throw him out like he says. REPAIRMAN I need to replace the coil. JEANETTE (to Ed) He ran away after I threw him out. (to repairman) How much is a new coil? REPAIRMAN A hundred and fifty bucks. ED So he was telling the truth you threw him out. REPAIRMAN Should I go ahead? JEANETTE Yes. ED Yes to me or yes to the coil? JEANETTE Both. ED Holy sh-- AL This one to Dr. Bamajian. Maybe he won't make me wait an hour. Ed signs. JEANETTE He had girlfriends! ED He says -- JEANETTE I don't care what he says. Look, I don't need to relive this. On television! AL Whatever happened to Norman Rockwell? ED Who? AL Norman Rockwell. He painted magazine covers. Folksy. A mailman, a boy scout, a kid visiting a doctor... ED Yeah, so... ? AL They celebrated the common person. ED Well, I don't think you can get more common than me, Al. AL No. Only celebrities now. Now, if you put a mailman on the cover of a magazine he'd better have killed someone or no one will buy it. This one to Dr. Rumpley. Jeanette storms back in. JEANETTE All right -- do you want to know the truth? I took you and Marcia and Ray to my sister's on the train for the weekend and you all got chicken pox. So I took you home a day early and there was your father with a woman in our bed. Okay? ED Chicken pox? I was six. He didn't leave 'til I was twelve. JEANETTE He... apologized, he begged me. He can be very... charming when it suits his purpose. ED But what was that whole story about him and a nurse? JEANETTE She could've been a nurse. ED Could've been a nurse? JEANETTE She had white shoes. ED So does Grandma. So does Shaquille O'Neal. You told me you had a hysterectomy and he ran off with your nurse. JEANETTE What's the difference? ED The difference is for twenty years I thought one thing and now it's another thing. Ed nods. JEANETTE He was no good. Do you remember how he used to scream at me? You used to cover your ears with dinner rolls. JEANETTE (CONT'D) Also, no job was ever good enough for him. "Small potatoes, small potatoes." Al, you remember -- Al breathes loudly. ED Wait a minute. I thought you didn't know Al, 'til after Dad left. Pause. Even the repairman pokes his head out of the refrigerator. ED (CONT' D) Oh my God. You and Al were - and that's why you threw him out. JEANETTE He had a woman in my own bed! And how dare you call him "Dad" in front of Al. (shakes Al by the shoulder) This is your father. This is who was there for you when you needed someone. AL Jeanette, you're hurting me. ED (on the defensive) I'm not -- I didn't -- Al, you know how I feel about you... Al breathes loudly. ED (CONT'D) (uncomfortably) If I don't call you "Dad" it' just because... 1 was already a big boy when you came into our lives -- (pointedly to his mother) or when I thought you came into our lives -- JEANETTE And what did he come back now for? ED Who? JEANETTE Hank! All of a sudden. Because now you're famous and he can get something from you. I don't wan you to become a victim like Marcia. (to the TV) Not that you're a victim, honey. You're not. Life's just been a little hard on you, sweetie. ED (to Al) What do you think. I mean about... him. Should I just... have nothing to do with him? I mean... AL (to Ed) Have I ever said a bad word to you about your father? ED No. AL Well, now I will. He was a crazy mean, son-of-a-bitch. Al starts to wheel himself out. Ed looks weary. AL (CONT'D) But he was your father. 127 INT. ED'S BEDROOM - NIGHT He's asleep. 128 INT. CONTROL TRUCK They're monitoring him. They see Ed WAKE UP. They stir. Sleepy, and scratching his ass, he goes into the bathroom. 129 INT. BATHROOM Ed shuts the door. He takes his PORTABLE PHONE OUT of a bathroom drawer. (He stashed it there.) He makes a call and waits. ED (whispering) Hi... it's me, Ed. It's been two days, I want to see you... No, I won't let them follow me, I'11 sneak out... No it's not allowed, but I'm going for it... I'm on my way. He takes CLOTHING OUT of the bathroom hamper. until he finds something acceptable. 130 INT. CONTROL TRUCK They're monitoring the empty bed. 131 INT. BATHROOM Ed is dressed. He CLIMBS OUT his bathroom window. 132 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT - LATER Shari opens her front door. ED Hi. She looks down the hallway. ED (CONT'D) They're not here. He goes in, grabs her and kisses her passionately. SHARI I tried to tell you over the phone -- my parents went to Atlantic City. ED So? SHARI So my little brother's staying here. I'm sleeping with Rita. ED Oh Je -- couldn't he sleep with Rita? We'11 all have a good time. SHARI I'm sorry. ED Come on, let's go. SHARI Where? ED Somewhere. 133 INT. ED'S CAR - A FEW MINUTES LATER They get in. They look at each other. ED Do you want to go to a motel? SHARI I feel like a criminal or, like we're cheating on someone. ED (nicely) Just... just relax. Okay? We won't do anything. We'11 just sit here for a while. SHARI Okay. ED Come on... Gently he puts his arm around her. At first, she hesitates, but then curls up against him and relaxes. ED (CONT'D) I need to talk. SHARI Are you all right? ED She lied to me. I mean all my life, she's telling me one story and then... it turns out to be a completely different story. Come to me at some point -- tell me the truth. No. Not in my house. The truth is a stranger. And this is why Ray and Marcia are the way they are. Marcia gets involved with all these losers and sees no problem with herself - "How do they find me" she says. Ray cheats on you and then blames me for it. I'm the only one in the family who takes any responsibility for himself... Oh, man... Are you all right? SHARI (hesitantly) Yeah... I saw that girl come on to you at the TV show. ED Oh that was... no, I ... she just kind of trapped me into giving her a ride. It's you. I want you. SHARI ...yeah? He TOUCHES her. They KISS. Then again. Their hands are roaming. They're hot. They're breathing hard. He's unbuttoning her blouse. Their hands are all over each other. Her blouse comes off. LIGHTS GO ON. They see cameras, shooting at them. Shari SCREAMS and covers her breasts. 134 INT. TV - DAY ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Good morning. Welcome to another day of Ed TV. Last night, while most of us were asleep ... this happened. 135 INT. FRAT HOUSE - MORNING FOUR GUYS in a disgustingly messy room, watching the replay of Ed and Shari. FRAT GUYS Yes!! They GYRATE LEWDLY. 136 EXT. STREET - DAY Shari is working. Ed is following her around. Shari is ANGRY. The cameras are there. SHARI Get them away from me. She takes PACKAGES OUT OF the TRUCK and THROWS them at the cameramen. ED It's not their fault. SHARI No. It's your fault. She throws a package at him. ED What do you want me to do? You want me to quit the show?! SHARI No... Could you? ED No. If I quit I don't get the balloon payment. SHARI The what? ED Ray borrowed this whole tub of money against this balloon payment that I don't get if I qu -- it's too complicated. I -- Besides... SHARI What? Pause. ED You see how people look at me. Like when they ask for my autograph or say "Hi" to me... It's like I'm a basketball player or a... you know, like I'm someone. SHARI Everybody's someone. ED Well, yeah, everybody's someone. But I mean someone they want to be. I mean let's face it, I'm working in the video store, no one's coming in saying "oh, I wish I was that guy. 1 wish was rewinding that huge pile of tapes." At least for a month I'm not just a guy with a name tag. I'm famous. A GUY YELLS from across the street. GUY Shari! Nice nipples. ED And so are you. GUYS keep YELLING "Shari!" She tries to go after them. Ed holds her back. SHARI I don't want to be famous for getting caught with my shirt off. If I'm going to be famous -- The camera is right in her face. She grabs it. SHARI (CONT'D) (to the camera person) This is going right up your ass. ED Come on. He returns the camera. Shari starts for her truck. SHARI Look... maybe we just better put us on hold until this is over. She gets in her truck. ED Come on! Loosen up. (trying to joke) See -- this is why seventy-one per cent of the people don't like you. She SLAMS the TRUCK DOOR. ED (CONT'D) It was a joke! A... vicious, thoughtless stupid joke. He bangs himself in the head. She drives away. He BOWS. ED (CONT'D) (to the camera) And that, for you kids out there, is how you screw up a relationship. 137 INT. ED'S APARTMENT Ed enters. He's worn out. He plops down, and puts on the TV. ED (to the camera) I'm gonna watch anything but me. Ed is flipping stations. Something makes him stop. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Coming in two weeks to the Lifestyle Channel -- Joma. His Dad's a cop, his brother's a bouncer in a topless bar, his sister is a black-belt social worker -- and Joma's living with two gals. ANGLE ON THE TV We see JOMA. He has a lot of charisma. He seems a little dangerous, but in an exciting way. JOMA Hey, Ed! I'm coming to get you, man! I'm gonna eat you right up! (makes gobbling-up noises) ANGLE ON ED Watching. He's stunned. 138 INT. NETWORK CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY They're watching a tape of Ed TV. Ed has just entered his own apartment. A WOMAN is there, sitting on his sofa. She's caressing Ed's undershorts against her cheek. Ed is highly agitated. ED How did you get into my apartment?! The BODYGUARD is pulling her out. REVEAL that Scharlach, McIlvaine, Seaver, Cynthia and Greg are all watching. McILVAINE What is she holding? GREG (calmly) A pair of Ed's underwear. McILVAINE Oh my God! ON the TAPE, the woman while being forcibly evicted, offers the underwear to Ed. Ed recoils. ED No -- keep it. WOMAN I love you! 1 want to marry you! She's hauled out. They stop the tape. SCHARLACH See -- that's television! This other thing, this Jama, that has "stink" written all over it. GREG The break-up with Shari was very big. Big ratings. SEAVER Only, Cynthia, seriously. Tell Ed not to sneak out anymore. SCHARLACH Cynthia ... He wants it accomplished. 139 EXT. STREET - DAY SEAVER (CONT'D) It's in violation of his contract and if we wanted to be hard-nosed about it, he could forfeit all pay, including money he's already received. CYNTHIA (dutifully, but a tad resentfully) I will see that he's properly threatened. SCHARLACH Now what? What's on the young man's agenda? We don't want to see him sitting around like a lovesick puppy. GREG Young males do not want to see Ed get back with Shari. SCHARLACH (impatiently) Enough with her. That sailed. McILVAINE Could Ed live with two girls? GREG You know who the audience is requesting a lot? That girl, Jill, that Ed met at the Letterman show. She really scored. SCHARLACH Cynthia... He wants it accomplished. 139 EXT. STREET - DAY Ed is walking from his car to a building. CROWDS are behind barricades. They YELL at Ed as he passes. Ed is used to this. 140 INT. SHARI'S BUILDING - DAY Rita OPENS the door and sees Ed. RITA (nervously) Oh. Ed. ED Hi. Is Shari here? RITA No. ED What is she, at work? RITA She left. ED Well, when will she be back? RITA She won't. ED What are you talking about? RITA She left. She moved. She got Fed-Ex to give her a transfer and she left. She couldn't stand it anymore. We had people, news people, regular people, just sleeping in our hallway, going through our mail, our garbage. I mean it was she couldn't take it anymore. Now I've got to move. I can't afford this place by myself. ED I'm sorry. Where'd they send her? RITA She wouldn't tell me. 141 INT. ED'S BEDROOM - NIGHT He's off the air. He's a little down. He's ON the PHONE- INTERCUT WITH: 142 INT. CYNTHIA'S BEDROOM She's working out an a contraption. ED Remember when you were interviewing me? (details to follow) 143 EXT. PARK - DAY CYNTHIA Yeah. ED You asked me if I had a dream. I said "Sure, I have a dream. I just don't know what it is yet." CYNTHIA Great line. ED What if Shari's the dream? CYNTHIA Ed, do you want my advice? ED Yeah, that's why I called. I mean, maybe Fed-Ex would tell me where she moved -- CYNTHIA Leave her be. ED You said a woman likes to be pursued. CYNTHIA Pursued, not harassed. Give it some space. Can I tell you something -- as a friend? My sister was going with a guy they hit a little rough spot they started seeing other people they got back together and last month they had their third child For what it's worth. OPEN ON ANDY, Ed's half-Asian nephew. He's eight. He's wearing a baseball glove. ANDY Throw me a high one, Uncle Eddie. ED (O.C.) Okay. REVEAL ED, also wearing a baseball glove. He throws a high pop up to Andy. Andy staggers around and almost catches it. ED Oh!! JILL (0.C.) We have to stop meeting like this. ED Hm? REVEAL JILL, walking a DOG. it takes just a second to recognize her. ED (CONT'D) Oh, hi. Ed is hit with the ball. ANDY Sorry. REVEAL the Real TV Staff watching this on television in their office. As Ed and Jill chat in the background. ALICE (to Cynthia) Did you arrange this? CYNTHIA (points to the TV) Whose dog is that? ALICE (surprised) That's your dog. Cynthia doesn't even smile. MONTAGE INTERSPERSED IN THE MONTAGE ARE SHOTS OF PEOPLE WATCHING THEM ON TV 1. Ed and Jill going into a chic club -- ushered in immediately. Here, as in the other times we see her, Jill is comfortable with the situation. She's the opposite of Shari. She poses willingly. She chats easily with paparazzi. She clings to Ed. There's nothing overt or obnoxious about her. She's just comfortable and good at it and always looks great. 2. INTERVIEW with the guys who didn't like Shari. GUY #1 Way to go, Ed! GUY # 2 Now, we're talking! 3. A N.Y. Post story: "Readers Pick Jill over Shari." Pictures of both women. Jill looks great. Shari is in her uniform and looks like a mouse. 4. SHARI In a new apartment. Watching Ed and Jill on TV. She's very unhappy. She turns it off. 5. Ed and Jill at the nice restaurant he was at with Shari earlier. It looks like he's starting to like her. 6. Ed is refereeing a pro-wrestling match. He counts out the villain who, then, jumps up and chases him out of the ring. 144 INT. JILL'S APARTMENT - NIGHT "DAY 47" Ed and Jill are in a HEAVY LIPLOCK. Carlos is right there with the camera. Unlike Shari, Jill seems unself-conscious. She's getting Ed pretty turned-on. SHOTS of VIEWERS, also turned on, especially the men. JILL You want to? It's clear what she means. Ed is conflicted. He's clearly aroused. ED Um... It's kind of ... He looks for his watch on the wrong wrist, then seems to check all around his body until he discovers it. JILL Are you busy tomorrow night? ED No. JILL Why don't you come over. And I'11 make dinner. And you bring a movie. And ... We'11 make a night of it ... okay? ED (nervously) Sure. 145 EXT. STREET - DAY Written on the screen -- "Day 48" Ed is walking, the camera following. He looks tense. People SHOUT "Hey, Ed" "Ed-die" etc. ANGLE ON A NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINE The New York Post front page -- "Is tonight the Night?" with a picture of Ed and Jill kissing. ANGLE ON ED ED Oh man... CON ED GUY Hey, Eddie. Ed looks up. CON ED GUY (CONT'D) (giving the "thumbs up") Go for it! Ed continues down the street. People YELL to him "Good luck tonight," "We're rooting for you" etc. A STREET CHARACTER walks alongside for a minute. STREET CHARACTER Hey, man. This is Haitian Love Juice. (he produces a vial) You give her this, she be yours. Security grabs him and the vial falls and breaks. The liquid hits the pavement and smokes up. ED (looking at the smoke) Jesus! More shouts "Be gentle", "We'11 be watching", "Use a condom" etc. A SCHOOL BUS passes. The KIDS YELL out the window to Ed. KIDS (in unison) Good luck! 146 EXT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT There is no line. At TICKET TAKER sits, bored. No one is going in or coming out. 147 EXT. STREET It's deserted. 148 EXT. RESTAURANT It's empty. The HEADWAITER stands in the doorway with nothing to do. 149 INT. LIVING ROOM A PARTY is in progress. The TV is on. On TV Ed is in a liquor store, buying a bottle of wine. Ed is dressed for his date. The people at the party are watching TV and commenting. It's like a Super bowl party. VOICE (O.C.) What's he doing? PARTYGOER He's buying wine! 150 INT. BEDROOM Several high-school age BOYS. They have made themselves look like Ed. They're very excited. TEEN-AGE BOY #1 You think he's gonna do it? TEEN-AGE BOY #2 Hell yeah. The guy hasn't had any sex in six weeks. TEEN-AGE BOY #3 Neither have we. 151 EXT. STREET Ed's car turns the corner and he sees a CROWD gathered around Jill's building. 152 EXT. BUILDING ED (understating) I'm starting to feel a little pressure. Ed carrying his wine enters to APPLAUSE and CHEERS. 153 EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET A LONG SHOT encompasses all the houses on the block. Their living room TV's are visible. All but one are tuned to Ed. 154 INT. JILL'S KITCHEN Something is cooking. Jill picks up a plate of something - dip and cut vegetables for instance. She starts to exit the kitchen as Ed and Carlos enter. Ed and Jill have a soft collision. JILL Oh. ED Can I help with anything? JILL No. It's going to be about a half-hour. ED What is? Oh, dinner! SELF-CONSCIOUSLY. He takes a vegetable, dips it and eats it. ED (CONT'D) Mm. JILL Good? ED Mm. They look at each other. Jill leans forward and kisses him. She puts the tray of vegetables on the counter. They continue to kiss. 155 INT. BEDROOM The high school boys are CHANTING. 156 INT. DORM ROOM BOYS Ed -- Ed -- Ed -- Ed... COLLEGE GIRLS (same ones as before). COLLEGE GIRL #1 Oh, I hope she makes love to him! COLLEGE GIRL #2 I thought you didn't like her. COLLEGE GIRL #1 I don't, but I want him to be happy- RAPID SHOTS of other VIEWERS, watching, transfixed -- 157 INT. JILL'S APARTMENT Ed and Jill are making out. They begin taking each other's clothes off. They're passing the point of no return. It's going to happen right there in the kitchen. Ed and Jill, in heavy heat, back up to the kitchen table and climb on to it. They continue to pull at their own and each, other's clothing. They're making passionate noises. 158 INT. SHARI'S APARTMENT Shari is not watching television. She's eating a little meal she's made for herself. She HEARS PEOPLE in her building cheering and whooping. She looks miserable. 159 INT. CONTROL TRUCK DIRECTOR (slightly panicky) Someone say the word, how far can we go here? 160 INT. REAL TV OFFICE Cynthia and her staff are watching. Cynthia is ON THE PHONE- CYNTHIA (into phone) Stay with them ... don't leave yet... not yet ... Jill is on top of Ed. Carried away with passion, Ed attempts to roll her over and get on top. He does, but rolls too far. He crashes off the table, to the floor, face up. ED (in pain) Ohhh... JILL Ed? ED Ohh... do you own a cat? JILL Yeah. Why? He looks at her apologetically. 161 EXT. JILL'S BUILDING Ed is being loaded into an AMBULANCE. He looks humiliated. PEOPLE in the street are applauding politely as if Ed were an injured ballplayer being carried off the field. Jill is by the ambulance. She's PETTING a CAT who looks all right. PHOTOGRAPHERS are taking her picture. She's posing willingly. The ambulance drives off as Jill continues to pose. 162 INT. TV STUDIO Written on the screen -- "Day 49" The taping of "The Tonight Show" or "the Late Show" -- once again, whichever we have a prayer of getting. The MONOLOGUE is in progress. JAY (OR DAVE) (mock annoyed) So I guess you were all watching Ed last night. The AUDIENCE goes wild. JAY (CONT'D) This got the highest rating of the year, since the Super Bowl. I guess that makes sense. After all, Ed is now the Buffalo Bills of sex. BIG LAUGHS 163 INT. RESTAURANT - DAY Scharlach EATING. He's stunned. SCHARLACH What?! REVEAL CYNTHIA CYNTHIA Take him off the air. SCHARLACH What are you talking about? He's fine. He's out of the hospital already. The ratings are higher than ever. CYNTHIA I'm telling you, it's peaked. Ed TV is an over-inflated balloon. Get it off before it explodes all over us. He thinks. SCHARLACH With all due respect, Cynthia you're nuts. I'm giving him another month! CYNTHIA (coldly) Good luck. 164 EXT. STREET - DAY "DAY 54" Ed is walking. He's wearing a white, Velcro support around his waist. He's agitated. He's carrying a copy of the New York Post. ED Look at this! WE SEE a headline -- "Ed: She Broke My heart." ED She did not! (venting) You know what she did? ED (CONT'D) She went out to California and got one of those scandal agents. One of those agents who handle, like... Gennifer Flowers and... Kato Kaelin and Joey Buttafuco. That's what she -- A GUY YELLS AT ED GUY Hey Ed! ... She was a little too much for you, huh? Must run in the family. ED (angry) Oh -- like this guy's ever been with a woman. (yells) How about I kick your ass 'til the crack goes the other way? (to the camera) All of a sudden, I'm like fair game for everyone. I'm like -- He stops and looks like he's in shock. He stares in through the display window of a bookstore. ANGLE ON, a big DISPLAY of cheap, rushed-out, exploitation books. On the cover we read "My Brother Pissed On Me By Raymond L. Pekurny.11 And there's an old photo of two little boys. (Ed and Ray) ED Oh my -- He wrote a book?! Ray wrote a book?! He never read a book! 165 INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT "DAY 58" It's the hallway of a cheap hotel. Ed and the camera come off the elevator. Ed looks at room numbers. He can HEAR the noise from all the rooms. A radio -- a domestic disturbance -- a baby crying -- it's a horror. He KNOCKS ON a door. HANK (O.C.) Who is it? ED It's Ed. The door opens REVEALING Ed's father. HANK Ed! Come in - They enter. 166 INT. HOTEL ROOM It's depressing. There's a liquor bottle on the dresser. Ed sees it. HANK (CONT'D) How've you been? Ed SHRUGS. HANK (CONT'D) They don't get cable here, so 1 can't watch you. Ed just GRUNTS. Hank takes LAUNDRY off a chair. HANK (CONT'D) Sit down. He does. He looks around. HANK (CONT'D) Quite a shithole, isn't it? ED It could be, if you fixed it up. How did you... ? I mean how does anyone ... wind up like this? HANK I was in jail. ED The whole time? Eighteen years? HANK No. Two times. ED What... HANK Check forging. ED Oh, man! So... HANK The last two years, I've been a limousine driver, but I don't see well anymore, so... ED So you saw me on TV and you said "Hey, let me jump on this." HANK I need help. How many times if just one little thing that I needed would've happened, it would've changed everything. If I had a few dollars when an opportunity came along or... the tumblers just never clicked for me. Ed doesn't know what to say. He's bitter towards Hank, but there's also some empathy. ED (to the camera) All right... This is my father, I don't know what the hell he can do, but if anyone out there can help him -- get him a job - I'11 ... help you. I'11 ... mention your business or ... I don't know, we'11 figure it out. (quickly, to Hank) I gotta go. HANK Ed... I'm sorry. ED (still bitter) Yeah? That's good. Sorry is good. You know I finished that model. HANK What... ED The pirate ship. Hank looks blankly at him. ED (CONT'D) -- That we were doing "together." I finished it. It came out great! Because no one was standing over my shoulder bothering me - "That's too much glue. You're using too much glue." HANK Do you still have it? ED No. Ray sat on it. I'11 see you. He exits. Out in the hallway, he leans back against the door, drained. The camera is right on him, soaking it up. 167 INT. TV STUDIO The same PBS-type panel of smart-looking people we met earlier. WE OPEN ON about half the panel. MODERATOR Let's hear from our guest panelist. You've expressed some interesting thoughts on this, subject. What do you see as the meaning, if there is any, of Ed TV, John. REVEAL JOHN, sitting comfortably on the panel, looking very wise. JOHN I feel that Ed is the apotheosis of a prevailing American syndrome. It used to be that someone became famous because they were special. Now people are considered special just for being famous. Fame, itself, is now a moral good in this country. It's its own virtue. The others NOD appreciatively as John puts a PIPE in his mouth. TV INTERVIEWS OLD GUY I was Ed's Little League coach. He had no coordination. The big game, he struck cut with the bases loaded. Then he cried like a woman. It was sickening. CUT TO: OLD WOMAN I was his third grade teacher. I said "Take him for tests. There's something wrong with him." They didn't listen. CUT TO: ANOTHER GUY He used to steal things from my store. At least I think it was him. Yeah, it was probably him. 168 EXT. ED'S APARTMENT - DAY A MAN, on the sidewalk, has a STUFFED CAT stuck to his back to tease Ed. CAT MAN Hey, look, I just fell off a table! Suddenly, a TUBFUL OF WATER crashes down on him. 169 INT. ED'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Ed at the window, with a now empty plastic tub. ED (yelling down) Okay, is that funny? Then he throws the tub out the window. ED (CONT'D) (to the camera) How was that? Was that funny?! 170 INT. NETWORK OFFICE "DAY 78" Again, everyone there, including Cynthia. A Honcho is reading a report. HONCHO #1 Of more concern than the sag in Ed's ratings is what viewers are feeling about him now. The positives are down and the negatives are up. There's a feeling that Ed isn't cool anymore. We're starting to see a big L.F. GREG Hm? HONCHO #1 L.F. Loser Factor. HONCHO #2 That's deadly. McILVAINE Not necessarily. I mean instead of running from the L.F., run with it. Create more moments like the table thing. We can package a video "Ed's Goofiest Moments." Let him be America's Goofball. CYNTHIA Isn't this getting kind of pathetic. I mean we drank the juice, now we're just licking peel. Let it go! SCHARLACH Cynthia, I think you're laboring under a misconception. You seem to believe that because you happened to predict this, we should be impressed. We're not. Anybody in any business can predict failure. 1 need people who prevent failure. I want to see this thing turned back in the right direction. Remember this was your baby. 171 INT. BAR - NIGHT "DAY 94" Tad and Barry -- as we met them, originally -- are watching TV. They're really enjoying it -- laughing, pounding the table. TAD I don't know, I still love this guy. BARRY Yeah only I wish they had the sister on more. TAD Ooh, the sister! She is hot. BARRY You know it. REVEAL that they are watching Joma. On the TV -- Joma is eating dinner in his apartment with TWO attractive WOMEN, who, apparently, both live there. Joma is upset (but he's funny when he's upset). What's upsetting him is that across the alley, in a window of another building, he can plainly see an OVERWEIGHT MAN, with his shirt off, exercising. The overweight man is apparently watching an exercise video and is bouncing up and down in place causing everything to jiggle unpleasantly. JOMA'S FRIEND Ignore him. JOMA I can't! It's like a mudslide. (screams out the window) Put on a shirt! ANGLE ON TAD AND BARRY, HYSTERICAL ANGLE ON TV JOMA (CONT'D) (yelling) I support the fact that your exercising but, for the love of God, put on a shirt. JOMA'S FRIEND (to Joma) Shut the curtains. JOMA No! Let him shut the curtains. TAD AND BARRY Laughing and wiping their eyes. 172 INT. ED'S BEDROOM Off the air. Ed ON the PHONE. INTERCUT WITH CYNTHIA ED This Joma is so phoney! I mean, those things aren't really happening. I think they have writers making that stuff up for him. Hey, couldn't we do that? Hire some writers and have them write up some crazy situations I could get into? She's listening, amazed. CYNTHIA Ed, everything goes off. "Cheers" went off. "Mash" went off -- ED (getting angry) Yeah, but when they went off people weren't making fun of them. They weren't bozos! I'm Pumpkin Ass again! CYNTHIA (getting annoyed) Ed -- ED You know, everything you asked me to do I did. I call you for advice about Shari you say - (mocking imitation) "Leave her be, see other people for a while." You just wanted me to get involved with Jill because it made for a better show. CYNTHIA Ed -- ED No. You screwed up my life just so you could get higher ratings. You never gave a shit about me. CYNTHIA Yeah? Well I'm not starting now. She HANGS UP and has an acid reflux. 173 INT. POOL HALL - NIGHT Ed and John are playing. JOHN Look, you put anybody on TV sixteen hours a day, at some point they're going to wind up rolling off a table on to a cat. I mean with no privacy, there's no... dignity. Ed thinks. Pause. ED You know about that fireman who rescued that little girl? JOHN When? Today? ED No! Like, ten years ago. In Texas. Baby... (tries to remember) Jessica! JOHN Oh right, right! She fell down, like a... ED Yeah, a thing. He became a big hero. He was on TV and there was a parade and a movie about him JOHN Right, right... ED And then, uh... you know it blew over and he went back to being a fireman again. JOHN (cheerfully) Right. ED So he killed himself. JOHN (a little shaken) Oh. SILENCE. The cell phone RINGS. Ed PICKS UP the phone. ED Hello. INTERCUT WITH JEANETTE IN A HOSPITAL She's crying. JEANETTE Eddie... ED Mom? JEANETTE I'm at the hospital. ED What's the matter?! JEANETTE He's dead! Eddie, he's dead! It was his heart. ED Oh God. What hospital? JEANETTE St. Joseph's. ED I'm coming right over. I'll be right there. He hangs up. 174 INT. TAD'S HOUSE Tad is watching TV and talking an the phone. TAD I told you! I told you he was gonna die! 175 INT. HOSPITAL - AN HOUR LATER Ed rushes in. He goes up to the desk. Carlos is with him. ED Hi. I'm looking for my mother. Her name is -- A DOCTOR spots him. DR. GELLER Mr. Pekurny. ED Yes? DR. GELLER I'm Dr. Geller. Your mother is just lying down for a few minutes. we gave her something to calm her down. ED Thank you. Can I see her? DR. GELLER Just wait here. She's coming right back out. ED Mm... (wearily) Oh, man... DR. GELLER (sympathetically) ED What about him -- did he suffer any or was it quick? I'd hate to think he... DR. GELLER Very quick. Between you and me, it's not a bad way to go. Making love to your wife... it's very sweet. ED Really? They were.. DR. GELLER (nods) According to your mother. When the paramedics got to the hotel, she told them that -- ED Hotel? What were they doing in a hotel? DR. GELLER I ... don't know. I ... VOICE (O.C.) Eddie. Thank God you're here. Eddie looks across the room and sees Al in his wheelchair, just entering from outside. He wheels towards Ed. AL How's your mother? ED (shocked) Al! AL Our neighbors gave me a ride. ED Al!! AL Where is she? Is she all right? Ed turns to the doctor. ED I thought -- I thought he was dead. DR. GELLER Who? ED Al! DR. GELLER No. (reads his chart) The deceased is ... Henry Pekurny. 176 INT. TAD'S HOUSE TAD (stunned) Good twist! 177 INT. HOSPITAL AL You thought it was me? ED Yes! AL It's your father. Hank. Your mother went to see him and he had a heart attack. ED Went -- Again, Ed turns to the doctor. NURSE Dr. Geller, Dr. Stack wants to see you. DR. GELLER (to Ed) Excuse me. NURSE (to Ed) Could I get your autograph for my niece? ED (distracted) Um... yeah... Jeanette enters. JEANETTE Al! How did you -- AL The Burkharts drove me. Are you all right? JEANETTE (nervously) I'm fine. I ... AL Good. I gotta pee. He wheels off. Jeanette and Ed are left alone. ED (loud whisper) What happened? JEANETTE It was horrible. He called me up. ED Who? JEANETTE Hank! He said he wanted to talk to me to apologize for everything he begged -- he cried. So I went to this horrible hotel he was staying in... I felt so sorry for him -- ED So you had sex with him? Jeanette GASPS. JEANETTE What? ED The doctor said you were having sex. JEANETTE (horrified) To you? In front of him? (indicates Carlos) With the... ED Yes. He assumed Hank was your husband. He didn't know. JEANETTE Oh my god! On TV! ED Why? How... JEANETTE One thing led to another. He was my husband once. ED But Al is your husband now! JEANETTE Do you think it's been easy for me? It's been years. Al can't have sex. ED Apparently, neither can Hank. What the hell did you do to him? Al comes rolling back, SINGING. AL "Lovely Rita, the Meter Maid... 178 INT. TV STUDIO JEANETTE (whispers) Don't tell Al. He doesn't know. ED (points to the camera) Well, he's the only one in America who doesn't! OPRAH or RICKI or GERALDO or someone. OPRAH Women who remarry but have sex with their first husbands. on today's Oprah. 179 INT. TV STUDIO Our same panel of pundits. PANELIST #3 Ed's family is the tip of the iceberg. You watch the daytime tabloid shows it's the same thing. I'm telling you, America is fast becoming a trailer park. PANELIST #2 Let's not overstate the case. There are millions of hard- working, sensible, moral, educated people in this country. Not every family is like Ed's. REVEAL ED watching this discussion on TV. 180 INT. TV STUDIO DAVE OR JAY A CHART is set up with little pictures. DAVE/JAY So let's recap. The mother's too good at it, both brothers stink at it. (there's a drawing of a figure falling of a table) The stepfather can't do it at all and the father did it but it killed him. (there's a drawing of a tombstone) How did this family ever reproduce in the first place? 181 EXT. CEMETERY GATES - DAY Ed is driving Jeanette and Al to the funeral. A CROWD is held back by POLICE. Someone yells "Adulterer". Someone else tries to offer Ed a lunchbox. Someone else is carrying a sign "What a Way to Go". 182 EXT. CEMETERY - DAY Hank's COFFIN is being carried to his gravesite. Ed, Ray and Marcia are pall bearers. One of the others pall bearers is Ed's BODYGUARD. The OTHERS TWO are two guys who work for the mortuary. Carlos is shooting. ED (to Ray) You're not going to talk to me? You're not even gonna say hello? RAY I have nothing to say to you. Ed gives up. He turns to Marcia. ED How are you doing? Is Cliff here? She doesn't answer. Ed reacts. RAY Cliff left her, thanks to you. ED Me?! RAY That's right. You put Cliff on television. So then he decided he was too good for her and he left. ED I put his -- who -- (to Marcia) Look, Marsh, he's not that good a singer, he'll be back. MARCIA (too loudly) That's not funny!! Ed CRINGES. 183 EXT. GRAVESITE - A LITTLE LATER The service ends. The small group begins to walk away. Ray and Marcia go off together, ignoring Ed. Jeanette is attempting to wheel Al away from the grave, but she's hitting ruts. Ed approaches. ED I'11 take it. JEANTTE (to Al, uncomfortably) Sweetheart, I'm gonna go ahead and sign all the papers. AL Right. She touches him but he pulls away. Ed wheels Al. ED Are things gonna be okay with you and Mom? Is there anything I can -- AL I'm moving out. ED What?! AL I'm going to be living with my brother. He's not in such good shape as I am, but... I'm looking forward to the pillow fights. ED (really upset) Oh, Al ... This is just... AL Hank was always good with the ladies. Always good-looking. Hell, he's been dead for two days, he still looks better than me. He stops wheeling and crouches down next to Al. ED I want to tell you something... I love you. You're my father. Pause. AL I love you, too. Al KISSES him. AL (CONT'D) I'11 build a pirate ship with you. Ed wheels him away. 184 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE She's watching. She's genuinely moved. She wipes her eyes. 185 INT. BAR - NIGHT This place is sleazy. Ed enters, worn out. He crosses to the bar where we find, Jeanette nursing a drink. She's not drunk, but she is wallowing. ED Hi, Ma. JEANETTE (startled) Ed! How did you know I was here? ED You're famous. Somebody called me. What are you doing in a place like this? JEANETTE Why shouldn't I be in a place like this? I'm a whore! ED (cringes) Ma... JEANETTE I'm a tramp (pulls on the sleeve of the man next to her) Meet your new father. The whole nation is laughing at us! ED And how is this helping? come on say, good-night to all your new friends and let's go home. JEANETTE (exiting) I'm a whore! (yells at an employee) Your bathrooms are filthy! They're out. 186 EXT. BAR - CONTINUOUS Ed is helping Jeanette. Ray arrives. He's ANGRY. RAY I'11 take her. You humiliated our mother on national television. You've single- handedly destroyed this family. ED I -- Oh, but that book you wrote was a real love-letter. That... toilet paper with covers. BYSTANDER #1 That book sucked. I want my money back. ED Oh great. Where's Moe? He looks around. Moe is gone. RAY Come on, Ma. ED (to Ray) Let's remember how I got into this. "Please, Eddie, do this for me. I can't get a break." (pretends to cry) RAY You know what your problem is? ED Yeah. My problem is I've got a brother who writes a sentence like "We grew up in a small, little bedroom." As opposed to a big, little bedroom? RAY I got paid by the word! No! Your problem is you don't ever want anything to be your fault. ED Me?! That's you! RAY I commit. I take a chance. You wanted to be the guy on TV, but you didn't want to say you wanted to. So you have me talk you into it so you get what you want, but if it goes bad it's not your fault. BYSTANDER #2 Right. Like you say you love Shari, but, you wouldn't mind noodling that model. ED Moe! BYSTANDER #3 The truth hurts. ED Yeah? So does a kick in the nuts. RAY For once in your life, be honest with yourself. I know you, Ed. I know you look at me and Marcia and Mom and you think you're different. You're like "How did I end up in this family?" You're not different. you're worse. Because you have no guts. You drift around, you don't commit, you make fun of me -- okay. Just don't kid yourself. (to Jeanette) Let's go. JEANETTE You're both good boys. Ray and Jeanette leave. 187 INT. NETWORK CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Ed is there along with Cynthia and the Network Execs. There are more execs than before. Cynthia's people are not there. This entire meeting is on ED TV. Cynthia is quiet - observing. Ed looks whipped. ED Three more months? MR. SCHARLACH Absolutely! Ed TV is more popular than ever. Congratulations. McILVAINE Only, Ed, we want you, in the next few weeks to spend a lot more time with your family. ED You do? SEAVER Definitely. Cynthia, explain it to him. Cynthia just stares at her, COLDLY. SEAVER (CONT'D) I'11 do it. (to Ed) People want to see what happens to them now. Do your mother and step-father get back together? How does your sister handle being alone? Your feud with your brother. SCHARLACH In fact, we have a new concept. Since your family signed releases, we can follow them on camera even when you're not with them. We can cut around from family member to family member. Whoever's the most exciting at that moment. McILVAINE And, of course, it's another big bonus payment for you. Pause. ED A couple of years ago my Uncle Roy got bit on the ass by a dog. Silence. What the hell is he talking about? ED (CONT'D) So he gave me his tickets to the U.S. Open -- the tennis matches. They still have no idea what he's talking about. ED (CONT'D) So me and Ray, we tell our friends "Watch when Andre Agassi is gonna serve for the first time. When he's bouncing the ball and it's real quiet, we'11 yell "Whoop". And you'11 all hear us." Pause. SCHARLACH I see. (he doesn't) ED You know what that is? It's sad. I mean it was just so we could be heard. So we could stand out from the crowd for a second. So we did it. But we had nothing to say. Just "Whoop". That's it. And the stupid part I mean the really stupid part is we thought it like... elevated us above the crowd. Where the fact is it made us stupider than the crowd. SCHARLACH I see. ED Stop saying "I see." You don't see. Cynthia, I owe you an apology. CYNTHIA I don't think so. ED Yeah. Because, you didn't talk me into anything. Everything you wanted me to do, I wanted to do. 188 INT. SHARI'S PLACE Shari watching Ed TV. 189 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM ED (to the camera) Ray, you were right. It's like in school. I was always saying "the room was too hot, the teacher didn't like me" -- but it was me! Everything that's wrong with my life I did. Okay? So now this is it. My family has problems. Which are our fault. And TV is not the place to solve them. So I quit. I'm taking what very little dignity I've got left and I quit. Can someone validate my parking? Pause. SHOCK. MR. SCHARLACH Well, Ed, that's ... not really possible. ED All right, I'11 pay for the parking. Big network! Scharlach speaks carefully - gently. He's aware of the camera. He doesn't want to come off as a villain. SCHARLACH No, I mean you can't quit. Ed thinks. ED I can't? MR. SCHARLACH (very gently) Well, no. You agreed to stay on the air as long as we asked you to. The station entered into this on that understanding. If you had refused we'd have begun this with somebody else. You can't just change the rules in the middle of the game, son. It's not fair to us. More importantly, it's not fair to the viewers. They're interested in you. They've devoted hours and days and weeks of their lives to you. ED Look, if you don't let me out of this... I'11 just... I'11 just sit in my apartment all day. I won't go anywhere, I won't do anything. What kind of show will that be? MR. SCHARLACH Not too good. That's why it states in your contract that if you do not continue to live a normal life, you're in violation and are liable for the station's financial losses. Ed, I urge you to reconsider. I urge you on behalf of all those people out there whose lives have become so entwined with yours. Play fair with them, Ed. ED All right. Let them decide. He turns right to the camera. ED (CONT'D) I'd like you all to do me a favor. Turn me off. Just grab the remote and change the channel. I mean, basically, all you're watching now is a guy deteriorate. The only thing missing is the smell. You're better than that Turn me off. Thank you. 190 INT. CYNTHIA'S OFFICE Greg bursts in, carrying a sheet of paper. GREG Ratings are up across the board. Look at this! (drones on) Men 18 to 35, women 18 to 35 ... Cynthia stares, amazed. 191 EXT. STREET Ed WALKING ZOMBIE-LIKE- CROWDS SWARM. 192 INT. LAWYER'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is with STEVE, a lawyer. Steve has a huge contract on his desk. STEVE This contract you signed? ... It's a masterpiece. Don't go to war with these guys. You fart in the wrong direction they can take everything you own and leave you naked by the side of the road. You ever going to get back with that Jill? Ooh -- she was nice. Shari, I didn't like that much ("imitates" a gabby girl) "yet-tet-tet-tet-tet-tet-tet." ED Shut up. 193 INT. DINER - NIGHT Ed is sitting alone, eating lunch. He's surrounded by cameras and shielded by BODYGUARDS. OUTSIDE the diner a CROWD of rubberneckers is out on the sidewalk, looking in at him, some of them acting up, some just staring in. Ed is tired. He glances out the window and makes a MONKEY FACE. Suddenly, he FREEZES. He sees Shari's face in the crowd. She puts her fist in her mouth. 194 EXT. STREET - NIGHT Ed and Shari are walking -- on camera. SHARI 1 bailed. I bailed on you. ED Kinda'. SHARI It's what I do. I yell "Geronimo" and jump out of a relationship. He laughs. Pause. SHARI (CONT'D) You weren't able to make me feel safe or secure -- no easy job for any man, I admit -- and my problem is, if I think I'm losing, I pull myself out of the game. I bail. See? I told you, I'm the love coroner. ED What did you do to your hair? SHARI My truck overheated, so I opened the hood and my hair got caught in the fan belt. So I had to get a haircut. ED It's nice. He touches her hair. They leap on each other. They're KISSING. 195 INT. NETWORK CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Big meeting. Many Honchos, including Scharlach and Cynthia. All but Cynthia are focused. Cynthia looks bored. HONCHO #l I think this could be great. What if Ed and Shari decide to get married? A wedding? The cute, little half-Asian nephew in a tuxedo, carrying the ring on one of those big fluffy pillows - we'11 kill. A sixty share. A secretary (MILDRED) enters. She's a little flustered. MILDRED Um... Mr. Scharlach, um -- you're not watching TV? SCHARLACH No, Mildred, we're working. MILDRED Um... Ed -- and Shari are -- SEAVER Engaged? MILDRED No. Here. They're in the building. They're on their way up. Scharlach indicates that he wants someone to turn on the TV. Someone does and they see Ed and Shari coming down the hall. They enter the conference room. The cameras, of course, are with them. Ed is carrying a CARTON. ED Hi, kids. Busy? MUCH CONFUSION ED (CONT'D) I just came up to pass out these Ed TV hats. He takes a lot of HATS out of the carton and begins placing on the heads of the Honchos. ED (CONT'D) A guy made these up for me. He spelled Ed with two D's. Okay, listen. The real reason I came up here -- and then I'11 get out of your way -- is I've been thinking about what you said. About let's start having more fun with this show, you know? Let's give it a big kick in the ass. HONCHO #1 Well, we were thinking -- ED (cheerfully) Shut up. He takes back that Honcho's hat. ED (CONT'D) Let's have a contest. Now this would mostly be open to professional investigators and detectives. But anyone can join in. SHARI (rehearsed) What do we have to do? ED My lovely assistant, Shari. I'm glad you asked. The contest is who can dig up -- legally, of course -- I'm not suggesting that anyone break any laws -- the most embarrassing and humiliating facts about any of the executives here at the North American Broadcasting System which owns Real TV. The Honchos staring blankly. ED (CONT'D) But facts! They have to be verified. Anything from their past, their present, business, personal -- arrests, affairs ... And whoever comes up with the sleaziest, most degrading material -- I'11 give you ten thousand dollars. And you get to be on Ed TV. (to the Honchos, excitedly) Hah? SHARI So act now. Here's Ed's home phone number. She holds up a CARD. 196 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM It's packed with LAWYERS and EXECS. Everyone is agitated, except Cynthia, who seems relaxed-Ed and Shari are gone. SCHARLACH Legal?! How can this be legal? It's defamation! It's slander! It's... LAWYER Not, technically. He is not showing a reckless disregard for the truth. SCHARLACH You're fired! The meeting continues ANGRILY. 197 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER The Honchos are watching Ed TV. They look STRAINED, ANXIOUS. In Ed's home a BANK OF PHONES have been set up like for a telethon. Manning the phones are Ed, Shari, Ray, Marcia, Al and Jeanette. The PHONES KEEP RINGING. RAY (into phone) Uh-huh... uh-huh... Really?! She was how old? In the conference room one of the Execs looks DIZZY. The CAMERA PANS to Al on the phone. AL (shocked) He pays a prostitute to do what to him? I don't even want that on my shoes. IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM FEAR and SHOCK, except for Cynthia, who is LAUGHING and can't stop. SCHARLACH Stop laughing or you're fired. She stops. Then she gets up. SCHARLACH (CONT'D) Where are you going? CYNTHIA I've got this great idea. We put together a video. "The Network Executives Goofiest Moments." And listen, i've really loved working here. On the word "loved" she shot Scharlach THE FINGER. She exits, LAUGHING. 198 INT. ED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Ed is off the phone, ED Okay. We have a winner. Now please don't feel badly if yours wasn't selected. In our eyes, you're all winners. RAY And each contestant gets one of these. (holds up a tee-shirt with writing on it) An "I tried to screw a network executive" tee-shirt. ED A hundred per cent cotton. Okay, here we go, Andy. Ed grabs a sealed ENVELOPE. Andy plays a DRUM ROLL -- not terribly well. ED (CONT'D) Andy's available for executions. And the winner is ... As he opens the envelope. 199 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM The Executives staring, HORRIFIED. 200 INT. ED'S APARTMENT He takes out the card and registers mock-surprise. ED Hey, the winner is from right here in New York city. Carl Bowers a former orderly at the Martin Center -- a clinic that specializes in, what they call, male enhancement procedures. 201 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM Scharlach's EYES WIDEN in HORROR. 202 INT. ED'S APARTMENT ED (to the camera) How many of you know what a penile implant is? As it was explained to me, what happens is-- 203 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM As Ed explains, Scharlach reaches for the phone, fumbling it for a moment. 204 INT. ED'S APARTMENT ED And the man of the hour -- the executive with the winning secret the man who, thanks to the miracle of space-age science and a pump he keeps in his pocket, can now -- A SHOT OF a television set tuned to Ed. Suddenly Ed is replaced by a Real TV logo. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) And that concludes Real TV's coverage of Ed TV. Stay tuned for new programming information. MUSAK 205 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM 206 INT. TV STUDIO An ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER. 207 INT. TV STUDIO The PANEL. 208 EXT. CHURCH ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER A spokesperson for Real TV announced that Ed received a check covering his four months on the air, his balloon payment and an additional bonus to show the Network's appreciation for all his -- quote -- hard work and loyalty -- unquote. When asked -- CUT TO: The Panel. PANELIST #1 In five years no one will even remember this person. PANELIST #4 Five years! Six months. He's the "macarena." He's -- CUT TO: A NEWS REPORTER is reporting on a wedding. REPORTER Marcia Pekurny, the woman known to most Americans as "Ed's sister" was married here today to Carlos Coto, who some of you may remember as the primary camera operator on "Ed TV" -- CUT TO: 209 INT. TV STUDIO A news show. NEWS ANCHOR The current rage of "Reality Television" got a real dose of reality today. Lifestyle Televisions Joma was shot this evening, outside his apartment. Because Joma was on television twenty-four hours a day, Lifestyle's cameras were there to record the shooting. WE SEE Joma walking into his building. Somebody steps forward with a GUN. The ASSAILANT is jostled as he shoots and the bullet hits Joma in the ass. He falls to the sidewalk. JOKA Ohhhh!!! ... my ass! He shot me in the ass! The CAMERA PANS to the Assailant, who we might recognize as someone who we've seen following Ed from time to time. ASSAILANT Now I'm famous. REVEAL Ed and Shari watching this on television. ED I know him. I gave him an autograph. Shari turns it off. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed Wood.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed Wood.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..468aeb3e0eb4d3b29adadb63150bcadc56594de8 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ed Wood.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +ED WOOD by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski Directed by Tim Burton FIRST DRAFT November 20, 1992 FADE IN: INT. HAUNTED MANSION PARLOR - NIGHT We move through a spooky shrouded parlor, as a storm rages outside. THUNDER roars, and lightning flashes in the giant windows. in the center of the room lies an oak coffin. Suddenly the lid starts to creak open. A hand crawls past the edge... and then the lid slams up! Famed psychic CRISWELL pops out. Criswell, 40, peers at us intently, his gleaming eyes framed under his striking pale blonde hair. He intones, with absolute conviction: CRISWELL Greetings, my friend. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable... that is why you are here. So now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened... (extremely serious) We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Can your hearts stand the shocking facts of the true story of Edward D. Wood, Junior?? EXT. NIGHT SKY Lightning CRACKS. We drift down past the dark clouds... through the torrential rain... and end up... OPTICAL: EXT. HOLLYWOOD - NIGHT We've landed in Hollywood, 1952. We're outside a teeny, grungy playhouse. The cracked marquee proclaims "'THE CASUAL COMPANY,' WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY EDWARD D. WOOD, JR." Pacing nervously in the rain is ED WOOD, 30, our hero. Larger-than-life charismatic, confident, Errol Flynn-style handsome, Ed is a human magnet. He's a classically flawed optimist: Sweet and well-intentioned, yet doomed by his demons within. The doors open, and Ed's pal JOHN "BUNNY" BRECKINRIDGE, 45, hurries out. Bunny is a wealthy, theatrical fop wearing a string of pearls. [PAGE 2 MISSING] Suddenly the rest of the cast runs up, frantically upset. In a flowing white dress is DOLORES FULLER, 23, a sharp, hungry- for-a-career ingenue. She's near tears. DOLORES Eddie, my dove just flew out the window! CREW MEMBER She goes on in two minutes! What are we gonna do?? They all look to Ed, awaiting a response. He thinks a second, then excitedly CLAPS his hands. ED Dolores, give me your shoes. DOLORES What? ED The ghost can be barefoot. Give me your shoes! She hands Ed her white shoes. He snatches one, grabs a pair of scissors, and starts CUTTING up the shoe. Everyone is baffled. He keeps cutting the shoe... and it slowly takes on the shape of a dove! Ed then grabs some pipe cleaners, works them into a shape, and sprints into the dressing room. He takes some green eye shadow and excitedly smears it on the pipe cleaners. Ed then hurries back out, jams the green pipe cleaners into the cut-up shoe... and it looks like a dove with an olive branch in its mouth! The cast is flabbergasted. CREW MEMBER Wow. BACK ONSTAGE The soldiers suddenly look up. ACTOR #1 Hey, I think I see something! Dolores floats down onto the stage, holding out the dove. DOLORES I offer you mortals the bird of peace, so that you may change your ways and end all this destruction. CUT TO: INT. SCRUFFY COFFEE SHOP - LATER THAT NIGHT Ed and his gang celebrate opening night in a dirty 24-hour diner. They're noisily slugging down drinks, in a big red booth. ED What a show! Everyone was terrific! Paul, your second-act monologue actually gave me chills, He grins at Actor #1, aka PAUL MARCO, a young eager beaver who's loyal like a dog. PAUL MARCO Aw thanks, Eddie. Actor #2, aka CONRAD BROOKS, a friendly, simple-minded lug, runs up waving a newspaper. CONRAD I got the early edition! It was just dropped off at the newsstand. ED (he smiles at everyone) This is the big moment...! Ed opens the paper to the entertainment page. INSERT - THE NEWSPAPER. Ed turns to a column, "The Theatrical Life, By Victor Crowley." Under this is a photograph of an old man with an ascot. WIDE Everybody excitedly crowds around and starts reading. A moment... and then their faces drop. Clearly, this is a disastrous review. Their faces get sadder, and sadder... and then they finish. A melancholy beat, until -- BUNNY What does that old queen know? He wasn't even there! (he knocks back a drink) Sending a copy boy to do his dirty work. Well fuck him! DOLORES Do I really have a face like a horse? PAUL MARCO What does "ostentatious" mean? Ed calmly waves his arms for attention. He tries to smile. ED Hey. Hey, it's not that bad. You just can't concentrate on the negative. He's got some nice things to say... (he scans the review) See, "The soldier costumes are very realistic." That's positive! Everyone kind of stares at their drinks, depressed. Ed launches into an upbeat speech. ED Hell, I've seen a lot worse reviews. I've seen ones where they didn't even like the costumes! Like, that last "Francis the Mule" picture -- it got terrible notices. But it was a huge hit. PAUL MARCO Lines around the block. ED So don't take it too seriously. We're all doin' great work. CONRAD You really think so? ED Absolutely! It's just the beginning. I promise this: If we stick together, one day I'll make every single one of you famous. He smiles at everyone at the table. They all believe what he says, and there is a hushed moment of dream-filled hope. CUT TO: INT. DOLORES' APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Ed and Dolores lie in bed, in the dark. He stares vulnerably at her. ED Honey, what if I'm wrong? What if I just don't have it? DOLORES Ed, it was only one review. ED Orson Welles was 26 when he made "Citizen Kane." I'm already 30! DOLORES Ed, you're still young. This is the part of your life when you're supposed to be struggling. ED I know... But sometimes I get scared this is as good as it's gonna get... Dolores kisses Ed affectionately. DOLORES Things'll change for us. Nobody stays on the fringe forever. She gets out of bed. We see her tiny apartment is drab and crumbling. Dolores turns on the shower, then walks to the closet. She looks inside. DOLORES God, where's my pink sweater? I can never find my clothes anymore... ANGLE - ED He rolls over in bed, away from her. CUT TO: INT. STUDIO WAREHOUSE - DAY CU on Ed reading "The Hollywood Reporter." A RUDE BOSS in suspenders suddenly strides up. RUDE BOSS Hey big shot, get off your ass. They need a potted palm over in the Carl Laemmle Building. ED Sure thing, Mr. Kravitz. Ed jumps up. We WIDEN, revealing he's in a giant greenhouse, packed with rows of potted plants and shrubs. Ed grabs a small palm tree and hurries out. EXT. MOVIE STUDIO - DAY Ed strolls across the busy movie lot, lugging the palm. He passes a soundstage and notices the stage door open a crack. Ed glances around, then puts down the palm and hurries in. INT. SOUNDSTAGE ó SAME TIME A big-budget foreign legion movie is shooting, with a huge cast and crew. A giant desert set has been erected, with camels and real sand dunes. Ed is blown away. ED Whoa, look at all this sand. This is real sand! My God, where'd they get all this sand?! A SECURITY GUARD sees him. SECURITY GUARD Hey, YOU. This is a closed set. Ed is caught. He hurries out. EXT. MOVIE STUDIO ó DAY Ed continues across the lot, carrying his palm tree. An OLD CRUSTY MAN sticks his head out an office window. OLD CRUSTY MAN Hey, Eddie! Come in here. I got some great new stuff to show you. Ed puts down the plant again and runs in. INT. EDITING ROOMS ó DAY The old guy is proudly showing Ed STOCK FOOTAGE on a moviola. The footage is totally random: Giant explosions, buffalos stampeding, tanks, an octopus swimming, etc. Ed is dazzled. ED This is fantastic! What are you gonna do with it all? OLD CRUSTY MAN Eh, probably file it away and never see it again. ED It's such a waste. If I had half a chance, I could make an entire movie out of this stock footage! (getting inspired) See, the story opens with these mysterious explosions. Nobody knows what's causing them, but it's upsetting all the buffalo. So the military is called in to solve the mystery. OLD CRUSTY MAN Ya forgot the octopus. ED No, I'm saving that for the big underwater climax! The old guy cackles. EXT. MOVIE STUDIO - DAY Ed finally carries the tree into the Laemmle Building. INT. STUDIO OFFICES - SAME TIME Young SECRETARIES in June Cleaver hairdos are giggling. SECRETARY #1 They say he was a girl trapped in a man's body. SECRETARY #2 I'll bet it hurt when they snipped his thing off. EEWWW! All the girls shriek in horror. Ed walks in and puts down his plant. ED What are you ladies gabbin' about? SECRETARY #1 You know that Christine Jorgensen freak? He/she/it's in "Variety." Some producer is making a biopic. ED (startled) R-really? I didn't see the story. SECRETARY #1 Ah, it was buried in the back. The guy's a real smallótime operator. She holds up her "Variety." Ed hurriedly takes it. CUT TO: INSERT - VARIETY The story headline says "BOYóTOóCHICK FLICK TO CLICK." We PULL OUT, revealing we're now in INT. ED'S APARTMENT - DAY Ed holds the newspaper while he paces around his apartment. The place has threadbare carpet, faded wallpaper, and an electric burner for a kitchen. A handful of mangy DOGS run around. Tacked-up are movie posters for "DRACULA," "FREAKS," and "THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS." Dolores talks on the phone, while Ed silently coaches her. DOLORES (on phone) Yes, I've got Mr. Edward Wood on the line. Could you please hold? Ed gives her a thumbs up -- perfect! He confidently takes the phone. ED (on phone) Hello, Mr. Weiss? I heard about your new project and was curious if you signed a director. Oh -- you haven't? Well, if we could get together, I could explain why I'm more qualified to direct this than anyone else in town. (beat) Uh, I'd rather not go into it over the phone... Alright. Great! l'll see you then! Ed hangs up and YELPS excitedly. He kisses Dolores. She pulls away. DOLORES Eddie, I don't understand. Why are you the most qualified director for the Christine Jorgensen Story? ED (nervous, he lies) Aw, er, it's just a bunch of hot air. I had to say something to get in the door. CUT TO: INT. LOW-RENT HALLWAY - DAY Ed walks jauntily along, wearing a snappy suit. He reaches a door that says "SCREEN CLASSICS ó George Weiss, President." Ed fixes his hair, checks his clothes, then enters. INT. SCREEN CLASSICS ó SAME TIME It's a crowded root, piled with paperwork and files. Film cans are stacked everywhere, and framed oneósheets for "TEST TUBE BABIES," "BLONDE PICKUP" and "GIRL GANG" litter the cracked walls. Sitting behind the messy desk is GEORGIE WEISS, 60, a rug merchant turned exploitation film producer. He juggles a large sandwich and angrily barks into the phone. GEORGIE (on phone) Look, when I said you could have the western territories, I didn't mean all eleven states! I meant California, Oregon, and uh, what's that one above it... Washington. Oh really?! Well screw you! Georgie slams down the phone. He smiles warmly at Ed. GEORGIE Can I help you? ED Yes, I'm Ed Wood. I'm here about directing the Christine Jorgensen picture. GEORGIE Yeah, well a couple of things have changed. It ain't gonna be the Christine Jorgensen story no more. Goddamn "Variety" printed the story before I had the rights, and now that bitch is asking for the sky. ED (disappointed) So you're not gonna make the movie? GEORGIE No, of COURSE I'm gonna make the movie! I've already preósold Alabama and Oklahoma. Those repressed Okies really go for that twisted pervert stuff. So we'll just make it without that she-male. We'll fictitionalize it. Georgie bites into his sandwich. Ed is dazed. ED Is there a script? GEORGIE Fuck no! But there's a poster. Georgie pulls out artwork of a hermaphrodite: Man on the left side, woman on the right. The lettering screams, "I CHANGED MY SEX!" GEORGIE It opens in nine weeks in Tulsa. ED (mustering up his courage) Well, Mr. Weiss, I'm your guy. I work fast, and I'm a deal: I write AND direct. And I'm good. I just did a play in Hollywood, and Victor Crowley praised its realism. GEORGIE Hmm. There's five-hundred guys in town who can tell me the same thing. You said on the phone you had some kind of "special qualifications." Ed takes a measured piuse. This is his big revelation. ED Well, Mr. Weiss, I've never told anyone what I'm about to tell you... but I really want this job. (he gulps) I like to dress in women's clothing. GEORGIE Are you a fruit? ED No, no, not at all! I love women. Wearing their clothes makes me feel closer to them. GEORGIE So you're not a fruit? ED Nah, I'm all man. I even fought in WW2. (beat) 'Course, I was wearing ladies' undergarments under my uniform. GEORGIE You gotta be kiddin' me. ED Confidentially, I even paratrooped wearing a brassiere and panties. I'll tell ya, I wasn't scared of being killed, but I was terrified of getting wounded, and having the medics discover my secret. Georgie sits back. It's a hell of a story. GEORGIE And this is why you think you're the most qualified to make my movie? ED Yeah. I know what it's like to live with a secret, and worry about what people are gonna think of you... My girlfriend still doesn't know why her sweaters are always stretched out. Georgie shrugs. GEORGIE Ed, you seem like a nice kid, but look around you... (he gestures at the posters) I don't hire directors with burning desires to tell their stories. I make movies like "Chained Girls." I need someone with experience who can shoot a film in four days that'll make me a profit. (beat) I'm sorry. That's all that matters. CUT TO: INT. BAR ó DAY Ed sits morosely in a scuzzy bar, three empty shot glasses in front of him. A BARTENDER ambles over. BARTENDER Are you gonna get something else? Ed glumly empties his pocket. All he has is change. Ed sighs, and staggers out. EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD - DAY Ed shuffles down the street, his head hanging low. A restaurant door opens, and an EISENHOWER ERA NUCLEAR FAMILY exits. Whitebread Dad, Mom, Son, and Daughter stride out in their starched clean clothes. They march obliviously past Ed. He watches them go, then continues. Ed reaches a building, "HOLLYWOOD MORTUARY," and glances in the window. A pause, then he does a doubletake. THROUGH THE WINDOW The showroom is filled with sample coffins. Lying inside one is BELA LUGOSI. ANGLE - ED He is flabbergasted. INT. HOLLYWOOD MORTUARY - SAME TIME Lugosi slowly sits up inside the coffin. Bela is an aged 70- year-old man, once a great star, now a faded memory trying to hang on to his nobility. Quite frail and tired, he is still a master of the grand gesture. An UNCTUOUS SALESMAN steps up. Bela speaks, in a thick Hungarian ACCENT which gives him an Old World elegance. BELA Too constrictive. This is the most uncomfortable coffin I have ever been in. SALESMAN Gee, Mr. Lugosi, I've never had any complaints before. BELA The selection is quite shoddy. You are wasting my time. Mildly annoyed, Bela climbs out. He straightens his cloak and walks to the exit -- where be bumps into nervous Ed. ED Excuse me, Mr. Lugosi?? BELA (irritated) I told you, I don't want any of your goddamn coffins. ED No. I don't work here. BELA Huh? Bela peers at Ed, then glances confusedly over his shoulder at the salesman. Oh. Bela looks back at anxious Ed. BELA Who are you? What do you want? ED I don't want anything. I'm just a really big, big fan. I've seen all your movies. BELA Ha! Bela strides out. EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD - SAME TIME Bela hurries along. Ed chases after him. ED Why were you buying a coffin? BELA Because I'm planning on dying soon. ED (concerned) Really? BELA Yes. I'm embarking on another bus- andótruck tour of "Dracula." Twelve cities in ten days, if that's conceivable. Bela pulls out a large smelly cigar and lights it. ED You know, I saw you perform "Dracula." In Poughkeepsie, in 1938. BELA Eh, that was a terrible production. Renfield was a drunk! ED I thought it was great. You were much scarier in real life than you were in the movie. BELA Thank you. ED I waited to get your autograph, but you never came outside. BELA I apologize. When I play Dracula, I put myself into a trance. It takes me much time to re-emerge. A CITY BUS approaches. BELA Oh, there's my bus. (he checks his pockets) Shit, where's my transfer?! ED Don't you bave a car? BELA I refuse to drive in this country. Too many madmen. The bus pulls up, and the doors open. Ed is worried he's about to lose his new friend. He gets an idea... CUT TO: INT. 1948 NASH RAMBLER - DAY Ed drives anxiously. Bela sits next to him, filling the car with smoke from his big cigar. ED Boy, Mr. Lugosi, you must lead such an exciting life. When is your next picture coming out? BELA I have no next picture. ED Ah, you gotta be jokin'! A great man like you... I'll bet you have dozens of 'em lined up. BELA Back in the old days, yes. But now -- no one give two fucks for Bela. Bela puffs on his oversized cigar. ED But you're a big star! BELA No more. I haven't worked in four years. This town, it chews you up, then spits you out. I'm just an ex-bogeyman. (he points) Make a right. EXT. BELA'S NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY Ed drives past pumping oil wells and into a seedy neighborhood. They reach a tiny, well-manicured house. Ed and Bela get out. BELA (bitter) They don't want the classic horror films anymore. Today, it's all giant bugs, giant spiders, giant grasshoppers -- who would believe such nonsense! ED The old ones were much spookier. They had castles, full moons... BELA They were mythic. They had a poetry to them. (he lowers his voice) And you know what else? The women prefer the traditional monsters. ED The women? BELA The pure horror, it both repels and attracts them. Because in their collective unconsciousness, they have the agony of childbirth. The blood. The blood is horror. ED I never thought of that. BELA Take my word for it. You want to "score" with a young lady, you take her to see "Dracula." Bela's eyes twinkle. He reaches his front door and unlocks it. INSIDE... it's awful. Squalid, dark, with skulls and strange voodoo objects scattered about. Up front hangs a large photograph of shockingly young Bela, handsome and regal. Ed is stunned by this dismal place, but doesn't say anything. Within, DOGS start BARKING crazily. BELA Ugh, what a mess. (beat) My wife of twenty years left me last month. I'm not much of a housekeeper. The dogs BARK louder. BELA Shh! I'm coming! I will feed you! ED Well... I guess I should go. Perhaps we could get together again? BELA (he shakes his hand) Certainly. But now the children of the night are calling me. Bela smiles and steps inside. The door closes. CUT TO: INT. DOLORES'S APARTMRNT - DAY Dolores is in her 1950's kitchenette, making a green jello mold. Ed bursts in, euphoric. ED Sweetie, you won't believe it! I've got the most incredible news! DOLORES (excited) You got the job?!! ED Huh?! (confused) Oh, uh, no, I didn't get the job. But something better happened! DOLORES Better than not getting a job? ED Yeah! I met a movie star! Somebody really big! DOLORES Who? Robert Taylor?! ED (annoyed) No! A horror movie star! DOLORES Boris Karloff!? ED Close! The other one! DOLORES You met Basil Rathbone! ED Oh, the hell with you. I met BELA LUGOSI! DOLORES I thought he was dead. Ed's eyes pop. ED No! He's very alive. Well... sort of. He's old, and frail -- but he's still Bela Lugosi! And he's really nice. DOLORES Boy, I can't even remember the last time he was in a picture. ED It's a shame. He's such a rest actor, and nobody uses him anymore. DOLORES So did you get his autograph? Ed calms down. He smiles beatifically. ED No. It wasn't like that at all. It was just the two of us, and we were talkin'... and he treated me like -- a friend... CUT TO: INT. STUDIO WAREHOUSE - DAY Ed is back in the plant department, arguing with his boss. RUDE BOSS He's a bum. ED No he's not! Do you realize how much money he made for this studio over the years? "Dracula"! "The Raven"! "The Black Cat"! RUDE BOSS Yeah? Well now he's a junkie. He don't deserve to work. ED That's not true -- RUDE BOSS He's so great, you hire him. ED (defensive) Well, uh, if I could I would... The guy takes a mocking face and struts out. Ed glares. CUT TO: EXT. BELA'S ROUSE - NIGHT It's Halloween night. CHILDREN in trick-or-treating costumes parade up and down the streets. Through Bela's window, we see him and Ed watching TELEVISION -- a small fuzzy screen in a huge console. INT. BELA'S HOUSE - SAME TIME ON THE TV, one of Bela's old '30s horror films plays. Bela's evil character is hypnotizing somebody: His eyes stare the famous stare, then his hand does the famous hypnotic gesture. ON ED AND BELA They are entranced. The men drink beers in silence. Bela's TWO DOGS lie at his feet. ON THE TV The old movie suddenly stops, and VAMPIRA appears on the TV screen. Vampira, 25, is the sexy "Creature Feature" hostess, a pale ghoul slipped into a tight black dress. She leers in front of a corny fog-shrouded set. There is a pumpkin, a broomstick, and a sign reading "Happy Halloween." VAMPIRA (on TV) Ooo! Those eyes! He gives me the willies! The only thing scarier than him is this guy I dated last week: Charlie from Pittsburgh. Boy, talk about the living dead... ON THE MEN Ed is disgruntled. ED Ugh! I hate the way she interrupts the pictures. She doesn't show 'em the proper respect. BELA (glued to the TV) I think she's a honey. Look at those jugs. Ed LAUGHS. Bela waves his arm and starts doing his hypnotic hand gesture at the TV. BELA Vampira! You will come under my spell! You will be my slave of love. ED (fascinated by Bela's hand) Hey Bela, how do you do that? BELA You must be double-jointed, and you must be Hungarian. (back at the TV) Vampira, look at me! Stare into my eyes. Ed joins Bela in this activity. The two of them wave their arms spookily at the TV. Bela becomes fatigued. BELA I am getting tired. I need to take my medicine. ED Do you want me to get it for you? BELA No thank you, Eddie. I'll be alright. Bela smiles. He gets up, shuffles across the room, and steps behind a curtain. Ed is puzzled. Bela's thin arm appears and draws the curtain tight. We hear mysterious CLANGING, drawers opening and closing, and then silence. Ed sits, waiting. Behind the curtain, something DROPS. We hear a muffled "Shit!" Ed is getting worried. But then the curtain whips open, and Bela bounds out, grinning. He's a bundle of energy. BELA I feel better now. AT THE DOOR The doorbell RINGS. Kids SHOUT "Trick or treat!" Bela jumps up gleefully. BELA Children! I love children. Bela puts on his famous cape, then gets a pair of fangs and sticks them in his mouth. OUTSIDE Little kids in Lone Ranger and Howdy Doody costumes giggle expectantly. Suddenly the door flies open, and standing there is Count Dracula! The real Count Dracula. YEOWWWW!!! The kids SCREAM and run. Bela chuckles. Every kid is gone... except one TOUGH BOY. BELA Aren't you scared, little boy? I'm going to drink your blood! TOUGH BOY Ehh, you're not a real vampire. You can't turn into a bat, and those teeth don't frighten me. Suddenly Ed lurches out, menacingly. ED Well how about these teeth?!! Ed RIPS HIS TEETH out of his head and thrusts them at the kid. The boy SCREAMS in terror and races away. Bela is wowed. BELA Hey, how'd you do that? Ed smiles impishly, then sticks the teeth back in his mouth. ED Dentures. I lost my pearlies in the war. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - LATER THAT NIGHT Ed and Bela run toward us, Bela's cape flapping in the wind. Ed takes a swig from Bela's flask. They're a bit tipsy. ED Are you sure this is okay? BELA Don't worry. I do it every Halloween. EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT The moonlight shines down on a rickety old cemetery. The wind blows hauntingly, and tombstones gleam in the blackness. Ed and Bela reach the locked gates. They glance at each other, then start to climb over. Ed helps Bela. They jump down, and Ed peers nervously. ED Now what? Bela looks like a child on Christmas morning. He takes another swig, then starts running giddily. He disappears into the cemetery. BELA I am DRACULA! Bela darts happily through the graves. His cape flies behind him. BELA I am the BAT!! Ed's eyes light up. He starts chasing after Bela. Bela's heart is racing. He zig-zags past ancient crypts. Gargoyles peer down. The wind howls through the skeletal trees, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. Ed runs through the shadows, trying to catch up. Bela flaps his cape up and down. We almost think he's going to fly. Ed races up, then quietly stops. He eagerly watches Bela, practically expecting him to turn into a bat. It's a magical, crazed moment. BELA I am DRACUlA! I will LIVE FOREVER!!! Bela laughs, then lies down on the grass. WIDE Ed slowly walks over and lies next to Bela. They're happy, eyes alert, on top of the world. Ed peers in wonder at his new friend. CUT TO: INT. SCREEN CLASSICS OFFICE - DAY Ed sits across from Georgie. Ed's very excited. GEORGIE So what's the big news you couldn't tell me over the phone... again? Ed gulps excitedly. He has a spiel all planned out. ED Mr. Weiss, I was thinkin' about what you said, about how all your movies have to make a profit. And I realized, what's the one thing, that if you put in a movie, it'll be successful?? GEORGIE (he thinks) Tits. ED No. Better than tits -- a star! Georgie shakes his head. GEORGIE Eddie, you must have me confused with David Selznick. I don't make major motion pictures. I make crap. ED Yeah, but if you took that crap and put a star in it, you'd have something! GEORGIE Yeah. Crap with a star. ED (impassioned) No! It would be something better! Something impressive. The biggest moneymaker you've ever had! GEORGIE Fine, maybe you're right. But it doesn't friggin' matter. I can't afford a star, so I don't even know what we're talking about. Ed grins. ED What if I told you you could have a star for $1000?? GEORGIE (skeptical) Who? Ed opens his valise and whips out an 8x10 GLOSSY OF BELA. GEORGIE Lugosi? ED Yeah! Lugosi! GEORGIE Isn't he dead? ED (annoyed) No, he's not dead! He lives in Baldwin Hills. I met him recently, and he wants to be in our picture. GEORGIE OUR picture? ED (sheepishly) Uh, yeah. Our picture. Georgie mulls this over. He's interested. GEORGIE Why would Lugosi want to be in a sex-change flick? ED Because he's my friend. Georgie stares carefully at Ed, then finally smiles. GEORGIE Alright, fine! You can direct it. I want a script in three days, and we start shooting a week from Monday. ANGLE - ED He leaps up euphorically. He eagerly pumps Georgie's hand. ED Thank you! Bless you, Mr. Weiss! I promise I won't let you down! CUT TO: INT. ED'S APARTMENT - DAY CU on a ROYAL TYPEWRITER. Ed's hands whirl across the portable typewriter, frantically feeding in pages as fast as be can type. We PULL OUT. Ed sits on the bed, typing. He's a blur of activity, juggling a cigarette, coffee, and a telephone, while he writes. ED (on phone) But Bunny, you're perfect for this job! You're so good at organizing. His adrenalin is pumping. Ed pours some booze into his coffee. ED You know these people. I need all the transsexuals and transvestites you can get. (he sucks on his cigarette) No, I don't care if they're not actors. I want realism. I want this film to tell the truth! I've waited my whole life for this shot, and I'm not gonna blow it. There's a KNOCK at the door. Ed carries the phone on a long cord and answers it. Bela hurries in, smiling broadly. BELA Eddie, you got a new movie for me?! ED Yeah, it's gonna be a great picture! You'll love your character! (back into the phone) Bunny, Bela's here. Look, hit the bars, work some parties, and get me transvestites! I need transvestites! Ed hangs up and resumes typing. Bela is puzzled. BELA Eddie, what kind of movie is this? ED Well, It's about how people have two personalities. The side they show to the world, and then the secret person they hide inside. BELA (delighted) Oh, like Jekyll and Hyde! Ah, I've always wanted to play Jekyll and Hyde! I'm looking forward to this production. Ed stops typing. He pours Bela a drink. ED Ehh, your part's a little different. You're like the God that looks down on all the characters, and oversees everything. BELA I don't understand. ED Well... you control everyone's fate. You're like the puppetmaster. BELA (getting it) Ah, so I pull the strings! ED Yeah. You pull the strings -- (he suddenly gets a look) "Pull the strings"... hey, that's pretty good! Ed quickly starts typing again. CUT TO: INT. ED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Ed and Dolores sit at a card table, finishing up dinner. The dogs eat scraps below them. ED Wipe off your hands. I've got a little surprise for you... (he smiles nervously) I finished my script. Ed anxiously pulls out a pile of pages. Dolores looks in awe at the cover: "'GLEN OR GLENDA' By Edward D. Wood, Jr"" DOLORES Ed, I'm so proud! I'll read it as soon as I get home. ED (apprehensive) Well, I'd really like to know what you think. Why don't you go in the bedroom and take a look at it? I'll Wait... There's an uneasy moment between them. She senses something funny. Dolores takes the script and goes into the bedroom. The door closes. Ed starts pacing... DISSOLVE TO: INT. BEDROOM - LATER Dolores reads the script. She finishes the last page, then looks up. She is very shaken. Dolores stands. She grabs the door and opens it. THROUGH THE DOORWAY Ed stands somberly in drag. He's in a pantsuit, heels, and pink angora sweater. Dolores is totally rattled. She struggles for a response. DOLORES So that's where my sweater's been. Ed silently nods. DOLORES How long have you been doing this? ED Since I was a kid. My mom wanted a girl, so she used to dress me in girlie clothing. It just kinda became a habit. DOLORES Jesus Christ! And you never told me? ED This is my way of telling you -- DOLORES (furious) What, by putting it in a fuckin' script, for everyone to see?! What kind of sick mind would operate like that? Ed is terribly hurt. Dolores shakes tht script. DOLORES And what about this so-called "Barbara" character? It's obviously ME! I'm so embarrassed! This is our life! ED (quiet) Of course it is. And that's why you should play the part. DOLORES Oh! You got nerve, buddy. He calmly points at the script. ED It's a damn good role. DOLORES That's not the issue!! (she suddenly stops) Ugh! How can you act so casual, when you're dressed like that?! ED It takes me comfortable. DOLORES Oh, just like in the script! Ed smiles serenely. ED Exactly. (he takes her hand) So what do ya say? Do you wanna break up... or do you wanna do the movie with me? Dolores sighs. CUT TO: INT. SCREEN CLASSICS - DAY The hallway is filled with eager TRANSVESTITES. It's a very festive atmosphere, and Bunny tries to create some order. Inside the busy office, Paul types, and Conrad cranks a mimeograph machine. CONRAD It's good to have a job. Now I can get my phone reconnected. In a corner, Georgie angrily waves the script at Ed. GEORGIE I thought this was gonna be a sex- change film! ED (defensive) There's still a sex-change -- GEORGIE Yeah! Five pages right before it ends! The rest of the show is about some schmuck who likes angora sweaters. ED I don't think he's a schmuck. GEORGIE And what's with this new title?! My poster says "I CHANGED MY SEX"! ED So change the poster. Trust me, you'll be better off. This is a story that's gonna grab people. (he goes into a pitch) It's about this guy. He's crazy about this girl but he likes to wear dresses. Should he tell her? Should he not tell her? He's torn. George, this is DRAMA. Georgie throws up his hands GEORGIE Fine, shoot whatever baloney you want! I give up. Just make sure it's seven reels long. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - EARLY MORNING We are on location for Ed's first film! A SMALL CREW of a dozen unpacks the camera and reflectors from their cars. Ed's voice rises above the hubbub. ED (O.S.) Excuse me, could I have everyone's attention?! Could you gather around? I've got something to say. The crew members put down their things and gather in a circle. In the middle, we reveal Ed, in complete drag. Dress, nylons, pumps, lovely blonde wig... he's quite a sight. Like an eager Scoutmaster, he addresses his troops. ED Everybody, we're about to embark on quite a journey. Four days of hard work... but when it's over, we'll have a picture that'll entertain, enlighten, and maybe even move millions of people. A COUPLE GRIPS glance at each other. ED Now the only way we're gonna achieve all this is if we stay on schedule. Day one -- TODAY -- we'll start easy. We have eighteen silent scenes that can be shot quickly: Cars parking, Patrick's suicide, me strolling as a man, me strolling as a woman, etc. (beat) After lunch, we'll bring in the Inspector and the Doctor. The Doctor is very important to the plot, so we might have to spend time on retakes. But it's worth it. Scene totals for the first day is thirty-four. (he catches a breath) Day Two, we'll be a little busier -- Veteran CAMERAMAN BILL, an old guy with thick glasses, speaks. CAMERAMAN BILL Excuse me Eddie, I don't mean to interrupt... but I'm gettin' a little worried about those clouds. He points up. Everybody looks at the sky. The clouds are gray. Ed nods in agreement. ED Good thinkin'. We'll talk about Days Three and Four later. Now let's get that first shot off! It's Scene 17, Glenda looking in the window. THE CREW disperses. Ed quickly runs in his heels over to the burly make-up man, HARRY. ED Okay, do I need any touch-up? MAKE-UP MAN HARRY I'm telling ya, eyelashes are the way to go. ED (irritated) Harry, we've discussed this a million times. I don't want to look like a girl. I want to look like myself. MAKE-UP MAN MARRY (disgruntled) Fine. Then you look beautiful. Harry humorlessly powders Ed's nose. Ed turns away and suddenly SHOUTS into a giant megaphone. ED PLACES, EVERYONE! ROLL CAMERA! CAMERAMAN BILL (nonchalant) Rolling. WIDE Ed chucks the megaphone and runs crazily past the camera and behind a building. ED'S VOICE And -- ACTION! A pause, and then Ed, in character as Glenda, calm and dignified, steps out and walks down the sidewalk. Ed stops at a store window. He's totally in shadow. A grip grimaces. He TURNS ON a light Ed lights up. He looks in the window, admires a dress on display, then silently walks out of frame. A beat. Ed SCREAMS. ED And, CUT! PRINT IT! LET'S MOVE ON! CAMERAMAN BILL Don't you want a second take, for protection? ED (exhilarated) What's to protect? It was perfect! Suddenly a police car turns the corner. CREW MEMBER Cops! ED We don't have a permit. RUN! Everyone grabs equipment and takes off. WIPE TO: INT. LARCHMONT STUDIOS - DAY The company is now shooting inside a dinky soundstage. There are dirty mattresses tacked on the walls. They prep Bela's set: A fishnet-draped armchair in front of a flat. Ed is perched high in his director's chair, back in men's clothes. ED The set doesn't look right! It looks too... empty. Clutter it up. Put a skeleton in the corner. And what's that thing over there? PAUL MARCO I don't know. ED Well it looks good. Let's use it! Georgie hurriedly strides over. He holds the script. GEORGIE Ed! What's with these revised pages?! A scene in a smelting factory? A buffalo stampede?? Three-hundred soldiers storming Anzio Beach??! What's going on here? I can't afford to film this nonsense! ED Don't worry. We're not gonna film any of it. GEORGIE Then how's it gonna get in the picture?! ED I know a guy in Universal's stock house -- he's giving me the footage for free. This movie's gonna look like a million bucks. Georgie nods. Oh, okay. O.S. VOICE Mr. Lugosi has arrived! Ed jumps excitedly. ED Oh my God! (he YELLS) Mr. Lugosi is here! Now everyone, when he walks on the stage (nobody is listening; so Ed uses his MEGAPHONE) Now everyone, when he walks on the stage, treat him normal. I know Bela Lugosi is a world-famous star, and you're all a little excited, but we're professionals. So if you treat him with respect, everything will be alright. AT THE STAGE DOOR The door swings open, and Bela strides in, looking dapper. He glances at the teensy stage, and his face falls imperceptibly. Ed runs up, bounding with enthusiasm. ED Bela! It's so great to see you! (he glances at his watch) And eight o'clock on the dot. Right on time! BELA I am always on time. ED Of course! Well, we got a big day planned for you... First, we're gonna start off a little easy, with you in that armchair over there. Then, once you're up to speed and cooking, we'll reset and bring out the laboratory equipment -- BELA (he leans in and WHISPERS) Uh, Eddie, do you have my money? ED Huh?! Oh yeah, of course. Ed and Bela step over to a corner. ACROSS THE ROOM From a distance, Ed pulls a wad of money from his pocket and peels off a few bills for Bela. The crew watches, fascinated. WIPE TO: LATER Bela is seated in the ratty armchair on the set. Harry does his make-up. Harry glances at Bela's arm, and it is full of TRACK MARKS. Harry grimaces, but doesn't say anything. Conrad eagerly scurries up. CONRAD Mr. Lugosi, I know you're very busy, but could I have your autograph? BELA (cordial) Of course. Conrad hands him a scrap of paper. Bela signs it. CONRAD You know which movie of yours I love, Mr. Lugosi? "The Invisible Ray." You were great as Karloff's sidekick. Bela's face suddenly hardens. He snaps. BELA "Sidekick"?? "KARLOFF"?!! Bela insanely RIPS up the autograph. BELA Fuck you!! Karloff doesn't deserve to smell my shit! That limey cocksucker can rot in hell, for all I care!!! WIDE Ed panickedly runs up. ED What happened?! Jesus, Connie, what did you do? CONRAD (upset, close to crying) Nothin'! I told him he was great. BELA How dare that asshole bring up Karloff?!! You think it takes talent to play Frankenstein?! NO! It's just make-up and grunting! GRRR! GRRR! GRRR! Ed is frozen in fear. He glances across the stage. Georgie is flabbergasted. He points urgently at his watch. Ed nods. He motions to Conrad: Get out of here. Conrad runs away. Ed leans in to Bela. ED You're right, Bela. Now Dracula, that's a part that takes acting. BELA Of course! Dracula requires presence. It's all in the voice, and the eyes, and the hand -- Bela waves his outstretched arm. Ed tries to calm him. ED Look, you seem a little agitated. Do you maybe wanna take a little break, go for a nice walk... and then we'll come back and shoot the scene? BELA BULLSHIT! I am ready now! Roll the camera!! The crew is baffled. Ed shrugs at them. ED Um, okay... roll camera CAMERAMAN BILL (unsure) Rolling. ED Sound! SOUNDMAN Speed. CAMERA ASSISTANT Mark. Scene Thirty-One. The Assistant CLAPS the slate in front of Bela, then runs. ED And... action? It's dead quiet. Nobody knows what's about to happen. WE MOVE IN TO BELA. And... he suddenly assumes character. Like the consumate pro he is. Bela gets a wicked, sinister leer, then starts intoning threateningly: BELA (as the SPIRIT) "Beware. Beware! Beware, of the big green dragon that sits on your doorstep. He eats little boys! Puppy dog tails! Big fat snails! Beware. Take care. Beware!" CLOSEUP - ED He is blown away. He quietly mumbles in amazement. ED Brilliant. WIPE TO: INT. STAGE - NEXT DAY Dolores studies her script, as the crew lights a flimsy kitchen set. Ed strolls past, nonchalantly removing a ladies' wig and earrings. She stares in disbelief. DOLORES How can you just walk around like that, in front of all these people? ED Hon', nobody's bothered but you. (he gestures) Look around -- they couldn't care less. DOLORES Ed, this isn't the real world! You've surrounded yourself with WEIRDOS! ED Say it a little louder. I don't think Bela heard you in his trailer. Dolores quiets down. She feels bad. ED Dolores. I need your help... WIPE TO: FILMING IN PROGRESS - LATER A scene is being shot, on camera. Ed (as Glen) and Dolores (as Barbara) stare into each other's eyes. He's dressed normal, and she wears a fuzzy angora sweater. ED (as GLEN) "My mind's in a muddle. I thought I could stop wearing these things. I tried, honestly I tried..." DOLORES (as BARBARA) (tentative) "Glen, I don't fully understand this. But maybe together -- we can work it out." She stands up, dramatically takes off her angora sweater, and gives it to Ed. He holds it meaningfully, then smiles proudly. ED Music swells... and CUT and PRINT IT! Ed and Dolores hug. CUT TO: INT. EDITING ROOM - DAY On a MOVIOLA, we see the black-and-white image of Dolores taking off her angora and giving it to Ed. WE PULL OUT. Ed and Georgie are hunched over, watching the movie. Ed smiles proudly. ED And we fade out. "The End." (the film runs out) What do you think? Georgie peers at his watch. He shakes his bead. GEORGIE I think it's fifty-seven minutes long. ED Yeah? Whatever. So did you like it? GEORGIE (like a lecturing teacher) Ed, what was the one thing I asked you to do? Make it seven reels long. I've got contracts with my exhibitors. If it ain't over an hour, they won't play it. ED Gee, I used every frame of film we shot. Maybe they won't notice. GEORGIE They'll notice. (beat) Look, why don't you let me take over from here? I can do a few tricks: Pad it out with more stock footage, add establishing shots... ED Um, I guess -- GEORGIE Good. And one more thing. I think your "Written, Directed, and Starring Ed Wood" credit is a bad idea. ED Why?! I did all those things! Hell, I even built the props. GEORGIE And you did a bang-up job, too. But you don't want other producers to know that's you in drag. Trust me. It's a career killer. Ed is quite upset. ED But I'm proud. I wrote, directed, and starred in it just like Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane"! GEORGIE Yeah?? Well Orson Welles didn't wear angora sweaters, did he??! Ed is beaten. CUT TO: INT. SCREENING ROOM - NIGHT It's the cast and crew screening! The eager two-dozen people are packed into a tiny screening room. The lights dim, and the movie starts. A LIBRARY MUSIC fanfare, and then: "Bela Lugosi in GLEN OR GLENDA" Everyone APPLAUDS excitedly. Bela smiles. Credits continue: "Featuring Daniel Davis and Dolores Fuller" The audience is audibly baffled. Bunny BLURTS out. BUNNY Daniel Who?! Dolores leans in to Ed. DOLORES Ed, who is Daniel Davis? ED (sour) Some weirdo who likes to wear dresses. DISSOLVE TO: LATER IN THE MOVIE ON-SCREEN, Dolores looks tenderly at Ed. DOLORES (on screen) "Glen. Is it another woman?" Ed as Glen nervously ponders his response. But suddenly -- MUSIC THUNDERS in. The movie cuts to buffalo stampeding. Bela's angry face is superimposed over this. BELA (on screen) "Pull the string! Pull the string!" IN THE AUDIENCE People are impressed by this technique. Bela nods in approval. ON-SCREEN Out of nowhere, CHEAP JAZZ MUSIC starts, and the movie abruptly cuts to SLEAZY STAG PARTY-STYLE FOOTAGE! A bare-chested man whips a bound woman! A woman dominates another tied to a large stick! A brunette violently rips off her dress and does a hoochie-coochie dance! IN THE AUDIENCE The crowd is stunned. CAMERAMAN BILL I didn't shoot that! Ed looks back at Georgie, who's wearing a big satisfied grin. ED Georgie, what's with the stag footage?? You said you were cutting in establishing shots! GEORGIE I did. I established some tits and ass. Ed rolls his eyes. He turns back to the movie. INT. PARTY - LATER THAT NIGHT Everybody is CELEBRATING, with a raucous party. People are boozing it up. BIG BAND MUSIC plays. Ed dances with Dolores. Paul smokes a joint. Conrad falls over a table and breaks a lamp. Bela dances happily with a cute young REDHEAD. BELA Wasn't I something..? Did you see how I command the screen?! Ed's giddy buddies stumble over with foaming glasses of beer. BUNNY Ed, it was superb. CONRAD A great show! A little strange... but great -- especially my scenes. ED Just like I always promised. Now you're among the immortals. You're movie stars. PAUL MARCO (he raises his glass) Here's to Ed. For making us into something. It's a warm moment. They all CLINK their glasses. Dolores kisses Ed. CUT TO: EXT. BUNGALOW HOUSE - DAY We're outside a cute little Spanish bungalow house. Ed and Dolores are moving in. They lug furniture from a rented truck. ED From today on, our lives are different! We'll be swimming laps in the same pool Jean Harlow did. DOLORES I don't know. It's so much money... ED Who cares?! We're on a ROLL! These are the moments in life you're supposed to grab. DOLORES But Ed, we're not even married. And you don't have a job. ED But you do! And anyway, I've got tons of new scripts. And now that I have a track record, studios are bound to hire me! She just stares. Ed shrugs, semi-reassuringly. ED Look on the bright side. If we miss the rent, what's the worst they can do? DOLORES Toss us out on our ass. ED Exactly. INT. BUNGALOW - DAY The house is moved in. Ed's unkempt dogs run about. Pumped-up Ed sits on the bed typing fiendishly fast while wearing an angora sweater. A cigarette dangles from his mouth, and a bottle of booze lays in his lap. Bela sits quietly nearby. ED How 'bout a western? People love westerns. BELA But, I don't like horses. Do I have to get on one? ED Eh, forget it. What else is big? (his face lights up) Teenagers! Jailbait pics! Yeah... You got the juvenile delinquent, his girlfriend from the wrong side of the tracks -- BELA Who do I play? ED Uh, a cop. NO! You play the father. He's angry! He doesn't like seeing his son -- no -- he doesn't like seeing his daughter behave this way! BELA (cautious, not to offend) Well... can't I play the romantic part? I'm tired of always being the bad guy. You know, back in Hungary, I played Romeo! I would like to be the lover again -- me, in a boat, with the girl... Ed considers this. ED Sure. Romance, that's great! To engineer your comeback, we're gonna need a whole slate of pictures. Once "Glen Or Glenda" takes off, we'll slam you into one, then another, then another! BELA (he smiles) That's good. I could use the money. ED But we need to start off with a bang! Something we know the audience will want to see. Mmm. What was your biggest hit? BELA (he thinks) Hmm... my biggest hit? That would probably be "Dracula." ED Of course! Ed crabs a pen and excitedly scrawls out the word "DRACULA." Bela frowns. BELA Those bastards at Universal. I made so much money for them, and now I can't get the time of day. ED So let's make another "Dracula." Let's make "The Return of Dracula"! BELA We can't. Those sons-a-bitches control the rights. ED They do? Shoot. There must be a way to get around that... Ed's mind is working. He holds out the paper and stares at it. Suddenly, he grins. He grabs the pen and makes a period after the "DR." It now says "DR.ACULA" ED Ha-ha! Dr. Acula! BELA Dracula? ED No! Doctor Acula! You can still wear the cape, have the fangs... but you're a doctor! Not a count. BELA Ah! This is very exciting. ED (inspired) I gotta type this up, while it's still fresh! Ed rips the paper from his typewriter, puts in a blank page, and starts typing. CUT TO: EXT. MOVIE STUDIO GATE - DAY We're outside the imposing gates of MGM. The lion logo is overhead. Ed drives up in his dirty Nash Rambler convertible. He wears his nicest suit. Ed peers nervously at the GUARD. ED Excuse me, I'm here to see Mr. Feldman. The Guard stares suspiciously at Ed. His filthy car is leaking oil. GUARD What's your name? ED Edward D. Wood, Junior. The man frowns. He looks through his files -- then finds a parking slip with Ed's name. He is surprised. GUARD Oh. Eh, he's in the Executive Building. You can park in the reserved section. Ed smiles. INT. EXECUTIVE WAITING ROOM - DAY The room is very posh, with fancy paneling and marble floors. Ed sits nervously under posters for "GRAND HOTEL" and "QUO VADIS." Film cans labled "Glen Or Glenda" rest in his lap. SECRETARY Sir, Mr. Feldman will see you now. She hits an electric button. A large oak door swings open. INT. OFFICE Behind a giant desk is MR. FELDMAN, a glib, thin over- caffeinated man. He jumps up, smiling. MR. FELDMAN Mr. Ward, it's a delight to meet you. ED (shaking his hand) It's Wood. Ed Wood. MR. FELDMAN Wood? Ward? Wood. (puzzled, he glances at his appointment book) Hey, what do you know. It is Wood. Dang secretaries, you can never get a good one. Right? Ed shrugs. Feldman grins. MR. FELDMAN So what are you bringing me? Looks like you got some film cans. ED Well, Mr. Feldman, some people have resumes to show. I've got my own movie. MR. FELDMAN Really?! Well good for you. ED I just made this picture, over at Screen Classics. It opens next week. MR. FELDMAN Screen Classics? Hmm, don't know them. ED Nobody in town has seen it, so I'm givin' you first crack at my talents. MR. FELDMAN I can't wait to take a look. (he claps his hands) So what's up next? Ed leans in. ED Well, Mr. Feldman, I don't believe in thinking small. So I've got a whole slate of pictures for you: "The Vampire's Tomb," "The Ghoul Goes West"... and "Doctor Acula"! MR. FELDMAN Doctor Acula? I don't get it. ED Dr. Acula! Ed writes it out, "DR. ACULA," then waves it in Feldman's face. Feldman nods. MR. FELDMAN Oh, "Dr. Acula." I get it. (beat) I don't like it. ED But Bela Lugosi's in it! MR. FELDMAN Lugosi's washed-up. What else you got? Ed grimaces. Lugosi was 90% of his pitch. He vamps. ED Well... I've got another project I wasn't gonna tell you about. Lugosi's in it, but he's got a smaller part. The lead is an ingenue, a sterling young actress named Dolores Fuller. The title is "Bride Of The Atom." MR. FELDMAN Ah! Atomic Age stuff, huh? I like it. (he smiles) I'll tell you what, Mr. Ward. Why don't you leave those film cans, and my associates and I will take a look at your little opus. Maybe we can do business together. Ed is elated. INT. STUDIO SCREENING ROOM - DAY Feldman and his fellow SMARMY EXECUTIVES sit in a plush screening room. They are viewing "Glen Or Glenda." ON-SCREEN, Ed is in drag. A SOLEMN NARRATOR within the movie speaks: SOLEMN NARRATOR (V.O.) "Give this man satin undies, a dress, and a sweater... and he's the happiest man in the world. He can work better, think better, even play better -- and be more of a credit to his community and his government." ANGLE ON THE EXECUTIVES They are stupefied. Yikes! EXECUTIVE #1 What the hell is this?! EXECUTIVE #2 Is this an actual movie?! EXECUTIVE #1 It can't be. EXECUTIVE #2 It's fuckin' ridiculous! Feldman squints at the screen. FELDMAN Wait a minute. That guy in the dress -- he's the one I met with today! This must be a big PUT-ON! (he CHUCKLES) It's probably another one of Billy Wellman's practical jokes! Everybody suddenly starts HOWLING with laughter. CUT TO: EXT. NEWSSTAND - DAY Ed zooms up and chipperly jumps from his car. He buys a "Los Angeles Herald-Express," eagerly opens it to the entertainment pages... and then gets a confused look. Ed quickly starts rifling through the pages -- something is wrong. EXT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY Ed angrily shouts into the phone. ED Georgie, what happened?! I thought "Glen Or Glenda" was opening next week! Where's the ads? An OLD-FASHIONED SPLIT SCREEN of Georgie on the phone appears. GEORGIE (pissed-off) "Where's the ads"?! The ads are in Alabama, Indiana, and Missouri! You schmuck, it ain't gonna play L.A.! ED Why not?? GEORGIE Because I can't sell it to save my life! You made a goddamn feathered fish. Is it an art film, a horror show, a hygiene flick? Nobody knows! I'm beggin' people to book it. ED (insulted) Maybe it needs special handling. GEORGIE Screw you, Wood! I even sunk more money into different titles: "Transvestite" "He Or She?" "I Led Two Lives"... It DOESN'T MATTER! Nobody wants to see the piece of shit. ED You can't talk that way about my movie. GEORGIE "Your movie"?! I wish it was your movie! I wish I hadn't blown every dime I ever made into this stinkbomb. If I ever see you again, I'll kill you!!! Georgie SLAMS down the phone. His split screen WIPES off, leaving Ed standing alone. Ed stares at the phone, then quietly hangs it up. CUT TO: INT. OLYMPIC AUDITORIUM - NIGHT WHAM! A WRESTLER throws another WRESTLER at the mat. The crowd CHEERS raucously. We're at the Saturday Night Wrestling Matches! In the stands are Ed, Dolores, Bunny, and Bunny's new YOUNG MALE "FRIEND." Seated around them are hollering truckers and ex-Marines. Bunny giggles and nudges gloomy Ed. BUNNY So guess where I'm going next weekend? ED I don't know. Where? BUNNY Mexico! And guess what I'm going to do there?! ED (not enjoying this game) I dunno. Lie on the beach? BUNNY WRONG! I'm getting my first series of hormone shots! And once those babies kick in, they're gonna remove my organs, and MAKE ME A WOMAN! Ed is astonished. ED Jesus! Are you serious? BUNNY Yes! I've dreamed of it for years, but your movie made me realize I've got to take action. GOODBYE, PENIS! The truckers nearby stare. Dolores covers her face. DOLORES Ssh! Will you keep it down? The crowd suddenly ROARS and jumps up. A favorite wrestler has entered the ring, massive TOR JOHNSON, 50. Tor is an incredible sight: A bald, lumbering behemoth. RING ANNOUNCER (amplified) Now entering the ring, in the gold trunks, 350 bone-crunching pounds of pure strength, the "Swedish Angel"... Tor Johnson!!! The crowd goes apeshit. The stands are going to collapse from the SHOUTING. Ed's eyes are the size of saucers. ED My God, look at that guy. He's a mountain! The bell RINGS. Tor quickly grabs his OPPONENT, a man in a blue mask, and throws him at the ground. Then Tor jumps onto his stomach, easily picks him up, and heaves him at the ropes. People CHEER. Ed is flabbergasted. ED I've never seen anything like him! BUNNY And once I'm a woman, Jean-Claude and I are getting married -- ED (eyes glued to the ring) Ssh! He's so big! He's a monster! Can you imagine what that guy would be like in a movie? ON TOR He screams maniacally in Swedish. Tor lifts the Opponent over his head and tosses him into the stands. Three rows of chairs get knocked over. CUT TO: EXT. WRESTLER'S BAR - NIGHT A tiny miniature European car pulls up. Tor Johnson is squeezed inside -- ludicrously oversized for this vehicle. Tor carefully wedges himself out and enters the bar. INT. WRESTLER'S BAR - SAME TIME This rowdy bar is packed with burly WRESTLERS. Tor walks in, and men cheerily yell out: "Hey, Tor!" "Hi, Tor!" Tor grins. In person, he actually seems a jolly, outgoing fellow. Ed waves from the corner ED Mr. Johnson, over here! Tor smiles and lumbers over ED Glad you could fit me in your schedule. TOR (in a hoarse SWEDISH ACCENT) Da pleasure be mine. They shake hands. Ed's hands look like a baby's in Tor's giant mitts. Tor tries to sit in the booth. But he can't fit. TOR Could we moovf to table? ED Oh, of course! Ed jumps up. They move to a large table. Now Tor is happy. He starts shoveling beer nuts into his mouth. ED So, Mr. Johnson -- TOR Tor! ED Tor. Have you ever thought about becoming an actor? TOR (he CHUCKLES) Mm, not good-lookink enough. ED I think you're quite handsome. TOR No. With hair, yah. But I must shave head for wrestlink. It scare da crowds. Dey like that. Ed smiles. ED Well, I think you'd be a sensation in pictures. TOR But what bout accent? Some people tink I haf too much accent. ED Nah, that doesn't matter! It's a visual medium. A WAITRESS saunters over. WAITRESS Tor, what can I get ya? TOR I'll haf eight beers. WAITRESS (nonchalant, to Ed) And you? ED Uhh, I'll have just one. She walks off. Tor shakes the now-empty nut bowl. TOR And more nuts! Ed tries to grab Tor's attention. ED So anyway, I've got this new script, "Bride Of The Atom," and there's a part you're ideal for: "Lobo." He's tough. A brute. But he has a heart -- and at the end he saves the girl. TOR (he laughs merrily) I like. When do movie shoot? ED Hopefully, very soon. I'm just awaiting the final okay from Mr. Feldman at MGM. CUT TO: INT. ED'S BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Ed and Dolores are asleep. Suddenly the phone RINGS. Ed fumbles for it and groggily answers. ED Wood Productions... We hear Bela's weak VOICE. BELA (on phone) Eddie... help me... ED Bela? BELA (on phone) Eddie... please come over -- CLICK. The phone hangs up. Ed is very alarmed. EXT. BELA'S HOUSE - LATE NIGHT The wind is blowing. Ed's Nash roars up, and he jumps out, a coat over his pajamas. He runs up and POUNDS on Bela's door. ED Bela?! Ed tries the door. It's unlocked. INT. BELA'S HOUSE - SAME TIME Ed steps into the dark room, and is stunned by what he sees: Bela is slumped on the floor, pasty white, eyes glazed. A rubber tube is tied on his arm, and a HYPODERMIC NEEDLE lies next to him. The dogs crouch behind him, whimpering, despondent, Bela looks up through half-opened eyes. BELA Eddie... my friend. Aghast, Ed runs over. ED Bela, what happened?! BELA I didn't feel well... ED Let me take you to the hospital. BELA No hospital. Just take me to the couch... Ed nods. He picks up the old man and carries him across the room to the couch. The large portrait of Bela, young and robust, peers down. ED Should I call a doctor? BELA Nah. This happens all the time... Ed puts a pillow under Bela's head. ED Is there anything I can get you? Water? A blanket? BELA Goulash. ED (distressed) I don't know how to make goulash. Ed sits next to him. An awkward pause. ED What's in the needle? BELA Morphine, with a demerol chaser. (he starts crying) Eddie, I'm so broke. I don't know what I'm gonna do... ED Don't worry. I'll do something. CUT TO: EXT. MOVIE STUDIO GATE - MORNING Ed stands outside MGM, talking into a phone at the guard gate. ED (on phone) Mr. Feldman! I haven't been able to get through, so I just showed up. Yeah, out front! So, are we gonna be working together? (his face slowly falls) Really? Worst film you ever saw...? (beat) Well, my next one will be better. (beat) Hello? INT. ED'S HOUSE - DAY Dolores tries to cheer up gloomy Ed. He's wearing angora. ED I'm no good. DOLORES Ed, it's just one man's opinion! ED Bela needs a job... I can't even get a film going... (listless) But of course I can't -- I made the worst movie of all time. DOLORES That's ridiculous. Ed sighs. ED All I wanna do is tell stories. The things I find interesting... DOLORES Well maybe you're not studio kind of material. Maybe you just need to raise the money yourself. Ed looks up. INT. BANK - DAY Ed sits opposite a LOAN OFFICER. ED The movie is called "Bride Of The Atom"... INT. DENTIST'S OFFICE - DAY Ed continues, pitching to three DENTISTS in white coats. ED ...It will star Bela Lugosi. Each of you would put up $20,000... EXT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY Ed stands at a busy intersection. He YELLS into a phone. ED Yes, that's right. The Bela Lugosi. He's still alive. (beat) Huh? Is he available Friday night? Gee, I suppose so... Why? cut TO: INT. TV STUDIO - NIGHT We're backstage at a '5Os variety show. It's exciting live TV: Showgirls, techies, and cast members dart about in a state of hyped-up tumult. INT. DRESSING ROOM - SAME TIME Bela and Ed sit in his dressing room, running lines. Bela is in his Count outfit: Cape, jet black hair, red lips, etc. They both read off SCRIPTS. BELA "Greetings. I am the Count." ED "Greetings. I am Slick Slomopavitz, Seeker of Adventure." Audience laughs. Applause. "Say, that's a funny place to sleep." BELA "It is my home." ED "Oh, tract housing, huh?" Laugh. "You need a new real estate agent." BELA "Beg to differ. This casket incarpratates, er, inporporates --" Ed interrupts. ED No Bela, that's "incorporates." Look, just say "This casket has..." BELA (upset) Ach! How do they expect a Hungarian to pronounce this dialogue? This live television is madness! An ASSISTANT knocks and sticks her head in. ASSISTANT Five minutes, Mr. Lugosi. INT. BACKSTAGE - MINUTES LATER Ed and Bela stand in the wings. Onstage is the SHOW HOST, a cheesy comedian. He is doing a routine with Criswell, the famed psychic who opened this movie. Criswell wears a tux and a turban and is acting mysterious. HOST And then what's gonna happen? CRISWELL In 1960, the automobile will have retractable wings, so it can fly. HOST Sounds like a heck of a way to beat traffic. Audience LAUGHS. Criswell rubs his temples enigmatically. CRISWELL By 1970, Man will have colonized Mars. Millions of people will live there. Ed is mesmerized. ED Wow! Ain't that something. INT. STUDIO - LATER We're out in the audience. The curtain rises on a SPOOKY SET: Shadows, cobwebs, and a coffin in the center. The Host walks onstage, to huge APPLAUSE. He's playing his "Slick" character, a befuddled moron in a funny hat. The Host shines a flashlight around, and then the coffin opens. Bela sits up. There's more APPLAUSE. BELA Greetings. I am the Count. HOST Greetings. I am Slick Slomopavitz, Seeker of Adventure. The audience LAUGHS. Then APPLAUSE. HOST Say, that's a funny place to sleep. BELA It is my home. HOST Oh, tract housing, huh? (he starts AD-LIBBING) I guess I shouldn't complain about my duplex in Burbank. What a dump. Some places have a Murphy bed, this place has a Murphy shower. I still don't know where to hang the towels! The audience HOWLS with laughter. Bela is totally lost. He seems incredibly confused. BELA Uh, beg to differ. HOST "Beg to differ?!" Hey, I'm talkin' about my duplex in Burbank! BELA (terrified, groping) Uh, Greetings. I am the Count... BACKSTAGE Ed covers his face in embarrassment. CUT TO: INT. STUDIO HALLWAY - LATER The Host angrily storms past. HOST I told you we should've gotten Karloff. He exits. A door opens, and Ed and Bela quietly step out. ED Bela, don't worry. You're better than all this crap. BELA (distraught) I never said I could ad-lib... ED Forget about it. We'll make our new movie, and you'll be a star again. They shuffle away... until Criswell and his snazzy ENTOURAGE burst around a corner. Even in person, Criswell is ethereal and quite self-important. He is delighted to see Bela. CRISWELL Mr. Lugosi! It is an unparalleled privilege to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself... I am CRISWELL! BELA (morose) It's a pleasure... CRISWELL Ah, cheer up! Don't lose heart over what happened tonight. (he points at his temple) I predict that your next project will be an outstanding success! ED Wow. CRISWELL And who may you be? ED Edward Wood, Sir. CRISWELL Ah. The director of "Glen Or Glenda." ED (startled) H-how'd you know?! CRISWELL I'm Criswell. I know all. Criswell winks. CUT TO: INT. MOCAMBO ROOM - NIGHT Latin horns blast onstage of this hopping '5Os nightclub. Cigarette girls roam about. Seated at a front table is Ed, Bela, and Criswell's group. Everyone's plastered and laughing. Criswell shouts above the din at a WAITER. CRISWELL Bring me two more Beefeater martinis. Eddie will have another whiskey, Dagmar's a Rum-and-coke, Moustapha and King are chablis -- hey Bela, would you like a wine? BELA No. I never drink -- wine. The whole table CRACKS UP. Bela cheers up. Ed turns to Criswell. ED Hey Cris, how'd you know we'd be living on Mars by 1970? How'd you know it wouldn't be 1975, or even 1980? CRISWELL I guessed. ED I don't understand. CRISWELL I made it up. It's horseshit! Ed's jaw drops. CRISWELL There's no such thing as a psychic. People believe my folderol because I wear a turban and a black tuxedo. ED It's that easy? CRISWELL Eddie, we're in show biz! It's all about razzle-dazzle. Appearances. If you dress nice and talk well, people will swallow anything. Criswell smiles knowingly. Ed nods at this profound wisdom. CUT TO: EXT. BROWN DERBY - NIGHT We're outside the legendary hat-shaped restaurant. A large Eldorado pulls up, and a CONSERVATIVE MAN and his PLUMP WIFE step out and approach the DOORMAN. CONSERVATIVE MAN Excuse me. We're here for the Wood party. DOORMAN Ah, that would be in the Venetian Room, sir. The couple raise their eyebrows. They're impressed. INT. BROWN DERBY - NIGHT A large banner says "BRIDE OF THE ATOM - NEXT YEAR'S SMASH HIT!" In a private back room, Ed is throwing a LAVISH BACKERS PARTY. All his riff-raff friends are dressed in tuxedos and gowns, strutting about with flutes of champagne like they're extras in "The Great Gatsby." Bewildered POTENTIAL BACKERS wander around. Ed shmoozes them. ED We're gonna have the most terrifying monster ever seen on film! A ghastly creature created from an atomic mutation! BACKER'S WIFE I don't like scary movies. I go more for ones with love stories. ED (without dropping a beat) Well that's what this movie is... a heartbreaking romance! It's about a young reporter, Janet Lawton, in love with a young cop, Dick Craig. ACROSS THE ROOM Conrad and Paul sit in a corner. Conrad has a shoe off and is scratching his foot. Ed alarmedly runs over. ED What do you think you're doin'?! CONRAD These shoes are itchy. ED You can't sit! You gotta walk around, with good posture. You want these people to think we have class. Otherwise they'll never invest in our movie. ACROSS THE PARTY Two AMAZED BACKERS have their hands around Tor's giant arm. AMAZED BACKER Bernie, get a load of this guy! TOR (proud of his size) Biceps 22! Chest 62! Stomach 54! AMAZED BACKER Whew! You're quite a specimen. (beat) And you're gonna be in the picture? TOR Yes. I play Lobo! ACROSS THE ROOM An excited HICK BACKER shakes Bela's hand. HICK BACKER Mr. Lugosi, I can't believe I'm meeting you in person. This is one of the most exciting moments of my life. BELA Thank you. And you are? HICK BACKER Charlie Johnson! I manufacture toothpaste tubes. ACROSS THE PARTY Criswell struts in the b.g., talking to someone. CRISWELL I predict "Bride Of The Atom" will be the biggest moneymaker of all time! In the f.g., Ed introduces Dolores to a SOUTHERN BACKER. ED And this is lovely starlet Dolores Fuller, who will play Janet Lawton. SOUTHERN BACKER And how much will this picture cost? ED In a normal studio it would be half-a-million, with all their wasteful overhead and fancy offices. But because we're more efficient, we can bring it in for seventy grand! SOUTHERN BACKER Hmm. Well I'll consider it... EXT. BROWN DERBY - LATER THAT NIGHT Ed and his buddies wave goodbye to the departing backers. ED Goodbye! Goodbye! BELA (to Ed) So how'd we do? ED (faking a big smile, but SOTTO VOCE to Bela) We didn't make a dime. IN THE PARKING LOT A VALET hands the car keys to the Conservative Backer. VALET That's twenty-five cents, sir. The man glances at his Wife. She shrugs. WIFE I gave all my money to the babysitter. The man grimaces. He checks his pockets, pulls out a handful of PENNIES, and counts them out... CUT TO: EXT. ED AND DOLORES'S BACKYARD - DAY Ed sits in a chaise lounge by the pool, studying papers and drinking shots of whiskey. He's in a woman's pantsuit and fuzzy slippers. Dolores marches out. DOLORES Ed, the landlord called again. He wants his money. ED Tell him "Bride" is in pre- production. DOLORES Ed, the landlord doesn't care. ED That's the problem! Nobody cares about my movie! I'm tryin' so hard, I don't know what else to do! DOLORES Don't get angry at me. Maybe you just need a day job. ED (upset) Dolores, don't you understand? I'm a director now! I made "Glen Or Glenda." Directing is my day job. DOLORES (irate) All I know is, ever since "Glen Or Glenda," all you do is booze it up and wear my clothes! Suddenly Paul hesitantly steps through the back gate. PAUL MARCO Uh, yoo-hoo. Excuse me! Sorry to interrupt, but I got some big news. ED (dour) Yeah...? PAUL MARCO Well my cousin Fred met this dame from back East. She's from "old money," and he thinks she's loaded. And here's the kicker: She's very interested in the picture business! ANGLE - ED He slowly smiles. It's like sun breaking through rain clouds. CUT TO: EXT. RESTAURANT PATIO - DAY We're at a fancy outdoor brunch. Ed is shaking hands with pretty LORETTA KING, 25, a pale brunette in a classy dress. LORETTA Pleased to meet you. I'm Loretta King. ED I understand you just moved here? LORETTA Yes. Hollywood is oh so exciting. A WAITER walks over, with a water pitcher. WAITER Water, Ma'am? LORETTA (suddenly freaking out) No! No water! NO LIQUIDS! I'm terribly allergic to them! The waiter is bewildered. He hurries away. Ed leans in. ED So my associate Mr. Marco tells me you may be interested in investing in a motion picture. LORETTA Perhaps a small amount of money. (she smiles) How much do one of your motion pictures cost? ED For this one, we need $60,000. LORETTA That's all?? That seems very reasonable for an entire picture. Ed perks up. She's a live one! Ed pulls a script from his briefcase and hands it to her. ED Perhaps you'd like to look at the photoplay. LORETTA Oh my, this is very interesting. (she skims the pages) Say... do you think it would be possible for me to maybe play one of these parts? ED (very enthused) Oh, of course!! There's a couple characters you'd be perfect for: The secretary at the newspaper office, or the file clerk! LORETTA Hmm. Those sound kind of small. (stopping at a page) Oh, here's one that looks good: Janet Lawton. I'd sure like to play her. Ed blanches. ED J-Janet Lawton??? LORETIA Yes, Janet Layton is clearly the part to play. She's got some real meaty scenes! Can't you just see me in that part?? CU - ED He is aghast. What a stomach-churning decision. He stares at Loretta, then slowly croaks a response. ED Uh... yeah... (beat) You'd be perfect. CUT TO: EXT. ED AND DOLORES'S HOUSE - DAY We HEAR dishes being violently thrown. Dolores SCREAMS inside. DOLORES (o.s.) You bastard! You two-timing, dress-wearing son-of-a-BITCH!! INT. HOUSE - SAME TIME Dolores is crying and screaming angrily. Ed ducks the objects she hurls at him. ED It was the only way I could get the movie made! DOLORES Who do you think's been paying the rent?! Who helped type your script, and did all your grunt work?! ED I'm sorry! What did you want me to say? DOLORES I wanted you to say, "No! I wrote the part for my girlfriend Dolores." ED But there's plenty of other parts. DOLORES Like what?! ED (nervous) The secretary. Or the file clerk. Dolores is stunned. DOLORES YOU ASSHOLE! She hurls a pot at Ed. WHACK! It slams him in the head. CUT TO: INT. SOUNDSTAGE - DAY The sets are being erected for "Bride Of The Atom"! The crew hurries about the small stage, as Ed energetically supervises. He has a large band-aid on his head. ED This is gonna be Bela's laboratory, so it should be real impressive! Like one of those mad scientist movies. I want beakers, and test tubes, and one of those electrical things that buzzes! BUNNY You mean a Tesla coil? ED If you say so. Tor lumbers over, in his ripped Lobo outfit. His face has fake gashed-up scars. Tor holds the script. TOR Edvard! I haf question 'bout script. My vife Greta, she read. And she no like. ED Really? Was the third act too intense? TOR (trying to be polite) No. She tink Lobo is waste of my time. Lobo don't talk. ED But Tor, it's a starring part! You're second billed. TOR Bela, he talk. Loretta, she talk. But Tor, he no talk. Ed thinks. He quickly puts a spin on this. ED Tor, dialogue is overrated. You look at the classic film actors, who are they? Fairbanks. Chaplin. They didn't talk! They did it all with their face. TOR (still bothered) But Greta say -- Loretta walks over, holding two dresses. LORETTA Eddie, which dress do you like better? ED I don't know. (he yells o.s.) Hey Bill, which dress is better for you, the green or the red one? Cameraman Bill is standing at the camera. He squints. CAMERAMAN BILL Which one is the red one? ED (confused) What do you mean? CAMERAMAN BILL I mean I can't see the difference. I'm color-blind. (beat) But I like the dark gray one. WIPE TO: LATER The crew is shooting on a spooky castle foyer set. ED ACTION! Bela enters, wearing a lab coat costume. As he slowly crosses, the old man rubs his hands fiendishly. Ed YELLS live direction through a megaphone. ED Okay, you're Dr. Eric Vornoff. You're upset. You've worked so hard on this experisent, and you don't want to see it fail. (Bela stops, to "emote") No, you're not that upset. You want to keep moving. You wanna cross the room. (Bela exits) Okay, CUT! BEAUTIFUL! PRINT IT! Ed claps his hands triumphantly. ED Alright, let's go immediately to Scene 52. Tor, are you in place? TOR'S VOICE Yah. ED Okay, CUE RAINSTORM! Behind the window, Conrad pours a watering can. ED And roll camera! ACTION! Tor enters, but can barely squeeze his bulk through the door. Finally he enters. Ed YELLS through the segaphone. ED Okay, you're Lobo. You're upset. You've worked so hard helping Dr. Vornoff on this experiment, and you don't want to see it fail. (Tor stops, to "emote") No, you're not that upset. You want to keep moving. You wanna cross the room. (Tor exits) Okay, CUT! PERFECT! PRINT IT! OFF STAGE Bela talks to Tor. BELA At Universal, they shot two scenes a day. Eddie can knock off twenty or thirty! He's incredible. BACK ON SET Cameraman Bill leans in to Ed. CAMERAMAN BILL Hey Ed, shouldn't we do another take? Big Baldy kinda got stuck in the doorway. ED No, it's fine. It's real! In actuality, Lobo would struggle with that problem every day. WIPE TO: LABORATORY SET - LATER They are back on the completed lab set. Beyond the bunsen burners and beakers is a kitchenette in the corner. ED Wow, this lab looks great. Except why is there a stove and refrigerator? PAUL MARCO We couldn't afford any more props. If it seems weird, maybe you can add a scene where they eat dinner. ED Nah, it'll work. Where's Bela? Bela is asleep on a couch. Ed nudges him. ED Bela, are you ready? BELA (he groggily wakes up) Mmph? Where am I? ED You're shooting "Bride Of The Atom." Scene 85. Bela nods. He stands up, then grimaces in pain. So he pulls two BRIGHT LITTLE PILLS from his pocket and swallows them. Ed walks Bela onto the lab set. ED You'll be sitting on the right. BELA (he glares at the sparking Tesla coils) I'm not getting near that goddamn thing. One of those burned me on "The Return Of Chandu." ED Okay. Then you'll be sitting on the left. Ed turns to Tor and Loretta. She wears a wedding gown. ED Here's the scene. Loretta, you're in a trance. You glide in and get on the operating table. Now Tor, you're supposed to tie her down. But you have an angora fetish... and when you rub that swatch of angora, it makes you refuse so Bela has to discipline you. TOR Okey-dokey. WIPE TO: SHOOTING - LATER The scene begins. ED ACTION! BELA (as VORNOFF) "Now we are ready for the girl." Bela does his patented hypnotic arm wave. He actually has a powerful intensity. Loretta staggers in, eyes glazed. Like a zombie, she climbs onto the operating table. BELA "Dear, you are a woman of super strength and beauty. A lovely vision of exquisitely beauty -- shit!" (he breaks character) Damn! Eddie, I'm sorry I can't remember all this. I'm an old man. It's too long. ED That's fine, Bela. We're still rolling. Just say "Dear, you're lovely." BELA (he snaps back into character) "Dear, you're lovely." (he turns to Tor) "Strap her to the table." Tor starts to tie Loretta down, then gets distracted by a piece of angora hooked to his waist. He rubs it lovingly, calmed, then suddenly refuses. Bela is furious. BELA "Do as I command you!" Bela pulls out an oversized BULLWHIP and starts WHIPPING Tor. Tor screams in agony. BELA "I'll teach you to disobey me!" Bela chases Tor around the set, WHIPPING him. ED And, CUT!!! Impeccable! ON TOR He dances about happily. TOR I love being movie star! Tor jubilantly hugs Loretta. She grimaces. LORETTA Ow. Not so hard, Tor. ON ED A SURLY STAGE MANAGER strides over to Ed. SURLY STAGE MANAGER Hey, Wood. Your check bounced. ED Okay, I'll get you the money later. SURLY STAGE MANAGER No. I need it NOW. Ed nods grimly. He grabs Loretta and takes her aside. ED Sorry to bother you while we're shooting, but the guy who owns the stage needs his money. LORETTA Well then you should pay him, shouldn't you? ED (he smiles) Yeah. Exactly! There's a pause. They stare at each other. ED I kinda need it now. LORETTA (baffled) What are you looking at me like that for? I already gave you my three hundred. ED Yeah. Well I need the other sixty-thousand. LORETTA What other sixty-thousand? ED The other sixty-thousand you said you'd give me. LORETTA You misunderstood. I gave you everything I have in the world: Three-hundred dollars. CLOSEUP - ED He looks like he s going to throw up. ED Oh my God. CUT TO: EXT. SOUNDSTAGE - DAY The large stage door SLAMS shut. Ed's disoriented cast and crew stand in the street. Bela, Tor, and Loretta are still in costume. Ed looks totally dazed. He blinks in the bright sunlight. CUT TO: INT. BROWN DERBY - NIGHT We're back at the Brown Derby, for another backers party. The same banner is hanging: "BRIDE OF THE ATOM -- NEXT YEAR'S SMASH HIT!" The whole crowd is there, dressed up. Bela sits in the corner, knocking back a drink. BELA Here we go again. Paul whispers to Bunny. PAUL MARCO So is Dolores coming? BUNNY (very catty) I can't imagine why. I wouldn't put up with a boyfriend who sold me out for three-hundred dollars...! ON ED Ed stands with a circle of POTENTIAL BACKERS. He has an edge of desperation we've never seen before. ED ...lemme tell you, you can't lose. It's scary! And if you don't like that, it's romantic! Bela Lugosi portrays Dr. Vornoff, and lovely ingenue Loretta King is reporter Janet Lawton. POTENTIAL BACKER Hmm. Lugosi looks pretty old. (he squints across the room) Which role is Vampira playing? ED Vampira...? (bewildered) Why do you ask?? POTENTIAL BACKER Well I see her standing over there. The guy points. Ed turns and looks and Vampira is standing in the next room. She's at a different party. ED Well... she's playing -- (beat) Could you excuse me one moment?? Ed dashes from the room. NEXT ROOM OVER Vampira is drinking with a bunch of artsy-fartsy types. She's in street clothes, but clearly recognizable. Ed runs up. ED Excuse me, Miss Vampira? VAMPIRA Yes? ED (sweaty) You don't know me, but my name is Ed Wood. I'm a film producer. I'm currently in production on a science-fiction piece, with Bela Lugosi and Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson. And I saw you here, and I thought: Kismet! Vampira stares, totally uncomprehending. VAMPIRA I don't understand. Do you want my autograph? ED No. I think my film is perfect for you. VAMPIRA You want me to show it on my TV program? Well I got nothing to do with that. You should call up the station manager at Channel Seven -- ED (unyielding) No! I don't want you to show the movie, I want you to be in it! See, maybe I should explain: We started shooting, but then after three days we got shut down. So we're having a backers party, to raise some more money. Perhaps you'd like to come next door and meet some of the backers...? Vampire glances at her friends. They uncomfortably turn away. VAMPIRA Uh, look, I'm with some friends, and we're about to eat -- ED (begging) Please! It'll only take a minute. You can have some hors d'oeuvres, and meet my backers! There's a really nice dentist from Oxnard... VAMPIRA (pissed off) Look buddy, I'm a big star. I've got real offers from real studios. I don't need to blow some dentist for a part. So forget it! BACK AT THE PARTY The backers glance into the next room. Ed is in front of Vampira, begging on his hands and knees. BACKER (to another backer) I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Let's get out of here. The backers pick up their coats. Through the doorway, Ed sees this. He jumps up and frantically runs back in. ED Where are you guys going?! You can't leave! BACKER (running out) Goodbye, Mr. Wood. ED (insane) You can't go! You haven't seen the storyboards! The backers run out of the room. They're gone. Ed shouts after them. ED Fine! SCREW YOU! If you don't have the balls to roll the dice, then I don't want your stinking money!! No response. ED Please, come back! CUT TO: EXT. ED AND DOLORES' HOUSE - DAY Ed and Dolores are being evicted. Their belongings are scattered in front. They bitterly carry furniture out of the house. Ed stumbles and slurs his speech. He is drunk. ED Goddamn landlord. DOLORES I told you this was gonna happen. ED Maybe if you'd come to the backers party, I would've gotten the money. DOLORES That's moronic. Why would a bit player impress a backer? ED (he starts yelling) Look, how many times can I say I'm sorry? I blew it! I thought she was rich. DOLORES That's a good reason to dump your girlfriend. ED I didn't dump you! Get it through your skull -- I just recast the part! Ed drops the furniture. He flops onto the sidewalk. DOLORES You're a fuckin' mess. ED So WHAT?? Look, we gotta figure out where we're gonna stay. DOLORES I'm going to my mother's. ED Does she have room for me? Dolores shakes her head. DOLORES I think you should stay with one of your friends. CUT TO: EXT. TOWERING TEMPLE - NIGHT Ed and Bela stroll through a parking lot. Ed is sobered up and remorseful. Bela wears a beret and smokes a huge cigar. ED Bela, I don't know what I'm doin' anymore... BELA Stop worrying. This is going to raise your spirits. They reach the strange entrance to an avant-garde, Eastern based quasi-religious temple. Bela puts out his cigar, and they enter the oversized doors. INT. TEMPLE - SAME TIME Sphinxes and Bodhisatvas peer down from the marble walls. A service is in progress. A wiry, enigmatic LECTURER speaks. LECTURER Thou eternal sun, who has covered the consciousness with thy golden disc, do thou remove the veil so that I may see the truth within? Bela leads Ed to a seat, stepping past men in fezzes and odd elderly women in fur coats. As the lecture continues, Ed WHISPERS in bafflement. ED What is this place? BELA This is the Philosophical Research Society. A refuge for free thinkers. I've been coming here for twenty years. LECTURER ...for the truth which is within thee is within me. And I am Truth. BELA Most people in this country, they know nothing, about Eastern mysticism. They are afraid of it. (beat) But I am open-minded. It gives me hope. LECTURER We have the wisdom to govern and the divine right to inherit the earth in good condition. We have the power to build worlds. Ed leans in to Bela. ED Was I wrong to cast Loretta? BELA Bad decisions are easy to live with. Forget. Just keep looking forward. ED But was it a bad decision? At the time, I thought her money would save the movie. BELA Eddie, you screwed up. ED (he nods) Yeah, I did. CUT TO: LATER The lecture is over. The speaker shakes hands with people. Bela leads Ed along. BELA In life, the decisions that haunt you are the ones where you just don't know... where right or wrong will never be answered. (beat) Years ago, the Hungarians contacted me. The government wanted me to come home, to be Minister of Culture. ED Really? BELA It was a very impressive offer. Fancy offices, a big home... I'd be treated like a king. ED So why didn't you do it? BELA I didn't know if it was a trick. They might arrest me and throw me in a gulag. (pause) I am Hungary's most famous emigrant. they'd use me as a lesson to anyone who tries to leave. ED But maybe not. BELA Correct. So instead, I stayed here, waiting for my comeback. Always hoping... the next film, the next film... that would be the one. They reach the exit. Ed stops in the huge doorway. ED Your next film. That will be the one. Bela smiles sweetly. CUT TO: INT. MCCOY MEATPACKING PLANT - DAY We're in a noisy meat-packing plant. WORKERS in blood-stained aprons slam cleavers into hunks of beef. Ed walks down an aisle with DONALD E. McCOY, a wealthy Texan meat man. Old Man McCoy is a tough-talking, tobacco-chewing, straight shooter. ED ...and then Dr. Vornoff falls in the pit, and his own octopus attacks and eats him! The End. OLD MAN McCOY Whew! That's quite a story. So you made the movie, and now you want to make it again? ED (gently correcting him) No. We shot ten minutes of the movie, and now we're looking for completion funds. OLD MAN McCOY Son, you're too vague. I come from the world of business. I need to know what I get for my investment. ED Movies are very popular. You could make a lot of money. OLD MAN McCOY Yeah, but most of 'em flop, don't they? What am I tangibly guaranteed? ED Well... you get "Executive Producer" credit. OLD MAN McCOY That don't mean diddley. (he suddenly SHOUTS angrily) BILLY BOB! You're cutting 'em TOO LEAN. McCoy grabs a CLEAVER from a worker and slams it into a chop. ED Mr. McCoy, how can I make you happy? OLD MAN McCOY Cut to the chase, heh? That's good! That's very good. McCoy SPITS his tobacco. OLD MAN McCOY Okay, two things. Number one: I want the movie to end with a big explosion. Sky full of smoke. ED But the story ends with Dr. Vornoff falling in the pit -- OLD MAN McCOY Not anymore. And number two: I've got a son. He's a little slow -- but a good boy. And something tells me he'd make a hell of a leading man... Under Ed's cheery frozen smile, his face clearly falls. CUT TO: INT. SALT LAKE CITY AUDITORIUM - NIGHT We're at a ROWDY wrestling match. Tor Johnson is in the middle of a screaming, four-man tag-team event. Tor THROWS his opponent to the ground; then tags with his partner and goes to the corner. Suddenly a WRESTLING COACH runs up, dragging a telephone on a very long cord. WRESTLING COACH Tor, you got a phone call! TOR Heh? NOW? WRESTLING COACH They said it was an emergency! He hands sweaty Tor the phone. Tor speaks into it. TOR Hallo? ED'S VOICE Tor, this is Ed! Glad I could find you! I got the money, and we resume shooting tomorrow morning! TOR But I'm in Utah. ED'S VOICE Then you'll have to drive all night! I'm counting on you, big guy. Breakfast is at seven. CLICK. Ed hangs up. Tor is flabbergasted. CUT TO: INT. SOUNDSTAGE - EARLY MORNING "Bride Of The Atom" is back in production! Ed's stock company is reunited. People drink coffee and gossip. PAUL MARCO This is unbelievable! I woulda bet a million bucks that Ed wouldn't finish this picture. CAMERAMAN BILL It ain't finished yet. Anything could happen. The stage door opens and standing there, in silhouette, is Dolores. Everybody quiets. People glance nervously at Loretta. BUNNY Uh-oh. Stay out of scratching distance. AT DOLORES Ed runs over. Dolores is beautifully made-up, and wearing a furry angora sweater. Ed speaks, awkwardly. ED Honey, you made it! I wasn't sure you got my message. DOLORES (icy) Of course I'm here. Today is the file clerk's big scene. ED That's right... DOLORES I see the usual gang of misfits and dope addicts are here. (she looks around) Say, who's the lug? In a corner, standing by himself, is dumb TONY McCOY, Old Man McCoy's worthless son. He's a good-looking, moody hunk. Tony is practicing his lines from a script, but he's terribly stiff. TONY "Now Janet, I want you straying away -- oops -- staying away from the old Willows Place." Ed shrugs. ED That's Tony McCoy. He's playing Lieutenant Dick Craig. DOLORES Oh really? How much money did he put up? ED None. (beat) But his dad gave me fifty grand. DOLORES (snide) Wood Productions. The mark of quality. ED Hey, the movie's getting made. That's the main thing. Dolores shakes her head contemptuously. Then she strides off. Ed stands alone, feeling bad. WIPE TO: ON STAGE The set is a one-wall "office hallway": A doorway and a water cooler. Loretta sits in a make-up chair, as Harry works on her. DOLORES (O.S.) Hey Harry -- long time no see. Harry turns, surprised. Dolores stands behind him. There's a thick tension. He smiles anxiously. MAKE-UP MAN HARRY Hi Dolores... LORETA Oh, you're Dolores?! I've heard so much about you! I'm Loretta King. (she chipperly jumps up) Here, take the chair. DOLORES (bitchy) Don't be silly -- let Harry finish. You still need more work. LORETTA No, I'm done. All I needed was a touch-up. DOLORES Mm, that mole still shows. Loretta frowns. Ed quickly steps in. ED Ladies! You both look fine. Why don't we talk about the scene? (beat) Okay. Janet Lawton has discovered that Dr. Vornoff bought the old Willows estate. So now she wants to prove that all the monster stories are true. Dolores nods sourly. She s in a trouble-making mood. DOLORES Eddie, what's my motivation? ED (thrown off) Oh. Er... well you're the file clerk. You're hurrying into the next room, when you bump into Janet. DOLORES But what's our relationship? Are we good friends, or is she just a casual acquaintance? ED (annoyed) Dolores, I got five days to shoot this movie. Quit kidding around. WIPE TO: INT. SCREENING ROOM - NIGHT We're watching DAILIES. Projected ON SCREEN, a camera assistant claps the slate. We hear Ed yell: "Action!" Loretta hurries down the hallway. Dolores sees her run past and shouts out. DOLORES (as File Clerk) "Janet, the boss has been looking for you." LORETTA (as Janet Lawton) "Thanks." Loretta runs out. Dolores just stands there. We HEAR Ed: "CUT! PERFECT!" Dolores turns deadpan to the camera. DOLORES Of course it was. The FILM runs out. ON THE AUDIENCE The screening room lights come up on the crew. Ed sits in gloomy haze. Suddenly, there's loud CLAPPING from the back of the room. CRISWELL Bravo! Bravo! Magnifico! ED (he smiles) Cris, you made it. Thanks a lot. CRISWELL My pleasure. I'm always happy to assist in a little larceny. CUT TO: INT. CADILLAC - NIGHT g pink Cadillac convertible races down the Ed and Criswell are in front, and Tor, Conrad and Paul to the back. TOR My head is cold. CRISWELL You know how much this car cost me? CONRAD Ten thousand dollars. CRISWELL ONE DOLLAR! Miss Mae West herself sold it to me. She said, Cris, you belong in a pink Cadillac! Criswell turns to Ed. CRISWELL Incidentally, you promise you're not going to scratch my car...? ED (cocky) I told you, the octopus is made of rubber. This is a piece o' cake. EXT. REPUBLIC STUDIOS - NIGHT The five men climb over a fence. They're breaking into Republic Studios. Paul is panicked. PAUL MARCO Ed, you said you were getting permission. ED Uh, I couldn't reach the guy... he was in meetings all day. But this'll be great, I promise! Ed smiles at Conrad. Conrad shrugs. Tor struggles. TOR I'm no good at climbink. Tor gives up, and simply BASHES through the locked gate. Everyone is amazed. Tor laughs. TOR I'm good at bashink!! CRISWELL Hey, keep it down. My publicist will throttle me if we get caught. They all sneak across the shadowy lot. Remnants of old scary sets tower over them. OUTSIDE A SOUNDSTAGE They reach a stage door. Ed tries it -- but it's locked. ED Oh. I thought they kept this open. A pause. Everyone looks at Tor. He grins. TOR Lobo will fix! Tor grabs the heavy door and easily SNAPS the lock. INT. SOUNDSTAGE - SAME TIME This place is the mythic eclectic prop room. Guillotines, rocketships, a stuffed vulture... strange mysterious props from untold movies loom everywhere in the darkness. It's a place of wonderment and fear. The men stare in awe. CONRAD Wow. PAUL MARCO This place gives se the creeps. Let's get the hell out of here. ED Not so fast. First we have to get it down. Ed gestures above. Everyone glances straight up. THEIR POV A giant OCTOPUS is lashed to the ceiling. CUT TO: LATER Conrad and Criswell are way up on the catwalk, holding onto dangling Paul by his belt. Paul leans way out, reaching for the octopus. He shouts nervously. PAUL MARCO You're sure this is gonna work? ED (O.S.) Yes! PAUL MARCO You're sure??? ED (O.S.) YES! JUST DO IT! WIDE VIEW Standing straight below is Tor. The Swede has his arms outstretched, waiting. Ed supervises a good distance away. He motions to Paul. Paul gulps, then unties the octopus. It drops incredibly fast. The thing must weigh half a ton. Tor's eyes widen. And the octopus smashes straight on top of him. BAM! Tor is gone from sight. One of the eight tentacles snaps off. UP IN THE CATWALK Criswell moans. CRISWELL Oh my God. We killed him. ON THE GROUND Ed runs to the octopus and looks for Tor underneath. ED Tor! Are you okay?! A beat. And then the octopus flips over. Tor sits up, battered but smiling. TOR Bedder than wrestlink! EXT. REPUBLIC STUDIOS - NIGHT The five men hurry across the lot, carrying the hubongous octopus on their shoulders. Suddenly, a FLASHLIGHT shines on them. ANGRY VOICE Hey! What are you doing?! The men jump with fear. They break into a fast waddling run. CRISWELL Thank God Tor broke the fence. The team runs through the busted gate and escapes. EXT. STUDIOS - NIGHT The Cadillac SCREECHES away. The octopus flops on top of the five men. WIPE TO: EXT. GRIFFITH PARK - NIGHT The movie crew is setting up for a big night shoot. Lights and generators are sprawled across this isolated area. Tony McCoy perches goofily on his own personalized chair. He runs lines by himself. TONY "Now Janet, I want you staying away from the old Willows Place." The octopus lays in a dried-up riverbed. There's only about an inch of water. Ed yells at Conrad. ED You don't understand! The octopus is supposed to live in a lake! CONRAD This is kind of a stream-- ED NO! It has to be UNDERWATER! Ed storms away. Conrad scratches his head. IN A DUSTY PARKING LOT Bela sits inertly in the back of an open car. He weakly hails over Ed. BELA Eddie, I'm so tired... I don't know if I can handle a night shoot... ED Nonsense! You look great -- (suddenly he catches himself; he speaks more sincerely) Look, uh, why don't you lie down and take a little nap? We'll film around you for a while. ED Thanks, buddy... Ed smiles warmly, then walks off. Bela stares after him, then absent-mindedly searches through his pockets. Finally, he finds what he's looking for -- a rubber tube. Bela looks to make sure no one's around, then ties the tube around his upper arm... AT THE SET - LATER Crew members have dammed up the end of the river, and Bunny fills it with a hose. There is now a foot of water. Ed stands at the shore, admiring it. ED Hey. This is looking good! (he turns to Paul) Paul, where's the octopus motor? PAUL MARCO What octopus motor? ED You know, to make the legs move -- PAUL MARCO (defensive) Hey, don't blame me! You didn't say anything about no motor when I was up on that ceiling! Bela stumbles up, with a dazed smile. BELA Let's shoot this fucker! Where do I go? ED You'll be fighting with the octopus. BELA Out there?! (he points at the water) What happened to the stream? ED This'll look a lot better. We have to match the stock footage of the octopus underwater. BELA Oh, for Christ's sake. Bela rolls up his pants and wades out, into the water. He screams. BELA Goddamn, it's cold! ED Once you're in it, it warms up. BELA Fuck you! You come out here. (beat) Hey, toss me that J.D. A crew member throws Bela a bottle of Jack Daniels. Bela pops the cap and chugs half the bottle in one swig. He licks his lips, then climbs onto the octopus. BELA Okay! How do we turn this thing on? ED Bela, somebody misplaced the motor. So when you wrestle the octopus, shake the legs a bit, to make it look like it's killing you. Bela stares, deadpan. BELA Do you know I turned down "Frankenstein"? ED Huh? BELA After I did "Dracula," the studio offered me "Frankenstein"! But I turned it down, the part wasn't sexy enough. It was too degrading for a big star like me. The crew glances at Ed. ED Bela, I've got twenty-five scenes to shoot tonight. BELA Don't let me slow you down. ED Alright! Let's put it on film. CAMERA! SOUND! Bela takes another swig of J.D., then throws it off-camera. ED ACTION! Bela starts flailing around the octopus legs and SCREAMING in horror. This image is truly ridiculous. Ed is pleased. Some crew members nod: Pretty good. ED And CUT! Everybody cheers. Then suddenly the dam walls BURST. WHOOSH! The water rushes from the lake and floods the park below. WIPE TO: EXT. DINKY SOUNDSTAGES - EARLY MORNING Crew members straggle in for the final shoot. Everybody looks bleary-eyed from last night. Ed stands cheerily at the entrance, greeting them. ED C'mon! Just one more day! Just have some coffee, you'll feel better! Tony staggers up. TONY Mr. Wood, I only got one hour of sleep. ED Yeah? Well I got no sleep, and I feel great! Ed sees Bela slowly shuffling along. Ed runs over to him. ED Bela. I just wanna thank you again for last night. BELA (exhausted) That's fine, Eddie. All in the line of duty. ED No. Seriously. I want you to know how much I appreciate what you've done for me. A great man like you shouldn't have to run around in freezing water at four in the morning. BELA Well, there aren't too many other fellas I'd do it for... ED (he smiles, then pulls out a script page) I wrote something special for you. I got to thinking about all the sacrifices you've made... and so I wrote you a new final speech. Ed hands him the paper. Bela starts reading it, as Ed watches anxiously. Bela is very touched. BELA (still reading) Eddie, this is quite a scene. ED I know it's a lot to give you at the last second. Bela looks up. BELA These lines -- I'll have no problem remembering. WIPE TO: INT. SOUNDSTAGE - DAY They are shooting. Ed watches off-camera, as Bela acts a somber scene with an actor playing PROFESSOR STROWSKI, a threatening European. STROWSKI "Our government wants you to return... to continue your experiments there. Where you can have everything at your disposal." BELA (as VORNOFF) "My dear Professor Strowski, twenty years ago I was banned from my home land. I was classed as a madman -- a charlatan -- outlawed in the world of science which previously honored me as a genius!" (he gets very subdued) "Now here in this forsaken jungle hell, I have proven that I am alright." STROWSKI "Yes, the authorities have learned how correct your findings were. So I am here -- sent to bring you home." BELA (impassioned) "Home. I have no home. Hunted... despised... living like an animal -- the jungle is my home! But I will show the world that I can be its master. I shall perfect my own race of people -- a race of atomic supermen that will conquer the world!" It's an incredible performance of crowning tragedy. Bela is totally drained. CU - ED He is very moved. He whispers, barely audible. ED Cut. It's a wrap. CUT TO: INT. MEAT PACKING PLANT - NIGHT The wrap party is being thrown in the meat packing plant. People laugh and shout and carry on. Tor pours booze in the punch. R&B MUSIC plays. Old Man McCoy dances with Loretta. Bunny dances with a young stud. Dolores stands by herself. Bela and Criswell are giggling. CRISWELL So you sleep in coffins?! BELA Yes. There is nothing more comfortable. CRISWELL I can't believe this! I sleep in coffins! BELA No. CRISWELL YES! My father ran a mortuary -- it's an old habit! They CLINK beers. EXT. MEAT PACKING PLANT - SAME TIME Outside, Vampira and two GIRL FRIENDS walk up. They peer at a tin sign. GIRLFRIEND #1 "McCoy Meat Packing"? Are you sure there's a party here? VAMPIRA (holding an INVITATION) Yeah, I got this invitation. It's a "Bride Of The Atom" party, whatever that means. They open the large steel door, and INSIDE is the wild bash. INT. PARTY Across the room, Paul and Conrad chat. PAUL MARCO "Glen Or Glenda," now that was a hell of a picture. CONRAD Well, this new one's gonna be a hundred times better. PAUL MARCO Is that possible? Dolores overhears this. She stares in disbelief. AT THE TURNTABLE Someone changes the record. Brassy STRIPPER MUSIC begins. A door opens, and Ed struts out, in full gaudy drag. Everybody turns. They start WHISTLING and HOLLARING. Ed grins, and starts into a wacky bump-and-grind. VOICE Go, baby, go! Bunny runs up and sticks a dollar bill between Ed's fake tits. People LAUGH hysterically. Dolores is appalled. Ed shimmies to the music, blowing kisses all around. He sees Vampira and waves. Vampira's jaw drops in recognition. VAMPIRA I don't believe it. It's him! Ed sashays up to Bela and dances a few steps with him. The music is building to a climax. Ed hurries off to center stage -- and as the MUSIC ENDS, he does a final swing of his hips, then suddenly yanks out his teeth! This brings down the house. Everyone STAMPS their feet and CLAPS crazily. ANGLE - DOLORES Everyone, except Dolores. Suddenly, she explodes. DOLORES You people are INSANE! Take a look around -- you're all FREAKS! The room quiets. Dolores has snapped. DOLORES You're wasting your lives making SHIT! Nobody cares! These movies are TERRIBLE! (beat) I can't take it any longer! The group is shocked. Nobody speaks. Dolores runs out of the party. Ed just stands, dumbstruck. Then he chases after her, in his high heels and dress. EXT. MEAT PACKING PLANT - SAME TIME Dolores runs across the parking lot, in tears. Ed catches up with her. ED Dolores, wait! DOLORES Ed, it's over. I need a normal life. ED (hurt) Did you really mean those things you said..? Dolores stops. DOLORES I'm tired of living on the fringe. ED But you used to say -- DOLORES Ed... I just stuck it out so you could finish your movie. (pause) Now that it's done, so am I. She turns and walks away. Ed is crushed. He stands motionless, in his dress, in the dark. CUT TO: INT. ED'S NEW APARTMENT - DAY Ed's new home is a single apartment, still filled with moving boxes. Half-eaten plates of food are scattered about. Ed lies asleep in bed, unshaven, in the middle of the day. The phone RINGS. Ed awakens and woozily answers it. ED Yeah... TOR (on phone) Ed, dit I wake you? It's two in avternoon. ED No, I was just doin' a little work... TOR (on phone) Bullchit! You been like dis too many days. I want to cheer you up. EXT. TOR'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ed drives his Nash though a tract Valley neighborhood and reaches Tor's little house. Ed gets out, still looking groggy. He walks up the tulip-lined path and rings the DOORBELL. Clanging SWEDISH CHIMES bong inside. The door flies open, and Tor appears, beaming. TOR Edvard, you come! Tor gives Ed a back-breaking hug. INT. TOR'S HOUSE - SAME TIME Ed steps in. The house is filled with cuckoo clocks and little Swedish knick-knacks. Tor gestures proudly. TOR I'm so happy you visit. Meet my family! Greta, Karl, and Connie! THREE COLOSSAL PEOPLE lumber out. Tor has the largest family we've ever seen. Not fat -- but big-boned. GRETA is Tor's gigantic Swedish wife, and KARL and CONNIE are their two elephantine children. They ADLIB greetings: "Hallo!" "Welcome!" "Is a pleasure!" Ed cannot believe what he's seeing. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Everyone noisily eats dinner. The table looks like a Smorgasbord. Entire hams, turkeys, a full case of beer, incredible quantities are being shoveled in. Tor empties a beer in one gulp, then opens another. CONNIE Pass the meatballs. KARL This strudel is delicious, Mama. Ed is stupefied. He picks at a little dainty serving. TOR Hey! You're not eatink. ED Uh, I don't have much of an appetite lately. TOR The food will make you feel bedder. Look at me -- I'm da happiest guy I know! All the Johnsons CHUCKLE. ED I'd be happy too, if I had such a great family. TOR Don't worry. You just haven't met right woman yet. (beat) Oopsy. That cabbage goes right through me. Tor stands and hurries from the room. Ed awkwardly makes conversation. ED Greta, your husband is a terrific actor. You should come down and visit the set. GRETA I don't think so. ED No, it's really no problem at all! GRETA (steely) I do not approve of what you do with my husband Tor. He is not a monster. These horror pictures are humiliating. Ed has no response. Suddenly -- CRASH! There's a loud o.s. SLAM, falling porcelain, then Tor SHOUTS FURIOUSLY in Swedish. TOR (O.S.) OUCH! GODDAMMIT! Earl and Connie begin giggling. Ed is totally baffled. Tor runs out, angrily holding a BROKEN TOILET SEAT. It is split in two. TOR Look, it happened again! Ed is boggle-eyed. This house is sadness. ED Tor, I should be getting home. TOR Nonsense! You must try our hot glug. DISSOLVE TO: LATER It's very late. Tor and Ed sit in the living room, drinking from a steaming pot of hot stilled wine. They are smashed. TOR My friend, you tink Greta is first woman I ever see? No! Many duds, before I find her. ED But I thought me and Dolores had something. TOR Forget her! Move on. A good lookink boy like you as you can have any girl you wish. Tor finishes his glug, and then his eyes roll back into his head, and he falls off the couch. He starts SNORING. Ed stares at Tor, then gets up. Ed turns off the lights and goes home. CUT TO: INT. ED'S APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Ed smokes a cigarette and watches TV. ON THE TV Vampira is doing her shtick. VAMPIRA (on TV) Ooo! That was so scary, it gave me goosebumps. (someone QUACKS os.; she pretends to be angry) No, dummy! I didn't say "goose," I said "goosebumps." Ugh! Well, be sure to join me next week, for "THE MUMMY'S CURSE." Until then... pleasant nightmares. Vampira blows a kiss, then disappears into the mist. A USED CAR COMMERCIAL abruptly comes on. ON ED He stares at the TV, then picks up the phone. CUT TO: INT. TV STUDIOS - SAME TIME Vampira is walking off stage. She removes her black wig. VAMPIRA God, we need some better jokes on this show. A PRODUCTION ASSISTANT carries over a phone. ASSISTANT Vampira, you got a phone call. VAMPIRA At this hour? (she takes the phone) Hello? ED'S VOICE Vampira! Hi, this is Ed Wood. VAMPIRA Who? ED'S VOICE Ed Wood! You came to my party. I directed "Bride Of The Atom"! VAMPIRA Oh. Yeah. You. Ed pauses, nervously. ED'S VOICE Well, I was wondering if maybe sometime you'd like to go out, and maybe grab some dinner. VAMPIRA You mean like a date? I thought you were a fag. ED'S VOICE ME?! No, uh, I'm just a transvestite. VAMPIRA Isn't that the same thing? ED'S VOICE No, no! I like girls. So how 'bout Friday? VAMPIRA (uncomfortable) Look, you seem like a nice guy, Ed, but you're just not my type. (beat) But keep in touch. Let me know when your movie opens. CUT BACK TO: CLOSEUP - ED Click. The phone hangs up. Poor Ed just stands there, forlorn. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Ed shuffles down the street, Mr. Lonely Guy, feeling sorry for himself. He glances in a coffee shop, and sees a sweet young woman inside. Her name is NORMA McCARTY. She wears a bow in her hair, Mary Jane shoes, and a fuzzy white angora sweater. Ed's eyes widen. INT. COFFEE SHOP - SAME TIME Innocent Norma sits by herself, eating. ED'S VOICE Excuse me. Is that angora? Norma looks up. Standing over her is Ed, smiling. NORMA Why... yes. ED Don't you think angora has a tactile sensuality lacking in all other clothing? NORMA I suppose. It's very expensive. ED It's made from specially-bred rabbits that live in the Himalayas. NORMA What are you, an angora wholesaler? ED No, I work in pictures. I'm a director-actor-writer-producer. NORMA (she laughs) Ah, c'mon! Nobody does all that. ED Two people do. Orson Welles and me. NORMA Wow. ED You know, you're a very attractive girl. Norma blushes. NORMA My goodness, you're embarrassing me. ED You shouldn't be embarrassed by the truth. (he smoothly sits down) Mind if I order some hotcakes...? CUT TO: INT. CRISWELL'S CADILLAC - NIGHT Criswell and Paul drive at night. They're dressed-up. SWING MUSIC plays on the radio. CRISWELL So who's the surprise for? PAUL MARCO I dunno. Ed was real mysterious. All he'd say was it's a surprise party. CRISWELL Isn't that like him! (beat) And isn't that like us -- that we show up anyway. They pull up to a GUARD GATE. They're at a studio. CRISWELL Excuse me. We're here for the Wood party. GUARD They've rented Stage 12. Drive straight back. INT. SOUNDSTAGE - NIGHT There is another rambunctious party in progress. Crepe paper streamers hang down. Bela approaches Tor. BELA So what are we doing here? TOR Nobody knows. But there's a lotta booze. Suddenly Ed steps into the middle of the room. He's extremely handsome in his tuxedo, and beaming happily. ED Excuse me! Could everyone please quiet down? (the room quiets) First of all, I want to thank you, all my good friends, for being here tonight. And second, if you're wondering what the big surprise is... well, TONIGHT I'M GETTING MARRIED!! The crowd is stunned. Many people DROP their glasses. Ed proudly pulls out Norma. She's in a wedding gown. ED Everybody, this is Norma! ON BELA AND TOR They're bewildered. Bela WHISPERS. BELA Who the fuck is she?? TOR I never heard of her. Ed walks over. He hugs Bela. ED And Bela, I want you to be the best man! Bela smiles -- trying to hide his total confusion. DISSOLVE TO: LATER The wedding is in progress. The crowd is seated. A MINISTER performs the ceremony with Ed and Norma. MINISTER ...Norma, do you promise to love, honor, and cherish... IN THE CROWD Everybody is QUIETLY GOSSIPING. BUNNY I didn't even know he had a girlfriend. PAUL MARCO (he taps him on the shoulder) I hear she's an actress who gave him money. CONRAD Nah, I heard she's his childhood sweetheart from Poughkeepsie. CRISWELL I predict it's Dolores in a mask. AT THE ALTAR The Minister is speaking to Ed. MINISTER ...in sickness and in health, till death do you part? ED I do. MINISTER (he smiles) Then I now pronounce you man and wife. Ed kisses Norma. The crowd doesn't applaud. They're too baffled by this whole event. DISSOLVE TO: THE RECEPTION Everyone's drinking and dancing. Ed proudly introduces Norma to his buddies. ED Norma, this is Bela -- Bela, this is Norma. Norma, this is Tor -- Tor, this is Norma. Norma, this is Paul Paul, this is Norma. PAUL MARCO (he can't resist) So how long have you known Eddie? NORMA (sweetly) Since Tuesday. Criswell grabs Ed and pulls him aside. CRISWELL Edward, are you sure you know what you're doing? ED Yeah. It seems a little crazy, but sometimes you just know. She's perfect for me. Outside, a car HONKS. ED Oop, that's our cue! (to Norma) Honey, we gotta go. GOODBYE, EVERYBODY! Ed and Norma run out the door. The crowd hurries after them. OUTSIDE Ed and Norma jump into his Nash. It says "Just Married" and is festooned with dangling tin cans. The car screeches away. The cans RATTLE NOISILY, then slowly fade into the distance... CUT TO: EXT. MOTEL - NIGHT We're at a desert roadside motel, the San Bernardino Arms. A "Vacancy" light flashes. INT. MOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME Ed excitedly carries Norma over the threshold. He throws her onto the bed, and they start ardently making out. NORMA Eddie, I'm just a small-town girl. I've never done this before. ED (kissing her) Don't worry, I'll teach you. He helps her remove her wedding dress. She is very shy. NORMA Be understanding. I don't know anything. Ed removes his jacket, then gestures to his shirt. Norma nervously starts unbuttoning it. Ed bites his lip in anticipation. Norma opens the shirt... and inside, Ed is wearing a bra! Norma is horrified. NORMA What the heck is THIS?!! ED Honey, I have a little secret to share with you. CUT TO: EXT. MOTEL - SAME TIME There's a loud woman's SCREAM. Then the door slams open, and Norma runs hysterically out, clutching her dress about her. NORMA Stay away from me! You're perverted! Ed runs out after her. ED Please, be compassionate. I'm your husband! NORMA No you're not! This marriage was never consummated. I'm getting an annulment! CUT TO: EXT. LOS ANGELES STREETS - LATE NIGHT Ed drives sadly through the streets, alone. His car still says "Just Married," and the tin cans RATTLE behind him. CUT TO: EXT. BELA'S HOUSE - LATE NIGHT Ed's car pulls up. Ed stumbles out, yanks off the tin cans, and throws them in someone's trash. Ed despondently approaches Bela's. Inside, a light glows, and the dogs BARK. Ed is relieved. Bela's awake. He BANGS on the door. ED Bela, let me in! Bela, it's Eddie. He keeps BANGING. Finally the door opens -- and Bela stands there, shakily waving a gun! Bela is doped up, glassy-eyed, and disturbingly haggard. BELA Why are you here?? ED Shit! Bela, what's with the gun? BELA Why aren't you on your honeymoon? Where's Myrna? ED Norma. She changed her mind. She doesn't wanna marry me. (beat) Can you put down the gun? Bela weakly lowers the gun. INT. BELA'S Ed walks in, in a near-stupor. Needles and drug paraphernalia are scattered about ED What are you doing? BELA I was thinking about killing myself. ED Jesus Christ, what an evening. (he looks around) What happened? BELA (near tears) Eddie, I received a letter from the government. They're cutting off my unemployment. That's all I've got. Without it, I can't pay the rent... ED Don't you have any savings? BELA I'm obsolete. I have nothing to live for. Tonight, I should die. (distraught) And you should come with me. Frail Bela points the gun at Ed. Ed is terrified. ED Buddy, I don't know if that's such a good idea. BELA It'll be wonderful. We'll be at peace. In the afterlife, you don't have to worry about finding work. ED Bela, I'm on your side. C'mon, give me the gun... (he cautiously steps forward) If you give me the gun, I'll make you a drink. What are you drinking? BELA Formaldehyde. Ed stares in anguish. ED Straight up or on the rocks? Bela drops the gun. He starts weeping. Ed walks over and hugs the shaking old man. ED Don't worry. BELA I'm sorry, Eddie. I'm so sorry. ED Don't worry. Everything's gonna be all right. CUT TO: EXT. HOSPITAL - STILL LATER THAT NIGHT Ed's car pulls up at the South Metropolitan State Hospital. It's a grim, unwelcoming edifice. Ed helps weak Bela from the car. They look at each other, then Ed gingerly leads Bela in. INT. HOSPITAL - SAME TIME The lobby is clammy and dim. Ed and Bela reach the desk. A NURSE looks up, startled. NURSE My goodness, you gave me the willies. You look like that Dracula guy. BELA (very somber) My name is Bela Lugosi. I wish to commit myself. NURSE For what reason? BELA I have been a drug addict for twenty years. I need help... The nurse nods. She takes Bela's arm and leads him away. Bela glances at Ed, then steps through a wide door. As it swings shut, we see a DOCTOR walk over and shake Bela's hand. Ed stares at the door, dazed by all that's happened. He sits down in a chair, exhausted. Ed's eyes slowly close, and he falls asleep... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOSPITAL - MORNING Ed is still asleep, but now sunlight beats in. Ed stirs and wakes up. He groggily looks around, and sitting across from him is a woman, knitting. This is KATHY O'HARA, 26, solid, reflective, with a dry sense of humor. Ed peers at her. ED Hello. KATHY Hello. (beat) You're sleeping in a tuxedo. ED I got married last night. KATHY Oh. Congratulations. ED The marriage already ended. KATHY Oh. My condolences. Ed watches her knit. ED What are you making? KATHY Booties for my father. He gets cold in this hospital. ED How long's he been here? KATHY This is my thirteenth pair. Ed nods. He spots the Doctor walk by. ED Excuse me. (he runs to the Doctor) Doctor? I'm with Mr. Lugosi. How is he? DOCTOR Well... there's a lot of junk in his system for such an old man. Apparently, he was addicted to morphine, tried to kick it, and got re-addicted to methadone. ED Will he be okay? DOCTOR We'll do our best. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT We are outside Bela's room. He can be glimpsed inside, strapped to the bed and SCREAMING in pain. He is going through painful withdrawal and shakes horribly. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOSPITAL LOBBY - ANOTHER DAY Ed strides into the hospital, wearing different clothes, and carrying a box of chocolates. He waves at the nurse. ED Hi, Lillian. NURSE (she smiles) Hi, Ed. Boy, he's got a lot of visitors today. ED He does? Ed is puzzled. He hurries back. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAY A crowd of NEWSPAPER REPORTERS and PHOTOGRAPHERS overflow Bela's room. Ed is astonished. ED What's going on here?! Excuse me! INT. HOSPITAL ROOM Decrepit Bela is propped up in his bed, as the mob of reporters throw questions at hit and SNAP shots: "Bela, how long have you been a junkie??" "Bela, look this way!" Ed angrily pushes through. ED Everybody out! This is a hospital! Get out of here. Ed forces them out, then SLAMS the door. ED What happened?! BELA (in a hoarse whisper) Isn't it wonderful? After all these years, the press is showing an interest again in Bela Lugosi. ED (surprised) Bela, they're parasites! They just want to exploit you. BELA Fine. Let them! There is no such thing as bad press. A man from New York even said he's putting me on the front page! First celebrity to ever check into rehab. (he smiles feebly) When I get out of here, I will be healthy. Strong! I will be primed for my comeback! Bela starts COUGHING heavily. Ed stares sadly. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LOBBY - ANOTHER DAY Ed sits tensely in the lobby, holding vigil. Kathy O'Hara walks by. KATHY Oh, it's you again. ED Oh, hi. KATHY You look beat. ED I am. How's your father? KATHY He's better. Thank you for asking. (pause) How's your friend? ED Not good... Kathy reaches in her purse and pulls out two black booties. KATHY Well, I made him some booties to cheer him up. (beat) They're black -- to match his cape. She smiles. Ed slowly smiles in response. But this isn't his normal slick smile. It's gentler. Sincere. ED Would you maybe like to get a coffee..? DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAY Ed and the Doctor stand in a doorway, talking. DOCTOR We thought Mr. Lugosi was insured though the Screen Actors Guild. ED Isn't he? DOCTOR No. They say his eligibility ran out years ago. ED Look, he doesn't have any money... but I'll give you everything I've got. I have a few hundred dollars. The Doctor shakes his head grimly. DOCTOR That won't even begin to cover it. He's going to have to leave. INT. BELA'S HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Bela lies sleeping in bed, pasty and pale. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS of his hospital stay are tacked up. Ed anxiously tiptoes in. He quietly speaks. ED Bela, wake up. Bela stirs lethargically. Ed puts on a fake smile. ED I've got some good news. The doctor says you're all better. You can come home. BELA (so weak, he's barely audible) Really? I don't feel so great. ED No, you look good. And the tests came back fine. (a poignant pause) C'mon... Ed gingerly helps Bela up. EXT. HOSPITAL - DAY Bela slowly gets into Ed's car. BELA Eddie, I wanna make another picture. When are we gonna make another picture? ED Soon, Bela... Soon. CUT TO: INT. CAMERA RENTAL HOUSE - DAY Ed is desperately trying to cut a deal with the OLD MANAGER. ED Please, I just need it for one afternoon! OLD MANAGER Ed, if I cut a deal for you, I gotta cut one for everybody. ED This is different! It'll mean so much to me. All I need is a camera and a tripod. No lights, no sound. Nothin' fancy. OLD MANAGER And that's it? ED And one roll of film. The old guy gives Ed a tough look. CUT TO: EXT. BELA'S HOUSE - DAY Bela is dressed in his Sunday finest, standing in front of his little house. He wears a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. BELA This is so exciting. Another production! WE WIDEN. Out on the lawn... is just Ed. With the camera. BELA So Eddie, don't we need a sound crew? ED No, this is just the second unit. We'll do the main footage later. BELA Oh. So what is the scene about? ED (improvising) Uh... you're a very important and respected man. You're leaving your house... and you're in a hurry to a big social event. Bela nods. He mulls this over. BELA Okay. But what if I'm not in too big a hurry? What if I take a moment to slow down and savor the beauty of life? To smell a flower? ED (he smiles) That's great. Let's do a take. WIDE Bela goes in the front door. Ed gets behind the camera, then turns it ON. ED Okay, roll camera! Rolling. Scene One, Take One! (pause) And... ACTION! There's a moment. And then Bela slowly steps outside, calm, dignified, walking with a cane. He looks about -- and then something catches his eye. He leans down and picks a flower. Bela smells the flower, then abruptly drops it. He starts crying. A pause, and then he composes himself. The old man slowly shuffles out of frame. Ed peers emotionally from behind the camera. ED And, cut... BELA Eddie, how was I? ED (quiet) Perfect. Bela is pleased. BELA Good. (beat) Now what about my close up? CUT TO: EXT. HOLLYWOOD DUPLEX - DUSK Ed's Nash convertible pulls up outside a neat little duplex in a nice neighborhood. Ed is dressed up for a date. He checks his hair nervously in the mirror, revealing an anxious boyishness we've never seen before. Ed carries a bouquet of flowers to the front door. He rings the bell. Kathy opens the door. She looks very pretty in a full skirt with a crinolin. KATHY Oh, flowers! I didn't know you were so traditional. ED (a little embarrassed) I just picked them up on the way over... KATHY They're very nice. (she smiles sweetly) Let me get my coat. EXT. CARNIVAL - NIGHT Ed and Kathy are at a tattered traveling carnival. Rattling steel rides and flashing lights spin about them. They stroll through the crowds eating cotton candy. Kathy wears one of Ed's flowers on her dress. KATHY So have you always lived in L.A.? ED No. I'm from back east. You know, All-American small town... everybody knew everybody, I was a Boy Scout, my dad worked for the post office... KATHY Sounds like you lived in Grovers Corners. INT. SPOOK HOUSE - NIGHT Ed and Kathy ride through the old mechanical spook house. KATHY Did you find it boring? ED Nah, 'cause I had my comic books. And I read pulp magazines. And I listened to the radio dramas... A wooden WITCH jumps out at them. They ignore it. KATHY Oh. I loved those shows! "Inner Sanctum"... "The Shadow" -- ED (getting excited) Yeah! Don't forget "Mercury Theatre"... And then every Saturday, I'd go to the little movie theater down the street. I even started ushering there. A creaky GHOST flies overhead. KATHY You're not gonna believe the first picture I ever saw. Your friend's. ED What do you mean? KATHY "Dracula." Ed freaks out. ED That's INCREDIBLE! That's the first picture I ever saw!! WIDE Mechanical BATS drop down and flap around them. KATHY That is incredible! (beat) You know, I had to sleep with the lights on for a week after seeing that movie. ED I had to sleep with the lights on for a month. (he smiles) But I never missed a Lugosi picture after that. KATHY A few years ago, I actually saw him do "Dracula" live. I thought he was much scarier in person. CLOSEUP - ED He starts at Kathy in wonder. He is overcome. Their car SMASHES through the tin exit doors. EXT. SPOOK HOUSE - SAME TIME Ed and Kathy's little car comes to a stop. He gets very serious. ED Kathy, I'm about to tell you something I've never told any girl on a first date. But I think it's important that you know. (beat) I like to wear women's clothes. KATHY Huh? ED I like to wear women's clothes: Panties, brassieres, sweaters, pumps... it's just something I do. And I can't believe I'm telling you, but I really like you, and I don't want it getting in the way down the road. Kathy is amazed. She contemplates all this. KATHY Does this mean you don't like sex with girls? ED No! I love sex with girls. KATHY Oh. Okay. ED (surprised) Okay? Kathy slyly grins. KATHY Okay. Ed grins back. A moment. CUT TO: INT. ED'S HOUSE - DAY Ed is on the telephone. We SPLIT-SCREEN with Vampira. ED (on phone) Vampira! Hi, it's Ed Wood. VAMPIRA (on phone) Ed, I told you, I don't wanna go out! ED No, don't worry, I moved on. I was just calling to see if you want to attend the world premiere of my new film, "Bride Of The Monster." VAMPIRA (confused) Didn't you just make one called "Bride Of The Atom"? ED It's the same film. But the distributor wanted a punchier title. C'mon! It's gonna be a big event -- we're going all out! Bela, Tor, and Cris are coming. You'll have fun! Vampira rolls her eyes. CUT TO: EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT Hundreds of KIDS and TEENAGERS enter a dilapidated second-run theater. A banner says "'Bride Of The Monster' World Premiere! Celebrities In Person!" EXT. DARK CITY STREET - SAME TIME An antique limousine HEARSE drives down a dingy street. INT. HEARSE Ed drives. Tor, ill Bela, Vampira, and Criswell are crammed in with him, along with bewildered Kathy. Everyone is dressed in gaudy "scary" outfits. Tor wears his frightening WHITE CONTACT LENSES. TOR My eyes are killink me. ED Don't worry. We're almost there. BELA (still hoarse) Eddie, where are we? We passed that carwash twenty minutes ago. CRISWELL I predict we're lost. VAMPIRA (to Bela) Hey! You wanna watch the hands?? Bela sheepishly removes his hand from her thigh. BELA Sorry... ED (he looks around, baffled) Has anyone ever been to Downey? INT. MOVIE THEATER - SAME TIME The audience is so restless, they're practically rioting. They CLAP AND CHANT angrily. A fat patronizing MANAGER steps on stage. THEATER MANAGER Children, if you don't calm down, there won't be the entertainment. ANGRY KID It was supposed to start an hour ago! INT. HEARSE - SAME TIME Tempers are flaring. TOR My eyes are burnink. KATHY Hey look! There's the theater. TOR Where? I can't see nothink! EXT. THEATER - SAME TIME The hearse pulls up. A FRANTIC USHER runs over. FRANTIC USHER Thank God, you're here! They're tearing the place apart! The gang awkwardly steps out of the hearse. Tor gets out and blindly walks straight into a lamp post. WHACK! He yelps. TOR Ow. Bela moves slowly, very feeble. Vampira smooths out her slinky black dress, then puts her arm around Bela to help him. FRANTIC USHER C'mon! This way! INT. THEATER - SAME TIME Criswell points Tor in the right direction, and the group stumbles in. Ed escorts excited Kathy. KATHY I've never been to a premiere before. The Usher opens the auditorium doors. INSIDE It's PANDEMONIUM. People are screaming and shouting. Kids jump up and down, on top of the chairs. Bela, Tor, Vaspira, and Criswell are alarmed. The lights dim on and off. Scratchy SPOOKY MUSIC blasts over the sound system. ED Wow. Go knock 'em dead! Criswell pushes blind Tor towards the stage. Tor sticks out his arms and scarily staggers down the aisle. Criswell nervously follows. Vampira escorts Bela. The crowd BOOS. They pelt our gang with popcorn. Tor GROWLS like a monster. Kids LAUGH and jeer. ON ED AND KATHY In back, Ed speaks in a frightening manner into a MICROPHONE: ED (amplified) Ooooo! At the stroke of midnight, the witching hour, the ghouls arise from the dead! DOWN THE AISLE Tor slips in some butter. He tumbles and falls. A WOMAN'S VOICE cackles. WOMAN'S VOICE It's the blind leading the blind! Tor staggers to his feet. All disoriented, he starts walking the wrong direction and falls over a chair. People HECKLE. Criswell quickly helps his up. TOR Dis is a nightmare. CRISWELL It's show biz. Criswell pushes Tor in the right direction. Some roughnecks knock down Criswell and snatch his wallet. A MEAN BOY jumps on his chair, ripping the stuffing out of the seat. He throws the fibers in the air, and they float over Bela and Vampira. BELA What is that? VAMPIRA I think they're getting ready to burn this place down. A HIGH SCHOOL PUNK runs up and grabs Vampira's breasts. HIGH SCHOOL PUNK Hey Vampira, how 'bout a little love? VAMPIRA Fuck off! She impulsively swings her arm and SLAMS the kid. ON STAGE The Manager pleads to the mob. THEATER MANAGER Children, please! Be calm! Somebody throws a bottle and HITS him in the head. He goes down. WIDE The lights suddenly go off. Some girls SCREAM. Ed's panicked. He grabs Kathy and runs down to his friends. ED C'mon! We're getting the hell out of here! Ed rounds up Bela, Tor, Criswell, and Vampira. The crowd BOOS louder. Blind Tor is totally confused. TOR What is happening? ED We're escaping! The group runs up the aisle and leaves. As the doors close, "Bride Of The Monster" starts unspooling on the screen. EXT. THEATER - SAME TIME The gang frantically runs out, scared for their lives. They look over. Some JUVENILE DELINQUENTS are stripping the hearse. VAMPIRA We're gonna die. The theater doors CRASH open. The angry mob pours out. Ed spins wildly around... and sees a cab approaching. ED Stop! KATHY STOP! Kathy runs frenziedly into the street and throws herself at the cab. It screeches to a halt. Everybody sprints over and jumps in. The cab ROARS away. INT. CAB - SAME TIME All of them are breathing heavily. They watch in the rear window as they drive away from the rampage. A nervous silence. Until Bela speaks. BELA Now that was a premiere. All of them LAUGH. CUT TO: EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD - DAY Bela and Ed stroll down the street, in high spirits. Bela smokes a big fat cigar. BELA Last night was quite a romp. ED Did you see that kid grab Vampira's tits? BELA I envied him. (he chuckles) Hell, I envied you too, having a girlfriend that would jump in front of a car like that. ED Yeah, she's really somethin'. BELA I know none of my wives would've. Ed laughs. Bela puffs his cigar. BELA Eddie, I want to thank you. These last few days have been a good time. ED I just wish you coulda seen the movie. BELA No problem. I know it by heart... Bela stops walking. And in a BOOMING, THEATRICAL VOICE, he suddenly launches into his impassioned, climactic speech from "Bride Of The Monster." BELA "Home. I have no home. Hunted... despised... living like an animal -- the jungle is my home! But I will show the world that I can be its master. I shall perfect my own race of people... a race of atomic supermen that will conquer the world!" Ed is touched. A few people around them APPLAUD. Bela's face lights up, proud. An awed MIDWESTERN TOURIST hands him a pen and paper. TOURIST Mr. Lugosi, could I have your autograph? BELA Certainly. TOURIST Boy, that was incredible. You're just as good an actor as you always were. Bela puffs out his chest majestically. BELA Better. (beat) I'm seventy-four, but I don't know it. If the brain is young, then the spirit is still vigorous... like a young man. Bela turns and smiles wanly at Ed. Ed smiles back. CUT TO: INT. ED'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Ed and Kathy stand in his kitchen, making dinner. She sticks her finger in a pot. KATHY Ed, this spaghetti sauce is delicious. ED Thanks. It's actually the only thing I know how to make. (he motions) Hey, can you grab that strainer? She holds a strainer. Ed pours the spaghetti over it. Suddenly the PHONE rings. Ed groans. ED Ugh! Always at the wrong time. (he ANSWERS the phone) Hello? He listens. And then, he gets a very somber expression. ED Oh no... Ed HANGS UP the phone. He looks pained. KATHY What was that? ED (quiet) Bela died. CUT TO: INT. FUNERAL HOME - DAY It's Bela's funeral. Ed sits crying in the front row, with Kathy at his side. All Bela's friends are there. They're very subdued. THE CASKET Bela lies inside, made up in his full Dracula outfit. His hair is died black, and he wears the famous cape. EXT. HOLY CROSS CEMETERY - DAY On a grassy hill, Bela is laid to rest. The small crowd of mourners stands silhouetted against the dark gray clouds. The coffin is lowered into the ground. Ed stands at the front, silently watching. AT A DISTANCE A few TABLOID PHOTOGRAPHERS snap pictures. PHOTOGRAPHER #1 Whose crazy idea was it to bury him in the cape? PHOTOGRAPHER #2 I heard it was in the will. It was how he wanted to be remembered. CUT TO: INT. SCREENING ROOM - DAY Ed is alone in a darkened screening room, depressed. Playing on the SCREEN is the last footage of Bela: Bela stumbles around in front of his house and smells the flower. Ed drinks out of a flask. The film runs out. A VOICE comes over a loudspeaker. VOICE Do you want me to run it again? Ed silently nods. DISSOLVE TO: INT. ED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Ed's apartment has gone to hell. Ed is in a robe, unshaven and clutching a bottle of whiskey. Newspapers are everywhere. Bela's and Ed's dogs eat out of the trash. Kathy tries to straighten things up. Ed stares listlessly. ED I'd seen him in a coffin so many times, I expected him to jump out... KATHY Ed, you've got to snap out of this. Bela's dead -- you're not! ED I might as well be. I made shitty movies that nobody wanted to see. (beat) I blew it. All he wanted was a comeback... that last glory... KATHY Well you tried -- ED (angry) I was a fuckin' HACK! I let people recut the movies, cast their relatives... (beat) I let Bela down... CUT TO: EXT. ED'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY A new Studebaker pulls up. A bumper sticker says "JESUS SAVES" A man in a plain brown suit steps out. This is J. EDWARD REYNOLDS, 50, Ed's santironious southern Christian landlord. Reynolds assertively bangs on Ed's front door. REYNOLDS Mr. Wood?! ED (O.S.) Hruphh...? REYNOLDS Mr. Wood, this is Mr. Reynolds, your landlord. Could you please open up? The door opens a crack. Bleary Ed peers out. ED Yeah...? REYNOLDS Mr. Wood, you have bounced your third and final rent check. ED (he sloppily lies) I'm real sorry. My stockbroker must have transferred the wrong account... C'mon in, I'll write you another one. INT. APARTMENT - SAME TIME Ed motions Reynolds in. Reynolds peers unsurely at the tornado inside. Then he notices a framed one-sheet for "BRIDE OF THE MONSTER." Reynolds admires it. REYNOLDS Hmm, so you're in the picture business? ED (rummaging for a check) You could say that -- REYNOLDS I'm interested in the picture business. My associates and I wish to produce a series of uplifting religious films, on the Apostles. But unfortunately, we don't have enough money. ED (distracted) Raising money is tough. REYNOLDS Oh! Our church has the money for one film. We just don't have it for all twelve... ANGLE - ED His eyes suddenly pop. The color comes back to his fact. A plan is quickly boiling over inside Ed's head. He starts feverishly pacing around. ED Okay -- you know what you do? You produce a film in a commercially proven genre. And after it's a hit, you take the profits from that, and make the twelve Apostles' movies. REYNOLDS Would that work? ED Absolutely! You see this script..? Ed randomly grabs a script off the messy floor, then glances down, to see which one he picked up. It says "Graverobbers From Outer Space." ED "Graverobbers From Outer Space"! It's money in the bank. REYNOLDS Graverobbers from what?? ED From outer space! It's science- fiction. Very big with the kids! If you make this picture, you'll have enough money to finance a HUNDRED religious films! (beat) And pay my back rent from the profits. Reynolds scratches his head. REYNOLDS I don't know... this is all a lot to absorb. ED It's a guaranteed blockbuster! REYNOLDS Um, I understand that this science friction is popular -- but don't the big hits always have big stars? ED (in a frenzy) Yeah, well we've GOT a big star! Bela Lugosi!! REYNOLDS (mystified) Lugosi??! Didn't be pass on? Ed grins maniacally. He grabs a SMALL REEL of 35mm film. ED Yes, but I've got the last footage he ever shot! REYNOLDS Just, it doesn't look like very much. ED It's plenty! It's the acorn that will grow a great oak. I'll just find a double to finish his scenes, and we'll release it as "Bela Lugosi's Final Film" A beat. Reynolds stares, intrigued... CUT TO: INT. ED'S APARTMENT - LATER The place is cleaned-up. Ed shouts excitedly into the phone. ED Bunny! We're making another film! Yeah -- I got the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills to put up the cash! Paul sticks his head in. PAUL MARCO Ed, I got the Lugosi lookalikes outside. ED Great! Bring 'em in! Bunny, I gotta run. Ed hangs up. Paul leads in THREE. They look nothing like Bela. One is a HOMELESS BUM, one is a SHORT FAT MAN, and one is CHINESE. Ed inspects them. ED Too tall... too short... (he glances at the Chinese guy) And this guy doesn't work at all. PAUL MARCO Well I was thinkin' like, when Bela played "Fu Manchu." ED That was Karloff. (beat) Paul, you gotta try harder. I don't want this film to be haif-assed. This time, we go for the quality. Paul turns to go. ED And by the way, keep Sunday free. The producers want all of us to get baptized. CUT TO: INT. KATHY'S APARTMENT - DAY Kathy reads a newspaper while knitting an angora sweater. Ed is typing deliriously fast -- in one of his artistic fevers. ED You know, when you rewrite a script, it just gets better and better! KATHY Do you want your buttons on the left or the right? ED The left. It's more natural. (he squints at his script) Hey, I've got a scene where the aliens have the ultimate bomb. What would that be made of? KATHY Uh, atomic energy? ED No. They're beyond that! They're smarter than the humans. What's more advanced? KATHY Dynamite -- ED No, BIGGER! What's the biggest energy?? KATHY The sun. ED (ecstatic) Yes! BINGO! Solar energy! Oh that's gonna seem so scientific. (he resumes TYPING) This movie's gonna be the ultimate Ed Wood film. No compromises. Kathy suddenly jumps up, shocked. KATHY Oh my God. Look at this! She runs over and shows Ed the newspaper. INSERT - THE NEWSPAPER A small headline says "VAMPIRA REVEALED TO BE RED." Underneath is the story: "Channel 7 has fired popular horror hostess Vampira, after learning of her suspected communist leanings..." ON ED AND KATHY They're astonished. ED Those assholes. KATHY The poor girl's out of a job. ED Yeah... (he looks up) I should give her a call. CUT TO: INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY Ed and Kathy sit with a shaken-up Vampira. ED I'm really sorry... VAMPIRA It's terrible. People won't even return my calls. It's like I don't exist. ED I know what that's like. (he pulls out his SCRIPT) Anyway, I brought a copy of the script. You would play the "Ghoul's Wife." VAMPIRA (she grimaces) The Ghoul's Wife?! God, I can't believe I'm doing this... KATHY You should feel lucky. Ed's the only guy in town who doesn't pass judgment on people. ED (he laughs) Hell, if I did, I wouldn't have any friends. Vampira smiles uncomfortably. VAMPIRA Look... would it be possible to make the "Ghoul's Wife" a little less prominent, so people won't really notice me in the movie? ED You don't wanna be noticed? VAMPIRA Exactly. Hey, how 'bout this -- what if I don't have any lines? I'll do the part mute! Kathy suddenly sees someone. KATHY Look, it's Dr. Tom. (she SHOUTS) Hey, Dr. Tom! ED Who's Dr. Tom? KATHY My chiropractor! DR. TOM MASON, a tall, slender 35-year-old chiropractor, strides over. He smiles. DR. MASON Kathy, how are you?! You're looking in alignment today. KATHY Actually, my neck's a little funny. Dr. Mason grabs Kathy's neck and CRACKS it loudly. ON ED Ed stares at the Doctor in astonishment. Ed is riveted. ED Wait a second. Don't move! Ed excitedly jumps up, takes his NAPXIN, and covers the Doctor's face from the nose down. ED It's uncanny. VAMPIRA What's uncanny? ED LOOK AT HIS SKULL! CUT TO: INT. BAPTIST CHURCH OF BEVERLY HILLS - DAY Services are in progress. J. Edward Reynolds leads a CHOIR singing an emotional SPIRITUAL. Ed, Tor, Criswell, Paul, Conrad, Vampira, Kathy, Bunny, and Dr. Tom Mason sit in back. They're all wearing white robes and arguing about the doctor. TOR He look nutink like Bela! CONRAD He's kinds got his ears. TOR You're stupid! KATHY No, cover up his face. Kathy lifts Dr. Mason's robe over his bewildered face. CRISWELL Ah! Now I see it. DR. MASON (goofily imitating Bela) "I want to suck your blood!" Everybody CRACKS up. Ed waves his arms. ED SHHH! We want these Baptists to like us. Like bad kids, they quiet down. Ingenuous Southern REVEREND LYN LEMON speaks up front. REVEREND LEMON Brothers and Sisters, we've reached a special part of the service. The baptism of our new members! (beat) If the congregation will oblige, we'd like to adjourn and reconvene at Emma DuBois's back yard. EXT. BACKYARD - DAY The straight-laced, devout CONGREGATION is gathered around a large SWIMMING POOL. Reverend Lemon, Reynolds, and our misfits stand in the shallow end, in their white robes. Criswell whispers to Vampira. CRISWELL Why couldn't we do this in the church? VAMPIRA Because "Brother Torî couldn't fit in the sacred tub. MONTAGE: THE REVEREND BAPTIZES ED REVEREND LEMON ...Do you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior? ED I do. Reynolds DUNKS Ed in the water. THE REVEREND BAPTIZES BUNNY REVEREND LEMON ...Do you reject Satan and all his works? BUNNY (hiding a smirk) I do. Reynolds DUNKS Bunny. THE REVEREND BAPTIZES TOR REVEREND LEMON ...Do you repent for all your sins? TOR I do. Tor winks slyly at Criswell. Reynolds DUNKS Tor. But Tor slips from Reynolds' grasp and sinks to the bottom of the pool. REYNOLDS Oh my God, I dropped him -- Tor lies on the bottom, staring lifeinsly. CRISWELL (mischievous) I don't think he's coming up! REVEREND LEMON Lord no! The man's drowning! REYNOLDS (scared) What do we do?! REVEREND LEMON Help! HELP!!! The whole Congregation starts JUMPING IN. Men and women in their Sunday finest leap into the pool and start tugging on Tor. But nobody can budge the big whale. REVEREND LEMON (near tears) Dear Jesus, please forgive us! ON TOR He suddenly rises, Poseidon-like, from the pool. Tor spits out water, then lets out a hearty BELLY LAVGH. TOR Tor make good joke! The Baptists aren't amused. CUT TO: INT. CITY BUS - MORNING A bus drives along. Every PASSENGER stares at something up front -- Vampira, in her slinky black outfit. She reads a "Grave Robbers From Outer Space" script. EXT. SCUMMY NEIGHBORHOOD - SAME TIME The bus stops in a scary, run-down neighborhood. Vampira off and warily looks around. VAMPIRA This can't be the right address... She nervously walks down a dingy alley. Vampira gets to an unmarked grimy door, gulps, then slowly opens it... INT. WAREHOUSE SOUNDSTAGE - DAY And inside is the "Grave Robbers From Outer Space" famous CEMETERY SET! The film is in production! Packed into a stinking little studio are a few scrawny twigs, branches, and flimsy cardboard tombstones set against a black drop. Tot struts about gregariously, in his "Inspector Clay" suit. He chats up the CREW. TOR I am so happy! Finally I am star wit dialogue! I memorized every wordt. Eddie will be so proud! The Baptists chase Ed around. They wave the script. REYNOLDS Before we start shooting, Mr. Wood, we have a few questions -- REVEREND LEMON The script refers on numerous occasions to graverobbing. Now we find the concept of digging up consecrated ground highly offensive. It's blasphemy. ED (very annoyed) What are you talking about?! It's the premise of the movie. It's even the title, for Christ's sake! REVEREND LEMON (shocked) Mr. Wood! REYNOLDS Yes, about that title, it strikes us as very inflammatory. Why don't we change it to "Plan Nine From Outer Space"? Ed shakes his head. ED That's ridiculous! WIPE TO: CEMETERY SET They're filming the COPS arriving at the pitch-black cemetery. There's a prop police car, and an assistant blows fog in. ED And, ACTION! Tor steps onto the set TOR (as Inspector Clay) "Medicul eksaminer been aroundt yet?" COP "Just left. The morgue wagon oughta be along most any time." TOR "You get statement frumk vitnesses?" COP "Yeah, but they're pretty scared." TOR "Findink mess like dis oughta make anyone frightened. Have one of da boyz take dem back to town. You take jarge." ON THE CREW Everybody grices, trying to understand Tor. The SCRIPT GIRL shakes her head. The Baptists angrily pull Ed aside. REYNOLDS What'd you give him all the lines for?? He's unintelligible! ED Look, Lugosi is dead and Vampira won't talk. Ihad to give somebody the dialogue. REVEREND LEMON That's not an answer. WIPE TO: ANOTHER SCENE BEING SHOT - LATER As Inspector Clay, Tor wanders around the "cemtery," waving his flashlight and nervously fingering his gun. Ed grins at the Baptists. ED See, no talking. Isn't he good? (he grabs his MEGAPHONE) CUE DR. TOM! DR. TOM (o.s.) Now? ED YES, NOW! LURK HIM. AND BE SURE TO KEEP YOUR FACE COVERED! The door of a large paper-mache crypt creeps open. Dr. Tom uncertainly steps out, impersonating Bela. He holds the cape over his face and stalks Tor. Ed is pleased as punch. He whispers to the Baptists. ED Isn't it wonderful? Bela lives! REVEREND LEMON Doesn't this strike you as a bit morbid? ED No, he would've loved it! Bela's returned from the grave -- like Dracula. (he grabs the MEGAPHONE) CUE VAMPIRA! Vampira steps out, walking in a trance. Tor is now cornered. He fruitlessly FIRES his gun, but bullets can't stop zombies. Vampira and Dr. Tom kill him. Tor screams. WIPE TO: ANOTHER SCENE GETS SHOT - LATER Paul and Conrad are scared cops exploring the cemetery. CONRAD (as a cop) "Let's go down and find out whose grave it is." PAUL MARCO (as a cop) "Why do I always get hooked up with these spook details? Monsters! Graves! Bodies!" ED CUE THE FLYING SAUCER, RAY! Off-stage, a grip on a ladder pans a 10K SEARCHLIGHT. The LIGHT crosses the actors. They look up in horror, then clumsily fall down. A rickety fake tombstone tips over. ED And PERFECT. CUT! REYNOLDS (freaking out) "Perfect"? Mr. Wood, do you know anything about the art of film production?! ED I like to think so. REYNOLDS That cardboard headstone tipped over. This graveyard is obviously phony! ED People won't notice. Filmmaking isn't about picky details -- it's about the big picture. REYNOLDS Oh, you wanna talk about the "big picture"?! How 'bout that the policemen arrive in the daylight, but now it's suddenly night??? Ed suddenly flips out. He's livid. ED YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! Haven't you ever heard of "suspension of disbelief"?! A STRAPPING YOUNG MAN walks up. He smiles at the Baptists, STRAPPING YOUNG MAN Reverend, I'm here. ED (baffled) Who's he? REVEREND LEMON This is our choir director. He's gonna play the young hero. ED (furious) Are you IN5ANE? I'm the director! I make the casting decisions around here! REVEREND LEMON I thought this was a group effort. ED NOOOOO!!! Ed spastically storms away. INT. DRESSING ROOM - SAME TIME Ed bursts in. He paces about, hysterically traumatized. ED They're driving me crazy! These Baptists are stupid, stupid, STUPID! Ed glances at a clothing rack -- and sees an ANGORA SWEATER. Ed is taken aback. He slowly removes it from the hanger and rubs it against his face. His breathing slows. ED Mmm. I need to calm... Take deep breaths... (he rubs the angora) Ohh, it's so smooth... INT. SOUNDSTAGE - SAME TIME The dressing room door flies open. Ed slowly struts out, in the sweater, pantsuit, and pumps. He is calmed and at ease. The stage quiets. People are staring. ED Okay, everyone! Let's set up for Scene 112! Move the crypt stage left and get ready with Tor's make-up effect. The crew resumes working. But the Baptists charge up, aghast. REVEREND LEMON Mr. Wood? What do you think you're doing?! ED I'm directing. REYNOLDS Not like THAT, you're not! REVEREND LEMON Remove that get-up immediately. You shame our Lord. Ed throws up his hands. ED That's it. I give up! CUT TO: EXT. SOUNDSTAGE - DAY Ed frantically marches out of the building. He's still in his ladies' outfit. Ed sees a cab and WHISTLES loudly. The cab pulls over. Ed jumps in. ED Take me to the nearest bar. CUT TO: INT. MUSSO & FRANKS - DAY The place is quiet, mid-morning. Frazzled Ed enters and sits at the bar. ED Imperial whiskey, straight up. The bartender nonchalantly pours a shot. Ed takes the drink. He quietly sips his booze and reflects upon his day. Ed glances around. And then, suddenly -- his eyes widen. Sitting at a table is ORSON WELLES! The portly, world-famous filmmaker sits alone, eating lunch with one hand and drawing STORYBOARDS with the other. Ed is thunderstruck. ED Oh my God. It's Orson Welles... Ed nervously stands. He starts to step forward -- when he catches his own reflection in a mirror. He's still in drag. ED Oh shit. Ed rolls his eyes. He runs his hand through his hair, then slowly approaches Orson Welles. Ed is terrified. ED Excuse me, Sir...? ORSON WELLES (he casually looks up) Yes? ED Uh, uh, I'm a young filmmaker, and a really big fan... and I just wanted to meet you. ORSON WELLES (he extends his hand) My pleasure. I'm Orson Welles. ED Oh. Um, I'm Ed Wood! (he smiles anxiously) So, what are you working on now? ORSON WELLES Eh, the financing just fell through for the third time on "Don Quixote." So I'm trying to finish a promo for something else. But I can't find the soundtrack -- (he shrugs) I think I left it in Malta. Ed is astonished. ED I can't believe it. These sound like my problems! ORSON WELLES It's the damn money men. You never know who's a windbag, and who's got the goods. And then they all think they're a director... ED Ain't that the truth! I've even bad producers recut my movies -- ORSON WELLES Ugh, I hate when that happens. ED (on a roll) And they always want to cast their buddies -- it doesn't even matter if they're right for the part! ORSON WELLES Tell me about it. I'm supposed to do a thriller at Universal, and they want Charlton Heston to play a Mexican! Ed shakes his head. He's discouraged. ED Mr. Welles, is it all worth it? ORSON WELLES It is when it works. (solemn) You know the one film of mine I can stand to watch? "Kane." The studio hated it... but they didn't get to touch a frame. (he smiles warmly) Ed, visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams? CLOSEUP - ED He has seen God. ED Wow. CUT TO: INT. SOUNDSTAGE - DAY Ed bursts onto the stage, a changed man. Re-energized, he confidently grabs the Baptists. ED Mr. Reynolds! REYNOLDS Yes? ED We are gonna finish this film just the way I want it! Because you can't compromise an artist's vision! REVEREND LEMON (flustered) B-but it's our money -- ED And you're gonna make a bundle. This movie's gonna be famous! But only if you SHUT UP, and let me do it my way! Reynolds and Rev. Lemon are speechiess. CLOSEUP - ED He beams, turns and SHOUTS TRIUMPHANTLY into the soundstage. ED ALRIGHT! ACTORS IN POSITION! LET'S FINISH THIS PICTURE!! WIPE TO: "PLAN 9" MONTAGE: SCENE IN THE CEMETERY SET Tor plays a zombie rising from the dead. He wears the scary white contact lenses. Tor's so big, he has trouble lifting himself from the grave. EDITING ROOM Ed and his stock footage buddy watch a moviola. ED Okay, I want that tank! And I want that bomb! SOUNDSTAGE Harry paints Bunny's face GREEN, like a Martian. Ed yells. ED NO! The aliens should look like people. MAKE-UP MAN HARRY I'm tellin' ya, aliens are always green. ED Not in my movie, they're not! SCENE IN THE SPACESHIP SET Bunny's make-up is now normal. He wears an alien suit. A HAMMY ALIEN enters and salutes with a bizarre crossing gesture. BUNNY "What plan will we follow?" HAMMY ALIEN "Plan Nine." BUNNY "Plan Nine..." (he consults his papers) "Ah yes. Plan Nine deals with the resurrection of the dead." SCENE IN THE CEMETERY Tor staggers up to Paul Marco and CLOBBERS him. OFF-STAGE Ed smiles at the Baptists. ED Maybe you guys were right. "Plan Nine" is a good title. MINIATURE CITY SET Ed shoots the famous flying saucers. Paul holds a paper plate and Conrad lights it on fire. The "saucer" soars on fishing line over a little miniature town. SCENE IN THE BEDROOM SET Dr. Tom glides in, his cape over his face. A woman SCREAMS. COCKPIT SET Ed stands in front of a masonite board and two chairs. An actor playing the AIRPLANE PILOT walks up. PILOT Where's the cockpit set? ED You're standing in it. (he yells off) Alright, bring in the shower curtain! A shower curtain gets lowered into the doorway. EXT. DUSTY ROAD A car zooms by. Kathy drives, as Ed shoots handheld out the back window. SCENE IN THE SPACESHIP SET Th Hammy Alien argues with the humans. PILOT "So what if we develop this solarnite bomb? We'd be even a stronger nation." HAMMY ALIEN "Stronger? You see! You see!! Your stupid minds! Stupid! STUPID!" PILOT "That's all I'm taking from you." He WHACKS the alien. A brawl breaks out. SCENE WITH CRISWELL Criswell lectures behind a desk, with mysterious lighting CRISWELL "Perhaps on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it. For they will be from outer space." SCENE IN THE CEMETERY SET The famous shot: Tor and Vampira walk in a trance through foggy cemetery. Off-stage, Ed stands with the crew. He shouts gleefully. ED More fog! More fog!! (he beams) And CUT! PRINT IT! IT'S A WRAP! END MONTAGE. CUT TO: EXT. CITY - NIGHT It's pouring rain. Standing in the drench is Ed. He's wearing a tux, and fighting with his open convertible top. The Rambler is filled with water. Kathy stands under an awning. She wears a pretty gown. ED I can't get it to go up. KATHY Ed, you're gonna miss your own premiere. ED (he gives up) C'mon! Let's just go. Ed impulsively opens the car door. Water pours out. Kathy scurries out and jumps in the wet car with him. EXT. MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT The rain is gushing down. The marquee proclaims "WORLD PREMIERE: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE!" People hurry in. Ed and Kathy roar up in the open convertible, totally soaked. He jumps out, opens her door, and they run inside. INT. THEATER - NIGHT The theater is packed. All the gang, and their friends and families, are gathered. Criswell stands on-stage, speaking into a mike. CRISWELL You are about to see en extraordinary motion picture. But before it begins, I think we ought to give a hand to the man without whom we wouldn't be here tonight... Eddie, take a bow! The crowd ERUPTS in applause. Everybody goes crazy -- even the Baptists. People YELL "Speech! Speech!" Ed smiles proudly. Kathy kisses him. Ed runs down front, hugs Criswell, then takes the microphone. ED Thanks a million. I just wanna say... this film is for Bela. The lights dim. DISSOLVE TO: MINUTES LATER The title "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE" is projected onto the screen. As random IMAGES from the film play out, we drift over the happy faces of our friends watching. Paul and Conrad stare, enthralled. Tor laughs as he sees himself. Vampira giggles. Bunny nudges her playfully. Criswell mouths his own lines. ON SCREEN Bela appears, in his little suit. In the last footage he ever shot, he shuffles around in front of his house, then tenderly smells the flower. ON ED He watches, entranced. Then he smiles to himself. ED This is the one. I know I'll be remembered for this film. CUT TO: INT. THEATER LOBBY - LATER The BOISTEROUS crowd is in high spirits. People congratulate Ed and pat him on the back. "It was great!" "It's your best one yet!" "Bela would've loved it!" Ed drifts through the crowd, basking in the glory. It's like a wonderful dream. EXT. THEATER - SAME TIME The rain comes down in sheets. The doors burst open, and Ed and Kathy run out. KATHY Ed, I'm so happy for you. ED Let's get married. KATHY (startled) Huh?! ED Right now. Let's drive to Vegas! KATHY But it's pouring. And the car top is stuck! ED (he gives his killer grin) So? It's only a five-hour drive. And it'll probably clear up, once we hit the desert. Heck, it'll probably clear up once we drive around the corner. I promise. Kathy stares in disbelief. Then she smiles. They kiss. Ed and Kathy jump into the open convertible. The engine starts, and they drive away, disappearing into the pouring rain. A moment. And then, we move up, up, into the black clouds. Lightning CRACKS across the sky. OPTICAL: We slowly PULL OUT from the sky, move through a window... and we're back inside INT. HAUNTED MANSION PARLOR - NIGHT Criswell is sitting inside his coffin. He stares at us. CRISWELL My friend, you have just seen the story of Edward D. Wood, Junior. Stranger than fact... and yet every incident based on sworn testimony. (his eyes gleam) A man. A life. Can you prove it didn't happen? A beat, to ponder this. And then Criswell slowly lies back in his coffin, and the lid mysteriously closes over him. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Edward Scissorhands.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Edward Scissorhands.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b37838d1c07b5cc6de5ee436d3c2a932bd2868c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Edward Scissorhands.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Edward Sissorhands OLD KIM Snuggle in, sweetie. It's cold out there. GRANDDAUGHTER Why is it snowing, grandma? Where does it come from? OLD KIM Oh, that's a long story, sweetheart. GRANDDAUGHTER I want to hear. OLD KIM Oh, not tonight. Go to sleep. GRANDDAUGHTER I'm not sleepy. Tell me, please. OLD KIM Well, all right. Let's see. I guess it would have to start with scissors. GRANDDAUGHTER Scissors? OLD KIM Well, there are all kinds of scissors. And once there was even a man who had scissors for hands. GRANDDAUGHTER A man? OLD KIM Yes. GRANDDAUGHTER Hands, scissors? OLD KIM No, scissorhands. You know the mansion on top of the mountain? GRANDDAUGHTER It's haunted. OLD KIM Well, a long time ago, an inventor lived in that mansion. He made many things, I suppose. He also created a man. He gave him inside, a heart, a brain, everything. Well, almost everything. You see, the inventor was very old. He died before he got to finish the man he invented. So the man was left by himself, incomplete and all alone. GRANDDAUGHTER He didn't have a name? OLD KIM Of course, he had a name. His name was Edward. PEG Avon calling. HELEN Weren't you just here? PEG No, not since last season. Today I've come to show you our exquisite new line of soft colors in shadows, blushes and lipstick. Everything you need to accent and highlight your changing looks. HELEN My changing looks? That's good. (Helen chuckles) PEG Well, it goes that saying and I also have a complete selection of your old favorites, those tried-and-true products we've all come to depend on year-in and year-out. HELEN Come on, Peg. I never buy anything from you. You know that? PEG I know. Bye, Helen. REPAIRMAN You know, you didn't have to call me, ma'am. You could have taken care of this by yourself. JOYCE I could? I don't think so. REPAIRMAN Yeah, you see, it's easy. The food trap's clogged. That's all. You see this bolt here? You just unscrew this. OK? And out she pops. JOYCE You know, on TV they say you repairmen are lonely bunch of people. Housewives get lonely too. Although you may not realize it since they haven't made a commercial on the subject. REPAIRMAN And then you just take this and put it back in here nice and easy. Be careful not to force it, because it fits in there by itself. And then you just screw this back on. (The bell rings.) JOYCE On no! Who could that be? Will you excuse me for a moment? Now. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back. This is fascinating. I wouldn't want to miss a moment of it. PEG Good morning, Joyce. Avon calling. JOYCE Why! Peg. Have you gone blind? Can't you see there's a vehicle in my driveway? PEG Oh, yes. JOYCE Well, I'm surprised you don't realize that means I'm busy. (Joyce shuts the door with a bang.) PEG Okay. Now, we should decide on lipsticks. Okay, dear, what one did you like best? There was the Winsome Wahini which looked charming on you. Or the Bahenie Bliss. A GIRL I like them both. PEG Well, great. A GIRL You don't actually think I have any money, do you? (Peg gets in her car.) CHILDREN Ding, dong, the Avon lady. PEG It's just not my day. (Disappointed Peg sees a mansion through her rearview mirror and drives to the place. She is attracted by the beautiful garden there and enters the mansion.) PEG Oh, my goodness. PEG Oh, it's so beautiful. Hello? (Birds flying) Hello? Avon calling, oh my. Hello, I'm Peg Boggs. I'm your local Avon representative. Hello. I'm sorry to barge in like this. But you don't have any reason to be afraid. This is some huge house, isn't it? Thank goodness for those aerobics classes. (Snipping) PEG Hello. Hello. Why are you hiding back there? You don't have to hide from me. I'm Peg Boggs. I'm your local Avon representative and I'm as harmless as cherry pie. (Peg sees Edward's scissorhands.) Oh my! I can see that I've disturbed you. How stupid of me! I'll just be going now. EDWARD Don't go. PEG Oh my! What happened to you? EDWARD I'm not finished. PEG Uh, put those down. Don't come any closer. Just please... Those are your hands? Those are your hands. What happened to you? Where are your parents? Hum... Your mother? Your father? EDWARD He didn't wake up. PEG Are you alone? Do you live up here all by yourself? What happened to your face? Hum, you know, I won't hurt you. But at the very least let me give you a good astringent and this will help to prevent infection. What's your name? EDWARD Edward. PEG Edward? I think you should just come home with me. (Peg takes Edward to her home) PEG Oh! EDWARD I'm-I'm sorry. PEG No, Don't be. You go ahead and look you have every reason to be excited. PEG Oh! Are you ok? EDWARD Are you ok? (Ring) HELEN Hello. MARGIE Hi, it's Margie. Listen, I was standing outside talking to Carol and Peg drove by, she had somebody in the car. HELEN Did you get a good look? MARGIE No, did she say anything to you, about having guest? HELEN She didn't say anything. She rang my doorbell early this morning. MARGIE No, ok, I'll meet you on the corner. Right, Bye. (Birds signal) HELEN Oh, damn! PEG Here we go, dear. This is our house. And you can just go right in and make yourself right at home. OK? And just, well have something to eat or drink, whatever you... Here, dear. Here you... This is the front door here, Here we go, right in here. (A woman talks on the phone) A WOMAN Joyce, I just saw this strange guy drop in with Peg. I didn't get a very good look at him. He looked kind of pale. Okay, I'll be right there. Don't do anything without me. Okay? Bye. JOYCE Yes, I'll be right there. PEG Here we are. So, oh, this is the living room and back here, the bedrooms. You want to see the pictures? All right. Well, this is my husband, Bill. He's a bowling champion. Do you know what bowling is? Bowling? Well, here they are down at the lake, fishing. I think Kevin looks a little glum Because they didn't catch anything that day. And here's my daughter, Kim. All dressed up the junior prom. She's a senior now. I can't believe it. She's camping in the mountains with some friends, but she'll be back in a few days and you can meet her then. Isn't she beautiful? That's my family. Now, go on, dear. I'll show you the rest of the house. Then you can just freshen up and make yourself at home. Okay? That's the kitchen over there. You help yourself to anything you want to eat or drink. Those are grapes. Back here are the bedrooms. Let me get you some towels, then I will see what we can find to wear. You know what? I think I have some of Bill's old clothes in here. This is perfect. Here. These should just fit you. (The phone rings.) Oh, no, no. Don't be alarmed. That's just a phone. Now you can go in Kim's room and put these on. I'll be right with you. PEG No, no, scissors. That's right. Well, he was born up there or something. Have you seen him before? No, I don't think he's been off the grounds before today. You're kidding. How did you get together with him? I have to go. I'll talk to you later Margie, Bye-bye. (to Edward) I'm sorry Edward, I didn't... oh, dear. May I help you with this? EDWARD Thank you. PEG There you go. Oh, dear, you've cut your face. Let me get this right off. Does that hurt? Okay. No, good. Now let's get you dressed. Okay. There we go. Very fine. You look fine, just fine. Come on, we can't wait for you. You've got rollers in your damn hair. PEG Okay. Now what did I do with my sci... Edward, um, would you. Thank you. I have a doctor friend who I think could help you. EDWARD Really? PEG Yes, I can help with the scars. I just want to consult the Avon handbook before doing anything. PEG Kevin, it's not polite to stare. Think how it would make you feel if somebody were staring at you. KEVIN I wouldn't care. PEG Well, I would, so don't do it! BILL This must be quite a change for you, Ed. PEG I think he prefers Edward. BILL Sure. So what have you been doing up there in that big old place? I bet the view must be spectacular, Ed. PEG I was just... BILL See all the way to the ocean? EDWARD Sometimes. PEG Bill, could I have the salt and pepper? Thank you. KEVIN Man, those things are cool. You know I bet they're razor sharp. One karate chop to a guy's neck... PEG Would you like some butter for your bread? PEG Great. EDWARD Thank you. KEVIN Can I bring him to show and tell on Monday? PEG I've had enough. PEG (to Edward) You think you can sleep? Things feel strange now, but soon you'll feel right at home. Good night. (Peg tries to cover Edward's scars.) PEG The light concealing cream goes on first, then you blend and blend and blend. Blending is the secret. More concealing for you? But you complexion is so fair. Now this has a touch of lavender in it. Give it a try here. Close enough. OK. This should do the trick here. I have another idea. We'll cover up the scars and start with a completely smooth surface. Don't eat this stuff! Sports announcements on RADIO Hartely into the windup and the strike one pitch. Swung on and missed strike two. If it's a hit, the club has 12 hits. But they still have 11 on the scoreboard and it's 3-1. 0 and 2 the count to Warren. Now they change it to 12 hits. BILL Turn it up, Kevin. I can't hear it. Kevin! No, make it louder. Sports announcements on RADIO Hartely's strike two pitch is hammered. KEVIN You hear that, Mr. Boggs? BILL No, make it louder. Sports announcements on RADIO It's going way back. It's gone. It's out of here. It is history. KEVIN Dad, look! Sports announcements on RADIO A grand slam for Martinez to make it a five-run inning and blow this game to pieces. BILL I'll be darned. PEG They filled the whole tape. (Peg listens to the recorded phones.) RECORDED VOICES What's going on over there, Peg. Call me....Hi, it's Margie. Who is he? Call me. Oh, by the way, here it's pouring rain in the mountains. You think the kids are okay?...Hi, there, darling. The gals are all in a tizzy about your secret visitor. You can't keep him a secret forever. BILL Boy, it's just wonderful, Ed. My god, you, you have the whole family in there, don't you? KEVIN Edward, come here. (Kevin cleans Edward's scissorhands with water.) BILL No, no, no. That's a terrible idea, son. Go to the garage and get the oil can. We don't want him rusting up on this now, do we? PEG Edward, you did us? Oh, Bill. It's us. BILL Yes, it is. PEG Oh, Edward. (Esmeralda comes near.) ESMERALDA It's not heaven he's from. It's straight from the stinking flames of hell. The power of satan is in him. I can feel it. God, you have the poor sheep strayed so far from the path. EDWARD We are not sheep. ESMERALDA Don't come near me. BILL That's right. Go on. Get out of here. Run! PEG Edward, don't you listen to her. BILL Don't worry about her, Edward. She's just an old lonely loony. That's all. (Women knock on the door.) WOMEN Hi! JOYCE You are all hiding in there like a bunch of old hermit crabs. PEG Hi, Joyce. Hi! JOYCE Shame on you, keeping your unusual guest all to yourself. We think that's mighty selfish of you. PEG No, it, it's... things have just been a little hectic around here. That's all. JOYCE Oh, that was so sweet of you to want to correct the situation. What time does the barbecue begin? PEG Barbecue? JOYCE Well, you intend to show your guest hospitality by introducing him to your friends, don't you? ANOTHER WOMAN I'll bring coleslaw. JOYCE And I will bring the ambrosia salad. What time was it that you said? PEG What time? Ah... bill. JOYCE About five? ESMERALDA He has been sent first to tempt you. But it's not too late. You must push him from you. Expel him. Trample down the perversion of nature. JOYCE Did you hear that? He's the perversion of nature. Wow, isn't that exciting? See you later. Bye bye. PEG I've always said that you really can't have a picnic or a barbecue without deviled eggs. They're just the best. They make the thing. Oh, dear. Edward. That's wonderful. I didn't know you chopped all those things. What a really big... (Peg notices a cut on his face.) Oh, all right now. It's just a nick. There's no need to be nervous, dear. You know, Esmeralda won't be here and the rest of neighbors there are really very nice. There's no need to be nervous. They are so eager to meet you. You just have to be yourself. EDWARD Myself? PEG That's right. Just your own sweet self. KEVIN Hey, play scissors, paper, stone with us. EDWARD Play scissors what? NEIGHBOR I got a doctor friend might be able to help you. Aren't they most incredible? PEG He did them just like that. TINKA This afternoon? AT THE PARTY Hi, Mike. How are you doing? Hello, Jack. Hey, kid. Hey, Hi. George Morroe! Whoa! That's a heck of handshake. Uh, Harry! Harry! I saw you on the golf course. You got a dozen of the melons... PEG (to Edward) Are you ok? Do you want something to eat? Are you hungry? Do you want a cracker? MARGIE He's so... different completely different, No kidding mysterious. JOYCE Do you imagine those hands are hot or cold? Just think what a single snip could do. HELEN Or undo. GEORGE (to Edward) Eddie. The guys and I were talking, we'd like want to invite you to our card game on Friday night. Would you like that? Only thing is, you can't cut. AN OLD MAN I have my own infirmity. Never did me a bit of harm. Took some shrapnel during the war and ever since then I can't feel a thing. Not a damn thing. Listen Don't you ever let anybody tell you you have a handicap. JOYCE Who's handicapped? My goodness! Don't be ridiculous. You're not handicapped. You're... What do they call that? Exceptional. My name's Joyce. And I noticed that you have not tasted any of the ambrosia salad that I made especially for you. Allow me. (Joyce helps Edward to eat.) WOMAN 1 You must try this. (Many women flock to him) MARGE (to Edward) You must try this. It's my mother's recipe. Let him chew, for heaven sakes with your green thumb. I could use your help. HOUSEWIFE Me, too. There you go. WOMAN 2 I want a row of angels. JOYCE Sorry, ladies. But he's promised to come to my house first. WOMAN 3 One more. JOYCE Haven't you, Eddie? EDWARD I did? BILL Okay, everybody. Grab your plates. Soup's on. EDWARD I thought it was shish kebab. BILL What? EDWARD I thought it was shish kebab. BILL Yeah, it, it is shish kebab. It was a figure of speech, Ed. You got to learn not to take things so literally. (On hearing that, Edward looks back the time the inventor taught him the etiquette.) INVENTOR Let us pretend we're in the drawing room, and the hostess is serving tea "Now, many numerous little questions confront us" "Should the man rise" "When he accepts his cup of tea?" "May lump sugar be taken with the things?" EDWARD Hmm, no. INVENTOR Is it good form to accept a second cup? "Now, should the napkin be entirely unfolded." Oh should the center crease. Be allowed to remain? It is so easy to commit embarrassing blunders. "But etiquette humiliation and discomfort. Mmm yes, boring. Let us switch to, Um... To some poetry, Hmm?" "There was an old man from the cape." "Who made himself there, but they keep such a beautiful shape." That's right. Go ahead, smile. It's funny. That's right. DENNY Okay, guys, we're home. shh. KIM I can't believe. Everything's still sopping. TEENAGE GIRL I can't wait to take a shower. SUZANNE And wash off the mildew. JIM If my parents set the alarm, I'm screwed I'll sleep in the yard... again. KIM I told you to call to say we're coming back early. DENNY Did you? SUZANNE He'd rather complain. JIM How else can I be the center of the attention? You didn't call your parents. KIM They don't run their house like a police station. Bye. Thanks for driving, Denny. See you later. JIM See you later. Bye. KIM Don't forget your arm. JIM Oh, yeah. DENNY Come on, Jim let's go. KIM Bill! There's somebody in my room. Go. Look. A murderer with an axe. He did try to even kill me. BILL It's all right. It's all right. ( to Kevin) Go back to bed. It's only Edward. (to Edward) This way. PEG Honey, that was Edward. KIM Who is he? What are you talking about? PEG Edward's come to live with us. There's nothing to be upset about. No, no. It's okay. BILL We'll have you a setup here in a minute. Up with your feet. A queen-size bed here. How do you like that? It's all made up and everything. There you go. What's the matter? What's wrong? She gets you nervous? You've been closed up in a way in that castle too long. You don't know anything about the wonderful world of teen-age girls. They're all crazy. Here some. Straighten that out. EDWARD What is it? BILL Lemonade. I don't know what it is. They reach a certain age. They develop these gland things. Their bodies swell up. They go crazy. EDWARD Glands? BILL yeah, glands. I try not to think about it (Edward drinks lemonade.) Good. Isn't it? (Peg calms down Kim.) PEG Now you stay in Kevin's room tonight. Tomorrow we'll fix your room right. KIM Mom, why did you have to bring him in here? PEG Oh, honey, I couldn't have left him there all alone. You would have done the same thing. KIM Why does he have to stay here? PEG Oh, my goodness, Kim. I'm surprised at you. He can't help the way he is. Have a little sympathy. KIM I do have a little sympathy. PEG Then let's just say hello and later you can come downstairs and shake his hand. KIM Shake his hand? PEG Well, not literally. Goodness, you scared him half to death. KIM I scared him to death? PEG Hi, Bill. I just wanted you two to have a proper introduction. Edward, this is our daughter Kim. Kim, this is Edward who's going to live with us. KIM Hi! (Edward falls on the floor.) JOYCE (to Edward) Eddie. Thirsty? (to Kisses) Kisses, Hush up. Quiet now. I can hardly hear myself think. Momma's precious little baby girl. (to Edward) Wouldn't you like a nice cool glass of lemonade? EDWARD Lemonade? (Vomits) (Bell rings) KEVIN One chop to guy's neck. And it's all over. They're the sharpest things in the world. They can hack through anything. And... KIM I think they look weird. They give me the creeps. A GIRL You should see the clown in front of Ms. Peter's yard. EDWARD Kim! KIM Oh, no! A GIRL That's him? JIM He's calling you, Kim. KIM Stop it. A WOMAN Edward, you forgot your cookies. JIM Don't worry, Eddie. She's waiting for you. A GIRL Let's go. PEG Bill, you know what Edward told me? He had lunch at Jackie's today. BILL Really? PEG She's just had her kitchen completely redone. BILL I'll be darned. PEG New paint, new cabinets, new floors, new microwave, new Sonnet dishwasher. BILL Yeah, isn't that wonderful? PEG Isn't that something? Jim, didn't you tell me your mom had her kitchen done too? JIM Yeah, my dad bought himself a bunch of new toys. Big screen TV, CD players, VCR with four heads. PEG My goodness sake! I wonder what it's like to be that rich. JIM No, they keep things pretty much locked up. My father has his own room for his stuff to make sure I can't get and use it. He's so cheap he won't help me buy my own car. BILL Well, he probably wants you to pay for it yourself. I agree with him. It builds character. You'll appreciate it more. Speaking of money, I understand you are not charging for gardening, Edward? PEG Now, Bill. Margie made him cookies today. BILL Sweetheart, you can't buy the necessities of life with cookies. You can't buy car with cookies. Am I right, Jim? JIM Ah, that's true, sir. You can't. (Edward gives a piece of meat to Kim's friend.) A GIRL I can't eat that. He used his hands. I don't think it's sanitary. (Edward passes the piece to Kim but drops it in her lap by mistake.) EDWARD I'm sorry. PEG Honey, you want me to help you clean that up? KIM No, that's okay. I'll be right back. (Edward begins styling women's hair and becomes famous.) HOUSEWIFE This can't possibly be my Alexis. (to Edward) She looks so beautiful. Look at you. She's gorgeous. Thank you. PEG It won't be long. She has just to decide on the style, and then it will be fine. She just has to decide what style she wants. JOYCE I was hoping for something big and bouffant. Kind of like mine. Don't you worry , Kisses. You'll be so pretty. Eddie, is there anything you can't do? You take my breath away. I swear. Look at this. Have you ever cut a woman's hair? Would you cut mine? That was the single most thrilling experience of my whole life. PEG We're getting the head of the company. KIM I'm home. PEG Hi, honey. We're in here. KIM Hi! What did you do to your hair? PEG Edward cut it. Isn't it wild? (on telephone) Hello. Oh, I can't believe I'm talking to you in person. This is such an honor. Yes. He's right here. Great. So then you know all about it. Aha. That's exactly what I've been using. Well, I've had a little trouble getting it to the right consistency. Yeah, right. just a little. I'll try that. Well, what imaginative suggestions! I sure will. Thank you so much. Bye bye. (to Edward) No wonder she's the head of the company. You know, she started out as a sales representative just like me. I've always wanted to talk to her but until now I never had a reason. Thanks, Edward. EDWARD She had some ideas? PEG You bet she did. (At the Airport) MARGIE I'll get that. MARGIE Edward! We're here. Come on. Let's get you sharpened up. JIM You got it? KIM No, I can't believe this. (Kim sees Edward coming.) Do you have a key? EDWARD No. KIM I could have sworn I put it in here somewhere. JIM Well, we're stranded. (Edward opens the locked door with his scissorhands.) KIM Wow! Thanks. JIM Ed, what a guy! Good job. Hey, you didn't break it or scratch it or anything. Hey, be a pal and yell when Peg pulls in, huh? TV HOST Quite a story, yes? Any questions for Edward? Yeah, get way over. Stand right up. WOMAN 1 What's been the best part of your new life here in town? EDWARD The friends I've made. TV HOST Any other questions? WOMAN 2 Have you ever thought of having corrective surgery or prosthetics? I know a doctor that might be able to help you. EDWARD I'd like to meet him. TV HOST We'll give that name after the show. Thank you very much. That's very nice. Anyone else? Yes, stand right up. WOMAN 3 But if you had regular hands you'd be like everyone else. EDWARD Yes, I know. TV HOST I think he'd like that. WOMAN 4 Then no one would think you're special. You wouldn't be on TV or anything. PEG No matter what, Edward will always special. TV HOST More questions? Stand right up. WOMAN 5 Your work is so interesting distinctive and unique. Do you have plans to open your own beauty salon? TV HOST There's an idea. Anyone else? Yeah. WOMAN 6 Do you have a girl friend? Ahh. (Living room in Peg's) JIM Sure, he does. Right, Kim? KIM Now you got him started. JIM Knock it off, bubble- butt. KEVIN You did it. JIM So? (On the TV Show) TV HOST How about it? Is there some special lady in your life? TV HOST Uh, everything's all right. He'll take a break and we'll be right back after these messages. KIM Why are you laughing? He got hurt. JIM It was a little shock. Ha! Ha! Ha! KIM A little shock? JIM I wish we'd been taping that. I'd give my left nut to see that again. (Edward in beauty salon) JOYCE Aren't you excited? Oh, this is just so thrilling. Wait till I show it to you. It's just perfect. It's just what we've been looking for. I want to call it "Shear Heaven." Here we are. No, all along here I'm going to put a row of new mirrors. Back up here a whole row of new cosmetics. (TV 1/4å) All along this row here. EDWARD Peg could sell cosmetics. JOYCE Sure. This is where I stand when I greet the customers. Back in here is what I really want to show you. This is the storeroom for supplies. What I need from you today is to help me make a decision. Don't, that's dangerous. You just sit down right there. I have some smocks. Would you like me to model them? This is my favorite because it's yellow. And what it's for is to catch itchy little trimming that fall down your neck. Then there's this old purple one, you know, you kind of drape around you like this. EDWARD I like that one. JOYCE You're trembling. So am I. I've been waiting for this moment for so long. Edward! Edward, you come back here! You can't do that! (In the Restaurant) BILL Veloro. Veloro. Sweetheart. That hangs on the dash board. PEG I've never seen that. EDWARD Sorry I'm late. PEG Hi, Edward. Sorry. We had to go ahead without you. Here you go. BILL So, Edward, did you have a productive day? EDWARD Mrs. Monroe showed me where the salon is going to be. You could have a cosmetic counter. PEG Wouldn't that be great? BILL Great. EDWARD And then she showed me the back room where she took all of her clothes off. BILL Edward. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. I'm just as pleased as Punch. This whole beauty parlor, that's what's going to teach you volumes. There's nothing like running your own business. I've never done it myself, but from what I gather it's the greatest satisfaction a working man can have. So I guess the bank is going to be your next step, huh? EDWARD The bank? BILL Yeah, take out a loan. Get yourself started. Nothing to worry about. With your talent and reputation, it's going to be a snap. Now. BANK CLERK No credit, no record of jobs you've held, no savings, no personal investment, no social security number. You may as well not even exist. There is no collateral. PEG You know. We already have a second on the house, but don't the testimonials make a difference? Did you see here, the mayor's wife can't wait to become a client? BANK CLERK We simply can't do it. Now get yourself a social security card. Establish credit and buy yourself a car. You have the side to advantage. You can get one of those handicapped placards. No problem. Park anywhere you like. PEG I can't believe it. Really, it's just an outrage. Don't you worry. This isn't the end of it. We'll get your money somewhere. KIM But that's breaking and entering. JIM Look. My parents have insurance up the rear. Okay? And all it will cost them is a little hassle. That's about it. In a week my dad will have new and better everything. KIM We can't. JIM Look. There's a guy who will give us cash for the stuff. KIM Jim, I don't want to. JIM Well, do you want to ride around in a van like Denny's, and we could be by ourselves whenever we like? With a mattress in the back? KIM Why can't you just do it? JIM Because my father keeps the damn room locked, and we need Edward to get us in. KIM Why can't you take the key like when he's sleeping or something? JIM Look, you don't understand, everything he handcuffs or ties will do anything for you. KIM What do you mean? That's not true. JIM Oh, no? Why don't you ask him? KIM That's not fair. JIM What's fair got to do with it? There isn't any other way. KIM There got to be. JIM Look. I've racked my brain. Don't you want us to have our own van? KIM Yeah. Jim, the lights are on. JIM Those go on automatically. They've gone for the weekend. I told you. That's right. DENNY This burglar scared. KIM You turned off the alarm. Am I right? JIM Yes, everything, come on. Let's go. Come on. KIM I can't believe this is happening. A GIRL Are you sure he doesn't know this is Jim's house? KIM He's never been here. EDWARD This person stole from you? JIM Keep your voice down. I told you he stole it. Right? Come on. Let's go. EDWARD His parents will make him give it back. JIM Listen, I've already tried that. The guy's parents are like he is. Okay? Now, you told Kim you'd do this. Well, come on. Let's go. Come on. Come on. Come on. (Edward picks the lock and the door opens, but when he steps into the room the alarm works and the door shuts.) JIM The bastard had it wired separately. Come on. KIM No, Jim. We can't just leave him here. POLICEMAN We know you're in there. OFFICER ALLEN We're in the process of deactivating the system so that you can come out. KIM Denny, turn around! JIM No way! KIM Jim, it's your house. They can't arrest you for setting off your own alarm. We'll just tell them we were breaking in. JIM I'm not going back there. Okay? KIM We have to go back. JIM No, because my father will prosecute. KIM His own son? JIM Especially his own son. If Edward tells, I'll kill him. KIM Denny, turn around. JIM No. KIM Turn around. We have to. OFFICER ALLEN Put your hands high in the air so we can see them. Put your hands up! POLICEMAN (to Allen) He's got something in his hands. Looks like knives. OFFICER ALLEN Drop your weapon I repeat. Drop your weapon. I'll ask you one more time and this is your last warning. Drop your weapon. If you fail to do so, we'll have to open fire. Don't make us do that, please. Drop your weapons. Drop them. Now. Looks like we got a psycho. Prepare to fire. (Neighbors gather and ask not to fire.) A WOMAN Please. We know him. OFFICER ALLEN Alright, cuff him. (At police station) PEG But can we see him now? POLICEMAN We'll have to hold him overnight for observation. PEG He has to stay in prison all night? POLICEMAN Pick him up in the morning. (criminal investigation section in police station) PEG Oh, Edward. Hello Edward, dear. I blame myself. BILL (to Edward) What in god's name was going through your mind, son? PEG Why don't I set a better example? You saw how I envied Jim's parents, their money. BILL What were you going to do with that stuff? PEG Oh, I blithely say, "We'll get money for the salon somehow." But I never meant stealing. Stealing's not the way to get it. Stealing's not the way to get anything. BILL Except trouble. And you're in a heap of that. PEG Why ever did you do this? OFFICER ALLEN Will he be okay, Doc? PSYCHOLOGIST The years in spent isolation have not equipped him with the tools necessary to judge right from wrong. He's had no context. He's been completely without guidance. Furthermore his work, the garden sculptures, hair styles, and so forth. Indicate that he's a highly imaginative. OFFICER ALLEN Character. PSYCHOLOGIST It seems clear that his awareness of what we call reality is radically underdeveloped. OFFICER ALLEN But will he be all right out there? PSYCHOLOGIST Oh, yeah. He'll be fine. OFFICER ALLEN (to Edward) Listen. It could keep me up all night worrying about you. Watch yourself. (roadside) MARGIE I heard this noise and ran out in my bathrobe. JOYCE All along I felt in my gut. There was something wrong with him. MARGIE It could have been my house. HELEN It could have been any of our houses. ESMERALDA I warned you, didn't I? I saw the sign of satan on him. You didn't heed my warning. but now you will because now you see it too. (Reporters approach Edward and Peg.) PEG Edward. You stay here. REPORTER What do you say in your defense? EDWARD Nothing. PEG He didn't want to talk. REPORTER You have to say something. PEG He can't talk right now. REPORTER No comments? No remarks? REPORTER (to Edward) So were you set up? What was going through your mind? One comment. PEG We have to get in the house. We don't want to talk to you. We'll talk to you later. REPORTER One comment. PEG Well, for goodness sakes, Lois, I'll see you at our Christmas party. Before I get you here for your haircut. Of course, we'll have it this year. Why wouldn't we have it this year? Well, you may think that, but you're wrong. KIM You're here. They didn't hurt you, did they? Were you scared? I tried to make Jim go back, but you can't make Jim do anything. Thank you for not telling them about me. EDWARD You are welcome. KIM It must have been awful when they told you whose house it was. EDWARD I know it was Jim's house. KIM You did? EDWARD Yes. KIM Well, then why did you do it? EDWARD Because you asked me to. (Jim called out for Kim.) KIM Don't. JIM What's the matter with you? When you are going to stop? I did what I could. My old man think he's retarded, otherwise he'd still be in jail. What more do you want from me? KIM You could tell the truth. JIM So could do. You were there, too. KIM It wasn't my idea. You know I didn't want to do it. JIM But you did do it. I don't get why you give such a shit anyway. BILL Well, we are going to try to help you find a way to replace the drapes and the towels, but our confidence in you, Edward, is not going to be so easy to replace. KIM Dad! BILL Okay, a little ethics. You are walking down the street. You find a suitcase full of money. There's nobody around. No human person is in evidence. What do you do? A You keep the money. B You use it to buy gifts for your friends and your loved ones. C You give it to the poor. D You turn it into the police. KIM That is really stupid. PEG Kim! KEVIN I keep the money. PEG Simmer down. BILL Edward? KIM Hey, how about after dinner we go down to the bowling alley? That will be fun. PEG You are not seeing Jim tonight? KIM No. KEVIN You know we had a cool show-and-tell today. This kid brought in a box of baby possums, 10. maybe 12. Totally naked. No hair at all. PEG Honey, this is fascinating. but I don't think your father's finished yet. BILL Thank you, dear. Edward, we are waiting. EDWARD Give it to my loved ones? PEG Oh, Edward, it does seem that that's what you should do, bit it's not. KEVIN You dope, everybody knows he's supposed to give it to the police. BILL Good thinking, Kevin. KIM Well, think about it, you guys, I mean, that's the nicer thing to do. That's what I would do. BILL We're trying to make things easier for him, so let's cut the comedy for a little while. KIM I am being serious. It's a nicer thing to do. BILL We're not talking nice. We're talking right and wrong. KIM Shut up. PEG Oh, goodness sake, no wonder poor Edward can't learn right from wrong living in his family. (Margie and women on the phone.) WOMAN 1 Did you hear what he did to Peg's curtains? MARGIE It is unbelievable that they're having their Christmas party anyway. Are you going? WOMAN 1 Oh, I don't think so. MARGIE He practically raped Joyce, you know threatening her with those knives? It's a miracle she escaped. HELEN I don't have anything against Bill and Peg, but... JOYCE I know, I know. They've got that teenage daughter in the house. Oh, those poor things after what happened to me can you imagine? HELEN What do you say to Peg about the Christmas party? MARGIE I said I hoped. We'd make it. HELEN I lied, too. (Peg's living room) PEG Edward, do you want to give me that new haircut? EDWARD Again? PEG yes, sure. PEG It makes me proud to have you as my own personal hairdresser. KEVIN Hi, honey. honey. EDWARD Kevin, you want to play scissors-paper-stone? KEVIN No. EDWARD No, why? KEVIN It's boring. I'm tired of always winning. PEG Other people's feelings? KEVIN I'll be outside. PEG A few manners? Just never you mind. Just you cut away. Cut away. It needs something else. What do you think, honey? KIM More bells? PEG More bells. Okay. KIM Mom, do you really think that we should be having this party? PEG Of course I think we should be having this party. Of course I do. I mean as just what we need is just to calm things down and then everything will just go back to normal. Do you have any more bells, honey? (Kim goes out into the garden and sees Edward sculpture an ice mass. When he sculptures it, snowflakes begin to fall, and Kim dances in the snow. After he finishes it, he cuts her hand by accident. Then Jim shows up.) JIM Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out! Go. Freak! BILL Edward, where are you going? KIM Where is he? JIM He tried to hurt you. KIM No, he did not and you know it. JIM Are you nuts? I just saw him. KIM Jim. I don't love you any more. I just want you to go. Okay? Just go! JIM Are you serious? I'm going to lose you to that? He isn't even human. KIM Just get out of here. Okay? Just go! Dad, did you see where Edward went? BILL Well. I don't know. He just walked down the street. KIM Well, we have to go find him, mom? PEG You...your father will find him this minute. BILL All in the house. I'll take care of it. I'll go find him. HELEN Edward! I'm calling the police! PEG All that blood, sweetie, and it's just a little cut. (doorbell chimes.) POLICE Hello, I'm here to see the man with the hands. PEG Oh... Uh... POLICE He's not here. Thank you. PEG Oh, dear. MARGIE Helen, did you actually see him? HELEN Yes, look. ESMERALDA You see, I told you he was a demon. MARGIE Oh, don't start that stuff again. POLICE I'm looking for the man with scissors. WOMEN He went that way. You have to do something about that. POLICE All right, calm down, go on home. We'll handle. Just go home. HELEN He's a de... a demon. WOMEN You've got to do something! All right, Let's see. If he's at our house come on, oh... PEG I'm sure your father will find him soon. KIM What time is it? PEG It's almost eight thirty. Great party, huh? KIM Where are they? God. I hope he's okay! PEG So do I, honey. You know, when I brought Edward down here to live with us, I really didn't think things through. And I didn't think about what could happen to him, or to us, or to the neighborhood. You know, I think that maybe it might be best if he goes back up there. Because at least there he's safe, and we'd just go back to normal. BILL Now I got up by the Wiggmans, but I didn't see him anywhere. PEG Oh, dear. Oh, just... Well, let's get in the car and go look for him. BILL Where's Kevin now? PEG He's Max'es. BILL Where do you think you're going, young lady? KIM With you guys. BILL No, you're staying here in case somebody shows up! PEG We'll be right back, dear. EDWARD Police! (On seeing a police car Edward goes back to Peg's) KIM Edward? EDWARD Are you okay? KIM Yes, are you okay? EDWARD Where's everybody? KIM Out looking for you. Hold me. EDWARD I can't. (Kim holds Edward and Edward reflects about the inventor.) INVENTOR I know it's a little early for Christmas, Edward, but I have a present for you. (Kevin comes out of his friend's house.) (Jim talks with his friend.) JIM Forget holding her hand. Picture the damage he could do other places. JIM'S FRIEND Yeah, that's sick. I feel like I'm coming to pass out, or puke or something. JIM Later, first take me to her house. JIM'S FRIEND Come on, don't make me drive. JIM Just do it! JIM'S FRIEND Jesus, maybe she was right about you. JIM Just drive. JIM'S FRIEND Relax. KEVIN See you tomorrow. Call me, Right? A MAN Have they caught him yet? KEVIN Who? A MAN Him, that cripple. Let me know when they do. Let us all you know, okay? Like a good boy. (The car driven by Denny comes close to run over Kevin. Edward who sees it saves Kevin but many people mistakenly think that Edward tries to kill Kevin. Kim tells Edward to run, and he runs away. People follow him to the castle.) EDWARD Oh! Are you ok? oh! owh! KEVIN Help! Edward help! EDWARD I'm your friend. KEVIN Stop! Don't! Stop! Get away, now! Somebody help us! Help! PEOPLE 1 What are you doing? Get away! PEOPLE 2 Get the police! PEOPLE 3 Somebody call the police! Hey KIM Let go of me! Why? Kevin! PEG AND BILL Kevin! Kevin! Edward! Get away. What happened? Edward! Go home! Go home! PEOPLE Somebody call the police! Aah! KIM Jim, stop it. Get off him! (Siren) KIM Run. PEG Kevin's all right! It was just the tiniest scratch! He's gone! Let's not bother him, all right? Let just leave him alone! (Gunshots) POLICE Go on, run. PEOPLE What happened? Did you get him? Ok, Is he dead? POLICE It's all over, go on home. There's nothing more to see. What happened out there? It's all over! PEOPLE I want some answers. Where is he? PEOPLE Get back here! I want to ask you something. Do you see him? Wait! I want to ask you... He's in that car. Look at that. JOYCE I don't believe it. They don't have him. I'm going! No! That's not a good idea! EDWARD They are coming? Did I hurt Kevin? KIM No, he's okay. He said he was just scared. Edward, I was so afraid. I thought you were dead. JIM I didn't. (Jim fires at Edward and Kim tries to stop him. In their fight, Edward kills Jim, and then says good-by to Kim.) KIM Jim. Stop! Stop it, or I'll kill you myself. JIM Hey! I said stay away from her! (Neighbor's voice) EDWARD Goodbye! KIM I love you. A MAN Is he in there? KIM He's dead. The roof caved in on him. They killed each other. You can see for yourselves. (She raises a pair of scissors.) OLD KIM She never saw him again. Not after that night. GRANDDAUGHTER How do you know? OLD KIM Because I was there. GRANDDAUGHTER You could have gone up there. You still could go. OLD KIM No, sweetheart. I'm an old woman now. I would rather want him remember me the way as I was. GRANDDAUGHTER How do you know he's still alive. OLD KIM I don't know. Not for sure. But I believe he is. You see, before he came down here, it never snowed. And afterwards it did. If he weren't up there now, I don't think it would be snowing. Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Eight Legged Freaks.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eight Legged Freaks.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c2512af4e556a5211a1fcc34cfa201b7ec48ad07 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eight Legged Freaks.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ARAC ATTACK (Eight Legged Freaks) byJesse Alexander & Ellory Elkayem July 2000 Draft FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY ARAC ATTACK!FADE IN:EXT. DESERT - NIGHTA rabbit hops across rough terrain.EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - NIGHTThree trucks from Chemical Technologies carry barrels oftoxic waste. They pass a sign: PROSPERITY, NEVADA, POP454.INT. THIRD TRUCK (HIGHWAY, DESERT) - NIGHTA sleepy trucker called PIG PEN drives the third truck. SELF-HELP TAPE (V.O.) I will be self-assured and confident around women. PIG PEN I will be self-assured and confident around women.EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - NIGHTThe rabbit stops at the edge of the road. The firsttruck speeds past. Then the second. The rabbit crossesthe highway in front of the third.INT. THIRD TRUCK (HIGHWAY, DESERT) - NIGHT SELF-HELP TAPE (V.O.) I will not fear the unexpected. PIG PEN I will not fear the unexpected.The rabbit appears in the road, frozen by headlights. PIG PEN Ahhhhhhhhhh!Pig Pen jams on his brakes and swerves to avoid thebunny.EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - NIGHTThe truck slews crazily. Missing the bunny by a whisker. 2.INT. THIRD TRUCK (BRIDGE, DESERT) - NIGHTPig Pen sees a bridge ahead. If he doesn't regaincontrol, he will crash. At the last second, he gets therig together.EXT. BRIDGE (DESERT) - THIRD TRUCK - NIGHTThe rim of a wheel tags the curb. One of those toxicwaste barrels falls out of the back and plunges to thewater below.EXT. DRAINAGE DITCH - NIGHTA biohazard warning label is legible as the barrel slipsbeneath the surface. Glowing toxic waste seeps from agash in its side. Spreading through the pool like neonink.EXT. DRAINAGE DITCH - DAYThe ditch is littered with garbage. The DRONE ofINSECTS. No visible traces of toxic waste. A butterflynet sweeps through the air to capture an oversizedhorsefly.JOSHUA TAFT (70s), scrutinizes the bug. This old codgeris more comfortable studying bugs than socializing withpeople. JOSHUA Hey, Mike. Check this one out.MIKE PALMER (12) steps over for a look. Puberty hit hardand fast for this bright, little nerd. MIKE He's huge! JOSHUA They've been like this all week. Must be something extra tasty in the water. MIKE Like what? JOSHUA Dead coyote. Snake maybe. Back in the 'Nam we'd eat python with a dash of habanero sauce. Mighty satisfying. (CONTINUED) 3.CONTINUED: MIKE You ate snake? JOSHUA When you're thirty klicks out from the nearest firebase. Humpin' through the wake-up with your finger on the trigger. Charlie doesn't give you time to stop for cutlet.As Mike skims his own net over the water, he glimpses afamiliar barrel at the bottom of the pool. The brightly-colored biohazard warning label is clearly visible.EXT. ROAD - JOSHUA'S HOUSE - DAYTwo bicycles are parked outside a cabin in the middle ofnowhere.INT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE - DAYThe decor is an odd mix of Vietnam era war relics andhomegrown scientist. Charlie the Parrot sits on a perch. CHARLIE (V.O.) Charlie, don't surf! JOSHUA Quiet, bird. We're working.Mike and Joshua stand near the spider tanks. A dozenaquariums on low shelves. Each glass tank replicates aspecific environment: jungle, desert, cavern, pond, etc. JOSHUA (dims tank lights) The sun is going down, my nocturnal hunters. It's time to come out and feed.Mike watches Joshua deposit bugs into each spider tank. MIKE Yeah. They're definitely getting bigger. JOSHUA I've calculated a growth factor of twelve percent over the last forty-eight hours. But that seems to be accelerating. (CONTINUED) 4.CONTINUED: MIKE All from eating these bugs? Maybe I should try some.Mike pauses at the desert tank, watching a cricket searchfor food. A trap-door spider pops out of its camouflagedden like a jack-in-the-box. The arachnid yanks thecricket below and replaces the roof in a nanosecond.Mike looks in another tank where ogre-eyed spittingspiders shoot blasts of paralyzing goo at haplessinsects. MIKE Run, little guys. JOSHUA They can't outrun the food chain. MIKE I could get away. JOSHUA Imagine yourself the size of that fly. A scytodes spitter would be as big as a Cadillac. You'd be spider chow, kid.Mike looks in a tank where jumpers chase fleeingcrickets. He moves toward another tank that is coveredwith a towel. MIKE Are the new tarantulas in here? JOSHUA Took me forever to get a breeding set of Chilean reds. I must have bribed every customs agent from Vegas to Santiago.Joshua unveils the tank. Dirt floor. Several burrowentrances. Joshua pours in the bugs. A large, maletarantula comes out of a burrow. It pounces on a bug,then wraps its prey in webbing, turning the insect into amummy-like bundle. MIKE That is too cool. JOSHUA Male tarantulas compete for the female's attention. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 5.CONTINUED: JOSHUA (CONT'D) Each one tries to bring her the best present. Bugs, rats, even the occasional parrot.CHARLIE SQUAWKS. JOSHUA The prey is cocooned alive so she can eat them in her nest. You know how women love breakfast in bed.Joshua leads Mike to the back of the tank. A network ofsubterranean tunnels is revealed. The male tarantulasscuttle through carrying their mummified offerings. JOSHUA Take a look, the female of the species is three times as big as the male.Mike peers into a large den. The female tarantula stepsout of the shadows. This is Consuela, the Chilean redtarantula. JOSHUA Say hello to Consuela.Mike watches Consuela unwrap one of the mummifiedbundles. She begins to eat the paralyzed insect within. JOSHUA She fills her prey with digestive acid to liquify the internal organs. Now watch... She'll drink her victim from the inside out. While it's still alive! MIKE (looks queasy) And you wonder why my mom doesn't like me hanging out with you. JOSHUA Arachnids have been roaming the earth for millions of years. And they'll be here long after the human race is dead and buried.Suddenly Consuela lunges at the glass. Mike recoils. MIKE Bad! Bad Consuela!Consuela backs up, apparently she can be intimidated. 6.TARANTULA POV - MIKEThe multi-eyed spider's PANORAMIC VISION. Mike loomslarge at the edge of the glass, wagging his finger.BACK TO MIKEMike stares into the many eyes of Consuela. MIKE Do that again and I feed you to the parrot.CHARLIE SQUAWKS hungrily. The sound of a CAR HORN. JOSHUA There's your mom. MIKE See you tomorrow, Joshua!Mike heads for the door.EXT. DESERT - DAYThe entrance to a mine shaft protrudes from a hillside.A pickup truck is parked nearby. The faded logo on thedoor reads: McCORMICK AND SON MINING COMPANY,PROSPERITY, NV.INT. MINE SHAFT - DAYRotten beams. Chipped walls. A GENERATOR POWERS astring of lightbulbs. A lone figure works at the end ofthe tunnel.CHRIS McCORMICK (30s) has rugged good looks. Weatheredclothing. Dirt-stained face. Ripped muscles.Chris chips at the wall with his pickaxe. As it makescontact, the occasional spark flies up. Chris pauses toscrutinize the target area with his helmet-light.Something sneaks along the floor of the mine behind him.Chris is oblivious to his unseen stalker. He chips awaya section of stone to reveal shiny minerals. Reflectionsof silver and gold splash across his face. His smilefades... CHRIS Damn. (CONTINUED) 7.CONTINUED:Chris bends over, reaching for a bottle of water. Alarge rat scurries out of hiding dragging away Chris'ssack lunch.Chris grabs his pick-axe and goes after the rat. Therodent dodges every hit. Sparks fly when the axe strikesrock. These ignite a vent of methane gas.A BRIEF EXPLOSION knocks Chris off his feet. He noticesa small hole in the floor is lit like the burner on astove. Chris pats out the flame as the rat scurries awaywith lunch. CHRIS Hope you like bologna!EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYA police car drives with a bicycle hanging out of thetrunk.INT. POLICE CAR (HIGHWAY) - DAYSAMANTHA "SAM" PALMER (30s) is the sheriff of Prosperityand a confident, single mother. Mike is seated besideher. MIKE You should see them, Mom. Each one has a unique feeding behavior. The spitters fire poisonous snot. The tarantulas mummify their prey. The jumpers can... SAM Why does he have all those things? MIKE He studies them. NASA uses spider webs in outer space. And for medicine. They've been here forever, and they'll be here long after we're all dead. SAM You're givin' me nightmares. MIKE Nightmares are cool. (CONTINUED) 8.CONTINUED: SAM U.P.S. brought this to the station.Sam hands Mike a small package. MIKE It's from Dad! He didn't forget my birthday. I told you he wouldn't. SAM Better late than never.Mike tears open the box to reveal a Cassiopeia PDA. MIKE Rockin'! SAM Is that the one you wanted? MIKE Cassiopeia 2304 with 64 megs of ram. Integrated modem. Voice recording capability. This baby is tight.Mike can't turn on the gizmo. SAM What's wrong? MIKE He forgot to send the batteries. SAM (annoyed) I told him to send batteries.EXT. DESERT - DAYThe ROAR of two off-road MOTORCYCLES tearing up thedesert.BRET HALE (18) leads the way. A Kid Rock-punk with goodlooks and FU attitude. Seated behind him is ASHLEYPALMER (16). This milk-fed desert honey is a wannabeBritney Spears. LARRY (17) is the wiseacre on the otherbike. BRET Hang on, babydoll! (CONTINUED) 9.CONTINUED:They GUN their BIKES onto the highway. Slalom the yellowlines. Wheelie for days. Ashley peeks over Bret'sshoulder at a police car coming at them in the oppositelane. ASHLEY Oh shit.INT. POLICE CAR (HIGHWAY) - DAYSheriff Sam watches intently as the bikes wheelie past. SAM Hang on. MIKE Why?EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - DAYThe police car does an impressive bootlegger 180. Lightsablaze. SIREN WAILING. The bikes pull over to theshoulder.EXT. SHOULDER OF HIGHWAY (DESERT) - DAYThe motorcycles stop with the cop car behind. Sam'svoice barks over the PA. SAM (V.O.) Party's over, gentlemen. Off the bikes.Sam exits the car and approaches. The bikers dismount. BRET There is something very sexy about an older woman in uniform. LARRY Her nine-millimeter gives me a stiffy. ASHLEY Don't antagonize her, you guys. SAM I told you not to act like kamikazes. Especially with Ashley riding behind. That is unacceptable, Bret. (CONTINUED) 10.CONTINUED: BRET I could always ride her from behind.Larry snickers. Sam steels her rage. SAM You just bought yourself a reckless.Sam begins to write up the ticket. ASHLEY Can't you give 'em a break? SAM Get in the car, Ashley. Now. ASHLEY But, Mom!Sam shoots his daughter an intimidating glance. BRET No sweat, babydoll. We'll hook up later. SAM (threatening) Over my dead body.INT. SAM'S COP CAR (HIGHWAY) - DAYMike grins from the front seat as Ashley climbs in back. MIKE You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used... ASHLEY Shut up, dork.EXT. SHOULDER OF HIGHWAY - DAYSam hands Bret the ticket. BRET Larry, do we know anybody at City Hall who can mark this go away? (CONTINUED) 11.CONTINUED: LARRY Your Dad is the Mayor. BRET Oh, yeah. (to Sam) He signs your paycheck. SAM The next time you put my daughter's life in danger, I'll show you exactly how little that means to me.Bret and Larry feel her resolve. BRET Relax, bee-otch. It's all good.The punks remount their bikes. SAM I want both wheels on the ground.The punks REV their BIKES and defiantly wheelie towardtown.INT. POLICE CAR - DAYSam climbs behind the wheel. MIKE I read her her rights. SAM I can always count on you, Mike.Sam STARTS the CAR and drives toward town. ASHLEY Do you get off on humiliating me? SAM This bad girl act doesn't suit you, Ash. ASHLEY I'm just trying to have fun. Don't you remember what it's like to grow up here? SAM That's what scares me. (CONTINUED) 12.CONTINUED:Sam reaches over and opens the glove box. She pulls outa stun gun. Mike passes it through the bars to Ashley. SAM I told you to keep this with you.Ashley slides the zapper into her backpack. ASHLEY You are so over protective.Mike and Ashley lip-sync along with Sam's response. SAM A mother's job is to protect her children. ASHLEY You need to start trusting me. SAM I'd like to. But you keep skipping classes to go to the dunes with Bret. ASHLEY Why do you hate him so much? SAM I don't hate him. I just want you to have a future. I thought you wanted to get out of town. Go to med school. ASHLEY Maybe I want to stay. I could get pregnant by nineteen. Then divorce with a couple of kids I can't handle. Slap on a badge and be a trailer trash sheriff. SAM (deeply hurt) Thanks for the flashback.They drive on in painful silence. Mike turns ON theRADIO. HARLAN (V.O.) ... listening to W.F.R.E. Freedom radio. We've put aside the U.F.O.'s and conspiracy theories... 13.INT. PICKUP TRUCK (HIGHWAY) - DAYChris drives into town with the RADIO ON. HARLAN (V.O.) ... for some down home talk back with our own mayor: Wade Hale. CHRIS Oh, great. WADE (V.O.) Thanks, Harlan. As I was saying, Chemical Technologies has been looking for viable storage sites. And Prosperity is lucky enough to be on that list. HARLAN (V.O.) Lucky? I think most of us are insulted that some outsiders think our town is a perfect place to dump toxic waste. CHRIS Right on.EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - DAYChris's pickup approaches... The entire town is not muchbigger than a few football fields. The kind of placewhere everybody has known each other since childhood.Some buildings date back to the 1880's gold rush. HARLAN (V.O.) Isn't this just your latest get- rich quick scheme?At one end is the Prosperity Mall. A huge windowlessrectangle in the sand. Permanent signs tout the manyoutlet stores inside: Victoria's Secret, Home and GardenSupplies, Sport Chalet, etc. Hand-painted signs reveal:"GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE. EVERYTHING MUST GO. FINALCLOSE OUT." On the roof of the mall is a very tall radioantenna. HARLAN (V.O.) Your mall has more employees than customers.INT. PICKUP TRUCK (TOWN, MAIN STREET) - DAYChris smiles as he listens to the RADIO. (CONTINUED) 14.CONTINUED: WADE (V.O.) I may have overestimated the need for 100,000 square feet of outlet shopping.EXT. BEVERLY'S HOUSE - DAYBEVERLY (40's) is tending to her garden as she listens toa transistor radio. HARLAN (V.O.) And your ostrich ranch? WADE (V.O.) If the government subsidies hadn't dried up, I'd still be rolling in cash.EXT. HARLAN'S TRAILER (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - DAYAn airstream at the far end of town. Signs identify itas: "FREEDOM RADIO." A brand new humvee is parked outfront.INT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - DAYWalls decorated with clippings about aliens, monsters,and conspiracies. Two men sit at a home builttransmitter.HARLAN GRIFFITH (40s) wears an "Aliens Go Home!" T-shirt. He eats from a box of Frosted Flakes and drinksJolt cola.WADE HALE (40s) is the mayor of Prosperity. A slick-haired dandy who looks more like a Vegas lounge singerthan a Mayor. WADE With one phone call I could put together a deal that would make us all very rich. HARLAN They say money doesn't buy happiness. WADE They probably don't have any. 15.INT. POLICE CAR (HIGHWAY) - DAYSam and her kids listen to the radio. WADE (V.O.) Money pays for kids to go to college. It pays the mortgage.INT. DINER (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - DAYAn attractive waitress on roller-skates. A harried CHEF.Locals chow down. The RADIO BLARES in the b.g. WADE (V.O.) It puts food on the table. Haven't the people of this town lived hand-to-mouth for long enough?INT. BARBERSHOP (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - DAYFLOYD and LEROY are the Jurassic era barbers. Floyd cutsLeroy's hair. The two men listen to the RADIO. WADE (V.O.) We're all gonna die in this hell hole. FLOYD Yeah, of boredom.INT. POLICE STATION - DAYDEPUTY PETE sits with his feet up on the desk readingPlaystation magazine. He listens to the RADIO. WADE (V.O.) Wouldn't it be nice not to worry about surviving retirement? Or taking a shot at that life-long dream?INT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - DAY WADE Think about it, Harlan, you could buy a commercial transmitter and start broadcasting to a national audience. HARLAN It would be nice to get the message out. Let people know the aliens walk among us. 16.INT. PICKUP TRUCK - DAYChris slows to a stop in front of the McCormick and SonMining Company. This stately edifice was once thedriving force behind the local economy. WADE (V.O.) If Chris McCormick refuses to sell his mines. The rest of us are out of luck.Chris frowns.INT. POLICE CAR (HIGHWAY) - DAY WADE (V.O.) I don't think it's fair for one person to wield that much power. But he's just like his father. Selfish. Greedy. And more than a little bit nuts. SAM Uh-oh.Sam flips on the SIREN and accelerates.INT. DINER - DAYThe locals stop eating and look toward the radio. WADE (V.O.) That family has been digging in those tunnels since the twenties. If there was something down there, don't you think they would have found it by now?INT. BARBERSHOP - DAYFloyd and Leroy stare at the radio. WADE (V.O.) Common sense does not apply to crazy people.INT. PICKUP TRUCK - DAY WADE (V.O.) Might as well be chasing a leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. (CONTINUED) 17.CONTINUED:Chris is furious as he PEELS OUT and speeds towardHarlan's.INT. DINER - DAYThe locals watch Chris's pickup speed by. WADE (V.O.) ... lunatics...INT. BARBERSHOP - DAYFloyd and Leroy watch Chris speed by. WADE (V.O.) ... certifiably nuts...INT. POLICE CAR - (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - DAYAs Sam pulls into town. She sees Chris skid to a stop infront of Harlan's trailer. He leaps out of his pickup. WADE (V.O.) ... at the very least...INT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - DAYChris yanks the door open in time to hear... WADE ... those McCormicks are just plain-old dumb.Wade stands up to protest. But it's too late. Chrispunches him in the nose. The mayor tumbles back. CHRIS I've warned you not to talk about my family! HARLAN We have a surprise guest in the studio.Chris drags Wade to his feet, shoving him against thewall. CHRIS My family built this town! (CONTINUED) 18.CONTINUED: WADE Am I supposed to be grateful?Chris draws back his fist for another shot. Sam runs inand grabs him from behind. SAM That's enough! CHRIS Stay out of this, Sam!She manhandles Chris toward the door.EXT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - DAYPractically the entire town has gathered outside. Samdrags Chris through the door. Wade and Harlan are closebehind. CHRIS Did you hear what he said? SAM I heard. WADE I want him locked up! SAM Let's all calm down.Wade tries to take advantage of the assembled audience. WADE We have no economy! People are barely scraping by! And now we've been offered the deal of a lifetime. You don't have the right to stand in our way! CHRIS Those mines are full of gas. One spark in the wrong place could blow this entire valley sky high. Do you really want to load that gun with toxic waste? WADE Chem-Tech did seismic analysis, vapor checks, groundwater reads, soil sampling. They found isolated methane pockets, but no benzene or hydrogen sulfide. (CONTINUED) 19.CONTINUED: CHRIS How could they run tests? I didn't give them permission to go into the mines.Wade retreats toward his shiny new Hummer. CHRIS I asked you a question, you greedy son of a bitch! WADE I'm greedy?! You're the one keeping us down so you can search for gold!Chris tries to go after Wade. Sam holds him back. SAM Don't take another step.Chris stares at her. CHRIS You're taking his side? SAM I'm trying to keep the peace. WADE You're crazy! Just like your father!Wade drives off in his humvee. The crowd begins todisperse. CHRIS (sotto) He wasn't crazy. SAM It's okay.Chris heads off to his truck. Sam watches him go. Hereyes drifting down his body. Ashley steps up beside hermom. ASHLEY Maybe you're not gay after all. SAM What are you talking about? (CONTINUED) 20.CONTINUED: ASHLEY You can't take your eyes off his butt. SAM Where did you learn that it's okay to talk to me like this? ASHLEY Relax, Mom. He's hot for an old guy. I can admit it. Why can't you?Sam watches Chris get into his truck. He gives her onelast look before pulling out. Sam smiles with herdaughter.INT. MINING MUSEUM (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - DAYVintage mining gear. Walls covered with sepia-tonephotos chronicling the history of the McCormick mines.GLADYS LAUDERBACK (50s) sits at a desk. She blows smokefrom her Kool into the breeze of an air conditioner.Ignoring the signs behind her head: "NO SMOKING!","DANGER GAS!"As Chris enters, Gladys hides her lit cigarette in adrawer. GLADYS Did you pop him one? CHRIS He had it comin'. But Sam Palmer... That woman abuses her power. GLADYS Why? Because she stopped you from givin' Wade another pop? CHRIS I'm not proud of it.Chris goes to a table and a map of the mines thathoneycomb beneath the town. Many of them are marked"explored." Many aren't. Chris checks another tunneloff the list. He sniffs the air and glares at Gladys.Smoke rises out of her desk drawer. Gladys yanks it openand puts out the flame. (CONTINUED) 21.CONTINUED: CHRIS I thought you were trying the patch. GLADYS I am.She raises her sleeve to reveal several nicotine patches.Chris exits through a door at the back of the museum.INT. MUSEUM - LIVING ROOM - DAYChris enters the family living quarters. The furniturewas new in 1947. He continues to the adjacent kitchen.INT. MUSEUM - KITCHEN - DAYChris takes a beer out of the fridge. Then he notices anodd CLICKING. He tracks the sound to a stove burnerpermanently on "light."Chris moves to a fuse box in the adjacent hallway. Heremoves the fuse for the stove. The SPARKING STOPS.Chris sits at the table and has a cooling sip of beer.Gladys enters with a stack of bills. CHRIS That burner's on the fritz again. GLADYS Oh something's broken? What else is new? (lays bills on table) You need to pay these by the end of the month. CHRIS (looks at bills) Today... For a split second... I actually thought I had it. GLADYS Another vein of iron pyrite? CHRIS Yeah... Then a rat stole my lunch. I practically blew myself up trying to get it back. (CONTINUED) 22.CONTINUED: GLADYS I'm glad you like my bologna sandwiches. (beat) Maybe you should talk to Wade. CHRIS What are you saying? GLADYS Honey, if he really does have a buyer... CHRIS You of all people know how much my dad wanted to find that mother lode. GLADYS Your daddy wanted to get rich. I don't think he cared how that happened. If he was still alive, maybe he'd sell those mines.Chris takes umbrage... CHRIS And maybe you didn't know him so well after all.A tense beat. GLADYS You're right... I'm just worried about how we're going to pay these bills. CHRIS Don't give up on me, Gladys. I promised him I'd find the gold. And I will.Gladys steels her fear, patting Chris on the hand.EXT. TOWN - ESTABLISHING SHOT - DAWNThe sun rises. The town slowly comes to life. HARLAN (V.O.) Good morning, Prosperity, Nevada. It's another beautiful day on the frontier.Locals prepare their stores for business. 23.INT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE (DESERT) - DAY HARLAN (V.O.) No charges have been filed in yesterday's fracas between Chris McCormick and Wade Hale. And we've got...Joshua turns the radio down. He holds a tape measure toa glass spider tank, recording the size of an unseenarac. JOSHUA An exponential growth rate... That's impossible. CHARLIE Me so horny. Me love you long time.Joshua doesn't look back at the parrot sitting on itsperch. JOSHUA Be quiet, bird!Charlie looks over at the tarantula tank. Watchingcuriously as the cloth cover moves slightly. As if oneof the spiders is escaping. Charlie flies over toinvestigate. He lands on the counter and peers aroundthe back of the tank. CHARLIE Charlie's in the wire! Incoming!Something yanks the parrot O.S. JOSHUA Stop screwing around...!Joshua looks back in search of the parrot. He noticesseveral feathers floating down to the floor. He headsover to investigate. Joshua pulls the blanket clear toreveal the top of the cage has been pushed aside. Nosign of any tarantulas. Joshua checks the back side ofthe tank. JOSHUA Where'd you go? Consuela?She's nowhere to be seen. Joshua spots somethingsticking out from under the table. Two parrot feet.Joshua pulls Charlie out from under the table. It's ahorrible sight. The bird is wrapped in spider webbing.His body desiccated. (CONTINUED) 24.CONTINUED: JOSHUA Charlie... Semper fidelis.Joshua sees Charlie is attached to a web. He tugs on thewebline. Something tugs back. Joshua leans down to lookunder the table. His eyes go wide at what he sees. Thena shadow looms over his head. Joshua looks up and...EXT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE (DESERT) - DAYSCREAMS and the sounds of BREAKING GLASS come fromwithin.EXT. PALMER HOUSE (TOWN) - DAYRanch style. Cop car in front. Chris's pickup cruisesby.INT. PICKUP TRUCK - OUTSIDE PALMER HOUSE - DAYChris drives past. He catches sight of a figure in awindow.INT. PALMER HOUSE - BATHROOM - DAYSam is brushing her teeth at the window as Chris drivesby. They make eye contact. Chris moves on. Sam looksat herself in the mirror. Bathrobe. No makeup. Messyhair. Mouth full of toothpaste. SAM Work it, babe.INT. PALMER HOUSE - HALLWAY - DAYSam comes out of the bathroom dressed in her uniform. SAM It's all yours.Ashley and Mike exit their rooms. Mike is dressed forthe day. Ashley in a robe. They race for the bathroom.Mike is first. Then Ashley hip-checks him out of theway, slamming the door in his face. ASHLEY (O.S.) Ladies first. (CONTINUED) 25.CONTINUED: MIKE What's your excuse!?Sam sticks her head out of a room at the end of the hall. SAM You still want a ride, Mike? MIKE I'm just going to the mall. SAM Have fun.Mike heads down the hallway and out of the house.INT. PALMER HOUSE - BATHROOM - DAYAshley turns on the shower, drops her robe, and climbsin.INT. BATHROOM - SHOWER - DAYAshley is surrounded by steam. She sings an edgy gangstarap tune by NWA. Tres' bizarre, non? Shampoo lathercascades down her face. Her eyes close. She isoblivious to a small spider crossing a web in front ofher. The spider gets clear as Ashley rinses off thesoap.Ashley rubs conditioner into her hair. The latherbuilds. Covering her face. Forcing her eyes closed oncemore. The spider returns across its web right in frontof her eyes.The water stops. Ashley reaches for the showerheadblindly knocking the spider off its web. She feels nowater coming out, and fumbles for a washcloth. Reachingwith eyes closed, she can't see the little spider haslanded on top of the cloth. As Ashley retrieves it, thespider scurries onto its opposite side.Ashley wipes the soap off her face. The spider rides thewashcloth and moves toward her hand. Before it canstrike, Ashley gets her eyes clear and drops the cloth.The cloth lands on the floor atop the spider. As thebeast stares out from under it, barefoot Ashley steps onthe cloth. Crushing the spider without ever knowing itwas there. (CONTINUED) 26.CONTINUED:Ashley turns her attention to the showerhead. She cranksthe water handles, trying to get the water flowing again.The handles suddenly pop off. Dozens of tiny spiderspour from the holes onto the floor. Ashley shrieks inhorror.Sam bursts into the bathroom and yanks open the showerdoor. She drags Ashley out and looks at all the littlespiders. SAM Now what?Ashley just screams.INT. HANK AND EMMA'S HOME - DAYThe SCREAM of a SAWZALL. A house in the midst ofremodeling. Sections of wall are exposed. Sheets coverfurniture. HANK (30s) is the Bob Villa-poseur.A cat sits near an open section of wall. Watchingsomething intently. The cat charges into the wall afterunseen prey.EMMA (30s) comes downstairs wearing her bathrobe. Sheclutches her ears in pain, screaming for Hank to stop.He can't hear. She grabs his shoulder and he STOPSCUTTING. EMMA Why do you need to do that as six in the morning!? Do you hate me that much!? HANK I want to finish before I go to work. EMMA You've been saying that for six months! HANK I can't finish if you keep interrupting!Hanks RESTARTS the SAW as Emma staggers into the kitchen. 27.INT. REMODELED HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAYEmma makes herself a hangover helper. Egg, tabasco,lemon juice, and a shot of vodka. All of it goes intothe BLENDER. She FIRES it UP. Competing with the noiseof Hank's SAW. Then Emma notices a bowl of uneaten catfood.INT. REMODELED HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAYEmma comes back in and UNPLUGS the noisy SAW. HANK If you're gonna keep pulling the plug... EMMA Have you seen Zeke this morning? HANK He was chasing something earlier. EMMA If he got into the wall again, it's your balls in the blender.They hear FAINT MEOWING. Hank traces the source. It'scoming from behind a partially-dismantled wall. HANK Hey, Zeke. Breakfast is ready. EMMA I'll get the tuna.Emma heads back into the kitchen. Hank listens at thewall. After a beat he hears the CAT RUSTLING aroundinside. HANK Zeke?Emma re-enters with a can of tuna. She hears ZEKE HISS. EMMA What's wrong with him?Hank shakes his head. The CAT noises become moreaggressive. The panicked couple tries to follow thecat's progress. They tracks the sounds of BATTLE alongthe wall. The noises become FRANTIC. SCRABBLING CLAWS.HOWLS of KITTY pain. HANK & EMMA Zeke!? Zeke! Zeke! (CONTINUED) 28.CONTINUED:They follow the cat's frenzied movement up the wall,across the ceiling, and down the other wall. Hankhurries over. He can feel his cat thrashing maniacallyon the other side. A FELINE SCREAM. And then deafeningsilence.Hank tears open the drywall, reaching for his cat. HANK I've got him by the tail.He withdraws all that remains of the Zeker... a bloodytail.EXT. MALL - DAYMike hops off his bike before it stops moving. Lettingit crash in the dirt. He enters the mall through glassdoors.INT. MALL (PROSPERITY) - DAYMike passes NORMAN (18), a janitor polishing the floors.Norman listens to LOUD DEATH ROCK TUNES on a SonyWALKMAN. NORMAN (conspiratorial) Hey, dude. Yeah. You.Mike comes over to this goatee'd rascal. NORMAN Wanna buy some smoke? MIKE A pack of cigarettes? NORMAN Smoke to get high, not to die. My stuff is hydroponically grown in a top secret location. No artificial flavors. No preservatives. Just 110 percent homegrown. MIKE Where's this secret location? (CONTINUED) 29.CONTINUED: NORMAN I could have a dime bag for you toot sweet. But if I tell you where exactly, I'd have to kill you. MIKE Norman, you know my mom's the sheriff. NORMAN Oh yeah... Right on... (considers this) Does she get high?Mike walks away, deeper into the mall. A dozen storesline the hallway: Victoria's Secret, ElectronicBoutique, Sport Chalet. Most of the stores are closedfor good. A large atrium features a fountain and junglegym. Skylights cover the ceiling. Mike enters the Homeand Garden store.INT. HOME AND GARDEN STORE - DAYMike goes up to the counter. The CLERK snaps at him. CLERK The bug spray is on aisle five! MIKE What? CLERK You want mousetraps!? Is that it?! Aisle five!Mike grabs some batteries and lays them on the counter. CLERK Oh. I thought you wanted...An OLD LADY walks past. OLD LADY Excuse me, young man. Where can I find the bug spray? CLERK Aisle five!The Clerk grabs the PA's microphone. (CONTINUED) 30.CONTINUED: CLERK (over PA speakers) All bug spray, rodent traps, ant poison and fly paper is on aisle five!He returns his attention to Mike. CLERK That'll be three fifty-two.Mike pays the man. MIKE Where's aisle five?The annoyed Clerk points. Mike heads over. He sees theaisle is crowded with locals squabbling over the fewremaining cans of Raid, Black Flag and Off.EXT. BEVERLY'S HOUSE (TOWN) - DAYBeverly uncoils a hose, cranks a spigot. She sprays hervegetable garden with water. After a beat, a solidobject is coughed up through the hose.Beverly continues watering. Two more unidentifiedobjects are spewed from the hose. She reacts by crankingthe spigot on full. The water sprays harder. Theninexplicably stops.Beverly checks the spigot. She looks into the opening ofthe hose. Puts it to her ear and listens. Sniffs. Nowshe puts the end of the hose in her mouth and sucksdeeply, trying to siphon away the blockage.Beverly removes the hose. A FAINT RUMBLING sound. Sheputs it back in her mouth and sucks. A solid objectcomes through the hose and into her mouth. Then another.And another. A dozen things pump through the hose andinto her mouth.Beverly yanks it out. Water spews from her mouth and outof the hose. Apparently the blockage has cleared.Beverly falls to her knees. Hunching forward. Shevomits forth a stomach full of water... and smallspiders. Mouth agape. Eyes wide in horror. She watchesthem scurry into the garden. Beverly tries to scream...but can only retch. 31.EXT. STREET (TOWN) - DAYMike Palmer rides his bike through a puddle of water. Hesees Beverly throwing up in her vegetable garden. Mikeit thoroughly grossed out.EXT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE (DESERT) - DAYMike rides his bike into Joshua's front yard. Hedismounts before the BIKE stops. It CRASHES. Mike headsinside.INT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE - DAYMike stops short in the doorway. An off-hook TELEPHONEBEEPS incessantly. WIND MOANS through shattered windows.Furniture is tipped over. Mike moves through the chaos. MIKE Hello? Joshua? Charlie?The spider tanks are shattered. No trace of theiroccupants. Mike pulls out his Cassiopeia PDA and startsrecording. MIKE (into PDA) Captain's log. Stardate...Stops recording, PLAYS it BACK, listens to HIS VOICE. MIKE Cool! (records again) The house is deserted. No sign of Joshua Taft or his bird. The spider tanks are shattered. There is broken glass everywhere.Mike moves toward the back door of the cabin. It swingsopen and shut in the WIND.EXT. JOSHUA'S HOUSE (DESERT) - BACK YARD - DAYMike comes out and notices hundreds of coin-sizedfootprints. He follows these tracks to a cluster ofwooden barricades labeled: "McCORMICK AND SONS MININGCOMPANY." Mike peers toward a vertical mine shaft behindthe barriers. (CONTINUED) 32.CONTINUED: MIKE (into PDA) Animal tracks. Definitely too big to be spiders. Could be rats.Mike slips past the barricades. Following the tracks tothe edge of the abyss. He can't see anything. It's toodark.Mike turns away and returns to the yard. Neverrealizing...Several feet down the shaft. Hidden under a rock... theshriveled and desiccated corpse of Joshua Taft. It hangsfrom the side of the shaft in thick sticky webbing.Grisly.Suddenly the corpse is tugged loose and dragged deeperinto the shaft by some unseen creature.EXT. MINE SHAFT - DAYChris's pickup is parked outside another mine shaft.INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAYChris works with his pick-axe. He pauses, listening to aDISTURBING NOISE somewhere down the tunnel. A growl? Aroar? Chris isn' t so sure. And then a new sound... aSCREECHING. The noise grows LOUDER. Something's coming.Chris shines his light into the darkness. Trying to seewhat's causing the unsettling crescendo...Suddenly dozens of RATS burst from the darkness.EXT. MINE SHAFT - DAYChris runs out the mouth of the tunnel. The rat stampedeis on his tail. He leaps into the back of his pickup.The manic rodents continue off into the desert.Chris looks back toward the gaping mouth of the tunnel. CHRIS What am I, the Pied Piper... 33.EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - BARBER SHOP - DAYMike rides his bike. Floyd the barber stands out frontchatting with an elderly couple. They hold a dog's leashin their hand. FLOYD I'm sorry. I haven't seen him.EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - DAYMike rides on. He notices a guy taping a flyer to a lamppost. Mike glances over. It's a sign for a missing dog.EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - POLICE STATION - DAYMike arrives at the local police station. Several carsare parked out front. The door is ajar. Locals arecrowded inside. Mike lets his bike crash as he enters.INT. POLICE STATION - DAYSam is behind her desk. The place is swarming withlocals. SAM Quiet! Quiet please!The mob is not listening. BEVERLY They were clogging up my house! EMMA I want to know what killed Zeke! TRAVIS He was a good dog! He wouldn't just get up and go!Deputy Pete whistles at top volume. Everybody shuts up. SAM I had spiders at my house too. We need an exterminator not a sheriff. TRAVIS What about my dog? (CONTINUED) 34.CONTINUED: SAM I don't know, Travis. We're gonna keep an eye out. But we're not gettin' anywhere like this. You should go back out there and look for your animals. If they haven't shown up by tonight. I'll call Fish and Game. Okay?Pete ushers the grumbling mob out of the office. Mikeavoids the crush and manages to stay inside. MIKE Mom! Mom! All Josh's spiders are gone! SAM I can't do this right now, Mike! Everyone's having pest problems! MIKE But Joshua is gone! SAM Maybe he's out looking for his spiders? MIKE Mom, I'm serious! You're not listening! SAM Mike... I've got missing pets. Spiders in the plumbing. Rats and mice coming out of basements. And your sister's about to end up on a milk carton. I can't have you losing...The PHONE RINGS. Sam answers it. SAM Hello? Wade... wait a second... your ostriches?OFF Mike's look.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - DIRT DRIVEWAY - DAYProsperity is clearly visible just a mile away. Thepolice car drives down a long road lined with fences. 35.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - RANCH HOUSE - DAYWade's new Hummer is in the driveway. A CATTLE DOG BARKSas Wade leads Sam and Mike around the side of the house. WADE Came out to feed my birds this morning. SAM Coyotes? WADE Hell no!The trio steps to the fence. Only three mangy ostrichesare there to greet them. WADE My flock had fifty birds! Where'd they go, dammit! Who the hell steals fifty birds that can't even fly!? SAM All this happened last night? WADE I guess. And we didn't hear a thing.Sam gestures toward the BARKING DOG. SAM What about him? WADE Not a peep.Mike notices some ostrich feathers on the ground. Heheads over for a closer look.The DOG watches his progress. BARKING excitedly.Sam talks to Wade. SAM How's the ostrich business? WADE Not so good lately. SAM You've got that new Hummer. You must be makin' enough to pay for it. (CONTINUED) 36.CONTINUED: WADE (annoyed) You like it? I'll take you for a ride. SAM These birds are insured. Right? WADE I didn't kill my birds, Sam. Is that what you think?Mike looks back to see his mom confronting Wade. WADE (in the distance) ... reject... absolutely not...Mike scrutinizes what appear to be more of those tracksthat he found at Joshua's. But this time they arelarger: MIKE (into PDA) I've found more tracks. Even larger now.Mike follows the trail toward another mine entrance.This one is plugged with concrete. The tracks don't gothere. They stop at what appears to be a normal patch ofground. Several ostrich feathers are scattered nearby.Mike takes a closer look. Something doesn't seem right.An odd demarcation in the soil. His fingers trace theedge of a thin film of material. It is a lid of sorts.A sheath of sticky webbing coated with dirt. Mike isable to lift it.Mike peers into a deep dark burrow three feet wide.INT. UNDERGROUND BURROW - DAYTwenty feet down the shaft. A shape moves.TRAPDOOR SPIDER POV - MIKEA MULTI-EYED SPIDER'S VIEW of Mike at the top of theburrow.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - OSTRICH PEN - DAYMike squints into the burrow but can't see anything. 37.INT. UNDERGROUND BURROW - DAYA dark shape inches up the burrow toward Mike.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - OSTRICH PEN - DAYMike is oblivious as he peers into the dark.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - RANCH HOUSE - DAYThe BARKING CATTLE DOG SNAPS its TETHER and charges Mike.Sam and Wade see this and run after it.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - OSTRICH PEN - DAYMike doesn't see the dog. He's too busy looking in thehole.INT. UNDERGROUND BURROW - TRAPDOOR SPIDER POV - MIKEThe kid is FRAMED IN the burrow opening just a few feetaway.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - OSTRICH PEN - DAYMike senses something approaching in the darkness.Suddenly he's grabbed from behind. Sam drags him away asCLYDE the cattle dog continues BARKING. WADE (to Clyde) Now you're on the job?! What the hell were you doin' last night?! SAM Come on, Mike. Let's hit it.Sam leads her son toward the house. Mike glances back.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - DIRT DRIVEWAY - DAYMike and Sam are in the cop car. Wade is at Sam'swindow. WADE I need to know what happened to my birds! (CONTINUED) 38.CONTINUED: SAM If I find anything I'll let you know. (a beat) So you can fill out that insurance form.Sam drives down the driveway. Wade takes off his hat andwipes his brow. He watches Clyde run parallel to theaccelerating police car.INT. POLICE CAR (DIRT DRIVEWAY) - DAYSam eyes the road ahead. Mike is lost in thought. MIKE We have to go back. SAM Mike? MIKE That was a trapdoor spider's burrow. SAM What are you talking about? MIKE Joshua was feeding his spiders bugs from the creek. And they were getting bigger.Mike glances out the window at the dog running nearby. MIKE (agitated) What if they didn't stop growing? What if they broke out of their tanks. Ate Joshua. And went into the mines?Sam looks at him like he's out of his mind. MIKE That could be why the other species are coming out into the open. They're trying to get away from the giant spiders. (a beat) The ecosystem is out of balance. (CONTINUED) 39.CONTINUED: SAM Have you been overdosing your Ritalin?She checks him for a fever.EXT. WADE'S RANCH - DIRT DRIVEWAY - FENCE LINE - DAYCLYDE runs next to the car. Suddenly he disappearsunderground with a YELP. Only still frame on a DVDplayer will capture the trapdoor spider's lunge from acamouflaged den. The dog's empty collar rolls to a stopin a cloud of dust.INT. POLICE CAR (DIRT DRIVEWAY) - DAYMike turns from his mother and looks out the window. Heis confused when he doesn't see any sign of the dog. MIKE Maybe I am losing it...He checks himself for a fever.INT. ABANDONED TRUCK STOP (DESERT) - DAYA dingy collection of buildings surrounded by dunes androck. The structures have boarded windows. Graffiti onthe walls. Teenagers hang out. Off-road motorcyclesparked nearby.Bret Hale's monster truck does donuts in the parking lot.Ashley hangs out the passenger window shrieking withglee.INT. BRET'S TRUCK (TRUCK STOP) - DAYBret smokes a Phillies Blunt as he donuts his TRUCK.Ashley laughs hysterically. Bret steers them around tothe back of the truck stop. He SKIDS to a stop. ASHLEY Woo-hoo!Bret offers his stogie. Ashley refuses. Bret puffsaway. ASHLEY Haven't you had enough of that? (CONTINUED) 40.CONTINUED: BRET No such thing. Norman's bud is da'kine.He coughs and they both laugh. BRET When I medal at the X-Games, Honda will give me full sponsorship. Then I'll take you with me on the Supercross tour.Ashley is silent. BRET Are you still thinking about going away? ASHLEY I don't know. I want to do something with my life, Bret. Help people. Maybe med school is still an option. BRET Not if you keep hanging out with me. ASHLEY Thanks, Mom.They kiss. Things head toward a serious level of "getdown." Bret slides his hand up Ashley's shirt. Ashleygets into it. But then Bret slides his hand toward thebuttons of her 501s. Ashley removes his hand. ASHLEY Slow down...Bret persists. Ashley climbs off of him. BRET I thought you loved me. ASHLEY I do! BRET Then what's the problem? You want to leave town. You don't want to make out. ASHLEY I don't feel... (CONTINUED) 41.CONTINUED: BRET What? ASHLEY I don't want to lose my virginity in the front seat of a monster truck. BRET Why didn't you say so? We can go outside. I've got a blanket in the back. ASHLEY No... I guess... I'm just not ready. BRET Tammy and Larry do it every night! ASHLEY Then call them! Have a menage a trois! BRET Come on, Ashley. Mommy's not around. You don't have to play the good girl. Let Daddy give you what you really want.Bret goes after her once more. Ashley's not into it. ASHLEY Please, Bret... Please don't...But Bret won't listen. Ashley isn't strong enough tofight him. She reaches into her purse and pulls out herstun gun. She rams it up in Bret's crotch and pulls thetrigger.Bret howls like a baboon in a wood chipper. Hespasmodically jerks off of Ashley and tumbles out thedriver's side door.EXT. BEHIND TRUCK STOP - DAYBret twitches on the ground. BRET My balls? Ahh! My balls! (looks down) I pissed myself?! Damn, bee-otch! (CONTINUED) 42.CONTINUED:Ashley watches from the truck. ASHLEY I told you to back off!Ashley closes the door of the truck and rolls up thewindows.Bret is dazed as he gets to his feet. Then his eyesrack-focus to a nearby dune. A Rottweiler-sized jumpingspider stands atop it. Two large eyes surrounded by sixsmaller orbs. Orange and black designs on its abdomen.Wiry hair. Dagger-sized fangs. Bret can't quite believewhat he sees.Ashley STARTS the TRUCK. This snaps Bret back toreality. BRET Ashley, wait! ASHLEY Screw you, Bret. I'm going home.Bret sees the spider leisurely coming down off the dune.He runs over to the door of the pickup and tries to openit. BRET Please! Open the door! I'm sorry! ASHLEY I can't believe my mom was right about you. Do you know how embarrassing that is?Ashley starts to pull away. Bret keeps banging on theglass. BRET Open the door, baby! I love you! I want to marry you! Have my children! Please!Ashley flips him the bird and BURNS RUBBER. As the truckmoves out of the way, Bret finds himself staring atseveral more jumping spiders that are methodicallyapproaching. Bret sprints around to the other side ofthe truck stop. 43.EXT. TRUCK STOP - PARKING LOT - DAYBret runs from behind the building. Larry Witzer and abunch of other kids see him coming. LARRY Dude, did you piss in your pants? RANDY Ha-ha! Bret pissed his pants!All the kids start laughing and pointing at Bret. Noneof them see the approaching jumping spiders. BRET Get out of here! They're coming! RANDY The only one coming is you, dude.Larry and Randy high-five. A jumping spider lands onRandy's back, piercing him with its fangs, throwing himto the ground. Randy screams. The kids have a front-rowseat as the spider's pincers mash their buddy into anedible pulp.Bret leaps onto his MOTORCYCLE and FIRES it UP. Severalmore jumping spiders bound across the parking lot. BRET Ride!The kids scramble, leaping onto their bikes. One rideris picked off by a spider. The others kick up roostertails as they accelerate away. The spiders chase theminto the dunes.EXT. SAND DUNES - DAYA wasteland on the outskirts of town. The sandy wavesare "surfed" by the noisy MOTORCYCLES. The jumpingspiders keep after them, leaping a dozen feet in a singlebound.A biker is ripped off a motorcycle. The BIKE CRASHES.Larry ends up with a jumper on his bike. Another bikertries to kick it off, managing to knock the critter intothe motorcycle's spokes. The spider gets munched. Butthen the courageous biker crashes and is set upon by ahungry jumper.Larry continues riding. But a spider lands on his backand sinks fangs into his spine. Larry yells bloodymurder. (CONTINUED) 44.CONTINUED:Bret sees Larry go down in a cloud of gore and sand.Bret is the only human left. A jumper comes after him inmid-air. Bret does an X-Games style rocket air, kickingbackward with booted legs. He knocks the spider away andkeeps on riding.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThree familiar trucks cruise down the highway. This timethey are devoid of any toxic waste cargo.INT. THIRD TRUCK - HIGHWAY - DAYPig Pen stares fixedly at the endless road ahead of him. SELF-HELP TAPE (V.O.) I will live every moment of my life as if it were my last. PIG PEN I will live every moment of my life as if it were my last.Suddenly Bret Hale wheelies across the road. A jumpingspider explodes against the windshield. Spider gutssplatter everywhere. Pig Pen screams as he JAMS on theBRAKES.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe TRUCK jack-knifes into a line of telephone poles.Knocking them over and rolling multiple times beforeEXPLODING. Several jumping spiders are caught in theblast. Bret Hale rides on with several more jumpersbehind.INT. PALMER HOUSE - MIKE'S ROOM - DAYThe black and white classic: Tarantula, plays over anold TV and VCR. Mike is at his computer, downloading aspider encyclopedia into his PDA. A message flashesacross the screen: CONNECTION LOST. Mike picks up thetelephone. MIKE Hello? Hello?The line is dead. 45.EXT. DESERT - DAYBret rides into a dead-end canyon with the spiders veryclose behind. Bret steers for the mouth of a hillsidemine shaft.INT HORIZONTAL MINE SHAFT - DAYBret speeds inside. He looks over his shoulder to checkfor his pursuers, they're gone. Bret looks relieved. Hefaces forward as... whack! A support beam knocks himfrom his bike. The bike continues on into the tunnelalone. From the sound of things it travels pretty farbefore crashing.Bret lies on the ground as dust settles onto his face.He looks up at a support beam which begins to crack.Bret moves clear just as the ceiling caves in, sealinghim in the mine.EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - DAYSeveral locals put up more signs for missing pets.INT. DINER/EXT. MAIN STREET (TOWN) - DAYHarlan is kibitzing with Travis. Pete and Emma consoleeach other over dessert. Wade sits alone at a table fortwo. The attractive WAITRESS on roller-skates give him afresh beer. WAITRESS The phones went down for some reason. Maybe that's why Bret didn't call. Did you want to go ahead and order? WADE Just give me the usual. WAITRESS One ostrich steak, comin' up.Wade reacts glumly to the word "ostrich."INT. MUSEUM - KITCHEN - DAYGladys smokes as she puts together the fixings for alarge meal. She has a cookbook out. Pots and pans.Chris enters. Gladys quickly drops her cigarette in thedisposal. (CONTINUED) 46.CONTINUED: GLADYS What are you doing home? CHRIS Need some rat traps. GLADYS Try the basement. CHRIS What is all this? GLADYS I wanted to surprise you with a special dinner. Turkey De La Gladys. CHRIS I'll have mine without Nicotine. GLADYS Not as good that way.Chris goes through a nearby door to the basement.INT. MUSEUM - BASEMENT - DAYChris comes downstairs. He rummages through some junk.comes up with several rat traps. He turns around todiscover an odd hole in the wall. He ventures over for alook. CHRIS Rats...Chris leans into the hole, his jacket restricts hisentry.Chris pulls out of the hole, standing to reveal a largemale tarantula on his back. Chris is oblivious as hetakes off his jacket. The coat lands in a heap atop thespider.Chris gets back down and places one of the rat traps inthe hole. He doesn't notice the jacket moving behindhim.Chris backs out of the hole. He picks up his jacket.The spider is gone. He grabs his traps and headsupstairs. 47.INT. MUSEUM - DAYChris passes through the kitchen. He eyes Gladys warily. CHRIS Have you been smoking? GLADYS No.Smoke pours out of her nostrils. CHRIS Gladys... GLADYS Get back to work. I'll see you tonight.Chris starts out. GLADYS Sam called for you.Chris hesitates. GLADYS She wants you to come by the station. CHRIS She really has it in for me. GLADYS Oh please. CHRIS What? GLADYS You two should just sleep together and get it over with. CHRIS Me and Sam... Hook up... GLADYS I may be older than electricity, but I used to be a nice-looking piece of tail. CHRIS Too much information. (CONTINUED) 48.CONTINUED: GLADYS I'm not kidding. I got more action than those chicks on VIP. So when I tell you Sam thinks your butt is U.S.D.A. choice... CHRIS This is where I throw up. GLADYS Don't tell me you don't think she's a fox.Chris mulls this over. Testing his own feelings. Heopens his mouth to ask another question. And then headsout. GLADYS See you for dinner.Gladys doesn't notice the basement DOOR CREAK openslightly.INT. POLICE STATION - DAYSam is on the phone at her desk. SAM Nothing yet. I'm sorry. We're still trying to get...Chris enters. SAM Let me call you back. (hangs up) This has been one crazy day. We've got missing pets, dead ostriches. God only knows what's next. CHRIS I'm sorry about yesterday. Wade is... He knows how to push my buttons. SAM I wanted to ask you... CHRIS On a date?Sam freezes for a second. Chris laughs. (CONTINUED) 49.CONTINUED: CHRIS I'm kidding. What did you want to ask? SAM Have you noticed anything strange in the mines? CHRIS Define strange. SAM I had spiders in my house. Hector had roaches in his basement. Some mice... CHRIS How about stampeding rats? SAM Were they running away from something? CHRIS Could have been. Never saw them do that before. I guess it qualifies as strange.Sam thinks this over. CHRIS Sam... Do you want to go out sometime? SAM (taken aback) Are you asking me out on a date? CHRIS Only if you're going to say yes.Sam smiles slightly.INT. MUSEUM - KITCHEN - DAYThe basement door is wide open. Gladys mixes food in abowl. A cigarette with a massive ash hangs off her lip.A male tarantula moves across the ceiling. The creatureis the size of a pit bull. Two quivering palps flankdart-sized fangs. Multiple eyes the size of quarters.Hair all over. (CONTINUED) 50.CONTINUED:Gladys is oblivious to the ominous threat above her. Asshe works, the spider shadows her. Every time the spideris about to strike, she goes another direction to getspices, utensils, a pan.Gladys places her bowl on the stove. Suddenly thetarantula drops onto the stove right in front of her.Gladys shrieks. The tarantula lashes out at her. Gladysgrabs a frying pan and smashes it across the face as shestumbles backward. The spider reels, striking the burnerknobs, turning on the gas.Gladys registers the sound of ESCAPING GAS. She looksback toward the fuse box and makes a run for it. As shegoes, the tarantula fires a webline at her.Gladys gets the fuse off the top of the fuse box, but thewebline prevents her from slotting it home.Gladys strains with all her might, finally slots thefuse. She turns toward the kitchen just in time to seethe broken burner spark to life. The gas ignites. Thetarantula is engulfed in flame.Gladys is knocked down by the blast. She lies on herback when a second male tarantula nails her with awebline. Gladys screams as she's dragged across thefloor toward the basement door.The fire grows more intense, spreading quickly.INT. POLICE STATION - DAY CHRIS So that's a 'No.' SAM My kids are the world to me, Chris. When their dad left... it really took a toll. On all of us. I can't go through that again. I won't. CHRIS No... I understand... I don't know what I was thinking... (laughs) Gladys has some crazy ideas. I'm gonna kill her.Deputy Pete throws open the door. (CONTINUED) 51.CONTINUED: PETE The museum's on fire!OFF Chris's look.EXT. BURNING MUSEUM - DAYThe museum burns. The volunteer fire department attacksthe conflagration. All the locals are there to help.Sam's COP CAR SKIDS to a stop. Chris leaps out. Staresat the fire for a beat. And then he charges toward theinferno. Sam tackles him from behind. Pinning him tothe ground. CHRIS No! Let me go! Gladys! Let me go!The museum collapses. Chris watches it burn to theground.EXT. MUSEUM - DAY (LATER)The fire is out. The once-proud building is now asmoldering pile of rubble. Locals stand in small groups.Chris wanders through the ruins as firemen mop up. Hepicks something out of the char. The map of the mines.Almost completely burned. Soaked with water. He staresat it for a heavy beat. All that remains of his legacy.Sam steps up. SAM Maybe she got out.Sam puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. CHRIS (devastated) She was cooking. The stove was broken. SAM Why don't you come home with me? We'll get you cleaned up.Chris hesitates for a moment. And then he lets the mapfall. He walks out of the ruins with Sam. (CONTINUED) 52.CONTINUED:Mike stands off to the side. He spots something near theedge of the ruins. He goes over to pick it up. It's apiece of arachnid exoskeleton. A spider's leg. Big.Very big. Travis the fire chief warns him away. TRAVIS Get away from there, Mike!Mike hurries clear with his prize. He puts it on theground, sketches the outline of a spider to fit the scaleof the leg. MIKE Holy God...Mike looks around for his mom. He sees her driving offin the cop car with Chris. MIKE Mom! Wait!EXT. PALMER HOUSE - DUSKThe sun hangs low in the sky. Sam's cop car parks besideBret's monster truck.INT. PALMER HOUSE - DAYAshley watches TV. A doctor resuscitates a dying patientwith CPR. The doctor counts as he pumps the man's chest. TV DOCTOR (V.O.) One... two... three...Ashley watches intently. The patient is revived. TV DOCTOR (V.O.) Helping people never gets old.Ashley hears KEYS in the front DOOR. She quicklyswitches channels to MTV. Sam enters with Chris. SAM Is Bret here? ASHLEY No. SAM Then why is his truck out front? (CONTINUED) 53.CONTINUED: ASHLEY Don't worry about it. SAM What do you mean? What happened? ASHLEY Nothing.Ashley starts crying. Sam goes to comfort her daughter.Chris stands by in shock. Watching, Upset. ASHLEY Nothing happened, alright!Ashley runs off to her room. Sam follows.Chris stands alone for a beat. He walks to the kitchenand pulls a bottle of Vodka from the freezer. He putsthe cold bottle against his head and neck. Trying tocool off.Mike bursts into the house carrying his piece ofexoskeleton. He sees Chris opening the bottle of vodka. MIKE Spiders shed their skins when they grow.Chris looks at Mike for a moment. MIKE Like snakes. CHRIS Gladys is dead.Chris drinks vodka straight from the bottle. MIKE Maybe not.That got Chris's attention. MIKE This is a tarantula's leg. Or it was. It's an exoskeleton, to be scientific. CHRIS It's a little large. (CONTINUED) 54.CONTINUED:Chris has another gulp of vodka as Mike holds up hisCassiopeia full of spider data. He shows Chris a videoof a male tarantula mummifying its food. Chris watchesin amazement. MIKE See! Male tarantulas wrap their prey in webbing. Tight like a mummy. The food stays alive so they can eat it later.Sam enters the room in time to overhear this. SAM Mike, please. Now isn't the time.Chris looks up at Sam. CHRIS They keep their food alive.Mike hands his mother the new piece of exoskeleton. SAM What is this? MIKE A spider's leg!Sam flinches, dropping the object to the floor. MIKE Careful! SAM No. That's a piece of cactus. Look... It's covered with spines. MIKE Those are quills! Tarantulas can flick them at you like darts!Mike does an odd flicking motion. Kind of like a dogscratching a flea. SAM Giant tarantulas? MIKE Tarantulas! Wolfs! Trapdoors! Joshua had a ton of exotics! (CONTINUED) 55.CONTINUED: CHRIS If there were giant spiders roaming the desert, don't you think somebody would've seen them by now? MIKE The jumpers hunt in daylight. But not the others. They only come out when the sun goes down!The group looks to the window, the sun hangs low in thesky.EXT. TOWN - DUSKProsperity is bathed in sunset. The mine shaft entrancesare clearly visible. Like black holes of malevolentpromise.INT. PALMER HOUSE - GARAGE - DAYThe garage is cluttered. Old station wagon. Bikes.Skis. Sam leads Chris to a bag full of her ex-husband'sclothes. SAM I guess I should watch more 'Oprah.' It must be a textbook 'no-dad' kind of thing.Chris shifts awkwardly. In shock. Sad. Sam holds up aflannel shirt. CHRIS That one looks kind of scratchy.Sam holds up a shirt that Chris approves of. He takes itand proceeds to take off his old soot-stained shirt. SAM All Jason cared about was getting out and starting over. I guess that included buying a new wardrobe.Sam turns to pass Chris a pair of Levis. He's buttoningup the new shirt. Chris takes the pants. He doesn'tregister Sam ogling his exposed chest. (CONTINUED) 56.CONTINUED: CHRIS Gladys thought I should sell... but you know... I never wanted to get rich. If it was about the money, I would have sold out to Wade a long time ago.Chris moves behind the car and takes off his pants. CHRIS I think I just wanted to prove the gold was down there. That my family wasn't crazy to keep looking. Even after we'd lost so much. And now... she's gone, too. SAM I'm sorry, Chris. CHRIS Do you know what I'm trying to say? SAM It wasn't about spending the gold, it was about finding it. CHRIS That's right. That's exactly right.Sam glimpses Chris through car windows. The poor guy'sstruggling to pull on some 501s. Sam turns away, butcatches sight of him in a propped-up glass door. CHRIS Remind me never to let you do my laundry.She turns, only to see him in a mirror. He steps outfrom behind the car. Sam stares at him. SAM They look great.INT. ASHLEY'S ROOM - SUNSETA melancholy N'SYNC ballad plays over a BOOM BOX. Ashleysits on her bed with her back to the open window. Thesun setting in the distance. She rips up the photographsof Bret. (CONTINUED) 57.CONTINUED:Ashley doesn't notice the Great Dane-sized spittingspider crawling in through her window. It is stripedlike a jungle predator.It comes all the way into the room and then lingers amongAshley's stuffed animal collection.INT. MIKE'S ROOM - DUSKMike checks the phone. Still dead. He types at hiscomputer, entering the specification of the piece ofexoskeleton. A digital representation of a spider growson his monitor screen. Showing Mike exactly how big thespider would be after shedding this skin. Mike isdistracted by the LOUD MUSIC coming from Ashley's room. MIKE Can't you turn that down?!INT. ASHLEY'S ROOM - DUSK MIKE (O.S.) I'm doing spider research!Ashley stops ripping. She goes to the pile of animals,oblivious to the spider. The beast doesn't move. Ashleygrabs a pink teddy bear with a heart on its belly. Shereturns to bed and cuts the bear's heart out withscissors.The spitting spider sneaks up behind Ashley. As itmoves, so does Ashley. She scoops up the torn photos andmutilated bear, dumping them in the trash. She turnsaround to find the giant spider on her bed. She freezesmomentarily. ASHLEY (sotto) Spider... Mike... Spider...Ashley sees her stun gun is on the dresser. She lungesfor it. She's almost got it. The spider squirts twolines of gummy web at Ashley. The glop hits her int hechest, carries her backward. Glues her to the wall.INT. GARAGE - NIGHTChris finishes dressing. He faces Sam. There is an oddmoment as they find themselves standing close. If thecircumstances were different they'd probably end upkissing. And then they hear ASHLEY'S bloodcurdlingSCREAM. 58.INT. HALLWAY - NIGHTMike pops out of his door. Sam and Chris run down thehallway. Sam yanks open the door to Ashley's room.INT. ASHLEY'S ROOM - NIGHTSam, Chris and Mike stand in the doorway staring at agiant spider menacing Ashley. The spitter fires anotherwebby blast, sticking the girl's legs to the wall. MIKE Wow! A scytodes spitter!Chris pushes past Sam and Mike. He grabs a chair andshoves it at the spitter like a lion tamer. The spiderbacks off. Sam takes off running down the hallway. ASHLEY Where are you going?INT. SAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHTSam runs up to find a gun case. She tries to get ashotgun, but finds it locked. She doesn't have the key.Sam grabs objects in the room and smashes the gun rack topieces.INT. ASHLEY'S ROOM - NIGHTChris has the chair in one hand to fend off the spider.With the other hand he tries to get Ashley out of thewebbing. Mike stands nearby reading from his Cassiopeia. MIKE The scytodes spits a gooey discharge to immobilize their prey. ASHLEY No shit!The spider hits Chris's chair with a blast of webbing.The chair is blown from his hand, and stuck to the wall.Chris stands weaponless before the spider. ASHLEY Use my stun g...Ashley is nailed in the face with another blast of goo.Mouth sealed shut. Chris reaches under the bed andpushes it over on to the spitter. The spider leaps clearonto the wall. (CONTINUED) 59.CONTINUED: MIKE (reads) Watch its fangs! The spitter's fangs move from side to side as it fires! CHRIS I'll keep that in mind.Chris grabs the spitter from behind and drags it off thewall. The spider turns to fight. Chris wrestles it tothe ground. He sees the fangs begin to move from side toside and rolls clear of a point-blank web shot.INT. SAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHTSam takes a purposeful step back and launches a spinningroundhouse kick that snaps the shotgun out of itsbinding. She grabs the bang stick and runs from theroom.INT. ASHLEY'S ROOM - NIGHTChris puts himself between Ashley and the spider. Helooks for a weapon. Lunges for the scissors, but thespitter nails him with a blast of glue. Chris is flungacross the room and stuck to the wall by the sleeve ofhis shirt. He shrugs out of it and makes another grabfor his scissors. He gets them. MIKE Get under it! Stab it in the abdomen! They don't have any armor down there! CHRIS How am I supposed to do that!?The spider leaps at Chris... and EXPLODES in midair.Bits of gore shower Chris. He stands to see Sam in thedoor with her shotgun. Chris is covered in spider guts. CHRIS I'm gonna need some new pants.INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHTSam finishes loading new shells into her shotgun and thenpops a fresh clip into her 9mm. Chris comes out of thegarage wearing clean clothes. Sam chucks him the pistol. (CONTINUED) 60.CONTINUED: SAM Ever used one of these? CHRIS I'm a fast learner.Chris tries to put the gun in his pocket. And then hiswaistband. But these damn pants are too tight.Ashley uses scissors to cut web out of her hair. MIKE I told you! I told you all! But nobody ever listens to Mike! Still think I'm crazy, Mom? SAM I'm sorry I didn't believe you.Ashley is about to hyperventilate. SAM Calm down, baby. ASHLEY There aren't enough wine coolers in the world to calm me down! SAM I won't let anything happen to you.Sam ka-chacks a fresh round into her shotgun. CHRIS What other spiders did Joshua have? MIKE Spitters, jumpers, orb weavers, tarantulas... CHRIS Why couldn't he keep goldfish like a normal person?Sam checks the phone. It's dead. SAM We need to warn people. CHRIS How about the radio station? (CONTINUED) 61.CONTINUED: SAM Good one. We'll go to Harlan's. ASHLEY Outside? You want to go outside?EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET - PALMER HOUSE- NIGHTChris and Sam open the front door of the house. Samlooks one way. Chris the other.No giant spiders lurking about. Chris and Sam continueonto the lawn. Mike and Ashley watch from the safety ofthe doorway. They listen to the comforting SOUNDS OF aSUMMER NIGHT. SAM It's okay...Mike and Ashley move out of the doorway. Joining theadults. They move toward the cop car.EXT. STREETS (TOWN) - NIGHTThe cop car cruises. The occupants peer out the windows.Everything appears normal. Although no people arevisible.EXT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - NIGHTSam, Chris, and the kids move away from the cop car tothe door. They are at the far end of town. All appearsto be normal.INT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - NIGHTHarlan is broadcasting. HARLAN ... I'm saying the invasion has already occurred. The aliens are among us. But they've taken common forms. They hide in plain sight.Harlan is startled as Sam and the others enter with guns. SAM We need to make an emergency broadcast. (CONTINUED) 62.CONTINUED: HARLAN What happened? MIKE Giant spider invasion.Harlan's jaw drops. Sam takes the microphone. CHRIS What are you going to say? You can't tell them the truth. SAM (into microphone) Is this thing on? Hello? This is Sam Palmer. We have an emergency situation.EXT. STREET (TOWN) - NIGHT SAM (V.O.) A pack of rabid coyotes is loose in town.Wolf spiders crawl across rooftops. Spitters scalebuildings Tarantulas lurk in the shadows. Jumpersscuttle out of the mineshafts. Trapdoors prepare theirburrows.INT. HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHTThis funky old couple relaxes in their LaZee-Boys. SAM (V.O.) They are extremely dangerous.The forelegs of a tarantula reach over the top of theman's recliner, yanking him clean out. The woman isoblivious as her husband is dragged away across thefloor.EXT. HANK AND EMMA'S HOME - NIGHTEmma bursts out of the front door, screaminghysterically. Hank is behind her with the SawzAll. Awolf spider crawls after them from inside the house. SAM (V.O.) Arm yourselves with any weapons you can find.Hank raises the saw, overextending the power cable. Heloses power. Drops the saw and runs for his life. 63.INT. BARBERSHOP - NIGHTFloyd and Leroy use brooms to fend off several wolfspiders. SAM (V.O.) Stay together and head for the mall.INT. DINER - NIGHTA spider eats the chef. The waitress roller-skates awayfrom an arachnid. She jumps through the window into thestreet.EXT. HOUSE - NIGHTA family piles into their mini-van. Oblivious to thejumper hiding in the "way back." They close the door anddrive off.INT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - NIGHTHarlan has donned a vintage football helmet and pads. CHRIS The mall? SAM The walls are concrete and the exits have steel gates. We could hold an entire army of giant spiders from inside. ASHLEY You just said giant spider on the air.Sam sees the microphone is keyed. HARLAN Now that's great radio! SAM Not giant spiders! I meant to say...Harlan notices long spider legs passing the window. HARLAN The aliens! 64.EXT. HARLAN'S TRAILER - NIGHTSam and the others spill out of the trailer. They headfor the cop car. As they get closer, a wolf spiderclimbs onto the car's roof and gnaws on the light bar.Sam raises her gun to blast it. MIKE Wait, Mom! The noise will attract more of them! CHRIS Let's try for the mall.Sam leads the others toward town.EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHTChris and Sam hang onto the panicked kids. Harlan bringsup the rear. The place is chaos. People are chased byspiders. Dragged by spiders. Killed by spiders. Eatenby spiders. CHRIS My truck's at the museum. SAM Your keys? CHRIS In my other pants. MIKE Look out!The group flees a trio of goo-firing spitters. Suddenlya familiar mini-van races past. HARLAN Stop! Take us with you!Harlan tries to flag down the speeding ride but sees...The van's occupants are locked in combat with a jumper.The beast is inside their vehicle and tearing them topieces. The van crashes.EXT. POWER LINES (MAIN STREET, TOWN) - NIGHTA group of orb weavers scurry across power lines. Theyhit a transformer, shorting it out. The entire town issuddenly plunged into darkness. Headlights. GUNFIRE.Moonlight. Spotty illumination for the arachnids'feeding frenzy. 65.EXT. ALLEY (TOWN) - NIGHTA dumpster. The lid rises slightly. Wade Hale peers outfrom within. He lifts the lid higher, oblivious to thewolf spider on top of it. The spider reaches down athim. WADE No! Please!The spider is suddenly BLOWN AWAY by Sam and Chris. Wadeclimbs out of the dumpster. WADE Thank you!Chris and Sam move on with the kids. Wade runs afterthem. Mike looks at garbage-covered Wade. MIKE You stink. WADE (to Ashley) Have you seen Bret? ASHLEY He was out at the dunes. SAM Go ahead. I've got your butt. CHRIS What? SAM Your back! I've got your back!Chris gives Sam a funny look. Maybe Gladys was right...EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHTSam leads her group down toward the mall. Other groupsof survivors do likewise. As they get closer to the mallthe groups coalesce into one large pack. We recognizeDeputy Pete. Fireman Travis. The roller-skatingwaitress. Floyd. Leroy. Hank. Emma. And many otherlocals.EXT. DESERT (NEAR MALL) - NIGHTSam and Chris are at the front of the mob with theirkids. (CONTINUED) 66.CONTINUED:Suddenly a trapdoor spider pops out of the ground. Itgrabs Travis the fire chief, and pulls him under, quicklyreplacing the roof of its den. TRAVIS SCREAMSunderground. MIKE Trapdoors! They're all around us! SAM How can we spot them?Mike consults his Cassiopeia. MIKE I didn't download that part! ASHLEY You dork!The group wheels at the MUFFLED SOUNDS. They seenothing. They hear another MUFFLED SCREAM, and the topof the spider's den pops up. Travis drags himself out ofit. TRAVIS Help... me... please...He is dragged back underground.The group continues toward the mall entrance. Suddenly agun-toting hunter is grabbed by a trapdoor. He goescyclic, madly FIRING his GUN into the air as he's draggedunder.More beasts rise out of their dens. Reaching for thehumans. CHRIS Keep going!Chris and the others flee toward the mall. Some of themSHOOT at the spiders as they run.Leroy is grabbed by a trapdoor. Floyd tries to help butthe spider plunges its fangs into poor Leroy, dragginghim under.The group clears the trapdoor minefield. But some of thespiders have vacated their dens and are coming afterthem. 67.EXT. MALL ENTRANCE - NIGHTChris and Sam and the kids lead just fifteen othersurvivors to the glass doors. The doors are locked.Wade pulls out a ring of fifty keys and fumbles with themdesperately. ASHLEY There's someone inside!The group sees Norman the dope dealer janitor approachingout of the gloom. He's staring at them all curiously. NORMAN We're closed.Sam points her gun at him. Norman raise his hands inshock. NORMAN Wait! I have a prescription! It's for my glaucoma! SAM Open this goddamn door! NORMAN Yes, ma'am.Norman unlocks the door and lets the group in.INT. MALL - NIGHTThe survivors hustle inside. They lock the glass doorsbehind them. The spiders are still coming. MIKE Get away from the doors! NORMAN Be cool, little dude. They're locked. MIKE Glass won't stop them!The spiders begin smashing through the glass doors.Chris and Sam SHOOT to keep them back. People flee intothe mall. SAM The gates! Close the gates! (CONTINUED) 68.CONTINUED:Wade and Norman proceed to lower the slotted steelsecurity gates. Only problem is: Sam and Chris are onthe other side. ASHLEY Mom! MIKE Hurry up!Sam and Chris see the gate coming down. They run for itand slide underneath just as the gate comes down. Amassive trapdoor slams up against the metal. But themetal holds. SAM Shut the other entrances!Norman and Chris run toward the opposite end of the mall.INT. MALL - SOUTH ENTRANCE - NIGHTChris and Norman arrive. Spiders are SMASHING throughthe GLASS. Chris and Norman bring the gate down. Theyback away as more spiders slam against the steel. NORMAN Trick or treat.Chris and Norman head back to join the others. Theyfind...INT. HOME AND GARDEN STORE (MALL) - NIGHTThe survivors gather makeshift weapons. Floyd take achainsaw off the wall. Norman practices swinging a heavysledgehammer, accidentally toppling a stack of paintcans. Hank stands before a display of circular buzzsaws.Chris goes to where Sam doles out the few firearms. CHRIS We're sealed up at both ends.Sam hands Chris a shotgun. He tries to get the feel ofit. SAM You pump the slide to jack in a fresh round. Point at your target and squeeze. (CONTINUED) 69.CONTINUED:Chris tries it out, pumping the slide. A shell flies outthe slide of the weapon and hits Wade in the head. WADE Watch it! CHRIS Like that?Sam shakes her head and takes the gun back. She pulls amachete off the wall and hands it to Chris. SAM Try not to cut yourself.INT. MALL - NIGHTThe place has the feeling of a fortress under a siege.Separate groups of townspeople are stationed at theentrances to watch the spiders' every move.INT. MALL - NORTH ENTRANCE - NIGHT WADE Why didn't we see them earlier? MIKE For the last time! They can't handle the sunlight. They were waiting in the mines for the sun to go down! CHRIS Then at daybreak they'll go back inside. We can walk out the front door. MIKE We won't make it that long. ASHLEY They're gonna come in after us? MIKE They're growing very fast. They need food to sustain that kind of development. HANK Someone should go out and get help. (CONTINUED) 70.CONTINUED: EMMA You go, Sam. SAM Me? WADE You're the sheriff. SAM I don't have that many handcuffs. PETE What about the police radio? SAM You're not goin' back out there, Pete. None of us are. CHRIS Radio Shack is full of cell phones. WADE But the signal won't get out of the valley. That's why we couldn't sell any of the damn things. HARLAN My antenna...The group looks up. The moon-cast shadow of the antennais visible on the skylights that run the length of themall. HARLAN I could climb up to the top. I bet I could get a signal out. WADE Great idea. You should do that. CHRIS I'll cover you, Harlan.INT. MALL - NIGHTWade leads Chris and Harlan toward an access door. Samstands with her kids. Watching. Chris looks over hisshoulder for one last look. Sam runs up to him, giveshim the shotgun. (CONTINUED) 71.CONTINUED: SAM Are you sure you can handle this? CHRIS (re: pants) While I'm gone, do you think you could find me a size 32? SAM I'll do my best. (a beat) Uhh... Do you want to go out sometime? Dinner? Maybe a movie?Chris takes her in his arms and plants a kiss on herlips.Wade holds open the nearby access door. WADE Hey, loverboy... you've got a town to save.Chris and Harlan head out. Sam watches them disappearthrough the door and then returns to the survivors. ASHLEY You're not really going to get him bigger pants are you? SAM No way.INT. MALL - ACCESS STAIRS - NIGHTWade leads Chris and Harlan up a tight staircase. Thedoor at the top is identified as "Roof Access." Wadereaches the door. The others bunch up behind him. CHRIS Don't even think about locking this door. WADE I'll be right here waiting.Wade slowly opens the roof door.EXT. MALL - ROOF - NIGHTChris and Harlan step onto the roof with their gear. Nosign of any spiders. (CONTINUED) 72.CONTINUED:Wade closes the door behind them and locks it. Chris andHarlan aren't happy to hear that LOCK TURN.They sneak across the roof toward the base of theantenna. CHRIS It looks clear.Harlan starts climbing. Chris stands guard at thebottom. Neither of them sees the horde of spidersclimbing up the side of the building toward the roof.INT. VICTORIA'S SECRET - MALL - NIGHTMike collects perfume. Packing it into his pockets likegrenades. Ashley is nearby, checking out the lingerie. ASHLEY I didn't know you wore cologne. MIKE I don't. It's spider repellent.Sam steps in through the door. SAM Let's stay together, guys. ASHLEY (holds up a teddy) Can I get this? SAM Move it!The kids run out to join their mom. After they go...The grill of an air vent is pushed open. A huge spittingspider pushes its way through. Dropping to the floor.Another spider follows.EXT. MALL - ROOF - ANTENNA - NIGHTHarlan is high up on the antenna. He has a cell phone inhand. It still indicates: "NO SERVICE." He keepsclimbing.EXT. MALL - ROOF - NIGHTChris sees spiders flood onto the roof. (CONTINUED) 73.CONTINUED: CHRIS We've got company!He tries to COCK the SHOTGUN. Ejecting a shell out theside. CHRIS This always looks so easy on TV!Chris gets it figured out just in time to BLAST anattacking spider. He fades back toward the antenna.SHOOTING.EXT. MALL - ROOF - ANTENNA - NIGHTHarlan checks the phone. HARLAN I've got a signal!He dials 911.EXT. MALL - ROOF - NIGHTChris is surrounded by spiders. He starts climbing upthe antenna. CHRIS They're coming!EXT. MALL - ROOF - ANTENNA - NIGHTHarlan is on the phone. He hears... OPERATOR (V.O.) 911 Emergency. HARLAN I'm calling from Prosperity Nevada! We're being attacked by giant spiders! The entire town has been overrun!Chris yells up to him. CHRIS No! Don't say that! OPERATOR (V.O.) This is Emergency Services. Not dial-a-joke. (CONTINUED) 74.CONTINUED:CLICK. The LINE GOES DEAD. Chris climbs up beside him.He FIRES several BLASTS at the approaching spiders. CHRIS What happened? HARLAN They didn't believe me! CHRIS What a shock! Try again!The spiders are closing in as Harlan re-dials. OPERATOR (V.O.) 911 Emergency. HARLAN There was a massive explosion! Everybody's dead! OPERATOR (V.O.) Sir, your number has been flagged as a source of a crank call. I'm afraid I must terminate this conversation.CLICK. HARLAN She hung up on me! CHRIS Climb!Chris FIRES the SHOTGUN. The spiders are closing in.INT. MALL - NIGHTSam gazes up at the skylight. She can see the silhouetteof Chris and Harlan climbing the antenna. Pursued byspiders. SAM (sotto) Oh my God...Ashley screams in horror nearby. ASHLEY They're inside! (CONTINUED) 75.CONTINUED:Sam whirls to see Ashley pointing at several spiderscoming out of Victoria's Secret. Sam runs over to fightthem. WADE Over here!He faces off against more spiders coming through the Homeand Garden store.EXT. MALL - ROOF - ANTENNA - NIGHTHarlan is at the top. Chris is a bit lower. The spidersare still coming. Chris SHOOTS at them. His GUN RUNSDRY. He flips it around and butt-strokes an approachingarac.A spider fires a web at Harlan. Nails the poor guy. Anddrags him off the antenna.Harlan falls off the antenna, back toward the spiders.Chris reaches out and grabs him. Holding Harlan's hand. CHRIS I've got you!Harlan makes eye-contact with Chris. They're both aboutto be killed unless... HARLAN Defend the human race! CHRIS No!Harlan jerks away from Chris's hand. He cannonballs downinto the horde of spiders. Splattering several of thebeasts along with himself.Chris throws the useless shotgun at an approaching aracand climbs even higher. He pulls out his machete andbegins hacking at the guide-wires that hold the antennaupright.The spiders close in. Chris slices one wire. Theantenna quivers. Chris slices another wire. The antennashakes.INT. MALL - NIGHTDeputy Pete is standing with Sam and the kids when he'sjerked off his feet and hauled into the maw of anarachnid. (CONTINUED) 76.CONTINUED: SAM Ashley! Mike!She sees Mike and Ashley avoid an arac by taking refugeinside the tunnels of the jungle gym.Sam FIRES the GUNS like Annie Oakley, putting spidersdown left and right, trying to reach her kids.Floyd the barber confronts a spider with his chain-saw. FLOYD Having a bad hair day?!The spider charges. Floyd slices its legs off. FLOYD How about a little off the top!He slices another arac.EXT. MALL - ROOF - ANTENNA - NIGHTChris dodges a spider's webline. Several more come athim. CHRIS You're going down!Chris cuts the last wire and hikes out over the skylight.The antenna keels over. Chris hangs tight as he dropstoward the glass.INT. MALL - NIGHTSam looks up to see Chris come crashing down through theskylight on the antenna. The antenna tilts in at a sixtydegree angle. Chris hangs off the end. Orb weavers ridetheir weblines down to the floor of the mall.Mike peeks out from the top of the jungle gym. He sees ahundred spiders coming in on webs. Flooding out of thestores. The devil-spawned monsters are everywhere! MIKE Arac attack!Chris leaps from the antenna to a nearby web. He slidesdown it like a pole, squashing the orb weaver at thebottom. Sam runs to his side. (CONTINUED) 77.CONTINUED: SAM Did you get help?! Is anybody coming!? CHRIS We're on our own!Sam tosses him a gun and they head toward the jungle gym.The waitress roller-skates away from the spiders. Sheslaloms clear of several spitters. But gets tackled by ajumper.INT. MALL - JUNGLE GYMAshley and Mike are hiding. ASHLEY I can't stay in here!Ashley starts to move out of the tube. She discovers theend has been covered with web. She pushes it. Somethingon the other side pushes back. Ashley scrambles back.Mike is already moving. The kids flee through the tubesto get away. ASHLEY What are they doing? MIKE (checks Cassiopeia) They're trapping us like ants in a log! Once they have all the exits blocked, they'll come in through the last one!They see a way out, head for that exit, only to find aspider coming through it. Mike tosses one of his perfumegrenades at the spider, covering their retreat.Another spider comes after them through one of the tubes.Mike chucks another perfume bottle. The spider cowers. MIKE We've gotta go!Ashley finds a hole that leads to the slide. ASHLEY Here!She starts down with Mike close behind. A large spiderlooms at the end. Ashley tries to arrest her slide. Butit's no use. At the last second Sam's boot kicks thearachnid clear. 78.INT. MALL - NIGHTAshley and Mike pour out of the slide. Chris and Samfinish off the spider and then run with the kids.Emma runs parallel to them across the playground'ssandbox. Only to be yanked under by a trapdoor spider.Hank sees this and goes after the spiders with all histools. Getting revenge with a nail gun in each hand. HANK It's tool time!Floyd is still going crazy, slicing spiders with hischain-saw, he lets out a victorious yell until a hungryspider descends on him from above and knocks him to thefloor.Chris passes a clothing store displaying Levi 501s. Hestops for a moment to look at the jeans. SAM (O.S.) Chris!Chris continues on.All of the survivors meet in the middle of the mall andprepare for Custer's last stand. Spiders charge from alldirections.Mike throws his perfume grenades. Sam and Chris SHOOT.Others use their make-shift weapons.Norman pulls out a joint and sparks it. Mike sees thisand gets an idea. MIKE Where do you grow your weed?! NORMAN Dude, if I tell you, I have to kill you.Norman takes a hit on his reefer. MIKE They're going to kill us, you stoner!Norman sees the army of spiders closing in. NORMAN Over here! (CONTINUED) 79.CONTINUED:Norman opens an access door. Sam and the other survivorsrun over and crowd through it. Norman shuts the doorbehind them. The groups of pursuing spiders collide andbegin ripping each other to pieces in a feeding frenzy.INT. MALL - ACCESS STAIRS - NIGHTNorman leads the survivors down the tight hallway. WADE Where are you taking us? NORMAN To Shangri-la.INT. MALL - BASEMENT POT ROOM - NIGHTNorman leads the survivors into a basement room full ofpot paraphernalia. Hookahs. Weed growing in hydroponicunits under battery powered lights. Psychedelic posters. NORMAN You aren't going to arrest me for this are you? SAM Not today.The group can hear SPIDERS BASHING at the upstairs door. WADE (to Norman) Oh great! Now you've trapped us!Chris moves to the bottom of the stairs. CHRIS We should be able to hold them off for a little while.Suddenly a loud BANGING ERUPTS on the wall behind them. ASHLEY They're coming through the wall!The group tightens up. Back to back. Ready for the end.Suddenly a human hand punches through the wall. CHRIS What the hell? (CONTINUED) 80.CONTINUED:Bret Hale rips through the drywall. Filthy but alive.Standing in a horizontal mine shaft. He sees Sam's gunpointed right at him. BRET I didn't touch her! I swear!Sam looks at Ashley. ASHLEY Don't waste your bullets.Wade embraces his son. WADE I thought you were a goner, boy!Chris steps to the opening for a closer look at the mine. CHRIS We can get out this way! ASHLEY Aren't the spiders in there? MIKE Not until daylight.The BANGING on the upper door gets more INTENSE.Norman grabs a flashlight and a bunch of battery poweredgrow lights from his weed farm. He passes them out tothe group.Chris takes the flashlight and leads the way into themine shaft. Bret is shocked as the others follow him.The group uses the grow lights, and flashlights. BRET You're going back in there?! Are you all crazy!? WADE Come on, Bret! BRET No way! I'm not going!Bret is alone in the room as the upper DOOR IMPLODES andspiders flood downstairs. Bret dives through theopening. 81.INT. MINE TUNNEL - NIGHTBret runs past Sam and Chris. Sam FIRES her SHOTGUN atthe first spider that enters the tunnel. Her GUN CLICKSDRY. She un-holsters her PISTOLS and FIRES. CHRIS Cover me! SAM What are you going to do?!Chris uses the machete to cleave into the tunnel's uppersupport beam. More spiders come into the tunnel. SamFIRES desperately. Chris keeps on hacking. SAM Hurry!Sam's GUNS CLICK DRY. Spiders charge. Chris swings themachete hard. The ROOF COLLAPSES onto the attackingspiders.Chris and Sam leap back. Landing in a heap. Clouds ofdust swirl around them. They are tangled up for anawkward beat. Their faces just inches from each other... SAM Hold that thought.They manage to disengage and move on.INT. MINE TUNNEL - NIGHTChris and Sam move toward the bobbing lights of the fewremaining survivors. WADE We're trapped again! CHRIS At least they can't follow us. SAM Which way do we go? CHRIS I think we're in one of the old tunnels. SAM Can you get us out of here? CHRIS Don't worry, Sam.Chris takes point with the others following nervously. 82.INT. MINES - JUNCTION - NIGHTA boarded-up shaft entrance. Suddenly the WOODSPLINTERS. Chris and the others bash through. They fileinto a slightly more open area with two branchingtunnels. The place is stacked from floor to ceiling withbarrels of toxic waste. CHRIS I don't believe it...Mike recognizes the BioHazard warning label he saw on thebarrel in the drainage ditch. MIKE I've seen one of these before! ASHLEY What are they? CHRIS Toxic waste. SAM Where did you see it, Mike? MIKE The creek where Joshua gets his spider food. There was one in the water.Chris starts toward the sloping tunnel. CHRIS We can get out this way! BRET No, we can't. (turns to Wade) Isn't that tunnel blocked off, Dad?Chris and the others look at Wade. WADE Uh... yeah... he's right. We can't get out that way. CHRIS You did this? WADE I knew you'd never sell... We're under my property so... (CONTINUED) 83.CONTINUED: SAM You put all of us at risk. WADE I didn't have a choice! I was broke! They gave me a hundred grand!Sam punches him. Knocking Wade to the ground. SAM I think our lives are worth a little more than that. CHRIS We're wasting time.Chris heads toward the only exit available. The othersfollow. Wade staggers to his feet. Stumbling afterthem.INT. MINE TUNNEL - NIGHTChris leads the group down a tunnel. They come acrossbits of vintage mining gear. A string of old light bulbsruns along the roof into both tunnels. CHRIS One end of these lights should be connected to a generator. That'll be near the entrance.They continue down the tunnel. Entering...INT. MINES - TARANTULA DEN - NIGHTA large cavern. Animal carcasses litter the ground.Some human remains. Dead pets. Dead ostriches. WADE My birds! You see, Sam? I wasn't lying! That's what I can put on the insurance form... giant spiders! ASHLEY Ewww... what's that smell?The others are reacting strongly. (CONTINUED) 84.CONTINUED: CHRIS Methane. This cavern is full of gas. ASHLEY What does that mean? CHRIS One spark and we're all dead.Norman swallows his glowing joint.Chris shines his flashlight on a pile of mummy bundles. MIKE That's what I was talking about, Chris. Presents from the male tarantula to the female. BRET So the female's around here?Bret looks around nervously.The group moves closer. They sine their lights on ahorrifying sight. Joshua's corpse is a deflated fleshballoon. Yellowed teeth sneer from a shattered skull.He's completely desiccated. Every ounce of liquiddrained away.Mike hides his eyes. Ashley comforts him. SAM That one just moved!Chris runs over and slices it open with his machete. Theweb comes away to reveal a human hand. CHRIS There's somebody in here!Chris cuts away more web as the other survivors help.They finally reveal Gladys. CHRIS Gladys!The woman's body begins to spasm. CHRIS Gladys, please... (to the others) Can anybody help her?! (CONTINUED) 85.CONTINUED:Suddenly Ashley pushes her way forward. ASHLEY Her breathing is shallow. She's going into arrest.Ashley proceeds with CPR. Just like she saw on TV.Suddenly Gladys snaps out of it. Gasping for air. CHRIS It's okay. It's okay.Gladys starts to get a grip. Trying to focus on Chris.From this angle Chris look like he has a golden halo. GLADYS Am I... dead? CHRIS You're okay. GLADYS I'm not in heaven? CHRIS No... GLADYS Then what's with all the gold?Gladys points behind Chris's head to the wall of thecavern. The group turns their lights on it. Thereflection is dazzling. Veins of gold criss-cross thecavern walls. WADE Gold! Gold! Look! It's everywhere! SAM Is it real?Chris checks it out. CHRIS Jesus... it's the mother lode... He was right. My dad was right...Chris helps Gladys to her feet. They share an emotionallook of recognition. GLADYS So were you. (CONTINUED) 86.CONTINUED:Wade chips away at the gold. WADE Get as much as you can!Bret looks at Ashley. BRET Nice work, Doc.Ashley acknowledges him. Bret chips gold with Wade. Samputs her hand on Ashley's shoulder. SAM You saved my life.Ashley smiles.Gladys leans over to Norman. GLADYS Have you got a smoke, kid? NORMAN The man says this cavern is full of highly flammable methane gas. I smoke to get high, not to die. SAM Spiders!The group sees a cluster of normal-sized tarantulasscuttling out of the shadows. NORMAN What's the big deal?Norman steps on the closest one, grinding it under hisboot. He stomps around, crushing as many as he can.Mike watches this curiously. Taking a look at one of thesquashed bodies. MIKE I think you should stop. NORMAN Why? MIKE They don't have hair. They aren't fully grown tarantulas.Chris and Sam look over. (CONTINUED) 87.CONTINUED: MIKE They're giant babies!Norman freezes. He hears SOMETHING MOVING around in thedark. And then a spine chilling... GROWL.Chris reacts to the noise. He can guess what's coming...The FEMALE TARANTULA steps out of the shadows. Consuelahas grown to be as big as a Volkswagen MicroBus. By farthe largest spider we've seen yet. Covered in hair.Massive eyes. Her two fangs are the size of machetes.Mike's eyes go wide at the sight of his old nemesis. MIKE Consuela. CHRIS Consuela?The fur on Consuela's back seems to undulate. There issomething weird there. A lot of weird things. Infact... her entire back is littered with hundreds of babytarantulas.As Consuela advances, she flicks several dart-sizedquills off her belly right into Norman. A dark stainspreads across the drug dealer's shirt. NORMAN Bummer...Consuela pierces Norman with her fangs, holding himtight. Babies flood of her back and onto the doper,chewing him to pieces like ravenous piranhas. CHRIS Go!The group flees toward the opposite end of the cavern. Amale tarantula drops down to block their escape. SamBLOWS it away. Wade and Bret are still chipping awaybits of gold. CHRIS Leave it! WADE So you can keep it all!? Hell no!Wade gets a nugget off the wall. He only has ananosecond to admire it before Consuela suddenly loomsbehind him. (CONTINUED) 88.CONTINUED: BRET Dad!Bret reaches out toward his father. Wade reaches forhim. Consuela's fangs suddenly protrude from Wade'schest and he's hauled backward. The tarantula flingsWade into the cave. CHRIS Bret, come on!Bret runs after the others. But he sees Consuela firingmore quills at the group. Directly at Ashley. Bretleaps into harm's way. He's turned into a pin cushion. ASHLEY Bret!Ashley goes to his side. BRET I'm sorry I...Bret dies. Sam drags Ashley away from him.INT. MINES - NIGHTThe survivors flee along the tunnel. Chris jumps up torip down the string of light bulbs from the ceiling. SAM We have to get out! CHRIS This is our chance to kill them all.Chris smashes the bulb at the end of the strand. CHRIS When the power comes on, the bulb will ignite the methane and torch them! SAM Where did you get an idea like that!?Chris looks at Gladys. GLADYS I blew up the kitchen. (CONTINUED) 89.CONTINUED: CHRIS Keep going up the tunnel. There should be a generator at the exit. Start it up and await for my signal to throw the switch. SAM And the toxic waste... CHRIS Will be buried under tons of rock! Go! SAM What about you? CHRIS I need to set the fuse as close to the spiders as I can. That should give us time to get clear.Sam and Chris share a brief beat. And then Chris pullsdown the lights, dragging them back toward thetarantula's den. SAM He has a cute butt. Don't you think? GLADYS U.S.D.A. choice.INT. MINES - TARANTULA DEN - NIGHTChris comes through with his light bulb fuse. Consuelaand her babies are feasting on the bodies of Bret andWade Hale.Chris finds a vent in the ground. He sprinkles dust overit to identify a faint draft. CHRIS Bingo.He positions the shattered light bulb beside this gasjet.INT. MINE TUNNELS - NIGHTMike helps Gladys up the tunnel. Sam and Ashley arebehind. Suddenly a male tarantula steps out of theshadows, separating the groups. (CONTINUED) 90.CONTINUED: MIKE Mom! SAM Keep going!Sam and Ashley flee down another tunnel.INT. MINES - TARANTULA DEN - NIGHTChris finishes preparing the booby trap. He gets up toleave. Only to find Consuela coming toward him. CHRIS I hate spiders.Chris runs out of the cavern.INT. MINE TUNNEL - NIGHTChris bails out of the cavern and starts running.INT. MINE TUNNELS - NIGHTSam and Ashley flee the male tarantula. Sam stumblesover something on the ground. It's Bret Hale's lostmotorcycle. Ashley looks back and sees the tarantulacoming after them. ASHLEY Hurry!Sam lifts the MOTORCYCLE upright and climbs on. SheSTARTS it and REVS the ENGINE. Ashley leaps aboard. Samaccelerates along the shaft, away from the spider. Thebike's headlight illuminates their path.The male tarantula scurries after the bike.Sam rides the motorcycle along the shaft. Ashley hangson tight. They've put some distance between themselvesand the male tarantula. A dead-end looms before them.Ashley screams as her mom stops on a dime and does a 180.Sam rides back the way they came, heading straight towardthe male tarantula. Ashley looks over her mother'sshoulder at the giant spider coming in the oppositedirection. ASHLEY Oh shit. (CONTINUED) 91.CONTINUED:Sam lifts the bike into a wheelie as the tarantula nears. SAM Banzai!With perfect timing, she brings the front wheel down hardonto the tarantula's back. Crunch! The spider isroadkill. Sam steers them down another tunnel.EXT. MINE TUNNEL EXIT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAWNMike and Gladys gather at a generator just shy of thetunnel exit. Mike tries to start the generator. Itwon't catch. MIKE It needs gas! GLADYS There's a ranch!Gladys heads over toward Wade's ranch.INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAWNChris runs along the tunnel. Consuela charges after him,Chris reaches up, smashing more light bulbs as he runs.EXT. MINE TUNNEL EXIT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAWNMike is at the generator as Sam and Ashley ride up on themotorcycle. MIKE It needs gas!Sam tips over the motorcycle, trying to get gas out ofthe tank. It's clear this is not going to work. ASHLEY Hurry!INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAWNChris runs. Smashing light bulbs. Consuela closebehind. CHRIS Start the generator! 92.EXT. MINE TUNNEL EXIT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAWN MIKE He's coming! ASHLEY Hurry, Mom!Sam has dumped some fuel into the generator. She triesto start it. It won't turn over.INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAWNChris ducks as Consuela fires quills at him. He keepsgoing.INT. MINE TUNNEL EXIT - DAWNSam sees Chris at the bottom of the tunnel. She tries tostart the generator again but it refuses to cooperate. CHRIS Throw the switch! SAM I don't have any power! ASHLEY Yo, Mom!Sam turns as Ashley throws her the STUN GUN. Sam catchesit and brings it down to the light bulb cable... ZAPPINGit.INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAWNAs Chris runs, the light bulbs illuminate sequentially,traveling past him into the cavern.INT. MINE TUNNEL - DAWNA broken light bulb sparks. The filament ignites thegas-filled tunnel. A ball of flame spreads throughoutthe mines.INT. MINES - TARANTULA DEN - DAWNA huge column of flame blasts into the chamber. All thegold is illuminated. Consuela's babies are burned likepopcorn. 93.EXT. MINE TUNNEL EXIT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAYSam looks back to see Chris running toward her. Consuelais on his heels. The glow of a fireball is right behindthem. SAM Come on!Chris looks over his shoulder at Consuela and the flames. SAM Chris!Chris makes it to Sam just ahead of the conflagration.EXT. DESERT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAYSam and Chris dive out of the mine opening. A pillar offlame shoots out behind them. Ashley and Mike arenearby. The town is visible just a mile away.EXT. TOWN - DAYThe spiders retreat from daylight. Scuttling back intothe buildings. Heading down into the mine shafts.INT. VARIOUS MINE TUNNELS - DAYThe chain reaction spreads through the mines. Jets offlame blast up tunnels.Torching any unlucky spiders looking for a home.Rupturing the very earth around them.EXT. DESERT - NEAR WADE'S RANCH - DAYThe EARTH BEGINS TO SHAKE VIOLENTLY. ASHLEY Earthquake! CHRIS No! It's a chain reaction! The whole valley is going to blow! MIKE We'll never get out in time!Gladys drives up in Wade's humvee. Cigar in mouth. (CONTINUED) 94.CONTINUED: GLADYS Let's get the fuck out of here!The survivors pile into the truck as the town begins toBLOW UP in the distance.Chris is just about to climb aboard when... A weblineshoots out of the nearby mine shaft. Consuela lives!The spider is charred and bloody. But she's primed forrevenge.Chris is yanked off his feet and hauled toward her. Hefumbles for his machete and hacks at the webline.Cutting himself free just before getting impaled onConsuela's fangs.Consuela knocks away Chris's machete and lunges down athim. Chris kicks her belly with both his feet. Consuelabegins to shudder. Jagged cracks appear in her charredcarapace. Chris kicks and tears at the failing armor.He thinks he's harming the tarantula, but he's actuallyhelping it!Mike and the others watch from the humvee. MIKE Oh no... she's molting!Consuela's blistered shell cracks as she shrugs thedamaged skin away from her body. Chris is amazed to seethe spider has grown a full size larger and becometotally rejuvenated!Consuela comes after Chris. He defends himself with themachete.Shining steel makes contact with the dripping fangs.Once again Consuela punts away the machete. She preparesthe death blow. It looks like curtains for Chris. MIKE Consuela! No! Bad! Bad Consuela!The massive spider stops in shock. Chris looks back tosee Mike has returned.TARANTULA POVThe familiar multi-perspective spider vision. Thetarantula seems to recognize Mike. 95.BACK TO MIKEHe throws his Cassiopeia PDA at the spider's face...Chris uses this moment of confusion to grab his macheteand drive it deep into the spider's unprotectedabdomen...The tarantula screams.Chris leaps up and runs, scooping up Mike. They diveinto the back of the humvee.Consuela tries to follow but is mortally wounded. Shecollapses in the dust. The TOWN EXPLODES in the b.g.The earth itself begins to collapse.INT. HUMVEE - DRIVING ACROSS DESERT - DAYGladys accelerates as the town sinks in the distance.BUILDINGS EXPLODE. Jets of flame burst upward. The mallis sucked into the widening pit of collapsing earth. Thehumvee is just a cart length ahead of a wave of crumblingdesert.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe humvee reaches open road. The survivors watch outthe back as Prosperity disappears into a massivesinkhole.EXT. HIGHWAY/INT. HUMVEE - MOVING - DAYThe group sits in a long beat of abject shock. And thenChris looks down to see his tight pants have finallyripped. CHRIS I really need some pants that fit.The group smiles. Happy to be alive. MIKE Look out!Everyone looks to the road ahead. A familiar bunnyrabbit hops across the highway. Gladys HONKS and swervesto avoid it.EXT. HIGHWAY - DAYThe bunny gets clear as the humvee drives away towardsafety. (CONTINUED) 96.CONTINUED:The rabbit continues its trek for a moment, and then isgrabbed by a large trap-door spider. FADE OUT. THE END? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_El Mariachi.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_El Mariachi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2429ea5335722a0e3023a648ddf4f7ef09eec37b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_El Mariachi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2192 @@ +El Mariachi + + + +by Robert Rodriguez + + + + + + +FADE IN: + + +EXT. A JAIL IN MEXICO - DAY + +It's an early Friday morning and a patrol car drives up an unpaved road and parks next to a gutted police car on cinder blocks. The camera pans with the OFFICER as he exits his car and walks up to a ramp leading to the babay blue JAIL HOUSE. He is carrying a greasy bag of fast food. + + +INT. JAIL LOBBY - DAY + +The Officer enters the lobby, tosses the bag of food to his PARTNER who is sitting at a desk. He grabs a tin cup and walks over to barred entrance to Block A. Twenty or so CRIMINALS, from drunks to drug dealers are sleeping peacefully in their cell on Block A. The Officer rattles the tin cup between the entrance bar. + + +INT. JAIL CELLS - DAY + +The inmates stir, rubbing their dirty faces and trying to sit up. The camera dollies slowly down the narrow hallway of the block which has three cells: Two small ones side by side, and one bigger cell that faces the block entrance. The sound of scribbling and business dealing can be heard from inside the cell. It is AZUL jottin ginto a business ledger while chatting on his cellular phone. His cell is equipped with a small desk and a refridgerator. He hangs up the phone and continues writing. + + +INT. JAIL LOBBY - DAY + +The Officer with the tin cup sits in a couch across from his partner, who is now eating, and reads a magazine. + + +INT. JAIL CELLS - DAY + +Azul picks up his phone and makes another call. He talks business. In the other cell, prisoners are getting up and looking around. Azul hangs up the phone and writes. + + +EXT. EL MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +A gorgeous, bikini-clad BABE struts slowly into a tighly framed glamour shot. She pauses, takes a deep breath, then dives a 'perfect ten' dive into a house-side moat. She swims long, slow motion strokes around the moat as the camera tracks alonside her, lovingly admiring her tan lines and hydrodynamic build. She slides out of the water and walks up a cobble stone walk, dripping as she passes a seated GENTLEMAN in a white suit. His face is unrevealed. As she enters the house, he sets his drink down by a phone. He lifts up the receiver and dials. + + +INT. JAIL CELLS - DAY + +Azul's phone rings. He looks up at it, startled, as if no one has ever called him before. He glances at his watch, and then back at the phone, hesitating to answer it. He looks around the cell block as if someone might be playing a trick on him. Finally he answers it, pausing before saying hello. It is El Moco. + +MOCO (V.O.) +Good morning, Azul. Do you know who this is? + +AZUL +(into phone) +Moco... What the hell do you want after all these years? + + +EXT. EL MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +MOCO is sitting on his porch drinking tequila. + +MOCO +(into phone) +We've got a lot to talk about. I'm just a few town away with a whole new gang. I heard you were nearby so I thought I'd give you a call, amigo. + +AZUL (V.O) +That's sweet of you, asshole. I don't suppose you could get me out of there, and then maybe hand me over my share of money. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Yes, I figured you'd want your money, my friend. That is why I have called you. I heard you were getting out soon, and figured I should deal with our situation. But do you really need me to help you get out? From what I hear, you're running quite a business out of your cell with a phone and some loyal men. It keeps you well protected I hear. Not a bad idea. I may try that myself sometime. + +AZUL (V.O.) +I could stay in here and earn peanuts compared to what you owe me if I were to get out. So, yes, I want you to help me... my friend. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Soon my friend, soon. I'm sending you some people in a few days to get you. + +AZUL (V.O.) +Really? Well, that's more like it. Just like the Moco I used to know. + +Azul is walking towards his window at the sound of a truck racing in. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Just hang in there my friend. I won't forget that you have been a big part of our success. What's wrong. + + +EXT. JAIL - DAY + +A large truck drives up to the jail, parking beside the police car. Two tall, well-dressed MEN step out. They reach into the cab and pull out machine guns. They walk briskly towards the jail. + + +INT. AZUL IN JAIL CELL - DAY + +Azul walks to his toilet and stands on it to see out his barred window. + +AZUL +(into phone) +There's something going on outside. Is this a double surprise? Are you getting me out today, Moco? + +There is no response from Moco. + + +INT. JAIL - DAY + +The Guard reading the magazine stands when he sees someone approaching the door. + + +EXT. JAIL - DAY + +Close tracking shot of guns as Tall Men open the door and enter the jail. + + +INT. AZUL IN JAIL CELL - DAY + +Azul looks out of the jail cell suspiciously. Peering down the hall, he sees the guys with the guns. He hides behind the wall, peering out to see what happens next. + + +INT. JAIL LOBBY - DAY + +The Tall Men walk right up to the guard, and hand him a huge wad of money. The Guard tosses the money to his partner (still eating), then turns to unlock the block entrance bars. + + +INT. AZUL IN JAIL CELL - DAY + +Azul puts the receiver back up to his mouth. + +AZUL +(into phone) +There are two men here with guns. Did you send them? + + +EXT. EL MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Moco, glancing at his watch, hangs up. + + +INT. AZUL IN JAIL CELL - DAY + +Azul hangs up the phone and kicks his Bodyguard awake. The Bodyguard gets up and peers out the bars as Azul hides in a corner. + + +INT. TALL MEN IN HALL - DAY + +The Tall Men walk steady and alert, ready to kill. They enter Azul's block and scope out the cells. + +The Bodyguard, seeing the tall men, retrieves his shotgun from under his mattress and grabs his machete from under the sink. He stands ready to fight. + +The Tall Men move slowly towards the big cell, somewhat cautious. They see the Bodyguard a second too late, for he sticks the shotgun between the bars, and shoots one of them before they can react. The shot one stumbles back into his buddy's arms. Azul's Bodyguard, amused by all this, opens his cell door effortlessly, and walks out as if to greet them. The Tall Men hear the sound of the other cells opening, so they turn around. The other prisoners on the block begin exiting their cells, carrying guns and Molotov cocktails. The Tall Man drops his gun. Finally, Azul exits his cell carrying his phone. The Bodyguard forces the Tall Men into an empty cell, closing and locking the door. + +Azul presses the #-button on his phone. Moco's phone number is automatically redialed. + +Moco answers. + +AZUL +(into phone) +I'm still here, Moco. And so are your little friends. But not for long. They have something they want to scream to you. Listen close, because you're going to repeat it to me when I come to visit you. + + +INT. TALL MEN IN CELL - DAY + +The cellmates throw their Molotov cocktails into the cell. Moco hears the men screaming as they burn to death. Azul is holding the phone at arm's length into the cell. + + +INT. JAIL LOBBY - DAY + +The Guards exchange glances when they hear the screaming, they smile and shrug, then go back to what they were doing. As Azul and his Bodyguards exit the block, the Guard with the magazine stands up as if to stop them, but Azul tosses him a wad of money and the guard sits back down to count it. + + +EXT. JAIL - DAY + +A blue truck races towards the jail. + +Azul exits the jail carrying a shotgun. His Bodyguards get inside the Tall Men's truck and start it. Azul waits patiently for his blue truck. + +As the blue truck pulls up, two little rat-like VATOS exit the blue truck, one handing Azul a guitar case. Azul tosses it onto the hood. The Bodyguards wave as they drive away. Azul waves back. He opens the case, revealing an arsenal of weaponry. Azul notices one piece is missing. One Rat quickly pulls the missing weapon from his jacket and replaces it in the case. Azul is unamused. He grabs his MAC-10 machine gun from the guitar case and aims it at the thieving Rat's head. + +Suddenly, the Guard bolts out the jail waving the wad of money, as if complaining. + +Azul turns his MAC-10 onto the Guard instead. A few blasts later Azul and his rats pack up and go as the Guard twitches helplessly on the ground, still clutching the money in his bloody hand. + + +CREDIT SEQUENCE + +EXT. AZUL / MARIACHI ON HIGHWAY - DAY + +The blue truck barels down the highway and the camera pans with the truck as it passes a hitchhiker, MARIACHI, standing in the sun with a thumb in the air. The truck passes him up so he continues walking. Mariachi is carrying a guitar case in one hand and a black jacket in the other. He is wearing a white T-shirt, black pants. The camera pans to a sign that reads "ACUÑA 18 miles". + + +EXT. MAIN STREET - DAY + +Mariachi is walking around downtown Acuña. He notices a bar across the street and, liking the way it looks, he puts on his jacket and crosses over to it. He stops to read a sign on the building that says "MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS ONLY". He prays silently to himself before confidently walking inside. + + +INT. CORONA CLUB - DAY + +Mariachi enters the club, greeting the PATRONS as ge makes his way to the bar. No one seems to greet him back. He sits on a barstool near some OTHER DRINKERS, laying his guitar case down lovingly beneath his stool. He looks around the place, as if sizing it up. + +BARTENDER +What do you want to drink? + +MARIACHI +Refresco. + +The other drinkers stare at him. + +Glancing around the room, Mariachi notices a small, table-shaped object draped with a cloth in one corner of the room. + +Sitting directly behind him are four mean-looking dudes. Mariachi is served his drink. + +MARIACHI +No hay musica? + +BARTENDER +(cleaning a glass) +Why? + +MARIACHI +I'm a mariachi. A good one. I play beautiful ballads, old classic ballads, on an old-fashioned guitar. + +BARTENDER +So what? + +MARIACHI +I could add a little class to this place. I work for fairly cheap, I live mostly off tips. But I need steady work, and I can guarantee bringing in more customers. + +BARTENDER +(nodding) +Tell me, why would I need one little guitar player when I've already got a full band? + +Mariachi gives him a silent "what" look. + +The BARTENDER motions to a YOUNG MAN sitting near the small draped table. + +The Young Man removes the drape revealing a keyboard. Puts on his mariachi hat, dips his fingers into his shot glass and rubs his fingers together (as if warming up for the big show). He hits a few switches in EXTREME CLOSEUP as... + +... Mariachi adjusts himself to the seat. + +The Young Men gently taps one switch and the keyboard sounds like an accordion, pulsing out a beat. He then presses another switch and a horn section swells to a crescendo and waltzes the familiar riffs. He adds the string and horns accents by banging on the keys. He sounds awful. + +Mariachi grimaces slightly then turns back to the Bartender who seems to enjoy it. + +The Keyboard Mariachi finishes his song, sits back down. + +BARTENDER +(nodding with satisfaction) +There you see? Either I can pay one guy to sound like a full mariachi band... + +Mariachi picks up his guitar and lays some money next to his full drink. He looks disappointed. + +BARTENDER +... or I could spend the same money only get one little guitar player... Understand? + +MARIACHI +(walking away) +Thank you, sir. + +BARTENDER +You want to earn a living? Get a real musical instrument. + +The Bartender picks up the bottle of soda pop Mariachis left behind and offers it to the other men on the table. They say no, pay, and leave. The Bartender offers it to the MEAN DUDES at the table. + +They all shake their heads no. + +The Bartender shrugs and dumps it. + + +EXT. CORONA CLUB - DAY + +Mariachi walks out and looks up and down the street. He decides to walk south. + +As he walks down the sidewalk, the camera pans into a CLOSEUP of another guitar case that is moving towards the Corona Club. The camera falls back a little revealing the backside of Azul, dressed also in black. Azul walks into the bar. + + +INT. CORONA CLUB - DAY + +Azul enters the bar, notices to his left the table with the four mean-looking Dudes, drinking and eating chips and salsa. + +The oldest one, with his back to Azul, takes a sip from his mixed drink, then stands and excuses himself to the restroom. + + +INT. BATHROOM - OLD MEAN DUDE - DAY + +The Old Mean Dude walks into the first stall and sits down. + + +INT. CORONA CLUB - AZUL - DAY + +The three remaining Dudes notice Azul's guitar case. So does the Bartender. They all look at each other and laugh. + +BARTENDER +(laughing and rolling his eyes) +What the hell is this, mariachi day? There is no work for you here! + +Azul walks the mean Dude's table. Their laughing quiets down a bit as Azul stands before them. The Bartender stops smiling. + +AZUL +Bartender... one beer. + +The Bartender nods and grabs a frosty glass. He begins to fill up at the tap. + +AZUL +(without looking at him) +In a bottle, wey. + +Bartender stops filling the beer, stares at the half-full glass for a moment, then drinks the beer. + +Azul is staring at the three Mean Dudes. They stare back. + +The Bartender slaps the unopened bottle down at the counter. + +BARTENDER +Ready. + +Azul doesn't pay attention to him. + +AZUL +I'm looking for an old friend of mine. His name is... Moco. Do you know where I can find him. + +MAIN MEAN DUDE +You can sometimes find him here. He owns this place. + +AZUL +So you know him? + +MAIN MEAN DUDE +We work for him. + +AZUL +That's too bad. + +Azul turns to the mean Dude sitting to his left, and places the guitar in his hands. The Mean Dude is confused. + +AZUL +Hold it please. + +Azul opens the case and pulls out the MAC-10. The other two Mean Dudes are already reaching for their pistols. + +The Bartender ducks beneath the counter. + +Azul fires a million bullets into two of the Mean Dudes, (the other is holding the case in shock). Their chests explode, causing neat little dollops of flesh and blood fly everywhere. The Mean Dude holding the guitar case is frozen with fear. He manages to look up at Azul, who is watching the Mean Dudes die a slow, bloody death. The barrel of the MAC-10 is smoking. Azul turns slowly to the Mean Dude holding the case. Azul aims his MAC-10 in the Dude's face. Still frozen holding the case, he spends his last moments looking down the gun's barrel. + + +INT. BATHROOM - DAY + +The shots caused Old Mean Dude to peer out from his stall as the toilet paper fell to the ground and started to roll across the floor. He now watches it roll as more shots ring out. He pulls up his pants and and walks toward the door slowly. He is sweating profusely. He slowly picks up the toilet paper, plotting his next move. It grows silent... He takes a deep breath and rushes out the door. + + +INT. CORONA CLUB MAIN ROOM - DAY + +The Old Dude bursts into the room with a roll of toilet paper in his hand, and a sheet of sweat sliding down his face. + +The Bartender rises up from behind the counter. + +The camera dollies slowly by the dead Dudes. Their blood-bathed faces twisted into odd shapes and expressions. The camera continues to dolly to the one dead Dude still holding the guitar case. His face is a bloody pulp. The camera stops dollying to the old Dude's mixed drink. A hand is stirring it with a straw. The camera pans up the arm to reveal Azul, standing expressionless with his gun sling over his shoulder. + +Shot at 16fps the Old Dude quickly drops the toilet paper and runs back inside the bathroom. + +Azul turns to his guitar case and carefully chooses another weapon. He grabs the drink and tosses a napkin over his arm like a waiter, then casually follows the Old Dude into the bathroom. + +The Bartenders glance at each other. One pours a shot glass full of tequila and raises it to his lips to drink it. Shots ring out and the Bartender spills the drink over himself. + +Without warning Azul bursts from the bathroom and walks calmly to his case. He replaces the weapon, picks up the case and leaves. + +A few seconds pass before the bartender grabs the phone and furiously dials. + +BARTENDER +(into phone) +Get me Moco!!! + +The door bursts open as Azul reenters, storming to the bar. + +The Bartender is so petrified he doesn't think to drop the phone. + +Azul walks right up to the Bartender. + +The Bartender shuts his eyes. The sound of the beer bottle popping open canbe heard, along with the sound of thirsty guzzling. The Bartender opens his eyes to Azul. + +CLOSEUP of the empty bottle slamming to the counter. + +The Bartender glances down at the bottle. + +CLOSEUP of Azul tossing a few coins near the bottle as payment. Azul leaves. + +A few seconds pass as the Bartender is standing there. You hear Moco yelling into the receiver asking what's going on. + + +EXT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Moco is on the porch trying to get the Bartender to answer him. + +MOCO +(into phone) +WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE, ANSWER ME!!! + + +INT. CORONA CLUB - BARTENDER - DAY + +You hear Moco's voice through the phone. The camera dollies into the Bartender as he screams into the receiver. + +The camera dollies in to the corpses... + + +EXT. CORONA CLUB - AZUL - DAY + +... and finally a low outdoor frontal tracking shot of Azul walking away smiling as the image fades out. + + +EXT. HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +Low angle of Hotel Coahuila sign. MEAN DUDE #5 enters the frame as his beeper goes off. He runs into the Hotel Coahuila. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +Mean Dude #5 enters the lobby where an OLD CLERK is sitting at the counter reading a yellowed newspaper. There is a pit bull on the floor beside him. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Da me telefono. + +VIEJO CLERK +(without looking) +Take it. + +Mean Dude #5 grabs the phone and dials Moco's number. He glances down at the PIT BULL lying on the floor. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Pit bull? + +VIEJO CLERK +Yeah, pit bull. + +The line is picked up and Mean Dude talks into the phone. He pulls out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and places it on the counter. He begins jotting down four names. He then slowly crosses their names out. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into phone) +Dead? + +The Viejo Clerk glances up from his paper. The Pit Bull also glances up. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into phone) +All of them? How long ago? OK, What does this guy look like? + +Clerk goes back to reading his paper. Pit Bull is still paying attention, though. + + +EXT. HOTEL CAOHUILA - MARIACHI - DAY + +Same low-angle shot of the outdoor sign displaying the name Hotel Coahuila. Mariachi walks into frame, and pulls out his wallet. Mariachi pulls out a few measly bucks then seems to be considering what to do next. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +An inside shot looking out of the front glass reveals Mariachi looking at his wallet as Mean Dude talks to the phone. No one notices him. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into phone) +... carries a guitar case... And what was he wearing?... all black... + +The Pit Bull turns and looks out of the window. Seeing Mariachi, he gets up and walks to it. + + +EXT. HOTEL COAHUILA - MARIACHI - DAY + +Mariachi is putting his last few dollars back into his wallet. As he is walking away he notices the Pit Bull and he bends down for a closer look. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into phone) +Don't worry, Moco. We'll find him, and we'll mess him up real good. +(ad lib) + + +EXT. HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +Low shot with long lens at full zoom of Mariachi tapping on glass. + +CLOSEUP of dog responing. + +CLOSEUP of Mariachi tapping. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +Mean Dude hangsup the phone. He writes a few more things. He turns to leave. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Gracias señor... + +As he passes the camera you can see Mariachi still playing with the dog. Inside view CLOSEUP of Mariachi tapping on glass. + +VIEJO CLERK +Callate, hombre!!! + + +SLOW MOTION SEQUENCE (?) + +Mariachi looks up at the Clerk, then stands. + +The Mean Dude turns around and looks and looks at the Clerk. Clerk turns to look at Mean Dude, who is walking back to the counter. + +Mariachi picks his guitar from the ground. He is in full view, but no one is looking at him. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Viejo, if you see anyone new in town, carrying a guitar case, dressed in black... you can call this number, OK? + +Mean Dude writes down a phone number and the description of Azul on a little card. + +VIEJO CLERK +(nodding sarcastically) +And if I don't call, you'll kill me... + +MEAN DUDE +(handing him the card) +No. I won't kill you... he will... + +The sarcastic smile fades from the old man. Mean Dude walks away. The old man reads the card, then glances out the window. Mariachi is gone. + + +MARIACHI / MEAN DUDE #5 OUTSIDE HOTEL + +Mariachi is turning a corner just as Mean Dude #5 exits the hotel. The Mean Dude walks off in the other direction. + + +EXT. BOYSTOWN SALOON DOMINO'S - DAY + +Mariachi enters Domino's bar. DOMINO is waiting on a few bar bums that are nursing their jaws. Mariachi sits with them, asks for a refresco, He gets looks again. Domino serves him and he asks to see the owner. She says he's looking at the owner. He then asks her for work as a mariachi. She says she has no money to pay him. He looks arund the classy joint and knows she's lying (it turns out to be true, she has no money). When he asks how a girl can take care of herself in a town like this she stuffs a gun barrel in his mouth. He nurses his jaw, pays and leaves, as the others laugh. + + +MARIACHI CHECKS IN TO HOTEL - DAY + +Mariachi enters the run-down lobby of the motel. The Viejo Clerk at the counter is reading his yellowed newspaper. Mariachi sees the Pit Bull laying by the counter. + +MARIACHI +Pit bull. + +VIEJO CLERK +Yeah, pit bull. + +MARIACHI +I need a cheap room for a week, and I'd prefer to pay you in a few days, after I've found some work. + +VIEJO CLERK +Sí, later... + +MARIACHI +Thank you... + +The Old Man hands Mariachi a key for the second floor. + +MARIACHI +Thank you, friend. + +As Mariachi walks away, the Clerk notices the guitar case and black clothes and he rereads the card Mean Dude left him. + +VIEJO CLERK +(different tone of voice) +Uh, excuse me señor? I forgot, I need a small deposit... + +Mariachi stops in his tracks. He turns back to the Clerk slowly... thinking. + +MARIACHI +(walking back slowly) +You can trust me. + +VIEJO CLERK +I am very sorry, señor. But... how much can you spare? + +The dog is watching the event. + +MARIACHI +(disappointed) +I've only got a few pesos... I plan on finding work in town. + +VIEJO CLERK +(grabbing money) +Oh, that's enough for now, sir, thank you and... enjoy your stay. + +The Clerk deposits the money, slams the register shut, and continues reading his yellow paper. Confused, Mariachi pockets his empty wallet and turns to find his room. The Clerk peeks over his paper, eyeing the guitar case as Mariachi goes. He hears the sound of Mariachi's footsteps trailing off. The old man drops the paper and bolts silently to the phone as he dials El Moco's phone number... + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Mariachi opens his room, tosses his guitar onto the bed and hangs his jacket in the closet. He has only his white T-shirt underneath. He glances above the bed to a plaque bearing a mace and two crossed swords. He checks out the shower and washes his face in the sink. He sits down on his bed. A few seconds later he drops back and lays there a minute before kicking the door shut. He tries to sleep. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +The Old Clerk is talking on the phone to the bad guys. He hangs up the phone, then reaches into the back of his counter for a gun. He places it on the counter and covers it with his newspaper and continues reading. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Top shot of Mariachi sleeping. A shot of the mace on the wall. + +CUT TO: + + +DREAM IN BOYSTOWN - DAY (5.7 KINOPIC LENS) + +Mariachi is suddenly sleeping in the dirt. Same top shot as in the hotel. He opens his eyes, then groggily he sits up. + +ESTABLISHING SHOT of Mariachi sitting in the middle of a ghost town. He stands up. + +VARIOUS SHOTS of the empty town with nothing and nobody. + +Medium shot dolly into Mariachi as he stands, turns and sees a BOY bouncing a ball in slow motion. The Boy stops short, holding the ball tight against the chest. Mariachi glances around to maybe spot more people, before concentrating on the Boy. + +The Boy places the ball carefully on the ground, then gently rolls it to Mariachi. + +Tracking shot of the ball rolling to Mariachi. The ball sounds like a speeding truck. Mariachi smiles at the boy. + +CLOSEUP of the ball rolling. + +CLOSEUP of the Boy smiling. + +Mariachi bends to get the ball which makes the sound of a screeching truck as it hits Mariachi's foot. Mariachi notices that it's a man's severed head. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Mariachi bolts up in bed. + + +EXT. HOTEL COAHUILA - MEAN DUDES #5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 - DAY + +The Mean Dudes jump out of their truck and rush into the hotel, guns drawn. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +The men burst into the lobby and the old men tells them the room number. They run out into the courtyard with the old man following. The Pit Bull is uninterested in the action. + + +EXT. COURTYARD IN HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +The Mean Dudes run up the courtyard stairs and kick open the first door they come to and start blasting into the room. Screams are heard. The men stand back, and finally look down the steps at the Viejo Clerk who is waving his arms frantically. + +VIEJO CLERK +127!!! Cuarto 127, pendejos!!! + +They run to the room numbered 127 and cautiously stalk towards it as they reload their guns. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Mariachi is sitting on his bed listening to all this. He bolts to the restroom and turns to the shower. + + +EXT. HOTEL COURTYARD - DAY + +Shot of men still stalking, cocking pistols. + +POV shot of what men see, as camera nears the door. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Mariachi rushes out of the bathroom towards the door. + + +MARIACHI'S POV + +As camera nears the door, doorknob starts to move. Remembering that he never locked the door, he jumps to the side of the door as... + + +EXT. HOTEL COURTYARD - DAY + +Men kick open the door and burst into the room. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Low-angle shot as men burst in. There is no one in the room. Mean Dude #5 hears the shower and motions to keep it down and stalk quietly... They rush into the bathroom and start blasting. + +Mariachi slips out from behind the door and runs out. + + +EXT. HOTEL COURTYARD - DAY + +Mariachi runs out of the room and jumps off the stairwell onto the courtyard in front of the Clerk. + +MARIACHI +(pointing to his room) +Cuidado, viejo! + +Mariachi darts out into the lobby. The old man watches him go then turns his attention back to Mariachi's room. + +VIEJO CLERK +(pointing in Mariachi's direction) +Pendejos!!! + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +The dog watches as Mariachi tosses his keys into the cubby hole where they belong. Mariachi then jumps over the counter, banging keys on the register to get it open. + + +EXT. HOTEL COURTYARD - DAY + +The Mean Dudes run out of Mariachi's room, dart down the stairs, passing the old man who is telling them where to go. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +Mariachi, unable to open the register, jumps over the counter. + +CLOSEUP of his feet as he lands, causing the register to burst open. + +Mariachi truns for a second to ponder gettin ghis money or risking dying, but then he checks to turn and run. Two seconds later the Mean Dudes run in, one jumps over the counter to see if he's there. + + +EXT. HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +Mariachi runs atop the Mean Dudes' parked truck then jumps into the bed of a passing truck. Mean Dudes run outside. The Dudes hve their hands up as if they don't know what to look for. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +He wears black! + +Shots of lots of people walking around, wearing black items. + + +EXT. DOWN THE BLOCK - DAY + +The truck turns a corner and the driver halts, comes out with a gun and tell Mariachi to get the hell out of his truck. Mariachi leaps out. He is about to continue running, but he stops, clenches his fists, and turns slowly as the camera dollies into his face. + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Camera dollies into the guitar case on Mariachi's bed. + + +EXT. DOWN THE BLOCK - DAY + +Mariachi runs back in the direction of the hotel, but as he turns the corner he has to slow down for the Mean Dudes are everywhere. Each one has his gun out and is looking around for the man in black. Mariachi walks slowly, whistling and nodding to everyone as they pass. A few look suspiciously at him but continue searching. Mariachi ducks inside the hotel. + + +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA LOBBY - DAY + +Mariachi enters the lobby and winks at the old Clerk who is standing over his open register in shock. His eyes widen when he sees Mariachi. He runs out of the hotel. + +VIEJO CLERK +(screaming, pointing inside) +PENDEJOS!!! + + +INT. MARIACHI'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY + +Mariachi rushes in, grabs his jacket and puts it on. He grabs his guitar case and squeezes it tight, his eyes shut. Slow dolly into him, as his eyes open. + +CLOSEUP of plague on wall with mace and swords. He grabs the mace, swining it around a few times. He feels secure, now. He turns to leave. + + +EXT. HOTEL COURTYARD - DAY + +Mariachi rushes out the door, he looks down and sees the Mean Dudes entering the courtyard. He ducks his head back just as they look up to see him. Mariachi runs up a smal flight of steps, where he then tosses his guitar onto a balcony, which he then jumps over to himself. + +The men rush up the steps shooting at the balcony. Bullets narrowly miss Mariachi as he climbs over the balcony to safety. + + +INT. HOTEL HALLWAY - DAY + +Mariachi dashes down the hallway out onto a balcony. He sees no way down. + + +EXT. COURTYARD BALCONY - DAY + +The Mean Dudes are climbing over the balcony like spiders. Mariachi runs back and slams his guitar into the first guy to make it over the balcony. His dummy falls down the stairs and over the narrow railing. The Dude splats on the ground in gruesome CLOSEUP. + +The old man looks over at him as he dies, then turns back as if nothing happened. Mariachi bolts back down the hill. + + +EXT. FRONT BALCONY - HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +Mariachi is looking down the balcony trying to find a way to escape. Mariachi looks behind him. + + +INT. HOTEL HALLWAY - DAY + +Mean Dudes barrel down the hallway reloading the guns. + + +EXT. FRONT BALCONY - HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +Mariachi flings his mace over an electric cable, then stands on the balcony lip, placing his guitar between his legs. + + +EXT. STREET SHOT OUTSIDE HOTEL - DAY + +Mariachi is sliding down the cable and turns back to see Mean Dudes firing guns at him. Bus stops in traffic and Mariachi grabs his guitar and jumps onto the hood of the bus. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Mariachi jumps onto another car and then down into the street. + +Mean Dudes exit the hotel and chase him on foot while a few get in the truck and chase him. The truck takes a short cut. + +Mariachi is running through the sidewalks and streets in front os curioso shops, jumping small carts and children and cars to escape the two men behind him. He enters a small cutoff where the truck tries to stop him by heading off. The bad guys stick their heads and guns out of their windows and laugh as they ready to shoot him. Mariachi, though, already having built momentum, runs right up the front of the trucks as the guys try to shoot him but not succeed in only shooting each other as he runs up and over the cab, into the bed, and onto the street. He swings his guitar case into another guy's groin and grabs is gun, reaiming it to shoot Mean Dude #5. Mariachi shoots him in the arm, and Mean Dude #5 drops his gun and cowers away in pain. Mariachi then turns the guy's gun on him and shoots him in the chest. Mariachi grabs his case and as Mean Dude #5 turns to get s look at him, all he sees is the case coming into his face. Mariachi heads back for Domino's. + + +INT. BOYSTOWN SALOON DOMINO'S - DAY + +Mariachi stumbles through city streets, pausing against a telephone pole as he gazes at Domino's Saloon across the street. + +Mariachi stumbles across, almost getting hit by a few cars, and drags himself into the saloon. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Mariachi staggers into Amadeus and washes his face in a fountain by the door. He makes his way to the bar as a patron pays and leaves. + +DOMINO +What happened to you, Mariachi? Too much refresco? + +MARIACHI +I just killed four guys. + +Domino turns around and looks at Mariachi, wondering hard is he's joking. He lifts up a bloody hand, grabs a napkin, and then seems to ask permission with his eyes before wiping his hands clean. + +DOMINO +Is it true? + +Mariachi nods an ashamed yes. + +Domino reaches for her gun under the counter. + +The camera is on Mariachi when she brings it out and points at him. + +MARIACHI +(exhausted) +Wait a minute... what's your name? + +DOMINO +Domino. + +MARIACHI +Wait a minute, Domino! It was self-defense. + +She cocks the pistol. + +MARIACHI +(frantic) +I'm new in town. I don't know everyone!!! I have no friends here... and no enemies. + +DOMINO +(lowering the gun a bit) +Thieves? + +MARIACHI +(nodding) +No way. They were well-dressed men. I checked into the cheapest hotel in town, no money, nothing of value, except this guitar and maybe this coat, which they could have taken when I left my room, but they didn't. They were only interested in killing me. + +DOMINO +(lifting the gun back up) +So why do you come here? You want to get me killed? + +MARIACHI +I need a place to stay until I figure this out. They've got me mixed up with someone else. + +DOMINO +And you've never seen them before? Not even in another town? + +MARIACHI +(long pause) +Are you saying they followed me, a mariachi, here? What for? + +DOMINO +Maybe they hate your music. + +Mariachi stares at her expressionless. She stares back at him. + +DOMINO +Maybe you were singing in another town, they hated your voice, and now they're trying to kill you. + +MARIACHI +Are you serious? + +DOMINO +(nodding) +Yes. + +She laughes. + +MARIACHI +Are you going to help me, or am I gonna have to die on your porch? + +DOMINO +I have a room upstairs. My room. Don't touch anything. I'll be up after awhile and we can call a friend of mine. + +Mariachi shakes her hand. + +MARIACHI +Thank you. I'll never forget this. + +He tries to kiss her hand. She slides it away and effortlessly slaps him. + +DOMINO +This way. + +He follows her to a doorway revealing an unlit staircase. When he enters, the darkness swallows him as she shuts the door behind him. + + +INT. UPSTAIRS DOMINO'S LOFT - DAY + +Mariachi enters a roomy, luxurious apartment above the main bar. There is a free-standing porcelain tub in the center of the room. Mariachi places his guitar halfway between the entrance and the tub. The camera is tracking backwards with him as he walks, making th room look endless. He removes his jacket as he makes his way to the tub. He drops his jacket onto the floor and gently climbs into the tub. The camera faces him as he settles back. The camera slowly dollies into him as he lays back, crosses his fingers, and gives a relaxed smile. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Domino is washing a glass. She the then remembers she has the gun in her waist belt, so she removes it and sticks it back under the counter. Wounded Mean Dude #5 comes in limping. She takes out a towel and drops it on the counter. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Good morning, Domino. + +DOMINO +What happened? + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Give me the phone. I have to call Moco. + +She brings up the phone and sets it down where the cloth was. He picks up the cloth and wraps his arm with it. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +It's not as bad as it looks. Domino, has anyone come through here? A stranger, maybe? + +DOMINO +This is a boder town. I get strangers all the time. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Dressed all in black, carrying a guitar case? + +DOMINO +No. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Well, he shot me... and has killed ten of Moco's men... all in one day. + +Domino looks a little upset. She slides the phone towards him a bit. + +DOMINO +Aren't you gonna call your boss? + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(nodding) +I have to tell Moco that he got away again... So, you better give me a drink first. + +Domino smiles and pours him half a beer mug with tequila. He laughs and drinks. As he's dialing, the camera is on Domino as she cleans up a few things, every once in a while glancing upstairs. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into phone) +Moco, he got away. Shot me in the arm. Killed La Palma. Pepino, Sunday. This guy is one slick maricon. Yeah. Also, I didn't get a look at him. So, unless he's still carrying that guitar around and hasn't changed clothes, I won't even spot him, and I don't think he'll be that obvious... + +MOCO (V.O.) +Don't worry. If there's one thing I know, it's that he'll always wear black and he'll always carry that guitar with him. It's his signature. Besides, that's not a guitar he's carrying. It's a guitar case full of weapons. Find him. + +Mean Dude hangs up and puts his head in his hands. + +DOMINO +Que paso? + +MEAN DUDE #5 +I screwed up. The guy left his guitar case in the hotel room. We chased him out, but he came back for the case. + +DOMINO +Maybe he loves his guitar. It's probably an antique. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +It wasn't a guitar. It was a guitar case full of weapons that he uses on his victims. Adios, I'm gonna take a nap. And thanks for the drink. + +Mean Dude #5 stumbles as he tries to stand. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +If you see this guy, call us. + +He is about to walk off with the bloody towel and he turns back pointing at it. She waves her hand at him, as if granting him permission to take it. She cleans his glass, and when he is gone she slams the glass down and runs for the stairs. A few seconds later she comes back into the bar, grabs the gun from under the counter and calls her assistant to watch the bar. He sees the gun and wonders what she's up to. She storms upstairs. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - DAY + +Domino opens the door abruptly and finds Mariachi taking a bath. He bolts upright, pulls a towel up from the floor and sits frozen waiting for Domino's next move. She laughs and walks to the counter. + +DOMINO +(friendly) +I thought I told you not to touch anything. + +MARIACHI +Sorry. I needed to relax. I can... + +DOMINO +(smiling) +No, it's alright, Finish up. Do you want shampoo? + +MARIACHI +(laying back, closed eyes) +Yes, please. + +Domino tunrs to a counter and her smile fades. She looks like she wants to rip Mariachi's throat out with her teeth. She puts the gun down on the counter. She finds an omnious-looking knife and then grabs a bottle of shampoo. She walks over to him, then pulls the knife up to his throat with one hand while grabbing his hair with the other. He opens his eyes wide. The shampoo hits the floor and begins to roll. + +DOMINO +Who are you?! + +MARIACHI +(choking) +I'm a musician! + +The shampoo bottle rolls into the guitar case and stops. Domino sees this, and with her foot reaches out and pulls the case toward her. + +DOMINO +What do you have in here? GUNS? KNIVES? + +Mariachi tries to catch his breath, pausing before answering her as if wondering if all this is really happening. + +MARIACHI +No! My guitar! + +Domino slides her foot out of her shoe, and unsnaps one of the latches with her toe. + +DOMINO +We'll see... + +She unsnaps another. The latches snap loud and echo in the quiet room. Mariachi gasps as she tightens her grip. + +DOMINO +You're very modest, Mariachi... + +She squeezes his hair and unsnaps another latch. + +DOMINO +(through gritted teeth) +You told me you killed four men, when you really killed seven. Or were they still breathing even you shot out their hearts? + +Another latch snaps. + +MARIACHI +(groing dizzy) +I'm a mariachi... + +SNAP! + +MARIACHI +... not a murderer... + +SNAP! + +DOMINO +Aren't you going to watch? + +She lifts the lid with her foot. It seems an eternity before the case is fully open. Domino is looking into the case, but Mariachi is not. He knows what's in there. + +MARIACHI +I told you... I am a musician. + +Slow dolly into the case, which contains a white, well-kept classical guitar. Domino is seeing it, and for a moment she almost believes he is telling the truth. + +She rushes to it, grabs the guitar and tosses it to Mariachi. He catches it, choking after she releases the blade. She is on the other side of the tub, now. She jams the knife down between Mariachi's legs. Mariachi's eyes bug. + +DOMINO +Play it. + +MARIACHI +(still choking) +W...w...what? + +Domino shoves the knife in deeper and Mariachi grimaces horribly. + +DOMINO +Play it, damnit, play something sweet!!! + +Mariachi is sweating and his face is extremely red. He pauses for a long time before plucking an odd note. She squints as if she's caught him. But he eventually starts picking out a sweet little melody. + +DOMINO +(growing impatient) +SING! + +Mariachi starts to sing but chokes on the words. He starts over, playing a "Rancho Grande" sounding song with his own made up words. + +MARIACHI +(in a high sweet voice) +What is this place? +That treats me like a murderer? +They've all got their heads up their butts... +Even this beautiful girl, +With a knife to my balls, +Should I kiss her or hit her... +Or both? + +He finishes his song, bowing and thanking his imaginary audience. Domino is smiling. She pulls the knife slowly out of the water and wipes it off on her apron. + +DOMINO +You're a mariachi, all right. And a good one. + +Mariachi bows a solemn thank you. + +MARIACHI +I think this is the best I've ever played. You... inspired me. + +CLOSEUP of the knife. + +She laughs. + +MARIACHI +Hire me. + +Domino looks at him with a silent "what?". + +MARIACHI +I'm good. Hire me to play in your bar. I'll work mostly from tips. But, I need steady work. + +DOMINO +I couldn't pay you. I have no money. + +MARIACHI +This fancy place and you have no money? + +DOMINO +It's the truth. + +MARIACHI +I'll work for room and board, then. Please, I'm desperate. + +DOMINO +(thinking) +Will I have to keep a knife at your balls to get you to play like that? + +MARIACHI +(smiling) +Not if you're paying me room and board. Please... until I find a permanent job. + +DOMINO +(thinking) +You won't find a permanent job in this town... but OK. + +She gets up slowly, and turns to leave. Mariachi settles back, smiling triumphantly. Suddenly she darts around and slams the knife between his legs again with a furious look on her face. He bolts up out of this triumphant daze with a look of complete shock. She loosens up and laughs. + +DOMINO +You're going to need a better sense of humor than that, if you're gonna work for me, kid. + +She flings her knife aside. It sticks into a wall. She shrugs, smiles a beautiful smile, turns, and goes downstairs. Mariachi settles back down, closing his eyes. The knife slips out of the wall and clangs to the ground. Mariachi jumps again, rolls his eyes, and sinks underwater as the picture fades. + + +INT. AMADEUS - EVENING + +Mariachi plays in Amadeus. + + +INT. AZUL'S HIDEOUT - DAY + +Camera tracks past a pool table where TWO RATS are playing nine ball. They make a few shots, then the phone rings. The camera continues to track past a small table where Azul's guitar case lies open. Weapons adorn it, with each knife, each gun in its pocket, in its own place. The camera continues tracking to a dresser on which sits Azul's cellular phone. A delicate female hand lifts the receiver. The camera is now positioned above the bed as the GIRL answers the phone. + +GIRL #1 +(into phone) +Yes? One moment please... + +He rolls over and wakes a GIRL sleeping beside her. Girl #2 takes the phone and passes it to a third GIRL as Girl #2 tries to wake Azul (he is sleeping between Girls #2 and #3.). + +Girl #3 has the phone to her ear as if listening for background conversation. + +The two Rats playing pool are staring longingly at the three Girls in Azul's bed. They look hungry and deprived. One hits the other, signaling it's his shot. While one shoots, the other watches. + +Azul awakens and grabs the phone. + +AZUL +(into phone) +Yeah. + + +EXT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Moco is sitting in his pool. A swimming WAITER is bringing him drinks. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Amigo! I'm glad I've reached you! You've not answered all day. Killing ten of my men must have been very time consuming! + +AZUL +(into phone) +Six. + +MOCO +(into phone) +What? + +AZUL +(into phone) +I've only killed six! You were always bad at maths, Moco. I guess that's why you never paid me half of the money. You thought it all belonged to you. + +MOCO +(into phone) +I knew half was yours... I got greedy, my friend. It's my nature. But you!!! You are modest! You've killed ten of my men!! I know, because I'm having them buried in my yard right now. With my dogs and cats. + +AZUL +(counting on his fingers, into phone) +I killed six. But don't bother counting so soon. The number will triple by tomorrow. + +MOCO +(into phone) +I'm sorry things turned out this way. My friend. I got greedy. I should never have tried to kill you. It would have been cheaper for me to pay you. Now I've got to find ten new men. + +AZUL +(into phone) +Six. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Ten. + +AZUL +(into phone) +I tell you what. You give me my money, and I won't kill any more of your men... And I won't kill you. + +MOCO +(takes a sip, into phone) +No, it's too late for that. We're going to have to see this through. + +AZUL +(into phone) +Just like the Moco I used to know. Still wearing white? + +MOCO +(looking down at his clothes, into phone) +What do you think? + +AZUL +(into phone) +I think you should change clothes. I'd hate to ruin a white suit with your stupid blood. + +Azul hangs up. He gets dressed and leaves. The little Rats are about to follow, but one Rat walks over to get one look at the girls. The girls tease him, and when he tries to advance them, they pull guns and laugh as the Rat runs away. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Domino walks by with a trash can. Mariachi is sitting on a barstool. + +MARIACHI +I need to get my money back from that hotel. I'll be right back. + +DOMINO +Are you crazy? If you go anywhere with that jacket and that case you could be killed. Leave that stuff here. + +Mariachi gets up and is about to get his guitar case from under the stool. + +Mariachi leaves it under the stool and takes off the jacket. + +MARIACHI +I never go anywhere without it. Take care of it. + +Mariachi leaves. Domino drops the trash can and tells her assistant to watch the bar. She heads for the staircase. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - DAY + +Domino walks out onto her balcony, peering down into the street. + +POV shot of Mariachi walking through the street. + +Domino turns and walks to the phone. She dials a number by heart and sits in a plush chair. + + +EXT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Moco answers the phone. Towel around his neck, wet hair. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - DAY + +DOMINO +(dolly in slow, into phone) +Hi. It's Domino. + +MOCO +(into phone) +I know who it is... +Dolly into Moco. +INT. HOTEL COAHUILA - DAY + +The Clerk is reading a paper. He hears a noise and pulls it aside. Mariachi is standing at the counter smiling. The Clerk jumps in his seat, then after a few frozen seconds he sets down his paper and reaches for Mariachi's old room key. + +Mariachi shakes his head "no", points to the register, and makes the money sign with his hand. The Clerk slowly moves over to the register. He depresses a few keys to open it. It won't open. He makes a gesture like it's stuck or something (he is not very convincing). He tries again and again; each time pretending to get more impatient.Mariachi glances down at the Pit Bull. The Pit Bull is eyeing Mariachi. Mariachi points to the Clerk as if he has an inside joke with the dog ("this guy..."). Mariachi climbs over the counter and stands next to the Clerk. The Clerk things Mariachi is a lunatic. Mariachi holds up a finger as if cueing the Clerk for a demonstration. Mariachi then leaps over the counter landing firmly back on the other side of the counter. + +CLOSEUP of his feet landing hard, just as before. + +The register opens. Mariachi shrugs, smiles, and reaches into the register, taking his money out himself. He counts it. After a brief consideration, he decides to leave the old man a tip. Mariachi waves a "good-bye" wave and dances out. The old man, still standing there with his arms outstretched as if he was robbed, dashes to the phone and calls Moco's men. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +The bar Assistant is cleaning the bar. He walks over to grab a few glasses and when he returns, Azul is sitting at the barstool Mariachi was on earlier. The Assistant looks around, wondering where Azul appeared from. + +ASSISTANT +Can I get something to drink or eat? + +AZUL +One beer. + +The Assistant grabs a mug and starts to fill it at the tap. He fills it halfway when... + +AZUL +In a bottle, wey. + +ASSISTANT +(laughs) +Sorry. + +He grabs a bottle and hands it to Azul, then lifts the mug, toasts and drinks it straight down. + +Azul drinks his straight down, too. + +AZUL +(looking around) +Isn't there a girl that works here? + +ASSISTANT +Yeah, she owns the place. + +AZUL +(heading a few bills to the Assistant) +She owns it, now? Then she is Moco's girl? + +ASSISTANT +(looking around) +So-so. She's onto this new musician. + +Azul takes out a few more bills and hands them to the Assistant, and begins to stand up. + +AZUL +Thank you. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Mariachi is out on the streets, returning to Domino's. + + +EXT. BOYSTOWN SALOON - DAY + +As he crosses the street he notices Azul leaving the saloon with a guitar case. Mariachi runs into the saloon. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Mariachi runs inside and checks to see if his case is still there. Domino comes downstairs. + +MARIACHI +I just saw a guy with a guitar case like mine. It's him they want. + +DOMINO +(to Assistant) +Did he say anything? + +ASSISTANT +(nodding) +No, he just ordered a drink. + +MARIACHI +I don't look anything like him... + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Azul is walking to his truck when he turns to a corner and Mean Dude #4 sticks his gun in his face. Two more guns appear, pointed at the back of his head. + +MEAN DUDE #10 +Is this the guy? + +MEAN DUDE #5 +I'm not sure... + + +EXT. DOWN THE STREET - DAY + +The two Rats are in the blue truck half a block away. One hits the other to look at what's happening to Azul. + +POV of Rats seeing Azul with three guys around him with guns. They look at each other, start the truck and speed away. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +MEAN DUDE #5 +What's in the case? + +AZUL +My guitar. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Yeah? You're one of those old-time mariachis, huh? + +AZUL +(pause) +Yes. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +OK, let's take a look. + +Mean Dude #4 takes the case and lays it flat in Azul's palms. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +If it's a guitar like you say it is, we'll never bother you again... + +Mean Dude #4 unsnaps two of the latches, SNAP SNAP. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +If it's not... + +He unsnaps three more... SNAP... SNAP... SNAP! + +MEAN DUDE #5 +... then we'll spray paint this street with your brains. + +He points the gun deep into Azul's face and cocks it. Azul closes his eyes. Mean Dude #5 lifts the lid. Azul hears a faint strumming sound, followed by the sound of the Mean Dude slamming the case shut. Azul opens his eyes. The Mean Dude resnaps the latches. SNAP... SNAP... SNAP-SNAP-SNAP!!! + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(walking away) +Sorry.... + +They walk away leaving Azul wondering what happened. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Domino, Mariachi, and Assistant are standing at the bar. + +DOMINO +Look, as long as you don't carry the case around, they'll leave you alone. It's that guy they're after. + +MARIACHI +(putting on his coat) +I better put this upstairs... + +He grabs the case and begins to take it to the stairs, but he pauses for it feels different to him. He slowly looks down at it. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Azul watches the Mean Dudes go and when tey turn the corner he puts the case on the ground to open it. + + +EXT. AROUND THE CORNER - DAY + +The Mean Dudes are rounding the corner, but Mean Dude #5, who is last, snaps his fingers and motions to the others to keep quiet and to watch Azul + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Mariachi shakes the case, and puts it on the counter as if to open it... but he doesn't need to check it. He knows it's not his guitar. + +DOMINO +What's wrong? + +Mariachi looks at her startled, then runs out of the bar with the case. + + +EXT. AROUND THE CORNER - DAY + +Mean Dudes are watching Azul unsnap his case. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Azul opens the lid, revealing Mariachi's guitar. + + +EXT. AROUND THE CORNER - DAY + +MEAN DUDE #5 +That's him... + +The Mean Dudes start walking towards Azul as the camera tracks back with them. Azul slams the case shut, wondering what the hell is going on. He looks up and notices the Mean Dudes walking towards him. He stands up and slowly walks in the other direction. + + +EXT. A BLOCK AWAY - DAY + +Mariachi is running through the streets and onto the sidewalk. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +The bad guys are pulling out their weapons. + +Mariachi bolts around the corner. Now everyone is on the same sidewalk. Mariachi and Azul are on each end of the street with the Mean Dudes in between them. + +Azul turns and sees Mariachi with his guitar case. Mean Dude #5 turns and sees Mariachi, too. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +That's him... + +The two other Mean Dudes exchange glances. Mean Dude #5 stalks after Mariachi, so the other two follow. Mariachi looks to Azul for help. Azul tips the imaginary hat to Mariachi and walks away. + + +EXT. ANOTHER STREET - DAY + +Mariachi runs through the street almost getting hit. Bullets are flying as the Mean Dudes are firing at him as they run. + + +EXT. DEAD END - DAY + +Mariachi leaps up over a few cars and ends up in a dead end. He turns around, drops the case on the ground and opens it. A million weapons seem to stare back at him when he opens it. He is frantic. He grabs a small gun, shakes it in his hand, doesn't like the feel. He tosses it back in. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +The Mean Dudes are barreling down the street. One turns towards the dead end. + + +EXT. DEAD END - DAY + +Mariachi pulls out the MAC-10 and blasts the first Mean Dude he sees. He grabs the case and runs out into the street, jumping onto a truck and blasting the other Mean Dude from up there. He sees Mean Dude #5 run away. + +Mariachi comes off the truck and walks through the streets in slow motion. Peolple are staring at him as if he was Azul the killer. Mariachi walks straight to the bar. A BOY is bouncing a ball on one of the sidewalks. + + +INT. AZUL'S HIDEOUT - DAY + +The camera dollies past the vacant pool table, and over to a Rat sitting in a chair, drinking a beer. The other Rat is pacing back and forth in front of the sitting Rat. Azul enters the room. Throwing his guitar case onto the pool table as a grand entrance gesture. The sitting Rat stands beside the pacing Rat. + +RAT #1 +I'm sorry we left... + +RAT #2 +... We didn't know what to do... + +RAT #1 +... We figured you could defend yourself!!! + +Rat #2 nods in agreement. Azul unsnaps one of the latches. SNAP! + +AZUL +You thought I could defend myself... + +SNAP! SNAP! + +AZUL +... against three armed men... + +SNAP! + +AZUL +... using this? + +He opens the case and the guitar sparkles at them. The Rats exchange glances. They look at the guitar then back at Azul. + +AZUL +My case got switched with some maricon mariachi! + +RAT #1 +Where is this mariachi? + +AZUL +He's dead by now... So, I want you to go look for my case. + +The two Rats are about to leave. + +AZUL +Leave me a wepon. + +Both Rats take out their guns. Azul takes Rat #2's gun. + +AZUL +That was disloyal of you to leave me out there. You should be as loyal to me as you are to each other. + +The Rats exchange glances, then aim their eyes back to the floor. Azul turns to Rat #2. + +AZUL +Are you loyal? + +RAT #2 +(after glancing at Rat #1) +Yes. + +AZUL +(to Rat #1) +Are you loyal? + +RAT #2 +Yes. + +Azul gestures to Rat #2. + +AZUL +Then shoot him. + +Rat #1 turns to Rat #2 who is in shock. + +AZUL +You are loyal, are you not? SHOOT HIM. Or I shoot you. + +Azul aims his gun at Rat #1, who immediately aims his gun at Rat #2. Rat #2 is sweating bullets. Rat #1 puts his gun down. + +RAT #1 +I can't. + +AZUL +Why not? + +RAT #1 +You said we should be as loyal to you as we are to each other. I couldn't shoot him, for that would be as disloyal as shooting you. + +Rat #2 glances back and forth between Rat #1 and Azul. + +AZUL +Very good. Now go find my case. + +Azul puts his gun down and motions the rats to leave. They leave. When they exit, Rat #1 turns to Rat #2 and snaps his fingers. Rat #2 shakes his hand. They leave. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - NIGHT + +Domino is dabbing hydrogen peroxide onto a cotton swab. She applies it to Mariachi's body scars on his back. Mariachi has his eyes closed. He washes the blood from his face. + +MARIACHI +Where were you when he came into the bar? + +DOMINO +I was on the phone, talking to a friend that knows what's going on. + +MARIACHI +Did you mention me? + +DOMINO +No... He told me the man in black is Azul. + +MARIACHI +If his name is Azul, why doesn't he wear blue? + +DOMINO +I don't know... Anyway, he's killing the men of the town drug dealer. The dealer's name is Mauricio. But he's known as Moco. + +MARIACHI +And Moco is sending these men to find Azul. So, why do they chase me? + +DOMINO +They have never seen Azul... only Moco knows him. My friend says the description Moco gave his men was that he wears black, and carries a guitar case. Sounds like you, no? + +MARIACHI +Couldn't you tell your friend that there are two people like that in his town? One is a killer, and one is a mariachi. + +DOMINO +Only special people can talk to Moco. Besides, you've killed a few of his men, now. Your best option is to keep out of sight, stop wearing black, and to hide that stupid case until this is all over. + + +EXT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Mean Dude #5 comes in and approaches Moco. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +He got away... but I got a good look at him. + +Moco takes out a cigarette and puts it in his mouth. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +Coca, Caca, Beto were killed. + +Moco takes out a match. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +He won't get away again, Moco. I promise. + +Moco lights his match across Mean Dude #5's face and lights his cigarette. Mean Dude #5 walks away, as Moco flicks his match at him in slow motion. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - NIGHT + +Mariachi is about to lay on the floor. She tosses him a blanket. + +MARIACHI +Are you always closed Monday nights, or did you close since I can't play my guitar tonight? + +DOMINO +Mondays are my day off. Want to play a game? + +MARIACHI +Sure. + +The phone rings. Domino gets up to answer it. Mariachi reaches under his blanket for a small mirror and combs his hair, putting spit in his hair to slick it down. He quickly stashes the mirror. + +DOMINO +(into phone) +Hello? + +MOCO +(into phone) +Come see me. + +DOMINO +(into phone) +I can't. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Please. + +Moco is sitting at a table playing cards. + +DOMINO +(into phone) +I don't feel well. I've got to go. + +MOCO +(into phone) +Have you ridden the bike? + +DOMINO +(into phone) +No... I've got to go... + +She hangs up. + +MARIACHI +Boyfriend. + +DOMINO +(quiet as if thinking) +No... + +MARIACHI +I can't figure out something. You tell me you're poor. Poor family. Yet you've got this place. + +DOMINO +(sighing) +This place is a gift. + +MARIACHI +From who? + +DOMINO +From Mauricio. + +MARIACHI +From EL MOCO? The man trying to kill me? + +DOMINO +He's not trying to kill you, his man had you confused with Azul. + +MARIACHI +Same thing. + +DOMINO +Look, you now how if you want to impress a girl, you send her flowers, candy, jewelry until you win her love? + +MARIACHI +Yes. + +DOMINO +If one present doesn't work, you keep sending bigger and better things until you win her or you're broke? + +MARIACHI +Correct... + +DOMINO +Well, Mauricio sent me flowers, then jewelry, then he gave me a job at his saloon, then he gave me the whole saloon... etc. + +MARIACHI +He's still giving you things? + +DOMINO +He'll never run out of money. + +MARIACHI +And you accept it all? What's the last thing he sent you? + +Domino walks over to the counter and picks up a key. + +DOMINO +A motorcycle. + +Mariachi laughs. + +DOMINO +He wants me to ride out to his ranch when I've decided to be his. He thinks he's close to having me. + +MARIACHI +Is he? + +DOMINO +(pause) +He was. + +She sits next to Mariachi. + +DOMINO +Not anymore. + +They kiss. She gets up and is about to turn off the lights. + +MARIACHI +So, you really are from a poor family. + +CLICK! + +DOMINO +(in the dark) +I remember when I was growing up, we were so poor, that my brothers and sisters and I all slept on the same blanket stretched out across the floor. We had to sleep in a circle, with our fingers in each other's ears, to keep the bugs from crawling into them. + +MARIACHI +(after a pause) +Ay, wey... + +Domino laughs. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Domino hands Mariachi a wad of money. + +Mariachi sees the money and looks up at her bewildered. + +DOMINO +Here's a little bit I've saved. I want you to go get a new guitar. + +Mariachi starts to put up his hand as if to refuse it. + +DOMINO +Take it, stupid. I'm not saying go by the best one, just a temporary one so you can play again tonight. + +Mariachi stops and thinks... He looks up at her questioningly, then he shrugs an "OK" and grabs the money and jogs out excitedly. Domino is smiling. + + +EXT. STREET - DAY + +Mariachi walks down the sidewalk, passing curioso shops. The camera is low and zoomed in all the way. Mariachi stops by one of the window that has a guitar in the glass. He pulls his money and counts it. He stops after he notices someone's reflection in the window. He turns around and sees it is Mean Dude #5 right across the street. He meets up with another Mean Dude. They are standing right behind Mariachi. Mariachi is pretending to still look at the window. The Mean Dudes walk past Mariachi so Mariachi walks in the opposite direction. Mean Dude #5 stops and then turns around slowly. Far zoomed shot of Mariachi walking down the street with guys behind him. They start after him. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +That's him... + +Tracking shot following Mariachi. + +Tracking shot in front of Mean Dudes walking at Mariachi. + +Mean Dude #5 pulls out a small walkie-talkie and calls his buddy in the truck a block away. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into walkie-talkie) +Loco, he's headed your way... black pants, white shirt. + + +IN A TRUCK DOWN THE STREET + +LOCO starts the truck and starts driving slowly across the street. As he turns on the corner, Mariachi sees the truck and casually climbs inside and hides in the back. Mean Dude #5 turns the corner when whispers into walkie-talkie. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into walkie-talkie) +Where did he go, Loco? + +LOCO +(laughs, into walkie-talkie) +He got in my truck. + +Mean Dude #5 laughs. + +MEAN DUDE #5 +(into walkie-talkie) +Take him around the block. + +Mean Dude #5 taps his buddy and they start running down the block. + +Mariachi is in back the truck searching for a weapon. The truck stops. Mariachi rolls to the side and gently lifts his head. + +POV Mariachi sees the two Mean Dudes walking at him. Mariachi turns and Loco is there to knock him in the face with the rifle butt. Mariachi falls into truck, blood trickling from his dizzying head. He tries to get up a bit, but Loco is in the truck now, and slams the rifle down into his face hard... Blackout. + + +DUSTY ROAD TO MOCO'S + +Mariachi is unconcious in the back of Loco's truck. Mean Dude #5 and other Mean Dudes are riding in back with Mariachi. + + +EXT. ROAD TO MOCO'S - DAY + +The above scene intercuts back and forth with the arrival of Loco. Loco arrives at the gate, Mean Dude #5 opens the gate, they drive through. The truck is facing Moco so he can't see Mariachi yet. Mean Dude #5 closes the gate and walks over to the truck, opens the back door, and calls Moco over. Moco walks over to the truck and looks inside. + + +EXT. TRUCK - DAY + +Mariachi is laying there unconcious, Moco puts his arm around Mean Dude #5, who is looking very proud, and Moco pulls out a cigarette and a match. + +MOCO +That's not him. + +Moco strikes the match behind Mean Dude #5's head. Mean Dude #5 stops smiling. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Domino is waiting on customers. She glances at her watch. A few seconds later she glances at it again. She looks very worried. + + +INT. AZUL'S HIDEOUT - DAY + +Azul's Rats burst into the hideout. FOUR GIRLS pop up over the partition with guns. The Rats stop in their tracks. The girls sigh a "oh, it's them" sigh and slink back to bed. Top shot of them trying to wake Azul. Azul wakes up and looks over the partition. + +AZUL +Where's my case? + +RAT #1 +We couldn't find it. + +RAT #2 +We heard they caught you and were taking you to Moco's ranch. + +RAT #1 +... so we came to see if it was true. + +Azul thinks a moment. He stands up. + +AZUL +They caught the mariachi. + +Azul dresses, smiling... + + +INT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Mariachi is in a holding cell at the ranch. He twitches, finally waking up. + +He sees a GUARD outside and finds a way to escape. + +He grabs the guard's assault rifle and turns a corner. Two men grab him. He slams the butt of the rifle, knocking the wind and teeth out of BAD GUY #1, then he kicks down and breaks the shin bone of BAD GUY #2 who screams out in agony. Mariachi silences him by karate punching his throat. The Bad Guy gurgles and hits the ground. + +Angle from the ground as Mariachi smashes the guy with is gun. + +He crawls up a wall, trying to escape as quietly as he can. He sees TWO MORE MEN running towards him since they heard some noise. Mariachi aims his assault rifle at the blue Chevy parked behind him. He fires and it explodes. + +Mariachi jumps Loco, gets him to drive him to the saloon. He also takes Loco's money. + + +EXT. BOYSTOWN SALOON - DAY + +Azul walks into frame, looks around then proceeds into the bar. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Azul goes inside and finds Domino tending the bar. + +DOMINO +What can I get you? + +AZUL +One beer. + +She grabs a bottle and slams it down on the counter unopened. He eyes her admirably and then pops the top with one hand. + +He guzzles the drink, slamming it down empty. + +DOMINO +Anything else? + +AZUL +(nodding) +My guitar case. + +DOMINO +Where's Mariachi? + +AZUL +Where's my case? + +DOMINO +Upstairs. + +AZUL +Get it. + +Domino grabs another beer for him and runs to get the case. + +(In between this time, Mariachi escapes with Loco.) + +She returns, slamming it to the floor. + +AZUL +If you want your mariachi back, come with me. + +DOMINO +Why will you help me? + +AZUL +Because you know where Moco's ranch is... I don't. + +Domino calls her Assistant. + +AZUL +You help me, I'll help you. + +DOMINO +Let's go. + +They leave. The Assistant tends to the bar. + + +ROAD TO MOCO'S + +They drive out to Moco's ranch in Azul's truck. Little do they know, they passed Loco's truck with Mariachi crouched in the passenger seat. He gets up after the truck passes. Mariachi didn't know it was Domino in Azul's truck or he could have turned around and kept her from going to Moco's ranch. + +They arrive at the gate and het out of the truck. + +DOMINO +(over the gate) +Mauricio!! + +Azul grabs Domino and points a gun to her head. He whispers to her... + +AZUL +Play along... + +He kicks at the gate. + +AZUL +Open the gate or she's dead! + +The gate opens and we see Moco standing at a three-quarter stance, flanked with his men on both sides. Azul drags Domino in and faces her at Moco with a gun to her head. + +MOCO +(to Domino) +I'm sorry he used you to get to me, Domino. + +Azul cocks the pistol. + +MOCO +Azul, let her go and you'll get your money. + +AZUL +Moco, give me my money or I ruin your clothes with her blood. + +Moco signals his men to get the money. + +DOMINO +What have you done with Mariachi? + +MOCO +Who? + +DOMINO +The musician your men confused with Azul. + +MOCO +(staring at her) +So that's why you were busy that night... + +Azul is glancing between Domino and Moco. + +MOCO +... you had that little monkey climbing all over you. + +AZUL +Give me my money or I kill her NOW!!! + +MOCO +After all I've done for you, this is how you treat me? + +DOMINO +I never asked you for anything until now. Let Mariachi go. + +Azul is anxious now. + +AZUL +I swear I'll kill her! + +MOCO +No you won't. I will. + +Moco pulls out his gun and shoots her in the heart. She falls limp in Azul's arms. Azul tries hold her up, but she's dead. Azul rests her on the ground, looking down at her, wondering why it's all come to this. + +AZUL +All I wanted was my rightful share. But you've got to kill everybody. + +MOCO +You feel sorry for her, don't you? See, that's why you can't ever be as big as me. + +Azul slowly looks at Moco. + +MOCO +(aiming gun) +Because you have too much heart. + +Moco shoots Azul in the heart. Azul had his hands to his side, and now he falls to his knees. Moco shoots him again, and Azul dies next to Domino. + +Mean Dude #5 is exchanging glances with the others. No one seems to be on Moco's side. + + +EXT. NEAR SALOON - DAY + +Mariachi is still in Loco's truck. + +MARIACHI +Stop here. + +Loco stops the truck and Mariachi gets out. Loco drives back when Mariachi motions for him to leave. Mariachi watches him go then dashes around the corner to the saloon. + + +INT. AMADEUS - DAY + +Mariachi runs into the bar... + +MARIACHI +Domino!!! We're leaving!!! Right now!!! + +The Assistant rushes over to Mariachi. + +ASSISTANT +She's gone. + +MARIACHI +Where is she? + +ASSISTANT +Looking for you. + +Mariachi is about to race upstairs. + +ASSISTANT +She gave the case back to that guy. She left with him to find you. + +Mariachi tries to make sense of it all for a minute before grabbing the gun from under the counter and rushing upstairs. + + +INT. DOMINO'S LOFT - DAY + +Mariachi grabs the key to the motorcycle and runs out. The motorcycle burns down the road. + + +MARIACHI ON THE ROAD TO MOCO'S + +Mariachi barrels down the road on the motorcycle. + + +EXT. MOCO'S RANCH - DAY + +Moco is walking away from the bodies. + +MOCO +Bring that musician out here so he can be reunited with my Domino. + +Some men go to check. + +Cut back and forth with Mariachi coming. + +MEN +He's gone, sir. + +MOCO +Find him!! + +Mariachi rides through the semi-open gate... stopping at the bodies. He dismounts the bike and holds Domino. + +He has the gun in the back of his pants. You can see it while his back is to the camera and men are approaching him. Moco comes for the show. + +MOCO +(good shot) +So you're the little mariachi that came to town, killed my men, and stole my girl... + +Mariachi slowly lifts his eyes to Moco. + +MOCO +You are very talented. + +Mariachi stands, hands up. + +MOCO +I bet you play the guitarra real well, huh? + +Mariachi says nothing. + +MOCO +(raising gun) +Not anymore. + +Moco fires into Mariachi's left hand. Mariachi grimaces, crumbling to the floor. He keeps a tight grip on his hand. When he opens his hand to see the damage, the camera can see right through his hand for a reverse shot of his face through the hole. + +MOCO +Now get the hell off my property and take your hand with you!!! + +Moco is laughing and looking at his men for support, but no one else laughs. Mariachi tries to stand, but he falls back. When he rises again he has the gun in his hand. He shoots Moco in the chest. Moco falls back and hits the ground hard. He gasps for air... + +Moco's men gather around him. Mean Dude #5 crouches down to check Moco's throat pulse. Moco's dead. Mean Dude #5 strikes a match across Moco's face and lights up a cigarette. He turns and walks away. The others follow. + +Mariachi wraps a tourniquet on his arm, kisses Domino, opens Azul's case, sees the weapons, and rides off with it. + + +MARIACHI ON THE ROAD + +He looks back at the town behind him, then places his hand on the motorcycle to drive off. We notice the metal brace on his hand. + +Mariachi rides into the sunset road. He speeds pas a sign: "ACUÑA 18 miles" + +"Coming soon +EL MARIACHI II" + +FADE OUT + + + +THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Elephant Man, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Elephant Man, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f55dc729db0a139a9df10558bc732fc169de2ee6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Elephant Man, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE ELEPHANT MAN Written by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren & David Lynch Based on "The Elephant Man, A Study in Human Dignity" by Ashley Montagu BLACK FADE IN: ABSTRACT DREAM CLOSE-UP of a gold framed miniature portrait of JOHN MERRICK'S MOTHER (tune or melody over her picture, heartbeat), which DISSOLVES TO CLOSE-UP of real Mother smiling A shadow comes over her face. CLOSE-UP of elephant ears, trunks, faces moving. Dark, heavy feet stomping elephant trumpet, rearing up. Powerful hit and the Mother falls. Darker. Trunk slides over Mother's face and breasts and stomach, leaving a moist trail. MOTHERíS POV of elephant's mouth, eyes, skin. Mother's face twists and freezes in a blurred snap roll. BLACK again. Knock, knock sound. Curtain opens to horrified faces. CUT TO BLACK AND SILENCE CIRCUS FADE IN TO steam shooting out of a huge old half-rusted calliope. The music is very loud and raucous. Moving up and back we see the black awning entrance to the freak tent, where FREDERICK TREVES, Resident Surgeon and Lecturer on anatomy at the London Hospital, is standing with his back to us observing the posters of the freaks. Coming along a muddy walkway at the side of the tent is Treves' wife, ANNE, and their two DAUGHTERS. The shrill over- whelming music seems to engulf her. She looks discomfited, vulnerable, and protective of her daughters. The girls, oblivious to any fear, are finishing their chocolate sweets. CLOSE-UP of Treves looking at a poster. He hears: #1 DAUGHTER Poppa! Treves turns and looks down to a chocolate-covered face. He smiles at the children and Anne. Anne sees the dirty faces and begins cleaning one of them. The other daughter looks into the freak tent. #2 DAUGHTER Poppa... may we go in there? ANNE Alright... Your turn. She turns the girl away from the freak tent and begins cleaning her face. Her kerchief pulls and distorts the little daughter's face. Suddenly the girl sees a ring of elephants in the distance. #2 DAUGHTER Oh,look M-ummy! Elephants! ANNE Oh, elephants! We'll go see them. She stands. ANNE (to Treves) You won't be long? TREVES I'll join you shortly. She takes the children off toward the elephants. Treves watches them go for a moment, then turns and we go with him into the dark freak tent. He pauses to pay admission at a small booth, then disappears within. DARKNESS. We hear what could be the trumpeting of an elephant. Treves parts the black canvas and enters the main part of the tent. Off to his left he sees a man wrapped in a black cape, holding a conch shell aloft and blowing powerfully into it. The tent is dimly lit with flickering oil lamps. People mill about through the weaving corridors. To Treves' right, he sees a sign reading, "The Deadly Fruit of the Original Sin," over a small, very dark corridor. Treves enters the passage and disappears into the shadows. The corridor has a series of flaps and turns to disorient the spectator. Treves carefully pushes his way through and arrives at the inner chamber. In a roped-off space stands a small stage set at eve-level, with curtains on three sides. On the stage is a bell jar filled with grey-murky fluid lit from behind with casts an eerie glow in the chamber. Suspended in the fluid is the life-sized body of a baby-doll with the attached head of a large snake. At the join of head and body is a blob of unidentifiable organic matter. It is obviously phony, but the effect is still very disquieting. At the bottom of the jar, in the muck, sits an apple with two large bites out of it. Behind the jar is a painting on the order of a religious triptych, portraying Adam on one side, Eve on the other, and the tree flowering over the jar. Treves' impassive face is bathed in the watery glow. He studies the strange object with a critical eye. In the passage we hear movement, and an OLDER GENTLEMAN enters. He seems visibly impressed with "The Deadly Fruit of the Original Sin." OLDER MAN A wicked birth... After a moment, Treves quietly leaves the inner chamber. As he pushes his way through the corridor, the noise grows and becomes a cacophony of strange sounds. He exits and hears a booming roar and the rush of air as a series of twelve candles, mounted in a row on a ten-foot stand, are blown out by "THE INCREDIBLE WIND-MAN." His BARKER steps up and talks to the people. BARKER Ladies and Gentlemen, his lungs are larger than this mammoth blacksmith's bellows. So great is his power of exhalation, rivaling even that of the Great North Wind, that he will now challenge two grown men to attempt to hold the bellows shut as he applies the mighty blast of his herculean breath! Are there any volunteers? A few people raise their hands. The Barker scans the crowd and then points over the heads of the volunteers to TWO MEN toward the back. BARKER Ah! I see two likely lads! Come forward! Come forward! Pit your strength against the Mighty Wind- Man! During the above, The Incredible Wind-Man removes his cape, revealing his great barrel chest and pot-belly supported by spindly, white, hairless legs. As the Barker sets the "Volunteers," the Wind-Man walks about the small platform, huffing and puffing and blowing on the conch shell. The "Volunteers" set, the Wind-Man steps up to the end of the bellows, takes an enormous breath, and twirls his black handlebar moustache as a signal to the Barker. BARKER Gentlemen... Are you ready? THE LADS Yes we are... Right... etc. BARKER Ladies and Gentlemen!... Let the demonstration begin!! The Wind-Man clamps his mouth to the bellows, and with great show begins to exhale, savagely stamping his feet. The Two Lads struggle obviously, and then pretend to be forced apart. The Barker triumphantly lifts the Wind-Man's hand. The Wind- Man ceases to blow, removes his lips from the bellows and the Two Lads instantly collapse together on the floor. BARKER Ladies and Gentlemen!... "THE INCREDIBLE WIND-MAN!!! The crowd cheers, while the Wind-Man puts the conch shell to his lips and proudly stamps his feet, circling about the Two Lads. Amidst this applause, Treves smiles indulgently. He moves on, looking for something genuine. TWO BOBBIES move through the crowd, intent upon a certain destination. Treves conveys a casual interest in them. Treves moves on to A BEARDED LADY who combs her beard, busily chewing tobacco and spitting into a spittoon. Treves continues to work his way through the crowd. Up ahead he sees the Bobbies. BOBBIES Make way! Make way! They round a corner. WOMAN (V.O.) Oh yes they are, they're yours alright. We hear the laughter of a crowd. Treves moves closer to see a FAT LADY seated in a chair on the next platform. On each knee she holds a DWARF. They are dressed as babies. A SKELETON MAN stands beside her. SKELETON MAN I refuse to believe it! I will not accept it! Those babies are simply too ugly, they cannot be mine! The crowd laughs uproariously. SKELETON MAN I don't want them! Get rid of them! I don't want to see them! FAT LADY Darling, don't be difficult! Let's take our sweet lovely children on an outing. SKELETON MAN We'll take these miserable whelps on an outing, alright! We'll take them to the zoo... WHERE THEY WILL STAY! From the direction the Bobbies have gone, we hear several screams. FAT LADY (pausing at the screams) Children save yourselves! Prevail upon your Pappa! The two Dwarves get down from her knees and approach the Skeleton Man. They kneel and tug at his thin legs. DWARVES Poppa! Poppa! Poppa, please! At this point, a FATHER holding his YOUNG SON in his arms passes by Treves. The Young Boy clutches his Father's neck in fear, hiding his face. FATHER (out loud, to no one in particular) This is too much! They should not allow it! They should not allow it! Treves, very curious now, along with several others, make their way around the corner. Before him, Treves sees an agitated crowd staring at something that from his point of view he cannot see. Brushing past him is a WOMAN pulling a small, confused and frightened LITTLE GIRL. Getting closer to the commotion, he sees four BOBBIES standing with a well-dressed alderman, arguing with the OWNER of this particular exhibit. A distraught, almost hysterical WOMAN is ineffectually striking the Owner with her fists about his head and shoulders, crying weakly and incoherently. WOMAN Beast, Beast... Treves is just about to see whatever it is that is causing the alarm, when one of the Bobbies says: BOBBY No! That's right out! Drop the curtain! As the curtain drops, Treves just glimpses baggy trouser cuffs and two horribly deformed, root-like feet. The distraught Woman has been pulled away from the Owner and is sobbing on a Bobby's shoulder. OWNER You can't do that! I've got my rights! ALDERMAN I have the authority to close you down, and I'm doing just that! In the crowd, Treves notices a YOUNG BOY staring open-mouthed, blankly at the curtain. Treves pushes through the glut of people to join the Boy and get a better view. The curtain is actually a large canvas. On it is a life-sized portrait, crudely painted, of a creature that could only be possible in a nightmare. It is the figure of a man turning into an elephant. The transformation, however, is not complete; there is still more of the man than beast. Palm trees in the background suggest the jungle habitat in which this Perverted object might have once roamed. Filled with curiosity, Treves moves toward the curtain. ALDERMAN This exhibit degrades all who see it, as well as the poor creature himself. OWNER He's a freak! How else can he live? ALDERMAN Freaks are one thing. No one objects to freaks, but this is entirely different. This is monstrous, and ought not to be allowed. These officers will see to it that you are on your way as soon as possible. Good day. The alderman turns and leaves the tent. OWNER (to himself) ...Movin' again! He shakes his head in disgust. Now at the canvas, Treves tries to lift the edge to get a peek inside the wagon, but the meaty hand of the Owner clamps down on his wrist. OWNER Have a care, guv'nor. The two men look at each other for a solid moment. TREVES Forgive me... Treves backs away and returns his gaze to the painted canvas. FADE TO BLACK: OPERATING ROOM - THE LONDON HOSPITAL We see a bellows pumping air into the open grate of a cast iron stove. We hear moaning in the background. The coals flare to a fierce glow. From the mouth of the stove protrude the handles of several cauterizing irons, their heads imbedded in the coals. Up above the irons, Treves stands by a waist- high operating table covered with black leather. His face is illuminated by an oil lantern held by a nurse. The room is fairly dark owing to the oppressive overcast sky seen through two windows. There is also a large sink, a cupboard containing dressings, gags, manacles, emetics and other unattractive things, and two hard chairs. TWO STUDENTS and two other DOCTORS, MR. FOX and MR. HILL, are present. The two Students are pulling with constant pressure on a rope tied to the patient's leg. Treves and Mr. Fox are working on a chest wound caused by a machine accident. There are gear-wheel marks getting progressively deeper as they near a great open gash. Mr. Hill places a cotton mask over the patient's nose and mouth and applies drops of chloroform. The patient struggles, but soon his moans subside and he is unconscious. TREVES How long has this man been here? FOX Three quarters of an hour. TREVES Mmmm. Hodges, Pierce come closer. Mr. Hill, take hold of the rope please. It's a machine accident. I expect you'll be seeing a good deal of this. The two medical Students come forward. They stare uneasily at the gaping wound, which bubbles each time the man takes an agonized breath. Treves and Fox quickly and expertly tend the wound as Hodges and Pierce look on. TREVES (off handedly) Abominable things these machines. One can't reason with them. FOX What a mess. Treves now notices that the student's faces have gone a trifle ashen. TREVES What got you into medicine, Hodges? HODGES My father, sir. He's built quite a successful practice. I hope to take it over one day. TREVES Is that your case as well, Pierce? PIERCE Yes sir. Though of course I do have a great desire to help my fellowman. Treves smiles at them knowingly. TREVES Of course you do realize that medicine has changed quite a bit since your father's time. In those days we didn't even wash our coats. In fact, the sign of a truly accomplished surgeon-- was his black operating coat, so stiff with dried blood and pus that it could stand up by itself in the corner. I've still got mine upstairs... You don't mind blood, do you? HODGES & PIERCE Oh no, sir. (etc.) TREVES Good, that's one thing we've always plenty of. HALLWAY A hospital MESSENGER BOY, dressed in a blue uniform and a can is making his way down the hall. He stops and looks into an operating room much like the one we have just seen. Inside, the room is empty. The Boy closes the door and continues on to another operating room. The Doctors move with great urgency around the operating table. Blood is draining down into a white porcelain bowl. A Woman can be heard moaning. The Boy looks carefully, but finally closes the door and continues on his way. TREVES' OPERATING ROOM There is a hissing sound and steam from the cauterizing of the wound comes up obscuring part of Treves' face. The patient is being held down firmly by the other men. The door opens and Treves looks up. The Boy pops his head in. BOY Excuse me, Mr. Treves, sir. TREVES Yes? BOY I found it. TREVES (studying the Boy carefully) Did you see it? The Boy shakes his head slowly, "No." TREVES I'll be with you in a moment ... The Boy closes the door. FOX (quietly) I say Freddie, what are you about? TREVES Oh nothing... nothing of any great importance. AERIAL SHOT from third floor of the London Hospital looking down on the hospital square. Below, Treves is walking briskly across the square, through a gate and into the slums beyond. The aerial shot is actually FOX'S POV, and now we see Fox filled with curiosity, watching the figure from a window. Looking down from above and to the side of him, we follow Treves walking through a cobblestone street still wet from a recent rain, covered with horse manure and filth of all sorts. The air is smoky from meat burning fires. Rounding a corner, we see and approach the painted canvas sign of "The Elephant Man" covering the front of a small, dingy shop. The door of the shop is windowless and padlocked. Treves walks into the picture, studies the whole scene for a moment, goes to the shop door and finds that it is padlocked. Treves tries to look under an edge of the canvas. To his left he sees a SMALL BOY watching him intently. TREVES Do you know where the proprietor is? He holds a coin out. The Boy nods, snatches the coin and then disappears around the corner. Treves turns back to the canvas. A PUB A noisy pub, long and narrow. Benches run the length of the back wall, with small tables up against them. Men are clustered around the bar, talking in groups. We see the Boy standing at one of the tables talking to the Owner, greedily consuming his lunch as he listens. The Boy gestures outside. OUTSIDE THE PUB The Boy comes out the door, quickly followed by the Owner hurriedly putting on his coat, fumbling with a riding crop, the last of his sandwich stuffed in his mouth. AT THE CORNER The Boy and the Owner are carefully looking around the corner at Treves still in front of the portrait. OWNER He's not a peeler... BOY No, I don't think so. OWNER No... I don't think so. They walk into the street. IN FRONT OF THE SHOP The Owner and the Boy walk up to Treves. TREVES Are you the proprietor? OWNER And who might you be, sir? TREVES Just one of the curious. I'd like to see it. OWNER I don't think so. No sir, we're closed. Treves pulls a purse from his coat, extracts a coin and holds it out. TREVES I'd pay handsomely for a private showing. Are you the proprietor? OWNER Handsomely?... Who sent you? TREVES Pardon me? OWNER Never mind. I'm the owner. He snatches the money. INSIDE THE SHOP Total darkness. We hear the sound of the padlock being removed. The door opens and light streams in. The canvas covering the windows at the front of the shop obscures all other light. The Owner enters, followed by Treves and the Boy. From his expression, as well as Treves', we can tell there must be an awful stench in the room. No one says a word. The Boy closes the door, while the owner lights a small gas light. We can now see the shop. It it empty, grey with dust, cold and dank. Some old tins and a few shriveled potatoes occupy a shelf. The far end of the shop is blocked off by a curtain suspended from a cord by a few rings. The Owner approaches it. OWNER Here we are sir. (ticking it off by rote) Life is full of surprises. Ladies and gentlemen, consider the fate of this creature's poor mother. In the fourth month of her maternal condition, she was struck down by a wild elephant (leering) Struck down, if you take my meaning, on an uncharted African isle. The result is plain to see ladies and gentlemen... THE TERRIBLE ELEPHANT MAN! The rings rattle back, and the curtain is omen. We see a bent figure crouching on a stool, covered by a brown blanket. In front of it on a tripod is a large brick, heated from below by a bunsen burner. From the blanket protrudes a perfectly normal left arm and hand warming itself over the brick. It does not move when the curtain is drawn. Treves steps closer. The Owner, watching his every move, turns-and smiles at him. He bangs his riding crop on the wall and yells to the crouched figure, as if speaking to a dog. OWNER Stand up! The Boy, excited by his own fear, mimics the Owner. BOY Stand up! The figure comes forward and lets the blanket fall to the ground and we see the ELEPHANT MAN himself. Treves, his eyes wide with horror and wonder, his mouth frozen open, steps backward in an instinctive movement of self preservation. The Owner laughs. The Elephant Man is naked to the waist, his feet are bare and he wears a pair of worn trousers from a fat man's dress suit. He is a little below average height, and looks shorter from the bowing of his back. His head is enormous and misshapen, as big around as a man's waist. From his brow projects a huge boney mass, almost obscuring his right eye. His nose is a nose of flesh, recognizable only from its position. From the upper jaw projects another mass of bone protruding from the mouth like a stump, turning the upper lip inside out, making a slobbering aperture. It almost gives the impression of a rudimentary trunk or tusk. On top of his head is a handful of lank, black hair. At the back of it hangs a bag of spongy skin, resembling cauliflower. These loathsome growths cover his back and hang down to the middle of his thighs. The right arm is enormous and shapeless, the hand like a knot of tuberous roots. His left arm is not only normal, but delicately shaped, with fine skin and a hand that any woman might envy. From his chest hangs another bag of flesh, like the dewlap of a lizard. His legs are also grossly deformed, his feet great stumps. Behind him, as painted in the portrait, are two crudely constructed palm trees. The Owner harshly raps again. OWNER Turn around! The Elephant Man begins to turn. The boy filled with malicious glee at seeing the monster obey, screams. BOY Turn around! Turn around! The Elephant Man completes his turn and comes to rest. We see a CLOSE-UP of the Elephant Man looking at Treves. His face is utterly devoid, and incapable, of expression. We see the Elephant Man's eyes. He closes them. OUTSIDE THE SHOP The Owner is locking up. Treves, facing the street, drinks in the fresh air. He is trying to forget his shock, put everything into focus. He looks at the garish portrait again. Treves produces his purse. The Owner, smelling money, turns. Treves hands him several coins. TREVES So you'll bring him to me, tomorrow, 10:00 a.m.? Mr...? OWNER Bytes. Mr. Bytes. He'll be there. TREVES I'll send a cab. Here is my card. Treves hands the Owner a card. The Owner, greasy and dirty, shakes Treves' hand and squeezes his arm. OWNER Now we got a deal... We understand each other... guv. We understand each other completely. The Owner gives Treves the evil look of a conspirator. Treves walks off, disoriented. The Owner reads the card and smiles at Treves walking away down the street. DISSOLVE TO OUTSIDE THE SHOP A CABMAN is knocking on the door of the shop, staring at the portrait. The door opens, revealing a figure in a floor-length black cloak. On his head is an extremely large hat, cut to the lines of a yachting cap. A grey-flannel curtain hangs from the bottom of the cap all the way around, hiding his face. There is a horizontal slit in front for the eyes. On the figure's feet are large, bag-like slippers. The only part of the body seen at all is the left arm and hand, which protrudes from the cloak, holding a crude walking stick. The figure seems to loathe being in the open. We can just barely see in the darkness within the Owner standing to one side of the door, obviously enjoying the surprise on the Cabman's face. The Owner steps abruptly into his view. OWNER Don't just stand there. Help him up. The Cabman, does so, while a small, curious crowd forms. The Owner gives the Cabman the card. The Cabman jumps up onto the seat and off they go. THE RECEIVING ROOM - LONDON HOSPITAL The receiving room is a bare hall, painted stone color. It has rows of benches and a long desk where entries are made, and certificates and other papers are issued. It is a cold, harsh place. CABMAN Not at all, sir. My... pleasure. He exits. Treves turns and sees the Matron, staring. TREVES I'll be in my rooms, Mothershead. I'm not to be disturbed. She nods silently. Treves looks at the figure for a moment. TREVES Come with me, please. He starts to go out of the room. The hooded figure just stands there, motionless. We see the whole room, the people now silent. They all stare at the figure. No one makes a move. MATRON You heard the doctor... Go on. Treves turns to look at the hooded figure who stands there a moment, then slowly shuffles after him. Mrs. Mothershead and the people in the room watch him go. When he is out of sight, they all begin to talk excitedly. Mothershead stands fixed and watches too, ignoring the noisy room. TREVES' OFFICE The door opens and Treves leads the hooded figure to a chair in front of his desk and helps him to sit down, furtively trying to look into the eye-slit of the mask. In the small room the smell of the Elephant Man is overwhelming. Treves goes to the window and opens it. He nervously tries to compose himself, then turns to the hooded figure. TREVES My name is Frederick Treves... I am a surgeon here at the London Hospital, and I lecture in anatomy at the Medical College... I would very much like to examine you. Would that be all right? The figure in the chair is still. Treves is at a loss. His sense of discomfort is growing. He looks at the floor for a moment, then locks his eyes on the figure's left arm. TREVES Ah... yes. Um, first I would like to ask you a few questions, would that be all right? The figure does nothing. Treves sits down at his desk and picks up a pencil. TREVES Good. Now, let's see. Your Owner... um, the man who... who looks after you tells me that you are English and your name is John Merrick. Is that correct? The figure does nothing. TREVES Do you know where you were born? Where you come from? The figure does nothing. TREVES I tell you what, I'll ask you a question, and you shake your head like this for "no" and nod like this for "yes", alright? Do you understand? The figure following Treves' movements nods very slowly, "yes". Treves sighs with relief. TREVES Are you in any pain? The figure begins to babble incoherently. Treves, alarmed, interrupts. TREVES Um, no. Just nod your head like this for "yes" and shake it like this for "no". Now, are you in any pain? Again the figure, following Treves movements, shakes his head "no". TREVES Are your parents still alive? The figure does nothing. Treves is quite nervous. TREVES Do you understand? Are they dead? Your father... your mother? The figure begins to moan. There are two sharp raps at the door. The hooded figure flinches. The door opens and Fox pokes his head into the room. FOX Freddie, what you doing for... I say do open a window in here or... He notices the hooded figure. FOX Oh, I'm dreadfully sorry, I had no idea that... I say! Treves quickly rises and pushes Fox out into the hallway, following him and closing the door. IN THE HALLWAY Treves and Fox are standing outside the door to Treves' office. FOX Good Lord, Freddie! What have you got in there? TREVES You'll know presently. At the meeting of the society. But until then, I beg of you Fox, keep it to yourself. FOX Certainly, if you insist. You must have quite a find there. TREVES I don't know what I've got. FOX Nothing of any importance, eh? Treves turns to go back in, then stops. TREVES I'll tell you this much, Fox, it's beyond anything you or I have ever dealt with. Keep it to yourself, please. He goes back in, shutting the door. TREVES' OFFICE Treves turns the key in the door. He turns to the chair the figure had been occupying, but he is not there. The figure is hiding in the corner, crouched behind a black frock operating coat, so stiff with dried blood and pus it stands up by itself. Treves looks quickly around the room and finally sees him. He looks at the figure for a moment. TREVES Come sit down. The frightened figure just crouches there looking at him. Treves goes to him, pulls him up and over to the chair. TREVES Sit... down. The figure sits. Treves pauses uncertainly. TREVES I think I'll examine you now. I'll save the questions for later... Will you take off your hat now, please? The figure does nothing. Treves moves to him. TREVES Don't be frightened, I simply want to look at you. Do you understand? The figure leans back fearfully. From behind him we see just the top of his wide hooded head. Treves, standing before him, lifts the hood up and back. TREVES (more to himself) That's right, don't be frightened. Don't be frightened. SMALL ROOM - LONDON HOSPITAL We see two cameras set up, their OPERATORS next to them staring at something we cannot see. Treves stands beside them concentrating on the same sight. All three are speechless. Treves suddenly remembers himself. TREVES Are you ready? The Cameramen mumble, "Yes", and gratefully disappear beneath the black cloths of their cameras. TREVES Go ahead. They trigger the flash powder. In the blinding flashes we briefly see the silhouette of a tremendously bulky figure, starting at the light. DISSOLVE TO LECTURE HALL - PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON BRIGHT LIGHT As we pull back and down in a slow spiral we see the light is coming through high windows. We now see several rows of distinguished doctors talking to each other in anticipation. As we continue to spiral down we see Treves before them at a podium. Behind him are two ASSISTANTS standing beside a curtained stall. Treves raps a pointer stick on the podium to bring the meeting to order. We move behind the stall as the Assistants part the curtains and we see the silhouette of the Elephant Man. The doctors talk among themselves quietly. TREVES He is English, he is twenty-one years of age and his name is John Merrick. Gentlemen, in the course of my profession I have come upon lamentable deformities of the face due to injury or disease, as well as mutilations and contortions of the body, depending upon like causes; but, at no time have I met with such a dreaded or perverted version of a human being as this man. I wish to draw your attention to the insidious conditions affecting this patient. Note, if you will, the extreme enlargement of the skull... and upper limb, which is totally useless. The alarming curvature of the spine... Turn him, please... the looseness of the skin, and the varying fibrous tumors that cover 90% of the body. Treves' voice fades as we DISSOLVE TO the Doctors, who at first were rigid and flustered, and now bent forward, concentrating, obviously consumed with interest. Spiraling down again we see Treves finishing his lecture. TREVES ...And there is every indication that these afflictions have been in existence, and have progressed rapidly, since birth. The Patient also suffers from chronic bronchitis. As an interesting side-note, in spite of the afore-mentioned anomalies, the patient's genitals remain entirely intact and unaffected. Treves nods to the Assistants and they go to the Elephant Man. We see them in shadow untying the loose knot of the loin cloth. CLOSE-UP of the shadow of the head of the Elephant Man. It goes up for a breath. TREVES So then, gentlemen, owing to this series of deformities: The congenital exostoses of the skull; extensive papillomatous growths and large pendulous masses in connection with the skin; the great enlargement of the right upper limb, involving all the bones; the massive distortion of the head and the extensive areas covered by papillomatous growth, the patient has been called, "The Elephant Man." TREVES OFFICE The Elephant Man (hereafter the E.M.) wearing his cloak, is seated by the desk. Treves stands behind him, measuring his head with calipers. He removes the calipers and notes the span, then sets them on the desk. He places the hood over the E.M.'s head. Treves sits at his desk and makes some final notes. He becomes more absorbed in his notes than in the E.M. The E.M. makes an unintelligible sound. TREVES Hmm? The E.M. is silent. Treves, only now realizing that the E.M. has said something, looks up at him. TREVES Hmm? The E.M. is silent. Treves passes it off as a sigh and turns back to his work. TREVES It's been a long day for everyone. He closes his notebook and rises. He remembers something. TREVES Oh, yes, you'll need a cab... (to the E.M.) Stay. He exits. The E.M. is alone. He rises and shuffles slowly about, investigating the room. He goes to the desk and begins touching things, including the calipers. He notices the card Treves gave to the Owner tucked in the back pages. He pauses for a moment and then takes the card. His hand disappears into the cloak, and he moves back into the corner behind the stiff, black operating coat. Treves re-enters. TREVES Come with me. The E.M. takes up his stick and follows Treves out. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - THE LONDON HOSPITAL We see Treves and Fox alone at a window. They are looking down on the hospital square Treves had previously crossed and see the E.M., lit by gaslight and moving to a waiting cab. FOX You never mentioned his mental state. TREVES He's imbecile, no doubt from birth. He speaks, but... it's all gibberish. No, the man's a homeless idiot... (to himself) I pray God he's an idiot. The E.M., as he is getting into the cab, stops, turns and looks to the upper stories of the hospital. Treves and Fox are joined by three laughing colleagues who clap Treves on the back. THE FIRST Quite a coup, Freddie. You'll look splendid in the journal. THE SECOND Where ever did you find that creature? From the upper story we watch the cab drive away. THE THIRD (V.O.) It's a pity. FOX (V.O.) I pity the poor cab driver, myself. From outside the window we see Treves surrounded by his laughing friends. ENTRY HALL - TREVES' HOME We see a door. It opens and Treves walks in. He shuts the door, locks it, goes to a coat rack on the wall and hangs up his overcoat and hat. He notices his reflection in a mirror and examines himself wearily. Anne's smiling reflection appears beside his. ANNE Did it go well, darling? TREVES Yes, very well, I think. Are the girls in bed? ANNE Yes, and they send their kisses. Would you like your sherry now? TREVES No, I think a whiskey. We move past Anne's reflection to a CU of Treves. WHITECHAPEL - NIGHT We now see a bunsen burner roar of flame reflected in Bytes' eyes. Pulling back we see Bytes, quite drunk, sitting, cooking sausages over the hot brick. He takes another drink from his gin bottle. Up comes a wet belch and he takes another drink. The E.M. is crouched against the wall with a bowl of potatoes and a cup of water in front of him. With his good hand, he is picking tiny pieces of potato and feeding himself. The eating is fairly loud and animal-like. The drinking is even worse. The Boy is across the room asleep, wrapped in ragged little blankets. The E.M. takes a drink of water, making a loud smacking, slurping sound. Bytes looks up from his cooking with a smoldering look, just waiting for him to make the sound again. He does and Bytes takes his crop and violently jabs him. BYTES Belt up, you misbegotten garbage. (mumbling to himself) How can I eat with that? Bytes takes a mouthful of gin and mockingly slurps it mimicking the E.M.'s sound. BYTES (yelling) How can I eat with THAT? The E.M. picks and eats some more and then drinks again very tentatively. Because of his fear the water catches in his throat and he spits and coughs out onto the floor, gasping and wheezing for breath. Bytes is up and whacks him with his riding crop. BYTES Out of my sight! The E.M. struggles to get up, carrying his food. BYTES (not satisfied with his speed) NOW! He jabs the E.M. again, spilling his potatoes and water onto the floor. BYTES You clumsy sod! He pushes the E.M. again, then slips on the potatoes and falls heavily to the floor, crying out in shock. Then rage hits him. The E.M. backs up. BYTES YOU! The Boy wakes up in fear. Bytes moves quickly toward the E.M. raising his crop. The E.M. stumbles and falls backward onto the floor. His head goes back and he begins gasping for air. Bytes yanks him up and hits him in the face with his riding crop. The force of the blow knocks a glob of spit into the air from the E.M.'s mouth. The E.M. gasps and wheezes horribly as Bytes hits him again and again. From across the room. BOY Bytes! DON'T... Bytes goes right on with the beating. BYTES This won't do, my lad. This just won't do! RECEIVING ROOM - LONDON HOSPITAL We see the eyes of the Boy. As we pull back from them, they widen with recognition. WIDE SHOT of the Receiving Room. Treves has entered and the Boy walks quickly up to him. BOY Our man is sick. Come right away. TREVES What is it? BOY Like this. (he breathes heavily in and out to demonstrate the E.M.'s difficulty) TREVES I'll get my bag. INSIDE THE SHOP We hear the sound of wheezing coming from the E.M. who is sitting propped up against the stage, wrapped in a blanket. His head bent forward toward his knees. Bytes is going to the door as it opens and the Boy leads Treves in. Treves immediately goes to the E.M. BYTES What did you do to him? He's been like this all night! TREVES What do you mean? BYTES He was fine when he left here, and now look at him. TREVES I intend to. Treves pulls the blanket away from the E.M. exposing several bruises and bloody cuts. Treves freezes at the sight and slowly turns to look at Bytes. TREVES What happened? BYTES He fell. (guardedly) He falls. TREVES He must have taken quite a fall. He looks up at the riding crop in the hand of Bytes, then to the strangely nervous and silent Boy. BYTES He's a clumsy git. Never watches where he is going. TREVES Why is he sitting up like this? He needs rest. BYTES That's the way he sleeps. If he lays down, he'll die. (he points to his neck and leans his head back) Head's too heavy. Treves turns his attention to the E.M. He lifts his head higher and examines the E.M.'s eyes. The E.M., who had been oblivious up until this point, looks into Treves' eyes and recognizes him. With his good hand, he reaches up and touches Treves' arm almost as if appealing to him. Treves' eyes lock on his. TREVES This man belongs in hospital. BYTES (apprehensively) Can't you fix him up here? ...He's my livelihood. Listen. TREVES You listen, you're not going to have much of a livelihood if this man dies. He's got the rale, he's very weak, and I don't know how much damage has been done by his "fall". Now stop wasting time and fetch a cab. Bytes considers and then snaps his fingers at the Boy who runs out. He then breaks into an ingratiating grin and leans down over Treves who busily examines the wheezing E.M. BYTES I really appreciate this, guv. You know, there's lot of things that I can do for you. I move in the proper circles, for this type of thing... (motioning toward the E.M.) In fact, anything at all, if you take my meaning. Treves, uncomfortable, rises. Bytes grips his hand and with the other gathers the material of his sleeve in a slow deliberate squeeze. BYTES I like doing business with you. You and I understand each other, completely. I know I can trust you. Can't I? TREVES (gazing at him levelly) Everything will be seen to. MORNING - AERIAL SHOT LOOKING DOWN ON HOSPITAL SQUARE Through a window we see Treves and the E.M. walking through a back gate and across the square. MR. CARR GOMM, Hospital Chairman, turns and moves away from the window. HALLWAY NURSE NORA IRELAND is pushing a cart filled of empty breakfast trays down the hall. She glances into the stairwell and sees Treves and the E.M. coming through the door. She continues on, startled by the sight of the mysterious hooded figure. At the end of the hall, she goes into the kitchen. STAIRWAY Treves and the E.M. are laboriously climbing a flight of stairs. The E.M. is puffing and wheezing with the effort. Treves supports him under his right arm. KITCHEN Nora enters with the cart and waits for it to be restocked. She leans out the door for another look, but the hall is empty. A Nurse ladles mush into bowls. There is a lot of activity in the kitchen. Nora takes the cart stacked with full trays and pushes it out the door and down the hallway. HALLWAY Treves and the E.M. cross the hallway and head up a narrow stairway towards the attic. There is a sign reading "Isolation". Carr Gomm is leaning out the door to his office, unseen by Treves. He closes the door. GENERAL WARD - LONDON HOSPITAL - MORNING It is a long, high ceilinged room with large windows along one wall. Beds run the length of both sides of the room. It is a woman's ward and nurses are serving the patients breakfast. Nora enters and nurses take trays from her cart. Nora's mind is on what she has just seen. We see Mothershead come in the door behind her. MOTHERSHEAD (startling Nora) Nora! Mind your duties... if you don't concentrate dear, you'll only make more work for the rest of us. Now, get about your business. (pauses, seeing Nora's collar) ...and do get your collar straight, dear. NORA (fumbling with her collar) I'm so sorry, Mrs. Mothershead. MOTHERSHEAD Do get on with it, Nora. Mothershead walks on, as Nora now very flustered, picks up a tray. ISOLATION WARD CU of a bottle of dark fluid and a bottle of light fluid. Treves mixes the two in a glass. We are in a small oddly shaped room off the attic ward. There is one tiny barred window located high up on the far wall. There is also a bed, two hard chairs and a table. The E.M. is sitting on the bed in shadow and his disguise is now hanging from a peg on the wall beside him. He is still wheezing and appears to be very weak. Treves serves the mixture to the E.M., who sputters and gags on it, but manages to get it down. Treves goes to the table and puts the two bottles in his bag. He goes to the door and turns to the E.M. TREVES I don't know if you will understand this, but you will never go back to that man again. You're safe now. No one will ever harm you. Do you understand? The two men just look at each other. KITCHEN - LONDON HOSPITAL Treves enters the kitchen and nicks up a bowl. A NURSE ladles some porridge for him. NURSE Breakfasting with the patients this morning, Mr. Treves? TREVES It's for a patient. Treves exits and the nurses admiringly watch him go. FIRST FLOOR LANDING AND HALLWAY Treves climbs the stairs onto the landing. Down the hall, Mr. Carr Gomm is walking toward his office. Treves tries not to be seen, but to no avail. CARR Mr. Treves, come over here a moment, won't you? Treves hesitates, trying to hide the bowl, but gives up and goes down the hall to meet Carr Gomm. CARR Good morning, Treves. TREVES Good morning, sir. CARR (seeing the bowl) You've acquired a taste for this? TREVES It's quite nutritious, sir. CARR Don't be mad. This muck can kill you. Carr Gomm calls a Nurse from a nearby ward over. It is Nora. He takes the bowl from Treves and hands it to her. CARR Take this up, to to the man in the isolation ward when you have a moment, won't you? NORA (apprehensively) Yes, sir. TREVES Don't be frightened. He won't hurt you. CARR Indeed! He gestures toward his office door. As he and Treves enter the office, Nora looks apprehensively up the isolation ward stairs. MR. CARR GOMM'S OFFICE It is a small, elegantly furnished room with a large window. The two men sit, Carr Gomm behind his desk and Treves in a leather chair. CARR A hospital is no place for secrecy, Mr. Treves. Doctors spiriting hooded figures about are liable to cause comment. Why wasn't this patient properly admitted, and why is he in isolation? Is he contagious? TREVES No sir, he's got bronchitis and he's been badly beaten. CARR Why isn't he in the General Ward, then? TREVES Well sir, he's quite seriously deformed, and I fear the other patients would find him... rather shocking. CARR Deformed? Is that it. Then am I to assume that he is ultimately incurable? TREVES Yes sir. CARR What are your plans then, Treves... You are aware that the London does not accept incurables. The rules are quite clear on that point. TREVES Yes, I'm well aware of that. But this case is quite exceptional. CARR Oh, is he a friend of yours? TREVES No, more of an acquaintance. ISOLATION WARD (A) AND STAIRWAY (B) CARR GOMM'S OFFICE (C) (A) The E.M. is asleep in his sleeping posture on the bed. (B) Nora, with the bowl, is climbing the stairs to the attic ward. She pauses in sight of the door and looks apprehensively at it. She begins to hum to give herself courage, and continues up the stairs. (A) The E.M. awakens, hears the footsteps, and now the humming, which grows in volume. He becomes fearful and reaches for his cloak. The humming stops. He freezes and listens. (C) Treves and Carr Gomm seated as before. CARR I certainly sympathize with your problem, Treves... Why don't you try the British Home, or the Royal Hospital for perhaps they would have a place for him. TREVES Yes sir, I'll look into that. (he rises) Would you like to meet him sir? (B) Nora stands outside the door, listening. She is barely breathing. (A) The E.M., still listening, slowly lets his hand drop away from the cloak. (B) Nora opens the door. (A) The E.M. grabs for the cloak as the door swings open flooding him with light. We see him for the first time in his entirety. CU of Nora screaming and dropping the tray. CU of the caught E.M. (C) The shrill scream is heard from upstairs. TREVES Excuse me, sir. Treves rushes out. Carr Gomm just sits for a moment, thinking. CARR The Elephant Man? ISOLATION WARD LANDING Treves, rushing up the stairs, reaches the landing. Nora is at the railing, crying. The door is open, the breakfast tray littering the floor. The E.M. is on the bed trying to squeeze into the corner. Treves quickly closes the door and tries to comfort Nora. TREVES I'm sorry, my dear, I should have warned you. I'm so terribly sorry, please forgive me. There, you're alright now. Go downstairs and please ask Mrs. Mothershead to come up. Tell her to knock on the door and wait for me. Alright? NORA Yes Sir. I'm sorry, Sir. Drying her eyes, she goes downstairs. ISOLATION WARD Closing the door, Treves steps over the spilt breakfast and goes to the E.M. TREVES I'm very sorry about that. Are you resting well? The E.M. makes a garbled sound. Treves, alone with the E.M., once more finds himself becoming uncomfortable. TREVES Ah good. Well then... oh yes, we'll have to get you some more food. I'm sure you must be simply famished. Hmm? The E.M. is silent. TREVES Of course you are. Now then, I think you'll be quite comfortable up here for awhile. I'll see to it you have everything you need, and, uh... yes. Treves puts out a comforting hand to the E.M. who flinches back. The two men just look at each other. GENERAL WARD Several Nurses are taking bath things off a cart. At the other end of the room, Mothershead is talking to a patient. Nora enters and walks over to Mothershead. They talk, and Mothershead exits. Nora joins the other nurses. OTHER NURSES Did you see him? NORA Yes. OTHER NURSES What's wrong with him? We see Nora's face. She is silent. ISOLATION WARD LANDING Mothershead knocks on the door. Treves opens it, comes out onto the landing and closes the door. TREVES Ah, Mothershead. How are you feeling today? MOTHERSHEAD (suspiciously) Fine. TREVES Good. Excellent. Now then, Mrs. Mothershead, I want you to come into this room with me. Inside there is a man with a rather... unfortunate appearance. MOTHERSHEAD I've heard. TREVES Yes... Well, I want you to clear up a little mess, a breakfast tray was spilt. And bring up another breakfast. When you've done that, you and I shall give the man a bath. But, Mothershead, I'm counting on your many years of experience to get you through this, Above all, do not scream, do not cry out, or in any way show this man that you are frightened of him... MOTHERSHEAD Sir, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not the sort to cry out. Shall we go in? TREVES Yes... Yes, let's go in. Treves opens the door. ISOLATION WARD Mothershead goes right to the mess. TREVES (to the E.M., hereafter Merrick) I would like you to meet Mrs. Mothershead - Mrs. Mothershead, Mr. John Merrick. Merrick looks up to Mothershead, then averts his eyes. He looks back at her and sees she has no difficulty being in his presence. MOTHERSHEAD How do you do? ISOLATION WARD LANDING At the door of Merrick's attic room stand two buckets of very dirty water. We hear footsteps coming up stairs and see a young porter carrying two buckets of clean, steaming water. He puts them down, knocks on the door, and takes the dirty water downstairs. The door opens, Mrs. Mothershead picks up the steaming buckets and takes them inside, shutting the door. ISOLATION WARD Merrick's seated in a tin bathtub trying to hide his nakedness. Mrs. Mothershead pours the water in. She scrubs his back with obvious distaste, but does her job. Months of filth and accumulated excrescence are turning the bath water a murky black. As Mothershead scrubs, Merrick slowly leans forward in the bath, closing his eyes, apparently oblivious to his surroundings. Treves sits beside him. TREVES The disease is shocking. Merrick's eyes flicker. TREVES I wonder how far it can go before it... Merrick flinches and pulls away. MOTHERSHEAD Sit still. Don't wiggle about like a pup. I won't stand for any foolishness. Treves leans forward and looks at Merrick. Merrick grows still, his eyes closed, apparently in a reverie. TREVES (V.O.) It's pretty certain that if he had the disease as a child, he was abandoned. But in that case, he'd have to have had care. The very fact that he's alive bears that out... (cut to Treves) But, where? Merrick is listening. MOTHERSHEAD The workhouse. TREVES Yes! The workhouse! At this word, Merrick begins to babble wildly. Obviously alarmed, he thrashes about in the tub, spilling water onto the floor. Treves, alarmed now himself, attempts to calm Merrick, who, still babbling, tries to rise from the tub. Mothershead clamps a hand on Merrick's left arm. At her touch, he is instantly subdued, at least physically. He sinks back into the tub and begins to weep. Treves and Mothershead are astounded by the tears rolling down Merrick's cheeks. They stand motionless looking down at the agonized, naked elephant man. TREVES (softly) The workhouse. FOLLOWING BUCKETS OF DIRTY WATER DOWN A HALLWAY BACK ENTRANCE - ALLEY The young PORTER is exiting with great difficulty through a large iron door carrying the two buckets. He sets one of the buckets down, takes the other and splashes it out into the alley. Some thick sludge dribbles from the empty bucket. Unseen by him, the NIGHT PORTER is standing just to the side and he now comes forward. The young Porter seems nervous in his presence. The Night Porter looks at his spattered shoes, then up to the Young Porter. NIGHT PORTER What's all this, then? YOUNG PORTER Mr. Treves is scrubbing his Elephant Man. NIGHT PORTER Elephant Man? YOUNG PORTER Yeah... I hear it's a real horror. Even made Mothershead scream. NIGHT PORTER Friend of the night, eh? The Elephant Man. I think I'll have me a look at that. Suddenly the Night Porter kicks the other bucket of filthy water violently, sending it splashing all over the young Porter. NIGHT PORTER Now, you need the scrubbing, ducks! He lets his cigarette drop to the ground, then stamps and grinds it with his brass-heeled boot, all the while smiling. Then he turns on his heel and leaves. CUT TO: Dark clouds rolling through an evening sky. ATTIC WARD Through the high barred window, we see the dark sky. The E.M. is on his bed in his sleeping posture. A dim gaslight burns in the room. CLOSE-UP of his head on the points of his knees. His breathing is more regular now. A GENERAL WARD Lights are being turned off. ANOTHER WARD Lights go off. BACK ENTRANCE Large iron door is closed. HALLWAY Half the lights go off. HALLWAY Nurses leave for their quarters - half the lights go off. SECOND FLOOR HALLWAY We hear the slow metallic footfalls of the Night Porter's boots. He appears and walks into a darkened women's ward. The women are all asleep. Some coughing fitfully, others moaning quietly. The Night Porter walks down the aisle between the beds. We see several of the sleeping women as he passes them. Finally, he comes to a young beautiful woman, her eyes wide open, watching him with intense fear. On either side of her are two very ancient women, snoring deeply. The young woman has her arms tied, suspended in traction above her. The Night Porter moves to her, his shadow engulfing her. She starts to move, rattling the apparatus above her. The Porter puts a finger to his lips. NIGHT PORTER Hush, love, I told you before one word from me, they'll toss you back on the street, and then those pretty little arms of yours will never grow straight. Now close your eyes. She turns her head away, closing her eyes. He moves in. CLOSE-UP of a gas light in a hallway. The leaping flame makes a low roar. CUT TO ANOTHER HALLWAY Somewhere a door is opened and the squeak sounds vaguely like the trumpeting of an elephant. We hear again the metallic footfalls of the Night Porter's boots, and he appears. He goes to the narrow stairway marked, "Isolation". He stops and casually looks about. He takes a swig of his gin, then starts up the stairs. ATTIC WARD Merrick as before the light is very dim. We hear the echoing footfalls of the Night Porter coming up the stairs. Merrick's head immediately comes up from his knees. As it does, a small object falls from where his head rested. He picks it up and puts it in a pocket of his cloak. it is the portrait of the beautiful woman, which he saw in his dream. Suddenly the door swings open and the Night Porter, bottle in hand, is standing there. He walks into the room and sees Merrick's shape on the bed. NIGHT PORTER Here he is, the old fiend of the night, the terror of the London. Let's have a look at you. Let's see what makes 'em scream... He turns up the light and sees Merrick clearly. The Night Porter jumps back, awe struck. NIGHT PORTER Cor Blimey! Merrick is trembling. The Night Porter, hardly able to believe his eyes, moves slowly toward Merrick. He is afraid but as he reaches the bed, Merrick flinches back. The Night Porter grins, his fear gone now. He is in control. NIGHT PORTER So this is the Elephant Man. I ain't never seen nothing like you before. What the bleedin' hell happened to you? Merrick cowers as far away from the Night Porter as possible. NIGHT PORTER Oh... dumb, eh? He takes a big swallow of the gin and smiles. NIGHT PORTER Good. I likes people what can keep quiet. He offers Merrick his bottle with a swift, almost jabbing motion. Merrick pulls away from him. NIGHT PORTER Like a drink? Go on... Go on have some. No? You should try being more sociable, mate. He tentatively presses the bottom of the bottle up against the hanging growth on Merrick's chest. Encouraged, he touches him with his fingers. Merrick makes a small whimpering sound. NIGHT PORTER (grinning) You and I are going to be good friends, we are. And, I've got lots of friends who I know would like to meet you. And they will, mate... they will. He moves to the door and turns. CLOSE-UP of Night Porter's face. NIGHT PORTER Welcome to the London. He moves out the door and it closes. In the bed, Merrick looks at the door with terror as the heavy footfalls of the Night Porter recede down the stairs. WHITECHAPEL ROAD We see a horse's head in CU, snorting steam into the chill morning air. The horse is harnessed to a milk wagon parked in front of the London. Through the open back of the wagon we see the MILKMAN, and past him Treves, walking towards us. MILKMAN Here early again, eh Mr. Treves? If you don't mind my saying so, sir, with your early habits, you'd 'a made a fine milkman. TREVES Good morning, Charley. I'll keep that in mind! Treves walks up the path into the hospital. HALLWAY (MORNING) Treves, carrying a bowl, crosses the upper hall and starts to the narrow stairway to the Isolation Ward. Over his shoulder we see him knock twice on the door. As the door swings open, the camera pushes past him and we see the room. The lamp is still burning, but Merrick is nowhere to be seen. Treves enters, looking about for him. TREVES Mr. Merrick? There's movement in the corner beside the bed. Merrick rises slightly from the shadow. The light from the lamp hits his frightened eyes. TREVES ....Good morning... John. I've brought your breakfast. Treves is unsettled by the sight of Merrick cowering down on the floor. Merrick begins to babble. Treves enters the room, placing the bowl on the table and going to Merrick. TREVES What are you doing down there? Come up John, come up on the bed. The cold floor is bad for you. I won't hurt you, come on now... He helps Merrick up onto the bed and goes back to the table for the bowl. TREVES You must eat. We must keep your strength... He has turned back to the bed, but Merrick has slipped to the floor again, still trying to hide himself in the corner. TREVES ...What on earth is the matter with you? He puts the bowl down again and goes back to Merrick, who seems very upset at leaving his hiding place. TREVES Now please, John, you must do as I say. Come up from there. He starts to help Merrick up, but Merrick just presses himself farther back in the corner, still babbling. There are two raps at the door. Treves goes to it and lets Mothershead in. MOTHERSHEAD Good morning, Mr. Treves. It'll be his bath-time soon. Has he eaten? TREVES Not quite yet, Mrs. Mothershead. There seems to be some difficulty this morning. They both look at the bed. Merrick has almost disappeared under it. MOTHERSHEAD Won't come out, eh? TREVES No, he's very upset about something. MOTHERSHEAD Just being obstinate, sir. I'll handle it. She goes to Merrick and takes hold of his left wrist. MOTHERSHEAD Alright, my son, none of this fuss. Come up from there, this instant. She starts to force him up from the floor. Merrick is moaning now, still trying to get away. TREVES No! Don't pull at him like that. We don't want to frighten him more than he already is. By this time Mothershead has almost got him back on the bed. MOTHERSHEAD Honestly, sir, you must be very firm with this sort. Otherwise they'd lay about on the floor gibbering all day long. All he understands is a good smack. They help Merrick settle back on the pillow. Merrick is still making desperate, unintelligible sounds. TREVES He's had his share of "smacks", Mothershead. I expect that's what drives him under the bed. We must use patience and understanding with this man. MOTHERSHEAD Perhaps you've got the time for that, Mr. Treves, I certainly don't. I've got an entire hospital to look after, and you have your real patients. Don't waste your time with him sir, it's like talking to a wall. I don't mean to be harsh, but truthfully what can you do for him? I'll be back later for his bath. And Mr. Carr Gomm would like to see you when you have a moment. Good day sir. She exits. Treves shuts the door behind her and turns back to the bed. TREVES (to himself) What good am I to you...? He goes to the bed and sits down in front of Merrick, angered by his own seeming uselessness in the situation. TREVES ...What is my purpose? ...It's so important that I understand you. I want to help you, I want to be your doctor... (directly to Merrick) but I can't help you unless you help me, unless I know what you are feeling. I believe there's something back there, there's something you want to say, but I've got to understand you. Do you understand me? Merrick hesitates, then starts babbling again. TREVES No! You are going to talk to me! We are going to show them! We're going to show them that you're not a wall. We are going to talk! Do you understand? Nod your head if you understand me! Slowly Merrick nods yes. TREVES You do understand me! You understand. Now you're going to say it. I've got to hear how you say things. Now, very slowly, say "yes." Treves carefully mouths the word. TREVES "Yes." Merrick is still hesitant, from years of fear, but his eyes betray a growing excitement. Slowly, he tries to talk, his voice a tremulous whisper. MERRICK Yyyy... Yyye... yyyess. TREVES (grabbing Merrick's arm) Yes John! Throughout their dialogue, Merrick is still very garbled, but he no longer babbles. He makes a great effort to speak slowly, to form words the way Treves forms them, to be understood. MERRICK ...Yyes TREVES Yyyess. MERRICK Yyess. TREVES That's much better. I could understand that "yes". MERRICK (pleased) Yes! TREVES Very good! Oh yes! Now listen. I'm going to say some things to you and I want you to repeat them... um... I want you to say them back to me. Do you understand? I'm going to say some things to you and I want you to say them back to me. Do you understand? MERRICK Yes. TREVES Excellent! Now, say... "Hello" MERRICK Hello... TREVES My name is... MERRICK My... name is... TREVES John Merrick. MERRICK John... Merrick TREVES Say "Merrick". MERRICK Merrick... TREVES Say "Mmmerrick." MERRICK Mmmerrick. TREVES Say "Mmmerrick." MERRICK Mmmerrick. TREVES Well, that's alright. I understand you. Now, say the whole thing again, Hello ... MERRICK (haltingly) Hello... my name is... John Merrick. DISSOLVE TO HALLWAY Mrs. Mothershead comes out of the kitchen with a supper tray and walks down the hall, passing the open ward door. We see nurses serving patients their supper. Nora comes out of the ward with a tray which she holds tightly against her. A bowl of soup is spilling on her apron. She catches up with Mothershead. They speak as they walk. NORA Oh, Mrs. Mothershead, please forgive my behavior yesterday. I'm sorry if you're having to do extra work on my account. It was just seeing it... MOTHERSHEAD Patients here are not "its". They are either "he's" or "she's", but that's alright, Ireland. This one's going to be more work for all of us. Good God girl! Mind your broth. Mothershead continues on. Nora guiltily watches her go. ISOLATION WARD Treves and Merrick are absorbed in their work. A knock comes at the door. TREVES Come in. Mothershead enters. TREVES Why, my dear Mrs. Mothershead, how good of you to join us. Mr. Merrick, will you please introduce yourself? MERRICK (hesitantly) Hello, my name is John Merrick. MOTHERSHEAD Good Lord, Mr. Treves! TREVES (exuberantly) We've made tremendous strides today, Mothershead. He listens and repeats with great attention, and this certainly isn't easy for him. MOTHERSHEAD Parrots can do as much, Mr. Treves. It's all very nice, but I don't see the point. You know they won't let him stay here. TREVES (lowering his voice) I'm sure that if Mr. Merrick made a good impression on the hospital committee they'd see that he's the exception to their rule. Now I'm not expecting miracles. I'm not saying he'll be able to read or write, but I do think that I can get him to speak for himself. I'm going to arrange things with Carr Gomm right now. (to Merrick) That was very good, John, very good. That's all for today. We shall do some more tomorrow. Mothershead? Mrs. Mothershead sets the tray down beside Merrick. TREVES I'll see you soon. He and Mothershead exit. Merrick watches the door close. He sighs quietly, looks about, and sees the Bible on the bedside table. He picks it up and, gently runs his fingers over the cover. RECEIVING ROOM - THE LONDON There is total pandemonium in the receiving room. The room is filled with screaming men, women and children. Two drunken women have been fighting with broken bottles and are now covered with blood and cuts. The women are still hysterical, one minute they're sobbing, then in an instant screaming and intent upon fighting again. The crowd keeps them apart. Two Bobbies stand in the background making no move to intercede. To the side we see Bytes watching everything. It is still too violent a scene for the Nurses to come to the women's aide and they stand up in the front of the room waiting. Bytes makes his way along the side of the crowd waiting for a chance to get behind the Nurses and on into the hospital. Now the women begin sobbing again and things quiet some. The Nurses come forward into the crowd. Bytes moves over closer to the hallways. When the Nurses have all gone into the crowd he seizes the chance and disappears into the hospital. CUT TO: Bytes appears and walks down hospital hallway looking about. CARR GOMM'S OFFICE The door opens and Treves enters. CARR (V.O.) Ah, Treves... Treves sits in the armchair. Carr Gomm is sitting at his desk. CARR Have you contacted the British Home and the Royal Hospital? TREVES Ah, no sir. I had planned to see them in the morning. CARR Good! How is the patient? TREVES He's doing very well. In fact that's why I came to see you. I think that if I were to present Mr. Merrick to the hospital committee, then they would have a chance to see for themselves not only the extraordinary nature of the disease, but of the man as well. If the committee had a chance to speak with him, hear him say a few words for himself, I'm sure they would see him as a patient, rather than as a violation of the rules. CARR A few words? I thought he was imbecile? TREVES Well sir, perhaps I should explain... CARR I really don't think that's necessary Treves. I'm quite sure the committee will be able to make an equitable decision on the merits of the case, such as they are. TREVES I don't agree. No one can make a reasonable decision about this man's future without at least meeting him. No doctor would presume to diagnose a patient he had never met. CARR No, Treves, it's out of the question. Now if it was up to me, I'd say "Certainly, let's meet the fellow, by all means," I'm sorry, I simply can't speak for the other members of the committee. TREVES Then will you meet him, as a representative of the committee. CARR Mr. Treves, it's out of the question. I want to hear as soon as possible what the other hospitals can do. I'm sorry. HALLWAY - STAIRCASE - THE LONDON We see Treves leave Carr Gomm's office and walk toward us to the stairwell. As Treves begins down the stairs, he sees Bytes on the next landing coming up. Bytes spots him and goes toward him. BYTES I want my man back. TREVES Just a moment, how did you get in here? BYTES Never mind that, I want my man! TREVES He's still very sick. Please come downstairs with me. I'll explain the situation. BYTES (shouting) DON'T... Don't muck me about. You've had plenty of time to fix him up, and he's leaving with me, NOW. Do you understand me? Now, Mr. Treves. We had a bargain! TREVES You misunderstood. This man suffered a severe fall, if you take my meaning. He's my patient now and I must do what... BYTES Pull the other one, why don't you! We made a deal! TREVES I know what you've done to him and he's never going back to that. BYTES He's a freak! That's how they live. We're partners, him and I, business partners. You're willfully deprivin' me of my livlihood! TREVES All you do is profit from another man's misery! BYTES You think you're better 'n me? YOU wanted the freak to show all your doctor chums and make a name for yourself, you guv. So I gave him to you. On trust, in the name of science! And now I want him back. TREVES You don't own this man! BYTES I want him back! TREVES So you can beat him? So you can starve him? A dog in the street would fare better with you! BYTES I've got my rights, damn you, and I'm going to the authorities! CARR (V.O.) Well, go to the authorities... Now we see Carr Gomm standing above them, at the top of the stairs. CARR By all means do so. In fact, I'll fetch them myself. I'm quite sure they'd be very interested in your story, as well as ours. Livid, Bytes looks from Carr Gomm to Treves, at a loss for words. TREVES Now I think we really do understand one another. BYTES (venomously) Right... Right. He backs slowly down to the landing eyeing Treves and Carr Gomm. At the landing he casually turns and disappears down more stairs. Treves turns and gazes at Carr Gomm. CARR Singularly unpleasant chap... uh... I don't suppose there would be any harm in my meeting your... patient, Mr. Treves. TREVES (gratefully) Thank you very much Sir. Shall we say in a few days then? CARR Shall we say two o'clock tomorrow afternoon? TREVES (slightly taken aback) Wh... whatever is most convenient for you, sir. CARR Two o'clock then... you know Treves... It seems this acquaintance of yours has become rather more than just an acquaintance. TREVES ...Yes, Sir. They part company. We follow Treves down the stairs. TREVES (muttering) Two o'clock? Then we follow Carr Gomm to his office door. He stops short. CARR (mumbling out loud) Elephant Man? I don't want to meet an Elephant Man. HALLWAYS - THE LONDON (NIGHT) Again, the hospital is closing down for the night. Lights go off in each hallway. The staff is vacating the hospital. As the last light goes off, we hear the great iron door slam shut. TREVES' HOUSE - BEDROOM (NIGHT) Anne is at her dressing table, brushing out her hair. She is in a very flattering dressing gown, ready to turn in. We see her reflected in the mirror as well as Treves who is in his robe in the background seated at his side of their bed, deep in thought. Anne looks at Treves and smiles affectionately. ANNE (coyly) Freddie? Getting no response she renews her efforts. ANNE Freddie?... Freddie, don't look so discouraged. TREVES I shouldn't be. We made great progress today. I taught him to repeat a few basic phrases. He did rather well, too, but I had to lead him every step of the way. Though frankly, at times I was unsure of who was leading whom. ANNE What do you mean? TREVES Well, I wasn't sure whether he was parroting me because that's all he was capable of, or whether he sensed that that's all I wanted to hear, and he was trying to please me. ANNE But I thought you said that he was rather... simple? TREVES He is. I mean, I've always thought he was. I think he must be. Is he simple? Or is that just something I've wished upon him to make things simpler for myself? Anne puts down the brush and rises. ANNE Frederick, why are you so interested in this particular case? TREVES I don't know. I can't explain it. If this is an intelligent man, trapped in the body of a monster, then I'm under a moral obligation to help free that mind, free that spirit as best I can, to help him live as full and content a life as possible. But! If he's an imbecile, who's body I can't treat and who's mind I can't touch, well, then my obligation is discharged. They can put him where they will; he won't be bothered, I won't be bothered, and everyone's conscience can remain free and untroubled. And that is my dilemma... what is in his mind? Anne, sympathizing with his concerns goes to him and puts her arms around him. ANNE Perhaps you're just polishing a stone, endowing this Elephant Man with qualities he doesn't possess? TREVES (impatiently) And what qualities are those? Intelligence or stupidity? ANNE (slightly hurt) I'm sure I don't know, Freddie. She releases Treves and lies down. Treves realizes that perhaps he has been unkind. TREVES I'm sorry... I don't know either. I just don't know. ANNE Well, these things take time. TREVES I've only got until two o'clock tomorrow afternoon, when Carr Gomm meets him. Somehow, between now and then I've got to make John Merrick at least seem like an intelligent man... Why am I fooling myself? Nothing short of John delivering the Sermon on the Mount is going to sway Carr Gomm... Anne sits back up and gently places her hand over Treves' mouth. As she does so she leans forward and turns out the light. ISOLATION WARD Merrick is propped up in bed. Suddenly the door bursts open. The Night Porter, an arm around a drunken giggling tart, stands in the doorway. As soon as the Charwoman sees Merrick, she screams as does Merrick, and she wriggles free, making for the stairs. The Night Porter watches her go and then turns to Merrick laughing noisily. He then pulls the door shut with a bang. Merrick, very frightened, crawls down into his hiding place. BEDROOM (MORNING) We see Anne alone in bed, asleep. Treves is finished dressing and leaves the room. The sound of the door closing awakens Anne. She looks around for Treves. A clock reads 5:30. ISOLATION WARD Merrick's disguise hangs on the wall. MERRICK (V.O.) The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: He Guideth me in the paths of righteousness... TREVES Righteousness... MERRICK (V.O.) Righteousness for his namesake. WE NOW SEE TREVES AND MERRICK TREVES Very good, very good. Now, when your visitor comes today I want you to say it exactly the way you said it just now. I will introduce him to you and you will say the words you've learned. If you have any trouble with any of the words, I'll help you. I'm sure you'll be just fine. If you do as well for him as you've done for me these last two days, then I'm sure our visitor will be very pleased. Now, let's go through the whole thing again, shall we? I will say "May I introduce you to Mr. Carr Gomm." And you will say... MERRICK Hello, my name is John Merrick. I am very pleased to meet you! HALLWAY Treves and Carr Gomm are speaking together as they walk along. TREVES It's only a physical problem. He has trouble with certain sounds because of the constrictive deformity of the mouth. But he can talk, and has a great eagerness to make contact with people who will let him. So if you have any difficulty understanding what he is saying, just tell me and I'll make it clear. CARR Speaking is one thing, Treves, but can the man comprehend? Treves cannot easily answer this question. TREVES ...As I said, it's only a physical problem... but I do feel that Mr. Merrick is very flattered that you're taking the time and trouble to meet him, and he's most anxious to make a good impression, so he might seem rather nervous. CARR He needn't. I have no desire to cause him any discomfort. Did you make those inquiries we spoke about? TREVES Yes, I spoke to both the British Home and Royal Hospital for Incurables. I'm afraid that they weren't very encouraging, but they said they'd bring it up at their next committee meeting, so we should have their answers shortly. CARR Fine, fine. You know, your dedication to this patient is an inspiring thing, Treves. But you must remember that this is a hospital, and there are many patients here. Patients who can be made well, and you owe them your first consideration. Just don't become so obsessed, old man, that you begin to neglect them. Carr Gomm starts up the stairs. Treves remains behind, watching him for a moment, then follows. ISOLATION WARD Merrick is standing beside his disguise on its hook. He nervously smooths the cloak down, repositions the Bible on the bedside table and smooths the cloak again. He looks at the door, expecting it to open. It doesn't. His hands smooths the cloak over and over again. Voices can be heard outside the door. Merrick freezes. There are two raps at the door. Merrick flinches, clutching the cloak. The raps are repeated. He pulls himself together and walks to the middle of the room. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. MERRICK Come in. The door opens and Treves and Carr Gomm enter. Carr Gomm's eyes are rivited on Merrick, but he contains his shock. Merrick is breathing unevenly, his eyes still closed. Treves goes to him and touches his shoulder. Merrick opens his eyes and looks up at Treves. Treves turns to Carr Gomm, as does Merrick. Carr Gomm lowers his eyes. TREVES John, may I introduce you to Sir Carr Gomm. MERRICK Hello... my name is John Merrick. I am very pleased to meet you. Carr Gomm, still shaken, instinctively offers his hand. CARR I'm very... pleased to meet you. Before Carr Gomm can withdraw his hand, Merrick grasps it with his left hand. There is an uncomfortable silence. Merrick releases it. Carr Gomn, nervously clears his throat. CARR How are you feeling today? MERRICK I feel much better. Thank you for asking. And you? CARR I'm feeling very fit, thank you. How is your bronchitis? MERRICK I feel much better. Thank you. CARR Are you comfortable here? MERRICK Everyone has been very kind. I am extremely grateful. TREVES Mr. Merrick likes the food here. Don't you John? MERRICK Oh yes! It is much better than what I am used to. CARR Oh yes? TREVES (after a pause) And what was that, John? MERRICK Potatoes... There is another agonizing silence. TREVES (to Carr Gomm) ...Yes potatoes... but... MERRICK But the variety of food here is very pleasing... I commend you. CARR (after a pause) I understand that you were beaten? Merrick is at a loss. This is not part of the expected scenario. DIERRICK Oh no, everyone has been very kind. CARR No, I meant in your former situation. Merrick doesn't seem to understand. MERRICK I'm feeling much better now... Carr Gomm stares levelly at Treves for a moment, then asks Merrick: CARR Tell me, how do you like Mr. Treves? As a teacher? Treves stiffens. MERRICK ...I... everyone has been very kind to me. CARR Of course. How long did you and Mr. Treves prepare for this interview? Merrick looks at Treves for guidance, but Treves cannot look him in the eye. MERRICK ...everyone has been very kind. CARR Yes, of course... Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Merrick. Good day. TREVES (to John) Thank you, John. You did very well. Treves and Carr Gomm go out the door onto the landing. Merrick sees his chance escaping him and tries to recapture their attention. MERRICK (his voice is gaining strength) The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures... (he continues through the following dialogue) Treves and Carr Gomm are alone on the landing, speaking quietly. CARR It was a nice try, Treves, but the man is so obviously mouthing your words. TREVES Yes, I'm very sorry to have wasted your time, sir. I just felt that I had to do anything I could to protect him. CARR I'm sorry too. He simply doesn't belong here. He's be much happier somewhere else, where he could be constantly looked after. Believe me, Frederick, it's better that it worked out this way. Good day. Merrick has come to the end of what Treves taught him to say. He makes one last, desperate attempt to be heard. Treves, disheartened, stands on the landing as Carr Gomm starts down the stairs. MERRICK (V.O.) (now full voice) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me... Treves is staring, open-mouthed, back into the room. Carr Gomm looks up at him. CARR What is it, Treves? MERRICK (V.O.) Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil... TREVES I didn't teach him that part! Treves rushes back into the room, followed by Carr Gomm. MERRICK My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There is a long silence as all three men stare at each other. TREVES How did you, know the rest? I never taught you the rest of it. CARR I don't understand. TREVES Tell me, John, how did you know the rest of the 23rd Psalm? MERRICK (hesitantly) I... I used to read the Bible every day. I know it very well. The Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer. The 23rd Psalm is very beautiful. ISOLATION WARD A few minutes later. We hear voices inside the room. CARR (V.O.) It was a great pleasure to meet you, Mr. Merrick. MERRICK I am very pleased to meet you. CARR I hope we can talk together again sometime. Good day. The door opens and Carr Gomm and Treves come out. TREVES (to Merrick) I'll be right back. He closes the door. CARR I want to see you in my office as soon as you're through up here. We've a good deal to discuss. He starts down the stairs. TREVES Of course, sir. Thank you, thank you very much. Carr Gomm stops on the stairs. CARR Treves. Well done. TREVES Not me, sir. Mr. Merrick. He succeeded in spite of my shortsightedness. ISOLATION WARD Merrick is on the bed, propped up by pillows. The door opens. Treves comes in, shuts the door and leans against it. They look at each other for a moment. TREVES Why did you let me go on like that, teaching you what you already knew? Why didn't you tell me you could read? MERRICK You did not ask me. TREVES I never thought to ask. How can you ever forgive me? MERRICK Oh, no do not say that. You have been so kind to me. I was afraid to say too much. People always want me to be quiet. You wanted me to speak, but I was afraid. Forgive me. TREVES We do have a lot to talk about, don't we? CARR GOMM'S OFFICE Carr Gomm is seated at the window, looking out silently. There is a knock at the door and Treves enters. He quietly closes the door and walks to the window. Carr Gomm never moves. CARR Can you imagine what his life has been like? TREVES Yes, I think I can. CARR No you can't. You can't begin to know, no one can. Carr Gomm suddenly stands and faces Treves. CARR You are quite right, Treves, this is an exceptional case. And I quite agree that the committee should see Mr. Merrick. TREVES I could easily arrange... CARR No, not that way. Broadneck and the others don't like to deal with patients directly. It makes them queasy... Do you have any photographs of Mr. Merrick? TREVES Well, yes. CARR Excellent. We shall present them, along with the other particulars of the case to the committee. I want them to see, exactly, how horribly his body has been affected. You and I shall vouch for his inner qualities. TREVES Do you think they'll go along with us? CARR Of course they will. They're reasonable men. ISOLATION WARD Merrick is in bed, very tired. It's been an exhausting day. Suddenly the door opens and Mothershead comes into the room. Merrick looks up at her very apprehensively. She walks over to the bed, picks up the Bible from the table, opens it and hands it to Merrick. MOTHERSHEAD Read it. Merrick looks down at the Bible. MERRICK Thou heardest my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, At my cry. Mothershead backs slowly to the door, deeply disturbed. She stares at Merrick for a moment. MOTHERSHEAD Credit where credit is due. You'll have the paper every morning at breakfast. She quickly turns and exits. Merrick looks down at the Bible. It is open to "Lamentations". HALLWAY - THE LONDON (NIGHT) As before the lights are going off in one hallway after another. The hallways are empty, dark and silent. We hear the great iron door close with a bang. ISOLATION WARD (NIGHT) Merrick is in his bed as always. He holds the portrait of the beautiful woman, gazing at it longingly. He hears a door close far away in the silence of the hospital. Suddenly we hear the heavy footfalls of the Night Porter's boots. As they get louder and louder we move slowly closer to Merrick's face. The sound is very close now, and Merrick's eyes are visibly agitated. Finally, the door bursts open and the Night Porter is standing there. He stares malevolently at Merrick for a long moment and then walks to him menacingly. NIGHT PORTER I hear you have some trouble sleepin'... He grabs Merrick fiercely by the hair and jerks his head back. Merrick immediately starts to wheeze and gasp. NIGHT PORTER Head's too heavy, eh? He pulls Merrick all the way down onto the bed, so that he is prone, struggling for breath. NIGHT PORTER And I heard a nasty rumor about you; I heard you can talk but you can't, can you... can you... can you?... MERRICK (struggling) Noooo! The Night Porter is as first surprised, and then pleased at the desperate sound. NIGHT PORTER No... No you can't! One word about me out of that stinking cakehole... Just ONE word, and you'll have no trouble at sleepin'... no trouble at all. You understand me? Do you!! MERRICK (croaking) Yyyesss. Satisfied, the Night Porter rights Merrick who is just able to catch his breath. The Night Porter smiles and pats Merrick on the shoulder. NIGHT PORTER There now, that's better, i'n' it? HALLWAY Treves and Carr Gomm are on their way to the committee meeting, confident of their position. Treves is holding a folder, and Carr Gomm is looking at the photographs of Merrick. CARR As far as I can see, the only obstacle might be Broadneck. He has enormous influence over the others, very old school, not an easy man to impress. In any case, if worse does come to worse, we still have the British and Royal Homes to fall back on, don't we. Treves is silent. They stop. CARR Don't we? TREVES No, we don't. Their committees have informed me that they're unwilling to take Mr. Merrick, even if they were supplied with funds. They don't want him. CARR Well, it's up to us then, isn't it? They continue walking. CARR Don't worry Treves, we'll make them see it our way. He looks at the pictures. CARR They've eyes, haven't they? They go through a door marked "Committee Room". COMMITTEE ROOM - THE LONDON HOSPITAL We see a pair of hands. One of the photographs of Merrick is passed to them. They hold it for a moment, then lay it down flat on the table. One of the hands covers the photograph with a piece of paper. TREVES (V.O.) ...Due to the progressive nature of the disease, I feel sure that the patient does not have much longer to live. We pan up from the hands to see BROADNECK, his face pinched with disgust. He sniffs, and gazes coolly at Treves. TREVES Forgive the redundancy, gentlemen, but there is no other place for him. Both the Royal Hospital and the British Home have turned him down even if sufficient funds for his care were provided. The workhouse is certainly out of the question. The patient has an overwhelming fear of returning to the horrors of his past. His appearance is so disturbing that all shrink from him. He cannot, in justice to others, be put in the general ward of the workhouse. The police rightly prevent his being exhibited, and he is mobbed in the streets wherever he goes. What is to be done with him? BROADNECK I, for one, am sick and tired of this competitive freak-hunting by these overly ambitious young doctors, trying to make names for themselves. To parade then about in front of the pathological society is one thing, but to waste this committee's valuable time with requests for shelter for these abominations of nature is quite another. TREVES Gentlemen, John Merrick is not an animal, he is a man, fully aware of his condition. An intelligent, sensitive, literate man, with an intimate knowledge of the Bible. His horrible infirmities do not reduce him to anything less than what he is, a man; and it would be criminal if we of the London Hospital, his final refuge, the last place on earth where this man can find peace, were to cast him out. Carr Gomm, from his chair on the committee, pounds his gavel. CARR Gentlemen, may I make a suggestion. There are two small rooms off Bedstead Square that are no longer in use and would be admirably suited to Mr. Merrick's needs. I also propose to write a letter to The Times, appealing to their readers for assistance. Knowing the generosity of the British public, I feel we would have little trouble in raising the funds for his maintenance. Indeed, this hospital's rules do preclude the admission of incurables, but if ever there was an exception to the rule, it is this patient. So therefore, I propose, if Mr. Treves is finished, that we put it to a vote. All those in favor of keeping Mr. Merrick here? Carr Gomm and another committee member raise their hands. Broadneck is displeased. BROADNECK One moment, (showing the picture of Merrick) as far as I'm concerned this creature has no business being in our hospital. I think Mr. Carr Gomm's letter would be an excellent idea, (to Carr Gomm) and when you appeal for funds, I think you should appeal for a more appropriate place for him as well. I agree the British public is generous, and I'm sure that somewhere the creature will find a happy and permanent home, but not here. One of the committee members says "I quite agree". Carr Gomm scowls a bit. CARR I see. All, then, that move we keep Mr. Merrick here? Carr Gomm raises his hand. None of the others do. Treves and Carr Gomm exchange hopeless glances. Carr Gomm looks at the man who had originally raised his hand. He looks away, ashamed. CARR All those opposed? Broadneck and the rest raise their hands. CARR I see. BROADNECK (triumphantly) Well then. In the meantime, of course, he needn't be turned out. He may stay in the rooms off Bedstead Square until such time as more suitable arrangements can be made, thus freeing the Isolation Ward for more deserving patients. Well then, Mr. Chairman, if there is nothing further to discuss, I move that we adjourn this meeting and all go bout our normal business. Carr Gomm cannot conceal his contempt. CARR I second the motion gentlemen. This meeting is adjourned. The others cough their agreement and hurriedly leave the room. Treves walks over to the committee table and takes the paper off the photograph. He stares sadly at Merrick's picture. CARR (V.O.) Somehow I don't think they quite understand. THEATRE DRESSING ROOM We see a very lovely WOMAN seated in a chair before a mirror. She is reading aloud from The Times. Her hair is being brushed by a YOUNG GIRL. WOMAN ...terrible though his appearance is, so terrible indeed that women and nervous persons fly in terror from the sight of him, and that he is debarred from seeking to earn his livelihood in any ordinary way, yet he is superior in intelligence, can read and write, is quiet, gentle, not to say even refined in his mind. She turns to the girl thoughtfully. WOMAN I'd very much like to meet that gentleman. He sounds almost Shakespearean. DINING HALL - THE LONDON The room is elegantly furnished and heavily carpeted. The walls are panelled in richly gleaming walnut with finely wrought brass lamps spaced regularly along their length. In the center of the room is a long oak table with a fine linen table cloth, around which sits a number of Doctors, among them, Fox. Some of them are still eating. A waiter is clearing away a few plates and several Doctors are helping themselves to port wine kept in decanters in the center of the table and to cigars in humidors. One of them is reading The Times. At one end of the table sits Treves, picking at his food. #1 DOCTOR "...in life until he came under the kind care of the nursing staff of the London Hospital and the surgeon who has befriended him..." #2 DOCTOR Good publicity for the Hospital, at any rate. #3 DOCTOR Treves comes off well too, eh Freddie? #4 DOCTOR It was pleasant of you to join us this evening, Frederick. #2 DOCTOR Your Elephant Man dining out this evening? #4 DOCTOR I understand the kitchen ran out of hay this morning. The group laughs. FOX (slightly sourly) Do continue reading, Mr. Stanley, please. #1 DOCTOR "...it is a case of singular affliction brought about through no fault of himself; he can but hope for quiet and privacy during a life which Mr. Treves assures me is not likely to be long," There is a short pause. #4 DOCTOR The Elephant Man. Makes you sound rather more like a zoo-keeper than a surgeon, Frederick. The group again laughs. Treves clears his throat and rises. TREVES Excuse me gentlemen. I seem to have lost my appetite. Good evening. Treves leaves the room. #4 DOCTOR I say, what's he on about? #3 DOCTOR He's getting a bit of a swelled head, if you ask me. FOX (coldly) Well, no one did ask you Atkins. Frederick Treves is not only the most skillful surgical operator here, he's also a humanitarian of the highest order. You sound like a pack of whining school boys with your petty jealousies. #3 DOCTOR Look here, Fox, I simply said. FOX Oh belt up! A deep silence falls over the Doctors. BEDSTEAD SQUARE ROOMS (NIGHT) We see a small, very dusty, dirty room, filled with boxes and bedsteads and other things stored over the years. The one grimy window is locked shut. The door opens and two middle-aged CHARWOMEN enter. They look around at the room with distaste and drop their mops and buckets. 1ST WOMAN There are cleaner rooms in the gasworks. She reaches into her apron pocket and pulls out a pint bottle of gin. She takes a drink and passes it to her friend. 1ST WOMAN Who's all the fuss for, then? 2ND WOMAN (wiping her mouth) Don't you know? It's for that strange one. 1ST WOMAN Mr. Treves' Elephant Man? I hear he's got a trunk. 2ND WOMAN Right, right. The 1st Woman takes the bottle and walks across the room. She forces open the balky window and sits on the sill. 2ND WOMAN Blimey, now we're cleanin' up for circus animals! The 1st Woman, laughing, takes another healthy swig from the bottle. We see past her through the window, the dark silhouette of the main spire of St. Philip's Cathedral against the sky. It fills the screen. DISSOLVE TO: ISOLATION WARD Merrick sitting on his bed, hunched over in concentration reading an Illustrated London News. He is staring at a picture of the Eddystone Lighthouse. MERRICK (reading softly) "A silent shaft of stone on a deserted promontory, the lonely Eddystone is a beacon of aid and comfort to mariners of all nations." He looks at the picture silently. There is a knock at the door. Merrick says, "Come in". Treves enters, holding a book. TREVES Good evening. How are you feeling? MERRICK Good evening. Very well, thank you. And you? TREVES Very well, thank you. I have something for you, John. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, it's very popular. He holds the book out to him. It's an "Alice In Wonderland". MERRICK (surprised) Thank you... so much... oh it's beautiful! He lovingly feels the leather binding and looks at Treves with speechless gratitude. Merrick carefully opens the book to a colored frontpiece, the picture of Alice grown too large for a hallway, looking imploringly at the dwarfed White Rabbit. The caption reads "...curiouser and curiouser". He leafs through the pages looking at the other illustrations as Treves, delighted with the gift's effect, looks on. TREVES I came to tell you that I'll be here early tomorrow morning. We're moving you to your permanent home. I'm sure you'll be very happy there, John. So get a good night's rest, there'll be new people to meet tomorrow. Good night. Treves smiles broadly and exits. MERRICK (weakly) Good night. Treves' words have disturbed Merrick. He sinks into the pillows, the book before him. We see the picture of the Mock Turtle perched upon his rock, great tears rolling down his cow-like face, as Alice and the Gryphon look on with intense sympathy. Merrick looks up at his disguise hanging on the wall. THE PEACOCK PUB - WHITECHAPEL The Night Porter enters and saunters over to the noisy crowd. As they welcome him, he slaps down The Times on the bar counter for all to see. NIGHT PORTER Here... listen to this. This is a letter to THE London Times from the guvnor of the hospital. (starts to read) There is now in a little room off one of our attic wards a man named John Merrick, so dreadful a sight that he is unable even to come out by daylight to the garden. He has been called The Elephant Man on account of his terrible deformity... The Night Porter has the undivided attention of the people in the pub. NIGHT PORTER ...His appearance is so terrible that woman and nervous persons fly in terror at the sight of him. (pauses) ...and guess who can get you tickets to see him? Your own Sunny Jim! YOUNG MAN IN CROWD Let's go see him, then! NIGHT PORTER Keep your shirts on. (shaking his finger at them) ...When the time is right. Right now he's in the attic but tomorrow they're movin' him into Bedstead Square, right into my lap... then... for the right price you'll see something you'll never see again in your life. He lifts his glass to his lips. We move back to see Bytes' boys who, having heard the Night Porter's words, slips unnoticed from the pub. MERRICK (wheezing) Workhouse! HALLWAY - MOVING DAY Merrick, in his disguise, and Treves, one arm around him, are walking together. Merrick seems very uneasy. A Nurse, on duty early or late getting off, passes them. She stares at the hooded figure. They continue on in silence. BEDSTEAD SQUARE ROOM The room is now spotless. It is furnished with a bed and the required pillows, a small table and chair by the window, now curtained. Adjoining this room is a smaller one which contains a bathtub. Merrick enters and looks around, confused. Treves stands in the doorway. Merrick turns to him. TREVES This is your new home, John. Merrick pulls off his hood. His eyes are bewildered. MERRICK This... is my new home? TREVES Yes. MERRICK (incredulous) The hospital? TREVES Of course! What did you think? Merrick's eyes glisten with held back tears. He lowers them. MERRICK (almost sobbing) How long will I stay here? TREVES I promise you. You will never see the inside of that horrible place again. You will never, ever go back to the workhouse... or that man. It's a splendid room, don't you think? Merrick inspects his new home. He seems pleased-by the bathtub, by the table, by the window to the outside world. Merrick pulls the curtain aside and opens the window. He looks out and then up with a small intake of breath. Before him, beyond the hospital fence, the spire of St. Phillips Cathedral stands resplendently in the morning light. MERRICK When I'm next moved may I go to a lighthouse?... or to a blind-asylum? HALLWAY We see Carr Gomm walking to his office. He is met at the door by an anxious Treves. TREVES Has the response picked up? CARR Frankly, Treves, it's not what I'd expected. A few small cheques. Well- wishers. Don't worry, these things undoubtedly take time. TREVES But he's so afraid he's going to be carted off. I've promised him that won't happen. CARR Well... I'll let you know if there's something in the afternoon post. TREVES Please do. Carr Gomm goes back into his office and Treves walks off. MERRICK'S ROOM (A WHILE LATER) There is no one in the room. The bathroom door opens and Nora and another nurse enter, carrying buckets which they set down by the hall door. They straighten up and lean back against it. Mrs. Mothershead enters from the bathroom, speaking over her shoulder to Merrick. MOTHERSHEAD Well, I think I can safely hand the duties over to you girls now. Mr. Merrick will require a bath every day... that way he won't pong quite so much. Nora, you can instruct Kathleen on the finer points of Mr. Merrick's bath. You'll be on your own tomorrow. The girls try to keep bright faces. MOTHERSHEAD Don't look so glum girls. Such enthusiastic volunteers should be more cheerful. Mothershead starts to exit. MOTHERSHEAD Oh, and girls, under no circumstances are there to be any mirrors brought into this room. She exits. KATHLEEN He's... so ugly! NORA Ugly or not, you're going to help me. Merrick quietly enters the room, dressed in a billowy white shirt and baggy black pants. The two nurses try to smile, but he cannot look at them. NORA Feeling better now, Mr. Merrick? MERRICK Yes. Kathleen's eyes go wide at the sound. NORA You look very nice in your new clothes. Merrick looks down at himself. MERRICK Thank you very much. NORA Well, if there is nothing more, I suppose we'll be leaving you now. MERRICK No, nothing. The girls leave, taking the buckets. Merrick, alone, walks about the room getting the feel of his new clothes. There is a knock at the door and Treves enters. TREVES You look splendid, John. MERRICK Thank you very much. TREVES When one is invited to tea, one must look one's best. CUT TO: ENTRY HALL AND SITTING ROOM - TREVES' HOME The door opens. Merrick, disguised, enters, followed by Treves who closes it and hangs up Merrick's mask on the coat rack. The mirror has been removed, leaving a faint outline on the wall. Merrick is enchanted by the house. Treves takes him by the arm and leads him into the sitting room. Anne appears at the top of the stairs. TREVES (V.O.) Make yourself comfortable, John. Treves comes back to the foot of the stairs and smiles up at Anne. TREVES Come and meet our quest, my love. Anne manages a smile, comes down the stairs and together they go into the sitting room. Merrick is examining everything in the room. Nothing in this almost magical world escapes his attention. The furniture, the personal mementoes, particularly the pictures on the fireplace. He turns around when he hears them enter, lowering his eyes. TREVES John Merrick, I'd like you to meet my wife, Anne Treves. Anne is startled, but conceals it very well. ANNE (smiling) I'm very pleased to meet you, Mr. Merrick. Anne extends her hand. John takes her hand and looks up very slowly meeting her eyes. Anne smiles. MERRICK I'm very... Then, Merrick bursts into tears. Anne is at a loss as to what to do. Merrick takes his hand from hers and covers his eyes, weeping pitiously. Treves puts his hand on Merrick's shoulder. TREVES John... what's the matter? John... why are you upset? MERRICK (sobbing) I'm not used to such kindness. From a beautiful woman. Treves and Anne exchange worried looks. ANNNE Would you like a nice cup of tea, Mr. Merrick? MERRICK (still sobbing) Yes... thank you. TREVES Yes, a cup of tea would go nicely. Anne goes now to get the tea. TREVES John... would you like to see the rest of the house? Merrick cannot answer through his sobs. TREVES Come with me, John. I'll show it to you. KITCHEN Anne is composing herself by busily fixing the tea and cakes. She stops for a moment, takes a breath, and then resumes her activity. DISSOLVE TO: Treves and Merrick coming down the stairs. Merrick is calm now. They go into the sitting room, where Anne is just setting the tea tray out. Treves ushers Merrick to a highbacked sofa and sits him down. Merrick is very shy of Anne. Treves and Anne sit on the other side of the table. ANNE Mr. Merrick, sugar? MERRICK Yes please, two. ANNE One or two? MERRICK Two, please. Anne serves the tea. TREVES John loves the house. ANNE Do you? MERRICK Oh yes. You have so many nice things, and so much room. ANNE Oh? TREVES Yes, we do have a lot of room. But you should see the place on weekends, when I see patients here. Sometimes there are so many, we have to set them down wherever we can. In fact, Mrs. Treves sometimes says that the only room she can call her own is the bedroom. Treves and Anne laugh good-naturedly. Merrick's face, as always, is quite blank. MERRICK (earnestly) Well, it's a lovely bedroom. What do you call that thing above the bed? TREVES That's a canopy, John. MERRICK Ohhh... TREVES How is your tea, John? MERRICK It's very good. I'm enjoying my visit with you very much. It's so very kind of you to have me as a guest in your home. I'm sorry I made a spectacle of myself. TREVES Not at all, John. MERRICK I love the way you've arranged your pictures on the mantlepiece. Is that the way it's done in most houses? TREVES Oh yes. MERRICK Who are they of? TREVES Oh, our relatives... the children. MERRICK The children! May I see? TREVES Of course. Treves goes to the fireplace and takes down a few pictures. He hands a picture of the girls to Merrick. MERRICK (as if looking at an icon) The Children. Where are your children TREVES Oh, they're gone for the day... with friends. MERRICK (the word gives him pleasure) Friends. Ah yes, friends! How nice. ANNE And here is one of Frederick's mother. MERRICK How lovely. TREVES Yes. ANNE And here are my mother and father. MERRICK They have noble faces. ANNE (a cord is struck) I've always thought that myself. MERRICK Oh, yes. Merrick sets the picture down carefully. MERRICK (ever so timidly) Would you... would you like to see my mother? TREVES (startled) Your mother? MERRICK Here. He reaches into his cloak and brings out the small portrait of the beautiful woman. Treves is absolutely amazed. Merrick gently hands the picture to Anne. ANNE Oh... why Mr. Merrick she's beautiful. MERRICK She has the face of an angel... She was an angel. She was so kind... so kind to me. It's not her fault, for in the fourth month of her maternal condition she was knocked down by an elephant. I'm sure I must have been a great disappointment to her. ANNE (visibly touched) Oh no, Mr. Merrick. No. No son as loving as you are could ever be a disappointment. MERRICK If only I could find her. If only she could see me now, here, with such lovely kind friends. You, Mrs. Treves, and you, Mr. Treves. Then maybe she would love me as I am. I've tried to hard to be good. At this, Anne is so extremely touched that she begins to cry. She tries to hold it in, but to no avail. She reaches a hand out to Merrick and he takes it. He tries to comfort her. MERRICK Please... please... But Anne goes on, as Treves, in wonder, watches her and Merrick locked together in the communication of intense sympathy. REAR ENTRANCE - THE LONDON Merrick, in the dimly lit rear hall, is huddled over a trash can tucked underneath a stairway. He pulls out a discarded drug box. He holds it closely to his chest and goes into his room. MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick goes to his table and puts the box down. He hangs up his disguise, then goes back to the window and pulls the curtains aside. Moonlight bathes the table, illuminating the portrait of his Mother. John seats himself and sets the box in front of him. He reaches for a pencil, and then begins to draw windows on the front of the box. OUTSIDE MERRICK'S ROOM (MORNING) Nora is coming down the hall with a breakfast tray. She stops at Merrick's door and raises a hand to knock. MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick, as before, is hunched over the table, pencil in hand. The sides of the box are covered with carefully drawn windows and archways. There is a knock at the door and Merrick, startled, looks up. Nora enters and puts the tray on the table. She glances at the box. NORA Good morning, Mr. Merrick. MERRICK Good morning. She turns and walks to the cabinet for linen and bath supplies. She opens it and takes out a clean towel and a blanket. She pauses, and turns to look back at the table. Merrick is concentrated on his work. Nora, curious now, walks to the table. Merrick, conscious of her presence, leans back in his chair and looks up at her. NORA What is this that you're doing? Merrick is silent. NORA (pointing at the box) What is it? Merrick points through the window. NORA What? Oh! I see! It's St. Phillips. Oh, of course. Why... why that's very good, I mean you've gotten the windows and arches just right. MERRICK Yes. NORA But it's so good, I mean... it's so very good. MERRICK Thank you... very much. NORA Where did you get this box? Merrick points out toward the hallway. NORA The hallway? Oh, the wastecan! MERRICK I meant no harm, it was the only place where I could find cardboard. I thought it has been thrown away. NORA It's alright, it was thrown away. No one wants it. It's just that it's a little dirty, that's all. She sets the towel and blanket down as she leans closer to inspect the box. She points to a circle drawn on top. NORA What's this? MERRICK The main spire. NORA The... oh, the spire! How silly of me, it's as plain as day... Mr. Merrick, where did you learn to do this? MERRICK ...I learned a long time ago. Nora looks at the box. NORA Oh, but how will you finish it? You haven't any more cardboard. Merrick, at a loss, shrugs his shoulders. The movement makes Nora aware of his body, and he is the Elephant Man once again. MERRICK I'll have to find some more. NORA (uncomfortably) Yes... well, good day, Mr. Merrick. She quickly exits. Merrick watches her go and then turns back to his work. He sees the towel and the blanket. He turns quickly to call after Nora, but stops himself. Merrick takes up the towel and blanket, walks into the bathroom, and carefully drapes the towel over the back of the bath. MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick is at his table working on his cathedral. There is a knock at the door. MERRICK Come in. Treves enters. TREVES Good morning, John. MERRICK Good morning. TREVES John, there's someone here who would like to meet you. Would that be alright? Merrick is a trifle apprehensive, but he agrees. Treves ushers MRS. KENDAL through the door. At the sight of her, Merrick's eyes go wide. TREVES John, I'd like you to meet one of the brightest lights of the British stage, Mrs. Kendal. Mrs. Kendal, John Merrick. KENDAL Good day, Mr. Merrick. MERRICK Good day...! KENDAL I've brought you some things. I hope you'll like, Mr. Merrick. I hope you don't think it too forward. MERRICK Oh, no. KENDAL I knew you'd understand. Here. She-hands Merrick a nicely framed picture of herself. Merrick is speechless, overjoyed by the gift. KENDAL I want you to know that I don't go about giving my pictures to just anyone. MERRICK Oh, no. I would never think it! It's so beautiful. You are so... I'll give it a place of honor, here, next to my mother. He places it, with great care, next to his mother's portrait. KENDAL She's very pretty, your mother. MERRICK Yes. Treves smiles at them. Merrick is a trifle nervous but Mrs. Kendal smiles at him and he relaxes a little. MERRICK Mr. Treves says that you are in the theatre. Do you live there? KENDAL Oh no, Mr. Merrick. I just work there. MERRICK Well, even to work there would be wonderful. Is it beautiful? KENDAL You've never been? MERRICK Alas, no. KENDAL Well you must go. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Of course, I'm rather partial. MERRICK Tell me about it, please! KENDAL It's very difficult to put into a nutshell, but I should say the theater is the shrine of the imagination, where one may suspend disbelief and travel anywhere in the world, to any time you desire. You may look over the shoulders of kings, unobserved, battle with ruthless tyrants, and marry the beautiful princess, all in the space of a few hours. Onstage you may be whoever you wish to be, do anything you please, and always, always live happily ever after. The theatre is all the brightest and best things of the world, Mr. Merrick. It is lights and music, gaiety and joy. It's... well, it's romance. MERRICK (the magic word) Romance! KENDAL That's one thing the theatre has in great store. which reminds me. I have something else for you... She produces a beautiful leather-bound volume of Shakespeare's works. Merrick takes it with reverence and begins to leaf through it. KENDAL Have you read it? MERRICK No, but I certainly shall. Merrick finds a place and begins to read. MERRICK Romeo and Juliet. I know of this... "If I profane with my unworthiest hand, This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Merrick, embarrassed by these last words, starts to close the book. Mrs. Kendal knows Juliet's lines by heart. She looks at Merrick for a moment, then replies tenderly. KENDAL Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss. Merrick pauses, looking at Kendal, then continues. MERRICK Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? KENDAL Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. MERRICK O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. They both look at each other for a long, silent moment. Treves is touched and amazed. KENDAL Why, Mr. Merrick, you're not an Elephant Man at all... MERRICK Oh no? KENDAL Oh no... no... you're a Romeo. DISSOLVE TO: THE PEACOCK - WHITECHAPEL People are happily drinking and singing and laughing. Bytes and the boy are keeping a watchful eye on the Night Porter, who is making a deal with a couple of men at a table. They hand over a few coins and follow the Night Porter out of the pub. Bytes finishes his beer and thumps the glass down on the bar. He wipes his mouth with his sleeve and he and the boy casually follow the other three men out. Bytes and the boy stand by the pub door, watching the men cross the street and go to the back gate of the hospital which the Night Porter unlocks, and leaves unlocked, but closed, behind them. They walk into Bedstead Square, laughing quietly. Bytes crosses the street and goes to the gate. He walks along the iron fence and watches the Night Porter and his "customers". He stops and waits to see where they go. The Night Porter stands the two men before a window and motions for them to wait. He goes through a door into the hospital. After a few moments the window opens wide, and there, neatly framed and silhouetted, stand Merrick and the Night Porter, gripping Merrick's neck. The two men outside start back in shock, but stand mesmerized by what they see. We hear the laughter of the Night Porter echo across the empty square. Bytes smiles broadly and says softly to himself. BYTES So, there you are, my boy, my treasure. A SITTING ROOM We see a small circle of women having tea and gossip. One of their daughters, off to the side, is reading a newspaper society page. GIRL Mummy, listen to this! MUMMY Hush, Jennifer, can't you see Mummy's talking? GIRL But it's about Mrs. Kendal, mummy! The actress you go on so much about! She has got the women's attention. GIRL "Mrs. Kendal, always at the forefront of fashion and form, was seen leaving The London the other afternoon. No, dear readers, the most facile actress of our day has not been taken ill, but rather said she was 'visiting a friend'. And who was the lucky recipient of this attention? Quick enquiries proved it to be none other than Mr. John Merrick, The Elephant Man, with whom our readers are undoubtedly familiar. After a chat of three-quarters of an hour, Mrs. Kendal was kind enough to leave Mr. Merrick with an autographed portrait of herself. Owing to a disfigurement of the most extreme nature, Mr. Merrick has never been properly presented to London society. But knowing that wherever Mrs. Kendal goes, others inevitably follow, the questions arises: Will London society present itself to him?" LONDON HOSPITAL GATE A carriage draws up in the street outside the hospital. A nicely dressed woman sticks her head out the window, looks around and scowls disappointedly. Nearby is parked another carriage and driver. WOMAN (to her driver) Parkins, whose carriage is that? DRIVER Well mum, that looks like Alexander, Lord Waddington's driver. WOMAN Lord and Lady Waddington! Well. Drive back to the house. (indicating her clothing) I can't be seen in this. They drive off. Above Merrick's bookshelf we see a row of framed pictures of prettily smiling society women. Mrs. Kendal has started a fad. We pan slowly by them and down to Merrick's table where his Mother and Mrs. Kendal have their place of honor. The cathedral is also there. Beside it is a modest tea service. We now see a GENTLEMAN standing behind a seated LADY. They hold teacups. They are both very attractive and empty-headed, and seem on the verge of screaming. They smile at Merrick who has been talking the whole while. Merrick holds an elegant, silvertipped walking stick across his lap, and admires a ring that only fits his little finger. MERRICK Thank you for your kind gifts. I can't say enough about this ring. And this walking stick is ever so dashing. So much more elegant than my old one. More tea? The Lady and Gentleman nod nervously. John takes the teapot from the service and refills their cups. The Lady's hand shakes, rattling the cup against the saucer. MERRICK If you have a chill I can close the window. THE LADY Oh no, no, no, I'm fine. Please... I mean, thank you. MERRICK I don't get out as often as I'd like to, for some people DO find my appearance disturbing. Of course, I can't fault them. We see the smiling pictures. MERRICK (V.O.) People are often frightened by what they don't understand. We see the picture of Merrick's Mother. MERRICK (V.O.) And it is hard to understand, even for myself, for you see, Mother was so very beautiful. We draw close to his Mother's picture. MERRICK (V.O.) How's your tea? THE RECEIVING ROOM Treves walks the Lord and Lady, their faces locked in terrible silence, to the door. Mothershead, at her desk, watches them pass with great disapproval. MOTHERSHEAD (under her breath) Watery headed bunch. TREVES I regret that I must leave you here, m' Lord, m' Lady. Thank you so much for coming. It was an act of the greatest charity. LADY WADDINGTON Oh no, Mr. Treves, the pleasure was all ours. Good day. As they turn to go, their faces drop, their loathing undisguised. Treves closes the door. He goes to Mothershead. TREVES Incredible, isn't it? Well, I think John has had enough visitors for one day, Mothershead. I've got a lecture at the college, I'll be back this evening. MOTHERSHEAD Excuse me, sir. I'd like to have a word with you. TREVES Oh?... Well, quickly please, Mothershead, I'm overdue. MOTHERSHEAD I can't understand why you let those people go in there, sir. TREVES Now Mothershead, you have to understand that this is very good for John. He relishes contact with people outside the hospital... MOTHERSHEAD But you saw them, sir. They couldn't hide their disgust. They don't care anything for John, they're just trying to impress their friends. TREVES Aren't you being just a little harsh, Mothershead? You yourself hardly treated John with much loving kindness when he first arrived. MOTHERSHEAD I bathed him, didn't I? I fed him and cleaned up after him! If loving kindness can be called care and practical concern, then yes, I did treat him with loving kindness, and I'm not ashamed to say it. TREVES You're right, Mothershead, please forgive me... Of course, I appreciate everything you've done for John, and I'm glad that you are concerned about his welfare. But, I'm the physician in charge and I must do what I think best. I'm also very late, so please forgive me. He starts to go. Mothershead steps in front of him, detaining him. MOTHERSHEAD If you ask me, sir, he's just being stared at all over again. MERRICK'S ROOM We pan across Merrick's bookcase, now quite full, and we see a few titles: "Moll Flanders", "Emma', "Jane Eyre", "Pamela", and then to Merrick. He and Treves are reading poetry together. MERRICK When will the stream be aweary of flowing under my eye? When will the wind be aweary of blowing over the sky? When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting? When will the heart be aweary of beating, and nature die? TREVES Never, oh! Never, nothing will die. the stream flows the wind blows the heart beats Nothing will die. Merrick closes his book and sits silently for a moment. MERRICK Mr. Treves, there is something I've been meaning to ask you for some time... TREVES Yes, John? MERRICK ...Can you cure me? Treves is taken aback. He considers, then says tentatively. TREVES No John, I can't. I can care for you, but I can't cure you. MERRICK I thought as much. Merrick rises. Treves ponders over what Merrick has just said. He looks at Merrick and something very odd happens. Merrick is looking levelly at him. For the first and only time, we see expression on his face. It is a calm, knowing look, almost a benign smile. At that very moment there is a bright flash of light behind Merrick's head, seemingly from the window. Treves blinks, unable to comprehend what has just happened. When he looks again, the moment has passed. Merrick, his back to Treves, moves to the bookcase to replace the volume. TREVES John...? There's a knock at the door. MERRICK Come in. Nora enters with a brown paper parcel tied with string. Merrick says nothing. TREVES Are you looking for me, Sister? NORA No sir, Mr. Merrick. (to Merrick) I have something for you. She puts the parcel on the table and opens it. We see several squares of new cardboard, a cutting knife, a pastepot, and a few brushes and some paint. NORA I thought these things would be helpful with your cathedral. Merrick examines the materials with reverence, and thanks her profusely. Treves is moved and a little disconcerted. Merrick lays the things aside carefully and begins to pull the crude spires from the discarded box. Nora smiles at the busy Merrick and exits. TREVES The cathedral is coming along nicely. MERRICK (bending over the model) Yes, soon I will start the main spire, but I must finish these columns first, How kind of her! Treves notices to his dismay that the growths on Merrick's head are larger. He finds it very difficult to disguise his concern. TREVES How blind of me. Is there anything else, John, anything at all that I could get for you? MERRICK Oh no! There is nothing! I have everything, you have given me everything I could possibly want. I am happy every hour of the day. I only wish there was something I could give to you. TREVES Please John, it would give me so much pleasure to give you something. Something just for yourself. Isn't there something you would like to have? Merrick is silent. He goes over to his cloak, reaches into it and pulls out a folded up advertisement. He hands it to Treves, who examines it closely. It is an advertisement for an-elegant gentleman's dressing bag, boasting ivory brushes, silver fittings and Moroccan silk lining. TREVES You want a dressing bag, John? MERRICK You don't think it's too gaudy, do you? HALLWAY Mrs. Mothershead finds Treves walking slowly down the hall, looking at the ad. MOTHERSHEAD Mr. Treves, some more books arrived for Mr. Merrick. TREVES Thank you, Mothershead. Have a porter put them in my office. MOTHERSHEAD Yes sir. (seeing the ad) What's that? TREVES A dressing bag. MOTHERSHEAD Very smart indeed. TREVES Yes. John wants it. MOTHERSHEAD A dressing bag? TREVES You don't think it's too gaudy, do you. MOTHERSHEAD Well... TREVES John thinks it's very dashing. Something no gentleman should be without. I'm inclined to agree. He walks off. MOTHERSHEAD A dressing bag? MERRICK'S ROOM (DUSK) Merrick is still at his cathedral working away. Suddenly, he looks up at the window and the Night Porter is standing there smiling wickedly, pointing a finger at him. MERRICK Night! FADE TO BLACK: SITTING ROOM - TREVES' HOME Treves is standing by a table on which are two stacks of books. Treves selects books from the stacks and puts them into a box. Treves looks troubled. He takes one from the pile and examines it. It's a copy of "Frankenstein". TREVES You stay with me. ANNE (calling from the next room) Dinner will be served, shortly, dear. Getting no response, she enters. ANNE More romances for John? TREVES (far away) Hmmm? ANNE ...Freddie! What's the matter? You've been like this all evening. TREVES Oh... I've just been thinking about something that man Bytes said. ANNE Oh, Freddie. What could that wretched vampire say to upset you? TREVES That I am very little different from him. ANNE Oh that's absurd, Frederick. No, no Frederick, that's all wrong! John is happier and more fulfilled now than he has ever been in his entire life. And, that is completely due to you. TREVES But why did I do it? What was this all for? So John Merrick could live out his last days in peace and comfort? Or so I could become famous? ANNE Frederick, just what is it that you are saying? TREVES ...Am I a good man or am I a bad man? ANNE Oh Frederick. She holds him in her arms. ANNE You're a good man. A very good man. We see from Treves' eyes that he is not reassured. BASEMENT - THE LONDON It is very dark. There is a dim red glow coming from the holes in a furnace door. We hear a door open and footsteps coming downstairs. A man comes into the basement carrying something large and black. He approaches the furnace and opens the door. The man is Treves. He is holding the stiff black surgeon's coat of which he was once so proud. He looks at it for a moment, and then stuffs it into the furnace. Inside, the coat starts to smoke heavily, then bursts into flames. Treves watches it burn, and then closes the door. HALLWAY - THE LONDON HOSPITAL We see Carr Gomm walking down the hall to his office. Broadneck appears, going the other way. CARR Ahh! Broadneck! You'll no doubt be pleased to know that we've received a smashing response to my letter. It's all very heartwarming, though several letters do mention how beastly it would be to part the poor fellow from Mr. Treves and the staff, but since the committee insists... BROADNECK (scowling) Good day, Carr Gomm. Broadneck walks on. Carr Gomm goes into his office. CARR'S OFFICE Mothershead is standing by the desk looking through a small stack of mail. MOTHERSHEAD Is this all there is for John? CARR I'm afraid so, Mrs. Mothershead. Perhaps tomorrow. CUT TO: HALLWAY We see in a pair of hands holding a buff colored envelope embossed with the Royal Seal. We follow the hands down the hall to a door where one of the hands knocks next to the "F.C. Carr Gomm" sign, then enters the office. CARR'S OFFICE Carr Gomm and Mothershead look up to see a porter with the buff envelope enter. Carr Gomm takes the letter and the porter exits. Carr Gomm opens the letter and reads, his expression changing from concern to delight. MOTHERSHEAD What is it? What is it? Carr Gomm hands her the letter. Never having touched Royal stationary before, Mothershead handles it delicately. She begins to read. COMMITTEE ROOM - THE LONDON Broadneck and the other committee members are seated at their table, anxious to get the meeting underway. They talk among themselves. The door opens and Carr Gomm and Treves enter. Treves seems quite nervous, but Carr Gomm is relaxed and smiling. TREVES Don't you think this is a bit premature? We don't have the backing yet to... CARR Steady on, Treves. Have a seat. Treves sits and Carr Gomm takes his place at the head of the table and raps his gavel. CARR Gentlemen, I know we begin every meeting by reading the minutes, but in the interest of speed I think we should conclude a matter discussed previously, to wit, that of Mr. John Merrick, the Elephant Man... Broadneck explodes to his feet. Carr Gomm smiles at Treves, who looks quite grim. CARR Mr. Broadneck? BROADNECK Mr. Chairman! I was under the distinct impression that we had concluded discussion of this disagreeable matter. Had we not ascertained that an Elephant Man is not acceptable as a patient? Have we not, very generously, allowed the creature to use two of our rooms until such time as he could be properly disposed of? Have we not... CUT TO MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick is working on his cathedral, painting details with a very fine brush. As he lifts the brush from the paint jar, a drop falls on the table. Merrick carefully lays down the brush and wipes up the spilled paint with a cloth. MERRICK I must be more careful! CUT TO COMMITTEE ROOM BROADNECK Which brings to mind my next point. The rules, gentlemen, the rules. In a society such as ours, it is of paramount importance that we not stray from the established order. Has that order not already been fearfully strained by allowing this... this... sideshow exhibit to take up residence, however temporary, in two very useful rooms, the purpose of which would be far better served in accommodating treatable patients, patients to whom this hospital was originally dedicated? I believe we have a duty... Carr Gomm still smiles. Treves is about to spring to Merrick's defense, but Carr Gomm catches his eyes and motions for him to remain silent. Treves is perplexed. Carr Gomm checks his pocket watch. CUT TO MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick as before, busily working away. We see a ladybug crawling slowly across the roof of the cathedral. Merrick notices it and watches for a moment, then reaches up and lays a finger alongside the bug. The bug crawls onto his finger and Merrick holds it closer to him. MERRICK ...Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home... it's cloudy out, I know, but remember; behind the clouds there is always the sun. CUT TO WHITECHAPEL ROAD We see a Royal carriage glide to a stop in front of the hospital. A footman jumps down and opens the door. A very elegantly dressed woman begins to emerge. CUT TO COMMITTEE ROOM Broadneck is still talking. BROADNECK ...In light of these facts, our course is clear. The question is not whether to accept this creature as a patient, the question is when will those rooms be vacated for use by better qualified, more deserving cases? I move that this Elephant Man be removed from the premises immediately. We have a sacred duty to cure the sick, not care for circus animals. That is my last word on the subject. Mr. Chairman, shall we vote? Broadneck turns to Carr Gomm. Carr Gomm checks his watch and clears his throat. CARR GOMM I take it, Mr. Broadneck, that your mind is fixed on this matter? Broadneck blusters with rage. BROADNECK Mr. Chairman! Don't you have ears? I am unalterably opposed to any... Carr Gomm smiles and again checks his watch. Treves is very nervous. CUT TO HALLWAY We see two nurses, their backs to us, walking down the hall. They start to go in a doorway when they stop suddenly, very startled, and curtsey deeply. Mothershead comes into the hall, also curtseying madly. She is followed by the elegantly dressed woman, who is followed in turn by two footmen. They walk regally down the hall. CUT TO COMMITTEE ROOM BROADNECK ...No, my mind is made up on this, and I am resolved to stand firm. You shall not sway me. May we now vote, Mr. Chairman, at long last? Carr Gomm checks his watch. The door to the room begins to open. He smiles. CARR Yes, I believe that time has come. The two footmen enter the room. 1ST FOOTMAN Gentlemen, Her Royal Highness Alexandra, Princess of Wales. The elegantly dressed woman enters. Everyone rises. ALIX Good morning, gentlemen. I hope I am not interrupting? CARR Indeed not, your Highness. Your presence is always greatly appreciated. We were just about to put the matter of Mr. Merrick to a vote. (he turns to the other committee members) The Princess is very interested in Mr. Merrick's fate. ALIX Indeed I am sir, as is the Queen. I have a brief communication from her Highness which she has requested I read to you: To the Governing Committee, London Hospital. I would very much like to commend you for the charitable face you have shown Mr. John Merrick, the Elephant Man. It is laudable that you have provided one of England's most unfortunate sons with a safe and tranquil harbour, a home. For this immeasurable kindness, as well as the many other acts of mercy on behalf of the poor, of which Mr. Carr Gomm has kept me informed, I gratefully thank you. Signed Victoria, Empress of India, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (looking straight at Broadneck) I am sure you gentlemen may be counted on to do the Christian thing. Alix seats herself. CARR Thank you very much, your Highness, you may be sure we shall. Broadneck seems very unnerved. CARR Well then, I move that Mr. John Merrick be admitted to the London Hospital on a permanent basis, on condition that the Hospital shall receive a yearly payment equal to the cost of occupying one bed, and that the funds for his care shall be clearly separate from hospital funds. All those in favor. Carr Gomm raises his hand. The other members, puzzled, look at Broadneck. Quite red in the face, Broadneck looks at Carr Gomm, then to Treves, then to the Princess. He seems to almost deflate, then slowly raises his hand. The other members, now thoroughly confused, raise their hands as well. Carr Gomm bangs his gavel, smiling broadly. Treves is almost beside himself with happiness, and the Princess is obviously very pleased. CARR The motion is carried. Broadneck, humiliated, cannot look at anyone. CARR Well, now we may go about our normal business. MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick is working on his cathedral. It is almost finished. He is detailing the spire, carefully painting in the stonework. There is a knock at the door. MERRICK Please, come in. Treves enters carrying a wrapped parcel, followed by Carr Gomm, and Mothershead. TREVES (smiling broadly) Good afternoon, John, Mr. Carr Gomm has something he would like to say to you. Treves defers to Carr Gomm. CARR Mr. Merrick, it is my great pleasure to welcome you, officially to The London Hospital. The Governing Committee this morning voted unanimously to provide you these rooms on a permanent basis. This is your home now. I'm so very, very pleased for you. Merrick is speechless. He just looks from Treves to Carr Gomm to Mothershead. TREVES So you see, John, there's no need for a lighthouse. All your friends are here. MOTHERSHEAD Welcome home, John. Merrick finds it very difficult to speak. MERRICK ...my... home? TREVES Yes, John. MERRICK You did this for me? TREVES Yes. MERRICK Please... please thank the governing committee for me. I will do my utmost to merit their kindness. Merrick looks about him at his rooms. It's beginning to dawn on him that this is indeed his, that at last he has a real home, a place of his own. MERRICK (trying the words on for size) My home. TREVES There is one more thing, John. Here. Treves hands Merrick the package. Merrick carefully pulls off the wrapping paper. Treves smiles. It's the dressing bag. Merrick is overjoyed with the gift. He lovingly handles the articles, taking them in and out of their compartments opening and closing the bag. TREVES Is it the one you wanted? MERRICK Oh, Mr. Treves. Mr. Treves. TREVES Are you sure? Because I can take it back. MERRICK Mr. Treves. Thank you my... friends. NIGHT TIME SKY Clouds billowing, moving swiftly. MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick is alone, wearing his cloak and standing by the table, cradling the dressing bag. He takes each article out of the bag and lays it carefully on the table, all in very neat order. He stares at the elegant objects, then rearranges them. Merrick picks up the toothbrush, examining it with a sort of reverence. He does the same with the ivory-handled razors and the comb. THE PEACOCK - WHITECHAPEL There's a good crowd in tonight; lots of drinking and shouting and glasses breaking. Several of the neighborhood "working girls" are having a bit of a rest, looking for a laugh. The Night Porter is rounding up customers, his pockets ringing with coins. People have their hands raised urging the Night Porter to take them along to see The Elephant Man. The Night Porter goes to a table where a MAN sits with two of the girls. MAN Here now, these lovely ladies ain't never seen it! NIGHT PORTER (to Man) You're on mate. (to all the others) Alright, alright, that's enough for this performance. The others all moan their disappointment. NIGHT PORTER Hang on, hang on, there's always tomorrow night. Not to worry. Bytes, sitting at his usual place at the bar, sees that tonight is his chance. The Night Porter rounds up his "customers", all twelve of them. Bytes saunters over to the Night Porter. BYTES Room for one more? NIGHT PORTER At the right price... Bytes drops several coins in the Night Porter's hand. NIGHT PORTER There's room. BYTES Well, let's be off then. The whole group happily leaves the pub, several still holding their gin bottles. The Ladies are rather unsteady on their feet. As they all leave, the Night Porter says: NIGHT PORTER Quietly now! Quietly! We don't want to scare him. (he laughs) MERRICK'S ROOM (Merrick as before) he reaches over to the picture of Mrs. Kendal and picks it up. We see his face reflected in the glass. Merrick sets the picture down on the table. He takes up one of the silver brushes and, using the picture as a mirror, neatly brushes his hair over his monstrous skull. He lays the brush down in its specific spot. Merrick takes his ring and puts it on his left hand. He opens the cigarette case and stuffs one into his right hand. He takes up his walking stick, breathes deeply, then walks around the room in a slow circle. Merrick is transforming himself. Merrick comes back to the table and examines his reflection in the picture. With the ring, the stick, the cigarette and his neatly brushed hair, Merrick is the very image of a dashing young man about town. He inclines his head to the picture. MERRICK Hello, my name is John Merrick. I am very, VERY pleased to meet you! At this moment the door bursts open. The Night Porter stands grinning. NIGHT PORTER Curtain time!!! Merrick is frozen, caught. Seeing Merrick in his outfit, the Night Porter's jaw drops. They both stare at each other. The Night Porter begins to laugh hysterically. Merrick frantically begins to put away his dressing bag articles. When Merrick starts taking off his ring, the Night Porter comes over to him and grabs him by the cloak. NIGHT PORTER No, no! You look lovely. Don't change a thing, darling. You look like the bleedin' Prince of Wales. The Night Porter drags him by the neck to the window. He throws the window open out in the square is the waiting audience. NIGHT PORTER My friends... The Elephant Man! He strips off Merrick's cloak. The audience gasps. A few people who have been before laugh and clap. MAN (W/THE WHORES) (laughing and clapping) Horrible... I told you it was horrible... just horrible. He starts kissing each whore. The crowd is mesmerized. Bytes moves in behind the Man with the Whores. BYTES (to Man) Perhaps the ladies would like a closer look? The Man begins to laugh. The Whores laugh drunkenly and halfheartedly resist being taken in to see The Elephant Man. As they are pushed through the door, WHORES Come on Jack... No... No, don't. (laughter) Etc. The Whores reluctantly enter the room. The Night Porter laughs at their discomfort. The Man notices all of Merrick's pictures of women. MAN 'Cor, he's a real ladies' man, come on... give the ladies' man a kiss. He lets one of the whores go and grabs the other one from behind at the wrists. MAN Come on, you'll give him a kiss. WHORE (still laughing but a trifle scared) Come on, Jack. The Night Porter has turned Merrick and is holding him for the approaching kiss. The crowd is egging them on. The man forces the Woman closer and closer and raises her arms to force her into an embrace. As Merrick and the Woman touch, being pressed together, the Woman begins to scream. The Night Porter, the Man and the crowd all laugh with glee. Merrick and the whore now have their faces pressed together. The Whore is screaming and Merrick is crying out and screaming too. MAN Here that's enough romance. Now into bed. Merrick and the Whore are pushed onto Merrick's bed. The Night Porter grabs the other Whore now. She begins screaming wildly. NIGHT PORTER A prince needs a harem! He pushes the screaming Whore down onto Merrick. Her screaming face goes right into his. Merrick tries to move away and as he does his head goes too far back and his cried turn to horrible wheezing. NIGHT PORTER Mind his head... You'll kill him. The crowd outside is trying to see in the window. Five or six more have gone into Merrick's room to see. All are laughing and screaming and trying to get a close look at The Elephant Man. NIGHT PORTER (yelling) Quiet down. Quiet down. You'll have the whole place down on us. BYTES (outside, yelling loudly) Bring him out then, so's we all can see him. Merrick recognizes his voice and looks frantically around for his former owner. The Night Porter pulls Merrick up by the window again. He then begins pushing the crowd out the door. NIGHT PORTER Everyone outside!!! Suddenly one of the crowd outside reaches up and grabs Merrick's good hand and pulls him half out the window. Others follow suit and haul him all the way through. The cathedral falls to the floor, breaking into several pieces. Because of the horror of touching him, the crowd outside lets Merrick fall to the ground. The Night Porter whirls around and sees that Merrick is gone. He pushes the rest of the people outside and quickly goes to Merrick, lifting him to his feet. Unseen by anyone, Bytes slips into Merrick's room. Merrick is now standing. The crowd moves in. The Night Porter is enjoying the festivities, but looks around nervously for trouble. ONE MAN Give 'im a drink. The Man grabs Merrick and pours some gin into his mouth, then pushes him away. He's caught by another man, fed liquor and pushed away. He's pushed now from person to person faster and faster. Finally Merrick falls to the ground, dizzy and a bottle of gin on Merrick's head. He coughs and moans through the wheezing. The crowd is now strangely silent circling The Elephant Man like a pack of dogs closing in on a terrified rabbit. Suddenly Merrick starts to wail. The crowd joins in and they hoist him above their heads, screaming with laughter, around and around, joining him all the while. Now we see a window reflecting the scene of terror. A curtain is pulled aside and we see through the reflection the face of the Young Porter, watching everything. NIGHT PORTER (V.O. THE REFLECTION) Here now... Here now... He's had enough... show's over! Merrick is lowered down into the crowd. it parts and the Night Porter emerges walking Merrick toward us to his room. NIGHT PORTER (to the crowd behind him) Meet you at the Peacock. ONE OF THE CROWD Bring your friend. NIGHT PORTER (laughs drunkenly) He's had 'is fill for one night. The crowd moves through the iron gate of Bedstead Square. In the background we see Bytes' boy sitting on top of a wagon. The Night Porter takes Merrick into his room and puts him on the bed. He drunkenly stumbles about trying to out the room in order. He places the smashed hulk of the cathedral back up on its table, inadvertently leaving the spire and a few columns on the floor. He picks the cloak up and replaces it on the peg. NIGHT PORTER (to Merrick) I did real well tonight. He takes a purse full of coins out of his pocket. He removes one small coin and flips it on the floor in front of Merrick. NIGHT PORTER Here... buy yourself a sweet. The Night Porter turns and leaves. Merrick, alone now, hears the Night Porter's echoing footsteps and the distant sound of the gate being closed. There is a long silence as Merrick collects himself. He then leans back into his pillows with a deep sigh. His eyes close. BYTES (V.O.) My treasure... Merrick's eyes flash open. We see Bytes coming toward him. BYTES Aren't you glad to see me? MERRICK Bytes! Bytes lifts Merrick up off the bed. He reaches out for Merrick's cloak. We slowly PAN over all the smiling women's faces as we hear the following: BYTES (V.O.) Get into your cloak... (rustling sound) ...now, your hood... do it! MERRICK (V.O.) ...Alright. Rustling sound. We now glide slowly on to Merrick's Mother's picture. BYTES (V.O.) Let's go. Merrick's good hand comes into the frame trying to reach his mother's picture. He grabs at the table cloth and pulls. Now we see Bytes gripping Merrick's arm and pulling. We see the picture fall to the ground with a THUD. CUT TO: In the sky the heavy clouds are moving. CUT: MERRICK'S ROOM (MORNING) Morning sunlight on the floor of Merrick's room. We move slowly around, discovering the church spire, the columns, the penny and Merrick's mother's picture. Over this, the sound of knocking on the door. Through the door, we hear Treves calling, "John?... John?" More knocking. The door opens. TREVES John? Treves surveys the empty room. Quickly he goes into the side bathroom. He comes out with a very worried face. He goes to the cathedral model and is horrified by its condition. He finds the spire and then Merrick's Mother's picture. He quickly leaves the room and walks down the hall. The Young Porter, waiting in the hall, approaches Treves and stops him. YOUNG PORTER Mr. Treves? Now we see Mrs. Mothershead entering Merrick's room surveying the same scene. Her face hardens as she sees the picture of Merrick's Mother. MOTHERSHEAD Good God... John? Now we see Treves filled with anger. He's got the information from the Young Porter and bolts down the hall at full speed. Mothershead, still in Merrick's room, now become activated with determination to get to the bottom of all this herself. She leaves the room. In the distance is Treves marching off. Closer to her is the Young Porter, looking worried. She calls him to her. CLOSE-UP of Treves angrily walking. CUT TO: Mothershead leaves the Young Porter, furiously marching off in the same direction as Treves. OPERATING THEATRE The Night Porter is adding fresh coal to the operating room stove. The old coals were still quite hot and now smoke begins to rise. The Night Porter takes up the bellows and begins to pump the coals into a blaze. The door bangs open and Treves is there, standing stock still, in a cold murderous rage. TREVES WHERE IS HE? The Night Porter, frightened by Treves' intensity, begins to sputter. TREVES WHERE IS MR. MERRICK? NIGHT PORTER I... I don't know what you mean, Sir. Treves stalks over to him. TREVES Don't lie to me. I know all about it. You were SEEN. Where did you take him? NIGHT PORTER Take him? Now wait... I didn't take him anywhere. We were just having some fun. We didn't hurt him... just having a laugh, that's all. TREVES HE'S GONE! NIGHT PORTER When I left him, he was in his bed, safe and sound. TREVES YOU BASTARD! You tortured him. YOU TORTURED HIM, you bastard. WHERE is HE? NIGHT PORTER (enraged) YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME! I ain't done nothing wrong. People pay to see your monster, Mr. Treves. I just take the money. TREVES YOU'RE THE MONSTER! YOU'RE THE FREAK! GET OUT! YOU'RE FINISHED! Treves takes the Night Porter by the arm and begins to drag him out. The Night Porter throws his hand off violently, whirls around, his back to the door, and seizes the poker from the stove. NIGHT PORTER Have a care, Mr. Treves. I ain't afraid of you! You and your bleedin' Elephant Man! I'm glad what I did! And you can't do nothing! Only Mothershead can sack me. Treves, blind with fury, tears the poker from the Night Porter's hand, and is on the verge of using it. Unbeknownst to them, Mothershead has storm into the room, just in time to hear the last of the Night Porter's speech. Without a break, she strides over to him and with a lightning movement, boxes him soundly on the ears. The blow is staggering and makes quite a formidable sound. The Night Porter falls to the floor, barely conscious. MOTHERSHEAD Done. OUTSIDE THE SHOP (DAY) Treves is standing in the street looking at the now bare shop front. He walks to the window and tries to clean a small circle in the glass. He peers in. From inside, through the smeared dirty window, we see Treves' distorted face. CARR (V.O. THROUGHOUT) I'd like to think I felt no less for John than you, Treves, but face the facts, the man has disappeared, very likely to the continent. There's no question of your going after him, you're desperately needed here by your patients. Remember Treves, you did everything in your power... everything in your power. FADE TO BLACK: INSIDE A WAGON A moving circle of light in blackness. As we move closer to the light, it becomes distinguishable as a peephole in the side of a wagon. Through the peephole we see a dark overcast sky. It is dusk. We move even closer to the hole. Just beside it we see the head of a horse with blinders on moving alongside. We move closer still to see its rider, a policeman. He notices the peephole and leans forward in the saddle, looking in. From outside, we see the peephole and an eye gazing out. The eye is replaced by a plug. The policeman starts back and pulls up on the reins. As he falls behind we see the portrait of the E.M., from the front of the shop in London, on the back of the wagon. The policeman looks at the poster. The wagon moves on out of frame and the policeman slows his horse to a stop. The wagon is being driven by Bytes. The boy sits beside him. Another policeman rides abreast of him. They ride a few yards more and then the policeman stops by a sign at the fork of the road, reading "AALST 30 km". "Brussells 80 km." The policeman gestures for Bytes to move on. The wagon continues down the road. CUT TO: Bytes and the boy are riding along the road. Bytes turns in his seat and opens a hatch in the roof. He looks down in. Inside the wagon, lit by the last dregs of the sunset, is Merrick, huddled in his sleeping posture. He feels the light and looks up weakly, wheezing, obviously very sick. A small bowl of potatoes sets untouched beside him. BYTES Still haven't eaten, eh? MERRICK Bytes... please! BYTES Eat, my treasure, I want you healthy. He snaps the hatch shut and turns forward muttering to himself. BYTES I'm beginning to feel your weight. FIELD & ROAD (MORNING) We see a field with a road in the distance, leading to it. It is misty, the sun barely peeking through the rolling clouds above. On the road, the wagon is plodding toward us. At the bottom of the frame a FEMALE PINHEAD in a dress comes into view. She is watching the wagon. A DWARF comes into view beside her. She points to the wagon and she and the Dwarf excitedly confer. They turn back to watch its progress and the Dwarf reaches up and takes the Pinhead's hand. We move back slowly to reveal a ring of circus wagons in the field. ANOTHER DWARF comes up to the two other Freaks and watches the wagon. We pull back further to see a small circus. There are little stalls, and cages containing two mangey lions, some screeching spider monkeys and some squawking parrots. The circus is abustle in the drab grey field. CLOSE-UP of the Pinhead jumping up and down in her excitement. There is a clap of thunder. DISSOLVE TO: A rainstorm over the freak show. We pass along the row of freak wagons. These freaks truly deserve the name. They are quite different from the rather domestic ones we saw in the circus in England. These are not fakes. A rope cordons us off from them. The audience, which we see all around us, is enjoying the freaks, but there is a sense of vulgarity in their gaiety. They seem hard, and cold and jaded. We move by pinheads, a Hermaphrodite and a Legless Wonder. Some Siamese Twins are playing cat's cradle. Past them runs a Dwarf with a plumed hat playing a small flute. Trailing behind him on a string is a small wooden ark on wheels. A lionfaced man is combing the hair that covers his face. A Rubber Man pulls the skin of his neck up over his face. There is a fairly big crowd standing around a Tall Man, affectionately rubbing the Small Parasitic Twin, growing out of his chest. The Barker-Owners compete with each other and the occasional thunder. Finally we hear the patter of Bytes, telling of the horrible fate of John Merrick's Mother on that African Isle so many years ago. A very big crowd is listening to him. They are looking at the poster at the back of the wagon, waiting impatiently to see the Elephant Man. BYTES ...The result is plain to see. Ladies and Gentlemen... THE TERRIBLE ELEPHANT MAN! He raps twice with Merrick's silver-tipped walking stick and pulls the poster up. Merrick is standing unsteadily in the wagon. He is quite sick. The audience gasps and shudders. A few shrieks are heard. The Elephant Man is always the Elephant Man. BYTES Turn around! Merrick slowly turns around, the audience gasping at the sight of the horrible tumors. Bytes raps the walking stick twice. BYTES Dance! Merrick begins a series of awkward movements, his pained version of a dance. Without his walking stick it is very difficult for him, but he strives to do it. Some of the crowd laughs at this, others shudder at the strange sight. Suddenly Merrick falters and comes to a stop, breathing irregularly. Seeing this, Bytes goes to him and bringing the stick behind Merrick, out of view of the audience, jabs him savagely in the back. BYTES Dance! Merrick groans with pain and some of the people in the first row flinch back. Merrick begins to dance again as people throw coins onto the stage, which the boy gathers and puts into a cap. FADE OUT: CUT TO: THE BACK OF THE WAGON - DAY The poster is rolled up, Merrick on the floor of the wagon wheezing horribly. Beside him on the floor is a bowl of what looks to be slop and potatoes. Bytes is standing at the back of the wagon looking down at Merrick. He picks up the bowl and jabs it at Merrick. BYTES Eat, my treasure. Merrick looks wearily at the bowl but makes no move to accept it. BYTES (angry) Eat. I said eat! Merrick closes his eyes. This really enrages Bytes. BYTES Eat, damn you. EAT! EAT! He jabs the bowl at Merrick, almost as if he'd shove it down his throat. BYTES I said EAT!! At this last word he throws the contents of the bowl splattering in Merrick's face. He stands for a moment looking down at Merrick who has lapsed into a coughing fit. FADE OUT: CUT TO: SIDE OF THE WAGON - DAY There is a small crowd gathered in a circle on the grass. Merrick stands amidst them on a small wooden stool, Bytes jabbing him from behind again. Merrick is making a strange moaning cry, slightly reminiscent of the trumpet of an elephant. The boy is passing amongst the people with a cap, collecting coins. Merrick lifts his face to the sky, the sound of his own misery mingling with his elephant call. FADE OUT: CUT TO: SMALL CIRCUS - NIGHT We see the poster of the Elephant Man. Bytes stands before it saying the last of the patter. BYTES The result is plain to see. Ladies and gentlemen... THE TERRIBLE ELEPHANT MAN. He raps twice with the walking stick and pulls the poster up. Merrick is now extremely sick. He almost looks as if he is unable to stand. The audience, as always, is quite alarmed. Bytes smiles and comes forward. BYTES Turn around! Merrick looks incapable of even this simple movement, but he slowly manages to turn. The crowd reacts to the horrible condition of Merrick's back and head. Bytes satisfied that the Elephant Man is having the proper effect, raps the walking stick again. BYTES Dance! Merrick's eyes look painfully up to the heavens and he begins to shuffle clumsily about the platform. Without his stick this is very difficult for him, causing him great pain. It is a humiliating spectacle and the crowd unimpressed by the halting movements of the monster begins to heckle him. Bytes seeing that the dancing isn't being received well moves to place a stool next to Merrick. BYTES (rapping) Up! Up! Merrick, already exhausted by his little dance, wheezes and coughs, attempting to ascend the stool. It is useless, he is just too tired. Again the audience shouts its disapproval, booing and hissing the Elephant Man. Bytes curses and raps again, demanding obedience from Merrick who again bravely tries to mount the stool. He cannot do it! Bytes, striving to save the moment and please the angry crowd, goes to Merrick and roughly helps him up. Merrick teeters precariously on the stool. Bytes raps the stick. BYTES Give the call of the elephant! Merrick hesitates and Bytes bangs the stick on the wagon. The audience quiets down to hear the elephant call. Merrick senses this lull, but he is very frightened and sick. He lifts his head wearily and makes a few wavering cries that sound very little like an elephant. BYTES Louder! Merrick tries again but there is no improvement. The crowd begins to jeer at Merrick, exhorting him to make the call of the elephant. Merrick is now almost swaying on the stool. He attempts to step down, but as he does it finally becomes too much for him and he collapses into a heap on the wagon floor. The crowd is no longer in the least bit challenged by this piteous mess and they break out into a vocal fury, throwing objects at the wagon. Bytes is humiliated at first, and then is quickly angry. He turns to Merrick. BYTES Get up you miserable bastard! But Merrick just lays there moaning and wheezing irregularly. BYTES I SAID, GET UP! He jabs Merrick a few times with the silver-tipped walking- stick. The crowd jeers even louder still. There is a clap of thunder. BYTES (realizing it's no use) I'm beatin' a dead horse. FADE OUT: CUT TO: SMALL CIRCLE OF WAGONS (NIGHT) Bytes is seated by a campfire drinking from a bottle of wine. He is very drunk. From the wagon behind him we can hear Merrick coughing and wheezing. We also hear the boy, almost pleading with Merrick to stop coughing and to try to eat. As Bytes listens he gets angrier and angrier. Finally he rises clumsily to his feet and stumbles over to the back of the wagon. BYTES Another bleedin' heart! The boy is crouched over Merrick, who looks little better than a corpse. Bytes points a menacing finger at Merrick. BYTES You sly bastard. You're doing this to spite me, aren't you! BOY Aw, Bytes, he's sick. BYTES He's doing it to spite me, I tell you, and it's got to stop! BOY He's sick, Bytes. He's going to die. BYTES (enraged) If he does it's his own fault! But I'm not burying that swollen bag of flesh. He reaches in and grabs Merrick roughly by his arm, dragging him out of the wagon. BOY What are you going to do? BYTES I'll show you! I'll show you! He drags Merrick across the way to a small monkey wagon. The boy follows, his face filled with sympathy for Merrick. Bytes opens the cage door and stuffs Merrick in as the monkeys scream. BOY Don't! BYTES Shut up! He slams the door and latches it. Then he quickly turns, still in his rage, and starts for the wagon. As he passes the boy, the boy tries to stop him. BOY Bytes, please... Bytes knocks the boy down with the back of his hand. He stalks to his wagon and climbs inside. After some muffled sound, Merrick's food bowl comes flying out. There are more muffled sounds as Merrick's stick, cloak and hood are also thrown out one by one. BYTES Out! The boy looks to Merrick who is in a panic trying to keep himself away from the monkeys who scream loudly in all the excitement. We hear Bytes, cursing to himself, in the wagon. The boy, frightened, goes to the fire and pulls a blanket around him. Merrick crawls to one corner of the cage away from the screaming monkeys. Suddenly one of the braver ones leaps at Merrick with a scream, biting him on the arm, and moving quickly away. Merrick yelps with pain and struggles to move away. The other monkeys have gotten the idea now and they begin to move warily toward Merrick, screeching threateningly. Another leaps out and clings to Merrick's shoulder, biting and scratching furiously then he too jumps away. Merrick cries out. Now the monkeys are getting braver and more and more of them lash out at Merrick with their paws. They jump onto him with savage screams, biting him on the head and neck and shoulders. Merrick's eyes search for escape. The monkeys come on and on without a break, screaming madly all the while. With his good hand Merrick begins to pull himself up with the aid of a bar. The monkeys strive to pull him down. Merrick looks through the bars at the wagon and screams frantically. MERRICK Bytes! Bytes, please!! But Bytes won't come. Something is happening inside Merrick. A wave of feeling is growing, coming from a place in him very deep down and far away. This feeling seems to give him strength and he is able to pull himself all the way up in spite of the hairy moving mass that now seems to cling to every part of his body. The feeling is surging up inside Merrick making his body shake uncontrollably as if he were a volcano about to erupt. The monkeys keep on biting and screeching, pulling at him. Suddenly a formidable cry rings out of Merrick's mouth, with a power and assurance we have never heard from him before. He whirls about and cries out again a shattering "No", the force of which scatters most of the monkeys away from him onto the cage floor, dumbfounded. Merrick grabs a monkey who has managed to hang and throws it into the group of monkeys on the floor. MERRICK NO! I AM NOT AN ELEPHANT! I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!! I AM A HUMAN BEING! I... AM... A MAN! I AM A MAN!! The monkeys have been shocked into silence, pushed into the other end of the cage. Merrick, perhaps as surprised as the monkeys, rests against the bars of the cage. The monkeys make no move toward him. They sit across the cage from Merrick silently watching him with fear. FADE OUT: CUT TO: THE SILENT FACES OF THE MONKEYS We now see Merrick crouched in a corner of the cage in his sleeping position. We see the monkeys again, and hear whispering in the still night. CU of merrick's head resting on his knees. The whispering continues and a shadow falls across Merrick. Merrick begins to stir, his head comes up, and he looks around. The whispering stops. We pull back to see some of the freaks from the circus gathered around the monkey cage in a small group. They are: 2 pinheads (male and female), the dwarf we saw earlier with the plumed hat and the ark on a string, another male dwarf, a female midget, a lion-faced man, and an armless wonder. The female pinhead reaches into the cage and pats Merrick's head. PLUMED DWARF You alright? MERRICK y-y-yes-- PLUMED DWARF Want to come out? MERRICK You're English. PLUMED DWARF Of course! You want out? MERRICK Yes. PLUMED DWARF Won't be a moment. He looks to the lion-faced man and speaks to him in a foreign tongue. The lion-faced man unlatches the cage door. Then, after further instruction, from the plumed dwarf, the freaks gently help Merrick out of the cage, closing the door behind him. The dwarf speaks to the others again and the lion-faced man and the armless wonder move to each side of Merrick. The lion-faced man pulls Merrick's right arm over his shoulder. Merrick puts his left arm around the armless wonder. PLUMED DWARF We've decided... You've got to get away from here... He and the other dwarf light two lanterns and they begin to move off. The boy by the wagon has awakened. He sees the small caravan of freaks moving in the darkness, the light from the lanterns bobbing over the grass. His first instinct is to call for Bytes, which he almost does, but then he thinks better of it. He rises and goes to where Bytes threw Merrick's stick and disguise. He nicks them up and goes to the small band of strangely shaped beings. They stop and watch him warily. BOY (handing over the things) Here... you'll need these. Merrick looks the boy in the eye, and the boy holds his gaze. PLUMED DWARF Good of you, mate. BOY (to Merrick) Good luck. MERRICK But... but... BOY I'll be alright. The small band moves away through the wagons. The boy watches the lantern light receding in the darkness. He turns and looks to the wagon, the poster of the Elephant Man, and the dying fire. He moves to the fire quickly collecting a few blankets and belongings. Then taking one last look at the garish poster just visible in the night, he runs off into the darkness. CUT TO: WOODS - NIGHT We see the beams of the lanterns moving through the trees like will-o-the-wisps. They help Merrick along, the plumed Dwarf directing them from time to time. As they move along we see them pass a small still pond. CUT TO: DIRT ROAD - NIGHT The intrepid freaks approach a bend in the road. They go around the corner and before them stands a small train station, a train sitting amongst the steam by a platform. The freaks stop just outside the light of the station and the plumed Dwarf's instruction get Merrick into his disguise. The female pinhead, who has carried his stick, hands it to Merrick, squeezing his hand. MERRICK Thank you, my friends. The plumed Dwarf relays the message and the freaks respond to Merrick in their language. PLUMED DWARF I'll go in with you, you'll need a ticket. He turns and confers with the freaks who all rifle through their pockets and produce some coins. Then he and Merrick walk into the station, the freaks watching and waving. ON THE PLATFORM The train is about to leave. At a barrier two ticket collectors are taking tickets of a few last-minute passengers, who hurry off. The Plumed Dwarf and Merrick appear and walk to the barrier. The Plumed Dwarf hands over the ticket. PLUMED DWARF I'm just going to help my friend on board. They walk off down the platform. The collectors stare after them. The Plumed Dwarf, his arm around Merrick, is helping him down the platform, as fast as possible, his ark trailing behind him. As they pass the windows of the first-class carriages, we see the ornate interiors and the happy, handsome people on their plush seats. The Plumed Dwarf finds an empty compartment and opens the door. PLUMED DWARF This'll do. He looks down the platform. The Ticket Collectors are watching them with great interest. Merrick climbs laboriously aboard. The other people on board see Merrick, react, and move away from him as far as they can in the cramped, 3rd class carriage. The Plumed Dwarf notices this and sniffs at the people with contempt. PLUMED DWARF I'm sorry I could only get you a third class ticket, but it's all we had. MERRICK Oh no, my friend... PLUMED DWARF Say hello to London for me. I miss her. MERRICK Oh, yes. PLUMED DWARF You know, I saw you once there, in London. You're a great attraction. He grins. The whistle blows and the train slowly begins to move off. The Plumed Dwarf still holding the door open, walks along with it. PLUMED DWARF Luck, my friend, luck. Who needs it more than we? Merrick nods "yes", and holds out his hand. The train is moving a little faster. The Plumed Dwarf grabs his hand and they shake. He shuts the door. As the carriage passes, Merrick's mask is pressed up against the window. The Plumed Dwarf waves to him as the train moves away. He looks at the train for a moment, then walks back down the platform. THIRD CLASS CARRIAGE - INTERIOR Merrick is in the corner, facing into the carriage. He looks slowly around. The other passengers have moved away, forming almost a moat of space around him. We see the whole carriage now; the cowering people and Merrick at the far end. Seeing their silent, horrified stares, he moves to the opposite seat, facing the back wall. Merrick looks around for a moment, then sees his reflection in the window. He stares at himself. THIRD CLASS CARRIAGE The carriage is dark now, and empty except for Merrick. He looks out the window at a sign above a station platform that says "Oostende", and at the few people still walking about. OOSTENDE STATION PLATFORM (NIGHT) We see the side of the carriage. Merrick, inside the darkened car, is not visible. A CONDUCTOR walks to the end of the carriage and turns a valve. He opens the door to Merrick's compartment. CONDUCTOR I'm sorry, you'll have to leave now. Merrick is motionless, reluctant to leave the security of the darkness. CONDUCTOR This is the end of the line, you'll have to leave now. Merrick pulls his walking stick from the darkness and plants it firmly on the floor with a loud THUD. The Conductor, expecting violence, draws back. A few people on the platform, who have stopped to watch this exchange, gasp. Merrick rises with the help of his stick, and slowly descends from the carriage watched very carefully by the others. He looks around for a moment, then walks off down the platform. TWO YOUNG TOUGHS follow a little distance behind him, laughing and mimicking his uneven gait. OOSTENDE QUAY (NIGHT) We see a short line of people waiting to board a cross-channel steamer. The First-Mate is standing by the gangplank, smiling at the women passengers and making the most of his handsome face and crisp white uniform. He surveys the line, stops and smiles even more broadly. A very pretty Young Woman at the end of the line is smiling back. We see the end of the quay disappearing into darkness towards the station. The rhythmic sound of Merrick's stick is heard as he slowly moves into the light. The Woman, still smiling at the First-Mate, demurely lowers her eyes. Merrick appears behind her, breathing heavily from the long walk. The woman's face freezes. She turns her head, ever so slightly, and sees Merrick. Her face drops. The First-Mate sees the Woman change, then sees Merrick. He walks out of frame. Merrick is still trying to catch his breath as the First-Mate walks up. The Woman looks up at the First-Mate imploringly. FIRST-MATE May I see your ticket? Merrick, confused at first, produces his ticket from his cloak. The First-Mate examines it and hands it back. FIRST-MATE I'm sorry, there's no room for you on this ship, you'll have to wait for the next one, in the morning. Merrick remains motionless. FIRST-MATE You heard me. There's no room. Now be off with you. He points down the quay. Merrick turns and walks away. The Woman smiles gratefully at the Fist-Mate, who tips his hat. A WAREHOUSE PIER TWO DRUNKS are sitting against the wall, drinking and singing. One of them gets up and walks out of frame. Merrick peeks around a corner at the Drunk. They stare at each other for a long moment. Merrick disappears. The other Drunk comes back, sits down, and they both start singing again. Merrick is in darkness, seated around the corner, tapping his left hand against his leg, keeping in time with the drunken music. OOSTENDE QUAY (MORNING) We see Merrick behind some crates, watching the ship. On the wharf a different First-Mate waits until the last of the morning passengers board the ship. He then nods to the Ticket Taker and ascends the gangplank, nodding to a crew man. On board, everyone prepares to get underway. Merrick pitches forward from behind the crates, half running, half stumbling toward the Ticket Taker. The Ticket Taker, about to board the ship, drops the tickets on the ground and stoops to pick them up. As he collects the scattered tickets a hand comes into frame holding a ticket out to him. He reaches for it, and calls over his shoulder to the crewman at the plank. TICKET TAKER Wait! One more! He turns back and finally takes a look at the late arrival. TICKET TAKER You'll have to hurr... His mouth drops. Merrick hurries past him. The crewman now also sees the passenger as he begins his clumsy ascent of the gangplank. The shrill ship's whistle blows. ON BOARD Merrick is crouched in a dark corner underneath a stairway, his head resting on the points of both knees, his arms clasped around them. He is asleep. A few drops of rain fall and hit his cap, then a few more and finally it begins to rain. He wakes up and looks around. He hears a voice. YOUNG WOMAN (V.O.) Look! It's Dover! Through the stairs we see a young couple in the rain at the railing, arm in arm. The Young Woman points. The Young Man turns to her and smiles. YOUNG MAN Finally! Dover! They laugh and hug each other and run inside out of the rain. Merrick's hand comes into the shot, grasping a stair and pulling himself up slowly. He rounds the stairs and walks onto the deck looking after the young couple. Merrick walks to the railing and leans over it, oblivious of the rain. We see the cliffs of Dover. DOCKSIDE - DOVER The ship's gangplank leading down to a sea of umbrellas. Passengers one by one come down the plank and are swallowed by the crowd. On the dock amidst the umbrellas, we see Merrick. He looks around, then moves off into the crowd. The crowd moves past a sign saying, "To The Trains". LONDON TRAIN - INTERIOR Through a rain-streaked window we see rolling green countryside. We pull back to see an Elderly Man in a heavy black overcoat with a wide-brimmed rain hat eating an apple. Beside him his wife knits. A few other people similarly clothed are sleeping. We PAN across them to see Merrick at the back of the car watching the Elderly Man eat. LONDON TRAIN - EXTERIOR The last car speeds down the track and disappears. LIVERPOOL STREET STATION Grey light filters through the windows in the high canopy ceiling over the trains in the station. The platforms below fill with people as trains arrive and depart. We now see the station with its newsstands, sweetstalls, shoeshiners, and passengers moving to and fro, carrying luggage and looking for their train. A YOUNG BOY is seated on a pile of baggage looking very adult and bored. His MOTHER stands beside him, though we see only a portion of her billowy skirt. We hear her voice in rapid conversation with another Woman. The Young Boy scans the crowd looking for excitement. He sees something. The Elderly Man we saw on the train and his wife are moving past the barrier. The Young Boy slowly pulls a peashooter from a pocket, puts a pea in his mouth, and raises the pipe to his lips. His Mother's hand shoots out and grabs it. MOTHER'S VOICE Little beast! I thought mummy told you not to bring that horrid thing. Can't you behave? She continues her conversation. The Boy looks sour. Merrick is moving past the barrier. He stops to look around and plan his next move. The Boy sees him. He tugs on his Mother's skirt. BOY Mummy! Mummy! Look at that man! His head, it's huge! Mummy, why is his head so big? Mummy? Mummy? MOTHER Do be quiet Little Jim. Can't you see Mummy is speaking? Merrick still looking around, suddenly turns in Little Jim's direction. He sees the Boy tugging at his Mother's skirt and pointing at him. He turns and walks in the opposite direction along a wall stacked with trunks and luggage, trying as best as he can to blend in. Little Jim gets up and moves after him. Merrick continues along the wall. A few people give him a second look, but pass on. Little Jim comes up alongside him. LITTLE JIM Hey Mister, why is your head so big? Merrick turns and looks at Little Jim. He looks quickly around. We see, across the station, an open archway leading out into a street. Merrick moves away from Little Jim out of frame. Little Jim watches him go. LITTLE JIM Mister! Two other BOYS join Little Jim. The three of them watch the escaping Merrick, then move off after him. Merrick is frantically trying to make it to the archway. The three boys appear behind him and call out. BOYS Mister! Mister! LITTLE JIM Why don't you answer me? One of the boys reaches down and snatches the hem of Merrick's cloak. He lifts it, trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious stranger. Merrick pulls away and tries to go faster. Relishing the hunt, the boys follow him, taunting him all the way. As they approach the arch, Little Jim, determined now, steps in front of him cutting him off. Merrick comes to an abrupt standstill, shrinking from the boy. Little Jim reaches up to the hood and grasps it firmly. LITTLE JIM Now I'll see you... He lifts the hood and then staggers back onto the floor in a spasm of fear. He lets out a shrill scream. Merrick turns wildly away, looking for another escape. Little Jim's Mother, hearing her son's cries, looks up immediately. She sees Merrick and the howling boy in the middle of the station. MOTHER My son! My son! Help! Merrick, hearing this, looks in her direction and whirls away. He stumbles toward another archway exit. People, hearing the noise, watch him go. He knocks down a little girl in his flight and she, too, starts screaming. Through the archway comes a bobby. Jim's Mother, now with her son, calls to him. MOTHER Stop that man! Stop that man! Merrick stops at the sight of the bobby. The bobby at the arch, now aware of the commotion, sees Merrick and walks quickly towards him. Merrick changes course, but, a group of men, alerted by Jim's mother's screams, move forward together, cutting him off. They yell at him angrily. One of them darts toward him and grabs a hold of Merrick's hood. Merrick turns frantically away and as he does, the hood is pulled off him. The crowd shouts at him as he goes, following him in wary pursuit. He moves back past the children and Jim's Mother. They all scream and shield themselves from his approach. Another group of people move toward him blocking all escape. Behind him, he sees a door to a urinal. He moves through it followed by the crowd. We hear fearsome echoes inside. Inside the urinal, the crowd presses Merrick toward a wall. They have become angry now. They shout and there is fear in their voices. They hem Merrick in. He looks around hoping for an opening. There is none. He gives a strangled cry and collapses as the bobby pushes his way through the crowd. Merrick puts his good hand over his good ear trying to block out the screams of the crowd. MERRICK (quietly to himself) I am not an animal... I'm not... I'm not... I am a man. EXAMINING ROOM - LONDON HOSPITAL A small room off the Receiving Room. In the center of the room is a low sofa covered with deeply stained, shiny black leather. On it lies a man, groaning softly. Treves is helping a Dresser bandage the man's leg. Mrs. Mothershead appears at the doorway. MOTHERSHEAD There's a policeman to see you, Sir. The bobby from the Liverpool Street Station enters. BOBBY Are you Frederick Treves, sir? TREVES Yes... The card changes hands. THE URINAL Treves enters and pushes through the crowd. He sees Merrick in a heap on the floor. The SERGEANT gets up to meet him in the middle of the room, but Treves keeps walking toward Merrick. SERGEANT You know this man, sir? TREVES Yes, he's... my friend. Treves goes to Merrick who, just coming to, reaches out to him with his good hand. Treves pulls him up, his eyes brimming with tears. Merrick, too, is weeping. Treves embraces him. MERRICK Mr. Treves! Treves. TREVES John.... how can you ever forgive me? HALLWAY Treves, Carr Gomm and Mrs. Kendal are walking down a hallway engaged in conversation. KENDAL It's all arranged. I'll send over some evening gowns for the sisters that you select to accompany Mr. Merrick. You'll be using the Royal entrance and Princess Alexandra herself will be there to welcome him to her private box. TREVES I'm very grateful to you, Mrs. Kendal. This is just the thing to help him forget his ordeal. John will be very excited. KENDAL Well it is a miracle he ever got back. And, I'm sure, Mr. Treves, under your expert care, he'll have many happy years ahead. TREVES I fear not, Mrs. Kendal. Even in the short time he was gone the size of his head has increased rapidly... as is his pain. KENDAL How awful for John. TREVES And yet, not once have any of us heard him complain. KENDAL Is he... dying then? TREVES Yes. There is nothing more frustrating, nothing that makes a physician feel more useless, than standing by watching his patient deteriorate. And when that patient is a friend, no... no, there's absolutely nothing I can do. KENDAL Well, it's all quite... I've never heard... It's quite... TREVES (understandingly) Yes. MERRICK'S ROOM - MORNING Merrick stands before the row of smiling ladies on his wall. He surveys them lovingly for a long moment. He is holding in his hand a bundle of evening clothes, the handsome black bow tie lying on the new silk shirt. MERRICK You women are such strange and wonderful creatures... Alas, it seems to be my fate to fall in love with each and everyone of you. I especially wish you could all be with me tonight... I'm finally going to the theatre. He stands for a moment, reluctant to leave their company. He goes to his bed placing the clothes upon it, and then to the cathedral. He compares it with St. Phillips outside. He picks up the main spire and gazes at it, but his mind is somewhere else. MERRICK ...The theatre... CUT TO: THEATRE ROYAL - DRURY LANE We see the whole theatre. It is very ornate. The orchestra is tuning up and the house is filled with elegant, well dressed, handsome people all happily chatting and calling to one another. We see young men and women flirting boldly and generally enjoying each other's company. In the Royal Box Mothershead and Nora in evening gowns sit up front relishing the spectacle. In the back of the box John sits between Treves and the Princess. He is dressed in his evening clothes, his cloak tied over his shoulders like a cape, but he does not wear his hood. The Princess is explaining to Merrick the workings of a pair of opera glasses. He takes them and delightedly spies about the theatre. John is breathless as the house lights dim and the curtain rises. Enter chorus. CHORUS O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object: can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of Rance? Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million; And let us, ciphers to this great account, On your imaginary forces work. FADE OUT: CUT TO: Treves smiling at John. He exchanges knowing smiles with the Princess. John watches with the unconstrained delight of a child; but his rapture is even more intense and solemn. His attitude is one of wonder and awe, and he often leans forward, panting in his excitement. To John the characters are not actors in make-up and costume, but real people. CUT TO: Mrs. Kendal and an actor dressed as royalty doing the last scene of Henry the Fifth. K. HEN Fair Katharine, and most fair, will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms Such as will enter at a lady's ear And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? KATH Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England. K. HEN O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? KATH Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is "like me". K. HEN An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel. KATH O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de tramperies. K. HEN What say you, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of deceits? KATH Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits. K. HEN I know no way to mince it in love, but directly to say "I love you". What! A speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon, or rather the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. During the above, Merrick mouths the Kings lines. FADE OUT: CUT TO: The Royal Box, the Princess and the two friends enjoying the show. CUT TO: THE STAGE The chorus steps out to give the epilogue. CHORUS Thus far, with rough and allunable pen, Our bending author hath pursued the story, In little room confining mighty men, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. Small time, but in that small most greatly liv'd This star of England: Fortune made his sword; By which the world's best garden he achiev'd. During the above, the CAMERA moves in on John. Amidst great applause the curtain rings down. Through the curtain comes Mrs. Kendal to renewed applause. She motions the audience to quiet down. MRS. KENDAL Thank you for your warm greeting. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's performance was very special to me, because it was very special to someone else, a man who knows the theatre and loves the theatre, and yet tonight is the first time he's ever actually been here. I would like to dedicate... the whole company wishes to dedicate, from their hearts, tonight's performance to Mr. John Merrick, my dear friend. She gestures toward the Royal Box. There is modest applause as the audience rises and turns toward it. Merrick cannot be seen in the shadows, and the crowd cranes their necks trying to get a glimpse of him. We hear whispers of "Oh look! It's the Elephant Man! The Elephant Man!' run through the audience. Treves turns to John. TREVES Stand up, John. Let them see you. MERRICK Oh no, I couldn't. TREVES It's for you, John. It's all for you. Go ahead, let them see you. Merrick rises and comes forward to thunderous applause. The audience begins to rise and they clap their hands even louder. Merrick is overcome by the applause. Tears run down his cheeks. Treves, Nora, Mothershead and the Princess, filled with pride, beam at John. MERRICK (quietly, to Treves) I feel as if I've traveled my whole life just to stand here. CUT TO: MERRICK'S ROOM Merrick, in a night-shirt, is seated at his table working on his cathedral. Treves is nearby. MERRICK Wasn't Mrs. Kendal wonderful? I can't blame the King for wanting to marry her. Merrick closes his eyes and his head tilts forward slightly. It seems unbearably large: too large for him to support. TREVES Will the cathedral be finished soon, John? MERRICK Yes, very soon. TREVES Splendid. it's truly a masterpiece. Well, I suppose I'll be on my way now. I hoped your enjoyed yourself this evening. MERRICK Oh yes! It was wonderful! TREVES I'm glad, John. Goodnight. He turns and starts out the door. MERRICK Mr. Treves? Treves comes back to Merrick. TREVES Yes John? MERRICK Mr. Treves, tell me... tell me truly. Is it alright, did I make any mistakes that you can see? TREVES (looking at the cathedral) No, John, not one that I can see. MERRICK Then I shouldn't change anything? TREVES No, no, I wouldn't change a thing. The two look at each other silently. MERRICK ...I'll walk you to the door. Merrick rises and goes with Treves to the door. TREVES Goodnight John. Sleep well. MERRICK You too, my friend. Goodnight. Treves smiles at John then walks down the darkened hallway. Merrick watches him for a moment, then slowly shuts the door. We hear the distant echo of Treves footsteps. Merrick goes back to examine his cathedral, looking at it from different angles. He picks up a fine brush, dipping it into the paint, and makes a few final brush strokes. He moves back into the middle of the room and gazes at it for a long time. He lowers the brush to his side. MERRICK It is finished. The cathedral is a masterwork of detail and shading, as if it were St. Philips itself shrunk to a miniature. He goes to the table, dips the brush into the paint and carefully signs his name at the base of the main spire. MERRICK John... Merrick! He sighs deeply, lays the brush down on the table and pushes the model towards the window. The movement causes him pain. He puts his left hand up and feels the back of his head. Merrick turns out the lamp and goes to his bed. He looks at the cathedral again, then around at his room. We see in the dim light his books, his gallery of smiling women, his dressing bag, his cloak and hood, and finally his mother's picture on the table. A slight breeze billows the curtains. We move in very close to them. DISSOLVE TO: High altitude... roiling clouds with lightning flashes and low thunder. The sky is in turmoil. MERRICK (V.O.) When will the stream be aweary of flowing under my eye? Lightning flash... thunder roll. The clouds are mingling and scattering. MERRICK (V.O.) When will the wind be aweary of blowing over the sky? The clouds erupt, pushed onward and onward... they slowly begin to calm as... they turn slowly into... elephants linked trunk to tail moving slowly away from us... MERRICK (V.O.) When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting? The elephants are calmer than the skies we saw... they keep moving onward and onward... MERRICK (V.O.) When will the heart be aweary of beating.... A lacy curtain has taken the place of the sky. The elephants seem to be moving on it... into the distance. MERRICK (V.O.) ...and nature die? Knock, knock sound. The curtain moves to one side wiping the elephants away with it. There is no terrified audience behind the curtain. There is only light and Merrick's Mother smiling a calm and benign smile. JOHN'S MUM Never, oh! Never, nothing will die; the stream flows, the wind blows, the cloud fleets, the heart beats... The light grows brighter and brighter until we cannot see John's Mother anymore. It almost blinds us. JOHN'S MUM Nothing will die. WHITE OUT: CUT TO BLACK: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Elizabeth_ The Golden Age.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Elizabeth_ The Golden Age.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4da512eef8b856f0d6eeeb712a64c918ac6c0cf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Elizabeth_ The Golden Age.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE Written by William Nicholson & Michael Hirst 5th July 2006 (Dialogue printed in brackets to be translated and spoken in Spanish or German as appropriate, and sub-titled.) EXT. TITLE SEQUENCE P 1 Painted images of the Elizabethan age - CAPTION A world divided by religious hatred. The new Protestant faith is spreading. Bodies burned on a pyre - men writhing under torture - a momentary half-recognisable face, gaunt and staring - FATHER ROBERT RESTON. CAPTION The most powerful ruler in Christendom, Philip of Spain, has sworn to return all Europe to the Catholic faith. Images of rival monarchs Philip and Elizabeth in court paintings: stiff, formal, imperious. CAPTION Only England stands in his way: a weak impoverished nation ruled by a woman. Finally images of God in judgement, as if speaking to his chosen servant. CAPTION Philip prepares to obey the will2 of his God. INT. PRIVATE CHAPEL, ESCORIAL PALACE, SPAIN - DAY 2 Bn ascetic-looking man dressed in black kneels in a small plain chapel, in virtual darkness. PHILIP II, King of Spain bows his head low, abasing himself before his God. T S/I CAPTION: scorial Palace, Spain, 1585. Now, slowly, he raises his head. His eyes open, and we see there the glow of a new certainty. God has spoken to him. PHILIP (I hear. I obey. My Lord and my1 God.) May 1 Blue Draft--p.2 INT. HALLWAY/SALON, ESCORIAL PALACE - DAY3 3 Philip walks rapidly down a long corridor that opens out into a broader hallway, moving from the darkness of the chapel into ever brighter light and more visible glory. On his face the far shining gaze of a man who now knows his mission. Silent servants press themselves to the walls as he goes by. Through the hallway to a grand salon. COURTIERS fall silent and bow as he passes. So into the grandest salon of all, where his magnificent court is gathered; among them his 12-year-old daughter, the INFANTA. As he enters, all kneel. His eyes scan his ministers and courtiers, all kneeling, heads bowed before him. His gaze falls on one who wears the plain black robes of a Jesuit priest: Robert Reston, the face we glimpsed in the opening montage. He speaks to all. PHILIP (God has made his will known to me. The time for our great enterprise has come.) The Jesuit looks up and his eyes too show a powerful but disciplined satisfaction. He murmurs softly to himself. RESTON At last. Cathedral bells ring out. The cheers of a crowd are heard through the open windows. The king passes out onto the salon's first-floor balcony. EXT. BALCONY, ESCORIAL PALACE - DAY4 4 Hot sunlight. Philip stands gazing across the plaza at the great cathedral on the far side, as the bells ring out and the CROWD in the plaza below wave their hats and cheer. The Infanta is by his side. His MINISTERS cluster behind him. Lining the crowd on either side of the plaza stand columns of ARMED SOLDIERS: a formidable reminder of the king's power. Philip does nothing, but his presence intoxicates the crowd. As their cries swell, wave upon wave, the king's eyes glow and he breathes in deeply, feeding on his people's adoration. EXT. THAMES - DAY5 5 A ripple of light on the water. A blur of approaching colour. May 1 Blue Draft--p.3The ROYAL BARGE is gliding towards us, slowly taking shape:its hull gaily painted, its canopy adorned with colourfulfabrics, its banks of oars rising and falling, castingbright shards of shining water in the sunlight.P eople passing on the river bank point and wave, smiling,cheering. They see the Queen now. They call out.Two young men walking arm-in-arm stare more intently thanany; but they do not cheer or wave. There's somethingchilling in the way they track the distant figure of theQueen.They are BABINGTON and SAVAGE.Over this an insistent voice: HOWARD (V.O.) Why do you go among the people, majesty? I tell you plainly, you will be murdered! Every Catholic in England is a potential assassin! 4 INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY6 6 An agitated group is gathered in this room where the business of state is transacted. We catch glimpses of the Queen in their midst, preparing to leave, as her ministers try to persuade her of the seriousness of the situation: SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON, 30s, an ambitious courtier; LORD HOWARD, 50s, a weathered old campaigner; and standing back from the rest, watching from the side lines, SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM, the Queen's veteran friend and adviser. HATTON Be warned by the atrocities in France! God-fearing Christians murdered by Papist cut-throats inflamed by hatred of the truth! HOWARD We know the Catholics take their orders from Spain. The Spanish speak openly of Mary Stuart as Queen of England in waiting. ELIZABETH (sharply) Mary Stuart is a Queen cast out by her own ungrateful nation. HATTON With respect, majesty - a Catholic Queen. Your loyal Protestant supporters don't understand why Mary Stuart lives under our protection, at our expense - very considerable expense - ELIZABETH Mary Stuart is my cousin. She is our guest. And she is under our control. HOWARD But while she lives, majesty, she is a beacon that draws our enemies' eyes and hopes. ELIZABETH While she lives? HATTON She is the poison at the heart of England. The poison must be cut out. 4A ELIZABETH You'd have me make a martyr of her. What is her crime? EXT. THAMES - DAY7 7 The Londoners on the river bank cheer and wave as the royal barge goes by. HOWARD (V.O.) Treachery, ma'am. All Catholics are traitors! Their loyalty is to the Pope of Rome. ELIZABETH (V.O.) How many Catholics are there in England, sir? HOWARD (V.O.) Immense numbers, majesty! HATTON (V.O.) We believe half the nation clings to the old superstitions. 5 INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY8 8 ELIZABETH What would you have me do? `Cut out' half the people of England? HOWARD We must act, majesty. Our inaction is taken to be weakness. ELIZABETH If any of my people break the law, they will be punished. Until that day, I wish them to be let them alone. HATTON Until the day they rise in rebellion! Majesty, we have proven reason to fear every Catholic in the land - ELIZABETH Fear creates fear, sir. I will not punish my people for their beliefs. Only for their deeds. am assured that the people of England love their Queen. My constant endeavour is to earn that love. EXT. ROYAL BARGE, THAMES - DAY9 9 Londoners on the river banks wave and cheer. Elizabeth, seated on the royal barge, sees them with satisfaction. She gives an occasional slight inclination of her head in acknowledgement. Elizabeth sits with her favourite seated beside her, her youngest and prettiest maid of honour, BESS THROCKMORTON. Walsingham sits facing them, looking sourly at the cheering spectators. WALSINGHAM The people are agitated. ELIZABETH What people? 5A WALSINGHAM Your bishops are preaching that God is showing his displeasure- the Queen being still unmarried - some are saying infertile - ELIZABETH What nonsense! WALSINGHAM Dangerous nonsense. Mary Stuart has a son - ELIZABETH Why does everyone torment me with Mary Stuart? Pink Revision May 18- p.6 ELIZABETH(cont'd) It's not her fault that she's next in line to the throne. (to Bess) Don't hide your face.She leans over to brush a stray lock of hair from Bess'sface. WALSINGHAM So long as you have no issue. Elizabeth looks back at Wsalsingham. WALSINGHAM Produce an heir and there'll be no more talk of Mary Stuart. ELIZABETH Isn't it customary to obtain a husband before producing an heir? (to Bess) We shall have to look out a husband for you soon, Bess. BESS Not too soon, my lady. WALSINGHAM There are husbands to be had. ELIZABETH (to Bess) Don't you want to be married? BESS I'll want the marriage if I want the man. WALSINGHAM Austria. France. Sweden. ELIZABETH Why stop there? Turkey has a Sultan. China has an Emperor. (to Bess) What sort of man do you want? WALSINGHAM I confine myself to the possible. BESS An honest man. With friendly eyes. May 1 Blue Draft7 ELIZABETH (to Walsingham) That's where you and I differ, Walsingham. I find the impossible far more interesting. (to Bess) And good legs. You'll want good legs. BESS And sweet breath. ELIZABETH So that you can kiss him without choking. (to Walsingham) There must be any amount of princes in undiscovered lands across the sea. Find me an honest one of those. 9A 9A INT. ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL - DAY The royal party enters the Cathedral. Elizabeth and Walsingham advance into the wide empty nave, followed by the Queen's ladies and the guards. Bess is now back in her place among the ladies. E LIZABETH Ship builders are being recruited in Spanish ports at double wages. The sea wall at Dover is cracking. There's no money to rebuild our defences. I don't need advisers to tell me my business. WALSINGHAM They care for your safety, majesty. The threats to your person are real. ELIZABETH And they know very well that if I fall, they all come tumbling down after me. She goes on to the steps at the foot of the altar, and kneels to pray. As she kneels she holds out one hand behind her, not looking round. Bess steps forward, and taking her hand, kneels and prays with her. Double Pink revision 18 July - p.8 ELIZABETH Let's pray, Bess. May we have wisdom not to fear shadows in the night, and courage when the day of danger truly dawns. ON ELIZABETH as she prays. OMITTED10 10 Double Pink revision 18 July - p.9 EXT THE TYGER, ENGLISH CHANNEL - DAY11 11 Raleigh is standing on the prow of a war-ship as it cuts through the water toward the white cliffs of Dover. The ship and its sailors have been at sea for many months, and it shows. Raleigh shouts to his Sailing-Master. RALEIGH Let England know we're back, Mr Calley. CALLEY Master Gunner, run out starboard and tie-off. A broadside from the bow. MASTER GUNNER Run out and prime. From the bow number one gun, on my word - discharge! Two -- Three-- Four. Canon fire echoes over the distant white cliffs. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - NIGHT13 13 ON ELIZABETH - Imperfectly reflected in a mirror in the soft candlelight. Her ladies are putting her clothes away. E Bess begins the process of stripping away her make-up. lizabeth studies her true face as it comes into view. ELIZABETH Lines round my mouth. Where did they come from? BESS Smile lines, my lady. ELIZABETH Smile lines? When do I smile? With that she smiles, and sees Bess's answering reflected smile. ELIZABETH Now you have smile lines too. N May 1 Blue Draft - p.10 Her smile fades. She gazes at her now naked face, vulnerable in the mirror. INT. QUEEN'S BEDCHAMBER - NIGHT13A 13A The royal bed, immense and ornate. Elizabeth lies here small, awake, and alone. PHILIP `Elizabeth! The angels weep for you, Elizabeth! Why do you close your ears to the voice of your loving God?' EXT. FOREST, SPAIN - DAY13B 13B Foresters at work felling great trees, working rhythmically, in pairs. From all round echoes the same sound, of axe on timber. PHILIP (V.O.) `Elizabeth! You are leading the souls of your people to Hell! Turn back! Marry me, and save England!'I spoke to her just as I speak to you now. ow we see the royal carriage riding through mature forest, accompanied by a mounted entourage. IN THE CARRIAGE - The king, Philip II, the Infanta and Father Robert Reston. PHILIP But she did not listen. She made me a speech about the virtues of virginity. Me! Virginity! She has brought this on herself. P hilip surveys the scene through the carriage window with a shudder. PHILIP Every tree that falls hurts me. I lose a part of myself. I am cursed with sensitivity. I feel too much. We don't yet know what the felling of the trees portends. But Reston does. To him, it's a glorious sight. RESTON Your majesty has a merciful soul. May 1 Blue Draft - p.11 PHILIP I sacrifice my country's forests to save the souls of a lost nation. That is true mercy. England is lost to darkness, Father. I bring light. WIDE NOW - We see the carriage and the royal party crest a hill, and there is revealed an awesome sight: the forest has been felled as far as the eye can see. Great piles of cut timber dot the ravaged landscape. Everywhere men are at work lopping branches from felled trees. Wagon teams haul immense trunks away. Fires burn stacks of lopped branches, and the smoke rises up into the empty sky. I N THE CARRIAGE - On Reston's face as he stares at the fires. He speaks half to himself, out of the depths of his own fanatical certainty. RESTON The light of purifying fire. He turns and fixes the king with his intent gaze. RESTON My time has come, majesty. (Beat) Send me home. EXT. CHARTLEY HALL- DAY13C 13C Establishing wide shot of chartley Hall. EXT. CHARTLEY HALL, GARDEN - DAY14 14 A small yapping Skye terrier is barking at a LAUNDRESS, who is handing over a letter, folded small, to a sharp-faced middle-aged French lady's maid, ANNETTE. The laundress curtseys and leaves. INT. MARY STUART'S QUARTERS, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY15 15 The terrier scampers ahead of Annette to its mistress, MARY STUART, who sits embroidering a pink satin petticoat. She is a handsome but bitter woman in her mid-thirties. Round her stands her small retinue of three ladies and a chaplain. MARY This is so pretty I'm inclined to send it as a present to my dear cousin Elizabeth. She holds up the delicate work to show her ladies. May 1 Blue Draft - p.12 MARY (CONT'D) It is an intimate garment, of course. But even Elizabeth must have the occasional intimate moment. Annette reaches her mistress and kneels before her, holdingout the letter. ANNETTE My Queen.Mary lays down her needlework and takes the letter from herand reads it for herself. MARY Our friends write to give us hope. ANNETTE (low) Soon England's true believers will rise up against the bastard usurper Elizabeth, and slit her throat, and throw her down to hell. MARY That's enough, Annette. (But she loves it.) Slit her throat? Please. ANNETTE And when the bastard usurper is dead, my lady will be queen.The chaplain gives a sharp cough of warning.The Warden of Chartley Hall, SIR AMYAS PAULET, enters theroom. He is soberly dressed, but has charming manners, and is clearly susceptible to his handsome ward. Mary turns to him at once with a teasing smile. MARY Here's my noble jailer, come to smack my hand. She holds out one hand to be smacked. The other hand holdsthe letter out of sight. MARY Have I sinned again, sir? PAULET No, no, my lady. Unless beauty is counted a sin. DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.13 PAULET(cont'd) (Kissing her hand) I come to pay my respects. MARY Oh, you jailer. I don't trust you. PAULET Not jailer, my lady, please. Warden. Protector. Friend. You are the Queen's guest. Mary signs to her ladies. One of them brings her the embroidery, discreetly receiving in exchange the hidden letter. MARY See how I pass my time in my lonely prison. PAULET Charming, ma'am. Distractingly charming. She holds the intimate garment against her body. Paulet seems to be too fascinated by it to notice he is being duped. MARY Such a pretty undergarment. But for whose eyes? DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.14 INT. ARMOURER'S SHOP, LONDON - DAY17 17 A pistol is being loaded: a fiddly process involving a powder horn, wadding, and an iron ball the size of a hazelnut. ARMOURER (O.O.V.) So what's it for, my young friend? Not for shooting rabbits, I'm guessing. SAVAGE We live in dangerous times. ARMOURER We do indeed. Savage moves close as if to study the loading process. We see the two of them talking from outside the window. SAVAGE (very low) The conspiracy gains strength. Tell our master one of the circle has already gained access to the court. The Armourer nods. He hands the pistol to Savage. Savage takes it and leaves. Immediately after, a man enters and walks up behind the now seated Armourer. The Armourer turns round. RESTON I ask for your forgiveness. Moving with speed, he seizes the Armourer's head, twists it to one side, and snaps his neck. Reston walks quietly out of the store. EXT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY18 18 A crowd of eager SPECTATORS and WOULD-BE COURTIERS has gathered, held back by a line of guards, all hoping to attract the attention of the Queen when she appears. This is the route from the Presence Chamber to the Chapel Royal. May 1 Blue Draft - p.15Every Sunday the Queen processes here, and crowds gather tosee her. Two of Walsingham's men, AGENTS 1 and 2, mingle inthe crowd: faces we'll see again.Tom Babington stands unobtrusively at the back of thecrowd. He carries a bag which may or may not contain a gun.A bustle of activity, a ripple of anticipation - `She'scoming!' - and the palace doors open.BABINGTON'S POV: the crowd, the wall of BODYGUARDS, thecluster of COURTIERS and LADIES, and in their midst,Elizabeth, almost completely masked as she passes by.Alongside the Queen, among her maids-of-honour, is BessThrockmorton; behind her, Walsingham.The people cheer, call out to the Queen, reach to touchher, fall to their knees. CROWD God bless your majesty - God love you! - See her sweet face! Others in the crowd are shouting more militant sentiments. CROWD Hang the Papists! - Look out for traitors, Elizabeth! Mary Stuart is the whore of Rome! Babington moves forward, easing his way to the front of thecrowd. Nearby there stands another young man who iswatching, not cheering: RAMSAY.A WOMAN WTH A BABY pushes her way almost to the Queen, holding her baby before her. WOMAN WITH BABY Your blessing, majesty. My little one, your blessing. BABINGTON'S POV- The Queen stopping to bless the little baby, smiling, putting out her hand to touch the baby's head. The mother bobs a curtsey. The Queen moves on, with her entourage. A sudden scuffle in the crowd. Babington turns to look.A CLOAK SWEEPS THROUGH FRAME - dropping down to the ground -revealing as it passes the handsome smiling face ofRaleigh, directly in R the path of the Queen. ALEIGH A puddle in the way, majesty.Elizabeth signs to the guards to stay calm. She stares atRaleigh, then she looks down at the cloak. No sign of anypuddles. Bess Throckmorton watches, suppressing a smile. E May 1 Blue Draft - p.16 Elizabeth looks back up, meets Raleigh's eyes with a cool appraising gaze. Then she walks on over the cloak, shaking her head. ELIZABETH A puddle... The guards take up their positions once more. Bess throws Raleigh a quick smile as she follows the royal party. His answering shrug says: I tried. He picks up the cloak, and stands gazing after the Queen. lizabeth goes into the chapel, and the doors close behind her. ROYAL SERVANT The Queen is at her prayers! INT. CHAPEL ROYAL - DAY18A 18A The Queen at her prayers, her mind elsewhere; privately amused. ELIZABETH A puddle...18B 18B EXT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY Raleigh puts an arm round Calley. RALEIGH She spoke to me. You have to give me that. CALLEY Oh, I do. The Queen spoke to you. One word - but she spoke. RALEIGH Two words. CALLEY You're made. A dukedom at the very least. RALEIGH Did you see the girl behind her? I've been at sea too long. INT. GREAT HALL, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY19 19 The Great Hall is crowded with competing factions. A group of Spaniards, led by their Ambassador, DON GUERAU DE SPES, stand watching everyone else with haughty disdain. W Yellow Revision May 22--p.17An architect waits to present details of a buildingproject. Petitioners wait vainly, in the hope of catchingthe Queen's eye. Howard and Hatton are in attendance. Walsingham stands by the Queen's side, briefing her in a low murmur for her ears only. ALSINGHAM Thousands are dying every day of famine in Ireland. Another rebellion is a distinct possibility. A courtier is holding a portrait which he shows to theQueen. COURTIER Francis of Valois, majesty. HATTON Brother to the king of France, majesty. WALSINGHAM France is in religious turmoil. It would be unwise to engage with their instability. ELIZABETH (to Lord Howard) You have the plans for the new docks? HOWARD Here, majesty. Howard beckons the Architect forward to show his model.Elizabeth studies it. Walsingham murmurs on. WALSINGHAM We still need to keep France out of the arms of Spain. ELIZABETH Let me think on it. (to Howard) What if enemy ships should sail up the Thames? Can the docks be closed? HOWARD Not closed, majesty. But the gun positions here, and here, have full command of the channel. The courtier displays a second portrait. COURTIER King Erik of Sweden, majesty. Yellow Revision May 22--p.17A ELIZABETH What again? WALSINGHAM Still madly in love with you. ELIZABETH Still mad, you mean. (Looking around). Where's Bess? The courtier presents a third portrait. COURTIER Ivan, Tsar of all the Russias, known as "The Terrible." Walsingham merely shakes his head. Buff revision 6th June- p.18 INT. ANTECHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY20 20 Bess Throckmorton is late. She comes running through the crowd of lesser petitioners who wait in the hope of gaining access to the Queen. She passes Calley, the two native Americans, and a group of sailors holding large hampers. Raleigh is trying to persuade the doorkeeper to let him past. DOORKEEPER You'll have to see the Lord Chamberlain, sir. He indicates a portly man surrounded by petitioners, beyond the open doors to the inner rooms. RALEIGH How am I to see him if you won't let me through? DOORKEEPER You must wait for him to come out, sir. RALEIGH And when will he come out? DOORKEEPER There's no way of knowing that, sir. The doorkeeper stands aside for Bess. She recognises Raleigh, and throws him a smile before rushing past. RALEIGH (as if to Calley) I had less trouble than this boarding a Spanish ship! Everything is easier when you can kill people. INT. GREAT HALL, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY21 21 Bess curtseys before Elizabeth; who shakes her head at her. ELIZABETH Late again, Bess. BESS I beg your majesty's forgiveness. ELIZABETH Given. Once. Buff revision 6th June- p.18A BESSThe puddle man is outside,majesty. E ( Yellow Revision May 22-- p.19Elizabeth takes Bess's arm and turns with her to theportraits. ELIZABETH My suitors.The Courtier has a fourth portrait. COURTIER The Archduke Charles of Austria, majesty. HATTON The younger brother of Maximilian II, the Holy Roman Emperor. WALSINGHAM A cousin of Philip II of Spain. BESS He's rather sweet. ELIZABETH More your age than mine, Bess. How old is he? HATTON Young... I believe, majesty. An Austrian alliance would keep France quiet. WALSINGHAM And it would put Philip on a leash. Elizabeth looks across at the Spaniards. ELIZABETH I become almost enthusiastic. to Hatton) Send for him. (to Bess) Where is he, then?Bess understands. She bobs and hurries to the door. ELIZABETH (to Walsingham) How much longer do you think I can play this game? WALSINGHAM Virginity is an asset that holds its value well. LIZABETH Diplomatically speaking. Yellow Revision May 22 - p.19ARaleigh now enters with Calley, the native Americans andcourt servants carrying hampers. R Yellow Revision May 22 - p.20One of the Spaniards recognises him and murmurs to theAmbassador; who speaks angrily to the Queen. DON GUERAU Majesty, this man is a notorious pirate. ELIZABETH Indeed?Don Guerau points to the hampers. DON GUERAU Spanish treasure, stolen from Spanish ships. You will see.R aleigh kneels before the Queen. Elizabeth gestures for himto rise. ELIZABETH Well, sir. Who are you? RALEIGH Walter Raleigh, your majesty. ELIZABETH Ah, yes. Raleigh. I've heard of your voyage. What's your rank? RALEIGH A gentleman of Devon. ELIZABETH What do you want? RALEIGH The honour to be in the presence of my Queen, whose radiant beauty is the boast and glory of the English people. ELIZABETH Yes, well, here you are. ALEIGH I'm just returned from the New World, majesty. I have claimed the fertile coast in your name, and called it Virginia, in honour of our Virgin Queen.Elizabeth raises her eyebrows. ELIZABETH Virginia? And if I marry? Will you change the name to Conjugia?A royal joke. Her entourage laughs dutifully. ( Yellow Revision May 22 -p.21 RALEIGH I ask for your gracious permission, majesty, to return to the New World with your royal warrant, to found a colony under the laws and protections of England.E lizabeth's eye has fallen on the native Americans. ELIZABETH Who are they? RALEIGH Americans, majesty. They long to be your newest subjects.He beckons Calley to lead Wanchese and Manteo forward. ELIZABETH Have they no ruler of their own? RALEIGH None to match England's Queen.Elizabeth gazes at the natives. She holds out her hand.Unaware that he's meant to kiss the Queen's hand, Manteo,takes it and shakes it. A gasp from the watching courtiers.But Elizabeth accepts the courtesy. ELIZABETH These gentlemen are welcome. See that they're treated well.Calley hurries them away before worse happens. RALEIGH I also come bearing gifts for your majesty, from the New World.He beckons to the servants to bring the baskets. Don Guerausteps forward. DON GUERAU The fruits of piracy, majesty. The true property of the realm of Spain. ELIZABETH Let's see, shall we? to Raleigh) What do you bring me? RALEIGH Mud, and leaves.R May 1 Blue Draft - p.22Members of the court share suppressed smiles. ELIZABETH (amused) Mud and leaves? aleigh throws open the first basket. Don Guerau peersinside suspiciously. It does indeed seem to be filled withmud.Raleigh takes out a potato beneath the Ambassador's nose. RALEIGH Patata, majesty. You eat it. Very nourishing.He beckons forward the second basket, which is full ofleaves. Again Don Guerau tracks his every move. He takesout a tobacco leaf. R ALEIGH Tobacco. You breathe its smoke. Very stimulating.Now Don Guerau realises he's being laughed at on all sides.He draws himself up with angry pride, wrinkling his nose. DON GUERAU Forgive me, majesty, I find the air has become stale. I am sensitive to the smell of open sewers.A glare at Raleigh, a bow for the Queen, and Don Guerauleads his Spaniards out. ELIZABETH (to Raleigh) Continue.With a broad smile, Raleigh gestures forward the thirdbasket. This one really is full of gold. He takes out agold coin and presents it to Elizabeth. RALEIGH Gold. You spend it. Very satisfying.Elizabeth examines the fat gold coin, with its image ofPhilip of Spain. She tries not to smile. RALEIGH Courtesy of a Spanish ship, that found itself unable to complete its journey.Elizabeth drops the gold coin back into the basket. Green Revision May 25 - p.23 ELIZABETH The fruits of piracy after all, it seems. RALEIGH Philip of Spain is no friend of England, majesty. The more gold I take from him, the safer you will be. ELIZABETH Well, well. A political pirate. A logic-chopping pirate. RALEIGH And your majesty's most loyal subject. She gives him a long look. ELIZABETH But not my best dressed. W (Beat) elcome home, Mr Raleigh. She turns her attention back to Hatton and the portraits. Raleigh bows and withdraws, followed by his men. Walsingham follows. INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY22 22 Raleigh comes out into the hallway with Calley by his side. RALEIGH What did you think of her? CALLEY Terrifying. RALEIGH But magnificent. He moves on. Raleigh's eyes fall on Don Guerau, the Spanish Ambassador, passing near with his fellow Spaniards and a few English courtiers and ministers, including Hatton. Don Guerau stares at him. The doors to the privy chamber open and the Queen's ladies come swishing out in a tight chattering group, Bess beside her friend MARGARET. May 1 Blue Draft - p.24 MARGARET `Mud and leaves'! I nearly died! B ESS `Patata! You eat it!' They giggle as they go by. MARGARET She liked him. I could tell. BESS Well, wouldn't you? They see Raleigh now, and the chatter ceases. The ladies come to a stop and curtsey. Raleigh gives a bow, his eyes singling out Bess. RALEIGH I'm glad to have the opportunity to thank you. Without your help, I'd still be in outer darkness. BESS I did very little, sir. You'd already caught the Queen's eye. RALEIGH Then I thank you for the very little. The ladies go on their way and the laughing chatter resumes, with many a backward glance at the handsome Raleigh. No one pays attention to a figure in the shadows, another of Walsingham's men, AGENT 3.23 23 EXT. WOOD - DUSK Young Savage stands alone among trees, shivering, white- faced, half-mumbling, half-singing an endless prayer. He holds a pistol with which he means to kill himself. But he can't do it. S AVAGE (singing) Salve regina, mater misericordiae, vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve... In a clearing nearby three men sit round a fire. They are young Catholic fanatics - Babington, Ramsay, and FRANCIS THROCKMORTON. A fourth man stands before them, his back to us, watching Savage. At first we don't see who he is. May 1 Blue Draft - p.25 RESTON (O.O.V.) His weakness endangers us all. He can't go on with us. And we can't leave him behind.Now the man turns and looks intently at Babington, and we see he is Robert Reston; no longer in the clothes of apriest. RESTON Who will help him?Babington rises. Reston nods his approval. Babington goes off through the trees. Reston and the others follow alittle behind. SAVAGE ( singing) Ad te clamamus, exsulaes filii Evae. Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle -He sings on as Babington approaches him, seeming no longerto know what's happening. Babington takes the pistol fromhis hand. BABINGTON Make your peace with God.Savage stares, and suddenly realises what Babington meansto do. Terror overwhelms him. SAVAGE No, Tom! Don't kill me! I don't want to die!Now he's blubbering with fear. Babington is shaken by this,and can't shoot.Reston begins to pray aloud. RESTON Si ambulam in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala -The others join in with the words of the well-known psalm. Babington too joins in, now weeping. RESTON AND OTHERS Quoniam tu mecum es, Domine. Virga tua et baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata sunt -B ANG! Savage falls dead. H May 1 Blue Draft - p.26 INT. WALSINGHAM'S HOUSE - EVENING24 24 Walsingham enters his private home, and gives his hat and cloak to his servant. SERVANT Visitor waiting, sir. Walsingham frowns. He climbs the stairs to the door of his study. There, pacing nervously, is his younger brother WILLIAM, a middle-aged student. Walsingham's scowl disappears. He opens his arms wide. WALSINGHAM William! WILLIAM Hello, Francis. They embrace. Then Walsingham pushes him back to take a good look at him. WALSINGHAM You look terrible. Don't they feed you in Paris? How are your studies? Learned the secrets of the universe yet? WILLIAM Not yet. WALSINGHAM These are dangerous times to be questioning the ways of God. You must take care of yourself. WILLIAM My needs are simple. WALSINGHAM You'll dine with us? You'll lodge with us? is daughter MARY appears at the top of the next flight. MARY WALSINGHAM William! She comes tumbling down and into his arms. She's an eager innocent 20-year-old, much loved by her father. WILLIAM Look at you! All grown up. URSULA, Walsingham's wife, appears as Mary leads William up the stairs. M May 1 Blue Draft - p.27 URSULA William. This is a pleasure. WILLIAM I've been away too long, ma'am. MARY WALSINGHAM You come with me, William. ary and William go on into the family's living rooms. Ursula meets her husband's eyes. U RSULA He's not still a student, is he? INT. LIVING ROOM, WALSINGHAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT26 26 William is by the fire, listening to Mary playing the virginal and singing. Walsingham and Ursula are by the dinner table. URSULA Have you spoken to the Queen? WALSINGHAM I speak to her daily. URSULA You know what I mean. You've done enough. No man could do more. WALSINGHAM I can't leave court yet. The Queen needs me. URSULA So you're to die in harness like a pack horse, are you? And for what? (calling) Mary! William! WALSINGHAM These are difficult times- URSULA It's always difficult times. Mary joins them, her arm in William's. Walsingham seizes the opportunity to change the subject. WALSINGHAM William, come and tell us all the new ideas in the University. Will the great breach in the church ever be healed? May 1 Blue Draft - p.28 WILLIAM I doubt it, brother. Compromise is out of fashion. On both sides they say there can only be one truth, and one God. URSULASit, sit. MARYH ere by me, William. WALSINGHAM What do they say in Paris of the Pope's call for holy war? WILLIAM Many welcome it. URSULAI don't understand why we mustall hate each other. WILLIAMTruth will always hate falsehood,ma'am. MARYWhy do we have to talk about war?Tell us your nice news, William.Are you married yet? WILLIAM (smiling)Not yet. MARYThen we must find you a nicesensible English wife. WILLIAMNo, no. I won't be staying long.I must go back to my studies. WALSINGHAMNot too soon, I hope. Every mandeserves a rest. URSULAListen to him! When did you lastrest, I'd like to know? (to William)He won't listen to me. Not athought for his health. You tellhim, he's your brother. He'll dieat his desk, out of sheerselfishness. E Green Revision May 25 - p.29 Walsingham shares a rueful smile with William that says, `Women, eh?'. They take their seats for dinner.2 INT. GREAT HALL, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY 7 27 Elizabeth sits sumptuously gowned and jewelled at an ornately-dressed dining table, surrounded by her ladies, Bess among them; Walsingham discreetly in the background. They're listening to a young Austrian make a formal speech of love. The AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR stands to one side, mouthing the words to prompt him. The ARCHDUKE CHARLES is still a boy: sixteen years old, slight, pale, trembling with shyness. He struggles through his rehearsed speech. ARCHDUKE CHARLES Your majesty's beauty is dazzling to my eyes. Your learning is famed throughout Europe. I see before me perfection in human form. Oh, Elizabeth! How blessed am I to stand in your fabled presence, warmed by your greatness as by the rays of the sun. Oh Elizabeth! To speak your name is to hear celestial music. May that sweet sound guide me through my life to come - Elizabeth! Elizabeth! I have travelled here, to this illustrious court, in the hope that our two great nations might be joined in love. But now that I am bathed in the radiance of your glory, I am overwhelmed. I am conquered. I die. Only your love, great Elizabeth, can restore me to life. C ourtiers exchange smiles at his efforts. The Spaniards sneer openly. But Elizabeth takes the charade with due gravity. LIZABETH Your highness does me great honour. Shall we eat our dinner? It should prove almost as restorative as my love. Raleigh enters the Great Hall, trailed by Calley, as the dinner gets under way. They join the much larger group who simply stand and watch. Royal meals are in part a spectacle for the court. A JESTER moves from group to group, playing pranks on the guests. Green Revision May 25 - p.29ARaleigh is now dressed in court fashion, and looks verywell; as the glances of several court ladies show. Hecatches Bess's eye and they share a smile. COURT LADY So tell me, Mr Raleigh, in your sea battles - how do you sink an enemy ship? You shoot holes in its sides, I suppose. ( May 1 Blue Draft - p.30 RALEIGH No, ma'am. A sunk ship is of no value. The object is to capture and command. COURT LADY And how do you do that? RALEIGH Surprise. Speed. Irresistible violence.Calley, listening, rolls his eyes.Elizabeth, at the table with the Archduke by her side,glances towards Raleigh, and sees him flirting with thecourt ladies. Then back to the young Archduke, who hashardly touched his food. ELIZABETH I think you're not as accustomed as I am to eating in public. I have a secret. lowering her voice) I pretend there's a pane of glass - eine Glasscheibe - between me and them.S he moves one hand before her face, indicating an imaginarypane of glass. As she looks, she sees Bess staring atsomeone - follows her gaze - and is amused to find that theobject of her attention is also Raleigh. ELIZABETH They can see me, but they can't hear me, or touch me. You should try it.She beckons to Bess. ELIZABETH Bess.Bess comes forward. ELIZABETH (low) He interests me. Talk to him. BESS Him, my lady? ELIZABETH Him.Bess turns and looks across towards Raleigh, as he flirtswith the court ladies. Green Revision May 25 - p.31Elizabeth turns back to her guest. ELIZABETH His highness is tired after his journey.The young Archduke, frozen with shyness, sits staringbefore him, trembling as he frames a proper reply. ARCHDUKE CHARLES No man can be tired in the presence of so lovely a Queen.E lizabeth speaks so only he can hear, in German. ELIZABETH (You play the game very well, my young friend. But don't you sometimes feel an overwhelming desire to say what you're really thinking?) The Archduke's eyes open very wide. He glances atElizabeth, and sees on her face a conspiratorial smile. ARCHDUKE CHARLES (I daren't even think what I'm really thinking.) ELIZABETH (You're thinking, perhaps, that you would far rather be home.) ARCHDUKE CHARLES (You're very wise, madame.)He's grateful to her, and his shy face shows it.Raleigh is still being entertained by the court ladies. COURT LADY I adore the natives you brought back with you. I don't suppose you could get one for me? They're not dangerous, are they? RALEIGH That depends what you propose to do with them. COURT LADY I'd dress him up in mulberry- coloured silk and have him walk behind me, carrying my cloak. Green Revision May 25 - p.31ABess has now approached Raleigh. BESS The pirate is not too bored by the vanities of the court, I hope. RALEIGH A simple sailor, dazzled by the bright lights.Bess draws him away from the court ladies. BESS If you can bring yourself to leave the dazzle of the bright lights for a moment - May 1 Blue Draft - p.32 RALEIGH D rawn away by the brightest light of all. BESS That can only mean the Queen. RALEIGH I don't presume to raise my eyes so high.They both look at the Queen. She's watching Raleigh. He bows. BESS It seems you've presumed after all. RALEIGH It seems you're determined to think the worst of me. BESS Tell me what it is you really want. RALEIGH What every man wants. Money. Fame. Love. BESS In that order? RALEIGH Each leads to the next. The money will buy and equip ships for a return voyage to the New World. The success of my infant colony there will make me famous. The fame will bring me love. BESS It seems rather a long way round. RALEIGH There are benefits along the way. It is something, after all, to take a blank on the map and build there a shining city. BESS Which you will no doubt name after yourself. May 1 Blue Draft - p.33 RALEIGH (smiling) No doubt. B ESS Well, then. I am answered. RALEIGH May I ask a question in return? BESS Of course. RALEIGH How am I to win the Queen's favour? BESS Why should I tell you that, sir? RALEIGH I've little enough to offer, I know. But whatever I have to give - ask, and it's yours.Bess thinks for a moment. BESS My advice to you is, say what you mean to say as plainly as possible. All men flatter the Queen in the hope of advancement. Pay her the compliment of truth.She gives him her hand. He kisses it. RALEIGH I don't even know your name. BESS Elizabeth Throckmorton. RALEIGH A second Elizabeth. BESS Everyone calls me Bess.S he goes back to the Queen, as Elizabeth is rising toleave. She speaks to the company. ELIZABETH His highness the Archduke informs me that my charms overwhelm him. He will retire to his private quarters to rest. 34 This causes much amusement. Don Guerau sneers openly. The Archduke rises. All rise. The Archduke bows solemnly to the Queen, and leaves with his entourage. Elizabeth beckons to Walsingham, and speaks low to him. ELIZABETH He's a sweet boy. I don't want him hurt by your schemes. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY28 28 Bess is reading to Elizabeth. Elizabeth watching her, her mind elsewhere. ELIZABETH I suspect him of being a professional charmer. Am I right? BESS He is certainly charming, my lady. ELIZABETH There are duller professions. And what is it he hopes to gain by his charms? BESS He hopes for glory in his New World. He dreams of building a shining city. ELIZABETH Which I'm to pay for, no doubt. (Beat) You like him, don't you? BESS It's refreshing to meet a man who looks to a world beyond the court. ELIZABETH So it is. We shall let him come again. INT. MARY STUART'S QUARTERS, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY29 29 Mary Stuart holds her pet dog in her arms, listening to Annette, who kneels before her. May 1 Blue Draft - p. 35 MARY Dismissed? On whose orders?She looks up at the laundress, who stands red-eyed andsnuffling, with a guard by her side. MARY Do stop snivelling. ANNETTE The Warden, my lady. MARY The Warden? My Warden?As she speaks, Sir Amyas Paulet enters. Mary's voicebecomes seductive. MARY What have you done now, you bad man? Sent away my laundress? How am I to have clean clothes? Or do you want me to go about naked?Paulet smiles at the notion of Mary naked. PAULET That was not my motive, ma'am. Much though - (Thinking better of it) Your laundress was found to be carrying letters in her washing. Not her job, I think. MARY How am I to send my intimate letters? PAULET Through me. MARY And you will read them. PAULET With respectful admiration. MARY Am I to have no privacy? PAULET No. Beneath the charm, steel. MARY You disappoint me, sir. May 1 Blue Draft - p. 36 PAULET The Queen orders these measures for your protection. MARY The Queen! Am I not a Queen too? What if I wish to write a love letter? Is Elizabeth to be sent a copy? Is she so starved of lovers that she must feed on mine? PAULET The Queen grieved when your husband died, ma'am. As she grieved when your second husband died. And the third. If there is a possibility of a fourth - MARY Tormentor! Is that Elizabeth's order too? That you torment and mock me? She turns to go, but stops before leaving the room: bitter, haughty, not deigning to look back. MARY They say she's a beautiful woman. Is she so very beautiful? PAULET I don't presume to comment on the Queen's person. MARY She's called the virgin queen. Why is that, sir? Can it be that no man will have her?Mary changes mood again, thinking it more politic to keepthe Warden under her spell. She waves Annette and thelaundress away. MARY My friend, forgive me. You are my friend, are you not? PAULET I am your servant, ma'am, and your admirer. MARY I shall send no more letters. I shall stay here quietly, in my prison. With you. May 1 Blue Draft - p. 37 OMITTED30 30 INT. ANTECHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY31 31 The same crowd of petitioners wait in vain for access to the Queen. The same door keeper. Raleigh enters, and this time the door keeper bows, and ushers him through the open doors. Over this we hear Raleigh's voice telling of his adventures: RALEIGH (V.O.) It begins with a journey. You must cross an ocean. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY32 32 Elizabeth listens attentively, her eyes looking far away into the distance, as Raleigh tells of his adventures. RALEIGH Can you imagine - can you feel - what it is to cross an ocean? For weeks you see nothing but the horizon. All round you. Perfect, and empty. Your ship is small - tiny - a speck in such immensity. INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY33 33 Walsingham is talking to Elizabeth about matters of state. We are on her face, and we can see that she hears nothing of what he tells her. Her mind is all on Raleigh's voice. RALEIGH (V.O.) You live with fear, in the grip of fear - fear of storms, fear of sickness on board, fear of the immensity. What if you never escape? How can you escape? There's nowhere to go. So you must drive your fear down, deep into your belly, and study your charts, and watch your compass, and pray for a fair wind - and hope. INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT33A 33A Now Elizabeth is with Raleigh again, listening as he goes on speaking to her, now directly. 3 May 1 Blue Draft - p. 38 RALEIGH Pure naked fragile hope, when all your senses scream at you, Lost! Lost! Imagine it. Day after day, staring west, the rising sun on your back, the setting sun in your eyes, hoping, hoping - Sir Christopher Hatton enters. HATTON Majesty, the Archduke and the court are waiting. ELIZABETH (sharply) Let them wait! (to Raleigh) Go on, Mr Raleigh. You were hoping. Hatton bows and leaves, frowning. RALEIGH At first it's no more than a haze on the horizon, the ghost of a haze, the pure line corrupted. But clouds do that, and storms. So you watch, you watch. 4 34 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT Elizabeth dances with Raleigh. As they dance, his voice continues over; and Elizabeth seems to be listening to him. RALEIGH (V.O.) Then it's a smudge, a shadow on the far water. For a day, for another day, the stain slowly spreads along the horizon, and takes form - until on the third day you let yourself believe. You dare to whisper the word - land! The music ends, and the dance finishes. Elizabeth is seated now - it's later in time. Raleigh is speaking intently to her, and she is captivated. RALEIGH Land. Life. Resurrection. The true adventure. Coming out of the vast unknown, out of the immensity, into safe harbour at last. That - that - is the New World. B May 1 Blue Draft - p. 39 A short silence. Elizabeth is absorbing what he has told her. ELIZABETH (V.O.) The Queen does not have a private life. INT PRESENCE CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY35 35 Elizabeth is on the throne. The Archduke Charles and his entourage face her. The court fills the room. Elizabeth makes her formal response to the young Archduke. ELIZABETH The Queen lives for her people. You will therefore forgive me, sir, if after much thought and prayer I decline your offer of marriage. The Archduke, barely able to conceal his relief, turns to the Austrian ambassador. ARCHDUKE CHARLES (Can I go home now?) Elizabeth inclines her head, trying not to smile. ELIZABETH (Go home, my friend. Don't be in a hurry to grow old. Youth is so very precious.) Elizabeth rises and takes the Archduke's arm as they start to leave the chamber. Bess, in her wake, finds an opportunity to speak softly to Raleigh. BESS Well? Are you satisfied with the Queen's favour? RALEIGH She listened as if she understood me. ESS Then I shall expect some gratitude. R ALEIGH What do you want? Their eyes meet, both aware of the current of mutual attraction. R May 1 Blue Draft - p. 40 BESS I expect I'll think of something. Bess hurries after the Queen. The Austrian entourage is just leaving as the Queen turns. ELIZABETH Mr. Raleigh. INT QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY35A 35A Elizabeth and Raleigh walk together around the perimeter hallway, dwarfed by vast murals. ELIZABETH I like your immensities. Your ocean is an image of eternity, I think. Such great spaces make us small. Do we discover the New World, Mr Raleigh, or does the New World discover us? RALEIGH You speak like a true explorer. ELIZABETH I like you, Mr Raleigh. RALEIGH And I like you. She stops and turns to meet Raleigh's eyes. She's not used to such direct replies. Bess is watching them. ELIZABETH You know, of course, that when I like a man, I reward him. ALEIGH I have heard that. ELIZABETH And what have you to say about it? R ALEIGH Reward my mission, majesty, not me. ELIZABETH Is the mission not the man? RALEIGH Leave me free to like you in return. That can be my reward. 41-43 ELIZABETH Go on. RALEIGH I think it must be hard for so great a Queen to know the simple pleasure of being liked for herself. Elizabeth stares. This is a little too close to the truth. ELIZABETH Now you become dull.35B 35B EXT. WINDSOR GREAT PARK - DAY Horses racing, hoofs pounding over the grass, manes flying - Two riders hurtle between the trees, down a woodland ride, neck and neck- Elizabeth and Raleigh are racing against each other, faces glowing, laughing, abandoned to the breakneck speed of the moment. Raleigh is winning now, first by a head, then by a length. At the end of the ride he slows his horse to a walk. RALEIGH Mine! Elizabeth shakes her head, unable to speak. ELIZABETH (out of breath) You have - the stronger horse. Y RALEIGH ours carries the lighter load. ELIZABETH The Queen does not give way to others. Raleigh stops his horse. Elizabeth rides on up to him and then past him. Raleigh secretly spurs his horse. The horse springs forward, ahead of her. RALEIGH Whoa! Whoa! (at Elizabeth, reigning in the horse) Forgive me, majesty. My horse doesn't know his place yet Elizabeth looks at him, amused, intrigued. 43A ELIZABETH Have you ever known your place, Mr. Raleigh? She urges her horse forward, forcing Raleigh to catch up. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) I'm surprised you're not married yet. RALEIGH I'm a sailor, majesty. ELIZABETH And can sailors not be lovers? RALEIGH (with a smile) Must lovers be husbands? ELIZABETH Ah, I see. You like love better than marriage. That I understand. RALEIGH Your majesty is not eager to be married? ELIZABETH When I marry, I marry for my country. (looking at Raleigh) When I love, I love for myself. (pause) You have had many loves, I think. RALEIGH (with a smile) Some... ELIZABETH You've yet to meet your equal? Raleigh hesitates. She understands him. RALEIGH I would want someone who knows me as I am. Now it is Elizabeth who hesitates. He understands her as well. ELIZABETH You want a friend, not just an equal. You want someone to share your joy when you're happy. Double Blue - july 8 - p.43B ELIZABETH(cont'd) Someone to cry with when you're sad. Someone to talk to when there's nothing to say. Someone to find by your side when you wake in the night. Someone who remembers what you once were, when you've grown old. She turns to him with a smile. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Ah yes. I know all about it. There. I'm rested now. She turns her horse around in the direction from which they came. Raleigh follows. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) We can be something to each other, I hope, Mr. Raleigh. She spurs her horse, and suddenly she's racing away, back across the park to the distant band of mounted courtiers and Queen's ladies, including Bess. Raleigh spurs his horse to follow, also fast, but this time careful to keep a distance behind. As they near the courtiers, Raleigh splits off. Bess watches as Elizabeth turns and looks after him as he rides 3 away. 6 36 INT. BESS'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Bess creeps out of her bedroom, pulling on a cloak. INT. WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT37 37 Bess makes her way down the dark palace corridor, stepping over sleeping courtiers as she goes. Margaret watches her from the shadows. EXT. LONDON ALLEY - NIGHT38 38 Cloaked and hooded, Bess passes quietly down an alley, stepping over more sleeping forms. London's homeless. She finds a door, checks a note she holds, glances round to be sure no one sees her, knocks and enters. INT LONDON HOUSE - NIGHT39 39 A man closes the door behind his visitor. Bess shakes off her hood. It's George Throckmorton, one of the conspirators. They embrace. Double Blue - july 8 - p.43C BESS George! What's wrong? Is your father alright? THROCKMORTON He's old. He won't live long now. Thank you for coming, dear Bess. BESS I was worried. You must send me no more letters. You know what would happen if I was caught. THROCKMORTON I need your help. BESS Do you need more money? THROCKMORTON My father is a tired old man. We don't want to hide like this anymore. We both want to get back to court. BESS You are known Papists. THROCKMORTON The Queen loves you. Speak to her. BESS I cannot betray the Queen. THROCKMORTON You are not betraying her. My father and I will embrace the new faith. Bess is suspicious and starts to leave. BESS Don't put me in danger like this. THROCKMORTON Cousin Bess, we've known each other all our lives. I would do nothing to harm you. BESS I'm sorry. THROCKMORTON If they catch us, they will kill us. Our lives are in your hands. E Double Blue - july 8 - p.43D INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY40 40 A group of the Queen's ladies make their way down the hallway, Bess among them. The others are gossiping in low whispers as they go. Bess is silent with anxiety. Then she looks ahead, and her face fills with fear. Walsingham is coming down the hallway towards them. The ladies curtsey. He nods, and throws a glance at Bess. The ladies move on. Bess looks back. Walsingham is also looking back, and seems to be watching her. INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY41 41 Bess hurries ahead of the others through the Privy Chamber to the Queen's private quarters. 42 B 42 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY ess passes ladies organising the Queen's wardrobe. She finds the Queen laughing with Raleigh - not alone, but unusually informal. LIZABETH Don't tease me, Mr Raleigh. There's nothing I'd like to do more. RALEIGH So why don't you? ELIZABETH Alright, then. I will. He blinks: caught by surprise. ELIZABETH See! You lie! You don't want me on your ship at all. (turning towards Bess) You're a liar! Elizabeth now takes in Bess. O Green revision May 25 -p.44 ELIZABETH Would you like to go to sea, Bess? BESS Majesty? RALEIGH I'm afraid that's not possible. Women bring bad luck on board ship. ELIZABETH Oh, do they? RALEIGH Lock up a hundred men in a space smaller than this room, for months at a time - Men have needs. A beautiful woman like you would drive us all mad. ELIZABETH (amused) Men have needs? nce again Elizabeth meets Raleigh's eyes. Then she breaks away, feeling the contact is dangerous. ELIZABETH Then let them stay on land and see to their needs. (to Bess) Mr Raleigh is eager to sail away to his infant colony, Bess. We must persuade him to stay a little longer, mustn't we? INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY42A 42A Raleigh is leaving. Walsingham has been waiting for him. He falls into step beside him. WALSINGHAM Mr Raleigh. A word of advice. The Queen chooses to show you favour. You naturally wish to take advantage of that. (Beat) Don't ask for too much. RALEIGH You think all I want is money. WALSINGHAM I hope all you want is money. Buff Revision 6th June - p.44A RALEIGH You think I'm a cynical adventurer, with little breeding and less education. You're wrong. I'm a cynical adventurer with little breeding and an excellent education. WALSINGHAM I begin to see why the Queen likes you. INT/EXT. LONDON HOUSE - NIGHT43 43 A soft knock on the door. Francis Throckmorton goes to the window and looks out. THROCKMORTON'S POV - In the street outside, a woman with her head covered. He unbolts the door. T HROCKMORTON Bess? Two men burst in and seize him. They are Agents 4 and 5. Beyond, the woman - not Bess - is hurrying away. Throckmorton struggles. A single sharp blow, and he folds to the ground. 45 REPOSITIONED AS SCENE 35B44 44 46-49 OMITTED44A-B 44A-B INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY45 45 Multiple images of Elizabeth, naked. Strange misty refracted glimpses of her face, her body. A bath of steaming hot water has been placed in the Queen's private quarters, and screened by mirrors. The Queen is in the bath, being washed by her ladies. B ess Throckmorton has the job of holding the Queen's hair out of the water as she's washed. She strokes the soft tresses as she holds them, unaware that Elizabeth can see her in the mirror. Then she looks up and catches Elizabeth's eyes, and stops in confusion. ELIZABETH No, don't stop. I like it. Bess returns to her gentle caresses, and Elizabeth to her thoughts. ELIZABETH Is it true, Bess? That I've never known the simple pleasure of being liked for myself? BESS I hope you believe that I like you for yourself, my lady. ELIZABETH Is anybody ever liked just for themselves? Are you? I doubt it. Men like you because you're pretty. And because you have the ear of the Queen. E May 1 Blue Draft - p. 50 BESS No doubt, my lady. ELIZABETH Him too. He likes you because he wants my favour. You do realise that? BESS Yes, my lady. ELIZABETH And the other thing too, of course. But all men want that. Male desire confers no B distinction. ess strokes Elizabeth's hair in silence. Then she sees Elizabeth gazing at her in the mirror. LIZABETH I envy you, Bess. You're free to have - what I can't have. You're my adventurer. Don't be afraid. It's all over so soon.46 46 INT. TORTURE ROOM - DAY A man who looks like a shop assistant sits grabbing a quick lunch. He's the TORTURER. Nearby on a blood-stained bench lies a huddled half-naked figure, trembling uncontrollably. It's Francis Throckmorton. He's neither manacled nor guarded. His body is so broken it's not necessary. Walsingham enters. The torturer jumps to his feet. Walsingham goes to Throckmorton. He gazes at him, shaking his head. He's getting too old for this dirty business. WALSINGHAM Still nothing to tell me, Mr Throckmorton? Throckmorton struggles to lift his head. T HROCKMORTON My soul will go free soon. WALSINGHAM I know about the Enterprise. I need names. But if you won't help me, perhaps your father will. He signs to the torturer. The torturer goes into an adjoining cell. orchid revisions 28 June - p. 51 WALSINGHAM He's been questioned, as you have. I do have to know, you see. The torturer and a guard enter, dragging between them the broken but living body of OLD THROCKMORTON. THROCKMORTON No! Old Throckmorton looks up, eyes blank with suffering. THROCKMORTON Enough! You want a name, I'll give you a name. WALSINGHAM Well? Walsingham comes close to hear. Throckmorton chokes out something we don't hear, but the torturer hears, and his eyes open wide. INCORPORATED INTO SCENE 46B46A 46A orchid revisions 28 June - p. 52 INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY46B 46B Elizabeth passes down a hallway at a brisk pace, Hatton by her side, her ladies hurrying behind her. HATTON Another letter has come from Mary Stuart, majesty. Asking to meet you. ELIZABETH Filled with declarations of love? HATTON As always. ELIZABETH If she wants my love, let her deserve it. Refused. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY47 47 Elizabeth enters her private quarters, now moving with regal dignity once more, but the flush on her cheeks gives her away. Her ladies follow. There stands Raleigh, waiting for her. ELIZABETH Mr Raleigh. I've kept you waiting. RALEIGH You have more important concerns than me. ELIZABETH There is always other business. But I have been waiting too. Walsingham enters. WALSINGHAM Majesty. Elizabeth turns on him with a frown of irritation. ELIZABETH Yes, Walsingham? WALSINGHAM The traitor has talked, majesty. The traitor Throckmorton. orchid revisions 28 June - p. 52AA flash of fear in Bess's eyes. ELIZABETH (to Raleigh) Forgive me, sir. As you see, my time is not my own.Elizabeth moves away so that Walsingham can talk to her inconfidence. She listens to his murmured words, and angershows on her face. E May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 53 EXT. TORTURE ROOM - DAY48 48 The torturer, now off duty, is standing in the open doorway to empty his bladder. He's unlacing his britches, when he hears footsteps approaching behind. T ORTURER Harry? The torturer begins to piss, with evident pleasure. TORTURER You'll never guess what I heard - A knife at his throat. A quick slash. The killer, Agent 3, waits one more moment, to be sure the job is done. The torturer slumps, still standing, against the wall. Agent 3 slips away. On the flag stones, blood trickles down to mingle with the urine. INT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY49 49 Now there are guards everywhere. The whole palace is on heightened alert. lizabeth sweeps out of the Privy Chamber into the Great Hall, accompanied by the Spanish Ambassador on one side and Walsingham on the other. Her entourage scuttles behind. ELIZABETH What do you know of the Enterprise of England, Ambassador? DON GUERAU The Enterprise...? Forgive me, your majesty... ELIZABETH It's a plan for the invasion of my country. Two armies landing on the coasts of Sussex and - WALSINGHAM Norfolk. ELIZABETH And Norfolk. Mary Stuart is to be set free, and placed on the English throne. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 54 ELIZABETH(cont'd) I am to be assassinated. Does any of this sound familiar? DON GUERAU I know nothing of any invasion plans. ELIZABETH I refer to this plan as the Enterprise of England. It should more accurately be called `la Empresa di Inglaterra', because it's a Spanish plan. The plan of your king, my one-time brother-in- law, Philip II, to attack my country.The Ambassador decides the best form of defence is attack. D ON GUERAU Attack? It is my country that is under attack! Your so-called pirates attack our merchant ships daily! Do you think we don't know where their orders come from? The whole world knows that pirates sail up the Thames all the way to the royal bed! ELIZABETH (exploding) You will leave my presence, sir! Go back to Spain! Tell Philip that I don't fear him, or his priests, or his armies. Tell him if he wants to shake his little fist at us, we're ready to give him such a bite he'll wish he'd kept his hands in his pockets.Don Guerau sees no point in further pretence. He speakswith pride and contempt. DON GUERAU You see a leaf fall, and you think you know which way the wind blows. But a wind is coming, madam, that will sweep away your pride.H e bows and turns to go. Elizabeth's words blaze after him. ELIZABETH I too can command the wind, sir. I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare, if you dare to try me! May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 55 Shivering with rage she turns round, and there's Raleigh. Her fury overflows onto him. ELIZABETH What are you staring at? Lower your eyes! I am the Queen! She sweeps past him without a further glance. ON RALEIGH - Watching Elizabeth go. A shake of his head. Enough. EXT. SHIPYARD, SPAIN - DAY50 50 Immense stacks of cut timber as far as the eye can see. Skeletons of new ships, big ships, rising in the great yard. Hundreds of ship-builders at work. T his is what the forests were felled for: a brand-new fleet is being built. Tiny figures in the wide scene: the royal party appears. Philip has come to see progress for himself. As he and his entourage tour the construction site, one of his ministers briefs him on the latest developments in England. SPANISH MINISTER (It can't be denied that we've lost the advantage of surprise. A large part of our plans has come into their hands.) PHILIP (The Jesuit is still at liberty?) SPANISH MINISTER (We understand so, majesty.) PHILIP (He knows his business. We've lost nothing.) The workmen kneel to Philip as he passes. PHILIP (Tell the carpenters to go on working. No one is to stop for me. The fleet must be ready to sail in a month.) SPANISH MINISTER (Impossible, majesty!) PHILIP (If this is God's work, God will make it possible.) C May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 56 SPANISH MINISTER ( Only a miracle -) PHILIP (A miracle, then. Let it be done!) INT. CAPTAIN'S CABIN, TYGER - DAY51 51 LOSE ON pen and paper - a letter being written in haste. Raleigh at a ship's table littered with charts. He's writing a letter to the Queen. Calley enters. CALLEY Visitor for you, sir. EXT. DECK, TYGER - DAY51A 51A The Tyger is in dock. Raleigh emerges from his cabin to find Bess waiting for him. RALEIGH The Queen has sent you to me. BESS Yes - RALEIGH Tell the Queen that I will trouble her no more. As soon as my ship's repairs are complete I will ask permission to sail. BESS The Queen asks me to assure you - RALEIGH I need no assurances. I'm no courtier and never have been. I've lost my appetite for playing games that it seems I'm too stupid to understand. BESS That is unfair - RALEIGH You call me unfair! BESS Let me speak! May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 57 Raleigh is taken aback by Bess's sudden anger. BESS The Queen shouts at you once, and you sulk like a child. I thought you more of a man than that. And I thought you a better friend to the Queen. Her every move is watched by a hundred eyes. Assassins plot to kill her. Enemies prepare to overwhelm her country. And you say she's playing games? Raleigh is watching her as she speaks, and he's impressed. Anger suits her. RALEIGH Very well. What is my Queen's command? BESS Go to her, sir. As her friend.52 52 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - DAY Elizabeth is pacing, disturbed, Raleigh's letter open in her hand. The doors open. Raleigh enters. Elizabeth waits for the servants to close the doors behind him. Holds up the letter. ELIZABETH You ask permission to go. RALEIGH Yes, majesty. ELIZABETH You plan to return to the New World. To your colony. For two, or three, or four years. RALEIGH If your majesty grants me your royal warrant. ELIZABETH That is a long time. RALEIGH There's nothing left for me to do here. At sea I know what I'm to do, I know the risks, I know the rewards. Here - May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 58A shrug. What can he do? ELIZABETH But you're quite wrong. You are needed here. I have decided to appoint you Captain of my personal guard. RALEIGH Captain of your - ! ELIZABETH Kneel.He kneels. She taps him on the shoulder with one hand. ELIZABETH Rise, Sir Walter Raleigh.He rises, but keeps his eyes on the ground. ELIZABETH Well? You may express your gratitude. RALEIGH This is too great an honour. ELIZABETH If it's such an honour, why are you staring at your boots? RALEIGH You know why. He raises his eyes, but he still doesn't look at her. ELIZABETH Now you stare at the wall. Am I so old and hideous that you can't even look me in the face?He turns now, and looks her in the face. RALEIGH Why do you talk like a fool when you're anything but a fool?This stops her in her tracks. For a moment she can't trustherself to speak. Then: ELIZABETH My friend, forgive me. I'm a vain and foolish woman. At court it's all a game. I like to be admired. I require it. I grow accustomed to it. But it's all - nothing. B5 May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 59 ELIZABETH(cont'd) You come here as if from another world, and I - You have real adventures, you go where the maps end. I would follow you there if I could, believe me. Raleigh looks long into her eyes. If anything, he admires and loves her all the more now. ELIZABETH The storm clouds are gathering, my friend. Please don't leave me now. EXT. GALLOWS - DAY53 53 CLOSE ON Throckmorton as the noose is tightened round his neck. His face is ravaged by the tortures he's endured, but he holds his head high, ready for death. Round him an unseen crowd bays for blood. CROWD (O.S.) Hang! Hang! Hang! RESTON (V.O.) Lord have mercy on the soul of your servant, who gives his life for your eternal truth... INT. SECRET ROOM - DAY 4 54 A candle-lit cellar, where Reston and the conspirators pray for the condemned man, heads bowed. abington bursts in. BABINGTON Francis is about to die! We must act! R ESTON He enters heaven as a soldier returns home victorious from war. BABINGTON Why don't we strike? What's he dying for? Is this part of your plan? Reston puts his hands on Babington's shoulders and gently but irresistibly forces him down to pray with them. RESTON Lord, be with us as the end approaches. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 60 RESTON(cont'd) We will not fail in our duty. We look beyond death, to eternity. EXT. GALLOWS - DAY55 55 Throckmorton drops. His body flails. His neck breaks. A roar of bloodlust from the crowd. (RENUMBERED- SEE SCENE 51A)55A 55A INT. PRIVATE CHAPEL - NIGHT55B 55B Bess is on her knees before the simple altar, her head bowed in prayer. Raleigh enters through the rear doors. He stands in silence, watching her as she prays. He hears her sigh. He takes a step towards her. She hears, startled. Turns and sees him. BESS Oh! It's you! RALEIGH I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. BESS My prayer's done. She rises to her feet. RALEIGH Something has distressed you. BESS And I thought I prayed in silence. RALEIGH So you did. She turns away, unable to look him in the eyes. BESS A man was hanged today. A Papist. I knew him well. He was my cousin. He died because I gave information. I gave information to prove my loyalty. Because I was afraid. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 61 RALEIGH That's necessity. That's the world we live in. BESS He told me he wanted to change. Become part of the new England. I was afraid that he was lying to me. But what if - what if it was true? He sees the horror in her eyes, at the thought that she has sent an innocent man to his death. Tears rise to her eyes. BESS What if I was his last hope? What if I was the one person he thought he could trust? RALEIGH If you knew him well, you will have sensed the truth. BESS I thought so. RALEIGH He was hoping to use you. You did what you had to do. She can no longer hold back the tears. RALEIGH There, now. He wipes away a tear from her cheek. In desperate need of comfort, she throws herself into his arms. He holds her close as she sobs. RALEIGH We're all mortal, Bess. We do what we can. He strokes her cheek. She meets his eyes, filled with gratitude. She takes the hand that touches her face and moves it to her lips. She kisses it, still holding his eyes. He draws her back into his arms, and they kiss. Suddenly they're kissing eagerly, greedily, their long pent- up passion released at last. OMITTED56 56 A C May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 62 EXT. CHARTLEY HALL - DAY57 57 A brewer's wagon, pulled by two dray horses and carrying beer barrels, crosses the ancient bridge over the moat and pulls up by the gates. The brewer, a big ugly man called BURTON, looks down at the GUARDS. Beside him, taking care not to draw attention to himself, sits Ramsay. BURTON Morning. Another filthy day on God's stinking earth. GUARD Morning to you. It's a familiar ritual. The guards search the wagon. INT. CELLAR, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY58 58 Burton, standing outside, rolls the barrels through a trap door and down a chute into the cellar, where they are caught by the CELLARMAN, and stacked. Another GUARD stands and watches. B URTON Last cask! The cellarman takes it, then closes the trap door. The guard watches as the cellarman empties the beer barrels into open vats; leaving the bungs on one side. The barrels are then thrown on a fire. ELLARMAN Nothing but beer. Satisfied? INT. CELLAR, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY59 59 CLOSE ON the bungs, unnoticed on a side shelf. A FEMALE HAND picks up one of the bungs. Fingers probe. A cavity opens. Inside, tightly folded pages. INT. HALLWAY, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY60 60 nnette, Mary Stuart's maid, walks calmly up to the GUARD outside the doors to her mistress's apartments. She nods at him, and he unlocks the doors, letting her through. O May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 63 INT. MARY STUART'S QUARTERS, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY61 61 nce inside, Annette abandons her calm manner, and hurries through the apartment. ANNETTE Madame! Madame! Mary Stuart comes to meet her. Annette removes the crumpled papers from her undergarments. Mary crosses herself, takes the letter to a lamp, and devours it with eager eyes. MARY (to herself) The gentlemen are ready. It will be soon now. ANNETTE Blessed Mother of God pray for us! MARY Bring me pen and paper, Annette. They wait on my reply. Hurry, now, hurry!62 62 EXT. RIVER/DEE'S HOUSE - DUSK The moon seen through a sextant. A strange figure stands on the flat roof of a riverside house, studying the night sky. He's tall, with a long pointed beard and a skullcap: the famous magus DR JOHN DEE. A hiss and splash from the night river. He turns to look. Out of the mists and shadows comes the lights of an approaching barge. ON THE ROYAL BARGE - Elizabeth and Walsingham, wrapped against night chill, being rowed up river. Over this, lines led from the next scene: ELIZABETH (V.O.) W ell, Dr Dee. Here I am again, back to consult the wisdom of your charts. INT. DEE'S HOUSE - DUSK63 63 The finest library in England. The greatest array of scientific instruments. Part study, part laboratory, part magician's lair, Dr Dee's house is crammed with the evidence of his wide-ranging curiosity. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 64The magus sits at a table before an astrological chart,while Elizabeth and Walsingham look on. DEE The alignment of the planets is most unusual this year. Mars is due to take the ascendant three days after the anniversary of your birth - your majesty was born on September 7th - and I see that twelve days before the anniversary of your birth - He transfers his attention to a different, astronomicalchart. DEE - there will be a full moon - the moon which -He moves back to the astrological chart. DEE - governs the fortunes of all princes of the female gender. ELIZABETH Princes of the female gender. DEE I mean to say, a prince who is also a woman. ELIZABETH Yes, Dr Dee. I am following you. So what does it all mean? D EE It means the rise of a great empire, majesty. And it means convulsions, also. The fall of an empire.Elizabeth listens, a faraway look in her eyes. She knowsnothing of the planets, but she feels it deep withinherself: her moment of destiny is near. ELIZABETH Which empire is to rise, and which is to fall? DEE That I can't say. Astrology is, as yet, more an art than a science. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 65Walsingham has been idly examining the scientificinstruments. He speaks now as if his question is casual. WALSINGHAM Nothing more, Dr Dee? No more specific calamities that we can guard against? ELIZABETH He means, Will I be assassinated? WALSINGHAM Queens are mortal.Dr Dee smiles as he gently contradicts him. DEE Elizabeth is mortal. The Queen will never die. ELIZABETH You see, Francis? This is a mystery. (to Dee) He has no patience with mysteries. W ALSINGHAM What I don't know, I can't use. DEE And yet mysteries have power. Have you not learned that? ELIZABETH Francis. Leave us for a moment.Walsingham leaves. Elizabeth turns to Dr Dee. Now for ashort private moment the Queen becomes a woman. ELIZABETH And the private life of this prince of the female gender, Dr Dee? What do the stars foretell there? Or is this too a mystery? DEE These are matters of state, majesty. ELIZABETH Do the stars not foretell matters of state? DEE For such a prediction, I must look in a different chart. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 66 He means her face. He murmurs to himself as he studies her features, reading her character. DEE Wonderful... Out of such suffering, to have forged such strength... You will need all your strength in days to come... And love... So much love... But as he looks, he finds something more that disturbs him. DEE But you doubt yourself, my child... I've not seen fear in your face before. ELIZABETH Have I reason to fear? DEE Something has weakened you... There is danger, yes... Your strength lies in your spirit. Nothing else matters. There are hard days coming. You must trust the power of your spirit. Elizabeth is shaken by these words. Dee turns to look out once more at the night sky. DEE But I'm no prophet. I see no more than the shadows of ghosts. ELIZABETH An art, not a science. I understand. EXT. THAMES - DUSK64 64 The royal barge returns down the night river. Elizabeth sits in silence, gazing into the darkness, deep in her own thoughts. INT. RALEIGH'S HOUSE - DUSK65 65 Raleigh and Bess make love. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - NIGHT66 66 Elizabeth stands before a long mirror, alone in her dressing chamber, illuminated by lamp light. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 67 She wears a plain shift. She loosens the ties of her shift and lets it fall to the floor, leaving her naked. She gazes at her own naked body in the mirror. INT. SECRET ROOM - NIGHT67 R 67 eston sits at the table, writing by candle light. Burton the brewer enters. Reston leaps to his feet, very tense. RESTON You have it? Burton hands him the letter. Reston opens it and reads it at speed. Then he hands it to a man we don't see. RESTON What do you think? There must be clear and valid authority. He gazes at the unseen man, waiting on his verdict. WILLIAM (O.O.V.) No. It won't do. Reston nods agreement. He returns to the table and dashes off a letter, muttering as he does so. RESTON We wait on a direct order. He completes the note and gives it to Burton. RESTON One more journey, my friend. Then - (fiercely) consummatum est! It is finished. INT. BESS'S BEDROOM - NIGHT67A 67A Bess lies restlessly asleep. Suddenly she gives a start and wakes. She stifles a scream with her hands. On the far side of the room, sitting watching her in silence, is Walsingham. BESS Please! I'm innocent! I've always been a loyal servant of the Queen. I'd never betray the Queen, never - WALSINGHAM But you have, my dear. And you do. We both know that. E D May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 68 Bess knows he means her affair with Raleigh. Now she's too terrified to speak. Walsingham rises. WALSINGHAM Keep me informed, and all will be well. I don't like surprises. He leaves. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY68 68 DANCING MASTER Jump! The dancing master is instructing Bess in the dance called La Volta, watched by the Queen, her ladies and courtiers. A trio of musicians plays a jaunty tune. ANCING MASTER (to Bess) When I push like this, my lady, give a jump into the air. ELIZABETH Let him throw you round, Bess. You can trust him. The dancing master spins Bess round and lifts her up into the air. Her feet fly out as she spins. It's a bold, even risquÈ dance, and the onlookers laugh to see it. DANCING MASTER And round - and round - and round - and down! He lowers Bess to the ground. She loves it. As the spinning begins again, Raleigh enters. LIZABETH L a Volta, Mr Raleigh. The jump. I require all my ladies to learn it. You see how fearless Bess is. Raleigh watches Bess dance. RALEIGH You like your ladies to jump at your command? ELIZABETH Sometimes. Do you think that wrong?S May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 69 RALEIGH No, no. You're the Queen. You are to be obeyed. ELIZABETH To tell you the truth, Mr Raleigh, there are times when I'm tired of being always in control. RALEIGH Nonsense. ELIZABETH What? RALEIGH You don't mean a word of it. You eat and drink control. ELIZABETH Do you say so?The exercise ends. All clap. ELIZABETH Bess, you must try a dance with Mr Raleigh. He's eager to show us his skill. RALEIGH No skill at all, majesty. I don't know the steps. ELIZABETH Oh, it's very simple. he goes to Bess to demonstrate, holding her by the waist. ELIZABETH You stand like this, with your hands firmly clasped here - and when she jumps, on the eighth step, you swing her round - once, twice, three times - and you're back to the beginning. What could be simpler? DANCING MASTER Your majesty knows the dance better than I. ELIZABETH So come, Mr Raleigh. Take your position. I am to be obeyed. RALEIGH As your majesty wishes. M May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 70 Raleigh takes his place with Bess. ELIZABETH Hold her tight. I don't want her dropped. ( to the musicians) Play! The dance begins again. Bess jumps, and Raleigh swings her round and round, finding the knack after an awkward start. Elizabeth watches, smiling, nodding to the beat. She can see the faces of the dancers; and so long as she controls the intimacy between them, she's excited by it. Walsingham enters and stands by her side, watching. ELIZABETH (low) Leave her alone, Walsingham. I want both of them left alone.69 69 SCENE RENUMBERED- SEE SCENE 67A70 70 INT. MARY STUART'S QUARTERS, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY Mary Stuart is praying, but under cover of her bible, she is writing a secret letter. Sir Amyas Paulet enters, with three men. Mary closes the letter in her bible. ARY Am I a danger to England even when I pray? P AULET As always, ma'am, my concern is for your safety. MARY I pray for my cousin Elizabeth. Do you think she prays for me? INT. SECRET ROOM - DAY71 71 Mary's latest letter is now in Reston's hand. Babington and Ramsay sit staring at Reston. This time the Jesuit is pleased. He reads the letter aloud to the unseen man. RESTON `If our forces are in readiness, both within and without the realm, then your Queen commands you to set the gentlemen to work.' May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 71 RESTON(cont'd) (with quiet steely satisfaction) I think we have it. He hands the letter over. For the first time we see who it is: William, now revealed as one of the conspirators. William reads the letter for himself. WILLIAM (nodding agreement) This is the spark that will set England ablaze. Reston takes out pistols, and hands one to Ramsay, one to Babington. R ESTON We've been patient long enough. Let God's work begin. INT. STUDY, WALSINGHAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT72 72 Walsingham is at work at his desk. A knock on the door. Walsingham does not look up from his papers. William enters, wrapped in a cloak, one hand concealed. WILLIAM It's me. William. WALSINGHAM (still not looking up) Where have you been? We haven't seen you for days. WILLIAM I met up with some old friends. WALSINGHAM From Paris, no doubt. WILLIAM Yes. WALSINGHAM And now you've come back. He looks up at last. WALSINGHAM Do you know, I can still remember the day you were born? He smiles, but there's sadness in his eyes. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 72 WALSINGHAM I was eleven years old. And you, this helpless bundle. I looked at you in your crib, with your little wrinkled face, and I loved you from the first. I vowed then to look after you. I watched you grow up with your head in the clouds, always a dreamer. I couldn't follow you there. And now I've failed you, haven't I? Forgive me if I haven't loved you enough. Clink. Something falls from William's hand to the floor. His face has gone grey. WALSINGHAM Did you really think I didn't know? On the floor - a dagger. William opens his mouth to answer, but no sound comes out. Walsingham raps twice on his desk. The door opens, and Agents 4 and 5 enter. WALSINGHAM Was it for money? At least tell me you got a good price. W illiam shakes his head. WALSINGHAM What then? What would you murder your own brother for? WILLIAM (whisper) Eternal life. Walsingham stares at him. A great sadness building. WALSINGHAM Eternal life. The bribe no man can refuse. OMITTED (INCORPORATED INTO SCENE 71)73 73 EXT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY74 74 CLOSE ON Elizabeth, surrounded by courtiers and bodyguards, as she processes from the Presence Chamber to the Chapel Royal. As before, the way is lined with eager supplicants. May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 73 CLOSE ON Babington and Ramsay, forcing their way through the crowd to the front line. Elizabeth disappears from view into the Chapel. ROYAL SERVANT The Queen is at her prayers! T he chapel doors begin to close. BABINGTON Now! Ramsay hurls himself forward, shouting - RAMSAY God for Mary! England's true Queen! The guards run to seize him, opening up a momentary space - Babington sprints through it for the closing chapel doors - INT. CHAPEL ROYAL - DAY75 75 Babington bursts into the chapel, sees a line of ladies kneeling, masking the figure in front of the altar - he pulls out a pistol - BABINGTON Elizabeth! Elizabeth turns and rises to confront the assassin's gun. Babington stares at her, hypnotised by her fearlessness. Then he pulls the trigger. Bang! Elizabeth still stares at him. She's unhurt. Babington lets out a cry of anguish, and crumples to the ground. Elizabeth stares on into space, frozen by the moment, magnificent. INT. MARY STUART'S QUARTERS, CHARTLEY HALL - DAY76 76 Mary paces impatiently in her room, trailed by her little dog. She hears the sound of bells. Joy floods her features. Pounding feet. She turns to see Sir Amyas Paulet hurrying towards her, through a gate in the wall. MARY You bring news? May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 74 PAULET The Queen has been attacked - MARY Yes? PAULET The assassin seized - MARY Yes? PAULET The Queen unharmed - MARY Unharmed? PAULET And you, ma'am, are under arrest.He has led up to this deliberately, and now stands smilingat her utter confusion. The man who looked like a fool hasbeen playing his own game all along. MARY Me? What has any of this to do with me?Paulet makes a sign. Burton the brewer comes through thegate: Walsingham's man after all. P AULET That's the trouble with intrigue, isn't it? With so many secrets, you can never quite tell who's on who's side, until the game ends.He takes the hollow bung out of one pocket and admires it. PAULET My own invention. Theatrical, but effective. My master has every letter you've written. MARY Your master? PAULET Walsingham.Now she knows it's over. She begins to weep. MARY Traitors. I'm surrounded by traitors. Who am I to trust? May 1 Blue Draft 28 June - p. 75 She picks up her little dog, weeping bitterly. MARY Only my little one... INT. PRISON - DAY77 77 Walsingham has a lamp in his hand. He moves slowly along a passage, bowed down by a sense of failure. He directs the light of his lamp through cell bars onto a face. The Jesuit. Reston looks back, unafraid. WALSINGHAM Ready to die, I see, Jesuit. RESTON I have done what I was sent to do. WALSINGHAM Why was the gun not loaded? Reston doesn't answer. Walsingham gazes at him a moment longer. Then he moves the lamp along. There, shackled and white-faced, sit Babington and Ramsay. Walsingham studies their faces. Walsingham carries his lamp down the passage and shines it into the next cell. Here lies a man in chains, huddled on the floor. He looks up as the light falls on him. William. Walsingham looks down on the pitiful sight. W ALSINGHAM What was the Jesuit sent to do? WILLIAM To kill the Queen. You know it. You know everything. WALSINGHAM Not quite everything. WILLIAM I've told you all I know. Go ahead and kill me. Take what's left of me. I don't care any more. All my life you've had everything and I've had nothing. So finish it. There's a better world waiting for me. We'll all be judged in the end, brother. Even you. Walsingham gazes down on this pitiful show of pride. orchid revision 28 June -p. 76 WALSINGHAM You're no martyr. You weren't even much of a murderer. Go back to France. Back to your dreams. Never let me hear of you again. Walsingham turns away. As he goes we see what he won't show William: that the hurt of the betrayal is almost more than he can bear. He goes back up the passage. As he passes Reston, the Jesuit calls out softly. RESTON Send me home. INT. ESCORIAL PALACE, SPAIN - DAY78 P 78 hilip sits listening intently, staring into space, the Infanta by his side. Don Guerau de Spes is briefing him. DON GUERAU (They have letters in Mary Stuart's own hand. All England cries out for her death.) Philip nods as he listens. All goes to plan. He turns to the Infanta. PHILIP (My dearest, how would you like to be Queen of England?) orchid revision 28 June -p. 77 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY79 79 Elizabeth sits deep in thought, Bess by her side. Shadows all round. ELIZABETH They say she's taller than me. Her hair is chestnut in colour. Her eyes are hazel. They say she's beautiful. But people lie. They say I am beautiful. A dismissive shrug. Clearly she does not think herself beautiful. BESS She plotted to kill you. ELIZABETH Yes, it's true. I've read her letters. I too was a prisoner once. I've feared for my life. I've done terrible things - just to live. BESS So do we all. ELIZABETH I can be merciful. But she protests her innocence, and that is a lie. Why will she not admit she has wronged me? BESS She'll go on lying til you cut out her traitor's heart. Elizabeth stares at her in surprise. ELIZABETH You used to be gentler, Bess. BESS I used to be quieter, majesty. INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY80 80 Mary Stuart sits before her accusers in the Great Hall of this sombre castle, her new prison. She wears black, but she is proud, composed, and beautiful. She is faced by a commission of lords, appointed to try her. W orchid revision 28 June -p. 77A MARY Who are you to sit in judgement on me? By what authority do you condemn a Queen? God alone has made me what I am. He is my only judge. Raise your law above God's law, and what law remains? In your vanity and ignorance you set loose the monster of misrule. You know neither who you are nor what you do. But I know who I am. I die as I have lived - trusting in the mercy of my God - a Queen.8 1 81 INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT Elizabeth raging at Walsingham. ELIZABETH Must die? Mary Stuart must die? Where is it written? Who dares to give orders to the Queen? ALSINGHAM Majesty, this is no time for mercy - ELIZABETH Don't preach at me, old man. Look at you! You can hardly stand. Go home to your wife. Go home to your bed. WALSINGHAM The law must have its way. orchid revisions 28 june - p.78 ELIZABETH The law is for common men, not for princes. Walsingham sees there's no point in persisting. He bows and withdraws. INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY82 82 Raleigh comes hurrying towards the Queen's quarters. Bess sees him approaching and comes out to meet him. They speak low, not wanting the ever-present guards to hear them. BESS Thank God you've come. I've never seen her so distressed. She's been alone in her rooms since morning. She'll see no one. RALEIGH Has she asked for me? BESS No. But she needs you. I know she does. Raleigh takes Bess's B hand in his, discreetly. ESS Go to her. orchid revisions 28 june - p.79 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY83 83 Elizabeth sits alone, deep in thought. Raleigh enters, and comes before her. She doesn't look round, but she knows it's him. RALEIGH My Queen. ELIZABETH My friend. Still she doesn't turn to him. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Did Bess bid you come? Have you too come to tell me I must murder a Queen? RALEIGH No. You don't need me to instruct you in your duty. ELIZABETH My duty? Was it my father's duty to murder my mother? I would be loath to die so bloody a death. RALEIGH Since when were you so afraid? Now she looks at him. ELIZABETH Yes, I am afraid. I am always afraid. Raleigh looks back at her in silence for a long moment. Then - RALEIGH You fear your soul will be touched. Royalty is close to immortality. Kill a Queen - and queens are mortal. ELIZABETH You understand me well. RALEIGH We mortals have many weaknesses. We feel too much. Hurt too much. And all too soon, we die. But we do have the chance of love.8 orchid revisions 28 june - p.79A Elizabeth closes her eyes. ELIZABETH Do we? Do we really? She nods, her eyes still closed. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) I owe England my life. Don't ask for my soul. INT. MARY'S QUARTERS, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - NIGHT 4 84 Mary Stuart at supper, feeding titbits from the table to her little dog. Sir Amyas Paulet enters. Mary sees at once from his face that he brings grave news. E O T may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 80 MARY Your face tells me. It's decided. PAULET Tomorrow morning. At eight. Annette, her maid, bursts into wailing sobs. Mary herself goes very still. She's starting to carry out her final strategy. MARY Please don't cry. INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY85 85 The great timbered hall of the castle has been specially prepared for the execution. A stage has been constructed in the centre, and around the stage are chairs upon which DIGNITARIES and MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT are already sitting. The block dominates the stage. Beside it, the hooded EXECUTIONER with his axe. The DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH in his clerical robes. T here are more chairs in the body of the hall, occupied by members of the public. They are all waiting for the performance to begin. Mary enters. he people crane their necks to see her. She doesn't disappoint. She is wearing a black velvet gown, her luxurious auburn hair tied in a bunch. Her LADIES, following her in procession, show signs of weeping and distress, but Mary herself glides to the platform with a regal bearing. n her face there is a look that is almost ecstatic. INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY86 86 lizabeth, alone. She knows what's happening. She can't rest or be at peace. She tries to sit, then paces, becoming more and more agitated. INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY87 87 As Mary mounts the stage, the executioner kneels. EXECUTIONER Forgiveness, your grace. N may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 81 MARY I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you will make an end of all my troubles. She stands, smiling still, and holds out her arms to let her ladies disrobe her. INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY88 88 ow deeply distressed, Elizabeth suddenly bursts out of the Privy Chamber into the great Presence Chamber, tears welling into her eyes. Bess close behind her. She hardly notices the people around her, until she sees Raleigh. ELIZABETH I want it stopped!89 89 INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY Mary's black dress falls to the ground, revealing underneath a petticoat of dark red silk - the colour of martyrdom. There is a collective gasp from the spectators. INT. GREAT HALL, WHITEHALL - DAY90 90 Elizabeth is hysterical, shouting in Raleigh's restraining arms. ELIZABETH No! It must be stopped! INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY91 91 Mary kneels, puts her head on the block. M ARY Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. She stretches out her arms as a signal. The axe comes down. INT. GREAT HALL, WHITEHALL - DAY92 92 Elizabeth cries out, as if the axe has fallen on her neck. Then she sinks sobbing to the ground, supported by both Raleigh and Bess; and for a moment, the three are united in a single embrace. P may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 82 EXECUTIONER (V.O.) God save the Queen! INT. GREAT HALL, FOTHERINGAY CASTLE - DAY93 93 ON THE FACES of the awed spectators. We see, FOREGROUND, the scarlet-clad torso of the executed Mary. A gasp of horror from the spectators. The dead woman's skirts are moving. Out from under her skirts creeps her little dog. The dog looks round, not understanding, and whimpers softly. Annette takes the dog into her arms. INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER, ESCORIAL PALACE - DAY95 T 95 he sound of cheering crowds outside in the plaza calling out the one Spanish word: `War! War! War!'. hilip enters from the balcony, walking briskly, holding the Infanta by the hand. He comes to a stop before his assembled ministers. His eyes shine. PHILIP (A sweet and Christian lady lies martyred, slain by a- Godless- childless- BASTARD! Blood must pay for blood! We have just and holy cause! I call the legions of Christ to war! Elizabeth! Blood- soaked virgin Elizabeth! You will pay with your country- your throne- and your life!) INT. HALLWAY, WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT96 96 ON WALSINGHAM - As he walks through the palace. WALSINGHAM (V.O.) Forgive me. In my weakness and my vanity, I have failed you. INT. PRIVY CHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY97 97 Walsingham on his knees before Elizabeth, abasing himself in shame. Elizabeth is in control once more. E LIZABETH How have you failed me? What am I to forgive you for? may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 83 WALSINGHAM Philip of Spain is a God-fearing man. He cannot make war without just cause. He sent the Jesuit to kill a Queen. But not you. ELIZABETH Not me! WALSINGHAM The Jesuit's mission was to draw Mary Stuart into the murder plot. He knew I was reading her every letter. He waited until she wrote the words that sealed her guilt. Now Elizabeth gets it. ELIZABETH (slowly) And I ordered her execution. I murdered God's anointed Queen. And now God's most dutiful son makes holy war to punish me. WALSINGHAM Forgive me, majesty. Let me go. Elizabeth hardly hears him any more. She realises the end game is upon her. ELIZABETH Yes... Go... Walsingham leaves. Elizabeth never even looks at him. She's looking into the distance, preparing herself for what must now come. INT. LISBON CATHEDRAL - DAY98 98 The great Standard of the Armada, bearing the image of the Virgin, is carried into the cathedral. Philip follows, leading a column of Spain's noblest GRANDEES and PRINCES of the church. The ARCHBISHOP sprinkles holy water onto the Standard, and makes the sign of the Cross over it. ARCHBISHOP Exurge, domine et vindica causam tuam. Amen. Philip kneels to kiss the blessed Standard - which is then thrust aloft again, into the vast spaces of the Cathedral. may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 84 And at once there is a great outpouring of emotion, the congregation applauding, many weeping at the sight.9 INT. QUEEN'S PRIVATE QUARTERS - NIGHT 9 99 Elizabeth is alone, pacing slowly, reading a book - the Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius. She reads, pauses, looks into the far distance; then reads and walks again. ELIZABETH (V.O.) `Think you that there is any certainty in the affairs of mankind, when you know that one swift hour can destroy the greatest among us?' She turns, and there is Raleigh. She holds up her book. ELIZABETH Boethius. RALEIGH The Consolation of Philosophy. ELIZABETH Thank you for coming at this late hour. She closes her book and puts it away. ELIZABETH We're at war. Who knows when we'll meet again. If we'll meet again. RALEIGH May the Lord God preserve England's Queen. ELIZABETH The same God in whose name Philip wages his holy war. Philip is a righteous man, and righteous men love to destroy. They burn whole worlds to make them pure, and leave behind - ashes. RALEIGH He'll not burn England. ELIZABETH He may. His Armada is invincible, they say. If London falls, I fall. If England is lost, I am lost. may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 85 RALEIGH Never! ELIZABETH Never? It's night. My thoughts turn dark. Don't you ever think that one day, perhaps one day soon, you too will die? RALEIGH The closer I come to death, the more I want to live. The hungrier I am for life.His defiant energy breaks Elizabeth's morbid mood. E LIZABETH You're right. We must live while we can. RALEIGH Why be afraid of tomorrow? Today's all we have, and all we know. ELIZABETH Today. Tonight. RALEIGH Now.They hold each other's eyes. ELIZABETH I wish -But she can't say it. RALEIGH I've never known a woman like you. ELIZABETH In some other time, in some other world, could you have loved me? RALEIGH I know only one world. In this world, I have loved you.Elizabeth smiles a small smile. ELIZABETH Then there's... something you could do for me - something I've not known for a very long time - if you felt so inclined - may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 86 Raleigh intuits what she wants. He comes closer as she speaks. E LIZABETH Something not to be spoken of afterwards - to be forgotten - but just for now - She lifts her head to his. She meets his eyes. ELIZABETH A kiss? He takes her in his arms, and they kiss. One kiss to hold all that might have been, all that they both know can never be. When at last they part she turns away from him, head bowed, eyes still closed, holding on to the sweet moment. EXT. LISBON HARBOUR - DAY100 100 CLOSE IMAGES as the Armada standard is carried in procession to the flagship, and hoisted into position on the ship's towering prow. Cannons fire a booming salute. As the standard billows in the breeze, beyond it we see the forest of masts that make up the great Armada.101 101 INT. ANTECHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY The palace is galvanised by the invasion threat. Armed men go by at the double, passing servants hauling out trolleys bearing valuables, as the court prepares for the worst. Raleigh and Howard stride fast across the Guard Chamber, the first of the sequence of great rooms. They are deep in war talk. Bess appears ahead, and beckons him to a secluded corner. R ALEIGH Bess, I've been ordered to my ship - Bess stops his mouth with one finger. BESS I'll be quick. I have something to tell you. But I ask for nothing. Is that understood? Your life is your own. Nothing will change. may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 87 RALEIGH What is this, Bess?Two court officials hurry by. Bess lowers her voice. BESS I'm -Her hand touches her waist. RALEIGH You're pregnant? BESS No one knows. My plans are made. I shall ask the Queen for permission to leave court. I shall live quietly in the country with - with my child. The Queen must know nothing.Raleigh stares at her, stunned. More people are passing.This is no place for R displays of strong feeling. ALEIGH Where will you go? BESS To my mother's house. RALEIGH You can't go! BESS I'm a ward of the Queen. I can't court a man without her permission. I can't marry without her permission. As for having a child -Another official passes by. RALEIGH When were you planning to leave? BESS As soon as I'm allowed.Raleigh finds himself caught in an impossible situation.His internal struggle shows itself in the twists and jerksof his body. RALEIGH Am I not to see you again? What's to become of the child? Bess - B may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 88 BESS Hush! We've no choice. You know it as well as I do. RALEIGH All I know is nothing's as it should be. BESS Please listen. You once said to me, `Whatever I have to give, ask and it's yours.' Do you remember? RALEIGH Of course I remember. BESS I ask that you forget me. Go to your ship. Do your duty. Forget me. R aleigh gazes at her, deeply moved. RALEIGH Oh, Bess... The Queen's ladies come hurrying by. Margaret calls to Bess as they go. MARGARET Bess! We're summoned. ESS I'm coming. (to Raleigh) Goodbye. She runs after the ladies. Raleigh walks slowly after them down the hall. On his face a new look forms. He knows now what he's going to do. OMITTED102 102 EXT. SEA - DAY103 103 An empty horizon. Then, on the very line of the horizon, the ghost of a movement. Far away, too small to make out, something is coming.1 may 1 blue draft 28 June - p. 89 INT. ELIZABETH'S BEDCHAMBER, WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT104 104 Elizabeth starts up in bed, calls out in sudden fear. ELIZABETH Air! I must have air! Her servants hurry in, and open the window. Elizabeth goes to the open window and breathes in deeply. She looks up at the moon. RALEIGH (V.O.) With this ring I thee wed. With my body I thee worship... 05 105 INT. PRIVATE CHAPEL - NIGHT Raleigh and Bess are being married in secret by a PRIEST. The only witness is Bess's fellow maid of honour Margaret. Raleigh makes his vow tenderly and lovingly, his eyes on Bess throughout. RALEIGH ... and with all my worldly goods H I thee endow. e places the ring on her left thumb. RALEIGH In the name of the father - He moves the ring to her forefinger - RALEIGH And of the Son - To her index finger - RALEIGH And of the Holy Spirit. And finally onto her ring finger. RALEIGH Amen. INT. MAP ROOM, WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY106 106 A room in which a map of Europe is inlaid in the floor. A table strewn with maps stands in the centre. Elizabeth is imperious, back in control. E Grey Revisions 22 June -p.90 ELIZABETH This Spanish Armada is at sea carrying an army of ten thousand men. (indicating on the map) The Duke of Parma has fifteen thousand men on the French coast. WALSINGHAM They plan to cross the Channel in barges, under the protection of the Spanish fleet, and sail up the Thames. ELIZABETH But they don't yet have enough barges at Calais. We have a little time. WALSINGHAM (surprised) That is so. ELIZABETH Our forces defend the Thames entrance at Tilbury. How many men? HATTON We have three, possibly four thousand, majesty. WALSINGHAM If the Spanish fleet reaches Calais in strength, the combined armies will be beyond our power to resist. LIZABETH Therefore, the Spanish fleet must not reach Calais. HOWARD Majesty, this vast Armada will surely smash through our naval defences. We must be prepared for the worst. INT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DAY107 E 107 lizabeth walks briskly through the great public rooms back to her quarters, with Walsingham by her side and her entourage following behind. E May 1 Blue Draft -p.91 WALSINGHAM How did you know about the numbers of the Dutch barges, majesty? I don't recall supplying you with that information. ELIZABETH You may observe, Walsingham, that I don't see my way with only one eye. Nor do I hop along on only one leg. Why then would I rely on only one source of information? She sweeps into her quarters. Her ladies, waiting there, jump up in haste. She scans them. LIZABETH Where's Bess? Her eyes coem to rest on Margaret. She sees that Margaret knows something. ELIZABETH Where is she? EXT. THE LIZARD, CORNWALL - DUSK108 108 We are on the very tip of England. A watch-tower has been built, and next to it a large beacon of wood. A YOUNG MAN is minding the watch. He stares out to sea, catching sight of something. Over the rim of the world has appeared the long line of the Spanish fleet, like a floating wall, black and menacing. H e runs down the steps from the tower. He lights a bundle of sticks and thrusts them again and again into the beacon. The beacon catches fire. As the flames rise into the sky, so a second beacon erupts into flame on the next headland. And then a third on the next, a fourth on the next, a fifth, disappearing around the coastline. INT. WHITEHALL PALACE - DUSK109 109 Doors burst open and Elizabeth comes storming out, barely containing a powerful rage. ELIZABETH Bess! Bess Throckmorton! Bess comes running from the far end. May 1 Blue Draft -p.92 BESS Here, my lady! ELIZABETH Tell me! Is it true? Are you married? Are you with child? Are you WITH CHILD? Bess stands before her with her head bowed. BESS Yes, my lady. Elizabeth falls on her with uncontrolled rage, striking out at her, beating her about the head, shrieking out the words that so inflame and wound her. Bess takes the blows insilence. ELIZABETH You traitress! You dare to have secrets from me! I am your Queen! You ask my permission before you rut - before you marry - before you breed! My bitches wear my collars! Do you hear me? How dare you be with child!Walsingham comes hobbling up. WALSINGHAM Majesty, please! Dignity - mercy -But Elizabeth is too far gone. She turns on him, eyesblazing. ELIZABETH This is no time for mercy! That's what you said to me. I don't forget. But you showed mercy, Walsingham! Go to your traitor brother, and leave me to my business!W alsingham turns white. Elizabeth is back berating Bess. ELIZABETH Is it his child? Tell me! Say it! Is the child his? Tell me! Say it! Is it his?Bess responds to the Queen's hysteria with dignity. BESS Yes, my lady. It is - my husband's child.Her gaze reaches beyond the Queen. Elizabeth turns. F May 1 Blue Draft -p.93 Raleigh has come up to them unnoticed. He has seen and heard all. He speaks to Elizabeth quietly, sadly. RALEIGH This is not the Queen I love and serve. Elizabeth stares at him. He meets her eyes. His gaze is so unflinching that slowly the madness drains out of her. When she speaks next, she is her proud self again. ELIZABETH This gentleman has seduced a lady under my care. This lady has married without my consent. These are offences punishable by law. (to Walsingham) Arrest him. OMITTED110 110 EXT. ENGLISH COAST - DUSK111 111 rom way up high we see beacon after warning beacon bursting into flame, the light from them describing the contours of England. As they rush on, they suddenly divide, some continuing along the coast, others racing inland. RENUMBERED- SEE SCENE 112B112 112 112A 112A INT. DEE'S HOUSE - DUSK Dr Dee watches as Elizabeth prowls his cluttered rooms, releasing the tension that has swelled to bursting point within her. ELIZABETH The fall of an empire, you told me. Did you mean the English empire? Because by God, England will not fall while I am Queen! If that's your prophecy, sir, prophesy again! DEE You want me to tell your majesty only what your majesty chooses to hear? E May 1 Blue Draft -p.94 ELIZABETH I will not be a toy of the fates! Have I not faced an assassin's bullet and lived? She turns to Dr Dee and sees his quizzical gaze on her, and she lets her rage pass. E LIZABETH Just tell me there's no certainty. The shadows of ghosts, you said. Any outcome is possible. Give me hope. DEE The forces that shape the world are greater than all of us, majesty. How can I promise you that they'll conspire in your favour, even though you are the Queen? But this much I know. When the storm breaks, each man acts in accordance with his own nature. Some are dumb with terror. Some flee. Some hide. And some spread their wings like eagles and soar on the wind. Elizabeth understands. She draws herself up, finding now the self-belief she needs for the battle to come. ELIZABETH You're a wise man, Dr Dee. DEE And you, madam, are a very great lady. INT. WHITEHALL PALACE - NIGHT112B 112B lizabeth stares out of the window, watches as the last beacon is kindled not far away, and bursts into flame. Behind her stand her ministers: Hatton, Howard, and Walsingham. S he turns to face the others. All littleness has dropped away. She sees only her nation's hour of destiny, and her own duty. ELIZABETH My lords, I can offer you no words of comfort. DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.95 ELIZABETH(cont'd) If this Armada succeeds there will be no more freedom in our land, and England will be no more. We cannot be defeated. EXT. SEA - DAY113 113 The unending line of Spanish ships advances over the water. Still far away, but scary in power and reach. RALEIGH What news? Is the fleet at sea? SERVANT Yes, sir. May God preserve them. INT. TOWER OF LONDON - DAY114 114 Raleigh lies awake and fully dressed on the bed in his prison room. The room is furnished for a gentleman, but the walls are thick and the windows barred. The door opens, and a servant brings in a tray of food. Raleigh sits up. RALEIGH What news? SERVANT The Spanish are off Portland. RALEIGH And the fleet? SERVANT Still at Plymouth, joined by Drake and all the rest. RALEIGH (bitter) All but me. EXT. ENGLISH CHANNEL - DAY115 115 The white cliffs of England, seen from the Channel. INTO FRAME sweeps a SPANISH ENSIGN, streaming from a mast. And another, and another. Mast after mast, straining sails, shivering ropes, and the FLAGS of the enemy - flying from the top-gallants of a hundred ships - so near to England now that they seem to have been planted already on England's white cliffs. DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.95A INT. ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL - DAY116 116 The Queen, Sir Christopher Hatton, Walsingham and her entourage, all now heavily armed, enter the great vaulted nave of St Paul's. As they make their way towards the altar, Elizabeth issues commands. E LIZABETH The bells are to ring in every church in the land. Hatton bows to show he has received the order. ELIZABETH Labourers are to leave the fields and take up arms. The harvest must wait. May 1 Blue Draft- p.96 Hatton bows and leaves. Elizabeth continues up the nave, now followed only by Walsingham. She turns to him with another order. ELIZABETH Release all prisoners. England is their country too. She moves forward again. Walsingham follows, waiting, knowing there's more. Elizabeth turns to him one last time. ELIZABETH Release Raleigh. He is forgiven... As I too pray to be forgiven... Walsingham leaves. Elizabeth goes forward to stand before the altar alone. ELIZABETH Leave me. All of you. The remainder of her entourage bow and withdraw. Elizabeth goes on down the nave to the altar, and there, at the foot of the steps, sinks to her knees. She does not bow her head. ON ELIZABETH - Alone in the great space, staring at her God P as at an equal. AN UP to the blazing coloured light of the stained glass window -117 117 INT. ESCORIAL PALACE - DAY DOWN from high windows to see monks praying for the success of the Armada. Their chant has a driving war-like rhythm, that carries over the following scenes. INT. ESCORIAL PALACE, SPAIN - DAY118 118 SPEED TRACK down a palace corridor, urged on by the beat of the chant, into Philip's cell. TRACK IN to the flame of a single candle: its bright heart seems to be the source of the pounding chant. EXT. ENGLISH CHANNEL - DAY119 119 The chant powers on. SHIPS' BOWS slice the water, racing towards us. DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.97 INT. PHILIP'S CELL - DAY120 120 ON PHILIP as the chant drives on, murmuring his own prayer. PHILIP Tu es Deus qui facis mirabilia solus. Notam fecisti in gentibus virtutem tuam... INT. TOWER OF LONDON - DAY120A 120A CLOSE ON RALEIGH - A Royal Official has just handed him a letter. He reads it and then looks up. RALEIGH Tell the Queen I will join my ship. EXT. ENGLISH CAMP, TILBURY - DAY121 121 The chant continues - TRACKING THROUGH English troops to the Queen's tent -121A 121A EXT PLYMOUTH HARBOUR - DAY The English fleet sets sail and leaves Plymouth harbour. INT. QUEEN'S TENT, TILBURY - DAY122 122 The Queen's advisers mill round Elizabeth. Walsingham is seated in the background. ELIZABETH Are our ships at sea? Has the fleet left Plymouth? That can't be so hard to know. ADMIRAL WINTER enters, out of breath, clutching the latest reports. ADMIRAL WINTER The enemy has been engaged, majesty. He reads as he speaks. The news is not so good after all. ADMIRAL WINTER A brave action. Two ships lost. ELIZABETH With what gain? DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.97A HATTON The enemy continues to advance. EXT. ENGLISH CHANNEL - DAY123 123 FOREGROUND - Floating wreckage, and the bodies of English sailors. Beyond, the long line of the Spanish fleet, advancing, firing. The Spanish ships are monsters, much taller than the English ships. I Double Pink revision 18 July- p.98 INT. ADMIRAL'S CABIN, ARK ROYAL - DAY124 124 Lord Howard bent over a mass of charts with his commanders round him: HAWKINS, DRAKE, FROBISHER and Raleigh. The boom of Spanish cannon shakes the air. Flashes of fire light the faces of the English officers. DRAKE We must attack! What choice do we have? HOWARD We're decisively outgunned, Drake. We are losing too many ships. We must defend the coast. DRAKE (studying the chart of the Armada's progress) There has to be a way of getting inside this crescent formation. RALEIGH Our ships may be smaller but they're nimbler. We should use the strengths we've got. HOWARD I tell you, we're out-gunned. Do you want to lose the whole fleet? RALEIGH Break their formation and we have a chance. HOWARD We can't get near them. INT. QUEEN'S TENT, TILBURY - DAY125 125 Elizabeth among her advisers. An air of mounting panic. WALSINGHAM The Spanish are barely a day away, majesty. HATTON t would be wise to withdraw to safer ground. Grey Revision 22 June - p.99 WALSINGHAM I beg you to appreciate the gravity of the situation, majesty. There is very little time. Elizabeth turns on him, calm and defiant. ELIZABETH Then we must act. EXT. ENGLISH CAMP, TILBURY - DAY126 126 A low distant beat as we TRACK THROUGH the English camp. The soldiers are a citizen army, no hardened professionals. We pass a troop busy sharpening their pikes; an older soldier in quiet prayer; a band sharing drinks; a youth rubbing down a horse. Now they hear the distant beat approaching. One by one they look up, surprised, uncertain. Now they hear it loud and clear: the beat of an army on the march. CLOSE ON tramping feet. An advancing force. Horses' hooves beating the ground. O N THE SOLDIERS' FACES - Staring, half afraid, half expectant - then filled with a surge of sudden hope - SOLDIERS' POV - English flags rising over the low brow of the hill. EXT. HILL ABOVE THE ENGLISH CAMP - DAY127 127 In the midst of the advancing array of banners and flags, riding a white horse, dressed in silver armour, holding a silver staff - Elizabeth - transformed into a goddess of war. The thousands of gaping soldiers sink awe-struck to their knees. ON ELIZABETH as she surveys her rag-tag army. The army lets out a cheer. The Queen cries out to ore) army, her voice echoing in the (m her chill air. ELIZABETH My loving people! We see the sails of the enemy approaching. We hear the Spanish guns over the water. T Goldenrod revision 1 June - p.100 ELIZABETH(cont'd) Soon now we will meet them face to face. In that encounter, England lives, or England dies. I am resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all! A cheer from the men. ELIZABETH While we stand together no invader shall pass. Let them come with all the armies of Hell, they will not pass. The crowd gives another mighty cheer. ELIZABETH So let us sound the advance and go forward, together, you and I. I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. When this day of battle is ended, we meet again in heaven, or on the field of victory. he greatest shout of all. SOLDIERS Aye! INT. DEE'S HOUSE - DUSK128 128 Dr Dee studies his charts.129 129 INT. PHILIP'S CELL - DUSK Philip sits staring at the flame of the candle. The whole world waits. EXT. ARK ROYAL - DUSK130 130 A ship's lamp sways in the window. A sailor notes the movement. DoubleGreen Revision - 22 July - p.101 SAILOR Wind change! High in the rigging above, a sail flaps and bellies in a new direction. The sound of a rising storm. INT. QUEEN'S TENT, TILBURY - DUSK131 131 Elizabeth looks around her as the tent shudders in the rising wind. EXT. SPANISH SHIP - DUSK132 132 The vast Armada is being buffeted by the storm, but still it comes on. The sea is in turmoil, lightning streaks across the darkening sky. SPANISH OFFICER (Drop Anchor!) 2ND OFFICER (Our orders are to stay in formation.) SPANISH OFFICER (If we don't drop anchor, we'll be smashed on the rocks!)133 133 EXT SPANISH SHIP - DUSK Spanish sailors furl the sails, haul in ropes. An anchor crashes into the sea. EXT. ARK ROYAL - DUSK134 134 Raleigh and Drake hurry along the deck in the whipping wind and spray. Drake is watching the Spanish fleet, and shouting above the noise of the storm. DRAKE They've dropped anchor. These Spanish monsters can't handle our English seas. RALEIGH We have the wind in our favour. Do we go? DRAKE We go. DoubleYellow - 22 July- p.101A Drake embraces Raleigh. Action at last. DRAKE (CONT'D) God speed, my friend. And don't forget to jump.1 INT QUEEN TENT, TILBURY - DUSK 35 135 The tent is full of commotion, soldiers and ministers come in and out. DoubleGreen- 22 July- p.102 ADMIRAL WINTER Under whose orders is he acting? HATTON He was told not to risk any more ships of the fleet. Elizabeth is distant from the general hubbub. EXT THE TYGER - DUSK136 136 Raleigh at the helm of the Tyger gazing intently ahead. Before him, the might of the Spanish Armada. Behind him, men move down the ship with barrels, pouring pitch over the decks. Calley lights a torch and hands it to Raleigh.137 137 EXT. SPANISH SHIP - DUSK Spanish sailors watch in horror as the spreading flames of the fire-ships move inexorably toward them. EXT. SPANISH SHIP - DUSK138 138 A Spanish officer reacts to the danger and shouts commands. SPANISH OFFICER (Raise anchor! Quickly! No - cut the ropes! Cut the ropes!) Ropes are slashed by flailing axes and cut away from the capstan. INT PHILIP'S CELL - DUSK139 139 Philip stares in horror at the flickering candle. The far- off sound of the storm wind. OMITTED140 140 INT. QUEEN'S TENT, TILBURY - DUSK140A 140A Elizabeth's entourage look at the maps stretched out on the tables. Hatton enters. WALSINGHAM How many Spanish ships are burning? Hatton murmurs a figure. May 1 Blue Draft - p.103 WALSINGHAM Not enough. ON ELIZABETH- Staring out, as if to sea. ELIZABETH One empire will rise, and one will fall... EXT THE TYGER - DUSK141 141 Raleigh on the prow of the Tyger as it sails towards the Spanish fleet. He holds a flaming torch, and calmly surveys his target. He lights the fuses on the prow and tosses the torch behind him. The pitch on the deck bursts into flame. He runs to the side of the ship and scales down the rigging.1 EXT. SPANISH SHIP - DUSK 42 142 Chaos and panic amongst the Spanish sailors as the fire- ship approaches. Men wildly fire off their muskets and the cannons boom. EXT. TYGER - DUSK143 143 Cannonballs crash into the side of the flaming Tyger. Certain now of the ship's course, Raleigh finally leaps into the water. As seen from underwater, Raleigh swims away from the ship. EXT TYGER - DUSK144 144 The prelaid fuses amongst the Tyger's cannons ignite, as the Tyger smashes into the side of the Spanish ship. From beneath, we see the hulls collide. EXT SPANISH SHIP - DUSK145 145 The Tyger's cannons explode causing devastation on the Spanish deck. Sailors run for cover. A horse rears and jumps over the side. EXT ENGLISH CHANNEL - DUSK146 146 From underneath, men leap into the water. A horse swims past, lit from flames above. DoubleGoldenrod - 25 July -p.103A EXT ROOFTOP, JOHN DEE'S HOUSE - NIGHT146A 146A John Dee stands on his roof, looking at the sky through a sextant. EXT. ADMIRAL'S CABIN, ARK ROYAL - DUSK146B 146B Raleigh, singed and wet from his exploits, is with Drake in the cabin. RALEIGH How many ships are burning? DRAKE Four. RALEIGH Not enough. He turns his face towards the coast of England. He speaks as if to her, a quiet heart-felt prayer. RALEIGH (CONT'D) May God be with us all tonight. May 1 Blue Draft - p.104 INT PHILIP'S CELL - DUSK147 147 The candle flickers. A clap of thunder, and the candle goes out. EXT HILL ABOVE THE ENGLISH CAMP147A 147A Elizabeth looks out to sea. The wind roars, the clouds race, the lightning flashes. EXT ENGLISH CHANNEL - DUSK148 148 Images of the beginning of the destruction of the Armada: Philip's portrait is covered by water inside a sinking cabin; a Madonna statue floats; a Spanish battle flag burst into flame. OMITTED149 149 RENUMBERED- SEE SCENE 147A150 150 EXT. ENGLISH CHANNEL - NIGHT151 151 Raging waves, black sea. The howl of the storm, the rending of breaking timbers, the screams of drowning men. Somewhere out there, tiny in the vast seascape, the Armada is being smashed into oblivion. EXT HILL ABOVE THE ENGLISH CAMP- NIGHT152 152 Elizabeth stands there drinking in the tempest, the wind lashing her clothes and hair, but she loves it, lives it, breathes it. This is her storm - her victory. INT. CHAPEL, ESCORIAL PALACE - DAY153 153 The space that echoed before to the chants of war is silent now. Philip and the Infanta come down the nave. Philip's face is set, expressionless. Philip reaches the steps at the foot of the altar. He goes down on his knees. Then he drops further down, to abase himself on the hard stone floor. The cardinals turn their backs to him. T he Infanta remains standing beside him, impassive, staring at nothing. She throws down her Elizabeth doll. May 1 Blue Draft - p.105 A low sob from Philip. EXT HILL ABOVE THE ENGLISH CAMP- NIGHT153A 153A Elizabeth triumphant in the roaring wind. EXT ENGLISH COAST - DAY154 154 From inside a cave looking out to sea, a scene of devastation. Dead Spanish sailors have been washed up amongst planks, barrels and a torn Spanish ensign. A long scream of pain - OMITTED155 155 INT. BESS THROCKMORTON'S BEDROOM - DAY156 156 CLOSE ON BESS - Screaming in pain. A final spasm passes through her. She sinks back. The cry of a new-born child. She hears, and her exhausted face lights up with a radiant smile. INT. WALSINGHAM'S BEDROOM, LONDON - DAY157 157 Walsingham lies in bed, his eyes closed. His wife Ursula and daughter Mary in the background. He's dying. E lizabeth has come to him. She looks down on him with deep concern. ELIZABETH Francis. My old friend. EXT. PARIS STREET - DAY158 158 An anonymous man - Agent 3 - walks down a shabby Paris street. Stops before a small anonymous house. Knocks. INT. PARIS HOUSE - DAY159 159 The anonymous man is let into the house by a figure we don't yet see. He looks round the room. A fire burning in the grate. English books on the table. A half-eaten meal. AGENT 3 I come from your brother. Now we see who he speaks to: William. May 1 Blue Draft - p.106 WILLIAM What does he want? AGENT 3 He asks your forgiveness. WILLIAM My forgiveness? On William: he stares. Then he understands. Fear brings sudden tears to his eyes. A gasp. Walsingham's man has plunged a knife into his heart. INT. WALSINGHAM'S BEDROOM, LONDON - DAY160 160 Walsingham speaks to his Queen with difficulty. WALSINGHAM I have served your majesty - in all things... ELIZABETH I know it, old friend. Don't leave me now. Walsingham's eyes open. A weak smile. WALSINGHAM Y ou don't need me any more. Permission - to go - Elizabeth looks tenderly down on him, shaking her head. ELIZABETH You always did do as you pleased, whether I wanted it or not. I've no doubt you'll do as you please now. He lets his eyes close. She stoops down and kisses his cheek. INT. RALEIGH'S HOUSE - DAY161 161 We see Raleigh from behind. He's holding something, and dancing slowly about, and crooning a low song, in the oddest way. Beyond him, half-glimpsed, an inner room, where Bess is resting on a bed. R 107Now in his solitary dance Raleigh turns, and we see he'sholding a new-born BABY BOY. He kisses the baby's littlebald head, and sings his wordless song.Footsteps outside. The door opens, and a royal servantenters, followed by other servants and guards. OYAL SERVANT Her majesty the Queen!Elizabeth enters, in formal style. She stands and takes inthe scene - Raleigh holding his baby son - the room beyond -Bess rises at once and comes through to make her curtsey to the Queen. Elizabeth seems not to see her. A regal wave at the servants and guards. They withdraw.Elizabeth stalks round the room. No reason to suppose herdispleasure has passed. ELIZABETH When was the birth? RALEIGH F our nights ago. ELIZABETH The mother is well? RALEIGH Thank God.Now Elizabeth turns to Bess, and their eyes meet. The Queen puts out her hand and touches Bess lightly on one cheek. A silent forgiveness. ELIZABETH And the child? RALEIGH My son is well.Now for the first time she looks at the baby. ELIZABETH Your Elizabeth has a child. You must be proud. RALEIGH Yes.Elizabeth moves away, unable to bear seeing the baby. E E R 108 ELIZABETH And fulfilled? RALEIGH As any man can be. Elizabeth looks at him in silence for a long moment. ELIZABETH And do you still dream of your shining city, your New World? ALEIGH More than ever. She turns to go. But before she reaches the door, shestops. LIZABETH I'd like to give your son my blessing. RALEIGH I would be honoured.Elizabeth takes the baby in her arms. She holds himcarefully. She finds herself more moved than she hadexpected. She bends her head over him, and turns her backon Raleigh.Raleigh watches and waits. And waits.ON ELIZABETH: her cheek pressed to the baby's head. Hereyes closed. LIZABETH (V.O.) I am called the Virgin Queen. And yet I have many children... You are all my children. There is no jewel, be it never so rich a prize, which I put before this jewel: I mean, your love. I want no more wars. England is enough for me. I want no lordship over your souls. Only a free people can love. (Beat) And in your love - is my life. END TITLES \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Enemy of the State.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Enemy of the State.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c7c4b483a8dfe4f0338bb9e98fbe81581b353d62 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Enemy of the State.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ENEMY OF THE STATE by David Marconi and Aaron Sorkin February 10, 1997 FADE IN: EXT. SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, SCENIC VIEW LOT - MORNING Shenandoah mountains. A cold dawn. TWO BLACK TOWN CARS sit side by side, facing a view of a farming valley below. Two MEN in dark suits and long coats stand near the cars, casually on the lookout. If we caught a glimpse underneath the coat of the taller of the two, we'd see that he was carrying a 9mm. Glock. INT. BLACK TOWN CAR - CONTINUOUS In the backseat of the car sit HAMERSLEY and REYNOLDS, each well-kept and in his early 50's. REYNOLDS "I know thy works and thy labour and how thou canst not bear them that are evil. And thou hast tried them who say they are apostles and hast found them to be liars". Revelations II. HAMERSLEY What the hell does it mean? REYNOLDS It means who's side are you on? HAMERSLEY You didn't ask me to meet you 30 miles from my office for a Bible study class. REYNOLDS It's a bi-partisan issue. Everyone needs to swallow hard. No one, including you, wants to be fingered as the one obstructing efforts to crack down on terrorism, and-- HAMERSLEY Fuck you. REYNOLDS What? HAMERSLEY I said fuck you. REYNOLDS Is that anyway to talk to an old school chum? HAMERSLEY You're gonna finger me as soft on terrorism? Terrorism, you unconscionable asshole? REYNOLDS There are planes falling out of the sky, buildings blowing up. American buildings. Americans getting bombs in the mail. What are we gonna do!? HAMERSLEY We're not gonna hand you and your band of lunatics the keys to the kingdom. I'm not gonna sit in Congress and write a law that allows the NSA to point a camera and a microphone at anything they damn well feel like. And the next time you have something to say to me, we do it above-board, in my office, like everyone else. Now get outa my car, I've got a committee meeting on the hill. REYNOLDS regards HAMERSLEY a moment, then opens the car door-- EXT. PARKWAY - MORNING HAMERSLEY's car snakes down the twisting mountain road. INT. HAMERSLEY'S CAR - CONTINUOUS HAMERSLEY MAKES VERBAL NOTES concerning the Reynolds meeting into his memo-recorder as he drives. He picks up his cellular phone and punches in a number. VOICE (O.S.) Senator Albert's office-- The line goes dead. HAMERSLEY tries again but can't get a dial tone. Then, in the rear-view mirror, a BROWN SEDAN gains fast. Whoever the guy is, he's flying. Then a man with a rifle leans out the sedan's window. Aims. HAMERSLEY flies into a blind curve. Tires SCREECH as he rounds the bend to see A PROPANE TRUCK. Blocking both lanes of the road. HAMERSLEY's eyes widen. He stomps the brakes, SKIDS and SLAMS into the truck. The EXPLOSION engulfs everything. HAMERSLEY and the car are consumed. The pursuing sedan slows to a stop. The men watch. The car's an inferno. The MEN pull a 'U' and drive away. INT. CRYSTAL CITY, VIRGINIA, TALL OFFICE BLDG. - DAY A well-appointed big-city law office filled with citations of merit and pictures of a wife and child. ROBERT DEAN, a likable young lawyer, sits behind his desk with his back to an OLDER MAN. He stares at a commanding view of Washington, D.C. as he listens to a tired, smoke and whiskey voice. OLDER MAN (L.T.) I don't know how much longer we can hold out, Mr. Dean. DEAN I don't know, either, L.T. Maybe you guys should get yourself a labor lawyer. L.T. Well that's why I'm here, Mr. Dean. 'Cause you're a labor lawyer. DEAN Good point. L.T. Last night, Larry Spinks, he works the Steel Press, he goes to a bar with his wife Rosalie to have a glass of chianti 'cause it's his birthday, and these two guys, these Guido mother-fuckers, they jump him when he goes to the bathroom. DEAN L.T., in this office I'd prefer you say Italian-Americans. L.T. I'm sorry, Mr. Dean. But Larry's in St. Lukes now, so I'm a little--I'm not myself. The Union bosses say unless we take Bellmoth's offer, it'll only get worse. DEAN That's because your Union bosses are those Guido mother-fuckers. L.T. I don't under-- DEAN The Union's trying to railroad you into accepting terms worse than what you have now. L.T. Why would the Union-- DEAN swivels around in his chair and faces L.T. DEAN Because they've been paid off by Bellmoth. L.T. Mr. Dean-- DEAN My name's Bobby. I'm your lawyer. Don't do anything 'till I talk to you. DEAN gets up and walks a grateful L.T. to the door, calling to his secretary as they go-- DEAN (CONT'D) (calling) Martha! MARTHA appears in the doorway... DEAN (CONT'D) Larry Spinks, St. Lukes. Send him a case of chianti from the firm. And send his wife Rosalie some flowers. EXT. RESTAURANT - DAY RACHEL How's the trout? DEAN It tastes like fish. RACHEL It is fish. DEAN I mean it tastes like every other fish I've ever had. Every fish tastes the same. RACHEL Do you like fish? DEAN Not that much. DEAN dines in a booth with RACHEL BANKS, 30's. RACHEL opens her briefcase, removing an 8x10 envelope. RACHEL Here's what you asked for. Brill's note said it was everything you'd need to, shall we say, coax DePinto-- DEAN When do I get to meet him? RACHEL DePinto? DEAN Brill. RACHEL Never. DEAN That wasn't the answer I was hoping for. RACHEL What answer were you-- DEAN is reaching inside his jacket pocket. He removes an envelope marked "BRILL". DEAN "Soon". Or at least sooner than never. RACHEL It's how he works. DEAN Brill? RACHEL Yes. DEAN So you've said. DEAN hands her the envelope. DEAN (CONT'D) Ten thousand cash. I don't know if it's Brill's prices going up or your commission. RACHEL I take a straight 15 percent. Brill's fee varies with risk. Perhaps you'd be more comfortable using someone else. DEAN Other than Brill. RACHEL Other than me. DEAN Why would I-- RACHEL Someone with whom you don't have quite so personal a-- DEAN I like our history. And I like you. I'd probably like Brill if I ever got to-- RACHEL He doesn't work that way. DEAN I just want to make sure I'm not breaking the law. RACHEL You're not. DEAN How can I be sure. RACHEL I wouldn't let you. Good luck with DePinto. DEAN (pause) Thank you. RACHEL Eat your fish. DEAN (V.O.) Mr. DePinto? My name's Robert Dean. I'm an attorney with Seth, Silverberg. EXT. BUSY STREET - DAY DEAN weaves his BMW through D.C. bumper-to-bumper traffic as he eyes the photos that Rachel gave him which are lying on the passenger seat. The photos show DePINTO sitting in a motel lounge with TWO MOB TYPES. He's talking on the phone. INTERCUT WITH: INT. BELLMOTH STEEL OFFICE - CONTINUOUS DEPINTO What can I do for you? DEAN Well, I was hoping you might stop by my office to swear out a criminal deposition against some of your friends and co-workers. DEPINTO (pause) Is this a fuckin' joke? DEAN I don't believe it is, no. DEPINTO Why the hell would I-- DEAN I've got photographs of you at the Trenton Ramada looking very-- DEPINTO That ain't me. DEAN It's not? DEPINTO You don't know who the fuck-- DEAN That's not you having a whiskey sour with Carmine Morada. DEPINTO This is fucked. You don't know who's in that-- DEAN You're right, Mr. DePinto, and maybe I jumped the gun. DEPINTO You're goddam right you jumped the gun. DEAN That's probably not you in the picture. I tell you what, I'll just run the thing by the Grand Jury, see if they can't-- DEPINTO I want to talk to a goddam lawyer. DEAN Good news there, Mr. DePinto, you're talking to one. EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - DAY News helicopters hover over Hamersley's wreck as police direct traffic around the media circus. INT. OLD CAR - CONTINUOUS DAN ZAVITZ, looks older than he is, balding with a weight problem, sweats behind SLAPPING wipers of a beater car plastered with environmental issue stickers. NPR drones on the radio as a police car crawls behind him, SIREN YELPING, lights flashing, trying to get by. ZAVITZ Alright, alright already, I see you. ZAVITZ POV: Wreckage surrounded by squad cars, ambulances and media circus. Something's happened. Something big. EXT. SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK - DAY A tall ladder leans against a dead oak. ZAVITZ sweats and climbs to a branch where a platform's been built supporting a large phony bird's nest. He lifts away the nest, revealing-- --Two microphones and three motion-activated digital video cameras and recorders. ZAVITZ checks the cameras' viewfinders to see-- --TIME-CODED VIEWS - WIDE, MEDIUM AND CLOSE of a squirrel's nest containing three newborns. The parents are nowhere to be seen. ZAVITZ eyes the recorders. The video disks are spent. He ejects and pockets them, replacing them with fresh ones. EXT. SOUTHEAST CAPITOL DISTRICT - DAY An old building needing rehab. A SIDEWALK VENDOR does brisk business, we DRIFT to an apartment window above. TV NEWSCASTER (V.O.) Police are labeling it an accident but promise a full investigation. INT. ZAVITZ APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS ZAVITZ is staring intently at his computer monitor. We don't know yet what he's looking at, but he's scared to death as we continue to listen to the NEWS REPORT... NEWSCASTER (O.S.) Don Hamersley, senior GOP congressional leader, was serving as a negotiator on the House/Senate sub-committee studying the Anti- Terror Bill... ZAVITZ leans in a little closer to get a better look at his computer screen, not wanting to believe what he's seeing... NEWSCASTER (CONT'D) (O.S.) ...the controversial legislation that would give various law enforcement agencies expanded authority in the fight against terrorism. And now we see what ZAVITZ is staring at on his computer monitor. The film he shot at SHENANDOAH PARK... ...the meeting between HAMERSLEY and REYNOLDS. NEWSCASTER (CONT'D) (O.S.) Known as the Voice of Caution, Hamersley was an outspoken advocate of... ZAVITZ reaches over, picks up the phone, and punches in some numbers with one hand. With the other, he punches some keystrokes on the computer. The screen zooms in on REYNOLDS, getting out of HAMERSLEY's car. NEWSCASTER (CONT'D) (O.S.) Sixty-eight years old, Hamersley leaves behind a wife and four children. ZAVITZ (into phone) Tell him it's Zavitz. I need to speak to him. Tell him it's important. INTERCUT WITH: INT. NEWSPAPER OFFICE - SAME TIME A cluttered office belonging to a radical, fringe newspaper. ALFONSO, mid-50's, long, graying hair, works at a computer. ALFONSO Zavitz, what? You want your old job back? ZAVITZ Listen to me-- ALFONSO Tired of chasing squirrels around the park? ZAVITZ Listen-- ALFONSO Lemme ask you something. I put a bird feeder out in the yard, but the squirrels, they keep taking-- ZAVITZ Turn on CNN. ALFONSO They keep taking the bird seed. I thought since you're the expert on-- ZAVITZ Goddammit, shut the fuck up and turn on CNN! ALFONSO Alright, I made a joke about squirrels, don't get so-- ZAVITZ Do it! ALFONSO clicks his TV to CNN. The HAMERSLEY re-cap is still on. NEWSCASTER (V.O.) Once again, police at this point are calling Hamersley's death an accident... ZAVITZ I was doing motion-activated taping up in Shenandoah. That's where Hamersley had his accident. He wasn't alone. He met someone. They argued. ALFONSO You've got it on tape? ZAVITZ Clear as day. ALFONSO Who else have you told? INT. TECH ROOM - CONTINUOUS A place with mind-boggling technology and high-tech recording devices. DAT recorders spin silently. ZAVITZ (O.S.) (through speakers) No one. But I'm a little nervous. ALFONSO (O.S.) (through speakers) When can you get it here? ZAVITZ (O.S.) (through speakers) I'm doing a transfer now. ALFONSO (O.S.) (through speakers) Come straight here. Don't talk to anyone. ZAVITZ (O.S.) (through speakers) I'll come straight there. ALFONSO (O.S.) (through speakers) Be careful, Danny. INT. TOWN CAR - DAY CLOSE ON REYNOLDS sitting in the back. Well-dressed and alone, he reviews a bible. His cellular phone RINGS. We HEAR static as two encrypted lines find digital compatibility. Finally, a confirmation TONE-- REYNOLDS Go ahead. INTERCUT WITH: EXT. KENT ISLAND - SAME TIME Misty forests sweep down a hill to the Chesapeake Bay. A road leads to a high-voltage security fence and guard-shack. Beyond are several windowless concrete structures bristling with microwave antennas and satellite dishes. A sign reads: KENT ISLAND RESEARCH FACILITY Prohibited Area. No Photos or Sketches. Violators Subject to Immediate Arrest and Fine Under Penalties of the Internal Security Act SUPER: NSA SIGINT INTERCEPT STATION - KENT ISLAND, MARYLAND INT. TECH ROOM - CONTINUOUS The banks of high-tech digital recorders record incessantly as a TECHNICIAN holds a phone to his ear. TECHNICIAN (into phone) Someone had automated cameras in the park. A nature photographer. REYNOLDS Jesus H. Christ. SILVERBERG (V.O.) How're we with pre-trials. Ms. Saunders. INT. DEAN'S LAW FIRM, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Packed seats around a long conference table. The entire law firm reviews the proceedings. DIANE SAUNDERS answers the questions from her senior partner. SAUNDERS I'm expecting a favorable ruling this afternoon on the evidenciary motion, but I could use some more manpower with the interrogatories. SILVERBERG Mr. Dean, would you care to give Ms. Saunders a hand with the interrogatories. DEAN God knows I would, sir, but I have a previous engagement this evening. SILVERBERG And may I ask what could possibly be more important than Fawell Oil v. U.S. Environmental Agency? DEAN I have to go lingerie shopping. STILWELL Lingerie shopping? DEAN A Christmas present for my wife. SILVERBERG Go to Harrison's. They've got models that'll try the garments on for you. SAUNDERS Bobby, this is a 40 million dollar client. I really need some help tonight. DEAN Diane, maybe you didn't hear Mr. Silverberg. They've got models that'll try on the garments. (to SILVERBERG) Thank you, sir. SILVERBERG Merry Christmas, son. EXT. OLD BROWNSTONES - AFTERNOON Establishing. Apartments on upper floors, businesses on lower. INT. ZAVITZ APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Jacket on, ready to leave, ZAVITZ sits at his computer finishing a transfer. A TONE beeps as a COMPUTER TIME GRAPH sweeps to 'finished'. The screen reads: TRANSFER COMPLETE. There's a KNOCK at the door... ...ZAVITZ looks over. ZAVITZ (pause) Yes? MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Federal Express for 'Zavitz'. ZAVITZ Federal Express? MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) For Daniel Zavitz. I just need a signature. ZAVITZ (beat) How'd you get in the building? MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) The door was open, sir. I just need a signature. ZAVITZ disconnects a video digitizer, removes a game- cartridge containing the digitized video... ...and inserts it into a Gameboy. He steps to the door and eyes the peep-hole. ZAVITZ POV: A fish-eye view of a Fed-Ex man, JONES, looking bored. ZAVITZ Can you tell me who it's from? JONES (checking label) Micro-Tel Electronics. Sunland. ZAVITZ Can you--would it be possible to leave it by the door? JONES Not without a signature. ZAVITZ (stepping to the window) All right. Okay. Just give me a minute. ZAVITZ POV: TWO DWP INSTALLERS hovering in a bucket across the street. Down below, a cargo van with a multiple roof antenna is double parked near a Fed-Ex van. Then-- --Through a street window's reflection, ZAVITZ sees his building's front entrance. SEVERAL TENANTS are being prevented from entering by TWO MEN, plain clothes, one with a radio communicator pressed to his ear. Shit. ZAVITZ backs from the window, seized by panic. He grabs his phone... ...dead. He picks up his fax line. Also dead. He grabs the GameBoy, goes to a small side window and opens it. A ledge snakes around the corner. An athlete he's not but there's no choice. He squeezes out. INT. ZAVITZ BLDG. STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS PRATT, wearing a Fed-Ex uniform, is laying in wait. RADIO VOICE (O.S.) (through PRATT's earphone) Go to three. Go to three. Package is out the window. PRATT sprints down the hall, pulling out his pistol, as JONES kicks in Zavitz's door and rushes in. The window's open. JONES looks out as the last of ZAVITZ goes around the corner of the ledge. RADIO VOICE (O.S.) (through JONES's headset) 305 to 308. We've got the eyeball. EXT. ROOFTOP - CONTINUOUS It's the rooftop ZAVITZ is heading to. Two MEN crouch behind a wall, watching ZAVITZ approach. MAN #1 (into headset) We'll take delivery from here. ZAVITZ inches along, scared breathless. He looks back. No one. Maybe he was wrong. A pigeon suddenly flies by...ZAVITZ loses his balance, struggles...and falls. He crashes through an awning and into a sidewalk fruit stand. Dazed, ZAVITZ crawls to his feet as passersby watch speechless. Things happen fast. The cargo van rips from the curb but is suddenly blocked by a delivery truck. HORNS BLAST. HICKS, 30's and athletic, leaps from the van. Fears confirmed, ZAVITZ starts down the sidewalk, shakes off pain, and moves to a run. Except now there's someone in front of him. He's trapped. Reaching a doorway, ZAVITZ pushes. The door opens to-- INT. RESTAURANT SUPPLY SHOP - CONTINUOUS ZAVITZ charges through and kicks open a fire door. An alarm blasts as he exits to-- EXT. ALLEYWAY - CONTINUOUS A garbage truck screams up the alley. There's no way to outrun it. There's a fire escape above a dumpster. Breath rasping, he struggles on the dumpster, pulling himself up the ladder just as the truck OBLITERATES all below. ZAVITZ struggles and climbs. Reaching a landing, he pauses for breath... ...and sees HICKS and two others just moments behind. ZAVITZ grabs a fire escape door, tugs, pulls and bangs it open to-- INT. A DILAPIDATED HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS ZAVITZ hurtles by, trips, get up, runs again, adrenaline pumping as PURSUING SOUNDS near. He pitches down a staircase, shoves TWO PEOPLE and rips through-- INT. COFFEE SHOP - CONTINUOUS He flies past the diners and exits into-- EXT. BUSY STREET - CONTINUOUS HICKS and ANOTHER fly out of the diner, just in time to see ZAVITZ melting in with Christmas shoppers that are entering a department store. We see that the large sign over the entrance to the store reads: "HARRISON'S". INT. HARRISON'S DEPARTMENT STORE - EVENING An upscale store packed with Christmas shoppers. At a fashion ramp, a small crowd of mostly WOMEN have gathered to watch leggy models feature a particular line of lingerie. Mixed in among this group is DEAN, a shopping bag in each hand, his briefcase tucked under one arm, trying his best to affect an air of the studious shopper. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) May I help you? DEAN (startled) Hm?! The WOMAN is sales clerk who's been in this situation before. SALES CLERK Do you see anything you like? DEAN I'm married. SALES CLERK That's fine. DEAN I'm married to my wife...of several years...and I'd like to buy...as a Christmas present... SALES CLERK You'd like to buy your wife some lingerie as a Christmas gift. DEAN Yes. I have her permission. SALES CLERK It's okay. I think it's a wonderful gift. DEAN Can you help me? SALES CLERK How 'bout Christian Dior? DEAN Is that good? SALES CLERK Very good. DEAN I don't know anything about this. Well, I mean, I know a little about--from a certain perspective. My point is, I don't want to do anything foolish. SALES CLERK It's a little late for that. DEAN I'll say. SALES CLERK What size? DEAN Pardon? SALES CLERK What size? DEAN Eight. Size eight. SALES CLERK I'll be right back. DEAN Thanks. SALES CLERK Remain calm. DEAN Okay. The SALES CLERK goes around the counter to the rear area. DEAN glances at the fashion show when he glimpses-- ZAVITZ, hurrying through the women's dressing area, desperately looking for an exit. No luck. ZAVITZ moves toward DEAN, about to break for the front, but HICKS is there searching. Trapped, ZAVITZ ducks behind a display. DEAN watches, unaware of ZAVITZ's pursuers. Then it clicks... DEAN Daniel? ZAVITZ turns, frightened.... DEAN (CONT'D) It's me, Robert Dean. (beat) From Seth, Silverberg. I worked on-- ZAVITZ Bobby-- DEAN It's been a few years. ZAVITZ Yeah. DEAN I'm just doing some Christmas shopping. It's for my wife, no kidding. Though, this isn't the main present, it's just, you know, a little-- ZAVITZ I need help. DEAN Tell me about it. ZAVITZ How can I reach you? DEAN (beat) Are you okay? ZAVITZ Are you still in Crystal City? DEAN Yeah, what's going on? SALES CLERK (O.S.) I think she'll like this very much. DEAN Listen, Daniel, hang on one second. SALES CLERK For that matter, I think you will too. DEAN (to the SALES CLERK) Could you give me just a moment to talk to a friend of mine here? Not about this, but...Daniel? DEAN looks around... ...ZAVITZ is gone. EXT. HARRISON'S DEPARTMENT STORE - EVENING Out on the street, ZAVITZ shoves into a group of shoppers waiting for the light. Then he sees HICKS and his PARTNER. They see him. Fuck the light. ZAVITZ runs into the street as-- --a BUS speeds through yellow. ZAVITZ is caught in its path. BAM! Only stunned witnesses remain. DEAN exits the department store. He sees the commotion and makes his way over. DEAN (to a bystander) What happened? BYSTANDER A guy got hit by a bus. DEAN Ah, Jesus. SIRENS can be heard in the distance. DEAN eyes the ground where the body lays. He sees Zavitz's BLOODY JACKET... DEAN (quietly) Ah...Jesus. EXT. ANNAPOLIS - NIGHT DEAN's BMW drives through a neighborhood of stately homes, all magnificently decorated for Christmas. INT. DEAN'S BMW - CONTINUOUS DEAN drives, a little shaken by events. The RADIO plays an AT&T COMMERCIAL relaying the joys of home tele- conferencing. DEAN enters the driveway of his picture- perfect home. INT. DEAN'S HOME/FOYER - NIGHT DEAN enters with his shopping bags and briefcase. Searching for family members, he enters-- INT. DEAN'S HOME/DEN - NIGHT DEAN's 8 year old son, ERIC and Eric's friend DYLAN sit by the big-screen TV, glued to a video game. A NANNY is nearby, lost in a magazine. DEAN Excuse me, have any of you seen an eight year old boy, good looking, about yea-big. ERIC Hi, dad. DYLAN Hi, Mr. Dean. DEAN Hello. Hello, Maria. NANNY (MARIA) Hello, Mr. Dean. ERIC We can't get to the fourth level. We keep getting vaporized by the Black Knight. DEAN You're learning a cruel lesson. ERIC Are those my Christmas presents? DEAN Some of 'em. ERIC Can I open 'em up? DEAN Sure, go ahead. ERIC Really? DEAN In your dreams. ERIC Dad! DEAN (to DYLAN) You staying for dinner? DYLAN Is it okay? DEAN You got any money? ERIC He's kidding. DEAN Where's mom? ERIC She's in the kitchen. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT The kitchen is in the midst of a remodel. A wall- mounted TV is showing "CROSSFIRE", where the two HOSTS are mediating a battle between TWO SENATORS. STACY watches the show with one eye, cooks with the other. SENATOR TASKEN (TV) Laws service society and they need to be flexible to meet changing demands. We've got to be able to deal with a terrorist threat before it occurs. DEAN enters... DEAN Hey. STACY This guy's a fat-assed Rotarian gasbag. DEAN Uh-oh. STACY Listen to him. SENATOR TASKEN (TV) This is no longer a theoretical problem, it's a reality. Turn on the news. Bombings, hostages-- DEAN He's got a point. STACY Bobby! DEAN Not a very good one, but-- STACY So you tap everyone's phone? You use computers to probe financial records? New Search and Seizure laws? DEAN Just for the criminals. STACY We won't suspend the civil rights of the good people. DEAN Right. STACY You should take this seriously. DEAN I think you're taking it seriously enough for both of us. He kisses her. A good one. STACY (softer) You're a lawyer. Don't you care what's going on around you? DEAN Something bad happened tonight. STACY What? DEAN I saw a man die. STACY What do you mean? DEAN In front of Harrison's, he got hit by a bus. I knew him. The firm did some pro bono work for his organization a few years back. STACY (beat) I'm sorry. DEAN The thing is, when I saw him, it seemed like he wanted to tell me... (beat) ...he was upset about something and he said... (beat) Doesn't matter now. I'm gonna wash up. STACY What'd you buy at Harrison's? DEAN A toaster. And no terrorist talk at dinner. You're spookin' the kids. DEAN heads upstairs... REYNOLDS (V.O.) "Do thou, O Lord, protect us-- INT. CATECHISM CLASSROOM - SAME TIME REYNOLDS lectures a class of young CATECHISM STUDENTS. REYNOLDS (CONT'D) --guard us ever from this generation. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the sons of men." Psalms 12.7 and 12.8. Tell me what this means, Mr. O'Brian. O'BRIAN It means-- REYNOLDS cellular phone rings. He opens his briefcase and takes it out. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS REYNOLDS busts out of the room, phone to his ear. Two MEN IN SUITS wait like pit bulls, ready for anything. Over the phone, we HEAR CONNECTING HANDSHAKES as the lines find digital compatibility. INTERCUT WITH: HARRISON'S DEPARTMENT STORE - CONTINUOUS The store is now closed. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - CONTINUOUS HICKS holds a cellular phone as PRATT questions the SALES CLERK. Nearby, a monitor shows a time-coded surveillance tape of the lingerie section. DEAN and ZAVITZ are in playback, engaged in their earlier meeting. Finally, a confirming tone... REYNOLDS What happened? HICKS He's dead. An accident. Hit by a bus. REYNOLDS What about the tapes? HICKS We found the originals. REYNOLDS The originals? HICKS There was a transfer. REYNOLDS Am I to understand-- HICKS He never made it to the newspaper, but there was private sector contact. REYNOLDS Who? HICKS Several indiscriminates and one primary who we've ID'd as Robert Dean. A Crystal City attorney. (silence) Mr. Reynolds? (silence) Sir? REYNOLDS Contact COINTEL. Profile. Assess the threat. Then cross-check against Zavitz. Red-flag the intersects and anything we can exploit. Also NRO. Pull up the keyhole tapes. I need to own him. I need to own him now. EXT. NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, BLDG 227 - DAY Establishing. Fort Meade. A massive complex surrounded by razor wire and surveillance cameras. SUPER: NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, FORT MEADE, MARYLAND We PUSH IN on one building several blocks long. Its roof is bristling with antennas, dishes and domes. INT. BUILDING/A LARGE SPACE - CONTINUOUS TIGHT ON MANILA folder stamped TOP SECRET - UMBRA HANDLE VIA COMINT CHANNELS ONLY HAND CARRY - NO COPIES A SKINNY MAN clutches the folder, walking by endless cubicles of high-tech industriousness. He stops where an ANALYST types on a terminal near a retinal scanner. The ANALYST opens the folder to see a request for a PRIORITY WRAP on ROBERT DEAN, followed by a Social Security Number. The ANALYST enters in the number. A MONTAGE OF IMAGES GAINING IN SPEED-- CLOSE on COMPUTER SCREENS showing in the harvesting of DEAN's electrical identity. His phone bills scroll by. Names, addresses, employment people called-- Months, years flashing by quickly. Other data banks are probed. Insurance policies, credit histories, video rentals, library checkouts, school transcripts, ATM transactions, tax returns...everything. Irregularities are red-flagged. A matching ZAVITZ ITEM is found. DEAN's banking info is red-flagged. He has large cash withdrawals with no matching purchases. His withdrawal dates match up with unaccounted-for cash deposits... ...in RACHEL BANKS' savings account. CLOSE ON PRINTER. Conclusions spill out labeled "RISK". More probes are recommended into the RACHEL BANKS/ROBERT DEAN money connection. CLOSE ON EYE BEING SCANNED - We HEAR a TONE. PULL BACK to a PREGNANT WOMAN sitting with her head pressed to the scanner. A second verification TONE sounds. A poster above her work station reads: IN A DIGITAL WORLD NUMBERS DON'T LIE - PEOPLE DO She enters a phone number in her terminal. The computer DIALS. She waits, snacking on rice cakes. Finally, another computer ANSWERS. On screen appears: PAC-TEL TESTING BOARD. The screen fills with choices. She highlights - AT&T LINE-VERIFICATION REQUEST LOG-IN ACCESS CODE She enters another command. A new prompt reads: ENTER LINE REQUEST NUMBER. Eyeing DEAN's folder, she enters the phone number and commands "ENTER". "RECORD". The telephone tap is instant. A VOICE GRAPH appears in-sync with CONVERSATION now coming over the speakers. DEAN (O.S.) (mid-conversation, over speakers) Diane's instinct is that it's sabre rattling. I think they're gonna file suit. She enters more commands. An Automated-Voice-Transcriber kicks in. DEAN's CONVERSATION is now transcribed automatically. INT. NRO, KEYHOLE-12 LAB - CONTINUOUS A massive, dark place growing with monitors and tech. SUPER: NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE ORGANIZATION, CHANTILLY,        VIRGINIA Names of world regions are posted above endless monitor screens displaying live, digital-image feeds of Earth coming in from the Keyhole-12 Spy Satellites. Every populated area of the planet is covered here. ANALYSTS attend the many feeds. A poster reads: THE KEYHOLE '12' SERIES MAKING THE WORLD AN HONEST PLACE On another poster, a man's running shadow in a target bulls-eye with a caption reading: YOU ARE A SECURITY TARGET Beneath a sign reading U.S. North-East Coastal Region, an ANALYST reviews time-coded, digital SAT videos of Washington, D.C. As seen from space, the Capitol appears to be nothing more than a greyish mass. The ANALYST keys commands into his system. CLOSE ON MONITOR - The overhead SAT view of Washington moves in closer, soon streets are discernible, then cars and buses - then an accident in an intersection with flashing ambulance lights and a bus. A body lies twisted in the street - it's ZAVITZ. The ANALYST enters additional commands. The ZAVITZ/bus accident freezes, then plays in reverse as if recorded by the eye of God. The scene continues reversing, following close on Zavitz as he back-tracks into Harrison's Department Store. INT. ANOTHER VIDEO LAB - SAME TIME CLOSE ON ANOTHER ANALYST facing three monitors showing additional views of ZAVITZ's escape as captured by a traffic camera, an ATM camera and the security inside Harrison's. FIEDLER (O.S.) We've checked everything. NRO tapes, traffic surveillance monitors - INT. IMAGE ENHANCEMENT LAB TWO TECHIES huddle by a monitor overseen by FIEDLER, a computer expert. The monitor displays the Harrison's surveillance tape of the ZAVITZ/DEAN meeting. FIEDLER (CONT'D) - and two ATM cameras. The one showing promise, though, is this security camera from the department store. (to TECHIE) Freeze there. The TECHIE hits a command. ZAVITZ and DEAN freeze on screen. FIEDLER (CONT'D) Times ten. The TECHIE boxes the area to be enhanced. He types commands. The boxed area increases ten-fold. FIEDLER (CONT'D) Focus on the drop. The enlarged view shifts to DEAN's gift bags. The picture's fuzzy. Someone passes by, blocking the view at a crucial moment. FIEDLER (CONT'D) Enhance, then forward, frame by frame... More keystrokes. The computer takes over, clarifying the image with passes of resolution. HICKS leans in closer as the image of the bag inches forward. FIEDLER (CONT'D) Just before the view's blocked, Zavitz reaches in his jacket for something. When the view returns, there's a shape change in Dean's bag. See the shadow variance? We reverse imaged it-- FIEDLER points to another screen displaying a digitally- enhanced image of the shadowed object and its approximate shape. FIEDLER (CONT'D) Something's definitely been added. It's not a video cassette, the shadow's wrong. REYNOLDS steps forward. His eyes are red. It's been a long night. REYNOLDS What's your opinion? FIEDLER It's hard to say for certain, these things are-- REYNOLDS I'm not asking you to say for certain. This is what you're trained to do, right? FIEDLER Yes sir. REYNOLDS Then what's your goddam opinion? FIEDLER (beat) Zavitz had digital compression equipment. He could've downloaded into something. A disk, a chip, anything small enough to put in his pocket and run with. Whatever he put it in, he dropped it in that bag. REYNOLDS (to HICKS) Get it. REYNOLDS heads for the door. HICKS We'd have to-- REYNOLDS Get it. INT. RANGE ROVER - NIGHT DEAN drives with STACY as ERIC sleeps in the back seat. Various hats and souvenirs tell us that they've just come from a Redskins game. They drive in silence for a moment before... STACY Bobby? DEAN Yeah. STACY How'd you get the information on DePinto? DEAN What do you mean? STACY Who did you work with to get the-- DEAN A guy named Brill. Same guy as always. STACY Yeah, but you said you've never met him. How did you-- DEAN Honey, I don't like to talk about this stuff in front of Eric. STACY Have you been working with Rachel? DEAN No. STACY (beat) Sorry. DEAN It's okay. The RANGE ROVER pulls into the driveway. INT. DEAN'S HOME/ENTRY FOYER - NIGHT The DEAN's enter the doorway. ERIC and STACY are first. They stop, faces shocked. DEAN hasn't noticed yet. His hand automatically goes to the alarm key pad. CLOSE ON THE PAD - The LED reads: ARMED. DEAN punches the code - STACY Oh my God - DEAN turns. The house is ransacked. The ALARM suddenly BLARES, adding mayhem. CLOSE-UP ON THE CEILING VENT - The CAMERA PUSHES IN TIGHT revealing a concealed, fiber-optic video lens the size of a pin-head. EXT. DEAN'S STREET - CONTINUOUS Several cars and a florist van are parked on the quiet street. INT. FLORIST VAN - CONTINUOUS The van is really an electronic surveillance post jammed with the latest equipment. A TECHIE with headphones eyes a monitor. CLOSE ON THE MONITOR showing the PIN HOLE SURVEILLANCE VIEW of STACY walking through a disheveled room in a state of shock while DEAN pulls out his cellular phone and dials. DEAN (through the TECHIE's headphones) This is Robert Dean at 3325 Sutton Place. I want to report a break-in. INT. RACQUETBALL COURT - MORNING A black ball slams against a wall. PULL BACK to DEAN, who's angry, frustrated and drenched in sweat. He's embroiled in a hard, fast game with his friend, JERRY. DEAN They took the espresso machine. The espresso machine, Jerry! Which makes sense, you know, because the crooks probably wanted to make themselves a latte before fencing the stereo. JERRY Did they take your clothes? DEAN No. JERRY You've got a bunch of Armani suits, they didn't take 'em? DEAN No. JERRY Usually they take clothes. DEAN Why don't you give 'em a call. JERRY What about jewelry? DEAN They didn't take the jewelry. They took the computers. They took the big-screen TV, they took my blender. JERRY The blender? DEAN I love my blender. JERRY They didn't take the silverware? DEAN No, but they took my blender. JERRY Sounds like they didn't want anything that wasn't electric? DEAN What? JERRY They only took electrical appliances. DEAN Serve the ball. INT. DEAN'S OFFICE BUILDING/LOBBY - MORNING A busy lobby for a major complex. DEAN, freshly showered, steps from a door marked: TO PARKING LEVELS. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Robert Dean? DEAN turns to see MORELOS, 40's, an obsessive man with a terminal smile. DEAN (beat) Yes? MORELOS I didn't want to bother you during your racquetball game. DEAN (beat) Thanks. (beat) Who are you? MORELOS shows him his badge. MORELOS I'm sorry. Detective Morelos. DEAN Hey, did you guys find my stuff? MORELOS Your stuff? DEAN The robbery. MORELOS No, sir, I'm not involved with that. I'm doing a quick follow-up on a bus accident took place a few nights ago. Your name keeps coming up. DEAN Oh...yeah, I didn't see the accident. MORELOS Witnesses said you were there, but I notice you didn't file a report. DEAN A report? MORELOS A police report. DEAN That's 'cause I wasn't there. MORELOS You weren't at Harrison's Department Store the night before-- DEAN I was in the store, the accident was outside. It was a bus. MORELOS Someone said you spoke to Mr. Zavitz before he died. I thought you might know something. DEAN About what? MORELOS About the accident. DEAN I'm no expert, but I'm assuming that the impact of a moving bus against his body caused-- MORELOS Mr. Zavitz was in trouble. DEAN What kind of trouble. MORELOS You tell me. DEAN I can't. MORELOS Are you invoking attorney/client privilege. DEAN I'm not his attorney. MORELOS Than why can't you tell me. DEAN Because I don't know. MORELOS I'm just trying to determine if Mr. Zavitz was involved in something more than a simple bus accident. DEAN Than why don't you talk to the bus driver? MORELOS Why so edgy, Mr. Dean? DEAN Somebody took my blender. MORELOS We'd appreciate your cooperation. DEAN I'm happy to help you all I can. But I didn't see the accident and I barely knew Daniel Zavitz. I've gotta go to work. DEAN starts walking--MORELOS follows him. MORELOS Did he give you anything? DEAN No. MORELOS Anything at all? DEAN No, sir. MORELOS Was he with anyone? DEAN Not that I could see. MORELOS Nobody gave you anything? DEAN No. MORELOS Why'd you go to Harrison's? DEAN To buy lingerie. MORELOS For your wife? DEAN Yes, for my wife, what the hell kinds of questions are these. MORELOS I thought maybe it might be for Rachel Banks. DEAN stops short and turns to MORELOS. He stares. DEAN I don't know what's goin' on with Zavitz, but that was way, way outa line. (beat) You understand? MORELOS Yes sir. DEAN steps into the elevator. MORELOS (into concealed sleeve-mic) 403 to 401. He's coming up. INT. LAW FIRM/CORRIDOR - DAY DEAN walks down the hall toward his office. He stops by PEERS as he enters his office. PEERS 'Morning, Mr. Dean. DEAN Hey. Would you get me what I need for Zwernickii and the Bellmoth motions. PEERS Sure. DEAN And do me a favor. Find out what you can about Daniel Zavitz. We did some work for him a few years back and there should be a file. DEAN enters his office and turns his computer on. It BEEPS, BOOTS and loads. INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS LEVIN approaches the men's room. A MAINTENANCE MAN cleans up broken glass and water by the door. A sign reads: CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE. Levin turns and leaves. MAINTENANCE MAN (into concealed sleeve mic) 402 to 401. Doorstep's clear. INT. MEN'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS Two more MAINTENANCE MEN kneel in a stall adjusting a portable monitor and oscillator. They aim a directional antenna using slow, sweeping motions. CLOSE ON THE MONITOR displaying the intercepted signal. It's Dean's computer screen with text being typed in. The words are hard to read due to horizontal drift. After adjusting the antenna, the signal smooths. We PUSH CLOSER. The signal shows the current display of Dean's computer screen. We see Dean's O.S. command pull up his E-Mail. A prompt asks for a password. XXXXXXX appears. A switch is flipped. XXXXXXX becomes PUCCINI. Dean's "secure" file opens. Entries appear. MAN #1 402, this is 401. Password's "Puccini." EXT. COURTHOUSE - DAY Establishing. A large, busy place. LAWYERS and AIDES bustle in and out of this structure. INT. COURTROOM - DAY A busy morning as ATTORNEYS wait their turn to present motions before the JUDGE. DEAN is seated next to LEVIN, making notes. LEVIN (whispering) Dick Burns got a phone call this morning from someone wanting information on you. DEAN The police? LEVIN No. He said they were doing a credit check. Are you refinancing a loan? DEAN You remember Daniel Zavitz? LEVIN Yeah. DEAN He got hit by a bus. LEVIN What does that have to do with you? DEAN I honestly don't know. ANOTHER ATTORNEY sits several rows back, watching the proceedings, briefcase in his lap. CLOSE-UP on the ATTORNEY's EAR with a mini-receiver. From it drift snippets of the DEAN/LEVIN conversation. LEVIN (O.S.) Was Zavitz in trouble? DEAN (O.S.) I don't know. A pulled back leather flap on the ATTORNEY's briefcase reveals the tip of a concealed microphone. LEVIN (O.S.) You think there was a connection to-- DEAN (O.S.) Jesus! I just told you. I don't know. EXT. COURTHOUSE GARAGE - DAY DEAN waits for the garage attendant to bring down his car. PRATT (O.S.) Mr. Dean? DEAN turns. TWO MEN, PRATT and BINGHAM approach him. DEAN Yeah? PRATT (pulling out a card) We'd like to ask you some questions about Daniel Zavitz. DEAN Who are you people? PRATT (handing DEAN the card) I'm an investigator with Pro-Tech Security. DEAN I went through this with an investigator this morning. If I could-- PRATT Mr. Zavitz was involved in an extortion scheme. We believe he passed you sensitive materials, possibly with your knowledge, and we need to-- DEAN He didn't. PRATT We believe he did. DEAN You're wrong. PRATT We have good reason to believe that he passed you-- DEAN If he passed me materials, I'd have them. I don't. PRATT We'd like to recover any materials Mr. Zavitz may have given you-- DEAN He didn't give me-- PRATT --otherwise we may have to-- DEAN Otherwise you may have to what? PRATT We'd rather not-- DEAN Fuck you. You may have to what? BINGHAM (beat) We may have to explore additional avenues. INT. TECH ROOM - NIGHT We HEAR a recording of the conversation between DEAN, PRATT and BINGHAM while we're CLOSE on an INK NEEDLE measuring Dean's voice stress levels. DEAN (V.O.) He didn't give me-- PRATT (V.O.) --otherwise we may have to-- DEAN (V.O.) Otherwise you may have to what? PRATT (V.O.) We'd rather not-- DEAN (V.O.) Fuck you. You may have to-- HICKS turns off the recorder. Standing with him is REYNOLDS, the Dean file and voice stress graph laid out before him. HICKS He's arrogant and threatening. Voice stress points suggest he's worrying. REYNOLDS Hiding something? HICKS It was in his bag. Now it's not. REYNOLDS Destroy his credibility before he goes public. Neutralize him. I don't want anyone listening to a word he has to say. Tell me about Rachel Banks. EXT. EXMOOR COUNTRY CLUB - EVENING Establishing. A massive clubhouse surrounded by expensive cars and tended grounds. We HEAR strains of Gershwin's "They Can't Take that Away from Me" from inside. INT. COCKTAIL LOUNGE - CONTINUOUS GUESTS mill about. DEAN and STACY are standing by the reception table where name tags and seating assignments are laid out. DEAN picks up a card that reads: MR. AND MRS. ROBERT DEAN - TABLE 122. JERRY steps over and puts his hand on DEAN's shoulder-- JERRY Can I talk to you a second? DEAN Table 122? JERRY That's what I want to talk to you about? DEAN I wrote a check for a thousand dollars. You guys didn't have a table that was in the kitchen? JERRY gently pulls DEAN to a quiet corner... JERRY The Congressman's very happy to have your support, but he's heard that there's an investigation. DEAN An investigation? It was a bus accident. JERRY He's heard that it's escalated. DEAN Into what? JERRY Your Bellmoth case. The FBI thinks there might be mob ties. DEAN I'm a labor lawyer. There are always mob ties. JERRY Just be cool. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON and OLD MATRON carefully chewing her food near a table card declaring: 122. The gala swings everywhere but here. DEAN and STACY are the only other diners at the table. STACY I don't understand why Jerry couldn't clear this up. DEAN Well, you know-- STACY He's got his priorities? DEAN There's just, clearly, some administrative snafu. I'm sure this is the worst of it. EXT. DEAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY Establishing. A glass and steel high-rise reaching upward. MARTHA (V.O.) Mr. Dean? INT. DEAN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS DEAN sits behind his desk as his secretary MARTHA enters. DEAN Yeah. MARTHA It's Rachel Banks. DEAN picks up the phone-- INTERCUT WITH: INT. RACHEL'S CONDO - CONTINUOUS RACHEL cradles a portable phone to her ear. RACHEL (into phone) I got a call from my firm this morning saying don't come in. DEAN (into phone) Why? RACHEL There are reporters wanting to know about my relationship with you and how long I've worked for the mob. The mob, Bobby! DEAN All right, look-- Before DEAN can respond, there's a knock at the door. PEERS sticks his head in-- PEERS Blake and Silverberg want you in the conference room. DEAN (softly) Shit. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY DEAN sits in the conference room by himself. He waits. After a moment, SILVERBERG and BLAKE stride in. DEAN Listen-- SILVERBERG I got a call this morning from a source I trust. The Post is running a lead this afternoon about your involvement in the Bellmoth investigation. DEAN I don't under-- BLAKE We've also been informed that the Grand Jury is going to call for an investigation into your affairs. DEAN Why? BLAKE They want to hold you in Contempt for ethics violations. SILVERBERG They claim you helped create a shell company for Sam Vollotti in Zurich and that through your continuing relationship, the Gambino family's been able to exert influence and provide false witnesses to discredit our case. DEAN Oh, well, that's true. BLAKE It is? DEAN Except for the part about my setting up a company in Zurich and knowing anyone named Sam Vollotti and having any relationship whatsoever with the Gambino family. SILVERBERG Robert-- DEAN Gimme a week and four guys from litigation and I'll have the Post pleading with us not to sue for libel. BLAKE Tell us about Rachel Banks. DEAN (stunned) Rachel Banks? SILVERBERG The attorney? BLAKE Have you two been having an affair? DEAN is speechless... DEAN What kind of a question is that? BLAKE A direct one. DEAN I have a professional relationship with Rachel Banks. She's the go- between for a private investigator I use. SILVERBERG What's his name? DEAN Brill. BLAKE Why don't you just call Brill directly. DEAN I don't know who he is. BLAKE I'm told you had an affair with Rachel Banks four years ago. DEAN Told by whom? BLAKE Considering the enormous exposure to which you've subjected this firm, I'd think you'd do best to simply answer my questions. DEAN Really? BLAKE Yes. DEAN Well considering what a colossal douche bag you are, David, maybe I'd do best to simply kick your ass all over the capitol. SILVERBERG Gentlemen-- DEAN This is bullshit. Someone's mixing up a bunch of half-truths to ruin me and to ruin my case. SILVERBERG Who would do that? DEAN Maybe Bellmoth. Maybe the unions. I don't know. SILVERBERG Well until we find, you're gonna have to take a leave of absence. DEAN You're firing me. SILVERBERG A leave of absence. Until we've sorted this all out. DEAN Put David on it. He seems anxious to clear my name. SILVERBERG Bobby-- DEAN Fuck off. INT. DEAN'S HOUSE/FOYER - EVENING DEAN enters. DEAN (calling) Stacy! JENNY, early 30's, heads him off-- JENNY Robert-- DEAN Where's Stacy? JENNY She doesn't want to talk to you. DEAN (beat) What are you talking-- JENNY She can't talk to you right now. DEAN (beat) Why? JENNY Because she's reading the newspaper, you asshole. DEAN pushes past her and heads to the back patio-- EXT. BACK PATIO - CONTINUOUS STACY stares blankly, eyes red. A copy of The Post is beside her. A picture of DEAN and RACHEL, arm in arm, accompanies a headline. DEAN walks in-- DEAN Stacy? STACY How could you let me find out like this? DEAN Stacy, I found out like this. This is the first I'm hearing of-- STACY Robert-- DEAN It's not true. STACY (reading) "Sources revealed an FBI investigation into a possible money laundering scheme that may have sent millions of dollars-- DEAN I've seen it. STACY (reading) "At the center of the investigation are well-known Washington-area attorneys Robert Dean and Rachel Banks." DEAN Yeah...look-- STACY whips the paper at him-- STACY You swore! DEAN I have lunch with Rachel once a month. She's my connection to an investigator. STACY I told you I didn't want you seeing her. DEAN I know. STACY You had an affair with this woman, Robert, we went to a fucking counselor for a year. DEAN I see her for business. STACY You told me you weren't seeing her at all. DEAN I didn't want you to be upset. I shouldn't have lied. Stacy, there's nothing between me and Rachel Banks. STACY grabs another paper and shoves it across the table. DEAN picks it up. DEAN'S POV: A black and white surveillance photo of DEAN and RACHEL on a hotel balcony. STACY (O.S.) The date stamp on the picture is last month. Is that where you and Rachel conduct business. DEAN (shaking his head) It's not real... (to STACY) That's not me. STACY Oh, please-- DEAN It's not a real picture, Stacy, it's been doctored-up. STACY I think you should leave now, Robert. DEAN Stacy-- STACY Leave this house. EXT. HYATT HOTEL - NIGHT Establishing. Downtown Washington, D.C. INT. REGISTRATION DESK - CONTINUOUS A busy night. DEAN stands at the registration desk facing a DESK CLERK. DESK CLERK (returning card) I'm sorry, sir, this card's been declined. DEAN It's a brand new card. DESK CLERK Maybe it's not connected yet. DEAN (handing him another) Here, you can use this. The CLERK runs it through. Same result. DESK CLERK I'm sorry. He returns the card, embarrassed for Dean. DEAN turns to leave... ...and stops dead. He stares at the empty floor by a pillar. DEAN My suitcase-- DESK CLERK Sir? DEAN My suitcase is gone. DEAN walks quickly around the area, looking at everything and everyone. DESK CLERK I'm sure we can locate it for you, sir. DEAN Don't count on it. EXT. BANK MACHINE - NIGHT DEAN stands at the ATM, waiting for cash. There's a short line of PEOPLE behind him. His bank card spits out. The monitor reads: Temporarily Unable to Process this Transaction DEAN (pounding the machine) God Dammit! The waiting PEOPLE back away... EXT. CHEAP MOTEL - NIGHT A weathered sign reads: All Rooms $39.95 An O.S. TV DRONES the latest AT&T COMMERCIAL-- TV ANNOUNCER (soft and seductive) Have you ever tucked your kid in from a phone booth? You will-- INT. MOTEL ROOM - CONTINUOUS CLOSE ON AN OLD COLOR TV. The COMMERCIAL ENDS. A NEWSCASTER returns to deliver the late-night news. NEWSCASTER (on TV) In Richmond today, Senate Majority Leader Sam Albert paid a visit to promote the ten-billion dollar Anti-Terror Bill. The newscast cuts to SAM ALBERT, late 60's, standing on State Capitol Building steps delivering a speech to community leaders. SENATOR ALBERT (on TV) America is under assault, and this time it's from within. The gangs, the terrorists, the drug lords, the cults... PULLING AWAY from the TV, we explore the room. Dimly lit and cluttered with tired furniture. SENATOR ALBERT (CONT'D) (on TV) It's a war like any other war. A war with victims and a war that requires courage and strength. Outside the window, a BUZZING NEON SIGN flickers red and blue. We finally end on DEAN, sitting on a sagging bed, rubbing his eyes...the newspaper with the doctored-up photo is sitting next to him. EXT. BUILDING - DAY Establishing. Italian area of Baltimore. A 40's era box-building. A sign reads: Italian/American Legion - Members Only INT. ITALIAN/AMERICAN LEGION - CONTINUOUS Thread-bare chairs and a couch. SAL and FRANKIE, both meaty guys in shiny shirts, sit facing DEAN, who stands before them. SAL I'm sorry. I'm not sure I understand. You wanna fuckin' what? DEAN I'd like to speak to someone about what's happening to me. FRANKIE (to SAL) What'd this guy say his name was? SAL This is Bobby Dean, the Jew lawyer who squeezed DePinto. DEAN Actually, that's not true. SAL You didn't squeeze DePinto? DEAN No, I meant I'm Presbyterian. SAL Oh. DEAN My wife's Jewish. But that probably doesn't matter right now. FRANKIE What is it you want? DEAN Someone's trying to destroy my life, and I'd like to find out who. SAL And then what? DEAN I'll see if I can, you know, work things out. FRANKIE Well we'd sure like to help you. DEAN You would? FRANKIE Yes. But we can't. DEAN Why not? FRANKIE Because we, and our associates, have paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to shyster lawyers like you, because of shyster lawyers like you, and we'd just as soon sit back and sip a beer while you get ass-banged by as many people as possible. EXT. STATELY OLD BUILDING - DAY Establishing. A sign reads: The Audobon Society - National Headuarters WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) He shot wildlife footage-- INT. AUDOBON HEADQUARTERS/EDITING BAY - CONTINUOUS MEG BURTON sits near an editing machine as two EDITORS review endless amounts of bird footage. DEAN sits next to her. DEAN I know, but-- MEG Wildlife footage, for God's sake. I don't see how he could've slipped you something that the FBI would be interested in. DEAN That's my point. MEG What's your point. DEAN Well, I need to find out as much about Daniel as possible. MEG Why? DEAN Because my life is being ruined. MEG Daniel's life is already ruined. Maybe if you guys stopped thinking about yourselves for a change and-- EXT. THE GANG-PLANK BAR - DAY Establishing. The Baltimore water front. A crusty bar overlooking the bay. INT. BAR - CONTINUOUS Sunlight slashes blinds revealing a place that is wrong during the day. JIMMY, a beefy bartender, takes stock of the liquor while RACHEL sits in a dark booth. DEAN (O.S.) Rachel? RACHEL looks up... RACHEL Good. You're just what I need right now. DEAN You got a minute? RACHEL (getting up) It's really not a good idea for me to be seen with you. DEAN Who's doing this? RACHEL I gotta go. DEAN (blocking the door) Will you hang on just a second. JERRY Rachel? There a problem? She looks at DEAN for a moment... RACHEL No. No problem. (to DEAN) Outside. EXT. HARBOR CENTER - DAY CLOSE ON a SURVEILLANCE CAMERA on a pole, sweeping, making automatic lens corrections. RACHEL (O.S.) There's a lot of people asking questions about you and me. We drift down to the harbor walkway, a greenbelt with quaint hotels and bars on one side, Chesapeake Bay on the other. DEAN and RACHEL are strolling the walk. DEAN I know. RACHEL The IRS contacted me this morning. They say my lifestyle and receipts exceed my income. DEAN You being audited? RACHEL For the last four years. DEAN My firm'll represent you. Free of charge. RACHEL You don't work there anymore, Bobby. DEAN That's temporary. RACHEL Bullshit. DEAN Rachel-- RACHEL We're screwed. DEAN I'm gonna fix it. RACHEL How? DEAN Tell me about Brill. INT. A ROOM - CONTINUOUS A TECHNICIAN eyes a recorder spin as a monitor shows a live feed from the park. RACHEL (O.S.) (through headphones) I can't. DEAN (through headphones) You have to. RACHEL (through headphones) I've never met him? DEAN (through headphones) Goddammit, Rachel, you assured me-- EXT. THE PARK - CONTINUOUS DEAN and RACHEL on their stroll-- RACHEL Fuck you. When you needed information, I got it. You didn't care how. DEAN I did care how. RACHEL This conversation's over. DEAN What're you gonna do, Rachel? You gonna sit in a bar in Baltimore? You want your job back? You want a life? RACHEL I don't have a life, Bobby. I'm in love with a married man. DEAN I'm sorry about that. RACHEL What makes you think it's you? DEAN It's not me? RACHEL You're a moron, you know that? DEAN Yeah. DEAN smiles...and after a moment, so does RACHEL. RACHEL When I need to reach Brill, I chalk the mailbox on 14th and Main. EXT. CITY STREET - DAY RACHEL is walking to the mailbox. She casually slashes the box with chalk and drops a letter inside. RACHEL (V.O.) When he sees the mark, he knows there's a drop. The location's always the same. EXT. BALTIMORE PORT - DAY Establishing. Wharves, ships, seagulls. A water-bus chugs dockside as PASSENGERS board for the trip across the inlet. DEAN stands in a ticket line with the other PASSENGERS. RACHEL (V.O.) The number twelve ferry to Glen Burnie. Tuesdays or Fridays. INT. FERRY - DAY DEAN takes a seat. Across the deck is Seat 74. RACHEL takes the seat and casually slides an envelope behind it, her actions obscured by a bag she carries. The ferry BLOWS its departure horn. RACHEL (V.O.) The drop's behind Seat 74. I leave something, he picks it up later. The ferry churns water. RACHEL moves to a wind protected seat, leaving Seat 74 empty. DEAN keeps watch on the seat as he scans the paper. DEAN (V.O.) Any idea what he looks like? RACHEL (V.O.) My guess is male, somewhere in his 40's or 50's. A MONTAGE of different people occupying Seat 74. A middle-aged DRUNK passed out in the seat. A TEEN-AGED boy with glasses chats with friends. RACHEL (V.O.) Race, height, weight, you're on your own. An OLD LADY reads a book. She sees DEAN eyeing her and smiles nervously. DEAN returns to his paper. RACHEL (V.O.) Now I don't know how he's gonna feel about someone tracking him down. He's reclusive. I'm sure he has his reasons. DEAN's alone now. The ferry docks for the night. The last passengers, TWO NUNS, disembark. DEAN rises to go. Brill's a no-show. INT. FERRY TERMINAL - NIGHT DEAN walks down the ramp. It's dark in the empty terminal. Not the best place at this hour. Up ahead, TWO MEN stand in the darkness, then kissing. Down another hall, SOUNDS OF NEARING FOOTSTEPS. DEAN detours into-- INT. MEN'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS Empty. DEAN stands at a sink, water running. He glances at the door. He splashes water on his face. Suddenly-- --DEAN's slammed forward, a silenced pistol is shoved into his ear, pinning his face to the mirror. DEAN Jesus! What?! You want money?! MAN Shut the fuck up. Hands frisk DEAN. Up and down the legs, behind the back and chest. A wallet is removed, ID's looked at - then returned. DEAN turns to see-- A MAN, early 50's. He sweeps a signal frequency locator over DEAN's body. The needle reacts at DEAN's foot. MAN (gesturing) Your shoe. DEAN My shoe? MAN Gimme the shoe. DEAN complies with the strange request as the MAN flips out a knife. DEAN Brill? "BRILL" Brill's dead. He died of small pox when he was two and he was buried in a Kansas field. (prying away DEAN's heel) My name doesn't matter. CLOSE ON DEAN's HEEL - a hollow compartment reveals a miniature tracking device. The MAN removes it, then returns the shoe. "BRILL" (CONT'D) A tracker. Thousand yard range. They're close. The MAN reaches in a trash can, removes a potato-chip bag, wraps it around the tracker and flushes it down the toilet. "BRILL" (CONT'D) C'mon. "BRILL" goes through the window. DEAN eyes the window, not sure. He eyes the door. Same feeling. EXT. LOADING DECK - MOMENT LATER DEAN crawls through the window to a loading dock. "BRILL" motions him to follow as he moves off into the shadows. The sounds of the window OPENING behind them, followed by FOOTSTEPS. "BRILL" shoves Dean behind a dumpster and removes his gun as two men run by. The STEPS FADE. "BRILL" looks. They're gone. EXT. FERRY TERMINAL - NIGHT Establishing. A closed farmer's market by the terminal. Several cars are parked. One's a cab. "BRILL" opens the driver's door. DEAN grabs the front passenger door. "BRILL" No. In back like you're a customer. INT. CAB - NIGHT "BRILL" sits in the driver's seat, eyes flickering to all views, as DEAN climbs in the back. "BRILL" flips on the meter and guns into traffic. "BRILL" What happened? DEAN It started with the information you gave me on DePinto. After we talked, he agreed to resign. Next, a phony detective asked me about Daniel Zavitz. Then an investigator questioned me about an extortion scheme they claimed Zavitz was behind. The FBI started looking into mob connections. A doctored picture in the paper. Overnight, I'm ruined. Wife. job, bank accounts, everything gone. "BRILL" eyes the mirror. A BLACK CHEVY appears several car lengths behind. "BRILL" DePinto's dead. DEAN Oh Jesus. "BRILL" They found him yesterday folded neatly in a car trunk. What about Zavitz? "BRILL" starts to weave in and out of traffic. He looks in the mirror - the Chevy's also weaving several cars behind. DEAN I don't know anything about Zavitz. "BRILL" You said he was behind an extortion scheme. DEAN They said he was behind an extortion scheme. "BRILL" whips the cab around a corner, accelerating. "BRILL" And you were the last one to talk to him. DEAN Yes. "BRILL" What'd he say to you? DEAN Nothing. "BRILL" What'd he give to you? DEAN Nothing. "BRILL" Don't bullshit me, I can save your life. DEAN I'm telling you, I-- The ride from hell gets worse as "BRILL" screeches another turn. The car ahead stops and "BRILL" screeches past on two wheels. DEAN (CONT'D) I just gave him my card. "BRILL" He didn't give you an address? He didn't give you a phone number? DEAN Nothing. Two nights later I was robbed. I'm pretty sure they were pros. "BRILL" takes an impossible left into another alley. The Chevy follows. "BRILL"'s good. The guy in the Chevy's better. DEAN (CONT'D) Um...who's that? "BRILL" Don't know. Did you check everywhere? Maybe it was hidden in something. Maybe there was someone else-- DEAN Someone else? "BRILL" Maybe you bumped into someone who took it and you didn't even know. The cab is rear-ended hard by the Chevy. Their necks snap back from the force. "BRILL" (CONT'D) Shit! WHAM! They're hit again. "BRILL" pulls out a communicator. "BRILL" (CONT'D) 209 to anyone! I need some help here! DEAN Who are you calling?! WHACK! "BRILL" back-hands DEAN with his fist, knocking him silly as WHAM!--the cab's rear-ended again. "BRILL" (trying again) This is 209! Does anyone copy?! Then "BRILL" sees that the alley empties into a busy street, then a bakery shop. He slams the brakes. Tires screech smoke but it's no use. The powerful Chevy pushes the cab, bumper to bumper, toward the street. "BRILL" grips the wheel. It's all he can do as the cab rockets into cross traffic and-- BLAM! They're broad-sided by a delivery truck. The cab is shoved sideways along the street and into a fire- hydrant, finally stopping under jetting water from the broken main. DEAN slowly opens his eyes. Water pours in everywhere. "BRILL" is sticking halfway through a window, not moving. Seeing "BRILL"'s pistol, DEAN grabs it and crawls from the wreckage. EXT. STREET - NIGHT DEAN climbs from the wreck as BYSTANDERS approach. WOMAN Look out! He's got a gun! They back away as DEAN gets to his feet and looks around. Off to the side he sees the Chevy, waiting like a coiled snake. DEAN limps into the crowd. He rounds the corner to ANOTHER STREET and now he's running with all he's got left. INT. DEAN'S HOUSE/STUDY - NIGHT STACY is at the desk looking at the latest edition of the paper, which now has a photograph of DEAN and RACHEL walking in the park from the day before. The phone rings and STACY reaches for it... STACY (into phone) Hello? INTERCUT WITH: INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUS DEAN stands at a pay phone-- DEAN (into phone) Stacy, don't hang up. STACY Do you know what I'm looking at Robert? DEAN Stacy-- STACY I'm looking at a picture of you and Rachel taken yesterday. DEAN I know, but listen-- STACY Was that doctored-up, too? DEAN No, I was with her yesterday. I want you to take Eric and go to our parents house. I want you to do it right now. STACY I went to the grocery store. My ATM and credit cards didn't work. I couldn't buy food. DEAN I know. STACY I went to the bank to see why. They said you emptied our accounts-- DEAN It wasn't me. STACY This is science-fiction Robert! The manager showed me the transfer notice with your signature on it. DEAN Stacy, somebody's trying to kill me. Now goddamit-- STACY My father's put me in touch with an attorney. He'll be-- A hand suddenly clicks down the phone hook. DEAN turns to see a MAN, late 50's, gruff and alert. It's the guy driving the Chevy. MAN Put the phone down. Do as I say. DEAN does nothing, temporarily frozen. A pistol jabs him hard. DEAN Alright, alright-- DEAN replaces the phone. The man removes DEAN's gun. Nearby, two PEOPLE chat at a restaurant hostess desk, unaware. MAN Move to the elevators. DEAN does but is suddenly redirected through a roof- access door. INT. VAN - NIGHT A TECHNICIAN sits in a van jammed with high-tech surveillance gear. HICKS is next to him, a phone pressed to his ear. HICKS We just picked up his call. INTERCUT WITH: INT. OFFICE - NIGHT REYNOLDS, dressed in a tux, presses his cellular to his ear, while behind him MARSHAL and SHAFFER, also in tuxedos, have a heated discussion. REYNOLDS (into phone) 30 minutes ago you said we had him. What in hell's goin' on out there? HICKS (into phone) He had help. REYNOLDS (into phone) Help from whom? (he hears the answer) Christ. EXT. HIGH-RISE ROOFTOP - NIGHT Eight stories up and deserted. The lit dome of the Capitol building shines like a beacon in the D.C. skyline. DEAN suddenly slams against a wall-- DEAN Hey! MAN Forget me, forget what I did for you. Don't ever mention my name or try to contact me again. Get it? DEAN I don't know you, I don't know your name, I don't know what the hell you did for me except hang up on my wife and slam me into a wall, but I'm getting pretty fuckin' sick of this! Get it?! MAN Seat 74. DEAN (pause) You're Brill. BRILL You knew the deal. No contact. DEAN Who was that other guy? BRILL One of many people who would live a word with you. DEAN Who are they? BRILL You've heard of the National Security Agency? DEAN What do they have to do with this? BRILL That's who they are. DEAN The NSA? BRILL Yes. DEAN You're crazy. BRILL (starting to leave) Okay. DEAN Wait. BRILL You drive a black BMW, license plate SRK1339? DEAN Yeah. BRILL (reaching in his pocket) I clipped this from your wheel well just before they towed your car away. BRILL pulls out a disk-shaped object the size of a walk-man. DEAN What is that? BRILL It's a SAT-tracker. DEAN I don't know what that means. BRILL Like a LowJack, but two generations ahead of what the police use. It pulses at 230 Giga-Hertz. DEAN I don't know what that means. BRILL 230 Giga-Hertz. They use that band for the Aquacade Spy-SAT uplinks. DEAN I don't know what that means. BRILL It means the NSA can read the time off your wristwatch. DEAN Why are they after me? BRILL If I knew, they'd be after me. Which they probably are right now. 'Bye. DEAN Wait. What do I do? BRILL Pal, you're cooked. It's over. What you did, who you were...that's done. I'd find a quiet job somewhere shoveling snow. A helicopter hovers near the Washington Monument. BRILL eyes it cautiously. DEAN Why don't they just identify themselves and tell me what they want? BRILL They're spooks. DEAN I don't know what that-- BRILL Exposure. They can't have it. They wanna learn what you know and then deal with it. DEAN I don't know anything. BRILL No shit. DEAN What am I gonna do?! I mean, like, for the rest of my life?! BRILL Hey, if you live another week I'll be impressed. DEAN What if-- BRILL Look, you gave me some work over the last year. We'll call it even. BRILL turns to leave-- DEAN (blocking the exit door) What if I find out what they're after. You know these people, I don't. BRILL And you won't. Now move-- DEAN I'll pay you. BRILL (taking out his pistol) They froze your accounts. Get outa my way. DEAN continues blocking the door, maintaining calm even as BRILL's pistol is pressed firmly to his forehead. DEAN I've got a hundred-thousand dollars in jewelry in a safe-deposit box under a third party name. BRILL looks at the ground. Torn. DEAN (CONT'D) How many years have you been hiding from them? How many years have you been running? (beat) What'd they do to you? BRILL (pause) If you find something, chalk the Baltimore Sheraton mailbox and go to Temperanceville. It's South of Salisbury. (giving DEAN his pistol) And take this. And with that, he's gone. DEAN eyes the gun. He walks to the ledge, looking at the city. DEAN'S POV: Several vehicles quietly pull up to the building. MEN storm out an move inside. DEAN quickly backs away. INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - NIGHT DEAN races for the stairwell two steps at a time. He hears the SOUND of a DOOR OPENING somewhere below. VOICE (O.S.) 303 to 301. Floor one secured. Moving to two. DEAN retreats upward, then he hears SOMEONE COMING DOWN. Trapped. He opens the door on '3' and is about to run when he sees a security camera directly above. Grabbing a fire extinguisher, he pulls the pin. Spray coats the lens. Then he yanks a FIRE ALARM. A HORN BLARES. DEAN runs for the second stairwell when he sees JONES stepping out. DEAN looks back at the stairwell he left. That door's opening as well. Trapped. Using the extinguisher, DEAN smashes the glass door to an office and goes inside. JONES starts to enter when a shot rips into the wall, convincing him otherwise. He retreats as the BLARING FIRE ALARM STOPS. DEAN races through the suite of offices trying locked door after locked door. Finally, one opens and he rushes in and tries to lock it behind himself. No lock. He sees the MEN and they see him. He slides a desk against the door, then backs away, pistol ready. JONES (O.S.) (disturbingly calm) Open the door, Mr. Dean. There's nowhere to go. We'd just like to talk. Seeing a phone, DEAN grabs it. No tone. Just a RECORDING of Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots are Made for Walking". JONES (O.S.) It'd be easier for all of us if you just come out. Nothing'll happen. DEAN heaves a coffee table up on the desk. JONES (O.S.) It's quite hopeless what you're doing, Mr. Dean. DEAN I swear to God I'll shoot. JONES (O.S.) (chuckling) I think you might be over-reacting there, Mr. Dean. We just want to talk. DEAN Go ahead. I hear you fine. The door pushes in-- DEAN (CONT'D) I said I'll shoot! The door keeps pushing. DEAN FIRES high. The pushing stops. Then DEAN hears the distant sound of SIRENS approaching. DEAN rips off his sweater, takes out a lighter, and sets the sweater on fire. He throws it into a garbage can and tosses styrofoam cups in on top of it. The pushing starts again, but before DEAN can fire, a small cylindrical device drops into the room. A STUN GRENADE. DEAN ducks as a BLINDING FLASH rocks the room. The window is blown open. Smoke billows out. DEAN, temporarily blinded and deaf, struggles to a ledge as fire engines arrive. INT. VAN - CONTINUOUS Fire trucks, police cars and an ambulance arrive beneath DEAN as HICKS watches from his van. HICKS I don't fuckin' believe this! (into radio-mic) 301 to all units. Everyone out! Now! We'll take him at the hospital. INT. AMBULANCE - NIGHT DEAN sits in back with a PARA-MEDIC, covered in soot, breathing hard through an oxygen mask as the ambulance WAILS and weaves through traffic. He looks through the rear window to see-- TWO CARS FOLLOWING, keeping pace. Off to the side, RFK Stadium is emptying, a Redskins game is over. DEAN rips off the oxygen mask-- DEAN Tell him to stop the ambulance. PARAMEDIC Whoa there, fella. Just take it easy. DEAN Tell him to stop the ambulance. PARAMEDIC Now you're a little shaken up, but we're gonna get you on your feet in-- DEAN whips out his pistol and shoves it in the PARAMEDIC's face-- PARAMEDIC (CONT'D) (to the driver) --stop the ambulance. DEAN Thank you. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The ambulance pulls over and the back doors fly open. DEAN leaps out into the crowd. The OTHER CARS pull over and PRATT and JONES exit. They scan the area and see DEAN descending a stairwell marked: METRO. INT. METRO STATION PLATFORM - NIGHT DEAN stands at the end of the crowded platform. PRATT and JONES work through the CROWD as the train pulls in. DEAN slides on board. The departure HORN sounds. JONES and PRATT step on. INT. METRO - NIGHT DEAN huddles in the back car, panic-breathing, as PRATT and JONES move through the cars searching for faces. DEAN looks for an out. He sees an emergency stop handle. He YANKS it forward. PASSENGERS yell. The brakes lock and SCREECH. The train slows. Then stops. DEAN opens the door. And jumps. He looks around. Just black curved track in either direction. He starts running. Then he hears it. The horrible SCREECHING of an approaching train. Trapped. On one side, the train he left. On the other, a wall. He runs down the track with all that's left. PRATT and JONES reach the open door and see the oncoming train bearing down on DEAN. They duck in as the train SWISHES by. DEAN lays flat between the tracks, his face kissing greasy ground as the train screeches over him. Tons of angry steel are teasing his shirt fabric. Then it's over. The train's gone. DEAN's alive. He gets up to see PRATT and JONES leap to the tracks. DEAN (under his breath) I hate these guys. Then he sees an "EMERGENCY ACCESS" sign beaming in the darkness. A God-send. DEAN runs for it. EXT. METRO EMERGENCY ACCESS EXIT - NIGHT PRATT and JONES fly out the door and into a park. It's empty. Quiet. No Dean anywhere. REYNOLDS (V.O.) I'm confused about something. Maybe you can help me out. EXT. TERRACE - CONTINUOUS The Lincoln Memorial is seen in the distance. REYNOLDS has broken off PARTY GUESTS and paces in his tux, an encrypted cellular phone pressed to his ear. REYNOLDS (CONT'D) I sit on top of the greatest intelligence gathering organization in human history. Why can't I bring in a man whose name is in the fucking phonebook?! HICKS He's clever. He had help. REYNOLDS He's clever? He had help? (beat) Oh. HICKS Sir-- REYNOLDS No, no, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were hoping to be transferred to a weathership outside Greenland. HICKS I just meant-- REYNOLDS I don't care if he's Solomon with Saint Joseph sitting in his lap. I want the tape and I want him. Now is-- A WAITER with a tray steps out onto the terrace... REYNOLDS (CONT'D) (to the WAITER) Yes? WAITER Puffed cheese? REYNOLDS No thank you. WAITER I also have tiny pizzas and mushrooms stuffed with-- REYNOLDS Do I look like I want a tiny pizza? WAITER No. REYNOLDS Then let's assume I don't. WAITER Yes sir. The WAITER goes back inside. REYNOLDS (into phone) Now is that clear? WAITER Yes sir. REYNOLDS disconnects, breathes deeply, and goes back to the party. EXT. RACHEL'S CONDO BUILDING - NIGHT DEAN watches from the shadows. It seems quiet. He's about to move for the entrance when he sees-- A cigarette lighter flame-up inside a parked car. TWO MEN sit inside, watching. DEAN retreats into the shadows. EXT. RACHEL'S CONDO - BACK ENTRANCE - NIGHT Quiet. DEAN listens through the door and hears nothing. He KNOCKS softly. No reply. He tries the doorknob. It opens. INT. RACHEL'S KITCHEN - NIGHT DEAN enters. The place is still. DEAN Rachel? No answer. DEAN drifts through the living room. A lamp is knocked over on the floor. DEAN keeps moving into the bedroom. He stops in the doorway - eyes fixed inside. DEAN'S POV: RACHEL lies on her stomach, naked in bed. DEAN (approaching) Rachel? She doesn't respond. He touches her. Nothing. He turns her over. Her face is frozen, eyes open, neck purpled and bruised with signs of strangulation. DEAN Oh God-- DEAN wants to throw up but holds it down. Then, under a night table, he sees a shirt. He grabs it. DEAN'S POV: An oxford button-down. The inside collar is stamped with a dry-cleaner's marker reading: R. DEAN. Panic overtakes horror as DEAN quickly searches for anything else of his that may have been planted inside the apartment. Under the bed - a cufflink. In the bathroom - a hairbrush. On the desk - documents with his name on them. DEAN shoves everything into a garbage bag. Grabbing a towel, he retraces his steps, wiping his prints from everything he touched. Exiting, he wipes off the doorknob as-- A NEIGHBORS DOOR OPENS. A COUPLE stumbles out, laughing, kissing...and noticing DEAN leaving Rachel's condo. INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE - NIGHT JERRY walks alone through the large underground garage on the way to his car. He pauses, thinking he's heard something. Nothing. He continues walking. He reaches his car. Suddenly someone comes up behind him fast. JERRY spins-- --it's DEAN. DEAN (whispering) Jerry-- JERRY Christ! DEAN Ssh! JERRY Bobby-- DEAN It's the NSA. They're the ones doing this. JERRY Bobby-- DEAN The NSA's doing this 'cause they think I have something. And they killed-- JERRY Calm down. DEAN They killed Rachel. JERRY (pause) Rachel's dead? DEAN Yes. JERRY Jesus. DEAN My stuff's all over her apartment. JERRY Bobby-- DEAN They're framing me. JERRY Why would they-- DEAN I don't know. I mean-- JERRY Why would the NSA-- DEAN I don't know! JERRY You're tired. DEAN Jerry-- JERRY Listen to me. DEAN You gotta-- JERRY No, listen to me. You gotta let me bring you in. DEAN No, I-- JERRY You gotta let me bring you in to the police. DEAN I won't make it to the police. They won't let me get there. You go. JERRY To the cops? DEAN To the NSA. Make a deal. Tell 'em to stop. Tell 'em I don't have what they're after. Make a deal. JERRY Bobby, you're in way over your head. DEAN Go to 'em, Jerry. JERRY I have a family. DEAN So do I! JERRY looks at the ground for a long moment... JERRY I'm sorry, man. DEAN No. No, it's okay. DEAN starts to leave... JERRY Bobby? Piece of advice? DEAN Yeah? JERRY Turn yourself in. DEAN Jerry? JERRY Yeah? DEAN Go fuck yourself. EXT. STREET - EARLY MORNING Establishing. A quiet street in Dean's neighborhood. Several REPORTERS are camped in Dean's driveway entrance, sipping coffees. Farther down the street, a JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE is parked. The driver waits and watches. EXT. BACKYARD - SAME TIME DEAN sneaks between two large houses, ducking by windows and scaling a fence. Somewhere a DOG BARKS a warning as DEAN plows through a large hedge, entering the backyard to his home. INT. DEAN'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - SAME TIME DEAN quietly unlocks the door and enters. He listens. The house is quiet. Empty. INT. DEAN'S FOYER - DAY KEYS JINGLE in the front lock. The door opens and STACY enters. The TV suddenly REMOTES ON - VOLUME LOUD. She turns as DEAN approaches fast-- STACY Robert-- DEAN's hand cups her mouth as he pulls her into a pantry closet. INT. PANTRY CLOSET - CONTINUOUS DEAN (barely a whisper) Listen to me. The house is bugged. So we gotta be quiet, okay? STACY nods understanding. DEAN slowly removes his hand. DEAN (CONT'D) (whispering) Is Eric in school? STACY Yes. DEAN Has anyone been by? Police? FBI? STACY Just reporters. DEAN I wish you'd gone to your parents like I asked you. STACY This is my house. Nobody's kicking me out of my house. I picked those drapes. DEAN I don't think anybody wants the drapes, Stacy, I think the drapes are okay. STACY What happened to your head? DEAN I was in a car chase and a small explosion. Now listen to me: The NSA is behind this. They think that guy I told you about, Daniel Zavitz, they think Zavitz gave me a tape or computer chip of some kind that could be damaging to them. So they're doing all these things electronically. The bank records, the surveillance. They're the ones who broke into the house. Now I know there's no reason to believe me. But I love you. And I love our son. So just believe me anyway. (pause) Please. STACY gently touches his forehead where he's been cut... STACY Does that hurt? DEAN Well...yeah. STACY Good. DEAN Stacy-- She grabs him and kisses him. The kiss lasts a good long time before STACY smacks him on the arm-- STACY I told you they could do this. I told you they had this kind of capability and that with this anti- terrorism it would be just another-- DEAN Stacy...Stacy...maybe now isn't the best time for the I-Told-You-So speech. She kisses him again. STACY I'm sorry I didn't believe you. DEAN That's okay. STACY I opened the present you got me from Harrison's. DEAN You opened the thing? STACY The lingerie. DEAN That was for Christmas. STACY I was missing you. DEAN You're as bad as Eric. I've got an entire family of people who root through-- It dawns on him...everything starts coming together... DEAN (CONT'D) ...who root through...uh...presents, and... STACY What is it? DEAN Oh Christ. INT. JEEP GRAND-CHEROKEE - DAY The DRIVER continues to watch the area. Then-- DRIVER's POV: THE RANGE ROVER flies out of the driveway, tires SCREECHING as it speeds through the quiet neighborhood. The REPORTERS stare at each other a beat-- --then leap for their cars. DRIVER (into sleeve-mic) 504 to 501. Rover's fleeing west on Sutton. Driver appeared male! JONES (O.S.) (radio effect) What's the wife's '20'? DRIVER She's off location with a friend. JONES (O.S.) Alright - move! 501 - all units. Take him down! EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Unmarked cars of various descriptions rapidly appear from nowhere giving chase. ANOTHER AGENT (O.S.) (radio effect) 502 to 501, I've got the eyeball. He's approaching Ridgeview, we'll take him at the intersection. The RANGE ROVER speeds through the neighborhood. Suddenly, two cars are out in front, blocking the way. The Range Rover swerves and breaks as two more cars rip up behind, boxing it in. An un-marked Trans-Am lags behind, keeping reporters at bay. Doors fling open. JONES and THREE MEN, all in plain clothes, pistols and MAC-10 aimed at the Range Rover. Nothing happens. The MEN move closer-- JONES grabs the door and rips it open, revealing Dean's PISS-FRIGHTENED NANNY behind the wheel in Dean's trench coat and hat. JONES YANKS her out, puts her hard to the ground, gun jammed to her head, as other search the Range Rover for Dean. EXT. DEAN'S DRIVEWAY - CONTINUOUS DEAN drives the Nanny's rusted, low-rider Dodge out of the driveway. He pauses and looks. The streets are empty. He turns onto the street and calmly drives away. EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND - DAY Establishing. A playground jammed with kids. A kickball game's in progress. ERIC waits his turn to kick. TRACY, a college-age teaching assistant comes over. TRACY Eric? ERIC looks up... TRACY (CONT'D) Your father's here. EXT. SCHOOL BUILDING - DAY DEAN stands at the edge of the playground in clean, casual clothes. ERIC runs over, face glowing. ERIC Dad! DEAN Do I know you? ERIC Where've you been? DEAN Having an adventure. I can't tell you about it right now, but I'll tell you about it soon. ERIC Are you and mom getting a divorce? DEAN No. We're never getting a divorce. We were having a fight. It happens sometimes. ERIC Who won the fight? DEAN Men don't win fights with women, son, I'll tell you about that sometime, too. In the meantime, I've got a question for you, and it's incredibly important that you tell me the truth. Under no circumstances will I be angry with you. This is a total Get-Out-Of- Jail-Free card. Ready? ERIC Yeah. DEAN Did you take anything--anything at all--out of those Christmas bags I brought home last week. ERIC hangs his head...busted...then shouts to a GROUP OF KIDS on the playground... ERIC (shouting) DYLAAAAN!! DYLAN comes trotting over, carrying his backpack... DYLAN Hey, Mr. D., what's happenin'? DEAN Dylan, I was just asking Eric if-- DYLAN Oh, God, I knew it was stupid, I knew we'd get caught. But the Gameboy was just sitting there. Right on top of the bag. Yes. Yes. We took the GameBoy out of the bag, but with every intention of putting it back. DEAN (pause) You're a tough nut to crack, Dylan. DYLAN hunts through the backpack as DEAN and ERIC looks on. All kinds of junk flies out--candy, comics, game- cartridges-- DYLAN It was broken when we found it, I swear. I tried fixing it for you. I even put in new batteries. (pulling out the GameBoy) The screen scrambles whenever you boot up. I'd try to get your money back. DEAN eyes the pieces of the GameBoy, knowing that somewhere in the puzzle of plastic and chips is the key to his problems. EXT. BALTIMORE SHERATON - EVENING PEDESTRIANS walk on the sidewalk. A MAN comes along and drops a few letters in the corner mailbox. From the other direction comes DEAN. Without stopping, he casually slashes the mailbox with chalk. INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT DEAN's asleep. There's a SOFT SHUFFLING SOUND. The CAMERA EXPLORES for the source, moving by the windows, flashing neon, a TV and finally, the door. We PUSH CLOSER as a MULE TOOL snakes under the door. The tool pops upright against the door's inside. The strap drapes over the doorknob and tightens. The doorknob turns and opens. SOMEONE slips in-- CLOSE ON DEAN asleep. A HAND covers his mouth. DEAN's eyes go wide. Then he sees it's BRILL... BRILL (whispering) Get dressed. We're leaving. DEAN (whispering) You could knock on the door, you know, and I'd open it. BRILL Move it. EXT. CAPE CHARLES - 4 A.M. Establishing. The 10-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge crosses the Bay like a serpent worming toward distant Norfolk. Traffic is thin at this hour. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) Dean, the attorney recently under investigation for a money laundering scheme, was seen leaving Ms. Banks apartment late last night. We PUSH IN on a TOYOTA PICK-UP truck heading south. INT. PICK-UP - CONTINUOUS BRILL drives with DEAN riding shotgun. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) Police are seeking-- BRILL ejects as cassette from the dashboard and hands it to DEAN. BRILL I taped it off the 11 o'clock news. DEAN And you were worried about me. That's nice, I appreciate-- BRILL I was worried about my hundred and twenty 'K'. DEAN We said a hundred. BRILL The price rises with the temperature and right now you're smokin'. But you're right, you should shop around and get the best price. I'll just let you out here. DEAN (agreeing) One-twenty. BRILL checks the rear-view mirror. BRILL's POV: Car headlights following in the distance. BRILL Did you call anyone? DEAN What do you mean? BRILL I mean did you call anyone. DEAN Look, my wife is understandably-- BRILL Jesus! DEAN I called my wife! BRILL What'd I tell you? DEAN I didn't use my name. BRILL What'd I tell you? DEAN I called from a payphone! BRILL What'd I tell you? DEAN You told me no calls. BRILL I told you no calls. BRILL does a bootleggers U-turn. Several cars pass by in the opposite direction. DEAN Sorry. BRILL You don't get it. They go through your phone records. They fuckin' monitor everyone you called in the last-- DEAN I didn't use my name. BRILL Oh, I'll bet that threw 'em off the scent. I sure hope you covered the mouthpiece with a handkerchief and used a funny voice! BRILL turns off the headlights, does another U-turn, pulls off on an emergency road and stops. He turns off the engine, rolls down the window, looks up into the night sky and listens. BRILL's POV: A cloudy night. Silent except for the water and a distant fog-horn. No sounds of aircraft. DEAN (looking up as well) I don't hear anything. (on BRILL's silence) Maybe you're wrong. BRILL is staring upward... BRILL A hundred and fifty. INT. NRO KEYHOLE-12 LAB - CONTINUOUS Re-establishing. A massive, dark place filled with glowing monitors. CLOSE ON A MONITOR - displaying a live SAT feed showing a thermograph image of Brill's truck. The color heat image of BRILL looking upward is fairly clear. He pops his head back into the truck and pulls onto the road. The satellite continues tracking the truck. BRILL (O.S.) It's a consumated marriage. INT. TOYOTA - NIGHT BRILL drives along a high fence surrounding acres of empty warehouses, docks and rust-bitten fences. He's still on constant alert - looking for sign of their presence. BRILL (CONT'D) The NSA's been in bed with the entire tele-communications industry since the 40's. They've infected everything: Banks, computers, phones, mail, name it. (stopping the car near the gate) The more technology we buy into, the easier it is keeping tabs on us. It's a brave new world. (handing DEAN the keys) At least it better be. DEAN How do you know so much? BRILL None of your business. DEAN You used to work for 'em, didn't you? BRILL I was a traffic analyst. DEAN gives him a look that says, "I don't know what that means". BRILL (CONT'D) I intercepted phone calls. DEAN How'd you get around the tap orders? BRILL They can tap anything as along as it's an airwave intercept. Cellulars and pagers your kid can do. (driving through) Hard-line calls we'd pick off the relays as they were being fed into ground cables or fired up to the SATs. We'd suck in everything. All foreign, most domestic. (DEAN re-closes the gate) Domestic was my group. Druggies, radicals, loud-mouths. Anyone we wanted. DEAN (climbing back in) How'd you have the manpower to-- BRILL (driving again) Meade has 18 underground acres of computers. They scan every phonecall for target words like "bomb" or "President". We red-flag phone numbers or voice prints...whatever we wanted. When the computers found something, it was bounced to comparative analysis. DEAN Jesus. BRILL That was twenty years ago. With digital? They can suck a salt grain off a beach. DEAN Why'd you leave? BRILL It was '72. I figured we had enough problems without monitoring a Berkeley kid's class schedule. So I sold my story to Ramparts and split. DEAN They come after you? BRILL (shrugging it off) Well...there'd be too much disclosure to prosecute me. So they ruined my records and made sure I'd never hold a real job again. The pick-up stops by a long two-story warehouse. BRILL (CONT'D) What do you think? DEAN Looks like Detroit. BRILL Welcome to Santa's Workshop. INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT BRILL and DEAN enter the 2nd story of a large, empty structure. DEAN is carrying a crumpled, brown paper bag. In the center of the cavernous space, a windowless, cinderblock room built on 5-foot supports. BRILL I call it the jar. No phone or utility lines going in. BRILL opens a side door revealing a mini-generator. He pushes the start button. The generator HUMS to life. BRILL Self-contained. Unplugged from the world. (opening Jar door) Nothing for a wire bug to piggy- back in on. That leaves only transmitters and signal sweep for those. (turning on the light) Now let's see what we got. DEAN tosses the paper bag to BRILL, who empties its contents (the pieces of the GameBoy) on to the table. EXT. DOCKS - DAWN DEAN sits alone, smoking a cigarette, and watching Norfolk rise from dawn's fog. In the distance we see BRILL coming down from the warehouse toward DEAN. He stands behind DEAN for a moment before... BRILL That is one ugly sunrise. DEAN (pause) It really is. (pause) Did you find anything? BRILL Yeah. (beat) Take a walk with me. DEAN gets up and joins BRILL. The two of them start in the direction of the second warehouse. BRILL (CONT'D) Remember when Senator Hamersley died in an accident up near Shenandoah? DEAN Yeah. BRILL The NSA killed him. DEAN Jesus. Do you have proof? BRILL Well, actually, you have proof. Could you walk a little faster please. DEAN What's going on? BRILL They're here. DEAN Who? BRILL Them. DEAN Where? BRILL Here? DEAN Here?! BRILL In the warehouse. They're hiding in a duct on the third floor. When we go back inside, they're gonna kill us. When they notice that we're moving toward the car, they'll come running out of the building. DEAN 'Kay, well, could you walk faster, please. INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS JONES and THREE MEN are huddled in a duct. VOICE (O.S.) (through radio) They're heading to the car. JONES Move it. JONES and the three men start down the corridor, guns drawn. EXT. THE SECOND WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS DEAN and BRILL are kneeling beside the Chevy, letting the air out of the tires. BRILL Empty 'em 'till they're almost flat. And turn your head. There might be some debris flying your way. DEAN Why? And with that, THE FIRST WAREHOUSE EXPLODES, sending a fireball of debris in all directions. DEAN What the fuck?! BRILL They shouldn't have come without calling first. BRILL jumps into the Chevy, turns the key and the engine ignites. DEAN leaps in. BRILL stomps on the gas and tires screech. The Chevy hurtles through the warehouse toward a shut garage door. BRILL clicks a remote. The door rises. OUTSIDE THE WAREHOUSE - The Chevy roars outward, screams around a corner, then speeds down a road lined with warehouses. DEAN looks down an intersecting road to glimpse a Saturn sedan gaining on a parallel road. BRILL Where's your gun? They pass an area with no warehouses. The Saturn turns, heading straight at them. DEAN Back at the warehouse. The Saturn pulls on the road behind them. The MAN in the Saturn leans out and fires an assault rifle. The side window by Dean's head shatters. BRILL one-hands the pistol and checks the load. DEAN (re: the pistol) Gimme that. BRILL You sure? DEAN You're driving. BRILL Those are Feds. DEAN (taking the pistol) I didn't see a warrant. Did you see a warrant? The Chevy enters a narrow lane, the Saturn right behind. With the Chevy's tires flat and flapping, the Saturn hugs their rear. DEAN looks back again as the RIFLEMAN FIRES-- The rear window EXPLODES. DEAN pops up and fires three quick, well-placed rounds. The Saturn swerves and drops back. BRILL's impressed. DEAN looks forward to see an exit road blocked by an iron cross-bar. BRILL, unfazed, pushes the Chevy faster. Beam or no beam, he's going through. BRILL Think we let out enough air? DEAN (realizing) Oh my God... BRILL and DEAN hit the deck as the Chevy's hood scrapes just under the beam. The windshield frame takes the full impact. The beam slices through steel and glass, decapitating the car. They emerge on the other side minus roof and windows as-- --the Saturn SCREECH-STOPS inches from the beam and debris. A MAN leaps out, shoulders his rifle and aims-- --but the Chevy disappears around a building. EXT. HIGHWAY - EARLY MORNING A foggy morning. The rural highway's deserted at this early hour. The Chevy rumbles by... INT. CHEVY - CONTINUOUS DEAN and BRILL, windblown but alive, remove shards of glass. BRILL eyes the road behind him. Empty. BRILL We lost 'em. DEAN That wasn't so hard. BRILL Fuckin-A. DEAN Let's not do the tire thing anymore, okay? BRILL Yeah, I can see where that'd-- He stops talking. He hears ROTOR THUMPS as a black HELICOPTER appears over a fog-laced hillside, swooping down. BRILL floors it. The helicopter drops in closer as BRILL swerves back and forth while taking a curve at 70- plus on flapping tires. A helicopter SHARP-SHOOTER aims with an M-16. A spray of high-powered slugs suddenly rip into the Chevy's hood. The engine starts knocking. BRILL These guys are incredibly persistent. DEAN Tell me about it. The road straightens. Up ahead, a tunnel. More bullets slice the hood. Radiator fluid starts hissing. The Chevy starts dying. BRILL stomps the pedal, squeezing out every last kick of horsepower. Rubber flaps. Tires shred. Steam hisses. Bullets fly. The helicopter swoops in lower and lower for the kill shot. INT. HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS The SHARP-SHOOTER lines DEAN in his sights. The PILOT keeps pace, dropping closer. The SHARP- SHOOTER has the shot. The Chevy reaches the tunnel's opening on sparking, screeching wheel rims. The helicopter pulls up, missing the hill by inches. But not the power lines. The PILOT sees them too late. The helicopter flies into a web of cables. The upper rotor slices neatly off. The helicopter's body rockets downward to the road where it bounces and skids like a rock on water until it meets an oncoming semi-truck head-on. BLAM! EXT. INSIDE THE TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS BRILL tries steering but metal wheels on concrete don't work. The car shimmies like it's on ice. Sparks fly as they bash into the tunnel wall, grinding to a stop. INT. DODGE - CONTINUOUS A GRUNGE-DUDE blasts his car-stereo as he enters the tunnel, unaware of the mayhem behind him. He slows, seeing a smoking wreck ahead. Closer, he sees DEAN waving him down. He slows more. Bad move. BRILL opens the rear door, leaps in, and points his pistol at the GRUNGE-DUDE's face. DEAN leaps in front. BRILL Drive. DEAN We're not gonna hurt you. BRILL Drive. DEAN Tell him we're not gonna hurt him. BRILL Drive or I'll blow your fuckin' head off. DEAN No he won't. BRILL Goddammit-- DEAN We're honest people and we need your help. I'll give you two- hundred dollars if you-- GRUNGE-DUDE (leaping out) Take it! DEAN Actually, I don't have two-hundred dollars. BRILL Drive the damn car! DEAN slides into the driver's seat, drops it in gear and goes. The Dodge erupts from the tunnel. Up ahead, the Saturn and another car approach fast in the opposite lane, speeding toward the tunnel's opening. The car's fly by, unaware of DEAN and BRILL passing in the Dodge. The Dodge continues on, fading into the fog. INT. NSA/CORRIDOR - DAY REYNOLDS and HICKS walk down a white hallway three football fields in length, filled with bustling employees conservatively dressed. HICKS We found two sets of latent prints in the rubble of Brill's studio. One was Dean's. The other, we believe, belongs to Brill. REYNOLDS We believe? HICKS Well...his real name's Edward Lyle. REYNOLDS Lyle?! HICKS Yes sir. REYNOLDS You're kidding me. HICKS No sir. REYNOLDS Dean's with Lyle. HICKS And they have the video. That's confirmed. REYNOLDS So they know everything. HICKS If they've looked at the video. REYNOLDS Oh, let's assume that they have. HICKS If he's with Lyle it means he's got resources. REYNOLDS Resources, that's a good point. He's got resources. All we've got is a six-hundred billion dollar organization! Now goddammit, Hicks, you find 'em. You find 'em and you end it now! REYNOLDS walks off leaving HICKS to ponder his fate. EXT. USED CAR LOT - DAY Establishing. Plastic flags and PRICES SLASHED signs are everywhere. A blue Taurus pulls off the lot... DEAN (O.S.) We'll take the tape directly to CBS. I'll hand it directly to the News Department. INT. TAURUS - CONTINUED BRILL Listen to you, "directly". You're not gonna get near the News Department. And if you did, it'd never get on the air. Time-Life buried the Zapruder film for 15 years. DEAN What about newspapers and magazines? BRILL Same thing? DEAN So what do we do now? BRILL I was thinkin' about asking for my hundred and fifty grand and calling it quits. DEAN What if we do a mailing to Congressmen. BRILL It'd never get through. All packages are screened, x-rayed and then hand-searched for explosives. You didn't like my "give-me-my- money" idea? INT. TAURUS - NIGHT BRILL drives. DEAN thinks. DEAN What if we hand deliver to their homes or office? BRILL The area's wired for surveillance, they'll be looking for those moves. DEAN Well how do I know what they're-- BRILL I know. I know what they're looking for and I'm telling you. The car radio is playing a newscast... NEWSCASTER (O.S.) (from the radio) --after which, Senator Albert will address a fund-raiser at Boston University. DEAN What if we put it on the internet? BRILL Have you seen how fuckin' slow the net is? It'd take ten minutes to unload enough video so that people know what they're seeing, and it'd take the NSA maybe 40 seconds to see it coming down and shut down the access. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) (from the radio) --this will be the last stop on the Senator's eight-city tour before the Senate votes on Tuesday. BRILL (reconsidering) But maybe if there were no phone line-- DEAN has started listening to the radio... BRILL (CONT'D) What if we transmitted it over cellular? DEAN Listen-- BRILL Nah, they'd shut down the pin number. DEAN What if-- BRILL If they couldn't do that, they'd shut down the whole system, all the relays. DEAN What if-- BRILL They've done it before. Takes maybe two minutes. DEAN What if-- BRILL What if what? DEAN What if we just fucked with 'em? BRILL (pause) How? DEAN Same way they did with you and me. We take their biggest guy and turn him into one of us. BRILL Reynolds. DEAN No. BRILL Who? A MONTAGE OF EVENTS: INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY BRILL educates DEAN on simple ways to alter one's appearance. DEAN (V.O.) Senator Sam Albert, senior Republican. Very well respected. INT. BOSTON UNIVERSITY/AUDITORIUM - DAY A large auditorium. Preparations are being made for Senator Albert's upcoming speech. BRILL and DEAN casually case the area for vulnerabilities. DEAN We'll play the NSA's game only we'll play it badly. EXT. LE MERIDIAN HOTEL, BOSTON - DAY Establishing. A five-star hotel overlooking Massachusetts Bay. BRILL (V.O.) You wanna get caught spying on Albert? DEAN (V.O.) No, I want the NSA to get caught spying on Albert. INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUS CHRISTA HAWKINS, late 20's, the Senator's advance- person, stands at registration securing rooms for her boss and his team. DEAN (V.O.) We're gonna lead Albert by the nose to one conclusion. And then when he's pissed as hell, we're gonna drop the tape in his lap. How fast can you teach me what I need to know? BRILL (V.O.) How fast can you learn? Next to CHRISTA, looking conservative and altered in appearance, is DEAN, eavesdropping on the Senator's room numbers and any other pertinent info. EXT. RADIO SHACK - DAY Establishing. One of those cheesy places in a mini-mall. DEAN (V.O.) Pretty fast. BRILL We'll have to re-stock some basics. INT. RADIO SHACK - CONTINUOUS BRILL and DEAN go shopping. BRILL Bugs, frequency scanners, contact mics, transmitters, pin-holes, fiber optics-- INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY The curtains are drawn. Devices cover the table and bed. BRILL What do you know about locking cellular phone signals? DEAN I know my phone number and I know the number for SportsPhone. Beyond that-- BRILL Shit. INT. TAURUS - DAY DEAN drives while BRILL sits with his open PC lap-top connect to his cellular phone. BRILL A 'modified' OKI 900 interfaced with a lap-top creates an enormously powerful tool. (referring to the cell-phone) I got into the software, did some code re-writing and turned it into one of the best scan-looking systems around. CLOSE ON SCREEN - A street map appears with positions of the network's relays. Lines appear indicating all in-progress cellular calls along with their locations. BRILL (CONT'D) This is every call on the grid. I can lock and position any one I want and follow the hand-offs in real time. BRILL punches a number into the cellular and the phone locks on the signal. Through the lap-top, we hear RINGING and then an ANSWERING VOICE. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Super Shuttle. MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) This is Dr. Jonathan Phillips, 102 Stern Drive in Brockton. I need an airport ride on Friday at 6 PM with a return pick-up Monday at 5. There'll be two of us and-- BRILL (disconnecting) Need a place to stay for the weekend? A new TV? (BRILL has repeated the process) ANOTHER MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Triple-A Emergency Road Service. May I have your name and membership number? YOUNG WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Colleen Crane. Card number 020-113-- DEAN Unbelievable. BRILL All from a hundred dollar scanner at Radio Shack. But it's time for business. BRILL dials his computer into a new line. TONES and COMMANDS fly quick as Brill's computer modems into another. DEAN What are you dialing? BRILL AmeriTech's data-base. (pointing on the screen) There's Albert's D.C. office address and his phone's identity code. Now we just reprogram out phone with his ID code and you know what we've got? SENATOR ALBERT (O.S.) (mid-conversation) --Don't think it could've gone any better. Tell me, how's Deb? How're my grandchildren? BRILL A receiver tuned permanently to the Senator's phone. EXT. FREEWAY - CONTINUOUS A customized RV zips down the highway. SENATOR'S WIFE (O.S.) Melissa has a fever. When will you be in the room? INT. RV - CONTINUOUS It's a plush affair befitting the Senator's position. ALBERT speaks in the cellular phone while an aide, PATRICK, reviews last minute changes for Albert's upcoming speech. SENATOR ALBERT Not 'till later tonight. We're going to the campus now. (beat) I'll call you after I've checked in. (beat) I love you too, dear. INT. LE MERIDIAN HOTEL/LOBBY - DAY CHRISTA stands at the front desk as the CLERK hands her several faxes. DEAN, disguised, sits across the lobby reading a paper. DEAN's POV: CHRISTA exits the hotel to a waiting car. DEAN (into concealed sleeve mic) She just left. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY Numbered doors on each side. BRILL walks down the hall, hair slicked, mustache, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. BRILL (V.O.) The important thing about installations is numbers. INT. CHRISTA'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY SERIES OF SHOTS: BRILL entering CHRISTA's room and opening his briefcase revealing tools and listening bugs. BRILL (V.O.) They may find one, but they're not gonna find 'em all. --BRILL planting devices behind the headboard-- --Inside the telephone-- --Behind the desk-- --Inside the TV-- --BRILL rifling through CHRISTA's personal items, eyeing paper work, photographing interesting documents. --BRILL opening a connecting door, picking a second lock, and entering the adjoining suite. INT. CHRISTA'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT A clock reads 1:28 AM. The lights are on and the bed unslept in. Christa's not seen. Then the connecting door opens-- CHRISTA steps from the Senator's adjoining suite in a silk robe, nothing underneath. She turns in the doorway, revealing ALBERT, naked in a towel. CHRISTA closes the door, climbs in bed and grabs the remote. She clicks on the TV. FEEDBACK SCREECHES from the set. She tries changing channels but the SCREECHING continues. She tries turning off the set, but it won't turn off. She grabs the phone and dials. CHRISTA (into phone) Can you send someone up right away. I'm having a problem with my TV... It's screeching and I-- (beat) It's screeching and I-- CHRISTA is noticing that her voice is causing the TV image to distort in sync. CHRISTA (CONT'D) It's screeching and I can't turn it off. INT. HOTEL RESTAURANT - MORNING SENATOR ALBERT dines with an aide as PATRICK approaches, a grave look on his face. PATRICK takes a seat. SENATOR ALBERT What happened to you last night? PATRICK reaches in his case and pulls out one of Brill's listening bugs and hands it to ALBERT who puts on his eyeglasses. PATRICK Christa found it last night attached to her TV. It's a listening device. SENATOR ALBERT A bug? PATRICK Yeah. SENATOR ALBERT Jesus H.-- PATRICK We should everything checked. There's a company in Cambridge called Baudmore. They're discreet. Seated next to ALBERT's table is DEAN, unnoticed as he sips coffee, skims news, and eavesdrops on their MURMURS with a small, concealed parabolic mic and ear- phone. SENATOR ALBERT Well get somebody down here today. I don't know what the hell this is all about. EXT. STREET CORNER - DAY A phone distribution box is open, revealing a mass of circuit boards. BRILL stands at the box holding a circuit-dialer phone to his ear. INTERCUT WITH: INT. HOTEL LOBBY/NEWS STAND - CONTINUOUS DEAN watches PATRICK approach a pay phone. DEAN (into sleeve mic) He's going into the payphone outside the restaurant. It's a Cambridge company called Baudmore. BRILL connects two alligator clips to a line inside the box. BRILL (into sleeve mic) Got it. BRILL's phone line immediately rings. He waits...then answers. BRILL (into phone) Baudmore Consultants. PATRICK Is Jerry Delsano in? BRILL Who's calling? PATRICK It's Pat Cary. I work for Senator Sam Albert and I was given Jerry's name. BRILL Jerry's on vacation 'till Monday. I can give him the message when he gets back. That was Patrick and the last name-- PATRICK The thing is...it really can't wait. BRILL My name's Neil. Maybe I can help you. INT. SENATOR ALBERT'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY CLOSE ON A FREQUENCY COUNTER sweeping a chest of drawers. The device starts BUZZING, indicating a transmitter. BRILL, disguised, is on hands and knees, searching under a chest where he 'discovers' a bug he planted earlier. BRILL (removing the transmitter) Oh yeah. Got another one here. BRILL shows it to PATRICK, a very embarrassed HOTEL MANAGER and a very serious HEAD OF HOTEL SECURITY. BRILL (CONT'D) Nasty fella. A TX-703. Remote on- off, three-thousand foot range. Shit, you could listen from a shopping mall across the street. INT. SENATOR ALBERT'S RV - DAY BRILL stands in front of SENATOR ALBERT. BRILL Well, sir, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. Your average newspaper guy or Hard Copy lady or whatever, they can't buy this stuff. SENATOR ALBERT Well then who can? BRILL Ah, sir, you know, it's not for me to say. SENATOR ALBERT What do you mean? Who can buy this kind of equipment. BRILL The thing is, Senator, and I don't want to get in the middle of nothing, but-- SENATOR ALBERT What are you saying? BRILL Most of this stuff's only available to law enforcement. SENATOR ALBERT Law enforcement? BRILL FBI, CIA, NSA, local cops. SENATOR ALBERT Are you sure about this? BRILL unwraps a towel revealing the grease-covered NSA tracker he removed from Dean's BMW. BRILL I yanked this off your RV. It's a Global Positioning Tracker. SENATOR ALBERT Oh my God. BRILL Tracks your location to the inch and works directly with--you know... SENATOR ALBERT With what? BRILL With spy satellites. I don't like saying these things Senator... SENATOR ALBERT (shaking BRILL's hand) Neil, thank you for your help. BRILL Anytime. PATRICK escorts BRILL out of the RV. The SENATOR, fuming, opens a book, looks up a phone number and punches it into his phone. SENATOR ALBERT (into the phone) This is Sam Albert. Put me through to Langley. Dick Marshal's office. INT. UNIVERSITY COFFEE SHOP - DAY A place packed with STUDENTS, computers and TEACHERS. DEAN sits in a corner reading a magazine, but what he's really watching is-- A WELL-DRESSED MAN at the counter, his back to DEAN, ordering a cup of coffee. The MAN glances at DEAN off the mirror behind the counter. BRILL walks in and joins DEAN. BRILL Albert's primed. We'll let him stew for a day and then drop the tape. BRILL looks over at the WELL-DRESSED MAN. DEAN He came in four minutes ago. BRILL (pause) C'mon. They're about to start for the front door when an unmarked police car pulls up in front. A rowdy group of FRAT BOYS flood in, loud and busy. By the time they pass, BRILL and DEAN are gone. The WELL-DRESSED MAN scans the coffee shop and sees the back door swinging shut. EXT. STREET - DAY DEAN and BRILL run down the street, through an alley and over a fence to another street. They slow as they approach the parked Taurus. BRILL takes the wheel with DEAN beside him. They pull into traffic. Things look good, but then the UNMARKED CAR and a SQUAD CAR scream up behind, lights flashing. INT. TAURUS - CONTINUOUS BRILL dumps the car into low gear and the Taurus comes alive. INT. SQUAD CAR - CONTINUOUS A COP picks up the radio-mic. COP One-Lincoln-Nine. In pursuit of two suspects, one matching description of Robert Dean, wanted in connection with a homicide. Suspects northbound on-- EXT. BOSTON STREETS - CONTINUOUS Through alleys, down streets, under an overpass, down a one-way street, barely missing a head-on as they roar into a rail-yard traversing the waterfront. BRILL's at his best, putting distance between himself and the cops at every turn. Finally, it looks as if they've made it as they race down an alleyway, only to realize it's a dead-end. BRILL slams into reverse. They screech backward, tires smoking. Too late. The squad car rips into the alleyway, boxing them in. BRILL hits the brakes. He looks back at the dead-end and sees an empty flat-bed trailer with a ramp. BRILL gives it everything. If they can get enough speed and hit the ramp right, maybe they can clear the obstructing wall. BRILL Feeling lucky? DEAN Not particularly, no. They hit the ramp full speed. The front end bottoms at the Taurus bounces skyward. Tires clip the wall as the car flips and smashes into a parked rail-car filled with coal. They aren't going anywhere. Back in the alley, the squad car skids to a stop. A ROOKIE climbs from his car, leaps the wall, draws his gun and nears... Inside the Taurus, the windows are shattered. Steam hisses, gasoline drips and coal is everywhere. DEAN shimmies out through a broken side window. He barely gets to his feet as he stumbles 20 yards or so. His foot accidentally dislodges a large pile of coal, which buries him up to his waist and immobilizes him. DEAN Shit. (to BRILL) I'm stuck. Help me out. He looks back to see that BRILL is hanging out the driver's side, bleeding badly and covered in gas. COP (on waist radio) One-Lincoln-Nine, suspects TA'd into a coal car at the Fullbright rail-yards. Requesting back-up, fire and ambulance. An unmarked car with red-flashers races up the rail- yard and stops. The ROOKIE turns as JONES and KRUG hop out. JONES (flashing ID) FBI. What do you got? COP Two murder suspects. One's wounded, the other's maybe dead. JONES Thank you. KRUG draws his silenced pistol and matter of factly shoots the COP dead. JONES (to KRUG) Check inside. DEAN is watching this all unseen, helplessly trying to dig himself out of the coal. KRUG inspects the Taurus interior for anything of interest. JONES scans the area. KRUG (to BRILL as he searches.) I hate doin' cops, I really do. You I won't mind. Didn't mind that Rachel Banks. Didn't mind doin' her one bit. (seeing DEAN's shoe) Your lawyer friend buried over there? BRILL can only gurgle blood. JONES pops the Taurus's trunk had looks inside. KRUG digs quickly through the coal pile, searching for Dean. Then BRILL sees him-- BRILL's POV: DEAN down off the side of the coal-car, lodged in the coal pile. He's safe, but not once KRUG discovers he's not in the car. BRILL pushes in the cigarette lighter. JONES dumps everything from the Taurus into the unmarked car. SIRENS suddenly fade in. KRUG digs faster, looking for DEAN, as JONES approaches with his pistol, clambering around for BRILL. KRUG Fuck him, he's dead in two minutes. Find Dean. JONES starts to back out, just as the Taurus's cigarette lighter pops out. BRILL grabs it. KRUG eyes the glowing lighter. Then he eyes BRILL. Shit. BRILL ignites the gas. WA-WOOMFF!! A fireball explodes, consuming all - the car, BRILL, KRUG. JONES is blown off his feet from the concussion. JONES (scrambling away) Fuck-- JONES wipes prints off his pistol and silencer and tosses it into the flames as the police cars approach. DEAN watches from the shadows as flames incinerate everything. MARSHAL (V.O.) I just came from my office at Langley. Senator Albert called me there. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. RESTAURANT TERRACE - DAY MARSHAL and SHAFFER dine with REYNOLDS at a restaurant overlooking the Potomac. SHAFFER I got the same call at the Bureau. He's upset. REYNOLDS About what? MARSHAL About what? Do I look stupid? REYNOLDS Ken-- MARSHAL Does Shaffer look stupid to you? SHAFFER We're not stupid, Reynolds. MARSHAL The fuck do you have goin' on with Sam Albert? SHAFFER This guy's carrying the flag for the damn terrorism bill. You think this is the best time to piss him off? MARSHAL You have any idea what kind of position this-- SHAFFER He's carrying the damn flag. REYNOLDS We're not doing anything with Sam Albert. MARSHAL He thinks we're stupid. SHAFFER He found an NSA SAT tracker on his motor home today. REYNOLDS It's not ours. MARSHAL It was pulsing on your SAT frequencies. SHAFFER I don't know what's going on, but if you people have tripped over your own asshole again, you're not gonna get any help from us. It's ending at your doorstep. HICKS (V.O.) Brill's dead. INT. TOWN CAR - DAY REYNOLDS rides in the back of the car, a cellular to his ear. REYNOLDS What about-- HICKS (O.S.) We don't know. REYNOLDS Explain that. INTERCUT WITH: INT. TECH ROOM - CONTINUOUS The room is crammed with people as HICKS talks over the phone. HICKS Jones had to flee the scene before we could locate the second body. REYNOLDS What about the tape? HICKS We think it was on Brill. If it was, it's destroyed now. REYNOLDS And if it wasn't? ORGAN MUSIC can be heard as REYNOLDS snaps his phone shut. PRIEST (O.S.) Peace be with you. EXT. SAINT PAUL'S CHURCH - DAY Establishing. A beautiful church in an expensive neighborhood. CHORUS OF PARISHIONERS (O.S.) And also with you. INT. CHURCH - CONTINUOUS A crowded Catholic mass. The PRIEST delivers a sermon from an altar decorated with Christmas candles and evergreen. PRIEST The Lord said: I leave you peace, my peace I leave you. Let us now, in the spirit of these holidays, turn to our neighbors and offer them a sign of peace. REYNOLDS stands in a pew beside his TWO DAUGHTERS and his WIFE. He turns to those immediately around him, shaking their hands. REYNOLDS Peace be with you...Peace be with you. A disguised DEAN takes REYNOLDS hand and shakes it... DEAN Merry Christmas. It's me. REYNOLDS Do I know you? DEAN I'm Robert Dean. Within twelve hours, you're gonna be in jail. Peace be with you. REYNOLDS is dumbstruck... PRIEST Let us now offer up thanks to the Lord our God in the words our Father gave us. CONGREGATION Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallow'd be thy name-- STACY (V.O.) Robert, is it safe to be talking on the phone like this? INT. A BEDROOM - NIGHT DEAN sits on a bed while talking into a modified cellular computer. The screen shows his current call signal re-routing between relay stations. DEAN (into phone) I've re-routed the call. They can't trace it. INTERCUT WITH: INT. DEAN'S HOUSE/BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS STACY (into phone) Are you sure you're safe? DEAN (into phone) Yeah. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - CONTINUOUS CLOSE ON A SMALL GRAY CONE-SHAPED MICROWAVE ANTENNA STACY (O.S.) They're saying you killed that policeman. DEAN (O.S.) That's gonna end tonight. EXT. EXPRESSWAY - CONTINUOUS CLOSE ON A MICROWAVE TOWER WITH NINE GRAY CONES pointing nine directions. The intercepted phone signals being relayed. STACY (O.S.) Where are you? DEAN (O.S.) I can't tell you that. EXT. KENT ISLAND - CONTINUOUS Re-establishing. A concrete building rising from the woods. STACY (O.S.) Can you tell me anything? INT. CEMENT BUILDING - CONTINUOUS CLOSE ON COMPUTER SCREENS showing hundreds of phone numbers scrolling by. A massive vacume cleaner of every cellular call being made in the state of Maryland. The computer scans for trigger numbers or words. DEAN (O.S.) I can tell you this: That anti- terrorism bill you were so worked up about? I don't think it's gonna pass. A phone number locks on the screen-- TECHNICIAN Got it! INT. REYNOLDS BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS The phone on the nightstand begins to RING. REYNOLDS wakes as his wife rolls to the other side of the bed. He grabs his scrambler phone and goes into-- INT. BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS REYNOLDS closes the door and waits as scrambled lines connect. Finally, a confirming tone. REYNOLDS Yeah. INTERCUT WITH: INT. VAN - CONTINUOUS HICKS is on the phone. HICKS Found him. Kent Island nailed the call five minutes ago. He's stationary. REYNOLDS Do you have visual? HICKS Not yet. He's near "M" and 34th. I've got an ELSUR unit on the scene now. A residential building. Twelve units. REYNOLDS What's your ETA? HICKS Three minutes. We're going in light. Myself and two others. Everyone else is held back in reserve. REYNOLDS He walked right up to me in church. At the holiest time of the wear. He approached me in a sanctified place. (beat) Kill him now. EXT. A VICTORIAN APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Establishing. Peaceful street, quaint apartments. THREE MEN stroll to the entrance of a well-maintained building. One jimmies the lock and a moment later they're in. INT. LOBBY - CONTINUOUS HICKS, JONES and DAVIS prepare. All have miniature earphones. DAVIS checks his silenced pistol. HICKS activates a frequency locator. The needle snaps on. He looks at DAVIS and JONES. They're ready. All hand signals, no words, as the trio ascend the staircase. One flight, two. Then HICKS stops. The needle says they're close. HICKS motions. Their target's on two. They move down the hall - silent except for a creaking floor and a TV SHOW drifting from an apartment. Someone's up at this hour. They move on. HICKS watches the needle as it moves. He motions DAVIS and JONES to a door. JONES puts a reverse-viewer against the peep-hole. JONES's POV: A view of an entryway and living room. A light bleeds from an O.S. source. Beyond that there's no sign of life. HICKS puts a contact-mic against the door and listens to FAINT CONVERSATION somewhere inside, possibly the phone call. HICKS nods to JONES who quickly picks the lock while DAVIS eyes the hall. After a nervous moment, the door opens and HICKS, JONES and DAVIS enter. INT. THE APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS They spread out, searching the well-decorated condo for the target. They near the room with light. Using a mini-mirror, HICKS looks around the bend to see-- A BEDROOM. There's a briefcase on the bed. They enter. From the bathroom they hear sounds of RUNNING WATER. They slowly approach. Wood again CREAKS beneath them. DEAN's VOICE is heard through the locked door. HICKS signals "on three". He counts, and they SMASH the door open to see-- --a cellular phone taped to a Baby-Monitor. DEAN's nowhere in sight. HICKS The fuck is this? INT. POLICE STATION/DISPATCH AREA - NIGHT Spinning banks of reporters manned by POLICE DISPATCHERS. We move to one desk where a phone rings. An LED immediately displays the caller's name; KRUGER, JACK, along with his social-security number and date of birth. DISPATCHER Nine-one-one emergency. OLD MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) My name's Jack Kreuger, I'm at 1102 Grambling. I just saw three guys break into the condo next door. It looked to me like they had guns. INT. VICTORIAN BUILDING'S BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS DEAN has the phone circuit box open and is plugged in with a phone-line. Over the phone's mouthpiece, he holds an electronic Voice-Mask which alters his voice into an old man's. DISPATCHER (O.S.) We'll send a unit over there now. If it's safe, sir, we'd like you to stay by your phone. DEAN Yeah, I think I'll stay where I am. INT. SQUAD CAR - NIGHT DISPATCHER (O.S.) (radio effect) Any available unit. Armed 549 in progress. INT. VAN - CONTINUOUS Three TECHNICIANS overhear the police radio call. DISPATCHER (O.S.) Three suspects now inside. 1102 Grambling, apartment 302. TECHNICIAN Shit. (into radio) 201 to First Team. Pull out. We got the cops. INT. APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS HICKS spins and heads for the door. DAVIS hits it first. He grabs the doorknob and pulls-- --and the knob rips from the door, trailing small wires. DAVIS Fuck me! JONES What'd you do? DAVIS It came off in my hand! EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS TWO SQUAD CARS come rolling up and FOUR COPS get out and head into the building. INT. THE APARTMENT JONES is trying to pry the door open with his fingers. No use. TECHNICIAN (over radio) Get outa there, guys! While JONES continues on the door, DAVIS runs to the window. Throughout this, HICKS will stand in the middle of the room and, simply, oddly, stare at the mantle over the fireplace. DAVIS Goddamit! HICKS smiles...and now he starts laughing a little... JONES What's so fuckin' funny? HICKS motions to a framed picture over the fireplace. HICKS It's over. We've been fucked with our pants on. The framed picture is of Senator SAM ALBERT and CHRISTA HAWKINS. HICKS (CONT'D) We broke into her condo. DOOR WOOD EXPLODES inward. The TWO COPS roll in crouched positions, weapons drawn. COP #1 POLICE! FREEZE! HICKS doesn't move, DAVIS freezes like a deer in headlights, JONES stares with cold, dead eyes. COP #2 DROP THE WEAPONS! NOW! Two more COPS arrive. JONES and DAVIS drop their guns. COP #1 ON THE GROUND! NOW! FACE THE FLOOR! They do so. COPS THREE and FOUR go room to room making sure no one else is lurking. In the bedroom, they find the briefcase. Inside the briefcase-- --listening bugs, installation equipment and compromising photos of the Senator with Christa. CHRISTA (O.S.) Oh my God! What's going on?! Back in the living room, CHRISTA has walked through the broken-in apartment door to see JONES, HICKS and DAVIS lying on the floor at gun point. COP #2 Ma'am, is this your apartment? CHRISTA What happened?! COP #1 Would you step out in the hallway for a moment, ma'am. CHRISTA Oh God. COP #2 Please. We'll be right with you. CHRISTA backs slowly out of the apartment and into-- INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS CHRISTA holds her hand over her mouth and is shaking. A VOICE comes from an alcove... VOICE (O.S.) Christa? She turns. DEAN steps out from the alcove. DEAN (CONT'D) You got a second? CHRISTA Who are you? DEAN My name's Robert Dean. EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET IN CHEVY CHASE - NIGHT An up-scale neighborhood. Two inexpensive cars that don't seem to belong there sit in front of a large home. INT. SENATOR ALBERT'S PRIVATE STUDY - CONTINUOUS DEAN sits with a drink in his hand. Across from him are CHRISTA and PATRICK. They sit in uncomfortable silence for a moment before SENATOR ALBERT enters in bathrobe and pajamas. ALBERT I understand we have a problem. PATRICK Senator-- CHRISTA Senator, there were some things I couldn't tell you over the phone. ALBERT What kinds of things? PATRICK Mr. Dean has a video tape from the hotel room in Boston. ALBERT (pause) I see. DEAN It's actually DH-1 Digitech Pinpoint scanning with a frequency modulator. ALBERT I don't know what that means. DEAN Me neither, but the upshot is I've got color live-action footage of you and Ms Hawkins and it doesn't look good. ALBERT So...how much money do you want in exchange for not ruining my life? DEAN I don't want any money. And believe me, I have no interest in ruining your life. I'm not interested in this tape. ALBERT You're not. PATRICK Then what do you want from the Senator? DEAN I want him to look at a different tape. People have been killed. Lives have been ruined. (DEAN takes the computer chip from his pocket) Senator, I want you to look at this. And I want you to bring the fury of God himself upon this man. DEAN tosses the chip to ALBERT. INT. REYNOLDS BEDROOM - NIGHT REYNOLDS is asleep when the PHONE wakes him up. Once again, he reaches for his scrambled phone heads into the bathroom. After waiting for the signal that the line's clear... REYNOLDS Yeah. TECHNICIAN (O.S.) Sir, we've just intercepted an FBI communication. REYNOLDS (into phone) Well...what is it? TECHNICIAN (O.S.) Well, sir, it seems there's a warrant out on-- The DOORBELL rings. REYNOLDS is alarmed. Now there's BANGING at the door and DOORBELL RINGS again. REYNOLDS WIFE (O.S.) (from the bedroom) Who is that, dear? REYNOLDS snaps the phone shut and goes downstairs to the door. When he opens the door he sees TWO FBI AGENTS with their ID's flapped open and six uniformed POLICEMEN backing them up. FBI AGENT John Reynolds? REYNOLDS What the hell-- FBI AGENT You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say-- REYNOLDS WIFE (O.S.) (from upstairs) Honey...? INT. DEAN'S STREET - MORNING A PAPERBOY tosses a newspaper at the Dean's door. SENATOR ALBERT (O.S.) Privacy and the right to privacy is an inalienable right. INT. DEAN'S KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Stacy has C-SPAN on the TV while she makes breakfast for ERIC. SENATOR ALBERT is addressing the SENATE. ERIC These guys are always making speeches. STACY It's an important speech, Eric. There's gonna be a vote today. SENATOR ALBERT (on TV) Today we face a threat to that creed. Certain individuals in our intelligence community believe they're entitled to examine lives in minute detail, and claim to do it in the name of the common good. ERIC If they're voting today, hasn't everyone pretty much made up their minds. STACY Actually, this man appears to have changed his mind dramatically. ERIC Why? VOICE (O.S.) He saw the light, my son. ERIC and STACY whip around-- ERIC Dad! STACY and ERIC run to DEAN... STACY Is it over? DEAN It's over. ERIC How long can you stay? DEAN I'm not goin' anywhere, Eric. I live here. ERIC and DEAN hug. STACY Get ready for school, you're gonna be late. ERIC Is it okay to use the phone now? DEAN It's okay to use the phone. ERIC Alright! DEAN No "900" numbers. But ERIC has disappeared up the stairs... STACY It's really over? DEAN Albert's gonna get me my job back. STACY (pause) I'm sorry about Rachel. DEAN Yeah. (beat) I wish you could've met... STACY Who? DEAN A friend of mine. I don't know his real name. He's dead now. STACY You did good. STACY points to the TV and DEAN watches for a moment... ALBERT (on TV) I've lived through the dark ages of Hoover's Watch-List and McCarthy's Witch Hunts - men who used moral crusades, fired by fear, to lay waste to our freedoms. STACY C'mon upstairs. I've got a Christmas present from Harrison's I want to show you. DEAN arrives as STACY takes him by the arm. They head upstairs as ALBERT continues on... ALBERT (on TV) Our intelligence communities presently monitor our phones, computers, financial transactions, medical histories...all this and more. Some of you may say, "Fine. I'm not a criminal and I have nothing to hide." Well God forbid we ever edge to tyranny. God forbid George Orwell's version of America becomes a reality. We are that close. ALBERT's speech continues as we... ROLL END CREDITS. FADE TO BLACK. diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_English Patient, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_English Patient, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..939a9db21a178d931e8c721c99733db1702fa364 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_English Patient, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The Saul Zaentz CompanyTHE ENGLISH PATIENTScreenplay byAnthony MinghellaBased on the Novel byMichael OndaatjeDirected byAnthony MinghellaProduced bySaul Zaentz Revised Draft ( )28th August, 1995Copyright 1995 The Saul Zaentz Company1 EXT. LATE 1942. THE SAHARA DESERT. DAY.SILENCE. THE DESERT seen from the air. An ocean of dunes for mile after mile. The late sun turns the sand every color from crimson to black.An old AEROPLANE is flying over the Sahara. Its shadow swims over the contours of sand.A woman's voice begins to sing unaccompanied on the track. Szerelem, szerelem, she cries, in a haunting lament for her loved one.INSIDE the aeroplane are two figures. One, A WOMAN, seems to be asleep. Her pale head rests against the side of the cockpit. THE PILOT, a man, wears goggles and a leather helmet. He is singing, too, but we can't hear him or the plane or anything save the singer's plaintive voice.The plane shudders over a ridge. Beneath it A SUDDEN CLUSTER OF MEN AND MACHINES, camouflage nets draped over the sprawl of gasoline tanks and armored vehicles. An OFFICER, GERMAN, focuses his field glasses. The glasses pick out the MARKINGS on the plane. They are English. An ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN swivels furiously.Shocking bursts of GUNFIRE. Explosions rock the plane, which lurches violently. THE WOMAN SLUMPS FORWARD, slamming her head against the instruments. The pilot grabs her, pulls her back, but she's not conscious. The fuel tank above their heads is punctured. It sprays them both, then EXPLODES.THE MAN FALLS OUT OF THE SKY, clinging to his dead lover. The are both ON FIRE. She is wrapped in a parachute silk and it burns fiercely. He looks up to see the flames licking at his own parachute as it carries them slowly to earth. Even his helmet is on fire, but the man makes no sound as the flames erase all that matters - his name, his past, his face, his lover...2 EXT. THE DESERT. 1942. DAY.THE PILOT HAS BEEN RESCUED BY BEDOUIN TRIBESMEN. Behind them the wreckage of the plane, still smoking, the Arabs picking over it. A SILVER THIMBLE glints in the sun, is retrieved. Another man comes across A LARGE LEATHER-BOUND BOOK and takes it over to the Pilot. The Pilot is charred. His helmet has melted into his head. He's oblivious to this, cares only about the woman who crashed with him. He twists frantically to find her. Two men pick him up and carry him across to a litter where they carefully wrap him in blankets.3 EXT. THE DESERT. DUSK.The Pilot is being carried across the desert. A mask covers his face. His view of the world is through the slats of reed. He glimpses camels, fierce low sun, the men who carry him.4 EXT. AN OASIS. DUSK.The Pilot sees a man squat down beside him, takes a date from a sack and begin to chew it. Carefully, the Bedouin eases the mask from the Pilot's face, leaving bandages of cloth and oil, but revealing a mouth. He stops chewing and passes the pulped date into the Pilot's mouth. Mouth to mouth.4a*. EXT. DESERT. DAWN.THE CARAVANSERAI CROSSES THE DESERT, silhouetted against the dunes.5 EXT. AN OASIS. NIGHT.The SOUND OF GLASS, of tiny chimes. A music of glass.AN ARAB HEAD APPEARS ON A MOVING TABLE IN THE DESERT. It floats in darkness, shimmering from the light of a fire. The image develops to reveal a man carrying a giant wooden yoke from which hang DOZENS OF SMALL GLASS BOTTLES, on different lengths of string and wire. He could be an angel.The man approaches the litter which carries the Pilot. He's still in the protective reed mask, wrapped in blankets. The MERCHANT DOCTOR stands over the burned body and sinks sticks either side of him deep into the sand, then moves away, free of the yoke, which balances in the support of the two crutches. He puts some liquid in the Pilot's tongue, whose eyes almost instantly begin to roll. Then he slowly sets about peeling away the layers of oiled cloth which protect the Pilot's flesh.The Merchant Doctor crouches in front of the curtain of bottles and MAKES A SKIN CUP with the soles of his feet, then leans back to pluck, hardly looking, certain bottles, which he uncorks and mixes in the bowl he'd made with his feet. This mixture he uses to anoint the burned skin. Next he finds green-black PASTE - ground Peacock Bone - and BEGINS TO RUB IT on to the Pilot's rib cage. All the while he us humming and chanting. The bottles continue to jingle.6*. EXT. ITALIAN HILL ROAD. EARLY 1945. DAY.The sand gives way to trees, the jingling bottles to distant church bells, as A CONVOY OF TWENTY TRUCKS - Red Cross vehicles and some supply vehicles - snakes along a bumpy hill road. The war in Italy is largely over and the Allies are moving up the country, the wounded and supply lines slowly following.7*. INT. RED CROSS TRUCK. DAY.A young CANADIAN NURSE, HANA, sits in a truck full of patients. Hana pays special care to the PATIENT lying in the stretcher alongside her. This is the PILOT - now known as THE ENGLISH PATIENT. A web of scars covers the Patient's face and body. They have the quality of a livid tattoo, magenta and green-black. The hair has largely gone and the effect is curious, lassoing his features, the strong nose, the eyes liquid. It's a warrior's face. But he has no physical strength. He coughs violently as the trucks shudders along the road.8*. EXT. ITALIAN HILL ROAD. DAY.A JEEP pulls out of the line and approaches the Red Cross truck containing Hana and the Patient. The horn blows and Hana looks out to see it contains her best friend, JAN. TWO YOUNG SOLDIERS sit up front, one driving, both grinning. Jan signals for Hana's attention. JAN There's meant to be lace in the next village - the boys are taking me. HANA I'm not sewing anything else. JAN (mischievously) You don't have any money, do you? Just in case there's silk. HANA No! JAN Hana, I know you do!Hana leans under the tarpaulin, holding some DOLLARS. The two hands - hers and Jan's - reach for each other as the vehicles bump along side by side. They laugh at the effort. Jan's GOLD BRACELET catches the sun and glints. HANA I'm not sewing anything else for you! JAN (getting the money) I love you.The Jeep accelerates away. Hana sighs to the patient.Suddenly AN EXPLOSION shatters the calm as the jeep runs over a MINE. The jeep is THROWN into the air. The convoy halts and there's chaos as soldiers run back pulling people out of the vehicles. Hana runs the other way, towards the accident, until she is prevented from passing by a soldier.9*. EXT. ITALIAN HILL ROAD. LATER.-- and there's still chaos as two SAPPERS arrive on motorcycles. One of them, a SIKH, wears a turban.The motorcycles arrive at the front of the convoy. A nurse, MARY, is helping a doctor, OLIVER, attend to the injured driver. The other two bodies are covered with blankets. There's blood everywhere. The Sikh and his colleague pull out the paraphernalia of their bomb disposal equipment.10 EXT. ITALIAN HILL ROAD. DAY.KIP, the Sikh Lieutenant, and HARDY, his sergeant, explore the road ahead of the becalmed convoy, using saucer-like METAL DETECTORS and HEADSETS. Kip is young, lithe, contained, utterly focused as they inch along the debris-strewn road. He stiffens as he registers metal. With a bayonet he carefully scrapes at the mud-caked surface. Something GLEAMS. Suddenly, A PAIR OF FEET walks across his vision as HANA HURRIES PAST, walking carelessly up the road. It's so surreal that neither man registers at first, and then Kip is shouting. KIP Hey! Hey! Stop! Hey! HARDY Don't move! Stand ABSOLUTELY STILL! Hana stops. Hardy gingerly follows her footsteps. HARDY (as he approaches) Good, that's good, just stay still for me and then we're going to be fine.He arrives at Hana. Then grabs her. He'd like to slap her face. HARDY What are you doing?! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?By way of an answer she looks at the ground ahead of her feet. Jan's BRACELET lies in the mud. Hardy bends down and collects the mangled bracelet, presses it into Hana's hands.11 EXT. VILLAGE. DUSK.The CONVOY is threading through A RUINED VILLAGE, passing the souvenirs of war. An overturned vehicle now used as a game by some children, dejected refugees tramping along the side of the road. From the end of one of the buildings are hanging HALF A DOZEN CORPSES, strung upside down with crude placards denouncing, in Italian, their collaboration with the Nazis.12 INT. RED CROSS TRUCK. CONTINUOUS.Hana sees all this as she sits blankly inside the truck, the Patient swaying alongside her. She puts out her hand to steady him.13*. EXT. CONVOY SITE, ITALY. DUSK.THE CONVOY is making a PITSTOP. The trucks are silhouetted in a line. Hana helps lift the Patient's stretcher onto the ground. She bends to him. HANA Do you need something?The Patient nods. Hana gets up to prepare MORPHINE INJECTION from a small kit. Mary arrives. Touches Hana gently, conscious of her grief for Jan's death. MARY Are you okay? Oh God, Hana, you were like sisters. HANA (sighs angrily) We keep moving him - in and out of the truck. Why? He's dying. What's the point? MARY Well, we can't hardly leave him. Do you mean leave him? We can't.Hana has settled down beside the Patient's stretcher. She draws herself up against the night. On the hill above, she can see the outline of A SMALL MONASTERY in the moonlight. She's crying, her face a frozen mask. HANA I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me, anybody who gets close to me - or I must be cursed. Which is it?The Patient laces her fingers into his crabbed hand.14 EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.Hana is investigating the MONASTERY OF ST. ANNA, wandering through its overgrown gardens, past a pond. What sanctuary it seems to offer.15*. INT. THE MONASTERY LIBRARY. DAY.Hana explores via a gaping hole in a LIBRARY where the walls have collapsed from shelling. The garden intrudes, ivy curls around the shelves. Bloated books lie abandoned, and there's a PIANO tiled up on one side. Hana presses the keys through the filthy tarpaulin which covers it. Everywhere there are signs of a brief German occupation.15a*. INT. MONASTERY CLOISTERS. DAY.Past the Library is a CLOISTERS, drenched with silver light.15b*. INT. THE MONASTERY STAIRS. DAY.Hana goes upstairs, negotiating a huge VOID in the stone treads two thirds of the way up.15c*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.She comes across a small CHAPEL, with the remains of murals and an altar pressed into service by the Germans as a table. Hana finds an old bed, and a mattress.16 EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDEN. DAY.Hana comes out, passes a DRY WATER TROUGH. She hears a rustling on the gravel and turns to see A TORTOISE ambling towards the trough. On cue there's A GURGLING SOUND. THE HANDLELESS PUMP IS SUDDENLY GUSHING, splashing water everywhere. The Tortoise, clearly arriving for this, enjoys a welcome shower. Hana goes to the trough, dips her hands into the water. Looks around her, and makes a decision.17 EXT. CONVOY SITE. ITALY. DAY.The Convoy is in the final stages of loading up. Oliver passes the vehicles, deep in dispute with a determined Hana, who is carrying some sacks of rice. HANA The war's over - you told me yourself. How can it be desertion? OLIVER It's not over everywhere. I didn't mean literally. HANA When he dies I'll catch up.Oliver hovers as Hana adds the rice to a small cache of provisions, then lays another blanket over the Patient. OLIVER It's not safe here. The whole country's crawling with Bandits and Germans and God knows what. It's madness. I can't allow it. You're not, this is natural - it's shock. For all of us. Hana - HANA I need morphine. A lot. And a pistol. OLIVER (clutching at straws) And what if he really is a spy? HANA (impatiently) He can't even move. OLIVER If anything happened to you I'd never forgive myself.Hana nods. A tiny smile. Oliver shrugs helplessly. OLIVER We're heading for Leghorn. Livorno the Italians call it. We'll expect you.18*. INT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.TWO SOLDIERS are helping Mary and Hana carry the Patient into the monastery. Hana indicates the stairs. HANA Up there.They struggle up the stairs, one of the Soldiers gasping as he narrowly avoids falling into the void in the stairs. The cot almost tips up, at which the Patient SUDDENLY SPEAKS, his voice cracked and rasping, but still clearly aristocratic. THE PATIENT There was a Prince, who was dying, and he was carried up the tower at Pisa so he could die with a view of the Tuscan Hills. Am I that Prince?Hana laughs. HANA Because you're leaning? No, you're just on an angle. You're too heavy!Mary laughs. They reach the landing. Hana kicks open the door to the CHAPEL. HANA In here.18a*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana lets Mary take the weight while she goes to the bed and pulls away the drapes, sending up a cloud of dust. They lower the Patient onto the bed. She turns to the SOLDIERS. HANA Thank you.She shuts the door on them, leaving Mary staring aghast at the room, its faded frescoes, its mold, its chaos. Hana smiles, opens a shutter to let a fierce envelope of light into the room. HANA Good. She goes to Mary and hugs her.19*. INT. HANA'S ROOM. THE MONASTERY. DAY.A smaller upstairs room completely bare. As Hana tugs off her uniform, she looks out of the window to see the departing Convoy. A cotton dress goes on over her head and she emerges looking suddenly younger and rather fragile. THROUGH THE DAMAGED FLOOR OF HER ROOM SHE HAS A VIEW OF THE PATIENT BELOW HER. SHE LOOKS AT HIM. NOW SHE HAS SCISSORS AND STARTS TO CUT OFF HER HAIR, NOT AGGRESSIVELY, BUT IN A GESTURE OF A NEW BEGINNING.19a*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.HANA walks down to the Patient's Room and stands in the doorway. The Patient turns his head to her. He's grinning. He puts up a thumb. On the track a song begins: Some Other Time.20*. EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. 1938. LATE DAY.THE SONG CONTINUED IN THE DESERT where we find the singer - PETER MADOX, a weather-beaten man who is working on the guts of an BATTERED TIGER MOTH AEROPLANE. His face is blackened with oil. A second European, ALMÁSY, stands beside him, holding tools and a section of the camshaft. Madox yanks out a perished rubber hose and holds it up for Almasy to inspect. Behind them is an ENCAMPMENT - some camels foraging in the meager scrub, half a dozen black tents of the BEDOUIN: guides and servants to the Almásy/Madox Expedition. It's 1938 and the whole continent is full of such expeditions, competing with each other, pursuing lost treasures, sources of rivers, hidden cities.D'AGOSTINO, the team's Italian ARCHEOLOGIST, drives towards the plane in one of the expedition's adapted FORD MOTORCARS. He gets out carrying a large earthenware WATER JAR. He looks very pleased with himself as he shows the jar to Almásy and then passes it to Madox. D'AGOSTINO Thirsty? MADOX (sniffing inside) What's this? D'AGOSTINO Don't drink it!He reaches for the jug, then pours out a little sludge - it's a brackish and stinks. Madox makes a face. D'AGOSTINO I can't guarantee the vintage, my friends. I just dug it out of the hill.Madox and Almásy have seen many such jugs. MADOX Excellent. That's terrific, D'Ag. (to Almásy, of a tool) Toss that up, would you. D'AGOSTINO (mischievously) There are some others.21 EXT. POTTERY HILL. DAY.THE BASE OF A HILL SEEMS COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF POTTERY JARS.D'Agostino emerges over the brow of a dune, leading Madox and Almásy. The other members of the team are already there - BERMANN, a German PHOTOGRAPHER and FOUAD, EGYPTOLOGIST from Cairo. MADOX (to Almásy, astonished) My God, look at this!They bend to touch the jars, literally hundreds of them, mostly broken, piled on top of each other. Bermann approaches them, carrying his tripod. BERMANN Incredible, Hmm? Quite incredible. D'AGOSTINO I've never seen anything like it. There would have been enough water here to serve an army. ALMÁSY (gloomily) Which means we're in the wrong place.Almásy speaks with a slight but unmistakable European accent. D'AGOSTINO Why? ALMÁSY Would you stockpile water near to an Oasis? There can't be a natural spring within fifty miles of here. FOUAD Or they didn't know of one. BERMANN So, it may not be Zerzura, still incredible. D'AGOSTINO (nodding, delighted) A pottery hill! ALMÁSY A wild goose chase. MADOX (firmly) No.Almásy gives him a look. But Madox will have none of it. MADOX No. Now we look in the other places. We're eliminating.The unmistakable buzz of AN AEROPLANE distracts them. MADOX Good, and here comes reinforcements.21a*. EXT. BASE CAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DAY.LATER and a smart new aeroplane, a STEERMAN, makes a smooth landing on the flat desert. The expedition team drives over to meet the arrivals. Almásy is not with them. He's walking, apparently not so enthusiastic.A young, kissed and newly-married couple emerge from the plane. They are GEOFFREY AND KATHARINE CLIFTON.And it's immediately clear that Katharine is the woman in the plane-crash at the beginning of the film.Madox makes all the introductions. Hands are shaken, hellos all round, as the couple disembark in their leather flying gear. Geoffrey removes his helmet and, in what we will come to know as an ubiquitous gesture, produces a bottle of CHAMPAGNE and sets off the cork with a flourish. CLIFTON I hereby Christen us the International Sand Club!22 EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. LATE DAY.The party is in the shade of the tents. Almásy joins the group. Madox nods over to the Clifton plane. MADOX Marvelous plane. Did you look? CLIFTON (beaming at Almásy) Isn't it? Wedding present from Katharine's parents. I'm calling it Rupert Bear. Hello. Geoffrey Clifton. MADOX We can finally consign my old bird to the scrapheap. Almásy smiles and walks on towards the others. D'AGOSTINO Mrs. Clifton - Count Almasy. KATHARINE (smiling, offering her hand) Geoffrey gave me your monograph when I was reading up on the desert. Very impressive. ALMÁSY (stiff) Thank you. KATHARINE I wanted to meet a man who could write such a long paper with so few adjectives. ALMÁSY A thing is still a thing no matter what you place in front of it. Big car, slow car, chauffeur-driven car, still a car. CLIFTON (joining them and joining in) A broken car? ALMÁSY Still a car. CLIFFTON (hands them champagne) Not much use, though. KATHARINE Love? Romantic love, platonic love, filial love - ? Quite different things, surely? CLIFTON (hugging Katharine) Uxoriousness - that's my favorite kind of love. Excessive love of one's wife. ALMÁSY (a dry smile) There you have me.23 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. THE MONASTERY. MORNING.The morning floods into the room. The Patient lies, lost in the desert. Then a sudden CLATTERING NOISE disturbs him.24 INT. STAIRS, THE MONASTERY. DAY.Hana is dropping armfuls of books into the cavities of the damaged stairs, and with others, she is improvising new steps. The heavy volumes are perfect for treading on.25 INT. LIBRARY. DAY.Hana comes in, gathers up another armful of books and carries them out to continue her stair repairs.26*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana enters. THE PATIENT What was all the banging? Were you fighting rats or the entire German army? HANA I was repairing the stairs. I found a library and the books were very useful.Hana shrugs. She's attending to him, pulling back the sheets, plumping up the pillows. He's short of breath. THE PATIENT Before you find too many uses for these books would you read some to me? HANA I think they're all in Italian, but I'll look, yes. What about your own book? THE PATIENT (reluctant) My book? The Herodotus? Yes, we can read him.Hana picks up the book and hands it to him. Then she starts rummaging in her pockets. HANA Oh - I've found plums. We have plums in the orchard. We have an orchard!She has peeled a plum and now slips it into his mouth. THE PATIENT Thank you.His mouth works with the pleasure of the taste, a little juice escaping from the mouth. Hana mops it up. THE PATIENT The plumness of this plum.A noise, GURGLING sound, disturbs them. THE PATIENT What's that?27 INT/EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.Hana comes through the Cloisters into the garden as the gurgling increases. She's in time to catch the TORTOISE arriving once again in the WATER TROUGH just as it starts to gush with water. She shouts up to The Patient's open window. HANA Water! (bends to the Tortois) You hear it, too, don't you!28 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Close on the HERODOTUS. The Patient opens its cover, held together by leather ties. Loose PAPERS, PHOTOGRAPHS, HAND-DRAWN MAPS AND SKETCHES are all collected between the pages. He claws at some water-colors which appear to be based on CAVE PAINTINGS - figures, dark-skinned warriors of the stone age, some with bows in their hands, others with plumes in their hair - arranged in abstract patterns uncannily like those of Matisse. Some appear to be swimming, another is diving. Then the Patient loses control of the papers and the whole parcel SPILLS to the floor with a crack.29 INT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DUSK.A SHOT RINGS OUT, disturbing the evening meal. Almásy and others go outside. Silhouetted on a ridge, a group of men sit astride camels. One of them holds his rifle aloft, clearly pointing towards the sky - means friend. Fouad peers at the horizon. FOUAD European, I think, with guides. CLIFTON (can only see shapes) How do you know? MADOX (frowns) Yes, and I think I know who this is.30 EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DUSK.ALMÁSY AND MADOX WALK OUT TO INTERCEPT THE ARRIVALS as the first Arab dismounts, the procession of camels splaying out as if in collapse. Almásy speaks in Arabic, exchanging the ritual greetings.DURING THIS, FENELON-BARNES, sole European in this expedition, has finally persuaded his camel to sit, and dismounts irritably, slapping the animal in disgust. FENELON-BARNES Ugly brute. Shits and roars and complains all day. (bypassing Almásy andapproaching Madox) Of course, you have your aeroplane. Two now! Do you still call yourselves explorers? I assume not. MADOX (stiffly) Fenelon-Barnes. ALMÁSY Yes, I think a sailor can call himself an explorer, can't he? Or should Columbus have swum to America?31 INT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DUSK.The arrivals come inside. Madox handles the introductions. MADOX I think you know all of us, except for Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, who've recently come out from England. CLIFTON Apprentices. MADOX This is Clive Fenelon-Barnes. FENELON-BARNES (to Katharine) I know your mother, of course. KATHARINE Hello. FENELON-BARNES I'm also searching for the lost Oasis, but by more authentic means. MADOX (of Almásy) Anyway, my friend here has a new theory - that Zerzura doesn't exist. So we may all be chasing windmills. Have some food. FENELON-BARNES Well, it's certainly not between here and Dakhla. Nine days of nothing but sand and sandstorms. An egg. I found an ostrich egg and some fossils. KATHARINE Isn't Zerzura supposed to be protected by spirits who take on the shape of sandstorms? ALMÁSY What kind of fossils? FENELON-BARNES I'll invite you to my paper at the Royal Geographical Society. Are you still a member?He takes a long drink from a bowl of frothing camel milk. ALMÁSY I think you know I am. FENELON-BARNES (ignoring Almásy) Quite impossible, Madox. You must know that. If you attempt to cross the Sand Sea due east of Kufra by car you'll leave your bones in the sand for me to collect. ALMÁSY (leaving the tent) If you come across my bones - I hope you'll do me the honor of leaving them in peace. (to Katharine) Excuse me. FENELON-BARNES You have my word as a gentleman. (watching him leave) I've discovered a unique type of sand-dune. I've applied to the King for permission to call it The Fenelon-Barnes Formation.32 EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. NIGHT. LATER, supper over, the company is entertaining itself.Almásy, standing outside his tent, watches the merriment from a distance.D'Ag is nearing the end of a passionate rendition of Puccini's E Lucevan Le Stelle. He sits down to much applause from the others and SPINS AN EMPTY CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE on the sand. It comes to rest pointing at Clifton who gets up, grinning, and plunges into Yes! We Have No Bananas with great gusto. His version involves CHANGING LANGUAGE during each line of the chorus - prompted by Oui! or Ja! or Si! from the others. Song finished, much bowing and guying, he spins the bottle and it arrives equidistant between Fenelon-Barnes and Katharine - until with a little NUDGE from the husband it settles on his wife. Katharine gets up, awkward. KATHARINE I can't sing. (the audience groans) but I can tell a story. (to Almásy, who has arrived) I might need a prompt. Do you have your Herodotus? I've noticed you carry it... ALMÁSY I'm sorry - what have you noticed? MADOX Your book. Your Herodotus!Almásy looks uncomfortable. KATHARINE (reacting quickly) It doesn't matter. Really. I think I can muddle through. Okay - The Story of Candaules and Gyges. King Candaules was passionately in love with his wife - (Geoffrey whistles proudly) One day he said to Gyges, the son of somebody, anyway - his favorite warrior - ALMÁSY (quietly prompting her) Daskylus... KATHARINE (smiles) Yes, thank you, Gyges, son of Daskylus - Candaules said to him I don't think you believe me when I tell you how beautiful my wife is. And although Gyges replied he did find the Queen magnificent the King insisted he would find some way to prove beyond dispute that she was fairest of all women. Do you all know this story?The men all encourage her to continue her story.33*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.- and Hana's voice CONTINUES THE STORY as she reads to the Patient who listens, eyes closed, still in the desert. HANA (reading from the Herodotus) I will hide you in the room where we sleep, said Candaules.She stumbles over the word. THE PATIENT Candaules HANA (not neurotic) Candaules...you're laughing at me. THE PATIENT I'm not laughing at you. Go on, please. HANA When my wife comes to lie down she always lays her garments one by one on a seat near the entrance of the room, and from where you stand you will be able to gaze on her at your leisure...34*. EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. NIGHT. KATHARINE (her story continuing) And that evening, it's exactly as the King had told him, she goes to the chair and removes her clothes, one by one, until she stand naked in full view of Gyges. And indeed she was more lovely than he could have imagined.Almásy stares at her, framed by the velvet black sky. Katharine turns to looks at him. KATHARINE But then the Queen looked up and saw Gyges concealed in the shadows. And though she said nothing, she shuddered. The next day she sent for Gyges and challenged him. And hearing his story, she said this - CLIFTON Off with his head! KATHERINE #NAME? death for gazing on that which you should not, or else kill my husband who shamed me and become King in his place.Clifton makes a face of outrage. For Katherine the story has collapsed. She wants it to be finished. KATHERINE So Gyges killed the King and married the Queen and became ruler of Lydia for twenty eight years. The End. (an uncomfortable moment) Do I spin the bottle?Almásy shrinks away from the fire, disappears into black. MADOX (to Clifton) And let that be a lesson to you!35 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.Hana looks up from the Herodotus, sees the Patient's eyes closed. Gently touches his face and whispers. HANA Are you asleep? THE PATIENT (lying) Yes. Dropping off.And Hana closes the book, gets up, and blows out the lamp. 36 INT. FENELON-BARNES TENT. POTTERY HILL. NIGHT.PITCH BLACK and then A TORCH flickers on as Almásy enters Fenelon-Barnes' tent. He pulls apart his luggage, quickly and methodically. He finds what he is looking for inside a trunk: A LARGE FOSSILIZED BRANCH; a collection of stone leaves, wrapped in a piece of tarpaulin. Then he's distracted by a noise from Fenelon-Barnes' bed. Almásy stiffens, turns to investigate. There's A LUMP in the cot. A dog? Almásy eases back the blanket to reveal a YOUNG GIRL, no more than fourteen, bound hand and foot. He holds the torch to her face.37 EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. MORNING.The next morning. Almásy and Madox prepare to take off. As they talk Clifton's Rupert Bear taxis past them, a wave from Clifton and Katharine. Madox is very disturbed by what Almásy is telling him. MADOX What did you think you were doing in his tent? ALMÁSY Looking for the fossils. Why should we wait until we're in London? This girl was probably twelve years old. MADOX (getting into the plane) You shouldn't go into another man's tent. It's inexcusable. ALMÁSY Her hands and feet were tied. MADOX What did you do? ALMÁSY I looked at them. They're shrubs, small trees. Exquisite. And fossilized, rock hard.He walks away to the nose of the plane. MADOX I was talking about the girl. ALMÁSY Cut the ropes. I left a note, on his blanket. (gleefully) At the next Geographical Society I shall await with great interest the announcement of the Fenelon-Barnes Slave Knot. The Girl wouldn't leave, of course. Her father had sold her for a camel.He turns over the propeller, the engine cranks up.38 EXT. GILF KEBIR PLATEAU. MORNING.Both planes are scouting the Gilf Kebir region. Geoffrey flies up alongside Madox and wiggles his wings. Madox waves.They're flying over a distinctive group of GRANITE MASSIFS, Crater-shaped hills. The broken towers of the Gilf Kebir. Almasy is distracted by them. He turns to Madox and points down, indicating they should explore them.Madox gestures to the Cliftons to PHOTOGRAPH the Massifs. A THUMBS UP from Geoffrey.39*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. MORNING.Hana gives the Patient his injection, now she begins to change the sheet. The light streams in from the open window. She looks up at the green hills rolling away from the Monastery, the village in the distance. HANA I should try and move your bed. I want you to be able to see the view. It's good, it's a view from a monastery. THE PATIENT I can already see. HANA (bending down to his level) How? How can you see anything? THE PATIENT Not the window - I can't bear the light anyway - no, I can see all the way to the desert. I've found the lost fossils. HANA I'm turning you.An awkward moment as she rolls him on to his back. He grunts with the pain. She washes him very tenderly. THE PATIENT Zerzura, the White City of Acacias, the Oasis of Little Birds. As me about the scent of acacia - it's in this room. I can smell it. The taste of tea so black it falls into your mouth. I can taste it. I'm chewing the mint. Is there sand in my eyes? Are you cleaning sand from my ears? HANA No sand. That's your drugs speaking. THE PATIENT I can see my wife in that view. HANA Are you remembering more? THE PATIENT Could I have a cigarette? HANA Are you crazy? THE PATIENT Why are you so determined to keep me alive? HANA Because I'm a nurse.40 EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDENS. NOON.The TORTOISE heads towards the trough, to the gurgling accompaniment. It reaches the shade only to be greeted by the obstacle of some tennis shoes, a frock. It clambers over as the water begins to belch out. Hana, naked, kneeling in the trough, receives the shower with a great YELP of shivering joy.41*. EXT. THE MONASTERY CLOISTERS. NIGHT.It's dark, but something is going on here. Hana is caught by the stray shafts of moonlight. She is SCRATCHING something on the flagstones. Her skirt is bunched up around her thighs. She throws something in the air. It's a SPILE, used to tap into the maple tree for syrup. It lands with a crack. Suddenly she is flying across the space, a hop, a skip, a jump. Then turns at the other end, dips for the stone, then back again, in this blindman's version of HOPSCOTCH.42*. INT. TRAIN. ITALY 1944. BEFORE DAWN.AS HANA HOPS AND JUMPS IN THE SHADOWS SHE IS SUDDENLY ON A TRAIN IN 1944. A HOSPITAL TRAIN ploughs through the night carrying the wounded back to Naples.Hana walks through a long carriage. HER HAIR IS LONG. She could be ten years younger than the Hana at the Monastery. And easy. She stops at the bunk of A NEW PATIENT. Hana bends to the boy. He's had shrapnel in his legs and cheek. She speaks softly to him. HANA How are you? BOY Okay. HANA Your leg will be fine. A lot of shrapnel came out - I saved you the pieces. BOY You're the prettiest girl I ever saw. HANNA (she hears this every day) I don't think so. BOY Would you kiss me? HANA No, I'll get you some tea. Wait till you're in Naples. You'll find a girl there. BOY (innocent) Just kiss me. It would mean such a lot to me. HANA (tender, believing him) Would it?She kisses him, very softly, on the lips. BOY Thank you.He closes his eyes. Is almost instantly asleep. Hana smiles, continues along the compartment. VOICES CALL OUT. #1 INJURED MAN Nurse - I can't sleep. #2 INJURED MAN Nurse? Would you kiss me? #3 INJURED MAN You're so pretty! #4 INJURED MAN Hinky-dinky parlez-vous! HANA (good-naturedly wavingaway their joke) Very funny. Go to sleep.She gets into a corridor. Mary is coming the other way. She carries a blood-soaked bundle. Hana questions her appalled expression. MARY Don't ask.43 INT. RAILWAY STATION. DAY.The train is arriving. Hana hangs out of a window, scouring the crowds to find her sweetheart, STUART McGANN, a young Canadian Captain, who seeing her runs up to her window. HANA Where are we going? I don't want to be kissing in a crowd. I have six hours.She jumps out of the moving door and into his arms. STUART (laughing at her ferocity) Whoa - give me a chance! HANA Sorry. I took a Benzedrine.The Station is full of desperate people trying to make do. the couple hurry through, oblivious to anyone except each other. STUART I've got a surprise. A boat! We can go to Capri. It's got a cabin, it's private. HANA I'd like to spend a night with you in a bed. STUART We can do that when we're very very old.44 INT. THE MONASTERY. HANA'S ROOM. NIGHT.Hana lies alone in her bed covered by a curtain. There's a sharp NOISE. She's very frightened. She has her pistol under her pillow and pulls it out, listens, holding her breath. Another BANG. She listens.45 EXT. THE MONASTERY. HANA'S GARDEN. DAY.Hana has been reviving a vegetable patch. She comes to garden. CROWS are feasting. She's furious, shouts, runs at them. Nature, wildness, insisting on invading her peace.46*. EXT. THE MONASTERY. GRAVEYARD. MORNING.Hana appears from the Cemetery, dragging A METAL CRUCIFIX. It's bigger than she is, and she drags it, as if approaching Calvary. A MAN WATCHER HER FROM A BICYCLE. He's approaching fifty, grizzled and attractive, and could be Italian. His hands are bandaged. Hana aims the cross at the soil, but is not quite bit or strong enough. The man, CARAVAGGIO, chooses this moment to introduce himself. He drops the bicycle on the ground with a clatter. CARAVAGGIO (very cheerful) Buon' Giorno!Hana turns, startled and suspicious. CARAVAGGIO Are you Hana? HANA What do you want? CARAVAGGIO I met your friend Mary. She said I should stop and see if you were okay. Apparently we're neighbors - my house is two blocks from yours in Montreal. Cabot, north of Laurier. Bonjour. HANA (unraveling this information) Bonjour.He goes to her and - putting a bandaged hand behind her ear - PRODUCES AN EGG. He beams, as does Hana. CARAVAGGIO I'd like to take credit, but it's from Mary. My name's David Caravaggio, but nobody ever called me David. Caravaggio they find to absurd to miss out on.During this he attempts the same thing with his other hand to Hana's other ear. THE EGG DROPS TO THE GROUND. Cursing, he gets on his knees and starts to scoop it up, preserving it.47*. INT. THE MONASTERY. KITCHEN. DAY.Hana has taken his eggs and put them into a bowl. She beats them with a knife picking out the bits of shell. Caravaggio watches, takes in how little food there is otherwise. The table seems useful more as a sewing area than for cooking - it's STREWN WITH ALTAR CLOTHS being sewn into drapes. On a tray on the table are TWO PHIALS OF MORPHINE from the Patient's room. As Hana turns to the stove, he's moved and covered them with his bandaged hands, a second later and he's juggled them into his pockets with the slightest clink. Hana looks at him. He shrugs, nods at the eggs. CARAVAGGIO They're fresh. I haven't eaten an egg in...have you noticed there are chickens? You get chickens in Italy but no eggs. In Africa there were always eggs, but never chickens. Who separates them? HANA You were in Africa? CARAVAGGIO Yeah, for a while. HANA So was my Patient. CARAVAGGIO I'd like to stay. That's the long and short of it. I mean, you know blah-blah if it's convenient, if there's room blah-blah-blah. I have to do some work here -I speak the language. There are Partisans to be - (trying to paraphrase) #NAME? relieve them of their weapons, you know - while we hug. I was a thief, so they think I'd be good at that. HANA So you can shoot a pistol? CARAVAGGIO (showing his hands) No. HANA If you said yes I would have had a reason. You should let me redress those bandages. Before you go. CARAVAGGIO I'm okay. Look, it's a big house. We needn't disturb each other. I can shoot a pistol! I'll sleep in the stables. I don't care where I sleep. I don't sleep. HANA Because we're fine here. I don't know what Mary told you about me, but I don't need company, I don't need to be looked at. CARAVAGGIO Fine. I'm not looking.48 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana carries in a tray. There's OMELETTE on the plate. HANA There's a man downstairs. He brought us eggs. (shows him the omelette) He might stay. THE PATIENT Why? Can he lay eggs? HANA He's Canadian. THE PATIENT (brittle) Why are people always so happy when they collide with someone from the same place? What happened in Montreal when you passed a man in the street - did you invite him to live with you? HANA He needn't disturb you. THE PATIENT Me? He can't. I'm already disturbed. HANA He won't disturb us then. I think he's after morphine. (she's cut the omeletteinto tiny pieces) There's a war. Where you come from becomes important. And besides - we're vulnerable here. I keep hearing noises in the night. Voices.The Patient says nothing. She puts a spoonful of the omelette into his mouth. He grunts.49 INT. THE MONASTERY. STAIRS. DAY. Caravaggio is in the shadows on the stairs. HE LISTENS.50 EXT. CAIRO MARKET. 1938. DAY.A STREET MARKET in full sway, a locals-only affair, blazing with noise and bustle and barter. Emerging from a thicket of women and begging children, KATHARINE CLIFTON carries her purchase of an exotic-looking RUG. From nowhere she is joined by Almásy. ALMÁSY How much did you pay? KATHARINE (delighted) Hello! Good morning. ALMÁSY They don't see foreign women in this market. How much did you pay? KATHARINE Seven pounds, eight, I suppose. Why? ALMÁSY Which stall? KATHARINE Excuse me? ALMÁSY You've been cheated, don't worry, we'll take it back. KATHARINE (bristling) I don't want to go back. ALMÁSY This is not worth eight pounds, Mrs. Clifton. KATHARINE I don't care to bargain. ALMÁSY That insults them. KATHARINE (turning to face him) I don't believe that. I think you are insulted by me, somehow. You're a foreigner too, aren't you, here, in this market? ALMÁSY (of the carpet) I should be very happy to obtain the correct price for this. I apologize if I appear abrupt. I am rusty at social graces. (tart) How do you find Cairo? Did you visit the Pyramids? KATHARINE Excuse me.He stands as she continues, pushing past him, shrugging off the children, boiling.51 INT. SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. CAIRO. EVENING.THE LONG BAR. The Exploration Team are drinking at a table. They are not entirely off-duty - Almásy and Madox as ever ponder the maps. Geoffrey Clifton appears, arms waving. CLIFTON Gentlemen, good evening!He sits down. Madox hails the waiter. D'AGOSTINO How is your charming wife? CLIFTON Uh, marvelous. She's in love with the hotel plumbing. She's either in the swimming pool - she swims for hours, she's a fish, quite incredible - or she's in the bath. Actually, she's just outside. (responding to theirbewildered expressions) Chaps Only in the Long Bar. MADOX (standing, embarrassed) Of course. Well, we should all go out onto the terrace. CLIFTON Oh no, really. She has her book. MADOX I won't hear of it. None of us will.52 EXT. SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL TERRACE. NIGHT.Katharine appears with Geoffrey to join the arriving Explorers. She looks exquisite in her evening clothes. Madox brings her to her seat. There is dancing inside, and couples walk to and from their tables. Katharine manages to produce a dazzling smile which includes everyone except Almásy. MADOX Mrs. Clifton, you'll have to forgive us. We're not accustomed to the company of women. KATHARINE Not at all. I was thoroughly enjoying by book. (indicating they should all sit and then nodding at Almásybefore greeting the others) Please. Signor D'Agostino, Herr Bermann. CLIFTON The team is in mourning, darling. KATHARINE Oh really? MADOX I'm afraid we're not having much luck obtaining funds for the expedition. KATHARINE How awful. What will you do? MADOX A more modest expedition, or even wait a year. Remind our families we still exist. CLIFTON (astonished) Good heavens, are you married, Madox? MADOX Very much so. We are all, save my friend here.He nods at Almasy. Clifton appears tremendously relieved. CLIFTON I feel much better, don't you darling? We were feeling rather self-conscious. Let's toast, then. To absent wives. D'AGOSTINO (toasting Katharine) And present ones. KATHARINE (toasting Almásy) And future ones.53 INT. SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. NIGHT.THE BALLROOM. A dance finishes. Almásy takes over from D'Agostino to partner Katharine. They dance beautifully. The others remain on the terrace in deep conversation. KATHARINE Why did you follow me yesterday? ALMÁSY Excuse me? KATHARINE After the market, you followed me to the hotel. ALMÁSY I was concerned. As I said, women in that part of Cairo, a European women, I felt obliged to. KATHARINE You felt obliged to. ALMÁSY As the wife of one of our party. KATHARINE (sardonic) So why follow me? Escort me, by all means. Following me is predatory, isn't it?The dance finishes. They walk back to their table, where Almásy leads Katharine back to her seat next to Clifton. CLIFTON I was just saying, I'm going to cable Downing Street, see if I can't stir up a few shillings - Katharine's mother and the PM's wife are best - KATHARINE (interrupting) Darling, for goodness' sake! CLIFTON Well, she is!54*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana, having already replaced the bedlinen, is standing on a stepladder trying to hang home-made drapes around the bed as Caravaggio knocks tentatively, then comes in. CARAVAGGIO Hello. THE PATIENT Finally! So you're our Canadian pickpocket? He goes to help Hana, they work as he talks. CARAVAGGIO Thief, I think, is more accurate. THE PATIENT I understand you were in Africa. Whereabouts? CARAVAGGIO Oh, all over. THE PATIENT All over? I kept trying to cover a very modest portion and still failed. (to Hana) Are you leaving us? Now's our opportunity to swap war wounds. HANA Then I'm definitely going.And she exits. The men consider her. CARAVAGGIO Does she have war wounds?55*. INT. THE MONASTERY. HANA'S ROOM. DAY.As Hana walks up her stairs she finds herself overhearing their conversation as it threads up through the hole in the ceiling. She strips her own bed of the curtain she uses for a sheet. THE PATIENT I think anybody she ever loves tends to die on her. CARAVAGGIO Are you planning to be the exception? THE PATIENT Me? You've got the wrong end of the stick, old boy. (a pause) So - Caravaggio - Hana thinks you invented your name. CARAVAGGIO And you've forgotten yours. THE PATIENT I told her you would never invent such a preposterous name. CARAVAGGIO I told her you can forget everything but you never forget your name.56*. EXT. BEACH CABIN. ITALY. DAY. 1944.HANA IS STILL LISTENING BUT NOW SHE'S OUTSIDE A CABIN. She's in her uniform, clearing things away. The Cabin door is ajar. An OFFICER moves around, then sits to make notes. OFFICER (O/S) What about your rank or serial number? THE PATIENT (O/S) No. I think I was a pilot. I was found near the wreckage of a plane by the Bedouin. I was with them for some time.THIS CONVALESCENCE HOSPITAL HAS BEEN FASHIONED FROM A LONG ROW OF BATHING CABINS ON THE COAST, complete with Campari Umbrellas and metal tables, at which are seated the bandaged and the dying and the comatose, staring out to sea or in slow, muted conversation. Hana walks up to the Patient's cabin. He is propped up with a view of the sea, which is interrupted by the pacing Officer. Hana has a blanket and a chart for the Patient's bed. She busies herself. OFFICER Do you remember where you were born? THE PATIENT Am I being interrogated? You should be trying to trick me. Ask me about Tottenham Hotspur. Or Buckingham Palace. About Marmite - I was addicted. Or make me speak German, which I can, by the way. OFFICER Why? Are you German? THE PATIENT No. OFFICER How do you know you're not German if you don't remember anything? THE PATIENT You tell me. I remember a lot of things. I remember a garden, plunging down to the sea - the Devil's Chimney we called it - and there was a cottage at the bottom, right on the shore, nothing between you and France. OFFICER This was your garden? THE PATIENT Or my wife's. OFFICER Then you were married? THE PATIENT I think so. Although I believe that to be true of a number of Germans. Might I have a glass of water?Hana pours him a glass of water. He notices her. THE PATIENT Thank you. (he sips) Look - my lungs are useless - (makes a small gap withhis fingers) I've got this much lung...the rest of my organs are packing up - what could it possibly matter if I were Tutankhamun? I'm a bit of toast, my friend - butter me and slip a poached egg on top.Hana leaves, smiling at the Patient's irascibility, sharing this with the Officer, who frowns. The interview continues.57 EXT. BEACH CABIN. DAY.Hana walks between the cabins. STUART steps out of the shade. He is drawn, older than last seen. STUART My leave is canceled. I can't meet you later.Hana frowns, helpless. As if to emphasize this, a Staff Nurse comes by, carrying a bowl and a withering look.58*. INT. BEACH CABIN. DAY. Hana enters, approaches the Patient. She's circumspect. HANA Excuse me - THE PATIENT Yes? HANA Can I ask - my friend, can he come in? Just for a few minutes? THE PATIENT Your friend? HANA He's going back to the front this evening. I can't see him otherwise. THE PATIENT Just go off. I'll be quite all right. HANA No, I can't go, but if it, if you weren't offended, it would be very good of you to allow us - every other cabin is crammed. This is as private as we'll get. THE PATIENT Well then - yes. Of course. HANA Thank you. Thank you.She hurries out, returns with Stuart. They stand awkwardly. HANA This is Captain McGann. THE PATIENT Please, don't waste your time on pleasantries - STUART Thanks. THE PATIENT I'm going to sing. If I sing I shan't hear anything.And with that he bursts into a raucous, coughing version of Yes! We Have No Bananas. He changes language each verse. The couple stand, formal, then edge round to the back of the bed. HANA (touching his lip) You've got a mustache. STUART A bit of one. HANA I was looking forward to this evening. STUART (whispers) I had a hotel room. HANA (whispers) I thought that was for when we were very very old? STUART I'm feeling old.They EMBRACE, fiercely, hardly making a sound, or moving. THE PATIENT ROARS THE SONG.59*. EXT. THE MONASTERY. HANA'S GARDEN. MORNING.A battered open backed TRUCK comes into the Monastery. An ITALIAN PARTISAN sits in the back, a SHOTGUN resting on his knees. The truck stops, and Caravaggio emerges from the passenger door. He collects some packages from the PARTISAN, including a dead RABBIT, and then exchanges a few words with the driver. Hana, who's watching all of this from her garden, sees that the driver is a WOMAN. The woman's name is GIOIA, and Caravaggio leans into the window to make his goodbye to her.Caravaggio approaches the Vegetable Garden as Hana comes to greet him. He throws her the rabbit, and hurries up the stairs without pausing, clutching the other boxes. CARAVAGGIO Supper.Hana calls after him. HANA Where've you been? CARAVAGGIO (not stopping) Rabbit hunting.Hana looks at the rabbit. She's angry. Caravaggio hasn't been around for a week.60*. INT. THE MONASTERY. DOWNSTAIRS CORRIDOR. DAY.Hana heads up for the kitchen, then stops as there's a faint CRASH from upstairs.61*. INT. THE MONASTERY. UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR. DAY.Hana, the rabbit still in her hands, comes along the corridor to find Caravaggio SLUMPED on the floor, retching. The discarded NEEDLE lies beside him, the new package of MORPHINE CAPSULES ripped open. He looks up at Hanna, glazed. HANA I could help you. I could get you off that. CARAVAGGIO Can you cook the rabbit or will you try and bring that back to life?She bends, starts clearing up, putting the morphine phials back into the box. HANA It's a week. We didn't know where you were - or if you coming back, or - CARAVAGGIO (of the drugs) You should be happy. What were you going to do for him when it ran out?He pulls out more phials from his jacket. HANA What do you do? What are you doing here? CARAVAGGIO Some gave me a dress. (starts to tear at a parcel) You know what's great? What I'm learning? You win a war and you not only gain the miles you get the moral ground. Everywhere I go, we're in the right. I like that.62*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana comes in, carrying a batch of the new morphine. She's wearing a different FROCK. It's not new, and it's faded, but the change of color is startling. THE PATIENT Something smells so rich. My stomach is heaving - HANA He came back, he says he caught a rabbit. I'm cooking it. THE PATIENT That's a different dress. HANA He keeps asking me questions about you. Do you know him? Do you recognize him? THE PATIENT Do I recognize him? I recognize what he is. I like him. He's Canadian. He can read Italian. He can catch rabbits.63*. EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DUSK.Almásy squats with an ANCIENT ARAB outside his rudimentary house, while he draws on the sand, talking in some arcane dialect, scratching out a possible location for the lost oasis. The man stops speaking and scours the sky a beat or two before we or Almasy hear the faint noise of a PLANE. It's Clifton's Steerman, Rupert Bear, coming in to land. Almasy doesn't look up.The Arab continues to talk. The newly-arrived Katharine has scrambled up the hill to speak to Almásy. KATHARINE (diffident) Hello. Not to interrupt but we're celebrating.She makes to leave but Almásy puts up a hand to keep Katharine there, but quiet. ALMÁSY This is an incredible story - about a man hunting an Ostrich, he's been telling me about Zerzura, he thinks he's been there, but his map, the route he's describing, he couldn't survive the journey now, but he's a poet, so his map is poetry - and now we're onto an Ostrich. (to the Arab in ARABIC) I'm telling her your map is poetry.The Arab shrugs. KATHARINE What do you mean, poetry? ALMÁSY A mountain curved like a woman's back, a plateau the shape of an ear. KATHARINE Sounds perfectly clear. Where does the Ostrich come in? ALMÁSY The Ostrich is a detour. A poor man hunts an ostrich, it's the method. Nothing to do with Zerzura. To catch an ostrich you must appear not to move. The man finds a place where the ostrich feeds, a wadi, and stands where the ostrich can see him, on the horizon, and doesn't move, doesn't eat - otherwise the ostrich will run. At nightfall, he moves, fifty, sixty yards. When the ostrich comes the next day, the man is there, but he's nearer. (to the guide) Haunting the ostrich.The Guide speaks, amplifying something, picking at his robe. ALMÁSY Yes, the ostrich, it will feed a family, not just the meat, but by selling the feathers, beak, the skin, a year from this one animal. So, each day the man gets closer. And the ostrich is not sure - has something changed? - now the standing man is only a few yards from where it feeds. And then one day, the man is in the wadi, in the water. And the Ostrich comes, as always, dips into the water and the man JUMPS UP - and captures it.He shrugs. The Arab has more to say. Almásy doesn't respond, quieting him with a dismissive gesture. KATHARINE What is he saying? (Almasy, awkward, shakes his head) Come on, what did he say? ALMÁSY He said - be careful. KATHARINE Be careful? You mean you - or me? Who? ALMÁSY (to the Arab) Her or me?The Arab speaks again. Almasy speaks without looking at her. ALMÁSY The one who appears not to be moving.64*. INT. TENT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. NIGHT.Katharine comes in. Then, a beat, and Almásy. Clifton is holding up the champagne. CLIFTON Gentlemen, to Zerzura. ALL Zerzura. MADOX And a special thank you to Geoffrey and Katharine, without whose fund-raising heroics we should still be kicking our heels.They toast the Cliftons. CLIFTON To arm-twisting. MADOX (to Almásy) Did Katharine say? - Geoffrey has to fly back to Cairo. CLIFTON Have to return the favor - take a few photographs for the army. KATHARINE Darling, Peter says I could stay... MADOX (checking with Almásy) Why not? ALMÁSY What kind of photographs? CLIFTON Portraits. The Brigadier, the Brigadier's wife, the Brigadier's dogs, the Brigadier at the Pyramids, the Brigadier breathing. KATHARINE (to Clifton) Why do you think? About my staying? CLIFTON Well look, if nobody minds, truly, then I suppose - I shall, of course, be bereft... KATHARINE (playfully poking his ribs) Oh. CLIFTON But finally able to explore the Cairo night-life. I shall produce an authoritative guide to the Zinc Bars and - I want to say Harems - am I in the right country for Harems?65*. EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. MORNING.As Clifton prepares to leave in the Steerman, Almásy approaches. ALMÁSY Safe journey. CLIFTON You too. Good luck! ALMÁSY Clifton - your wife - do you think it's appropriate to leave her? CLIFTON Appropriate? ALMÁSY I think the desert is, it's - for a woman - it's very tough, I wonder if it's not too much for her. CLIFTON Are you mad? Katharine loves it here. She told me yesterday. ALMÁSY All the same, I, were I you I would be concerned - CLIFTON I've known Katharine since she was three, my aunt is her aunt, we were practically brother and sister before we were man and wife. I think I'd know what is and what isn't too much for her. I think she's know herself. ALMÁSY Very well. CLIFTON (laughing it off) Why are you people so threatened by a woman?!He settles into the controls. Almásy watches the plane taxi away. Doesn't move at all. Katharine waves from the tent as the Steerman takes off.65a*. EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL.The THREE FORD CARS leave the campsite, loaded for a scouting expedition. The rest of the party, Bedouin, tents, camels and Tiger Moth is left behind. Madox shouts last-minute instructions from the window of his car.66*. EXT. DESERT EN ROUTE TO CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.FENELON-BARNES sits astride his camel, and wipes away the sweat. The desert stretches for miles, shimmering, the sun baking the sand. His GUIDES wind their headcloths tighter. Nobody speaks. Then one of them looks round, raises a hand. A BUZZING noise. They all turn. A SMALL CLOUD OF DUST EMERGES OVER A RIDGE. Locusts? A sandstorm?A CARAVAN OF CARS, the Almásy/Madox expedition, bumps along, suspensions threatened by the constant dips and ridges. On each car there are three in the passenger cabin, the open backs crammed with drums of gasoline and water and equipment. On the front vehicle, the tenth member of the party, KAMAL, acts as a navigator and sits on a CAMEL SADDLE, a rodeo cowboy, on the roof of the leading car, driven by Madox. As they spot FENELON-BARNES they sound their horns and wave good-naturedly. F-B scowls, watches them roar by, stealing his thunder.66a*. EXT. DESERT EN ROUTE TO CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.ONE OF THE CARS IS HOPELESSLY BOGGED DOWN IN HEAVY SAND. It's contents have been unloaded, and a rope ladder is being inserted under the tires. The entire company huff and puff and argue about the best means of extricating the vehicle.67*. INT. CAR EN ROUTE TO CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.LATER - Almásy drives the second car, accompanied by Katharine and Al Auf. Katharine breaks the long silence. KATHARINE I've been thinking about - how does somebody like you decide to come to the desert? What is it? You're doing whatever you're doing - in your castle, or wherever it is you live, and one day, you say, I have to go to the desert - or what?Almásy doesn't answer. Katharine, who has looked at him for an answer, looks away. There's another long silence. ALMÁSY I once traveled with a terrific guide, who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed at the horizon and said - Faya! That was a good day!Point made, they lapse again into silence. Katharine boils. KATHARINE Actually, you sing. ALMÁSY Pardon? KATHARINE You sing. All the time. ALMÁSY I do not. KATHARINE Ask Al Auf.Almásy asks Al Auf in Arabic. He laughs, nods. KATHARINE (sings wickedly) I'll be down to get you in the taxi, honey, you'd better be ready about half-past eight...!Al Auf nods and grins furiously, joins in, impersonating Almásy. Almásy grunts in irritation.68*. EXT. NEAR THE BASECAMP AT THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DUSK.The group is investigating a cleft in the rocky massif. They climb slowly. Below them, A NEW AND TEMPORARY BASE CAMP.The group winds around the rock. Almásy turns to offer a hand to Katharine behind him, pulling her up to the next rock slab. She smiles at him. He smiles back curtly, continues.The group stops at a level plateau. The Arabs stand apart and SING THEIR PRAYERS AT DUSK. Al Auf leads the incantations. AL AUF Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar...The westerners wait respectfully. As the sun sets in glory, Almásy looks over at the range of rocks. One particular range seems to look exactly like A WOMAN'S BACK. He squints at the rock. Almásy discreetly pulls out his COMPASS.69*. EXT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DUSK.Almásy clambers up the rocks, coming through a narrow crevice to find A NATURAL SHELF. He scrambles up this path, reaching up, only to notice that his hand almost perfectly covers A PAINTED HAND on the rock, and as he digests this he realizes he has climbed past what is THE MOUTH OF A CAVE. He disappears inside.70 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. FLASHLIGHT.A FLASHLIGHT squirts into the cave. Almásy treads cautiously along the narrow winding passage. He comes to an open cavern and takes his flashlight up to a wall. PAINTINGS EMERGE, figures, animals, ancient pictures. A giraffe. Cattle. Fish. Men with bows and arrows. Almásy is astonished by what he sees.71*. EXT. NEAR THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. EVENING.The others watch as a flashlight bobs and jerks among the rocks as Almásy comes scrambling down, transformed into an excited teenager. ALMÁSY Madox! Madox!He slithers in a heap in front of the astonished expedition party. Doesn't care.72 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. FLASHLIGHT.Almásy has led the whole party into the heart of the cave. Now Madox comes alongside him at the wall, his flashlight joining Almásy's and increasing the visibility of the paintings. A dark-skinned figure, apparently in the process of DIVING into water, comes clearly into view. Then others supine, arms outstretched. MADOX (with audible excitement) My God, they're swimming!The others crowd round. FIVE EXCITED FACES IN THE GREEN GLOOM OF THE CAVE.73*. EXT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.A hive of activity. The team has set up TRESTLES to catalogue the finds as the Bedouin come out with baskets of detritus, which they empty onto a growing heap as the Cave is cleared out. Entering the cave, Almásy passes with camera equipment, just as D'Ag emerges carrying the corpse of a perfectly preserved DESERT FOX. D'Ag gestures to Almasy with his customary enthusiasm, holding up the body of the fox. D'AGOSTINO Have you seen this? Astonishing. Perfectly preserved.74 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.Inside, Bermann is setting up LAMPS, running wires from a car BATTERY. Kamal is helping him. And as Almásy arrives he catches a tiny moment of tenderness between them. Bermann, seeing him, quickly disengages and busies himself with the lights. At another wall, Katharine is catching.75 EXT. THE DESERT. DAY.The CARS are heading back to Basecamp. They bounce over the sand.76*. INT. BERMANN'S CAR. DAY.Bermann is driving the lead CAR along some STEEP DUNES. Almásy beside him. Bermann is peeling AN ORANGE, a segment of which he holds out of the window. Kamal, riding shotgun, leans down and collects it, his head dipping in to grin at Bermann. Bermann looks uneasily as Almásy. He wants to tell him of his passion, of his absolute love for Kamal, but he daren't. BERMANN I love the desert, you see. That's my, that's my - I can't think of the word. (Almásy nods) How do you explain? To someone who's never been here? Feelings which seem quite normal. ALMÁSY (compassionate) I don't know, my friend. I don't know.Bermann holds out another segment of the orange, and watches the slim brown hand collect it. A MOMENTARY DISTRACTION IS ALL IT TAKES FOR HIM TO MISJUDGE THE LINE AND SUDDENLY THE DUNE COLLAPSES UNDER THE TIRE AND THE CAR LURCHES SIDEWAYS AND TOPPLES OVER THE EDGE. D'Ag - following, Fouad beside him - brakes sharply, but can't stop his own car from being caught in the avalanche of sand, and IT PLUNGES DOWN THE DUNE AND INTO BERMANN'S UPTURNED CAR WITH AN OMINOUS CRUNCH, the radiator exploding. Only Madox, Katharine beside him, and a little way behind, manages to stay clear of the trouble. He jumps out of the vehicle and slides down the dune to find pandemonium as the passengers stumble out of the cars, sand flying, smoke pouring from the upright vehicle, the wheels of the overturned car spinning wildly in the air, a puddle of oil spreading ominously.77*. EXT. THE DESERT. DAY. LATER and the group have cleaned up as best as possible. D'Ag, Bermann, and Fouad are a little worse for wear. Fouad's arm is in a sling, and D'Ag is sporting a bloody head-bandage. Bermann has broken a finger and is being attended to by Madox. The luggage, water and petrol have been stacked up and the men are loading up the remaining car. Almásy is working at the crumpled end of the vehicle. He's having no success.78*. EXT. THE DESERT. DAY.Almásy, Kamal and two of the other young Bedouin stand around the mess of the two broken vehicles. The ONE WORKING CAR is loaded with men and provisions. Katharine sits inside, next to Madox, Almásy comes over to her window, to speak past her to Madox. MADOX I'll be back as quick as I can. Thirty-six hours at the outside. ALMÁSY Try to get a second radiator, we'll bury it between here and the Pottery Hill. And a better jack. We planned badly. MADOX (nods at Almásy, then shouts over to the wrecked vehicles) Bermann!This is Bermann's cue to take leave of Kamal who is staying behind. Kamal makes a little bow. KAMAL May God make safety your companion.Bermann nods and hurries away, squeezing into the car which jolts off, bouncing over the track.THE VEHICLE GETS ABOUT TWENTY YARDS, ALMASY WATCHING, BEFORE IT SINKS FORLORNLY INTO THE SOFT SAND. IT'S HOPELESSLY OVERLOADED WITH PEOPLE. THEY ALL GET OUT. KATHARINE I shall stay behind, of course MADOX Certainly not. KATHARINE I insist. There clearly isn't room for us all, I'm the least able to dig, and I'm not one of the walking wounded. Those are facts. Besides, if I remain it's the most effective method of persuading my husband to abandon whatever he's doing and rescue us.It's hard to argue with this logic. Almásy shrugs.LATER - THE MADOX CAR makes a more effective departure. And Almasy and Katharine are left alone. THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER as if realizing this for the first time. Almasy immediately returns to the two damaged vehicles and helps the men stretch the cut canvas which was once a tent TO FASHION A MAKESHIFT SHELTER BETWEEN THE TWO CARS. Katharine goes to join them. There is no obstacle to the remorseless horizon, just miles of undulating dunes.79 INT. SHELTER. DAY.Almásy sits alone, writing into HIS HERODOTUS, a map folded in front of him, from which he makes notes. Katherine comes across with a clutch of her SKETCHES from the Cave wall. Hands them to him. They're beautiful. ALMÁSY What's this? KATHARINE I thought you might paste them into your book. ALMÁSY We took several photographs, there's no need. KATHARINE I'd like you to have them. ALMÁSY (handing them back) There's really no need. This is just a scrapbook. I should feel obliged. Thank you. KATHARINE (exasperated) And that would be unconscionable, I suppose, to feel any obligation? Yes. Of course it would.She's already turning, walking as far from him as the cramped shelter permits. He continues with his maps.80 EXT. THE DESERT. NIGHT.Katharine sits alone on top of the Dune, smoking, surveying the landscape. Below her the makeshift camp - a fresh wind flicking at the tarpaulin, THE DEEP TRACKS OF MADOX'S CAR STRETCHING OFF TOWARDS CIVILIZATION. Almásy emerges from the tent and, locating Katharine, heads towards her. ALMÁSY You should come into the shelter. KATHARINE I'm quite all right, thank you. ALMÁSY Look over there.Katharine turns, scans the horizon. KATHARINE What am I looking at? ALMÁSY See what's happening to them - the stars. KATHARINE They're so untidy. I'm just trying to rearrange them. ALMÁSY In an hour there will be no stars. The air is filling with sand.He offers a hand. A little reluctantly she takes it.81 EXT. SHELTER. NIGHT.The team hurries around the improvised tent, weighing it down with packing cases, gasoline drums, water cans, bringing anything loose or light inside the tarpaulin. THE WIND is whipping up, the air busy with sand. Almásy pushes everyone under cover.82 INT. SHELTER. NIGHT.THE SAND SEEMS TO BE SCOURING THE TARPAULIN. Kamal and Almásy try to secure one vulnerable area, but suddenly there are leaks everywhere and the sand swarms inside.It's noisy, too, and Almásy has to shout to make himself understood, indicating to the Bedouin to grab water and blankets and food, all the valuables, and get out. He himself finds blankets and water and shouts at Katharine to do the same. One side of the canvas suddenly RIPS apart like paper. Chaos as figures struggle in ever-worsening conditions, sand blizzarding the air.83 EXT. SHELTER. NIGHT.THE SHELTER FLIES INTO THE AIR, stranding the figures, their heads wrapped in blankets, flashlights useless. They seek safety in two groups, the tribesmen to the cabin of the overturned car, Katharine and Almásy to the upright one.84 INT. CAR. NIGHT.Inside the cabin, the sand swirling around them, Katharine and Almásy sit without speaking. Dawn is trying to break through. He pours a little water into a mug so that they can wash out their eyes and noses and mouths. She takes her silk scarf and first dries her eyes with it, then dries his. KATHARINE This is not very good, is it? ALMÁSY No. KATHARINE Shall we be all right? ALMÁSY Yes. Absolutely. KATHARINE Yes is a comfort. Absolutely is not.85 EXT. THE DESERT. DAWN.The sand is piling up against the two cars, the tent is swept from its moorings, the water cans are hurled up too, and then plunge ominously into sand drifts as if going under an ocean. ALMÁSY (O/S) ...let me tell you about winds. There is a whirlwind in Southern Morocco, the Aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. The Ghibli from Tunis rolls and rolls and produces a rather strange nervous condition...And we hear Katharine's laugh.86 INT. CAR. DAWN.Almasy sits alongside Katharine, whose head is against his shoulder. He continues his story of winds. ALMÁSY #NAME? Which Mariners called the sea of darkness. Red sand from this wind has flown as far as the south coast of England, producing showers so dense they were mistaken for blood.Almasy checks to see if Katharine is still awake. KATHARINE Fiction. We had a house on that coast and it never rained blood. Go on. More. ALMÁSY All true. Herodotus, your friend, tells of a wind - the Simoon - so evil that a nation declared war on it and marched out to fight it in full battle dress, their swords raised.87*. EXT. THE DESERT. DAY.MORNING. The sand has almost COMPLETELY ENGULFED the car on the exposed side, covering the windshield like snow, and encroaching onto the door of the protected flank.88*. INT. CAR. DAY.Almásy is woken by sound of A DISTANT ENGINE. He jerks up, waking Katharine in the process, and heaves against the door. He can't open it, and has to lean his feet against the passenger door, lying across Katharine, kicking it open.89*. EXT. THE DESERT. DAY.By the time Almásy emerges from the car, the sand pouring into the cabin, MADOX'S CAR IS ROARING ALONG THE HORIZON. Almásy waves, shouts, and then runs back into the car, finds his flare-gun, and SENDS A FLARE high into the sky. Katharine is with him now, and they watch, helplessly, as the car bounces away from them, Madox a man on a mission. Katharine panics, THE SAND HAS ERASED ALL TRACES OF THEM. She speaks quietly, shocked. KATHARINE Our tracks, where are they?Almásy is preoccupied. He's gone back to their vehicle and returns with a shovel, STARTS TO DIG FRANTICALLY. ALMÁSY Madox will have calculated how many miles, they'll soon turn around. KATHARINE (realizing what he's doing) Oh my God, the others!She kneels with him and helps to shovel away the sand WHICH HAS COMPLETELY ENGULFED THE OTHER VEHICLE containing the three Bedouin. ALMÁSY (during this) Could I ask you, please, to paste you paintings into my book? I should like to have them. I should be honored. KATHARINE Of course. Is it, am I a terrible coward to ask how much water we have? ALMÁSY (shoveling hard) Water? Yes, we have water, we have a little in our can, we have water in the radiator which can be drunk. Not at all cowardly, extremely practical. (anxious at not uncoveringthe boys, egging himself on) Come on, come on! (then back to Katharine) There's also a plant - I've never seen it but I'm told you can cut a piece the size of a heart from this plant and the next day it will be filled with a delicious liquid. KATHARINE Find that plant. Cut out its heart.They hear NOISES, scrabbling, faint thumps. Almásy scrapes at the sand and they find the glass of the car. The angle of the cab, tilted up to the sky, has made it impossible for the trapped boys to lever it open. Their oxygen is rapidly deteriorating. Almásy pulls the door and it cranks open.90*. EXT. THE DESERT. DAY.Katharine sits in the car, putting her pictures into the Herodotus. It's full of ALMÁSY'S HANDWRITING, PHOTOGRAPHS, SOME PRESSED FLOWERS. She deciphers a page of his words and drawings. It's almost exclusively about her, the lines studded with K.s. She reads, astonished, then looks at him as he and two of the three Bedouin circle the area of the cars in ever-widening circles, like water-diviners, like Kip searches for mines. Kamal is slumped against the front of the car. He's sick. Almásy suddenly drops to his knees and begins to shovel into the sand. He pulls out A CAN OF WATER. Turns to Katharine and holds it triumphantly in the air.91*. INT. THE DESERT. NIGHT.There's a small, weak fire. The group crouch around it. The boys talk noisily to Almásy. Kamal is wrapped in a blanket and shivering. Almásy gives him water, speaks to Katherine. ALMÁSY Kamal is passing blood. He must have had some internal damage in the crash. He needs medicine. I think we must risk the other flare.He gets up and loads the flare with what is clearly the last charge. This time the effect is dramatic with A RED UMBRELLA OF LIGHT. Katharine comes up beside him. They wait, hope fading with the flare. KATHARINE (blank) Geoffrey's not in Cairo. (Almásy looks at her) He's not actually a buffoon. And the plane wasn't a wedding present. It belongs to the British Government. They want aerial maps of the whole North Africa. So I think he's in Ethiopia. In case you were counting on his sudden appearance. ALMÁSY And the marriage - is that a fiction?There's a beat. Katharine has a hundred answers. KATHARINE No, the marriage isn't a fiction.The light from the flare fades on them and they stand in the dark. Suddenly on the far horizon, behind their heads, AN ANSWERING FLARE fireworks into the sky. KATHARINE Thank God. Oh, thank God.There's excited shouting from the two fit boys. They leap up and run towards the couple, who meanwhile have realized that the flare has not come from Madox, but from an approaching CAMEL CARAVAN. Almásy shouts to the boys for some identification. KATHARINE Do they know them? ALMÁSY (squinting at the horizon) No, but I think I do.The Caravan slowly comes into focus. IT'S FENELON-BARNES. Katharine touches Almásy's arm - an almost imperceptible gesture. KATHARINE Am I K. in your book? I think I must be.Almásy turns to her. He runs the blade of his arm across her neck - the sweat leaving a clear stripe.Fenelon-Barnes approaches, dismounts from his camel, and addresses Almásy. FENELON-BARNES I recollect your saying to ignore your bones but I assume you have no objection to my rescuing your companion? (to Katharine) Good evening, Mrs. Clifton. KATHARINE (accepting his handshake) Hello. FENELON-BARNES I'd like to introduce you to my camel - the most notable beast on earth. (to Almásy) I understand you found some remarkable caves.A goatskin bag of water is offered to Katharine. She drinks and hands it to Almásy. FENELON-BARNES Paintings of swimmers? Remarkable.92 EXT. CAIRO. DAY.ANOTHER WORLD as a honking TAXI containing Almásy and Katharine negotiates the incredible bustle of Cairo.93 EXT. SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. DAY.Almásy, still in the same clothes, and evidently weary, emerges from the cab, and pulls Katharine's belongings from the trunk, then holds open the door for her. As she walks towards the hotel, he hands her bag to a porter. Katharine is stung. KATHARINE Will you not come in? ALMÁSY No. KATHARINE Will you please come in? ALMÁSY (a beat) Mrs. Clifton - Katharine turns, disgusted. KATHARINE Don't. ALMÁSY I believe you still have my book.Katharine fishes the book from her knapsack, shoves it at him, then disappears.94 INT. ALMÁSY'S ROOM. DAY.Almásy lying on a camp bed, face down. The walls are covered with maps, enlargements of photographs. A fan whirs over his kit which is spread, unraveled but ordered, on the stone floor. An ineffably male room, the shutters closed, just the thinnest shaft of light piercing the gloom. Almásy hasn't even removed his clothes, his boots kicked off below his jutting feet. There's A KNOCK at the door. Almásy sleeps. Another. A third. He's roused from the dead. Stumbles to his feet, opens the door as the knocking continues.It's Katharine. She's bathed, luminous, stands back-lit by the afternoon sun - an angel in a cotton dress. She walks past him into the room. He closes the door. She turns. He KNEELS before her, head at her thighs. She's crying, her face expressionless as her hands go to his head. KATHARINE You still have sand in your hair.She starts to BEAT on his head and shoulders, violently. He pulls back, to look at her, the tears streaming down her face. She kneels and covers his face with kisses. He pulls blindly at her dress and it RIPS across her breasts.95*. INT. BATHROOM. DAY.Almásy is in the bath. Katharine, wearing his dressing gown, pours in a jug of steaming water. Almásy leans over the rim of the bath. He's sewing, carefully repairing the torn dress. KATHARINE I'm impressed you can sew. ALMÁSY Good. KATHARINE You sew very badly. ALMÁSY You don't sew at all! KATHARINE A woman should never learn to sew, and if she can she should never admit to it. Close your eyes. ALMÁSY (laughs) That makes it harder still.She pushes the sewing from his hands, then pours water over his head, then begins to shampoo his hair.Almásy is in heaven. The biggest smile we have seen from him. She continues to massage his scalp. ALMÁSY When were you most happy? KATHARINE Now. ALMÁSY When were you least happy? KATHARINE (a beat) Now. ALMÁSY Okay. And what do you love? Say everything. KATHARINE What do I love? I love rice pudding, and water, the fish in it, hedgehogs! The gardens at our house in Freshwater - all my secret paths.She rinses his scalp, then slips off the robe and CLIMBS IN BESIDE HIM, covering his neck and shoulders in kisses. ALMÁSY What else? KATHARINE Marmite - addicted! Baths - not with other people! Islands. Your handwriting. I could go on all day. (a beat) My husband. Almásy nods. ALMÁSY What do you hate most? KATHARINE A lie. What do you hate most? ALMÁSY Ownership. Being owned. When you leave, you should forget me.She freezes, pulls herself away, out of the bath, looks at him, then SLAPS HIM VERY HARD across the face.She picks up her dress, the thread and needle dangling from it, and walks, dripping, out of the room.96*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.To the Patient it's as if Katharine is walking out of his wall. He sighs with pain, then looks away to where Hana has fallen asleep on the bed, almost on top of him. He touches her. He speaks as if each word burns him. THE PATIENT Could I ask you to move? I'm sorry - but when you turn, the sheets, I can't really bear the sheets moving over me. Sorry. HANA (mortified, moving quickly) Yes, of course, I'm so sorry. Stupid of me. Hana gets up, upset to have hurt him. HANA I'm so sorry.97*. INT. THE MONASTERY KITCHEN. NIGHT.Hana comes to the table, carrying a jug of water and a bowl. She's still sad. She unbuttons her dress, pulling it off her shoulder, begins to pour the water to cool herself against the night's pressing heat.98*. EXT. EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL. 1944. LATE DAY.The EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL is a cluster of tents practically ahead of the Front Line SPORADIC GUN FIRE, LIGHT AND HEAVY, SOUNDS THROUGHOUT. Mary walks by on her way to the Nurse's tent. It's 1944 and the war in Italy is still intense.99 INT. EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL TENT. LATE DAY.JAN is washing out of her HELMET, and stands naked in her socks. Hana is using a flannel to wash Jan's back. A couple of other girls like, exhausted, on their cots. The mud is everywhere. Another nurse is making tea out of an adapted plasma can on their tiny primus.MARY comes in and flops down. She's GIVEN BLOOD and is pale and enervated. MARY Okay, Type Os, the vampires wait. Everybody's giving a pint. JAN Ugh! If they were sucking it out I wouldn't mind. It's the needle I can't stand. HANA (laughing) You're a nurse - how ca you be frightened of needles!100 INT. TRIAGE TENT, EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL. NIGHT.Hana walks through the main TRIAGE TENT. It's packed with the ruined bodies of the injured, swaddled in bloody bandages. Hana stops at a couple of beds, shares a word or two with the patients. She stops at another bed, leans over its occupant. His bandaged face is bloated and yellow. He's not breathing. She bends over him, his open eyes fixed in a glassy stare. No pulse. She snaps the triangular cardboard ID from his bed to indicate HE'S DIED. Then tenderly closes his eyes. THEY SUDDENLY SNAP OPEN. HE REARS UP, GRABBING HER. WOUNDED SOLDIER Can't wait to have me dead? You bitch!He slaps her hand away. Slaps at the tubes going into his arm. Hana is absolutely shocked. But just as suddenly he's sunk back into semi-consciousness.Shaken, she sits by him and takes his hand, he pulls it away, she takes it again. He is in terrible pain. His face creased with anger. Now his hand is clutching at hers. She tries to soothe him. HANA Try t be calm. Ssssshhh. Come on. Be calm now. Ssshhhh. Be peaceful. It's okay. It's okay.HIS FACE STILLS. HIS HAND LOOSENS. Now he has gone. As Hana inspects him, a shell seems to land close by. THE LIGHTS FLICKER. She ducks, along with everyone else.Below the bed, on slatboards, above the mud, are the now dead soldier's possessions. They include A PAIR OF TENNIS SHOES.101 INT. TRIAGE TENT, EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL. EVENING.HANA, WEARING THE TENNIS SHOES, IS GIVING BLOOD. She lies in a cot, next to JAN. The shelling sounds closer.OLIVER, the Doctor, is working on the most recent patient, a young CANADIAN Boy who is critically ill - the tubes hanging above him, of plasma and of blood. The curtain drawn around him is pulled back, to reveal the two nurses in the background. The Soldier can just see them. He's going to die any minute. CANADIAN SOLDIER (whispering to Oliver) Is there anybody here from Picton? OLIVER Picton? I don't know. CANADIAN SOLDIER I'd like to see somebody from home before I go.Hana can only really hear Oliver's end of this conversation, but the mention of Canada chills her, and she knows, now, not later, that Stuart is dead. HANA (to Oliver) Why Picton? OLIVER He's from there - edge of Lake Ontario right, Soldier?The boy nods. JAN (innocent) Where's your Stuart from? Somewhere near there, isn't it? HANA (to Oliver) As him what company he's with?Oliver leans over, then turns to Hana. OLIVER Third Canadian Fusiliers. HANA Does he know a Captain McGann?The boy hears this, whispers to Oliver. CANADIAN SOLDIER He bought it. Yesterday. Shot to bits.The shells are getting closer. HANA What did he say? OLIVER (can't look at her) Doesn't know him.A SHELL SUDDENLY LANDS ON TOP OF THE SITE, PERHAPS FIFTY YARDS FROM THE TENT. THE LIGHTS GO OUT. THEN ANOTHER LANDS.Everybody is on the floor, struggling to get on a helmet.Hana lies down, the blood still leaving her, her helmet on. Oliver is next to her in the mud. Her heart is breaking. HANA He's gone, hasn't he? OLIVER No. He's - no. HANA Oh God. Oh God.The shells pound them, incredibly loud, drowning out her grief, but each explosion illuminates it for a moment.102 INT. THE MONASTERY KITCHEN. NIGHT.Caravaggio comes into the kitchen. Hana is slumped at the table, her back naked. The jug of water in front of her. She's sobbing, her shoulders heaving. Caravaggio approaches tentatively. CARAVAGGIO Hana? (he touches her shoulder) Hana? Are you alright? HANA (without raising her head) Don't touch me if you're going to try and fuck me. CARAVAGGIO (soothing) I'll have some of your water. It's hot.She reaches for her blouse, wraps it around herself. Her face is read with weeping. CARAVAGGIO (gently) You have to protect yourself from sadness. This is the thing I've learned. (drinking the water) You're in love with him, aren't you? Your patient. Do you think he's a saint or something? Because of the way he looks? I don't think he is. HANA I'm not in love with him. I'm in love with ghosts. And so is he. He's in love with ghosts. CARAVAGGIO Who are his ghosts? HANA Ask him. CARAVAGGIO (he holds up his hands) What if I told you he did this to me? HANA (stung) What? How could he have? When? CARAVAGGIO I'm one of his ghosts and he wouldn't even know. It's like he slammed a door in Cairo and it trapped my fucking hands in Tobruk. HANA I don't know what that means. CARAVAGGIO (shrugs) Ask him. Ask your saint who he is. Ask him who he's killed. HANA (furious) Please don't creep around this house.103*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana sits reading from the Herodotus. She shows the Patient the page where a CHRISTMAS CRACKER WRAPPER covered in handwriting has been glued in. HANA Tell me about this, this is in your handwriting - December 22nd - Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything - for the heart is an organ of fire... (she looks up) I love that, I believe that. (to him) Who is K? THE PATIENT K is for Katharine.104 EXT. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE, DECEMBER 1938. DAY.A CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR THE TROOPS. The incongruous attempts to create a traditional Christmas in the dusty heat of Cairo. The Party is in the courtyard of the Moorish Palace which serves as the private residence of the British Ambassador, SIR RONNIE HAMPTON. Lots of Wives, including LADY HAMPTON and Katharine help serve tea and cake to the SOLDIERS who sit at rudimentary tables with paper plates and paper hats. A man dressed as SANTA CLAUS is giving out presents - PENGUIN PAPERBACKS, CHOCOLATE. Music blares out from a loudspeaker. Officers and Civilians walk the parameter. One of these, arriving, is Almasy. He sits in the shade, catches Katharine's attention. Katharine brings him over a cup of tea and a plate with Christmas cake on it. ALMÁSY Say you're sick. KATHARINE What? No! ALMÁSY Say you're feeling faint - the sun. KATHARINE (but a frisson) No. ALMÁSY I can't work. I can't sleep.Lady Hampton calls impatiently. LADY HAMPTON Katharine! KATHARINE Coming. (to Almásy) I can't sleep. I woke up shouting in the middle of the night. Geoffrey thinks it's the thing in the desert, the trauma. ALMÁSY I can still taste you. KATHARINE (waving at another woman whopushes a trolley with teapots) This is empty, just coming! ALMÁSY I'm trying to write with your taste in my mouth. (as she leaves) Swoon. I'll catch you.Almásy sits watching the party. The Santa Claus is dragged outside by some excited Children. Almásy picks at his cake removing the thick marzipan icing. He's writing on A CHRISTMAS CRACKER WRAPPER, smoothing it out - December 22nd. Betrayals in war are childlike compared with out betrayals du...Katharine, attending to a raucous table, suddenly sags at the knees, and SWOONS. People rush to her. KATHARINE I'm fine. How silly. OFFICER'S WIFE (helping her to her feet) It's the heat. LADY HAMPTON You should sit down, darling. (to the others) She's quite all right. (escorts Katharine away) Are you pregnant? KATHARINE I don't think so. LADY HAMPTON (squeezing her arm) How romantic. With Fiona I fell over every five minutes. Ronnie Christened me Lady Downfall. KATHARINE I think I might go inside and sit down for a few minutes. LADY HAMPTON I'll come with you. KATHARINE No, please. I shall be absolutely fine.They pass Almásy, who doesn't look up from his book.105 INT. STORE ROOM. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. DAY.A small STOREROOM inside the Palace - Brooms, Mops, Cleaning Equipment. Outside, the party is visible as opaque shadows through the beveled glass of the ornate window. The sound of carols sung by the enlisted men gives way to a version of SILENT NIGHT played on a solitary bagpipe. Inside, ALMÁSY AND KATHARINE MAKE LOVE IN THE DARKNESS. Everything is too fast, desperate, standing up, grabbing, hoisting clothes.106 INT. CORRIDORS. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. DAY.A CORRIDOR. Almásy appears and almost immediately collides with the man dressed as SANTA CLAUS. He moves to one side. CLIFTON Have you seen Katharine? ALMÁSY (taken aback) What? CLIFTON It's Geoffrey under this. ALMÁSY I haven't, no. Sorry.106a*. INT. SIDE ROOM IN AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. DAY.Geoffrey continues scouting the warren of tiny rooms that run off the central courtyard. He finds Katharine sitting in one, smoking, surrounded by oppressive and elaborate tiling. Clifton wonders briefly how Almásy had missed Katharine. CLIFTON Darling, I just heard. You poor sausage, are you all right? KATHARINE I'm fine. I got hot. CLIFTON Lady H said she thought you might be - KATHARINE I'm not pregnant. I'm hot. I'm too hot. CLIFTON Right. KATHARINE Aren't you? CLIFTON Sweltering. (taking off his hat and beard) Come on, I'll take you home. KATHARINE Can't we really go home? I can't breathe. Aren't you dying for green, anything green, or rain, wouldn't you die to feel rain on your face? It's Christmas and it's all - I don't know - if you asked me I'd go home tomorrow. If you wanted. CLIFTON Sweetheart, you know we can't go home, there might be a war. KATHARINE (poking at his costume) Geoffrey, you do so love putting on a disguise. CLIFTON I do so love you. (he kisses her head) What do you smell of? KATHARINE What? CLIFTON Marzipan! I think you've got marzipan in your hair. No wonder you're homesick.107*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. EVENING.The Patient lies alone in his room. CLIFTON'S FACE stares back at him from among the frescoes. Then something distracts him. THE PATIENT Are you outside?A beat and then Caravaggio shuffles in. Like an old boxer. CARAVAGGIO I can't hide anymore. (jerks up his hands) I breathe like a dog. I lose my balance. Stealing's got harder.Caravaggio stares at the Herodotus. CARAVAGGIO Why do I feel if I had your book I would know everything? THE PATIENT I don't even know if it is my book. The Bedouin found it in the plane, in the wreckage. It's mine now. I heard your breathing and thought it might be rain. I'm dying for rain - of course I'm dying anyway - but I long to feel rain on my face.Caravaggio comes close, scrutinizing the face, trying to repair the features. Exasperated. CARAVAGGIO Is it you? If I said Moose... I look different, fuck, why shouldn't you? THE PATIENT (impassive) Moose. CARAVAGGIO (a different tack) First wedding anniversary - what do you call it? THE PATIENT I don't know. Paper. Is it? Paper? (sharp, not wanting to think) I don't remember.108 INT. MONASTERY LIBRARY. DAY.Hana stands at the PIANO. It's still lop-sided, propped against the wall. She tries but can't move it. So she pulls off the dust-sheet and, with the instrument still on a tilt, begins to play the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations.109 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.HANA'S PIANO CONTINUES. Upstairs, Caravaggio chats with the Patient while working his arms to RAISE A VEIN, a boot-lace tied around it, preparing an injection for himself, tapping the syringe. During this: THE PATIENT I have come to love that little tap of the fingernail against the syringe. Tap.110*. INT. MONASTERY LIBRARY. DAY.Hana plays. GUN SHOTS punctuates the music. She's totally engrossed and only hears the second or third shot. Her hands falter, she looks up to see A SIKH SOLDIER RUNNING ACROSS THE FIELD WAVING HIS ARMS, his REVOLVER held aloft. He approaches the door, his face creased with anxiety, and raps on the shattered frame. It's KIP.She gets up and walks past Kip standing at the door, and continues the seven or eight feet to the right and out into the garden VIA THE HOLE RIPPED OUT OF THE WALL. HANA Excuse me. Yes? (of the doors) I don't have the key to that door. KIP The Germans were here. The Germans were all over this area. They left mines everywhere. Pianos were their favorite hiding places. HANA I see. (then mischievous) Then may be you're safe as long as you only play Bach. He's German.Kip is looking around the piano. Hana giggles. KIP Is something funny? HANA No, but, no, not at all. I'm sorry. You came to the doors, that's all and - (a little laugh) #NAME? worried about mines. That's all. KIP I've met you before. HANA I don't think so.Hana bends to see what Kip's looking at under the piano. Wires run from the wall to the instrument onto which is taped an EXPLOSIVE CHARGE. If Hana had succeeded in moving the piano she would have triggered the charge. Kip looks at Hana who conceals her dismay with a shrug.110a*. EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDEN. DUSK.Across from the terrace, HARDY AND KIP ARE PUTTING UP THEIR TENTS. Caravaggio stands, chatting amiably to them, holding a haversack, smoking a cigarette.111*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DUSK.Hana looks down from the Patient's room, watching the tents go up. HANA He wants us to move out, says there could be fifty more mines in the building. He thinks I'm mad because I laughed at him. He's Indian, he wears a turban. THE PATIENT Sikh. If he wears a turban, he's a Sikh.Kip glances up at the window. Hana, suddenly shy, backs away. HANA I'll probably marry him. THE PATIENT Really? That's sudden. HANA My mother always told me I would summon my husband by playing the piano.She goes over to the Patient's bed. HANA I liked it better when there were just the two of us. THE PATIENT Why? Is he staying? HANA With his Sergeant. A Mr. Hardy. THE PATIENT We should charge! Doesn't anyone have a job to do? HANA They have to clear all the local roads of mines. That's a big job. They won't stay in the house. They're putting up their tent in the garden. THE PATIENT In that case, I suppose we can't charge.112*. INT. OFFICE, BRITISH HQ. CAIRO. DAY.A SMALL OFFICE, shared by two men, and a mountain of filing cabinets and paper. There are AERIAL MAPS all over the walls. Clifton is on the telephone, while his colleague, RUPERT DOUGLAS, works at the desk. CLIFTON (into the phone) Darling, it's me, I'm sorry, something's come up. (Katharine responds) Don't sulk - I'll be back tomorrow evening. I promise. (Katharine responds) Okay my precious, I love you.Rupert makes a face at his friend's sentimentality. Clifton beams. RUPERT I didn't know you were going anywhere? CLIFTON I'm not. I'm going to surprise her. It's our anniversary. She's forgotten, of course. What's the symbol for your first anniversary? I should get something. Is it paper? (he knocks sharply on the wall) Moose! Moose, you there? First Anniversary - is it cotton? CARAVAGGIO Is what cotton? CLIFTON First Wedding Anniversary. RUPERT (of Clifton) He's hopeless! CLIFTON Your day will come, my sausage. CARAVAGGIO Your first anniversary is Paper.113 EXT. CAIRO STREET. O/S SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. DAY.The approach to the Shepheard's Hotel. Geoffrey Clifton in a TAXI, champagne between his knees.The car ahead of them SCREECHES TO A HALT as a WOMAN hurries across the street. The driver honks his horn angrily. The woman puts up a hand in apology as she skips across the street to another taxi. IT'S KATHARINE - she's dressed for a date, carries flowers, an overnight bag.Geoffrey, at first excited, is troubled by the accouterments. Then he sees Katharine skip and his whole being punctures.Katharine's cab roars off. His own car jerks forward. CLIFTON Stop! CABBIE Please? CLIFTON Stop here. CABBIE Yessir.Geoffrey sits in the cab. Fifty yards short of the hotel. The world rushes by. He finds a cigarette.114 INT. ALMÁSY'S ROOMS. LATE DAY.Katharine is in bed. Almásy has just put A RECORD on. It's the folk song heard at the beginning of the film. He slips back under the covers. Their clothes are scattered around the room. He lies over a happy Katharine. She listens. KATHARINE This is - what is this? ALMÁSY It's a folk song. KATHARINE Arabic? ALMÁSY No, no, it's Hungarian. My daijka sang it to me. KATHARINE (as they listen) It's beautiful. What's it about? ALMÁSY (as if interpreting) It's a long song - Szerelem means love...and the story - there's a Hungarian Count, he's a wanderer, a fool. For years he's on some kind of quest, who knows what? And then one day he falls under the spell of a mysterious English woman - a harpy - who beats him and hits him and he becomes her slave. He sews her clothes, he worships the hem of -Katharine had thought for a few seconds he was serious, then she catches on and starts to beat him. ALMÁSY (laughing) Ouch! See - you're always beating me..! KATHARINE You bastard, I was believing you!They embrace, he lies over her, considering her naked back. ALMÁSY I claim this shoulder blade - oh no, wait - I want this!He turns her over, kisses her throat, then traces the hollow indentation. ALMÁSY This - what's it called? - this place, I love it - this is mine! (Katharine doesn't know) I'm asking the King permission to call it the Almasy Bosphorous. KATHARINE (teasing) I thought we were against ownership? (kissing him) I can stay tonight.The luxury of this makes them both sad. The duplicity. Almásy rolls away on to his back. ALMÁSY Madox knows, I think. He's tried to warn me. He keeps talking about Anna Karenina. I think it's his idea of a man-to-man chat. Its my idea of a man-to-man chat. KATHARINE This is a different world - is what I tell myself. A different life. And here I am a different wife. ALMÁSY Yes. A different wife.115 INT. CAB. CAIRO STREET. O/S SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. NIGHT.The CAB DRIVER is asleep. A loud POP! jerks him awake. In the back of the car Geoffrey has opened the champagne. He lets it overflow, then takes a swig. He notices the startled driver and puts up an apologetic arm. CLIFTON Sorry.Two or three CHILDREN knock on the window, begging. Geoffrey knocks back, violently. They disappear. CABBIE Hotel now, sir? GEOFFREY No.And he throws a silencing wad of money onto the seat by the Cabbie.116 EXT. ALMASY'S HOUSE. OLD CAIRO. DAWN.Almásy and Katharine wander out of his building and into the early morning streets, hand in hand.117 EXT. SPICE MARKET. CAIRO. DAWN.The MORNING PRAYERS rise out from the city's three Minarets. Almásy stops at a stall, which is just preparing to open for the day. He picks up a SILVER THIMBLE, points at it to the merchant who gives him a price. Without comment, Almásy produces the money and, beaming, hands the thimble to Katharine. ALMÁSY I don't care to bargain. (she smiles) It's full of saffron, just in case you think I'm giving it to you to encourage your sewing. KATHARINE That day, had you followed me to the market? ALMÁSY Of course. You didn't need to slap my face to make me feel as if you'd slapped my face. KATHARINE (loving him, but frightened) Shall we be all right? ALMÁSY Yes. Yes. (shrugs) Absolutely.118 EXT. CAIRO STREET. DAWN.Katharine takes leave of Almásy on the street corner away from the hotel entrance. They don't kiss, there's no demonstration of feeling. He turns immediately away and disappears.119 INT. CAB. CAIRO STREET. O/S SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL. DAY.Geoffrey, unshaven, watches as Katharine crosses the street and heads towards the hotel. His expression is terrible, trying to smile, his face collapsed.120 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. MORNING.Cheek to Cheek leaks into the room from a GRAMOPHONE that Caravaggio stands over proudly. The Patient opens his eyes - is confused, dislocated - stares blankly at Caravaggio. CARAVAGGIO (grinning) Thought you'd never wake up! THE PATIENT What?Hana comes in, sleepily, frowns at the gramophone. HANA Where did you find that? CARAVAGGIO I liberated it. HANA I think that's called looting. CARAVAGGIO (relaxed) No-one should own music. The real question is who wrote the song? THE PATIENT Irving Berlin. CARAVAGGIO For? THE PATIENT Top Hat. CARAVAGGIO Is there a song you don't know? HANA (speaking for him) No. He sings all the time.She goes over to the Patient and kisses him gently. HANA Good morning. (of his singing) Did you know that? You're always singing? THE PATIENT I've been told that before. HANA Kip's another one.She goes to the window, looks over to where the tents are pitched, sees Hardy shaving, Kip IN THE PROCESS OF WASHING HIS HAIR, his turban HANGING LIKE A RIBBON between two trees to dry. He's perched a bowl on the sundial and is dipping his long coal-black hair into it. As Hana watches Kip, Caravaggio changes the record. The Patient identifies it immediately.121*. EXT. MONASTERY GARDEN. MORNING.Hana walks past the tent, and passes Hardy. She's carrying a small cup, which she's a little furtive about. He's carrying a whole armada of OIL LIGHTS. He nods upstairs. HANA Hello. HARDY Hello miss. HANA I was going to say - if you want to eat with us, ever... you and Lieutenant Singh... HARDY Very kind of you, we can always eat in the town with the others - HANA Since Caravaggio turned up - food seems to appear, so please. HARDY I'll ask the Lieutenant. But thank you. HANA You saved my life. I haven't forgotten. (Hardy waves that away) I thought you were very very tall. You seemed to big - a Giant - and I felt like a child who can't keep her balance. HARDY (does a little mime) A toddlerShe goes on, and tentatively approaches Kip, who's still working at his hair. Kip hears her and puts out an inquiring arm, moving towards her like a blink man through the curtain of hair. He touches her. HANA Sorry, is it all right I'm seeing this?Kip shrugs. HANA My hair was long. At some point. I've forgotten what a nuisance it is to wash. You know - if you were ever around - we get water from the pump at noon.He continues to wash. She holds up the cup of oil. HANA Try this. I found a great jar of it. Olive oil. In Naples this was so precious it would have bought you a wife. KIP Thank you.She stands for a second, then walks away. Kip examines the oil, calls after her. KIP For my hair? HANA (turning, smiling) Yes, for your hair.122 EXT. THE MONASTERY. HANA'S GARDEN. DAY.HANA IS GARDENING, close to the crucifix, which is now a full-fledged Scarecrow. Broken bottles, fragments of stained glass and shards from a mirror are hung from the crossbar, syringes too, all jangling and tinkling and catching the sunlight.Kip and Hardy drive off to work on their motorcycles. She watches them, catching Kip's careless wave to her. She looks briefly at herself in A PIECE OF MIRROR dangling from the Scarecrow.123 INT. THE MONASTERY. UPSTAIRS LANDING. DAY.Hana walks along the landing with a tray. There's a message on several doors in the corridor from Kip: SAFE, then a couple with the warning: DANGER. She hears noise from the Patient's room. Listens for a second before going in. THE PATIENT (O/S) Because you're reading it too fast! THE PATIENT (O/S) Not at all. THE PATIENT (O/S) You have to read Kipling slowly! Your eye is too impatient - think about the speed of his pen. (quoting Kipling to demonstrate) What is it - He sat comma in defiance of municipal orders comma astride the gun Zamzammah on her brick... What is it?124 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.During this, Hana comes through with the tray, finds Kip perched on the window, relishing his skirmish with the Patient, who has condensed milk dribbling down his neck. KIP Brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - THE PATIENT #NAME? natives called the Lahore Museum. KIP It's still there, the cannon, outside the museum. It was made of metal cups and bowls taken from every household in the city as tax, then melted down. Then later they fired the cannon at my people - comma - The natives. THE PATIENT So what do you really object to - the writer or what he's writing about? KIP What I really object to, Uncle, is your finishing all my condensed milk. (snatching up the empty can) And the message everywhere in your book - however slowly I read it - that the best destiny for India is to be ruled by the British. THE PATIENT Hana, we have discovered a shared please - the boy and I. HANA Arguing about books. THE PATIENT Condensed milk - one of the truly great inventions. KIP (grinning, leaving) I'll get another tin.Hana and the Patient are alone. HANA I didn't like that book either. It's all about men. Too many men. Just like this house. THE PATIENT You like him, don't you? Your voice changes. HANA I don't think it does. (a beat) Anyway, he's indifferent to me. THE PATIENT I don't think it's indifference.Kip comes bounding in with a fresh can. THE PATIENT Hana was just telling me that you were indifferent - HANA (appalled) Hey! - THE PATIENT #NAME? KIP Well, I'm indifferent to cooking, not Hana's cooking in particular. (stabbing at the tin with a bayonet) Have either of you ever tried condensed milk sandwiches?125 DELETED.126. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. MORNING.Caravaggio and the Patient are singing - an Arab song which they both know from Cairo days. THUNDER accompanies them. It's pouring. Suddenly the door is flung open and HANA, KIP and HARDY appear. They have the stretcher with them.127*. EXT. THE MONASTERY CLOISTERS. MORNING.A whoop precedes THE HEADLONG RUSH OF KIP, HARDLY and CARAVAGGIO as they cart the Patient across the Cloisters like manic stretcher-bearers. Hana is with them, holding an umbrella over the Patient who bounces uncomfortably. He is nervous, a little giddy. The rain buckets down. THE PATIENT (no irony) Careful - careful!127a*. EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDEN. MORNING.The storm tour includes a trip around the pond. The Patient pushes away the umbrella, lets the rain drench him. He grins at Hana. THE PATIENT This is wonderful! KIP (to Hana) What's he saying? HANA He's saying it's wonderful!128*. INT. LIBRARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTOLOGY. DAY.Madox and Almásy are camped in one corner of THE LIBRARY, hunched over their maps and papers and journals and clashing furiously over the site of the next part of the expedition. MADOX (pushing away his charts) And I'm telling you there's nothing there to explore. ALMÁSY No, because you can't see from the air! If you could explore from the air life would be very simple! (he yanks up a map) Look! What is that? Is that a wadi? That whole spur is a real possibility... MADOX Which we've overflown twice. ALMÁSY Which we couldn't explore because of rocks, because of cross-winds, it's sloppy. (stabbing another location) And here - and here - we could be staring at Zerzura. Other readers look over at this unseemly skirmish. MADOX So - on Thursday you don't trust Bell's map - Bell was a fool, Bell couldn't draw a map, but on Friday he's suddenly infallible?Almásy is surprised by Madox' anger. MADOX And where are the Expedition Maps? ALMÁSY In my room. MADOX Those maps belong to His Majesty's Government. They're confidential. They shouldn't be left lying around for any Tom, Dick or Mary to have sight of. ALMÁSY What's the matter with you? MADOX Don't be so bloody naïve. You know there's a war breaking out. (he tosses a slip of paper ontothe map, recites its message) This arrived this morning. By order of the British Government - all International Expeditions to be aborted by May 1939.129 INT. CAIRO STREET. DAY.Almásy and Madox walk down this busy and rather narrow street without pavements. Both of them somber. ALMÁSY Why do they care about our maps? MADOX What do we find in the desert? Arrow heads, spears. In a war, if you own the desert, you own North Africa. ALMÁSY (contemptuous) Own the desert.Almásy hesitates at a junction, clearly about to take leave of Madox. ALMÁSY That place at the base of a woman's throat? You know - the hollow - here - does that have an official name?Madox looks at him. MADOX For God's sake, man - pull yourself together.130 INT. OPEN-AIR CINEMA. CAIRO. EVENING.The OPEN-AIR CINEMA is just beginning its evening programme.PATHE NEWS BEGINS and we date the event to April 1939. Stories of imminent war jostle with images of Merrie England. Village greens, sporting victories, Cruft's Dog Show. Alone among the necking couples - mostly soldiers with their Egyptian girlfriends - in an otherwise empty block, is Katharine. She's waiting for Almásy. A SOLDIER comes over to Katharine's row and settles a couple of seats away from her. SOLDIER Beggin your pardon, miss, but have you got a lighter?Katharine lights his cigarette and returns to the screen. An item about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and TOP HAT. The stars do their stuff. The soldier moves a seat nearer. SOLDIER (leering) I love Ginger, she's a foxy girl, ain't she? KATHARINE Fuck off. SOLDIER What? KATHARINE You heard me.The Soldier slinks off, muttering. Katharine is wretched. She sits head down, not watching the screen, marooned in her despair about duplicity, sordid assignations.Almásy arrives, slides in beside Katharine, his shadow momentarily large across the screen. ALMÁSY Sorry.They watch the screen. Katharine is weeping. Almásy doesn't understand. He puts his arm around her. KATHARINE I can't do this, I can't do this any more.131*. EXT. GROPPI PARK. CAIRO. EVENING.A man walks round with A HAND BELL - announcing that the Park is closing. He turns off the gaslights which illuminate the animal cages. Almásy and Katharine sit stiffly on a bench. They don't speak. Almásy puts his hands to his head, he rubs his shoulders. The lights are gradually being extinguished around them. Finally, Katharine gets up. KATHARINE I'd better get back. (she keeps him away with a hand) Say goodbye here. ALMÁSY I'm not agreeing. Don't think I'm agreeing, because I'm not.They stand, awkward. Katharine rehearses her position. The bell clangs. KATHARINE I just know - any minute he'll find out, we'll barge into somebody we'll - and it will ill him. ALMÁSY Don't go over it again, please.He takes her hands, lays his cheeks into them, then releases them, gets up, walks away. She walks towards the gate. He calls after her. ALMÁSY Katharine - He walks towards her, his smile awful. ALMÁSY I just wanted you to know. I'm not missing you yet.She nods, can't find this funny. KATHARINE You will. You will.Then she turns sharply from him and catches her head against the gatepost, staggers at the shock of it, then hurries away.132*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. MORNING.Hana sits with the English Patient - the room shuttered against the morning light. His breathing is noticeably worsening, a shudder of a breath, the shallow rise and fall of his chest perceptible. Hana frets, touches his wrist, feeling for the pulse. THE PATIENT I'm still here. HANA You'd better be. THE PATIENT Don't depend on it. Will you? That little bit of air, each day there's less of it, which is al right, which is quite all right.She squeezes his hand, suddenly overwhelmed. THE PATIENT (brightly) I've been talking to Caravaggio - my research assistant - there's meant to be a ghost in the Cloisters. I can join him!There's some kind of noise from the garden. Muffled shouts. THE PATIENT It's the boy.Hana goes to the window, opens the shutters. The day pours in.132A*. EXT. MONASTERY OLIVE GROVES. DAY.Hana sees Kip - barely visible - standing at the far perimeter of the garden in the olive groves, HIS HANDS RAISED ABOVE HIM, HIS LEG HELD OUT STRANGELY. WIRES run from his foot in all directions as if he'd trodden in some elaborate steel cobweb.133 EXT. MONASTERY OLIVE GROVES. DAY.Hana appears at the edge of the Olive groves and hurries towards Kip, who hasn't moved. He shouts warning her. KIP Go to the left! Keep to the left! There are mines and trip wires everywhere!Hana stops, hoists up her skirt and circles left, tentative in the long grass. He shouts, doesn't want her close. KIP Get Hardy. He's on the other side of town. In the hills. Get him to hurry.She keeps coming, can see that he needs her. HANA It's okay - I'll help. Please. KIP The mines, the wires, there's a trick. Some explode if you stretch the wires, some if you cut them. HANA What do I do? KIP There's a mine here, but the others are far enough away, I think at least to give me a chance. I have to work out which one to cut before I fall over. HANA So I follow the wires? KIP You get Hardy. HANA I follow the wires.She kneels at his feet and tries to trace the tangled route of the web. KIP Don't touch them.She follows one wire back to the closest mine, and traces another back to Kip's foot. Then she finds another one leading off to a second mine some thirty metres away. HANA Why would anyone do this? KIP I've done this. I've had to do this. Then Hana's suddenly tense. HANA Give me a second.She turns and tiptoes RIGHT THROUGH THE DANGER AREA, straight to what had seized her attention. Kip is appalled. KIP What are you doing?! Hana!Heedless, she dodges another mine and its web of wires just as THE TORTOISE clambers onto a clump of rock, which is, in fact, ANOTHER CONCRETE-COVERED MINE.Hana snatches him up as he ambles towards the metal. She turns, holding the protesting animal in triumph. HER FOOT SNAGS ON A WIRE. She has to ease it off, in arabesque, still clutching the tortoise. She goes sideways to the safe zone - setting down the animal. Then she's back with Kip. He's seething. She is strangely elated. KIP What is this business with you and explosives? Do you think you're immune? HANA I promise you that was the right thing to do. He's my good luck. (she gets the pliers from his belt,and hands them to him) Now cut. This one. (she indicates the wire) I hope we don't die. KIP Okay. Get away from here. Quick. HANA I'm not scared. So many people have died around me. But I would be a shame for us. (shrugs) I don't feel like being shy. KIP You must get away. Before I cut. I'm not cutting if you're here.He's struggling. He's going to topple over if he cuts. HANA Actually, you can't cut, can you? You'll fall over. Give me the pliers. KIP No.But he hands them over. HANA Kiss me. Before I cut. Just in case. KIP Don't talk. Check again. Lie flat and then cut.Hana checks, lies down. He bends as close to the ground as he dares AND KISSES HER, THEN SHE IMMEDIATELY CUTS.134 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. CONTINUOUS.The Patient lies in bed. He's agitated by the silence. SUDDENLY THERE'S AN EXPLOSION. He tries to shout, a croak which quickly reduces him to coughing and breathlessness. THE PATIENT Hana! Hana! Kip! Hana!He tries to move. He can't. He's frantic.FOOTSTEPS, as someone hurtles up the stairs. It's Hana. She's ashamed to have forgotten him. She rushes to him. HANA I'm sorry. I forgot you'd be worrying. We're all safe. It was a mine, but not the mine. Nobody's hurt. I'm sorry.She calms him. He's exhausted. His eyes shine.135 EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD. ITALY. LATE DAY.Hana clings onto Kip as the TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLE hares along the circling road. She has her arms around his waist. His head turns to her for a second and she smiles.136 EXT. ROAD BLOCK. TUSCANY. DUSK.Kip and Hana have been detained at a ROAD BLOCK. Kip is being questioned at a sentry post, his papers over-thoroughly inspected and accompanied by several meaningful glances at Hana, who waits, standing by the motorcycle. One of the SOLDIERS saunters over and returns her papers. SOLDIER And you're definitely traveling with him of your own free will? HANA Yes. SOLDIER (clearly disapproving) Just wanting to be sure. And he's taking you to church? HANA (deadpan) Yes. We're going to a funeral. A cow has died. And in his religion they're sacred.The Soldier isn't sure what to make of this. He signals to his companion who returns Kip's papers. Kip walks back to the motorcycles. He says nothing. He kicks the starter. Hana gets on, slides her arms lovingly around him.137 EXT. BRIDGE. ITALY. DUSK.IT'S GETTING DARK. The bike, headlights on, crosses a bridge. Kip has strapped on his crimson emergency light as they sail along the winding crest of mountain ridge that is a spine down Italy.138 EXT. AREZZO. DUSK. Kip steers the motorbike into the deserted PIAZZA.They dismount and Kip starts to unbuckle his bulging satchel and unload the panniers. Hana still doesn't know what's in store and looks questioningly at Kip as he walks up to the door of the CHURCH.139 INT. CHURCH. DUSK.They enter the Church. It's in almost total darkness. THEN A FLARE SUDDENLY ILLUMINATES THE INTERIOR. It's magnificent. Kip holds the flare, crimson on one arm, green pouring up from the other. Hana walks behind him, still perplexed. There is PROTECTIVE SCAFFOLDING EVERYWHERE, AND SANDBAGS PILED UP HIGH AROUND THE ALTARS, AND THE STATUES.A SECOND FLARE. Kip has appeared through A SECRET DOOR high in the church, literally emerging from one of the frescoes which are momentarily visible. He flings a rope over the rafters.Now Kip circles Hana with the rope, MAKING A SLING across her waist and shoulder. He lights a smaller flair and hands it to her before disappearing.Hana stands holding the flare. She can't see Kip, can only hear him scrambling. HANA Kip?He runs up the sandbags, right up into the rafters. He collects the other end of the rope which is attached to Hana. Holding onto it, he just STEPS OFF INTO THE DARKNESS.SIMULTANEOUSLY HANA IS SWUNG UP INTO THE AIR, her startled yelp echoing around the Church. Kip touches ground, while Hana swings through space, coming to rest about three feet from the FRESCOED WALLS, painted by Piero Della Francesca. Hana's flare makes a halo around her head.Now Kip, on the ground, still holding the rope, walks forward and causes Hana to SWING to the right. She lets out a giddy laugh, exhilarated and nervous, and she flies, illuminating - en passant - faces, bodies, angels. Kip guides the rope as if they were making love, which in a way they are.Hana arrives, hovering, in front of THE QUEEN OF SHEBA TALKING TO SOLOMON. She's overwhelmed. She reaches out to touch the giant neck of the sad Queen.Kip slowly lets her down, paying out the length of the rope. Hana's face is full of tears. He smiles, holds her.140 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. EVENING.Caravaggio is with the Patient. He sits in the window. Fiddles with the bandages of his hands. THE PATIENT There was a general who wore a patch over a perfectly good eye. The men fought harder for him. Sometimes I think I could get up and dance. What's under your bandages?Caravaggio goes to him, holding out his hands, the bandage ends trailing. CARAVAGGIO Hold the ends.The Patient holds them. Caravaggio walks backwards, the bandages unraveling and unraveling. 141*. INT. TOBRUK. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS. JUNE 1942. DAY.Caravaggio, thumbs intact and wearing a crumpled linen suit, walks through the mangled corridors of British HQ. Smoke is rising from buildings, the ominous scream of Stuka dive-bombers in the distance as the harbor is pounded, the steady thud of explosions. TOBRUK IS UNDER SIEGE. BHQ is a place in the throws of dismantling itself. SECRETARIES are visiting braziers manned by ARAB BOYS who stoke the fires as boxes of papers are fed into them. ASHES hover in the air.142*. INT. BHQ. TOBRUK. DAY.Caravaggio walks through a large room crowded with desks. From one of them, a young woman, AICHA, kisses him, frowning at the chaos and the shelling. AICHA He's waiting for you.Some doors are open, revealing men and women in uniform urgently SHREDDING DOCUMENTS. Caravaggio knocks at an office whose door is ajar and where the incumbent, FENELON-BARNES, is stripping the room of his personal possessions- photographs, stone branches, a cricket bat.142a*. INT. FENELON-BARNES OFFICE. BHQ. TOBRUK. DAY.Caravaggio enters. FENELON-BARNES (barely looking up) What a bloody flap, eh? I heard from Alexandria this morning - apparently no-one there is accepting British pounds. And if you pick up a telephone everybody's practicing their German. (holds up some gramophone records) What do you do - do you take these things? (then, awkward) Look, Moose, we need you to stay in Tobruk. A bit of a short straw but the thinking is we'll be back - I mean, we will be back - but...and in the interim we need eyes and ears on the ground.A BIG BOMB lands nearby. The building shudders and plaster dust drops from the ceiling. Almost oblivious, the two men head out of the office. Fenelon-Barnes lugs the TRUNK last glimpsed in his tent by Almásy, until Caravaggio takes over.143*. INT. CORRIDOR OF BRITISH HEADQUARTERS. TOBRUK. DAY.Fenelon-Barnes and Caravaggio make their way down the stairs and to the entrance. CARAVAGGIO We have 30, 000 troops in Tobruk. What are they going to be doing? FENELON-BARNES (continuing to pack) Giving Rommel a bloody nose. That's my suggestion. But did you hear the BBC last nigh? Tobruk is of no strategic importance - makes you wonder.AICHA is at the bottom of the stairs. She falls into step. FENELON-BARNES Jerry's got our maps you know. Swines. Before the war we helped them run about the desert making maps - and now they get spies into Cairo using our maps, they'll get Rommel into Cairo using our maps. The whole of the desert like a bus route and we gave it to them. Any foreigner who turned up - welcome to the Royal Geographic, take our maps. Madox went mad, you know - you knew Peter Madox? - after he found out he'd been betrayed by his friend. Absolutely destroyed the poor sod. Shot himself in a church in Dorset.Caravaggio opens the door, Fenelon-Barnes goes through.144*. EXT. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS. TOBRUK. DAY.The Fenelon-Barnes trunk is taken from Caravaggio and joins the pile of luggage and artifacts, which wait to be shipped out. FENELON-BARNES I'd like to get that bastard Almásy - settle the score, eh? That's my fantasy - said he, clearing out. Must have been a spy all along.145 DELETED.146*. EXT. TOBRUK DOCKSIDE. DAY.A GERMAN TROOP CARRIER rumbles forward passing a line of BEDRAGGLED BRITISH POWS as they're marched along the side of harbor.146a*. EXT. TOBRUK RUINED QUARTER. DAY.A HILL OF SALVAGED ARMY BOOTS is being explored by a couple of GERMAN SOLDIERS in search of better footwear. Below them the POWS trudge by, one of them barefoot. ONE OF THE GERMANS tosses down a pair of boots then continues his own perusal.146b*. EXT. TOBRUK SQUARE. DAY.A crowd of Tobruk CIVILIANS - French and Italians among the MOSTLY ARAB FACES. Their papers are being thoroughly checked by officers sitting at open desks. IN A LINE, WEARING HIS SHABBY SUIT, IS CARAVAGGIO. AN ARAB WOMAN in front of him is arguing over the identity of her ominously CAUCASIAN-LOOKING CHILD. An INTERPRETER mediates. The OFFICER doesn't believe the woman. She's getting frantic at the possibility of losing her child.Suddenly there's a disturbance as a WOMAN is dragged along the line by her hair. She's bloodied, and has been tortured, and it's hard to recognize her as the pretty AICHA. She touches a couple of people in the line. They're horrified. Soldiers pull them away. Caravaggio doesn't look, stares straight ahead. An officer watches him AS HE TURNS BRIEFLY AND HELPLESSLY OUT OF CONCERN FOR HER. THEIR EYES CATCH FOR AN INSTANT AND THE OFFICER SEES IT.CARAVAGGIO RUNS, bolts for cover, vaulting the rubble which blocks one corner of the square. The CONGREGATION throws itself to the ground until the square has only standing soldiers and a running man.146c*. EXT. TOBRUK. INTERIOR OF RUINED BUILDING. DAY.Shots pursue Caravaggio as he disappears behind the rubble, then bobs up again as he darts inside a blasted building. He clambers up some ruined stairs, heaves over the wall.146d*. EXT. TOBRUK. FACADE OF RUINED BUILDING. DAY.CARAVAGGIO grabs a metal bar on the facade of the building, from which he hangs, looking for the next foothold. Soldiers appear along the top of the building, shouting, rifles ready. AN OFFICER arrives and stops the soldiers firing, and the others begin to laugh as Caravaggio hangs from the bar fifteen feet above a balcony, slowly losing his strength. Another SOLDIER waits for him in the balcony below. Now he starts to laugh. Caravaggio hangs.147*. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. TOBRUK. NOVEMBER 13,1942. DAY.Caravaggio is slumped at a table, HIS HANDS MANACLED TO ITS THICK WOODEN LEGS. There's A TELEPHONE at another table in the corner of the room attended by a CLERK with A STENOGRAPHER working next to him. The room has stone walls which appear damp, and no windows. SOLDIERS stand guard at the door. It's a horrible room. Caravaggio is trying to sleep, he's unshaven, and pasty-looking. His interrogator, Müller, seems incredibly tired and aggravated. He's on the phone. MÜLLER (in German) Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.He slams down the phone and comes back to the table. MÜLLER David Caravaggio. CARAVAGGIO No. MÜLLER Petty thief, six months imprisonment Kingston Penitentiary, 1937. CARAVAGGIO (barely with humor) I keep explaining. You've got the wrong man. My name is Bellini - Antonio Bellini. Bellini, Caravaggio, both painters, I think that is confusing you.Müller doesn't even pay attention, he's going through a file. Pulls out some photographs, starts spreading them out. MÜLLER Is this you? CARAVAGGIO I don't know. MÜLLER It is you. This was taken in Cairo at British Headquarters - July 41. And so was this - August 41. And this -February 42. CARAVAGGIO It's impossible. I was buying or selling something. I've been to Cairo many times. MÜLLER You are a Canadian spy working for the Allies. Code-name Moose.THE PHONE rings again, is answered. The Clerk calls to Müller who gets up, irritably. Caravaggio addresses the room. CARAVAGGIO Could I have a doctor? I am passing blood. I must be bleeding internally. (to the clerk) Can you get a doctor? Look - (he spits onto the table,there's blood in his mouth) I'm leaking blood. (he indicates a Guard) He kicks me. He kicks me all the time.Nobody responds. Müller is irascible on the phone, checking his watch, negotiating time. The call finishes. CLERK (in German) He's asking for a doctor. MÜLLER (to Caravaggio) You want a doctor? CARAVAGGIO Yes, I've been asking for weeks, a month, I don't know, also my leg was - MÜLLER We don't have a doctor, but we do have a nurse. CARAVAGGIO A nurse? Well, sure, a nurse is great. A nurse? Great.Müller nods at the Clerk, who instantly gets up. Just then the telephone rings again. He hesitates. MÜLLER (in German) Leave it and get the nurse!The Clerk exits. The phone rings. The Stenographer is plagued by flies. Suddenly he slaps at one. MÜLLER (snapping) Why is there so much nose? I can't hear myself think! (turns to Caravaggio) Look - give me something. So we can all get out of this room. A name. A code. (wiping his face) It's too hot. CARAVAGGIO I slept with the girl. I've got a wife in Tripoli. A girl comes up and points at you, you only see trouble.The NURSE comes in. She is Arab and her head is covered. MÜLLER I'll tell you what I'm going to do. This is your nurse, by the way. She's Moslem, so she'll understand all of this. What's the punishment for adultery? Let's leave it at that. You're married and you were fucking another woman, so that's - is it the hands that are cut off? Or is that for stealing? Does anyone know?There's silence. Müller turns to Caravaggio. MÜLLER Well, you must know. You were brought up Libya, yes? CARAVAGGIO Don't cut me. MÜLLER Or was it Toronto? CARAVAGGIO (ashen) Don't cut me. Come on.Now the phone starts again. The CLERK picks it up, there's a terse exchange, he puts the receiver on the desk, waits for the moment to interrupt Müller. MÜLLER Ten fingers. How about this? You give me a name for every finger - doesn't matter who. I get something, you keep something. I'm trying to be reasonable. Fenelon-Barnes, we could call that two names. (pauses, suddenly puzzled) Are thumbs fingers? (in GERMAN to the others) Is a thumb a finger?No response. Müller opens his palms to Caravaggio. MÜLLER I get no help from these people. CLERK (in German) The telephone -Müller walks over, takes the receiver and slams it down. an AIR RAID SIREN is going off somewhere, and now the faint sound of explosions is also discernible, but all muffled in this room with the steady clack-clack of the STENOGRAPHER. At that moment, Müller suddenly becomes aware of what is happening. He turns on the Stenographer. MÜLLER (in German) What are you doing? STENOGRAPHER (awkward, in German) That Geneva Convention. I'm - Müller peremptorily rips out the paper, throws it on the floor. CARAVAGGIO You can't do that! Hey - come on!DURING THIS Müller's gone to the table, pulled out a drawer and produced A CUT-THROAT RAZOR. He hands it to the nurse, makes a line across his own left thumb and jerks his head towards Caravaggio. The nurse is extremely reluctant. Müller claps his hands, pushes her towards Caravaggio. MÜLLER Go! Hey! Go!Caravaggio is in terror. CARAVAGGIO Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus Christ.The guards come away from the door and press down on Caravaggio's shoulders to prevent him from moving. The nurse, grim-faced, approaches, kneels at the table. CARAVAGGIO (as she prepares to cut) Listen, I'll give you a name. What name did you say? I knew them! I promise. Please - please!And then he SCREAMS AND SCREAMS and jerks up, carrying the guards and the table with him, all heaving off the ground, the nurse thrown off balance. He falls to the floor, ROARING WITH PAIN, blood everywhere, the table on top of him. The AIR RAID is continuing outside, the PHONE IS RINGING, the nurse stands, pale, blood all over her uniform. MÜLLER Cut the other thumb.He stabs at his own right thumb. MÜLLER This one! Come on!The nurse, horrified, shakes her head. Müller snatches the razor from her and heads towards the prostate Caravaggio.One Guard has got to his feet and grips Caravaggio around the neck in half-nelson, others holding his legs, while Müller approaches. Caravaggio can't move. He's gurgling as the Guard almost strangles him. His eyes are streaming with tears.Now Müller is at his other hand, and the ROAR of pain again lifts Caravaggio to his feet, THE WHOLE TABLE RISING IN THE AIR, his mutilated hands slipping from the handcuffs lie Houdini, the drawers of the table SPILLING their contents everywhere, before he sinks to his knees like a gored bull and BLACKS OUT.148 INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. TOBRUK. DAY.LATER, and Caravaggio comes round. His eyes open and then his face spasms with pain. He looks down at his ruined hands, then realizes he's alone on the floor of the room, the papers still scattered, the table on its side. He gets up and staggers out of the open door and up the stairs.149*. INT. STAIRS FROM INTERROGATION ROOM. TOBRUK. DAY. The corridor is deserted, but the body of a GERMAN SOLDIER sprawls on the stairs leading up to daylight. Outside Caravaggio can hear fighting.150*. EXT. ROOF. INTERROGATION BUILDING. DAY.Caravaggio walks unsteadily along the roof of the building. Grey and yellow gusts of smoke and the rat-ta-tat-tat of machine gun fire accompany him, and there's the sound of vehicles screeching and people shouting nearby, but no visual clues as to what's happening.SUDDENLY A PARACHUTE FLOATS DOWN BY HIM. THEN ANOTHER. THEN ANOTHER. HE'S SURROUNDED BY PARACHUTES. THE BRITISH ARE RECLAIMING TOBRUK. A PARATROOPER LANDS ON THE ROOF, AND GESTURES TO CARAVAGGIO TO RAISE HIS HANDS. HE SLOWLY DOES SO.151*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.Caravaggio stands in front of the bed, holding up his NAKED HANDS to the Patient, like a man surrendering - two flaps like gills where his thumbs were. The Patient reaches out to take his hands and gently lowers them. Caravaggio finds his bandages, start to wrap them back round his fists. CARAVAGGIO The man who took my thumbs, I found him eventually - he's dead. The man who took my photograph, I found him too - that took me a year. He's dead. Another man took that man across the desert to Cairo. Now I intend to find him.The LIGHTS FROM THE MOTORBIKE approaching the Monastery, its growl. Caravaggio goes to the window and watches as Kip and Hana arrive.152 INT. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. CAIRO, 1939. NIGHT.Last seen at the Troops Christmas party, the INNER COURTYARD has been transformed into an elegant outdoor banquet, with band. The Almásy/Madox team is assembled for A FAREWELL DINNER. They are waiting for Almásy to arrive, his seat conspicuously empty. He is very late. And then he's there, dangerous drunk, terribly dashing. He practically dances to his chair, which he drags violently away from its position opposite Katharine. He bows to Lady Hampton. ALMÁSY I believe I'm rather late. MADOX (ignoring the drama of this entrance) Good, we're all here? A toast, to the International Sand club - may it soon resurface. THE OTHERS The International Sand Club! ALMÁSY (raising his glass) Misfits, buggers, fascists, and paedophiles. God bless us every one.The others drink, trying to ignore his mood. ALMÁSY Oops! Mustn't say International. Dirty word. Filthy word. His Majesty! Die Führer! Il Duce. CLIFTON Sorry, what's your point? ALMÁSY (ignoring the remark) And the people here don't want us. Are you kidding? The Egyptians are desperate to get rid of the Colonials... (to an embarrassed Fouad) - isn't that right? Their best people get down on hands and knees begging to be spared a knighthood. (to his host, Sir Hampton) Isn't that right?Ronnie Hampton shrugs. They're all very uncomfortable. Almásy glares at Clifton. ALMÁSY What's my point? (standing up) Oh! I've invented a new dance - the Bosphorus Hug. Anybody up to it? Madox? D'Ag? Come on D'Aggers. D'AGOSTINO Let's eat first. Sit down.The Band is now playing Manhattan - Almásy, without missing a beat, begins to sing, replacing the words with alternatives he knows. He lurches around. Katharine can't look at him. ALMÁSY ...We'll bathe at Brighton, the fish we'll frighten when we're in. your bathing suit so thin will make the shellfish grin, fin to fin. -- Those were the words - actually - before they were cleaned up. Could be a song for you, Mrs. Clifton - (a perfect English accent) #NAME?Madox gets up and pulls Almásy into his chair, taking charge. MADOX Look, either shut up, or go home. ALMÁSY (darkly) Absolutely right, shut up. Lashings of apologies all round.153*. EXT. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. NIGHT.Later, now MOST OF THE GROUP ARE DANCING. We see Katharine dancing with Rupert Douglas, enjoying herself. Bermann is there and even Madox jogging and grinning foolishly. Clifton looks at Katharine who, as the dance ends, excuses herself to go to the cloakroom. Almásy hovers in the shadows, unseen.154*. INT. AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE. NIGHT.Katharine comes along the familiar warren of rooms and corridors and is suddenly confronted by Almásy, tortured and out of control. ALMÁSY Why did you hold his collar? KATHARINE What? ALMÁSY (mimicking her inflection) What? What? That boy, that little boy, you were holding his collar, gripping his collar, what for? KATHARINE Would you let me pass? ALMÁSY Is he next? Do you drag him into your little room? Where is it? Is this it? KATHARINE Don't do this. ALMÁSY I've watched you - on verandahs, at Garden Parties, at the Races - how can you stand there? How can you ever smile? As if your life hadn't capsized? KATHARINE You know why?He tries to hold her. She resists ALMÁSY Dance with me. KATHARINE No. ALMÁSY Dance with me. I want to touch you. I want the things which are mine. Which belong to me. KATHARINE Do you think you're the only one who feels anything? Is that what you think?Some women, flushed with dancing, turn the corner on the way to the Ladies Room. They collect Katharine in their train and leave Almásy to fall back into the shadows.155 INT. THE PATIENTS' ROOM. NIGHT.Hana sits with the Patient. His eyes are full of tears. He opens them, sees her, watching over him. He's embarrassed. THE PATIENT Why don't you go? (wiping his eyes) You should sleep. HANA Would you like me to?He nods. She gets up, touches his hand, then leaves.156*. INT. THE MONASTERY, LANDING AND STAIRS. NIGHT.Hana leaves the room, then turns and sees A TINY LAMP on the floor, it's made from a SNAIL SHELL and oil. She bends to it curiously, then sees a second lamp half-way down the stairs, then a third further down. She smiles in the light, then follows the trail.157 EXT. THE MONASTERY CLOISTERS. NIGHT.In the Cloisters THE TRAIL OF SHELL LAMPS CONTINUES, like tiny cat's eyes. As they reach the hopscotch chalk marks, they outline the squares. Hana HOPSCOTCHES and then follows the light, disappearing round a corner.158 INT. THE MONASTERY STABLES. NIGHT.Hana comes through into the stables. The lamps lead her, then they stop. She peers into the shadows. KIP (O/S) Hana.She turns to the voice. He steps out of the darkness. HANA (happy ) Kip.And he goes to her.159 EXT. THE MONASTERY STABLES. EARLY MORNING.Hardy knocks cautiously on the door of the stables. Eventually Hana opens the door. HARDY I was looking for the Lieutenant Singh. HANA He's sleeping. HARDY Only we have to go to work. HANA I'll tell him. What is it? Is it a mine? HARDY A bomb. At the Viaduct.She closes the door, then reappears. HANA Does he have to go? HARDY Pardon me? HANA What if you couldn't find him...? (Hardy's bewildered) Sergeant, not today, please. Not this morning.Kip comes to the door, winding his turban. KIP What's happening? Am I needed? HARDY I'm afraid so, sir.Kip hurries to his tent. Hana follows him. HANA Don't go. I'm frightened. I can love a coward, I can't love another dead man. KIP This is what I do. I do this every day.And he's ready, Hardy having wheeled out their motorcycles. He gets on his, and they're away, Hana hardly able to look.160 EXT. A VIADUCT NORTH OF THE MONASTERY. DAY.KIP IS LOWERED BY A PULLEY INTO THE SHAFT THE SAPPERS HAVE MADE AROUND THE BOMB. Hardy supervises. The bombs huge - 2, 000 lbs, and protrudes ostrich-like from the pit, its nose sunk into a pool of sludge at the base of the viaduct.Kip steps off and sinks knee deep in mud, grunting in disgust. Warily, he touches his huge opponent, feeling the condition of the case. He wipes the metal. Reveals a serial number, calls it out to Hardy, who's perched on the bank. KIP Serial number - KK-1P2600.He's hypnotized by the number: KK-1P: a bomb with his name on it.161 EXT. ROAD APPROACHING VIADUCT. DAY.Hana cycles along on Caravaggio's bicycle. A TANK comes roaring up behind her, then a second and a third, loaded up with people, citizens and soldiers, and children, waving flags and gesticulating. She lets the metal circus go by.162 INT. BOMB SHAFT. DAY.Back in the shaft, Kip works away, his fingers shaking with the cold from the oxygen he's using to freeze the fuse. Suddenly there's a VIOLENT TREMOR. The ground is SHUDDERING, and the bomb slips horribly. Kip GRABS AT IT helplessly as if trying to stop a man from falling, instead it falls on him pushing him into the sludge. KIP Hardy! Hardy! What's happening?!163 EXT. VIADUCT. DAY.The TANKS are rumbling towards the Viaduct. HORNS start sounding. HARDY, below, bellows at his men above for explanation. HARDY Corporal!? Dade!! DADE Tanks, sir. Don't know what it's about. God only knows. HARDY (incredulous) What is this - a bloody carnival? Stop them!Three Sappers run across the bridge towards the oncoming procession. They wave their orange flags, the tanks wave back wit their flags - Stars and Stripes, Union Jacks. Now SHOTS are ringing out. In the shaft, oblivious, Kip slides out from under the bomb, the oxygen spurting everywhere, all over his clothes, hissing on the surface of the water. Hardy bends into the shaft, heedless of his own safety. HARDY You've got to cut, sir, that frost won't last. KIP Go away. HARDY Yessir. KIP This is making me incredibly angry.He rubs his hands to warm them up, locates his needle pliers and slips them through the tiny gap. His hand touches the casing and the freeze BURNS his hand. He jerks back, DROPPING THE PLIERS into the sludge, cursing.Now he's on his hands and knees in the sludge, trying frantically to find the pliers. Hardy looks at his watch, he can't help. The seconds run out as Kip grovels in the mud. Totally submerged, he suddenly comes out with the pliers, goes straight to the fuse, no finesse, and cuts. There's a snip. Then nothing. Then Kip laughs at Hardy. KIP Kiss me.Hardy is already at the winch, hauling it up. Kip can hardly clip on the halter - his hands numb and burned. As the pulley jerks he just clings on, rising from the grip of the mud like an ancient corpse out of a bog.The other sappers have gathered around the edge of the site. Great elation on their faces. HARDY Get a blanket! (not getting attention) Dade! Get the Lieutenant a blanket. DADE It's over, Sarge. It's over. Jerry's surrendered. (to Kip) Sir, congratulations!Kip shakes his hand. Kip shakes Hardy's hand. KIP Congratulations. And now they're all shaking hands, and slapping backs and the SOLDIERS FROM THE TANKS are there and the victory celebrations begin. Kip's blank, drained, not taking anything in, as Dade wraps a blanket around his shoulders.HANA'S ON TOP OF THE VIADUCT, watching as Kip is wrapped in his blanket, the men celebrating. She shouts with relief from the top of the bridge. HANA Kip!164 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT. A VICTORY CELEBRATION PARTY.The gramophone plays Frank Sinatra. Kip sits in the window, the shutters open, the village lit up behind his head, nodding to the music, sucking out of his condensed milk. Elsewhere there is an open bottle of cognac, some wine. The Patient has a beaker of wine. Caravaggio is dancing with Hana. HANA Kip - come and dance with me KIP (a sly wobble of the head) Yes. Later.Caravaggio swirls past the Patient - nodding at the cognac. CARAVAGGIO Have a drink. THE PATIENT I've had a drink. Fatal. CARAVAGGIO Well, anything you do is likely to be fatal, so you know - THE PATIENT Very true!165 EXT. VILLAGE SQUARE. NIGHT.A tiny PIAZZA where the Sappers and the Villagers are having their own, more raucous, Victory Feste. There are accordions, there's dancing, and there's HARDY, stripped to some exotic underpants, a large tattoo: DORIS inside a heart, clambering up the EQUESTRIAN STATUE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOUNTAIN. He's astride the horse and now straining to get up to the tip of the outstretched sword, so that he can hang the UNION JACK FLAG he has in his mouth.BLACKLER, one of the Sappers, is Hardy's assistant. He's drunk and slips from his ladder, falling flat on his back into the fountain with a great splash, to much hilarity. 166 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.Hana and Caravaggio are still dancing. The music has stopped. Caravaggio changes the record. Hana goes to Kip for a second, beaming, before Caravaggio has snatched her away again. The Patient taps along to the music. THE PATIENT Who knows the Bosphorus Hug? HANA Never heard of it. THE PATIENT That was a dance we invented at the International Sand Club. CARAVAGGIO (cryptic) What? You and Madox? Or you and Katharine Clifton? THE PATIENT (a small laugh) What?There's a muddled thud in the distance, Kip's ears prick up. He glances for an instant out of the window. HANA (anxious, of the noise) What was that?She is spinning with Caravaggio. When she comes round again, Kip has gone.167 EXT. VILLAGE SQUARE. ITALY 1945. NIGHT. Kip's motorbike skids into the tiny PIAZZA.A MILITARY AMBULANCE IS ALREADY THERE. Dade and SPALDING are presiding as the paramedics take two bodies into the rear of the truck. The shattered fountain, the sluiced flagstones, shining wet and slick, give some clues as to what's happened, as do the elderly standing in the shadows, the distressed girls, arm in arm. ONE GIRL, young and quite striking, is particularly inconsolable, her grief sobbed out at the doors of the ambulance.SPALDING salutes Kip, who waves his salute away, just wanting to know what happened. SPALDING Booby trap. They was running up the Union Jack, sir, up off that statue - It just went off. DADE Should have been me. It was my idea but Sergeant Hardy climbed up, sir, him and Blackler.Kip goes to the ambulance. Spalding tries to stop him. SPALDING Sir - you don't want to look.Kip steps into the back of the ambulance, bends over both bodies, does look, then comes out, past the weeping girl. KIP Who's that girl? DADE His fiancee, sir. KIP (astonished) Hardy's? DADE Kept it a bit dark.168 EXT. THE MONASTERY. APPROACHING DAWN.Kip has pulled out all of Hardy's gear. Now he starts on the tent. Hana comes out into the step. Kip turns, his eyes brimming, sees her, sighs, then turns back and kicks at the pegs, collapsing the tent.Now he's trying to fold a shirt. Hana takes it from him. She folds it. Then together they start to fold the tent, Kip orchestrating, not wanting to talk. Finally, Kip looks at Hana, stiff with emotion. KIP I was thinking yesterday - yesterday! - the Patient, Hardy: they're everything that's good about England. I couldn't even say what that was. We didn't exchange two personal words, and we've been together through some terrible things, some - (incredulous) he was engaged to a girl in the village! - I mean - (looks at Hana) and us - he never once... He didn't ask me if I could spin the ball at cricket or the kamasutra or - I don't even know what I'm talking about. HANA You loved him.169*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. EVENING.Caravaggio, reading Dante aloud in Italian, smoking, walks over to the window, looks out.169*. EXT. KIP'S TENT. EVENING.Hana is approaching Kip's tent, carrying a light. She ducks inside the tent and the light disappears.169b*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. EVENING.Caravaggio turns back into the room, towards the Patient, still reading.170 INT. KIP'S TENT. NIGHT.Hana lies over Kip, unraveling his turban, slowly, sensual. HANA If one night I didn't come to the tent, what would you do? KIP I try not to expect you. HANA But if it got late and I hadn't shown up? KIP Then I'd think there must be a reason. HANA You wouldn't come to find me? (Kip shrugs) That makes me never want to come here.But she continues unraveling the turban. HANA Then I tell myself he spends all day searching, in the night he wants to be found.171*. EXT. BASECAMP AT THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. 1939. DAY.The Expedition Team is packing up the Basecamp. Madox and Almásy are loading things into the plane. FOUAD, AL AUF and others work at the cars. MADOX Had a letter from my wife. The wisteria is still out, which I'm looking forward to. She says Dorset is gripped with Invasion Fever. Wrong coast I should have thought, still... ALMÁSY Right. MADOX Bermann thinks he'll be interned, poor fellow. I'm going to do what I can, but... And D'Ag turns out to be a great admirer of Mussolini. So now you can say I told you so. ALMÁSY I told you so. MADOX We didn't care about countries. Did we? Brits, Arabs, Hungarians, Germans. None of that mattered, did it? It was something finer than that. ALMÁSY Yes. It was. Thanks for the compass. I'll look after it for you. MADOX (shrugging this off) When's Clifton picking you up? ALMÁSY Tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry. I'll be ready. MADOX I'll leave the plane in the hangar at Kufra Oasis. So if you need it...hard to know how long one's talking about. We might all be back in a month or two.Madox kneels and takes A HANDFUL OF SAND, puts it into his pocket. He throws his haversack into the plane then turns. Almásy puts out a hand. This is a moment of great emotional weight for them both, conducted as if nothing were happening. MADOX I have to teach myself not to read too much into everything. Comes of too long having to read so much into hardly anything at all. ALMÁSY Goodbye, my friend.They shake hands. MADOX May God make safety your companion. ALMÁSY (a tradition) There is no God. (smiles) But I hope someone looks after you.Madox clambers into his plane, then remembers something, jabs at his throat. MADOX In case you're still wondering - this is called the supasternal notch.Almásy nods, goes to the propeller. MADOX Come and visit us in Dorset. When all this nonsense is over. (then shrugs) You'll never come to Dorset.The plane roars into life. Almásy watches it taxi away - then heads back to continue with his packing up.172*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.MADOX SHOOTS HIMSELF BEHIND THE ALTAR IN THE ROOM. The Patient's stertorous breathing, each intake accompanied by a small noise, a note, suddenly stops. Then steadies again. He appears to be alone.173 EXT. GARDEN. NIGHT.Kip is in the tent, looking out of the flap, waiting for Hana.174*. INT. THE MONASTERY KITCHEN. NIGHT.Kip walks in looking for Hana.174a*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.Kip enters, sees Hana is not with the Patient, hears his uneven breathing, then goes out. From the shadows of the room, CARAVAGGIO shifts position. He's slumped on the floor, staring at the man prone in the bed.174b*. INT. HANA'S ROOM. NIGHT.Into her bedroom, Kip can't find her there either. He turns to go, walking down the wooden stairs, until her voice stops him in his tracks. She's in the shadows of the eaves. HANA Sometimes I need you to find me.175*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.The Patient's eyes open to see Caravaggio at the morphine. THE PATIENT Hana tells me you're leaving. CARAVAGGIO (preparing the injection) There are going to be trials, they want me to interpret, don't they know I'm allergic to courtrooms? THE PATIENT We shall miss you.He delivers the injection. The Patient sighs. Caravaggio takes off his jacket. A pistol is stuck in his waistband. The Patient sees it. CARAVAGGIO So, I come across the Hospital Convoy (holds up the syringe) I was looking for this stuff, and some nurse, Mary, Hana's friend, tells me about you and Hana, hiding in a monastery, in purdah, whatever it is - retreat - (he administers his own injection, using his teeth grip the sleeve) how you'd come in from the Desert and you were burned and you didn't know your name but you knew the words to every song there was and you had one possession - (picks it up) #NAME? full of letters and cuttings, and then I knew it must be you. THE PATIENT Me? CARAVAGGIO I'd seen you writing in that book. At the Embassy in Cairo, when I had thumbs and you had a face. And a name. THE PATIENT I see. CARAVAGGIO Before you went over to the Germans, before you got Rommel's spy across the desert and inside British headquarters. He took some pretty good photographs - I saw mine in that torture room in Tobruk, so they made an impression. THE PATIENT And you thought you'd come and settle the score? CARAVAGGIO You were the only man who knew the desert well enough, the only man who would cross seventeen hundred miles of nothing. THE PATIENT I had to get back to the desert. I made a promise. The rest meant nothing to me. CARAVAGGIO What did you say? THE PATIENT The rest meant nothing to me. CARAVAGGIO There was a result to what you did. It wasn't just another expedition. (holds up hands) It did this. If the British hadn't unearthed your nosey photographer in Cairo thousands of people could have died. THE PATIENT Thousands of people did die, just different people. CARAVAGGIO But you were among the British, they were your friends - why betray them? THE PATIENT (a bitter laugh) Is that what you thought? That I betrayed the British? The British betrayed me. The British betrayed me.176*. EXT. BASECAMP AT CAVE OF SWIMMERS. 1939. DAY.Almásy sits on a ridge transferring map of information from his Herodotus onto a sheet of paper. He looks up at the sound of Clifton's approaching Steerman. He folds up the map and sticks it inside one of Clifton's CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES and lodges it between the rocks. 176a*. INT. STEERMAN. DAY.Clifton is flying the STEERMAN up to Gilf Kebir. From the air it's possible to make out Almásy scrambling down from the ridge towards where the stones indicate a landing area, carrying the last of the materials from the Cave of Swimmers. Almásy waves in recognition and welcome.177 EXT. BASECAMP AT THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.Almásy watches as the plane drops towards him, shielding his eyes against the sun. the plane bounces along the runway, not quite landing. Almásy continues packing the equipment.Almásy looks up to see the plane swerve, now suddenly HEADING STRAIGHT TOWARDS HIM. He's completely vulnerable, nowhere to run. He dives at the ground. THE PLANE SMASHES AGAINST AN INVISIBLE RIDGE AND TURNS OVER AND OVER, the wings snapping off like twigs as it hurtles past the prostrate Almásy. He gets to his feet and starts to run towards the wreckage.A blue line of smoke is uncoiling from the plane, but no fire. Almásy pulls away the debris to find GEOFFREY - SLUMPED, NECK BROKEN, BLOODY. He tries to move him, and in the process reveals, to his ABSOLUTE horror, KATHARINE, STARING GRIMLY AHEAD, UNABLE TO MOVE. He's frantic. ALMÁSY Katharine! Oh dear God, Katharine - what are you doing here? KATHARINE (eyes rolling, an incredible weariness) I can't move. I can't get out.Almásy starts to pull at the wreck around her.DURING THIS - ALMÁSY Why did he bring you? KATHARINE A surprise, he said.Almásy inspects Clifton, tries to find a pulse. The smoke circles around them. Katharine looks at her husband. KATHARINE Poor Geoffrey. He knew. He must have known all the time. He was shouting - I love you, Katharine, I love you so much. Is he badly hurt? His neck is odd.Almásy puts his arm around Katharine to try and pull her clear. She can't stand the pain. KATHARINE Please don't move me. It hurts too much. ALMÁSY We've got to get you out of here. KATHARINE It hurts too much. ALMÁSY (can't bear to hurt her) I know, darling, I'm sorry.The smoke thickens. He pulls - hard - the pain from which causes Katharine to gasp, then pass out. They slip haphazardly to the ground, cushioned a little by the sand. He lifts her gently into his arms and carries her from the danger of the place, then turns and runs back. THE PLANE SUDDENLY ERUPTS IN FLAMES. Almásy dashes into the fire, disappearing into the smoke before emerging with Clifton over his shoulder, fireman's-lift style.178 EXT. THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.He has WRAPPED KATHARINE IN THE SILK FOLDS OF HER PARACHUTE and emerges from the near the familiar cleft in the rock, struggling with the exertion of the climb as they approach the Cave of Swimmers. He has a large water bottle slung around his neck and a haversack, and is loaded like a pack horse. Katharine opens her eyes. KATHARINE (whispering) Why did you hate me? ALMÁSY What? KATHARINE Don't you know you drove everybody mad? ALMÁSY Don't talk. KATHARINE (gasping) You speak so many bloody languages and you never want to talk.They stagger on. He suddenly notices a stain of gold at her neck. It's saffron, leaking from a silver THIMBLE which hangs from a black ribbon. ALMÁSY (overwhelmed) You're wearing the thimble. KATHARINE Of course. You idiot. I always wear it. I've always worn it. I've always loved you.Almásy CRIES as he walks - huge sobs, no words - convulsed with the pain of it. They approach the Cave.179*. INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.Almásy comes through in shadows, carrying Katharine, blocking out the light that pours into the entrance of the cave. Once inside, he sets her down incredibly gently, makes a bed of blankets and the parachute. He turns on his flashlight. KATHARINE It's so cold. ALMÁSY I know. I'm sorry. I'll make a fire. I'll be back. KATHARINE (panicking suddenly) Don't leave me! ALMÁSY I'm just going to find things for the fire.179a*. INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. TORCHLIGHT.Almásy returns with the stocks of ACACIA TWIGS the Expedition had cached. As he makes the fire, the light sends his shadow flitting across the walls. KATHARINE Shall we be all right? ALMÁSY Yes. Absolutely. KATHARINE (with a laugh) Oh dear. ALMÁSY (as he works) Listen to me, Katharine. You've broken your ankle and I'm going to have to try and bind it. I think your wrist might be broken, too - and some ribs, which is why it's hurting you to breathe. I'm going to have to walk to El Taj. Given all the traffic in the desert these days I should bump into one army or another before I reach there - or Fenelon-Barnes and his camel. And then I'll be back and we'll be fine, and I'll never leave you.The fire is lit and he comes over to her, kneels beside her. KATHARINE Do you promise? I wouldn't want to die here. I wouldn't want to die in the desert. I've always had a rather elaborate funeral in mind, with particular hymns. Very English. And I know exactly where I want to be buried. In our garden. Where I grew up. With a view of the sea. So promise me you'll come back for you. ALMÁSY I promise I'll come back. I promise I'll never leave you. And there's plenty of water and food. You can have a party.He kisses her tenderly. Pulls out his HERODOTUS and lays it beside her. Then he puts down the FLASHLIGHT. ALMÁSY And a good read. (of the flashlight battery) Don't waste it. KATHARINE Thank you. (clouds over) Will you bury Geoffrey? I know he's dead. ALMÁSY I'm sorry, Katharine. KATHARINE I know. ALMÁSY Every night I cut out my heart but in the morning it was full again.He's tearing strips from the parachute with his knife. As he starts to bind her wrist he gets her to talk, trying to distract her from the pain. ALMÁSY Tell me about your garden. KATHARINE (tries to focus) Our Garden, our garden - not so much the garden, but the copse alongside it, wild, a secret way plunging down to the shore and then nothing but water between you and France. The Devil's Chimney it was called - (he pulls tight on the binding) The Devil's Chimney, I don't know why. (he kisses her) Darling. My darling.180 EXT. THE DESERT. DUSK.ALMÁSY BURYING CLIFTON. He's dug a narrow trench, and now he goes to the body. Clifton's face is oil stained, bloody. Almásy takes his handkerchief and, pouring his precious water into it, CLEANS GEOFFREY'S FACE. THE PATIENT'S (O/S) Seventy miles, north - north west. I had Madox's compass. A man can walk in the desert as fast as a camel. That's about two and a half miles an hour.181 EXT. THE DESERT. NIGHT.Alamos's walking. He slides and collapses as he misjudges a dune, gets up, stumbles on. THE PATIENT (O/S) I stopped at noon and at twilight. Three days there, I told her, then three hours back by jeep. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back.182 EXT. THE DESERT. DAWN.He trudges on, his eyes opening and closing. He's singing to keep awake. Darktown Strutter's Ball. - I'll be down to get you in the taxi, honey... He does a little shuffle. Looks behind at the crazy trail of his footprints.182a*. EXT. THE CHOTT. DAWN.A vast flat expanse of dried salt lake. A remorseless horizon. Almasy walks, checking the compass, squinting at the sun. then he sees a cloud of dust traveling across the horizon. It comes closer moving at great speed, reveals itself. An OSTRICH.183 EXT. WELL. DAY.Almásy lowers himself by an old rope down into a gully. He approaches a pile of stones and removes them to reveal a brackish pool of filthy water. He drinks, pouring water over his head, grimacing at the taste, but parched too.184*. EXT. APPROACHING EL TAJ. DAY.Almásy gets his first sight of the fortress town of EL TAJ and sinks to his knees, in relief and exhaustion. Then he gets up and trudges towards the town. A CORPORAL with a rifle in his hands appears.184a*. INT. EL TAJ. DAY.The Corporal brings Almásy into a square. A young OFFICER appears from the shadows of his office. His JEEP is parked in the shade. OFFICER Good morning! ALMÁSY Could I trouble you for some water? OFFICER (registering the accented English) Yes, of course. (the Corporal has a water bottle,hands it to Almásy) So, golly, where have you come from? ALMÁSY (gulping the water) I desperately need a jeep. There's been an accident. OFFICER I see. ALMÁSY (brain racing) No, I'm not thinking clearly - I need a doctor too, to come with me, can I take this vehicle? I'll pay, of course - and some morphine and... (calculating) Seventy miles - I can be back here by dusk. OFFICER Do you have your papers, sir? ALMÁSY What? OFFICER If I could just see some identification. ALMÁSY Am I not talking sense? - forgive me, I'm, I've been walking, I've - there's a woman badly injured at Gilf Kebir, in the Cave of Swimmers. I am a member of the Royal Geographical Society. OFFICER Right. And what's your name, sir? ALMÁSY Count Laszlo de Almásy.The Officer is writing this down. A glance at his Corporal. OFFICER Almásy - would you mind just spelling that for me? What nationality would that be? ALMÁSY Look, listen to me. A woman is dying - my wife! - is dying seventy miles from here. I have been walking for three days! I don't want to spell my name, I want you to give me this jeep! OFFICER (writing) I understand you are agitated - perhaps you would like to sit down while I radio back to HQ - ALMÁSY (snapping) No! NO! Don't radio anybody, just give me the fucking jeep!Almásy sets on the Officer, hauling him by the lapels, but them immediately loses his balance. As he stumbles up he gets the stock of the Corporal's RIFLE across his head, KNOCKING HIM TO THE GROUND.185*. EXT. EL TAJ STREET. DAY.Almásy, head pounding, is in the back of the jeep, chained to the tailgate. He's desperate. The Corporal is driving. ALMÁSY (shouting hoarse) Hey! Hey! Stop this jeep! Let me out of here - there's a woman dying, there's a woman dying while I'm - Hey! CORPORAL Shut-up! ALMÁSY Please - I beg you, I beg you, I beg you, please listen to me, this is a terrible mistake. Just stop, please, and listen to me. My wife is dying. CORPORAL Listen, Fritz, if I have to listen to another word from you I'll give you a fucking good hiding. ALMÁSY Fritz? What are you talking about? Who's Fritz? CORPORAL That's your name innit? Count Fucking Arsehole Von Bismarck? What's that supposed to be then, Irish?Almásy, berserk, starts to yank at his chains, screaming. ALMÁSY Let me out, let me out, let me out - Katharine! Katharine!186 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. TORCHLIGHT.Katharine has been writing in the Herodotus. The torchlight FLICKERS. She shakes the torch. It FLICKERS again. Then goes out. Absolute BLACKNESS. The sound of her trembling breath.187*. EXT. A TRAIN. THE DESERT. DUSK.A TRAIN scuttles through the desert.187a*. INT. THE TRAIN. THE DESERT. DUSK.Almásy is HANDCUFFED to the metal grille of the goods compartment. He's lying down amongst a bunch of other prisoners and their little bundles of possessions in this makeshift cell - some Arabs, some Italians.A SERGEANT pushes a lavatory-bound prisoner along the corridor, leaving behind A YOUNG PRIVATE who sits on a packing case, with a rifle across his lap, reading a Penguin edition of Gulliver's Travels. Almásy is in complete despair to be on the train. He tries to move, but he's locked tight to the grille. He rattles the cuffs against the metal. ALMÁSY Excuse me. (the Soldier looks up) I also need to use the lavatory. SOLDIER You'll have to wait. (calls up the corridor) Sarge! Jerry wants to use the lav - says it's urgent. ALMÁSY Where are we going, please? SOLDIER To the coast. Benghazi. Soon be there. Get a boat home. You'll be all right.ALMÁSY CAN'T BEAR THIS NEWS. The SERGEANT returns. SERGEANT What's up? ALMÁSY Cramps. It's urgent. SERGEANT Go on then - you take him.188 INT. THE TRAIN CORRIDOR. THE DESERT. DAY.The Soldier pushes Almásy along the corridor. They arrive outside the lavatory. The Soldier is distracted for a split second. Enough for Almásy to ELBOW HIM savagely in the stomach, winding him, then he KICKS HIM REPEATEDLY in the head. He wraps his cuffs around the Soldier's neck and - yanking them together and twisting - produces a tiny, efficient and sickening snap.He finds the KEY to the handcuffs, unlocks them, grabs the soldier and drags him into the empty lavatory.189 INT. TRAIN. THE DESERT. EVENING.Almásy arrives at the rear of the train, passes the Kitchen carriage, where Arabs sweat over the boiler. He pulls open the back door only to surprise a GUARD, who's lolling casually, enjoying the sunset. Almásy SHOOTS HIM with his stole rifle. He clambers over the guard rail and leaps off the train - tumbling into the desert sunset.190 EXT. RAILWAY TRACK. THE DESERT. EVENING.Almásy, silhouetted against the evening sky, walks back down the track, THREE HUNDRED MILES AWAY from the dying Katharine Clifton, no way now of saving her. He is a tiny speck in the vast desert. His heart broken. He sinks to his knees in despair.191*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. NIGHT.The Patient is exhausted. He has said aloud what has tortured him. His failure to save Katharine. He looks at Caravaggio. THE PATIENT So yes. She died because of me. Because I loved her. Because I had the wrong name.192 INT. THE MONASTERY STABLES. DAY.Kip is working at a BLACKSMITH'S FORGE in the Stables. He is heating pieces of metal. He has arranged his material on a bench - a bayonet, a rifle, a piece of bomb casting. Hana enters, goes up, hugs him from behind. HANA What are you up to? KIP That gun at Lahor, Kipling's cannon - Zamzammah - remember? That was made out of the metal of ordinary things. I want to make an ordinary thing out of guns.His bayonet is thrust into the forge. It's red hot. KIP When I went to England I was amazed at what went on, the waste - I'd been taught to re-use everything, the dung from a cow to cool a radiator, a fork to fix a typewriter - India could live for a hundred years on what I saw thrown away. HANA I should go to the house, get breakfast. KIP The lamp was burning all night in his room. Caravaggio was there with him.She goes to kiss him. He is over the fire and protests. KIP This is hot! HANA (teasing him) Nya-nya-nya!193*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Caravagio is injecting the Patient with morphine. CARAVAGGIO And did you never see Katharine? You never got back to the Cave? THE PATIENT Yes, I got back there finally to keep my promise. To come back for her. And then of course I couldn't... I couldn't even do that properly.194 INT. THE MONASTERY STABLES. DAY.Kip hammers the metal into its new shape. He stops, distracted by something he's listening to on his crystal set. It's new he seems not to fully understand, about a bomb dropping on Japan. A NEW KIND OF BOMB.THE METAL GLOWS A VIVID RED ON THE ANVIL.Suddenly Kip slops it into the trough of water, sending a great hissing column of steam.195*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Caravaggio sits by the Patient. CARAVAGGIO You get to the morning and the poison leaks away, doesn't it? Black nights, fucking black nights, when you want to howl like a dog. I thought I would kill you. You killed my friends, you ruined my hands. But the girl was always here, like some Guardian Angel. THE PATIENT You can't kill me. I died years ago. CARAVAGGIO No, now I can't kill you.Kip storms into the room, walks straight up to the Patient and POINTS A GUN AT HIM. Caravaggio is taken by surprise. CARAVAGGIO Kip - what are - ? KIP Stay out of this. THE PATIENT Kip? KIP I looked up to you, Uncle. My brother always said I was a fool. Never trust the British, he said: the deal-makers, the map-makers; never shake hands with them. THE PATIENT What are you talking about? KIP What have I been doing all this time? Do you know how many mines I've seen? - more mines than there are soldiers, more - how many mines we've put in the ground ourselves, stuffed in corpses, dropped out of the sky. And now this.He approaches the bed. Caravaggio tries to intervene. CARAVAGGIO Kip, listen -Kip sings the rifle at him, KNOCKING HIM to the floor. KIP I said keep out of this!He pulls of his earphones and rams them around the Patient's head, dropping the set onto the bed. The Patient listens, coughing. KIP Can you hear? Can you hear what they're celebrating? I listened to you, Uncle. Sitting at your feet - always sitting at somebody's feet - trying to learn. The right way to hold a teacup, otherwise you're out, the pukkah knot in your tie - as if everything can be explained in terms of a cricket bat and an accent. CARAVAGGIO Kip - KIP Kip! - it's not even my name because you can't say it. Kirpal Singh Bhuller is my name.Hana runs in, alerted by the commotion, stunned by what she sees. CARAVAGGIO Well, then ask him his name! HANA (getting in between Kip and the Patient) What's happened? Kip! What's happening? Don't shoot, please, don't shoot anybody. KIP They're excited! They're happy about destroying a whole city. Would they do that to a White Man's City? Never! THE PATIENT (pulling off the earphones) Go on, do it. I don't need to hear any more. CARAVAGGIO Kip, listen, he lost everything because he wasn't English - Jesus! - shoot me, I'm more English than he is!Kip levels the gun at the Patient. Then breaks it open, throws it down on the bed, next to the earphones, from which the news continues to leak, some words audible - Eunola Gay... Hiroshima... and from different voices - It was beautiful! just beautiful! Bang! the biggest bang you ever saw!196 EXT. KIP'S TENT. LATE DAY.Hana approaches. Kip is inside the tent, the flap zipped. She sees his shadow move, then freeze as she calls his name. It's like a confessional. The flap between them, the man in shadows, Hana crouched, forlorn. HANA Kip. Kip. It's me. (no response) Why? It's another bomb. However big, what's the difference? There've been so many bombs. What about Coventry? What about Dresden? Where were those cities? (no response) I don't understand. Let me come in.The shadow doesn't move. Hana is at a loss.197 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. EVENING.The Patient becomes aware of something in the room, opens his eyes, squints into the darkness and sees A FIGURE hovering against the wall. He's in the Cave, he thinks, he's seeing the painted figures moving, he's seeing the Swimmer.KIP - bare chested, no turban, hair loose - stands in the shadows at the foot of the Patient's bed.198 INT. HANA'S ROOM. EVENING.Kip comes into the room. Hana sits in the corner. She is nervous of him, his look, his intensity. KIP Will you come with me? HANA Of course. When? KIP I mean home. India. HANA Kip... I - KIP (interrupting this) I know - here I am always a brown man, there you would be always a white woman. HANA Is that what you think? Is that what you think I think? KIP It's what I've learned. HANA I'm thinking about your heart, not your skin. And how to reach it. And that I don't think I can. A bomb has ruined us, just not the bomb I thought would ruin us.She stands, goes to him. HANA I've clung to you. I've clung to you. Kip. Life a raft. KIP (clinging to her) Then come with me.199 EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.Next morning and Kip has attached what he was making in the forge - A NEW HANDLE - to the pump. Now he works it, producing a steady stream of water. His motorbike is against the wall. He goes to it. Caravaggio is watching. He hugs Kip, wrapping his arms around the boy like a bear.199a*. EXT. HANA'S VEGETABLE GARDEN. DAY.HANA stands by her Vegetable Garden. Kip stops the motorbike. She goes to him, stands, FASTENS THE TOP BUTTON of his coat. You feel she might jump on the seat behind him. But she doesn't. HANA I'll always go back to that church. Look at my painting. KIP I'll always go back to that church. HANA So one day we'll meet.He nods, winds up the throttle, and is gone.200 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.Hana comes in carrying FLOWERS and sets them down on the table next to a clutch of MORPHINE AMPOULES. She picks up the hypodermic to prepare his injection. She takes a phial. THE PATIENT REACHES OUT AND PUSHES TWO MORE TOWARDS HER. THEIR EYES MEET, THEN HE SHOVELS ANOTHER, THEN ALL OF THEM. She looks at him. IT'S A MASSIVE, LETHAL DOSE.Hana starts to prepare the injection, her eyes filling with tears. The Patient nods, smiles, whispers. THE PATIENT Thank you. Thank you.She kisses him, gently on the mouth. He closes his eyes. THE PATIENT Read to me, will you? Read me to sleep.201*. EXT.(NEAR THE) BASECAMP. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. 1942. DAY.The familiar cleft in the rocks. A PLANE is coming in to land.202 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. TORCHLIGHT.A flashlight flickers in the cave. ALMÁSY APPEARS.KATHARINE'S CORPSE lies where he left her - a ghost on a bed of silk and blankets. The chill of the cave has preserved her. She could be asleep. She clutches the Herodotus. ALMÁSY Katharine, my darling.He sobs, whispering to her. He's terribly cold, exhausted. He slips underneath the covers to be next to her, and closes his eyes. ALMÁSY I'm so tired.203*. INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.The Patient is slipping away. Hana is reading from the last pages of the Herodotus where KATHARINE HAS WRITTEN IN THE MARGINS. HANA My darling, I'm waiting for you - how long is a day in the dark, or a week?The Patient looks across AND WHAT HE SEES IS KATHARINE BESIDE HIM IN THE BED, SMILING, STROKING HIS HEAD, SPEAKING TO HIM.204 INT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. FLASHLIGHT.Katharine is writing. The FLASHLIGHT is faint. She shivers. KATHARINE (O/S) ...the fire is gone now, and I'm horribly cold. I really ought to drag myself outside but then there would be the sun...She passes the flashlight across the wall, the painted figures dancing in the pale light. KATHARINE (O/S) I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words...205 INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.THE BED IS EMPTY, THE MATTRESS STRIPPED. Hana stands in the doorway, then sees THE HERODOTUS on the bedside table.She picks it up, goes to the page of Katharine's letter, continues to read. KATHARINE (O/S) We die, we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed...206*. EXT. LANE OUTSIDE THE MONASTERY GARDEN. DAY.Caravaggio is at the gate to the Monastery. The TRUCK we saw before is waiting with him. The PARTISAN with his head bandana and shotgun remains the same, but now there are CHILDREN in the back and a WOMAN sits behind the man, nursing a two-year-old. CARAVAGGIO Hana! Come on!He gets up into the BALUSTRADE, tentatively finds his balance, then starts to walk, heel to toe - slowly, and then with more confidence - along the long thin line of stone. The children watch intently. He turns and bows. KATHARINE (O/S) ...bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we have hidden in like this wretched cave...207*. EXT. THE MONASTERY CLOISTERS. DAY.Hana walks across the cloisters, passing the chalked hopscotch squares, leaving it all behind. Then she stops, bends, retrieves A SNAIL SHELL, keeps going. KATHARINE'S VOICE CONTINUES.208 INT. THE CAVE OF SWIMMERS. TORCHLIGHT.ALMÁSY SMUDGES KATHARINE'S PALE FACE WITH COLOR. OCHRE across her brow, BLUE on her eyelids, RED on her lips. He presses his cheek to hers, smoothes her hair. KATHARINE (O/S) ...I want all this marked on my body. We are the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men...209*. EXT. THE LANE OUTSIDE MONASTERY GARDEN. DAY.KATHARINE'S VOICE CONTINUES. Hana comes out to the truck, carrying her small bundle. Caravaggio effects some introduction, beginning with the woman driver, Gioia. She and Caravaggio smile like lovers. CARAVAGGIO Hana - this is Gioia.Gioia smiles, shakes her hand. Then Hana meets the others - Gioia's brother and wife, their children. She smiles at them. HANA Buon' giorno. CARAVAGGIO She can take you as far as Florence. HANA I can get in the back.And she clambers up, sits down between the children. They exchange some small stiff, shy smiles, and then the truck bounces away. Hana takes one final look at the Monastery as it disappears around the bend and then turns and confronts the life insisting noisily in the truck.210 EXT. CAVE OF SWIMMERS. DAY.Almásy comes out of the cave, carrying the bundle of Katharine in his arms, wrapped in the silks of her parachute. KATHARINE (O/S) ...I know you will come and carry me out into the palace of winds, the rumors of water... That's all I've wanted - to walk in such a place with you, with friends, on earth without maps.211 EXT. TIGER MOTH. DAY.THE PLANE growls and complains into the air.212 INT. TIGER MOTH. DAY.INSIDE THE COCKPIT: THE COUPLE AS AT THE FRONT OF THE FILM. Almásy obliterated by goggles and helmet. Katharine behind him, slumped forwards as if sleeping.Almásy banks across the plateau of the Gilf Kebir and glances down. In a ravine is a sudden OASIS OF WHITE ACACIAS. He is mesmerized.And then it's gone and he passes into the earth without maps - the desert - as it stretches out for mile after mile. KATHARINE (O/S) The lamp's gone out and I'm writing in the darkness...Almásy, the English Patient, begins to sing - Szerelem, Szerelem - until that also fades and is replaced by the woman's tender lament heard at the beginning of the film, singing for all that has been lost.The sound of gun fire...THE END. CAST:Count László Almásy Ralph FeinnesHana Juliette BinocheKatharine Clifton Kristin Scott ThomasCaravaggio Willem DafoeKip Naveen AndrewsGeoffrey Clifton Colin FirthPeter Madox Julian WadhamMajor Müller Jürgen ProchnowSergeant Hardy Kevin WhatelyFenelon-Barnes Clive MerrisonD'Agostino Nino CastelnuovoFouad Hichem RostomBermann Peter RühringMary Torri HigginsonOliver Geordie JohnsonJan Liisa Repo-MartellKamal Samy AzaiezRupert Douglas Raymond CoulthardCorporal Dade Philip WhitchurchAl Auf Habib ChetouiOfficer, El Taj Dominic MafhamCorporal, El Taj Gregor TruterSergeant, Desert Train Roger MorlidgePrivate, Desert Train Simon SherlockBeach Interrogation Officer Anthony SmeeKiss Me Soldier Jason DoneLady Hampton Paul KantSir Ronnie Hampton Amanda WalkerAncient Arab Abdellatif HamrouniAicha Rim TurkiArab Nurse Sonia MankaiInjured Canadian Soldier Matthew FergusonScreenplay Adapted and Film Directed by Anthony MinghellaProduced by Saul ZaentzExecutive-Produced by Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Scott GreensteinLine-Produced by Alessandro von NormanCinematography by John SealeProduction Design by Stuart CraigCostume Design by Anne RothMake-up by Fabrizio SforzaOriginal Music by Gabriel YaredFilm Edited by Walter MurchCasting by Michelle GuishCinematography (Second Unit) by Remi AdefarasinDirected (Second Unit) by Peter MarkhamMusic Performed by The Academy of St Martin-In-The-Fields Conducted by Harry Rabinowitz \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Enough.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Enough.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..65c24d29b5272806eecf07364bee353f48eeabaa --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Enough.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ENOUGH Written by Nicholas Kazan REVISED - 3B Dialog in parenthesis is (not spoken aloud). NOTE ON TITLES: GRAPHIC TITLES pop up throughout. Some are chapter titles, others more like the explanatory arrows found in cartoons. Sometimes the words present themselves in normal fashion. At other times, they're loosely spaced or sharply angled or individual words flash up one after another. i.e., titles ought to be wilder and less uniform than I suggest on the page. HEY HER FACE. FLASHES . She looks gorgeous, then ordinary, sloppy, white waitress uniform, gorgeous again, dishes stacked in her arms, turning, looking, happy, tired. INTERCUT TITLES. SLIM Hi, can I help you? What would you like? Want a menu? Hey Billy. Hey Tom. You take care, Rosie. We get a sense of her: 23, smart, good attitude, proud to be on her own and supporting herself even if the job is menial. She moves quickly, physically, with an almost athletic grace - SLIM Sure thing, Annie. Have a good one. That's two straight up. You're good to go. Morning. Hey there. Morning to you. (beat, embarrassed) What? (looks down, sees she's carrying lunch food) Right. Afternoon. A sense of the diner too. 50's-style joint: hip, lively; a fun pl ace full of wacko signs that tell us we're in some modestly sized So. Cal. beach community. SLIM What can I get you? Whattaya like? Whattaya want? (rolls eyes; good-humored rejection of a.come-on:) Nice try, bud - (INCREDULOUS) Does that ever work? Hey, lemme get that for you. Hey. Common' right up. END TITLES as we FLASH FOOD IMAGES: beans/eggs/pie/burger/shake /waffle/grilled cheese, fast flow of too much grub as words fly UP : 2 HOW THEY MET INT. "THE ORCA" RESTAURANT. DAY. FLURRY OF MOVEMENT, WAITRESSES setting up for lunch, Slim joking with GINNY (28, knocked around but still spirited; two kids at home from different guys; she somehow maintains a good attitude). Slim views Ginny as her idol: for her attitude, not her life. Catch them in mid-conversation, Ginny slightly offended, working-class accent: GINNY Why not? My grandfather was a lawyer... Plus: I have a logical mind... SLIM And you're only like 299 thousand short of what you'd need for law school. FAST RIFF: GINNY I Piece of cake - SLIM Piece of pie - GINNY Piece of ass. So what would you do? SLIM I don't know... GINNY LIAR - SLIM (EMBARRASSED) I'm also thinking... well ...I could go back to school. GINNY In what? I thought you hated - SLIM Psychology maybe, I don't know. I know it's not cool to say so, but I'd like to contribute something to society, even if - (it's just) 3 GINNY We contribute. We give 'em food, energy, so they can go out and save Western Civilization - A bell rings, a CUSTOMER comes in, and the owner of the place, PHIL (45, Syrian, also the cook) sticks his head between them: PHIL Ladies, please. Am I paying you? GINNY Not that we noticed. (SEES CLOCK: 11:15) Oh my God, speaking.of time - The lunch rush is coming; they start working triple speed - INT. "ORCA." LATER. Ginny and Slim converge carrying dirty dishes, piling them up for the BUSBOY, TEDDY (21, Hispanic). They haven't stopped moving for two hours, but now they can take a breath, survey the scene. Slim notices Ginny has a wet spot under her arm. SLIM Ever try the rock, hey? GINNY Excuse me? SLIM The deodorant thing. It's salts or something, it comes in like a...it looks like some kinda hippie crystal. GINNY You're saying I sweat. SLIM Perspire, Ginny. You lightly - (PERSPIRE) GINNY (a vow to get even) I'll remember that. (as someone comes in) Your turn, I'm sweatin' too much. Slim gives her a look, grabs a menu, goes over to where the new customer, whom we will call for the moment OUR HERO, is seated. 4 When she reaches his booth, she notices he's got a book and a long-stemmed red rose. She hands him a menu - SLIM Waiting for somebody? He shakes his head. She can't help noticing he's very handsome. SLIM (CONT. Something to drink? OUR HERO Just water, thanks. SLIM I'll give you a minute to look over - OUR HERO That's okay. I was in yesterday... (reads her nametag) Slim. She nods, slightly uncomfortable. He hands her his menu. OUR HERO What's your real name? SLIM No. OUR HERO Hmm. I like it, but don't you think it's kinds negative? SLIM No, I don't tell my name. OUR HERO Okay. Coke and a turkey burger, coleslaw no fries, couple extra slices tomato. I write books. SLIM Oh. OUR HERO You read books? She kind of half-nods half-shrugs. 5 OUR HERO (CONT.) What're you reading now? She stares at him... SLIM Finneaan's Wake by James Joyce. A friend told me it's the hardest book in the English Language. Not the hardest hardest, just the hardest one it's actually possible to read, and I figure if I can get through that one, I can do the others. OUR HERO How long you been reading it? SLIM Six years. I'll be back with your TB. She leaves, goes back puts the order in, mutters to Ginny: SLIM {CONT.} Asshole. GINNY What'd he say? SLIM Wanted to find out how smart I was so I told him I was reading the hardest book in the English language. GINNY He likes you. SLIM I think he's just a dick. GINNY Slim...he was in yesterday - SLIM I know - GINNY And he's back today with a rose, he pulls you into conversation. Honey, if you can't tell he likes you, you need to study psychology. 6 SLIM Okay, so he likes me. GINNY Do you like him? SLIM I don't know him. GINNY What's that got to do with it? Slim: he is a major piece of cake/piece of pie. SLIM I didn't notice. GINNY Trust me. Carrot cake. And when a guy like that - cuter than you? - he actually likes you - SLIM He's cuter than me?? tinny gives her a long stare; this is obviously a favorite ROUTINE: GINNY Hey. Wise up, huh? No-one is ever gonna go for you 'cause of your looks. SLIM (NODS SOBERLY) That is bad news, 'cause my personality bites. Ginny grins. Slim writes up a check for a CUSTOMER at the counter. When she finishes, the turkey burger is up. She carries it to the table: SLIM TB, coleslaw, and so forth. You don't really write books, do you? OUR HERO Nope. SLIM I don't read Finnecan's Wake either. 7 OUR HERO I'm goin' into law. Enforcement. She nods. This is more like what she expected. SLIM Who's the rose for? He shrugs. She's busy, so she starts to go: SLIM Enjoy your grub, huh? She's seven feet away when she hears: OUR HERO HEY - Sheturns back toward him - He smiles, offers the rose: OUR HERO You. She smiles back-their eyes meet... a sudden utterly magical moment. This is also the moment to.note OUR HERO should be played by a famous actor doing a cameo. Because at this instant the scene changes. The man (MITCH) in the booth behind Our Hero - a man we haven't noticed because all we've seen is the back of his head - turns and looks at Slim. Stands. Looks down at Our Hero... MITCH How much did you settle on? OUR HERO Excuse. me? Slim frowns, steps closer so she can overhear: MITCH The bet. How much is it? Our Hero has a completely blank look on his face - MITCH (CONT.) You and your friend. Yesterday. Was it 200 or 500 or - ? 8 SLIM (TO MITCH) What're you - MITCH He bet his friend he could get in your pants in less than twelve hours, starting noon today. Our Hero rises to his feet and pushes Mitch in the chest, which looks like a stupid move, since Mitch is bigger - OUR HERO Is this your business? (right in Mitch's face) What are you, the morals police? He pushes again and Mitch,s hand shoots out like a snake striking. Grabs him by the collar. Lifts him. A frozen moment, more violence just a breath away, and a sense of things about to spin out of control... Our Hero's eyes are popping; he tries to hide his fear: OUR HERO Take it easy, M...man. She and I were just having some fun - SLIM (to our Hero) Was it two hundred or five? (VERY CALM) I want to know what I'm worth. Our Hero gestures to Mitch: would you mind putting me down? Mitch reluctantly obliges. Our Hero does his best to recollect his dignity. Looks at Slim. Drops a ten on the table and smirks: OUR HERO The bet was two, but now that I know you? Way too high. A pained look flashes across Slim's face - Our Hero starts toward the door, but Mitch steps in his path. Speaks quietly but with authority; there's a physical power in his words. Since he's protecting Slim, the power is COMFORTING: MITCH Don't come back here, buddy. Ever. Our Hero nods nervously. Mitch steps back 3 inches, just far enough to let our Hero leave. Which he does with considerable relief. Slim's leaning vs. the counter, shaken, tears in her eyes - Mitch tugs his baseball cap, mutters as he heads for the door: MITCH Sorry to get in your business. SLIM No. Hey. Thank you. He nods, keeps going. SLIM (CONT.) (blurts out, grateful:) I... I can't believe you actually said something. MITCH (turns, shrugs) If I'd kept my mouth shut, I'd'a felt bad later. Good luck, huh? She nods. He ambles out the door. A touch of the cowboy in him. She shakes her head, looks at Ginny. Ginny gestures as if to say, well? At first Slim doesn't get it. Ginny gestures more urgently: Come on. What're you waiting for? She looks toward the door - Slim follows her look. PUSH IN ON SLIM'S FACE as she tries to work up the courage... Just as she starts toward the door, we: CUT TO: 10 BRIDE AND EXT. OLD PASADENA ESTATE. NIGHT. FLASHES: Wedding photos. Mitch has lots of (surprisingly upper crust) family, Slim has a few friends. The more photos FLASH, the more pronounced (and sad), the contrast. FLY RIGHT INTO: Bacchanalian DANCING. French Champagne has flowed; shoes and inhibitions were abandoned hours ago. THE CAMERA weaves through the DANCERS to find: Slim and Mitch, dancing close, never quite touching, every move intense, physical, like subtle public sex. Their eyes are locked; she runs her veil down his body, his hand lightly touches her ass; they slow down and stand, lips a millimeter apart but not quite kissing, the sexual tension building... We see how crazy they are about each other, how completely physically involved - and how much fun they have. Watching them is Phil, with Mitch's parents, MRS. TYLER (58, confident, at ease with her power and family money, and likeable despite monstrous flaws) and MR. TYLER (someone Mrs. Tyler married in a moment of cupidity). MRS. TYLER Mitch was kind of.. .evasive. Is her father dead too? PHIL Dead to her. He left when she was two. MRS. TYLER Oh. Well, I'm happy to pay for the WEDDING - MR. TYLER Yes, we're very happy - MRS, TYLER (ignoring Mr. T.) It's a way to build bridges... Not that you can... (repair all the damage) When there's such a vast body of water... 11 PHIL You don't get along with your son? She gives him a look. She's both offended by, and appreciative of, his bluntness. Looks out at Mitch: MRS. TYLER He's like my father. Which means, I guess, that he'll do very well. PHIL He's done well to get Miss Slim. MRS. TYLER Yes, he has, hasn't he? He's married down, but he's gotten value. As Phil reacts, he notices his wife, SALIMA, has joined him. With her are two kids (5 and 2). Salima's looking out at the floor: not at Slim, but at Ginny and her dance partner. We see a thought cross her mind. She bends down and whispers conspiratorially to the kids. They whoop their response, run out to Ginny (who looks quite uncomfortable in her Maid-of-Honor dress). FIVE YEAR OLD SON Mom! Mom! Mom! Can we spend the night at Phil and Salima's house? Ginny looks over, winks at Salima, and kisses her kids: GINNY Don't eat at their ice cream, huh? They squeal with pleasure and run off. Ginny turns back, resumes dancing with JOE (24, handsome in a casual way, a good guy): GINNY So this was during college or after? JOE During. GINNY What was wrong with you? (off his puzzled look) I mean-why'd you and Slim break up? 12 JOE Oh. Well. I'm terrible in bed. (lets this hang for a moment for shock value, then:) Plus, I don't know: we just sort of.. . evolved into being friends. GINNY Evolution? You were going the wrong direction, bud. JOE That's kinda what .1 thought, but I guess I was so totally pathetic - GINNY Why am I not believing this? (INTRIGUED) Can I take you home right now? JOE If you've got a sense of humor. GINNY My kids are out for the night, and... JOE Another thing: I live in Chicago; women always want the possibility of LONG-TERM - GINNY I didn't propose, huh? I just want to have... (looks at him...) a brief and completely unsatisfying sexual encounter. JOE Hey. I'm your guy. She pulls him into a kiss, and...well: he's not a bad kisser... We glide from them to Slim and Mitch, hardly moving. Suddenly: tender and insecure and almost comic, she looks at him... SLIM You sure,you love me? MITCH Uh-huh... 13 SLIM For ever and ever? He stops dancing. Senses the real issue beneath her questions: MITCH You're safe with me, Slim. You're safe, and it's okay to be happy. We deserve it. They kiss. Others stop to watch: how cute. Phil comes over, waits. When they break: PHIL I'm sorry, I gotta get up five o'clock to buy green beans. He slips an envelope into Mitch's hand: PHIL In my country, it's tradition to give money to groom. You don't need it, but... Slim shakes her head, touched, as: MITCH That's very sweet - SLIM (HUGGING PHIL) Thanks for giving me away, okay? You're the best substitute Dad a girl could possibly have. PHIL No substitute. I am real thing. She kisses him, and he goes. They look after him. MITCH He really loves you. She nods, not quite picking up how odd his statement is: of course he loves her; she nicked him to give her away. Mitch turns her toward him and slips his hands inside the top of her dress (so the back of his hands touch her breasts; is this going too far?). He pulls her to him, whispers: MITCH You gonna give me babies? 14 SLIM Oh yeah. MITCH How soon? SLIM How soon can we get out of here? He hoists her into his arms and carries her off the floor. Applause from the GUESTS. It's a grand romantic gesture. You have to wonder if Mitch is just a little too good to be true... CUT TO: CONQUERING HERO EXT. SPANISH-STYLE HOUSE WITH GROUNDS. DAY. Slim (4 months pregnant) stands'on the walkway leading up to a large, simple,' beautiful house. Mitch is knocking at the door. The man who answers the door is 62, white-haired, vigorous. Looks like he walked out of a Viagra ad. HOME OWNER Hello? MITCH Hi. We've been driving around, and my wife has completely fallen in love with your house. HOME OWNER It's great, isn't it? MITCH We want to buy it. The Home Owner's jaw drops as Mitch gestures toward his bulging WIFE: MITCH (CONT.) My wife wants it for our family. HOME OWNER (polite but firm) Well...we're not selling. MITCH Sure you are. 15 Mitch hands him a slip of paper. Totally amiable: MITCH That's the price. Don't worry, it's well over-market. HOME OWNER (stunned, a little scared) You... You're out of your mind. MITCH I know. That's just it. So before you say no again, think how miserable one determined crazy person can make you. Miserable today, miserable tomorrow, miserable for every single day until the day you sell. We glimpse the Home Owner's will just starting to crumble... MITCH (CONT.) Your kids are grown, you'll be happier in a smaller place. MOVE OFF the Owner's face... SLOW PAN TO the window of the house .the SENSE that time is passing... and when we reach the window, we see SLIM inside. MOVE THROUGH the window... INT. HOUSE. KITCHEN. DAY. Six weeks later. She's happily putting away groceries. Whistling to herself. What we can see of the house feels good: the furnishings are simple, casual, friendly. She's putting a bottle of oil up on a shelf. . .but it never quite gets there. Her face changes. Something's happened. The hand holding the oil lowers... the oil bottle slips through her fingers and smashes on the floor... Oil spreading across the floor... She stares at it. Claws the air, grabbing the cordless phone as she plops down on a kitchen barstool. Starts to cry. Punches the autodialer. SLIM It's Slim, is he there? Water is flooding down the barstool; she's miscarried. 16 SLIM (CONT.) Well, will you please just... Just tell him I'm sorry, okay? CUT TO: SECOND PREGNANCY INT. MITCH'S OFFICE. DAY. A central area with large offices surrounding it, GUYS IN SUITS, GUYS IN CONSTRUCTION GEAR, ARCHITECTS, ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMEN. . .all moving quickly, purposefully. TWO UNIFORMED COPS come out of a room putting envelopes into their pockets. Projects everywhere. Models, photos, charts and timelines: when the concrete's going to be poured, when the inspector comes, etc. Mitch is building mini-malls. In the center of this activity, Mitch moves from one locus of energy to the next: answering questions, making suggestions. Gradually we perceive something, motion slower than the rest of the office. Slim. Coming toward him. He sees her. Sees her expression. She stops. He realizes: MITCH You saw the doctor? It's so obvious from her face that she barely needs to'say it: SLIM I lost this one too. CUT TO: B A B Y L O V E INT. HOSPITAL. DAY. Slim lies in bed. Very pale, a light dust of sweat. We assume she's between contractions. Mitch's face inches from hers; smothering her with kisses. The Nurse brings the baby in, starts to give her to Slim - MITCH Can I hold her? The Nurse looks at Slim,. who nods, and gives Mitch the baby. 17 He kisses her head, dances with her. Slim looks adoringly at father and daughter: the sight is almost unbelievably sweet. His cell phone rings. He keeps dancing, ignoring it. After one ring, it stops. He's kissing the baby's head over and over, just like he kissed Slim, and staring into the infant's eyes - MITCH She looks just like my baby pictures. His cell phone rings again. As if the previous call had been a signal. Slim looks at him as the phone keeps ringing. With some difficulty, juggling the baby, he turns the phone off. But he doesn't look at Slim. SLIM Who was that? MITCH I don't know. Who cares? Some construction thing, I guess. She stares at him. He stares at the baby. MITCH Isn't she the most beautiful thing you ever saw in your life? Slim nods cautiously. CUT TO: THE MOMENT YOU KNOW EXT. HILLSIDE. DAY. Remains of a picnic. Slim's playing with their daughter, GRACIE, now 4. Says something and Gracie laughs. Slim laughs. IS Keeps laughing, which really gets Gracie going. Mitch looks on, tries to join in, but it's forced-and besides that: they're not even looking at him, not inviting his laughter; it's all between the mother and child. So he stops trying. Just watches them. And before his eyes, they become - for an instant - strangers. As this reaction, and the subtle hostility it engenders, flicker across his face, Slim looks up at him - For one long moment they both seem to acknowledge the gulf between them... Then Gracie says something. Slim turns back toward her, the "girls" are laughing again...and Mitch is not. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM/BEDROOM. NIGHT. SHOWER STALL. Glass, opaque, streaked with water and soap so as to give a slightly freaky aspect. Someone inside. Slim watching. Smiles. Starts to take off her clothes. SLIM Hey. MITCH Hey. SLIM (FLIRTATIOUS) Should I join you? MITCH I'm about to get out. SLIM (down to her panties) Oh. MITCH I have to go to back to work, I'm just doing this to wake myself up. SLIM (DISAPPOINTED) Okay. (starts to go) 19 MITCH (CALLS) Sorry. SLIM (TO HERSELF) Yeah. (Me too.) She's in the bedroom now. It's underlit, full of shadows. In scary-movie nomenclature, she's exposed, vulnerable; it feels like someone's going to leap out and attack her at any - Not this time. She throws on shorts and a t-shirt - INT. HALL. NIGHT. She looks in on Gracie, sleeping peacefully. Consoling image. INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT. She's washing dishes, bored, humming to herself. The counter's covered with take-out food containers: she didn't cook. A noise. Pager. Not beeping, just humming slightly: she wouldn't even hear it except it's on the tile counter. Sounds vaguely like a vibrator. Lying there, just a few feet from her. With Mitch's wallet and keys, his cell phone. She looks at it. .knows she shouldn't... decides not to... Can't resist. Dries her.hands methodically on a dishtowel. Picks up the pager. Reads: 33. She stares, realizing: it's code. She looks at the cell phone. Wonders whether... Looks toward the hall. We HEAR the shower still running... She picks up his cell phone. Tentatively - she's not sure this will work - she presses: RECALL 33. The phone flashes NAME, but instead of a name there's: . She stares at this, glances again down the hall-takes a deep breath.. .and presses SEND. Waits... listens nervously... 20 WOMAN'S VOICE (FLIRTATIOUS) Hello there. SLIM You just paged my husband, right? (HALF BEAT) Mitch. (HALF BEAT) Who are you, what's your name? WOMAN'S VOICE I'm sorry, I - SLIM It's too late to deny it. Tell me your - (name) A rustle on the other end - SLIM (CONT.) Don't hang upl Don't be a cowardl Silence. SLIM (CONT.) Just your name. That's the least you could do, don't you think? A simple plea, one woman to another... WOMAN'S VOICE I'm...Darcelle. Not only the name. Now we hear it in the accent: she's French. Dialtone. Slim goes into slow motion. How oddly her arm moves downward. She looks at the phone. Blinks. Presses OFF. Scans the room as if she's never seen it before. One of Gracie's toys lies on the floor. Slim stares at it. Reaches down to pick it up, but instead of the toy moving up, her body moves down. She slumps to the floor. Sits. Stares. WIDER ANGLE. MINUTES LATER. Slim sitting on the floor. Frozen. Head bowed. 21 Mitch comes out, dressed, sees her. MITCH Hey. She doesn' t say anything. He approaches her. Some instinct keeps him from speaking. He sees she's holding his phone, the silly toy... SLIM How can you do this to Gracie? He doesn't say anything. SLIM (CONT.) Darcelle paged you. That' s where you're going, right? (off his silence) Yeah. Wow. Mitch? Can you please? Can you sit here with me? He does. She doesn't know where to start, how to talk about it... SLIM She's French? MITCH She isn't important. SLIM No. MITCH You're important. SLIM Yes. MITCH And Gracie. She nods. SLIM Mitch?, I can't... I couldn't stand for this to... (destroy our lives) I'm happy, I've really been happy, and I don't want to - (give that up) 22 MITCH You won't have to. Believe me. She's nothing, she's no-one - SLIM You... Damn it! You said I was safe with you! MITCH You are, Slim. You are. I promise. They fall into an embrace. We feel how keenly they need each other. CUT TO: INT. HOUSE. KITCHEN. NIGHT. They're hugging. Begin TIGHT on them. At first it seems like this is the same embrace shot from a different angle. Then we see we're in the kitchen, his briefcase is at his side; their clothes are different. SING A SAD SONG We watch Slim's expression slowly change. From pleasure. To confusion. Pain. Outrage. She whispers: SLIM I smell her. MITCH What? SLIM Her perfume. Darcelle or whoever. MITCH SLIM - SLIM (intense, sad) How many, Mitch? How many are there? How many have there been? MITCH What does it matter? A stunning statement. Even more stunning because of the casual way he says it. 23 MITCH (CONT.) ID I mean what're you saying here, that I don't deserve to get laid? Please. I'm a man, Slim. With the pregnancies, Gracie, you don't have time and energy like you used to, and I understand that, I really do. Men and women have different needs, and that's okay. Darcelle is willing to take care of it, and maybe that's better for everybody. SLIM Including you? He contemplates his answer...and shrugs. SLIM No! No! No! MITCH Calm down, Slim - Wild, violently invading his space and assaulting his authority, screaming at him, her face just inches from his: I SLIM I can't do this anymore! I can't! Just take it, and take it, and take it!? I'm not strong enough! I don't know who would be. I love you, okay? I love you and I'm your wife and you can't do this! You understand me?!!! No more! No more! With the same speed he attacked "Our Hero" at the diner, Mitch's hand shoots out like a snake striking. Slaps her. A warning: stop it and stop it now. Her face: shock. Confusion. Outrage. She raises her hand to her cheek. Touches her skin where his fist landed... He reads her expression and is almost amused: MITCH What, I can't hit you? SLIM (low, strong) No. You can't. He hits her again, this time with a closed fist. 24 Knocking her to the ground. Stands over her like a boxer. Sees rase flare across her face - MITCH You want to fight? I'm a mom, honey; it's no contest. She's silent, but we see (very small) her reaction: Oh yeah?? MITCH {CONT.} You have to understand, Slim. I thought you did: make the money here, so I set the rules, right? It's my rules. He waits for her response, but again she's silent. MITCH You with me? SLIM It's your rules. MITCH Yeah. She keeps her voice meek so as not to offend: SLIM And if I don't like the rules?? MITCH If you don't "like" them?! She nods cautiously. MITCH {CONT.} Come on. Life isn't onl stuff we like. We take the good with the bad, right? That's what life is, what marriage is. So maybe, for you, today is a bad day. Tomorrow may be great. SLIM Tomorrow may be great. MITCH That's right. 25 SLIM Tomorrow will be great. (Without you . ) He appears to miss her inference. MITCH Yeah. Today is the price you pay for having such a good life. She stares at him. MITCH I'm going out. She says nothing. MITCH {CONT.} This is gonna be better, don't you think? She just cannot process the absurdity of this statement. MITCH {CONT.} I don't have to sneak around, pretend I'm going to work. I can just say: "I'm going to Darcelle's, I'll be back in a few hours." Her face is completely blank. He bends down, gives her a kiss on the head. We feel her skin crawl. She watches him go. Waits. Hears the front door close. She gets up, walks to the window, watches him walk toward his car. She turns away, looks at the room. We HEAR his car start. She goes to the phone. Thinks. Starts to dial-slowly, deliberately... Shock: RAP AT THE WINDOW! He's there. 26 She reacts with guilt, but he doesn't look angry now. Behind him is his idling Mercedes convertible, driver's door open... He motions for her to open the window. She does. MITCH Who you calling? SLIM Your mother. MITCH What're you gonna tell her? SLIM I'm supposed to bring Gracie tomorrow. Maybe I better cancel. MITCH (NODS) I was thinking. You...you know that I adore you, but if you ever want...if you want out... For a second he can't talk. He's choked up. She watches coldly. His emotion appears real, but who cares? MITCH (CONT.) .I'll understand. I really will. (ALMOST TENDER) But there's one thing: you can't have Gracie. She's my daughter. Don't even think about taking her. Slim stares at him. He adds calmly: MITCH (CONT.) If I see that thought even cross your mind, I'll kill you. There. He's said what he needs to. He walks toward his car. She shuts the window. Stares after him. In an odd and defiant way, she starts to whistle. Loudly. To herself. Almost daring him. 27 He keeps walking. CUT TO: OUTTA HERE INT. CAR. DAY. Emotional, impressionistic. CLOSE ON her face, almost inside her skin: a visual symphony. The countryside behind her is out of focus, a blur. She pulls up at a gate, punches in a code. Drives up a long a driveway to: EXT. PASADENA ESTATE. DAY. FOUR JAGUARs lined up. At a respectful distance sit an old Toyota (the maid's car) and a pick-up (the gardener's truck). Slim parks near the truck. Her hand moves to the door handle, but she can't bring herself to open it. She sits... paralyzed, a failure. In this prolonged pause, Mrs. Tyler bursts out of the house - MRS. TYLER You're late, you're late, I was worried you wouldn't comet (looks, realizes) No Gracie? Slim shakes her head. Mrs. Tyler is clearly disappointed, but quickly covers it up: MRS. TYLER Well then, you and I will have a girls' luncheon and gossip about simply everybody! She's about to hurtle into the gossip when Slim turns her head and Mrs. Tyler sees (and we see for the first time) the result of Mitch's brutality: a nasty bruise on Slim's cheek. Mrs. Tyler's face falls as she realizes what this means. Underneath it all, she's a warm person; she hugs Slim: MRS. TYLER Oh baby. Oh baby, I'm so sorry... 28 HOLD a moment; like a mother-daughter tableau... Her tone stays sympathetic, not at all accusatory: MRS. TYLER (CONT.) What did you do? What'd you say to him? Slim freezes. On her sad, shocked reaction - CUT TO: INT. "ORCA" DINER. KITCHEN. DAY. Ginny in the middle of an intense rap. She and Slim are wedged in a corner booth. The off-season lunch rush has died down... GINNY Men are land mines. Some you trigger the first week, others it's years in. Problem is: you want a man man, meaning his veins run thick with testosterone, which is good 'cause he can fuck your brains out but he can also turn around, no warning, and beat your brains out too. PHIL I never touch Salima. Ginny waves at him: of course not. PHIL But the other part, first part: I can - (do that) GINNY Relax, Phil. Nobody's talkin' about your dick here, okay? Phil brings Slim an iced tea and slice of pie: PHIL You went to cops, I hope? GINNY (Don't be stupid.) Mitch is in construction, Phil. SLIM (NODS) He knows every cop in the city. 29 GINNY Even if he didn't. My aunt? She got a restraining order? When it was up, this slimeball beat her into a coma. PHIL If he wants to put her in coma, why worry restraining order? GINNY 'Cause he's a man, Phil! He's psychotic! (calmly, to Slim) You're leaving him today. Right now. SLIM (shakes her head, trapped) I gotta pick up Gracie at pre-school. CUT TO: EXT. PRE-SCHOOL. DAY. THREE 4-YEAR-OLD GIRLS running toward a car, squealing. They're all blond and adorable, and it takes a moment for us to realize none of them is Gracie. Slim sits in her car in the pick-up line. The Four Girls get in the Volvo station wagon in front of her. The Volvo pulls out, and Slim moves to the front of the line. The very hip PRE-SCHOOL DIRECTOR smiles at Slim: PRESCHOOL DIRECTOR Your husband got her. SLIM What?? PRESCHOOL DIRECTOR (CONT.) Gracie was totally psyched. I told him he should do it more often. Slim nods with feigned casualness and pulls away. Slight smile frozen on her face. CUT TO: EXT. HER HOME. DAY. She pulls in. No other car there. 30 INT. HER HOME. DAY. She looks around. Nothing abnormal except the quiet. As if they've gone and are never coming back. She digs out her cell phone, punches the first number on the automatic dialer. Presses SEND. Thinks. After one ring, she disconnects. Immediately presses RECALL, then SEND. HE ANSWERS: MITCH'S VOICE (FOR DARCELLE) How is my little croissant? SLIM It's your loaf of bread. MITCH'S VOICE (cheerful, no guilt) Oh. Hi. How's it going? SLIM Where are you? MITCH'S VOICE Zoo. SLIM Why didn't you tell me you were going to - (pick up Gracie) MITCH'S VOICE I called you at home, left messages - He's interrupted by a LOUD SQUEAL from Gracie, followed by a question, which he answers: MITCH'S VOICE (CONT.) Your Mom. GRACIE'S VOICE Hey Moml The elephants are peeing! MITCH'S VOICE (pleased with himself for being a good Dad) She's a little excited. 31 SLIM When are you coming home? CUT TO: INT. DINING ROOM. NIGHT. Dinner. It's scary that Mitch will have this conversation in front of Gracie, who's playing at their feet: MITCH It made me nervous when I couldn't reach you. Slim shrugs. He stares at her. Smiles. His voice so soft and calm: MITCH {CONT.} Do you have any idea how bad things can get? SLIM Educate me. MITCH (embarrassed to say it) Slim. I'm a determined person. I was determined to have you, and I did. This house...the company...I am, and always will be, a person who gets what he wants. You can either share in my success or leave us (meaning him and Gracie) right now. Which way you wanna go? Beat. SLIM I want to be happy. He's not sure of her subtext, but he's willing to give her the benefit of the doubt : MITCH Good. With a sudden shock, Slim sees Gracie staring at Mitch: the girl has picked up on his tone. Slim glances at Mitch to see if he notices Gracie's expression. He doesn't. 32 Slim looks back at Gracie: still staring at Mitch. If she already senses what's happening, how long before she's affected by it? How long before she sees Mitch become violent? Slim's jaw tightens slightly; her resolve grows stronger. CUT TO: INT. MASTER BEDROOM. NIGHT. Mitch asleep, Slim awake, listening. His breathing deep, rhythmic, slight hint of a snore. In the distance, a DOVE coos. She looks at her clock: 2:15. She eases out of bed. Goes into the bathroom. We hear the sound of her peeing. INT. BATHROOM. She's no peeing. A BOTTLE is propped up, running water into the toilet as Slim gets dressed. Quickly, silently. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT. She leans out the bathroom doorway, sees: he's still asleep. She moves quickly, bathroom to hall. INT. GRACIE'S ROOM. NIGHT. Gracie's fast asleep. Slim lifts her up, piles her prized teddy bear on top. INT. HALL. NIGHT. Slim carries Gracie toward the entrance. We MOVE with her. She's silent, terrified. Glances over her shoulder - No one there. She keeps walking. The eerie sense of a house that's awake rather than asleep. The almost imperceptible but anxiety- provoking SWOOSH of her footsteps... EXTEND the suspense as long as we possibly can... 33 She reaches the front door. Waits to make sure all is quiet. It is. She turns, looks back down the hall. Empty. Reaches toward the doorknob... hand closer, closer... she starts to turn it - EXT. SLIM'S HOUSE. NIGHT. Ginny, Phil, and Teddy are clustered under a tree, staring at the house. Waiting. Their VAN is parked down the road. We expect the front door to open any instant. It doesn't. They wait. Casually. Not knowing where Slim was. But we know. Did something go wrong? Slim was right at the door. In a casual way, her rescuers start to wonder. TEDDY Maybe she didn't hear the signal. GINNY She heard it. PHIL No. Teddy's right. She could still be asleep - GINNY She's not asleep, okay? She's coming out any second. Phil nods. They wait. She does not come out. Ginny shakes her head, looks at her watch. 34 GINNY Do it again. Teddy nods. Cups his hands, coos like a dove... They wait again. Beat. INT. HOUSE. NIGHT. Slim still frozen in exactly the same spot. Still carrying Gracie, still with her hand on the knob. Listening. Turning her head this way-that way. She hears the COOING DOVE NOISE come again from outside. That settles it. She pulls the door - MITCH FLYING AT HER - Grabs her, catches her, catches Gracie, pulling Slim's hair hard, leading her away from the door - EXT. HOUSE. NIGHT. The three rescuers still wait. Frozen. Phil shakes his head. We see a baseball bat in his hands. PHIL We better go in. GINNY It'd be crazy to wake him. If anything's wrong, she'll flick the lights. .Right? Phil nods skeptically, and Ginny herself doesn't seem so sure. They look at the house-and wait. . .and wait... We want to scream: "GO IN! GO! SAVE HER!" Suddenly something. Subtle. Was that A SOUND from inside??? They go on alert. . .step forward... listen more closely... But hear nothing unusual. 35 Phil. looks at Ginny, shrugs - Ginny shrugs back - FLASH OF LIGHT, then darkness. The signal. They run toward the house - SCREAM. Slim. Intense horrible spit of sound, replaced by an even more horrible silence. Deadly silence. CLOSE ON GINNY as they run: as if we've lost Slim and Ginny's.our new protagonist. As we near the house, we realize: it's not silence. There are sounds from inside: almost inaudible THUDS. Sound of a beating. On Ginny's horrified reaction - Baseball bat. Phil smashes a window. They climb through the hole into the house - INT. HOUSE. NIGHT. Silence. They move quickly, carefully toward the living room; it's very dark, we can hardly - MITCH Another step and you're dead. Mitch emerges from darkness. Light glints off his pistol. Thirty feet behind him: Gracie's sleeping on the couch. Mitch moves and they stare in horror. Lying at his feet is Slim's body.. Pain springs from Ginny's throat, she rushes to Slim - Mitch rams the gun into her head: MITCH Didn't you hear me?i Ginny feels Slim's pulse, says to Phil: GINNY She's alive - MITCH Unless you go, your brains'11 be on imy rug i 36 PHIL Sir. We are three people. If you kill us all, you will go sure to electric chair. MITCH I could give a shit. Slim makes a SOUND as Ginny strokes her head... Mitch FIRES the gun into the wall over Ginny's head. Muffled sound: silencer. But he has everyone's attention now: MITCH (CONT.) This is your last chance. PHIL We are happy to leave, Sir: with Miss Slim and Gracie. Ginny's helping Slim to her knees. PHIL (CONT.) And make no mistakes. If you keep them here, we will go to police, who will arrest you with pleasure. I/ Mitch stares at Phil. Walks to him. Is he going to hit him? Shoot him? Mitch leans in, gun to Phil's head, and whispers: MITCH I don't want to say this in front of the group, but you're just a rug-head, nobody'll believe you. You go to the cops, it's her word against mine. They'll find drugs in her bureau... (before Phil can laugh) Or her car, whatever. (VERY STRONG) Trust me on that. (casual, confident) I'll have custody of Gracie by the end of the week. PHIL (SKEPTICAL) And if we take them away, you will shoot all four of us?? MITCH That's right. 37 PHIL Then we die young. The others are uncertain, but Phil helps Slim up; Teddy joins him. Ginny tentatively follows his lead and picks up Gracie.. SLIM (VERY SOFT) (This is no good.) You're humiliating him. GINNY What? SLIM (a little louder) He'll come after me and kill me. Mitch overhears this, smiles. MITCH You hear that? That's why she loves me. (off their horrified looks) Nobody cares like I do. The others stare at him in astonishment, but continue toward the door. Mitch leans toward Slim, whispers: MITCH See you soon. CUT TO: INT. VAN. NIGHT. Gracie awake now in Slim's arms: staring, confused. Gentle rocking of the van. The others barely visible, like shadows. CHECK, PLEASE INT. AIRPLANE. DAY. Gracie asleep, Slim holding her. Blinds down, movie playing. Despite Gracie's age, the angle and soft lighting make this resemble a Madonna and child... CUT TO: 38 EXT. NAVY PIER (CHICAGO). EVENING. Open air market: shops, stalls; yuppie heaven. Slim carries Gracie on her shoulders. They're with Jog (her old boyfriend, from the wedding). Horsing around, having a good time, Gracie eating a pastry. They stop and look out at Lake Michigan. SLIM Wow ... whattaya think, Toots? GRACIE It's a big ocean! JOE Well. It's only a lake, but we like it. GRACIE (nods, stares out... Can we stay here a while? CUT TO: INT. JOE'S CAR. NIGHT. They're driving along, suddenly Joe says - JOE Coming up, whattaya say?! GRACIE & SLIM (A GAME) Bobbing for apples! Slim (front seat) and Gracie (back) both drop their heads so they can't be seen from outside the car - Joe turns the corner, presses a garage door opener, and drives into the basement garage of a nice-looking 4-plex. INT. JOE'S 4-PLEX. NIGHT. They come in from the garage, throw off their coats. All the curtains in the apartment are drawn. JOE Is there anybody who likes ice cream? Gracie whoops - The doorbell rings - 39 Slim and Joe freeze - Slim whips her hand over Gracie's mouth - Gracie looks horrified: why are you covering my - Slim puts her finger to her mouth: shhh. She takes Gracie's hand; they scurry out of sight - Joe hurries to the stereo, puts it on. Music to cover Gracie's "whoop . " He goes to the door, looks through the peep hole. Sees a LARGE MAN IN A SUIT. JOE Yes? FIRST FBI MAN FBI. Can we talk? He holds up an I.D. Not readable through the peep hole. JOE Go ahead. FIRST FBI MAN Would you mind opening up? Joe glances over his shoulder: no sign of them. He opens the door, but not far enough to let the man in. Behind the large man are TWO OTHER MEN IN SUITS. FIRST FBI MAN We're investigating a kidnapping; we'd like to look around. JOE You got a search warrant? FIRST FBI MAN Oh, we got a warrant all right. He slaps a paper and pushes past Joe; the other men follow... JOE Can I she the warrant? First FBI Man ignores this. 40 JOE (CONT.) Who're you looking for? The FBI Man gives him a sarcastic glance. JOE (CONT.) A mother taking her own child isn't kidnapping. I don't think you're FBI at all. This elicits no response. Joe moves to where he can see the other two guys. Looks down the hall toward: INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT. SECOND FBI MAN searching the pantry, looking around. He opens the door to the garage and vanishes - INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT. THIRD FBI MAN looks under the bed, in the closets... yanks clothes aside. At any moment we expect him to find them... INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. JOE Mister: unless you leave right now, I'm calling the police. FIRST FBI MAN Oh...jeez...that's a scary thought. Joe picks up the phone - First FBI Man slams it down. FIRST FBI MAN I marri a cop, okay? I'm not in the mood. Joe accepts this. . .but only for the moment. INT. GARAGE. NIGHT. Second FBI Man looks in the car, under the car... isn't this the logical place for them to hide??? 41 INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. Third FBI Man returns from the bedroom emptyhanded, starts to search the living room: THIRD FBI MAN I'll look around here? INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT. The Second FBI Man returns from the garage, starts to search... We're scared with every cupboard he opens that he'll find them. INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. Third FBI Man searches the room. SUDDENLY we go to SLIM'S POV...she and Gracie are in a cabinet, looking out through a narrow horizontal slit. Watching the Third FBI Man makes his way methodically in their direction. First FBI Man stands over Joe, keeping him silent. Joe watches the Third FBI Man search the room... And then Joe blinks. Moves his eyes, and looks right in Slim's direction. He realizes where they must be hiding. The Third FBI Man's getting closer and closer to them... Joe realizes he has to do something. Abruptly Joe stands: JOE That's enough. (VERY FORCEFUL) You hear me? It's time to go. Now. (off First FBI's. shocked look) I know who you are, okay? I know who hired you. First FBI Man whirls. Suddenly he's got a knife in his hand. Definitely NOT FBI. Putting the. knife to Joe's throat: "FIRST FBI MAN" Yeah? You know what it feels like to have a knife hit your carotid? JOE (trying not to move) No. 42 Inside the cabinet, Gracie gasps. Slim puts a hand over her mouth. But Slim herself has to fight the impulse to burst out of there to save Joe - "FIRST FBI MAN" You know what it's like to bleed out in less than two minutes? JOE No. "THIRD FBI MAN" (stopping his search) Oh please, John Boy. Not the shiv AGAIN - "FIRST FBI MAN" I'm just going to cut him a little - Slim's eyes bulge - "THIRD FBI MAN" You are not going to cut him! "FIRST FBI MAN" I sure as hell am! Slim's on the verge of bursting out when "Second FBI" enters: "SECOND FBI MAN" John Boy, this is not listed on the program. Come on, they're not here; let's ride. "FIRST FBI MAN" Can't I just - (cut him a little} "SECOND FBI MAN" No! No slice and dice! They head for the door. As he goes, "First FBI Man" (a.k.a. John Boy) runs his knife along the couch, spilling out its contents... .passes the tv set and stabs the tube... .runs his knife along the wall, making a vicious scary mark. And they vanish. We hear the door SLAM. The horizontal band through which Slim was looking widens - 43 The cabinet door falls open, Slim and Gracie come out. Gracie's crying. Slim hugs her, says to Joe: SLIM Jesus, are you okay? JOE I guess. (feels his neck) I needed a shave, anyway. The phone rings. They look at it. It can't be who they think it is... it rings again. Joe goes to it. Hesitates. Answers: JOE Hello? MITCH'S VOICE This is Mitch Tyler, Joe. JOE Hello, yes, how are you? Joe points at phone: "It's him." He nods toward Gracie, indicating Slim should take her into the next room. Slim does. MITCH'S VOICE (calm, friendly) I assume Slim's called you. Joe thinks for a split second, then: JOE Of course. MITCH'S VOICE Will you give her a message? (off his silence) If she calls again, I mean. Slim and Gracie are in the next room, but Slim's looking through the door back at Joe. JOE I don't know. I'm on her side here, not yours. 44 MITCH'S VOICE Her side? Come on, Joe, you're a smart person. Let me say two words, okay? "Lug nuts." You don't want to worry they're loose every time you get in your car. And how 'bout the windows to your apartment: are they still locked? A person could go crazy thinking about stuff like that. JOE Goodbye, Mitch. MITCH'S VOICE Tell her to call her friends. Joe hangs up. Slim comes back out. JOE Wow. Charming. SLIM He scare you? Joe shakes his head - more at Mitch than in answer to her question. SLIM {CONT.} I shouldn't be here - JOE Sure you should - SLIM I'm dangerous to know right now. JOE (calm, forceful) Slim. You can be here anytime. She nods. They both know what he's saying: if he's willing to take this kind of risk, he's either a very good friend (which he is) or he's still in love with her (which he is, also). JOE (CONT.) Oh. He said you should call your friends. SLIM At the restaurant? 45 MOMENTS LATER. Slim on the phone, listening as the phone rings. And again, again. Joe watching her, concerned. Finally: GINNY'S VOICE Awright already! Orcal SLIM Hey. Gin. You okay? GINNY'S VOICE We had to clear the customers out, some ridiculous bomb threat - SLIM What? INT. "ORCA" RESTAURANT. NIGHT. Ginny on the cordless; Phil working nearby - GINNY Yeah, right during dinner. Like anybody's gonna bomb a diner in Carpenteria. SLIM'S VOICE What about you and Phil, did you - GINNY You know Phil. He won't leave his ship. We're doin' cleanup. SLIM'S VOICE Get out. GINNY What? SLIM'S VOICE I got a bad feeling, Gin. GINNY You got more than a bad feeling, hon. You got a bad husband. SLIM'S VOICE I know! That's what I'm saying! Get Phil and get out of there! Nowt 46 GINNY All right, all right, take it easy - (GRABBING PHIL) Let's go - PHIL The police are - GINNY (heading out the door) Screw the police, we're outta here. SLIM'S VOICE Run, okay?t Ginny?! Runt EXT. "ORCA." NIGHT. They step out. The restaurant is at the end of a long pier. Ginny turns skeptically to the overweight Phil - GINNY Can you run? PHIL Like Michael Jackson! As they sprint, sort of, toward the boardwalk: GINNY It's Michael Johnson, Phil. PHIL I know. But I run like Michael Jackson. And he kind of does: arms flailing, not quite connected to his body. Just as when we're enjoying this comic sight - EXPLOSION behind them - They're thrown TOWARD CAMERA - Debris flying everywhere - They lie on the. ground. Not moving. Are they dead or just stunned? Slowly they raise their heads. Blink. Look back at the restaurant: Starting to go up in flames. 47 INT. JOE'S APARTMENT. NIGHT. Slim holding her phone. Peculiar expression on her face. SLIM The line went dead. Joe stares at her, concerned. She presses redial, and we hear THE PHONE start to ring... She- goes to the window, parts the curtain: OUTSIDE in the street, the FBI MEN sit in their car - No answer on the phone. Slim looks at Joe and shakes her head: this isn't good. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREET. DAY. Slim walking a crowded street, carrying Gracie; TransAmerica Pyramid in the b.g. SAN FRANCISCO. Slim goes down an alley behind a converted warehouse, enters a basement garage. INT. OFFICE LOFT. DAY. One floor, lots of windows, lots of ATTRACTIVE young people in jeans working on lots of different projects. Sign on the wall says: V.C.V.C. Viet Cong Venture Capital. A BLOND GIRL, 24, nudges JUPITER SLAKOWSKI (52, ponytail, handsome, confident): BLONDE GIRL Hey Jupe. Girl here says she's your daughter. Jupiter gives Slim and Gracie a skeptical look. SLIM I know you don't want to see me or know about me, but I am desperate, I had nowhere else to go...I need your belg! (off his blank look) You want me dead? He shrugs affably and leads her into his office - JUPITER It's a good gig. To claim I'm your father? What year were you born? 48 SLIM You are my Dad, Jupiter. When Mom died, I wrote you, you didn't answer. I didn't have enough money to bury her, that was really fun. JUPITER Don't look at me, I didn't kill her. SLIM No, you had help. JUPITER That's a stupid thing to say. What do you want, money?. SLIM I thought you should meet your granddaughter. JUPITER (perfunctory, to Gracie) Hi. Gracie looks at him skeptically, nods. SLIM And yes, we need money. To survive. JUPITER Look sweetheart. From '68 to like '72, I had maybe 5 kids. Different women. It was like a joke to me. ¬Ä¢ SLIM It's like a joke to me too. JUPITER You're the third to show up here with a hand out. I give all of you the same thing. (taking it from his wallet) Six bucks. Enough for a sandwich. For you, it's' twelve, you can buy the kid a sandwich too. SLIM (stunned...} Well. Now I know. JUPITER Yeah. 49 SLIM Used to be if I did something nasty, my temper got the better of me?, I'd wonder where the hell it came from. Thanks for clearing that up. JUPITER No problem. She goes, leaving the $12 on the table. He pockets it. CUT TO: EXT. SAN FRANCISCO ALLEY. DAY. Slim stands behind Jupiter's building. In the shadows. Still carrying Gracie. It's only after we hear Gracie - GRACIE Don't cry, Mom. Please don't cry. - that we realize Slim is crying. GRACIE (CONT.) You have mtg. Beat. CUT TO: EXT. TRAIN STATION. SANTA BARBARA. NIGHT. Slim and Gracie climb off the train and are immediately shepherded away by TWO SWARTHY MEN in Hawaiian shirts - SLIM Wait. Wait. What're you...? Who're you...? GRACIE (WORRIED) Mommy? One of the Swarthy Men speaks to Slim, but in the flurry, we can't hear it. She looks relieved, turns to Gracie - - but before Slim can speak, their bags are thrown in the trunk of a car and they're pushed into the back seat - The car speeds off, whips into a left-hand turn - 50 EXT. SANTA BARBARA. ANOTHER STREET. NIGHT. Now the car makes a right-hand turn, and a TRUCK pulls out, blocking traffic so no one can follow them - INT. CAR. NIGHT. Slim looks out the back, sees the Truck's maneuver. Turns to face forward again. Tries to meet the Driver's eyes. SLIM Hello? Where are we going? The Driver answers her in a Middle-Eastern language. Gracie looks alarmed. SLIM It's okay, Sweetheart, they're friends of Phil's. (I think.) EXT. MOTEL IN THE WOODS. NIGHT. J Gracie plays as Slim talks to Ginny and Phil. The car's parked below. Phil gestures toward the Driver, who'e standing guard. PHIL .so secret we don't even know who this man is or where he takes you. Slim nods. SLIM You're not afraid to help me? PHIL In my country people bleed their enemies to death out of their genitals. A fire? This is for roasting lamb. GINNY No letters, Slim, but you can call US - PHIL Must be very short. 51 Slim nods. Phil ceremonially hands her a thin envelope. She looks inside... and clearly finds money - SLIM No. Phil, wait a minute, I - PHIL I have insurance from fire - SLIM I know, but - PHIL (VERY FIRMLY) I will not discus, okay? We are family! She nods. Gratefully. Ginny takes her hand. Beat. SLIM What about the police? The fire. Do they - PHIL Mr. Mitch - of course - he has beautiful alibi. Slim nods again. Looks at Ginny...who's been working up to: GINNY You know, I keep having a bad idea. The first time he hit you, we saw your bruises. Second time, he beat you unconscious. The next time? Well. If you should fight back, defend yourself, and he dies? Who'd convict you? Who'd prosecute? PHIL This is American law??l GINNY I called my cousin, he's some shit- for-brains lawyer over in Tarzana, he says it's 2-1 she'd walk: self- defense, justifiable homicide. SLIM 2? That's good on a race-horse, Gin, but for Gracie?, to lose both parents? Besides, this is me, i couldn't kill anybodyl 52 GINNY We're talking about Mitch here. SLIM Even so. I'm not that kind of person, okay? Ginny nods reluctantly. She's not sure the subject is closed. CUT TO: NEW LEAF FLASHES (LIKE THE CREDIT SEQUENCE) MICROFICHE, NEWSPAPER DEATH NOTICE, "Erin Shleeter, 6 weeks." SLIM at COUNTY RECORDER'S DESK: SLIM Yes, I lost my birth certificate - BIRTH CERTIFICATE for Erin Shleeter in Slim's hand - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, in her hand - DRIVER'S LICENSE, with Slim's photo: her hair's a different color and she wears glasses. The name is Erin Shleeter,. DRESS SHOP: new clothes, new outfits, new look, new Slim - INT. LARGE DRAB HOUSE. DAY. "Erin" & Gracie being led by MUSTAPHA (40) past QUASI-HOMELESS ARABS;, finally ending in a corner of a large room where two small mattresses lie on the floor. Somewhere in Colorado. MUSTAPHA I'm sorry, this is the best we can - SLIM!"ERIN" It's fine, thanks. Mustapha shrugs apologetically, leaves. Gracie whispers: GRACIE Mom...who are all those people? SLIM/"ERIN" They're kind of...friends of Phil's. GRACIE (stares at her mother) They're strangers. 53 INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. BACK ROOM. DAY. Mustapha working at one desk, "Erin" at another. Gracie on the floor, coloring. Bored. Prompts a look from "Erin" - "ERIN" Look. I have to find the right place and get you admitted, okay? INT. DRAB HOUSE. NIGHT. 15 people being served from a large pot. "Erin" and Gracie each get a good portion of something that looks quite unusual. "ERIN" Thank you. GRACIE Thank you. (looks at it, whispers) What j it? "ERIN." Food. INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. DAY. "Erin" works at her desk. Gracie shoots paper basketballs- into the wastebasket.. stops as Mustapha enters. He gives "Erin" an open FedEx pack. MUSTAPHA FedEx is like underground railroad. "Erin" is stunned. She looks inside the package, finds another FedEx pack. Opens that. Inside it is a wrapped present and note. She reads: JUPITER'S VOICE "Dear Daughter - (CONT.) INT. JUPITER'S OFFICE. DAY. Jupiter's at his desk as the THREE "FBI MEN" are shown in. He says something gracious to them. For. a moment they don't respond. Then one of them speaks. 54 Whatever he's saying produces a subtle but profound change on Jupiter's features. JUPITER'S VOICE (CONT.) Yesterday three men threatened to kill me if I helped you in any way. Fortunately for you, this aroused my interest. (CONT.) INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. DAY. "Erin" opens the present and finds: Cash. Fifties. Probably a couple thousand dollars. She fights the impulse to cry. JUPITER'S VOICE (CONT.) I'm sending this via your former boss. If you get it and need more, leave word at my office. JUPITER" CUT TO: EXT./INT. SMALL PRETTY HOUSE. DAY. FLASHES: Arab Men carrying in a couch as "Erin" watches. "Erin" hanging sheets over the windows: makeshift curtains. "Erin" fixing Gracie's room. Small bed. Two new Teddy Bears. "ERIN" What do you think, you like this place? GRACIE (SUSPICIOUSLY) Why, are we moving again? "ERIN" No, we just - (got here) GRACIE Good. 'Cause I am sick and tired to death of movingi "ERIN" Me too. So here's the deal. Try to remember,. while we're here, to call me Mom or Erin, but not Slim, okay? 55 GRACIE I never call you Slim. "ERIN" I know, but... GRACIE I don't think you are that slim. "ERIN" Thanks a lot. GRACIE Do I get a new name too? "ERIN" I guess. If you want one... Gracie stares at her blankly. GRACIE I have a crood idea . CUT TO: EXT. PRE-SCHOOL. DAY. "Erin" approaches BETTY, Director of the Pre-School: "ERIN" Excuse me, Betty? Hi, I'm Erin Shleeter, I called you - BETTY Oh, hi - "ERIN" This is my daughter. BETTY (TO GRACIE) Look at you!, you're so...(cute) What's your name? GRACIE Queen Elizabeth. Betty blinks. "Erin" shrugs: that's my daughter! CUT TO: 56 INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. BATHROOM. DAY. Scissors. "Erin" cutting her hair in some odd primitive way that further changes her look. For the worse. INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. BACK ROOM. DAY. T.T. (the African-American woman who works there) watches "Erin" exit the bathroom and put away the scissors. Not a COMPLIMENT: T.T. Whatever you're goin' for, girl: you're really getting there. CUT TO: INT. CAR. MORNING. "Erin" driving, nervous. Gracie/"Queen E."" is turned around in her seat, looking out the back - GRACIE/"QUEEN ELIZABETH" He is not - "ERIN" Yes, he is - GRACIE/""QUEEN ELIZABETH" Mom, he turned. "ERIN" He turned? (looks in rear view) Oh my God, you're right. He turned. Wells (That's better.) "QUEEN ELIZABETH" That's what I've been saying. There are other cars, okay? Just 'cause somebody's behind you doesn't mean - (stops ...blinks...) Mom? You just drove past my school. CUT TO: EXT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. EVENING. "Erin" and "Queen E." leaving work, bickering: 57 "ERIN" I don't know, I can cook something. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Or we can go to McDonalds. "ERIN" We can't afford to eat out every night. I can cook, Tootster. "Queen E." rolls her eyes as: BRAD Hi. (off her blank look) I'm Brad Zall, I just rented a car from you guys. "Erin" stares at him. An insane moment of sustained paranoia. Who is this guy,. really? What does he want? Finally she realizes a normal response is required. Kind of a TRICK QUESTION: "ERIN" Is the vehicle all right? BRAD Yeah, it's fine. I was just thinking that if you're not doing anything, maybe I could buy you - and the kid of course - "ERIN" Who are you?! Who sent you?! You want a date?! You are totally out of your mind if you think I'm gonna have even this conversation we're having right now! I'm not, okay?! We are not talking! Get it?! BRAD Yeah, I get it. And good luck with your psychotherapy. He walks away. She stares after him. Again "Queen E." is looking at her mother in astonishment. SUP 58 "ERIN" (STILL AGGRESSIVE) What? You're thinking I over- reacted? Huh? Just a little? CUT TO: INT. "ERIN'S" TAURUS. DAY. "Erin" driving too fast. Her slight recklessness adds an undercurrent of anxiety to the scene. She's also eating doughnuts, sharing a box with her daughter. They pass a gas station. "Queen E." sees pay phones. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" You know Mom? I like the doughnuts and all, but the driving... "ERIN" Don't get on my case. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Every Sunday, to drive for 55 hours? In exasperation, "Erin" gestures with both hands - taking them off the wheel. Nothing bad happens, but again her recklessness makes us nervous - "ERIN" It's not 55 - "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Just to reach some phone booth?! Hey can I call Daddy this time?! Please??? Please please please... "Erin" shakes her head. "Queen E." gives her a mournful look. "ERIN" Don't beg. You look like a dog. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY STORE. DAY. "Erin" is on the phone, "Queen E." at her side. "ERIN" Mrs. Tyler? It's Slim. 59 MRS. TYLER'S VOICE Oh thank God. Listen. Mitch is planning some legal action, you're depriving him of his rights as a father, some nonsense like that: you better have Gracie call him. "ERIN" Oh that's good news - MRS. TYLER'S VOICE I thought you'd want to know - "ERIN" I do, thanks, I appreciate it. Listen: we have to keep it short again or he might trace it, so I better put her on - (hands phone to:) "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Hi Grandma! I have a new name! (as "Erin" frowns...) Yeah! You wanna hear it? "Erin" pushes down the lever, ending the call, mutters: "ERIN" Sorry, your Majesty. Remember: names're secret. "Queen E." nods. Puts on her mournful look... "ERIN" That is the most pitiful expression I've ever seen. CLOSE ON "QUEEN ELIZABETH" She listens, cradling the phone. "Erin" watches her daughter's face light up: "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Hi Daddy! We're having a great vacation! (PAUSE) I don't know. At a phone booth somewheres. "Erin" shakes her head, takes the receiver away: 60 "ERIN" No questions, okay?, or it ends now. (hands phone back to "Queen E.":) Just tell him you love him and say goodbye, okay? "Queen E." nods, puts the receiver to her ear. Even "Erin" can hear Mitch yelling... "Queen E."'s face changes. Mitch keeps shouting angrily. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Goodbye Daddy. She did not say "I love you." She hands "Erin" the receiver. "Erin" hangs it up. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" I am really really sad. "Erin" nods, angry at herself: "ERIN" Sorry, kid. My mistake. CUT TO: INT. FANCY OFFICE. DAY. Mitch hands up his cordless phone, picks up another line. MITCH I know mine was (too) short, but she made other calls, right? Ginny?, or my mother? He crosses to a map with colored pins. Sticks in another one - MITCH (CONT.) Good. Good. Keep it up. (hangs up, goes to intercom:) Isn't he here yet? Great, yeah, send him in. To our shock, the person who enters is the man previously known as "Our Hero." ROBBIE (real name) and Mitch are good buddies: MITCH Hey. ROBBIE Hey. 61 MITCH Look, will you tell what's his face, Lieutenant Harris: I bought his Miata, I paid for his rec room, can he please keep his patrolmen from hassling my guys? ROBBIE You got me on a Sunday, for that? (JOKE) I could be out shaking down wetbacks. MITCH I didn't bring you for that. ROBBIE Her? (off Mitch' s nod) I told you not to be an asshole. MITCH Yeah, but coming from you... ROBBIE We had rules, okay? The rescue routine - like in the diner? It always worked, 'cause we said: one time only. You come, then you go. But you end up marrying the bitchl MITCH I know where she is, Robbie. More or less. ROBBIE That's a blessing. MITCH I need you to find her. Take your VACATION - (as Robbie rolls his eyes) I'll make it worth your while, and I'll fix it with the department - ROBBIE (DRILY) Thanks. Thanks a lot. MITCH Who else'm I gonna get? Huh? She stole my fucking childl 62 C ; ROBBIE Okay, okay. Ease it up. MITCH (walks to map, pins) She made calls from these places - ROBBIE She's that stupid? You traced her? MITCH She's not stupid, okay? It says on the Net it takes 84 seconds to trace a call; she keeps hers well under. (SMILES) Of course-your equipment is faster. ROBBIE You're welcome, you're welcome... MITCH (drawing on map) Okay: say she lives within a two hour radius... CUT TO: INT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. KITCHEN. NIGHT. "Erin" and "Queen E." eating pasta. The sauce is unusual colors, grey and orange. "Queen E." pokes politely at her plate. "Erin" is understandably insecure about her cooking: "ERIN" What do you think, is it okay? It's okay, right? "Queen E." nods dubiously. "ERIN" (CONT.) No, it's not, it's horrible. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" It's not horrible, Mom. "ERIN" But it's not good, is it? Is it good? "QUEEN ELIZABETH" (INCREDULOUS) (Good??) Mom, you tasted it. 63 "Erin" pushes her plate back. It's too much. in a second, silent tears are flooding down her face. This is not what "Queen E." wants to see. And she certainly doesn't want to reverse roles by giving comfort. Better just to pretend it's not happening. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Know what I think? "ERIN" (tries to pull HERSELF TOGETHER) What's that? "QUEEN ELIZABETH" I think you miss Daddy. This comment is so wacko that it's almost touching. Almost. She feels compelled to be honest: "ERIN" Daddy yells at me, Toots. "Queen E." nods. Thinks... "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Well. You miss somebody. CUT TO: NOT ALL MEN ARE HEADS INT. SANTE FE AIRPORT. DAY. Joe gets off a plane with his carry-on luggage, goes to a bank of pay phones, examines the numbers on the phones... ANOTHER BANK OF PAY PHONES. MINUTES LATER. When one of these phones rings, he picks it up - JOE Sorry, my plane was delayed - EXT. ROADSIDE STAND. PAY PHONE. DAY. "Queen E." is hitting stones with a baseball bat as "Erin" talks on the phone: 64 "ERIN" Rent a car, make sure you're not followed, drive to the Taos airport. JOE'S VOICE Another plane?? "ERIN" In Taos, go to Starbucks. Not the main one or the one by Hagen-Dazs. The one near the book store. INT. SANTA FE AIRPORT. DAY. Joe shakes his head, amused: JOE What is this, a treasure hunt? I'm gonna spend the whole weekend flying around? "ERIN'S" VOICE I'll call Starbucks in three hours. (REASSURING HIM:) Don't worry, you'll be here by four. Dialtone. He hangs up. CUT TO: INT. SMALL AIRPORT. DAY. "Erin" and "Queen E." look out the window at a small prop plane, which is starting to unload passengers. "ERIN" I tell you it's this one. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" No, he's not. He's with... She's looking at some OTHER PASSENGERS who have already entered through another gate and are walking past them. "ERIN" No, Toots. That one's from Reno. (turns back, sees him) There! Joel She waves. "Queen E." waves too. Joe waves back. 65 But that's not what we're looking at. We're. looking at Robbie: walking slowly toward them with the other Reno passengers. He doesn't see "Erin", but in a moment he will. He'll turn the dogleg corner and be right next to them... Robbie pulls out his boarding pass. With it are old photos of "Erin" and "Queen E.11. He shuffles past the photos, finds his claim check. He's now only a few feet away from them... And they're oblivious of him... And he turns the little dogleg and looks at them - Except they're no longer there. They've moved toward the unloading area for Joe's gate... And Robbie goes safely past as Joe enters the terminal, sees them, shakes his head: JOE I can guarantee one thing in my lifetime: I was not followed. He embraces "Erin" and "Queen E."" The CAMERA looks past them to where Robbie might be watching. He's not. CUT TO: INT/EXT. THEIR TAURUS/MAIN STREET, SMALL TOWN. DAY. "Erin" and "Queen E." are pointing out sights, passing an OLD FASHIONED DINER: "ERIN" And there's the diner where I do not work. JOE Where do you work? "Erin" gives him a look: she's not telling. She resumes the tour, points to an old crumbling "movie palace:"' "ERIN" There's the one-plex. (pointing again at a NOT-TOO-FANCY PLACE) The ‚Ǩan restaurant where you'd take me if we were dating... (for "Queen E.19 which we are not. 66 Very fast, like an old routine; we see how they play together: JOE No way. "ERIN" Not at all. JOE Just friends, right Gracie? "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Queen Elizabeth. JOE Right. Sorry, your highness. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" No problem. "Erin" pulls up in front of their house, gestures: here it is. INT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. HALL. DAY. Continuing the tour, they're showing him: "ERIN" And this is the guest bedroom... (CONT . ) INT. "QUEEN ELIZABETH'S" ROOM. EVENING. He comes in, looks around. Clearly "Queen E." has painted the walls herself : it's a "modern-art" mesa. "ERIN" (CONT.) .normally known as Buckingham palace. JOE (nods, checks it out) Very... colorful. "ERIN" You better warn him, huh? "Queen E." looks confused. "Erin" whispers in her daughter's ear, and she confides in Joe: 67 "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Oh yeah. The dreams in here get really noisy. Joe sets his suitcase down. JOE I look forward to that. CUT TO: EXT. PARK. DAY. Baseball diamond. Joe pitching underhand to "Queen E." He's using plastic balls the size of soccer balls, so it's easy for her to hit every one. "Erin" is running, retrieving the hits. FREEZE FRAME as she's caught in a photograph. The image unfreezes and is followed quickly by a series of frozen frames, photographs of her, some wide, some tight. REVERSE IMAGE. The park. Mostly empty. No one taking their picture. A stand of green bushes. HOLD on the bushes for a moment - EXT. PARK. AN HOUR LATER. "Queen E." is curled on a blanket taking a nap as "Erin" and Joe finish the picnic. JOE You seem like you're doing great. "ERIN" Yeah. JOE How long can you stand it? (off her look) I mean: not to talk to your friends or family or have anything to do with your real life? 68 "ERIN" (quiet, strong) Gracie is safe. JOE Yeah, but what, now Mitch started some kind of custody battle?, what DOES - ROBBIE Are you Denise? SHOCK. There he is, standing right over them, in bad clothes and a baseball cap, dark glasses. Completely unrecognizable. "ERIN" Pardon me? ROBBIE You're Denise, right? Used to work at the Pack 'N' Ship? "ERIN" I'm not Denise. ROBBIE Oh. Sorry, I... You look-but you're right, your voice... (isn't) You're not from New Zealand, are you? "ERIN" Never been there. ROBBIE Boy. Sorry to bother you folks. He backs away, embarrassed. Joe stares after him warily... JOE What now? We call Pack 'N' Ship, see if Denise ever - (worked there) "ERIN" Because of some homeless guy? Joe: it could be the Pack'N'Ship in Trenton, New Jersey. (over his protest) One thing I learned: I can't jump every time someone says boo. I can't do that to her. 69 Joe looks at "Queen E." and nods. CUT TO: EXT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. NIGHT. Looks peaceful. But why do we need this establishing shot? Its very existence in the narrative is menacing. INT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. NIGHT. Joe gets up from "Queen E. 's" bed and goes into the kitchen. Gets some juice from the fridge, drinks it. Looks into "Erin's" bedroom. "Erin" is awake, "Queen E." asleep at her side. Half -whisper: JOE Gracie was right. (off her look) 'Bout the dreams in there. "ERIN" Yeah, mine too. (BEAT) Cuddle? INT. "ERIN'S" BEDROOM. NIGHT. As he gets into bed: "ERIN" You remember the house rules? JOE With Gracie here? Who can forget? They hold hands. "ERIN" Joe. JOE Yeah. "ERIN" You ever think about what would've happened...(if you and I had...) 70 JOE Yeah. "ERIN" What do you think? Beat. JOE I think Gracie is truly a great kid, and any path that doesn't include her doesn't make any sense. "Erin" nods. Beat. "ERIN" Ginny told me about that weekend. JOE Of your wedding? She nods. JOE She tell you how terrible I was? "ERIN" Joe. This routine? It might work on other people, but you forget: I've actually had you - JOE I didn't forget - "ERIN" (like a compliment's coming) - and I'm telling you, from memory... (DRY TEASE) you are not that bad... They both laugh. It subsides into affection... "ERIN" You really go tomorrow...? He nods. "ERIN" (CONT.) Couldn't you quit your job, and stay here and play the horses or something and become independently wealthy? 71 Beat. JOE Please kiss me, Slim. I know we're not supposed to, it's against house rules and all, but for me to come all this way and feel the way I do and for us to not even - She kisses him - And he kisses back. And they stop. Incredible self control. Lie next to each other-hold hands again... JOE You're a great person, Slim. You're a great person just like your daughter. She squeezes his hand. THE CAMERA LINGERS FOR A MOMENT ON THIS SWEET IMAGE... clasped hands...THEN PULLS SUDDENLY BACK, so we're seeing their hands from outside, through a crack in the window. Hold. CUT TO: YOU CAN RUNs s s EXT. PRESCHOOL. DAY. From an odd distance across the street, we watch "Erin" dropping off "Queen E." Extend the mundane details of this transaction... THREE DAYS LATER INT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. DAY. T.T. sticks her head in, to "Erin": T.T. I know you have a "back room" gig, but with Sher out, four customers: I need help here; I'm on meltdown. 72 EXT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. DAY. We look. past a tree, through the windows...as "Erin" comes warily out to the counter, looks over the customers... INT. DOUBLE A RENT-A-CAR. COUNTER. LATER. DAY. "Erin" working a calculator, muttering in frustration... T.T. Here, lemme do that. As T.T. wrestles with the calculation, "Erin" looks up. Frowns slightly, her eyes shift... She senses something. This strange sensation, as if she's being watched, or... She looks out the window, doesn't see anyone... Glances into the back office - and notices the clock: 4:15. "ERIN" (runs for door) Oh my Godl, the Queen is out of dance class! I'll be back in 20 - EXT. DOUBLE "A" RENT-A-CAR. DAY. We watch from across the street as "Erin" hurries to her Taurus, gets in and drives away. EXT. PRE-SCHOOL. DAY. "Erin" in line for Pick-up. Betty the Pre-school Director comes up to "Erin" and says casually: BETTY Erin. I'm glad you're here. We can't find Queen Elizabeth - "ERIN" You can't find her??! BETTY So many kids're staying for these after-school things - She turns, distracted, as ANOTHER TEACHER calls - 73 n "Erin" blinks... looks around frantically... OTHER KIDS in gym or dance gear, but no "Queen E."...and the knowledge of what's happened is hitting her...her eyes're dilating, breathing becoming frantic. Betty turns back as "Erin" mutters: "ERIN" I should've! ... I should've known!, he did it before! She rams the car in gear, rockets out of the pick-up line - Almost hits a TEACHER and 4 YEAR OLD KID - Slams the breaks, calls: "ERIN" I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I... I... Freaked out, frantic, she pulls to the side of the road, yanks up her brake, grabs her cell phone. Auto-dial #2. T.T.'S VOICE Double "A" Rent "ERIN" Did Queen Elizabeth call?! T.T.'S VOICE No, of course - (not) "ERIN" Anyone else?! T.T.'S VOICE Nobody called, Erin; are you - (okay?) "Erin" presses STOP, then Auto-dial #1, waits, looks around. Betty staring at her like she's crazy, walking toward her car - "ERIN'S" VOICE Hi. Leave a message. "ERIN" Gracie, are you there?! Is anyone there?! Please? Pick up! No one picks up. Silence. She beats the wheel in frustration... lowers her head. For one long second, she seems completely beaten... 74 A KNOCK on her window - She looks up, sees Betty. Betty's talking, but it's as if "Erin" has gone crazy. For a moment there's no sound, and then the sound is there but unintelligible, and finally the words and sounds come together: BETTY .what I've been trying to tell you... "Erin" nodding now, beginning to grasp the words... BETTY (CONT.) At the end of dance class, the teacher lets them go hide, and for a minute no one could find her - "Erin" looks past Betty, sees "Queen E." in her tutu and leaps out of her car - "ERIN" Thank you, thank you, I... I'm sorry. I'll explain later, I... She rushes forward, wraps "Queen E." in a big, not quite appropriate hug. "Queen E." looks at her as if to say, "This is nice, Mom, but will you please tell me what gives?" CUT TO: EXT. RENT-A-CAR. NIGHT. From a distance, we watch "Erin" and "Queen E." trudge toward their Taurus. The end of the day; they're tired. CUT TO: INT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. KITCHEN. MIGHT. Making meat loaf. "Erin" consults the cookbook, seems confused, puts meat, breadcrusts, eggs, sauces, onions, etc. in a bowl. "Queen E." mooshes them with her fingers - a disgusting tactile job which she adores. IMPROVISE DIALOG to make the scene utterly mundane, two "girls" having fun... The normalness of it makes us exceedingly nervous. INT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. NIGHT. "Queen E." sleeping peacefully in her bed. 75 "Erin" also sleeping peacefully. We OBSERVE her from a slight distance, to the left of the bed as we face it. Slowly the CAMERA BEGINS TO MOVE. . .down the bed...to the foot ...to the other side.. .back again on "Erin" sleeping peacefully... and the CAMERA RISES to show Mitch seated at her side. He seems calm and utterly content. It would be, hard to imagine a more terrifying attitude. INT. HER BEDROOM. DAWN. "Erin" wakes with a start, sits up, looks around - Everything's normal. Peaceful. No Mitch. "Erin" shakes her head, as if clearing away a dream. As she looks again around the room, her nostrils flare slightly. . .as if she smells him. She rubs her nose. Touches her wrist, and we notice something she's worn the whole time she's been Erin: a colorful elastic bracelet, probably a Swatch. She gets out of bed and looks out the window - Cold morning - She goes toward the hall... INT. HALL. DAY. Moving down the hall... each open door feels like a trap ready to spring... She glances into "Queen Elizabeth's" room... We half expect some sort of reaction or exclamation - "Queen E." may be gone - but instead "Erin" keeps right on going... Vanishes into the bathroom. HOLD the empty hall. HEAR the sound of her peeing... INT. BATHROOM. DAY. From the doorway, we see her on the potty... The window over her head is open slightly. 76 As she pees, she stares at the shower curtain-it rustles slightly in the wind from the window. She wipes herself. Still staring at the curtain... She stands, pulls up her pajamas... Stares. Yanks the shower curtain aside - Nothing. INT. HALL. DAY. She goes into the kitchen. INT. KITCHEN. DAY. She puts on the kettle. Drinks a little o.3 from a carton. Walks back down the hall - In every moment of this, the tension is excruciating... INT. HALL. DAY. Facing her as she comes down the hall, passing the living room doorway.. .we wait for Mitch to leap out at her - He doesn't. She keeps coming, past "Queen E's - HE JUMPS OUT OF THE DOORWAY - " Erin" starts to scream, looks toward "Queen E." and stifles the sound. They wrestle. Silently. Grim pantomime. The only sounds are GRUNTS, BANGING vs. the walls. He's far too strong for her - They slam against one wall, the other, CRASH to the floor - 77 MITCH Wanna know a secret? Whispering to her, his hands moving to her neck... MITCH (CONT.) Cops need a body. Without your body, they'll think you disappeared again. Her hands at his hands, clawing, trying to pry them loose - MITCH {CONT.} Which is kind of true. One of her hands moves-away from his hands to that Swatch or whatever it is on her wrist - MITCH (CONT. ) 'Cause where you're going, they will never... ever... find you. She turns the gizmo so it points away from her face... Toward his face... At the last instant he realizes what she must be doing - But it's too late. She presses a button - Orange spray hits his face, eyes - He screams and releases her - She leaps up - and Sees "Queen E." standing in her doorway. Staring, mute and horrified. How long was she watching?! "Erin" grabs "Queen E." and runs down the hall. Mitch writhes on the floor - EXT. "ERIN'S" HOUSE. DAWN. "Erin" bursts out the back door, whirls, pulls a rope - - Causing a slab of 2-by-4 to slide over the door: primitive locking device - She sprints for her Taurus. Still in her pajamas, still carrying "Queen E." - Her car has a number pad on the driver's door. She punches numbers, opens the door, puts "Queen E." in - 78 Pulls a key from under the mat - Fires the car up, rockets away - Down the block, so far back we're not even sure it means anything, a CHEVY SUBURBAN pulls away from the curb... EXT./INT. MALL/TAURUS DAWN. Parked in back, near dumpsters. "Erin" jumps out of the Taurus, runs around to the trunk, pulls out a small suitcase. MOMENTS LATER. "Erin" and "Queen E." pulling clothes from the suitcase, getting dressed. A FRANTIC BLUR of pajamas and underwear and suitcase and the last thing we expect to see: KNOCK at the window. Robbie. "Erin" whirls, looks. For an instant TIME SLOWS as she stares at him... FLASHBACK TO THE DINER, HIS FACE: she recognizes him - And realizes: he's with Mitch. Which means: Mitch was phony from the moment she met him - Robbie reaches for her door handle - She rams the accelerator, leaving Robbie behind - The car rockets forward, toward the dumpsters - She spins the wheel; the car swerves, kisses off the dumpster - Robbie running for his car, and now we see the Chevy Suburban, hidden behind some nearby bushes - The Taurus pogos over the concrete/grass divider, rockets across the next parking lot... Robbie jumping into his Suburban - "Erin" half in, half out of her clothing, trying to drive, trying to see, sticking out her arm to keep "Queen E." (not in her seatbelt) from flying through the windshield. "ERIN" Seatbelti Seatbelti Put on your - 79 "QUEEN ELIZABETH" (trying to put it on) Then slow down so I - "ERIN" I can't slow'- "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Who was that guy?! "ERIN" (looks in rear-view) I don't know, some... (sees Robbie chasing them) Oh shit... EXT. CITY. MORNING. Three brief FLASHES of -"Erin" being chased out of the city. Freaked out to drive so fast, "Queen E." screaming, etc. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD. MORNING. Robbie's Suburban right behind them, closer, closer... finally slams into their Taurus, knocking them half off the road. He pushes them off again, again, "Queen E." covering her eyes, "Erin" coming back onto the road, fighting to keep control, and the road narrowing more and more, down to one tight lane. This looks like totally the wrong place to be leading someone. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" (WORRIED) Mom? Up ahead is a one-lane covered bridge crossing over a stream. The bridge is very narrow. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" Mom, are you sure...?! Quite sure, thank you. "Erin" guns the accelerator. Robbie's FACE... driving, confident, full of blood lust, and then his expression changes. Eyes widen. He realizes - shit! too late!! - that the bridge is way too narrow for - "Erin" Is car slides through, scraping one side The Suburban crashes into the bridge, careens into the water - 80 "Queen E." looks back through the rear view mirror... looks at her mother ...back and forth... "QUEEN ELIZABETH" That was dangerous. INT. CAR. MORNING Different country road. Parked ahead is a `78 Oldsmobile. "Erin" pulls in behind it. They get out of the Taurus. Using her keys, "Erin" unlocks the trunk of the Olds. Two large suitcases inside. "Erin" throws their small suitcase in on top. "Erin" reaches up under the driver's seat and pulls out a wallet. Checks the contents: cash, credit cards. "Queen E." pulls a red wig out of the glove compartment. INT. OLDSMOBILE. MORNING. They're on a lightly travelled two-lane highway. "Erin" (now a redhead) looks in her rear-view mirror: no cars. "ERIN" Okay, Toots. We can talk. "Queen E." stares at her mutely. "ERIN" {CONT.} Want me to tell you what happened? "Queen E." blinks twice, shakes her head. "ERIN" {CONT.} Fair enough. One thing, though: Erin's over. "QUEEN ELIZABETH" (Too bad.} I liked Erin. Slim nods sadly: she liked Erin too. SLIM You're not the Queen of England anymore either. Gracie nods fatalistically, stares out the window. Flat voice: 81 GRACIE I'm hungry. CUT TO: INT. DINER. DAY. Gracie eating voraciously. Slim has no appetite. Their WAITRESS comes over, notices Slim's not eating - WAITRESS Everything okay here? SLIM (NODS) Thanks. WAITRESS (TO GRACIE) Hey there, cutie, what's your name? Gracie looks up at her for a while. GRACIE I'm working on that one. The waitress does a double-take and leaves. To Slim: GRACIE {CONT.) Maybe something normal this time. Ann or Mary or... (sees Slim is distracted) Mom? SLIM I'm thinking. Beat. GRACIE (Yeah,) I can hear it. CUT. TO: EXT. COURTHOUSE. DAY. Slim parks. As she starts to get out, she says to Gracie: SLIM Anybody talks to you, hit the horn. 82 INT. COURTHOUSE. DAY. Slim in line at a COUNTY RECORDER'S desk. The person in front of her leaves, she steps up: SLIM I need the best lawyer in town. (QUICKLY) I know you can't give names, it's against the law or whatever, but I really need help, and I can see you're a decent person. She slides a paper and pencil across the desk: SLIM (CONT.) Please. Just a name. INT. NICE LAWYER'S OFFICE. RECEPTION AREA. DAY. Slim comes in, sits Gracie down and whispers: SLIM Watch how it's done. 117 Slim goes to the Receptionist's desk: SLIM Hi. Is Mr. Toiler with someone? RECEPTIONIST No, but he's - SLIM I'm not a crazy person. She walks past the Receptionist - RECEPTIONIST Wait a minute! You can't Slim opens the big door, enters: INT. JIM TOLLER'S OFFICE. DAY. The moment we see JIM TOILER we know Slim's okay. The actor playing him is one of those cranky avuncular types who pisses and moans but always comes to the rescue and outsmarts the bad guys. As we expect, he starts out disliking her: 83 JIM TOLLER I don't know where you learned manners, young lady, but this is not the way to get my attention. SLIM I know, but I'm desperate. (digging into purse) My husband keeps trying to kill me, and I need to talk to somebody who's smart, okay?, smarter than me at least. (pulling out cash) This is all the money I have - well, all but twenty - it's almost 500, and I'll give you all of it if you'll just listen to what... (happened)... just two minutes, okay? Please? She's so charming and intense and discombobulated, he can't help but give in. DISSOLVE TO: LATER. He's staring at her. Good poker player; we can tell nothing from his expression. His voice very quiet and calm: JIM TOLLER Pardon my French, dear, but I hope you got pleasure from it, 'cause you have really fucked yourself. You had two chances to file a complaint with the police and put his violence on record. You ignored them. Which tells him to keep comin' till he kills you. Slim reacts to this. JIM TOLLER (CONT.) As for Gracie: his next move... he'll initiate a custody hearing. SLIM He...he already did. 84 JIM TOLLER If you don't show up, the judge'll rule against you, you become a fugitive from the law. If you do show, Mitch will, as you say, portray you as a drug addict. For all I know you are one: you break in here, uninvited. I'd say your husband has a good chance for sole custody. Now if you don't mind: (pushes the money back at her) I'd like to go back to my work. SLIM (stares at him in disbelief) .That's all? (off his silence) You're not gonna help me? JIM TOLLER No one can help you, lady. She nods. Stares at him. And does not go. After a moment we see him have a thought... hesitate... look up at her... JIM TOLLER The custody hearing, if he pushes for it, is just a trick. She says nothing. Listens. Watches as: He plucks a $20 bill from her stack of funds. Obviously he's giving her a valuable piece of advice: JIM TOLLER (CONT.) It's a way to get you to a particular place at a particular time... so he can kill you. He pockets the $20. She stares at him. Blinks. Of course. He's right...- CUT TO: INT. OLDSMOBILE. NIGHT. Late. Few cars. Slim drives. Gracie curled up in the front passenger seat. Slim glances at her. Looks back at the road. Back at Gracie. Something building. Finally, softly: 85 SLIM I gotta make you a solemn promise, Grace. Gracie is, of course, fast asleep. SLIM (CONT.) Ever since you were born ... well-one day I started to think of all the awful things that were gonna happen. People you'd love who'd die, or leave you, betray you, break your heart... .Physical injuries: broken bones or sickness or guys who hurt you some way... And I thought that if I could protect you even once, from any of those, if I could absorb any part of that myself... (BEAT) Well... Here goes. CUT TO: INT. AIRPORT. DAY. Ginny comes off a plane with her two kids. in tow, looks around, heads for a bank of telephones... As she approaches, one of the phones starts to ring. Ginny looks at it with irritation, picks it up - GINNY This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done. SLIM'S VOICE Oh yeah? How 'bout Horace? Ginny glances at one of her kids, evidently Horace's child. GINNY Okay, this is the second most - SLIM'S VOICE Rent a car, drive to Denver, then fly to Reno. GINNY You're out of your mind. I 86 SLIM'S VOICE (as though flattered) You noticed. Dialtone. We watch from a distance as Ginny shakes her head in disbelief, mutters to her kids. As they trudge off, the CAMERA FOLLOWS. INT. AIRPORT. RENTAL CAR COUNTER. DAY. From the same distance: Ginny and kids approach the counter. INT. AIRPORT PARKING GARAGE. RENT-A-CAR AREA. DAY. Ginny loading luggage into the back as her kids climb in. As Ginny slams the trunk, SOMEONE'S RIGHT THERE - Slim. Ginny blinks, recognizes her, hugs her: GINNY What're you... (doing here?) I thought we were... (driving to Reno) SLIM I had to make sure you weren't followed. GINNY (re Slim's hair) I like it. (not so sure) Maybe. (SEES GRACIE) Hey, Graceland. Gracie slips out from behind Slim, goes and hugs Ginny as Slim holds up a wallet: SLIM There's a credit card and cash. It's on me, but make no calls home, or to Phil. Think of it as a vacation till the Orca reopens. Toots? 87 This to Gracie, who started to climb into the car. Gracie looks at Slim and again tries to climb in - she wants }}g part of saying goodbye - but Slim pulls her back into a hug. Slim holds her for as long as Gracie can possibly tolerate. When Slim is done, Gracie climbs into the car with Ginny's kids. Slim has tears in her eyes. SLIM Take care of her, okay? Extra ice- cream and... and if you need to reach me... (hands her a cell phone) Just don't call your friends. GINNY Oh great. I'll call strangers. SLIM In an emergency, I'm #1 on the auto- dialer. Or I'll call you. Any calls between us must run is seconds or less. Cake? GINNY PIE - SLIM Ass. (re the vacation) Enjoy it, huh? GINNY How long? SLIM The custody hearing's end of next month. That's my deadline. GINNY Deadline for what? Slim looks at her... CUT TO: WE'RE SO CLOSE WE CAN'T TELL WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT. CAMERA SLOWLY PULLS BACK: EYES ...SLIM'S EYES. Intense, focussed. 88 THE KNOWLEDGE MAN'S VOICE You ready? She nods. CAMERA CONTINUES BACK, we see more of her face. MAN'S VOICE Sure? Another nod. Perspiration streaming from her pores, running down her face. And a look we haven't seen before. MAN'S VOICE Can you lose? She shakes her head. MAN'S VOICE Can he hurt you? She barely dignifies the question with another shake. We're now far enough back to see we are: INT. GYM. DAY. Slim in a leotard. MAN'S VOICE Even though he's bigger? SLIM (v. quiet) He's a lot bigger. MAN'S VOICE Even though he's stronger? Finally see her INSTRUCTOR (6'4", 235 pounds, African-American, 0.4% body fat). SLIM He's a lot stronger. INSTRUCTOR So if he hits you - SLIM No way. 89 INSTRUCTOR Say it. SLIM It takes.twice as much energy to swing and miss as to swing and hit. INSTRUCTOR After he misses, what do you do? She answers him with an intense look. He nods and moves after her. Slow, strong, powerful: predator. She backs up. Her movements simple, graceful, economical but athletic: they remind us of the easy way she moved around the restaurant in the first scene... Scattered over the mat are old-fashioned plastic SANTAS that kids use as punching bags. He backs her toward one... .then another. As she nears them, she slides deftly to the side: like she has eyes in the back of her head... He maneuvers her toward a desk-her back to it... Rushes at her - For a moment she seems trapped - But as he reaches her, she slips to her left, tosses him over the desk and onto the mat. She moves quickly to an attacking position, standing over him. He pats the mat beside him. She sits. He makes a motion and she closes her eyes. INSTRUCTOR One last thing. The hardest lesson: we can't control the universe. She listens. INSTRUCTOR (CONT.) The unexpected may happen. He slides his hand over the mat, an order. She lies down. 01 90 INSTRUCTOR (CONT.) Suddenly his maid enters, you're distracted for an instant, and he hits you... SLIM That's not possible - INSTRUCTOR 4 We must prepare even for the impossible. She stirs slightly, uncomfortable with this idea. INSTRUCTOR (CONT.) We bend the universe to our will, but it will only go so far. SLIM You're saying - INSTRUCTOR (STANDING UP) That's right - SLIM (CONT.) For the sake of this exercise, he hits me. He's standing over her. She looks completely vulnerable. VERY TIGHT ON HER AS: INSTRUCTOR Yes. And you lie there as if dead. But hear me. Hold onto my voice. She nods almost imperceptibly. INSTRUCTOR (CONT.) He's standing over you, he thinks he's won-and as sure as he's a coward, he'll try to kick you. SLIM (SOFTLY) Yes. 91 INSTRUCTOR And because you know what he'll do, you're smiling inside,... (CONT.) Her face blank, eyes still closed-but something changes; we sense her confidence and serenity returning. He draws his foot back as if to kick her... CUT TO: INT. JUPITER'S OFFICE. (San Francisco) DAY. Slim strides through the office unapologetically interrupting various conversations. Finally she spots Jupiter, walks over, and without saying a word, demands his attention - JUPITER (to the others) Ah. Just a sec, I'll be right back. (to her, irritated} I thought I made it clear you weren't supposed to come here. SLIM I don't care what you want. This almost makes him smile; he's getting to like her. JUPITER You're a different person. SLIM So? JUPITER How's that black guy I .set you up with? SLIM Good. JUPITER Did he teach you how to think? It's not the question she expected; it's more interesting and complicated. 92 SLIM .I hope so. (before he can speak) The English guy is good too. (ALL BUSINESS) But that's not why I'm here. I need a woman who looks like me. Someone who can handle herself: an off-duty cop or something. (hands him photo) Five four, one ten. Hair like this but cut higher, over the ear - (hands him key) Miko hotel, room 509, 8 o'clock. JUPITER Tonic ? That's awful short notice; I don't know if I can - SLIM What? I thought Jupiter was like all-powerful, king of the Gods? Oh yeah. One more thing. At some point.. .not right now 'cause it'd be phony ...I need you to acknowledge that I'm your kid. She walks away. He stares after her. Hint of a smile comes to his face. CUT TO: INT. ELECTRONICS STORE. DAY. Slim is signing the credit card slip as the CLERK puts the merchandise in a distinctive red bag - SLIM You sure this'll work? CLERK You bet your life. SLIM Thanks, I will. She leaves, taking out her cell phone. FOLLOW HER as she goes: EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET. DAY. She walks up the street, punches in a number... 93 BUTLER'S VOICE Tyler residence. SLIM Yes. Tony. Could you please tell Mrs. Tyler that I'll call her around f our this afternoon. BUTLER'S VOICE Of course, Miss Slim. My pleasure. Slim hangs up, goes into a. bagel shop. INT.. BAGEL PLACE. LATER. Slim sits at a table with a cup of coffee. A short guy, 28, built like a fireplug, dressed in sweater and jeans and wool cap, enters, walks to her, and says in an English accent: ALEX Today, hon, you graduate. CUT TO: EXT. DOWNTOWN L.A. STREET. DAY. Alex and Slim are across the street from a strip joint. SLIM It's closed? ALEX Till six, eh? SLIM And I'd guess whoever owns it isn't a very nice person. ALEX That's a safe one. Slim starts walking toward the shop. As they go: SLIM Why here? ALEX You've got soft hands, you've worked hard. The tricky part now is nerves. They reach the entryway; Slim takes out her tools. 94 SLIM People on the street? ALEX Yeah. And you have to go in when his alarm's turned off - SLIM (NODS) Meaning he's inside. (has tools out) I'm ready. Alex moves slightly to block the view as Slim bends over and slips her tool into the lock... Slim working quietly, concentrating... Alex looking. around... A SHADY CHARACTER noticing them. Hesitating. Coming over.. ALEX We got company, doll... Slim still working... The Shady Character has almost reached them... ALEX Forget it. You're too slow. She opens the door - Alex glances down, nods - She closes the door again and stands just as: SHADY CHARACTER Hey. What're you guys up to? Slim stares at him. SLIM We were hoping to see some action, but it looks like they're closed. The Shady Character stares back. He is ve skeptical. He watches Slim and Alex walk off down the block. Alex mutters under his breath: 95 ALEX "Action?" Off her grin - CUT TO: INT. BEAUTY SALON. DAY. Slim sits in a chair, cell phone at her ear. Her hair is done; now she's getting a manicure. MRS. TYLER'S VOICE And where is Gracie? SLIM She's coming day after tomorrow, then we're flying to L.A. I was thinking after the hearing, maybe I could bring her by. MRS. TYLER'S VOICE Tell me something. Why is this call different? You were always worried about how long we talked - SLIM I was out in the country, Mrs. T. I'm in a big city now, meeting with my lawyer, so there're lots of cell phones. No one can trace this. EXT. BEAUTY PARLOR. DAY. Slim exits in a long gray coat. Stops outside for one moment, glances around - Sees a guy in a GREEN TRENCHCOAT across the street. She walks hurriedly away. Glances over her shoulder, sees Trenchcoat following her. She smiles slightly, to herself. CUT TO: EXT. SLIM'S HOTEL. DAY. From a discreet distance, across the street, we watch her go into her hotel. 96 Trenchcoat is standing across the street. INT. HOTEL ROOM. DAY. Slim enters her suite. Sitting by the window is TOVA. As Slim walks over, Tova pulls on a wig which matches Slim's haircut. There is now a strong resemblance. TOVA I'm Tova Steinberg. Slim stares. Tova's voice is an octave lower than Slim's. SLIM Say something else. TOVA I was a cop. I got shot, took the benefits. Slim thinks about Tova's voice. Takes out her cell phone. SLIM They have to think I'm still here, so use my cell phone, tomorrow, to call my dad. Autodial 2. Slim presses the autodial number, then SEND, and motions for Tova to put on Slim's gray coat. It fits Tova perfectly. SLIM (CONT.) (lowering his voice) Hey, it's me. JUPITER'S VOICE What happened to your voice?; you okay? SLIM I don't know, I'm getting some bronchial thing. JUPITER'S VOICE Otherwise everything's okay? SLIM Yeah. 97 JUPITER'S VOICE Get some rest, huh? She presses END, says to Tova, back to normal voice: SLIM Tomorrow stay in, order room service. Call him twice. Keep it brief. "Hello, I don't feel well..." TOVA And tonight? SLIM Go around the corner, eat at Guido's. TOVA I'll be followed? SLIM Green trenchcoat. Tova nods and Slim takes off her own wig. Short dark hair. SLIM (CONT.) Wish me luck, huh? TOVA Good luck. SLIM Luck has nothing to do with it. Tova smiles. INT. HOTEL. HALL. NIGHT. Slim waiting as the Service Elevator arrives. Gets in. EXT. HOTEL. REAR ENTRANCE. NIGHT. Slim going out the door, down the alley... 98 INT. AIRPORT. NIGHT. Slim getting on the plane to Los Angeles. CUT TO: EXT. SAN PEDRO STREET. NIGHT. Slim parks, looks across at a warehouse converted into lofts. BATTLE OF THE She takes a duffle from the back seat. Steps into the shadows, stares at the warehouse: Brick building, modern door and light fixtures. SEXES She looks both ways: The street's dark. Deserted. She hoists her duffle, takes a deep breath. And crosses the street. Goes up the stairs to the stoop. Looks at the alarm panel on the door: green. Crouches, starts to work on the lock. INT. WAREHOUSE/LOFT. SLEEPING AREA. NIGHT. Mitch in bed, sleeping. Peaceful. A SOUND, Off. He stirs slightly. ANOTHER SOUND. He sits up. Frowning... dazed. Cocks his head. Listens... The SILENCE seems to have texture. He gets up. 99 We glimpse: a beautiful brick warehouse converted inside into an open, loft-like space filled with bird'seye maple, metal beams, etc. Modern, glistening, expensive. He walks around the place in the dark. In his boxer shorts and t-shirt. He looks vulnerable... SLIM'S POV... From one corner. Observing him. She has become the stalker. HER EYES, watching... He decides everything's okay and goes back to the semi partitioned sleeping area... He gets back into bed - next to a YOUNG BLOND WOMAN, 22. She turns over, mutters something, goes back to sleep. He lies there, eyes open. Stays very still. Listening. JARRING CUT TO: INT. SAME WAREHOUSE. MORNING. Bright light. Mitch in his bathrobe making coffee. The Young Blond Woman comes out, fully dressed... MITCH Coffee? YOUNG BLOND I gotta get home, change for work. He nods, gives her a perfunctory kiss: MITCH I'll call you. She stares at him a second. YOUNG BLOND You want my number? MITCH Sure. She sees how "eager" he is to talk to her again. Irritated, she scribbles the number quickly, hands.it to him - MITCH Thanks for everything. 100 For the sex, in other words. She gives it right back to him: YOUNG BLOND You too. I really appreciate it. He's too self-centered to notice her ironic tone. She lets herself out. The instant she does, we go to a HIGH ANGLE looking down at Mitch. Alternate NORMAL and HIGH ANGLE during: Mitch pours coffee, goes back into his "dressing area" and pulls on some clothes as he talks into his cell phone: MITCH Janie? Hey. (BEAT) Yeah, I was working late. (BEAT) No, tonight's no good either. I've got a morning flight to San Francisco. Slim in therafters, listening. MITCH (CONT.) If it was pleasure, you'd be going too. No, I'm going down to get my daughter. Slim's reaction to this... MITCH (CONT.) Sure, the custody hearing's here next week, but it looks like Gracie's being brought to San Francisco and my ex-wife ...well, seems like she completely vanished. ON SLIM. His words echo his threats when he was trying to strangle her in her hallway. MITCH (CONT.) Right off the face of the earth. I doubt they'll ever find her this time. Slim's jaw tightens. When we come back to Mitch, he's dressed and packing his briefcase. 101 MITCH (CONT.) Yeah, I want her to meet you. We'll call when we get in. (FAKE TENDER:) You too. He hangs up, takes a sip of coffee. HIGH ANGLE SHOT looking down on Mitch as he heads out the door. Slim waits in the rafters until the alarm system beeps: it's armed. She climbs down, walks into the kitchen. Notices his Mr. Coffee machine is still on. Hesitates, turns it off. Opens the fridge to find something to eat - The alarm beeps again. Slim drops silently to the floor. SOUND of the KEY IN THE LOCK - Slim scuttles away as we hear: FRONT DOOR OPENING. FOOTSTEPS coming toward her. She slips around the edge of the counter just as: Mitch enters the kitchen. He goes to the Mr. Coffee... Looks at it... Frowns. Didn't he leave it on...? Slim in the foreground, crouched down, Mitch 15 feet away. He looks around. Is something wrong? Is someone here? Slim frozen, trying not to breath. Mitch listening. Wondering: should he search the place? She looks for a place to hide - He looks at his watch. He's late. He walks right toward Slim, curls around the counter - But she's not there any longer. He heads for the front door - 102 Goes out. HOLD ON the hall, where she was, where he walked. EMPTY. The alarm beeps again as he resets it. One silent beat, then Slim rises in the kitchen. (She did a 360.) She sighs. Pours herself some coffee, replaces the liquid with water. Auto-dials her cell phone. SLIM I'm in. GINNY'S VOICE Hey. SLIM Can you stay off the phone? GINNY'S VOICE For you, honey? (Anything.) SLIM I hope so. She hangs up. Retrieves her duffle bag from its hiding place and pulls out tools, equipment, etc. Picks up a screwdriver and starts searching the apartment, checking the phone line, following it to the place where it enters the apartment. MONTAGE INTERCUT WITH FLASHES of Slim' a face: a running tab on her emotions. Intensity, focus, determination, fear,. ..and, as the sequence builds: concern about what she doing... MONTAGE IMAGES : She disconnects the phone line. Finds the electrical box, opens it, finds the main switch. Removes all the knives from the kitchen... hides them... Walks the apartment-familiarizing herself with every inch of it-occasionally she moves a piece of furniture slightly... we realize: she's assessing fighting spaces. angles... She looks from one piece of furniture to another, back and forth, gauging the distance between them. She eats a snack from his refrigerator... 103 I Looks out the back (bedroom) window... and sees the water of the J San Pedro harbor below her. Uses a metal detector to search the apartment: in a drawer of the night table beside his bed, she finds a pistol. Removes it. There are papers in the same drawer, notes or something. She throws these in the trash. She takes out three letters. As the CAMERA sweeps over one of them, we hear her voice: SLIM (V.0.) ". .thanks for letting me come talk about Gracie. And I'm glad you're willing to admit your temper, and - let's not mince words - the physical abuse you subjected me to." And glances at SECOND LETTER: SLIM (V.0.) "Perhaps with your new attitude, we can really work something out. Per your last letter, I'll see you the evening of..." She puts the letters in the drawer where the pistol was. They're not in envelopes; they're loose, open. She picks up the metal detector, resumes her search. The machine beeps insistently around his desk. She can't find anything. Finally she discovers a false bottom on one of the drawers: a second gun is in there. With the gun are papers: reports from private detectives looking for her, an assessment of his custody rights... She hides the guns in the bottom of the laundry hamper. Finds a photo of herself with Mitch and Gracie. Rips it up. Puts the metal detector back in the duffle. Changes into sweatshirt and sweatpants. Takes the distinctive red bag (from the electronics store) out of the duffle. There's a machine inside. She plugs it in, tucks it behind the couch. Puts her cell phone beside it. 104 She makes one last check: every wall, surface, every drawer. Barefoot, she begins to glide around the space. Backing up. Moving with ease and grace, sliding deftly to the side as she approaches a couch, desk, chair. She's building on her earlier reconnaissance: learning where the furniture is and how to navigate around it... DISSOLVE TO: LATER. MAGIC HOUR. Light fading toward darkness. She's still moving backward, only now her sliding is smooth, graceful; almost a dance. As if hearing a distant signal, she slows to a stop. For a long moment she stands perfectly still. Poised. Like an animal in the forest. There's a chair facing the front door. She glances at it. No. She walks behind the couch, turns off the machine, picks up her cell phone and auto-dials. GINNY'S VOICE Hey. Slim says nothing. GINNY'S VOICE (CONT.) You okay? SLIM (SOFTLY) Say it again. GINNY'S VOICE Say what? SLIM You know. What you told me. Beat. On Slim's face as: GINNY'S VOICE Oh. You have a divine animal right to protect your own life and the life of your offspring. Silence. 105 SLIM Yeah. She hangs up, turns the machine back on and stashes her cell phone. With simple ease, she lowers herself onto the chair. Facing the door. Waiting in the fading light... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. STREET. NIGHT. Mitch walks down the street. Up the steps, punches in his alarm code. INT. MITCH'S PLACE. NIGHT. Mitch enters, closes and locks the door. Turns on the light. He walks back to the rear of the space, hangs up his coat. Goes into the bedroom area, takes off his jacket. The lights go out. Mitch freezes, shadow on shadow, a silhouette in the darkness. He looks out the window, sees: The neighboring buildings still have light and power. He cocks his head, listening. Silence. Walks to the door of the bedroom area. Waits. Take two more steps - SLIM'S VOICE It's me. He nods slowly. MITCH Yeah. (I thought so.) 106 He moves quietly to the bed... to the night table where Slim found the pistol. Covers this by talking: MITCH {CONT.} This morning too? SLIM'S VOICE You always did forget to turn off the coffee. He rummages in the drawer. We hear the RUSTLE of the letters Slim put there. He fails to find the gun. Gives up trying to be quiet, tosses papers onto the floor - SLIM'S VOICE {CONT.} I found it, Mitch. His hand leaves the drawer. He thinks. Picks up the phone, listens. Dead. Looks around... can't see her... Goes back to the chair where he hung his sports coat and fishes out his cell phone. We see the GLOW of its dial. He punches 911 and pressed SEND. The dial goes dark for two seconds, then blinks back on. He stares at it. Tries again. 911, SEND. Again it goes dead. SLIM'S VOICE It's a machine. Knocks out cell phones. He throws the cell phone onto the bed. Walks out of the bedroom area. Looks around the vast space. Spooky. Slanting light and dense shadow. He doesn't see her. 107 Walks toward his desk. SLIM'S VOICE I found that gun too. He stops. Doesn't know where to go. or what to do. SLIM'S VOICE Scared? MITCH (FUCK YOU) Of what? SLIM'S VOICE Now is when you decide, Mitch. (off his silence) Whether you're a coward. If you are, you can run. I won't stop you. MITCH (meaning the match is unfair:) You have my guns. SLIM'S VOICE Threw 'em away. MITCH Then someone's here with you. SLIM'S VOICE No. MITCH (INCREDULOUS) You're alone? SLIM'S VOICE Why not? MITCH 'Cause it'd be stupid. Silence is her answer. MITCH (CONT.) You're sayin' this is man to man? SLIM'S VOICE Woman, Mitch. 108 MITCH That's what I meant: man against woman - you sure that's fair? The lights go back on. Slowly Slim comes out from hiding... SLIM Fair to whom? As he realizes her meaning, she moves into the open area between two couches. She has no weapon. She's barefoot, in her sweats, feet spread for balance, arms just slightly raised. Compared to him: she's tiny. He moves toward her. SLIM This is what you wanted, right? What you were going to San Francisco for: the chance to get me alone? He lunges for her; she slides to the side and he misses. He begins to stalk her. And as he stalks, she moves backward, slowly and gracefully, in the way she was practicing. MITCH I don't understand, Slim. How does this work for you? She ignores his words. Watches his eyes and his chest. Wants to know where he's going to attack. MITCH (CONT.) I mean: this is carefully thought out, right? She does not respond. He throws three punches. None of them hits her. He's unfazed, keeps stalking... 109 MITCH (CONT.) But say you succeed - beat me up or whatever. You're not going to murder me... (CONT.) Her expression remains neutral, focused. He takes this to be agreement. MITCH (CONT.) So all you've done is further piss me off. SLIM Self defense is not ,murder. This stops him cold.. He lowers his hands a moment. Stares at her, trying to assimilate this new information... MITCH You don't have the guts. She just looks at him. He blinks, worried for an instant. Covers it with a smile: MITCH It's not self-defense when you break in here and attack me. SLIM So far you're attacking me. He lunges, almost hits her, rushes in - She has to leap sideways with great speed and dexterity: jumps over the couch to avoid being hit. He also jumps over the couch, but his balance isn't as good, and she's waiting for him as he stumbles - With perfect balance and full force, she slugs him in the nose. He goes down. Stays there. For the first time it occurs to him: this might not be easy. He climbs to his feet, feels his nose: blood. SLIM You see? I'm just defending myself. He resumes stalking her. Only he's angry now, and it's scary. 110 MITCH If you fail, you can count on this: you'll never see Gracie again. She reacts - He sees it, rushes her - Punching as he goes. From the standpoint of pure physics, he makes a terrifying force. Until: She steps back, grabs his arm, whips him vs. the brick wall - He hits it, bounces off. Cut on his forehead, blood streaming down his face. He stares at her... breathing hard... trying to put it together: MITCH You really (think) ...you think you'll kill me and get away with it?l SLIM I told you. Self-defense. I came here, as arranged in our letters, to talk about Gracie - MITCH Letters? There are no - SLIM In the drawer where your pistol was. You just left prints all over them. He stares at her, stunned in every way. Touches his forehead, feels the blood... SLIM You attacked me, I fought back. And of course if you never touch me... (SWEET SMILE) I'll have to give myself bruises... He goes berserk. Leaps at her, covering ground quickly with his long stride, swinging his massive arms. This is the most terrifying form of combat: a huge person attacking a tiny one. If he should hit her even once, a glancing blow, she will go down, she will break, it will be over. III But he misses, and misses again. Sometimes his punches are wild, almost comical. Others come so close we hear-the wind, feel their power, feel his sweat on her... CONTINUE this terrifying choreographed dance with destruction for as long as it will hold. At every instant, we fear for her bones and her life. Sometimes she leans back like Muhammad Ali to barely slip a punch, and we see terror on her face, married to determination. She knows the score. and the odds. Finally, in frustration at so many misses, he grabs an ashtray, hurls.it at her - it flies over her head - He punches again and again, wildly. She remains untouched. He stops. With all the blood, he looks like a wild animal. He makes a great effort to pull himself together... MITCH This doesn't bother me, Slim. I don't care how long it takes. We both know: Ionly have to hit you once. Once, and it's over. She laughs at him. This is the last thing he expected and the last thing he can stand. He rushes at her again, fast - She starts left - He blocks her way - She starts right - Again he's blocking her - She lunges to the left, through a narrow space - He punches, grazing her hair; punches again, just missing, and a third time. We feel the awesome power behind these blows. She's in the clear again. Smiles casually. Clearly part of her strategy is to keep him angry: 112 SLIM I'm confused, Mitchy. Aren't you a man? (QUOTING HIM) I thought it was "no contest?" I mean, can't you hit me even once? He grabs a lamp, yanks out the cord, wields it like a club. SLIM (CONT.) (AMUSED) A weapon? He smashes the lamp down, just missing her head - SLIM (CONT.) It's a martial-arts cliche, honey. A weapon throws you off balance - SWISH - SWIPE - SLAM - He misses her three times, the last time smashing the lamp into the wall so hard that the impact hurts his hand. He yelps - SLIM (CONT.) You see? He turns toward her, pain on his face, holding his hand - And she truly attacks for the first time. Smashes her fist against his head - He flies back, bounces vs. the wall. As he comes off it, she punches him again - He roars with rage, lunges at her, head first, great speed - She hurtles him in the same direction, increasing speed - Right into the opposite wall. The top of his head hits the wall. He shudders like someone in a cartoon: a spasm running head to TOE - He drops. 113 Face down. Does not move. At all. She stares at him. Goes to him. Wary. Gives him a reflex test - No reaction. He's unconscious. She tests his neck for a pulse. Apparently he's still alive, because she raises her hand over her head. Her palm vertical, like a knife. She's about to deliver a karate chop. To his neck. it will break his neck. It will kill him. Her hand stays there, poised. CAMERA PLUNGES IN ON HER FACE. FLASHES: - Mitch hitting her the first time - - Midwest house, Mitch leaping out from Gracie's doorway - - Mitch beating her as she crawls across the floor of their house. (Something we didn't see before.) She reaches up, flicks the light switch; Mitch jumps on her back - - Mitch: "You'll never see Gracie again." - Earlier: "She's My daughter. Don't even think about taking her." - Strangling Slim, whispering: "...where you're going, they will never... ever... find you." 114 BACK TO SLIM Face contorted in rage, confusion - She brings her hand down - Misses. him. Intentionally. Turns away, tears in her eyes. She retrieves her cell phone, turns off the cell-phone blocker, presses redial. Stares out the window. We see the turmoil on her face, hear it in her voice: SLIM I can't, Gin. GINNY'S VOICE 'Re you okay? SLIM Yeah. GINNY'S VOICE You're okay?!, you beat him?! SLIM YEAH - GINNY'S VOICE It worked?! SLIM Listen to me! I did it, but I can't do it! I can't kill him! Behind Slim, out of focus: movement, a soft blur... GINNY'S VOICE (CONT.) (URGENTLY) Slim. He'll come after you - SLIM I know - GINNY'S VOICE (CONT.) He'll come after Gracie - 115 An indistinct shape, something rising over her head... SLIM I know all that! I have to, but I can't! I'm not a killer! I'm not him! Mitch. Crazed and bloody face. In his hand: the wooden lamp. She senses something, turns her head slightly to one side - - so the lamp does not land quite flush on her skull. Still sends her crashing to the floor. Now she does not move. He stands over her. Looks insane: bloody, dazed, beaten: but triumphant. GINNY'S VOICE Hello? Slim? You there? The lamp moving in his hand. He's rotating it. A simple menacing image... . and we realize: he' s aoinq to hit her again. GINNY'S VOICE {CONT.} Should I call the cops?! Answer me?! He's distracted by Ginny's voice. Picks up the phone. MITCH Listen to me, bitch. Ginny's silent. MITCH (CONT.) if you value your children, don' t call anybody. It's over, okay? It's all over. He throws the phone on the couch and moves back toward Slim, lamp clenched tight in his fist. SMASH IN CLOSE ON HER FACE. CLOSER STILL. We're almost inside her head as we hear: INSTRUCTOR'S VOICE Hold onto my voice... 116 Is that the hint of a smile on her face? INSTRUCTOR'S VOICE (CONT.) You're ready... Mitch sees the slight smile, can't believe it - Rage. He pulls his foot back to kick her - Her eyes are open, just a slit - His foot swinging forward... As it reaches her, she grabs it, yanks it - He's pulled off his feet, crashing down on top of her - But she's already rolling, out from under him... and up - Coming to her feet - He starts to rise, all fours, then into a crouch and ug... SLOW MOTION. She's ready. Her face alert. Center of gravity low. Arm low,.fist low... As her motion unfurls: Boxers say that an uppercut, perfectly executed, is the most difficult, powerful, and beautiful of punches. Indeed: when an uppercut starts low for maximum center-of- gravity and hits the opponent flush on the point of the chin - as Slim's does here - it delivers a devastating message to the central nervous system, short-circuiting it completely. Mitch flies backward... There's a table behind him. His head cracks on the table. His neck snaps. He lands on the floor: twisted, broken. Slim stares at him. There's no way a living man could assume the position now occupied by her former husband. 117 She stares in disbelief. Though she knows the answer, she feels his carotid artery. Her face registers what she feels. Horror, relief. She walks slowly to her cell phone, picks it up. Listens: no one there. She presses redial, waits... GINNY'S VOICE (in a panic) H o?d SLIM Hi. GINNY'S VOICE Oh thank God you're alive. SLIM Gin, he's ...he hit his...he's not breathing. GINNY'S VOICE oh. SLIM Yeah. GINNY'S VOICE Well: I called the cops, they're on their way. Slim nods. GINNY'S VOICE Slim... can you hear me?, this is important. Beat. SLIM Okay. As Ginny talks, Slim puts the cell-phone blocker into the duffle and carries the duffle to the rear of the building. GINNY'S VOICE You're not him, okay? You're not him, and you never will be. 118 SLIM See you soon. She drops the cell phone out the bedroom window into the water. Then the duffle. They both sink. EXT. BROWNSTONE. She comes out, sits on the steps. A siren is audible. Cop cars speed down the street, screech to a stop. TWO COPS LEAP OUT OF THE CAR, run toward her. FIRST COP You okay? She looks at him, considering the question. Shakes her head. FIRST COP Where is he? She makes a slight motion to indicate that Mitch is inside, and the OTHER COP runs into the apartment. Slim lowers her head. First Cop looks at her, sees the blood on her scalp. FIRST COP Looks like you're one of the lucky ones. She looks up, stares at him, and starts to cry. SMASH INTO: CREDIT SEQUENCE CREDITS OVER FLASHES: INT. LAX. DAY. Slim jumping up and down and generally making a fool of herself as Gracie runs off the plane into her arms. Ginny follows with her own kids; hugs all around - WHIP PAN TO: 119 ANOTHER GATE AT THE AIRPORT. DAY. Slim looking... waiting... seeing: Joe. He hurries to her - and picks up Gracie instead, gives Gracie a big hug. Joe lingers in the hug as Slim waits...and waits... Finally he turns to Slim, hint of a smile: JOE What rules are we playing by now? She answers him with the kind of kiss you can get away with at a bar or airport and almost nowhere else. WHIP PAN TO: ANOTHER GATE AT AIRPORT. DAY. Jupiter comes off the plane, is hugged by Ginny, shakes hands with Joe. As he turns to Gracie, Slim says: SLIM This time be nice to her. JUPITER Is it gonna be like that? SLIM Yeah. Jupiter smiles, shakes hands with Gracie: JUPITER I hope I can work into being your grandfather, okay? Gracie shrugs. CUT TO: EXT. NEW "ORCA" RESTAURANT. DAY. SIGNS all over: OPEN AGAIN AFTER BOMBING1 SAME GREAT FOOD! SAME BEAUTIFUL WAITRESSES! SAME TERRIBLE JOKES! INT. NEW ORCA. DAY. Slim, Joe, Jupiter, and Gracie eating, Ginny serving large platters of gorgeous food: 120 GINNY So whattaya say, Slim-girl, you comin' back to work? PHIL (passing by, overhears and JUMPS IN:) After all I do for her... ? She better not! Ginny gives him a look - PHIL She has to go back to school, make big success. Sigmund Freud, yes?! (PATS JUPITER) Don't worry, Mr. Moneybags will pay. Jupiter gives Phil a playful look: thanks a lot. Phil whispers to Gracie: PHIL But don't let her cook, huh Gracie? You eat here all the time. Gracie nods thanks, whispers back: GRACIE Call me Queen Elizabeth. RUN TITLES ON THE REST OF THEIR MEAL. The longer it runs, the happier this odd family (including Ginny and Phil) seems... FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Erik the Viking.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Erik the Viking.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a1b34c8123c71f84e13acabe514b6646a5e125e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Erik the Viking.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4273 @@ + + +ERIK THE VIKING - Terry Jones --------------- + +Blackness. Flames begin to lick upwards from the bottom of the screen. Suddenly all hell breaks loose. Screaming, yelling. Black figures flash across the foreground, with the flames still burning behind. There follows a confusion of burning, raping, killing and looting - we don't clearly see what's going on. Suddenly we cut to the interior of a hut. The door is in the process of being broken down. The camera pans onto the close-up face of an attractive girl who is staring in horrified fascination at the door. Her arms are white with fresh dough and flour. Suddenly the door bursts open and a wild-looking Viking leaps into the hut. He holds a sword. He looks around wildly and then his eyes come to rest on the girl. This Viking, I'm afraid, is Erik. We are about to see him in the worst possible light so be prepared. The girl, whose name is Helga, cowers, and looks terrified but resolute. Erik glances round. Then slowly he advances on the girl, forcing her back onto a chest. Erik holds his sword to Helga's throat with his right hand, while his left hand searches to find the thongs holding up his trousers. He is clearly having difficulties trying to hold his heavy sword to Helga's throat at he same time as undoing his trousers. He fumbles and lowers his sword for a moment. + +HELGA +Have you done this sort of thing before? + +ERIK +Me? Of course! I've been looting and pillaging up and down the coast. + +HELGA +(looking sceptical) +Looting and pillaging, eh? + +ERIK +(on the defensive) +Yes. + +HELGA +What about the raping? + +ERIK +Shut up. + +HELGA +It's obvious you haven't raped anyone in your life. + +ERIK +Sh! + +He covers her mouth with his free hand, and looks round to make sure no one's heard. Then he carries on trying to undo his trousers, but he is now somewhat more than half-hearted about it. Helga watches suspiciously. + +HELGA +Do you LIKE women? + +Erik is clearly shocked and stung by the insinuation. He stops. + +ERIK +Of course I like women... I LOVE 'em. + +HELGA +(pointing out the obvious) +You don't love ME. + +ERIK +No... right... this is RAPE... Mark you, I'm not saying I couldn't get to like you... in fact... well, to be quite honest, I prefer it when there's some sort of mutual feeling between two people... + +HELGA +What - rape? + +ERIK +No. It isn't rape then, is it? + +HELGA +Oh, get it over with. + +ERIK +(hesitates again) +I don't suppose... no... + +HELGA +What? + +ERIK +I don't suppose you... you DO like me at all? + +HELGA +What d'you expect? You come in here, burn my village, kill my family and try to rape me... + +This is too much for Erik. We withers under the irony. + +ERIK +I'll kill you if you say anything about this to anyone. + +HELGA +(puzzled) +About raping me? + +ERIK +About NOT raping you... + +HELGA +You DON'T like it, do you? + +ERIK +Well it just seems a little bit crude, that's all. + +HELGA +What about the killing and looting? That's just as crude, isn't it? + +ERIK +Oh well - you've GOT to do them. + +HELGA +Why? Why have you got to go round killing and looting? + +ERIK +To pay for the next expedition, of course. + +HELGA +But that's a circular argument! If the only reason for going on an expedition is the killing and looting and the only reason for the killing and looting is to pay for the next expedition, they cancel each other out. + +ERIK +Oh! Stop talking as if we were married! + +HELGA +Well you started it. + +ERIK +I just said I didn't feel like raping you. + +HELGA +And I was just saying that rape is no MORE pointless or crude than all the killing and looting that goes on. Erik vents of his frustration on the already shattered door. + +ERIK +Scream. + +HELGA +Ah. + +ERIK +Louder. + +HELGA +Aaagh! Rape! + +ERIK +(he'd forgotten about that) +Oh, thanks + +Two more Vikings burst in with eyes blazing. They have the very unfortunate names of Ernest and Jennifer, but it doesn't really matter, for reasons which will become obvious very quickly. They are also slightly drunk. + +ERNEST +Rape? + +JENNIFER +Where? + +Jennifer the Viking sways and leans against a door post. The marauder's eyes come to rest on Erik and Helga who are standing, fully clothed, about six feet apart. They look slightly puzzled. + +HELGA +He raped me standing up. + +There is a pause. Erik looks up at Helga. Why has she saved his face by telling this lie? Jennifer the Viking turns to Erik. + +JENNIFER +You finished, then? + +ERIK +Oh... yes... I suppose so... + +ERNEST +Right! Me first! + +JENNIFER +No! I asked! + +Ernest leaps on top of Helga and pins her to the ground. Jennifer joins in. Erik looks stunned for a moment. Then he suddenly leaps to Helga's defence. + +ERIK +Leave her alone! + +He pulls Jennifer off, but Jennifer fights back. Erik forces Jennifer back until he falls into the kneading trough. They fight in the dough for some moments, until Erik runs Jennifer through. The dough is stained red, and the film is rid of such an inappropriately named Viking once and for all. + +Erik then turns his attention on Ernest who is still on top of Helga. Without a moment's hesitation, Erik runs him through the back. Ernest screams. So does Helga. Erik turns white, and pulls out his sword. Ernest falls over into a heap with his co-misnomer, and Erik kneels beside Helga to find a bloodstain under her breast where he has inadvertently run her through. She is clearly not long for this world. + +HELGA +Thanks for saving me from a fate worse than death. + +ERIK +I didn't mean to! + +HELGA +(gasping for breath) +Oh, that's all right then... it's the thought... that counts... + +Erik cradles her head and tries helplessly to staunch the blood. + +ERIK +You told them I raped you - why? + +HELGA +(dying) +I dunno... you looked so... so vulnerable... + +ERIK +Why should you care? + +HELGA +(dying) +Why... should YOU care? + +ERIK +Tell me your name? + +Helga looks up at him, but dies in his arms, without ever saying her name. + +ERIK +Tell me... what IS it...? + +Erik realizes she has gone. He gazes at her for some time. He looks around at the two dead bodies beside them. Then he listens to the sound of raping and slaughter continuing on the outside. Screams and bloodthirsty shuts echo alongside the roar of flames and the cries of animals. The camera tracks into a big close-up on Erik. + +Superimpose the title: ERIK THE VIKING: + +Second title: TIM ROBBINS. + +Mix through to wide shot of the burning village. Figures running here and there. Superimpose the rest of the opening titles. By the last of the opening titles the last of the flames are dying down. + +Cut to a close-up of a very loud-looking Viking screaming into the camera, as he hurls an axe. This Viking's name is Thorfinn Skull- Splitter. The axe thuds into the wall a few inches away from the face of a frightened girl, Unn, who is pinned to the wall with her braids spread out. The Vikings are hurling axes at her a la Kirk Douglas in THE VIKINGS. + +Several Vikings sitting at ale-bench, laugh in a rather unpleasant way. Erik, however, frowns. He is sitting at a table on a dais, next to his grandfather, the chief of the village. His grandfather almost chokes with merriment. Erik's mother glances at him with some hostility. Meanwhile the drunken Thorfinn has just lifted the totally legless Ivar the Boneless up off the floor and presses an axe into his hand. A tremor of nervousness ripples round the females in the Mead Hall. Ivar is clearly in no condition to throw anything, except, perhaps, the contents of his stomach. Unn winces. Finally, amidst much giggling, Ivar throws wildly, and the axe smashes into a jug being carried by one of the serving girls. The menfolk erupt into drunken hysterics at this. The women clearly feel that the occasion is getting out of hand. But before any of them can work up enough courage to intervene, Thorfinn Skull-Splitter has thrust an axe into the hands of the even more plastered Sven the Berserk. Now Sven is not the Viking to let a little matter like not being able to see straight stop him heaving the axe at a young maiden. He takes the axe and whirls it wildly over his head. Even the other drunken Vikings realize this could be dangerous, and they cower behind the table. Sven lets go of the axe. Unn shuts her eyes prepared for the worst. There is a dull thud and a grunt and then a whoop of mirth. Unn opens her eyes to find that the axe has come to rest in the back of a totally stupefied Viking who merely slumps forward onto the table he is sitting at. On the opposite side sits Harald Missionary, a rather seedy cleric who has long since given up trying to convert the pagans and found solace in their mead. He thinks about intervening, but decides that it's a bit late really and that he might as well finish off his ale-cup instead. GRIMHILD HOUSEWIFE (his only admirer) refills it for him. At this moment, however, the axe-throwers have run out of axes, so, as they go to retrieve the ones they've thrown, Harald Missionary salves his conscience by lurching across to the unfortunate Unn. He pokes his dog-eared bible under her nose. + +HARALD +If you were thinking of converting, my dear, this would be an IDEAL opportunity... + +UNN +Not now! + +HARALD +(who is used to rebuffs) +No, of course not... +(he hesitates) +You might not get another chance, you know... + +UNN +Go away. + +At this moment another axe thuds into the wall, speeding up Harald's desire to get back to the ale-bench. + +HARALD +Yes, of course... I'll pray for you anyway, my dear... + +Suddenly an axe shatters a large earthware vessel. + +HARALD +Yes.. That's what I'll do... + +Harald scuttles back to the ale-bench as fast as he can. Erik meanwhile, stares in astonishment as, for a fleeting moment, he sees Helga, the girl he accidentally killed, standing there with her braids spread out in place of Unn. He shakes his head and the vision passes. In the meantime, however, Ivar's mum (perhaps the toughest lady in the village) has decided that enough is enough. + +IVAR'S MUM +Let her go! + +THORFINN +Why? + +VIKINGS +Yes, why? + +SVEN THE BERSERK +Why should we let er go? + +THORFINN +We haven't hit a single braid yet! + +The Vikings all guffaw. Ivar's mum has had enough. She throws the contents of a jug of ale over Thorfinn. He is shocked, but after the first shock he grins evilly, because now he's been given carte blanche to do the thing he enjoys doing most. Without another thought he throws a vicious right hook at Ivar's mum and lays her out cold. Erik reacts with disgust. His grandad, however, gives a whoop of glee. + +GRANDAD +Whoah! Heee! That showed her! + +Meanwhile a little shrivelled old man is jumping up and down. + +INGEMUND THE OLD +Hey! He hit my wife! + +Ingemund starts to go for Thorfinn, but Thorhild beats him to it. She grabs one of the long-handled cooking griddles from the fires and swings it at Thorfinn. Thorfinn, however, ducks, and the red-hot griddle hits Sven the Berserk, who is standing with his back to Thorfinn. Sven screams and goes berserk, turning round and hitting Thorfinn who is now standing upright again. + +INGEMUND THE OLD +Leave him alone. + +Ingemund hits Sven. Thangbrand hits Ingemund and a general fight breaks out. Erik's grandad clearly considers this the highlights of the evening, but Erik looks at it in disgust and at his grandad in despair. Eventually he gets up and walk out of the Mead Hall. His grandad notices and frowns. He knows something's wrong with his grandson but hasn't a clue what it could be. Erik's mother frowns and nods to his grandad. Grandad gets up and fights his way through the melee to follow Erik out of the Hall. The snow lies thick over the village as Erik's grandfather joins his grandson beside the little quay. Erik is staring broodily into the night. + +GRANDFATHER +What's the matter, son? + +Erik doesn't reply. His grandfather glances back at the Mead Hall, whence the sound of the fight drift across the snow. + +GRANDFATHER +We're missing all the fun... + +ERIK +What's it all about? + +GRANDFATHER +What? + +ERIK +We toil and labour, we loot and pillage, rape and kill... and yet... + +GRANDFATHER +You talking piffle, son? + +ERIK +Where does it all get us, Grandpa? + +GRANDFATHER +Who have you been talking to? + +ERIK +I met this girl... + +GRANDFATHER +It's always the women that start the trouble. + +ERIK +She got me thinking... + +GRANDFATHER +So? What'd you do to her? + +Erik stops in his tracks - as if brought up short by the horror of what he has done. + +ERIK +I... I... KILLED her... + +GRANDFATHER +That's my boy! + +Erik's grandfather gives him a paternal hug. Erik looks at him and thinks about the generation gap. Cut to feet running in the snow. It is day. + +ERIK +Freya! + +Erik looks around him and calls out again. + +ERIK +Freya! + +Erik runs into the distance - a small figure against the dramatic wintry landscape. + +Cut to a remote, barren mountainside. Erik climbs up into shot, and continues climbing until he reaches a cave. He enters it. As his eyes get used to the dark he can make out a few signs of life: a cooking pot on a fire, a straw bed, a pile of rune-sticks. + +ERIK +Freya? Freya? + +There is a bundle of rags behind Erik. A head rises from it. This is Freya. + +FREYA +Ah... Erik... Erik the "Viking"... + +It is not clear whether her words are not a little mocking. + +FREYA +Now what CAN you want with me, Erik the "Viking"? + +ERIK +I shouldn't have come. + +FREYA +They will make fun of you for listening to an old woman's stories? + +Erik doesn't reply. Freya watches him craftily. + +FREYA +Young men are only interested in fighting and killing. + +Erik looks up at her sharply. It is as if she has read his mind. + +ERIK +But has it always been like that, Freya? From the beginning of time? + +Freya doesn't reply. Instead she walks to the mouth of the cave. Erik follows her. They look out at the grey, desolate landscape. Nothing but arctic wastes, snow and desolation. Above them the black clouds boil ceaselessly. + +FREYA +What do you see, Erik? + +ERIK +I see the world. + +FREYA +I it night or day, Erik? + +ERIK +It is day, of course, Freya. + +FREYA +Is it summer or winter, Erik? + +Erik looks round at the snowy wastes and ten back at Freya, puzzled. + +ERIK +The winter is past, thank goodness, Freya. It is summer. + +Freya puts her face close to Erik's and peers into his eyes. + +FREYA +Have you ever seen the sun, Erik? + +ERIK +The sun is up beyond the clouds - where it always is. + +FREYA +But have you ever seen it? Think back... + +ERIK +Of course not... but... when I was a child.... I remember a dream.... it was as if the whole sky was blue... + +FREYA +The sky WAS blue, Erik... once. + +Erik looks at her. + +FREYA +The Old Stories tell of an age that would come such as this - when Fenrir the Wolf would swallow the sun, and a Great Winter would settle upon the world. It was to be an axe age, a sword age, a storm age, when brother would turn against brother, and men would fight each other until the world would finally be destroyed. + +Erik looks out across the bleak and gloomy landscape and the black, boiling clouds in the sky. + +ERIK +(almost to himself) +Then... this is the Age of Ragnarok? + +Freya turns to go back into the cave. + +ERIK +Wait, Freya! + +Erik re-enters the cave. + +ERIK +Is there nothing men can do? + +FREYA +The Gods are asleep, Erik. + +ERIK +I will go and wake them up! + +Freya turns and looks at him. She clearly enjoys his earnest enthusiasm, but is afraid he doesn't know what he is talking about. + +ERIK +Tell me what I must do, Freya! + +Freya thinks for some moments. The she speaks. + +FREYA +Erik... Far out in the midst of the Western Ocean there is a land... men call it Hy-Brasil. There you will find a horn that is called Resounding. You must take the Horn Resounding, and three times you must blow it. The first note will take you to Asgaard. The second will awaken the Gods, and the third note will bring you home. But remember... once you are in the spell of the Horn, hatred will destroy you. + +Erik turns to go and then hesitates. + +ERIK +And will the dead ever return, Freya? + +FREYA +That I cannot tell you. + +Cut to a big close-up of a head being banged on the ground. It is Thorfinn Skull-Splitter's. The person doing the banging is an enraged Sven the Berserk. Suddenly Erik pushes his way through the crowd and separates them. There is general disgruntlement all round, and murmurs of: "Who does he think he is?" + +ERIK'S GRANDAD +What are you doing, Erik? Thorfinn just said SVEN'S GRANDFATHER + +died of old age. + +INGEMUND THE OLD +They must fight to the death. + +THORFINN SKULL-SPLITTER +That's right! Sven must kill me. + +OTHERS +Yes. Stay out of this. What's it to do with you? +(etc) +Sven grids his teeth and struggles to get at Thorfinn, but Erik still keeps them apart. + +ERIK +Aren't you afraid of death, Thorfinn Skull-Splitter? + +Thorfinn shrugs. + +THORFINN +Not death by the sword! It means I shall drink in Valhalla with the great warriors. + +Cut away To Harald Missionary engaged in his usual business of chatting up any available female. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +You don't still believe in all that Valhalla stuff, do you? + +THORHILD THE FEMALE +Go away. + +HARALD +Fine... right... just checking. + +He moves off. + +ERIK +And you, Sven, aren't you afraid of crossing the Rainbow Bridge to Asgaard? + +SVEN +I will join my grandfather there. + +THORFINN +He's not in Valhalla! He died of old age! + +SVEN +You liar! + +They start trying to kill each other again, and crash through a fence into the pig-sty. Pigs squeal and run in all directions. + +ERIK +Stop it! + +OTHERS +Leave them alone! Keep out of it, Erik! + +The others pull Erik away. + +GRANDAD +There's only one way to settle it. + +EVERYONE +Yes! + +THORFINN +He MUST kill me! + +EVERYONE +Yes! That's right! +(etc) +Sven struggles again to oblige, and they both topple into the duck pond. Erik dives back to keep them apart. + +ERIK +There is another way. + +GRANDAD +Who gets killed? + +ERIK +Nobody gets killed. + +THORFINN +Oh, well... + +He starts attacking Sven again. Erik decides there is only one way to make his point. He lets fly with his fists and lays both the antagonists out for a moment. + +ERIK +But it will be dangerous. Maybe none of us will return. + +SNORRI THE MISERABLE +Ah well, that's much more sensible than just Thorfinn getting killed. Shall we all go and pack now? + +SVEN +What are you talking about, Erik? + +ERIK +What if we could find Bi-Frost the Rainbow Bridge? + +This causes a sensation amongst everyone watching, on the lines of "You can't do that" and so on. They scoff at Erik. + +THORFINN +(in disbelief) +FIND the Rainbow Bridge? + +ERIK +Find it... AND cross it! + +Super-sensation amongst everyone - except for Harald Missionary who shakes his head sadly. + +HARALD +Look! You can't find somewhere that doesn't exist. + +GRANDAD +(to Harald) +Shut up! + +Harald shrugs. + +SVEN +Only the dead reach Asgaard, Erik. + +ERIK +What's the matter? Are you afraid to try? + +Thorfinn and Sven are put on the defensive. + +THORFINN +Of course we're not afraid to try, but... + +Erik rounds on Thorfinn, sensing he had the advantage. + +ERIK +"But" what? + +THORFINN +But... + +ERIK +What? + +Thorfinn's mental powers find it hard to articulate any proposition on such a vast metaphysical concept. Sven comes to his rescue. + +SVEN +Nobody's ever crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Asgaard. + +ERIK +We'd be the first! + +SNORRI +You mean we'd be dead? + +ERIK +No! We'd be the first living men to set foot in the Halls of the Gods. + +Pause. Uncomfortable shifting. + +SVEN +But HOW? + +ERIK +I don't know - but I'm not afraid to try. + +THORFINN +Well I'M certainly not, either. + +SVEN +Neither am I. + +ERIK +Then you'll come. + +HARALD +But there isn't such a place as... Look... + +THORFINN & SVEN +Shut up! + +ERIK +What d'you say? + +SVEN +Well... I'm game. + +THORFINN +Me too. + +Erik grins. He has persuaded them against their will. + +GRANDAD +Aren't you going to go on fighting? + +SVEN & THORFINN +No. + +OTHERS +Oh... + +There is general disappointment all around. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +Oh, go on... + +GRANDAD +Just have a bit of a fight. + +INGEMUND THE OLD +I'LL fight someone. + +GRANDAD +You're too old. + +INGEMUND THE OLD +No, I ain't. + +Cut to an adze striking timber. The Viking's ship, GOLDEN DRAGON, is being repaired and fitted out for a JOURNEY. Erik is there, directing operations. The camera tracks through all the activity and finally comes to rest on Keitel Blacksmith. He is a magnificent mountain of a man in an Arnold Schwarzeneggarish sort of way. He hammers a sword, and sparks fly, but his eyes keep returning to the preparations for the voyage. Clearly something is worrying him. His assistant, Loki, sidles up to him. + +LOKI +Wish you were going too? + +Keitel grunts angrily and plunges the sword into cold water. Steam and bubbles. + +LOKI +But you CAN'T because you're too busy. + +Keitel pulls the sword out of the water and tests it. It slices like as razor, Loki watches. + +LOKI +Ooh, that's a good one! You could charge Halfdan fifteen for that one. + +KEITEL +Yes, it is good. But I told him ten. + +LOKI +You could charge him what you like. + +Loki takes the sword from Keitel and stacks it alongside a lot more freshly made swords. + +LOKI +You just can't make enough swords and spears and knives and daggers to satisfy the demand. You could charge Halfdan twenty and he'd pay it. + +KEITEL +(shocked) +Oh, I couldn't do that! The Blacksmith's Code says... + +LOKI +Yes yes... of course.... the "Blacksmith's Code"... + +Keitel goes back to his forge and pulls out a fresh dollop of white-hot ore. Loki comes up behind him. + +LOKI +If this IS the Age of Ragnarok, Keitel Blacksmith, it is GOOD to us. + +KEITEL +(banging with his hammer) +Can't make enough swords! + +Bang! Bang! Bang! + +KEITEL +Can't make enough axe-heads! + +Bang! Bang! Bang! + +LOKI +But, Keitel, if Erik ever finds the Horn Resounding... if he ever crosses Bi-Frost, the Rainbow Bridge... if he ever wakens the gods.. + +Keitel stops smiting the metal on his forge. He stares into space. + +KEITEL +They chase Fenrir the Wolf from the sky... + +LOKI +The Age of Ragnarok ends... + +KEITEL +The bottom falls out of the sword business! + +LOKI +It's not just YOUR livelihood that's at stake but your son's, and the livelihood of ALL blacksmiths. + +KEITEL +(this touches a nerve in his muscular mind) +My brother blacksmiths! + +LOKI +That's right. + +KEITEL +The Blacksmith's Code says I must... + +LOKI +Honour and protect all blacksmiths. + +KEITEL +(as if reciting his oath) +Together we stand! + +LOKI +You can't let Erik do THAT. + +Loki smiles. He has Keitel playing into his hands, although Keitel doesn't realize it. Fade. Cut to some days later. The expedition is set to leave. Thorfinn Skull-Splitter taking leave of his mum and dad. + +THORFINN'S MUM +And you've got BOTH axes? + +THORFINN +Yes, Mother. + +THORFINN'S MUM +And something to sharpen them with? + +THORFINN +Yes, Mum. + +THORFINN'S MUM +And don't forget: never let your enemy get behind you. + +THORFINN +No, Mother. + +THORFINN'S MUM +And keep your sword greased. + +THORFINN +Yes, Mother. Goodbye, Dad. + +THORFINN'S DAD +And don't forget to was - you know - ALL over. + +THORFINN +No, Dad. + +THORFINN'S MUM +And if you have to kill somebody, KILL them! Don't stop to think about it. + +THORFINN +(mildly) +I never do... + +Cut to Sven the Berserk who is also being lectured. The lecture is coming from his father - Ulf the Maddeningly Calm. + +SVEN'S FATHER +(sotto voce) +It's a tradition. + +SVEN +I know, Dad. + +SVEN'S FATHER +I was a Berserk for King Harald Fairhair... + +SVEN +You went berserk... + +SVEN'S FATHER +I went berserk in every battle I ever fought for King Harald... + +SVEN +So did your father... + +SVEN'S FATHER +So did my father and his father before him. + +SVEN +But it's a responsibility... + +SVEN'S FATHER +But it's a responsibility being a Berserk. + +SVEN +I must only let the red rage... + +SVEN'S FATHER +You must only let the red rage take hold of you in the thick of battle. + +SVEN +(losing his temper) +I KNOW! I'VE HEARD IT ALL I THOUSAND TIMES! + +A sudden silence falls, as all the village turns to stare nervously at Sven. He goes berserk and demolishes a nearby hut with his head. Ulf the Maddeningly Calm shakes his head. + +SVEN'S FATHER +No no... you'll never make a Berserk. If you let it out now you'll have nothing left for battle... + +IVAR'S MUM +Besides... it's dangerous. + +SVEN'S FATHER +(gloomily) +It's the end of a family tradition. + +In another corner of the village Leif the Lucky is standing with his pregnant girlfriend. + +GIRL +Bye, Leif. + +LEIF +Bye... sorry... + +GIRL +Yeah... well... + +LEIF +You will wait? + +GIRL +What d'you expect me to do? + +She takes a bracelet off her arm and gives it to Leif. + +GIRL +Wear this for luck. + +Leif looks at it. + +LEIF +That's why they call me... Leif the Lucky. + +GIRL +Please. + +Cut to Harald Missionary dumping a bag on board the ship. GRIMHILD HOUSEWIFE + +is helping him. Snorri looks at him in surprise. + +SNORRI +YOU coming? You don't even believe in Asgaard. + +HARALD +I thought I might do a bit of business on the way. + +SNORRI +You're wasting your time. + +HARALD +Listen. I've been in this dump for sixteen years and I haven't made a single convert... + +SNORRI +There was Thorbjorn Vifilsson's wife. You converted HER. + +HARALD +Thorbjorn Vifilsson's wife became a Buddhist, not a Christian. + +SNORRI +Same thing, isn't it? + +HARALD +No, it is NOT. + +Meanwhile in another part of the village, Loki is strapping a large consignment of swords onto a pony. He glances round and then sneaks surreptiously out of the village, over the barren hills of Norway, under the boiling black skies of Ragnarok. Back at the quayside, GOLDEN DRAGON is ready for the journey. Erik addresses the villagers. + +ERIK +Well... we'll be off now... + +Erik's grandad waits for some time before he realizes that Erik isn't intending to say anything else. + +GRANDAD +You need to say a bit more than that! + +ERIK +Oh... er... yes... + +The faces of the village-folk turn towards him. There are many moist eyes. Erik's mother starts to cry. + +ERIK +Oh, there, Mum... +(he turns and addresses everyone) +Don't be sad.... You all know why we're going, so don't grieve. Maybe untold dangers do lie ahead of us, and some of you may well be looking at the one you love for the last time... + +Someone bursts out sobbing. Erik desperately tries to rally their spirits. + +ERIK +But don't grieve! Even tough the Hordes of Muspel tear us limb from limb... or the Fire Giants burn each and every one of us to a cinder... + +More crying. + +ERIK +...though we may be swallowed by the Dragon of the North Sea or fall off the Edge of the World... don't cry. + +More crying. + +ERIK +No! Don't cry.... + +By this time most of the village is blubbering profusely. Cut to Harald Missionary. He has his arm round his weeping girlfriend. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Sh... There... it's all fantasy, there's no Dragon of the North Sea, no Edge of the World... + +GRIMHILD HOUSEWIFE +That's what YOU say. + +ERIK +(aside to his Grandad) +What's the matter with them? + +GRANDAD +Just say something cheerful. + +ERIK +Oh... right! +(He can't think of anything) +Well.... CHEERS everybody! + +Erik smiles broadly and waves. The entire village stares back at him with tears in their eyes, and biting their lips. Suddenly one mother can't hold it back any more. + +THORFINN'S MUM +Don't go! + +Another mother rushes out and grabs Ivar the Boneless. + +IVAR'S MUM +My son! I don't want you to go! + +IVAR +I don't want to go, either... + +ERIK +Oh gods! Please, everybody! Keep calm! It's not certain ALL of us are going to die... and in any case we may not die HIDEOUS deaths... + +More renewed sobbing. Grandad's eyes go heavenwards. + +GRANDAD +(to Erik) +I think we should go... + +ERIK +Right. +(he turns for a last salute) +Farewell... for the last time... may the gods prevent... + +GRANDAD +No, don't say anything else! + +Suddenly Keitel Blacksmith steps forward. His muscles ripple. His handsome face radiates heroism and manliness. + +KEITEL +Wait, Erik! + +ERIK +Keitel Blacksmith? + +They stop and turn. + +KEITEL +You can't go without me. Who will repair your swords and mend your shields? + +Renewed sobs from the women. + +WOMEN +Oh, no! Ah, lackaday! Not HIM too! + +ERIK +What's the matter now? + +UNN +If Keitel Blacksmith goes with you... + +THORHILD +We'll have no one to do the things he did for us. + +THORKATLA THE INDISCRETE +OR sharpen our knives and make our pans. + +An awkward silence. The others all turn on her and frown - a bit of shin-kicking goes on. It's clear that Keitel is popular amongst the womenfolk. Erik doesn't notice. + +ERIK +You will have Keitel's assistant, Loki, to do all that. + +WOMEN +Loki? Eurrgh! + +ERIK +What's wrong with Loki? He's become very good at blacksmithing. + +WOMEN +Yes... but... + +THORKATLA +He's so small and... + +The others all shush her up. More shin-kicking. + +THORHILD +(innocently) +Oh, yes... we've got Loki... That's true... + +Cut to Loki leading his pony across a bleak landscape. He eventually stops and looks ahead. There stands a gibbet with two corpses dangling from it. He is nearing his destination. Cut back to Erik and his men getting into GOLDEN DRAGON. Erik notices Thorfinn and Sven quarrelling over Leif the Lucky. + +ERIK +Hey, you two! What's going on? + +SVEN +I was sitting there. + +LEIF +No, you weren't. + +THORFINN +Leif's sitting here. I need a bit of luck. + +LEIF +See. + +SVEN +Look, I bagged it last week. + +ERIK +It doesn't matter WHERE you sit! + +SVEN +Yes it does! We could be at sea for months. + +ERIK +Well, what difference does it make where you're SITTING? + +SVEN +I don't want to have to sit next to Snorri all that time. + +Sven nods towards Snorri the Miserable - an Eeyore of a Viking if ever there were one. + +SNORRI +Thank you VERY much indeed. + +ERIK +Now stop it! + +SNORRI +It's SO nice to feel wanted. + +ERIK +Leif, you sit there. Even, you sit there. Harald, you'd better sit over there... + +SNORRI +Trust me to get the missionary. + +Suddenly Erik notices Sven's father climbing aboard. + +ERIK +What are YOU doing here? + +SVEN'S DAD +You may need a real Berserk. + +SVEN +I AM one, Dad! + +ERIK +We haven't got a spare place. + +IVAR +He can have my place. I don't want to go anyway. + +ERIK +Well, you ARE! + +KEITEL +Bjorn's not. He could have Bjorn's place. + +ERIK +What's the matter with Bjorn? + +THORFINN +Nothing... Halfdan the Black chopped his hand off last night. + +ERIK +HE was lucky... +(to Sven's dad) +Sit there. + +SNORRI +You can't have Sven's father sitting next to Sven. They'll argue the whole time. + +ERIK +That's true. +(to Sven) +YOU'D better sit there. +(to Sven's dad) +You there, and Ornulf there. + +SNORRI +Now you've got all the big ones on one side. + +Erik looks around. It is true that all the tall burly ones are on one side. + +ERIK +All right, you go there. You here... + +Sven's dad and Ornulf swap places. + +SVEN'S DAD +Ohh! I wanted to sit next to Leif. + +ERIK +Shut up. You there. You there and you there. + +Ivar and Ornulf swap places. Erik surveys this re-arrangement. + +ERIK +That's better. + +SNORRI +Now you've got all the ones with beards on one side and all the moustaches on the other. + +This is true. Erik thinks some moments and then: + +ERIK +It doesn't matter. + +They start to haul the sail up. Ropes are released. The boat rocks. Suddenly a voice cuts through the crowd. It is Erik's mother. + +ERIK'S MUM +Wait! Wait! Wait! + +ERIK +What is it? +(he is clearly a little embarrassed) + +ERIK'S MUM +Here, son. + +She tries to hand Erik what looks unmistakably like a pillow. Erik is dumbfounded. + +ERIK'S MUM +Your father always made sure he could rest his head at night. + +Erik is mortified. The others snigger, though not without some sympathy for Erik. They've ALL been embarrassed by their mums at one time or another. + +ERIK +I can't take THAT on a voyage! + +ERIK'S MUM +It was your father's! + +Erik will find it hard to refuse now. But he hesitates. + +ERIK'S MUM +It was the pillow HE took with him. He said it once saved his life. + +Erik reluctantly takes the precious object. His mother kisses him. Everyone has fallen silent now. The relatives stand helpless on the shore as GOLDEN DRAGON starts to drift away from them. The Vikings sit in their places, hands on the oars looking back at their loved ones. Erik stands at the prow of GOLDEN DRAGON. For a moment he thinks he sees the girl he killed, standing, white in death, the spear-wound still fresh. Erik raises his hand in a half-goodbye. We cut back to the loved ones, now the girl is no longer there. They too half-raise their hands. Erik suddenly turns and gives a shout: + +ERIK +Huuup! + +The oars go up and then into the water, and GOLDEN DRAGON commences her voyage. Cut back to GOLDEN DRAGON at sea. Snorri is feeling queasy and gazing gloomily at the receding coastline of Norway. Thangbrand is sitting near him and feeling equally queasy. + +SNORRI +Have a good look... that's the last we'll see of old Norway. + +Snorri is desperately trying to control his insides. + +SNORRI +Goodbye home... goodbye family... goodbye loved ones... +(he starts to throw up) +Goodbye lunch... + +THANGBRAND +Oh! Shut up. + +Harald Missionary puts his arm around Snorri. + +HARALD +You know, my son, our lord said... + +SNORRI +YOUR lord. + +HARALD +Quite... MY lord... said: "The Prayer of Faith shall have the sick." + +SNORRI +I hope the Dragon of the North Sea gets YOU AND your lord. + +Harald Missionary gives him a condescending smile and a weary shake of the head. He knows the Dragon of the North Sea does not exist. + +HARALD +Darkness and ignorance... + +Meanwhile Ivar the Boneless and Sven the Berserk are both suffering from the effects of the sea. + +SVEN +(keeping a wave of nausea down) +It's not so bad when you're rowing. + +THORFINN SKULL-SPLITTER +That's right + +Thorfinn gobs onto the whetstone with which he is sharpening his axe. Sven can control himself no longer. He rushes for the side. + +SVEN THE BERSERK +I want to die. + +This sets off Ivar. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +Uh oh! + +He leaps up and pukes over the side. Mass puking breaks out all over the boat. Keitel Blacksmith looks around at his preoccupied shipmates, and it slowly dawns upon him that this might be the moment to try a little sabotage. He goes to the ship's lodestone, which is hanging from the mast. Keitel glances around. No one is looking, but this sort of covert behaviour goes against his normally sunny and open disposition. + +KEITEL +(to himself) +The Blacksmith's Code... + +He steels himself, takes down the lodestone, snaps out the piece of metal in the base and throws it over the side. Keitel hangs it up again on the mast. + +THORFINN +Are you all right? + +IVAR +No, I'm not. + +THORFINN +You don't need to feel bad about being sea-sick, you know. + +IVAR +How can you help feeling bad when you're sea-sick? + +THORFINN +I mean many of the greatest sailors were. + +Pause. + +IVAR +I know. I know. + +THORFINN +Olaf Tryggvason used to throw up on every single voyage... the whole time... non-stop... puke... puke... puke. + +IVAR +Look! I don't feel BAD about it. I just feel ILL. + +Thorfinn pauses and waits for a wave of nausea to creep up on Ivar. + +THORFINN +He used to puke in his sleep. + +IVAR +Bastard. + +He throws up. Meanwhile Erik is in the stern, gazing out behind them. + +ERIK +Thorfinn... look over there. + +Thorfinn leaves Ivar and joins Erik. On the horizon a sinister sail is following them. Thorfinn grins with evil pleasure. He scents a fight. Erik turns to the crew. + +ERIK +Break out the oars! + +Thorfinn's smile disappears and he spins round to confront Erik. + +THORFINN +What are you talking about? + +ERIK +(to his reluctant crew) +Come on, move it! + +Most of the men are being sea-sick. + +MORD FIDDLE +We've only just started cooking lunch. + +The crew glance at Mord Fiddle and then throw up again. + +ERIK +Move it! + +Reluctantly the crew take up their rowing positions. Thorfinn buttonholes Erik (except of course that he doesn't have any buttonholes). + +THORFINN +It's Halfdan the Black! + +ERIK +I know. Snorri! Get your oar out! + +Snorri is sitting in position but without his oar. Keitel has meanwhile joined them. He, too, stares at the horizon. He is a little puzzled by this turn of events. Loki has said nothing about Halfdan coming after them. + +KEITEL +(uneasily) +Do you suppose he wants to stop us waking the Gods? + +Erik looks at Keitel with a certain amount of contempt. Keitel is not renowned even amongst these Vikings for his brain-power. + +ERIK +What do you think? + +KEITEL +But how could he know... unless... + +Keitel stops in mid-sentence as he realizes it must be Loki's doing. + +THORFINN +(scornfully) +So are you going to run away from him, Erik? + +Erik turns to Thorfinn. + +ERIK +Row, Thorfinn Skull-Splitter. + +Thorfinn hesitates. + +ERIK +And you, Keitel Blacksmith. + +KEITEL +But... + +Keitel shrugs and turns to take up his rowing position. He is still a little confused by this turn of events. Erik confronts Thorfinn. + +ERIK +I gave an order. Or didn't you hear? + +There is something about Erik's manner that carries an authority that Thorfinn cannot argue with. + +ERIK +Come on, Ivar. + +Erik manhandles Ivar over to his drum and thrusts his drumsticks into his hands. Halfdan's ship is twice the size of Erik's and, as Erik is only too well aware, consequently travels at twice the speed. There is no real chance of them escaping, unless... Erik suddenly catches sight of a thick bank of mist in the distance, and steers his ship towards it. + +IVAR +(still feeling ill) +I want to die... +(then, suddenly catching sight of Halfdan's ship behind him) +No, I don't! + +ERIK +Row! Row! Row! + +Ivar tries to get into the new rhythm, but has a bit of difficult. As Halfdan's ship gains on them inexorably, GOLDEN DRAGON glides into the sea mist. There is a tremendous roll of thunder very close. All the Vikings look scared. Erik, however, grins. + +ERIK +Row! Row! Row! + +He doubles the speed. The drum beats faster. + +SVEN'S DAD +(shouts out angrily) +We can't keep this up! + +Erik grins and then leans on the steering oar. GOLDEN DRAGON curves around to its left. Then Erik lays his hand on Ivar's drum and silences it. + +ERIK +Oars up! + +The Vikings ship their oars and sit there in the mist listening to beating of Halfdan's drum getting closer and closer. At the final moment, however, Halfdan swings his ship in the opposite direction from Erik's and the sound of his drum disappears into the mist. Erik's men breathe a sigh of relief... even Keitel Blacksmith... Fade. Fade up some time later. GOLDEN DRAGON is still drifting in the mist. Erik has his fish-lodestone and is trying the direction, but the lodestone is just swinging round uselessly. After trying a few times, Erik gives up and throws the lodestone away into the boat. The men peer into the thick mist; they are lost. Suddenly Erik sees something ahead. + +ERIK +The Gates of the World... + +MORD FIDDLE +What? + +GOLDEN DRAGON silently guides between two weird islands. + +ERIK +We have passed through the Gates of the World +(he looks around at the other) +No we are in the Unknown... + +GOLDEN DRAGON drifts on and the mist gets thicker. There is a crash of thunder. Then a series of flashes lights up the mist around them. The Vikings are uneasy, sensing a storm brewing. Suddenly Erik points above them. The others look up too. They all gasp. + +ERIK +(hardly daring to breathe) +So THAT is what the sun looks like! + +Above them hangs a luminous yellow globe, its light just breaking through the mist. + +VIKING +(to each other) +The sun! It's the sun! Look! + +SVEN'S DAD +(in wonderment) +I never though I should live to see the sun again. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Where? + +The Vikings all gaze up above them in awe. Harald looks from one to the other and then tries to follow their eyelines. He clearly can't see it. Magic music fills the air. Suddenly the "sun" swoops off to one side and starts swaying from one side to another. + +ERIK +Should the sun do that? + +HARALD MISSIONARY +What are you looking at? + +ERIK +Look out! + +VIKINGS +Ah! + +The Vikings scream and flatten themselves against the sides of the boat, as the "sun" suddenly lurches down on them out of the sky, revealing for the first time that it is NOT the sun at all but a strange monster with a long neck that disappears off into the mist and a glowing globe for a head, and huge chomping jaws. The Vikings are, understandably, terrified. + +VIKINGS +It's not the sun! It's not the sun! + +HARALD MISSIONARY +What is it? + +SNORRI +It's the Dragon of the North Sea! + +HARALD MISSIONARY +(knowingly) +Ah! THAT'S why I can't see it. + +As the Dragon of the North Sea rises up again, however, its jaw apparently drops off and falls to the deck, and lands on Snorri. + +SNORRI +Aaah! + +Keitel nervously picks it up and holds it up for everyone to see. I is a strand of sea-weed. The Vikings are non-plussed. They look back at their now jawless monster. Harald Missionary picks up the sea-weed. + +HARALD +Some dragon! Ooh! + +He tosses it back amongst his terrifies companions. Suddenly there is an incredibly loud clap of thunder and flames shoot out of the mist. + +SVEN +Look out! + +As... unbelievably... a huge monstrous visage looms out of the mist... It is a creature from the nethermost depths of the ocean... and the incandescent globe is no more than a sprouting on the end of its nose! More fire shoots out from its nostrils and sends all the Vikings (and even Harald Missionary) diving for the deck. Then the monstrous head disappears back into the mist as quickly as it came, taking its light with it... The Vikings are paralysed with fear for one brief moment. + +ERIK +Row! ROW! + +They all scramble for the oars in a determined hysteria. Ivar the drummer, in his panic, has set a ridiculously fast rate and nobody can keep up with it. + +ERIK +Slower! Nobody can row at that speed! + +IVAR +(hoarsely) +Sorry. + +HARALD +What's all the panic about? + +SVEN'S DAD +(in a panic, shouting back over his shoulder) +The Dragon... + +Harald gives a patronising smile. + +HARALD +Children afraid of the dark... + +Suddenly there is another roar, and flames shoot out of the mist and across the deck of GOLDEN DRAGON. One man, Ornolf Fishdriver, who hasn't had much to say so far, is set on fire. Another, Bjarni Jerusalem-Farer, who has and will have even less to say then Ornolf Fishdriver, leaps out of the way of the flames and falls over the side. + +THORFINN +Man over board! + +Thorfinn starts trying to fish him out. Ivar has started to panic and is beating the drum too fast. + +ERIK +Slower! In... Out... + +IVAR +Sorry! + +SVEN +(his eyes showing their whites) +We're being attacked! KILL! Kill! Kill! + +SVEN'S DAD +Not now, Sven... + +SVEN +I must KILL! Kill! + +SVEN'S DAD +It's no good going berserk against a dragon! + +Sven's dad slaps him around the face. There is another roar from the monster. Erik turns to Ivar. + +ERIK +Faster! + +IVAR +Make your mind up. + +Suddenly the Dragon's head appears out of the mists above them once again. There is panic amongst the Vikings as some start to row faster than others. Screams. + +ERIK +Keep up the strike! + +The Dragon's jaws open. Flame licks out, and down the centre of the vessel. There are screams as the Vikings leap out of the way. Sven goes berserk again. + +SVEN +KILL! KILL! + +SVEN'S DAD +Stop it! + +The Dragon's eyes dilate and its jaws open. The men throw themselves to the deck as if expecting more fire. But instead the creature's fangs crash into the wood of the stern of GOLDEN DRAGON. + +ERIK +ROW! + +SVEN +DEATH! + +SVEN'S DAD +Shut UP! + +ERIK +Row! + +Erik looks around at his terror-stricken crew. He realizes this is an important moment. It is up to him to save the situation. Suddenly an idea occurs to him, as he catches sight of the pillow that his mother gave him. + +ERIK +Keep rowing! + +Erik dashes to his sea-chest under the mast and pulls out the pillow. + +THORFINN +Erik! Row! What are you doing? + +ERIK +(holding up the pillow) +It saved my father! + +Erik starts to shin up the mast. + +SNORRI +Barmy. + +Sven's dad is desperately holding Sven back. + +SVEN'S DAD +HOLD it! HOLD it in! + +SVEN +DEATH TO DRAGONS! + +ERIK +Row! + +SNORRI +Has anyone told him we've got a dragon eating our boat? + +Erik has reached the top of the mast and is now right up with the incandescent globe on the end of the long stalk that grows onto the monster's nose. He grabs hold of it and swings across onto the monster's nose. At his moment Sven breaks free of his dad and throws himself onto one of the Dragon's teeth. + +SVEN +Red mist! + +He bangs his head against the monstrous denture. Sven's dad looks heavenward in despair. Cut to Harald Missionary who is offering his bible to the petrifies Vikings in the prow. + +HARALD +It's at time like this that you'll find this book MOST useful, you know... + +Keitel takes the bible from him and hits him over the head with it. + +KEITEL +Row! You idiot! + +The monster's eyes dilate wildly as they try to focus on the tiny figure of Erik on its snout. Erik shoves the pillow up one of the Dragon's nostrils. Snorri watches Erik incredulously. He shakes his head. + +SNORRI +His father went crazy too... Used to take forty winks in the middle of a battle... + +Thorfinn frowns - he has a glimmering of an idea of what Erik is doing. Erik now plunges his sword through the pillow in the Dragon's nostril, and feathers immediately fly into the air. + +ERIK +Now... take a deep breath. + +The Dragon goes cross-eyed, trying to see what's going on on its snout. + +ERIK +Go on! Breathe in, you cod-brain! + +Meanwhile the Dragon's tongue suddenly licks out around its tooth. Sven instantly slices through it with his sword. The bright blood spurts, like bursting a sausage. The Dragon gives an agonized roar and a sharp intake of breath. The feathers that have leaked out from the pillow are instantly sucked inside and the whole pillow disappears right up the Dragon's nose. For a moment everyone holds their breath. The Dragon's eye dilate wildly. Then it wrinkles its snout. Then it starts what is unmistakably a sneeze. + +THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH SEA +Ah... ah... ah... + +ERIK +Hold TIGHT! + +THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH SEA +Ah... ah... ah... + +Erik leaps back across the mast. + +THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH SEA +CHOO!! + +A hurricane of wind and feathers blasts out of the Dragon's nostrils and hits all the Vikings at once. Everyone is disgusted by the Dragon's breath. + +SNORRI +Urgh! What's it been eating? + +But the blast has already catapulted the boat into the sky, and it hurtles through the clouds. leaving the Dragon of the North Sea far behind. They all look up at Erik and cheer. Shot of Erik. He doesn't look too happy. Neither does Ivar the Boneless, because he too has just noticed that they are now flying and the ocean is several thousand feet below them. Ivar screams. The other all rush to the side to look too. + +ERIK +No! No! Get back! + +Unfortunately they all rush to the SAME side and the boat tips over with far more instability than when it is in the water. Leif and Thangbrand are catapulted down into the sea. We watch them descend into tiny dots and tiny unheard splashes below. + +THORFINN +Who was that? + +SNORRI +Leif the Lucky. + +Others are almost falling out. There is renewed panic. + +ERIK +Get back! + +Poor Erik is still up the mast but has been dislodged and is now hanging on by his hands, dangling over the open sea. Some of the men - Thorfinn and Sven the Berserk amongst them - are hauling themselves up the almost vertical slope of the deck, trying to redress the balance. Meanwhile Keitel Blacksmith is dangling by one hand. + +KEITEL +I can't hold on! I can't hold on! + +Sven worms his way along the edge - at great peril to himself - and grabs Keitel's wrist just as his fingers slip. + +KEITEL +Aaagh! + +SVEN +Got you! + +Keitel looks up in Sven's eyes. He is totally at Sven's mercy. What thoughts are going through his mind? How is he going to betray Sven in future if he is rescued? Guilt suddenly overwhelms him. + +KEITEL +Let me go, Sven. + +SVEN +What are you talking about? + +KEITEL +I'm not worth risking your life for. + +SVEN +I've got you, Keitel Blacksmith. If you go... I go too... + +KEITEL +For your own sake... For the others... I... + +SVEN +Hang on... + +The boat begins to right itself just as Erik finally can't hold on any more, and he plummets, straight into the ship, and through the bottom up to his waist. His legs dangle. At the same moment the prov of the boat tips and suddenly they are plummeting down towards the ocean. They hit the water with an almighty splash. Erik is thrown clear of the hull by the force of the water now cascading up through the hole he has made. + +SNORRI +First we're flying - now we're sinking! + +ERIK +Well, come on! + +He whisks off his helmet and starts bailing. All follow suit. Night falls. Some time later. The Vikings are still bailing out, but the water is up to their thighs. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +Who are we fooling? It's hopeless! + +Ivar flings down the helmet with which he's been bailing. The others look at each other. They are reconciled to the fact that they are going to drown. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +(hopelessly) +Let's sing something! + +SNORRI +Anyone know any good drowning songs? + +The suggestion falls flat. + +ERIK +Listen! Maybe we won't get to Hy-Brasil! Maybe we won't find the Horn Resounding... but at least we've tried... and at least we shall have died like men. + +SNORRI +Like fish. + +SVEN +Shut up. + +THORFINN +(raising his sword) +Erik's right! We'll all meet in Valhalla. + +IVAR +I don'T want to die! + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Isn't there ANYBODY who'd like to be christened before we go down? + +Silence. A distinct lack of enthusiasm. + +HARALD +It can't do you any HARM... + +SVEN'S DAD +What do we have to do? + +HARALD +Nothing... I just immerse you in water... + +THORFINN AND OTHERS +Get lost... + +The ship creaks and starts to go under. Erik picks his up his sword. The others follow suit. + +ERIK +Don't let me drown, Thorfinn! + +Water starts to pour over the sides of the boat. Erik and Thorfinn raise their swords to each other. + +THORFINN +Till we meet in Valhalla. + +They all prepare to run each other through. The boat sinks rapidly. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +I'm too young! Oh Odin! Not me! Please not me! Perhaps I'd rather drown... + +HARALD MISSIONARY +I do WISH you'd let me convert you. + +Then Erik pauses in his attempt to kill Thorfinn and looks around. The ship has sunk, but the prow and the stern posts are still sticking up out of the water, and the Vikings themselves are only up to their chests. + +ERIK +How deep IS the ocean? + +THORFINN +Very deep... usually... + +The realization gradually dawns on the Vikings that they're not going to sink any more. + +ERIK +Wait! Nobody kill anybody! + +Fade. Fade up on the sun shining down from a blue sky. The Vikings have fallen asleep where we last saw them - up to their necks in water. Gradually the warmth of the sun coaxes them awake - Thorfinn is the first to look up and see the brilliant shining orb in the sky. + +THORFINN +What is it? + +IVAR THE BONELESS +(he panics and turns) +It's the Dragon again! + +ERIK +No.. no, it isn't... + +Ivar has turned and is staring at something else. + +ERIK +Look, the sky is blue... + +SVEN'S DAD +The sun! That's it! + +Ivar, meanwhile, is recovering from the amazement that has immobilized him. He taps Erik on the shoulder. Erik turns and he, too, gasps. + +ERIK +Look! + +They all turn to see they are standing in the shallow waters of a natural harbour. Above nestle the white walls of a beautiful city set in a green and pleasant land. + +VIKINGS +Yeaaaah! + +The Vikings wade ashore, enchanted by the paradise they see before them. All at once Thorfinn spies something. He draws his sword and they all approach with caution to find that under a weeping willow tree lies the most beautiful girl. She is raven-haired, scantily dressed and fast asleep. The Vikings approach her with trepidation, their swords and axes drawn. They glance around uneasily. + +SNORRI +(whispers) +She's got no clothes on! + +THORFINN +It's disgusting. + +ERIK +Get her weapons. + +Sven kneels quietly beside the girl. She stirs. Sven freezes. The others look around fearfully. + +SVEN +(whispers) +She hasn't got any. + +ERIK +(incredulous) +She MUST have a knife or something... + +But they look. She hasn't. + +THORFINN +What kind of place IS this? + +IVAR THE BONELESS +P... p...perhaps they've got weapons we haven't even dreamed of... + +Suddenly the girl stirs again in her sleep. The Vikings retreat several paces and grip their weapons, and glance around as if expecting an ambush. + +THORFINN +Let's hack her to pieces. + +ERIK +No. + +KEITEL +Well, what else do we do? + +ERIK +How about making friends? + +SVEN +(with disgust) +"FRIENDS"? + +VIKINGS +Eurrgh! + +ERIK +What's wrong with making friends? + +THORFINN +You don't go through all the hardships of an ocean voyage to make "friends". + +SVEN +We can make "friends" at home... + +This conversation has woken the girl, Aud. + +AUD +Welcome! + +The Vikings react with terror, take a step back and raise their swords and axes. + +ERIK +WHAT did you say? + +AUD +I said welcome. + +ERIK +(suspiciously) +WELCOME? + +AUD +Well, of course. We always welcome friends. + +The Vikings look at each other and at their swords. They don't think they look that much like friends themselves. + +ERIK +How d'you KNOW we're "friends"? + +AUD +Well, EVERYONE is friends here on Hy-Brasil. + +SVEN +Hy-Brasil? + +ERIK +Is THIS Hy-Brasil? + +AUD +Well, of course. + +The Vikings erupt into an impromptu dance of joy, hugging each other and waving their swords in the air. + +AUD +Please! Please! What are those? + +ERIK +What are what? + +AUD +Those things in your hands. + +ERIK +These? What are THESE? They're swords. + +Aud instantly recoils with terror. + +AUD +Oh no! NO! Out them down! PUT THEM DOWN! + +The Vikings gradually cease their mock battles and turn to look at Aud with incredulity. + +ERIK +What's the matter? + +AUD +PLEASE! You don't know what you're doing! + +ERIK +What? + +AUD +Put them down! +(To Erik) +PLEASE make them put them down. + +THORFINN +Why? + +OTHERS +Yes, why? + +AUD +WHY? + +ERIK +Yes. + +AUD +But surely you know...? + +VIKINGS +Er... n... no... + +ERIK +Know what? + +Cut to big close-up of King Arnulf. + +KING ARNULF +The wonderful blessing under which we live here on Hy-Brasil! + +The king beams. The Vikings shift uneasily. They look out of place and extremely scruffy in the midst of the scantily dressed courtiers of Hy-Brasil. Aud sits beside her father the King. + +ERIK +No... we don't... + +KING ARNULF +The Gods decreed that if ever sword spills human blood upon these shores, the whole of Hy-Brasil will sink beneath the waves. + +King Arnulf beams rapturously at the Vikings, expecting them to be overjoyed. Instead they are horrified. + +THORFINN +That's terrible! + +ERIK +You mean if just ONE PERSON gets killed? + +KING ARNULF +Yes! +(He thinks: isn't it wonderful?) +The Vikings look at each other, feeling they haven't quite understood. + +THORFINN +You mean... you can't kill ANYBODY? + +KING ARNULF +Right! Isn't it wonderful? + +The Vikings are non-plussed. + +THORFINN +What? Not being able to kill anybody? + +KING ARNULF +(bemused) +Well, of course. + +ERIK +(interested) +How? + +KING ARNULF +(explaining the obvious) +Well... for a start... er... there's no killing... + +ERIK +Well, OBVIOUSLY there's no killing. + +KING ARNULF +Well... +(isn't it great?) + +THORFINN +But how d'you take revenge? + +KEITEL +(guiltily) +How do you punish people? + +IVAR +How do you DEFEND yourselves? + +KING ARNULF +(getting a little irritated) +We don't have to. We're all terribly + +nice to each other. Aren't we? + +COURT +Yes! + +Aud catches Erik's eye and gives him a dangerously slow wink. A pause of disbelief from the Vikings. + +SVEN +ALL the time? + +KING ARNULF +Well, of course! We HAVE to be. + +He turns and conducts the courtiers, who chant in unison: + +COURT +"Being nice to each other is what it's all about." + +KING ARNULF +(rising as if to sing) +You see? + +We're terribly nice to each other + +We're friendly bold and free. + +We never say anything nasty + +'Cause we dare not... + +COURT +(almost SINGING) +No sirreeeee! + +They hold the note while King Arnulf looks anxiously at the Vikings. + +KING ARNULF +Would you like us o sing to you? + +ERIK +That's very kind of you, but we're in rather a hurry... + +We're... + +King Arnulf claps and the court stop singing. + +KING ARNULF +What's the matter, don't you WANT to hear our singing? + +ERIK +Oh... well, yes, of course; it's just we're looking for the + +Horn Resounding and - + +KING ARNULF +You don't think our singing's going to be good enough for you? + +ERIK +Oh, no no no! It's just the Horn Resounding is... + +KING ARNULF +A lot of people like our singing. + +ERIK +I'm sure it's lovely. + +KING ARNULF +But you don't want to hear it. + +ERIK +(changing tack) +No... no... +(he looks at the others) +We'd love to hear it. + +Wouldn't we? + +VIKINGS +Oh... yes. + +KING ARNULF +Well, you'll have to ask us REALLY nicely. + +ERIK +(realizing he has to be diplomatic) +Er... well... we... we... would be + +TERRIBLY grateful if you... all... would sing for us. + +KING ARNULF +You're just saying that. + +SVEN +Well, of course he is! + +SVEN'S DAD +Sh! + +They restrain Sven. + +ERIK +Of course we're not; we'd genuinely like to hear you sing. + +KING ARNULF +REALLY? + +ERIK +Really. + +KING ARNULF +And you're not just saying it because you think we want you to? + +Erik swallows hard. + +ERIK +No. +(He bites the lie) + +KING ARNULF +Right! Summon the musicians! We'll do the one that goes "TUM- + +TUM-TUM-TUM-TI-TUM-TUM" + +COURT +(disappointed) +Oh... + +CHAMBERLAIN +REALLY? + +KING ARNULF +(apologetically to Vikings) +It isn't the one we're BEST at. + +CHAMBERLAIN +Couldn't we do the one that goes "TI-TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TUM"? + +The rest of the court look hopeful. + +KING ARNULF +(whispering) +Not when we've got guests. + +VOICE FROM COURT +How about the one that goes "TI-TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TI-TUM"? + +KING ARNULF +Don't be silly. + +CHAMBERLAIN +That was a stupid suggestion. + +VOICE +Sorry! I just thought they might like to hear something that we + +can do. + +ANOTHER +Yes! At least we know that one. + +YET ANOTHER VOICE +Nobody knows the "TUM-TUM-TUM-TUM-TI-TUM-TUM" one. + +REST OF COURT +No! Right! I agree! + +ODD MAN OUT +I do! + +REST OF COURT +Sh! + +ANOTHER VOICE +It's too difficult! + +CHAMBERLAIN +Sh! + +KING ARNULF +All right. We'll do the one that goes "TI-TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TUM- + +TI-TI-TUM". Ah! The musicians! + +The musicians are huge, unshaven, have broken noses and tattoos, and are covered in black oil - like mechanics. Their instruments are like heavy industrial machinery, pushed in large vats of black oil that drip all over the show. + +KING ARNULF +Right... Oh dear... +(he glances across at the Vikings) +I'm sure + +you're not going to like this... + +Erik and the others smile reassuringly. There is a lot of coughing. The King raises his baton and then brings it down, humming to himself as he does so. There is a most awful din; caterwauling, crashing and banging, whining, screaming... The Vikings look at each other, trying to pick out some tune, but it's impossible. Ivar the Boneless can't stop himself bursting out into giggles and this eventually spreads to the other Vikings. King Arnulf notices and bangs the throne for silence. Gradually the din stops. King Arnulf sinks down in despair. + +KING ARNULF +(tragically) +We're just not a very musical nation... + +ERIK +No, no... It was very... er, nice. + +KING ARNULF +Now I want you to be ABSOLUTELY, totally, genuinely honest with + +me. Did you really, truly, honestly like it? + +Erik thinks for some moments and then decides to make a clean breast of it. + +ERIK +No. + +KING ARNULF +(goes hysterically) +They didn't like it! Oh God! I want to die! + +The whole court looks as if it's about to commit mass HARA-KIRI, while the musicians look rather dangerous. Erik takes the moment to get down to business. + +ERIK +Your Majesty! We come from a world where there IS no music. + +where men live and die by the axe and by the sword... + +KING ARNULF +Well, how d'you think I feel? + +ERIK +The Gods are asleep, King Arnulf. + +KING ARNULF +YOU try to be nice to people, when they're rude about your + +singing... + +Erik feels he is making a mess of all this diplomacy. + +ERIK +We must find the Horn Resounding! + +The King glares at Erik. + +ERIK +Is is HERE in Hy-Brasil? + +King Arnulf thinks for a moment and then speaks. + +KING ARNULF +I'll tell you what... + +ERIK +Yes? + +King Arnulf hesitates - he bites his lip and then takes the plunge. + +KING ARNULF +We'll do the one that goes "TUM-TUM-TUM-TUM-TI-TUM-TUM". + +Perhaps you'll like that better. + +Erik gives up. A lot of throat clearing. Aud, the King's daughter, gives Erik another dangerously slow wink. The terrible "music" starts up, shattering the calm of the beautiful city. Fade. Fade up on GOLDEN DRAGON now afloat once more, riding at anchor in the bay. Ivar is standing on guard in it. Suddenly he sees something that makes him gabe in horror. We don't find out what it is, however, because we immediately Cut to Erik. He is deeply in love. He is also in bed with the King's nubile daughter, Aud. + +AUD +Have you ever felt like this about anyone else? + +ERIK +What... you mean "got into bed with" them? + +AUD +No, of course not, silly - I mean FELT like this about the? + +ERIK +You mean... you HAVE got into bed with somebody else? + +AUD +No, I mean have you ever felt that for the first time in your + +life you'd met somebody you could believe in with your whole + +heart... someone whose goals suddenly seem to be YOUR goals... + +whose dreams seem to be YOUR dreams? + +ERIK +HAVE you ever been to bed with anyone else? + +AUD +What does that matter? But you've... you've... FELT like this + +before... + +ERIK +It was different... + +AUD +(just for a moment it is Helga speaking) +What was she like? + +ERIK +Oh... oh, I didn't know her very well... + +AUD +But you LOVED her all the same... + +ERIK +We never went to bed together. + +AUD +Why do you go on about that? What does it matter? + +ERIK +You've been to bed with somebody else, haven't you? + +AUD +I've never LOVED anybody! + +ERIK +I'VE never been to bed with anybody! + +Suddenly there is a banging on he door. + +KING ARNULF +(v/o) +Open up! I know you're in there! + +AUD +Ah! It's my father! + +KING ARNULF (v/o) +Open up! I know you're in there! + +Suddenly the note from Ivar's horn rings out across from the bay. Erik rushes to the window and looks out to see what Ivar saw previously: a black ship approaching on the horizon. + +ERIK +Oh, no! Halfdan! + +There is more banging on the bedroom door. + +KING ARNULF (v/o) +Aud! You've got someone in there again, haven't you? + +Erik gives her a sharp look. + +AUD +Quick! Throw this over you! + +She throws a shabby bit of cloth over Erik and at that moment the door bursts open, and King Arnulf enters. + +KING ARNULF +Right! Where is he? + +AUD +Who, Father? + +KING ARNULF +Who? Who? Whoever you've got in here of course! + +AUD +There IS no one. + +The King starts prowling round the chamber. Erik stands there, naked and petrified, with the cloak hanging over his head, just where it landed. + +KING ARNULF +I can SMELL one of those strangers... That's who it is, isn't + +it? + +Aud keeps mum. + +KING ARNULF +This is the fifth one this week. + +Before he can stop himself, Erik blurts out: + +ERIK +Fifth... + +Aud motions him to be quiet, but it's too late. The King spins round to see who she is signalling to. The King appears to be looking straight at Erik. Erik can hardly bear the suspense. + +KING ARNULF +Well... where is he? + +AUD +There's nobody here, Father. Look for yourself. + +King Arnulf looks around the chamber carefully. He looks straight through Erik as if he weren't there. Suddenly the King strides over to Erik and Erik instinctively cowers out of the way. The King walks straight over to a very small cupboard no more than a foot high, flings the door of it open, and starts throwing clothes around the room. + +AUD +He wouldn't be a midget, Father! + +The King turns on her. + +KING ARNULF +Ah! So you admit there IS someone! + +AUD +You're losing your temper! + +KING +(becoming instantly pleasant) +Of course I'm not. I never lose my temper... + +Ivar's horn sounds again. A shadow passes over King Arnulf's face. + +KING ARNULF +Oh dear... more visitors! + +He strides to the window and sees Halfdan's ship. As he does so, Erik has to leap out of the way, inadvertently knocking a chest. The King spins round and addresses the chest. + +KING ARNULF +Come out... come out like a man... I know you're in there... + +King Arnulf flings the chest open. revealing nothing but clothes. He is baffled. He reluctantly starts to leave. + +AUD +(gently) +It's all in your own mind, Father... It's YOU who imagine that + +I'm always up here with some man or other.... + +KING ARNULF +I don't know how you do it, Aud... I sometimes think you've got + +some of your mother's magic... + +He suddenly spies a small trinket-box and looks in that. But he doesn't find any strange man in it. + +AUD +There is no magic, Father... My mother had no magic... + +KING ARNULF +She did, I tell you! She could blind me as easily as the night + +the day. + +AUD +It's your fantasy... + +KING ARNULF +But one day I'll catch you... Like I caught her... + +He leaves. Aud closes the door. Erik throws the cloak off and starts getting dressed. + +AUD +The Cloak Invisible. It was my mother's parting gift. + +ERIK +"The fifth one this week"! + +AUD +Oh, for goodness' sake! + +ERIK +And I thought you said it was something special... + +Aud runs to his side and puts her arms around him. + +AUD +That's just what I was trying to tell you. You ARE... + +ERIK +Five this week; how many the week before? + +AUD +You're as bad as my father. + +ERIK +And the week before that? + +ERIK +Erik...! +(she is really sincere) +I want to help you get to + +Asgaard. + +Erik is torn. He doesn't know whether to believe her or not. Ivar's horn sounds for a third time. Erik races to the window. He looks out. Halfdan's ship is even closer. + +ERIK +We mustn't let him land! + +AUD +Who? + +ERIK +Halfdan the Black. + +AUD +But, Erik... + +But Erik is off out of the door. + +AUD +No. Wait! My father will be - + +There is a thump and a yell as Erik is set upon by the King's two musicians. + +KING ARNULF +I might have known it was you! + +MUSICIAN 1 +(pinning Erik's arms behind him) +I'm not hurting you, am I? + +ERIK +What? + +MUSICIAN 2 +You WILL tell us if we hurt you? + +They start to march Erik through the palace. + +ERIK +Let me go! + +Erik struggles. + +KING ARNULF +(to musicians) +Careful! +(to Erik) +They're not supposed to hurt you. + +ERIK +You've got to let me go! + +MUSICIAN 2 +Oh no! We can hold onto you - just so long we don't squeeze too hard or bump you. + +In the distance we hear the horn again. + +ERIK +Halfdan the Black's here! + +They have reached a cell. The musicians starts to chain Erik up. + +KING ARNULF +It's all part of our safety regulations. You see if someone + +were to get hurt they might get angry and then... well... + +ERIK +They'll be more than "hurt" if Halfdan the Black lands! Ow! + +MUSICIAN +Ooh! I'm terribly sorry. + +KING ARNULF +Who is Halfdan the Black? + +ERIK +He's trying to stop us waking the Gods. + +KING ARNULF +Why? + +ERIK +Because that's how he makes his money, by war and plunder! + +KING ARNULF +Don't talk nonsense. + +ERIK +He wants to kill US! + +KING ARNULF +Not when we explain about the Great Blessing. + +ERIK +You don't know Halfdan the Black. + +KING ARNULF +I know that the Great Blessing has kept the peace for a + +thousand years, and will keep it for the next thousand. + +The horn sounds again. Erik is about to argue this point when Thorfinn suddenly bursts in. + +THORFINN +Erik! + +MUSICIAN 2 +We're not hurting him! + +MUSICIAN 1 +(to Erik) +Are we? + +ERIK +Just let me go! + +THORFINN +Halfdan the Black's here! + +ERIK +I know! + +THORFINN +(to the King) +He wants to KILL us. + +They both look at King Arnulf. The King thinks. + +ERIK +You don't want him to kill us ON Hy-Brasil! Do you? + +The King thinks some more. The horn sounds once more. Cut to GOLDEN DRAGON. Erik and the Vikings are scrambling into their war gear. They glance nervously over to where Halfdan the Black's ship is riding on the waves. + +THORFINN +I feel strange. + +Erik looks at Thorfinn, shocked. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +(his throat dry) +Sort of wobbly and excited? + +THORFINN +Sort of... + +IVAR +That's fear. + +SVEN +But Thorfinn doesn't know the meaning of fear. + +THORFINN +Is it sort of... like a sinking feeling in your stomach? + +IVAR +That's it! + +ERIK +But. You're not even afraid of DEATH, Thorfinn! + +THORFINN +I know. I know. + +SVEN'S DAD +It's magic. + +ERIK +What "magic"? + +SVEN'S DAD +I've heard stories of a magic that strikes fear into the heart + +so you cannot fight. + +SVEN +(deadly serious) +Yes... I can feel it. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +(eagerly) +I always feel like this! + +Suddenly Halfdan's ship rises up out of the water , and revealing the secret of its hidden power. Under the water-line is another line of oars! The Vikings are dumbfounded. Ivar drops trembling to his knees. The rest go white. Thorfinn draws his sword. Erik realizes his men are rapidly talking themselves into a blue funk. + +ERIK +It's not magic! It's just a trick! + +THORFINN +(turning on him angrily) +Don't you FEEL it? + +Erik looks around at his paralysed crew. He realizes he is the only one who can save the situation. + +ERIK +Very well! It they're using magic - we'll use magic of our own! + +He leaps out of GOLDEN DRAGON and races up to the shore towards the city of Hy-Brasil. Erik races into the Forum and gazes up at the high walls of the Palace. Without a thought he produces two daggers and plunges them into the stonework. Then he hauls himself up the sheer cliff of wall up to Aud's bedchamber fist over fist. It is, indeed, a prodigious feat. He arrives at Aud's window exhausted. Aud, who has appeared at the window, looks at him curiously. + +AUD +Why didn't you come up by the stairs? + +Erik looks around and notices for the first time the magnificent flights of stairs leading up to the top of Aud's tower. + +ERIK +(rather miffed) +Just give me a hand. + +AUD +I mean, you could have killed yourself. + +Erik clambers into Aud's room. + +ERIK +Where's the Cloak Invisible? + +AUD +Why? + +Erik looks around and is suddenly suspicious. + +ERIK +I can't see it! +(Indignation suddenly seizes him) +Have you got + +another man in here? + +Erik starts feeling the air as if expecting to find an invisible body. + +AUD +It's in the chest. + +Erik races over and grabs the cloak. + +AUD +No! + +ERIK +I'll bring it back. + +AUD +Erik. You don't understand. + +ERIK +No. It's YOU who doesn't understand, Aud. Halfdan has come to + +kill and destroy. We brought him here. We must stop him. + +AUD +(pointing at the cloak) +But you don't realize.... + +ERIK +Goodbye, Aud... + +Erik leaps out of the window. For a moment Aud is surprised and then alarmed as she realizes he's jumped out of the window, which is some forty feet off the ground. + +AUD +Erik! + +She rushes to the window in time to see Erik parachuting down, holding the four corners of the cloak. Erik lands safely and waves with the cloak. + +ERIK +And thanks for the Cloak Invisible! + +AUD +No! WAIT! ERIK! The Cloak! The CLoak Invisible! It only seems + +to work on my father! + +But Erik cannot hear her. He is already racing back to his ship. Back on GOLDEN DRAGON, Thorfinn is taking "Being Scared" lessons from Ivar the Boneless. + +THORFINN +And a sort of slightly sick feeling? + +IVAR +That's it! AND you keep wanting to go to the lavatory. + +THORFINN +Oh, yes! I hadn't noticed that! + +SNORRI +Oh, shut up, you two. You're making us ALL nervous. + +Erik leaps into GOLDEN DRAGON brandishing the Cloak Invisible. + +ERIK +So Halfdan the Black's using magic, is he? Well, I have a magic + +to match his! +(he holds up the Cloak Invisible) + +KEITEL +What is it? + +SNORRI +A magic dishcloth. + +ERIK +To the oars! + +THORFINN +D'you think I've got time to go behind that bush? + +Ivar starts to drum and the Vikings begin to row. GOLDEN DRAGON heads out of the harbour. Cut to Halfdan the Black flanked by his advisers, Gisli Oddsson and Eilif the Mongul. He gives a nod and Eilif bangs his staff of office on the deck, as a signal for the galley slaves to speed up. Down in the galley, the slave master (a diminutive Japanese) + +stalks down the decks lashing the sweat-streaked galley slaves and cursing them in incomprehensive Japanese. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) + +a translation appears in subtitles. + +SLAVE-DRIVER +(subtitled) +Row! You incomprehensible, horizontal-eyed, Western + +trouser-wearers! Eurgh! You all look the same to me! How I + +despise your lack of subtlety and your joined-up writing! You, + +who have never committed ritual suicide in your lives! + +SLAVE +(whispering to his neighbour) +You know, I don't think it would be so bad, + +if we knew what he was saying... + +SLAVE-DRIVER +SILENCE! Unceremonious rice-pudding eaters! How I abominate + +your milk-drinking and your lack of ancestor-worship and your + +failure to eat your lunch out of little boxes! + +Meanwhile the Vikings are growing increasingly uneasy as they row towards Halfdan. + +SVEN'S DAD +What "magic" have you brought, Erik? + +ERIK +You'll see! + +At this point, back on the Black Ship, Halfdan gives another nod and Eilif raps out yet another command with his staff. This time the prow of the Black Ship opens up like a pair of jaws. The Vikings see it and panic. + +IVAR THE BONELESS +I've done it! + +THORFINN +Oh, yes... +(he has too!) +Halfdan nods again and another order is rapped out. This time a harpoon is fired from the prow. It thuds into gOLDEN DRAGON and two of Halfdan's dog-soldiers start to winch the line in. The two ships are hauled closer and closer. The Vikings panic even more. Erik holds up the Cloak Invisible and grins round at his men, knowing he is going to surprise them. + +ERIK +Here! Here is the magic from the King's daughter! + +Erik's men watch, half sceptical and half hopeful. Erik enjoys the moment of suspense. The he throws the Cloak Invisible over his head and shoulders and grins round at his men triumphantly, imagining he has vanished from their sight. + +ERIK +There! I have become the wind! + +The Vikings look at him, rather puzzled. Only Harald seems to be impressed. + +HARALD +How did he do that? + +SVEN'S DAD +Do what? + +HARALD +Vanish into thin air? + +SVEN'S DAD +He hasn't. + +HARALD +Well, where is he then? + +Harald looks around. He is the only one who can't see Erik. + +SVEN'S DAD +He's THERE! + +At this point Halfdan's ship suddenly bites into the side of GOLDEN DRAGON. Erik leaps onto the side of GOLDEN DRAGON and swings across onto Halfdan's ship. The Vikings react to the horror of Halfdan's ship biting into GOLDEN DRAGON and to Erik's blithe leap onto the enemy boat. Erik lands on the deck of Halfdan's ship, and grins at the ferocious skull-helmeted dog-soldiers. + +ERIK +Ooh! Scary! Scary! Don't we look mean? + +Two dog-soldiers look at each other, totally non-plussed. Erik grimaces at Halfdan's men, and does a little pirouette to show them all that he's invisible from every angle. + +ERIK +You can't see me! But I can see you! + +He breaks into a little dance. Halfdan glares at his advisers. + +HALFDAN +What's going on? + +GISLI ODDSSON +That's Erik. + +HALFDAN +Well, why isn't he scared of us? + +Erik, meanwhile approaches one of the dog-soldiers and makes silly faces at him. + +ERIK +Boo! + +The dog-soldier topples overboard. The galley slaves watch another dog-soldier fall into the hold amongst them and lie there stunned. His sword falls onto the deck between the slaves. One of the slaves throws down his oar, and picks up the dog-soldier's sword. The slave-master suddenly appears. Once again he speaks immaculate JApanese. + +SLAVE-MASTER +(subtitled) +Hey! What's going on? Your big-breasted women give me + +no pleasure with their warmed-up fish and... Urgh! + +The slave-master strides down the ship to flay the offending slave, but another slave trips him up and in a twinkling of an eye four others have leapt on the slave-master (despite their chains) + +and are extracting his keys. + +HALFDAN +What's the matter? Haven't you seen anyone fight before? + +DOG-SOLDIER 1 +No. + +DOG-SOLDIER 2 +They're usually too scared of us. + +HALFDAN +KILL him! + +Erik, still thinking he's invisible, is running amongst the dog- soldiers, having fun. He runs one dog-soldier through and kicks another overboard, then he runs past a few more, right up to Halfdan himself. He whisks the Cloak Invisible off his head for an instant. + +ERIK +(thinking he's revealing himself) +Here I am! + +Then he turns and is off. Halfdan turns to his aides. + +HALFDAN +What? + +Back on GOLDEN DRAGON, the Vikings' disbelief has turned to admiration. + +SVEN'S DAD +There! THAT'S a true Berserk. + +SVEN +I'm just building up to it, Dad. + +Sven starts banging his head on the side of the boat. + +SNORRI +He's gone batty! + +THORFINN +No! The fear's gone! + +Halfdan grabs a sword off one of his dead dog-soldiers and thrusts it into the unwilling hands of his military adviser, Eilif. + +HALFDAN +Fight, damn you! Fight! + +Cut back to GOLDEN DRAGON. Now Sven leaps across onto Halfdan's ship followed by Ivar, yelling. Snorri looks back at Keitel. + +SNORRI +Well! Come on! + +KEITEL +I... I... + +Keitel is thinking: "Maybe I should let Halfdan win" but he knows he can't let a thing like that happen, now he is faced with the reality of it. The companionship of the voyage has brought them all too close for that. + +KEITEL +(under his breath) +Hang the Blacksmith's Code! + +Keitel leaps to his feet and joins in the attack. Erik, meanwhile, is swinging across the deck from a rope. + +ERIK +I am the air! I am the wind! + +Keitel and Thorfinn are now fighting side by side. + +THORFINN +This is life, eh? + +Keitel grins and strikes out. Ivar turns on Eilif who has reluctantly joined the fray. Maybe he's singled Ivar out as the most harmless. Ivar suddenly realizes he's only armed with drumsticks. Eilif smiles evilly. + +IVAR +Ooh... er... + +Eilif's sword slices through Ivar's drumsticks. Ivar turns to run, but is stopped by a dog-soldier. Eilif takes the opportunity to run him through from behind. + +IVAR +(as he dies) +Ouch. + +Erik sees Ivar's demise. + +ERIK +Ivar! + +Erik leaps to take revenge. He jumps into the galley-pit and out again a la Douglas Fairbanks in THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD and dispatches Eilif with a single thrust. Sven and his dad are fighting surrounded by dog- soldiers. + +SVEN'S DAD +Well, go on! Go berserk! + +SVEN +GIVE US A CHANCE, Dad! + +Snorri appears from behind. + +SNORRI +(to Sven's dad) +What about you? Why don't YOU go berserk? + +SVEN'S DAD +I got to keep my eye on HIM... + +Sven's dad looks uneasy. He is surrounded and, as a seasoned campaigner, knows they haven't much chance. Halfdan smiles to himself. The battle is going his way. Thorfinn meanwhile is fighting two dog- soldiers but is attacked from behind by a third. + +SVEN +Look out! Thorfinn! + +But it's too late. Thorfinn is run through the back. Sven goes berserk and kills all three dog-soldiers. Sven's dad looks on, proud of his son for the first time. Maybe their relationship will never be the same again. Now Snorri sees something that cheers him up. SLaves are coming up from below to join the battle. They are armed with oars and swords. They join the fray, knocking dog-soldiers overboard with their oars. The dog-soldier are suddenly outnumbered. Halfdan's smile fades, and he looks around for an escape route. The tide of battle has now turned dramatically as dog-soldier after dog-soldier is tossed over the side or laid low by the combination of Vikings and slaves. Halfdan and Gisli slip into a lifeboat and sneak off. The rats are leaving the sinking ship. Back on the deck, all the dog-soldiers are dead or overboard. The slaves and Vikings are cheering and embracing each other. At the other end of the boat, Sven is cradling the dying Thorfinn in his arms. All around are jubilant slaves celebrating their freedom. + +SVEN +Thorfinn! You can't die! + +THORFINN +I'm not frightened... of anything... + +SVEN +You'll see my grandfather in Valhalla! + +THORFINN +(dying) +No... he's not... not... there... + +SVEN +Tell him I'm coming! + +Thorfinn dies. Sven holds him and a tear comes down his face. The danger has made comrades of the two rivals. Erik, however, is still fighting a last lone dog-soldier; but just as he is about to run him through the dog-soldier is stabbed in the back. He sinks to the floor, revealing another dog-soldier. Erik is outraged by this act of treachery and turns on the assassin. + +DOG-SOLDIER +No! No" Wait! Please wait, Erik! + +The dog-soldier pulls his mask off to reveal he is, in fact, Loki. Erik is totally non-plussed. + +ERIK +LOKI! Where did YOU come from? + +LOKI +Halfdan wanted to stop you waking the Gods... so... I disguised + +myself to sabotage their plans. + +Erik has meanwhile been joined by the remaining comrades. + +LOKI +To save YOU, Erik. + +Erik is about to say "But how can you see me? I'm wearing the Cloak Invisible." + +ERIK +But - + +LOKI +It was my master Keitel's idea. + +All eyes turn on Keitel who looks very uncomfortable. + +LOKI +Wasn't it, Keitel? + +KEITEL +Well... I... I thought... + +Keitel is overcome b the power of Loki's will, but he is deeply ashamed of his complicity in Loki's deeds. Snorri gazes at Keitel with growing suspicion. + +ERIK +But... How is it you can see me? +(he looks round) +You can all + +see me? + +LOKI +What d'you mean? + +SNORRI AND OTHERS +Why shouldn't we see you? + +HARALD +I can't see him. + +ERIK +I'm wearing the Cloak Invisible.... + +Erik takes it off to demonstrate. + +HARALD +Oh! There you are! + +ERIK +(to the others) +You mean... you could see me all the time? + +The Vikings look at each other, mystified. + +SNORRI +Weren't we supposed to? + +ERIK +Oh... I feel a little... oh... + +Erik's knees give way and he faints onto the deck. Cut to King's Hall some time later. A victory celebration is in progress. It is a little bit like a Hampstead cocktail party, and the rough, battle-stained Vikings look rather out of place holding their little canapes. Suddenly the King claps for silence. + +KING ARNULF +We are grateful to you, Erik, and to your men... + +COURT +Yes, we are... + +KING ARNULF +And there is only ONE way we can repay you... Musicians! + +King arnulf claps his hands. Erik rushes over to him, anxious to avoid another Hy-Brasilian concert. + +ERIK +(hurriedly) +Well, we'd love to hear you sing again, but what we'd really + +appreciate would be if you could see your way to lending... not + +giving of course... +(continuing)... but just lending us the.... +um... the, well, to be quite blunt... the Horn Resounding. + +All the time Erik is talking the doors of the hall behind are opening and a vast lur or horn is carried in by six bearers. One or two of the Vikings have turned to look and are now standing speechless. King Arnulf beams at Erik. + +KING ARNULF +It's yours. + +Now Erik finally turns and looks at what everyone else is looking at. Erik's jaw drops. Everyone in the court beams at Erik,except Aud who is looking sad and disappointed. + +ERIK +(when he can find his voice) +Is THAT it? + +A cloud passes over King Arnulf's happy face. + +KING ARNULF +Is there something the matter with it? + +ERIK +Oh! No! No... of course not... it's just I hadn't expected it to be quite so big. + +KING ARNULF +Well, it's not called the Horn Resounding for nothing. +(aside) +You DO know how to play the horn, don't you? + +ERIK +Yes... oh, yes... + +KING ARNULF +Then I expect you'll be leaving first thing in the morning. + +The King manhandles Erik away from his daughter. Perhaps we have the feeling that she's isn't going to let Erik go as easily as that...Mix through to later that night. The Vikings are lying asleep on the Great Hall, beside the Horn Resounding. The camera closes in on Keitel. Suddenly a voice comes from the shadows: + +VOICE +(whispering) +Keitel! Keitel Blacksmith! + +Keitel opens his eyes and finds Loki close beside him. + +LOKI +What's the matter, Keitel Blacksmith? Have you forgotten why you came on this voyage? + +Keitel is silent. + +LOKI +Are you going to let Erik wake the Gods? + +KEITEL +How can we stops him now? + +Loki looks around and then opens his hand in front of Keitel. In it is the mouthpiece from the Horn Resounding. + +LOKI +Take this and throw it from the cliff heights. They'll never make the Horn Resounding sound without it. + +Keitel frowns. Then an obvious thought limps across his muscular mind. + +KEITEL +But why me? Why don't you do it? + +Somebody stirs. + +LOKI +Sh! Hurry! + +KEITEL +YOU do it! + +LOKI +You'll be able to throw it further than I could. + +Keitel thinks. This is true. + +LOKI +It must go far out to sea. + +Loki presses the mouthpiece on Keitel. Keitel takes it, but reluctantly. Another Viking stirs. + +LOKI +Surely you haven't forgotten the Blacksmith's Oath? + +Keitel is about to reply and say he's been having second thoughts about it, but somehow he can't. Loki has such power over him. + +KEITEL +I... + +Suddenly another Viking stirs, and Loki hisses at him. + +LOKI +Hurry! + +Loki pretend to go back to sleep. Keitel (feeling a bit lumbered) thinks about his task and hesitates... Who knows? Perhaps he is about to stand firm, but Loki plays his trump card. + +LOKI +(without opening his eyes) +Or I might have to tell Erik why you really came on this voyage. + +Keitel is caught. He closes his eyes in resignation and then reluctantly starts to make his way out of the Hall. As he gets to the doors he trips over Snorri, who wakes. The mouthpiece falls a few feet away. + +SNORRI +Who's that? + +KEITEL +It's me. I'm just going to water the dragon... +(he gives a false laugh) + +SNORRI +Oh... + +Snorri notices the silver mouthpiece on the floor, but he pretends he hasn't. + +SNORRI +Oh... clumsy idiot. + +Snorri pretends to go back to sleep, but he opens one eye and watches Keitel Blacksmith recover the mouthpiece, and then follows Keitel out. Loki gets up too. He follows to keep an eye on Snorri. Cut to Aud on the shore, gazing moodily out to sea. She is brooding in Erik's imminent departure. Suddenly a stone falls from above; she looks up and sees a figure appear on the cliff above. Hurriedly she withdraws into the shadows. Keitel Blacksmith appears on the cliff-top. In his hands he holds the mouthpiece of the Horn Resounding. e examines it, turning over in his mind whether he is doing the right thing or not. then he decides he must. + +KEITEL +(to himself) +My fellow blacksmiths. + +He prepares to throw it. + +SNORRI +Keitel! + +Keitel jumps out of his skin. + +KEITEL +What? + +SNORRI +What are you doing, Keitel Blacksmith? + +KEITEL +Get away, Snorri. + +SNORRI +What have you got there? + +Snorri advances towards Keitel. Keitel backs away, dangerously near to the edge of the cliff. His boot slips and he jerks himself forward. At the same time Snorri makes a grab for the mouthpiece. A scuffle ensues, during which the mouthpiece of the Horn Resounding is dropped. It bounces off the cliff and falls down to the shore below. Aud steps out of the shadow and picks it up. She frowns and looks up, and then screams, as she sees the men fighting. + +AUD +No! + +But it's too late. Snorri goes white, gives a hideous gasp... and sinks slowly to his knees - revealing Loki standing behind him with a bloody knife. As Keitel and Loki watch Snorri die, a drop of blood from the knife falls to the ground. The moment it lands, there is a deep subterranean groan, and the earth begins to tremble violently. Keitel and Loki look around in alarm. + +KEITEL +Oh Gods! What have we done? + +Back in the King's Hall, Sven, Sven's dad and Harald are wide awake, but for the moment paralysed, as bits of masonry crash around them. The cheerful figure of King Arnulf appears at the top of a stairway. He raises his hands. + +KING ARNULF +Stay calm! This is NOT happening. + +The King then hurries out of a door at the top of the staircase. + +SVEN'S DAD +What did he say? + +ERIK +Look out! + +The doors of the Great Hall burst open and a wall of water crashes through, knocking the Vikings off their feet. There is little doubt that the whole of Hy-Brasil is sinking see a street go down, a statue sink and then we Cut to a close-up of King Arnulf. He is standing at the top of the Forum steps addressing a crowd of anxious citizens. They are keeping surprisingly good order considering they are already standing ankle-deep in water, and the whole town is rapidly sinking around them. + +KING ARNULF +Now, I know what some of you must be thinking... the day has come.... we're all going down, etc. etc. But let's get away from the fantasy and look at the FACTS. FACT ONE - The threat of total destruction has kept the peace for one thousand years. FACT TWO - The chances of it failing now are therefore one in three hundred and sixty-five thousand. FACT THREE... + +By this time the water is up to people's knees, and several have crowded onto the lower steps to avoid getting wet. + +KING ARNULF +FACT THREE - Our safety regulations are the most rigorous in the world. We are all nice to each other, we never rub each other up the wrong way or contradict each other, do we? + +CROWD +No. + +Rumble. The buildings sink and masonry falls. + +CITIZEN +We... er... do seem to be going down quite fast, Your Majesty - not trying to contradict you, course. + +KING ARNULF +No, of course you're not, citizen. But let's stick to the facts. There has NEVER been a safer, more certain way of keeping the peace. So whatever's happening, you can rest assured, Hy-Brasil is NOT sinking. Repeat, NOT sinking. + +We cut to an unfortunate Hy-Brasilian who looks out of a window to see if it's raining, but is immersed before he can find out. The citizens in the Forum, however, are reassured by the King's words - even though they are now up to their waists in water. One of them steps forward. + +ANOTHER CITIZEN +May I just make a point in support of what King Arnulf's just said? + +KING ARNULF +We'd be delighted - wouldn't we? + +CITIZENS +Yes, we'd certainly like to hear what one of us has got to say... + +Erik, Sven, Sven's dad and Harald struggle out of the Great Hall, carrying their belongings and the Horn Resounding, while the citizen is still speaking most articulately in support of the King. They are ALMOST in a panic. + +ERIK +What are you all doing? + +CITIZEN AT THE BACK +(cheerfully) +It's all right. It's not happening. + +ERIK +(urgently) +The place is sinking! + +CITIZEN AT THE BACK +Yes... I thought it was too, but the King's just pointed out that it can't be. + +CITIZEN +(still speaking in support of the King) +...and, of course, we mustn't forget King Arnulf's EXCELLENT eye for flower-arranging. + +There is a smattering of applause. A few people pull their robes up out of the wet. Erik leaps onto a wall and shouts to the crowd. + +ERIK +Save yourselves! Hy-Brasil... is sinking. + +There are a lot of knowing smiles amongst the citizens. + +CITIZEN FROM MIDDLE +Look, you don't know our safety regulations. + +KING ARNULF +It can't happen. + +ERIK +But it IS! Look! + +KING ARNULF +(ignoring Erik) +The important thing is not to panic. + +CITIZENS +Quite... yes... we understand.... + +KING ARNULF +I've already appointed the Chancellor as Chairman of a committee to find out exactly what IS going on, and meantime I suggest we have a sing-song! + +CITIZENS +Good idea! + +ANOTHER +Can we do the one that goes "TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TUM-TI-TUM"? + +Erik looks around in despair. Meanwhile in another street someone is struggling in the floodwater. + +LOKI +I can't swim! I can't swim! + +KEITEL +Relax! + +LOKI +I'm drowning! Help! + +Loki grabs Keitel round the neck. + +KEITEL +Let go! + +But Keitel is pulled under. He re-emerges spluttering. + +KEITEL +Urrgh! Argh! Let go, you idiot! + +LOKI +Help! + +KEITEL +You'll drown us bo... + +But they go under again. At this point Erik, Sven, Sven's dad and Harald swim round the corner, pushing the Horn Resounding. They see the figures disappearing under the water. + +KEITEL +Help! + +LOKI +Help! + +Erik, Sven and Co. swim as fast as they can to rescue the drowning pair. They struggle to overpower the panic-stricken Loki, but he puts up a manic fight. Unexpectedly, Harald Missionary suddenly unleashes a vicious right hook and lays Loki out cold. There is a moment's stunned silence that is no unmingled with indignation. + +SVEN +(with hurt surprise) +You hit him! + +HARALD +Well, it's what you're supposed to do... isn't it? + +SVEN'S DAD +Look! + +They look up as GOLDEN DRAGON sails around a corner of the street, piloted by Aud. As the Vikings scramble aboard, the sound of the "sing-song" reaches a particularly noisy and discordant climax attract their attention. Back in what was the Forum, a crowd of unconcerned-looking citizens is sitting on the last roof and just coming to the end of another appalling song. + +CITIZENS +...Te...Tum! + +KING +You know, I think we're getting better. + +CITIZEN 1 +(with genuine interest) +How can you tell? + +KING +(a bit stumped) +Er... + +AUD +Father! + +The King looks up. + +KING ARNULF +It's all right! It isn't happening! + +AUD +But, Father, it IS! + +ERIK +Get on board! + +CITIZEN 2 +No THANKS! + +CITIZEN 3 +Who do you think YOU are? + +CITIZEN 1 +Panic-monger! + +The roof is now sinking rapidly, though the citizens appear as unperturbed as ever. + +CITIZEN +Leave us alone! + +SVEN +Yeah. Leave 'em alone. + +AUD +It's sinking! Hy-Brasil is sinking! + +KING ARNULF +Well, my dear, I think you'll find it's all a question of what you want to believe in.... I have slightly more experience of these matters than you... + +Unfortunately, at this point, the entire gathering of citizens, the King and the Forum Temple disappear below the waves. + +AUD +Father! +(tears spring to her eyes) +Harald Missionary has put his arm around Aud in a fatherly way. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +There, my child... It's at times like this that this book can be a great help... + +Erik shoos him away. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +(with his usual promptness) +Right! + +GOLDEN DRAGON spins alone in the wide ocean. Fade. Fade up some time later. They are all gathered in front of the Horn Resounding. + +ERIK +(to himself) +We must blow the first note... he note that will take us to Asgaard... + +SVEN +(nervously and with awe in his voice) +Over the Edge of the World. + +The other men look up at the Horn Resounding, and begin to feel a bit nervous. + +ERIK +We are going where only the dead have been before... + +Erik takes a deep breath and then puts his lips to the Horn Resounding. He blows. There is a splutter, and one or two of the Vikings titter amongst themselves. He has another go. But again, all he produces is a pathetic spluttering. + +SVEN +(not unkindly in his manner) +Uh! Here! Give it to me! + +Sven pushes Erik aside. Sven blow... he becomes redder and redder. But all he produces is a splutter. He gets a bit angry. + +SVEN +Thor's blood! + +Sven's dad looks heavenwards. + +SVEN'S DAD +You're not using the right technique. + +Sven's dad tries to take it over. + +SVEN +No! I'm doing it! + +They start to struggle. + +SVEN +(getting angry) +You're always telling me... TELLING me! + +Erik tries to separate them. + +ERIK +Sven! + +SVEN +(to his dad) +Let me do something for myself for a change! + +Suddenly Aud comes forward. + +AUD +No! Don't quarrel! + +Sven and his dad stop fighting, surprised by the vehement in her voice. + +AUD +We'll never get where we want to go if we fight. + +Aud crosses to the Horn and inserts the mouthpiece. Loki glances at Keitel. He hadn't bargained for this! + +LOKI +Er... don't blow it! You never know WHAT might happen... + +AUD +It has not spoken for a thousand years... You must bring it to life with a kiss... + +She puts her lips to the mouthpiece and just touches it with them... almost a kiss... then... very gently... she begins to blow... a soft... slight note can just be heard... Aud takes her mouth away from the mouthpiece... and the soft note goes on... reverberating... A sweet note... a magic note... the Vikings stand stock-still, enchanted by the sound... and the sound all the time is getting louder and the Horn begins to vibrate with the note. As the volume increases the GOLDEN DRAGON itself begins to reverberate with the sound. Rings of ripples begin to radiate out from the boat across the calm water. The note grows louder and louder, and the Vikings, who at first were laughing and cheering at Aud's success, begin to get rather alarmed. Louder and louder gets the note and the Horn shakes and the boat vibrates. Things start to be shaken loose, and fall onto the deck. Ropes uncoil and run loose. A heavy block suddenly crashes down to the deck, crowning Harald and laying him out flat. Louder and louder grows the note, and the Vikings have to stop their ears for the pain. The water around the ship becomes more and more agitated. And then another sound is heard. It is the thunder of water in the distance like a million distant waterfalls. And suddenly they notice the sea is running like a river - all in one direction... sweeping the ship forward with incredible momentum. In no time they are engulfed in a mist, still travelling at a rate of knots. Almost at once appointed rock looms out of the mist ahead of them. Erik flings himself at the steering oar, and everyone is thrown about as the ship veers wildly and just misses the rock, only to see another looming up ahead of them. The ship veers again, as a third rock looms ahead. This time Sven has grabbed a coil of rope, and as they pass the third rock, he throws it like a lasso over the rock. Loki and Keitel leap to grab the rope just as the rope goes taut and the ship comes to a lurching stop, anchored by the rope, but still swaying and buffeted in the racing waters. Those on board shout to each other, soaked to the skin. It is difficult to make out what they are shouting. + +LOKI +Help! + +AUD +What are you doing? + +LOKI +What d'you think? Help! Somebody help us! + +SVEN +Shut up! + +LOKI +(pointing at Aud) +She wants to kill us! + +KEITEL +She wants to take us over the Edge of the World! + +AUD +You want to get to Asgaard, don't you? + +LOKI +How do we know this is the way? + +ERIK +(shouting) +We blew the Horn Resounding. + +LOKI +(screaming and pointing an accusing finger at Aud) +SHE blew the Horn + +Resounding. + +KEITEL +(shouting) +Don't you see, Erik! She wants revenge! + +ERIK +What are you talking about? + +LOKI +(to Keitel) +Shut up! + +KEITEL +She knows it was our fault! + +LOKI +Keep your mouth shut, Keitel! + +KEITEL +No! It's YOU, Loki! I should never have listened to you! + +Loki looks around desperately. + +LOKI +You've lost your mind. + +KEITEL +We came to stop you waking the Gods, Erik! But I didn't want anyone to get hurt! + +LOKI +You fool! + +Suddenly Loki produces his stiletto and leaps onto Keitel, stabbing at him. + +LOKI +I should have got rid of you long ago! + +KEITEL +Like you got rid of Snorri! + +Erik tries to separate them. + +AUD +No! No! We are in the spell of the Horn! Hatred will destroy us. + +ERIK +That's right! + +For a split second Erik is distracted. He looks across at Aud and for a moment he sees Freya standing there. + +FREYA +Once you are in the spell of the Horn, hatred will destroy you... + +Then it is Aud once more. But in that split second Loki has stabbed Erik. + +ERIK +Arrgh! + +Erik staggers back clutching his arm. Keitel gives a roar of rage, and picks Loki up bodily and hurls him out of the boat into the maelstrom. The other Vikings look on aghast. Keitel turns on them + +KEITEL +He killed Snorri! He caused the land of Hy-Brasil to sink! SHE knew! + +AUD +I didn't know! + +KEITEL +Now she wants to send us over the Edge of the World! + +AUD +How else d'you think we're going to get to Asgaard? + +The Vikings look at each other amidst the roaring waters and the thick spray. Erik holds his bleeding arm and looks at Aud. Should he trust her or not? Suddenly he turns on the others. + +ERIK +(shouting above the din) +Do YOU know the way to Asgaard, Keitel Blacksmith? + +Keitel shakes his head. + +ERIK +Do YOU know the way to Asgaard, Sven? + +Sven shakes his head. + +ERIK +There is one road before us, and that leads over the Edge of the World. + +Harald sits up as he returns to consciousness. + +HARALD +There IS no Edge of the World. + +Sven's dad bonks him again. Erik takes the rope and begins paying it out. With grim faces the Vikings turn and face towards the roaring of the waters, as Erik edge the ship further into the mist. The noise is deafening. It would be almost impossible to hear any voice above it. The faces of the Vikings betray their fear as they find themselves emerging from out of the mist at the Edge of the World. They gape as they find themselves confronted by a Waterfall of Seas - stretching on either side of them - as far as the eye can see - water falling and plunging over the lip of the world. And in front of them - the blue sky continues on down and down until it shades into blackness strewn with stars beneath their feet... Sven, Sven's dad and Keitel edge to the prow and gasp. + +AUD +No! Don't look over the Edge! + +Erik lets out a little more rope, until the ship is protruding over the edge. Sven, his dad and Keitel peer over the side, and stare down into the abyss. They gasp. From above we see the prow of GOLDEN DRAGON and the backs of the Vikings' heads in plain view against a backdrop of stars below them. + +ERIK +Let me see! + +Aud holds him back. + +AUD +No. Don't look... The abyss will suck away your strength. + +ERIK +I MUST look! Keitel! Hold this! + +Erik turns to see Sven and Keitel trembling... They hold onto the sides of the ship but their legs can barely support them. + +SVEN +There is nothing we can do... + +SVEN'S DAD +Helpless... + +Keitel start to laugh. + +KEITEL +Ha ha... I believed Loki... I believed I had a duty to blacksmiths! Ha ha ha! + +Keitel laughs a little hysterically. Aud turns urgently to Erik. + +AUD +YOU still want to go to Asgaard? + +ERIK +Of course. + +AUD +Do you believe I love you? + +ERIK +I... but I... + +AUD +You don't have to love me. Just: do you believe I love YOU? + +ERIK +Yes - I believe you do. + +AUD +Then let go! + +Erik hesitates, then he decides to believe in Aud. He throws the rope away. At once the ship shoots off over the Edge of the World into space... Everything seems to slow down, as the longship drops down and down... the ship twists slowly as it drops.... round and round. The Vikings gaze about them in wonder, as they find their ship if falling in silence amongst the stars. Harald comes to once again. + +HARALD +I'm still seeing stars. + +Keitel looks round at him. + +KEITEL +We're ALL seeing stars. + +HARALD +No! I was hit on the head. + +The longship falls and falls through the star-strewn space until it softly lands in a white wilderness. On the deck the Vikings are huddles up, covered with rime-frost. It seems as if they have been lying there half-frozen for some time. Perhaps the entire adventure has all been a dream, and they have been stuck in the Arctic pack-ice the whole time. The hallucinations of men near to death. Aud tries to wake Erik. + +AUD +Don't sleep... wake... Look! + +Erik opens his eyes and, for an instant, he sees Helga. He blinks and realizes it is Aud who is calling him back to consciousness. Suddenly coloured lights begin to play to his face. + +ERIK +Bi-Frost... The Rainbow Bridge. + +Above them the Aurora Borealis stretches up, magnificent and awesome in the sky. Erik makes his way through the other Vikings. + +ERIK +Wake up! + +The others slowly begin to rouse themselves from their icy slumber and sit up, awed by the sight. + +KEITEL +(whispering) +Are we dead? + +VIKINGS +The Rainbow Bridge. + +They all peer up at the ever-changing colours of the Aurora Borealis, hanging in the sky above them like organ-pipes. But something is happening. The lights begin to fade to reveal a magical city on a mountain. The Vikings realize that this is journey's end.... they have reached Asgaard... the City of the Gods. The Vikings all catch their breaths and gaze in awe. + +ERIK +Asgaard! + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Where? + +SVEN'S DAD +Up there, you fathead. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Up WHERE? + +Harald look round quizzically at the others. It is clear that he can see nothing. + +ERIK +Look! It's real. + +Harald looks around at the others. + +HARALD +Hallucinations are real. + +It's no use; Harald can see nothing. The Vikings, transfixed by the sight of their fabled home of the Gods, rise to their feet. Aud whispers to Erik. + +AUD +The second note. + +ERIK +The second not to wake the Gods... + +Erik kneels in front of the Horn. + +AUD +Gently... + +Erik blows... a soft gentle note... He takes his mouth away, and smiles at Aud. Once again the Horn stars to vibrate and the note gets louder... the ship starts to vibrate... louder and louder... The whole landscape starts to vibrate... louder and louder grows the not until even the stars in the sky are vibrating and then a magical thing starts to happen... The note fades as one by one the shimmering stars start to fall out of the night sky... they fall like silver snow... until the ship... the Vikings... Asgaard... the whole landscape is covered in sparkling dust... then in the ensuing silence the first light begins to glow in the Halls of Asgaard... then another... and another... Erik stares as is bewitched and slowly begins to climb out of GOLDEN DRAGON.... but Aud tries to pull him back. + +AUD +Erik! You've done what you came to do! + +ERIK +Not quite... + +Aud looks at him. + +AUD +Blow the third note! The note to take us home! + +ERIK +There is something I must ask the Gods... + +AUD +No living man has ever set foot in the Halls of Asgaard... The Gods will never let you return. + +Erik looks at her... for a moment... But he knows he has no choice. + +SVEN +I came to find my grandfather. + +ERIK +I have to go... + +AUD +Then I shall come too. + +ERIK +(stares at her) +No... no.. + +AUD +I don'T want to live WITHOUT you. + +ERIK +But, Aud... I... I came to find someone... + +Aud is about to say "Her?", but she bites the word back and looks down at the ground. + +ERIK +I'm sorry, Aud... I really am. + +Aud kisses Erik, who then turns and climbs out of GOLDEN DRAGON and sets off across the ice. Sven follows. + +SVEN'S DAD +Wait for me! I'll be dead soon anyway... + +KEITEL +You can't go without me! + +They follow. Even Harald Missionary starts to follow. + +HARALD +Where are they all going? + +AUD +Aren't you afraid? + +HARALD +Oh... There's nothing for ME to be afraid OF. + +Harald smiles and sets off after the others. Aud follows. The stars have fallen to form a shining, winding pathway up to the City of the Gods. This is what the Vikings head for. Between them and the Citadel strange huge forms rise up. The Vikings approach and find the vast skeletons of the slain giants. The Vikings are but tiny gnat-sized figures wending their way between the vast figures. They climb the stairway-path of stars, up the winding road and eventually fins themselves outside the massive doors of Asgaard. + +ERIK +Valhalla... + +Sven turns on Harald. + +SVEN +There! It's real! It's solid! Now do you believe us? + +He pats the wall of Valhalla - the Great Hall. Harald reaches out, but his hand goes right through the wall. + +HARALD +There isn't anything. + +Harald Missionary walks straight through the wall and disappears from sight. The Vikings gasp, and run up to feel the point where he disappeared. The door is perfectly solid to them, and they jump pout of their skins as Harald suddenly reappears again. + +HARALD +You're having me on, aren't you? + +ERIK +It's Valhalla - where the warriors slain in battle go. + +AUD +It doesn't exist for him. + +SVEN'S DAD +He's just s cynic. + +At this moment there is a creak and the great doors mysteriously swing open. As if mesmerized, the Vikings enter the Halls of Asgaard. The door slams behind them. They spin round, but the doors have vanished... No man has ever entered the Halls of Asgaard and left alive... Erik slowly starts to cross the vast floor looking around him as he does so. One by one the other Vikings follow. After a while Erik stops. + +ERIK +Listen! + +The Vikings listen. They hear the sound of children laughing and shouting. Erik and his men follow through the columns towards a pool of light. The scene that greets their eyes is not at all what they had been prepared for. Valhalla is not full of the warriors slain in battle, quaffing mead on the ale-bench and reliving old battles - it is, instead full of children romping, laughing, shouting, quarrelling and playing games... chess, fencing... dice... tag, etc., around a wide hearth fire. Women are cooking and doing other housewifely things... weaving, making bread, etc. It is a thoroughly domestic scene. Suddenly one of them turns at Erik. It is Helga, whom Erik accidentally killed in Scene One. She is once again kneading dough. She has a red stain under her breast. + +HELGA +Oh good! It's Mr Wonderful! + +Erik leaps to her side. + +ERIK +I've come to take you back to the land of the living. + +HELGA +What a stupid idea. + +ERIK +(mortally hurt) +Why? + +HELGA +What's the point of being dead in the land of the living? + +ERIK +I'll ask the Gods to give you life again! + +Helga looks at Erik very sceptically. She obviously thinks he doesn't know what he's talking about. Aud reacts. Erik takes Helga's hand - and gets covered in dough. + +HELGA +Have you tried to ask the God for anything? + +ERIK +Well... no... + +HARALD MISSIONARY +Who is he talking to? + +AUD +Sh! + +HELGA +Odin! + +One of the children, throwing pennies against the wall, looks round. + +CHILD ODIN +I'm busy. + +The Vikings are recovering from their surprise. + +VIKINGS +Odin? + +HELGA +(getting back to her kneating) +He's busy. + +ERIK +Is THAT Odin? + +HELGA +You'll have to wait till he's finished his game. + +ERIK +(shouting across) +Odin! + +Odin leaves his game and saunters towards Erik. + +ERIK +We have come from the world of Midgard... + +The child whom Odin is playing with points his hammer at the ground near Erik and a lightning bolt zaps into it. Erik jumps. + +CHILD-THOR +Clear off. + +ODIN +No, wait, Thor. + +ERIK +You must help us. + +ODIN +We don't HAVE to help anybody. + +ERIK +Fenrir the Wolf covers the sun - men fight and kill each other + +the whole time. + +ODIN +Why should WE care? + +ERIK +Because... you're... you're the Gods.... + +ODIN +So? + +ERIK +Bring the Age of Ragnarok to an end and stop all this fighting and bloodshed. Harald looks around at the Vikings in increasing desperation. + +HARALD +This is ridiculous. + +VIKINGS +Sh! + +HARALD +Right! + +The other Child-Gods have stopped playing around now and are watching Erik and Odin. + +ODIN +Erik the Viking! The things you seek are not in our power. We don't make men love each other or hate each other. + +ERIK +But you're the Gods! + +ODIN +Look... Erik... + +Odin whistles. The other children look over their shoulders. From out of the darkness of the perimeter of the Hall, shadows emerge... shadows that, as they shuffle and stumble into the light, reveal themselves to be the heroes that the Vikings had expected to find in Valhalla. But they are not hale and hearty giants quaffing mead and reliving their great battles... they are, in fact, a sorry lot... the slain-in-battle still bearing the hideous deformities of their fatal wounds. Most have a sword or an axe buried in some part of their anatomy. One has been cleft in twain... The Vikings react to this grisly gathering as more and more of them emerge from the shadows. They gasp as they notice Snorri, Ivar, Thorfinn, Loki and Leif the Lucky. + +ERIK +Snorri! Ivar! + +HARALD +Here we are standing on a bare mountain top talking to thin air. + +We notice that Harald's cloak is being blown about as if he were indeed on a bare mountain top. The other's cloaks are still. Sven's dad is gazing across at one horribly mutilated specimen. + +SVEN'S DAD +Dad! + +KEITEL +(disbelievingly) +How can you tell? + +SVEN'S DAD +I'll never forget him! The BASTARD! + +Sven reacts. Sven's dad starts to go berserk. + +SVEN'S DAD +He drove me mad! + +SVEN +Easy, Dad! + +SVEN'S DAD +All his "you'll never be a Berserk if you lose your temper"... + +SVEN +Dad! + +SVEN'S DAD +I hate you! I hate you! + +Sven's dad collapses against Sven and Sven comforts him, understandingly. A figure emerges from the throng of dead. It is Thorfinn. Sven looks up at him. + +THORFINN +You won, Sven. + +LOKI +What right have YOU to try and stop men fighting, Erik the Viking? There is glory in battle. There are riches to be made and won... + +KEITEL +Made by YOU, Loki! + +LOKI +By YOU - Keitel Blacksmith! Don't you know, Erik, that is why he went with you? Ragnarok was good for his business... + +KEITEL +It's not my business any more! + +Suddenly there is a howl... a bitter howl that echoes above and around the Halls of Asgaard and that gets more distant and more distant. Everyone (including the dead heroes and the Gods) freezes and looks up, listening. Perhaps we cut away to the boiling sky as it resolves itself into the shape of a wolf that snarls and slinks away. Odin turns to Erik as the howling recedes. + +ODIN +Fenrir the Wolf has gone, Erik. But will men cease fighting each other? THAT is not in our power... + +Odin starts to laugh. All the other children start to laugh... so do the dead heroes. Erik and his men look round uneasily. + +ERIK +I have one more request before we return... + +Erik turns towards Helga, who is still standing at her trough of dough with her arms up to her elbows in flour. Aud watches Erik with sadness in her heart. + +ODIN +Return? You have set your foot in the Halls of Asgaard, Erik. + +You cannot return. + +Aud looks round to see how the others react. It is as she had feared. Erik pales. The blood drains from the other's faces. Aud whispers something to Harald. Harald looks at her blankly. + +AUD +(whispering) +PLEASE! + +HARALD +But you're all imagining this... whatever it is. + +AUD +(earnestly) +You're the only one who can. PLEASE. + +Harald look around at the dumbfounded Vikings. Then he shrugs and wanders off, disappearing through the closed doors of Valhalla. + +ERIK +You mean... we must stay here forever? + +As he says this Erik's eyes turn again towards Helga. He is clearly thinking at least there are compensations... Odin, however, is laughing again. + +ODIN +Stay HERE? Ha ha! This is Valhalla. This is reserved for those slain-in-battle. + +HORRIBLY SLAIN WARRIOR +(grinning cheerfully) +Yeah! We're the LUCKY ones! + +A HORRIBLY SLAIN FRIEND OF HIS +Yeah. It's much better than dying of old age. + +The ghastly and dismembered dead warriors all chortle no end at the dismay written on the face of Erik and his men. At the same time there is a grinding, winching sound. All those around the hearth-place fall back as a vast grating is winched up from out of the flames. The Vikings look at each other. + +ODIN +For YOU there is only the Pit of Hel! + +As Odin says this there is a roaring sound and the flames and smoke are suddenly reversed and as the roaring increases the flames are sucked down altogether to reveal the black Pit of Hel itself. And now the Pit is sucking the Vikings into it... their hair blows... they try to withstand the force that is drawing them towards the abyss... The Gods look on in some amusement. But some of the dead are concerned. + +SVEN'S GRANDFATHER +Son! My son! + +SVEN'S DAD +Get lost! + +SVEN +Dad! Grandfather! + +Sven tries to reconcile his father and grandfather, but it's no use. He is sucked towards the Pit. + +VIKINGS +Help! + +ERIK +(to Helga) +I tried to save you! + +HELGA +Why should you care? + +ERIK +I don't know! I just did! + +Erik can no longer withstand the force that is sucking him down to the Pit of Hel. Suddenly, however, Snorri has leapt from the ranks of the dead. He grabs Erik and tries to stop him sliding towards the Pit of Hel. But it's no good. + +ERIK +No! Let go, Snorri! + +SNORRI +I've got you! + +ERIK +You'll be sucked down too! + +SNORRI +No! Arrgh! + +Meanwhile, Ivar and Thorfinn and Leif the Lucky have also leapt forward to save their comrades. They put up a fantastic struggle but remorselessly they are all sucked down. + +VIKINGS +Aagh! + +The Vikings clutch at the stone floor, their fingers trace blood as they try to cling on... but to no avail. The first are already toppling into the Pit. + +VIKINGS +Noooh! + +VIKINGS +Ah! + +And the rest - including Aud - soon follow. The mouth of the Pit of Hel, through which the Vikings are now tumbling higgledy-piggledy, is a round white disc set in the unutterable blackness of the pit. However, as the Vikings free-fall slowly towards camera, they are lit up by a faint, reddish glow from below. They are staring, wild-eyed and screaming as they fall. As they fall, Erik manages to smash his axe into the side of the Pit. Thorfinn grabs his leg and holds onto Sven's foot. Leif clutches at Sven's belt. Sven's dad hangs onto Sven's foot. Ivar clutches Thorfinn's foot. Erik clutches Ivar's leg and Aud clutches Erik's. They dangle like this for some seconds, and look fearfully beneath them. Then they can see the Infernal Regions of flame and molten lava... somehow suggesting the face of a huge and sinister creature. No wonder they're scared out of their wits. Meanwhile, Odin and Thor appear at the top of the Pit and look down with mild amusement. Thor casually points his hammer and a streak of lightning zaps Erik's axe. It instantly glows red hot. Erik screams. Suddenly we hear a new sound - a long, high, sweet note. + +AUD +Listen! LISTEN! The third note! + +But it's no good. Erik has to let go of the red-hot axe. Everyone screams as they start to plunge down towards the Pit of Hel. Cut to GOLDEN DRAGON. Harald Missionary is blowing the Horn Resounding. + +HARALD MISSIONARY +(to himself) +I want to go home... Oooh! + +Suddenly GOLDEN DRAGON, the Horn Resounding and Harald Missionary shoot up into the air and disappear from sight. Cut back to the Pit of Hel. The Vikings are looking down as they fall - they are still scared but gradually start laughing... laughing as they fall down and down and down until they fall out of sight. We are left with a blackness and just the white disc of the mouth of the Pit of Hel above, until the disc changes magically into the moon. There is a series of splashes. The note begins to fade and the camera slowly pans down to reveal the Vikings all fallen into the duck pond back at Ravensfjord. They are laughing and whooping and splashing each other. + +ERIK +I don't believe it... Ha ha ha! It brought us HOME! + +LEIF +But who BLEW it? + +IVAR +Oh! Who cares? We're HOME! + +THORFINN +Mum! Dad! + +SVEN +We're back! + +Sven embraces his father and dances him around with joy. + +ALL + +Yo hoo! We're here! We're... + +Suddenly the joy drains from their faces and they each gape in horror. What is it they see? We cut to see that out of the huts the women and children and old men are emerging - but they are anything but happy. In fact they are all bound and gagged. Behind them emerge the sinister figures of Halfdan the Black, Gisli and maybe half a dozen armed men. Halfdan and his cronies no longer look sleek and self-assured. They are haggard and desperate. Their faces are streaked with dirt and sweat, and their clothes are torn and soiled. They have clearly been going through a lean time, since Ragnarok ended, and have descended on the village for revenge and for whatever plunder they can find. They have a few sackfuls of booty with them. They herd the women, children and old men into a pathetic huddle in the middle of the village. Halfdan is spitting evil and hatred. + +HALFDAN +Throw down your weapons - or we shoot the children first. + +Erik hesitates... The others look at him. What choice have they? Reluctantly, Erik throws his weapons into the pond. The others follow suit. Halfdan watches. His men stand around him in a tight group with their backs to each other. + +HALFDAN +Good... Good... Right, now we'll just shoot the children anyway... + +Erik is paralysed. What can they do? Half Halfdan's men are aiming their crossbows at Erik and his comrades, and half are aiming at the women and children. They raise the crossbows to shoot. Their fingers tighten on the triggers. Suddenly there is a scream from above. + +HARALD +Look out below! + +Everyone looks up and, amazingly, out of the sky falls GOLDEN DRAGON and lands fair and square on top of Halfdan and his gang, squashing them flat. Harald Missionary staggers blearily from the wreckage. + +GRIMHILD HOUSEWIFE +Harald! + +She rushes to Harald, while the Vikings rush to release their loved ones. Great celebrations all round. + +IVAR +Look! + +They all turn and see the sun rising. The villagers gasp in wonder. They've never seen the sun before. Erik looks around and sees Thorfinn and Sven with their arms round each other. Aud looks up as Erik smiles at he and holds her to him. Then they all turn and gaze at the spectacle of the sun returning to the world.


 diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Erin Brockovich.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Erin Brockovich.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7c3152ece1fb00b9ebf5db14279d1bbd67a01a82 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Erin Brockovich.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +ERIN BROCKOVICH A True Story by Susannah Grant February 1, 1998 EXT. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUBURB, MAIN DRAG - DAY Palms sway ... the sun washes everything in yellow ... cars motor down either side of the landscaped median ... the calls of mockingbirds mingle with the BLIP BLIP of car alarms. ON THE SIDEWALK, a SKATEBOARD CA-LUNKS down the sidewalk, past the foot traffic of Southern Californians: flip-flops, Doc Marten's, Rollerblades, Nikes ... then, in the middle of this pedestrian normalcy, a pair of IMPOSSIBLY HIGH SPIKE- HEELED PUMPS struts out of a shop. So high it hurts to look at them. As the shoes leave frame, we TILT UP and see they're leaving a 99-cent store. As the Pumps turn and head up the street, we see they are connected to a pair of IMPOSSIBLY LONG, SHAPELY LEGS. Eveready legs -- they just keep going and going. They saunter past two BUSINESSMEN on a lunch break. The men pause and glance as men tend to when they see a beautiful woman. In fact, everyone this woman passes lets their eyes rest on her a microsecond longer than usual. - Two SKATEBOARDERS note the STRETCHY MICRO-MINI skimming the tops of her thighs. - A MAILMAN spots the BIG, DARK SUNGLASSES tucked into a MOUNTAIN OF BIG, BLOND HAIR. - A PRE-TEEN GIRL glimpses the PLUNGING NECKLINE of the TIGHT, BRIGHT RED MIDRIFF-BARING BUSTIER. It isn't until she rounds the corner at the end of the block that we see her entire figure and appreciate why everyone is so goggle-eyed. Eye-catching is an understatement. All those folks who say Barbie's proportions are unrealistic have obviously never met ERIN BROCKOVICH. EXT. AROUND THE CORNER - DAY A side street. No pedestrians, just parked cars. A PARKING TICKET flaps under the wiper of an old Hyundai. ERIN Fuck. Even when she talks dirty, there's a heartland goodness to her voice. Like Kansas corn fields swaying in the breeze. As she grabs the ticket from the windshield, her sunglasses accidentally CLATTER to the ground. ERIN Shit. When she picks them up, a fingernail snags on the pavement. ERIN God damn it. She tends to the nail as she opens her car door and gets in. WIDER ON THE STREET The Hyundai starts it up, signals. Then, just as it pulls slowly out into the street, a JAGUAR barrels around the corner, accelerating out of the turn, and rams into the side of Erin's car, sending it CAREENING into the median. It SMASHES into a foot-thick lightpost. And stops. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE - DAY A boring building on a boring block in the Valley, surrounded by strip malls. Definitely not where the power lawyers work. ROSALIND (O.S.) Morning, Mr. Masry. How you doing today? INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION - DAY Generic. Cottage cheese ceilings, motel art. A sign over the reception desk reads: MASRY & VITITOE, ATTORNEYS AT LAW. ED MASRY, senior partner, slumps by ROSALIND, his chipper receptionist, with a cup of coffee in his hand. He's in his mid-50's, compact and -- even though it's only 9 AM -- already rumpled. ED Don't ask that on Mondays, Rosalind. Whatever passion he once had for the personal injury law that is his career has long since dissipated. He trundles off toward his office. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, OUTSIDE ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed's secretary BRENDA -- 50's, jaded, hates her job, but what can you do? -- is on the phone when Ed rounds the corner. She puts the call on hold, turns to Ed. BRENDA Tony Marvin. ED Oh, Jesus. Who's responsible for his pain and suffering this time? BRENDA His dry cleaners. You want him? ED What do you think? What's this? He grabs a gift-wrapped bottle off her desk, reads the card. BRENDA Tequila. From your drug dealer friend. ED Carlos isn't a friend; he's a client. BRENDA He's a low-life. Speaking of which, that's your nine o'clock in there. Ed peers into his office. It's a mess -- papers everywhere, unopened mail. Standing in the middle of the room is Erin, in a teensy, leopard-print mini-dress. As she jiggles a spike-heeled foot, everything about her shimmies gloriously. Except her head, which is held in place by a neck brace. ED Whoa. (to Brenda) Remind me. BRENDA Erin Brockovich. Car accident. Not her fault, she says. (sarcastic) And she looks like such an honest girl, don't you think? ED You shouldn't judge, Brenda. BRENDA Right. Lap-dancers are people too. As Ed heads into his office, Brenda picks up the phone. BRENDA I can't find him, Tony. We'll have to call you back. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Not an office that exudes authority, and Ed's blustery entrance only adds to the sense of chaos. ED Erin -- hi. Sorry you had to wait. Here, sit down, sit down. He clears a stack of papers off a chair. ERIN Thanks a lot. (as she sits) I tell you, I never thought just standing would take it out of me, but ever since that shithead hit me, it feels like my whole body's put together wrong. Ed gives her a look of pro-forma sympathy. ED Jesus, you poor thing. (he sits) Well, listen, you came to the right place. Whoever did this to you made one hell of a mistake, and you and me, we're gonna make him pay for it. He takes out a pad and paper, gets ready to write. ED Why don't you tell me what happened? DISSOLVE TO: INT. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COURTROOM - DAY Erin is on the stand, wearing the most conservative thing she owns: a red, form-fitting mini dress, telling her story to Ed, who's questioning her. ERIN I was pulling out real slow, and out of nowhere, his Jaguar comes racing around the corner like a bat outta hell ... She glances at the defendant's table, where a DOCTOR sits nobly in surgical scrubs. His WIFE and two beautiful KIDS are behind him. A frigging Norman Rockwell painting. LATER IN HER TESTIMONY: ERIN They took some bone from my hip and put it in my neck. I didn't have insurance, so I'm about seventeen thousand in debt right now. STILL LATER: ERIN ... couldn't take painkillers cause they made me too groggy to take care of my kids. STILL LATER: ERIN ... Matthew's six, Katie's four, and Beth's just nine months. STILL LATER: ERIN ... just wanna be a good mom, a nice person, a decent citizen. Just wanna take good care of my kids. You know? ED (oh so moved) Yeah. I know. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Erin is still on the stand. But now the doctor's lawyer is questioning her. DEFENDING LAWYER Seventeen thousand in debt. Whew. Is your ex-husband helping out? ERIN Which one? DEFENDING LAWYER (feigning shock) There's more than one? ERIN Yeah. There's two. Why? Erin looks over at the jury. The personification of conservative family values. Oh, shit. LATER IN HER TESTIMONY: ERIN (getting defensive) ... not like a career, cause I had my babies. But I woulda worked, for sure, if I didn't have this neck thing. Erin sees a juror staring judgmentally at her short hem. Erin gives it a tug, pulling it down a stitch. DEFENDING LAWYER (sarcastic) Right. No doubt. Erin sees a few jurors share dubious glances. Great. STILL LATER: The defendant's lawyers is on the offensive. Erin's starting to feel the case slipping away. DEFENDING LAWYER So. You must've been feeling pretty desperate that afternoon. ERIN (pointed) What's your point? Ed shakes his head slightly to her -- don't get mad. DEFENDING LAWYER Broke, three kids, no job. A doctor in a Jaguar must've looked like a pretty good meal ticket. Erin sees jurors nodding almost imperceptibly in agreement. She's on a sinking ship. ERIN What? Hey -- he hit me. DEFENDING LAWYER So you say. ERIN He came tearing around the corner, out of control -- DEFENDING LAWYER An ER doctor who spends his days saving lives was the one out of control -- ERIN (erupting) That asshole smashed in my fucking neck! INT. COURTHOUSE HALLWAY - DAY The door to the courtroom flies open and Erin comes out, furious. Ed follows her as she heads for the elevator. ERIN Open and shut? Open and fucking shut? ED If you hadn't used profanity -- ERIN Oh, please, it was long over by then. God damn, he made me look like some cheap -- ED I told you the questions might get a little personal -- ERIN Bullshit. You told me I'd get half a million dollars. You told me I'd be set. Ed notices her ranting is starting to draw attention. ED Okay -- let's try and settle down here. ERIN Settle down? I got 74 bucks to my name, Mr. Masry! I can't afford to settle down! Beat. ED I'm sorry, Erin. ERIN Yeah? Well, fuck you. Sorry doesn't feed my kids. Erin turns away from him and heads for the stairway. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY A shitty little house in a shitty part of Northbridge. The Hyundai with a bashed-in side pulls up to the curb. Erin gets out, takes the mail from her mailbox, then heads over to the equally grim house next door and rings the bell. A Hispanic woman in her 60's opens the door, holding a white baby. This is MRS. MORALES. MRS. MORALES Hi, Erin! You're back so soon. How was it? She hands Erin the baby. It's BETH, Erin's 9-month old. Erin avoids the question by focusing on her baby. ERIN Hi, sweetie. Were you a good girl? Where are Matt and Katie? MRS. MORALES Outside with the sprinkler. So it's good? The truth is too depressing to share. ERIN It'll be fine, yeah. MRS. MORALES Ai, bueno. Because I didn't want to tell you before, with your worries -- ERIN What? MRS. MORALES My daughter, she's bought a big house with a room for me. I'm going to move in with her. ERIN You're moving away? When? MRS. MORALES Next week. ERIN (stunned) Wow, that's soon -- MRS. MORALES I know. But it's good for me. Now I can help my daughter take care of my grandkids. And it's good for you, too. Now you have money, you can find a good babysitter, huh? Not the old lady next door. Oh, God. In Erin's arms, Beth starts to COUGH. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY Erin carries Beth up to her house. As she nears her door, she steps on a GIANT WATER BUG. It crunches under her sole. ERIN Ugh. Insult added to injury. She heads up to the house, dragging her shoe, wiping off the bug guts. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MAIN LIVING/DINING SPACE - DAY Just as dull inside. Salvation Army furniture. A lot of beige. Erin's two older kids, MATTHEW (7) and KATIE (5) are at the table. Beth is in a baby seat. Erin spoons some Mac & Cheese onto their plates, trying to hide her worry. MATTHEW I don't like this part, it's all crusty. KATIE I like the crust. Erin switches the plates. ERIN Put your napkins in your laps and eat up. KATIE How come you're not eating? Cause there isn't enough food. ERIN Mamma's gonna eat later. From her baby seat on the table, Beth COUGHS some more. Thick, sick-sounding coughs. Erin looks at her. ERIN Don't go getting sick on me, baby. Okay? INT. ERIN'S BATHROOM - NIGHT The shower and sink are both on full, filling the room with STEAM. Erin is seated with COUGHING, CRYING Beth on her lap, trying to steam the illness out of her. ERIN It's gonna be okay, sweetheart. I promise. But her face doesn't look like she believes it. EXT. DRUGSTORE - DAY Matt and Katie are messing around with a gumball machine. INT. DRUGSTORE, AISLE - DAY Erin is holding Beth, wandering the aisles. She stops at the medicines, thinks for a long moment, then, hating herself, glances to make sure no one's looking, and picks up a bottle. INT. DRUGSTORE, AT THE REGISTER - DAY As a CUSTOMER steps away from the register, Erin steps up with the bottle in her hand and smiles at the CHECK-OUT LADY. ERIN Hi, remember me? I was in yesterday. Bought a whole mess of stuff? Round about five? CHECK-OUT LADY Honey, it's a zoo here at five. I'm lucky if I even see a face, much less remember it. ERIN Oh, shoot, yeah, I guess that'd be tough. Well, listen, I meant to buy my baby here some medicine, and by the time I got home, I realized I'd bought the adult stuff by mistake. And now, wouldn't you know, I can't find the receipt. I was wondering -- could I maybe exchange it anyway ... INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Erin feeds Beth her medicine, feeling miserable about it. ERIN Just remember. No matter what your Mamma does, lying and stealing is real bad. I don't ever wanna hear you doing something like that ... On the table beside her sit the classifieds. Row after row of want ads circled, then X-'d out in red. A WATER BUG crawls across the edge of the paper. ERIN ... Cause there's no excuse for it, you hear me? No excuse at all. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Midday. Ed enters with a cup of coffee in his hand. As he heads to his desk, he trips on a box of files. Coffee sloshes out of his cup, onto his shirt. ED Damn it! (calling out) Brenda! She pops her head in. BRENDA Yeah? He grabs a tissue, swabs his shirt, then kicks at the box. ED What the hell is this doing here? BRENDA It's those files you asked for. ED I didn't mean for you to leave them in the middle of the floor. Jesus. Look at me. What do I have this afternoon? BRENDA Nothing you can't show up for with a stain. As Ed checks his reflection in the glass wall of his office, he notices, on the other side: ERIN, standing in the middle of the secretaries' area, in a miniskirt and leather bustier, talking to MARIO, the firm's mentally challenged office boy. Mario heads away from her. ED What's she doing here? BRENDA Who? Ed goes to his office door and waves Mario over. ED Hey -- Mario -- what's she doing here? MARIO She works here. Ed looks back at her -- what the hell? INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY The support staff -- mostly middle-aged women -- are all stealing glances at Erin. Ed comes up to her, all friendly. ED Erin! How's it going? Up close, the wear and tear of worry show on her face. ERIN You never called me back. I left messages. ED You did? Wow, sorry about that. (beat) Listen, Mario's a little not so bright. He seems to think that you said -- ERIN There's two things I can't stand, Mr. Masry. Being ignored, and being lied to. You did both. Glances skitter between the secretaries -- get a load of this. Ed lowers his voice. ED I never lied. I may have miscalculated -- that happens sometimes, but -- ERIN You said things would be fine, and they're not. ED I'm sorry about that. Really. But -- ERIN I don't need pity. I need a paycheck. And I've looked, but when you've spent the last six years raising babies, it's real hard to convince someone to give you a job that pays worth a damn. So I figure, since you're the one who said I was gonna be okay, you should be the one to hire me. Ed sees everyone watching him, listening. ED I'd love to help, Erin, but I'm sorry, I have a full staff right now, so -- He starts to escort her out, but she stays put. ERIN Bullshit. If you had a full staff, you'd have time to return your damn phone calls. She's backing him into a corner here. He shifts gears. ED Okay, look. If you really want to apply for a job here, you can do it the way everyone else does. Send in a rÈsumÈ, make an -- ERIN I'm not everyone else, Mr. Masry. I'm someone you made promises to that you didn't deliver on. I trusted you. With my kids' well-being. Now, I'm smart, and I'm hard- working, and I'll do anything. But if you think I'm leaving here without a job, you got another thing coming. Ed glances around the room. Not a whole lot of options here. He looks back at Erin. ED No benefits. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, FILE ROOM - DAY A tight office lined with file cabinets and shelves. ANNA, the humorless file clerk, is showing Erin around. ANNA ... what we do in here is keep track of all the case files. That way, at any time, we can find out a case's status -- where it is in the office, stuff like that. We file 'em all here, alphabetically -- ERIN Oh, hell. (beat) I'm dyslexic. ANNA That's a joke, right? Erin shakes her head, no. Great, thinks Anna. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY As Anna shows Erin around the office, they pass JANE, the bitter office manager, and Brenda, at the coffee area. JANE Just last week, he told my sister we weren't hiring. BRENDA What's your sister look like? INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - NIGHT Ed is packing up his office. Erin sticks her head in. ERIN Mr. Masry? He turns, sees her. ED Yeah? ERIN I was wondering -- could you tell me who I'd talk to about maybe getting an advance on my paycheck? Just -- for the weekend. ED Jane's the office manager. She handles payroll and petty cash. But she leaves early on Fridays. ERIN Oh. Okay. That's okay. Ed looks at her a moment, sees that it's far from okay. ED Oh, for Christ's sake ... He takes out his wallet, looks in. ED All I have is hundreds. ERIN I don't wanna take your money, Mr. Masry. ED Bullshit, you don't. He slaps a hundred in her hand and leaves. When he's gone, she looks at the bill -- her life raft -- and gives it a great big kiss. EXT. BABYSITTER'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin is at the door, taking Beth from the BABYSITTER, a shabby, unkempt-looking woman in her 40's. Katie and Matt pull on their backpacks and troop out of the sitter's house. EXT. SUPERMARKET - NIGHT Erin is leaving the store, carrying Beth in one arm and a bag of groceries in the other. Katie and Matt are each carrying a bag of groceries as well. They are all singing and moving with the jaunty step of the newly carefree. Katie spots a flower display outside the store. KATIE Mommy, can I get a flower? ERIN Sweetheart, you can get a whole big bunch. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MATT AND KATIE'S ROOM - NIGHT A small room with Salvation Army furniture. A BUNCH OF DAISIES is propped in a Ragu jar on Katie's bedside table. Matt and Katie are asleep in bed. Erin looks down at them, smiles, then kisses them good-night. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, HALLWAY - NIGHT Erin comes out of the bedroom and softly closes the door. But just as the handle clicks into place, the house is filled with the DEAFENING ROAR of a MOTORCYCLE, REVVING and REVVING. It sounds as if it's gonna drive through the wall. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin steps out onto her front stoop and looks over at what used to be Mrs. Morales's house. A few MOTORCYCLES are parked on the lawn; A FEW BIKERS are drinking beer on the stoop; and one asshole is on his bike, REVVING HIS ENGINE. ERIN Hey! But of course he can't hear her. She walks over to him, stands right in his line of vision. ERIN HEY! He sees her and kills the engine. Everything about GEORGE HALABY is tough -- his denim, his leather, his bike, his long hair. Everything but his eyes, which twinkle like Santa's. GEORGE Well, hello to you, darlin'. ERIN What the hell do you think you're doing, making all that Goddamn noise? GEORGE Just introducing myself to the neighbors. ERIN Well, I'm the neighbors. There, now we're introduced, so you can shut the fuck up. The guys on the porch chuckle. Erin turns and starts back to her house. George hops off his bike and follows her. GEORGE Ooh, now, see, if I'da known there was a beautiful woman next door, I'da done this different. Let's start over. My name's George. What's yours? ERIN Just think of me as the person next door who likes it quiet, and we'll get along fine. GEORGE Now, don't be like that. Tell you what. How about if I take you out on a date to apologize for my rudeness? Erin shakes her head in disbelief and keeps walking. GEORGE Come on. Gimme your number, I'll call you up proper and ask you out and everything. She stops at her porch, turns to him. ERIN You want my number? GEORGE I do. ERIN Which number do you want, George? GEORGE You got more than one? ERIN Shit, yeah. I got numbers coming out of my ears. Like, for instance, ten. GEORGE Ten? ERIN Sure. That's one of my numbers. It's how many months old my little girl is. GEORGE You got a little girl? ERIN Yeah. Sexy, huh? And here's another: five. That's how old my other daughter is. Seven is my son's age. Two is how many times I been married and divorced. You getting all this? 16 is the number of dollars in my bank account. 454-3943 is my phone number. And with all the other numbers I gave you, I'm guessing zero is the number of times you're gonna call it. She turns and heads inside. He calls out after her: GEORGE How the hell do you know your bank balance right off the top of your head like that? See, that impresses me. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION AREA - DAY Morning. Erin walks in, wearing her usual garb. She passes the coffee area, where Jane, Brenda, and Anna are milling. Brenda sees her, gives Anna a nudge. They both check out her short hem. Anna nudges Jane, who looks as well. Erin glances over just in time to see all three of them staring at her judgementally. She stops in her tracks and stares back. ERIN Y'all got something you wanna discuss? The women go back to stirring their coffees. Erin walks on. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is walking into his office with a coffee cup in his hand when he trips over the same box of files again. ED Damn it! (calling out) Brenda! (no answer) BRENDA! INT. MASRY & VITITOE, FILE ROOM - DAY Erin is alone, filing as she talks on the phone. ERIN How long's she been crying like that? ... Well, she's got that tooth coming in -- Ed appears in the door, carrying the box of files. ERIN Give her a cold washcloth to suck on -- (sees Ed) I gotta go -- there's a clean one in that bag -- I'll check back in a bit. (hangs up) Sorry. My kid -- ED Where's Anna? ERIN Out to lunch with the girls. ED Oh. Huh. (beat) Well, look, I got this file I need valued. Real estate thing. A lady has some property next to a PG&E plant that PG&E wants to buy. I need to know what to ask for it. He plunks the box of files on her desk. She stares at it, with no idea of how to go about that. ERIN Oh. Okay. He sees her staring at the box. ED You do know how to do that, don't you? ERIN Yeah. I got it. No problem. ED Good. Ed heads out, but pauses before leaving. ED You're a girl. ERIN Excuse me? ED How come you're not at lunch with the girls? You're a girl. ERIN I guess I'm not the right kind. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, FILE ROOM - NIGHT Erin is at her desk, staring bewildered at the files from the box Ed gave her, which are now spread across her desktop. She sees Anna packing up her things, to leave. ERIN Anna? With this real-estate valuing stuff - - could you remind me, cause I'm a little confused about how exactly we do that. ANNA (exasperated) Erin, you've been here three weeks. If you don't know how to do your job by now, I am not about to do it for you. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT Katie and Matt are running up to the house. Erin follows, toting Beth under one arm and the box of documents under the other. She steps on another water bug. ERIN Ugh. As she wipes the bug guts off the bottom of her shoe: GEORGE (O.S.) Hey, neighbor, wanna beer? She spots George on his stoop, with a six-pack beside him. ERIN No. GEORGE C'mon. I bought 'em for you, to make up for that night. ERIN Return 'em. Maybe you'll get your money back. He gets up and follows her to her house. GEORGE Now, why're you giving me such a hard time? I'm just trying to be a good neighbor. Erin turns to him. The kids are waiting at the door. ERIN I had a good neighbor, George. She was 60 and Mexican and she watched my kids for free. Something tells me you're not gonna be able to measure up to that. GEORGE You need help with your kids? I could probably do that. George reaches out and grabs the box from under her arm. ERIN I'm not gonna leave my kids with you. GEORGE Why not? ERIN Cause I don't even know you. GEORGE Yeah, and whose fault is that? He's got a point there. After a beat: GEORGE What, you got so many friends in this world, you don't have use for one more? INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT George is on the floor with Matt and Katie, playing War. Katie points to the Harley emblem on his leather jacket. KATIE What's that stand for? GEORGE That's for Harley Davidson. The best damn motorcycle ever made. Erin comes in from the kitchen. ERIN And if I catch either of you anywhere near one, I'll knock you silly. Go on to bed, now -- I'll come tuck you in in a minute. They get up ... GEORGE Night. KATIE/MATT Night. ... and head into bed. George starts cleaning up the cards. GEORGE Great kids. Erin bends down to help him. ERIN Yeah. I'm probably ruining them. GEORGE How? ERIN I'm never here. I gotta leave 'em with this weird sitter all afternoon who costs a fortune and smells like chicken fat. GEORGE I was serious before, you know. If you need someone to keep an eye on them -- after school or something -- I don't have a job now, so I'm around in the afternoons. ERIN Great. Another deadbeat. GEORGE I'm not a deadbeat. I work when I need to. ERIN Yeah? And what do you do the rest of the time, live off your trust fund? GEORGE I do construction, which pays real good. And I make it last by living cheap. ERIN (with a little laugh) I hope that's not supposed to impress me. GEORGE Are you this hard on everyone who tries to help you? ERIN It's been a while. Maybe I'm just out of practice. GEORGE Then lemme remind you, the polite thing is to say, thank you, that's a real nice offer, I don't mind taking you up on it. ERIN Why in the hell would you want to watch my kids? GEORGE Cause I like kids. I like hanging out with them. ERIN Right. She starts cleaning up the cards. GEORGE I do. I like how they keep it all simple, you know? They don't get all complicated about life, like grown-ups do. A bicycle and an ice cream cone -- boom, done, they're happy. Erin thinks about the offer. ERIN You're around every afternoon? GEORGE Yup. Usually working on my bike. (she's tempted) No big deal. If it doesn't work out, you can send 'em back to the chicken fat lady. Tempting. Erin looks him over. ERIN This isn't gonna get you laid, you know. GEORGE (with a laugh) Yeah, we'll just see about that, won't we? INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The wee hours. Erin's in a t-shirt, sitting on her mattress on the floor. The paperwork from the box is now spread all over the floor around her. She's reading a letter. CLOSE ON THE LETTER It's from PG&E, to Donna and Peter Irving. We see the phrases, "purchase your house ...", "fair market value ..." CLOSE ON ANOTHER DOCUMENT It's a list of comparable house sales in the area. Owner, cost; owner, cost. Every house is in the $65,000 range. From another room, she hears the sound of BETH CRYING. Still reading the file, Erin gets up and goes into: INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, BETH'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Still reading, Erin gets Beth out of her crib. Beth quiets. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Erin lies down on the mattress and rests Beth on her chest. She sets down the file she was reading and picks up another. CLOSE ON THE FILE It contains a letter from a Dr. Howard Reeves. The first paragraph contains the phrase "... medical examination of Donna and Peter Irving ..." Toward the end of the letter, there are two columns. One is headed: "IN RANGE". The other: "OUT OF RANGE". Under that head appear the following: "lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes, natural killer cells, T Helpers, T8 suppresser cells". Erin stares at it, confused. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, COFFEE AREA - DAY Erin is talking to Jane, who's pouring herself coffee. ERIN It was in this real estate file I'm valuing. And -- see, I know they're the medical records from the people selling the house -- but it talks about things like lymphocytes and T8 suppressers. Erin sees Ed pass behind Jane. She lowers her voice, so he won't see her asking for help. ERIN I mean, it's not a problem or anything, but -- I'm just a little unclear on what those things are. I thought maybe you'd know. JANE What do I look like, Erin? A library? And Jane walks away with her coffee. EXT. UCLA MAIN LIBRARY - DAY Large. Looming. Very establishment. Through the windows, we see Erin at the desk, talking to a LIBRARIAN. She has the file in her hands. Over this: ROSALIND (O.S.) Masry & Vititoe, can I help you? ERIN (O.S.) Hi, Rosalind, this is Erin. Brockovich. From the file room? I was wondering if you could tell Mr. Masry that I'm following up on that real estate thing out of the office. The librarian gives her directions to somewhere else. EXT. UCLA MEDICAL LIBRARY - DAY Smaller, but still establishment. Erin's Hyundai pulls into the parking lot. INT. UCLA MEDICAL LIBRARY - DAY Erin is at the reference desk, eating a candy bar while she talks to the LIBRARIAN. He checks something on the computer. A couple of WHITE-COATED MEDICAL STUDENTS pass her, double- taking. They don't see many like her around here. INT. UCLA SCIENCE BUILDING, HALLWAY - DAY A long, academic hallway lit by fluorescents. Erin gets off an elevator and heads down the hall. She finds a door with a nameplate that reads "Jim Paulsen, Epidemiology" and KNOCKS. The door opens and DR. JIM PAULSEN appears. He's a classic scientist: unruly hair, thick glasses. Nothing like Erin has ever shown up at his door. He reels at the sight of her. ERIN Dr. Paulsen? PAULSEN Yes? ERIN Hi, I'm Erin Brockovich. I was just over in the library there, asking a mess of questions about -- I guess they call it epidemiology? -- and the fella there told me to find you, cause you know all about it. PAULSEN (suspicious) Is this a joke? Did Baxter put you up to this? ERIN Who's Baxter? PAULSEN He did, didn't he? Baxter! BAXTER, another scientist, leans out of a door down the hall. BAXTER Yeah? Baxter and Erin look at each other. No recognition, of course. Paulsen is immediately embarrassed. PAULSEN Oh. Oh. ERIN No one put me up to anything. I was just hoping I could ask you a couple questions. PAULSEN (mortified) Of course! Oh, gosh, of course -- INT. PAULSEN'S OFFICE - DAY Orderly chaos. Dr. Paulsen, still recovering, has Erin's file in his hands. Erin is sitting across from him. PAULSEN Well, look, there isn't a ton of information here, but from what there is, I'd say that these two people here -- what are their names? Shanna and Ashley? ERIN Right, I guess those are the kids -- PAULSEN They've both got some immune system problem. Can't say what from, whether it's viral or genetic or what, but something's wrong. And these guys -- Donna and Peter -- ERIN Their parents, I'm pretty sure. PAULSEN Well, from what this stuff says, I'd say they both have some form of cancer. Wow. That's more serious than Erin was expecting. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY CLOSE ON THE FILE on the kitchen counter. The Irvings' phone number is written on the front. A PHONE IS RINGING. ERIN (O.S.) Whoa, whoa! Easy, easy, easy -- WIDEN to see Erin, phone to her ear, grabbing a carton of juice from Matt and Katie, who are fighting over it at the table. Just as she takes it from them, the phone picks up. DONNA'S VOICE (O.S.) Hi! You've reached the Irvings. Leave a message and we'll get back to you just as soon as we can. Bye-bye. BEEP. Erin thinks a bit, then hangs up and looks at the file. Scrawled on the cover is the Irvings' address, in Hinkley, California. EXT. L.A. FREEWAY - DAY The beat-up old Hyundai heads east out of L.A. DISCO MUSIC blares from its speakers. EXT. HINKLEY, CA - DAY This is a dry, desolate part of California. No downtown, no community. Just tract after tract of arid farmland, with small, bland, unprotected ranch home cropping up out of the landscape like occasional tombstones. A beat-up old sign on the road reads: "HINKLEY, CA. POP: " but the corner where the number would be has broken off. As a gust of wind lifts dust from the fields, Erin turns onto Community Boulevard, the main road that cuts through Hinkley. INT. ERIN'S HYUNDAI - DAY Erin looks around. The house she's passing has been razed. A heap of lumber and wires in the middle of the property. As she checks the piece of paper with Donna's address, she drives by the PG&E COMPRESSOR STATION, a massive gray structure of pipes, chimneys and ladders, set way back from the road. Erin passes it without noticing it. She stops at an intersection. The house on the corner has been boarded up with plywood. Erin notices it -- depressing -- then turns the corner onto Donna's street. EXT. DONNA IRVING'S HOUSE - DAY A generic ranch home standing all alone in the middle of nothing. There's a pool out back and a chain link fence hugging the property. No landscaping. Dull, but clean. A few BOTTLES OF SPRING WATER wait by the door. The Hyundai pulls into the driveway and stops. Erin gets out. As she heads up to the door, her spike heels sink into the dirt. She rings the bell. It has a melody chime. DONNA IRVING opens the door. She's 35, petite, with a scrappy, high-strung manner. She's wearing tight jeans, and her dark curls are piled on top of her head. ERIN Hi. Donna Irving? DONNA Yes? ERIN I'm Erin Brockovich, from Masry & Vititoe? DONNA (a little surprised) You're a lawyer? ERIN Hell, no. I hate lawyers. I just work for them. You got a minute? INT. THE IRVINGS' HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY The house is furnished with little money, but lots of care. Erin's on a plaid couch, in a sea of needlepoint pillows. Out back, two GIRLS, ages 9 and 11, are playing in a pool. ERIN This is a real nice place you got here. DONNA (O.S.) Well it oughta be, with all the work I put into it. She comes out from the kitchen with a tray of iced tea. DONNA I added air conditioning, put in the pool, made all those pillows by hand ... ERIN Yeah? I should learn to do stuff like that. They make the place feel real homey. Donna corrects the positioning on a couple of pillows. DONNA Thank you. I think so too. That's why I'm being such a stickler on this house price thing. I don't mean to be a pain in PG&E's backside, especially after all they've done for Hinkley, but I look around here and I think, if they want this place, they're gonna have to pay for it. And I don't just mean pay for the house; I'd like them to pay me for the trouble of starting over. ERIN Right. DONNA Cause first you gotta move, then there's decorating, and if the windows aren't the same size, you know -- you're making all new curtains. Honest to God, I don't know if I have the energy. You know, I've been sick. Me and Peter both have. ERIN Yeah, I'm real glad you brought that up. I was going through your file here, and I ran into these medical records. They kinda surprised me -- This would be the perfect opportunity for many to get self- pitying. But not Donna. Life's handed her a shitload of lemons, and darned if she hasn't made a shitload of lemonade. DONNA I know. They're more than a bit unusual. See, two years ago, Pete got Hodgkin's disease. That's a kind of cancer -- ERIN Yeah, I'm real sorry to hear that. DONNA Thank you. It's in remission now, thank the Lord, but you never know. And then while that's going on, I end up having to have a hysterectomy. Plus a whole mess of lumps removed from my breasts. All benign so far, but still, no matter how positive you stay, an operation can still take it out of you. ERIN I'll say. Holy moley. DONNA So the whole idea of selling the house -- don't get me wrong, I'd be glad to move to some better place, but if they aren't gonna pay us properly, I just don't see the point. ERIN Yeah, I can see that. (beat) I guess the only thing that confused me is - - not that your medical problems aren't important, but -- how come the files about them are in with all the real estate stuff? Donna tops off their iced teas. DONNA Are you kidding? With how our lives are, if I start subdividing files, I'll be sunk. I just kept all PG&E correspondence in one place. ERIN Right, but -- I'm sorry, I don't see why you were corresponding with PG&E about it in the first place. DONNA Well, they paid for the doctor's visit. ERIN They did? DONNA You bet. Paid for a check-up for the whole family. And not like with insurance where you pay, then wait a year to be reimbursed, either. They just took care of it. Just like that. We never even saw a bill. ERIN Wow. Why would they do that? DONNA Cause of the chromium. ERIN The what? DONNA The chromium. Well, that's what kicked this whole thing off. INT. IRVING HOUSE, GARAGE - DAY CLOSE ON A BOX, with "CHROM INFO" scrawled on it. DONNA (O.S.) PG&E came around a few years ago, told us they put chromium in our well by mistake. And since we shouldn't have to drink it if we don't want to, they gave us free spring water and offered to buy our house. WIDEN to see Donna pulling the box down into the room. ERIN What's chromium? DONNA It's a chemical they used over at that compressor station up the road there. ERIN Well, hell, maybe that's why you all have been so sick -- DONNA I thought the same thing, right off the bat. That's why we went to see the doctor. But hunh-uh. Turns out one's got nothing to do with the other. She rifles through the box. DONNA This is the info they gave us. You'll see if you look through it, chromium's good for you. When I saw what they charged for it at the health-food stores, I about fainted. She hands Erin a printed fact sheet. Erin scans it. ERIN Seems like an awful big coincidence -- your water being messed with and you being so sick. DONNA Not around here. This is a rough part of the world. Hard times, not a lot of money, not a lot of luck. (beat) It's a challenge, staying healthy in a town like this. Heck, even our dogs up and die. INT. ERIN'S CAR - NIGHT Erin's driving away from Donna's house. A street lamp throws light on the box of chromium documents in the passenger seat. She gets to an intersection and looks across the street at the massive COMPRESSOR STATION. Six stories high, lit up like a Christmas tree, with all sizes of PIPES criss-crossing the outside and GIANT COOLING TOWERS sticking up out of it. Far more massive than anything else in town, it looms over the horizon like the Capitol in D.C. or St. Peter's in Rome. Erin takes a long look at the compressor station, then turns onto Community Boulevard and drives away. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Erin is holding Beth, making her a bottle, when she hears NOISES coming from outside. She follows them. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY Erin opens the door to find George attaching bars to her windows. ERIN What're you doing? GEORGE Better safe than sorry. She shakes her head, amused by his persistence. ERIN You want some coffee, George? INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - NIGHT George follows Erin in. GEORGE I'm gonna put a dead bolt on your front door, too. This isn't exactly the safest neighborhood in the world, you know. ERIN Thanks for reminding me. GEORGE I guess we get what we pay for, huh? Erin pours him some coffee, hands it to him. ERIN You think it could make you sick, living in a place like this? GEORGE What do you mean? George settles in, helps himself to sugar. ERIN I was talking to this lady -- she and her husband both got cancer, and she thinks it's cause they live in a bad neighborhood. You think that's possible? That living in a bad neighborhood could give you cancer? George laughs a little at the thought. GEORGE Man, I hope not. You got enough damn problems. But Erin's still mulling it over. EXT. NORTHRIDGE, ERIN'S BLOCK - DAY Erin clips down the block in short-shorts and high-heeled boots. Up ahead a few of DOWN-ON-THEIR-LUCK MEN are out on a stoop, drinking their breakfast. Erin approaches them. ERIN Hi, y'all -- how you doing today? MAN 1 Hangin' in, baby. How about yourself? ERIN I'm okay, I'm just fine. I was wondering -- could I maybe ask you a couple questions? She settles down on the stoop with them for a chat. INT. PAULSEN'S OFFICE - DAY Dr. Paulsen and Erin are sitting, talking. He's thrilled to have her back in his office. ERIN ... and when I realized our area's just as bad as Hinkley, I thought maybe my neighbors are all sick too. So I went and asked. PAULSEN (surprised) You did? Erin digs a pad of paper out of her bag. ERIN Uh-huh. Spent the last few days knocking on doors. And you know what? They're not. (reads from the pad) I mean, they got problems, but none of this cancer stuff. And their pets are fine. So I don't know -- I just can't shake the feeling that it wasn't no multivitamin they put in the water. PAULSEN Well, if you're talking about contamination, you're getting out of my area of expertise. Let me give you the name of a toxicologist friend of mine over at USC. Paulsen reaches for a notepad, scrawls on it. INT. UCLA MEDICAL BUILDING, HALLWAY - DAY Paulsen is seeing Erin out of his office. PAULSEN I gotta say, Erin -- first time I saw you, I did not peg you as the kind to go off and conduct her own epidemiological study. ERIN Don't go telling anyone. It'll ruin my reputation. EXT. USC CAMPUS - DAY Erin towers over DAVID FRANKEL as she walks across campus with him. He's the grittier variety of scientist: Patagonia, Birkenstocks, bushy beard. He's as dry as dust, and as much as Dr. Paulsen responded to Erin, Frankel barely notices her. FRANKEL What kind of chromium is it? ERIN There's more than one kind? FRANKEL Yes. There's straight-up chromium -- does all kinds of good things for the body. There's chrom 3, which is fairly benign, and then there's chrom 6, hexavalent chromium, which, depending on the amounts, can be very harmful. ERIN Harmful, like -- how? What would you get? FRANKEL With repeated exposure to toxic levels -- God, anything, really -- respiratory disease, liver failure, heart failure, reproductive failure, chronic headaches, bone or organ deterioration -- plus, of course, any type of cancer. He rattles it off coolly. Just facts. Erin's stunned. ERIN So that stuff -- it kills people. FRANKEL Oh, yeah. Definitely. Highly toxic, highly carcinogenic. Bad, bad stuff. ERIN Well, how do I find out what kind of chromium is up in Hinkley? FRANKEL Have you been to the water board? ERIN Hunh-uh. What's that? FRANKEL Every county has one. They keep records of anything water-related within their jurisdiction. You should be able to find something there. ERIN County water board. All righty, thanks. FRANKEL Good luck. (beat) Oh -- I wouldn't advertise what you're looking for if I were you ... His line continues over: EXT. LAHOTAN REGIONAL WATER BOARD - DAY Erin's Hyundai pulls up and stops in a cloud of dust. FRANKEL (O.S.) ... Incriminating records have a way of disappearing when people smell trouble. Erin hops out, checks her reflection in the side-view mirror, then heads into the building. INT. LAHOTAN REGIONAL COUNTY WATER BOARD - DAY Drab, government-issue. ROSS, the bored desk clerk is thumbing his way through ROAD & TRACK. Just as he stops to stare at a motor oil ad in which a buxom blonde is straddling the hood of a car, the huge door opens and Erin enters. ERIN Whew! Goddamn, that's a heavy door. Ross looks up. It's like the girl from the ad walked right off the page. He jumps up, to help her with the door. ROSS Oh, hey -- lemme give you a hand there. ERIN Thank you very much. Aren't you a gentleman? Mr. ... ROSS Ross. ERIN Ross. Real pleased to meet you. I'm Erin. She smiles. He can't believe his luck. ROSS Erin. Cool. What can I do for you, Erin? ERIN Well, believe it or not, I am on the prowl for some water records. ROSS (with a laugh) You come to the right place. ERIN (laughing along) I guess I did. ROSS You just tell me what you want to look at and I'll be glad to dig 'em out for you. ERIN I wish I knew. It's for my boss. He's fighting his water bill, and he wants me to find all manner of bills from all kinds of places. The easiest thing would probably be if I just squeezed back there with you and poked around myself. Would that be okay? ROSS Heck, yeah. Come on back. Just gonna need you to sign in here -- He hands her a pen. He reads over her shoulder as she signs her name -- Erin Pattee Brockovich. ROSS Pattee? That your middle name? ERIN Nope. Maiden. ROSS (disappointed) You're married. ERIN Not anymore. She smiles and winks at him, then goes around the counter with him and looks at the stacks and stacks of files. ERIN Well. Here goes nothing. She heads down an aisle, reading the spines of the files. They're all town names -- Barstow, Victorville, Oro Grande, Helendale -- in no particular order. Finally, Erin spots one that says Hinkley. She pulls it down. IN THE FILE are pages and pages of Xeroxed memoranda, letters, charts, graphs, handwritten notes. All shoved in willy-nilly. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MAIN ROOM - DAY George is watching a football game on TV. He's just put TV dinners on the floor in front of the Matt and Katie. MATT Our mom gives us sandwiches on Fridays. GEORGE That's a sandwich. KATIE No, it's not! GEORGE Sure it is. Here, I'll show you. He picks up Matt's chicken, tears it in two ... GEORGE Most people think a sandwich's gotta have bread on the outside. Not true. Chicken is a perfectly good outside for a sandwich. ... then places the broccoli neatly between the halves. GEORGE See? Katie and Matthew look at it, then up at George, and smile. This guy just might be all right, after all. EXT. WATER BOARD - NIGHT It's gotten dark. Erin's Hyundai's still there. INT. WATER BOARD - NIGHT Erin is on the floor, her legs stretched out in front of her. She has a bunch of files open and spread across the floor. The one in her hand has caught her attention. INSERT ON THE PAPER It's a memo titled "CLEAN-UP AND ABATEMENT ORDER" from the water board to PG&E. Erin is concentrating hard on it, reading laboriously to herself. ERIN (O.S.) "... On December 7, 1987, the discharger notified the regional board and the San Bernardino County Environmental Health Services of the discovery of 0.58 ppm of hexavalent chromium in an on-site ground water monitoring well ..." (beat) ... hexavalent ... INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION - DAY CLOSE ON A XEROX OF THE ABATEMENT ORDER. WIDEN to see it is on top of a stack of papers that Erin is carrying as she enters the office. She has an efficient air about her -- a sense of purpose. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, FILE ROOM - DAY Erin swoops in, ready to work, only to find her desk cleared off. She turns to Anna, who's already hard at work. ERIN Where's my stuff? Anna looks up. ANNA Where've you been? ERIN What the fuck did you do with my stuff? ANNA Don't use language with me -- But Erin's out the door before Anna can finish her sentence. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, JANE'S OFFICE - DAY JANE is at her desk. Erin barrels in. ERIN Someone stole my stuff. JANE Nice to see you, Erin. We've missed you. ERIN I had photos of my kids, plus a mug -- Jane reaches under her desk for a box, looks through it. JANE -- toothbrush, toothpaste, and a pair of hose. Here. ERIN What's going on? JANE There may be jobs where you can disappear for days at a time, but this isn't one of them. Here, if you don't do the work, you don't get to stay. She hands her the box. Erin doesn't take it. ERIN I've been working. Shit, that's all I've been doing. Ask Mr. Masry. He knows. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed's at his desk, dialing the phone when Erin barrels in. ERIN You said to fire me? He sets down the receiver. ED Erin, you've been gone for a week. ERIN I left a message. I've been dealing with that real estate thing. I was gonna write up a whole damn report and -- ED That's not how we work here. You don't just leave a message and take off. Jane follows her in, still carrying the box of stuff. ERIN What am I supposed to do, check in every two seconds? JANE Yes. It's called accountability. ERIN I am not talking to you, bitch. JANE Excuse me? ED Okay, enough -- (beat) Now, look, Erin -- this incident aside, I don't think this is the right place for you. So what I'm gonna do is make a few calls on your behalf. Find you something else, okay? ERIN Don't bother. She turns to Jane, takes her box, and heads out. ED Come on, I'm trying to help here. ERIN Bullshit. You're trying to feel less guilty about firing someone with three kids to feed. Fuck if I'll help you do that. And she leaves. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, OUTSIDE ED'S OFFICE - DAY As Erin heads for the door, pleased glances fly from secretary to secretary. Erin reaches the door, but can't open it with the box in her arms. She turns to the room. ERIN I don't suppose any one of you cunts could open the fucking door for me. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY Erin's Hyundai rumbles to a stop in front of the house. Erin shoves open the creaky, reluctant door, lifts her box of stuff off the seat, and gets out. As she walks around the car and toward the house, she runs into the MAILMAN. He hands her a packet of mail. MAILMAN Here ya go, Miz Brockovich. Erin looks at the top of the stack. It's the electric bill. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MAIN ROOM - DAY Erin enters, puts down the box and stares at the mail. Bills, bills, and more bills. As she throws them on the table, she sees George coming out of the kitchen. ERIN What are you doing here? GEORGE Fixing a leak under your sink. She heads into the kitchen, weary and irritated. ERIN I didn't ask you to do that. Damn it, George, I don't ask you to do things like that. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Erin enters, sees all the cleaning stuff from under the sink is spread around the kitchen floor. A tool box lies open. ERIN Great. GEORGE I'm gonna clean it up. Erin gets down on her knees and starts putting things away. GEORGE Relax, Erin, I'll do it -- I'm not -- Before he can finish, a huge WATER BUG runs onto Erin's hand. ERIN Ugh -- Jesus -- She jumps and brushes it off. GEORGE Yeah -- you had a whole family of those things hanging out back there. She takes off her shoe and smacks at the bug, missing it. ERIN Damn it -- The bug skitters away from her, along the floorboard. Erin chases it, smacking at it repeatedly, missing it every time. GEORGE Don't worry about it, I'll get it later. But Erin keeps after it, corralling all her frustrations into killing that one bug. ERIN Come here, you little motherfucker -- The bug crawls up onto the table, zipping behind the salt, the pepper, the napkin holder. Erin keeps after it, BANGING the table harder and harder with each SMACK of her shoe. GEORGE Hey, whoa -- relax -- The salt and pepper skid off the table. The napkins fly from their holder. Just as Erin's about to nail the bug, it slips into a crack in the wall and disappears. Erin hurls her shoe at the crack. It SMASHES into the wall. ERIN GOD DAMN IT! As Erin stands there staring at the wall, her breath starts to come heavily -- those deep breaths that precede tears. She slowly slides down into a chair, defeat overcoming her. ERIN (almost a whisper) ... God damn it. She looks around at her for-shit kitchen and starts to cry. ERIN What kind of person lives like this? Huh? What kind of person lets her kids run around in a house crawling with bugs the size of housecats? GEORGE It's a simple thing. Everybody gets them. All we gotta do is call an exterminator. ERIN I can't call an exterminator. I can't afford one. God, I can't even afford my phone. (beat) I got fired. GEORGE What? But you been working so hard -- ERIN Doesn't matter. Doesn't make one bit of difference. (then, fragile) Oh God, George, how'd this happen to me? How'd I end up so ... so nothing? George picks a napkin up off the floor, hands it to her. GEORGE You're not nothing, Erin. ERIN Well, I'm sure as hell not what I thought I was gonna be. I was supposed to have one of those great lives, with everything all laid- out and perfect. I mean, hell -- I was Miss Wichita, for God's sakes. Did I tell you that? You live next door to a real live beauty queen. (wipes her nose) I still got the tiara. I kept it cause I thought it meant something. I thought it meant I was gonna do something great with my life. I thought it proved I was gonna grow up to be someone. GEORGE You are someone. ERIN No I'm not. Look at me. I'm not. GEORGE You're someone to me. (beat) You're someone real special to me. He takes a step toward her and kneels in front of her, very close. He takes her shoe from her hand and puts it back on her foot. Then he takes her hands in his and kisses them. ERIN I'm no good, George. I make people miserable. But he kisses her anyway. And for the first time in so long, she feels like something other than a failure. He pulls her into him, and she lets herself be pulled. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - DAY Erin and George are in bed, naked, curled around each other. GEORGE Man. Even your earlobes are beautiful. He kisses one. ERIN Don't be too nice to me, okay? It makes me nervous. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is at his desk. The PHONE RINGS. And RINGS. And RINGS. ED Brenda! (no answer) BRENDA! Nothing. Ed growls in frustration, then gets the phone. ED Yeah, Ed Masry here ... She doesn't work here anymore. Who's this? INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY CLOSE ON THE TABLE, where Beth is bobbing in her baby chair. On one side of her is a heap of bills with "PAST DUE" and "PLEASE REMIT" stamped on them. On the other, the well- thumbed CLASSIFIED SECTION, with circles and X's all over it. The DOORBELL rings. Erin swoops in and picks up Beth. ERIN Come on, baby. Maybe that's Ed McMahon. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, FRONT DOOR - DAY Erin carries Beth over to the front door, spies through the peephole, and sees Ed standing there. She opens the door. ERIN What are you doing here? ED I got an interesting call this afternoon. It was from a Dr. Frankel. ERIN Oh, yeah? ED He wanted you to know the legal limit for hexavalent chromium, is .05 parts per million. And that at the rate you mentioned, .58, it could be responsible for the cancers in that family you asked about. The Irvings. ERIN Well, that was nice of him. Isn't it funny how some people go out of their way to help people and others just give 'em the ax? ED Look, I'm sorry. You were gone. I just assumed you were off having fun. ERIN Now, why in the hell would you assume that? ED I don't know. Maybe cause you look like someone who has a lot of fun. ERIN Boy, are you ever a shitty judge of people. Ed takes a beat, copping to the charge. ED So what's the story on this thing? This cancer stuff? ERIN You wanna know, you gotta hire me back. I got a lot of bills to pay. He glares at her. Realizes he has no choice. ED Fine. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - LATER Erin has let Ed in. They're sitting. ED But, PG&E told her about the chromium? ERIN They told her something, but it can't have been too specific, cause I talked to her, and she sure didn't think her water was bad. ED So what made you think it was? ERIN It doesn't take a genius to look at those medical records and think something's wrong. ED What medical records? ERIN The ones in the box of files. (off Ed's blank look) The box of files? The one from your office? ED I didn't see any medical records in there. ERIN Boy, you musta really fine-tooth-combed it then, huh? (to herself) And you fired me. Jesus. Ed thinks for a moment. ED That document you found, the one that says it was the bad chromium -- you didn't happen to make a copy did you? ERIN Course I did. ED Lemme see it, will you? Before getting it for him, she looks at him, weighs her odds. ERIN I want a raise. And benefits. Including dental. ED Look, Erin, this is not the way I do business, this extortion nonsense. Erin doesn't budge. ED Okay. A 5% raise, and -- ERIN Ten. (off his look) There's a lot of other places I could work. ED A ten percent raise and benefits. But that's it. I'm drawing the line. She goes to her box of stuff from the office and digs out the document for him. He scans it. ED This is the only thing you found? ERIN So far. But that place is a pig sty. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more. ED Find out. EXT. 10 FREEWAY - DAY Erin's Hyundai zips along the freeway. "Funky Town" is blaring from the tinny stereo. Over it: MATTHEW (O.S.) I hate this music. INT. HYUNDAI - DAY Erin's driving. Matthew's in the front seat. Katie and Beth (in a car seat) are in the back. ERIN There's no way a son of mine hates Funky Town. It's impossible. MATTHEW Well I hate it. KATIE I hate it too. I hate this trip. ERIN Oh, come on, where's your sense of adventure? We're going someplace you never been before. KATIE I'm gonna hate it. MATTHEW Me too. She glances at them, frowns a little. ERIN You know what I'm realizing for the first time? You kids are a couple of downers. I mean, you are the real thing -- a couple of honest-to-God depresso-types. (small smile) Who in the heck raised you, anyway? Some kind of moron? Katie smiles a little. She likes this side of her mom. KATIE Yeah. A real moron. ERIN Some kind of half-wit, no-good, big-haired, bimbo, I bet. MATTHEW (also smiling) Yeah. ERIN Thank God we got you away from her, huh? By now they're all smiling. Funky Town plays on. EXT. PG&E COMPRESSOR STATION - DAY The Hyundai is parked at the entrance to the station, by a row of dead trees. Erin is standing beside a sign that says "Private Property. No Trespassing", taking pictures of the massive structure in the distance. Matthew, Katie, and Beth are drawing in the dirt with sticks. ERIN Stay out of the road. I'll be right back. She wanders up the drive, onto PG&E property, moving around the plant, taking pictures of it from every possible angle. As she wanders over a big, flat, dry field to the side of the plant, she glances over her shoulder to check on her kids and notices the trail she made in the dirt has a greenish hue. She looks at the dirt right her feet. Kicks the ground. Below the surface, the dirt turns from brown to green. Erin notes this, then looks back at her kids playing in the dirt. Worry comes over her face. She heads back to them. EXT. HINKLEY MART - DAY The kids are waiting at the car. Erin comes out of the store with a bottle of water and uses it to rinse off their hands. EXT. WATER BOARD - DAY The sound of a BABY CRYING. The Hyundai's parked in front. MATTHEW (O.S.) I'm hungry. INT. WATER BOARD - DAY Erin is at the Xerox machine, copying a file while she tries to calm Beth. There's a stack of files on the nearby table. Matthew and Katie are flopping around on the floor. ERIN We'll go eat in a minute. Settle down. Whining, fussing. Ross goes over to her. ROSS You know what, Erin? I got nothing but time here. Why don't you let me do that for you, and you can get your kids some dinner. ERIN Ross -- you are an absolute angel. She hands Ross the STACK OF DOCUMENTS. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, BRENDA'S DESK - DAY Ed comes in in the morning, and without pausing, hands Brenda a copy of the STACK OF DOCUMENTS, with a Post-it on the top. ED Fax these to this number, okay? BRENDA All of 'em? ED All of them. He continues into his office and closes the door. CLOSE ON THE FAX MACHINE LED Brenda types in the number. The recipient's I.D. comes up on the LED: PG&E CLAIMS DEPT. INT. IRVING HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY Another copy of those DOCUMENTS, now in Donna's hands. She's on her couch with Erin, reading them. Outside, Donna's two daughters are playing in the pool. She reads the last page and looks up at Erin, bewildered. DONNA An on-site monitoring well? That means -- ERIN It was right up on the PG&E property over there. DONNA And you say this stuff, this hexavalent chromium -- it's poisonous? ERIN Yeah. DONNA Well -- then it's gotta be a different than what's in our water, cause ours is okay. The guys from PG&E told me. They sat right in the kitchen and said it was fine. ERIN I know. But the toxicologist I been talking to? He gave me a list of problems that can come from hexavalent chromium exposure. And everything you all have is on that list. Donna resists this idea hard. DONNA No. Hunh-uh, see, that's not what the doctor said. He said one's got absolutely nothing to do with the other. ERIN Right, but -- didn't you say he was paid by PG&E? Donna sits quietly, trying to make sense of this. The only sound is the LAUGHING and SPLASHING from the pool out back. Then, gradually, Donna realizes what it is she's hearing -- her kids playing in toxic water. She jumps up ... DONNA ASHLEY! SHANNA! ... and runs out to the pool. Erin follows her. EXT. DONNA'S HOUSE - DAY From the door, Erin watches Donna run to the edge of the pool in a frantic response to this news. DONNA OUT OF THE POOL! BOTH OF YOU, OUT OF THE POOL, RIGHT NOW! SHANNA How come? DONNA CAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY, NOW GET OUT! OUT! NOW!!! Erin watches compassionately as Donna flails to get her kids out of the contaminated water. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY It's morning. Ed is checking the lie of his tie in his reflection in the window. Erin is on his couch, high-heeled legs stretched out in front of her. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, BRENDA'S DESK - CONTINUOUS Jane is delivering paychecks. When Brenda gets to her desk, Jane tips her head toward Ed's office, as if to say, check it out. Brenda peers in and sees Erin. BRENDA What's she doing here? JANE He hired her back. With a raise. BRENDA What?? Why? JANE Well, let's see. It's not cause she's smart, and it's not cause she's professional. That leaves ... Brenda's stunned. Takes a beat. Makes assumptions. BRENDA And dumb old me thought working hard and being loyal was the way to get ahead. INT. ED'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Ed is still checking his reflection. ED I'm telling you, the minute Brenda sent the fax -- I'm talking the second she pressed that send button -- PG&E claims department is on the phone to me, scheduling a meeting. ERIN So you think we got 'em scared? ED It sure as hell sounded like they were sitting up and taking notice. Brenda pops her head in, ignores Erin. BRENDA David Baum from PG&E is at reception. Erin feels the chill Brenda's sending her way. ERIN Nice to see you again, too, Brenda. Brenda leaves without acknowledging Erin. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY Ed and Erin come out and see DAVID BAUM waiting at reception. Forget law school, this kid looks like he's just out of twelfth grade. Not a hair on his chin. His suit and shoes look brand new. ERIN Not to question your judgment or anything, Mr. Masry, but -- that doesn't exactly look like sitting up and taking notice to me. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Ed and Erin are seated across the table from Baum. To say this kid lacks authority is a gross understatement. He doesn't talk; he squeaks. BAUM ... in the interest of putting this whole thing to rest, PG&E is willing to offer the Irvings 250,000 dollars for their home. Ed laughs a little in disbelief. ED 250,000? BAUM In terms of land value out in Hinkley, Mr. Masry, we feel it's a more than fair price. ED What about in terms of medical expenses? 250,000 doesn't come close to what this family's gonna have to spend on doctors. BAUM I understand they've had a bad run of luck, health-wise, and they have my sympathies. But that's not PG&E's fault. ED You're kidding, right? (Baum doesn't answer) Look at these readings for Christ's sake. PG&E's own technicians documented toxic levels of hexavalent chromium in those test wells, on numerous occasions. Ed shoves them across the table. Baum doesn't look at them. ED Everything the Irvings have had is a proven reaction to exposure to hexavalent chromium. They've had ... He stalls a moment. Erin jumps in. ERIN -- breast cysts, uterine cancer, Hodgkin's disease, immune deficiencies, asthma, chronic nosebleeds. Despite their persuasiveness, Baum parrots what is obviously the party line: BAUM A million things could have caused those problems. Poor diet, bad genes, irresponsible lifestyle. Our offer is final and more than fair. ED Wait a minute -- I thought we were negotiating here. BAUM 250,000 is all I'm authorized to offer. Ed looks across at this pissant little kid. ED (to himself) Jesus Christ. (he stands, to leave) I will present your offer to my clients. I doubt they'll accept it. As Ed starts out: BAUM Mr. Masry, before you go off on some crusade, you might want to remember who it is you're dealing with here. PG&E is a 28- billion dollar corporation. ED (containing his anger) Thanks. I'll keep it in mind. And Ed leaves the conference room. Erin follows him out. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY Erin follows Ed as he stomps back to his office. ERIN At least they made an offer. ED That wasn't an offer. A million would've been an offer. When they send the God damn mail clerk down to jerk me off, waste my time, it's a fuck you. ERIN I don't get why they'd do that. ED Because they can. You heard that kid -- they have 28 billion dollars at their disposal. They can afford to waste all the time in the world. ERIN And you can't? ED What, you think I'm made of money? Behind them, Baum steps out of the conference room. BAUM Hey, you know where I can get a cab? My plane leaves Burbank in forty-five minutes. Ed turns and looks at him. He gets a tiny smile. ED Tell you what, why don't you go on over to reception, tell them I said Mario should take you to the airport. BAUM Hey, excellent. Thanks. Baum heads out to the reception area. ERIN Mr. Masry, Mario gets lost going to the bathroom. They'll be driving around the valley for hours. ED (gleeful) Yeah. Isn't that a shame? She watches him go into his office, impressed. Big smile. ERIN Well I'll be God damned. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, OUTSIDE ED'S OFFICE - NIGHT End of the day. Most everyone has left. Erin is at her new work space near Ed's office. She's poring over a fat file of documents. ROSALIND wanders by with her coat on. ROSALIND You've been reading for hours. ERIN I'm a slow reader, on account of the fact that I look at the word "dog" and see "god". ROSALIND Hey, just so long as you see Him. Rosalind turns on Erin's desk lamp and heads out. Outside the big glass office doors, Rosalind stops to talk to a lost-looking COUPLE IN THEIR MID-30's. These are MANDY and TOM BROWN. He's a security guard uniform, with an envelope under his arm. Rosalind points to Erin. The Browns enter the office and approach her. MANDY Excuse me, are you Erin Brockovich? ERIN Yeah. Who are you? TOM I'm Tom Brown. This is my wife Mandy. We used to live across the street from the Irvings. PG&E bought our house last year. INT. ERIN'S DESK - LATER CLOSE ON photos of chickens, each with a twisted, limp neck. TOM It's called wry neck. It's when they're born without any muscles in the neck. WIDEN to see Erin looking at them with Tom and Mandy. ERIN Wow. How many were born like this? TOM Twelve, maybe thirteen. MANDY When Donna told us about you, and what you told her about the chromium, we figured that might have something to do with this, too. ERIN It sure could, yeah. Thanks a lot. She tucks them into a file, as if that's it. MANDY There's something else, too. ERIN What? TOM Well. Mandy here's had nine miscarriages. ERIN Are you kidding? My God -- MANDY I know. It's an awful lot. ERIN I'm surprised Donna didn't say anything. TOM She doesn't know. No one does. It's not something you want to talk about, you know? MANDY I figured it musta been something I did, like when I smoked marijuana, maybe. Or took birth control pills. But then Donna told me you thought this chromium might be to blame for her problems, so I figured ... INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MATT AND KATIE'S ROOM - NIGHT Matt and Katie are in bed, with the light off. Erin comes in, quietly, in clothes from work. ERIN Hey. You guys still awake? CLOSE ON MATT AND KATIE. They're awake and pissed. ERIN Come on, now. No faking. George told me he just shut out the light a few seconds ago. They still don't answer. She comes in and sits on a bed. ERIN Look, I know you're mad. But the way this job is, things come up at the last minute, real important things, and I gotta deal with them. Now I don't like me missing dinner any more than you do, but we're all gonna have to get used to it, cause the fact is, it's gonna happen sometimes. KATIE It happens all the time. ERIN That's not true; we had dinner together just last night. MATT You were reading the whole time. He's got a point there. Erin feels like shit. ERIN I'm sorry, pumpkins. I'll try a whole lot harder to be around, okay? I promise. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Erin enters and flops down onto the bed, exhausted. George is lying on the bed next to her. GEORGE If it's any consolation, I love you. EXT. ROUTE 10, INLAND EMPIRE - DAY Dry, flat California. Ed's big old Mercedes is toodling down the freeway, at an overly safe, almost-geriatric speed. INT. ED'S MERCEDES - DAY Frank Sinatra is playing on the stereo. Ed is swaying in time. This is his kind of music. He smiles, looks at Erin. ED It's Sinatra's world, we just live in it. Whatever. Erin glances at the speedometer. Oy. So slow. His car phone rings. He picks it up. ED Hello? ... (his voice softens) Hi, babys. Baby's fine. Yes, I did. I did, too, you just didn't feel it. He starts swerving across the lane markers. THWACK THWACK THWACK. Ed doesn't notice. Erin's getting nervous. ED You think I could leave without kissing my babys? Okay, here you go. He kisses into the phone. Swerves. A car barely misses them. Erin's eyes widen. Not fun at all. ED Bye-bye ... bye-bye ... no, you. Okay, together. Bye-bye. He finally hangs up, smiling to himself. Erin clears her throat. ERIN Um -- you mind pulling over? Just -- for a second? EXT. FREEWAY - DAY The Mercedes pulls to a stop on the shoulder. Erin gets out, walks around to the driver's side. Opens the door. ERIN First of all, don't talk baby talk to your wife in front of me. It really undermines your authority. And second, I know you're my boss and all, but you are the worst fucking driver I've ever seen. Move over or I quit. He moves over. She gets in, turns off the Sinatra. They pull back out onto the freeway in silence. EXT. MANDY BROWN'S HOUSE - NIGHT The Mercedes and a truck are parked out front. PETE (O.S.) There's something about this whole thing I don't quite understand, Mr. Masry. INT. DONNA IRVING'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Donna and Pete Irving, and Mandy and Roy Brown are all seated, sipping iced tea. While they talk, Erin hands them all information packets on chromium. Ed is standing in front of them, a little stiff. PETE If PG&E messed with our water, why would they bother saying anything about it to us? Why not just keep quiet about it? ED To establish a statute of limitations. See, in a case like this, you only have a year from the time you first learn about the problem to file suit. So PG&E figures, we'll let the cat out of the bag -- tell the people the water's not perfect; if we can ride out the year with no one suing, we'll be in the clear forever. DONNA But it was more than a year ago that they told us -- ED It's okay. We're not suing. All we're doing is using this information to get you a real nice purchase price on your house, and get you two -- (to the Browns) -- a comparable retroactive bonus added to your sale price. This way, and PG&E can still look good to their shareholders, cause they're not involved in an ugly lawsuit; all they're doing is buying a little property. Roy looks up from his retainer agreement. ROY It doesn't say here how much this whole thing's gonna cost us. ED My fee's forty percent of whatever you get awarded. Erin watches them look around at each other, stunned by the figure. ERIN Boy, do I know how you feel. First time I heard that number, I said you got to be kidding me. Forty God damn percent? ED Erin -- ERIN I'm the one who's injured, and this joker who sits at a desk all day is gonna walk away with almost half my reward? ED Erin -- Erin's enjoying Ed's discomfort almost too much to stop. But just almost. She shifts gears. ERIN Then I asked him how much he makes if I didn't get anything. They look at Ed. Well? ED Then I don't get anything either. ERIN And I realized, he's taking a chance too. When they hear this, and realize he's in it with them, they all reach for their pens and sign. They hand the agreements over to Erin, who takes them across the room to Ed. He stuffs them in his briefcase and closes it up. That's that. ED All right, then. Let's hit the road. Boy. Cold as ice. Erin stares at him, stunned by his brusque manner, then leans in to him, close. ERIN (whispering) Mr. Masry, if you don't mind my saying, you got a lot to learn about being friendly. These people just hired you as their lawyer. The least you could do is make a little pleasant conversation. She gives him a stern look, then turns toward the women. ERIN Donna, let me help you clean all this up. She picks up a tray of iced tea and cookies and heads to the kitchen. Donna and Mandy follow, leaving Ed alone with Pete and Roy. He stands there, awkwardly. Then, finally: ED So, what's, uh ... what's new? INT. DONNA'S KITCHEN - DAY Erin and Donna are putting away the cleaned glasses. Mandy is scanning the chromium pamphlet Erin gave her. MANDY You know that thing it says in here about rashes? ERIN Uh-huh? MANDY Well, this old neighbor of mine, Bob Linwood -- he ran the dairy on Community -- seemed like someone in his family always had a rash somewhere or other. I just figured it was something in the genes. And you know how it is -- you don't like to ask about things like that ... Erin listens, interested. EXT. LINWOOD DAIRY, BARN - DAY Another day. BOB LINWOOD, 40's and gruff, is in the barn, tossing hay around. ERIN (O.S.) Excuse me. Are you Mr. Linwood? He sees Erin picking her way toward him in her high-heels. LINWOOD Yeah? ERIN I'm Erin Brockovich. I work at the law firm that represents your former neighbors the Browns. They suggested I give you a call. She steps in a cow patty. Laughs at herself good-naturedly. ERIN Boy howdy, did I ever wear the wrong shoes. EXT. THE DESOTOS' HOUSE - DAY CLOSE ON A SIGN that reads: THE DESOTOS, hanging on the side of a small, paint-chipped house. Erin is at the door talking to MARY DESOTO, 65, who's wearing a big cross at her breast. ERIN ... and Mr. Linwood seemed to think that your husband had been sick as well. MARY Yes, Mr. DeSoto has lung cancer. Never smoked a day in his life, neither. INT. LAURA AND MIKE AMBROSINO'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin is talking to MIKE and LAURA AMBROSINO -- 30's. Solid, family folks. But Laura's left brow and cheekbone look swollen and misshapen, and she's trying to hide the fact that she's in a lot of pain. ERIN Mrs. DeSoto said she wasn't sure exactly what it was that you had -- PETE She's not alone on that one. LAURA Well, they know what it is -- it's called fibrous dysplasia -- PETE The bones start growing again. Gives her headaches like you wouldn't believe. LAURA -- they just don't know what caused it. INT. RITA AND TED DANIELS' HOUSE - DAY Erin is talking to TED AND RITA DANIELS. Their daughter ANNABELLE, 10, is sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. ERIN ... then Mike Ambrosino remembered seeing you folks at the hospital from time to time too, so I thought I'd just stop by. (to Annabelle) You must be Annabelle. ANNABELLE Uh-huh. ERIN Whew, are you ever a beauty. I mean, you must drive those boys crazy. Annabelle smiles a little. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Late night. George rolls over -- Erin's side of the bed is empty. He checks the clock, then gets up and heads into: INT. ERIN'S APARTMENT, HALLWAY - NIGHT He peers around and spots her, sitting in the little kid's chair in Matthew and Katie's room. Erin is holding Beth, watching Matt and Katie sleep. Erin hears the floor creak as George steps into the doorway. ERIN Tell me something, George. What kind of God lets a beautiful little 10-year-old girl get brain cancer? Isn't He supposed to be in charge of stuff like that? Make sure it doesn't happen? (beat) I swear, any other job, He'd be fired. EXT. VALLEY SIDEWALK - DAY Ed and Erin are walking down the street, take-out coffee cups in their hands. Ed is sipping his, but Erin is in too much of a lather to drink hers. ED Hunh-uh. Absolutely not. ERIN That's crazy -- why not? ED Because I said no. Look -- the only reason PG&E's even talking to us is cause this is a quiet little real estate dispute. We add plaintiffs, and suddenly we're in the middle of a toxic tort -- with a statute problem -- against a massive utility. No, thank you. They go into their office building. INT. ELEVATOR - DAY Erin and Ed are riding up. ERIN Okay, so here's what I'll do. I'll go on up to Ted and Rita Daniels -- two of the nicest people you'd ever hope to meet, who spend every single day watching their little girl fight like a dog against this cancer -- I'll tell them we can't help them cause you don't feel like working that hard. ED It's not about working hard -- ERIN Bullshit. ED -- It's about being realistic. Something like this, Erin -- it could take forever. They're a huge corporation. They'd completely bury us in paperwork. I'm just one guy with a shitty little P.I. firm. ERIN -- who happens to know they poisoned people and lied about it. The doors open. Ed gets off. Erin follows. INT. MASRY LAW OFFICE BUILDING, HALLWAY - DAY Erin's dogging Ed down the hall, to the office. ERIN And this shit is bad news, Mr. Masry. Not only does it attack every organ of the body, it fucks with your DNA, too. That means these people's genes, and the genes of their kids, and the genes of their grandkids -- ED I know how DNA works, Erin -- He gets to the Masry & Vititoe doors. Opens them. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - DAY Erin tails Ed back to his office. ERIN We can get these people. With a little effort, I really think we can nail their asses to the wall. ED Oh, you do? With all your legal expertise, you believe that? ERIN Okay, fine. I don't know shit about shit. But I know the difference -- He shuts his office door on her. ERIN -- BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG! INT. ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed goes over to his desk, sits down. He sees a stack of messages there, starts flipping through them. Then he stops. ED Damn it. He shoves the messages aside and puts his head in his hands. He sits like that for a moment, GROANS to himself. Then he pushes himself up and heads over to his door. When he opens it, he finds Erin still standing there, exactly where he left her, arms crossed. She hasn't budged. ED How many families we talking about here? ERIN Four more. Eleven people. So far. ED You think there's more? ERIN Well -- I found one document at the water board that had a toxic test well reading from 1967. A hell of a lot of people have lived on that land since then. Ed pauses, groans again, realizing what decision he's making. ED This is a whole different ball game, Erin. A much bigger deal. ERIN Kinda like David and what's-his-name? ED Kinda like David and what's-his-name's whole fucking family. (heavy sigh) Okay, here's the deal -- if, and only if, you find me the evidence to back all this up -- I'll do it. I'll take it on. She smiles victoriously. ERIN You're doing the right thing, Mr. Masry. ED Yeah, yeah. Remind me of that when I'm filing for bankruptcy. He heads back to his desk. Erin follows him into his office. ERIN Course, gathering evidence -- now, that's a big job. A hell of a lot bigger than just filing. I'm gonna be working a lot harder now, taking on a lot more responsibility ... He gives her a look. Knows what's coming. ED What now? ERIN Another raise wouldn't hurt. And with all the time I'm gonna be spending on the road, I'll probably be needing my own cel phone, won't I? INT. TOYS 'R' US - DAY CLOSE ON A BEEPING CEL PHONE as Erin tries to program numbers into its speed dial. WIDEN to see she is reading from the phone's manual as she enters Toys 'R' Us with George, Matthew, Katie and Beth. ERIN You each can pick out four things. But nothing huge. Look at the price. Nothing crazy. Matthew and Katie fan out into the store. Erin keeps messing with the phone. GEORGE You can buy 'em all the toys you want, but come Monday, when you split again, they're still gonna be pissed. Erin looks over at him, weary. ERIN George, I am just trying to do something nice for my kids on my one day off. Could you please not give me a hard time about it? GEORGE One toy per kid is doing something nice. Four is ... something else. ERIN Well, hell, I guess that's it, then, huh? They're scarred for life. They're gonna start holding up 7-11's any day now. GEORGE I'm just saying -- ERIN (with intensity) I know what you're saying, and I don't wanna hear it. I am doing the best I can. And she walks away from him. EXT. HINKLEY, ROADSIDE DITCH - DAY Erin, in high heels and miniskirt, is straddling a ditch, scooping clumps of gunky moss from the ditch into plastic containers. Over this: ERIN (O.S.) Dr. Frankel, it's Erin Brockovich. Tell me something: if I wanna find as much evidence of hexavalent chromium contamination as I possibly can, what should I do? As Erin labels the containers, her heels slide down the side of the ditch, and she lands smack in it, knee-deep in gunk. EXT. HINKLEY, COMMUNITY BOULEVARD - NIGHT Erin, now completely dirty, is climbing over a fence marked "No Trespassing". Her arms are full of more containers. FRANKEL (O.S.) Well, what you have to remember is, if you have hex chrom in the water, you have it in anything that lived off the water. She adds them to a growing collection of containers in the trunk of her car. EXT. HINKLEY, THE POOL BEHIND AN ABANDONED HOUSE - DAY Another day. This time it's RAINING. Erin minces her way down to the deep end of the pool in her spike heels. FRANKEL (O.S.) What I'd do is start a collection. Anything that existed in water, on water, under water ... She gets to the deep end and scoops up a Ziploc full of rancid pool water and seals it. FRANKEL (O.S.) anything that had water flow over or under it ... Erin spots a few dead frogs in the water. She picks one up by the leg, and seals it in a plastic bag as well. EXT. WELL - DAY With a sample cup held in her teeth, Erin hauls herself up over the well's concrete wall, then, with her back against one side of the well and her feet against the other, starts shimmying down the well. FRANKEL (O.S.) anything that had water pass through it ... INSIDE THE WELL she winces at the algae and gook that's clinging to her as she descends to the water level. When she's low enough, she takes the sample cup from her teeth and scoops up the water. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN'S DESK - DAY Erin's at her desk, bending over her notebook in a miniskirt, adding reports to the TOXICOLOGY binder. FRANKEL (O.S.) ... collect 'em, label 'em, then bring 'em to me. I'll analyze 'em, see what we got. ON THE REPORTS: We catch a few words: "water sample A ...", "soil sample D ...", "frog sample A ...", "... traces of hexavalent ..." Brenda looks at Erin and sees her hem rising in the back. BRENDA For God's sake, Erin, I can see your panties. Erin turns to Brenda, relishing the chance to irritate her. ERIN Liar. I'm not wearing any. Ed, in his office, laughs. He's starting to like this gal. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT It's a hot night. George is playing on the floor with the kids. Erin is behind them on the couch, laboriously reading a book labeled, simply, CHROMIUM. The phone RINGS. Erin picks it up. ERIN Hello? MALE VOICE (O.S.) Is this the Erin Pattee Brockovich that's been snooping around the water board? His voice is flat, creepy. Not friendly. ERIN Yes. Who's this? CLICK. Erin stares at the phone, freaked. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, FRONT DOOR - NIGHT George watches Erin double-checking the locks on the door. ERIN I'm not gonna quit cause of one creepy phone call, George. GEORGE Come on, Erin. A job's supposed to pay your bills, not put you in danger. ERIN I'm not in danger. I have a dead bolt. Remember? She goes to the living room, double-checks the window locks in there. George follows. GEORGE Look, don't take this the wrong way, but don't you think you might be out of your league here? ERIN No, see -- that's exactly what those arrogant PG&E fucks want me to think -- that because they got all this money and power, we don't stand a chance in hell against them. But you know what? They're wrong. She heads into the bedrooms. GEORGE It doesn't have to be this complicated, Erin. There's a lot of jobs out there. ERIN (off-hand) How would you know? George reacts, a little stung. He follows her into: INT. MATT AND KATIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Matt and Katie are asleep. Erin is checking their windows. George comes in. They whisper. GEORGE You mind telling me what that's supposed to mean? ERIN Nothing. GEORGE If you got a problem with me taking care of your kids instead of getting some job, just say so. ERIN I didn't say that. GEORGE Cause I can get a job. I will. And you can start leaving the kids with the chicken fat lady again. Would that make you happy? ERIN Keep your voice down. GEORGE I know what they can sleep through, Erin. I probably know it better than you. She gives him a glare, then leaves the room. INT. WATER BOARD - DAY Erin is reaching up to a high shelf for a dusty old box of files. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Ross passing. ERIN Hey, Ross. Tell me something. Does PG&E pay you to cover their ass, or do you just do it out of the kindness of your heart? ROSS (a bad liar) I don't know what you're talking about. ERIN The fuck you don't. No one calls me Pattee. That heavy-breathing sicko that called the other night could've only found out about me from you. (beat) People are dying, Ross. You got document after document here, right under your nose, that says why, and you haven't said word one about it. I wanna know how the hell you sleep at night. Ross is speechless. He just stands there. Erin drags the box to the floor and goes to work. EXT. WATER BOARD - NIGHT Erin's car is parked in front. A DIRTY OLD PICK-UP comes rumbling up the road. When its lights hit Erin's car, it slows, then pulls over. The driver flicks on his BRIGHTS to get a better look at the car. The truck sits there for a bit, a dark presence. Then, as the headlights of another car appear down the road, the truck goes back in gear, pulls out and drives off. INT. ERIN'S HYUNDAI - NIGHT A pile of documents is strapped into the passenger seat. An empty coffee cup rolls around the floor. Erin's driving, exhausted. She yawns as she dials her phone. GEORGE (O.S.) Hello? INTERCUT between Erin in her car, and George in bed. ERIN I'm so tired I'm about to drive off the road. Keep me awake, willya? GEORGE What do you want, a joke? ERIN No, no jokes, I gotta pee. Just tell me about your day. What went on back there? GEORGE Well, come to think of it, we did have a big event around here. Beth started talking. ERIN What? (beat) Beth? My Beth? GEORGE Yeah. We were sitting around at lunch and she pointed at a ball and said, "ball." Erin says nothing, just stares out at the empty highway, feeling all hollowed-out. GEORGE I'd never seen that before -- someone's first word. Pretty intense. Erin just nods. Keeps staring straight ahead as a tear rolls down her cheek. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN AND BRENDA'S AREA - DAY CLOSE ON SOME FILES as Erin hands them to Ed. As he takes them from her, he notices a crematory urn on Erin's desk. ED Is that what I think it is? ERIN She lived on the plume. You never know. Ed laughs and hands the documents to Brenda without looking at her. She grumpily takes them over to the fax machine. CLOSE ON THE FAX LED as Brenda types in the number. The recipient's name comes up again: PG&E CLAIMS DEPT. EXT. HINKLEY BARBECUE - DAY Open pits, pony rides, watermelon. George is watching Katie and Matt being led around on ponies, an activity that stopped being fun hours ago. Now they're just hot and tired. BY THE BARBECUE, Ed is talking to an OLDER COUPLE as they sign retainer agreements. ELSEWHERE, Erin, holding Beth, is looking at pictures of a swimming pool with FIVE OTHER WOMEN. The water is green. ERIN This was the community pool? WOMAN 1 Yeah, that PG&E built. The whole time we thought it was algae that made it so green. LATER ... Erin's trunk is open. She and Ed are clipping new clusters of retainer agreements into the "PLAINTIFFS" binder. LATER STILL ... Erin and Ed are passing out informational pamphlets. She sticks one in a hand before noticing that it's George's. GEORGE I'm bored, and so are the kids. ERIN Just a few more minutes, then we can go. (as he heads off) Take her, will you? George drops the pamphlet and takes Beth from Erin. He heads over to Matt and Katie, sitting glumly on a log. As he steps away, a hand reaches down and grabs the flier he dropped. It belongs to a MAN IN A BLACK JACKET. He's in his 50's, strong and sinewy. Military-style dark glasses obscure his eyes. He scans the pamphlet, then watches Erin working the crowd. Watches her carefully. He slides the pamphlet into his inside pocket, and heads back his car -- the DIRTY OLD PICK-UP TRUCK that idled in front of the Water Board. LATER STILL ... Erin is heading over to George and the kids, ready to leave, when Donna comes up to her, with A MIDDLE-AGED MAN in tow. DONNA Erin, this here's Frank Melendez. He works over at the compressor station -- Erin stops in her tracks, very interested. LATER STILL ... Erin and Frank are on a bench, talking. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees her car drive off. George's hand sticks out the driver's side and flips her the bird. She watches him disappear, then, hiding her rage, turns back to Frank. ERIN I'm sorry. What were you saying? LATER ... The barbecue is winding down. Ed is heading for his Mercedes. Erin storms up beside him, mad as all get-out. ERIN I need a ride. INT. ED'S CAR - DAY Ed is driving. He glances over at Erin, fuming in the passenger seat. After a beat: ED You wanna talk about -- ERIN No. Another beat. Then Erin's cel phone rings. She digs into her bag, pulling it out as fast as she can. Answers. ERIN What, asshole? There's a pause. Then Mike Ambrosino's voice comes over the line, very strained: MIKE AMBROSINO (O.S.) Um, Erin? This is Mike. Ambrosino. EXT. AMBROSINOS' HOUSE, FOYER - DAY The curtains are drawn; everything is dark. Ed and Erin are at the door, talking to Mike, who looks drawn and tired. MIKE She was about to take a handful of these -- He shows them a bottle of prescription pills. MIKE It's a morphine thing -- for pain -- Erin nods, then leaves Ed with Mike and heads toward: INT. AMBROSINOS' HOUSE, BEDROOM - DAY Erin opens the door. Very dark, very quiet. Laura is lying in bed. Erin goes over to her. They speak in whispers. LAURA I'm embarrassed. ERIN That's okay. I understand. LAURA It's just -- the pain. It's only getting worse. I can't be a good wife. I can't be a good mother. ERIN I'm real sorry, Laura. Erin sits down on the chair next to the bed. Takes a beat. LAURA Know what I always thought I wanted outta life, Erin? A Jaguar. ERIN Jaguar's a darn pretty car. LAURA I thought if I could spend that kinda money on a car, it'd mean everything else was fine. (beat) I don't even know how much they cost. ERIN A lot. But you hang in there, maybe you'll get one. Laura shakes her head. LAURA Wouldn't mean the same thing. Erin watches her sadly. INT. PG&E COMPRESSOR STATION - DAY A LOUD, industrial plant. Erin and Frank Melendez walk through, him in coveralls, her in a teensy sun dress. Both in hard-hats. He's giving her a tour. EXT. NORTHRIDGE STREET - DAY George, in his leather and denim, is walking down the sidewalk. As we WIDEN, we see he's pushing a PINK STROLLER. He stops at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. In the stroller, Beth starts to whine. George reaches in his pocket, finds her pacifier. As he's leaning down to give it to her, he hears a RUMBLE coming down the street behind him. The roar grows. He stands, looks. A GROUP OF ABOUT TEN BIKERS has pulled up next to him. He looks at them. They look at him, then at the stroller. George feels ridiculous. When the light changes, the bikers REV LOUDLY and pull out. George just stands there and watches them go. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - NIGHT His office is all about Hinkley. A map of the plume area and a diagram of the plant cover one wall; photos of the plant cover the credenza; piles of documents litter every surface; Erin is up at the map, eating Chinese food. ERIN They used the hex chrom here, in these cooling tanks, as an anti-corrosive. Then they dumped it here, in these six ponds. ED I don't remember seeing any ponds up there. She bites into a forkful of food, keeps talking. ERIN They covered 'em over. And not too carefully either, cause you dig one inch under the surface, and the dirt is green as a fucking shamrock. ED And that's what caused the contamination? ERIN It didn't help, but no. The real problem's on the bottom. She reaches for a document, reads from it. ERIN See, according to this, they were supposed to line the ponds so this shit couldn't seep into the ground. But guess what -- ED They skipped that step. ERIN I guess it was a little too inconvenient. So for fourteen years, this stuff flowed into the groundwater, free as you please. ED Jesus. (beat) I don't even wanna ask what you did to make this Melendez guy talk. In response to the insinuation, Erin gives him a glare. ERIN For your information, Frank cares what was in those ponds 'cause he used to spend half his day wading around them. That was his job. ED No shit. ERIN No -- Suddenly, her eyes pop out of her head -- ERIN SHIT! SHIT! Hot! Hot! Hot! Tears spring to her eyes. She fans furiously at her mouth. Ed finds the tequila from the client and hands it to her. She takes a swig. There's a nanosecond of relief ... until the tequila hits. Her eyes redden. She spews and gasps. ERIN You ... asshole ... Ed chuckles. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - LATER The tequila's been dipped into. Ed and Erin are each lying on a couch, staring at documents. Late-night working. ED Erin -- lemme tell you something. If I'da put three researchers on this, I wouldn't expect them to dig up all the information you got here. This is some damn good work. ERIN Yeah? Then gimme another raise. ED Hey, I got a staff to pay, plus rent, plus I haven't billed a minute of my time since I started on this case, so you can quit hitting me up like I'm rich or something. He gets up, grabs his trash can, and moves around the room with it, cleaning up all the Chinese food cartons. ERIN Don't give me that. You're gonna get plenty rich off of this, Mr. 40 percent. We got those PG&E fuckers by the balls here. ED We've got the PG&E fuckers in Hinkley by the balls. But nobody's getting rich unless we can pin this on the corporate PG&E fuckers in San Francisco. ERIN What do you mean? ED PG&E corporate is claiming they had no way of knowing what was going on in Hinkley. ERIN Oh, they knew. They had to know. ED Show me the document that proves that. She doesn't have one. ED Then they didn't know. And if they didn't know, we can't hit 'em for punitive damages. And punitive damages is where the money is. ERIN Jesus Christ, Ed -- you know, the more I work on this thing, the more I realize what a crock of shit this legal system is. Here we got a company that poisoned a whole aquifer -- that built a pool for a town, then filled it with toxic water -- and we're the ones who've gotta bust our ass proving things? That's just not right. Beat. Ed smiles. ED I like this case. ERIN Really? It makes me sick. ED Me too. That's why I like it. It's been a long time since I had a case I cared about. ERIN You didn't care about my case? ED I would now. He gives her a long look. ED Hey. I like working with you. ERIN Well, good, Ed. I like working with you too. They both smile a little awkwardly. Take a beat. Then: ED When'd you start calling me Ed? INT. MASRY & VITITOE - NIGHT The Christmas party. The office is decorated; someone is Santa. Erin and George enter, all dressed up. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, HALLWAY - NIGHT Erin's giving George a guided tour. As they head down the hall, every desk is decorated and has a present on it GEORGE I'm just saying -- we have one night to ourselves, why do we have to spend it here? ERIN Cause it's my office party. If you had an office, I'd go to your party. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN AND BRENDA'S DESKS - NIGHT It's dark. The door to Erin's area opens. ERIN And here, ta-daa, is my desk. She flicks on the lights. Brenda's desk is decorated and as a present on it. Erin's is empty. GEORGE Which one? (it's obvious) Maybe they didn't think you were coming. Erin shakes her head. She's surprised by how hurt she is. ERIN (quietly) God damn. I work so hard. The least they could do ... George looks over at her, sees her eyes glisten a little. He goes over to her, wraps his arms around her. GEORGE Hey. Fuck 'em, babe. Who needs 'em, huh? He kisses her. She leans into him. He kisses her some more. GEORGE (quietly) See? All we need is each other. She kisses back. She's gonna let him take care of her. Some more kisses, heating up. He slides her onto her empty desk. GEORGE Good thing there isn't a present there, huh? That mighta hurt. She laughs a little. He slides his hands up her skirt. She pulls him into her, tugging his shirt out of his pants. INT. MASRY OFFICES, HALLWAY - NIGHT Ed is coming down the hall with his wife, JOEY. Joey is much younger than Ed, and very pretty. ED I'll show you what we did back here -- INT. ERIN'S DESK - NIGHT Erin and George, in a rapidly-heating-up clinch on her desk, hear the voices. Erin pulls away. ERIN That's Ed. GEORGE Lock the door. ERIN No, I wanna say hi. He pulls her back into him, not wanting to move. GEORGE We'll say hi later. Lock it. But Erin pulls away ... ERIN Come on, George, it's a party. He watches her straighten her dress and take a step away from him. It's just one step, but it feels a hell a lot farther. INT. RECEPTION AREA - LATER Erin and Ed are at the reception desk, talking and laughing. NEARBY, Joey and George are standing together, awkwardly. JOEY Your wife's real pretty. GEORGE She's not my wife. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MATT AND KATIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Matthew lies awake in his bed, listening to George and Erin fight. GEORGE (O.S.) It wouldn't kill you to talk about something other than yourself and your own fucking job once in a while -- ERIN (O.S.) What do you want to talk about instead? Your day? That's a fascinating subject. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Erin and George are fighting while they get ready for bed. GEORGE Fuck you. Just cause I don't spend all day trying to prove what hot shit I am -- ERIN That is not what I'm -- GEORGE Bullshit, Erin. Bullshit. The fight is interrupted by the sound of BETH CRYING. ERIN Great. Excellent. Thank you very much. She leaves the room. INT. BETH'S ROOM - NIGHT Beth is wailing in her crib. Erin comes in in her nightshirt and lifts Beth out. Then, more to herself than to Beth: ERIN It's okay, baby. It'll be okay. She runs her hand over Beth's head, then slides down the wall and crumples onto the floor. As she curls around Beth, Erin starts to COUGH. Deep, raspy coughs from way down low. EXT. PG&E STATION - NIGHT Late, late at night. The plant is silent. The property seems empty, until we notice Pete Irving standing alone inside the gates, staring up at the station. After a beat, he picks up a rock and hurls it at the plant. It misses. Not that it would do anything if it hit. He reaches for another, throws it. Then another, and another. He hurls rock after rock at the gigantic plant. Then, overwhelmed by his impotence, he lets out a TERRIFYING YELL. INT. IRVINGS' HOUSE, DONNA'S BEDROOM - DAY Donna's sitting quietly in bed. Erin is sitting on the edge of the bed. DONNA I'd got so used to having 'em come up benign, I guess I just didn't expect it. She looks down her shirt front. DONNA Sure wish I had longer to get used to the idea. (beat) You think if you got no uterus, and no breasts, you're still technically a woman? ERIN Sure you are. You're just a happier woman, cause you don't have to deal with maxi-pads and underwire. Donna smiles a little. Then her face crumbles. DONNA We're gonna get them, aren't we, Erin? You gotta promise me we're gonna get them. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, DAY CLOSE ON THE FAX LED as DOCUMENTS are faxed once again to the PG&E CLAIMS DEPT. THEN AGAIN, on another day. AND AGAIN, on another day. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is once again checking the lie of his tie in a window. Erin is popping some aspirin, trying to kill a headache that has brought with it a healthy dose of intolerance. ERIN If they've sent that little shmuck Baum again, I'm gonna be real pissed off. ED From their tone of voice on the phone, I'd say they're taking us more seriously. ERIN Yeah, I heard that one before. Brenda leans her head in. BRENDA Mr. Sanchez, Mr. Webster, Mr. Buda, and Ms. Cooper, from PG&E are here. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION AREA - DAY Talk about moving up the food chain. MS. SANCHEZ, MR. WEBSTER, MR. BUDA, and MR. COOPER mill slowly about the reception area like sharks. They all ooze importance. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, OUTSIDE OF ED'S OFFICE - DAY Erin, Ed and Brenda are staring out at them. ERIN Jesus. They look like the Secret Service. ED They're trying to intimidate us. (then, to Brenda) Tell them to wait in the conference room. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Sanchez, Webster, Buda, and Cooper are seated. The door opens and Ed enters, legal pad under his arm. Followed by Erin, legal pad under her arm. Followed by Anna (looking professional in Brenda's suit coat), legal pad under her arm. Followed by Mario (in a suit produced from who knows where), legal pad under his arm. If you didn't know better, you'd assume it was a team of lawyers as well. ED Counselors -- MR. SANCHEZ Counselors. Ed and Erin sit down and get to work. Mario and Anna, clearly told to just follow along, sit down a moment later. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER Mario and Anna are sitting mutely in their seats beside Ed and Erin, firing blank looks across the table. SANCHEZ Let's be honest, here. Two million dollars is more money than these people have ever dreamed of. Erin has no patience for this today. ERIN Oh, see, now that pisses me off. First of all -- we got more'n a hundred plaintiffs. They may not be sophisticated, but they do know how to divide, and two million dollars isn't shit when it's split between them. Mario and Anna exchange a look. This is getting interesting. ED Erin -- But there's no stopping her. ERIN And second of all -- these people don't dream about being rich. They dream about being able to watch their kids swim in a pool without worrying they'll have to have a hysterectomy at age 20, like Rosa Diaz -- a client of ours -- or have their spine deteriorate like Stan Bloom. Another client of ours. So before you come back here with another lame-ass offer, I want you to think real hard about what your spine is worth, Mr. Buda -- or what you'd expect someone to pay you for your uterus, Miss Sanchez -- then you take out your calculator and multiply that number by a hundred. Anything less than that is a waste of our time. And she gets up and storms out of the meeting. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, COFFEE AREA - DAY Erin drinks a big swig of coffee and pops a few more aspirin. Beyond her, the PG&E lawyers are filing out of the office. Anna wanders over to Erin, a little uncomfortable. ANNA Um, Erin? (Erin turns) Listen. Even though you're not necessarily my favorite person in the world ... (beat) ... sometimes you're not half-bad. ERIN I'm gonna assume that was meant as a compliment, Anna, and just say thank you. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN'S DESK - NIGHT Erin's at her desk, which is completely buried in documents and files. She's visibly exhausted, struggling to focus on the page, and COUGHING while she works. Ed calls to her. ED Hey. A new plaintiff called, wants to meet you. I told him we'd be out there Thursday. ERIN D'you get his name? (no answer) Course not. Jesus, Ed -- ED He said he'd be at the gas station at six. ERIN Boy, this job takes me to some of the best damn places, huh? EXT. HINKLEY GAS STATION - SUNSET Erin is sitting out front, swigging cough syrup from the bottle. She checks her watch: 6:30. The GAS STATION ATTENDANT comes out, locks up, and turns out the lights. ERIN This is the only station in town, right? ATTENDANT Yup. He gets in his car and drives off. Erin sits down again. Looks down the road in both directions. Nothing. Then she spots, behind some bushes across the street, a glint of chrome. She shields her eyes against the sunset and sees: the BEAT-UP TRUCK parked behind some shrubbery. Erin looks around, realizes she's alone. As she looks back at the truck, the ASH of a cigarette brightens in the cab. She realizes she's being watched. The driver's door opens. Erin bolts for her car, scrambling to find her keys. She jumps in, locks her doors, and tries to start her car, but it won't turn over. Panic. The Man in the Dark Glasses has gotten out and is heading toward her car. Erin looks around again. Not a soul. She tries the engine again. And again. Just as he gets to her car, the engine engages. Erin peels out of the gas station. INT. ERIN'S CAR - NIGHT Erin drives down the road, hyperventilating, trying to focus on the road. She looks in the rear-view mirror -- nothing. She reaches the train tracks. A train is passing. She has to stop. As she's waiting, the glint of headlights bounce off her rear view mirror. Truck lights, coming her way. Fuck. She looks at the train -- still passing -- then back at the headlights closing in on her. The train, the headlights, the train, the headlights ... Finally, when the headlights are right behind her, the last train car zips by. Erin peels out, bounding her rickety car over the tracks. The truck follows. EXT. HINKLEY ROAD - NIGHT The Hyundai zips down the road. And behind it, the truck. INT. HYUNDAI - NIGHT She looks out at the landscape around her. It's black. No other cars on the road. She starts to panic, accelerates. EXT. HINKLEY ROAD - NIGHT The Hyundai going faster. The truck still following. INT. HYUNDAI - NIGHT Erin comes up on a stop sign. She runs it. So does the truck. A little later, she makes a turn and sees THE LOST CAUSE SALOON. In the parking lot, like a lifeboat, sits Ed's Mercedes. She pulls into the drive and jumps out of her car. INT. LOST CAUSE SALOON - NIGHT Ed is eating ribs when Erin bursts through the door. She rushes over to him, near tears with fear and exhaustion. ERIN Someone's following me. ED What? Who? ERIN Some guy in a truck -- he waited till I was alone, then he followed me, like, two miles. Jesus, I'm shaking. Get me a beer. Ed gets up and heads toward the door. ED (to the counter guy) Beer, please. As Ed looks out the door, Erin collapses onto a bench. ED What kind of truck? ERIN I don't know. Big. Dark. ED He's gone. (back to the table) Did you get a license plate? Or a make? ERIN No, Ed -- what with me running for my life, I didn't have time to check those things -- ED I was just asking. Are you all right? ERIN Yeah. Yeah, I'm ... fine. Ed looks at her. She looks terrible. Shaky, tired, drawn. ED Jesus, you look like shit. When was the last time you had a decent night's sleep? EXT. HINKLEY MOTEL - NIGHT Crappy and pink. Ed's Mercedes pulls into the parking lot. Erin's Hyundai follows. Ed stops, gets out. INT. HYUNDAI - NIGHT Ed swings by Erin's open car window. ED Don't worry. I'm getting two rooms. EXT. HINKLEY MOTEL - NIGHT Erin and Ed amble down the porch, checking door numbers, each rattling a key. They find their adjacent rooms and stop. Erin leans against the wall, too weak to stand. ED Lock the door every which way you can. And if there's anything -- funny sound, whatever -- pound on the wall. I'll come right over. She nods a little. Then before she goes into her room: ERIN I think you should know -- there's very few people in the world who don't piss me off 90 percent of the time. (beat) You're one of 'em. It's as tender as she gets, and he's moved by it. They look at each other. Maybe even considering. But after a long beat, she reaches for her door again. Moment over. ED I'm triple locking my door, so don't even think of trying to take advantage. She smiles, goes inside. He watches her close her door behind her before going inside himself. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE, FRONT STOOP - NIGHT George is sitting alone on the stoop, drinking a beer. Music is coming from his house next door. He stares out into the street with a lot on his mind. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Katie and Matt are making a mess of breakfast. Beth is on the floor, grinding cereal into the linoleum. ERIN (O.S.) Hello? Erin enters, having just gotten home, and sees the mayhem. ERIN What are you doing? Where's George? KATIE I don't know. ERIN George! She heads out. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, ERIN'S BEDROOM - DAY George is sitting on the bed when Erin enters. ERIN Jesus, George, they're turning the kitchen into a hellhole. You know you can't leave them alone like that. He doesn't answer. Doesn't move. She notices this. ERIN What's going on? What are you doing? GEORGE Thinking. ERIN About what? He's very calm. He holds out a small jewelry box. GEORGE About this. ERIN What's that? GEORGE It's a pair of earrings. I saw 'em in the mall one day, and I thought, damn, those would look good on those beautiful earlobes. So I bought 'em. And I said to myself, next time Erin says something nice, does something nice, I'll surprise her with 'em. (beat) Know how long ago that was? Six months. In six months, you haven't said one nice thing to me. That's a long time. ERIN I'm sorry. I'm just working so hard -- GEORGE I know. But still. Six months. (he stands) I think you oughta either find a different job or a different boyfriend. Cause there may be men who don't mind being the maid and getting nothing in return, but I'm sure as shit not one of 'em. ERIN I can't leave my job, George. GEORGE Yeah, you can. You could just quit. People do it all the time. ERIN I can't. Look -- this job -- it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I mean it. For the first time in my life, I got people respecting me. Up in Hinkley, I walk into a room and everyone shuts up just to hear what I got to say. I never had that. Ever. Don't ask me to give it up. I need it. GEORGE More than you need me. ERIN I need it. He nods, then stands, to leave. GEORGE Maybe you didn't like who you were before, Erin, but I did. That's who I fell in love with. Only then does she see the packed duffel bag in the corner. ERIN You already packed up your stuff? GEORGE I pretty much knew what your answer was gonna be. He picks it up and walks out the door, tossing the earring box on the bed as he goes. INT. ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Erin is at her window, looking out at the street below. George is strapping a couple of bags onto the back of his bike. He gets on the bike, starts it up, and drives away. INT. HYUNDAI - DAY Erin is driving, looking weary. Her kids are in the car. Matthew turns on the radio. Erin reaches over and turns it off. Matthew turns it back on. Erin glares at him, turns it off. On/off/on/off. A test of wills. Finally, when Matthew turns it on one more time, Erin turns it off, yanks the knob off the stereo and throws it out the window. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE PARKING LOT - DAY The Hyundai pulls into the lot. INT. HYUNDAI - DAY Erin parks the car, unclips her seat belt. ERIN Wait here. She gets out. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY Business as usual. Erin comes in, goes straight to her desk. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN'S DESK - DAY Erin flips through her "in" box, looking for something in particular. Doesn't find it. Grrr. She heads off to: INT. MASRY & VITITOE, JANE'S OFFICE - DAY Jane is at her desk when Erin comes in. ERIN Where's my paycheck? JANE Have you been logging on? ERIN What? JANE I moved payroll onto the computer. It only knows to process paychecks for employees who log on in the morning and off at night. ERIN (seething) Now how'm I supposed to do that when I'm not in here most mornings and nights? JANE You're clever. I'm sure you'll think of something. Erin glares at her ... ERIN I don't believe this -- ... then turns and storms out of Jane's office. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is on the phone when Erin barges in, rage in her eyes. ERIN I want my fucking money -- ED (into phone) I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to put you on hold for just one second here -- (puts the call on hold, then, to Erin) Do you mind? ERIN (seething) Yeah, I mind. You bet your ass I mind. Clearly, she's in a dander he's going to have to deal with. ED Oh, Jesus. You wanna tell me what the problem is here, or -- ERIN It's my paycheck. Which I earned. Which I deserve. Which I shouldn't have to beg for. That fat-ass bitch won't give it to me. ED Erin, you're a big girl. If you got a problem with Jane, work it out for yourself. I don't have time to deal with -- ERIN Fuck you. Make time. Cause I bust my ass for you. I watch everything else in my life go straight in the toilet, for you. And what do you do for me? Huh? You see the way I'm treated around here -- but have you ever stood up for me once? Have you ever mentioned to everyone what good work I'm doing? Have you ever bothered saying, hey, Erin doesn't get paid the most cause she has the best tits; she gets paid the most cause she's the best God damn employee I've ever had? ED Is that what you want? ERIN I want my paycheck. By the end of the day. Ed sighs. Realizes he's going to have to take this on. ED I'll see what I can do. ERIN You might want to think real hard about the amount, too. My kids are sitting in the God damn parking lot right now, cause I still don't make enough to afford good child care. Makes me think about looking around for a job where I'm appreciated, for shit's sake. She storms out. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - NIGHT Erin is standing at the sink, visibly exhausted, trying to do the dinner dishes with one arm and comfort Beth, who's CRYING, with the other. Matthew comes in. MATTHEW Can I play roller hockey? ERIN We'll see. MATTHEW When? The DOORBELL RINGS. Erin goes to get it. Matthew follows INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, FRONT DOOR - NIGHT Matthew is dogging Erin on this. Beth is still crying. MATTHEW Randy's mom said yes right away. ERIN (snapping) Well, God damn it, Matthew -- Randy's mom doesn't work eighteen-hour days, and Randy's dad didn't leave her, so figuring out who's gonna take who where is a little easier over at Randy's house. Erin opens the door. A MESSENGER is there. MESSENGER Erin Brockovich? ERIN Yeah? MESSENGER Package from Masry & Vititoe. He hands her a manila envelope. She signs for the package, then tears into it as the Messenger heads away. A CHECK and a SET OF KEYS fall out. She looks at the check. It's made out for $5,000. A note attached reads "HIRE A NANNY. AND LOOK OUTSIDE. - E." Erin looks up and sees A BRAND-NEW CHEVY BLAZER parked on the curb. She looks at the keys in her hand. Chevy keys. Whoa. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE, PARKING LOT - DAY Erin drives up in the Blazer, pulls into a parking space. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, LAW LIBRARY - DAY It's dark. Ed's seated at a table, alone. Erin walks by the door, then spots him and stops in the doorway. ERIN Believe it or not, I would've been satisfied with just the check. Ed turns, sees her. ED Well, you go threatening to leave, I can't take any chances. You're the only person around who understands what I'm doing. Things come up, I gotta know I got someone to turn to. She sits, reading him. ERIN What kind of things come up? ED Things like the head counsel for PG&E calling me with an offer. (beat) 20 million, plus attorney's fees. Take it or leave it. ERIN Whoa. No shit. ED It's about 50 thousand per plaintiff. ERIN So what are you thinking? ED I'm thinking ... I wish someone else had to make this decision. (beat) 50 thousand bucks is more than any other California toxic plaintiff has gotten. Ever. But ... ERIN ... but it won't cover Annabelle Daniels's medical bills. ED And it's less than pocket change for PG&E. ERIN Do you think we'd do better by going to trial? ED Maybe. but maybe not. We still don't have anything linking this to PG&E corporate. Plus, there's the statute problem. Plus, we're way short on manpower, so we'd need to bring on more lawyers ... ERIN Plus, 40 percent of 20 million's a whole lot of money. ED It's eight million dollars, Erin. Eight million dollars. Beat. ERIN That's a fucking fortune, Ed. And you know I'm the last person on Earth to walk away from a big payday. But you and me didn't get into this to get rich. We did it cause we both have this voice in our heads saying, do the right thing; get these plaintiffs what they deserve -- the right to live and die in some kind of comfort and peace. If 50,000 isn't gonna buy that, then we gotta say no. (beat) Trust me. If you don't do the right thing for these people, getting that 6 million dollars is gonna feel like shit. He nods to himself, and looks up at her, his mind made up. ED I knew I put up with your bullshit for a reason. INT. ERIN'S NEW CAR - DAY It's raining. They're driving through the tall buildings of Century City. Ed is full of nervous excitement. ED This guy, Erin -- he's got more toxic tort experience than anyone else in California. He's huge. And he said yes to me on the first phone call, right off the bat. (points to a building) That's it. The big one. They've got the top three floors. INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD, RECEPTION - DAY It feels more like the lobby of a five-star hotel than an office. Erin and Ed step off the elevator. Erin gawks. ERIN Holy shit. Who do they represent, God? ED Don't joke. They might. So do me a favor and behave yourself for once. (to receptionist) Ed Masry to see Kurt Potter. As Ed turns to check his reflection, a YOUNG LAWYER comes through the reception area. Erin watches him pass, then, still miffed, calls out to him. ERIN Scuse me, sir, you got a real nice ass, you know that? The lawyer double-takes on her, then retreats into the office. Erin turns to Ed, smiles. ERIN Oh, I'm sorry. Was that not what you meant by behaving myself? INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD RECEPTION AREA - DAY THERESA DELLAVALLE, 38, junior partner, comes out to greet them. She's everything Erin isn't: conservative, restrained, unemotional. And about as sexy as a station wagon. THERESA Ed. Good to see you again. ED Theresa, hey -- this is Erin Brockovich. INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD HALLWAY - DAY Theresa leads Ed and Erin down a long hall of teak desks. The sound of their footfalls is swallowed up by the plush carpeting. Occasional ATTORNEYS and PARALEGALS glance at Erin. She feels their stares. INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD, KURT POTTER'S OFFICE - DAY Potter is sitting behind his giant desk when Theresa leads Ed and Erin in. THERESA Kurt, Ed Masry's here. And this is Erin Brockovich, Ed's assistant. Erin, this is Kurt Potter. POTTER (to Ed, with a wink) Well. Now I know what you meant when you called her your secret weapon. Erin gives Ed another look. What the fuck? Ed gives her a firm look back. Behave. INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Potter, Ed, Erin, Theresa and few PARALEGALS are sitting around the table. As the conversation ping-pongs between Ed and Potter, Potter completely ignores Erin. POTTER When'd they file the demur? ED Yesterday. ERIN What's a demur? ED It's PG&E saying to the judge that we don't have a case. Their lawyers go -- POTTER How many counts? ED Sixty-nine. We've got good answers to all of 'em. ERIN Counts? ED Reasons PG&E thinks it shouldn't go to -- POTTER Who's the judge? ED Corey. POTTER Good. ERIN Why good? ED He's got a reputation for doing all his -- POTTER How long's he gonna take? Erin's starting to steam at Potter. Theresa sees it brewing, tries to intercede. THERESA You know what? Why don't I take Erin down the hall, so we can start in on this stuff? Erin notices all her files in stacks against the wall. ERIN Hey -- those are my files -- THERESA Yeah, we had them couriered over. And listen, good work. They're a great start. We're just going to have to spend a little time filling in the holes in your research. Okay, these people are starting to piss her off. ERIN Excuse me -- Theresa, was it? There are no holes in my research. THERESA No offense. There are just some things we need that you probably didn't know to ask. ERIN Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, okay? I may not have a law degree, but I've spent 18 months on this case, and I know more about those plaintiffs than you ever will. THERESA Erin. You don't even have phone numbers for some of them. ERIN Whose number do you need? THERESA Everyone's. This is a lawsuit. We need to be able to contact the plaintiffs. ERIN I said, whose number do you need? THERESA You don't know six hundreds plaintiffs' numbers by heart. Erin just stares at her. Theresa sighs, reluctantly glances down at a file. THERESA Annabelle Daniels. ERIN Annabelle Daniels. 714-454-9346. As Theresa starts to write it down: ERIN 10 years old, 11 in May. Lived on the plume since birth. Wanted to be a synchronized swimmer, so she spent every minute she could in the PG&E pool. She had a tumor in her brain stem detected last November, had an operation on Thanksgiving, shrunk it with radiation after that. Her parents are Rita and Ted. Ted's got Chron's disease, and Rita has chronic headaches and nausea and underwent a hysterectomy last fall. Ted grew up in Hinkley. His brother Robbie and his wife May and their five kids Robbie, Jr., Martha, Ed, Rose, and Peter lived on the plume too. Their number's 454-9445. You want their diseases? Beat. Erin glares at Theresa, indignant. THERESA Okay, look -- I think we got off on the wrong foot here -- ERIN That's all you got, lady. Two wrong feet. In fucking ugly shoes. INT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT It's still raining. Erin is following Ed to the car. He's furious. ERIN She insulted me! ED Bullshit. It was a misunderstanding. But instead of handling it politely, instead of treating her with respect -- ERIN Why the fuck should I respect her? Ed stops in his tracks, furious. He glares at her. ED Because that's how people treat each other! ERIN Not in my world. ED Gee, I wonder why. On that, he gets in his car, slams the door, and drives off, leaving her standing alone in the pouring rain. ERIN Hey! You're my ride! INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD, HALLWAY - DAY Potter and Ed are walking down the hallway, mid-conversation. A FEW PARALEGALS follow them with files. POTTER I've also been thinking about the team. Responsibilities, who should cover what -- ED Right. POTTER I think we should makes some changes. EXT. LINWOOD'S DAIRY - DAY Bob Linwood is in his barn, mucking it out. Theresa is at the edge of the property, trying unsuccessfully to get his attention by yelling and waving her arms. In her expensive shoes, she's stopped short of the cow patty minefield. INT. POTTER, HUGHES & ROSEWOOD, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY CLOSE ON A CLIENT FILE as a hand fills in a phone number. WIDEN TO SEE Erin seated with a PARALEGAL, rattling off facts and numbers from memory. She's seized by a COUGHING FIT. EXT. LINWOOD DAIRY - DAY Theresa still hasn't gotten Linwood's attention. Finally, rather than ruin her shoes, she picks up a stone and tosses it at the barn. It hits the window and BREAKS IT. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, ERIN AND BRENDA'S DESKS - DAY Erin's desk is empty: no Erin, no files, nothing. Ed comes out of his office and hands Brenda a STACK OF DOCUMENTS. CLOSE ON THE FAX LED Brenda types in the number. The recipient's I.D. comes up again, only this time it says: POTTER, HUGHES, ROSEWOOD. INT. POTTER, HUGHES, ROSEWOOD, HALLWAY - ANOTHER DAY A SECRETARY carries the documents to Potter's office. On the way, she passes THE CONFERENCE ROOM. Inside, Erin is still dictating to the PARALEGAL. She's shivery with fever now. The floor around her is littered with tissues. INT. DANIELS' HOUSE - DAY Theresa is talking to Rita and Ted Daniels. Annabelle is curled up on the sofa, wrapped up in a blanket. Rita and Ted notice that Theresa doesn't even look at Annabelle. INT. ERIN'S APARTMENT, KITCHEN - DAY Erin is lying in bed, home sick, talking on the phone. She's talking over the noise of TANIA, her 20-something Eastern European nanny, vacuuming the hall. ERIN I know she isn't real warm, but they say she's a real good lawyer ... INTERCUT WITH INT. DANIELS' HOUSE - DAY Ted Daniels is on the phone. Rita is next to him. TED That may be. But I don't want her coming to the house again. She's kinda stuck-up, and she upsets Annabelle. Now, I hate to say this, but when she left today, Rita asked if we should get a new lawyer. ERIN Ted, no -- don't do that. If you don't like Theresa, you don't have to work with her. Me and Ed are still here for you. TED I called Ed two days ago, Erin, and he still hasn't called me back. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, BRENDA'S DESK - DAY The phone rings. Brenda picks up. BRENDA Ed Masry's office ... Sorry, he can't be interrupted. INTERCUT WITH Erin at home, still in bed, so irritated. ERIN Don't be a pain in the ass, okay, Brenda? Just put him on. BRENDA (with finality) I said, he can't be interrupted. Erin hangs up. Then, with a groan, she pulls her weary body out of bed. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION - DAY Erin drags herself into the office. ROSALIND Hey, Erin, I thought you were taking a sick day. ERIN So did I. She heads toward Ed's office, but stops when she sees a meeting in progress in the conference room. Ed is on the side of the table facing her, flanked by Potter and Theresa. On the other side of the table, are FOUR SUITED BACKS. ERIN What's going on in there? ROSALIND Some meeting. With PG&E people. ERIN PG& -- Are you sure? ROSALIND Yup. They must be important, too, cause they came on a special plane. Erin feels this like a sock in the gut. She stares at the meeting, stunned. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY This band of PG&E lawyers is the oldest and most impressive of all. Ed, Potter, and Theresa are listening to the most senior PG&E lawyer, MR. CORBIN, talk. CORBIN ... we would enter into binding arbitration -- judge, no jury -- with a settlement to be between 50 and 400 million dollars. Ed and Potter hear this and think about it. POTTER Any preconditions on the settlements? CORBIN The plaintiffs have to agree to it unanimously. And they're barred from ever discussing their settlement with anyone. ED 50-400 million dollars isn't a whole hell of a lot of money for your company, Mr. Corbin. HEAD COUNSEL 50-400 million dollars is a great deal of money for your plaintiffs, Mr. Masry. As Ed mulls this, he sees, beyond Mr. Corbin, ERIN staring at him from the other side of the glass wall, her face cold with hurt and anger. ED Could I -- just take a brief break here for a moment? I'll be right back. He gets up and goes out into: INT. MASRY & VITITOE, MAIN ROOM - DAY Ed comes out. Erin's so angry she can barely breathe. ERIN If you tell me to relax, I'm gonna kick your fucking head off -- ED Erin, it's just a meeting. ERIN People don't fly down in their own god damn plane for "just a meeting" -- ED Look, you said you weren't feeling great. I thought you should rest. ERIN Bullshit. You'd drag me off my deathbed if it suited you. ED Okay, look. It's an important meeting. Kurt thought, if it was just lawyers -- ERIN Kurt thought? What about you? Do you think anymore? He resists being dragged into an knock-down, drag-out fight. ED Look, this is serious now. They're talking serious money -- ERIN And, what, I'm not serious? ED You're emotional. You're erratic. You say any God damn thing that comes into your head. And I'm not saying that's bad. That can be great; that can be a lot of fun -- ERIN "Fun?" Jesus, "fun?" I kill myself for a year and a half, hand you the best case of your life on a God damn silver platter, remind you of why you became a lawyer in the first place, and you think of me as "fun?" ED Okay, now you're making this personal, and it isn't -- ERIN Not personal? That's my work in there, Ed. My sweat, my labor, my time. If that's not personal, I don't know what is. She starts to COUGH and CRUMBLE, but fights it. ERIN (weakened) How dare you take that away from me. ED No one's taking anything -- ERIN Bullshit. You stuck me in Siberia dictating to some God damn steno clerk so you could finish this thing without me. After all I've done for you, that's the thanks I get. By now the entire office is watching. As are the lawyers in the conference room. ED Don't give me that. You've gotten plenty. You've been well-paid; you've gotten lots of perks ... ERIN Perks? Jesus -- perks? Erin reaches into her bag, pulls out her cel phone. ERIN If this piece of shit is supposed to take the place of your respect, you can take it and shove it up your ass. She throws it at him and storms away. The phone hits the glass wall of the conference room, CRACKING it. Ed just stands there, with the lawyers staring at him through the splintered glass wall. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE PARKING LOT - DAY Erin gets to her car. As she opens the door, the ALARM SOUNDS. She fumbles with her keychain, trying to turn it off, but she's too sick and upset to figure it out. With the siren still blaring, she kicks at the car in rage. INT. ERIN'S CAR - NIGHT Erin's driving home. As she turns onto her street, her headlights wash across the sidewalk and illuminate a small boy, wearing a backpack, walking the other way. ERIN Holy shit -- She looks over her shoulder, but the sidewalk is too dark. She pulls a U-turn in the middle of the street. A CAR HONKS. Erin scans the sidewalk, finally sees him again. Holy shit, is right. It's Matthew, wandering the streets at night. ERIN Matthew -- She pulls ahead of Matthew and bumps up onto the sidewalk, blocking his path. When he sees her car, he turns and runs the other way. Erin leaps out and follows him. ERIN Matthew! MATTHEW! She catches up and collars him. ERIN God damn it, Matthew. What the hell are you doing out here? MATTHEW I'm gonna go live with George. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT MUSIC is playing. TANIA is on the phone. The receiver is yanked from her hand. She turns to see Erin hovering over her, barely containing herself. ERIN If you leave here real fast, I might not kill you. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MATTHEW AND KATIE'S ROOM - NIGHT Matthew's in his bed, facing the wall. Erin sitting on the foot of his bed, near tears. Katie's watching from her bed. ERIN We'll work out the roller hockey thing, okay? Whatever you want, we'll work it out. I promise. MATTHEW You always say that. Then you go to work and forget you promised. ERIN I never forget, honey. I try, real hard. It's just, for some reason, I don't seem to be able to organize things right and -- when it comes to you guys, I end up falling short. MATTHEW You never fall short for the work people. I guess maybe you just love them more. ERIN Oh, God, sweetheart, no. There's nothing on Earth I love more than you. Nothing. (beat) I promise. She lays her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugs it off and inches away from her. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, HALLWAY - NIGHT Erin comes out of the bedroom. As she turns to close the door, she collapses to the floor in a heap. Out cold. INT. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT A busy Southland ER. George bursts through the doors with Katie, Matthew and Beth in tow. He goes up to the desk. GEORGE I'm looking for Erin Brockovich. They brought her in in an ambulance? INT. ER WAITING AREA - DAY The kids are waiting. George is talking to a DOCTOR. GEORGE Meningitis? What the hell is meningitis? DOCTOR It's an inflammation of the spinal cord and part of the brain. GEORGE Jesus. DOCTOR She must be a tough cookie, cause it's a pretty advanced case. I'd say she's been walking around with it for a few weeks now. GEORGE How does someone get meningitis? DOCTOR Usually, in adults, it's from exposure to bacteria or a virus or ... GEORGE ... or lemme guess -- toxic waste? INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE ERIN'S HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Matt and Katie sit on the cheap plastic chairs outside the room. Katie is holding Beth, who's sleeping. GEORGE (O.S.) They can stay at my place till you go home. INT. ERIN'S HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Erin's in bed, hooked up to an IV, looking exhausted. All untouched food tray is beside her bed. George is standing across the room from her, arms crossed tight across his chest, keeping his distance. ERIN They said that'd be tomorrow. They just wanna keep an eye on me another night. GEORGE Fine. I'll drop 'em off tomorrow afternoon. A moment of thick silence. ERIN Thank you. GEORGE (giving nothing) Mm-hm. As she watches him reach for his motorcycle helmet, to leave, she's hit with a wave of regret. ERIN George, hang on. (he pauses) Look ... I'm sorry. I just -- There's a KNOCK at the door, and Ed enters. George looks at him. Not interested in her apologies. GEORGE I'll drop 'em by tomorrow. And Erin watches George leave the room, then turns to Ed. ERIN If you're here to fire me, your timing's lousy. ED I'm not gonna fire you. (beat) I wanted to. But then you got sick, and that woulda made me look like a shit. (serious) You embarrassed me, Erin. ERIN I know. I'm sorry. (beat) Do I get to hear what happened anyway? INT. ERIN'S HOSPITAL ROOM - LATER Ed has taken off his coat and pulled a chair up next to Erin's bed. He's eating the pudding off her tray. ERIN Between 50 and 400 million, definitely? ED Uh-huh. ERIN And if you had to guess ... ED With nothing linking it to the corporate offices yet, I'd say we'll end up on the lower end of that. Still a lot of money. ERIN So why would PG&E offer it? ED Because. They know the evidence; they know they're gonna lose a jury trial. Maybe they wouldn't lose 400 million bucks, but once you factor in all they'd spend on this case in the next ten years, it makes a lot of -- ERIN Wait, what do you mean, ten years? ED Five years, maybe, for a trial. Double that for the appeal. ERIN (confused) I'm sorry, are you saying that if this thing goes to trial, it'll be ten years before these plaintiffs see their money? ED Hey, that's not so bad. Compare it to the Love Canal -- that was twenty years ago, and those people still haven't seen a dime. So in legal terms, ten years is -- ERIN Fuck legal terms. We're talking about human beings here. Sick people. A whole bunch of them are gonna be dead in ten years. They need their money now! (beat) We gotta get 'em to agree to the arbitration, Ed. We gotta get every damn one of those plaintiffs to -- ED I know. We're having a meeting, it's all set up -- ERIN When? Where? ED Tuesday at seven, at the Hinkley firehouse. ERIN Okay, good. I think I should be the one to tell 'em, cause they trust me more than -- ED You're not gonna be there. ERIN The fuck I'm not. I don't care what the doctor says -- ED This isn't doctor's orders. It's mine. I'm saying you can't come. ERIN Why not? ED Because Kurt doesn't want to work with you. He thinks you're a loose cannon. ERIN Fuck Kurt. ED Erin -- ERIN No, I'm serious. You know what Kurt Potter is? He's the kind of guy who never would have taken this case in the first place. He's the kind of guy who would have sold these plaintiffs down the river when PG&E offered 20 million. He doesn't work like us, Ed. There's no little voice in his head telling him to do the right thing. But his mind's made up. He stands to leave. ED Don't come, Erin. I mean it. If you do, I'm gonna have to fire you. (beat) Just ... concentrate on getting well. EXT. HINKLEY FIREHOUSE - NIGHT The parking lot is empty, except for three Mercedes. Ed, Potter, and Theresa are in the doorway, going over their notes. A TRUCK pulls into the lot. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE, MAIN ROOM - NIGHT Katie and Matt are watching TV. Beth is playing near them. Behind them, Erin is lying on the couch, under a blanket, distractedly trying to watch TV. She checks her watch. EXT. HINKLEY FIREHOUSE - NIGHT The lot is filling with more cars and trucks; headlights criss-cross each other as people pull in from all directions. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin's sitting up now, jiggling her knee, unable to sit still. She checks her watch again. 6:30. She can't take it. She throws off the blanket and gets up. ERIN Come on, kids, we're going for a ride. INT. HINKLEY FIREHOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE ON HANDS. As people stream in, they are each handed a release form with a space for a signature on the bottom. INT. HINKLEY FIREHOUSE - LATER It's sweltering. The room, packed with plaintiffs, hums with horse flies and tension. People are fanning themselves with the release forms. Potter's addressing them from a raised platform. Ed, Theresa, and Andrew are seated behind him. POTTER Binding arbitration isn't all that different from a trial. It's overseen by a judge. Evidence is presented in much the same way. EXT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT One more car pulls into the lot. It's Erin's Chevy. INT. ERIN'S CAR - NIGHT Erin unbuckles her seat belt. ERIN Stay in the car, babies, I won't be long. EXT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Erin gets out of the car, looks around, then goes over to a window and looks in at the packed meeting. PLAINTIFF (O.S.) And then a jury decides? POTTER (O.S.) No, sorry, I should have mentioned that. There's no jury in binding arbitration. No jury, and no appeal. She climbs up on an old wagon for a better view. BOB LINWOOD (O.S.) No appeal? So what are our options if we don't like the result? POTTER (O.S.) Well -- you have none. The judge's decision is final. But I really don't anticipate that as a problem. INT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Now, in addition to the stifling heat, the large room is thick with mistrust. People are shifting in their seats, whispering to each other. TOM BROWN You don't even know what it's gonna be; how do you know we're gonna like it? Agreeing MURMURS ripple through the crowd. POTTER As I said before, it will definitely be somewhere between 50 and 400 million dollars. MANDY BROWN Which? There's a big difference there. POTTER I wouldn't want to speculate at this point. MANDY BROWN Ed -- what do you think it'll be? Potter turns around and looks at Ed seated behind him. ED I think ... Kurt's right. We shouldn't speculate. MANDY BROWN So then, what, that mystery number's divided up at the whim of some judge -- POTTER Judges don't make decisions based on whim, ma'am. They make them based on precedent and evidence. The GRUMBLE of discontent has overtaken the room. More whispering, more movement. EXT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Erin watches the meeting fall apart. It's driving her crazy. ERIN Fucking idiot -- INT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Potter sees he's losing them, too. Tries to gain control. POTTER Look. Everyone. Is this a big decision? Absolutely. But I do believe that if you put a little faith in the system, you'll be quite pleased with the outcome. Ted Daniels gets up from his seat. TED DANIELS Mr. Potter, if you knew me from Adam, you'd know that being pleased isn't an option for me anymore. Now don't take this personally, sir, but I've never seen you before in my life. I'm not about to put my faith in anything just cause you tell me to. He drops his agreement form, unsigned, then takes Rita's hand and heads for the door. EXT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Meeting's over. The plaintiffs stream out of the firehouse. Cars start up, headlights flick on. People pull away. INT. FIREHOUSE - NIGHT Everyone has left. Erin enters and looks around. The floor is littered with rejected, unsigned release forms. She thinks for a moment, then gets an idea. She picks up a release form, and leaves the firehouse. EXT. MINI MALL - NIGHT Everything's closed, except the KINKO'S store at the far end. Erin's truck pulls into the parking lot. INT. KINKO'S - NIGHT A BORED EMPLOYEE is at the register, painting with Wite-Out on a blue piece of paper. Erin enters, dragging her kids. ERIN Can I have one of those counter thingies, please? The Employee gives it to her. Erin crosses to the copiers. She slips the release form into one, then taps in the number of copies: 635. Presses "START." The machine WHIRS to life. EXT. HINKLEY MOTEL - NIGHT Erin's Chevy pulls into the parking lot. MATTHEW (O.S.) I don't want to stay here. It smells. INT. HINKLEY MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Erin is entering the crappy motel room with her kids. ERIN We got no choice. I'm not gonna make it home tonight. Now go wash up and climb into bed. As the kids wander toward the bathroom, Erin picks up the phone and dials. RING, RING. GEORGE (O.S.) Hello? ERIN Hi. It's me. (silence) I got a favor to ask you. GEORGE (O.S.) I don't do favors for you anymore. ERIN It's not for me; it's for my kids. You're the only one I trust them with. EXT. HINKLEY MOTEL - DAY Very early. Erin is visible in the motel office, talking to the clerk, when George's motorcycle pulls into the lot. She turns around and sees him pulling up next to her Chevy. EXT. ERIN'S MOTEL ROOM - DAY Erin comes up to him, hands him a key. ERIN I got you your own room. He takes it, glances toward the motel room. GEORGE They up? ERIN Hunh-uh. Not yet. (awkward beat) Look, don't take any of 'em on your bike, okay? Call a cab if you wanna go somewhere. She hands him a wad of cash. GEORGE How long's this whole thing gonna take? ERIN I don't know. Few days. (beat) Thanks for helping me. I appreciate it. He nods. She gets into her car. Before closing the door, she turns back to him. ERIN And I miss you. GEORGE Yeah, well -- good help is hard to find. She sees how mad she's made him. Takes a beat. ERIN I treated you real bad, George. I know that. But, my problem was -- I never been with anyone who deserved better than that. You're the first nice guy who ever liked me. George softens, shifts. He steps toward the truck and gently closes her door, so he's standing close to her. ERIN I just ... didn't know how to handle it. That's all. He thinks about this. Finally: GEORGE Think you could learn? ERIN (with a smile) You know me. I pick things up real fast. He smiles back at her, nods, then tenderly brushes a piece of hair out of her eyes. GEORGE You shouldn't be driving around, you know. You're sick. ERIN Yeah, but I'm gonna get better. A lot of these folks aren't. He nods, understanding. Then he taps the side of her truck and turns toward the motel room. She puts the truck in gear and pulls out. EXT. HINKLEY, COMMUNITY BOULEVARD - DAY Erin's Chevy is bombing down the road. INT. ERIN'S CAR, BACK SEAT - DAY There are two boxes there -- one full of unsigned release forms, the other empty. EXT. DONNA'S NEW HOUSE - DAY Donna's gardening out front, her head wrapped in a scarf to cover her chemo-thinning hair, when Erin's Chevy pulls into the driveway. Erin gets out, goes to the back of the truck, gets two of the release forms, then heads over to Donna. INT. DONNA'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY Erin is sitting with Pete and Donna. DONNA I don't know, Erin -- the way he was talking to us, telling us everything was gonna be fine -- I just didn't trust him. PETE And after all we been through -- no jury, no appeal. It just makes me nervous. ERIN I understand all that. And I don't wanna force you into anything. If you don't want to sign, that's fine. But why don't we talk it over a little, cause I'd sure hate for you to turn this down for the wrong reasons. EXT. DONNA'S HOUSE - DAY The door opens. Erin emerges, holding two signed agreements. Donna is letting her out. ERIN You wouldn't happen to have a little time right now, would you, Donna? DONNA For what? ERIN Well, I was gonna head over to the Browns now. I was thinking -- Mandy really values your opinion ... INT. MANDY'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY Erin, Donna, Mandy, and Tom are seated on the sofas. Mandy signs an agreement. Hands the pen to Tom, who also signs. EXT. LINWOODS' HOUSE - DAY From outside, we see Erin at the kitchen table with Donna and Bob and Ruth Linwood, who are listening intently. INT. DESOTOS' HOUSE - DAY Erin and Donna are leaving, saying good-bye to Mary DeSoto. Erin has a signed release form in her hand. INT. THE BACK OF ERIN'S CAR - DAY DISCO blares. The two boxes. The formerly empty one now has a small stack of signed release forms in it. The top one has Bob Linwood's signature. IN THE FRONT SEAT Erin is driving, eating a hamburger, and going over her list of plaintiffs. EXT. HINKLEY MART - EVENING People are going about their shopping. Rita Daniels is stopped, talking with A FEW MORE PLAINTIFFS. RITA I thought so, too, but Erin says a trial's gonna take years INT. THE BACK OF ERIN'S TRUCK - NIGHT The signed stack has grown; the unsigned stack has shrunk. Erin drops five more agreements into the "signed" box. INT. ERIN'S MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT In the wee hours. While her kids sleep, Erin sits at the cheap motel room table, going through her forms, organizing, alphabetizing. INT. ERIN'S MOTEL ROOM - DAY CLOSE ON ERIN, fast asleep at the table, her face pressed against the linoleum. There's some NOISE in the room, WHISPERING. Erin stirs and looks around to see George behind her, diapering Beth, while Matt and Katie put their shoes on. ERIN What time is it? GEORGE Real early. We're just gonna take your car to get some breakfast. Erin forces herself awake. ERIN No, I need my car -- GEORGE We'll just be a minute. Get a little more sleep. He picks up Beth, takes Katie's hand, and calls across the room to Matthew. GEORGE C'mon, pal. Leave that alone, we gotta go. Erin turns to see Matthew holding one of her release forms. ERIN Oh, baby, please don't play with that, okay? I got 'em all organized. Just put it back. But he's reading it. And something has caught his attention. He looks up at Erin. MATTHEW This girl's the same age as me. Erin gently takes the form away from Matthew, wanting to shield him from the harsh realities of this case. ERIN That's right, sweetheart. She replaces the form on top of the stack. MATTHEW She's one of the sick people? ERIN Yeah. She is. (beat) But you know what? That's why I'm helping her. So she can get some medicine to make her feel better. Matthew mulls this over a bit more. MATTHEW How come her own mom isn't helping her? ERIN Cause her own mom's real sick, too. Matthew thinks real hard about this, then heads over to the door, where George, Beth, and Katie are waiting for him. Before he leaves, though, he turns back to Erin. MATTHEW Maybe we'll bring you back some breakfast. You want eggs? She looks at the group of them, feels their shift toward acceptance. Smiles, moved. ERIN Eggs'd be great, baby. Eggs'd be perfect. INT. ERIN'S TRUCK - DAY Erin's driving along a dusty Hinkley road, eating cold eggs out of a take-out container with her fingers. EXT. FIREHOUSE - DAY Morning. A GROUP OF MEN are arriving at work. Erin's truck pulls up. She grabs some release forms from the truck and wanders up to the men. ERIN Hey, y'all. How you all doing today? INT. THE BACK OF ERIN'S TRUCK - DAY She tosses eight more agreements in the signed stack. EXT. HINKLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY Morning drop-off time. Erin is handing out release forms zo a GROUP of MOTHERS who just dropped off their kids. EXT. HINKLEY MART - NIGHT Erin is leaning on the hood of her truck, going down her list of plaintiffs, checking off the ones who have already signed. INT. LOST CAUSE SALOON - DAY Another day. Erin has set up shop here and is at a table with about FIVE PLAINTIFFS, all reading agreements. MIKE AMBROSINO enters. Erin spots him. ERIN Mike! I been looking all over for you. Come here, I wanna talk to you. INT. BACK OF ERIN'S TRUCK - NIGHT The signed stack is getting bigger. INT. BACK OF ERIN'S TRUCK - DAY And bigger. INT. BACK OF ERIN'S TRUCK - DAY And still bigger. EXT. LOST CAUSE SALOON - NIGHT CLOSE ON ERIN'S TRUNK. A bunch more forms get thrown onto the signed stack, which is now much higher than the unsigned. ERIN (O.S.) I'm gonna head out to Barstow and talk to some folks out there tonight. WIDEN TO REVEAL Erin talking on a nearby pay phone. GEORGE (O.S.) Promise you'll turn around if you get tired. ERIN I will. Bye. She hangs up. As she turns to get into her car, she finds herself face-to-face with the Man in the Dark Glasses. ERIN Jesus! He's just standing there, a foot away, blocking her exit. She recognizes his truck as the one that chased her. ERIN Okay, what're you gonna do? You gonna kill me? Dump my body in a ditch somewhere? Or maybe you just wanna inject me with some poison too -- why change tactics at this stage of the game? (beat) Get outta my way, you make me sick. She pushes past him. But he grabs her by the arm. He's a big guy; it's a strong grab. Now she's scared. For a moment, he does nothing. Just looks at her. Then: DARK GLASSES If PG&E made someone destroy a whole lot of documents -- would that matter to you? Erin takes a beat, realizing she completely misread him. She gently pulls her arm away. ERIN Well ... I guess that depends on what the documents were. (she takes a beat) I'm sorry -- I didn't get your name. DARK GLASSES Embry. Charles Embry. INT. LOST CAUSE SALOON - NIGHT Erin and Embry are the only patrons. Erin's eating a burger. Embry has a beer. He's talking quietly, not looking at her. EMBRY I was working in the compressor, and out of nowhere the supervisor calls me up to the office and says, we're gonna give you a shredder machine, and send you on down to the warehouse. We want you to get rid of all the documents stored out there. ERIN Did he say why? EMBRY Nope. And I didn't ask. ERIN Did you get a look at the stuff you destroyed? EMBRY Well, it's pretty boring work, shredding -- you gotta find some way to entertain your mind. So yeah, I took a look. ERIN And ...? EMBRY There was a lot of dull stuff -- vacation schedules, the like. (beat) But then there were a few memos about the holding ponds. The water in them. They had readings from test wells, stuff like that. Erin tries to hide her excitement at this information. ERIN And you were told to destroy those? EMBRY That's right. Destruction of evidence. Pretty big deal. Erin plays it down. Wipes her mouth with her napkin, takes a sip of beer. EMBRY Course as it turns out, I'm not a very good employee. ERIN What do you mean? EMBRY Well. There were a few documents that I somehow didn't get around to shredding. (beat) That I kept instead. Erin stops, mid-bite. INT. EMBRY'S GARAGE - NIGHT He's dug out an inch-high stack of documents. Erin looks them over, stunned. Embry is standing apart from her, hands shoved deep in his pockets. ERIN How come you didn't say anything when you found these things? EMBRY At the time, I thought, I got six kids, some of 'em want to go to college. I can't afford to lose my job. I told myself I was being honorable. (beat) But there's nothing honorable in what I did. (beat) Maybe that's why they picked me for the job. Maybe they knew what kind of man I was. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, RECEPTION AREA - DAY Rosalind is at the desk. Anna, Brenda, and Jane are helping themselves to coffee. Erin enters, with a big box in her arms and a whole lot of attitude. ERIN Hey, Ros, where are they? ROSALIND In the conference -- But Erin's spotted them and headed off before Rosalind can finish. Anna, Brenda and Jane notice the purpose in her gait. They watch her with interest. INT. MASRY & VITITOE, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY The table is covered with boxes of documents: the anticipated slew of paper that PG&E is sending them. Ed, Kurt, Theresa, Andrew and ABOUT FIVE PARALEGALS are sifting through them. Erin breezes in like sunshine. ERIN Morning! ED Erin? What are you -- ERIN (ignoring Ed) You know what, Mr. Potter? I completely forgot your birthday this year. And seeing as how you've been so good to me, I think that is a terrible oversight. So what I been doing over the last few days is I've been putting together a present for you. She plunks the box down on the table. Potter opens the top of the box. Looks in. ERIN 635. They all signed. Every single one. IN THE DOORWAY, Anna, Brenda and Jane appear, wondering what's up. A huge smile of appreciation slowly spreads across Ed's face. ED Ho - ly - shit. ERIN Oh, now don't get all jealous, Ed. I got a little something for you, too. Erin hands Ed a manila envelope. He opens it. ERIN Internal PG&E documents, all about the contamination. The one I like best says, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it says yes, the water's poisonous, but it'd be better for all involved if this matter wasn't discussed with the neighbors. It's to the Hinkley station, from PG&E Headquarters. Stamped received, March, 1966. Potter and Theresa reel. Ed shakes his head in disbelief. POTTER Where did -- how did you do this? ERIN Well, what with me not having any brains or legal expertise, I just went on up there and performed sexual favors. 635 blow jobs in five days. Whew, am I ever tired. And she struts out of the room, leaving everyone slack-jawed. The CLIP CLIP CLIP of her heels carry her away. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE BUILDING, HALLWAY - DAY Erin comes out of the office, flushed with success, and heads down the hall. She presses the elevator button. The doors open. As she steps on, Ed comes out of the office. ED Hey! Erin puts her hand in the door, keeping it from closing. He stares at her, in awe. ED I don't know what to say. ERIN Say you were wrong. ED I was wrong. ERIN Say you shortchanged me and you shortchanged yourself. ED I did. Both. ERIN Say you'd be the luckiest son of a bitch on Earth if I didn't up and quit over all this. ED The luckiest son of a bitch in the universe, Erin. The luckiest son of a bitch in history. He looks down the hall at her, standing so tall and proud in the elevator. He walks toward her, stops right outside the elevator. ED But I know you're not gonna quit on me. ERIN How do you know that? ED (with a smile) Cause you got a little voice in your head saying, do the right thing. Give him another chance. Of course she will. She releases her hand so he won't see her smiling. Ed watches the doors close. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PCH - DAY One of those days when the bay sparkles like a glitter ball. Erin's Chevy moves up the PCH. DISCO music emanates from it. INT. ERIN'S CHEVY - DAY Erin's at the wheel. Time has passed -- her hair's a little different. She's singing along with "Funky Town." EXT. BEACH PARKING LOT - DAY Erin gets out of her new truck, looks, sees the Irvings in a little cluster. Donna's under an umbrella. Pete is slathering on sunscreen. The two girls zip out toward the water. Erin waves. Pete and Donna spot her, wave back. EXT. BEACH - LATER Donna is standing at the edge of the water, watching her girls boogie board in. Erin comes up behind her. ERIN How you feeling today? Donna turns, sees her. Smiles. DONNA It's a good day. I feel good. ERIN Well, then -- if you're feeling up to it, maybe we should talk shop. Erin sits down on a rock. ERIN The judge came up with a number. DONNA A number for the whole group, or for us? ERIN Both. Donna sits down next to her. ERIN He's making them pay the maximum. Tears of vindication spring to Donna's eyes. DONNA Oh, my God. ERIN And he's making them give five million of it to you all. DONNA Five million dollars? ERIN Five million dollars. She reels. After a breathless beat: DONNA I don't even know how much money that is. ERIN It's enough -- for whatever you need, for whatever your girls need, for whatever your girls' girls need -- it'll be enough. Donna wipes the tears off her face, then watches the light flickering off her girls playing in the surf. DONNA I can put them in a good school. ERIN Any school you want. DONNA And get someone to help around the house. ERIN Yup. DONNA Oh my God. Oh my God. Donna is overwhelmed. Erin pulls her close. DONNA Oh, my God. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE'S NEW OFFICE BUILDING - DAY Now this is where the hot lawyers work. A gleaming testament to power. INT. MASRY & VITITOE'S NEW OFFICE - DAY Boxes everywhere. They just moved in. Everyone is unpacking at his or her desk. Rosalind is manning the new phones. ROSALIND Masry & Vititoe, can I -- shoot! She lost them. Her reaction indicates this isn't the first time. The front doors open and Erin enters. ERIN Hey, Ros. Nice view, huh? ROSALIND Yeah, I'm gonna start sleeping here. (into phone) Masry & Vititoe, can I -- damn it. (calling out) Does anyone know anything about these phones? Erin heads on down a hall to: INT. ED'S NEW OFFICE - DAY A beautiful corner office. Ed is unpacking when Erin enters. ERIN Careful you don't spit from here; you could kill someone. ED You see your office? ERIN Yeah. Yours is nicer. ED Oh, okay. Here it comes. ERIN Here what comes? ED The extortion, the threats ... ERIN I wasn't gonna -- ED "I can always find someplace else to work. Someplace that'll pay me a fortune and give me a view of the French Riviera ..." ERIN Ed, I swear, I'm not -- ED Okay, fine. Fine You backed me into a corner again. You're holding me hostage ... He reaches into his breast pocket, pulls out a check. Hands it to her. ERIN What is that? ED Take it. Erin does. Looks at it. Her eyes bug out. ERIN Two million dollars? ED The firm took in sixty. That's three percent. Seemed like a fair bonus to me. She stares at it, speechless. He goes back to unpacking ED Oh, now I suppose you're gonna say it's not enough. Well, tough, Erin. Too goddamn bad. Cause this is absolutely, positively where I draw the line. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From L.A..txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From L.A..txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..54bbbb9f9951e6ee360d675bcc1b7e27d8523b57 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From L.A..txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ESCAPE FROM L.A. Screenplay by John Carpenter DARKNESS A pounding, metallic beat begins. Twists of sound in a tightrope rhythm. The snap of a military snare drum. SUPERIMPOSE: "1998" FEMALE NARRATOR Forces hostile to the United States grow strong in the late 20th Century. A DARK TABLEAU - CITY STREET - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT Graffiti-smeared walls. Fires raging. Automatic weapons fire. Shadowy figures dash through the southern California night. FEMALE NARRATOR A great moral crisis grips the nation as social revolution and a breakdown of the criminal justice system threaten society. A LINE OF POLICEMEN - NIGHT They stand like sentinels. Black uniforms. Battle helmets. Gleaming military assault weapons. Bullet-proof shields with large emblems: the American eagle against a red background, and in bold letters underneath, "THE UNITED STATES POLICE FORCE". FEMALE NARRATOR To protect and defend its citizens, the United States Police Force is formed. A GLOWING HOLOGRAPHIC MAP Of Los Angeles, on the coast of southern California. SUPERIMPOSE: "1999" FEMALE NARRATOR The population of Los Angeles grows to 40 million. The city is ravaged by crime and immorality. A Presidential candidate predicts a millennium earthquake will destroy the city in divine retribution. The map of L.A. now glows a dark red. EXT. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES SKYLINE - DAY A hot summer's day. Heat ripples distorts the towering shadowing buildings in the dense smog. FEMALE NARRATOR An earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59 p.m., August 23rd, in the year 2000. Suddenly we are hit by the loudest, booming, rolling concussion you have ever heard. The buildings begin to shake, swaying wildly. The Bonaventure Hotel implodes, collapses inward in the thudding, slamming freight train of an earthquake. The 4-level Interchange as the Santa Monica Freeway shatters, crumbles, pulling exit ramps, cars, trees, and nearby buildings with it. SEQUENCE OF RAPID CUTS Buildings shaking. Streets buckling. Cars rolling, crashing. People running. Gas mains exploding. Buildings convulsing and dropping like tinder against an inferno. THE SANTA MONICA PIER As the tsunami sweeps in from the ocean, smacking into the shoreline like the hammer of God, plunging us into darkness. FEMALE NARRATOR After the devastation, the constitution is damned, and the newly elected President accepts a lifetime term of office. HOLOGRAPHIC MAP Of the United States. A line tracks along the Mexican border, like the Berlin Wall. FEMALE NARRATOR Fearing a massive terrorist invasion from South America, the United States prepares for war. The Great Wall is built along the southern border, cutting off the flow of illegal aliens. WHAM! A TORCH-LIT LANDSCAPE - NIGHT The ruins of L.A. Rubble, smoke, a lethal wasteland. An army of terrifying figures climbs atop a mountain of debris. They raise their weapons into the night sky. FEMALE NARRATOR Street gangs, South American terrorists and the criminally insane capture Los Angeles, the once-great City of Angels. ZOOM INTO A HOLOGRAPHIC MAP OF L.A An unrecognizable L.A. After the big one. Surrounded by water, L.A. is now an island off the new western shore, tilting on the edge of the continental plate. FEMALE NARRATOR Now an island on the border of civilization, L.A. is a no-man's land of chaos, anarchy and darkness. A red line tracks along the mountainous areas surrounding the island, defining the perimeter of the armed fortress. Police firebases and gun emplacements are indicated in the San Gabriel Mountains. FEMALE NARRATOR The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped in the San Gabriel Mountains. ZOOM INTO L.A. From the glowing, outlined canyons come the cries of rage of a million lost souls. FEMALE NARRATOR The President's first act as Permanent Commander-in-Chief is Directive 17: protect and defend the United States from this island of the damned, Hell on Earth. BLACK SCREEN SUPERIMPOSE: "2013 - NOW" EXT. DARK OCEAN - NIGHT TRAVELING SHOT low, across the top of the water's surface. Climb up the side of a massive, rusted supertanker, abandoned, years ago. Break over the railing to reveal a gigantic neon sign which screams "NEW LAS VEGAS." The supertanker has been transformed into a floating resort. The camera increases speed, moves past huge billboards displaying gigantic glitzy ads: "NUCLEAR NIGHTS IN HAVANA" - an extravaganza with fabulous showgirls and laser recreations of Fidel's final night. "MUSEUM OF NIGHT CLUB ARTS" - a virtual reality tour featuring legendary Vegas entertainers. "FREE ENTERPRISE WORLD" - a virtual Disneyland for the whole family. Now camera flies low through glittering streets and back alleyways filled with gamblers, neon and glitz. EXT. ALLEY - NEW LAS VEGAS, 2013 - NIGHT An alley strangled with tourists, gamblers, hookers, hustlers, and con men - professional expatriates from the West mingling with excited visitors from all over the world. SUPERIMPOSE: "NEW LAS VEGAS OFF THE COAST OF SEATTLE THURSDAY 0330 HOURS G.M.T. " A Salesman with a chin-mike speaks non-stop, unintelligible Chinese. A frenzied crowd gathers around him, waving money, placing bets. Two men sit at either end of a long table. They are in deep shadows, facing each other. We only get glimpses of them: One fat. Mirrored sunglasses. Chinese. His fingers tap on the table. A cockroach scurries past. Ammo belts. A sheathed combat knife the size of your arm. .45 automatics in holsters. The other, dressed in black. An eye-patch. Dangerous. A flash of two six-guns in holsters. A futuristic gunfighter. The cockroach dashes past his fingers. WHAP! He squashes it. The crowd goes nuts, placing bets, yelling and screaming in a dozen languages. The salesman places three different shaped, clear shot glasses in front of the two men. Then he leans over to... A VAT OF POISONOUS SNAKES. He reaches in, grabs a cobra, pulls it out. The cobra hisses and squirms. Deftly, the salesman continues to talk non-stop into his chin-mike as he milks the cobra venom into the first glass. He pulls out an ice-pick, jabs it into the snake's throat, and bleeds a thick green-white liquid into the second glass. Finally, he slits open the cobra with a large knife, and cuts out the heart and liver. Tossing aside the dead snake, the salesman squeezes the heart and liver with his fingers. The juice drips into the third glass. Now the salesman stirs the glasses. The poison is clear. The blood is milky-green. The heart and liver are red. He places the glasses on the table between the two men. The two men stare at each other, motionless. The crowd continues placing bets at a fevered pitch. A titanium white tube floats above the center of the table. A laser beam of light shines from one end. The salesman leans over and flicks on side with his finger, sending the tube spinning on its axis like a bottle, the light circling the room before stopping on the fat man's forehead. The fat man reaches slowly toward the glasses. His hand shakes slightly. He hesitates. Finally he takes the glass with the red liquid (the heart and liver), lifts it to his lips, pauses, then gulps it down. The crowd explodes. More bets. The salesman leans over and spins the light tube again, this time it lands on something black, an eye-patch. Pull back to reveal a man with an eye-patch. The man with the eye-patch reaches forward, his hand paused between the remaining two glasses. He takes the one filled with milky-green blood and downs it fast. The crowd roars. One glass left. The two men stare at it intently. The salesman spins the light tube with more force than before. It circles again and again, slowing down, speeding up, finally stopping on the fat man. The salesman begins yelling over the din of the crowd, shouting at the fat man. The fat man reaches for the glass of clear poison. His trembling fingers hover above it. Then he quickly withdraws his hand. The crowd reacts, boos, as... The man with the eye-patch smiles. A slightly, cynical smile. And without hesitation, he reaches out, grabs the glass of poison, and drinks it down. The crowd surges forward, but the salesman stops them with a sweep of his arm. All bets are off. The two men stand from the table. Take several steps away toward the end of the alley. Stand facing each other. Two gunfighters. Flashes of the two men. A piece of a black military boot. A hand positioned over a six-shooter. Mirrored sunglasses. A sweaty, trembling lip. And the eye-patched man's one good eye, blue and clear, staring - hard and calm as a sunny day... The draw. It happens in an instant. The alley thunders with gunfire. The guns buck and flash. Then silence. The two men stand there for a beat, until one of them, the fat man, slumps, falls face first into the alley, dead. The crowd goes completely ape shit as SNAKE PLISSKEN emerges from the shadows of the alley, holsters his guns, grabs his take of the money... SNAKE PLISSKEN. Long hair. A black eye-patch. A tight-lipped grimace. The impression of coiled aggression and intense cynicism. The toughest, most dangerous man on planet earth. A legend. PLISSKEN strolls out of the alley into the crowd. He counts his money, pockets it, as a cigarette girl approaches him. PLISSKEN stops her, pays for a pack of cigs. As she eyes him... CLOSEUP OF PLISSKEN'S ARM ... the cigarette girl touches him, pricks his skin with her fingernail. A drop of blood appears. PLISSKEN turns, stares after her, as the sound of helicopters rises from above in the night sky. The crowd suddenly starts to disperse. Helicopter searchlights blast down on the street. PLISSKEN is suddenly caught in the glare. He starts to move away... KACLANG! Out of the blackness above a huge steel net drops out of nowhere. The net slams down on top of PLISSKEN, trapping him, driving him down to the pavement with its weight... PLISSKEN struggles inside the net as black figures - United States Police Force Officers - rush toward him, grab the net, tightening it. More cops move for him as we SLOWLY FADE TO BLACK... SUPERIMPOSE: "L.A. FRIDAY 1900 HOURS" EXT. CONTAINMENT WALL - FIREBASE SEVEN - L.A. - NIGHT Searchlights sweep down across a column of policemen marching past a concrete wall. Camera begins to crane up the wall. Sound of roaring turbines. The howl of the Santa Ana wind. Camera reaches the top of the wall. Armed police troops stand on the battlements. Across what looks like an ocean is L.A. The view is from the Newhall Pass. Hidden by the Santa Monica Mountains, L.A. glows in the distance with a hundred fires. Smoke surges from the jagged horizon. Above, the sky is an angry orange. ANOTHER ANGLE - TOP OF THE WALL Res sensor lights glow in evenly spaced intervals. Searchlights sweep into the darkness. Cannons are in place every 200 feet, manned by police guards. EXT. SAN FERNANDO SEA - NIGHT Water stretches into blackness. This was once the San Fernando Valley, but now it's all underwater. Pieces of debris - tops of buildings, the tail of an airplane, a radio tower - stick up above the surface. We can make out the letters of an old, half-sunken sign: "SAN FERNANDO VALLEY MALL" EXT. THE WALL - NIGHT The wall stretches to the northwest up to the Santa Susanna Pass. Portions of the 118 Freeway arch up out of the water. EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - BEHIND THE WALL - NIGHT Firebase Seven is a fortified base camp in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is a sprawling police complex with low concrete bunkers, gun emplacements, satellite communications, vehicles, troops, the works. ON A LARGE ASPHALT FIELD, opposite the main complex is Rotor City - row after row of black, multi-bladed, totally evil police battle helicopters parked like giant bugs on the ground. A throng of policemen gather at the edge of Rotor City yelling and cheering, their fists in the air. Cops with camcorders videotape the event. A police anchor reports... POLICE ANCHOR He's been the Force's Most Wanted Man for 10 years. Convicted of 27 moral crimes. I can tell you, the excitement around here is... (a great roaring skyward) Here he comes! A MASSIVE 7-ROTORED, 40-BLADED HELICOPTER TRANSPORT comes slamming down out of the black sky and lands. The growing crowd of cheering cops goes nuts like fans at a football game. They slap hands, dance wildly. INT. COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT A mammoth room filled with high-tech instrumentation. A glowing holographic map of L.A. fills one wall. Most of the control personnel have left their work stations and gather around TV sets all showing the Police Channel: a view of the helicopter transport sitting on the asphalt and the cheering crowds at the edge of Rotor City. A tall, steel-faced officer sits at his desk. This is Firebase Commander MAC "BIG DOG" MALLOY. Hard, battle weary features. BRAZEN, a section Lieutenant, comes up. BRAZEN Commander Malloy. They're bringing him out, sir. Malloy rises from his chair, steps to a nearby TV set, watches the scene from the Police Channel. MALLOY So we finally got him. EXT. ROTOR CITY - NIGHT The crowd of cops is growing to a frenzy of wild anticipation. POLICE ANCHOR Hold one! The door is opening! The door of the helicopter transport slowly lowers like a drawbridge. Out of its black belly comes... SNAKE PLISSKEN. A steel collar is clamped around his neck. Eight lengths of chain stretch to eight armed guards who escort Plissken down the ramp. Plissken is bruised, badly beaten and tortured, his face a mess, but he doesn't seem to care. A line of battle-ready cops stand with their guns aimed right at Plissken's head as he is marched into camp. An army of camcorders move ahead of the Police Anchor as he scampers along in front of PLISSKEN, interviewing him. POLICE ANCHOR Hello, Plissken. Welcome to L.A. Celebrating cops cheer as Plissken is lead to... A SIGN ABOVE A CONCRETE BUNKER - DEPORTATION CENTER The bunker has one large opening, into which hundreds of deportees march. Guards in towers monitor the condemned as they trudge out of fenced-in containment areas, down walled corridors to the bunker entrance. The deportees are minorities, the poor, prostitutes, pimps, thieves, adulterers, atheists - the Morally Guilty, outcasts of society. Single mothers carry babies. Teenage runaways huddle together. There are abortion doctors, drug dealers, pornographers, the prisoners of a massive cultural war. As Plissken is marched toward the entrance, a loudspeaker blares out: POLICE VOICE (V.O.) You are now entering the Deportation Center. You have been found guilty of moral crimes against the United States of America. A great cheer goes up from the cops as the Police Anchor conducts his interview... POLICE ANCHOR S.D. Bob Plissken. Special Forces, Black Light, Texas Thunder. Two Purple Hearts. Youngest man ever decorated by the President. Plissken's face remains so impassive as to be almost blank. INT. SODIUM VAPOR CORRIDOR - DEPORTATION CENTER - NIGHT A glowing, vaporous-orange corridor. More cops gather to watch Plissken as he is escorted into the bowels of the Deportation Center. POLICE ANCHOR You've been convicted of 27 moral crimes, Plissken. The murder of an Internal Revenue agent. The kidnapping of a bank president. Gun fighting for profit. The list goes on and on... INT. CONCRETE HALLWAY - DEPORTATION CENTER - NIGHT Deeper into the Deportation Center. Camera tracks along the deportees, some bleeding, some wrapped in rags. Plissken, the Police Anchor, camcorders and the armed escort move through the dark, low concrete passageway. POLICE ANCHOR You used to respect the law. Served your country like no man before you. Role model to a generation. The Police Anchor leans in as close as he dares to Plissken's face. POLICE ANCHOR What happened to you, war hero? You were the best we had. STEEL-WALLED HALLWAY - DEPORTATION CENTER - NIGHT Steel walls. Deeper into the Deportation Center. The deportees here are in worse shape. Some appear to be dead. Plissken and his entourage continue along, as the speaker echoes a pre-recorded message... POLICE VOICE (V.O.) You are sentenced to permanent expulsion beyond the borders of the U.S. You now have the option to repent of your sins and be electrocuted on the premises. If you elect this option, notify the Cleric Sergeant in your Processing Area. Plissken and his entourage pass deportees kneeling and praying in front of cloaked cleric cops, government holy men. Beyond, through opened doorways, see Death Row deportees being strapped into futuristic electric chairs. POLICE ANCHOR The whole world's watching. Every good and decent person who works and hard and follows the rules. What would say to them? Plissken's expression is blank. POLICE ANCHOR What would you say to all of us who believed in you, who looked up to you, who thought you stood for right over wrong, good over evil? Be my guest. What do you have to say, Plissken? PLISSKEN (beat) Call me Snake. The guards move Plissken through a doorway, and the huge steel doors slam shut on the Police Anchor and the camcorders. INT. CORRIDOR - PROCESSING AREA - NIGHT Malloy, Brazen, and a 3rd man, tall, charismatic, grim, move urgently along a corridor. BRAZEN ComStat did a psychosearch on him. Used a database of 5 million sociopathic personalities. He hit the bottom of the curve. MALLOY Perfect for the mission. Nobody else can pull it off - not an army, not a man. BRAZEN Zero emotional developments. Total lack of compassion. A highly developed psychopathic instinct to survive. 3RD MAN Let's get this over with. INT. CONCRETE CELL - NIGHT The cell door slams shut. Plissken turns around. Writ and leg irons. He looks around. In the concrete cell he sees a simple table with an overhead light above it. A watch lies on the table. Plissken shuffles over, picks up the watch, examines it. The cell door opens. Malloy, Brazen, and the 3rd Man enter the room unarmed. The door closes. Malloy and Brazen move forward, to the edge of the light. The 3rd Man stays back in the shadows by the door. MALLOY How you doin' Plissken? (no reply) You like the watch? PLISSKEN You assholes didn't bring me here to give me this for 20 years of dedicated service. What'ya want? Malloy looks back to the 3rd Man in the shadows... 3RD MAN Get to it. Malloy raises a control unit, pushes the button. The lights go down and a computer-enhanced image appears on the wall... INT. PROTOTYPE DEFENSE LAB - SURVEILLANCE CAMERA From the point of view of a surveillance camera. The lab is huge. Banks of processors, disk drives, test bays, prototype assembly areas. High tech. A group of government officials is being given a tour. Utopia, 17, the President's daughter is among them. Pretty, virginal, she wears a "True Love Waits" button on her flowered dress. MALLOY At 1030 hours Wednesday, a group of government officials began a tour of the Livermore Defense Lab. The President's daughter, Utopia, was among them. Plissken continues to watch the image on the wall... MALLOY An hour later, she boarded Air Force 3 to Washington. The 3rd Man reacts as the image in front of Plissken changes... INT. MAIN CABIN OF 747 - CAMCORDER From the point of view of a camcorder. Utopia stands inside the main cabin of a plush, government 747. In one hand she holds a black anodized box the size of a transistor radio with a button on top. In the other, a machine gun. UTOPIA (to the camcorder) To the American people - it is time to rise up and demand the surrender of the President and his corrupt theocracy of lies and terror. MALLOY At 1140 hours, she hijacked the plane. We scanned the videotape on VR. Check it out. Inside the surveillance room the President stares grimly as Malloy presses a button. Suddenly the image in front of Plissken spreads out all around him. He is in a virtual reality re-creation. INT. MAIN CABIN OF 747 - VIRTUAL REALITY Plissken stands manacled in the main cabin. A group of secret service men and congressmen watch as a flight attendance operates a camcorder. He's videotaping Utopia as she rants into the camera. She's pent up with such anxiety she's like a panther in a cage. UTOPIA Today is Day One of a brand new world. The days of the empire are finished. (beat) To the President - my father, you know what this is. She holds up the anodized box with the red button and thrusts it at the camcorder. UTOPIA You know what it will do. Unless you abdicate your throne by tomorrow night, I will use it - on you. CONGRESSMAN Utopia, please. Give us the prototype. If something should happen - UTOPIA It will be in my hands - and the hands of my lover. She says "lover" with all the drama a 17-year-old virgin can muster. The others are shocked. UTOPIA Yes, my lover. My man. The only real man I've ever known. I'm on my way to his arms. She moves to the rear of the main cabin, bends down, opens a small hatch in the floor, scrambles down... WHAM! The VR image suddenly disappears and Plissken is again standing inside the concrete cell. Malloy and Brazen stand in front of him. MALLOY Somehow during the tour, she came into possession of a prototype transmitting device. We don't know how. BRAZEN Utopia became depressed after her mother's suicide, began to withdraw into her virtual reality simulator. She'd punch up her own little world in cyberspace and stay in it for days at a time. (hits a button) Somebody else was in there with her. AN IMAGE APPEARS In front of Plissken: A computer-rendered VR picture of clouds and sunshine, green grass and happy animals frolicking. A Garden of Eden. There, coming toward us, is CUERVO JONES. South American terrorist. Fiercest warrior of the Third World. He wears a gleaming ancient Aztec battle helmet. Bandoliers strapped around him. MALLOY Cuervo Jones. Shining Path. Peruvian terrorist. Runs the biggest baddest gang in L.A. Cuervo Jones takes off the helmet He is blindingly handsome, charismatic. He smiles, reaches out his arms to camera as if to embrace it. The image suddenly pops back to the beginning - it's on a loop. The image disappears. The lights in the cell come up. BRAZEN Utopia made tapes of her VR experiences, then tried to erase them. She missed this fragment on the end of her last tape. Cuervo Jones must have tapped into the VR master data bank - and then went prowling around for innocent blood, someone vulnerable to corrupt. Utopia was lonely, looking for something to believe in. PLISSKEN Sad story. You got a cigarette? MALLOY Shut up, Plissken. PLISSKEN What's the little black box do? MALLOY Top secret. Only on a need to know. PLISSKEN And I don't need to know. So fuck you, I'm goin' to Hollywood. MALLOY That's right, big shot. Unless you do what we want you're not coming back. PLISSKEN So what's the deal, huh? Go into L.A., find the President's daughter, secure the box, and bring 'em both out - and I'm free? MALLOY That's the deal. PLISSKEN Tell the President to adopt. I think I'll like L.A. After a couple of beats, the 3rd Man appears next to Malloy and Brazen. He stares at Plissken for a moment, holds up some papers. 3RD MAN If you bring out the prototype, you'll receive a full pardon for every immoral act you have ever committed in the United States. Just like in '97. Remember New York, Plissken? PLISSKEN (looks at him) Who are you? MALLOY It's the President, for Christ's sake! PRESIDENT I give you my word. Put the prototype into my hands, and you're a free man. PLISSKEN I can see you're real concerned about your daughter. PRESIDENT Utopia is lost to me. My daughter is gone. PLISSKEN Well, I'll think it over. PRESIDENT You're running out of time. PLISSKEN I've been doin' that all my life. Might as well do it in L.A. Everybody else there is. MALLOY Well, enjoy it, war hero, cause you got 10 hours to live. Malloy, Brazen, and the President turn to leave... PLISSKEN Wait a minute, what are you talkin' about? MALLOY Having second thoughts? PLISSKEN Maybe. But you're not putting any shit in me this time. MALLOY You don't understand. It's already in you. PLISSKEN'S FACE As an image of the cigarette girl in New Las Vegas flashes suddenly. Her fingernail scratches his arm. He tightens. MALLOY The cigarette girl in New Vegas was an undercover cop. She injected you with incentive toxin. Right now it's swimming in your bloodstream. It'll start to take effect in 9 hours. BRAZEN It's a strain of the Plutoxin 7 virus. Genetically engineered. 100% pure death. Complete nervous system shutdown. You crash and bleed out like a stuck pig. Not a pretty sight. Plissken takes a step toward him. Malloy holds up a large hypodermic. MALLOY Of course there's an anti-toxin. Neutralizes the virus immediately upon injection. (beat) We'll give it to you, but you have to do us this little favor. TWO BEATS... ...and then Plissken attacks the President, hurls himself across the room, throwing the chain around the President's neck... Plissken passes right through the President, causing his image to waver slightly, then falls on his ass. PRESIDENT Didn't think we were that stupid, did you? INT. SURVEILLANCE ROOM The real Malloy, Brazen, and President stand in front of a laser camera in a small room offering a view of the cell through a transparent portion of the wall. MALLOY We're holographs. INSIDE THE CELL Plissken stares at the three images in front of him, then at the camera lens on the wall... PLISSKEN Get this crap out of me. MALLOY I guess we have a deal. Nice to be working with you, Plissken. PLISSKEN (beat) Call me Snake. INT. BRIEFING ROOM - COMMAND HQ - NIGHT Plissken checks through various tactical survival items and weapons laid out on a table. Brazen watches as Malloy show shim a high tech submachine gun. BRAZEN Very sweet little weapon. Core burner. Magnesium ammo. 500 extra rounds. (moves on) Two 9mm handguns. (holds up a silver pill) Oral projectile. Mouth dart. Hold it in your mouth for ten seconds, the coating dissolves, it becomes a weapon. Malloy breaks open the silver pill. Inside is s small, lethal looking dart. BRAZEN Urolite. It'll stun the enemy for several seconds. Plissken picks up a small, computerized compass. MALLOY Tracer. Utopia has a kidnap chip implanted in her arm. You can locate her with this. Brazen hands Plissken a large black clip. BRAZEN This clips right onto your 9mm. Ammo enhancers. Like miniaturized grenades. Blows through anything. Plissken snaps the clip onto his pistol, then unsnaps it. EXT. POLICE COMPLEX - NIGHT Plissken suits up. Submachine gun, handguns, six-guns. He, Brazen and Malloy walk quickly across the complex. MALLOY L.A. is in a constant state of warfare. Gangs fighting for the right to rule. BRAZEN Heavy Third World connections. They get weapons, drugs, fuel, choppers - everything is pumped into the island from the south. MALLOY Some areas have power - they're on line to San Onofre. EXT. ROTOR CITY - NIGHT As Brazen's command helicopter takes off... INT. COMMAND HELICOPTER - NIGHT Plissken stares at a photo of the anodized prototype. PLISSKEN I'll need to know more about this thing. MALLOY Only a handful of people are aware of its existence. Let's just say it's the ultimate defensive weapon. PLISSKEN Defense against what? MALLOY There's a war about to be declared, or didn't you know? Plissken shrugs. MALLOY Third World wants to live like we do - and they plan on taking what they want. The Cubans and Brazilians are ready to invade Miami. If the Africans and Colombians make a run at the border, we got a full scale attack on the United States. PLISSKEN So what does this thing do? MALLOY All you need to know is get it back here by 5 a.m. EXT. WALL - ACCESS TUNNEL - NIGHT The Command helicopter lands near a large access tunnel inside the containment wall. INT. ACCESS TUNNEL - NIGHT Plissken, Brazen and Malloy walk through the dark, dank tunnel. Armed guards stand at the ready. A hatch in the tunnel floor stands open. A ladder disappears down into the darkness. MALLOY (points to the open hatch) You're going over by submarine. One-man submersible. Nuclear powered. Plissken arranges his gear, climbs into the hatch opening. PLISSKEN Where do I put ashore? MALLOY Cahuenga Pass. Make your way up through the mountains toward the Hollywood Bowl. You should be able to pick up Utopia's tracer there. (beat) Once you go inside, you're on your own. (beat) You know what you have to do with the girl, don't you? (beat) We have to spare this nation her trial - for treason. PLISSKEN So you want me to take her out? (Malloy nods) Is that an order from the President? MALLOY Let's just say it's what's best for the country. PLISSKEN By the way - who gives me the anti-toxin? MALLOY A medical team will be standing by. PLISSKEN Not you? MALLOY No. PLISSKEN Good. KABLAMM! He fires, ripping hellish blasts at Malloy. There's no damage. Malloy laughs. MALLOY Thought you might try that. First clip is filled with blanks. Goodbye, Plissken. Malloy kicks the hatch and it slams down on top of Plissken. Brazen pushes a control button, sealing it shut. INT. SUBMARINE BAY - NIGHT Plissken climbs down the ladder into a small submarine bay. Below him on a launching rig is a sleek, black one-man submarine shaped like a dart. The submarine's hatch is open. Plissken climbs inside. INT. SUBMARINE - NIGHT Plissken seals the hatch behind him. He has to lie flat on his stomach to operate the sub. He quickly hits various switches and buttons, powering up the cockpit. INT. COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT Malloy and Brazen move to a surveillance-command post. PLISSKEN (V.O. RADIO) Com check. Malloy picks up the microphone. MALLOY I'm here, Plissken. INT. SUBMARINE - NIGHT Plissken looks at the wrist watch. It ticks down ominously. Eight hours and counting down... MALLOY (V.O.) Stand by for launch. Ignitor. (Plissken pushes a button) Fuel rod injection. Plissken pulls a lever, watches his dials. A deep humming sound grows louder inside the sub. PLISSKEN She's in the green. MALLOY (V.O.) Lock fuel rods. PLISSKEN (hits a switch) Locked. MALLOY (V.O.) Nuclear turbine to 75% power. Plissken turns a throttle-like control with his left hand. INT. SUBMARINE BAY - NIGHT Out of the rear tubes of Plissken's sub comes a roaring blue glow. INT. SUBMARINE PLISSKEN 75% power. MALLOY (V.O.) Hands on switches and counting. 5...4...3...2...1. Launch. INT. SUBMARINE BAY The rear tubes roar. Suddenly the sub is shot forward through a long, circular tunnel. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken braces himself as the cabin lurches, vibrates with the force. EXT. THE WALL - NEWHALL PASS - NIGHT A door in the wall opens, revealing the circulator tunnel. In a roaring explosion, the sub rockets out of the tunnel, shot from the wall like a cannonball. The submarine is airborne for several seconds, then drops down, and slams into the San Fernando Sea. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken is rocked with the impact. He guides the sub with hand controls. In front of him on a screen is a schematic diagram of the underwater landscape of the San Fernando Valley. EXT. UNDERWATER - 405 FREEWAY - NIGHT In the underwater darkness, see the broken remains of the 405 Freeway, as the subs creams past, its nuclear wake churning in the water. INT. COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT Malloy, Brazen and other cops follow Plissken's course on a gigantic computer screen. MALLOY Plissken, watch your speed. Lots of obstructions down there. EXT. UNDERWATER - VAN NUYS CITY HALL - NIGHT As the sub rockets past the ruins of the Van Nuys City Hall, barely missing it. INT. SUBMARINE MALLOY (V.O.) Plissken... Plissken ignores him, carefully maneuvering the sub with his controls. MALLOY (V.O.) Plissken... do you copy? EXT. UNDERWATER - THE VENTURA FREEWAY - NIGHT Camera follows the sub as it streaks along just above the submerged ruins of the Ventura Freeway. See the ghostly shapes of cars, trucks, busses below, smashed and overturned. INT. COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM They watch the sub, a red blip on the screen, move along the freeway. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken twists his hand throttle, pouring on the power to 90%. EXT. VENTURA & HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY INTERCHANGE - UNDERWATER - NIGHT The sub rips through the water, faster and faster, goes into a hard bank to the right as the Ventura Freeway turns into the Hollywood. A sign at the edge of the Hollywood Freeway reads: "SPEED LIMIT 55". The sub screams past. INT. COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM Brazen points to a readout showing the submarine's engine status. BRAZEN His reactor's starting to overheat. MALLOY Plissken, slow down the sub. You're overloading the power plant. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken glances at the gauge. His nuclear turbine readout: green, moving to yellow, into red. He pushes it up to 102%. MALLOY (V.O.) Plissken...? Plissken's eye turns back to the computer map in front of him. One the screen: the red blip representing the sub is headed right toward a building. Plissken pulls hard on the controls. EXT. UNDERWATER - UNIVERSAL CITY - THE BLACK TOWER - NIGHT The sub smacks into the side of the Black Tower, powers through it, blasts out the other side through a window, tilting and wobbling. The sub rights itself momentarily but is slammed downward out of frame by a huge, dark, slimy object. KING KONG looms overhead - his fist rising and falling with the currents. Plissken has maneuvered himself into the wreckage of the Universal Studios Tour. The sub zips through the King Kong ride into Back To The Future, passing 1950's signage from that film, dodging a rusting Delorean. It slams into the open mouth of JAWS, shattering the model into a million pieces. The sub continues on, bouncing through the narrow openings of the Earthquake Ride - broken pipes, cracked sidewalks, split walls - hard to tell what was the ride and what was The Big One. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken hangs on, as small jets of water spray into the cockpit through tiny cracks in the hull. EXT. UNDERWATER - MOVING WITH THE SUBMARINE - NIGHT The sub suddenly tips upward, rising for the surface. EXT. SHORELINE - CAHUENGA PASS - NIGHT The sub explodes out of the water, lands belly first on a hillside with a hard thump. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken presses the hatch controls. The sub begins to slide backwards down toward the water. INT. SUBMARINE Plissken struggles, then rips open the hatch, scrambles out. The sub slowly slips backwards, down into the water. As the rear exhaust tubes hit the surface, a blast of steam. Plissken leaps out of the hatch. The sub sinks faster and faster. He scampers up the side, leaps for ground... and lands on the hillside, as the sub sinks into the sea, bubbling, churning, hissing. A bleeping sound. He takes out his pocket walkie, raises the antenna. MALLOY (V.O.) Plissken...? PLISSKEN I'm here. MALLOY (V.O.) Where's the submarine? It's disappeared off our screens. PLISSKEN It's history. I gotta go. Plissken clicks off the walkie, pockets it, turns to climb up the hillside when... WHAM! Standing above him is a dark figure. Hooded. Carrying something huge and rounded at the ends. Plissken raises his submachine gun... ... as PIPELINE steps closer. He's a surfer in a black wetsuit. Carries a surfboard. A rifle is slung across his shoulder. Pipeline's face is raw, burned - too many hours surfing in the UV. PIPELINE Too bad about your boat, man. (Plissken doesn't move) Supposed to be some swells out here tonight. Big ones. (beat) You like to surf? Realizing Pipeline is no danger, Plissken moves past him up the hillside. PIPELINE You look kinda familiar. (beat) You hang out around here much? But Plissken's moved off into the darkness. EXT. MULHOLLAND DRIVE - NIGHT - RAIN Plissken reaches old Mulholland Drive, now dark and desolate. Shells of houses stand nearby, black and empty. It has begun to rain. The sound of gunfire. Plissken ducks behind a tree... Two old cars come zooming up Mulholland, side by side. Windows down. Guns blazing at each other. They pass Plissken, continue down Mulholland, ripping each other apart with gunfire. Plissken darts across Mulholland, down the mountainside. EXT. MOUNTAINSIDE - NIGHT - RAIN The rain pours down as Plissken makes his way down a steep incline. CRACK! A dark figure steps out from behind a tree. Plissken spins, submachine gun ready. It's Pipeline. PIPELINE Hey, man. I know who you are. You're Snake Plissken. Man, I can't believe you're really here. More gunfire from above on Mulholland... PIPELINE Kind of a bad neighborhood, Snake. PLISSKEN Which way to the Hollywood Bowl? PIPELINE (points) Down that way. Plissken starts down. PIPELINE Be careful. Some real strange dudes hangin' out there these days. Plissken continues moving, now just a blurry figure in the rain. PIPELINE Hey Snake - what're you doin' around here, man? (as Plissken disappears) I heard they busted you up real good in Cleveland... EXT. HILLS ABOVE THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL - NIGHT - RAIN The rain is coming down in a torrent as Plissken makes his way down the hillside. Then, all at once, the rain lets up, then stops. The trees drip with moisture. Suddenly, a huge KATHUMP from above him. Plissken looks back. A huge mudslide is roaring its way down the hill toward him. Plissken races down the hill, but the mudslide cascades downward like a freight train, catches up with him, sweeps him off his feet... and Plissken goes riding down the hill, rumbling and sliding in the mud. EXT. STAND OF TREES - NIGHT The mudslide hits a flat area near a stand of trees, spreads out, slows. A completely mud-covered, black Plissken climbs out of the goo. He's dripping with it. His one good eye shines in the moonlight. He takes a couple steps toward the edge of the treeline when... A VOICE (SPINAL) (V.O.) Shut-up, fuck! Stop makin' noise! Plissken spins. He's standing right next to SPINAL, the leader of the Black Cowboy Gang. Dressed in black, boots with spurs, black duster, black cowboy hat, he carries an automatic rifle. He looks just like Charles Barkley. Plissken looks around, realizes he's in the middle of a small army of Black Cowboys, crouched behind the trees, waiting in ambush. Covered with mud, Plissken blends right in. SPINAL Take cover, fool. Plissken jumps behind a tree, looks down the hillside. PLISSKEN'S POV - THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL Below his position is the Hollywood Bowl. A huge cross is on stage, and the cross is on fire. CLOSER - HOLLYWOOD BOWL A group of white hooded men, the K.K.K., stand in front of the burning cross holding a ceremony. Next to the cross on stage, a hooded K.K.K. string quartet begins playing a Hayden concerto. Plissken reacts. SPINAL Let's take him. A Black Cowboy raises his M79 grenade launcher, as the others quickly race down the hillside. He fires. THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL A 40mm armor-piercing grenade leaves a blazing fire trail as it rockets toward the burning cross and - KABLAMMO! A fireball blows pieces of the cross into the air. The K.K.K. spin around... A blast of lightning illuminates the Black Cowboys attacking from the hills. They open fire. A K.K.K. Grand Dragon is picked off his feet, buffeted in mid-air, flesh and robe shredded by gunfire. A hail of bullets hits the K.K.K. They return fire, but are overwhelmed. They are hit, jerking and twisting. Fire from the Black Cowboys is withering, racking the hooded figures like bolts of lightning. The Black Cowboys keep advancing, firing, as it starts to rain again. Through the cloudy wash of dribbling rain water, the firefight continues. Four K.K.K. leap out from behind a row of seats and jump Plissken, knocking his gun to the ground. In a blinding flash, using hands, feet, and head, Plissken sends them flying. As he reaches down to pick up his submachine gun, he sees that the rain is washing the mud off his body... AND SO DOES SPINAL, who stands nearby, watching as Plissken is washed clean by the rain. Spinal raises his weapon, then stops. SPINAL Hey. I know you. Snake Plissken. Plissken slowly stands, his submachine gun in his hand. Behind them, the firefight is almost over. The K.K.K. scatter into the rain... SPINAL Hey, what's going down, Snake? PLISSKEN I'm looking for somebody. SPINAL Who ain't? Plissken pulls out his tracer. It is blipping red, just south of the Bowl. SPINAL Say, is it true what they say about Cleveland, man? Plissken doesn't answer. He moves on through the rain... SPINAL Later, Snake. Thanks for the help. You can always shift down and mojo with us anytime. EXT. VINE AVENUE - NIGHT The ruins of the Capital Records building. The rain has stopped again. Plissken is a lone figure walking along the street. In the distance, the sound of thumping music. EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD AT HIGHLAND - NIGHT Pandemonium! Music blares. It's the old Supremes hit, "Love is Like An Itchin' In My Heart." Crowds dance in the street. It's like a block party. Black, Latino and Native American gangs celebrate. Plus the usual Hollywood Boulevard street traffic. Plissken moves through the carnival. Gorgeous hookers stand under the marquee of the ruined Chinese Theater. The marquee now reads: "SAFE SEX", "NO CONDOMS NEEDED", "POLYPROPYLENE ORIFICES", "SATISFACTION GUARANTEED" One of the hookers struts in front of Plissken. CLOSEUP - THE HOOKER Opening her mouth, she gives a sensuous puff. A polypropylene orifice attached to the inside of her lips expands outward like a small, pink balloon. She sucks it back in and puckers, kissing the air. Plissken turns, as the sounds of car engines rises. HIS POV - COMING DOWN HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD ... is a caravan of vehicles. The crowd parts to let them through, cheering insanely. Plissken ducks into an alley, watches... The caravan passes Plissken's position. Two men on horseback lead a convoy of rumbling, fuming old cars, buses, motorcycles - all scarred and ripped and jerry-rigged - bumps down the Boulevard. Plissken watches from his spot in the alley, as a blonde-haired hooker joins him, rubs his arm. She has no polypropylene, at least none that we can see. BLONDE HOOKER It's winnin' time, baby. How about you and I do some celebrating? PLISSKEN What's going on? BLONDE HOOKER You must be new around here. (beat) You look familiar. Have I done you before? Plissken grabs the hooker. PLISSKEN What's happening? BLONDE HOOKER Easy, man, easy. It's Cuervo Jones' gang. Mescalito Justice. He's the big boss man 'round here tonight. (whispers) He's gonna take down the police and make 'em kiss his fine ass. Plissken lets her go, stares... HIS POV - A CADILLAC ... is perched ten feet off the ground on monster truck wheels. Severed doll heads are glued all over the hood, and a large glittering disco ball spins atop the roof, catching shards of light and flicking them back into the night... Behind the disco ball stands the real Cuervo Jones, at least. And there next to him is Utopia. She's dressed in black lace underwear and bra, garters and stockings. A Playboy fantasy. She holds the prototype. Delgado, Cuervo Jones' second-in-command, stands behind her. He is huge and evil. Dressed like Pancho Villa. Plissken stares as the Cadillac passes. The hooker cheers along with the rest of the crowd, and doesn't notice that Plissken's moved off... Several motorcycles bring up the rear of the caravan. Mescalitos ride with their women slung behind them. As the last bike passes, Plissken darts out of the alley, yanks the woman off the back of the cycle, jumps on. ON THE MOTORCYCLE The Mescalito biker turns to react... WHACK! Plissken takes him out with a head-butt, shoves him off the bike, hops up on the seat. KAVROOM! Plissken guns the motorcycle and it roars off, around the other bikers, toward the head of the caravan. Plissken zooms along, makes the turn onto La Brea Avenue with the caravan... EXT. LA BREA AND SUNSET BOULEVARDS - NIGHT As the caravan turns west onto Sunset, Plissken blasts around the corner. ON PLISSKEN Coming right behind him are four Mescalitos on Harleys - chains, iron bars, and swords in their hands. Plissken stares up ahead. HIS POV - THE CADILLAC ... is just a few feet away. Cuervo Jones and Utopia. Plissken guns it when suddenly two Mescalitos pull up on either side of him. One of them swings a chain. Plissken grabs it with one hand, and with his other hand, aims his submachine gun and fires! The Mescalito and bike go flying, and Plissken holds on to the chain. Atop the Cadillac, Cuervo Jones reacts to the sound of gunfire. He turns to see... PLISSKEN As the other Mescalito riding behind him swings a chain. Plissken swings his. The two chains snap together, intertwining. Then Plissken squeezes his hand-brake. He screeches to a stop. The Mescalito keeps going, and is yanked over backward by his own chain, off the Harley. Finally the Harley flops over, skids, explodes. Plissken guns it again, takes off after the Cadillac. Two more Mescalitos pull up on either side of Plissken. They take aim at him with their automatic rifles. Plissken pulls a sudden wheelie, lifts the front of his bike up into the air, rides on the back wheel. The two Mescalitos fire - directly into each other. They fall and their bikes go crashing to the pavement. Plissken surges the bike forward, coming up on a Mescalito on horseback who turns and fires. Plissken ducks and the bullet rips through the rear tire. The tire blows and the bike swerves out of control. Plissken leaps from the bike and grabs the back of the saddle. THE HORSE Plissken pulls himself up behind the Mescalito and wrestles for control of the mount. Plissken grabs the reins and wraps them around the Mescalito's neck, squeezing until his eyes burst. Plissken slams his arm against the Mescalito, throwing him off the saddle, bouncing onto the pavement. Plissken gallops ahead, circling a lasso high above his head, pounding down on a biker. The lasso takes flight and finds it mark, the biker's neck. Plissken pulls the lasso taut, ties the end to the saddle horn, rides his mount parallel to the biker. THE BIKE With one quick yank to the lasso, Plissken pulls the biker off, jumps on the bike and smacks the hell out of the horse's rump. THE HORSE Takes off down the street, dragging the biker by the neck. THE CADILLAC Speeds up as Plissken moves up to the Mustang five cars behind. He swings off the bike and jumps onto the trunk. Plissken climbs up to the roof, leaps on the hood, then jumps to the trunk of the car in front - leapfrogging, jumping to the next car, the next car... MESCALITOS Lean out their car windows, firing at him, but Plissken keeps moving toward the Cadillac... SUDDENLY A HAND Reaches out a car window and grabs Plissken's submachine gun. Plissken turns to snatch it back - WHEN CUERVO JONES Leaps from the Cadillac and takes Plissken down to the roof. CUERVO JONES Snake Plissken. They struggle. Cuervo raises his machete. Plissken grabs his wrist, flips him over, knocks the machete off into the street, smacks Cuervo in the face. A BOLAS-SWINGING MESCALITO Comes roaring up on his bike, throws the bolas... PLISSKEN As the bolas hit him, wrap around his neck, the balls thunking him in the face, sending him flying... KAWHAP! Plissken hits the pavement hard. He skids, rolls, and at last slams into the edge of the sidewalk. The caravan rumbles away down Sunset. The hand in the car window still holds Plissken's submachine gun. Cuervo crouches on the roof, hissing at Plissken. CUERVO JONES Later, Snake. We finish it later. PLISSKEN Lies there for several beats, then climbs to his feet. HIS POV - THE CARAVAN ... disappears up Sunset. PLISSKEN Stands alone in the deserted street. The ruins of a supermarket, cheap motels, liquor stores - all empty, desolate. He looks over to see the broken remains of his pocket walkie. After a beat, he starts moving up Sunset, checking his two 9mm handguns, slipping them into their holsters. EXT. SUNSET AND DOHENY - NIGHT On the border of Beverly Hills, Sunset stretches off into the darkness beyond the intersection. A slight wind blows litter aimlessly along. There are occasional sounds: Creaks, distant clangs. Plissken approaches the intersection. He carries Utopia's compass homing device. It is silent. The small screen's blank. Then Plissken glances at his wrist watch. CLOSE - WRIST WATCH Three hours gone. Plissken stands for a moment, staring off down Sunset... VOICE (V.O.) Snake Plissken, right? He spins around. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Sits in an old beach chair on the sidewalk, a map to the stars sign in front of him. In his late 50's, he's a petty thief, con man. He's been hustling tourists and everybody else all his life. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Wow! Snake Plissken! Map To The Stars Eddie listens to WAYWARD WIND by Gogi Grant on a small, metal-plated portable radio. He clicks off the radio, rises, walks over to Plissken. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE You're a star in your own right, you know that? Hey, I'm Map To The Stars Eddie. How you doin'? PLISSKEN Where'd they go? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Man, I'd love to have your autograph, Snake. He searches around in his pockets, comes up with pen and paper. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I've been hearing about you ever since that New York deal back in the 90's. You're one smooth operator. (offers pen and paper) Could you sign one to Wolf, one to Death's Head, one to Slasher Smith...? Plissken grabs him by the throat. PLISSKEN Where are they? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Who? You mean Cuervo Jones? He's the man with the juice, Snake. Got the President's daughter. Setting up a citywide truce. Big doings. Plissken draws a 9mm and points it at Map To The Stars Eddie's forehead. PLISSKEN Location. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Cuervo's got a place near Venice, where the big birds fly. Nice digs, too. I've been there, y'know. Plissken releases him, as suddenly the tracer beeps. On the device Plissken sees a small red pulsing dot. West. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Nice little gizmo you got there. (whispers conspiratorially) Look, Snake. I've got connections in this town. You need something, I'm your man. Without a word Plissken turns, walks away down Sunset Boulevard toward Beverly Hills. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey - you can't go there, Snake. You can't walk through Beverly Hills. Plissken's figure disappears... EXT. SUNSET - SIGN - NIGHT The old Beverly Hills sign. It's been painted over in dripping red letters: "QUIET - SURGICAL ZONE - STAY OUT" Plissken ignores the sign, keeps walking down a completely dark Sunset Boulevard. EXT. SUNSET BOULEVARD - BEVERLY HILLS - NIGHT Plissken walks past the once-beautiful mansions along Sunset. Now they are dark, ruined. CLOSER - BEVERLY HILLS MANSION As a twisted, mechanical hand sewn awkwardly to the flesh of the wrist pulls aside a window curtain. The face behind the window is in shadows, but we can just make out its pale, discolored features. The other hand brings up a walkie-talkie... SENTRY (into walkie) Specimen moving west on Sunset. EXT. BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL - SUNSET AND BEVERLY DRIVE - NIGHT Plissken moves into the intersection of Sunset and Beverly Drive. The ruins of the old Beverly Hills Hotel are ahead and to his right. He stops, stares down Sunset... HIS POV - A FIGURE Emerges from the shadows. This is the gatekeeper. Strange, mismatched body parts. A black-skinned arm attached to a pale white body. His face is unnaturally smooth - too many face lifts. He carries a torch. GATEKEEPER Halt! (beat) Where are you going? (no reply) Are you here for the auction? BEHIND PLISSKEN Figures have suddenly moved out into the street, all with mismatched body parts - heads too large for their torsos, female body parts mixed with male heads, all sewn together with large, uneven stitches. Plissken is surrounded. GATEKEEPER Welcome to Beverly Hills. Plissken raises his gun, starts to move, when suddenly a figure rises behind him out of the shadows... A MULTI-COLORED FLESH HAND Raises a lead pipe, brings it down hard... ON PLISSKEN'S HEAD THUNK! He goes out like a light. As Plissken slumps unconscious to the street, the figures move for him. Their arms lock around him, drag him away with amazing speed - a pack of wolves on a deer. CLOSEUP - PLISSKEN - NIGHT Plissken bolts awake, to find himself tied to a cross. It's lurching back and forth as though the ground is moving. EXT. RODEO DRIVE - BEVERLY HILLS - NIGHT Plissken is being carried down Rodeo Driveon the cross by a throng of surgical failures. They carry torches. Dressed in tatters. Their faces look only partially human sewn together raggedly. Rodeo Drive is a bizarre marketplace of body parts. The once beautiful storefronts of famous designers are now in shambles. Human body parts are on display like filets of fish on ice. Gucci now offers body pieces fashioned from spare car parts and Armani displays more eclectic, high priced pieces sewn together like sculptures in their windowfronts. A giant rift runs down the street's center. Acrid smoke rises. The throng stops at an intersection, and Plissken's cross is anchored in the middle of the street. Surrounding the intersection are patients of every size, age, sex. Plissken looks over, sees another cross being carried up and planted right next to his. A beautiful girl is tied to this cross. This is TASLIMA, 20's, Iranian, the face of a Persian princess. She's dressed in black leather, and basically has an IQ of around 50. TASLIMA Hi, Snake. It's so great to meet you. My name's Taslima. I'm a fan of yours. PLISSKEN Are you crazy? TASLIMA A little bit. But pretty soon I'm gonna be dead. So are you, Snake. Plissken looks across the street. Our of the ruins of the once famous red door of Elizabeth Arden come an arm of women facialists with acid-burned faces from one-too-many skin peelings wielding knives, saws, horrible-looking carving instruments... TASLIMA I can't believe I got caught. (sighs) I run with Midnight Jihad. Iranian gang. Only they kicked me out, cause I screw up sometimes. I forget stuff. Plissken struggles with his bonds. TASLIMA I left my boyfriend's place tonight, took a wrong turn... (sighs again) Oh, Snake, I'm really kind of out of it sometimes. OUT OF THE RED DOOR come more interns and nurses carrying surgical pans and pushing gurneys to collect dismembered body parts. The throng of facialists, patients, interns and nurses surround Plissken and Taslima on the crosses. They move back to the sidewalks as the auction for body parts cut freshly from Plissken and Taslima is about to begin. The gurneys are wheeled into place and set up as large cutting tables. The facialists take their positions behind the tables waiting to carve fresh meat. PLISSKEN What are they? TASLIMA They live here, used to be like us. But after too many silicon implants, their muscles turned to jelly. The only way they survive is to have body parts transplanted over and over again. (whispers) Snake, nobody who comes into Beverly Hills gets out alive. PLISSKEN No screamin' shit. TASLIMA Oh no, it's the Doctor. PLISSKEN Who? TASLIMA The Surgeon General of Beverly Hills. THE DOCTOR, THE SURGEON GENERAL OF BEVERLY HILLS Steps out into the street. He appears incredibly gorgeous, a hunk of a man, put together by the finest body parts available in Beverly Hills - a millennium Fabio - but upon closer examination, he's got no lower jaw. Instead, there is a rusting metal grid-work attached beneath each ear. It never moves. He can actually speak through a metal box attached to his windpipe. THE DOCTOR Stands in front of them. He raises his hands to quiet the crowd. He walks around the cross, admiring the beautiful bodies before him. He tickles the fine flesh with his right hand, which is made up of 10 gleaming scalpels which form a 360 degree cutting edge. THE DOCTOR I've never seen more beautiful specimens. There will be no auction tonight. These body parts will go to those who need them the most. The crowd gumbles. PLISSKEN Turns his head sideways, to a small hidden pocket near his neck. With his teeth, he pulls out the silver mouth dart, slips it onto his tongue, closes his mouth. The doctor raises his gleaming scalpel hand and steps toward Plissken. THE DOCTOR What a beautiful blue eye. It's a shame you only have one. A nurse brings over a small step-ladder. The doctor positions it in front of Plissken, slowly climbs up the rungs until he is face to face with him. The doctor looks ready to pluck Plissken's good eye from its socket with his scalpel tips. FFFTTT! Plissken spits the mouth dart! WHACK! The dark hits the doctor squarely in the forehead. He freezes, his scalpel hand raised, his eyes clouding. He falls forward. The scalpel hand swings, misses its mark, and instead hits the rope tied around Plissken's wrist. WHATCK! The rope's cut! Plissken grabs the scalpel hand with his free hand, cuts his other hand and legs loose in a flash and pushes the doctor backward off the step-ladder. WHUMP! Plissken falls to the intersection, almost at the same time as the doctor hits the pavement. The patients are stunned. Motionless. They stare at their doctor lying in the street, moaning, moving slightly. Snake starts to run... TASLIMA Snake, help me. SNAKE Why? TASLIMA I don't know. Almost on a whim, Plissken cuts her free. Then he runs. Taslima follows him. Plissken heads toward a side street, looks over his shoulder, sees Taslima following... PLISSKEN Don't follow me. TASLIMA You need help. PLISSKEN Like hell I do. Then Plissken comes to a dead stop. HIS POV - DOWN THE STREET Comes a mass of patients right at him. Taslima grabs Plissken, pulls him with her. They take off down a dark cobblestone street... EXT. DARK ALLEY - NIGHT Plissken and Taslima run as behind them the patient horde gives chase. They stop at another small alley between two large buildings. TASLIMA Down this way. They disappear into the small alley. EXT. SMALL ALLEY - CUL DE SAC - NIGHT It's long and narrow and completely enclosed by the buildings on either side. Suddenly Plissken and Taslima come to the end - a 75 foot high four-story building blocking the passageway to Wilshire. PLISSKEN This is a dead end. (looks at her) You took us into a dead end! TASLIMA I just thought you wanted to get away. I didn't know you wanted to go someplace. KACLANK! They turn... The doctor staggers down the alley, the dart still sticking from his forehead. Behind him, the patients follow... Plissken shoves Taslima toward a broken window. PLISSKEN Go! He follows Taslima through the window. INT. SECOND FLOOR BALCONY - NIGHT Plissken and Taslima climb dilapidated stairs, move along the balcony railing. A torn and tattered Roy Lichtenstein painting hangs crooked on a wall. Twenty foot high bright red letters - "CAA" - lie strewn across the marble floor. Various offices are wrecked and dark, scripts lay all over the place. They stop at a dark hallway. Taslima moves cautiously ahead. TASLIMA Be careful of the bald cats. They live in these buildings. PLISSKEN The what? Plissken reaches for his other 9mm in its holder, but his hands are trapped by the doctor's body. Closer and closer moves the claw dagger toward Plissken's good eye. Taslima scrambles, picks up Plissken's 9mm, then stares at the two men. PLISSKEN (yelling) Are you gonna stand there? Give me the gun! Taslima starts to hand it to him. Both Plissken and the doctor fight to reach it. Finally, it's in Plissken's grasp. He blasts three times - each one hitting. The doctor shudders, rolls away. Plissken gets to his feet. He blasts one more time for good measure, then follows Taslima down the hallway... INT. FIRST FLOOR - REAR EXIT - NIGHT They come down a flight of stairs, stop at the rear door. PLISSKEN How do we get out of here? TASLIMA Sewers. Come on. She pushes open the door... EXT. BEVERLY HILLS STREET - NIGHT Plissken and Taslima run from the building, as a chorus of wails rises. Patients swarm around the building in pursuit. Taslima stops at a sewer grate in the street. TASLIMA Down there. Plissken lifts the grating. Taslima jumps in, followed by Plissken... INT. SEWER TUNNEL - NIGHT Dim, greenish light. Plissken and Taslima begin running down the sewer tunnel. Through the hole behind them drop patients, giving chase. Plissken and Taslima race through a half-filled storm drain seeping with slime. They turn a corner into another tunnel, and run smack into a horde of patients. Instantly, the patients overpower them. Hands reach out and drag them down... Suddenly, from down the tunnel comes an unearthly sound, a weird whispery screech like a demon unleashed from the underworld. It gets louder and louder. The patients freeze, then begin screaming and, as the sound gets louder still, they all disappear, escaping back down the tunnel. FROM DOWN THE TUNNEL An eerie light appears, coming nearer and nearer every moment. TASLIMA Snake - what is it? PLISSKEN How the hell am I supposed to know? This is your damn city. Slowly, the light takes form. It is a single, gigantic eye - floating in pitch-black darkness. It continues coming - growing larger and larger. Suddenly the sewer begins to echo with a blasting, ringing sound. Music! It's incredibly LOUD SALSA MUSIC! From out of the tunnel drives an ancient golf cart. On a metal pole in front is a huge, lighted eye such as an optometrist might use to advertise his services. Salsa music blares at top volume from loudspeakers strapped to the sides of the cart. At the wheel of the vehicle is a large man dressed in jeans, cowboy boots and a flak vest, wearing a gas mask. A lariat is hooked to his belt. He pulls up near Plissken and Taslima, shuts off the motor and the music, lifts a shotgun from the seat beside him, climbs down. He holds the gun on them. Removing his head gear, his face becomes visible. He is PENDEJO BOB, a Mexican wearing sunglasses under the gas mask. He takes off the sunglasses, and his apparently blind in one eye. He looks like Los Lobos' lead guitarist. PENDEJO BOB What're you doing in here? PLISSKEN Looking to get out. PENDEJO BOB Good. I want you out. This is my sewer. PLISSKEN Which way? With a grunt of curiosity, Pendejo Bob moves up to Plissken. Suddenly his blind eye flashes on like a tiny, built-in spotlight. With it, he examines Plissken's face. PENDEJO BOB You're Snake Plissken. TASLIMA Yes. Isn't he cool? There is a clicking sound and the lighted eye is extinguished. Pendejo Bob extends his hand. PENDEJO BOB An honor, Snake. Amigo. They call me Pendejo Bob. Plissken doesn't shake. From down the tunnel the shouts and footfalls of the patients gets closer... PENDEJO BOB Those damn patients are coming back. You'd better climb aboard. Plissken and Taslima climb into the rear of the golf cart. Pendejo Bob spins the cart, takes off in the other direction. INT. UNDERGROUND PASSAGE - NIGHT The golf cart streaks along through a dark sewer passage. The only light comes from the eye on the front of the vehicle. PENDEJO BOB I use the eye and the music to scare em off. They're so whacked out, man, it works great. Chased a whole bunch of em right off the edge there a few months ago. He points to a sheer, pitch-black drop-off on one side of the passage. TASLIMA (she peers over the side) How far down does it go? PENDEJO BOB Don't know - never do hear em land. Earthquake opened it up. The golf cart creaks into a narrow tunnel... INSIDE THE TUNNEL Guards, Hispanics in biker denims, fatigues, with rifles and sunglasses, line the walls. They watch as the golf cart passes. Up ahead is a door marked: "SEWAGE RECLAMATION CONTROL" INT. SEWER RECLAMATION CENTER - CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT The cart pulls into the remains of a mammoth underground control center. It's lined with ladders, catwalks, machines full of gauges and levers. A few are still working - most are broken and covered with dust and grime. Filling the room is an underground enclave: Men, women, children, all Hispanic, living in tents and lean-to's, cooking over open fires next to old rusted cars on blocks, lots of weapons, lots of sunglasses. Also, high-tech, futuristic rifles, cannons, grenade launchers - an amazing arsenal. Crates of explosives are stacked everywhere. The golf cart comes to a stop and they get off. PENDEJO BOB I own this whole place. Used to work here in the old days. I was right in this room when the big one hit. What a mess. We were waist high in shit. (turns proudly to them) Everybody else ran, but not me. I stayed at my post. Now it's all mine. I brought my whole family, my amigos, down here to live with me. TASLIMA Gun runners. PENDEJO BOB Hey, it's a living, baby. PLISSKEN Why don't you get out of L.A.? Take a boat to China, take an airplane to Brazil? (looks at Taslima) Earthquakes, death, shit. Why do you stay? TASLIMA I don't know. Somehow, I just can't leave. PENDEJO BOB Y'know, L.A.'s not such a bad place, Snake. We got our problems, sure - but this is paradise, man. Pendejo Bob leans in close and whispers conspiratorially to Plissken. PENDEJO BOB Say, you need anything, Snake? Guns? Explosives? I can get you a crate of hellfire grenades, no problem - five hours. PLISSKEN Yeah. So how do I get to Venice? PENDEJO BOB All the sewers are collapsed under Venice. You have to go topside. Right up there. He leads Plissken and Taslima to a ladder that goes up into the darkness. A line of men steadily climb up, one after the other, carrying crates of weapons. PENDEJO BOB Comes out near the Santa Monica Freeway. Just follow the signs. Get off at the Lincoln Exit, turn left. Pendejo Bob interrupts the line of men. Plissken starts up the ladder, followed by Taslima... PENDEJO BOB Nice to meet you, Snake. You too, Miss. You're welcome down here anytime. Anytime at all. EXT. STREET UNDER SANTA MONICA FREEWAY OVERPASS - NIGHT Plissken, gun in hand, sticks his head out of the open grate. Taslima follows. The Hispanic men who have climbed up out of the sewers load their weapons crates into various low-rider cars in heavily-armed groups. They rumble off into the night. Taslima points to a freeway on-ramp. TASLIMA The freeway's over there. But, Snake - I don't think it's such a good idea. Plissken starts toward the on-ramp. Taslima doesn't move. TASLIMA The freeways are dangerous. He keeps walking. TASLIMA Goodbye, Snake. Plissken stops, turns back, looks at her - a half-smile. It's as close to 'thank you' as he gets. TASLIMA Sun's coming up in a few hours. She walks up to him. TASLIMA UV's gonna be bad today. I have a friend who's got a place near here. We can crash there if you want, Snake. (she moves close to him) I'd love to take care of you. Make you feel good. Without an answer Plissken turns and walks away... EXT. SANTA MONICA FREEWAY - NIGHT As far as the eye can see there are lines of rusting cars and trucks, bumper to bumper like a giant junkyard rush hour. Plissken walks up the on-ramp, onto the freeway. He strides past rows of junked cars. A few of them have people inside... There is a Mercedes rusted to its frame, its driver an 80-year-old in sunglasses, drinking from a bottle. A pickup truck full of old illegal aliens packed in like sardines. Someone cooks from a barbecue grill. An RV. An old man sits in the opened doorway, staring at Plissken as he passes. Two old ladies in housecoats stare at him through the windows. CLICK, CLICK! A sound behind Plissken. He spins, 9mm ready... It's Taslima, running to catch up with him. TASLIMA I changed my mind. I'm going with you, wherever you're going. PLISSKEN (gestures to the cars) What the hell is this? TASLIMA The freeway. PLISSKEN I know that. There are people in some of these cars. TASLIMA It's where they live. I guess after everything happened, they just needed to do what they'd always done before. During the daytime, they just pull down the shades on their windows and sleep. Plissken continues walking. Taslima catches up... TASLIMA What are you gonna do in Venice? PLISSKEN Find Cuervo Jones. TASLIMA No! Stay away, Snake. He's mucho muerte. Suddenly a shot rings out. Taslima is struck and falls. Plissken drops between the cars and crawls over to her. TASLIMA Run, Snake...They're coming. PLISSKEN Who? She touches his hand and looks at him softly. TASLIMA I don't know. Taslima dies. Plissken stares at her for a moment. More shots ring out - landing very close to him. FREEWAY EMBANKMENTS From out of the heavy bushes along the freeway storm a dozen Mescalitos moving quickly - firing as they go. Behind them grinds an ancient garbage truck mounted with a 50-caliber machine gun. Atop the truck is Delgado. He wears a flame thrower on his back. PLISSKEN Returns fire, rolls under a car and begins crawling. All around him people jump out of their cars, begin firing back at the Mescalitos. THE GARBAGE TRUCK Smashes through a rusting Volkswagen, heading straight toward him. PLISSKEN Reaches the edge of the freeway, dives for the bushes. AS THE GARBAGE TRUCK Roars past, firing into the vehicles on the freeway, the people running, screaming... EXT. SIDE STREET - NIGHT Clawing his way through the undergrowth, Plissken bursts onto a side street. Behind him come the Mescalitos on foot. Plissken runs, firing back every step of the way... AHEAD ON THE STREET Suddenly, in the blowing mist in front of him, a car screeches into view. It's a perfectly restored, 1966 Cadillac convertible. Candy-apple red. The stereo blasts "Last Night" by the Satellites. And behind the wheel is Map To The Stars Eddie. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hop in, Snake! THE UNDERGROWTH As the garbage truck bursts through. Delgado is behind the machine gun, blasting away, burning up the street. Bullets are flying everywhere as Plissken runs to the Cadillac and dives into the back seat. He's still not fully inside when Map To The Stars Eddie roars away in a blaze of rubber and smoke. DELGADO Takes aim with his flame thrower... KAWHOOSH! A GIANT TONGUE OF FLAME Shoots out from the nozzle like a flaming spear. It streaks down the street, just missing the tail of the Cadillac as it swerves around a corner... INT. CADILLAC - NIGHT Map To The Stars Eddie races along a dark street. Plissken climbs into the front seat. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey, Snake - that was great. They almost burned your ass off! Map To The Stars Eddie drives like Satan himself. Plissken is almost thrown out as they spin around curves, up onto sidewalks. Delgado and the garbage truck can't keep up with them. Finally, the Mescalitos are left far behind as Map To The Stars Eddie slows down to a cruise of 70. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Too many people know where you're going, Snake. That's not good. Delgado and his men were back there waiting for you. PLISSKEN Delgado? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Cuervo Jones' right-hand man. One tough hombre. You don't understand, Snake. Cuervo Jones wants to unify the island. We're on the move, man. Big time. EXT. DARK INTERSECTION - NIGHT The Cadillac smashes through an intersection, knocking two old junked cars out of the way. INT. CADILLAC - NIGHT Plissken jams his 9mm into Map To The Stars Eddie's ear. PLISSKEN Stop the damn car. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE No way. PLISSKEN I said pull over. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE All right. Anything for you, Snake. (beat) Although I was going to take you to Cuervo Jones' place. Plissken lowers the gun. PLISSKEN Where is it? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Right over there. He points. Plissken looks off, as Map To The Stars Eddie hits a button on the steering wheel with his finger. ON THE DASHBOARD A small panel in front of Plissken flips down, revealing a two- inch machine gun barrel. Before he can do anything, four rounds rip straight into his chest, blasting him into the seat. PLISSKEN Grits his teeth and gasps. His gun drops. Blood runs from four holes in his shirt. His face grows red as he fights for air. Map To The Stars Eddie pushes the button again and the panel closes up over the barrel. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Pretty neat, huh? This is Cuervo's car. He lets me use it sometimes. (looks at Plissken) Not to worry, Snake. You were just shot with a fun-gun. You feel it? Plissken gulps for air. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Pure mesh, man. 100-proof artery choker. Plissken slumps back, collapses in the seat. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Like Cuervo says, when the hit pulls you down to one inch from death, that is living, man. PLISSKEN'S POV - THE DRUG Kicks in hard. Surreal colors float through the dark, devastated streets of Venice. Plissken fights desperately against the drug, but he can't move. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE You should've talked to me first, Snake. I could've set this whole thing up. I'm actually Cuervo's agent, you know. As Plissken sags, losing consciousness, Map To The Stars Eddie's voice begins to fade... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE And I'd love to represent you, too. We could make a bundle together. I know I could really help your career...I mean, you're a legend and all - but the last couple years, man, it's like you've fallen off the face of the earth. ON PLISSKEN'S FACE As the world crashes to black! FADE IN: EXT. INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL LAX - NIGHT Like a giant, scorched daddy-long-legs, the architectural identity of the LA airport rises above the empty parking lot littered with the skeletal remains of burned-out cars and airport shuttles. The wrecks of old 747s lie twisted and bent across the tarmac. BEHIND IT Surrounded by Mescalitos with torches and guns, sits the former Bradley Terminal defaced with graffiti, the sign now reading: "MESCALITO JUSTICE HALL" PLISSKEN'S GOOD EYE Opens. Looks around fuzzily. INT. MESCALITO JUSTICE HALL - NIGHT He is in Cuervo Jones lair. Huge. Torch-lit. Plissken lies in the center of the room, chained to a treadmill. He is surrounded by Mescalitos. In one corner of the room is lots of high-tech equipment. Computers. A VR simulator. Most of the Mescalitos are gathered around a big screen TV. They watch the 207th Annual Academy Awards from Carefree, Arizona. Cuervo Jones strides toward Plissken. Map To The Stars Eddie scurries along at his side. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Come on, Cuervo. I delivered him, didn't I? All I'm asking for is what you promised. CUERVO JONES We'll see. Cuervo Jones stops in front of Plissken. Sees that he's awake. Holds out a glass filled with red liquid. CUERVO JONES Carrot juice? (no response) Laced with tequila, Snake. Good for you. No? (no response) Your health. Cuervo Jones downs the carrot juice. Plissken lifts his head, grimaces. Sweat pours down his face. He gasps for air. CUERVO JONES You're coming out of it, Snake. It hurts real bad. (beat) That's good. He kneels down next to Plissken. CUERVO JONES Dying isn't good enough for you. You need pain. You'll never make it to where you want to go without a little pain. He stands, considers Plissken for a moment. CUERVO JONES Snake Plissken. American outlaw. So typical of American idealism. The old west, Snake. Cuervo Jones tosses the glass to Map To The Stars Eddie. He's beginning to enjoy the moment, performing for Plissken. CUERVO JONES Man against the sky. The individual. Freedom. No wonder they hate you so much in America, Snake. You remind them of what they used to be. Cuervo Jones walks to a door, opens it. Beyond is a huge courtyard filled with people - families, teenage runaways, the elderly, illegal aliens, orphans - people with nowhere to go. They are being fed and cared for by Mescalitos. CUERVO JONES Here is the real L.A., Snake. Plissken lifts his head to see. CUERVO JONES The poor. The old. The lost. People without hope. He crosses back to Plissken... CUERVO JONES Do you know what they want? One word. Liberation. (beat) They want a chance to live - before it's all gone. They've been hated for too long - (smiles) Now it's their turn. He gestures to his men, who move to Plissken and begin carefully unlocking him from the treadmill. Still wobbly, Plissken crawls to his feet... As Utopia comes bounding up from the big screen TV. Still dressed in her racy underwear, she gives Cuervo Jones a kiss. She still carries the prototype with her. UTOPIA Cuervo! LaToya Jackson just won Best Actress. Cuervo Jones reaches out to take the prototype from her. She holds on to it. UTOPIA You said I could hold it. He yanks it out of her hands, more violently than she expected. Recovering, she casts a contemptuous glance at Plissken. UTOPIA Who's that? CUERVO JONES You never heard of Snake Plissken? Utopia takes a couple steps closer, squints. UTOPIA He doesn't look like his picture. (frown) I bet he's fake. CUERVO JONES Now go get dressed. We have things to do. UTOPIA Are we going to eat soon? I'm starved. Cuervo Jones gives her a slap on the butt, which startles Utopia. UTOPIA Ooww! CUERVO JONES Go on now. Do as I say. Plissken watches as Utopia walks away, out of the terminal. CUERVO JONES I'm going to show her what it means to be a woman - for the first time in her pathetic little life. (smiles) Given her love, Snake. Everybody needs love. He moves slightly closer to Plissken - though not too close. CUERVO JONES You want to hook up with us? Join the revolution? We're all getting out of here tomorrow night. (holds up the prototype) We're gonna rule the world. Come with us, Snake. Plissken says nothing. His good eye glares. CUERVO JONES No? Too bad. Well, I told you we'd finish it later. So guess what? It's later. He motions to his men, who grab Plissken and drag him away... INT. BAGGAGE CLAIM AREA - NIGHT The baggage claim area is an industrial wasteland filled with machinery and hanging cables and wires. A door opens and Plissken is hurled in. The door slams shut. Plissken stands a moment, trying to get his balance, when a man steps out of the shadows. It is Delgado. DELGADO You're mine now, Snake. All mine. Delgado slowly moves towards Plissken, swinging two huge gleaming machetes around his head. Plissken steps back, glances at his wrist watch. 4 hours and 20 minutes gone. PLISSKEN Shit. Plissken looks up as Delgado flings a machete at him. He just barely dives out of the way, rolls on the floor... Delgado charges toward him, machete poised like a bayonet. Plissken rips off an edge guard from the baggage carousel and wings it at Delgado. The machete is blocked with a direct hit. KA- CLANG! Delgado is thrown sideways. Plissken runs, launches himself through the air, twisting his body sideways, and lands a hard kick right in Delgado's face. Delgado goes sprawling. One of the machetes CLANKS to the floor... Plissken grabs the machete, just as Delgado rises... WHOOSH! Plissken's arm is a blur as he throws... THUMP! The machete sticks out of Delgado's chest. He looks down at it in horror, then crumbles to the floor. EXT. MESCALITO JUSTICE HALL - NIGHT The caravan is starting up again. Wearing hot pants, a tank top and full-length mink coat, Utopia is escorted up a ladder by Cuervo Jones to the opened door of the Cadillac perched up on those monster truck wheels. The other Mescalitos mount up in their cars and motorcycles, and roar away from the terminal. Above, on top of the terminal, see a figure move. TOP OF MESCALITO JUSTICE HALL It's Plissken. He grabs an electrical wire and throws it over the side... PARKING LOT - A MESCALITO GUARD Stands watching the caravan pull away. He doesn't see the wire dangling behind him, and Plissken shinnying down it. Beat. Beat. WHACK! Plissken takes him out with one blow, lowers himself to the ground, takes his rifle. Plissken quickly moves down the dark street after the caravan. EXT. THE FORUM - NIGHT Cuervo Jones' caravan comes rolling down Manchester, into a vast parking lot toward the Forum. Portions of the gigantic sports arena have been damaged in the earthquake, but crowds still pour into the entrances. The caravan pulls up at the Forum Club entrance. Cuervo Jones, Utopia, Map To The Stars Eddie and the others enter. AS PLISSKEN Approaches, ducks behind an old junked car. THE FORUM - DAMAGED WALL Plissken sneaks up to a crumbled, broken wall of the Forum, crawls inside through a large crack... INT. LOCKER ROOM - THE FORUM - NIGHT Plissken's in the backstage area, near the locker rooms. Hear cheering from the main arena. Slowly Plissken moves to a door, opens it, steps out... INT. FORUM HALLWAY - NIGHT The cheering is louder is Plissken makes his way along the dingy hallway. Now the sound of gunfire from someplace up ahead. Plissken tenses. Suddenly from down the hallway come two Black Muslims carrying a body on a stretcher. As they pass, Plissken notices the body is wearing a bloody basketball uniform full of bullet holes. He moves forward... INT. FORUM ARENA - NIGHT Plissken peers into the main arena. A basketball game is underway. The Korean Dragons sit on one side, the Black Muslims on the other. They cheer wildly for their respective teams. Pipeline is in the crowd, enjoying the game... Plissken moves closer, among the crowd along the baseline. The whole place is lit by torches and clumsily-wired lighting. Above his head is the shot clock, slowly ticking down. There's blood everywhere on the floor. The referees wear bullet- proof body suits and helmets. Trainers with stretchers stand by. THE SHOT CLOCK Ticks down: 5 - 4... A BLACK MUSLIM Dribbles the ball towards the basket. THE SHOT CLOCK Ticks down: 3 - 2... A whole row of Korean Dragons with rifles stand and take aim. THE BLACK MUSLIM Pulls up into a jump shot, releases the ball into the air. It sails through the basket just as the horn goes off, beating the 24-second violation. The Black Muslim crowd cheers. The Korean Dragons sit down. Plissken watches... CUERVO JONES, UTOPIA AND THE OTHERS Moving through the seats on the Korean Dragon side of the court. Map To The Stars Eddie stands near the baseline, listening to the game on his silver portable radio... THE REFEREE Hands the ball to a Korean Dragon guard. The Korean Dragon dribbles the ball down court, into the corner and passes it off. The Korean Dragons can't get a shot off... THE SHOT CLOCK Above Plissken's head ticks down: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1... HONK! THE KOREAN DRAGON Guard still has the ball - the shot clock horn has gone off - 24 second violation. A whole row of Black Muslims with rifles stand up, take aim, and fire! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! The Korean Dragon guard is riddled with bullets. He falls dead on the floor. The Trainers with stretchers quickly collect his body and hurry off the court. Ball boys quickly wipe up the blood with mops. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (sound of effect of breaking glass) Shot clock! The Black Muslim crowd is cheering and screaming! "I Love L.A." begins playing on the loudspeaker. The players wear do-rags and black uniforms that look a whole lot like the black leather that Plissken wears. One of the players, JAMAAL, notices Plissken. JAMAAL Hey - Snake Plissken, you knew my brother Abdul. He was with you in Cleveland. The other players react, greet Plissken, slapping his hand, thumping chests, high-fiving each other. JAMAAL Welcome aboard, Snake. But Plissken pays no attention. He sees: CUERVO JONES AND UTOPIA Sitting in the Korean Dragon section near the other end of the court. CLOSER - CUERVO JONES AND UTOPIA Sit next to Xi-Ping, the leader of the Korean Dragons, a fierce man with green and brown psychedelic camouflage on his face. Utopia watches the game while the two men confer. Cuervo Jones has a firm grip on the prototype. CUERVO JONES The time is now. We are the strongest. If we go together, the others will come. (beat) We go for everything, Xi-Ping. But we go together. What do you say? Xi-Ping nodes. They clasp hands... PLISSKEN Realizes he's got to get to the other side of the court. He jumps into the huddle with Jamaal, peering at him with his one good, cold eye. PLISSKEN Your brother died owing me, so I'm taking it out in trade. I need a favor... JAMAAL Sure, Snake. Anything. PLISSKEN I need to get across the court now... without drawing attention to myself. JAMAAL Like you ain't gonna stick out like a sore thumb. But we'll do what we can, Snake. Use the clock. Screen and roll. Now let's kick some butt! The players knock fists. Plissken puts on a do-rag. Yelling, they move onto the court, creating a shield for Plissken. JAMAAL (whispers) You play much pick-up ball, Snake? Plissken's watching Cuervo Jones and Utopia at the other end. JAMAAL Whatever happens, watch the shot clock, man. The referee blows his whistle. A Black Muslim guard inbounds the ball. The game is underway. Plissken ducks down the court using the rest of his team as cover. They go into a set play. The game is a cross between basketball and kung-fu. Players use slashing fists, spin-kicks, elbows and hard back-hands. It's full combat. The Korean Dragon guarding Plissken chops him. Plissken knocks him flat. No foul. Utopia sees Plissken, nudges Cuervo Jones. UTOPIA It's that weird guy again. Cuervo Jones grabs her and heads for the exit... Plissken sees this, stops playing, moves after them... when suddenly the basketball lands right in his hands! JAMAAL Snake! Shot clock! THE SHOT CLOCK Ticks down: 4 - 3 - 2... A whole row of Korean Dragons with rifles stand up, take aim at Plissken. Cuervo Jones watches expectantly... Plissken spins, executes a beautiful-looking jump shot. The horn sounds just as it leaves his hand... THE BASKET Swish. Nothing but net. The Korean Dragons sit back down, put away their rifles, disappointed. Cuervo Jones, Utopia, Xi-Ping and their henchmen quickly leave. The Black Muslims go crazy, and Plissken dashes toward one of the exits. He stops, sees... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE With his portable radio, trying to get out of the arena, hiding behind a crowd of Dragons. Plissken races through the crowd, grabs Map To The Stars Eddie. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey, Snake, man... Great shot! Without hesitation, Snake whacks him across the jaw. Map To The Stars Eddie goes down like a sack of laundry. Plissken grabs him by the collar, drags him off toward an exit... EXT. FORUM PARKING LOT - NIGHT Cuervo Jones, Utopia, Xi-Ping and their men rush out to the caravan of waiting vehicles. Xi-Ping has his own armada of vehicles and an army of evil-looking guards. Cuervo Jones pulls Xi-Ping aside. CUERVO JONES That man in black. He's very dangerous. XI-PING One eye? CUERVO JONES Yes. We gotta dump him. XI-PING What does he want? CUERVO JONES (glances at the prototype) I'm betting the cops sent him in. Man, I do not need this. I got a war to win. ANOTHER EXIT - THE FORUM As Plissken drags Map To The Stars Eddie out into the night, crouches behind a row of cars, watches Cuervo Jones' caravan start their engines. Plissken shakes Map To The Stars Eddie, waking him... PLISSKEN Where are they going? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE (groggy) Oh, man... You didn't have to hit me, Snake. I can help you. Plissken shoves the barrel of his pistol up against Map To The Stars Eddie's temple. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Bankrupt City. The Happy Kingdom. (beat) Snake, Cuervo's hooked up with Xi-Ping. He is primetime, man - Mister Bad News. The rest of the city's joining up with 'em. (beat) You're shit outta luck, Snake. Plissken reaches into a pocket, comes out with the large black clip, slips it on his 9mm pistol. PLISSKEN Not yet. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I could've helped you. We coulda made a deal with Cuervo. If you'd listen... Without looking, Plissken slams his elbow into Map To The Stars Eddie's jaw with a WHACK! He flops unconscious on the pavement... Cuervo Jones' caravan led by that huge Cadillac on monster wheels, moves away from the Forum toward an exit. Plissken moves after them, ducking behind the row of cars... FORUM EXIST The caravan picks up speed as it approaches the exit... Plissken appears behind an old truck, just as the Cadillac moves past him. He crouches on the balls of his feet, and as the rear of the Caddy drifts closer, he springs... And grabs on to the rear bumper. The monster wheels spin like huge, black scythes on either side of him. Plissken reaches under the Caddy, finds a purchase on the undercarriage, and swings under the Cadillac. He hangs dangling above the street by one hand as the caravan pulls out onto Manchester. With the other he raises his 9mm and aims it at the undercarriage, right about where the front seat should be... BLAM, BLAM, BLAM, BLAM! INT. CADILLAC - NIGHT The front seat explodes, bullets screaming upward through the leather seats, tearing and shredding fabric and flesh, killing the driver and Xi-Ping instantly! In the back seat sit Cuervo Jones and Utopia. The Caddy begins to swerve, the wheel spinning. Cuervo Jones lunges forward across the seat and grabs it. Under the Cadillac, Plissken continues to fire: BLAM, BLAM, BLAM, BLAM! The front seat disintegrates. Metal, leather, padding fly everywhere. Cuervo Jones ducks against the door, covering his face with one hand, still grasping the wheel with the other. KAWHUMP! The entire front seat and floor underneath it fall down out of the Cadillac and hit the street below. The bodies of the driver and X- Ping flop under the monster wheels. Plissken swings over to the hole and pulls himself up into the opening that used to be the front seat. Cuervo Jones stares at him in total shock, but before he can speak... Plissken rips the prototype out of his hands! Then jumps into the back seat next to Utopia. Then grabs her and turns to the side door. Cuervo Jones releases the wheel for a moment, turns to grab Plissken... But Plissken opens the side door, kicks it wide, and with Utopia under his arm, slides across the seat... ... and sails out of the Cadillac... CUERVO JONES No! Plissken and Utopia fly through the air, and land with a thud on top of a Mescalito car as the Cadillac begins to swerve wildly. Cuervo Jones grabs the wheel, desperately tries to control the Caddy... but fails. The Cadillac careens off the street, slams into the palm tree, spins around and crashes into the remains of a hot dog stand. ON THE ROOF OF THE MESCALITO CAR Plissken and Utopia roll and tumble. He still has a hold of her, and she fights him tooth and nail... UTOPIA Lemme go...! INSIDE THE MESCALITO CAR The driver swerves, hits the brakes... and the car hops the curb, slides along the sidewalk, burning rubber. PLISSKEN AND UTOPIA Are thrown forward. They tumble off the roof... across the hood... and land on the sidewalk in front of the car. They roll to a stop, as the car screeches to a stop, inches from their heads, as the caravan suddenly puts on its brakes. Screaming tires. Cars jackknifing, spinning in a massive traffic collision... Cuervo Jones emerges from the remains of the Cadillac. Plissken drags Utopia into the street, grabs the lid of a manhole in the street, pries it up... Mescalitos pour out of their vehicles, as Cuervo Jones charges into the street, pointing at Plissken... CUERVO JONES Kill him, kill him...! Plissken lifts Utopia to her feel, hauls her over to the manhole opening, and dives inside... just as the Mescalitos open fire! The street around the manhole opening explodes with screaming hot lead... INT. SEWER TUNNEL - NIGHT Plissken and Utopia land in the half-filled storm drain. He gets to his feet, pulls her with him, and heads off sloshing through the water. The sound of gunfire echoes above them... EXT. MANCHESTER AVENUE Cuervo Jones and the Mescalitos charge the open manhole as Map To The Stars Eddie appears groggily shuffling up the street from the Forum... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE (grins to himself) Good thinkin', Snake. He heads off down the street... INT. SEWER TUNNEL Plissken and Utopia race along through the water. He literally has to drag her with him. They turn a corner, go down another slimy drain away from the main tunnel... INT. UNDERGROUND PASSAGE - NIGHT The black belly of the sewer system. Plissken and Utopia move along, slow as they come to... THE SHEER, PITCH-BLACK DROP OFF One side of the passage, the same one we saw earlier on our journey with Pendejo Bob. Plissken spins Utopia around, pushes her backward toward the drop- off, his eye burning into her... Her feet reach the very edge. Plissken holds her there. Utopia's face is a mask of sheer terror. She gulps air in staccato bursts... Beat. Beat. Plissken can't do it. He can't push her off. He releases her, backs up, looks at the prototype, then pulls one of his revolvers from its holster, cocks the hammer, aims... UTOPIA My... father sent you... didn't he? (beat) He sent you to kill me... Plissken raises the pistol. She's dead in his sights. UTOPIA Didn't he? (begins to cry) But Plissken can't. He can't kill her. The toughest man on planet Earth can't kill this 17-year-old runaway. PLISSKEN Shit. Plissken sags, clicks the hammer back, holsters the gun. He stares at her. PLISSKEN Get out of here. Utopia wipes her eyes, confused, afraid. PLISSKEN I said go! Slowly Utopia moves from the edge of the drop off, starts away down the tunnel, then stops, looks back at Plissken. She stares at the prototype in Plissken's hand... UTOPIA Don't take it back. Don't give it to him. Please. Let me have it. Plissken glances at the prototype, then at her. PLISSKEN What does this thing do? UTOPIA (her eyes grow wide) No! KABLAM! Plissken's shoulder explodes as a bullet tears through his flesh! He spins, drops the prototype... ... as Map To The Stars Eddie emerges from the darkness of the sewer tunnel. He holds a gun in one hand, aims... KABLAM! He fires again, hits Plissken's leg. Plissken staggers backward toward the edge of the drop off, as Map To The Stars Eddie moves quickly forward... ... and snatches the prototype from the wet floor. Plissken's gun hand is useless, numb from the shoulder wound. He slowly, painfully transfers the pistol to the other hand, tries to raise it... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE So long, Snake. Map To The Stars Eddie takes aim - a head shot ... Plissken spins, and dives off the edge... ... down into the drop off... PLISSKEN'S BODY Airborne. Falling through black space. Down, down, down, straight to hell below, until we can't see him anymore as the darkness swallows him up... Map To The Stars Eddie steps to the ledge, looks down, as Cuervo Jones and his Mescalitos slog up through the tunnel. CUERVO JONES Where is he? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE He jumped. Down there. (beat) He's dead, Cuervo. I did it. I killed Plissken. Cuervo Jones looks over the edge, at the silent blackness below. Then he turns to Map To The Stars Eddie. CUERVO JONES Give it to me. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE You said I could be Vice-President, Cuervo. Your right-hand man. CUERVO JONES (extends his hand) Give it. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Sure, Cuervo, but look here. I've done it all, man. I killed Plissken, I got your girl back, I got it all. Just for you, Cuervo. Just for you. Dead silence. Cuervo Jones stands with his hand extended. Finally Map To The Stars Eddie gives up, starts to hand Cuervo the prototype... ... but slips on the wet floor... ... and drops the prototype with a CLANK! CLOSE - PROTOTYPE A red light comes on, blinks urgently. PROTOTYPE VOICE (tiny, filtered) I am now armed and ready for use. Use extreme caution. The location of the effected blast area can only be determined by the orbital position of the SatStar Ring. Everyone in the tunnel is frozen, unable to move. Slowly Cuervo Jones picks up the prototype, stares at it, then breaks into a smile... CUERVO JONES This is turning out to be my lucky day. (stares coldly at Map To The Stars Eddie) Get this asshole outta here. Several Mescalitos grab Map To The Stars Eddie, pull him back along the tunnel. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Cuervo, wait. Please... Cuervo Jones turns to Utopia, who stands numbly staring off at the drop-off. He walks over to her, then slaps her hard, viciously, across the face. Utopia reacts to the stinging slap. UTOPIA Cuervo...? CUERVO JONES You're my woman, you understand? You don't let anybody take you away from me without a fight. UTOPIA I tried... CUERVO JONES (in her face) Nobody leaves Cuervo Jones. Not unless you give your life. You fight till you're dead. Then I forgive you. (screams) Understand? (shakes her) Understand? UTOPIA Yes... He shoves her down the tunnel... CUERVO JONES Let's go. The others follow them... EXT. MANCHESTER AVENUE - NIGHT As Cuervo Jones and Utopia emerge from the manhole cover, hear the sound of hundreds of helicopters rise. CUERVO JONES (looks up) Look, baby. They're all mine. POV - THE SKY Above Manchester and the Forum is filled with helicopters. All models, all makes, mostly the older, discarded military Blood Phoenix 14-bladed attack choppers that scream through the blackness like scythe-slashing robot bugs. They are on their way southeast, toward Orange County. EXT. SKY VIEW OF L.A. BY NIGHT Looking out at L.A. from above Mount Lee, see the Hollywood Sign, and wave after wave of helicopters thundering across the city. ANGLE ON THE TWIN TOWERS OF CENTURY CITY They're like buck teeth, sheered off and crumbling, stuck up in to the sky. Chopper roar overhead. A group of vagrants cluster around a camp fire on the top floor of one of the towers. They're watching a futuristic big-spin lotto on a large screen TV. The sound of the choppers brings them to the edge of the building - the walls of the floors beneath have been torn away. Desk, furniture, rugs, everything hangs out over the empty space. EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - NIGHT Pandemonium. Troops, vehicles, helicopters, everything is in urgent motion. A loudspeaker voice blares: POLICE VOICE (V.O.) Full stage battle alert. All personnel to battle stations. INT. HALLWAY INTO COMMAND HQ - MAIN CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT Malloy, the President and Brazen charge down a hallway into Command HQ. The place is jumping. Full scramble alert. MALLOY A sky full of enemy choppers on radar. Moving over the city to the southeast. A COM Officer rushes up to Malloy... COM OFFICER Commander - massive vehicle and troop movement on the ground. All major streets leading to the southeast. PRESIDENT What're they doing? Malloy looks at the President grimly. MALLOY Getting ready to invade. PRESIDENT (beat) So where's Plissken? DARKNESS Creaking. The WHOOSH of something swinging through the air... A huge blue eye opens. Looks around. DARKNESS Plissken's boot is hooked in a twisted wire mesh... DARKNESS And then Plissken swings like a pendulum, hanging from a long strand of wire mesh attached somewhere above in the blackness. Plissken's eye blinks. THE DARKNESS Begins to reveal details: slimy walls. Below, a black pit of hell. Wind gushing. And then a light stabs across the void... CLOSE - PLISSKEN ... The light hits Plissken's good eye... The light is from inside the eye of Pendejo Bob. He stands on a small ledge, at the mouth of a cave leading into the howling pit. PENDEJO BOB Hey, Snake. You okay? (unhooks the lariat) I heard gunfire down here... (begins to swing the rope) Never been down this far before... (swings the rope in a huge arc) Grab this. Pendejo Bob tosses the lariat. The noose flies across the pit, and Plissken grabs it with his good hand. PENDEJO BOB Now hang on. Plissken wraps his good hand and arm in the noose, as Pendejo Bob jerks the line hard. Plissken is in mid-swing, and the rope jerking pulls him abruptly in the opposite direction... Plissken's boot slips out of the wire mesh... And Plissken falls like a brick, stops abruptly as the line catches, and swings against the side of the pit. He dangles with only his one good arm holding on to the rope. Pendejo Bob pulls the line upward, straining against Plissken's weight. Slowly Plissken rises, a tug at a time, hauled up the edge of the pit toward the cave above... ... when suddenly he passes another opening, a storm drain below Pendejo Bob. He swings into the drain, grasps the side with his hand, and pulls himself in... Pendejo Bob stares down at his rope disappearing into the side of the pit. PENDEJO BOB Hey, Snake...where are you? Plissken crawls into the slimy drain, pulls the rope off of him. Ahead in the darkness is the rushing of water. He turns on weak legs, back toward the pit behind him. Bleeding. Numb in one hand. His leg on fire. PLISSKEN (yells) I'm in another opening... Storm drain... There may be another way up to you... Plissken crawls along the drain. The sound of rushing water gets louder. He comes to the edge of the drain. Right below him is another drain filled with water rushing through it like a river. Plissken is stuck. He turns, in great pain, and starts back toward the pit... when suddenly everything starts shaking. Booming. It's a small earthquake, a pre-shock. SNAP! Suddenly the concrete bottom on which he stands gives way, cracks, disintegrates... And Plissken falls backward into the rushing water, and is pulled suddenly downstream into the drain, disappearing from sight... PENDEJO BOB Stands silently above, listening... PENDEJO BOB Snake... (no reply) Snake! Booming. The whole pit shudders, shaking. Another earthquake. Pendejo Bob drops the rope, turns and dashes away down the vibrating storm drain... EXT. STORM DRAIN - WILSHIRE CANYON - NIGHT Black oil-slicked water rushes in the moonlight, out of a huge opening in what appears to be a canyon wall. CLOSE ON THE EDGE OF THE DRAIN As an arm shoots out, clutching the edges of the drain. PLISSKEN Emerges from the hole, slides out, tumbles down to a water-filled canyon bottom. He lies there for a moment, trying to focus his eye. Stabbing pain in his shoulder and leg. Finally he rises unsteadily to his feet, looks around, trying to get his bearings. He finds himself at the bottom of... THE WILSHIRE CANYON Straight down Wilshire Boulevard is an enormous canyon, a river bottom gouged out of concrete in the big earthquake. At least 30 feet deep, it is a vast trough leading past skyscrapers and buildings above, off into the distance. Plissken warily glances at his watch: 1 hour 10 minutes to go. Suddenly Plissken is struck by a pair of headlights. Pipeline's dune buggy comes bumping along the canyon bottom, sloshing through water, pulling up next to Plissken. PIPELINE Snake. Saw you at the game tonight. Great shot. (stares at him) You look like shit. Plissken hobbles over to the dune buggy as Pipeline gets out. PIPELINE You feel those pre-shocks, Snake? Pipeline unties the various surfboards he has lashed to the rear of the buggy. He lifts one down and slings it under his arm. PIPELINE Could be a big one comin' any minute now... PLISSKEN Where's... Cuervo Jones...? PIPELINE Long gone. You'll never catch up with him now, Snake. PLISSKEN Where? PIPELINE Anaheim. Headquarters for everything. The whole town's gonna be there. Things changin' fast around here, Snake. It's not the same as the old days, man. A thumping sound skyward. More choppers thunder over them, on their way southeast. Plissken grabs Pipeline with his good hand... PLISSKEN Take me there... But he's too weak. His hand slides off. Plissken sinks to his knees. Pipeline stares at him. PIPELINE You ain't doin' so good, Snake. You need help. (bends down, helps Plissken to his feet) You should talk to Hershe. She hates Cuervo. They used to be partners, but they split up. PLISSKEN Who? PIPELINE Hershe. She lives downtown with Mojo Dellasandro in the big boat. Down that way. Pipeline points down the canyon to the east. PIPELINE She's connected with the Black Cowboys, and they don't take shit from nobody... Suddenly that booming, shuddering rumble begins. The canyon starts to shake. The water in the canyon floor sloshes wildly. PIPELINE Yo', man. It's a big one. And the earthquake hits like a roaring sledgehammer. The walls of the canyon crack. Plissken and Pipeline are thrown to the ground. Skyscrapers above them on Wilshire rock and tremble in the quake. Pieces of the building sheer off, fall. A parking garage caves in. Thunder shakes the earth around Plissken and Pipeline. The canyon floor splits open. Water pours into the cracks. Huge boulder-sized chunks of concrete tumble down the canyon walls. And then suddenly it all stops. The booming subsides. The earth stops shaking. Plissken and Pipeline get to their feet, look around. The water around them continues to slosh about violently. PIPELINE Tsunami, Snake. His eyes wide, a smile on his face, Pipeline hurries over to the dune buggy, grabs another surfboard from the back, hands it to Plissken. PIPELINE Surf's up big time. Now there is another deep sound rising, coming from the west behind them: A bass roar that slowly climbs from the very bottom of the register upward, as if some massive wall of doom were on its way... Pipeline kneels, positions his surfboard in his hands. PIPELINE Get ready, Snake. It's gonna be some kinda ride. Plissken looks behind him... POV - THE FRONT EDGE OF THE TSUNAMI Is blasting down the Wilshire Canyon, coming right for them. It is a 25-foot wall of ocean water, moving fast, bellowing like a thunderclap. Plissken sees he can't climb out of the canyon in time, moves over to Pipeline, kneels down... PIPELINE Let the front edge pick you up. Don't get on your board till it peaks. Behind them, the tsunami slams along the canyon, coming right for them. PIPELINE Don't lose it, man. You slip off your board and it's the Big Wipeout, you know what I mean? The roaring is so loud it's like being on the inside of a cannon barrel. The tsunami is 100 feet away... 75 feet... 50 feet... 25 feet... It rolls up right behind them... PIPELINE Hang on, Snake! (yells) YAAAAAAA!!!! THE FRONT EDGE Of the tsunami sweeps under them. Pipeline and Plissken push off from the canyon floor just as the water shovels them upward like a cow catcher on a train. The water sweeps them up until they disappear under the blackness... Until suddenly Pipeline pops up on top of the tsunami, riding on his surfboard, arms outstretched, feet braced. And then Plissken pops up beside him, surfing clumsily on top of the tsunami wave, kneeling on his surfboard. They blast down Wilshire Canyon at 80 miles an hour. Plissken is wobbly on the surfboard, but he manages to stay on top of the wave. Finally, he gets the hang of it, glances over at Pipeline, who grins from ear to ear. PIPELINE Awesome, Snake. AWESOME, man! Plissken looks up ahead... HIS POV - MOVING THROUGH WILSHIRE CANYON Five feet from street level. An old van speeds along what's left of Wilshire Boulevard, right on the canyon's edge. It veers around debris in the street, changes lanes suddenly, hell bent for leather. Plissken and Pipeline move closer and closer to the van as the tsunami sweeps them along. Now they move alongside the van and Plissken stares over... CLOSER - THE VAN Behind the wheel is Map To The Stars Eddie, driving like a lunatic, his teeth bared and set, madder than shit. Plissken's eye widens, burns. PLISSKEN (to Pipeline) See you later. And suddenly Plissken shifts his weight, and the surfboard tips and slides sideways, across the surface of the tsunami all the way over to the edge, right next to the van. Map To The Stars Eddie glances to his left... HIS POV - PLISSKEN Is surfing the tsunami not 10 feet away from him. Map To The Stars Eddie stares in absolute horror. Plissken tips the board again, and slides another 5 feet closer... AS MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Jams the pedal, and the van screams forward... AS PLISSKEN Stands up and leaps from the surfboard... For a moment he is airborne, leaping across the gap to the van... and slams into the side of the van. He grabs on to the roof, hangs on with one hand, his body whipping against the rocking, bucking side. Map To The Stars Eddie starts swerving, trying to throw Plissken off. EXT. VAN - WILSHIRE BOULEVARD The van shoots back and forth across Wilshire, Plissken dangling inches from the tsunami-filled canyon. Plissken pulls himself up and crawls onto the roof... INSIDE THE VAN Map To The Stars Eddie pulls his gun, cocks it... When suddenly Plissken's hand snakes down from the roof, reaches in the driver's window, grabs his hair, and slams his forehead into the steering wheel with a THOCK! Map To The Stars Eddie goes out like a light. He slumps over in the seat... but his foot is stuck on the accelerator. Plissken grabs the wheel with his left hand, and manages to steer the van from the roof. The van lurches wildly, hits a chunk of concrete in the street, skids, fishtailing violently from the impact. It smashes against the curb, screeches and bumps along concrete. Map To The Stars Eddie's foot is bumped right off the accelerator, and the van slows to a wobbling, grinding stop. Plissken slowly climbs down from the roof, opens the driver's door, shoves Map To The Stars Eddie out of the way, and jumps in. INT. VAN - NIGHT Plissken pulls out into the street and speeds off down Wilshire. Map To The Stars Eddie starts to come around. Plissken grabs his gun, cocks it, puts the barrel up against Map To The Stars Eddie's temple just as he comes to. PLISSKEN Listen up. I need directions. Downtown. Somebody named Hershe. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Sure, Snake. No problem. (groggy) You gonna kill me? PLISSKEN Later. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I couldn't help it, Snake. I had to shoot you. Cuervo made me do it, I swear to God, man. PLISSKEN Cease fire with the bullshit. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Right. Keep goin' straight. Two blocks down, turn right. CLOSE ON A TV SCREEN Cuervo Jones' image fills the screen. He addresses the camera, holds the prototype in his hands. CUERVO JONES Abandon your firebases by 0500 hours. Have the news media standing by for my coronation. I'm arriving in style. PULL BACK from the TV screen to reveal we are in... INT. MAIN CONTROL ROOM - COMMAND HQ - NIGHT Malloy, the President, Brazen, and the other Controllers and Police Personnel stare silently at their TV screens. BRAZEN He must be bouncing the signal from one of our communications satellites. PRESIDENT That means CableNet has already picked it up. This thing's going live all over the country. CUERVO JONES (on the TV) It's a brand new day comin' up this morning, and I'm just so proud to be leading the parade. See you soon, putos. SSSZZZ. The image blinks off into static. A grim silence. MALLOY The prototype appears to be armed, Mr. President. (the President nods grimly) Shall I begin evacuation? PRESIDENT Does he know how to activate it? MALLOY Well, yeah. All you have to do is push the button. BRAZEN What about Plissken? He could still be - PRESIDENT Forget him. He's dead. MALLOY That may not be true, Mr. President. (beat) He's one tough case. Plissken's been dead so many times I can't count. But he never stays down. A long beat. MALLOY There are two choices, Mr. President. Wait for Plissken, or surrender. It's your decision. The President sighs heavily. EXT. DOWNTOWN L.A. - NIGHT Jammed next to the remains of the Bonaventure Hotel is the Queen Mary, permanently dry-docked between the broken skyscrapers by the Big One. The van stops next to a huge hole in the side of the ship. INT. QUEEN MARY - NIGHT The glow of Map To The Stars Eddie's flashlight takes him and Plissken deeper and deeper into the hulking remains of the ship. INT. DECK OF SHOPS - NIGHT They walk through a dimly lighted area lined with shops. Their glass display windows are covered with layers of impenetrable dirt. INT. LONG CORRIDOR - NIGHT They enter a long, narrow corridor. At the end is a doorway. There is light in the room beyond. INT. VICTORIAN SWIMMING POOL - NIGHT Plissken and Map To The Stars Eddie enter a long room lit by gas jets on the walls. In it is a crumbling, Victorian swimming pool. A heavy mist rises from the pool's surface and hangs over everything. At the far end is a group of people. Spinal and the Black Cowboy Gang. Boots, spurs, dusters, and guns. Mojo Dellasandro. Jamaican Voodoo witch doctor. A brutal, scowling face. And a beautiful woman in a bathing suit, her back facing us. Plissken and Map To The Stars Eddie approach. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey, Hershe. How're you doin'? The woman turns and faces them. This is HERSHE, an absolutely drop-dead, gorgeous transvestite who looks completely convincing as a woman but talks in Isaac Hayes' voice. SPINAL (eyes brightening) Hershe - it's Snake Plissken. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Yeah, Hershe. I brought him to see you. Plissken walks right up to Hershe, has no reaction at all to the transvestite. PLISSKEN I need a favor. HERSHE What's in it for me? Plissken stares, a glimmer of recognition on his face. PLISSKEN Wait a minute. I know that voice. (beat) You're Carjack Malone. HERSHE Not anymore. SPINAL You two know each other? Plissken is seething. Hershe remains calm, glacial. PLISSKEN You owe me. You left me holdin' everything back there in Cleveland. SPINAL (astounded) Hershe, you were in Cleveland? PLISSKEN Yeah. With me and Texas Mike O'Shay. HERSHE I was called away on urgent business, Snake. PLISSKEN Don't lie to me. HERSHE All right, so I made another deal. PLISSKEN I got a new deal for you. Plissken raises Map To The Stars Eddie's gun, aims it right between Hershe's eyes. PLISSKEN You help me, you live. The others tense, hands on guns. SPINAL I wouldn't be doin' that, Snake. HERSHE We have a little arrangement. Anything happens to me, you're dead. PLISSKEN I'm already dead. HERSHE (long beat) I see your point. What's the favor? PLISSKEN (looks at his watch) Get me to Cuervo Jones. Get me to the Kingdom. I got one hour. HERSHE Dream on, blue eye. PLISSKEN Say goodnight, Carjack. Plissken cocks his gun, starts to squeeze the trigger... HERSHE Wait a minute. All right. Hold on. SPINAL Cuervo Jones has more firepower than two armies. No one gets near him. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE And he's got the prototype. And the girl. He holds all the cards. HERSHE Exactly what is this prototype? What does it do? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE You push the button, it sends a signal to a ring of space defense satellites. They're orbiting bombs. Nukes. They explode. Huge space burst. (beat) EMP. Electromagnetic Pulse. It happens instantly when a nuke is airburst. EMP shuts down every power source below the satellites - instantly. All electrical devices, computers, cars, airplanes, cities. It's the dark ages again. HERSHE So whoever has it runs the show. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE They were gonna use it on South America, Africa, Asia - any country hostile to the United States. SPINAL Only Cuervo's got it now. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE And that ring of satellites will be in position over the U.S. at 5:00 a.m. this morning. PLISSKEN How do you know all this? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I used to represent the guy who invented it. I swear to God, Snake. No bullshit. A long silence. HERSHE So what's the deal, gorgeous? PLISSKEN We get the girl and the prototype. And we get out. SPINAL All of us? PLISSKEN Yeah. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Me too? PLISSKEN (stares at him hard) We'll see. HERSHE Why should we leave? I love L.A. Where we gonna go? What's the payoff? SPINAL I'd like to get out but I don't have enough money. PLISSKEN The President's promised to give whoever helps me 1 million dollars. SPINAL Yeah? Greenbacks? I got ten million of them. PLISSKEN Uh-uh. Bluebacks. This gets everyone's attention. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Aw, come on, Snake. PLISSKEN Bluebacks. I'm not bullshittin'. I swear to God. HERSHE I don't know, sounds thin to me. PLISSKEN You want to stay here, while Cuervo Jones rules the world? HERSHE (grim) No, that sucks. (beat) How are we getting out? PLISSKEN I don't know yet. SPINAL Shit. HERSHE You always were a loser, Plissken. Makin' things up as you go along. That's why I cut out on you in Cleveland. You're just a bum like the rest of us. Smoke has begun to drift into the pool area. MOJO DELLASANDRO (a soft voice) Use the air. They look at him. MOJO DELLASANDRO They're burning. Santa Anas. The night wind. SPINAL What're you talking about, Mojo? MOJO DELLASANDRO Death from above... EXT. QUEEN MARY - NIGHT Plissken, Hershe, Map To The Stars Eddie, Spinal and the Black Cowboy Gang stand on the top deck of the Queen Mary. Mojo Dellasandro straps each man into his own hang glider rig. The wind whips around them. The hillsides in the distance are on fire. They look like strange oversized moths lined up on the edge of the deck. The wind picks up Map To The Stars Eddie's rig. He bumps up and down, side to side, buffeted wildly until Mojo Dellasandro brings him back down to the decking. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I don't know about this thing. PLISSKEN Don't like it, don't come. SPINAL Where'd you get these rigs, Carjack? HERSHE My name is Hershe Hernandez, do you understand, cowboy? As Mojo Dellasandro passes out various weapons to the men, Map To The Stars Eddie leans over to Plissken, their hang glider rigs thumping clumsily into each other. Eddie holds up that small, metal-plated portable radio he was carrying when we first met him. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I got an idea, Snake. (shows Plissken the radio) This looks like the prototype, right? PLISSKEN Yeah, kinda. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE So maybe we can pull off a Texas switch on Cuervo. PLISSKEN If he lets you get close enough. HERSHE The wind's up. Let's go. The men brace themselves. Map To The Stars Eddie looks like he wants to die. Hershe looks over at Plissken and grins. HERSHE See you in hell, Snake. PLISSKEN If I'm late, Carjack, don't start without me. With that Plissken launches himself off the deck, sailing out over open space, then down toward the street... PLISSKEN Gliding through the air, as the wind picks him upward. He arcs away from the street level, up toward the remains of the downtown skyscrapers. Behind him, one after another, the group takes off into the wind, diving, rising with the wind. Map To The Stars Eddie makes a rapid suicidal dive right down toward the pavement below. He screams like a madman until the wind lifts him at the last possible second. EXT. TOPS OF SKYSCRAPERS - NIGHT The group of hang gliders sweep past the buildings. A bracero family is having dinner by candlelight two feet from the edge of a sheer precipice, as the side of the skyscraper they live in has been torn off. They wave to Plissken as he passes. Two floors down, someone has hooked up huge speakers and a croaking male voice is singing a Barbra Streisand hit to a background track. A beautiful girl in a sheer diaphanous gown dances far out on a narrow girder, waving a scarf at the moon. Plissken and the others now fly in formation, like avenging bats through the night, except for Map To The Stars Eddie who keeps rising and plunging violently, barely in control. EXT. DISNEYLAND - NIGHT An army of vehicles and people pour into Disneyland - but it's a Disneyland gone to hell. A huge sign reads: "THE HAPPY KINGDOM" The gates no longer exist. The overhead tram lies broken on the ground. Slowly vehicles drive straight inside... A battered old limousine carries Cuervo Jones and a grim-looking Utopia past the ruins of the train and around the ghost-town square of Main Street. Ahead is the fairy castle, broken and crumbling, like some relic from a nightmare. Around it are the thrill rides, tossed in to a jumbled mass by the force of the original earthquake. Crowds are waiting. Gangs of every conceivable description. Ethic gangs. Female gangs. Gangs of children. Also families with hangers-on. As soon as the limousine appears, the crowds begin cheering. INT. LIMOUSINE - NIGHT Cuervo Jones stares out at the masses. CUERVO JONES They're simple people. They love a party. (turns to Utopia) We're gonna throw them one hell of a party when we get to America. Right? Utopia is silent, sullen. Cuervo raises his hand to her and she jumps, cowering. CUERVO JONES Put a smile on your face. A terrified smile spreads across Utopia's face. EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT As the limousine inches down Main Street, suddenly a wall of headlights pop on. 100 or so battered old vintage Chevys rev their engines, begin bouncing up and down wildly on hydraulic lifts. Gangs begin cheering, firing their weapons into the air like New Year's Eve. At the end of Main Street is a huge open area - almost an arena, beyond which are parked a literal army of helicopters. As the limousine stops, and Cuervo Jones emerges, Utopia on his arm, the cheering begins, a wall of sound through the park. Three Black Muslims step out to greet Cuervo, dressed in turban-like headgear and sunglasses, wearing black capes and carrying old Thompson machine guns. They stop, give the right-handed power salute. One of them, BIVOUAC, speaks to Cuervo. BIVOUAC Cuervo Jones. Welcome, my Brother. Cuervo Jones turns to the crowd, extends his arms. CUERVO JONES Are you ready for the New World? And the loudest, longest cheer you've ever heard goes up. EXT. SKIES ABOVE DISNEYLAND - NIGHT Plissken and the group sail through the sky like silent avenging angels toward Disneyland below them and several miles away. PLISSKEN Glances at his wrist watch. Only 20 minutes left. Map To The Stars Eddie swings wildly over in his direction, manages to stabilize his glider for a few moments. PLISSKEN Is that what I think it is? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Yeah. The place kept changing owners. Finally went bankrupt. That thing in Paris killed 'em. Hershe and Spinal sweep over next to Plissken and fly in close formation. HERSHE Snake. We need some kind of diversion. A beat later all of them look over at Map To The Stars Eddie. EXT. MAIN STREET - THE ARENA - NIGHT Cuervo Jones leads Utopia toward a large attack helicopter out in front of all the others. The choppers are all starting up, roaring, blades turning. Suddenly shooting down out of the sky is a screaming, yelling, Map To The Stars Eddie diving out of control, eyes wide as he passes Cuervo Jones and Utopia. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Cuervo. Hey, man, I made it! I made it! Wait for me... KAWHUMP! Map To The Stars Eddie crash lands into the ruins of a fast food restaurant - KACRUNCH! A beat or so later he staggers out of the rig, dizzy and confused. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey Cuervo... Cuervo Jones turns to Bivouac. CUERVO JONES Would you please kill him for me? BIVOUAC My pleasure. Bivouac raises his machine gun... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Cuervo, wait! I got news. There's about to be an attack. Cuervo holds up his hand, stopping Bivouac. Everyone tenses. Map To The Stars Eddie races over... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE You're about to get hit, Cuervo. It's Plissken. CUERVO JONES You told me he was dead. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I thought he was, but he came back. CUERVO JONES Where? Map To The Stars Eddie moves close to Cuervo, out of breath, looking like he may faint... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Oh Cuervo... CUERVO JONES (long beat) What? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE (stalling) It's so good to see you again. CUERVO JONES Where's Plissken? MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE He's... near. CUERVO JONES You're stalling, Eddie. (grabs him) Talk, you little gringo! MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE (eyes wide) Cuervo, look out behind you! Map To The Stars Eddie suddenly grabs Cuervo as if to protect him, and manages to wrap himself around the prototype in Cuervo's hand. At the same moment Bivouac and the Black Muslim open fire on an old storefront behind Cuervo Jones. The place is shredded. Cuervo Jones pulls Map To The Stars Eddie up off the ground, and grabs what looks like the prototype out of his clutches. CUERVO JONES You've lied to me for the very last time. Cuervo Jones pulls out a pistol, cocks it, aims at Map To The Stars Eddie's face... KABLOOM! No, not the pistol. A huge explosion rocks Main Street. WHOOSH! Suddenly out of the night sky Spinal and the Black Cowboys dive right down across Main Street. KABLAM! Another explosion sends everyone scurrying for cover. Spinal pulls the pin on a grenade, throws it... BLAMM! BLOOM! Explosions erupt everywhere! Cuervo Jones grabs Utopia, turns to run toward to the lead helicopter when... Plissken roars down out of the sky and his him full force. Cuervo, Plissken and the hang glider go tumbling and crashing in a heap. SERIES OF FAST CUTS: Chaos and pandemonium. Hershe dives down over the gangs, ripping hellfire from his automatic rifle. People running. Explosions. Map To The Stars Eddie grabs Utopia. Plissken and Cuervo Jones get to their feet and have at it! Through flames and running people Plissken and Cuervo battle. In Cuervo's hand is a long black knife. Just as he's plunging it, Plissken steps aside and grabs him. Locked together, they battle savagely. The knife cuts Plissken's chest. Cuervo moves for Plissken's throat. Plissken smashes him in the face. They both grip the knife in a deadlock. From above, Spinal dives down and hurls a grenade. Cuervo and Plissken disappear in a huge flash of fire and smoke as the grenade erupts out of the pavement nearby. When the smoke clears, three things are on the ground. Plissken. Cuervo Jones. The prototype. Instantly Plissken and Cuervo dive for the prototype. Plissken has it, kicks Cuervo in the face, drags himself to his feet and takes off running (as fast as a man can run with one bullet in his leg) Map To The Stars Eddie drags Utopia toward the lead helicopter, as Hershe comes in for a landing. Spinal comes in for a landing, continues to throw grenades. The other Black Cowboys land, provide covering fire. Plissken races for the chopper. Behind him, Cuervo Jones is on his feet and in pursuit. Hershe opens fire at Cuervo. Cuervo dives behind a smoking, burning Chevy. INT. HELICOPTER COCKPIT As everyone scrambles in. A Black Cowboy is hit by gunfire, slides down the bulkhead and out the door. Plissken jumps in the left seat, takes the controls. Utopia and Map To The Stars Eddie both climb in the right seat together. The others are in the back, firing back at the gangs. Plissken pulls in power. CLOSE - ROTOR R.P.M. GAUGE The needle's at 100% plus. Full power. EXT. LEAD HELICOPTER The lead chopper shudders, trying to get off the ground. Gunfire continues. INT. HELICOPTER The ship shakes violently. PLISSKEN She's overloaded! We're too heavy. HERSHE (screams from the rear compartment) Somebody get off! SPINAL (glares at him) Who? All eyes quickly move to Map To The Stars Eddie... KABLAM! Bullets rip through the windscreen. POV - AN ARMY OF GANGS Is moving, through the smoke, charging the ship! INT. LEAD HELICOPTER The ship trembles. Plissken moves his feet, jams in the left tail- rotor pedal all the way. EXT. THE LEAD HELICOPTER Rotates, turns around 180 degrees on the ground, pushed by the tail rotor force. THE CYCLIC CONTROL As Plissken inches it forward... THE HELICOPTER Begins sliding across the ground, skids grinding along the pavement, sparks flying - slowly at first, now picking up speed... In the cockpit, the ship lurches and jumps and slams! Everyone is bounced around. The helicopter moves fast now - faster - LOW ANGLE ON THE SKIDS As they rise up, an inch off the ground - then two inches - then a foot - Cuervo Jones emerges from the smoke, running ahead of the other gangs, barreling toward the ever-so-slowly rising chopper... THE LEAD HELICOPTER As it lifts - five feet - climbing... The helicopter pulls away from the charging gangs and Cuervo's sprinting figure. POV THROUGH WINDSCREEN See the Matterhorn ahead, coming closer and closer. Hershe leans out the door. HERSHE We're not gonna make it over the fuckin' mountain! The helicopter moves right toward the edge of the Matterhorn, 15 feet... 10... Plissken tries to maneuver out of the way... 8 feet... 5... The helicopter wobbles over the top of the mountain, the right skid catching on the Matterhorn's edge! A horrible cracking sound, and the right skid is ripped off from its front mounting, hanging half off the ship! On the ground, Cuervo Jones jumps into one of the waiting helicopters as now the gangs race into ships and begin lifting off into the sky. Finally Cuervo's chopper lifts off... EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - NIGHT An alarm horn sounds. Everyone is on the move. INT. MAIN CONTROL ROOM - COMMAND HQ - NIGHT A crowd surrounds a computer screen with a small green blip moving over a grid of L.A. COM OFFICER Aircraft leaving the island, sir. It's passed into restricted space, heading this way. Malloy, the President, and Brazen exchange glances. PRESIDENT Is it Plissken? Nobody knows. COM OFFICER Commander, I'm getting radio contact with the aircraft. MALLOY Boost it. The COM Officer flips a switch, and we hear Plissken's voice booming through HQ. PLISSKEN (V.O.) Get ready, shitheads. We're comin' in. PRESIDENT Thank God. MALLOY (grabs a radio mike) Plissken - this is Malloy. Do you have the prototype? INT. LEAD HELICOPTER - NIGHT PLISSKEN (into his radio) Yeah, I got it. Plissken glances at the transistor radio in his hand, shoves it in his boot, reaches his hand out to Map To The Stars Eddie. PLISSKE (to Map To The Stars Eddie) Now give me the real one. Utopia stares into Plissken's eye. Map To The Stars Eddie shrugs innocently MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE I couldn't make the switch, Snake. I don't have it. Suddenly Utopia reaches into Map To The Stars Eddie's coat and pulls out the real prototype. She hands it to Plissken UTOPIA Now we're even, Snake. Map To The Stars Eddie makes a lunge for it, but Plissken whacks him in the face. His head bobs slowly back and forth for a moment, then he slumps in the seat. INT. MAIN CONTROL ROOM - COMMAND HQ - NIGHT Malloy set up in the staging area for landing. COM OFFICER Commander Malloy - he's got lots of company. Malloy and the others look at the computer screen. Plissken's green blip is followed by hundreds of other green blips all rapidly closing in on him... MALLOY Battle stations... The room springs into action... INT. LEAD HELICOPTER - NIGHT PLISSKEN I think we've burned off enough fuel. We may be lighter enough to hover. Just barely. HERSHE Can you land? PLISSKEN No. The right skid's broken. If I try to set it down she'll crash. I have to stay in a hoverwhile you jump off. (beat as Plissken looks at Utopia) Hey, Carjack. We gotta hide the girl. Give her your dress. HERSHE (ice cold) My name is no longer Carjack. Will you please get that through your fucking head? SPINAL Holy shit. They look, as suddenly the night sky on either side of them is filled with gang helicopters! EXT. SKY OVER THE SAN FERNANDO SEA - NIGHT The lead helicopter is surrounded by enemy choppers. Above, below, on either side. Right next to Plissken, Cuervo's chopper pulls up just ten feet away. Cuervo grins out at Plissken evilly, unhooks himself from his seat... On the other side, another chopper with Bivouac and the Black Muslims pull up. In the rear compartment, a Black Muslim aims what looks like a huge harpoon gun mounted to the floor. KAWHAM! The line shoots out and a gleaming grappling hook slams into the side of Plissken's chopper, the prongs clawing in, holding. In the lead helicopter, the Black Cowboys, Spinal and Hershe aim their weapons. PLISSKEN Don't shoot! They can drag us down into the sea. Cuervo Jones leaps from the opened door of his chopper, flies through space, lands on Plissken's door with a WHUMP! He smashes through the side window and grabs Plissken. KABLAM! KABLAM! Gang choppers open fire, riddling the rear compartment with bullets. Spinal and several Black Cowboys are hit! Plissken fights Cuervo through the door. PLISSKEN (to Utopia) Take the controls! Utopia stares at him. UTOPIA What do I do? But Cuervo wrenches the door open, grabs Plissken, and pulls him out of the seat. Utopia grabs the controls. The lead helicopter goes wild, lurching and swinging and dropping. Plissken and Cuervo are locked in a death grip, hanging on to the doorway, one foot in, one foot out. Plissken embraces Cuervo and throws them both over the edge... They fall through space, locked together, until... WHAP! They are jolted to a dead stop, swinging in mid-air, Plissken's arm wrapped around the dangling right skid. The lead helicopter bucks and spins and swings, Plissken and Cuervo suspended below, struggling to the death, whipped back and forth by the helicopter's gyrations. In the cockpit, Utopia grabs the controls. The ship is shaking, swinging like a pendulum. Hershe is hit with gunfire, flops in the rear compartment. Map To The Stars Eddie slowly regains consciousness, stares in horror at Utopia. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Where's Plissken? Outside, Cuervo clutches Plissken around the neck, struggling and thrashing. Plissken head butts him, dazing him for a second... KA-CRACK! The dangling skid is breaking loose from its mounting on the helicopter above. Plissken and Cuervo Jones stare up, then at each other, then both begin pulling themselves up the skid, climbing hand over hand, in a desperate race... Both men reach the bottom of the helicopter and leap across to the left skid as the dangling right skid breaks off and falls into the San Fernando Sea. Plissken and Cuervo kick at each other. Plissken slides away from him, looks up... sees the grappling hook stuck into the side of the helicopter... Plissken swings up, straddling the skid. He reaches up and begins prying loose the grappling hook. Cuervo's coming right up behind him, reaching for him, a huge knife in his hands. He raises the knife - when Map To The Stars Eddie leans out of the cockpit door, lowers a gun and aims it right at Cuervo. MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE Hey, Cuervo. Cuervo looks at him, starts to say something, eyes bulging... MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE If you get to America - let's do lunch. KABLAM! KABLAM! The shots hit, and Cuervo buckles, falls backwards off the skid, plunging downward toward the surface of the San Fernando Sea... KASPLASH! Plissken rips out the grappling hook... AS BOOM! Map To The Stars Eddie is hit with gunfire, dies, falls out of the seat, out of the door, out of the helicopter - plunges to the water below. Plissken jumps back inside the cockpit. UTOPIA Snake, look. POV THROUGH WINDSCREEN Police battle helicopters thunder toward them. In unison, the police helicopters launch their missiles from gun platforms. Burning, white-sulfurous napalm shells streak across the darkness and hit enemy choppers. The sky around the lead helicopter is filled with explosions, waves of rolling fire, falling flaming wrecks plunging past, as enemy choppers begin to hit the water. It is a dreamlike, slow-motion ballet. Huge black police gun ships circle lazily around the enemy choppers, their flex-guns and rockets spitting blue-white fire. The pound the living hell out of the enemy choppers. In f.g. Plissken's helicopter sweeps over the wall. EXT. ROTOR CITY - NIGHT Malloy, the President, Brazen and the rest the Firebase watch as Plissken's helicopter approaches, then zooms right over Rotor City and heads for the distant treeline. PRESIDENT Where the hell is he going? EXT. SMALL CLEARING - NIGHT Plissken's helicopter comes in, lower and lower, into a hover five feet above the ground. Inside, Plissken pulls in all the power he's got. PLISSKEN It's taking all the power we've got to hover. CLOSE - ROTOR R.P.M. GAUGE Shows 100% plus power. The helicopter is in a trembling hover. Inside... PLISSKEN Jump out. Head for the treeline and disappear. Utopia stares at him. PLISSKEN Go! Utopia jumps out of the helicopter... lands on the ground and takes off running into the darkness. Inside... PLISSKEN All right, baby. Don't be too rough on me. We're gonna land. Plissken slowly drops the collective control. The left skid sets down, and the ship continues to descend, tips, begins to roll. Inside, as the chopper rolls over, Plissken braces himself. As the blades hit the ground, the chopper goes wild. The fuselage jumps and twists in a grinding fury. Smoke and debris fly. The blades snap off... FROM BEHIND PLISSKEN - INSIDE Looking out the front, the blades smash through the windscreen, barely missing the top of Plissken's head. Plissken is splattered with glass, a piece of metal debris protrudes from the fleshy part of his biceps. Blood pours. The rear compartment explodes into flames as the engine grinds into the gas tank. Fire billows into the cockpit, engulfing Plissken... Outside, Plissken pulls himself out of the door. He is on fire. Dives away from the copper and rolls across the ground just as the flaming mid-section of the ship explodes in a roaring fireball. Plissken climbs to his feet, smoking, wounded... ... as Malloy, the President, Brazen, and a squad of police arrive in vehicles. They slowly get out... ... as Plissken limps toward them... PLISSKEN Where's the anti-toxin...? PRESIDENT Give me the prototype. Plissken reaches into his boot, hands it to the President. MALLOY Hold it, Plissken. Now give us the real one. Plissken reaches down into his other boot, comes out with Map To The Stars Eddie's transistor radio. The President hurls the real prototype away, walks to Plissken and grabs the phony. Plissken glances at it lying on the ground. Nobody moves. Plissken looks at their faces. PLISSKEN Give me the goddamn shot! Suddenly everyone begins to smirk. A couple cops laugh. MALLOY It was all a fake, Plissken. Plissken stares at him. More laughter. BRAZEN You were injected with glucose. There is no Plutoxin 7 virus. You were never going to die - at least not from anything we gave you. MALLOY C'mon, Snake - it's L.A. Everything's phony, you know that. Plissken moves toward the President, stops inches away. MALLOY Relax, war hero. We took you for a ride, and you came through. Not bad for a dirtbag like you. PRESIDENT You're free, Plissken. But if you even so much as break wind on a country road I'll crush you like a bug. The President glares at Plissken, turns, walks away. COP (O.S.) Commander... (Malloy looks at him) Look what we found. Across the clearing come two policemen dragging Utopia along with them. They bring her up in front of Malloy. Utopia glances at Plissken. MALLOY You didn't finish the mission, Plissken. We'll have to do that for you. Plissken, Malloy and Brazen watch as Utopia is taken away. Finally Plissken turns to Malloy. PLISSKEN Got a smoke? MALLOY You're gonna have to learn to respect the law, Snake. The United States is a no- smoking nation. No smoking, no drinking, do drugs, no women unless you're married, no guns, no foul language. It's a brand new day for you, Snake. PLISSKEN The name's Plissken. Plissken walks away. Follow his feet as they stop next to the prototype lying in the grass... INT. STEEL-WALLED HALLWAY - DEPORTATION CENTER - NIGHT Utopia is being strapped into an electric chair by her police guards. The guards step back from Utopia. One of them walks over to a huge switch on the wall. EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - DAWN TRACKING SHOT WITH PLISSKEN He holds the real prototype, calmly pushes the button. EXT. SPACE - DAWN The ring of space satellites hover silently above the Earth. See the United States, North America below, as a beautiful sunrise is beginning. Suddenly the satellites explode into white... EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - DAWN As the sky is lit white. Malloy, Brazen, and the cops look up. All vehicles stop. Lights out. Sounds of motors running down. INT. STEEL-WALLED HALLWAY - DEPORTATION CENTER - DAWN Darkness. No power. Everyone looks around. Utopia smiles. EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - DAWN The daylight is coming as police helicopters fall from the sky, crashing. Panic. Policemen run everywhere. A duty sergeant races up to Malloy... DUTY SERGEANT We're being attacked, Commander. The north wall. EXT. WALL - DAWN All of L.A. has arrive at the wall in boats. Gangs lean ladders, use ropes and hooks - they scale the wall. Pendejo Bob leads the charge. Pipeline is right behind him. EXT. TOP OF THE WALL - DAWN Gunfire. A pitched battle as cops try to repel the horde of L.A. invaders as they pour over the wall. EXT. FIREBASE SEVEN - DAWN The Firebase is overrun by invaders. Hand-to-hand combat. World War III has begun. Panicked cops race for the trees, abandoning their positions. INT. STEEL-WALLED HALLWAY - DEPORTATION CENTER The Third World warriors free Utopia from the electric chair. She joins them as they swarm through the halls... EXT. HILLSIDE - FIREBASE SEVEN - DAWN Plissken is at the edge of the Firebase, moving out into the hillside. Camera tracks with him towards the rising sun. A smile crosses Plissken's face. He tosses the prototype down a ravine, and walks away into the sunrise. FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From New York.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From New York.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d94f4881ec445dc987275dafb5462a498a5798cb --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Escape From New York.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +John Carpenter's Escape From New Yorkwritten by John Carpenter and Nick Castletranscript by Anjela F. Conner------------------------------------------------------------------------FADE INCARD -- 1988FADE IN SECOND CARD -- The Crime Rate in the United States Rises FourHundred Percent.VOICEIn 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent.GRAPHIC -- Line-graphic of New York, MANHATTAN ISLAND highlighted.VOICEThe once-great city of New York becomes the one maximum-security prisonfor the entire country.GRAPHIC -- MANHATTAN ISLAND lights up. The word "Prison" is added.VOICEA fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline,across the Harlem river, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. Itcompletely surrounds Manhattan Island.GRAPHIC -- The containment wall is added to the line graphic with thetag "Containment Wall".VOICEAll bridges and waterways are mined.GRAPHIC -- Dots symbolizing the bridges and waterways blink on and off.VOICEThe United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around theisland.GRAPHIC -- Arrows symbolizing the police force are added. TAG -- Statueof Liberty Island Security Control.VOICEThere are no guards inside the prison: only prisoners and the worldsthey have made.NEW GRAPHIC -- Outline drawing of New York.VOICEThe rules are simple. Once you go in, you don't come out.GRAPHIC -- Outline drawing of the Statue of Liberty and the shorelineare added.CARD -- 1997FADE IN SECOND CARD -- NOWFADE OUT 1997EXT. STATUE OF LIBERTY SECURITY CONTROL -- NIGHT.A Jeep pulls up outside the base. It comes to a stop and the driverpulls out a walkie-talkie.DRIVERThis is Gotham 4, North Bay, Station 17. I have an escape in progress.An object in mid-bay moving toward the wall.TILT UP -- WALLEXT. CLOSE UP -- SIGN "New York Maximum Security Penitentiary ManhattanIsland"CONTINUED TILT UP -- EXT. WALL -- NIGHTTwo guards watch for the escapees in question.EXT. MANHATTAN ISLAND -- NIGHTA helicopter flies over the bay towards Manhattan Island.EXT. BOAT -- NIGHTThe two escapees paddle, trying to get across the bay.EXT. HELICOPTER -- NIGHTThe search light WHITES OUT THE SCREENEXT. BOAT -- NIGHTThe two escapees continue paddling. THEY'VE BEEN CAUGHT.HELICOPTER PILOTYou have 10 seconds. Turn around. Start back to the island.INT. HELICOPTER -- NIGHTThe pilot targets the boat on a computer screen in front of him.EXT. BOAT -- NIGHTTwo shots are fired directly in front of the escapees as a warning.They ignore them and continue paddling away from the island.INT. HELICOPTER -- NIGHTEXT. CLOSE UP -- PILOT'S HANDThe pilot FIRES AGAIN.EXT. BOAT -- NIGHTThe boat EXPLODES.EXT. HELICOPTER -- NIGHTFollowing the helicopter as it returns to the base.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme walks back to the main base, pulling out his walkie-talkie on theway.REHMEGotham 4, confirm the kill.HELICOPTER PILOTCircled the base. Over.REHMESecurity, this is Rehme. We have confirmation from Gotham 4. We have akill in midharbor. South of the battery. Two in the water dead.SECURITYTwo confirmed.REHMEVery well.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme walks into a building labeled "LIBERTY ISLAND SECURITY CONTROL andpicks up a phone.REHMEAir traffic, this is Rehme . . .EXT. AIR TRAFFIC -- NIGHTThe helicopter lands. In the background, a BUS FULL OF PRISONERS comesup.EXT. BUS -- NIGHTS.D. "SNAKE" PLISSKEN gets off the bus, looks around, and is escorted bythree guards into the base. He looks like the essence of cool. Hishair is long, wavy, and ratty, he lost his left eye somewhere along theline, and he's got a two-day beard thing going on. He's wearing a blackspandex/kevlar type shirt with zippers across the shoulders, and a pairof camouflage pants with lots of pockets. His jacket is a brown leatherjacket that has seen far better days, and he's wearing a pair ofhandcuffs that have, instead of the links we're used to, a straightmetal bar between them. He's not resisting anything, but the police arenot taking any chances.INT. BASE -- NIGHTPlissken and the guards follow a winding stairway down to the mainfloor.VOICEAttention. You are now entering the debarkation area. No talking. Nosmoking. The next scheduled departure to the prison is in two hours.You now have the option to terminate and be cremated on the premises.If you elect this option, notify the duty sergeant in your processingarea.INT. BASE -- NIGHTEXT. CLOSE UP ON SIGN -- "No talking. No smoking. Follow the ORANGEline."EXT. CLOSE UP ON SNAKE. He is not impressed.STEADICAM VIEW OF THE HALL, SNAKE'S P.O.V. Guards, guards, more guards.Who cares.As Snake rounds the corner:O.S. GUARDHold it.Snake stops, turns, directs an impertinent glance at the speaker. He'sstill not impressed by any of this.FADE OUT.------------------------------------------------------------------------FADE IN.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme waits as a limo pulls up. Out steps BOB HAUK.REHMEWe've got a small jet in trouble, over restricted air space.HAUKWhere is it?REHMESeven miles out and closing.The two of them walk AWAY.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHauk and Rehme walk down the stairs. They turn TOWARD US and walk intothe AIR TRAFFIC ROOM. Dozens of men sit in front of radar transmissionscreens, wearing headsets and working. Following Hauk and Rehme intothe room:INT. AIR TRAFFIC ROOM -- NIGHTREHMEWe've been on the board for the last twenty minutes. We haven't beenable to reach them. There was a transmission ten minutes ago. Heidentified as "David 14." Then all of a sudden he was cut off.Hauk and Rehme stand behind a CONTROLLER.CONTROLLERDavid 14, acknowledge. David 14, we are sending Air Rescue. Squawk7700, contact on 121.5.(to Hauk and Rehme)There's still no reply.(to his headset)Bayonne. I have a mayday in restricted space.O.S. CONTROLLERNew York, I have it.Hauk pulls Rehme aside.HAUKWho is it?REHMEI don't know.HAUKYou have the code?REHMEThere's no David 14 on the computer.HAUKUnlisted?REHMEUnregistered code. We telexed Washington. Still waiting for a reply.CONTROLLERI think I've got him, sir.Hauk and Rehme walk back over to the controller. He patches a voice-over through.REBEL VOICEIt's too late, assholes. All your imperialist weapons and lies can'tsave him now. We're going down. We're going to crash.CONTROLLERDavid 14, acknowledge!CODEMANThe code's coming in, sir.Hauk and Rehme dash over to the codeman. He shows them a display."Aircraft Identified. Code: David14. Decode: AIR FORCE ONE.""Air Force One" blinks as Hauk and Rehme look at each other in shock.EXT. PLANE -- NIGHTThe plane is flying over New York.INT. COCKPIT -- NIGHTThe REBEL has killed the pilot and copilot and is working on her own.REBELTell this to the workers when they ask where your leader went . . .She pulls out a slip of PAPER and proceeds to read.REBELWe, the soldiers of the national liberation front of America, in thename of the workers and all the oppressed of this imperialist countryhave struck a fatal blow to the racist police stick!INT. PLANE -- NIGHTA secret service AGENT taps on the door with his rifle as the rebelcontinues.REBELWhat better revolutionary example than to let the president perish inthe inhuman dungeon of his own imperialist prison?The agent runs back down the plane to the President and his advisers.AGENT(to 2ND AGENT)Unlock the pod!2ND AGENT immediately runs off.PAN LEFT TO PRESIDENT.AGENTShe's bolted the door.PRESIDENTCan't you shoot off the lock?AGENTNo, sir, she's pressurized the cabin.PRESIDENTHow about lifting the door off of the hinges?AGENTNo, sir.EXT. CLOSE UP -- The President's wrist as he handcuffs his briefcase toit.PRESIDENTGet me to the pod.The President and all his advisors stand up and move to the back of theplane.INT. POD ROOM -- NIGHTThe pod opens. An expert attaches a locating device to the President'swrist.EXPERTSir, this is a locating device to trace you if you become separated fromthe pod. I'm activating it now.SCREENS on the pod begin to light up as the President gets into the pod.He pushes a few buttons.PRESIDENTGod save me and watch over you all.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTA guard watches as Air Force One descends into New York.INT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme and Hauk watch a computer simulation of the plane.VOICEComputer simulation tracking Air Force One.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTThe plane goes down.INT. BASE -- NIGHTEXT. CLOSE UP -- MONITORSAs the plane smashes into a building, a red dot drops through thebuilding. It's the pod.O.S. MANIt's down!HAUKIt's the escape pod.REHME40 degrees, 50 yards from impact.HAUKI'm going in.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTHelicopters prepare for, and execute, launch, and fly into New York. Aguard watches them.INT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme watches monitors as Hauk talks.HAUK1-W-Larry. Over the battery. We're moving down. Direct sight ahead.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTThe helicopters land. A swarm of policemen run out, and Hauk hangsback. He follows with a second swarm. The first swarm assumes adefensive position near the pod. Hauk examines the pod. It'sdefinitely empty, and the rest of the jet is surrounded in flames.An odd LAUGH from nowhere.WEIRDO walks out of the darkness. He nods his head to Hauk.WEIRDOYou touch me... he dies. If you're not in the air in thirty seconds...he dies. You come back in... he dies.Weirdo takes a package out of his shirt and unwraps it to reveal thePresident's middle finger, complete with ring.WEIRDOTwenty seconds.HAUKI'm ready to talk.WEIRDONineteen. Eighteen.HAUKWhat do you want?WEIRDOSeventeen. Sixteen.HAUKLet's go. Let's go!Weirdo grins in triumph as the police force swarms back to thehelicopters and hauls ass out of New York.INT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme stands behind a desk, talking on the phone. Hauk is in theforeground, looking pensive.REHMEYes, he's right here, Mr. Vice President.Hauk picks up a phone.HAUKThis is Bob Hauk. ...We can't. If we move in with choppers, they'llkill him. We're lucky if he's not dead already... They don't wantanything yet. By the time they figure out what they want, it'll be toolate.REHMETell him we have to go with your plan now.Hauk waves him off.HAUKWe can't wait until tomorrow. If we have to move in and take theisland, it's a last resort. It's 8:45. I want permission to try arescue. Thank you.INT. HAUK'S OFFICE -- NIGHTHauk calmly arms a .45 pistol. He looks up from his desk.HAUKAll right.OVERPROTECTIVE SECURITY GUARDHe's dangerous, sir.HAUK(with quiet confidence)I know. I'll be OK.HAUK'S P.O.V.We see the silhouette of an unmistakable figure. It's Snake Plisskenall right, live and in the flesh. The guards leave. Snake walks intoHauk's office and sits down in the chair across from Hauk. He raiseshis cuffed hands to Hauk as if to say "Take these off me, asshole," buthe doesn't actually say anything. Hauk shakes his head.HAUKI'm not a fool, Plissken.SNAKE(coooooool)Call me Snake.Hauk puts on his glasses and proceeds to read a file.HAUKS.D. Plissken. American Lieutenant. Special Forces Unit, Black Flight.Two Purple Hearts, Leningrad and Siberia. Youngest man to be decoratedby the President. You robbed the federal reserve depository. Lifesentence, New York Maximum Security Penitentiary. I'm ready to kick yourass out of the world, War Hero.Snake could not care less. He reaches forward with his still-cuffedright hand, picks up a cigarette, picks up a match with his left hand,strikes the match and takes a drag from his cigarette. He lets out acalm breath and says:SNAKEWho are you?HAUKHauk. Police Commissioner.SNAKEBob Hauk...HAUKSpecial Forces Unit. Texas Thunder. We heard of you, too, Plissken.SNAKEWhy are we talking?HAUKI have a deal for you. You'll receive full pardon for every criminalact committed in the United States.Hauk shows Snake the pardon. Snake's eye lights up. This is somethinghe wants. He's interested now, and can't hide it.HAUK(pressing his advantage)There was an accident about an hour ago. A small jet went down insideNew York City. The President was on board.SNAKE(re-establishing control over the conversation)President of what?HAUKThat's not funny, Plissken. (beat) You go in, find the President andbring him out in 24 hours, and you're a free man.We sense amusement from Snake. This is not the first time thegovernment has asked him for a favor. But he's not a soldier or a "WarHero" anymore. He knows they need him more than he needs their pardon.He's holding the cards now, and he knows it.SNAKETwenty-four hours, huh?HAUKI'm making you an offer.SNAKEBullshit.HAUKStraight just like I said.SNAKEI'll think about it.HAUKNo time. Give me an answer.Snake turns away. Hauk is pushing way too hard, and Snake is determinedto be in the driver's seat.SNAKEGet a new president.HAUKWe're still at war, Plissken. We need him alive.SNAKEI don't give a fuck about your war... or your president.HAUKIs that your answer?SNAKEI'm thinking about it.HAUKThink hard.Snake pauses to take a draw on his cigarette. Next question:SNAKEWhy me?HAUKYou flew the Gullfire over Leningrad. You know how to get in quiet.You're all I've got.SNAKEI guess I go in one way or the other. Doesn't mean shit to me. Give methe paper.HAUKWhen you come out.SNAKEBefore.HAUKI told you I wasn't a fool, Plissken.SNAKECall me Snake.INT. WEAPONS ROOM -- NIGHTRehme talks as we PAN ACROSS a table full of weapons. We see two guns,a belt, grenades, several pouches full of various stuff, a flashlight, aUzi, throwing stars, and more. Snake surveys them with a coolexpression.REHMESome of them have cars. They took old junkers that were left behind andconverted them to steam. We think they may also have a gasoline sourcein there, and power. Greenhouses, rigged up generators. Some areashave streetlights. The crazies. Live in the subways. Complete controlof the underground. They're night raiders.Snake's not into this. He'll figure it out when he gets there. Hepicks up a bracelet with an eagle on it.HAUKTracer. Sends a radio signal for fifteen minutes. You push it, we cantrack you on radar. Just like Leningrad. But they added something. Asafety catch.Snake pushes the safety catch. Simple enough. And yes, there's thebutton. This is familiar. He smiles.INT. HALL -- NIGHTSnake has his jacket slung over his shoulder now. He walks down thehall to the medical room with Hauk. Rehme has disappeared.SNAKEWhere am I landing?HAUKTop of the world trade center. Only place you can land. They won't seeit, and you can take off from a free fall. On the roof there's aservice elevator. It's still operational. We use it to infiltrate theprison. There's a power box. It'll activate the elevator down tofifty. From there on downyou walk.Snake shrugs on his jacket. He knows Hauk is just trying to assert hisauthority, and it's not working very well.HAUKYou can locate the President by his vital signs bracelet, on his wrist.It sends out a sig pulse. Use this.He hands Snake a homing device.HAUKHoming device. Shows directions and distance.INT. MEDICAL ROOM -- NIGHTSnake and Hauk walk into the room. They're met by a young medic.HAUKStrong antitoxin. Stops bacteria and viral-proofs you for 24 hours.Snake braces himself against a table. The medic is holding aninjection-type tech gizmo.MEDICTake off the jacket.SNAKEI'll be OK.HAUKLet's go, Plissken.Snake shrugs off his jacket, disoriented by the place. He's nervous.His hackles are up.SNAKEI don't like needles.Hauk straps a timer gauge onto Snake's left hand. He activates it andthe time blinks on. It's counting down as we speak.HAUKTwenty-two hours, twenty-nine minutes, fifty-seven seconds...SNAKEWe talked about twenty-four.HAUKIn twenty-two hours the Hartford Summit meeting will be over. China andthe Soviet Union will go back home. The president was on his way to thesummit when his plane went down.Snake snorts.HAUKHe has a briefcase attached to his wrist. The tape recording inside hasto reach Hartford in 22 hours.SNAKEWhat's on it?HAUKYou know anything about nuclear fusion?Snake turns away. No. Nuclear fusion is not his area of expertise.HAUKIt's about the survival of the human race, Plissken. Something youdon't give a shit about.Hauk steps aside. The medic swabs Snake's neck on both sides.MEDICI'm going to inject you. It'll sting for a second or two...He raises a couple of hypos and injects Snake with them. Snake jumps alittle; clearly, this is not one of the world's most pleasant things.HAUKThat's it, Plissken.Snake gets off the table. The medic turns around.MEDICTell him.SNAKETell me what?Hauk thinks he's got him this time. Snake doesn't like that.HAUKThat idea you had about turning the Gullfire around 180 degrees andflying off to Canada.Hauk shakes his head. Snake puts his jacket down and turns to themedic.SNAKEWhat did you do to me, asshole?HAUKMy idea, Plissken. Something we've been fooling around with. Twomicroscopic capsules lodged in your arteries. They're already startingto dissolve. In twenty-two hours, the cores will completely dissolve.Inside the cores are that heat-sensitive charge. Not a large explosive.About the size of a pinhead. Just big enough to --(he gestures)open up both your arteries. I'd say you'd be dead in ten or fifteenseconds --Hauk stops talking because Snake has grabbed him by the throat.SNAKETAKE THEM OUT NOW.MEDICThey're protected by the cores. Fifteen minutes before the last hour isup we can neutralize the charge with X-rays.Snake lets go of Hauk to look at his watch. 22:57:38. 37. 36. Thisis his life he's watching tick away.HAUKWe'll burn out the charges IF you have the President.SNAKEWhat if I'm a little late?HAUKNo more Hartford Summit. And no more Snake Plissken.SNAKEWhen I get back I'm going to kill you.HAUKThe Gullfire's waiting.EXT. RUNWAY -- NIGHTSnake pulls up in a Jeep. He walks up to the tiny plane called theGullfire. Two guards stand by to make sure he just gets in the planeand does his job. He throws his cigarette out onto the runway andcloses the overhead window.INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSnake turns on his monitors.SNAKEI'm ready.HAUK21 hours.SNAKESuppose he's dead, Hauk. If I come back without him, you'll burn thesethings out?INT. BASE --- NIGHTHauk and Rehme exchange a glance; Hauk's been expecting this question tocome up.HAUKGet them both back, Plissken.INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSnake doesn't like the response, but figures he can't do anything aboutit.HAUKRemember, once inside you're on your own.SNAKEOh, you mean I can't count on you?HAUKNo.SNAKEGood.EXT. RUNWAY -- NIGHTA larger plane hauls the Gullfire into the air; the Gullfire isessentially a big hang glider.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHauk checks Snake's life clock, "Master Life Clock".20:17:43... 42... 41....INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSnake's watch reads 20:17:40... 39... 38... 37... 36... 35...He starts controlling the plane. He flips the tracer open and hits thebutton, testing it.INT. BASE -- NIGHTThe master life clock shows the test confirmation.COMPUTERTracer test confirmed at 20 hours, 17 minutes, 30 seconds.Hauk, Rehme and the Vice President nod with relief.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTSnake takes the plane in.INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSnake looks over his monitors. He sees New York coming up.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHauk waits at his microphone.HAUKAre you picking up the target blip?INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSNAKERight on course.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTThe plane aims for the World Trade Center.INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSNAKEIt's been a while . . .The plane is aiming right at a building.HAUKHow's your altitude?Snake calmly angles the plane up.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHAUKPlissken? Plissken? Plissken, what are you doing?INT. GULLFIRE -- NIGHTSNAKEPlaying with myself. I'm going in.Snake targets the World Trade Center. He checks his instruments.EXT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- NIGHTThe plane comes down. It hits hard. Snake puts on the brakes, adds agrappling hook, and finally comes to a stop right at the edge.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHAUKPlissken? Plissken?EXT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- NIGHTSnake walks over to the elevator. He uses the power box to get theelevator started. He looks around, and the doors open. He gets in theelevator. The doors close.INT. BASE -- NIGHTSnake's voice comes through the radio.SNAKEI'm inside the World Trade Center on the 50th floor. Just likeLeningrad, Hauk.HAUKIs the glider intact?INT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- NIGHTSnake stands with his walkie-talkie in the middle of the graffiti-covered building.SNAKEYeah, but taking off is for shit. I'll work it out.HAUKYou'll have to use the east stairwell. It'll take you a little while toget to ground level.Snake checks his life clock. 19:22:44. 43. 42.HAUKCall me when you get outside.Snake puts his walkie-talkie away as someone runs past. He doesn'tnotice. He walks on.FADE OUT.------------------------------------------------------------------------FADE IN.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTSnake walks along with his tracer. He goes through alleys and streets.He draws his gun as he walks by a group of people. He's armed and readyto fight.EXT. PLANE CRASH -- NIGHTThe plane is still burning. Smoke is coming from everywhere. The planeis severed in the middle. The crash is very impressive. Snake walksand notices a few people go by. He pulls out his walkie-talkie.SNAKEI'm at the plane. Nobody else made it, Hauk.Something beeps. His tracer.SNAKEWait a minute.He looks at his tracer. A small red dot lights up in the southeastcorner.SNAKEI've got his pulse. Right up ahead, moving northwest.He puts away his walkie-talkie and checks his life clock. 18:50:18.17. 16.DISSOLVE TO:Images. Snake holding the tracer. He gets closer and comes up to abuilding, formerly a theater. He walks in.INT. THEATER -- NIGHTThe pulse keeps getting stronger. Snake walks in. He holds his gun atthe ready. There's a truly horrible musical going on.INT. STAGE -- NIGHTACTORSThis is hell! This is hate! (etc.)Snake looks around. No sign of the president, but there is a CABBIEenjoying the show. Time to move on. He enters against his betterjudgment, but he's just passing through, so that's OK.INT. STAIRWELL -- NIGHTSnake keeps moving, but there's a noise. He turns around, aiming hisgun. Cabbie holds up his hands.CABBIEHey! You're Snake Plissken, ain't you?SNAKEWhat do you want?CABBIENothin'.Snake lowers his gun.CABBIEI thought you were dead!Snake moves on.CABBIEHey! You don't want to walk around down there, Snake!INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHTThe signal from the tracer keeps getting closer and closer. Snake walkspast a gang beating up and stripping a semi-conscious girl. He doesn'ttake much notice. He keeps going. He sees a BUM sitting by a fire.BUMHi, Chief. Nice night. Nice boots. Niiiiice boots. Hey.A guy tries to sneak up behind Snake. Snake knocks him out and pointshis gun at the bum.BUMEasy now, chief. I'm walking. I'm walking.The bum walks away. Snake keeps going. A man beats up another man at asink. The beatee is wearing the President's life tracer. Snake kicksthe beater and knocks him out.SNAKEMr. President . . .The man wearing the life tracer looks up and smiles. He's a DRUNK.DRUNKI'm the President? Sure, I'm the President. If I knew where I got thisthing --(indicates the tracer)I'd be the President.SNAKEWhere did you get it?DRUNKI woke up, and there it was, just like a miracle . . .Snake slams the tracer against the sink.INT. BASE -- NIGHTThe President's life signs all fail.OFFICIALOh my god . . .MEDICIt . . . It may be just an impact on the mechanism itself . . .INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHTSnake pulls up his walkie-talkie.SNAKEHauk?!INT. BASE -- NIGHTHAUKI'm right here, Plissken.SNAKEI don't know who you assholes are looking at, but it's NOT thePresident.INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHTSnake holds the walkie-talkie up to the drunk.DRUNK(to the tune of Joy to the World)Hail to the chief . . . La la la la la la . . .SNAKEAll right, get your machine ready. I'm coming out.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHAUK18 hours, Plissken.INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHTSNAKEListen to me, Hauk. The President is DEAD, you got that? Somebody'shad him for dinner!INT. BASE -- NIGHTHAUKPlissken, if you get back in that glider I'll shoot you down. You climbout, I'll burn you off the wall. You understand that, Plissken?INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHTSnake stares at his walkie-talkie.SNAKEA little human compassion . . .EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTSnake walks on. He's in an area with streetlights. He keeps going.EXT. POD -- NIGHTSnake stares at the pod. No clues. He looks around. Nothing. As hecomes back up, he sets up a chair and sits down heavily. He touches hisneck. It's like he can feel the cores dissolving.A crazy walks past, bangs on manhole covers. Snake doesn't know whathe's doing, but he doesn't like it. Especially not when the manholecovers start to rise up. He runs off.EXT. CHOCK FULL OF NUTS -- NIGHTSnake finds the restaurant, and runs inside. No one follows.INT. CHOCK FULL OF NUTS -- NIGHTSnake backs into a corner. The floor is weak and starts to go out fromunder him once. He gets into the shadows. There's someone there.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSYou a cop?Snake levels his gun at her.SNAKENo . . .GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSYou've got a gun. You got a smoke?Snake tosses her his cigarettes. She lights one.SNAKEKeep your hand over it.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSIt's all right if we're quiet. They won't hear us.(reacting to the cigarette)Hey, this is a real one. You just get in?SNAKEWhat's going on out there?GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSCrazies. It's the end of the month. They're out of food.SNAKEDo you live here?GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSSkulls? You kidding? I'm with the Turks now. I just got caught in thestreet after dark and now I'm stuck here all night.SNAKEA plane crashed seven hours ago. Did you see it?GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSNo.SNAKEShit.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSYou're a cop.SNAKEI'm an asshole.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSHey, wait a minute. I know who you are. Yeah! But I heard you weredead.SNAKEI am.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSWow, Snake Plissken. All right! What you doing in here with a gun,Snake?SNAKELooking for somebody.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSWho?SNAKEThe President.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSCome on! He really here?SNAKESomewhere.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSWhen you find him, are you gonna take him out?SNAKEMm-hm.GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSTake me out with you, Snake.SNAKEWhy?GIRL IN CHOCK FULL O' NUTSI can think of lots of reasons why . . .She makes a move to kiss him, but there's a noise. They split up, butshe gets sucked through the floor. Snake tries to save her, but it'stoo late. He gets the hell out of there.INT. BUILDING -- NIGHT, EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHT, EXT. ALLEYS -- NIGHTSnake runs through the building, breaks a window, and climbs up a fireescape to get to a new floor. He breaks a window to get in, then pullsa cabinet in front of the window. He shoots through the cabinet,causing some crazy to scream. He busts down a door, shoots open part ofa wall, busts through that, climbs out a window, and climbs down atelephone pole. He then climbs up a wall. On the way he drops hiswalkie-talkie. He runs down an alley, and as he does, Cabbie pulls up.CABBIEWhere you goin', buddy?Snake points his gun at Cabbie. He looks behind him, then gets in thecab.INT. CAB -- NIGHTSnake notices a tape player which is playing the theme from "AmericanBandstand."CABBIEBad neighborhood, Snake! You don't want to be walking from the Boweryto 42nd street at night! I've been driving a cab here for 30 years andI'm telling you, you don't walk around here at night! Yes, sir!They'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat. Usually I'm notdown around here myself, but I wanted to catch that show.Cabbie lights a rag stuffed down the neck of a bottle which is full ofgasoline.CABBIEThis stuff is like gold around here, you know.EXT. CAB -- NIGHTCabbie throws the bottle into the alley, where it explodes.INT. CAB -- NIGHTCABBIEHey, Snake, when'd you get in? I didn't even know they caught you.(laughs)Ohhh, Snake Plissken in my cab. Wait'll I tell Eddie! Hey, hang on,Snake.EXT. CAB -- NIGHTCabbie makes a sharp turn.INT. CAB -- NIGHTCABBIEHey, what were you doing back there, Snake?SNAKELooking for somebody.CABBIEWell, why didn't you ask me? Hell, I know everybody in this town. Yes,sir. I've been driving this cab for thirty years, this very same cab.Snake points his gun at Cabbie.SNAKEI'm GONNA ask you. Now where's the President?CABBIEThe Duke's got him! Everyone knows the Duke's got him! You don't haveto put a gun to my head. I'll tell you!SNAKEWho's the Duke?CABBIEThe DUKE! The Duke of New York! A-Number-1! The big man, that's who!SNAKEI want to meet this Duke.CABBIEYou can't meet the Duke, are you crazy? Nobody wants to meet the Duke!You meet him once and then you're dead!Snake points the gun more insistently. Tough.EXT. BRAIN'S BUILDING -- NIGHTCabbie parks the cab and he and Snake walk up to Brain's building.CABBIEI hate to leave her on the street. Usually I don't leave her alone atall. But you're a special case, Snake.He and Snake walk up to the door. Cabbie knocks on the door with hisshoe.CABBIEIt's OK, Snake. It's a better neighborhood. You can relax.Relax? Snake checks his life clock. 17:40:46. 45. 44. Relax, my ass.SNAKEThanks.CABBIEBoy, they got a great place here. Like a fortress!SNAKEThey?From the inside, someone answers.MAGGIEWho is it?CABBIEIt's me!MAGGIEWho's me?CABBIECabbie!MAGGIEWhat do you want?CABBIESomebody wants to see Brain, it's important --MAGGIENo way, Cabbie --CABBIENo, it's Snake! Snake Plissken!Maggie opens the door. She stands there and surveys the pair.MAGGIEYOU'RE Plissken?CABBIEHe wants to see Brain.MAGGIEWhy?SNAKEI want to meet the Duke.Snake and Maggie exchange a glance. She leads them in.INT. BRAIN'S -- NIGHTCABBIEHey, what do you think of this place, Snake? It used to be a publiclibrary. Oh, that Brain, he's the greatest! Mr. Fabulous! Duke loveshim.SNAKE(gesturing at Maggie)Who's that?CABBIEThat's Maggie. Brain's squeeze. The Duke gave him to Brain just tokeep him happy . . . see what I mean?Snake can tell that Maggie's more than just Brain's squeeze; she's hisbodyguard, too. She looks like she'd be willing to kill to protectBrain.MAGGIEHeard you were dead.INT. BRAIN'S ROOM -- NIGHTCABBIEBrain? Brain! I brought somebody to see you!Snake looks at Brain. He knows this guy.SNAKEHarold Helman.Brain puts down his book and stands up.BRAINSnake?MAGGIE"Harold"?SNAKEWhere you been, Harold? It's been a long time.MAGGIEYou never told me you knew Snake Plissken, Brain.CABBIEIsn't that great? Hey, Brain, I could use some gas if you can sparesome . . .No one pays attention. Snake advances on Brain. Brain sits down.SNAKEI'm glad you remember me. Yeah. A man should remember his past.Kansas City, four years ago. You ran out on me. You left me sittingthere.BRAINYou were late.SNAKEWe were buddies, Harold. You, me, and Fresno Bob. You know what theydid to Bob?His face changes. He suddenly kicks Brain's chair into the wall andpoints his gun.Maggie draws a knife and starts advancing on Snake.SNAKEYou want to see him sprayed all over that map, baby?(to Brain)Where's the President?!BRAINSwear to god, Snake, I don't know --SNAKEDon't fuck with me!BRAINWhy do you want to know?SNAKEI want him.BRAINWorking for the man now, huh?SNAKEThen I'll just beat it out of your squeeze --BRAINMm-hm. Maggie doesn't know EXACTLY where he is and unless you knowEXACTLY PRECISELY where he is you'll never find him.Snake takes his gun away. He contemplates Brain.SNAKEListen, I'll take you out of here. Yeah. Jet glider just a couple ofblocks down the street. And all you gotta do is get me to him.Everyone realizes the importance of this.CABBIENo kidding? On the level? Will you take me, too?BRAINWe've got to deal somewhere else.SNAKENo glider.MAGGIEWe've got the President. And the Duke's taking everybody out of here.SNAKENever happen. See, I know something you and the Duke don't know. We'veonly got so long before Mr. President don't mean a whole lot.BRAINYou're lying.MAGGIEMaybe he's not . . .BRAINI know him! Look at his face, he's lying!SNAKERight, Harold. I'm lying. So I might as well have some fun and keeplooking by myself.He cocks his gun and points it at Brain again.MAGGIEBrain --SNAKETalk to him, baby --MAGGIEBrain, he'll kill us both if you don't tell him --CABBIE(panicking)Brain, you've got to tell him!MAGGIE(panicking)Brain, you've got to tell him --CABBIE(panicked)Tell him, tell him, tell him --BRAINALL RIGHT!!!Snake lowers the gun.SNAKEYou always were smart, Harold.BRAINJust one thing right now. Don't call me "Harold."EXT. BUILDING -- NIGHTSnake, Maggie, Cabbie and Brain all walk out.SNAKESo you work for this Duke, huh?BRAINYeah. Make gas for him. Figure out things for him.SNAKELike what?BRAIN(showing off)Like how to get across the 69th street bridge -- it's mined, but I knowwhere they're planted.MAGGIEWe got a diagram from a guy that got all the way across . . . beforethey shot the poor bastard.BRAINWe got a crew up there now clearing the way across the first barricade.CABBIEWhat a sight, Snake! The whole camp rolling right across the bridge andthe President right out front! Oh, that would have been so fine . . .MAGGIE(ironically)Yeah, it would have been . . .CABBIEYeah, but we're going with Snake now.The three of them cross into the street. Cabbie panics.CABBIEThat's the Duke! I know the sound of his engines. Don't cross the Duke-- everybody knows that.We get one glimpse of the Duke's car. Then we realize that Cabbie isgone and his cab is racing away.MAGGIECabbie, you slime!The Duke's car heads right for us.MAGGIENo, Brain!The two of them run off. After a while, Snake follows. The three ofthem hide. The Duke's car is an old Chrysler with chandeliers suspendedover the headlights. It's in a caravan of three, leading the way. Afourth car comes up later. The Duke is sitting in the passenger seat ofa car with Weirdo in the back. The Duke gets out of the car, Weirdo athis side. The Duke is wearing a cowboy hat, sunglasses, a snazzyjacket, bluejeans, and boots. He looks TOUGH. He sends Weirdo to knockon the door.MAGGIEHe's looking for you, Brain.SNAKEWhat does he want?BRAINHe wants my diagram of the bridge. When he finds out I'm with you he'sgoing to want my life! Shit, Plissken, I knew I shouldn't have listenedto you --SNAKEWe've got to get to the President NOW, while he's busy.BRAINForget it, he's on the other side of town and we got no wheels. Thedeal is off --SNAKEJust calm down.EXT. CAR -- NIGHTA lone man sits, looking bored. Snake subtly goes up to him, knocks himout, and gets him out of the car. He briefly considers shooting the guyon the hood of the car. Instead, the guy on the hood of the car walksaround. Snake knocks him out a second alter and then drives to getBrain and Maggie. He knocks the other guy out of the car.BRAIN(panicked)I think they saw us! Turn left, turn left here!INT. CAR -- NIGHTMAGGIEBrain, this is Broadway.BRAINI know, I know, the Duke'll take Seventh Avenue, Broadway is fiveminutes --MAGGIENo!!!BRAINYes!!! Just keep driving!SNAKEWhat's wrong with Broadway?EXT. BROADWAY -- NIGHTSNAKE(to the car)Come on sweetheart . . .People start throwing bricks. Snake hands his gun to Brain, who passesit to Maggie, holding it like a dead rat (or like a macho guy would holda purse). Snake drives as fast as he can, gunning off the bystander whogets on the car. A bystander grabs Brain.BRAINMaggie!Maggie protects him. She shoots the people grabbing at him. Snakeangles the car through a pile of scrap metal and drives away. He glaresat Brain. Everyone seems visibly shaken.SNAKEHold on.Snake backs the car through a bunch of piled cars. He takes off, thecar a bit worse for wear but at least they got away from the crowd onBroadway.EXT. TRAINS -- NIGHTBrain points to the cars as Snake watches.BRAINHe'll be in the third car from the end, by the last campfire.Snake looks around. The Duke's caravan passes. There are more carsthan there were before.BRAINIt's all right. He's got to go in the front way. It'll take him fiveminutes. If you're not back to the car in four minutes you're on yourown.SNAKEWhen we get there, Harold, you just keep talking.They drive off. Snake gets to the trains. No one notices. Maggie andBrain get out of the car and Snake ducks into the train car.BRAINHi, guys. Hi . . . how's it going? Cooled off a little, huh?HEAD DUDEWhat do you want, Brain?BRAINDuke told us to wait inside. He's on his way here now.HEAD DUDEHe didn't say nothing to us about it.BRAINWell, you can't expect him to tell everybody in the joint, now can you?That's why he's the Duke.The camera angles back to show Snake walking on top of the railroadcars. He hasn't found the President yet. But he doesn't have time towonder if Brain double-crossed him.HEAD DUDEWhy don't we wait outside here for him?BRAINWhy don't we wait inside for him?HEAD DUDE'Cause I got orders, that's why.BRAINWhat are your specific orders, by the way?HEAD DUDESpecific orders, Brain, was for me not to let no one go inside.BRAINHow's the President holding up, by the way? Any political discussionyou've had with him?INT. PRESIDENT'S TRAIN CAR -- NIGHTTwo guards sit with the President, talking. The first guard is by thePresident. The second is looking out the window.SECOND GUARDThat Brain is a real pain in the ass. He's always sniffing around likea dog.FIRST GUARDHe comes up with the gas.The second guard looks out the window. Snake grabs him by the neck, andbreaks it. The first guard doesn't notice, but the President does, andthat tips off the guard.FIRST GUARDWhat are you looking at?He turns and Snake throws a star at him. It lodges right in his brain,but not fast enough. Snake is hit in the leg with a crossbow arrow.Snake limps over to the President and starts uncuffing him. Thepresident still has the briefcase. This is it, this is the big time.Snake keeps calm.PRESIDENTAre you from the outside?SNAKEStop shaking.PRESIDENTI can't! Who are you?SNAKEHauk sent me. We've got to move fast.PRESIDENTMove fast? You're goddamned right I'll move fast.SNAKEQuiet!Snake limps away, President in the lead.EXT. TRAIN -- NIGHTSnake and the President keep moving. Suddenly, Snake gets jumped. Tenguys surround him and the President, and though Snake fights well, it'snot well enough. Brain comes out with Maggie.BRAINThey got him. Now watch him.The Duke steps out from the car, followed by Weirdo.DUKEFriend of yours, Brain?BRAINHe had a gun on me, Duke, there was nothing I could do.DUKE(not believing it for a second)Uh-huh.Weirdo points accusingly as he and Duke walk away.BRAINMaggie . . .Duke walks up to Snake. Snake isn't giving in even though he's prettysure he's beat.DUKEWho are you?Snake doesn't answer. Duke grabs the arrow still lodged in his rightleg and pulls on it. Snake writhes in agony.DUKEI said who are you?BRAINSnake Plissken, Duke. The Man sent him in here. Something's going down. . . we need him.Duke recognizes the name. He is impressed. He lets go of the arrow.Snake hates him more than ever.DUKESnaaaaaake Plissken. I've heard of you.He raises a crowbar over his head and smacks Snake with it, knocking himout.DUKEI heard you were dead.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTA helicopter flies over the city.INT. HELICOPTER -- NIGHTThe pilot looks at a grid-view of New York.SURVEILLANCE 4This is surveillance 4 to security control. Nothing on the infraredbody scan. Nothing in the searchlight. There aren't any fires on thestreet. Nobody moving down here.INT. BASE -- NIGHTHauk, Rehme and the Vice President wait.SURVEILLANCE 5Surveillance 5 . . . security control . . . negative on infrared bodyscan . . . no movement in the searchlight . . . nothing strange going ondown there.They look at the Master Life Clock. 12:27:39. 38. Where's Plissken?INT. ROOM -- DAYPlissken lies unconscious on a bed, crossbow pointed at his head. Threeguards are at the ready.INT. BASE -- DAYVICE PRESIDENTWe've got to go in now.HAUKWe hold.VICE PRESIDENTYou're countermanding my orders, Hauk.HAUKThis is my prison, I'll give the orders.VICE PRESIDENTI override all that!HAUKJust try.EXT. NEW YORK -- DAYUnbelievable smog. Helicopters fly.SURVEILLANCE ?...still negative on the scan.SURVEILLANCE 4This is Surveillance 4 to Security Control. Nothing on the infraredbody scan. Negative on the sweep.EXT. WALL -- DAYHauk stands on the wall, listening.SURVEILLANCE 10Surveillance 10. Still negative on the scan.SURVEILLANCE 5Surveillance 5 still negative.SURVEILLANCE 4This is Surveillance 4 to Security Control. Nothing on the infraredbody scan. Negative...INT. ROOM -- DAYSnake begins to come to. We hear gunshots and cheering. The guards goto announce Snake's consciousness.INT. HANGAR -- DAYBrain and Maggie move to the center of the gunshots and cheeringINT. TARGET PRACTICE -- DAYThe Duke sits firing with Plissken's gun at the President, whosebriefcase is still chained to his arm.INT. ROOM -- DAYSnake sits up. There are LOTS of crossbows aimed at him.GUARDDon't move, Snake.Snake turns to face him. He stands up. We see for the first timeexactly why he's called "Snake" Plissken. There's a snake tattooed onhis stomach. The snake's tail disappears into his pants, but we have agood idea of where it leads and what it becomes. Ah ha.Snake's life clock is gone. He has no idea how much time he's got.Shit.INT. TARGET PRACTICE -- DAYDUKEI want that diagram, Brain.BRAINOh. It's at my place, Duke. Duke, that Plissken said something about atime limit.DUKEWhat time limit?BRAIN(gesturing at President)On him.DUKEThat's a lot of crap.(to the President)What did I teach you?PRESIDENT(weakly)You... You are... the Duke of New... New York... You're... A-Number-One.DUKEI can't hear you.PRESIDENTYOU ARE... THE DUKE OF NEW YORK... YOU'RE A-NUMBER-ONE!DUKE(to Brain)Get me the diagram.BRAINDuke... Don't kill Plissken. We need him.The Duke points the gun at Brain, but doesn't even give him a glance.DUKEGet moving, Brain.Brain moves, and Weirdo laughs that odd laugh. The Duke fires at thePresident's briefcase. Papers and a tape fall out. Weirdo looks downand kicks the tape away. He picks it up and holds it to his ear, thenputs it in his pocket. Guards come and unstrap the President. The Dukehas decided to take Snake a bit more seriously than he had.Which is not saying much.EXT. NEW YORK -- LATE AFTERNOONHelicopters fly above ground. A group stands with a car, gesturingwildly.INT. HELICOPTER -- LATE AFTERNOONPILOTPeople out below in the park. Can you see them?INT. BASE -- LATE AFTERNOONPILOTSurveillance 2 to Security Control. We're getting that readout, mostlyin the infrared.Hauk and Rehme immediately check out the monitor. At least something'sgoing on.PILOTWe have a visual sighting on it. It's a crowd of prisoners in CentralPark. They're waving at us. Signaling us in the food drop area.They're waving us down.EXT. CENTRAL PARK -- LATE AFTERNOONThe prisoners wave the helicopters down. A group of guards lands andruns over to the station wagon. They get the briefcase which has beensawed off the President's handcuffs.INT. ROOM -- LATE AFTERNOONSnake is awake and surrounded by guards. The cheers are louder.INT. BRAIN'S -- LATE AFTERNOONMaggie walks across the room, loading a gun. It's one of Snake's.BRAINI still can't figure out whether that son of a bitch Plissken wastelling the truth or not. God, I hate that guy.Brain stands in front of his maps.MAGGIEHe got in somehow.BRAINYeah, yeah, but how? You gotta land the glider and take off.(he gestures at the map)You can't do it in Central Park, there's too many trees. PortAuthority's too low to the ground. Unless it was some...(he gets it... they don't call him "Brain" for nothing)Someplace high up. World Trade Center. That's it. There we go. TheWorld Trade Center. And it's gonna be a hell of a lot easier for me totake off than it was for him to land.INT. BASE -- LATE AFTERNOONHauk reads the note left in the briefcase.HAUK"Amnesty for all prisoners in New York City in exchange for President.69th Street Bridge tomorrow, 12 Noon. No bullshit or he's dead."VICE PRESIDENTWhere's the tape?HAUKNot here.He reaches inside and removes a pair of goggles.REHMEThey're Plissken's.Yeah, they were on the table. He never did use them, though, and onlyhalf of them is necessary in his case anyway.VICE PRESIDENTSo much for your man, Hauk?Hauk hesitates. This is the last thing he wants.HAUKWarm up the choppers. We're moving in.EXT. BASE -- SUNSETHelicopters prepare for takeoff.INT. BASE -- SUNSETHauk sits at the microphone.HAUKPlissken?The master life clock reads 1:56:38. 37. 36,INT. ROOM -- SUNSETSnake slowly gets to his feet. He's still groggy, but it's time for himto move.GUARDCome on, get up!Snake limps through a hallway and into a stadium.INT. STADIUM -- SUNSETBoos greet Snake as he walks in. In the center of the room is afighting ring. Snake climbs in, not without effort. A huge andextremely ugly man climbs into the ring, amid loud cheers. Snakenotices that the huge ugly dude is wearing his life clock. In thebalcony above is the Duke. The Duke stands up and raises his arms, andeveryone gets silent.DUKEThey sent in their best man. And when we roll down the 69th streetbridge tomorrow on our way to freedom, we're gonna have their best manleading the way. From the neck up.The crowd cheers.DUKEOn the hood of my car!More cheers.DUKELet's do it!Ugly and Snake take bats. They circle each other. Ugly strikes atSnake. Snake ricochets off the ring. He rolls around, fighting for hislife.INT. BUILDING -- SUNSETBrain and Maggie walk around. They knock on a door and Weirdo answers.He's wearing Cabbie's hat.WEIRDOHello.BRAINWhere'd you get the hat?WEIRDOGot it from Cabbie.BRAINYeah?WEIRDOTraded him.BRAINFor what?WEIRDOWhat are you so nervous about?BRAINI'm here to see the President.WEIRDOWho says?BRAINThe Duke.WEIRDONo he doesn't.BRAINWell... I'll have to tell him you said that.Weirdo doesn't really believe it. If it's not true, so what?But if it IS true, the Duke will have him tortured to death.WEIRDOWait a minute. Why?BRAINHe's got something hidden in his clothing. The Duke wants it.WEIRDOWhat?BRAINI'll show you.WEIRDOYou'll tell me.BRAINCyanide capsules. The Duke don't want a dead president.Brain pushes his way in.INT. ROOM -- SUNSETBRAINGentlemen. Mr. President.Weirdo lets the door slide closed. Brain starts checking thePresident's clothes. The President has been dressed in a wig and tiedto a chair with an American Flag on it.WEIRDOCyanide?BRAINYeah. He might try to take it tomorrow.Weirdo walks up to Brain.WEIRDOThat's bullshit. You're not supposed to be in here, Brain --Brain stabs Weirdo, who dies with a gasp. Maggie dispatches of thethree guards. She smiles. Brain unties the President's hand. ThePresident snatches off the wig in a rage.INT. TOURNAMENT -- SUNSETSnake notices a guard wearing the eagle tracer. A trash can lid and abat with spikes on it is handed to him. The next round begins.EXT. HOUSE -- EVENINGBrain, the President, and Maggie sneak out. A guy in a cowboy hatnotices.INT. TOURNAMENT -- EVENINGUgly and Snake keep fighting. Snake is not doing very well. But he'scatching up. As Ugly tries to hit him, he nails Ugly in the groin, thenin the back of the head. The crowd begins cheering "SNAKE! SNAKE!"The Duke can't believe it. Snake runs to the guard with the tracer andactivates it.INT. BASE -- EVENINGThe Master Life Clock begins blinking "Tracer Status: ACTIVATED."COMPUTERTracer activated at one hour, thirty-five minutes, twenty-seven seconds.Rehme jumps out of his seat.REHMEHauk!!INT. TOURNAMENT -- EVENINGSnake limps around, getting his stuff back together. He looks at hislife clock. 1:34:54. 53. He doesn't have much time.The guy in the cowboy hat runs up to the Duke and yells for attention.Duke immediately gets up and leaves, as do his hangers-on.GUY IN COWBOY HATLISTEN!!! LISTEN!!! LISTEN!!!The crowd shuts up.GUY IN COWBOY HATTHE PRESIDENT'S GONE! BRAIN TOOK HIM!The crowd rushes out. Snake limps out of the ring and runs off as fastas he can.EXT. BASE -- EVENINGRehme catches up to Hauk at the last second. Hauk has been stalling.REHME(shouting over noise)Hauk! Plissken's tracer!Hauk runs up to the head helicopter pilot.HAUKGet on the radio! Keep them down! Nobody move!INT. BASE -- EVENINGTwo monitors show Snake's tracer.REHMEHe's approaching the World Trade Center.HAUKI knew that son of a bitch was alive.REHMEHe's inside.INT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- EVENINGSnake limps around. He notices a cab. Fifty flights of stairs withhis leg shot to hell. He hesitates only for a second, then starts up.INT. BASE -- EVENINGThe Vice President, Hauk and Rehme all stand, staring at the monitors.VICE PRESIDENTIt's gone.HAUKThe signal only lasts for 15 minutes. Download the choppers. We're ina standby situation.Rehme runs off.VICE PRESIDENTAnybody could have pushed that button.HAUKOnly Plissken knew there was a safety catch. Now we'll give him alittle more time, just to make sure.The master clock shows 59:44. 43.EXT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- NIGHTSnake gets out of the elevator. Maggie, Brain, and the President alltake cover behind a chimney and try to get a gang to stop chopping downthe glider. It doesn't work. The glider floats away.BRAINGoddamned redskins! They're savages, Mr. President!Snake runs to get them. They get in the elevator.INT. WORLD TRADE CENTER -- NIGHTSnake has the President by the arm and is leading everyone out.BRAINListen, Snake, I swear to god, I thought you were dead --SNAKEYeah, you and everybody else.He grabs Brain by the tie and aims the gun at his head.SNAKEThat's your car in the lobby? The keys! Quick! Quick! Diagram of thebridge! Hey, hey, hey --Snake takes all the abovementioned items.BRAINI'm the only one who knows how to read that, Snake --SNAKEStay out of my way, Harold.BRAINBesides, you can't read and drive at the same time. You need us!Snake is tired. He's pissed. He's got half an hour to live if that.He doesn't have time for Brain's shit, and he lets him know it.SNAKEYou shouldn't have double-crossed me again, Brain. Come on, let's go --He suddenly notices there's nothing on the end of the President's chain.He holds it in front of the President's face.PRESIDENTThey sawed it off...SNAKEThe tape?PRESIDENTGone... I don't know where...BRAINI do.Snake shoots him a look. Bullshit, his eyes say, but maybe Brain istelling the truth. Maybe.BRAINSwear to god, Snake, I know where it is. Just take us to the car andI'll take you right to it.SNAKEShit...He tosses the diagram of the bridge to Brain. They go down the stairs.Snake's in bad shape, but it's everyone else who's complaining.MAGGIEDon't talk. Breathe.PRESIDENTCome on, come on, we're wasting time!Snake gets into the car. It won't start.BRAINWhat's wrong?SNAKEDead, Harold.BRAINWhat?!Snake hands the keys to Brain.SNAKEHere, take these.Snake looks under the hood. There's a man with a crossbow pointedstraight at him. Shit. They've been caught. Again.DUKECar trouble?Snake looks over the hood. There's the Duke. With a dozen guards.Brain steps out.BRAINHi, Duke.DUKEThis whole deal of yours is over, Snake. You and Brain just say good-bye to each other.The Duke turns away and loses aim of his gun for a moment. At thatmoment, Snake pulls a gun and fires at the steam vent. At the sametime, Maggie slams the hood shut on the guard with the crossbow. Steamflies everywhere, enough for cover. The four of them run for it. TheDuke runs after them.EXT. NEW YORK -- NIGHTA cab pulls up. Its radio is playing "American Bandstand". Guess who'sdriving? You got it!The group of four runs up to the cab. Snake runs around and makesCabbie scoot over. He wants to drive. Cabbie looks shocked.PRESIDENTGO, GO!The Duke and his followers arrive too late.INT. CAB -- NIGHTBRAIN(trying to explain the map)...and then there's three more...Snake waves him off. Cabbie's trying to make conversation.MAGGIEThey're behind us --BRAINThey come in groups of threes!Snake pops the American Bandstand tape out of the tape player and putsit in his pocket.SNAKEWhere's the tape, Brain?CABBIEWhat tape?SNAKEWhere is it?BRAINTape...PRESIDENTThe tape from the briefcase!CABBIEOh, that tape!He pulls it out of his pocket.CABBIEHere it is!Cabbie hands it to Snake. Brain laughs, trying to cover his ass.BRAINYou traded away your hat for it!CABBIEHow'd you know?BRAINSee, see!Snake pops it into the deck. It begins spewing out information. It'sthe right one. He slips it into his pocket.PRESIDENTHere, give me that tape!HA! No way!SNAKENot just yet.Snake checks his life clock. 23:20. 19. 18. 17. Didn't that guy say 15minutes before the last hour was up? But Hauk said they'd been playingwith this, so the 15 minutes was built in already. Still, 23 minutes.That's cutting it pretty fucking close.EXT. CAB -- NIGHTSnake races as fast as the cab can go.INT. CAB -- NIGHTSnake checks to make sure they're not being followed too closely.They're not. The Duke is behind, but he's FAR behind.CABBIEEasy... easy!BRAINGo for it, Snake!EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTSnake jumps the car over the first obstacle. Cabbie looks like he'shaving a heart attack.Snake swerves on Brain's direction. So far so good. A mine goes off,but it's behind them.The Duke goes forward. He's going by the seat of his pants. But heknows the general direction of how Snake went. A mine goes off behindhim, too.INT. CAB -- NIGHTBrain reads the map. Cabbie continues to freak out.CABBIEYou've got to slow down a little, Snake...BRAINI think there are three mines ahead, Snake.MAGGIEYou think?!EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTThe Duke continues in pursuit.INT. CAB -- NIGHTBRAINStay left, stay left, stay left, and then jog right when I tell you.CABBIEYou're pushing her too hard, Snake.BRAINOK, OK, NOW!EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTThe cab explodes, being cut right in half. Everyone makes it exceptCabbie. Cabbie had been driving that very same cab for thirty years.He died with it.The President, Snake, Maggie and Brain all keep going on foot.BRAINI said JOG RIGHT!... you asshole.Brain leads the way as they keep crossing the bridge.BRAINStay to the right, stay to the right, now jog left. Hold it, left...left... LEFT, DAMMIT!The other three go right. Brain goes left and a mine explodes underhim. Maggie walks up to the body in shock. Snake limps up to her.MAGGIEBrain...SNAKEKeep moving...The Duke's car is coming. Snake checks his life clockSNAKEMaggie... he's dead. Come on.Maggie calmly holds out her hand. Snake smiles and hands her his gun.His grin grows. It's one of respect for what she's about to do. Heruns off after the President.Maggie walks around to Brain, then steps in front of him. She pointsthe gun at the Duke's car. The first three shots don't connect. Thefourth nails the headlight, and then the Duke runs her over. He keepsgoing.INT. BASE -- NIGHTRehme runs up to Hauk and the Vice President.REHMEStation 19! They spotted two cars on the 69th street bridge.HAUKIs it Plissken?REHMETaxicab and a Cadillac. Taxi hit a mine. There's four people on foot.VICE PRESIDENTFourteen minutes...HAUKGet a jeep with a winch over there fast.He pulls out a phone.HAUKStrombaerden! Get over to Station 19. They're coming across thebridge.EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTThe President and Snake run on.EXT. WALL -- NIGHTA jeep pulls up. Rehme's voice comes up over the loudspeaker. Theguards on the jeep ready the winch.REHME This is Rehme, Security Control. We are in a standby situation.Repeat. We are in a standby situation. All helicopters, down. Wallguard, do not fire on prisoners. Repeat, do not fire on prisoners. Allvehicles, stand by. Repeat, stand by.EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTSnake and the President are close enough to the wall to hear all this.EXT. WALL -- NIGHTThe wall guards grab the rope and prepare to lower it for the Presidentand Snake.EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTSnake pushes the President up to the wall. The winch comes down andSnake helps the President into it first. The President goes up andover. Snake's life clock reads 1:32. But he doesn't have time to watchseconds tick away because the Duke is right behind him firing at him.Snake ducks for cover. The wall guards die. The winch comes downagain, and the Duke sees it. He starts toward it. Snake tackles himand beats him up, dazing him but not knocking him out. He grabs thewinch.EXT. WALL -- NIGHTA hand stops the winch from moving.EXT. 69TH STREET BRIDGE -- NIGHTSnake comes to a stop. He panics and starts pulling on the winch line.The Duke comes to and stands up. But he can't get anywhere because thePresident has found a machine gun and is now firing away. He is veryaccurate. He nails the Duke right away but keeps firing.PRESIDENT(manic voice)Yeah, hey, Number One! You're the Duke! You're the Duke!The President calms down somewhat.PRESIDENTYou're... the Duke... You're A-Number-One.The President starts the winch again. Snake climbs up and gets over asfast as he can without injuring himself.EXT. WALL -- NIGHTHauk and the medic pull up with the machine. Hauk interrupts the medic.HAUKThe tape, Plissken.Snake reaches into his pocket, grabs the tape, and hands it to Hauk. Heis furious. As soon as Hauk has the tape, he lets the medic come back.He holds up two medal pads to Snake's neck. They buzz, they buzzlouder, and then he takes them away.MEDICThat's it.Snake continues to pant and fume. He stares at them, then lifts hiswrist to look at his life clock. 2 seconds. One second.Beep.Nothing.Snake lowers his wrist.EXT. PRESIDENT'S PRESS CONFERENCE SITE -- NIGHTA jeep pulls Rehme up. He jogs to the President, who is being shavedand prepared for broadcast.REHMEI radioed ahead, Mr. President. They know the situation. They'rewaiting for your broadcast.PRESIDENTYeah.Snake approaches. The President nods.PRESIDENTOh, it's all right.Snake walks up and looks the President straight in the eye.PRESIDENTI, uh... I want to thank you. Anything you want... you just name it.SNAKEJust a moment of your time.AIDEThree minutes, sir.PRESIDENTYes?SNAKEWe did get you out. A lot of people died in the process. I justwondered how you felt about it.PRESIDENTI want to thank them. This nation appreciates their sacrifice.The President is full of shit after all. Snake has reason for hiscynicism. The President is uncomfortable with Snake's glare and itshows.PRESIDENTLook, uh, I'm on the air in...(questioning his aide)Two and a half minutes?AIDEYes, sir.Snake lights a cigarette and walks away. Rehme watches.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTSnake walks away. Hauk stands nearby. Snake stops in his tracks.HAUKYou going to kill me now, Snake?SNAKEI'm too tired. Maybe later.HAUKI've got another deal for you. I want you to think it over while you'reresting. I want to give you a job. We'd make one hell of a team,Snake.SNAKE(glaring)The name's Plissken.He limps away.EXT. PRESIDENT'S PRESS CONFERENCE SITE -- NIGHTThe President looks suitably freshened up. He's even smiling a little.AIDEYou're on camera, Mr. President.PRESIDENTGood evening. Although I shall not be present at this historic summitmeeting, I present this, in the hope that our great nations may learn tolive in peace.He pops in the tape and presses the "PLAY" button......and out comes "American Bandstand".The President's face goes slack. His career's over.EXT. BASE -- NIGHTSnake keeps limping. He pulls a tape out of his pocket, yanks themagnetic tape out, winds it around his hand, rips it to shreds, andthrows the tape away.FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7e3b0e136757f392942f445cef4ef6fc380e443a --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2003) +by Charlie Kaufman. +INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE RECEPTION AREA - DAYIt's grand and modern. Random House-Knopf-Taschen is etchedon the wall in large gold letters. An old woman enterscarrying a tattered manuscript, maybe a thousand pages. Sheseems haunted, hollow-eyed, sickly. The young receptionist,dressed in a shiny, stretchy one-piece pantsuit, looks up. RECEPTIONIST Oh, hi. OLD WOMAN (apologetically) Hi, I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd see -- RECEPTIONIST I think he's in a conference. Unfortunately. I'm really sorry. OLD WOMAN Would you just try him? You never know. As long as I'm here. You never know. RECEPTIONIST Of course. Please have a seat.The old woman smiles and sits, the bulky manuscript on herlap. She stares politely straight ahead. RECEPTIONIST (CONT'D) (quietly into headset) It's her -- I know, but couldn't you just -- Yes, I know, but -- I know, but she's old and it would be a nice -- Yes, sorry. (to old woman) I'm sorry, ma'am, he's not in right now. It's a crazy time of year for us.The receptionist gestures toward a Christmas tree in thecorner. Its ornaments are holograms. OLD WOMAN This book -- It's essential that people read it because -- (gravely, patting the manuscript) -- It's the truth. And only I know it. RECEPTIONIST (nodding sympathetically) Maybe after the holidays then.INT. TILED HALLWAY - DAYThe old woman carries her manuscript haltingly down a subwayhall. She stops to catch her breath, then continues andpasses several archway with letters printed above them. Whenshe arrives at one topped by an LL, she slips a card in aslot. A plastic molded chair drops into the archway. Shesits in the chair; it rises.INT. TUBE -DAYThe woman is still in the chair as it slips gracefully into aline of chairs shooting through a glass tube. The otherchairs are peopled with commuters. We stay with the woman asshe and the others travel over New York City in the tube.There are hundreds of these commuter tubes crisscrossing theskyline. The woman glances at the manuscript in her lap.It's called:Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindThis serves as the movie's opening title. The other creditsfollow, as the old woman studies commuters in passing tubes.Their faces are variously harsh and sad and lonely and blank.INT. WAITING ROOM - DAYSUBTITLED: FIFTY YEARS EARLIEREvery doctor's office waiting room: chairs against the wall,magazines on end tables, a sad-looking potted plant, genericseascape paintings on the walls. The receptionist, Mary, 25,can be seen typing in the reception area. Behind her areshelves and shelves of medical files. The door opens andClementine enters. She's in her early thirties, zaftig in afaux fur winter coat over an orange hooded sweatshirt. She'sdecidedly funky and has blue hair. Mary looks up. MARY May I help you? CLEMENTINE (approaching reception area) Yeah, hi, I have a one o'clock with Dr. Mierzwiak. Clementine Kruczynski. MARY Yes, please have a seat. He'll be right with you.Clementine sits. She looks tired, maybe hungover. She picksup a magazine at random and thumbs without interest.INT. INNER OFFICE AREA - CONTINUOUSMary pads down the hallway. She knocks on a closed door. MIERZWIAK (O.S.) Yes?Mary opens the door, peeks in. Howard Mierzwiak, 40's,professional, dry, sits behind his desk studying some papers. MARY Howard, your one o'clock. MIERZWIAK (not looking up) Thanks, Mary. You can bring her in.She smiles and nods. It's clear she's in love. It's equallyclear that Mierzwiak doesn't have a clue. Mary turns toleave. MIERZWIAK (CONT'D) (looking up) Mary... MARY (turning back) Yes? MIERZWIAK Order me a pastrami for after? MARY Cole slaw, ice tea? MIERZWIAK (nodding) Thanks. MARY Welcome, Howard.She smiles and heads down the hall. Stan, 30's, tall,spindly, and earnest in a lab coat pops out of a doorway. STAN Boo. MARY Hi.She glances back nervously at Mierzwiak's open door. STAN Barely seen you all morning, kiddo.He leans in to kiss her. She cranes her neck to keep himoff. MARY (reprimanding whisper) Stan... c'mon... STAN Sorry. I just -- MARY (somewhat guiltilly) It's just...y'know... I mean... STAN I know. Anyway -- MARY Anyway, I've got to do my tap dance here.She indicates the door to the reception area. Stan nods. STAN See you later, alligator. MARY 'kay. STAN Hey, if you're ordering lunch for Mierzwiak, would you -- MARY I better do this, Stan.Stan nods again and Mary opens the door to the waiting room. MARY (CONT'D) Ms. Kruczynski? CLEMENTINE (O.S.) Hi.After a moment, Clementine appears in the doorway. Maryleads her down the hall, not looking back. MARY (professionally courteous) How are you today? CLEMENTINE Okay, I guess. MARY (at Mierzwiak's office) Here we are.Mierzwiak steps out from behind his desk. MIERZWIAK Ms. Kruczynski, please come in.Clementine enters the office. Mary smiles at Mierzwiak andcloses the door, leaving them alone.INT. OFFICE - CONTINUOUSMierzwiak directs Clementine to a chair next to a coffeetable and a conspicuously placed box of tissues. Mierzwiaksits across from her. He smiles. MIERZWIAK How are you today? CLEMENTINE Okay, I guess. MIERZWIAK (nodding sympathetically) Well, why don't you tell me what's going on? Do you mind if I turn this on?He indicates a tape recorder. CLEMENTINE I don't care.He turns it on, smiles at her, gestures for her to begin. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Well, I've been having a bad time of it with um, my boyfriend, I guess. MIERZWIAK You guess he's your boyfriend? Or you guess you're having a bad time with hm? CLEMENTINE What? No. I don't like the term boyfriend. It's so gay.Mierzwiak nods. He's attentive, pleasant, and neutralthroughout. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Maybe gay isn't the right word. But, anyway, it's been rough with him... whatever the fuck he is. Heheh. My significant other... heh heh. And I guess on a certain level, I want to break it off, but I feel... y'know... it's like this constant questioning and re questioning. Do I end it? Should I give it more time? I'm not happy, but what do I expect? Relationships require work. You know the drill. The thing that I keep coming back to is, I'm not getting any younger, I want to have a baby... at some point... maybe... right? So then I think I should settle -- which is not necessarily the best word -- I mean, he's a good guy. It's not really settling. Then I think maybe I'm just a victim of movies, y'know? That I have some completely unrealistic notion of what a relationship can be. But then I think, no, this is what I really want, so I should allow myself the freedom to go out and fucking find it. You know? Agreed? But then I think he is a good guy and... It's complicated. Y'know? MIERZWIAK I think I know. I think we can help. Why don't you start by telling me about your relationship. Everything you can think of. Everything about him. Everything about you. And we'll take it from there.She nods, thinks. CLEMENTINE Um, well, he's a fucking tidy one --EXT. COMMUTER TRAIN STATIONSUBTITLE: TWO WEEKS LATERThe platform is crowded with business commuters. Joel isamong them. He is in his 30's, gaunt, and holding abriefcase. The platform across the tracks from him is empty.Suddenly he turns and makes his way through the crowd. Heclimbs the stairs, crosses the overpass to the emptyplatform. Soon an almost empty train pulls up to thatplatform. Joel gets on and watches the business commutersthrough the dirty window as his train pulls out of thestation.EXT. MONTAUK TRAIN STATION - LATERJoel talks on a phone. The wind howls around him. He triesto shield the mouthpiece as he talks. JOEL Hi, Cindy. Joel. Listen, I'm not feeling well this morning. No. Food poisoning, I think. Sorry it took me so long to call in, but I've been vomiting.EXT. BEACH - DAYJoel wanders the windy, empty beach, with his briefcase. Hepasses an old man with a metal detector. They nod at eachother.Later: Joel looks out at the ocean.Later: Joel sits on a rock and pulls out a notebook. Heopens it and writes with a gloved hand. JOEL January 13th, 2006. Today I skipped work and took the train out to Montauk. (thinks) It's cold. (thinks some more) The sky is gray. (thinks some more) I don't know what else to say. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. I saw Naomi last night. We had sex. It was weird to fall into our old familiar sex life so easily. Like no time has passed. After two years apart suddenly we're talking about getting together again. I guess that's good.He has no other thoughts. He glances up, spots a femalefigure in the distance, walking in his direction. She standsout against the gray in a fluorescent orange hoodedsweatshirt. It's Clementine. He watches her for a bit, thenas she nears, he goes back to his writing, or at leastpretends to. Once she passed, he watches her walk away. Shestops and stares out at the ocean. Joel writes. JOEL (V.O.) (CONT'D) If I'm constitutionally incapable of making eye-contact with a woman I don't know. I guess I'd better get back to Naomi.Later: Joel walks up near the beach houses closed for theseason. He peeks cautiously in a dark window.Later: Joel digs into the sand with a stick.INT. DINER - DAYIt's a local tourist place, but off-season empty. Joel sitsin a booth and eats a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl oftomato soup. An elderly couple drink coffee at the counter.Clementine enters, looks around, takes off her hood. Joelglances at her bright blue hair. She picks an empty boothand sits. Joel studies her discreetly. The waitressapproaches her with a coffee pot. WAITRESS Coffee? CLEMENTINE God, yes. You've saved my life!The waitress pours the coffee. WAITRESS You know what you want yet? CLEMENTINE (laughing) Ain't that the question of the century.The waitress is not amused. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) You got grilled cheese and tomato soup? WAITRESS Yeah. We're having a run on it.The waitress heads to the grill. Clementine fishes in herbag, brings the coffee cup under the table for a moment,pours something in, then brings the cup back up. CLEMENTINE (calling) And some cream, please.Clementine looks around the place. Her eyes meet Joel'sbefore he is able to look away. She smiles vaguely. Helooks embarrassed, then down at his journal. Clementinepulls a book from her purse and starts to read. Joel glancesup, tries to see the cover. It's blue. He can't read thetitle.EXT. BEACH - DAYJoel stares out at the ocean. Far down the beach Clementinestares at it, too. Joel glances sideways at her then back atthe ocean.EXT. MONTAUK TRAIN STATION PLATFORM - LATE AFTERNOONJoel sits on the bench waiting for a train. Clementineenters the platform, sees Joel, the only other person there.She waves, sort of goofily enthusiastic, playing as ifthey're old friends. He waves back, embarrassed. She takesa seat on a bench far down the platform. Joel stares at hishands, pulls out his journal and tries to write in order toconceal his awkwardness.INT. TRAIN - A BIT LATERJoel sits at the far end of the empty car and watches theslowly passing desolate terrain. After a moment the doorbetween cars opens and Clementine enters. Joel looks up.Clementine is not looking at him; she busies herself decidingwhere to sit. She settles on a seat at the opposite end ofthe car. Joel looks out the window. He feels her watchinghim. The train is picking up speed. Finally: CLEMENTINE (calling over the rumble) Hi!Joel looks over. JOEL I'm sorry. CLEMENTINE Why? JOEL Why what? CLEMENTINE Why are you sorry? I just said hi. JOEL No, I didn't know if you were talking to me, so...She looks around the empty car. CLEMENTINE Really? JOEL (embarrassed) Well, I didn't want to assume. CLEMENTINE Aw, c'mon, live dangerously. Take the leap and assume someone is talking to you in an otherwise empty car. JOEL Anyway. Sorry. Hi.Clementine makes her way down the aisle towards Joel. CLEMENTINE It's okay if I sit closer? So I don't have to scream. Not that I don't need to scream sometimes, believe me. (pause) But I don't want to bug you if you're trying to write or something. JOEL No, I mean, I don't know. I can't really think of much to say probably. CLEMENTINE Oh. So...She hesitates in the middle of the car, looks back where shecame from. JOEL I mean, it's okay if you want to sit down here. I didn't mean to -- CLEMENTINE No, I don't want to bug you if you're trying to -- JOEL It's okay, really. CLEMENTINE Just, you know, to chat a little, maybe. I have a long trip ahead of me. (sits across aisle from Joel) How far are you going? On the train, I mean, of course. JOEL Rockville Center. CLEMENTINE Get out! Me too! What are the odds? JOEL The weirder part is I think actually I recognize you. I thought that earlier in the diner. That's why I was looking at you. You work at Borders, right? CLEMENTINE Ucch, really? You're kidding. God. Bizarre small world, huh? Yeah, that's me: book slave there for, like, five years now. JOEL Really? Because -- CLEMENTINE Jesus, is it five years? I gotta quit right now. JOEL -- because I go there all the time. I don't think I ever saw you before. CLEMENTINE Well, I'm there. I hide in the back as much as is humanly possible. You have a cell phone? I need to quit right this minute. I'll call in dead. JOEL I don't have one. CLEMENTINE I'll go on the dole. Like my daddy before me. JOEL I noticed your hair. I guess it made an impression on me, that's why I was pretty sure I recognized you. CLEMENTINE Ah, the hair. (pulls a strand in front of her eyes, studies it) Blue, right? It's called Blue Ruin. The color. Snappy name, huh? JOEL I like it. CLEMENTINE Blue ruin is cheap gin in case you were wondering. JOEL Yeah. Tom Waits says it in -- CLEMENTINE Exactly! Tom Waits. Which song? JOEL I can't remember. CLEMENTINE Anyway, this company makes a whole line of colors with equally snappy names. Red Menace, Yellow Fever, Green Revolution. That'd be a job, coming up with those names. How do you get a job like that? That's what I'll do. Fuck the dole. JOEL I don't really know how -- CLEMENTINE Purple Haze, Pink Eraser. JOEL You think that could possibly be a full time job? How many hair colors could there be? CLEMENTINE (pissy) Someone's got that job. (excited) Agent Orange! I came up with that one. Anyway, there are endless color possibilities and I'd be great at it. JOEL I'm sure you would. CLEMENTINE My writing career! Your hair written by Clementine Kruczynski. (thought) The Tom Waits album is Rain Dogs. JOEL You sure? That doesn't sound -- CLEMENTINE I think. Anyway, I've tried all their colors. More than once. I'm getting too old for this. But it keeps me from having to develop an actual personality. I apply my personality in a paste. You? JOEL Oh, I doubt that's the case. CLEMENTINE Well, you don't know me, so... you don't know, do you? JOEL Sorry. I was just trying to be nice. CLEMENTINE Yeah, I got it.There's a silence. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) My name's Clementine, by the way. JOEL I'm Joel. CLEMENTINE No jokes about my name? Oh, you wouldn't do that; you're trying to be nice. JOEL I don't know any jokes about your name. CLEMENTINE Huckleberry Hound? JOEL I don't know what that means. CLEMENTINE Huckleberry Hound! What, are you nuts? JOEL I'm nut nuts. CLEMENTINE (singing) Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' Clementine? No? JOEL Sorry. It's a pretty name, though. It means "merciful", right? CLEMENTINE (impressed) Yeah. Although it hardly fits. I'm a vindictive little bitch, truth be told. JOEL See, I wouldn't think that about you. CLEMENTINE (pissy) Why wouldn't you think that about me? JOEL Oh. I don't know. I was just... I don't know. I was... You seemed nice, so -- CLEMENTINE Now I'm nice? Don't you know any other adjectives? There's careless and snotty and overbearing and argumentative... mumpish. JOEL Well, anyway... Sorry.They sit in silence for a while. CLEMENTINE I just don't think "nice" is a particularly interesting thing to be.The conductor enters the car. CONDUCTOR Tickets.Joel hands the conductor his ticket. The conductor punchesit and hands it back. CLEMENTINE What is nice, anyway? I mean, besides an adjective? I guess it can be an adverb, sort of.The conductor turns to Clementine. She fishes in her bag. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) It doesn't reveal anything. Nice is pandering. Cowardly. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) And life is more interesting than that. Or should be. Jesus God, I hope it is... someday. (to conductor) I know it's here.The conductor and Joel watch as she gets more agitated. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) I don't need nice. I don't need myself to be it and I don't need anyone else to be it at me. JOEL Okay. CLEMENTINE Shit. Shit. I know it's here. Hold on.She dumps the contents of the bag onto the seat and siftsfrantically through. Joel sees the book she was reading inthe diner. It's The Play by Stephen Dixon. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Damn it. DAMN IT! (there it is) Oh. Here.She hands the conductor the tickets, smiles sweetly. Hepunches it, hands it back to her, and walks away. CONDUCTOR Next stop Southampton.The conductor heads into the next car. Clementine shovesstuff back into her purse. Her hands are a little shaky.She pulls a airline-sized bottle of alcohol from her pocket,opens it, and downs it. Joel is watching all of this butpretending not to. She looks out the window for a while.The train pulls into the station. The doors open. Nobodygets on. The doors close. The train pulls out. CLEMENTINE Joel? It's Joel, right? JOEL Yes? CLEMENTINE I'm sorry I... yelled at you. Was it yelling? I can't really tell. Whatever, I'm a little out of sorts today. JOEL That's okay. CLEMENTINE (stares out window) My embarrassing admission is I really like that you're nice. Right now, anyway. I can't tell from one moment to the next what I'm going to like. But right now I'm glad you said, "that's okay" to me. That was nice of you. JOEL It's no problem. Anyway, I have some stuff I need to -- CLEMENTINE Oh, okay. Well, sure, I'll just... (stands, throws bag over shoulder) Take care, then. JOEL (pulling journal from briefcase) Probably see you at the book store. CLEMENTINE (heading toward other end of car) Unless I get that hair-color-naming job.Clementine sits and stares out the window.INT. TRAIN - LATERThere are a few more people in the car now. Clementine hasinched a few seats closer to Joel. She watches him. Hishead is immersed in his journal.INT. TRAIN - LATERIt's dark out. The train is pretty crowded. Joel stares outthe window. Clementine sits closer still to Joel, eyes him.EXT. TRAIN STATION - EVENINGThe doors open and Joel emerges along with others. He headsto the parking lot, arrives at the car. There's a big dentedscrape along the driver's side. He gets in.INT. CAR - MOMENTS LATERJoel drives. He passes Clementine walking. She looks cold.He considers, slows, rolls down his window. JOEL Hi. I could give you a ride if you need. CLEMENTINE No, that's okay. Thanks, though. JOEL You're sure? It's cold. CLEMENTINE I don't want to take you out of your way. JOEL It's okay. CLEMENTINE Yeah?He pulls over. She climbs in. They drive. JOEL Where do you live? CLEMENTINE You're not a stalker or anything, right? JOEL Well, I probably wouldn't say if I were, but no. CLEMENTINE You can't be too careful. I've been stalked. I've been told I'm highly stalkable. I don't need that. JOEL I'm not a stalker. CLEMENTINE (beat) You know Wilmont? JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE Wilmont. Near the high school.Joel turns. They drive in silence. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Look, I'm very sorry I came off sort of nutso. I'm not really. JOEL It's okay. I didn't think you were.There's a silence. CLEMENTINE So you like bookstores, huh? JOEL I like to read. CLEMENTINE Me too. It is Rain Dogs, by the way. JOEL Yeah? I can't remember that album very well. I remember liking it. But -- CLEMENTINE The song's 9th and Hennepin. I spent most of the train ride trying to remember. "Till you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin/And you spill out/Over the side to anyone who'll listen." Remember? JOEL Sort of, um... CLEMENTINE Remember? "And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept there/And I'm lost in the window/I hide on the stairway/I hang in the curtain/I sleep in your hat..." (starts to cry) Oh, shit. I'm so stupid. Sorry. JOEL What? CLEMENTINE I'm just a bit of a wreck. "I sleep in your hat" makes me cry. (pointing to a house) Me.Joel pulls over. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Thanks very much. That was very nice of you. JOEL Well, I wouldn't want to be -- CLEMENTINE Oh, geez, I'm full of shit. I already told you that. (pause) Anyway. See Ya.Clementine opens the car door. JOEL Take care. CLEMENTINE (turning back) Hey, do you want to have a drink? I have lots of drinks. And I could -- JOEL Um -- CLEMENTINE Never mind. Sorry, that was stupid. I'm embarrassed. Good night, Joel.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - A FEW MINUTES LATERJoel stands in the living room, somewhat nervously. He triesto calm himself by focusing on the surroundings. He looks atthe books on her shelves. Clementine is in the kitchen. Wesee her as she passes by the doorway several times, preparingdrinks and chatting. CLEMENTINE Thanks. I like it, too. Been here about four years. It's really cheap. My downstairs neighbor is old so she's quiet, which is great. And the landlord's sweet, which is bizarre, but great, and I have a little porch in the back, which is great, because I can read there, and listen to my crickets and...Clementine is in the living room now with two gin and tonics. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Two blue ruins...Joel is looking at a framed black and white photograph ofcrows flying. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) You like that? JOEL Very much. CLEMENTINE This... someone gave that to me, just like, recently. I like it, too. I like crows. I think I used to be a crow.She caws and hands Joel a drink. JOEL Thanks. That was good, that crow sound. CLEMENTINE Do you believe in that stuff? Reincarnation? JOEL I don't know. CLEMENTINE Me neither. Oh, there's an inscription on the back. (takes it off the wall, reads:) The way a crow/Shook down on me/The dust of snow/From a hemlock tree/Has given my heart/A change of mood/And saved some part/Of a day I rued. JOEL Frost? CLEMENTINE (impressed) Yeah. I'm not, like, a Robert Frost lover by any stretch. His stuff seems strictly grade school to me. But this made me cry for some reason. Maybe because it is grade school. Y'know? JOEL It's pretty. CLEMENTINE I miss grade school. I don't know why I'm calling it grade school all of a sudden. When I went we called it elementary school. But I like grade school better. Sounds like something someone from the forties would call it. I'd like to be from then. Everyone wore hats. Anyway, cheers! JOEL Cheers.They click glasses. Clementine giggles and takes a big gulpof her drink. Joel sips. She plops down on the couch andpulls her boots off. CLEMENTINE God, that feels so fucking good. Take yours off. JOEL I'm fine. CLEMENTINE Yeah? Well, have a seat, anyway.Joel sits in a chair across the room. Clementine finishesher drink. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Ready for another? JOEL No, I'm okay for now.She heads toward the kitchen with her glass. CLEMENTINE Well, I'm ready. Put some music on.Joel crosses to the CD's and studies them. JOEL What do you want to hear? CLEMENTINE (O.S.) You pick it. JOEL You just say. I'm not really -- CLEMENTINE (O.S.) I don't know! I can't see them from here, Joel! Just pick something good.Joel studies the unfamiliar CD's. He picks up Bang On a Canperforming Brian Eno's Music for Airports to look at.Clementine reenters with her drink. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Oh, excellent choice.She grabs it and sticks it in the CD player. The music isdreamy and haunting and slow. Clementine falls back onto thecouch, closes her eyes and sips her drink. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Mmmmmmm. Way to go, Joel. You pick good.Joel sits down in his chair and drinks. There's a silence,which seems fine to Clementine but makes Joel anxious. JOEL Well, I should probably get going. CLEMENTINE No, stay. Just for a little while. (opens her eyes, brightly) Refill? JOEL No. I -- CLEMENTINE I know a man who needs a refill.She grabs Joel's drink from his hand, takes it into thekitchen. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) (O.S.) (CONT'D) God bless alcohol, is what I say. Where would I be without it. Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, maybe I don't want to think about that.She giggles. Joel looks around the room again. There areseveral potatoes dressed as women in beautiful handmadecostumes: a nurse potato, a stripper potato, a schoolteacherpotato, a housewife potato. Clementine returns with Joel'sdrink and a refill for herself. JOEL Thanks. CLEMENTINE Drink up, young man. It'll make the whole seduction part less repugnant.Joel looks a little alarmed. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) I'm just kidding. C'mon.She sits back on the couch, closes her eyes. Joel watchesher, looks at her breasts. She opens her eyes, smilesdrunkenly at him. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Y'know, I'm sort of psychic. JOEL Yeah? CLEMENTINE Well, I go to a psychic and she's always telling me I'm psychic. She should know. Do you believe in that stuff? JOEL I don't know. CLEMENTINE Me neither. But sometimes I have premonitions, so, I don't know. Maybe that's just coincidence. Right? Y'know, you think something and then it happens, or you think a word and then someone says it? Y'know? JOEL Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to know. CLEMENTINE Exactly. Exactly! That's exactly my feeling about it. It's hard to know. Like, okay, but how many times do I think something and it doesn't happen? That's what you're saying, right? You forget about those times. Right? JOEL Yeah, I guess. CLEMENTINE (dreamy beat) But I think I am. I like to think I am. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) It's helpful to think there's some order to things. You're kind of closed mouthed, aren't you? JOEL Sorry. My life isn't that interesting. I go to work. I go home. I don't know what to say. CLEMENTINE Oh. (considers this) Does that make you sad? Or anxious? I'm always anxious thinking I'm not living my life to the fullest, y'know? Taking advantage of every possibility? Just making sure that I'm not wasting one second of the little time I have. JOEL I think about that.She looks at him really hard for a long moment. Joel triesto hold her gaze, but can't. He looks down at his drink.Clementine starts to cry again. CLEMENTINE You're really nice. I'm sorry I yelled at you before about it. God, I'm an idiot. JOEL I do have a tendency to use that word too much. CLEMENTINE I like you. That's the thing about my psychic thing. I think that's my greatest psychic power, that I get a sense about people. My problem is I never trust it. But I get it. And with you I get that you're a really good guy. JOEL Thanks. CLEMENTINE And, anyway, you sell yourself short. I can tell. There's a lot of stuff going on in your brain. I can tell. My goal... can I tell you my goal? JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE (ala Paul Simon) What's the goal, Joel? (laughs) My goal, Joel, is to just let it flow through me? Do you know what I mean? It's like, there's all these emotions and ideas and they come quick and they change and they leave and they come back in a different form and I think we're all taught we should be consistent. Y'know? You love someone -- that's it. Forever. You choose to do something with your life -- that's it, that's what you do. It's a sign of maturity to stick with that and see things through. And my feeling is that's how you die, because you stop listening to what is true, and what is true is constantly changing. You know? JOEL Yeah. I think so. It's hard to -- CLEMENTINE Like I wanted to talk to you. I didn't need any more reason to do it. Who knows what bigger cosmic reason might exist? JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE You're very nice. God, I have to stop saying that. You're nervous around me, huh? JOEL No. CLEMENTINE I'm nervous. You don't need to be nervous around me, though. I like you. Do you think I'm repulsively fat? JOEL No, not at all. CLEMENTINE I don't either. I used to. But I'm through with that. Y'know, if I don't love my body, then I'm just lost. You know? CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) With all the wrinkles and scars and the general falling apart that's coming 'round the bend. (beat) So, I've been seeing this guy...Joel looks slightly crestfallen. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) (off his reaction) Well, for the last week, anyway! He's kind of a kid. Kind of a goofball, but he's really stuck on me, which is flattering. Who wouldn't like that? And he's, like, a dope, but he says these smart and moving things sometimes, out of nowhere, that just break my heart. He's the one who gave me that crow photograph. JOEL Oh, yeah. CLEMENTINE That made me cry. But, anyway, we went up to Boston, because I had this urge to lie on my back on the Charles River. It gets frozen this time of year. JOEL That's scary sounding. CLEMENTINE Exactly! I used to do it in college and I had this urge to go do it again, so I got Patrick and we drove all night to get there and he was sweet and said nice things to me, but I was really disappointment to be there with him. Y'know? And that's where psychic stuff comes in. Like, it just isn't right with him. Y'know? JOEL I think so. CLEMENTINE I don't believe in that soulmate crap anymore, but... he says so many great things. We like the same writers. This writer Stephen Dixon he turned me on to. And he's cute. It's fucked up. Joel, you should come up to the Charles with me sometime. JOEL Okay. CLEMENTINE Yeah? Oh, great!She sits closer to him. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) I'll pack a picnic -- a night picnic -- night picnics are different -- and -- JOEL (shy) Sounds good. But right now I should go. CLEMENTINE (pause) You should stay. JOEL I have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, so... CLEMENTINE (beat) Okay.Joel puts on his overcoat. Clementine heads to the phonetable, pulls out a notepad. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) I would like you to call me. Would you do that? I would like that. JOEL Yes.She scribbles her phone number, hands it to him. He puts itin his pocket. He stands there uncomfortably for a moment,then forces himself to speak. JOEL (CONT'D) I don't think your personality comes out of a tube. I think the hair is just... a pretty topping.She tears up, swallows, and kisses him on the cheek. He'ssurprised and pleased and nervous. JOEL (CONT'D) (shyly formal) So, I enjoyed meeting you. CLEMENTINE You'll call me, right? JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE When? JOEL Tomorrow? CLEMENTINE Tonight. Just to test out the phone lines and all. JOEL Okay.We stay with Clementine as she watches Joel tromping throughthe snow and getting in his car.INT. JOEL'S CAR - NIGHTJoel speeds through the suburban Rockville Centerneighborhood. There is no snow on the ground. He seemsdifferent, somehow foggy and disoriented.SUBTITLE: THREE DAYS EARLIERHe arrives at his apartment building and parks.EXT. JOEL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - CONTINUOUSJoel gets out of his car, spots a van parked across thestreet. There are two dark figures inside. VOICE-OVER Them.He hurries inside the building.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel enters, dumps his overcoat on a chair, turns off thelights, crosses to look furtively out the window. It'ssnowing in large flakes which seem to fall only in the beamof a streetlight. JOEL It was snowing. VOICE-OVER There are two of them. Couldn't make them out. The orange glow of a cigarette.Joel squints to see inside the van. Two dark figures talk.One sucks on a cigarette and s dim orange light momentarilyilluminates the interior. The figure in the driver seatrolls down his window and gives a cheery wave to Joel. JOEL The driver waved. So casual, friendly. VOICE-OVER I'm like a joke to them.Joel pulls away from the window, his face blanched. VOICE-OVER I guess they figure they can act like they want. They don't have to worry about me remembering.He paces, mulling things over. As he does, the scene startsto change, almost as if it is drying out. JOEL I might be making a mistake. VOICE-OVER Maybe I'm making a mistake. Maybe I just need to learn to live with this. First of all, I'll get over it. Secondly, it happened. Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. Who said that? Churchill? I'm not sure. But I don't care. She did it to me. I have to rid myself of this. Fuck her. JOEL Fuck you, Clementine.The colors bleach, the surroundings become slightly vague.Even Joel's persona and voice-over seem to alter, hisemotional intensity becoming diffused. Joel does not seemaware of this. He stops pacing, takes a small vial from hispocket, dumps the lone pill onto his palm. He looks at it.It's pink. There's some illegible initials stamped on it. JOEL (CONT'D) Pink. (beat) There was a number on it. I remember. AL 1718? (beat) I have to follow through with this. I have no choice. VOICE-OVER The pill was pink, I remember. It had some letters and numbers on it. What were they? AL 1718? AL something. Four digits. I don't like taking pills when I don't know what they are. I have no choice.He swallows it, peeks out the window again, takes off hisclothes, slips into a pair of pajamas fresh from the storepackaging. He sits on the edge of the bed, dials the phone. JOEL (CONT'D) We're sorry, the number you have dialed... (beat) Screw you, Clementine, for doing this ... RECORDED VOICE We're sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service. If you think you have reached this recording in error - JOEL (CONT'D) Bye.Joel hangs up and lies on his back on the bed. By now thescene is lifeless, almost a husk. He hears the apartmentbuilding door open. He hears footsteps. JOEL (CONT'D) It's them. VOICE-OVER It's too late.His eyelids are getting heavy. He closes his eyes.BLACK.He hears a key in his apartment door. JOEL (CONT'D) Fuck.INT. BOOKSTORE - NIGHTJoel sits in the bookstore coffee shop. It's a jarringtransition, visually and emotionally. Joel is in the midstof some traumatic state of mind.He fingers the vial with the pink pill in it as he watchesClementine stack books on shelves. Her hair is bright orangenow. JOEL I should maybe talk to you. VOICE-OVER Clementine. I should just maybe talk to her.Joel rises and heads toward Clementine. JOEL I love you and if you knew that... if I told you what happened... I'll explain everything, what we meant to each other. I'll tell you everything about our time together. You'll know everything again and... VOICE-OVER Maybe if I just explain what happened, I wouldn't have to go through this and I could tell you everything and it would be like you knew and we could rebuild and we could be happy again and...Right before Joel gets there, Patrick, a skinny young manapproaches Clementine. Joel stops, watches. The young manseems out of breath. He glances over at Joel, then tapsClementine on the shoulder. She turns, annoyed, sees who itis and her face lights up. JOEL Clementine. VOICE-OVER That's your look for me.Clementine giggles, stands and pokes Patrick playfully in theribs. PATRICK I just thought I'd say hi. I was in the neighborhood. CLEMENTINE You were not. PATRICK I was not.Joel is mesmerized by their familiarity. As he stands there,the scene starts to dry out.Clementine and Patrick continue their flirtation but it'sturning lifeless, as if they are just reciting lines. Thebookstore start to lose its color and immediacy. CLEMENTINE Come over after I'm done here? PATRICK I can't. I want to, but I have to study. CLEMENTINE You rat. PATRICK I really want to, but tonight's important. Test tomorrow. JOEL How could she have done this to me? How could anyone do this to anyone? CLEMENTINE (to Patrick) You didn't say anything about my hair. PATRICK It's so cool. You're by far the most sensational person in the room. CLEMENTINE In the room? PATRICK In the world.Joel seems dazed, in some sort of dream confusion, as herealizes the world around him is looking increasingly odd. JOEL What's happening here? (looks at watch; it's 9:30) Oh, God! I have to go home. They'll be there soon.Joel turns to leave.INT. JOEL'S CAR - NIGHTJoel drives fast, recklessly. The intensity is back. He'sweeping as he drives. JOEL Gotta get home. How could she do this to me? How could she not care about what we meant to each other. What a fuck! What a fucking monster she is! VOICE-OVER Oh, God. I miss her. I can't believe she's with that guy now! I'm never going to see her again. I love her so much. What a fucking monster she is!The scene is faded as he parks in front of his apartmentbuilding, and gets out of the car. Joel spots the parkedvan. We've seen this before, but it's dried out now. JOEL Them.EXT. NEW YORK STREET - DAYJoel trudges along carrying two big trash bags full of stuff.He's been crying. He looks behind him and finds himselflooking out the window of his apartment at the dark van onthe snowy street. He turns back to the New York Street andspots the address he was looking for: 610 11th Avenue.INT. WAITING ROOM - DAYJoel sits in the small room with his bags. A woman acrossfrom him cradles a box full of belongings in her lap. Hereyes are red from crying. Mary, the receptionist, pokes herhead through her window into the waiting room. MARY Hello again, Mr. Barish. Good, you've got your stuff.INT. HALLWAY - DAYJoel walks with his bags behind Mary. MARY (not looking back) How are you today? (at lab) Here we are.INT. LABORATORY - DAYJoel enters. Mierzwiak stands there with Stan in his labcoat. MIERZWIAK Ah, Mr. Barish. This is Stan. He'll be in charge of your procedure tonight.Stan nods professionally. STAN Mr. Barish. JOEL How exactly is this going to work tonight?As Mierzwiak talks, the room colors start to fade,Mierzwiak's tone of voice is also affected; it becomes dryand monotonous. MIERZWIAK We'll start with your most recent memories and go backwards -- There is an emotional core to each of our memories -- As we eradicate this core, it starts its degradation process -- By the time you wake up in the morning, all memories we've targeted will have withered and disappeared. Like a dream upon waking. JOEL Is there any sort of risk of brain damage? MIERZWIAK Well, technically, the procedure itself is brain damage, but on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.Joel looks quizzically at the eroding environment. Suddenlyhe gets it. JOEL It's happening now! I'm already in my brain.Mierzwiak looks at the fading room. MIERZWIAK Yes, I suppose you are. (back in his faded memory persona) So, let's get started -- If we want the procedure underway tonight, we have some work to do.Joel is sitting in a chair. Electrodes connect him to someelectronic machinery monitored by Stan. Mierzwiak watchesfrom the corner. STAN We use the articles you brought to create a map of Clementine in your brain. Tonight while you sleep we'll be able to trace the map and erase. JOEL But you're tracing and erasing now. It's already started. I'm home in my bed.Stan pulls a snow globe from one of Joel's bags, shows it toJoel. The equipment registers Joel's reaction. STAN Very good.Stan pulls out a potato dressed as a Vegas showgirl. Joelstudies it. The machines register his response. MIERZWIAK We'll dispose of these mementos when we're done here. That way you won't be confused later by their unexplainable presence in your home.Stan pulls out a coffee mug with a photo of Clementineprinted on it. Joel looks at the cup. The machines recordhis reaction. STAN Good. We're getting healthy read-outs.The room, Stan, and Mierzwiak are now vague and wispy. STAN'S VOICE Patrick, do me a favor --Joel is watching Stan. Stan is not speaking, yet his voicecontinues. STAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) -- and check the voltage levels, I'm not wiping as clean as I would like here.Joel looks up. Stan's voice seems to be coming from above.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel lies on his back in fresh pajamas. His eyes are closedand electrodes connect his head to several machines. Themachines are operated by Stan, now in grubby street clothesand in need of a shave, and by Patrick, dressed similarly.The monitor on one of the machines traces a myriad of lightblips running like streams through an image of Joel's brain.Stan presses buttons and operates a joystick, aiming for thelines. Patrick (who we saw earlier with Clementine at thebookstore) studies a meter on one of the machines. PATRICK The voltage looks fine. STAN Then check the connections.Patrick fiddles with some jacks. PATRICK Does that help? STAN Yeah, that looks better. Thanks.INT. LAB ROOM - DAYThe memory is becoming vague, characters' affects flat. Stanpulls out a pile of loose-leaf pages. Mierzwiak smiles. MIERZWIAK Ah, your journal. This will be invaluable. STAN (reading) December 15th, 2004. I met someone tonight. Oh, Christ: I don't know what to do. Her name is Clementine and she's amazing. So alive and spontaneous and passionate and sensitive. Things with Naomi and I have been stagnant for so long.The scene is just a shell of itself as Stan rattles on. STAN'S VOICE I think we got this one. Let's push on.Joel looks up at the ceiling.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - DAYJoel, snapped into a new memory, cries as he fills two largeplastic garbage bags with mementos of his relationship withClementine. There are funny little gifts, wind-up toys, somepotatoes dressed as women, some clothing Clementine has leftthere, some CD's. He pulls a big clump of pages out of hisloose-leaf journal and dumps them in the bag.He gets some clean loose-leaf paper and writes:December 15, 2004 Nothing much happened today. I stayedhome. Naomi worked on her dissertation.The scene is fading as he continues to write.INT. HALLWAY - DAYJoel looks for an office number. He finds it. The plaque onthe door reads Lacuna Ltd. Joel enters.INT. WAITING ROOM - DAYJoel enters the Lacuna waiting room. Mary sits in thereception area. MARY May I help you? JOEL My name is Joel Barish. I have an appointment. MARY Please have a seat. Dr. Mierzwiak will be right with you.INT. OFFICE HALL - DAYMary leads Joel down the hall. MARY (without turning) How are you today? JOEL Not great. MARY (at Mierzwiak's office) Here we are.Joel glimpses Mary smiling coquettishly at Mierzwiak.INT. MIERZWIAK'S OFFICE - DAYJoel and Mierzwiak are in the sitting area. Joel looks atthe tape recorder. MIERZWIAK I'm sorry you saw one of our notification cards. You never should have. JOEL Well... I did. MIERZWIAK We can help you through this. Why don't you start now by telling me everything you can remember about your relationship with Clementine. JOEL (thinks, then:) It was a mess. I don't know how it got this way... PATRICK'S VOICE It's kind of a dump, don't you think?Joel looks up, trying to locate the voice.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTPatrick is checking out the apartment. Stan monitors theequipment. STAN (uninterested) It's an apartment. PATRICK Not a dump, then, but kind of plain. Uninspired. And there's a stale smell. Sort of stuffy. I don't know. Stuffy. STAN Patrick, let's just get through this. We have a long night ahead of us. PATRICK Yeah.Patrick returns to the bedside, focuses on the machines for amoment. He glances at the unconscious Joel. PATRICK (CONT'D) So who do you think is better-looking, me or this guy?Stan glances sideways at Patrick.INT. MIERZWIAK'S OFFICE - DAYMierzwiak sits with Joel in the sitting area. MIERZWIAK So we'll need you to go home and bring in everything you ever received from Clementine and anything that might remind you of her...The scene is faded and disappearing fast. It's gone.INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - DAYJoel gets off the elevator and approaches the receptionist. JOEL So then she just stops calling. VOICE-OVER I wasn't going to call her. Not after the way she was. JOEL Any messages, Carmen?Carmen the receptionist shakes her head.Next day: Joel approaches the receptionist. JOEL (CONT'D) Any messages for me, Carmen. CARMEN Nothing, Joel. VOICE-OVER It's bullshit. She's punishing me for being honest with her.Joel is at his office desk on the phone. PHONE MACHINE VOICE You have no messages.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel enters, checks his phone machine: zero messages.INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - DAYJoel gets off the elevator, approaches Carmen, who is inconversation with someone else. JOEL Sorry, Carmen. Any messages?Carmen shakes her head "no", goes back to her conversation.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel checks his machine: zero messages. VOICE-OVER That's it. I'm just gonna--Without a moment's hesitation, he dials the phone. VOICE-OVER (CONT'D) I'm gonna tell her I'm through playing games and -- RECORDED VOICE The number you have dialed has been disconnected.Joel's eyes bug.INT. ROB AND CARRIE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHTJoel sits across Rob and Carrie, mid-40's. JOEL Why would she do that? VAGUE RECORDED VOICE -- If you think you have reached this recording in error, please check your number and dial again. CARRIE I don't know, honey. It's horrible. JOEL She's punishing me for being honest. I should just go to her house. ROB I don't think you should go there, Joel. JOEL Yeah, I don't want to seem desperate. CARRIE Maybe you need to look at this as a sign to move on. Just make a clean break. JOEL I don't know. I'm so... I can't believe she'd be so goddamn immature! ROB Joel, look, the thing is -- CARRIE (agitated, interrupting) Joel, honey... We have to feed the dog. Would you just wait here? Just a second.Joel nods, confused, as Rob and Carrie leave the room andclose the door behind them. Joel hears a hushed argumentensue in the hall. He notices the dog asleep on the floor.He grabs a magazine off the coffee table, flips through itdistractedly as he paces, puts it down, picks up another. Asubscription card falls to the floor. He picks it up and isabout to shove it back in the magazine when he sees it is nota subscription card at all. It reads: Clementine Kruczynski has had Joel Barish erased from her memory. Please never mention their relationship to her again. Thank you. Lacuna Ltd. 610 11th Avenue, NY, NYJoel stares at the card, incredulous.Later: Rob and Carrie are now back in the room. CARRIE (CONT'D) You weren't supposed to see that. JOEL They can't erase memories. It's a joke. It's a nasty Clementine hoax. CARRIE Sweetie, we called the company.Joel just stands there.Close-up of a vague dictionary page. VOICE-OVER Lacuna: Noun. A blank, a missing portion, especially in a manuscript.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel is on the phone pacing. CARRIE'S VOICE You can't tell her, Joel. They explained that. Like waking a sleepwalker. It might have a devastating effect.INT. JOEL'S CAR - NIGHTJoel drives past vague local landmark. CARRIE'S VOICE Think about it: to be told you lived an existence of which you have no recollection. JOEL'S VOICE But what am I supposed to do? CARRIE'S VOICE Move on, sweetie. JOEL'S VOICE How can I? How can I move on when I know I'm the only one to carry this love we had? How do I do that?INT. CAR - NIGHTJoel in his parked car next to a fence surrounding a drive-inmovie closed for the season. He weeps. The windows fog upuntil the outside is completely obscured.EXT. NEW YORK STREET - DAYJoel looks for an address.INT. ELEVATOR - DAYJoel gets off on the sixth floor. He searches for a roomnumber. As he turns the corner, he sees that the hallway isfaded, vague and mostly erased. He keeps walking, comes tothe door marked Lacuna and opens it. Inside he can seevague, erased version of Mary the receptionist. MARY (dead monotone) Hi, May I help you?These degraded, faded memories allow Joel to detach himselfand hear what's going on in his bedroom. STAN'S VOICE So, Mary's coming over tonight.Joel looks up.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTStan works the joystick. Patrick sits on the bed with Joel. PATRICK Yeah? STAN Just wanted to let you know. PATRICK I like Mary. I like when she comes to visit. I just don't think she likes me. STAN She likes you okay. PATRICK I wonder if I should invite my girlfriend over, too. I have a girlfriend now. STAN You can if you want. PATRICK Did I tell you I have a new girlfriend? STAN (re: memory on monitor) This one's history. Moving on... PATRICK The thing is ... my situation is a little weird. My girlfriend situation. STAN Patrick, we need to focus.Stan aims the joystick.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel distractedly reads a book, checks the clock, goes backto the book. The door opens. He looks up. Clementine isstaggering in, drunk. CLEMENTINE Yo ho ho! JOEL It's three. VOICE-OVER Shit. The last time I saw you. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Anyhoo, sweetie, I done a bad thing. I kinda sorta wrecked your car... JOEL I can't believe you wrecked my car. JOEL You're driving drunk. It's pathetic. CLEMENTINE ...a little. I was a little tipsy. Don't call me pathetic. JOEL Well it is pathetic. And fucking irresponsible. You could've killed somebody.The scene is starting to degrade. The acting becomes anemic. JOEL (CONT'D) I don't know, maybe you did kill somebody. CLEMENTINE Oh Christ I didn't kill anybody. It's just a fucking dent. You're like some old lady or something. VOICE-OVER Right! She called me an old lady here, too! And I remember, I said... JOEL (CONT'D) And what are you like? A wino? CLEMENTINE A wino? Jesus, Are you from the fifties? A wino! (laughs) Face it, Joel. You're freaked out because I was out late without you, and in your little wormy brain, you're trying to figure out, did she fuck someone tonight? JOEL No, see, Clem, I assume you fucked someone tonight. Isn't that how you get people to like you?This shuts Clementine up. She is stung and she startsgathering up her belongings, which are strewn about theapartment. Joel is immediately sorry he said this. Hefollows her around. JOEL (CONT'D) I'm sorry. Okay. I didn't mean that. I just... I was just... pissed, I guess.Clementine is out the door. Joel follows.EXT. STREET - NIGHTJoel looks at his dented car, looks at Clementine clompingoff in the distance.INT. JOEL'S CAR - CONTINUOUSJoel drives to catch up with Clementine. He rolls down hiswindow to talk to her. JOEL Let me drive you home. CLEMENTINE (without turning) Fuck you, Joel. Faggot. JOEL Look at it out here. It's falling apart. I'm erasing you. And I'm happy.She keeps clomping. JOEL (CONT'D) You did it to me. I can't believe you did this to me. By morning you'll be gone. Ha!He stops the car, gets out.EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUSIt's a street you might see in a dream, more an impression ofa quiet street than an actual one, with what little detailthere is obscured in darkness. Joel wanders it. In thedistance Clementine walks off, but as in an animated loop,she doesn't get any farther away. It's lonely. PATRICK'S VOICE See, remember that girl? The one we did last week? The one with the potatoes?Joel looks up, startled. STAN'S VOICE Yeah, that's this guy's girlfriend. Was.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTStan watches the screen. Patrick paces, fidgets, looks atthe unconscious Joel. PATRICK I gotta tell you something. I kind of fell in love with her last night. STAN She was unconscious, Patrick. PATRICK She was beautiful. So sweet and funky and voluptuous. I kind of stole a pair of her panties, is what. STAN Jesus, Patrick!EXT. STREET - NIGHTOn the vague street Joel listens to Patrick and Stan. PATRICK'S VOICE I know. It's not like... I mean, they were clean and all. STAN'S VOICE Look, just don't tell me this stuff. I don't want to know this shit. PATRICK'S VOICE Yeah, okay. STAN'S VOICE We have work to do.There's a click and Joel finds himself in --INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel and Clementine sit and eat dinner in front of the TV.It's hard to make out what they're watching.They sit on opposite ends of the couch. They look bored.The scene quickly degenerates. The room fades. PATRICK'S VOICE Okay, but there's more.Joel listens. PATRICK'S VOICE (CONT'D) After we did her, I went to where she worked and I asked her out.Joel looks over at the faded Clementine across the couch.She stares straight ahead at the TV. STAN'S VOICE Patrick... do you know how unethical... JOEL That must be the guy I saw you with. VOICE-OVER In the bookstore that night. The skinny guy.There's a click and Joel finds himself in --INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel watches TV. Clementine walks by in her underwear, looksat the TV. She slips into a skirt. CLEMENTINE How can you watch this crap? JOEL Where are you going? CLEMENTINE I'm fucking crawling out of my skin.The scene starts to fade. Clementine puts on her shoes andheads out the door.EXT. ZOO - DAYJoel and Clementine walk around unhappily. They barely lookat the animals. Clementine watches parents with babies. JOEL Oh shit. I remember this. (to Clementine) Want to go? CLEMENTINE (pissy) I want to have a baby. JOEL Let's talk about it later. CLEMENTINE No. I want to have a baby. I have to have a baby. JOEL I don't think we're ready. CLEMENTINE You're not ready. JOEL Clementine, do you really think you could take care of a kid?She turns violently toward him, glaring. CLEMENTINE What?! JOEL (mumbly) I don't want to talk about this here. CLEMENTINE Joel, We're fucking gonna talk about it!Joel looks around. People are watching. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) You can't fucking say something like that and say you don't want to talk about it! JOEL Clem, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -- CLEMENTINE (screaming now) I'd make a fucking good mother! I love children! I'm creative and smart and I'd make a fucking good mother!The scene starts to fade. Clementine's rant continues butbecomes attenuated and vague. JOEL Oh, thank God. It's going. CLEMENTINE It's you! It's you who can't commit to anything! You have no idea how lucky you are I'm interested in you! I don't even know why I am! I should just end it right here, Joel. Leave you in the zoo. Maybe you could find a nice sloth to hang out with!She's crying now, but it's almost animatronic, no realemotion in it. The scene is a husk. JOEL It's going, Clementine. All the crap and hurt and disappointment. It's all being wiped away.She looks up at him. CLEMENTINE I'm glad.Their eyes lock. She is fading before his eyes. JOEL Me, too.INT. BAR - NIGHTIt's noisy and crowded. Joel and Clementine sit at a smalltable. She is drunk and staring off, blankly. JOEL So, um -- CLEMENTINE (swiveling head toward him) Would you get me another, Joely?Joel sighs, stands, and heads to the crowded bar. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Thanky! Thanky!Joel is at the bar, trying to get the bartender's attention.Joel is paying the bartender. He turns with the drink tohead back to the table. He sees Clementine flirting with aman in Joel's seat.Joel is at the table. Clementine looks from herconversation. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Joel, this is Mark. He likes my boobs. He came over special to tell me that. Isn't that nice. He doesn't think I'm fat.The scene starts to fade. Mark rises. MARK I didn't know she was with someone, man. CLEMENTINE S'okay, Mark. Joel doesn't like my boobs. (stage whisper) I don't think he likes girls.The bar gets quiet and vague. JOEL You're drunk. CLEMENTINE You're a whiz kid. So perceptive, so --Clementine keeps talking but there are no more intelligiblewords, just a whisper -- like a breeze.A doorbell buzzes. Joel looks up.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTPatrick opens the door. Mary stands there in a winter coat,carrying a backpack. MARY (coolly) Oh, hey, Patrick. PATRICK Hi, Mary. How's it going?She walks past him. STAN Hey, you.Stan and Mary kiss. She looks down at Joel as she takes offher coat. MARY It's freezing out. STAN You found us okay? MARY Yeah. (re: Joel) Poor guy. (looking around) Have anything to drink? STAN We haven't checked. MARY Well, allow me to do the honors. It's fucking freezing and I need something.She heads into the kitchen. Stan turns back to monitor theslivers of light. PATRICK Mary hates me. I've never been popular with the ladies. STAN Maybe if you stopped stealing their panties. PATRICK (guilty beat) Okay, There's more, Stan --Stan looks over at Patrick. Mary returns with a bottle ofscotch and two glasses. MARY Hey, hey.She pours the whiskey. MARY (CONT'D) Oh, Patrick, you didn't want any, did you? PATRICK Nah, I don't know.Mary hands a glass to Stan. She holds hers up in a toast. MARY Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.Mary and Stan click glasses. MARY (CONT'D) Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil. Found it my Bartletts. STAN That's a good one. MARY Yeah, I can't wait to tell Howard! It seems really appropriate. STAN (a little sulky) It's a good one all right. PATRICK What's your bartlett's? STAN It's a quote book. MARY I love quotes. So did Winston Churchill. He actually has a quotation in Bartlett's about Bartlett's. Isn't that trippy? PATRICK (trying to engage) Yeah. Cool. MARY "The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts." PATRICK Very cool. Trippy. MARY I like to read what smart people say. So many beautiful, important things. STAN Yup. MARY Don't you think Howard's like that? Smart? Important? STAN (beat) Yup. PATRICK Definitely! MARY I think he'll be in Bartlett's one day.Stan focuses on the monitor. Mary pours herself anotherdrink. PATRICK Definitely.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTIt's dark. Joel and Clementine are in bed. The memory isalready in the midst of being erased. Clementine is talkingin a monotonous, robotic manner. CLEMENTINE You don't tell me things, Joel. I'm an open book. I tell you everything. Every damn embarrassing thing. You don't trust me. JOEL No, it isn't that. CLEMENTINE I want to know you. JOEL I just don't have anything very interesting about my life. CLEMENTINE Joel, you're a liar.The scene is faded completely now and Joel just lies therefor a moment, registering Clementine's statement.INT. CHINESE RESTAURANT - NIGHTJoel and Clementine eat dinner in silence. Joel looks aroundat other couples in the restaurant. Some seem happy andengaged. Others seem bored with each other. He turns backto his food. JOEL How's the chicken? VOICE-OVER Is that like us? Are we just bored with each other? CLEMENTINE Good.He watches her as she downs her wine and pours herselfanother glass. She holds the wine bottle up to Joel. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) More? JOEL No. Thanks.There's a silence. CLEMENTINE How's the fish?The scene is fading. JOEL It's good.They continue to eat in silence as the scene dissolves. PATRICK'S VOICE Hi, Clementine! -- Why, what's wrong? -- Oh, I'm sorry. -- Well, I'm not sure, I kind of have to study for my test --INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTPatrick is on the phone next to Joel's bed. Stan watches thelights on the computer screen. PATRICK Hold on. Let me ask my friend. (covering mouthpiece) Stan, can I leave for a little while? My girlfriend is very -- STAN Patrick, we're in the middle of -- PATRICK She's right in the neighborhood. She's upset.Mary is in the kitchen. She pokes her head out. She's gotsome pie on a plate. MARY Let him go, Stan. I can help. STAN (sighing, to Patrick) Go. PATRICK (quietly) Mary hates me. (into phone) I'll be right over, Tangerine.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTCandles are lit. Joel and Clementine are under a blanket onthe living room rug listening to music. CLEMENTINE Joely... JOEL Yeah, Tangerine? CLEMENTINE Do you know The Velveteen Rabbit? JOEL No. CLEMENTINE It's my favorite book. Since I was a kid. It's about these toys. There's this part where the skin Horse tells the rabbit what it means to be real. (crying) I can't believe I'm crying already. He says, "It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."She's weeping. Joel is stroking her hair. They kiss andbegin to make love under the blanket. It's sweet and gentleand then it starts to fade. JOEL (screaming) No! Jesus, No!He looks down and Clementine's tear-streaked face is fading.She continues as if she's still being made love to, eventhough Joel is completely beside himself. He jumps up nakedand yells at the ceiling. JOEL (CONT'D) Please! Please! I've changed my mind! (looks down at fading Clementine, then at ceiling) I don't want this. Wake me up! Stop the procedure! Plea --INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel is unconscious on the bed, completely still. Mary andStan watch the monitor and smoke a joint. After a silence: MARY It's amazing, isn't it? Such a gift Howard gave the world. STAN (a sigh) Yeah. MARY To let people begin again. It's beautiful. You look at a baby and it's so fresh, so clean, so free. And adults... they're like this messy tangle of anger and phobias and sadness... hopelessness. And Howard just makes it go away. STAN You love him, don't you?Mary seems surprised, taken aback, caught. She is silent fora long moment. MARY No. (beat) Besides, Howard's married, Stan. He's a very serious and ethical man. I'm not going to tempt him to betray all he believes in.Stan takes another drag on the joint, passes it to Mary.EXT. STREET - NIGHTPatrick, bundled up and carrying a full backpack, trudgesthrough the snow.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSClementine watches out the window as Patrick nears. She'scrying. He makes his way up her front stairs. She swingsopen the door and hugs him. PATRICK Oh, baby, what's going on? CLEMENTINE I don't know. I'm lost. I'm scared. I feel like I'm disappearing. I'm getting old and nothing makes any sense to me. PATRICK Oh, Tangerine. CLEMENTINE Nothing makes any sense. Nothing makes any sense.She pushes herself out of the embrace and looks at Patrick. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Come up to Boston with me? PATRICK Sure. We'll go next weekend and -- CLEMENTINE Now. Now! I have to go now. I have to see the frozen Charles! Now! Tonight! PATRICK Um, okay. I'll call my study partner. CLEMENTINE Yay! It'll be great! I'll get my shit.She runs into the bedroom. Patrick is at the phone andrealizes he doesn't know Joel's number. After a moment'sthought, he *69's. The phone rings. JOEL'S VOICE Hi, it's Joel. Please leave a message after the beep.Beep. PATRICK (whisper) Stan, it's Patrick. Pick up. STAN'S VOICE Hey, where are you? PATRICK I got into a situation with the old lady. Can you handle things tonight alone? I'm really sorry, man.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSStan is on the phone. He's really stoned and watches Mary,stoned herself, dancing in a sexy trance to something softand low on the stereo. STAN I can handle it. He's pretty much on auto-pilot anyway.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS PATRICK Thanks, Stan. I owe you.Patrick hangs up, rifles quickly through his backpack. Hepulls out a silver bracelet, puts it in his pocket, thenpulls out a journal, flips through it, keeping an eye on thebedroom door. The handwriting is a woman's. He finds whathe's looking for. He reads: CLEMENTINE'S VOICE I took Joel to walk on Charles River with me last night. It was so beautiful and charming. Joel was nervous about stepping onto the ice, but he wanted to please me so much -- he's so sweet -- that he came out after me. We lay down right in the center and watched the stars. He took my hand and said "I could...EXT. CHARLES RIVER - NIGHTJoel and Clementine lie together holding hands on the frozenriver. They look up at the stars. JOEL ...die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be.Clementine looks over at him. Her eyes are filled with loveand tears. Then they get vague. The scene is being erased.Joel is panicked. JOEL (CONT'D) Clem, no! This can't keep happening. Please! Oh, fuck! Please!Crazily, Joel runs off, passing through a series of decayedscenes: He and Clementine arguing in a car, having sex on thebeach, laughing and holding hands at a movie, eating grilledcheese and tomato soup together in bed, Joel watching hersleep, them drinking at a bar. He arrives at a decayedversion of his first meeting with Mierzwiak. MIERZWIAK We can help you through this. Why don't you start now by telling me everything you can remember about -- JOEL You have to stop this! MIERZWIAK What? What do you mean? JOEL I'm trapped in my head and everything I love is being erased! Stop it now! MIERZWIAK Yes, but... I'm just something you're imagining. What can I do? I'm in your head, too.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTPatrick reads the journal. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE ... and we made love right on the ice. It was absolutely freezing on my ass! It was wonderful.Clementine enters, dressed for the cold. Patrick puts thenotebook away. CLEMENTINE I'm so excited. Yay! PATRICK I'm excited, too. Oh, and I wanted to give you this. It's a little... thing.Patrick pulls the bracelet from his pocket, hands it to her. PATRICK (CONT'D) I didn't have a chance to wrap it. CLEMENTINE It's gorgeous. (slipping it on) Just my taste. I've never gone out with a guy who brought me a piece of jewelry I liked. (kisses him) Thanks. So let's get going. Long drive.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTStan and Mary have sex on the floor next to Joel's bed.EXT. FOREST - DAYJoel and Clementine are hiking, Clementine in front. CLEMENTINE Such a beautiful view. JOEL (looking at her) Yes indeed. (snapping out of memory) Fuck! They're erasing you, Clem! CLEMENTINE Oh? JOEL I hired them to. We're in my brain. But I want it to stop, before I wake up and don't know you anymore. CLEMENTINE Wow. Um, well... can't you just force yourself awake? JOEL I don't know.He concentrates. Nothing happens. JOEL (CONT'D) Aaargh! It's horrible! I'm trapped!He starts to have a fit, banging against trees, stomping hisfeet, screaming. But even while he's doing this the memoryand Clementine are fading around him.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - DAYIt's raining out. Joel is reading, slouched in a chair. Helooks over at Clementine, stretched out on her belly in herunderwear. She's reading, too. VOICE-OVER She's so sexy. JOEL I loved you on this day. I love this memory. The rain. Us just hanging.Clementine looks over at him, smiles. Her brow furrows inthought. CLEMENTINE What if you hide me? JOEL What do you mean? CLEMENTINE (formulating) Well... if they're looking for me in memories I'm in, what if you take me to a memory I'm not in? (proud) And we can hide there till morning.Joel ponders this. The scene and Clementine are beginning todissolve. Joel grabs Clementine's hand. She giggles withglee. He pulls her out of the scene as it degrades. JOEL Where? Where? Where?He drags her through the landscape of already decayedmemories and turns off into:INT. KITCHEN - DAYThe kitchen is dated and vague. Joel and Clementine are inan oversized playpen; they're adults but small. Joel wearsfootsie pajamas with some vague little animals on them. Heholds a a red furry huckleberry hound doll. Clementine isstill in her panties and bra. An oversized woman in highheels, seen from a low angle, hurries back and forthpreparing dinner. CLEMENTINE Jesus. What's this?Joel looks around at the kitchen, at his doll, at the woman. JOEL I must be about two. (oddly) I want my mommy. She's busy. She's not looking at me. (back to himself, re: doll) Look, my Huckleberry Hound doll! I told you about this! (beat) I want my mommy!He starts to cry. Clementine tries to comfort him. She hugshim. JOEL (CONT'D) (crying still) I want my mommy. (adult, to Clementine) I don't want to lose you, Clem. CLEMENTINE I'm right here. JOEL I'm scared. I want my mommy. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose... CLEMENTINE Joel, Joely, look... it's not fading. The memory. I think we're hidden.Joel sucks in some snot. His mother scurries back and forthclanging pots. The room is not decaying. Joel smiles.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTStan and Mary lie on the floor, their stoned minds wanderingafter sex. Stan suddenly perks up. He looks at the monitor. STAN It's stopped. MARY What? STAN Listen, it's not erasing.He makes his way, naked, to the computer screen. STAN (CONT'D) It's not erasing. He's off the screen. MARY Where? STAN I don't know. He's not on the map.Stan tries to break through his marijuana haze. He fiddlesnervously with the equipment. STAN (CONT'D) I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do! Crap. Crap... MARY Well, what should we do? STAN I don't know! I just said that! MARY Sor-ry (beat) We have to do something. He can't wake up half done. STAN Shit!He jerks the joystick spastically. Mary, also naked, gets upand looks over his shoulder at the screen. MARY (definitely) We should call Howard.Stan turns and looks at her. He's stoned and trying tounderstand her motivation. STAN No way. I can handle this. MARY This guy's only half cooked. There's no time to fuck around, Stan.Stan tries to think. He paces. Mary watches him. Finally: STAN (without making eye contact) Okay.He dials the phone, waits. STAN (CONT'D) Hello, Howard?INT. MIERZWIAK'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUSThe room is dark. A groggy Mierzwiak is in bed on the phone.His wife lies beside him, eyes open, listening. MIERZWIAK Stan? What's going on? STAN'S VOICE The guy we're doing? He's disappeared from the map. I can't find him anywhere. MIERZWIAK Okay, what happened right before he disappeared? STAN'S VOICE I was away from the monitor for a second. I had it on automatic. I had to go pee. MIERZWIAK Well, where was Patrick? STAN'S VOICE He went home sick. MIERZWIAK Jesus. All right, what's the address. STAN'S VOICE 1062 Sherman Drive. Apartment 1E, Rockville Center.Mierzwiak writes it down on a bedside not pad. He hangs up.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTStan hangs up the phone, looks at Mary. MARY He's coming? STAN You better go. MARY Hell no.She starts getting dressed. MARY (CONT'D) Shit, I'm so stoned. I don't want him to see me stoned. Stop being stoned, Mary!She hurries into the bathroom with her bag. MARY (CONT'D) (O.S.) (CONT'D) God, I look like shit! God!Mary slams the bathroom door. Stan puts his head in hishands.INT. KITCHEN - DAYJoel and Clementine are in the playpen. Joel's oversizedmother reaches down as she hurries by and pats Joel on thehead. MOTHER How's my baby boy?She's gone. JOEL I really want her to pick me up. It's weird how strong that desire is.Clementine holds his hand. He looks over at her. CLEMENTINE You know, we're okay. They're not finding us. You'll remember me in the morning. And you'll come to me and tell me about us and we'll start over. JOEL I loved you so much this day. On my bed in your panties. I remember I thought, how impossibly lucky am I to have you on my bed in your panties.She kisses him. CLEMENTINE You remember what happened next? JOEL I came over to the bed and you smelled so good, like you just woke up, slightly sweaty. And I climbed on the bed with you and you said something like -- CLEMENTINE -- another rainy day. Whatever shall we do?He laughs. She unbuttons his pajamas. They begin to makelove. Joel's mother hurries around the kitchen. Joel stops,looks at Clementine. JOEL There's this guy! CLEMENTINE What? JOEL There's this guy. I heard him talking in my apartment. He's one of the eraser guys. And he fell for you when they were erasing you, so he introduced himself the next day as if he were a stranger and now you're dating him. CLEMENTINE Really? Is he cute? JOEL He stole a pair of your panties while you were being erased! CLEMENTINE Gross! You must remember to tell me this in the morning. I'm, like, so freaked out now.INT. CLEMENTINE'S CAR - NIGHTIt's a rust bucket. Clementine drives through the snow.She's crying and holding Patrick's hand. CLEMENTINE What's wrong with me? PATRICK Nothing is wrong with you. You're the most wonderful person I've ever met.She glances gratefully over at him then starts to cry evenharder.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTStan works on trying to get the signal back. His hair iscombed and he's dressed neatly, looking professional butstill stoned. Mary is pacing nervously to and from thewindow, looking out into the night. She's dressed also, andshe's wearing more make-up now. Her hair is pulled up intosome sort of style. Suddenly she freezes at the window. MARY There he is. Oh my God. Oh my God. Do I look okay?She doesn't say anything. MARY (CONT'D) I'm still stoned. Are you? Crap.She looks in the mirror. MARY (CONT'D) (to Joel) Your Visine didn't do shit, fella.The doorbell buzzes. Mary lunges for the door, then calmsherself before opening it. Mierzwiak, holding an equipmentbag, looks surprised. MIERZWIAK Mary. What are you doing here? STAN She came to help, Howard. MARY I wanted to learn as much about the procedure as possible, Howard. I think it's important for my job...to help comfort the clientele. You know.Mierzwiak looks from Mary to Stan, nods, and enters. Marycloses the door. Mierzwiak crosses to the equipment. MIERZWIAK Let's get to the bottom of this. Shall we?He sits down in front of the computer and does some fiddling. MIERZWIAK (CONT'D) Odd.He fiddles some more. Mary looks on, fascinated. STAN I tried that already. MIERZWIAK Did you try going through C-Gate? STAN Yeah. Of course.Mierzwiak ponders. He unzips his equipment bag, pulls outanother laptop computer and plugs it in to the system. MIERZWIAK I'm going to do a Spectrum search throughout his memory, see if anything comes up.Mierzwiak presses some more buttons. The program starts up.A much more complex and detailed human brain appears on thisscreen. It rotates. Eventually Mierzwiak sees a smalldistant light in the brain. He zeroes in on it. MIERZWIAK (CONT'D) Okay, here it is. I don't know why it's off the map like that, but --INT. KITCHEN - DAYJoel is being bathed in the oversized sink by his oversizedmother. Clementine sits in the water with him, laughing.The mother doesn't seem to see her. MOTHER Little baby getting awwwl cleean. Awl clean. JOEL (to Clementine) I love getting bathed in the sink. It's such a feeling of security. CLEMENTINE (giggling) I've never seen you happier.The elements of the scene flash explosively away: Joel'smother, his Huckleberry Hound doll, the details of thekitchen, Clementine. Joel is thrown into:INT. CAR - NIGHTHe sits with Clementine in the parked car, outside a drive-inmovie theater. The movie on the giant screen is partiallyobscured by a fence. Joel and Clementine drink wine.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTMierzwiak looks up from the computer screen. MIERZWIAK Okay, we're back in. MARY That was beautiful to watch, Howard. Like a surgeon or a concert pianist. MIERZWIAK Well, thank you, Mary. STAN (sighing) You get some sleep, Howard. I'll take it from here. MIERZWIAK Yeah, probably a good idea.INT. CAR - NIGHTClementine and Joel laugh as they try to give voice to whatthe characters on the screen are saying. CLEMENTINE But can't you see... I love you, Antoine. JOEL Don't call me Antoine. My name is Wally. CLEMENTINE Yes, but I can't love a man named Wally.She starts to fade. The scene starts to fade. Joelremembers their previous plan. JOEL They found us before. The plan didn't work. I don't know what to do now. CLEMENTINE (mouthing to woman on screen) Hide me somewhere deeper? Somewhere buried?Joel grabs her. They run off just as the scene decays into ahusk behind them.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTStan is back at the controls. Mierzwiak's at the door withMary. STAN Howard, they've disappeared again. MIERZWIAK Oh dear. MARY I'm so sorry, Howard, you must be tired.He nods, distractedly. She smiles to herself as he headsback to the equipment.EXT. SCHOOLYARD - AFTERNOONJoel, now the size of a junior high school kid and dressedaccordingly, is peering around the corner of the schoolbuilding toward the bike rack. Clementine is with him,dressed as she was in the parked car. CLEMENTINE Look at you, cutey! What are we doing? JOEL This kid, Joe Early, is going to beat the shit out of me. VOICE-OVER I'm terrified. I thought if I hung around the art room long enough, he'd go home and I could get my bike.They head toward the bike rack. Joel's is the only bikeremaining. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Poor Joel.They're at the bike rack and a bunch of kids, includinggiant, fat Joe Early come around the corner. JOE EARLY Hi, Jill. JOEL He calls me Jill. Everyone calls me Jill after this.The other kids laughs. JOEL Just shut up, Joe. I'm going home. JOE EARLY I don't think so. We're fighting. JOEL I don't want to fight you.The kids start chanting, "fight, fight, fight..." Joe Earlythrows a wild punch that hits Joel in the side. joel fallsand stays down, covering himself. JOE EARLY C'mon, Jill. Get up, faggot. C'mon.Joel doesn't say anything. He peeks humiliated atClementine. She's watching him. She's got a tear in hereye. She kneels down beside him, puts her arm around him. JOEL I'm too scared to even throw a punch. When I tell people this story I leave that part out.The scene flashes violently to white and is gone.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTMierzwiak is at the machine. MIERZWIAK We got him back. Stan, I think I'm just going to have to get through this manually. We're running late.EXT. BEACH - DAYIt's cold. Joel and Clementine walk, all bundled up. Shepoints at a house up the beach. CLEMENTINE Our house! Our house!She runs ahead, laughing. The scene is decaying. Joelchases after her. JOEL Clem, c'mon, we've got to hide you. Remember?He grabs her arm and yanks and they are in:INT. BOY'S BEDROOM - NIGHTIt's dark. Joel, junior high school size, is in bedmasturbating. Clementine is in there, too, in her wintercoat, still laughing from before. She realizes what's goingon. CLEMENTINE (mock offended) Joel! JOEL (continuing to masturbate) I don't like it either, but I'm just trying to find horrible secret place to --Joel's mother pops her head in the door. MOTHER Joel, I was just -- (sees what's going on) Oh. Um... I'll ask you in the morning, honey. Have a good night.The mother backs out, closes the door. Joel cringes.Clementine laughs, still in the mode of the memory she wasswiped from. Flash! It's all gone.INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHTJoel and Clementine are laughing as she blows out the candleon a slice of cheesecake in front of her. Joel hands her asmall wrapped box. JOEL Happy Birthday. CLEMENTINE (unwrapping the gift) Thanks, Joely. A present! Oh boy!She pulls out the bracelet. It's the same bracelet Patrickgave her. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Oh, Joel. It's beautiful! (slip it on) I mean, you're the first guy who ever bought me a piece of jewelry I could honestly say that about.He notices she's starting to fade. JOEL I scoured the city for it. CLEMENTINE I love it!She leans across the table to kiss him. He grabs her andruns through the decaying scene and into the vague night.EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAYJoel is one of a group of five year olds. He holds a hammerand is poised to hit a dead bird in a red wagon. The otherboys are goading him. BOYS C'mon, Joel, you have to. Do it already.Joel doesn't want to. Clementine watches. JOEL I can't. I have to go home. I'll do it later. VOICE-OVER I didn't want to do this. But I had to or they would've called me a girl.Joel miserably smashes the bird repeatedly with the hammer.Red jelly guts cover the hammer and the wagon bottom. Thekids hoot. VOICE-OVER I can't believe I did that. I'm so ashamed.A live bird watches from a tree. Clementine, still dressedfor her birthday dinner (wearing her new bracelet), pullsJoel away from the other boys. The two of them walk downJoel's suburban street. CLEMENTINE It's okay. You were a little kid. (beat) This is a great birthday present. Getting to see you as a boy.She kisses him and they walk holding hands. JOEL (pointing) That's where I live. Lived.Joel looks down at her hand. It's fading. The bracelet isgone. Clementine is gone. His childhood house is gone.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTMierzwiak works the equipment. He has located a small areaof light in the brain imaging and eradicates them. MIERZWIAK I'm getting the hang of it. I still understand it. But I'm finding him quickly enough. I'm hopeful there won't be too much peripheral eradication.Mary sits on the bed. MARY (a little giggly) I like watching you work.Stan sighs, grabs his coat. STAN I'll go out for a smoke. If no one minds. MIERZWIAK (not looking up) That's fine, Stan.Mary doesn't say anything. Stan huffs and is out the door.Mierzwiak continues to find and erase points of light. Marygets up her courage to speak. MARY Do you like quotes, Howard? MIERZWIAK How do you mean? MARY Oh, um, like famous quotes. I find reading them inspirational to me. And in my reading I've come across some I thought you might like, too. MIERZWIAK Oh. Well, I'd love to hear some.Mary is thrilled, beside herself. She tries to calm down. MARY Okay, um, there's one that goes "Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders." MIERZWIAK Is that Nietzsche? MARY Yeah, yeah it is, Howard. And here I was thinking I could tell you something you didn't know. MIERZWIAK It's a good quote, Mary. I'm glad we both know it.He smiles at her. She's flustered, flattered. MARY (sputtering) There's another one I like, I read. It's by Pope Alexander. MIERZWIAK Alexander Pope? MARY Yes, shit. Oops, sorry! (puts hand over mouth) Sorry. It's just I told myself I wasn't going to say Pope Alexander and sound like a dope and then I go ahead and do it. Like I psyched myself out. MIERZWIAK It's no big deal. MARY You are such a sweetheart.There's an embarrassed moment as that line hangs in the air.Then Mary plunges ahead to bury it. MARY (CONT'D) Anyway, the quote goes "How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot: Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd".She smiles, proud and embarrassed. MIERZWIAK That's lovely. MARY Really? I thought it was appropriate maybe. That's all. (beat, then quickly) I really admire the work that you do. I know it's not proper to be so familiar but I guess since we're outside the workplace I feel a certain liberty to -- MIERZWIAK It's fine, Mary. I'm happy to hear it. MARY Okay. Good. Great. Thanks. (blurting) I like you, Howard... an awful lot. Is that terrible?Mierzwiak seems momentarily taken aback, then returns to hisunflappable self. MIERZWIAK You're a wonderful girl, Mary.She leans over and kisses him, then pulls away quickly. MARY I've loved you for a very long time. I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that. MIERZWIAK I've got a wife, Mary. Kids. You know that. MARY (suddenly weepy) I wish I was your wife. I wish I had your kids.Mierzwiak comforts her with a hug. It turns into kiss. Hepulls away. MIERZWIAK We can't do this. MARY No you're right. Once again. You're a decent man, Howard.He smiles sadly at her. She smiles courageously at him. MIERZWIAK I want you to know it's not because I'm not interested. If that means anything.They look at each other a long while, then Howard goes backto locating and eradicating blips of lights.EXT. JOEL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHTStan sits in the van and smokes a cigarette. He has anunobstructed view into Joel's bedroom window. He watchesMierzwiak and Mary. They're talking as Howard works. Itappears to be a very serious discussion. A car pulls upoutside. Stan turns to see. A middle-aged woman gets out,checks the address on Joel's building, approaches the onlylit window, watches Mierzwiak and Mary inside. Mierzwiak'sresolve has apparently weakened and he and Mary kiss again.This time it leads to groping, partial undressing, andfalling onto the bed alongside the unconscious Joel. Thewoman in the window is transfixed. As Mierzwiak fumbles tounzip his pants, he catches sight of the woman in the window.He practically shrieks and jumps up.EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAYJoel and Clementine walking, hand-in-hand, look upsimultaneously.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUSMary looks confusedly at Howard. MARY What?She follows his eyes and sees the woman in the window, whoturns and walks off in a huff. MARY (CONT'D) Oh my God!Mierzwiak is already in his coat. He's out the door.EXT. JOEL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - CONTINUOUSThe woman is at her car. Stan watches from the van.Mierzwiak is hurrying to the woman. MIERZWIAK Hollis! Hollis! HOLLIS (THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN) I knew it, Howard. I don't even know why I bothered to copy the damn address. MIERZWIAK It didn't start out to be this. I came here to work. It's a one-time mistake.Mary is right behind Mierzwiak now. Hollis is in her car. MARY (heroically) Mrs. Mierzwiak, it's true. And it's not Mr. Mierzwiak's fault. I'm a stupid little girl with a stupid little crush. I basically forced him into it. I swear.Hollis turns, looks at Mary and then at Mierzwiak. HOLLIS Don't be a monster, Howard. Tell the girl.Stan is out of the van now, listening. Mary shivers in thecold, hugs herself. There's a long silence. Then: MARY Tell me what?Hollis and Mierzwiak have locked eyes. Mary looks back andforth between them. Hollis starts her car. HOLLIS Poor kid. You can have him. You did.She drives off. Mary watches Howard with increasedforeboding. MARY What, Howard? MIERZWIAK We... have a history. I'm sorry. You wanted the procedure. You wanted it done... to get past. I have to finish in there. It's almost morning. We'll talk later.He shuffles inside. Mary stands there, unable to digestthis, struggling in vain to remember. Stan watches. STAN Let me take you home.Mary shakes her head "no." She walks off, dazed.EXT. CHARLES RIVER - NIGHTClementine and Patrick lie on their backs on the frozen riverand look up at the night sky. PATRICK I could die right now, Clem. I'm just happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be.Clementine looks over at him. Their eyes meet. She sobs. CLEMENTINE I want to go home.She hurries toward the shore, slips on the ice, gets up, andcontinues, now running.INT. COMMUTER TRAIN - NIGHTMary, in shock, sits in the empty fluorescent car. She triesto look out the window but can only see her own reflection.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTIt's deathly silent as Mierzwiak and Stan work on completingthe job. Mierzwiak locates a light hidden very deep in themap of Joel's brain. He targets it.EXT. ROWBOAT - DAYJoel, the size of a ten year old, sits fishing with hisoversized father. Clementine is naked and in the boat, too.She's reading The Play by Stephen Dixon. CLEMENTINE I love this book, Joel. Thank you so much for telling me about it.Joel is his father. The father is drunk and sullen. Hefaces away from Joel, looks out at the lake. FATHER Don't be like me, son. Don't waste your life. You'll come to a point someday where it'll be too late. You'll be sewn into your fate... JOEL It was horrifying, seeing my father like that. There was no hope for me if his life was such a failure. And he saw failure in me, too, written in my future.Clementine watches the frightened, confused Joel. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Joel, you're not sewn in. He's wrong. FATHER ...and there'll be nowhere to go except where you're headed, like a train on a track. Inevitable, unalterable.The scene poops out of existence with a flash of light.INT. CHINESE RESTAURANT - NIGHTJoel finds himself eating Chinese food and sitting acrossfrom Clementine. He is ragged and jarred. JOEL I'm done, Clem. I'm just going to ride it out. Hiding is clearly not working. CLEMENTINE Yeah. JOEL I want to enjoy my little time left with you. CLEMENTINE This is our first "date" date. JOEL Do you remember what we talked about? CLEMENTINE Naomi, I guess. JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE What was I wearing? JOEL God, I should know. Your hair was red. I remember it matched the wallpaper. CLEMENTINE Egad, were you horrified? JOEL No! I think you were wearing that black dress, y'know, with the buttons.She is wearing the black dress. CLEMENTINE No, you were with me when I bought that. At that place on East 6th. It was later.INT. DRESS SHOP - SHOPThe scene has already been erased. It's just a decayed husk.A vague Joel watches a vague Clementine model a black dress.INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHTClementine wears a generic black dress now. JOEL Right. Something black though. CLEMENTINE I'll buy that. Black's always good. JOEL We did talk about Naomi. CLEMENTINE I said: Are you sure? You seem unsure. JOEL I'm sure, I said. CLEMENTINE But you weren't. I could tell. JOEL I was so nervous. I remember I couldn't think of anything to say. There were long silences.There is a long silence. JOEL (CONT'D) I thought I was foolish. I thought I'd mistaken infatuation for love. You said: CLEMENTINE So what. Infatuation is good, too. JOEL And I didn't have an argument.INT. CAR - NIGHTJoel and Clementine pull up to Clementine's house. JOEL I dropped you off after. You said -- CLEMENTINE (Mae West) Come up and see me... now. JOEL It's very late. CLEMENTINE Yes, exactly. Exactly my point.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel and Clementine are in the midst of awkward shy sex. JOEL This was our first time.The scene starts to fade. Joel watches Clementine disappear.INT. LACUNA RECEPTION AREA - NIGHTMary enters the dark room, frazzled. She flips on thefluorescent lights and searches the file folders, finds onewith her name on it. Her jaw drops. With a shaky hand, sheputs the tape into the player on her desk and presses "play." MIERZWIAK VOICE Okay, so just tell me what you remember. And we'll take it from there. MARY'S VOICE (shaky) Um, I liked you immediately. At the job interview. You seemed so... important and mature. And I loved that you were helping all these people. You didn't come on to me at all. I liked that. I was tongue-tied around you at first. I wanted you to think I was smart. You were so nice. I loved the way you smelled. I couldn't wait to come to work. I had these fantasies of us being married and having kids and just... (starts to cry) ...and so... then... when... that one day, when I thought you looked at me back... like... Oh, Howie, I can't do this? How can I do this? MIERZWIAK VOICE It's what's best, Mary. You know that.Mary slumps to the floor. We move into her eyes. MARY'S VOICE Yeah, I know. Oh, God. Okay, well, I was so excited...A SERIES OF MURKY IMAGES. NO DETAIL.A flirtatious look from Mierzwiak. MARY'S VOICE (CONT'D) ...Remember you bought me that little wind-up frog?A vague shot of a wind-up frog. MARY'S VOICE (CONT'D) And you said...A vague shot of Mierzwiak mouthing to Mary's voice. MARY'S VOICE (CONT'D) "This is for your desk. Just a little token"Back to Mary sitting on the floor, listening to the tape. MARY'S VOICE (CONT'D) I knew then... I knew something was going to happen... something wonderful.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel sits in the quiet living room. The scene is fading. JOEL Naomi. VOICE-OVER On the couch. Dark. Quiet. I wondered if I had made a terrible mistake. I almost reached for the phone about a thousand times. I thought I could take it back, erase it, explain I had momentarily lost my mind. Then I told myself we weren't happy. That was the truth. That what we were was safe. It was unfair to you and to me to stay in a relationship for that reason. I thought about Clementine and the spark when I was with her, but then I thought what you and I had was real and adult and therefore significant even if it wasn't much fun. But I wanted fun. I saw other people having fun and I wanted it. Then I thought fun is a lie, that no one is really having fun; I'm being suckered by advertising and movie bullshit... then I thought maybe not, maybe not. And then I thought, as I always do at this point in my argument, about dying.INT. ROOM - DAYAn elderly man sits. VOICE-OVER I projected myself to the end of my life in some vague rendition of my old man self. I imagined looking back with a tremendous hole of regret in my heart.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel sits. VOICE-OVER I didn't pick up the phone to call you, Naomi. I didn't pick up the phone.The scene dissolves.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - DAYNamoi is red-eyed from crying. She is packing things inboxes. Joel paces, steals glances at her, doesn't know whatto say. She holds up a book. The scene starts to fade. NAOMI Yours? JOEL You take it. I don't know.She tosses it in a box. JOEL (CONT'D) Naomi, I really value our relationship. I hope it's possible for us to stay in touch. NAOMI Don't do this to me now, Joel. Really.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - DAYJoel watches out the window as Naomi stuffs a final box inthe trunk of a car. There's another woman down there withher. They get into the car and drive off.INT. BORDER'S BOOKSTORE - NIGHTJoel talks to Clementine. The scene is fogging over. JOEL I told her today I need to end it. CLEMENTINE Is that what you want? JOEL I did it. I guess that means something.Clementine shrugs. The scene fades.EXT. PARK - DAYJoel walks with Naomi. NAOMI So what's going on, Joel? JOEL I don't know, I've just been thinking, maybe we're not happy with each other. NAOMI What? JOEL Y'know, we've been, I don't know, sort of, unhappy with each other and -- NAOMI Don't say "we" when you mean "you." JOEL I think maybe, we're both so used to operating at this level that -- How can one person be unhappy? If one person is unhappy, both have to be... by definition. NAOMI Bullshit. Who is it? You met someone. JOEL No. I just need some space, maybe. NAOMI The thing is, Joel, whatever it is you think you have with this chick, once the thrill wears off, you're just going to be Joel with the same fucking problems. JOEL It's not somebody else. VOICE-OVER I hate myself.Naomi walks off. Joel watches her. The scene fades.INT. BORDER'S BOOKSTORE - NIGHTJoel enters, looks around. There's no sign of Clementine.Joel approaches a male employee. JOEL Is there a Clementine who works here? MALE EMPLOYEE #1 (calling to another male employee) Mark, is Clem on tonight? MALE EMPLOYEE #2 On my dick, bro. (turns, sese Joel, embarrassed) Oh, hey. Yeah, I think she's upstairs in Philosophy.Joel climbs stairs, searches the aisle, spots Clementine. JOEL Hi.She turns. CLEMENTINE I didn't think you'd show your face around me again. I figured you were humiliated. You did run away, after all. JOEL Sorry to track you down like this. I'm not a stalker. But I needed to see you. CLEMENTINE (seemingly uninterested) Yeah? JOEL I'd like to... take you out or something. CLEMENTINE Well, you're married. JOEL Not yet. Not married. CLEMENTINE Look, man, I'm telling you right off the bat, I'm high maintenance. So I'm not going to tiptoe around your marriage or whatever it is you got going there. If you want to be with me, you're with me. JOEL Okay. CLEMENTINE So make your domestic decisions and maybe we'll talk again.She goes back to stacking. Joel stands there helplessly. JOEL I just think that you have some kind of... quality that seems really important to me.The scene is disintegrating. Clementine's speech isdelivered without passion. CLEMENTINE Joel, I'm not a concept. I want you to just keep that in your head. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a fucked-up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours. JOEL I remember that speech really well. CLEMENTINE (smiling) I had you pegged, didn't I? JOEL You had the whole human race pegged. CLEMENTINE Probably. JOEL I still thought you were going to save me. Even after that. CLEMENTINE I know. JOEL It would be different, if we could just give it another go around. CLEMENTINE Remember me. Try your best. Maybe we can.The scene is gone.INT. ROB AND CARRIE'S CAR - NIGHTJoel sits forlornly in the back seat. Rob drives and Carriesits in the front passenger seat. The car stops in front ofJoel's apartment building. JOEL Thanks, guys. CARRIE I hope you feel better, sweetie. JOEL Yeah. CARRIE Say hi to Naomi.The car door closes.INT. BUILDING STAIRWAY - NIGHTJoel climbs the stairs. VOICE-OVER I hope she's not up. I need to think.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTThe lights are off. Joel sits on a chair near the window,writing in his journal. The streetlight illuminates thepaper. Naomi sleeps in the bed. VOICE-OVER I met someone tonight at a party on the beach. Her name is Clementine. There is something alive about her.Naomi turns over in bed, sees Joel. NAOMI (full of sleep) Hi. JOEL Hi. NAOMI How was it? JOEL You didn't miss much. Rob Carrie say hello. NAOMI Hi, Rob and Carrie. JOEL Go back to sleep.The room is starting to decompose. NAOMI Yeah. Come to bed. I'm cold. JOEL In a minute.Naomi turns over. Joel goes back to his writing. VOICE-OVER (more and more emotionless) I don't know what to do about this. I've been feeling so alienated and numb lately. Forever. The thought of not acknowledging my feelings again seems self-destructive. How can I continue on this path toward a living death, a life filled with obligation and guilt and responsibility but joyless, hopeless? I need to speak with Clementine.The scene has turned to a husk.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - AFTERNOONJoel is at his closet, putting on a sweater. Naomi is at thedining room table, papers spread out before her, writing.Joel turns and watches her for a moment. JOEL So you don't mind? NAOMI I've got to finish this chapter anyway.The scene is fading. JOEL Okay. I wish you could come. VOICE-OVER This is it. The night we met. My God, it's over. NAOMI (CONT'D) Me, too.He approaches Naomi, kisses her on the top of the head. Shecontinues to write. NAOMI (CONT'D) Say hi to Rob and Carrie. Have some fun! JOEL I hope you get your work done. NAOMI (sighing) Yeah.INT. ROB AND CARRIE'S CAR - NIGHTRob drives. Carrie fiddles with the radio dial in the frontpassenger seat. Joel sits in the back. CARRIE I'm sorry Naomi couldn't make it. You okay? You seem quiet. JOEL Just a little overworked, maybe. VOICE-OVER The trip to the party where I met Clementine. My first memory of her is now my last memory of her.Joel looks out the window. Carrie turns around and sayssomething to Joel. She is backlit, her hair a halo of frizz. JOEL I remember you turned around. Your face was dark and your hair was backlit -- I could see a halo of frizz -- you asked me if things were okay between Naomi and me. CARRIE I did. You said, things were fine. JOEL I remember. CARRIE This is the night you met Clementine, Joel. I remember watching you walk down the beach with her and I thought, oh shit. JOEL Yeah, you told me that later. CARRIE I told you that later.Joel looks out he window. He sees the husk of a memory onthe darkened roadside. It's Joel and Carrie in:INT. ROB AND CARRIE'S KITCHEN - DAYFaded. Carrie and Joel sit at the table with coffee. CARRIE Who was the girl you walked off with? JOEL No one.EXT. BEACH PARKING LOT - NIGHTRob, Carrie, and Joel emerge from the car, parked amidst asmall cluster of cars in an otherwise empty parking lot.EXT. BEACH - NIGHTJoel watches his shoes in the sand as he trudges along. CARRIE Is this the right way?EXT. BEACH - MOMENTS LATERJoel, Rob, and Carrie step out of the brush and see a bonfiredown the beach. People and music can be heard.EXT. BEACH - LATERJoel sits on a log, a paper plate of chicken and corn on hislap. People warm themselves at the fire. Joel watchescouples talking, kissing, Rob sharing a joint with a guy. JOEL You were down by the surf. I could just make you out in the dark.Joel looks down to the water. There's Clementine, in herorange hooded sweatshirt, looking out to sea. JOEL (CONT'D) Your back to me. In that orange sweatshirt I would come to know so well and even hate eventually. At the time I thought, how cool, an orange sweatshirt. VOICE-OVER I remember being drawn to you even then. I thought, I love this woman because she's alone down there looking out at the black ocean. JOEL (CONT'D) But I went back to my food. The next thing I remember, I felt someone sitting next to me and I saw the orange sleeve out of the corner of my eye.A shot of the orange sleeve. Joel looks up. CLEMENTINE Hi there. JOEL Hi. VOICE-OVER I was so nervous. What were you doing there, I wondered. Your hair was lime green. Green revolution.A shot of her green hair. JOEL You said... CLEMENTINE I saw you sitting over here. By yourself. I thought, thank God, someone normal, who doesn't know how interact at these things either. JOEL Yeah. I don't ever know what to say. CLEMENTINE I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that. I mean, I don't mean I'm happy you're uncomfortable, but, yknow... I'm such a loser. Every time I come to a party I tell myself I'm going to be different and it's always exactly the same and then I hate myself after for being such a clod. JOEL Even then I didn't believe you entirely. I thought how could you be talking to me if you couldn't talk to people? VOICE-OVER But I thought, I don't know, I thought it was cool that you were sensitive enough to know what I was feeling and that you were attracted to it. CLEMENTINE But, I don't know, maybe we're the normal ones, y'know? I mean, what kind of people do well at this stuff? VOICE-OVER And I just liked you so much. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) You did? You liked me? JOEL You know what I did. CLEMENTINE Yeah, I know. I'm fishing. JOEL You said --She picks a drumstick off of Joel's plate. CLEMENTINE I'm Clementine. Can I borrow a piece of your chicken? JOEL And you picked it out of my plate before I could answer and it felt so intimate like we were already lovers. JOEL (CONT'D) I remember -- VOICE-OVER The grease on your chin in the bonfire light.Shot of a smudge of chicken grease on Clementine's chin. CLEMENTINE Oh God, how horrid. JOEL I'm Joel. VOICE-OVER No, it was lovely. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Hi, Joel. So no jokes about my name? JOEL You mean, like... (singing) Oh, my darlin', oh, my darlin', oh, my darlin', Clementine... ? Huckleberry Hound? That sort of thing? CLEMENTINE Yeah, like that. JOEL Nope. No jokes. My favorite thing when I was a kid was my Huckleberry Hound doll. I think your name is magic.She smiles. CLEMENTINE (eyes welling) This is it, Joel. It's gonna be gone soon. JOEL I know. CLEMENTINE What do we do? JOEL Enjoy it. Say good-bye.She nods.Joel and Clementine are walking near the surf. JOEL (CONT'D) So you're still on the Zoloft? VOICE-OVER Next thing I remember we were walking down near the surf. CLEMENTINE No, I stopped. I didn't want to feel like I was being artificially modulated. JOEL I know what you mean. That's why I stopped. CLEMENTINE But my sleeping is really fucked up. JOEL I don't think I've slept in a year. CLEMENTINE You should try Xanax. I mean, it's a chemical and all, but it works... and it works just having it around, knowing that it's there. Like insurance. JOEL yeah? CLEMENTINE I'll give you a couple. See what you think. JOEL Okay. CLEMENTINE Have you ever read any Anna Akhmatova? JOEL I love her. CLEMENTINE Really? Me, too! I don't meet people who even know who she is and I work in a book store. JOEL I think she's great. CLEMENTINE Me too. There's this poem -- JOEL Did this conversation come before or after we saw the house? CLEMENTINE I think, before. JOEL Seems too coincidental that way. CLEMENTINE Yeah, maybe.Joel and Clementine wander near some beach houses closed forthe winter. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Do you know her poem that starts "Seaside gusts of wind,/And a house in which we don't live... JOEL Yeah, yeah. It goes "Perhaps there is someone in this world to whom I could send all these lines"? CLEMENTINE Yes! I love that poem. It breaks my heart. I'm so excited you know it. (pointing to houses) Look, houses in which we don't live.Joel chuckles appreciatively. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) I wish we did. You married? JOEL Um, no. CLEMENTINE Let's move into this neighborhood.Clementine tries one of the doors on a darkened house. Joelis nervous. JOEL I do sort of live with somebody though. CLEMENTINE Oh.She walks to the next house, tries the door. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Male or female? JOEL Female. CLEMENTINE At least I haven't been barking up the wrong tree.She finds a window that's unlatched. She lifts it. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Cool. JOEL What are you doing? CLEMENTINE It's freezing out here.She scrambles in the window. Joel looks around, panicked. JOEL (whisper) Clementine. VOICE-OVER I couldn't believe you did that. I was paralyzed with fear.The front door opens and Clementine stands there beckoning. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) C'mon, man. The water's fine. Nobody's coming here tonight, believe me. This place is closed up. Electricity's off. JOEL I hesitated for what seemed like forever. CLEMENTINE I could see you wanted to come in, Joel.He walks cautiously toward the door. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) As soon as you walked in. I knew I had you. You knew I knew that, right?INT. HOUSE - CONTINUOUSJoel enters the darkened and Clementine closes the doorbehind him. JOEL I knew. CLEMENTINE I knew by your nervousness that Naomi wasn't the kind of girl who forced you to criminally trespass. JOEL It's dark. CLEMENTINE Yeah. What's your girlfriend's name? JOEL Naomi.She's searching through drawers for something. She pulls outa flashlight, shines it in Joel's face. CLEMENTINE Ah-ha! Now I can look for candles, matches, and the liquor cabinet. JOEL I think we should go. CLEMENTINE No, it's our house! Just tonight -- (looking at envelope on counter) -- we're David and Ruth Laskin. Which one do you want to be? I prefer to be Ruth but I'm flexible. (opens cabinet) Alcohol! You make drinks. I'm going find the bedroom and slip into something more Ruth. I'm ruthless at the moment.She runs upstairs, giggling. The room is drying out, turninginto a husk. JOEL (calling after her) I really should go. I really need to catch my ride. VOICE-OVER I didn't want to go. I was too nervous. I thought, maybe you were a nut. But you were exciting. You called from upstairs. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) (flat) So go. JOEL I did. I walked out the door. I felt like I was a scared little kid. I thought you knew that about me. I ran back to the bonfire, trying to outrun my humiliation. You said, "so go" with such disdain. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) (poking her head downstairs) What if you stay this time? JOEL I walked out the door. There's no more memory. CLEMENTINE Come back and make up a good-bye at least. Let's pretend we had one.Clementine comes downstairs, vague and robotic, making herway through the decaying environment. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Bye, Joel. JOEL I love you.She smiles. They kiss. It fades. CLEMENTINE I --EXT. BEACH - NIGHTJoel finds himself hurrying back to the bonfire. This scene,too, is disintegrating. It dries up and Joel is juststanding there on a faded beach at night, the bonfire frozenin the distance like a photograph.INT. CAR - NIGHTJoel sits in the back seat, Rob and Carrie are in the front. CARRIE Did you have fun?Joel nods glumly.Carrie continues to talk, but her voice goes under as Joelstudies the faded husks of memories, piled like refuseoutside the moving car window. He sees dried-out version ofprevious interactions with Clementine playing out in loops.He looks back and sees the memory of his ride home from thebeach with Rob and Carrie. It, too, is decaying. Soon allhas crumbled into dust. Everything goes black.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNINGHoward watches the monitor. The last specks of light arefading. It grows dark. He is tired, his eyes are hollow.He turns to Stan, who is staring out the window at the dawn. HOWARD Okay.Stan turns and wordlessly begins the clean-up. He pulls theelectrodes off of Joel's scalp, coils cable, packs bags.Howard dials the bedside phone. He waits as it rings. HOLLIS'S VOICE Hi, you've reached the Mierzwiaks. We can't come to --Howard hangs up.EXT. JOEL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - EARLY MORNINGStan and Howard load the last of the equipment into the backof the van. He and Howard look at each other. STAN So, I've got to drop the van off. MIERZWIAK Thanks, Stan. Thanks.INT. PATRICK'S CAR - EARLY MORNINGPatrick and Mary are heading home from Boston. Mary issilent and depressed. Patrick tries to break the silence. PATRICK You want to stop for coffee or something?Mary shakes her head "no." Long silence. PATRICK (CONT'D) Well, it was sure beautiful on that river. Thanks for sharing it with me.Mary doesn't say anything. Silence. PATRICK (CONT'D) Well do it again soon.EXT. PARKING STRUCTURE - EARLY MORNINGStan pulls the van into space marked "Lacuna." He gets out,crosses to his car. Mary is sitting on the hood. STAN Hey. MARY (beat) Do you swear you didn't know? STAN I swear. MARY And you never even suspected? Never saw us behaving in any unusual way together? STAN Once, maybe.She watches him closely, waiting for him to continue. STAN (CONT'D) It was here. At his car. I was coming back from a job and spotted you together. You seemed caught. I waved. You giggled. MARY How did I look? STAN (beat) Happy. Happy with a secret.Mary starts to cry. MARY And after that? STAN I never saw you together like that again. So I figured I was imagining things.Mary says nothing. STAN (CONT'D) I really like you, Mary. You know that. MARY Do you remember anything else? What I was wearing? Was I standing close to him? Was I leaning against his car like I owned it? How did he look at me when I giggled? Tell me everything. STAN (thinking) You were in red. That red sweater with the little flowers, I think. You were leaning against his car. (thinking) He looked a little like a kid. Kind of goofy and wide-eyed. I'd never seen him look like that before. Happy. You looked beautiful. You looked in love. MARY (heading toward the levator) Thanks, Stan.She stops but doesn't turn to face him. MARY (CONT'D) You're nice. (beat) But I love him. I knew I loved him. Now I know.He nods. She waves, heads to the elevator.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - MORNINGJoel awakens. The apartment is neat, like when he went tosleep. He gets out of bed and heads into the bathroom.EXT. COMMUTER TRAIN STATION - MORNINGJoel waits on the crowded platform. The platform across thetracks is empty. Joel's train arrives. It's packed. Hesqueezes on with all the other commuters.INT. OFFICE - DAYJoel works in his cubicle over the light table. He seemsdistracted. He dials his phone. He's nervous. JOEL Hi... Naomi? Yeah, hi! How are you? I know, I know. It's been a long time. Not too much. You? Oh, that's great! Congratulations! Maybe I could buy you dinner to celebrate? Tonight? I'm free. Okay, good!INT. LACUNA RECEPTION AREA - DAYMary does paperwork at her desk. She looks through herreception window at the sad people waiting in the lobby withtheir bags of stuff.INT. MIERZWIAK'S OFICE - CONTINUOUSMierzwiak dials his phone and waits. He hangs up. Maryenters with the papers. MARY I need this signed, Howard.He takes it, unable to make eye contact. He signs it, handsit back. MARY (CONT'D) Thanks. (beat) So... do we talk about this... or what? MIERZWIAK I don't know what I'm supposed say, Mary. I want to do the right thing here. MARY Do you love me? Did you love me? Something. I listened to my tape. I can't believe I've been sitting right in front of it for a year. It's like listening to someone else's story. I mean, I hear myself talking about having sex with you and I can't even imagine you naked. I can't even say "naked" to you! MIERZWIAK I have a family, Mary. MARY You made me have an abortion. MIERZWIAK It was a mutual decision. MARY You made me have you erased! I loved you. I love you! How could you -- MIERZWIAK I didn't make you. You thought it best. (off her stare) But, look, I take full responsibility.She looks at him for a long while. Then, out of frustration,she screams.INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHTJoel sits across from Naomi. NAOMI (oddly cautious) So... you haven't been involved with anyone in all this time? JOEL It's been a pretty lonely couple of years. NAOMI I'm sorry. JOEL Well, it was my fault -- the break-up. I'm sorry. NAOMI Oh, sweetie. It really does cut both ways. We were taking each other for granted and -- JOEL I miss you. NAOMI Miss you, too. (awkward pause) I have been seeing someone for a little while. JOEL (trying for enthusiasm) Oh! Great. That's great! NAOMI A religion instructor at Columbia. A good guy. He's a good guy. JOEL I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have -- NAOMI I'm glad you called.INT. JOEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHTJoel and Naomi are in bed having sex. There are certainsexual routines, habits, they have fallen back into almostimmediately. She sticks her tongue in his ear in a waythat's trying to be sexual but just feels embarrassing tohim. They finish and lie there. JOEL So you think the dissertation will get published? NAOMI I don;t know. I'm not sure there's a big public demand for books on Calvinism and Misogyny.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTClementine lies in bed with Patrick.EXT. COMMUTER TRAIN STATION - MORNINGThe platform is crowded with business commuters. Joel isamong them.The platform across the tracks from them is empty. Suddenly,Joel turns and makes his way through the crowd. He climbsthe stairs, crosses the overpass and makes his way to theempty platform. An almost empty train pulls into thatplatform. Joel gets on the train and watches the businesscommuters through the dirty window as his train pulls out ofthe station.INT. MARY'S APARTMENT - MORNINGMary gets out of bed. She has been crying all night. She'sa wreck. She puts on some coffee then crosses into theliving room area. Sitting there are piles of the files fromwork. She pulls the top one out, copies the name and addressonto an envelope stuffs the file and tape cassette in. Shepulls another file out. This one has Joel's name on it. Shecopies it onto an envelope.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel says goodbye to Clementine. CLEMENTINE So you'll call me, right? JOEL Yeah. CLEMENTINE When? JOEL Tomorrow? CLEMENTINE Tonight. Just to test out the phone lines. JOEL Yeah.Joel exits. We stay on Clementine as she watches Joel headto his car, tromping through the snow.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHTJoel enters, drops his overcoat on a chair, dials the phone. JOEL Hi, Naomi, it's Joel. NAOMI'S VOICE Hi. JOEL How's it going? NAOMI'S VOICE Good. I called you at work today. They said you were home sick. JOEL I know. I had to take the day to think. NAOMI'S VOICE Yeah, I tried you at home. Did you get my message? JOEL I just got in. NAOMI'S VOICE Long day thinking.Joel flips on messages with volume down. JOEL Yeah, I suppose so. NAOMI ON MACHINE (cheerful) Hi. They told me you were sick! So... Where are you?! I had a really nice time last night. Just wanted to say hi, so... hi. Call me. I'm home. Call me! NAOMI'S VOICE That's me. JOEL There you are. (pause) Naomi, it's just... I'm afraid if we fall back into this fast without considering the problems we had... NAOMI Okay, Joel. I suppose you're right. JOEL I had a good time last night. I really did. NAOMI So I'm going to get some sleep. I'm glad you're okay. JOEL We'll speak soon. NAOMI 'Night.She hangs up and Joel stands there for a minute feelingcreepy, then he dials the number on a piece of paper. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE What took you so long? JOEL I just walked in. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Hmmm. Do you miss me? JOEL Oddly enough, I do. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Ha Ha! You said, I do. I guess that means we're married. JOEL I guess so. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Tomorrow night... honeymoon on ice.EXT. CHARLES RIVER - NIGHTClementine steps out onto it. Joel follows nervously. CLEMENTINE Don't worry. It's really solid this time of year. JOEL I don't know.She takes his hand and he is suddenly imbued with confidence. JOEL (CONT'D) This is so beautiful.She squeezes his hand. CLEMENTINE Isn't it?She runs and slides on the ice. Joel is by himself now. JOEL I don't know. What if it breaks? CLEMENTINE What if?Clementine lies on her back and stares up at the stars. Joelis paralyzed. He looks back at the shore. JOEL I think I should go back. CLEMENTINE Joel, come here. Please.He hesitates then gingerly makes his way over to her. Shereaches for his hand and gently pulls him down. He lies onhis back beside her, their bodies touching. He wants to turnto her, but out of shyness, doesn't. She holds his hand.They look up at the stars. She smiles, doesn't say anythingand snuggles closer to him. JOEL Listen, did you want to make love? CLEMENTINE Make love? JOEL Have sex. Y'know -- CLEMENTINE Oh, um... JOEL Because I just am not drunk enough or stoned enough to make that happen right now. CLEMENTINE That's okay. I -- JOEL I'm sorry. I just wanted to say that. This seems like the perfect romantic exotic place to do it and -- CLEMENTINE Hey, Joel -- JOEL -- and I'm just too nervous around you right now. CLEMENTINE I'm nervous, too. JOEL Yeah? I wouldn't have thought that. CLEMENTINE Well, you obviously don't know me. JOEL I'm nervous because I have and enormous crush on you.She smiles up at the sky. CLEMENTINE Show me which constellations you know.MONTAGEWe see people going to their mailboxes, finding manilaenvelopes. One by one they open the envelopes and pull outtapes. We see stunned, confused, disbelieving reactions aspeople listen to their tapes.EXT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - DAYJoel drops Clementine off. She kisses him.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - A FEW MINUTES LATERJoel enters with his mail. He opens a manila envelope, readsthe enclosed file, sticks the cassette tape in his stereo,listens. Joel dials the phone. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Yeah? JOEL Did you send this? Is it a joke? CLEMENTINE'S VOICE I probably got the same thing as you. JOEL I mean, I haven't even told anyone I've met you. Who would even know to do this? CLEMENTINE'S VOICE (matter of fact) Maybe it's true then. It's my voice on the tape. JOEL That's what you have to say? How could it be true? I never even heard of any procedure like this. It's a joke. CLEMENTINE Maybe. Call someone who'd know.MONTAGEWe see the people we saw opening envelopes, now on the phone.We hear over and over: "Is this true?", "Did this reallyhappen?", "Do I know you?", "Is it true?"INT. ROB AND CARRIE'S KITCHEN - DAYCarrie is on the phone. She pauses nervously, then speaks: CARRIE Yes, Joel. It is true. We weren't supposed to say anything. They say it's like waking a sleepwalker.INT. JOEL'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSJoel hangs up. He dials the phone. JOEL It's true. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE I know. I spoke to my friend Magda.Joel is immersed in the several page document. JOEL Look, I have to go. I have to think. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Joel, we've fucked. We've made love. Like a million times. And we were so sweet and shy and inept with each other last night. Isn't that lovely?Joel doesn't know what to say as this registers. He juststands there dumbly. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE (CONT'D) Come over here, sweetheart. Please.INT. CLEMENTINE'S APARTMENT - LATERJoel and Clementine review their separate Lacuna packagestogether. CLEMENTINE Says you were closed off, non communicative, never told me what you were feeling. JOEL Says you were a bully... CLEMENTINE (laughing) A bully? Moi? JOEL That's what it says. You drank too much, you picked on me for being passive and timid. CLEMENTINE Well, sounds like me. Sorry, man. (reading) Says you were jealous and suspicious. JOEL Says you would sometimes disappear all night, then brag to me about your sexual conquests. CLEMENTINE Did I use the term "sexual conquests" or is that your way of putting it. JOEL I don't know. CLEMENTINE Doesn't sound like me. JOEL Says you were a slob, leaving trails of panties and dirty socks in your wake. CLEMENTINE Says you were constantly calling me a slob. (laughs) It's sexy that we were like a married couple, griping and overly-familiar and bored. Don't you think? JOEL (considering) I sort of do. But I only see it as a fantasy version of reality. Cleaned up enough to be erotic. CLEMENTINE We should have sex. It's old hat for us.She smiles at nervous Joel. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) You know my body like the back of your hand.She unbuttons her blouse. CLEMENTINE (CONT'D) Every curve, every freckle.She takes off her shirt. He stares at her. He has clearlynever seen this body before. JOEL You're so beautiful.She approaches him, kisses him, his arms wrap around herwaist for the first time.INT. LACUNA LTD. WAITING ROOM - MORNINGStan enters the waiting room, now crowded with people holdingtheir files, a stunned-looking lot. There is a new woman inthe reception window. The file cases behind her are bare. RECEPTIONIST May I help you? STAN I work here. I used to work here. Stan. Please just tell Howard I'm here to clean out my desk. RECEPTIONIST (into phone) Mr. Mierzwiak, Stan is here to -- Yes sir. (to Stan) He says he needs to see you.INT. MIERZWIAK'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATERStan enters. Mierzwiak is pale and pacing. MIERZWIAK She should not have done this, Stan. As mad as she was... as justifiably -- STAN I don't know what you're talking about, Howard. MIERZWIAK Mary has stolen our files and is sending them back to people. STAN Jesus.Mierzwiak turns up the volume on a small video monitorlooking in on the lab, where Patrick has clearly taken overStan's position. He is in the process of interviewing a sadyoung woman. YOUNG WOMAN ... so I called everybody I know and asked them to tell me everything. Now I know my entire history with him, but it's in the form of a story, I'm losing my mind. MIERZWIAK This is why people must never be told. It's like waking a -- YOUNG WOMAN I don't know what to do. Before I thought I was depressed for no reason. Now it's like I've been assigned a reason. PATRICK This never should've happened, ma'am. We'll take care of it. MIERZWIAK I know you don't like me much, Stan, but please talk to Mary. She of all people should know this is a dangerous thing she's doing.INT. OFFICE - DAYJoel works over his light box. His phone rings. JOEL Hi, it's Joel. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Hey, lover. Whatcha doing? JOEL I'm just, y'know, passing the time best I can till I can see you. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE God, I can't believe I ever hated you. JOEL You must have been crazy. CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Guess what I'm wearing. JOEL I don't know. Panties and -- CLEMENTINE'S VOICE Your dried cum. JOEL Jesus. CLEMENTINE You're still excited by my irreverence. You haven't yet started to think of it as my "gratuitous need to shock." JOEL I can't stop thinking about you. CLEMENTINE Yay. Meet me after work by the old mill. JOEL What old mill? Is that somewhere we -- CLEMENTINE I just wanted to say that. Come by my house.INT. MARY'S APARTMENT - DAYMary opens the door. Stan stands there with two cups of takeout coffee. MARY Oh. STAN Hi. MARY What do you want, Stan? STAN Can I... I brought some --She steps aside for Stan to enter. He does, looks around,sees the tapes and the stuffed envelopes on the floor. STAN (CONT'D) What's this? MARY Nothing. STAN I know what it is. MARY Then why did you ask me? STAN I don't know. I just -- there are a lot of really confused people showing up at the office. MARY They have a right to know. Howard is a thief. He steals the truth. (suddenly weeping) I can't remember my baby! I can't remember my baby. It existed and I can't even remember. Do you understand that?Stan doesn't know what to say. He stands there dumbly. Maryslumps into a ball on a chair. STAN Mary, people come to him voluntarily. MARY I won't allow it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. What do you think of that? That's from my quote book. STAN The office is filled with people who want their memories re-erased. MARY (hysterically) Remember the Alamo! Remember the Alamo! STAN Mary... please. This is hurting people.Long pause, then: MARY (small) I don't want to hurt people. (breaking down) But these things happened! All these little sadnesses, the big ones. What if no one remembers? What does that do to the world? (beat, quietly) Someone has to remember, Stan.They look at each other.EXT. PARK - AFTERNOONVague elliptical images of a young girl on a swig. SAD WOMAN'S VOICE I was by myself in the park because my friend Davia was sick that day. I was on a swing. There was this smiling man walking a little bushy dog --Vague shots of a man smiling, a scruffy dog on a leash. SAD WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) The man said something like, "He's friendly --"Vague shot of the man, his voice overlapping with thewoman's. SAD WOMAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) "-- he won't bite." MAN He won't bite. You can pet him if you want...Shot of the girl petting the dog. MAN Do you want to give him a biscuit?The girl nods. MAN (CONT'D) They're in my car. Why don't you -- DISTRAUGHT WOMAN'S VOICE Excuse me? Hello?INT. LACUNA RECEPTION AREA - DAYMary, with a headset on, looks up, startled. She switchesoff the tape. She has been crying. There's a pile of tapesnext to her. The distraught woman is standing there. MARY May I help you? DISTRAUGHT WOMAN I'm here for Dr. Mierzwiak. My name is Helene Kernfeld. MARY Yes, please have a seat. The doctor will be with you momentarily.The woman sits. Mary presses an intercom button. MARY (CONT'D) Howard, your 10:30.She switches the tape back on. SAD WOMAN'S VOICE He took me to his car and ...Vague shot of the girl being raped.INT. COMMUTER TUBE - DAYThe old woman is staring off blankly, her giant manuscript inher lap, as she travels over the New York skyline. We moveinto her eyes.INT. VAGUE SPACEVague reenactments of memories intermingle in this undefinedspace:The young girl being raped by the man in the car.A soldier on a battlefield looking at his slaughteredfriends.A couple fighting, from the woman's point of view. MAN I...I... I... find you physically repulsive! I can't even look at you!They look at each other in silence.A little boy being called "faggot" by an endless successionof boys.The aftermath of a car accident from the driver's POV.Mary having an abortion.INT. COMMUTER TUBE - DAYThe old woman and her chair lift out of the line ofcommuters.INT. WAITING ROOM - DAYIt's modern and well-appointed. The old woman enters, sitsbehind the reception desk, drops her manuscript into thedrawer. She takes some pills with water. An old manenters. OLD MAN How are you today, Mary? OLD WOMAN (MARY) Let's see... Still dying, Howard. OLD MAN (HOWARD) You don't have to jump down my throat. I was trying to be nice. OLD WOMAN (MARY) Well, don't try. It's unbecoming on you.Old Howard mutters something and disappears into the back.Old Mary pulls out a file from behind, removes a small disc,places it in a machine on her desk, slips on earphones andlistens, somewhat wearily but attentively. We watch thecolor drain from her face, but don't hear the recording.Another old woman enters the office. Old Mary looks up,seems a bit startled, conceals it, turns off the tape. OLD WOMAN (MARY) (CONT'D) May I help you? SECOND OLD WOMAN I'd like to make an appointment. OLD WOMAN (MARY) I think the doctor is free this morning. He can probably take you right away for an initial consultation.The second old woman smiles gratefully.INT. OLD MAN'S OFFICE - A FEW MINUTES LATEROld Howard works at his desk. Old Mary enters with thesecond old woman. OLD WOMAN (MARY) Dr. Mierzwiak, this is Clementine Kruczynski. She'd like to talk to you.Old Howard and the old Mary eye each other. OLD MAN (HOWARD) Hello, Ms. Kruczynski. Nice to meet you. Please have a seat.He indicates a sitting area. She sits. He joins her. OLD MAN (HOWARD) (CONT'D) Would you mind if I tape our discussion?She shakes her hear. He punches a couple of buttons on hiscomputer console. A tape recorder starts up and his computerscreen lights up so only he can see it. On it we see a wholefile on Clementine Kruczynski: a list of fifteen dates ofprevious erasures stretching back fifty years, all of theminvolving Joel Barish. OLD MAN (HOWARD) (CONT'D) So, why don't you begin by telling me why you've come here. SECOND OLD WOMAN (CLEMENTINE) Well, I met this man, Joel, three years ago at a senior dance... We'd both been alone for so long and...INT. TUBE - NIGHTThe old woman (Mary) travels in the commuter tube overManhattan. It's late, the tube is mostly empty. She hasearphones on. SECOND OLD WOMAN (CLEMENTINE) (V.O.) I remember Joel and I were having breakfast --INT. VAGUE SPACEAn old man and the second old woman eat breakfast. SECOND OLD WOMAN (CLEMENTINE) (V.O.) -- I said something like we should go upstate and see the leaves change...The old man looks up from his cereal and stares blankly. Thewoman smiles, but there is no response... just a dead stare. SECOND OLD WOMAN (CLEMENTINE) (V.O.) (CONT'D) He just stared at me as if I didn't exist. As if I had never existed...INT. TUBE - CONTINUOUSThe second old woman's (Clementine) voice drones tinnily onin the distance. The old woman with the earphones is dead,her eyes glassy and unseeing. SECOND OLD WOMAN (CLEMENTINE) (V.O.) -- his eyes used to be so filled with love. But it was gone. How can I go back to being alone after seeing love? I was alone for so long. What had I done with my life? I was alone so long.INT. SECOND OLD WOMAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHTThe old Clementine is unconscious on her bed, hooked up tomodern versions of the erasing machines. Two youngtechnicians monitor the equipment. The woman's bedside phonerings. Her machine picks up. After a moment: OLD MAN'S VOICE Hi, it's Joel. What's going on, Clem? Why won't you call me back? Please call me. We need to speak.The machine clicks off. One of the technicians reaches overand presses the "erase" button on the machine.BLACK.THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..78969b4d761ef11b5979f1d6a0d15671627e08d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES Written by Gus Van Sant Based on a novel by Tom Robbins SHOOTING DRAFT 1993 INT. CAVE NIGHT There is a huge ancient hourglass made of animal skins, and acorns plop through the waist of the hourglass one by one. It sits in a pool of water. In the water swim EYELESS CATFISH in geometric patterns. An underground stream feeds the pool of water and then flows into a huge underground crevasse that on occasion emits a LOW RUMBLE. INDIANS with torches surround the hourglass, which now we can see is in a cave. And as soon as the acorns have finished passing through the hourglass, a crew of Indians turn it on its opposite end. One of the Indians appears to be JAPANESE. ONE INDIAN stands at the wall of the cavern in front of a series of symbolic carvings and scratches, with stone in hand he makes a few hatchmarks, and keeps an eye on the CREVASSE. THE CREVASSE RUMBLES once more, loosening a few chunks of rock from the cave. The earth begins to shake. THE CHART KEEPER She is restless tonight. ANOTHER INDIAN She dreams of loving. STILL ANOTHER She has the blues. View of the chartkeeper's drawings. One is of a crane with a very long neck. Another is a primitive drawing of a naked girl, who has long flowing hair. She also has, pointed out from her sides, thumbs that are three times normal human proportions. A MUSICAL CHORUS sounds at the sight of this drawing of a girl with the thumbs. The chartkeeper puts the finishing touches on the drawing. And the song "Happy Birthday to You" strikes up on country and western guitar and polka-like accordion. title BIG THUMBS INT. RICHMOND VIRGINIA SUBURBAN HOME DAY We see CANDLES burning on a cake. It is somebody's birthday. And there are six candles on the cake. SISSY HANKSHAW is six years old. Her DADDY and a visiting UNCLE, finishing their rendition of Happy Birthday, are staring down at Sissy and looking at her young THUMBS, WHICH ARE UNUSUALLY LARGE and twitch with a mind of their own. She manages to blow out all six candles. UNCLE Well, you're lucky that you don't suck 'em. DADDY Sissy couldn't suck 'em, she'd need a mouth like a fish tank. Sissy is negotiating a fork full of birthday cake, dropping it because of her thumbs. UNCLE (agrees) The poor little tyke might have a hard time finding herself a hubby. But as far as getting along in the world, it's a real blessing that Sissy's a girl-child. Lord, I reckon this youngun would never make a mechanic. DADDY Nope, and not a brain surgeon, neither. UNCLE Course she'd do pretty good as a butcher. She could retire in two years on the overcharges alone. Laughing, the men walk to the kitchen to fill their glasses. Sissy is left to feel sorry for herself in front of her cake. UNCLE (O.S.) One thing, that youngun would make one hell of a hitchhiker... This startles Sissy. A new word that tinkles in her head with a supernatural echo. Sissy looks at her thumbs. UNCLE (O.S.) ...if she was a boy, I mean. INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE DAY Dr. Dreyfus looks over Sissy's thumbs. DR. DREYFUS She is, if I may speak frankly, somewhat of a medical oddity. Due to impaired dexterity, her life activities and career potentialities will be reduced. It could be worse. Bring her back to me if there ever is pain. Meanwhile, she will have to learn to live with them. MRS. HANKSHAW That she will. That she will. The Lord made them things big for a purpose. God don't never git tired of testing our kind. It's a punishment of some sort, for what I don't rightly know. (whimpering) Oh Doc, if a young man ever shows up here with, a young man with ugly fingers, you know, something similar, a similar case, Doc, would you please... DR. DREYFUS Remember the words of the painter Paul Gauguin, dear lady. "The ugly may be beautiful, the pretty never." I don't suppose that means very much to you. MRS. HANKSHAW It's a judgement. She's gotta bear the punishment. Sissy beams serenely like a Christ figure. INT. SCHOOL LIBRARY DAY Sissy looks up "thumb" in the dictionary. It says: the short, thick first or most preaxial digit of the human hand, differing from the other fingers by having two phalanges and greater freedom of movement. Sissy mouthing the words: "Greater freedom of movement." EXT. ROAD DAY Sissy very timidly ventures a pass with her gigantic right thumb in the direction she is walking. She is passed by...... BUT NO! BRAKE LIGHTS! A Pontiac skids ever so slightly on the snowflakes. View of the Pontiac insignia on the hood of the car. Sissy runs, actually sweating, to its side. She peers in. OUTSIDE a palmist's trailer is a sign with a red silhouette of a hand. Directly under the wrist where the watch band would be is written MADAME ZOE. Madam Zoe in kimono and wig lets Sissy and her mother in the door. MADAME ZOE I am the enlightened Madame Zoe. Inside. Madame Zoe begins stubbing a cigarette in one of those enlightened little ceramic ashtrays that are shaped like bedpans and inscribed BUTTS. The trailer is cluttered, but not one knick-knack, chintz curtain or chenille-covered armchair seems to have come from the Beyond. MADAME ZOE There is nothing about your past, present or future that your hands do not know, and there is nothing about your hands that Madame Zoe does not know. There is no hocus-pocus involved. I am a scientist, not a magician. I, Madame Zoe, chiromancer, lifelong student of the moldings and markings of the human hand. I, Madame Zoe, to whom no facet of your character or destiny is not readily revealed. I am prepared to... Then she notices the thumbs. MADAME ZOE Jesus fucking Christ! Mrs. Hankshaw and the fortune-teller turn pale and uncertain, while Sissy recognizes with a faint smile that she is in command. Sissy extends the thumbs as an ailing aborigine might extend his swollen parts to a medical missionary. Sissy's mama draws a neatly folded five-dollar bill from her change purse and extends it alongside her smiling daughter's extremities. Madame Zoe returns to her senses, and takes Sissy by the elbow to sit at a For mica-topped table of undistinguished design. Madam Zoe holds Sissy's hands while she appears to go into a trance. She opens her eyes momentarily. MADAME ZOE You have a strong will. Will power and determination are indicated by the first phalanx. The second phalanx indicates reason and logic. You obviously have both in large supply. What's your name, dearie? SISSY Sissy. MADAME ZOE Hmmm. I'd say that you have an intelligent, kindly, somewhat artistic nature. However, Sissy, however, there is a heavy quality to the second phalanx- the phalanx of logic -- that indicates a capacity for foolish or clownish behavior, a refusal to accept responsibility or to take things seriously and bent to be disrespectful of those who do. Your mama tells me that you're pretty well behaved and shy, but I'd watch out for signs of irrationality. All right? She pulls her thumb to her breast. MADAME ZOE I guess the most important aspect of your thumbs is the, ahem, over all size. Uh, what was it, do you know, that caused...? Mom speaks out from the couch she is sitting on MRS HANKSHAW Don't know; the doctors don't know... SISSY Just lucky I guess. MADAME ZOE Do you study history in school? Galileo, Descartes, Newton? Lebinitz had very large thumbs; Voltaire's were enormous, but, heh heh, just pickles compared with yours. SISSY What about Crazy Horse? MADAME ZOE Crazy Horse? You mean the Indian? Nobody that I've ever heard of ever troubled to study the paws of savages. Well, I guess that about covers the three-fifty charge... Madame Zoe lets go of Sissy's thumbs and wipes her hands on her kimono. MRS. HANKSHAW Husband. Mrs. Hankshaw withdraws a bill from her rat-skin bag. MADAME ZOE Beg your pardon? MRS. HANKSHAW Husband. Will she find a husband? MADAME ZOE Oh, I see. Madame Zoe takes Sissy's hand and gives it the old tall-dark- stranger squint. MADAME ZOE I see men in your life, honey. I also see women, lots of women. She raises her eyes to meet Sissy's looking for an admission of the "tendency", but there is no signal. Mrs. Hankshaw does not approve. MADAME ZOE A husband, no doubt about it, though he is years away. There are children, too. Five, maybe six, but the husband is not the father. They will inherit your characteristics. Mrs. Hankshaw, aghast, has heard plenty, and she ushers her daughter out of the trailer as if she were leading her from a burning cocktail lounge. TITLE ACROSS THE SCREEN: COWGIRL INTERLUDE (Delores del Ruby) EXT. BADLANDS DAY Views of vast vistas of arid grasslands, open and unmodulated, thirsty and exposed. At the western edge of the DAKOTAS, the monotony of the landscape, now gradually tilting toward the Rockies, is interrupted by the Badlands -- sculptured canyons so deep and chaotic they can break a devil's heart. Between the grasslands and the eerie badlands ruins, there lies a narrow band of humpy hills, green and pastoral. The hills are carpeted with midlength prairie grass. The Rubber Rose buildings are clustered at the badlands end at the base of a butte, higher, broader and longer than any in its vicinity, known as Siwash Ridge. a sign over the entry of the ranch reads: Welcome to the Rubber Rose Ranch (the largest all-girl ranch in the west) Delores del Ruby arrives at the Rubber Rose Ranch, carrying a whip at her side and batting an educated lash at the surrounding sights. DELORES I've traveled through the Yucatan with a circus, popping false eyelashes off a trained monkey with a bullwhip. When I ate peyote one night and had a vision. Niwet¸kame, the Mother Goddess, came to me on the back of a doe, hummingbirds sipping the tears she was shedding, crying 'Delores, you must lead my daughters against their natural enemy. You must come to the Rubber Rose Ranch and prepare for your mission, the details of which will be revealed to you in a third vision....' That night I whipped the shit out of my black lover and ran away. For a while I drove around, making a living selling peyote buttons to hippies, until I made my way here... A snake crosses the road in front of her, and she takes her whip and whirls it around her head. The snake that is crawling across the dusty road that leads to the ranch is carrying a card under its forked tongue. Delores snaps her whip at the snake and picks the card out of his mouth and lets it fly in the air. Delores catches it..... The card is the Queen of Spades. EXT. ROAD DAY Sissy is thirty years old now wearing a trademark colored jumpsuit. She is saying these words still: "Greater freedom of movement." Sissy sticks out her thumb, even though there is no traffic. A plane is flying overhead. Sissy hitches it; and the plane's flight path curves with in response to her gesture. A squirrel running by stops to look. The bus on the other side of the road skids to a stop and two cars coming her way stop as well. INT. CAR DAY The man driving looks over the back seat to the hitchiker behind him. INT. BUS DAY The bus driver does the same. EXT. ROAD From the look of her Sissy is a very seasoned hitchhiker, and she turns around relatively unimpressed with the fact that a car has stopped for her. SISSY'S VIEW. The man driving is black-skinned, beret-topped and he has four smiling gold teeth and six shiny brass saxaphones in the back seat. He wears a gardenia in his lapel and tokes on a short joint. SISSY Going north? MAN You bet your raggedy white ass I am. Sissy gets in. He turns up the volume of his radio and rockets north. INT. LINCOLN CONTINENTAL DAY Sissy ventures into her pocket and pulls out a slice of cheese and offers it to him. He now gets a better look at her unusual thumbs. They are elegant, but large boned, and disproportionate. They are banana shaped boats that makes it a little awkward to hold onto the cheese. MAN (taking an alarming interest in her thumbs) Thanks. SISSY American Cheese. The king of road food. He eats the cheese, and worries about the thumbs. He tokes on the joint between his fingers. MAN Are you in show business? SISSY I was a successful model once. MAN For magazines? SISSY I was the Yoni Yum feminine-hygiene Dew girl from 1965 to 1970, but got laid off. MAN So now you're bummin' around? SISSY Yep. MAN Hitchhiking? SISSY I'm the best. MAN You're the best? SISSY When I was younger, I hitchhiked one hundred and twenty-seven hours without stopping, without food or sleep, crossed the continent twice in six days, cooled my thumbs in both oceans and caught rides after midnight on unlighted highways. MAN Whooee! SISSY As I developed, however, I grew more concerned with subtleties and nuances of style. Time in terms of M.P.H. no longer interested me. I began to hitchhike in something akin to geological time: slow, ancient, vast. When I am really moving, stopping car after car after car, moving so freely, so clearly, so delicately that even the sex maniacs and the cops can only blink and let me pass, then I embody the rhythms of the universe. I am in a state of grace. The man listening to her takes another toke on his joint. EXT. ROAD DAY A view down the road of the Lincoln Continental going swiftly in its direction. CREDIT INTERLUDE featuring the song "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" as sung by (an undetermined country or pop star like k.d. lang or Bob Dylan) in an old television Kine-scope piece of film like you might see on early 1950's television sets. Between Sissy watching this image on old motel televisions, there are also IMAGES of roads, cars, trucks, highways, thumbs, gas stations and deserts gliding by in a flow of natural hitchhiking beauty. EXT. POST OFFICE DAY Sissy gets out of a large eighteen wheel truck and walks into a United States Post Office. INT. POST OFFICE DAY Sissy at the window picking up some mail, and opening a lavender colored letter that reeks of perfume, she is surprised to read this: Sissy, Precious Being, How are you, my extraordinary one? I worry so. Next time you are near Manhattan, do ring me up. There is a man to whom I simply must introduce you. Thrill!! -The Countess Sissy looks at the envelope and return address. Elaborately embossed is the Countess' logo... INT. COUNTESS'S OFFICE DAY The elaborately embossed envelope is now being sealed.. The Countess gives it a licking... Beside him is a young watercolorist named Julian. THE COUNTESS I will send this out to Sissy, she should get it in a week, and you will be able to meet her. When I send a letter to Sissy, duplicates must be sent to U.S. Post Office Boxes in LaConner, Taos, Pine Ridge, Cherokee and that other place, for her to pick up... Why she's probably out there right now in Hibbing, Minnesota, or Deluth, Montana... hitching her way across the country. INT. TRUCKERS CAB NIGHT Sissy is talking to a trucker as they pass down the road. SISSY Right off, I don't remember how old I was when I found out I was part Indian. My mamma's family, a lot of them, had lived out West, in the Dakotas, and one of them had married a squaw. Siwash tribe. My pleasure in Indianhood and my passion for car travel might be incongruous if not mutually exclusive........ After all, the first car that ever stopped for me had been named in honor of the great chief of the Ottawa: Pontiac...... In the distance, Sissy spies her destination. NEW YORK CITY. SISSY NEW YORK CITY. It's still a helluva town.... EXT. OFFICE BUILDING DAY Sissy gets out of the truck and looks up at a large building. INT. COUNTESS'S OFFICE DAY THE COUNTESS Sit down dear, do sit down. Sissy Hankshaw takes a seat. The Countess lifts a dusty decanter. THE COUNTESS Take a load off those lovely tootsies. Yes, sit right down. Would you fancy some sherry? The decanter is empty, a stiff fly lies feet up on it's lip. THE COUNTESS Shit O goodness, I'm all out of sherry; how about some Red Ripple? He reaches into a midget refrigerator beside his desk and pulls out some pop wine. THE COUNTESS You know what Red Ripple is don't you? It's Kool-Aid with a hard on. Tee Hee. Sissy manages a polite smile. She looks at a heavily finger printed glass. THE COUNTESS (he toasts) To my own special Sissy. Cheers! And welcome. So my letter brought ya flying, eh? Where were you? Salt Lake City? La Conner? Well, I may have a little surprise for you. But first, tell me about yourself. It's been six months, hasn't it? In some circles that's half a year. How are you? SISSY Tired... THE COUNTESS That's the very first time in the eons that I've known you that I've ever heard you complain. And now you're tired, poor darling. SISSY A born freak can only go uphill. THE COUNTESS Freak, schmeek. Most of us are freaks in one way or another. Try being born a male Russian countess into a white middle class Baptist family in Mississippi and you'll see what I mean. SISSY I've always been proud of the way nature singled me out. It's the people who have been deformed by society I feel sorry for. I've been steady moving for eleven years and some months. Maybe I should rest up for a spell, I'm not as young as I used to be. THE COUNTESS Shit O goodness, you won't be thirty for another year, and you're more beautiful than ever. SISSY Does that mean you might have an assignment for me? The Countess taps his monocle with his cigarette holder. He looks on his wall, and on a poster advertising a feminine hygene product, Yoni Yum Dew Spray, stands Sissy Hankshaw, her thumbs neatly hidden, chopped off by the borders of the photograph. THE COUNTESS You were the Yoni Yum girl from, let's see, (peruses the ad layouts on the wall) from nineteen sixty-eight through nineteen seventy. You've always smelled so nice. Like a little sister. The irony has just killed me. You, the Dew Girl, one of the few girls who doesn't need Dew. I loath the stink of females! They are so sweet the way God made them, then they start fooling around with men and soon they're stinking. Like rotten mushrooms, like an excessively chlorinated swimming pool, like a tuna fish's retirement party. They all stink. From the Queen of England to Bonanza Jellybean, they stink. SISSY Bonanza Jellybean? THE COUNTESS What? Oh yes. Tee-hee. Jellybean. The Countess's jaw muscles calm down, his dentures ease into a samba... THE COUNTESS She's a young thing who works on my ranch. Real name is Sally Jones or something wooden like that. She's cute as a hot fudge taco, and, of course, it takes verve to change one's name so charmingly. But she stinks like a slut just the same. SISSY Your ranch? THE COUNTESS Oh my dear yes, I bought a little ranch out West, sort of a tribute to the women of America who have cooperated with me in eliminating their odor by using my vaginal products, Dew spray mist and Yoni Yum spray powder. A tax write-off, actually. He looks out his window as a squirrel crosses Park Avenue. THE COUNTESS Sissy, Sissy, blushing bride, you can desist from wearing paths in those forgotten highways. The Countess has arranged a job for you. And what a job... SISSY A job for me? THE COUNTESS I am once more about to make advertising history. And only you, the original Yoni Yum/Dew Girl, could possibly assist me. The Countess hands Sissy an article that she reads clenched in her fist. SISSY The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday female deodorant sprays may cause such harmful reactions as blisters, burns and rashes. Although the FDA judges that the reported reactions are not sufficient to justify removal of these products from the market, they are sufficient to warrant the proposed mandatory label warnings. THE COUNTESS Shit O dear, that's enough to make me asthmatic. The nerve of those twits. What do they know about female odor? Don't interrupt. Here's my concept. My ranch out West? It's a beauty ranch. Oh, it's got a few head of cattle for atmosphere and tax purposes. But it's a beauty ranch, a place where unhappy women -- divorcees and widows, mainly -- can go to lose weight, remove wrinkles, change their hair styles and pretty themselves up for the next disappointment. My ranch is named the Rubber Rose, after the Rubber Rose douche bag, my own invention, and bless its little red bladder, the most popular douche bag in the world. So get this. It's on the migratory flight path of the whooping cranes. The last flock of wild whooping cranes left in existence. Well, these cranes stop off at my little pond -- Siwash Lake, it's called -- twice a year, autumn and spring, and spend a few days each time, resting up, eating, doing whatever whooping cranes do. I've never seen them, understand, but I hear they're magnificent. Very big specimens -- I mean, huge mothers -- and white as snow, to coin a phrase, except for black tips on their wings and tail feathers, and bright red heads. Now, whooping cranes, in case you didn't know it, are noted for their mating dance. It's just the wildest show in nature. It's probably the reason why birdwatching used to be so popular with old maids and deacons. Picture these rare, beautiful, gigantic birds in full dance -- leaping six feet off the mud, arching their backs, flapping their wings, strutting low to the ground. Dears, it's overwhelming. And picture the birds doing their sex dance on TV. Right there on the home screen, creation's most elaborate sex ritual -- yet clean and pure enough to suit the Pope. With lovely Sissy Hankshaw in the foreground. In a white gown, red hood attached, and big feathery sleeves trimmed in black. In a very subdued imitation of the female whooping crane, she dance/walks over to a large nest in which there sits a can of Yoni Yum. And a can of Dew. Off-camera, a string quartet is playing Debussy. A sensuous voice is reading a few poetic lines about courtship and love. Are you starting to get it? Doesn't it make the hair on your neck stand up and applaud? My very goodness gracious! Grandiose, lyrical, erotic and Girl Scout- oriented; you can't top it. I've hired a crew of experts from Walt Disney Studios, the best wildlife cinematographers around. You're my eternal favorite. Princess Grace herself couldn't be better, not even if she had your personality which she doesn't; Anyway, dear, I'm out of photography now and into water colors. Ah how circuitous conversation is! We're back at the beginning. The exact man I've wanted you to meet is my artist the watercolorist. Sissy dares a sip of Red Ripple. SISSY If you don't want me to pose for him, why do you want me to meet him? THE COUNTESS Purely personal. I believe you might enjoy one another. SISSY But Countess... THE COUNTESS Now, now. Don't get exasperated. I realize that you've always avoided all but the most rudimentary involvements with men, and I might add, you've been wise. Heterosexual relationships seem to lead only to marriage. For men, marriage is a matter of efficient logistics: The male gets his food, bed, laundry, TV, pussy, offspring and creature comforts all under one roof, where he doesn't have to dissipate his psychic energy thinking about them too much, then he is free to go out and fight the battles of life, which is what existence is all about. But for a woman marriage is surrender. The Countess refills his glass. The squirrel starts across Park Avenue again but doesn't make it. The uniformed chauffeur gets out of a limousine and holds the crushed animal up where it can be seen by an elderly woman passenger. THE COUNTESS But here you are, still a virgin -- you are virginal yet, aren't you? SISSY Why, yes, technically. Jack Kerouac and I came awfully close, but he was afraid of me, I think... THE COUNTESS Yes, well, what I'm getting at is that there comes a time when it is psychologically impossible for a woman to lose her virginity. She can't wait too long, you know. Now, there's no reason why you must lose yours. I mean, just ponder it a bit, that's all. SISSY (her brow spaghettied) What makes you think this watercolorist and I would develop a romantic relationship? THE COUNTESS I can't be certain that you would. But what have you got to lose? SISSY Well, okay. I'll try it. I don't see the point in it, but I'll try it. Just for you. It's kind of silly, actually, me going out with an artist in New York City. However... THE COUNTESS Good, good, good... you'll enjoy it, you'll see. Julian is a gentleman. Suddenly the Countess swivels in his desk chair and leans forward. Lowering his wine glass, he focuses directly, intensely into Sissy's blue eyes. His smile widens. THE COUNTESS By the way, Sissy... he's a full blooded Indian. A title: COWGIRL INTERLUDE INT. RUBBER ROSE OUTHOUSE DAY The Outhouse Radio is playing "The Starving Armenians Polka" and Bonanza Jellybean and Delores del Ruby are in the privy, caught in the rain. JELLY Well, I'm not scared of a little rain. DELORES Me neither. JELLY Might as well brave it. DELORES Right. I don't know about you but I'm sure not sweet enough to melt. Delores flicks her whip at a sweat bee that has taken refuge in the privy and hits the photograph of Dale Evans upon which it has lit. Jelly looks out the door of the outhouse across a cut green lawn to a bunkhouse where we can see a gathering of other cowgirls. There is a fly buzz and a distant polka yip. Way off horse lips flutter. Bonanza spies a picture of Sissy Hankshaw, an advertisement for Yoni Yum Dew Spray mist, on the privy wall. JELLY (musing) Someday...... if that Sissy Hankshaw ever shows up here, I'm gonna teach her how to hypnotize a chicken. Chickens are the easiest critters on Earth to hypnotize. If you can look a chicken in the eyes for tens seconds, it's yours forever. INT. BUNKHOUSE DAY A meeting is in progression in the bunkhouse that morning. Mary is addressing the group. MARY I want to complain that some of the cowgirls have been sleeping two to a bunk again, in violation of the agreement that "crimes against nature" are to be confined to the hayloft. DEBBIE I don't care who lay with whom or where or how, but the moaners, groaners and screamers ought to turn down their volume when others are trying to sleep or meditate. Some of the younger cowgirls blush. BIG RED I want to complain about the food around here! It's rotten to the core. A round of support from the other cowgirls in the form of cattle calls. INT. OUTHOUSE DAY Jelly and Delores are getting ready to run through the rain, when all of a sudden, Jelly spies a barefoot cowgirl -- it's Debbie -- run across the yard in her karate robe, jump on the Exercycle that is rusting in the weeds and begin pumping the pedals furiously in the yammering rain. DELORES My sacred crocodile! She's flipped. But in a minute, others follow Debbie, everyone of them, in fact; the entire bunkhouse load of them, some thirty young cowgirls, squealing, giggling, They slide and roll on the wet grass, push each other into the mud that is forming by the corral fence, chase one another in and out of the thick folds of rain draperies, stamp their cute feet in puddles and do bellyflops into the overflowing horse trough. The cowgirls frolic until, as suddenly as it has come, the rain goes away. Play ceases. They are panting like puppies as they lean against one another or pick clods of mud from one another's hair. ELAINE I move that the meeting be adjourned. DEBBIE At the end of the endless game, there is friendship. HEATHER What the heck did she mean by that! JELLY Just that in Heaven all business is conducted this way. INT. HOTEL LOBBY NIGHT In the lobby, the doors of an elevator open revealing Sissy inside wearing a buttoned up dress. Very formal looking for her. There is Julian standing in the lobby. He turns and walks toward Sissy. He is wearing a rather formal looking plaid sport coat with blue cummerbund. He extends his hand to meet her, and (perhaps at the sight of Sissy's thumbs) Julian has an asthma attack, doubling over in front of her. Sissy doesn't know whether to assist Julian or flee. From the other side of the lobby, two WELL-GROOMED COUPLES, white, mid-thirties and upper middle class come to the rescue. The younger of the men, RUPERT, takes charge. He breaks an inhaler of dinephrine under Julian's nose. RUPERT We'd better take you home. In the red of embarrassment, Julian looks more Indian than he had previously. Wheezing, he speaks: JULIAN I beg your pardon. I've been enthralled with your photographs for years. When the Countess hinted that you might like to meet me -- he never explained why -- I was ready to paint for him free of charge. And now I had to go and spoil it. EXT. STREET NIGHT Rupert is helping Julian to the street. Rupert is a salesman for a publishing house. His wife Carla, a homemaker, as they say. The other couple breaks down into Howard and Marie Barth, both copywriters for an ad agency. Howard hails a cab and Carla and Marie flutter around Sissy. MARIE This is dreadful. (lowering her voice confidentially) You know, asthma attacks are brought on by emotional stress. Poor Julian is so high strung. The excitement of meeting you -- my dear, you look so stunning! -- must have upset his chemical balance. Carla nods. Everyone is piling into the taxi. RUPERT Come on, Sissy, don't be afraid of us. SISSY I've never ridden in a cab. The whole idea of paying for a ride makes my thumbs hurt. Sissy is forced to suffer the indignity of riding in a vehicle she wasn't responsible for flagging with her own thumbs. CARLA It'll be all right, dear. It isn't as serious as it sounds. INT. CAB NIGHT Carla starts to pat Sissy's hand, then decides to leave the thumbs to themselves. The six of them are squeezed into the taxi. Sissy looks out the window of the taxi: SISSY'S VIEW as the taxi stops at a light, she can see a newsstand headline on the front page of the New York Daily News: THE CHINK SUMS IT UP, SAYS LIFE IS HARD IF YOU THINK IT'S HARD. EXT. JULIAN'S APARTMENT NIGHT THE TAXI stops in front of Julian's building. It discharges its passengers. INT. JULIAN'S APARTMENT NIGHT INSIDE Howard mixes Scotch and sodas, Rupert fills a syringe from a vial of aminophylline he has taken from its place behind a gelatin salad mold in the refrigerator. He gives Julian an injection. RUPERT There, that ought to beat them bronchial buggers into submission. He turns to Sissy. RUPERT I was a medic in the Army. I really should have become a doctor. Sometimes, though, I feel that pushing books is a whole lot like pushing medicine. Think of books as pills. I have pills that cure ignorance and pills that cure boredom. I have pills to elevate moods and pills to open people's eyes to the awful truth... CARLA Too bad you don't have a pill for bullshit. Carla smiles as if she were joking, but she'd said it tartly. Rupert glares and takes a big bite of Scotch. HOWARD (changing the subject) Where do you live, Miss Hankshaw? SISSY I'm staying with the Countess. HOWARD I know, but where do you reside when you aren't visiting New York? SISSY I don't. HOWARD You don't? SISSY Well, no, I don't reside anywhere in particular. I just keep moving. Everyone looks a bit astonished including the recumbent Julian. HOWARD A traveler, eh? SISSY You might say that, although I don't think of it as traveling. CARLA How do you think of it? SISSY As moving. CARLA Oh. MARIE How... unusual... HOWARD Mmmmm... Rupert bites into his Scotch again. Julian issues a watery wheeze. Then, silence. CARLA Rupert, before you get too engrossed in your research on Scotch as a cure for aging, don't you think you'd better phone Elaine's and cancel our dinner reservations? Sissy leaves her chair and wanders about the apartment. Which is full of books and shelves. RUPERT (O.S.) What would we do without you, Carla? Without our little efficiency expert, Carla, everything would just go to hell. Carla is thinking about running for mayor next year, aren't you, Carla? CARLA (O.S.) Up yours, Herr Doktor Book Salesman. Will the demands of your medical practice allow you to call Elaine's or shall I? MARIE (O.S.) Oh let me do it. Sissy is intrigued by an antique here and an object d'art there, but she knows she is in an alien environment. INT. JULIAN'S BEDROOM NIGHT Sissy enters a bedroom There is a covered birdcage. She sits upon the bed listening for a 'cheep' from the birds. And gradually she reclines. Then turning her head to the side against the bedspread: SISSY No Indian blankets... no Indian blankets... And she blacks out. And the sound drifts away in waves, so there is only the whistle of a distant wind through the mortar of the apartment building... ...Until one by one, we see button necks freed. Soon Sissy can feel it. Someone is undressing her. In a voice webby with sleep she lifts her head up, and sees Howard and Marie. SISSY Where are the others? HOWARD Oh, Rupert and Carla had a little hassle and went home. MARIE Julian fell asleep on the couch; we covered him up. HOWARD We thought that we should make you comfortable too. Sissy thinks this is nice, but wonders, however, why they are both in their underwear. SISSY Yes, thanks... Between the two of them, they have gotten Sissy out of her dress in no time. Sissy feels she should apologize for not having on a brassiere. Marie slips out of her own brassiere and moves her bare bosom close to Sissy's. MARIE Mine are fuller but yours are more perfectly shaped. HOWARD Highly debatable. I'll wager they're the exact same size. Howard cups his left hand about a Marie breast and his right about one of Sissy's. He weighs them in his palms, squeezes them the way an honest grocer squeezes excess water from a lettuce, and spreads his fingers to sample their circumference. HOWARD Hmm. Yours are larger, Marie, but Miss Hankshaw's -- Sissy's -- are more firm. You'd think they would have started to droop; I mean, from not wearing a bra. MARIE Howard! Watch your manners. You've made her blush. Here, Sissy, let me compare. Marie seizes Sissy's free breast, quickly, like a monkey picking a fruit, rolling it about in her hungry little finger, rubbing it against her chin and cheeks... ...and... ...it was like her earlier days as a hitchhiker.... nostalgic..... tropical plums. SISSY (in ecstasy) This place is finer than the place I live! Like a disc jockey from Paradise, Howard flips Marie over and plays her B side. Every now and then she reaches for Sissy to include her, but the laws of physics insist on being obeyed. Over and over Marie calls Sissy's name with half-closed eyes. The Barths are really going at it, Marie yowling like a cat. The POODLE in the kitchen begins to growl. SISSY So this is what it's like... so this is what it's really like. INT. LIVING ROOM NIGHT Sissy bounces out of the bed and patters through the living room and crawls under the cover with Julian. Julian stirs awake. JULIAN Oh, Sissy. I am sorry about all the fuss. Julian and Sissy embrace and go at it under the covers But suddenly: Julian stops after a brief climax. JULIAN (with downcast eyes) I apologize. Sissy cradles Julian and comforts him. JULIAN It is the measure of Western Civilization that it can encompass in harmony, balance off, as it were, such divergent masterworks as A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and THE AMERICAN DREAM, as the dome of the Sistine Chapel and the ceiling of the Paris opera. Sissy sits up, her eyes moping about the apartment, looking but not seeing the macrame wallhangings, the volumes of Robert Frost. JULIAN What's the matter? After a while Sissy answers. SISSY I'm cold. JULIAN Here. I'll turn down the air conditioner. SISSY It's not the air conditioner that's making me cold. Nothing moves in here. Not even your birds. Sissy gets out of bed and begins to dress. JULIAN What are you doing? SISSY Getting dressed. I've got to go. JULIAN But I don't want you to leave. Please stay. We can go to dinner. I owe you a dinner. And tonight... we can... really make love. SISSY I have to go, Julian. JULIAN Why? Why do you have to go? SISSY (somewhat frantic) My thumbs hurt. I've made a mistake. I've been negligent. I haven't exercised. I have to hitchhike a little bit every day, no matter what. It's like a musician practicing his scales. When I don't practice, my timing gets off, my thumbs get stiff and sore. EXT. CITY DAWN Sissy trembles while she kisses her thumbs. SISSY I will hitch with you, out where tall birds wade in a lake named for my Siwash kin. Out where Smokey the Bear lay down his shovel to romp with more playful beasts. Out where starlight has no enemies and the badland wind no friends. Out where the boogie stops and the woogie begins. INT. TRUCK DAY And Sissy is now traveling in a truck passing Fourteenth Street on her way to the Geo. Washington Bridge. View of that Bridge as the truck crosses it to New Jersy. View of the wilds of New Jersey as Sissy travels to the West. INT. COUNTESS' OFFICE The Countess is on the phone. THE COUNTESS So she left town. Well, that shouldn't surprise you. Leaving town is what Sissy is all about. But tell me, how did she strike you? Julian is on the other end of the phone. JULIAN Extraordinary! THE COUNTESS She's obviously that. Jesus! Which would you rather have, a million dollars or one of Sissy's thumbs full of pennies? JULIAN Oh, you! I'm not talking about her hands. They're difficult to ignore, I confess, but I'm speaking of her whole being. Her whole being is extraordinary. The way she talks, for example. She's so articulate. THE COUNTESS It's high time you realized, honey babe, that a woman doesn't have to give the best years of her life to Radcliffe or Smith in order to speak the English language. JULIAN Countess. I'm really in a dither. She's turned my head. THE COUNTESS Ninety degrees to the left, I hope. How does she feel about you? JULIAN I think she's disappointed that I'm not more, ah, sort of atavistic. She's got some naive, sentimental notions about Indians. I'm sure she liked me, though; but.... then she left town. THE COUNTESS She always leaves town, you dummy. That doesn't mean anything. What about in bed? How does she like it in bed? Julian pauses for a very long moment. JULIAN How does she like what in bed? THE COUNTESS Like what? The Countess' teeth chatter in his mouth. THE COUNTESS What do you think? JULIAN Well.... er... THE COUNTESS Shit O dear, Julian. Do you mean to tell me you didn't get it on? JULIAN Oh, we didn't get it all the way on. THE COUNTESS Whose fault was that? JULIAN I suppose it was mine. Yes, it definitely was my fault. THE COUNTESS What do they do to you boys in those Ivy league schools, anyway? Strap you down and pump the Nature out of you? They can even press the last drop of Nature out of a Mohawk buck. Why, send a shaman or cannibal to Yale for four years and all he'd be fit for would be a desk in the military-industrial complex and a seat in the third row at a Neil Simon comedy. Jesus H.M.S. Christ! If Harvard or Princeton could get hold of the Chink for a couple of semesters they'd turn him into a candidate for the Bow Tie Wing of the Hall of Wimps. Oogie boogie. JULIAN If we Ivy Leaguers aren't earthy enough to suit you hillbillies, at least we don't go around indulging in racist terms such as 'Chink.' Next thing I know, you'll be calling me 'chief.' THE COUNTESS Chink's the guy's name, for Christ's sake. JULIAN What guy? THE COUNTESS Aw, he's some old fart holyman who lives in the hills out West. Gives my ranch the creeps and the willies, too. But though he be old and dirty, he's alive, I'll bet, clear down to his toes. They don't have his juice in a jar in New Haven. Well I suppose that I'll have to write Sissy out on the road. EXT. ROAD DAY Sissy makes little puffs of dust as she walks. From the direction of the ranch a VW Microbus is approaching. It is painted with mandalas, lamaistic dorjes and symbols representing "the clear light of the void." When the Microbus draws alongside Sissy it stops. Inside are two men and a woman. They are approximately twenty-four years old. WOMAN Are you a pilgrim? SISSY No, I'm more of an Indian The trio doesn't smile. DRIVER She means are you going to see the Chink? SISSY Oh, I may and I may not. But seeing him is not my main objective out here. DRIVER That's good. Because he won't see you. We came all the way from Minneapolis to see him and the crazy bastard tried to stone us to death OTHER MAN Yeah, but I no longer believe that guy's a master. He's just a dirty, uptight old mountain man. Why, he pulled out his pecker and shook it at Barbara. I'd stay away from there if I were you, lady. Sissy walks on leaving the people in the bus arguing about whether the Chink's rock-shower and pecker-wag actually had been intended as spiritual messages. EXT. ROAD DAY WALKING down the long dirt road, Sissy stops to take a breather and sits down on a log. Sissy thinking and looking into the clouds. Waves of grasses whisper her name: Ssssssssss, Sssssssssssss Sisssy. Meadowlarks squander their songs on her as she begins to squirm on the log. A Lincoln Continental drives up suddenly. Sissy barely has time to zip up. The Cadillac stops in front of Sissy. A teenaged girl in a Stetson is at the wheel. The rear door of the limousine opens and a refined matronly voice calls from the void. MISS ADRIAN By any chance are you Sissy Hankshaw? SISSY Yes I am. A chic middle-aged woman leans out of the car. MISS ADRIAN My goodness. Why didn't you telephone? Someone would have driven into Mottburg to pick you up. I'm Miss Adrian. From the ranch. The Countess wrote that I should expect you. Get in, won't you? You must be exhausted. Gloria, assist Miss Hankshaw with her luggage. Gloria nods at Sissy amicably but doesn't make a move to help her. Sissy swings her sack into the roomy vehicle. Before she gets in she flashes her thumb to hitch a ride. The instant that Sissy shuts the door the cowgirl chauffeur floors the Cadillac and it lurches away in a puff of dust. INT. CADDY DAY Sitting up after the bothersome lurch of the car. MISS ADRIAN Little twit. (turns to Sissy) You really ought to have phoned. We were just in Mottburg escorting some guests to the afternoon train. (sighs) More guests leaving ahead of schedule. Three checked out today. They decided to transfer to Elizabeth Arden's Maine Chance spa in Phoenix, Arizona. It costs two hundred and fifty dollars a week less at the Rubber Rose, so why are our guests leaving and going to Elizabeth Arden's? Miss Adrian pushes a button that sends a partition glass between her and the cowgirl driver. Gloria starts laughing silently on the other side of the glass. MISS ADRIAN I'll tell you why, it's that plague of cowgirls. They've gradually infiltrated every sector of our program. The one named Debbie considers herself an expert on exercising and diet. With Bonanza Jellybean's permission and against my explicit orders, she's been coercing the guests into trying something called kundalini yoga. Do you know what that is? It's trying to mentally force a serpent of fire to crawl up your spinal column. Miss Hankshaw, our guests can't comprehend kundalini yoga, let alone do it. Yesterday, she ordered a new cookbook by a Tibetan Negro, entitled Third Eye in the Kitchen: Himalayan Soul Food. God knows what that will be like. The little barbarians are destroying everything that I've built, mocking all that the company stands for. And there's a new one, one they call del Ruby. She has the good will of a scorpion. I've considered it prudent to avoid a confrontation that might further upset the guests. But now that the season is practically over -- we operate April through September -- and the Countess is finally coming... EXT. RUBBER ROSE DAY The limousine pulls up in the drive. MISS ADRIAN'S VOICE Our Ranch has all the latest in modern facilities... INT. BEAUTY RANCH DAY We see women having facials. MISS ADRIAN'S VOICE We have a facial wing, and next to that is the Hair Barn... INT. HAIR BARN DAY Sissy is being given a tour by Miss Adrian. A variety of hairdos are witnessed. MISS ADRIAN We have a team of fifteen hair experts from all over the world. INT. EXERCISE ROOM DAY MISS ADRIAN And fanny flab flies off in this room at the rate of six hundred and seventy-five pounds a day... that's a lot of salted ham, Sissy.... INT. MAIN LODGE DAY Sissy and Miss Adrian walk through the lodge lobby, guests and cowgirls are conducting a variety of activities: A BIRD EXPERT projects slides of whooping cranes on the wall and is giving a lecture about the habits of the birds. In the center of the room COWGIRL DEBBIE is leading a mixture of cowgirls and guests in a meditative chant as they reach high above their heads in a yoga exercise. Miss Adrian stops in front of the registration desk and Sissy catches glimpses of the chaotic lobby. MISS ADRIAN Our special guest Miss Sissy Hankshaw is with us. The receptionist hands Miss Adrian a key to Sissy's room. A COWGIRL makes a face at Sissy as she walks by carrying a tray of herbal teas. A representative of the film crew is being intimidated by a Cowgirl who is looking though his camera lenses and shaking them and listening to them like you would put a shell up to your ear to hear the ocean. COWGIRL Cool! We're going to make a movie!... Another cowgirl, BIG RED, is lifting a piece of furniture and passes it to her accomplice. BIG RED Get rid of the furniture.... it's too masculine... Get rid of all the furniture and use it for kindling!!! Break away from these pig-like chauvinist masculine influences.... Miss Adrian looks on helplessly.... she grabs Sissy and leads her out of the lobby. EXT. CORRAL DAY Miss Adrian and Sissy walk out the back door of the Ranch and out near a corral, to the sound of gunfire. MISS ADRIAN O merciful Jesus! They're murdering the guests! One of the FILM CREW MEMBERS is hanging out in the corral wearing a shiny jacket with DISNEY printed on the back. Miss Adrian grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. MISS ADRIAN Where are the guests? MAN Take it easy, lady. They went on a short ride with the cowgirls. Rode over the hill yonder. You're Miss Adrian, aren't you? We need to talk to you about the filming. MISS ADRIAN Not now, you fool, not now. Those crazed bitches have led innocent women out and are slaughtering them at this moment. We'll all be killed. Oh! Ohhh! Another CAMERAMAN spits out a wad of chewing gum. CAMERAMAN There's a slaughter going on all right, but it's not the fat ladies that are getting it. Your hired hands are killing the cattle. MISS ADRIAN The cattle? They're killing the cows? All of them? CAMERAMAN (interrupted while putting a zoom lens on his camera) That's what they said, Miss Adrian. A devilish young cowgirl is sitting on a fence nearby. Miss Adrian addresses her. MISS ADRIAN How dare you slaughter the Countess's cattle! What is a ranch without cows? COWGIRL We're going to replace them with goats. Most of the cattle are diseased and in pain. We're just putting them out of their misery. According to Bon-an-za Jellybean, the Rubber Rose is in-di-cat-ive of the Countess's values. He has purchased a cheap weak strain of cow to begin with and with improper care.... MISS ADRIAN Oh heavens! I don't want to hear what Bonanza Jellybean has been telling you girls.... Come on Sissy. I'll show you to your quarters. AND THE SUN SETS OVER THE CANYON, THE HILLS AND SIWASH RIDGE NEARBY. THE CHINK, with his back to us looks down on the ranch from the ridge and watches Miss Adrian lead Sissy into a small guest cottage on the ranch. A DISTANT COYOTE HOWLS, AND A FEW SCATTERED GUNSHOTS ARE HEARD. INT. RANCH COTTAGE MORNING Sissy stirs in a nicely appointed guest cottage. A maid knocks on the door and serves Sissy breakfast in bed. MAID Excuse me, Miss. Do you care for your breakfast now? Sissy sits up and rubs her eyes. SISSY Yeah. I feel a bit hungry. The Maid puts the tray down, and the cloth that covers the food is lifted away to reveal a shocking display of grease and calories. A vase of prairie asters stands over a double-meat cheeseburger, a package of Hostess Twinkies, a cold can of Dr. Pepper and a Three Musketeers bar. Sissy is delighted. SISSY Road food. How did you know? MAID Well it is a change of our usual grapefruit and melba toast, I'm sure. Sissy notices a card. It reads: Compliments of Bonanza Jellybean SISSY Bonanza Jellybean.... MAID She will be up to see you directly. Sissy devours her meal. Out her window she can see women on exercycles, women doing jumping jacks and women in beauty parlors. A FIST pounds on Sissy's door. IN SAILS Jelly, a cowgirl so cute she makes Sissy blush just to look at her. She wears a tan Stetson with an aster pinned to it, a green satin shirt embroidered with rearing stallions snorting orange fire from their nostrils. Her breasts bounce like dinner rolls that have gotten loaded on helium and, between red tinged cheeks, where more baby fat is taking its time maturing, she has a little smile that can cause minerals and plastics to remember their ancient animate connections. Jelly grasps Sissy's elbow and sits on the side of the bed. JELLY Welcome, podner. By God, it's great to have you here. It's an honor. Sorry I took so long getting to you, but we've had a mess of hard work these past few days -- and a heap of planning to do. SISSY Er, you seem to know who I am, and maybe even what I am. Thanks for the breakfast. JELLY Oh, I know about Sissy Hankshaw, all right. I've done a little hitchhiking myself. Ah shucks, that's like telling Annie Oakley you're a sharpshooter because you once knocked a tomato can off a stump with a fieldstone. I'd heard tales about you from people I'd meet in jail cells and truckstops. I heard about your, uh, your, ah, your wonderful thumbs, and I heard how you were Jack Kerouac's girl friend... Sissy sets her tray on the bedside table. SISSY No, I'm afraid that part isn't true. Jack was in awe of me and tracked me down. We spent a night talking and hugging in a corn field, but he was hardly my lover. Besides, I always travel alone. JELLY Well, that doesn't matter; that part never interested me anyway. The beatnicks were before my time, and I never got anything outta the hippies but bad dope, clichÈs and the clap. But the example of your life helped me in my struggle to be a cowgirl. The guests are huffing and puffing in between the pauses in conversation, in the background through the window in Sissy's room. SISSY Tell me about it. JELLY About... SISSY About being a cowgirl. What's it all about? When you say the word you make it sound like it was painted in radium on the side of a pearl. JELLY Cowgirls exist as an image. A fairly common image. The idea of cowgirls especially for little girls prevails in our culture. Therefore, it seems to me, the existence of cowgirls should prevail. Otherwise, they're being fooled. In the Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City there are just two cowgirls. Two. And both of 'em are trick-riders. Trick-riding is what cowgirls have almost always done in rodeos. Our society sure likes to see its unconventional women do tricks. That's what prostitutes call it, you know: 'tricking.' Jelly lays her hand atop the oval mound Sissy's thumb makes under the covers. SISSY You're political, then? JELLY No, ma'am. No way. There's girls on the Rubber Rose who are political, but I don't share their views. I got no cowgirl ideology to expound. "Politics is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for living it." There is a moment when the two girls feel something between each other. JELLY Did that last comment sound too profound to be coming outta my mouth? It's not original. It's something I picked up from the Chink. SISSY Really? The Chink, huh? I've gathered that you sometimes speak with him. What else have you learned from the Chink? JELLY Learned from the Chink? Oh my. Ha ha. That's hard to say. We mostly.... Uh, a lot of his talk is pretty goofy. Jelly pauses. JELLY Oh yeah, now that I think of it, the Chink taught me something about cowgirls. Did you realize that cowgirls have been around for many centuries? Long before America. In ancient India the care of the cattle was always left up to young women they called gopis. Being alone with the cows all the time, the gopis got awfully horny, just like we do here. Every gopi was in love with Krishna, a good-looking young god who played the flute like it was going out of style When the moon was full, this Krishna would play his flute by a river and call the gopis to him. Then he would multiply himself sixteen thousand times -- one for each gopi -- and make love to each one the way she most desired. There they were, sixteen thousand gopis balling Krishna on the river bank, and the energy of their merging was so great that it created a huge oneness, a total union of love, and it was God. Wow! Quite a picture, huh? Sissy's thumb twitches. Jelly swallows hard. They gaze into each other's eyes. A WHISTLE pierces the sunlight outside the window. JELLY That couldn't be Krishna, could it? A bit shrill for a flute. Just our rotten luck. Jelly walks to the window and exchanges hand signals with someone outside. JELLY Gotta run now. Delores says I'm needed. Somebody's here. Maybe it's the Countess. Jelly spins her six-shooter in her kewpie fingers. JELLY Sissy, cowgirl history is about to be made. I'm damn glad you're here to witness it. She holsters her gun and blows Sissy a kiss, then is gone out the door. Sissy hops out of bed and from the window she can see cowgirls gathering in a circle. Someone or something is in the center of the circle. Sissy zips herself into a red jumpsuit and hurries outside. EXT. CORRAL DAY What was in the center of the circle was a goat. Debbie was scratching the animal's ears. She was hugging it. KYM It's cute. Way cuter than a cow. DEBBIE Goats are always testing you. They're like Zen masters. They can tell instantly if you're faking your feelings. So they play games with you to keep you true. People should go to goats instead of psychiatrists. GLORIA It's so loving. Gloria cuts in on Debbie and gives the beast a hug. HEATHER Look at those playfully wise eyes. GLORIA Ooo! It licked me! JELLY More and more people are discovering that cow's milk isn't fit for human consumption. Billy West says if we can produce enough goat's milk on the ranch to make it worth his while, he'll run it into Fargo regularly. She pauses and looks around the group in the circle. DELORES I'm aware that Tad Lucas rode broncs until her ninth month, but I don't think pregnant cowgirls are going to be any asset on this ranch. I hope you itchy clits who are sneaking down to the lake every night are taking precautions. It's bad enough we've got cranes coming; we don't need storks. I feel that those film makers should be removed from the Rubber Rose as soon as possible. Men can cause nothing but trouble here. I also feel that our guest (she nods at Sissy) should be excused while we discuss this matter further. Hurt, Sissy leaves the group. EXT. RANCH DAY Views of Sissy in her Whooping crane outfit dancing to Debussy in front of the Disney film crew. The documentary being directed by an effusive Frenchman. View of the camera crew training their long telephoto lenses on Siwash Lake. They all seem to be wearing the same trademark satin baseball jackets with one logo or another on their backs. Another view of the lake, from above, from the Chink's point of view and our first view of THE CHINK. The Chink spies Sissy and Jelly coming over a ridge. We cannot hear them at first, but Sissy and Jelly are talking. JELLY ......Delores zonks out on peyote at least once a week, but so far her Third Vision hasn't happened. Niwet¸kame, the Mother Goddess has not gotten back in touch with her. Meanwhile she and Debbie are rivaling each other like a couple of crosstown high schools. Tension. Cowgirl tension! What a drag. SISSY What is Debbie's position? JELLY Debbie says that if women are to take charge again, they must do it in the feminine way; they mustn't resort to aggressive and violent masculine methods. She says it is up to women to show themselves better than men, to love men, set good examples for them and guide them tenderly toward the New Age. She's a real dreamer, that Debbie-dear. SISSY You don't agree with Debbie, then? JELLY I wouldn't say that. I expect she's right, ultimately. But I'm with Delores when it comes to fighting for what's mine. I can't understand why Delores is so uptight about the Chink; he could probably teach her a thing or two. Ee! That grass tickles, doesn't it? God knows I love women, but nothing can take the place of a man that fits. Still this is cowgirl territory and I'll stand with Delores and fight any bastards who might deny it. I guess I've always been a scrapper. Look. This scar. Only twelve years old and I was felled by a silver bullet. Jelly takes Sissy's hand, carefully avoiding the thumbs and helps her feel the depression in her belly. The depression is a dimple, like another navel. AFTER A HUNGRY STILLNESS, like intermission at a wolf dance, rhythms are established. Jelly and Sissy are socked into one another now, and they arch and push and corkscrew and jackknife softly but with pronounced cadence. Everything becomes scrambled. They rock each other in cradles of sweat and saliva, until we can see nothing. Noisy breaths buck out of Sissy: "Jelly, Jelly" but she can't hear Sissy because she is screaming. Hysterical from the scalding hot softness of girl-love. EXT. HILLTOP DAY The Chink looks on from the hilltop above indifferently. EXT. FIELD DAY Sissy and Jelly are riding on the back of a horse. A WHOOPING CRANE is spied by Sissy as she rides on the back of Jellybean's horse back to the ranch. Delores and Big Red hurry to meet them. DELORES He's here. Sure enough across the yard, in the midst of the low-cal barbecue in progress, monocle reflecting sunlight, cigarette holder stabbing the air, stands the Countess. DELORES Look at him. Perverse as a pink pickle. BIG RED Sick as a vice squad. DELORES He's in a snit. He wants to see you right after the barbecue. Jellybean chuckles sardonically and dismounts. JELLY Get the girls. He's gonna see me right now. Sissy, confused, and loyalties torn in the face of an impending revolution, leaves the corral and SLIPS INSIDE THROUGH THE KITCHEN. DOWN THE HALL ENTERING HER ROOM, SHE LOCKS HERSELF IN. As she locks the latch she hears Jelly's voice. INT RANCH OFFICE DAY Jelly has taken over the ranch loudspeaker system and is giving an ultimatum. JELLY Any of you ladies who would like to join us, you're welcome to stay on as a full working podner at the Rubber Rose. Rest of you get packed -- and I mean now. You've got fifteen minutes to move your lard asses off this ranch. INSIDE THE EXERCISE ROOM Women are reacting to the demands. INSIDE THE GREENHOUSE Some women are taking up trowels and brooms as weapons. INSIDE THE KITCHEN The help is joining the revolt. INSIDE THE HALLWAY Other women are running for their lives. INSIDE SISSY'S ROOM She hears the screen door screech open and a chaos of footsteps in the hall. She goes to her window. And she can see, partially cut off by the corner of the building, Miss Adrian screaming. MISS ADRIAN You will all be rounded up and sent to prison if you take this any farther! This is not your ranch!!!! EXT. THE FRONT YARD OF THE RUBBER ROSE The Countess seems to be taking it slowly, and calmly smoking a French cigarette. He observes the fighting among them with amusement. THE COUNTESS You pathetic little cutesy-poos. Do you actually suppose this exhibition of childlike melodrama is advancing the cause of freedom? JELLY You owe us this here ranch, as a token payment for your disgusting exploitations THE COUNTESS (tranquilly) Then take it. JELLY Go for it, girls! The hands, who carry axes, picks, pitchforks and shovels, retreat. The Countess, still grinning, reaches for an hors d'oeuvre and subjects his cigarette to a measured, self- assured puff. MISS ADRIAN (shaking her fist) Go to your bunkhouse and remain there! INT. ROOMS The guests are hurriedly packing their things. INT. SISSY'S ROOM She looks on. EXT. FRONT YARD When the revolutionaries have retreated about thirty yards, they stop. With astonishing rapidity, they unbuckle unbutton and unzip and step out of their jeans and underpants. Then, nude from the waist down, thatched pubises thrust forward, up front and leading the way, they begin to advance. The Countess's grin goes down his throat like bathwater down a drain. GLORIA Better reach for your spray cans! JELLY Not one of these pussies has been washed in a week! Rather pale, his nose twitching, the Countess drops the caviar canapÈ he has been holding. ON COME THE COWGIRLS, pelvises pumping, laying down what the trembling Countess believes to be a devastating barrage of musk. Miss Adrian, lost in her own hysteria, charges. A barbeque fork she hurls draws blood from Heather's eyebrow. Quick as a frog's tongue, Delores's whip cracks. It's lash curls around the ranch manager's ankles, pulling her feet from under her. She hits the sod in a jangle of jewelry and expulsion of breath. A Molotov cocktail thrown by Big Red says hello to the sexual reconditioning building. Within seconds, the structure is blazing. INT. MAIN HOUSE THE BARE-ASSED COWGIRLS storm into the beauty parlor and exercise rooms. SOUNDS OF breaking glass and wood splintering. The air is singing with cries of "Wahoo," Yippee," "Let 'er buck" and "The vagina is a self-cleaning organ." INT. KITCHEN SISSY flees the house as she hunkers down out the back door. EXT. CROQUET COURT Sissy running across it. She passes the pool, and falls in. Climbing out, wet, scared, she runs to the base of Siwash Ridge and southward along the mountain's foot. EVENTUALLY Sissy comes to a place where the juniper bushes are broken to reveal a crude path beginning a steep ascent. Sissy decides to climb up it. She shoulders her way through low, slivery boughs. Approximately halfway up the ridge she rests on a flat rock from which she can look down on the... BURNING RUBBER ROSE smoking away, distant yahoos and carryings on can be heard. Horses whinney in the corral. A few gunshots are thrown into the soundtrack if things aren't lively enough. MISS ADRIAN'S CADILLAC, ON FIRE, roars out of the drive. Sissy looks up to the quiet mountain. Pauses. Then she looks back to the chaos below. THE CINEMATOGRAPHERS' RENTED CONVERTIBLE AND THEIR EQUIPMENT VAN drive away. Sissy sits and wonders. The sun is setting on the horizon, mixing well with the firelight that the Rubber Rose is giving off. BUT SHE is aware of something watching her. Looking about she sees nothing. VIEW of an empty trail. VIEW OF a quivering bush. Sissy turns to the sound of the CHINK. CHINK Ha ha ho ho hee hee. AND THERE HE IS. Standing only ten yards away. The Chink's problem is that he looks like he rolled out of a Zen scroll, as if he says "presto" a lot, knows the meaning of lightning and the origin of dreams. He LOOKS as if he drinks dew and fucks snakes. Sissy and the Chink scrutinize one another with mutual fascination. CHINK Ha ha ho ho and hee hee. Sissy is just about to speak, but before she does THE CHINK whirls, and scampers up the mountainside. SISSY Wait! Warily he stops and turns, poised to flee again. Sissy smiles. SHE RAISES her ripe right thumb. And jerking it and swooshing it, she hitchhikes the Chink and his mountain. THERE HE STANDS where Sissy's thumbs have stopped him. The Chink wears the wary look of a wild animal. He's not going to stay stopped long. It is Sissy's move. SISSY Well, aren't you going to shake your whanger at me? The Chink pauses for a moment, then he slaps his thighs and giggles hysterically. Ha has, ho hos and hee hees squirt out of his nose and through the gaps in his teeth. CHINK (laughter dies a nervous chipmunk death) Follow me. I'll fix you supper. THE TWO doggedly walk up the steep trail. SISSY I'm a friend of Bonanza Jellybean's. CHINK I know who you are. SISSY Oh? Well, there's been some trouble on the ranch. I came up here to get out of the way. It's so dark now I doubt if I could find my way back down. If you could help... CHINK (voice that wears no pants) Save your breath for the climb. SISSY takes another look at the Rubber Rose, which is now quiet. We can hear faintly a distant popping of washcloths and girlish laughter. THEY make their way into a depression at the top of the mountain down a ladder of sticks. THE CHINK lights a large fire in the middle of the depression. HE puts a kettle of stew over the fire, and begins to roast yams. THE CHINK'S FACE as the fire dances off it. A CAN OF CHUNG KING water chestnuts is opened. CUT TO: Sissy and the Chink eating supper on a rough wooden bench. AND AS THEY FINISH, the Chink goes into a cave and returns with a tiny peppermint-stripped plastic transistor radio. He switches it on and the silence is broken by "The Happy Hour Polka." Still clutching the radio in one hand, the Chink hops into the wheel of firelight and begins to dance. Sissy walks around the fire watching the old geezer heel and toe, skip and hop. He flings his bones; he flings his beard. CHINK Yip! Yip! Ha ha ho ho and hee hee. Arms swimming, feet firecrackering, he dances and dances. When the song ends, the Chink puts the radio down as the news comes on. CHINK Personally, I prefer Stevie Wonder, but what the hell. Those cowgirls are always bitching because the only radio station in the area plays nothing but polkas, but I say you can dance to anything if you really feel like dancing. The Chink dances a little to the news, and then lifts Sissy by her shoulders and guides her onto his pock-marked dance floor. SISSY But I don't know how to polka. CHINK Neither do I... ha ha ho ho hee hee. The radio strikes up the "Lawrence Welk is a Hero of the Republic Polka," and the Chink and Sissy dance arm in arm, their shadows reel against the curves of the depression in the mountain. Night birds fly past with fluttering feathers. A bat flies out of the cave. The Chink escorts Sissy to a dark side of the depression and sits her down upon a pile of soft stuff: dried wheatgrass, faded Indian blankets and old down pillows without cases. SISSY (thinking) So this is how Jelly spends her visits to the Chink. A twanging noise sounds from the bowels of the nearby cave. SISSY What was that? CHINK Clockworks. SISSY Clockworks? The Chink pauses to decide whether he should talk any further, then proceeds. CHINK The Clockworks is one reason that I am here on Siwash Ridge. I accepted the invitation to be initiated as a shaman by an aged Siwash chief who was the principle outside confederate of the Clock People. SISSY Siwash, huh? CHINK He was a degenerated warlock who could turn urine into beer, and the honor that he extended me gave me rights of occupancy in this sacred cave on this far-away Siwash Ridge. I came to the Dakota hills to construct a clockworks of my own. Sissy cradles her head in her arms, but is startled by a louder noise from the clockworks. The Chink is startled too. Bonk! sounds the cave, and then it chimes poing! The Chink smiles at the noise coming from his clockworks. CHINK But unlike the clockworks of the Clock People, my ticks more accurately echo the ticks of the universe.... (he listens) ......ha ha ho ho and hee hee. SISSY The Clock People? INT. CAVE NIGHT The Chink leads Sissy into the cave where we see his clockworks. It is made of garbage can lids and old saucepans and lard tins and car fenders all wired together with baling wire. A bat flies into it making a bong noise and the contraption moves a little. CHINK During the Second World War I busted out of Tule Lake detention camp; as a Japanese-American, I had been put there and watched over. I found refuge with the Clock People, who discovered me in a snow bank, near dead, I had been climbing across the Sierra Nevada mountains. SISSY Then if you are Japanese, then why are you called the Chink? CHINK The Clock People mistook me for Chinese. And the name stuck. In the same way that all Indian tribes came to be labeled "Indians" through the ignorance of an Italian sailor with a taste for oranges, it is only fitting that "Indians" misnamed me. The Clock People, however, are not a tribe, rather they are a gathering of Indians from various tribes. They have lived together since 1906. INT. THE GREAT BURROW A gathering of the Clock People. A woman is giving birth near the Giant timekeeping hourglass. CHINK The pivotal function of the Clock People is the keeping and observing of the clockworks. It is a real thing, and is kept at the center, at the soul, of the Great Burrow. Insofar as it is possible, all Clock People deaths and births occur in the presence of the clockworks. Aside from birthing or dying, the reason for the daily visits to the clockworks is to check the time. INT. SIWASH CAVE NIGHT Sissy listens to the Chink as they walk around the Chink's clockworks. CHINK These people have no other ritual than this one. Likewise, they have but one legend or cultural myth: that of a continuum they call the Eternity of Joy. It is into the Eternity of Joy that they believe all men will pass once the clockworks is destroyed. The destruction must come from the outside, must come by natural means, must come at the will of this gesticulating planet whose more acute stirrings thoughtless people call "earthquakes." The Chink holds Sissy's thumbs in his hands adoringly. CHINK The Earth is alive. She burns inside with the heat of cosmic longing. She longs to be with her husband again. She moans. She turns softly in her sleep. In the Eternity of Joy, pluralized, deurbanized man, at ease with his gentle technologies, will smile and sigh when the Earth begins to shake. I loved those loony redskins, but I couldn't be a party to their utopian dreaming. After a while it occurred to me that the Clock People waiting for the Eternity of Joy was virtually identical to the Christians waiting for the Second Coming. Or the Communists waiting for the worldwide revolution. Or the Debbies waiting for the flying saucers. All the same. Just more suckers betting their share of the present on the future, banking every misery on a happy ending to history. Well, history is ending every second - happily for some of us, unhappily for others, happily one second, unhappily the next. History is always ending and always not ending... ha ha ho ho and hee hee. Sissy interrupts the Chink for a second while he is worshipping her thumbs. SISSY What do you believe in then? CHINK Ha ha ho ho and hee hee. Then he says nothing. And his silence makes Sissy weep. They sit down on a grass floor, illuminated by the fire outside the cave. Then the Chink, without hesitation, grasps her thumbs. He squeezes them, caresses them, covers them with wet kisses, telling them how beautiful they are. Sissy is bowled over, frightened, stunned, elated, moved almost to tears. Sissy bends her head back and whispers. SISSY If this be adultery, make the most of it. And as the Chink plunges into Sissy, she arches her spread bottom against the blankets and rears up to meet him halfway. Their bodies glowing in the firelight, they cast shadows of ANCIENT BEINGS, anthropomorphs making love through the night under the moon. INT. CAVE DAY SUNBEAMS awaken Sissy. When she looks around she sees an inscription has been freshly scrawled on the right wall. I BELIEVE IN EVERYTHING; NOTHING IS SACRED. And on the left wall: I BELIEVE IN NOTHING; EVERYTHING IS SACRED. Sissy hears and then sees A HELICOPTER in the sky above the ranch. Sissy gets up and walks out of the cave. EXT. TRAIL MORN Sissy walks. EXT. RUBBER ROSE Sissy hitches a ride out of town. EXT. FRONT DOORSTEPS MORNING Countless NEWSPAPERS on countless porches, and the headline of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reads: OUR WHOOPING CRANES ARE MISSING. INT. THE COUNTESS' OFFICE DAY The countess is in a snit. THE COUNTESS Sissy, don't play dumb with me! You're a good model but a shitty actress. The cowgirls are involved in this whooping crane disappearance. You know perfectly well they are. Last seen in Nebraska. Didn't make it to Canada. Siwash Lake is between Nebraska and Canada. The cowgirls have possession of Siwash Lake. And who else but Jellybean's wild cunts could possibly conceive of doing something so diabolical as to tamper with the last flock of some nearly extinct birds? How much do you know about it? Have they murdered those cranes the way they murdered my moo cows? SISSY I don't know anything about it. THE COUNTESS Sissy. You're trying to protect those scuzzy bitches. Well, let your conscience be your guide, as my mommy used to say, but it won't work. Those stinking sluts are going to suffer... Sissy strikes the Countess with her right thumb -- with astonishing force. Immediately the thumb strikes again, this time shattering the Countess's monocle against his eye. THE COUNTESS (gasping) Shit O dear. HIS DENTURES fall onto the shag rug. The left thumb strikes. Sissy is swinging her thumbs like ballbats socking flaming homers over the left-field fence. The countess is out on his feet. His eyes are closed. His legs wobble. He does a pathetic dance, like a drunken old fool trying to boogie with a chorus girl. He topples forward and meets Sissy's onrushing thumb of thunder which straightens him up, sends him over backward. Motionless, he lies on the floor, a crimson part in his thinning hair, a bright ooze at each nostril. INT. HOSPITAL DAY Seated on a spotless wooden bench is Sissy, staring at a clock. A surgeon emerges. SURGEON Well, he's not out of danger, but I think we can safely say he's going to make it. I'd be pretty surprised if he didn't. However, there is evidence of injury to the frontal lobe, and I have reason to fear that this injury may be permanent. The patient may never again function as a normal human being. SISSY Brain damage? You mean he's going to be a vegetable? SURGEON Vegetable? Vegetable? I wouldn't say that, no. We won't ascertain the extent of the injury for some days. But there is a genuine possibility of severe and lasting behavioral defects. I wouldn't classify it in the vegetable category, however. EXT. STREET DAY SISSY IS HITCHING OUT OF TOWN. A conservative blue Econoline van out of the throngs of traffic draws itself to Sissy as if on a string. SISSY HOPS IN. INT. VAN DAY The DRIVER stomps on the gas. With a sense of disgust at her own failure Sissy scrutinizes his sweaty brow, his smug hot leer, his starving eyes. Her heart sinks when she sees his gun and his knife. He is also unzipping his pants. DRIVER I'm going to give it to you like you've never had it before. Oh, you didn't know it could be this good. You're gonna like it. You're gonna like it. You're gonna like it so good. You're gonna love it so much you're gonna cry. You're gonna cry. You're gonna cry and cry. Do you like to cry? Do you like it when it hurts a little bit? Whatever happens to you, it'll be worth it. The way I'm gonna give it to you, it'll be worth anything. Everything. Go ahead and cry if you want to. I like it when women cry. It means they appreciate me. EXT. STREET DAY The van pulls over down a dead end alley between warehouses. INT. VAN DAY Sissy looks into the back at a soiled mattress. The driver is taking his dick out of his pants. But with a swift swoosh, Sissy's left thumb comes down hard on the penis top, making the driver howl. His finger fumbles for the gun trigger, but before he gets to it, Sissy's thumb splats between his eyes. Twice. Three times. He loses control of the van. EXT. VAN DAY It lumbers into a street lamp. Sissy leaps from the vehicle and runs. INT. WORKING MAN'S LUNCHEONETTE DAY Sissy goes in and begins to cry at the counter as she looks at her thumbs. EXT. NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE DAY Into a sunset hitches Sissy. EXT. ROAD NIGHT SISSY hops into a semi. AND ROAD SIGNS: TRENTON N.J. BALTIMORE MD WASHINGTON D.C. Then RICHMOND, VA EXT. DR. DREYFUS'S HOUSE DAY An older Dr. Dreyfus answers the door. Without Sissy's asking he speaks. DR. DREYFUS I'm afraid I can't help you. SISSY But Doctor. DREYFUS Please, child, don't be dismayed. We all have problems these days. But as the painter Van Gogh said, 'Mysteries remain, sorrow or melancholy remains, but the everlasting negative is balanced by the positive work which thus is achieved, after all.' I don't suppose that means very much to you. I have retired. A victim of a malpractice suit. SISSY (embracing him) Oh, Doctor! You've got to do it. You and nobody else should be allowed to take away my gift. In her embrace, the Doctor is presented with her thumbs. DR. DREYFUS Ah, the thumb. LATER sitting inside his study, Dreyfus muses. DR. DREYFUS The thumb the thumb the thumb the thumb the thumb the thumb. One of evolution's most ingenious inventions; a built-in tool sensitive to texture, contour and temperature: an alchemical lever; the secret key to technology; the link between the mind and art; a humanizing device. The marmoset and the lemur are thumbless; none of the New World monkeys has opposable thumbs; the spider monkey's thumbs are absent or reduced to a tiny tubercle; the thumbs of the potto are set at an angle of one hundred eighty degrees to the other digits. Pause. DR. DREYFUS And so you are demanding at last the privileges of thumb that nature has perversely denied you? SISSY I just want to be normal, give me that old-fashioned normality. It was good enough for Crazy Horse and it's good enough for me. DR. DREYFUS Ah, yes. Very well, my dear. Here is what we can do. VIEWS OF Sissy admitted to a hospital Blood analyzed in a laboratory. Powerful lamps turn on in an operating room. IV tubes are inserted in veins. Sissy is wheeled into surgery. An anesthesiologist sticks a needle into a curved and creamy ass. An anesthesiologist sticks needles into a long, graceful neck. A nurse scrubs an arm. A body and table are draped with sheets to create a sterile field. A tourniquet is placed on a slender right arm. An elastic rubber bandage is applied so tightly it squeezes most of the blood out of an arm. A tourniquet is inflated. A surgeon outlines in iodine an incision around the base of a thumb. Pale smooth skin is incised along a premarked line and dissected down to the bone. Woman flesh is sewn shut with four-ought nylon suture. A tourniquet is deflated, a bloody arm bathed. A young woman is rolled into a recovery room. A nurse and two surgeons, their attention directed by an intensifying pinkish glow, turn to stare into a metal pan, where a huge human thumb, disarticulated from the hand it has been severed from, is now flopping about like a trout, or rather, arching and thrusting itself in a calculated and endlessly repeated gesture, the gesture of the hitchhike. EXT. SKY DAY Two representatives of the Fish and Wildlife Service are flying over Siwash Lake in a U.S. Forestry Service Helicopter. THEY CAN SEE the whooping cranes by the side of the lake. And as they are recording this, shots from a band of young women on horseback drive them away. EXT. RUBBER ROSE RANCH DAY the same two agents are driving in a truck approaching the Rubber Rose Ranch. Two bullet ricochets spin off the hood and roof of their truck and they stop to see a lone teenaged cowgirl with a rifle. EXT. RUBBER ROSE GATES DAY An entourage of Forest Service Rangers, a county sheriff, four deputy shriffs, a state game warden and Mottburg's town marshall and several of his deputies, the editor of the Mottburg Gazette and a couple of bird watchers or two are met by... AT LEAST FIFTEEN ARMED FEMALES at the gate of the Ranch. Through a bullhorn, Jelly speaks out at the entourage of law enforcement officers. JELLY Yep, the whooping cranes are here all right. They're in fine shape, and as you musta saw from your fucking whirly machine, unrestrained, free to go as they please. But this is private property and you aren't laying a foot on it. None of you. SHERIFF We'll be back with a court order and a fistful of search warrants. JELLY Just come back with a couple of people who know what they're doing and we'll let'em in for a nice close look at the birds. DELORES And make sure at least one of them is female, and you better do as we say or there may be trouble. AND OVER THE AIRWAVES an announcement is broadcast. INT. WHITE HOUSE DAY THE ASSISTANT INTERIOR UNDERSECRETARY IS SPEAKING INTO A MICROPHONE FOR THE NEWS, and reading from a paper in his hand. UNDERSECRETARY It will be my extreme pleasure to report to the President... INT. SCHOOL AURITORIUM Students listening... UNDERSECRETARY ...who has been gravely concerned about the fate of our whooping cranes.... EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE DAY Two construction workers high atop the city listening to a small transistor radio and eating lunch. UNDERSECRETARY ...and to the Interior Secretary and to the American people that the entire flock of cranes is, indeed, at... EXT. MALL DAY A crowd of people listening to a broadcast in front of a bandstand set up in front of the mall. UNDERSECRETARY VOICE ...Siwash Lake and in apparently healthy condition. The crowd cheers. UNDERSECRETARY VOICE ....The cranes have built brooding nests around the whole circumference of the small lake, and have... EXT. FIELD DAY Cowgirls are watching a small television. UNDERSECRETARY ....hatched chicks there. Counting the young birds, there are now approximately sixty cranes in the flock. While this is good news, it is also quite bewildering... EXT. RUBBER ROSE RANCH DAY A vehicle know as "the peyote wagon" pulls out of the Rubber Rose. Delores del Ruby is at the wheel. And over her truck radio we hear: UNDERSECRETARY (V.O.) ...Whooping cranes are territorially minded and have never been known to nest as close as a mile to one another, yet here they are virtually side by side. EXT. HILL DAY A lone FBI man sees the peyote wagon leaving the ranch through his binoculars. INT. CAR NIGHT Sissy hears a broadcast over a moving car radio. NEWS REPORTER The Rubber Rose Ranch has issued a communiquÈ that was sent to the federal judge and copies of a recording to the press, today. We can hear the voice of Bonanza Jellybean: JELLY (over the radio) THE WHOOPING CRANE HAS BEEN DRIVEN TO THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION BY AN AGGRESSIVE, BRUTAL PATERNALISTIC SYSTEM INTENT ON SUBDUING THE EARTH AND ESTABLISHING ITS DOMINION OVER ALL THINGS -- IN THE NAME OF GOD THE FATHER, LAW, ORDER AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS. Sissy recognizes the voice. SISSY That's Jellybean! JELLY (V.O.) FROM MEN, THE WHOOPING CRANE HAS RECEIVED NEITHER LOVE NOR RESPECT. MEN HAVE DRAINED THE CRANE'S MARSHES, STOLEN ITS EGGS, INVADED ITS PRIVACY, POLLUTED ITS FOOD, FOULED ITS AIR, BLOWN IT APART WITH BUCKSHOT. INT. RANCH OFFICE Jelly is on the telephone. JELLY OBVIOUSLY, A PATERNALISTIC SOCIETY DOES NOT DESERVE ANYTHING AS GRAND AND BEAUTIFUL AND WILD AND FREE AS THE WHOOPING CRANE. YOU MEN HAVE FAILED IN YOUR DUTY TO THE CRANE. NOW IT IS WOMEN'S TURN. THE CRANES ARE IN OUR CHARGE NOW. WE WILL PROTECT THEM AS LONG AS THEY STILL REQUIRE PROTECTION -- INT. HOSPITAL RECOVERY ROOM DAY Sissy listens to the radio. JELLY'S VOICE WHILE WORKING TOWARD A DAY WHEN THE CREATURES OF THE WORLD NO LONGER HAVE TO SUFFER MAN'S EGOISM, INSENSITIVITY AND GREED. WE REFUSE YOUR ORDER. WE SAY TAKE YOUR ORDER AND SHOVE IT. THIS FLOCK OF BIRDS IS STAYING WITH US. GET LOST, MAC. EXT. ROAD DAY Sissy is hitchhiking with her new thumb. But cars pass one after another without stopping. Until Sissy finally tries her left thumb, which has been spared the knife. With this thumb there are new maneuvers to try out. And as soon as the does, a car stops. MOSAIC of hitchhiking brilliance with Sissy's use of her left thumb. A CLOCK IS TICKING past twelve then on to six and past eight.... she dances wildly around traffic, stopping the hardest of drivers, THE CLOCK TICKS AWAY and within thirty hours she is approaching Mottburg again. EXT. RUBBER ROSE DAY The Ranch is now surrounded by two hundred federal marshalls reinforced by a dozen FBI agents with loaded guns taking position outside the ranch. Sissy gets out of her car and walks past the posse and through the gates. Kym carries a radio which is playing "The Day-Old Apple Strudel Polka" across the corral. She carries the radio as if it is a suitcase full of skunk lice. KYM Man, this is the stupidest music I've ever heard. This radio should have stayed in the privy where it belongs. Kym ropes the radio to her saddle horn and prepares to give it a ride across the Dakota hills. She gets on her horse and rides by the Ranch bungalows and spies Sissy sitting in the outhouse. SISSY Howdy. Kym gets off her horse and hugs Sissy. KYM You know what you're getting into if you come over to the lake... SISSY Yes, but I want to be there. I want to see Jellybean. I want to see the cranes. THEY RIDE ACROSS THE HILLS. Then they stop at an outlook and Sissy sees the circular barricade in the field below. KYM We heard on the radio that the judge has set Delores's bail at fifty thousand dollars. Now she won't be here when we really need her. EXT. CAMP DAY A few cowgirls in the camp huddle around a radio: RADIO NEWS REPORT The American Civil Liberties Union has requested an extension for the Rubber Rose Ranch. The government is aware of the inflamed situation and are afraid that all the marshals and agents might be too willing to uncork the bottle of blood... SISSY RIDES INTO CAMP on the back of Kym's horse the way that John Wayne would have ridden into the Alamo; Heather, Bonanza Jellybean, Debbie, Elaine and Linda dance up to meet her. Before Sissy is completely on the ground, Jelly's tongue is in her mouth. She stumbles out of a stirrup into a wiggly embrace. JELLY Let's celebrate! Debbie stokes up a big joint right now, as Jelly gets out her six guns and fires them in the air. Heather twirls and jumps through her rope. The "Unsung Hero Returns Polka" strikes up on the radio. Elaine rears up on her horse. EXT. HILLSIDE DAY FROM AFAR, AN FBI AGENT views the little going on. AGENT Ain't that just like women. But as the Agent is saying this, viewing them from the ridge, a large rock tumbles down the hill and grazes his head, knocking him out. VIEW of the side of the ridge from where the rock came, but there is strangely nothing where we expect to see the Chink. BELOW: The cowgirls. JELLY Looks like every time we get together things are in a mess. SISSY So be it. It looks serious this time, though. All these guns... are you actually prepared to kill and die for whooping cranes? JELLY Hell no, the cranes are wonderful, okay, but I'm not in this for whooping cranes. I'm in it for cowgirls. If we cowgirls give in to authority on this crane issue, then cowgirls become just another compromise. I want a finer fate than that -- for me and for every other cowgirl. Better no cowgirls at all than cowgirls compromised. SISSY How did this business get started, anyhow? Why are the birds nesting here? DEBBIE You were aware that we were feeding them, weren't you? We fed them brown rice and they stayed over a couple of extra days. Then we decided to try something different. We mixed our brown rice with fishmeal -- whoopers love seafood, and fishmeal is cheap. Then Delores suggested another ingredient, and we think that's what did the trick. SISSY You mean... DEBBIE AND JELLY TOGETHER PEYOTE! SISSY They're drugged. JELLY Aw, come off it, Sissy. What do you mean, 'drugged'? Every living thing is a chemical composition and anything that is added to it changes that composition. When you eat a cheeseburger or a Three Musketeers bar, it changes your body chemistry. The kind of food you eat, the kind of air you breathe, can change your mental state. Does that mean you're 'drugged'? Sissy frames the flock with the hole in the center of her cheese sandwich. SISSY No, I guess not. JELLY 'Drugged' is a stupid word. SISSY But the peyote is obviously affecting their brains. It's made them break a migratory pattern that goes back thousands of years. DEBBIE The way I see it, is that the peyote mellowed them out. Made them less uptight. They were afraid of bad weather and humans. That's why they migrated and kept to themselves. But the peyote has enlightened them. It's taught them there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Now they're digging life and letting the bad vibes slide on. Don't worry, be happy. Be here now. SISSY Fear in wild animals is completely different from paranoia in people. In the wilderness ecosystem, fear is natural and necessary. It's merely a mechanism for maintaining life. If the cranes hadn't had a capacity for fear, they would have disappeared long ago and you'd be having to get loaded with common old everyday meadowlarks and mallards. JELLY This here discussion is destined to become academic. Because we've got less than half a bag of peyote buttons left and Delores's run ended up in the Mottburg jail. So any day now we'll get a chance to see how the whoopers behave when they come down, to see if the peyote experience really changed them or not. But in the meantime, I want to say this about fear..... Then Sissy and Jelly hear a news broadcast on the radio. ANNOUNCER Judge Greenfield, at the request of the ACLU, has granted a forty-eight- hour extension of the deadline by which the Rubber Rose cowgirls must comply with his order. Negotiations between the cowgirls and the government are expected to follow. Another item in, the forewoman of the Rubber Rose Ranch, a Delores del Ruby is now free on bond after having been arrested in Mottburg with more than fifty pounds of peyote buttons. Her bail has been paid by the owner of the besieged ranch, Countess Products, Inc. Miss del Ruby's bail having come from the tycoon's personal advisor, a certain Dr. Robbins of New York City. SISSY Dr. Robbins? EXT. PRAIRIE NIGHT Sissy and Jelly lie under the same stars, under the same blankets. Under the same spell. JELLY Every time I tell you that I love you, you flinch. But that's your problem. SISSY If I flinch when you say you love me, it's both our problems. My confusion becomes your confusion. Students confuse teachers, patients confuse psychiatrists, lovers with confused hearts confuse lovers with clear hearts.... EXT. CAMPFIRE NIGHT Delores and some of the other cowgirls are talking. A sharp wind is beginning to gust. DELORES It isn't for ourselves that we take this stand. It isn't for cowgirls. It's for all the daughters everywhere. This is an extremely important confrontation. This is womankind's chance to prove to her enemy that she's willing to fight and die. If we women don't show here and now that we aren't afraid to fight and die, then our enemy will never take us seriously. Men will always know that, no matter how strong our words and determined our deeds, there's a point where we'll back down and give them their way. Delores cracks her whip then parades around the campfire. DELORES I'm prepared to win! Victory for every female, living or dead, who's suffered the temporary defeats of masculine insensitivity to their inner lives! A few of the cowgirls cheer. DONNA I'll fight the bastards. Big Red opens a can of beans with a Bowie knife. BIG RED I'll fight 'em with bean gas, if necessary. Delores snaps her whip again. DELORES The sun's going down. Let's those of us not standing watch get some sleep. In the morning we'll plan our fight. Tomorrow afternoon those of you who'd like can join me in the reeds, where the cranes and I will be sharing the last crumbs left in the peyote sack. EXT. SIWASH LAKE DAY Delores del Ruby appears from the reeds at Siwash Lake's edge, asleep yet awake. She has sunk so deep into the hole in her mind that gale and dust could not follow her. AS SHE APPROACHES THE COWGIRL CAMP, THEY GATHER AROUND HER IN A TIGHT CIRCLE. MANY ARE TRANSFIXED as they listen. DELORES It is woman's mission to destroy as well as to give birth. We will destroy the tyranny of the dull. But we can't destroy it with guns. Or whips. Violence is the dullard's Breakfast of Champions and the logical end product of his or her misplaced pride. Violence fertilizes that which we would starve. No, we will destroy the enemy in other ways. The Peyote Mother has promised a Fourth Vision. But it won't come to me alone. It will come to each of you, to every cowgirl in the land, when you have overcome that in your own self which is dull. The Fourth Vision will come to some men too. You will recognize them when you meet them, and be their steady sidekicks in equal and ecstatic escapades of poetic behavior and romance. Delores holds up a card. The prairie moon illuminates its tattered edges. It is the jack of hearts. The forewoman seems to be tiring. Fumes of weariness stream from her black hair. Her voice is leaning against the wall of her larynx when she says: DELORES First thing, you must end this business with the government and the cranes. It's been positive and fruitful, but it's gone far enough. Playfulness ceases to serve a serious purpose when it takes itself too seriously. Sorry I won't be with you at the conclusion. As you know, I've been sick and stupid for a long time. I have a lot to make up for, a lot to accomplish, and there's someone important that I've got to see. Now. As graceful as a ballet for cobras, Delores turns and walks away into the night. EXT. RANCH GATES DAY THE FBI, other VIGILANTES and POLICEMEN wait in anticipation of an attack outside of the boundaries of the ranch. EXT. THE COWGIRL COMPOUND DAY Jelly is addressing the group of cowgirls. JELLY Well, what we got to do is one of us has got to go up that hill and tell them boys that America can have its whooping cranes back. Since I'm the boss here, and since I'm responsible for a lot of you choosing to be cowgirls in the first place, it's gonna be me that goes... Small protests from the circle of cowgirls. JELLY No buts about it. It's getting lighter by the second. You podners keep your heads down. Ta ta. The cutest cowgirl in the world stood up and stretched out. COWGIRL Jelly! Please! But Jelly is already on her way. BONANZA JELLYBEAN VAULTS over the carcass of a reducing machine and plants her Tony Lama boots in the stirrup of her saddle and straddles her horse and takes off. EXT. COMPOUND DAY The posse surrounding the ranch, can see Jelly coming over the hill on her horse at a full gallop. EXT. HILL DAY Jelly stops her horse, looks down at her waist, and sees her sixguns. JELLY Better get rid of these. Might give those greenhorn dudes a fright. THROUGH the scope of an FBI rifle, Jelly is drawing her gun out of her holster. AGENT She's going to fire.... He squeezes the trigger, and Jelly is caught in the stomach with a bullet. She falls off her horse to the ground. THE CHINK sees Bonanza Jellybean cut down from a vantage point on the hill, and makes a beeline for the government barricades, SHOUTING. THE COWGIRLS scream and cry, and grab their weapons. A couple of them leap from the barricade and are immediately riddled. EXT. HILL DAY The six-gun slips from her fingers. Twenty or thirty more sweaty triggers are squeezed on the hilltop firing at Bonanza Jellybean. THE CHINK RUNNING AND SHOUTING. EXT. COWGIRL CAMP DAY A VOICE OVER THE BULLHORN directed at the cowgirls echoes: VOICE You've got two minutes to come out with you hands over your heads! RANDOM G-MEN are sniping at the cowgirls, making it impossible to surrender. A stray bullet SENDS THE CHINK back down the hillside, beard, robe and sandals flying. IN THE HUSH that follows, in the echoes of the explosive fire, the whooping crane flock rises in one grand assault of beating feathers - a lily white storm of life, a gush of albino Gabriels -- swarm into the waiting sky, and circle the pond one time before flapping south toward Texas... ...they cast shadows over a dead Jellybean who is literally biting the dust. Sissy lifts Jelly out of the dust and holds her. Sissy lifts Jelly's satin shirt tail and pulls down the waistband of her skirt. Bright red blood is running out of her scar. JELLY Right in the scar where I fell on a wooden horse when I was twelve. Haw, I wasn't really shot with a silver bullet. Confessing to Sissy. JELLY Or was I? EXT. NEW YORK SKY The cranes fly over the Statue of Liberty. EXT. PARISIAN SKY The Cranes fly over the Eiffel tower. EXT. RUSSIAN SKY The Cranes fly over Red Square. INT. MORGUE DAY An undertaker pounding five nails into a white coffin. ON THE TOP OF THE COFFIN are engraved two crossed GOLD SIXGUNS. There are eleven famous cowgirls enameled on the edges and in the middle it reads: BONANZA JELLYBEAN 1944-1973 "Ha ha ho ho and hee hee" Title card: The brown paper bag. A brown paper bag is sitting on the side of the road. A VOICE The brown paper bag is the only thing civilized man has produced that does not seem out of place in nature. Crumpled into a wad of wrinkles, like the fossilized brain of a dryad; its kinship to tree (to knot and nest) unobscured by the cruel crush of industry; absorbing the elements like any other organic entity; blending with rock and vegetation as if it were a burrowing owl's door mat or a jack rabbit's underwear, a No. 8 Kraft paper bag lay discarded in the hills of Dakota and appeared to live where it lay. Once long ago, it had borne a package of buns and a jar of mustard to a kitchenette rendezvous with a fried hamburger. More recently, the bag had held........ love letters. View of a bunkhouse trunk. VOICE As a hole in an oak hides a squirrel's family jewels, the bag had hidden love letters in the bottom of a bunkhouse trunk. Hands lift the contents of the trunk away, rope, spurs, and blanket and find the hidden sack of letters. VOICE Then one day after work, the button- nosed little cowgirl to whom the letters were addressed gathered bag and contents under her arm, slipped out to the corral... We see the Cowgirl saddling her horse late in the day. VOICE ...past ranch hands pitching horseshoes and ranch hands flying Tibetan kites, saddled up and trotted into the hills. We see the Cowgirl riding along a ridge. VOICE A mile or so from the bunkhouse, she dismounted and built a small fire; she fed the fire letters. And this we see also, the lonely Cowgirl feeding the letters to a fire in the dusky early night. We can see the cowgirl is Sissy Hankshaw. VOICE ...one by one, the way her girl friend had once fed her french fries. She is crying now and feeding the fire, close of words like "always" and "forever" burning up. VOICE As words such as sweetheart" and "honey britches" and "forever" and "always" burned away, the cowgirl squirted a few tears. Her eyes were so misty she forgot to burn the bag. INT. BUNKHOUSE NIGHT Sissy is sobbing. Big Red offers a piece of homemade fudge and shows no surprise when Sissy refuses it. Kym kisses the lips quickly of the despondent Cowgirl, and the bunkhouse lights go out. Delores plunks a carefree song on an old Gibson, looks up at the moon. DELORES You know, podner, you can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish. She plunks a few notes. DELORES God, but it's good to be a cowgirl. And the bunkhouse lights are turned off. There are some giggles from the cowgirls. INT. MAIN BEDROOM RANCH DAY THE CHINK wakes up and is being cared for by Sissy. He is in pain, but winking. SISSY Is everything getting worse? CHINK Yes, everything is getting worse. But everything is also getting better. SISSY The Countess has come to our aid. The Rubber Rose Ranch is officially deeded to all the cowgirls. And I have been asked to oversee the ranch. For $300 a week. And as it turns out, the Countess is not going to be the vegetable the doctors thought he was... here's a picture! Sissy shows a picture of the Countess recovering in a hospital bed, posing next to Doctor Robbins. CHINK I want to go back to the Clock People. I kind of miss those fool redskins and wonder what they're up to. What's happened to Jelly? SISSY She had a one way-ticket to Kansas City. CHINK You mean she's dead? The Chink mourns a bit. SISSY But that's an old story now...... I can't believe that you would leave the Butte. CHINK Easy come, easy go. DELORES Wow, you sure have a way with words. The Chink looks over and sees that Delores is standing in the doorway. CHINK I can't help it if I grew up in an antipoetic culture. Language will be different when I'm with the Clock People though. They're from an oral tradition. And I'm not talking about what you horny hop toads do in bed every night. The Chink smiles. Delores blushes. SISSY Well, if the Clock People give you any inside information on the end of the world, drop us a postcard. CHINK The world isn't going to end, you dummy; I hope you know that much. (he grows uncharacteristically serious) But it is going to change. It's going to change drastically, and probably in your lifetime. The Clock People see calamitous earthquakes as the agent of change, and they may be right, since there are a hundred thousand earthquakes a year and major ones are long overdue. But there are far worse catastrophes coming... unless the human race can bring itself to abandon the goals and values of civilization, in other words, unless it can break the consumption habit -- and we are so conditioned to consuming as a way of life that for most of us life would have no meaning without the yearnings and rewards of progressive consumption. It isn't merely that our bad habits will cause global catastrophes, but that our operative political-economic philosophies have us in such a blind crab grip that they prevent us from preparing for the natural disasters that are not our fault. So the apocalyptic shit is going to hit the fan, all right, but there'll be some of us it'll miss. Little pockets of humanity. Like the Clock People. Like you two honeys, if you decide to accept my offer of a lease on Siwash Cave. There's almost no worldwide calamity -- famine, nuclear accident, plague, weather warfare or reduction of the ozone shield -- that you couldn't survive in that cave. He begins to caress Sissy's belly. His eyes are smiling. Sissy is surprised. CHINK Suppose that you bear five or six children with your characteristics. All in Siwash Cave. In a postcatastrophe world, your offspring would of necessity intermarry, forming in time a tribe. A tribe every member of which had giant thumbs. A tribe of Big Thumbs would relate to the environment in very special ways. It could not use weapons or produce sophisticated tools. It would have to rely on its wits and its senses. It would have to live with animals -- and plants! -- as virtual equals. It's extremely pleasant to me to think about a tribe of physical eccentrics living peacefully with animals and plants, learning their languages, perhaps, and paying them the respect they deserve. SISSY How am I going to be the progenitor of a tribe when I'm living on an isolated ridgetop with Delores? CHINK That's your problem. The Chink coughs. CHINK Listen to the way I'm babbling. That bullet must have loosened one of my transistors. Don't pay any attention to me. You've got to work it out for yourself. The westbound choo-choo leaves Mottburg at one-forty. I want to be on it. Will you drive me to the station? INT. TRUCK DAY Sissy and Delores are driving the Chink out the front gate of the Rubber Rose. CHINK Schedules! Ironic how I have to follow timetables in order to get back to the clockworks. He yells out the window of the moving vehicle. CHINK Don't ever bet against paradox, ladies... EXT. THE RUBBER ROSE GATES We hear the Chink yelling, and the Rubber Rose sign is being changed to one that reads El Rancho Jellybean. CHINK ....if complexity doesn't beat you, then paradox will. Ha ha ho ho and hee hee..... And the truck disappears into the prairie land. A LONG DARK PAUSE, UNTIL finally we are inside the cave where the Chink's Clockworks are at work..... poing! It is revealed that Sissy is with Delores snug in the old hermit's living quarters. She listens to the clinking of the Chink's Clockworks. And feels her belly. The swell of her belly has forced her to sleep on her back. CLOSE VIEW of Sissy's belly, and a little foot kicks from inside. Or is it a foot? VIEW INSIDE THE BELLY of Sissy's unborn baby. It is half- Japanese, one thirty-second Siwash and all thumbs. The moving thumbs are hitchhiking you..... THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead II_ Dead by Dawn.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead II_ Dead by Dawn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d97efef4993df9bf012ae157105b009aae064f35 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead II_ Dead by Dawn.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +EVIL DEAD II BY Sam Raimi Scott SpiegelSEVENTH DRAFT - May 5, 1986FADE IN: DE LAURENTIIS ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LOGO FADE OUT.FADE IN: RENAISSANCE PICTURES LOGO FADE OUT.00 BLACKNESS 00 A sound is building. Like a living wind. A thousand screams in agony. From the blackness, gusts of smoke pull together quickly, forming the Main Title against black: "EVIL DEAD" Then beneath it, the Roman Numeral "II." A SLOW ZOOM brings it toward us. And as the screams reach their sharp crescendo the title zooms through us. FADE IN:1 ANGLE - STOP MOTION ANIMATION 1 Whisping smoke against a black background. EERIE MUSIC. In the distance, through the smoke, a small object. It fans toward us quickly, filling the frame. It is an ancient skin covered volume, with the outline of a human face on it's cover. This is the Book of the Dead. NARRATOR Legend has it, that it was written by the dark ones: NECRONOMICON EX MORTES; Roughly translated...The Book of the Dead. The face on the cover of the book pulls away from its skin binding and leans toward the camera. EYES on the book blink open and peer at us. It's mouth opens and emits a hideous scream. The CAMERA races into the blackness of the screaming mouth. DISSOLVE THRU TO:1P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - SMOKE 1P2 A SPINNING VORTEX - (3 PAINTINGS ON AN ANIMATION 2 STAND) - 12 SEC. PLATE Spiraling downward. NARRATOR To trace the origin of the Book, we must go back...back...to a day when spirits ruled the earth. Wispy shapes of animated ghosts move through this vortex, coming toward the CAMERA with WAILING and MOANING and then are gone. NARRATOR When the seas ran red with blood. DISSOLVE THRU TO:2P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - ROD PUPPET GHOSTS 2P3 STOCK FOOTAGE - (OPTICALLY COLOR SEPARATED) 3 A raging ocean of blood. Great waves rise and swell as if before a storm. NARRATOR (V.O.) It was this blood that was used to ink the book. DISSOLVE THRU TO:4 AN OPEN COPY OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD - ANIMATION 4 STAND - BLUE SCREEN IN BG Through animation, the blank pages of the Book are scripted in a strange hieroglyphic by an invisible hand. Faster and faster the pages turn on the Book as the blood red ink is scrawled across them. The pages flip furiously until the Book snaps shut, reveal ing its gruesome face on the cover. The book flaps violently away from camera. NARRATOR (V.O.) The Book of the Dead was last seen in 1300 A.D. DISSOLVE THRU TO:4A OMIT 4A4AP OMIT 4AP4B OMIT 4B4C OMIT 4C4D OMIT 4D4P STOCK FOOTAGE - THE RIFT 4P5 EXT. KANDAR CASTLE - DUSK - 4 WARRIORS - 4 HORSES 5 CAMERA panning down to reveal a magnificent newly built castle of stone. Bright banners fly from its turrets. An ox grazes nearby. 4 Warriors on horseback in the BG. NARRATOR (V.O.) It was then that the dark spirits again rose up to battle the living. The ground in front of the castle begins to split apart. A red glow and smoke pour from the growing crevice. Something evil is being unleashed. A strong wind kicks up blowing sand in a furious rage.5A EXT. KANDAR CASTLE - DUSK 5A TRACKING SHOT - ASH Through the blowing silt, a lone figure appears. An image of power and light. His clothing is ragged, and he holds what appears to be a jagged toothed longsword. Two massive columns of stone stand on either side. CAMERA slowly moves closer, but his face is still hidden by the darkness and blowing sands. NARRATOR (V.O.) It is said that a hero came from the sky. A man who defeated this evi and buried the Book in the Castle of Kandar. And there it lay for 700 years... DISSOLVE THRU TO:6 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY - RUINS 6 As the raging dust storm clears to reveal the same castle which we saw earlier, but now, in a ruined state. It has aged 700 years. The ox is gone. Now only its petrified skeletal remains stand in a weathered heap. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Waiting. A four wheel drive vehicle roars PAST THE CAMERA and toward the castle.7 INT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY - (STUDIO) 7 TRACKING SHOT The CAMERA slowly tracks in toward the Book of the Dead as it sits in the darkness of the stone tomb. Next to it rests the KANDARIAN DAGGER, an ancient knife, its handle fashioned from the skull of a weasel. They rest upon a small pedestal covered with cobwebs. Prominently displayed on the stone wall, a bas relief of the "Hero from the Sky" holding his unusual jagged edged weapon. NARRATOR (V.O.) And then... The grinding of rock scraping against rock is heard, and a large stone is swung open on a secret hinge in the wall behind the book. Wind sweeps in through the tomb, along with the blinding light from outside. A sharply silhouetted figure steps in the newly created doorway. The figure lights a torch that he holds, illuminating his face. This is PROFESSOR RAYMOND KNOWBY. An intelligent, grey bearded man in his late fifties. He lowers the cloth around his face that had been protecting him from the sand. He stares at the Book, awestruck. Behind him, two other figures appear in the entrance of the tomb. The first is a large school-marmish woman, the wife of Raymond Knowby, HENRIETTA. She moves to Raymond's side and takes his hand. Immediately behind her is their daughter, ANNIE KNOWBY; twenty-four years old, strong stance and beautiful. Behind her a handsome looking man, ED GETLY, enters the tomb. He moves to Annie's side. They exchange excited glances. The CAMERA PANS down to the Book. DISSOLVE THRU TO:8 INT. STUDIO - BLACK 8 MED. SHOT - FOG Billowing past the camera in front of a black drape. DISSOLVE THRU TO:9 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 9 LONG SHOT An old log cabin, built in the valley of a dark forest. A great wind billows fog about the place. NARRATOR (V.O.) Professor Raymond Knowby and his wife, HENRIETTA, brought the book to a small cabin where they could study it undisturbed.10 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 10 Professor Raymond Knowby sits at a writing desk and transcribes passages from the Book of the Dead. A small framed photograph of his daughter Annie sits upon the table. Behind him, HENRIETTA sits knitting in a rocking chair.11 CLOSE SHOT - RAYMOND 11 He speaks the phonetic pronunciation of completed sentences into the microphone of a tape recorder. RAYMOND Kanda...Es-trata...Ta-toon...Hazan sobar...Ear-Grets, Gat, ...Nos-feratos ...Amantos...Kanda! The sound of RAYMOND reciting the passages is faded down AS THE CAMERA SLOWLY TRACKS away from RAYMOND and over to HENRIETTA as she rocks back into the darkness and forward into the light. As she rocks forward into the light, she comes into FULL CLOSEUP revealing that her eyes have changed to a milky white. She continues to knit. DISSOLVE THRU TO:12 INT. STUDIO - BLACK 12 MED. SHOT - FOG Blowing past the camera in front of black drape. DISSOLVE THRU TO:13 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 13 A dank fruit cellar with shelves of half-rotten preserves. Raymond has his back to the stone wall. He is dictating into the tape recorder, sweating and distraught. RAYMOND It has only been a few hours since I've translated and spoke aloud the first of the demon resurrection passages from the Book of the Dead. The sound of heavy footsteps. Dust drifts down INTO FRAME. Raymond looks up to the ceiling of the cellar. It is also the floor to the main room of the cabin. He watches in horror as Henrietta's silhouette paces the floor above him. And then, the footsteps halt. RAYMOND And now, I fear that my wife has become host to a Kandarian demon. May God forgive me for what I have unleashed onto this earth.13Y REVERSE ACTION 13Y The milky eyed possessed figure of HENRIETTA jolts quickly into the frame, and shrieks in the voice of a demon! Raymond Knowby screams. He drops the microphone.13X CLOSE SHOT - TAPE RECORDER 13X As the microphone falls atop it. High pitched feed- back screams from the speaker.13A CLOSE SHOT - RAYMOND 13A Screaming in terror.13B CLOSER - RAYMOND 13B His fearful eyes fill the screen as the scream continues.13C EXTREME C.U. RAYMOND'S EYE 13C Darting about wildly and the scream continues. DISSOLVE THRU TO:14 INT. DARK TUNNEL - DAY 14 ROUNDY-ROUNDY - CAMERA MOUNTED ATOP VAN CAMERA MOVING swiftly down a dark tunnel. A light at the end growing closer. The SOUND of AIR RUSHING BY. The Delta 88 Oldsmobile comes ROARING out of the tunnel with a BLAST of AIR, and the sound of loud rock and roll music. NARRATOR (V.O.) It was one week later that a group of college students came to the cabin.14A EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT 14A The Delta 88 Oldsmobile parked out front. Fog roars past the place. We faintly hear waltz music from within. The silhouette of a woman sweeps by the rear bedroom window.14B INT. CABIN - REAR BEDROOM - NIGHT 14B ASH AND LINDA LINDA, an attractive college student, is waltzing in the semi darkness of the bedroom. She wears a "Michigan State University" sweatshirt. She hums melodically to the music as she moves. Around her neck is draped a delicate silver necklace.14C MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND LINDA 14C A handsome young man, ASH, is playing the waltz music on an old wooden piano. Linda dances behind him. Ash is not a very good pianist, and can only plunk out the melody with two fingers. LINDA Ash, what's that you're playing? ASH Our song. Ash begins to play faster.14D MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND LINDA 14D As she picks up the tempo, spinning and laughing, until finally Ash moves to her, halting her in mid spin.14E CLOSE SHOT - LINDA 14E Out of breath, hair tousled across her eyes, she stares deeply into Ash's eyes. Her lips, parted, in a sensual manner.14F CLOSE SHOT - ASH 14F He returns her stare, lost in her beauty. He pulls her close. LINDA Ow!14G SHE PULLS AWAY SUDDENLY 14G And looks down to the tiny silver necklace that she wears about her neck.14H CLOSE SHOT - NECKLACE 14H In its center is a magnifying glass.14I MEDIUM SHOT - LINDA AND ASH - TULIP CRANE 14I She looks from the necklace to Ash. LINDA I really love it. I'll never take it off. They kiss and now begin to dance together, to the haunting waltz melody that sweeps up upon the soundtrack. DISSOLVE THRU TO: NARRATOR (V.O.) It was in the cabin's cellar that they found the Professor's tape recorder, and the Book of the Dead.14J INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 14J CAMERA tracks in toward the trap door. It opens by itself as we move down the steps into the blackness.15 MEDIUM SHOT - INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 15 The CAMERA pans down from the blackness to Ash who finds a shotgun, Raymond Knowby's tape recorder, tapes, the Kandarian dagger and...16 CLOSE SHOT 16 ...the shattered photograph of Annie Knowby and the Book of the Dead.17 LONG SHOT - INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM 17 The group of students sit about the fire as they listen to the tape recorder. Coming from the speaker is the voice of Raymond Knowby reciting the demon resurrection passage. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (on tape) Kan Da, Es-trata ta-toon hazan sobar ...Ear-Grets, Gat...18 MEDIUM SHOT 18 Linda takes Ash's hand. She's frightened. Ash smiles to comfort her. She nervously fingers the silver locket she wears about her neck.19 CLOSE SHOT - TAPE RECORDER 19 PROFESSOR KNOWBY (on tape) ...Nos-Feratos...Amantos...Kanda!20 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 20 The cabin is in the distance. In the foreground the earth begins to swell, then rips apart as a red glow emanates from beneath. Something evil is being unleashed. NARRATOR (V.O.) One by one, they fell to the possession of the dark spirits.21 OMIT 2122 EXT. HILLSIDE - GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 22 CLOSE SHOT - LINDA Her eyes pop open. They are bone white. She has fallen to the possession.22A EXT. HILLSIDE - GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 22A ASH AND LINDA Possessed Linda is coming after Ash. Ash back peddles, stumbles and falls.22B ANGLE - ASH ON GROUND 22B As the Shadow of approaching Linda envelops Ash, he picks up a shovel from the ground.22C LINDA LEAPS OVER THE CAMERA, TOWARD HIM. 22C22D LINDA DUMMY 22D Ash swings the shovel, slicing off Linda's head.22D1 LINDA'S DUMMY HEAD - ON WIRE 22D122E ANGLE 22E Linda's head rolls down the hillside and disappears into the darkness.22F EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 22F ASH AND LINDA Ash buries Linda's headless body. He jams a crude wooden burial cross into the earth of the grave. A bolt of lightning strikes.22G HILLSIDE - GRAVEYARD/CABIN - NIGHT - LONG SHOT - ASH 22G As he runs from the grave site and toward the cabin.23 OMIT 2324 OMIT 2425 OMIT 2526 INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE SHOT - ASH 26 NARRATOR (V.O) One man, Ash, destroyed the Book. Ash enters the cabin. He sees The Book of the Dead and tosses it onto the flames.27 CLOSE SHOT - MELTDOWN - MAIN ROOM (STUDIO) 27 STOP MOTION ANIMATION A possessed demon begins to wither and melt. Flesh shrinks away from its skull and dissolves to nothing. NARRATOR (V.O.) But the evil that had been resurrected from it, lives on.28 CLOSE SHOT - BOOK IN FIREPLACE 28 STOP MOTION ANIMATION The Book of the Dead is burned to cinders. The face upon the Book screams as it burns.29 OMIT 2929A INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - HIGH SHOT 29A Ash picks himself up from the floor.29B INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM 29B Ash stands and clutches the necklace of Linda, in sorrow for his loss of her.29C EXT. CABIN - DAWN - LONG SHOT 29C Ash staggers from the cabin. FADE OUT.30 OMIT 3031 EXT. CABIN - DAWN - RECREATION OF THE 31 FINAL SHOT OF EVIL DEAD I We are racing forward. We have taken the POV of an EVIL ENTITY as it glides with dark purpose through a section of woods. It approaches the rear door of the cabin. The door is torn violently open. The next door falls away from us. We approach the front door. SLAM! It jigsaws in two and we are again outside, now in front of the cabin. Ash is seen in the distance. He is staggering away, his back to us as we race at him. He turns suddenly towards CAMERA and screams.32 EXT. WOODS - DAWN 32 INTERVOLOMETER STOP MOTION/CRANE - SAM-O-CAM The final shot of Evil Dead I has a new ending; an extension. Ash is caught by an invisible grip. "G" force is distorting Ash's face as he is rocketed backwards. He is swept hand over foot through the air. He reaches the edge of the woods and begins tearing through the branches and smaller trees, clearing a path with his body. He finally slams into a large ungiving tree trunk and he is knocked unconscious.33 WIDE SHOT - LOOKING UPWARD - ASH - DUMMY - DAWN 33 As he falls from the tree branch and plummets towards the earth.34 ASH'S POV - (CRANING DOWNWARD) - UNDERCRANKED - DAWN 34 A puddle of mud below, which rushes up upon us quickly.35 MED. SHOT - MUD PUDDLE - ASH 35 As his head splashes down into the muddy water.36 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - DAWN 36 He lifts his face from the mud, and turns toward us. His eyes have gone white. His skin is now a pale color, his lips, jet black. He is Possessed. A bright edge of morning sunlight moves across his face. He turns his beastly face skyward.37 EXT. RIDGE - DAY (STUDIO) - MATTE PAINTING 37 LONG SHOT - THE SUN (Miniature) Rising over a mountain ridge. Sunlight streaming through a gaping hole in the parting clouds, in bright shafts. It pours through the trees.38 MED. SHOT - THE SUN - MATTE PAINTING - MINIATURE 38 Closer on the sun as it looms larger and brighter.39 CLOSE SHOT - THE SUN - MATTE PAINTING - MINIATURE 39 The frame is filled with the rising sun.40 EXT. WOODS - DAWN - CLOSE SHOT - ASH - MUD PUDDLE 40 The bright edge of morning sunlight spreading across his face, he lets loose a demonic death shriek.41 EXT. WOODS - DAY - (STUDIO) 41 EXTREME CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S FACE (STUDIO) DUMMY HEAD - LIQUID EYE CHAMBER - MINIATURE The white in Ash's eyes swirls about, and his pupils change back to their original brown color.41A EXT. WOODS - DAWN 41A Ash, no longer possessed, collapses into the mud puddle, unconscious.41B EXT. WOODS - DAY - REVERSE ACTION - FOG - 3 ANGLES 41B Streams of morning sunlight pierce the darkness of the woods. We hear the shriek of demons. The sound of SIZZLING. A great wind blows back fog into the darker sections of the woods. The scene grows brighter and the peaceful sounds of morning are faded up. DISSOLVE THRU TO:42 EXT. WOODS - DAY 42 WIDE SHOT - ASH As he lies unconscious. Time passes.43 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - CRANE - UNDERCRANKED 43 His eyes open. They stare blankly up at the sky. Then fear registers and we CRANE BACK QUICKLY, revealing a vast area of empty woods around Ash.44 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 44 He sits up slowly into frame, looking fearfully about.45 ASH'S POV 45 Panning the battered cabin and sections of the woods. All is peaceful. The sound of birds tweeting.46 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 46 ASH (V.O.) It's gone. He looks up to the sky.47 EXT. RIDGE - DAY - (STUDIO) - MATTE PAINTING 47 LONG SHOT - THE SUN - LATE AFTERNOON Just above the horizon. ASH Sun's driven it away... for now. Gotta get the hell out of here... before night falls.48 OMIT 4849 OMIT 4950 OMIT 5051 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 51 As he nods to himself, then suddenly glances up beyond the CAMERA.52 EXT. CABIN - DAY - MITCHELL CAMERA 52 ASH'S POV - THE CABIN A perfectly normal log cabin with one exception; superimposed over the front of the place is...52P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - (BLACK STUDIO) 52P MITCHELL CAMERA A hideous human skull with living eyeballs that stare out at us with evil malice. The eyes stare out from the two dark windows. The dark nose area is the open doorway, and the rotted teeth of the skull are the whitewashed stones placed at the foot of the cabin. Then it fades, leaving only the cabin.53 EXT. WOODS - DAY - WIND FAN 53 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - MUD PUDDLE He shudders uncontrollably as he picks himself up from the mud. Ash MOVES INTO A CLOSE UP. His eyes shift back and forth like a trapped animal as he looks about for a means of escape. He spots something.54 EXT. CABIN - DAY - ASH'S POV 54 THE DELTA 88 OLDSMOBILE Parked in front of the cabin.55 EXT. WOODS - DAY 55 CLOSE SHOT - ASH He shifts his glance from the car to the road.56 EXT. ROAD - DRIVEWAY TO CABIN - DAY 56 A narrow dirt road cutting through the woods. Then, the Delta 88 roars down it, and past the CAMERA. It kicks up dust and gravel.57 INT. DELTA 88 - DAY 57 (CAR MOUNT) Ash is driving. He wipes the mud and blood from his face with a rag. As he pulls the rag away, his face forms a sudden look of horror as he sees:58 EXT. BRIDGE - DAY (STUDIO MINIATURE W/BACKDROP) 58 CAR'S POV - TRACKING SHOT - STOP MOTION ANIMATION A GIANT STEEL HAND LOOMS towards us. It is the twisted remains of the steel and wood bridge that crossed a great mountain chasm. A LOUD SCREECH of brakes is heard on the soundtrack on this cut.59 EXT. BRIDGE SIDE I - DAY 59 MEDIUM SHOT - DELTA 88 - PARTIAL BRIDGE SET As it pulls to a halt. Ash steps quietly from the car. He looks at the bridge.60 EXT. BRIDGE - DAY (STUDIO MINIATURE W/BACKDROP) 60 ASH'S POV - BRIDGE A sign hangs from the twisted girders. It reads: "DANGEROUS BRIDGE - 2 TON WEIGHT LIMIT - CROSS AT OWN RISK." Beyond this we see the twisted remnants of the former bridge and the rock cliffs far away on the other side.60A EXT. BRIDGE SIDE I - DAY - MITCHELL CAMERA 60A FROM RAVINE, LOOKING UPWARD AT ASH AND DELTA (5 FRAMINGS) Ash gapes at the uncrossable chasm.60AP TWO CLIFF EDGES - (STUDIO) - MINIATURE 60AP61 EXT. BRIDGE - DAY 61 CLOSE SHOT - ASH He is stunned at the sight. His only escape, gone. He looks from the bridge to the West.62P1 PLATE FOR FOLLOWING SCENE 62P1 ASH'S POV - LONG SHOT - MOUNTAIN RIDGE - INTERVOLOMETER The sun is now resting on the horizon. Lower than it was before. It is BLOOD RED, and sets in the course of seven seconds.62 INT. STUDIO (BLUE SCREEN) 62 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - PULLING BACK To reveal Ash as he looks from the sunset, to the ruined bridge, to the road behind him. He moves in halting steps, not knowing which way to turn. Ash opens his mouth, draws in his breath, and just as he begins to scream, we CUT TO:62P2 OMIT 62P263 EXT. BRIDGE - TWILIGHT - POV OF EVIL FORCE 63 3 CAMERAS - BREAKAWAY TREES As it rises up from what appears to be the mountain chasm and reveals the opposite side of the twisted girders which form the "Giant Hand." It spots Ash immediately beyond. It moves swiftly towaad him. Ash looks up, sensing the evil and darts into the Delta 88. The FORCE moves through the twisted girders, pushing them away violently and races towaad the car. The Delta starts up and peels off. The Evil Force just misses it. The car doesn't have the room to complete the one hundred and eighty degree turn necessary to head back down the road the way it originally came, and is forced into a line of break- away trees which explode into sawdust as the front of the Delta 88 rips through them. The car swerves onto the road, headed back toward the cabin.64 INT. DELTA 88 - NIGHT 64 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - CAR MOUNT As the broken bits of tree slam against his windshield.65 CLOSE SHOT - CAR RADIO/TAPE DECK 65 As the channel switches suddenly to the hard rock song "Journey to the Center of Your Mind" which blares within the car throughout the chase to follow.66 EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT 66 POV - EVIL FORCE - UNDERCRANKED As it gives chase to the Delta.67 TRACKING SHOT - DELTA - DRAGWAY - UNDERCRANKED - ATV 67 Alongside the car as it barrels along the wooded road.68 EXT. DRAGWAY - NIGHT 68 TRACKING SHOT - DELTA - UNDERCRANKED - ATV As he drives this wild course.69 POV - EVIL FORCE - UNDERCRANKED 69 As it begins to gain on the speeding automobile.70 INT. DELTA 88 - NIGHT - UNDERCRANKED 70 OVER ASH'S SHOULDER Looking through the windshield, as branches beat and smash themselves against the windshield, obscuring our vision of the "Road" ahead. Our view suddenly clears, revealing a large tree that looms directly ahead.71 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 71 Swerving the wheel.72 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 72 ANGLE - DELTA - UNDERCRANKED It swerves and slams into a rotted tree, stopping it dead.73 INT. DELTA 88 - NIGHT 73 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - UNDERCRANKED As he is rocketed forward from his seat.74 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 74 ANGLE - FRONT OF DELTA - DUMMY OF ASH As Ash comes ripping through the windshield and past the CAMERA.74A ASH'S POV 74A As he approaches the ground with a great velocity.74B MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 74B As he slams into the earth with a rain of glass. He moans and gets to his feet.75 EXT. WOODS/CABIN - NIGHT 75 POV - EVIL FORCE - BREAKAWAY TREES As it sweeps down out of the woods, pushing over trees, and approaches the Delta. Steam pours from the hood of the car.76 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 76 CLOSE SHOT - ASH As he runs. His face is cut and bleeding.76A ANGLE - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER 76A As he runs toward the cabin. (Actually he is running in place in the rear of a camera car that is slowly backing away from the cabin.) The more he runs, the farther away from the cabin he gets.77 POV - EVIL FORCE 77 IMO CAMERA MOUNTED ON LONG POLE AND TRUCK - 3 DELTAS "RAM-O-CAM" It approaches the rear of the Delta, rips through the back window, moves through the car's interior, music still blasting, and bursts out the remains of the front windshield. We move through the steam of the radiator and approach Ash as he runs for the cabin.78 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 78 As he runs toward the cabin not making much progress as though caught running in a nightmare. He shakes his head "No."78A CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S FEET AS THEY RUN 78A79 ANGLE - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER 79 Now closer to the cabin. (Again, Ash is running in place in the camera car as it slowly backs away from the cabin.)80 POV - EVIL FORCE 80 Now quickly gaining its lost ground. Just a few feet behind Ash.81 EXT. CABIN - LOCATION 81 SIDE SHOT - ASH As he runs up the porch steps to the cabin.82 EXT./INT. CABIN - LOCATION 82 POV - EVIL FORCE We race into the cabin, splintering the hall door which Ash had swung shut. Ash retreats into the rear hallway, and swings the hallway door shut. We race right up to the door and it shatters into many pieces as we glide forward.83 INT. CABIN - STUDIO - "MAZE SHOT" - FORCE POV 83 Camera moves through the main room and up to the Hallway door. It shatters in front of us. We close in on Ash as he races down the hallway. We lose him as he swings into the back bedroom of the cabin and slams the door behind him. We rip through this door and enter the rear bedroom, only to see Ash scrambling for the door to the middle bedroom, which we approach and he swings shut in our face. We rip through to reveal Ash scurrying into the Hallway. We follow him through the bathroom, the maze, and back out into the Hallway. We round the corner after him and see that Ash has led us into the main room, but there is not a trace of him. We look about for him, but he is gone. The hallway is bare except for a few dry leaves.84 INT./EXT. CABIN - LOCATION - POV EVIL FORCE 84 The force begins to pull back with an ever-increasing speed, out the front door of the cabin, and deep into the blackness of the woods.85 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 85 A static shot of the fireplace. All is quiet. Smoke from the near dead fire wafts up the chimney. We hold on this for a moment.85A ANGLE - MIDDLE BEDROOM CLOSET - NIGHT 85A A static shot of a closet with it's door half open. The door begins to swing slightly open, revealing a rack of clothes inside. We hold on this for a moment.85B ANGLE - CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT 85B A writing desk with some papers atop it. They begin to tremble and finally blow away from the light breeze that sweeps through the cabin. The CAMERA PANS down from this desk to reveal a trap door in the floor of the main room. The trap door to the cellar. It is raised up on its hinge an inch or so and in that slight space between the trap door and the floor we see Ash's eyes, looking cautiously about. He breathes a sigh of relief.86 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT 86 The cabin in the distance. Fog rolls past.87-128 OMIT 87-128128 A,B,C OMIT 128 A,B,C129-143 OMIT 129-143143 A-F OMIT 143 A-F143FP OMIT 143FP144-149 OMIT 144-149149A-J OMIT 149A-J149K EXT. AIRSTRIP - NIGHT - LONGSHOT - ED 149K Ed Getly stands in the FG and watches as an older style twin engine cargo plane flies over the camera and lands.149L AIRSTRIP - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT - PASSENGERS 149L The airplane rolls to a halt. A man wearing a jumpsuit ties the airplane off and blocks the wheels while a redcap opens the hatch and helps out Annie Knowby. She carries a glass case in her hand as she moves toward us. Behind her five other passengers emerge from the Plane. Ed approaches Annie. ED Annie! ANNIE (smiling at sight of him) Hi. They embrace and kiss. ED How'd everything go on the expedition? ANNIE Terrific. I found the additional pages from the Book of the Dead. ED So you said in the telegram. What condition are they in? She holds out the glass case for Ed to look at.149M CLOSE SHOT - GLASS CASE 149M Inside are 12 pages from the Book of the Dead.149N AIRSTRIP - NIGHT 149N TRACKING SHOT - ED AND ANNIE - THEY CONTINUE WALKING ED Haven't aged a day in three thousand years. ANNIE Maybe longer. ED When do we begin the translations? ANNIE Tonight. Is everything all set with my father? ED Should be, but I haven't spoken to him in a week, what with no phone in that cabin. Take us about an hour to get there. They arrive at the parking lot. Two new, sharp looking cheverolets and Ed's old style cheverolet. ED We'll take my car. Ed opens the car trunk. Behind him a redcap pulls up a large steamer trunk on a hand dolly. Ed and the redcap hoist the steamer up into the car's trunk. ED Annie, you hinted in your telegram that your father was on to something with the first part of his translations. What's the big mystery? What has he found in The Book of the Dead? ANNIE Maybe nothing. But just possibly... the doorway to another world? Annie slams the car trunk.149O OMIT 149O150 OMIT 150151 EXT. WOODS/CABIN - W/ ASH - NIGHT 151 CHEVROLET CAR TRUNK CAMERA has taken the POV of the evil force as it glides eerily through the woods, around trees and over rotted stumps. It moves over a rise revealing a clear view of the boarded cabin in the distance. It approaches. It moves to the window, and peering through the cracks in the boards we see Ash asleep in the rocking chair.152 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 152 Camera begins on hammer, nails, and planking which lay upon the cabin floor. Camera pans to window #1. It is boarded up tight. Camera pans to door. It is repaired. Camera pans to Ash who sleeps in the rocking chair in front of another boarded window. Ash awakens suddenly, sensing something, the shotgun clutched in his lap. He lifts his head and turns to a whispering musical sound. Harp like music. It is coming from the back bedroom of the cabin.153 MAIN ROOM/MIDDLE ROOM/REAR BEDROOM 153 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH As he stands and moves cautiously towards the rear bedroom.154 ASH'S POV - MIDDLE ROOM AND REAR BEDROOM 154 As he approaches the rear bedroom, the music grows louder. As he enters the room he halts his gaze on the old wooden piano.155 INT. CABIN/REAR BEDROOM - NIGHT 155 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH As he moves to the piano. The sound is coming from within. Suddenly, the piano begins to play by itself; Ash draws back from it. It plays a waltz. Now the piano music mixing with the harp-like strings. The radiator next to the piano begins to release bursts of musical steam, adding a wind section to this strange orchestra.156 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 156 As he listens to this haunting version of a waltz melody. He recognizes the music. It is the same music that Ash had played earlier, when Linda was dancing.157 CLOSE SHOT - PIANO AND RADIATOR 157 As steam spouts from the radiator pipes. As the piano keys depress and release themselves. The melody grows louder.158 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 158 As he lowers his head. His horror gives way to sadness. From his pocket he removes Linda's delicate silver locket that dangles from the end of a chain. In the locket's center is a magnifying glass. He stares mournfully into the glass. BANG! He looks up sharply toward the main room.159 OMIT 159159P1 OMIT 159P1159P2 OMIT 159P2159P3 OMIT 159P3160 OMIT 160161 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 161 ASH'S POV - SHUTTERS As they rip open, splintering Ash's reinforcements. Wind sweeps in through the place as the curtains flutter wildly. Through the window is a sweeping fog.162 INT. CABIN MIDDLE ROOM - NIGHT 162 Ash runs through this room and into the main room. He moves to the window and looks out. Wind blowing on his face from outside.163 EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 163 ASH'S POV - THE GRAVEYARD A stark wooden cross marks Linda's lonely grave.164 OMIT 164165 OMIT 165166 EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 166 LONG SHOT - CABIN IN DISTANCE - STOP MOTION ANIMATION The tiny figure of Ash can be seen looking off toward this hill. In the foreground is a crude burial cross and a mound of earth. The earth begins to crack and splinter. The wooden cross caves in and is swallowed as the headless corpse of Linda pulls itself to its feet. The HAUNTING WALTZ MELODY sweeps through the night air.166P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 166P ASH IN WINDOW - MITCHELL CAMERA167 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 167 CLOSE SHOT - THROUGH THE WINDOW - ASH His eyes, illuminated by a shaft of light, widen in amazement and horror as...168 EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT (STUDIO) 168 (MINIATURE/STOP MOTION/REAR SCREEN) - 3 ANGLES The WALTZ MELODY fills the sound track, and the rotting corpse that was Linda begins to dance, bending and swaying as she sweeps gracefully through the evening fog. A waltz of the dead. The style of dance begins to change. It becomes more primitive. The music changes to a more primal beat. The dance becomes sexually oriented. Erotic, with sharp pelvic thrusts and gyrating hip motions.168P 3 PLATES FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MITCHELL CAMERA 168P EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT - FOG/WIND FAN169 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 169 CLOSE SHOT - THRU THE WINDOW - ASH Lost in the horrific beauty, he turns his head to a rumbling sound.170 EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT - (REVERSE ACTION) 170 ASH'S POV Linda's DECAPITATED HEAD rolls across the ground and up the hillside graveyard.171 EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT (STUDIO) 171 (MINIATURE/STOP MOTION/REAR SCREEN) LINDA'S HEAD 3 ANGLES As it leaps through the air and gracefully situates itself atop Linda's neck, she begins to spin, yet her head remains in place, never taking her eyes from Ash. With a sensual twirl and leap, she disappears into the evening mists.171P 3 PLATES FOR PRECEDING SCENE - MITCHELL CAMERA 171P EXT. HILLSIDE GRAVEYARD - NIGHT - FOG W/WIND172 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 172 CLOSE SHOT - THRU WINDOW - ASH His eyes dart about, trying to catch another glimpse of Linda through the fog.173 EXT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 173 ASH'S POV - THRU WINDOW Linda swings sharply into frame, completing the spin of her dance immediately in front of Ash as the music abruptly halts. LINDA DANCE WITH ME! Linda extends her dead arms towards Ash.174 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE SHOT - ASH 174 He screams as...175 EXT. HILLSIDE - GRAVEYARD - NIGHT 175 CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S CORPSE (OVERCRANKED) Linda's head rolls off of her neck and tumbles through space.176 INT. BLACK STUDIO - NIGHT 176 LINDA'S HEAD - ON WIRE As it tumbles through a void of blackness, falling.177 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 177 CLOSE SHOT - ASH As he screams himself awake. CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal him sitting in the rocking chair. Ash halts his scream, getting control of himself. He looks to the window that had blown open.178 ASH'S POV - THE BOARDED WINDOW 178 Still boarded as though it had never been opened.179 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 179 Reassuring himself. ASH That's all. Just a crummy dr- Linda's decapitated head falls into frame and lands in Ash's hands.180 CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S HEAD 180 It opens its eyes and looks to Ash. LINDA'S HEAD Hello lover, I came from the other side of your dream to dance with you.181 CLOSER SHOT - LINDA'S HEAD (BACKWARD MOTION) 181 A four foot long blackened tongue emerges from her mouth like a lashing serpent.182 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - (BACKWARD MOTION) 182 The tongue enters Ash's frame and forces itself into Ash's mouth. Screaming as he clutches at the head of his former love. The tongue instantly retracts inside her head.183 CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S HEAD 183 As it bites deeply into Ash's right hand, drawing blood.183A MED SHOT - ASH AND LINDA'S DUMMV HEAD 183A Ash stands and rushes across the room screaming, as he tries to rid himself of the head.183 B-L OMIT 183 B-L184 OMIT 184185 OMIT 185185A OMIT 185A186 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - ASH AND DUMMY HEAD - LONG SHOT 186 As Ash staggers painfully around the side of the cabin and towards the work shed; Linda's head still clamped to his hand.187 INT. WORK SHED - NIGHT - LINDA DUMMY HEAD - ASH 187 The door to the place is kicked open, revealing Ash and Linda's head on the end of his hand. It is a room full of sawdust, chains and power tools. Old bones hang from the walls.187A MEDIUM SHOT - INT. WORK SHED - ASH 187A As he places Linda's head within the vice and tightens it around her, then withdraws his hand. LINDA'S HEAD Even now we have your darling Linda's soul! She suffers in torment!187B CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S HAND 187B As it rips away an old tarp revealing the chalk outline of where a chainsaw once was.187C CLOSE SHOT - ASH - HEADLESS LINDA BODY 187C Confused. Wondering what has happened to the chainsaw. Behind him, the door to the shed bursts open and in comes the flailing, headless, body of Linda, charging at Ash with the chainsaw buzzing high above her head. Ash is screaming.187D MEDIUM SHOT 187D Ash grabs a large crowbar and swings it toward the approaching blade.187E CLOSE SHOT 187E The crowbar hits the bottom of the blade with a shower of sparks, sending the buzzing saw flipping backward.187F MEDIUM SHOT - HEADLESS LINDA DUMMY - 3 ANGLES 187F The blade of the chainsaw swings upward and arcs back into headless Linda, imbedding itself in her neck. She goes nuts as the chainsaw bites its way into her chest cavity. She spins wildly about the room knocking into shelves as she tries to pull the blade free. She slams against the wall of the shed, and slumps to the floor, the chainsaw still buzzing.187G MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 187G As he is splattered with black bile. He reaches down.187H MEDIUM SHOT - HEADLESS LINDA 187H As Ash dislodges the spinning chainsaw from her.187I MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 187I As he swings the chainsaw around and poises it above Linda's head.187J WIDE SHOT - ASH AND LINDA'S HEAD IN VICE 187J From the chainsaw, fumes of blue amoke. Ash turns to the head and falters.187K CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S HEAD IN VICE 187K She is no longer possessed. She looks as she did earlier in the film. A vision of beAuty. She is again Linda, the woman Ash loved. Tears roll down from her eyes. LINDA Please Ash, help me. I love you, please don't hurt me.187L CLOSE SHOT - ASH 187L Trying to fight his feelings, he knows what he must do. He pumps the throttle on the saw.187M CLOSE SHOT - LINDA 187M Pleading with him. LINDA You promised me we'd always be together. You swore to me!187N CLOSE SHOT - ASH 187N Agonized. ASH NO!187O CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S HEAD 187O Once again fully possessed, and speaking in the voice of the demon. Her eyes again white, her flesh, rotten. LINDA'S HEAD YES! YOU LIED TO HER! YOU LIED TO LINDA! YOUR LOVE WAS A LIE! AND NOW SHE BURNS IN HELL!187P EXTREME CLOSE SHOT - LINDA'S DUMMY HEAD 187P She opens her mouth and emits a jet stream of bile.187Q CLOSE SHOT - ASH 187Q As he's drenched in the face. Linda begins to laugh at him in a wild, high pitched squeal. He gains control of himself and steadies the saw. ASH Eat chainsaw. He brings down the spinning blade. And moves past the CAMERA and towards the head. We are left looking at the wall of the work shed upon which we see the stark shadow of the ghastly deed. We hear the sound of spinning steel meeting bone and the screams of a demon.187R CLOSE SHOT - LIGHT BULB 187R As it is splattered with blood.187S MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 187S Ash stumbles back into frame and falls against the wall, now lit in crimson. He looks at the off screen carnage in terror. He begins to shake as though in shock. He trembles as he looks down at his hands; they are covered in Linda's blood. He wipes his hands on his pants and shirt, trying to rid himself of it, but only succeeds in painting himself with the stuff. Ash screams a wild scream of fear and despair. It echoes off into the night.188 CRANE SHOT - EXT. WORK SHED - NIGHT 188 Ash in a confused state as he staggers from the work shed and towards the cabin. Again clutching the chainsaw.189 INT. CABIN REAR DOORWAY - NIGHT 189 Ash enters through the doorway. He pushes the door shut behind him and halts. We hear a creaking sound. It is coming from the main room of the cabin. He moves in the direction of the sound.189A ASH'S POV - REAR HALLWAY - NIGHT 189A TRACKING SLOWLY FORWARD Curtains flutter on the partially boarded windows of the hall. Ash moves slowly past them and towards the main room ahead. The gentle creaking sound grows louder. Ash tosses down the saw and picks up the gun.189B INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 189B Ash enters from the hallway and turns his head to the sound.189C MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - ASH'S POV - THE ROCKING CHAIR 189C It rocks back and forth with a definitive motion, halting for a moment at it's pints furthest forward and backward, as if some invisible thing was sitting there and rocking.189D CLOSE SHOT - ASH 189D He slowly approaches the chair, scared shitless.189E MEDIUM SHOT - FROM BEHIND THE ROCKING CHAIR 189E The chair rocks in and out of frame in the foreground as Ash takes halting steps towards it. Ash gathers his courage and reaches out his hand to halt the rocking motion. Slowly his hand approaches the chair. Just as his hand goes to touch it, the chair abruptly halts, on its own accord.190 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 190 In a confused state as he backs away from the chair and into the wall. He turns and comes face to face with himself in a hanging framed mirror. He clutches at his face, trying to reassure himself of his sanity. ASH I'm fine... I'm fine...191 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM/MIRROR ROOM - NIGHT 191 MEDIUM SHOT - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER - ASH AND REFLECTION Ash's reflection becomes an independent entity. It reaches out of the mirror and grabs ahold of Ash by his throat. The reflection looks like a Mr. Hyde version of Ash. Sweating and nasty looking.192 SIDE SHOT - SPLIT SCREEN - ASH AND REFLECTION 192 MITCHELL CAMERA (ASH AS MR. HYDE) The reflection pulls Ash close and speaks to him in an intimate whisper. REFLECTION I don't think we're "fine". We're losing it... starting to slip. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound fine? The reflection tightens its hold on Ash's throat and begins to strangle him.192P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 192P INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT ASH - MITCHELL CAMERA193 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - DOLLY 193 Two hands in the bottom of frame, throttling him. CAMERA races back to reveal Ash's own hands on his throat. There is no sign of Ash's evil reflection. Ash has been strangling himself. He realizes this the same moment we do. He quickly pulls his hands away, looks at them incredulously, then to the mirror.194 OVER ASH'S SHOULDER - INTO MIRROR 194 His reflection is as it should be.195 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 195 He looks back down to his hands.196 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO) 196 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S RIGHT HAND - DUMMY HAND INTERVOLOMETER The bite marks that Linda's teeth have left in the hand stand out sharply. The wound suddenly blackens and spiderwebs it's infection across the entire surface of the hand.197 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 197 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - HAND IN FOREBROUND - MAKE UP BLADDER EFX The hand quivers and shakes, now out of Ash's control. The hand has taken a whitish cast. It's veins throb and pulsate. It is possessed by the evil force. The hand's fingernails grow inches. The wound oozes black fluid. Ash is repulsed.198 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 198 Ash's demon hand makes a lunge at his face which is countered by his good hand.199 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 199 He slams the hand to the cabin floor. He screams to the air: ASH You bastards. Give me back my hand.200 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 200 Wind and fog swirl about the place. Ash's ECHOING SCREAM is heard above the HOWLING GALE. ASH (0.S.) Give me back my hand!!201 OMIT 201201A OMIT 201A201B OMIT 201B201C OMIT 201C202 OMIT 202203 OMIT 203204 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM/KITCHEN - NIGHT 204 Ash rushes into the kitchen and places his hand in the sink. He turns on the faucet.205 INT. CABIN KITCHEN - NIGHT 205 Cool water runs over Ash's burned hand. Ash rests his head on the kitchen counter and mumbles reassurances to himself. ASH Can't... can't be happening.206 CLOSE SHOT - THE HAND 206 As the water pours over it. It grabs a plate sitting in the dishwater and reaches up silently out of the sink.207 MEDIUM SHOT 207 The plate is shattered over Ash's head. The hand grabs Ash's hair and mercilessly slams his head down upon the kitchen counter again and again. Ash punches himself in the face and is sent reeling backwards. He smashes into a cupboard where dishes and plates fall upon him.208 CLOSE SHOT 208 The hand picks up plates and begins breaking them over Ash's head. Then a bottle.209 MEDIUM SHOT 209 Ash is knocked unconscious. The hand continues breaking objects over his head. Ash lies unmoving, but still alive.210 CLOSE SHOT 210 The hand stops as though it senses something. The CAMERA PANS to a large meat cleaver which lies upon the wooden floor.211 MEDIUM SHOT 211 The hand as it independently crawls towards the meat cleaver. The hand is stopped when it runs out of arm, now anchored by Ash's unconscious body.212 CLOSE-SHOT - HAND 212 It digs its nails deep into the floorboards and begins to pull...213 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 213 ... as he is pulled along the kitchen floor.214 CLOSE SHOT - HAND - GELETIN HAND 214 As it pulls Ash's unconscious body along after it. The hand clutches the meat cleaver when a large knife comes slicing through the demon hand, pinning it to the floorboards. CAMERA pulls over to reveal a revived Ash. ASH Who's laughing now?214A ANGLE - ASH - COMEDY KNIFE RIG 214A He reaches over with his good hand and pulls a fire engine red chainsaw down from the shelf. He holds the body of the machine between his legs and, with his good hand, pulls the starter cord. The CHAINSAW ROARS to life. The CAMERA TRACKS IN to Ash's sweating face. ASH Who's laughing now!? He lowers the spinning blade of the chainsaw down out of frame and toward the evil hand. Blood flies up into frame.215 OMIT 215216 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 216 LONG SHOT We hear the BUZZING of the CHAINSAW as it slices through bone and then falls silent.217 EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT (SIDE II) 217 CRANE The CAMERA cranes down as Annie's car approaches from the distance. It pulls to a halt. Ed and Annie step from the car.218 ANNIE'S POV 218 A red tow truck with its orange lights flashing is parked there. Painted on it's side is "Jake's Gas N' Go." Jake, a toothless, backwoods, greasemonkey is setting up flares and wooden roadblocks. Annie and Ed approach. ANNIE Excuse me. This the road to the Knowby's cabin? JAKE Thas' right. But you ain't goin' there. ANNIE And why not?219 CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 219 As he reaches in his truck to pull on the headlights.220 CLOSE SHOT - TRUCK HEADLIGHTS 220 As they snap on.221 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE, ANNIE, AND ED 221 All stand in the bright glare of the lights as the fog swirls about them. Annie and Ed gape in frightened wonder at what they see.222 EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT - (SIDE II) - (STUDIO MINIATURE) 222 THEIR POV - TABLE TOP MODEL GIRDERS The piercing beams of light illuminate twisted remnants of the destroyed bridge that leads to the cabin. A road sign, similar to the one on the other side of the bridge reads: "Dangerous Bridge - Two Ton Weight Limit".223 EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT - (SIDE II) 223 CLOSE SHOT - ED AND ANNIE Frightened as they view the wreckage. ANNIE What happened? JAKE Lady, I ain't never seen nothin' like it. ED Terrific. Now what? ANNIE There must be another way in. Another road or something.224 JAKE, BOBBY JOE, ANNIE AND ED - TWO CAMERAS 224 BOBBY JOE Sure ain't no, road. CAMERA pans over to reveal a brassy southern spitfire of a woman, Bobby Joe. BOBBY JOE Hell you wanna go there for, anyway? Bobby Joe takes a pinch of chewing tobacco and stuffs it into her mouth. She doesn't like Annie and her fancy clothes. She stares at Annie like a cat.224X MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE AND ED 224X Annie steps forward. She eyes Bobby Joe. ANNIE None of your business.224Y CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 224Y He feigns surprise and pleasantness. JAKE Hey! I just remembered... Yeah, that's right... There is a trail. You could follow Bobby Joe and me. ED That sounds all right. JAKE But, it'll cost ya. ANNIE How much? JAKE Forty Fi...224A ANGLE 224A Jake looks up suddenly at Bobby Joe who gives a sharp shake of her head. JAKE Hundred bucks.224B CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 224B ANNIE Tell you what. You take my bags you got a deal.224C CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 224C He glances through the window of Annie's car.224D JAKE'S POV 224D The tiny case containing the missing pages of the Book of the Dead, and a small handbag.224E CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 224E Looking back to Annie, a big smile on his near toothless face. JAKE Sure!225 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT 225 A hiking trail winds through the woods. Bobby Joe leads the way with flashlight in hand. She pockets some bills. She is followed by Annie and Ed who carry the glass case containing the missing pages and the handbag. A grunting and sweating Jake brings up the rear, the large steamer trunk on his back. He is cursing under his breath. JAKE Jesus H. Christ! I thought she was talkin' 'bout them two goddamn little pieces!226 OMIT 226227 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 227 The wind rushes fog about the place with a fury. A large moon hangs in the night sky.228 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 228 CLOSE SHOT - EVIL HAND No longer attached to Ash's arm, it still writhes about beneath Ash's foot which pins it to the floor.229 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - HAND'S POV - EYEMO W/ MOUNT 229 As he grabs the steel wastebasket, dumps out the trash lowers it quickly over the CAMERA, trapping the hand within.230 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 230 With a note of finality, Ash slams down a pile of books atop the overturned wastecan, to anchor it. The top book's title reads "Farewell to Arms".231 FIREPLACE 231 Ash raises a red hot fireplace shovel that had been resting upon the coals. He grits his teeth.232 ANGLE 232 Just out of frame, Ash thrusts the glowing shovel against the stump to cauterize the wound. Red steam hisses up into frame as Ash screams.233 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 233 He tosses aside the shovel and douses his smoldering stump into a vase of fresh flowers.234 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 234 Unspooling a roll of duct tape.235 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 235 He tapes the tablecloth into a makeshift bandage about his wrist. Behind him, the wastebasket silently slides across the floor.236 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 236 "CLANG"! He turns to see.237 CLOSE SHOT - THE WASTEBASKET 237 Upon its side. The Evil Hand is gone.237A CLOSE SHOT - ASH 237A He turns to a "pitter patter" sound.238 OMIT 238238P OMIT 238P239 OMIT 239240 OMIT 240241 OMIT 241242 OMIT 242243 OMIT 243244 OMIT 244245 CLOSE SHOT - HAND 245 It scampers across the floorboards headed for a hole in the wall.246 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO) 246 MEDIUM SHOT - ANIMATED HAND (4 SEC.) Same action as above but covered now through animation.247 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 247 HAND - POV Low angle tracking shot approaching the hole in the wall.248 CLOSE SHOT - ASH AND HAND - SQUIB 248 TRACKING WITH HAND, ASH IN BG He raises the shotgun and FIRES. BLAM! The floor next to the hand explodes.249 CLOSE SHOT - HOLE IN THE WALL - SQUIB - EFX. HAND 249 The hand leaps into the hole as a section of wall next to it EXPLODES. Blam!250 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 250 Ash quickly reloads both chambers of the gun. He tracks the SOUND of the PITTER PATTER as the hand scampers through the sapace behind the wall like a rat.251 OMIT 251252 OMIT 252253 OMIT 253254 ASH'S POV - WALL - SQUIB 254 The blasted hole at the bottom of the wall. The hand appears, still unhurt, waving and taunting at Ash.255 CLOSE SHOT - ANIMATED HAND - (7 SEC.) 255 As it taunts ASH it inadvertently sidesteps into a rusting mousetrap. SNAP! It springs shut upon the hand. It screams furiously and shakes violently in an effort to get free the from trap.256 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 256 Throws back his head in a gruff bark of laughter. ASH Ha!257 CLOSE SHOT - ANIMATED HAND - (7 SEC.) 257 The hand throws the trap from itself and raises its middle finger to ASH, flipping him the bird.258 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S HAND 258 He raises the gun, revealing his face as the CAMERA PANS UP with his movement.259 ASH'S POV - OVER THE GUN BARREL 259 Pointed directly at the hand. But the hand dodges away from the hole, disappearing again behind the wall. The gun continues to track the evil hand's progress through its pitter patter sound.260 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S EAR 260 The pitter patter ebbs and then peaks in volume.261 ASH'S POV - OVER THE GUN BARREL - SQUIB 261 Both triggers are squeezed. BLAM! BLAM! A 2nd and 3rd hole are blown in the wall. All is silent.261A INSERT ASH'S FINGER PULLS THE FIRST, THEN 261A SECOND TRIGGER261B INSERT FLAME BELCHES FROM THE GUN TWICE 261B262 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 262 As he lowers the smoking gun. Wondering if he has hit the hand or not.263 CLOSE SHOT - HOLE IN WALL - 5 CAMERAS 263 All is silent for a moment, and then a slight trickle of blood comes dripping from the hole and down the side of the wall.264 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 264 For the first time feeling victorious. As Ash continues to stare at the hole, his expression changes to one of perplexity.265 CLOSE SHOT - HOLE IN WALL - 5 CAMERAS 265 The trickle of blood has increased to a steady flow, then, even this volume of blood multiplies. It is forced out of the wall with a greater and greater pressure until blood pours from the wall like a fire hose.266 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 266 Horrified, he spins his glance to the sound of more gushing liquid. He is hit in the face with a geyser of deep red blood.267 CLOSE SHOT - 2ND AND 3RD HOLES IN WALL - 5 CAMERAS 267 The 2nd and 3rd holes in wall also begin to spew blood in a geyser. The CAMERA PANS over to the 4th of the holes. This, too, is an eruption of blood. The blood changes in color to a black fluid, then yellow, then turquoise.268 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - 5 CAMERAS 268 Screaming as he looks down at his wrist. CAMERA PANS DOWN to it. The severed wrist begins dribbling blood. Then in a burst, it too, erupts in a hellish fire hose. It spouts blood under such great pressure that ASH is driven against the walls of the cabin because of it.269 MED. SHOT - ASH - 5 CAMERAS 269 We follow him as he slams from one wall into another.270 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - 5 CAMERAS 270 In the midst of his scream, drowning in the blood, it all suddenly stops. The cabin is again deadly quiet. ASH, soaked in blood and shivering, waits. For what, he's not sure.271 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 271 As he slowly backs away from the walls and sits upon the three legged chair. It shatters beneath him, dumping him on his butt. CREAK!!! ASH turns sharply to the low sound.272 ASH'S POV - CLOSE SHOT 272 The mounted moose head upon the wall. It is in a different position. It turns sharply towards ASH and emits a hideous cackle.273 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 273 He pulls back in fear, then turns to the sound of more laughter.274 ASH'S POV - CLOSE SHOT 274 The desk lamp on its steel swivel rises and falls in synchronization with its wheezing laughter. Ah ha ha ha ha. Ahhhh ha ha ha ha!275 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 275 Terrified, he turns to more laughter.276 ASH'S POV - CLOSE SHOT 276 A line of 12 old books upon the shelf flap open and closed violently as they emit a chorus of sharp laughs. Ash turns.276A CLOSE SHOT 276A Other books upon the floor laugh.277 MEDIUM SHOT - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER 277 He turns sharply toward us and breaks into an uproariously frightening bout of laughter.278 WIDE SHOT - ASH 278 The wooden door behind Ash comes to life. It stretches out as though it were elastic with each of its own low and terrible laughs.279 WIDE SHOT - MAIN ROOM - TRACKING SHOT 279 RIGGING FOR TRAP DOOR, CABINETS, CLOCK Ash and everything in it are having the time of their lives. Ash leads the bunch laughing harder and harder.279A MEDIUM SHOT - HAND HELD - FRONT DOOR AND ASH 279A KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! The room's laughter suddenly stops. Ash instantly terrified, grabs up the shotgun and fires into the door. Blam! Blam! PAN to the front door. Two holes are blown into the door. We hear a short shrill scream and then all is quiet.280 OMIT 280281 OMIT 281282 OMIT 282282A MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 282A Ash opens the front door. It slowly swings inward with a creak revealing the empty night.283 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND JAKE 283 Ash approaches the front porch as Jake enters sharply into his frame. Jake tackles Ash.284 MEDIUM SHOT - SHOTGUN 284 As it slides across the floor.285 MED. SHOT - ASH, JAKE AND ED 285 Ed enters and holds Ash down as Jake slugs him twice. Ash's fist comes up into frame catching Jake on the jaw. Jake pulls back his fist and rockets a piledriver blow to Ash's face, knocking him senseless.285A C.U. ASH 285A285B C.U. JAKE 285B286 MEDIUM SHOT - FRONT DOORWAY - THE GROUP 286 Annie and Bobby Joe enter. Annie is taking off Bobby Joe's coat. Bobby Joe is wounded from the shotgun blast. She holds her shoulder where the shell has grazed her. JAKE You gonna be alright, honey? BOBBY JOE I don't know. JAKE You just sit still fer a minute.287 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE, ED, ANNIE, AND BOBBY JOE 287 As Jake gives Ash a swift kick in the ribs. Ash moans. Jake turns to Ed, who is badly shaken. JAKE You know this son of a bitch? ED No. We thought her - Annie steps forward. ANNIE Oh my God. Where are my parents? Annie sets down the glass case containing the pages of the Book of the Dead.288 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 288 As she looks down to the floor.289 ANNIE'S POV - THE CHAINSAW 289 As it lies in a pool of blood.290 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 290 Annie runs to Ash's semi-conscious body, grabs his shirt and violently shakes him. ANNIE What the hell did you do to them? Ed pulls Annie off of Ash. She drops Ash's moaning head to the floor and backs away from him, sobbing.291 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE 291 Nursing his sore knuckles, he points with his elbow to the trap door that leads to the cellar. JAKE We'll throw him in there.292 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND ASH 292 Jake picks up Ash's body and drags him quickly to the trap door. Half conscious, Ash feebly struggles with Jake. JAKE Crazy buck's gone blood simple.293 ASH'S POV - HAND HELD 293 As he approaches the trap door almost upside down. Ed pries it open.294 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - HAND HELD 294 In a dazed state as he is carried to the trap door. ASH Wait... I made... a mistake... JAKE Damn right, you flat mouthed son of a bitch.294A MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND JAKE 294A Jake kicks Ash down into the open trap door.295 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 295 ASH DUMMY Looking up at the open trap door as Ash's body falls through frame.296 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 296 CLOSE SHOT - CELLAR STEP - ASH'S HEAD As it slams into the wooden step. His feet tumble over him as he begins to fall down the staircase.297 LONG SHOT - ASH - STUNT 297 As he tumbles head over heels down the wooden steps.298 ASH'S POV 298 Racing down the steps.299 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 299 As he slams to the dirt floor of the cellar. Hard. He moans.300 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 300 LOOKING UP TO THEM FROM CELLAR Jake, Ed and Bobby Joe. BOBBY JOE I hope you rot down there!301 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 301 MEDIUM SHOT Ash begins to realize where he is. Growing terror on his battered face. ASH N... No.302 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 302 ANGLE LOOKING UP Jake swings the trap door shut with a clanging of chains.303 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 303 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH The shaft of light from above disappears and he is encased in the darkness of the cellar. From above he hears the threading of chains through eyeloops.304 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 304 MED. SHOT - JAKE, ANNIE, BOBBY JOE, ED Jake has just laid Bobby Joe down upon the couch. He dresses her wound with a towel. Annie tosses down her coat on the chair at the writing desk.304A MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE 304A She spots the tape recorder and Kandarian Dagger. She moves to them. ANNIE These are my father's things. She turns on the tape recorder. High pitched feedback and the professor's screams come from the speaker. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (Voice on Tape) Last night Henrietta tried to kill me. ANNIE PROFESSOR KNOWBY SHHH! Listen! (Voice on tape) My father's voice. I know now, that my wife has become host to a kandarian demon.305 MED. SHOT - JAKE, BOBBY JOE AND ED 305 As they turn their heads to the sound of:306 CLOSE SHOT - TAPE RECORDER - TRACKING 306 Still playing, the tapes wind as we hear the wowing and fluttering voice of Raymond Knowby. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (Voice on tape) I cannot bring myself to dismember my wife, yet I know that I must, to halt the evil that lives within her.307 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE - TRACKING IN 307 Horrified. ANNIE No.308 OMIT 308309 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 309 MED. SHOT - ASH - TRACKING AROUND HIM As he lays in the center of the cellar's earth floor. He strains his ears to listen to the tape playing in the room above. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (Voice on tape) It is October 1, 4:33 p.m. Henrietta is dead. I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse. But I buried her.310 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 310 TRACKING CLOSER As he listens intently to the tape playing in the room above.311 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 311 TRACKING SHOT - TAPE RECORDER CAMERA SLOWLY MOVING IN on the winding tape. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (Voice on tape) I . . . buried her . . . in the cellar.312 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT - (STUDIO) 312 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - TRACKING CLOSER Growing horror on his face as he realizes where he is. PROFESSOR KNOWBY (Voice on tape) God help me, I buried her in the earthen floor of the fruit cellar!313 OMIT 313314 OMIT 314315 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 315 ASH'S POV - CLOSE SHOT - (STOP MOTION ANIMATION) Ash's legs in the foreground. Suddenly from the earthen floor of the fruit cellar a half-rotten human head juts up! Just the eyes are above the surface of the dirt. They dart about wildly and halt upon Ash. Worms crawl from the rotted forehead.316 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 316 CLOSE SHOT - ASH He screams.317 MED. SHOT - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER - MOCK UP OF CELLAR 317 SET Henrietta's arm rips through the earth and grabs Ash's leg as he tries to back away. The corpse that was Henrietta pulls itself from the grave and emits a wail. She turns her twisted body to face Ash. Moths fly about her in a flurry. HENRIETTA Someone's in my fruit cellar! Someone with a fresh soul!318 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 318 MED SHOT. - THE GROUP All eyes on the trap door. ED Somebody's down there with him. ANNIE No. Can't be.319 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 319 MED. SHOT - ASH He runs up the steps to the trap door and begins pounding furiously upon it.320 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 320 ASH Let me out! Let me out!!!321 MED. SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) - WIND FAN 321 Henrietta lets out a terrible laugh and approaches the wooden staircase.322 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 322 MED. SHOT - THE GROUP All eyes are on the banging trap door. ASH'S wild screams are coming from beneath. They look at one another, not sure of what to do. Jake holds the ring of keys. ANNIE Let him out. JAKE It's a trick. I know it. ANNIE LET HIM OUT!323 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 323 WIDE SHOT - ASH At the top of the steps, pounding on the trap door, screaming to be let out. HENRIETTA ENTERS the FRAME at the bottom of the steps. A flutter of moths about her.324 WIDE SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) 324 Henrietta begins to climb the steps. Two at a time. HENRIETTA Come to me. Come to sweet Henrietta.325 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 325 MED. SHOT - JAKE As he tries one key after another.326 CLOSE SHOT - KEYS 326 As they are forced into the lock.327 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 327 CLOSE SHOT - ASH Sweating at the top of the steps, watching as Henrietta approaches. ASH No.328 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA 328 Extending her rotted and worm infested arm toward him. HENRIETTA Yesssssss. You and I. We shall spend eternity together.329 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 329 Marie's shadow envelops him. He is petrified. HENRIETTA But first I'll swallow your soul !330 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 330 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA - (STOP MOTION ANIMATION/REAR SCREEN) With a sharp recoil, then spring, Henrietta makes a lunge at Ash. Her face contorting, her teeth lengthening, her mouth opening impossibly wide as though she were going to swallow his head, and all as she lunges forward. She changes to "Pee Wee" head.330P INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT - 35MM KODAKCHROME SLIDE 330P Plate for previous scene.331 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 331 CLOSE SHOT - ASH He screams as a set of bloody hands grab his face. But they are not Henrietta's. He is pulled upward to the main room of the cabin.332 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 332 CLOSE SHOT It is Jake who pulls Ash to safety.333 WIDE SHOT - MAIN ROOM 333 Jake finishes pulling Ash up from the trapdoor and onto the floor of the main room. The horrible face of Pee-Wee head Henrietta pops from the cellar!334 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE AND ED 334 SCREAMING at the sight of the beast. ANNIE For God's sake! That's my mother!335 CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 335 One of Henrietta's rotted hands reach up from the cellar grabbing Jake.336 CLOSE SHOT - ED 336 As he moves to help Jake, Henrietta swats at his jaw, knocking him backward into a picture frame. He shatters it with his head and slumps to the floor.337 MED. SHOT - ASH 337 As he moves toward the trapdoor.338 CLOSE SHOT - (STYROFOAM TRAPDOOR) 338 Ash's foot kicks the trapdoor shut and crushes Henrietta's Pee-wee head between the door and the floorboards.339 MED. SHOT - DUMMY OF HENRIETTA - PEE WEE HEAD 339 Ash leaps down upon the trapdoor, slamming it to pin Pee-Wee head sideways. The pressure sends her left eyeball popping from her head, like a cork from a champagne bottle.340 CLOSE SHOT - EYEBALL FLYBALL 340 Henrietta's eyeball and trailing optic nerve - mounted on glass - panning with the eyeball as it sails through space.341 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE (REVERSE ACTION) 341 As the eyeball is shot into her screaming mouth. She begins to gag on it.342 WIDE SHOT 342 Jake kicks Marie's Pee-Wee head in the face, sending her back down into the cellar. The trap door shuts. Ash leaps atop it. The sound of Henrietta falling down the cellar steps is heard along with the beast's wild ravings. Ash quickly threads the chains through the eyeloops.343 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 343 He snaps the lock shut. Ash is shaking. Jake slowly moves down into his frame. He is completely terrified.343A CLOSE SHOT - TAPE RECORDER IN F.G. 343A ASH, JAKE, ANNIE AND BOBBY IN B.G. The tape recorder continues to play. RAYMOND KNOWBY (V.O.) (Voice on tape) I fear that whatever I have resurrected from this book, is sure to come calling for me.344 EXT. WOODS/CABIN - NIGHT 344 (SHAKI-CAM) The CAMERA takes the POV of the Evil Force as it glides through the woods. Over a stump, around the Oak trees, through a patch of fog, as the cabin comes into view.345 OMIT 345346 MED. SHOT - ANNIE, ASH, JAKE, BOBBY JOE AND ED 346 Ash turns to the group, Annie is placing her wet bandana atop Ed's forehead. ASH There's something out there. That... witch in the cellar is only part of it. It lives out in those woods. In the Dark. Something that's come back from the dead.346A OMIT 346A346B OMIT 346B346C OMIT 346C346D OMIT 346D347 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE 347 Interrupting Ash. BOBBY JOE Jake, let's beat it the hell out o'here, right now. I gotta get out! JAKE Now Bobby, you ain't in no condition. ASH Nobody goes out that door. Not till daylight.347A THE GROUP 347A They freeze in their tracks as they hear a gentle voice which sings a melancholy tune. Annie turns her head to the sound and the CAMERA PANS TO reveal HENRIETTA whose head juts in the space between the floorboards and the trap door. She is no longer possessed. She looks as she did earlier in the film. She is singing a gentle song to Annie.347B CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA 347B HENRIETTA Remember that song Annie? I used to sing it to you when you were a baby.347C CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 347C Uncertain of what to do, but wanting to believe. HENRIETTA Let me out, dear. It's so cold and dark in here. ANNIE Mother? HENRIETTA Unlock these chains. Quickly.347D MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 347D Annie starts to follow the instructions, but Ash halts her gently. He shakes his head. Annie snaps out of it. She shakes her head and looks to the cellar. ANNIE No. No. I don't know what you are but you're not my mother. Annie begins to cry.347E CLOSE SHOT - TRAP DOOR 347E Henrietta is crying also. VOICE OF HENRIETTA How can you say that to me Annie? ANNIE No! VOICE OF HENRIETTA You were born September 2nd, 1962. I remember it well because it was snowing. So strange that it would be snowing in September.348 CAMERA TRACKING IN ON ANNIE 348 Confused and tearful, she screams to the others in the room. ANNIE That thing in the cellar is not my mother! Ed stands sharply into her frame. His eyes bone white, his skin, the pale color of the dead. His mouth has grown over large. His lips are black. He is possessed. He shrieks. Annie screams and jumps back out of frame.349 MED. SHOT - ED POSSESSED 349 RIGGING - REVERSE ACTION He flies up into the air and writhes about as if he were a human marionette. He lets out a demonic moan and then begins to laugh.350 MED. SHOT - BOBBY JOE AND JAKE 350 As they clutch in fear at one another.351 MED. SHOT - ANNIE AND ASH 351 As they look on in horror. Ash steps in front of Annie as she gapes at this monstrosity that was Ed.352 CLOSE SHOT - ED POSSESSED 352 RIGGING As he floats about the room. His laughter suddenly stops and a second demonic voice comes from his body. It is female, and wailing in lament.353 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 353 Watching in horror.354 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED RIGGING - UP AND DOWN The body of Ed turns sharply toward the group, not really seeing. ED (In the voice of POSSESSED #1) We are the things that were. (In the voice of POSSESSED #2) And shall be again! HA HA HA HA HA! (In the voice of POSSESSED #1) Spirits of the book. (In the voice of POSSESSED #2) We want what is yours! LIFE! As he floats about, his head dips and swoons. ED (In the voice of POSSESSED #1) Dead by dawn! (In the voice of POSSESSED #2) Dead by dawn!355 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA POSSESSED 355 Sticking her gnarled head from the cellar. HENRIETTA Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!356 WIDE SHOT - JAKE AND BOBBY JOE IN FOREGROUND 356 RIGGING - DOLLY CART Ed floating, turns his head sharply to Bobby Joe. The Possessed body of Ed rushes through the air towards her. He opens his mouth wide open.357 ED'S POV 357 As he quickly rushes upon a screaming Bobby Joe.358 CLOSE SHOT - ED AND BOBBY JOE 358 He bites into Bobby Joe's head. With a single motion he rips out the bulk of the hair from her head with a terrible RIIIIIIIIP SOUND.358A MEDIUM SHOT - ED DUMMY 358A Stands up into frame with a clump of Bobby Joe's hair in his mouth and swallows it.359 WIDE SHOT - GROUP 359 Bobby Joe collapses to the ground.360 MED. SHOT - HENRIETTA POSSESSED 360 As she calls from the cellar. HENRIETTA Free me! Unlock these chains!361 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED 361 He turns to the trap door and moves toward it.362 MED. SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 362 Both horrified. Ash retreats. Annie is shocked as she watches Ash back into the middle bedroom and disappear.363 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 363 ANNIE Where are you going?! HELP US!! You filthy COWARD!364 ANGLE FROM TRAP DOOR - POSSESSED ED AND JAKE 364 Possessed Ed moves toward the trap door. Jake comes up quickly behind Ed to grab his shoulder.365 JAKE'S POV - DUMMY OF POSSESSED ED 365 As Jake's hand reaches for the shoulder of possessed Ed. The head of possessed Ed spins around on its neck so that it faces Jake.365A CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ED 365A ED (In the voice of a woman) We see you!366 CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 366 Screaming as Ed's hand enters frame, and snags Jake's face. He tosses Jake upward.367 CLOSE SHOT - ED POSSESSED 367 As he tosses Jake upward.368 HIGH-WIDE SHOT - POSSESSED ED AND JAKE STUNTMAN 368 REVERSE ACTION - UNDERCRANKED Jake flies upward towards the ceiling of the cabin.369 INT. CABIN CEILING - NIGHT (CEILING SET PIECE) 369 MED. SHOT A prop light bulb "Shining" in its fixture. Jake's head comes flying up into frame, shattering it, and slamming into the wood ceiling and then falling back down again.370 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 370 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED AND JAKE STUNT MAN As Jake slams back down to the floor of the cabin.371 MED. SHOT - ASH 371 As he reappears in the doorway of the room. Now he clutches an axe in his single hand.372 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED 372 As he grabs the chains that secure the trap door ready to rip them loose. He turns his head to see:372A OVER POSSESSED ED'S SHOULDER 372A Ash approaches with the axe.373 MED. SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE AND OFF SCREEN 373 DUMMY OF ED Ash exits the frame and we are left with Annie and the stark shadow of possessed Ed which is cast upon the wall behind her. We watch as the shadow of Ash with the axe, slices through the top portion of possessed Ed's head. Annie screams as she is splattered with green bile.373A CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ED DUMMY 373A Missing Ed's right hand portion of his head. His brain, shriveled like the inside of a pumpkin.373B POSSESSED ED'S POV - ASH - EYEMO CAMERA AND MOUNT 373B Ash stands before us, his axe dripping green bile. Ed's arms flail wildly on either side of the camera, groping at the air. He slowly falls over and slams to the floor.374 OMIT 374375 OMIT 375376 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED (FRAMED WITH AND W/O HEAD) 376 Ed's body falls to the floor. It lays quiet for a moment and then begins to writhe and scream in its demonic death throes. Finally, he is silent.377 MED. SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE - POSSESSED ED DUMMY 377 Ash turns to her. ASH Start up that saw and hand it here! We're gonna cut him up. Annie looks to the chainsaw and then to the unmoving body of Ed. She is repulsed at the thought. ANNIE No. ASH START IT UP! ANNIE NO! Possessed Ed stands up quickly into frame! The evil force having re-animated his lifeless body.377A CLOSE SHOT ASH - OVER POSSESSED ED'S SHOULDER 377A FLYING PLATFORM As a hand grabs Ash's throat. Possessed Ed exits frame, revealing it to be Ash's evil hand on his own throat. It lifts him into the air.377B CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S FEET 377B As they are lifted off the floor.377C CLOSE SHOT ASH 377C He pries the evil hand from his throat and falls.377D ASH/EVIL HAND 377D As he slams to the floor the evil hand scurries away in the B.G.378 OMIT 378379 OMIT 379380 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED DUMMY AND ANNIE 380 Annie is screaming in horror. Possessed Ed backhands her across the face.381 MED. SHOT - WRITING DESK 381 Annie slams into a desk shattering it to splinters of wood. She falls to the floor.382 MED. SHOT - ASH 382 As he grabs the axe.383 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ED - DUMMY 383 As he stands sharply into frame. His mouth wide open and screaming.384 MED. SHOT - ASH AND POSSESSED ED 384 Terrified, as he moves toward possessed Ed with the axe.385 MED. SHOT - ASH AND POSSESSED ED DUMMY 385 RUBBER AXE Ash brings the axe down upon Ed's shoulder, knocking him to the floor. ASH swings the axe again and again. Different colors of bile and blood fly up into frame as Ash chops.385A CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 385A Screaming at the sight.386 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 386 His axe blade rises and falls as black demon blood flies up into frame.387 CLOSE SHOT - LOW ANGLE - FLOOR LEVEL 387 ASH AND ED DUMMY PARTS Ed's missing portion of his head sits upon the floor. His eye in extreme C.U. in the foreground. It looks wildly about into the CAMERA. In the background, we watch Ash bring down the axe until all is silent.388 WIDE SHOT 388 Jake slowly stands into the empty frame. He is in shock from what he has just seen. Annie slowly rises into frame - shaking her head in a silent "No." Ash slowly rises into frame, terrified. They are looking down at the out-of-frame remains of possessed Ed.388A OMIT 388A389 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - MITCHELL 389 The moon has grown larger. Fog billows past the cabin.389P EXT. NIGHT - THE FULL MOON 389P390 OMIT 390390A MAIN ROOM NIGHT - ASH, JAKE, BOBBY JOE AND ANNIE 390A Jake sprays a can of air freshener about the room. He holds his nose. Ash tosses a bloodied sheet, containing the remains of possessed Ed to the floor. It lands with a sickening thud. Wiping his face with a rag, Ash moves off in disgust. We hold on the bundled sheet as the trap door next to it silently opens. Henrietta's rotted hand emerges, unnoticed by the others in the room. BOBBY JOE Jake, I can't take no more of this. Henrietta's rotted hand pulls the bundle of body parts silently down into the cellar and quietly closes the trap.390B MEDIUM SHOT JAKE AND BOBBY JOE 390B Jake moves to the window and looks out. JAKE That's funny. BOBBY JOE What? JAKE That trail we came in here on... well, it just ain't there no more. Like the woods jus' swallowed it. The room goes quiet. The sound of the wind outside the cabin has died. Jake and Bobby Joe cock their heads to this new silence.391 OMIT 391392 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE AND ASH 392 She looks about the room, getting scared. ANNIE It's so quiet. Ash stands slowly into frame. He knows that it can't be good.393 WIDE SHOT - THE GROUP 393 As they raise their heads to a distant pounding sound. It grows louder. BOOM - BOOM! BOOM - BOOM! JAKE What the hell is it? ASH Maybe something... Something trying to force its way into our world. BOOM! BOOM! BANG! BAM!393A EYEMO CAMERA/MITCHELL CAMERA - GROUP 393A The cabin WALL. Bang!393B THE FRONT DOOR - GROUP - EYEMO/MITCHELL 393B393C THE BOARDED WINDOW - GROUP - EYEMO/MITCHELL 393C BANG!393D THE CEILING BEAMS - GROUP - EYEMO/MITCHELL 393D BAM!393E A SECTION OF WALL - GROUP - EYEMO/MITCHELL 393E393F A SECTION OF THE TONGUE AND GROOVE FLOOR 393F EYEMO - MITCHELL - GROUP BAM!393G ASH - C.U. 393G393H JAKE - C.U. 393H393I ANNIE - C.U. 393I393J BOBBY JOE - C.U. 393J394 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND BOBBY JOE 394 Bobby Joe runs to Jake's arms. He clutches her tightly.395 MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE AND ASH 395 Annie runs to Ash. He holds her. The pounding sounds halt. Again they are left in silence. Annie awkwardly disengages herself from Ash. They hear a sound coming from the middle bedroom. BOBBY JOE It's in there.396 MEDIUM SHOT - DOOR TO MIDDLE BEDROOM 396 It is opened a crack.397 MEDIUM SHOT - THE GROUP 397 ASH We'll all go in together. JAKE Hell no, you're the curious one.398 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 398 He moves toward the door. ANNIE I'll go with you. Ash nods to Annie in a show of thanks. He grabs the axe, and pushes open the door to the middle bedroom. Annie follows with the flickering oil lantern.399 INT. MIDDLE BEDROOM - NIGHT 399 The door to the main room creaks open. Ash and Annie cautiously enter. They look about the place.400 ASH'S POV - MIDDLE BEDROOM - NIGHT 400 As the CAMERA PANS the shadowed corners of the room.401 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 401 An eerie whistling wind is heard. It has an other worldly sound, very far off.401A MEDIUM SHOT - DOORWAY TO MIDDLE BEDROOM 401A Bobby Joe and Jake enter the room, drawn by the sound.401B CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE 401B She looks about, frightened.401C OMIT 401C401D MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND BOBBY JOE 401D Jake takes Bobby Joe's hand. Bobby Joe smiles, frightened.402 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 402 Waiting.403 MEDIUM SHOT - PANNING THE DARK ROOM 403 As the eerie whistling sound grows louder. It is followed by the angry sound of something moving violently about the room. A shattering of glass.404 OMIT 404405 MEDIUM SHOT - THE GROUP 405 WOOOOOSH! The group is hit with a tremendous blast of air. They shiver from the cold.406 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 406 The wind in the room suddenly stops. He blows out his breath and watches it vaporize. The screaming face of Raymond Knowby emerges from the wall. A life like spirit made of swirling smoke and mist. RAYMOND Annie.406P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 406P BLACK STUDIO - RAYMOND407 CLOSE SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 407 They turn to the ghost in fear.408 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND BOBBY JOE 408 Awestruck. Bobby Joe crosses herself. JAKE Holy Mother O'Mercy.409 OMIT 409410 OMIT 410411 OMIT 411412 OMIT 412413 MEDIUM SHOT - THE GHOST OF RAYMOND 413 RAYMOND There is a dark spirit here that wants to destroy you. Your salvation lies in the pages from the Book of the Dead. The ghost of Raymond points to Annie's glass case. CAMERA PANS to it. Inside are the pages from the Book.413P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 413P BLACK STUDIO - RAYMOND414 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 414 Listening.415 ANGLE - THE GROUP AND THE GHOST OF RAYMOND 415 RAYMOND Recite the passages. Dispel the evil. Save my soul... And your own lives. The ghost of Raymond screams and is gone.415P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 415P BLACK STUDIO - RAYMOND416 MEDIUM SHOT - THE GROUP 416 Whoosh! Again they are hit with a blast of air.416A MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND BOBBY JOE 416A BOBBY JOE Jake, you squeezing my hand too tight. JAKE I ain't got your hand, baby. BOBBY JOE Then who...? Bobby Joe raises her hand into frame, to reveal Ash's Evil Hand clutched in hers. Bobby Joe goes nuts, screaming and flailing about trying to throw the hand from her. She slams into the lantern, knocking it out. We lose them in the darkness. JAKE'S VOICE Somebody get the light! The sound of chairs being pushed over. The sound of a door opening and closing.417 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 417 As he lights the lantern illuminating the room. CAMERA PANS over to reveal only Jake and Annie.418 CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 418 Looking about. JAKE Hey. Bobby Joe's gone!419 OMIT 419420 OMIT 420421 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 421 Screaming, Bobby Joe makes a mad dash away from the cabin. It diminishes in size behind her, she has had enough of it.422 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT - DRAGWAY 422 MEDIUM SHOT - BOBBY JOE - TRACKING As she races through the woods.423 CLOSER - JONES' CREEK 423 She runs deep into the woods, still looking behind her as she slams into a twisted oak tree that stops her flat. An angry face appears on the surface of the tree. Its gnarled bark folds open to reveal very human like oversized eyes. A large fold in its bark opens to form a gaping mouth dripping tree sap saliva. TREE FACE BAHHHH!423A CLOSE SHOT - TREE FACE 423A424 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE - (REVERSE ACTION) 424 JONES' CREEK Screaming as she backs away from this living tree as a flurry of snake like vines pick themselves up off of the ground and come to life about her.425 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE'S LEGS - (REVERSE ACTION) 425 JONES' CREEK Two living vines wind their way toward her legs and coil around her ankles tightly.426 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE - JONES' CREEK - 4 RIPS 426 She lets out a short shrill scream, as her shirt is torn away from her.427 MED. SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) JONES' CREEK 427 Living vines wind around Bobby Joe's torso and breasts in a furious wrapping motion.428 CLOSE SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) JONES' CREEK 428 A living vine wraps around her throat.429 CLOSE SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) JONES' CREEK 429 Tiny vines wrap around Bobby Joe's hand and fingers.429A EXT. JONES CREEK - NIGHT 429A SHOTS OF VINES COMING TOWARDS CAMERA430 MED. SHOT - RIGGING - STUNT 430 UNDERCRANKED - JONES' CREEK Bobby Joe, wrapped in vines, is reeled backwards and ripped through a wall of branches.431 MED. SHOT - PANNING - RIGGING EFFECT - STUNT 431 UNDERCRANKED - JONES' CREEK At a great speed, Bobby Joe is pulled away from the cabin and towards the forest by the vines.432 BOBBY JOE'S POV - OVER HER LEGS - RIGGING EFFECT 432 STUNT - UNDERCRANKED - REVERSE ACTION - DRAGWAY As the vines rocket her on a speeding FAST MOTION joyride along the forest floor.433 CLOSE SHOT - BOBBY JOE'S FACE 433 RIGGING EFX - DRAGWAY As she drags along the forest flctor, the smaller vines force their way into Bobby Joe's nose and mouth and then under the first layer of her facial skin.433A TRACKING SHOT - DRAGWAY - DUMMY AND STUNT 433A She is pulled along the ground and down into a foxhole (dummy). Camera continues tracking along her original trajectory until we come to the second foxhole where she emerges, now covered in mud, and screaming.433B ANGLE - DUMMY - JONES' CREEK 433B Bobby Joe rips through spikes extending from a log and is dragged through two mud puddles. The vines wisk her away.434 EXT. SWAMP - NIGHT 434 PANNING SHOT - RIGGING EFFECT - STUNT She hits a swamp with a giant splash, but even this does not stop her.435 LONG SHOT - SWAMP 435 ROOSTERTAIL WATER SPRAY EFX - STUNT She glides across the surface of the swamp with a great roostertail spray of water, as if she were on water skis.436 ANGLE - RIGGING EFX - STUNT - SWAMP 436 She hits the other side of the swamp and is rocketed out of the water and across the forest floor.437 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT - JONES' CREEK - DUMMY 437 STATIC CAMERA - RIGGING EFFECT - STUNT - UNDERCRANKED Bobby Joe comes roaring towards us, screaming. She rips past.438 STATIC CAMERA - RIGGING EFFECT - STUNT 438 UNDERCRANKED - JONES' CREEK From BEHIND CAMERA Bobby Joe appears and goes racing into the distance.439 BOBBY JOE'S POV - OVER HER LEGS - DRAGWAY 439 RIGGING EFFECT - UNDERCRANKED - STUNT Darting in and around trees, a major stump is coming right for her. Bobby Joe's legs spread wide. The tree stump races closer. Bobby Joe SCREAMS . . . her last.439A TREE STUMP'S POV - BOBBY JOE APPROACHES 439A UNDERCRANKED439B BOBBY JOE'S LEGS - STUMP - DRAGWAY 439B STOP MOTION - REVERSE ACTION Girl meets stump.440 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT - OVERCRANKED 440 LOW SHOT - LOOKING UPWARD PAST THE STUMP - BLOOD GEYSER EFX We hear the RIP! And watch as a geyser of blood floods up into the night sky.441 INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - OVERCRANKED 441 CLOSE SHOT - GLASS CASE CONTAINING PAGES FROM BOOK OF THE DEAD It falls away from the CAMERA and shatters on the table beneath us.442 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 442 As their hands scramble at removing the pages from the bits of broken glass.443 MED. SHOT - JAKE IN FG - ASH AND ANNIE IN BG 443 Jake is looking out the boarded window of the cabin, searching for some sign of Bobby Joe.444 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT 444 JAKE'S POV - THE DARK WOODS - WINDOW FRAME All is silent as fog rushes in and around the woods. JAKE Where the hell is she?445 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 445 MED. SHOT - JAKE AND ASH AND ANNIE Jake turns to Ash. JAKE We gotta go out there and find her! ASH If she went out in those woods, she's not coming back. Jake turns back to the window. Ash turns to Annie. He glances down at the pages that Annie is looking over.445A ASH'S POV - CLOSE SHOT - PAGES AND ANNIE 445A One of the pages is a clear pictorial of Ash as the "Hero from the Sky."445B ASH AND ANNIE 445B Ash shudders. ANNIE What is it? ASH Felt like someone just walked over my grave. It's that picture. Annie looks to it.445C CLOSE SHOT - PAGE OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 445C CONTAINING ASH'S "HERO FROM THE SKY" ILLUSTRATION.445D ANNIE AND ASH 445D ANNIE In 1300 AD. This was the "Hero from the Sky," who was prophesized to destroy this Evil. ASH He didn't do a very good job. What about the passages?446 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 446 As she quickly gives the pages a cursory glance. ANNIE Here it is. Two passages. For the first time, she smiles at Ash. ANNIE We've got it!446A - 446H OMIT 446A - 446H447 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 447 Finally seeing his salvation, his face shows hope.447A MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 447A Annie reads through the pages. ANNIE Recitation of the first passage will make this "Dark Spirit" manifest itself in the flesh. ASH Why the hell would we want to do that? Annie thumbs through one or two of the other pages. ANNIE Recitation of the second passage creates a kind of rift in time and space, and the physical manifestation of this spirit can be forced back through this rift... to an earlier time and place. At least that's the best translation I can .... CLICKITY CLICK448 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 448 Annie and Ash look up to the source of the sound.449 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE 449 He has just snapped a shell into the firing chamber of the shotgun. He points it at Ash and Annie. JAKE I'm runnin' the show now.450 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 450 Standing together, confused.450A CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 450A JAKE We're goin' outside into those woods to look for Bobby Joe, an' once we find her, we're gettin' the hell outta here. ASH If you want to look for her, go ahead. JAKE You two comin' with me. I ain't goin' out there alone. ASH NO, YOU IDIOT. You'll kill us all. She's dead by now. With these pages we can... Jake grabs the pages from Annie's hand. JAKE Those pages don't mean shit. Jake kicks the pages down into the cellar. Ash and Annie look on in horror. JAKE 'Sides. Now you ain't got no, choice. Jake pushes at Ash with the barrel of the shotgun. JAKE Now move! Ash hesitates. JAKE Move you son of a bitch!451 EXT. WOODS/CABIN - NIGHT 451 Ash, Annie and Jake exit the cabin.452 EXT. FRONT PORCH OF CABIN - NIGHT 452 TRACKING BACKWARD Ash, Annie and Jake walk towards the woods. In the FG is Ash. He looks off past the CAMERA in fear.453 ASH'S POV - WOODS - NIGHT ROD PUPPETS - STUDIO 453 As he approaches a line of trees whose branches bend and sway with a threatening motion.453A EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - TRACKING BACKWARD 453A ASH, JAKE, AND ANNIE ASH No trail. Which way do you intend to go?453B CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 453B Looking confused and frightened. He calls out desperately. JAKE Bobby Joe!453C EXT. WOODS NIGHT - POV EVIL FORCE 453C As it glides through the woods. We hear a muted shout from Jake. JAKE (O.S.) Bobby Joe, where are you girl? And the POV of the force suddenly swings about to reveal Jake, Ash, and Annie not to far away.453D EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT - ASH 453D As he moves deeper into the woods.453E EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT - ANNIE 453E As she searches the woods with her eyes in fear.453F EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - TRACKING SHOT - JAKE 453F As scared as the rest of them, but driven to find Bobby Joe.453G POV EVIL FORCE - EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 453G As it approaches the group.453H EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - FOAM SHOTGUN STOCK 453H JAKE, ASH, AND ANNIE JAKE Bobby Joe! Bobby Joe! Ash approaches Jake. ASH You'll get us all killed. JAKE Shaddup! Jake slams Ash across the face with the stock of the shotgun. Ash plummets to the ground. Annie screams! She goes after Jake. Jake slugs her and she falls to the ground.453I EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - JAKE, ASH, AND ANNIE 453I POV - EVIL FORCE It draws closer.453J EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - JAKE - CLOSE SHOT 453J Raging to the night! JAKE Bobby Joe!453K EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 453K POV of Evil Force racing up to the group.453L EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - CLOSE SHOT - JAKE 453L Jake halts his screaming. He listens in the silence as possessed Ash juts up into the frame! His eyes are bone white, his flesh, the pale color of the dead. His lips, black. He bellows to the night!454 - 473 OMIT 454-473474 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 474 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE She screams and stumbles backwards, towards the cabin.475 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - CRANE 475 MEDIUM SHOT - POSSESSED ASH - JAKE DUMMY - FLYING RIG Possessed Ash lifts Jake up above his head and throws him into a large tree. It explodes in a blast of sawdust as the dummy slams into it.476 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 476 MEDIUM SHOT Annie dashes inside and turns to look out the open doorway.477 EXT. CABIN - ANNIE'S POV - THRU THE OPEN DOORWAY 477 All is quiet outside, no sign of Possessed Ash or Jake, and then Possessed Ash is there, emerging from the darkness suddenly. He raises his finger and points to Annie. He speaks in the low garbled voice of a demon: POSSESSED ASH JOIN US!478 INT. CABIN - MED. SHOT - ANNIE 478 She rushes to the door, hoping to get there before Possessed Ash.479 MED. SHOT - ANNIE AND POSSESSED ASH 479 She slams the front door shut just in time.480 MED. SHOT - ANNIE - WRITING DESK 480 She picks up the Kandarian Dagger. CREAK - SNAP! A sound coming from somewhere in the rear of the cabin. She turns toward the door to the hallway.481 - 486 OMIT 481 - 486487 ANNIE'S POV - THE DOOR TO THE HALLWAY 487 It is closed.488 OMIT 488489 MED. SHOT - ANNIE 489 She moves to investigate the sound. As she approaches the rear door to the hall and slowly opens it.489A ANNIE'S POV 489A As the door to the hallway is pulled open, revealing ... only the empty hallway.489B INT. CABIN HALLWAY - NIGHT 489B ANNIE She breathes a sigh of relief.490 ANNIE'S POV 490 As she moves down the hall. It is dark. Curtains flutter on the boarded windows.491 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 491 As she moves towards the rear of the cabin.491A INT. HALLWAY/EXT. CABIN - LOCATION - ANNIE'S POV 491A THE WINDOW AND WOODS BEYOND We approach the window and look out into the night. Fog billows through the trees, and in the distance the monster that is Ash emerges. He heads toward the cabin and disappears in a bank of fog.491B INT. HALLWAY (STUDIO) 491B Annie is frightened. She spins her head to a sound.492 ANNIE'S POV - THE REAR DOOR OF THE CABIN 492 Creak! The doorknob is turning. Something is trying to get in.493 ANNIE - MED. SHOT 493 She forces her back to the wall. She tenses with the dagger, ready to slay whatever should enter.494 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 494 She waits.495 CLOSE SHOT - THE KANDARIAN DAGGER 495 Gripped tightly in Annie's sweating hands.496 CLOSE SHOT - DOORKNOB 496 Rattling violently now. And suddenly it opens.497 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE'S HANDS 497 As they swing the dagger.498 CLOSE SHOT 498 As the dagger imbeds in the intruder's chest. CAMERA PANS UP quickly to reveal a gasping Jake.499 MEDIUM SHOT - JAKE AND ANNIE 499 Jake falls to the ground, half in and out of the doorway. He is still alive.500 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 500 As she backs away in horror, clutching at her head. ANNIE No! She backs to a partially boarded window.501 MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE 501 Possessed Ash juts up into frame in the window behind her. Annie screams and runs toward the open back door. Possessed Ash spots the open door through the window and begins to move around the side of the house.502 MED. SHOT - ANNIE 502 As she goes to slam the door.503 MED. SHOT - JAKE 503 As he lies moaning in the doorway, the door slams upon him.504 MED. SHOT - ANNIE 504 As she reaches down and pulls Jake's body out of the way.505 EXT. CABIN/REAR - NIGHT 505 POSSESSED ASH As he moves around the side of the cabin, tearing apart a trellis that stands in his path, and three hanging flowerpots as he approaches the open door.506 INT. CABIN BACK HALLWAY - NIGHT 506 MED. SHOT - ANNIE Again she tries to slam the door.507 MED. SHOT - JAKE'S DUMMY ANKLE 507 Which lies in the door's path, preventing it from closing.508 EXT. CABIN/REAR - NIGHT 508 OVER POSSESSED ASH'S SHOULDER As he approaches the back door. He grabs the screen door and tears it loose with a single motion.509 INT. CABIN REAR HALLWAY - NIGHT 509 ANNIE As she pulls Jake's ankle from the door and slams it. All is again silent.509A INT. CABIN - REAR HALLWAY - NIGHT - ANNIE AND JAKE 509A Annie kneels down next to a moaning Jake, driving the dagger in a little deeper by accident. He cries out in pain. JAKE Get the axe. Kill it. Kill it. Jake moans and dies.509B CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 509B As she turns her head to the sound of breaking glass.509C TRACKING SHOT - ANNIE - REAR HALLWAY - NIGHT 509C As she cautiously approaches the main room.509D ANNIE'S POV - REAR HALLWAY/MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 509D As she moves towards the main room.509E MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - ANNIE 509E Annie enters the room. She shudders from the cold. CAMERA PANS with her glance to broken glass upon the floor, and over to reveal the bashed out window and the curtains fluttering in the wind.509F MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE 509F Petrified. Looking about. Knowing that the monster Ash may be lurking close.509G WIDE SHOT - ANNIE 509G As she moves about the main room, picking up the axe. With her back toward us she doesn't notice Ash's hand appear suddenly in the foreground atop the writing desk. She turns suddenly towards camera.509H OVER ANNIE'S SHOULDER 509H Ash's evil hand sits upon the table. It scampers off. Annie turns and comes face to face with Possessed Ash! He bellows at her and grabs her as she shrieks bloody murder!510 OMIT 510511 OMIT 511512 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 512 WIDE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH AND ANNIE - DUMMY He picks her up and swings her across the room, into the wall. She slumps to the floor unconscious.513 MED. SHOT - POSSESSED ASH 513 As he lumbers toward her.514 ASH'S POV - STAR FILTER - MIRROR NECKLACE 514 As he moves closer to her unmoving body. A glitter of light on the floor, next to her, catches his eye.515 CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH 515 For the first time, calm, as he looks intently down at the floor. He kneels closer.516 ASH'S POV - (STAR FILTER) 516 The NECKLACE of Linda.517 CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH 517 The sight of the necklace strikes the human cord within him. He is confused, his evil self, battling for control of his spirit and body. He reaches to pick it up.518 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S HAND 518 As he slowly picks up the delicate silver necklace. He raises it to his face; LINDA (V.O.) I'll never take it off. And then it hits him. The emotion of love lost. It floods the monster that is ASH. He clutches the necklace tightly to his bestial chest. And as the Love/waltz theme sweeps up in volume on the sound track, the monster begins to cry.519 WIDE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH AND ANNIE - TULIP CRANE 519 Ash raises his head and lets out a low, lamenting, and pitiful wail. A man trapped in the shell of a beast, crying for the one he has lost.520 MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH - 50% POSSESSED 520 As he raises his head. Tears stream down from his eyes, washing away the caked on blood.521 CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH (REVERSE ACTION) 521 BLADDER EFX - 50 - 20% POSSESSED His face begins to change. His skin loses its white pallor. His blackened, infected cuts disappear. The swollen and cracked surface of his face begins to heal.522 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO) - MINIATURE 522 EXTREME CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED ASH - DUMMY HEAD W/FLUID EYE CHAMBER Ash's eyes change from white to brown.523 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 523 As the last tears roll down Ash's face, he is once again human. Ash looks up suddenly with a start.524 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - WOODEN AXE HEAD 524 EXPLODING FLOOR As he rolls out of the way a moment before the head of the axe buries itself in the wooden floor. Splinters fly.525 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - WOODEN AXE HEAD 525 EXPLODING WALL EFX Rolls to his feet and stands. He ducks as Annie enters frame, charging him with axe, screaming. ASH No. WAIT! Annie swings the axe and again Ash ducks. The head of the axe slams into the plastered wall smashing right through.526 CLOSER - ASH AND ANNIE 526 Ash grabs her tightly with his remaining hand. ASH Listen to me! I'm all right now. That thing is gone. Ash pushes her away. Annie falls to the floor. She stands.527 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - WOODEN AXE HEAD 527 EXPLODING WALL EFX Catching his wind for a moment. Then rolls to the side as the axe again comes at him! SLAM! The head of the axe slices into the wall only a few inches from his head.528 MED. SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 528 As he grabs Annie by the face and forces her backwards. ASH GOD DAMN IT! I said I was all right!! Annie is nearly choking. ANNIE Okay. Ash releases her gently. She again looks to Ash, cautiously. ANNIE Are you sure? ASH You'll be the first to know. I'm fine.529 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE AND ASH 529 ANNIE Yeah, but for how long? If we're going to beat this thing, we need those pages.529A CLOSE SHOT - ASH 529A As he turns to the trap door. ASH Then let's head down into that cellar...529B CLOSE SHOT - TRAP DOOR 529B It lies silently against the floor. A rasping breath can be heard from below.529C CLOSE SHOT - ASH 529C He turns from the trap door to Annie. ASH ...And carve ourselves a witch.530 EXT. WORKSHED - NIGHT 530 Ash's hand flips open the latch on the shed door.531 INT. WORKSHED - NIGHT 531 The door is kicked open, revealing the silhouette of Ash and Annie as they stand in the doorway.532 WORKSHED SHELF 532 Rats scurry for safety as the shaft of light from the door hits them.533 HANGING BULB 533 ASH'S hand pulls on the cord, turning on the light.534 WORKSHED TABLE 534 Ash's arm sweeping the chains and pieces of wood onto the floor.535 OMIT 535536 OMIT 536537 OMIT 537538 THE HOSE CLAMP 538 Is tossed down upon the workshed table.539 A SECOND HOSECLAMP 539 Is tossed down next to the first.540 ANNIE'S HANDS 540 Hold down a clamp as ASH'S hand, creates screw sized holes in it with a battery powered drill.541 ANNIE'S HANDS 541 Attach the hoseclamps to a piece of red steel.542 ANNIE'S HANDS 542 Attach the red piece of steel to ASH'S stump, via the clamps.543 ANNIE'S HANDS 543 Attach a "V" type hook Around Ash's neck, just above his bicep.544 ASH'S HAND 544 Slams down the chainsaw upon the table. It is missing its side panel. ASH'S arm enters frame and we see that it is this missing side panel that has been clamped to his stump.545 CLOSER SHOT 545 The panel slides into the side of the chainsaw with a sharp "CLICK".546 ASH 546 As he bends the chainsaw to his chest.547 CLOSE SHOT 547 The "T" shaped end of the starter cord falls neatly into the "V" shaped hook that is strapped around Ash's neck.548 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 548 He looks up to Annie, the moment of truth.549 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 549 Hair tousled over her sweating face, returns his glance, expectant.550 WIDE SHOT 550 Ash extends his chainsaw arm, pulling on the starter cord. The CHAINSAW ROARS to life. With his free arm Ash raises the shotgun. He lowers the blade of the chainsaw down upon the barrel. Sparks fly as the saw cuts through it. The long barrel falls to the floor. Ash is left with a sawed off shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw strapped to his other arm. With a fancy style western flip to the gun Ash saddles the shotgun in a makeshift holster, strapped to his back. The CAMERA SLOWLY TRACKS into Ash's face. ASH Groovy.551 - OMIT 551551A EXT. CABIN/WORKSHED - NIGHT - INKY PUPPET 551A In the distance, the tiny figures of Ash and Annie as they move from the workshed to the cabin. In the foreground is a large oak tree. A gnarled human- like face can be made out on the surface of the tree. It is lit from beneath and slolwly brought up on a dimmer. A horrible twisted tree face. It suddenly opens its mouth and breathes in a gust of air with a terrible wheezing sound, as though in great pain at being brought to life. It turns sharply towards the cabin.552 CLOSE SHOT - DINKY PUPPET 552 Second tree face, brought up on a dimmer, opens its mouth and loudly draws in air, also in agony.553 CLOSE SHOT - MOE PUPPET 553 A third tree's twisted face, two human eyes opened wide on its surface. It breathes, then barks a guttural sound.554 MED. SHOT - (STUDIO MINIATURE) 554 In the foreground is the base of a large oak tree. The cabin in the distance. A rumbling is heard. Then suddenly the tree pulls one of its massive roots from the earth. The tree sets its root down a few feet closer to the cabin.555 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (STUDIO MINIATURE) 555 WIDE SHOT - TREE PUPPETS An entire line of trees. All pull their roots free from the soil and take an awkward and lumbering step towards the cabin.556-564 OMIT 556-564565 INT. MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 565 CLOSE SHOT - THE BLADE OF THE CHAINSAW Begins cutting through the wood of the trap door.566 MED. SHOT - ANNIE 566 Tensing with her axe, ready for the beast to spring.567 CLOSE SHOT - CHAINSAW BLADE 567 As it completes the second cut in the wood of the trap door.568 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 568 As he finishes the slicing job and kicks open the trap door.569 LOW ANGLE - ANNIE AND ASH - FROM CELLAR LOOKING UP 569 The broken bits of the trap door fall past the camera, as they cautiously peer down into the cellar.570 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT (STUDIO) 570 ANNIE'S POV Looking down into the cellar. No sign of Henrietta. The bottom of the steps disappear into blackness. ASH Those pages are down there somewhere.571 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 571 MED. SHOT - ASH He kicks aside the broken trapdoor and slowly descends into the darkness.572 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 572 MED. SHOT Ash arrives at the bottom of the steps. He looks about the dark corners of the cellar trying to find some sign of Henrietta or the pages.573 OMIT 573574 OMIT 574575 ASH'S POV 575 Panning the cobwebs and dark stone walls of the cellar. Half hidden in the shadows we see two of the missing pages.575A CLOSE SHOT - ASH 575A As he moves through the cellar and grabs the pages. He spots another page somewhat deeper into the cellar.575B ASH'S POV 575B A fourth and fifth page lay upon the earthen floor, at the base of the cellar's rear door.575C ASH - CLOSE SHOT 575C Ash moves to pages and gathers them. Annie's voice calls down. ANNIE (O.S.) Did you find her?576 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 576 ASH She's playing hard to get... He pumps the throttle on the buzzing saw. ASH ... rid of. Behind Ash, unseen by him, a shadow darts by.577 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 577 He hears a sound.577A ASH'S POV - 577A It is coming from the door to the cellar's rear room.577B ANGLE - ASH 577B He reaches for the door and opens it. Revealing darkness beyond. Ash enters. Again he hears the slight sound, a gentle ticking.578 INT. CELLAR - REAR ROOM - NIGHT - ASH'S POV 578 The ticking sound is coming from behind a hanging drape.579 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 579 He approaches the drape, reaches out his hand and pulls it back sharply. Revealing an old water heater, ticking and steaming.579A MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 579A He breathes a sigh of relief as the half eaten skeleton torso of Ed falls atop him! Ash screams and steps suddenly away.579B ASH'S POV 579B Ed's skeletal carcass falls to the earthen floor still wrapped in the bloody sheet.579C CLOSE SHOT - ASH 579C Looking on in horror. ASH (In a whisper) She got hungry. Ash turns from the skeleton and quickly gathers up the remaining pages from the Book of the Dead. Getting scared now, he backs into the cellar's front room.579D INT. CELLAR - NIGHT - CLOSE SHOT - ASH 579D As he moves towards the steps. He tosses up the bundle of pages.579E MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE 579E Peering down into the cellar, she grabs the pages.579F MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE - MAIN ROOM 579F She rushes over to the writing desk and begins translating.580 INT. CELLAR - CLOSE SHOT - ASH 580 Getting scared now, decides to exit the cellar. He climbs the steps.581 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S FEET 581 As they climb. From behind the wooden steps, the horrible head of Henrietta appears. Her two rotting hands grab at Ash's ankles.582 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 582 He looks down with a scream.583 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA/ASH'S DUMMY FEET 583 HENRIETTA Come to me. Come to sweet Henrietta! Her face pulls back behind the cellar steps. Her hands pull ASH's feet in after her.584 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - CAMERA RIG 584 As Ash falls, he slams his jaw down upon the bottom step.585 CLOSE SHOT - CHAINSAW ARM 585 As the spinning blade jams into the step, stalling the engine.586 LONG SHOT - ASH DUMMY - AND HENRIETTA'S HANDS 586 (UNDERCRANKED) In an instant, his entire body is pulled beneath the steps.587 INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 587 MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE As she sits at the writing desk, reciting the first of the passages. ANNIE Nos-feratos-allo-memnon-kanda! She puts aside the pages and glances up suddenly at the faint sounds of the struggle from the cellar.588 INT. CABIN CELLAR - NIGHT 588 LONG SHOT - ASH - CELLAR STEPS (UNDERCRANKED) Ash's badly mauled body rips through the staircase with a great force.589 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 589 As he slams into the earth floor of the cellar. He moans, and looks towards the steps.590 ASH'S POV - THE WOODEN STAIRCASE (REVERSE ACTION) 590 As a cackling Henrietta appears where the bottom section of staircase used to stand.591 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 591 MED. SHOT - ANNIE As she races from the writing desk to look down into the cellar.592 OVER ANNIE'S SHOULDER - UNDERCRANKED 592 As she kneels down at the trapdoor, about to call down to Ash when the witchlike figure of Henrietta floats quickly up into the main room from the cellar. A flurry of moths about her. HENRIETTA Free! Free at last!593 WIDE SHOT - ANNIE 593 As Annie attempts to move from the trap door. Henrietta is clutching at Annie's hair and laughing with a demonic malice, as she spins about the room in mid air.594 CLOSE SHOT - TRAP DOOR - ANNIE'S FEET 594 Ash's bloodied arm slings itself over the edge of the trapdoor. He pulls himself up into the main room.595 MED. SHOT - OVER ASH'S SHOULDER - 595 HENRIETTA AND ANNIE Henrietta turns sharply to Ash with a growl.596 MED. SHOT - ASH 596 He stands and jerks out his chainsaw arm sharply. The cord is pulled and the engine roars to life!597 MED. SHOT - HENRIETTA 597 As she leaps through the air toward Ash.598 HENRIETTA'S POV - RACING AT HIM - MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 598 Ash swings his buzzing chainsaw.599 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA'S GNARLED HAND 599 As it grabs the body of the chainsaw, halting it in mid swing.600 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND HENRIETTA 600 As she keeps the buzzing chainsaw at bay with one hand, while her other grabs at Ash's throat, strangling him.600A CLOSE SHOT - ASH 600A As he is slammed through the window.600B ASH AND HENRIETTA 600B Ash kicks her in the stomach. Henrietta is furious.600C CLOSE SHOT - POSSESSED HENRIETTA - MITCHELL CAMERA 600C STOP MOTION ANIMATION/REAR SCREEN She grits her teeth, concentrates, and her neck begins to grow. She begins to change to Pee Wee Head.600CP PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MITCHELL CAMERA 600CP INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT CAMERA PANS UP on "B" wall.601 MEDIUM SHOT - HENRIETTA - MITCHELL CAMERA 601 STOP MOTION ANIMATION/REAR SCREEN As the pee wee Head transformation continues, Henrietta's neck grows, like a jack in the box. It extends a solid five feet upward, so that her head is now looking down upon Ash baring its teeth.601P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - ASH - MITCHELL CAMERA 601P INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT602 CLOSE SHOT - ASH - TULIP CRANE 602 CAMERA CRANING UP ON HIM Ash gapes in fear at this monstrosity that looms above him.603A INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 603A POSSESSED HENRIETTA PUPPET - MEDIUM SHOT Her neck undulating like a snake, she bites and snaps. HENRIETTA I'll swallow your soul, swallow your soul!603B ASH - CLOSE SHOT 603B He reacts.603C WORKING DUMMY HENRIETTA HEAD ON "FLYING HEAD RIG" 603C AND ASH Henrietta swoops at Ash as he keeps her at bay with the buzzing chainsaw.603 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - (STUDIO) 603 STOP MOTION - REAR SCREEN - LOOKING UPWARD AT HENRIETTA'S HEAD She opens her mouth impossibly wide, exposing those nasty rows of jagged shark like teeth. She dive bombs him.603P INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - BART-O-FLEX 603P Plate for previous scene.604 MEDIUM SHOT - HENRIETTA'S HEAD AND ASH 604 As her head springs down into frame and halts suddenly inches from his face. In the silence we hear the reason: Annie's voice singing the same melody that her mother had sung to her earlier from the cellar. For a moment Henrietta's face loses its evil malice. She is confused at this sound. Henrietta halts. She spins her head toward Annie.605 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 605 As she finishes the melancholy song.606 MEDIUM SHOT - HENRIETTA 606 MAGIC BLADE AND GUIDE TRACK RIG Still confused, suddenly she shrieks and the chainsaw comes buzzing through her from behind. The spinning blade juts out from Henrietta's midsection.607 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND HENRIETTA 607 BODY PARTS ON WIRES Body parts (2 arms) fly past the camera on wire. Ash slices and dices. Henrietta screeches like a wild banshee.608 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA'S HEAD AND ANNIE IN B.G. 608 As Pee Wee Head spins toward Ash, furious. HENRIETTA Swallow your soul!609 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 609 Swings his chainsaw arm in a sharp arc.609A ANGLE - HENRIETTA 609A Henrietta's head is sliced from her neck with a chainsaw. Steam pours from her neck.610 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA'S HEAD - OVERCRANKED 610 As it flies up into frame, sliced from its neck.610A ASH 610A As he completes the arc of the chainsaw.611 CLOSE SHOT - DUMMY HENRIETTA PEE WEE HEAD 611 W/ SMALL SECTION OF NECK As it hits the floor.612 MEDIUM SHOT - HENRIETTA'S BODY 612 It's neck spouts steam, wagging about like a snake. Behind her Annie watches as the body topples to the floor.613 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 613 He looks down.614 CLOSE SHOT - HENRIETTA'S HEAD SCREAMING AT HIM: 614 HENRIETTA'S HEAD Swallow your soul! Swallow your soul! Ash's foot steps down upon her head, pinning it to the floor. Her neck still writhing.615 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 615 He unsaddles his sawed off shotgun from the holster on his back. He points the barrel at her head point blank. ASH Swallow this. He pulls the trigger. BLAM! Flame barks from the gun.616 3 CAMERAS - CLOSE SHOT HENRIETTA AND GUN BARREL 616 (OVERCRANKED) GELATIN HEAD - SQUIB Her head explodes into a million pieces.617 MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE AND ASH 617 Annie is crying. Ash holsters the gun. ASH May she rest in pieces.618 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE 618 As they look at each other for a quiet moment of relief. Ash shuts off the chainsaw. Annie moves slowly to Ash's arms. He holds her.619 CLOSER - ASH AND ANNIE - MAIN ROOM - KITCHEN IN B.G. 619 They pull apart and look into each others eyes. Annie holds the pages. Maybe they can get away after all. A LOUD BOOMING echoes throughout the cabin! As though the outside walls of the place were being bombarded by cannon balls. The kitchen wall behind them buckles.620 3 CAMERAS - MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND "D WALL" 620 SQUIB ON MIRROR As the B - board of the wall behind Ash falls away revealing battered logs. The mirror shatters.621 3 CAMERAS - MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE AND "A" WALL The wall cracks beneath the terrific force of whatever is outside hammering upon it. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!622 3 CAMERAS - MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND ANNIE - THE SOFA 622 "B" WALL CAMERA TRACKS in on them as they look about in fear. Dust is falling about them. The cabin walls are starting to break apart. There is a tremendous "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" type jolt to the cabin. Ash and Annie stagger for footing.623 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - BOARDED WINDOW 623 Ash grabs ahold of the window frame to brace himself.623A CLOSE SHOT - VINES - INT. MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 623A REVERSE ACTION - VINES Vines wrap about the planks which cover the window.623B MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - BOARDED WINDOW 623B Behind him, the planks in the window are ripped away by finger-like vines. A terrifying tree face on the surface of a giant oak is revealed, as it peeks in through the window at them.624 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 624 She screams. She turns toward "D Wall" at a loud wrenching sound.625 MEDIUM SHOT - "D" WALL WINDOW 625 As vines reach in the cabin, tearing away the planks revealing an even more horrible tree face.626 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT (STUDIO MINIATURE) 626 TREE PUPPET A tree beats its branches furiously upon the EXT. wall of the cabin. It rips apart the cabin's stone chimney.627 ANGLE - (STUDIO MINIATURE) 627 TREE PUPPET A second gnarled tree slams its trunk against the rear door of the cabin.628 LONG SHOT - (STUDIO MINIATURE) 628 TREE PUPPET The entire cabin is surrounded by a group of lumbering oaks. All working to get in at Ash and Annie.629 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 629 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE Annie runs to the writing desk. She flips through the missing pages from the Book of the Dead. Dust from the ceiling drifts down. ANNIE (shouting above the noise) No! I only completed the first of the passages. And that was to make the evil a thing of the flesh!630 EXT. WOODS/CABIN - NIGHT (STUDIO MINIATURE) 630 POV EVIL FORCE As it roars out of the woods, and towards the distant cabin faster than we've ever seen it.631 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 631 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH As he runs over to Annie. ASH You didn't finish it?! ANNIE There's still the second passage. The one to open the rift and send the evil back. ASH Start reciting it. Now!632 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - (STUDIO MINIATURE) 632 POV EVIL FORCE As it rockets towards the cabin doing 80 mph.633 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 633 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE Shouting to be heard as she continues reading from the passage: ANNIE Tar-tra Kanda-Estra! Hudsucker Proxy -- Kanda!634 OMIT 634634A EXT. CABIN - WOODS - NIGHT 634A The forest at night. Bubbling smoke appears, then flame. Through the smoke, the beginnings of a winding spiral of a cloudlike material.634AP1 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 634AP1 SMOKE AND FLAME - MINIATURE (STUDIO)634AP2 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 634AP2 The rift.635 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 635 MEDIUM SHOT - ANNIE ANNIE Aton-Neran-Ofas!636 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (STUDIO MINIATURE) 636 POV EVIL FORCE As it races right up to the front door of the cabin.637 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 637 MED. SHOT - ANNIE - WIND FAN Reading from the passage. Behind her, the front door rips open and in comes a giant rotten apple head of the evil entity made flesh. A SHRIEKING, BULBOUS BEHEMOTH!638 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT - (STUDIO) 638 STOP MOTION ANIMATION CLOSE SHOT - ASH - WIND FAN Ash as he witnesses the most horrible sights a man can behold. Ash's black hair streaks white before our eyes. Behind him, two flowers in their pots wither and die in seconds. ASH Finish it!638P INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 638P Plate for previous scene, with dying flowers.639 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 639 CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE - WIND FAN ANNIE Kanda! Samonda Roba Areda Gyes Indy En-zeen, Nos-Feratos -639A CLOSE SHOT 639A Annie as she gasps.639B MED. SHOT - ANIMATED HAND - (3 SEC.) 639B Annie as she falls to the floor, dead. Jutting from her back is the Kandarian dagger and hanging onto the end of the dagger is Ash's demon hand.639 C,D,E, OMIT 639 C,D,E640 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH AND WINDOW ON "B" WALL 640 ASH No! CRASH! Behind Ash a living tree branch rips through the cabin window!641 MED. SHOT - ASH - WIND FAN - WRAPPING EFX BRANCH 641 Ash turns suddenly to get away. Too late. The living branch wraps about ASH'S waist and lifts him, screaming, OUT OF FRAME.642 MED. SHOT - ASH IN GRIP OF TREE BRANCH - WIND FAN 642 Ash is being lifted toward the gaping mouth of rotten apple head. Ash is frantically jerking out his arm in an attempt to start the chainsaw strapped to his wrist. PUTT, PUTT, PUTT. It won't start. As the face of rotten apple head looms close, it opens its terrible mouth, ready to consume him.643 CLOSE SHOT - ASH IN GRIP OF GIANT TREE BRANCH 643 From inside the creature's mouth looking out. Ash is screaming as he is brought towards its gnashing teeth. PUTT, PUTT, PUTT. His chainsaw still won't start.643A CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 643A Half dead as she crawls to the pages on the floor and gasps out the final sentences. ANNIE Nos-feratos - Amen-non. Ak-adeem! Razin - Arozonia!643B EXT. CABIN - NIGHT 643B WIDE SHOT - REVERSE ACTION The rift grows more powerful.643BP PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 643BP The rift.644 INT. CABIN - MAIN ROOM - CLOSE SHOT - ASH 644 Sweating and terrified. He draws closer.645 ASH'S POV 645 The CAMERA tracks in toward the mouth of rotten apple head. It's massive jaw jutts from the head, biting and snapping. Sap-like saliva drips from the orifice. Ash's feet kick at the mouth of rotten apple head, trying to keep it away. Its jaws snap at his shoes.645A C.U. - ASH'S FEET - PUSHING AT THE GUMS OF 645A RAH'S MOUTH. SNAP! The massive teeth snap together biting Ash's foot in half.645B C.U. ASH 645B He screams, then looks down to his foot.645C C.U. ASH'S FOOT - (OVERLARGE SHOE) 645C Missing the leather toe section, he reveals that he still has his toes intact.646 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 646 As he sharply jerks his arm outward! The CHAINSAW ROARS to life! He raises it high above his head and plunges it forward.647 WIDE SHOT - ASH AND ROTTEN APPLE HEAD 647 Ash thrusts the spinning chainsaw blade into the single eye of the beast.648 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO) 648 CLOSE SHOT - CHAINSAW As it punctures the giant eyeball and then pulls free. Green sauce spouts from the creature's wound.649 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 649 CLOSE SHOT - ASH As he is doused in the green bile. SPLAT!650 CLOSE SHOT - ROTTEN APPLE HEAD 650 Eyeless, it screams in anger.650A CLOSE SHOT - ANNIE 650A With her last gasp. ANNIE ....Kanda!651 EXT. CABIN - NIGHT (STUDIO MINIATURE) 651 WIDE SHOT - (REVERSE ACTION) As the rift pulls in fog and trees that surround the house.651P1 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 651P1 SMOKE AND FLAME - MINIATURE (STUDIO)651P2 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 651P2 The Rift.652 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 652 WIDE SHOT As rotten apple head is sucked out the doorway of the cabin. The door slams shut behind it. Its scream echoes off into the distance.653 OMIT 653654 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 654 MED. SHOT - ASH Slices through the bracch.654A MEDIUM SHOT - ASH 654A Ash and cut branch fall to the floor.655 MED. SHOT 655 The cabin becomes much more quiet. The sounds of the trees are gone. Ash looks to Annie. She is dead. Ash moves to her, strokes her hair and begins to cry. ASH You did it. By God you did it. He lowers his head and begins to heave in sharp convulsive breaths of despair.656 - 661 OMIT 656 - 661662 INT. STUDIO - (BLUE SCREEN) 662 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - WIND FAN Behind Ash the front door RIPS open with a TREMENDOUS BLAST. The door is sucked down into the rift. All of the objects in the room are sucked through the open doorway and down into the rift, including the pages of the Book of the Dead.662P1 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE RIFT 662P1662P2 SECOND PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 662P2 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - (STUDIO MINIATURE)662P3 EXT. PLATE/WOODS 662P3663 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 663 WIND FAN Ash grabs ahold of the kitchen window ledge so as not to be swept outside by the force of the vacuum of the rift. Objects and papers fly past him.664 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S HAND 664 Upon the kitchen window ledge. The ledge tears free.665 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 665 As he screams, flying backward, towards the open door.666 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO/PARTIAL SET/ 666 BLUE SCREEN) MEDIUM SHOT - WIND FAN - SAM-O-CAM The open doorway to the cabin. Ash flies towards it and is snagged from going through by the section of ledge that he holds.666P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE RIFT 666P666P1 EXT. WOODS - PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 666P1667 EXT. CABIN FRONT PORCH - NIGHT (STUDIO) 667 MEDIUM SHOT - ASH - WIRE RIGGING FOR FLYING His body is horizontal, his feet dangling in air, in the direction of the rift.668 CLOSER - 668 Ash as he hangs on for dear life. Objects continue to fly past on wires. ASH For God's sake, how do you stop it?669 INT. CABIN MAIN ROOM - NIGHT (STUDIO) 669 BLUE SCREEN CLOSE SHOT - FLYING RIG The nails in the section of ledge that Ash holds TEAR loose and the ledge SNAPS in two. He spins wildly away from us and towards the rift.669P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE RIFT 669P669P1 EXT. WOODS - PLATE 669P1670 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (STUNT) WIRE RIGGING 670 Ash is rocketed through the air, spinning somersaults.671 INT. STUDIO - (BLUE SCREEN) 671 ASH ON FLYING RIG Ash is sucked down into the swirling rift. Like a particle that is swallowed by a deep funnel of draining water. The rift closed behind him.671P1 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE RIFT 671P1671P2 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT 671P2 Plate for previous scene.672 INT. STUDIO - (BLUE SCREEN) 672 ASH ON FLYING RIG We are now within the vortex. A swirling mass of colors and clouds. And nightmarish sound effects. Objects come AT US from the distance and roar past, an uprooted tree, the grandfather clock with its hands winding backwards at an incredible rate, Ash spinning AT US, hand over foot, screaming. The chainsaw still mounted to his wrist.672P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE VORTEX 672P673 INT. STUDIO - (STOP MOTION/BLUE SCREEN) 673 ASH The vortex is distorting Ash's features as he is rocketed back through the dark void of time.673P1 OMIT 673P1673P2 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE (STOCK FOOTAGE) 673P2 A wild and rapid pictorial collage of human history winding back from the present through the centuries lasting seven seconds.674 INT. STUDIO - (BLUE SCREEN) 674 WIDE SHOT A hole opens in the air with a sharp CRACKLING SOUND. Ash is spat from this hole and falls downward through frame.674P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MITCHELL CAMERA 674P EXT. SKY - DAY674P2 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MINIATURE 674P2 SMOKE AND FLAME675 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY 675 MED. SHOT - GROUND - ASH - CAR CRANE - DELTA SHELLS Plunged to the dust. Debris from the demolished cabin rains down around him; his shotgun, the 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile and the old grandfather clock.676 ASH'S POV. - THE RIFT IN THE SKY - MITCHELL 676 As it seals shut, leaving only the blue sky and the sound of tweeting birds. Ash's view of the serene sky changes abruptly as five steel helmets jut into his line of sight. Five armor-clad medieval WARRIORS stand directly over him.676P1 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - THE RIFT 676P1676P2 PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MINIATURE 676P2 SMOKE AND FLAME677 OMIT 677678 CLOSE SHOT - ASH AND WARRIORS 678 As he looks to the warriors above him. The first warrior raises a bloodstained longsword and poises it above Ash's head. WARRIOR #1 Slay the beast! WARRIOR #2 'Tis a deadite! All raise their swords ready for the kill.679 MED. SHOT - THE WARRIORS 679 Halt as they hear a piercing, high-pitched SCREECH. They turn their heads skyward.680 CLOSE SHOT - ASH 680 Follows the Warriors' gaze.681 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY 681 (STOP MOTION/REAR SCREEN) MED. SHOT A "WINGED DEADITE," a female harpy like creature with the tail of a sea horse and man-sized bat wings, enabling it to fly. The screaming beast swoops down towards the warriors and horses. High above, the distant shapes of other Winged Deadites circle.681P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR 681P WARRIORS AND HORSES FOR SWOOP SHOT682 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY 682 (STOP MOTION ANIMATION/REAR SCREEN) CLOSE SHOT - WINGED DEADITE She lets out a screaming banshee laugh, while swooping down.682P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE 682P EXT. KANDAR CASTLE - DAY683 WINGED DEADITE'S POV 683 (UNDERCRANKED) - CRANE - WIND FAN As we swoop down toward the warriors and Ash.683A OMIT 683A683AP OMIT 683AP684 OMIT 684684P OMIT 684P685 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY 685 MED. SHOT - ASH AND WARRIORS As he springs to his feet. With a lightning thrust he reaches behind him.686 CLOSE SHOT - ASH'S HAND 686 As he grabs at the gun from its holster. He swings it around front and pulls the trigger.687 CLOSE SHOT - GUN BARREL - UNDERCRANKED 687 It discharges flame.688 CLOSE SHOT - DUMMY HEAD OF DEADITE BLOOD SQUIB 688 OVERCRANKED - STOP MOTION ANIMATION/REAR SCREEN It explodes.688P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - MITCHELL 688P EXT. KANDAR SKY689 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR - DAY 689 (MINIATURE/STOP MOTION/REAR SCREEN) WIDE SHOT - WINGED DEADITE The beast continues to flap its wings and fly about a moment before falling to a heap in the dust.689P PLATE FOR PREVIOUS SCENE - EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR 689P WARRIORS690 EXT. CASTLE OF KAN DAR 690 CLOSE SHOT - WARRIOR #1 As he looks to Ash.691 MED. SHOT - WARRIORS 691 They follow his gaze. The CAMERA PANS TO Ash. He stands alone on a small pile of rubble clutching his smoldering shotgun. He looks about dazedly. He tries to get his bearings.692 WIDE SHOT - WARRIORS 692 They falter. Unsure of how to react to this strange man, who a moment before was pronounced a Deadite. From the crowd, the Warrior #1 calls out: WARRIOR #1 Hail he, who has come from the sky, to deliver us from the terrors of the deadites! WARRIOR #4 Hail! WARRIOR #5 Hail! The cry is taken up by all. A line of medieval warriors bow. Then twenty. Then fifty. All remove their helmets and kneel silently in the dust. Somewhere in the distance a DRUM SOUNDS. Ash stands frozen. Terrified, unsure of where or when he is. Knowing only for the present, he is alive. As the wind kicks up blowing dust, Ash strikes a familiar pose. It is the same image of the "Hero from the Sky" that we saw earlier in the film. The strange "jagged edged longsword" is Ash's chainsaw. The CAMERA PULLS BACK from him as a great medieval castle rears up INTO FRAME. It is seen to be the castle of Kandar. The same castle we saw in the beginning of the film. Now, however, the castle is not a ruin, but brand new. As the CAMERA continues to pull back from Ash, the title "EVIL DEAD" appears on the screen acompanied by the distant ROAR of some dying animal: The SCREEN cuts to BLACK WITH A THUNDEROUS BOOM. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..17ec121b6d32333256c60d6e6ebfe0e977cfeaae --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Evil Dead.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +BOOK OF THE DEAD "The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror" By Sam Raimi10/13/79SCENE CODINGInterior - IExterior - EDay - DNight - NTwilight - TLOCATION CODINGCAR - CarB - BridgeCAB - Surrounding area outside cabinW - WoodsM.R. - Main RoomD.R. - Dining RoomK - KitchenC - CellarW.S. - Work ShedL.B. - Linda's BedroomS.B. - Shelly's BedroomC.B. - Cheryl's BedroomB.T.R- BathroomEXAMPLE12 ID - D.R.TRANSLATIONScene #12, Interior, Day, Dining Room1 ED - W Something evil is lurking deep withing the wooded moun- tains of Tennessee, and the camera takes its point of view. Rising from a swampy bog, the mud slides from view allowing it to see early morning mist hanging about the forest. Creeping silently past trees, gliding over small shrubs, it moves onward through the woods until a mammoth oak rests directly in its path. The tree is uprooted by this unseen force, and falls with a deafening crash.2 ED - CAR Near by, a stretch of highway curves along the base of a mountain. The road winds off into oblivion beyond other peaks. From behind view, the rumble of an engine can be heard. It is a large logging truck headed south. Moving away, the truck becomes smaller until finally it disap- pears in the distance. From where the truck emerged, a dilapidated gold 1973 Oldsmobile comes into view.3 ID - CAR Inside, five people can be seen. They are couples ASHLY and LINDA, SCOTT and SHELLY, and CHERYL, ASHLY's sister. Both SCOTT and SHELLY wear "Michigan State" T-shirts, and are students along with the others at that univer- sity. SCOTT is driving and SHELLY sits next to him up front. ASHLY, LINDA and CHERYL are in back. They listen to an old "Baby Moses And The Thrillers" song on the radio, and SHELLY is slapping the dash board as if it were a drum. SHELLY (Singing with the music)... Together, forever... SCOTT Ash, where are we? ASHLY I'll tell ya in a second. Now we're still on seventy-five just past the county border...4 ED - W Once again, the camera takes the point of view of the dark and brooding force which stops atop a forest ridge to peer downward. Its view focuses upon the 1973 Olds- mobile speeding along the narrow highway below.5 ID - CAR ASHLY traces a route on the map with his finger. ASHLY ...Which would put us...which would put us... SCOTT Jesus Christ, just tell us already will ya? ASHLY zeroes in on the map with his finger. ASHLY ...Right... SCOTT is growing impatient. ASHLY ...Right... SCOTT Yes? ASHLY Here! Suddenly, the radio stops, and the steering wheel jerks from SCOTT's hand.6 ED - CAR The car screetches out of control into the opposite lane. A large oncoming tanker truck with its horn screaming races toward the car on a collision coarse.7 ID - CAR SHELLY Scotty, watch out!8 ED - CAR The truck races closer.9 ID - CAR Their steering wheel is locked. ASHLY Turn!10 ED - CAR At the last possible instant, SCOTT's wheel again can be controlled, and the car swerves sharply back into its own lane.11 ED - CAR The truck speeds harmlessly past them.12 ID - CAR ASHLY Damn it Scott, what the hell was that? You trying to kill us? SCOTT Don't yell at me, it's your lousy steering wheel. The damn thing jerked right out of my hand. ASHLY I can't understand it. I just had this thing in for a tune-up. SHELLY Radio's dead too, ace. ASHLY And I just had 'em tune up the whole thing yesterday. SCOTT Well, then take it back 'cause the damn thing don't work. Only thing that works on the whole car is the lousy horn. SCOTT honks the horn.13 ED - CAR Several local MEN walking down the highway respond to the horn by waving.14 ID - CAR SCOTT yells out the window at them. SCOTT Aw, go to hell, I'm not waving at ya! He looks in the rear view mirror. The MEN are still wav- ing in the distance. SCOTT turns back to drive. SCOTT Jesus Christ. SHELLY turns around in the front seat and holds up a pint of Scotch. SHELLY Well, I'd like to make a toast. To Scott who almost killed us. SCOTT Aw, eat shit and die will ya? SHELLY and the others laugh. SHELLY Okay, okay- then to a wild week-end in a wonderful cabin with good friends, (She glances at SCOTT) provided we live that long. SHELLY cooly drinks from the Scotch and passes the bottle back to ASHLY and LINDA. ASHLY pours LINDA a drink in the bottle cap and keeps the bottle. They raise their drinks. ASHLY and LINDA ...With good friends. They toast, drink and react to the strong liquor. ASHLY tries to hide his reaction to the Scotch in front of LINDA, since SHELLY had reacted so calmly. ASHLY passes the bottle to CHERYL who stops him with a polite "No, thank you," then back up front to SCOTT. LINDA Hey Scotty, what's this place like anyway? SCOTT Well, the guy that's renting it says it's an old place, little run down, but it's right up in the mountains- totally secluded. (He takes a drink from the bottle) Best part is, we get it so cheap. LINDA Why are we getting it so cheap? SCOTT I don't know, might be in real bad shape. CHERYL You mean nobody's seen this place yet? SCOTT Not yet. ASHLY Might not be too bad. LINDA No... ASHLY Actually, it might be very nice. LINDA Yeah... SHELLY It's probably a real pit. CHERYL I can't believe that we're renting a place for a week-end that nobody's seen. SCOTT (Mumbling to himself) Jesus Christ, not this again... CHERYL (Turning to ASHLY) You know, mom and dad would never let us go up to a place like this if they knew- ASHLY -Which is exactly why they don't know. I'll tell you who I am gonna call. The guys that fixed up this car.15 ED - CAR The car approaches an exit along the highway.16 ID - CAR ASHLY glances at the map again. ASHLY Hey, I think this is where we get off.17 ED - CAR The car turns off the main highway and follows several back roads until it approaches a narrow dirt lane that winds upward along a twin set of mountains.18 ID - CAR SCOTT glances up to the peaks. SCOTT These mountains seem familiar. LINDA What do they remind you of? Some- thing majestic? Adventure? SCOTT Yeah, more like adventure. LINDA Any adventure in particular? SCOTT Shelly's sweater. ASHLY and SCOTT laugh out loud. LINDA laughs quietly, and CHERYL lets out an embarassed giggle to herself. SHELLY (Teasing) Oooh, you're gonna get it Scotty, when you least expect it, you're gonna get it good.19 ED - B Finally, the car arrives at a wooden bridge extending over a great chasm. Carefully, the vehicle crosses.20 ED - CAB It is late afternoon when they eventually arrive at their destination. The small wooden cabin is surrounded by thick dark woods. SCOTT shuts off the car but it contin- ues to sputter and backfire.21 ID - CAR ASHLY reacts to his car. ASHLY I...I sent 'em a check for the tune-up. but I'm just not paying for it. LINDA This place is perfect. CHERYL The woods come awfully close to the house don't they? SCOTT So what's wrong with the woods, they can't bite ya. CHERYL It's just a little claustrophobic that's all. LINDA Well, I think it's beautiful. SHELLY Me too, it's gonna be a bomb week- end.22 ED - CAB SCOTT moves to the front door of the cabin where he finds a small ring of keys concealed on the shelf above the door. ASHLY unloads the car to the others. SCOTT It's supposed to be one of these on here. After trying several keys, he is able to unlock the door.23 ID - M.R. The interior of the cabin is completely dark. SCOTT opens the door and stands silhouetted in the doorway for a moment, then enters to find the light switch. The illumination reveals floors, walls, and ceilings made of cedar. There are two small bedrooms, a kitchen, and the main room which contains a stone fireplace set into the wall. An old grandfather clock stands silently in one corner, partially hidden in the shadows. A door in the rear of the cabin leads to a small work shed containing a work bench and an assortment of tools upon the wall. Located centrally in the main room is a trap door leading to the cellar. This catches SCOTT's eye. SCOTT Hey, this place has a dungeon. CHERYL puts down a case of art supplies, and moves over to SCOTT by the trap door. He unlocks a chain securing the trap door with one of his keys and hands the ring to SHELLY. SCOTT Put these back will you? SHELLY leaves with the keys, and SCOTT tries to open the hatch but cannot. SCOTT They nailed it shut. CHERYL Good, I don't like cellars. Probably just some garbage down there anyways. SCOTT Cheryl, they don't nail garbage in cellars. I mean it's not going to try and get out or anything. CHERYL Well, what's down there? SCOTT Well, could be any number of things. Old baseball cards, mushrooms, dead bodies- LINDA Hey, look at this! LINDA is standing in the corner next to the old grand- father clock. She repositions a balance weight, and it begins to tick. LINDA Ta daaaaaa! The others applaud and whistle. LINDA smiles.24 ET - CAB The cabin is seen from the outside. Twilight has come.25 IT - M.R. CHERYL sits alone in the living room near the window. She is drawing sketches of the old clock. As she works, the ticking stops unexpectedly. CHERYL puts down her pencil and looks up to the clock. It stands silently in the cor- ner with its hands frozen in position. There is a rust- ling from the woods. CHERYL looks out the window but can see only the trees. Something is moving outside, yet re- mains hidden within the forest. A gust of wind fills the room. CHERYL glances down at her hand. It turns a pale white and begins to shake and jerk about uncontrollably. She stares on incredulously as her hand, guided by some unseen force picks up the pencil and begins to sketch a figure upon her pad. The wind gales through the open window but dies down slowly as her hand completes the drawing. Whatever was at the edge of the woods has now retreated further into them. Her hand loses the pale cast and is now under control once more. CHERYL picks up her pad of paper. The likeness of a book with some form of ancient writing on its cover has been sketched. She looks to the woods which are now silent. A snapping of wood is heard from the cellar. CHERYL quickly turns to the trap door still nailed shut in the floor. Pos- sibly just a mouse, but she fixes her gaze upon it. Another sound, almost like faint breathing comes from the cellar.26 IT - K/M.R. ASHLY and LINDA enter from the kitchen. ASHLY is drink- ing a beer and moves over to CHERYL. He stands between her and the trap door. ASHLY What're you drawing Cheryl? He picks up the piece of paper. LINDA looks over his shoulder to glance at it. CHERYL I...I don't know. ASHLY Is it a bible? CHERYL No, no it's no bible. (She glances again at the cellar, knowing some- thing is down there) I don't know what it is. LINDA Well, this one of the clock's not bad. LINDA picks up the sketch and walks over to the clock with it a few steps away. She stands comparing it to the real thing with her back to CHERYL and ASHLY. She is only a few inches from the trap door, and CHERYL wants to call out in warning when ASHLY kneels in front of her to speak secretly. ASHLY (In a whisper) I got it right here. He taps something in his shirt pocket. CHERYL is looking past him paying no attention. She watches only LINDA's feet, waiting for whatever is in the cellar to grab them. LINDA looks at the drawing in comparison. LINDA Cheryl, this is really good. I like how you did the numbers in that wood- ish style. ASHLY produces a small box from his shirt and opens it quickly to show CHERYL. It contains a gold pendant on a necklace. LINDA takes a step closer to the clock. She is now standing almost upon the trap door. Although nailed shut, it opens slightly, pulling the nails with it. CHERYL gasps. ASHLY is pleased with her response. ASHLY (Still in a whisper) I knew you'd like it. Quickly, he places it back in his shirt and touches his lips with a finger to indicate the secrecy of his sup- rise. LINDA returns with the sketch and places it back on CHERYL's small drawing table. LINDA It's really good Cheryl. Very close to the origional. CHERYL (In a relieved whisper) Yes, very close. LINDA I'm gonna check dinner. LINDA returns to the kitchen and ASHLY turns to CHERYL. ASHLY You better get washed up. I'll see ya in there. He winks, then follows LINDA into the kitchen. CHERYL again looks at the cellar. Slowly, from her point of view, the camera moves in toward the trap door, wait- ing...waiting.27 IT - K A blender screams as it mixes up a drink in the kitchen. SHELLY shuts it off and carries it to the dining room.28 IT - D.R. She joins the others who are now seated at the dinner table and serves the mixture. SCOTT sits between LINDA and CHERYL. He leans over to CHERYL. SCOTT (In a whisper) Dead bodies in the cellar, dead bodies in the cellar... CHERYL Will you stop it? LINDA Scott, leave her alone will ya? SCOTT turns toward LINDA. SCOTT Will you relax, I'm just kidding around. She can take a joke- He stops talking as he hears the trickling of water. He turns to see CHERYL finish pouring a glass of water in his lap. The others laugh. SCOTT is silent for a moment, then begins chuckling to himself. He turns to CHERYL. SCOTT (Jokingly) I'll get ya. With a napkin, he blots the water from his pants. SCOTT I'll get ya for this Cheryl. ASHLY stands with his drink and raises the glass. ASHLY I'd like to make a toast for all here this evening. As a greek friend of mine once said, "Nis-hat-nis-fert- dis-ruben-tu-tar-im." LINDA Which means? SCOTT Party down! The laughter is stifled by a loud snap and cracking of wood heard from the main room. SCOTT What the hell... All stand from the table and hurry to the main room.29 IN - M.R. The nails that held down the trap door have been ripped out, and although still in tact, the hatch is wide open. They stand silently in front of it, looking blank as to what could have done this. CHERYL is slighly more nervous than the others. ASHLY is the first to speak. ASHLY (Slowly) What is this? SCOTT Whatever it is, it's still down there. CHERYL I don't like cellars, let's close it up. (She does not want to deal with it) It's probably just some animal. SCOTT An animal?! An an...ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- that's the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life. Jesus Christ. SCOTT locates a flashlight and peers into the hole. He traces the old wooden steps into darkness with his light. LINDA Maybe it is just some animal. SCOTT Yeah, probably right. It's probably just some animal. Uh...Cheryl, why don't you make sure. He hands the flashlight to CHERYL who quickly gives it back. CHERYL Scotty, I'm not going down there! SCOTT Okay, okay you cowards, I'll go. LINDA Scotty don't. You're crazy if you go down there. Why don't you wait until morning. SCOTT Look, I'll be all right. SHELLY What melodrama! What courage! A kiss my brave hero. SCOTT kisses SHELLY and with flashlight in hand, he descends the narrow steps into the cellars blackness. SHELLY I, your virgin queen eagerly await the precious moment when you will ascend. SCOTT Virgin queen?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- He disappears below the floor. SHELLY, CHERYL, LINDA and ASHLY wait above. ASHLY (Calling down) Hey Scott, see any- thing? There is no answer. ASHLY Hey Scott!...Scott! SHELLY He's just kidding around. There is silence. SHELLY Isn't he? No sounds come from the cellar. ASHLY Linda, get me a flashlight. LINDA That's the only one we brought up. ASHLY spots a lantern on the fireplace mantle. ASHLY Then get that lantern. LINDA brings it over. ASHLY opens the kerosene valve, lights the wick, and descends into the basement.30 IN - C Down below, ASHLY moves quietly past the old stone walls and wooden beams which support the main floor above. In front of him stands an old door which leads to another section of the cellar. Cautiously, he moves toward it. Before he can touch it, the door swings open slowly with a moan. ASHLY moves through the doorway and deeper into the cellar. Condensation from water pipes above turn the cellar into an echo chamber as drips fall into shallow pools on the dirt floor below. As ASHLY scans with his light, he spots a shadow move out the corner of his eye. ASHLY Scott? ASHLY breaks into a cold sweat as he moves away from the area where the shadow passed. He backs sqarely into a pair of arms which grab him. ASHLY Ahhhhhhh! It is only SCOTT behind him. ASHLY What the hell are you doing down here, jerkin' off? How come you didn't answer me? SCOTT When? ASHLY Just now, I mean upstairs. SCOTT I didn't hear you. ASHLY Oh well, did you find anything? SCOTT Uh-uh. ASHLY What's this? SCOTT sweeps his light to another corner and reveals several items atop a small table. Beneath a dusty cloth, he finds a book which appears to be covered in some sort of animal hide, with an ancient form of writing on the cover. Along with this book, SCOTT and ASHLY uncover a reel to reel tape recorder, an ancient dagger, and other parapanalia including a box of rifle shells.31 EN - CAB It is evening as darkness surrounds the small cabin.32 IN - M.R. The group sits huddled around the fireplace talking quietly about school. The same bottle of Scotch is passed around. ASHLY is rewinding the tape recorder, and once this is done, he turns it on. The voice of an old man is heard. ASHLY turns to the others who are talking. ASHLY Shhh, listen to this. VOICE My name is Julian Knowby. I am a pro- fessor of ancient Egyptian mythology in Dextin university's ancient history department... ASHLY This is the tape I found downstairs. VOICE (Continuing)...I am recording this entry from a small cabin in the south- ern mountains of Tennessee. Here, I am staying with my wife for a few weeks so that I may continue my research un- disturbed. Since May, a group of assoc- iate professors and myself have been excavating the ruins of Ca'n Dar. I believe I have made an important find in that area, and thus the reason for this log. With it, I can keep an ac- curate record of translations from my latest find; the first of six, the others still lost, volumes of ancient Sumarian burial practices and rites. Basically, it is a book of do's and don'ts dealing with the deceased en- titled "Naturan Demanto" roughly trans- lated "Book Of The Dead." It is bound in human flesh, and inked with blood of the deceased... SCOTT Jeez, I'd hate to find out what they used for pens. VOICE (Continuing)...This particular volume deals with demons and demon resurrect- ion. These are of the Katardi family, meaning those forces believed to inhab- it the jungles and woods of man's do- main. The first few pages that I have translated warn that these demons are dangerous, everpresent, and exist primarily through this book. As legend has it, only the sacred high priests of the Ca'n Dar tribe could posess these books, for they alone could properly control the resurrected de- mons. It is only through the act of reciting the resurrection passage that these demons would be able to posess the living. For many years, it was thought that this legend- CHERYL turns off the machine at this point. SCOTT Hey, what'd you do that for? It was just getting good. CHERYL I just don't want to hear any more that's all. SCOTT (Singing) Cheryl's scared, Cheryl's scared. ASHLY Scott, leave her alone will ya? SCOTT Jesus Christ. He moves to the tape recorder and fast forewards it for a bit then stops. SCOTT She's acting like a baby- it's no big deal. He turns the machine on. The passage continues. VOICE Tantir-ah-mis-trobeen-ha-zar-ta33 EN - CAB As the tape plays, all natural sounds from the forest die out, and the autumn colors in the trees fade to a gloomy grey.34 IN - M.R. VOICE Tantir-man-ov-mis-hazen-sober. All eyes except CHERYL's turn to the window.35 EN - CAB Outside, clouds roll in from the east, thunder booms in the distance, and as the wind picks up, it begins to rain.36 IN - M.R. VOICE Kanda!37 EN - CAB A section of ground deep within the woods begins to crack, and opens. Smoke seeps out from within, as if some evil force was now being unleashed.38 IN - M.R. CHERYL (In a whisper) Shut it off. VOICE Kanda!39 EN - CAB The winds howl, and blackbirds fly from their nests, screaming.40 IN - M.R. CHERYL (Louder now) Shut it off. ASHLY, hearing her for the first time, turns from the window to CHERYL. She is overwhealmed with fear. VOICE Kanda!41 EN - CAB A bolt of lightning strikes very near and its thunder crash is deafening.42 IN - M.R. CHERYL can no longer control herself. She screams and covers her ears. CHERYL Shut it offffff! The window shatters when a branch from a nearby tree tears through it. ASHLY runs to the tape recorder and turns it off. CHERYL is crying now, and runs to her room. ASHLY turns to SCOTT. ASHLY Scott, you knew not to play it, I mean...I mean you knew it was upset- ting her. You just don't know when you're carrying something too far. SCOTT (To SHELLY) C'mon. (Back to ASHLY) Big deal, it's just a joke, shit. SCOTT and SHELLY head for their bedroom. SCOTT mumbles to himself along the way. SCOTT You'd think she's three years old or something. SCOTT slams the door behind him. ASHLY sighs. He moves to the broken window and reaches through it to close the outside shutters. LINDA He's really been bothering you hasn't he? ASHLY walks to a chair near the other window. ASHLY No. It's not Scott. Scotty's okay. It's just that ever since we came up here, things have been a little too tense. (He sits) All these crazy things going on. And look at that window- we're gonna have to pay for that window now. LINDA It'll be better tomorrow. Things'll smooth out, you'll see. ASHLY I hope so. He looks at LINDA lovingly for a long moment. ASHLY What'ya say we stay up for a while and listen to the storm. LINDA Deal. Lemme check on Cheryl. I'll be right back. From across the room, she is seen opening CHERYL's door a crack. LINDA asks if she is all right, and gets a muffled reply. In the foreground, ASHLY removes the small box he showed to CHERYL earlier and places it in his hand. He glances behind to LINDA. She closes CHERYL's door and walks back to find ASHLY sound asleep with the box in his hand. She reaches for the box and ASHLY opens his eyes to watch. LINDA looks at him, but his eyes are closed again in time to still appear fast asleep. LINDA turns her attention back to the box. ASHLY watches again wide-eyed as she removes it from his hand. Quickly, LINDA turns to him but as expected, ASHLY is sleeping like a baby. She begins to turn back toward the box and ASHLY opens his eyes, but LINDA turns back again in time to catch him with his eyes wide open. LINDA Ah ha! ASHLY (Laughing) Stealing from the blind eh? It's for you. LINDA begins to open the box. LINDA It better be good. The gold necklace is revealed inside. LINDA Oh Ash, it's beautiful. LINDA kisses ASHLY. He removes the necklace from the box and holds it around her neck. ASHLY (Fastening it around her neck) I was going to give it to you before we left, but things got so hectic, this is the first chance I've had. Do you like it? LINDA moves to a mirror. LINDA It's beautiful. I really love it. (She turns to ASHLY) I'll never take it off.43 EN - CAB Lightning strikes as something in the woods examines the small cottage. Through the outside window, ASHLY and LINDA can be seen embracing. This force watching them moves around the house to another window. The silhouette of SCOTT and SHELLY undressing can be seen. The force continues around and arrives at CHERYL's window. Inside, she brushes her hair in front of the mirror for a moment, then sets down her brush and moves to the window. She stops to uncrumple the sketch drawn earlier, looks at it, then out to the dark woods.44 IN - C.B. CHERYL can faintly hear some kind of sound. It is the same sound she had heard earlier from the cellar. A noise almost like that of something breathing.45 EN - CAB The evil entity rounds the corner of the cabin as CHERYL walks through the rooms to the front door. She can be seen stepping out the door. It closes behind her. Wind shaking the tree branches sends dead leaves fluttering about. CHERYL (Calling to the woods) Is anybody out there? There is no answer. CHERYL steps away from the cottage toward the woods.46 EN - W The breeze animates her nightgown and it too seems alive. CHERYL stops. CHERYL I know someone's out there...I heard you...I heard you in the cellar. Suddenly, CHERYL becomes chilled. She folds her arms around herself and stands at the woods edge, listening. There is only darkness and sounds of the evening wind blowing through the trees. CHERYL steps into the forest a few feet then stops. A cry deep within the woods can be heard. She freezes. Whispering in the distance grows somewhat louder and a soft wail is heard- like that of something long since dead, dredged up to roam the earth again. CHERYL is about to turn back toward the cabin when a rustling comes from a group of trees about twenty yards behind her. She stops. No sound. Nothing moves. Several yards to her left a twig snaps suddenly. She turns but there is silence again. The winds die down, leaving a deathly stillness throughout the woods. Then, all at once, the entire forest becomes alive in a flurry of chaotic noises and movement. Snake-like vines wrap around her ankles and slither up her legs. Tree branches near by begin to claw and rake at her. The force is now moving through the woods toward her. CHERYL is able to break the vines and run toward the cabin. She emerges from the woods and into the clearing. The force is still following.47 EN - CAB CHERYL reaches the cabin door but it is locked. She begins pounding upon the door. CHERYL Help, help, let me in. Open the door! The evil entity now emerges from the woods. CHERYL Ashly! Linda! Open up! CHERYL spots the small key ring above the door where SHELLY had returned them earlier. One by one, she fran- tically jams one key after another into the lock, but still cannot find the right one. The force comes closer with each key. CHERYL Please, someone please! Help me, help meeeee! The evil entity is almost upon her, but her actions are so frantic that the ring falls to the ground. She bends down to pick them up, but a hand grabs her arm. It is SCOTT who has opened the door from the inside. She pushes him in the door and slams it tightly.48 IN - M.R. SCOTT What the hell happ- CHERYL (In hysterics) It...it tried to kill me. I, I heard a noise and...and I ran and the trees...the trees! SCOTT What are you- He is cut off by ASHLY approaching with the others. ASHLY Cheryl what's wrong with you? Did something in the woods do this to you? CHERYL No, no, no...the woods themselves- The trees- they're alive... She hugs ASHLY tightly and cries in hysterical sobs. CHERYL They're alive... LINDA Ash, why don't I take her into the bedroom so she can lie down a little- CHERYL (Cutting her off) -I'm not lying down! I'm not staying here. We're leaving this place, we're leaving this place right now! SCOTT Wait a minute, I'm sure as hell not going anywhere. SHELLY Cheryl- ASHLY Cheryl, there's nothing out there. Trees do not attack people. CHERYL Ashly, will you drive me into town or not? ASHLY (Looking at his watch) Right Now? (He realizes how desperate she is) Sure, sure I'll drive you into town. But if you'll just listen to what you're saying, you- CHERYL I don't care how it sounds. I want to leave this minute. You can bring back my things when you go. ASHLY Okay- if you don't want to stay, I can't make you. LINDA puts a coat around CHERYL as ASHLY helps her to the door.49 EN - CAB ASHLY and CHERYL move to the car. ASHLY helps CHERYL in then then gets in the drivers side.50 IN - CAR CHERYL I'll stay some place in town tonight. ASHLY tries to start the car. There is no response. CHERYL becomes somewhat worried. ASHLY tries again. The car will not turn over. A look of dread comes across CHERYL's face.51 EN - CAB SCOTT and the others join the two outside.52 IN - CAR CHERYL It's not gonna start. ASHLY again tries the engine. CHERYL I know it's not gonna start. It's not gonna let us leave. ASHLY keys the engine and it turns over this time, start- ing up with a roar. ASHLY, worried by CHERYL's condition glances over to her. Confused and upset, CHERYL turns away from ASHLY and looks out her window. They drive off into the night through the wooded mountains toward town. ASHLY glances at CHERYL who is studying the forest in- tensely for any sign of movement. The concern for his sister is made obvious by the expression on his face. Their car approaches the narrow bridge area and slows down. CHERYL Why are you slowing down? ASHLY brings the car to a halt. CHERYL What is this? ASHLY's gaze is fixed directly ahead, and his mouth opens slowly. He flips on the high beams which stab through the evening mist.53 EN - B The bridge over the chasm has been torn away. CHERYL is silent as ASHLY walks to the ravine's edge to examine any remains.54 IN - CAR CHERYL (Mumbling to herself) No, no, no, no, no...it's not going to let us leave, it's not going to let us go...it's not gonna let us gooooo!55 EN - CAB An axe is raised into the air, then brought down smash- ing upon a log, splitting it in two. SCOTT is chopping wood outside the cabin. Behind him, through a window, CHERYL sits with a cup of tea in her hand watching him. SCOTT sets his axe down, gathers the wood and moves away. CHERYL shifts her gaze from SCOTT to the woods beyond. The camera moves in toward CHERYL then past her to SHELLY and LINDA who can be seen playing cards on the floor. ASHLY is seated near the fireplace with the tape recorder in front of him. He plugs an earphone in so only he can hear it. SCOTT enters the cabin and passes in front of ASHLY to drop his wood to one side of the fireplace. He throws a log in, and heads back outside.56 IN - M.R. From inside, LINDA speaks. LINDA Cheryl, wanna play some cards? CHERYL (Turning with a smile) Uh-uh. CHERYL turns to face the window again. LINDA Hey, tomorrow morning, we'll find some way around that cliff into town okay? CHERYL Okay. Outside the window, SCOTT chops more wood for the nights fire. ASHLY turns on the tape recorder to listen with the ear plug. VOICE March 12th. Suzanne came after me and almost murdered me. My own wife. At first I thought it was a mental or physical disorder because of what had happened to her eyes, but I was only fooling myself. I knew what it was. Outside the window, SCOTT continues to chop and gather wood. SHELLY, still engaged in cards with LINDA, holds up one in particular. SHELLY Okay, guess this card. LINDA How am I going to know what card that is? SHELLY Guess, I'm going to see if you're psychic. The card is a two of clubs. LINDA Okaaaay...is it a queen? SHELLY Right! LINDA Really? SHELLY Yeah. LINDA Hey Ash, I guessed the card right. ASHLY (indifferently) Truly amazing Linda. He is listening intently to the log as it continues. VOICE Three days have passed since that thing has been down there. I was hop- ing to weaken it without food or water. Nothing worked. Finally, in desperation I dragged her out to the shed and dismembered her so that what- ever it was could not get up again. SHELLY Cheryl, did you see that? CHERYL remains with her back to them staring out the window. SHELLY Try this one. She removes a nine of clubs from the deck and holds it up. LINDA Okay, lemme think, uh... She puts her hands to her head in a curved funnel form- ation as if to direct her thoughts to the card. LINDA ...Um, it's a seven. SHELLY Oh my God, what suit? LINDA Diamonds, no wait! I mean hearts! SHELLY That's right- seven of hearts! LINDA Hey Ash, did you see that? I guessed two cards in a row. ASHLY (Still not paying attention) How do you do it Linda? He is concentrating on the tape. VOICE This is when I saw the dark figures moving about in the woods. I should have never tampered with the "Book Of The Dead." I now know that what- ever it is I have resurrected through this book, is coming for me. LINDA You know, I always thought I had some sort of extra sense. You know, like e.s.p or something. SHELLY What's this one? She holds up the queen of spades. LINDA Another seven! SHELLY I don't believe it! CHERYL (Still looking outside) Queen of spades. SHELLY looks at her card then back to CHERYL. She holds up another card. CHERYL Four of hearts. The card is a four of hearts. SHELLY bites her lip in fear and reaches for another card. ASHLY and LINDA listen in silence. CHERYL Eight of spades. SHELLY picks up the card. CHERYL is correct again. CHERYL Two of spades- jack of diamonds- jack of clubs- Faster and faster she calls them off. Even before SHELLY can flip them to keep up. Suddenly, CHERYL turns toward the group. Her eyes are bone white. SHELLY's deck of cards slip from her hand and scatter across the floor. CHERYL's body is hoisted up to its feet and jerked about like a white-eyed marionette. She speaks in a voice un- like her own. CHERYL Why have you disturbed our sleep, awakened us from our ancient slum- ber? You will die. Like the others before you. We will take you one by one. All of you ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- She screams in a low gruff voice and collapses to the floor. ASHLY Oh my God, Shelly, get Scott in here! SHELLY does not respond. ASHLY Hurry! She exits through the front door. LINDA moves to CHERYL and lifts her head gently. CHERYL appears unconcious but behind her, she reaches for a pen. LINDA Did you see her eyes? I'm scared. What's wrong with her? ASHLY begins to speak when SCOTT and SHELLY enter. SCOTT What happened to her? CHERYL's hand clutches the pen tightly. LINDA Look at her eyes. SCOTT's hand reaches for CHERYL's eyes to inspect them, but they blink open. The pen in her hand races upward, then slashes down, ripping into LINDA's achilles tendon. LINDA screams fiercely and with a blur, the bloodied pen is raised again. ASHLY grabs CHERYL's arm stopping her, but with a powerful swipe, she swings her remaining arm at LINDA who is sent sprawling across the cabin floor. CHERYL then clutches ASHLY and, almost lifting him, sends his body reeling across the room into a book- case which topples over, trapping him beneath its weight. SHELLY stands screaming as CHERYL now advances toward ASHLY's face with the bloody pen. He struggles to pull himself out but cannot. CHERYL is almost upon him when SCOTT grabs her from behind. Effortlessly, she tosses him off and moves toward ASHLY again. SCOTT climbs to his feet and grabs the axe. CHERYL raises the pen above ASHLY's face, and SCOTT gives her a sharp jab in the jaw with the wooden handle. CHERYL stumbles past LINDA and falls backwards, head first into the cellar. She begins to climb out but SCOTT slams the trap door shut upon her hand. It won't close. CHERYL starts to push the trap door open from below. SCOTT climbs on top and is almost thrown off until he viciuosly rams the butt of his axe down upon her protruding hand. Demented screams and moans are heard from below as CHERYL's hand is finally pulled back and SCOTT manages to secure the chain across the hatch.57 IN - LB Later that evening, LINDA is seen in her bed, sleeping. ASHLY covers her with a blanket, kisses her, and walks to the door, closing it quietly behind him.58 IN - M.R. ASHLY joins SCOTT and SHELLY who sit near the fire in the main room. From the cellar, strange moans, sobs and laughter emerge, then horrible rasping sounds from CHERYL's breathing. Through the next sequence of dialogue, her breathing becomes louder then somewhat quiet. SCOTT She'll be okay Ash, she just took a bad bump. ASHLY (Quietly) Yeah. SCOTT and SHELLY listen to the strange noises from below as ASHLY looks out the window to the woods beyond. ASHLY We've still got a few hours before morning. SHELLY I don't know if I can wait that long. SCOTT You have to. We all have to. Then, once it's light out, we'll try to find a way to get around that chasm. SHELLY (Covering her ears) Why does she keep making those horrible noises? ASHLY I don't know. SHELLY And what about her eyes? ASHLY and SCOTT are quiet. SHELLY What about her eyes? (Desperately) For God's sake what happened to her eyes?! CHERYL patiently sits in the cellars darkness with a streak of light across her eyes from the crack in the trap door. Her head is slightly tilted as she watches and listens to what is said above. From her point of view we hear SCOTT speak to SHELLY. SCOTT Everything's gonna be all right. CHERYL's lips part slightly and a thick blackish yellow liquid drools out between her teeth. She grins.59 EN - CAB Outside, the forest is very dark. The unseen force moves from the wooded area, pushing over small trees and shrubs as it advances. The cottage comes into view and the evil entity glides up to it. The figure of a girl in the cabin window can be seen looking out. The force stops and moves behind a bush.60 IN - M.R. Inside, SHELLY is studying the woods. SHELLY Scotty, I...I think there's some- thing out there. SCOTT joins her at the window and looks out.61 EN - CAB From within the woods, this force watches SCOTT peer out, but he can see nothing. Through the window he says some- thing to reassure SHELLY and moves away.62 IN - M.R. Inside, SCOTT can be heard in mid sentence. SCOTT ...Is to get some rest. Ash and I can stay up with Cheryl. SHELLY Okay. SCOTT Everything's gonna be okay. Come morning- you'll see. SHELLY heads to her bedroom. SCOTT walks back to the fireplace and sits. He slices twigs from a branch with the Sumarian dagger and tosses them into the fire. ASHLY glances at the Book Of The Dead, then to the old clock. It stands silent.63 EN - CAB Again, the evil entity watches from outside. It sees SHELLY leave one room and turn the lights on in another. She begins to undress near the window. The force now moves from behind its cover and rushes at tremendous speed to SHELLY who is looking out her bedroom window. She sees it and sheer terror covers her face as a scream stifles itself in her throat, but it is too late.64 IN - M.R. A noise is heard from SHELLY's bedroom. SCOTT drops the small stick he was whittling and looks up. He places the dagger on the floor and walks toward SHELLY's room. SCOTT Shelly, are you okay? She does not answer. SCOTT approaches her door and turns to ASHLY. SCOTT Keep an eye on Cheryl for a minute.65 IN - S.B. SCOTT enters the darkness of her room and sees nothing amidst the shadows. SCOTT Shelly? He looks over to her window. It is open, and wind blows upon the curtains.66 IN - S. BATH SCOTT steps into SHELLY's bathroom and sees that the shower curtain is drawn. Cautiously, he moves up to it. SCOTT Shelly? He pulls the curtain back to reveal an empty tub. SCOTT turns back to the bedroom when SHELLY steps into the doorway, posessed. With a scream, she latches upon SCOTT. Her eyes have gone bone white and she claws at SCOTT's face and clothes with her nails.67 IN - S.B. Screaming, SCOTT stumbles through her bedroom with SHELLY still upon him biting at his throat.68 IN - M.R. They stagger into the main room where SCOTT manages to knock SHELLY off himself and into the fireplace. She remains motionless as her head smolders upon the hot coals. SCOTT rushes to her, grabs an arm and pulls her out. SHELLY's face and hair on one side of her head are seared and blackened. She blinks her eyes open, turns her charred head to SCOTT, and speaks in a rasp. SHELLY Thank you. I don't know what I would have done if I had remained on the hot coals burning my pretty flesh. You have pretty skin- give it to us! Cackling, SHELLY clutches SCOTT's neck and begins throttl- ing the life out of him with a vice-like grip. He tries to break the hold but cannot. ASHLY also tries but with a backhand blow, SHELLY knocks him into a cabinet, smash- ing it to bits. A garbled cry for help escapes from SCOTT's frothing mouth. SHELLY reaches down, picks up the Sumarian dagger, and holding SCOTT by his throat with one hand, she raises the dagger with the other. ASHLY, slightly injured, crawls to his feet. SCOTT grabs her raised arm and although choking, swings his camping knife from its side sheath and slices deep into SHELLY's raised wrist, almost severing it. A murky black ooze pumps from the wound. She emits an ear splitting- howl and tightens her grip on SCOTT's throat. He drops the hunting knife. ASHLY watches terrified, unable to move as SHELLY raises her dangling hand (Still clutching the dagger) to her mouth and bites it off. The useless part falls to the floor with the dagger still firmly in its fist. SCOTT, now almost dead, grabs her severed hand clutching the dagger and in a last attempt, swings it around ramming the blade into her spine. SHELLY screetches along with CHERYL in the cellar, the old grandfather clock gongs and lightning strikes all at the same instant. SHELLY reaches around with her remaining arm to clutch at the severed hand and knife protruding from her own back. A thick black ooze pours from the wound as she bends backward screaming. ASHLY stands in horror, clutching the axe, unable to move. Black ooze runs from SHELLY's mouth as her body writhes about spasmatically upon the floor. Gradually, the move- ments cease and she is dead. As SCOTT slowly stands to his feet, SHELLY's arm grabs his leg. SCOTT Ahhhhhhh! Some force reanimates her, even though the body is dead. ASHLY No...no...no... SCOTT Hit her! SHELLY's body is hoisted up, jerking about to its feet, and laughing madly. SCOTT Hit it! SCOTT screams this as he backs toward ASHLY who stands with the axe, paralyzed. Gurgling black ooze, SHELLY advances toward them with one remaining arm. SCOTT grabs the axe from ASHLY, pushes him away and slams it into her. Lightning flashes, thunder booms, and CHERYL screams from the cellar. SCOTT brings his axe down again and again in a frenzy. Then, after the final chop, there is silence. SHELLY's body remains on the floor for quite some time- until ASHLY can cope with the fact that she is dead and something must be done. ASHLY Uh...Scott. SCOTT Yeah. ASHLY What is uh...what are we gonna do? SCOTT Bury her. ASHLY You...can't bury Shelly. She's a friend of ours isn't she? SCOTT Ash, she's dead. ASHLY moves away from SCOTT. SCOTT Shelly's dead. We're gonna bury her now. ASHLY bites his lip and looks about blankly.69 EN - CAB Finally, the body is dragged outside and buried near the work shed. Harsh floodlights from the house make the task look very stark and barren.70 IN - M.R. SCOTT and ASHLY return inside. ASHLY heads to LINDA's room to check in on her.71 IN - L.B. He peers in to see LINDA sleeping peacefully.72 IN - M.R. ASHLY quietly returns to the main room. SCOTT is load- ing new batteries into a flashlight. SCOTT I saw an old hiking trail when we were driving up here. Now I don't know if it goes all the way around that gorge- ASHLY -Or if it's even still in tact. SCOTT Or if it's even still in tact. But uh, I guess I'll find out. Take good care of Linda. ASHLY I will. Do you have everything? SCOTT (Putting on a small back pack) Yeah- all set. ASHLY Listen...Scotty...I'm sorry about falling apart like that when- SCOTT Don't bother, really. He steps out the door. SCOTT If I find a way out of here, I'll mark it and then come back. Then if I'm not back here in a few hours... if for some reason...well, if I don't come back, grab Linda, leg and all, and just get her the hell out of here. They shake hands. ASHLY You're a good man. SCOTT Good, I'm the best.73 EN - CAB ASHLY smiles a good-bye to SCOTT and watches him move off into the night. He lingers for a moment by SHELLY's grave, then slowly disappears into the woods.74 IN - M.R. ASHLY closes the door and turns back to the main room. He sees CHERYL's eyes through the crack in the cellar. She has been watching all of this through a space be- tween the trap door and floor. ASHLY walks past her to LINDA's room.75 IN - L.B. He opens the door and a crack of light falls across her. LINDA wakes up. LINDA Who's there? Ash? ASHLY It's me Linda. LINDA Ash, I had a bad dream about Linda. ASHLY You did baby? LINDA Yeah. She's all right isn't she? ASHLY Yeah. Fine. LINDA Is Shelly okay too Ash? ASHLY can no longer hide his fear and anxiety. He speaks in a whisper so as not to let his voice quiver. ASHLY Yeah, sure. She's sleeping that's all. LINDA Ash, I love you. (She turns over) ASHLY Get some rest. ASHLY closes the door behind him and the fear from a few hours ago engulfs him once more.76 IN - M.R. ASHLY moves into the main room and stops dead in his tracks when a voice in the cellar speaks. CHERYL You lied to her. You lied to Linda. Shelly's not sleeping. She's dead. Don't you know the difference? You killed her. You and Scott cut her up with the axe. She's dead ha-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha- ASHLY picks up the axe and slams it down upon the trap door. CHERYL is silent from below for a moment, then the hatch opens an inch or so. (The length of the chain securing it) CHEYL's white eyes can be seen again. CHERYL Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- ASHLY takes the axe and steps outside.77 EN - CAB He begins to chop wood, taking out his emotions upon the logs with each blow. SHELLY's blood can still be seen on the blade of the axe.78 IN - M.R. From her dungeon, CHERYL watches ASHLY chop wood in the window. The shadow of his axe rising then striking is seen over her white eyes.79 EN - CAB Exhausted, ASHLY puts down the axe. He looks off into the woods but there is no sign of SCOTT. He returns to the cabin.80 IN - M.R. CHERYL begins her taunting again. CHERYL Soon all of you will be like me and then who will lock you in the cellar? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- CHERYL begins to violently ram her fists against the trap door. ASHLY walks by her to LINDA's room.81 IN - L.B. She is still asleep. Quietly, so as not to wake her, ASHLY pulls back her blanket exposing the bandaged leg. He re- moves the wrappings and looks at the wound. As he does this, it infects with a blackened coloration at an in- credible speed. ASHLY looks up to see if LINDA is still sleeping and sees that she has been watching him with white eyes and an evil grimace upon her face. She lets out a low growl.82 IN - M.R. ASHLY jolts backwards out of her room to escape through the front door. He steps outside and stops to look back in. He can see the main room, but finds it difficult to see in LINDA's room, being lost in the shadows. Something ragged and bloody grabs him. It is SCOTT's mutilated body ripped and torn to shreds. He is still alive. ASHLY looks behind him through the door to LINDA's room. He can barely make out LINDA who sits on the bed watching him with glaring white eyes. ASHLY helps SCOTT to the couch so he can sit. SCOTT is in agony and can barely speak. SCOTT Ash, I think I'm dying. Jesus, I can't feel my legs. ASHLY Uh...uh Scotty you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be just fine- you'll see. He throws another log on the fire. ASHLY You'll see. He looks off into LINDA's bedroom again, but she is gone. She is now sitting in the corner of the main room where ASHLY is, watching him. SCOTT begins to cough with hor- rible rasping sounds. SCOTT It's, it's not gonna let us leave... Cheryl...Cheryl was right...we're all gonna die here... ASHLY We're not gonna die! SCOTT ...All gonna die. All of us. ASHLY grabs SCOTT and shakes him violently. ASHLY We're not gonna die! We're not gonna die! We're getting out of here! Now listen to me- is there a way around the chasm. SCOTT passes out. ASHLY Scotty. Scott! ASHLY slaps SCOTT. He stirs awake and mumbles. SCOTT Jesus Ash. I don't want to die. So... so lonely to die like this. You're not gonna leave me are you? Are you Ash? CHERYL (Imitating SCOTT) I don't want to die. So lonely to die like this. You're not gonna leave me are you? Are you Ash? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- ASHLY Scott, is there some way around the chasm? SCOTT Ash, I'm scared- I...I can't feel my legs. ASHLY Scott, listen to me please, for God's sake. Is there a way around the chasm? SCOTT There is...one way, the trail...but the trees, they know...don't you see- they're alive!! They're ali-ahhhhhhh! His sentence is cut short as he cries out in sharp pain. Blood dribbles from his nostrils and he doubles over grabbing his stomach. LINDA begins to laugh. ASHLY looks to her, or rather what posesses her with hatred. ASHLY Shut up! She continues to laugh. CHERYL in the cellar joins in the laughter. ASHLY walks to LINDA and slaps her but she continues. He grabs a hunting rifle from a rack on the wall, loads it with shells, flips off the safety and places the barrels against LINDA's head. ASHLY God forgive me Linda. The laughter stops and her eyes return to normal. It is LINDA again. ASHLY puts down the rifle. LINDA Ash, oh Ash, help Me! Please. She hugs him tightly. LINDA Don't let them take me away again, please, please, please. ASHLY (Crying and holding her tightly) I won't, I won't- I promise. CHERYL's voice is heard from the blackness of the cellar. CHERYL Ashly? Ashly, help me. Let me out of here. I'm all right now. ASHLY releases LINDA and moves cautiously to the cellar. LINDA remains behind nervously fumbling with her necklace. CHERYL I'm all right now, Ashly. I'm all right. Come unlock this chain and let me out. ASHLY Cheryl? There is no reply from the cellar. ASHLY looks through the crack but sees only darkness. He reaches for the chain and begins to unlock it, but sensing something wrong, he stops. ASHLY Cheryl? He puts his ear to the floor listening for the slight- est sound. CHERYL's arms rip through the floor boards and grab ASHLY's head. He breaks away and her hand reaches for the chain but cannot quite grasp it. Slowly it withdraws beneath the floor. CHERYL (A little too sweet) Ash, what are you doing? This is your sister Cheryl. Don't you recognize me? Her voice drifts off, and the evil leughter resumes from the celler. ASHLY (Crying and yelling to the cellar) You bastards! Why are you doing this? Why? There is silence for a moment. Laughter from behind him begins again. It is LINDA. Her eyes are white once more, and she laughs at ASHLY. ASHLY Oh...Linda. With newly found courage, ASHLY angrily grabs LINDA by the legs and drags her outside.83 EN - CAB LINDA It's useless, useless, useless. In time we'll come for him, then you ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- ASHLY leaves her in the woods and runs back to the cabin, closing the door behind him.84 IN - M.R. SCOTT is coughing again. SCOTT Ash, Ash, please...I don't want to die- but...but I can't stand this pain. It hurts Ash. Gimme something. Gimme something to put me out. ASHLY Scott, I can't. I- I know it's bad. But I can't be alone now, I can't. I'd lose my mind. SCOTT Please Ash, please. ASHLY You'll get better- you'll see. LINDA's laughter is faintly heard outside. ASHLY moves to the window and pulls back the curtain. LINDA is no longer in the woods but sitting at the edge of the clear- ing, watching ASHLY with her glowing white eyes. ASHLY Yeah, tomorrow, soon, you'll be better and we'll both get out of here tomorrow. SCOTT There is no tomorrow! You- you've got to kill her and cut- cut her up- your sister too. ASHLY No, that was only with Shelly. You had to with Shelly. You- Linda loves me. You're delirious- I...I'll get you some water. ASHLY places a glass to Scott's lips. ASHLY Now, now the sun will be up in an hour or so and we'll get out of here ...together. You, me, Linda, Shelly- n-no not Shelly, she- we'll all go home together. Wouldn't you like to be going home? You'd like that I'd bet, wouldn't ya? There is no answer from SCOTT. The water runs out of his mouth. ASHLY ...Scott. SCOTT is dead. LINDA's laughter is heard again. ASHLY walks to the window and pulls back the curtain. There is nothing there. He turns and she is there! With the Sumarian dagger, LINDA rips into ASHLY's shirt, cutting his arm. He screams and watches in horror as she runs her tongue over the dagger, licking the blood from it. She turns her attention toward ASHLY again but he grabs her and they struggle. LINDA backs ASHLY up against SCOTT, knocking his body to the floor. CHERYL's gnarled arm reaches up through the broken floor boards and grabs at ASHLY's foot. He manages to turn LINDA's arm so the knife is behind her back. Forcefully, ASHLY pushes her over the body of SCOTT and she falls back- ward upon the dagger, impaling herself upon it. The blade tears into her back and rips through her stomach. Lightning flashes, thunder roars, and LINDA screams in a deep growl once, then all is quiet. ASHLY drags LINDA's corpse past the crumpled body of SCOTT, past CHERYL, who watches all of this from below, through the back door and out to the work shed.85 IN - W.S. He lifts her up onto the work bench and secures her body to it with a number of chains which hang from nails along the wall. He rips down a tarp hanging on the wall to reveal a chain saw. He starts it up and moves toward her. Buzzing madly, the saw is lowered to a position several inches above LINDA's neck. ASHLY looks into LINDA's face. Her eyes have gone back to blue. He turns off the saw. ASHLY (In a whisper) Linda... He drops the saw and breaks down crying over LINDA's body.86 EN - CAB An evening mist drifts out of the woods and cloaks the shed as ASHLY carries LINDA's body outside for burial. He lays the body upon the ground and picks up a shovel. Harsh floodlights from the corners of the cabin create strange shadows on the ground as ASHLY digs LINDA's grave. She lies on her back during the digging. One of her eyes opens. It is white. ASHLY drops the shovel and looks at her. She appears to be dead.87 IN - M.R. Inside the cabin, CHERYL begins slamming her fists against the trap door in the cellar again. She wants out. The screws holding the hatch in place begin to loosen.88 EN - CAB ASHLY places LINDA's corpse in the grave, oblivious to CHERYL's pounding. He begins to cover her with dirt.89 IN - M.R. CHERYL has ripped out all but one screw which holds the trap door in tact.90 EN - CAB ASHLY glances to the grave and sees LINDA's necklace on top of the dirt mound. He reaches down to pick it up when LINDA's hand shoots up from beneath the grave and grabs him! She pulls herself up out of the grave scream- ing and clutches ASHLY's leg with a black and bloodied hand. He twists around, trying to free himself, but she will not let go. By now, LINDA is almost completely out of the grave. With her fingernails, she rips into ASHLY's leg, tearing his skin. Screaming, he picks up a large log nearby and swings it roundhouse into her face again and again, breaking the wood into smaller bits. She grabs the log with him clinging to the other end, lifts him up and throws ASHLY log and all, away from her. ASHLY hits the ground with considerable force and for the first time begins to comprehend the power of this thing he is dealing with. Thick black ooze pours from LINDA's nose and mouth as she turns toward ASHLY sprawled on the ground. ASHLY Stay back. His hand gropes for the handle of the spade. LINDA advances toward him, laughing. ASHLY Linda please, if you can still hear me. Keep away. His fingers tighten on the wooden handle. With a scream, she lunges toward him. From the ground, ASHLY swings the spade upward, lopping off her head. The head falls into the mud, but the body falls upon him, grabbing and jerk- ing about spasmatically. Thick black ooze pumps from her neck and ASHLY manages to pull himself out from underneath the body. He backs away in disgust and falls. He picks himself up again and sees LINDA's necklace upon the ground. ASHLY stashes it in his pocket and staggers back to the cabin.91 IN - M.R. Inside, he looks to the main room beyond SCOTT's body. ASHLY Oh..... It is a moan from deep inside him. The trap door is open and CHERYL is gone. ASHLY walks over and kicks it shut. A slight breeze sweeps through the front door causing SHELLY's bedroom door to creak open. ASHLY picks up the rifle again and cautiously moves to the door.92 IN - S.B. He enters. The room is dark and the closet door bangs back and forth because of the breeze. ASHLY moves toward it, grabs the handle and slowly opens the door. Only clothes are inside. He turns toward the other end of the room and CHERYL pops up in the window right by him. He swings and fires, shattering the window. CHERYL backs away and spots the open front door. ASHLY The door... He makes a mad dash through SHELLY's room.93 IN - M.R. In the main room, ASHLY races for the door.94 EN - CAB Outside, CHERYL is almost upon the door.95 IN - MR ASHLY arrives in time, but CHERYL has already started reaching in. He slams the door on her fingers and rams his gun butt down upon them. Horrible screams are heard as CHERYL withdraws her hand. ASHLY is able to slam the door and bolt it. He runs to the back entrance lead- ing to the shed and locks it also. On his way back to the main room, he pumps his rifle in preparation. It is his last shell. ASHLY (To himself) More shells. Where did I see that box of shells?96 IN - C From the basement, the trap door lifts open and ASHLY decends. The bottom step, now rotten, breaks under his weight, and ASHLY sprawls to the floor. Slowly, he picks himself up and walks through the dividing stone doorway beneath the water pipes to a small table. On it, he finds the box of shells and quickly loads them into the gun. He ascends the steps and enters the main room once more.97 IN - M.R. The sound of ticking catches ASHLY's attention. He looks up to see the old grandfather clock slowly winding back- wards. He watches and waits tensely. Turning carefully, ASHLY tries to monitor all the windows. The ticking grows louder. A shadow passes in the window before him and he fires, shattering the glass into a million pieces. Wind whips through the cabin swirling glass and leaves to the floor. ASHLY waits, leaning against the front door for something to happen. He is tense and more determined than ever to survive. He whispers to himself. ASHLY C'mon, c'mon, get it over with, why are you torturing me like this? Placing his hand to his side, ASHLY discovers something in his pocket. He lifts it to his eyes. It is LINDA's necklace. ASHLY ...Linda. (He whispers) The ticking stops. He tilts his head for the slightest sound. All is silent. From behind, two arms rip through the door and grab him. ASHLY tears away and falls to the floor. The necklace is tossed away in the confusion. CHERYL's hands pull away and she looks through a hole in the door. From the floor, ASHLY raises his rifle and fires at her head.98 EN - CAB Clutching at her face and screaming horribly, CHERYL is jolted from the door.99 IN - M.R. ASHLY places a dresser and chair against the holes in the door. Behind ASHLY, SCOTT's corpse sits up and opens its white eyes. It stands and moves toward ASHLY. He turns with the gun, but SCOTT knocks it out of his hands. Desperately, ASHLY grabs a table lamp and shatters it across SCOTT's head, then jams the exposed socket into his face, shocking him. SCOTT staggers back several steps, then continues after ASHLY.100 EN - CAB Outside, Cheryl is now pounding against the front door.101 IN - M.R. ASHLY picks up a small table upon which are the Book Of The Dead, and the professors journal. He throws it at SCOTT. This does not affect him, and he advances closer. The Book Of The Dead lands near the fireplace and edges of the paper darken from the heat. SCOTT picks up ASHLY and begins to throttle him as if he were a rag doll. The front door begins to give under CHERYL's pounding. ASHLY brings his hands to SCOTT's eyes. With a crash, CHERYL breaks through the front door and begins to push the dresser away. Pages from the Book Of The Dead are smolder- ing now. ASHLY jams his fingers into SCOTT's eyes and slips from the grip. SCOTT clutches his eye sockets and his back begins to smolder. ASHLY now sees the book. Its pages burn at the edge. CHERYL topples the dresser and enters the room. Her face is partially torn away from the shot gun blast. ASHLY rushes to throw the book onto the burning logs, but CHERYL, smoldering also, gives him a backhand blow across the head, and he is sent sprawling to the floor. She grabs a fireplace poker with her crushed fingers and turns back to ASHLY who is crawl- ing toward the fireplace. When almost in reach of the book, SCOTT grabs his leg and begins to pull ASHLY back- ward. CHERYL approaches with smoke pouring from her clothes and slams ASHLY across the back with her poker. ASHLY screams. A glitter catches his eye. It is LINDA's necklace. Grabbing it, he tosses the end with a clasp toward the book. It slides off the cover. SCOTT pulls him back once more as ASHLY swings the necklace in a last desperate attempt. CHERYL raises the poker for the final blow. The necklace drapes over the book and as ASHLY is dragged, the clasp hooks the cover and pulls the book with him. With a yank, he seizes the book and tosses it upon the blaze. CHERYL and SCOTT freeze. The Book Of The Dead burns in a bluish green flame. Smoke pours from SCOTT and CHERYL as distant demonical screams are heard from the woods. The fireplace poker slips from CHERYL's hand and sticks into the wood scarcely an inch from ASHLY's head. The bodies of SCOTT and CHERYL then begin to cave inward upon themselves, collapsing to the floor in smoldering heaps. Finally, nothing is left but the burnt clothing and a blackish grey ooze on the floor where their bodies once were. The old clock begins to tick again, normally. ASHLY slowly climbs to his feet to stand above the fuming debris. Open- ing his hand, he looks down at LINDA's necklace. The force retreats from him, out the door, slowly returning to the darkness from which it emerged. Gradually, the natural sounds of the forest swell and trees lose their gloom as Autumn colors return. The first rays of sunlight gleam over the woods beyond the cabin. Daybreak has finally come. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Excalibur.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Excalibur.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..77d8fb39c198f77e8dce8ac1cef66fb1ed7d4b60 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Excalibur.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EXCALIBUR Written by Rospo Pallenberg & John Boorman Adapted from "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Thomas Malory Final Draft FADE IN: EXT. FOREST - NIGHT Darkness. The sound of battle cries and the clang of metal upon metal. The forest lights up with huge sparks flying from sword and ax as armored knights hack and swing at each other. Mounted knights collide head-on at full gallop, their armor made incandescent in the clash. Sparks eddy in their wakes and float to the ground. The forest catches fire. MAIN TITLES on the flames. Out of the sounds of ancient battle grows music, heroic and barbaric, shot through with melancholy. Two crazed eyes reflect the fire. The eyes belong to a man without age, at once ancient and boyish, female and male; his eyes are pained from the burden of too much knowledge. So close is he to the flames that a lock of his wild hair sizzles alight. He slaps at the fire as if it were an annoying insect. He wears a cloak of black trimmed with silver. It is Merlin. The wizard weaves a path through the burning forest, dodging the combatants, searching. MERLIN Lord Uther! Lord Uther! The forest around him weeps softly with the sounds that follow slaughter. Patches of undergrowth are smoldering. Small flames lick bark and branches. Smoke floats through the trees and hovers over the bodies of the dying and the dead. A huge knight reins up beside Merlin on a lathered horse. His armor is blood spattered. He is weary from battle. He looks down at Merlin, his countenance fierce. The blade of his sword glows with an unnatural aura. MERLIN It's done. A truce. We meet at the river. UTHER (disgusted) Talk. Lovers murmuring to each other... EXT. RIVER, FOREST - DAY Waiting on one bank of a small river that flows through the forest is a warlord, the Duke of Cornwall. He is flanked by his armored warriors. Lot of Lowthean prominent among them. They are battle-weary and bloodied, but they look ready to fight. Behind them is an army of lesser knights. To the opposite bank come Uther and Merlin, a much smaller force of knights, including Uryens, Lord of Gore, surrounding them. DUKE OF CORNWALL I spit on your truce, Uther. If you want peace, throw down your swords. Uther and the Duke of Cornwall glare at each other in silence across the river. Uther strains forward, burning with anger; but Merlin restrains him. UTHER I should butcher all and every one of them. Merlin, what is this wagging of tongues? MERLIN Just show the sword. Uther unsheathes his mighty sword, and brandishes it in the air high over his head. The blade hums disquietingly and leaves a lingering electric hue upon the air. The marvel instills dread in all present. MERLIN (waxing eloquent) Behold the sword of power, Excalibur. Before Uther, it belonged to Lud, before Lud, to Beowulf, before Beowulf to Baldur the Good, before Baldur to Thor himself and that was when the world was young and there were more than seven colors in the rainbow. (and in an aside to Uther) Speak the words. UTHER (bellowing) One land, one king! That is my peace! The Duke of Cornwall looks around nervously as some of his knights fall to their knees in awe. DUKE OF CORNWALL Lord Uther, if I yield to the sword of power, what will you yield? UTHER Me, yield!? Merlin urges Uther hard. MERLIN (a whisper) He has given. Now you must. The two knights glare at each other, rage contending with anger. UTHER The land from here to the sea is yours if you will enforce the King's will. The enemies lock eyes and Merlin watches anxiously. DUKE OF CORNWALL Done! All men from both sides break out in wild cheers. DUKE OF CORNWALL My Lord King Uther, let us feast together. To my castle. Lord Merlin, you must join - But Merlin is nowhere in sight. INT. TINTAGEL CASTLE - HALL - NIGHT Drums and wailing flutes fill the banquet hall with a lusty rhythm. Armored warriors watch a lone woman dancing. She is very beautiful, both sensuous and innocent. Uther sits at the long table beside the Duke of Cornwall with the barons and dukes of the land, and the lesser knights. The table is stained with wine and littered with bones and half-eaten fruit. Uther's eyes burn with lust as he watches the dancer. DUKE OF CORNWALL I would wish you such a wife, Lord Uther, as my Igrayne. So innocent, but in bed, a furnace... The Duke rises and goes to his wife, be-striding the center of the hall and Igrayne weaves circles of dance around him. He gloats with pride. The words escape his lips: UTHER I must have her. Lot spins to face him. LOT What? You're mad! What about the alliance? UTHER (oblivious) I must have her. LOT And risk all you've won? This castle commands the sea gate to the kingdom. Uther is not one for politics, and Lot's words sail past him. The King lusts for Igrayne. A bell is struck not far away. The music ceases and the hall falls silent. The great door creaks open, revealing the dawn light, and a monk steps into the hall and waits by it. Muffled by corridors of stone, a choir of monks can now be heard singing the high, ecstatic harmonies of the Te Deum. Those who have fallen asleep at the table are roused, those drunk, helped up. INT. PASSAGEWAY, TINTAGEL CASTLE - DAWN The monk leads the party down the hallway of the castle. Thin shafts of dawnlight filter through archers' slits in the thick walls onto stone floors. Otherwise, it is dark. Each person, lady and knight, proceeds alone, head bent, some crossing themselves. Uther is among them. He stops in a dark alcove, breathing heavily, waiting. As the lovely Igrayne drifts past him, he pulls her out of sight of the others. In a shaft of pale light Uther clasps Igrayne to his breastplate, his iron arm wrapped around her frail body. So violent is his embrace that she cannot breathe, her mouth is wide with fear, and her feet do not touch the ground; an impaled butterfly. UTHER You will be mine. Wife and queen, bed and crown. His face is close to hers, looking as though he would devour her tender whiteness with his kiss. She doesn't answer; she can't. Even Uther understands this and lets her go. IGRAYNE (a fierce whisper) I want no other crown and no other bed than those I have. Her gown and her fragile skin torn on the spikes of his armor, Igrayne backs away and joins the procession. Uther trembles with unreleased passion. INT. PASSAGEWAY OUTSIDE CHAPEL, TINTAGEL CASTLE - DAWN Igrayne enters the candlelit chapel from which issues the chant, calling the castle to worship. She rushes to her husband's side, kneeling next to him and whispering. The Duke of Cornwall looks back at Uther, hatred in his eyes. EXT. WAR CAMP - BEFORE TINTAGEL CASTLE - DAY Uther is in a towering rage. Sword drawn, he stalks among the biers of fallen knights. Squires and clerics keep a healthy distance. The sky is lowering, pregnant with rolling thunder. Beyond his encampment, high on a cliff rising out of the sea stands the impregnable Tintagel Castle, seat of the Duke of Cornwall, now under siege. UTHER (bellowing in all directions) Merlin! Where are you!? Just then a knight rides up and dismounts. It is Ulfius, a lieutenant. UTHER Have you found him? ULFIUS No-- But he cannot finish. He is taken aback by the sudden appearance of a hideous hag who approaches, rattling a beggar's pan. HAG What a hurry you were in this morning, good sir. You forgot to give this old woman a coin. ULFIUS I saw you half a day's gallop from here. I asked you if you had seen Merlin. I returned here straight away. How did - HAG --I heard. I have come. I am also Merlin. The figure straightens, the filthy rags become a flowing cape, and the hair is swept back by the wind, andÛit is Merlin, laughing. MERLIN I have walked my way since the beginning of time. Sometimes I give, sometimes I take. It is mine to know which, and when. UTHER (exploding) Dumb riddles, Merlin. I am your King. Ulfius edges away. MERLIN I know the storm inside you, and what it has wrought. The alliance I forged is wrecked. The Duke of Cornwall under siege. All this for lust. Selfish lust. Uther grabs Merlin. UTHER For Igrayne. One night with her. Do it. Use the magic. Merlin frowns pensively, his gaze searching strange distances and wandering; then focusing, blazing straight at Uther. MERLIN You will swear by your true kingship to grant me what I wish. Then you shall have it. Uther kneels and draws his sword and holds it up by the blade, a cross. UTHER I swear it. By Excalibur and the holy-- MERLIN --What issues from your lust will be mine. Swear it again. UTHER I swear it. Merlin looks down sorrowfully at the kneeling King. EXT. BATTLEMENTS, TINTAGEL CASTLE - EVENING The Duke of Cornwall watches a force of armored knights riding forth from Uther's war camp, with banners flying. It passes beneath the castle and on toward a distant cliff. DUKE OF CORNWALL (to a lieutenant) It's Uther and all his best knights. He leaves behind little more than fledglings to guard his camp. His eyes are as cold and as pale as ice. EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - TWILIGHT Uther and his knights, and Merlin on a mule, ride to the high promontory and dismount. Here, overlooking the sea, is a circle of ancient stones, carved with strange runes and hieroglyphics, and as the wind moves through them it moans and sighs. The knights watch as Merlin and Uther, leading his horse, walk toward the stones. Merlin strides into the circle, turning to look at Uther, who hesitates. MERLIN Come. Uther starts to make the sign of the cross, but Merlin halts him with a gesture. Uther's hand drops, and he enters the circle with his horse. Merlin and Uther look out across the sea, to Tintagel Castle high upon the cliff. Merlin solemnly raises his arms toward that distant castle, and chants in an ancient language, the sounds of which he marries to the roaring and whining of the wind. The wind becomes stronger, and Merlin's incantations become more intense, and the wind in turn becomes wilder still. Until Merlin is charged with a fierce, nonhuman power, as the wind buffets his slight frame. And then, for all to understand: MERLIN I hold the balance of all things in my summoning. Arise mists. Come fog. EXT. VISTA FROM THE CLIFF - TINTAGLE CASTLE - TWILIGHT From the horizon a front of fog advances toward the castle to envelop it, and continues across the gulf to the circle of stones. EXT. GATE, TINTAGLE CASTLE - TWILIGHT The portal opens and a small force of armored men, led by the Duke of Cornwall, exits. A fog is thickening all around them. EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - TWILIGHT The advancing front envelops Merlin and Uther, eddying around the stones. All else is obliterated. MERLIN Mount your horse. The King does. MERLIN Ride straight to the castle, across the sea of fog. Uther spurs straight for the edge of the cliff, then reins in his horse abruptly. UTHER But the cliff, the sea... Merlin rages, crazed. MERLIN Ride across! Across the bridges of desire. Your lust will hold you up. For I have just woven it into the fabric of the world. This is magic - making solid what is in the mind, and unsolid, that which is already solid. He gives the horse a stinging blow with his staff. The horse and Uther charge forward into a gallop and stepping off where the hidden edge of the cliff would be, hoofbeats ceasing and the horse dropping for the blink of an eye, they gallop across the fog. EXT. MERLIN'S FOG Galloping on no visible terrain, Uther and his horse advance through the restless fog, and as they recede rider and animal become a wavering, changeable form within the cloud. EXT. GATE, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT Horse and rider pull up at the gate. RIDER (calling) Wake up in there. It is I. If it was not for the electric blue hue burning in the eyes of the man entering the castle, the same magic hue that Excalibur left upon the air when wielded, the resemblance to the Duke if Cornwall would be perfect. After a moment the portal opens. INT. INNER GATE, INTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT He passes into an inner court, the portal closing behind. Armed men emerge cautiously. Thinking that it is their Duke they help him dismount. 'DUKE' OF CORNWALL Have the horse ready. I ride out before sunrise. An inner gate opens and the 'Duke' goes through it. EXT. UTHER'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT The real Duke and his men ride through the fogbound camp, cutting the ropes of the tents, stabbing the men trapped beneath the canvas. When a frightened crow flies squawking into the face of the Duke's horse, which rears. He is unhorsed and falls, and impales himself on a tent stake. Dying, the true Lord of Tintagel Castle rises and staggers forward, blood pumping from him. INT. CHAMBER, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT A little girl of four awakens from a nightmare, a small lone figure in her canopied bed. Her eyes are ice, like her father's. MORGANA Papa... Papa... Igrayne is soon at her side, lifting the child from the bed, holding her tight. MORGANA My father is dead... INT. IGRAYNE'S BEDCHAMBER - NIGHT The 'Duke' enters. The room is empty, but the door to Morgana's room is open. INT. MORGANA'S CHAMBER - NIGHT The 'Duke' stands in the doorway. Igrayne herself is surprised. IGRAYNE Look, here is your father. It was just a dream, little one. 'DUKE' OF CORNWALL Come Igrayne. Igrayne kisses Morgana, tucks her in and returns to her own room, closing the door. The child doesn't know whether to believe the truth of the dream or the waking truth. INT. IGRAYNE'S BEDCHAMBER - NIGHT In full armor, the 'Duke' bears down on the naked Igrayne on her marriage bed. She stares at him, wondering. But his eyes are closed, and finally he carries her in his wild passion, her white limbs tangling around the lustre of his armor. EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - NIGHT And Merlin is jolted awake from deep within himself, coming out of a trance. MERLIN It is done. The future has found root in the present. He lifts himself up on his staff. He stands in the midst of the ancient stones, bristling with excitement. Uther's mighty knights are asleep, a deep unnatural sleep, huddled together and surrounded by their horses. And then Merlin swoons, collapsing to the ground. INT. HALL, TINTAGEL CASTLE - DAWN His lieutenants deposit the Duke of Cornwall's bloodless body upon the long table. His eyes are wide open, icy and cunning even in death. The ladies of the castle support and comfort the grief-stricken Igrayne as she approaches the body of her husband. Morgana hangs onto her mother's gown. IGRAYNE When did it happen? Where? LIEUTENANT In the camp of Uther, my lady, just after nightfall. IGRAYNE It can't be. He came to me, to his bed, last night. LADY It was his spirit, yearning for you in his hour of death, that visited you. IGRAYNE His spirit? Pale with grief, Igrayne stares at her dead husband in silence. Then her hand drifts to her stomach. When she talks again, undone and resolved, it is to all and herself: IGRAYNE Tintagel Castle falls to Uther. But what shall become of me, and the child I bear? Morgana shows no distress. She runs her baby hands across her father's face and closes his eyes. The intensity that was frozen in them is now added to her own pale and cunning eyes. EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - DAY Merlin has been propped up against one of the stones. He is in a deep trance and Uther is attempting to shake him awake. UTHER I want her, Merlin. I cannot be without her. Tintagel is mine. Can I take her now? Tell me! Merlin's eyes open but he sees nothing, and only a puzzling squeal issues from him. INT. IGRAYNE'S BEDCHAMBER, TINTAGEL CASTLE- EVENING Morgana watches from a corner. The ladies of the castle surround Igrayne who is giving birth. Noisy crows alight on the windowsill. Only Morgana notices. INT. PASSAGEWAY, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT Uther strides to Igrayne's bedchamber, his warrior knights following. He is dirty and his iron dress is blood-spattered. UTHER (bellowing) Three horses died under me, so hard did I spur them here. Is it born? Is it alive? INT. IGRAYNE'S BEDCHAMBER, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT At his approach and entrance the ladies shrink back, and Morgana edges closer to her mother, and seats herself on the bed beside her. Ingrain holds her newborn baby in her arms, the blood of birth still wet upon it. UTHER Out! The ladies slip past him to the door, and he goes up to Igrayne. UTHER What is it, lady? Terrified of him, Igrayne faces him the best she can. IGRAYNE A boy, sir. Rest yourself. Uther waves away her words but does sit down on the bed, exhausted. He notices Morgana, who stares at him. UTHER Send the girl away. IGRAYNE She is just a child - UTHER Out! Igrayne draws the child to her and kisses her cheek. IGRAYNE (whispering) Go now. Come back later. The child leaves silently, hatred in her eyes. UTHER She watches me with her father's eyes. He grasps the newborn baby with his iron hand, and pulls it to himself. He looks upon it with wonder, with a gentleness that is unexpected. UTHER Igrayne, is he mine, or - He can't bring himself to say his name. She hesitates on the edge of tears, worried for the infant lying in its iron cradle. IGRAYNE The night he died, a man loved me with great fierceness. He looked like my husband, spoke like, smelled like, felt like my own husband. But it was not he, for he was already dead. It wasn't his spirit, for this child, who was conceived that night, is flesh and blood. I know nothing more. Uther draws a dagger. He lifts it. IGRAYNE No-- But he uses it before Igrayne can move. He severs the leather thongs that bind the iron breastplate to his chest. He casts it to the floor. His chest is smooth and milk-white in striking contrast to his creased, weathered face. And beaming, he holds the baby to it. UTHER Through him, I will learn to love them, for I am tired of battle. I will stay by his side and (looking shyly at Igrayne) his mother's... Igrayne's hatred for the man is at the very edge of becoming love. The baby starts to cry. UTHER Here. It's hungry. And his free hand opens her shift, and he holds a swollen breast in his gloved hand, squeezing gently. Milk bubbles from it and he thrusts the baby's mouth onto it. Igrayne weeps and Uther watches proudly as the baby suckles. Merlin advances from the window, his cape the same iridescent green-black as the feathers of the crows that were perched by the window. UTHER Merlin! Out of the sick sleep at last. MERLIN Doing what I did for you, it wasn't easy, you know. It takes it's toll. It took nine moons to get back my strength. Uther avoids looking at him. MERLIN Now you must pay me. UTHER I? MERLIN The child is mine, Uther. I have come for him. Uther is shaken to his roots. Igrayne watches, trying to understand. UTHER The oath. You didn't say-- MERLIN You didn't ask! IGRAYNE Uther, is it true? Don't let him take the child. UTHER I swore an oath, Igrayne. I made a pact with Merlin. Igrayne suddenly understands. She glares at Uther. IGRAYNE It was you? You came to me that night. You are the father. Uther is caught, and turns to Merlin who is harsh and unswaying. MERLIN It's not for you, Uther, hearth and home, wife and child. UTHER To kill and be king, is that all? MERLIN Maybe not even that, Uther. I thought once that you were the one to unite the land under one sword. But it'll take another, a greater king... UTHER You strike me with words as hard as steel. MERLIN They are not weapons, my friend, but truths. You betrayed the Duke, stole his wife and took his castle, now no one trusts you. Lot, Uryens, your allies will turn against you. Give me the child, Uther, I will protect him. Go back to your war tent. Uther wrenches the baby from it's mother's breast and hands him to Merlin. UTHER (in torment) By the oath, take the devil child. Take him! With the bawling baby under his cape, Merlin exits. Igrayne pulls herself out of the bed, weak, her legs giving under her. She starts after Merlin. IGRAYNE WHY?... Why must he have the baby? Uther stops her with his bulk and she claws savagely at his chest to get past him. He weeps as he folds his arms around her. INT. PASSAGEWAY, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT As Merlin walks through the castle, the baby crying in his arms, the knights and ladies step back, afraid to intervene in royal matters. INT. HALL, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT. Merlin comes across the empty banquet hall, cooing to the baby, strangely pacifying him. Morgana steps out of the shadows in his path, and Merlin stops at the sight of the little girl, her pale eyes glaring at him. She speaks haltingly and clearly while far-off Igrayne cries out her distress. MORGANA Merlin, are you now the father, and the mother, of the baby? Staring at her, Merlin shudders and without answering he continues away, faster now, and into an unlit passageway, disappearing from sight a bit sooner than an ordinary mortal would have. EXT. FOREST - DAY The forest is dark and shiny with rain. An unseen battle rages. The first combatant in sight is Uther, who swings the mighty Excalibur, cutting an attacker in half at the waist. Uther and a small force of knights, Ulfius among them, are retreating through the slippery wet forest, completely outnumbered. Lord Lot of Lowthean and Lord Uryens of Gore are the leaders of the attack. URYENS (to his men) The King's sword. I must have it. Ulfius and his men stand their ground so the King may escape the onslaught. They are hacked down. Uther flees alone, severing the limbs of any man and tree that stands in his way. EXT. STONE IN THE FOREST - DAY Uther has gained on his pursuers. He comes to a small clearing where the spine of a buried boulder rises through the forest floor. He stops upon it, breathing hard, dripping blood. He rages aloud, but his throat is raw and cracked and only a whisper comes out. UTHER Merlin, where are you? To weave a mist, to hide us... He hears his pursuers closing in. UTHER No one shall have the sword. No one shall wield Excalibur but me. He holds it by the hilt with both hands, the blade pointing to the ground of stone. He flexes his knees. He lifts up his hands above his head. And with all the strength that rage and pain can muster, and more, he drives the blade of Excalibur into the stone, nearly to the hilt. His mouth widens in an awful silent scream, and then the foam of saliva pink with blood issues from deep within him, so violent was his effort. As the sword cuts into the rock, the earth shudders. EXT. FOREST - DAY The forest quakes. The knights searching for Uther halt in fear. EXT. FIELDS, WOODS - DAY And far away, a caped figure is crossing a field toward a wood, when the earth shakes, stirring animals and birds. The man turns. He is Merlin, the two day-old baby peeking from his cape. Merlin is amazed at the phenomenon, he puts his ear to a rock protruding from the earth. MERLIN Into the spine of the dragon! (and then he is saddened) Uther... I loved you, mighty child. And tears welling, and giggling at the same time, he whisks away into the woods. EXT. STONE IN THE FOREST - DAY Uther staggers away, colliding with trees, staggering, crashing to the ground. Until the only life left in him is the coursing of his blood, flowing from his gaping mouth onto the leaves on the forest floor. The enemy knights advance through the trees. They prod at the fallen leviathan, they roll him over to get at his scabbard. Only then do they see the sword in the stone, and they stop, amazed and afraid. Their captains appear. Uryens sees what they are staring at, and races to the sword and attempts to pull it out. He strains with all his might, but it is immovable. LOT Let me. He shoves Uryens aside, but he can't loosen the sword either, and he rages with frustration. FADE OUT: LEGEND APPEARS: "Fifteen years passed and the land was without a king." FADE IN: EXT. FIELDS - DAY Peasants spill over the crest of a hill. They are fleeing a force of armored knights, their plumed helmets forged in the semblance of predatory animals. The knights thunder past the peasants, trampling the ripening crops. Sir Uryens is their leader, his hard face indifferent to the havoc he leaves in his wake. The peasants watch in mute anger. EXT. FARMYARD - EVENING Sir Lot leading another group of mounted knights comes galloping into a small hamlet, panicked chickens and pigs scattering at their approach. The farmers run for their lives as the steel men dismount, leading their horses to water and hay, and searching for vittles. A knight spots a woman who stands frozen with fear, and he drags her into the barn as her crying child watches. EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - NIGHT - MOONLIGHT A farmhouse is burning nearby, and three mounted figures make their way along a trail at a walking pace - an old knight in leather and mail, a young knight proud in gleaming new armor; and on a farm horse, a squire with baggage and jousting lance. The old knight, Sir Ector, is troubled by what he sees. SIR ECTOR It is a dark hour... everywhere lawlessness and destruction, and no one to lead us out of it. Just then, ten crazed peasants emerge from the darkness, hurling stones and armed with clubs and pronged sticks. They surround the three riders. Sir Ector wheels around and slices the air with his sword to ward off the ambushers. SIR ECTOR Listen all. I am Sir Ector of Morven and these are my sons. You would wrong me, for I have never stolen from others, or destroyed the fruit of the land. The peasants edge closer, working up the nerve to rush the horsemen. The sound of thundering hooves cuts through the clamor. A cavalcade of riders, armor gleaming in the moonlight, advances across the fields at a gallop. Immediately the peasants scatter. The old knight is on the verge of tears. SIR ECTOR The people's anger is just. It is sad that for our own safety, we will have to ride to the tournament with these robber knights. EXT. SITE OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE - SUNRISE Red with the first light of day, Excalibur rests in the stone as King Uther left it. The field is itched with tents, each flying its heraldic banner. Knights and squires are everywhere, preparing horses and armor for the joust. A burly man in religious robes harangues the crowd, vying for attention. BISHOP This is Easter day, when Christ rose again. Who will find strength in victory of arms? Who will draw the sword? The Bishop goes among the tents, through the teeming throng, solemnly casting holy water upon man and horse, armor and banner. The knights kneel at the Bishop's transit, but ceremony does not lift the air of grimness that lies over the event. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND, SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY Their armor ablaze with sunlight, two mounted knights thunder toward each other at full gallop, lowering their long jousting lances. As they meet, the lance of each knight is deflected by the shield of the other. A gasp goes through the crowd, and the two knights charge past each other. They wheel around at the end of the jousting ground and go at each other again from the other direction. Again lances strike, and this time one of the men is hit in the chest and violently unhorsed. The crowd cheers. EXT. THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY The victor, Leondegrance, rides up to the stone and dismounts. Each great knight with his coterie of lesser knights comes to watch. A charge of expectation is in the air, although most knights are glowering with envy. Leondegrance of Camelyarde ascends to the sword, grabs it by the hilt, and begins to tug with all his might. Excalibur is immovable. The moment of tension passes. Leondegrance staggers toward his waiting squires, who lead him away. All the others return to the battle sport. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND - DAY At the edge of the jousting ground Sir Ector's son Sir Kay is getting ready for a bout. His brother Arthur is buckling the new armor while his father fusses about him, making small adjustments when he notices that Kay's scabbard is empty. He turns to Arthur and grab's him by the ear. SIR ECTOR Arthur, where is Kay's sword? A good squire doesn't forget his knight's sword. The fifteen year-old boy blushes. ARTHUR I left it in the tent, sir. SIR ECTOR Well hurry then, and get it. The boy dashes off as Sir Ector shakes his head, not without affection beneath the sternness. EXT. TENTS - DAY Arthur runs in search of their tent. He finds it. INT. TENT - DAY He enters. The saddle trunk has been emptied on the floor, equipment is scattered all over. Arthur is shocked, nonetheless he rummages madly. Finally he stops, on the verge of tears. ARTHUR It's been stolen.... EXT. TENTS - DAY He comes out, utterly defeated, and frantic. He stops by two knights who are arguing angrily; and one of them has left his sword in the grass. Arthur looks at it. He is tempted to steal it, but he can't. Head down, he wanders off. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND - DAY Sir Ector and Sir Kay are waiting. SIR KAY Father, I'll go and see what's keeping him. EXT. THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY Arthur stops at the edge of the dark forest, totally dejected, when he sees the sword in the stone. He walks up to it, his face lighting up, brimming with innocence. He is alone, as everyone has returned to the jousting ground. ARTHUR If only Kay could have it... He smiles, forgetting his troubles, a boy again living in a fairy tale. He grasps the sword by the hilt and it comes away easily from its stone lock. Not expecting it to, he nearly falls. He stares at it, terribly excited and surprised: he tucks it under his arm and rushes back. EXT. TENTS - DAY He bumps into Kay. ARTHUR (breathless) Your sword was stolen, Kay, but here is Excalibur. Is it too late? I hurried-- Kay takes it. He cannot believe what he's holding in his hands. He starts to talk but he is so agitated he can only stutter. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND - DAY Kay, with Arthur in tow, rushes to Sir Ector and shows him the sword; he trembles with excitement. SIR KAY Look, Father. Excalibur. Does that mean that I am to be king? Sir Ector is dumbstruck. SIR ECTOR Did you free the sword, boy? SIR KAY I... did, Father. Ector looks at his son amazed, wanting to believe but not able to. SIR ECTOR We must go to the stone at once. With Excalibur in hand Ector of Morven heads for the stone, Kay following, and Arthur too, the boy flushed with excitement but a little worried, not understanding what is happening. The exchange between Sir Ector and Sir Kay has been overheard. Some have seen the sword in Sir Ector's hand. Rumor spreads like wildfire. EXT. THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY As Sir Ector ascends the stone, from all parts of the jousting ground knights and squires, the Bishop and the clerics, and peasants too, press around. Ector lowers the blade into the tight cleft and Excalibur sinks to its original position. SIR ECTOR Draw it, son! Sir Kay grabs the hilt and pulls without conviction, and the sword doesn't give. Eyes downcast, he lets go. SIR KAY Sir, I didn't draw the sword. Arthur gave it to me. SIR ECTOR Arthur ?! (spinning around to face him) How did you get the sword, child? ARTHUR (frightened) Sir... Kay needed a sword. His was stolen. I saw Excalibur, and... I took it. SIR ECTOR You freed it, son? ARTHUR I did, Father. I beg your forgiveness. He starts to kneel but Ector pulls him up. SIR ECTOR Try the sword, Arthur. Arthur is about to grasp the hilt when Uryens and Lot, and other nobles, Leondegrance of Camelyarde, and Sir Caradoc and Sir Turquine among the younger, stride up. URYENS Stand back, Sir Ector, and take your children. LOT We will try again. Uryens, Lot, Leondegrance, Caradoc, Turquine - each in turn grapples with the sword, only to be defeated by its immobility. The crowd around the stone is thickening with common folk. SIR ECTOR Let the boy try the sword. BISHOP Let the boy try... The demand is echoed by peasants and serfs. The great knights remain silent and bitter in their defeat. Sir Ector pushes Arthur to the sword. SIR ECTOR Go ahead, boy. Don't be afraid. The boy hesitates shyly, and then takes the hilt of Excalibur and pulls out the sword with a great sweep. The throng is stunned. Silence falls. Some kneel, following the example of Sir Ector and Sir Kay, of the Bishop and Leondegrance. The other nobles stay back, confused, afraid, angered. Arthur stands there, little more than a boy, his cheeks flushed, his soft hair ruffled by the wind, his eyes shining with exultation, awe, and fear. Then, as if gaining confidence from the sword itself, he turns it in arcs above his head. BISHOP We have our King, thanks be to God. The commoners and some of the knights react with roaring enthusiasm. The others draw closer to Uryens and Lot and their supporters, closing ranks around them. ARTHUR Please, Father, rise up. I was your son before I became your King... if I am King. Sir Ector rises, tears streaming down his cheeks. SIR ECTOR My Lord, you are King, all the more because you are not my son, and I am not your father. This is quite a shock to the boy king, and to the onlookers. ARTHUR Who is, then? SIR ECTOR I don't know. Merlin brought you to me when you were newly born and charged me to raise you as my own. At first, I did so because I feared Merlin, later because I loved you. Merlin's name is on the lips of all those close by. ARTHUR Who is Merlin? MERLIN Speak of the devil!... From out of the forest strides Merlin, dramatic, cape flowing, eyes crazed as ever, laughing at his own entrance. A crow is perched on his shoulder, and it squawks loudly. Annoyed with it, Merlin swooshes it away. MERLIN I am Merlin. Counselor to kings. Wizard and beggar. Prophet and... (he drops it) I have feasted on thunderbolts, I savored my death before I got myself born. I-- Merlin interrupts himself when his eyes fall on the boy, who is taking in his performance raptly, half awestruck, half amused. ARTHUR Whose son am I? MERLIN You are the son of King Uther, and the fair Igrayne... you are King Arthur. The suspicion and confusion and envy of the lords erupts. LOT Merlin, we haven't forgotten you. This is more of your trickery. URYENS You're trying to foist a boy of dubious birth upon us. You want to shame us? LOT Lord Leondegrance, join us against the boy. Surely you can see he is only Merlin's tool. LEONDEGRANCE No. I, Leondegrance, Lord of Camelyarde, saw the drawing of Uther's sword, and witnessed no trickery. If a boy has been chosen, a boy shall be king. The crowd of serfs and peasants cheer wildly, and their long suppressed anger against the nobles comes to the fore. They dare to press up against them, fists hammering on their shields as the chant Arthur King over and over. Dark and scowling, full of rebellion, all the lords except Leondegrance begin to withdraw their iron men surrounding them. EXT. CHAPEL, JOUSTING GROUND - DAY Bells toll the good news. People stream by to see the new king and join the celebration. EXT. SITE OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY Uryens and Lot, and Caradoc, Turquine, and the other lords have mounted, and are moving out, when from the rear guard a bowman in Lot's service draws upon the unarmored figure of Arthur across the cheering crowd. The bowman lets the arrow fly. It flies over the heads of the crowd, unseen. Except by Merlin at Arthur's side. He extends his arms halfway up, his fists clenched tightly as if drawing urgently on the power within himself. The sound of wings is heard as he flaps his arms. The arrow flies toward Arthur. Arthur sees the arrow coming right at him, when a swooping crow plucks it out of the air. Arthur watches the crow flapping its wings, climbing swiftly, the arrow in its beak, disappearing over the forest. Only he has noticed. When he turns Merlin is no longer at his side; to the puzzlement of all. And Arthur is all of a sudden terribly alone and afraid, as people from all sides clamor for his attention and guidance. EXT. FOREST - DAY Arthur charges through the shadowy forest. He is in armor, but it is only a light tunic of mail. Excalibur is sheathed in a leather scabbard by his side. He is frantic and he calls urgently. ARTHUR ...Merlin... Merlin... His face shines with sweat, the horse is lathered. He dismounts and continues on foot into denser, more tangled undergrowth. ARTHUR Merlin! A huge eye opens in the foreground of what had appeared to be shadow, bark and tufts of weeds is really Merlin's head. MERLIN You called, sir? His voice is thin as he is awakening from a deep, exhausted sleep. Arthur finds him lying within the large gnarled roots of a great tree. The boy kneels before Merlin and lifts his hands and kisses them. ARTHUR You saved me from the arrow... MERLIN (a flicker of mischief) But not from your destiny. ARTHUR I want to thank you. MERLIN That's not why you came. Arthur blurts it out: ARTHUR Merlin, help me. I need your help. I don't know how-- MERLIN (irritated) 'Help me, Help me.' Help me get up. Arthur helps Merlin up and the wizard stands unsteadily. MERLIN I'm tired. Doing magic takes its toll, you know. My arms ache terribly... (he makes flying movements with his arms and grimaces) Once--or is it yet to happen--I stood exposed to the Dragon's breath so that a man could lie one night with a woman. It took me ten moons to recover. I'm sure that story would interest you, since... Well, we'll have to talk about it another time. You're too busy now. The forest groans and creaks, alive with murmurs and shrill calls. MERLIN It is whispered in the forest that... (he cups his ear with exaggeration) ...Leondegrance's castle is under siege by Lot and Uryens. ARTHUR (pressing) Yes, yes, I know that. Everybody does. Lord Leondegrance is my only ally among the barons and the great knights. I can't lose him. MERLIN Well there. You don't need me half as much as you think you do. You already know what must not happen. ARTHUR (exasperated) I must find the means to save him, then. I was hoping I could ask you for a little magic help, but if it makes you so tired... MERLIN Thank you. Silence. Arthur tries again. ARTHUR It's just that I have no experience, and no men to speak of. How can I-- MERLIN (suddenly fierce) Because you must! You and only you. Have you forgotten that it was you who freed Excalibur? Just as suddenly, he is his amused, ironic self again. MERLIN Besides, it will be a good lesson. (giggling) The best, if it's not the last. Arthur bows his head, confused and almost defeated. Merlin steals a look at him, and puts his arm around the boy. MERLIN Maybe you'd like to meet the power that gave you the sword? He enjoys being cryptic. ARTHUR How? Where? MERLIN In the great book. ARTHUR What book is that? MERLIN (melodramatic) The book without pages. Open before you, all around us. You can see it in bits and pieces, for if mortal men were to see it whole and all complete in a single glance, why, it would burn him to cinders. ARTHUR What?! EXT. FOREST AND ELSEWHERE - DAY AND NIGHT MERLIN The dragon! There... A deep cleft at the edge of the forest, where far below lava boils with a phosphorescence that lights up a great cloud, billowing upward. MERLIN Coiled in the unfathomed depths, it emerges... Merlin points to the sky where roiling clouds appear to be unfurling of immeasurable wings. MERLIN ...It unfolds itself in the storm clouds... A terrific wave batters a coastline, spray shooting up, and as the wave recedes it exposes dark rocks and deep crevices. MERLIN ...it washes its mane sparkling white in the blackness of seething whirlpools... Merlin spins Arthur around, and they are transported into a storm swept forest. Lightning strikes. MERLIN ...its claws are the forks of lightning... its scales glisten in the bark of trees... The trees shine with wetness, as a great wind tosses their crowns, the branches groaning against each other. MERLIN ...its voice is heard in the hurricane... Arthur is awestruck. EXT. FOREST - DAY Arthur and Merlin are back in the same spot, having in fact never moved at all, but traveled on the spell of Merlin's words alone. MERLIN ...it is so much more than a scaly monster. It is Everything! Arthur's eyes shine with the brilliance of the vision. ARTHUR And if I am to be King of everything, lord and commoner, beast, leaf and rock, I must use its voice, its claws, its power. EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CASTLE OF CAMELYARDE - NIGHT Leondegrance, Lord of Camelyarde, is shocked by what he sees in the distance. His daughter Guenevere, a beautiful girl of sixteen, draws close to him, terrified. With his surviving knights, Leondegrance is making his last stand. The walls have been breached, parts of the castle are burning. EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT A bellowing dragon advances. Its eyes burn, its scales gleam from light shining from within. It snorts fire from its nostrils. Uryens and Lot, Caradoc and Turquine, the great knights in command of the siege of Leondegrance's castle, back away speechless as the monster descends upon their unprepared war camp. All around them, squires and lesser knights flee in panic and confusion. Only a dozen or so remain with their leaders. The group backs up against the swampy moat that surrounds the castle, waiting with swords drawn. The dragon moves closer, and now it becomes apparent that it is nothing more than a force of knights and footmen. Their shields glinting in the moonlight are the dragon's scales, torches its burning eyes. And the snorting flames from its nostrils are only Merlin doing a fire-eater's trick. The dragon form dissolves, and a banner rises bearing the emblem of the Dragon, and under it, Arthur and Ector and Kay lead a charge of twenty knights. In Arthur's hands, Excalibur leaves an electric glow upon the air. EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - NIGHT GUENEVERE Father, it's the boy King. LEONDEGRANCE It is. I will fight my way to his side. EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT Arthur and his men charge into the enemy ranks. Lot's and Uryens' people are pushed into the moat. Although the water is only waist-deep, the fallen, weighed down by their armor, drown. The horses of the attackers are brought down, Arthur's among them. He pulls out from under it, limping. Bleeding form wounds, cutting, slashing, thrusting, he falls back from the havoc of the charge. A small distance exists now between the foes, a brief respite. Uryens and Lot, exhausted, bleeding, and fierce in their rage: URYENS War-wise fighters, grown gray in battle, checkmated by a boy. LOT It's Merlin's trickery, nothing more. I won't swear faith to that wizard's brat. Arthur and his men have been joined by Leondegrance and his knights, few in number. ARTHUR Let's finish this with a show of force. We have no more tricks and no more advantages. He rushes alone at the enemy, shouting at the top of his lungs, Excalibur flashing over his head, prepared to die. EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - NIGHT Guenevere watches... GUENEVERE No... EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT SIR ECTOR No... Arthur-- The old knight rushes after the boy, sword drawn, to defend his flank, and the others follow, a battle cry issuing from them that is terrifying in its fierceness. EXT. BATTLEMENTS AND BATTLEFIELD BELOW - NIGHT ...and when she can't watch any longer, she buries her face in her hands. EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT Arthur fights like a wounded lion at the center of the savage melee of sword and shield, and once again the two sides fall apart. Uryens and Lot are standing in the moat among the bodies of their men, are reduced to eleven knights, all wounded. Arthur is flanked by twenty men at arms, most of them wounded, and trembling now beyond exhaustion with blood lust. Arthur steps forward alone, and addresses his opponents. ARTHUR You are in my hands, to slay or spare. I need battle lords such as you. Swear faith to me and you shall have mercy. URYENS Noble knights swear faith to a mere squire? Arthur turns, searching for Merlin. He spots him watching from a distance. They stare at each other, Merlin implacable, Arthur's eyes pleading. It's obvious that Merlin isn't going to help. ARTHUR You are right. I'm not yet a knight. (gaining strength) You, Uryens, will knight me. He unsheathes Excalibur and goes forward, kneeling before Uryens and offering him the sword. ARTHUR Then as knight to knight I can offer you mercy. MERLIN (to himself) What's this, what's this?! Arthur, kneeling, bows his head and Uryens steps up to him, his features set. He accepts the sword. Lot watches, a mad hope dancing in his eyes. EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - NIGHT Guenevere watches, frightened for Arthur, not daring to breathe. EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT Uryens stands towering above the boy. He smiles enigmatically. He lifts Excalibur. Merlin is attempting to push through the crowded ranks to get to Arthur. He's frantic and worried for once. MERLIN I never saw this... Uryens swiftly lowers the sword on Arthur's neck; with the flat of the blade he gives Arthur the three strokes. URYENS In the name of God, of Saint Michael and Saint George, I give you the right to bear arms, the power to mete justice. Arthur looks up. ARTHUR That duty I will solemnly obey as knight and King. Uryens is deeply moved. URYENS Rise, my King. I am your humble knight, and I swear allegiance to the courage in your veins, for so strong it is, it's source must be Uther. I doubt you no more. Arthur rises and Uryens kneels and kisses his hands. Sir Ector turns away to hide brimming tears. Merlin pushes through finally, out of breath. Uryens embraces Leondegrance while Lot and the other enemy knights kneel in turn and kiss Arthur's hands. EXT. WOOD BY CAMELYARDE CASTLE - DAY The castle can be glimpsed through the trees. A clear spring bubbles from the ground, and the sun splashes leaf, bird, squirrel, and bee with golden light, and Arthur and Guenevere too. Guenevere is serious and intent on her work. ARTHUR Owww... With water from the spring, she is bathing a large cut on his chest that has been stitched closed. Wounds on his arms, and one on a calf also show evidence of her neat sewing. She's just finishing, and she dabs his chest with a dry cloth. GUENEVERE It didn't hurt too much, did it? ARTHUR Ye... GUENEVERE --I'm pretty good at stitchery. I've sewn my father's wounds more than once. He starts to get up. GUENEVERE Careful! You'll have to stay still for a few days or you'll tear them open. Arthur shivers at the thought. ARTHUR But I have to leave tomorrow. The forests are thick with rebels, invaders plunder our shores... GUENEVERE --And damsels in besieged castles are waiting to be rescued? ARTHUR I didn't know Leondegrance had a daughter. GUENEVERE Well, then, I shall tell you which knights have maiden daughters, so you can avoid their castles. Arthur smiles at her, enjoying her jealousy, and it irritates her a little. GUENEVERE No, I think it's better if you just stay here to heal. At least a week. ARTHUR I'm going. GUENEVERE Quiet, or I'll sew up your mouth too. She touches his lips with hers, her eyelids fluttering shut. He stares at her young beauty, and draws her into a long, slow kiss. A shrill almost human squeal pierces the air not far away. Arthur pulls away startled, half-rising. Guenevere giggles. GUENEVERE Would you rescue me from a fiery dragon, sir? She puts her arms around him, drawing him close again, speaking in a half-whisper. GUENEVERE It's just a furry little rabbit that took the bait and sprung the trap. They smile at each other, about to kiss. As they come closer: GUENEVERE You'll find him served up to you tonight, cooked in a most excellent sauce... INT. BANQUET HALL, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - EVENING The soft beat of psaltery and the liquid flow of lute. A serving platter bearing roast rabbit in rampant position is carried across the hall. It is laid on the long raised table before Arthur, who presides in the middle. He looks at it suspiciously and blushes, remembering the afternoon; and it looks back at him accusingly with its cherry eye. Guenevere is dancing around her father, lovely, gliding, sensual. She sees Arthur and the rabbit and laughs out-right. He twists off a leg of the rabbit and sinks his teeth into it to hide his embarrassment. Guenevere passes to another partner, smiling at him, radiant. Arthur watches her, his heart breaking. He is in love. Merlin leans close. MERLIN A king must marry, after all. ARTHUR ...of course... Only then does he realize that Merlin has understood everything. He is annoyed at being so transparent. ARTHUR I love her. If she would be my queen, my dreams would be answered. MERLIN (mischievous) There are maidens as fair, and fairer than Guenevere. If I put my mind to it, I could see them now, many of them, weeping for love of you, watching the hills for you coming from the high towers of their castles. Offering you their every favor. Rich, clever--but if it is to be Guenevere, so be it. A shadow of doubt crosses Arthur's brow. ARTHUR Who will it be? Put your mind to it, then. MERLIN Guenevere. And a beloved friend who will betray you. ARTHUR (smiling) Guenevere... MERLIN You're not listening. Your heart is not. Love is deaf as well as blind. Guenevere approaches, smiling and coquettish. She slaps her hands, and a servant sets down a tray of pastries before Arthur. GUENEVERE They are only for you, for in them I mixed things that heal, but not too quickly; and things that make limbs sleepy, preventing escape, but keep one's mind sharp. She smiles at Arthur's embarrassment and confusion. ARTHUR What's in them? She takes a cake and bites into it. GUENEVERE It is an ancient mixture, containing only soft, unborn grains, and flavored with roses. The rest is secret. Guenevere offers one to Arthur, and he hesitates, looking at it. MERLIN Looking at the cake is like looking at the future. Until you have savored its bitterness and its sweetness, its texture and its perfume, what do you really know? And then, of course, it will he too late. Arthur bites into the cake, and Guenevere looks deep into his eyes. MERLIN Too late... FADE OUT: A LEGEND APPEARS: "...but for years war kept Arthur from thoughts of marriage." FADE IN: EXT. OAK FOREST - DAY War tents have been pitched beneath the majestic trees. Near the banner of the Dragon a doe grazes. Arthur is older, in battle-scarred plate armor, pacing and angry. He is watched by his wounded and bruised knights--Kay, Uryens, Lot, Leondegrance, Caradoc, and some new young faces among the ranks. No one talks. The harsh clank of its battle trappings announces the arrival of a horse. All eyes watch it walk into the camp. A knight is slouched in the saddle. Arthur runs to meet the horse, followed by squires and some of the knights. He eases the rider to the ground, unlaces his helmet. It is Sir Ector, and his hauberk is badly dented. Tears burn in Arthur's eyes. SIR ECTOR He is the mightiest and fairest of knights. ARTHUR We fought and won battles, and now one man defeats all my knights? I will go. He pushes past the knights and goes to his horse. Kay steps in front of him. SIR KAY A king must not engage in single contest. I'll go again. Arthur rises into the saddle and takes a jousting spear from the rack. ARTHUR Where is Merlin? The squires are silent. Arthur gallops off in the direction Sir Ector came from. His knights are afraid for him. EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - DAY His countenance grim, Arthur gallops along a trail bordering a plowed field when in it a scarecrow moves. It starts to run as stick-wielding farmers pursue it. It is Merlin. Arthur turns off into the field, and at the sight of an armored knight on a war horse, the farmers turn and flee. Merlin stops to catch his breath. ARTHUR (angry) I should have left you to fend for yourself. MERLIN I had to weave a little enchantment on the bees so I could get some honey, and I didn't feel up to using any more magic just yet. Anyway, I was in less danger than you'll be in today. Arthur's hand is clenched tight around Excalibur's hilt. ARTHUR So you were stealing their honey. They should have killed you. MERLIN Come now. So much anger for such a little crime? Are you sure there is nothing else troubling you? ARTHUR You know full well there is, and I go to meet it now. Come witness my revenge. He offers his arm and Merlin hoists himself up behind the King. EXT. GORGE THROUGH THE HILLS - DAY A waterfall cascades into a pool. The spray casts a rainbow. Beneath it is a colorful confusion of flowers and budding trees, a place dreamlike in its beauty. Arthur, with Merlin behind, gallops along the edge of the pool. The trail widens into a field of grass. Arthur reins beside a pile of broken lances and twisted shields. Across the field, pitched upon the trail is a war tent made of diaphanous white silk, a sky blue banner above it. Merlin slides off and Arthur continues. From the tent, a knight with jousting lance rides forward to meet him. His armor is so shiny it is a mirror. His eyes, seen through the open visor, seem to laugh. His speech is foreign, from across the sea. He is Lancelot of the Lake. LANCELOT Good day to you, sir. ARTHUR Move aside. This is the King's road, and the knights you joined arms against were his very own. LANCELOT I await the King himself. His knights are in need of training. ARTHUR I am King, and this is Excalibur, sword of kings from the dawn of time. Who are you, and why do you block the way? LANCELOT I am Sir Lancelot of the Lake, from across the sea. I am the best knight in the whole of Christiandom, and I look for the king who is worthy of my sword's service. ARTHUR --That is a wild boast. You lack a knight's humility. LANCELOT Not a boast, sir, but a curse. (a cloud passes over his innocent face) Never have I met my match in joust or duel. ARTHUR Move aside! LANCELOT I will not. You must retreat or prove your kingship in the test of arms, under the eyes of God. He crosses himself. ARTHUR Then may He give me the strength to unhorse you and send you with one blow back across the sea. Arthur wheels away, trembling with anger, and gallops to his edge of the field. He sees that Lancelot has already positioned himself and is waiting, lance down. Merlin watches, a spectator, as the two charge at each other. They collide with great force, their spears shattering. Arthur is jolted but stays in the saddle. Lancelot's jousting is impeccable. Arthur draws Excalibur. LANCELOT Hold! I offer you another lance. Pages come forward with new lances for Arthur and Lancelot. LANCELOT You joust well, sir. Battle learnt, but tournament fancy. You should ride more forward in the saddle, though. Arthur grabs the spear from the page's hands, and circles back to work the horse up into an all-out gallop. Lancelot spurs forward to meet him. Arthur is neatly unhorsed. He picks himself up from the ground in a rage, drawing Excalibur. Lancelot on his horse weaves circles around him. LANCELOT Yield. I have the advantage. ARTHUR I will not. Arthur charges Lancelot, a raging bull, but cuts and slashes only at the air as Lancelot stays clear of him. ARTHUR Fight me from your horse or on foot, but fight me. Your avoidance mocks me. LANCELOT I sought only not to harm you, sir. He dismounts and draws his sword, and they clash. Shield and sword and armor against shield and sword and armor. The swordplay is furious, Arthur attacking, slashing, hacking, Lancelot parrying effortlessly, elegantly defensive. Arthur breaks the onslaught to catch his breath. Lancelot lifts his visor. His eyes are calm, laughing. LANCELOT Sir, your rage has unbalanced you. It seems you would fight to the death against a knight who is not your enemy, for a length of road you can ride around. ARTHUR So be it, to the death. LANCELOT It is you, sir, who knows not the virtue of humility, as a true king must. Arthur goes forward attacking with terrible blows upon Lancelot's shield, and Lancelot holds his ground, shield high. And in its mirror-like metal Arthur can see his own reflection, a face distorted by uncontrolled passion. Arthur discards his own shield, grabs Excalibur with both hands, and with a frightening shout that speaks of all his rage, he swings a terrific blow upon the shield, cutting through his own reflection and the metal. And Excalibur snaps in two. A blinding blue-green light explodes from the broken sword. Lancelot, knocked back by the force of the blow, is stunned by the blast and falls to the ground unconscious. Arthur backs away, horrified, half of Excalibur in his hand. ARTHUR What horror is this? (calling) Merlin! Merlin approaches, pale, gripped by dread. MERLIN The sword is broken. Hope is broken... Arthur picks up the broken blade, utterly undone. ARTHUR My pride broke it, my rage broke it... Humiliation and defeat lie in ambush even for a king. (looking at Lancelot) This excellent knight who fought with fairness and grace was meant to win. With Excalibur, I tried to change that verdict. Merlin stands there, drawn, defeated, his hopes dead. ARTHUR I have lost for all time the ancient sword of my fathers whose power was meant to unite all men, to serve the vanity of a single man. Despairing, he flings the two parts of Excalibur into the pool. He kneels at the waters edge, and he cries. ARTHUR I am nothing. Then Arthur sees something that startles him. Beneath the surface, suspended in the blue-green water amid the dancing weeds, he sees Excalibur, intact. It is held by a maiden in flowing gown the color of water, her long hair rippling across her face, obscuring it. ARTHUR Excalibur! Is it true? MERLIN The Lady of the Lake. Take it. Take it, quickly! Arthur dips his hand under the water and grasps the hilt and the moment he does the vision in the blue-green water fades. He rises with Excalibur in hand, and Merlin speaks before Arthur can ask the question. MERLIN There are infinite worlds within the infinite coils of the Dragon. In one of them, which I have not traveled, the sword was forged. I only know that the King is returned to us through the instrument of his power. The game continues! And he laughs. Just then Lancelot stirs. Arthur rushes to his side. He loosens his helmet and removes it, uncovering damp curls. The young knight's eyes open, and his laughing charm once more animates his face. ARTHUR Thanks to God, you are alive. LANCELOT (sitting up) I, the best knight in the world, bested! This is a great day, for my search is over. I love you, my King. He embraces Arthur, who is overwhelmed by his childlike directness. The King helps him to his feet. ARTHUR You are still the best knight in Christiandom. You gained a hundred advantages over me. It is I who must love you, for through your courage and patience you taught me a bitter lesson. LANCELOT Then make me your champion and I will always fight in your place. ARTHUR But your life and lands are far from here. LANCELOT I gave up my castles and my lands! He thumps his breastplate. LANCELOT My domain is here, inside this metal skin. And I would pledge to you all that I still own: muscle, bone, blood and the heart that pumps it. ARTHUR And a great heart it is. Sir Lancelot, you will be my champion. Lancelot draws his sword, holding it by the blade, a crucifix. LANCELOT In the name of Jesus Christ and His holy blood, I swear eternal faith to Arthur, King. They embrace, and Merlin watches. EXT. ARTHUR'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT Converging from different directions parties of mounted knights enter the war camp. Lancelot among them. They dismount, battle-weary and burning with the excitement of victory. They quench their huge thirst from buckets carried by squires. They rip off hunks of meat from carcasses sizzling on spits over a roaring fire. And they join the throng of knights, where stories of deeds of arms of the day are enthusiastically exchanged. A great number of knights are packed tightly around King Arthur, each man anxious to tell of his victories. One of them has the King's attention. KNIGHT ...We killed every one of them. Burnt their ship... Arthur sees Lancelot in the throng and moves toward him. Merlin follows Arthur and is pushed and knocked around in the crush of spikes and iron. The only unarmored man in the crowd, he glares at the excited knights irritably. ARTHUR Lancelot, how did you fare in the North? LANCELOT We spared the lives of a few, so they could sail home and tell their fellows what fate they met at the hands of King Arthur's knights... Arthur turns toward Uryens. ARTHUR And you, Uryens? URYENS Victory! ARTHUR Lot, and you? LOT We drove the invaders into the sea. ARTHUR You, Gawain, the East? GAWAIN The East is ours again. Cheers greet each declaration. ARTHUR The war is over. One land, one King. Peace. Amidst the celebration, a fracas is heard. A knight pushing forward to talk to Arthur has entered a shoving match with those in front of him. KNIGHT Let me through. I fought the King's battle too. He must know my story. Merlin is brutally jostled. He draws a fistful of powder from his cape and he tosses it into the air above him. He raises his staff into the cloud, cracking it like a whip. The tip of the staff catches fire, and the fire spreads through the powder in the air, stunning all into silence. Merlin shouts and snarls. MERLIN Chaos... confusion... brutes... savages... troglodytes... Stand back... make space. Merlin swings his burning staff into a wide arc. The knights back away, amused at first, then a bit afraid. MERLIN The moon... the sun... the stars... they spin... they turn... they circle... around us... us... The knights have fallen back. Merlin stalks past each man, and Arthur too, holding the flaming tip of his staff before each pair of eyes, and staring into them with his gimlet gaze. MERLIN You, and you, and you, take up your place. Be wedded to the world. Respect its perfection. All of you, together, be one. The knights have formed a circle. They realize this. Awestruck, they whisper in astonishment, looking up at the sky burning with stars. Merlin brims with pride as he waits for Arthur to recognize his handiwork. ARTHUR Your ancient wisdom and infinite sight have forged this circle, Merlin. Hereafter we shall come together in a circle, to tell and hear of deeds good and brave. I will build a table where this fellowship shall meet. And a hall around the table. And a castle about the hall. A cheer rises. Arthur strides into the ring of knights. ARTHUR And I will marry. Another bout of cheers goes up, and Arthur stops before Leondegrance, resting his hand on the old knight's shoulder. ARTHUR And the land will have an heir to wield Excalibur. Leondegrance's eyes fill with tears of joy. A roar of cheers. Arthur draws the sword of power. ARTHUR Knights of the Round Table, good friends, brothers in arms. I send you on a quest harder by far than the battles we have fought together, a quest to uphold always, and everywhere, justice, honor, and truth. Each day shall bring forth a cause, and may each cause bring forth a knight. Lancelot is drawn in by the King's enthusiasm. He unsheathes his sword and swoops it low in salute. LANCELOT I swear never to rest twice on the same pillow till all men live at peace. In quick succession all knights draw their swords, following Lancelot's example. Merlin struggles to put out the flame on his staff. He finally does it by smothering it with earth. When he looks up again, he sees the knights galloping off in all directions. INT. FARMHOUSE - DAY Terrified women, a screaming child, cowering men, old or made old by the hard labor of the fields. Armored men are ransacking a farm, looking for grain, and gold which they find among the votive objects of a little house altar. A woman is dragged away to be raped. Through a window, a knight in shining armor is seen emerging from the adjoining woods. The plunderers are all of a sudden apprehensive, and fall silent. One of them grabs the crying child and covers her mouth with his iron hand. EXT. FARMYARD - DAY The knight is Lancelot, in his mirror-like armor. He rides into the cluster of houses and barns that make up the farm. There are other armored men there, around a cart half-loaded with loot. They smile nervously at Lancelot. The farmers are blank with fear. Lancelot stops in the middle of the yard. A knight among the armored men comes forward. KNIGHT Good day, sir. LANCELOT Good day to you. And he also acknowledges with a nod the ashen-faced patriarch of the community. Lancelot spurs his horse on, and the knight sighs with relief. But then he reins his horse to a stop. He has sensed something. He turns his head, his hooded eyes on the knight and his men, and they squirm inwardly. INT. FARMHOUSE - DAY The child, her mouth covered by the armored hand. EXT. FARMYARD - DAY Lancelot, listening, watching. INT. BARN - DAY The woman, a blade flashing next to her eye. EXT. FARMYARD - DAY Lancelot, immobile. Behind him, the knight, his face shiny with sweat. His minions inch forward, hands moving slowly toward sword hilts. Lancelot wheels his horse around. LANCELOT I hear the stifled cry for help, I smell the reek of fear... With a shout the knight and his men draw their swords and rush Lancelot. He reins in his horse, causing it to rear and break their attack. He slides off, falling on his feet with sword drawn, already fighting. In an extraordinary show of sword play he cuts down six men. INT. FARMHOUSE - DAY Hearing Lancelot storm in, the man holding the child hands her to a woman and kneels before the altar, just as Lancelot bursts into the room, sword high and already swooping down on the man's neck. Lancelot brings the sword to a halt mid- air, his fury held in check. The repent man is spared. The woman kneels to kiss Lancelot's hand. EXT. SITE OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY The field is pitched with war tents and pavilions decked for holiday. Nobles and knights flank the King and Guenevere, a beautiful vision in white samite, a wreath of flowers around her head. Lancelot leads a long file of prisoners to the King. They fall to their knees, begging forgiveness; among them is the man whom Lancelot had spared before the altar. LANCELOT These men repented before God for their evil deeds. Those who would not, met their fate at the end of my sword. (he kneels) Accept the fruit of my first quest as my wedding gift. ARTHUR I do. Rise, Lancelot, come with me. He rises and follows Arthur and Guenevere into the central pavilion. Pages draw its curtains closed as they pass inside. INT. PAVILION - DAY Guenevere is surrounded by a group of ladies and maids who fuss over her dress and her hair. They eye the great knight and whisper about him, Guenevere laughing with them. Arthur sits, excited and happy. ARTHUR Sit beside me, Lancelot. Lancelot sits, stiff and upright. ARTHUR Your deeds set an example for all other knights. For your gift, ask a gift of me. LANCELOT Only give me leave to ride out again, to do what I am most able to do, and happiest doing. Guenevere overhears. She approaches and Lancelot jumps to his feet. GUENEVERE (to Arthur) He must stay for the feasting days of our wedding, and tell his deeds himself. ARTHUR (to Lancelot, smiling) I grant you your wish if you grant Lady Guenevere hers. LANCELOT I will stay Madame. Merlin leans close to Arthur. MERLIN The knights of Galys approach the camp. It would be politic... ARTHUR ...to ride out and meet them. He rises. Lancelot, who was about to sit again, straightens. ARTHUR I will ride with Sir Kay. Lancelot, rest here. GUENEVERE Don't start a war on my wedding day! ARTHUR Without Lancelot?! Arthur and Merlin exit, leaving Guenevere and Lancelot. She looks at him, lively and amused, and he can't help smiling. GUENEVERE Look Lancelot. The maids and ladies whisper about you. They all dream of winning you, young and old, fair and ugly. Lancelot blushes. GUENEVERE But surely that's no secret to you, dear Lancelot. You're the bravest and strongest knight they've ever seen, and beauty has kissed your brow. He can't look at her. GUENEVERE The well-kept secret is whether any of them has won your heart. LANCELOT No. GUENEVERE Why? LANCELOT I am a fighting man and I am married to the quest. That is enough. GUENEVERE And there is no maiden in the whole world who inspires you? LANCELOT There is one. GUENEVERE Who?! LANCELOT You. GUENEVERE Me? LANCELOT Yes. I would swear my love to you. GUENEVERE To me? But why? LANCELOT I cannot love as a woman the lady who will be wife to my King and my friend. And, in pledging my love to you, I cannot love any other woman. Guenevere smiles, moved by his blunt innocence. LANCELOT I will see you in all women, and I will defend them as I would defend you. He kneels, kisses her thigh, rises and leaves. INT. CHAPEL - DAY A chorus of children sings. The Bishop waits at the altar with his friars and altar boys. Cornucopias overflowing with vegetables and wildflowers adorn the church, which glows with the light of a thousand candles. Sir Kay is satisfied. He comes back up the petal-strewn aisle. EXT. CHAPEL, SITE OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE - DAY Arthur and Guenevere are ushered in by Kay. They are flanked by Leondegrance and Sir Ector. Lancelot and Merlin follow, leading the cortege of knights and ladies. Merlin is incapable of entering the chapel, as if at the threshold there is an unseen force that repels him. LANCELOT Lord Merlin, are you ill? MERLIN No, no, I need air. Strangling a laugh he wrenches himself away. Just then Uryens and a small party of knights rides up through the tents and dismounts in front of the church. Uryens helps a lady off her horse and joins the cortege on foot. URYENS Merlin, don't you join the celebration? Merlin, who was slinking away through the throng of bystanders, looks up. What he sees sends a chill through his body. At Uryens' side stands a young woman of sinister beauty, with bewitching eyes of ice. Merlin just stares at her, and she smiles back at him faintly. URYENS My wife, Merlin. Lady Morgana of Cornwall. MORGANA I remember you, Merlin. I was a child. You took my brother away. Merlin laughs. Uryens shrugs and continues into the chapel with Morgana. As she enters she glances back, and just then Merlin steals a look, their eyes meet. INT. CHAPEL - DAY Uryens and Morgana take their places near the altar. Arthur and Guenevere kneel before the Bishop, and Arthur takes her hand. The clatter of armor mingles with the enthusiastic, happy singing of the children, and seems to strengthen their song. EXT. SITE OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE - EVENING The chorus carries across the field to the dark wall of trees from which issues another chorus, of hoots and squawks and howls. Merlin advances along the edge of the forest. He stops by the stone that once held the sword, his eyes wild. He forgets his inner torment when he sees a plant at the base of the stone. He kneels beside it and plucks it. He admires its strange flowers; he smells them. Two feet appear at his side. He rises to be face to face with Morgana. They look deep into each other. Then Merlin breaks the silence. MERLIN You left your husband's side? You left your brother's wedding? MORGANA Is that Mandrake, Lord Merlin? MERLIN It is. MORGANA Can it truly be used for magic? Merlin smiles at last, and Morgana does, her eyes piercing, cruel and lovely. MERLIN Yes... sometimes... His gaze drifts toward the chapel. MERLIN ...There are many powers in this world. INT. CHAPEL - EVENING Arthur and Guenevere are radiant with joy, and Lancelot behind them mirrors the ceremony of their joining in his armor; and the sweet voices of the children fill the chapel as the Bishop pours the wine into the chalice, and lifts it up before him, blessing it. He turns to the royal couple. BISHOP Drink this the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. The chalice seems to burn with a mystical light; and as the chorus soars: FADE OUT: A LEGEND APPEARS: "And Arthur built his castle, Camelot. And one day, in the far reaches of the Kingdom..." FADE IN: EXT. FOREST, STREAM - DAY It is shadowy and dark; ancient trees creak, unseen animals cry out. A rabbit hops into view and a boy leaps forward, grabbing the animal by the ears before it can move. He-- Perceval--is a wild boy of seventeen, dressed in skins with an endearing and childlike smile. PERCEVAL (to the rabbit) Sorry. Hungry. A din is heard to the forest, and it grows. Perceval glances around, panicked. The sound is the rubbing of leather upon leather, of metal on metal, for now a mounted figure in armor hovers over the terrified boy. PERCEVAL (stuttering) Have I taken too much? He lets the rabbit go free. The threatening figure dismounts. And Perceval, cartwheels backward, landing in the stream and scooping a fish out. PERCEVAL (desperately trying to ingratiate) I had rabbit yesterday. Today I'll eat fish... No? He returns the fish to the water. The figure steps into a pool of sunlight and a glorious halo streaks from the armor. It is Lancelot. LANCELOT Don't be afraid. Perceval is overcome with astonishment, and he kneels. PERCEVAL You're an angel! Not a devil... Lancelot laughs and pulls the boy to his feet. LANCELOT Just a man. A knight in the King's service. PERCEVAL You're a man?! (he reaches out to touch Lancelot) ...with metal skin! Perceval is beside himself with enthusiasm. PERCEVAL Can I grow metal skin? Lancelot rolls his eyes, amused. LANCELOT You've got a lot to learn. EXT. SPARSE FOREST - DAY Lancelot is cantering and Perceval is running alongside, shouting in gasps. PERCEVAL I'll learn... take me... to the King... What's a... King? Lancelot shakes his head and spurs the horse into a gallop. Perceval lengthens his stride, and keeps up! Lancelot reins to a halt. LANCELOT Very well. Climb up. PERCEVAL I will run. LANCELOT Listen, boy, it's more than twenty days from here. PERCEVAL Twenty days!? The world is that big? EXT. OUTSIDE CAMELOT, FOREST - DAY Perceval cannot believe his eyes. As Lancelot and Kay talk about him out of earshot, he sees things that he's never seen before; and he gapes like the country bumpkin that he is. Dragon-like kites sweep low, maneuvered by children. In a meadow among the trees, knights hone their skills with lance and sword, and ladies watch and their "bright eyes rain influence and judge the prize." And then, there is Camelot itself; the great gate and the drawbridge; the massive walls, and the soaring towers and spires above. Perceval rushes up to Lancelot and Kay. PERCEVAL Who will give me my sword? Kay is not at all pleased; nonetheless he takes the boy by the ear and leads him across the drawbridge and into the castle. KAY Kitchen knives and greasy spits will be your weapons, boy. Lancelot smiles to himself, hesitation, lingering before the great gate of Camelot. There is a walkway suspended in the trees above, that also leads to the castle, and promenading on it is a group of women, Guenevere and her ladies-in-waiting. The Queen sees Lancelot and hastens toward him. Lancelot sees her, and mounts his horse and heads back into the forest. She stops, somewhat ahead of the ladies, and watches wistfully. Lancelot turns back and seeing her one last time, draws down his visor and spurs his horse into a canter. He passes two commoners who are heading for the castle, one fat and the other thin, and they are locked in hot dispute. Their wives keep them from coming to blows and their children spur them on, enjoying the excitement. Lancelot is swallowed by the forest. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE, CAMELOT - DAY Guenevere, bearing a bowl of perfect, deep red apples, approaches the Round Table, where Arthur sits and Merlin at his side, attending to the affairs of the kingdom. Quite a few of the knights occupy their seats, talking with each other, drinking and laughing, attended by ladies and pages. Guenevere places the apples at Lancelot's empty place and takes her seat next to Arthur. In the archways that lead into the hall, petitioners wait, eating, drinking, talking among themselves. In the din, no one pays attention to the vehement arguing of the fat man and the thin man, which continues even here. The hall is the burgeoning, happy center of the kingdom. But Merlin is oblivious to the lively clamor. He gazes like a lovesick puppy across the table at Morgana, who bends over whispering to a knight at the table, the young Sir Gahalt,, while his older brother Sir Gawain listens. Morgana notices Merlin's stare and smiles at him, and then resumes her flirtation with Sir Gahalt, much to Merlin's annoyance. Sir Kay ushers the thin man and the fat man into the open space at the center of the table for their audience with the king. They quarrel even as Kay tries to present them, and the attention of the hall gradually focuses on them. The two men talk at once, interrupting, overlapping. FAT MAN I brew ale, sir--from old shoes--I am an honest tradesman sir. I must sell what I produce. He won't buy ale and he won't pay. Pay up! He leans over the barrel and sucks in the vapors. The vapors are mine. THIN MAN How would you know I, sir, have the misfortune to live next to this criminal... What loss in that? Not to me! Pay for what? Why?! They are floating on the wind. Arthur is both amused and exasperated. ARTHUR Enough!... What is a fair price for the smell of your ale? FAT MAN That's why we have come to you, sir There's no one else who can tell us. ARTHUR What does it cost to get drunk on your ale? FAT MAN At least three shillings, sir. Arthur addresses the Thin Man. ARTHUR Give me three shillings. The Thin Man is crestfallen, the smile gone from his face. He reluctantly hands the coins to Kay, who gives them to Arthur. Arthur tosses them in the air and lets them fall on a metal plate. He hands them back to the Thin Man, who is totally confused now, as is everybody else. ARTHUR For the smell of your ale, the jingle of his coins. The knights roar with laughter and the Fat Man and the Thin Man look at each other in astonishment. Perceval lets out a raucous laugh that wins him a glance of disapproval from Kay. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE - NIGHT The din of the petitioners is replaced by music. It is the hour of the evening feast, and all knights are present, except Lancelot. Whole tree trunks burn in the great fireplace, and lambs roast on spits in the flames. Pages run to and fro with trays of food and wine, Perceval among them. Morgana stops beside Merlin. MORGANA What did I see today in the wizard's eyes? Censure, because I enjoy a few words with a young handsome knight? Merlin is in agony, a bug stuck on a pin. MERLIN No, no, of course not. You are young... MERLIN I'm not jealous! MORGANA It's clear you are, and it irks me. MERLIN No. Yes, I am. I am jealous. I want to write poems about you with moonbeams, make the sea sing your name... MORGANA A lovestruck page! MERLIN Shh... yes, yes. Sit with me, please... Morgana. She does, laughing and in complete control. His hand immediately slides onto her thigh. She removes it, but holds it in her hand, toying with his fingers. MORGANA A steamy, panting, lovestruck page. But what good are songs and poems to me? They are the barter of ordinary love. A gift that reflected your greatness is the only one worthy of your love. Merlin looks at her, knowing already, sad yet eager. MERLIN I showed you all my conjuring tricks... MORGANA The deepest secrets, the forbidden formulas... MERLIN Maybe... maybe... Merlin's thoughts have carried him far away, when he realizes that Arthur is addressing him. ARTHUR Merlin, are you counselor to the King, or to my sister? Some knights laugh. MERLIN At your service, sir. ARTHUR Then answer me this. For years peace has reigned in the land. Crops grow in abundance, there is no want. Every one of my subjects enjoys his portion of happiness and justice, even those whose tiresome misunderstandings we must resolve here each day. Tell me, Merlin: have we defeated evil, as it seems? MERLIN Good and evil; there is never one without the other. Arthur is taken aback. ARTHUR Where hides evil, then, in my kingdom? MERLIN Never where you expect it, that's all I know. He chuckles softly and Arthur is puzzled. A knight speaks out, the young knight with whom Morgana was flirting. His manner is sarcastic. SIR GAHALT If we have peace and justice, why is Lancelot never with us? Why is he always riding out on his quests? He must know where this evil is. SIR GAWAIN Could there be evil within Lancelot himself? To live above human folly, as is his aim, is to be overly proud. SIR GAHALT He pays no heed even to the Queens longing for his company. The hall falls silent, all eyes upon the Queen. GUENEVERE (lashing out) What is it you would have your words mean, Sir Gahalt? Frightened, Gahalt doesn't answer. Morgana has slipped to Guenevere's side. MORGANA Don't listen to him. You are the Queen. Arthur, ashen-faced, turns to Merlin for help, but he has escaped into sleep... ARTHUR Sir Gahalt, answer the Queen. GUENEVERE No. I meant not to be angry with you, Sir Gahalt. In the idleness that comes with peace gossip has bread its own evil. You merely repeat it. Please, sir, have one of those apples that Lancelot loves, and in that gesture partake of its goodness. Morgana picks the bowl up and as she does so, unseen by any and with a magician's dexterity, she thrusts her fingernails deep into the top apple. She gives the bowl to Guenevere, who takes it and sweeps around to where Sir Gahalt sits, followed by Morgana. The young knight jumps to his feet. GUENEVERE Take one, Sir Gahalt. SIR GAHALT I am most honored, my lady. He is too shy to take the shiniest, most beautiful apple on top, and goes for another one. Morgana giggles, and he looks at her. She looks at the apple on top and then smiles encouragingly at him. Sir Gahalt takes it and starts eating as the Queen returns to her seat. With the third bite his is unable to breathe. His face goes red and he rises to his feet, attempting to call out. He falls, dying immediately. All leap to their feet, and Arthur rushes to the young knight. Merlin is asleep and far from human affairs. Arthur and Sir Gawain rise from the body of the young knight. Sir Gawain backs away from Arthur and points at Guenevere, trembling with cold rage. SIR GAWAIN Hear me, Lord Arthur, and knights and chieftains: I charge Guenevere with the murder of my brother. Guenevere, white and with a broken voice, turns to Arthur. GUENEVERE I didn't... I am innocent. She begins to swoon and Morgana keeps her steady on her feet. Arthur slumps into his seat and Sir Gawain kneels before him. SIR GAWAIN I champion this truth: That Queen Guenevere murdered Sir Gahalt with the aid of sorcery. Enraged, Arthur reaches for Excalibur. But with effort he checks his impulse. ARTHUR The Queen will be in my charge till a champion steps forward to fight on her behalf. GUENEVERE Not you, my husband? Arthur cannot look at her. SIR GAWAIN She must be burnt at the stake. That is the sentence for murder done with magic. ARTHUR It is. Lords and knights of the Round Table, as her husband I say that this deed was not done by Guenevere. Who among you will champion this truth? No one responds. Guenevere falls into her seat. Arthur searches the eyes of his knights and they evade him. ARTHUR Sir Caradoc! You! The knight looks up. CARADOC I am torn. Sir Ector, old and feeble, weeps for Arthur. Someone speaks up. It is Perceval, who kneels before the Queen. His voice is unnaturally loud, and his eyes shine with held-back tears; he stutters. PERCEVAL I will champion you, my lady. He is overwhelmed by his own boldness. He looks around. All eyes are upon him. Guenevere smiles at him, sadly. GUENEVERE I thank you, but you are not yet a knight. PERCEVAL I will find Lancelot! He will come! Perceval hurries from the hall. Arthur looks away, ashamed, and his eyes fall on Merlin, twitching and mumbling in his sleep. MERLIN Boys!... boys will be boys... EXT. HOVEL - COUNTRYSIDE - DAY In full armor but for his helmet, Lancelot is seated at a small table in the shadow of a tree, eating an apple. A young girl is turning a chicken on a spit, and her mother is removing freshly-baked bread from an oven. It is very peaceful and silent until, galloping all out, Perceval arrives. Frantic, out of breath, he leaps from his lathered horse. PERCEVAL I have found you. The Queen. An apple. Tomorrow. Sir Gawain... LANCELOT --It must wait, child. These good ladies, for whom I intervened once, will honor me with a meal. I am beholden to them now as I was when they begged my protection. The two women set the chicken and the bread before the great knight, and stand back to watch him eat, flushed with excitement. Perceval falls silent, in awe of Lancelot. INT. BEDCHAMBER, CAMELOT - NIGHT Arthur stands hunched over the fireplace, staring into the flames. Guenevere paces back and forth to a window. GUENEVERE Why can't you be my champion? ARTHUR If I am your judge, I cannot be your champion. When I act as your King, I cannot be your husband. GUENEVERE And you cannot love me... ARTHUR The laws, my laws, must bind everyone, high and low, or they are not laws at all. Lancelot will come... GUENEVERE And if he cannot be found, no other knight will champion me, though you beseeched each and every one of them. Why be king if there is no one you can call loyal subject but an eager boy? He hides his anguish from her. Numb with hurt, she goes to a tall curtained window, and draws it open, and stands there looking out upon the surrounding forest, silent and still beneath the moon. EXT. WINDOW - NIGHT She cries softly, and she whispers the name of the great knight. EXT. EDGE OF THE FOREST, WALLS OF CAMELOT - NIGHT. A mounted knight stands motionless at the edge of the forest, his armor gleaming with dark lustre. It is Lancelot. His eyes are raised to the high window, where he sees Guenevere. He watches her in silence. In the high window Guenevere draws the curtain and Lancelot reins back into the forest. EXT. FOREST - NIGHT Lancelot has unsaddled and tethered his horse in a small clearing. He sits, resting back against a tree. He removes his helmet; he plants his sword before him, like a cross. He loosens the ties of his breastplate. He waits for day, yawning, tired. But his eyes burn, and he closes them and nods off to sleep. A knight appears silently hovering over him. Lancelot looks up, and his eyes go wide with fear. The knight towering above him wears armor identical to his, and he raises his sword, and the blade is descending upon Lancelot. Lancelot draws his sword from the ground and rolls away, but the knight's sword slices through his shoulder joint. Lancelot attempts to rise but already the knight, Lancelot's mirror image, is upon him. From the ground, Lancelot parries the blow and slashes at the opponent's knee, cutting through the joint in the armor and severing the leg. The knight doesn't fall, doesn't bleed, doesn't cry out. On one leg he comes forward, a horror. Lancelot is paralyzed by fear. As the knight leaps upon Lancelot, Lancelot rises to meet him, impaling himself on the knight's sword below the hauberk. He throws the knight to the ground, and comes down upon him. He rips off the helmet and the breastplate. The armor is empty and Lancelot rolls over on his back, awakening from the nightmare with his own sword deep in his stomach, and in his hand his own helmet and breastplate, while other parts of his armor lie strewn around him. Only then does he become conscious of the terrible pain and the shock of the truth. He grabs the hilt of his sword and draws it from his stomach. He curls up in agony, clutching a fistful of leaves to the wound. LANCELOT Guenevere, I fight against myself... He loses consciousness. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND OUTSIDE CAMELOT - DAWN The Bishop blesses the field. Guenevere, numb and disbelieving, is being led to the stake, which rises from a bed of straw and wood. Arthur watches, in shock. Other knights and ladies keep their distance, watching darkly, stealing glances at Arthur, mumbling disapproval of his refusing to defend Guenevere. In battle dress, Sir Gawain rides up and down the jousting run on a snorting and powerful horse, practicing. Perceval, in a mail doublet, waits beside a mangy roan, his face burning with anxiety. Guenevere is tied to the stake. All eyes watch for the approach of her champion. Arthur goes to Perceval. ARTHUR Is he coming? PERCEVAL He heard Lady Guenevere's request and he said nothing. That is all. Arthur hides his pain behind a rigid mask. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND - DAY The sun has risen shining cruelly into Guenevere's eyes; the queen is alone at the stake. Sir Gawain rides up to King Arthur, who waits alone, separated from the others. SIR GAWAIN My Lord, the sun is upon the field. The Queen has no champion. I demand justice, as is my right. ARTHUR So it is. Perceval leaps onto his horse. PERCEVAL Let me champion the Queen! Sir Gawain looks at the squire with contempt. SIR GAWAIN (to Arthur) Since no knight comes forward, I demand justice-- Arthur is in anguish. He searches the tree line for a sign of Lancelot. He looks from Guenevere at the stake to his own knights watching him. He draws Excalibur. A gasp goes through the crowd of onlookers. ARTHUR Boy, kneel. Perceval leaps from his horse and bends his knee before the King. Arthur brings the sword down on the boy's shoulder, giving him the three strokes. ARTHUR In the name of God, of St. Michael, and St. George, I make you a knight. Rise, Sir... PERCEVAL ...Perceval! Gawain shakes his head disdainfully as Perceval mounts back into the saddle, his eyes burning with fervor. Sir Gawain and Perceval ride to opposite ends of the field. The spectators fall silent, all staring blankly, their senses dulled by the tragedy, at the uneven combatants. A cry goes up. Lancelot rides out of the forest. He rides up to the King and salutes him. Arthur smiles at his old friend, tears of joy in his eyes. Lancelot bows toward Guenevere and rides on to where Perceval waits. Lancelot reaches out to touch Perceval's cheek. LANCELOT It's my task to prove the Queen's innocence. Perceval cannot reply, his eyes affixed on the blood that trickles from Lancelot's hauberk. Lancelot raises his lance in salute to Gawain across the field. Gawain salutes in answer. The two huge knights charge at each other, each man's spear tip making contact with the other's armor, and in the violent collision both are unhorsed. Lancelot is slower at getting to his feet and drawing his sword. He is bleeding below the hauberk from his self-inflicted wound. In the first onslaught Lancelot fights defensively, falling back. He has to toss aside his shield and hold his stomach with his shield hand. Morgana watches with Merlin. Every terrible blow of sword on sword reverberates through her body pleasurable. Merlin is captivated by her cruel sensuality. EXT. JOUSTING GROUND - LATE DAY They swing and thrust at each other with slower but bone- crushing force, both unsteady now. Blood seeps from Lancelot's feet, leaving awful footprints on the earth. Finally, with a daring thrust, Lancelot lifts Gawain's visor and the sword tip is before his eyes. Gawain drops his sword and shield, kneels and speaks in a voice hoarse with weariness. SIR GAWAIN The Queen is innocent. I yield to your mercy, Sir Lancelot. Lancelot collapses in a dead faint. INT. CELL, CAMELOT - EVENING Eyes closed, Lancelot lies on a bed, naked but for a cloth across his loins. His minor wounds have been dressed, and Merlin is kneading the huge gash in his stomach, working the severed flesh together. Guenevere stands on one side of the bed, Arthur on the other, both looking down upon Lancelot, relieved and not daring to look at each other. MERLIN Flesh on flesh. You must press on the wound, Guenevere, hold it, and it will begin to bind. Guenevere kneels, and at her touch Lancelot's eyes flicker open. Merlin exits, and draws Arthur away with him. Arthur is deeply tormented. ARTHUR Merlin, tell me. Now that Guenevere is returned to me... MERLIN What is it my child? Merlin appears moved by the predicaments that Arthur has to face. ARTHUR Will I have a son? Merlin stares off into the evening sky, where a lark sings high up. MERLIN Yes. ARTHUR Just yes? No mad laughter, no riddles, nothing but a simple yes? That frightens me. MERLIN A king should be afraid, always. The enemy is everywhere. Waiting in ambush in the dark corridors of his castle, on the deer paths of his forest, or in the gray and winding paths of a more tangled forest, in here. He taps his skull and smiles. INT. CELL - EVENING Lancelot is staring into Guenevere's eyes. She opens her shift, baring a breast with the innocence of a mother preparing to suckle a child. She presses her breast to his wound, her face to his chest, her arms enfolding him. She whispers. GUENEVERE Flesh on flesh. I will heal you. His body trembles and his eyes brim with tears. He is lost. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE, CAMELOT - NIGHT The court is assembled, for the evening feast. There is music and heavy drinking. Some knights are slouched across the table. Lancelot, still weak, takes his seat, looking at the drunken and frivolous knights. Arthur catches it, and they smile at each other. ARTHUR They miss the battlefield. I think we do too. LANCELOT But one can still keep a sword sharp riding out in the name of the King's law. Guenevere cannot tear her eyes from Lancelot. He avoids her look. Arthur looks from Guenevere to Lancelot, and speaks softly to him, across her, and with stabbing directness. ARTHUR It is not easy for the young ones to learn knightly virtues without the hard teaching of war and quest. It is only your example, Lancelot, that binds them now. Then, addressing the hall: ARTHUR Which is the greatest quality of knighthood? Courage? Compassion? Loyalty? Humility? What do you say, Merlin? He is bent close to Morgana, whispering. Only when the hall rings with laughter does he look up. MERLIN What? (then seeing he has an audience) The greatest? They blend together like the metals we mix to make a good sword. ARTHUR I didn't ask for poetry. Which is it? Merlin looks from Arthur to Guenevere to Lancelot to Arthur. MERLIN All right. Truth. It must be truth, above all. When a man lies he murders some part of the world. An uneasy silence falls upon the feast. Guenevere and Lancelot cannot look at each other, and Arthur feels it. Lancelot jumps to his feet. LANCELOT Conversation and court life don't suit me. I must take my rest in the forest. Guenevere stifles her dismay. ARTHUR Hasn't Merlin mended your wound? LANCELOT It is deep... Arthur is about to rise to embrace him, but checks himself. ARTHUR You will be sorely missed. Heal yourself and come back. The exchange has become closely intimate, even though they stand apart and speak before everyone in the large hall. Lancelot leaves. Only Guenevere cannot watch. EXT. FOREST GLADE -DAY Water gurgles from a rock that is captive in the roots of an ancient oak. Lancelot, in armor, reclines against its trunk, the roots cradling him. He is perfectly still, drawing life from the vibrant, all-enfolding forest. Flower petals drift on the breeze. Trees sigh. Fox and rabbit, sparrow and hawk, at peace with each other, watch over the knight. EXT. FOREST -DAY A horse and rider tear through the thick undergrowth. It is Guenevere. The forest races past her as she gallops toward the glade, brambles tearing at her flesh and clothes. EXT. FOREST GLADE - DAY Lancelot gets to his feet, tense. Guenevere dismounts and approaches. She is flushed and breathless from the wild race. Her horse, left free, wanders over to his and grazes beside it. LANCELOT Why? You will destroy Arthur, and us... She moves closer and he thrusts out his mailed fist to keep her away. She clutches it and presses the metal to her soft tear-streaked cheek. LANCELOT The law forbids it. GUENEVERE Love demands it. Hungry with passion, she embraces the cold unmoving armor, kissing it. LANCELOT There are things about love-- GUENEVERE --Nothing! He steps back, drawing his sword. He holds it up by the blade between them. LANCELOT By my knight's sword, I swore faith-- And before he can finish she grabs the blade to push it aside. He holds it fast. Blood streams from her bare hands. He cannot prevail without cutting them deeply. He lets go of the sword, and she lets it fall to the ground. She embraces his still and defeated hulk. She kisses the metal, and sensation shoots through him, dizzying him. LANCELOT Guenevere... He folds her in his arm, and their bodies lock together as though a trap had sprung. Their mouths meet, each devouring the other... EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELOT - DUSK Arthur and Merlin, the King desperate, the Wizard overwhelmed by compassion: ARTHUR I am alone and betrayed. By my wife, by my beloved friend, by my knights. And by you. Perhaps most of all by you. For you made me, you forged this wretched life. And like a child tired of a toy, you toss me aside, a babbling lecher trotting after my sister... MERLIN That is my destiny. I have a destiny, too... ARTHUR With all your powers, you are content to be ridiculed, laughed at... MERLIN My powers fade, Arthur. I resort to cheap tricks... (with sudden enthusiasm) Yes! I enjoy every moment of my foolishness, I join in the making of it, so no one can betray me. But you! You betray yourself. ARTHUR Me? I have lived by the oath of king and knight. MERLIN You betray the boy who drew the sword, the boy who saw the Dragon... the Dragon who moves close by, coiling and uncoiling, restless, looking down, waiting for the King to be a king... Arthur looks up and in the rolling clouds maybe, just maybe, the form of a dragon is taking shape. Arthur draws Excalibur, intensity animating his dead features. ARTHUR I must do it myself. I must kill them both. Lancelot and Guenevere. Will you ride with me, Merlin? MERLIN I cannot. I must not. Here I must stay. They embrace. Merlin is on the verge of tears, his face immediately sad and finally ancient. Arthur exits. Morgana, who has been watching from the shadows, watching from the shadows, slinks up to Merlin's side. MORGANA Crazy old fool. You think yourself a kingmaker. Ha! A meddler, more likely. Look what a mess you've made of things. Merlin smiles knowingly at her. MERLIN I? Perhaps, perhaps. I'm losing interest, Morgana... I have helped men--or meddled in their affairs, if you would have it that way--since the dawn of time. Now let them live by their own laws. Let them stand on their own feet. The gods of once are gone forever, it is time for men... Morgana, make a man out of me. Kiss me. He reaches to touch her lips. She cradles his hand in hers and doesn't allow Merlin to kiss her. She kisses his knuckles and stares into his eyes, stoking his desire. MORGANA You know what I want. I want the secret of true magic, how to thicken the stuff of dreams and wishes with the flesh of the world. MERLIN That I cannot. She breaks away, provocative, alluring. MORGANA Then I will not. EXT. FOREST - NIGHT Arthur and Sir Kay gallop through the forest, silently. It is not a dream. Their armor and the hooves of their horses are muffled with pieces of cloth. EXT. FOREST GLADE - NIGHT Only Nature will ever see their love; the creatures of the air, tree and ground witness the final reality of their passion and sense its unfathomable depths, singing of it in a hundred languages. Lancelot and Guenevere are naked and interlocked, one being, suspended in the darkness in the eye of the forest. EXT. FOREST - NIGHT Arthur walks soundlessly through the trees, approaching the glade. The forest falls suddenly silent. EXT. FOREST GLADE - NIGHT All passion spent, locked in each other's arms, Lancelot and Guenevere drift off into sleep. Arthur comes upon them. He stands over them. He draws Excalibur. Checking all emotion, he holds it above his head. The ancient steel glows darkly. The lovers faces are serene and innocently beautiful. He hesitates, tormented. His mask of anguish gives way to determination and calm. He strikes the sword home, letting go of it. He backs away, turns and disappears into the forest. EXT. FOREST GLADE - DAWN The sky is red; so is the steel of Excalibur. Lancelot awakens and starts at what he sees. His cry stirs Guenevere. They are horrified to see Excalibur impaled in the ground between their entwined bodies. It has pierced their union without grazing their flesh. They leap up and back away, unable to speak at first. LANCELOT Why didn't he kill us? GUENEVERE He has given up. She kneels before the sword, embracing the hilt to her breast. LANCELOT The King without his sword, the land without a king... GUENEVERE We are to blame. Lancelot stumbles into the forest, berserk with guilt. He rages against a small tree, crying out, and he rips its roots from the ground, the terrible tearing and renting the symbol of his own inner torment. Guenevere sinks to the ground next to Lancelot's empty armor and his abandoned sword. INT. DUNGEONS OF CAMELOT Merlin and Morgana descend winding steps cut out of rock. The only light comes from the glow of Merlin's staff. MERLIN When Arthur built the castle, I carved out a place for myself, where I could laugh or sleep, and no one would bother me. MORGANA People make you laugh? He laughs. MERLIN They do. MORGANA Why? He leans close to her ear, whispering into it. MERLIN They don't know how close they live to the edge of delight or disas... He is about to kiss her when he slips. He laughs. MERLIN Happiness or horror. INT. CAVE BENEATH CAMELOT They pass through jaws of stalactites and stalagmites. Merlin cracks his staff whip-like and a ball of fire billows up from the tip and illuminates a cave wildly veined and filigreed with minerals and crusted with growths of crystals. The light goes out but the malachite and the gold, the quartz, diamond and beryllium burn dully. He turns to her, suddenly tall and unstooped, younger, sleek and evil. MERLIN In the folds of the earth where the forces that hold the world together are more alive, my power is strongest. Here I will possess you, as a man possesses a woman. And the god, the eunuch, the mule that I was, will be no more. He sweeps her up into his arms. MORGANA You are truly magnificent! MERLIN Flattery! Do you think I am ignorant of your stupid little games? Preying on you weakness of others. That's your power, a petty evil. Mine is great. Great plans. Impossible dreams. Laughable endings... He deposits her on bare rock. He kisses her. She pushes him away. MORGANA Merlin, the powers of Summoning, the true Name of the charms of Doing and Undoing. Show me! MERLIN I won't. You would misuse such power. I have paid enough for you, and I will have you. She leans forward and kisses his ear and whispers. MORGANA Make magic, my foolish wizard. For our love. Weave a marvelous room around us, a room worthy of our coupling. She draws closer, kissing him deeply. He breathes heavily. MERLIN What do you want? You must desire it for me to weave it. MORGANA Walls of shining crystals, burning with red fire, furnishings of metals and jewels never seen by man... Morgana falls silent as Merlin raises a hand, majestically intoning a harsh repetitive charm. The mineral veins of the cave begin to glow and fog seeps out from them enveloping the couple. MERLIN Desire it and it will be as you desire. Morgana burns with intensity. Merlin utters a formula and the fog coalesces around them into the shimmering presence of crystal walls, fountains raining jewels, flowers made of scented air, a bed of glass shot with light and covered with skins of animals dead before the time of man, goblets of ruby, tapestries woven of golden hair. She reaches out to touch the wall and her hand plunges through the unmaterialized illusion. MORGANA It's only a semblance. You disappoint me. She begins lacing up her loosened gown. MERLIN Don't touch the walls. Come close to me. She does, a mad hope in her eyes. She kisses his chest. MORGANA Do it, Merlin, the deepest secret. Fix it with the charm of Making, for our endless pleasure. He utters the ancient charm, Morgana listening closely, memorizing it. The illusion is all of a sudden solid. MERLIN For you... She runs her hand across the hard crystal surface, her eyes gleaming. From outside the wondrous room they can be seen to embrace. He carries her to the magical bed where he makes love to her, as they disappear from view in its effulgent light. She comes out through the crystal door, burning with evil intent. She turns to watch him asleep in the bed. She utters the charm of Summoning learnt from Merlin, and the room melts into an eddying carmine fog. Within it, Merlin struggles to awaken from the torpor of love, alarmed. Outside, Morgana utters the charm of Making and the gaseous mass begins to crystallize. Inside, Merlin is rising to his feet, breathing the red fog, his movements slowing to a standstill, his mouth opening in a scream of horror. The cloud has metamorphosed into a magnificent cluster of red crystals. Morgana peers into its facets and there she sees, in fragments, Merlin's terror... an eye, the gaping mouth, a clawing hand--as he is entombed in the stone. She laughs in triumph. EXT. FOREST - CAMELOT - DAY Surrounded by forest, the spires and battlements of Camelot rise under black storm clouds. Arthur and Kay ride back to the castle. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE - DAY The great hall is in gloom. Few knights are in attendance at the table. Some sleep off last night's wine. Arthur approaches, haggard, searching. ARTHUR Has no one seen Merlin? Knights look up; those who meet Arthur's reddened eyes shake their heads. Arthur leaves. A knight whispers to another. KNIGHT Did you see? The King was without Excalibur... INT. PASSAGEWAYS, CAMELOT - DAY Echoing in the vaulted corridors outside the hall, the knight's whisper stabs Arthur. The words now seem borne on the whistling wind and follow the King wherever he goes in search of Merlin. He comes upon a knight seducing a lady in a dark corner by the chapel door, his hand under her gown. Arthur notes the sacrilege in silence, and continues on his way. INT. BEDCHAMBER - DAY The wind keens. Thunder rolls overhead. Arthur enters his bedchamber. He sits by the empty fireplace, a broken man. Feminine hands light on his shoulders. He starts. He looks up. It is Morgana. He smiles and grasps her hand. MORGANA I'll weep for you, brother, for a King must not weep. She comes around and she kneels in front of him. Before he can talk she silences him with a tender caress. MORGANA Do you know what Guenevere's maids have whispered? He shakes his head. MORGANA That when the King returned from battle... She begins untying the laces of his metal thigh and shin guards. MORGANA ...Guenevere would unlace his armor and massage the burns where metal rubbed on flesh... She is stripping his legs naked, gently touching the flesh with her fingertips. He stares off, remembering. MORGANA ...She would prepare a bath for you, mixing special ointment in the water... Arthur's eyes brim with tears. Morgana weeps, embracing his knees. He rests his hand gently upon her head, choked with remembrance, soothing her. But as she weeps, she incants a charm. Arthur looks down upon her, and the woman who looks up at him is Guenevere, a Guenevere with cold ice eyes. He is made weak by desire and weakened further by magic. He holds her face adoringly. ARTHUR Guenevere! You are-- "GUENEVERE" --Don't speak. A thousand words, a hundred thousand words, would only be prologue to the truth that must be. That you, King, and I, your Queen, beget a son to bond our love and to strengthen our weak kingdom with a successor. Come, my lord... She draws him to the floor and upon her body, holding him tightly to himself. Arthur trembles with excitement, pathetic in his desperate passion. As he takes her, she shudders, losing control of the charm, and her features change till once again "Guenevere" is Morgana. She holds him in a tight embrace so that he may not see her. She whispers in his ear. MORGANA The moon flows in my blood to meet your seed. And already I bear him who will be King. Arthur wrenches himself away so he can see her, her arms still around his neck. He looks down upon her, aghast, incredulous. MORGANA I could easily kill you, brother. But I want you to live to see our son be King. In me, the blood of Cornwall will have its revenge; in me, the blood of Uther will show its dark side. She presses her thumbs into his neck and he faints. EXT. FOREST - CAMELOT - DAY Morgana, with a small party, rides away from the castle through the lashing storm, till they are taken from sight in the folds of the forest... INT. CHAPEL, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT Lightening forks across the sky, illuminating the interior. The chapel has been transformed into a place of satanic worship. Held up and surrounded by hooded figures, Morgana lies on the altar, her pregnant belly huge; and her features are fierce with passionate intensity. She writhes in the pangs of childbirth. MORGANA Stand back, all of you. Through my own body I have nurtured him with my potions. I made him. I alone can give him life. INT. CHAPEL, CAMELOT - NIGHT Arthur enters, pale and haunted. Mass is being celebrated, and some knights are present. Those not asleep whisper to each other about the King. The sound of an approaching storm is heard. As the priest raises the chalice to consecrate the wine. Arthur comes down the aisle and steps onto the altar. He reaches out to grasp the chalice from the priest's hands. INT. CHAPEL, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT Morgana holds aloft her beautiful newborn baby, his body glistening in a flash of lightening. She is triumphant. INT. CHAPEL, CAMELOT - NIGHT. A bolt of lightening strikes the chalice, rocking the chapel, and Arthur is knocked back violently. Rain lashes in through the shattered window upon the terrified knights. They and the priest back away. Arthur is left alone. He rises and goes to the chalice, which is bent and cracked. He kneels before it. Steam hisses up as rain falls on it. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE - DAY Sun streams in. Many of the knights are in attendance, in full armor. Ladies and pages watch from dark corners. Arthur addresses the fellowship. He holds the cracked chalice in his hands. He burns with a new-found fervor. ARTHUR Who will ride the labyrinths of the forest, to the very root of his soul, to the very ends of the earth, to find the secret that will redeem us from the evil that has fallen upon us, and make this chalice, and ourselves, whole again? Gawain rises and draws his sword in salute. SIR GAWAIN I will ride forth in the name of that quest, and commit my strength and my soul to it. Perceval, Kay and a few others draw their swords and touch their lips to the blades in oath. Sunbeams splash off their armor. PERCEVAL I will go. The rest of the fellowship draw their swords in imitation, but the resolution within them is not strong. Arthur comes forward to Gawain. ARTHUR Gawain, a dreadful fear is upon me, that we may never meet again, that the fellowship will be no more... He embraces Gawain, tears in his eyes. He turns to Perceval, and Perceval kneels. PERCEVAL We will find the secret or die. Arthur kisses the young knight's brow. Then he turns to Kay. ARTHUR Kay, I know your heart yearns to go, but I am prisoner to my duties, and you must be to yours, at my side. Arthur and Kay watch the knights file out till the hall is empty, the harsh song of their armor growing distant. FADE OUT: A LEGEND APPEARS: "For nine years they searched. Morgana's power grew in the land." FADE IN: EXT. SNOWSCAPE - DAY Under a leaden sky, Gawain drives his horse through swirling snow. He comes upon a mounted knight who is frozen in his tracks. He brushes the snow from the man's face. The frozen features belong to Caradoc. He slowly continues on his way. EXT. DEAD FOREST - DAY Dangling from the branches of a dead tree are a dozen dead knights of the Round Table, crows pecking at the rotting flesh in the chinks of armor. Perceval rides up, cries out in horror, and spurs his horse away. EXT. MOORS - DAY The rotting carcasses of sheep. The crops blackened and withered on the stalk. Hungry peasants head for a distant hill. EXT, HILLSIDE, MOORS - DAY A giant head has been carved out of an outcrop of rock, its stone mouth gaping toward the sky. People are congregated around the mouth. Peasants and farmers, they are wild with excitement, responding to drums throbbing and bagpipes wailing. They watch Morgana, who is surrounded by knights in dark armor. At her side is an angelic boy of eight, his eyes cold as his mother's. Morgana is more beautiful than ever, in flowing druidic robes, the gossamer silk clinging to her sweat-drenched body. She is standing by the deep hole which forms the giant's open mouth. It is covered by a tooth-like grating acting as a drain for the blood of human sacrifices made there. Before her is Gawain, chained and struggling against five strong men who hold him. Morgana lifts a dagger and plunges it into Gawain's chest. The fountain of blood that gushes from the great knight's body drives the crowd into a frenzy. MORGANA (intoning) The blood of this knight will feed the god in the earth, he is weak with hunger, and he will be made strong by this blood. Then he will plant his seed, and the land will be fertile once again. Gawain, his blood flowing from him and into the giant's mouth, looks up in anguish. His bellowing voice is echoed and amplified by the hollow beneath the drain. GAWAIN Arthur, forgive me. I die without the secret. I have failed. EXT. MOORS - DAY Gawain's death cry and the din of the ritual carries to Perceval's ears as he wanders through the wasteland. He draws down his visor and spurs his horse forward. EXT. HILLSIDE, MOORS - DAY He gallops toward the giant's head. He checks his sword and lowers his lance. The knight charging forward on his war horse is an awesome sight, but the crowd around the giant's mouth is strangely unfrightened. Morgana is excited; she turns to the boy. MORGANA Look, Mordred, a true prize for the giant. The lamb rides into our jaws. Perceval is galloping toward them when the ground gives way beneath the horse, and he and the animal plunge into a pit. The cheering crowd rushes to the edge of the trap. MORGANA (to Mordred) You must kill him, for this knight is dear to your father. You must do it and learn to enjoy your father's pain. Her knights drag Perceval, unarmed, into Morgana's presence. MORGANA Have you found what you search for? Have you found what Arthur seeks? Perceval doesn't answer, defiant and hiding his fear. MORGANA You haven't, or you would be smiling now in the face of death. Your quest is an impossible one. PERCEVAL That it might be impossible makes it all the more necessary. MORGANA Fool! (to the men holding Perceval) Uncover him. I'll show you the mystery of life. It's death... (to Mordred) Do it, Mordred! Holding Perceval by his limbs and hair, the men force him down on the bloody grating, drawing back his head, exposing his throat. Morgana kneels by his head, and draws the boy beside her. She holds the tip of the dagger to Perceval's neck and takes Mordred's hand and wraps it around the handle. Perceval is choked with fear, his heart pounding in his throat. MORGANA Feel the life through the dagger, child. It belongs to you. The boy looks up at his mother. The vein in Perceval's neck pushes against the dagger's point. MORDRED I feel it, Mother. I will give his blood to the giant. The boy raises the dagger, and hesitates just a bit. Perceval resigns himself bravely. He looks the child calmly in the eye. Mordred brings down the blade without strength, just piercing the skin with the tip. He lets go of the dagger, afraid now of his mistake. The dagger clatters to the grating and slips away down the drain, before Morgana can retrieve it. She rages against Mordred. In the confusion, Perceval tears loose, the men holding him slipping on the blood-wet stone. Perceval runs through the crowd. Immediately, lance lowered, a knight is upon him. Perceval leaps toward him, catching the lance in his hand, and pulling down the rider with it. He jumps the rider and draws the knight's sword. Whirling the lance and cutting the air with the sword, he keeps back the other knights for a moment, giving him time to see his chance. He leaps onto the riderless horse and charges off through the crowd. He reins in abruptly, the horse rearing. He is wary of the ground before him; there could be a hidden pit. But there is no time to think. Knights and men on foot are rushing him. He spurs forward into a gallop, the horse striding mightily And its hind leg sinks into a pit, the animal losing its gait. But the momentum carries the horse forward, and it recovers from the stumble. Perceval gallops away. Morgana is enraged. She shakes Mordred by the hair. MORGANA You didn't kill him! You didn't kill him! But suddenly she begins kissing him tenderly. MORGANA My dear, sweet boy... He just stands there emotionless, the dead center of her turbulent passions. EXT. DEAD FOREST - DAY Perceval gallops down a trail. The black-armored knights of Morgana chase him. Perceval reins into deep cover alongside the trail. The pursuers thunder past and the sound of hooves recedes. Perceval checks his newly found sword, slashes the air to feel the weapon's balance. He re-sheathes it. He pats the horse. PERCEVAL We'll become good friends. He starts off again, into the patchless forest of dead trees. He is suddenly set upon by a wildman who, swinging a small uprooted tree, knocks him off his horse. Perceval crashes to the ground and before he can use his sword the wildman has knocked it out of his hand. It is Lancelot, demented, who furiously rains battering blows on Perceval's armor, bellowing with rage. All that Perceval can do is attempt to avoid the blows. Lancelot addresses Perceval as if the young knight were Lancelot himself. LANCELOT Where are you going, Lancelot, in your iron tomb? Still trying to save the world? (He hammers blows into Perceval's armor) The best... the bravest... the greatest... fool that ever lived. Now the world rots. Death is king of the earth. And it is you who make it so, Lancelot. Before Perceval can speak, Lancelot disappears again into the forest, his eyes blank, as though his encounter with the young knight had never happened. A knot of pain, Perceval pulls himself up. He tries to rise into the saddle. He is too hurt to do it. He starts off on foot, slowly, leading the horse. EXT. DEAD FOREST AND STREAM - NIGHT It is very dark and Perceval has to feel his way. He comes to the edge of a stream. He kneels to drink, and the horse drinks beside him. Then he rests back on his heels, brooding, too tired to rise. He lowers his eyes, staring into the dark water, defeated, empty. Before him in the water a long thin bar of light appears. He looks at it amazed. Voices are heard singing very far away. He reaches out to touch the long strip of light but his hand just disturbs the water. It is a reflection. The strip grows wider and the ethereal music is closer. Perceval looks up. The strip of light is before him, suspended, thirty feet above. It continues to grow wider. A drawbridge is being slowly lowered, allowing a powerful light to escape from within. Perceval is terrified. In pain, he slowly rises into the saddle, ready to gallop off; but fascinated, hypnotized by the sight, he cannot, and he stays and watches. The dim outline of a castle becomes visible as the drawbridge is lowered across the water to the ground at his feet. At the center of the blast of light coming from the castle, Perceval can make out a burning chalice. The music swells to a terrifying pitch, searing the forest. EXT. ENTRANCE TO CASTLE - NIGHT At the sight of the chalice, Perceval masters his fear. Bathed in light and music, he spurs the horse forward onto the drawbridge. Once he is on it, the bridge begins to rise. Unsure of its footing and blinded by the light, the horse becomes skittish, and Perceval has to struggle to control it. He dismounts to lead it, but the horse is terrified, rears up and jumps off the bridge, which continues to rise, drawn up by unseen hands. Perceval hesitates, then advances down the sloping drawbridge into the castle courtyard. All details are bleached out by the blinding light. The chalice appears suspended in space, and now the figure of a man can be glimpsed standing behind it. Enchanting music from unseen singers grows and weaves. Perceval looks back to see the drawbridge slowly closing, trapping him inside. He approaches the figure, his courage ebbing. Hands cupping the chalice, it speaks to him. FIGURE What is the secret of the chalice? Who does it serve? Perceval doesn't understand. He glances back again. The drawbridge is nearly closed. Terror seizes him. Panicked, puzzled, baffled, he backs away. He scrambles up the drawbridge desperate to reach the top before it closes. He claws his way up till his hand grasps the top. He heaves himself through the narrow closing slit which is about to crush him. He screams, and with a final effort he wriggles free and topples over crashing into the water below. EXT. DEAD FOREST AND STREAM - NIGHT He looks up. The drawbridge thunders shut, the last thin strip of light disappearing; and now he is surrounded only by the silence of the forest. Where there was a castle, now there is darkness. Perceval wades through the water. He has crossed the stream and all he can see and feel are tree trunks. The castle has disappeared. He is utterly defeated. PERCEVAL The chalice. The secret was in my grasp. I let it slip, afraid for myself. A question was asked. I didn't understand. I didn't try. I failed... FADE OUT: A LEGEND APPEARS: "Nine years passed." FADE IN: INT. CAVE BENEATH CAMELOT. Dripping water is steadily encrusting the crystal with limestone. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE, CAMELOT - DAY Dead knights lay on biers. The once glorious seat of power is falling into decay. Few are in attendance around the table. Agitated, Kay enters and goes to Arthur, who is worn and haggard, and aged. KAY Your son Mordred is at the gate. Arthur comes alive. ARTHUR At last... KAY Don't recognize him. You were trapped by Morgana's sorcery. ARTHUR (staring off) ...Gawain and Perceval, Bors and Bohort, Caradoc and Ector, and all the others--lost to me. Only the echo of their voices remains in this empty hall. All I have left is the memory of their fellowship. Echoes and memories. I am a ghost of the King that once was... (he turns to Kay and with sudden harshness) ...Mordred is real, alive, my own flesh and blood. I will see him, I must. EXT. GATE, INSIDE AND OUTSIDE CAMELOT - DAY The drawbridge lowers slowly, and Arthur moves away from Kay and the other knights, and advances across it. Rooks wheel over the dead trees of the forest that surrounds Camelot. A group of armed men waits at the edge of the forest. One steps forward, a huge knight in black armor, the metal defining and exaggerating the powerful musculature of his body. He is Mordred, a young man of eighteen, and of extraordinary beauty. A page follows ten steps behind him bearing an enormous spear, its points hooded. Arthur stops at the edge of the drawbridge, the huge knight a few steps from him. Kay, ready for anything, moves halfway across the drawbridge. Mordred kneels on one knee. MORDRED Father... ARTHUR Rise, Mordred. MORDRED I have come to claim what is mine, Father. ARTHUR I recognize you only as my son, no more. MORDRED (his tone is scathing) And you are the great King? The lords have rebelled. Invaders attack the coasts. Crops don't grow. There is nothing but plague and hunger in the land. Only I am feared. I will be king. You may have lost Excalibur, but I have found my own weapon of power. There. He points to the huge lance. The page pulls a string and the hood drops, revealing a diabolically sharp spear tip, its metal glinting menacingly. MORDRED The very spear that pierced the side of Christ as he died on the cross. ARTHUR Your mother told you that? Mordred is thrown off by the doubt Arthur has cast. Arthur looks upon his son, desperately trying to read him. ARTHUR I cannot offer you the land, only my love... MORDRED And I offer only this, Father. To commit with passion and pleasure all the evils that you failed to commit, as man and king. Arthur goes forward to embrace his son, a desperate attempt. Mordred recoils. MORDRED We will embrace only in battle. Father, and I will touch you only with the blade of my spear. Arthur is on the verge of tears. MORDRED I will muster a great force of knights, and I will return to fight for what is mine. ARTHUR So be it. He turns and re-enters the castle, the drawbridge pulled up immediately behind him. He is hunched over, broken. EXT. BARREN LAND - EVENING Asleep in the saddle, Perceval rides across burnt and smoldering fields. The horse walks aimlessly; it is the same animal, mangy and old. A hoard of children in filthy rags closes in on him, begging, pulling at the horse's trappings. He bolts awake and reins away. His eyes are red and feverish. Wild hope grips him when he sees a glinting light by a farmhouse. He spurs the horse forward into a gallop. EXT. FARM - EVENING He leaps from the saddle and a terrified woman backs away. Perceval plunges his hand into the source of light. It is nothing but the reflection of the dying sun in a bucketful of water. Perceval covers his face. PERCEVAL Illusions. I will never find it again... I am sorry, woman, that I frightened you. Peasants have emerged, surrounding him, and they hold axes and pitchforks. PERCEVAL Good woman, do you have any food? Some water?... PEASANT The little we had, we gave to Mordred's knights. He has taken this land. Tell the King that now we must look to Mordred. SECOND PEASANT But we will give you some water... At least ten peasants encircle Perceval and he is too exhausted to put up a fight. They grab him and carry him away. Other peasants pull his horse to the ground, and one raises and ax to kill it. EXT. STREAM, BARREN LAND - EVENING They throw Perceval down an escarpment and he rolls into the fast-moving water. He is swept downstream and thrown ferociously against the rocks in the stream bed, crying out in pain. EXT. RIVER AND UNDERWATER - EVENING The water is deeper and Perceval is dragged under by the weight of his armor. He struggles desperately to shed it, half drowning. Exhausted, he pulls himself up onto the muddy shore beside a rotting sheep carcass, and around him, the daylight dies. EXT. RIVER - NIGHT Ragged and bruised, lifeless, he stares into space. PERCEVAL I have lost my horse, my armor, my sword. I have lost my way. I have lost my strength. I have lost everything... I will not lose hope. A light bursting through the trees shines on the mud, wordless, harmonies sound somewhere in the forest. Perceval sets off toward the source. The burning light blasts into his face but he doesn't flinch. The chorus builds in power. Before him, a drawbridge lowers. EXT. CASTLE GATE - NIGHT He steps onto the bridge and walks in. He crosses the courtyard as the drawbridge closes behind him. All details of the castle are bleached out by the searing light. EXT. CASTLE GATE - NIGHT He steps onto the bridge and walks in. He crosses the courtyard as the drawbridge closes behind him. All details of the castle are bleached out by the searing light. INT. CASTLE, VARIOUS Heading for the source of the light he ascends what seem to be a staircase. He enters a hall where the chalice stands suspended, burning with light, and the mysterious music swirls and grows. Perceval approaches the diaphanous and featureless Figure who stands over the chalice. FIGURE Who does it serve? PERCEVAL You, my lord. FIGURE I have waited long for you. Once you almost saw, but fear blinded you. Why am I served from the chalice? PERCEVAL Because you and the land are one. FIGURE I am wasting away and I cannot die. And I cannot live. PERCEVAL You and the land are one. Drink from the chalice. You will be reborn and the land with you. Perceval cups his hands around the chalice to lift it. But they close on nothing, and he draws back. The Figure's hands, although insubstantial, grasp Perceval's and appear to hold his hands around the cup. FIGURE But who am I? Perceval begins to kneel. PERCEVAL You are my lord and King. You are Arthur. The blinding light vanishes, the music drifts away. INT. HALL OF THE ROUND TABLE - NIGHT Perceval falls to his knees before Arthur and he holds the chalice, now whole again, up to the King. It fills with blood from within and Arthur takes it from Perceval. He drinks. And having done so, he seems to become younger and to grow in strength. ARTHUR I didn't know how empty was my soul until it was filled. Sir Kay stands by the vast fireplace where a small fire burns, and only now looks up and is aware of Perceval. KAY Perceval, you have returned! ARTHUR Ready my knights for battle; they will ride with their King once more. I have lived through others far too long! Lancelot carried my honor and Guenevere my guilt. My knights have fought my causes. Mordred carries my sins. Now, at last, I will rule. EXT. WOODS AND FIELDS - NIGHT Arthur at the head of a small force of knights, their armor shining beneath the moon, gallops through the land. Where hooves thunder, the ground becomes alive with sprouts and tendrils, and bare trees start to bud, and grasses to blossom, the power of Nature exploding into life. INT. CONVENT - DAWN An old nun approaches the doors, upon which someone is pounding loudly. She opens the peephole. It is Arthur. NUN Go away. No man is allowed beyond these doors. ARTHUR I am Arthur. The old nun is amazed and starts pushing open the many bolts, mumbling and agitated. INT. CONVENT COURTYARD - DAWN She leads the King, his footsteps ringing in the silent cloister, past the doors to the cells. His armor is wet with dew and it shines with a dull and deep luster. Nuns whisper at his transit. She opens the door to a cell and Arthur steps inside. INT. CELL - DAWN Candles flicker on a small altar before which a nun is praying. She turns to see who has entered. It is Guenevere, older, thin with self-denial, all the more beautiful. She looks up at the majestic figure who stands before her. She nearly swoons. He helps her to her feet, and words rush from deep within him. ARTHUR Guenevere, accept my forgiveness, and put your heart to rest. We have suffered to long. I have always loved you, and I still love you. She weeps. GUENEVERE I loved you much, as King, and sometimes as husband, but one cannot gaze too long at the sun in the sky. ARTHUR Forgive me, my wife, if you can. I was not born to live a man's life, but to be the stuff of future memory. The fellowship was a brief beginning, a fair time that cannot be forgotten; and because it will not be forgotten, that fair time may come again. Now once more I must ride with my knights to defend what was, and the dream of what could be. GUENEVERE I have kept it. She draws back the covers of her pallet, and there is Excalibur. Arthur is overwhelmed by emotion; he can barely speak ARTHUR I never dared to hope all these years that it was in your keeping. He kneels before her and kisses her thigh. She gazes off, remembering the life of long ago. He rises and looks off into her eyes, unable to find the words; he finally does. ARTHUR I have often thought that in the hereafter of our lives, when I owe no more to the future and can be just a man, that we may meet, and you will come to me and claim me as yours, and know that I am your husband. It is a dream I have... He takes Excalibur by the hilt and exits. INT. CONVENT COURTYARD - DAWN The nuns scatter before him in awe and terror. He strides forward, Excalibur in hand. He stops and tests its balance, and he draws force from it. ARTHUR Guenevere... EXT. WOODS - DAY Excalibur gleams in the sunlight. Arthur holds it high, at the head of a small force of knights under the banner of the Dragons. Kay and Perceval ride at his side. Plumed helmets, shields blazing with armorial colors, pennants flying in the clean wind from their lances; it is a brave sight. The trees are in blossom and dandelion fluff billows up at their passage. EXT. PIT, MOORS - DAY Arthur's group comes to a halt. Two knights and a few squires galloping from the opposite direction rein in before the King. The knights draw their swords in homage, and the older one addresses Arthur. KNIGHT It is only me and my son. All other knights of the dukedom have rallied to Mordred. Arthur smiles hiding the hurt. He points to an open pit, a huge devastation. ARTHUR What horror is that? KNIGHT Mordred, sir. He digs for precious metals, with which he buys the loyalty of men at arms, binding them to his side. EXT. THE MOORS - ARTHUR'S WAR CAMP - LATE EVENING It is a clear night and the sky blazes with stars. A crescent moon casts its silvery light upon Arthur, who wanders from his camp alone. EXT. STONEHENGE, THE MOORS - LATE EVENING He stops in the ancient circle of Druidic stones. ARTHUR I am outnumbered ten to one by Mordred's forces. Merlin, I need you at my side as you were once, my friend, to give me courage. There are no war tricks that will fool Mordred. He was weaned on blood. He falls on his knees in front of the stone, tired, between thinking and dreaming, and he bangs his mailed fist against it. ARTHUR More than I ever did, I need you now. Where are you, Merlin? Is it true that Morgana has trapped you? INT. CAVE BELOW CAMELOT The veins of crystal glow darkly, and the hammering of Arthur's fist upon the stone is dimly echoed here. In the red crystal, fragments of Merlin can be glimpsed, trapped, frozen. EXT. STONEHENGE - LATE EVENING Arthur slips off into sleep. The stones around him distort. He speaks softly, but then though the words continue, his lips are closed. ARTHUR ...If only you could be at my side, Merlin, to see me wield Excalibur once more... INT. CAVE BELOW CAMELOT The crystal is cracking, shards falling to the cave floor. EXT. STONEHENGE - NIGHT Arthur is still on his knees, and he sits back, looking up. But the atmosphere is different, within a dream, and the stones of the henge loom larger over him now. ARTHUR What is this place? It is rumored Merlin, that you drew your power from these circles... A hand ruffles the King's hair. He turns, and is face to face with Merlin, standing over him. Arthur looks at him without surprise, as though the intervening years never were. Merlin begins to laugh his hideous giggle. Arthur rises. ARTHUR Quiet. You'll wake the men, and they must fight tomorrow for their very lives. MERLIN I know. I have heard noises and echoes through the stones... ARTHUR What is this place, Merlin? MERLIN It is like a tree. The roots of the stones spread out across the land and they draw on the thoughts and actions of men. Like sap those human matters course through the stones feeding the stars that are the leaves of the tree. And the stars whisper back to men the future course of events. (becoming passionate) But the earth is being torn apart, its metals stolen, and the balance is broken and the lines of power no longer converge. In fact, I nearly didn't make it in one piece. He limps affectedly and stretches with exaggerated pain. MERLIN But, I'm here. ARTHUR Where have you been these many years? Is it true that Morgana-- MERLIN --Stories... You brought me back. Your love brought me back. Back to where you are now, in the land of dreams... ARTHUR Is this a dream? Tell me, Merlin! Merlin smiles, turns and leaves, heading for Arthur's camp, giggling. Arthur starts off after him and awakens from the dream when he walks into one of the stones. It takes him a moment to realize that Merlin has vanished. ARTHUR Merlin?! He hurries away toward the camp. INT. KAY'S TENT, ARTHUR'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT Arthur shakes Kay awake, and as the faithful knight comes out of a deep sleep, he clutches Arthur's arm. KAY Merlin, will I live...? (he shakes away the dream) ...I was dreaming... ARTHUR Of Merlin? KAY Yes. He spoke to me. He said I would fight bravely tomorrow. I have never dreamed of Merlin before. ARTHUR I dreamed of him too... Merlin lives! He lives in our dreams now, in that dark and shadowy place that is as strong and real as this more solid one. He speaks to us from there. EXT. MORDRED'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT Cape flowing, Merlin sweeps between Mordred's war tents, and in the logic of dreams, unseen by the guards. He passes a tent where the huge shadow of Mordred is thrown on the canvas, as he sharpens the blade of a fearsome spear. He enters a tent. INT. MORGANA'S TENT - NIGHT She is stunningly beautiful in her sleep. Merlin leans over her lovely body, kisses her softly on the lips, and waits for her to awaken. MERLIN I have returned, enchantress. You are beautiful, magnificent. Have you used up all the magic you stole from me to keep yourself young? Have you any magic left to do battle with Merlin? INT. TENT - MORGANA'S DREAM She rises from her sleeping body. MORGANA You provoke me, Merlin. MERLIN What's behind that beauty? A wizened, cold-hearted snake. Merlin steps back, grandiose and melodramatic. MERLIN You are a snake about to strike! He raises his staff. MERLIN And I am the staff that drives the snake back. He lowers the staff with dreamlike slowness and she slinks right up to him. MORGANA Burning with the fire of desire, I am the flames that consume the staff to ashes. She winds her fluttering hands around the staff, and the shadows they cast upon the tent give the illusion of licking flames. MERLIN I am the cloudburst that quenches the flames. MORGANA I am the desert, where water disappears-- MERLIN --I am the sea, which covers the desert forever under its weight. MORGANA --I am the fog and mists that rise up from the sea, escaping... She laughs at her cleverness. MERLIN Fog and mist! You couldn't be that. You don't have enough magic. INT. MORGANA'S TENT - NIGHT Morgana tosses and mutters in her tormented dream. MORGANA ...I have the desire and I have the magic... INT. TENT - MORGANA'S DREAM Merlin, huge, magnetic, enfolds Morgana in his cape. MERLIN You are mine at last. I am the sea and you will never escape me. Fog and Mist...!? And he laughs at her, suffocating her. Morgana begins chanting the charm of Making, desperate-- INT. MORGANA'S TENT - NIGHT --and she finishes uttering it in her sleep. Her eyes spring open, and vapors issue from her gaping mouth. She screams and the fog gushes out filling the tent. EXT. MORGANA'S TENT, MORDRED'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT Fog billows out of the tent, spreading through the camp. INT. MORGANA'S TENT - NIGHT LIEUTENANT A fog is rising, sir. MORDRED That cannot be. He rises and goes out with the lieutenant. EXT. MORDRED'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT It is fogbound, the campfires yellow smudges within it. MORDRED (to the lieutenant) My mother has a sense for such things. She said there would be no fog. Mordred enters his mother's tent. INT. MORGANA'S TENT - NIGHT Mordred enters. MORDRED ...Mother? Morgana, withered, old, lies dead in the bed, wisps of smoke rising from within her ruptured body. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - FOG - DAWN Arthur, with Kay and Perceval, canters through the white fog. They are flanked by a phalanx of knights in silver armor. ARTHUR Kay, you will lead the attack. Perceval, you will stay with me. Kay draws his sword in salute, elated. ARTHUR Be cautious, my brother. He spurs forward, while Arthur reins to a halt, watching him disappear. Perceval and a few knights stay behind and surround the King. ARTHUR In this battle there is one thing I must do, that no one else can. Find Mordred and kill him. Ahead, the horrible din of joined battle. In the swirling fog, clash of arms follows clash of arms. There is confusion, for each knight is unable to see if he is fighting friend or foe until they are upon each other. The battle becomes a series of vicious duels, a knight in silver armor against a knight in black-burnished armor, just glimpsed in the fog that is alive with the clang of sword on shield, the pounding of hooves, the cries of the dying. Squires drag away their wounded knights, their young faces pale at the sight of the carnage. Kay is unhorsed but picks himself up and mounts a riderless horse, rejoining the combat although he is bleeding. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - FOG - DAY It is full day, and the fog blinds with its painful glare. Arthur with Perceval at his side rides through the fog, searching. Perceval takes up a challenge against the King. He unhorses this opponent, piercing him with his lance. He returns to the King's side. PERCEVAL There are too many on Mordred's side. We cannot hold out much longer. Kay is glimpsed fighting on foot, hurt, barely holding his own, but then the sight is hidden in the fog. Kay overcomes his opponent and stops to catch his breath. He is amazed by what he sees. A knight, in old, battle-scarred armor whose pieces don't match, cuts down the knights in black in foray after foray, wheeling and turning in a brilliant and ruthless spectacle of martial arts. He fights without a shield, a lance in his left hand and sword in his right. Kay moves away in search of Arthur. Arthur and Perceval watch the lone knight meting out death with such terrible beauty, weaving in and out of the fog. KAY He can be no other. ARTHUR Lancelot?... It is Lancelot! He spurs his horse forward to join him, but Perceval is quick to stop him. PERCEVAL No, my lord. We seek Mordred. KAY I will join him. Kay rises onto a fresh horse and gallops away. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - FOG - LATE DAY Arthur and Perceval ride alone, the accompanying knights gone, the dying and the dead and the crazed horses all around them. Squires are carrying Kay upon his shield. He is dead. Arthur leaps to the ground and reaches out to touch his face, and closes his eyes. He stifles his tears. ARTHUR Has anyone seen Lancelot? SQUIRE He lies over there, sir. Arthur rushes off, Perceval following on horseback. Lancelot is mortally wounded, blood flowing from his abdomen, his eyes open but his gaze dead. Arthur falls to his side. ARTHUR Squire! Here! But there is no one now except the dead and wounded, and Perceval, who dismounts to watch over the King, sword drawn. Desperate, Arthur stops the wound with his hand. Lancelot's eyes are sightless, but tears spill from them. LANCELOT Arthur. ARTHUR Lancelot, I will save you... Don't die. He tears off a piece of his tunic and staunches the wound with it. LANCELOT My salvation is to die a Knight of the Round Table. ARTHUR You are that and much more. You are its greatest knight, you are what is best in men. Now we will be together-- LANCELOT --It is the old wound, that has been opened. I have always known it would be the gateway to my death, for it has never healed. Let my heart do its job, my King, and pump me empty... Arthur takes Lancelot in his arms and rests his lips against the knight's brow. LANCELOT (a death whisper) Guenevere, has she come to you, is she Queen again? He lies, closing his eyes, unable to look at Lancelot. ARTHUR She is, Lancelot. A boyish smile settles over the features of Lancelot's face, and he dies. Arthur holds him to his breast, his eyes shut tight. A strong wind rises. Perceval kneels beside Arthur. PERCEVAL The fog is lifting. Only we remain alive. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - EVENING Arthur and Perceval rise, and as far as they can see across the green hills that roll down to the sea lies the aftermath of the massacre. Hacked bodies, abandoned armor, steaming horse carcasses, everything still. The murmur of the dying is carried on the wind to the soft roar of the sea. The squires have fled the scene of horror. ARTHUR But for Mordred. Where is Mordred? Elsewhere on the battlefield, Mordred searches the dead, accompanied only by his lieutenant, who turns over the bodies of Arthur's knights. MORDRED Where is Arthur? One of Arthur's knights reaches out blindly for help. Mordred crushes his skull underfoot. The shaft of his huge lance is caked with blood, as are his hands. Arthur and Perceval see Mordred and his lieutenant, and the King restrains Perceval from going forward. ARTHUR No, Perceval. Now it is time for me to raise my sword. (he bellows out) Mordred, prepare to meet your death. Shield on his left arm, and Excalibur in his right, he starts toward Mordred. MORDRED I wait for you, Father. Mordred advances forward, the huge spear in both hands and parallel to the ground. Arthur goes straight for him, shield ready to receive the blow. Mordred keeps walking, his arms now tensed back and ready to strike. Once they are within weapon's reach of each other, Mordred dashes forward and thrusts the spear. It glances off Arthur's shield, slides under his hauberk and penetrates the King's body, and so powerful was the blow that the blade pierces him right through. Mortally wounded, Arthur's scream of pain becomes a horrible war cry, and he drives himself forward with all the strength he has along the spear shaft almost to Mordred's hands. Mordred is knocked back and to the ground and Arthur presses down on him, the butt of the spear pinning Mordred. Arthur lifts Excalibur. Mordred attempts to free himself, as the blade of Excalibur descends upon him and cuts through metal, flesh and bone. Mordred's head falls to the ground, rolling away. Mordred's lieutenant flees. Perceval races to Arthur's side, and supports the King who has fallen on his knees. Arthur speaks through the pain: ARTHUR Draw the spear from me. Do it. Perceval holds the King tight to himself with one arm, while with the other he draws the shaft through and out of Arthur's body. Arthur sags but doesn't fall. Perceval begins to remove his armor to get at the gaping wounds. The King speaks slowly, softly, from outside his own pain-wracked body. ARTHUR There is one thing left to do... Excalibur... And you must do it, Perceval. Leave my wounds, I command you. PERCEVAL I cannot-- ARTHUR --Take Excalibur. Find a pool of calm water and throw the sword into it. Perceval, stunned by the command, doesn't move. ARTHUR Obey me, Perceval. You must act for me. It is my last order as your King. Do it, and be back! Perceval picks up the sword, mounts his horse and rides inland. Arthur watches him go, struggling with the pain, still kneeling, and then his head falls to his chest. EXT. POOL, MOORS - EVENING Perceval steps through tall reeds to the edge of a pool. He cannot bring himself to throw Excalibur into the water. He examines the blade, and it is haloed with a faint iridescence. PERCEVAL It is too precious a thing. I can't... He backs away from the water and hides the sword in the reeds, and starts back. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - EVENING Perceval dismounts, rushing to kneel at the King's side. Arthur looks up, calm and intense. ARTHUR When you threw it in, what did you see? PERCEVAL ...I saw nothing. The King looks at him with piercing power. Perceval blurts it out. PERCEVAL My King, I couldn't do it. Excalibur cannot be lost. Other men-- ARTHUR --By itself it is only a piece of steel. Its power comes from he who wields it. For now there is no one. Do as I have ordered! Perceval leaves once more. The daylight is failing, the sun is near the horizon over the sea, bursting through clouds. EXT. POOL - EVENING He picks up the sword and looks at it for a long time. Finally, with great misgiving, he hurls it into the middle of the pool. As Excalibur is about to touch the water a woman's hand reaches and grasps it by the hilt. It holds the sword aloft for a moment and then draws it under. Perceval backs away from the pool stunned by the marvel. EXT. MOORS BY THE SEA - SUNSET Perceval returns to the King, terribly excited, shouting from his horse: PERCEVAL Arthur! But Arthur isn't there. Perceval looks around him, he doesn't understand. He sees a trail of blood. He spurs his horse and follows the trail down to the sea. EXT. BEACH - SUNSET THEN NIGHT There is a trail of blood and prints upon the sand left by a man crawling. Perceval follows them toward the sea. He looks around, searching, terribly distraught. Where the blood and prints cease, there are many footprints coming from and returning into the sea. Perceval looks out across the waves. He sees a sailing vessel rising on the swell. On its deck he can make out the distant figure of Arthur, lying surrounded by women, their gossamer robes rippling in the wind. The sun hovers on the horizon and the ship is heading for it. He gallops into the waves until his horse will go no further, calling out with all his strength, a futile attempt: PERCEVAL Arthur! Will you return? The sun slips below the horizon. Night is falling, and the wind whips the wavecrests. He turns from the sea and wades back. PERCEVAL All the knights of the Round Table are dead. Excalibur is returned. Arthur is gone. Maybe he lives, maybe he will return... He stops at the edge of the water. In the uncertain light sky and sea become one. He draws the chalice out of a pouch on his saddle, and he holds it up before him. PERCEVAL Only I remain, and this... The wind swirls and whistles mysteriously in the hollow of the cup. Music grand and melancholic grows from it. The chalice, etched in starlight, is the last thing that is taken from sight in the enfolding darkness. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Extract.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Extract.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d387abf6593202e78bf31fa32c72fe7ed7f84fc7 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Extract.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + EXTRACT Written by Mike Judge March 2008 BEGIN CREDITS: EXT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - DAY An idyllic American factory. There's a huge, long lawn in front. A Reynolds Extract sign in brick with flowers/landscaping around it, sits near the entrance. We see from the number of cars in the parking lot that it's a company of about 50 - 75 employees. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - DAY We are in a manufacturing area of an assembly-line production. It's a big room full of intricate machines, huge vats of different colored extract and other food flavoring products, conveyor belts, bottling machines, etc. It has a high ceiling with offices on the second floor that have big windows overlooking this manufacturing area. We PAN up to the main office. INSIDE THE OFFICE JOEL REYNOLDS, head of the company, mid-thirties, is on the phone with his friend DEAN. DEAN (v.o.) You should come by tonight. Half price well drinks while the game's going. JOEL You always give me free drinks though. DEAN (v.o.) Oh yeah. Well come by anyway. JOEL Yeah?... Might as well. No action going on at my house, that's for sure. DEAN (v.o.) Really? The wife out of town? JOEL No... I just haven't been laid in a month. 2. DEAN (v.o.) You guys having problems or something? JOEL No. This is pretty much normal these days... As CREDITS continue, camera PULLS OUT, back down to the manufacturing area, past a big vat of orange extract, down through various stages of assembly line production, then follows several bottles of orange extract moving past HECTOR, a Mexican immigrant employee in his thirties. The camera stops on him. Talking to Hector is STEP, a short, beady-eyed Charles-Manson-looking guy with a beard and mustache. Step is in his forties. He makes everything he says sound as macho and important as possible. STEP You get this job through Manpower? HECTOR Yeah. STEP I started here with Manpower too. Started out on the line just like you. (DEAD-SERIOUS) Only I did better... 40 crates a day. Beat. Hector is not quite sure what he's talking about. STEP continues telling his tale in such a way that the only polite reaction would be one of total amazement. STEP (CONT'D) I'm the best sorter in here. That's why they made me full time with benefits. I'll probably be floor manager this year. A FEW FEET AWAY we see RORY, a stocky indie-rock geek, with too many tatoos, hair shaved on the side with a ponytail, lots of bad piercings, wearing baggy shorts with lots of pockets and some kind of gothy T-shirt -- a look that ought to be out of style by now. 3. Rory is putting stickers on boxes with a sticker gun. He flips the sticker gun around unnecessarily between each application, adding a few unnecessary moves/motions, slapping each box when he's done, generally making the activity look like more of a skill than it actually is. He approaches Step and Hector, pulling out some fliers from his many pockets. RORY (hands them each a flier) My band's playing this Friday, come check us out. Hector looks down at the flier. It's xeroxed with fifties clip-art, cut out letters and the name of the band, "God's Cock". Hector just looks at it confused, not knowing much English, not sure what he's supposed to be doing with the flier. AT THE END OF THE LINE, where boxes are loaded onto pallets, sits MARY, 58 years old, wearing a 15-year-old pair of acid- wash jeans, and an oversized tweety-bird T-shirt, fanny pack, and dayglow yellow triangle-shaped earrings. She's pear- shaped with short hair. She's bitter and bossy, always shaking her head at everyone. She sits on a stool with a clipboard, looks over her glasses at Hector, shaking her head. She talks to Gabriella, a Hispanic woman in her forties. MARY You see that... That new guy. He's holding us up. It's not my job to tell them to hold the line either. GABRIELLA And then Joel's gonna come yell at us, cuz he's not doing his job. MARY (folds her arms, fed up) I'm just gonna sit here. GABRIELLA You're not gonna shut it off? MARY I'm not gonna hold the line. If they're not gonna do their job, why should I do mine. Mary sits there, arms folded, lips pursed, refusing to pause the conveyor belt. 4. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Joel is still on the phone with Dean. JOEL If I don't get home before about 8:00, she puts on the sweatpants and once the sweatpants are on, it's over -- I get nothing. (notices something down BELOW) Shit. I'm gonna have to call you back. Joel hangs up and runs downstairs. ON THE MANUFACTURING FLOOR: Boxes start to accumulate and fall off the end of the line. Step sees this, runs to shut off the line, yelling at Mary. STEP What are you doing?! MARY What are YOU doing?! (pointing at Hector) What is he doing? A YELLING/BICKERING MATCH breaks out between Mary, Step, Rory and Gabriella. Joel runs over, shuts off the conveyor belt. JOEL (CONT'D) All right. Now, what's the problem? They all erupt in more BICKERING AND FINGER POINTING. JOEL (CONT'D) Okay! Okay, everyone settle down. Now Mary. Hector here is new okay? It's gonna take him a couple of days, maybe his English isn't so good. You gotta be patient. STEP That's what I was tryin' to say. JOEL And Step, if you wanna be Floor Manager, this is the kind of thing you're going to have to deal with. 5. STEP (KISS-ASS) Exactly. JOEL Okay, now Step, Rory, Hector, let's get this cleaned up, and get rolling again. We can't afford to fall behind today. Joel walks away. People resume their posts. Mary starts right back up with Gabriella. MARY You see that? We always get the blame. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - A LITTLE LATER Joel sits in his swivel chair, looking down at the production floor, shaking his head. BRIAN, Joel's second in command, walks in. He's a little older than Joel, neatly trimmed beard, aviator glasses, and a bit of a gut. He wears a Reynold's Extract golf shirt and Khaki pants. He walks over to the window, joins Joel, looking down at the employees. JOEL Jesus... They're like a bunch of goddamned children. BRIAN Tell me about it. Sorry I missed the drama; I was showing boy-genius down there how to back up a forklift. ANGLE ON Rory, driving the forklift, handing out a flier as he passes someone. BRIAN (CONT'D) That's his whole career, driving that damn forklift. You'd think he'd wanna learn how. JOEL Well, I guess he's got that band he's in too... BRIAN (disgust at the word "BAND") "Band", ugh... (MORE) 6. BRIAN (CONT'D) I'll bet dollars to donuts he sucks at that too. Then you got ah... (tries to remember her name but can't) Dinkus down there... JOEL Who, Mary? BRIAN No, the other one -- what's-her- face -- she asked me -- or rather "axed" me -- for more personal days. Just like that. I told her maybe if she figures out how to fill out the time sheets correctly I'll give her more personal days... (Off Joel's look) Don't worry, she will never fill out her time sheets correctly. Joel looks down at the production floor. Joel's POV: ANGLE ON: Mary and Step bickering. Step walks off. Mary and Gabrielle shaking their heads and yapping like a couple of old hens. JOEL (O.S.) Look at 'em... I am so sick of baby sitting these assholes. (looks at his watch) I better get going... Joel leaves in a hurry, mumbling something about "sweatpants." INT. JOEL'S CAR - LATE AFTERNOON Joel drives home, in a hurry, checking his dashboard clock. It's an upscale neighborhood of McMansions in a town like Lincoln Nebraska. He turns a corner, slows down suddenly when he sees something. JOEL'S POV: NATHAN, a middle-aged, overweight, annoying guy is going out to the street to get his mail. JOEL (to himself, praying) Please go back inside... Please just turn around.. .Come on...don't notice me... 7. It's too late. Nathan turns, sees Joel's car and waves, then crosses the street to Joel's driveway and waits to talk to him. JOEL (TO HIMSELF) Shit! Joel pulls into his driveway as Nathan flags him down. Joel begrudgingly rolls down the passenger side window so Nathan can talk to him. NATHAN Hi there Joel! Glad I caught ya... Nathan settles in like he's going to be there a while, leaning with his arms folded, hanging inside the car, trapping Joel. NATHAN How've ya been? I left you a message last week. I don't know if you got it or not. JOEL Yeah, actually Nathan, I'm kind of in a hurry here. NATHAN Oh yeah? You been busy? JOEL Yeah, in fact... (checks his watch) I should go right now actually. I gotta call the office before they leave. NATHAN Well, real quick while I got ya here -- what're you guys doing November 17th? JOEL Ah, I don't ah... (realizes his should fake IT) Actually we're going to be out of town that weekend. NATHAN Oh yeah? Where you going? 8. JOEL Ah... NATHAN Oh, wait a minute -- I'm sorry, I meant the 7th. Yeah, November 7th. You'll be in town then right? JOEL (DEFEATED) Ah...Yeah. NATHAN Great. There's this dinner Leslie and I are going to. It's an annual thing -- we do it every year with the Rotary Club -- it's for charity. It's just a whole lot of fun, and we wanted to invite you and Suzie to be our guests at our table. It's-- JOEL I'm sorry, I ah... I just don't think that's something we're gonna want to do. NATHAN Really? Why not? It's a lot of fun. JOEL Oh, I don't know. Suzie doesn't really like going to stuff like THAT-- NATHAN Why not? JOEL Well, we wouldn't know anybody there. She get's kind of uncomfortable. NATHAN Oh no -- It's not like that. She won't be uncomfortable. I guarantee it. No, it's not like that at all. It's not formal or anything. Trust me. It's just a real loose bunch. 9. JOEL I just don't... NATHAN I tell you what. Why don't we do this -- I'll go ahead and get tickets, since they're gonna sell out fast. You talk to Suzie. See what she says. Like I say, she won't be uncomfortable at all. Maybe I'll have Leslie give her a call -- you know how it is when the wives talk, heh heh-- Joel is about to snap. JOEL Um, why don't we talk about this later. (looks at his watch) I gotta make this call before they leave. Joel pulls away, forcing Nathan to raise off the window sill. JOEL (CONT'D) (CALLING BACK) Sorry... I just gotta make this call! INT. JOEL'S GARAGE - CONTINUOUS Joel pulls the car in, steps out and is shocked to see Nathan right there in his garage. NATHAN Sorry, I almost forgot -- the tickets are forty dollars a plate. I know that's a little steep, but the food is fantastic and it's for a good cause. So that'd be eighty dollars total. There's no tax or anything. JOEL Ah, look Nathan, I really gotta get inside and make this call. Let's talk about this another time. Joel has his finger on the button to shut the garage door, waiting for Nathan to get out. Nathan stops, just inside. 10. NATHAN Oh, and if you need us to look out for the house or anything when you go out of town -- Joel's finger still on the garage door button. NATHAN Well, just let us know. Where you guys going anyway? JOEL (BULLSHITTING) Ah, just sort of a vacation. Look, I gotta run. Joel hits the button and the door starts going down. NATHAN Alright then. We'll see ya. Nathan finally steps out of the garage. Joel breaths a huge sigh of relief. Then, ANGLE ON THE GARAGE DOOR: As it gets halfway down, we see Nathan's legs, heading back towards the door. Nathan leans down into frame as the door goes down. NATHAN Oh, Joel one more thing-- Joel lets the door shut on him, and bolts into the house. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - EVENING Joel walks into the living room just as his wife, SUZIE, enters from the bedroom pulling on her SWEATPANTS. A look of disappointment on Joel's face. Suzie is a decent looking woman, about Joel's age. JOEL Man, that Nathan won't shut up. SUZIE Yeah, what an asshole. I don't even go into the front yard anymore. That wife of his is even worse. 11. Suzie plops down on the couch looking tired and pissed off. Joel sits down next to her. SUZIE (CONT'D) We gotta get a new pool cleaner.I don't think that asshole checked the chlorine levels again like I asked him too... Joel puts his arm around her, caresses her shoulder. She doesn't seem to notice as he starts getting fresh. SUZIE (CONT'D) .and every time he is here, he goes on and on about some problem with the goddamn filter, and I have no idea what he's talking about... Delayed reaction -- she notices Joel is getting frisky. He gets closer, starts kissing her neck. SUZIE (CONT'D) (UNCOMFORTABLE) Ah,...Joel? JOEL What? SUZIE I'm sorry. It's just... I'm a little tired, and, I don't know, it's the middle of the week... JOEL It's not the middle of the week. It's Monday. Why can't-- SUZIE Monday? (Freezes, suddenly REALIZING SOMETHING) Oh shit! JOEL (WORRIED) What?! SUZIE Idol! Suzie jumps up with newfound energy, runs for the remote and turns on the TV. Joel just sits there. 12. Suzie plops down in a Barcalounger. SUZIE (CONT'D) Sorry honey. Maybe this weekend. Joel leaves the room. INT. JOEL'S BATHROOM -- LATER [Quick scene of Joel trying to masturbate (off screen of course), but he's too distracted by the sounds of a bad out- of-tune Idol audition blaring through the wall.] EXT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR -- NIGHT Establishing shot. A sports bar that's part of a Holiday Inn. INT. SCOREBOARDS -- CONTINUOUS Joel sits at the bar. DEAN, the owner of the bar, late forties, and an old friend of Joel's, sits behind the bar on a stool. JOEL I gotta get a house with a bathroom that's doesn't share a wall with the TV. DEAN Why don't you do that in another bathroom. You've got three of 'em. JOEL It would look suspicious. We never use those other bathrooms... Maybe if I had some insulation put in... DEAN Insulation?... All I know is, you shouldn't move man; you've got a nice house. I mean you've got the American dream really -- you own your own company. I can't believe you used to bar back for me here, and now you've got all that. JOEL But what do I have really? It's a big pain in the ass. (MORE) 13. JOEL (CONT'D) I'm always working; can't stop or the whole place will fall apart. And what good does it do me anyway? I don't get laid. That stock guy with the shitty band that works for me probably gets laid more than I do. DEAN (trying to help) Yeah, but he probably lives in a crappy apartment. JOEL Hell, I'd move into a crappy apartment if the bathroom wasn't right next to the TV. INT. MUSIC STORE - DAY CINDY, a girl in her early twenties, is at the counter looking at a new Gibson hollow-body electric guitar -- one of the really nice ones. The price tag says $3,950. She's beautiful and sexy and all that, but there's something vulnerable and sweet about her as well. Two SALESMEN, typical music store employees -- long-haired, goateed, nerdy cocky guitar-hacks are giving her way too much attention. It's clear that they don't usually have women this hot in their store. They practically stumble over each other trying to help her. SALESMAN #1 Yeah, it's expensive but it's sweet... Are you familiar with the Gibson humbucking pickups? CINDY No, sorry. I don't play. It's for my Dad actually -- for his fiftieth birthday. My sisters and I are all pitching in. SALESMAN #2 Ah, that's nice... Your Dad would love these humbuckings. They really kick ass. An annoyed MALE CUSTOMER has been waiting behind Cindy, trying to get some help, but he might as well be invisible. He tries to address Salesman #2, off to the side. 14. MALE CUSTOMER Excuse me... I just have a quick question... Salesman #2 is oblivious, never takes his eyes off Cindy. SALESMAN #2 (OBLIVIOUS) So, what kind of music did he play? Both Salesmen's eyes are glued to Cindy as Male Customer finally gets sick of waiting and storms off into the keyboard room. CINDY I think he played like, jazz or something. I'm not sure. SALESMAN #2 Well this is an excellent jazz guitar. It's what Pat Metheny plays. SALESMAN #1 Is your Dad into Metheny at all? CINDY Oh, I don't know who that is. Sorry. SALESMAN #2 He's like, a totally kickass fusion guitarist. Are you into fusion? CINDY I don't really know much about it... SALESMAN #2 I play fusion guitar so... Just curious. CINDY Um, do they come in any other colors? SALESMAN #1 You mean different finishes? There's a sunburst finish we might have in stock. 15. SALESMAN #2 Yeah, do you wanna see it? I'll go get it. SALESMAN #1 Or I could go. Whatever. CINDY Are you sure? SALESMAN #1/SALESMAN #2 Oh totally./ No prob!/ I'll show you the case it comes with too. The salesmen practically trip over each other, going into the back to find the other guitar. Cindy stands there alone for a beat. She looks around. Then casually picks up the four-thousand dollar guitar and walks out the front door with it. EXT. MUSIC STORE - CONTINUOUS ACTION Cindy walks a few yards over to her car, a ' 92 Tercel, puts the guitar in the trunk, gets in and takes off. INT. MUSIC STORE - CONTINUOUS ACTION The two Salesmen return -- one carrying the sunburst-finish guitar and the other with the hard-shell case. They look around, notice she's gone. They stand there for a beat, disappointed, before they realize what just happened. SALESMAN #1 Oh shit!... (FRANTICALLY LOOKING AROUND) THE GIBSON! They run out the front door, but Cindy is long gone. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - DAY Joel is at his desk. Brian comes in, excited. BRIAN You're not gonna believe this. Remember the guy from General Mills that called a while back? Talking like he wanted to buy us out? 16. JOEL I thought you said he wasn't serious; he was just sniffing around. BRIAN Yeah, well he's serious now. He just made an offer -- I mean a real offer this time. JOEL You're kidding. BRIAN No. It must be part of some bigger strategic move, because it's over market value I think. JOEL Wow... Joel lets it sink in. He walks over to the window, looking down on the production floor. JOEL I could unload all this... I could probably retire... BRIAN I mean, yeah, there's a lot of details to work out, but this could be great. They'll be calling back next week, what should I tell them? Joel looks down, sees Mary sitting with her arms folded, shaking her head. JOEL Tell 'em hell yes. INT. MANUFACTURING FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Mary sits with her arms folded, refusing to hold the line. MARY I already warned him. This is the last time. I'm just gonna sit here. In SLOW MOTION, we see: 17. - The first box falls off the end of the assembly line, bottles shatter. - Rory, carrying some boxes slips on the broken bottles of goopey extract, falls and slides into an aisle. - A forklift stops suddenly to avoid hitting Rory, causing a huge stack of pallets to fall off. - Quick shot of Mary shaking her head in slow-motion. - Just as Step rounds a corner to see what's going on, the pallets land on a bunch of pipes and high-pressure valves which burst open sending a piece of shrapnel flying across the room heading straight for - STEP'S CROTCH. The shrapnel heads straight for his genitalia, as we CUT TO: EXT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - DAY Step is on a stretcher being loaded into a MEDIVAC helicopter by a couple of EMS guys. Step moans in pain as Joel tries to comfort him. A small crowd of employees watch. ANGLE ON Mary in the crowd, shaking her head. MARY I knew it. That's what happens when you don't pay attention. INT. SCOREBOARDS -- LATER Joel sits at the bar, on a cell phone. Dean sits behind the bar on a stool. JOEL (to the person on the PHONE) Uh-huh... Alright. Let me know if you hear anything else. He hangs up, talks to Dean. JOEL (CONT'D) Well, he's definitely lost one of 'em. They think they might be able to re-attach the other one, but they're not sure. 18. DEAN (shaking his head) Wow... JOEL Yeah... I'm not sure how it happened, but we have a great safety record and we comply with all the safety codes so... it was just a freak accident. There'll be an investigation of some kind I'm sure. DEAN Well, you have insurance for that kind of thing, right? JOEL Oh yeah. Of course. In fact, he'll probably get a huge settlement. DEAN Yeah. I would think so. I mean, it's your balls... Beat, as they contemplate the profundity of it. JOEL Boy it really makes you stop and think about how fragile we are -- especially our balls. They're just hanging there in a little sack between our legs. At any moment they could be cut off forever. DEAN Yeah. And your balls are really important man. Your balls are everything. What kind of life would you have with no testicles? Can you imagine that shit? JOEL Yeah... Beat. JOEL (CONT'D) You know Dean, my life wouldn't be much different than it is now actually. (MORE) 19. JOEL (CONT'D) Except for once every three months when I have sex with my wife. In fact, I might even be better off... DEAN Wait. Three months? I thought you said it was once a month. JOEL I did? I must've been lying. I don't know... Maybe things'll get better when I sell the company. I'll be around more... DEAN Well, I hope so. That would suck... I get laid all the time. (off Joel's reaction) Sorry. JOEL Ah, it's all right... (THINKS) Actually, it sucks. DEAN Yeah, sexual frustration is bad news... You know what you oughtta do? JOEL What? DEAN Get some Xanax. JOEL Xanax? Isn't that for anxiety? DEAN Yeah it is, but I find it's good for just about any phsychological problem. I mean, basically it just makes you feel good, so it sort of works for anything. I even take it when I have a cold. It's probably great for sexual frustration. Want me to get you some? JOEL No. 20. DEAN You know what else is good? Codeine cough syrup. JOEL For what? DEAN It's just good. Joel looks at Dean for a beat. JOEL (CONT'D) Are you on something now? DEAN No... Well, I guess I took some Vicodin this morning. But that was just 'cause I was hung-over. EXT. PAWN SHOP - DAY Establishing shot, a pawn shop in a strip mall. Cindy's car parked out in front. INT. PAWN SHOP - CONTINUOUS Cindy is at the counter, the Gibson guitar we saw earlier is in front of her. A PAWN SHOP GUY is counting out money. He pauses, looks around, then speaks sympathetically to her. PAWN SHOP GUY Um, you know, I'm really not supposed to say this... but since this belonged to your father, and since he passed away and all... (QUIETLY) You could probably get a better deal at a music store. CINDY Oh, that's okay. Thanks. But I just kind of wanna get it over with, you know? It's kind of hard for me. PAWN SHOP GUY I understand. He looks around to see if his boss is watching, then counts off a FEW MORE TWENTIES, feeling sorry for her. 21. PAWN SHOP GUY (cont'd) Here. INT. CINDY'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER Cindy puts the money in her wallet, along with a driver's license. CLOSE ON THE WALLET. Cindy shuffles through three or four different driver's licenses. On one, her name says MISTY PATTERSON. It's a Kansas license. She takes another one out from Colorado, with the name CINDY METZLER on it and puts that in front, then puts the wallet away. A newspaper sits on the front seat. Something grabs her attention. ANGLE ON THE NEWSPAPER: We see an article about Step's accident. There's a picture of Step being taken away on the stretcher. Cindy starts reading the article, with growing interest. CINDY'S POV: She scans the article, zeroing in on certain words, ".. .potentially big settlement..." "...no testicles..." "several million dollars" then back to "no testicles" then quickly back and forth several times -- "million dollars" "no testicles" "million dollars" "no testicles" ON CINDY'S FACE - A look of determination. She looks one more time at the name under the picture -- Don "Step" Wilkenson, then zeroes in on the words "Reynold's Extract." She starts the car and speeds away. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Joel sits with Brian. Brian has a clipboard, going over the day's business. BRIAN So obviously Step's not coming back anytime soon. I had to hire a couple temps. Is that okay? JOEL Yeah, sure. How is Step? 22. BRIAN Better. They say he's going home in a couple of days. Speaking of which, the guys at General Mills heard about this whole Step thing. They're worried. If Step decides to sue us -- beyond the insurance settlement -- it could be a serious liability. They don't want to make an offer until this thing has settled. JOEL Really? They think it's that big of a liability? BRIAN Well yeah. Don't you? I mean, think about it. Imagine if you asked a bunch of jurors how much you'd have to pay 'em to cut their balls off? I mean, I wouldn't let someone cut my balls off for a billion dollars. Seriously -- unless there were some kind of really expensive operation that could give you artificial balls or something. Would you? JOEL No, I guess not. BRIAN Anyway, I wouldn't worry. He says he's not going to sue us. Says he (CRUDE IMITATION) "don't want somethin' fer nothin "' and "What's right is right." If we can just get him to sign something to that effect we should be fine. JOEL Boy, Step sure is being mellow about all this. BRIAN Yeah, well I think when you lose your balls it mellows you out. You don't get as pissed off and aggressive about things. I know it's true for horses, and bulls. 23. JOEL Boy, it sure does make you think.. BRIAN Oh, by the way, guess who asked for a raise today? JOEL Who? BRIAN (GESTURES INDISCRIMINATELY to someone downstairs) Dinkus. Can you believe that? JOEL Brian, you call everyone here "Dinkus." I don't know who you're talking about. BRIAN You know, Forklift-Dinkus? JOEL Oh... I thought you call him "boy- genius." BRIAN Yeah, well boy-genius asked for a raise. I said, "are you kidding? You nearly got someone killed last week," and then he blamed it on Dinkus over there. JOEL You know Brian, you really ought to learn the employees' names. BRIAN Well, I was thinking about that, but hey, if this deal goes through next week, I won't have to. It's not like I'm gonna be inviting Dinkus and Boy-Genius over for dinner. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - NEXT DAY Joel stands on one side of his office looking down through a long window overlooking the manufacturing area. Dean comes in, walks over to the window, looks down at the production floor with Joel. 24. DEAN Hey man. What's goin' o-- Whoa! DEAN'S POV: It's CINDY, now working down on the floor, on the assembley line. DEAN (CONT'D) Damn! Who's she? Is she new? JOEL Yeah. She's a temp. DEAN She's a tramp? JOEL No a temp. Quit staring. DEAN Damn, she's hot! Way to go. JOEL Hey, I didn't hire her. She came here through Manpower, like everybody else. They just sent her over. DEAN Manpower, huh? Maybe I should give them a call. You don't usually have girls anywhere near that hot working here. What's the deal? JOEL Yeah, I know. I guess it makes sense though if you think about it. Hot girls need a job just as much as anyone else. DEAN (thinks for a second) Do they really?... Huh... You just don't see 'em here. Usually your temps look like winos. And they're guys. JOEL You wanna hear something really weird? DEAN What? 25. JOEL She came on to me. DEAN No way! Really? JOEL Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure. I could be wrong, but... DEAN Hey, I'm sure she did. Are you kidding? You could have any girl down there. JOEL I don't know about that. DEAN I'm serious. Dude, you're the big shot here. You're the king of... What do you call that shit you make here again? JOEL Extract. And spray-dried flavoring, and we're branching out INTO-- DEAN Yeah, you're the Extract King man. You could have any girl here. I mean, I wouldn't want most of 'em, but her... Way to go Joel. Dean looks down at manufacturing area, taking it all in. DEAN (CONT'D) So how did she come on to you? JOEL Well, first she started asking me about what happened to Step and all that stuff -- you know, just sort of making conversation? DEAN Yeah. JOEL But it really seemed like she was flirting with me, you know? (MORE) 26. JOEL (CONT'D) Then, she just sort of asked me out... I think. DEAN Really? How? JOEL Well, you see that guy down there by the fork lift? ANGLE ON Rory, the indi-rock guy with tattoos, etc. JOEL (CONT'D) His band is playing somewhere, at some party this weekend, and she asked me if I wanted to go with her. DEAN Wow. So, you gonna do anything about it? JOEL What? No. No way. I couldn't live with myself if I cheated on Suzie... It'd be nice if I got laid at home once in a while though... DEAN (still staring at her) Man, she is fine. You mind if I hit that then? Beat. JOEL Yeah, I do sort of... We see a COMMOTION down on the floor. Mary runs out of the Women's locker room SCREAMING AND YELLING. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT / MANUFACTURING AREA - CONTINUOUS ACTION Mary runs over to where Hector is working, hysterical. MARY My purse is stolen! It's gone! (pointing at Hector) He did it! He stole my purse! 27. Brian runs over and stands between them, trying to calm Mary down, but she keeps ranting. Hector looks confused and worried. BRIAN Now hold on-- MARY I won't hold on! I'll call the cops! HECTOR (confused, frightened) What? I don'... No comprende... BRIAN (HORRIBLE SPANISH) Espera un momento Hector. Tu sabes donde esta su... uh, purse? ANGLE ON CINDY, watching the whole thing-- completely unfazed.Joel rushes in. JOEL Now wait a second. Calm down Mary. How do you know it was stolen? MARY It's gone! That's how. JOEL Well, what did it look like. MARY It was black with a fur, leopard style border... As Mary describes the purse, we CUT TO: INT. CINDY'S CAR - AFTERNOON Cindy sits in her parked car, going through the purse Mary just described. She takes some cash, puts it in her pocket, then finds what she's looking for -- the address book. ANGLE ON ADDRESS BOOK. Cindy turns to the Ws and finds Step Wilkenson. She notes his address. She starts the car and takes off. 28. EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF STEP'S HOUSE - A LITTLE LATER Cindy sits and waits, listening to the radio. It's a very blue-collar neighborhood. She's about three houses away from Step's house, keeping an eye on it. After a beat, Step limps out of the house, walks over to his pickup truck, painfully gets in, and leaves. Cindy starts the car and follows from a distance. INT. GROCERY STORE - A LITTLE LATER Step wheels his shopping cart into one of the checkout lines. He uses the cart as a crutch to help him walk. Cindy gets in line behind him. She only has one item, a bottle of Reynold's Orange Extract. Step notices her. STEP You can go ahead of me if that's all you have. CINDY (SWEETLY) Thank you so much. (holds up extract bottle) I can't believe I'm buying this stuff -- I work at the factory. STEP Really? I work there too. Or, ah, I used to. CINDY Really? You're kidding! I just started there. What's your name? STEP I go by Step. Yeah, I'm the fastest sorter there... As Cindy and Step get to know each other we CUT TO: INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - NIGHT Joel enters the living room. He first sees the sweatpants, then sees Suzie is sound asleep on the couch. He sighs, then turns and leaves. 29. INT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR -- NIGHT Joel sits at the bar talking to Dean. Joel is drinking some kind of hard liquor, getting a buzz. JOEL I'm sick of it Dean. I'm sick of being turned down in my own house by my own wife. We're turning into one of those brother-sister couples. DEAN Huh...Now that you mention it, you guys kind of look alike too. JOEL (GROSSED OUT) No we don't! DEAN Okay. JOEL (takes a drink) Maybe things will be better after I sell the company... Or maybe it's just going to mean more time to sit around and contemplate not getting laid. Dean nods sympathetically. DEAN What about that girl at work? She still into you? JOEL Yeah... she was really coming on to me. She gave me her phone number and everything. Told me to call her if I wanted to go to that party. Can you believe that? And there's nothing I can do about it, but just be sexually frustrated. DEAN I've got some Xanax if you want it. Like I say, that always works for me. 30. JOEL No thanks... DEAN Well maybe you should call that girl. JOEL No, I can't. I can't cheat on Suzie. I just gotta power through it until I'm so old that I can't get it up anymore. DEAN What about if Suzie cheated on you? JOEL Hmm... I hadn't even thought of that... (BEAT) I wish she would. DEAN You wish she would cheat on you? Wouldn't that bother you? Joel thinks about it. JOEL No. I don't think it would actually. (occuring to him) I guess that's weird huh? DEAN Yeah, it's a little weird. Sort of. JOEL But see, then I could do something about all this sexual frustration, without feeling guilty about it. DEAN Do you think she would cheat on you? JOEL Nah... DEAN You sure? 31. JOEL (CONSIDERS IT) Well, I don't know. Hmm... Maybe if she were really tempted she would. Like if some really studly guy came on to her. DEAN So you're saying she would probably cheat on you if she was put in temptation's way? JOEL Yeah, maybe. DEAN You know what you oughtta do? JOEL (WEARY) I don't wanna do any drugs Dean. DEAN No, no. Check this out -- If you really wish your wife would cheat on you, it's not that hard to make it happen. JOEL How? DEAN Hire a gigolo to have an affair with your wife. JOEL What? DEAN I'm serious. I know a guy. JOEL (INCREDULOUS) You know a gigolo? DEAN Yeah. JOEL How do you know a gigolo? 32. DEAN This guy Brad. He comes in here all the time. He's a friend of Vic's. You could hire him to have an affair with Suzie. JOEL Come on Dean. DEAN Why not? You said you wouldn't care if she cheated on you. Then you'd be free to go out with that Cindy chick and get your ya-yas out -- with no guilt. Problem solved. (proud of himself) Man, what a great idea. Joel just shakes his head at the whole thing. JOEL You know, maybe I will try some of that Xanax. Dean reaches down under the cash register and whips out a little box and pulls out a pill. EXT. LAKE -- SAME TIME Step's truck is parked out at a lake in the country. He and Cindy sit next to each other on the tailgate, looking at the stars, talking. STEP I just believe that what's right is right. CINDY That's right Step, and what's right is for you to send a message. STEP A message? CINDY You need to send a message so that a horrible accident like this never happens to anyone else ever again. That's what's right. And the way you do that is to take them to court. 33. STEP You think? CINDY Yes Step... That's why I called a lawyer for you -- that guy on all the bus stop benches. STEP Joe Adler? (TOUCHED) You did that for me? CINDY Mmm hmm... I just want you to do what's right Step. They start cuddling, kissing. Cindy pulls away. CINDY I'm sorry Step, your doctor said you shouldn't get aroused. STEP No he didn't. CINDY Maybe it was your lawyer, but he talked to your doctor. And your doctor said it's very important not to get aroused until after the trial... I'm sorry. STEP That's okay... You're so good to me Cindy. They start cuddling again. CINDY Look Step, you're getting me turned on, I'm getting you turned on... I better just go. INT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR -- LATER Joel is starting to look really tweaked as the drug-alcohol combination begins to kick in. Dean is examining a pill under the cash register light, trying to read the small print. He looks concerned. 34. DEAN Shit... Do you remember what color that pill I gave you was? JOEL Huh? DEAN Damn. I don't think it was Xanax. I think that might've been Ritalin... Or "Special K." JOEL (feeling the buzz) Ah, who cares? DEAN It's just that, ah, Special K is a horse tranquilizer, kinda has a weird effect when people take it but... well, don't worry about it... You might not want to drink too much more though. JOEL (beginning to slur his SPEECH) You know that thing you were talking about? About the gigolo? DEAN Yeah? JOEL Do you think it would be wrong to do that? I mean morally wrong? DEAN (with full authority) Oh nooo. Definitely not. What could be morally wrong about it? JOEL I don't know... DEAN Look, if she doesn't want to go for it, she doesn't have to. And if she does, then she's the one who sinned, and then it's perfectly morally right for you to go out and boff whoever you want. 35. JOEL (SLURRED SPEECH) Yeah, I guess you're right. I can't think of anything morally wrong about it either. Beat. JOEL And this guy, he's a friend of yours? What's his name? DEAN Brad. You want me to give him a call? JOEL I don't know. It's kinda weird even talking about it. DEAN Look, this is no big deal Joel. I'm serious. JOEL Really? DEAN Yeah. I mean, you can't lose. Just say you're hiring him to come clean the pool or something. See what happens. If she doesn't go for it, then at least you know you're doing the right thing by being faithful. JOEL Yeah, I guess you're right... I don't know. It's crazy. Dean pours Joel another drink. DEAN Look. Have another drink. Think about it... You know what? Why don't I just call Brad and see what he has to say? JOEL Alright. What the hell. Joel takes a big swig of liquor. 36. INT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR - BACK OFFICE -- NIGHT Dean and Joel are talking with BRAD, the gigolo. He's young, blonde, super good-looking, but clearly a complete airhead. Joel looks really messed up now. JOEL So it's two-hundred dollars then? BRAD Yeah, two-hundred. DEAN Well yeah, but don't forget, I'm getting ten percent. JOEL What, so you're a pimp now? DEAN (CONDESCENDING CHUCKLE) I don't think they're called "pimps" when it's with male prostitutes, okay. There's some other word for it -- it's not a "john," but it's something like that. Besides, I'm the one who hooked all this up. And don't worry 'cuz it's coming out of Brad's money anyway. JOEL Alright, alright. (TO BRAD) So it's two-hundred dollars then? DEAN Two-hundred and twenty. JOEL Wait a minute-- BRAD Um, I have a question? JOEL Yeah? Brad looks at Joel, deeply concerned. 37. BRAD So like, are you gonna, like, watch or something? JOEL No no no. God no! It's not like that. I won't even be there. I'll be at work. Remember? We already talked about this. Brad looks blank, like he's not getting it. JOEL What you'll do, is come to my house pretending to be the new pool cleaner. Then you simply try to seduce my wife. Okay? If she doesn't respond, you simply clean the pool and leave. That's all. It's that simple. Hold on Brad for a long beat. BRAD So, uh, you're not gonna touch my ass or anything...? JOEL NO! Try to pay attention okay? I will not be there. I will be at work. You come over to my house while I'm not there, posing as the new pool cleaner and then try to seduce her... Brad finally makes a breakthrough. BRAD Oooh, I see. Sorry man. Yeah, yeah. I get it now. You're not even gonna be there... JOEL Yeah, that's right. BRAD Yeah... cool. No problem. This is gonna be great! JOEL Remember, she might not go for it-- Brad starts to get a little too excited. 38. BRAD Yeah, this is gonna be cool! I can hardly wait! Awesome. Hey man, if you know anyone else who needs -- you know -- what I do, like you know, lonely housewives and shit, maybe you could tell 'em about me, you know... Joel looks on with growing concern as Brad can't seem to stop talking. BRAD Cuz like, I figure if I did a few jobs and I was, like, really good? Then maybe they'd tell their friends, you know, and they'd give me a... what do you call those things? DEAN Referrals. BRAD Yeah yeah, those things. Then those women could tell more women and then it'd be like I was, like, uh... branching or.. DEAN Networking. BRAD Yeah, networking! Totally. Then if I got enough of 'em, maybe I could quit my landscaping job and do this full time. That would be awesome! Cause I hate landscaping. I like getting laid a lot better, and my boss is a total dick... EXT. SCOREBOARDS' PARKING LOT -- NIGHT Joel and Dean are at Dean's car, trying to say goodbye to Brad, who still won't shut up. BRAD Like I say, if your wife has any housewife friends who might-- Dean finally puts his foot down. 39. DEAN Okay, you've said that a few times now Brad. Go on to your car. Okay? BRAD Alright. Cool. Like I say-- DEAN Goodnight Brad. BRAD Okay. See you later. Brad finally leaves. DEAN Let me drive you home. You're in no condition to drive. Joel stumbles into Dean's car. JOEL Are you sure about this guy Dean? He acts like he's never done this before. DEAN Oh no. He does it all the time. Don't worry. He just gets a little excited sometimes. He's cool. JOEL I don't know. He sure doesn't seem too bright. DEAN Yeah well, what do you excpect? He's a whore. DISSOLVE TO: INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - EMPLOYEE BREAK ROOM - NEXT MORNING A break room with a kitchen. Joel is badly hungover. He looks like he's about to throw up as he reaches into the cupboard above the sink, downs a couple of aspirin, then drops some alka-seltzer in to a glass of water. Cindy comes in. 40. CINDY Looks like you had one of those nights. (FLIRTATIOUS) Where was I? Joel nods, tries to grin and look cool as he takes a sip of his alkaseltzer. Then his eyes go wide, he almost does a spit-take as something suddenly dawns on him... JOEL Oh shit! He runs out of the room. CUT TO: INT. JOEL'S OFFICE Joel grabs the phone and dials frantically. Dean answers. JOEL Dean? DEAN (V.0.) (WAKING UP) Oh, hey Joel. JOEL Thank God you're home. Ah,... did that really happen last night? I mean, did we go through with it -- with that gigolo stuff? DEAN Ah, yeah. As far as I know. JOEL Shit! What was I thinking?! We gotta call it off. Right now. Can you call that guy, Brad? DEAN Okay... JOEL Tell him I'll pay him anyway, whatever, just don't come over. God, what was I thinking?! 41. DEAN Sure, I'll call him. No problem... Oh wait a second. I don't think I have his number. JOEL What? I thought you called him last night. DEAN Yeah, but I got his number from Vic. JOEL Well get it from him again. DEAN Vic doesn't have a phone right now. JOEL Shit! I'll try information. What's Brad's last name? Pause. DEAN Hmm... it's something like,... I think it's a Mexican name. JOEL (LOSING PATIENCE) Mexican?! The guy's got blonde hair and blue eyes! DEAN Yeah, I thought it was weird too -- a guy like that with a Mexican last name... It's like Lopez, or Sanchez or something. Joel looks at his watch. It's 11:15. JOEL Shit! Joel hangs up the phone, and rushes out the door. INT. RECEPTIONIST DESK IN FRONT OF JOEL'S OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS ACTION Brian walks in. 42. BRIAN (CONCERNED) Joel, we gotta talk. JOEL Not now Brian. BRIAN Ah yeah, it's kind of important -- kind of really important. It's ABOUT STEP- Joel rushes past him. JOEL Not now! We FOLLOW Joel as he rushes past his SECRETARY. SECRETARY Excuse me Joel? There's a Brad Chavez on line one for you. JOEL I can't, I-- Joel stops suddenly. JOEL Who? SECRETARY Brad Chavez. He said he's done with the job you guys talked about at your house? Do you want me to take a message? Joel looks pale. JOEL Um, no... He's the ah, pool cleaner. I better take that. Joel goes back in his office. HOLD on Brian, confused. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Joel stares at the phone for a beat then picks it up. JOEL Hello? 43. BRAD (V.0.) Hey, is this Joel? JOEL Yes. BRAD (V.0.) Hey, it's Brad. Mission accomplished dude. JOEL What do you mean? BRAD (V.0.) I mean it worked. She totally went for it. JOEL What? What're you...? (looks at his watch) You weren't even supposed to be there for another 45 minutes. BRAD (V.0.) Oh really? I forgot what time you guys said, and I was so excited about it, I just went over there. Joel sits down, freaked out. JOEL (reality setting in) So you mean she actually ah... you guys...? BRAD (V.0.) Yup. It was easy. JOEL (AGITATED) Easy? What do you mean "easy"? BRAD (V.0.) Oh, I don't mean easy like she was easy -- like she was a slut or anything. I just mean it wasn't hard to get her to... Never mind. JOEL No. Tell me. Tell me how it happened. (BRACES HIMSELF) I wanna hear everything. 44. BRAD You sure? JOEL Yeah. BRAD (V.0.) Okay. Well, she let me in, so I went back like I was cleaning the pool... EXT. JOEL'S HOUSE - POOL -- DAY As Brad's dopey narration continues, we see the story he's telling. It plays out like a bad soft-porn flick on Cinemax. We see Brad wiping the side of the pool with a rag. BRAD (V.0.) .I don't know anything about pool cleaning, so I was just faking it. She was in her bathing suit... Suzie comes out and lies on one of the reclining chairs. BRAD (V.0.) .So I struck up a conversation... BRAD This is a really nice house. SUZIE Thanks. BRAD Is it your Dad's house? SUZIE No. It's ours. BRAD Wow, you look so young to be living in a house this nice. SUZIE Oh, thanks. Beat. BRAD Do you have any sunscreen? I forgot mine. 45. Brad's dopey narration comes back in... BRAD (V.0.) I thought that was pretty smart of me -- to ask her to borrow sunscreen. See, 'cuz that way, once she gave me some, I could ask her if she wanted some too, and rub some on her back, instead of just coming out and asking her to rub some on her. Pretty smooth huh?... We see Brad rubbing lotion on Suzie's back as she lies face- down on the chair. BRAD (V.0.) Once I was rubbing the sunscreen on her, the rest was easy... We see Brad's hands working their way down Suzie's back. Just as they start to move down towards her butt, Joel interrupts, YANKING US OUT OF THE FLASHBACK. JOEL Okay that's enough! Stop! INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS JOEL I don't need to hear anymore. BRAD (V.0.) Okay, cool. Hey, like I say, if you know of anyone else, or if you ever need me to do it again-- JOEL NO! No. Look, I gotta go. Bye. Joel hangs up the phone and falls back into his chair, in a state of shock. JOEL (quietly, to himself) Holy shit. INT. JOEL'S CAR - LATE AFTERNOON Joel drives home from work. He still looks freaked out. He notices something ahead, and suddenly SLAMS ON THE BREAKS. 46. JOEL Dammit ! JOEL'S POV: Nathan, the guy across the street is in his front yard, puttering around with the mail. JOEL (TO HIMSELF) No... not today... Joel puts the car in reverse, starts to pull behind a parked car in an attempt to hide, but Nathan notices him, waves and crosses the street. Joel reluctantly pulls ahead to his driveway. NATHAN How's it goin'? JOEL Oh, I'm kind of busy actually. NATHAN Yeah. Well I won't keep you. I just wanted to let you know, I got those tickets to that dinner we talked about on the 7th. I think I told you they were forty dollars a piece, but it turns out it's a tad more this year -- fifty-five -- so if I could go ahead and just get a check from you guys... JOEL Look, ah, we can't go. Remember? NATHAN No, this is the 7th. You said you're going out of town on the 17th. JOEL Yeah, but remember, I told you we didn't really want to go to this thing. Nathan looks dumbfounded. Joel is about to snap. NATHAN But I already bought the tickets. I know you said something about her feeling uncomfortable, but, like I say, she won't feel uncomfortable at all -- I guarantee it. (MORE) 47 NATHAN (CONT'D) It's just a whole lot of fun. You guys'll have a great time. JOEL Look, I gotta get going. NATHAN Alright then... Joel starts to pull away. NATHAN (CONT'D) Oh, one more thing -- Joel just keeps driving, almost knocking Nathan over. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - EVENING Joel and Suzie are eating dinner. Suzie has a glow about her, looking better than ever -- relaxed, satisfied, etc. Joel's has a quietly pissed off demeanor. They eat in silence for a beat. SUZIE So... How's work? JOEL It sucks. SUZIE Really? What's wrong? JOEL Nothing. Suzie looks a little puzzled. They keep eating in silence for a beat. JOEL I don't feel well. I'm going to bed. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - JOEL'S OFFICE - DAY From the window in his office, Joel watches Cindy working down on the production floor. Cindy looks up, they make eye contact for a brief moment. She gives him a flirtacious wave. Joel waves back. Then Rory comes by, starts talking to Cindy. 48. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT /MANUFACTURING AREA - CONTINOUS CINDY So you're in a band? RORY .Actually, I'm in five bands right now. But Godscock is basically the same four guys as Fighthead, but Fighthead's more of a thrash/skatepunk thing. Godscock is more melodic stuff. Cindy nods politely. Rory thinks she's interested. RORY (CONT'D) So you comin' Friday? CINDY Yeah, definitely. (looks at her watch) Ooh, I gotta go. Dentist appointment. RORY Cool. Cindy leaves. ANGLE ON Mary, on the other side of the room, watching them. She talks to Gabriella. MARY See, there he goes again, slowing us down. (RE: CINDY) Now she's a good sorter. They need to hire more people like her. GABRIELLA She's so nice too. Hector walks by. Mary just shakes her head. MARY I can't believe he's still working here. You know Silvia can't find her wallet. Thinks it was stolen. And guess who was in the locker room last? Hector. They both look at Hector and shake their heads in disgust. 49. MARY You know, I could get a job at Southwest Airlines. My Niece works there. I'd get better benefits than we get here too. GABRIELLE Mmm hmm. I could get a job at Gemco. You think they would put up with this stuff at Gemco? Mmm mmn. They run a tight ship. MARY That's right. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Joel's POV of Mary and Gabrielle, yacking self-righteously. Joel looks on with disgust... JOEL (TO HIMSELF) Good riddance... Brian steps in, taps on the door. BRIAN You got a second? I think we might have a big problem here. I'm not sure what happened, but all of the sudden Step says he doesn't want to settle anymore. I think he might've talked to a lawyer. Joel goes to his desk, sits down. BRIAN Like I say, General Mills isn't going to make their offer official until this settles. Joel considers this. JOEL I think Step is just chest-beating. He does this all the time. He gets all wound up, talks big, then he always backs down. And that's with his balls. 50. INT. PAROLE OFFICE - AFTERNOON It's a bleak looking office with rows of cubicles. We PAN past several cubicles where hardass parole officers meet with their parolees -- various gang-bangers, drug dealers, junkies, a hideous transvestite prostitute, etc. As we pan, each officer is giving them nothing -- "this is your last chance," "You expect me to believe that?", etc. We continue past officers giving them nothing, giving them nothing, ending on a cubicle with Cindy, where a PAROLE OFFICER is giving Cindy everything -- almost apologetic. PAROLE OFFICER I'm sorry to even bring this up, but you're not living with the drug dealer anymore are you? Cindy's parole officer is a sad schlub of a guy, about 50 with bushy grey hair and a mustache, he has a badge and a gun on his belt. CINDY Nope. I'm staying at Extended Stay until I can find a place... She smiles, flirtatiously waves her key/card. CINDY (CONT'D) See? (SINCERE) I really feel like I've turned my life around. Thanks in large part to you. PAROLE OFFICER (ALMOST BLUSHING) It's okay. I'm just glad to see you're doing so well... Ah, one more thing I just need to ask you: We had a little incident up in Templeton a couple weeks back where someone stole an expensive guitar from a music store? Someone who fit your description. You know anything about that? CINDY Huh? No... I was probably at work that day. 51. PAROLE OFFICER Look Cindy, you realize you can't screw up anymore right? I mean, even something minor, and you could go back to jail for a while this time. I'd hate to see that happen. CINDY Well yeah, but why would I steal a guitar? I've got no musical talent. I'm tone deaf. They both laugh. PAROLE OFFICER Heh heh, So am I. I can't carry a tune to save my life. CINDY Really? Wow... Cindy acts fascinated by Parole Officer's lack of musical talent. He happily goes on about it, forgetting about the guitar... PAROLE OFFICER Yeah, I could barely sing the Star Spangled Banner in school... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - PARKING LOT - DAY It's the end of the workday. People walk to their cars. Joel turns a corner and finds Cindy right in front of him. CINDY Hey Mr. Reynolds. JOEL Oh, hey Cindy. You can just call me Joel. CINDY (FLIRTATIOUS) Okay Joel. So you going to the party tonight? JOEL Oh yeah. Right, that's tonight... (AWKWARD) (MORE) 52. JOEL (CON T - D ) Yeah, I was thinking about it. Are you going? CINDY Yeah, definitely. Maybe I'll see you there? JOEL Yeah, I think I'll probably go. CINDY Do you have the directions? JOEL I'm not sure... CINDY Here, I'll write it down just in CASE Cindy opens her purse. We see at least FIVE WALLETS, SEVERAL WATCHES, JEWELRY, etc. She takes out a pen and a piece of pink, girly stationary and starts writing. CINDY (CONT'D) I'll also put my number on here. In case you want to call me some time -- if you want. Joel blushes awkwardly, like a junior high school kid. JOEL Um... Okay. Sure. EXT. JOEL'S HOUSE - EVENING Joel pulls into the driveway and is STARTLED as he practically runs over Nathan, flagging him down. Joel MUTTERS obscenities as he reluctantly stops and rolls down the window. NATHAN Hi there. Almost missed ya. JOEL Hi. I can't talk right now-- NATHAN Hey, I noticed you guys got a new pool cleaner today. How is he? We're thinking of changing services. 53. JOEL Look Nathan, I gotta... Wait, you mean yesterday, don't you? NATHAN Huh? JOEL The new pool cleaner. You saw him yesterday right? Not today. NATHAN No. It was today. The new guy. JOEL What'd he look like? NATHAN Blonde haired kid, about this high, good looking. Real good looking. IN FACT-- JOEL You sure it was today? Not yesterday? NATHAN Yeah. JOEL You're absolutely sure? NATHAN Yeah. I know it was today, because I came home for lunch. I was gone all day yesterday. Anyway, you think I could go ahead and get that check from ya? Like I say, it's 55 dollars a plate, so that'd be 110 total. There's no tax... Nathan leans up to scratch his back. Joel seizes the opportunity and pulls away, burning a little rubber. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - BEDROOM -- MOMENTS LATER Joel is on his cell phone, yelling in hushed tones at Brad. He has the door shut so Suzie won't hear him. JOEL What the hell were you doing at my house today?! 54. BRAD (V.0.) Oh, umm... nothing. JOEL Bullshit! BRAD (V.0.) Look, don't worry about it bro'. I won't charge you for this one. JOEL Won't charge me for...? You had sex with my wife again?! BRAD (V.0.) Well, I figured we already did it once, so what's the big deal? I mean, she said to stop by if I was in the neighborhood, so... Besides, I'm not gonna charge you-- JOEL Not gonna charge...? God damn you! Yes you are gonna charge me! I'm gonna pay you! You're not having sex with my wife for free! And I better not ever catch you anywhere near my house ever again! Joel slams down the phone. Then realizes it's a cell phone, picks it back up and hits the "End" button. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Suzie is asleep on the couch in her sweatpants. Joel walks through, mumbles something about going to a party. INT. JOEL'S CAR -- NIGHT Joel pulls up to the house where the party is going on. He stays in the car, checking it out. Scanning Joel's POV, we see the band, Godscock, playing in the backyard, with Rory on bass. They are set up on the patio of this small two-bedroom suburban house. Most of the people at the party are crowded around the keg, which is on the other side of the backyard, ignoring the band. The band sounds awful -- loud as hell, unmusical, uninspired. The lead singer sings in that awful Eddie Vedder style, but even more loud and overly dramatic. Rory acts all intense, in stark contrast to the non-intensity of the music. 55. They all have that baggy-shorts tattooed mid-nineties look. It's downright pathetic. There's one drunk guy off to the side banging his head, playing air-guitar and stumbling into the bushes. Joel spots Cindy over by the keg, drinking, mingling. He watches her for a beat, then shakes his head and drives away. CUT TO: INT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR -- NIGHT Joel sits at the bar talking to Dean, drinking a beer. JOEL I can't believe my wife slept with that guy. DEAN Well... I thought you said it wouldn't bother you. JOEL I guess I didn't really think about it long enough... I just wish it hadn't been so easy for him. DEAN Yeah, I'm tellin' ya, chicks really go wild for that Brad... (Off Joel's look) Sorry. JOEL No, you're right. He may be a stupid, dull-witted moron, but he can get any girl he wants. Me, I had to work for it. I had to work hard, get a career going, take Suzie out a bunch of times, marry her. But not Brad. He gets to waltz into my house and have sex with my wife just like that. Oh, and by the way? That little prick was at my house again today. DEAN No shit? What was he doing? JOEL Take a wild guess. 56. DEAN Wow... You pay a guy to do a job, then he comes back and does it for free. JOEL I'm not going to let him do it for free. No way. I'm paying him. DEAN Really? How much? JOEL Oh, I don't know. The same, I guess. Why? DEAN Hmm... So should I get my twenty dollars from Brad then or... Joel shoots Dean an angry look. DEAN (CONT'D) We can worry about that later... Look at the bright side, now you can call Cindy. JOEL I don't know... I feel weird about it. Besides, she's at the party, she probably won't be home 'til late. DEAN You know what you need to do? JOEL (rolling his eyes) I don't wanna do drugs Dean. DEAN Look, I know I joke around a lot, but this time I'm serious. (like a doctor) You should try smoking a little pot. It's just an herb, it heals. Stress can kill you, and-- JOEL I get paranoid when I smoke pot. 57. DEAN Not when you just smoke a little. Come on. You ever meet my friend Willie? Great guy. Really great guy. (as if it's a positive) He's the guy I got that horse tranquilizer from. JOEL Oh, wonderful. INT. WILLIE'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT WILLIE loads up some kind of giant three-foot tall bong and inhales a massive bong-load. He's a burly ex-football player type who looks like he might have an extra y-chromosome or two. Joel watches Willie, feeling a little uneasy. Dean pontificates. DEAN I've been reading about it -- they're making technological advances now, coming up with great drugs that can make you happy and won't leave you with a hangover or nothin'. WILLIE (holding in bong-hit) Right on. Willie finally exhales. The exhale seems to go on way longer than humanly possible, endless amounts of pot-smoke billowing out (accomplished with special FX). He finally hands the bong and lighter to Joel. JOEL Oh, I don't know... I'm kind of a light weight. I think that's too much for me-- WILLIE (still holding out the bong and lighter) Bullshit. DEAN Come on Joel. Don't worry, this stuff isn't that strong. (to Willie, re: Joel) (MORE) 58. DEAN (CON T-D) He gets paranoid when he gets too stoned. Joel looks at Willie then at Dean, then takes the bong, partly out of being intimidated by Willie. JOEL Ah, what the hell. Willie instructs Joel on the bong usage in the same condescending way a weight-lifting instructor would. WILLIE Okay, now this is a gravity bong. Have you ever used one before? JOEL Umm, I think... no. WILLIE Okay, pay attention. Put your thumb right here on the carburetor. When I pull the plunger up and say, "let go" I want you to let go and inhale hard. Joel's POV: Looking down the barrel of the three-foot bong with macho-man Willie holding the lighter at the bowl. WILLIE (CONT'D) Okay exhale! JOEL You know, maybe I should just let YOU GUYS-- WILLIE (starting to get scary) Bullshit! EXHALE HARD! Mostly out of fear, Joel exhales. Willie puts the bong up to Joel's face, lights it and starts lifting the plunger. Then pushes it down. WILLIE (CONT'D) Let go! Inhale! NOW! Joel lets go of the carburator, inhales. WILLIE (CONT'D) (INSANE) GO! GO! HARDER!!! 59. Joel inhales with all his might, sucking up massive amounts of thick pot smoke as Willie pushes down the plunger. STONER-RIPPLE DISSOLVE TO: WILLIE'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT Willie, Dean and Joel sitting around, completely baked -- especially Joel. (We play most of the scene from Joel's stoned, paranoid POV.) Dean makes some kind of barely audible mumble -- or did he? JOEL What? Long pause. DEAN Huh? Joel's POV: looking from Dean to Willie. Willie sits there with red eyes barely open. Willie turns slowly to Joel. WILLIE Huh? JOEL Oh, I thought somebody said something. Willie looks at Joel, stone-faced, adding even further to Joel's paranoia. He stares at Joel for a long beat. Then, in an instant, he's right up in Joel's face. WILLIE BWAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Joel jumps back, scared shitless. Willie starts laughing his ass off. WILLIE Haaaah ha... The look on your face! (INSANE CACKLE) Man you really do get paranoid when you get stoned. JOEL (fake, timid laugh) Yeah, heh heh... 60. DEAN Hey Joel, why don't you call that chick now? JOEL What time is it? WILLIE Time for you to call her and finally get laid man! (handing him the phone) Come on! DEAN It's twelve thirty. She might be back by now. JOEL Alright. Joel gets the phone number out of his pocket. WILLIE So what's this chick look like? JOEL Oh, she's got brown hair. Pretty hot. Kind of working-class looking... WILLIE What do you mean by that? Willie stares at Joel for a beat. Joel can't tell if he's offended Willie or not. JOEL Umm... Oh you know,... WILLIE Is she kind of slutty lookin'? JOEL Yeah... Beat. Joel's not sure if that was the right answer either. WILLIE Alright! That's how I like 'em. 61. JOEL Yeah... (UNCOMFORTABLE LAUGH) Kinda nasty, heh heh... Joel starts dialing the number. JOEL (CONT'D) I hope I don't wake her up... (LISTENS) It's busy. DEAN Alright. At least you know she's home. JOEL Yeah. WILLIE Try her again. Come on. Joel hits redial. JOEL Still busy... Man, what kind of person doesn't have call-waiting. WILLIE I don't have call-waiting. I hate call-waiting. Every time I hear that goddamn clicking sound, I wanna put my fist through someone's head. Beat. Once again, Joel doesn't know whether to shit or wind his watch. Willie stares at him, then WILLIE Haaa ha! Man you really do get paranoid when you're stoned... Seriously though, I fuckin' hate call-waiting. JOEL (NERVOUS CHUCKLE) Yeah... Willie grabs the phone. WILLIE Here let me dial. You're too stoned. 62. Willie grabs the piece of paper with Cindy's number. He looks at it, starts to dial, then pauses, realizing something. Willie looks up at Joel, with slowly building rage, then hangs up the phone. WILLIE I'll tell you why you're getting a busy signal. This is my number. JOEL Huh? But... Beat. JOEL Oh... You're joking right? Trying to make me paranoid? Joel waits for Willie to start cracking up. He doesn't. He just continues glaring at Joel. We hear the FRONT DOOR UNLOCK. Everyone looks. CINDY enters. CINDY Hi. Sorry I'm late, I... (NOTICING JOEL) Joel? What are you doing here...? Willie stands up and walks over to Joel's chair. Dean suddenly stands up. DEAN Well, it looks like you guys got a lot to talk about here so I think I'm just gonna go ahead and take off. Later guys. Dean bolts. Willie moves in closer on Joel. Joel starts to leave, but Willie blocks him. WILLIE Kinda slutty? Willie grabs Joel and throws him against the wall. Joel tries to make a break for the door, but Willie hauls off and punches him across the face. The ass-kicking begins as we CUT TO: 63. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Joel limps into the house, his face bruised black and blue from the ass-kicking. He looks awful. As he limps into the bedroom as quietly as possible, he trips on something, waking up Suzie. She turns on a light and sees Joel. SUZIE Oh my God Joel, are you alright? What happened? JOEL I'm fine. I'm fine. I just ah... got my ass kicked. Go back to sleep. SUZIE What? By who? What happened? JOEL It was just... some guy over at Scoreboards. SUZIE Let me drive you to the hospital. You need to get checked out. JOEL No. I'll be fine. I just want to sleep right now, okay? SUZIE You sure you're okay? It looks like your nose is broken, and your EYE-- JOEL (AGITATED) Don't worry about it! People get their asses kicked all the time! It's no big deal. Go back to sleep. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT BUILDING - MORNING Joel walks past his Secretary. 64. SECRETARY Hi Joel. Brian wanted to see you-- (NOTICING) Oh my God, what happened? Joel keeps walking, MUMBLES something about falling down some stairs, goes into his office and shuts the door. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS ACTION Joel walks over to the window overlooking the production area. He looks down and sees Cindy working, with her back turned. Shakes his head. Brian KNOCKS on the door and enters, looking worried. BRIAN Hi... Did you talk to Step yet? JOEL He isn't returning my calls. BRIAN Shit... We've got problems. He did hire a lawyer -- Joe Adler -- he's that personal injury lawyer you see on all the bus-stop benches. You oughtta see this guy. He's a real piece of shi-- (noticing Joel's face) Oh man, what happened to you? JOEL Oh, I fell down some stairs. BRIAN Damn... Well anyway, I hate to say this, but I think we're screwed. There's no way this Adler guy is gonna settle for anything less then bankrupting us. Says he'll sue us into the stone age. JOEL (clutches his head MISERABLE) Shit... I gotta talk to Step. Brian looks at Joel's bruised face. 65. BRIAN Man, everyone's getting hurt. Cindy came in with a black eye today. You hear how she got it? JOEL Ah... no. BRIAN Step did it. Can you believe that? JOEL No he--! (CATCHES HIMSELF) What? Where did you hear that? BRIAN That's what she told Mary. JOEL But... Step? Does he even know her? BRIAN Apparently they've been going out. JOEL What?! BRIAN I know, it's weird. They didn't even meet here. They met at a grocery store or something. Just a total coincidence. Joel looks down at Cindy on the production floor, his mind reeling. BRIAN Anyway, we're gonna have to hire a couple of new people because CINDY'S QUITTING-- JOEL Really? BRIAN Yep. And if it's okay with you, I'd like to go ahead and fire Hector. JOEL Fire Hector? What for? 66. BRIAN You know, Mary's purse? Sylvia's wallet? It's gotta be him. Who else could it be? Joel looks down at Cindy with growing suspicion. JOEL No. Don't fire him. Just trust me on this. Give him another week. If anything else is stolen, then you can fire him. BRIAN (PUZZLED) Alright. If you say so. Brian looks Joel over. BRIAN (CONT'D) Man, are you okay? Have you seen a doctor? Joel's Secretary BEEPS in. SECRATARY (V.0.) Joel, Dean is on line one for you. JOEL Okay, thanks. (TO BRIAN) I better get this. Brian leaves. JOEL (CONT'D) Hello. DEAN Hey man. Sorry I bailed on you like that last night. It's just that I don't like to get involved in other people's personal shit, you know what I mean? JOEL Uh-huh. DEAN I didn't even know Willie had a girlfriend. She must be new. Man, Willie looked pissed. (CHUCKLES) (MORE) 67. DEAN (CON T'D) I thought he was gonna take a swing at you there for a second. JOEL He did take a swing at me Dean. Several swings. In fact, he beat the living shit out of me. DEAN Whoa, really? JOEL Yes. DEAN Wow. Man, that really goes to show you -- this town is smaller than you think. You really gotta be careful. Joel hangs up and walks out of his office, past his Secretary. JOEL I'm not feeling well. I'm going to go home early. INT. JOEL'S CAR -- DAY Joel turns the corner to his house and does a double-take as he sees BRAD'S TRUCK going the opposite direction. JOEL Shit! Joel slams on the brakes, turns around, chases Brad's truck down and cuts him off, forcing him to stop. They both get out of their vehicles. Joel is livid. JOEL What the hell were you doing on my street again?! BRAD Dude, you weren't supposed to be home for another four hours-- Whoa, what happened to your face? JOEL (trying to improvise a tough, snappy comeback, but can't quite make it WORK) (MORE) 68. JOEL (CONT'D) The same thing that's gonna happen.. Your face is gonna look worse if... GOD DAMMIT! If I ever catch you anywhere near my house or my wife again, I'll have you arrested. BRAD For what? Suzie let me in. Joel is stumped -- Brad actually has a point. JOEL What the hell is wrong with you anyway? Do you do this with all your clients -- just keep coming back and hanging around? BRAD I don't know. This is my first one. JOEL What?! I thought you were a professional! BRAD Look man, I know she's your wife an' shit, but you might as well know -- I think we're in love. JOEL In love?! (COMING UNGLUED) HA! Man are you stupid. You are so goddamn dumb. You think she loves you? You're nothing but a piece of ass to her. That's all. BRAD I don't think so dude. JOEL Oh, you don't think so "dude?" Well did you ever think about this: she doesn't even know that I paid you to have sex with her -- did that cross your small mind? BRAD Uuh.. 69. JOEL How about I go home right now and tell her? Tell her you did it for the money. How about that loverboy? Brad suddenly looks worried. This really freaks him out. BRAD You wouldn't do that. JOEL You don't think so? Watch me. BRAD (realizing he's serious) No... Dude, please don't. Please? Joel starts back to his car. BRAD Look man, we really have a special thing going on. Please don't mess it up... Joel stops. JOEL Don't mess it up?! You're talking about my wife! My house! Stupid- ass! Joel gets in his car and starts it. BRAD (calls out to him) Dude, you can't do this to me. JOEL Oh yes I can... Joel peels out, drives half a block and turns into his driveway. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Joel walks in, still pissed off. Suzie is sitting on the couch, a little surprised to see him. SUZIE Oh hi. You're home early. 70. JOEL (COLD) Hi. Joel walks over to the sliding glass door, looks outside at the pool. It's filthy. JOEL So how was that new pool cleaner? Suzie is caught off guard -- wonders if she's busted -- but she plays it cool. SUZIE Um... What do you mean? JOEL What do you think I mean?... Did he do a good job cleaning the pool? SUZIE Ah... well-- JOEL Did he get all the... leaves? It doesn't really look that clean. I mean I'm looking at it, and I'd say it's pretty goddamn filthy. Did the guy even clean it at all? It sure doesn't look like it. SUZIE (NERVOUS) Well yeah, I guess he didn't do a very good job. JOEL I think he did a horrible job. I don't think we should use him anymore. SUZIE Okay. JOEL Okay. Suzie watches Joel leave, a slight look of guilt on her face. SUZIE Are you all right, Joel? You want an aspirin or anything? 71. JOEL No. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER Quick shot of Joel staring up at the ceiling shaking his head, can't believe all this. EXT. STEP'S HOUSE -- NEXT DAY In a WIDE SHOT we see Joel's car is parked on the street. He walks up and rings the doorbell. We see Step answer, talk to him and then invite him in. INT. STEP'S HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS Step and Joel enter. Step's 300 POUND HALF-BROTHER sits on a ratty couch watching TV, drinking a huge plastic bottle of Pepsi. He looks like he's been sitting there for years. The TV is deafeningly loud. STEP Wow, I don't think you've ever been to my house before. Have you? JOEL (talking above the TV) Yeah, I don't think so. I would've remembered... STEP This is my half brother Phil. Joel starts to motion "don't get up," then realizes that's not happening anyway. Phil nods. JOEL Hi... Hey Step, can we talk in another room. STEP Sure, let's go out back. EXT. STEP'S HOUSE - BACK YARD -- A LITTLE LATER Joel and Step sit at a picnic table. 72. STEP You know, my lawyer told me not to talk to you. (BEAT) You're not here to try to talk me out of suing are you? JOEL Oh, no... No, I'm just kind of curious about... ah... So you've been going out with Cindy, huh? STEP Yes sir. She's my girlfriend. We might even get married after all this lawsuit-settlement stuff gets worked out. JOEL .so some of the guys at work are saying you gave Cindy that black eye. STEP What? That ain't true at all. JOEL Yeah, I know it's not. STEP She got it from falling down some stairs. JOEL Hmm... Look, you might wanna be careful with Cindy. STEP (DEFENSIVE) What do you mean? JOEL Well, I'm not sure how to put this, but... You know, you got a lot of money coming your way with this settlement. You might wanna be CAREFUL-- STEP Oh no. No, she didn't even know about that 'til after we started going out. 73. JOEL You sure about that? STEP Oh yeah. I didn't tell her about it for a while 'cuz I was kind of embarrassed, you know? You don't tell a girl you just met that you lost one of your balls. Especially a girl as hot as Cindy. JOEL Yeah... (DELICATELY) You know she lives with this guy Willie right? STEP That's her ex. She broke up with him. She's gonna move out. She just needs to get all her stuff outta there. JOEL You sure about that? STEP Oh yeah. She's moving in with me. JOEL Oh. Hmm... STEP Look, I know Cindy's got some problems, but she means well. She's the best thing that ever happened to me. JOEL Well, okay... If you say so. Another thing -- you just might want to watch your back. Some of the guys at work who think you gave Cindy the black eye were talking about paying you a visit -- you know, getting even. STEP Oh. Well I'm not worried about that. (dead-serious, proud) I could kick anyone's ass at that whole company. 74. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - DAY Brad and Suzie are by the pool which is filthy. Brad starts coming on to Suzie. She pushes him away. SUZIE No Brad, we can't. I'm sorry, but we have to stop doing this. BRAD Why? SUZIE It's not right. I feel horrible. Besides, I think Joel's getting suspicious. And you gotta start cleaning the pool too. BRAD But I've never felt this way about anyone before. And I've been with a lot of chicks. SUZIE (TURNED OFF) Uh-huh... Look Brad, the truth is I love my husband. I really do. This was all a big mistake. I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me, but we have to stop this. I want to make my marriage work again. I'm going to tell Joel about the whole thing and just hope he forgives me. And even if he doesn't, at least I won't be carrying around this horrible feeling. I just can't stand that he doesn't know. BRAD Uh... This doesn't mean we can't still see each other though, right? SUZIE Ah, yes it does. BRAD Why? SUZIE Because of all the things I just said. (MORE) 75 SUZIE (CONT'D) (PATIENTLY) Do you need me to say them again? BRAD Can I see you tomorrow? SUZIE No. BRAD (PLEADING) How about next week? SUZIE No. Look, you gotta go Brad. Joel could be home any second. BRAD I'll call you tomorrow. SUZIE (just trying to get rid of HIM) Okay. Okay, just go and we'll talk later. Brad leans to kiss her, she pushed him away and he finally leaves. SUZIE (TO HERSELF) God, what a moron. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - DAY Joel sits deep in his chair, bummed out, staring down at the manufacturing area. Brian walks in. BRIAN So... you ready? JOEL Huh? BRIAN The meeting with Step's lawyer. Or lawyers I should say. It's today remember? JOEL Oh shit... Alright. Joel drags himself out of the chair. 76. INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - CONFRENCE ROOM - DAY JOE ADLER, is holding court with the various lawyers and paralegals waiting for the meeting to start. As promised, he is awful. He looks like Henry Winkler with an extra Y chromosome and a lot of steroids. (Maybe cast Gene Simmons with his hair pulled back in a pony tail.) ADLER .You see, if both his balls had been knocked clean off, he would be a good case, but not a great case: A man with no balls is no man at all. He's a freak. He's barely human. He's gross. And a jury will never feel like they can walk in the shoes of a ball-less, neutered, he/she freak. But Step. He's still got one ball - barely. He's still a man. A man who's very manhood has been jeopardized, but still a man. And that manhood, that very sense of what you are as a human being is hanging by a thread. Jesus, you can't get more dramatic than that. That brave ball, hanging on for dear life, hanging on for justice, is going to be the hero of this trial. I'm tellin' ya this Step guy is the fuckin' Holy Grail, the Powerball Jackpot. And you all laughed at me when I bought those bus bench ads. But I knew the asses of those poor slobs that sit on those benches and ride those sweaty, stinking, cattle cars are our future. And I -- Joel and Brian walk in. ADLER Oh, hello. I'm Joe Adler... Everybody starts introducing each other. INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - EMPLOYEE BREAK ROOM - DAY A bunch of employees including Mary, Garielle, and Rory are talking, getting worked up. 77. RORY .And when they sell the company, Joel and Brian are gonna be the one's who get rich, and-- MARY And we're the ones doing all the work. GABRIELLE That's right. RORY It's bullshit man. We should get a piece of it. I work my ass off. MARY Gabrielle and I work harder than anybody. I should be making what Brian makes. If you add up all the crates I move, I lift 10,000 pounds a day. Minimum. GABRIELLE That's right. Here he's gonna make a million dollars, and we're the ones who do everything. I went to college. For three years. MARY If we quit, this place couldn't run. They wouldn't be able to sell this place for anything. JIM, a tall skinny 50-something guy with a ridiculously big mustache and a little paunch, chimes in. JIM That's why what we should do is, is we should all go on strike -- demand stock in the company before it sells. If General Mills knew we were on strike, they wouldn't buy this place until the strike was over. That way they'd have to give us stock. Jim points to his head, gives everyone a "how's that" nod. It starts to build steam. RORY That's right man. We should do it. We should strike. 78. MARY That's right. I could get a job at Gemco like that. At Gemco, all the employees are owners -- even says so on the name tags. GABRIELLE Mmm hmm. I could get a job at Southwest Airlines... INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - CONFRENCE ROOM - DAY The meeting is already in progress. On Adler's side of the table are two other lawyers and a couple of paralegals. On Joel's side it's just he, Brian and Joel's secretary. Maybe one lawyer who doesn't say much. Everybody has in front of them a small stack of documents. The confrence room, like Joel's office, has a full length window facing the manufacturing area. ADLER Ok gentlemen. We've gone through everything and the only way we would even begin to consider a settlement would be to the tune of the number you see on the bottom of page 18. Does everyone have this? Joel and the rest of them find page 18. Joel is stunned by the number. JOEL What!!!? (so pissed he can barely get the words out) We don't have this much money! Not even close! ADLER Not in cash you don't. Of course not. But if you were to sell off your assets: the property lease, the equipment, the-- JOEL What the ff-- Are you shitting me!? That would bankrupt us! BRIAN This is what I've been trying to tell you Joel... 79. JOEL If you think I'm just going to give up this entire company that I built from the ground up-- Adler jumps up, dripping with phoney, forced indignation. ADLER How about what my client gave up!? His testicles! How about that!? He walks over to the door... ADLER In fact, I'll make a deal with you - - we will drop this case right now if you come over here and put your testicles right here (indicates the space between the door and the HINGES) and let me slam this door like this... Adler SLAMS the door ridiculously hard. ADLER Go ahead. We can settle this right now -- call it even. I will drop this case right now if you let me slam your balls in this door, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CLIENT! JOEL It was an accident! ADLER Not according to our investigation. We believe that, in fact, there was gross negligence... INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - MANUFACTURING AREA - CONTINUOUS The employees, same ones in the breakroom, are milling around, talking, the idea of the strike gaining momentum. Rory points up to the confrence room. RORY I heard those guys up there are the guys from General Mills. 80. Employees' POV: Adler pacing around, yelling, Joel yelling back, etc. [They can't hear any of it.] MARY Mmm hmm... JIM See, now they're probably up there negotiating right now -- cuttin' up the pie that we baked. That's what it looks like to me. The employees all nod in agreement. Employees POV: Adler pointing at his balls, pointing to the door again, about to slam it. One of his lawyers stops him. RORY We gotta act fast. They could be about to close the deal. JIM Yeah, and leave us out in the cold. RORY Yeah, then it's too late. If they've already sold it we can't get a piece of it. We gotta act fast. We need to do one of those walk outs. JIM Well, we better do it now. RORY Okay, who's in? We need a show of force. Come on, it's now or never... We PAN around the employees as the idea builds momentum, ending on HECTOR, who looks completely confused by it all. INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - CONFRENCE ROOM - CONTINUOUS The meeting heats up. 81. ADLER Okay then, let me go back to my previous offer: I will gladly come down on that price -- I'll come all the way down to zero and drop this case -- if you go over there right now and slam your testicles in that door! Because-- JOEL I don't wanna slam my testicles in the door! I want you to be reasonable! You won't even budge one penny! Come on! ADLER Like I say, if you slam your-- JOEL I'll slam your balls in the door! ADLER I'm sorry, did you just threaten me? Brian puts his hand on Joel, motions him to calm down. BRIAN Look, we need to cool off a minute. We'll be right back. Brian leads Joel out of the room. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS JOEL I don't need this. I'm going home. INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - MANUFACTURING AREA - CONTINUOUS Joel walks down the stairs. The group of employees see him and ready themselves for the big confrontation. Joel notices them all looking at him and stops. JOEL Yeah?... What? But they are ill-prepared. No one knows who should talk first. It's incredibly awkward. They all look at each other and mutter things like, "go ahead" "you first". Finally... 82. RORY Umm... We were just uh... JIM Well, Rory was talking about how you guys are doing this deal with General Mills and we just think that ah... We were considering the idea of ah... RORY Well, we just think that we should maybe get a piece of it, you know cuz we do all the work... And if we don't... um... Joel's in no mood for this. He goes off on them. JOEL You know what? Fine. Fine. You're all in charge -- all of you. (gestures to all the EMPLOYEES) As of now. You run the goddamn place. Go ahead. In fact, you can go up there right now and meet with Adler. He may slam your balls in the door, but woohoo! You're the boss! Joel storms out, leaving the employees standing there. A BICKERING MATCH erupts over who was supposed to do the talking, who said they would say what, who backed down first, etc. "I was gonna say something but you interrupted," "You didn't say anything when he was leaving, so I thought you were quitting. I would've stood up to him." As the argument dies down, one by one they all go back to their posts, muttering. INT. JOEL'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Joel is sitting at the table, picking at some food, looking miserable. Suzie comes over, gathers up her nerve. SUZIE Listen Joel, there's something I have to tell you. I think we need to be honest with each other. Suzie sits down. 83. SUZIE (CONT'D) I'm not sure how to say this, but -- well, you've been so caught up in you're work lately, and I'm here alone all day and sometimes I just-- JOEL You banged the pool cleaner. SUZIE Wha... Suzie is stunned. JOEL That's what you're trying to tell me right? You had sex with Brad? SUZIE You knew? JOEL Yes I knew. I hired him. SUZIE Well I know you hired him, but how did you know about-- JOEL I don't mean I hired him to clean the pool, I mean I hired him to have sex with you. SUZIE What? JOEL He's a gigolo Suzie. Suzie is stupefied. SUZIE But... what... Why? Joel is so fed up, he just tells her everything. JOEL I hired him to have an affair with you so that I could have an affair without feeling guilty. I was really drunk and on some kind of horse tranquilizer and-- 84. SUZIE Brad was getting paid?... (disbelief, hurt) So you've been paying Brad this whole time? All fifteen times?! JOEL FIFTEEN TIMES?! Jesus Christ Suzie! Joel sinks into his chair, shaking his head. JOEL (CONT'D) I only paid him once -- well, twice. The rest was on the house. Long beat as Suzie tries to let it all sink in. SUZIE You wanted to have an affair with another woman? JOEL Yes. But I didn't. Suzie paces around for a moment, reeling, processing all this. Then, decisively, SUZIE You asshole. JOEL Oh, I'm the asshole? SUZIE Yes! How could you? JOEL (LAUGHS) How could I? How could you?!!! You didn't have to have sex with him. You could've simply said "No thanks. Just clean the pool," but you didn't, did you?! No, you took him up on his little offer and had sex with him -- fifteen times! SUZIE None of this would've happened if you hadn't hired him. 85. JOEL Okay. I'll admit, I made a big mistake. I was drunk, on drugs, stressed, sexually frustrated and I shouldn't have hired a male prostitute to seduce you. But if you had simply been faithful, none of this would've happened. Suzie just looks at him for a beat. SUZIE You're sick, you know that? Beat. Joel can't really argue this point. JOEL What do you see in Brad anyway? He's borderline retarded. You probably could've been arrested for having sex with a guy that dumb. SUZIE That's it. I'm leaving. Suzie heads for the door. Joel follows after her. JOEL No. You're not leaving me. I'm leaving you! SUZIE Fine. Joel opens the door, about to storm out, only to find NATHAN, standing right there about to ring the doorbell. NATHAN Oh, hey guys. Glad I caught ya. You guys hardly ever answer the door. Heh heh. They are both so flustered, they can barely talk. SUZIE Now's not a good time Nathan. Joel turns around, storms off back into the house. NATHAN Oh, you guys goin' somewhere? 86. SUZIE No. Look, we can't talk right now. NATHAN Well, you think I could go ahead and get that check from ya then? I'm just trying to balance my checkbook here... SUZIE Now's not a good time. NATHAN When would be a good time, you think? SUZIE I don't know. NATHAN See the thing is-- SUZIE Okay tomorrow. NATHAN Great, what time? SUZIE I don't know. Just come by tomorrow. I can't talk now. NATHAN Okay great. And if you could just go ahead and have that check, that'd be great. It's a hundred and ten. That's two plates at FIFTY-FIVE-- SUZIE Yeah, Okay... Suzie shuts the door, cutting him off. EXT. EXTENDED STAY AMERICA SUITES -- DAY Joel checks into an Extended Stay America hotel.(a chain of hotels that rent by the week.) Quick shot of Joel sitting alone in the room. He drops his suitcase and glumly sits down on the bed, grabs the remote. 87. He turns on Spectravision and surfs the Adult titles, decides he's not into it and switches back to regular TV only to find American Idol is on. He stares at it for a beat, then flops down on the bed and stares at the ceiling. INT. SCOREBOARDS SPORTS BAR -- NIGHT Joel sits at the bar, drowning his sorrows. Dean is over by the cash register, tending to some business. Brad enters, walks over to Joel. Joel looks the other way. BRAD Hey man... I know you probably want to kick my ass, but-- JOEL I couldn't kick your ass if I wanted to. You're a good 10 years younger than me, and I'm a pussy. So why don't you just leave me alone. BRAD I just wanted to tell you, I'm not gonna see Suzie anymore. You don't have to worry. Joel keeps drinking his beer, stares straight ahead. BRAD The last time I was over there, she broke it off; told me to quit coming over... She said she was gonna tell you everything -- you know, about us. She's really into you dude. I guess that's why she married you an' shit... You're a lucky guy... Sorry if I messed shit up. Beat. Joel takes another swig. JOEL Why'd you have to get hung up on Suzie? You could have any girl you want. BRAD Yeah, but I want Suzie. And I can't have her. JOEL You had her fifteen times. 88. BRAD Yeah, but she doesn't love me dude. It's just not the same... Anyway, just wanted to tell you that. JOEL Well... You told me. BRAD Alright, later... Brad starts to leave. Then he stops, turns around. BRAD Oh, one more thing... I quit my landscaping job... And I don't think I'm really cut out to be a gigolo. So I was wondering if you had any openings over there at your extract place? JOEL (EXASPERATED SIGH) Brad, you had sex with my wife. I'm not gonna give you a job, okay? BRAD Okay... Sorry man. Brad walks away. Joel stares at his beer for a beat, thinking. He calls out to Brad. JOEL Hey Brad?... Brad stops. BRAD Yeah? JOEL I don't know... Maybe come by the office tomorrow. Fill out an application. I'll see what I can do. BRAD Cool. Thanks man. 89. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - NEXT DAY Brian sits with Joel. They both look pretty miserable. Brian looks down at some papers, shaking his head. BRIAN We're screwed. General Mills has pretty much withdrawn the offer pending a really favorable settlement with Step. (shaking his head) Not only do we not sell the company, we could wind up bankrupt. JOEL (muttering to himself) So I don't sell the company, don't get the money, I'm bankrupt, I don't get Cindy, I paid a guy to have sex with my wife, and she actually did it... BRIAN Excuse me? JOEL Nothing. EXT. JOEL'S HOUSE - POOL -- DAY Suzie is trying to clean the pool herself, struggling with the long pole with the net at the end. She looks miserable. NATHAN (O.S.) Hello? Nathan enters through the back gate. SUZIE (MUTTERS) Shit... Nathan walks over to Suzie. She's in no mood for this. She acts as unfriendly as possible. NATHAN Why are you cleaning the pool yourself? That new guy didn't work out? 90. SUZIE Yeah, didn't work out. NATHAN Boy, you just can't get good help, eh? SUZIE Yeah. NATHAN So, did you get a chance to write that check? SUZIE Look Nathan, Joel and I aren't going to that dinner okay? Nathan acts deeply disappointed. NATHAN Well gee, I wish you would've told me that before I went and bought the tickets. SUZIE Joel never agreed to this Nathan, and neither did I. NATHAN Well, it sure sounded like you guys were going. Leslie was gonna talk to you about it, but you didn't return our calls. I mean, I already bought these tickets. They're nonrefundable. I really wish you guys had been a little more clear with me... It's the last straw. Suzie has had enough. She unleashes all her pent-up aggression on Nathan. SUZIE Okay, let me be really clear with you then. When we say "I don't think so," or even "I'm not sure," that means "no." Why can't you understand that? NATHAN Well, I just-- 91. SUZIE Shut up! In fact, let me be even more clear with you. We don't like you! Is that clear enough? You're dull, you never shut up, you never listen, and we don't want anything to do with you ever again! Nathan freezes, in some kind of state of shock. He starts to shake a little. Suzie just keeps going -- it feels too good to stop. SUZIE Is that clear enough for you Nathan?! Is that...? Nathan starts to go into some kind of seizure. SUZIE (WORRIED) Nathan? Nathan's eyes roll back into his head, and he collapses. Suzie SCREAMS. EXT. EXTENDED STAY AMERICA SUITES -- NIGHT Joel pulls into the parking lot. He looks surprised, seeing something on the other side of the lot that gets his attention. JOEL (TO HIMSELF) No way... From JOEL'S POV, we see Cindy pull up and get out of her car. Joel watches as she gets out with a grocery bag and heads up the stairs. Joel gets out and watches her from a distance. He sees her go into a room and shut the door. He stares up at the door for a beat. Then, with a look of determination, Joel walks up the stairs and knocks on her door. INT. CINDY'S ROOM -- CONTINUOUS ACTION Cindy opens the door, a little startled to see Joel, but pleasant to him. CINDY Oh... Joel. I ah,... 92. JOEL Hi. CINDY What're you...? What's up? How'd you know I was here? JOEL Ah, actually, I'm staying here too. Down on the first floor, around the back. I thought I saw you so I ah... CINDY Well, come in. Joel enters, stands in the living room. Cindy heads in to the kitchen. CINDY (O.S.) Do you want something to drink? I think all I have is Diet Coke. Joel notices MARY'S PURSE lying on the coffee table. He stares at it. JOEL No thanks. Cindy comes back in with a Diet Coke. CINDY Have a seat. Joel remains standing, looking at the purse. JOEL That's Mary's purse... Isn't it? CINDY What? JOEL Right there. That's Mary's purse. CINDY Oh that? No, that's mine... So how are things at work? JOEL That's Mary's purse. You stole it, didn't you? 93. Cindy acts like he's being silly. There's nothing about her demeanor that would make anybody think she's lying. CINDY No. It probably just looks like it. There's a lot of those. JOEL I've never seen another one. You probably have Sylvia's wallet in here somewhere too, don't you? And everything else that's been stolen from my employees. CINDY Joel, are you okay? JOEL No, I'm not. That's Mary's purse Goddammit! Okay? Everyone blamed Hector. He almost got fired. Doesn't that bother you? CINDY (innocent, sweet) Joel, I don't know what you're-- JOEL Hector! Hard working guy, never did anything wrong. And what are you doing with Step? You're trying to screw him out of his settlement money aren't you? CINDY I have no idea what you're talking about. JOEL Yes you do! You're the only reason he's suing us aren't you? You know how much work it took for me to build up that company? You just don't care about anybody do you? What are you, some kind of sociopath? Cindy looks like Joel might be getting to her. JOEL (CONT'D) You can't even admit that you stole this purse can you? You just can't do it. (MORE) 94. JOEL (CONT'D) In fact, you probably can't tell the truth about much of anything, can you?... Cindy turns away from him, looking down at the floor. JOEL I bet Cindy's not even your real name is it? Who are you? Where the hell are you from? Cindy, still looking away, doesn't answer. JOEL (CONT'D) You can't answer can you? Because if you said one true thing, you'd have to tell the truth about something else and then it would all unravel wouldn't it? Then you'd have to admit that you stole this purse and God knows what else. Beat. Cindy still looking away, down at the floor. We see her eyes well up, about to cry, but Joel doesn't notice. JOEL (COMPOSES HIMSELF) Well, I'm leaving now. Joel picks up the purse. JOEL And I'm taking this purse with me. If it really is yours, you can call the police and tell 'em I stole it... In fact, I'm gonna call the police and report it... Joel walks towards the door. Then Cindy slumps down on the couch, mutters something, still looking down at the floor, her voice cracking slightly. CINDY Please don't... Joel stops. JOEL What? 95. CINDY (still looking down) Please don't report it to the police. I'm on probation. I'll go to jail. For a long time. JOEL Well... Maybe you should've thought about that before you started ripping off my employees. Joel starts to open the door. CINDY Joel? Please? I'll leave Step alone. I promise. He'll drop the lawsuit. Joel considers this. JOEL How do I know that? CINDY You can keep the purse. If I don't leave him alone; if he doesn't drop the lawsuit, then you can report me. Please? Beat. JOEL Hmm... I guess that ah... Do you have Sylvia's wallet, and Jim's watch? Can I get those too? Beat. Cindy nods, still looking down. Joel considers it. JOEL Well... Okay then. I guess that works. (REALIZING) And I guess you just admitted that you stole the purse. That's good, I guess... A step in the right direction... Joel sits down on the couch also. With her head still down, Cindy is weeping quietly. Joel doesn't notice, looking straight ahead. 96. JOEL So what's your deal anyway?... I mean, how did you end up like this? Joel finally looks over, notices that she's crying. He's caught off guard. JOEL .Ah... Cindy? Cindy breaks down and starts bawling. JOEL (CONT'D) Okay, now you see... that's what I'm talking about. You're trying to manipulate me now, and I'm not gonna fall for it... Cindy starts bawling even harder. JOEL (CONT'D) I really hope you're not faking this right now, because I'm feeling really bad. Are you faking it? Cindy shakes her head "no." JOEL I'm sorry, I was just curious, you know, how a person ends up like... this... Cindy suddenly starts BAWLING hysterically. Joel stands there awkwardly, not sure if he should hug her or comfort her in any way. JOEL Never mind. I'm sorry... Joel tentatively puts a comforting arm around her and she leans in to him, crying on his chest. He puts his other arm around her and she snuggles in even closer. As her crying gradually subsides she snuggles in even more. Finally, she lifts her head and they start kissing. As they get hot and heavy we DISSOLVE TO: 97. EXT. EXTENDED STAY AMERICA SUITES -- MORNING Wide shot of the Hotel. It's a beautiful morning. INT. CINDY'S ROOM - DAY Joel wakes up, looking more relaxed than we've ever seen him. We PULL OUT to reveal that he's alone in Cindy's bed. He sits up, yawns. He has a big satisfied smile on his face. JOEL Cindy? He looks around, realizes he's alone. Then suddenly looks worried. JOEL (CONT'D) Oh shit! He scrambles for his pants, then looks relieved as he realizes his wallet is still there. He sets down the pants, then after a beat, picks them up again, checks inside the wallet and sees there's still cash and credit cards. Then he looks up at the chest of drawers and sees: Mary's purse, Sylvia's wallet, and a watch, placed side by side. He lies back in bed, and shuts his eyes, grinning again. INT. REYNOLD'S EXTRACT /MANUFACTURING AREA -- MORNING Extract bottles moving along the assembly line full steam. Mary and Gabriella gossiping. MARY (looks at her watch) Joel hasn't been in all morning. can you believe that? GABRIELLE If we come in late, we get fired. And here we're working our tails off, and he's gonna get rich. Joel walks in, bright-eyed and cheery, greeting people. He walks over to Mary carrying her PURSE. JOEL Here you go Mary. 98. Joel hands her the purse. Mary looks at it, not quite sure how to react, not ever wanting to appear grateful for anything -- not in her nature. JOEL (CONT'D) And by the way, Hector didn't take it. Cindy did. Joel walks off. Mary just shakes her head at him. She whispers to Gabriella. MARY Can you believe that? Blaming Cindy just to protect Hector. INT. JOEL'S OFFICE - DAY Joel is at his desk. Brian comes in. BRIAN Step's here to see you. JOEL Really? Bring him in. BRIAN No, he's outside. At the loading dock. Wants to talk to you alone back there for some reason. (CRUDE IMMITATION) "Man to man." EXT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - LOADING DOCK Step is pacing around, waiting. Joel comes out. JOEL Hi Step... STEP Hey. JOEL How you doin'? How's your, ah... STEP (looking down at his CROTCH) Oh it's okay. Some days it still hurts, but they've got me on some pills. It's not too bad I guess... 99. JOEL Well... that's good. They both sit down on the edge of the dock. STEP Look, ah... Cindy left me. Joel's nods, not surprised, but sympathetic. JOEL Wow... Bummer... STEP Yeah, it is a bummer... You know, I thought the worst part was having my balls knocked off, but you know what the worse part is? Dealin' with all this bullshit... I'm sick of that Adler guy tellin' me what to do. He's a real dick. JOEL Yeah, he sure is. STEP The truth is, I just want to have my old life back -- I just want to go back to work. I'm a workin' man; that's what I do. JOEL Yeah... I'm beginning to think I might be the same way... I'm a little worried about what I'd do with too much time on my hands. STEP I just lay around and watch TV all day. JOEL Yeah,... I think I do a lot worse. STEP The problem is, if I bankrupt the company, there won't be a job to go back to. JOEL You don't have to bankrupt the company. 100. STEP Yeah, but then if I drop the lawsuit, you'll sell the company, and the new company might not hire me. JOEL Well, maybe I don't have to sell the company... You know I've been thinking; all these years I've been building this company, dreaming about the day I could sell it and retire, but what would I really do if I retired? It's like that old saying -- it's not about the destination, it's about the journey? Step just stares at him blankly, he lost him. JOEL I guess what I'm saying is, too much free time might not be such a good thing -- like that old saying, idle hands are the Devil's playground? Step's never heard that one either. STEP I'm sorry, I don't do much book readin'. JOEL What I'm saying is, I'm thinking maybe I won't sell the company... STEP Really? JOEL that is, if you dropped the lawsuit. -- and remember, you'll still get that insurance money -- probably a couple hundred thousand. What do you think? STEP Hmm. That sounds fair... But under one condition... JOEL What's that? 101. STEP You make me floor manager. JOEL Deal. They shake hands. INT. REYNOLDS EXTRACT - MANUFACTURING AREA Joel walks in with Step at his side. Addresses the employees. JOEL Hold the line! Mary shuts off the conveyer belt. JOEL Okay, listen up everybody. (Waits for them to settle) I've decided not to sell the company... Gasps and murmurs among the employees. JOEL And I'm making Step the new Floor Manager. More gasps and murmurs. JOEL And if anyone doesn't like it, I hear they're hiring over at Gemco... But just remember, at Gemco, the owner doesn't know your names; you never even meet him, he's at an office up in Chicago somewhere and you get an auto- response if you try to email him to complain about anything. Here, you can come up to my office any time you have a problem. Thanks. Joel walks off. Brian catches up with him. BRIAN Huh? You're not selling? 102. JOEL It's about the journey Brian. The journey. ANGLE on Mary. She and Gabrielle start right back up. MARY You know, if Joel's going to put him in charge, we should go on strike. You know, at Gemco, the union handles the strikes and you don't even have to-- PULL OUT as Step cuts her off. STEP Quit yapping and get back to work or you're fired. Step walks off -- maybe pops a testosterone pill. Mary and Gabrielle keep muttering and shaking their heads. LONG PULL OUT as things get back to normal at the factory. INT. CHAPEL - DAY We are CLOSE ON NATHAN, in a coffin, embalmed. We PULL OUT to see mourners lined up, taking a last look at the body. Joel is among them. He looks down at Nathan for a moment and then continues to his seat. A few rows back, we see SUZIE, sitting by herself, dressed in black. EXT. CEMETERY - DAY Quick shot of Nathan's casket being lowered into the ground as the priest says the last few words. EXT. CEMETERY - A LITTLE LATER People hug and console each other. Joel sees Suzie, walks over to her. JOEL Hi... You doing okay? SUZIE Yeah, I'm okay. 103. JOEL I heard you were right there when it happened. That must've been rough. SUZIE It was horrible Joel. He came over to ask for that check, and I just... Suzie breaks down, starts CRYING. SUZIE (CONT'D) .I just lost it. I started yelling at him. I said horrible things. He had an aneurism and I probably caused it. (CRYING UNCONTROLLABLY) I think the last thing I said to him was "shut up." Those were the last words he heard. Joel hugs her, consoling. JOEL It's okay, it's not your fault... It's not your fault. Suzie's crying subsides a little. SUZIE It could happen to any of us Joel. Any of us could have an aneurism. We could die at any moment. JOEL Yeah, I know... I know... But we probably won't. It'll be alright. Suzie starts to regain her composure. They stand there for a beat. JOEL You wanna go get something to eat... or something? Beat. Suzie still sniffling a little. SUZIE Yeah, okay. Sure. 104. They walk off towards the cemetery gates. After a while, Joel hands Suzie a Kleenex. JOEL Here... SUZIE Thanks. They walk a little further. Joel looks at the Chapel nearby. JOEL Maybe we should've been married in a Church like that one. Instead of the Botanical Gardens. SUZIE I thought you liked the Botanical Gardens? JOEL Yeah, but... a church just seems more -- I don't know -- official. SUZIE You think it would've made a difference? JOEL I don't know... So, are we still married? SUZIE Well, legally yes. JOEL I mean otherwise. SUZIE Hmmm... We can talk about it I suppose. JOEL Alright. They walk for a beat. JOEL You know, this is really bad, but... Oh never mind. SUZIE What? 105. JOEL Well, as I was looking down at Nathan there, I was thinking... That's the longest I've ever seen him with his mouth shut. Suzie LAUGHS in spite of herself. SUZIE Joel! They walk off into the distance as we FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fabulous Baker Boys, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fabulous Baker Boys, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5ab25910e3343f6c1ac0b14e1d1cc29ea8997f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fabulous Baker Boys, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +LOG #028 "THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS" An Original Screenplay by Steve Kloves WARNER BROS.INC. 4000 Warner Boulevard Burbank, California 91522 April, 1985 (C) 1985 WARNER BROS. INC. All Rights Reserved "THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS" FADE IN: JACK BAKER is standing before a dirty window, looking out at a dirty city street. He is wearing a tuxedo. VOICE (O.S.) Hey. WIDEN ANGLE It's the GIRL from this afternoon. JACK Hey. Jack looks at the Girl, sleepy and warm under the bedcovers, then at the rest of the apartment. Not good. GIRL Whatcha doin' over there? JACK Gotta go. GIRL How come? JACK Job. The Girl glances at the bedside clock. GIRL Funny hours. JACK Funny job. GIRL Will I see you again? Jack looks out at the dirty street again. JACK No. The Girl doesn't appear terribly unnerved by this. GIRL (at the tux) You weren't wearing that, were you? Earlier. Jack shakes his head, taps a brown paper bag on the sill. JACK Brought it. GIRL Shit, thank God. You look like a creep. JACK Thanks. GIRL I mean, I'd hate to think I'd pick up someone who wore that shit. Jack smiles, grabs the paper bag, and moves to the door. GIRL (continuing) Hey. (as he stops) You got great hands. EXT. STREET - JACK Jack ain't exactly Cary Grant, but any guy wearing a tux on these streets doesn't exactly mesh with the milieu. Pausing for a flask of whiskey at an all-night liquor store, he breaks the seal before he hits the sidewalk and moves on, drinking as he goes. Finally, he comes to a nice downtown hotel. Slipping the bottle in his coat, he squints up at the glittering building as if sizing up an opponent. DOORMAN Hey, Jackie! JACK How goes it, Tommy? TOMMY (DOORMAN) (shrugging) Ah, you know. Howsa pooch? JACK Losing his teeth. TOMMY No shit. It's the goddamn water. Kill an ox. I buy bottled for my Danny. You can't trust the taps. JACK Yeah. (standing back) Jesus, you look like fucking royalty, Tommy. Tommy brushes at his new velvet coat. TOMMY Yeah. The big boys sent it down yesterday. JACK Another five years, huh? TOMMY Like clockwork. You got a good memory, Jackie. JACK It ain't always a blessing. My brother here? TOMMY (nodding) He's got blood in his eye. Jack glances at his watch, waves to Tommy, and moves into the hotel. INT. HOTEL - ANGLE ON FRANK Jack's older brother, FRANK, is pacing outside the lounge when he sees Jack approaching. FRANK Great. Terrific. Glad you could make it. JACK How we doing? FRANK How we ... ? What, are you kidding me? JACK Am I late? FRANK That's not the point. JACK (taking out a cigarette) What's the point? FRANK You cannot continue to walk in at the last moment, Jack. JACK You want me to show up late a few nights? FRANK Jack. JACK Frank. FRANK Jack. JACK Frank. I'm here. I always get here. Don't sweat it. FRANK Christ, will you look at your hair? ANOTHER ANGLE Jack turns to the wall, which is paneled in tiny tinted mirrors shot through with veins of gold. JACK What's wrong with it? FRANK You look like you just crawled out of bed. JACK No one's gonna be looking at my hair. Come on, we're on. Frank just stands there, bottled up with exasperation. JACK (continuing) Careful, Frank. When you get angry your tie starts to spin. Jack steps into the lounge and Frank, shaking his head, follows. As they move away, a cardboard stand-up is revealed. On it are two 8 X 10 glossies of Frank and Jack, and below printed in bold letters, this: "Tonight! The Doubly Delightful Tones of the Fabulous Baker Boys!" BAKER BROTHERS as they make their way through the dimly-lit lounge and settle behind matching pianos, it becomes apparent that what the "Fabulous Baker Boys" are, in fact, is a poor man's version of Ferrante and Teicher. WIDER ANGLE INCLUDING LOUNGE As they begin to plink out their "theme song" tables of middle-aged couples sipping enormous banana daiquiries begin to tap their feet and bob their heads. After a few bars, the boys finish with a flourish and the couples applaud. FRANK (Mr. Smile) Thank you. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the Starfire lounge. My name is Frank Baker and eighty-eight keys across from me is my little brother, Jack. Applause. Little brother Jack smiles, winks, and takes a draw on his cigarette. FRANK (continuing; could do this in his sleep) You know, my brother and I have been playing together, gosh, I don't know. How long has it been, Jack? JACK Twenty-eight years, Frank. Applause. FRANK That's a lot of water under the bridge, eh, Jack? JACK Lotta water. FRANK Of course, back then, things were a little different. I was eight, Jack was seven, just about the only song we knew was 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean', and the only one who would listen to us was the family cat, Cecil. (to Jack) We must have shaved three lives off that cat, eh, Jack? Laughter. Jack smiles like he's got a mouth full of razor blades. FRANK (continuing) But seriously. It's been fifteen years since Jack and I first stepped on the stage as professionals. Three states, sixty-eight cities, and more-grayhairs-then-we'd-like-to-admit later... well, believe me, we've seen our share of this crazy country of ours. But even though we've played some of the finest venues in the world ... At this point, Jack begins to mimic his brother's words. FRANK (continuing) ... There's one place that's always been, for us, a very special place, and that place is... this place, the Starfire lounge. Jack lays in a few soft bass chords. FRANK (continuing) Why? Well, I guess you could just say it's the ... (pregnant moment) ... people. At which point Frank's hands descend onto the keyboard and give birth to the melody of -- what else? "People.' JACK AND FRANK - LATER They exit the stage to applause. FRANK Thank you. Remember, room service is available till one A.M. for you late-nighters. INT. HOTEL KITCHEN Jack and Frank pass through the steamy hotel kitchen. FRANK Don't make trouble, all right? JACK Who's gonna make trouble? (spotting someone) Hey, amigo! JACK'S POV - MAN in an apron, cutting meat off a huge soup bone, looks up. BACK TO SCENE MAN Jack! (lower) Frank. FRANK (the feeling's mutual) Yeah, hi, Hector. HECTOR (MAN) (re: the soup bone) For Eddie. I wrap. JACK Gracias. FRANK (as they exit) I mean it, Jack. Behave. JACK Like an angel. INT. OFFICE Frank stands across the desk from a YOUNG MAN who, despite his youth, has an irritatingly paternal attitude toward the two men in his office. Jack stays in the doorway, smoking a cigarette, as if to venture any further is to risk contracting some hideous disease. LLOYD (YOUNG MAN) (preparing a cash envelope) Terrific, boys. Really. Terrific. FRANK Thanks, Lloyd. LLOYD Yes, sir. You're just what we needed on a night like this. FRANK Uh ... thanks. Frank glances at Jack and realizes he should have left him in the kitchen with Hector and the soup bone. LLOYD Only, Jack, do me a favor, will ya, pal? If you wanna smoke, put on a pair of sunglasses and go play with the niggers on State Street. These blisters from the midwest don't wanna watch some guy dripping ash all over himself while he's playing 'The Sound of Music.' ANGLE - JACK Smoke curls out of Jack's nose. He is utterly still, like a pit bull eyeing a steak. BACK TO SCENE LLOYD Okay, boys, that ought to buy you a few more lessons. By the way, Frankie, I'm declaring this. Lloyd slaps a slender envelope onto the desk and, business closed, busies himself with other matters. FRANK Uh ... You don't know when you'll be wanting us back, do you, Lloyd? LLOYD I'll call you. FRANK Uh, well, you know, the way our schedule is, I thought maybe... LLOYD I'll call you. Frank bites down and takes the envelope from the desk. JACK Count it. FRANK Huh? JACK Count it. FRANK Jack... JACK Count the fucking money, Frank. Lloyd looks up. Jack is staring right into him. Reluctantly, Frank opens the envelope. FRANK It's all here. (pulling Jack out) I'll be talking to you, Lloyd. Lloyd doesn't answer. He just looks at Jack, smiling with amusement. EXT. STREET - JACK AND FRANK Jack comes out onto the street holding the wrapped soup bone, dogged by Frank, who's got the cardboard stand-up under his arm. FRANK You mind telling me what that was about in there? Was that planned? Or were you just bored and decided to get creative? JACK Fuck him. FRANK This isn't the Pine Tree Inn on Route 81, Jack. JACK Fuck him. FRANK (to himself) Fuck him. Great. Terrific. Fuck him. The fabulous Bakers walk in silence until they come to Frank's car. Frank opens the trunk and starts to put the stand-up away. JACK So we on tomorrow night? FRANK (shaking his head) Maybe Thursday. I hear the harpist at the Sheraton's got appendicitis. Jack nods and starts to walk away. FRANK (continuing) Hey. Jack stops. FRANK (continuing) Listen ... why don't you come out to the house this weekend. Say hello to the kids. They've grown. JACK I hate your kids, Frank. FRANK You're their uncle. JACK Only by relation. Besides, they hate me, too. FRANK They don't. They're always asking about you. JACK They tried to electrocute me, Frank. FRANK It was an accident. JACK It was no fucking accident, Frank. The little one ... FRANK Cindy. JACK She threw a goddamn radio into the bathtub. How do you explain that? FRANK She didn't know what she was doing. You're too sensitive. JACK You got weird kids, Frank. FRANK Look, I just thought if you came out you might see what you're missing. Jack just stares at Frank. FRANK (continuing) Just think about it, all right? Consider it a standing offer. Frank closes the trunk and moves to the driver's side. FRANK (continuing;like a litany) You want a ride, Jack? No, Frank, I'll walk. Okay, Jack, good night. Good night, Frank. Frank turns the ENGINE OVER and pulls away from the curb. Jack watches the taillights burn into the distance, then takes the whiskey bottle from his coat and heads for home. ANGLE - APARTMENT BUILDING Jack crosses the street and waves up to his apartment building, where a black labrador is studying him from a second story window. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT Jack's apartment is small, old, and comfortably cluttered. The most striking item is a vintage phone booth placed against the wall. As Jack lets himself in, EDDIE, the dog from the window, walks over. He is not an overly enthusiastic dog, but you can see from his face that he has a great deal of affection for Jack. JACK Hi, pal. Thought you were gonna clean the apartment. Eddie nuzzles the soup bone. Jack unwraps the paper and hands it over. JACK (continuing) Take it easy, will ya? You're becoming a regular Johhny Appleseed the way you're dropping teeth around here. Jack hangs his tie on the phone booth and walks over to an old phonograph stacked six deep with discs. He lifts the records back up the post and clicks ON the MACHINE. As Bill Evans' smoky "PEACE PIECE" fills the tiny apartment, Jack breaks the collar of his shirt and walks over to the old piano near the window. Settling back with the bottle of whiskey, Jack rests his elbows gently on the keys and stares out the open window, listening to the music. INT. PIANO STORE Jack and Frank work opposite sides of a large piano showroom, inspecting rentals of every style and color. WILLIE, the owner of the place, leans against a cheap upright, contemplating his shoes. FRANK What happened to the two Clays, Willie? WILLIE Out. FRANK When they coming in? WILLIE Wednesday next. Frank looks across the room at Jack. FRANK What d'ya got?, JACK Bosen black. (taps a key) Flat. FRANK What d'you say, Willie? Tighten her up? WILLIE What's the gig? FRANK Two nights. Willie just looks at his shoes and shakes his head. Frank frowns and glances around. Across the room, Jack pauses before another piano. FRANK (continuing) What d'ya got? JACK (tapping) Yamaha white. Nice. Frank moves to another grand and alternates taps with his brother to see if the two pianos are in harmony. FRANK What do you think? JACK Try the black Knable. Frank moves to another piano and repeats the process, watching Jack for a verdict. After a moment, Jack nods. FRANK Tag 'em, Willie. The Regency downtown, Thursday-Friday. Thanks. WILLIE My pleasure. INT. DINER The brothers sit at a window of a corner diner, Jack nursing an ice coffee, Frank playing with a plate of scrambled eggs. The glass next to them is cluttered with photographs of neighborhood luminaries, including two of Jack and Frank in their tuxedoes. FRANK You know, I think it's been five years since I saw you eat anything. That's the God's truth. JACK Trust me, you're not missing anything. FRANK You look awful. JACK Thanks. FRANK Really. You sleeping? JACK Only on odd days. FRANK (a look) Seeing anyone in particular? JACK Why the interest? FRANK Because I'm your brother. Because I care about you. Because sometimes it seems like the most significant relationship in your life is with that goddamn dog of yours. Jack studies his brother's face. JACK I'm not seeing anyone. In particular. FRANK What about that waitress at the Ambassador? JACK Uh-uh. How about you? You seeing anyone? FRANK Funny. (points at his wedding band) Strike a bell? JACK It's only a ring. Not a collar. FRANK It's more than that. Jack smiles and sips his coffee. FRANK (continuing) By the way, we gotta go see Ma tomorrow. JACK No thanks. FRANK No, I mean it. JACK So do I. FRANK We gotta go, Jack. JACK No, you gotta go 'cause if you don't get up there every couple weeks you feel guilty. I won't feel guilty, so I don't gotta go. FRANK This time you gotta go. JACK I don't gotta go. FRANK You gotta go. JACK Says who? FRANK Your older brother. JACK You're thirteen months older than me, Frank. That might've meant something in the Apache clubhouse, but it don't cut too deep anymore. FRANK Christ, Jack, it's her birthday. Jack glances up. Frank nods. FRANK (continuing) So what do you say? Think the city can spare you for an afternoon? Jack squints out the window. FRANK (continuing) Okay. And don't worry about a present. I got her something from both of us. EXT. STREET Jack, cradling a pink bakery box in one hand, gets out of Frank's car and surveys the street on which he grew up. FRANK Make sure you lock. ANOTHER ANGLE Unless you count the elderly gentleman picking roses three houses down, there would not appear to be a wealth of potential car thieves in the immediate vicinity. But it's not Jack's car, so he doesn't press the point. BACK TO SCENE FRANK Place looks good, huh? I got a neighbor boy to mow the lawn, pick up. Five bucks. Times've changed, huh? (pointing) See the tree? Remember the job Cecil did on it the day Dad planted it? You can still see the scars on the trunk. Really. I was looking at it just the other day. Jesus, I thought he was gonna kill that cat. Frank smiles, recalling Cecil's near-demise, then raps on the front door. Jack studies the tree a moment, then gestures to the tiny ribboned box in Frank's hand. JACK So what'd we get her? FRANK You'll see. ANGLE - FRONT DOOR At that moment, the door swings open and ELLIE BAKER is there, a vibrant woman in her sixties. MRS. BAKER Well, if it isn't the fabulous Baker Boys! FRANK How's the birthday girl? MRS. BAKER A little stiffer, but just as sturdy. Mrs. Baker hugs Frank, then, a bit awkwardly, embraces Jack. MRS. BAKER (continuing) John. It's good to see you. JACK (uncomfortable; balancing cake box) Good to see you, Ma. Jack looks over his mother's shoulder at Frank and mimics "John" with a knowing nod. FRANK Uh, Ma, you know, no one calls him that anymore. Jack. He goes by Jack. MRS. BAKER I thought maybe held gotten over that. FRANK Twenty years, Ma ... MRS. BAKER Yes, yes. It's just that John is so much nicer. Jack sounds so ... crude. When I was a little girl, we had a pig on the farm named Jack. I guess I just can't help making the association. Jack's eyes slide over to Frank as if to suggest he holds his brother personally responsible for this. FRANK Uh ... yeah, well, you know, Ma, John Kennedy went by Jack. MRS. BAKER Catholics. What do you expect? Oh, well, what's in a name, right? Let's go inside and have a look at that cake. As Mrs. Baker exits, Frank leans over to Jack. FRANK Keep her busy, will ya? I have to set a few things up. Frank disappears, leaving Jack alone on the porch with the bakery box. Jack shakes his head, wondering how he's going to make it through the afternoon, then enters the house. INT. HOUSE The front room is cluttered with his childhood. Most noticeable are the pianos: two tiny uprights, perfectly matched, their simulated ivory keys yellowed with age. Above them, pressed between glass and framed, are the music ribbons, faded by twenty years of sunlight. Finally, there is the sheet music, dusty and dog-eared, piled everywhere in drunken stacks. This and all else in the room Jack confronts slowly, warily, but with a noticeable dispassion, until his eyes fall upon a photograph. In it, he and Frank are standing alonside a tall man in baggy slacks, safe within the arc of his long arms. Frank is staring straight into the camera, neat, clean, perfectly posed, but Jack, a year younger, his shirt too big, is caught in profile, looking up at the tall man with an almost worshipful gaze. MRS. BAKER (entering) Well, now, where's everyone run off to? Frank? JACK Downstairs. MRS. BAKER Oh. All at once, Jack and his mother realize they are alone. MRS. BAKER Well, shall we cut that cake? Jack nods and follows her into the kitchen. He places the box on the table and stands off to the side while Mrs. Baker sets about preparing things. MRS. BAKER So. How are you? JACK Fine. You? MRS. BAKER Oh, fine. Silence. Jack watches his mother poise the knife over the cake. Her fingers are trembling. MRS. BAKER (continuing) Big piece or little? JACK Huh? Oh, no. MRS. BAKER None? JACK I'm not much for sweets. Mrs. Baker nods. MRS. BAKER How's that dog of yours? What was his name? JACK Eddie. MRS. BAKER Yes. Right. Eddie. How is he? JACK He's losing his teeth. Mrs. Baker stops and looks up into Jack's eyes. Suddenly, a NOISE is heard in the other room. MRS. BAKER Sounds like your brothers back with us. INT. KITCHEN - DAY Frank comes stumbling up the basement stairs with an old movie projector and a roll-up screen. MRS. BAKER (entering) What's all this? Frank sets the projector down and hands his mother the tiny ribboned box. FRANK Go on. Jack watches from the kitchen doorway as Mrs. Baker pulls the ribbon off the box. Inside is a tiny spool of film. MRS. BAKER Why, what's this? INT. KITCHEN (LATER) Blank screen, curtains drawn, the room dark. Frank clicks on the projector and picks up his cake. Mrs. Baker close on his elbow, sets her plate on her knees and watches the screen. Jack sits off to the side. A title card appears: "For Mrs. Ellie Baker, who made it all possible." Mrs. Baker gives Frank a puzzled look. He just smiles. Suddenly, images spring to the screen, obviously footage several years old, showing Jack and Frank as children, sitting at the tiny pianos, wearing matching suits, smiling matching smiles as they play for the camera. MRS. BAKER Oh my God ... FRANK Recognize these two characters? MRS. BAKER I thought these were lost. Where did you find ... FRANK In the attic. Behind some of Dad's stuff. (pointing with his fork) Look, Jack can hardly reach the pedals. As Frank's laughter fills the dark room, Jack stares with cold fascination at the screen. Suddenly, a jagged cut springs the boys a year later, in the same positions, smiling the same smiles. MRS. BAKER (laughing) Oh no! FRANK I had a boy down at the camera shop cut them all together. Boy, old man Henderson didn't fool around when he gave a haircut, did he, Jack? Jack says nothing. MRS. BAKER Oh, look at you two. So skinny. And those tiny suits ... FRANK Wait. Watch. Here comes Dad. Jack's eyes narrow as the film jumps another year and a man enters the frame, obviously by accident. He is so tall his face cannot be seen. As he dances quickly out of sight, he ruffles Jack's hair. MRS. BAKER That man. As the film jumps again, Jack glances at the photograph to his right. The images on the screen flicker softly off the glass of the picture frame. MRS. BAKER (O.S.) (continuing) Oh, look how you're growing. My little boys ... Jack's eyes drift from the photograph to his mother and brother, sitting close together in the love seat, laughing. After a moment, their voices fade and Jack looks back to the children on the screen, like two tiny men, mirror images of one another. At first the changes are subtle. Little Jack's tie is askew, his shirt missing a button. But as the years flick by, the brothers resemble one another less and less, until finally, the little boy that was Jack is completely gone and in his place is a slouching, tousle-haired adolescent in rumpled coat and open collar, a cigarette hanging disdainfully from his lip. A woman's hand darts into the frame and plucks the offending cigarette away in a flash. INT. CAR Frank and Jack are parked in front of Jack's building. Whispers of steam snake from the mancovers in the street. JACK I made her nervous. FRANK What do you mean? JACK Her hands. Like that. Jack holds out a trembling hand. FRANK Nah. Medication. Jack looks over at Frank. He nods. FRANK (continuing) Couple years, now. (taps his heart) Keeps the beat steady. Nothing serious. Jack considers this a moment, then gets out of the car. FRANK She was glad to see you. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT Jack lets himself into his apartment and stops. Across the room, curled up on the couch, is a little girl. Jack takes the girl gently in his arms and carries her to the bedroom. As he folds a blanket under her chin, he pauses. The girl's face is calm, peaceful. EXT. STREET - DAWN The next morning. Early. The sun is peeking sleepily between the buildings and beginning to drip out onto the street. Suddenly, RINGING OUT over the rooftops, is "JINGLE BELLS" -- not the entire song, just the first two bars, over and over. IHT. JACK'S APARTMENT - DAY Jack, on the couch, his arm draped over a slumbering Eddie, opens his eyes. Across the room, seated at the piano, is NINA, the little girl. She stops playing and turns. NINA Morning. You want coffee? I made coffee. Jack looks into the sleepy face of Eddie and sits up. He nods to the coffee. Nina goes to the kitchen. NINA (continuing) I did the dishes last night. You're missing a cup. Jack rubs his head, then gets up and walks to the window. NINA (continuing) Did you break a cup, Jack? JACK Eddie did. Nina looks at Eddie, sleeping on the couch, then brings Jack his coffee with both hands. NINA I practiced the piano last night. Two hours. I think I'm ready for 'Jingle all the way.' Jack nods. Suddenly, the sound of HEAVY FOOTSTEPS is heard. Jack and Nina glance up at the ceiling. NINA (continuing) Guess they're up. JACK Sounds big. What's he do? NINA Process server. Ma said it's like a lawyer only the hours are more regular. All I know's he came to take the TV one afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. And breakfast. JACK What happened to the donut king? NINA Married. Upstairs, a DOOR SLAMS and HEAVY FEET ECHO in the stairwell. Nina peers out the window. NINA No breakfast. Maybe they had a fight. TWO DEEP THUMPS sound on the ceiling. NINA (continuing) Well, gotta go. Teach me later? Jack nods. Nina kisses him on the cheek and exits. Jack walks over to the couch and gives Eddie a nudge. JACK Hey. INT. LUAU LOUNGE Though the plastic palms and grass-skirted waitresses of the Luau Lounge make the Fabulous Baker Boys' presence seem a bit incongruous, Jack and Frank hold nothing back, giving "McCarthur Park" the full treatment. Unfortunately, the audience in the Luau Lounge wouldn't fill a Hawaiian haystack and their applause is less than volcanic. FRANK Uh, thank you. That concludes our show for this evening. Jack and I only hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did. As the guests wander out, clutching their roomkeys, a freckle-faced BELLHOP comes up. BELLHOP Mr. Baker. FRANK (tired) Yeah, Jimmy. JIMMY (BELLHOP) Mr. Simpson asked to see you. FRANK All right, tell him I'll be right there. As Jimmy exits, Frank stands and points at Jack. FRANK (continuing) Tomorrow we close with the 'Aquarius Suite.' INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR Frank pauses before a door marked "HOTEL MANAGER." It's half-open. Inside, CHARLIE SIMPSON, a heavy man in a shiny suit, is throwing darts in the general direction of a dartboard. He's not very good. Frank knocks. CHARLIE Frankie. FRANK You wanted to see me, Charlie? ANOTHER ANGLE CHARLIE Yeah, come on in. FRANK Little slow tonight. CHARLIE (waving it off) Mondays. Charlie takes an envelope from his desk and hands it to Frank. FRANK What's this? CHARLIE Your pay. FRANK Now? Why not tomorrow? After the show. CHARLIE Take it now. FRANK (confused) What about tomorrow? CHARLIE We don't need you, Frankie. For a moment, Frank just stands there. FRANK I've got the grands for two nights, Charlie. You can't just -- CHARLIE It's all there. Both nights. Frank looks at the envelope in his hands. FRANK What're you saying, Charlie? CHARLIE Look, Frankie. You and Jack been playing here, a long time. FRANK Twelve years. CHARLIE Right, twelve years. Couple times a month. FRANK So? CHARLIE So maybe it's time we took a vacation from each other. FRANK Vacation? Christ, Charlie, it's a Monday night. You said so yourself. CHARLIE It wasn't half full out there tonight, Frankie. I got six waiters standing in back listening to baseball. I gotta move the liquor. To move the liquor, I gotta fill the tables. It's a matter of economics. Me, I love you. I love both you guys, you know that. You're class. But people today. They don't know class if it walks up and grabs 'em by the balls. INT. HOTEL LOBBY Jack rises as Frank passes through the lobby with the cardboard stand-up. JACK What's with Charlie? FRANK Nothing. Everything's great. Terrific. INT. FRANK'S HOUSE With the stand-up under his arm, Frank enters and closes the door quietly. A light is glowing in the kitchen. The rest of the house is dark, quiet. In the kitchen, he checks the message pad by the phone. Nothing. On the table, a plate of cold chicken is waiting for him. Next to it is a stack of bills with a note attached: "Frank. Please." Frank sighs and leans the stand-up against the wall. The photo of Jack is peeling off the cardboard. Finding a stack of glossies in a drawer, Frank removes the old Jack from the stand-up and replaces it with a new one. As he presses the photograph in place, his eyes drift to the one of himself. It was taken a long time ago. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT Jack places a record on the turntable and sits at the piano by the window. As the needle hits the spinning disc, a sharp, snappy BASS LINE REVERBERATES throughout the apartment. Jack takes a drink, then joins in with the record, playing along. His concentration is intense, so much so that, a moment later, when the PHONE RINGS, he seems not to hear it. Finally, he picks it up. JACK Yeah? FRANK (V.0.) It's me. JACK Frank? FRANK (V.0.) Yeah. Listen ... come out to the house tomorrow, will ya? JACK I've had enough family for one month, Frank. FRANK (V.0.) It's not family. It's business. JACK So talk to me tomorrow. After the gig. FRANK (V.0.) We don't get a gig. JACK What're you talking about? FRANK (V.0.) Something came up. Don't worry, Charlie stayed true. Both nights. I'll give you your share tomorrow. At the house. Silence. FRANK (V.0) (continuing) So you'll come out, right? JACK Yeah, okay. Jack listens to the PHONE HISSING in the dark, then the CONNECTION goes DEAD. EXT. STREET A taxi lets Jack off on a street of shabby tract houses. In his rumpled city suit, Jack looks like a cheap gangster amid the weedy lawns and overgrown junipers. He walks up to the door of a small white house and presses the doorbell. When there is no response, he goes around to the back. EXT. BACKYARD The backyard is small, with a short chainlink fence surrounding it. Two kids, a girl and a boy, are splashing around in a build-it-yourself above-ground pool. When they see Jack, they stop splashing. Only their heads are visible above the water. JACK Hey, kids. Dad home? The two heads say nothing. JACK (continuing) What d'ya say? Wanna run and get him for me? Still nothing. Jack frowns, takes out a cigarette, and pats his pocket for a match. JACK (continuing) Shit. The kids' eyes widen at his profanity. Jack, the unlit cigarette dangling from his lip, ponders things for a moment, then flicks the'cigarette away and steps over the fence. At which point, the tinier of the two heads in the pool begins to scream. JACK (continuing) Hey, kid. Take it easy. No use. The kid's a world-class screamer. Frank, wearing baggy shorts and looking alarmed, comes racing out of the house. FRANK Cindy! What is it? Cindy points. At Jack. FRANK (continuing) Jack. JACK Your doorbell doesn't work. FRANK Honey, it's only Uncle Jack. You remember Uncle Jack. DONNA, Frank's wife, appears. DONNA What's the matter? Jack? Jack waves. FRANK (lifting Cindy out of the pool) Nothing's the matter. Is it, sweetheart? DONNA I'll take her inside. You too, little Frank. Out of the pool. Donna shepherds the kids toward the house. FRANK Feet! The kids wipe their dripping feet on the outside mat and disappear into the house. Frank turns to Jack. FRANK (continuing) It's probably the excitement of seeing you again. EXT. BACKYARD (LATER) Donna comes out of the house with a tray of lemonade. The men are sitting by the pool in a pair of webbed aluminum chairs. FRANK Well, look at this. DONNA You bring trunks, Jack? JACK Trunks? DONNA Swimming trunks. JACK Oh. No. Strictly dryland. DONNA Too bad. You could use some sun. Really. JACK Maybe next time. DONNA We have some lotion. JACK Just the same. DONNA Suit yourself. Donna returns to the house. Frank takes a sip of his lemonade and scans his surroundings complacently. FRANK Nice, huh? JACK What? FRANK The trees. The flowers. Nice. JACK Terrific. FRANK (expansively) Yeah ... we're gonna paint in the spring. After the rains. Look good as new. JACK You ask me out here to sell me your house, Frank? Frank shakes the ice in his glass. JACK (continuing) Charlie paid you off last night, didn't he? FRANK I don't know what you mean. JACK The hell you don't. FRANK I told you. Something came up. Some political dinner or something. JACK Bullshit. Fifteen years, Frank. No one paid us off. FRANK It wasn't like that. JACK No? FRANK No. JACK What was it like? FRANK Hey pal, I got a mortgage, all right? I got two kids. I got a wife. Besides, he made the deal. There's no shame in it. JACK That how you see it? FRANK Yeah, that's how I see it. Jack shakes his head in disgust. FRANK (continuing) And don't go shaking your head, little brother. I'm not the one who walks in every night smelling like he's got a day job in a piss factory. (pause) It killed him, you know. Jack glances up. Dangerous territory. JACK A gust of wind killed him. FRANK Yeah, and what put him up there? JACK Hey, you weren't there. Right? Jack's look ends this. Frank sighs. FRANK Look, can we forget last night? We gotta talk. JACK Talk. FRANK I been thinking maybe we should make some changes. (pause) I been thinking maybe we should take on a singer. Silence. JACK Sure, why not. FRANK It's just an idea. I want your opinion. I mean, we go halfway on everything, right? JACK It's more like 40-60, wouldn't you say? FRANK We agreed that if I took care of the business; I'd be entitled to the extra. Isn't that what we agreed? JACK That's what we agreed. FRANK If you're unhappy with the arrangement -- JACK I'm not unhappy. FRANK If you'd like to assume more of the financial responsibilities, I'd be glad -- JACK Frank. Fuck it. Okay? FRANK I've tried to do well by you, Jack. By both of us. JACK I'm grateful, Frank. How much? For the singer. FRANK I thought maybe twenty percent. Look, with the additional bookings we'll come out ahead. The big hotels, they want a pretty girl with a big voice. We have to stay competitive, Jack. Jack laughs coldly. FRANK What's that? JACK You, Frank. All these years you been telling me we're different. We got novelty, Jack. No one can touch us. FRANK Two pianos isn't enough anymore, Jack. JACK It never was. YOUNG WOMAN in pink sweater and a short black skirt stands in the center of a tiny room in the back of Willie's piano showroom, holding some sheet music. Sammy Davis Jr.'s face is on the sheet music. Frank is sitting against the opposite wall, a notepad in his hand. Jack is at the piano. FRANK Good morning, Miss...? YOUNG WOMAN Moran. Monica Moran. FRANK All right, Miss Moran MONICA (YOUNG WOMAN) Actually, that's my stage name. FRANK I'm sorry? MONICA Moran. Monica. The whole thing. It's my stage name. My real name's Blanche. FRANK Blanche. MONICA No romance, right? That's why I came up with Monica. It's what I prefer. FRANK Well, that's fine -- MONICA But if you call my house and my mother answers, ask for Blanche. If you ask for Monica, she'll think you have the wrong number and hang up. FRANK Right. MONICA And if she asks what it's about, don't tell her. She's opposed to my career. FRANK Uh-huh. Well, Miss Moran, what is it you'd like to do for us? MONICA Candy Man.' (worried) Is that all right? FRANK It's one of Jack's favorites. Monica turns and, seeing Jack at the piano, gives a little start. MONICA Oops. I almost forgot you were there. Here's the music. Monica begins to hand Jack the sheet music. FRANK Uh... he knows it. MONICA Really? Isn't that a coincidence. JACK Small world. Monica smiles. She likes Jack. FRANK Well, shall we? Probably not, but Jack begins to play anyway, laconically picking out the cheery tune while Monica swings her arms and taps her foot. Despite all this, Monica still manages to come in between beats and Jack has to scramble over a chord to catch her, sort of like a fireman with a net. MONICA Who can take a sunrise Sprinkle it with dew Toss it in the air and Make a groovy lemon pie The Candy Man can The Candy Man can..., There would appear to be ample evidence as to why the mother of Monica nee Blanche opposes her daughter's career. FRANK Thank you, Miss Moran, that's enough. Monicals eyes are closed now and she is fully caught up. Frank looks over at Jack. Jack shrugs and continues to play. FRANK (continuing) Miss Moran ... Miss Moran ... Blanche! Monica's eyes pop open. MONICA Oh, sorry. I get so caught up in it sometimes. It's scary. FRANK Yes, it is. MONICA Well ... thanks. (to Jack) Bye. JACK Drive carefully. As Monica exits, Jack and Frank glance at one another and thus begins a seemingly endless parade of aspiring singers who can't sing. As Frank sinks lower in his chair and Jack's ashtray spills over with wounded cigarettes, singer after singer, in all shapes, sizes, and colors, come forth to offer their own unique interpretations of "Feelings," "I Gotta Be Me," "This Is My Song," and perhaps most appropriately, "What Kind of Fool Am I." Finally, when it is all over, Jack and Frank are left alone in the tiny room, looking dazed, exhausted, and mildly homicidal. TALL YOUNG WOMAN As the sequence ends, a TALL YOUNG WOMAN in high heels walks into Willie's. She glances around, then spots Willie across the room, eating a corn beef on rye. WOMAN Hey. You one of the fabulous Baker Boys? JACK AND FRANK are putting on their coats, preparing to leave. Frank is staring at his notepad. FRANK Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven. JACK What? FRANK Thirty-seven girls. And not one who can carry a tune. That must be statistically impossible. JACK It was a somewhat extraordinary day. FRANK I just don't understand. You would think someone ... anyone ... WOMAN (O.S.) Damn! The Woman in high heels stumbles into the doorway, holding a shoe in her hand. It's broken. WOMAN (continuing) Brand new Thursday. You believe it? After today, Jack and Frank are prepared to believe anything. WOMAN (continuing) This where the auditions are? FRANK This is where the auditions were. WOMAN What do you mean? FRANK We're finished. WOMAN What about me? Frank looks at his watch. FRANK You're an hour and a half late. WOMAN My watch is broken, too. FRANK Punctuality. First rule of show business. The Woman looks around her. WOMAN This is show business? FRANK (in no mood) Look, miss. We're tired, you have gum on your lip, and we're going home. WOMAN (touching her lip) Just like that, huh? You're not even gonna give me a chance? FRANK Don't take it personally. WOMAN How should I take it? FRANK Impersonally. Frank begins to leave. WOMAN I don't believe it. I come all the way down down here, break a heel, and you're not gonna give me a chance because I have gum on my lip and I'm a few minutes late. FRANK You're an hour and a half late. WOMAN So if I'm so 'late how come you're still here? FRANK We ran long. WOMAN So run a little longer. FRANK Miss -- WOMAN You find a girl? Jack and Frank glance at each other. JACK No. WOMAN So. I'm here, you're here, the piano's here. What d'ya say? Before Frank can answer, Jack walks over to the piano. FRANK Terrific. Thirty-eight. WOMAN What's that mean? Thirty-eight. JACK Don't worry about it. WOMAN (to Frank) You know, I'm feeling a lot of hostility from you. FRANK (appealing) Jack. JACK Let's get it over with. FRANK All right. What's your name? WOMAN Susie. Susie Diamond. FRANK Catchy. You have any previous entertainment experience, Miss Diamond? SUSIE (WOMAN) Well ... for the last four years I've been on call to Triple A Escort service. Jack and Frank exchange a glance. SUSIE (continuing) Hey, it's legit. Strictly dinner and dance. FRANK Okay. I think that's all we need to know. SUSIE I sing now? FRANK That's the premise. Susie gives Frank a dark look, then turns to Jack. SUSIE I Get Along Without You.' Slowly, okay? Jack nods and begins to play. Frank slouches down in his chair, preparing to be tortured again. SUSIE (continuing; singing) I get along without you very well Of course I do Except when soft rains fall And drip from leaves, then I recall The thrill of being Sheltered in your arms Of course I do But I get along without you very well.' Susie stops. Frank just sits there. Jack just sits there. She can sing. SUSIE (continuing) So? FRANK (blinking) Uh ... we'll let you know. Jack looks over at Frank like he's insane. SUSIE When? FRANK When we know. SUSIE (smiling) Don't leave a girl hanging. Second rule of show business. Frank's not amused. SUSIE (continuing) Yeah, well, okay. 'Bye, Bakers. Susie walks out barefoot. JACK What are you, crazy? FRANK I just thought we should talk about it. Between ourselves. JACK What's there to talk about? She can sing. That puts her at the head of the class. That makes her the only one in the class. FRANK I don't know ... She had gum on her lip, for Christ sake. I don't think she's right for the act. JACK (studying him) You're getting cold feet about this. FRANK I was just thinking what Ma would think. JACK Ma? Ma? Was Ma there the last time we played the Ambassador? Oh, that's right, she was on bass. How could I forget. Frank frowns and looks down at his hands. JACK (continuing) How many other silent partners are there, Frank? Donna? Little Cindy? Hell, let's give Eddie a vote. FRANK Okay, okay. I'll call the girl. Frank gets up wearily, then glances down at the notepad. JACK What's the matter? FRANK I didn't get her number. EXT. STREET Jack and Frank dash out of Willie's and glance up and down the street. Nothing. FRANK We can always look her up in the book. JACK. Right. Susie Diamond. She's probably listed right next to Monica Moran. Jack shakes his head in disgust. WOMAN (O.S.) Does this mean I get the job? ANOTHER ANGLE Jack and Frank whirl around. There, standing in the doorway, is Susie. SUSIE Intuition. CITY SKYLINE Gleaming beautifully at the start of a new day. Once again, "JINGLE BELLS" is heard, only this time carried a little further: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..." JACK, FRANK AND SUSIE Ensconsed in the back room of Willie's, preparing for their first rehearsal ... FRANK Ready? Jack nods. FRANK (continuing) Ready? Susie nods. Frank poises his hands over the piano, hesitates, then looks at Jack again. FRANK (continuing) Ready? Jack squints at Frank, then nods. Frank turns to Susie. FRANK (continuing) Ready? SUSIE (looking around) What are we, an orchestra all of a sudden? Frank g1ares at her. SUSIE (continuing) Sorry. Frank poises his hands over the piano again and begins to play the opening passage of "Just the Way You Are." A moment later, Jack joins in, and a moment after that, Susie. Unfortunately, Jack and Frank, accustomed to playing alone, are a tad overwhelming and the result sounds like a fifth grade recital. After a few bars, Susie holds up her hand. SUSIE Fellas, fellas ... Jack and Frank stop. FRANK What's the problem? SUSIE The problem is I can't hear myself sing with all this... (searching) ... music. You know what I'm saying? Jack and Frank look at one another. SUSIE (continuing) I mean, back there it may be hard to notice, but up here I'm having a little trouble getting a word in. Jack and Frank just stare. SUSIE (continuing) I mean, you're supposed to be backing me up, right? FRANK (icily) No. We are not supposed to be backing you up. SUSIE What I mean is -- FRANK We're a team. We work together. SUSIE So work with me, not against me. Okay? Frank stares at Susie for a long moment. FRANK I suppose we can bring it down a little. JACK I'll drop the eighths. FRANK Okay? Susie looks at the two brothers. SUSIE Okay. WILLIE'S SHOWROOM - LATER Frank is on Willie's telephone. In the front of the store, just out of earshot, Jack sits at a beat-up grand, while Susie moves aimlessly from one piano to another. FRANK I'm telling you, Ray. She's got a voice like an angel ... What? Frank glances furtively across the room to where Susie, making a very sexy silhouette against the front window, is running her hand over a pearl-white piano. FRANK (continuing) No, I wouldn't say she's got a body like an angel. As Frank continues to talk in the background, Susie looks over at Jack. SUSIE Hey, he's not sore, is he? JACK He'll come around. Susie nods, goes back to stroking the piano. JACK (continuing) You never sang before? SUSIE Not for money. With my mother. Jack nods slowly, but Susie sees he doesn't understand. SUSIE (continuing) She used to waitress downtown, nights, when I was a kid. On the way home, we'd sing. You know how people whistle when they're nervous? My mother sang. She always said you're never alone with a song 'cause thousands of people know the same song and even though you can't hear 'em, they're singing with you. I don't know. If they were, they were all singing safe inside their apartments. (shrugging) But it worked. We always got home. Ever since, I always wanted to sing. I never took lessons or anything, though. I guess you guys took a lot of lessons. Jack looks down at the piano in front of him. JACK Yeah. We took a lot of lessons. JACK AND NINA Jack's tuxedo is hanging in the shower as he gets ready for the night's gig. Nina, standing next to him at the sink, watches as he works up a lather on a bar of shaving soap, then paints his face with the suds. NINA You shave like an old movie, Jack. As Jack picks up a razor, Nina takes the brush and begins to soap her face in the mirror. JACK In the old days, every man had a shaving mug that he kept at the barber shop. Then, whenever he wanted a shave, held go down to the barber shop and there would be his mug, waiting for him. NINA Is that what you used to do? JACK My days are not the old days, genius. NINA What are they? JACK The recent past. NINA Oh. (nodding to the ceiling) Bigfoot gets his out of a can. JACK How do you know? NINA I saw his stuff in the bathroom. JACK Oh? NINA I guess it's getting serious. JACK Maybe he'll ask your ma to marry him. NINA I hope not. He's already busted the springs in two chairs. Hey, what's this? Nina holds up the handle of the shaving brush. JACK Ivory. NINA Looks old. JACK Older than me. NINA Wow. Jack gives Nina a look, then begins to splash his face. Nina picks up the razor. JACK Hey, what do you want to do? Grow a beard? NINA Why not? JACK Well, let's get your first prom under the belt, okay? NINA What's a prom? JACK Ever go to church? Nina nods. JACK It's like that. Only you gotta dance. INT. HOTEL As Jack enters the hotel, he passes by the cardboard stand-up, prominently displayed in the lobby. It is virtually unchanged, except for a small notation at the bottom: "With Guest Vocalist." On the other side of the lobby, Frank is pacing nervously. FRANK Where the hell is she? JACK It's early. FRANK I told everyone seven-fifteen. Didn't I? Seven-fifteen. JACK She'll get here. FRANK Just like the day of the auditions, right? Jesus. How's my hair? JACK Awe inspiring. FRANK Yeah, well, Your's isn't. (taking out a comb) Let me run a comb though it. JACK Get out of here. FRANK Come on, stand still. JACK Get out of here! FRANK It's not gonna hurt you. JACK I'll hit you, Frank. I swear. Frank hesitates, like a basketball player trying to feint an opponent, then takes a flick at Jack's hair. Jack hits him. FRANK (holding his shoulder) You hit me. JACK I told you I was gonna hit you. He looks capable of hitting him again, too. FRANK All right, all right. I'm a little tense. JACK You're a fucking alarm clock. FRANK I just wish she'd get here, that's all. JACK She's here. Susie, wearing a flamboyant orange dress, is standing across the lobby, staring at the stand-up. FRANK Christ, look at her. You'd think if she was gonna wear her street clothes she'd have enough sense to come in the back. (walking over) Good evening, Miss Diamond. You're late. SUSIE Where's my name? FRANK What-? SUSIE And how come you guys are the only ones with your pictures on the poster? FRANK We'll talk about it later. Right now, you gotta get changed. SUSIE Changed? FRANK Where's your dress? SUSIE (to Jack) What's he talking about? FRANK Is there a language problem here? Your dress. For tonight. Where is it? SUSIE Do I look like I'm naked? FRANK That! You can't wear that! SUSIE What's wrong with it? FRANK It's orange! SUSIE (to Jack) Am I missing something? Before Jack can reply, Frank grabs Susie's hand and pulls her toward the door. FRANK Come on. SUSIE Hey! FRANK Come on. We don't have much time. SUSIE Time for what? INT. DEPARTMENT STORE Frank, Jack and Susie dash through a cavernous downtown department store, the brothers turning a few heads with their tuxedoes. As they reach the ladies' department, Frank begins to flip through the dress racks. SUSIE If you ask me, this is pretty stupid. FRANK Just look. What do you wear? A nine? SUSIE (offended) A seven. FRANK My wife wears a seven. You don't look like a seven to me. SUSIE I wear a seven. FRANK Okay, okay. Here, how about this? SUSIE (looking) Save it for your wife. FRANK We're not exactly silly with time, you know. Jack, you find anything? Jack, somewhat out of his element, is looking at belts. JACK No. FRANK Here, how's this? Frank holds out an inky black dress. Susie gives it a long look. FRANK (continuing) Close enough. Let's go. Frank begins to drag Susie into the dressing room. SUSIE Hey, pal. I don't know about you, but where I come from there's a little girl's room and a little boy's room and the little boys don't go where the little girls go. FRANK All right, but make it quick. (remembering) Shoes! What size do you wear? SUSIE (from the dressing room) Nine. FRANK Nine? SUSIE Nine! FRANK (to himself) Big feet. INT. SHOE DEPARTMENT Frank and Jack work the shoe department, scouting the endless rows. FRANK See anything? JACK (holding one up) How about these? FRANK Jack, for crying out loud. Your bachelorhood's showing. (seeing something) Ah, here we go. Frank grabs a pretty blue pump and gestures to the SALESMAN, who's waiting on a woman. FRANK Hey! Do these come in black? SALESMAN I'll be with you in a minute, sir. FRANK I don't have a minute, pal. Yes or no? SALESMAN (glowering) Yes. They come in black. FRANK Okay. Give me a pair of nines. Pronto. The Salesman looks casually at Jack. SALESMAN Does he want a pair, too? INT. DRESS DEPARTMENT As Jack and Frank return to the dress department, Frank jettisons the shoebox and tissue paper. FRANK All right, we got your shoes. Just then, Susie steps out of the dressing room. Even Frank stops at the sight of her. SUSIE What do you think? FRANK Uh... good. SUSIE (turning to Jack) Zip me up? The dress is open down to the small of her back. It's a nice back. Jack takes the zipper and closes the panels carefully. SUSIE (continuing) Shoes? FRANK Right. Frank puts the shoes down and Susie steps into them. SUSIE They're tight. FRANK They're nines. SUSIE Well, they're aspiring to be sevens. FRANK You can buy new ones tomorrow. SUSIE Oh, thanks. FRANK Don't worry. We'll take it out of your share. SUSIE You're a prince. INT. HOTEL As the trio rushes into the hotel service entrance, RAY, the assistant manager, appears. RAY You better buy yourself a watch, Frankie. FRANK We had a little emergency. RAY Yeah, well, I've got a little emergency. You know what I'm saying? (seeing Susie) Who's this, Minnie Pearl? All eyes turn to Susie's dress, which still has the tags attached. FRANK (moving off) Jesus. RAY I want seventy-five minutes, Frankie. You hear me? JACK This is going well, isn't it? INT. KITCHEN The three rush into the kitchen. FRANK We need scissors over here! Who's got scissors? (turning to Susie) Okay, remember. Jack and I go on first, I do the set-up, then introduce you. And you say ... SUSIE (deadpan) Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be here. It's like a dream come true. And speaking of dreams ... FRANK Right. SUSIE Piece of cake. A tiny MAN in an apron walks up with a meat cleaver. FRANK Carlos, that's,a cleaver. I need scissors. CARLOS (MAN) No scissors. FRANK Jesus Christ. All right. Let's go, Jack. Fix your tie. Jack and Frank exit. Susie stares a little warily at Carlos and his cleaver. INT. LOUNGE Jack and Frank slide quickly behind their pianos. About half the tables in the room are filled. FRANK Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Ambassador Lounge. My name's Frank Baker and no, you're not seeing double, it's just my little brother, Jack. Some laughter. FRANK (continuing) I'm glad you're all in such a good mood tonight, because we've got a very special evening planned ... INT. KITCHEN Susie sits on a stool while Carlos positions the dress tags on a cutting board. As a WAITRESS from the bar passes by, Susie snares a drink from her tray. WAITRESS Hey! SUSIE Just a sip. To kill the butterflies, okay? WAITRESS Okay. But no lipstick. Susie takes a quick sip. SUSIE There. No one's the wiser. WAITRESS Nice dress. As the Waitress exits, Carlos brings the cleaver down with a sharp chop, severing the tags. SUSIE Appreciate it, Ace. LOUNGE The audience is laughing. FRANK But seriously, folks, as I sit here tonight, looking out on all your kind faces, I can't help but feel some of us have met before. We may not know each other's names, we might not recognize one another on the street, but we know each other just the same. And over the years we've shared something. A little music, a little drink, a little laughter, maybe even... a few tears. But I guess that's what friends are for, huh? Applause. Jack puts out his cigarette. JACK Oh, brother. FRANK And it's especially nice to be among friends tonight, because, well, tonight's a very special night for my brother and I. This evening we've asked a young lady to join us, a lady Jack and I are sure will soon seem like just another old friend to you all. She's making her debut here this evening and, as far as I'm concerned, she couldn't be doing it in a better place. Because there's one place that's always been for us a very special place, and that place is this place, the Ambassador Lounge. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a very special lady with a very special way of singing a song, Miss Susie Diamond. Applause. Susie strides out of the kitchen, past the busing station, and up to the microphone stand, which, unfortunately, is not on. FRANK (continuing; whispering) The switch. Hit the switch. SUSIE Switch? (as she hits it) What fucking switch? Silence. SUSIE (continuing; very demure) Pardon me. Jack and Frank look at one another, then, before outrage can set in, plunge into the opening number. Susie takes the mike from the stand and smiles sweetly. SUSIE (continuing) I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be here. For the moment, the audience doesn't seem quite sure how thrilled they are to be here. SUSIE (continuing) I'm all smiles, darling Through and through...' INT. LOBBY A BELLBOY exits the elevator and, hearing Susie's voice coming from the lounge, stops. He looks to the CLERK behind the front desk. BELLBOY I thought the Bakers were on tonight. CLERK They are. BELLBOY Well, who's that? The Clerk looks up from the register and listens. CLERK I don't know. Frank? INT. LOUNGE Judging from the faces, Susie's as big a hit in the lounge as she is in the lobby. Head thrown back, eyes closed, she sings with abandon, finishing on a long extended note, then swooping down in a dramatic, exhausted bow. There is a split second of silence, then thunderous applause. Magic. EXT. HOTEL The new trio, fresh off their first gig, come out of the service entrance into the night. FRANK Fucking. She says fucking in front of an entire room of people. SUSIE I said I was sorry. FRANK (to Jack) Did you hear it? JACK Fucking. SUSIE Look, they were all on their third Mai Tais by the time I got out there anyway. FRANK (directly to her) Fucking. SUSIE For Christ sake, I said it, I didn't do it. (pulling out some bills) Besides, I don't think they were too offended, do you? FRANK (grabbing the bills) Give me that. SUSIE Hey! FRANK We are not a saloon act. We do not take tips from dirty old men. SUSIE (innocent) I was gonna split it with you guys. FRANK We do not take tips. I'll apply this to the cost of the dress. Frank puts the money in his pocket. Susie stares at him, steaming. SUSIE Then I want my name on the poster. And my picture! (taking off her shoes) And these shoes are too goddamn tight! Susie hurls the shoes at Frank and stalks off barefoot. Jack is leaning against the wall, watching it all with amusement. JACK Nice girl. ON Frank's expression we hear the OPENING NOTES of "New York, New York" and we see: SERIES OF SHOTS Susie and the boys performing it in one lounge after another, playing to increasingly enthusiastic audiences, no empty tables now. As the SONG ends, we CLOSE ON the cardboard stand-up, newly done over with a picture of Susie and an accompanying exclamation: "See the Sensational Susie Diamond!" As the FINAL CHORD sounds we -- CUT TO: INT. LLOYD'S OFFICE Jack and Frank, once again in the office of the supercilious Lloyd, waiting as he prepares their cash envelope. LLOYD Yes, sir. That's quite a girl you boys latched onto. She a local? FRANK Born and bred. LLOYD Lucky for you. Well, there you go, guys. Don't spend it all in one place. Oh ... you want to count it, Jack? FRANK We trust you, Lloyd. You know that. Frank takes the envelope and begins to leave. LLOYD Say, Frankie. Since I've got you here... How's next week look for you guys? Frank glances at Jack, giving it to him. Jack's eyes go cold. JACK We'll call you. As Lloyd's face drops, Jack and Frank step into the hallway and begin to walk slowly away, playing it cool, then glance at one another and begin to walk faster because they're about to burst out laughing. FOLLOWING SHOT By the time they reach the lobby, they are laughing, tripping across the carpet, out the front entrance and onto the sidewalk, where their voices explode in the night air and they begin to do a weird boyish waltz together, laughing giddily, until they see - standing under an awning, lighting a cigarette - Susie, watching them with raised eyebrows. Jack and Frank, frozen in a clumsy embrace, quickly disengage and begin clearing their throats and squaring their cuffs. Susie exhales a plume of smoke, studies them a moment, then smiles slightly. SUSIE Night, Bakers. As she turns away, Jack glances up, watching her trim shadow disappear down the street. EXT. CITY Gray and cold. The streets swept with rain. And once again the tentative piano: "JINGLE BELLS, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride ... Oh what fun it is to ride ... Oh what fun..." INT. VETERINARY CLINIC Jack and Eddie are sitting in the waiting room: small and dirty and packed with pet owners and their animals. After a moment, a WOMAN with a clipboard appears. WOMAN Barker. (no takers) Jock Barker? JACK (realizing it's him) Baker. Jack Baker. WOMAN Right. Bring him back. JACK Come on, Ed. Jack and Eddie follow the Woman down a corridor. WOMAN You should've brought a leash, Mr. Barker. The doctor doesn't like to be bitten. JACK He doesn't bite. WOMAN They never do, Mr. Barker. JACK Baker. WOMAN Right. In there. The Woman points Jack and Eddie into a small room. There is an examining table, a sink, and on the wall, a chart detailing the various breeds of dogs and cats. Jack glances around the room, then comes back to Eddie, who's staring up at him. JACK You shoulda brushed, pal. Just then, a MAN in a white coat breezes in. DR. BEASLEY (MAN) Ah, labradorus retreiverus. Good fellows. Quiet, but able to appreciate a good joke. Dr. Beasley pats Eddie on the side, then turns to Jack. DR. BEASLEY Beasley. JACK Baker. DR. BEASLEY What's our friend's problem? JACK Teeth. DR. BEASLEY What's wrong with them? JACK They're falling out. DR. BEASLEY Uh-oh. That's not good. Let's get him up here. Jack lifts Eddie up onto the table and Dr. Beasley opens Eddie's mouth for a look. It doesn't take long. DR. BEASLEY They gotta go. JACK (a take) How many? DR. BEASLEY Five's my guess. Maybe more. Won't know till I get in there. (consulting his clipboard) Leave him now and you can pick him up in the morning. JACK Isn't there something you can give him? A pill or something? DR. BEASLEY Decay unfortunately doesn't limit itself to the denture, Mr. Baker. It spreads into his chest. Then the heart goes. We wouldn't want that, would we? JACK How will he eat? DR. BEASLEY Start him out on cottage cheese. If you've got him on kibble, just soak it a few minutes. Go down like pudding through a hot pipe. JACK No bones? DR. BEASLEY No bones. Jack looks at Eddie. JACK What do you do to him? DR. BEASLEY Don't worry, Mr. Baker. We'll knock him out. He won't feel a thing. JACK I think maybe I'll bring him back next week ... DR. BEASLEY The sooner we do this the better, Mr. Baker. EXT. STREET Jack steps out onto the rainy street alone. He glances back at the vet's with second thought, then moves slowly off. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT Jack enters with a small grocery bag and opens the refrigerator. A carton of cream, a few eggs -- there's not much there. He takes a small container of cottage cheese from the grocery bag and places it on an empty shelf. As he closes the refrigerator door, he glances around the apartment. It is very still, very quiet. He looks up at the ceiling absently, then walks over to the window and looks out. There is a mug of coffee there on the sill. He takes it and holds it in both hands for a moment, then places it back on the sill. He sits at the piano and runs his fingers lightly over the ivory, not making a sound, then places his hands on the keys and begins to play. "Jingle Bells." INT. CORNER DINER In the front window, room has been made among the photographs for one of Susie. Inside, Jack, Frank and Susie sit at a table, surrounded by empty coffee cups and cigarettes. Frank has several slips of paper before him with names and dates. FRANK The twenty-third ... Yeah, here it is. We got the Carlton or the Plaza. Four day turns. What do you think, Jack? Jack is staring out the window. FRANK (continuing) Jack, you with us? SUSIE The Carlton's a dump. No cover. No minimum. And they water their drinks. It's strictly for the Fuller brush crowd. Susie, as she says this, is pouring sugar into her Coke. FRANK (watching) I guess it's,the Plaza then. That brings us to the twenty-seventh. We got the Avedon for three or the Park downtown for two. SUSIE We take the Avedon, right? Simple. Frank rubs his chin and looks at Jack. Jack shakes his head. SUSIE (continuing) The Park? It's only two nights. Why throw away a night? JACK Because Blackie Carson books the Park and whenever we've needed a gig he's come through. SUSIE Oh. (lifting her glass) Well, for Blackie then. FRANK By the way, I got a messsage yesterday from some guy looking for New Year's action. Resort, upstate. SUSIE (likes "resort') Hey. JACK Sounds like a booking agent looking to book an easy fee. FRANK That's what I figure. Probably have us in a bed-and-breakfast playing to the owls. SUSIE Maybe it's legit. FRANK Maybe. I'll call him. JACK Make it collect. FRANK (shuffling his slips) That's it except for the first. We got the Sheraton, the Ambassador, or the Holiday Inn on Sixtieth. All three-day turns. Frank looks at Jack. JACK Draw. Susie shrugs. SUSIE How'd you guys used to decide what gig to take? Jack and Frank exchange a glance. FRANK Uh, well ... we flipped a coin. SUSIE So find a dime. Let's get out of here. EXT. DINER Jack and Frank step out-of the diner and turn their collars up against the chill. Frank pulls on a pair of gloves. FRANK Jesus, it's gonna be mean this year. Where're your gloves? Jack shrugs. FRANK (continuing) Better take care of your fingers, little brother. Buy yourself a case of arthritis and you won't be able to play 'Chopsticks.' JACK I'll take my chances. Frank pats his hands together and glances into the street. FRANK Something, huh? All those bids. JACK Yeah. Something. FRANK Yeah ... Well, I gotta go. JACK You wanna get a drink? Frank stops, surprised. FRANK No, I... Little Frank's got strep. Donna's been up two nights making sure the rest of us don't get it. Jack nods. FRANK (continuing) You all right? JACK Yeah, fine. FRANK Okay I'll see you tomorrow night then. JACK Right. As Frank leaves, he takes a glance at his brother, then disappears around the corner. A second later, Susie comes out of the diner. SUSIE Where's egghead? JACK His kid's sick. SUSIE (searching her purse) I don't know. It's hard figuring you two as brothers. Seems like the hospital might've scrambled the babies somewhere. JACK He takes after our mother. SUSIE Yeah,well, a11 I know is mother nature must be one crazy dame. Shit. Jack offers his pack of cigarettes. SUSIE Uh-uh. I never touch American cigarettes. (still searching) What's tomorrow again? JACK The Stratford. SUSIE Nice place. Fulla velvet. Even the bedspreads. (shaking the purse) Damn! Two-fifty a pack and I go through 'em like toothpicks. Twelve-and-a-half cents a piece, you believe that? JACK Huh? SUSIE Paris Opals. Twelve-and-a-half cents. I sat down with a pencil and added it one day. But I figure, if you're gonna be sticking something in your mouth, you might as well make it the best. (finding one) Ah, here's a lost soul. Jack lights it. She takes a draw. SUSIE (continuing) Mmm. Like kissing a rose. Well, au revoir. JACK Hey. (as she stops) You feel like a cup of coffee? SUSIE You kidding? We must've killed three pots in there. Anyway, I gotta get home. Rest the pipes. JACK You want me to walk you? Susie looks at Jack a little funny. SUSIE No. Thanks. She starts to move away, then stops and looks back. SUSIE (continuing) Hey, listen. You're not going soft on me, are you? I mean, you're not gonna start dreaming about me and waking up all sweaty and looking at me like I'm some kinda princess when I burp. JACK Forget it. SUSIE I mean, that'd be too creepy. With us working together and all. JACK Forget it. SUSIE Nothing personal -- Jack holds up his hand. Susie just stands there. JACK Better hurry. You're a nickel down on your cigarette. EXT. VETERINARY CLINIC Jack paces outside the veterinary clinic, rubbing his arms against the night's chill. He glances up at the flickering sign over the building: "Twenty-Four Hour Emergency Care." Inside, a KID with deep-set eyes is bent over a magazine. Jack hesitates then enters. INT. VETERINARY CLINIC KID Yeah? Jack glances around, ill at ease. KID (continuing) You want something, pal? If you're looking for a bathroom, try the Super Chief around the corner. The Kid goes back to his magazine. JACK No, I, uh, left a dog here this morning. He needed some work on his mouth. KID Regular hours are eight to five. JACK Yeah, yeah, I know. I was just passing by. Thought I'd check in on him. KID You can check in on him tomorrow. Between eight and five. JACK Yeah, well, couldn't I take a look now? The Kid looks up at Jack with mild contempt. KID You want to know if he's okay. Right? JACK (uncomfortable) Yeah. KID All right. Hold on. JACK The name's Baker -- KID Save it. What's he look like? JACK (puzzled) Black. Labrador. KID All right. they lay the dead ones out in the cold room. I'll take a look. The Kid disappears into the back. Jack stands frozen, watching the swinging door come to rest. He looks like a man who, unexpectedly, finds a razor pressed to his neck. He fumbles for a cigarette, but doesn't light it. He waits. A moment later, the door swings open. KID Nope. Just a couple poodles. Jack nods, then, moving stiffly, leaves. EXT. VETERINARY CLINIC Outside, he reaches into his coat and takes the bottle. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT On the floor, a long line of bowls, each containing a different concoction, all intended for the ailing Eddie. Eddie, lying a few feet away, shows no interest. In the kitchen, Jack is heating something up in a pan. NINA I tried Cheerios this morning. He didn't even get up. Maybe they took out the wrong teeth. JACK He's just feeling sorry for himself. This is it, pal. Hear me? Two bucks a can. Jack dumps some brown slop into a bowl and places it next to the others. Nina and he wait. At first, nothing, then ... Eddie's eyes move. His nose twitches. His head lifts. Finally, he gets up and walks to the bowl. He eats. JACK (continuing) Chili. CITY draped in winter. Dark skies, people lost in heavy coats, the city's battered Christmas decorations hung tenuously across traffic-clogged streets. Over it all we hear "JINGLE BELLS," PLAYED for the first time completely through, hesitantly but without error. As the SONG ENDS, we are: INT. JACK'S APARTMENT watching Nina strike the final chord triumphantly. She turns to Jack, who's been listening from the couch. JACK (nodding to the ceiling) You're gonna knock her dead, kid. INT. LUAU LOUNGE All done up in reds and greens for Christams Eve. Jack, Frank and Susie -- each decked out in their own little Santa hats -- perform "Silver Bells" for the happy crowd. Jack, smoking a cigarette, will not be mistaken for Santa Claus, but Susie looks adorable. Frank just looks happy. As they finish, the crowd applauds. INT. BATHROOM Jack, now sans Santa hat, enters the bathroom off the lobby and finds Santa Claus standing in front of the mirror, fussing with his beard. JACK Hey, Frank. FRANK You recognized me. JACK Just a lucky guess. FRANK So what do you think? JACK Very realistic. FRANK (not buying it) Yeah, well, what can I say? Dad must've had forty pounds on me. Jesus, you remember him being this big? Jack looks in the mirror. JACK Yeah. FRANK Well, the line's growing weaker, little brother. Lucky for us there aren't any dragons left to slay. INT. LOBBY Jack and Frank step out into the lobby, thus giving a few people, Susie among them, the curious privilege of seeing Santa Claus exit a men's room. FRANK You want to come out to the house tomorrow? The way the bookings been piling up, Donna's decided to really lay it on. Turkey, stuffing, the whole bit. Kitchen's so full of food you can hardly move. We could use another appetite. JACK Thanks, but I've got plans. FRANK All right, but if you change your mind, let me know. I gotta go get Ma in the morning anyway. SUSIE (coming up) Well, well. Ho, ho, ho. You moonlighting at Macy's, Frank? FRANK For the kids. (moving off) Merry Christmas, you two. Don't forget. We leave the twenty-sixth. Frank pushes through the revolving door and steps out into the street in his Santa suit. SUSIE He do that every year? JACK Every year. SUSIE Aren't the kids asleep? JACK Every year. SUSIE So why's he do it? JACK I guess in case one year they're not. Jack looks into Susie's eyes, then crosses to the door and exits. Susie watches him go, then turns to the desk clerk. SUSIE Call me a cab, will ya? INT. JACK'S APARTMENT As Jack enters his apartment, he senses a presence in the room and looks over to the old phone booth. Nina is sitting inside on the little stool, her head tilted against the glass. Jack studies her a moment, then takes the carton of eggnog he's carrying into the kitchen and grabs a pair of glasses. He pulls a chair over to the phone booth and sits down. NINA How'd the show go? JACK Okay. How'd yours go? NINA Not so good. Jack looks at Nina's face, tender and young in the soft shadows of the booth. After a moment, her eyes shift to the carton in his hand. NINA Eggnog? Jack nods. NINA (continuing) From Hurley's? JACK Eighty proof. What d'ya say? Think you can handle it? Nina nods. Jack begins to fill the two glasses. NINA Jack. JACK Yeah? NINA Can I stay here tonight? Even if she comes here? Jack pauses a moment, then closes the carton and sets it aside. JACK Sure. He hands Nina her glass, then takes his own. NINA Merry Christmas, Jack. JACK Merry Christmas. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - NEXT MORNING Jack and Nina are standing in the middle of the room, looking down at something. NINA What do you think? Eddie, outfitted in a brand new, spanking red dog sweater, stares up at Jack and Nina, wondering why he's the object of so much attention. JACK Very cool. EXT. CEMETERY - JACK, NINA AND EDDIE (sporting his new sweater) make their way across an empty cemetery. Nina is swinging a bottle of whiskey. NINA (looking around) There were more flowers last year. Mr. Rinaldi down at the drugstore says it's going to snow by New Year's. Says he can feel it in his elbows. I hope it snows. I want to make a snowman. You ever make a snowman, Jack? JACK Sure. NINA That's what I want to do. I want to make a snowman. As they come to a plot of ground, they stop. There are two matching headstones, one for Jack's father, fully engraved, and another for Jack's mother, bearing only her name. Jack studies the plot a moment, then crouches before his father's marker: "ANDREW S. BAKER. Adoring Husband of Eleanor, Loving Father of Franklin and John." Jack brushes some dirt from the face of the stone, then stands. NINA (continuing) Now? Jack nods. Nina uncaps the whiskey bottle and pours it onto the dead man's grave. NINA (continuing) Merry Christmas, Mr. Baker. They stand another moment, just looking, then turn away. As they begin to walk, Jack sees Eddie in his new sweater sniffing at a gravestone. JACK Hey, Eddie. Have some respect, will ya? EXT. BUILDING Jack is sitting on a suitcase in front of his building. A moment later, Frank pulls the car up to the curb and Jack gets in. Susie is sitting up front. INT. CAR Frank, burning with the afterglow of a holiday spent with family, cheerfully maneuvers the car through the city. FRANK So. How was everyone's Christmas? Jack and Susie stare disconsolately out the window. FRANK (continuing) Too early, huh? Well, there's coffee and donuts for whoever wants them. How about a maple bar, Jack? Jack shakes his head and takes out a cigarette. FRANK (continuing) Uh, Jack ... if you don't mind. Jack stares at the back of Frank's head, then puts the cigarette away. Susie takes a peek in the donut bag and looks a little sick. FRANK (continuing) By the way, if anyone gets bored, Donna packed some travel games. They work wonders with the kids. Frank reaches under the seat and hands Susie a sack full of magnetic games, puzzles, and plastic cubes. FRANK (continuing) You two could play checkers. SUSIE Maybe we should just listen to the radio. FRANK Sorry. It only plays static. Susie looks at the radio, then at the games in her hands. SUSIE How long did you say it takes to get to this place? INT. CAR - FEW HOURS LATER Jack is staring out the window at the winter landscape, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lip. Susie is gnawing on a donut, deeply obsessed with an elaborate plastic puzzle. FRANK Any more coffee? Susie snaps out of her trance and shakes the Thermos. SUSIE Uh-uh. Hey, what's this? Susie notices an old, leather-bound ledger. Inside, there are hundreds of tiny entries. SUSIE (continuing) You play all these places? FRANK Baker's unabridged. SUSIE Jesus, you fellas've made a lot of noise. What's with the stars? FRANK Virgins. SUSIE Virgins? FRANK First times. Hey, look at this. A crepe-covered car surrounded by several other HONKING VEHICLES passes by. Jack stares at the beaming newlyweds as they glide past his window, two kids starting life in a beat-up Eldorado covered with toilet paper. FRANK (continuing) When's the last time we played a wedding, Jack? JACK Two years ago. March. SUSIE (consulting the ledger) He's right. FRANK He's always right. Go ahead. Pick a virgin. Susie looks at Frank curiously. FRANK (continuing) Go ahead. SUSIE (scanning the book) Okay.The Fantasy Inn. FRANK Jack? JACK (staring out the window) November. '71. FRANK First night? JACK Day. Wednesday. FRANK Last? JACK Sunday. SUSIE I don't believe it. FRANK I told you, he's got the gift. Same with music. Hears it once and he's got it. Frank smiles into the rear view mirror. FRANK (continuing) My brilliant little brother. EXT. HOTEL The hotel, done in a sort of King Arthur motif,is built right on the ocean. Frank guides the car down a simulated cobblestone drive and the three get out. FRANK Will you listen to that ocean? It's LOUD. Frank takes a deep breath. FRANK (continuing) And how about this air? I'm telling you, a few days in this place'll put five years on your life. SUSIE Smells like fish. FRANK Of course it smells like fish. We're on the ocean. What'd you expect, Chanel number five? SUSIE (to herself) Smells like tuna number two to me. FRANK It's paradise. That's what it is. Paradise. As Susie and Jack follow Frank up the drive, Jack notices the beat-up Eldorado in the parking lot, its toilet paper streamers blowing gently in the ocean breeze. INT. HOTEL LOBBY The lobby is done in royal reds and blues and there are a lot of swords on the walls. Franks steps up to the front desk. FRANK Hi, we're the Fabulous Baker Boys. CLERK Glad to meet you. I'm Terrific Tom. FRANK No. We're the entertainment. TOM (CLERK) Oh, right, gotcha. You got bags? FRANK Outside. Blue Chevy. TOM (ringing a bell) Cyril. Chevy. Blue. Take 'em up to the Guinevere Suite. A lanky boy in velvet jodhpurs and high stockings ambles out for the bags. Tom hands Frank the room keys. TOM (continuing) Right on the ocean, Mr. Baker. You can practically dangle your toes in the water. INT. SUITE Tom wasn't kidding. The immediacy of the ocean beyond the window is almost scary. FRANK You believe this? I'm telling you, we're getting away with murder. Two shows a night and the rest of the time we live like kings. It's a crime. Jack stares at the ocean, then at the two beds placed side by side. Suddenly Susie comes through the bathroom. SUSIE Hey, we're connected. FRANK Great. SUSIE Great? FRANK Yeah. Susie shrugs and returns to her room through the bathroom. JACK I thought we had separate rooms. FRANK (opening drawers) We do. She's got hers, we've got ours. Hey. Wash and Dries. JACK I thought we all had separate rooms. FRANK Come on, Jack. It's not like it's the first time we've bunked together. It'll be like when we were kids. Relax. Enjoy the view. INT. DINING ROOM Jack, Frank and Susie are in the dining room, which, like their rooms, looks out over the ocean. Dinner is over and they're well through a second bottle of wine. SUSIE You're kidding me. FRANK As Charlie Steinway is my witness. SUSIE Peggy Lee? FRANK Tell her. JACK She was staying at the Grand downtown ... FRANK It was April. April seventeenth. That one I remember. JACK We were playing the lounge one night and she came in. FRANK Pearls. White gown. Beautiful. JACK Frank asked if she'd sit in for a song, she said yes, and we did a few bars. FRANK A few bars! SUSIE What'd she sing? FRANK People.' You think Streisand, right? Hot that night. Chills. Through the whole audience. I could hardly play. SUSIE Wow. You ever see her again? FRANK No. We got a picture, though. One of the waitresses had a camera. (to Jack) God, we were just kids. That was something, wasn't it? Jack nods. Frank shakes his head, still lost in the spring evening years before, then notices the newlyweds sitting across the room. FRANK (continuing) Hey, will you look at that? SUSIE They must've bought the same map we did. FRANK What do you say we send a bottle over? SUSIE I don't believe it. You're a romantic, Frank. JACK He's drunk. FRANK Not true. Besides, Jack's the romantic. SUSIE Oh yeah? FRANK He's just afraid to show it. Aren't you, little brother? JACK Have some more wine, Frank. FRANK Good idea. (lifting his glass) To Peggy Lee. INT. BATHROOM Frank, standing, dressed in pajamas. Jack is staring out the window at the darkness. FRANK I'm putting my stuff on the right, okay? JACK Okay. FRANK I figure that way we won't get confused. JACK Right. FRANK Unless you want the right. JACK No, you take the right. FRANK We might as well do the towels the same way. JACK Okay. FRANK I just figure things'll go smoother, you know, if we have it all worked out from the beginning. JACK Good idea. FRANK But if it doesn't work out, let me know. I'm,flexible. JACK Right. Frank nods and moves to the bed. JACK (continuing; re: the bathroom light) You leaving that on? FRANK Yeah. JACK All night? FRANK Yeah. JACK We're gonna be here a week? FRANK (puzzled) Yeah. JACK So you're gonna leave it on. Every night. For a week. FRANK Yeah. You mind? JACK Why would I mind? FRANK I don't know. I mean, I always did it as a kid. I figured it was no big deal. Is it? A big deal? Jack just stares at Frank. FRANK (continuing) Oh. I didn't know. I mean, I always did it as a kid. It was never a big deal then. Was it? Jack just stares at Frank. FRANK (continuing) Oh. Well. You want me to turn it off? Jack just stares at Frank. FRANK (continuing) I'll turn it off. Jack turns back to the window. JACK Forget it. It's no big deal. INT. DINING ROOM - DAY The next morning. Jack and Frank are standing in a huge dining room, appraising two elegant grands. FRANK They're beauties, huh? Jack steps up to one and runs his hand over the keys. FRANK (continuing) Reminds me of those Steinways Willie used to have. Frank taps a few notes on his piano, humming happily. Jack begins to echo his brother's notes, listening. After a moment, Frank notices. FRANK (continuing) What? INT. DINING ROOM A short, stubby LITTLE MAN in a charcoal suit strides into the dining room, followed by Terrific Tom. MR. DANIELS (LITTLE MAN) Good morning, gentlemen. I'm Mr. Daniels, the manager. I believe I've spoken to one of you on the phone. FRANK (offering his hand) That'd be me, sir. Frank Baker. This is my brother Jack. Jack, slouched against the piano, smoking, nods. MR. DANIELS Tom here tells me there's a problem with the pianos. We were assured they were in tune. FRANK Yes, well, they are. MR. DANIELS Then I'm afraid I don't understand. FRANK They are in tune. But not with each other. MR. DANIELS Is that important? FRANK Uh, well ... JACK Yes. It's important. Frank glances nervously at Jack. MR. DANIELS Tom, who're we dealing with on these? TOM A Mr. Reynolds, sir. But he's gone on vacation. I called this morning. MR. DANIELS Well, gentlemen, I don't know what to say. Not being a musician myself I find it difficult to grasp the magnitude of this. I don't suppose there's any way you could just ... accommodate. JACK Accommodate? I don't think I know what you mean. FRANK I think what Mr. Daniels is trying to say, Jack, is -- JACK Why don't we let Mr. Daniels tell us what he's trying to say. MR. DANIELS I assure you, Mr. Baker, no offense is intended. I simply mean, well, we're not a symphony, are we? INT. HALLWAY Frank dogs Jack down a hallway. FRANK Jack ... Jack ... You're acting like a kid. JACK No, that's your problem, Frank. You get around one of these assholes and you turn into a fucking three-year-old. FRANK What's the matter with you? So the piano's a little out of tune. So what? JACK (stopping) Christ, can't you hear it? FRANK No! I never hear it! (shaking his head) Maybe. Sometimes. I don't know. But I won't let it bother me. JACK Doesn't it matter to you? FRANK What matters to me is we've got the six easiest nights we've had in ten years. So 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' sounds a little flat. So what? Nobody's gonna hear it, Jack. Nobody. So why should you care? JACK Because I can hear it. FRANK Well, then stuff cotton in your ears, because come six o'clock we're gonna walk into that dining room with smiles on. Understand, little brother? INT. HOTEL ROOM Frank is adjusting his tie in the bathroom mirror. Jack, sitting at the window, his foot up against the glass, drinks from a flask as the sky above the ocean goes dark. After a moment, Susie enters wearing a little tuxedo of her own and begins to brush her hair. SUSIE Hey, fellas. What's the word? Nothing. SUSIE (continuing) What's with you two? FRANK Jack woke up on the wrong side of the bottle. Susie looks at Jack. Then Frank. SUSIE 0-kay. INT. LOUNGE As Jack, Frank and Susie perform "Strangers in the Night," dozens of couples move slowly on the dance floor, while others sit at candle-lit tables, sipping cocktails. As the song ends, the couples applaud. FRANK Thank you, thank you. (as applause dies) You know, Susie and Jack and I only just arrived here yesterday, but already the people here at the King Corporation's Moorish Manor have made us feel, well, a part of the family. And it's their hope that, before you leave, everyone of you will feel a part of that family also. So, if during-the next few days, we should happen to pass one another in the hallway or in the lobby or wherever ... don't be a stranger. Stop. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Because here, there are no strangers, only friends. And family. Right, Jack? JACK Right. I love you, Frank. FRANK (stunned) What? JACK I love you. I just wanted to say it. Frank stares incredulously at Jack. FRANK Uh, well, I love you, too, Jack. (moving quickly along) So. Susie. How 'bout it. SUSIE Huh? FRANK Got another song for us? SUSIE Oh. Yeah. I gotta bunch of them. FRANK Well then ... shall we? BACKSTAGE Frank corners Jack as they exit the stage. Susie looks around nervously to see if anyone's watching. FRANK (whispering) What's the matter with you? JACK I'm sorry, Frank. All that talk about family. I just got emotional. FRANK How dare you say you love me. JACK It won't happen again. Scout's honor. SUSIE What's with you guys? FRANK Someone needs to grow up. I won't take it, Jack. JACK Sure you will. Jack pushes past Frank and leaves. Frank watches him go, then turns to leave himself. INT. BATHROOM Middle of the night. Jack, fully clothed, is sitting on the rim of the tub, smoking. Susie enters. SUSIE Oh, sorry. With the light always on, it's hard to tell. JACK It's okay. (the cigarette) Last one. SUSIE Can't sleep? JACK In and out. SUSIE It's the waves. God's music, my mother used to say. She was crazy for the ocean. JACK Yeah, well, I wish God would go a little easy on the trumpets. SUSIE How's egghead? JACK Like a baby. You? SUSIE In and out. Jack nods. Susie looks at him carefully. SUSIE (continuing) If you want, I got a pack in the room. JACK No thanks. I never touch French cigarettes. INT. LOBBY - DAY The next morning. As Jack passes through the lobby, he hears the plaintive PLINKING of a PIANO. Curious, he goes to the dining room and peers in. The tables have yet to be set for the evening and, except for Frank, the room is empty. JACK What the hell are you doing? FRANK (not looking up) What's it look like I'm doing? I'm tuning a goddamn piano. JACK Really. FRANK Yes, really. I don't want you to be unhappy, Jack. If you say it's out of tune, it's out of tune. Jack smiles to himself and crosses the room. JACK How's it coming? FRANK Fine. JACK How long you been at it? FRANK (shrugging) Half-hour. Once I finish this octave I'm gonna get breakfast. You see what's on the buffet? JACK They stopped serving two hours ago. FRANK Two hours ago! JACK Time flies, huh? Frank looks despairingly at the pianos. JACK (continuing) I could give you a hand. If you want. INT. DINING ROOM - DAY Jack and Frank are eating lunch. Frank has a tiny stack of blue cards he's perusing. He holds one out to Jack. FRANK What do you make that? Paruchi? Jack nods. Frank continues to go through the cards as he speaks. FRANK (continuing) You haven't seen Susie, have you? JACK No. Why? FRANK Just wonder what she's up to. I never see her. Makes me nervous. JACK She's a big girl. FRANK Yeah, well, she's our girl now. I think we better keep an eye on her. There's trouble there. (another card) Hey, listen to this. Ethel and Bert Lane. Married seventy-five years. You believe that? JACK What the hell are these? FRANK Dedications. I came up with the idea on the road. See, every morning the maids drop one of these cards in each room. The guest fills out the card, leaves it at the front desk, and that night we play it. Daniels went crazy for the idea. (whispering) And that's not all. Last night, after the nine o'clock, he corners me, right, and starts asking about our availability. Like he wants to line something up. I think he's got a hard-on for Susie. WOMAN Excuse me. Frank jumps. A WOMAN in a bright flowered gift shop dress pokes her head in. WOMAN I'm sorry to interrupt, but when I saw you sitting here, I just had to come over. Florence Simmons. FRANK Uh ... Frank Baker. This is my brother. FLORENCE SIMMONS (WOMAN) Oh, I know, I know. My husband and I saw you play last night and it's the most remarkable thing. FRANK Oh. Well, thank you. FLORENCE SIMMONS No, I mean you. (to Jack) I have a brother-in-law who looks exactly like you. Exactly. You don't happen to have a Huckleberry in your family tree, do you? JACK Afraid not. FLORENCE SIMMONS Well, it's frightening. You could be his twin. Of course, he doesn't have your talent. Musically, I mean. He sharpens things for a living. Lawn mower blades, kitchen knives, anything with an edge. Can imagine? Jack is having a hard time imagining Florence Simmons. FLORENCE SIMMONS (continuing) Well, anyway, I just had to make sure there was no relation. You play wonderfully. Both of you. Florence Simmons gives a little flutter of a wave and exits. FRANK Funny, huh? JACK What? FRANK Thinking there's someone who looks like you, walking around the street somewhere. (smiling) Wonder if I saw him I'd think it was you? EXT. HOTEL - DAY Jack is standing on the walkway that encircles the hotel, watching the waves tumble into one another. As he starts to take out a cigarette, he notices Florence Simmons standing a few yards away with a camera. FLORENCE SIMMONS I just know my sister won't believe me. Do you mind? Jack shakes his head and Florence starts to aim the camera. FLORENCE SIMMONS I really hate to impose. It's just that the resemblance is so extraordinary. (focusing) I wonder if you could turn this way so your face isn't in the shadows. As Jack turns, he glances over Florence's swaying shoulder and sees Susie and a man standing at the other end of the walkway. They are leaning into the wind, her hair blowing free, brushing the man's face. FLORENCE SIMMONS Say cheese. The camera clicks. FLORENCE SIMMONS (continuing) Gotcha. Would you like a copy for yourself? The hotel develops. Jack glances away from Susie and the man. JACK No. ON Jack's expression APPLAUSE is heard and a moment later we -- CUT TO: INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT That evening. The trio has just finished a song and those on the dance floor are clapping. FRANK Thank you. You know, before we came out here this evening, Susie and Jack and I were looking over your dedications and something struck us. Susie and Jack look at Frank as if they have no idea what he's talking about. FRANK (continuing) We realized that, well, we're really not so different from one another after all. Oh sure, we may be at different points in our journey, but we all travel pretty much the same road. And so, with that in mind, we'd like to introduce you to two very special couples. First, married for all of two days, please say hello to Helen and Bud Wilson. Helen. Bud. Those standing on the dance floor applaud as the young couple from the beat-up Eldorado make their way to the front of the room. FRANK (continuing) And now, our second couple. I'm talking about Ethel and Bert Lane, ladies and gentlemen. Now, Ethel and Bert would be upset with me if I told you they'd been married for fifty years. Why? Because, ladies and gentlemen, Ethel and Bert Lane have been married for seventy-five years! The audience lets go with an audible "ooh" and applauds enthusiastically. FRANK (continuing) Ethel, Bert. Get up here and show these kids how it's done. A path is cleared and a tiny couple begins to make their way to the dance floor. FRANK (continuing) Aren't they a sight? They are indeed, and a sight slower getting to the dance floor than Frank anticipated. He nods to Jack and they launch into "The Anniversary Waltz," but have to keep repeating the opening passage while they wait for Ethel and Bert. Finally, everyone on the dance floor steps back and, with some help from a few waiters, who slide a section of tables out of the way, Ethel and Bert Lane begin to dance in the center of the room, slowly but wonderfully, while the younger couple whirls around them like a youthful satellite. INT. BATHROOM Jack is sitting in the bathroom again, smoking. He hears Susie's door open, then VOICES -- hers and a man's. He puts out his cigarette in the sink and leaves. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY The next morning. Frank, the early bird, is returning to the room with a newspaper under his arm. Whistling happily, he rounds the corner just in time to see a man exit Susie's room. Astonished, then outraged, he goes to Susie's door and knocks sharply. SUSIE (opening door) Forget your tie, handsome ... Frank! FRANK You want to tell me what the hell's going on? SUSIE Huh? FRANK I just saw a man walk out of your room. SUSIE Uh ... FRANK In case you've forgotten, we're being paid to be here. So it might be nice if you conducted yourself with a certain amount of decency. SUSIE Decency? Hey listen, pal ... FRANK No. You listen. I had my doubts about you from the beginning JACK Hey! Frank and Susie turn. Jack is standing in the hallway. JACK (continuing) What're you trying to do? Wake up the whole goddamn hotel? FRANK We were just having a little discussion about morality. SUSIE Some discussion. FRANK I just saw a man walk out of your room! JACK You saw wrong. FRANK Huh? JACK He's with the hotel. I called him. FRANK What are you talking about? JACK We had a leak in the bathroom. He fixed it. FRANK He was wearing a suit. JACK He had to come quickly. It was a big leak. FRANK How come I didn't hear anything? JACK You're a heavy sleeper, Frank. You've always-been a heavy sleeper. (looking at Susie) Unlike me. Frank looks at Jack, then Susie. FRANK I guess I ... If I jumped to... SUSIE Forget it. The three stand there awkwardly for a moment. FRANK Well... Frank shrugs lamely and exits. SUSIE Boy, he comes on like a hurricane in the morning, doesn't he? Jack just stares at her. SUSIE (continuing) Yeah, well, thanks for sticking your head in. JACK Hey, business is business. He turns to leave. Susie's eyes narrow. SUSIE It wasn't business. It was pleasure. JACK Just dinner and dance, right? INT. DINING ROOM Jack, Frank and Susie are sitting at a table in the smaller dining room. It is conspicuously quiet. The main course seems to be a conscious attempt to ignore each other. Finally, Susie looks at Frank. Then Jack. Then out the window. SUSIE Paradise. INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jack and Frank's room. It is New Year's Eve, just before show time, and Jack and Frank are in their tuxes. Frank is on the phone. FRANK (into phone) Yes, Daddy promises. I'll bring you one of the little glasses, how's that? Just like Grandma has. It has a picture of the hotel on it and everything ... No, honey, they don't sell puppies here ... Who? ... Well, we'll see. Let me talk to Mommy, okay?... Okay,sweetheart. Happy New Year. (waits) Hi, honey. She says Angela Secoli got a puppy for Christmas. Explain to her why we can't ... I don't know, tell her you're allergic ... It's not lying. Well, okay, it is lying, but ... All right, then tell her I'll explain it ... He what? ... No kidding? Without the training wheels? (affected by this) Well, that's great. Tell him, tell him. I can't wait to see ... No, no new bike. Maybe for his birthday ... Okay. Listen, honey, I have to go.We're on in ten minutes ... Yeah, Happy New Year ... I love you ... Frank sets the phone down and stares at it. Jack studies him a moment, then Frank suddenly claps his hands. FRANK (continuing) Well, let's go. The public waits. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT A mass of swarming, jubilant people. The voices are high and loud and there's not a hand without a champagne glass. Couples lean into one another intimately, dancing gaily between the tables, toasting strangers without hesitation. FRANK (yelling to be heard) All right, everyone. This is it. Let's hear it. Ten. Nine ... Gradually, the entire room joins the chant. FRANK/EVERYONE Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two! ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR! There is a blizzard of confetti as people scramble to find that certain someone to kiss in the new year. In this moment, Jack, Frank and Susie find themselves oddly removed from the frantic cheer below them, their presence suddenly unnecessary, forgotten. Finally, Susie walks over to Frank and gives him a kiss, then goes to Jack. They hesitate, then kiss lightly, pulling away and glancing awkwardly into each other's eyes. Frank sounds the first chord of "Auld Lang Syne" and Susie looks away from Jack and returns to her place on the stage. As she begins to sing, the others in the room, all intimate friends for one brief moment, begin to sing with her. SUSIE/EVERYONE Lest old acquaintances be forgot ... As the voices slowly fade, they are joined by the sound of the OCEAN until the ocean is all we hear and we see: INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jack, lying on his bed in the dark. He opens his eyes, squinting against the light from the bathroom, then glances over to Frank's bed and detects the outline of a body in the darkness. Swinging his legs over the side, he sits up on the edge of the bed and rubs his eyes. Suddenly there is a rustle of blankets and the shadow in the next bed shifts, falling into the shaft of light cast from the bathroom. It is a little boy. Startled, Jack stares at the sleeping boy, then hears movement in the bathroom. Rising slowly, he walks to the bathroom and gently eases the door open a few inches. Inside, swimming murkily in the steamy mirror, is the reflection of a man. His back is to Jack, but Jack can see that the man is shaving. As Jack lets his gaze drop to the floor, he sees that water is dripping off the man's pant cuffs and gathering in pools on the bathroom floor ... Jack wakes up. He stares at the ceiling, listening to the waves, then lifts his head and looks to the bathroom. It is dark. Turning, he glances at Frank's bed. It's empty. INT. DINING ROOM Dark and soundless. Balloons, streamers and the other debris of revelry cover the tables and floor like snow. Frank is sitting at the window, drinking as he stares at the ocean. As Jack crosses the room, he looks up. FRANK Ah, well, if it isn't the lad with the golden ear. Happy New Year, little brother. JACK What're you doing down here? FRANK Celebrating. Join me? JACK The party's over. FRANK No, you're wrong. It's just beginning. Come on, have a drink. Show your big brother how it's done. Frank pours him a glass. Jack notices the bottle. JACK Expensive hangover. FRANK A gift. Courtesy of our courteous hotel manager, Mr. Daniels. (toasting Jack) We, dear brother, are a fucking smash. (nodding) Yup. They want us back. Easter. It seems they have this egg hunt every year. Only not for kids. Adults. They stuff these plastic eggs with Timexes and little certificates for free Mai Tais and everyone has a grand time crawling around on the front lawn. Then afterwards, they have a dance. An egg dance. Everyone comes dressed in a different colored shell and at the end of the evening they crack themselves open. It's our job to separate the yolks from the whites. Slippery business. Frank smiles as he takes a swallow of his drink, then leans his head back, staring at the ceiling. FRANK (continuing) You know, I've never kissed my wife on New Year's. Not once in twelve years. Jack studies Frank as he stares at the ceiling. FRANK The Holmby has a chandelier like that doesn't it? With the blue glass. Jack looks up at the chandelier. JACK The Royal. FRANK Right. The Royal. When's the last time we were there? JACK Couple years. FRANK February? JACK April. FRANK Right. It's incredible how you do that. Remember things. JACK A useless talent. FRANK Drove me crazy when we were kids. The way you never looked at the music. Miss Simpson would just play it and ... Frank snaps his fingers. JACK They were simple songs. FRANK Not for me. I still have to look at the music sometimes, you know that? Otherwise, I forget. I just forget. But you. You never forget. Ever. (turning) So how come you couldn't remember Ma's birthday? JACK I told you. It's a useless talent. Frank studies Jack a moment, then stares out at the ocean. FRANK God, the old man would've loved this view, wouldn't he? JACK Yeah. FRANK I always think of him on New Year's. How he used to pour us each half a can of beer. Remember? JACK You always threw up. FRANK Yeah, and you drank yours like it was orange juice. He loved that about you. JACK He was just having fun. FRANK It was like you'd passed some test, you know? JACK It was just a can of beer, Frank. FRANK Yeah, but he told you things. He never told me anything. Even though I was the oldest. It was always you two, running off, doing things together. JACK You could've come. FRANK I could've. But he didn't want me to. JACK You're making things up, Frank. FRANK Maybe so. (pause) You ever go back there? Where it happened. Jack stares at the angry SEA, LOUD even through the thick glass. JACK No. EXT. HOTEL - DAY The next morning. Jack is sitting outside the hotel, watching HELEN and BUD WILSON pack up the Eldorado. The streamers, by now turned to mush, cling like oatmeal to the car's exterior. After a moment, Frank exits with a little bag from the gift shop and pulls out a tiny souvenir shot glass. FRANK Want one? Jack shakes his head. FRANK (continuing) Ah well, the kids'll break a couple anyway. Suddenly, across the parking lot, the voices of the newlyweds are heard. BUD Give me the keys. HELEN You're not going to drive. BUD Give me the keys! HELEN You're not going to drive! BUD It's my goddamn car! HELEN It's our goddamn car! BUD Give me the keys. HELEN No. Bud hesitates, then makes a rush for his wife, but she's too quick and runs to the other side of the car. Frustrated, he begins to run around the car like a madman, trying to catch her. Finally, when he gets close, she darts off, sprinting across the parking lot. FRANK I think I'll warm up the car. OVERVIEW - CITY Cold, dark, dangerous, but somehow looking quite appealing after a week in paradise. INT. CAR - NIGHT The trio, looking road-weary, is parked in front of Jack's building. It is very late. FRANK That takes care of this week. The tenth we got the Sheraton, the sixteenth we're at the Capri. JACK The tenth's out. FRANK What? JACK I can't make the tenth. FRANK What do you mean? JACK I mean maybe you should check with us before you go off and book us a month in advance. FRANK Be reasonable, Jack. JACK I play two hundred nights a year with you, Frank. How much more reasonable you expect me to be? Jack gets out of the car. Frank shakes his head in exasperation, then looks to Susie. FRANK How about you? Got a Bar Mitzvah this weekend? SUSIE (distracted) Huh? FRANK Forget it. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT Jack lets himself in and closes the door quietly. In the darkness he can make out Nina and Eddie, curled up on the couch, asleep. Above them, hung carefully on a string, are some paper letters: "WELCOME HOME." INT. LOUNGE In a lounge whols basic decor makes abundant use of several historical eras but which might best be described as Modern Pilgrim, Jack, Susie and Frank perform "Feelings," while waiters in huge Paul Revere hats pass in and out of view. SUSIE Feelings ... Wo wo wo ... Feelings ... Wo wo wo ... Feelings ... KITCHEN Jack, Frank and Susie exit the lounge to applause. SUSIE I can't sing it anymore. FRANK What? SUSIE That song. I can't sing it anymore. I'm gonna get sick. FRANK What're you talking about? They love it. SUSIE I'm gonna throw up, Frank. I mean it. Let's drop it for the ten o'clock, okay? FRANK (as to a child) Susie. It's one more show. One more time. That's all. SUSIE And two more times tomorrow night, and two more times the next night, and the next night and the next night and the next night. Frank, I can't sing that fucking song anymore! She's yelling. The kitchen workers are glancing over. Jack studies her as she tries to calm herself. SUSIE (continuing) I need some air. EXT. HOTEL A few minutes later. Jack comes out of the hotel and sees Susie pacing. He sits down and watches her for a moment. JACK You're gonna wear down those heels if you don't give it a rest. She stops. JACK (continuing) Relax. We'll drop the song. SUSIE Guess I got a little scattered. JACK It's a shitty song. Susie nods and looks up at the glittering hotel. SUSIE How do you do it? Every night? JACK Practice. (pause) There are worse songs, you know. Not many, but a few. Susie nods. Jack studies her. Something's on her mind. SUSIE Listen... (looks into his eyes) Nothing. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - DUSK A record is spinning on Jack's phonograph as the sun goes down outside his window. As we MOVE AWAY FROM the phonograph and PAST the window, we FIND Jack at the piano, playing along with the record, lost in concentration. EXT. BUILDING - CONTINUOUS ACTION Susie is working on a Paris Opal, pacing, occasionally glancing up at Jack's apartment, where the MUSIC can be heard FAINTLY. After a moment, she drops her cigarette on the sidewalk. There are half a dozen others already there. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT The record finishes, but the needle doesn't pick up, bumping into the label. Jack glances at the clock next to him and gets up. He puts on a jacket, then takes a pair of gloves and pulls them on carefully. EXT. BUILDING As Jack comes out of his building, Susie stops pacing, surprised. Jack, wearing the same look of concentration he had at the piano, doesn't see her and turns down the other end of the street. Susie starts to call after him, but stops. EXT. JAZZ CLUB - NIGHT The sun is gone now and the moon is in the sky. We see the hot neon exterior of a tiny jazz club. INT. CLUB - NIGHT Jack is sitting in the shadows near the stage, where a trio is playing. He has a drink in front of him, but it is untouched. After a moment, the trio finishes and the pianist, a huge black man named HENRY, nods to the applause. HENRY Thank you. As most of you know, we like to shake things up here every so often just to keep you people on your toes. So I'm gonna take a little rest, grab myself a drink, and let an old friend sit in. He drops by about once a year just to keep his hands clean. Ladies and gentlemen. Jack Baker. Jack rises to polite applause and shakes Henry's hand. As he settles behind the piano, he sits for a moment, not moving, then nods to the two men behind him. As they begin to play, we recognize the music from the record. Jack waits, then brings his hands to the keys. As he plays, his face is suddenly calm. Peaceful. EXT. CLUB - NIGHT Later. Jack comes out of the club and into the night, lighting a cigarette as he moves up the street. SUSIE (O.S.) You were good. Jack stops. Susie. JACK I can keep the beat. SUSIE Better than that. Jack's face goes a little cold, but he says nothing, beginning to walk again. SUSIE What's the matter? JACK Nothing. SUSIE What'd I say? JACK Nothing. SUSIE You're upset. JACK I'm not upset. SUSIE All I said was you were good. JACK (stops) Look. You don't know good. All right? SUSIE What's that supposed to mean? JACK It means you wouldn't know good if it came up and fucked you. SUSIE You were good. JACK Let's make a deal. You shut up. SUSIE You were good. JACK (exasperated) How do you know? SUSIE (yelling) Because I saw the other people! And they knew you were good! You were good, goddamnit! Jack studies Susie, then glances off. For a moment, they just stand on the corner, not talking. SUSIE (continuing) So you wanna get a drink? INT. JACK'S APARTMENT JACK Nina? SUSIE Who's Nina? JACK Friend. SUSIE Friend? What's she look like? Maybe I can help you find her. JACK She's four feet tall. Ed? SUSIE Ed? How many people live here? Eddie walks around the couch and looks curiously at Susie. Jack moves to the kitchen. JACK I have to make him some chili. Okay? SUSIE (a look) Sure. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - LATER Light from a weak lamp, lots of shadows, as romantic as Jack's apartment will ever get. Outside the window, the city looks like a thousand jewels, gleaming. Susie cradles a drink in her hand as she moves slowly about the room, slipping, in and out of the shadows as if they were veils. SUSIE (at window) Like diamonds, huh? I never get over it. When I was a little girl, my mama'd stand me before the window and tell me to close my eyes and make a wish.Like I could reach out and grab all the lights of the city and string them into-a necklace for myself. She'd take my hand and when she closed her eyes, I don't know, it was like she really believed it. JACK How come you didn't close your eyes? She looks surprised by the question. SUSIE I don't know. I guess I didn't trust the night like she did. Susie finishes her drink and sets it down. SUSIE (continuing) Let me have a cigarette, will you? All of mine are down there on the sidewalk. Jack looks at her curiously. SUSIE (continuing) Long story. Jack gives her an American cigarette and lights it. SUSIE (continuing) You know, I saw you guys once. You and Frank. At the Roosevelt. JACK Must've been a cheap date. SUSIE Soap convention. JACK Soap? SUSIE Yeah, they got a convention for everything. At least he was clean. Boy, the guys I met when I was with the service, you wouldn't believe. The older ones, they were okay. Nice. Polite. Pulled the chair out for you. But the younger ones ... (shaking her head) Mama used to say, dance with a man once, but if you can feel calluses on his fingers, don't dance with him again. She thought she had it all figured out. But she wasn't so smart. There are killers with palms like a baby. Susie takes a long draw and blows the smoke out slowly. SUSIE (continuing) It wasn't so bad, though. I'd get a nice piece of steak, flowers, sometimes even a gift. Usually whatever the guy was into. Got a socket set once. Believe it? The guy looked like held just given me four dozen roses. (almost wistful) But I stayed at the Hartford once. You should see the rooms. All satin and velvet. And the bed. Royal blue, trimmed in lace clean as snow. Hard to believe sleeping in a room like that don't change your life. But it don't. The bed may be magic, but the mirror isn't. You wake up the same old Susie. (pause) I didn't always, you know. If I liked the guy ... Susie looks at Jack, but he just takes a drink. She looks out the window again. SUSIE (continuing) Sometimes I wish the sun would never come up. She stares at the lights another moment, then turns and nods to the phone booth. SUSIE (continuing) So what's this? Jack frowns, takes another drink. JACK History. SUSIE Huh? JACK My father proposed to my mother in there. SUSIE No kidding? It's a small phone booth. SUSIE (continuing) The both of them? In there? JACK He called her. SUSIE Oh. So what's it doing here? JACK Long story. SUSIE You sending me home? Jack locks eyes with Susie, then glances away. JACK They'd been out dancing all night and he took her to the train station -- she lived over in Brookhaven. Usually held ride with her, but this time he didn't. Anyway, he starts walking home, only as he's walking he starts getting nervous. SUSIE Nervous? JACK By the time he gets to the corner newstand, he's got her meeting some rich guy on the train, the rich guy's asked her to marry him, and he's reading about it in the morning edition. SUSIE You're kidding. JACK He had a mind that escalated things. SUSIE So, what happened? JACK He calls her, asks her to marry him, she thinks he's crazy, he asks her again, she still thinks he's crazy but says yes anyway, and the next thing you know he's got his brothers down there and they're tearing the thing right off the curb. Susie blinks. JACK (continuing) I don't know. Maybe he thought some rich guy was gonna try and call her. SUSIE Wow. But I still don't see how ... JACK Ma didn't want it around. After. SUSIE Oh. Jack glances out the window. SUSIE (continuing, carefully) Frank said you saw him die. Jack glances up quickly, surprised. He nods. SUSIE (continuing) Frank said --- JACK Frank wasn't 'there. Susie stops, looks down. Jack studies her for a moment, then decides. JACK He took me out to the docks one day. We did that a lot. There were other places, but he loved the ocean. He'd worked boats as a kid. Never got rid of it. It was always in him. He'd drink a little when we'd go. If he drank enough, he'd do this funny Irish jig. To make me laugh. (pause) He drank a lot that day. Susie studies Jack as he stares into his glass. JACK (continuing) There was a lot of wind. He was up on this cargo shelf, right over the ocean. And he started to do the jig. One minute he was there ... (shrugs) I thought it was a joke at first. He did things like that. Games. (pause) I was laughing when it happened. Jack stares at the glass in his hands, then glances up and catches Susie looking at him. JACK You got pretty eyes, you know that. INT. JACK'S BEDROOM Jack's bed. In the darkness, we see Susie's profile, her eyes looking up toward the ceiling. Jack's body falls slowly across her and he kisses her neck. EXT. JACK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - MORNING We see Eddie, wearing his Christmas sweater, sleeping on the fire escape. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - DAY Susie is dressed, sitting at the piano, staring out the window as she absently hits a key. She is smoking one of Jack's cigarettes. Distracted. Jack comes to the doorway and watches her. Plink. Plink. Plink. JACK You gotta move 'em around if you want to play a song. Susie starts, looks at her hand on the piano, pulls it away. SUSIE Oh. Hi. Sorry. JACK Coffee? SUSIE Yeah... No. JACK Look, if you want to leave... SUSIE Yeah, maybe ... No. God, I hate these cigarettes! Susie throws the cigarette out the window, then looks down. SUSIE (continuing) Shit. I think I started a fire. JACK If our feet get hot, you grab the piano. Susie smiles weakly. JACK (continuing) Why don't you go. I'll see you tomorrow night at the Ambassador. Susie doesn't move. SUSIE I followed you last night. I mean, I was here. Outside. I was about to come up when you came out. Jack waits. SUSIE (continuing) The reason I came by ... I couldn't tell Frank... I'm leaving. The act. Susie stares up at Jack, but he says nothing. SUSIE (continuing) It's a ... I met this guy at the resort. He liked my voice. And, it's ... He thinks I can sell cat food just by singing about it. Can you believe it? Susie tries a laugh. Jack nods. SUSIE (continuing) You can always get another girl. JACK (looks out window) There's always another girl. INT. LOUNGE Jack and Frank stand in a lounge, talking to NICK, the manager. Busboys move in and out, preparing the room for the evening. NICK Sick? How sick? FRANK The flu. NICK So she's got a few sniffles. FRANK Doctor's orders. Nick frowns, looking at the two pianos across the room. NICK You got no right springing this on me, Frankie. It's unethical. FRANK Look, Nick. You want us to pack up, we'll pack up. NICK What am I gonna do? Put a record player out there? (exiting) Bad, Frankie. Bad. JACK (to Frank) What're you doing? FRANK Just until we find another girl. JACK Cancel, Frank. FRANK You want to know how much I got tied up in deposits with Willie? We're in for three weeks solid, Jack. JACK Better give her pneumonia. INT. BACK ROOM Jack and Frank find themselves in the back room of Willie's again. They do not look happy. GIRL (O.S.) Remember me? Jack and Frank look up. A girl in a yellow and black dress is in the doorway. She looks like a bumblebee. GIRL Monica. Monica Moran. I came in the last time you guys were looking for a singer. (smiling) Perseverance. First rule of show business. Jack and Frank just stare at her. MONICA (GIRL) I bought a book. That's what it says. EXT. WILLIE'S - LATER Frank is looking at a list. FRANK We got the Roosevelt on Thursday, the Park in a couple of weeks. Larry Shelton said he'd let me know by Friday on the Ambassador. That's it. Frank folds the paper carefully. FRANK (continuing) I got some calls out. Things that might be good for us. Frank looks over at Jack for the first time. He's leaning against the building, staring at his shoes. FRANK (continuing) We'll try for a girl again next week. Jack nods. FRANK (continuing) Okay. Well, the Roosevelt then. INT. ROOSEVELT HOTEL - LOUNGE Once grand, now dark and dusty looking. A small crowd. FRANK You know, my brother and I have been playing together, gosh, I don't know. Jack? JACK Twenty-eight years. No response. Bored, brutally indifferent faces. FRANK Of course, uh, back then it was, uh, a little different. We were just kids. Just about the only one who would listen to us was the family cat, Cecil. We must've shaved three lives off old Cecil, huh, Jack? Frank laughs and his voice, eerily magnified by the microphone, is the only sound in the room. FRANK (continuing; hanging tough) Yeah, well, anyway. It's nice to be back here in the Roosevelt Room, because this has always been ... Frank falters as he sees Mrs. Baker enter the lounge and seat herself at a table in the back of the room. Jack follows Frank's eyes and spots her. FRANK (continuing) a very special place for Jack and I. (recovering) And tonight we'd like to open with a very special song. It's the song my mother and father danced to the night they were married. This is for them. INT. LOBBY Jack watches as Frank gives Mrs. Baker a hug. FRANK You should've told us you were coming, Ma. We would've come and got you. MRS. BAKER Spur of the moment. FRANK So what'd you think? MRS. BAKER Thrilling. (glancing at Jack) Both of you. FRANK The audience was a little off tonight. MRS. BAKER A few empty tables. It's cozier. Besides, Mel Torme couldn't fill this place on a Wednesday night. FRANK I guess you're,right. Well, what do you say we get a little midnight snack? Theo's should still be open. MRS. BAKER No, no. You boys are tired. FRANK No, we're not. Jack? JACK No. MRS. BAKER I'm tired. Really. I should get home. FRANK You sure? MRS. BAKER (nodding) Just call me a cab. FRANK A cab? Ma, come on. My car's just a half block down. You wait here. MRS. BAKER (smiling) All right. Frank dashes out of the lobby. Jack and Mrs. Baker watch him go, then turn to each other. Mrs. Baker smiles awkwardly, then surveys the lobby. MRS. BAKER (continuing) It's beautiful, isn't it? The brocade on the walls has faded and the chairs - once covered with velvet, now with a cheap imitation - look old and dowdy, but the room still maintains an elegant dignity. JACK Yeah. MRS. BAKER This was quite,a place once. After the war. On Friday nights they had dances in the ballroom upstairs. It was beautiful. Crystal chandeliers. White tablecloths. Orchids floating in the punch bowls... It was a wonderful place to be young. Jack watches his mother as her eyes pass over the room. After a moment, she nods toward the lounge. MRS. BAKER (continuing) It went well tonight. JACK Frank works hard. MRS. BAKER And you don't? JACK He leads, I follow. MRS. BAKER Is that the way it is? JACK Pretty much. MRS. BAKER He mentioned you had a girl for a while. A singer. JACK For a while. She left. MRS. BAKER Yes, well, it's probably best. No sense bringing someone else in. JACK I suppose. Mrs. Baker glances into the lounge, at the two pianos. MRS. BAKER Funny. Watching tonight, I was remembering when you were young. How I used to stand in the kitchen, listening to the two of you practice while I did the dishes. (smiling) My two little radios. Sometimes I'd stop and go to the door and just watch. Sometimes your father would too. (pause) He liked to listen to you play. Did you know that? Jack shakes his head. MRS. BAKER (continuing) You miss him, don't you? JACK It's been a long time, Ma. MRS. BAKER Yes. (pause) I supposed you still have that old phone booth. Jack nods. Mrs. Baker smiles, then it fades. MRS. BAKER (continuing) His love scared me, you know. The day he died he left a flower on my pillow. Jack looks puzzled. Suddenly his mother reaches out and very gently touches her fingers to his face. MRS. BAKER (continuing) You look so like him. They stand like this for a moment, connnected, then Frank steps in from the street. FRANK Your limo's ready, Ma. MRS. BAKER All right. Mrs. Baker takes her hand from Jack's face and turns away. Just before she exits, she looks back. MRS. BAKER (continuing) Good night, Jack. EXT. STREET Jack, walking home, turns a corner and suddenly stops. Across the street, talking to a man, is Susie. She says a few words to the man, then touches him lightly on the arm and begins to walk away. Jack watches her retreat, then follows, moving quicker as he draws close. As he reaches her, he gently touches her elbow and she turns. Not Susie. The woman stares at Jack, startled. For a moment, he doesn't move. Finally, he lets go of her elbow. JACK Sorry. INT. CAR - NIGHT A few nights later. Frank guides the car through wet city streets. It's two AM and raining hard. JACK We're not getting paid then. FRANK No. JACK Nothing. We get nothing. FRANK I told you, Jack. It's a telethon. No one gets a cent. JACK (a pause) What's it for? FRANK I don't know. Some disease. JACK What disease? FRANK I don't know. JACK You don't know? FRANK It's a disease, Jack. We're against it. It's not a moral decision. JACK (another pause) What channels it on? FRANK Seventy-one JACK Seventy-one? What's seventy-one? FRANK (defensive) A channel. It's just a little further down the dial, that's all. Look, it's publicity. Publicity's publicity. Right? Jack stares at Frank. JACK Right. INT. HALLWAY Jack and Frank make their way down a hallway. FRANK The guy said to find Studio E and turn right. What's that say? Suddenly, a rapid-fire THUMPING SOUND resounds through the corridor. As Jack and Frank turn, they see a huge YOUTH in a wheelchair dribbling a basketball toward them. YOUTH Fast break! Jack and Frank step back and watch the kid one-wheel it around the corner. FRANK I guess it's that way. INT. STUDIO Jerry Lewis need not fear. This is strictly a tin foil and crepe paper operation. Along one wall is the "phone bank," monitored by a few sleepy volunteers, and opposite, in makeshift bleachers, is the audience. A huge tote board, set on rolling astors, is next to the phones. The total, at 2:15 AM, is $1125.38. As Jack and Frank enter, the kid in the wheelchair is doing basketball tricks before the camera. FRANK This must be it. I'll see when we're on. Frank leaves. Jack glances around the studio like he's walked into a nightmare. At the phone bank, a heavyset MAN in a sweatshirt and a cap, looks over. Both the sweatshirt and the cap have "Earl" printed on them. EARL (MAN) You the magician? JACK No. EARL (disappointed) Oh. What do you do? Jack points to the pianos across the room. JACK Piano. EARL (hopeful) Two at a time? JACK My brother and I. One each. EARL (disappointed again) Oh. JACK (indicating the kid in the wheelchair) What's wrong with the kid? EARL Knee. Tore it up against St. Anthony's. Right before the accident. JACK Accident? EARL The fire. The way we're going we'll be lucky to buy a carton of jockstraps, let alone a new gym. As Jack registers this, Earl's PHONE RINGS. Frank returns and gestures to the kid in the wheelchair. FRANK We're on after Meadowlark. (seeing Jack's face) What's wrong? JACK Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? FRANK What? JACK We're playing for a goddamn gymnasium! FRANK (worried) What? Before Jack can further enlighten Frank, the kid in the wheelchair rolls off and a guy in a cheap rented tux strides in front of the camera. He's VINCE NANCY, the host. VINCE Let's hear it for our own Jimmy Marshall, shall we? The audience applauds. VINCE (continuing) As most of you'know, young Jimmy put a nasty twist on that knee trying to win-one for good ol' Grant High this year. Luckily, the doctors tell us Jimmy'll be able to play next season. That is ... if there is a next season. (Uncle Sam) That's where you come in. Pick up that phone. Make a donation. Let's keep our kids off the streets and in the gym where they belong. Applause. VINCE (continuing) All right. Well, friends, what can I say about our next guest? (consulting a card) He, uh, they, uh, we are very pleased to have with us two of the most respected men in the musical entertainment field. I think you'll agree with me when I tell you we're in for a real treat when I say that we have with us ... the Fabulous Bunker Boys! Come on out here guys. Vince gestures grandly to the left and Jack and Frank enter from the right. VINCE (continuing) Whoops, there they are. Hey, nice suits, fellas. (to camera) Now I know a lot of you amateur musicians out there are going to want to rap with these guys and don't worry. Right after they finish up here, they're going to be manning the phones. Maybe we can even convince them to raffle off a few piano lessons if we're lucky. What do you think? The audience applauds. Jack glares at Frank. He shrugs. VINCE (continuing) Well, all right then. What are we waiting for? Take it away, guys. Jack and Frank poise their hands over their pianos and begin to play. As the music rises, the studio becomes very quiet, almost still. Unfortunately, Jack and Frank are barely through the opening passage when a thunderously LOUD BELL begins to RING. Suddenly, Vince steps out again. VINCE (continuing) Uh oh. We know what that means, don't we? It's time to turn the board over. (to Jack, Frank) I'm afraid you fellas'll just have to wait a minute. Let's bring out the board. Two post-pubescent giants roll out the tote board right in front of Jack and Frank. Jack looks positively homicidal. FRANK Jack ... Jack kicks out the piano bench and starts to leave. Then, seeing the kid in the wheelchair, he grabs the basketball and fires it at Vince. VINCE What the -- JACK (pointing) You're a fucking creep, you know that. I oughta kick your ass. FRANK (whispering) Jack, you're on television. JACK Shut up, Frank. Earl of the sweatshirt and cap puts his hand on Jack's shoulder. EARL What do you say we go for a walk, pal. JACK Get your hand off me. EARL Come on, friend. I can smell it on you. Get yourself a cup of coffee. You'll forget what you're angry about. JACK Go fuck yourself. EARL (eyes go hard) You're a real tough guy when the ladies are around, aren't you, Ace? JACK I don't see any ladies here. Except maybe you. That does it. Earl takes hold of Jack's collar and starts to-wrestle him roughly toward the door. FRANK Hey, leave him alone. EARL Do your brother a favor and have his mouth sewn up. JACK You're a lousy dancer, Earl. Don't you know the man's supposed to lead? Earl shoves Jack into the hallway, hard. Jack stumbles back against the wall. EARL Who do you think you are, asshole? Liberace? EXT. STREET Jack walks down the street, mindless of the rain. Frank follows a few yards behind. FRANK Jack. We just,passed the car. Jack. This is a tuxedo. Three hundred dollars. (pause) You gonna talk to me? Or is this Jack's famous silent act? Look, it was for publicity. Do you understand? Publicity. Jack stops and stares at Frank incredulously. JACK What-are you? A fucking moron? It's three o'clock in the morning, Frank. Who's watching? Your wife? Maybe you can get us a gig playing Little Frank's birthday party. What do you think? FRANK Look. I didn't know when we were going to be on until yesterday. What was I supposed to do? I had the pianos anyway. JACK Basketballs, Frank. You had us playing for basketballs. FRANK I'm sorry. I should've checked it out. I screwed up. But that doesn't mean you walk out in the middle of a gig. JACK (incredulous) What? FRANK It wasn't professional, Jack. It was a stunt. A stupid-ass stunt. Jack just stares at Frank, as if looking at a stranger. JACK What's happening to you, Frank? You been kissing ass so long you're starting to like it? You let that guy turn us into clowns tonight. We were always small time, but we were never clowns, Frank. What's happened to your dignity? FRANK Dignity? Who the hell are you to talk about dignity? Frank suddenly steps forward and reaches into Jack's jacket, coming away with a bottle. FRANK (continuing) This where you get your dignity, Jack? This is where you get your courage? Jack tries to grab the bottle but Frank holds it away. FRANK (continuing) No, let's do it straight for once, shall we? Frank tosses the BOTTLE into the street, where it SHATTERS. FRANK (continuing) Let me explain something to you, little brother. See, I've got people who depend on me. I've got a wife and two children who expect to wake up every morning with food on the table and heat in the house. I got a mortgage. I got car payments. I got Ma's medical bills. Oh yeah, and I got you. Yeah, you. Jack the shadow who's so cool and so hip and so fucking sure he's better than everyone else. Don't you think I'd like to walk up to one of these assholes and blow smoke in his face? Goddamn right I would. But I can't. Because I have to be responsible, little brother. I have to make sure the numbers balance out in my favor at the end of each month so everyone can go on living their lives. You don't win medals for it, but you can be damn sure you'd all take notice if I folded up shop. So don't talk to me about dignity, little brother. You're drawing on a weak hand. Jack stares at Frank through the rain, then turns and begins to walk away. FRANK (continuing) Great. Terrific. Walk away. You're good at that, Jack. Just don't forget to stop off for another bottle of courage on your way home. (pause) That's what he'd do. Jack stops, his back to Frank. FRANK (continuing) You've found the perfect solution to all the pain in the world, haven't you, little brother? Eight-fifty a bottle, available any time day or night at your friendly neighborhood liquor store. You're weak, Jack. Just like he was. Jack turns, tough and dangerous in the darkness. JACK Stay off it. FRANK No, let's stay on it. I'm sick and tired of watching you make him up into some kinda god. For Christ sake, Jack, he died doing a stupid bullshit jig. He left a wife and two sons. He wasn't a hero. He was a fool. JACK (eerily cold) You weren't there. FRANK That's right. I wasn't there. I don't have the luxury of being a witness to tragedy. JACK (coiled) Fuck you. FRANK No, fuck you. And fuck him too. Fuck the both-of you. Jack suddenly bolts for,ward and grabs Frank by the lapels. FRANK (continuing) Hey, what're you doing? Hey! Jack flings Frank against the wall, pounding, pulling and slamming him in a fitful rage. FRANK (continuing; scared) Jack! ... Jack! ... Frank slides to the ground, afraid, trying to protect himself. Jack hovers over him. JACK How's it feel to have your little brother beat the shit out of you? Huh? Huh! Jack comes down with a vicious fist at Frank's face. Frank holds up his hands, trying to shield himself, and catches a blow on his fingers. FRANK My hands! My hands! Jack grabs one of Frank's hands. JACK (mocking) Your hands. Your hands couldn't take the blue ribbon on amateur night. Jack bends back Frank's fingers. FRANK (terrified) Jack! JACK Who's weak now, big brother? Jack pushes Frank's fingers until the knuckles crack. FRANK Jack! JACK! Frank's voice echoes high above the sound of the rain. Suddenly Jack stops. Looking at Frank's hand, still clasped in his, he seems as shocked by his own behavior as Frank. Letting go, he steps back awkwardly and looks at his brother, beaten, to the ground, his tuxedo ripped and dirty. He stares at his own hands, the knuckles split and bleeding. He no longer looks dangerous. He looks hollow, frightened. JACK I'm through with it. I can't do it anymore. Frank, rubbing his fingers, glances up at Jack, but Jack just turns away, leaving Frank on the sidewalk, and disappears into the rain. MUSIC begins. A sad, plaintive solo piano. And we see: SERIES OF SHOTS Jack, crossing the street to his apartment, the rain over now. Frank, driving home, his face swollen and bruised in the dim glow of the streetlights. Jack, letting himself into his apartment and standing there. Alone. Frank, easing the car into the driveway, turning off the engine. Jack, taking a bottle from the kitchen, moving numbly. Frank, much later, still sitting in the driveway as the sun begins to come up. Jack, sitting in the phone booth, the bottle in his hand. INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - DAY The next morning. Jack is sitting on the windowsill, watching the RAIN DRUM the GLASS. He glances at the phone across the room, takes another look at the rain, then goes to the phone. He picks it up hesitantly, then dials. It rings. Again. Again. CINDY (V.0.) Hello? Jack blinks. It's Cindy. CINDY Hello ... Hellooooo ... (fainter) Daddy. Daddy! Someone's on the phone and they won't talk. Jack sets the phone back down on the cradle. INT. BAR Jack stands in a dark bar. It is early morning and the light from the street gives the room a ghostly atmosphere. A big, beefy MAN with a bar towel hooked in his belt is talking to Jack. MAN If they wanna talk about their wife, you listen. If they wanna talk about their job, you listen. If they wanna talk about their parakeet, you listen. That's it, six nights a week, nine to one or until I send you home. Okay? Jack nods and points to the piano in the corner. JACK That it? MAN How many you need? Jack walks over to the giano and strikes a note. JACK It's out of tune. MAN Trust me, the way I fix a martini, it'll be in tune. The MUSIC RETURNS, sad and plaintive, and we see: INT. FRANK'S HOUSE Frank, attempting to give piano lessons to a brother and sister tandem who would be better served by an obedience school. While the little girl pounds incessantly on the piano, her brother runs circles around the room, destroying everything in sight. MUSIC CONTINUES and we see: EXT. STREET Jack and Eddie, going for a walk, passing the diner where Jack and Frank's pictures are still displayed. MUSIC CONTINUES and we see: INT. BAR Jack, in the bar, playing the music we've been hearing throughout the previous scenes. It is after midnight and the tables are empty. Only a few somber men remain at the bar. They do not appear to be music lovers. As Jack finishes, he takes a cloth and wipes the keys. There is a glass on the piano with money in it. SUSIE (O.S.) I thought the Bakers didn't take tips. Jack glances up, but he knows the voice. JACK I give it all to charity. Susie nods. SUSIE Saw the sign outside. Got your own sign, huh? JACK Yeah. Got my own sign. SUSIE So ... ? JACK We outgrew each other. SUSIE Yeah, well, like I said, it didn't figure. You two. JACK You don't pick your brother. SUSIE Yeah. JACK So how's the cat food business? SUSIE Terrific. I'm doing vegetables next week. Jack nods. JACK What kind? SUSIE Huh? JACK Vegetables. SUSIE Oh. Carrots. And peas. None of the important ones. Susie tries a smile. Takes a breath. SUSIE (continuing) Listen... you want to get a drink? I got a new place. Or we could go to a bar ... (looking around) Well, maybe not a bar. But I know a place uptown, if you want -- JACK I've given it up. Susie stops. SUSIE No kidding? Well ... I guess you can't do a reunion over tomato juice, can you? (pause) Anyway, if you're ever in the neighborhood ... I wrote it down. Susie takes a slip of paper from her purse and hands it to Jack. They lock eyes for a moment. SUSIE (continuing) Tell egghead I said hi. If you see him. JACK If I see him. Susie nods and walks toward the door. JACK (continuing) Hey. (as she stops) You got pretty eyes. Susie smiles. As she leaves, Jack studies the slip of paper in his hand, then drops it in the tip glass. He glances at the door, swinging slowly shut in Susie's wake, then reaches into his coat and takes out a bottle. INT. FRANK'S DEN Frank sits alone in the darkness of the den. The cardboard stand-up is there, along with several old photographs, including one showing two skinny kids in tuxes standing with a glamorous Peggy Lee. After a moment, Donna enters. DONNA Frank? It's late, honey. Frank stays staring at the photograph of Peggy Lee. DONNA (continuing) Mrs. Lerner called after dinner. Robbie can't make his lesson tomorrow. Donna waits for her husband to say something, then sees the photograph in his hand. FRANK You know how good he is? It's like breathing with him. I've always envied it. But tonight, looking at all this -- at his face -- I don't know. Maybe it's worse. For him. (gesturing to the piano) It's funny. When I sit here and play ... nothing. But when I was up there with him... It was like I had the gift, too. INT. FRANK'S HOUSE - HALLWAY - NEXT DAY Frank is standing in the hallway of his house, leaning against the bathroom door. It's locked. FRANK Come on, Jeremy. Open the door. Somewhere in the house, the PHONE RINGS. Frank ignores it. FRANK (continuing) Jeremy. You want me to call your father? He's not going to be very happy when he hears he's spending fifteen dollars an hour for you to sit on the toilet. Donna, looking shaken, steps into the hallway. DONNA Honey ... FRANK You believe this? The kid won't come out. I'm playing 'Camptown Races' for him and the next thing I know he's locked himself in the bathroom. There's nothing sharp in there, is there? DONNA Honey ... FRANK Where are our kids? Has he got one of them in there? DONNA Frank. Frank finally looks at his wife. She's crying. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT Jack rushes down a hospital corridor and heads for the nurses station. As he moves to the counter, Donna appears. JACK Donna. Where is she? Donna just shakes her head. DONNA We tried the apartment, but after that we didn't know where to call. Jack looks frozen. DONNA (continuing) Frank'll be back in a moment. He took Little Frank to the bathroom. Jack begins to back away slowly. DONNA (continuing) Jack ... EXT. STREET Jack moves aimlessly down the street, slipping in and out of shadows. Finally he stops inside a closed storefront, his back up against the window, and looks down at his hands. They're shaking. INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY Jack stands in an apartment hallway, waiting. After a moment, the door opens. It's Susie. SUSIE Jack. JACK Hi. SUSIE Well, this is some surprise. (seeing his face) Hey ... You don't look so good, pal. Susie studies Jack as he glances around the hallway. SUSIE (continuing) Jack? Jack looks up. SUSIE (continuing) You want to come in? He nods. Susie steps back and Jack enters. SUSIE (continuing) Let me get the light. JACK No. He stares directly into her eyes. JACK (continuing) Leave it dark. INT. SUSIE'S BEDROOM - NEXT MORNING Jack is standing at the foot of the bed, looking down at Susie's naked back as she sleeps. He studies her face as if looking for something, then takes his coat and begins to leave. SUSIE I used to do that. Jack turns. Susie is looking at him. SUSIE (continuing) Sneak out in the morning. Before the guy could wake up and ruin it. Never figured I'd be on the other end of it, though. JACK I didn't want to wake you. SUSIE (smiling slightly) Yeah. JACK Thanks. For letting me in last night. SUSIE Funny how life repeats itself, huh? Over and over. Like a song. Jack looks at Susie for a long moment, then nods and turns for the door. SUSIE (continuing) Hey. Jack stops, his hand on the doorknob. SUSIE (continuing) Am I gonna see you again? Jack looks at her face, beautiful in the morning light. JACK Yeah. You're gonna see me again. Susie smiles slightly. SUSIE Okay. EXT. STREET Jack is standing across the street from his mother's house, just looking. After a moment, he crosses the street. As he moves up the drive, he takes notice of the tree growing in the front yard and crosses to it, kneeling by the trunk and studying the scars there -- cat's claws -- running vertically up the tree, the damage smoothed and widened by time. He runs his fingers over the imperfection, then stands and walks toward the house. EXT. HOUSE Through the screen door, Jack can hear a CLICKING sound and see partially into the front door. Half the room is cast in shadow, the other in blinding light. He opens the door and enters. INT. HOUSE Inside, the movie PROJECTOR is RUNNING, the tail of a completed FLIP SLAPPING like a whip against the carriage. Jack TURNS OFF the PROJECTOR and the room falls entirely into shadow. For a moment, the house is silent, full of ghosts, then, gradually, a NOISE is heard coming from the kitchen. INT. KITCHEN As Jack comes into the kitchen, he finds Frank searching through a cabinet. He watches for a moment. JACK What're you looking for? Frank turns quickly, surprised. FRANK I didn't hear you come in. JACK What're you doing? FRANK Oh ... I was just hoping for something to drink. But it seems the old lady was dry. Not even a bottle of cooking sherry. Jack nods. Frank looks nervous. FRANK (continuing) Uh, we already boxed some things. I figured you'd want to go through Dad's stuff. It's in there. If you want to get started. JACK Later. Frank nods. Silence. JACK (continuing) Is everything done? The arrangements, I mean. FRANK Oh. Yeah. It was all worked out before, you know. She and Dad had taken care of it. JACK Right. FRANK I set it for Wednesday. The ceremony. They're doing the stone today. (pause) It's okay? Wednesday? JACK Yeah, fine. FRANK There's not going to be a viewing. I figured with the kids and all ... JACK Sure. Jack glances around the room. Pictures on the walls. Handmade curtains, lightly faded. FRANK It's funny. Before, whenever I came here, the house seemed small. But today ... I can't keep up with it. I keep losing my wind. Frank smiles slightly and he and Jack lock eyes for a moment. FRANK (continuing;glancing away) God, I could use a drink. Jack hesitates, then pulls a bottle out of his coat. FRANK (continuing) Oh. Well, great. I'll get a couple glasses. Frank moves to a cabinet, but there's nothing there. FRANK (continuing) Damn. Donna must've packed them up this morning. Jack holds out the bottle. JACK Go ahead. FRANK No. JACK (showing the seal is unbroken) Bought it on the way over. Clean as a nun. FRANK No, it's not that. I ... can't drink from the bottle. I ... gag. JACK Oh, yeah, right. I forgot. Frank looks embarrassed. FRANK (remembering) Oh, hey, I want to show you something. Come on. Jack follows Frank back into the front room. Frank stands before one of the tiny matching pianos and gestures Jack to the other. FRANK (continuing) Hit the C. Go ahead. Jack steps over to the other piano and taps, then Frank does the same. Jack glances up in surprise. FRANK (continuing) I'm right, aren't I? They're in tune. Jack hits the note again and nods in amazement. FRANK (continuing) All these years. She kept them in tune. Can you imagine? Now why would she do something like that? Frank looks down at the keys and his smile fades. Suddenly he notices the collection of tiny souvenir shot glasses on top of the piano, each bearing the name of a different hotel. FRANK (continuing) Hey, what do you know. Looks like we can have that drink after all. (picking up a few glasses) What's your pleasure? We got the downtown Ramada. We got the Travelodge on Route 41. And ... the Mallory. JACK I'll take the Mallory. FRANK Good choice. Frank blows some dust off the glasses. FRANK (continuing) Looks like these got a few years on them. JACK This'll kill 'em. Jack pours and he and Frank settle on the tiny piano benches. As Frank swallows, he winces. FRANK Jesus. It suddenly grows silent, each sitting in his old familiar place, staring into his glass. JACK How're your hands? FRANK (surprised) Oh. Fine. It was nothing. Couple sore knuckles. Nothing. JACK You know, that night, I ... It just all came up. FRANK Yeah, I know. Me, too. JACK I mean, you can play. You're okay. FRANK (smiling) I can keep the beat. Jack smiles slightly, then both go back to their glasses. FRANK (continuing) Charlie called. JACK Yeah? FRANK Yeah. Larry Shelton. Blackie. Couple others. Donna said even Lloyd called the other day. Nothing like a little absence to make the heart grow fonder, huh? JACK Yeah. Jack and Frank lock eyes again. Frank's glance drops to Jack's glass. FRANK Jesus, when was the last time we played the Mallory? JACK Five years ago. (thinking) November. FRANK Right. It was someone's birthday. Halloran? JACK Daughter's. Sweet sixteen. FRANK Christ, that's right. How could I forget. What a nightmare. JACK She asked for it. FRANK I told Halloran we didn't do vocals, but he said: JACK AND FRANK (in unison) What my Sissy-wants, my Sissy gets. JACK She got it all right. Jack and Frank glance at one another, little boy mischief glowing in their faces. Suddenly they swivel on the pianos and begin to play "You're Sixteen." JACK AND FRANK (singing) She comes on like a dream Peaches and cream Lips like strawberry wine She's sixteen, she's beautiful and she's mine. Ribbons and curls Ooh, what a girl Eyes that sparkle and shine You're sixteen, you're beautiful, and you're mine. As Jack and Frank finish, they're laughing. After a moment, their voices die and the house is quiet again. Full of ghosts. Each stares at the tiny keyboard before him, awkward with the intimacy of the moment. It is quiet for a very long time. Finally, Frank looks over. FRANK Well ... One more time? Jack glances up and sees Frank has his empty glass held out. He hesitates, then picks up the bottle. JACK One more time. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Face Off.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Face Off.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21ba86a0f801f782bf4463b8c5135eb705a4afa3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Face Off.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FACE/OFF Written by Mike Werb & Michael Colleary Revised 9/10/96 FADE INTO: SEPIA-TONE FOOTAGE of a pig chasing a lion chasing a dinosaur chasing an elephant. Noah's Ark going round... and round... and round... EXT. GRIFFITH PARK CAROUSEL - DAY Disjointed CALLIOPE MUSIC as the wheel of fate and fortune goes around until we PULL BACK to reveal: JON ARCHER (30) rising winged Pegasus. On the adjacent unicorn is his son MATTHEW (5). Clutching a balloon, Matty waves at his dad. A happy moment, like so many certain to follow -- until we realize we are watching them THROUGH... SNIPER'S RIFLE SCOPE - SNIPER'S EYES wait until the child clears his aim -- Archer is the target. They round the bend and disappear... MATTHEW Loses his grip on the unicorn. Archer reaches over and pulls him into his lap. They happily ride together... As the horses sweep back INTO VIEW... exposing Archer... Now we see the sniper. CASTOR TROY is cool, efficient, aggressive, sexual. His finger closes around the trigger. BOOM! A BULLET RIPS into Archer's back. Bleeding... he drops off his horse... and sinks to the deck of the carousel. His eyes desperately searching... searching... searching... until he sees -- Matthew lies on his back -- still. Slowly, Archer reaches out and takes Matthew's hand... and now we see COLOR for the first time... Blood red... as bleeding father touches bleeding son... TILT UP TO the winged Pegasus flying by -- now in full color and UP UP UP TO Matthew's red balloon... floating away. HANDEL'S MESSIAH OVER a SERIES OF SHOTS: FBI BRIEFING ROOM Gazing out the window as dawn breaks over the city below is Jon Archer... older... unshaven... fatigued... his eyes reveal a man in the grip of obsession. CAROUSEL HORSE sweeps by, as if marking time itself... HOLY PLACE Smoky, spiritual... dominated by a gleaming, golden cross. A priest kneels before it -- deep in prayer. The glimmering cross comes INTO FOCUS... but it's just a light-reflection... off the casing of a large bomb. This is no chapel... but an atrium. Somewhere. And as the "priest" rubs out his cigarette we see it's Castor Troy -- carefully installing this complex device. ANOTHER CAROUSEL HORSE sweeps by... ARCHER pockets his FBI badge, then holsters his gun... CASTOR sets the bomb timer -- then replaces a wall panel in front of it. Totally hidden. BRIEFING ROOM - CASTOR'S MUGSHOT is on a computer screen. His criminal dossier scrolls by endlessly: bombings, assassinations, mercenary kidnappings, terrorism-for-hire... Rookie agent LOOMIS studies the details carefully. Other agents -- including BUZZ and WANDA scan computer grid- maps, man phones, etc. amid the take-out cartons and coffee cups. These people are on high alert. ARCHER Any follow-up from L.A.P.D. Intelligence? BUZZ No, sir, nothing yet. ARCHER Get them on the phone -- now. What about S.I.S. and our airport teams? WANDA We've had everything from psychics to satellites on this. Even if Castor was here... he must have slipped the net by now... ARCHER He's here! And we're going to keep looking until we find him! A silence descends on the chastised team. As they go back to work, veteran agent TITO BIONDI takes Archer aside. TITO Jon, these people have been working round the clock -- you gotta cut them some slack... Archer considers his best friend's advice -- then... ARCHER I'll cut them some slack when I cut myself some slack. Archer marches out -- slamming the door behind him. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY (MORNING) Castor quietly shuts the security door behind him. An Hispanic voice startles him. JANITOR What are you doing? CASTOR (in perfect Spanish) Thank goodness, I feel like Icarus in the labyrinth -- where's the men's room? JANITOR (in Spanish) This area is off limits, Padre. (re: security door) How did you get in that room? Realizing the JANITOR is already too suspicious, Castor puts a priestly arm around him -- and leads him down the hall. CASTOR Okay... I have a confession to make, but you aren't gonna like it. I was planting a bomb. JANITOR Bomb? CASTOR You know -- boom -- (patting his neck) Oh, never mind... The Janitor suddenly twitches, his eyes rolls up in his head. As he gasps his last -- Castor heaves him down a stairwell. Now we see the needle-thin custom stiletto in Castor's hand. Castor kicks the Janitor's mop and bucket down the stairs -- making everything look like an accident. INT. SAME BUILDING - MAIN FLOOR - DAY (MORNING) The children's church choir -- 200 strong -- sing "Behold the Lamb of God." Clergy and lay persons listen reverently. "Father" Castor strolls by the singers -- casually heading for the exit. As he passes the risers, a teenage girl drops her sheet music at his feet. Returning it -- he whispers in her ear -- so close he's practically licking it. CASTOR I've never enjoyed 'The Messiah.' But your voice makes even a hack like Handel seem like a genius. He pats her behind and leaves. Although a little shaken, she's also drawn by Castor's sexual magnetism. EXT. LA CONVENTION CENTER - DAY (MORNING) The marquee proclaims: INTERNATIONAL CHURCH CHOIRS 18th- 21st: AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION. Castor exits -- politely holding the door for a beat cop. INT. ARCHER'S OFFICE - DAY (MORNING) The office is a monument to obsession: photographs, clues, newsclips, totems of Castor Troy surround a pacing Archer. ARCHER (on phone) ... I don't have time to get a warrant from some hung-over judge. Just give me the go-ahead, Victor, and I promise -- as soon as this is over -- you can brand my butt with the Fourth Amendment. The instant Archer hangs up -- the INTERCOM BUZZES. KIM (V.O.) Sir, your wife's on line one... S.I.S. on two... ARCHER Tell her to hang on -- As Archer punches up line two -- Tito bursts in. TITO A jet was chartered at Anderson Airfield. Guess who just showed up to pay for it? Pollux Troy. ARCHER Scramble the Reaction Team -- we're moving out. And get one of our people on that plane. TITO But there's still no sign of Castor... ARCHER Where one brother goes, the other's sure to follow... They rush our... the hold button on line 1 still blinking. EXT. PRIVATE AIRPORT - ESTABLISHING - DAY A sleek Cadillac pulls in... stopping next to a Land Rover. LARS MUELLER -- a muscular, crystal-eyed jar-head -- gets out of the Caddy. An instant later -- LUNT MUELLER -- emerges from the Rover. They are identical twins. The men scan the airport carefully, then open the rear doors of their respective vehicles. Castor emerges from the Caddy -- Armani clad. Exiting the Rover is Castor's younger brother POLLUX TROY -- skittish, brilliant, paranoid -- a human hummingbird. POLLUX You're 26 minutes late. The casing didn't fit -- right? I knew that cheap-shit Dietrich would rip us off... CASTOR Oh, God -- ! POLLUX What!? CASTOR I forgot to turn the damn thing on! POLLUX You're kidding, right? (to the twins) He's kidding... (grabs Castor by throat) ... are you fucking kidding!? Castor hugs Pollux lovingly. Pollux squirms like a kid. CASTOR Bro -- everything went fine. POLLUX I hate when you call me bro. Pollux heads for the jet. Castor hands Lunt a wad of cash. CASTOR Thanks for babysitting. LUNT Anything else? CASTOR I'll contact you when we get the rest of the money. (turns to leave) Oh, and stat away from downtown. The inversion layer's going to be pretty thick around the 18th. The twins nod... then take off. Castor heads for the jet. INT. JET - DAY Castor hustles in -- exhorting the PILOT. CASTOR Let's go, let's go! As the JET TURBINES start to WHINE, Castor sinks into his seat. A very sexy FLIGHT ATTENDANT appears and hands him a Scotch. He downs it, looking her over salaciously. FLIGHT ATTENDANT Would you like anything else? CASTOR Hell, yes... (pulls her into lap) It's the only way to fly. She smiles, not minding, until the jet suddenly slows its taxi down the runway. COCKPIT Castor yanks open the door. CASTOR What's wrong? AT END OF RUNWAY A squat car creeps INTO VIEW -- blocking the runway. EXT./INT. HUMVEE - MOVING - DAY Behind the wheel is Jon Archer. Beside him is Tito. BACK TO ARCHER CASTOR It's Archer. (gun to Pilot's head) Go, dammit! Suddenly the gun is BLASTED from Castor's hand. he turns around to see... the Flight Attendant behind them -- holding a smoking pistol. This is Agent WINTERS. WINTERS F.B.I.! Throttle down, captain! But Castor elbows the throttle up. The jet lurches forward, throwing Winters off balance. Pollux tackles her as the jet picks up speed. INT. HUMVEE - DAY Archer slams the vehicle into gear. ARCHER Get out. TITO You're not playing chicken with two tons of aluminum... ARCHER Get out! Tito obeys as Archer peels out. The HUMMER ROARS at the jet. The jet picks up speed, trying to get aloft. The humvee is aimed right at it... Archer's eyes narrow. COLLISION COURSE as two hunks of metal bear down. The machines are seconds apart when -- Archer looks up to see... Winters' face pressed up against the cockpit window, Castor holding a gun to her head. Archer cuts the wheel -- just avoiding the jet. The Hummer skids to a stop as Federal back-up arrives -- but too late. Archer watches an FBI chopper -- landing in a swirl of dust. As the jet picks up speed... the hatch opens. Castor blasts Winters in the side and tosses her onto the tarmac. INSIDE Castor smiles at Pollux, sensing freedom, until... KA-CHUNK: Something POUNDS the jet -- from above. Castor leans out the hatch and sees... The chopper on top of them -- Archer at the controls. Eye-contact -- years of hatred pass between these men. Castor BLASTS at him from the open hatch. The chopper's left windscreen spiderwebs. Archer jerks and weaves -- dodging the BULLETS. The chopper pulls away. The jet finally lifts off... when... The chopper settles on the jet -- slamming at its tail. TARMAC Tito reacts to this madness -- as the chopper plays a deadly game of leap-frog with the jet. The end of the runway is coming up fast. Archer crushes the jet's horizontal elevator flap. JET PILOT can't budge the jet's jammed yoke. Thwarted, he powers back the throttle. Thrust reverse. CASTOR What are you doing? PILOT The horizontal elevator's smashed! We can't lift off! CASTOR SHOOTS the Pilot -- then takes the controls. He struggles to maneuver the jet. Suddenly... A biplane descends right at them -- about to land. ARCHER pulls up just as the JET swerves radically to avoid the biplane and SLAMS into the hangar. JET plows through the GLASS DOOR, the NOSE-WHEEL SNAPS off. The PLANE SKIDS right into the hangar -- finally stopping at the wings. FBI CHOPPER lands. Archer steps out calmly -- like a cop about to write a traffic ticket. He hurries to join more FBI agents rushing into the hangar ahead of him. INT. HANGAR - DAY The jet hatch pops open -- Castor leaps from it, FIRING. Two FBI agents drop -- riddled. Pollux appears at the hatch -- an FBI sharpshooter FIRES, grazing Pollux's shoulder. Staggered, Pollux falls -- Castor catches him before he hits the floor -- simultaneously BLASTING the sharpshooter. Castor drags Pollux back into the smoke-filled hangar. Archer arrives and quickly checks the dead agents, his anger building. He signals Tito and the others to spread out. DEEP IN HANGAR A maze of airplane debris and heavy machinery. Led by Archer, the FBI agents pick their way through it. ROOKIE LOOMIS snaps alert -- did he see something? Advancing carefully, he comes up on... Castor -- staunching Pollux's shoulder wound. Pollux sees the agent -- and FIRES. Loomis hits the floor -- his bleeding ear is shredded. Suddenly a forklift charges down on Castor and Pollux. Tito is at the wheel. Castor FIRES -- forcing Tito to dive off. The forklift careens on -- driving apart the brothers. The forklift upends a stack of heavy crates -- pinning Pollux. Castor tries to free his trapped brother. POLLUX Forget it -- Go! Go! He slaps his Glock into Pollux's hand. CASTOR Wherever they put you, I'll find a way to get you out... Pollux starts FIRING -- covering Castor as he runs through a tunnel which leads to an adjoining hangar. Suddenly Wanda presses her machine-pistol into Pollux's head. As Pollux raises his gun -- Tito grabs his hand. TITO -- not unless you want that 200 I.Q. splattered all over the floor. (as Archer approaches) We got him now, Jon. ARCHER That's what you always say. Seal it off. I'm going in. Archer moves away from the group and enters the tunnel. MUSIC as Archer and Castor begin their cat-and-mouse dance. Sensing Archer, Castor pauses by an old landing gear. He draws a fresh pistol from his ankle holster and moves on. Archer pauses at the landing gear... his own stealthy movements mirroring Castor's. Castor waits behind a stack of steel drums... his gaze trying to penetrate the darkness... He SNAPS his fingers. The sound ECHOES as he tries to draw Archer in. Archer reacts to the sound and SNAPS back -- answering the challenge. As the deadly beat between them continues -- BLAM BLAM BLAM! Archer spins away just as Castor OPENS FIRE from the gloom... one step ahead. INTERCUT as necessary: CASTOR Jon, I'm getting a little annoyed by your obsessive need to spoil my fun. ARCHER And how much will your 'fun' net you this time? BOOM BOOM BOOM! Half-blind SHOTS send Castor spinning. A moment later, Archer pursues... SNAP! He fits a new CLIP into his pistol. CASTOR What's it to you? I declare it. Here I am, back in the States for less than a week -- ARCHER You're under arrest. Incredibly, you still have the right to remain silent -- CASTOR I've got something going down on the eighteenth... it's gonna be worse than anything God ever dumped on the Pharaoh. I'll give it up -- but my brother and I have to walk. ARCHER No discussion -- no deals. CASTOR What're you gonna do with me locked up? You'll drive your wife and kid nuts! I bet your daughter is just about ripe by now. What's her name, Janie? Enraged, Archer steps boldly forward -- trying to draw his enemy out. Silence -- then Archer senses... Castor is behind him. He FIRES -- Archer dives away. The BARRAGE CONTINUES -- driving Archer back between two huge turbine engines. As Archer reloads, he stares at the control panel switches. Castor moves in for the kill when he hears a final SNAP- SNAP. Except it isn't a finger snap... it's two switches. VRRRROOOM! The TWIN ENGINES ROAR on! Unable to fight the churning tornado-force wind... Castor's blasted across the hangar... slamming hard into the far wall. The ENGINES STOP and Archer emerges -- joined by Tito. TITO Tell me he didn't get away again... Then Tito follows Archer's gaze to Castor's lifeless body. Still as death -- somehow his mocking smile survives. EXT. AIRPORT TARMAC - SUNSET Heavily-manacled, an extremely agitated Pollux is herded into a SWAT van by Buzz and Wanda. POLLUX Where's my brother?! I want to see my brother! The van takes off -- passing an imposing older man, flanked by two bodyguards. Bullying through the media, Assistant FBI Director VICTOR LAZARRO scans the devastation. Approaching Archer, he watches as Castor's body is loaded on the ambulance. A sheet covers Castor's lifeless face. LAZARRO The oversight committee would've roasted us for this one -- thank God it paid off. Damn fine work. ARCHER Real fine, Victor. Especially the casualties. Archer contemplates the slain agents -- their three bodies laid out in a row -- waiting to be zip-locked. Lazarro reacts grimly as a reporter snaps a photo of the bodies. Instinctively, the two men close ranks. Archer grabs the Nikon, ejects the film, then shoves the camera back. LAZARRO Classified information. No photographs. Lazarro puts a caring arm around Archer's shoulder and leads him away from the media... and the carnage. LAZARRO You okay, Jon? (off Archer's nod) Then go home. Tell Eve. EXT. ARCHER'S HOME (SANTA MONICA) - SUNSET A renovated Craftsman. Sipping a carton of milk, Archer pulls into the driveway. He sits, gathering his thoughts. INT. ARCHER'S HOME - NIGHT Archer enters and sees his wife EVE. Handsome, intelligent. ARCHER Hi... (no response) ... What's wrong? She nods toward the KITCHEN. JAMIE is there -- a sullen and hard fifteen-year-old. There are cigarette cartons on the table. EVE She complimented for her 'F' in history with an 'A' in shoplifting... Archer marches into the kitchen -- noting the crate of Marlboros. Jamie matter-of-factly pours herself coffee. ARCHER Nice stunt, Jamie. You break the law and I'm expected to ignore it? JAMIE That's right -- it's all about you. Don't even ask me what happened. Archer looks to Eve for help. Eve shakes her head -- nope. ARCHER Okay. What happened? JAMIE Like you'd ever fucking believe me! She bolts. In anticipation, Eve calmly opens the door as Jamie rushes out, then closes it behind her. EVE Well, you tried. You failed miserably, but you tried. ARCHER Why won't she even talk to me? EVE Maybe because you taught her never to speak to strangers. (immediately regrets it) I'm sorry... that wasn't fair. Eve kisses his cheek -- then gathers up her doctor gear. EVE I've got patients waiting. Try again, Jon. She hates you -- but she needs you. ARCHER Eve... Something in Archer's expression makes her stop. EVE Jon -- what is it? But he's too overcome. He starts to speak -- but can't. EVE Is it -- him? It's... it's over? Emotions avalanche across his face until he finally looks up. Eve pulls him close -- a sheltering embrace for them both. ARCHER I'm going to make everything up to you and Jamie. I'll put in for a desk job. We'll go away, get counseling -- anything you want. This time, I mean it. INT. ARCHER HOME - NIGHT Freshly dressed, Archer heads down the hall. He pauses at the door to Jamie's room when he sees -- Jamie. Fully clothed, she's fast asleep on her bed cluttered with clothes and assorted girl-stuff. Her face peaceful. Archer looks around her room... sees the stuffed animals collecting dust... replaced by makeup, jewelry, beefcake Calvin Klein ads and band posters, etc. Archer's startled to see a lacey bustier... his little girl is growing up fast. And he's missing it. He pulls the blanket up over her and quietly slips out. The instant he leaves, Jamie kicks the blankets off. INT. FBI BUILDING - DAY Dominated by the FBI seal. Archer steps to the check point. SECURITY GUARD Print, please. Archer presses his thumb to a scan-pad -- and is cleared. INT. BULL PEN - DAY Efficient as a beehive -- agents, cryptologists, support staff buzz at their routines. Archer strides through -- drawing congratulatory nods and "thumbs up" signs... OUTSIDE HIS OFFICE Archer's team is there. Applauding. Proud. Uneasy with plaudits, he disperses the disappointed agents. ARCHER Much appreciated. Now let's get back to work, okay? WANDA (to Buzz) Is that stick ever gonna fall out of his ass? Archer's well-built secretary -- KIM BREWSTER -- hands him his messages. She's holding a bottle of Dom Perignon. KIMBERLY The C.I.A. sent this over. What should I do with it? ARCHER Send it back and tell them to stop wasting the taxpayers' money. Anything else, Miss Brewster? KIMBERLY No, sir. He enters his office. Kimberly sighs and turns to Wanda. KIMBERLY Four years -- and he still calls me 'Miss Brewster.' INT. ARCHER'S OFFICE - DAY Sitting at his computer -- Archer scrolls through Castor's file. He grimly contemplates face-after-face of Troy's victims -- finally pausing on a photo of his son Matthew. Burying his feeling, he types "CASE CLOSED" over Castor's image. Archer starts to press "enter" when Tito comes in. ARCHER How's Loomis? TITO He needs some surgery, but he's going to be okay. That's the good news... ARCHER Go on. TITO ... Brodie and Miller from Special Ops need to see you. ARCHER I don't have time for those cloak and dagger guys. Big NED BRODIE and athletic female HOLLIS MILLER stroll in. BRODIE You better make time, Jon. (hefts a disc) We found this in the jet wreckage -- among Pollux Troy's effects... Archer accedes as Miller pops in the disk. The computer screen displays a CAD schematic of the bomb. Archer studies it carefully -- unease growing. ARCHER Porcelain casing... Thermal cloak... Undetectable payload. MILLER Powerful enough to flatten ten city blocks. ARCHER 'Worse than anything God ever dumped on the Pharaohs.' (to Tito) Get Pollux Troy. Now. DISSOLVE TO: INTERROGATION FOOTAGE Wired to a complex machine -- Pollux seems to have his frustrated interrogators on the run. INT. ARCHER'S OFFICE - DAY Archer, Lazarro, Tito, Brodie, Miller and other FBI officials watch the monitor. Pollux remains implacable POLLUX (V.O.) (on screen) That bomb was just a crossword puzzle to me... a mental exercise. I never built it... Lazarro shuts down the monitor... turns to Archer. ARCHER He's lying. LAZARRO He's hooked up to a full-spectrum polygraph. ARCHER Pollux is a manipulative psychopath. He can control his heartbeat, his sweat glands, his blood pressure... LAZARRO Jon, I trust your instincts, I always have. But D.C. wants more evidence. And frankly, so do I. ARCHER You'll get all the evidence you need when ten thousand people die. LAZARRO We'll get a team right on it. But we can't evacuate the city on what amounts to a hunch. Archer looks at the gathered brass. He knows it's hopeless. ARCHER That bomb has been built, it's out there somewhere and it's going to detonate... EXT. FBI BUILDING - INTELLIGENCE MEMORIAL - DAY Words etched in the granite wall read: IN HONOR OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES IN THE LINE OF DUTY Archer watches as a workman engraves the last of the three new stars among so many others -- each one honoring the dead. BRODIE Didn't Castor give any clue where the bomb might be? ARCHER Only one person knows -- his brother Pollux. And he'll keep his mouth shut until it blows. BRODIE We could plant an agent in his cell -- get him to spill the location. ARCHER Pollux is way too paranoid. The only person he'd talk to about that bomb is Castor himself. And dead men can't talk. Brodie and Miller exchange a knowing look. BRODIE There might be a way around that... FULL SCREEN - CASTOR'S BODY Tubes and hoses are plugged into every orifice. INT. ICU ROOM - DAY Archer stares at the body... he can't believe it. ARCHER Why are you keeping him alive? (gets no answer) As long as he's breathing, he's dangerous. MILLER Relax, he's a turnip. Miller grinds out her cigarette on Castor's leg. Of course, Castor just lies there like a vegetable. BRODIE We can arrange for you to enter Erewhon Prison -- as Castor Troy. ARCHER What are you talking about? Archer turns as DR. MALCOLM HOAG (50s) enters the room. HOAG I think I'd better answer that question. (offers hand) Malcolm Hoag. I run the Physiological Camouflage Unit for Special Ops. ARCHER I know who you are. MILLER But you don't know what he can do. Physical augmentation; enhancement surgery... BRODIE ... He can disguise a compromised agent or alter the likeness -- even the voice -- of a government witness. HOAG Let me show you how it's done. (leading him out) I think you'll recognize our patient... INT. HOAG'S SURGICAL BAY - DAY Loomis lies still as a surgeon carefully scrapes away charred flesh around his burned ear. The doctor turns to a -- STEREO-LITHOGRAPHIC MACHINE Laser-beams attack an organic soup with incredible precision. The light forces a chemical reaction -- and out of the soup -- an ear begins to form. It rises from the liquid, now fully-formed. The surgeon takes the ear and fits it in place on Loomis's head. He starts suturing. OBSERVATION BOOTH - ABOVE Archer, Hoag, Brodie and Miller watch the operation -- video-enhanced by the two huge screens on the far walls. HOAG With our new generation of anti- inflammatories, healing is accelerated from weeks to days. By his next paycheck, he won't even remember which ear he lost. (a beat) Your situation, however, would be a little less permanent... BRODIE -- and a lot more classified. Hoag holds up a face-sized organic shell made up of yellow cartilage pieces and tendons, etc. Archer pulls it over his face -- like a gauze mask. A "tendon" falls off. ARCHER This'll fool Pollux. HOAG That is a state-of-the-art morpho- genetic template. The inside can be built to match the exact shape of your skull; the outside -- exactly like Castor's. Then we fit his face right on top -- MILLER -- and you become him. ARCHER You're talking about removing the guy's face? BRODIE Borrowing, Jon. The procedure's completely reversible. MILLER One way or the other -- the mission ends on the eighteenth. Archer turns the shell over and over and over in his hands. BRODIE You know Castor better than anyone. You've lived and breathed him for years -- hell, you even look a little like him. Archer shoves the template back at Hoag. ARCHER Find yourself another lab-rat. MILLER If you don't do this -- Castor will beat us again. He'll beat you again... Archer pushes his way past them -- and marches out. HOAG I don't think that went very well. BRODIE Trust us, Doc... MILLER ... he'll jerk around. Then he'll be back. INT. INTERROGATION BOOTHS - DAY Archer enters... sizes up DIETRICH HASSLER. His stylish garb doesn't completely hide his criminal roots. Archer sits down calmly. He looks at his watch. ARCHER I'm in a hurry, Dietrich. So you've only got ten seconds to go through your usual litany of lies, empty threats, and moronic denials. Then I'm coming over there -- DIETRICH If you're in such a fucking hurry -- why are you wasting your time with me? I'm just an art dealer. ARCHER You're a dealer, all right: technical secrets, munitions... explosives. DIETRICH You've never proven any of that. And when my bitchy, never-been- laid femi-nazi lawyer gets here, she's going to... ARCHER Time's up. Archer topples the wooden table and tears a leg from the top. Brandishing it -- he stalks the startled thug. HALLWAY JUST OUTSIDE - CONTINUOUS ACTION Lazarro blanches as an obsessed Archer repeatedly slams the table leg against the wall -- above Dietrich's head. LAZARRO The only ticking bomb I see is inside his head. He's getting worse, Tito. TITO Don't worry, sir. It's all an act... But as Lazarro leaves -- we see Tito's worried, too. BACK INSIDE BOOTH Archer has a terrified Dietrich backed into the corner. DIETRICH ... Okay! Castor called me but I blew him off... I swear I never saw him. And I don't know anything about any bomb! INT. CORRIDOR - OUTSIDE INTERROGATION BOOTHS - SAME TIME Archer emerges... eyes blazing. ARCHER Let him go, but I want him watched... Who's next? TITO Just Dietrich's sister... In another booth, a careworn but striking woman sits with a little boy on her lap. She gently helps him Crayola a book. This is SASHA HASSLER (30) and her son ADAM (5). INT. INTERROGATION BOOTH - DAY Archer hovers over Sasha -- her maternal warmth replaced by an icy hatred. Tito and the child are gone. ARCHER When was the last time you saw Castor Troy? SASHA Who cares? He's dead. ARCHER Answer the question. SASHA Look, I'm clean. I teach kids now -- ARCHER Sasha -- you are a felon, on probation for harboring Castor Troy. So it's in your best interest to cooperate. (as she's silent) Would you like your son put in a foster home? Sasha's eyes flash, her body coils -- but she keeps control. SASHA No, but I'm sure you'd love it -- you sick bastard. ARCHER (unmoved) When was the last time you saw Castor Troy? She stares at him with equal amounts of pity and hatred. SASHA I haven't seen him for years. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Archer watches as Adam leaves Dietrich and jumps into Sasha's arms. She hugs him protectively. Adam sees Archer watching them -- and smiles. Archer doesn't smile back. FULL SCREEN - CASTOR'S REAL FACE PULL BACK TO: INT. I.C.U. - NIGHT Archer slowly circles Castor's muscular, hairy, tattooed body. Although on life support -- his signature smirk remains. ARCHER What about Lazarro? BRODIE No way -- the red tape alone would take a month. This is a black-bag operation -- completely off the books. MILLER If you need him, Tito can help you prepare. But you know the drill: You can't tell anyone -- not the Director, not your wife... nobody. Archer's face shows he doesn't like it -- then he nods. ARCHER I'm in. EXT. ARCHER HOME - NIGHT Archer slowly gets out of his car. Trudging toward the front door, he picks up a basketball and takes a shot. His form is terrible -- he misses by a mile. INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT Archer passes Jamie's room. Loud MUSIC POUNDS from within. He pauses to knock, thinks again, then heads down the hall. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Eve is in bed. Archer comes in quietly and sits beside her -- studying her peaceful, sleeping face. She stirs. EVE I was dreaming... ARCHER Something good? EVE I'm not sure... you were flying this weird old stunt plane... doing flips... walking on the wings... I was watching from the ground -- when you fell. You had a parachute, but you wouldn't open it. ARCHER Did you catch me? EVE No. ARCHER How come? EVE I don't know... (nuzzles him) Maybe because you've never needed my help. ARCHER Come on, you made that up, didn't you? EVE ... Maybe I did... (teasing) ... maybe I didn't... They kiss affectionately. Passion building, Eve runs her hands over his body -- until her fingers touch a round scar on his chest. Archer freezes -- mid-caress. EVE It's all right, Jon. ARCHER After all these years, I still can't get it out of my head -- an inch to the left, Matty would still be alive. EVE And you wouldn't be. No response. The pain hidden in his silence chills Eve. EVE Things will get better now that you're home. Everything will be better -- now that... that man is finally out of our lives. ARCHER Eve... He starts to say the words. He wants, needs to share the truth with her. But he can't. Instead -- ARCHER ... If I had to do something to find some closure... I should do it, shouldn't I?... No matter how crazy? EVE Oh, God -- you're going on assignment again... ARCHER One last time. And while I'm gone, I want you and Jamie to go to your mother's. It's important... EVE You said you'd be here! You promised! What could be more important than that? ARCHER I can't tell you... except only I can do it. EVE You want me to tell you it's okay to leave? Okay, go on! Go! Fury erupting, Eve pushes Archer out of the bed. INT. ANOTHER BEDROOM - NIGHT Archer enters a child's room -- neat and tidy, like a museum exhibit. A starfield of glow-letters twinkles faintly. He lies down on the bed and toys with his wedding band -- staring up at the words the stars form... "MATTHEW." DISSOLVE TO: INT. CONVENTION CENTER - MACHINE ROOM - BLINKING LIGHTS - NIGHT The blinking LED of the bomb timer continues to count down. INT./EXT. '56 BUICK/MOUNTAIN ROAD - MOVING - DAY Tito drives into the Hoag compound. Archer's beside him, juggling Castor's dossier: documents, photos, etc. TITO Jon, this is goddam insane. You can't do it. Archer says nothing... it's too late for debate. Tito parks. The men get out and head for the lab. TITO You haven't got a chance in hell of fooling Pollux. Castor drinks, smokes and walks around with a 24- hour hard-on. He's nothing like you -- ARCHER Don't worry... If Hoag can do half what he claims, I'll get Pollux to talk. Archer reaches for the door -- Tito stops him. TITO It's not that simple, Jon... Becoming another person -- especially him -- nobody can come all the way back from that... not even you. Archer considers his friend's words... He toys with, then removes, his wedding bang. ARCHER Keep this for me. As Tito takes the ring -- a caring, but concerned look passes between the two friends. INT. SURGICAL BAY - DAY Two huge video screens are dominated by the CG-images of Archer and Castor. As Hoag briefs the team, the CG- images glow to reflect the physical characteristic Hoag refers to. HOAG Let's walk through it, Jon. Your blood types are different, but we can't do anything about that. Otherwise, nature is cooperating nicely. The height difference is negligible -- within 1/2 an inch. Eye color -- almost a perfect match. Penis size, flaccid, essentially the same -- Substantial. From the observation booth above -- Miller (flanked by Tito and Brodie) raises his eyebrow. On the video screens, the images morph to signify the physical augmentations. HOAG Hairline will be adjusted with laser-shears... micro-plugs for the body hair... the teeth will be bonded to match Castor's... Hoag eyes Castor's inert, tight body -- then turns to Archer -- prodding his love handles like a livestock inspector. HOAG How about an abdominoplasty? ARCHER Abdomino -- what? HOAG A tummy tuck. On the house. ARCHER Do it. TRANSFORMATION MONTAGE (INTERCUT huge video screen enlargements of Archer and Castor's body parts as necessary): Globules of adipose tissue are siphoned off Archer's obliques. At the same time... Hoag recreates the "Great Sphinx" tattoo on Archer's thigh. We PUSH IN ON his leg, then PULL BACK to reveal... Archer and Tito. The CLOSE UP on his leg becomes a FULL SHOT as he walks across the rooftop -- like himself. Tito demonstrated the proper "Castor gait": dangerously casual, like a panther. Hoag reproduces Castor's fingerprints... then layers them over Archer's fingers. Archer practices Castor's icy, killer glare. Tito hands him a lit cigarette. Archer brings the cigarette to his lips -- then coughs harshly. But he keeps trying. Castor smiles... then smirks and laughs. PULL BACK to reveal Archer studying surveillance footage of Castor on a monitor-screen -- mimicking him. Archer fusses with his new hair, trying to cover the thin spots. Giving up, he zips up his sweatshirt -- getting the zipper caught in his new chest hair. EXT. HOAG INSTITUTE - GROUNDS - DAY Tito tosses a pistol. Archer catches it with his right hand. But to Archer's surprise, Tito frowns. TITO Nice catch. But you used the wrong hand. He takes the pistol away -- and slaps it in Archer's left hand. Then Tito shoves him -- challengingly. TITO Shoot me. (as Archer doesn't move) Shoot me! Tito pulls the gun against his own forehead. TITO You want to be Castor Troy? If you hesitate for a breath, you're finished! Now -- shoot me! Kill me! Archer holds the gun unsteadily. Tito is disgusted. TITO You can't do it... because Castor is tougher than you... BOOM! The GUN goes off -- the slug tears past Tito's head. Shocked, he touches his left ear, making sure it's still there. Then Tito looks at Archer -- and sees the determination. EXT. HOAG'S FACILITY - NIGHT Clear and calm. God's night. Someone's God anyway. INT. I.C.U. ROOM - NIGHT Hoag leads Archer to a full-length mirror. HOAG Let's see if I missed anything before I get my hands really dirty. Archer removes the robe. He's amazed to see: His own head on Castor's body: a flat stomach, hairy chest, tattoos, thinning hair, etc. Hoag touches Archer's scar. HOAG You realize this has to be removed. (as Archer slowly nods) Then here we go, Commander. Through the Looking Glass... INT. SURGICAL BAY - NIGHT Unconscious, Archer is wheeled into the surgical bay, Castor beside him. Hoag turns to the video technician. HOAG Make sure you get everything -- I'll need to study the tape before the reverse surgery. Hoag lowers an aerated Plexiglas mask over Archer's face. Interwoven with integrated laser circuitry -- this Derma- Induction-Device (D.I.D.) attaches via suction. Hoag sights through the optical memory, squeezes the trigger. A cobalt beam cuts around the face -- cleanly slicing it. Then Hoag lifts Archer's face -- off of his skull. Brodie and Miller watch from above. Tito stumbles into the nearby bathroom to throw up. Hoag inspects Archer's face, then turns to his nurse. HOAG Vault it. Hoag turns to perform the same procedure on Castor. Castor's consistent EEG reading suddenly spikes radically -- for a moment, it almost seems to stabilize. Hoag glances over -- too late -- the spikes have disappeared. But the CAMERA CLOSES IN ON Castor's ear -- and we sense that, somehow, his auditory nerves might be functioning. DISSOLVE TO: INT. RECOVERY ROOM - DAY A head swathed in gauze. The bandages start to fall away. Tito, Miller and Brodie wait as Hoag removes the gauze. The patient looks into a mirror. Jon Archer has become Castor Troy. he touches his new face. Archer stares... the cold reality chilling his blood. Archer buckles -- unprepared emotionally for what he's done to himself. For a moment, he seems to teeter on madness. TITO Jon -- are you all right? Archer can't respond... he's somewhere the others can't comprehend. Finally he emerges... shaken, but in control. TITO enters. Instinctively, he grabs for his holster. ARCHER Okay... I'm okay. (realizes) But my voice... I still sound like me. HOAG I implanted a micro-chip onto your larynx. Hoag SWITCHES ON an AUDIO TAPE. Archer repeats Castor's words as Hoag adjusts the chip with a wavelength box. CASTOR (V.O.) ARCHER Okay, I've got a Okay, I've got a confession to make, but confession to make, but you aren't gonna like you aren't gonna like it... (etc.) it... (etc.) After a few repetitions, Archer's voice matches perfectly. Archer yawns, squints and furrows his brow -- testing every muscle. He stares into the mirror -- into the eyes of his most hated enemy -- now his eyes. Archer slowly turns to... Castor. Motionless, swathed, dead to the world -- but something about Castor's smile -- that mocking smile... ARCHER Now what? TITO We're down to 72 hours. Let's call Lazarro. Castor Troy just came out of his coma. EXT. FBI HELIPORT - DAY Armed agents take their positions around a helipad. A jet-black helicopter drops from the sky like an angry wasp. EXT. HELIPAD - DAY As Lazarro watches -- Tito escorts out a heavily-manacled "Castor." Two armed agents leap from the chopper and take charge of "Castor." He follows them pliantly, until -- TITO Watch this hard-case -- he'll bite your nuts off if he gets the chance! Archer gets the message. He starts to resist the agents and must be muscled into the chopper. He's manacled down. Eye contact between Archer and Tito -- both aware of this very real point of departure. The CHOPPER DOOR SLAMS SHUT. It lifts off like a twister and SCREAMS away. EXT. HELIPORT - STAGING AREA - DAY The watching team breaks up, wanders back to work. LOOMIS What a week for Archer to go on a training op. Maybe we should try to contact him. WANDA Forget it. He's knee-deep in Georgia swamp by now. They pass Brodie and Miller, who watch the chopper disappear over the horizon. So far so good. INT. CHOPPER - FLYING - DAY The agent re-checks Archer's chains. ARCHER Don't forget -- I ordered a kosher meal... The agent smashes his elbow into Archer's gut. The second agent presses an INJECTOR against Archer's leg. PSSSST. Archer spasms against the drug -- then sags unconscious. INT. EREWHON PRISON - DELOUSING CUBICLE Archer wakes up as a torrent of delousing spray hits him. A guard holds a water cannon on the newest inmate. Archer lies gasping on the steel floor, protecting his face. The spray stops -- when head guard "RED" WALTON enters. WALTON You are now an Erewhon inmate -- a citizen of nowhere. Human rights zealots, the Geneva convention and the P.C. police have no authority here. You have no right... (slaps on latex gloves) When I say your ass belongs to me -- I mean it. Bend over. Archer's face reflects the degradation as he bends over and exposes all to the cavity-searching Guard. Satisfied, Walton lets Archer dress. Another guard places a pair of odd-looking steel boots before Archer. WALTON Step into them. Archer inspects the lock-down boots. Hinged steel collars hook over the shoe and encase the ankle. The soles are gridded steel with magnetic inserts. WALTON Don't sniff 'em, you perv. Just step into them. Archer obeys. A guard squats down and locks the steel collars over Archer's shoes. He tries to move -- but can't. ARCHER They're too tight. WALTON So's a noose. Now keep your mouth shut. Walton JOLTS Archer with his HIGH-VOLTAGE SHOCK-STICK. WALTON The prison's one big magnetic field. The boots'll tell us where you are -- every second of the day. (into comm-link) 201 to Population. Walton presses his thumb into a standard FBI scan-pad. It forms a print -- positively identifying the guard. The heavy blast-door automatically opens. WALTON I've got fifty bucks says you're dead by dinner. Don't disappoint me. Walton prods Archer toward the door. To Archer's surprise -- he can now move. INT. GENERAL POPULATION - DAY The inmates eat. Silence descends as Archer enters -- intensifying the constant HUMMING of the MAGNETIC FIELD. Huge Dubov does a slow burn on seeing "Castor." Scanning the room for Pollux -- Archer takes a seat next to a LITTLE, GOATEED MAN with a French accent. LITTLE MAN Hey, Castor -- remember me? ARCHER Fabrice Voisine... sure, I -- (catches himself) -- I believe Jon Archer busted you for poisoning five members of the the Canadian parliament? VOISINE (LITTLE MAN) Those scumbags should never have voted against the Quebecois. (a beat) We heard you got wasted. Archer sees the other inmates sizing him up. ARCHER Do I look wasted -- asshole? Voisine shakes his head "no" -- then his eyes widen as... WHAM. Dubov leaps onto Archer and starts pummeling him. They slide across the table -- spilling everyone's lunch. GUARD (into comm-unit) Central. I have a disturbance in population. Go to lock down -- WALTON (into comm-unit) Hold that lock down. Walton watches as Dubov throws Archer across the room. Archer staggers to his feet -- and sees the encircling inmates and guards looking at him -- unimpressed. Especially his "brother" Pollux -- who watches uncertainly. Dubov attacks again -- but Archer is ready. He grabs Dubov's fist -- just before it hits his face. ARCHER Never -- in -- the -- face. Holding Dubov's fist firmly, Archer kicks Dubov repeatedly in the groin. Metal boot meeting soft flesh. Dubov staggers back -- hurt. Archer moves in for the kill, savoring it. Walton looks skyward. WALTON Lock 'em down. INTERCUT WITH: UP ABOVE - CENTRAL SECURITY The prison's nerve center -- with video-feeds and monitors designed to keep problems and privacy to a minimum. The two deputies react to Walton's call. Identifying Archer and Dubov's signature-blips -- they throw the appropriate switches and... ZAP! The magnetic boots lock both inmates to the floor. Dubov flails hopelessly -- but Archer's just out of reach. Crack! Walton punches Archer in the diaphragm. ARCHER What? He started it! Walton smashes Archer harder -- he hits the floor. ARCHER When I get out of here -- WALTON You'll what? ARCHER I'm going to have you fired. His statement is so ludicrous, Walton laughs. Everyone does. From the inmates' reactions, Archer knows he's been accepted. WALTON (to Dubov) That's two strikes, Dubov. One more and you know where you're going. (to the others) Back to your 'suites' -- or no dinner. As Archer drops into the line of cons -- he spots Pollux waiting for him. Girding himself for this first encounter -- he's got a plan. POLLUX Hey, bro... ARCHER -- Pollux? POLLUX Of course it's Pollux, what the fuck's wrong with you? Archer stares -- feigning confusion until Walton prods him forward. Pollux watches his "brother" go -- very concerned. INT. ARCHER'S CELL - NIGHT Archer lies on his cot -- staring at the ceiling. Isolated, lonely, he realizes how easy it would be to go insane here. EXT. HOAG INSTITUTE - NIGHT An insanely starry night. Van Gogh's night. The night he cut off his ear, anyway. INT. SURGICAL BAY - NIGHT Castor's body lies inert. His life-support MACHINES BLIPPING away. Until the EEG spikes. Once -- twice -- three times. Brain wave activity increases -- and stabilizes. Castor's fingers twitch. Then his fist clenches -- hard. Castor's head is swathed in gauze. But his eyes pop open. Reflexively, Castor wrenches from the bed -- tearing out the tubes and wires that tether him to life support. He goes down -- in agony -- groaning. He struggles to his feet -- staggering through the lab -- until he catches the reflection of his bandaged face in the window. He quickly unwraps the gauze. The discarded bandages fall at his feet... we don't see what CASTOR sees -- but we hear him MOAN... then CHOKE... then SCREAM -- the only moment Castor ever loses his cool. Finally composing himself -- Castor's hand grips the phone and he dials. CASTOR Lars... okay, Lunt, then. (rifling desk documents) Something really fucked-up happened... I'm in trouble... so listen very carefully... EXT. HOAG INSTITUTE - NIGHT (LATER) A RANGE ROVER SCREECHES up. At gunpoint, Lars and Lunt manhandle Hoag into the lab. INT. SURGICAL BAY - NIGHT Lars and Lunt hustle Hoag in. The lab is on. The screens run -- scrolling through the video log of Archer's surgery. Hoag sees his terrified assistants -- bound with duct tape. HOAG What's this about? What do you want? Lars shoves Hoag into a towering figure... we ZOOM IN ON Hoag's glasses. And THROUGH the REFLECTION we see... MAN WITHOUT FACE Hoag reacts in horror at the raw muscle, cartilage and bone. The man lifts a cigarette to his lips... then exhales. CASTOR What do you think I want? INT. PRISON - POPULATION - DAY A huge wall-screen plays gentle nature scenes. Below -- the inmates engage in their exercise hour. Voisine stares at the screen -- while Pollux carefully watches his "brother" play basketball. Archer tosses up an air-ball to the jeers of other inmates. POLLUX You realize, of course, that magnetic humming is designed to drive us insane. If we all don't get brain tumors first. VOISINE And that same cloying Bambi tape -- over and over... POLLUX It's like they're begging us to riot. Where the fuck are we, anyway? (the game ends) Gotta go... Pollux trots over to Archer -- passes him his cigarette. He studies Archer as he takes a drag -- and nearly gags. POLLUX ... I'm worried about you. ARCHER Why? POLLUX Your jumpshot has no arc. You used to swagger... now you swish. You're gumming that butt like a Catholic school girl. (notices) And why do you keep picking at your finger? Pollux has caught Archer reflexively tugging at his phantom wedding ring. Archer immediately stops. He takes a drag and holds it -- then exhales right in Pollux's face. ARCHER I was in a coma... Pollux sticks his finger under Archer's eye and pulls down like a vet examining a sick dog. Archer pushes him off. ARCHER My reflexes, my senses, my memory... everything's jumbled. I can't even tell you why Dubov jumped me yesterday. POLLUX You Pollinated his wife the day he was arrested. How could forget that? ARCHER I've forgotten plenty. Look around -- we've screwed over half the freaks in here. What's gonna happen to us if they think I've lost it? Pollux contemplates the other inmates -- circling, sizing up the brothers like hungry sharks. Instinctively, Pollux moves closer to Archer for protection. ARCHER I need you to play big brother for once -- till I can fill in a few blanks. Think you can handle that? Pollux nods grimly -- then Archer pulls up his sleeve, exposing the pyramid tattoo. ARCHER I know I got this on my tenth birthday. I just can't remember why. POLLUX Man -- that was the worst day of our lives! Archer feigns a "struggle" with his memory. He lights a new butt with the old -- chain-style... then "remembers." ARCHER Oh, God -- Mom O-D'd at County General. POLLUX Retching and convulsing while those bastards didn't even try to save her sorry ass. You gave her mouth to mouth -- man -- even then you had some constitution. (a beat) Remember what you swore to me at the funeral? ARCHER Uh -- to kill the doctors? POLLUX After that. You promised you'd always take care of me. ARCHER And I bet I kept that promise... POLLUX Only one you've never broken. Pollux curls into Archer -- in need of comfort. Archer puts an affectionate arm around Pollux -- springing the trap. ARCHER Screw the past. We've got the future to look forward to. (a beat) We still have tomorrow. POLLUX No shit... five million bucks... now those Red Militia crackpots get to keep it. ARCHER That's not the worst part. POLLUX What's worse than losing five million bucks? ARCHER Being stuck in this rat-hole when it blows. What you built was a work of art. It belongs in the Smithsonian. Pollux beams with pride -- Archer hangs on every word. POLLUX Yeah -- well... the L.A. Convention Center will have to do... ARCHER Thanks, Pollux. POLLUX 'Thanks'? I guess they really did fuck you up. Then Archer smiles -- like Jon Archer. Without knowing exactly why -- a wave of ill-ease overtakes Pollux. INT. ARCHER'S CELL - DAY Archer paces impatiently... as the door rolls open. Walton is looking at him with cool respect. WALTON You have a visitor. Archer smiles to himself -- pleased at Brodie's timeliness. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY Archer's boots lock down -- as the guillotine door rises. But his confidence evaporates into unspeakable horror. Because he finds himself staring into the blue eyes of -- Jon Archer. This man has Archer's face -- his real face. IMPOSTOR What's the matter? Don't you like the new me? Archer studies the image of his former self -- trying to understand. Then he recognizes the smirk on the face, the mocking twinkle in the eyes and he says what he cannot say... ARCHER -- Castor...? CASTOR Not anymore. ARCHER It can't be. It's impossible. CASTOR I believe the phrase Dr. Hoag used was 'titanically remote'. Who knows? Maybe the trauma of having my face cut off pulled me out. Or maybe God really is on my side after all. (starts pacing) By the way, I know you don't get the papers in here. Continuing to circle, he displays the current LA Times: "INFERNO AT HOAG INSTITUTE -- Malcolm Hoag Dead" CASTOR Terrible tragedy. Hoag was such a genius -- but selfish with his artistry. I actually had to torture his assistants to convince him to perform the same surgery on me. ARCHER You killed them? CASTOR Of course I killed them, you dumb fuck. Hoag, his staff... FLASH ON Hoag's body -- on the floor of the burning lab. Two more burned bodies adjoin Hoag's. CASTOR Miller and Brodie -- FLASH ON Brodie and Miller -- dead in a mangled car wreck. CASTOR I even paid a visit to your buddy Tito. ARCHER He doesn't know anything about this! CASTOR Come on, Jon. I think I know you better than that. I only wish you could have been there to see the look on his face -- FLASH ON Tito... he smiles, then recoils in shock as Castor lifts a pistol and shoots him... then he picks up Archer's wedding band off the counter... INT. EREWHON PRISON (PRESENT) Archer stares -- thunderstruck -- at the wedding band now on Castor's finger. CASTOR -- then again, I guess you were there. (a beat) I torched every shred of evidence that proves who you are. So swallow this -- you are going to be in here for the rest of your life. ARCHER Castor, don't do this -- CASTOR No discussion, Jon -- no deals. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an important government job to abuse, and a beautiful wife to fuck. Excuse me -- I mean 'make love to.' Archer freaks out. He screams, flails -- unable to reach Castor. Castor opens the door and guards rush in -- clubbing Archer and shocking him senseless. WALTON Sorry, sir. CASTOR It's quite all right. You never know what to expect from a psychopathic criminal... INT. CELL BLOCK - DAY The guards dump Archer into his cell. WALTON Better be nice, Castor. You could get mighty lonely now that Pollux is gone. ARCHER Pollux is -- what? WALTON Archer cut him a deal for turning state's evidence. He's been released... ARCHER Walton, you have to listen to me -- right now! WALTON Or what? You'll have me fired? (pushes a button) You're confined until I say otherwise... The steel panels shut - silencing Archer's pleading voice. INT. ARCHER'S CAR - MOVING - DAY Sipping a beer, Castor cruises past the suburban bliss: men on hammocks; women chatting; kids playing tag. CASTOR (sickened) Jesus, what a life. Castor tries to catch a street address and rolls past... ARCHER'S HOUSE Dressed for work, Eve watches blandly as the car goes by. A moment later, it backs up and parks. Hiding the beer can, Castor forces a sheepish smile -- and gets out. She doesn't smile back. EVE I suppose it was only a matter of time before you forgot where we lived. CASTOR Sorry -- the job's been murder lately. Castor looks her over -- she's much sexier than he expected. EVE So what happened to your 'important' assignment? CASTOR What do you know about it? EVE I know exactly what you always tell me: Absolutely nothing. CASTOR It didn't work out the way everyone thought it would. Where are you off to? EVE I've got surgery. CASTOR Surgery -- are you okay? Then he spots her medical bag. Oops. EVE Don't try to charm me -- I'm still angry. There're leftovers in the fridge. CASTOR Have fun at work. Castor kisses her good-bye -- on the mouth. EVE What is with you? CASTOR Don't I usually kiss my wife? EVE No. Castor reacts as she gets in the car and pulls out. INT. ARCHER'S HOUSE - DAY Castor steps inside, looks around. CASTOR What a dump. INT. STUDY - DAY Castor sifts through Christmas cards from holidays past, studying the ones with photos. He's memorizing -- matching names to faces -- Wanda's, Buzz's, Lazarro's, etc. Something else catches his eye. He finds a floral notebook -- Eve's diary -- and pages through it. Then, he reads: CASTOR '... "Date-night" has been a typical failure... we haven't made love in almost two months...' What a loser ... Castor hears a voice. Glancing across the hall, he sees... GLIMPSES OF JAMIE As she walks back and forth in her room, talking on the phone -- and wearing only panties and a cropped T-shirt. Castor steps closer -- enjoying the view. CASTOR The plot thickens. INT. JAMIE'S ROOM - DAY Jamie stamps out her cigarette. JAMIE -- I got your E-mail, Karl. That poem was really sweet -- (spots Castor at door) Hang on a sec... She slams it -- but he gets his foot inside. JAMIE I'll call you back. (to Castor) You're not respecting my boundaries. CASTOR I'm coming in, Janie. Castor pushes menacingly into the room. JAMIE 'Janie'? Castor spots her correct name embroidered on a pillow. He gazes seductively -- unnerving Jamie as he steps toward her. CASTOR I don't think you heard me... Jamie... You have something I want ... He reaches for her -- and right past her. He picks up a pack of cigarettes from the desk. JAMIE Clarissa left those here. CASTOR (shrugs and lights up) I won't tell mom if you don't. JAMIE When did you start smoking? CASTOR You'll be seeing a lot of changes around here -- (blows a perfect smoke ring) Daddy's a new man. Jamie stares, astonished, as Castor goes out. INT. EREWHON PRISON - ARCHER'S CELL Fists bloody, voice hoarse, Archer pounds at the cell door. Exhausted, he finally stops -- staring at the face of his enemy in the mirrored door -- the enemy who now has total command of his life. INT. FBI - LOBBY CHECKPOINT - DAY Castor dons his stern "Archer" face as the gate guard checks his thumbprint ID. He's cleared and waved in. INT. FBI INTERROGATION BOOTH - DAY Buzz and Wanda watch Pollux through the two-way mirror. He's gorging himself on a big lunch. Castor arrives. BUZZ Listen, sir... we just want you to know... WANDA We're all really sorry about Tito... CASTOR Yeah, well, shit happens. Buzz and Wanda exchange a glance. To them, "Archer" is just avoiding his feelings again. CASTOR How's our star witness? BUZZ He hasn't told us a damn thing except what kind of mustard he likes on his tongue sandwiches. WANDA If that bomb is out there -- we're almost out of time. LAZARRO (O.S.) Archer! Lazarro stomps toward them... furious. Buzz and Wanda quickly excuse themselves. LAZARRO You made a deal with Pollux Troy? He's 'a manipulative psychopath.' Your own words, Jon! CASTOR Just let me do my job, Victor. LAZARRO The job I've been protecting for the last eight years. From now on, you go strictly by the book. Everything gets cleared by me. Understand? Lazarro stomps off. Castor watches him go, wheels turning. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY Castor enters -- shutting down the mikes... and the blinds. CASTOR You're supposed to be snitching -- making me look good. POLLUX 'Look good'? (drops food in disgust) Seeing that face -- I want to vomit. CASTOR I'm the one who has to look at this butt-ugly mug every time I pass a mirror. Look at my eyes, my chin, my perfect nose -- gone! (considers his reflection) Archer took my life, so I'm taking his. Bro, I'm going straight. POLLUX Sounds like they took your brain, too? CASTOR Imagine Dillinger as J. Edgar Hoover. Carlos the Jackal running Interpol. Kaddafi heading the Mossad. Think of the secrets we could sell... Pollux listens carefully -- mind clicking like an abacus. POLLUX The drug agents we could expose. The movie stars we could blackmail! CASTOR That's just the bottom of the food chain. Pollux -- what would happen if somebody planted a bomb on Air Force One? POLLUX ... that somebody would get rich. And, I suppose, the nation would be pretty pissed-off. CASTOR Pissed-off, vulnerable... looking for someone to step in, take charge, give them hope again. What if that someone was an F.B.I. hero? A true Boy Scout and family man -- with a spotless past. Imagine where that guy could land -- if the timing's right. POLLUX It's an audacious dream, Caz. But Jon Archer is hardly a household name. CASTOR Not yet he isn't. But after you 'confess' -- you'll be a free man. And I'll be on my way... EXT. CONVENTION CENTER - DAY Police VEHICLES ROAR into position. Squads of police evacuate throngs of people. INT. CONVENTION CENTER - SUB-BASEMENT - EXTREME CLOSEUP - BOMB TIMER - DAY TICKS down to less than two minutes. Working as a unit, the BOMB SQUAD carefully remove the bomb's casing. Inside, the complex guts glow evilly. The men are tense, cautious -- and way out of their league. BOMB LEADER Jesus... Any suggestions? TECHNICIAN Yeah... run Castor pushes up his blast visor. He looks grim. BOMB LEADER It's protected by a vibration detector... One touch and... CASTOR Evacuate your team, Captain. BOMB LEADER Sir, you can't disarm it -- CASTOR Just go! The bomb squad hustles out. Waiting until he's alone, Castor pulls a radio device from his pocket and hits its switch. The bomb's glow dies instantly. EXTREME CLOSEUP - TIMER stops at 26 seconds. BACK TO SCENE Not satisfied, Castor starts it up again -- running the timer down to four seconds. That's better. INT. EREWHON PRISON - "POPULATION" - DAY The inmates eat lunch. Walton enters -- prodding a beaten Jon Archer ahead of him. WALTON A special privilege today: TV -- by order of Agent Jon Archer of the F.B.I... Jeers from the inmates as the big screen changes from the nature loop to... CNN. ON SCREEN - CONVENTION CENTER "Sweating," Castor lumbers out, carrying the disarmed bomb. ANCHORMAN (V.O.) That was the scene at the L.A. Convention Center, where an F.B.I. agent is being hailed as a hero. Agent Jon Archer disarmed a powerful bomb just seconds before it was set to explode. Let's get the latest from Valerie Rice... EXT. CONVENTION CENTER - DAY Castor basks in the attention of the gathered media. REPORTER RICE The apparent target was a group of Supreme Court justices -- due to speak here today. (thrusting microphone) Mr. Archer, do you have any idea who planted it? CASTOR That's classified. But if he's listening I have a message for him: (directly into camera) Nice try. Now you know who's really in charge. INT. EREWHON PRISON - POPULATION Watching the TV, Archer's enraged, frustrated. Then his eyes focus... he watches closely as -- A guard uses his "thumbprint ID" to get through the security door. Archer's eyes fall on the thumbprint scan pad. INT. FBI - BULLPEN - DAY Castor gets a "thumbs up" from some co-workers, others smile -- but they know better than to applaud. CASTOR Don't you guys watch TV? Where's the parade? They look at each other -- afraid. But proud rookie Loomis starts clapping, so everyone else joins in rousing applause. CASTOR -- Loomis, Buzz, uh -- Wanda... all of you, thanks from the bottom of my heart. Thanks for enduring all those years I was an insufferable boor. From now on -- consider me reborn. WANDA Stop the presses -- Jon Archer found a personality... Wild applause... interrupted by an excited Kim. KIM Sir... the White House is calling. Castor acts startled... as if at a loss. Then he struts toward his office -- pausing only to give Kim a playful swat on the rump. She's stunned. INT. ARCHER'S OFFICE - DAY Castor surveys his new domain. He settles into Archer's big leather chair... sees a framed photo of Archer and family. He apes Archer's dumb posed smile... CASTOR Jon, your career is finally taking of. (picks up phone) Archer. Sure I'll hold... Waiting, he picks up a handbook: You and the FBI: A Primer for New Employees. Then... CASTOR Mr. President, what an honor... Castor pumps a "whacking off" gesture with his hand. EXT. ARCHER'S HOME - DAY Castor, carrying grocery bags, comes into the back yard where Jamie practices free throws. He watches her miss. CASTOR How about a game of horse? JAMIE Don't make me beat your butt again, Dad. It's harmful to my developing psyche. CASTOR Afraid you'll lose? Castor crisply sinks a free-throw. Jamie glares, takes the ball -- and tosses an air-ball. CASTOR 'H.' Jamie sneers at him. He buries another one. CASTOR Try putting a higher arc on the ball... and square your shoulders to the basket. Begrudgingly, she listens -- and sinks a clean shot. Pleased, she nods. HONK! A BMW pulls into the driveway. JAMIE Gotta go. Karl's here. Jamie trots over to greet KARL (17) -- a clean-cut preppie. Opening the car door dor her, Karl waves, smiling at Castor. Castor studies Karl carefully, not liking what he sees. INT. ARCHER'S HOME - NIGHT A tired Eve opens the door. It's pitch black inside. As she fumbles for the light switch... MATCH flares as Castor lights a candle. The dining room table is set for a candlelight dinner. He smiles warmly at her confusion. CASTOR Don't tell me you forgot. Eve -- it's date night! DINING ROOM - LATER Eve looks up from her pasta. After an awkward silence. EVE Why do I feel like I'm on a blind date? CASTOR It's important to keep some mystery... so things stay... unpredictable. Eve studies him as he pours her more wine. Her smile slowly fades as she realizes what's going on. EVE 'Unpredictable'? You're about as unpredictable as the tide. (detached) How long are you going to be gone this time? CASTOR Gone? EVE Isn't that what all this is about? The wine, cooking me dinner -- your next assignment? CASTOR I'm not going anywhere. EVE You always say that -- then you leave. CASTOR I bet I deserved that. I bet Jon Archer is the most inattentive, sexless spouse on Earth. EVE Jon, that's not true -- CASTOR Of course it's true, but I'm trying to change? I'm here because I want to be alone with you. I want to see the candle- light dance in your beautiful -- Uh-oh. Castor can't tell the color of Eve's eyes. He leans in "romantically" -- but we know the real reason. CASTOR -- brown eyes. He smells her hair, then her shoulders, her skin. She's aroused, but wary. So Castor goes in for the kill. CASTOR I wanted it all to be just right... when I told you about my promotion. EVE Your what? CASTOR Well, I don't have it yet. But Lazarro's getting old -- he won't be around forever. And I'm getting the itch to move up. EVE Jon... that's wonderful. CASTOR So you see, I'm not going anywhere. Unless it's upstairs with you... INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Castor carries Eve into the shower and spins on the water. He rips her blouse open -- on her like a vulture to carrion. As they drop to the floor of the stall -- water filling up around them -- Castor licks her ear and whispers... CASTOR baby, it's like I'm having you for the first time. Dirty water runs down a floor drain... PULL BACK to: INT. EREWHON PRISON - POPULATION - NIGHT Desolate, Archer mops down the rec area. ARCHER Don't they ever let us take off these boots? VOISINE Not unless you're sent to the 'Clinic.' ARCHER You mean if I get sick? VOISINE They don't give two fucks about your health. The Clinic's where they send the real hard-cases for attitude adjustment. Dubov just got sent down -- and look at Wainwright -- Voisine gestures to a dazed inmate nearby -- WAINWRIGHT -- who sits in a corner -- gnawing at his knuckles. VOISINE Toughest bastard I ever saw -- after you, of course. Now he's a fucking drool case. ARCHER What did he do? VOISINE He hit a guard. Archer sees Walton hovering nearby. Archer heads for him. WALTON Looking for trouble, Castor? ARCHER As a matter of fact -- yes. Crack! Archer decks Walton. INT. PRISON - POPULATION - NIGHT Walton and a guard herd Archer toward a steel door. INT. "CLINIC" - NIGHT Archer is dumped on the floor. He sees he's lying in a puddle of something. He looks up -- and recoils. ARCHER'S POV - DUBOV is strapped to a vertical gurney -- post-procedure. His limbs are stiff, his eyes blank as a mako shark's. But his feet are bare -- bootless. MED-TECH Where's the mop, he puked all over the place. An assistant unstraps Dubov and drops him on a gurney. MED-TECH (mopping up) -- next time, bring them in before dinner... Archer cases the place: Above is a catwalk... leading out. BACK TO SCENE Walton muscles Archer into the gurney. The Med-Tech smirks. MED-TECH Oh happy day -- Castor Troy. The Med-Tech wheels the ECT head-gear cart into place: twin needle-like BOLTS ready to fit into ARCHER'S ears. A single blue static spark jumps from the bolts. Walton roughly wedges Archer's head into the head gear, shoving the chewed-up bite strap into Archer's mouth. WALTON Bite hard, scumbag, 'cause you'll be gumming baby food from here on out. MED-TECH Get his boots, Sergeant. Walton unlocks Archer's first boot and pulls it off. As the Med-Tech starts to fasten Archer's arm -- Walton unlocks and pulls off the second boot. Archer's feet are free. Crack! He yanks his foot up hard -- Walton reels back, stunned. One arm still restrained, Archer backrolls in the gurney and kicks the head-gear cart away -- knocking it into the Med-Tech who collapses onto it, hitting "Test" -- ZAP! The HEAD-BOLTS FIRE, catching the Med-Tech through the shoulder -- he drops to the floor, his synapses shot. Seeing that Archer is still restrained by the arm -- the assistant darts out of the room. As Archer pulls free -- Walton looms over him -- gun poised. Then -- wham! Dubov wallops Walton -- using his boots as brass knuckles. The head guard collapses. Dubov smiles dumbly at Archer -- all trace of vendetta now obliterated. Archer nods gratefully -- they're on the same team... at least for now. Suddenly the ALARM BLARES. Archer sees guards charging the room. He tries closing the door -- but the guards arrive. Dubov lumbers over and puts his massive weight into it -- and slams the door shut. O.S., guards POUND at the now-locked door. Archer quickly frisks Walton -- coming up with a cigarette lighter. he pockets it. Scanning around -- Archer leaps onto a mounted, hinged lamp. it swings against the wall. Archer uses it to reach the catwalk above. ARCHER Dubov -- come on! Dubov obeys and follows Archer up onto the catwalk. A groggy Walton muscles open the door from inside. Guards pour in. Walton grabs an AUTO-RIFLE and opens FIRE. SLUGS chase Archer and Dubov as they flee through the catwalk door. INT. CENTRAL SECURITY CONTROL Two guards watch Archer and Dubov disappear off the clinic's monitor. They grab their shock-sticks and rush for the door. The door opens -- revealing Dubov and Archer. Perfectly in synch -- they double cold-cock the startled guards. Archer grabs a shock-stick -- and fuses the door shut. He yanks out wires and shatters the computers. Dubov mimics the behavior -- ripping out an entire console -- and revealing a narrow cable duct. Flames explode -- shorting the circuitry -- the DRONING HUM RISES -- the magnetic power monitor shows a dangerous surge. AROUND PRISON Chaos. Guards scatter as the huge diamond-vision SCREEN EXPLODES and inmates are flung like rag-dolls by their short-circuiting boots. Anything metallic flies into the magnetic domes. SECURITY CENTRAL As the men back through the cable duct -- Archer struggles to replace the heavy console. The DOOR is BLOWN open. Walton enters to find... no one. Then his eyes light on the console -- slightly askew. INT. CABLE CORRIDOR Archer and Dubov rush down the tight corridor -- and around the bend. The corridor ends in a... STORAGE/MAINTENANCE AREA Lined with tools, toilets, sinks, a rack of old lock-down boots. They race through the far door... INT. CENTRAL TOWER ROOM Archer and Dubov find themselves in a multi-level labyrinth. A hundred feet high -- criss-crossed with catwalks, staircases and high walls. ECHOES resound -- SHOUTING, FOOTSTEPS GETTING CLOSER -- they seem to be coming from all around them. Over the magnetic HUM -- Archer notices loose screws and other metal debris stuck to the sheer wall. He pulls one screw away -- and lets it fly back into the polarized wall. Archer gets an idea -- and looks back the way they came. SMASH CUT: SHEER WALL Archer and Dubov scale the face -- using the old metal boots. They climb higher and higher as... Guards criss-cross the catwalks and staircases below and around them -- oblivious. Archer and Dubov almost reach the next level when... WALTON There! BULLETS SMACK the wall around them -- just as Archer and Dubov reach the next catwalk. Archer spots the emergency exit security door at the far end. But four guards descend on them -- and block their way. Fist fight as Archer and Dubov take on the attacking guards. Archer heaves one down the stairs -- into more guards. Dubov drops another over the catwalk. They continue their desperate race for the door -- reaching the landing. As BULLETS PING around them -- hulking Dubov rips away a floor panel. He uses it as a shield as Archer sparks up Walton's lighter. As SLUGS EXPLODE into the shield -- Archer places the flame to his thumb... and peels off the skin mold. He presses his thumb to the door's keypad. To his horror, its LED reads "print unreadable." Walton and guards movie in, FIRING at closer and closer range. Dubov staggers under the FUSILLADE OF BULLETS. The shield is repeatedly punctured -- and is quickly disintegrating. Archer licks his thumb, tries again. Finally it reads "Clearance Confirmed"... the door slides open. ARCHER Let's go! Dubov heaves the shield at the encroaching guards -- but as he turns to follow... Walton BLOWS him away. Archer reaches to pull Dubov through, but the riddled inmate ignores the helping hand. Pulling the door shut, he collapses in front of it -- blocking it momentarily. INT. HIGH CATWALK TOWER Archer hesitates for a moment... but that's all he has. he keeps going... up the winding staircase-catwalk -- higher and higher -- a step ahead of the onrushing guards. As BULLETS CLANG around him -- Archer reaches the top. He ignores a sign which reads... EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY SAFETY LINES REQUIRED He charges straight up a ladder and plows right through -- SMASH CUT: EXT. PRISON - DAWN Archer's blinded -- it's daytime in the real world. A sea gull flies across his face -- as we FOLLOW the bird... PULL WAY, WAY BACK to reveal: The prison's in the middle of the goddamn ocean, in what appears to be just an abandoned, rusty oil rig platform. Archer rushes over to a transport chopper. INSIDE COCKPIT Archer searches for the keys. No go. He throws switches. Nothing works. Guards pour out of the hatch -- FIRING. Archer leaps from the chopper and jumps over the side to the platform's -- LOWER LEVEL He lands hard on the slanted, corrugated shed roof and rolls to the ground. He grabs a high-pressure hose -- and cranks the pressure valve -- as the pursuing guards close in. Archer BLASTS the guards with the WATER CANNON -- knocking Walton and others into the sea. Archer upends a stack of oil barrels -- which roll into more guards. Archer spots: TUGBOAT pulling a Zodiac dinghy -- heading out to sea. Archer jumps up a stack of pipes to the south rail -- where the end of a crane's hook is tagged back. Under FIRE -- Archer frees the hook, which swings away from the platform. Hanging on to the hook, it swings him out over the ocean. At the apex -- le lets go and plummets down into... CHOPPY SEA He pulls himself into the ZODIAC and frees it from the tug. It ROARS off. EXT. ZODIAC - MOVING - DAY The nylon craft zips through the waves -- approaching San Pedro Harbor. The ENGINE SPUTTERS... low on gas. ARCHER Come on... come on... Archer senses something... He looks up and... Whoosh! Something swoops down -- but it's just a pelican. He FIDDLES with the ENGINE -- which finally DIES. Archer grabs the oars -- about to start rowing when -- Another swoop! This time it's the prison chopper. Archer spots a string of buoys dotting the harbor. An idea. WIDE SHOT The chopper settles over the Zodiac. Wind and water swirl around Archer... CHOPPER Walton, drenched but obviously rescued, has archer in his sights... He starts to FIRE his MACHINE GUNS... ZODIAC BULLETS RAIN down on the boat -- destroying it -- as Archer dives into the rolling swells... INSIDE CHOPPER Walton RAKES the debris -- shredding it. The chopper does a final circle of the wreckage... then moves off... its ROTOR WASH THRASHING the buoy. UNDER BUOY Archer has crawled up into the hollow buoy -- sucking air. INT. ARCHER HOME - BEDROOM - DAY Eve's asleep. Castor, dressed, looks down at her like Cortez at Montezuma -- triumphant, with overwhelming power. EXT. DRIVEWAY - DAY Heading for the car, Castor is about to light up when -- EVE Last night, I thought -- this isn't my husband. He pockets the smoke. Eve is there, dressed somberly. EVE Then I woke up in the middle of the night -- and found you passed out in the study. CASTOR I couldn't sleep -- you roll around a lot. (jingles car keys) Anyway, I'm late. EVE Jon, you know what day it is. I know it's difficult for you, but we still have to go. CASTOR Can't we skip it just this once? I gotta 'protect and serve', you know. EVE 'Protect and serve' later. You're going. CASTOR Okay, if you insist. But -- you drive. He climbs into the front seat beside her. INT./EXT. CAR - MOVING - DAY A pastoral, hilly area near the coast. CASTOR So who's this Karl creep Jamie's been seeing? He's a little old for her, isn't he? EVE I don't know... they're about the same ages we were when we met. (smiles) Remember the all-night dentist? CASTOR Sure, how could I forget. (changes subject) By the way, you never said anything about last night... He moves closer, stroking her hair as his BEEPER sounds. EVE Aren't you going to get that? He turns his beeper off, then touches her lips with his finger. Without knowing exactly why, Eve tenses up. EVE Jon -- this is hardly the time or place. Castor looks around in surprise because he sees she's driving into -- SPRAWLING MEMORIAL PARK They drive through the gates -- passing a church marked "ST. MARY'S-BY-THE-SEA." Nearby, the OCEAN ROARS. EXT. ST. MARY'S CEMETERY - DAY It's beautiful here, striking and sad. Now on foot, Castor follows Eve up a bluff, through a phalanx of graves -- with no idea where she's leading him. Finally she stops at a crucifix-topped headstone. Castor joins her and reads the etched marble stone: Matthew Archer, Age 5 Beloved Son & Brother We Cherish You Always Stunned, Castor watches as Eve kneels beside the marker. EVE Happy birthday, Matty. She places a few child's toys on the marker... a shark... a little bulldozer... a spaceship. Overwhelmed with grief, she collapses into Castor. EVE He took our baby, Jon. He took our little boy. FULL SCREEN - CASTOR'S FACE He stares at the grave of the boy he killed -- the boy whose mother is weeping into his chest. The ever-present smirk is long gone as Castor stiffly returns Eve's embrace -- maybe, just maybe, feeling the victim's pain. CASTOR Stop crying... stop crying... stop ... INT. FBI BULLPEN - DAY Shaking off his funk, Castor arrives at the office. WANDA You picked a helluva day to leave your beeper off! CASTOR What happened? WANDA Castor's dead! CASTOR He's -- what? BUZZ Somehow he escaped from Erewhon. But a prison chopper mowed him down just off Long Beach Harbor... CASTOR Where's the body? WANDA It hasn't been recovered yet. CASTOR 'It hasn't been recovered yet!' You people have no idea who you're dealing with! (beat) I want everyone on this, reports on the half hour, and all leads get routed through my office. Buzz, alert the L.A.P.D. BUZZ L.A.P.D.? Even if he is alive, Castor isn't stupid enough to come back to the city. CASTOR He's alive -- and he's already here. Move! EXT. PIER - NIGHT Something bobs up in the surf. Archer is thrashed ashore by the breakers... he crawls gasping onto the sand. He takes a few breaths -- then staggers up onto the beach. EXT. TITO'S STREET - NIGHT Archer's heart sinks as he sees the yellow police cordon taped across Tito's front door. Some teenage cholos notice him -- so Archer keeps right on going. INT. TITO'S DUPLEX - NIGHT A rear window is forced open -- Archer pulls himself in. In the dim light, he sees the bullet hole on the wall... then the blood stains within the forensics chalk marks. He buckles and has to sit down. Taking a deep breath, he picks up the phone and dials. ARCHER Dr. Archer please. It's an emergency. (listens) -- Her husband. Archer waits. He pinches his throat -- trying to dislodge the vocal implant. His voice scrambles into garbled static. ARCHER Hello, Eve -- I know this sounds crazy, but -- (reverting back) Dammit. INT. HOSPITAL - ER - NIGHT EVE deftly stitches up a gash above little IRIS's (8) eye. EVE How did this happen, sweetie? IRIS'S DAD She fell off her Big-Wheel. Something about his too-quick response rankles Eve. She eyes the yuppy Dad with suspicion -- then notes some bruises on the child's arm. A NURSE enters. NURSE Dr. Archer -- your husband's on three. EVE Get Child Services down here -- and don't let her father leave. (goes to wall-phone) Jon? Hello? INTERCUT Archer and Eve as necessary. ARCHER Eve, listen carefully. The man you think is your husband -- isn't. EVE Who is this? ARCHER Please, just listen! Take Jamie and go to your mother's in Santa Fe. Don't tell him where you're going -- just go. EVE Whoever you are -- don't call again... CLICK. Archer sags in futility. A SIREN snaps him back to reality. Archer goes to the window and carefully peers out. A squad CAR ROARS INTO VIEW -- then continues on its way. ARCHER I need to speak to Director Lazarro immediately... I have information about Castor Troy. Waiting... Archer rifles the room... finding car keys... a baggy jacket... Then... INTERCUT WITH: INT. FBI OFFICE CASTOR This is Jon Archer. Who's calling? Archer pauses... hearing his own voice speaking to him. ARCHER Well, if you're Jon Archer... I guess this must be Castor Troy... CASTOR I've gotta hand it to you, Jon. You're doing a damn respectable job of being me. But let's face it, we both liked it better the way it was. So before the cops blow your brains out -- why not tell me where you are... ARCHER If you were really me, you'd know -- no discussion, no deals. Archer hangs up == leaving Castor stewing. EXT. GARAGE - NIGHT The automatic door lifts -- revealing Tito's old Buick. The big V-8 RUMBLES as Archer pulls out. He doesn't get far as... menacing CHOLOS block his way. CHOLO # 1 Where are you going? CHOLO #2 Ten bucks he's the guy who popped Tito! The Cholos surround the Buick. Archer's cornered like an animal as the angry teens pound on the windows. Archer HITS the GAS -- scattering all except Cholo #1 who jumps on the hood. Archer SLAMS the BRAKES -- sending the guy flying. He lands hard, but is only shaken up. As Archer roars off, Cholo #1 pulls out his cell phone. CHOLO #1 9-1-1? I want to report a stolen car and don't put me on hold! INT./EXT. BUICK - MOVING - NIGHT Archer drives on -- listening to KFWB. RADIO REPORTER (V.O.) ... the escapee is considered extremely dangerous. If you have any information concerning the whereabouts of Castor Troy... He SHUTS it OFF as he sees in the distance: HIS OWN HOME FBI and LAPD vehicles are parked in front. No way he's getting near there. In his rearview mirror Archer spots a cop car approaching. He quickly turns a corner as the cop slowly cruises by. ARCHER No, Jon... you have to think like Castor. Where would he go...? Archer gets an idea. But as he drives on -- the cop car backs up -- and reappears INTO FRAME. EXT. MELROSE DISTRICT - NIGHT Dietrich locks up his chic art gallery. He gets in his Lexus and drives out of the parking lot. INT./EXT. STREET - LEXUS - MOVING - NIGHT Dietrich slows down to check out the forensics team swarming all over Tito's parked Buick. Dietrich quickly averts his face as he spots... "Jon Archer" inspecting Tito's Buick. DIETRICH Jon Archer... some poor schmuck's in big trouble. ARCHER Yeah -- me. With surprising speed, Dietrich yanks a pistol from someplace and jerks around -- Archer -- hunkered down in the back seat -- stares into the barrel of Dietrich's pistol. DIETRICH Jesus Christ, Castor. ARCHER Drive. And punch up your cellular -- I need you to make some calls. DIETRICH You're gonna get me busted! ARCHER You're already busted, Dietrich. It's just a matter of time before they pick you up. Dietrich snakes the car past the crime scene and speeds off. DIETRICH Man, when you came to me about that bomb -- I knew I should have blown you off... but that's my fucking curse -- I just can't say no to a friend. ARCHER You can't say no to money. DIETRICH That's my other curse. EXT. DOWNTOWN - LOFT - NIGHT (LATER) Cars pull up in front of a gentrified loft amid the low- rent streets. Emerging from them are several thugs -- including Aldo, Fitch and their sexy girl friends, LIVIA and Cindee. INT. DIETRICH'S LOFT - BATHROOM - NIGHT Archer splashes water on his face -- then stops and listens as the DOORBELL RINGS. He screws up his courage. ARCHER You're Castor Troy... This is your old crew -- you don't take shit and you don't take no for an answer... INT. DIETRICH'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION The thugs admire the loft -- dominated by an enormous, in-progress mural and stunning glass-bricked floor. ALDO Helluva place, Dietrich. So what's the big surprise? Archer emerges. The men are stunned -- the women beam. FITCH Are you crazy? You're going to bring the Feds down on all of us! ARCHER Archer doesn't want you, he wants me! But I'm going to get him first -- with your help. ALDO Archer's a damn celebrity now -- he's untouchable -- and you're radioactive. He turns to leave. Archer wheels him around and smashes him into the wall. Aldo goes for his gun, but Archer's too quick -- he strips him of it. The four bodyguards draw their weapons -- and surround Archer. ARCHER You wanna face-off with Castor Troy? Come on, then! Come on! 'Cause I've had a real bad day... Four against one -- and everyone's sweating but Archer. One-by-one, the bodyguards back off. Archer points the gun at Aldo -- then smiles and hands it back. ARCHER You're all forgetting who the real enemy is. (to Aldo) Six months ago, Jon Archer hauled you in for questioning. He rattled you so bad -- you shit your Armani suit right there in the interrogation room. Aldo blanches -- how did Castor know that? Fitch laughs. ARCHER You laugh, Fitch -- the way Archer laughed at your last arraignment, when you got down on your knees and tried to blow your way to freedom. Stunned, Fitch cringes as everybody cracks up. DIETRICH We all have a reason to hate Jon Archer. We all want to see him dead -- ARCHER And nobody's untouchable if we say he's not. The thugs exchange a glance... reading each other... considering. DIETRICH It's all worked out. Caz has Archer's routine down cold. ARCHER We start with your basic kidnapping. Then -- a little surgery. FITCH Surgery? ARCHER I'm going to rearrange his face in a way you won't believe. ALDO You're an evil bitch, Caz. But you've got balls of titanium. Count us in. Archer sighs with relief -- pleased with his performance. DIETRICH Come on -- let's drink to it! FULL SCREEN - BLUE CAPSULE Dietrich cracks it open -- powder sifts into a big high- ball glass filled with mescal. he hands it to Archer. DIETRICH How about one of your famous toasts, Caz? They all look expectantly at Archer... he's at a loss. ARCHER To old jobs, new jobs and -- uh -- blow jobs? Silence -- then they crack up. Reluctantly, Archer swallows the tumbler of mescal... he fights back the urge to puke. LIVIA Enough business, Caz. Let's dance. ARCHER Sorry... I don't... She drags him onto the glass floor. Cindee puts on some MUSIC as Archer's head begins to spin. The girls start "dancing," grinding Archer between their taut bodies. He tries to avoid it, but Livia kisses him -- hot, moist. LIVIA Remember the Charger's game, Caz? The owners box? We did it four times. ARCHER Sure I remember... Once a quarter, right? Archer's eyes fall on the series of abstract paintings. The twisted renderings make his head spin worse... as he starts to hallucinate... surrounded by enemies -- he struggles to regain control of his battered psyche. LIVIA Caz? Are you okay? He pulls away and stumbles down the stairs -- toward the kitchen. DIETRICH When even Castor Troy can't handle a tab of Quantrex... (raises his glass) That, dear friends, is the first sorry whiff of old age. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Archer has his mouth under the tap -- drinking greedily. Woozy, he takes a breath... and notices a reflection in the window above the sink. Archer turns to see -- Sasha. ARCHER -- Sasha Hassler. Age 35. Met Castor Troy in Austin, Texas, at Pearl Jam reunion... (catches himself) Uh, how you doing, baby? She responds by slapping him -- hard. SASHA What the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead... He wobbles, then falls flat on his face. Out cold. INT. ARCHER'S HOME - BALCONY - NIGHT Castor's chain-smoking, looking out over the city -- wondering where Archer might be hiding. But something breaks his rumination. He sees -- DOWN STREET A BMW pulls up to the curb. The THUMPING MUSIC from within GOES QUIET, but no one emerges. EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT (MOMENTS LATER) Curious, Castor approaches the car, keeping a safe distance. He can see Jamie inside, struggling with Karl. JAMIE No... Karl, please. He "shushes" Jamie -- but doesn't stop pawing her. JAMIE My father -- he's got a gun -- he'll -- he'll -- KARL (pulls open belt) That wimp won't do shit. SMASH! The passenger WINDOW EXPLODES inward. Castor drags Karl out by his hair. Jamie scrambles out and flees toward the house as... CASTOR Who are you to call Jon Archer a wimp? Castor heaves Karl into the WINDSHIELD -- SPIDER-WEBBING it. Somehow the kid finds his feet and stumbles behind the wheel. The Beemer lurches away. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT Castor enters to find Jamie, still shaken up. CASTOR What are you -- stupid? JAMIE That's just like you. Some guy tries to rape me -- and you side with him. CASTOR Did it look like I was siding with him? Did it? (she falls silent) You want to play with scummy organ grinders, you better be prepared. Do you have protection? JAMIE You mean like... condoms? CASTOR I mean like... protection. With a fluid motion, Castor expertly SNAPS open a well- oiled SWITCHBLADE and hands it to an astonished Jamie. JAMIE For me? CASTOR Next time -- slip it in low, then twist it -- so the wound doesn't close. She hugs him tight -- taking Castor by surprise. But he responds momentarily. About to pat her rump -- something makes him stop. CASTOR Go on, get out of here. Jamie kisses him and heads up stairs. After she's gone... CASTOR No wonder he spent all his time chasing me. Who can deal with this family shit? The PHONE RINGS. He rushes to the den and picks it up. CASTOR Jon Archer. (immediately alert) Where is he? EXT. LOFT - ACROSS STREET - NIGHT Using night-vision goggles, Pollux watches Sasha close her drapes. Visible in the b.g. on the sofa -- is Archer. POLLUX (into cell phone) -- I thought he might visit some old friends of yours. And bro, if I didn't know better -- I'd swear this guy likes being you... INT. SASHA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Archer wakens. Sasha is tugging off his pants. ARCHER Uh -- can't we just talk? SASHA Talk? The only talk I ever heard from you was 'take it off,' 'sit on it,' 'I'll pay you tomorrow.' She pulls out some fresh clothes -- and dumps them on him. SASHA Take off the rest of those rags and get dressed. Then get out. ARCHER Not until I finish my business with your brother. SASHA I told him to keep those creeps away -- but you're just too big an attraction. (calming herself) Look, if the F.B.I. finds out you've been here -- I'll lose my son. So please, just go. For the first time, Archer sees not a hardened felon -- but a frightened, protective mother. And he realizes the effect his own relentless obsession has had on her. ARCHER I know I've done some things that made your life harder... SASHA How would you? You walked out and never looked back. ADAM enters, heading for his toys -- his presence cooling Sasha's deep-seated anger. Archer finishes dressing. ARCHER I'm not the same person you remember. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry... Her harsh look softens imperceptively -- like that of a woman trying to hate someone she still loves. ARCHER Not a bad fit. SASHA They should. They're yours. ARCHER Nice-looking kid, too SASHA Of course he is... Sasha fidgets, struggling with a deep inner turmoil. Then... SASHA Adam, come here... I want you to meet your father. Archer's face pales over in shock. EXT. SASHA'S ROOM - NIGHT Their silhouettes are visible against the shades. PULL BACK... EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT Castor, Buzz, Wanda and Loomis peer at the silhouettes. CASTOR (into cellular) We've got him sighted. Okay, Pollux, pull out. BUZZ What makes you so sure this guy's gonna set up his own brother? CASTOR I've never been more certain of anything. Get everyone in position. Remember -- shoot to kill. Before Buzz can object, Castor's eyes say "don't argue." BUZZ You heard the man -- let's saddle up! INT. SASHA'S ROOM - NIGHT Playing with his toys, Adam does not see Archer's icy gaze. ARCHER How old is he? SASHA Five. No one knows you're his father. I thought someone might want to hurt him -- just to hurt you... ADAM Bang! Bang! Bang! Startled, they turn to see Adam pointing a toy gun at them. Upset, she takes it from his hands. SASHA You know Mommy doesn't like you playing with these things... She kicks the toy aside and lifts Adam -- offering him to Archer. Awkwardly, Archer takes the boy. Archer's emotions avalanche as his grip tightens -- his big hands dwarfing the little boy's body. SASHA You're not holding him right... Caz... Archer isn't hearing Sasha. He's lost in his own memory... the sound of a CAROUSEL... a KID'S LAUGHTER... a GUNSHOT... Then Adam smiles -- perhaps the way Matthew once smiled. It pulls something up from inside Archer -- something strong. He regains control, dumping the child into Sasha's arms. ARCHER He's not my son. SASHA Yes, he is -- ! Then something alerts Archer -- maybe the fleeting shadows that blot out the window-light for the barest second. ARCHER Get down! K-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The WINDOW PANES SHATTER -- as TEARGAS GRENADES and GUNFIRE riddles the loft. OUTSIDE across the way, Castor directs the FIREPOWER. INT. UPPER LEVEL Chaos. A bodyguard is mowed down. Dietrich and the others scatter and hit the floor. KITCHEN Cindee and Fitch are caught in flagrante delicto on the floor as the kitchen is decimated by GUNFIRE... SASHA'S BEDROOM Coughing, Archer crawls through the roiling smoke toward the door. He's almost out when... SASHA Adam! Her wail of fear freezes Archer. He looks back -- and sees Adam in the eye of the firestorm. Archer's face betrays his conflict. A child -- but his worst enemy's child. BULLETS SHRED the WALL around Adam. Getting closer. Archer moves -- he crawls toward Adam. Just then -- a SWAT agent rappels in through one of the shattered windows, his weapon poised. Archer kicks him hard, pitching him back through the window. Archer grabs Adam -- curling him into his body. Thinking fast, he soaks his discarded T-shirt into a toppled flower vase -- then places it over Adam's face. Protecting him. He rushes to Sasha. Together, they barrel through the soft, paper wall and tear out an escape route. INT. KITCHEN FIRING out the window, Fitch is riddled from outside by an agent as he CRASHES through the WINDOW. Cindee slashes the agent with a cleaver. He FIRES -- BLASTING Cindee into the refrigerator. LOWER LEVEL Archer hustles Sasha and Adam toward the staircase when -- FRONT DOOR explodes open. SWAT agents swarm to get in -- FIRING and throwing FLASH-GRENADES. ARCHER, SASHA AND ADAM are caught out in the open, when -- UPPER LEVEL Dietrich, et al, open FIRE down on the attacking agents. Agents drop or are driven back out. SKYLIGHT BURSTS open and agents rappel down -- FIRING. Aldo's bodyguard falls, riddled, off the upper level. LOWER LEVEL as one agent lands, Archer knocks his gun to the floor. They grapple. As the agent reaches for it -- Adam appears and kicks the gun away. Just like Mommy. SASHA scoops up the kicked weapon -- and cold-cocks another rappelling agent. Then she FIRES, cutting a third rappelling agent's rope. he drops hard to the floor -- unconscious. Still grappling, Archer rips off the agent's gas-mask... ARCHER Buzz... Buzz's eyes reveal only hatred. He reaches for his knife. Archer hesitates, then heaves Buzz through the glass door. He pushes Adam upstairs as more agents pour in the front door. ARCHER Dietrich! The painting! UPPER LEVEL Dietrich sees the canvas mural above the breached front door -- and understands. He opens FIRE, cutting loose the mural. It collapses, billowing -- and enshrouds the attacking agents -- and buying time. DIETRICH Let's go! Archer and Sasha flee up the stairs. UPPER LEVEL Sasha sees Adam huddled in the middle of the glass floor -- the shadows of agents moving below. SASHA Adam! LOWER LEVEL An agent aims his shotgun at the glass floor -- at the "target" kneeling on top of it. UPPER LEVEL Archer dives and grabs the boy as the GLASS FLOOR EXPLODES up. He rolls through a shower of glass -- but comes up with Adam safely. Agents and thugs FIRE blindly upward and downward through the floor -- desperate to hit their targets. Agents open FIRE from the girders supporting the roof -- cutting down Fitch's last bodyguard. DIETRICH They're like cockroaches! Dietrich and Livia toss SMOKE GRENADES into the loft -- covering their escape. TOP LEVEL Dietrich leads them to the very back of the loft. He pulls open a hidden door. DIETRICH If we make it, we'll meet up at my Malibu place. You remember it, Caz? ARCHER Off Kanan Road -- I know it. Archer hands Adam over to Sasha. She hugs her little boy -- then embraces Archer tightly. Hanging on -- near tears -- because she knows this may be the last time. SASHA Thank you, Caz... thank you... ARCHER Get the boy out of here... Livia and the remaining bodyguard hustle Archer out -- INT. ROTUNDA - NIGHT MAC-10 poised, Livia and the bodyguard rush Archer through the deserted rotunda -- BOOM! BOOM! His escorts drop. Castor rushes down the staircase -- BLASTING at Archer. Unarmed, Archer instantly disappears behind one of the eight columns. The columns are separated by mirrored- panels. Cat-and-mouse as Castor slips in and out between column and mirror. He spots Archer dead-ahead and BLASTS away! CRASH! The MIRROR SHATTERS into a thousand pieces. ARCHER (O.S.) That's about a thousand years bad luck... Castor whirls, spots Archer again and FIRES! Another MIRROR. Sensing Archer behind him -- Castor turns and FIRES again -- this time BLASTING away his OWN REFLECTION. Then Archer leaps through a shattered mirror frame -- and onto Castor. They battle for control of the pistol. CASTOR It's too late, Jon. Your kid loves me. And your wife's an animal. Even I can't keep up with her. They're so close Castor's whispering right in Archer's ear. CASTOR Tonight I'm going to make her come like Niagara Falls -- to celebrate your death. Castor licks Archer's ear salaciously. Enraged, Archer tears the pistol from his grip and turns it on Castor. He's got Castor dead to rights -- suddenly BULLETS SHRED the world around him. Archer staggers away as -- Loomis enters -- FIRING his M-16 as Archer dives for a doorway. Loomis FIRES the M-16's grenade launcher. BOOM! The GRENADE EXPLODES -- the doorway bursts into flames -- but Archer has made it through. Loomis tries to help up Castor -- who pushes him off angrily. Castor can't follow through the flames. EXT. ROOF - NIGHT Archer slams out of the interior stairwell -- but BULLETS force him to take cover behind the cupola. Pollux FIRES at him from the other side. Archer RETURNS FIRE -- driving Pollux back. Stand-off. POLLUX Remember me? Your 'baby brother'? Trying to get the drop, Pollux carefully crawls onto the top of the cupola. POLLUX You tricked me into telling you things I never told anyone... Archer hears movement above him as Pollux reaches the crown. POLLUX Now take it to your grave. Archer FIRES his PISTOL -- into the glass cupola -- and SHATTERS the GLASS beneath Pollux's feet. The cupola disintegrates beneath his weight. He plunges down into -- ROTUNDA Castor watches in horror as Pollux pancakes onto the floor at his feet. CASTOR Pollux... Pollux is almost gone. Castor looks up and sees -- ARCHER Peering down into the rotunda. CASTOR OPENS FIRE -- ARCHER Ducks the bullets as he disappears. Castor desperately holds Pollux -- to no avail. Pollux slips away... and dies. He turns to Loomis... CASTOR Get a medic -- now! LOOMIS Forget him, sir. It's only Pollux Troy... Castor snaps. Without hesitation, he jerks up his GUN and PUTS a BULLET right in the middle of Loomis's forehead. Castor looks at the dead kid -- his rage barely abated as -- Buzz and Wanda arrive on the scene and see Loomis's body. WANDA What happened? CASTOR What the fuck do you think happened? Castor Troy just shot him! (beat) What are you waiting for? Go! After Buzz and Wanda take off -- Castor gathers Pollux up in his arms -- totally devastated. INT. F.B.I - DAY Dazed, Castor approaches his office. Kim proudly holds a copy of Time magazine. His photo is on the cover. KIM Sir -- you're on the cover of Time. They're calling you 'An Authentic American Hero.' He just pushes by her and goes into his office. INT. FBI - ARCHER'S OFFICE - DAY Alone -- Castor picks up the framed photo of Eve and Jamie -- staring at it with unbridled hatred. Fury rising, he crumples the frame -- and the photo -- in his clenching grip. He hurls it into other Archer family memorabilia -- shattering more photos and souvenirs. Only then does Castor notice Lazarro standing in the doorway. For how long -- he can't be sure. CASTOR What is it? Lazarro shuts the door behind him. LAZARRO We were friends once, Jon, so I feel I owe it to you -- to tell you face-to-face... (a beat) I don't care how much hype you're getting -- you're through. After that massacre last night, I'm ordering a full inquiry into your recent erratic -- and deeply suspect -- behavior. CASTOR Me -- 'erratic'? Victor, what are you talking about? Castor casually closes the blinds between the offices. LAZARRO You start meeting with Brodie and Miller. Then they die mysteriously. Your best friend is murdered -- and you don't seem to give a shit. Suddenly you're smoking, drinking, acting like a man with something to hide... (beat) Maybe you've been bought -- maybe you've lost your mind. But I promise... I'm going to find out. Eye to eye... Castor knows he can't finesse this one. CASTOR Okay, Vic, I have a confession to make. But you aren't gonna like it... (wraps arm around neck) I'm Castor Troy. LAZARRO -- I don't understand... Castor suddenly jabs his fist into Lazarro's chest. He pleads for mercy as Castor pounds and pounds away at his heart -- until it finally seizes up. Lazarro twitches in a death throe, then slumps to the ground. CASTOR Now you understand. He punches up the intercom button. CASTOR Cancel my four o'clock. (beat) And send for the paramedics. Victor Lazarro's having a heart attack. Castor fixes himself a shot of mescal. He checks his watch -- as if counting -- then kneels beside Lazarro's body. The door flies open -- and two medics rush in. They see Castor vigorously pumping Lazarro's chest -- "applying" CPR. The medics gently nudge Castor aside. One medic takes Lazarro's pulse, then shakes his head. EXT. GRIFFITH PARK OBSERVATORY - DAY Castor peers down over the city... trying to collect himself. He lights up a smoke... planning his next move. His meditation is broken as a police chopper circles above. MATCH CUT TO: EXT. CITY - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY LAPD choppers circle... squad cars prowl... cops and FBI agents set up roadblocks. The city is being sealed off. EXT. DOWNTOWN - BROADWAY - DAY Skirting a roadblock, Archer appears to be coming undone... wobbly, wild-eyed... he suddenly picks up a trash can and carries it down the street in front of his face. Pedestrians gawk at this madman. What's he doing? Archer finally stops in front of a sporting goods store. He swings the trash can. SMASH! The store's WINDOW SHATTERS. An ALARM BLARES. Passersby stare at Archer for a moment -- stunned. Then several youths leap into the window and start pulling merchandise out of the store. Mayhem as others join in... clerks rush out to do battle. An LAPD squad car hauls up onto the curb. A cop leaps out and chases as the looters scatter. The driver stands at his door, radio in hand. Sensing something, he turns... just as Archer grabs the canister of Comply-Gas from the cop's belt. Archer sprays him in the face. The cop gags and sags. Archer quickly slips behind the wheel. Inside: Archer hits a switch -- the car's tinted windows darken automatically, obscuring him from the outside. He HITS the GAS -- SCREAMING away. EXT. STREET - DAY Archer slows the squad car. Up ahead: Parked cop cars block both lanes of the main road -- a roadblock checkpoint for all traffic. Archer pulls off the road, out of sight. He flips open the portacomp and starts to type rapidly. INT. FBI - DAY A DISPATCHER'S SCANNER CLICKS to life. DISPATCHER All units. I have a confirmed code zero-zero priority alert. Proceed at once to Parthenia Street Terminal. That's Parthenia at Nordhoff. QUICK SHOTS A) MOTOR POOL Tac squads pile into armored Jeeps. B) HELIPORT Choppers lift off and veer east. C) ARCHER'S HOUSE The surveillance CARS ROAR away. EXT. ROADBLOCK - DAY Archer watches as the checkpoint of cop cars pulls apart and screams east on the main road -- passing Archer. Once the armada is gone, he pulls out and heads west. EXT. ARCHER HOME - BACK YARD - DAY A plank in the fence swings aside as Archer slips into the yard. He peers out from behind the garage. A cop sits in a lawn chair, tuning a POLICE-BAND RADIO. Archer approaches the bird feeder. Quietly, he sticks his hand inside -- and searches for the key. Just when he grabs it -- CAW-CAW -- an annoying BLUEBIRD hovers over Archer. The cop looks over -- but Archer is gone. All Lars sees is the bird. INT. FBI - BULLPEN - DAY Castor arrives. Wanda is shocked to see him. WANDA Commander, what are you doing here? CASTOR Where should I be? (looks around) Where's everyone else? WANDA Backing you up! Didn't you track Castor to the Parthenia Street Terminal? CASTOR What? WANDA You radioed in your personal security code. Nobody knows that code but you. CASTOR Obviously someone else knows it! Get everybody back to their posts -- now! INT. ARCHER HOME - SUNSET Archer tiptoes through the house -- listening. He sees Cop #2 sitting at the dining room table, cleaning his pistol. He slips upstairs -- toward the sound of RUNNING WATER. MASTER BEDROOM -- CONTINUOUS ACTION Archer walks in and steps toward the bathroom -- passing the bed. He stops. On top of the rumpled covers: Eve's nightgown and a pair of Castor's black briefs. Overwhelmed, he sits down -- not noticing the water has stopped. Eve steps in from the bathroom. ARCHER Eve... The look of horror on her face snaps him back to reality. She runs, but Archer grabs her. She struggles -- fighting and kicking him -- but somehow he keeps her mouth covered. ARCHER I'm not going to hurt you. Just don't scream, okay? (no response) Okay? Terrified -- she finally nods and he eases off her. EVE I know you -- you're the one who called. You're Castor Troy. You killed my son -- ARCHER -- I called, but I'm not Castor. I'm your husband. Archer holds onto her as she struggles again. ARCHER Now, you're going to listen. The last time we saw each other -- was in this room. We had a fight after I told you I had to go away. (a beat) My assignment -- Jon Archer's assignment -- was to enter a federal prison as Castor Troy. Eve is startled by this intimate information but she reveals nothing. SIRENS approach the house, the cops are returning. She keeps an eye on the door. Playing for time. EVE How did he expect to do that? ARCHER An F.B.I. surgeon gave me Castor's face. He handled the transplant, the vocal implant, everything. But somehow Castor came out of his coma -- and killed everyone who knew about the mission. But not before he was transformed into me. The back DOOR CLICKS open. A voice booms out. COP (O.S.) Dr. Archer, are you okay? ARCHER If you need hard evidence, get it. Your husband's blood type is O negative. Castor's is A.B. Archer glances at the balcony -- as FOOTSTEPS CLOMP up the stairs. Eve is about to answer -- or scream. But then... ARCHER Remember the parachute dream? I'm falling, Eve... I'm falling... The blood drains from her face as... Archer slips over the balcony and disappears. INT. STUDY - LATER Eve is at the computer -- dazed and disoriented. She snaps alert on hearing the front DOOR OPEN -- Castor is giving orders to the cops guarding the house. CASTOR (O.S.) I want you guys here around-the- clock. And stay off the lawn. Eve feigns interest in her laptop as Castor enters. She tenses as he starts massaging her back. CASTOR You're all in knots. Maybe another date night will help you relax... EVE Not tonight... I'm way behind in my Continuing Ed. He studies Eve, then grasps her firmly by the shoulders. CASTOR You think I've been acting strange. Like a completely different person. EVE -- Yes. CASTOR Okay, I have a confession to make. But you aren't going to like it... Castor wraps his hands around her slender neck... CASTOR (cont'd) ... I read your diary. I've been trying to change -- trying to be more like the man you want me to be. Eve reacts to the explanation. There is a logic to it. CASTOR And to prove it, I'm taking you and Jamie away on a trip -- right after the memorial service. EVE What memorial service? CASTOR Victor Lazarro had a heart seizure... right in my office. It was horrible... EVE Oh, my God... Castor pours it on -- feigning immense grief. CASTOR First Tito... now Victor... (holds her tight) ... please don't tell me I'm going to lose you, too... EVE (returns the embrace) Of course not. INT. ARCHER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Castor slumbers fitfully. Suddenly, his shoulder twitches, rousing him. He looks up to find Eve reading beside him. CASTOR What was that? EVE What was what? CASTOR Something bit me. EVE Probably a mosquito -- I'll close the window. Eve rubs Castor's shoulder blade until he falls asleep. She gets up, closes the window, then goes into the bathroom. INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Eve takes a breath, then produces a lancet from her pocket. She squeezes the lancet -- and a drop of blood splashes into a glass vial -- Castor's blood. EXT. ARCHER HOME - NIGHT As Eve gets the key in her car door -- a hand grabs her. She stifles a scream -- then sees... the two COPS. COP Sorry, Dr. Archer. Where are you going at this hour? EVE There's been an emergency at the hospital. COP One of us will have to escort you. EVE Fine... (a beat) But please don't wake my husband... he's exhausted. EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Nothing happening here at 4 A.M. Nothing indeed. The bored Cop keeps watch outside -- as Eve hustles in. INT. HOSPITAL - EVE'S OFFICE - NIGHT Eve paces anxiously as the BLOOD ANALYZER CLICKS away. EVE Please be O-neg. Please... The MACHINE STOPS CLICKING. It reads "Male -- Type AB." She buries her face in her hands -- completely stunned. ARCHER (O.S.) Thanks for believing me. Archer emerges from the darkness of her office -- but Eve pulls a pistol -- aiming it with calm authority. ARCHER What are you doing? Where did you get that gun? EVE I took it from my fake husband. ARCHER Why point it at me? I'm the real thing. EVE I don't know that. Maybe Jon's already dead. ARCHER What more proof do you need? EVE Tell me... tell me about the all- night dentist. As Archer speaks -- Eve searches his eyes for the truth. ARCHER ... I took a date out for chicken and ribs -- not knowing she was a vegetarian. When the night couldn't get worse, she broke her tooth on a pebble that got into her three-bean salad Somehow she and I had fun driving around looking for an all-night dentist... (a beat) And even though it must have hurt -- you still kissed me. Eve slowly puts the gun down, fighting off tears. EVE Christ, Jon! How could you put us in this position? Do you know -- do you know what he did to me...? ARCHER Whatever happened, whatever he did -- I know it's my fault and I know I can never make it up to you -- She pulls herself together -- regaining her composure. EVE But you're damn well going to try. (a beat) First -- how are we going to get you out of this? INT. ARCHER HOME - MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Castor wakes up and finds Eve gone. His eyes narrow as he touches the mosquito bite -- the one that isn't there. INT. HOSPITAL - EVE'S OFFICE - NIGHT Eve sifts through the supply cabinet and finds a yellow vial. EVE This will knock him out for hours. ARCHER Good. What's his schedule tomorrow? EVE He doesn't tell me anymore than you ever did... All I know is -- tomorrow we're going to Victor's memorial service. ARCHER Victor... Tito... they both died thinking I killed them... And in a way... I did. EVE Jon -- you can't think about that now. Archer takes a breath -- and pulls himself together. ARCHER -- What happens after the memorial? EVE He's taking Jamie and me away. ARCHER And neither of you will be coming back. Where's the service? EVE Saint Mary's-By-The-Sea. Archer reacts... the irony's not lost on him. EVE What are you going to do? ARCHER Hit him with a trank dart. Once he's unconscious -- I'll try to get to Buzz and Wanda before the security team gets to me. EVE What else can I do? ARCHER Think up a good excuse. I don't want you or Jamie anywhere near that service. EVE I can cover for Jamie. But if I'm not there, he'll suspect something... (as Archer considers) The second you make your move, all hell's going to break loose. If I'm there beside him -- I can take charge. I'm his wife, remember? (a beat) There's no way around it -- for once, you need me. Archer looks into her eyes -- the regrets flooding over. ARCHER I've always needed you... They embrace... soaking up each other's warmth. EVE Jon -- what are the odds? ARCHER Terrible. But it's the best we can do with what we have. (a beat) If it doesn't happen, take Jamie and don't look back... EVE It'll happen. FOOTSTEPS APPROACH -- they break their embrace. ARCHER Do doctors travel in packs? EVE Only when we're golfing. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT Castor and the twins round the bend -- just in time to see the door to the burn ward close. INT. BURN WARD - NIGHT Eve quickly wraps gauze around a patient's head -- when Castor and his boys rush in, guns leveled. EVE Jon! What are you doing here? CASTOR That's what you're going to explain to me. EVE Didn't the police tell you? There was an emergency. Lars starts pulling at the patient's bandages. EVE Jon -- stop it! Mr. Alandro is very ill! CASTOR Not as ill as he's going to be... He blanches as Lars reveals a scarred burn victim -- Mr. Alandro. Eve is livid as she attends to the patient. CASTOR Sorry. But what's a guy to think when his wife runs off in the middle of the night? EVE It's my fault. I should've woken you up before I left. (kisses him) Now please let me get back to work. They leave. Eve wipes his ugly taste from her mouth. EXT. HOSPITAL PARKING LOT - DAWN Castor gets into his car as he confabs with the twins. CASTOR Stay here. Watch her like a hawk. LARS Think she knows? CASTOR Who cares? She's going to be dead by tonight anyway. They're all going to be dead. The wife, the kid... and the father. EXT. OLD RANCH - HIGH GRASS - DAY Archer waits as Sasha appears with a long case. In the b.g., Adam plays on the Ranch House porch with Dietrich. ARCHER How's the boy? SASHA His ears are still ringing -- but he'll be okay. Archer opens the case. Inside is a sniper rifle. SASHA The truck's all gassed up. Look, Caz, there'll be F.B.I. agents all over that place. Maybe I can talk my brother into helping us. ARCHER 'Us'? No, Sasha -- believe me, this isn't your fight. He turns to leave -- but her look draws him back. He kisses her -- not passionately, but nobly. ARCHER Thanks... She watches him as he walks off toward the truck. EXT. ARCHER'S HOME - DAY Dressed in staid black, Eve joins Castor at the limo. CASTOR Where's Jamie? EVE That's what I'd like to know. She stole fifty dollars from my purse and took off. Castor's eyes narrow -- trying to read Eve. EVE Don't act so stunned, Jon. You know how hard it is to get that girl into a dress. CASTOR I'll deal with her later. EVE Good. Because I am fed up. EXT. ST. MARY'S-BY-THE-SEA - DAY A crucifix gleams in the sun... and anchoring the crucifix is... a headstone. Like so many others -- except this headstone is Matthew Archer's. And hidden behind it is -- Jon Archer. He finishes assembling the sniper rifle. For a moment he acknowledges Matthew's grave... the regrets giving way to determination. He looks down from his vantage point onto -- EXT. SEA-SIDE - DAY At the foot of the cemetery knoll. Rows of chairs... white flowers... mourners. A yacht is docked at the breakwater. INTERCUT WITH: ARCHER'S POV THROUGH SCOPE peers down through scope -- seeing... Castor and Eve as they emerge from their limo. Eve glances around, searching for Archer. She comes eye- to-eye with Lars -- who is watching her every move. Archer TRACKS Castor and Eve as they sit in the front row. The ceremony begins. PRIEST We are here to celebrate the life of Victor Lazarro. We all know him as a man who dedicated himself to defending this great nation -- first, as a highly decorated admiral -- then, as west coast director of the F.B.I. But not all of you know what a deeply spiritual man he was. It was his wish that his Requiem Mass be performed in Latin. (a beat) In Nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen... The PRIEST begins to recite a beautiful and somber mass. ARCHER fills the trank-dart with sedative. PRIEST continues the solemn ritual. PRIEST Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda quando caeli movendi sunt et terra... EVE checks her watch... barely lifting her eyes away... Castor absently pats her knee. She's forced to return focus to the service. ARCHER chambers the dart, twists a knob on the range-finder, and carefully peers over the crucifix. THROUGH SCOPE Archer TRACKS THROUGH the mourners -- and FINDS Castor. As the cross-hairs neatly cube his head... BACK TO SCENE We've come full circle from Matthew's death: with Archer the sniper and Castor the target. The Priest's emotional reciting of the rites climaxes. PRIEST Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine... Amen. FULL SCREEN - TRIGGER Archer's finger wraps around -- he starts to squeeze... POV THROUGH SCOPE - FIGURE crosses behind Castor, blocking Archer's shot. Archer's finger freezes -- as the figure turns -- hair tumbling away from her face. It's Jamie. AT SERVICE Eve stiffens as Jamie sits down. JAMIE Thanks anyway, Mom -- (slides her $50) But I wanted to be here for you... and Dad. Castor reads the panic on Eve's face, but says nothing. He simply takes Jamie's hand, intertwining his fingers in hers. The honor guard steps forward, shouldering their rifles, commencing their 21-GUN SALUTE as -- ARCHER steadies himself, re-aims the sniper rifle. He hears MOTION behind him. Someone's coming and fast... but this is his only chance. Off-balance, Archer squeezes -- THFFFT! The SILENCED TRANK-DART explodes from the barrel. FOLLOW DART Screaming toward Castor's neck -- but it goes just wide. It sinks harmlessly into the grass -- unnoticed during the 21-GUN SALUTE. ON KNOLL THUMP! Archer is cracked across the head. He slumps down, unconscious, as a silenced gun barrel gently enters his ear. As the saluting GUNS FIRE in the b.g. -- we don't know when, or if, this pistol fires... AT SEA-SIDE SERVICE The honor guard presents the urn to Mrs. Lazarro. Fearful, Eve chances a glance around -- wondering what's gone wrong. PRIEST The admiral's family will now take his ashes to the sea... As Mrs. Lazarro and her grown children proceed to the docked yacht, Castor touches his ear-phone... getting a message. His eyes alight on a boathouse... adjacent to the service. CASTOR (into headset) Lars -- take Jamie, bring the car around, then meet us at that boathouse... Guests head for their cars. Eve seizes the moment and steps over to Wanda and Buzz. EVE Wanda -- I need to talk to you. WANDA (reads her face) Sure... what's wrong? But then Eve looks past Wanda -- and sees Lars looking at her -- tightening his "friendly" grip on Jamie's shoulder. EVE Never mind -- CASTOR Come on, baby. I've got a surprise for you. Wanda and Buzz watch as they head up toward the boathouse. INT. BOATHOUSE - DAY Dim, deserted. Filled with boat parts, tools, etc. Castor hustles Eve inside and locks the door behind him. Lunt is there -- standing over a beaten Archer. Eve gasps. CASTOR Look who we caught creeping around -- Castor Troy. EVE Why is he here? CASTOR Before I turn him in, I thought we'd pay him back for everything he's put us through... Castor starts kicking Archer. Over and over in the gut. CASTOR Come on, baby. Join the fun -- Eve can't stand it. She charges Castor -- but he immediately subdues her. CASTOR Too bad. Part of me was hoping you didn't know. He throws her down beside Archer. She clings to him. CASTOR Did you really think it would be that easy, you dumb fucks? (to Eve) Sorry, baby. Castor Troy is about to murder you and our daughter... but I promise you won't die unavenged. ARCHER This is between you and me. Leave them out of this. CASTOR It was between you and me. Even your little boy -- that wasn't supposed to happen. But you couldn't let it go. ARCHER No father could. CASTOR Appealing to my sense of 'family' won't work, Jon. I thought you knew me better than that Archer plays for time -- looking for some edge. He sees a crate filled with block-and-tackle amid the shop's tools. ARCHER I know some things that even you don't know, Caz. You have a son. I've met him. His name is Adam... CASTOR I imagine I've got a dozen kids -- so what? (cocks pistol) No more head games... First your wife dies. Then your daughter. Then you. Castor smiles as the DOOR CREAKS open. CASTOR Just one big happy family... But it's not Jamie and Lars. Three people emerge from the shadows, machine pistols poised. CASTOR Dietrich -- Aldo -- Sasha? DIETRICH That's right, Archer. Now drop 'em. No options. Castor and Lunt drop their weapons. EXT. BOATHOUSE - SIDE ENTRANCE - DAY Lars and Jamie pull up in the car. Lars listens to his headset -- knows something is wrong. LARS Don't fucking move... INT. BOATHOUSE - DAY Sasha's at Archer's side. SASHA Caz -- are you okay? CASTOR You're making a mistake. I'm Castor -- he's Archer. Sasha, baby -- just give me a minute to explain! SASHA That's pathetic, Archer. But then, your terrible sense of humor is legendary. ALDO (cocks GUN) It's pay-back time. Aldo aims at Castor when BOOM! He's blown apart. Lars charges in -- BLASTING. Archer grabs a block-and-tackle as -- Lunt dives for Aldo's fallen machine-pistol. Archer swings the block-and-tackle -- whacking Lunt across the head. Castor scoops up his pistol but Eve kicks him hard in the balls. He doubles over. Archer snatches away the MACHINE PISTOL. Staggered -- Lunt is quickly riddled by Dietrich. Castor and Lars BLAZE at the now-scattering intruders -- driving them back amid the shot's tools and drums. ARCHER Find Jamie! Eve crawls through the FUSILLADE toward the exit. EXT. MEMORIAL SERVICE - DAY Among the last to leave -- Buzz and Wanda snap alert. Over the CRASHING of the WAVES -- did Wanda hear something? EXT. BOATHOUSE - DAY Eve rushes to the car -- it's empty. Jamie is gone. EVE Jamie? Jamie! BULLETS SHRED the WINDOWS behind her. INT. BOATHOUSE - DAY During the GUN BATTLE -- we INTERCUT the deaths of Dietrich, Lars and Sasha WITH: EXT. SEA - LAZARRO'S ASHES being scattered at sea. Castor and Lars RIDDLE Sasha. She drops. Archer FIRES back -- killing Lars and driving Castor back. Archer leans beside the mortally-wounded Sasha. SASHA ... Help Adam... don't let him end up like us... She dies in his arms. Wounded, Dietrich crawls over. Seeing his sister, Dietrich rises in horror... DIETRICH Sasha -- ! BOOM BOOM BOOM! Castor wastes Dietrich. Archer BLASTS back -- driving Castor outside. Archer pursues. EXT. MEMORIAL SERVICE - DAY Eve runs smack into Wanda and Buzz -- they're on the run. WANDA We heard gunshots -- EVE Wanda, I've got to tell you something. Something crazy... EXT. BOATHOUSE YARD - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY Archer emerges into the maze of dry-docked boats. Silently checking his clip, he discards the empty gun. Castor moves stealthily through the narrow paths. Hearing a NOISE behind him -- BOOM! Castor FIRES -- blowing apart an under-repair hull. He advances toward the boat, gun ready, when Archer appears behind him and follows -- one step, two steps -- until -- Castor stops -- then whirls as Archer leaps. The men collapse hard. Castor's pistol clatters across the yard toward the docked boat. Archer and Castor brutally strangle each other -- digging their fingers deep into their throats. They throttle each other so hard, Archer's larynx vocal chip is dislodged. His VOICE CHANGES, ECHOING with garbled. STATIC. ARCHER Give up, Castor. People are going to find out. CASTOR Not if I kill you first. They scramble for the gun -- but a hand reaches out from the docked boat and picks it up. Archer and Castor stop dead in their tracks because -- Jamie appears, holding the pistol. CASTOR Give it here, Jamie. ARCHER No, Jamie. Don't do it! Everybody gawks -- because Archer and Castor are now... Both speaking in Archer's true voice. And nobody is more confused than Jamie. ARCHER Listen to my voice, Jamie. I'm your father. CASTOR It's a trick, Jamie. I'm your father. Jamie swings the gun back and forth -- baffled. CASTOR Shoot him, Jamie. ARCHER Jamie... CASTOR Shoot him! Jamie FIRES. Archer reels -- as a slug grazes his shoulder. Castor snatches the PISTOL from Jamie's hand. CASTOR You dunce. No kid of mine would miss so badly. He aims the gun at Archer's head. WANDA (O.S.) Hold it. Wanda and Buzz have burst onto the terrace -- their guns leveled. Eve and more agents are right behind. CASTOR Just saving the taxpayers the cost of a trial. So take a hike. WANDA You're both under arrest until a D.N.A. test proves who's who. CASTOR I'm ordering you to back off! Several agents waver -- unsure. But not Wanda and Buzz. WANDA Put the gun down -- BUZZ -- Now! CASTOR (beat) Can't blame me for trying. He grabs a shocked Jamie -- shoving the gun under her chin. Archer struggles to his feet as -- Castor -- using Jamie as a shield -- backs out the gate to the garden. Archer follows -- cautiously. CASTOR Say goodbye to Daddy -- Jamie whips out the switchblade -- sinks it into Castor's thigh and twists. She dives away. FIRING wildly, Castor staggers back through the gate. CASTOR (O.S.) You ungrateful delinquent! OUTSIDE GATE As Castor turns and staggers away -- he runs smack into a confused security agent. CASTOR Give me your weapon -- now! The agent hands over his UZI -- and Castor PLUGS him. BOATYARD Archer and Eve make sure Jamie's okay. JAMIE (to Archer) Who are you? Will someone please tell me what's going on? Archer rushes to the gate and hauls it open. CASTOR limps away from the boatyard, towards the slips -- alive with sunbathers and yachters. EXT. MARINA DOCKS - DAY Castor hustles along until he finds what he's looking for -- Twin Cigarette BOATS -- racing boats -- being TUNED UP by their suntanned crews. He jumps into one of the boats. BOAT CAPTAIN Hey -- ! Without even looking, Castor SHOOTS the guy dead. In a flash -- Castor THROTTLES up the BOAT. He sees -- CASTOR'S POV Archer running down the dock toward the adjoining boat. CASTOR FIRES -- peppering the dock. Archer knocks the boat owner to safety -- as the BAIT HOUSE BLOWS UP behind him. Archer rolls into the boat -- FIRING. Castor's hit! A slug grazes his shoulder. He grabs the THROTTLE -- taking off. ARCHER FIRES UP the second BOAT -- in pursuit. Castor BLASTS back -- SHATTERING Archer's BOAT COMPASS. CIVILIAN BOAT speeds toward him -- causing a near-miss. ANOTHER ANGLE Running parallel, Archer and Castor BLAST at EACH OTHER at point-blank range. Their boats smash and pound each other. A police boat closes in on them. Castor FIRES at the police -- obliterating both crew and boat. The POLICE BOAT'S rear SMASHES into Archer's craft. Archer's BOAT plows up and through the other. EXPLOSION! Momentum carries Archer across -- and back into the water. The boat lands right next to Castor's. Archer and Castor resume their battering... approaching a -- TUG pulling a barge. Castor forces Archer into its path. At the last moment... Archer leaps onto the bow of Castor's boat as -- KA-BOOM! Archer's boat crashes into the BARGE which EXPLODES. CASTOR swerves wildly -- trying to throw Archer off. Archer can only watch as Castor reaches for another clip. But the boat hits a wave... Castor loses the gun -- which skids away. Archer slips, his head hanging over the side. Castor tries to ram Archer, but he pulls himself up just in time. Castor grabs the anchor -- swings it. WHUNK! It sinks into the deck beside Archer -- but the chain is around his neck. As Castor tries to strangle him -- Archer headbutts Castor, who reels -- snagging his leg around the chain. Castor falls back -- plunging toward the water. Archer tries to hold Castor up... as the boat speeds toward -- PIER Archer yanks Castor back onto the deck as the BOAT BOUNCES OFF the pier pilings. But as they slug it out... ANOTHER ANGLE WHAM! The BOAT careens off a piling -- and ROARS straight for the shipyard. COLLIDING with a shoreline obstruction -- The BOAT FLIPS, stern over bow... Archer and Castor go flying... onto the beach. EXT. BEACH - DAY Archer and Castor lie dazed... then stir. Castor sees the pistol lying half-buried... he reaches for it. But -- Archer gets it first. He aims it at Castor as they rise. CASTOR You won't shoot me, Jon. I'm unarmed... ARCHER Okay, I have a confession to make... but you aren't gonna like it... You're right, I won't shoot you. Not in the face anyway. BOOM -- Archer SHOOTS Castor in the chest! He jerks and reels -- dropping to his knees. He looks at Archer in total disbelief. Then he sinks to the ground and lies still. Exhausted, Archer lets the empty gun drop. Then he turns and sees an FBI chopper heading his way. Relieved, he turns back to Castor, but -- Castor's body is gone! Castor is crawling toward the flipped boat's spinning stabilizing screw. Archer FIRES -- hitting Castor in the leg. He buckles... but keeps going. Archer leaps on him -- they struggle as Castor tries to bury his face on the spinning blade. CASTOR It'll never be over, Jon... every time you look in the mirror... you'll see my face... They struggle as the propeller blade. gets closer, closer -- slicing into "Archer's" cheek. At the last instant... Archer reaches the anchor-chain. He wraps it around the screw -- stopping the whirling blades. Castor finally sinks to the ground -- and no longer moves. Archer takes Castor's hand -- trying to tug off his wedding ring. Just when he almost has it off -- Castor suddenly grabs Archer's wrist and holds it tight. Eye contact between the two men. Castor smirks, his grasp slackening... as he finally fades away. Archer lets Castor's hand drop, then slides the ring on his own finger. ANOTHER ANGLE The chopper lands. Buzz and Wanda rush over. BUZZ You okay, Archer? ARCHER What did you call me? WANDA He called you 'Archer' -- sir. Archer finally realizes -- they actually mean him. He smiles -- Jon Archer's long lost smile. EXT. SHIPYARD - SUNSET FBI med-teams strap Archer onto a gurney. Castor's inert body is beside him. EVE Hang on, Jon... they're bringing in their top surgical team from D.C... ARCHER (re: Castor) How is he? EVE No life signs at all. He's a turnip. ARCHER That's what they always say... He passes out as the FBI medics load him onto the med- evac chopper. Wanda prevents Eve from climbing aboard. WANDA I'm sorry, Eve. You can't come. (to Buzz) Take her home. EVE But he's my husband! WANDA But he works for us. Wanda gets on the med-evac chopper; it lifts off, leaving a furious Eve and a confused Jamie behind. JAMIE Will Dad be Dad again? EVE I hope so, honey. JAMIE And you guys say my life is screwed up... In the swirl of dust, they watch the chopper fly away. INT. ARCHER'S HOUSE - DAY Maybe days, maybe weeks later -- no way to tell. Eve is at the dining room table, catching up on medical reports. Sensing something, she looks up and sees a silhouette at the front screen door -- a man's silhouette. ARCHER (O.S.) Hello, Eve. Pulse pounding, Eve frantically pushes open the door to glimpse the face of the man with Archer's voice. It's Jon Archer. Eve stares -- then touches his face carefully, tenderly -- around the tiny residual scar. Then, she pulls him tight -- holding on for dear life. JAMIE (O.S.) Dad? Jamie is there. Archer smiles -- gently, almost sadly -- with a softness and genuineness that Castor Troy could never feel, could never fake. She rushes to him. The whole family hangs on, hugging and kissing -- for the first time ever, really together. JAMIE I'm sorry I shot you, Dad. Am I grounded? Archer smiles and holds her tighter. But as they draw Archer inside, he hesitates. ARCHER I have something to ask you -- to ask both of you... He steps aside -- revealing Castor's son. ARCHER This is Adam. He needs a place to live... just for a little while. Eve looks at Archer -- she sees what this means to him and, what the hell, there's plenty of time now to talk. EXT. ARCHER'S HOME - CONTINUOUS ACTION - DAY As the family heads inside, the door closes, shutting us out. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MATTHEW'S OLD ROOM - NIGHT Archer gives Adam an old teddy bear -- rocking the child until he finally drifts off into dreamland. INT. JAMIE'S ROOM - NIGHT Archer watches Jamie sleep. He draws the comforter over her -- she stirs, and pulls it in tighter. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Eve gets undressed... waiting for Archer. EVE How was your first day back? No reply... Eve hears WATER RUNNING. She approaches Archer, who's bent over the sink, washing his face. EVE Jon? Archer stands up -- revealing Castor's face in the bathroom mirror. Eve chokes back a scream. Archer turns and faces her -- with his true face. He sees her terrified expression, turns back to the mirror -- and sees his own face looking at him. But he understands. He embraces Eve... holds her tight. She responds, happy to have him home again. We STAY ON his familiar smile and... FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fair Game.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fair Game.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a8c5f386ea47fd05e8f1d38606035e11efc6c3c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fair Game.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FAIR GAME Written by Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth Based on the memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House by Valerie Plame SFX: SHALLOW, DESPERATE BREATHING. Extreme close ANGLES ON a figure kneels in a cell, in tight stress position. Bound. Blindfold. Convulsed with intense pain. We move closer -- It's a woman. VOICE V/O (VALERIE) Everything you face in life. Everything you come up against.. CLANK! She is hauled to her feet by unseen hands. CUT TO: She's carried head-first fast down a corridor by four men, like a battering ram. VOICE (VALERIE) Everything that stands in your way. .. into another cell. A fifth masked man. On the table-- a car battery. CUT TO: Screams ring out down the empty corridor. CUT TO: Blows rain down on her. The blindfold is torn off. VOICE (VALERIE) ..your foes, your fears, your terrors....your darkest nights. THEN---- SPLASH! She is thrust into a bath and held under water. CLOSE ON her face, as the bubbles of her desperate breath subside, her eyes glaze and a single smoke-swirl of crimson blood rises up from her parted lips. VOICE (VALERIE) ..are all sent to ask you the same question. The only question.. SUDDENLY -- She looks directly at us. Awake. Alert. VOICE (VALERIE) Who are you? BLACKOUT CUT TO: 2. ESTABLISHING. AERIAL SHOT. DOWNTOWN KUALA LUMPUR. DAY. Searing heat. Eighty storey star-scrapers reflect half-built Death Stars. Shimmering buildings and cranes for miles. INT. CECAR ANNUAL CONFERENCE. KL CONVENTION CENTER. DAY. 50 acres of climate controlled exhibition space swarming with global civil engineers. Tented meeting rooms, stands. The bone dry wheels of global commerce, turning. A striking blonde, 30s, crosses a concourse towards a Malaysian Woman in Chanel. VALERIE PLAME extends a hand. VALERIE Jessica McDowell. Cognis Chemicals. I hope I'm not late. INT. GLASS ELEVATOR IN ATRIUM OF WESTIN HOTEL. DAY VALERIE and the Malaysians rise swiftly above the hordes. CHANEL SUIT When do you leave Kuala Lumpur, Ms. Macdowall? VALERIE I fly to Taiwan Tuesday then back to Dusseldorf. I really only need five minutes of his time.. CHANEL SUIT I hope we are lucky. He is very busy man. INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE, WESTIN HOTEL, KL. DAY VALERIE sits at an ENORMOUS MARBLE CONFERENCE TABLE, before a wrap around view of the Petronas Towers. OPPOSITE HER-- two neat Maylasian secretaries, with pads in front of them. One smiles. She smiles back. SECRETARY Mr Tabir very busy this morning. VALERIE Oh I can imagine. VOICE (HAFIZ O.S) Seeing's we're waiting.. AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE a puffy 30 year old Sri Lankan, HAFIZ, is shelling peanuts on the marble, regarding her. 3. HAFIZ ..why don't you practice your little pitch on me? His tones contains an edge of menace. She smiles politely. VALERIE Actually. If it's all the same- HAFIZ I know all my uncle's business. He trusts me. Begin. VALERIE Well. I'm sure you're aware Mr.. (No answer) You're aware that recently your subsidiary, Kopa Oleochemicals developed an organic, ester based lubricant derived from Kernel oil, that makes offshore drilling significantly more environmental. My company, Cognis CMBH wants- HAFIZ (Interrupting, flatly) You American? She stops. VALERIE Canadian. Actually. From Toronto. HAFIZ You a Maple Leafs fan? VALERIE Right. Uh. No. Not really. HAFIZ You must be the only person from Toronto's not a hockey fan. Valerie holds his dead eyes. VALERIE Oh I'm a fan. Dad's from Vancouver, so I'm a Canuck. Between us, the Maple Leaves suck. They should never have signed Mark Bell. Guy's a liability on an off the ice. So who's your team? 4. HAFIZ I don't like hockey. He holds her eye impassively. CHANEL SUIT enters. CHANEL SUIT Unfortunately Mr Tabir has no window this morning. But tonight he extends invitation to private reception at his residence. VALERIE Is that ok? I really don't wish to intrude. She meets Hafiz's level gaze. He doesn't blink. HAFIZ Come to the party. EXT. MANSION, DAMANSARAN HEIGHTS, ABOVE KL. NIGHT Mercedes pull up outside a MANSION above the sprawling city. INT. GROUND FLOOR, MANSION. NIGHT Not a party. Asian men with name badges swap cards. Valerie makes small-talk with some Germans. She spots her quarry at the end of the corridor. She excuses herself. VALERIE Mr. Tabir? Jessica McDowall, Cognis GMBH. Thank you for allowing me to come to your beautiful Home. TABIR How can I help you? VALERIE Mr Tabir I wonder if you had time to glance at our proposal which would allow Kopa to access to Cognis' current Petrochemical Service Partners. Essentially its- A man comes up and whispers to Mr.Tabir. He stops her. TABIR Please excuse me, I have to attend to something.. My assistant here will make you comfortable.. 5. INT. LIBRARY. NIGHT. Lit by a stock market ticker, Valerie sits in front of a large desk. Alone. Waiting. Glances at papers on the desk. CLICK! The door opens. It's not TABIR. It's HAFIZ. VALERIE Hi. I was waiting for Mr. Tabir. HAFIZ My uncle had to leave. He asked me to drive you to his tennis club. You can have your meeting there.. INT/EXT. HAFIZ'S BMW. (MOVING) NIGHT As they pull away, Valerie looks back. She spots TABIR through a window --STILL AT THE PARTY -- She freezes. CUT TO: HAFIZ turns off onto a deserted road in the Lake Gardens. VALERIE Why are we stopping? He looks at her. Undoes his seatbelt. HAFIZ Ms. Macdowall, my uncle believes that trust is something you earn. And he doesn't trust anyone until he knows them very, very well.. He strokes her hair. She holds his eye. Composed. VALERIE But he trusts you, Hafiz.. The temperature in the car drops a hundred degrees. HAFIZ How do you know my name? HAFIZ's brain does 0-60 in 0.06 Seconds. He flips open the glove box. Nothing there. VALERIE Your car was swept an hour ago. (He goes for the door.) Do not get out. If you get out of this car I can't protect you. 6. HAFIZ STOPS DEAD. LOOKS IN THE REARVIEW: A black car, 50 yards behind. He grabs her arm. HAFIZ Who are you? VALERIE Let go of my arm Hafiz. NOW. HAFIZ VALERIE Who the fuck are you? NOW! He releases her arm. She holds his gaze. Breathing hard. VALERIE Listen carefully. Your uncle is in business with Abu Domar Khan- HAFIZ VALERIE (Shaking his head His company provides Khan smiling) with shipping, money That's bullshit. laundering and contraband components. VALERIE Khan has made contact with a terror organisation via an aid agency in Pakistan. They are seeking materials to build a weapon. HAFIZ Fuck you. VALERIE (She fixes him) Your brother is in Kalutara jail in Colombo facing execution for trafficking. We can help him. HAFIZ VALERIE Bullshit. You can't help him. We can help him. Hafiz. Listen to me. Listen. VALERIE You have to think straight here Hafiz. Because I promise you one thing... Right now, you have no idea what we can and cannot do. Hafiz looks in the rear view. At the floor. Deep inside something stirred. She saw it.. 7. VALERIE We need information about your uncle. Contacts. Shipments. If you help us, we help you. If you don't, your brother dies and tomorrow you're sitting next to your uncle in a cell in Thailand and it won't be me asking the questions. Hafiz closes his eyes, head back. She watches him closely. VALERIE You will get a call at 8am. You'll be asked if you need a cleaner. You want her to come three mornings per week. Do you understand? I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND? INT. GEORGETOWN BAR. NIGHT. Packed. Behind the bar, FOX NEWS-- Bombing of Afghanistan. At the bar, a birthday celebration. Cuervo shots. In back, around a table piled high with empty Mexican plates, a group of girls catch up. Valerie and some friends. SUE So after like six hours, he finally manages to stand up on the snowboard, and the instructor lets go of him and he just plummets.. (Laughter) I swear to god, he can't turn, slow down, for like four hundred yards. BILL And yet I'm incredible in bed. AT THE BAR-- JOE WILSON, handsome, 50s, watches the explosions on the screen. He picks up a tray. JOE Keep the change. BACK TO: Valerie is being quizzed by her buddy's boyfriend, Steve. STEVE So what do you do Valerie? VALERIE I work in Venture Capital. Brewster Jennings, here in Georgetown. 8. STEVE Cool. So like net startups..? VALERIE Right. Retail and consumer.. Basically we create pooled investment vehicles.. STEVE Sounds high risk.. VALERIE I guess. But you know..high risk, high return. Pretty boring actually. So what do you do? JOE arrives back to the table with a tray of drinks. JOE DIANA They're out of Corona. I got Me and Steve won't fly on the a Rolling Rock. same plane. We won't even get the same train together. STEVE We got the same train to your mom's. LISA JEFF It only takes one to fly a Disneyland. A sarin attack on plane into a nuclear power Disneyland. station- DIANA Whatever they're telling us we're totally vulnerable. I mean who's protecting us. VALERIE It's real scary. LISA Joe. Would you risk taking your kids to Disneyland right now? JOE Absolutely not. Far from being a playground of the imagination, Disneyland is actually a giant clearing house for crappy merchandise. And Space Mountain is a major disappointment. Valerie tries not to laugh. Gives him a stern look. 9. VALERIE Joe thinks Disneyland is Vegas for kids. STEVE Vegas. A dirty bomb in Vegas. JEFF OK. You get on a plane, there's two guys with turbans, seats A1 and 2. Joe closes his eyes. Valerie kicks him under the table. JEFF They look nervous. They're sweating, saying prayers.. JOE (To himself) Ye Gods.. JEFF Steve you have a two year old. You're off that plane. You're calling the cops. I think if we're honest we all are. (To Joe) Joe. Two guys. On a plane. Turbans. Praying. Sweating. What's the call? Joe opens his eyes. Catches Valeries'. Everybody listens. He takes off his glasses. And looks at Jeff. JOE Well Jeff.. CUT TO: INT. CAR. NIGHT. Valerie is driving home. Joe in the passenger seat. VALERIE Every time. Every time we go out. JOE He started it- VALERIE He's drunk Joe. Everybody's had a hard day. They're just trying to let off steam- 10. JOE By invoking quasi-racist connundra? The guy's a parent. JOE VALERIE Is he telling his four year It's Diana's birthday. Jeff's old to fear all men in her best friend. turbans? JOE So? VALERIE So you can't call him a racist pussy. JOE If not sitting there while someone spouts obnoxious crap makes you an asshole. Then I'm an asshole. And you knew that when you married me. (Silence. She drives.) By the way. How was your trip? CUT TO: FLASHBACK. INT. TURKISH AMBASSADORS RESIDENCE. 1997. NIGHT. A reception. Two hundred people in the main banquet hall. Joe walks through the crowd. Working the room. Valerie accepts an hors d'oeuvre. Catches sight of Joe through the crowd. They catch eyes. She leans to her friend. VALERIE Who's that? CUT TO: Later. Joe excuses himself and turns. Valerie stands there. VALERIE Hello. JOE Hi. Forgive me. I was staring. It's just I'm sure we've met before. VALERIE So who am I? She smiles. He flounders a little. She offers her hand. 11. VALERIE Valerie Plame. JOE Joe. Joe Wilson. VALERIE Former Ambassador to Gabon. Ambassador in Iraq during the Gulf War. Married twice.. Has a reputation for trouble. JOE You've been misinformed. I was only acting Ambassador in Iraq. Valerie smiles. He does too. It's electric. JOE So what do you do, Ms. Plame? CUT TO: PRESENT DAY -- VALERIE ASLEEP in bed. She suddenly shakes. Cries out. Joe wakes to see his wife, lost in a nightmare. FLASHBACK -- THE RECEPTION. 1997. VALERIE I'm an energy consultant for a firm in Brussels. JOE And do you enjoy your work? PRESENT DAY -- THE BEDROOM -- She doesn't wake. He strokes her arm. On her wrist -- A DARK BRUISE. THREE FINGERPRINTS. FLASHBACK -- THE RECEPTION. Valerie looks into Joe's eyes. VALERIE I love it. INT. KITCHEN. DAY. Joe carries the 3 year old twins, SAMANTHA and TREVOR in pyjamas, downstairs.. JOE Val. Where's the babysitter? .. into the kitchen. Valerie, coat on, bolting coffee. 12. VALERIE Didn't I say? She can't get here til after lunch. JOE (Sighs) OK. I'll work from home this morning. VALERIE Are you sure- JOE Relax. Me `n Spongebob are on it. The kids start fighting. She picks up her bag. JOE VALERIE Break it up. Trevor don't hit We're having supper with the your sister. Mitchells Tuesday. But if you want to skip it they know you're busy- JOE I promise to behave. She stops. Melts. Kisses him. SAMANTHA I promise to behave. JOE See. We're all gonna be on our best behavior. She closes the front door. Joe looks momentarily marooned. He begins picking up soft toys off the floor. ESTABLISHING. CIA HEADQUARTERS AT LANGLEY. DAY. CPD AGENT (O.S) Counter Proliferation tracks and thwarts nuclear and WMD acquisition by rogue nations and non-state actors. INT. COUNTER PROLIFERATION DIVISION. BASEMENT. DAY An agent walks six analysts through a crowded open plan office. People squeezed in cubbyholes. Papers everywhere. 13. CPD AGENT (CONT'D) We're the fastest growing division in the Agency, which sounds cool but means you may have to share a desk. Work like hell for years you may get your own cubbyhole. And if you're a workaholic, they make you boss, and you get- He knocks on a door. Opens it. Valerie comes bursting out. CPD AGENT Bad time? We follow Valerie into THE NEXT OFFICE-- where her colleague, Ali, 30s, Indian, is on the phone. VALERIE Hafiz hired a cleaner. ALI (Into phone) Gotta go. Kuala Lumpur just went live. Ali hangs up and follows her OUT INTO THE CORRIDOR. She scans the page she's holding. VALERIE What time did he call this in? CPD AGENT 11 hundred hours PST. FLASHBACK. INT. KOPA OLEOCHEMICALS - KUALA LUMPUR. NIGHT Hafiz, in a corridor in his Uncle's offices, late at night. Light from a photocopier flashes across his sweating face. CPD AGENT V/O (CONT'D) The asset passed the intel to the cleaner at approximately eight fifteen local time, this morning. FLASHBACK. INT. HAFIZ'S APARTMENT - KUALA LUMPUR.DAY Hafiz hands a folded piece of paper to his elderly CLEANING WOMAN. She puts it in her apron pocket. CPD AGENT (O.S.) She made the drop fifty minutes later... just outside Ko Yonh Subway station.. 14. FLASHBACK. INT. KUALA LUMPUR SUBWAY TRAIN. THE CLEANER alights, leaving her New Straits Times on the seat. A BALD ASIAN COMMUTER next to her along picks it up. -- SLAP! -- The paper is opened to a centre page feature of George Bush. There is Hafiz's photocopy. CPD AGENT ..a field team picked it up and D and D'd it at the safe house.. In a cheap hotel room, under a broken ceiling fan another Asian man scans the image into a laptop, behind him the BALD COMMUTER strikes a match and burns the original. INT. VALERIE'S OFFICE, CPD LANGLEY. DAY Valerie, in her cramped office with half a dozen field agents, briefs from a diagram on a white board. VALERIE We have a shipment. A holding company in Pakistan asks Tabir to purchase 200 un-identified units, trackable by part numbers, from.. ALI Teludyne Electronics of Lowell Massachusetts.. EXT. TELUDYNE INDUSTRIES. LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. DAY Two men (from the briefing) in a WHIPPED CHEVY watch a red truck leave an industrial unit in the suburbs of Lowell. VALERIE (V.O.) The shipment is delivered to Goza Tech in Secaucus, New Jersey... EXT. GOZA TECHNOLOGIES, 600 MEADOWLANDS PKWY NJ. NIGHT The red truck turns into a low grey set of prefab buildings in a business park. The CHEVY watches a forklift truck lift a single pallet out and deliver it into the warehouse. VALERIE (V.O) There it's bundled in with a second shipment of legitimate electronic parts, and documentation attached that masks its point of origin. 15. INT. BONDED CUSTOMS WAREHOUSE. PORT NEWARK. NIGHT Valerie, Ali, and the rest of the team walk through the neon lit maze of packing cases and pallets towards a concerned looking superintendent. VALERIE V/O Its then dispatched as medical electronics en route to a company in Johannesburg South Africa. First it spends the night at a bonded customs warehouse in the Port of Jersey. That's the intercept. SUPERINTENDENT Can I help you? VALERIE shows ID to the owner. VALERIE Sir, we're from U.S customs. Can I take a moment of your time? He takes off his cap and looks sick. An agent cracks the packing case with a crowbar: white cardboard boxes. Valerie draws a Buck knife and slices it open, rumaging in polystyrene chips and comes out with a Coke sized white plastic cylinder with two contacts at one end. ALI What the hell is that? Valerie looks at the object. CUT TO: A BLINDING FLASH OF PURE WHITE LIGHT becomes A GIANT BULBOUS CLOUD of rolling hellfire. It mushrooms twenty thousand feet over the New Mexico Desert. An awesome sight. DR FORSTER (O.S.) A spark gap is a high energy voltage-controlled switching device. INT. LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY. EXHIBITION CENTER. DAY As a gaggle of schoolkids watch the sixty year old footage of the Manhattan Project on a plasma screen, Valerie passes through the compound with DR FORSTER, a geeky scientist in his 30s. He holds the intercepted component. 16. DR FORSTER To detonate a nuclear bomb you need to be able to switch high voltage, high current electrical circuits at very high speeds to the nearest hundredth of a nanosecond. They pass through a security door to the labs. DR FORSTER The extremely short rise times are achieved by discharging a low- induct, high-voltage capacitor through the spark gap into the bridge wire inside the warhead. The ballpark is 5 kilovolt and 1 mf for the capacitor, with a peak current between 500 and 1000 amperes... VALERIE Does it have other uses? DR FORSTER High speed photography, industrial photo-chemistry. Zapping kidney stones.Is someone out there building the fire train for a nuclear device component by component? (Shakes his head) You're talking one helluva complicated process. This guy is just one tiny piece in the jigsaw. She hands him a piece of paper. VALERIE This is a list of other components exported through the same network over the last 3 years. Tilt tables. timing equipment. High speed monitioring devices. DR FORSTER (Reading) Quartz rate sensors. Calibration units... (Takes off his glasses.) It's not kidney stones. Thank god you stopped this. VALERIE I'm not stopping it. 17. DR FORSTER (Confused) I don't understand.. INT. COUNTER PROLIFERATION DIVISION. LANGLEY. DAY. Valerie's team are in a briefing room. VALERIE We keep the transaction live. Trace it all the way to the end user. She takes them through a full whiteboard. VALERIE The shipment arrives in Joburg on the 21st. It's put in an unmarked container and shipped to the free trade zone in Dubai. Our asset meets there with the buyer on the 23rd. She tosses a spark gap to one of her team. VALERIE Dr Forster and his team at Los Alamos have altered the impedence timings of the spark gaps by a fraction of a nanosecond. Basically, they won't know it doesn't work til it doesn't work. ALI Can we put a wire on the asset? The door at the back opens. The Deputy of CPD enters with the Chief. Everybody sits up. Valerie continues.. VALERIE Too dangerous. This network has avoided detection for years. Expect meticulous operational security and counter surveillance. Any questions? They disperse. The deputy director of CDP buttonholes her.. DEPUTY CPD Val. The chief wants to see you. INT. CORRIDOR. LANGLEY. DAY. Valerie walks with MIKE and BILL, their chief. 18. BILL Val, seventh floor have issued a directive for a Joint Task Force on Iraq. We want you to head it up. Valerie doesn't blink. VALERIE Yes Sir. BILL You can pick your team. This is top priority. Down the line D.F.U. VALERIE What about the Dubai op? BILL Mike says you got a hunch on the buyer. VALERIE Manucher Vaziri. Syrian National. Based out of Karachi. On a wire picked up in Cairo he talks about componentry from a known source in Pakistan he's moving to an unnamed Gulf state.. BILL Iraq? VALERIE Vaziri's devoutly Shia. Iraq's controlled by the Sunni. Saddam's Sunni. There's no way this is Iraq. BILL They're all good Muslims right? VALERIE And Martin Luther King and the KKK are both Christian. BILL Great job. From Monday, I need you both eyes on Iraq. CUT TO: At the door, they shake hands. Mike and Valerie walk off. MIKE D.F.U? 19. VALERIE Don't fuck up. CUT TO: A framed photograph, of Joe walking in the Rose Garden with the forty first President, George HW Bush. "To Joe Wilson, with respect and Best Wishes, George Bush.. PRESIDENT V/O States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world... INT. JOE WILSON'S DEN. CHARLESTON TERRACE. WASHINGTION. DAY. CNN is on in the background, low. State of the Union Address, 2002. Joe, working on something, recording voice notes, half- watching the President over his papers. PRESIDENT V/O (ON CNN) They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred.. ACROSS THE ROOM -- beneath a wall of well-thumbed tomes, two year old twins, TREVOR and SAMANTHA are lost in play. Trevor hauls in the flex of a globe lamp on a top shelf. PRESIDENT They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic. CRASH! -- Joe turns as the shelf GIVES WAY, and an avalanche of books and keepsakes buries his kids. Hollers. Tears. JOE (Rushes over) Hey hey hey. Everybody OK? Let's take a look at you. Four arms. Four legs. No broken bones. He lugs them out. The front door opens. It's Heather the babysitter. HEATHER Hey kids! Joe I'm sorry I'm late. 20. JOE That's fine. Look guys. Heather's here. CUT TO: On TV, Live. The President crossing the White House Lawn, towards Marine One. As the kids play with Heather in the lounge, Joe makes a coffee in the kitchen, watching the President on TV as he mounts the ramp. The cabin door shuts tight. A wash of rotor blades. The chopper lifts off. Joe takes the coffee and walks out onto the deck. He looks up into the sky. A THRUMMING BUILDS. The deck shakes, the sky turns black as Marine One thunders over low. Deafening. CUT TO: CLOSEUP: SATELLITE IMAGES OF INSTALLATIONS IN A DESERT. Val takes her eye from a magnifying stand. INT. OPEN PLAN OFFICE, LANGLEY. LATE AT NIGHT No-one around. Alone, VALERIE, surrounded by piles of files and folders, scans pictures of military hardware, checks it against its corresponding aerial signature. VOICE (O.S.) How do you think she got the job? She cocks an ear. PUTTING ON THEIR COATS, two male analysts: ANALYST 1 Memo comes out saying we got two percent women in executive roles. It's quotas by another name. There's ten guys I could name could do the job better.. ANALYST 2 I wonder who's she's fucking. She freezes. -- SUDDENLY-- VOICE (MIKE, O.S) Don't you have a home to go to? She turns. MIKE, her director is there. He smiles. CUT TO: 21. TWO MINUTES LATER. In MIKE's office. She reading the document. MIKE DIA released the report Tuesday. WINPAC aren't buying and State kicked it back, but it's making waves in the Vice President's Office. (He looks at her) What do you think? VALERIE He's qualified. He's been there hundreds of times. Knows the arena inside out. MIKE You don't look overjoyed. VALERIE He's been working hard to build his business. Then there's the twins. Money's kinda tight right now. MIKE (He looks at her) We're at full stretch here. You know that better than anyone. He's helped us before. Could you ask him to come in? INT. MARBLE LOBBY, CIA HEADQUARTERS, LANGLEY. DAY. The vast lobby at Langley. Operatives, analysts, come and go in the hushed marble atrium. Joe in a dark suit, attache case, stares at the wall. Reads the inscription. "In Honor of Those Members of the Central Intelligence Agency Who Gave Their Lives in The Service of Their Country" FLASHBACK. INT. BEDROOM. 1997. DAY. Joe and Valerie lie in bed. Face to face. VALERIE You want to go out for breakfast. Or stay here? JOE I want to live with you. She looks into his eyes. A tear rolls out of her eye. 22. VALERIE There's something I have to tell you. PRESENT DAY -- The memorial on the North Wall. No names. Just rows and rows of anonymous black stars. Dead Covert Officers. FLASHBACK -- THE BEDROOM. VALERIE What are you thinking? JOE Is your name really Valerie? She smiles. VALERIE (O.S.) Joe? PRESENT DAY. LOBBY. LANGLEY. Joe turns. His wife is standing there. JOE (Brightly) Hey. He moves away from the memorial. In this unfamiliar context, this is slightly awkward. JOE Nice place you got here. Cosy. VALERIE (Smiles) I need to get you cleared. INT. ELEVATOR, CIA HEADQUARTERS, LANGLEY. DAY. A big VISITORS badge on Joe. Side by side. They go down. JOE You work in the basement? VALERIE (Deadpan) Actually. I work in Georgetown for Brewster Jennings. We're a small firm of Venture Capitalists. JOE That must be interesting work. 23. VALERIE It pays the rent. INT. BASEMENT, LANGLEY. DAY. Valerie leads Joe into a windowless room. MIKE. Five or six analysts. Agents from CIA and State Department. VALERIE This is Joe Wilson. Joe, this is Mike, the Deputy Chief of CPD. (They shake) I'll leave you guys to it. Businesslike, Valerie leaves. Joe sits. Silence. MIKE Mr Wilson, what can you tell us about Yellowcake? Joe looks around the room. Clears his throat. JOE I believe it's a concentrate obtained from uranium ore used to create fissile material for weapons programs. But I'm not a scientist. MIKE What about Niger? JOE The UN Human Development Index ranks Niger the number one Least Liveable country in the world. I started my Foreign Service there. As Ambassador to Gabon, I travelled back many times. Then as director of Africa policy for the NSC under President Clinton, I frequently visited, often met with Prime Minister Mayaki. I know the former foreign minister. I know the Minister of Mines. MIKE The Office of the Vice President has received a report concerning a memorandum of sale between the governments of Niger and Iraq for the purchase of five hundred tons of Yellowcake Uranium ore.. (He fixes Joe) (MORE) 24. MIKE (cont'd) I don't have to tell you how serious this allegation is. JOE WILSON No Sir, you don't. He leans forward. MIKE This is a request from the Vice President. Can you help us? ESTABLISHING: A LONE DC-8 FLIES ACROSS A CORAL PINK SKY. A DC-8 judders in low over hills surrounding Niamey airport. INSIDE --Joe, two days growth, blinks out the window. Below, a rusty burned out DC-8 which didn't make it. EXT. TAXI, NIGERIEN ROAD. DAY Joe, in the back of a hot, rickety Renault, rattling along the highway into town. Low earthen dwellings. Camel trains. INT. HOTEL ROOM, NAIMEY. DAY A tiny, hot cell. A sign on the bathroom door. "RED HOT SHOVER". Turns the ceiling fan on. Loud grinding. INT. BATHROOM. DAY. Joe lathers up his face to shave. He turns on the tap. No water. He looks at himself in the mirror. MINISTER (O.S) Bien revenue a Niger M. Wilson. EXT. OUTSIDE DUSTY BODEGA. DAY. Joe, unshaven, shakes hands with a 60 year old Nigerien. JOE Par la grace D'Allah. Comment allez vous, M. Bonzala ? INSIDE - We subtitle the mixture of French dialect and Hausa. MINISTER Last time we met I was Minister, you Ambassador. Now, thanks to Allah, we are free men. You're growing a beard, no? 25. JOE So it would seem. MINISTER So tell me. How can Niger help its old friend, America? INT. CONFERENCE ROOM, DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE. DAY. Several analysts sit around a table, including the LEAD ANALYST, PAUL. Two of them are the guys who were bad-mouthing Valerie. Another is JOE TURNER, a dough-faced offical from WINPAC (Weapons Intelligence Non Proliferaton and Control). TURNER (Reads) "In summer 2001 Iraq sought to purchase 60,000 high alloy 7075-T4 aluminum tubes manufactured in China. The high spec of these tubes led us to conclude they were intended for the enrichment of uranium. In August 2001 J. Turner.." That's me.. "flew to Vienna, to meet with IAEA scientists. Mr. Turner produced this report, aspects of which represents the CIA's present position." I'm happy to take questions. ANALYST The INR concluded late last year that these tubes were probably for artillery use, and the DOE agreed they exactly matched those used by Iraq for artillery rockets. PAUL Where are the tubes? TURNER WINPAC has them. We've examined them. This is my point. None of you guys has even seen the tubes. VALERIE I've seen them. Everyone looks at her. TURNER And when was that? 26. Valerie looks up. Slightly surprised by his tone. VALERIE When I seized them last year in Jordan. When I headed the covert team that intercepted them, bought back samples and delivered them to you guys at WINPAC. A couple of the analysts try not to smile. TURNER So I take it you're not a nuclear expert. These tubes are an EXACT match for those developed by German scientist Gernot Zippe in the 50s. Valerie turns to her notes from her reading. VALERIE You're right. I'm no nuclear expert. But Dr. Houston Wood, at Virginia U atomic facility is. He also knows Dr Zippe, who's 89 and lives in Austria, and he told him that the wall thickness of the Iraqi tubes was three or four times the thickness of his design. PAUL And the tubes are twice as long as Zippe's design. In fact the only similarity between his tubes and the alumumium tubes is that they're made of aluminium. VALERIE A metal that hasn't been used in gas centrifuges since 1952. The chauvanist analysts share a look of respect for Valerie. Still Turner doesn't give up. TURNER I went to Vienna. Canada. I've worked on this for months. They're centrifuges. Fact. PAUL So basically, they're your tubes and if we don't let you win you're going home. 27. TURNER That's pathetic. VALERIE Joe. No one is saying you're wrong here. But if you're right, it's huge. So we ask the question. Right? We have to ask the question. EXT. DESERT ROAD. DAY. Joe rides shotgun, in a 4X4, driven deep into the Sahara. JOE V/O Niger has two Uranium mines in the Sahara desert. One's flooded. The other's run by COGEMA, a French subsidiary, jointly controlled by the Japanese and Germans. A collossal earthworks defacing the flat, hot moonscape. Joe is escorted around the mines by a small team. JOE 500 tons of Yellowcake is not an off the books size transaction, it represents a 40% production increase in the nation's annual output of uranium. A sale that size would leave a huge paper trail. INT. HOTEL. DAY. Joe sits on his bed, under the noisy fan, making notes. JOE (V.O.) Any documentation would by law have to be signed by the Prime Minister, Foreign minister, and the Minister of the mines... But say it was an off the books deal.. EXT. ROADSIDE VILLAGE. DAY. The long road back from the mines the previous day, Joe's Land Rover pulls over. Everyone comes out to see them. JOE (V.O.) How do you hide the transportation of 500 tons of anything, let alone lightly refined uranium? (MORE) 28. JOE (V.O.) (cont'd) You're talking fifty semi tractor trucks on one road through villages where nothing passed for months except maybe one bush taxi. It would be the biggest event for months. To say they forgot, it's like kids forgetting Christmas. ESTABLISHING-- JOE AND VALERIE'S HOUSE. NIGHT. INSIDE -- Joe sits at the dining room table, debriefed by two CIA agents, over Chinese take out. JOE The droughts of the 80s and 90s were met by millions of dollars of U.S Aid, which continues to this day. It just doesn't make sense Niger would compromise this lifeline. For that reason, and the others I've given, it's my opinion that the sale couldn't happen. CUT TO: Joe shows them out. Shuts the door. Valerie appears. JOE What happens next? VALERIE They write a report. Give it to the analysts. It'll be re-written, then kicked upstairs where it'll be thrown in with whoever else's report they got- Joe snorts derisively. JOE You guys are hysterical. I can't believe you're actually gonna send someone else all the way out there to ask exactly the same questions. VALERIE You can't compile Intelligence from a single source? That's not Intelligence. That's an opinion. JOE I can save the CIA some air fare here. There isn't a snowflakes chance in hell this thing happened. 29. VALERIE Say who? JOE Says me. VALERIE What if you're wrong? One guy says it's true. It's not true. Lots of guys say it's true, it's still not true. It's intelligence. It's slow. Painstaking. But it works. Checks and balances. JOE What am I, a check or a balance? VALERIE Probably neither. You're a teeny tiny weeny cog in a giant machine. But you did your job. You should feel good. They count on that. That's why they don't pay you. JOE I'm not feeling that 007 right now. She puts her arms around his neck. Kisses him sexily. VALERIE I can get the kids to make you a medal, if it'll help. JOE Us double oh's are more about the gratuitous sex. VALERIE I'll see what I can do. They start making out. CUT TO: TELEVISION FOOTAGE OF A PRESS CONFERENCE. JOURNALIST Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? 30. INT. CHIEF'S OFFICE. DAY VALERIE leans over an analyst's desk as together they study photographs of a Syrian man in his sixties on the analysts screen.. The TV is on in the corner of the computer screen.. PRESIDENT ON TV The idea of focusing on one person indicates people don't understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. So I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you... Valerie looks up and stops. ACROSS THE FLOOR SCOOTER LIBBY, his assistant and TWO AIDES, walk past. Heads turn. VALERIE Why is the OVP here? INT. MIKE'S OFFICE. DAY. The Deputy director hears a knock. It's Valerie. VALERIE Mike. The Vice President's men are here. MIKE What the fuck? INT. BRIEFING ROOM. DAY. No windows. A lone analyst sits sweating bullets. LIBBY, spectacles on, thick folder open on his knee.. LIBBY My name is I. Lewis Libby. I'm the Chief of Staff to The Vice President. You are? ANALYST Dave. I'm an analyst. In non- proliferation. LIBBY What can you tell the Vice President about aluminium tubes? INT. CIA MESS HALL, 2ND FLOOR, LANGLEY. DAY Valerie and Mike queue up in the mess with JIM PAVITT, 52 the Deputy Director of the CIA. 31. PAVITT Relax Mike. The Veep's just dotting the i's. MIKE Bullshit Jim. The only time a Vice President comes to Langley is to cut a fucking ribbon. PAVITT Look. Cheney doesn't trust us. This shit with Dick goes back thirty years. It'll blow over. (He turns to Valerie) Where are we on Iraq? VALERIE Behind the curve Sir. Most of the intel is outdated. We don't have a single operative or asset in the country. PAVITT What about geo-satellite imaging? VALERIE With respect sir, you can't look at this problem from space and make a call. PAVITT So talk to the defectors. VALERIE The defectors are unreliable. Most are supplied through a former asset the agency's had on a burn notice since `95. It's a racket. They walk in and get paid to say whatever the Pentagon wants to hear. PAVITT So we're blind. VALERIE We need sources we can rely on. We need to get in close. PAVITT How close? VALERIE Inside. 32. BILL Jim. Val thinks she can get us inside the weapons program. Pavitt looks at her. PAVITT How? CUT TO: Rows and rows of stationary. Shelves filled pads, pens. Pencils. Photocopy paper. Shelves twenty feet high. INT. PAPER SUPPLIES AND STATIONERY SHOP. DAY Valerie selects a pad and a pencil and approaches the counter where a lugubrious woman in a pink Sari is doing Su Doku. Valerie pays for her notebook and steps out into --- EXT. BUSY STREET. CAIRO, EGYPT. DAY The streets throng with traffic. Somalian taxi drivers. Central Africans ferrying exotic produce. Egyptians smoking apple tobacco. Colors. Bustle. A different world. Valerie, head shrouded in a scarf, puts the notebook in her bag and pushes her way along the crowded street, buzzing with scooters and pedestrians. She steps through an archway into -- EXT. SULTANATE COURTYARD, CAIRO UNIVERSITY. DAY An ancient cloister filled with an excited clamor. Fresh faced students pile into a lecture theater. She follows. PROFESSOR AZIZ(V.O.) The warping of the extra dimension is analogous to the warping of spacetime in the vicinity of a massive object eg: a black hole. INT. WOOD PANELLED LECTURE HALL. CAIRO UNIVERSITY. DAY Wrapt Silence. Valerie sits at the back. She opens her new notebook and listens. ON STAGE -- An old Middle-Eastern professor is giving a lecture with the help of an over-head projector. Giant shadow hands deftly trace algebraic formulae onto projector. 33. PROFESSOR AZIZ Red-shifting, generates a large ratio of energy scales so that the natural scale at one end of the extra dimension is much larger. Valerie watches. PROFESSOR AZIZ (V.O.) It's an honor to meet you at last Dr. Harper. EXT. CLOISTERS OF CAIRO UNIVERSITY. DAY The prof walks with Valerie talking excitedly. PROFESSOR AZIZ I was unable to attend your String- Gravity seminar at MIT but I read a transcript. Truly groundbreaking work. VALERIE Thank you. PROFESSOR AZIZ The Faculty have just moved me, so you must excuse the mess. He shows Valerie up a stone staircase and through a door. INT. BOOKLINED STUDY. CAIRO UNIVERSITY. DAY Books everywhere. Lots still in boxes. PROFESSOR AZIZ My old rooms were on the other side of the courtyard. They were smaller but I got the morning sunlight. Will you settle for Peppermint tea. It's fresh. VALERIE Thank you. The professor hands Valerie a cup of mint tea and sits. PROFESSOR AZIZ Tell me Dr. Harper, did you read my latest paper on quarks. I cite your 1995 essay more than once. I would be very intrigued to know what you made of my findings.. 34. She sits forward. VALERIE Sir, Dr Harper is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received a call yesterday requesting she stay home for 48 hours. The professor blinks. Taken aback. PROFESSOR AZIZ I don't understand. Who are you? VALERIE I'm sorry for misleading you. But I'm here to ask you the same question. (He stops) Because you are not Professor Aziz. He stands there. Thrown. VALERIE I'm sorry to surprise you like this Sir. Your name is Doctor Harif Al Fallari. You were born in Basra. The old man looks perplexed. Even a little amused. He sits. PROFESSOR AZIZ Well. This is indeed a strange morning. Madam, there seems to have been a mistake. My name is Said Uhmah Aziz. I am a theoretical physicist. I model space. I've never been to Basra. I'm a teacher. I'd like to be of assistance. But I'm afraid I can't help you. VALERIE So you're not Doctor Fallari. PROFESSOR AZIZ Madam. I've never even heard of this man. VALERIE You were not lead engineer at the Osirak nuclear installation outside Tikrit. You were never captured by the Mukhbarat escaping to Syria. You didn't spend three years in the Abu Dhan jail. 35. PROFESSOR AZIZ This is absurd. VALERIE You weren't tortured. Broken. You didn't finally escape and arrive here in Cairo with nothing. PROFESSOR AZIZ No. VALERIE Dr. Al Fallari had two daughters. They were taken by Uday Hussein's private guard. He never saw them again. He stares at the floor. VALERIE That didn't happen. They never existed. He remains motionless. Valerie watches him closely. VALERIE I need names. Of your colleagues in the weapons programmes. The lives of hundreds of thousands of your people may depend upon it. He looks up at Valerie tears in his eyes VALERIE I know Tarif. I know what happened. He walks over to the window. SLOWLY he takes off his jacket. His shirt, pulls it off over his head and turns his back to her. He's been mutilated and burned all up his back. Slowly he turns. Deep scars. Burns. PROFESSOR You know nothing. EXT. CAIRO STREET. DUSK. Sunset. Traders are packing up. Valerie hurries into -- INT. SAFE HOUSE. CAIRO. DUSK. ..up some rickety stairs and unlocks a graffiti covered door. Inside she takes out the notepad, her heart beating fast. On the page, A LIST OF NAMES. 36. She pulls a ruggedized laptop from under the bed and pushes the plug into a bare wires socket. It fizzes. She starts to type the names into the computer. CUT TO: ESTABLISHING. RAINY LANGLEY. DAY. INT. CHIEF OF CPD'S OFFICE. DAY. MIKE at his desk. His secretary pops her head round the door. SECRETARY They're back. INT. BRIEFING ROOM. DAY. An analyst sits opposite Scooter Libby. He's so nervous he can barely open his eyes. ANALYST 1 The Iraqis were trying to buy the tubes off the internet. They spent three million dollars weather- proofing the tubes. Plus the tubes are roughly twice too long. Now you could argue that that's to disguise them, you could saw them in half. That's sixty thousand tubes. (Mimes sawing) I mean whew. Saddam's gonna get the mother of all blisters.. Laughs. Libby stares, unsmiling. Keeps sawing. Wishing to God he'd never started. OUTSIDE. The door opens and the analyst, white as a sheet, comes out. A couple of colleagues are waiting outside. ANALYST 2 How was it? ANALYST 1 Don't make jokes. ANALYST 1 drifts his way back to his desk. ANALYST 2 swallows, and disappears into the `interrogation' room. INT. BATHROOM. DAY. PAUL, the chief analyst, comes out of the stall. ANALYST 2 is there, throwing up in the sink. 37. ANALYST 2 He thinks I don't know how serious it is.. weeks and weeks of fifteen hour days, we've gone back over and over it. PAUL OK. I'll handle this. CUT TO: Scooter listens patiently to PAUL, the chief analyst. PAUL And so apart from all the scepticism surrounding the specification, the analysis from the IAEA which I believe is numbered in the report.. (Stops. Changes tack) Mr Libby. Energy department nuclear scientists are among the most boring people on the planet. They can talk about gas centrifuges until you want to jump out of a window. And maybe once every ten years someone comes along and says "so, tell me about gas centrifuges". That's literally the only time you should listen to these guys. If they say an aluminium tube is not for a gas centrifuge it's like a fish talking about water. We've been over this data with you now five, six times. And... We don't really know how you want us to play this.. Libby listens. He nods. Waits. LIBBY Let me level with you here Paul. I don't know what these tubes are for. From everything you're saying, there could be something to this, but very likely not, right? PAUL Exactly. LIBBY May I ask a question? When you say we don't really know how to play this, what do you mean? 38. PAUL (Stops. Turns white) I'm just saying I don't know how to say it any other way than that- LIBBY Except you didn't say `I' you said `we'. So you and the others have discussed how to "play" these briefings. Why does the CIA feel the need to play these briefings? PAUL No. I mean that.. Ok. I didn't mean what I just said. LIBBY Which part. The last part. Or other things too. PAUL I'm a getting a little confused- LIBBY You want me to come back? PAUL No. GOD no. The temperature drops five degrees. LIBBY You don't know why I'm here do you? In 1991 the United States invaded Iraq, and afterwards weapons inspectors discovered Saddam was six months off enriching uranium to sufficiently high specification to make a nuclear bomb. He had fissile material. And not a single person at the CIA, from the DCI down to the janitor had the slightest clue that such a program even existed. So now, one decade on, are you telling me that you're 100% sure these tubes are not intended to create nuclear weapons? PAUL I..Sir..OK. With intelligence, nothing's 100 percent. 39. LIBBY So. What? Are you.. Ninety nine percent sure? Ninety eight? PAUL You can't put an exact figure. You can't be that precise. LIBBY But if you had to say, could you say you're ninety seven percent sure? Is there a three percent chance you've got this wrong? Or four? Or five? Still pretty good odds. You like those odds Paul? You willing to put your name to that. Are you ready to make that call? PAUL I don't make the call, Sir-. LIBBY (Fixing him) Yes you do Paul. Each time you interpret a piece of data. Each time you choose a "maybe" over a "perhaps" you make a call. A decision. And right now you're making lots of little decisions adding up to a big decision and out there's a real world where millions of people depend upon you being right. But what if there's a one percent chance you're wrong. Can you say for sure you'll take that chance and state, as a fact, that this equipment is not intended for a nuclear weapons programme? The analyst sits frozen. LIBBY Do you know what one percent of the population of this country is? It's three million, two hundred and forty thousand souls. PAUL Sir. We're not machines. We.. It.. We look at the evidence, we game it out. Not everyone agrees all the time. It's a process. 40. LIBBY It's a process. PAUL Yes. LIBBY And not everyone agrees. PAUL Exactly. LIBBY Who doesn't agree? SFX: A VOLLEY OF GUNFIRE. FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER. AND ANOTHER. EXT. ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETARY. DAY Full military funeral, in the rain. A hundred mourners from Langley. Some uniformed. A coffin draped in the flag CUT TO: A hymn is sung. In the bleechers, the analyst from the meeting earlier, pauses in the break between verses and squints through the rain at the bank of seats across the grave. OVER THERE is THE LANGLEY TOP BRASS. JIM PAVITT. Next to him, GEORGE TENET, DCI. Next to him...... of all people.... JOE TURNER, (the analyst from WINPAC). ANALYST What the fuck is Joe Turner doing next to the DCI? ANALYST 2 Didn't you hear? Friday the DCI took him to the White House. He briefed the President on Aluminum tubes. ANALYST You're fucking kidding me. Turner is over there, singing the hymn, rubbing shoulders with the good and the great. AT THE BACK -- Valerie stands with a number of other agents, MIKE and BILL, her Chief. A lone bugler and marine drummer beat out a last post. A widow weeps. 41. BILL (V.O.) Its a dead end. CUT TO: Valerie walks with the Chief and other senior agents away from the graveside. BILL So we've got a list of names. The Mukhbarat watch the scientists night and day. Their houses are bugged. Their friends are followed. TACTICAL COMMANDER Say we drop in a light weight tac team outside the city. BILL You get through the checkpoints and roadblocks. You show up in my bedroom in the dead of the night with an armed tac team ask me to help out Uncle Sam? I'm going to react unpredictably. TACTICAL COMMANDER What about forcible extraction of two or three of the main targets? VALERIE No. We've got 29 names. I want to get to them all. TACTICAL COMMANDER How? You can't use the inspectors. You can't use tac. The wall's too high Val. What are you going to do. Train a mouse? VALERIE Maybe. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT. Joe opens his eyes. Rolls across. He's alone. INT. KITCHEN, THE WILSON HOME. NIGHT Joe comes downstairs...Valerie is by the front door, dressed, cinched black mack, suitcase. VALERIE Hey, did I wake you up? 42. JOE It's three forty five.. VALERIE I gotta go. I have to be at the airport in forty five minutes. Joe, still half-asleep, catches up. JOE Well...how long this time? I mean... Do we need childcare for tomorrow- VALERIE I left a post-it by the lamp. Its all on the post-it. JOE Right. Its on the post-it. VALERIE I didn't want to wake you. (Senses something) Are you OK? JOE We've been leaving post-its for each other for months now.. we talk via Post-It. That fridge is like a dead letter drop. (Stops. Laughs) Jesus. Listen to me!. I sound like an old... Some- (He bangs the door) I don't know where you go. Who you meet. If you're in some jail, or lying in some ditch in Jordan, Beirut. And if you go missing, I can't tell anyone because you were never there. I'd never know what happened. I don't know where you go. VALERIE I'm going to Cleveland. He stops. Thunder-robbed. VALERIE I'll be home tonight. (Then) It's on the Post-It. 43. She kisses him. They look at one another. JOE Have a nice day. She shuts the door, leaving Joe alone. He walks through to the kitchen, looks at the fridge, one by one he takes all the notes off, then, deliberately, drops them in the bin. INT. EMERGENCY ROOM, EUCLID CLINIC, CLEVELAND. DAY A busy ER. A female doctor shakes hands with grateful parents. She bends down to talk to a boy, cast on his arm. VALERIE watches from a distance. EXT. SUBURBAN HOME, MORELAND HILLS, CLEVELAND. DAY A car park. The female doctor gets out of her car, with grocery bags, and goes toward her house. ACROSS THE STREET -- VALERIE watches from a parked rental. CUT TO: As the doctor finds the right key, she suddenly turns to see-- VALERIE Dr. Al Haddad? Is there somewhere we can speak? INT. STARBUCKS, SHOPPING MALL, SUBURBS OF CLEVELAND. NIGHT In the foreground some goth kids play with their ipods. In the window, Valerie and Dr. Sawsan Al Haddad sip coffee. VALERIE How long is it since you saw your brother? SAWSAN 1989. I attended a medical convention over there. Before that, in `83, he came here for an engineering conference. Twice in twenty five years. We try to stay in contact. It's difficult. VALERIE Would you like to go back and see him? SAWSAN holds her gaze. 44. SAWSAN You want me to become a spy. VALERIE We need to ask Sa'ad some questions. Do you think he would answer them? SAWSAN I'm a doctor. I work hard. I'm also a mother. I have a small girl and I'm all she has. VALERIE We can help your brother. Right now he is extremely valuable to us. SAWSAN And to Saddam. The Mukbarat watch him night and day. VALERIE He could come here Sawsan. He's an expert physicist. He'd have a job, his children, his family would be safe. You, your daughter could see him whever you want. Sawsan. Can you help us? SAWSAN I won't do anything to help you. I don't know you. I would only do this for Sa'ad. VALERIE Then do it for Sa'ad. Valerie watches her. SAWSAN What would I have to do? ESTABLISHING. SHIMMERING CITYSCAPE OF AMMAN. JORDAN. NIGHT. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. NIGHT. Westerners mix with Mid-Easterners. A tea trolley crosses the floor and disappears into a service elevator. INT. TWELVE FLOOR CORRIDOR./HOTEL SUITE. NIGHT. The elevator opens and a tea trolley stops outside room 1201. The door is opened by Valerie's colleague. Ali. It is wheeled inside. As Ali signs, cups of tea are poured. 45. He carries one into THE BEDROOM and hands it to Sawsan, who sits on the edge of a bed wearing a long black traditional Abaya. There are two other agents there, with Valerie. One of them is holding a notebook.. AGENT 1 The pages of this notebook are fast burning. You write on them like normal, but if you need to destroy them in an emergency.. He whips out a zippo. Sets fire to one. It's gone in a flash. AGENT 1 You have two of these in your luggage. Now this is the only pen we want you to use.. The other agent shows her a pen. AGENT 2 The ink in this pen is visible for 10 seconds. Only when given the the correct chemical fixative can it be read. SAWSAN - I am not taking any of this. If the Mukhbarat find any of this they will do things to me you cannot imagine. Tell me what you need to know. I will memorise it. AGENT 2 Ma'am, we have 50 very specific questions, some extremely technical. SAWSAN You have 206 different bones in your body. Do you want their names in english, latin or arabic? They look to Val for a decision. She can't help but smile. CUT TO: Later. The agents have gone. Just Sawsan and Valerie. VALERIE How do you feel? She's trying to drink her tea, but she's shaking. Val takes her hand and silently grips it. 46. VALERIE Just remember, if anyone asks you anything, if anyone stops you stay calm and tell the truth. You're just visiting your brother. Keep it simple and keep to the truth. SAWSAN Except it's not the truth. How do you do it? She searches Valerie's face. SAWSAN How do you be someone you're not? How do you lie to someone? To their face. How do you do it? Valerie looks at her. Before she can answer we -- CUT TO: OUTSIDE -- Ali checks his watch. Knocks on the door. Opens it. Valerie and Sawsan look up from the edge of bed. ALI It's time. EXT. QUEEN ALIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. AMMAN. JORDAN. A taxi cab stops and SAWSAN is helped out by the driver. From a car across the street -- Valerie watches: Sawsan rolls her suitcase into the terminal. At the door she glances behind her...and disappears inside. Ali and Valerie get out the car looking every bit like tourists, suitcases, sunglasses, guidebook etc. INT. QUEEN ALIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. AMMAN. JORDAN. Valerie and Ali enter the revolving doors and follow her at a distance across the shiny beige and gold marble floors. By the the check in desk for the Gulf Air flight to Baghdad stand TWO MOUSTACHIOED MEN in dark suits. Valerie and Ali have stopped in a electronic goods store. ALI Mukhbarat. Watching the flight desk on this side. 47. Valerie aims her zoom lens camera and as if appraising it as a purchase, firing off some shots of the Iraqi agents. Sawsan reaches the desk and is stopped by the two men. They watch her talking to the men, handing over her passport. CUT TO: The Iraqi agent stares at her. He asks a question in arabic No subtitles. Sawsan responds. She remains cool, almost disinterested. The men exchange sentences of arabic. BACK TO: Valerie watches from a distance. Heart beating. At last they allow Sawsan through, she checks onto the flight. CUT TO: Sawsan walks through to board the plane. Valerie watches her finally disappear beneath a huge advertising image. CUT TO: INT. ALI'S HOTEL ROOM, GRAND HYATT. NIGHT. Ali kneels on the floor and begins his prayer to Allah. CUT TO: CU: SNEAKERS RUNNING ON A TREADMILL. A LITHE BODY PUSHING IT. INT. GYMNASIUM, GRAND HYATT AMMAN. NIGHT VALERIE runs.. She looks at her reflection in the window, and the lights beyond. CLOSE ON HER FACE -- FLASHBACK. THE HOTEL ROOM EARLIER: VALERIE sitting on the edge of the bed with SAWSAN. The answer to her question: VALERIE You have to know. Know why you're lying. And never forget the truth.. BACK TO: Valerie running. She pushes hard on the treadmill. Pouring the stress out of her. CNN is on the TV above her. CONDOLEEZZA RICE on WOLF BLITZER. 48. TELEVISION (REAL FOOTAGE) BLITZER We read in the New York Times today a story that says that Saddam Hussein is closer to acquiring nuclear weapons. Slowly she stops running. Turns the volume up.. RICE We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. That there have been shipments into Iraq of high-quality aluminum tubes that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs.. VALERIE freezes. CUT TO: TELEVISION (REAL FOOTAGE) -- FOX NEWS SUNDAY WITH BRIT HUME COLIN POWELL And as we saw in reporting just this morning, he is still trying to acquire some of the specialized aluminum tubing one needs to develop centrifuges that would give you an enrichment capability. CUT TO: TELEVISION (REAL FOOTAGE) -- MEET THE PRESS. RUSSERT Aluminium tubes? CHENEY Specifically aluminum tubes. There's a story in The New York Times this morning. I want to attribute The Times. I don't want to talk about specific intelligence sources but it's now public that he has been seeking to acquire the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge. MIKE (O.S.) It's a coordinated leak.. 49. INT. VALERIE'S ROOM. Valerie on the phone, soaked in sweat, watches Meet the Press on cable. She's on the phone to -- -- MIKE IN HIS OFFICE IN LANGLEY on the phone to VALERIE: MIKE Someone in the OVP leaked to the New York Times and now they're across the networks quoting the leak. "Smoking gun". "Mushroom cloud". They're using the same words. It's co-ordinated. VALERIE I'm coming home. CUT TO: TELEVISION (REAL FOOTAGE) BLITZER (ON TV) Is Iraq's regime of Saddam Hussein right now a clear and present danger to the United States? CONDOLEEZZA (ON CNN) There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a danger to the United States and to its allies, to our interests. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. BLACKOUT. ESTABLISHING. CHARLSTON TERRACE. NIGHT. From the Wilsons, a homely glow emanates. INT. JOE AND VAL'S HOUSE. NIGHT. A dinner party. Dirty plates, red wine, late night. Joe, Val and their friends. Joe is preparing to light a cigar. JOE WILSON OK. Number one I always open the window and close the door.. 50. VALERIE You can still smell it. JOE You want me to roll up a wet towel? Like a teenager smoking in his bedroom. Maybe sandbag my study? VALERIE JOE What's wrong with the deck? You used to smoke like crazy when I met you. JOE Oh right. Middle of winter. It's minus ten degrees. The whole point- VALERIE Put on a coat. JOE Valerie. Steve. Help me out. Val. The whole point of a cigar you gotta get a little Winston Churchill vibe goin'. Slippers. A crackling fire. STEVE Musty books, slippers. Maybe a faithful hound. JOE WILSON Exactly. You can't be freezing your balls off in a GOOSEDOWN alone in the dark. VALERIE Don't think Churchill. Think Scott of the Antarctic. JOE That's it. I quit. He tosses the cigar down. She kisses his nose. VALERIE JEFF Honey Joe that's terrific It's about personal choice. news. I'm so proud of you. It's Joe's personal choice to gas his kids.. JOE WILSON My father smoked cigars at the dinner table for forty years. And look at me. 51. Joe feigns a cough. Laughter. Joe slaps his sides manfully. CUT TO: LATER -- The conversation has turned to politics. DIANA STEVE It was on Blitzer and Meet It came from the Times. Judy the Press. All over the news. Miller. The New York Times. Exactly. SUE Can I ask a dumb question. What is an aluminum tube? JEFF STEVE They have the tubes Saddam They're for centifuges. For was using to make a bomb. enriching uranium. FRED How? Who knows what they are? DIANA STEVE Everybody knows they are. The question is what else does he have? JEFF Did you read about this Valerie? VALERIE I was in Europe on business last week. I missed it. JEFF Basically Saddam bought all these tubes. And we've nailed him. We got them. They're packed with uranium. STEVE They're not packed with uranium. JEFF Right. They're for purifying it. The bomb comes later. It's how you boil it up it to make the big one. DIANA FRED Look out Israel. Says who? It's a bunch of tubes. JEFF Joe you know about this stuff, what do you think they're for. These tubes. What's your hunch? 52. All eyes on Joe. He tales off his glasses. Makes them wait. JOE WILSON Well Jeff. I don't know anything about these tubes. I'm not qualified. But I suppose the real question here is- BILL interrupts, stealing Joe's limelight. FRED It's a pretext! 50% of Americans think Saddam blew up the Towers- The table erupts in discussion, leaving Joe marooned. Valerie spots it instantly, as he broods. DIANA He's a threat. You can't tell me he's not a threat. LISA He's mad. Like Hitler. If we'd stopped Hitler in the thirties- Joe sits there. Fuming. FRED He's not Hitler. He's Saddam. We put him there. Why? It suited us. He's our fault. Always was. Right on cue, Joe rounds on the hapless FRED. JOE WILSON Have you met him? Fred. Have you met Saddam? Have you looked him in the eye? Did he threaten you? Did he threaten to kill you? You don't know Saddam. You don't know what you're talking about. Joe gets up. Joe walks out. DIANA JEFF So. What's for dessert? (To himself) "I may be some time".. VALERIE FRED I'm sorry Fred. I thought we were just talking. JEFF What is this? Meet the Press? 53. LISA Val's made a Lemon Meringue. DIANA FRED Yes please. Try and stop me. CUT TO: Valerie comes into the kitchen. Sue follows her. SUE Mmm...That smells good. Shall I get some bowls. VALERIE Thank Sue. Bottom cupboard. SUE We have a rule at home. No politics at the table. It always ends in a squabble. I mean, nobody knows what's going on over there. At the end of the day, who really knows? VALERIE You're right Sue. Who knows? CUT TO: INT. ARRIVALS SADDAM INTERNATIONAL. DAY Alone, Sawsan rolls her small suitcase across the polished floor past a group of Iraqi soldiers. A Saddam-a-like in a dark suit takes her passport. His eyes bore into her. PASSPORT CONTROL (in arabic) Its her. MUKHBARAT OFFICER Al Haddad? He takes her suitcase from her. HEART THUMPING. He leads her out of the queue, down a strip lit corridor and into a windowless room in bowels of the airport. MUKHBARAT OFFICER Wait here. He shuts the door. Sawsan tries to control her breathing. CUT TO: 54. Hands search through her luggage. They unwrap a framed photograph of SAWSAN and her daughter, smiling. The officer turns it over in his hands. CUT TO: The officer returns with her bags. Drops them on the floor. OFFICER Wait here. CUT TO: A door opens. Sawsan appears. On the other side, there stands a tall Iraqi man. Her relief is enormous. They embrace. SA'AD How is my little sister? SAWSAN Sa'ad! I am so happy to see you. INT/EXT. MOVING CAR - BAGHDAD STREETS. DAY Sa'ad drives a battered dusty mercedes through the streets. SA'AD I've a friend in security services. I've been a government employee for 25 years, there has to be some advantage. You can wait all day. Sawsan smiles at her brother. EXT. LARGE DILAPIDATED FAMILY HOUSE, MANSOUR, BAGHDAD.DAY An extended family of great uncles and aunts, grand children and cousins greet Sawsan's arrival. Getting out of the car she is surrounded by hugs and tears and laughter. Sawsan removes the framed photograph of her and her daughter. It is cooed over then given pride of place on the mantel. INT. KITCHEN, AL TAWFIQ HOUSE. LATE AT NIGHT Sawsan and her brother are alone in the kitchen washing up after the big welcome home meal. His five year old daughter watches from the stairs, fascinated by her american aunt. SAWSAN The house looks very different. 55. SA'AD It's falling down. In `93 they bombed government buildings here. The foundations are shattered. SAWSAN Sa'ad I need to speak- He holds up his hand and shakes his head. SA'AD (speaking normally) ..I have been meaning to repaint the exterior.. Saad keeps a finger to his lips. Fear in his eyes. SA'AD ..but it is difficult to find the time when I am so busy at work..but the gardens are still the same as when we were children. SAWSAN The gardens yes of course, I would like to see them. EXT. BROKEN SUMMER HOUSE, GARDEN MANSOUR. NIGHT Sawsan and her brother speak low. He seems very nervous. SAWSAN They can help you if you get out to the Kurdish zone. SA'AD (exasperated) I am watched Sawsan. If I drive even twenty minutes north of Baghdad they will stop me. SAWSAN They've given me questions for you. SA'AD What questions? SAWSAN (Closes eyes) How close is your program to a warhead? When and where is the first test scheduled? How much 235- grade uranium do you have? Identify other scientists in the program. (MORE) 56. SAWSAN (cont'd) Who in the military controls the program? Which of the- (opens her eyes) What is it? Sa'ad stares at her in disbelief. SA'AD They do not know? SAWSAN What Sa'ad? SA'AD The program was destroyed in 1991. The Americans destroyed it, they know that. My god..what else? SAWSAN How advanced is the centrifuge facility? Which method are you using to separate fissile isotopes? SA'AD This is insane. We don't have spare parts to keep a tank on the road. I have to work at a plant which develops fertilizer. They know. The inspectors are back. They know this. They must know. INT. DULLES AIRPORT SECURITY. DAY Travellers throng. All nationalities. Coming and going. Joe queues at security, holding his shoes in one hand and a briefcase in the other. A TV screen nearby burbles over: PRESIDENT (ON SCREEN) Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.. INT. LANGLEY BASEMENT. NIGHT. Ali comes in to Valerie. Puts a file on her desk. ALI You need to see this.. 57. INT. LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. DAY It's snowing heavily. Joe is met by a man in his 20s. STUDENT Mr Wilson. Jason Neal. How was your flight? CUT TO: INT. CORRIDOR. NIGHT. Ali follows VALERIE down the corridor. She has the file. VALERIE We need Mike to see this. And Bill. CUT TO: INT. UNIVERSITY OF BOSTON FRANKLIN THEATER. NIGHT. APPLAUSE. Joe sits on stage with three academic types. In the hundred seater auditorium, just a couple dozen or so students. PROFESSOR Ambassador Wilson is the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein. In 1990, when Saddam threatened to execute anyone sheltering foreigners, Wilson appeared at a press conference wearing a noose around his neck, declaring, "If the choice is to allow Americans to be taken hostage or be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope." Saddam backed down and Wilson evacuated several thousand. He came home and was taken to the Oval Office where the President introduced him to the War Cabinet as an American hero. JOE That's not quite true. It wasn't the Oval Office it was the Roosevelt Room. Laughter. INT. CORRIDOR. CPD. LANGLEY. DAY Valerie walks with MIKE and ALI, briefing him. 58. VALERIE Sawsan's brother worked with five hundred scientists at the Safa factory. In `91 it was blanket bombed by B52s. Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son in law, kept the scientists together, threatening to kill them if they tried to leave. But sanctions destroyed the economy, and when Kamel was executed in `95, the team just drifted apart. They're all say the same thing Mike. Everyone. BACK TO: THE AUDITORIUM. A nervous history major stands. STUDENT Does Saddam pose an imminent threat to National Security? JOE I haven't seen the intelligence. I'm not qualified to comment. We have intelligence services working hard to assess just this. But I have met Saddam. I've looked him in the eye, so I can tell you what I saw. During a particularly vicious period of bloodletting in the late eighties, Saddam was asked by his foreign minister why he had executed a certain official who had been a loyal supporter. He said he would rather kill a friend in error than allow an enemy to live. For me, that is the mark of a monster. VOICE - SERGEANT AT ARMS Mr Speaker, the President of the United States! INT. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. NIGHT. Through a scrum of pumped-up Representatives, an exalted George Walker Bush makes his way to the podium. 59. PRESIDENT Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, fellow citizens: Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead. INT. LOGAN AIRPORT. NIGHT. STUDENT We'd like you to have this coffee mug. And some Pennants. For your kids. Thank you so much for coming and speaking to us. Joe shakes the kid's hand and walks towards Departures. INT. LOGAN AIRPORT. NIGHT. Joe walks underneath a TV screen playing: PRESIDENT (ON TV) We know that Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America... Joe looks up at DEPARTURES: "AA22 DULLES. CANCELLED." Resigned, he looks at his watch. INT. PAVITT'S OFFICE. NIGHT. VALERIE, MIKE, ALI, BILL all sit in JIM PAVITT's OFFICE. PAVITT So you got thirty nuclear scientists interrogated by Iraqis, inside Iraq, who are all saying the same thing. BILL Jim, these people took a great risk- PAVITT To bring us what? I could have saved us the air-fare- BILL The White House is getting STOVEPIPED. (MORE) 60. BILL (cont'd) Someone is cherry picking raw data and serving it up to the press as fact. And then they look to us to confirm it. It's bullshit. JIM PAVITT (With intent) You know we can bark about this all night. But that's all we're doing. Barking. You, me, all of us.. We're guard dogs. We can bark and bark, but at the end of the day, someone's gotta listen. Because it's not our house. Even if it is on fire. CUT TO: A TV in the corner of the Starbucks concession plays: PRESIDENT (ON TV) Today the gravest danger facing America and the world is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. JOE WILSON Can I get an American please. Just a regular American? PRESIDENT (ON TV) U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Joe glances at the TV as he pays. JOE WILSON Thank you. PRESIDENT (ON TV) From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. CUT TO: Joe sits amongst stranded passengers, most asleep. ON TV: the President. Joe sips his coffee. Grimaces. He looks tired. 61. PRESIDENT (ON TV) The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. JOE stares, motionless, at the screen. The only one awake. PRESIDENT (ON TV) Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Joe doesn't blink. PRESIDENT (ON TV) This nation fights reluctantly, because we know the cost, and we dread the days of mourning that always come. We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended. PUBLIC ADDRESS Ladies and Gentlemen Flight 22 to Dulles is boarding immediately at Gate 20. We apologize for the delay due to adverse weather conditions- Everybody wakes up. Starts to move. Joe stays seated. PRESIDENT We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving god behind all of life and all of history. May he guide us now, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Thank you. JOE is motionless. ALONE. Staring at the screen. CUT TO: 62. INT. LANGLEY MESS. DAY. With some colleagues, Valerie in the mess watching -- COLIN POWELL'S PERFORMANCE in New York at the U.N. Aluminium tubes. Yellowcake. The Nuclear program. She watches motionless. She looks at Mike. INT. SA'AD'S HOUSE. BAGHDAD. NIGHT. Sa'ad sits in his kitchen while his wife plays with the children next door. HE IS WATCHING THE SAME THING: Colin Powell in the U.N. He catches his wife's eye through the open door. Slowly he shakes his head. Our eye moves off - across the TV - past the photo of SAWSAN and daughter - out of the window to the street outside. Cars. Buses. Stalls. Children playing. The end of a long day. SLOWLY THE SHOT DECAYS IN A TIME DISSOLVE to NIGHT -- THREE MONTHS LATER -- In the full force of an air-raid. Many of the same buildings are gone. The whole world shakes and trembles as a PAVEWAY GE101 laser guided bomb streaks in and impacts.. Dust. Shrapnel. Cars on fire. A vision of utter hell. A FIGURE -- DARTS BETWEEN BURNING CARS, clutching a bag of food, amid the firestorm. He disappears into our building. Our eye leaves the street - back inside: Sa'ad bursts in as - Another missile lands nearby. The building shakes. The picture of Sawsan shifts. Dust falls like fine rain over the small kitchen. Sa'ad unpacks food on the rickety table. Under it, his wife, children cower. He passes down bread. Cheese. The baby is crying. There is a KNOCK AT THE DOOR. On the other side are two men. SA'AD What you doing? They're watching- SCIENTIST No one's watching. Not anymore. I think the Secret Police have their hands full. 63. SCIENTIST 2 We're free. Free to be blown to smithereens. SA'AD Least no Mukbarat gets to watch it. They all laugh at the gallows humor. And hug SA'AD It's good to see you, my dear fellow doctors... CUT TO: SA'AD children, sleeping in bunks. CUT TO: Next door. The three nuclear scientists are drinking tea at the same table. SA'AD My sister said the Americans could get us over the border. SCIENTIST And you trust them? Open your eyes. SCIENTIST 2 And your ears. Your American friends are calling you right now. The rumble of the now distant bombs. Small arms fire. SA'AD It's our only hope. CUT TO: INT. PARKING LOT. LANGLEY. NIGHT. BILL, Valerie's chief walks to his car. Valerie shouts after- VALERIE Bill. Wait up. CUT TO: They talk by his car. Valerie is agitated. 64. BILL Val, every Mobile Exploration Team is combing the desert looking for WMD. I can't- VALERIE BILL All I need's a couple units We're at full stretch Val. to bring these men and their Listen to me.. families into Camp Lima and on an air transport into Annandale. BILL Say we extract these guys. Bring `em home. Put `em on CNN. What are they going to tell us that the White House wants to hear? "Thank you oh and by the way there was no nuclear programme. There's no WMD. PS you all knew that." You want me to go to the DCI, ask him to sign off on his own funeral? VALERIE I gave my word Bill. BILL That's not my problem. I got bigger problems. They stare at each other. Valerie shakes her head. BILL Why do you do this job? The paycheck? The holiday package. No. To make a difference. To act. To protect people. Then one day you realize you're not Superman. Sometimes you fail. He gets in the car, reverses, and drives away. INT. LANGLEY. NIGHT. Valerie hurries through the building. VALERIE Hold the elevator please. INT. MIKE'S OFFICE, COUNTER PROLIFERATION DEPT. NIGHT. Valerie is pacing. Mike is sitting. 65. VALERIE What the fuck is going on Mike. It's like, if there was a baby on the ledge up on seventh, no-one would get up and save it in case the White House wanted it there. MIKE Bill's right. This is just one snafu in a thousand we got right now. The scientists are- VALERIE These scientists are the WMD. If we can't protect them, they'll run to the first country who can. And they'll put them to work. Mike looks at her. MIKE I never said this. If anyone asks, I deny any knowledge. (Then) How quietly can you do this? CUT TO: A 40 something heavy set woman walks past her down the corridor. Valerie jogs after her. VALERIE Beth! Who do you have in Baghdad? I need to get an RG-17 to an asset in Mansour. BETH Why don't your guys to do it? VALERIE I'm asking you. EXT. RUINED STREETS, MANSOUR. BAGHDAD. NIGHT SA'AD, runs pressing himself against a shrapnel pocked wall as a US ARMY HUMVEE blasting hiphop music passes. He runs low across the street and over a wall into a garden. SA'AD I need to know my family will be safe. 66. INT. BOARDED UP CIA SAFE-HOUSE, MANSOUR. BAGHDAD. NIGHT Sa'ad sits at a table, speaking into an RG-17 secure satphone with two liaison officers. SA'AD My wife, my children. They are all I care about. INT. THE CTC COUNTER TERRORISM CONTROL ROOM. LANGLEY. DAY Valerie sits in the communications room with Beth. VALERIE Sa'ad, I know that. We will take care of your family. But we have to move fast. SA'AD How do I know I can trust you? VALERIE Sa'ad. Do exactly as I say, we won't let you down. INT. STATE DEPT OFFICES IN OLD EXECUTIVE BUILDING - NIGHT. A man sits feet up on his desk talking on the phone. PETE So how's Val? Is she there? Put her on.. CUT TO: JOE SITS IN HIS STUDY, ON THE PHONE. JOE She's fine. She's working late. PETE Val's working late. I'm working late. You don't see a pattern here? You know she finds me devastatingly attractive- JOE Yeah. Well if you see her say hi. (He stops) Listen Pete. I have a question. And it's real important. BACK TO: 67. THE STATE DEPARTMENT. PEOPLE COME AND GO. AT HIS DESK, PETE LISTENS. JOE WILSON (O.S.) Is the President be referring to another African country? PETE I've seen the INR. It's Niger. He's referring specifically to Yellowcake from Niger. Why? Joe listens. It sinks in. CUT TO: Pete listens nodding. His expression grows darker and darker. PETE Uh huh.. I see..I see. (He listens) What exactly are you proposing to do Joe? JOE'S STUDY JOE WILSON I don't know. I don't know what to do. PETE (He takes off his glasses) You want my advice? Do nothing. You already did your job. You did your best. You came home. End of story. JOE WILSON Niger Pete. Yellowcake from Niger. Pete looks around. Speaks low. PETE Look. I don't have to go all the way to Africa to know something's fucked up here. Three months and what have we found? No centrifuges. No yellowcake. No bio. No WMD. You think something's up here. Join the queue. Join the line stretches all the way from State to the Pentagon and back. JOE WILSON So why has no one's come forward? 68. PETE Why you think Joe? We went to war. (He pulls back) Listen. You're a smart guy. As your friend, now. Just. Be smart here. I mean..you have a wife and a family. JOE WILSON It's the White House Pete. It's the President of the United States. PETE Yes it is Joe. Now go take a long look in the mirror and say that again. Joe puts the phone down. Upstairs he can hear a child crying. CUT TO: THUNDER. RAIN STREAMING DOWN A BEDROOM WINDOW. One of the twins is asleep. The other standing in her cot. Joe scoops her up. Jiggles her and comforts her. Lays her back down. CUT TO: Joe comes down the stairs. In the hall -- coat on, soaking, Valerie. She looks beat. JOE Hey. Are you OK? Valerie doesn't move. She stands there. Then -- JOE What's wrong Val? VALERIE Nothing. I'm just tired.. JOE Whats the matter..what happened? Valerie shakes her head slowly. VALERIE I'm fine. Are the kids asleep. JOE Yeah. They're asleep. VALERIE OK. I'm going to bed. 69. Joe watches her slowly walk up the stairs. Then stares at the space where she was just standing. BUSH (ON TV) Let me finish..No. Let me finish. Joe looks at the TV. He sets his jaw. BUSH (ON TV) There are some who feel like that, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring 'em on. . CUT TO: Computerized letter appearing on a screen. Pixellated EXTREME CLOSE UP: Joe writes: "What I Didn't Find in Africa". CLOSE UP ON JOE Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq?" THE PHOTOGRAPH OF JOE AND GEORGE HW BUSH "The act of war is the last option of a democracy" THE GLOBE IN TWO HALVES "More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already." JOE STOPS. HIS FINGERS HOVER.....THEN TYPE. "We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons." CLOSE ON: JOE SITS AT HIS DESK. MOTIONLESS. WE MOVE IN. JOE HITS `SEND'. HE STARES AT THE SCREEN. BLACKOUT. ESTABLISHING -- WHITE HOUSE. DAY. A long line of satellite broadcast vehicles. A reporter talks to camera. Others in the background, doing the same. 70. INT. SCOOTER LIBBY'S OFFICE, OLD EXECUTIVE BUILDING. DAY. Libby reads Joe's article: "What I Didn't Find in Africa". He looks out at a line of satellite broadcast vehicles. CUT TO: OUTSIDE.. REPORTER Retired Ambassador Joe Wilson yesterday claimed in a piece in the New York Times that the President mispoke in his State of the Union Address in January, concerning claims that Saddam sought 500 tons of Yellowcake from Niger. Wilson, who was acting Ambassador in Iraq during the first Gulf War, said- INT. PRESS BRIEFING ROOM. DAY. Fleischer, on defence, before a packed house, buzzing. Everyone has Joe's article. MR. FLEISCHER: Look. There's zero, nada, nothing, new here. The President's statement in the State of the Union was much broader than the Niger question. JOURNALIST Is the President's statement correct? FLEISCHER: Yes, I see nothing that goes broader that would indicate that there was no basis to the President's broader statement. But specifically on the yellow cake, the yellow cake for Niger, we've acknowledged that that information did turn out to be a forgery. JOURNALIST 2 The President's statement was accurate? FLEISCHER: We see nothing that would dissuade us from the President's broader statement. 71. JOURNALIST So you believe the British report is true? MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sorry? INT. CARD'S OFFICE. DAY. Card is at his desk, watching the briefing on TV. CARD Uh-oh. BACK TO: MR. FLEISCHER: Sorry, I see what David is asking. Let me back up on that and explain the President's statement again.. INT. HADLEY'S OFFICE. DAY. Hadley comes out of his office, putting on his jacket. HADLEY Linda. Clear my morning. BACK TO: JOURNALIST So it was wrong? FLEISCHER Let me do this, David. On your specific question I'm going to come back to you. The reporters leap to their feet in uproar.. INT. ROVE'S OFFICE. DAY. Rove, TV on, holding the article, screams into the telephone. ROVE What is that tit-fuckin' homo Fleischer doing to us? Call Mary. Call Scooter. Call Hadley. We need to get a hold of this. NOW! INT. LOBBY OUTSIDE SCOOTER'S OFFICE. DAY. SCOOTER comes out of his office. Unruffled. Cathie Martin is waiting. They walk and talk. 72. MARTIN LIBBY Fleischer ploughed the I saw. briefing- MARTIN -CBS know Yellowcake was pulled from Cincinnatti ten weeks ago at the CIAs request. They also have that Gerson wrote both speeches. Karl is on line one. He's unhappy- LIBBY I want a transcript of everything across networks, blogs and print citing Ambassador Wilson, Niger or Yellowcake. I want Hadley to meet me in the VP's office in five minutes. And tell Karl I'll be in my office straight after I'm done. I have something. He goes into the Vice President's office. INT. OUTSIDE SCOOTER LIBBY'S OFFICE. DAY. LATER. Silence. The secretaries, tense. Typing. INT. SCOOTER LIBBY'S OFFICE. DAY. INSIDE. KARL ROVE stands opposite Libby, staring. Libby finishes reading something. SILENCE. LIBBY This has become a trust issue for the President. We can't get behind this. We need to change the story. They look at one another in silence. Then -- ROVE Who is Joe Wilson? INT. WEST WING. NIGHT. Libby comes out of his office. He walks round the corner to Rove's office. Rove's secretary is still there. LIBBY Linda. You still here. It's late.. CUT TO: A piece of paper is put on a desk. Rove picks it up. Libby wathes him read. Rove puts the paper down. 73. ROVE We can't do this. Libby nods. LIBBY So who can? BLACKOUT. ESTABLISHING -- CHARLESTON TERRACE. DAY. A 15 year old cyclist hurls newspapers into front yards. INT. BEDROOM. DAY. Valerie sits on the bed in a towel. Joe drops the newspaper onto it. Folded open on an article. "MISSION TO NIGER". VALERIE (Reading) The CIA's decision to send retired diplomat Joseph C. Wilson to Africa- JOE WILSON Further down. VALERIE Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame.. JOE "is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." It hits her like a wave. She braces. It doesn't pass. JOE They just went ahead and did it. VALERIE Does this run overseas? VALERIE JOE The column. Novak's column. If it's in the paper it's on Is he syndicated overseas? the net. Its everywhere. Valerie? Valerie gets up and walks out. CUT TO: Valerie, dressed, leaves the house. 74. JOE Valerie. Where are you going? EXT. WILSON HOUSE. DAY. Valerie walks outside. In the window across the street, her neighbour stares straight at her. Valerie looks ahead. Her eyes flick to the Paper on a neighbours lawn: The Wall Street Journal. NEIGHBOUR (O.S.) Morning Valerie! Another neighbour getting in his car waves. He's thrown when she doesn't reply. Val starts her car and drives. He watches. INT/EXT. VALERIE'S CAR (MOVING). DAY Valerie stares straight ahead, hands gripping the wheel. We watch her. Close. Her driving intercuts with her thoughts. FLASH - The Associated Press news bureau add her story to the bullet-feed. FLASH - An AP feed winds around a newspaper news room. FLASH - The Reuters office in Geneva picks up the story. FLASH - A Bloomberg tickers her name. BACK TO: VALERIE, death white, drives along the Georgetown reservoir. FLASH - Huntingdon Valley Public Library, a man tears the page out of a high school year book. FLASH - Microfiche search of photos of embassy events with Joe and Valerie as guests. A grease pencil marks ones where she can be seen. BACK TO: Turning away from the canal and speeding over the Potomac, she fishes in her glove compartment. Finds a pad. A pencil and starts writing names on a pad. Still driving. FLASH - Valerie next to her husband in black tie shakes hands with a visiting dignitary. A camera bulb goes off. She eyeballs the cameraman for a moment. Valerie turns onto the 120 freeway. The pad falls into the footwell. She reaches down and her -- 75. SAME HAND - reaches to shake hands with FLASH - different people in different countries, dinners with diplomats, meetings with captains of industry, conferences in far flung corners of the world. Hands. Faces. Smiles. EACH BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPH on a file. FLASH - Valerie shaking hands with Mr.Tabir in his Kuala Lumpur mansion. Him smiling, mouthing words silently. FLASH - A stock market ticker. In his office, Tabir is shown a blow up of a grainy photograph of Valerie and Hafiz. INT. DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS OFFICE. DAY. Valerie sits stock still in front of a large desk at Langley. The door opens. The DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS enters with a fifty something woman. He sits at the desk. She sits next to him. BEHIND HER -- in the corner, sits a third man. He doesn't speak. DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Good morning. Please..sit down. VALERIE Good morning Sir. Ma'am. DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Working backwards, we need a matrix of everyone you've come into contact with in a covert capacity back to January 2001. VALERIE I've already started a list Sir. DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Good. We need to get an idea..fast, of how much this thing bleeds. VALERIE Sir, I have several live ops at crucial stages, people in the field in critical windows of operation- BILL (Interrupting) One thing at time. Make a list. Then come back here. Don't do anything else. She opens her mouth. Nothing comes out. 76. VALERIE Sir, why is Internal security here? BILL To help us. To help you, and us conduct this damage assessment. Behind her, the Internal security guy stands. INT. CORRIDOR. DAY. Valerie comes out, followed by security. She goes left. INTERNAL SECURITY This way please. She turns and follows him. As she passes desks, she can feel people looking at her. The news has spread fast. INT. EMPTY OFFICE. DAY Valerie enters an empty office. The door is closed behind her. On the desk is a notepad and a telephone. She sits. She picks up the phone. The phone isn't connected. She sits staring at the blank page. SUDDENLY -- She gets up and walks out. At the end of the corridor: the Internal security guy follows. INTERNAL SECURITY Ms Plame. VALERIE goes into the elevator.. INTERNAL SECURITY Ms Plame. He breaks into a run. The doors close on him. INT. CPD OFFICE, BASEMENT, LANGLEY. DAY. Valerie comes out of the elevator and walks fast. People looking at her. Her colleagues. Eyes. Whispers. All around. Bursting into her office, she sits. Starts typing fast. She tries to access her Joint Task Force database. ON THE SCREEN --ACCESS DENIED -- INTERNAL SECURITY (O.S.) Ms. Plame. 77. The INTERNAL SECURITY stands outside. Valerie looks up. She sees Mike passing the doorway. VALERIE Mike. We need to get a message to Baghdad. Sa'ad and his family are being taken to the border today. I have to get word to them. INTERNAL SECURITY watches him closely. MIKE I don't what you're talking about.. VALERIE Mike. They're packed and ready. (She stops. Appeals) Mike you know what this means. MIKE Sorry. I have to go. He goes inside and closes his door. BILL (O.S.) Valerie. HER CHIEF is standing there. He beckons her into his office. She approaches. The Internal Security guy tries to join them. Bill puts a hand to his chest. BILL Go fuck yourself. He closes the door in his face. INSIDE BILL Sit down Valerie. I've just been on the seventh floor. As of this morning all CPD operations involving you have been suspended. Effective immediately you are to have no further contact with assets or agents in the field. Any further involvement in operations is no longer possible. VALERIE Bill. I have eight, nine teams in the field. We have assets in Kuala Lumpur. Dubai. Mumbai. 78. She stops. The penny drops. She changes tack. VALERIE I need to brief my replacement in the Joint Task Force. BILL The head of the JTFI's identity is classified for reasons of operational security. The shutters come down. Valerie opens her mouth. VALERIE I have a critical operation in Baghdad in a major ongoing- BILL Val. It's over. INT. CHARLESTON TERRACE. DAY. The children are playing with Power Rangers in the lounge. IN THE KITCHEN Joe, at home, speaking on the phone. TV is on. JOE "Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger" That means a Vice President, a chief of staff or top advisor.. (hearing the front door) I gotta go. He hangs up. Valerie enters. The twins run out of the lounge towards her. She goes into mom mode. VALERIE Hey guys. Give mommy a kiss. TREVOR SAMANTHA Mommy! Mommy. Trevor won't let me borrow his Power Ranger. VALERIE Well, did you say "Please"? SAMANTHA I said please. It's not fair. They go into the kitchen. Joe follows. The kids fight for her attention to show drawings they've done. 79. TREVOR JOE I drew a clown and a There's a 1982 act states scarecrow. it's a crime for a government official to intentionally VALERIE disclose a covert agent. Let's see. Carries a fine of fifty thousand dollars and or up to ten years in jail. VALERIE Wow. That is one cool scarecrow. (To Samantha) Don't eat that Sam. It's a crayon. It's icky. Give it to mommy. Joe watches her. He can see the tension of her face. JOE WILSON How did it go? The phone rings. She freezes. JOE It's been ringing all day. VALERIE Don't pick it up. Who've you spoken to? Joe, who have you spoken to? JOE WILSON Hello? (he holds the phone out) It's Lisa. Valerie looks blind sided. JOE OK who wants to watch TV? Scoops them up and leaves us with Val. She composes herself. VALERIE Hello? INT. GEORGETOWN APARTMENT. DAY. Val's friend Lisa is in her lounge. Her kids are playing. LISA Val. Are you OK? Whats going on? BACK TO: 80. VALERIE Lisa. Yes. I read it. Listen- (She steels herself) I'm sorry..I can't talk about this. I can't..I can't make a comment on this right now. BACK TO: Lisa's apartment. Another angle. Two other friends. Wrapt. LISA You can't make "a comment"? Val. Your name is in the paper. It says you're a CIA agent. NEXT DOOR -- THE KIDS Watch TV. VALERIE I have to go. I'm sorry. I'll call you tomorrow. VALERIE hangs up. Joe is standing there. JOE Your mom called. And your Uncle. And Janey called from Chicago. I wrote them down. (Then) And Andrea Mitchell called. She says White House sources say that quote "the real story here is not the sixteen words but Wilson and his wife". Would I care to comment? Yeah I fuckin' would care to comment. She wants me on the show day after tomorrow. VALERIE I don't want you to go on TV. INT. TELEVISION STUDIO. DAY. Joe sits stiffly on the set. A make-up artist applies powder to his nose. FLOOR MANAGER Going in thirty seconds. 81. JOE ON NBC NIGHTLY NEWS JOE This is clearly designed as a shot across the bow to those who might step forward, those unnamed analysts who said they were pressured by the White House would think twice about having their own families names being dragged through this particular mud. CUT TO: JOE ON CNN. JOE I was sent to Niger at the request of the Vice President. I was not sent by my wife. The issue here is not who sent me here is whether a crime has been committed. JOE ON MEET THE PRESS. ANCHOR You're saying a crime was committed JOE It is a crime to reveal the identity of a covert agent working in the employ of this nations intelligence agencies. This is now a matter for the justice department Pete. JOE ON CROSSFIRE JOE The justice department need to establish whether those in the Highest Office sought to destroy the career of a public servant to punish me for speaking the truth. REAL FOOTAGE - WHITEHOUSE PRESS ROOM The new Press Secretary, Scott McClennan, fields questions. MCLENNAN First of all, that is not the way this White House operates. (MORE) 82. MCLENNAN (cont'd) The President expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. No one would be authorized to do such a thing. REPORTER Will the President move aggressively to see if such a transgression has occurred in the White House? CUT TO: A TELEVISION. PRESIDENT This is a very serious matter, our administration takes it seriously. I've got all the confidence the Justice Department will do a good, thorough job. I want there to be full participation, because, April, I am most interested in finding out the truth. INT. KITCHEN. DAY. The kids are eating breakfast, acting up. Valerie is making breakfast. The phone rings. JOE (ON PHONE) Valerie. Turn on MSNBC. INT. MSNBC TV STUDIOS. DAY. Joe leaves the building. The news is on a bank of TVs. MSNBC VALERIE A team of federal Honey, Mommy's trying to investigators have been listen to the TV. assembled by Attorney General John Ashcroft as part of a probe to investigate the alleged leaking of a covert CIA agent's identity to the press.. JOE WILSON They've launched an investigation. Ashcroft just announced it. They're saying he's going to convene a grand jury. 83. VALERIE I have to go. Samantha's crying. CUT TO: Joe out on the street. Gets into his car. JOE WILSON I'll be home later. I gotta go over to Fox. They want me to comment on the investigation. VALERIE Joe- JOE WILSON We have to fight this Val. If we don't push back. He looks at his phone. JOE I have another call. I have to go. VALERIE (Exasperated) Joe- He's gone. She puts the phone down. BACK TO: IN THE CAR, JOE TAKES THE OTHER CALL. JOE Joe Wilson. CHRIS MATTHEWS Joe, its Chris Matthews. I just spoke to Karl Rove. He told me "Wilson's Wife is fair game". He goes still. DIANA (O.S.) So when did you join? INT. BUSY GEORGETOWN RESTAURANT. DAY. Waiters hurry about. Valerie sits with her friend, Diana. VALERIE `84. Straight out of college. 84. DIANA Jenny said it makes a weird kind of sense. Everyone says Valerie's a great listener. Asks lots of questions. About your job. About Steve or the kids. VALERIE I had no plan for this day. Right now it feels like I'm.. Everything is smashed into a million pieces. It's like I'm suddenly in this- DIANA (Interrupting) Why did you do it? VALERIE What? Valerie is still. DIANA Every conversation. For twenty years. Thousands of phone-calls. You lied to me on every single one. Nineteen years. Birthdays. My wedding. You're my best friend Val. Diana has tears in her eyes. VALERIE Diana. I know it's hard to understand, but it.. They look at each other. Valerie really struggles. Then: VALERIE It becomes normal. DIANA Normal. VALERIE I know this is strange for you. And you may not feel like it's, but I need you right now. Because I'm- DIANA What? What are you? My ol' pal Val? (Valerie is silent.) I have photos. Hundreds and hundreds of photographs with this person. And.. (MORE) 85. DIANA (cont'd) I'm sitting here, and I know the face, I've known it half my life. What else do I know? Who are you? Valerie sits there, very still. INT/EXT. CAR (MOVING). DAY. Valerie drives home past the Capitol, still. THE CAR PULLS UP AT THE PLAYGROUP. Valerie gets out and sleep-walks into the building. She joins a small group of mothers watching through glass door, their children playing. One of the mothers nudges another and whispers something. They both look at Valerie, who tenses. THROUGH THE GLASS Her kids put their coats on and come out. Valerie puts on a bright smile. Kneels to hug them. VALERIE (Brightly) Hey guys. How was your day? She carries them out, watched by the other mothers. EXT. CHARLSTON TERRACE. DAY. Valerie bussles the kids out of the car. A neighbor is mowing his lawn. She tenses as he slows his pace to study her. Another neighbor, searching for his keys stops and watches her too, as she takes the kids into the house. INT. WILSON HOUSE. DAY. Valerie and the kids come inside. The phone is ringing. VALERIE Hello. (Silence.) Hello. (Silence) PHONE Your husband is a fucking communist. I hope you die you fucking communist whore. She puts the phone down. Frozen. Shaking. 86. SAMANTHA (O.S.) Mommy. Trevor won't let me go on his tractor. All at once, the facade crumbles. VALERIE closes her eyes and is wracked with sobs. When she opens them Sam is terrified. SAMANTHA Mommy. VALERIE It's OK honey. Mommy's just tired. She hugs her. Crying. Samantha strokes her mom's hair. INT. KIDS BEDROOM, WILSON HOUSE. NIGHT. Valerie reads a storybook to her twins. VALERIE So the caterpillar built a cocoon and it stayed safe inside for weeks. And when it emerged it was a beautiful butterfly.. CUT TO: She closes the door on her sleeping children. She goes next door into-- INT. VALERIE AND JOE'S BEDROOM. NIGHT She goes into her closet. Removes a box. Then she taps a code into a small safe and removes another box. Alone, Valerie opens the first box. Photographs of herself with her friends. At college. People's weddings. Birthdays. Valerie and her girlfriends all smiling back at us. Holidays with the same friends. On a hen night. She opens the second box: Different currencies. Credit cards, photos of her with different people. Half a dozen passports. American. A couple Canadian. EU. She looks at the photos. Different names. Hair colour. She puts them back in the box. Carefully, and shuts the lid tight shut. She looks at herself in the mirror. The doorbell rings and Valerie gets up. CUT TO: VALERIE opens the front door. Standing there is Sawsan. VALERIE Sawsan. What are you doing here? 87. SAWSAN Your name and address are all over the web. There's even a picture of your house.. Valerie tries to take this in. Sawsan steps forward -- SAWSAN Sa'ad has disappeared. His wife, his children are missing. My uncle in Mansour. He said they were targeting them. They were killing them.. VALERIE Who? SAWSAN Sa'ad's colleagues. Dr Habbuck was shot dead in the street. Dr Falli was murdered in his hallway. They're killing them. VALERIE Sawsan, listen to me- SAWSAN I know you can't tell me where he is. Just tell me you have him. I beg you. Please. I don't need to know anything. Just tell me he's safe.. He's my little brother. Please. If you have him, if he's somewhere... (She starts to cry.) Please. Please, I beg you. Do you have him. I have to know. Valerie speaks quietly. VALERIE We don't have him. Sawsan closes her eyes. She sobs. SAWSAN You said he would be safe. You said we would help. You promised- VALERIE approaches. Sawsan withdraws. SAWSAN I trusted you. 88. She turns her back and walks away. Leaving Valerie alone. CUT TO: EXT. STREET IN GEORGETOWN SUBURB. NIGHT Valerie's boss MIKE is watching TV with his wife and kids and her mother, when the doorbell rings. He gets up. The front door opens. Valerie is standing there. MIKE Valerie. What are you doing here? Mike steps forward and closes his front door. Mike glances up and down the street. CUT TO: A garage door opens. Valerie and Mike step into his garage and fluorescent light flickers on to reveal boxes of Christmas decorations etc- VALERIE Falli. Habbuck. Who else? MIKE Valerie- VALERIE Who else Mike? MIKE I don't know what you're talking about. She fixes him. Eventually he shrugs. MIKE (He shrugs) You were right. It's all about the scientists. We made a call. VALERIE A call? MIKE We passed your case files to liason. You know yourself we're not great at this stuff. (Off her shock) Val, Mossad were already on the same page. (MORE) 89. MIKE (cont'd) They've been trying to hunt these guys down since the invasion. VALERIE You've.. (She stops. Looks at him.) We're killing them. We're killing the scientists. MIKE Valerie- VALERIE You'll drive them underground. They'll run straight to Iran. Pakistan. MIKE Valerie. This isn't your problem anymore. VALERIE It's not my problem. It's not my problem. How can you sleep when you know- MIKE (With purpose) I sleep just fine. Now Carol's mother is here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave. VALERIE It's called counter-proliferation, Mike. She turns and walks out. EXT. STREET. NIGHT. Valerie gets in her car. Shaking. Shuts the door. She holds her head in her hands and starts to sob. We hear the sound of a crowd cheering.. INT. SEATTLE FORUM. DAY. Joe Wilson is on a panel before a crowd of about a thousand. 90. JOE WILSON At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog- marched out of White House in handcuffs. And trust me when I use that name, I measure my words. Cheers. Applause. Joe looks defiant. CUT TO: JOE MEETING HIS PUBLIC. PUMPING HANDS. A WARM SHOW OF SUPPORT. SUPPORTER We came all the way from Portland for this. JOE Your support means everything to us. Really. SUPPORTER 2 You're a true American hero. JOE The real heroes are in Iraq right now fighting a war which was prosecuted on lies and falsehoods. A quick montage of Joe being feted. It ends with Joe in a huddle with a dozen or so supporters. JOE My wife and I have never sought publicity. But I know when I tell her about how much support there was here today, I know how thrilled and humbled she'll be. EXT. WASHINGTON MONUMENT. DAY. A bright DC day. Joggers. Lunchtime office workers. Valerie walks alone through the park. She sits down on a bench next to JIM PAVITT. PAVITT Thank you for coming here today. I wanted to convey my outrage to you in person. In all my experience, nothing has disgusted me like this business. (MORE) 91. PAVITT (cont'd) I know it's not easy for you, but I want you to know how much the agency appreciates your silence in the light of this matter. We know how damaging this has been to you. We can't afford for this knife fight to go on any longer. VALERIE I get death threats every day. People threatening to kill my husband. Hurt my children. I went to the agency and I requested security to protect my family. It was declined. Because quote "My circumstances fall outside budget protocols." If this is a knife fight, right now, Sir - we're fighting it alone. Pavitt starts to chuckle. PAVITT Joe Wilson versus the White House. Well, all I can say is Good Luck. But as a friend, I feel I should tell you that those men.. He points down the hill at the White House. PAVITT Those few men in that building over there, that small white house, are the most powerful men in the history of the world. How much of a stretch do you think it would be for them to take on Joe Wilson? He looks at her. PAVITT Joe's out there on his own Valerie. But I know we can trust you. Speak to your husband. He turns and walks off, leaving her alone, looking at the White House. INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT Joe and Valerie are having supper. The TV is on in the background. Joe is energized. Valerie is quiet. 92. TV (MATT FREI) The nightmare scenario of an attack on a major city is as real, if not more real, than it was a year ago.. JOE WILSON Tucker Carlson said yesterday that Wilson's wife sent him on a boondoggle. Said I needed the work. Who needs to work for free? Niger does have restaurants. The Opera. Reminds me alot of Paris. RUMSFELD ON TV We know if we do not fight the terrorists over there in Iraq, in Afghanistan and across the world, we will have to face them here. JOE WILSON Someone from Vanity Fair called. They want to do a piece on us. Cover-story. Five thousand words. In-depth interview. Photographs of the two of us. What do you think? VALERIE What do I think? Do I want my photograph in Vanity Fair? Is that the question? JOE WILSON NEWS We have to keep this as high In Baghdad today, co- profile as possible. We have ordinated car bombs killed to keep fighting. 175 in what is being called the worst day of insurgent violence in months... VALERIE I'm going to bed. JOE WILSON Val...what's wrong? What did I say? VALERIE My name is everywhere, Joe. My real name. Everywhere. All this publicity and noise and fighting talk, where is it getting us? JOE Karl Rove told the Financial Times they're rolling the earth movers over Joe Wilson. Quote. (MORE) 93. JOE (cont'd) Earth Movers. Well I'm sorry but they don't get me without a fight. Not without a big fucking fight they don't. VALERIE It's the White House Joe. You seriously think you can pick a fight with the White House and win. They'll bury us. JOE WILSON They'll bury us if we don't. How loud can you shout Val? Say we get in an argument you think you're right, and I think your wrong. You start making your point with all your might, and I start shouting back, except I'm the White House, and I can a shout a million times louder. Does that make me right? They lied Val. That's the truth. VALERIE By the time they're finished here you won't know what that is. CUT TO: REPORTER ON TV Today Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in charge of the enquiry into the leaking of the identity of a covert agent announced that he is convening a Grand Jury to investigate the affair. Among the blizzard of subpoenas issued are ones for the Vice President's chief of Staff Scooter Libby, and special advisor to the President Karl Rove. Both men are under suspicion of having leaked the agent's name to reporters in order to damage former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal and combative critic of the administration. It is believed that the President himself has been questioned under oath by the FBI. INT. WHITE HOUSE. DAY. KARL ROVE walks down a corridor past Libby's secretary. 94. ROVE Scooter home? CUT TO: ROVE enters. Libby looks up from his desk. ROVE Scooter. Karl tosses a heavy document onto the desk. LIBBY What's that? ROVE Findings of the Select Committee on Intelligence. All five hundred pages and eleven pages of it. LIBBY Am I going to enjoy it? ROVE I know someone who isn't. Libby smiles. EXT. PARK. DAY. A military parade. Three hundred eighteen year old recruits. Fresh. Immaculate. Shining in the morning sun. TREVOR Look at the soldiers mommy. Look! VALERIE and the twins join the small crowd and watch. Valerie watches the American flag lowered, folded, and stowed. CUT TO: EXT. CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND IN THE PARK. DAY. The twins are playing on a slide. Valerie sits on a bench. When she looks back, she sees Joe approaching across the playground. He greets the kids, hugging them.. JOE Go and play now. And he walks over to Valerie on the bench. 95. VALERIE Hey. Joe carries a heavy brown manilla envelope. From it he removes a thick wad of paper and drops it on the bench. VALERIE What's that? JOE WILSON That is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. On page thirty six it says "the former ambassador's wife offered up his name" and includes a memorandum written by Valerie Plame which says quote "my husband has good relations with both the prime minister and the former Minister of Mines, both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." I've spent a whole year denying just this. VALERIE Joe wait- JOE WILSON Telling everyone who'll listen, on TV. In the press. My wife did not send me on a junket. VALERIE Joe. I didn`t send you. I didn't have that power. JOE WILSON You sent an email. The SSCI found the email. VALERIE JOE WILSON I write hundreds of emails. Why didn't you tell me? At no time in the past twelve months you never thought- VALERIE I didn't make the decision. I was asked to write a recommendation. What am I supposed to do. Not say my husband knows about this. JOE WILSON They have this now. They will call me a liar. It will stick. They have all the power here, what do I have? (MORE) 96. JOE WILSON (cont'd) My word. You have to speak up. You have to go on record. VALERIE Joe- JOE WILSON You have to defend us. Now. She's cornered. Shakes her head in frustration. VALERIE So what do you want me to do Joe? Go to the papers like you did? Write a piece in the New York Times? You know I'd have to submit it to the Agency, and they'll- JOE WILSON (Interrupting) The agency? The.. Wait.. Is this the same Agency which won't give you protection for your children? Is this the same CIA that's erased your pension? Where's your loyalty Val? To your husband or the CIA? VALERIE (Shouts louder) It's to MY FAMILY. I put my family first. ALWAYS. Were you putting them first when you wrote that fucking article? People are looking over. The children notice. JOE is stung into silence. VALERIE I'm taking different routes to and from school. I'm looking in empty rooms..under the beds every time I come home. A home we're going to lose because your work has dried up and your clients are running for cover. What has all this achieved? What changed Joe? Who won? JOE WILSON (nods) Maybe you're right. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. Is that what your dad taught you Valerie? That what Colonel Sam Plame said? (MORE) 97. JOE WILSON (cont'd) A good American doesn't rock the boat. A good American looks the other way. They are both terribly wounded. He looks at her, levelly. JOE Did you send me to Niger? (Silence) "His business is struggling. He's on the slide. I'll throw him a bone." Was that it Val? You pull some strings for me? You help your old man out? VALERIE How dare you? JOE WILSON Did you send me? VALERIE You think I'm lying to you. JOE Could I tell if you were? Utter silence. VALERIE You fucking bastard.. She stops. SAMANTHA is watching them. She has tears in her eyes. Valerie goes over and scoops her up. And Trevor. And carries them off. Joe is alone. CUT TO: CNN NEWS FOOTAGE ANCHORMAN The Senate Intelligence Committee published information that showed Joe Wilson had lied about how he came to be sent to Niger. He denied that his wife had any role in it whatsoever, but a memo Plame wrote on February 12, 2002 proves otherwise. 98. MSNBC NEWS FOOTAGE ANCHORMAN The Senate Intelligence Committee let some air ≠ a lot of air - out of Joe Wilson's overly inflated ego when it issued its first report on prewar intelligence. While the committee heaped most of its criticism on the Central Intelligence Agency for getting almost everything wrong about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction it pointedly rebuked the former ambassador and his infamous mission to Niger. EXT. HOUSE. DAY. Morning. Joe, in a suit, comes out of his house. A gaggle of reporter is waiting, they follow Joe as he crosses into the street towards his car. Shutters and flashbulbs firing. REPORTER Mr Wilson, do you still maintain the Vice President's office sent you Niger and not your wife? REPORTER 2 Mr Wilson was Niger just a free holiday? A boondoggle? JOE WILSON My wife did not send me. I didn't receive payment. It was not a holiday. It was a fact finding mission in the run up to a war. But the fact is no one wanted facts. REPORTER Are you against our troops Mr Wilson? REPORTER Mr. Wilson is it true you donated money to the Kerry campaign? REPORTER People are saying your wife does not actually work for the CIA. REPORTER Is it true she was just a secretary at Langley? 99. Joe turns round, furious, as if he's going to punch the reporter. He tenses his jaw. JOE WILSON No comment. Joe gets into his car. The questions roaring around him. INT. HOUSE. NIGHT. Valerie is alone. In bed. Watching TV. FOX NEWS. Rogers. GUEST The question still remains, who is Valerie Plame? Was she really simply a glorified typist? ROGERS Well, I think it's really all about the money. We're talking about a third-rate CIA agent who had a government salary, and she had sent her husband to Niger, and he had come back and didn't give the report to the CIA, but he turned it over in an op-ed to The New York Times. So she was already in the hot seat with the CIA, and so now she's all about the money. Plus it's come out that she was considered kind of a mediocre agent at best. INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. Joe puts a sheet on the couch. He looks around for something to use as a pillow. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT. Joe comes into the bedroom to get his pillow. Valerie is lying in the bed, turned away. He pauses in the doorway. We see Valerie up close. She begins to speak. VALERIE When we were at the "Farm", training to be field officers, they picked four or five of us and told us we'd stood out. FLASH---- Valerie, kneeling, blindfold, in stress position. BACK TO: 100. VALERIE We were bound, hooded and thrown in separate cells. They beat us. Deprived us of sleep. All you had to do was give up the name of one of the others. Just one name. For a glass of water. A sandwich. To avoid another punch. FLASH -- A CAR BATTERY IS CONNECTED.. SZZZZZZ! VALERIE Another hour in a stress position. FLASH -- VALERIE bursts out from under the water. Gasps in a draft of air. VALERIE They push you until they find it. Til they find the point at which you break. Because they have to know. You have to know. And one by one, everybody broke. Except me. I never broke. (she looks at him) I've been in situations, places where I was afraid. Where if you made a mistake, one tiny mistake, at any moment.. (Pause) But I never made a mistake. And that made me feel special. I thought: I'm Different. Bullet- proof. You can't break me. I don't have a breaking point. (Pause) I was wrong. Joe comes over. He reaches out and touches Valerie. Immediately she gets up and walks out. Alone, he hears the bathroom door close. ESTABLISHING. CHARLESTON TERRACE. DAY -- INT. UPSTAIRS, WILSON HOUSE. DAY. Valerie packs the kids stuff up into suitcases. INT. DOWNSTAIRS. JOE'S STUDY. DAY. Joe sits at his desk, a book open. Not reading. 101. Valerie puts the kid's coats on. The study door is open. She knows Joe is there but she doesn't look at him nor he at her. VALERIE OK. Say goodbye to your father. The kids go into -- THE STUDY -- Joe looks up. JOE WILSON Hey guys. SAMANTHA We're going on a mystery tour. TREVOR Why aren't you coming daddy. It hits him in the gut. JOE WILSON Come here. He scoops them up. Kisses him. Her. JOE WILSON I'll see you both real soon OK? In the hallway Valerie waits. VALERIE OK guys. C'mon. CUT TO: On the driveway, VALERIE puts the kids in the car. INSIDE -- Joe sits there, not looking as the car pulls away. EXT. HUNTSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA. DAY Valerie gets out of the car. The kids run to hug Grandma and Grandpa. INT. KITCHEN. DAY. Valerie's mom coralls the kids. VALERIE'S MOM Who wants to make toffee apples? KIDS Me! Me! Val looks downstairs. In the shop, her father, in an apron. 102. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME Well don't just stand there. Come take a look. INT. BASEMENT WORKSHOP. DAY. A wide workbench. Tools in neat rows. Valerie's father, an old man in a plaid shirt holds a sander. Points to the table he's working on. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME It's cherry. I thought it'd work in your dining room. I can see the great and the good of Washington eating off this thing for years to come. Just sanding her down then she done. VALERIE It's beautiful. VALERIE'S MOM (calling down) Sam. I keep telling you. They have a table. Valerie smiles at her Dad who looks at her properly. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME Well come here. They hug. INT. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL. DAY. Joe walks across the floor. He shakes hands with three or four businessmen. JOE WILSON Good morning. They all introduce themselves. Joe orders breakfast. BUSINESSMAN How's your wife Joe? JOE WILSON She's fine. She's well. She uh.. He uses the waitress to change the subject. JOE WILSON Hi. I'll just have a strong coffee. I'm not very hungry. (MORE) 103. JOE WILSON (cont'd) (to the other men) So. How long are you in town for? CUT TO: Joe washing his hands in the bathroom. Tense. He looks tired. CUT TO: Joe comes out of the bathroom and walks across the foyer and back to his table. A woman is talking to his business associates. He sees who it is, instantly looks concerned. JOE Can I help you? Excuse me. Can I help you? RIGHT WING REPORTER I'm just telling these people that you sir are a fraud. JOE OK. This is a private lunch. Please leave us alone. RIGHT WING REPORTER This man is a liar and a traitor. He is in the pay of left wing hate groups, he is a democrat stooge, and he is an anti-war zealot. He has stabbed our troops the back. Joe is trying to laugh it off. But everyone is watching. JOE OK. Leave now. BUSINESSMAN 2 RIGHT WING REPORTER May we get the check? You have blood on your hands. You are a fraud and your wife is a traitor and a fantasist. JOE OK. Leave my fucking table. Now. How dare you talk about my wife? You don't know her. You don't know me. Now leave my table. Now. The table nearby are watching. RIGHT WING REPORTER (To the next table) Ladies and gentleman. Joe Wilson. (MORE) 104. RIGHT WING REPORTER (cont'd) He likes to lie in the press and he likes to swear and insult women. BUSINESSMAN I think we should leave. JOE WILSON No. Please. BUSINESSMAN 2 No really we should. BUSINESSMAN We'll call. JOE WILSON Shame on you. You call yourself a reporter. Shame on you. (to himself as she leaves) You're a self publicising hack. Fuck you. Fuck you. Joe storms away. OUT OF THE FOUR SEASONS Into the street -- He doesn't know what just happened. He hails a TAXI. It tears past. He hails another. It stops. INT. TAXI. DAY. JOE WILSON (Shaken) Pallisades. The driver drives. Joe tries to calm down, but in the back of this cab, it all hits him and he starts to lose it. He looks sick. His head is exploding. The tension like a vice. He opens the window. He gets himself under control, but he's white and shaking. The cab driver looks in the rear-view. TAXI DRIVER You OK? JOE WILSON I'm fine. TAXI DRIVER You're him. I see you on the TV. You're Joe Wilson. JOE No, I'm not. TAXI DRIVER Yes brother. I see you on the TV. 105. JOE WILSON That's somebody else. TAXI DRIVER No no. I know you. My name is Joe too. I am from Sierra Leone. Freetown. You've been there, right. You like Freetown? Joe looks out of the window. JOE WILSON Joe, we both know Freetown's a shit- hole. The taxi driver cracks up. TAXI DRIVER That's the truth. That's the truth right there, brother. Yes indeed. Sierra Leone is dying. The people at the top have too much power. WAY too much power. Over there we have no truth. Just power. People can't see that from here. Over here it's a different world. Joe stares out the window. JOE WILSON I wouldn't be so sure of that. TAXI DRIVER How can you say that? Land of the Free, brother. Home of the Brave. Joe looks sick. JOE WILSON Can we pull over. I'm going to walk. Look keep the change. TAXI DRIVER Do you pray, Joe Wilson? JOE WILSON No. TAXI DRIVER I give you this. It is my church maybe you come. And if you open a bible, look John Chapter eight. (MORE) 106. TAXI DRIVER (cont'd) Then Jesus said if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (he smiles) Take care brother Joe. ..and drives off. Joe looks up. He is standing right outside the Capitol. EXT. BACK FIELD. DAY. Valerie's father is teaching the kids how to lassoo a pole. They both want to go first. He tries to keep the peace. FROM THE KITCHEN -- Valerie and her mother watch. VALERIE How's is he? MOTHER Oh you know. Getting better. Shakin' through. OUT IN THE FIELD -- Val's Dad lassoos the pole. Kids cheer. CUT TO: Sunset. Midges swirl in dizzy soups. Out in the field, Samantha is trying to lassoo the pole. Valerie comes out and joins her father on the porch. He suddenly points. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME OK. See those birds. Those guys. Those yellow fellas. See `em.. VALERIE Yeah I see `em. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME OK. Listen. (They both listen) You hear that? Ain't that beautiful. They suddenly showed up last year. They're called.. (Stops) What are they called? I know their name. They're called something. (He wracks his brain) Anyway. They were here last year. And the year before. God they're beautiful. Look at that. 107. They watch the birds. VALERIE Dad, I think my marriage is over. The sun setting. Samantha playing below. He nods slowly. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME Well. I know my little girl doesn't say anything til she absolutely has to. Tears come to her eyes. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME I'm the same way. And I've said that too. Those exact same words. July 1972. Your mother and I were fighting all the time. I guess she was just plain tired of moving home. Wasn't `til I retired after 42 years in the Air Force, I realised we never had a home. Germany, Singapore, Australia, England. Heck I can remember the day you were born in a freezing cold airbase outside Anchorage Alaska. You must have been to twenty schools. Twenty different chances to introduce yourself. Be someone new. But you turned out OK. Responsible. A little too serious. Always looking down the road. Worrying where life was going to drag you next. But it made you tough. Real tough. Maybe tougher than I, or your mother, or anyone knows. VALERIE He wants me to go on the record. Speak out. Like that would suddenly make this all go away. We can't even speak to each other. (She shakes her head) I can't see how this comes round. I just can't see it, pop. Not anymore. He looks at her. With a serious intent. He speak low. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME What they did was wrong Valerie. Plain wrong. Never forget that. 108. Valerie look at the floor as her father's words sink in. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME Say through some miracle you even get through this.. you and Joe are always gonna fight. You're fighters. He's a stubborn son of a bitch too. He don't give up easy either. A dark cloud comes over him. He speaks levelly. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME One day this country is gonna look back on these years, and it's gonna hang its head. It's gonna weep. Then it's gonna stand up straight and walk on. He watches Samantha in the half-light, still trying to lassoo the pole. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME I swear to God, she's gonna keep at that until she licks it. Valerie smiles. He points to Samantha. LT. COLONEL SAM PLAME. They're tougher than we are. They'll piss you off from time to time, but they're built to last. EXT. CAPITOL. OLD ASSEMBLY HALL. NIGHT. Joe sits surrounded by the statues of Presidents and law- makers. A janitor approaches. JANITOR Mister? (No reaction) We're closing. You have to leave. EXT. CAPITOL. NIGHT. Joe walks out. The Capitol behind him. He walks away. EXT. WHITE HOUSE. DAY. A line of Satellite vans a hundred yards long. INT. WEST WING. DAY. Libby is escorted out of the White House by security. 109. MSNBC The vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements.. CUT TO: Libby gets into the back of a black Mercedes. Cameras flash. FOX NEWS CNN ..in the CIA leak Karl Rove, Bush's closest investigation, a politically adviser, escaped indictment charged case that casts a Friday but remained under harsh light on President investigation, his legal Bush's push to war. Libby, status casting a dark cloud 55, resigned and left the over a White House already in White House. trouble. CNN The U.S. military death toll in Iraq exceeded 2,000 this week, and the president's approval ratings are at the lowest point since he took office in 2001. MSNBC At a news conference, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald declined to comment about Rove's involvement. FOX NEWS Asked about Cheney, he said: "I'm not making allegations about anyone not charged in the indictment." CNN Friday's charges stemmed from a two- year investigation by Fitzgerald into whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.. INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. Joe stands in his living room, watching the TV.. Alone. 110. CNN In a statement released Friday afternoon, Libby said, "I have conducted my responsibilities honorably and truthfully. I am confident that at the end of this process I will be completely and totally exonerated." He turns. Valerie is standing there. He stiffens. Tries to cover his shock. Becomes almost formal- JOE They served up Libby. He's taking the fall. He fixes on the screen. JOE I bet they've already struck the deal. He takes the fall. He gets pardoned. The deck's stacked. I bet this doesn't even get to a trial. VALERIE Thank you. He looks at her and sways slightly. VALERIE I don't care how angry you get. I don't care what they say about us. I don't care if you hate me. If they take everything away from us, but they are not going to take this. They do not get to take my marriage. Joe's eyes fill with tears. JOE WILSON I'm so sorry. Tears fill her eyes. VALERIE You did good. He looks her in the eye. Shakes his head. JOE WILSON I did it for me. She shakes her head. 111. VALERIE I know why you did it. (She looks at him) Thank you. There's a thousand things he could suddenly say. And suddenly nothing, as he fights tears. JOE If I could give it back to you. If I could give you back who you were- VALERIE This is who I am. Right here. They clasp each other and hug, and all the pain drains away. They kiss. As they break she looks into her husband's eyes. VALERIE So are you ready to fight? Joe looks at his wife. His eyes filled with tears. INT. BEDROOM. DAY. Valerie getting ready. She puts on make-up. A grey suit. JOE (O.S.) How many of you know who put the 16 words in the State of the Union address? ESTABLISHING-- OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS. DAY. JOE WILSON (O.S.) Arguably the most important speech the president makes all year. Never more important when the nation is on the brink of war. INT. CAVERNOUS LECTURE THEATRE, COLUMBUS OHIO. NIGHT Joe steps out onto a stage. Packed to the rafters. Kids stand on window ledges, others hang over balconies. SILENCE. JOE WILSON How many of you know who put it in? (No hands.) How many of you know my wife's name? (Everyone in the hall.) How do you know one and not the other? (MORE) 112. JOE WILSON (cont'd) How did the question move from "Why are we going to war?" to "Who is that man's wife". I asked the first question. Someone else asked the second. It worked. Its still working. Because we still don't know the truth. But you all know my wife's name. INT. TAXI (MOVING). DAY. Valerie sits in the back of a cab, looking out of the window. JOE WILSON V/O Public officials swear an oath to uphold the constitution. That is their duty. They must be kept to their oath. That is yours. This offense wasn't committed against me. Nor against my wife... THE HALL. JOE WILSON It was committed against you. And if you ever feel angry. Misrepresented. Ashamed even. VALERIE IN THE CAB. JOE WILSON (O.S.) Do something about it. In 1787 as Benjamin Franklin left the Constitution Hall after the last drafting session, he was stopped by a woman on the street. She asked-- THE HALL. JOE WILSON -what manner of government have you bequeathed us? Ben said 'A Republic madam. If you can keep it.' BACK TO: VALERIE IN THE CAB. THE PASSING STREET REFLECTED ON HER FACE. JOE WILSON If you can keep it. CUT TO: 113. INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL TEHRAN. DAY Sa'ad and his family walk out of the jetway and are greeted by officials and men in uniform. Sa'ad smiles and shakes hands. His wife nervously shepherds their children. JOE WILSON V/O The responsibilty for this country does not lie in the hands of a privileged few. EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD. DAY Sa'ad, a Korean man and two officers of the Sepah revolutionary guard ride in a four wheel drive through rugged Iranian countryside, reflected on his face. JOE WILSON We are strong and we are free from tyranny only for as long as each and every one of us remembers their duty as citizens. EXT. NATANZ NUCLEAR RESEARCH FACILITY, IRAN. DAY Sa'ad arrives at the heavily fortified reactor. He is introduced to several men the last of which is Manucher Vaziri, the arms dealer Valerie was tracking. VAZIRI Welcome to the revolution my brother. Sa'ad looks up at the state of the art facility. CUT TO: EXT. CAPITOL HILL. DAY. VALERIE GETS OUT OF THE CAB. She walks down the street past the gleaming government buildings. JOE WILSON Whether its a pothole at the end of your street or a lie in the State of the Union Address..Speak up. Ask the question. Demand the truth. Valerie walks. We see the Capitol dome behind her. She begins to climb steps.. JOE WILSON Democracy is not a free ride... 114. THE HALL. JOE WILSON Man I'm here to tell you that. But its where we live. And if we do our job its where our children will live. God bless America. A roar erupts from the auditorium. BACK TO: Valerie climbs the steps. Suddenly she is engulfed in flashes. Dozens of photographers. Reporters. She climbs the steps. She passes between the two enormous statues to the Spirit of Justice and The Majesty of the Law -- INT. RAYBURN HOUSE. CAPITOL HILL. DAY. Valerie walks onto the floor of the Oversight Committee. Cameras. Microphones. Press photographers. She sits before a microphone. Swallows. VALERIE Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Valerie Plame Wilson, and I am honored to have been invited to testify under oath before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the critical issue... The shot dissolves into the REAL VALERIE PLAME delivering her testimony to the chamber. REAL VALERIE FOOTAGE ...of safeguarding classified information. I'm grateful for this opportunity to set the record straight. I served the United States loyally and to the best of my ability as a covert operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. I worked on behalf of the national security of our country, on behalf of the people of the United States until my name and true affiliation were exposed in the national media on July 14th, 2003, after a leak by administration officials. Today I can tell this committee even more. (MORE) 115. REAL VALERIE FOOTAGE (cont'd) In the run-up to the war with Iraq I worked in the Counter Proliferation Division of the CIA, still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified. I raced to discover solid intelligence for senior policy makers on Iraq 's presumed weapons of mass destruction program. While I helped to manage and run secret worldwide operations against this WMD target from CIA headquarters in Washington , I also traveled to foreign countries on secret missions to find vital intelligence. I loved my career because I love my country. BLACKOUT On March 6th 2007 Scooter Libby was found guilty of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI, concerning the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity. He was handed the maximum sentence: two and a half years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. On July 2nd 2007. The President used his executive authority to commute the court's sentence. Joe and Valerie left Washington and found a new home in Santa Fe. They live there today, with their children. FADE OUT.. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Family Man, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Family Man, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b9c8c1fe6a91975230a4a3dfc2f76f9d66c59c67 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Family Man, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +CHAPTER ONE - EARLY HISTORY 1 INT. KENNEDY AIRPORT, PAN AM TERMINAL - NIGHT SUPER: AUTUMN, 1987 A line of PASSENGERS about to board a Pan Am flight to London. JACK CAMPBELL, 22, head full of long unkempt hair, Tom Selleck mustache, the hopeful look of youth in his eyes... sitting next to... KATE REYNOLDS, 21, pretty, Dorothy Hamill haircut... rubbing the tears from her swollen red eyes... KATE I got you a few necessities... Kate hands Jack a new copy of Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle.” KATE (CONT’D) Your copy was a mess... Jack accepts the book but he’s unable to take his eyes off Kate. She hands him a cassette. KATE (CONT’D) Every one of these songs will remind you of me in a slightly different way... JACK All in one tape? KATE I also put side two of London Calling on there... Kate leans over and kisses him passionately on the lips. KATE (CONT’D) That was not officially the goodbye kiss. It was just an interim kiss... He looks at her, his eyes welling up. He pulls her close, kissing her deeply. Then... ANNOUNCER (O.S.) This will be the final boarding call for Pan Am flight 4 to London, Heathrow. Jack takes Kate’s hand, getting up, turning sadly to the gate. KATE You have your ticket? Jack pulls out a BLUE PAN AM TICKET ENVELOPE. Kate nods. They embrace and kiss again. As they separate. JACK I’m not even gonna say it, Kate. Maybe it’ll be like I never left... Jack takes one lastlook at her, then heads for the gate. Kate stands there, watching him go. Then... ...a moment of intuition. Something isn’t right. She looks at Jack, about to disappear into the jetway, trying to decide... KATE Wait. Jack turns. Kate approaches him. KATE (CONT’D) I have a bad feeling about this. JACK About the plane? What do you think it’s gonna crash? Don’t say that... KATE (shaking her head) I know we’ve talked about this a thousand times and we both agree that going to London is the right thing to do. But in my heart... this feels wrong. She looks at the gate...the last few passengers are boarding, then back into Jack’s eyes. KATE (CONT’D) Don’t go, Jack... JACK You mean don’t go at all? What about my internship? KATE Believe me I know what an incredible opportunity this is for you... JACK For us, Kate. KATE Right, for us. But...I’m afraid that if you get on that plane... JACK What? Kate looks at him, pleading with her eyes, but she can’t say... KATE (torn) Go. I’m sorry, you should just go... JACK (thinking, then...) No, you’re right. What are we doing? KATE We're being responsible. Go. Get on the plane. His eyes narrow as he measures her determination... KATE (CONT'D) (a smile) Get the hell outta my sight. You bother me. A laugh from Jack. Kate gives him a calm smile and a nod - it's not entirely convincing but it's enough for Jack. JACK (resolute) Okay, I'm going... He takes her in his arms one last time and hugs her tight. Jack looks toward the gate, the line disappearing...Kate grasps his shirt tightly. KATE I can't seem to let go of you... JACK You hear me complaining about that? A sober look in Jack's eyes. JACK (CONT'D) Look, we're at the airport and no one ever thinks clearly at the airport so we should just trust the decision we already made. You've been accepted to one of the best law schools in the country, I've got this internship at Barclay's Bank. We have a great plan, honey... Kate nods, then, with resolve... KATE You want to do something great, Jack? Let's flush the plan...start our lives right now, today...I don't know what that life's gonna look like but I do know it has both of us in it. And I choose us... Jack is jolted by her words. KATE (CONT'D) The plan doesn't make us great, Jack. What we have together, that's what makes us great. Her words sink in...A long moment of decision...He looks toward the gate, only one person left in line...back to Kate...imploring him with her eyes. Finally...He kisses her deeply on the lips... JACK I love you, Kate... ...a smile from Kate...relief...then... JACK (CONT'D) (taking her face in his hands) ...and a year in London's not gonna change that. A hundred years couldn't change that... Jack gives her one final kiss then walks pensively to the gate, handing the attendant his ticket, not able to look back. Kate watches him go, tears streaming down her face, as the gate door closes behind him. She waits, almost willing it to open again...waiting...waiting...but it doesn't... DISSOLVE TO: 1A EXT. MANHATTAN - ESTABLISHING - DAY The skating rink at Central Park...Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center...the view down Fifth Avenue with Christmas decorations...Park Avenue. 2 EXT. MANHATTAN - EARLY MORNING We close in on a spectacular pre-war doorman building... 3 INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS A huge space with gleaming hardwood floors, ornate moldings, and a great view of the Hudson and Jersey behind it... The place looks like a museum display...everything is of the highest quality and meticulously maintained. A wall of photos - Jack and Clinton, Jack with Patrick Ewing, Jack between Alan Greenspan and Henry Kravis. And a "Willie Mays" baseball bat encased in glass... 4 INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ...impeccably decorated and obsessively neat. Close in on the bed where JACK CAMPBELL, now 35, sans mustache and long hair, opens his eyes. A FLASH of bright morning light from the window. Jack shields his eyes, turning his head toward the bathroom where he sees... A WOMAN'S BACK...draped in a towel...an incredible back, neither flabby nor overly toned, beautifully curved...Jack focuses on it a moment. As the woman turns to him... PAULA. Beautiful, late 20s, a toothbrush in her mouth... PAULA (holding up toothbrush) I hope you don't mind. There were like ten new ones in the cabinet. A playful smile from Paula. JACK It's not what you think. I took Mentadent public... Paula smiles, moves over to a chair and grabs a little black dress hanging neatly over it. PAULA Did you really mean what you said about Tuscany? JACK Of course I did. PAULA Last night was great... JACK You are an amazing lover. You should be giving motivational seminars. PAULA Thanks. You're not bad yourself... Jack grabs his Frank Mueller watch from the night stand, puts it on his wrist. He looks at Paula as she slips the dress on. JACK I want to see you again. PAULA I'd like that, too. JACK Tonight. She turns to him. PAULA It's Christmas Eve, Jack. JACK So we'll get egg nog. Paula laughs. PAULA (putting on her shoes) I have to go to my parents' house out in Jersey. Would you like to come? JACK Jersey? You know what the traffic's gonna be like? PAULA I'm taking the train... Paula approaches Jack, leaning over him, her long hair dangling on his chest. PAULA (CONT'D) Don't you have anywhere to go? JACK I've got plenty of places to go. He stays there, confident, sexy, waiting for an answer... PAULA (a sexy laugh, then...) Maybe I can try and sneak away some time tomorrow morning... (kissing him on the lips) Okay? JACK (coy) If it's something you feel strongly about. Paula walks to the door, then turns back to Jack. PAULA It was nice meeting you, Jack... CHAPTER TWO - MAIN TITLES 4A INT. JACK’S APARTMENT - MORNING Jack saunters over to a Yamaha Grand Disclavier in the living room. He puts a disk into the piano and... ...the keys come alive with the music of BACH. Jack hits a switch and suddenly the entire apartment is enveloped in music... 4B INT. JACK’S BUILDING, CORRIDOR - SAME TIME Paula, waiting for the elevator, hears the MUSIC emanating from Jack’s apartment...an intrigued glance back at the apartment door as the elevator arrives... 5 INT. JACK’S BATHROOM - MORNING Back’s “Passion According to St. Matthew” is blaring through the speakers, the music is swelling to full orchestra... Jack’s at the mirror in this incredibly neat marble- tiled bathroom, shaving with a silver-plated Hammacher Schlemmer razor, HUMMING with the orchestra... 6 INT. JACK’S CLOSET - MORNING ...the size of a small house, a long row of Zegna suits, shoe trees stacked with Italian shoes, tailored shirts everywhere. Jack’s still HUMMING to the music as he dresses in front of a mirror. 7 INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Jack, wearing an elegant camel’s hair overcoat and carrying a leather briefcase, a “Master of the Universe” smile on his face, now HUMMING the Bach piece from memory... The doors open at 6. Jack self-consciously stops singing as ELIZABETH PETERSON, 60s, wearing a mink coat, gets on the elevator carrying a yappy little dog. JACK (a charming smile) Mrs. Peterson. MRS. PETERSON Hello Jack. You don’t have to stop singing on my account... JACK It’s because I’m shy, Betty. So, when are you going to leave that old corpse Mr. Peterson and run away with me? MRS. PETERSON You know you could never satisfy me the way he does... The doors open to the lobby. Mrs. Peterson walks out ahead. 8 INT. JACK’S BUILDING, LOBBY - MORNING TONY THE DOORMAN holds the door open for Jack and Mrs. Peterson... TONY THE DOORMAN Merry Christmas, Mr. Campbell. JACK How’d you do this year, Tony? TONY THE DOORMAN About four grand. And a bottle of twenty five year old scotch from Mrs. Johnson in 9D. I’m putting it all in commercial paper like you said. JACK Just until the Deutsche Mark turns... Jack exits the building... 9 OMITTED 9A EXT. CENTRAL PARK - MORNING Jack’s Ferrari racing through the park... 10 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING - MORNING A modern Wall Street building. The sign above the glass doors reads, “P.K. Lassiter and Associates, Investment House.” The Ferrari SCREECHES to a halt. Jack gets out, heads into the building... 10A INT. LASSITER BUILDING - CONTINUOUS ...Jack throws his keys to a nearby SECURITY GUARD with a smile on his way to the elevators... CHAPTER THREE - JACK THE BUSINESSMAN DISSOLVE TO: 11 INT. LASSITER BUILDING, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY The Manhattan skyline shines through the windows of this beautiful conference room. SIX EXECUTIVES are seated at a huge oak table littered with coffee cups and lunch waste. At the end of the table, ALAN MINTZ, 30s, balding, sits with a faraway look in his eyes, three empty Diet Coke cans in front of him. Mintz is poking at a shiny gold cherub dangling from a small, plastic Christmas tree, sitting in the middle of the table. Jack is addressing the group from the front of the room, standing in front of a computer with a huge flat screen monitor, covered with stock charts and tables... JACK ...if MedTech's shares sink any lower than... (casually executing a keystroke) ...forty three, we're in trouble with the stock valuation. So for god's sake watch what you say to your institutional customers... Jack notices Alan Mintz playing with the cherub. JACK (CONT'D) ...we still have almost a full day of trading before zero hour and I don't want any trouble... (distracted by Mintz) ...penny for your thoughts, Alan... Alan looks up. ALAN Sorry, Jack. I told Dee and the kids I'd be home by dinner. You know, it being Christmas Eve and all. JACK Is that tonight? A LAUGH from the group. Jack approaches Alan. JACK (CONT'D) You think I like being here on Christmas Eve, Alan? ALAN I don't know. Maybe... Another LAUGH. Even Jack lets out a good-natured chuckle. JACK Okay, maybe I do have a touch of tunnel vision this holiday season. But in two days we're going to announce one of the largest mergers in U.S. corporate history. Thirty billion dollars... (basking in the glory) When this kind of deal turns up you get on and you ride it `till it's over. You don't ask it for a vacation... A chuckle from the group...the esprit de corps seems to energize Jack. JACK (CONT'D) (to the group) December 26th. After that there'll be so much money floating around here it'll be like Christmas every day... (smiling) December 26th, people. If you'd like to celebrate that day, you all have my blessing... Enthusiastic nods and words of agreement from the suits around the table... ALAN You're right, Jack. Sorry... Jack approaches Alan. JACK I don't want you to be sorry, Alan, I want you to be excited. I want my gift to be the first one you open this year. You know why? ALAN Why Jack? JACK Because my gift comes with ten zeroes at the end... A MURMUR of excitement in the room, even Alan cracks a smile. Jack puts a hand on Alan's shoulder. JACK (CONT'D) Good man... 12 INT. LASSITER BUILDING CORRIDOR - NIGHT The conference room door opens and the SIX ENERGIZED SUITS emerge, each met by an ASSISTANT handing them messages. Jack is the last one out. He's met in stride by ADELLE, 50s, carrying a Filofax and a pile of phone messages. ADELLE Only eight thirty? What's the matter, had some last minute shopping to do? Jack pops a peppermint Lifesaver in his mouth as Adelle hands him his messages. JACK You too? This holiday's about giving, Adelle. And I'm giving everything I've got to this deal, so in a way, I'm more Christmassy than anyone... (holding out the candy) Lifesaver? ADELLE (ignoring the candy) You're a ray of sunshine, Jack. They approach an office, the words, "Jack Campbell - President" stenciled on the glass... 13 INT. JACK'S OUTER OFFICE - CONTINUOUS ...continuing past Adelle's desk, Jack looking at his messages, and into Jack's office... 14 INT. JACK'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS A cavernous office, you could land a helicopter in it - high tech fixtures, full bar, leather sofa, $3,000 Stairmaster... Jack walks to an enormous, bare mahogany desk, and sits down in a high tech ergonomic leather chair. ADELLE Oh, and Oxxford called... JACK Ooh, my suits are ready... He gets to the last message, sees the name on it, and reels back. JACK (CONT'D) Kate Reynolds... ADELLE Her assistant said you could call her at home after eight. Jack stares at the message like he's looking at a ghost. JACK Her assistant? ADELLE Yeah Jack, her assistant... JACK (lost in the message) Kate Reynolds was my girlfriend in college. I almost married her... ADELLE (a hearty LAUGH) You? Married? JACK (snapping out of it) Almost married. And almost a junior broker at E.F. Hutton... ADELLE Excuse me? JACK She didn't want me to go to London. We're standing at the airport saying goodbye and she asks me to stay. ADELLE So you left her? Just like that? JACK God, no. I thought about it for practically the entire flight... ADELLE Stop Jack, I'm getting all weepy. JACK I took the road less traveled, Adelle. ADELLE And look where it's led you... (picking up the phone) I'm gonna get her on the phone... Jack pauses, focused on the message, his mind drifting back... Adelle begins dialing the number. Finally, Jack reaches out and hangs up the phone. JACK No... ADELLE No?! You almost married this woman. Aren't you even curious what she wants? JACK She's probably just having a fit of nostalgia. You know, lonely Christmas Eve, call the one that got away, that kind of thing. Adelle rolls her eyes at him. JACK (CONT'D) I'm telling you, it's ancient history... Jack looks up as PETER LASSITER, 60s, founder and chairman of P.K. Lassiter and Associates, saunters into the room. LASSITER Eight forty-five on Christmas Eve and Jack Campbell is still at his desk. There's a Hallmark moment for you... Lassiter heads to the bar like he's done it a million times. JACK Peter. I don't see you rushing home to trim the tree. LASSITER (pouring himself a scotch) That's because I'm a heartless bastard who only cares about money. JACK And God love you for it. Lassiter drops down in a soft leather chair opposite Jack. LASSITER (sipping the scotch) I just got a call from Terry Haight. Bob Thomas is nervous... JACK That'll happen when you're about to spend thirty billion dollars on some aspirin... LASSITER Someone's gonna have to nurse him through this. JACK Why are you staring at my breasts, Peter? LASSITER I need you, tiger.. JACK Where is he? LASSITER Aspen. Jack pauses for a beat. JACK (to Adelle) Call Aunt Irma. Tell her I won't be able to make it tomorrow... Adelle rolls her eyes at him... LASSITER You're a credit to capitalism, Jack. Jack glances at Adelle, then looks back at Lassiter. JACK Hey Peter, lemme ask you a question. An old girlfriend calls you out of the blue on Christmas Eve... LASSITER You suddenly having trouble getting dates? JACK Not by a long shot. LASSITER Then leave it in the past. Old flames are like old tax returns. You keep `em in the file cabinet for three years and then you cut `em loose. Jack shoots Adelle a satisfied smile, crumpling up Kate's message and tossing a perfect hook into a N.Y. Knicks hoop. JACK (to Adelle) I'll leave from the office tomorrow afternoon. Call the group. Schedule an emergency strategy session for noon. ADELLE That'll be a nice little holiday treat. 15 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING - NIGHT A single light remains on in the building. 16 INT. JACK'S OFFICE - SAME TIME Jack is alone in the office working on his computer, checking spreadsheets on a large flat screen monitor. Jack leans back in his chair rubbing his eyes. He checks his watch. It's past eleven. He gets up, goes to the window, sees the city in all its Christmas glory, then he see it... ...the message from Kate, crumpled in the trashcan...then turns back to the window, gazing out at the night... 17 INT. LASSITER BUILDING - NIGHT Jack comes out of the elevator, walking past the lobby desk where FRANK, a security guard, sits watching the monitors. FRANK Mr. Campbell. Why didn't you call down, I would've had Joe get your ride. Jack looks outside the front door to the snowy, quiet street. JACK I'm thinking I might walk tonight, Frank. FRANK Nice night for it. I'll have Louis send your car home. A nod from Jack. FRANK (CONT'D) Merry Christmas to you, sir... JACK Thanks. To you too... Jack puts on a pair of soft leather gloves and heads out into the crisp night air... 18 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING - CONTINOUS Jack emerges from the building, walking across the large plaza, past the fountain...snow begins to fall... 19 EXT. MANHATTAN STREET - A LITTLE LATER Jack's walking down the nearly empty street, snow falling down on him, a bounce in his step, looking at the windows of the closed shops along the way. He gets to the end of the block spots the Wong Brothers' 24 Hour Deli across the street... He heads toward it... 20 INT. WONG BROTHERS' DELI - SECONDS LATER Jack walks into the brightly lit deli... SAM WONG, 20s, is with his 80-year-old GRANDFATHER behind the counter. There's a NERDY COLLEGE KID at the salad bar, a drunken DEPARTMENT STORE SANTA at the liquor display, a WOMAN with a BABY in an aisle and... ...a BLACK MAN, 30s, with a dollar sign and the name "CASH" tattooed on his arm, stands in front of the coffee machine... CASH Oh yeah...yeah, yee-ah! She's a certified winner...paper- thin but good as gold... Jack notices Cash talking to himself, seemingly crazy. Jack approaches Sam Wong at the counter. JACK Egg nog? SAM WONG (pointing) Dairy case. Five dollar. CASH (in the b.g., to Sam Wong) Y'all do the lotto here...? `Cause I got me a winner...I know, I know, Lotto keeps the black man down... but not me... Jack grabs a carton of egg nog, then notices Cash handing Sam Wong his ticket. Jack heads back toward the counter... CASH (CONT'D) ...06...14...18...48...right there. Four numbers...that's two hundred and thirty eight dollar... (a smile) Merry Christmas and shit... SAM WONG (barely looking at ticket) Ticket bad. You draw in lines with pencil. CASH What're you talkin' about? SAM WONG (throwing the ticket back) You draw lines with pencil! I know about this! The woman with the baby looks over...the college kid looks up, nervous...the drunken Santa, bottle of bourbon in hand, starts to walk by Jack...Jack instinctively puts an arm out, holding the Santa back... CASH What!? Look at the ticket...! SAM WONG Get out, I call 911. The Santa looks at Jack, confused. CASH You're lookin' at me, you're not even lookin' at the ticket! The woman with the baby puts a loaf of bread back on the shelf, starts nervously inching toward the door. SAM WONG You leave now. Take ticket somewhere else. (calling out) Next customer in line...! CASH You first generation, xenophobic, money-theistic, hot pastrami sandwich making... SAM WONG (screaming) Get out! Just watching...Cash shoves the ticket in Sam Wong's face... CASH LOOK AT THE GODDAMN TICKET!! A moment of decision for Jack. Then... JACK (carefully) Let me see that ticket. Cash turns to Jack. CASH (menacing) Was I talkin' to you?! Jack looks at the woman, the college kid, the Santa, then... JACK Maybe I'll buy it from you. Now Cash walks over to Jack... CASH Guy in $2,000 suit gets ass kicked tryin' to be a hero. Film at eleven... (then...turning to the coffee machine) What?! Oh no, not another lookie-loo. You know how big a job this is? The patrons exchange nervous glances...Jack watches, confused. CASH (CONT'D) You're double bookin' me! You're gonna get double billed! Shit! Cash throws a bottle of Perrier against the wall, it SHATTERS. The woman reels back in terror with the baby... JACK Hey, c'mon... In a flash, Cash whips a .38 from the back of his pants, aiming it at Jack's face. The woman SCREAMS, covers her baby. CASH (in Jack's face) Do you want to die? Jack stares at Cash, trying his best to keep his cool... CASH (CONT'D) DO YOU WANNA DIE?! JACK No. CASH (a smile) Yes you do... JACK Look, I'm talking about a business deal here. I buy the ticket for two hundred, take it to a store where the guy behind the counter... (glaring at Sam Wong) ...doesn't have a death wish (back to Cash) ...I just made myself a quick thirty eight dollars. Cash gets closer... JACK (CONT'D) Like I said, it's a business deal... CASH Damn, you are the real thing... Cash narrows his eyes...then, a smile as he puts the gun back into his pants... CASH (CONT'D) C'mon, Jack, let's get outta here... (to Sam Wong) You were lookin' at me, papa, you shoulda been lookin' at the ticket. That ticket was legit, B. You're fake... Cash starts out of the deli. Jack follows... 21 EXT. MANHATTAN STREET - MINUTES LATER Jack and Cash walking down the street...Jack, holding his carton of egg nog under his arm, counting out two hundred dollars... JACK How'd you know my name was Jack? CASH I call all you white guys "Jack." Jack nods... CASH (CONT'D) You know you seem pretty relaxed for a guy who just had a gun pulled on him. JACK There's no way I was gonna die in that deli... (off Cash's look) Let's just say I've been on a lucky streak lately. CASH (a big LAUGH) A lucky streak, huh? Jack hands him the money. CASH (CONT'D) Sound pretty sure of yourself, don't you? Jack nods. CASH (CONT'D) So you're telling me, you've got a gun to your head and you don't think for one second, what if this, what if that, maybe I shouldn't do this, I shoulda done that. JACK I don't do that. That's just not for me... Cash looks at him, then smiles. CASH Okay, Jack. Nice doing business with you... Cash is about to take off... JACK Hey... Cash turns around. JACK (CONT'D) What do you want to carry that gun around for, anyway? You're just gonna do something you'll regret... CASH You want to talk about regrets, you're talking to the wrong person. Jack casually takes the egg nog out of the bag, opens the carton... JACK I'm just saying that you seem like a smart guy. At a certain point you're gonna do something, and then there's no turning back... CASH Yeah, in most cases that'd be true. Jack takes a sip of the egg nog. JACK I mean there must be programs out there, opportunities... CASH (a deep laugh) Wait a minute, wait a minute... you're tryin' to save me? A look from Jack... CASH (CONT'D) Oh man, you're serious... (out to the street) This man thinks I need to be saved! JACK Everyone needs something. Cash looks at Jack... CASH Yeah? What do you need? JACK Me? CASH You just said everyone needs something. JACK I've got everything I need. CASH Wow. It must be great being you. You got it all. Cash looks at Jack. He smiles and shakes his head. JACK Look, I'm not saying you'd be able to do it without some hard work... CASH (a hearty LAUGH) You still think this is about me, don't you? JACK Sure it's about you. But it's about society, too. CASH Oh man, I'm gonna enjoy this one... Just remember, Jack, you did this. You brought this on yourself... And with that, Cash turns and leaves Jack alone on the street with his egg nog... 22 INT. JACK'S APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Jack walks in and throws his keys on a table. He takes off his gloves and overcoat, glances at the mail, then heads into the bedroom. Through the large windows we see snow falling... 23 INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Jack, flat on his back in bed, fast asleep... CHAPTER FOUR - A DIFFERENT LIFE DISSOLVE TO: 24 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, MASTER BEDROOM - MORNING Close in on Jack’s face, bathed in morning light...he opens his eyes...feels something strange... Jack looks down...there’s a woman’s head resting on his chest. A look of confusion crosses his face...trying to remember... did he meet a woman last night...? He turns his head to find a large MUTT sitting faithfully beside the bed, wagging his tail... ...did she have a dog? He looks down at the woman again, craning his neck to get a look at her face. And then he sees her... ...KATE REYNOLDS... ...now 34 and even more beautiful, a look of utter contentment on her radiant face, sleeping soundly... His head darts around the room - it’s cramped and lived in, clothes and toys are strewn about, family photos on the dresser, Laura Ashley curtains, a tiny poster bed and a charming little bay window. He instinctively reaches for his Franck Mueller watch on the night stand, but it’s not there. It’s a Timex Indiglo and it reads, “7:57 A.M...” Jack looks back at Kate...he rubs his eyes...maybe it’s a dream...but nothing changes. Then, Kate stirs... KATE Mmmm...ten more minutes, Jack... it’s Christmas... Jack jumps as he hears Kate talk for the first time... Suddenly, the door bursts open...A SIX YEAR OLD GIRL, ANNIE, in a little nightgown, walks into the room carrying an 18 MONTH OLD BOY, JOSH, SINGING at the top of her lungs... ANNIE Jingle bells, Santa s mells, Rudolph laid an egg...la la la, la-la la la, la la la la la... Annie places Josh on the bed and then jumps up herself. She gestures to the dog, patting the bed. ANNIE (CONT’D) You too, Luce... The dog faithfully jumps on the tiny bed, joining everybody else and leaving very little room. Annie starts jumping. ANNIE (CONT’D) Rise...and...shine...! KATE (stirring) You’re jumping, sweetheart... Jack looks at this activity like a man at his own funeral. ANNIE Mom, don’t you think we need to open the presents? KATE (groggy) Mommy needs five more minutes in la la land. That could be her present... Josh crawls directly up to Jack’s stomach, climbing on. ANNIE C’mon, Dad. Get up! She said “Dad.” That’s it. Jack moves the baby gingerly over, then gets out of bed, stumbling over a baseball bat lying next to it. He picks up the bat...the same Willie Mays autograph bat that was encased in glass in his N.Y. apartment. Frightened, Jack drops the bad, looking down at himself for the first time...he’s naked... ...a mortified look on his face as he sees the kids on the bed... ...he quickly grabs a pair of sweat pants and a yellow cardigan off the chair and throws them on... Kate, still half asleep, reaches out her hand. KATE Jack...? Jack turns by instinct. Kate grabs him, drawing him near. A look of fear on his face as Kate opens her eyes... Eye contact...Jack’s certain he’s about to hear her scream... KATE (CONT’D) (still groggy) Strong coffee, okay? She lets him go as Jack backs out the door... 25 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE LIVING ROOM - SECONDS LATER A garishly decorated Christmas tree sits in the middle of this messy and disorganized living room, a bevy of gifts underneath and four red stockings over the fireplace. Jack darts to the top of the steps... KATE (O.S.) (calling from the bedroom) Use an entire can if you have to! He looks back at the bedroom, then at the stairs...quickly heading down the CREAKY steps, still in shock. He grabs an overcoat from a hook by the front door...about to step out when he looks down and realizes... ...he’s barefoot. He glances at a pair of rubber over- boots sitting by the door, slips them on, just about to leave when... He hears the sound of a KEY TURNING in the door lock...Jack looks at the door, not quite sure what to do... The door opens...into the house, arms laden with wrapped gifts, walk BIG ED and LORRAINE REYNOLDS (both 60s), Kate’s parents. Big Ed’s wearing a ten gallon hat and a suede overcoat. Lorraine has a cigarette dangling from her mouth. JACK (drawing on a memory) Ed? Lorraine? Big Ed hugs Jack as best he can with an armful of gifts. BIG ED Jack you ol’ bird dog. Merry Christmas to ya’... Lorraine plants a big fat kiss on Jack’s cheek. LORRAINE Talk to him, Jack. Please. One day a year away from the Ponderosa. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. BIG ED I heard that. This is who I am, woman! (a wink to Jack) Tell her, Jack! You’re the only one who gets me, for god’s sake! Jack, still holding the door open, plotting his escape. LORRAINE I need some egg nog... BIG ED ‘Course you do. Hell, it’s almost 8 a.m. (shouting upstairs) Where are my two l’il pardners? Annie! Josh! Giddy up, Bid Ed’s here! JACK Excuse me. Jack dashes out the door. LORRAINE Where are you going, Jack? (to Big Ed) Where’s he going? BIG ED Damned if I know... They start to remove their coats, when... The door flies back open... JACK Where’s my car?! Where’s my Ferrari!? BIG ED What the hell are you talking about? (to Lorraine) What’s he talking about? JACK Look, can I just borrow your car?! I promise it’ll be returned! BIG ED The Caddy? Why don’t you take your own damn car! LORRAINE Oh just let him borrow your precious Cadillac, for god’s sake. Jack spots a set of keys hanging on a hook. BIG ED He’s got a perfectly good mini-van sitting out there in the driveway! Jack grabs the keys off the hook...darts back outside... 26 EXT. CAMPBELL HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Jack emerges from this charming, suburban two-story house, some tasteful Christmas lights decorating a tree in the center of the snow-covered lawn... He races to a blue Dodge mini-van sitting in the driveway, a “My Ferrari Is In The Shop” sticker on the rear bumper. He climbs into the mini-van and peels out of the driveway... 27 INT. MINI-VAN - SECONDS LATER Jack sees a sign, “George Washington Bridge - 3 miles”... 28 INT. MINI-VAN - MINUTES LATER Jack driving over the bridge. A sigh of relief as he passes under a sign for “Manhattan.” 29 EXT. MANHATTAN STREET - EARLY MORNING The mini-van pulls up near Jack’s apartment building. Jack, still wearing pajamas under the coat, leaps out, running toward the grand entrance where Tony stands sternly in front. JACK Tony, thank god... Jack starts to walk past but Tony blocks the way. TONY THE DOORMAN Sorry, pal. Entrance is for residents and guests only... JACK What are you talking about? It’s me, Jack Campbell. Penthouse C. I put you into commercial paper! TONY THE DOORMAN (not moving) Uh-huh... Just then, Mrs. Peterson walks to the door with her little DOG. Tony opens the door for her... JACK Elizabeth Peterson! The little dog starts BARKING ferociously at Jack. MRS. PETERSON (to Tony re: Jack, annoyed) Who is this man? Tony shrugs his shoulders. JACK You know me, Betty. You do. Jack Campbell. We’re on the co-op board together. We fought side by side for garbage disposals. Every morning we exchange quasi-sexual witty banter. Think... She looks at Jack with a raised eyebrow, the dog still YAPPING. TONY THE DOORMAN (to Mrs. Peterson) Should I call the cops? I’m gonna call the cops... Jack pleads to her with his eyes. MRS. PETERSON (raising a hand to Tony) No... JACK (a sigh of relief) Thank you, Betty. I know if I can just sleep this off, I’ll be fine... MRS. PETERSON And sleep you shall. Noblesse oblige is not dead. Not yet anyway...Come, let’s get you some help. Surely there must be a shelter somewhere in this city. JACK A shelter?! I’m the richest guy in the building...I’ve got twice the square footage you have! Mrs. Peterson shakes her head at him, a look of pity on her face. Frustrated, Jack turns and runs back to the mini-van... CUT TO: 30 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING - MINUTES LATER Jack pulls up across the street and gets out of the van. Running across the empty plaza toward the building entrance... 31 INT. LASSITER BUILDING, LOBBY - CONTINUOUS Jack bursts through the door, approaching the lobby desk where FRANK the security guard sits. Frank spots Jack and blocks his way. FRANK Whoa, whoa, whoa...hold it right there... JACK Frank. Where’s Alan Mintz? Is he here yet? FRANK Mr. Mintz? (a knowing chuckle) I don’t think so...building’s closed pal. You’ll have to come back tomorrow. JACK Look, I don’t know what’s going on here but I am Senior Vice President of this company. FRANK I don’t care who you are. It’s Christmas and like I told you the building is closed. JACK Maybe you’re not hearing me. I am Jack Campbell... (approaching the building directory) Right here. Jack Campbell, President... And then he sees it...”ALAN MINTZ - PRESIDENT,” listed plain as day on the building director... Jack looks at Frank, then back to the building directory... A pitying look from Frank...Jack stands there, in shock... CHAPTER FIVE - WHAT’S HAPPENING? 32 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING, PLAZA - MOMENTS LATER ...it’s desolate... Jack walks through the plaza like a zombie, his face registering nothing. He crosses the street, moving toward the mini-van...oblivious...when... SCREECH...a Ferrari 456M stops within inches of Jack’s torso...a VOICE from the car... VOICE (O.S.) Hey! Watch where you’re walking! Jack turns...sees the DRIVER low in the seat...can’t quite make out the face... VOICE You almost dented my two hundred thousand dollar car! Jack...still stunned...looks at the car, very familiar...the voice of the driver, also familiar... VOICE (CONT’D) That’s right! My new car’s worth more than your shitty house! A look of realization on Jack’s face... VOICE (CONT’D) I feel like I really did win the lottery! ...it’s Cash, and he’s in Jack’s car... Jack moves over to the passenger window in shock...a smile from Cash... CASH Miss me, Jack? JACK That’s my car! You stole my car! CASH It’s a callable asset seized in accordance with the acquisition by-laws of your alt-fate contract... JACK What?! CASH Basically, it’s my car now. Get in. Cash reaches over and opens the door. Jack hesitates... CASH (CONT’D) Look, I don’t make the rules, Jack. This is how it works. Get in. Cash gives him a reassuring look. Jack gets in... 33 INT. FERRARI - CONTINUOUS Jack closes the door...Cash joyfully drives off in a burst of acceleration...Jack practically ends up in the back seat... CASH Might wanna fasten your seat belt, Jack... JACK (recovering) What the hell is happening to me?! Jack’s freaking out and Cash is enjoying every minute of it. Cash hands Jack a paper bag. Jack starts breathing into the bag. CASH This kinda thing makes a lotta guys throw up. Seen it happen. So if you get the urge, do it out the window. (with a taunting laugh) I don’t want you marring this exquisite leather interior... Cash looks over at Jack...he’s really losing it, sobbing into the bag...almost hyperventilating...Cash smiles... CASH (CONT’D) Look, I don’t know what you’re getting so worked up about, you did this...you brought this on yourself. JACK Brought what on myself?! I didn’t do anything! CASH No? C’mon, Jack...I’ve got everything I need, I don’t have regrets, that’s just not for me... sound familiar? JACK You mean because you thought I was cocky I’m now on a permanent acid trip?!! Cash gets a laugh out of Jack’s overreaction... CASH Everyone else in that store is a statue, they see their lives passing in front of their eyes, but not you. You’re making a business deal... JACK (enraged) Give me my goddamn life back! CASH You? What about me? I’m working hard for you here, Jack. On Christmas too! Now you did a good thing last night, intervening that way. I was moved... JACK (interrupting) Please. Just tell me what’s happening to me. In plain English. None of that mumbo jumbo... Cash turns to Jack. CASH It’s a glimpse, Jacko. JACK I glimpse? A glimpse of what!? What glimpse?! Glimpse! CASH Look, eventually, everybody gets one...some of ‘em take a couple seconds... (looking at Jack) ...some of ‘em take a lot longer... JACK I asked you a direct question! A glimpse of what?! A look from Cash. CASH Figure it out. You got plenty of time. JACK How much time?! CASH As long as it takes to figure it out. Which, in your case, could be considerable. JACK Look, I just want my life back. Now what’s it gonna take? You wanna talk turkey? Let’s talk turkey! How much money...? Cash looks at Jack, relishing the moment. He flashes Jack a smile. CASH Do I look like I need your money. It doesn’t work like that and I can’t tell you why. JACK Why not? CASH Because you got to figure it out for yourself. (beat) Are you listening to me? JACK Figure it out? Figure what out?! Cash just stares at him... JACK (CONT’D) That’s it? That’s all I get?! A glare?! CASH Look Jack, in my experience the best way people deal with this is to just relax and breathe through it...let it come to you. Jack faces Cash, simmering...with frustration. JACK Look, I don’t have time for this right now. I’m in the middle of a deal... CASH Oh you’re working on a new deal now...did I mention that? JACK You know what? I’ve had it with you. I’ve had it with all of this shit... SCREECH...Cash slams on the brakes...practically sending Jack through the windshield. Jack recovers, looks up...the car is parked right next to the mini-van. Cash pulls out a small plastic bag, holding it out to Jack... CASH Here... Jack looks inside the bag, pulls out a BARBIE BICYCLE BELL. He looks at it curiously. JACK What’s this, a signal? Will you come whenever I ring it? CASH Do I look like I live in a bottle? Cash reaches across Jack and opens the door. JACK (lost) But what do I do? CASH Look Jack I’m late. I’d love to help you out some more but I gotta go handle my business... (gesturing to the mini-van) Happy trails. Jack looks out to the lonely street outside, then back to Cash. JACK Hey, you did this to me, you can’t just leave me like this. Cash looks at Jack, the desperation on his face. CASH Fine. You want to know everything, I’ll tell you everything. But not here. Let’s get some air... Jack’s still a little unsure...he sees Cash open the driver side door... JACK (relieved) Thanks, man... Jack gets out of the car...and before he can even turn around, Cash’s door SLAMS shut and the car takes off in a blast of horsepower... Jack stands there gazing down the street, listening to the sound of the Ferrari shifting gears, disappearing... The wind whips up...shivering, Jack looks toward the Lassiter Building, then to the plastic bag in his hand, and finally to the mini-van. 34 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - LATE MORNING The blue mini-van snakes through the curved streets of the neighborhood, almost all the houses decorated for Christmas. 35 INT. MINI-VAN - SAME TIME Jack’s trying to find the house, a map unfolded on the steering wheel and the car’s registration in his hand... He spots ARNIE BENDER, late 30s, carrying an empty science kit box to the trash. His wife, JEANNIE, also late 30s, is getting in a Ford Taurus wagon, a bowl of fruit in hand... Jack pulls up to the curb near Arnie, rolling down the window. JACK Excuse me. Do you know where Merrison Street is? Arnie looks up and sees Jack in the van. ARNIE (turning to his wife) Jeannie! I found Jack! 36 INT. BENDER HOUSE, DEN - A LITTLE LATER Jack follows Arnie into the den of this garishly decorated suburban home, Arnie’s arm around his shoulder. ARNIE You look terrible... Jack takes in the decor – it’s a male leisure time fantasy – old pinball machine, wide screen TV, dart board, and kitschy ‘50s style bamboo bar... ARNIE (CONT’D) Truth is I expected you. Kate called before and asked if I knew where you were. Arnie notices Jack’s fascination with the room... ARNIE (CONT’D) I know, I moved the Barca-lounger into the corner. It’s throwin’ everybody off. What do you think? JACK (with a nod) Great room... A satisfied smile from Arnie, Jack’s approval means something to him. ARNIE You and me, buddy. We know how to live... Arnie shepherds Jack onto a bar stool and pours a drink out of a bamboo bottle holder. ARNIE (CONT’D) So Jack, you okay? Jack doesn’t respond, his eyes drawn to a softball team photo on the bar...Jack and Arnie kissing a huge trophy with the caption, “Plainfield, N.J. Softball League Champs, 1994.” ARNIE (CONT’D) I mean you leave the house on Christmas morning, you don’t tell anyone where you’re going... Jack looks over from the photo to Arnie... JACK We’re friends, aren’t we? ARNIE Maybe I don’t say it enough but you moving in next door to me... Arnie makes a fist and gestures to his heart. Jack nods. ARNIE (CONT’D) Talk to me... A moment of decision for Jack as Arnie stands there, open eyed, ready to listen. JACK I’m having kind of a bad day. ARNIE (nodding) I read somewhere that the suicide rate doubles during the holidays... A raised eyebrow from Jack. ARNIE (CONT’D) (to himself) What am I saying? You don’t need to hear that... (back to Jack) All I meant was a lot of people have a hard time dealing with all the forced reverie, that’s all. Is that you? JACK Is it...? ARNIE Trouble at work? JACK I don’t think so. ARNIE It’s not Kate, is it? Jack pauses at the mention of Kate. Arnie’s eyes widen... ARNIE (CONT’D) (proudly) You see, it’s like we’re in each other’s heads... JACK Kate’s my wife... Jack looks at Arnie as if he’s seeking confirmation. ARNIE (a playful smile) Just keep saying it, Jack, like a mantra. Arnie comes out from behind the bar, taking Jack by the arm. ARNIE (CONT’D) C’mon, I better walk ya home. She’s mad enough as it is, right...? 37 EXT. ARNIE’S YARD - SECONDS LATER Arnie walks Jack through his backyard... ARNIE Look, you fit the profile exactly. Thirties, house, kids, financial responsibilities. You start thinking...this isn’t the life I dreamt about. Where’s the romance, where’s the joie de vivre? Suddenly, every lingerie ad in the Newark Star Ledger represents a life you can’t have... JACK (thinking, then...) It’s just two kids, right? A chuckle from Arnie. ARNIE You made a choice, Jack, a promise to your wife. Maybe sometimes it seems like you gave up the world, but look what you got... They arrive at...the backyard of the Campbell house... cluttered with a swing set, a dog run with chewed up lawn, and a wooden sun deck in the process of being built... ARNIE (CONT’D) Four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a partially finished basement... Jack trips over a wayward BIG WHEEL. ARNIE (CONT’D) (shaking his head) Kids... Arnie leads Jack toward the house. ARNIE (CONT’D) Okay look, you probably don’t want to hear this right now but remember what you told me last summer when I almost had that thing with Arnie Jr.’s speech therapist. A blank stare from Jack as they arrive at the sliding glass door...Arnie faces Jack squarely, grabbing his shoulders and looking him in the eye. ARNIE (CONT’D) Don’t screw up the best thing in your life just because you’re a little unsure about who you are. Okay? Arnie gives Jack a comforting smie... ARNIE (CONT’D) God, it feels so good to finally give something back to you... Arnie turns Jack toward the door and slides it open. ARNIE (CONT’D) I’m gonna hug you now... Arnie gives Jack a gentle hug...then gives him a little push toward the door... 38 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, DEN - CONTINUOUS Jack steps inside. He turns back to the door but Arnie’s gone. Then, Kate enters the room, holding a portable phone... KATE (into phone) Hold on a second... She cups the receiver. Jack looks at her, she’s dressed now, nothing fancy but she looks great. JACK You cut your hair... A curious look from Kate. KATE Ten years ago... Kate just stands there looking at Jack, giving away nothing. KATE (CONT’D) Are you okay? JACK Yeah...fine. She gives him a resolute nod, then... KATE (into phone) Never mind, he just walked in... Jack grimaces as she resolutely hangs up the phone then stares him down angrily. KATE (CONT’D) Do you have any idea what you put us through today?! You walk out of here at 7:30 in the morning, don’t tell me where you’re going, or even that you’re going, and I don’t see you ‘til hours later. I had state troopers looking for you! I called hospitals... (pointing at the phone) ...I was just on the phone with the morgue for god’s sake! Jack watches her vent, the frustration on his face building. KATE (CONT’D) What kind of man leaves his family on Christmas morning without a word about where he’s going? Jack’s almost to a breaking po INT. KATE (CONT’D) What kind of man does that!? JACK (jumping in) I don’t know! Please stop yelling at me! She looks at him curiously. KATE Where were you? JACK I was in the city. KATE The city? New York City? Why? JACK Because that’s where I live. KATE Jack...don’t even start... JACK Look, you don’t understand. I woke up here...and this is very strange ...this is not my house... A raised eyebrow from Kate. Jack moves around the room... JACK (CONT’D) (pointing upstairs) I’m not “Dad...”. Kate, you’re not my wife... Kate looks him over, assessing, then... KATE You know what, Jack? It’s not funny this time. I’m really angry. She stares him down, expecting an answer. But he has no answer. KATE (CONT’D) (loudly) Jack! Jack takes the bell out of the plastic bag that Cash gave him, holds it up in front of her and starts RINGING it furiously. Then...Annie rides into the room on her new bike. ANNIE (re: bell) What’s that? Jack watches as she pedals over, reaches into his hand and takes the bicycle bell... ANNIE (CONT’D) (examining the bell) I like this... (jumping up and giving hima peck on the cheek) ...thanks, Dad! Annie rides excitedly out of the room on her bike. Leaving Jack and Kate alone again... KATE You missed the whole thing, Jack. The pancakes, the presents...you spent six hours putting that bike together and you didn’t even get to see the look on Annie’s face when she opened it... Jack sees the disappointment on her face... KATE (CONT’D) You missed Christmas, Jack. Jack looks down, almost ashamed...he relents, giving in to the moment... JACK I’m...I’m sorry. Kate looks at him. He seems sincere enough... KATE Look, we don’t have time for this right now, we’ll talk about it later. Now get dressed... (pointing to his outfit) You’re not wearing that to the Thompsons’ party. I don’t care how hilarious you think it is... JACK Party? Oh no, I can’t go to a party... KATE You look forward to this party all year. What’s with you today? JACK Trust me on this Kate. I really don’t think going to a party is the right move for me at the present time. Kate looks at him a moment, then shakes her head. KATE Fine. Do whatever you want. She picks up the phone, starts dialing... JACK What are you doing? KATE Telling my mother she doesn’t have to stay with the kids. JACK Why not? KATE Because you’ll be here. Kate just looks at him. JACK I’ll be ready in ten minutes. He walks past her...toward a hallway door, Kate watching him... He opens the door...it’s a closet. JACK (CONT’D) Christ... (turning around) Where the hell is the bathroom? KATE Funny, Jack. I’m laughing on the inside. 39 INT. BATHROOM - MINUTES LATER The light comes on... Jack walks in, looks in the mirror, determined to collect himself...but something’s not right... He glances around...the bathroom is small and it’s cluttered with Kate’s razors, loofah, skin creams... ...none of this stuff is his... ...he looks in the mirror again, his face revealing a forlorn sense of displacement... ...he stares at himself until...he starts to lose it... anger, confusion...sadness...finally, he begins breaking down... After a moment, he turns on the water, rinsing his face... 40 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, BEDROOM CLOSET - MINUTES LATER Jack at the closet door, looking at a row of Hagar slacks, Docker sport coats and imitation leather shoes... He reaches in and touches the fabric on one of the sport coats. JACK This is just... (searching for the words) ...this is sub-par... Annie appears at the bedroom door, watching Jack at the closet. He turns...sees Annie watching him...a look exchanged... then, Annie runs away... Jack turns back to the closet and mournfully takes a pair of the slacks... 41 EXT. THOMPSON HOUSE - NIGHT Jack and Kate, a casserole dish in her hand, walk up the path to this tacky but large house, its outside decorated with the most garish display of Christmas decorations this side of Pasaic. Kate RINGS the doorbell... EVELYN THOMPSON, 30s, wearing a dress that’s a bit too tight and a bit too low cut, opens the door... EVELYN Kate! Jack! (turning around, to guests) Everybody, Jack and Kate are here! Jack looks right past her...to the house filled with 50 GUESTS. A loud WHOOP from the guests...Jack has the look of a condemned man on his face as he follows Kate inside... 41A INT. THOMPSON HOUSE - CONTINUOUS As Kate heads into the living room, Evelyn takes Jack’s arm... EVELYN (suggestively) Like the dress...? JACK (glancing at it) It’s lovely... EVELYN (a satisfied smile) I thought I saw you notice it at the kids’ recital. Jack shoots her a confused look...then walks in, trying to catch up with Kate... 42 INT. THOMPSON HOUSE - A LITTLE LATER The party is in full swing, Christmas music in the b.g., GUESTS talking, laughing, drinking egg nog... Jack’s eyes dart around the room...it’s large, neater than his and Kate’s house but still very lived in...The Thompson KIDS run in and out of the room, playing with new toys... nobody is wearing or eating anything imported from Europe, but everyone’s having a good time... ...everyone except for Jack, standing with Arnie and THE GUYS, having his ear chewed off by NICK CARELLI, a walking advertisement for Levi’s Cotton Dockers... NICK Did you see Van Horn last night? This kid’s gonna single-handedly save basketball in the state of New Jersey... JACK The Nets? You’re kidding, right...? Nick looks at him in disbelief. JACK (CONT’D) (recovering) Well...they’re certainly due. BILL KRAMER, a huge pile of fried chicken wings on his plate, tugs at Jack’s shirt. BILL KRAMER So tomorrow’s the big day, Jackie... JACK Okay...why? BILL KRAMER Triple bypass. I’m going under the knife. I told you, didn’t I? JACK Triple bypass? (pointing to his plate) You really think you should be eating all that? BILL KRAMER Why not? I figure I’m going in for a cleaning tomorrow, I might as well load up on the fried stuff tonight... ARNIE Good thinking, Bill. Have another drink. (whispering to Jack) He’ll be lucky if he lives through the night... Nick reaches into his pocket and pulls out a packet of Dutch Masters cigars. He shows them to Jack, Jack nods politely. Nick eagerly hands him one... Nick lights Jack’s cigar, then his own...enjoying that first puff...smiling at Jack...Jack dutifully takes a puff of the cigar...nods back at Nick...but it’s an effort... Evelyn Thompson approaches, a tray of MUSHROOM PUFFS in hand... EVELYN (holding out a puff to Jack) Finger food...? JACK I don’t think so, thank you... EVELYN (suggestively) C’mon, as soon as I put them down, you’re gonna grab a couple...you always do... Kate sees Evelyn and Jack from her position on the other side of the room...Kate watches as... Evelyn holds the puff up to Jack’s mouth, slowly putting it near his lips... EVELYN (CONT’D) Let me. They’ll melt in your mouth... He instinctively opens his mouth as Evelyn pushes the treat inside... EVELYN (CONT’D) Good? On Jack’s face...if freezer burn were a facial expression, this would be it... JACK (forcing a smile) They’re great! Thank you! ...Evelyn licks her fingers suggestively then hands Jack the entire tray with a sexy smile... A raised eyebrow from Kate, still watching... EVELYN Mushroom puffs aren’t the only thing I do well... JACK Well do whatever it is you do well, and just...just do it. Excuse me... Evelyn nods as Jack walks toward the staircase... Kate follows Jack with her eyes as he climbs the stairs... 43 INT. THOMPSON HOUSE, DEN - NIGHT Jack is sitting on the arm of a couch filled with guests’ coats, talking on a FOOTBALL SHAPED telephone...the tray of mushroom puffs on the table... JACK (loudly, into phone) ...what do you mean he won’t come to the phone?! (standing, indignant) Do you realize how much money I’ve made for that sonuvabitch in the last eight years?! Click. A dial tone. Jack slams the phone down... JACK (CONT’D) Damnit! He slams the phone again...and again...and again... KATE (O.S.) Jack...? Jack turns, sees Kate standing in the doorway, watching him take his frustrations out on the phone, concern on her face. KATE Are you sure you’re okay...? A forced smile from Jack. JACK Yes, I’m fine. It’s just this god awful football phone! Who has a phone like this anyway?! KATE (doubtful) Uh huh... Kate notices the tray of mushroom puffs on the table. KATE (CONT’D) You must really love Evelyn’s mushroom puffs, huh? (with a wink) You know they’re not real... She turns and leaves...Jack looks at her, confused... 44 INT. THOMPSON HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - A LITTLE LATER Jack comes down the stairs, a lost look in his eyes. He looks across the room and sees... Kate, with a group of GUESTS, looking great in her jeans and white blouse, the center of attention. Jack passes through the guests, people waving to him, slapping him on the back as he approaches Kate... He catches Kate’s eye...she gives him a subtle smile. KATE (to guests) ...then she asks me to put this sweater on. What choice do I have, right? Jack watches as Kate charms the crowd... KATE (CONT’D) But as I’m slipping it on I notice she’s misspelled the word “lawyers.” (laughing) I had to go through the entire day wearing a hand embroidered sweater that said, “Non-Profit Layers Do It For Free.” The guests laugh again. Even Jack finds himself laughing, until... JACK (to Kate, off-hand) So you’re a lawyer...? A chuckle from the group. Kate’s confused. JACK (CONT’D) A non-profit lawyer... People are starting to LAUGH. KATE (a little embarrassed) Jack... JACK Pro bono. You don’t get paid at all. Nobody makes a dime. Well, bravo... Blank stares from everyone, including Kate... CUT TO: 45 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, FOYER - LATE NIGHT Kate and Jack walk in the front door...the dog greets them happily, jumping up on Jack, a weary look on his face. KATE I better go wake my mother... Kate grabs a leash off a hook and hands it to Jack. KATE (CONT’D) Here you go... JACK You’re kidding me... KATE She’s your dog, Jack. JACK No, she’s not. KATE Fine, she’s the kid’s dog. Let’s go wake Josh, see if he wants to walk her. JACK But it’s twenty degrees outside... KATE (sympathetic) You’re having a bad day, I’ll go with you...actually, there’s no way in hell you’re gettin’ me back out there... Jack looks at the dog’s face. Lucy couldn’t be more excited. Finally, Jack shakes his head and takes the leash. KATE (CONT’D) (heading up the stairs) Make sure you reward her verbally when she does a number two... CUT TO: 46 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - LATE NIGHT The sound of CRICKETS. Jack, wearing a down jacket, is being dragged down the street by Lucy, his breath condensing in the cold winter air. The dog sniffs at a hydrant and a couple of garbage cans, but isn’t doing her business. JACK Figure it out...I’m s crewed...don’t have to be a genius to figure that out... The dog stops, sniffing at a manicured lawn... JACK (CONT’D) (to Lucy) It’s as good a place as any... But the dog keeps moving, pulling Jack with her. JACK (CONT’D) ...but obviously not up to your high standards... (to himself) Okay...he said you’re working on a new deal now...fine, you’ve done a thousand deals, what’s the first thing you do? Lucy’s sniffing around someone’s Christmas display but Jack’s too wrapped up in his thought process to notice. JACK (CONT’D) Triage. It’s your signature. You survey the damage, find out everything you can, you probe, leave nothing to chance. I’m just gonna have to go detective. How did you get Mentadent? You learned everything there was to know about toothpaste and then you pounced... Jack narrows his eyes, thinking about that deal... JACK (CONT’D) That’s our play here... Resolute, Jack turns to the dog. JACK (CONT’D) If you could take a dump some time in this century, then we could go home where it’s warm... Jack looks around at the unfamiliar houses... JACK (CONT’D) That is if I can even remember how to get home... (to Lucy) You remember, don’t you girl? But the dog ignores him, dragging Jack along... 47 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Kate is in bed, fast asleep. Jack walks into the room, his face still red from the cold outside. He looks over at Kate, sleeping happily. He takes off his shirt and khakis, laying them neatly on the chair. He looks over at the pair of flannel pajamas folded on the dresser. He shakes his head, resigned, then dons the pajamas and climbs into bed... CHAPTER SIX - BEING A PARENT 48 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE BEDROOM - MORNING Morning light streams into the room. The clock reads, “7:14.” Jack opens his eyes – a burst of light hitting them from the window...like the morning light in his Manhattan loft... He reaches across the bed...it’s empty... A smile of hope from Jack as he puts his head back on the pillow...maybe it was only a day...Then... The sound of a baby CRYING from the next room...A pained look on Jack’s face as he realizes he’s still in Jersey. Now the baby is WAILING...Jack lies still a moment, hoping it’ll stop...it doesn’t. Then, he hears the sound of the SHOWER TURN ON in the bathroom. He gets out of bed and walks to the bathroom... 49 INT. BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS The shower is running, a tape player is BLASTING “Beast of Burden.” Kate is in the shower SINGING LOUDLY with the song... JACK Hello? No answer... JACK (CONT’D) (louder, over music) Hello! KATE (singing) ...my feet are hurtin’... JACK (yelling) HEY! Finally, the music is turned down and Kate pulls the shower curtain open... Jack sees her naked body...raises an eyebrow...that’s something he’s missed...then... JACK (CONT’D) Uh...that baby’s crying... KATE (unimpressed) And...? ...her expression makes Jack turn his gaze from her naked body. KATE (CONT’D) Don’t give me that look, Jack, Tuesday’s your day and you know it. And try to get Josh to day care on time, okay? He missed the macaroni painting last week... She closes the curtain and turns the radio back up. CUT TO: 50 INT. JOSH’S ROOM - MORNING Annie’s watching from a baby-size Laz-E-Boy lounger as... Jack, in a robe, stands in front of a changing table, Josh laying happily on his back, playing with a set of plastic keys. Jack takes a fresh Huggies diaper and puts it next to the baby. He surveys Josh, scratching his chin and rubbing his hands like Indiana Jones. Josh playfully grabs at Jack’s nose. He looks over to Annie. She’s still staring at him like he’s a Martian. He looks at the instructions on the box of Huggies. JACK Pull tape... Jack searches the diaper for the tabs of tape, then gingerly pulls them apart, releasing the diaper from the baby’s bottom, and seeing what’s inside. JACK (CONT’D) Holy mother of god! Jack holds the diaper out away from him, searching for a place to put it. Annie points to a Diaper Genie by the dresser. Jack throws the diaper in, then quickly replaces the lid. Annie points to the container of Baby Wipes. JACK (CONT’D) You must be kidding... Annie stares at him a beat. Then... ANNIE You’re not really our dad, are you? Jack turns to her. She’s looking back at him with complete earnestness. They stare at each other another moment. Then... JACK No, I’m not. A look of curiosity from Annie. JACK (CONT’D) I work on Wall Street, you know with the big buildings...? No response from Annie... JACK (CONT’D) I live in an apartment house with a doorman, I can buy just about anything I want... Annie nods at Jack, still suspicious. JACK (CONT’D) This isn’t my real life. It’s just a glimpse... ANNIE Where’s my real dad? JACK I don’t know... A concerned look on Annie’s face, Jack’s petrified that she’s about to cry. JACK (CONT’D) But don’t worry, he loves you and I’m sure he’ll be back very soon... (to himself) ...very, very soon... Annie approaches Jack, climbing up on a little chair and tugging firmly at his hair. ANNIE They did a pretty good job. JACK Who did? ANNIE The aliens...In the mother ship. You look just like him. JACK Uhh...thanks...slightly better looking though, right? Annie’s now stone faced, trying to decide about Jack. JACK (CONT’D) You’re not going to start crying, are you? Because I’m not really sure I could deal with that right now. She thinks about it for a moment. ANNIE Do you like kids? JACK On a case by case basis... ANNIE You know how to make chocolate milk? JACK I think I could figure it out. ANNIE You promise not to kidnap me and my brother and implant stuff in our brains? JACK Sure. Beat. Then...a smile from Annie. ANNIE Welcome to earth. 51 INT. MINI-VAN - MORNING Jack’s driving, Annie buckled in the front seat... Josh, in the baby seat, looks like he was dressed by monkeys – his shirt buttons are off by one, and they’re clearly supposed to be in the back. ANNIE Stop here... Jack stops the van outside the Playland Day Care Center. ANNIE (CONT’D) This is day care. It’s where babies go when their parents are at work. JACK Check... He gets out of the van... 52 EXT. MINI-VAN - CONTINUOUS ...he pulls Josh out and walks quickly toward the building, holding the baby away from his body. He gets to the door and holds Josh out to the DAY CARE LADY. She stares at Josh’s outfit... JACK Do I get a receipt or something...? The woman looks at Jack like he’s crazy. 53 EXT. YMCA - A FEW MINUTES LATER The mini-van pulls up to the drop-off point at this suburban New Jersey Y. Annie opens the door. ANNIE I have winter camp until four, then ballet until five thirty. JACK Five thirty. Okay. ANNIE Try not to be late because kids don’t like to be the last one picked up. JACK Got it. Good tip. ANNIE Bye... CHAPTER SEVEN - A TIRE SALESMAN Jack watches her as she runs toward the building. Then... JACK (calling out window) Hey! Annie! Annie turns back toward him. JACK (CONT’D) Where do I go now? ANNIE Big Ed’s. JACK Big Ed’s? Big Ed’s Tires? (suspicious) Why...? ANNIE That’s where you work. A beat. Then... JACK You mean I sell tires... She shrugs her shoulders and walks off. JACK (CONT’D) That’s what I do. I’m a tire salesman... CUT TO: 54 INT. MINI-VAN - A LITTLE LATER Jack’s driving down a busy commercial street when he spots something a hundred yards down the road... JACK Good Lord... ...a huge, three-story-tall plastic likeness of Big Ed Reynolds, ten gallon hat, lassoing a tire... 55 EXT. BIG ED’S TIRES - MOMENTS LATER Jack approaches Big Ed’s from the parking lot...slowly, taking it all in... It’s like a Pep Boys with a Texas theme. A big retail store for tires and auto parts, and a repair bay for everything from alignments to brake jobs... Jack walks to the tire bay where HECTOR, 40s, a Guatemalan mechanic in grease-stained coveralls, stands with TOMMY the salesman. TOMMY Hey Jack, you happen to know the stock number on those new Michelin X1's? JACK Uh...lemme get back to you on that one... (looking at his name tag) Tommy... HECTOR (to Tommy) Thomas, why you bother Jack about that. Look it up yourself... (to Jack) Okay Jack, we talk later... Jack nods amiably then continues into the store... 56 INT. BIG ED’S TIRES - CONTINUOUS Jack walks in...looks around...the store is teeming with activity, a post-holiday sale in progress... Big Ed, in his signature ten gallon hat, sees Jack from behind the counter... BIG ED Jack my boy! You are looking mighty worse for the wear...Hey, guess who I played bridge with two nights ago...? Jack stares blankly at Big Ed... BIG ED (CONT’D) Hell, you’ll never guess. One Sydney Potter. That’s Sydney Potter, Chief Executive Officer of BuyRite Transport. Only the third largest trucking company in the state. I even let the sonuvabitch win, which wasn’t easy because the guy’s been bashed in the head by Teamsters so many times his brain’s like porridge. Anyhoo, he’s looking for a new parts supplier... we can handle that kind of volume, right? Jack considers this briefly. JACK I’m gonna have to get back to you on that...Ed. Big Ed makes a gun gesture with his forefinger, winking at Jack, then turns back to the activity at the counter as... Jack spots KENNY, a very young sales associate, walking by. He reaches out and taps Kenny on the shoulder. JACK (CONT’D) Do I have a private office somewhere in the building? KENNY Uh...sure Jack... (nervously pointing) Right back there... JACK Thank you. Jack walks into the office with his name on the door... 57 INT. JACK’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS There’s no Stairmaster here, no leather sofa or bar...it’s small, cramped and cluttered, the walls littered with tire inventory and price lists... Jack takes a slow, sad lap around the office. He makes it to the small wooden desk at the far end of the room and sits down behind it... On the desk are photos of Jack, Kate and the kids, a plastic Michelin Man model, a tire-themed day calendar and a small plastic figurine of a BOWLER, the word, “Bowlers Do It In An Alley” embossed on its base... He surveys the desktop briefly, then opens the top drawer, finding a personal checkbook and looking inside... He sees the bottom line and winces, then puts it back... Jack picks up the “Bowlers Do It In An Alley” figurine and gives it a good look... JACK Bowlers do it in an alley?...Non profit lawyers do it for free... what is it with these people? Don’t they realize this refers to sex? He replaces the figurine then opens the bottom drawer where he spots a bottle of Glenfiddich. He lifts it out... JACK (CONT’D) At least you splurged on some decent scotch... He takes a paper cup and pours himself a shot. He drinks it down in one gulp and then crumples up the cup, throwing it toward the NET’S basketball hoop/garbage can near the door. He misses... He looks more closely at the photographs...most are family photos, a happy Jack with Kate, with Annie at the pony rides, at Josh’s birth...in every one of them, Jack is smiling... JACK (CONT’D) (to Jack in the photo) What are you smiling about...? He turns his head...spots a small plaque on the wall behind him. It reads, “Jack Campbell - E.F. Hutton #1 Junior Sales Associate, 1988.” Jack raises an eyebrow... JACK (CONT’D) Number one...not bad. He grabs it off the wall and looks at it more carefully... JACK (CONT’D) 1988...? I was in London in 1988... Jack’s jarred into reality... JACK (CONT’D) (to Jack in the photo) You never went to London... (picking up the photo) ...you never got on that plane... He stays there a moment...in shock. Then... The P.A. system comes to life... ESTELLE (over P.A.) Jack to mag wheels...Jack, you’re needed in mag wheels, customer waiting! CUT TO: 58 INT. BIG ED’S TIRES, MAIN FLOOR - MINUTES LATER Kenny leading Jack toward the “Mag Wheels” section. JACK ...I was the number one junior sales associate at E.F. Hutton in 1988. Did you know that? KENNY No, I didn’t...that’s great. JACK That’s the kind of thing you can really build on... KENNY Uh huh... JACK I mean sales has always been a feeder for M and A, always... They approach “Mag Wheels” where TOMMY, a slick sales associate, stands with a CUSTOMER looking at the displays... KENNY Here we are, mag wheels... (a little concerned) Hey Jack, are you sure you’re okay? JACK Well, I’m just a little confused right now about why I work here... Kenny looks at him nervously. KENNY Uh...I just started here last Tuesday. Jack nods compassionately. Kenny takes off leaving Jack alone with his thoughts as Tommy approaches with the customer. TOMMY (to the customer) So you’re all set on the Skip Shift eliminator and the Brembo rotors. Jack’s our point man on alloy wheels... JACK (turning to Tommy) Do you know why do I work here...? TOMMY Because you’re the best damn tire guy in the state of New Jersey... (proudly, to the customer) Jack taught me everything I know about the business... The customer nods, impressed. JACK I taught you the business? Another nod to the customer. TOMMY And he’s a crack-up. JACK Everything I taught you. I want to hear it all, right now. Tommy’s confused. CUSTOMER Hey, I’m ready to buy here... JACK (to the customer) What do you want? CUSTOMER I want some alloy wheels. Jack grabs one of the alloy rims off the shelf, holding it out to the customer. JACK Here. These are great. You’ll need four. The customer takes the wheel from Jack, looks at it confused... CUSTOMER But I don’t like these... JACK Hey, you heard the guy, I’m the best damn tire guy in the state of New Jersey. (turning to Tommy) Everything. TOMMY Okay... (hesitating) Rule number one, the customer is always right... A satisfied smirk from the customer. 59 INT. BIG ED’S TIRES, JACK’S OFFICE - LATE AFTERNOON Jack is behind his desk, his tie loosened, on the phone... JACK (into phone) ...I have no idea what our inventory level is, that’s why I’m asking you... A KNOCK at the door... JACK (CONT’D) Look, just send us what you sent us last month, okay...? And keep doing that until further notice... He hangs up the phone as the door opens. Big Ed sticks his head in... BIG ED Got a minute, Jack? JACK I’ve got all the time in the world... Big Ed walks in, followed by SYDNEY POTTER, 60s, a tough looking man... BIG ED Jack, meet Sydney Potter, BuyRite Transport, one of Jersey’s top businessmen... Potter extends a hand, Jack rises from his chair, trying to place the name. Then... JACK ...and a helluva bridge player. Ed’s told me a lot about you... They shake hands. Potter nods his head at Jack, immediately impressed. Big Ed is beaming. POTTER (in a heavy Jersey accent) Lucky in cards, lucky in business, lucky in love. My cup runneth over... (to Big Ed) He’s a nice looking boy... BIG ED My daughter’s no slouch either... A smile from Potter, then a serious look. POTTER Let’s cut to the chase, Jack. Big Ed tells me you’re the grease that makes the wheels turn around here. I need a new parts supplier for my fleet. You seem to have the parts. That we know. What we don’t know is why the hell I should buy them from you. Potter stares Jack down. But Jack’s not about to be intimidated by him. He pauses, matching Potter’s stare. Then... JACK I have no idea... A surprised look from Potter. An anxious laugh from Big Ed. BIG ED (nervous) C’mon Jack... JACK (to Potter) I mean it. From what I can tell, we’re a mom and pop operation, we’re already over-extended in sales, and any price advantage we could offer would easily be matched by a larger supplier... Jack continues to stare down Potter. JACK (CONT’D) So like I said, I don’t have any idea why you should buy your parts from us... The staring match continues. Big Ed’s getting more nervous. Potter’s the first to blink. POTTER Okay, you got my attention... JACK Except for rule number one... Jack smiles. JACK (CONT’D) The customer is always right. A cliché? Sure. The difference is, we mean it. We’re small, we need our customers. We can’t afford to disappoint them, ever. Yeah, you could go to some leviathan supplier, probably save a few pennies on the price of oil filters, but with us you get more than a supplier, you get a bridge partner... A smile from Potter. Jack gives Ed a wink. Ed watches, thrilled... JACK (CONT’D) You want to bid hearts, we’re right there with you. You feel the need to redouble, you’re not going to get any argument from us... Potter nods at Jack. Jack moves in for the kill. JACK (CONT’D) The big guys may have the high cards, but you know as well as I do, Sydney, high cards don’t always take the trick. Potter pauses a minute, then... POTTER (to Big Ed, re: Jack) I like him... Big Ed smiles, letting out a relieved sigh. BIG ED (a wink to Jack) That’s my boy... (an arm around Potter) C’mon, lemme show you the rest of the ranch... Big Ed and Potter exit the office... BIG ED (CONT’D) (turning back to Jack) Nice shootin’, Jack... ...leaving Jack there with a satisfied smile on his face. 60 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE BEDROOM - NIGHT Jack is in bed watching CNBC...On the TV a young woman REPORTER at the anchor’s desk... CNBC REPORTER (ON T.V.) ...advancers led decliners by a nine to four ratio and the closing tick was a mildly bullish plus seventy six. Much of the market’s action today was fueled by the latest round of merger mania to hit Wall Street... The Global Health Systems and MedTech logos appear on a graphic in the corner of the screen... CNBC REPORTER (CONT’D, ON T.V.) ...when Global Health Systems and MedTech Pharmaceutical announced their intentions to join forces in a massive one hundred and twenty two billion dollar stock swap deal. Though neither side expressed significant regulatory concerns at the announcement press conference, it is believed that both the FDA and the FTC will be closely scrutinizing the marriage, the largest ever in the health care industry. When asked about possible anti- competitive implications, Global Chairman Bob Thomas referred reporters to P.K. Lassiter and Company President Alan Mintz, the original architect behind the deal... Jack stares in shock as the image changes to a super confident looking Mintz shaking Bob Thomas’ hand at the press conference. CNBC REPORTER (CONT’D, ON T.V.) Ironically, Mintz first met Thomas at a Lamaze class... JACK A Lamaze class...!? CNBC REPORTER (ON T.V.) ...while coaching their pregnant wives, Mintz and T homas struck up a dialogue about the need for consolidation in the rapidly growing health care industry and two months later, the deal with MedTech was born... JACK What?! That’s my deal? CNBC REPORTER (ON T.V.) In other business news, U.S. Labor Department officials announced today that two hundred and seventy-five thousand new jobs were created last month, twenty-five thousand less than economists were predicting, leading to a mild rally in the bond markets before midday. But as the trading session drew to a close, the profit takers stepped in and the long bond closed at ninety seven even, up only two ticks, the yield inching down to six point zero seven percent... Kate comes into the room from the hallway wearing only Jack’s NYU sweatshirt... KATE The kids are asleep... She goes over to the window and draws the blinds. Jack looks up at her, nods, then goes back to the TV. KATE (CONT’D) Jack. I said the kids are asleep... JACK (distracted) Well that’s just great...those little monkeys can be a real handful... Kate shuts off the TV. JACK (CONT’D) Hey! I was watching that! KATE I thought we had a deal about you watching CNBC in bed. JACK I’m working on a new deal now... Kate throws a Kate Bush’s “The Sensual World” into the CD player. KATE Fine, but not tonight... She climbs onto the bed, a seductive look on her face. JACK Wait a second. You want me, don’t you? KATE That is the general idea, yes... Kate starts kissing him...but Jack’s a little uncomfortable with the sudden intimacy...he pulls back, a little nervous. JACK Shouldn’t we grab some dinner first? Maybe a bottle of wine...? KATE It’s ten thirty, Jack. By eleven you’re gonna be sprawled out on the bed snoring your head off. We don’t have time for wining and dining. JACK Whatever you say...honey. She starts kissing him again...but this time he just goes with it, and as her hands run through his hair he’s brought back to a different time and place... Jack momentarily pulls back and looks at her...it’s like the first time he’s really looked at her in eleven years... JACK (CONT’D) God...you’re beautiful... She smiles at him, almost uncomfortable with the compliment... KATE Thanks, Jack... JACK No, I’m serious...you’re really stunning... KATE This is good stuff, Jack, keep it coming... JACK I mean back in college, you were a very pretty girl, there’s no question about that. But this... (lost in her) ...you’ve really grown into a beautiful woman... Jack stares at her, entranced...Kate pulls back, reacting to the intensity in his stare... KATE How can you do that? JACK (nervous) Do what? KATE Look at me like you haven’t seen me every day for the last twelve years... Jack freezes. There’s love in her eyes but it’s not meant for him... She kisses him... KATE (CONT’D) Don’t move. She gets up off the bed and heads for the bathroom... He looks around...not sure what to do...Finally... He turns onto his side and closes his eyes... Kate emerges from the bathroom, she sees Jack on the bed, hears his breathing heavy with sleep... At once charmed and disappointed, Kate sighs. She turns off the CD player and heads into bed. She pulls the covers up over Jack, shutting off the light... She puts an arm around him, kissing him sweetly on the neck... KATE (CONT’D) ‘night, honey... Close in on Jack’s face...turned away from Kate...he opens his eyes...looks down at her arm...loneliness on his face... CHAPTER EIGHT - THE MEN’S DEPARTMENT DISSOLVE TO: 61 EXT. MALL - DAY It’s mid-January and all signs of the Christmas season are gone except for the snow on the ground in the busy parking lot. 62 INT. MACY’S, MEN’S DEPT. - DAY Kate, pushing Josh in the stroller and holding Annie’s hand, passing through the Men’s Dept., Jack lagging behind, a bevy of shopping bags in hand and a beleaguered look on his face. KATE (back to Jack) We’re almost done here... ANNIE Mary Janes, Mom. You promised. KATE That’s right. Okay, let’s make a quick stop at the kids’ shoe department, pick up my watch from the battery place, then I’ll run into the linen store... An unhappy look on Jack’s face. JACK Why don’t we just go to all the stores?! Kate looks back at Jack. JACK (CONT’D) Every single store in this godforsaken shopping mall. We can go to them all. Kate gives him a look. Then... KATE You know what, Jack?! I’ll go with the kids. Why don’t you just hang out here in the men’s department... okay? Jack glances at the Men’s Dept., sighs and gives Kate a nod. She takes off with the kids...and then he sees it... ...the Zegna section. He’s drawn to the neat rows of beautiful suits like a moth to the light... He approaches the rack, pulls out a dark green suit, gently touching the soft wool. SALESMAN (O.S.) It’s perfect for your frame... Jack turns and sees a SALESMAN standing behind him. SALESMAN Would you like to try it on? CUT TO: 63 INT. MACY’S MEN’S DEPT. - A LITTLE LATER Jack, at a mirror wearing the Zegna suit. It is perfect for his frame. The color is spectacular, the line is dazzling. Jack looks in the mirror, shutting everything else out... it’s like he’s seeing his old self... KATE (O.S.) You look amazing in that suit... Jack snaps out of his trance. He sees Kate standing behind him, Annie and Josh happily playing a few feet away. KATE I mean...wow...off the charts great. JACK It’s an unbelievable thing. Wearing this suit actually makes me feel like a better person. (taking one final look) I’m gonna buy it... Kate raises an eyebrow, then looks at the price tag. KATE $2,400?! Are you out of your mind? JACK (pointing to Annie’s new Mary Janes) She got those shoes... KATE Those shoes were twenty five dollars. C’mon, take it off. We’ll go to the food court and get one of those funnel cakes you like. Jack looks at her...it’s a moment of decision. JACK No. Kate looks at Jack, a little surprised. KATE No? JACK Do you have any idea what my life is like? KATE Excuse me? JACK I wake up in the morning covered in dog saliva...I drop the kids off, spend eight hours selling tires retail...retail, Kate. Kate just stands here, aghast... JACK (CONT’D) I pick up the kids, walk the dog, which by the way, carries the added bonus of carting away her monstrous crap...I play with the kids, take out the garbage, get six hours of sleep if I’m lucky, and then it starts all over again...and why is it that I always have to drive everyone everywhere? I spend practically my entire day in that slow as hell mini-van listening to Raffi tapes and trying to figure out how the cup holders work...I’m sick of it. KATE Really. JACK What’s in it for me? Where are my Mary Janes? Kate stares at him, shaking her head... KATE It’s sad to hear your life is such a disappointment to you, Jack. JACK I can’t believe it’s not a disappointment to you! (letting it all out) Jesus, Kate, I could’ve been a thousand times the man I became. How could you do this to me? How could you let me give up on my dreams like this?! Kate stares at him in disbelief. Then... KATE Who are you? Kate’s words pierce Jack...he has to avert his eyes. JACK (lowering his voice) Look, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was such a saint before and I’m such a prick now. Maybe I’m just not the same guy I was when we got married... KATE Maybe you’re not. The Jack Campbell I married wouldn’t need a $2400 suit to make himself feel better about his life, but if that’s what it’s gonna take, then buy it. Just buy the goddamn suit ...we can take the money out of the kids’ college fund. They stare at each other for a moment...a stand-off... JACK Forget it... (taking off the jacket) We’ll get a funnel cake. It’ll be the highlight of my week... 64 EXT. NEW JERSEY ROAD - NIGHT The blue mini-van makes its way down this road... 65 INT. MINI-VAN - NIGHT There’s an icy silence in the car...Jack is behind the wheel, Kate next to him looking out the window, anger on her face... CHAPTER NINE - REMINISCING Jack checks the rear-view mirror, sees Annie and Josh in the back, both asleep... JACK (to Kate) Listen, I’m sorry about that back in the store. I really don’t want to fight with you... Kate just keeps looking out the window. JACK (CONT’D) But you must sometimes wonder how we ended up here. I mean back in college, did you see us... (looking around) ...here...? She turns to him. KATE I’ll give you this, life has thrown us a few surprises... A glimmer in Jack’s eye... JACK It really has, hasn’t it? So if you had to...what would you say was the biggest surprise? She glances at the kids sleeping in the back. KATE Well...Annie for one. JACK Surprise. We’re pregnant... (a laugh) Yeah...that must’ve been...I mean that was very unexpected. But what are you gonna do, right? KATE I think it worked out okay, don’t you? JACK Sure. I really like Annie. KATE Good, Jack. Maybe we’ll keep her. JACK No, I love Annie. We had a lot of good times, didn’t we? KATE We were young... (a nostalgic smile) Remember that little place on Charles Street we used to go to? JACK Charles Street? In the Village? When we were living in Greenwich Village...? (off her nod) Great times. Why’d we ever leave? KATE You can’t really raise a kid in an apartment in the Village... Jack nods, starting to piece it together. KATE (CONT’D) The trek out to the hospital every day didn’t help either... (looking at him) You were great. Surviving the heart attack was one thing... JACK You had a heart attack? KATE (a laugh) Jack, stop that. I'm still mad at you... (a sigh) ...who knows what would’ve happened if you hadn’t stepped in at the store. JACK That’s why I work for Big Ed? A look from Kate. JACK (CONT’D) (recovering) I mean, that’s why I work for Big Ed... Jack looks out at the road a moment, piecing it all together in his mind. JACK (CONT’D) (almost to himself) So we had a baby, Big Ed had a heart attack, we b ought that house, and I’ve been working for him ever since...Sayonara, Wall Street. Kate looks at him a little strangely. JACK (CONT’D) (turning to her) Our life in a nutshell... KATE If you want to look at it that way... JACK How would you look at it? She glances again at the kids in the back seat, then at Jack. KATE A great success story... A smile from Jack. He admires her outlook even if he can’t bring himself to share it. DISSOLVE TO: 66 INT. BOWLING ALLEY - EVENING A crowded suburban New Jersey bowling alley... Jack stands at a lane holding a bowling ball, the nickname “The Hammer” emblazoned over his bowling shirt pocket...He approaches the line and throws the ball down the lane... It’s ugly...The ball caroms off the hardwood into the gutter. JACK Damn... ARNIE (O.S., from behind) Jesus, Jack, this is a league match, for god’s sake! Jack turns. Arnie and the BOWLING TEAM are in the scorekeeping area watching Jack make a mockery of the sport. Jack scowls. ARNIE (CONT’D) Where’s your follow through? Where’s your stance? JACK Hey, I’m doing the best I can... (under his breath) I’d like to see you hit a squash ball after seventeen beers... ARNIE You’re right. Why am I so competitive!? Compensation, I guess. Look, just focus, Jack. You can still pick up the spare... Jack retrieves his ball, sets up, genuinely concentrating... JACK (quietly, to himself) You are Jack Campbell. You’re better than this sport. You shot the rapids at Kenai. You ran with the bulls at Pamplona. You jumped out of a plane over the Mojave Desert, for Christ’s sake. You can do this... Jack puts everything he has into the throw, heaving the ball down the lane with as much grace and power as he can muster...hitting the six pin and taking out four others. JACK (CONT’D) (screaming, excited) Yeah!! He turns, a fist pumped...But the guys could care less... ARNIE (to TEAMMATE) Okay, Pete, you’re up. 67 INT. BOWLING ALLEY - LATE Jack walks out of the men’s room, heading toward the lounge. He sees a familiar face walking toward him...a woman in a sexy little bowling outfit, carrying a bowling ball to a far lane. EVELYN Hi Jack... A moment of confusion as he tries to place the face. Then... JACK Evelyn, right? EVELYN Very funny. I saw you out there on lane five. What do you have the flu or something? JACK Something like that. EVELYN (with a wink) Need a nurse? JACK You’re a nurse? Evelyn laughs. EVELYN If that’s what you want... She brushes past Jack, continuing to her lane...Jack follows her with his eyes a moment, then... JACK Wait a second... She turns. JACK (CONT’D) Are we...? EVELYN Are we what, Jack? JACK Is there something going on between us? Evelyn’s surprised at Jack’s directness. She stands there a beat, then walks back toward him. EVELYN Are we finally being honest? JACK It would help me if we were. EVELYN Okay, you’re right, we’ve been dancing around this for years... Evelyn looks a little flush...she briefly fans her face. EVELYN (CONT’D) God, my heart is racing. Here goes... (a smile) When I get dressed for a party and I know you’re going to be there... well, let’s just say I don’t go strapless because my husband likes it... An intrigued smile from Jack. EVELYN (CONT’D) I’ve got six sets of snow tires piled up in my garage and I won’t even drive in the snow...And our kids just happen to be in the same ballet class every year? She picks a piece of lint off his shirt. EVELYN (CONT’D) So, if you’re asking me whether I’d like it to be more, the answer is yes... A look of surprise from Jack. EVELYN (CONT’D) ...and Kate would never have to know. Jack considers this for a moment. JACK Do I have your number? A wide smile from Evelyn. EVELYN Steve’s out of town with the kids this week. Why don’t you just stop by... She turns, leaving Jack standing there, watching her sashay back to her lane. 68 INT. BOWLING ALLEY, LOUNGE - SECONDS LATER Jack walks into the lounge, a little dazed. He heads over to Arnie who’s having a beer at the bar. ARNIE (looking at Jack) Hey Jack, you’re all flush. I guess that seventy-one took a lot outta you. JACK (sitting down) I just saw Evelyn Thompson. ARNIE She is relentless. JACK She wants to have an affair with me. ARNIE She said that? JACK Pretty much. ARNIE Oh yeah... (shaking his head) What is it about you? JACK (pushing over a napkin) So could you write down her exact address? ARNIE Whoa...whoa...wait a second, Jack. You’re not actually gonna cheat on Kate? JACK It wouldn’t really be cheating... (off Arnie’s doubtful look) It’s complicated. ARNIE Look, maybe I’m not as good a consigliere as you are but you have to trust me on this one. A little flirtation’s harmless but you’re playing with fire here. The Fidelity Bank and Trust is a tough creditor. You make a deposit somewhere else, they close your account forever. JACK I’m telling you, those rules don’t apply to me, Arn. ARNIE (a chuckle) Screw the rules. I’m talking about the choice. Jack looks at him curiously. ARNIE (CONT’D) C’mon, Evelyn Thompson’s got no class. She doesn’t marry Dr. Steve, the woman’s living in a trailer. JACK Hey, is that really necessary? ARNIE All I’m saying it there isn’t a guy in Union County who wouldn’t give his left nut to be married to Kate... Arnie takes one last swig of his beer and gets up... ARNIE (CONT’D) I’ll see ya later, Jack... He leaves Jack alone, thinking... CHAPTER TEN - CAKE WARS 69 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE - NIGHT Jack walks into the house carrying his bowling bag. He dumps the bag in the coat closet and walks into the kitchen where... Kate is at the counter, her back to him, poring over some legal documents. KATE (not looking up) How was the game, honey? JACK (opening the fridge) Long, boring, and generally pretty sad. Arnie seemed to enjoy it... (peering inside) Hey, where’s that chocolate cake...? Kate turns around, revealing a huge hunk of chocolate cake on a plate in front of her, a bite ready to go into her mouth. KATE (with a smile) You mean this chocolate cake? JACK That’s my piece. I was saving it because I got nauseated from that store bought chicken. Kate takes the bite, a little piece of icing sticks to the side of her mouth. KATE It’s good... Jack approaches the counter. JACK Gimme that cake. She takes another bite. KATE No way. He makes a grab for the plate but she holds it out where he can’t reach it. JACK C’mon. KATE Sorry, Jack. It’s too important to me. They stare each other down a moment. Then... He tries to swipe the plate. Kate jumps out of her chair, running out of the kitchen with the cake, laughing... Jack takes off after her...chasing her through the house... just about the catch up to her when... She darts up the stairs, still laughing...he follows her... JACK I want that cake! ...reaches up...grabs her shirt...pulls her down playfully on top of him... KATE (laughing) You want the cake!? JACK (out of breath) I want it... She looks at him, then takes the whole piece in her hand and smooshes it right in his mouth... Beat. Then, Jack starts laughing... JACK (CONT’D) Thank you... KATE It’s good, right? He takes a big clump of it and smooshes it in her mouth. They stay there a moment, lying on the stairs, feeding each other cake, laughing. Jack leans back on the stairs. He looks at Kate’s face, practically covered in cake, smiling, and realizes... ...he hasn’t laughed like this in thirteen years. Then... JACK Are the kids asleep? A sexy smile from Kate...they start kissing passionately right there on the steps...it’s heating up... KATE (caught up in the moment) Say it, Jack... JACK What...? KATE C’mon, you know what I like to hear... JACK (in the throes of passion) Yeah, baby, I know what you like to hear... KATE (kissing him) Then say it...just say it to me...! JACK (swept up in the moment) Oh yeah, you’re a bad girl, baby... You make me so hot...I’m gonna take you to that special place... Kate pulls away. KATE What...? Jack looks up at her, he can practically see the passion drain from her face... JACK Not it...? KATE Nice, Jack. You’re sweeping me off my feet. JACK What? You make me hot... She gets up and heads up the steps, disappearing into the bedroom...Jack shakes his head, frustrated. Then, he feels something licking at his hand... He looks down and sees Lucy standing next to him, wagging her tail, looking up at Jack with an “I’ve gotta go” look on her face. Jack heaves a sigh, then... JACK (CONT’D) C’mon, Lucy, maybe one of us can get a little relief tonight... He leads the dog toward the front door... 70 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - MINUTES LATER Jack is walking Lucy. He passes a house that looks familiar to him. Then he sees it... ...the name “THOMPSON” etched on the mailbox... It’s the Thompson house, now sans the garish Christmas decorations, a drying Christmas tree tied up on the curb, ready to be picked up as garbage... Jack stops, pulling the dog back, looking up at the house... He sees a light on in the upstairs bedroom...the faint outline of a woman reading by the window... EVELYN THOMPSON... Jack looks around, sees the street is empty, then nudges the dog, leading her up the path to the house. He gets to the front door...moves his hand up to the doorbell...but it’s a tentative move...he keeps it there a moment, perched at the button...but for some reason he can’t bring himself to push it... He looks down the street, toward his own house, then to the window upstairs. Finally, he turns... JACK (pulling the leash) C’mon, girl, let’s go home... 71 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE FOYER - MINUTES LATER The front door opens and Jack walks in with Lucy on a leash, his face red from the cold outside. He gives the dog a pat on the rump, then takes off his coat, hanging it and the leash on a hook by the door... He walks through the quiet house, into the living room, rubbing his hands together to warm them up. CHAPTER ELEVEN – HOME MOVIES He goes over to a glass bar stand and pours himself a scotch, taking a sip, letting the alcohol warm him... He strolls through the room, looking at some of the family photos framed and hanging on the wall, focusing on his own face in the pictures, studying the expressions... He moves to a pile of video tapes sitting on a shelf, marked with titles like, “Trip to Yosemite, ‘96" and “Josh’s 1st Birthday.” He runs his fingers along the tapes, stopping at one marked, “Jack Singing.” His eyes linger there a moment... He puts his drink down and pops the tape in the VCR... ON TV: It’s a party for Kate’s birthday thrown at the Kramers’ house...same crowd of people as the Christmas party, cheesy “Happy Birthday” decorations. The image jerks up and down, surveying the crowd... Bill Kramer at the piano, playing some light cocktail music ...Kate talking with a group of friends... ARNIE (O.S.) Jesus, Bill, this thing is an antique. Don’t you even have image stabilization? Bill stops playing and looks up at Arnie. BILL KRAMER Four hundred bucks at Best Buy, Arn. Then...Jack comes into frame, a confident smile on his face. JACK And everyone knows image stabilization is for the weak... Jack is jarred by the image of himself on the video... Jack on TV...he smiles as Kate walks into frame, easily putting an arm around Jack... ARNIE So Jack, it’s your wife’s birthday, got anything to say to her? JACK (to Kate) It’s your birthday? Today? What’s your name? Where were you born? KATE Jack. JACK Wait a minute. You’re my wife? She slaps him playfully on the arm... JACK (CONT’D) I do have one thing I wanna say... Kate looks at him expectantly. Then... JACK (CONT”D) (singing to her) Oh those fingers in my hair, that sly come hither stare, strips my conscience bare, it’s witchcraft... Jack doesn’t have the greatest voice in the world but he’s not the least bit self-conscious...and Kate seems to like it, there’s a twinkle in her eye...some of the guests focus their attention on Jack and Kate. Jack winces, embarrassed, as he watches himself sing... JACK (CONT’D) ...and I’ve got no defense for it, that heat is too intense for it, what good would common sense for it do... Bill Kramer still at the piano, chimes in with the basic chords for “Witchcract,” sounding it out as he goes along... JACK (CONT’D) ...‘Cause it’s witchcraft, wicked witchcraft...and although I know it’s strictly taboo...when you rouse the need in me, my heart says yes indeed in me, proceed with what you’re leadin’ me to... The camera catches the reactions of guests in the crowd... the women, smiles on their faces, wrapped up in the romance of the moment. Envy on the men’s faces as they watch Jack serenade his wife... A musical interlude from Bill as Jack takes off his jacket...some HOOTS and HOLLERS from the crowd...Arnie captures the image of Kate whistling at her husband... Arnie follows with the camera as Jack strolls in front of the gathered guests... JACK (CONT’D) It’s such an ancient pitch, but one that I’d never switch, there ain’t no nicer witch than you... Jack watches himself move gracefully. But it’s no longer embarrassment on his face, it’s fascination... Back in the video, the camera catches Evelyn Thompson watching longingly as Jack moves back toward Kate...Evelyn can’t take it anymore, she abruptly turns and walks toward the kitchen... Jack raises an eyebrow... In the video...Jack approaches Kate, she couldn’t have a more delighted look on her face. He picks up the verse... JACK (CONT’D) ‘Cause it’s witchcraft, that koo koo witchcraft...and although I know it’s strictly taboo... The camera pans across the crowd, even the men are getting into it, focused on Jack as he sings lovingly, unashamed, to his wife...Nick Careli mouths the words along with Jack, almost as if he’s studying him, revering him... Jack watches the TV, seeing Nick do this...maybe he underestimated his alter ego... On the video...Jack staring into Kate’s eyes... JACK (CONT’D) ...when you rouse the need in me, my heart says yes indeed to me, proceed with what you’re leadin’ me to... Jack and Kate exchange a sexy smile... JACK (CONT’D) It’s such an ancient pitch, but one that I’d never switch... Jack kisses her on the lips...HOOTS and HOLLERS from the crowd. JACK (CONT’D) ‘Cause there’s no nicer witch than you... Kate brushes a hand across Jack’s face... Smash cut to Jack watching this...seeing the connection, the heat between them...coveting it... Back to the video...the music building...the crowd completely in the palm of Jack’s hand... JACK (CONT’D) ...than you... The camera closes in on Jack and Kate as the music builds to a crescendo... JACK (CONT’D) ...than you... A little musical flourish from Bill as the crowd breaks out into huge CHEERS and APPLAUSE... Jack, watching this other version of himself in the video, the center of attention, larger than life, focused on Kate... Back on video... JACK (CONT’D) (speaking quietly to Kate) Happy Birthday sweetheart...I love you. Kate leans over, giving Jack a deep kiss...OOHS and AHHS from the crowd...but Jack and Kate are in their own little world... Jack continues to watch himself on the video, his smile fading, becoming a look of realization...then loss... A tear at the corner of his eye... The SOUND fades in Jack’s head as the action in the video continues... He’s left standing there...silent, still... DISSOLVE TO: 72 INT. CAMPBELL MASTER BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING Lucy licking Jack’s face. Jack pushes the dog away...as... The ALARM RINGS. Kate pushes the button to stop it. KATE (groggy) Time to get up, honey... Jack obliges without question, getting out of bed, putting on a robe and slippers and exiting, still practically half-asleep. 73 INT. KITCHEN - SECONDS LATER Jack walks into the kitchen. He turns on the Mr. Coffee, gets a bottle from the fridge, throws it in the microwave, removes it, and heads upstairs. 74 INT. JOSH’S ROOM - CONTINUOUS ...into Josh’s room. Josh is wide awake, standing up in his crib, like a prisoner in a cell. Jack gives him the bottle, pats his head perfunctorily, and then walks out of the room... CHAPTER TWELVE - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 75 INT. BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ...and back into the bedroom to find Kate, sitting on the bed, a wrapped present in front of her and a wide smile on her face. Jack stops, raising an eyebrow at the gift. He looks behind, as if to ask whether it’s for him, then back to Kate. KATE Happy Anniversary, honey... Terror on Jack’s face. KATE (CONT’D) (pushing the gift forward) Before you do whatever crazy stunt you’ve got planned I want you to open mine... Jack musters up a smile, then approaches the gift. JACK Maybe I should wait... KATE No, open it... He hesitates, then begins unwrapping the package, revealing... ...a suit, similar in color and style to the Zegna suit... KATE (CONT’D) I found it at an outlet store. I know it’s a knock-off, but I think it’ll look great on you... JACK (examining the label) Zeena... Jack is overcome with emotion...Yes, it’s a ZEENA, but this is probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for him... JACK (CONT’D) (tearing up) You really are incredible... KATE Enjoy it, sweetheart... Jack looks at Kate’s expectant face, suddenly remembering how truly screwed he is. JACK You’re probably expecting something from me... He’s sweating bullets...watching as Kate gets a quizzical look on her face... JACK (CONT’D) Here’s the thing. I really hadn’t planned on giving you your...uh... anniversary gift until tonight. (an uncomfortable smile) You know, anniversary’s good all day... KATE What are you talking about? You never wait all day. You can barely wait until it’s light out. JACK I know that, but... Beat. Kate looks at him like she’s looking into his soul. KATE You forgot. Jack stands there, silent. KATE (CONT’D) You actually forgot our anniversary. JACK I’ll fix it. I’ll go out right now and get you something. I’ll make it right. That didn’t help. KATE (holding back the tears) Jesus, Jack...Is this where we are now? Is this our marriage? Suddenly I’m the wife who has to drop hints two weeks before her anniversary so her husband doesn’t fuck it up? Jack sees a tear run down her face...a pang of guilt on his... JACK Please don’t cry... Kate wipes the tear away but they just keep coming. KATE (shaking her head, crying) I don’t want to be that, Jack... Jack approaches her, holding out a hand but Kate pushes it away, gets up and walks toward the bathroom... Jack is left standing alone, holding Kate’s gift... CUT TO: 76 INT. FRONT PORCH - MINUTES LATER Jack emerges from the house, steps out onto the porch for some air... He shakes his head, a mixture of frustration and self- pity on his face. He notices Annie’s bike leaning against the side of the porch, and the bell that Cash gave him sitting on its handle bar. He takes a step toward it, and gives the bell a gentle RING ...he looks around, as if he’s expecting someone to appear ...but there’s no one. He RINGS the bell again, louder this time, really trying to attract someone’s attention. JACK C’mon...c’mon... Nothing. Finally, he lifts the bike up in the air, RINGING the bell with everything he’s got... JACK (CONT’D) (shouting to the sky) C’mon, goddamnit, how was I supposed to know the date of their anniversary!? I never married her! Pull back...Annie in the doorway...looking at him. ANNIE (slowly) Put the bicycle back on the ground... Jack turns and sees her, gently lowering the bicycle. 77 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE KITCHEN - MORNING Jack is mixing a glass of chocolate milk. Annie, arms folded, is waiting expectantly. He finishes, sliding the glass to her. She takes a long sip, puts the glass down, a chocolate milk mustache on her lip. ANNIE Not bad...I shoulda warned you. Dad always does something really special for their anniversary. JACK Like what? ANNIE One year he had a solar system named after her... JACK Don’t you think that’s a little gimmicky? ANNIE Mom liked it. Jack raises an eyebrow. JACK Maybe there’s a jewelry store back at the mall. I could get her a pair of earrings or something. ANNIE That’s good but...you did forget the anniversary. JACK Right. That’s a major oversight... (thinking aloud) So if I’m Kate...I can’t really afford the finer things, my husband’s career is a crushing disappointment to me, I’m trapped in suburbia... Then... JACK (CONT’D) Did he ever take her to the City? Annie smiles, impressed. ANNIE You’re really gettin’ the hang of this. Suddenly, a look of confidence comes over Jack’s face. For the first time, he seems like a man in control. 78 INT. BEDROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Annie is sitting on the bed watching her mother get dressed. Kate, wearing a silky slip, walks out of her closet carrying two dresses on hangers, a red one and a sexy little black one. Kate holds out the two dresses to Annie. KATE Which do you think? Annie thinks about it for a moment, taking it very seriously... ANNIE The black one... Kate nods. She’s about to put it on when she looks at Annie... KATE Fighting’s a part of it, Annie. You know that, right? ANNIE I’m not worried, Mom. He’s still learning our ways... Kate looks at her with a raised eyebrow, then nods. It’s true. She puts down the dress and holds out a hand to Annie. KATE C’mere. Kate leads her to the makeup table, then opens a lipstick... ANNIE (excited) Really? Kate nods then applies some red lipstick to Annie’s lips. KATE Now go like this... Kate rubs her lips together, showing Annie how to do it. Annie mimics her Mom, then Kate looks at her – Annie’s beaming. KATE (CONT’D) You’re gonna break a lot of hearts, you know. A smile from Annie... Pull back to reveal...Jack standing at the door, watching ...appreciating the kind of mother Kate is... 79 OMITTED 80 EXT. LOIRE - NIGHT A small, elegant French restaurant hidden on a tree- lined lower Manhattan street. 81 INT. LOIRE - SAME TIME Jack is wearing the suit Kate gave him. It’s not a Zegna, but he looks pretty damn good. He leads Kate toward the cloak room at this intimate restaurant... He helps her off with her coat. Kate’s wearing the sexy little black dress and we can immediately see its effectiveness... JACK You look beautiful... A charmed smile from Kate as she hands Jack her coat. Jack hands the coats over to the COAT CHECK GIRL... JACK (CONT’D) (instinctively) Thanks, Catherine... Jack fakes a SNEEZE, trying to cover up...Kate gives him a pat on the back... KATE You okay? He takes Kate by the arm... JACK Fine... He leads her to the main room. She looks out at the room, elegant tables, French country decor, a PIANIST playing Cole Porter... KATE (quietly to Jack) Jack...can we afford all this? JACK What’s the difference? I’m taking my baby out for our anniversary, damn the costs... KATE How do you even know about this place? Jack’s caught for a moment. Then... JACK Arnie... (insistent) Arnie. He’ll throw you a curve ball once in a while, that’s for sure... Jack puts his arm around her and kisses her on the cheek... 82 INT. LOIRE - A LITTLE LATER Jack and Kate sit at a secluded table, a WAITER standing next to them. Jack’s not even looking at the menu. JACK We’ll have the tureen of quail breast with shiitake mushrooms to start, then the veal medallions in raspberry truffle sauce and the sea scallops with pureed artichoke hearts...sea scallops, North of the Caspian... Kate looks at Jack, a mixture of confusion and awe on her face. WAITER Very good, sir. And may I say those are all excellent selections. JACK You may... (perusing the wine list) Also, we’ll have a bottle of Lafite, 1982. Kate reaches over and pulls down the wine list, reading it upside down. KATE It’s five hundred and fifty dollars, Jack! A wince from Jack...for a moment there it was almost perfect. JACK Just a glass of red wine for each of us... The waiter nods, then walks toward the kitchen... KATE You are so not off the hook yet, slick. JACK But I’m gettin’ close, right? A noncommittal nod from Kate. Then Jack notices her look over at the pianist, drawn in by the music. JACK (CONT’D) You want to dance? A puzzled look from Kate. There’s nobody else dancing. There isn’t even much room to dance... KATE I don’t think there’s dancing here, Jack. Jack gets up and holds out a hand. JACK Sure there is... Kate looks around again, then she smiles. Kate rises, taking his hand. Jack takes her in his arms, swaying slowly in the limited amount of space, confident and self-assured. The pianist looks up, smiling, appreciating their role in this romantic moment. Kate moves with Jack, following his lead comfortably. They look good together...in sync with each other... People are watching them...some of the men are impressed, others are scoffing, but the women are clearly charmed... KATE (whispering to Jack) Pretty good for a tire salesman from Jersey... Jack flashes her his most charming smile. JACK I have my moments... They continue to dance, in a world of their own... 83 INT. LOIRE - LATE Jack and Kate at the table enjoying a gourmet meal. Jack holds out a fork with a piece of veal for Kate. She takes a bite. KATE Mmmm... (spearing a scallop) ...here, try one of these... Jack takes a scallop from Kate’s fork. JACK (savoring the scallop) God I missed that taste... Kate laughs. JACK (CONT’D) Why are you laughing? Kate shoots him a look of curiosity. Jack looks back at her, sees the trust in her face...He puts down his fork. JACK (CONT’D) I need to tell you something. KATE Okay... JACK I think it may help us but there’s a slight chance it could make things worse. She hears the seriousness in his voice. KATE Now I’m worried...just say it. Whatever it is we’ll deal with it. JACK Are you sure? She nods. Jack searches his mind for the right words. Then... JACK (CONT’D) I feel like I’m living someone else’s life... Jack looks to her, expecting the worst. But she just nods reassuringly. He continues... JACK (CONT’D) I used to be so sure about everything, you know? I knew exactly who I was and what I wanted. Then one morning I woke up and suddenly it was all different... KATE Worse, you mean... JACK No. Well, maybe a few things. But mostly just different... Jack lets out a small smile. Now he’s the one who’s reassuring Kate. JACK (CONT’D) I never used to be like this, Kate. I had it all figured out. No doubts, no regrets. KATE And now...? JACK Now...I don’t... He looks at her, staring into her eyes, almost desperate for understanding. KATE Me neither. A raised eyebrow from Jack. KATE (CONT’D) I think it’s good to be a little unsure about who you are. It’s very human. JACK But you always seem so certain. KATE C’mon, Jack, you think there aren’t mornings when I wake up and wonder what the hell I’m doing in New Jersey... JACK That’s a big one for me, too. KATE My office is a dump, I answer my own phone...and you’ve seen my pay check. JACK Your pay check is a disgrace to pay checks. KATE I mean yes, I help people that need it... JACK I guess...some of them are probably faking. KATE (a laugh, then...) God, sometimes I think it would be so nice not to have to stretch ground beef or maybe drive a car with a CD player... He smiles, right there with her. KATE (CONT’D) Imagine having a life where everything was easy...where you asked for things and people just brought them to you... JACK It’s wonderful... Kate laughs, nodding. A pause, then... KATE I think about it, too, Jack. I do. I think about the kind of person I’d be if I hadn’t married you... It’s as if she’s inside his head. They stay like this for a moment, looking into each other. JACK And...? She stops a moment, considering. Then... KATE And I realize I’ve just erased the things in my life I’m most sure about. You, the kids... Jack nods. JACK Good things... KATE What are you sure about? Jack looks into Kate’s eyes. JACK I’m sure that right now there’s nowhere I’d rather be than here with you... Kate smiles at Jack, a loving, secure smile. It’s been a while. CUT TO: 84 EXT. PENSION - NIGHT The mini-van parked outside a small brownstone right on the square. It’s like something out of a Henry James novel... charming, meticulously maintained, elegant... 85 INT. PENSION, SUITE - A LITTLE LATER The door opens and Jack, carrying Kate in his arms, enters... Jack puts Kate down and she takes in the room, antique furniture...it’s like walking into another world... KATE This is so beautiful... Jack smiles as he opens a champagne bottle sitting on a silver ice bucket... KATE (CONT’D) You know champagne makes me do crazy things. JACK (pouring) I’ll just full yours up to the top. (handing her a glass) Happy anniversary, sweetheart. Kate smiles, clinking her glass with Jack’s. KATE I don’t know how you did it, hoss, but you pulled it off. JACK I’m out of the doghouse? KATE Way out... Kate saunters into the bedroom, looking at the king- size poster bed, feeling the down quilt. Jack follows her... KATE (CONT’D) (turning to him) You may even get lucky tonight... Kate kisses him...when their lips separate, we can see the powerful effect it has on him. Jack looks deep into her eyes, stroking her hair, lost in her. JACK You’re so...beautiful... KATE I already told you you were gonna get lucky, Jack... They kiss again, a long soulful kiss. Then... Jack pulls back, a look of realization on his face... JACK My god, all this time...I never stopped loving you... KATE (a wide smile) That’s all I wanted to hear... She kisses him, their bodies intertwined...hands caressing ...more and more passionate...then reaches behind her to the light. The room goes dark... DISSOLVE TO: 86 INT. PENSION, SUITE - MORNING Morning sun streams onto Jack and Kate in bed... Kate, in Jack’s arms, her head on his chest, a contented smile on her face... Jack’s eyes open...adjust to the light. He looks over at Kate. There’s something different in his eyes...something deeper. Jack smiles...a broad, “I’m in love” kind of smile. Kate stirs, gently stroking Jack’s chest. KATE Mmmm...Jack... Kate lifts her head, turning to face Jack. KATE (CONT’D) I feel like I should give you money... Jack laughs. KATE (CONT’D) I mean, my god, Jack you were always good but this...this was... like a porno movie. Kate lays her head back on Jack’s chest, looking at Washington Square through the window. KATE (CONT’D) I could stay here forever... JACK I don’t think I’d fight you on that one... Kate lifts her head and looks at him expectantly. They kiss. 87 EXT. NEW JERSEY STREET - NIGHT The mini-van passes a sign that reads, “Welcome to Teaneck.” 88 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, VARIOUS - MORNING Annie walking through the downstairs of the house, practicing her violin...it’s a noise bordering on MUSIC, but not quite... She walks into the kitchen where... Jack stands at the counter in his robe, reading the Newark Star Ledger and drinking a cup of coffee. He lowers the paper, watches Annie with a smile as she strolls through the room playing her violin badly...he goes back to his paper. 89 INT. JACK’S CLOSET - MINUTES LATER Jack, still singing, donning his Dockers and short- sleeve oxford... 89A EXT. CAMPBELL HOUSE - MORNING The front door of the Campbell House... Jack emerges in his work clothes, putting his coat on, a bagel in his mouth... He disappears from frame, the screen door closing slowly behind him... In a moment...Kate appears at the door, a cup of coffee in her hand...she follows Jack with her eyes as he heads to the car. Then...a smile from Kate... In a moment...Jack returns to frame and heads straight into Kate’s arms... ...a passionate kiss as she leans against the door post... KATE Have a good day... A smile from Jack as she pats him on the ass and sends him on his way... 90 EXT. BIG ED’S - AFTERNOON Jack, pointing to a stack of radials, is standing with a MAN (40s) wearing a pale blue leisure suit and a pair of high top Nike Air Jordans. JACK For the money, they’re hands down the best radial we carry... MAN (thinking, then...) Okay, I’ll take them... JACK You won’t regret it... (shouting to Tommy) Tommy! Set Mr. Conlin up with four B.F. Goodrich G-Force T/A’s... (looking the man over) ...and give him ten percent off for having the best costume... Just then, a black ROLLS ROYCE SILVER SERAPH pulls into the lot, its front left tire riding on the rim... ESTELLE (O.S.) (over P.A. system) Jack, Kate on line two! Jack pick up two! Jack turns toward the door, but then looks curiously back at the Rolls...something familiar about it... Then...Peter Lassiter gets out of the car... KENNY (walking out to Jack) Kate’s on two, Jack. (on seeing the Rolls) Nice ride... JACK (staring at Lassiter) If you’re into that kind of conspicuous consumption... KENNY You want me to handle him? I think I’m ready... ESTELLE (O.S.) (over P.A. system) Jack! Kate still holding on line two... JACK Sure...be careful, he looks like a tough negotiator... Jack walks inside... 91 INT. BIG ED’S TIRES - CONTINUOUS ...but he’s still focused on Lassiter through the window, can’t take his eyes off him... He gets to the phone...sees the light for line two blinking ...he looks back outside, sees Kenny approach Lassiter... ...back to the blinking phone light...he picks up the phone... But can’t bring himself to hit the blinking light. Then... JACK (to Estelle, into intercom) Tell Kate I’ll call her back... INTERCUT WITH ESTELLE IN HER OFFICE ESTELLE (into intercom) It sounded pretty important. JACK (into intercom) I’m with a customer. I’ll call her back. He takes his hand away from the phone and walks back outside the store... CHAPTER THIRTEEN - PETER LASSITER 92 EXT. BIG ED’S TIRES - CONTINUOUS ...towards Kenny and Lassiter. LASSITER (to Kenny) I seem to have had some kind of blow out... Jack approaches, tapping Kenny on the shoulder. JACK Why don’t you let me take this one, Kenny? KENNY Okay, chief. Kenny nods then heads back inside... JACK Peter Lassiter... LASSITER (surprised) Do I know you? JACK Not exactly. I’ve seen you on CNBC. (with a smile) You look taller in real life... CUT TO: 93 INT. BIG ED’S TIRED, JACK’S OFFICE - LATE Jack leaning back in his chair, behind the desk of his cluttered, cramped office. JACK ...truth is, Mintz was so busy timing his wife’s breathing he didn’t see that MedTech needed Global more than the other way around. Ten days, two weeks tops, they would’ve approached you with an offer, and I’d bet anything it would’ve been thirty billion, not twenty nine... (a knowing smile) Problem was, Peter, you had a pussycat running the show. What you needed was a rottweiler. Lassiter, sitting on the little chair across from Jack, an intrigued look on his face... LASSITER (nodding) Well, I’m impressed. A smile from Jack. LASSITER (CONT’D) I really am... Jack savors the moment, until... LASSITER (CONT’D) So, about my car... He’s jarred back to reality, a little crestfallen... JACK Sure. We’re going to have to special order that tire. It’ll be ready in about two days. Lassiter nods, then takes a business card out of his wallet. LASSITER This has my office address on it... (thinking, then...) Why don’t you drop it off yourself? A smile from Jack. CUT TO: 94 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, JACK’S BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Kate, sound asleep in bed... Pan across to Jack, his eyes wide open, lost in thought... 95 INT. BIG ED’S, JACK’S OFFICE - DAY Jack wearing his Zeena suit, sitting behind his desk, distracted, as he listens to HECTOR, 40s, the GUATEMALEN MECHANIC. HECTOR ...I say to her, Margarita, we already have four kids, why do we need more? Jack is shaking his leg anxiously under the desk as he eyes the door... HECTOR (CONT’D) But she say she want an even number. I say four is an even number! But she say she want six. Jack checks his watch... HECTOR (CONT’D) I tell her, Margarita, I just got my green card, I like to sit back and rest a little bit... JACK (interrupting) Hector...do I usually listen to your personal problems? HECTOR Sure, Jack, all the time... Jack nods, then... JACK Look, I have some business that I have to take care of in the city so I’m leaving early... (getting up) My advice to you...follow your dreams. CUT TO: 96 EXT. LASSITER BUILDING - AFTERNOON Jack pulling up to the building in Lassiter’s Rolls... He gets out of the car, walks to the building, feeling good, confident, stopping to gaze up at the skyscraper...he breathes in deeply, then heads inside... 96A INT. LASSITER BUILDING - CONTINUOUS Jack enters, instinctively tossing the car keys to the SECURITY GUARD...the guard looks at him like he’s crazy... 97 INT. LASSITER BUILDING CORRIDOR - MINUTES LATER Jack and Lassiter walk together... LASSITER ...we’re really more of a boutique operation, as you can see... JACK But you’re not interested in boutique dollars... (a smile) I get it... They walk into... 98 INT. ALAN MINTZ’S OUTER OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Past the assistant’s desk... MINTZ’S ASSISTANT (seeing Lassiter) He’s expecting you, Mr. Lassiter... Lassiter doesn’t even slow down... 99 INT. ALAN MINTZ’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS It’s Jack’s old office but you wouldn’t know it from the decor...lots of country pine, a fabric sofa, and a play pen where the bar used to be. Jack enters, immediately struck by the difference... LASSITER (to Mintz) Alan, this is Jack Campbell...the one I was telling you about... Mintz, a confident look on his face, gets up from the desk and goes to shake Jack’s hand. ALAN Jack, of course. They shake hands. JACK (appropriately deferential) Mr. Mintz. ALAN Please, call me Alan. We try to cultivate a casual atmosphere around here... JACK (re: play pen) I can see that, Alan. A chuckle from Mintz. ALAN You have kids, Jack? JACK (hesitating, then...) Uh...actually, yes. Two... good ones. Another laugh from Mintz. ALAN That’s great... (gesturing to the sofa) Why don’t you have a seat? Jack nods, sits down on the plush sofa, Mintz and Lassiter take the chairs. ALAN (CONT’D) So, Peter mentioned that you were an avid CNBC watcher but didn’t say whether you had any actual Wall Street experience? Jack’s a little taken aback by the question, not realizing he was walking into an interview... He crosses his legs, trying to get comfortable. JACK I was a sales associate, at E.F. Hutton. ALAN A broker? Really. And now you’re in the tire business? JACK That’s right. And auto supply... ALAN Uh huh. The retail end, I understand. Jack nods... JACK Uh...we actually get about sixty percent of our business from automotive service. ALAN Mind if I ask what kind of sales you did last year? Ballpark... JACK We did one point seven million in total revenue... ALAN Uh huh...one point seven. And what do you project for this year? Jack pauses, analyzing the situation...the patronizing questions, the smirk on Mintz’s face... ALAN (CONT’D) Any thoughts at all on that? As Jack stares into their faces, he realizes the extent of his handicap... ALAN (CONT’D) Jack? He stops, takes a moment, looking at Mintz and Lassiter then ...a confident smile. JACK Well, Alan, I think we’re gonna have a banner year. Sales are up almost twenty percent in the first quarter and we just landed a major trucking company account. ALAN Really. So you’re projecting what, a tad over two million? A gleam in Jack’s eye. JACK That’s right. And that would make us number one in our market... (getting up) You mind if I stand? A raised eyebrow from Mintz. Mintz and Lassiter follow Jack with their eyes as he crosses the room to the desk, pours himself a glass of water... JACK (CONT’D) Look, I know our paltry little two million in sales is about what you spend on office supplies in a year. And I know some regional trucking company account is nothing compared to a sixty billion dollar merger... ALAN I’m not trying to knock the tire business, Jack. JACK (a confident chuckle) It’s okay, Alan. I get it. I’m in your shoes, I’m thinking exactly the same thing...but here’s the thing. Business is business. Wall Street, Main Street, it’s all just a bunch of people getting up in the morning, trying to figure out how the hell they’re gonna send their kids to college. It’s just people... Jack’s confidence is throwing Mintz off, but Lassiter appears intrigued... JACK (CONT’D) And I know people. ALAN I’m sure you do... LASSITER (intervening) Let’s let the man have his say... Mintz covers his embarrassment with a smile... JACK (to Mintz) Take you, for instance... ALAN (defensive) What about me? JACK You drink about sixteen Diet Cokes a day. You’re an excellent father, but you feel guilty about the time you spend away from home. You drink bourbon, but you offer your clients scotch... Jack looks around the office then back to Mintz. JACK (CONT’D) And your wife decorated this office... A laugh from Lassiter as Mintz sits there stewing, a caught look on his face. LASSITER He certainly has your number, Alan. JACK (turning to Lassiter) You’re a little tougher, Peter. A raised eyebrow from Lassiter, but he’s game... JACK (CONT’D) For one thing, you like expensive things. LASSITER (smiling proudly) That’s easy. You’ve seen my car. JACK (a chuckle) Okay...you smoke Hoyo de Monterreys. You’re a scotch man, single malt, not because it’s trendy but because you’ve been doing it for forty years, and you stay with what works. You have two great loves in your life, your horses and this company. You wept openly the day the Dow hit ten thousand... Lassiter’s impressed. JACK (CONT’D) And you’re a man who prides himself on finding talent in unusual places... LASSITER Oh? And how would you know that? Jack smiles. JACK Because I’m here. On Lassiter...nodding his head. Mintz, a plastered-on smile. JACK (CONT’D) I’m prepared to do anything it takes to get this job. Start anywhere you need me to start. I’ll park cars if I to... (into Lassiter’s eyes) The biggest part of judging character is knowing yourself. And I know this, I can do this job. Give me a chance, Peter, I won’t let you down. Lassiter returns Jack’s gaze with equal intensity. In a moment, he turns to Mintz. LASSITER (to Mintz) Alan, why don’t you show Jack around a bit... ALAN I’d love to. CUT TO: 100 INT. LASSITER BUILDING CORRIDOR - MINUTES LATER Jack and Alan walking side by side down the hallway... EMPLOYEES passing them by, greeting Mintz, Mintz waving back... ALAN (pointing) ...that’s our war room. We did seven major deals last year, three of them hostile. JACK (not particularly impressed) Seven. Really. They turn a corner, coming into a deserted section of the corridor. Mintz stops, turning to Jack. Jack returns Mintz’s gaze with a quizzical look. ALAN Let’s cut the shit, huh Campbell? What, did you go through his wallet or something? Jack’s a little taken aback. ALAN (CONT’D) No matter. That circus act back there may have dazzled Lassiter momentarily but it doesn’t do shit forme. Even if you get this job, which I highly doubt, let me warn you, Lassiter loses interest in his pet projects very quickly. I’m in the big office because I’ve proved myself to him year after year and nobody is going to come in here and start turning the old man’s head. Especially not some tire salesman from New Jersey. So you watch yourself and stay away from Lassiter, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll keep you on after he gets tired of you. Do we understand each other? Jack stands there, staring at Mintz, silent, expressionless. ALAN (CONT’D) Do we?! Then, a broad smile from Jack. JACK God, you really are different, aren’t you... (nodding) I mean...wow...I am impressed. Now it’s Mintz’s turn to look quizzical. JACK (CONT’D) Good for you. Why shouldn’t you protect what’s yours. ALAN I don’t think you’re hearing me. JACK Oh, I’m hearing you, Alan. That’s not the problem. The problem is that what you think is yours, is really mine. And I don’t care how low on the totem pole I start, I will get it back... (poking him in the chest) So do yourself a favor and don’t get too attached to that view because sometime soon, maybe very soon, you and your French country antiques, your chintz sofa, and your little play pen are gonna be moving out of that office. Jack smiles at Alan one more time, then turns... JACK (CONT’D) Oh, and by the way, you try selling tires for a living. I promise you, you’d starve. Jack heads down the corridor, whistling a happy tune, leaving Mintz standing there, bewildered. CHAPTER FOURTEEN - A PERFECT LIFE? CUT TO: 101 INT. CORPORATE APARTMENT - DAY A double door opens and Jack leads Kate into this huge duplex. Kate looks around, taking the place in. JACK Welcome to Xanadu... The place is incredible...marble floors, architectural lines, high tech fixtures, elegant modern furniture... it’s striking but not at all homey like the Jersey house. JACK (CONT’D) Pretty incredible, isn’t it? KATE It’s like a museum. Jack nods. KATE (CONT’D) (turning to Jack) So what’s the big surprise? You didn’t rent this place for the weekend, did you? JACK Think bigger. KATE For the week? Jack chuckles. JACK This place is a perk, Kate. KATE A perk for what? JACK A company called P.K. Lassiter and Associates Investment House uses it to attract new executives... Kate’s confused. JACK (CONT’D) You’re talking to their new Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions. KATE What are you talking about, Jack? JACK I’m going into arbitrage, honey. Turns out I have a knack for it. I’ll be making two hundred grand a year plus a hefty bonus and that’s just to start. And, we can live in this apartment practically rent free for as long as we want. Jack measures her reaction. It’s not good... JACK (CONT’D) We can finally afford to move back into the city. In style. Kate just looks at him, in shock. Then... KATE Are you out of your mind? JACK I don’t think so. This is going to be a better life for all of us, honey. We’ll put Annie and Josh in private schools... KATE Annie goes to a great school. JACK I’m talking about the best schools in the country here, Kate... KATE Jack, what could you possibly be thinking? What about my job? JACK This is New York City, it’s like the needy people capital of the world. Those Jersey clients of yours aren’t a tenth as pathetic as the ones you could get here... KATE (cutting him off) I can’t believe you want to move back into the city. I thought the reason we left was because we didn’t want to raise the kids here? JACK No, this is the center of the universe. If I were living in Roman times, I would live in Rome, where else? Today, America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself. John Lennon. KATE (cutting him off) Jack. Jack’s starting to struggle... JACK Look, I’m detecting a kind of funky tension here...We don’t have to live in this apartment. I don’t need this...I’ll commute...I’ll drive to work... Jack’s back on his heels...seeing his dream picked apart... KATE In traffic? It’s over an hour each way? That’s almost three hours a day. When are you going to see the kids? He’s frustrated...he pauses a moment to gather himself. Then... JACK Kate. You’re not understanding me. I’m talking about a great life. A perfect life. Everything we pictured when we were young. The whole package. You said it yourself, life has thrown us surprises, and so we made sacrifices. But now I can finally get us back on track... A sad chuckle from Kate. JACK (CONT’D) I can do that. I want to do that. For all of us. I need to do that as a man... (imploring her) Think about it. No more lousy restaurants, no more clipping coupons, no more shoveling snow... KATE Then get a goddamn snow blower! Jack’s taken aback by the intensity of her tone. KATE (CONT’D) Don’t get a new career without even telling me. Don’t take Annie out of a school she loves. Don’t move us out of a house we’ve become a family in... Kate stands there, wounded... KATE (CONT’D) (quietly) Don’t do that... JACK Look, you’re making this into something it’s not. This isn’t a referendum on our lives, Kate. It’s a step forward... (appealing to her) Don’t you see? I’m talking about us finally having a life other people envy. Silence. Kate looks him in the eye – a deep, piercing look... KATE They already do envy us, Jack... Kate picks up her bag and walks out of the apartment. 102 OMITTED 103 INT. ANNIE’S ROOM - NIGHT Annie is in a nightgown, practicing her violin. Jack walks in. It’s all he can do to hold back cringing at the missed notes. Annie finishes the piece, lowering the bow. JACK Very nice. What is it? ANNIE Mary Had A Little Lamb. JACK Ah. A classic... Annie starts PLAYING again as Jack looks at the dresser. She has 20 or so family photos lined up and down its sides... Jack studies them...in every one Jack’s face is totally contented. Jack studies them, looking at his own face. Annie lowers the bow, watching him... Jack turns to her. JACK (CONT’D) Please don’t stop... She smiles, then starts PLAYING again. He turns back to the pictures... 104 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, DEN - LATE Jack...standing in front of the desk, nursing a drink. He looks at Lassiter’s business card, sitting on the surface of the desk... He gazes around the room...his eyes coming to rest on a bookshelf...a book... He moves toward it...looking at its spine...it’s a tattered copy of Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle.” He pulls it off the shelf, there’s something inside...a bookmark... ...a PAN AM ticket jacket sleeve... ...inside...a boarding pass...”From: London/Heathrow, To: New York/JFK, 10/4/87.” He looks at it...something’s not right... JACK From London to New York...? (looking up) I came back... Then...a NOISE... Jack turns and sees Kate walking into the doorway, standing there...She sees Jack holding the Pan Am ticket sleeve. KATE Our finest moment, right... A quizzical look from Jack. KATE (CONT’D) When you got on that plane I was sure it was over. I left the airport afraid I’d never see you again. And then you showed up the very next day... (a wistful smile) That was a good surprise... She continues into the room, leaning against a bookshelf. KATE (CONT’D) I think about you on that plane, about what must have been going through your mind...you sitting there imagining our life together, our life apart...I think about the decision you made... Jack watches her as she lets out a small sigh. KATE (CONT’D) Maybe I was being naive but I believed we’d grow old together in this house. That we’d spend holidays here, have g randchildren visit us here. I had this image of us all grey and wrinkly, me working in the garden, you repainting the deck... Kate smiles gently as she pictures this. KATE (CONT’D) Things change, right? People change... (pausing) If you need this, Jack, I mean really need this, I will take these children from a life they love, and take myself from the only home we’ve ever shared, and move wherever you need to go. I’ll do that because I love you... The words are like a warm embrace for Jack... KATE (CONT’D) I love you, Jack. And that’s more important to me than our address... Kate smiles lovingly at Jack...she walks over to him, kisses him gently on the forehead. KATE (CONT’D) I choose us. She turns and heads out of the room, leaving him there, the boarding pass still in hand, staring lovingly at her as she goes... 105 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE MASTER BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Jack walks into the room... The lights are off, Kate already in bed sleeping. He undresses for bed, unable to take his eyes off Kate. Finally, he lifts the covers and climbs into bed next to her, moving closer to her, putting an arm around her, drawing her in... In her sleep, Kate nestles in Jack’s embrace. He savors the feeling, then closes his eyes as... They lay there...side by side...together...a single person. DISSOLVE TO: 106 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE MASTER BEDROOM - MORNING The morning light streams into the room. Kate opens her eyes. Jack’s not in bed. A look of curiosity. Then, she hears LAUGHTER from outside. She goes over to the window...opens the blinds... revealing... Jack in the backyard, LAUGHING with joy, playing in the snow with Annie and Josh. Kate watches...a satisfied smile sweeping across her face... 107 EXT. CAMPBELL HOUSE BACKYARD - SAME TIME ...Jack reaches out and snags Annie...she CACKLES in delight... The three of them fall over onto the soft white snow... The laughter from the kids is uncontrollable, Jack’s joy is just as palpable... Finally, Annie stops laughing and grabs Jack around the neck, hugging his tight. ANNIE (whispering in Jack’s ear) I knew you’d come back... DISSOLVE TO: 108 INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Jack walks over to a utility shelf, fishing around until he finds a bag of rock salt...he grabs it, sees it’s empty... And then he hears it...the sound of a BICYCLE BELL RINGING, echoing through the room. A shudder passes through his body... He turns and sees Annie at the open garage door, sitting on her bike, ringing the BELL. It’s an eerie moment for Jack... JACK What are you doing? ANNIE (a curious look) Ringing my bell... On Jack’s anxious face... 109 OMITTED CHAPTER FIFTEEN – SAYING GOODBYE 110 INT. CONVENIENCE STORE - NIGHT On Jack...crouched down in an aisle of this local convenience store...checking out the bags of rock salt... He looks at the price tag on one of the bags... JACK Four ninety nine?! It’s just salt for god’s sake... On the entrance to the store...the door opens, a YOUNG GIRL, 17, enters, an average suburban teenager... She glances at a fashion magazine, picks up a package of gum... From the POV of the cashier, we see the girl approach the counter... On Jack, crouched down in the aisle. He grabs a bag of salt from the shelf, when... CASH (O.S.) That’ll be sixty five cents, little angel... Jack registers the voice...he rises slowly, looking over to the front counter...where he sees... Cash, dressed in a typical chain convenience store uniform, ringing up the teenager... An excited smile from Jack at the sight of Cash... JACK You...! Then...the color drains from Jack’s face... JACK (CONT’D) What are you doing here... Jack moves toward Cash at the counter... JACK (CONT’D) You’re not sending me back... The girl eyes Jack curiously, then removes a dollar bill from her pocket and slides it across the counter to Cash... CASH Jack, it’s good to see you... Cash reaches into the register, taking out change for ten dollars...he hands the girl $9.35... CASH (CONT’D) (to the girl) Thank you darlin’... The girl looks at the money, realizing that Cash has given her the wrong change... CASH (CONT’D) (back to Jack, seeing the rock salt) What do you got there, rock salt? Look at you, all domestic and shit... You really figured some things out, huh? The girl looks at Cash talking to Jack... JACK I’m not going back... The girl hesitates...Cash turns to her... CASH (to the girl) Everything okay...? She looks at him, a moment of decision, then... TEENAGE GIRL Yeah...fine. JACK (raising his voice) Hey! Did you hear me...?! Cash ignores Jack, watching the girl as she heads to the door, hesitates a moment, then walks out... A look of disappointment on Cash’s face as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out a little notebook... Cash looks at Jack. CASH (making a note in his book) That was a character issue... (shaking his head) ...and for nine dollars? That’s just sad... JACK Hey, I’m talking to you! I am not going back, do you understand...?! Cash looks at him, compassion on his face. JACK (CONT’D) You can’t do this. You can’t keep coming in and out of people’s lives, messing things up... CASH C’mon, Jack... Jack throws six bucks on the counter... JACK I’ve got kids, I’m going home... CASH You know what the word glimpse means, J? It’s by nature an impermanent thing. Jack walks determinedly toward the exit. He stops and turns at the door... JACK (pointing at Cash) I’m staying. Cash follows him with his eyes, a proud look on Cash’s face as Jack leaves... 111 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, JOSH’S ROOM - LATE NIGHT Jack walks to Josh. He’s sleeping soundly. Jack gently kisses Josh on the head, careful not to wake him. 112 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE, ANNIE’S ROOM - LATE NIGHT Jack is standing over Annie, kissing her on the cheek. ANNIE (stirring, groggy) Is it morning yet? JACK No, honey. Go back to sleep. She closes her eyes as Jack stands there for a moment looking at her, sadness all over his face. JACK (CONT’D) Take care of yourself, Annie. I’m going back to the mother ship... Finally, he turns to go... 113 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE MASTER BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT The clock reads, “11:17.” Kate is already in bed as Jack walks in. KATE (looking up from her book) Hey... Jack approaches her, sitting on the bed... JACK These last weeks, Kate, I know that I’ve done some...some unusual things. Kate nods. KATE It’s been interesting, that’s for sure. JACK But I’ve done some good things too, haven’t I? KATE You’ve been Jack Campbell. And that’s always a good thing... She kisses him on the cheek. He takes her arms in his hands and looks her in the eyes. JACK I need you to remember me, Kate. How I am right now, right this very moment. I need you to put that image in your heart and keep it with you, no matter what happens. KATE Are you okay, Jack? JACK Please, just promise me you’ll do that. You have to promise, Kate. Because if you don’t, then it’s like it never happened and I don’t think I could live with that. She’s a bit confused but she couldn’t be more in love with him. KATE I promise, Jack... JACK Promise me again... KATE I promise. Come to bed, honey. Jack stands up, heading toward the door. JACK Soon... 114 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - LATE NIGHT Snow begins to fall... Jack with Lucy on a leash, walking side by side, his mind elsewhere... Lucy leads him around a corner...to a large open field... Lucy stops. She looks back at Jack, then out to the open field. Jack removes the leash. The dog bounds happily out into the field, looking for just the right spot. Jack puts his hands in his coat pocket...pulls out a half-eaten roll of PEPPERMINT LIFESAVERS, puts one in his mouth... He looks up at the sky, snow gently falling onto his face. It’s cold, but it’s beautiful...peaceful and still...the air clean and crisp... He breathes in the fresh air, the Lifesaver dissolving in his mouth, watching the dog... 115 INT. CAMPBELL HOUSE MASTER BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT The room is dark... Jack enters, sees Kate sleeping soundly in bed. He sits down in a chair and watches Kate asleep, a sad look in his eyes... As he continues to watch her, to listen to her, his own eyelids appear to grow heavy... He tries to fight the sleep...opening his eyes... focusing on her...but it’s no use... Finally, he closes his eyes...falling into a deep sleep... CHAPTER SIXTEEN – THE OLD LIFE DISSOLVE TO: 116 INT. JACK’S APARTMENT, BEDROOM - MORNING A PHONE RINGING Jack, flat on his back in bed...Light streams onto his face ...he stirs... THE PHONE STILL RINGING... Jack reaches over to Kate’s side...there’s no one there. Pull back to reveal...his old Manhattan apartment... his old dressy clothes strewn on the floor... Jack, sleep still in his eyes, reaches over...he’s not wearing any pajamas...picks up the phone... JACK (groggy, dazed) Yeah...okay, send her up... He drops the phone...turns back over...let’s his eyes stay closed for another moment...then... His eyes open... He looks around...sees his shirtless torso...then his old apartment...tailored clothes on the floor. JACK (CONT’D) (sadly) Damnit. Jack looks at the clock, “9:23 a.m.” He gets out of bed, throwing on pants and a pair of shoes, and leaves the room... 117 INT. JACK’S APARTMENT, LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ...Jack walks to the door just as... The doorbell RINGS. He stops, then cautiously opens the door, seeing... PAULA, wearing a long overcoat and a wide smile on her face. PAULA Waiting for me by the door, huh? Jack looks at her. JACK Paula... Paula opens her coat – the only thing she has on underneath is a sexy little teddy. JACK (CONT’D) (momentarily distracted) That’s totally see through... PAULA (smiling) Merry Christmas... JACK (confused) Christmas? It can’t be Christmas... Jack stares at her, totally confused... PAULA (lasciviously) It’s whatever you want it to be, Jack... Jack grabs a leather jacket then walks right by a shocked Paula and heads out the door, practically running down the corridor. PAULA (CONT’D) Jack?...Jack! CUT TO: 118 EXT. GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE - MORNING Jack’s Ferrari speeds down the bridge, toward Jersey... 119 EXT. CAMPBELL HOUSE - MORNING Jack’s Ferrari pulls up in the driveway and he hops out. He races to the front door, POUNDING on it... A MAN in a Van Heusen shirt and Hagar slacks answers. Jack stares at him in shock. MAN Can I help you? JACK Is Kate here? Does Kate live here?! MAN Kate? No, there’s no one here named Kate. Is that good enough for you? Jack starts rapping his head against the door post, much to the shock of the guy standing there. JACK Damn...damn...damn... MAN Hey, are you okay? JACK No...I’m not... MAN Is there anything I can do for you? Jack shakes his head mournfully. MAN (CONT’D) Hey, my wife’s in the kitchen. You got a cigarette? JACK I’m sorry, no... Jack walks off, beleaguered... 120 EXT. ARNIE’S HOUSE - MINUTES LATER Jack’s car drives by as Arnie carries a bicycle box out to the garbage. The car screeches to a halt in front of the driveway. ARNIE (shouting at Jack) Hey, you can’t park that thing here. JACK (out the window) It’s me, Jack... ARNIE I don’t care if you’re Tim Allen with your fancy car and all your tools, you still can’t park here. JACK Tell me you recognize me, Arnie. Please... ARNIE How’d you know my name? JACK We bowl together. We’re bowlers ...we won a championship...we’re winners. ARNIE I never won anything in bowling. Arnie peers at Jack through the window. ARNIE (CONT’D) Wait a second... (thinking) Jack...Jack... JACK Yes...Jack Campbell... ARNIE Of course. Jack Campbell. I went to high school with you...you played baseball, right? (at the Ferrari) You’re doing well... JACK (remembering) Yes, that’s it...yes, we went to high school together. ARNIE You never really talked to me. I wanted to talk to you, man... JACK Yeah...I guess I just wanted you to know, we could’ve been really good friends... 120A INT. FERRARI - DAY Jack driving...a CELL PHONE RINGS. A curious look on Jack’s face, it’s been a while since he’s heard that sound. JACK (answering phone) Hello? ADELLE (O.S.) Hey Santa, where are you? Everybody’s here. JACK Adelle? ADELLE (O.S.) You were supposed to be here half an hour ago...the emergency strategy session? Your trip to Aspen? They’re all panicked here... Silence from Jack... ADELLE (CONT’D, O.S.) Jack...? Are you going through the tunnel? Finally, Jack shakes his head, defeated. JACK I’ll be there in twenty minutes... CUT TO: 121 INT. LASSITER BUILDING, CONFERENCE ROOM - NOON TIME It’s a beehive of activity... Jack’s TEAM, anxiously going over reports and flow charts, working the phones, drinking coffee... Jack enters, still reeling from his experience, taking a moment to observe the action... Mintz spots him... ALAN (into phone) Thank god, Jack’s here. I’ll call you right back... He hangs up the phone as all eyes in the room turn to Jack, immediately fixating on how disheveled he looks. ALAN (CONT’D) (approaching) Jack, are you okay? JACK (in a daze) What’s going on here? ALAN It’s not good. Bob Thomas has secretly been talking to a European drug company. We’re not sure which one, Julia’s on it right now. Word is they’re willing to let him buy a minority stake and keep running the entire company. The Global people are up in arms. They say we should’ve been prepared for this. We’re in trouble here, Jack... Jack looks at Alan for a minute. JACK You know something, Alan. There’s a much more assertive person somewhere inside of you... Alan looks at him, confused. ALAN Excuse me? JACK But I think I like you better this way... ALAN Is this another one of those Sun Tzu “Art of War” tricks? A sad laugh from Jack. JACK No. ALAN So what are we gonna do, Jack? Jack wallows for another moment in his own sadness... ALAN (CONT’D) Jack...? Jack snaps out of it, turning to Alan and the rest of the group... JACK I’ll tell you exactly what we’re going to do. You’re going to do whatever you have to do to find out which European company he’s been talking to. Then I’m going to clean myself up, fly to Aspen, and drink egg nog with Bob Thomas. His wife and kids will be playing in the background while I spend Christmas day convincing him that the European company is the devil and Global is the answer to his prayers, after all... (growing wistful) Then I’m going to spend four hours skiing. Alone. On Christmas day. Completely and utterly alone. I’m going to do that because that is my life, that is what’s real, and there is nothing I can do to change that... Jack leaves the office to the shocked stares of his team. 122 EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Jack’s limo makes its way downtown. 123 INT. LIMO - SAME TIME Jack in the back seat of the limo, sadly looking out the window, watching the buildings pass by... He turns away, looks at the phone...haltingly picks it up... JACK (dialing 411) For Manhattan...Kate Reynolds...I need an address too... Jack jots something down on a business card. Then he hangs up the phone, thinks a moment, looks out the window, then turns to the driver... JACK (CONT’D) Make a right here... DRIVER But the airport’s the other way... JACK We’re not going to the airport... CUT TO: 123A EXT. KATE’S BUILDING - DAY Jack’s limo pulls up outside this house on Washington Mews... Jack gets out... 124 INT. EAST SIDE APARTMENT BUILDING, HALLWAY - AFTERNOON Jack stands outside an apartment door. He hears The Clash’s “London Calling” BLARING from inside. He rings the bell...the volume of the music gets lower... Kate’s assistant, LORI, 20s, opens the door...Jack exchanges a curious look with her. LORI Are you from the shipping company? JACK I’m Jack Campbell...I’m an old... friend of Kate’s. I just called. The woman looks at him, then walks back inside... LORI (O.S.) Kate! Some guy’s here! Beat. Jack waits anxiously at the door. Then... KATE (O.S) (to Lori) Did you call the airline like I asked?! Jack’s eyes come alive as Kate appears wearing jeans and a white blouse...except for her hair, she looks the same. JACK Kate... KATE Jack...God, it’s been so long...You look... She searches for a kind word, but he looks terrible. JACK You look great. KATE It’s good to see you... She looks at him another moment, then turns... KATE (CONT’D) (yelling inside) Lori! Where’s that box?! Kate walks inside, Jack follows her in sheepishly. 125 INT. KATE’S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS ...Jack accidentally knocks into a stack of boxes, sending a GLASS CANDY DISH CRASHING to the floor, SHATTERING it... JACK (bending down) I'm sorry... KATE Don’t worry about it, Jack... Jack looks up at...a beehive of activity – Lori on the phone, boxes stacked everywhere, TWO MOVERS packing up... JACK What’s going on? KATE (searching around) I’m moving to Paris...it was right here... (to Lori) It’s a box marked “Jack.” I put it in the stack for the Salvation Army... JACK Paris? LORI (to Kate, with attitude) Do you want me to look for the box or call the airline? KATE Hey, kind of under a little pressure here. LORI Hey, kind of giving up Christmas day for my ex-boss here. Jack watches this back and forth. KATE You didn’t seem to mind offering to help me on Christmas day when you were unwrapping that Prada bag I gave you. LORI Maybe it’s by the wardrobe boxes... Kate heads over to some tall wardrobe boxes. JACK You’re moving... KATE Uh huh. To Paris. My firm has an office there and I’m going to be heading it up. JACK (stunned) To Paris. Paris, France. KATE (searching the boxes) That’s the one... JACK So you’re not at a non- profit firm? KATE (a chuckle) Not with what they pay me... JACK You’re not married, are you? KATE No, Jack, I never got married. You? JACK Not exactly... (looking around) Can we just take a minute here? Maybe get a cup of coffee or something...? LORI (yelling) I’ll go for a cup of coffee! KATE Yes! A relieved smile from Jack... KATE (CONT’D) I found it! LORI Congratulations. The La Guardia flight’s canceled but I got you out of Kennedy on United at nine. Am I good or what? Jack’s smile disappears as Kate hands him a sealed box marked, “Jack”... KATE Here you go. It’s just some old things of yours... Jack stands here, looking at the box, then at Kate... JACK Do you ever think about us, Kate? About what might have happened...? A bemused LAUGH from Kate. Then she sees he’s not laughing... KATE You’re serious... A nod from Jack... KATE (CONT’D) I’ll tell you what, Jack, if you’re ever in Paris, look me up. Maybe we’ll go for that cup of coffee. One of the movers passes by Jack carrying a box... Jack looks at Kate, flush with the realization that this isn’t the same woman he knew thirteen years ago, or left yesterday. JACK Sure. Goodbye, Kate. He leaves... CUT TO: 126 INT. JACK’S APARTMENT - EVENING A scratchy Zeppelin album, the song “All Of My Love,” fills the room. Jack, a fifth of Bushmill’s by his side, goes through the box Kate gave him. He removes a worn leather jacket, feeling the soft material, then a “Mondale for President” button, which Jack smiles upon seeing, a couple Neil Young concert ticket stubs... He puts the leather jacket on, then sticks the Mondale button on the lapel. He digs back into the box, finding... A messy, dog-eared copy of “Cat’s Cradle”...not the one Kate gave him at the airport, the one she replaced... Jack looks at it for a moment...lost in his sadness... then... He looks over at the clock, it reads, “8:29.” CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – ONE LAST TRY CUT TO: 127 EXT. VAN WYCK EXPRESSWAY - NIGHT Jack in his Ferrari, racing down the highway at 120 MPH... He looks at the clock, it reads, “8:46.” He opens up the throttle... 128 EXT. KENNEDY AIRPORT, UNITED TERMINAL - MINUTES LATER Snow is falling as Jack’s car races up to the terminal then stops. He jumps out. An AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD sees him... AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD Hey, you can’t leave that there! Jack runs into the terminal, ignoring the guard... 129 INT. UNITED TERMINAL - SECONDS LATER Jack looking at the board. The nine o’clock to Paris - Gate 8A. Jack sprints toward the gate... 130 INT. UNITED TERMINAL, GATE AREA - SECONDS LATER ...and gets there just as the flight is boarding. Jack looks through the crowd, spotting Kate near the front of the line, about to hand her ticket to the gate attendant. He pushes through the throng of people, drawing some annoyed stares, finally making his way over to Kate. JACK (calling out) Kate! Kate turns and sees Jack, a look of puzzlement on her face. JACK (CONT’D) You can’t go! KATE Jesus, Jack... JACK Don’t get on that plane! KATE Jack. JACK Please. Let’s just go have a cup of coffee. That’s all I’m asking for. I’m sure there’s another flight to Paris tonight. KATE What do you want from me? You want me to tell you everything that happened was okay? Jack just stands there, unsure... KATE (CONT’D) Well it is. Yes, I was heartbroken ...But I got over it. I moved on. People change, Jack. I changed. I don’t know why you suddenly feel the need to revisit that time in our lives but I assure you, it’s over... Kate turns her back to Jack, leaving him standing there... He watches her walk to the podium, realizing she’s right... He sees Kate reach the podium...hand her ticket to the attendant... Finally, a look of determination crosses his face... JACK (at Kate) We have a house in Jersey! Kate turns to him with a look that could kill. KATE Don’t do this, Jack... But he continues... JACK We have two kids, Annie and Josh... ...Kate looks at him, half-mortified, half- interested... JACK (CONT’D) ...Annie’s not much of a violin player but she tries really hard. She’s a little precocious but that’s only because she says what’s on her mind. And when she smiles... Jack shakes his head, remembering, fighting back the tears... JACK (CONT’D) And Josh...he has your eyes. He doesn’t say much but we know he’s smart... (lost in the memory) ...he’s always got his eyes open, always watching us... sometimes you can look at him and just know that he’s learning something new... it’s like witnessing a miracle... Kate’s expression has sifted from annoyance to curiosity. JACK (CONT’D) ...the house is a mess, but it’s ours... (chuckling) ...well, after a hundred twenty two more payments it will be... Jack begins walking slowly toward Kate...the world of the airport going on around him, Jack not caring... JACK (CONT’D) And you...you’re a non- profit lawyer. That’s right, completely non-profit. But that doesn’t seem to bother you... Kate raises an eyebrow. It’s something she’s thought about. JACK (CONT’D) And we’re in love. After thirteen years of marriage we’re still unbelievably in love... (with a chuckle) You won’t even let me touch you until I’ve said it... Jack gets closer and closer...Kate’s spellbound now... imagining the picture Jack’s painting... JACK (CONT’D) ...I sing to you...not all the time but definitely on special occasions... Jack walks into a piece of carry-on luggage sitting by a row of passengers... JACK (CONT’D) (off hand, to passenger) Excuse me... (to Kate) We made a lot of sacrifices, dealt with our share of surprises, but we stayed together... Jack’s nearly there... JACK (CONT’D) You see, you’re a better person than I am... Not in this life, and Kate knows it... JACK (CONT’D) ...and it made me a better person to be around you... Kate is perfectly still, Jack’s words echoing in her ears. JACK (CONT’D) Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe I went to bed one lonely night in December and imagined it all. But I swear, nothing’s ever felt more real to me... He’s right in front of her. She can’t take her eyes off him. JACK (CONT’D) And if you get on that plane right now, it’ll disappear forever. Silence. Jack and Kate in their own little world...airport business going on around them... JACK (CONT’D) I know we can both go on with our lives. And we’d both be fine. But I’ve seen what we can be like together...And I choose us... Jack’s words resonate in her ears. He gently touches a hand to her arm... JACK (CONT’D) Please, Kate, one cup of coffee. You can always go to Paris. Just please, not tonight... She stands there, frozen, staring into Jack’s eyes, searching for the answer. KATE Okay, Jack... DISSOLVE TO: 131 INT. AIRPORT - LATE NIGHT Jack and Kate, framed in the window of a nearly empty airport coffee shop...through the window, we see snow falling outside. From a distance we see them...TALKING and LAUGHING over a cup of coffee... FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Four.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Four.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bbda47938af749b971834d9a5e83d2ec2db98b19 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Four.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FANTASTIC FOUR by Mark Frost and Michael France based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Shooting Script FADE IN: CLOSE ON A MASSIVE STEEL HEAD Our first thought: DR. DOOM? But it's not moving. A welder's torch sparks into frame in the hands of a sculptor on scaffolding. This is art, an epic 20 foot statue going up of a business mogul (VICTOR VON DOOM) in whose generously extended hands sit two intertwined columns of DNA. His face is chiseled, angular, perfect (too perfect). Past sparks, we MOVE down to pick up... EXT. STREET/VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY REED RICHARDS and BEN GRIMM head toward the soaring glass-box atrium of VDI Headquarters. Designed to inspire awe, it does. REED High open space, exposed structural elements. Obviously aimed at first time visitors to create feelings of... smallness, inadequacy. Ben glances at Reed, who looks a little nervous. BEN Good thing it ain't workin... Reed, what are we doing here? This guy's fast-food, strip-mall science -- REED This wasn't our first stop, in case you forgot NASA. And Victor's not that bad. He's just a little... (seeing the statue) Larger than life. INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY They move past the statue, into the sprawling atrium. REED He's financed some of the biggest breakthroughs of this century. BEN You'd never know it. He motions to a high-tech ORB, showing FOOTAGE of VDI's accomplishments: a safe and clean nuclear facility, the first private Space Station. All images have VICTOR front and center, glad-handling George Bush, Tony Blair, shady International Leaders. The last image is Victor holding the AMERICA'S CUP. BEN (CONT'D) Jesus. That too? They reach three stern RECEPTIONISTS. REED Reed Richards and Ben Grimm to see -- A receptionist cuts him off, handing them each a pass. FEMALE RECEPTIONIST Executive elevator, top floor. BEN What's the price for a smile round here? They head for the elevator. Reed carries a small, black box. As they enter the elevator, steel doors shut and we CUT TO -- INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - OFFICE - DAY A large, dark office. Ben in the corner. He yawns, watches... BRIGHT HOLOGRAMS: Stars. Planets. They hover in the air, making the room feel like a majestic portal into outer space. REED (O.S.) My research suggests that exposure to a high-energy cosmic storm born on solar winds might have triggered the evolution of early planetary life. REED stands among the holograms, speaking to a MYSTERIOUS FIGURE in shadow behind a desk. An ominous, PULSATING RED CLOUD covers the stars. It washes over a hologram of EARTH. REED (CONT'D) In six weeks another cloud with the same elemental profile will pass Earth's orbit. A study in space could advance our knowledge about the structure of the human genome, and help cure countless diseases, extend human life -- The SHADOW clears his throat. Reed speeds up, emotional. REED (CONT'D) Give kids the chance to be stronger, healthier, less prone to -- SHADOWED FIGURE Turn it off. Please. The figure's DEEP VOICE pierces the darkness. REED But I haven't fully explained my -- SHADOWED FIGURE Yes you have... Imagination. Creativity. Passion. Those were always your trademarks. Lights brighten, revealing the face behind the voice: VICTOR VON DOOM. 35, handsome, commanding. He looks almost... airbrushed. He drops a WIRED magazine to the desk. REED is on the cover over the words: RICHARDS BANKRUPT, GRANT CUTBACKS. VICTOR But dreams don't pay the bills, do they? (a condescending smile) Same old Reed, the hopeless optimist. Still reaching for the stars, with the world on your back. REED You remember in school we talked about working together. That's what I was about to explain... Reed presses the remote. Another hologram appears: A SHUTTLE slowly approaching AN ORBITING SPACE STATION. Both bear the VON DOOM INDUSTRIES logo. Victor smiles, more intrigued. VICTOR So it's not my money you want. It's my toys... Tell me: if NASA doesn't trust you, why should I? Victor is a step ahead. Reed pauses, thrown for a beat. Ben wakes up, suspicious. Victor notices. He notices everything. VICTOR (CONT'D) That's my job. To stay a step ahead. To know what other men don't. Ben gets close to Reed, turning toward the door. BEN I can't take this. REED (low, quiet) Ben. This is business. Just work. A beat. Victor cracks a smile, enjoying the tension. And... SUE (O.S.) He's right, Ben. They turn to see...SUE STORM (demure, stunning) standing in a corner...possibly for the whole presentation. A little cold: SUE (CONT'D) It's just business. VICTOR I think you both know my Director of Genetic Research, Susan Storm. BEN Heya Susie. (under breath, to Reed) One more thing he's got. Sue gracefully walks into the office, only taking her eyes off of Reed to give Ben a warm hug. SUE Ben, it's been too long. She gives Reed a polite handshake. Victor watches carefully. Reed looks uncomfortable in her gaze. A little tongue-tied. REED You're, you've, I mean, how have you bee-- SUE Never better. Victor sizes them up. He puts a hand on Sue's shoulder. VICTOR This isn't going to be a problem, is it? REED Not at all. SUE Ancient history. Victor smiles, eyeing Sue. VICTOR Good. Then you're just in time to hear the great Reed Richards ask me for help. (to Reed) You know, you made a lot of folks at MIT feel like a junior high science fair. So you'll excuse me if I savor the moment. Ben tightens. A hard beat. Reed sucks it up. REED You back this mission, and I'll sign over a fair percentage of any applications or -- VICTOR The number's seventy-five. And it's applications and patents. BEN What about his first born? REED (quiet) Ben, the money's not important. We could save lives. Sue gives a thin smile -- a flicker of old feelings. VICTOR Twenty-five percent of a billion is enough to keep the lights on, isn't it? Maybe even pay off your fourth mortgage on the Baxter Building. They look at Victor. How does he know all this...? VICTOR (CONT'D) Deal...? Reed looks at Ben, who shakes his head softly no. But Reed...drops a nod. Done. Victor smiles, offers a handshake. VICTOR (CONT'D) Well then, to our future. Together. Victor squeezes. Hard. His other hand on Sue's shoulder. VICTOR (CONT'D) Funny how things turn out, isn't it? REED Hilarious. As Reed and Sue lock eyes, Ben watches Victor. Wary. INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER - DAY Director of Communications LEONARD enters, checking files. VICTOR If Reed's right, then this little trip will double our stock offering. LEONARD And if he's not...? VICTOR Reed's always right. Good thing he doesn't always know what he's got... INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - ELEVATOR - MOMENTS LATER Reed and Ben step into the elevator. BEN He knew about NASA. What if he made the call to shut us down -- REED Ben, think about all the people we can help if this works -- BEN Maybe you should think about yourself for once. You always let this guy push you round -- REED We got what we wanted. That's enough. BEN I know, I know. I'm just worried about what he wants... Speaking of which... Reed follows Ben's eyes to...SUE. She joins them. Doors shut. INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES STAIRCASE - CONTINUOUS SUE You sure about this, Reed? He nods, head down. He doesn't want eye contact. REED Those solar winds are flaring, but I factored them into my coordinates and -- SUE I was talking about us. Working together. Sue holds her eyes on Reed. He is clearly uncomfortable in her gaze. Did the elevator just get smaller? REED (thinking, talking fast) Well, uh, based on our history...you can handle the biogenetics, and I'll focus on the molecular physics. Or, uhm, maybe I should take the biotech, you work the microscopes, since you have some background in electropho-- SUE (droll, a little annoyed) Right. That's exactly what I meant. She shakes her head -- same old Reed. He looks at her -- what did he say wrong? Ben smiles, patting Reed on the shoulder. BEN Way to not overthink it. (to Sue) So when do we leave? SUE I'll schedule the launch. Call me in the morning to talk about resources and crew. She offers a business card. Reed doesn't take it. REED I, uh, think I remember the number. SUE It's been changed. Beat. Ben grimaces. Reed takes the card, his eyes down. REED As far as crew, I was hoping Ben could pilot the mission -- SUE Well, he's welcome to ride shotgun, but we already have a pilot on our payroll. You remember my brother Johnny... Off Ben's curdling smile, we DISSOLVE TO -- EXT. LAKE LAUNCH FACILITY - DAY A helicopter shot through trees. We soar over timberland, and find something massive looming on the horizon: A SPACECRAFT. A sleek take on a space shuttle. Modern tech combined with industrial design that NASA could never afford. The craft's nose is pointed straight up, ready for launch. WORKERS IN JUMPSUITS are scattered around the two-hundred foot tall scaffolding, performing routine checks. EXT. GANTRY OVERLOOK - DAY Ben stares up at the craft. A sneer on his face. BEN Can't do it. I cannot do it. REED External SRBs, orbital system engines. Its just like the shuttles you flew in -- BEN No. I cannot take orders from that underwear model. That wingnut washed out of NASA for sneaking two Victoria Secret wannabes into a flight simulator. REED Youthful high spirits. They walk toward the base of the scaffolding. BEN They crashed it into a wall. A flight simulator. REED I'm sure he's matured since then. CLOSE on JOHNNY STORM, leaning over to kiss a hot redhead. PULL BACK TO REVEAL he's riding a MOTORCYCLE, and she's driving a red CORVETTE with license plate: FRANKIE. PICK UP Reed and Ben, watching through binoculars. REED (CONT'D) When have I asked you to do something you absolutely said you could not do? BEN Five times. REED I had it at four. BEN This makes five. INT. LAKE LAUNCH FACILITY LOCKER ROOM - NIGHT Reed and Ben unpack gear into lockers. Suddenly -- JOHNNY (O.S.) Captain on the bridge! Ben goes to attention on reflex: Johnny snaps a picture with a digital camera. Then advances, as Ben realizes who it is... JOHNNY (CONT'D) Digital camera: $254. Memory stick: $59. The look on your hard-ass former CO's grill when he finds out he's your junior officer: priceless. Ben eyeballs Johnny, suddenly reaches up as if to grab him. Johnny flinches. But Ben just reaches for Johnny's zipper, adjusts his uniform. BEN I can handle the ship. I can even handle Mr. Blonde Ambition. But I don't know if I should be flying or playing Vegas in these suits. Who the hell came up with them? SUE Victor did. Sue enters, wearing her blue, wetsuit-like uniform, carrying a stack of flightsuits. She hands them out to the guys. SUE (CONT'D) The synthetics act as a second skin, adapting to your individual needs to -- JOHNNY Keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool! REED Wow. Fantastic. Reed stares at Sue in the skintight outfit. She wonders, maybe hopes -- is he actually checking her out? REED (CONT'D) Material made from self-regulating unstable molecules. I've been working on a formula for this. SUE Great minds think alike. VICTOR (O.S.) Guess some think faster than others. Victor enters, wearing his custom-tailored flightsuit. VICTOR (CONT'D) I hired Armani to design the pattern. These colors will look great on camera. A DOOR OPENS. Leonard enters, in a sharp suit. LEONARD They're ready for you, sir. VICTOR Showtime. EXT. LAKE LAUNCH FACILITY - HALLS - NIGHT Leonard leads Victor through the halls. Victor checks himself in mirrors as he walks, fixing his hair, his uniform. LEONARD Our numbers are through the roof. The IPO's tracking at fifty, sixty a share. The bank's five times oversubscribed -- VICTOR It's not just the money. I could make money in my sleep. LEONARD Then what is it? VICTOR History, Leonard. History. Everything else is conversation... (a beat) How's the other matter? Leonard pulls out a BOX. Opens it: a TEN KARAT DIAMOND RING. LEONARD Harry Winston sends his regards. They hit a set of big doors. Victor stops and looks into the reflective, metallic surface on the wall. He fixes one last strand of hair. Perfect. Then he opens the door to... SNAP!SNAP!SNAP! WHIP-PAN a row of CAMERAS snapping shots of -- EXT. LAKE LAUNCH FACILITY - NIGHT Retrofitted into a makeshift press area. Victor sits on a platform, with reporters stretched out below him. VICTOR Today we stand on the edge of a new frontier. In the furthest depths of outer space...we will find the secrets to inner space. The final key to unlocking our genetic code lies in a cosmic storm... BEHIND THE ACTION: Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben walk past. News crews barely notice, passing without even taking a picture. Our "Fantastic Four" are not exactly big news. Not yet. BEN Isn't that your speech? REED He's made a few changes. BEN This is your dream, Reed. You should be the one up there. REED Victor's better at these things. Just past the press area, they see...one woman standing, waiting. This is DEBBIE, Ben's fiancÈe. And for the first time in the entire film...Ben SMILES. They hug, kissing. Johnny and Reed watch. Reed glances at Sue, who walks ahead. Debbie slips a photo into Ben's flightsuit. A tender beat. BEN I'll be watching over you. DEBBIE Just get back soon, or I start looking for a new groom. Ben looks at the little ENGAGEMENT RING on her finger. BEN Soon as I'm back, I'm gonna trade that in for a bigger rock. DEBBIE I don't care about rocks, I care about you. (to Reed) You bring him back in one piece, or you can forget being Best Man. Reed nods, smiles. Debbie gives Ben a last kiss. Ben turns to Johnny, who gives a cocky smile. BEN What the hell you smiling at? Just keep your mouth shut, and your mind on those SMBs -- JOHNNY Actually, the engines are SMEs. Hydrogenbase, carbon propellant. Couple generations past your last ride. (at the threshold) I'm not as dumb as you look. Ben just glares at Reed. This is going to be a long trip. As they follow after Sue, we CUT BACK TO -- VICTOR ON STAGE Mid-speech. Playing behind him is REED'S HOLOGRAM: stars give way to a pulsating red cloud... VICTOR Think of a world without genetic flaws -- no asthma, allergies, baldness, breast cancer... Ben and Reed hear the speech. Ben bristles. BEN What's wrong with being bald...? Victor smiles at the crowd, commanding. A true leader. VICTOR Darwin discovered evolution. Now we -- I -- will define it. Only in America could... The red cloud of cosmic rays wash over the Earth. VICTOR (V.O.) (CONT'D) ...a little country boy from Latveria build one of the biggest companies in the world, and truly reach the stars. Now if you'll excuse me, history awaits... On those words, the HOLOGRAM TRANSFORMS TO...Von Doom's SHUTTLE on the launch pad. BOOM! THRUSTERS FIRE WHITE HOT. Smoke billows across the pad. Ready for take off. Victor walks past the hologram and exits. His departure perfectly timed with the shuttle LIFTING OFF. We push in on the shuttle, and follow the ship as it leaves Earth's atmosphere. BOOM -- booster rockets fall away and the shuttle fires its thrusters. The hologram transitions to... A shot of the SPACE STATION high above the Earth. The shuttle enters from the top, lighting up the hologram with engines afire. As the shuttle approaches the station we CUT TO -- EXT. DEEP SPACE - SAME THE SPACE STATION in the distance, rotating in orbit above Earth. THE SHUTTLE eases in and docks. INT. SPACE STATION - COMMAND CENTER - SAME Victor and Sue lead the others into the command center. JOHNNY (a "dad voice": to Ben) If you behave, maybe next time daddy'll let you drive. BEN Keep talking, there won't be a next time. Reed is focused on THE EARTH. SUE Long way from the projection booth at the Hayden Planetarium, isn't it? Reed turns towards her -- a little stunned that she would bring that up. It's the first time she's been nice to him so far. He smiles, gently, hesitantly, always hesitant with Sue. REED Yes. Yes it is. Johnny and Ben exchange a look. Reed keeps looking at the stars, eyes wide, like a little kid. INT. SPACE STATION - COMMAND CENTER/OBSERVATION DECK - SAME They enter the nerve center of the space station. Victor goes to a computer console on the observation deck below. The windows are closed, so there's nothing to observe. VICTOR (to ground; via comm-link) Leonard, how's the feed? LEONARD (V.O.) Recording, sir. We see you perfectly. Victor glances at a camera mounted into the console. SUE We can monitor the cloud's approach and observe the tests from here. BEN Is it safe? REED The shields on the station should protect us. BEN Should? VICTOR What's wrong, Ben? Eighty-million dollars worth of equipment not enough for you? Ben turns to Victor. A little tension. Reed cuts it: REED Let's start loading those samples. Get your suit ready, Ben. Victor keeps his eyes on Ben. VICTOR So you still do all the heavy lifting? Victor gives a friendly smile, patting Reed. VICTOR (CONT'D) Maybe you should have stayed back in the lab. Field work never suited you. Reed doesn't defend himself. Ben steps up. BEN He does the talking. I do the walking. Got it? Victor holds tight to his smile. He nods, condescending. VICTOR Got it. So take a walk, Ben...I'm going to borrow Susan for a second. REED Sure. Ben and Johnny read his eyes, as we CUT TO -- INT. SPACE STATION - AIR LOCK - LATER Ben preps for a space walk, putting on a helmet and boots. Johnny unloads a set of clear sample boxes off of a cart, each containing a variety of plants. JOHNNY Please tell me your dawg's not trying to rekindle things with my sister. BEN 'Course not. Strictly business. JOHNNY Yeah, well, his eyes say different. BEN Hey, two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either. JOHNNY Let's see: you got Victor, stud of the year, more coin than God? Or Reed, the world's dumbest smart guy worth less than a postage stamp. Hmmm, it's a toss-up. BEN Put your tiny little mind at ease. JOHNNY Don't you wander off, boy. Johnny steps out of the air-lock and shuts the door. He looks through a small window to see Ben give the thumbs up. THE AIRLOCK DOOR opens, and Ben gracefully steps into space. INT. SPACE STATION - OBSERVATION DECK - SAME TIME Sue descends the stairs at Victor's behest. Joins him. VICTOR Surprised I agreed to Reed's proposal? SUE I understand the business reasons. VICTOR Well, when you're looking at your future, it never hurts to find closure about the past. Sue's eyes narrow. What is this about...? VICTOR (CONT'D) Susan, every man dreams that he'll meet some woman he can give the world to. He presses a button and the observation deck's outer windows open up, revealing a spectacular, romantic view of the EARTH. VICTOR (CONT'D) In my case, it's not just a metaphor. While she stares out the window, Victor reaches into a pocket, revealing a RING BOX. Sue looks unsettled. INT. SPACE STATION - NEARBY CORRIDOR - SAME TIME Reed checks data on a work station, set on a wall. The results of his calculations are not what he expected... He sees WIND VELOCITY digits rise. He does a double-take when he sees the readout: EVENT THRESHOLD, T-MINUS 10:00. REED No...no...impossible. It's...too fast. INT. SPACE STATION - OBSERVATION DECK - SAME TIME Behind his back, Victor holds the ring box in hand. VICTOR You've been with me two years now. Sue doesn't know where this is going. She treads lightly. SUE It's been a good two years, Victor... The company's accomplished so much. VICTOR Right, of course, the company... But you see, I've come to realize all the accomplishments in the world mean nothing without someone to share them with -- SUE Uh, Victor, I hope I haven't done something to make you think... VICTOR Sue, I've lived my life unafraid of taking big steps. And this is the biggest step yet. If it helps, think of this as a promotion. A merger of sorts... (getting closer) Four little words that can change our lives... He is about to spring the ring on her. She looks like a deer in headlights. She opens her mouth, and...WHAM! Doors slam open. REED RUSHES INTO THE ROOM. REED The cloud is accelerating! Victor quickly puts the ring back in his pocket. REED (CONT'D) I don't know what happened. Sue quickly moves to a nearby control panel to verify Reed's claim. Starts punching buttons. Confirms Reed's findings with a nod. Victor hardens, in control. REED (CONT'D) We've got minutes until it hits, not hours...Victor, that storm's deadly -- the radiation's lethal. We need to abort. VICTOR Get a grip. Reed. We didn't come all this way to lose our nerve at the first little glitch. Just close the shields... REED Ben's still out there -- VICTOR So reel him in. But we came here to do a job. So let's do it. Quickly. EXT. SPACE STATION - MOMENTS LATER Ben is carefully arranging SAMPLE BOXES OF PLANTS. REED (ON RADIO) Ben, we need you back inside. Ben turns to see Reed and Johnny staring from a window. BEN (INTO RADIO) I ain't done arranging your flowers, egghead. REED (ON RADIO) Ben. This is serious. Turn around. Ben sees Johnny motioning for Ben to look behind him. Ben turns and sees: THE COSMIC STORM, rumbling toward the station. Not close, but not far. That gets Ben's attention. BEN (INTO RADIO) Roger that, on my way. He turns back towards the ship. BEHIND HIM, the storm grows. INT. SPACE STATION - COMMAND CENTER - SAME TIME Victor rushes into the room, looks at the monitors. Sees the others near the airlock on one screen, and the approaching cloud on another. Anxiety creeps across his face. AUTOMATED VOICE Event threshold in two minutes. INT. SPACE STATION - AIRLOCK DOOR - SAME TIME Reed and Johnny stand by the airlock, waiting for Ben. They heard the automated voice. It panics Reed. REED Come on, Ben, come on... VICTOR (ON RADIO) Reed, we're running out of time. EXT. OUTER SPACE - MOMENTS LATER A wake of turbulence from the cloud hits Ben, making it harder to maneuver. The cloud's tendrils snake toward him. INT. SPACE STATION - AIRLOCK DOOR - SAME TIME They can see Ben outside the window, still twenty yards away. The entire corridor rumbles. Lights flicker and spark. They watch helplessly. INT. SPACE STATION - COMMAND CENTER/OBSERVATION DECK - SAME Sue watches the monitor, also helpless. SUE Johnny... Reed... Victor, annoyed by the indecisiveness, marches right up to Sue. Practically shoves her aside as he hits the INTERCOM. VICTOR Reed, you need to get up here so we can close the shields! Now! Sue glares at Victor. His lack of compassion shocks her. REED (ON RADIO) Not until Ben is back inside! VICTOR It's too late for him, and soon it'll be too late for all of us. Victor doesn't bother to wait for a response. He takes over the console, punching keys. SUE What are you doing? VICTOR Raising the shields. SUE You can't leave them out there. Sue glares with as much contempt as her face can muster. VICTOR Watch me. Reed had his chance. You can't help them any more than I can. Beat. She takes a step toward the door. Not sure what to do. SUE I can try. With one final glare, she bolts from the room. INT. SPACE STATION - AIRLOCK DOOR - SAME TIME Reed bites his lip. Thinks. He decides. REED Victor's right. Johnny, get to the command center. Close the shields. JOHNNY What about you? One look from Reed tells Johnny, he won't leave without Ben. Johnny eyes Ben, steels his courage. He's not going either. JOHNNY (CONT'D) (to Ben) Come on big guy, you can do it! INT. SPACE STATION COMMAND CENTER - DAY Victor watches the shields slide down. Alone. An island. AUTOMATED VOICE Event threshold in thirty seconds. INT. SPACE STATION - CORRIDOR - SAME TIME Sue races down the hall. Not panicked. With determination. EXT. SPACE STATION AIR LOCK - DAY The exterior air lock door slides open. In agonizing, weightless slow motion Ben reaches to haul himself inside. The leading edge of the cloud hits: Ben is pelted by a hissing mass of space dust, splattering his suit with orange stains. Larger particles, small pellets, pepper him. Ben hauls himself in the last few feet by pulling on his tether. INT. SPACE STATION AIR LOCK/COMMAND CENTER - DAY AUTOMATED VOICE Event threshold in ten seconds. TEN... Johnny punches controls to close the exterior airlock door... Reed opens a first aid kit, grabs a thermo-elastic blanket... INT. SPACE STATION - COMMAND CENTER/OBSERVATION DECK - SAME Clutching the diamond ring, Victor stands defiantly. Showing absolutely no concern for the others. Interested only in the event itself. Lights and equipment FALL, CRASHING around him. A control panel EXPLODES in Victor's face. He jumps back, and into the falling equipment. Collapses under the weight. INT. SPACE STATION - AIR LOCK - SAME TIME Sue rounds a corner, sees Reed and Johnny. SUE Johnny! Reed! AUTOMATED VOICE FIVE...FOOOOUUUR... SLOW MOTION: Everyone frozen in position as: -- JOHNNY is hit with sparks of flame from a control panel. -- REED REACHES out for Ben and the airlock door. -- VAPOR STREAM pours down on Sue from a blown gasket. -- THE SPACE DUST burns into Ben's skin. SLOW MOTION: Just BEFORE the exterior air-lock door closes, a SINGLE PARTICLE zips through the narrowing gap and hits Ben in the back, ripping through his suit. The exterior door shuts and seals. The station loses all power. DARKNESS. EXT. SPACE STATION - DAY As quickly as it came, the cloud passes on and whirls away, leaving the space station intact. Power quietly flickers on. Silence. Time resumes. All four pick up exactly where they left off, unaware of anything that just happened to them. INT. SPACE STATION COMMAND CENTER - DAY Victor emerges from the rubble. He stands, checks his body. A few scrapes, nothing serious. A thin, throbbing CUT on his head. He touches the wound, but it is not bleeding. INT. SPACE STATION AIR LOCK - DAY Reed and Johnny scramble to open the interior air lock door. Sue joins them, as they pull Ben in. They try to remove his helmet. We don't see his face, but he's clearly unconscious. REED He's not responsive -- JOHNNY Ben! Ben! INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY A BLACK SCREEN: JOHNNY'S VOICE Ben, wake up! Wake up! SUBJECTIVE CAMERA, BEN'S POV: The blurry image of Johnny comes slowly into focus, standing beside a hospital bed. BEN (O.S.) Where...where am I? JOHNNY Back on Earth. Victor's medical facility... We're in quarantine. BEN (O.S.) Reed? ... Sue? JOHNNY They're fine. Everybody else...is fine. Johnny looks away, as if he can't bear to lay eyes on him. BEN (O.S.) What's wrong with me? JOHNNY I swear to you they've done everything humanly possible. The best plastic surgeons in the world, Ben. You had the best -- BEN (O.S.) Give me a mirror... Johnny picks up a hand mirror on the bed table before Ben can reach it, reluctant to give it to him. JOHNNY They said that's not such a good idea, the shock alone could -- BEN (O.S.) Give me the god damn mirror! Ben grabs it from him. Then slowly raises it to look and see that...except for some serious stubble, Ben's totally normal. JOHNNY Unfortunately, the doctors just couldn't do anything to fix your face! He cackles as he heads for the door. Ben heaves the mirror at him, breaking it into hundreds of pieces. He turns to the side-table, and grabs that picture of DEBBIE. It calms him. EXT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - ESTABLISHING - DAY A modern facility of glass and stone, nestled in the forest. In stark contrast to the lush greenery surrounding it. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND HOSPITAL CORRIDOR/SUE'S ROOM - DAY Reed walks down the hall. His hair is GRAYING at the temples. He passes Johnny, who is smiling, still enjoying his joke on Ben. Johnny slows, looking at Reed's hair. JOHNNY Nice 'do. Going for the "grandpa" look? Reed passes a mirror, slowing, seeing his gray hairs. He keeps going. He passes a partially open door. He stops when he catches a glimpse of Sue asleep in bed. He sees a vase of flowers. He grabs a couple lilies, and enters. But Reed sees...the room is already FILLED with expensive flowers. All from VICTOR. Reed is trumped once again. A DOCTOR writes on Sue's chart. A wall TV plays a press conference with Victor, outside the FACILITY. He looks worse for wear. A few hairs out of place, and a small BANDAGE on his face. We PUSH INTO the press conference -- REPORTER #1 You've been accused in the past of moving science a little too fast -- VICTOR Accused by who? My competitors? REPORTER #2 But surely this accident gives you pause -- VICTOR Danger is always part of discovery. What would have happened if Ben Franklin never went out in a storm? Without risk, there's no reward. REPORTER #3 So where's the reward? You promised a cure-all. Victor pauses. For the first time. Just a flicker. VICTOR And you'll have it. I've never come up short. And I'm not going to start now. REPORTER #2 So you're still taking VDI public -- VICTOR Yes, of course. I've never been more confident in the compan-- Reed mutes the television. REED How's she doing? DOCTOR Stable. Vitals are strong. Reed takes the clipboard, looks for himself. REED Blood panels show no irradiation. Good. You'll step up this protocol, every -- DOCTOR Four hours. We know what we're doing... One more day of observation, then you're all cleared. The Doctor takes his clipboard, and walks out. Reed steps to Sue, with the drooping flowers in his hand. Quiet: REED Sue...I want to tell you...I'm... WHOOSH. A NURSE rolls in with a tray bearing ten more extravagant bouquets. Reed looks resigned. He walks out. REED (CONT'D) She's allergic to orchids. Put that Amaryllis Apapathos by her bed. The African lilies? They're her favorites. Reed exits, dropping his two wilted lilies into the trash. Sue opens one eye, as the big lilies land by the bed. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY A SEXY NURSE wheels a testing station into Johnny's room. He's stripped down to Calvins, changing into a ski outfit. SEXY NURSE And where do we think we're going? JOHNNY I don't know if "we've" noticed, but the sickest runs this side of the Alps are right outside that window -- NURSE I've noticed... But doctor's orders, you're not allowed to leave until we -- JOHNNY Finish the tests, I know -- could you give me a hand with this zipper? NURSE You know this is not a ski resort. JOHNNY Not yet. Johnny opens the cardboard box, revealing a colorful fiberglass object the size of a briefcase. In the blink of an eye, he unfolds it into a LONG SNOWBOARD. JOHNNY (CONT'D) Luckily grandma still sends care packages. The nurse pops a thermometer in his mouth to shut him up. NURSE You are trouble. JOHNNY (thermometer in his mouth) Brubbles my Triddle Name. They both pay more attention to his zipper than the digital read-out: it runs right up past 98.6, then accelerates fast. SEXY NURSE You're hot! JOHNNY So are you! SEXY NURSE I mean, you feel a little feverish. JOHNNY I've never felt better in my life. When do you get off work? SEXY NURSE My shift ends at four, but I couldn't -- JOHNNY Meet me at 4:01, top of the run. That'll give you a minute to freshen up. He hands her the thermometer, a quick kiss and he's out the door. The machine beeps: Johnny's temperature is 209 DEGREES. EXT. VON DOOM COMPOUND HOSPITAL PATIO - DAY Ben finds Reed on a patio with a panoramic view. Reed works at a laptop computer. BEN How long was I out? REED Three days. I was worried about you. How are you feeling? BEN Solid. Ben can see Reed doesn't look too solid. BEN (CONT'D) How you doing? Reed shakes his head, looking back at his screen. REED I don't know. I just keep going over and over the numbers. BEN Reed. Even you can't compute every little thing. REED I should have done more, run more tests -- Ben gets closer, pushing down Reed's computer screen. BEN It was a freak of nature. Last I checked, you don't have a crystal ball. Let it go. Reed considers. But he can't let it go. He opens his computer back up, returning to work. Ben shakes his head, looks out at the view. His eyes catch on something, wheels turning. BEN (CONT'D) You go through something like this, makes you appreciate having the right woman in your life. REED Yeah, you and Debbie and perfect -- BEN Reed, I'm not talking about Debbie. Reed follows Ben's eyes to a lower level patio: SUE. REED What? Come on. She's got a good thing with Victor -- BEN I'm sorry, did that cosmic-bath loosen your screws? REED He's smart, powerful, successful -- BEN Well maybe you should date him. Reed looks at Ben, resigned. REED Ben. He'll give her the life she deserves. She ended up with the right guy. Things worked out for the best. Reed steps away. Ben stands alone, an idea sparking. BEN Do I have to do everything myself? INT. HELICOPTER/EXT. MOUNTAIN SUMMIT - DAY The chopper hovers over this pristine peak. JOHNNY and his NURSE sit in the chopper-bay, prepping their ski gear. Johnny's customized snowboard has wild, acrylic patterns. His Nurse wears a hot pink cat-suit, her skis dangling out. Their bodies are close: a sexy, competitive flirtation. They look down at a death-defying black diamond run. JOHNNY Me like-y. SEXY NURSE Stay right. Left is trouble. JOHNNY I though we went over this. SEXY NURSE Last one down springs for room service. She pulls down her goggles, jumps out. Johnny drops out after her, hitting the snow. He smolders: literally. The snow bank behind him sizzles and starts to melt. He takes off after her and the chase is on: EXT. BLACK DIAMOND RUN - DAY The Nurse knows every inch of the trail, slicing expertly in and out of the trees through deep powder. Johnny's a speed freak, maximizing velocity, closing the gap between them. Ghostly FLAMES shoot off his hair: his ski cap catches fire, flies off. Jets of fire knife through the back of his jacket. The Nurse looks back: In a burst of speed, Johnny draws even. She looks over and sees the flames shooting out behind him... SEXY NURSE You're on fire! JOHNNY Not this again -- SEXY NURSE No: You're ON FIRE! Johnny sees his gloves are burning, flicks them off in alarm. His body SHUDDERS: the back of his ski suit catches on fire. A burst of flame launches him down the slope like a rocket. Nurse loses concentration, falls. Johnny races away like a missile, screaming in exhilaration. He looks back -- no nurse. He tries to put out his flaming clothes, and accidentally VEERS to the LEFT. He fails to notice the giant CHASM in front of him. He faces forward and... SCREEAAMMS! LAUNCHING off the cliff, LEGS FLAILING, trying to catch ground. FLAMES begin to TRAIL his body as he FALLS towards the rocks below. He tries to will his body away. Instead, his body becomes engulfed in flame. He is a HUMAN TORCH! And for a moment he HOLDS THE AIR -- the fire giving him some kind of...LIFT. He maneuvers just over the rocks, almost making a 90 degree turn. He looks back at the rocks in disbelief. But the lift doesn't last long. He quickly CRASHES, landing HARD into a snowbank. He opens his eyes; tries to move but can't. He's trapped under snow and ice. With all his strength, he tries to move, NO DICE. Panic sets in. His eyes go wide as the snow around quickly begins to melt. Johnny is on fire, and within seconds he's sitting in a small POND, steam rising from the water. The nurse races toward the steam. Scared, panicked. She finds Johnny...smiling, sitting naked in an impromptu hot tub, staring at his hands. His body. Exhilarated. JOHNNY Care to join me? She smiles and unzips. The FLAMES DISSOLVE TO...CANDLES IN -- EXT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - VICTOR'S OFFICE - DAY On an expansive parapet with a billion-dollar view, Victor prepares a romantic dinner-setting as his staff scurry about. He checks every fork and knife, with a slightly manic energy. VICTOR How's the IPO? LEONARD Stable. We're looking at low twenties. It's a good number, considering the fallout from -- VICTOR Reed's disaster. You know, I half- think he did this to me on purpose. LEONARD Sir, I'm sure he wouldn't put himself -- But Victor is on to the next thought, always strategizing. VICTOR Get me on the AM shows, Larry King, cover of the Journal... (staring into silver tray) I've got to do something about this scar. Make sure they only shoot my right side. LEONARD Actually, uh, people seem to think the scar "humanizes" you. VICTOR And that's a good thing? Victor looks at the scar, enraged by this defect. It glistens in the silver tray. His eyes are bloodshot, sleepless. LEONARD You know, maybe you should get some rest -- VICTOR Later. First, I've got some unfinished business. A deal that needs closing... Leonard looks at the table, the lavish spread. A beat. LEONARD Sir, I've always wondered... Why Sue? You could have any woman in the world but -- VICTOR That's why. Because I could have any other woman... You know, when they asked Caesar "why England," he said, "because it's not mine." INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND DINING HALL - LATE AFTERNOON Two dozen EMPLOYEES sit and eat. Others serve themselves at the buffet. Ben and Sue walking into the dining hall -- SUE I can only stay for one drink, Ben. I've got to meet with Victor. BEN Wouldn't want to keep Vic waiting. They turn a corner and find Reed, entering by another door. BEN (CONT'D) Hey Reed, what are you doing here? (before he can answer) Great, why don't you join us? He quickly shepherds the two of them toward a quiet table. Ben's stomach GROWLS; so loud that they all can hear it. BEN (CONT'D) God, I'm starving. Gonna hit the buffet. Ben's stomach growls again, even louder this time. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND DINING HALL - EVENING The sun is long gone, and so are most of the diners. The room is darker, more romantic. Ben finishes the last shrimp on his plate, pushes it away, belches prodigiously. BEN Pardon me... Sue and Reed stare at him. Ben's stomach growls again. REED Are you alright? BEN I think I need to lie down. Bad shrimp. This was Ben's plan, but he really isn't feeling well, unsteady when he walks away. He looks down at his stomach. BEN (CONT'D) Really bad shrimp. ANGLE: Fireplace. Sue looks gorgeous in the light. A beat. A long beat. Reed doesn't know where to start with this woman. REED Feeling better? SUE Yes, thanks. REED That's good. That's uh...good. SUE You always had a way with words. (an awkward beat) I should be getting back. Sue gets up to leave. Exasperated, Reed tries to think of something, anything, to say. REED I'm really happy for you and Victor. She slows down, looking at him. She was hoping for more. SUE You're happy for me and Victor. REED I can tell you guys are enjoying what was the best part of our relationship -- SUE Which was? REED Passion. We see surprise on Sue's face, and... REED (CONT'D) For science. SUE (frustrated) You are such a dork, Reed... You never got it and never will unless it's explained to you in quantum physics. As if triggered by her emotion, the fireplace light around her BENDS. The flames flicker in a ghostly breeze. REED What? What did I say? She looks more disappointed than angry. SUE It's never what you say. It's what you don't say. What you don't do... She lets that hang. A lot of history here. Quiet, hurt -- she wants Reed to fight for her, to show some emotion. REED I...I...I just wanted to -- As Sue's emotions swirl, she slowly...disappears. SUE It's been two years, and all you can say is you're happy for me and some other guy... (standing up, hurt) You know, Victor may be a lot of things, but at least he's not afraid to fight for what he wants... (Reed looks down) And it's nice to be wanted sometimes. To be heard...seen... Reed, look at me. He looks up...but all that's left of her is the blush on her cheek and her bewitching eyes. He drops his fork, shocked. REED Uh, Sue...? I can't. SUE What? What do you mean you -- REED Sue...look at your hands. She raises her hands, but we don't see them. We only see a medical waistband...floating. Her watch...floating. Her clothes appear to be suspended in mid-air. Sue is invisible. She shrieks and gets up -- knocking a GLASS off the table... SLOW MOTION: The glass flies off the table, tumbling... Reed instinctively reaches for the bottle: his arm stretches two feet out of his sleeve -- grabs it just before it hits -- Then snaps back into place. Reed stares at his arm in disbelief. Sue's eyes widen as well. The rest of Sue reappears. They look at each other: mutual alarm. JOHNNY (O.S.) You guys will not believe what just happened! They look up to see JOHNNY in the doorway, NAKED except for the nurse's PINK PARKA wrapped around his midsection. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - VICTOR'S OFFICE - EARLY EVENING CLUNK. The candles burn low on the table. Victor strides out, heading for the door. He runs his hand through his hair to comb some strays. A CLUMP comes off in his fingers. He PAUSES. He steps to a mirror, stares at his hair. His SCAR. It is longer than the bandage now (as if it SPREAD). Victor peels back the bandage, and sees the scar is bluish-gray. Deep, unhealthy, maybe infected... INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - HALLWAY - EARLY EVENING DOUBLE DOORS burst open. Reed, Sue, and Johnny urgently walk. SUE It has to be the cloud. It's fundamentally altered our DNA. REED Let's not jump to conclusions, we need a massive amount of evidence before making that leap. Reed glances over his shoulder. He stares. Sue follows his gaze to see: Johnny's FINGERTIPS are on fire. He SNAPS his fingers. They GO OUT. He's totally unharmed. JOHNNY Now what is up with that? REED (deadpan) The cloud has fundamentally altered our DNA. JOHNNY Cool. What'd it do to you guys? SUE Apparently I can disappear. JOHNNY Please tell me you go silent too. Only one thing on Reed's mind -- REED We have to find Ben. EXT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - OUTSIDE BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING Johnny snaps his fingers -- which generate small explosive bursts of flame. He turns it on and off, like the "CLAPPER." JOHNNY Flame on, flame off. Flame on, flame off -- SUE Johnny. He does it again. Flame on, flame off. SUE (CONT'D) Stop it. JOHNNY Okay, "mom." Reed's about to knock on Ben's door when he hears the banging, moaning and pleading inside. Johnny smiles. JOHNNY (CONT'D) Oh, you dawg you. Better not be my nurse! INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING REED (O.S.) Ben, are you there? A creepy rippling movement begins beneath the sheet and gradually intensifies, reflected in the fabric's surface: the contours of Ben's body are changing, inflating, growing rough and craggy. SOUND of grinding heavy rocks. SUE (O.S.) Open up Ben, we need to talk. It all stops. A beat, then all four legs of the bed give way and it crashes to the floor. Under the covers, he groans in pain, and his voice is DEEPER, GRAVELY, but definitely CLEAR: BEN LEAVE ME ALONE!!! INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - OUTSIDE BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING Reed decides they can't wait any longer. He kneels to the floor. He concentrates, not sure if it will work... Suddenly, his arm STRETCHES, THIN ENOUGH TO CREEP UNDER THE DOORJAMB. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING Reed's arm wriggles under the door. It bends upward, swiping clumsily, until it finally grabs the knob. Rubbery fingers find the latch and unlock the door. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - OUTSIDE BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING Reed focuses, and pulls. His arm snakes out from under the door and snaps back into place. His flesh and bones reforming before their eyes. Johnny stares at Reed. JOHNNY Ewwwwwwww. That is disgusting. They hear a tremendous SMASH from inside the room. INT. VON DOOM COMPOUND - BEN'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING They open the door. The room is trashed. Every stick of furniture smashed to splinters. REED ...Ben? Their eyes adjust; there's a huge hole where the window used to be. They rush to it. Looking out they see SOMETHING LARGE in the distance, running away. JOHNNY What is that thing? SUE I think that thing is Ben. Reed looks out, emotions roiling. Is that his best friend...? Suddenly, Victor comes around the corner (bandage bigger). VICTOR What's going on? SUE Victor, are you feeling alright? He considers, but never shows weakness. He nods. VICTOR Just a little banged up. A couple scrapes. Why? REED Ben did this. VICTOR Ben did this? REED He's had some kind of...reaction to exposure from the cloud. And he's not the only one. SUE We need to find him. Victor redirects his attention to Sue. SUE (CONT'D) Victor, I'm sorry I -- VICTOR (cold) Just find him. Victor strides off, leaving the others. JOHNNY Anybody know where the big guy's going? We PUSH IN on a picture of Debbie lying on the floor, Reed knows exactly where Ben is going. REED He's going home. EXT. TRAIN YARD - NIGHT A view from Brooklyn: Manhattan glistens in the distance. CAMERA MOVES down to A TRAIN YARD, where we find empty cargo trains. We PUSH IN on the main track, where... A CARGO TRAIN has just stopped. We hear a cargo DOOR slide open, then WHUMP! Big FEET hit the ground. Someone, or someTHING barrels into the night. EXT. BIG & TALL SHOP - NIGHT A locked storefront on Flatbush Ave. SOUND of breaking glass. INT. BIG & TALL SHOP - NIGHT SERIES OF SHOTS: Ben tries on clothes, shoes. Jackets rip, shoes split. He needs an extra extra extra large. EXT. PAY PHONE - NIGHT A HUGE FIGURE is huddled in shadow. It's Ben. CLOSE ON: The dial pad. Big fingers try to push keys but they're too large. Ben tries for a few seconds, getting more and more frustrated. He manages to press "0" with his pinky. BEN Hello, Operator? Ben looks up the street, into the 2nd story window of a modest, working-class home. His eyes go soft when he sees Debbie grab the phone. BEN (CONT'D) Deb... It's me. I need you to step out front. DEBBIE Out front? You home, baby? I got a surprise for you. He blinks hard. Sad, dark. BEN I got a surprise for you too. EXT. BROOKLYN HOUSE - NIGHT Debbie steps out. There is "WELCOME HOME" sign over the door. She looks out. The wind blows softly. Something shifts in the darkness. Debbie pulls her robe tighter. DEBBIE Ben? BEN (O.S.) Don't come any closer for a sec. This is gonna be kind of a shock... You remember when we said "together forever no matter what"? DEBBIE Baby, you're scaring me. A hanging beat. And Ben...steps into the light, where we SEE HIM FOR THE FIRST TIME: he's HUGE, easily twice the size he once was, and AN ORANGY ROCKY SURFACE COVERS HIS ENTIRE BODY. Debbie sees him. Fear washes over her, not sure what to think. He reaches out, a little tentative. She flinches back. DEBBIE Oh my G-g-g. What did you...do to Ben? BEN Deb, it's me. It's still me. He reaches out. She recoils. It's too much for her. Tears swell in her eyes. Covering her mouth, she backs away. He takes a step closer. She backs away faster, tripping over her robe, falling into the street. A car screeches to a halt. Ben instinctively steps out to help, but she scurries back. DEBBIE Don't...don't...DON'T TOUCH ME! Her shout wakes NEIGHBORS. Lights flicker on. Ben knows he has to go. He looks at Debbie, sensing this is the last time he'll see her. She trembles, terrified. His eyes go moist. BEN I love you, Deb. With that, he turns away. The "WELCOME HOME" sign flutters, falls to the ground. A tragic tableau. As more lights go on around him, Ben picks up his pace, speeding into the dawn. INT. VICTOR'S COMPOUND OFFICE - DAY Victor packs a monogrammed Armani briefcase: "VDM" emblazoned on a gold plate. Leonard waits not-so-patiently. VICTOR Make sure you find Ben, bring him back here. And keep it quiet. I don't need this to hit the press. LEONARD Yes sir. You've got the Mayor at eight, then a nine-thirty interview with the Journal -- VICTOR Front page? LEONARD Top left, like you asked. (a smile) Today Wall Street. Tomorrow, who knows...maybe Washington. Victor turns to Leonard, disappointed with him. VICTOR Leonard. Think bigger. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - DAY We swoop toward this epic monument. On a steel girder above the road, we see...a STATUE. BEN. He sits on the edge of the beams, staring down at the river below, brooding, muttering. BEN A few days in space, it'll be great, what's the worst that could happen? A PIGEON flutters past him, and drops a white gooey gift on his shoulder. Ben just glares up at the heavens. BEN (CONT'D) Perfect. Thanks. He hears the sound of someone SOBBING. He turns to see...a distraught BUSINESSMAN with a briefcase. The man drops his case, which PLUMMETS hundreds-of-feet into the RIVER. The Businessman looks out, ready to jump. He doesn't see Ben (or doesn't realize Ben is not a statue). BEN (CONT'D) You think you got trouble? Take a good look, pal, how bad could it be? The Businessman looks at Ben, terrified. Ben steps forward. BEN (CONT'D) Okay, easy there, buddy. Backpedaling, the man SLIPS, FALLING toward the ROADWAY! His arms flail, grabbing a narrow beam -- his fingers hold tight while his legs thrash over speeding traffic. Cars and trucks SKIM right underfoot. Ben shakes his head. BEN (CONT'D) You had to choose my spot, didn't you? Ben steps out to help, but...his WEIGHT BENDS the beam! The Businessman LOSES HIS GRIP! He FALLS TO THE ROAD, landing hard on the highway! A few PEDESTRIANS see Ben. They point. Ben looks up, deer in headlights. He sees a massive TRUCK bearing down on the Businessman. BEN (CONT'D) This is really not my day. Ben DROPS to the street. WHOOMPF! He lands in front of the Businessman, SWEEPS him out of the way with one arm, and turns to the oncoming 18 WHEELER CAB. The DRIVER slams his brakes, eyes wide. The truck SWERVES, but cannot stop! Time slows to syrup, as Ben looks a little scared. He shuts his eyes, and... SHOULDER-BLOCKS the INCOMING TRUCK! A football move. The truck BUCKLES, POPPING a WHEELIE, CRUMPLING all the way to the windshield! It looks like a metal car-compactor. The truck SWERVES hard, its tail SMASHING into steel girders. CARS SCREECH, SWERVE, SLAMMING INTO EACH OTHER, CAUSING A FOUR-LANE TRAFFIC ACCIDENT! Windows shatter, fires flicker. One of the cars in an NYPD CRUISER. COPS clamber out. EXT. CAB ON HIGHWAY - DAY Reed, Johnny, and Sue sit in the back. They see the action on the bridge. Reed and Sue lock eyes, sensing the worst. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - DAY Ben stands in the middle of the chaos, staring at the destruction. He sees the tow-truck DRIVER bleeding, trapped in his cab. Ben moves to this burning hunk of steel. He SWIPES through the shattered window, and PUNCHES the airbag, POPPING it like a kid's balloon. He tries to grab the seat-belt, but his fingers are TOO BIG. He struggles. BEN A little help here?! You wanna hit that button, sir? The driver is too woozy. Ben can't get to the button. Frustrated, he simply TEARS OFF THE DOOR, and RIPS THE DRIVER'S SEAT right out of the cab! COPS round the corner. They see Ben holding onto the Driver. They raise their guns. COP FREEZE! PUT THE MAN AND THE SEAT DOWN! Ben looks at the cops. PEDESTRIANS stare, point. He realizes how this must look -- a monster holding a bloody man in hand. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - APPROACH - DAY At the back of the traffic jam, cars SCREECH to stops. The whole bridge is FULL of bumper-to-bumper traffic. We PUSH TOWARD one car: three doors pop open, and out come... REED, JOHNNY, SUE. They look through smoke and mayhem to see...their first full look at Ben. Reed stands gutpunched. JOHNNY Not even Ben deserves that. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - DAY Ben puts the seat down, with the Driver on it. He lunges behind a truck. The cops try to follow, but FLAMES push them back. Ben lurches away, head down, self-conscious. He tries to hide from ONLOOKERS around him and PEDESTRIANS on walkways overhead. He wants to escape, but hears SCREAMING MOTORISTS. He grits his teeth, and moves to help them. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - GRIDLOCK - DAY Reed, Sue, and Johnny race toward the flames. All other people head in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION. BRIDGE POLICE herd the crowd away from the accident. BRIDGE COP Back! We're evac-ing the bridge. Reed, Sue, and Johnny slow down, swap glances. SUE What now? Reed...? What do we do? MOVE IN ON REED. A first test of leadership. But he is not a leader. Not yet. Sue gets closer to him. SUE (CONT'D) Ben's out there. Let's go get him. BRIDGE COP Maybe you didn't hear me. Those cars are gonna blow sky high, any second. REED Look, we've got a friend out there in trouble. We need to get to him before -- BRIDGE COP #2 Nobody gets past this point. A hard beat. Reed signals Sue with a look, a nod. SUE What? REED (mutters) We need to get past them. He motions to her body. She understands. She concentrates, and starts to turn invisible. BRIDGE COP #1 What the hell is this? A magic show? But her clothes don't go invisible. Beat. Reed mutters: REED Sue. Your clothes. Lose them. SUE What...? (realizes) Oh. She unbuttons her blouse. Not thrilled with the idea. She wriggles out of her pants. Down to her skivvies. She reaches back to undo her bra...momentarily loses concentration and becomes visible. The sight of Sue in her undies grabs the COPS' attention. Everyone watches, stunned. The realization that she's visible hits her like a ton of bricks. Cops are transfixed. So is Reed. JOHNNY This is wrong in so many ways. REED You've been working out. SUE Shut up. Sue takes a deep breath. Closes her eyes. Focuses. Nothing happens. She's embarrassed and furious. SUE (CONT'D) Any more ideas, Reed? Maybe you should strip down next, see how it feels to have fifty people staring -- ...and she DISAPPEARS. Entirely. Undies float. Jaws drop. REED Uh, Sue? She stops ranting. Realizes she's gone invisible. SUE (INVISIBLE) Oh. Well then... The undies drop. The cops stare open-mouthed. They turn to look at Reed, astonished. He sheepishly shrugs his shoulders. JOHNNY I'm gonna need serious therapy. A beat. She walks away. The cops watch her, gaping. By the time they turn back around, Reed and Johnny are gone, disappearing into the clouds of smoke. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - DAY A news CHOPPER flies around the bridge, fighting for the best angle on the action. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - ACCIDENT - DAY Reed races through wreckage. He tries to see over a big TRUCK, and his neck STREEETCHES! He finally sees...BEN. Reed wraps around a car, and...BOO! His face snakes right in front of Ben. Ben jumps. BEN What the --! REED Ben. Are you okay? BEN Am I okay?! You wanna explain that?! He motions to Reed's neck. Then to his own body: BEN (CONT'D) Or this?! What the hell am I? 'Cause I sure ain't Ben anymore. Reed opens his mouth, but he has no answer. Not yet. SUE (O.S.) REED! BEN! LOOK OUT! Ben spins, looking for Sue. He can't see her. But he does see...A CAR INCHES AWAY, WITH GAS TANK FLAMING! BOOOOM! The first car BLOWS! BOOOM!BOOOOM!BOOOOOM! Empty cars BLOW in a chain-reaction. The flames are mushrooming! Reed SWIPES his ARMS OUT, holding people back. His arms FLATTEN to form a barricade -- FACES INDENT his skin. FLAMES lash out. A pack of attractive YOUNG WOMEN scream. Johnny LEAPS toward them. His feet LEAVE THE GROUND, giving him extra lift. He SPINS, lands, and embraces the women, SHIELDING them from flames which burn up his back. He looks the ladies up and down, and gives a cheesy smile. Sue SCREAMS. She puts her hands up (a normal reflex). The air seems to RIPPLE around her hands, like FORCE-FIELDS. She looks at them, surprised, confused. Her invisible fields SPIRAL OUT, partially CONTAINING the blast. But the flames hurtle closer. She fights the pressure. Blood trickles from her nose. Just as the white hot blast is about to hit her... Sue is dressed again. Visible. She SCREAMS, and PUSHES THE FORCE DOWN INTO THE ROAD! She collapses, as the blast deflects off the street and into... An oncoming FIRETRUCK! BOOOOM! The firetruck is KNOCKED OFF THE GROUND, SLEWING SIDEWAYS. Brakes scream. Its tail slashes out, PUNCHING through the guard-rail. THE BACK OF THE TRUCK DANGLES OUT, HUNDREDS OF FEET ABOVE THE WATER! FIREMEN hang off the back and sides. The truck TEETERS, falling! Ben wastes no time. He GRABS onto the front of the truck, just as it goes off the side! He DIGS his heels into the ground, but his feet DRAG across the concrete, digging grooves into the street. ON THE DANGLING FIRETRUCK: FIREMEN climb out, clawing toward the bridge. Their truck SWINGS. Bits and pieces tumble down at them -- a hose, an axe, a helmet. All deadly now. The HANGING LADDER swoops down, with men RIDING ON IT! Ben SCREAMS! STRAINING with all his might. Ben SCREAMS! His muscles ripple, and...he takes his first step...back. Another scream. Another step. Another. Another. Epic, painful. He is pulling the truck back onto the bridge, inch by inch. His footsteps THUD. With monumental effort, he levels the truck. Firemen scurry over hoses and ladders, some climbing over Ben. Reed tends to Sue who has fainted from her effort. Ben steps back from the truck and slumps to the street exhausted. Wary cops close in to cover him with weapons, but... The FIREMEN slowly begin to APPLAUD. The crowd of onlookers joins in as well. Sue, Reed, and Johnny seem surprised, touched by the reaction. But Ben seems uncomfortable. Firemen step forward to offer Reed a couple of their coats; he hands one to Johnny and uses the other to cover Sue. EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - DAY Ben sees a familiar face in the masses: DEBBIE. Ben steps toward her, but she stops him with a look. She places something on the ground and runs off into the crowd. Ben sees something GLISTENING on the ground. He stoops over to pick up...her ENGAGEMENT RING. His big fingers can't grip it. He tries in vain. Hopeless, pathetic. A beat. And... A hand grabs the ring. It's Reed. Quiet, close. REED I swear to you, I will do everything in my power until there is not a breath left in me: you are going to be Ben again. Off the wounded look in Ben's eyes, wanting to believe him... INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - DAY Victor sits with remote in hand, staring at his plasma TV. ON THE TV: he sees a crowd of firemen applauding the new Fantastic Four. For the first time they strike a heroic pose. Leonard enters, with a phone in his hand. LEONARD Uh, sir...Larry King called, to cancel. (seeing the TV, a beat) Apparently, there's a bigger story. Victor sees Reed put his arms around Sue as he covers her with the jacket. And the penny drops: he's FURIOUS. As it hits him, he feels something odd. He looks down at his hand...at glints of gleaming METAL poking through flesh. EXT./INT. EMERGENCY HOLDING AREA - DAY An impromptu command center -- a series of police tents, surrounded by EMERGENCY VEHICLES, NEWS VANS, FIRETRUCKS. INT. EMERGENCY HOLDING AREA - TENT - DAY Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny sit together, getting changed. They get ready to go, but the CHIEF FIREMAN enters, stopping them. CHIEF FIREMAN There's some folks outside, want to talk to you. REED We're not going public with this. We're scientists, not celebrities. CHIEF FIREMAN Too late, son. He turns on a little TV MONITOR in the corner. NEWS FOOTAGE plays on all stations, with the tagline: FANTASTIC FOUR. CHIEF FIREMAN (CONT'D) That's what they're calling you. The Fantastic Four. JOHNNY Nice. Johnny heads for the exit. SUE Johnny, slow down. Let's think this through, a second. Johnny pauses. Rubs his chin once. And... JOHNNY Okay. Done thinking. He runs out. Sue, Ben, and Reed swap glances, knowing Johnny cannot be their spokesman. They take off after him, out to -- EXT. EMERGENCY HOLDING AREA - PRESS FIELD - DAY CLICKCLICKCLICK! Fifty cameras flash. The field is full of press. Our heroes freeze, shocked by the crowd. Johnny eats up the attention. Ben turns, self-conscious. Reed notices. The Chief Fireman turns to them. CHIEF FIREMAN So which one of you's the leader? Johnny does not hesitate. JOHNNY That'd be me. CHIEF FIREMAN No seriously. A beat. Sue and Ben turn to Reed. The Chief hands him a mic. CHIEF FIREMAN (CONT'D) You're on, son. They all want a statement. All eyes go on Reed. He looks out, gulps hard. A long beat. REED Uh, during our recent mission to the Von Doom space station, we were exposed to as yet-unidentified radioactive energy, most likely some kind of nucleotide compoun-- Nobody came for a science class. A crush of questions overwhelms Reed: VARIOUS REPORTERS What happened on the bridge? Does it hurt to stretch? Were you really on fire? Is it true that one of you can fly? JOHNNY Working on it. And it's a lot harder -- SUE We don't know much more than you do, at this point. Which is why we will be going directly to the lab, where we can diagnose our symptoms and -- REPORTER #2 Symptoms? So it's like a disease? Reed looks at Ben's face, feeling the guilt. Ben is lost in thought, looking at Deb's ENGAGEMENT RING. Johnny leaps in. JOHNNY Symptoms? Please. If having powers is a disease, then yeah we got it. And we are gonna blow your minds. There's a new day dawning. The day of the Fantastic Four. REPORTER #3 That thing doesn't look too fantastic. The Reporter nods toward Ben. Ben's fists tighten, the sound of rocks crushing together. Reed feels the pain. REED Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero who's been through a terrible orde-- JOHNNY What he's trying to say is: every team needs a mascot... Reporters laugh. Ben turns his head away. Reed burns. REED Look, we went up to space to find a way to understand DNA, to cure disease, save lives. Well, now it's our DNA, our disease, our lives on the line... (a beat) Thank you. No more questions. Reed, Sue, and Ben get up to go. The press waits a beat, then surges. Ben spins, holding up one finger. A giant. BEN Be nice. The press step back, intimidated. Flashbulbs POP, and Ben's FACE FREEZES. It goes BLACK-AND-WHITE on a NEW YORK POST in -- EXT. BANK - DAY Establishing shot of a historic New York building. INT. BANK - CONFERENCE ROOM - CONTINUOUS BANKERS sit around a table. LAPTOPS hum. The lead banker is power-broker NED CECIL. The men keep their eyes on Victor. NED CECIL Well, Victor, the bank would like to congratulate you. On the fastest freefall since the Depression. We can't even give your stock away. VICTOR Ned, you know I can turn this around. Ned motions to the paper, the picture of BEN. NED CECIL You promised a cure-all, and came back with this. Who the hell's going to invest in a biotech company that turns its workers into circus freaks? Victor's grip tightens around the table, and...the LAPTOPS FLICKER, losing feeds. Victor looks down at his hands -- a private beat (did I do that?) He lets go of the table; screens go back to normal. VICTOR (pointed) I really appreciate all your support. NED CECIL You've got a week, Victor. One week to turn this around. Or we pull out... (a beat) This meeting is over. Victor looks at him, blood boiling, and we CUT HARD TO -- INT. BANK - HALLWAY - DAY Victor and Leonard stride out. Victor is writhing. VICTOR Goddamn book-keeper doesn't know preferred stock from livestock. Leonard is thinking all business. LEONARD Sir. Reed's comments at that press conference killed us. How are we going to turn this around? Victor considers. His mind races, eyes narrow. VICTOR Very simple. I cure them. If I can cure these freaks, then I can cure anyone. What better way to restore my reputation? Leonard nods, impressed. Victor is a man in motion. As they step into sunlight, we cut to...CLICKCLICKCLICK in -- EXT. BAXTER BUILDING - DAY REPORTERS snap pictures. A POLICE CONVOY drives up, stopping in front of a towering HIGH-RISE. Sue, Reed, and Johnny and get out of a police-car. Ben steps out of a BIG PADDY-WAGON, which immediately bounces back up to the normal axle position. COPS hold back the surging press. Ben keeps his head down, self-conscious. He passes Johnny, smiling for the cameras. JOHNNY Smile, Ben. They want to like you. Give 'em your good side. Or your less bad side. Ben turns to a group of LITTLE KIDS. Stiff, tentative: BEN Uh...don't do drugs. The kids FLINCH. Ben trudges on. Johnny smiles bright, doing hand-signs for F4. Sue pulls him toward -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - LOBBY - DAY The Fantastic Four enter. They are greeted by JIMMY O'HOOLIHAN, an old-time doorman with a kind smile. O'HOOLIHAN Welcome back to the Baxter, Dr. Richards. All that for you? He motions to the flashing cameras outside. REED I'm afraid so... He searches for the name. Sue steps up. SUE Jimmy. Good to see you again. He smiles at Sue, then at Reed. O'HOOLIHAN Good to see you too... Don't worry, sir. I know how crowded that head of yours is. REED Any visitors while I was away? O'HOOLIHAN Just the usual. Told 'em you were circling round outer space. He opens a drawer full of LETTERS from the BANK. Reed looks sheepish. He shuts the drawer, looks to Johnny and Sue. REED We had a tough year. BEN Yeah, nine years straight. Reed looks at Ben. Thanks a lot. DING. Elevator doors open. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - ELEVATOR - DAY They enter. Reed hits the top button, for the 20TH FLOOR. JOHNNY Twenty? From outside the place looks a lot taller. REED Oh, it is. The doors close, but...the ELEVATOR does not move. A beat. JOHNNY Either we're moving really fast...or not at all. A digital readout on the panel: EXCEED MAXIMUM WEIGHT. A sign reads: MAXIMUM CAPACITY: 2000 pounds. They turn to Ben. BEN I'll take the stairs. Doors open. He lumbers out. As the doors close behind him, he looks back over his shoulder, locking eyes with Reed. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - ELEVATOR - DAY The elevator rises. Reed roils with guilt. SUE How come Ben can't turn it on and off like us? REED That's what we're here to find out. SUE If it happened to him, then it could... Happen to all of them. Reed nods softly. JOHNNY Wait. You mean there's chance we could be full-on-24-7-fantastic? SUE Grow up, Johnny. You want to run around on fire for the rest of your life? JOHNNY Is that a trick question? C'mon, I can't be the only one who thinks this is cool. Reed considers. But Sue cuts him short with a look. DING! The elevator stops. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - ATRIUM - MOMENTS LATER The elevator opens. They step out. They might be on the 20th floor, but Reed owns the building from here to floor sixty. It's a massive atrium, lit by skylights far above -- Reed leads them into another area filled with separate "apartments" and all the amenities of home. REED We should stay here until we can define the extent of our changes... JOHNNY This place is deluxe. You got cable? REED (hearing Ben's FOOTSTEPS) ...and figure out how to reverse them. Let me show you to your rooms. EXT. BAXTER BUILDING - DAY The press has died down, but there are still plenty of cameras. A MAYBACH SEDAN rolls up. Victor emerges, wearing sunglasses. This time, the press pay no attention to him. No cameras flash. Victor tightens, and enters the building. INT. SUE'S ROOM - DAY Sue walks out of the bathroom in a robe, drying her hair. She notices a familiar book on a shelf: a SCRAPBOOK. She flips through it. It's filled with pictures of Reed and his inventions -- a lot less fancy than Victor's multimedia globe. She stops at a picture of her and Reed in COLLEGE. A noise, and she turns, flinching slightly, surprised to see...VICTOR. He smiles, standing at the door, watching her. VICTOR God, I've been so worried about you. She notices the scar on his head. SUE Victor, your scar -- VICTOR I told you, I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about. SUE I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to -- VICTOR Please, no apologies. I've arranged for your things to be moved to one of my condos. You'll have round-the clock care. He goes for her bag. But she stops him. A half beat. SUE Thank you, that's generous, but I think I should stay here. With my brother. Until we get a handle on this. Victor is not used to being rebuffed. He gives a thin smile. VICTOR Sue. I think you should let my doctors have a look at you. A tense beat. Standoff. Made more tense by -- REED (O.S.) Victor! What are you doing here? They turn to see Reed approaching, with files in hand. VICTOR I'm starting to wonder the same thing... How much do you know about what happened to you? REED Not much. We need to run tests to see the extent of the damage. Victor pauses. He looks at Sue, knowing she's here to stay. VICTOR Well, let me know if there is anything I can do. We're all in this together now. Victor shakes Reed's hand. His GRIP is so tight that Reed's fingers STRETCH. Victor lets go, and turns to Sue, who puts her hand out. He smiles, and shakes. He heads off. Reed looks at his hand. Shakes his wrist. He looks at Victor. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - HALL - DAY Victor moves fast, holds tight to his anger. Reed catches up. REED Victor wait... I just wanted to say, I'm sorry the mission didn't go as planned -- Victor suddenly WHEELS on Reed. Lights flicker. VICTOR Didn't go as planned? It was a catastrophe. You ruined the lives of four people -- REED I ruined? With all due respect, I told you to abort -- VICTOR Abort? Reed, I put my company, my name, billions of dollars on the line, and I will not let you make me look like a fool -- REED Victor, if we could understand what happened to us -- VICTOR I don't want to understand it. This isn't one of your science projects. I just want to fix it. Fast! Reed sees Victor's SCAR maybe growing. Lights dim. VOICE (O.S.) There a problem, Vic? They turn to see...BEN down the hall, leaning in a doorway. Victor tightens, looking at Ben's massive rock-hewn body. VICTOR No problem, Ben. He turns back to Reed. Close, quiet. Lights flicker. VICTOR (CONT'D) Just pay your goddamn electric bill, and get to work on a cure. Victor steps away, toward the elevator. He passes Ben, who just smiles and waves "goodbye." Before Victor's finger taps the down-button, the button lights up (as if the circuit responded to him). Reed exhales, shaken. Victor steps into -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - ELEVATOR - DAY The doors close, and Victor really LETS LOOSE. He SLAMS his fist into a STEEL WALL. The wall BUCKLES, steel DENTING. Victor shakes out his hand, and sees...a rippling METALLIC SHELL under the skin. He stares at it in horror. The dark surface pulsates with electric energy. What is he becoming...? INT. BAXTER BUILDING LABS - DAY Sue works the controls. Reed approaches Ben with an ELECTRODE NEEDLE. He tries to stick the needle into Ben, but it SNAPS. BEN You got a chisel round here? REED If we're going to identify the source of the mutation, we need to isolate your recombinant DNA so we can activate positional genomes. Ben looks to Sue for translation. SUE We need to give you a physical, so we know what got zapped. BEN Well why didn't you say so? You want me to lift some weights or something? Reed shakes his head. He approaches with an X-RAY MACHINE. REED No, just sit back. We have a good sense of your strength from the firetruck. We need to find the source of your strength. He turns on the X-ray machine. The graph shows SOLID ROCK. The rays don't penetrate. Sue and Reed look confused. BEN How bad is it? You know I used to smoke. Reed grabs a BLOOD PRESSURE MACHINE, but the strap is way too short to wrap around Ben's arm. Reed stands stumped. He looks at his tray full of instruments. He picks up the little rubber REFLEX-HAMMER. But it looks miniscule compared to Ben. Reed has an idea. He opens a drawer full of HARDWARE TOOLS. He pulls of a real HAMMER. He approaches Ben. REED Okay, this might smart a little. He taps Ben's knee lightly, and BEN'S LEG KICKS! SLAMMING UP! RIGHT BETWEEN REED'S LEGS! The ultimate kick in the crotch. Reed STRETCHES UP a few feet, then SNAPS BACK, wincing. REED (CONT'D) (high-pitched voice) We'll...continue this later. INT. BAXTER BUILDING LABS - DAY From their second level control room, Reed and Sue observe Johnny in an enclosed fire-proof chamber. Flames escape through the vents of the chamber...he's fully torched! Reed watches the read-out: it climbs from 2000 to 4000 degrees Kelvin. They are essentially taking his temperature. INSIDE THE CHAMBER: Johnny turns white hot, blinding to look at: the chamber walls begin to glow red. Machines go haywire. His feet even start to LIFT OFF THE GROUND, LEVITATING a foot or two. He looks down, excited, burning hotter and hotter. REED Back it down, Johnny! JOHNNY I can go hotter! He won't stop. Reed pulls a switch on the wall. FOAM sprays out of nozzles, dousing Johnny's flames. He stands there, covered in thick FOAM. His body steams. So does his temper. JOHNNY (CONT'D) You're really cramping my style here. SUE You were at 4000 Kelvin. Any hotter, you're approaching supernova -- JOHNNY Sweet. SUE That's the temperature of the sun. REED Not only could you kill yourself, but you could set fire to Earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it. JOHNNY Gotcha. Okay. Supernova bad. Reed looks at the control panels. SUE He cooked the equipment. Frustrated, Reed looks at the smoking system. And we CUT TO -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - LAB - DAY Reed and Ben sit in chairs, facing each other. A beat passes. Ben taps his fingers on the chair, making small DENTS. Reed looks down at his clipboard. A little awkward. REED Okay. I've uh, got some questions, from Sue. That she thought might be better coming from me... Can you, you know, go to the bathroom...like normal... BEN Yeah. (a beat) You don't wanna know the details. REED Ben, I'm afraid I've got to ask -- BEN Not unless you want that clipboard stretched up your -- REED O-kay. We'll skip that question. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - LAB - DAY Reed and Johnny now. Johnny exercises. Reed stands nearby. Clipboard in hand. REED Is there something about flames? About flaming, that you -- JOHNNY What are you trying to say? Just because I dress well and like to dance -- REED (confused) What? No. I'm trying to figure out why we each ended up with different symptoms. JOHNNY Oh, well that's easy: I'm hot. You're...well, you're a little limp. Sue's easy to see through. And Ben's always been a hardass. (a beat) Why aren't you writing this down? Reed sighs. It's going to be a long process. INT. BAXTER BUILDING LAB - DAY Reed and Sue, tables turned: Reed observes her through a prismatic device measuring light refraction. He "sees" her through the device: lit up like some heavenly creature. He's having a hard time concentrating. He focuses on his work. REED It's not "invisibility" per se. You're bending the light around you with some kind of malleable force field. That's what you projected on the Bridge. SUE What about you? You haven't eaten in days. How come you're never on this side of the microscope? He tightens, uncomfortable with being center of attention. She reaches for his arm, like a specimen. He pulls away, but she sees a glimpse of BRUISES on his ARMS. She slows down. SUE (CONT'D) Bruises...from the bridge? He nods, rolls down his sleeves. REED Have you had any side-effects, from your powers? She considers. A little vulnerable. SUE I've had some headaches. Migraines. A beat. Reed drops his eyes, makes a note, back to work. REED You should be able to bend light around other objects, even people, if you could control your emotional state better -- SUE Excuse me? She is annoyed. Reed is oblivious. REED I'm saying, if you had a little more self control, you could locate the trigger. Can you remember the exact emotions when -- SUE Anger. Rage. Frustration. REED Okay. Is there any way to duplicate that feeling? Some memory or... SUE (staring right at him) I'm sure I can come up with something. She looks at Reed, eyes narrow. She becomes invisible. As she focuses on Reed -- and gets angry -- a small, clear FORCE FIELD forms around her body. The force-field BENDS LIGHT around a MICROSCOPE, which goes INVISIBLE. Reed steps out to ask... REED How's that coming -- whoa -- The FORCE-FIELD shoots in all directions, knocking everything over in a fifteen foot radius. Reed is thrown from his chair. SUE I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that... You must think that was some kind of latent hostility or -- REED What in the world would give me that idea? An awkward beat. REED (CONT'D) I mean, you broke up with me, right? SUE Are you kidding? REED No, I distinctly remember: you walked out my door. Ergo... She didn't want to get into this. She looks down, vulnerable. SUE Reed. I was ready for the next step, you weren't, ergo, I walked. REED I think it was a little more complicated than -- SUE I just wanted to share an apartment. What was so complicated about that? The question stumps him. A beat. He struggles. REED There were a lot of variables to consider -- SUE No. There weren't. There was you. And me. No variables, no math. It was actually the simplest thing in the world. But your head got in the way... like it always does. Her words penetrate. He knows she's right. He looks away. REED Sue...I just...I thought... He struggles for the words. SUE Same old Reed. Too much thinking... He opens his mouth, but...WHAM! Doors open. Johnny enters, wearing a CHARRED SHIRT. He points to the burned scraps of his shirt. JOHNNY Okay guys, we have a serious problem. INT. BAXTER BUILDING LABS - DAY ANGLES of Reed in the lab, grabbing their space uniforms from various closets/containers: REED (V.O.) Our uniforms were exposed to the storm like us. So they can transform like us, becoming invisible, changing size on demand or remaining impervious to flame. REVEAL: Reed, Sue, and Johnny step out to look at themselves in a mirror wearing the uniforms. No boots, no gloves. Not yet. (The uniforms will develop, like our heroes). BEN You look like an eighties rock band. SUE (to Ben) The suit will stretch. You should try it -- BEN I wouldn't be caught dead in that. JOHNNY He's right. These costumes are... missing something. I can't put my finger on it -- REED They're not costumes. SUE We're not taking them out. Johnny, we need to stay here till we've stabilized. Johnny shakes his head, frustrated. JOHNNY I'm getting sick of being trapped here. NASA wasn't even this strict! He marches out. Sue turns to Reed, who says nothing. Sue heads out, leaving Ben and Reed. A beat. Ben looks at Reed. BEN (looking at uniform) Maybe it's missing a utility belt. Off Reed's dark look, we hear: VICTOR (V.O.) So what's the prognosis? INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES - VICTOR'S OFFICE - DAY CLOSE ON: an X-RAY. Victor's ARM. The metallic transformation is higher now. PULL BACK TO REVEAL: Victor and his DOCTOR. In the wall behind them: ancient armor (maybe we noticed it before, maybe not). It adds a little menace to the room. DOCTOR Your tissue, your organs, your entire biophysical structure is changing. Every system is still functioning, somehow -- VICTOR And they're changing into... DOCTOR I don't really know. A compound organic-metallic alloy. Stronger than titanium or carbon steel. Harder than diamonds -- VICTOR Like the shields Reed said would protect us. (cold fury, deadly focus) How long? DOCTOR At this rate, the infection should be complete in two, maybe three weeks -- VICTOR What do you mean "complete"? DOCTOR I wish I could tell you. I can't pretend to know what we're dealing with here. I'll notify the CDC and -- Victor hardens, razor sharp. VICTOR What? DOCTOR The Center for Disease Control. If this thing is contagious -- WHHM! Victor GRABS the Doctor by the throat. VICTOR Look at me. I have a life. I'm the face of a billion-dollar-company... We need to keep this confidential, understand? Victor's grip TIGHTENS around the man's throat. DOCTOR But...this disease...is progressive... degenerative... VICTOR That's terrible news... With one cobra-swift move, Victor thrusts his metallic arm into the doctor, killing him instantly. Victor retracts his arm, and looks at it, shocked by his own strength. VICTOR (CONT'D) ...but I think I'll get a second opinion. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - REED'S OFFICE - NIGHT A SERIES OF TIME-LAPSE SHOTS: REED works around the Baxter Building, spending hours searching for the cure. He checks charts, writes equations, paces, frustrated. Finally, he sits at his long desk, looking at a wall where Ben's CHARTS are projected (both Ben and Thing's anatomies). Reed wears the uniform under his labcoat. He checks his equations over and over, making notes upon notes. REED Nothing...nothing...nothing... He hits the end of the slides. The wall fills with white light. Frustrated, Reed SLAMS his head into his desk, CRASH! Something FALLS off the end of the desk. Reed raises his head, revealing his flattened face. He steps over to see...a PLANT SAMPLE from space, glass box shattered. Red sparks swirl around the plant, like the cosmic storm -- REED (CONT'D) Of course...of course...the cloud... THE COSMIC STORM swirls, terrifying. We slowly PULL BACK TO -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - MAIN LAB - NIGHT The STORM is a computer-image on screen now. Behind the screen are six chalkboards full of Reed's calculations and the scribbled beginnings of a MACHINE. We PULL BACK to see his arm stretched across the room writing on the end of another chalkboard. He's moving fast, excited, almost a little manic. He hears...a CREAK. He slows down, but doesn't look up to see SUE enter. SUE What are you doing? REED (fast, charged) The plants, from space. Their particles are still charged. With the right amount of energy, those ions could create the elemental profile of the cosmic storm. He rifles through a desk drawer, then heads out. Sue stands there, looking at the storm. Concerned. Then we CUT TO -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - HALLWAY - NIGHT Sue follows Reed. He flips through a file, excited. REED If we can build a machine to re-create the storm, we can reverse the polarity -- SUE (realizing) And reverse the mutations -- REED (talking more to himself) Curing countless diseases, not just ours. She looks at him. SUE But we're the focus, right Reed? Reed...? REED Of course. Of course. SUE And you sure you can control this thing? Last time didn't work out so well. REED (preoccupied, mind spinning) With the right energy, we can stabilize the storm. Maybe tie into the city grid... He keeps his head down, making notes, entering -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - STOREROOM - NIGHT Reed and Sue enter. Reed is looking for something. Sue slows down, staring at this sprawling space, jam-packed with GEAR, GADGETS, BLUEPRINTS, INVENTIONS. Awe-inspiring, overflowing. SUE You really need to get a janitor. She stares at shelves upon shelves of overcrowded clutter. SUE (CONT'D) This must be what it looks like inside your head. Reed finds his electron microscope. He turns to Sue, defensive: REED There's a system to it. She starts to pull out a MODEL of the FANTASTICAR. REED (CONT'D) Wait! Sue, don't touch tha-- The little car sets the whole shelf off balance. A WAVE OF INVENTIONS COME CLATTERING DOWN! Reed moves fast: He LUNGES toward Sue, STREETCHING his ARMS AROUND the SHELF, pushing Sue away, just as the INVENTIONS SMASH TO THE GROUND! Reed and Sue hit the floor. A close call. Now more closeness: Sue and Reed lay face-to-face, with Reed's wrapped around her. A heated beat. Their first real intimate moment. SUE Sorry. My fault. I won't...touch anything. As if suddenly made aware of their vulnerability, Sue and Reed stand, backing off. As they part, we see: BEN watching from the doorway. Melancholy. He disappears. We slowly MOVE TO...A SURVEILLANCE CAMERA in a VENT GRATE. INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT Victor watches a bank of videoscreens. He has the Baxter Building under surveillance. He sees Reed and Sue on monitors. He toys with Sue's diamond ring in his gloved hand. A door opens. Leonard enters. He sees the screens. LEONARD Is Reed any closer to a cure? Victor looks at that image of Reed and Sue on the screen. VICTOR The only thing he's closer to is Sue... But Victor sees something between Reed and Sue on the wall. He leans closer, and the camera ZOOMS IN, as if responding to his will. He ZOOMS all the way to a CLOSE UP of: REED'S BLUEPRINTS FOR THE TRANSFORMATION CHAMBER. Victor's eyes narrow, mind ticking, a plan forming. VICTOR (CONT'D) Make me a reservation for two at Cipriani tonight. Victor opens a drawer, pulls out an old VIDEOTAPE. VICTOR (CONT'D) And get this over to Ben Grimm. Victor leans forward, fixated on that machine. As he gets closer, his screens go STATICKY. He absentmindedly picks at his SCAR. In shadows, we see skin peeling off. WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) Close your eyes, baby. Keep 'em closed. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - MEDIA ROOM - NIGHT BEN GRIMM stands front and center. Not the Thing. But BEN GRIMM. A normal man. He smiles wide, shaking his head. WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.) You surprised? Now we PULL BACK to reveal DEBBIE and BEN on a SCREEN. The Thing watches the old videotape. He smiles sadly at his old life. He mouths the words -- he knows this tape by heart. BEN (ON SCREEN) Yeah I'm surprised. Surprised the fire department didn't shut this down. ON SCREEN: the handheld camera whips around, revealing...a SURPRISE PARTY. Full of people. Ben Grimm is a popular guy. On screen: Reed hugs Ben. They pose for pictures together. THE THING God. I was good looking. We hear the party sing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY." Debbie kisses Ben. Thing's eyes start to mist. On screen: Ben blows out candles. DEBBIE (ON SCREEN) What did you wish for, honey? BEN (ON SCREEN) I already got it. Everything I want. As they kiss, a tear runs down Thing's cheek. The tape ends, and he sits in darkness for a beat. A long, lonely beat. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - HALLS - NIGHT Ben stalks the halls, slipping into his ragged trenchcoat. As he passes a crossroads, he sees a strange sight: REED'S HAND is TIED to a latch in the wall. His ARM is STREEETCHED THIN, spanning around the corner. Ben just shakes his head, keeps moving. And we FOLLOW REED'S ARM... UP THE HALL...ROUND A CORNER...DOWN ANOTHER HALL. The muscles and tissue STRETCH, going taut. Finally, we reach... REED. He steps slowly. He holds a digital TAPE-MEASURE in his other hand, measuring distance. His skin STREEETCHES. His face tightens, pained. We hear the faint SQUEAK of his skin. VOICE (O.S.) Damn, Stretch! Reed turns his head around, seeing JOHNNY come down the hall. JOHNNY How far's that rubber bend? Reed keeps moving, slowly. His muscles and tendons laboring. REED That's what I'm trying to calculate. And it's not rubber. It's muscle, tendon. I seem to have the ability to manipulate the malleability of my molecular structure and redistribute my density to -- JOHNNY Right, whatever, have fun. And Johnny is GONE, ducking under Reed's arm into -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - KITCHEN - NIGHT Johnny opens a cupboard, pulls out some JIFFY POP. It starts to POP in his hand, the bag swelling. He casually turns on a TV, flipping to...the X- GAMES. The Jiffy Pop swells, ready to blow. He rips it open, eats popcorn, and watches the games: Cool stunts, hot girls. Johnny's brow furrows, a thought forming, a mischievous smile on his lips. EXT. BAXTER BUILDING - SIDE EXIT - NIGHT A FIGURE exits, wearing that ragged trenchcoat and fedora. Ben disappears into the dark night, and we CUT TO -- EXT. BROOKLYN STREET - NIGHT Dark. Lights flicker. Steam rises through the grates. A shadow emerges. Ben. He heads toward O'DONNEL'S PUB, a classic Brooklyn tavern. Neon sign. Music, life inside. Ben pulls his hat low, turns up his collar, and squeezes through the door into -- INT. O'DONNEL'S PUB - NIGHT A big photo of Ben Grimm in his astronaut heyday occupies a place over the bar. Ben enters, and the bar goes SILENT. He moves through the crowd. People clear out of the way. Ben reaches the bar. He sits on a stool, and CRUNCH! SMASH! The stool SNAPS like a toothpick. He hits the ground hard. Glasses shake. A few PATRONS smile, laugh softly. BEN That's not funny! They go silent. They drop bills onto tables, filing out, scared of this monster. ERNIE works the bar. ERNIE Hey, that's Ben Grimm there, the first mook from Brooklyn to go to outer space, so pay him some respect! But the patrons keep filing out. Ben looks down, weary. BEN Ernie. Sorry for killing your business. I'll take the usual, then I'm out... Better make it a double. Ernie heads for the booze. Ben gives a sad shake of his head. Then he notices...one lone patron at the end of the bar. A beautiful young woman nursing a drink. Meet ALICIA MASTERS. ALICIA Who killed the party? She turns to him, unafraid. He notices her blank stare, lack of focus, and white cane. Alicia is blind. ERNIE (O.S.) Make it a triple. On the house, Benny. Ben takes his drink, but SMASH! His grip shatters the glass, spilling all over himself. He smiles ruefully. BEN If there's a God, she hates me. He grabs a bar-rag to dry off. ALICIA I don't think She's real big on hate. BEN You wouldn't say that, if you could see me. She knocks back her drink, grabs her cane, steps toward Ben. ALICIA Can I...? See you...? Ben doesn't say anything. A little unnerved by this woman. ALICIA (CONT'D) It's okay, I won't bite... (feeling his arm) ...not that I could. She puts a hand on his face -- something in her tone and gentle touch allows Ben to let her. She smiles softly. ALICIA (CONT'D) Such a sad face... You know, sometimes being different isn't a bad thing. BEN Trust me, this ain't one of those times. She smiles softly, takes her cane, and starts to head out. ALICIA See you round, Benny... Right as she hits the door, over her shoulder -- ALICIA (CONT'D) I'm Alicia, by the way. Ben watches her disappear. He sees a few people staring. He lowers his head, turns back to the bar, and finds a new drink, in a steel MARTINI SHAKER. He knocks it back. EXT./INT. UPSCALE RESTAURANT - NIGHT Lights twinkle. A MAITRE D' leads us through fancy digs. Heads turn, whispers flutter. SUE steps out, joining... Victor at a prime table. He pulls out her chair, wearing gloves. VICTOR Thank you for coming out to see me. She nods, a little self-conscious. SUE You said it was urgent. VICTOR It is. There's something we need to talk about. Something I need to ask you... Sue senses where this is going, and she cuts it short. SUE (slow, careful) Victor, wait, slow down a second. I want you to know I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I just don't -- VICTOR Susan. What are you doing? He is cold as ice. If he's hurt, he'll never show it. VICTOR (CONT'D) You think I brought you here to talk about us? Please. This is business. (leaning forward, intense) I need to know: how close is Reed to finding to a cure? She pauses. Then: SUE He's working round the clock. But the data needs to be tested, analyzed before -- VICTOR Same old Reed. All analysis, no action. Wasn't that the problem with you two? She holds tight, keeping cool. SUE If these molecules aren't stable, they could make us worse, maybe even kill us. VICTOR Then why is Reed dragging his feet? Maybe he likes having his prize specimen under glass... (closer, cruel) It's ironic, isn't it? You're finally the perfect woman for him...because you're his science project. The words sting. She can't help but hear some truth in them. SUE Please don't make this personal -- VICTOR Oh, I think you already have. SUE Victor, we can't do anything until the research is ready. Victor's fist CLENCHES -- metal SFX. VICTOR "We," huh? Victor SCREECHES his chair back, PUSHING the table so hard that he SPILLS water. Heads turn, all eyes on Sue. Victor gets close to her, too close, a hand on her shoulder. VICTOR (CONT'D) Don't forget who you work for, Susan. So get to work. And do your job. He walks out. As he goes, he slips the engagement ring out of his pocket. He crushes the diamond to dust, leaves the dust in an ashtray, and disappears into the night. Sue sits embarrassed. She slowly...disappears. People gasp. She walks out, invisible, save for her clothes, which DRIFT through the air. At a TABLE FULL OF BUSINESSMEN -- BUSINESSMAN I wish my wife would disappear. The other men laugh, but WHHM! The man's wine SPILLS into his LAP! Sue walks out. The restaurant is left buzzing. Lights twinkle. And we FADE OUT. A beat. Then we CRASH INTO -- EXT. NYC ARENA - ESPN MOTO X GAMES - DAY The X games in full effect: A maze of mountainous dirt hills and ramps...where MOTO-BIKES launch into the air to the delight of 20,000 fans. The Riders spin and flip, performing aerial acrobatics on their 250CC motor bikes. X GAMES ANNOUNCER (V.O.) And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest for you... Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four! JOHNNY emerges, wearing his blue uniform, waving to the crowd. He steps up to the pit where RIDERS prep. He beelines to RONNIE RENNER. JOHNNY Hey, Ronnie Renner! I'm a big fan. Ronnie gives a tight nod. He doesn't like being upstaged by this circus freak. The other bikers approach. KENNY BARTRAM Heard you like to ride. Wanna take her for a spin? He motions to his BIKE. Johnny eyes this mean machine. RONNIE RENNER Come on, bro. I'll teach you some tricks...if you can keep up. We PUSH IN on Johnny, his ego getting stoked, as we CUT TO -- INT. NYC ARENA - TRACK - DAY Ronnie jams down the track, kicking dirt back at Johnny. Johnny now wears a MOTOCROSS OUTFIT over his uniform, with the number "004" on the back and a small 4 over his heart. Ronnie hits the first hill, and CATCHES AIR, FLIPPING HIGH! X GAMES ANNOUNCER A rock-solid double-flip! The CROWD goes wild. Now it's Johnny's turn. He hits the hill and pulls the exact same move. With even more height! X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) Look at that lift, ladies and gentlemen! Johnny sticks the landing. The crowd swells. Ronnie tightens, pulls his throttle harder, taking the next jump, and...MAKING AN INSANE MOVE, CORKSCREWING IN THE AIR! X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) Frontside 360! He's totally flat and whipped! He lands clean. The crowd is ready to explode. Johnny REVS his engine, his body starting to STEAM, adrenaline burning. He hits the hill, and pulls an even gnarlier SPIN! X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) Whoa! That's a...what is that? A 720? Johnny lands. The crowd roars. Ronnie bears down on the last hill. He leans over his handlebars. X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) He's going for a Kiss of Death! Ronnie hits the hill, pulls this JAW-DROPPING DEATH-DEFYING STUNT! The crowd is deafening! Ronnie smiles. And... JOHNNY SPEEDS FASTER, FASTER. Trails of FLAME start to streak off his back! He RACES LIKE A ROCKET UP THE HILL! LAUNCHING TO IMPOSSIBLE HEIGHTS! SPINNING LIKE A TOP! A FLAMING BLUR! And now for the really impressive part: Johnny's bike starts to drop, but JOHNNY KEEPS RISING! He FLAMES ON, spiraling upward! For a few seconds, he's actually...almost...flying. X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) (hand over mic) Is he......flying? A beat. Time suspended. And...WHHM! He PLUMMETS back down! LANDS on his bike in mid-air! And sticks a perfect landing, maybe even kicking a little dirt up at Ronnie. Johnny swerves to a stop, with a "holy shit" look on his face. What the hell just happened?? X GAMES ANNOUNCER (CONT'D) Unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen! You've just seen the first...the first...TORCHFLIGHT! The McTORCH! A new name is born. The crowd goes berserk. Standing ovation. Riders rush up to Johnny. Kenny sees his bike: THE SEAT MELTED, WHEELS BURNED OFF. Johnny smiles. JOHNNY My bad. Sorry about that. (a glance to Ronnie) Thanks for the lesson, bro. HOT GIRLS swarm. As Johnny gets swallowed by fans, we see a scary thing flicker in his eyes: the birth of a star. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - KITCHEN - MORNING Sue stands alone, sifting through piles of mail. She focuses on one piece of mail that she's holding. Her hand begins to disappear and then the envelope slowly begins to disappear as well. Sue smiles at the success. Intrigued. Quiet: SUE That's new... Reed enters -- overworked, unshaved. He keeps his head down, preoccupied. Sue shifts focus. SUE (CONT'D) Have you read these...? From all over. People want us to fight crimes... save their kids...solve their problems... (no response from Reed) ...when we can't even solve our own. She puts the letters down, steps closer to Reed. SUE (CONT'D) Reed. How close are we to a cure? REED No way to know. Without more tests, experiments. She considers. Victor's words echo in her head. SUE We're not specimens, we're patients. This isn't just another science project to you, is it...? Reed looks up, a little surprised. He opens his mouth, but -- BEN (O.S.) NO...NO...NO FREAKIN' WAY!! INT. BAXTER BUILDING - MEDIA ROOM - DAY CRASH! BANG! Ben stalks around the room, furious. Reed and Sue rush in. REED BEN! What? What's going on!? Ben points to the wall-sized TV: the ESPN MOTO X GAMES. X GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) So what can you tell us about the outfit? REVEAL: JOHNNY standing next to an X GAMES REPORTER. He is peeling off the burned remains of his motocross outfit, revealing his FF UNIFORM, with a "4" STITCHED ONTO THE CHEST. Behind them, STEP UP RIDERS launch their MOTO-BIKES off huge 18' high mountains of dirt, thirty feet in the air. JOHNNY (ON TV) Not too much, but I will say that it's all weather and no leather. Kind of Armani meets Astronaut. Ben, Sue, and Reed stare at the wall-sized TV. Mouths agape. SUE He didn't. BEN Oh, he did. SUE What did he do to the uniform?! She turns to Reed, who gives a sheepish shrug, and peels back his labcoat revealing a "4" stitched onto his chest too. REED He talked me into it. X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) So what are your superhero names? JOHNNY (ON TV) I go by the Human Torch. The ladies call me Torch. X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) What about the rest of the team? Johnny hadn't really thought about them. He spitballs: JOHNNY (ON TV) Uh, we call my sister the invisible girl...the Invisible Girl. SUE Girl...?! X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) That's easy to remember. And Reed Richards? He's the leader. So what's he? Mr. Fantastic? JOHNNY Well, I wouldn't say he's the leader. Reed shrugs. He doesn't hate the name. BEN Could be worse. Case in point: a photo of Ben fills the TV. X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) What about this one? What do you call this Thing? Johnny smiles, looking right into camera. JOHNNY That's it. Just The Thing. We would have gone with The Rock, but it was taken. And "Thing" pretty much sums it up. A LAUGH from the studio audience. BEN (matter-of-fact) Okay. I'm gonna go kill him now. He turns to go. Reed wraps an arm around Ben. REED Ben! Slow down a second and -- He sees a photo of himself on screen. X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) Is it true what they say? That he can expand any part of his anatomy? JOHNNY (ON TV) Actually, between us, I think he's got some problems staying rigid. REED (finishing his thought to Ben) ...wait for me... X-GAMES REPORTER (ON TV) Which may explain why this woman's not smiling. They put up a shot of Susan. SUE I'm driving. JOHNNY (ON TV) Dude. That's my sister. EXT. NYC ARENA - DAY The Thing rounds the corner. Sees a crowd of girls lined up near a red PORSCHE parked out front...with "TORCHED" on the plates. Ben slows down, smiles. EXT. NYC ARENA - A LITTLE LATER Johnny and the Hot Babe exit, signing autographs for girls in the line. Sue and Reed approach, glare like angry parents. Johnny finds the Valet, who looks ill...his car is gone. JOHNNY (looking around) Where's my ride? The Valet blows his whistle...and a 4 X 4 solid cube of RED JUNK METAL slides down the street and stops at the curb in front of Johnny. The Valet timidly holds out the keys... JOHNNY (CONT'D) What the?! Is that my -- Before he can finish, Johnny gets PELTED IN THE HEAD with the license plate. It rattles to the ground, face up. Johnny rubs the sting out of his head. Looks up and sees Ben in the distance, dusting off his hands. JOHNNY (CONT'D) (shouting: to Ben) You're gonna pay for that, Pebbles. (seeing Sue) What?! SUE You gave us names? What are you, the "face" of the Fantastic Four now? Ben marches up. Hands balled into fists. BEN It's about to be a broken face. REED This isn't permanent, Johnny. We need to be careful until we're normal again. JOHNNY What if some of us don't want to be "normal" again? We didn't all turn into monsters like -- Ben reels back a FIST the size of an anvil. Stops himself. Instead of attacking, he starts to walk off. Johnny hurls a FIREBALL that SMACKS Ben in the back of the head. Ben stops. Turns around more shocked than hurt. BEN Did you just -- Ben gets hit with ANOTHER FIREBALL. This time in the face. BEN (CONT'D) Okay, that's it, tinkerbell! You want to fly? Fly. Ben charges like a bull, fist cocked back, and...Reed steps in the way! Too late! WHAMM! Ben's fist PUNCHES INTO REED'S CHEST, which INDENTS. Reed's BACK EXPANDS with Ben's fist, PUNCHING into Johnny, launching Johnny off his feet. BAM! Johnny SLAMS into a moving ADVERTISING TRUCK, with a BURGER KING flame-broiled WHOPPER on the side. WHOOSH! He leaves a flaming imprint on the all-beef patty. The crowd stands stunned. So do Reed and Sue. Cameras pop. Johnny slowly pulls himself up. The paint on the truck begins to bubble around his hand. Beaten, bruised, he stands. Heating up. Both his hands are now flaming fists of fury. JOHNNY Let's see if we can get blood from a stone. He and Ben lock eyes, with a block of sidewalk between them. High Noon. They start to RUN toward each other... When they are almost within range, Sue STEPS BETWEEN THEM, stops them both in their tracks with just a look. Like a mom: SUE You two need a time-out. JOHNNY Blockhead started it! Ben just stalks off. The crowd clears, scared. A PAPARAZZI snaps a picture. Ben GRABS his camera, and flicks the lens. EXT. STREETS - DAY Sue looks at Johnny, more disappointed than angry. SUE Damn it, Johnny. She goes after Ben, leaving Reed and Johnny on the sidewalk. REED You need to control yourself and think before you -- JOHNNY Act. Here we go again. Reed, what if we got these gifts for a reason? What if we have some, you know...like, calling? REED A higher calling like getting girls and making money? Johnny nods, totally missing the sarcasm. JOHNNY Is there any higher? Reed looks at him, disgusted. Johnny waves to the crowd, hand flaming. People SHRIEK, snap pictures. Johnny smiles at Reed. JOHNNY (CONT'D) This is who we are Reed. Accept it. Or better yet: enjoy it. Johnny steps into the sea of fans. Reed stands alone. EXT. STREET/ALLEY - DAY Sue wades through the throng of New Yorkers. Tries to catch up with Ben...whose presence parts the crowd like Moses. SUE Ben! Slow down... Ben glances sideways at her, doesn't stop. She catches up. SUE (CONT'D) He didn't mean it. You know Johnny. He's always been a hothead -- BEN It's not him. It's them. (pointing to crowd) I can't live like this. SUE Just give Reed a little more time. You know how he works -- analyzing every little step before he takes one -- BEN It's easy for you to be patient. SUE No, it's not. I thought I was done waiting for Reed... We're all in this together now, Ben. He slows down, gets closer, intense. BEN Together? Look at me, Susie. You got no idea what I'd give...to be invisible. Your nightmare...is my dream. She opens her mouth, but has no response. She doesn't know his depth of pain. As he disappears into the alley, we CUT TO -- INT. INVESTMENT BANK - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY The news plays on the TV. Head Banker Ned Cecil freezes the screen on an image of...THE THING. He turns to Victor, who sits with the rest of the bankers. Cold, sterile environment. NED CECIL This is how you "turn things around"? These freaks are on the front page and your company's in the obituaries. Victor has a larger bandage on his face now. VICTOR I have a plan to use their publicity for -- NED CECIL Victor, stop. The bank's lost enough already. This isn't a negotiation. It's a notification. We're pulling out. A cold, silent beat. Victor leans forward. VICTOR You need to look long-term here. Without risk, there's no -- NED CECIL Reward. We all know the sales pitch, Vic. And frankly, we're done buying... Gentlemen. He motions to his men. They all stand. Victor is the lone man sitting. PUSH IN on Victor's face, his inner rage palpable. A few quick surges of electricity emanate from his body. This man is getting stronger, more electric. INT. BANK - UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE - DAY After hours. The floor is slick with water -- puddles in every direction. Ned Cecil comes out of the elevator, heading for his car. As he goes, the structure lights start to flicker. Ned looks up, watches the lights go out one by one, furthest to closest. He looks around. Unnerved by the darkness. NED CECIL Hello...? A hanging beat. Victor steps out from shadows. NED CECIL (CONT'D) (relieved, almost) Von Doom? Gave me a little shock. No hard feelings, right? Nothing personal. Victor says nothing. Ned keeps going. NED CECIL (CONT'D) You know, you could always move back to Latvura, start fresh. He mispronounces Latveria, dripping condescension. NED CECIL (CONT'D) Maybe that's where you belong, back in the "old country." That does it. A surge of electricity courses through Victor. His eyes narrow, and the electricity crackles down his leg to THE GROUND. The electric spark hits the water and... ELECTRIC CURRENTS RACE ACROSS THE GROUND, SLITHERING LIGHTNING-FAST ACROSS THE WATER (like deadly electric snakes), heading straight for Ned. His eyes go wide. And... NED IS ELECTROCUTED! His body spasms. THUD! He slumps, dead. Smoke rises from his body. Victor stands, power swelling. For the first time, his SCAR SPLITS OPEN, revealing a METAL GLOW beneath the skin. He remains scary calm. VICTOR It's pronounced Latveria. (looking down at the dead body) This meeting's over, Ned. Victor walks away, the final lights going to DARKNESS. INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - DAY Victor enters, still adrenalized. He turns to the light switch, and the lights come on. He approaches his screens, and the monitors flicker to life. His powers are growing. One MONITOR rolls the news. IMAGES of the FANTASTIC FOUR. Victor leans closer, and the VOLUME automatically goes up. NEWSCASTER (ON TV) ...the Fantastic Four put on quite a show last night. They landed in every major headline in the northern hemisphere. In related news... An IMAGE of VICTOR on screen. NEWSCASTER (ON TV) (CONT'D) Reports have surfaced that Von Doom Industries may be filing for bankruptcy. You may remember that it was Victor Von Doom who... Victor turns away from the screen. The volume goes down. He focuses his eyes on REED. Leonard enters, stepping closer, seeing the faint flicker of VICTOR'S METALLIC SCAR. His eyes narrow, concerned. LEONARD Sir, is everything okay? What happened to your...? Victor keeps his eyes on the screen, totally engrossed. VICTOR (under breath, seething) Reed... He got what he wanted... (looking at Sue) Everything he wanted...he took from me. He leans ever closer, so the static starts to swallow Reed. A hard, deadly beat. Victor's eyes narrow, zooming into...REED'S RESEARCH: SLIDES on the wall. He zooms into key words: DANGER, UNSTABLE IONS, MUTATION, OVERLOAD. And Victor gives a slow, thin smile. A new plan forming. VICTOR (CONT'D) Now I'm going to take it back. Piece by bloody piece... His fist clenches. We hear METALLIC SFX. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - DAY Reed enters the room carrying a stack of boxes that no normal man could balance. But he is not normal. His arms are wrapped around the boxes five times over -- like human twine. He stops short, and drops the boxes when he sees... VICTOR overseeing a group of TECHNICIANS. They are boxing up Reed's work -- all of his equipment, research. Victor wears a bandage, covering his scar. Reed eyes a glint of METAL. REED Victor, are you...are you okay? Victor turns away. VICTOR Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself. Reed looks around, seeing his lab turned inside out. REED What are you doing here? VICTOR What I should have done a long time ago. Applications and patents, Reed. This all belongs to me. Reed reaches out, grabbing a folder from a box. REED But I'm not done with the machine -- VICTOR Which is precisely the point. Analysis is over. It's time for action. My men could have mass- produced this by now. Reed shakes his head, defending himself. REED Mass-produced? This isn't a toaster. You have no idea how it works. Victor pulls the folder from Reed's hand, and whips out the intricate DIAGRAM of the MACHINE. He points to parts: VICTOR Re-create the storm, invert the polarity here, reverse the mutation there. Don't talk to me like I'm some schoolboy. I've got the same Phd you do. Reed is a little surprised that Victor is so familiar with his machine. He points to a SECURE CHAMBER on the blueprint. REED The storm needs to be handled exactly right, or it could make our mutations worse, much worse, maybe even kill us... Victor slows. Is Reed getting to him? Or giving him ideas? REED (CONT'D) Victor, please. We need time to verify the data... We can't afford any mistakes -- there's only enough ions for two or three attempts. Victor considers. He seems to enjoy watching Reed dangle. VICTOR Reed. I'm not asking permission. (a final verdict) We'll build it, while you check the specs. Victor walks out. Reed looks unsure, as we CUT TO -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING TRANSFORMATION LAB - DAY The SHIELDS slowly rise. FIVE TECHNICIANS go to work. They wear the VDI jackets. Reed watches, worried. Sue enters. She sees the shields, the technicians, the VDI logo. And she is deeply worried. She steps over to Reed. Sparks fly behind them. Drills scream. SUE Can I talk to you? INT. BAXTER BUILDING - REED'S OFFICE - DAY Sue steps into the office, followed by Reed. Quiet, urgent: SUE Don't let Victor push you into making a mistake -- REED He was going to take away all my data, equipment -- SUE Better than your life. Victor's not the one who has to get into that thing. We are. Reed starts to snap, losing his studied cool. REED Which is why I'm working twenty hours a day, checking every variable -- SUE Every variable but yourself. You don't eat, sleep. You can't live in your head like -- REED (finally losing it) I'm not the only one in there. I got you, Vic, Ben, Johnny, all rattling around in there. Sue stands there, shocked by his outburst. A beat. SUE So clear it out. Get out of your head. Get out of here... He looks at her, knowing what she means. Where she means. EXT. BROOKLYN STREETS - DAY Ben nearly knocks people over as he stomps down the street, mind tossing and turning. People stare, point. A LITTLE GIRL and FRIEND run up to him. LITTLE GIRL Mister, Mister! Please help me! My kitty is stuck in a tree. She gestures to a tree next to Ben. Looks up. LITTLE GIRL (CONT'D) Please save Miss Lucy. Ben rolls his eyes. Looks up. Considers climbing the tree, but thinks better of it. He has another idea... Ben grabs the tree with one hand, and starts shaking the crap out of it. MEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWRRRRRRR!!!! The cat falls into frame. At the last instant, Ben sticks out his hand and the cat lands safely in his palm. He hands the cat to the girl. Barely acknowledges her profuse thanks. He just moves on. EXT. ANOTHER BROOKLYN STREET - NIGHT Ben passes a window in a gallery, and almost misses A LARGE SCULPTURE of his bust. He stops, steps back to take a look. It's exquisitely rendered, capturing not just brute physicality, but the haunting anguish in his eyes. Ben is amazed, and touched, but... BEN (under breath) Eyebrows are a little big... A beat. He stares at these images of himself. VOICE (O.S.) I figured the only way to get you here was to stick that in the window. He turns to see...ALICIA in the doorway. BEN How'd you know it was me? ALICIA I'm blind, not deaf. Wanna come in? He steps toward her. But he sees...a PARTY in the back part of the gallery. Ben pauses, a little insecure. BEN I'm not really dressed for a party. ALICIA Relax, it's casual. BEN No, I mean...I'm a little...dusty... She smiles, a thought forming, as we CUT TO -- INT. GALLERY - STUDIO - NIGHT WHOOSH! A SCULPTOR'S HOSE sprays a thin stream of water at BEN. Alicia cleans Ben with her hands, using thin CARVING CHISELS for his cracks. Intricate, intimate work. Ben enjoys every moment. He eyes a couple, large PUPPETS in the corner. BEN Those yours too? ALICIA My step-dad's. I'm strictly into stone. I was wondering when you'd walk by. THE THING You know, you could'a run an ad in the personals. ALICIA "Sensual blind chick seeks three-ton, rock-hard he-man for deep spiritual relationship." THE THING This ain't permanent. My friend Reed's working on a cure...I think. She gets closer, running her hands across his arm. ALICIA Bennie. You feel pretty good as is. Ben bristles. He doesn't want to stay this way. THE THING You don't know what it's like out there. Walking around like some kind of circus freak. People staring, whispering -- ALICIA I wouldn't know anything about that. THE THING I mean... ALICIA Tell me. When you grew up in Brooklyn, how many astronauts did you know? (a beat) You went your own way then. You didn't listen to people. So why start now...? As he ponders that, we hear a CROWD SWELLING on the CUT TO -- EXT. STREET - NIGHT Fans swarm JOHNNY. He signs autographs, poses for pictures. Then his eyes move to...an incredibly long stretch LIMO. A tinted window rolls down. Victor's face emerges. VICTOR Need a ride, Johnny? EXT./INT. LIMO - NIGHT Johnny climbs in, sees...three impossibly gorgeous MODELS. VICTOR A few fans. Hope you don't mind. JOHNNY Gotta take care of the fans, right? He smiles, sitting down in the middle of them. VICTOR Look, I built my business knowing what people want. And right now, the people want you. Johnny eyes the models, all lusting. JOHNNY And we don't want to let the people down now, do we? VICTOR No we don't. Which is why we need to strike while the iron's hot. I'm talking action figures, videogames, sponsors -- JOHNNY Videogames? You serious? Victor nods, knowing he has Johnny on the hook. JOHNNY (CONT'D) You talk to Reed and Sue about this? VICTOR Johnny. Let's be honest here. Ben, Reed, Sue. Good people, all. But stars? (shaking his head, a beat) I don't want to break up the band, but you're the one they want. Don't you think it's time to go solo...? Victor subtly nods to the models. They envelop Johnny. VICTOR (CONT'D) Take the car for a spin. Think about it. Is this the life you want? Or would you rather live in Reed's lab...? The car stops. Victor gets out. He stands on the pavement. As he shuts the door, we see the women climbing onto Johnny. The door shuts, and... WHHHMMMPF! The windows all suddenly STEAM UP! INT. HAYDEN PLANETARIUM - NIGHT STARS on the ceiling. A VOICE drones about the galaxy. In the LAST ROW, we find: Reed and Sue. Reed is thinking about work. REED I could get Ben to tap into the Baxter's main power to generate enough voltage -- SUE Reed. Shh. Just be quiet. And look up. He slowly looks up. The stars seem to calm him. SUE (CONT'D) Remember our first date here...? God, I was so nervous. REED You were? SUE Of course I was. I'd read all your papers on bioethics. Some of them two times just so I'd have something to say to you. Reed smiles softly, thinking back. REED You know, I bribed the projectionist ten bucks to keep it open late? SUE I gave him twenty. They laugh. Sue looks up to the stars. Quiet: SUE (CONT'D) I didn't want that night to end. Reed looks at her. Wrestles with a decision. Then quietly: REED Sue, you were right. It wasn't complicated. I just wasn't ready to be...to become... (a beat) You can be a little intimidating. She knows. He trails off. Sue looks at him. REED (CONT'D) You always talked about how you liked the kind of man who could approach you...speak his mind. One who wasn't afraid to tell you what he wanted. SUE I did. I did, Reed...but I wanted you to be that man. Someone SHUSHES them. They slump down further. Closer. SUE (CONT'D) When I walked out, I waited ten minutes outside your door. Ten. Waiting for you to come find me. REED Why didn't you say something? SUE That would have kinda defeated the purpose. And Reed... (closer, emotional) I'm saying it now. Their eyes lock. A heated beat. No more secrets. Their faces are close. A kiss is coming. Closer, closer. Sue disappears. SUE (CONT'D) (quiet, playful) Come find me. Reed tentatively leans into the kiss, and... SUE (O.S.) (CONT'D) That's my nose, genius... These are my lips. Reed's face is SQUEEZED on both sides by Sue's invisible hands. She pulls him into a KISS. Lips touch. Soft, tender. Stars twinkle. And we slowly DISSOLVE TO -- EXT. KIRBY GALLERY - NIGHT Ben and Alicia step out together. The crowd quiets, turns. A few whispers flutter. Alicia leans close to Ben, and slips her arm into his. The party goes back to normal. ALICIA Look around. I'll get us drinks. They always let blind girls cut the line. She walks off. He watches her go. The way her hair moves. The lines of her neck. The light on her skin. This woman is the most beautiful thing Ben has ever seen. He's falling hard. Ben steps through the crowd. The swanky guests give strained smiles, polite. Ben is starting to feel comfortable here. He keeps his eyes on Alicia, who talks to guests. Ben hangs back, happy to watch her. A few patrons pass him, thinking he's just an inanimate statue. PATRON I don't know about this one. It lacks a certain...realism. Ben keeps his eyes on Alicia. He overhears two BOHEMIAN GIRLS, who assume he's a statue. BOHEMIAN GIRL #1 She's always had a thing for runaways and strays, but this is ridiculous. BOHEMIAN GIRL #2 I know. Did she really think these sculptures would sell? BOHEMIAN GIRL #1 Like anybody would want this thing in their house. That girl's a one-woman charity. Ben just stands there, frozen. His eyes dart around the room, paranoid now. Aware of people staring, laughing. He glances at Alicia, who giggles at something else. Ten seconds ago, this would have been dreamy. Now it's damning. We stay with Alicia, who cuts through the crowd, emerging where she left Ben. She has a PITCHER of wine in hand for him. But Ben is gone. She looks disappointed, hearing his heavy FOOTSTEPS get softer and softer in the distance. THUNDER booms on the CUT TO -- EXT./INT. DINER - NIGHT A pitstop in Queens. Heavy RAIN swims down windows. BEN sits at the COUNTER, with his hat pulled low, coat tight. Nobody sits within four chairs of him. He sips coffee in a metal bowl. A long beat. Then... VICTOR (O.S.) This seat taken? Ben turns to see...VICTOR. BEN What are you doing here? VICTOR I'm worried about you. BEN About me? How sweet. VICTOR Come on. Let me buy you something to eat. Looks like you could use the company. Ben considers. A man deeply alone. A beat. INT. DINER - LATER Victor and Ben sit in a window booth. A waitress sets a foothigh stack of pancakes in front of Ben, removes huge plates he's just cleared. Victor's aware of the other customers in the diner staring at Ben. Ben burps: it rattles the plates. THE THING 'Scuse me. VICTOR I know it can't be easy. Life hasn't changed that much for Reed, Sue and Johnny. At least they can go out in public. But for you? People staring. Whispering behind your back... THE THING If you're trying to cheer me up you're doing a helluva job -- VICTOR I'm just saying, I know what it's like to lose something you love. To see it slip away, and know it's never coming back. The Thing shoves a huge piece of pie in his mouth. THE THING Reed's gonna fix me up -- VICTOR For your sake I hope you're right. I'm sorry if that sounds a little skeptical. THE THING Skeptical...? Ben doesn't trust him. But Victor is hitting pressure points. VICTOR Look, he's a brilliant man, we should trust he's working as hard as he can. You're his best friend. So what possible reason could he have for taking his time? (a beat) I mean, other than getting close to Sue? Off The Thing: a seed of doubt has been planted. He can't help but find truth in the words. And we CUT TO -- INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - NIGHT Reed and Sue return, laughing quietly, bodies close. Reed turns on the lights, and they flinch when they see...BEN. He sits waiting, scowling. They stop laughing immediately. BEN Yeah, I have that effect on people. The construction of the TRANSFORMATION CHAMBER is complete. The Technicians are gone now. REED Ben -- BEN Oh, you remember my name do you? You happen to remember what you swore to do with every breath in your body? REED We're working as hard as we can -- BEN Yeah. I can tell. Victor was right. He motions to Reed and Sue together. REED Come on, this is nothing. Sue looks a little hurt. BEN Glad "nothing" could take you away from your work. REED Ben, I don't know if this thing'll change us back or make us worse. I need you to be patient for a little while longe-- He POKES his finger into Reed's chest, which INDENTS around it like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Ben pushes Reed back. Hard. BEN Look at me, Reed. Look at me! He grabs Reed's face, his fingers INDENTING the skin. He THROWS Reed back. Reed slams down to the ground. REED I am looking. That's why I can't make a mistake! I've got to get it right, and it's not right yet! We need to test this. Ben shakes his head, looking down at Reed. BEN I spent my whole life protecting you, from the schoolyard to the stars. For what? So you could play Twister with your girlfriend while I'm the freak of the week? Reed tries to stand, but Ben KNOCKS him back. Reed slams into the wall, and stays down this time. SUE Ben! Stop it! Or I'll stop it. She starts to raise her hands to throw force-fields. BEN Stay out of this Susie. As Ben turns to her, Reed takes this opportunity to WRAP Ben up like a python. They struggle. Ben runs back into a wall to shake Reed. Their faces are close, heated. BEN (CONT'D) Good thing you're flexible enough to watch your own back. 'Cause you're on your own now. Ben seems to relax and Reed lets go. Ben walks out. Sue comes to Reed's side. He's bleeding. REED I'm OK. Just go, go after him. Stop him. She heads out. Reed slowly stands. He looks at the transformation machine. It's not ready. But...Reed steps toward it. As he walks, his image goes grainy in -- INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT Victor gets closer to his screens, watching Reed's every step. This is what Victor has been waiting for. His screens flicker with static -- he's too close, but he can't pull back. He sees: REED TURNS ON THE MACHINE. Hits a countdown. And he grabs his UNIFORM... INT. BAXTER BUILDING - HALLWAY - NIGHT Sue hustles down the long hall. Ben turns a corner, passing the elevators, heading toward a FREIGHT ELEVATOR. She gets there too late. Doors close, going down. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - GROUND FLOOR - NIGHT Ben pounds across the lobby. He sees Johnny coming in. JOHNNY Christmas come early! Check it out! He holds up an ACTION FIGURE of BEN: a horribly bloated body topped by a tiny pinhead. Johnny pushes a button and -- BEN ACTION FIGURE IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME! WITH ONE ARM, Ben shoves Johnny into a wall. With his other hand, Ben grabs the toy and SMASHES it into the wall, inches from Johnny's head. The toy lodges into the plaster. JOHNNY Hey! That's a prototype! BEN Go back to the drawing board. He strides away. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - GROUND FLOOR - NIGHT DING. Sue speeds out of the elevator. No sign of Ben. She runs into...JOHNNY who shakes off the encounter. SUE Johnny? Did you see Ben? JOHNNY Yeah, for the last time, I hope. I'm done with this freak show. I'm moving back to the real world. SUE Is that what you call it? "Real"? JOHNNY At least it beats living in a lab like somebody's science project. This hits home. Sue is quiet. Johnny turns to go. SUE Johnny, slow down. Think. You know mom didn't raise us to -- JOHNNY Look around, sis! She's not here. So you can stop talking to me like I'm your little boy -- SUE As soon as you stop acting like one. Come on, you're smarter than this. You think those people out there care about you? You're just a fad to them. He pulls away from her, taking a step out the door. JOHNNY Let's try something new: you live your life. And I'll live mine. (beat) And just for the record: they LOVE me. He strides into the night, leaving Sue alone. A dark night. The Fantastic Four is no more. The family is split apart. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - NIGHT The transformation chamber is up and running. Numbers count down. The storm swirls in the chamber. Reed now wears the UNIFORM. He opens the door: HE'S GOING TO USE IT ON HIMSELF. HE IS FINALLY TAKING ACTION. INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT Victor sits enthralled. He leans forward, breathless. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - NIGHT Reed gets closer. His heart races. So does Victor's. A moment of truth for both of them. REED STEPS INTO THE MACHINE. Reed looks up at the cosmic storm. He opens his arms, ready to risk his life. And...WHHHM! He JOLTS in JUMP-CUT-MOTION, RECONFIGURING, JERKING out of control, and we CUT TO -- VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT His screens GO BLACK. He looks out the window to see...a flash atop the BAXTER BUILDING. The tip of the Baxter glows. The rest of its lights GO OUT, FLICKERING in a power surge. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - GROUND FLOOR - NIGHT Lights go haywire. Sue knows immediately... SUE Oh god, Reed. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - NIGHT Lights flicker in darkness. The door rips open. Sue lunges inside. She sees through smoke and sparks...REED sways in the chamber. A beat. Did it work? Then... Reed SLUMPS TO THE GROUND. His eyes flutter back. Dead...? His body is warped, twisted -- one half remains tense, hard, while the other half is loose, soft, almost melted. SUE What did you do, Reed? What did you do? INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT Victor watches every second on his monitors. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - TRANSFORMATION LAB - NIGHT Sue struggles to lift Reed -- half of his body is STRETCHED OUT, devoid of any semblance of bone structure. One side of his face looks like it's MELTING OFF. REED I can...make it work. SUE Reed, stop, you need to rest your -- REED The power...I need...more power...to control...the storm -- SUE You need a doctor. Reed loses consciousness. Sue carries him out. INT. VICTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT Victor watches, his eyes narrow, looking at his hands. VICTOR More power...? He reaches out for his phone, and...his SPEAKERPHONE AUTOMATICALLY TURNS ON. His powers growing. VICTOR (TO PHONE) (CONT'D) Leonard. Bring me our lab rat. EXT. UNDER THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE - NIGHT Ben sits alone, looking at city lights. A man without a home. Without a family. A hard beat. HEADLIGHTS slash across Ben. He slowly turns, blinded in the lights of...a LIMO. LEONARD Ben! They need you back at the Baxter building. It's...Reed. Ben considers. Despite it all, he's a good friend. And a good man. As he gets into the car, we hear THROBBING MUSIC IN -- INT. MANHATTAN NIGHT CLUB - NIGHT LOUD MUSIC and PULSATING LIGHTS. A young crowd dances and grinds to the beat. Among the colorful lights, STREAKS OF FLAME swirl around the ceiling. We follow them to: A BALCONY, where we see JOHNNY sitting in a cozy VIP section. He's surrounded by "groupies" climbing over each other to get a look at his various parlour tricks. He leans closer to a YOUNG WOMAN. Closer. Candles around them start to melt. Beads of sweat drip down her face. JOHNNY What do you say we get out of here? She pauses. And...a very LARGE MAN steps up. JOHNNY (CONT'D) This your boyfriend? The Boyfriend doesn't look too happy. BOYFRIEND Is that all you do? Bar tricks and stealing chicks... Johnny does one more trick...taps the guy's drink...igniting it into a burst of flame. The Boyfriend drops the glass, which SMASHES on the ground...catches the floor on fire. The boyfriend quickly moves in and stamps it out. GIRLFRIEND What are you doing?! You could have burned somebody! The boyfriend takes his girlfriend's hand, they start to walk off. She turns back for one last comment... GIRLFRIEND (CONT'D) You know, if I had your power I'd be doing something with it, not wasting my time doing cheap bar tricks, hitting on some other guy's girl. Johnny looks a little embarrassed. The couple leaves. Johnny glances around. His FANS look down, away. He sees how quickly they can turn. The crowd parts slightly. He looks very alone. INT. TRANSFORMATION CHAMBER - NIGHT Leonard leads The Thing inside. The ominous chamber sits with its door open. Victor enters from the control station. VICTOR Ben, come in. BEN What is this? Where's Reed? VICTOR Where do you think? With Sue. Ben looks at the flickering lights. Suspicious. Victor turns to Leonard, who looks a little scared by this dark room. VICTOR (CONT'D) (quiet) I'll take it from here, Leonard. Leonard nods, all too eager to get the hell out of here. LEONARD Yes sir. Leonard disappears fast, as Victor turns back to Ben. BEN What do you want, Vic? VICTOR To help you. I've run every test known to man. And they all yield the same result: the machine is ready. Ben shakes his head, wanting to believe, but... BEN Reed said it'd be weeks till -- VICTOR He also said we'd avoid that storm in space. And we know how that turned out. Ben nods. Reed was wrong before. Ben gets closer to the machine, drawn to it. He wants to believe, so badly. VICTOR (CONT'D) He couldn't generate enough power for the machine to reach critical mass. Yet another mistake for "Mr. Fantastic." BEN And you can? Power it up? Victor stands in shadows, but we see the tiniest little SPARK around him. The lights...? Or his skin...? VICTOR Yes. I've found a new energy source. He keeps his arm behind his back -- his fingertips course with ELECTRICITY. It starts to build, sparking up his arm. VICTOR (CONT'D) Tell me...do you want to be Ben Grimm again? Ben keeps his eyes on the machine. His dream is alive. BEN Let's do it. INT. TRANSFORMATION CHAMBER - NIGHT The chamber doors open. Thing enters. He looks around this sterile box. An animal in a cage. Victor pushes a control; the doors of the chamber slowly close and seal. Thing shuts his eyes. He just wants to be Ben again. FROM THE CONTROLS: Victor initiates the transformation sequence. As lights go on inside the chamber, they dim in the lab. Energy pumps into the chamber. The storm swirls faster. Lights flicker...there's not enough power, until -- -- Victor walks over...grabs hold of the machine with both hands...and WHHHM! A countdown begins in the control panels. SLOW MOVE IN on the chamber, The Thing's face in the window. The chamber activates. The storm strikes hard. The Thing opens his mouth, a beat, then he screams in agony. Struggling violently inside. To escape? Extend the moment: Condensation obscures the chamber window: The Thing vanishes. EXT. MANHATTAN SKYLINE - NIGHT The city lights fill the sky, and give it a quiet, eerie glow. Suddenly, a BRIGHT FLASH emerges from the window of the Baxter Building. The rest of the city lights dim slightly. INT. BAXTER BUILDING LIVING QUARTERS - NIGHT Reed lies in bed, weak, recuperating. When the power surges, we MOVE in on him: he looks up in alarm, knowing that someone's using the chamber. He starts to get out of bed, straining to stand with every muscle left in his body. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - MEDICAL SUPPLY ROOM - SAME TIME Sue sifts through a cabinet full of medications. The lights dim. Power failure. She looks up... EXT. CLUB - NIGHT Johnny walks alone. A WAVE OF LIGHT spreads through the sky. He looks up. His eyes adjust to the blast, as he realizes where it's coming from. He starts RUNNING toward the Baxter. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - REVERSION LAB - NIGHT INSIDE THE MACHINE, the RED CLOUD swirls with debris, crackling with light. The chamber rattles dangerously, as the power seems to SHAKE the very foundation of the building. And then it's over. The light dies down...somewhat. It still pulses along with the chamber. The chamber door SLIDES OPEN. Beat. And...BEN GRIMM steps out. Not The Thing. No more rocks. BEN GRIMM. Naked, tired, but finally A NORMAL MAN. He slips on his trench-coat -- now way too large. He collapses. He stares at his hands, his arms...it worked. BEN Oh my God... Th-thank you. THANK YOU...VIC?! Ben sees a SPARK in shadows. That spark is... VICTOR'S ARM. Victor steps forward, and reveals himself to Ben: ELECTRICITY PUMPS THROUGH HIS BODY. His skin is part flesh, part metal. Cheekbone exposed, steel tissue. HE IS DOOM. BEN (CONT'D) Vic... What the...? DOOM Everyone thought I was safe behind those shields... BEN Victor, the machine worked for me. It can work for you -- DOOM It did, Ben. It worked perfectly. Ben starts to realize... BEN You planned this...? Doom smiles, reaches out his hand -- ELECTRICITY builds from his shoulders, coursing down his arms to his fingertips. DOOM I've always wanted power. Now I've got an unlimited supply... BEN And no Thing to stand in your way. DOOM smiles, nods, stronger than Ben now. DOOM Take a good look, Ben. This is what a man looks like who embraces his destiny. Doom clenches his fist and BLASTS Ben, sending him flying backwards across the room -- knocked unconscious. DOOM (CONT'D) One down, three to go. Suddenly, WHOOSH! The lab door flies open. Reed enters. Doom steps back into the shadows. DOOM (CONT'D) Right on cue. Reed's eyes go wide. He sees Ben crumpled in the corner. REED Oh god Ben. Are you okay? (amazed) You did it, you really did it... DOOM No, Reed. I did. Reed slowly turns to see...DOOM. His body, his face. REED Victor...? What, what happened to you? What did you do to your -- DOOM Exactly what I said I would: I built a better, stronger being. And outsmarted the great Reed Richards -- REED Victor, this isn't the way to -- DOOM (a dark smile) You always know best. So tell me. What happens when you superheat rubber? Doom BLASTS an electrical BOLT at Reed, KNOCKING Reed through the huge window! Reed's body RUBBER-BANDS from the blast. EXT. BAXTER BUILDING - NIGHT Reed SLINKIES down the face of the building, skin rippling. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - REVERSION LAB - NIGHT Doom looks out the window, smiling at his old friend's fall. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - FRONT LOBBY - NIGHT DING! The elevator opens. Doom strides out. He passes our friend O'HOOLIHAN, who looks scared. O'HOOLIHAN Mr. Von Doom? Are you oka-- Doom casually SWIPES, sending him through revolving doors. DOOM Never better, Jimmy. And it's Doctor Doom now. EXT. BAXTER BUILDING - NIGHT Reed MELTS down the sides of an AWNING, like a Salvador Dali watch. He tries to GRAB HOLD of window ledges, but he can't get a grip. His ARM streeetches, and SNAP! He falls like a SLINKY, out of control. Half his body loose, half hard. He drips to the sidewalk, where...Doom steps out. He catches Reed's face, holds it close. DOOM Why the long face? Doom whips Reed into the night. As Doom turns, people cower, horrified by his face. They clear out, and... Doom sees his REFLECTION in a window: scarred skin, metallic veins. A monster. Infuriated, he SHATTERS the window with an iron fist, and bounds into the night. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - LATER - NIGHT Smoke billows, windows are shattered. Sue races inside, seeing Doom's devastation. Silence, deadly silence. Then...she sees a pile of WRECKAGE shift. BEN crawls out. SUE Ben?! She helps him out of the rubble. He is beaten, battered. JOHNNY (O.S.) Sue! Johnny comes running in. He sees the wreckage. JOHNNY (CONT'D) I'm sorry, sis, for leaving you guys -- SUE No, I'm sorry, for pushing you out. He nods. A beat between them. He looks around, sees Ben. JOHNNY Jesus, Ben! (eyeing him) I go away, look what happens. You got a lot of explaining to do. He motions to the wreckage. BEN (struggling, weak) The machine works. And Vic's gone Mister Hyde on us -- JOHNNY Really? With a name like Von Doom? Never saw that one coming. Sue looks around. Only one question. Dead serious: SUE Where is Reed? BEN Victor must've taken him. INT. VON DOOM - CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Doom sits at the head of the table in an eerie parallel to the opening scene. Those mysterious CRATES loom in shadows. He wears a green HOOD, and METAL MASK over his scarred face. Doom's eyes turn toward...the other end of the table. DOOM Chemistry 101, Part Two. What happens to rubber when it's super- cooled? We now see what he sees: Reed sits in a chair with TUBES INJECTED into his skin FREEZING HIM SOLID! Ultra-cold vapor coats him. Doom steps closer, a sadistic smile. Reed tries to move but can't even ball his hand into a fist. DOOM (CONT'D) Allow me. He PRESSES DOWN on one of Reed's fingers, which makes a horrific CRACKING SOUND. Reed's face twists with pain. DOOM (CONT'D) Painful...? Doom seems to enjoy every CRACK. He leans closer. DOOM (CONT'D) You don't know the meaning of the word. Doom lets up on Reed and reaches into a crate, and pulls out a military-issue ROCKET-LAUNCHER. He aims at the city skyline, locking onto his target: JOHNNY STORM. DOOM (CONT'D) But you will. Johnny's HEAT SIGNATURE glows. The screen flashes: TARGET ACQUIRED. Doom looks back at Reed, his launcher aimed casually over his shoulder. DOOM (CONT'D) Flame off. BOOOOM! He fires without looking! A MISSILE blasts into the sky. THE MISSILE LIGHTS UP THE DARK NIGHT beginning its wide turn towards its target. INT. BAXTER BUILDING Johnny, Ben, and Sue hear the missile being fired and turn to the window -- it BANKS, coming STRAIGHT for them. They move to -- EXT. BAXTER BUILDING BALCONY - NIGHT Johnny rushes toward the edge, to get a good look at the missile streaking closer. As he moves, the missile SHIFTS slightly with HIS MOTION! His eyes narrow, thinking. He FLAMES ON a HAND. He waves his flaming hand, and the MISSILE locks onto the fire! Johnny darkens, realizing... JOHNNY Great. Heat-seeker. His mind races. He makes a decision, and steps up onto the ledge, hundreds of feet above the street. SUE What are you doing -- JOHNNY Sis. Let me take care of you for once. SUE But Johnny...you can't fly. Johnny considers, a half-beat. He looks out. Under breath: JOHNNY Well then this'll be one hell of a basejump. Sue reaches out to stop him, but Johnny DIVES HEROICALLY OFF THE EDGE! He FLAMES ON! The missile follows his arc. As he drops, his clothes BURN OFF, revealing his UNIFORM. JOHNNY (CONT'D) (under breath) Come on...come on...come on... He falls lower, lower. And...he...BANKS! SWOOPS UP! FLYING! JOHNNY (CONT'D) FLAME ON. Sue watches, with fear, and a hint of pride. BEN We need to help Reed -- Sue shakes her head, sympathetic. SUE Ben, you got what we all wanted. You need to stay here. It's too dangerous. She heads off. Ben watches her go, helpless. INT. BAXTER BUILDING - REVERSION LAB - NIGHT Ben steps back into this ravaged room. Through the shattered window, he sees Johnny's FLAMES streaking away. A hard beat. BEN What...what have I done? EXT. NEW YORK - NIGHT Johnny zigs and zags, but the missile takes every twist and turn, gaining on him, bearing down. Cars slow, stop. More people look up, scared, pointing at this stunning sight. INT. VON DOOM CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Eerily silent. Reed tries to move, but he is FROZEN. He hears a footstep. But the room is EMPTY. No sign of Doom even. A beat. He hears a CREAK. Another CREAK, closer. And... A FREEZING TUBE starts to SHIFT. It goes taut, clearly being manipulated by a hand -- an INVISIBLE HAND. Sue APPEARS next to Reed, tube in hand. She tries to stay calm. SUE What has he done to you? Reed's eyes shift to see...Doom emerge from the darkness. DOOM (O.S.) How romantic. SUE Victor, please -- DOOM It's Doctor Doom to you. He steps closer. Electrodes course over his metal skin. SUE We know the machine works. It worked on Ben, it'll work on you. We can turn you back -- DOOM Do you really think fate turned us into gods so we could refuse these gifts? She hardens, a little force field starts to emanate from her. SUE Victor. You always thought you were god. Doom has a hand behind his back, generating an energy blast. DOOM Sue please, let's not fight. SUE No, Victor... Let's. She HURLS a force-field at him. It CONNECTS, KNOCKING him back a half-step. But he simply shakes it off, and steps up. Too powerful. He smiles. His arms CRACKLE with electricity. DOOM Susan...... You're fired. BOOM! He FIRES an ELECTRIC SHOCKWAVE that LAUNCHES her back. She spirals through the air, crashing into the wall, THUDDING to the floor. As Doom stalks closer, Sue gathers her strength to...GO INVISIBLE. DOOM (CONT'D) Marco... A hanging beat. We see: a FAINT OUTLINE of Sue behind him. DOOM (CONT'D) Polo. He SPINS, GRABS her! Doom grips her neck, SLAMMING her to the ground beside Reed. She lays there, beaten, visible. In the distance behind Doom, city lights BLINK, fading in and out. Lights flutter softly here (like when Ben went through the machine). Reed looks up. Could it be...? EXT. EAST RIVER - NIGHT Johnny jets over the water with the missile only twenty feet behind him. He's running out of options, when he spots: A GARBAGE BARGE floating in the water ahead. Thinking fast, Johnny does a fly-by and HURLS a fireball at the barge. VWOOSH! The flames ignite and spread quickly. He loops back toward the flaming barge as the missile closes in on him. Fifteen feet...ten... Just as it's about to hit -- JOHNNY FLAMES OFF and falls toward the water. As he tumbles through the air, we CUT BACK TO -- INT. VON DOOM CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT From their vantage point, they see the missile explode. Flames dance. Sue's eyes darken, as Doom grips her neck. Reed tries desperately to move, but he is FROZEN. It takes every last ounce of strength to lift one finger, which makes a CRACCCKKKKING sound. DOOM One more down. Now it's just the scientist and his specimen. Sue and Reed lock eyes. Reed tries to move his mouth. He has something to tell her, struggling just to move his lips and get the words out. REED Sue. The only thing I ever knew without thinking was... (his lips fully freezing) I...love... He starts to say "you," but his lips FREEZE, mid-word. Sue whispers to him: SUE Me too, Reed. Doom steps toward Sue, about to deliver the final blow. DOOM (quiet, cruel) And so four became none. It's my time now. BOOOOM! An elevator DOOR FLIES INTO THE ROOM! SMASH! VOICE (O.S.) Actually, Vic... Reed recognizes the voice. So do we. Doom turns to see... BEN GRIMM, AKA THE THING. Back in rocky, fighting form. BEN IT'S CLOBBERING TIME! Doom turns, just as -- BAM! Ben HITS Doom harder than any living thing has ever been hit. The force sends Doom back through the air, toward the far wall, where he SMASHES into the massive "V" sculpture. It SNAPS, crashing onto him. A few sparks. Then nothing. Nothing at all. No more movement. Doom is dead. Ben turns to Reed. BEN (CONT'D) Damn, I've been wanting to do that. Reed manages the thinnest smile as Ben starts disconnecting the tubes from Reed. BEN (CONT'D) (Reed's words) Victor's "not that bad," huh? Just "a little larger than life"? Maybe you'll listen to me next time before -- WHMM! The WRECKAGE shifts. They turn to see...Doom EMERGES. He stands, power coursing. And he CHARGES at Ben! Ben charges back. And these two behemoths... SLAM INTO EACH OTHER, CRASHING THROUGH GLASS, INTO THIN AIR!! EXT. VON DOOM BUILDING - CONTINUOUS Doom and Ben PLUMMET, wrestling in mid-air. On the ground, PEOPLE scream and duck for cover. Doom and Ben SMASH through the large GLASS roof of a lower building across the street. INT. HOTEL - INDOOR POOL - CONTINUOUS BOOOOM! Doom and Ben, locked in combat, drop through the glass, landing in a large HOTEL POOL. People scream, run. INT. HOTEL - INDOOR POOL - NIGHT UNDERWATER: Doom and Ben LAND HARD. Their combined weight CRACKS the floor of the pool. A YOUNG BOY watches underwater through his MASK. Doom and Ben square off, but... The CRACKS OPEN WIDER! And they're PULLED toward the HOLE! WHOOSH! The water is all sucked out of the hole. The boy holds tight to a ladder, as Ben and Doom crash down to -- INT. HOTEL - HALLWAY - NIGHT A HOTEL GUEST sees water FLOOD into the hall. Roaring rapids head straight for him. He jams his key into the lock, turning desperately, just barely leaping out of the way as the wave carrying BEN and DOOM SMASHES through a window to -- EXT. HOTEL - CONTINUOUS SMASH! Ben and Doom fly out the window, thrashing in the TEN THOUSAND-GALLON WATERFALL TO -- EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREET - CONTINUOUS CRASH! Water floods the street. Doom and Ben land in a large GARBAGE TRUCK. The truck rocks back and forth, DENTING from the inside. Grunts, growls. CRASH! The truck suddenly STOPS. COP CARS SPEED CLOSER, sirens screaming. And -- BOOM, A HUGE SHAPE explodes from the truck. SMASH! Ben lands on a CAR filled with two OLD LADIES -- his head cracks the WINDSHIELD. Doom steps out of the garbage truck, water flooding the street around him. COP CARS converge on Doom. Doom turns his attention to the cops. His limbs SPARK with electricity, ready to fire at the cars. EXT./INT. CAR - CONTINUOUS Ben sees the cops and Doom. He knows the cops are dead meat. He turns to the OLD LADY in the driver's seat. BEN Excuse me, Maam. Can I borrow your car? She nods and quickly gets out, shaking. OLD LADY The clutch sticks a little. BEN Not gonna be a problem. Ben LIFTS the car and THROWS it at Doom. WHMM! It FLIES through the air, and WHAM! Hits hard, knocking Doom back twenty feet! As Doom FLIES back, a BUS enters frame, and -- EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREET - NIGHT BOOM! Doom SMASHES into the OUT OF SERVICE BUS! CRASH! Windows shatter. The bus SLAMS into an ELECTRICITY POLE, snapping the pole. Doom steps out, unharmed. Ben CHARGES toward him. Doom grabs the broken ELECTRICITY POLE, FLIPS it into his hand, and wields the pole like a giant STUN-GUN! Electric sparks FLY through the air into -- BEN! The BLAST of VOLTS launches him off his feet! He goes FLYING backward, ELECTROCUTED in mid-flight, and -- WHOOMPF! Ben LANDS HARD, face down, CRATERING the street! Water rushes into the crater. Ben lays there, incapacitated. EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREET - SAME TIME On the street, cars SCREAM to stops, people GASP. Doom strides up to Ben, and raises the ELECTRICITY POLE for the death-blow. Currents surge. Right before he swings down -- VOICE (O.S.) I can't let you do that. Simple, strong. Doom turns to see...REED. Alone. Bruised and battered. Slowly stepping toward him. Doom smiles. DOOM And you can't stop me. He turns back to Ben, raises the pole, but...he CAN'T SWING DOWN! Something is HOLDING the pole in mid-air. Something invisible. DOOM (CONT'D) Hello Susan. She turns VISIBLE, holding back the pole with a FORCEFIELD. Using her power, she FLINGS the pole from Doom's grip. It skids along the street. Reed helps Ben to his feet. Doom turns to these three wounded soldiers. DOOM (CONT'D) What is this? The pitiful three? Doom steps toward them, but -- VOICE (O.S.) Four. WHOOOSH! Johnny SWOOPS DOWN, hurling a FIREBALL like a flamethrower, KNOCKING Doom back. Johnny takes his place alongside the others. The four of them stand as one. Johnny turns to Thing. JOHNNY Had a little relapse, huh? Thing starts to retort, but Johnny gives a warm smile. JOHNNY (CONT'D) Welcome back. They turn to Doom, who stands with metal skin slightly singed and melted, making him look all the more menacing. DOOM This is going to be fun. Electricity starts to course through his body. He stands at the foot of the crater Ben made. He THRUSTS down, grabbing a thick POWER CABLE, RIPPING it out of the street! He SNAPS the cable into two snaking, lashing strips. He holds tight, ABSORBING the power. Lights FLICKER and DIM in buildings around him. Windows BLOW! Doom GLOWS, amped up. He LETS GO of the cables! The two deadly wires SNAKE out of control! PEDESTRIANS scatter, panic. Reed sees the wires SLASHING through the air. He makes a move: Reed STREEETCHES HIS ARMS, reaching for the deadly cables. Doom FIRES superpowered ENERGY BOLTS. The electric charges surge through the air toward the Fantastic Four, but -- Sue TOSSES her FORCE-FIELDS, exploding Doom's blasts in mid- flight. She keeps her hands up, BLOCKING blows like a prize fighter. One of Doom's BOLTS glances off her force-field and -- SMASHES into a concrete stanchion of a BUILDING! The pillar starts to crumble, with PEOPLE huddled under the overhang! They're about to be CRUSHED by the falling concrete! But -- Suddenly, the concrete roof HOLDS STEADY...because...BEN is holding it up! He stands beside the stanchion, like Atlas holding the world. People run out, safe. ON THE STREET: Reed finally grabs both ends of the wire. REED JOHNNY! SPOT-WELD! Johnny FLIES toward him, and uses his flames to WELD the wires back together. Sparks fly. The cables start to FUSE. Doom keeps FIRING. Sue struggles with her force-fields. The impact is too much. Her nose starts to bleed. SUE Can't...hold...on... Doom smiles. Reed sees her. She is about to drop her hands, vulnerable, but..............REED STRETCHES HIS WHOLE BODY! He EXPANDS himself across the street, and GRABS a TREE, so he forms a WALL between Sue and Doom. Doom keeps FIRING his bolts. They SLAM into Reed's body, RUBBERBAND his skin, and DISTEND OUT his back without breaking. He strains, agonizing. REED Johnny. SUPERNOVA. JOHNNY But all these people... REED Now. Johnny charges toward Doom -- flames on his body starting build to a blinding white intensity, ENGULFING everything. Johnny GRABS DOOM. THING (quiet, smiling) Flame on, kid. FLASH! Johnny explodes in a PULSE of BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT, which starts to HEAT UP everything surrounding it. Reed doesn't miss a beat. He's in total command now. REED Sue, I need some of that anger, rage, frustration -- SUE (looking at Doom) I'm sure I can come up with something. She concentrates. She sees Johnny holding onto Doom -- and the GROWING HEAT and LIGHT. Sue shuts her eyes. A GIANT FORCE FIELD EXPLODES FROM HER BODY. A massive WAVE OF ENERGY. It SWOOPS past a car, which WARPS, MELTS (half the car is not inside the force-field). Thing turns to the crowd, extending his arm, blocking them. Sue's force-field ENVELOPS JOHNNY'S SUPERNOVA, containing it in a BRIGHT SPHERE OF ENERGY. The light increases, to the point that it's blinding. People look away. Finally, Johnny's supernova fades. He collapses to the ground, exhausted, smoking. Sue exhales and falls to her knees. Her force field fades. The light flickers out. As everyone's eyes adjust, we hear...THUD. THUD. And -- DOOM steps through the smoke. Unharmed. His metallic body GLOWS WHITE, TRAILING MOLTEN METAL. Sue, Ben, Johnny look devastated. They can't beat him. He looks at Reed. DOOM Is that the best you can do...? A little heat...? Reed stays perfectly calm. He shakes his head. REED Time for your lesson, Vic. Chem 101: what happens when you supercool hot metal...? (to Ben) Ben... BEN Got it, teach. He KICKS OPEN the FIRE HYDRANT. The water GEYSERS UP! Ben kicks down with his foot, deflecting the water so it sprays toward Reed, who...TWISTS HIS TORSO so... The water CURLS around his chest, RACES down his arms, and SHOOTS right off his wrists toward Doom! DOOM No. Doom RUSHES TOWARD Reed, but the WATER FLIES OUT, DOUSING DOOM. GIANT CLOUDS OF STEAM fill the air from the cooling metal. DOOM screams. His shrieks finally fade to SILENCE. The water stops, thick steam clouds roll, completely obscuring Doom from view. A beat. The steam clears to reveal: DOOM. A true statue now -- a hard, cold solid piece of METAL. Frozen forever. Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny -- The Fantastic Four -- exhale. They stand as one, in roiling smoke. A beat. JOHNNY Damn, I love this job. Reed and Sue slowly lock eyes, thinking the same thing. BEN Job, huh...? Will they accept their mantle? Reed shrugs. REED Well, we do have the suits... They give weary smiles. A team. Sue gets close to Reed. SUE You know, about what we said up there, I think maybe -- THHM! He KISSES HER. His neck extending. Strong, powerful. He pulls back slightly, smiles at her. A new strength in him. BEN Funny how things turn out, isn't it? Sue looks at Reed. A long way from that conference room. SUE Hilarious. As they kiss, people emerge, stepping out of hiding. The sun rises around them. The Fantastic Four step into the new dawn of a new day. And we slowly DISSOLVE TO -- INT. CIRCLE LINE BOAT - BANQUET ROOM - DUSK Reed and Sue kiss on the deck of the Circle Line as it chugs around New York City. JOHNNY (O.S.) Dude, that's still my sister. A PARTY IN PROGRESS. Drinks, food, music. We see in the crowd a familiar faces: O'HOOLIHAN (cast on his arm), bartender ERNIE, others. JOHNNY and BEN stand behind Reed and Sue. Reed and Sue pull apart. Reed turns to Ben, excited. REED Ben, I've been crunching the numbers on the machine. I think if we can rework the power settings... BEN Forget it, egghead. I'm good as is. ALICIA (O.S.) That's my Benny. She hands Ben a big METAL MUG. Ben takes the mug. He CLINKS, but SHATTERS her glass. ALICIA (CONT'D) We're going to have to work on your touch. BEN I like the sound of that. Alicia gets close. A soft smile. Reed turns to Sue. REED Sue, can I talk to you for a second? Reed leads her out. Ben and Johnny swap a glance. EXT. CIRCLE LINE BOAT - DECK - DUSK A romantic view of the city-scape. Reed stands with Sue. REED I found a broken gasket, from space -- SUE A gasket? Reed, we're at a party. He opens his hand, revealing a circular piece of metal, just about the size of......a RING. Sue slows down. REED If one of us were to wear it... She sees Johnny and Ben inside, watching -- in on a secret. Reed looks her square in the eye. Unflinching. SUE Reed. What are you doing? Reed drops to his knees. His head stays eye-level, while his body drops. Sue gapes, so emotional she starts to DISAPPEAR. REED No more thinking, no more variables... Sue Storm...will you... (she's gone) Sue? Sue? You there? Dead silence. And then... THE RING DISAPPEARS. SUE IS WEARING IT. SUE (V.O.) Yes. Reed goes to kiss her. SUE (V.O.) (CONT'D) That's my nose, genius... These are my lips. Reed's face is SQUEEZED on both sides by Sue's invisible hands. She pulls him into a KISS and reappears. INSIDE: the party applauds. Ben, Johnny, and Alicia move through the crowd to join Reed and Sue. As they go -- BEN No more cracks about how I look. JOHNNY Hey, I'm Mr. Sensitivity now. (weaving around bodies) Clear the way, wide load coming through. Ben glares, fists clenched. Johnny smiles, mischievous, as they hit the balcony. And he FLAMES ON, taking off into the air, blazing the NUMBER "FOUR" enclosed in a circle of flame (their future callsign), over the city skyline. The crowd oohs and aahs. Ben watches, unimpressed. BEN Showoff. People drink, laugh, dance. We slowly PULL BACK from the party, the boat, the city, and...CUT TO -- EXT. HARBOR - DAY CLOSE ON: the MELTED FACE of DOOM. He is placed in a wooden crate. LEONARD oversees the operation, listening to his cell. As two workers move the heavy door in place -- a crackle of ELECTRICITY moves over Doom's body. Leonard's CELLPHONE goes STATICKY. His eyes narrow. Could it be...? And -- SLAM. The door closes. We can read the destination through stenciled lettering: LATVERIA. And we pull back to reveal the box is on the deck of: A FREIGHTER SHIP. The ship pulls away, steaming into the horizon, as we... FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Mr Fox.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Mr Fox.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c7efbaefa6d11d0cc6379a021c99526f5e71afdc --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fantastic Mr Fox.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FANTASTIC MR. FOX Written by Roald Dahl, Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach March 4, 2007 EXT. WOODS. DAY An apple tree stands alone at the top of a hill. A handsome fox dressed in an Edwardian-style navy velvet suit leans against it with his arms folded and his legs crossed, chewing on a reed of wild grass. He holds an apple core in his paw. He spits out a seed. He looks off across a meadow that descends into the valley below. A female fox strides briskly up the hill. Her coat is a paler, especially beautiful shade of fox-red, and she wears men's trousers and a dark tunic. Fox says as she approaches: FOX What'd the doctor say? MRS. FOX Nothing. Supposedly, it's just a twenty- four hour bug. He gave me some pills. FOX (REASSURINGLY) I told you. You probably just ate some bad gristle. Fox brushes the fur on Mrs. Fox's ears with his paws. They walk together along the crest of the hill to a fork in the path. Fox points: FOX Should we take the short cut or the scenic route? MRS. FOX Let's take the short cut. FOX But the scenic route is so much prettier. MRS. FOX (SHRUGS) OK, let's take the scenic route. FOX Great. It's actually slightly quicker, anyway. Fox throws his apple core away over his shoulder and dances a quick circle around Mrs. Fox, wrapping his arm around her waist extravagantly and making her laugh as they start off down the scenic route. 2. EXT. FARM. DAY A rustic cottage surrounded by a small barn, a tin silo, and a rickity windmill. There is a sheep in a little pasture. A sign on a rail says Berkus Squab. Fox and Mrs. Fox watch from the bushes outside a fence. MRS. FOX What is a squab? FOX You know what a squab is. It's like a pigeon, I suppose. Anyway, it's a type of bird we can eat. Fox motions toward the edge of the property. FOX Should we go through the hole under the horse fence or climb the rail over the bridle path? MRS. FOX Well, I guess the horse fence would be a little safer. FOX But the bridle path puts us out right next to the squab shack. Mrs. Fox hesitates. She fiddles with her paws. She nods nervously. She shakes slightly. Fox looks at her funny. FOX What's wrong? I've never seen you like this. You're acting all skittish. Don't worry. I've been stealing birds for a living since before I could trot. MRS. FOX (SHRUGS) OK, let's take the -- FOX No, we'll do the horse fence. You gave me the scenic route already. Fox flashes a smile. He says suddenly: FOX By the way, you look unbelievably beautiful tonight. You're practically glowing. Maybe it's the lighting. 3. Mrs. Fox is, in fact, glowing, albeit ever so slightly. She stares at Fox enigmatically. Fox touches his paw to her cheek. (NOTE: an alternate version of Mrs. Fox will be used for this shot which can be literally lit from within.) With the speed, grace, and precision of athletes, Fox and Mrs. Fox: dart through a hole under a painted fence; race along a thin trail next to a garage; crawl beneath a window where a blonde woman serves an early dinner, dealing hamburgers like playing cards to three little, blond children; creep past a doghouse where a golden retriever sleeps with an airline sleeping mask over his eyes; and shimmy over a doorway outside a workshop where a blond, bearded farmer hacks into a stump with a hatchet, completely pulverizing it into sawdust. They arrive in front of a wooden shed. Fox whistles sharply with a half-chirp and performs a rapid reverse-flip with a flourish. Fox lifts a loose board. He looks to Mrs. Fox and puts his finger to his lips for her to be quiet. She shrugs impatiently. They duck inside. They come back out. Each holds a dead, bloody pigeon in his/her teeth. They start to run away. Fox looks up above them. He stops. He frowns. He takes the pigeon out of his mouth and says curiously, pointing toward the sky: FOX What's that? I think that's a fox-trap! Look at this. MRS. FOX Get away from there. FOX Is it spring-loaded? Yeah... (pointing to different spots) I guess if you come from over there, and you're standing at the door to the squab shack, this little gadget probably triggers the -- (gesturing to Mrs. Fox) Move out of the way, darling. That's right where it's going to land. Mrs. Fox runs back to Fox and tugs at his arm. MRS. FOX Come on! Stop it! Let's go! 4. Fox pulls on a little, hanging wire. A chain unrolls rapidly from a pulley, and a steel cage falls slap down on top of them. A small tag on the base of it says Badoit et Fils. Fox and Mrs. Fox stand motionless, side by side, in disbelief. FOX No, it just falls straight down right here, doesn't it? I guess it's not spring- loaded. Sounds come from around the farm: the dog barks, doors open, voices yell, lights come on. Mrs. Fox turns to Fox and says QUIETLY: MRS. FOX I'm pregnant. Fox stares at Mrs. Fox. He is confused but moved. FOX Wow. We're going to have a cub. Honey, that's great news! MRS. FOX If we're still alive tomorrow morning, I want you to find another line of work. Pause. Fox nods. CUT TO: A wide shot of the entire valley. There are thick woods, green and yellow fields, two ponds, a small village, and a river running through the middle. TITLE: 2 YEARS LATER ( 12 Fox-Years) EXT. HOLE. DAY The entrance to a tunnel under a dirt mound covered with holly bushes. INT. HOLE. DAY A small, comfortable kitchen off a living room with two bedrooms behind it. Fox sits at the kitchen table reading a newspaper called the Gazette. His fur has gone grey at the temples, and he now wears a dark, double-breasted, pin- striped suit with a conservative necktie. Mrs. Fox stands at the counter-top stirring something in a bowl with a whisk. 5. She is dressed in a paint-splattered, cream-colored, Victorian-style dress. INSERT: A column in the newspaper with Fox's picture at the top of it. The caption reads: Fox about Town with Fantastic Mr. Fox. FOX Does anybody actually read my column? Do your friends ever talk about it? MRS. FOX (STILL STIRRING) Of course. In fact, Rabbit's ex- girlfriend just said to me last week, "I should read Foxy's column," but they don't get the Gazette. (yelling into the next room) Ash! Let's get cracking! FOX Why would they? It's a rag-sheet. (SIGHS) I want to say I hate my job, but that would make it seem more important to me than I want people to think it is. Mrs. Fox puts down her bowl and starts slicing a loaf of bread. A small, narrow fox cub comes out of one of the bedrooms wearing white pants and no shirt. His hair is smashed all onto one side sticking up wrong. He is Ash. ASH I'm sick. MRS. FOX You're not sick. ASH I have a temperature. Mrs. Fox goes quickly over to Ash and puts her paw to his forehead. MRS. FOX You don't have a temperature. Ash turns away and says as he goes back into his bedroom: ASH I don't want to go. 6. MRS. FOX Hurry up. You're going to be late. Mrs. Fox goes back into the kitchen and starts making toast and coffee. Fox whispers to her: FOX I love the way you handled that. Mrs. Fox looks at Fox sideways. She says loudly to Ash: MRS. FOX Your cousin Kristofferson's coming first thing tomorrow morning. I want you to be extra nice to him, because he's going through a very hard time right now, OK? Ash comes back out of his bedroom. He now wears a white cardigan and white socks with his white pants tucked into them. He says aggressively: ASH Where's he going to sleep? MRS. FOX We're going to make a bed for him in your room tonight. ASH I can't spare the space. Put him in Dad's study. Fox says without looking up from his newspaper: FOX Dad's study is occupied by Dad. Ash goes back into his bedroom. Fox lowers his newspaper. He looks around the room. He says to Mrs. Fox: FOX I don't want to live in a hole anymore. It makes me feel poor. Mrs. Fox stops buttering the toast. She looks to Fox and says SOFTLY: MRS. FOX We are poor -- but we're happy. Fox twists his paw in the air, indicating: 7. FOX Comme-ci, comme-ga. Anyway, the views are better above ground. Mrs. Fox nods. She brings Fox a plate of toast and a cup of coffee. Fox takes her paw and says: FOX I'm seven non-fox-years old now. My father died at seven and a half. I don't want to live in a hole anymore, and I'm going to do something about it. Fox kisses Mrs. Fox's paw. He suddenly eats three slices of toast in a second and a half, savagely but neatly. He stands and picks up his cup of coffee. FOX Well, I'm off. Fox throws back the last of his coffee, kisses Mrs. Fox on the back of her neck, grabs his briefcase, tucks his newspaper under his arm, and walks to the door. He shouts CHEERILY: FOX Have a good day, my darlings! Ash comes out the bedroom again. He has now added a white cape to his ensemble and is in the middle of brushing his teeth. There is toothpaste all over his mouth. He waves briefly to Fox and goes back into his bedroom. Fox looks puzzled. FOX What's he wearing? Mrs. Fox shrugs. She smiles sadly and waves to Fox. Fox waves back. He starts to go out but pauses to look down at a folded up section of his newspaper. INSERT: A clipping from the real estate section. There is a photograph of a wide, sprawling beech tree at the top of a hill. A caption below it reads: Tree Living, Great Views, Classic Beech INT. TREE. DAY A door opens into a wide, low space with peeling paint. There is an old chair against the wall, a bare light bulb hanging 8. from the ceiling, and a layer of dust over everything. A skinny weasel in a khaki outfit immediately starts in as Fox comes into the living room: WEASEL Obviously, it's first growth, indigenous. Original dirt floor, good bark, skipping stone hearth -- Weasel is interrupted by a loud banging clank. He and Fox peer into the next room. A heavy-set opossum with a cowlick tinkers with some pipes under the kitchen sink. He is Kylie. Weasel snaps at him: WEASEL What'd I tell you? I'm showing the property. You're not supposed to be here. KYLIE (checking his watch) Oh, cuss. What time is it? I'm sorry. Weasel sighs. He waves his arm in Kylie's direction and says distractedly, slightly annoyed: WEASEL This is Kylie. He's the super. (aside to Fix) He's a little -- Weasel makes a fluttering gesture with his paw. Fox nods. He points at a bucket on the floor next to Kylie among bolts, tools, and washers. FOX What's in the bucket, Mr. Kylie? KYLIE (HESITATES) Just minnows. You want one? FOX Certainly. Thank you. Kylie reaches into his bucket and hands Fox a live, wriggling minnow. Fox swallows it whole. Fox stares out the window at three sprawling poultry compounds in the distance. Black smoke pours out of a farmhouse chimney on each property. A sign on a water tower in the first compound reads Boggis Farms and has a picture of a chicken on it. A sign on a silo in the second compound reads Bunce Industries and has a picture of a goose on it. A sign on a windmill in the third compound reads Bean, inc. 9. (since 1976) and has a picture of a turkey with an apple on it. Weasel says pointedly from across the room: WEASEL May I ask what you do for a living, Mr. Fox? Fox's eyes narrow as he looks out, entranced, with his mouth slightly open. He says almost inaudibly: FOX I used to steal birds, but now I'm a newspaper man. WEASEL (PLEASED) Oh, sure. I've seen your by-line. Fox snaps out of his reverie and says suddenly: FOX Good afternoon, gentlemen. Fox shakes hands abruptly with Weasel and starts across the room. Weasel is about to ask something when Fox stops in the doorway, looks back, and says: FOX Oh, and Kylie -- thank you for the minnow. It was superb. Kylie smiles. Fox exits. EXT. RIVER. DAY A beaver dam across a bend in a fast stream. A still pond sits above it. There is an entrance tunnel tucked beneath a rock. INT. BEAVER DAM. DAY A large room of twig, stick, and mud construction. A card on the door reads Badger, Beaver, and Stoat, L.L.P, Attorneys at Law. An anxious badger sits at his desk reviewing some documents. Fox paces the floor with his hands clasped behind his back. BADGER Don't buy this tree, Foxy. You're borrowing at nine and a half, which stinks like cuss, plus moving into the most dangerous neighborhood in the (MORE) 10. BADGER (CONT'D) country for someone of your type of species. FOX You're exaggerating, Badger. BADGER (YELLING) Bull-cuss! I'm sugar-coating it, man! This is Boggis, Bunce, and Bean! Three of the meanest, nastiest, ugliest farmers in the history of this valley! An uneasy otter secretary peers in at them from the outer office. Fox looks intrigued. FOX Really? Tell me about them. Silence. Badger sighs. He loosens his tie and settles in. BADGER All right... CUT TO: A fat man with a huge moustache. He wears a tweed suit which stretches at the buttons so much that they look like they are about to snap off. He holds a carbine rifle. He stands in front of his farm, which contains row upon row of chicken houses. He has an ugly face. He is Boggis. BADGER (V.0.) Walter Boggis is a chicken farmer. Probably the most successful in the world. INT. BOGGIS' KITCHEN. DAY Boggis sits at a chopping block tearing into a boiled chicken with a fork and a meat cleaver. BADGER (V.0.) He's unbelievably fat -- which maybe is genetic -- but he also eats three boiled chickens smothered with dumplings every day for breakfast, lunch, supper, and dessert. That's twelve in total, per diem. INSERT: 11. Boggis' ear. Furry black and white hairs grow out of it. A fly buzzes around, lands on it, and crawls inside. Boggis sticks his pinky in after it and scratches. BADGER (V.0.) He never takes a bath, as a result of which his ear holes are clogged with all kinds of muck and wax and bits of chewing gum and dead flies and so on. CUT TO: A short, overweight man with one slightly wandering eye. He wears overalls and a cap. He holds a twelve-gauge shotgun. He stands in front of his farm, which consists of several long buildings in rows like a factory. He has a nasty face. He is Bunce. BADGER (V.0.) Nathan Bunce is a duck and goosefarmer. He owns about 2 million ducksand 500,000 geese. You might say he's kind ofa pot- bellied dwarf of some kind. EXT. SWIMMING POOL. DAY Bunce stands up to his nose in water. The depth reads 4FT. BADGER (V.0.) He's so short his chin would probably be under water in the shallow end of any swimming pool on the planet. INT. BUNCE'S KITCHEN. DAY Bunce sits on two stacked telephone books on a chair. He guts a dead goose, cutting out its liver and mashing it with a fork. A plate of doughnuts cools on the table. BADGER (V.0.) He eats only doughnuts with smashed-up goose livers injected into them. CUT TO: A tall, skinny man in a long trench-coat. He holds a Luger pistol. He stands in front of his farm, which is an apple orchard that stretches over thousands of acres. He has a mean face. He is Bean. BADGER (V.0.) Franklin Bean is a turkey and apple farmer. He keeps his birds in an orchard (MORE) 12. BADGER (V.0.) (cont'd) where they run around squawking and gobbling, surrounded by apples. Bean aims his Luger and shoots a humming bird. Crazy turkeys run about among the trees. INT. BEAN'S SHED. DAY Bean works at a moonshine-type cider still, boiling chemicals and sipping from a bottle. BADGER (V.0.) He's probably anorexic, because he never eats anything. He's on a liquid diet of strong, alcoholic cider, which he makes from his apples. He's as skinny as a pencil, as smart as a whip -- and easily the biggest cusshole I've ever met in my life. CUT TO: Fox and Badger in Badger's office. BADGER In summation, I think you just got to not do it, man. That's all. FOX I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm going to ignore your advice. Badger leaps out of his chair and slams the office door. He points his finger at Fox and screams: BADGER The cuss you are! FOX (IN DISBELIEF) The cuss am I? Fox jumps up and points back at Badger, screaming: FOX Don't cussing point at me! BADGER (SCREAMING) Are you cussing with me? 13. FOX (SCREAMING) Do I look like I'm cussing with you? Fox and Badger begin to snarl and snap savagely, knocking into the furniture as they circle around the room pointing in each other's faces. Suddenly, they calm down all at once, sighing deeply. Pause. FOX One last thing: something's probably about to happen to me at work which I can't put my finger on but have a funny feeling about. How can I protect myself legally? BADGER (PAUSE) Are you about to get fired? FOX (SHRUGS) Slash quit. CUT TO: A door with a frosted glass window. Letters painted on it read Gazette, Editor-in-Chief, Phillip Squirrel. Fox's silhouette stands across from that of a small squirrel sitting at a desk. The squirrel's silhouette says in a GRAVELLY VOICE: SQUIRREL You're fired. FOX Slash I quit. Here's my letter of resignation. Fox's silhouette throws an envelope onto the squirrel's desk. MONTAGE: Two muskrats in orange moving company uniforms unloads boxes and furniture from a wagon and carries them into the tree. Fox holds open the front door and barks orders at them. Two muskrats in white painter's uniforms paints the walls of the living room and the trim around the windows with rollers and brushes. Fox stands on the drop-cloth and barks orders at them. 14. Two muskrats in blue electrician's uniforms work in the kitchen. Mrs. Fox watches over their shoulders and barks orders at them. Fox holds up a pair of flowered curtains in front of a window. He looks to Mrs. Fox. She stares at the curtains thoughtfully. She raises an eyebrow. Fox and Mrs. Fox sit in the windowsill looking out at the sunset. Ash stands in-between them. The flowered curtains wave in the breeze. Fox puffs on a pipe. Ash blows a soap bubble. Mrs. Fox puts out her paw and a butterfly lands on it. She smiles at Fox. He puts his arm around her. He raises a pair of binoculars to his eyes. INSERT: A binocular shot of an industrial shack with Boggis Chicken House #1 stencilled on the front of it. Fox lowers the binoculars. His eyes sparkle. EXT. TREE. DAY Ash stands poised on a high branch over an inflatable swimming pool printed with a red-tartan plaid pattern. He wears over-sized swim trunks with a pattern of acorns printed on them. Fox sits in the grass eating an apple below with Mrs. Fox. She is painting at an easel. Ash yells: ASH Watch this, Dad! Fox looks up. Ash leaps into the air and does a spectacularly awkward back-flip during which he appears to have four arms and three legs randomly attached to his body, flailing wildly. He hits the water by the side of his head and smacks into the surface back-first with a pained yelp. Fox grimaces. He claps mildly. (NOTE: an alternate version of Ash with four arms and three legs randomly attached to his body will be used for this stunt.) FOX Good jump, Ash! Remember to keep your tail tucked! Fox looks at Mrs. Fox's canvas. It is a picture of the pond and landscape in severe weather with black clouds and lightning bolts. It is signed Felicity Fox. Fox raises an eyebrow. 15. FOX Still painting thunderstorms, I see. Fox sees a small, Samsonite suitcase on the ground next to a pair of yellow sneakers. He frowns. FOX Whose suitcase is that? A boy's voice shouts from the high tree branch: KRISTOFFERSON Hello, everyone! Good afternoon! Fox, Mrs. Fox, and Ash look up, surprised. A second Fox cub stands poised on the edge of the limb. He is taller, leaner, sleeker, and it is immediately apparent even by his posture infinitely more graceful than Ash. He is Kristofferson. He wears a professional Speedo with a patch on it that says Swim Team. Fox brightens. FOX Kristofferson! Welcome to our little tree! I see you brought your swimming trunks! Kristofferson steps off the branch and performs a reserved but perfect jack-knife. He enters the water splashlessly. Fox leaps to his feet, applauding with his paws above his head, whistling and hollering: FOX Look at that! This kid's a natural! I'm speechless, Kristofferson! Kristofferson smiles modestly and shrugs. Ash stares at him stonily. Fox turns to Mrs. Fox. FOX Plus, he knows karate. INT. LIVING ROOM. EVENING Fox sits in his armchair reading the Gazette. Ash sits on a braided rug on the floor beside him reading a comic book called The Adventures of White Cape. On the cover, there is a picture of a ferret leaping off a motorcycle. Mrs. Fox is in the kitchen in the background flattening a hunk of dough with a rolling pin. Kristofferson is in the next room practicing tae-kwon-do. He wears khaki shorts, yellow sneakers, and a blue, short-sleeved, button-down shirt. 16. ASH Do you think I'm an athlete? FOX (without looking up) What are you talking about? ASH Well, you know, I think I'm an athlete, and sometimes I feel like you guys don't see me that way. FOX What's the sub-text here? Ash thinks for a minute. He looks at Kristofferson in the next room. Kristofferson is now sitting Indian-style on the floor meditating. His paws are turned upward with his thumbs touching his index fingers forming a ring. Ash says loudly to Mrs. Fox in the kitchen: ASH How long is Kristofferson supposed to stay with us? MRS. FOX Until your uncle gets better. ASH Right, but roughly how long do we plan to give him on that? Double-pneumonia isn't even really that big of a deal, is it? In the background, Kristofferson stands up again and starts practicing violent karate kicks. Mrs. Fox leans into the doorway and whispers forcefully: MRS. FOX As a matter of fact, it is. He's lucky to be alive. Now -- ASH Right, but -- Kristofferson yells suddenly as he does a spinning double- kick with a chop: KRISTOFFERSON Ki-ya! Everyone looks startled. Kristofferson resumes his tae-kwon- do practice with an angry, wounded look on his face. Mrs. Fox SAYS COLDLY: 17. MRS. FOX Lower your voice, Ash. EXT. TREE. NIGHT Fox and Kylie sit in a porch swing on one of the middle branches of Fox's tree. They drink cups of coffee. Crickets chirp. FOX Kids are crazy, aren't they? You got to try it, though. Raising a family. KYLIE Yeah. Sometimes I feel like maybe I MIGHT -- FOX What do you think of this tree, by the way? It's great, huh? KYLIE (HESITATES) Yeah. No, I was just saying how some- TIMES -- FOX I have one last part of what I was about to say. KYLIE OK. Go ahead. FOX I'm going broke. You want to help me steal some chickens? CUT TO: Fox's study, the next morning. A map of the valley with notes and arrows written all over it is spread across a desk. The door is closed with a towel jammed under it. A cricket match plays loudly on the radio. Fox sits in his armchair. Kylie sits in a creaky rocking chair. FOX I used to do this professionally, and I was very successful at it. I had to get out of it for personal reasons, but I've decided to secretly quit my job slash got fired to pursue it again. I'm bringing you in as my secretary and personal assistant. 18. KYLIE OK! FOX (PRICKLY) This is actually kind of a big deal, so don't just say, "OK!" KYLIE OK. Well, thank you. FOX (clearing is throat) I'm going totape this formyrecords,so don't make a lot of sounds --meaning stop rocking. KYLIE (DEFENSIVELY) Well, maybe we ought to turn off the radio, then. That's noisier than -- FOX I don't want people to eavesdrop on us, Kylie. Let me just tell this. Kylie stops rocking. Fox presses record on a tape recorder. HE BEGINS: FOX Master Plan. Phase one. Side A. CUT TO: That night. Fox stands on a rock at the edge of the woods looking through his binoculars. He lowers them and gives a hand-signal. Kylie joins him, and they start out along the moonlit ridge. Fox wears a dark car-coat and a black cap. Kylie has on a navy ski-hat. FOX (V.0.) We'll start with Boggis' Chicken House #1. His only security is a few old hunting beagles and a low stone wall. Now a word about beagles: never look a beagle directly in the eye. And if -- KYLIE (V.0.) (INTERRUPTING) Why not? CUT TO: 19. Fox and Kylie in Fox's study earlier that afternoon. Kylie SAYS BLITHELY: KYLIE Beagles aren't so tough. FOX (ANNOYED) Yeah? Well, first of all, one of these beagles has chronic rabies, which he's on medication for, and if you get bit by him you have to get shots in your stomach for six months. And, second -- listen, I'm not going to justify this to you. Just pay attention and stop interrupting me. I'm taping this. EXT. RAVINE. NIGHT Fox and Kylie shimmy down a steep embankment and cross a stream. FOX (V.0.) I picked some blueberries, butterflied them with a scalpel, and laced each one with ten milligrams of high-potency sleeping powder. INSERT: Fox's paws meticulously sprinkle a powdered mickey into a dissected blueberry and stitch it shut with red thread. FOX (V.0.) Enough to tranquilize a charging gorilla. CUT TO: Fox and Kylie in Fox's study earlier that afternoon. They now smoke pipes. KYLIE How do we make them eat it? FOX (smiling, with utter certainty) Beagles love blueberries. EXT. RIDGE. NIGHT Fox and Kylie push through a bramble and climb to the top of an elderberry bush. Fox looks through his binoculars. 20. FOX (V.O.) If we approach with the wind in our faces, we'll smell the chicken livers on Boggis' breath from at least fifty yards away. EXT. BARNYARD. DAY Seventy-five chickens stand around quietly but anxiously, darting wildly nervous looks at one another. They eat bits of grain off the ground. FOX (V.O.) Remember: they aren't very smart, but they're incredibly paranoid -- so always kill a chicken in one bite. CUT TO: Fox and Kylie in Fox's study earlier that afternoon. They now drink whiskey sours. Fox repeats: FOX One bite, get it? Fox waits for Kylie to respond. Kylie does not. Fox frowns. FOX Are you listening to me? I look into your eyes and I can't tell whether you're getting anything I'm saying. Kylie stares at Fox vacantly. He shrugs. (NOTE: an alternate set of eyeballs will be used for any shots indicating Kylie's vacant look.) EXT. MEADOW. NIGHT Fox and Kylie move swiftly through the tall grass. Fox pauses to sniff the air. He nods. FOX A few beagles, as we discussed, but we're ready for that. Fox and Kylie cross a dirt lane and come out of a shallow ditch. Fox licks the pinky of his paw and holds it up in the air. FOX You feel that? The wind's in our faces. 21. Kylie touches his face with his paw. He nods. Fox and Kylie run along the edge of the ditch. Kylie says casually: KYLIE Yeah, back in the old days, didn't they used to do a thing where if somebody saw a wolf, and -- FOX (STARTLED) What wolf? Fox stops in his tracks. His eyes dart about. Kylie looks at him curiously. FOX Oh, nothing? Never mind. Fox and Kylie veer off into shorter grasses. Fox points ahead, regaining his composure: FOX Here comes the low stone wall. Not a problem. Fox and Kylie climb over a low stone wall and find themselves at the base of a chain-link fence eleven feet high. FOX This is a chain-link fence, I guess. Did I not remember this? Maybe it's new. Let's pause. (SUDDENLY ANGRY) What the cuss? Where'd this giant fence come from? We had a master plan! Kylie motions to a yellow, plywood lightning bolt posted to the fence. KYLIE What's this lightning bolt stand for? FOX Give me a second! I said, "Let's pause"! Pause. Fox pulls himself together. He turns to look at the plywood lightning bolt. FOX That, I guess, hypothetically, could mean maybe this fence might be electric. 22. KYLIE Well, I just hope it doesn't mean thunder. I have a phobia of that. Fox and Kylie climb a tree and crouch at the end of one of its branches. Fox produces a zip-loc bag filled with blueberries with white thread stitched into them. FOX Watch this. Fox puts a blueberry into the end of a straw and shoots it out into the barnyard. CUT TO: The blueberry landing on the ground in front of Chicken House #1. A beagle approaches it and sniffs at it. He eats it. He looks very pleased. He falls over, out cold. CUT TO: Fox with an ecstatic expression on his face. He rapidly shoots more and more blueberries across the barnyard. Beagles eat blueberries and fall over, one after another. Fox and Kylie drop down into the barnyard and head for Chicken House #1. Fox whispers excitedly as they run: FOX Beagles love blueberries! Didn't I tell you? The master plan's working again! Kylie raises his fist enthusiastically and trips over an unconscious beagle. He picks himself up quickly, and they weave among the rest of the beagles. They reach the entrance to the chicken house, open the door, and duck inside. Pause. There is an eruption of crazed squawking, screaming, and fighting from inside. The chicken house rumbles. Lights jolt on across the compound. An alarm goes off. Voices yell. The chicken house door swings open again, and Fox and Kylie emerge among a cloud of feathers. Fox carries two dead chickens, and Kylie has one live one. Fox yells: FOX I said one bite, cuss it! KYLIE I'm trying! I have a different kind of teeth from you! I'm an opossum! 23. Kylie tries to bite the chicken on the neck. The chicken is unharmed. Kylie shrugs. Fox kills the chicken with one quick flick of the jaws. Kylie looks horrified. KYLIE That's so grisly! There's blood and everything! FOX (DEFENSIVELY) We're killing chickens! There's going to be blood in this story! Follow me! Fox and Kylie dash to the electric fence. They stop in front of it. Kylie looks to Fox. KYLIE What's the master escape plan? Fox hesitates, confused. A gunshot fires from among the chicken houses. Fox shouts to Kylie: FOX Follow me again! Fox and Kylie run back across the barnyard, past the beagles as they begin to wake up and stagger around. Farmhands appear, loading shotguns and running into the confusion. Fox and Kylie race by, unnoticed, among them. They dart into the house through a flap in the back door. The lights are out in the kitchen. They take a moment, breathing hard in the darkness. Kylie shakes his head in disbelief. KYLIE Wow. That was amazing. How did we do that? We ran the other way or something. FOX Yeah. KYLIE What happens now? FOX I have no idea. Fox opens the door-flap a crack. He looks out and sees Boggis opening the front gate to let out his beagles and farmhands, barking and shooting, as they search for the intruders. Fox shouts to Kylie: 24. FOX Holy cuss! They opened the gate! Follow me again! Lightning quick, Fox and Kylie burst out through the door- flap, race across the barnyard, and dart through the open gate. Up the road, Boggis screams furiously as he runs with his pack of beagles and farmhands. Fox and Kylie fly into the bushes. As they race through the underbrush Fox says BREATHLESSLY: FOX Let's hit the five and dime on the way home! We need to make some fake price tags and wrap these chickens in wax-paper so it looks like we got them at the butcher shop! Fox and Kylie howl ecstatically. MONTAGE: A fox's paw lifts a silver dome off a perfectly roasted chicken with an apple in its mouth. Fox and Mrs. Fox sit at a candle-lit table eating chicken and drinking wine. Ash, Kristofferson, and Kylie sit at a slightly miniature table eating chicken and drinking milk. Fox laughs hysterically as he tells his wife a story. Wine comes out of his nose. Fox and Kylie dash out the door of Boggis' Chicken House #7 carrying three more dead chickens. Lights jolt on. Farmhands run out firing shotguns. Fox and Kylie escape through a hole cut into the electric fence. Fox and Kylie dash out the window of Bunce's Poultry Barn C carrying two dead ducks and a goose. Alarms ring. Farmhands run out firing pistols. Fox and Kylie escape through a hole knocked into a brick wall. Fox and Kylie dash out the gates of Bean's Apple Orchard XII carrying two dead turkeys and a basket of apples. Automatic doors close. Farmhands run out firing rifles. Fox and Kylie escape through a hole chopped into a burning barricade. Fox and Kylie run full-speed through a clover field in the dark. The camera zooms in slowly on their faces as they ford a stream, leap a fallen hawthorn, and cross into the willow glade. They look exhilarated. 25. INT. KITCHEN. EVENING Mrs. Fox studies a crayon price-tag labelled $4 attached to a wax-paper-wrapped parcel. She opens the parcel and holds up a dead chicken by the leg. There is a small metal clip around its ankle. She examines it. She frowns. Fox comes in, grabs an apple out of a bowl, and starts back out of the room. MRS. FOX Where'd you get this chicken? FOX (SHRUGS) I picked it up at the Five-and-Dime last night on my way back from -- MRS. FOX It's got a Boggis Farms tag around its ankle. FOX (HESITATES) Huh. Must've escaped from there before I bought it. INT. DINING ROOM. EVENING Ash, Kristofferson, and Kylie sit at the children's table eating dinner. Next to Ash, there is a small, slightly beaten- up statue of a fox with his front legs raised in the air holding a medal above his head. Kylie points at it. KYLIE What's that? ASH This? Nothing. Just some old trophy I won for being an athlete. Fox and Mrs. Fox sit at the adults' table. Fox guzzles down a last sip of wine and says with his mouth full of food: FOX I'm supposed to cover this book party at some animal's nest in a tobacco field down the hill, so me and Kylie are going to hop over there and give it a whirl. Don't wait up. Fox pulls his napkin out of his collar, drops it on the table, and stands up. Mrs. Fox asks cooly: 26. MRS. FOX What's the book? FOX (HESITATES) Some memoir. I'll get him to sign you a copy. Fox kisses Mrs. Fox on the cheek. She looks at him suspiciously. FOX Dinner was -- (doing a little gesture) -- pitch-perfect. EXT. WOODS. NIGHT Fox and Kylie walk among the trees. They are dressed in their prowling outfits. FOX I spotted a couple of broken burglar bars underneath the back door to Bean's secret cider cellar. KYLIE We're breaking into Bean's house? FOX (HESITATES) Cellar. KYLIE Where he lives? FOX (HESITATES) Where he keeps the cider. ASH (BRIGHTLY) Below where he lives. Ash, dressed in his own prowling outfit, is walking with Fox and Kylie. Fox stops short: FOX Where'd you come from? Go back to the tree and do your homework! ASH I want to help you steal some cider. 27. FOX (ANGRILY) We're going to a book party! And keep your mouth shut about any cider, because no one ever said that! Get out of here! ASH But Dad -- FOX But nothing! You're going to get me in a lot of trouble! The three animals stand in silence for a minute. Fox points to his tree. Ash turns and starts back home. Fox shakes his head. FOX Where the cuss does that kid get off? Can you believe that? How'd he get tipped off? You think he's going to tell on us? Fox turns to Kylie. Kylie looks back at him vacantly. FOX Before we go any further, from now on can you give me some kind of signal once in a while just so I know any of this is getting through to you? Pause. Kylie makes a slight motion with his paw. Fox hesitates. FOX Was that it? OK. EXT. BARNYARD. NIGHT Fox and Kylie dart across the yard and around the back of Bean's farmhouse. Kylie whispers as they run: KYLIE One time this wolf -- FOX (IRRITATED) What's with all the wolf talk? Can we give it a rest, for once? Fox climbs onto a garbage pail and pulls open a window shutter. He and Kylie shimmy in-between two bent burglar bars. 28. INT. BEAN'S SECRET CIDER CELLAR. NIGHT A vast, damp, gloomy cellar with hundreds of glass jars stacked from floor to ceiling. Each jar is marked Cider. Fox and Kylie come inside and quietly drop to the brick floor. KYLIE WHISPERS: KYLIE Look at all this apple juice. FOX (STERNLY) Apple juice? Apple juice? We didn't come here for apple juice. This is some of the strongest, finest alcoholic cider money can buy -- or that can even be stolen. It burns in your throat, boils in your stomach, and tastes almost exactly like pure, melted gold. (SUDDENLY) Let's crack open one these 'shine jars and do a shooter. A match strikes in the darkness. Fox and Kylie look around the room frantically. On the highest shelf, peering out from behind a huge jar, they see an enormous rat in a striped shirt with a lit match in his claw. He puts the flame in his mouth to snuff it out and holds the matchstick in his teeth. He is longer than a fox and wiry, but with a small pot-belly. He wears a black beret and moves like a beatnik. He takes a draw from a small rubber tube inserted in the neck of his cider jar. He says with a slightly sinister New ORLEANS ACCENT: RAT Y'all are trespassin', now. Illegally. 'Round these parts, we don't take kindly to cider poachers. Fox and Rat stare at each other. Fox says, finally: FOX You've aged badly, Rat. RAT You're gettin' a little long in the tooth, yourself, partner. Rat spins around and hurls himself scuttling over a shelf, down the wall, and through the air onto the brick floor at Fox's feet. He flicks open a switchblade and brandishes it. He hisses. 29. Kylie shrieks and darts into a hole where a brick is missing in the wall. Fox takes an old-fashioned boxing stance. RAT How's your old lady doin'? Kylie peers out from his hole in the wall nervously. Fox and Rat circle each other slowly. FOX Do you refer to my wife? RAT She was the town tart, in her day. Wild and foot-loose and pretty as a mink stole. She was a creme brulee -- until you made an honest woman out of her, Mr. Fox. Kylie says, intrigued, from his hole: KYLIE Is that true? FOX (ANNOYED) Of course, not. I mean, certainly, she lived. We all did. It was a different time. Let's not use a double-standard. She marched against the -- KYLIE But town tart? FOX Shut up. Rat lunges at Fox with his switchblade. Fox dodges nimbly. He cocks an eyebrow and smiles: FOX That was close, Rat. Be careful. RAT Oh, I'm as careful as a -- A door at the top of the stairs opens suddenly with a loud creak. Rat and Fox look terrified. They both dart away and hide behind cider jars. A heavy-set, middle-aged housekeeper carrying a rolling pin comes down the stairs and walks straight over to the shelf where Fox is hiding. 30. HOUSEKEEPER How many jars should I bring up, ma'am? A strong, almost masculine woman's voice answers from UPSTAIRS: MASCULINE VOICE I don't know. Two, I guess. The housekeeper grabs the two jars directly next to the one Fox is hiding behind and tucks them under her arm. Fox tenses his body. He shivers slightly. A graze of the red fur of his arm sticks out barely from behind his jar. The housekeeper hesitates. HOUSEKEEPER He drank three yesterday, ma'am. MASCULINE VOICE All right, take three. The housekeeper grabs Fox's jar. Fox closes his eyes. MASCULINE VOICE No, don't. The housekeeper stops with her hand on the neck of Fox's jar. MASCULINE VOICE Three's too many. It's unhealthy. He's anorexic. Bring two. The housekeeper lets go of Fox's jar. Fox relaxes slightly. The housekeeper grabs Fox's jar again. Fox tenses up. HOUSEKEEPER But maybe, just in case -- MASCULINE VOICE Two's plenty. The housekeeper lets go of Fox's jar and walks away. She goes back up the stairs and closes the door. Kylie says in the DARKNESS: KYLIE Oh, my cuss. That was like a scene out of A -- The door opens again. An exceptionally tall, powerfully built woman in a black dress and Wellingtons, with grey hair pulled- back in a bun, bright green eyes, and a meat cleaver tucked under her apron strings comes swiftly down the stairs. She 31. eyeballs the corners of the room. She is Mrs. Bean. She says thickly (in her masculine voice): MRS. BEAN To whom it may concern: if I catch a rat in a black beret drinking Mr. Bean's secret cider without his express permission, I intend to chop said rat's head off, brine it, pickle it, and bake it in a vermin casserole. I hope this clarifies my position on the matter. Sincerely, Evelyn Bean. Mrs. Bean turns and goes back up the stairs. She closes the door. Pause. Rat's voice says from the shadows: RAT Dear Mrs. Bean, your language, while somewhat purple, is nevertheless impossible to misinterpret. However -- comma -- given the proximity of said rat at the moment of your -- The door at the top the stairs opens again. Silence. CUT TO: Fox and Kylie running away from Bean's farmhouse with two jars of cider. They both look badly shaken. A gunshot rings out taking us to: EXT. BEAN FARMS. NIGHT Bean is standing darkly in his front doorway. Smoke drifts from the end of his Luger, pointed at the ceiling. A broken light bulb hangs from a wire above his head. Boggis and Bunce sit together on the porch in rocking chairs, startled, staring at Bean. BEAN I'm going to give a speech, and at the end of it -- I'm going to throw a twist into this plot. Bean lights a cigarette and begins to walk slowly around the porch. BEAN First truth: this is the most ambitious fox we've ever encountered, bar none. Bean spins around and shoots out a second light bulb. Boggis and Bunce look uneasy. Bean continues: 32. BEAN Second truth: the meaning of ambition is defined in the dictionary. Bean jumps and rolls and shoots out a third light bulb. BEAN Third truth: the weakness of the ambitious man is his Achilles heel -- Bean quickly shoots out three more light bulbs behind his back, over his shoulder, and between his legs. The porch goes dark. He flicks on a flashlight and points it in his two colleague's faces. They look scared. Bean says urgently: BEAN -- but I've already figured out where this fox lives, and tomorrow night we're going to camp in the bushes, wait for him to come out of the hole in his tree, and shoot the cuss to smithereens. How's that grab you, fellas? Boggis and Bunce hesitate. They nod and murmur their approval. INT. FOX'S TREE. NIGHT Fox and Kylie come quietly into the half-lit kitchen dressed in their prowling outfits. They walk to the door. MRS. FOX Another book party? Fox and Kylie turn around, startled. Mrs. Fox sits on a stool in the darkened pantry. FOX Woah! I didn't see you. Sitting in the dark over there. Yeah, no. Actually, there's a fire. I just got the call. They said maybe it's arson? I got to interview the marshall and see what's -- MRS. FOX Kylie, is he telling the truth? KYLIE (FREAKING OUT) I don't want to be put in the middle of this. 33. FOX (PAUSE) Thanks, Kylie. MRS. FOX If what I think is happening is HAPPENING -- (OMINOUSLY) -- it better not be. CUT TO: Boggis, Bunce, and Bean waiting crouched in the bushes. Bean licks his finger and holds it up to test the direction of the wind. He nods, points to his nose, and gives a thumbs-up to Boggis and Bunce. EXT. FOX'S TREE. NIGHT Fox pokes his head up out of his hole. He sniffs once. He moves an inch forward and stops. He sniffs again. He waits a moment and listens. He steps out of the hole and says STONILY: FOX Nice job covering for me. Next time TRY -- A twig snaps. Fox freezes. CUT TO: Boggis, Bunce, and Bean frozen in the bushes. CUT TO: The branches of the trees as the wind suddenly changes its direction. CUT TO: Fox on high alert. He rapidly sniffs the air three times in a row. He turns to a confused Kylie and says, panicking: FOX All three! Fox and Kylie spin around and dart back into the hole as Boggis, Bunce, and Bean open fire wildly from the bushes. A barrage of bullets and buckshot rips into the tree-bark. Silence. 34. Smoke from the three guns floats upward in the night air. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean approach the tree. Bean shines his flashlight on Fox's hole. In the circle of light on the ground lies the tattered, blood- stained remains of Fox's tail. Bean picks it up and holds it in the air in front of Boggis and Bunce. BEAN We got the tail, but we missed the fox. Pause. Bean takes out his walkie-talkie. BEAN Petey? You and the boys sober up and get out here on the A.S.A.P. Bring eleven shovels, three pick-axes, 500 rounds of ammunition, and a bottle of apple cider. INT. FOX'S TREE. NIGHT Mrs. Fox licks the stump of Fox's tail and mends it with gauze and medical tape. She looks furious. Kylie and the Fox cubs watch, concerned. Ash says uncertainly: ASH It'll grow back, won't it? KYLIE (shaking his head) Tails don't grow back, except for lizards. FOX (MISERABLY) Tails don't grow back. I'm going to be tail-less for the rest of my life. ASH (NERVOUSLY) Well, anyway, it's not half as bad as double-pneumonia, right? (pointing to Kristofferson) His dad's got one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel. That's a lot worse than -- Kristofferson hurls an acorn violently onto the floor. It ricochets off a wall and into a teacup. Everyone falls silent. Kristofferson turns away. 35. KRISTOFFERSON Excuse me, everyone. I'm going to go meditate for half an hour. Kristofferson walks out of the room. Mrs. Fox looks at Ash and says angrily: MRS. FOX You've got twenty-nine minutes to come up with a proper apology. Ash crosses his arms in front of his chest and stares straight ahead into space grimly. Fox says suddenly: FOX What's with the crazy outfit? Why a cape and the pants tucked into your socks? Ash does not respond. Fox sighs. Mrs. Fox finishes bandaging his tail. Fox goes over to the wall and stands with his back to the room. FOX I got fired slash quit the Gazette and started stealing chickens on the sly. MRS. FOX (ICILY) That tail was the first thing I ever noticed about you. It was easily the most attractive tail for at least 50 miles in every direction. It was probably your single best quality -- and now it's gone forever. CUT TO: Fox lying in bed staring at the ceiling in the dark next to Mrs. Fox. FOX Why the cuss didn't I listen my lawyer? At this point we'll be lucky if we can flip this tree for half of what we've already sunk into it. Fox flips over onto his stomach. FOX I won't be able to sleep on my back for six weeks -- and on my stomach I feel congested. Why the cuss didn't I listen to my lawyer? 36. MRS. FOX (BITTERLY) Because you don't listen to anybody. FOX (sitting up suddenly) What was that? MRS. FOX (PAUSE) What? I said -- There is a quiet scraping sound from above. Fox jumps out of bed. He hollers: FOX Wake up! Everybody! They're digging us out! There is a scrunch and then a loud thump from above. Mrs. Fox looks at Fox intensely: MRS. FOX They'll kill the children! FOX (STEELY) Over my dead body, they will. MRS. FOX (ANGRILY) That's what I'm saying! You'd be dead, too, in that scenario! FOX (ANGRILY) Well, I'm arguing against that! MRS. FOX (SCREAMING) What are you talking about? FOX (SCREAMING) Why are you yelling at me? KYLIE (AGONIZED) Stop! Stop! Stop! Fox and Mrs. Fox turn quickly to Kylie standing in the doorway with a red blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Ash 37. and Kristofferson stand behind him. They look terrified. Kylie shouts in a pained voice: KYLIE You say one thing, she says another, and it all changes back again! The point of a shovel pierces the ceiling. Everyone looks up and stares in shock. Fox suddenly leaps across the room with a wild energy, scrambles halfway up a wall, and throws over two chairs. FOX I've got it! There's not a moment to lose! Why didn't I think of this before? MRS. FOX Think of what? FOX Think of the one thing a fox does quicker than a man, quicker than any other animal in the world! (at the top of his lungs) DIG!!! CUT TO: Everyone digging furiously. Dirt flies everywhere. The shot booms down into the ground, among the roots of the tree, through buried pebbles, layers of soil, and subterranean mineral deposits. TITLE: 1 HOUR LATER The shot stops at the bottom of a dark hole deep, deep underground. Mrs. Fox lies on the floor, breathing heavily, with a lit lantern at her side. The cubs are sprawled out around her. Kylie leans in the corner with his shirt off tied around his waist. Fox stands up and clears his throat. Everyone looks at him. FOX I think it's time for me to give us a pep talk and explain some things. (commencing a speech) A very long time ago -- MRS. FOX May I have a word with you privately? 38. FOX (HESITATES) Well, we're in a hole. Where -- MRS. FOX Just on the other side of this mineral deposit. Follow me. Fox reluctantly follows Mrs. Fox through a crack in the bedrock and into a small air-pocket with glittering quartz walls. She wheels on Fox: MRS. FOX I'm going to lose my temper now. FOX (PAUSE) When? MRS. FOX Right now. FOX (PAUSE) Well, when -- Mrs. Fox scratches Fox across the face, slicing a quick sliver into his fur. Fox cringes away with his paws up protectively. He lowers his paws. His eyes fill with tears. (NOTE: the scar in Fox's fur never grows back.) Mrs. Fox takes a deep breath. She says: MRS. FOX Twelve fox-years ago, you made a promise to me while we were caged inside that fox- trap that, if we survived, you would never steal another chicken, goose, turkey, duck, or squab, whatever they are. I believed you. Why did you lie to me? FOX (SIMPLY) Because I'm a wild animal. MRS. FOX You're also a husband and a father. 39. FOX (PAINED) I'm trying to tell you the truth about myself. MRS. FOX I don't care about the truth about yourself. Fox looks down at the ground. He nods and tries to contain his emotions. Mrs. Fox watches him coldly. MRS. FOX This story is too predictable. FOX (SURPRISED) Predictable? Really? What happens in the end? MRS. FOX (QUIETLY) In the end, we all die -- unless you change. Mrs. Fox walks out of the air-pocket. Fox stands alone in silence. EXT. FOX'S TREE. DAY The next morning. There is a large hole in the side of the hill, under Fox's tree. The ceiling to the living room has been completely removed. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean stand half- underground with their heads sticking out of the hole, breathing hard, with dirty shovels over their shoulders. Bunce stands on Fox's tiny club chair. BUNCE These foxes dig like a bunch of hyperactive gophers. BOGGIS Franklin? You got another twist for this plot? BEAN Say that again? BOGGIS I say you got another -- Bean whips out his walkie-talkie and twirls it like a six- shooter. He presses a button on it and says: 40. BEAN Petey? Get me the current contact info for Earl Malloy on the A.S.A.P. BUNCE (INTRIGUED) Who's Earl Malloy? BEAN (INNOCENTLY) What? You mean over at Malloy Consolidated? Oh, he does rentals. BOGGIS (PAUSE) What does he rent? CUT TO: Three yellow and black, murderous, brutal bulldozer digging- tractors with Malloy Consolidated painted on the sides of them. They make a terrible, high-pitched growling noise and spit black grease and smoke. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean stand among the tractors nodding giddily to each other. They scramble into the drivers' seats and begin ripping into the hillside. Bunce sits on a dictionary to see over the dashboard. CUT TO: Fox, Mrs. Fox, Kylie, Ash, and Kristofferson digging frantically. CUT TO: The tractors grabbing huge chunks of earth and tossing them into the meadow. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, drunk with digging, laugh manically as the controls of their tractors. BEAN Let's kick some fox cuss! BUNCE I'm cussing loving this! BOGGIS Who's hyper-cussing-active now? Bean throws his tractor into top gear. The teeth of the giant shovels clank against each other, ripping through the tree's roots. 41. INSERT: A temperature gauge with its needle pushing the limits of the red. CUT TO: A grizzled, white-haired man in a greasy yellow and black jumpsuit and coke-bottle protective eyeglasses. A patch on his pocket says E. Malloy. He watches the farmers digging crazily with the tractors. Sparks from the mayhem reflect dancing on his lenses. EARL MALLOY These machines weren't made to be handled like this. DISSOLVE TO: The hill with half its earth dug out from under the tree. The tree still stands precariously above the wild tractors. DISSOLVE TO: The hill now razed with the fallen, old beech tree laying on its side as the tractors dig deeper. DISSOLVE TO: The tractors almost completely below ground in a deep crater. A crowd of neighbors and local press from the town has gathered and watches as the tractors stop digging and rumble up out of the crater. The motors go quiet. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean climb down from their tractors. They look angry and tired. They stand among the workers and onlookers. A television reporter with an Action 13 camera crew confronts BEAN: REPORTER Farmer, correct me if I'm misreading the data, you've successfully destroyed the scenery, but the alleged fox remains at large. What will you three prominent farmers do now? BEAN Well, Dan, I can tell you what we're not going to do. We're not going to let him go. 42. REPORTER Are you concerned about the possibility OF -- BEAN I have no further dialogue in this scene. Bean turns away from the reporter and pulls Boggis and Bunce aside. He addresses them with calm intensity: BEAN I'm not going home until we smoke this son-of-a-cuss out his hole, string him up on a clothesline, and fly him like a kite. Boggis, how many men have you got working on your farm? BOGGIS Thirty-five. BEAN Bunce? BUNCE Thirty-six. BEAN And I've got thirty-seven. That's 108 men altogether. Now what do I got here? Two quitters -- or are you staying with? CUT TO: That night. A helicopter with a Bean, inc. decal on the side of it circles the crater scanning the dark terrain with a searchlight. There are tents, trucks, and 108 men gathered around the perimeter. They sit on bricks and logs and are armed with bats, pistols, rifles, shotguns, bows and arrows, and hatchets. INT. HOLE. NIGHT Fox, his family, and Kylie lie exhausted on the floor of their deep hole. The walls are covered with knotted roots and vines. Fox says to Kylie: FOX One of those slovenly farmers is probably wearing my tail as a necktie by now. 43. KYLIE You're paranoid, Foxy. CUT TO: Mrs. Bean sitting in her kitchen watching television next to an extremely skinny, freckled twelve year-old boy. The boy points at the screen and laughs to himself: FRECKLED BOY Look at Dad's tie. INSERT: The television set. Bean is on-screen with the Action 13 reporter. He wears a fox-fur necktie. EXT. CAMP. NIGHT There is a full moon. Lanterns glow in the farmers' tents. A group of farmhands sit around a campfire next to the crater. One of them cooks a chicken on a spit. Another sits on a log playing a banjo. He is Petey. He sings: PETEY 'Bout a handsome little fox Let me sing you folks a yarn. Hey, diddle-dee, doddle-do, doodle-dum! 'Twas a splendid little feller Full of wit 'n' grace 'n' charm. Say, zippy-zee, yappy-yo, google-gum! The shot moves past the leathery faces of the other farmhands as they listen: amused, moved, hungry, tired, charmed, annoyed, whistling, playing a jew's harp, trying to sing along but not really knowing the words, etc. PETEY Like any little critter needin' Vittels for his littl'uns, Well, he stole, and he cheated, And he lied to survive. Doodle-dum, diddle-die, doddle-diddle- doodle-dee! Zippy-zo, zippy-zay, zippy-zappy- zoopy-zee! (this verse is spoken:) Let me take a little tick now To color in the scene: 'Cross the valley lived three yokels Name of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. (MORE) 44. PETEY (CONT'D) (back to singing:) Now these three crazy jackies had our hero on the run. Shot the tail off the cuss With a fox-shootin' gun. But that stylish little fox Was as clever as a whip. Dug as quick as a gopher Who was a hyper-ack-a-tive. Now those three farmers sit 'Twhere there's a hole 'twas once a hill. Hey, diddle-dee, doddle-do, doodle-dum! And as far as I can reckon They're a-settin' up there still. (SLOWLY) Way, zippy-zee, yappy-yo, google -- BEAN (INTERRUPTING) What are you singing, Petey? Petey stops short. Everyone turns quickly and sees Bean standing over them in the darkness with his Luger in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Petey looks nervous. PETEY I don't know. I was just kind of making it up as I was going along... Petey trails off. Bean shakes his head. He looks highly irritated. BEAN That's just weak song-writing! You wrote a bad song, Petey! Bean throws his cigarette into the campfire. He storms away. Petey turns to the other farmhands. Everyone looks uncomfortable. TITLE: 3 DAYS LATER (18 Fox-Days) CUT TO: Morning in the farmers' camp. The cook flips an egg on a skillet. He puts it on a plate with bacon and hands it to Petey. Petey asks him: 45. PETEY How long can a fox go without food or water? CUT TO: The exhausted foxes and Kylie underground. Kylie says QUIETLY: KYLIE Well, I can only answer as an opossum, but I don't think I can last more than another couple of hours before I get completely dehydrated and starve to death. ASH What's that? Ash points. Everyone looks. A tiny hole appears in the wall at the end of the tunnel. Dirt crumbles out of it -- and a bit of metal catches a glint. Fox and his family watch, frozen. A breath of air blows into the tunnel. The flame on Mrs. Fox's lantern flickers once and goes out. ASH STARTS: ASH Dad? FOX (WHISPERS SHARPLY) Not a sound! Silence. There is a sudden, loud scrabbling noise. A match strikes. Fox touches it to Mrs. Fox's lantern-wick. The tiny hole in the wall has become a large one. Badger stands in front of Fox with his law partner Beaver, Beaver's overgrown, hulking son, a medium-sized mole, and a grey field mouse with a bandana tied in a "do-rag" style around his head. Badger has a spoon in his hand. Fox and Badger erupt at each other, screaming simultaneously: FOX You scared the cuss out of us! BADGER I told you not to buy at nine and a cussing half! 46. FOX You don't just bang into somebody's cussing tunnel! BADGER Are you cussing yelling at me! FOX You're cussing right I'm cussing yelling! BADGER We're all cussing starving to death because of you, you mangy, cussing, little cuss! Fox and Badger snarl and scratch at each other, circling around the hole. They calm down slightly. Badger continues: BADGER We've been digging in circles for three days. Half the woods've been obliterated. Nobody can get out. Right now my wife's huddled at the bottom of the flint-mine with Mrs. Mole, Mrs. Beaver, Rabbit's ex- girlfriend, no food, no water, and twenty- seven hungry, whining, starving, little animal brats. This is a total cluster- cuss for everybody! Fox looks around the room at the entire gaunt, dirty, emaciated assembly. Everyone stares at him angrily. He swallows. The mole says softly.: MOLE I just want to see a little -- (SUDDENLY CRYING) -- sunshine. FOX (PUZZLED) But you're nocturnal, Phil. Your eyes barely even open, on a good day. MOLE (ENRAGED) I'm sick of your double-talk. We have rights! Beaver's son looms over Ash and Kristofferson in a muddy alcove on the side of the tunnel. He pokes Ash in the chest with the finger of his paw. 47. BEAVER'S SON We don't like you, and we hate your dad. You're too snazzy. You dress like a girl. You're creative. Now grab some of that mud, chew it in your mouth, and swallow it. ASH (scared and disgusted) I'm not going to eat mud! BEAVER'S SON Cuss, yeah, you are. Beaver's son grabs a handful of mud, smashes it into Ash's mouth, and forces his jaws up and down in a chewing motion. Ash coughs and splutters. Kristofferson frowns. He takes off his shoes with his feet. He says with a quiet ferocity: KRISTOFFERSON Don't do that. Beaver's son looks to Kristofferson. He looks down at Kristofferson's feet. BEAVER'S SON Why'd you take your shoes off? KRISTOFFERSON So I don't break your nose when I kick it. Kristofferson kicks Beaver's son in the face, karate chops his neck, elbow-jabs him twice in the gut, and flips the enormous youth over his shoulder and into the mud. Beaver's son gets up, crying, and walks out of the alcove. Ash watches blankly with mud all over his mouth as Kristofferson puts his shoes back on. ASH I can fight my own fights. Badger and Fox stand facing each other at the end of the tunnel. Badger says aggressively: BADGER Those farmers aren't going to quit until they've got you and every member of your family nailed upside-down to a bloody stick with your eyes gorged out. 48. FOX (FREAKED OUT) This is getting a little too personal. Badger waits for Fox to continue. Fox stares into space. FOX Give me a minute. Fox turns and walks away. He faces the wall of the tunnel. He sits down on a rock. Everyone watches him uncertainly. They look at each other. Badger starts to say something, but Kylie cuts him off sharply: KYLIE (SHARPLY) Shh! Badger falls silent. Fox sits with his chin on his paw, lost in concentrated thought. He stands up. He nods repeatedly and begins to pace. His eyes dart from one spot to another. His paws move abruptly around in the air drawing lines and shapes. He freezes and looks straight up at the ceiling of the tunnel. He snaps the fingers of his paw and looks to the others. He says with a cautious excitement: FOX I've got an idea. BADGER (TENTATIVELY) What is it? FOX It could be a good one. BEAVER (POINTEDLY) Lay it on us. FOX It might save our lives. KYLIE (EXASPERATED) Say the idea! Fox looks down at Ash, who stands beside him with mud still on his mouth. He nods. He says suddenly: FOX All right! Let's try it! 49. Fox runs over to Mrs. Fox: FOX Go to the flint-mine. Tell Mrs. Badger, Rabbit's ex-girlfriend, et al. that help is on the way. MRS. FOX (SKEPTICALLY) Is help on the way? Fox grips Mrs. Fox's paw. He looks into her eyes and says INTENSELY: FOX I sure as cuss hope so. Mrs. Fox detects a special, familiar, inspired light in her husband's eyes at this moment. She nods. She hands Ash the lantern. She straightens the neck-line of his cape, licks the mud off Ash's snout, and scrambles away down Badger's tunnel. Ash wants to cry but does not. Fox turns to the others. FOX Gentlemen, this time we must dig in a very special direction. Fox feels the walls with his paws. Everyone watches attentively. FOX I got to kind of feel out the vibe. Fox stops. He points slightly downwards and due south. He says with quiet anticipation: FOX Begin. Everyone starts digging, slowly but intently. CUT TO: The diggers one hundred yards later. Fox suddenly whistles and raises his fist. The diggers stop digging. Fox feels the ceiling with his paws. He knocks something hard. It sounds hollow. He looks at the others with a funny expression and raises an eyebrow. Fox carefully pushes up a floorboard. It creaks loudly. They all duck down and wait. Nothing happens. Fox pushes up a second floorboard. He cautiously pokes his head up through 50. the gap. He lets out a shriek of excitement and whispers excitedly down to the others: FOX I've done it! I've done it, first time! Come up and see where you are, my darlings! Everyone scrambles up out of the tunnel. INT. SHED. NIGHT Everyone stands in the middle of Boggis' Chicken House #1. The room is teeming with chickens, which stare at them nervously. There are black chickens, white chickens, brown chickens, and one that combines all three colors. Fox WHISPERS: FOX I hit it slap in the middle! Do you get how incredible this is? The others nod. They look dazed and wild. Fox holds up his hands and whispers: FOX Don't lose your heads, now. Let's do this properly. First, everyone have a drink of water. Fox leads the others over to the chickens' drinking trough. They all lap up the cool water. Fox dries his mouth. FOX SECOND -- Fox seizes a black chicken violently. CUT TO: Ash and Kristofferson running down the tunnel carrying two dead, black chickens. They turn three corners and arrive at the mossy hollow. They look inside. MONTAGE: Fox and the other diggers tunnel under the silo in front of Bunce Industries. Cows eat grass in the pasture above. Fox and the other diggers comes out of a hole in the floor and dance an ecstatic jig in a great storeroom lined to the ceiling with plucked ducks and geese. Smoked hams and sides of bacon dangle from the rafters. 51. Fox and the other diggers tunnel under the windmill in front of Bean, inc. Sheep eat clover in the field above. Fox and the other diggers comes out of a hole in the floor and dance an ecstatic jig in a corrugated plastic and metal pen among dozens of gobbling turkeys. Fox and the other diggers race dancing ecstatically back through the complex network of tunnels carrying dead turkeys, geese, bacon, flour, salt, sugar, jars of cider, and a portable television set. INT. FLINT-MINE. DAY The flint-mine is a large but cozy space with stone walls, a dirt floor, a small kitchen, and a fireplace. There are rows of cots, sleeping bags, boxes, blankets, and suitcases for all the refugee animals. All the animals have gathered together and drink cider cocktails while small rabbits, skunks, and field mice set the table. The room is festooned with garlands. A well-dressed mole smoking a pipe plays the piano. A bespectacled rabbit leans against it humming a tune. Weasel stands in the corner talking with Beaver. WEASEL What am I going to do? I'm going to hold him to the terms of the contract. It's not my fault they uprooted it. Kristofferson serves cranberry punch from a tureen in the corner. Ash goes over to him and holds out a mug. ASH They say I owe you an apology for some of the mean things I said about your father's illness. His double-pneumonia or whatever they're calling it now. Kristofferson ladles Ash a cupful. KRISTOFFERSON OK. ASH So there it is. I hope we can continue our relationship as cousins or family members or however you want to define IT -- (suddenly more intense) -- but do me a favor for yourself. The next time you have a problem with something I've said, come to me as a fox (MORE) 52. ASH (CONT'D) and let's deal with it right then and not let it blow up into a whole, huge thing involving parents and so on. Agreed? Ash drinks his punch in one long sip and holds out the empty mug for a refill. Kristofferson nods slowly. He points at Ash with his ladle. KRISTOFFERSON I'm going to teach you karate. Badger sits next to the fireplace with Fox and Kylie. BADGER I can imagine how painful, even just emotionally, that must be for you. FOX (UNEASY) Well, you know, it's not the end of the world. BADGER (MORE ANIMATED) Oh, but, Foxy, how humiliating! Having your whole tail blown clean off by a -- FOX (COOLY) Can we drop it? Kristofferson starts to refill Ash's mug again. Ash suddenly puts his paw over the brim. Kristofferson hesitates. Ash raises an eyebrow and says mysterriously: ASH Ever tasted one of Mrs. Bean's famous nutmeg-ginger-apple snaps? EXT. CAMP. DAY A large fire truck drives up to the destroyed hill with firemen hanging off the back and sides. It parks among the tractors and tents. The chief, in a white helmet, goes over to Boggis, Bunce, and Bean waiting at the mouth of the pit. A patch on his sleeve says O.W.F.R.P.F. Farmhands and firemen circle around. CHIEF Who's got me a donation for the old Wounded Fireman's Retirement Pension Fund? Bean pulls a yellow check out of his inside pocket. 53. BEAN Right here. (pointing behind him) Let me show you this hole. INT. FLINT-MINE. DAY Candles glow all around. Everyone is seated at the long dining room table, and a magnificent feast with every variety of fruit, meat, vegetable, and roasted bird has been laid out in front of them. They tear into their meals, eating and drinking ferociously. Crumbs, juices, blood, and bones fly into the air. Jaws snap and chew. There is no conversation. Badger suddenly stands and rings a knife against his cider glass. Everyone looks up, taking a breather from the frenzy of eating. Badger clears his throat. BADGER Well, it took a near-catastrophe for all of you to finally take me up on my offer to have you over to the flint-mine for dinner, but I guess we have -- FOX (INTERRUPTING) I'm sorry. Maybe my invitation got lost in the mail. Does anybody know what this badger's talking about? Everyone laughs. Fox sits at the opposite end of the table with a crooked smile on his face. FOX But Clive's right -- (STANDING UP) -- in all seriousness -- (aside, to Badger) -- excuse me, B. Fox raises his cider glass. Badger reluctantly sits back down. FOX I guess we do have those three ugly, cusshole farmers to thank for one thing: reminding us to be thankful and aware of each other. I'm going to say it again. (GESTURING EXPANSIVELY) Aware. Badger whispers to his wife: 54. BADGER Foxy cuss-blocked my toast, man. CUT TO: The hole where Fox's tree once stood. The dead tree lies on its side. A fireman slides a thick hose deep into the tunnel. He looks behind him and nods. FIREMAN #1 Ready. The shot moves backwards along the hose, past seven more firemen signalling to each other with: a thumbs-up, a snap, a fist in the air, a swirl of the fingers, a peace symbol, an A- OK, and a hook-'em Horns. The shot continues past Boggis, Bunce, and Bean helping to hold the hose in position. Boggis growls. Bunce hisses. Bean snarls. The shot arrives at a pump on the side of the fire truck. The chief points: CHIEF Let her rip. A fireman cranks a huge wrench on a steel nut. A pressure gauge shoots to maximum. The fire truck and hose begin to vibrate loudly. CUT TO: Ash and Kristofferson crouched under a drain-cover pushed just-open next to a refrigerator. They peer out across a bright, clean, white kitchen at a plate of perfect, golden cookies on a counter-top next to an open window with a step- ladder directly in front of it. They look at each other. They look around the quiet, empty room. Ash shrugs. Ash and Kristofferson dart out, leaving the drain-cover propped-up. They race over the linoleum. They climb the step- ladder and stop at the plate. Ash swoons and says RAPTUROUSLY: ASH They're still warm. Ash and Kristofferson gather more cookies than they can possibly carry, eating as they collect them. Crumbs go everywhere. On the other side of the room, the drain-cover falls shut with a loud clank. Ash and Kristofferson look up, wildly startled. All at once they hear in a simultaneous cacophony: the back door bursting open, a boy and two beagles shouting and barking, the pantry door slamming, Mrs. Bean and her 55. middle-aged housekeeper clanging pots and pans and arguing, a timer on the counter-top ringing, and a raven fluttering to the windowsill and cawing. Ash and Kristofferson panic silently. They drop the cookies and fly down the step-ladder. CUT TO: Fox in mid-toast: FOX I've stepped on some toes and alienated a few of you over the past few days -- but is it wrong for me to suggest we might've done worse than having an incredible banquet in a beautiful flint-mine surrounded by our favorite animals? Look at each other. Here we are. Wow. Now I've already had too much to drink, and I'm feeling sentimental, but I'm going to say something, anyway, which nobody wants to admit, but I think is probably true: we beat 'em. We beat those farmers, and now we're triumphantly eating their roasted chicken, their sizzling duck, their succulent turkey, their foie gras de -- (SUDDENLY) Where'd the boys go? Ash? Kristofferson? (to Mrs. Fox) What am I hearing again, baby? What's happening? Am I still paranoid? There is a low, distant rumbling which rapidly builds to a deafening roar. Everyone waits, frozen. A single drop of water drips from the ceiling into Badger's water glass. Fox turns to Badger and says: FOX Let's pause again. A wild deluge smashes into the room flooding the flint-mine and tunnels with a blasting current that sweeps everyone and everything away chaotically. CUT TO: The entire party of well-dressed animals and their plates, furniture, chickens, etc. shooting down the tunnel with the rushing waters. Fox, helpless, holding his breath, looks to the others underwater: Badger shakes his head in disgust; Rabbit makes a fierce grimace; Mole bares his teeth ferociously; Beaver rants angrily with bubbles coming out off his mouth; and Kylie stares ahead vacantly, holding his nose. 56. Fox turns sadly to Mrs. Fox. She looks terrified. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. NIGHT The flood blasts out of a wide pipe rocketing the animals into a murky, brick cavern with drainpipes on all sides and three inches of black water on its floor. Fox picks himself up, dazed and scared, and looks around at his soaked friends and their families. FOX What the cuss just happened? Something with water. That was dangerous. Is anyone hurt? BADGER (FURIOUS ) We're all hurt! My entire flint-mine just got demolished! FOX Let's do a head-count! Everybody pick a buddy! Each animal turns to his neighbor and establishes their buddy relationship. Fox looks wildly agitated as his eyes dart about, searching. He shouts: FOX Where'd the boys go? Ash? Kristofferson? Ash's voice cracks on the other side of the cavern: ASH I'm here. Everyone turns to see Ash standing at the mouth of a smaller pipe. He looks devastated and terrified. Fox points to him. FOX Ash! Who's your buddy? ASH Kristofferson, but I lost him. FOX You lost him? Where were you? ASH We went for cookies. Everyone turns to Fox. Fox yells desperately: 57. FOX Kristofferson! Fox sprints around the cavern, splashing, digging, and ducking in and out of tunnels as the others join his frantic search. His voice sounds pained as he shouts: FOX Kristofferson! Kristofferson! Kristofferson! CUT TO: The three farmers standing next to the fire truck. Bean holds a soaked, half-conscious Kristofferson up in the air by the tail. Kristofferson is quietly crying. BEAN Wrap this wet, little mutt in a newspaper and put him in a box with some holes punched in the top. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. NIGHT Everyone has gathered together. They are all in a state of shock. Fox turns to Mrs. Fox beside him. FOX Your brother's going to kill me, if he survives his double-pneumonia. Beaver runs into the brick cavern out of a drainpipe, SHOUTING: BEAVER There's only one way out of this sewer, but the manhole cover's closed, and there's a station-wagon parked on it -- which means we're permanently stuck down here. BADGER (BITTERLY) You still think we beat 'em, Foxy? Everyone turns to Fox and stares at him coldly. Fox sits down on the floor, in the water. He says quietly: FOX Somebody take over. I'm not in charge anymore. 58. Everyone looks around at each other. They don't know what to do. Mrs. Fox sits down in the water next to Fox. FOX You told me to change, but I can't -- (REALIZING) -- except, possibly, on some level, I think I just did. MRS. FOX (PAUSE) Well, then maybe we're not all going to die. Fox looks to Mrs. Fox. He stands up suddenly. He takes Mrs. Fox's hand. FOX Excuse us, everyone. Fox leads Mrs. Fox over to a ledge near a cement waterfall on the far side of the brick cavern. He puts his arm around her waist. FOX Badger's right. These farmers aren't going to quit until they catch me. I shouldn't have lied to your face. I shouldn't have resigned slash gotten fired from the Gazette. I shouldn't have pushed these farmers so far and tried to embarrass them and cuss with their heads. I enjoyed it, but I shouldn't have done it -- and now there's only one way out. Maybe if I hand myself over and let them kill me, stuff me, and hang me over their MANTELPIECE -- MRS. FOX (ICILY) You'll do no such thing. FOX (QUIETLY) Darling, maybe they'll let everyone else live. Mrs. Fox stares at Fox. She says desolately: MRS. FOX Why'd you have to get us into this, Foxy? 59. FOX I don't know, but I have a possible theory. I think I have this thing where I need everybody to think I'm the greatest -- the quote-unquote fantastic Mr. Fox -- and if they aren't completely knocked- out, dazzled, and kind of intimidated by me, then I don't feel good about myself. Mrs. Fox shakes her head and turns away. Fox continues: FOX Foxes traditionally like to court danger, hunt prey, and outsmart predators -- and that's what I'm actually good at! I think, at the end of the day, I'm just -- MRS. FOX (QUIETLY) We're wild animals. Fox smiles sadly and nods. He shrugs. FOX I guess we always were. I promise you: if I had all this to do over again, I'd have never let you down. It was always more fun when we did it together, anyway. Mrs. Fox has tears all over her face. Fox kisses her. He whispers in her ear: FOX I love you, Felicity. MRS. FOX I love you, too, but I shouldn't have married you. Mrs. Fox turns and walks away. Fox stares after her. He goes over to Ash. FOX Did I ever tell you about the time I learned we were going to have a cub? ASH In the fox-trap. FOX Right. We were at gun-point, and your MOTHER -- 60. ASH -- says she's pregnant. FOX Let me tell it, OK? I had no idea how we were going to get out of this jam, and then it hit me: what do foxes do better than any other animal? ASH Dig. FOX You're stepping on my lines. ASH Keep telling it. FOX So we dug. And the whole time I put paw over paw, scooping dirt and pebbles with your mother digging like crazy beside me, I kept wondering: who is this little boy going to be? ASH Or girl. FOX Or girl, right -- because at that point we didn't know. Fox grabs Ash by his shoulders and looks him in the eye. FOX Ash, I'm so glad he was you. Fox hugs Ash tightly, holds him for an instant, then let's go. He turns to the group. FOX Badger, organize a search party and try to find Kristofferson. Maybe he's alive. I'm sorry, everyone. I wish -- (HESITATES) Well, good-bye. Fox looks across the cavern to Mrs. Fox standing with her back to him. She turns to face him. Her eyes are burning. Fox smiles sadly. He races away down the drain-pipe. Everyone watches him disappear. Badger hesitates. He addresses the GROUP UNCERTAINLY: 61. BADGER I guess we should probably split into a certain number of groups and start doing something, right? INT. CONDUIT. NIGHT Fox sprints full-speed in the darkness. His claws scratch rattling along the iron floor and splash through puddles of shallow water. Fox stops suddenly. He stands up tall on his hind legs. His ears perk up. One pins back. He listens. CUT TO: Badger carrying a lantern leading Ash, Mole, and two small rabbits down a drainpipe. Badger calls out: BADGER Kristofferson? Hello? Can you hear us? Rat's voice echoes in the darkness: RAT Y'all lookin' for somethin'? Nothin' down here but rusty bottle-caps and drainin' water. Everyone stops short. Rat drops into the pipe from an overhead drain ahead of them. He says ominously: RAT They got the boy. BADGER (FROZEN) Who's got him? RAT The farmers three. You know who I'm talkin' about. BADGER (HESITATES) They've kidnapped him? RAT Well-done, Mr. Badger. You're a smart man. They want to trade the son for his poppa. 62. Rat flicks a folded letter through the air. Badger catches it. He opens it. Kylie looks over his shoulder. Badger frowns. BADGER Why'd they write this in letters cut out of magazines? KYLIE To protect their identities. (on second thought) Oh, right, but then why'd they sign their names? Plus, we already knew who they were because they're trying to kill us. INSERT: A ransom note written in letters cut out of magazines and pasted onto a piece of paper. Badger reads out loud: Mr. Fox, we have your son. If you ever want to see him alive again -- Ash calls out: ASH I'm his son. Everyone looks at Ash. He stands behind them in silhouette. Rat says darkly: RAT I can see the resemblance. Pause. In an instant, Rat grabs Ash by the tail, picks him up off the ground, swings him in the air, and flings him away twenty feet down the drainpipe. Badger looks stunned. Ash sits in a puddle in a stupor. Rat races toward him down the tunnel. He leaps into the air with his claws out and his teeth bared. As he is about to seize upon Ash -- he is suddenly jerked backwards and spun around. Rat is face to face with Fox. Fox strikes his old-fashioned boxing stance. He draws back and throws a hard punch, nailing Rat square in the jaw. Rat staggers, stunned. He swings his switchblade, cutting Fox across the chest. Fox touches the wound and looks at the blood on the fingers of his paw. He looks to Rat. Rat holds up his wrist and shows Fox a child's plastic digital watch with miniature footballs, baseballs, and soccer balls on it. He says strangely: 63. RAT I've still got it. FOX (FROWNING) What'd you just say? RAT I said I've still got the watch, Mr. Fox. She never asked for it back. A frozen moment. Fox springs forward and clamps his jaws onto Rat's throat. Rat tumbles over backwards. Fox pins him to the ground with his teeth in Rat's neck. Rat kicks and bucks and struggles, but Fox holds him fast. Rat goes limp. Fox releases him. Everyone slowly gathers around Fox and Rat. Ash kneels next to his father. Fox cradles Rat in his arms. Rat whispers: RAT The boy's locked in an apple crate on top of a gun-locker in the attic of Bean Annex. It's a set-up. FOX (SADLY) Would you have told me if I didn't kill you first? Rat smiles sickly. Blood drips from his mouth. His voice CREAKS: RAT Never. FOX (shaking his head) All these wasted years. What were you looking for, Rat? Fox wipes the blood from Rat's chin. Rat mutters. ASH He's trying to say something, Dad. Fox leans his ear close to Rat's mouth. As quiet as a mouse, RAT WHISPERS: RAT Cider. 64. Fox nods. He looks around the drainpipe. He cups his paw into the pool of murky water and holds it to Rat's lips. FOX Here you are, Rat. A beaker of Bean's finest secret cider. Rat's slivery, scratchity, long, pink tongue laps up a taste of the black liquid. He licks his lips and says faintly: RAT Like melted gold. Rat's eyes turn into X's. He is dead. Ash stands up. ASH He redeemed himself. FOX (SHRUGS) Redemption? Sure. Fox swallows and says hopelessly with tears in his eyes: FOX But, in the end -- he's just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a Chinese restaurant. Ash puts his hand on Fox's shoulder. Fox lays Rat gently onto the sewer floor. He stands up and turns to the rest of the group. Badger claps his paws together. BADGER Well, I suppose we should -- FOX (INTERRUPTING) Excuse me, again, B. The search party's been cancelled. We're replacing it with a go-for-broke rescue mission. It's a set- up, but maybe we can make it work. You two little rabbits run tell the others. (YELLING) Now, go! The two little rabbits scurry away down the drainpipe. Badger walks with Fox and Ash. BADGER What was he saying about that wristwatch? I didn't get what he was talking about. 65. Fox hesitates. He shrugs and says with a sad nostalgia: FOX Just some old back-story. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. NIGHT The entire community of animals has reconnoitered in the brick cavern. Fox stands on a large spigot and addresses the group. He has a bandage on his chest. FOX In a way, I'm almost glad that flood interrupted us, because I don't like the toast I was giving. I'm going to start over. Fox pantomimes raising a long-stemmed glass. FOX When I look down this table with the exquisite feast set before us, I see: two terrific lawyers, a skilled pediatrician, a wonderful chef, a savvy real-estate agent, an excellent tailor, a crack accountant, a gifted musician, a pretty good minnow fisherman, and possibly the best landscape painter working on the scene today. As Fox describes them, the shot cuts to: Badger and Beaver; Mrs. Badger; Rabbit; Weasel; an especially small, waifish field mouse; Mole; Kylie (who looks slightly offended); and Mrs. Fox, respectively. FOX Maybe a few of you might even read my column from time to time. Who knows? I tend to doubt it. (DRAMATIC PAUSE) I also see a room full of wild animals. Everyone stares at Fox curiously, skeptical but intrigued. Fox points at them: FOX Wild animals with true natures and pure talents. Wild animals with scientific- sounding Latin names that mean something about our D.N.A. Wild animals each with his own strengths and weaknesses due to his or her species, and also -- well, I guess these things usually have a lot to (MORE) 66. FOX (CONT'D) do with the parents, as we all know. Anyway, I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that just might give us the tiniest glimmer of a chance of saving my nephew and letting me make it up to you for getting us into this crazy whatever-it-is. I don't know. It's just a thought. Thank you for listening. Cheers, everyone. Fox motions with his imaginary glass and pantomimes drinking it. A few of the others reluctantly pantomime drinking. Fox finishes his glass and pantomimes throwing it on the floor. He makes a smashing-glass sound. Kylie shouts: KYLIE Let's eat! Everyone turns to Kylie uncertainly. Kylie hesitates. KYLIE What? I'm just playing along with the -- FOX (FORCEFULLY) All right! Let's start planning! Who knows shorthand? Pause. Badger points to his otter secretary. She is Linda. Fox darts over to her and grips her by the arm. FOX Linda! Lutra Lutra! You got some dry paper? Here we go! Fox, highly energized, moves among the group, touching their shoulders and patting their backs. FOX Mole! Talpa Europea! What do you got? MOLE (HESITATES) I can see in the dark? FOX (EXHILARATED) That's incredible! We can use that! Linda? LINDA (TAKING SHORTHAND) Got it. 67. FOX Rabbit! Oryctolagus Cuniculus! RABBIT I'm fast. FOX You bet your cuss you are! Linda? LINDA (TAKING SHORTHAND) Got it. FOX Beaver! Castor Fiber! BEAVER I can chew through wood. FOX Amazing! Linda? LINDA (TAKING SHORTHAND) Got it. FOX Badger! Meles Meles! BADGER Demolitions expert! FOX (CONFUSED) What? Since when? BADGER Explosions, flames, things that burn! FOX Demolitions expert! OK! Linda! LINDA (TAKING SHORTHAND) Got it! Fox's cheeks and forehead are beaded with perspiration. He SCREAMS INSANELY: FOX Weasel! Mustela Nivalis! 68. WEASEL Stop yelling! Fox snaps his fingers, kicks a rock, and throws his arm into the air. FOX All right! Fox points to the various cubs and pups. FOX All you little kids get organized and put together some kind of a K.P. unit or something to keep this sewer clean. It's good for morale. The field mouse shoves his way to the front of the crowd. He makes a fist with his paw. FIELD MOUSE I want to go with you, too! I want to fight! FOX (PAUSE) Good. Fabulous! Microtus Pennsylvanicus! Do you do that, in fact? Are field mice violent? FIELD MOUSE Not particularly, except maybe domestic/ kitchen sink-type stuff, but I have a hunch I might just -- (DEVIL-MAY-CARE) -- land a few good punches before I get stepped on, poisoned, or lured to my death by a little piece of cheese. Who's to say? FOX (smiling with admiration) You're a cuss of a lot bigger than you look, Rickity. Kylie tugs at Fox's sleeve. Fox turns to look at him. Kylie SAYS SHYLY: KYLIE I didn't get a job yet -- or a Latin name. What's my strength? Fox raises an eyebrow. He thinks of something: 69. FOX Listen, you're Kylie. You're an unbelievably nice guy. Your job is really just to... be available, I think. I don't know your Latin name. I doubt they even had opossums in ancient Rome. Kylie puts his hands in his pockets and scowls. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. NIGHT Mrs. Fox puts the finishing touches on a vast mural painted on the longest, tallest wall of the brick cavern. She stands on a ladder. Her sleeves are rolled up, and she is splattered with twelve different colors of paint. She looks down to Fox standing below with an entourage of Kylie, Badger, Linda, and Rickity. The animal children mop and scrub in the background. Ash stands leaning against a push-broom watching his parents. Fox surveys the mural. It is highly detailed, filled with the textures of the landscape, and decorated with images of flowers, leaves, acorns, etc. It is signed Felicity Fox. Fox opens his arms wide and shouts: FOX It's stupendous. Where's us? MRS. FOX (pointing to a spot) Right here. FOX Paint an X. INSERT: The bottom of the map. Mrs. Fox's paw paints a red X and puts a circle around it. The shot zooms out to reveal the entire valley -- no longer a painting on the brick wall. Lighting strikes at the horizon. Dark clouds loom over the three farmers' compounds. It looks exactly like one of Mrs. Fox's paintings of a landscape in a rainstorm. Bean's helicopter circles the area. EXT. HILL. NIGHT A bicycle messenger with a head-lamp rings his bell as he approaches the farmers' camp. He stops in front of Bean and hands him an envelope. Bean tears it open and unfolds the letter inside. INSERT: 70. A note written in letters cut out of magazines and pasted onto a piece of paper. It reads: Dear Farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, I have no alternative but to agree to your terms. Move the station wagon and open the manhole cover below the foot of the drainpipe next to the cobbler's shop and meet me there today at 10 A.M. sharp. I will hand myself over to you in exchange for the boy's safe return. Cordially, Mr. Fox Bean frowns. He studies the letter. He shows it to Boggis and Bunce. BEAN Why'd he write this in letters cut out of magazines? BUNCE (SHRUGS) I don't know, but you did the same thing. BEAN (UNEASY) I don't trust this guy. Anyway, set up the ambush. INT. ATTIC. DAY The top floor of Bean Annex. The room is filled with boxes of Christmas ornaments, old sports equipment, two stained mattresses, and a broken birdcage. Cobwebs hang from the rafters below the sloped roof. Kristofferson stands with his hands in his pockets looking out between the slats from inside a padlocked apple crate on top of a gun locker in the corner. He clears his throat. He calls out politely: KRISTOFFERSON Could I have a cup of water, please? Kristofferson waits for a reply, but no one answers. He whistles to himself for a minute. He clears his throat again. He calls out: KRISTOFFERSON Excuse me! Excuse me? 71. Silence. INT. DRAINPIPE. DAY A cement conduit with an iron grating above it. A fast stream of sewer water runs along its side. Fox walks briskly down the pipe followed by his entourage and Ash. Their steps echo loudly. FOX Synchronize your clocks. The time is NOW -- Fox looks at his wrist. He is wearing Rat's plastic, digital, sports-themed wristwatch. FOX -- nine forty-five A.M. Everyone checks their watches. Badger points at Fox's wrist. BADGER Is that Rat's watch? FOX (VAGUELY) No. Originally, no. (PAUSE) Well, OK, here's the back-story: when I was a teenager I spent a summer working as a bar-back at a jazz pub called Django's where Rat played horn down near -- can I tell this another time? We should stay focused on what's happening right now. Ash comes up to Fox's side and says discreetly: ASH I should probably ride with you and Kylie since it's my fault Kristofferson got captured stealing those nutmeg-ginger- apple snaps. FOX (PUZZLED) I didn't understand a word of that sentence, but none of it matters, anyway, because it's too dangerous for you to come with us. 72. EXT. STREET. DAY An old craftsman looks out from the window of Ferguson Cobblers as he taps little nails into the heel of a loafer. A station-wagon with wood-grain side-panels and a flat tire sits parked on a manhole cover in front of the shop. Boggis, Bunce, and five armed farmhands watch as Bean monkeys with a slim-jim until he gets the car door jimmied. Bean hops inside. He starts the engine, puts his arm over the top of the seat as he looks back out the rear window, and throws the station-wagon into reverse. The farmers clear out of the way as Bean backs up off the manhole cover. Boggis and Bunce stick tools into the manhole cover and lift it open. INSERT: Rat's watch. It is now 10 A.M. CUT TO: Six armed farmhands on the roof of the Nag's Head Tavern. CUT TO: Seven armed farmhands in the bushes behind Sweetings Bakery. CUT TO: Eight armed farmers in the window of Harrison Travel. CUT TO: The Action 13 reporter and camera crew in an alley next to St. John's Coin-op Laundry. EXT. STREET. DAY Boggis, Bunce, and Bean crouch behind the open doors of a pick-up truck with three beagles. Boggis checks his carbine. Bunce loads his shotgun. Bean cocks his Luger. Fox's voice hollers from deep inside the manhole: FOX (O.S.) Did you bring the boy? BEAN Of course, we did! Say something, kid! Bunce presses play on a tape recorder. Kristofferson's voice comes over a loudspeaker: 73. KRISTOFFERSON'S VOICE Excuse me! Excuse me? Bunce presses stop. CUT TO: Fox and his entourage at the bottom off the manhole. Fox scoffs. He smiles and shakes his head. FOX Come on! That doesn't sound anything like him! It's amateur night in Dixie! Badger rapidly slaps two pieces of flint together. A bit chips off, and sparks fly from the break. He blows on some kindling. He takes a pinecone out of a basket. EXT. STREET. DAY A ribbon of white smoke rises out of the manhole. The three farmers watch curiously as it thickens and turns black. Bean frowns. BEAN What the cuss is he burning? A blazing pinecone shoots out of the manhole and flies through the air, over the farmers' heads. It lands in a trash can and lights some rubbish on fire. A man with a dart in one hand and a mug of ale in the other comes out of the Nag's Head and pours his beer into the trash can. The fire goes out. The three farmers laugh smugly. Bean shouts: BEAN Is that all you've got, Mr. Fox? Twenty-seven blazing pinecones shoot out of the manhole and hit: a wood-pile on the roof of the Nag's Head, a box of pastry wrappers in the bushes behind Sweetings, a stack of brochures in the window of Harrison Travel, a hay bale in the bed of the pick-up truck, Boggis, Bunce, Bean, and a crate of cam-corder batteries next to the Action 13 camera crew, which explodes. Farmers scatter, grabbing hoses, yelling, and tamping out the flames as the beagles bark, yelp, and scramble in the confusion. Rabbit darts out of the hole and races up the street. Six farmers chase after him, firing their weapons. 74. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. DAY Down in the brick cavern, Mole listens to a tin can attached to a string. He says urgently as he makes notations in a LEDGER: MOLE Twenty-eight pinecones fired! Twenty-two targets hit! Mrs. Fox, standing on her ladder, paints black checks quickly on the street in her mural. The stolen, portable television set sits in the corner, tuned into Action 13's coverage of the chaos in the street. CUT TO: Rabbit running full-steam out of the village being pursued by the six farmhands. He hurdles an empty Coke bottle lying on its side in the road. EXT. STREET. DAY Badger jumps out of the manhole and throws more blazing pinecones at farmers, trucks, parked cars, doors, windows, and the Action 13 camera crew. Seven farmhands chase him down a cobblestone lane. Weasel and Beaver climb out with straws in their paws and start firing blueberries toward the disoriented beagles. The beagles eat blueberries. They fall over. Eight farmhands chase Weasel and Beaver up a wooded path. Rickity, the field mouse, bounds out of the hole and leaps into the fracas. He fires a rubber band at Bunce off a paperclip. It snaps Bunce in the corner of his eye. Rickity lets out a little whoop. There is a small explosion and a burst of flames blasts from the manhole. Fox and Kylie jump out and run over to a vehicle with a tarp over it parked in front of Paddington Automotive. Fox whips off the tarp, revealing a miniature motorcycle with a sidecar. CUT TO: Fox driving the motorcycle with Kylie in the sidecar. They both wear helmets and goggles. Thunder rumbles in the distance. Kylie sinks lower in the sidecar. He shouts to Fox over the sound of the motor: KYLIE Are you scared of wolves? 75. FOX Scared, no! I have a phobia of them! KYLIE Well, I have a thing about thunder! FOX (ANNOYED) Why? That's stupid! Ash pokes his head up from the rear compartment of the sidecar. He also wears a helmet and goggles. His white cape flutters behind him. He shouts: ASH I don't like needles! Fox and Kylie look to Ash in disbelief. Fox says furiously: FOX Where'd you come from again? How'd you get in the sidecar? I feel like I'm losing my mind! Fox angrily steers toward a small mound of dirt. They jump it slightly and fly over a little ditch. Ash yelps enthusiastically as Fox drives them back onto the road. INT. HELICOPTER. DAY A pilot with a red moustache and a South African accent flies Bean's chopper. He wears a Bean, inc. patch on his shoulder. He shouts into the microphone connected to his helmet: PILOT I've got a fox on a motorcycle with a littler fox and what looks to be an opossum in the sidecar riding north on farm lane seven. Does that sound like anything to anybody? A military-type voice responds over the radio: MILITARY VOICE (O.S.) Roger that, Red. Let me just, uh -- Oh, I think the boss wants to -- BEAN (0.S.) Red, it's Franklin Bean! Turn around, get the cuss back here, and pick us up on the A.S.A.P! 76. EXT. BEAN'S COMPOUND. DAY The Bean, inc. windmill spins briskly in the dusty winds. Shutters on the farmhouse bang open and shut. Leaves rustle on the branches of the apple trees. A few stray turkeys wander in the yard. A white-washed brick pile six stories tall sits apart from the other structures. The doors to its courtyard are made of iron and painted yellow. This is Bean Annex. The front gates of the farm are open, and a gardener waters vegetables next to the driveway. Fox, Kylie, and Ash look out from a high branch over a reinforced concrete and barbed-wire security barricade. FOX That's the annex over there on the right. Ash nods. Kylie does not respond. FOX The white building over there on the right. Pause. Fox looks to Kylie. FOX Kylie? Kylie turns to Fox and stares at him vacantly. Fox says SHARPLY: FOX Kylie! KYLIE What? (SUDDENLY) I did it! FOX When? I didn't see it! Kylie makes his slight gesture with his paw. The gardener puts three turnips into a basket and rides away on his bicycle. Fox, Kylie, and Ash scramble down the tree trunk. They come out of the bushes on their motorcycle and ride through the gates, across the yard, past the wandering turkeys. They park outside the courtyard doors to Bean Annex and jump off the motorcycle. 77. Fox climbs onto Kylie's shoulders and tries the knobs. They are locked. FOX Kylie, you got a credit card? KYLIE (digging in his pockets) Sure. FOX (IMPRESSED) See, this is what I was saying about how good you are at just being available for WHATEVER -- Kylie hands Fox a World Traveler Titanium Card. Fox frowns. FOX A Titanium Card? How the cuss did you qualify for this? KYLIE (SHRUGS) I pay my bills on time. I've always had good credit. Fox examines the card with mild resentment. He picks the lock and opens the doors. The courtyard has high walls and a gravel floor. On one side, there are ten trash cans, a stack of newspapers, and a compost heap. On the other side, there is an old, rusted, broken-down tractor and a new one. By far the largest, fattest, toughest beagle yet lies sleeping in the middle. White foam froths around its mouth as it breathes heavily. Its collar is hooked to a thick chain. A tag around its neck reads Spitz. Fox, Kylie, and Ash stop in their tracks. The beagle opens his eyes. Fox turns to Kylie. FOX Give me a blueberry. Kylie looks surprised. He shrugs. He shakes his head and gestures, I don't have any. Fox frowns. He throws up his hands in the air. Kylie makes a frustrated face. Fox points at him. Kylie looks away and snorts angrily. Fox looks away and spits at the ground. Ash says quietly: ASH What's that white stuff around his mouth? 78. KYLIE (SQUINTING) I think he eats soap. Fox sees an amber, plastic pharmacy bottle on a shelf above some bags of fertilizer. It's reads: Drug: Phenomoxylcarbobubytol, 10 mg NAME: SPITZ BREED: BEAGLE For: RABIES (chronic) Other: Take with meat, do not operate heavy machinery Fox frowns. He says grimly: FOX That's not soap. KYLIE (HESITATES) Well, then why does he have that bubbly -- FOX He's rabid. With rabies. I've heard about this beagle. The beagle stands up. Fox says carefully: FOX Easy, boy. Fox takes a cautious step toward the beagle. He holds out the back of his paw for the beagle to sniff. He says back over his shoulder to Kylie and Ash: FOX I'm going to try to befriend him. I feel like there's a tenderness in his eyes. Fox takes another step. He makes a soft, kissing noise. The beagle watches him calmly. FOX Yes, I'm right. He's a good boy. A little lonely, maybe, but -- Fox takes another cautious step. FOX -- but terribly sweet. Hello, there, boy. Is your name Spitz? That's German, isn't it? 79. KYLIE (aside, to Ash) I thought he said you never look a beagle in the eye. FOX (COAXINGLY) Why, you're just as sweet as a -- Fox and the beagle lock eyes. The pupils of the beagle's eyes contract then completely disappear, and the whites turn bright red. Fox's eyes open wider than their sockets. The rabid beagle erupts ballistically, attacking like an enraged maniac. His chain rips out of the cement. Fox, Kylie, and Ash shriek and scream, sprinting frantically around the courtyard as the rabid beagle, frothing, roaring, and snapping, tries desperately to kill them. Fox shouts, his voice cracking like a grandmother's: FOX Climb the trellis! In well under a second, Fox, Kylie, and Ash scale the trellis six stories -- Kylie's pants catching on a nail and ripping off on the way up -- and find themselves standing on the roof of Bean Annex. Kylie wears blue Fruit-of-the-Looms with a pattern of stars, moons, and planets on them. They all look down at the rabid beagle, which continues to pitch an insane fit, running in circles after its tail at the bottom of the courtyard. Fox takes in their new surroundings. He says, pleased: FOX So the attic is probably in the area right up around here somewhere, I figure, huh? Kylie and Ash, panting and dripping with sweat, both stare at Fox vacantly. (NOTE: a second set of alternate eyeballs indicating Kylie's vacant look will be used for Ash in this shot.) FOX (IRRITATED) Come on, guys. Stay with me. We did good. That's just some dog. Let's not get traumatized. 80. EXT. ROOF. DAY Bean's helicopter lands on top of the Nag's Head. Fires smolder and farmers continue to chase around after animals in the village streets below. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, leaning over and holding onto their hats, run to the chopper and climb inside. They take off. CUT TO: The street below. An orange and yellow Citroen van screeches into the melee. Painted yellow letters spell Badoit et Fils, Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles on the side of it with an image of a trapped fox. An old man with a grey moustache and a young man with a black moustache, both dressed in orange-and-yellow-striped uniforms, jump out of the van. They open the side door and start unloading stacks of metal cages. CUT TO: Rabbit still running full-steam down a country lane being pursued by the six farmhands. INT. ATTIC. DAY Kristofferson stands inside the apple crate leaning against the wall with his legs crossed and one arm akimbo with his hand on his hip. There is a clanking sound from above. Kristofferson looks up. A trap door in the ceiling creaks open. Fox, Kylie, and Ash look inside, down at Kristofferson. Kristofferson smiles oddly and says in a surprised, fancy-meeting-you-here voice: KRISTOFFERSON Hi! CUT TO: Fox and Kylie lowering Ash into the room with three different- colored shoelaces tied together and belted around his waist. Ash holds the shoelace and keeps a paw behind his back like a mountaineer. His feet touch down on the shelf. He runs to the apple crate and jiggles the padlock. He hesitates. He says SUDDENLY: ASH Can I get one of those karate lessons real quick? 81. KRISTOFFERSON (LONG PAUSE) OK. Normally, we start with some breathing exercises and such. Stand like this. Kristofferson stands with his paws clasped in front of him. Ash mimics this. CUT TO: A fox-trap hanging from a chain suspended above the alley behind the Nag's Head Tavern. A second one hangs behind Sweetings Bakery. A third one hangs behind Harrison Travel. A fourth one hangs behind St. John's Coin-op Laundry. A fifth one hangs behind Ferguson Cobblers. Rickity curiously examines a little, hanging wire. He mutters TO HIMSELF: RICKITY Is this spring-loaded? CUT TO: Kristofferson continuing Ash's karate lesson: KRISTOFFERSON This next part is mental. Position yourself on the balls of your feet. Kristofferson stands lightly poised with his arms out. Ash mimics this. KRISTOFFERSON Close your eyes. Kristofferson closes his eyes. So does Ash. So do Fox and Kylie. Kristofferson says mystically: KRISTOFFERSON You weigh less than a slice of bread. CUT TO: Each fox-trap in rapid succession as it falls on: Rickity, Badger, Weasel, and Beaver. The two small rabbits watch from a sewer-gutter drain under the street-curb. They panic. They race down a pipe, into a tunnel, and through a conduit. CUT TO: Kristofferson continuing Ash's karate lesson: 82. KRISTOFFERSON Let's review the principle agility techniques: jumping, flipping, landing. CUT TO: Mrs. Fox looking down from her ladder at the three, panting rabbits. She looks stunned. She motions to her mural/map and SAYS: MRS. FOX Show me where they are! CUT TO: The two small rabbits, Mrs. Rabbit, Mrs. Badger, Mole, and Mrs. Fox each furiously digging a new tunnel. KRISTOFFERSON (V.0.) Now for a rudimentary version of the cyclone chop. CUT TO: Kristofferson continuing Ash's karate lesson: KRISTOFFERSON First, you need to get a running start, which, obviously, I can't do in here, then, as you arrive at the destination of the chop -- (DEMONSTRATING) -- lean and thrust into the point of contact, paw remains open and straight, then withdraw instantaneously. Remember, it's the pull-back that matters. The pull- BACK -- (DEMONSTRATING) -- generates the force of the impact. ASH (IMMEDIATELY) Got it. Ash walks ten paces away to the far end of the shelf. Fox and Kylie watch from above. Kylie says excitedly: KYLIE He's going to do it! Fox makes a face that says, I'm not so sure. Ash takes a deep breath. He screams at the top of his lungs as he sprints toward the apple crate: 83. ASH Ki-ya! Ash's toe catches on a loose nail. He somersaults twice through the air and bounces off the side of the apple crate, which falls off the shelf. Kristofferson braces himself. The apple crate hits the floor and shatters into pieces. Kristofferson lies among the wreckage. Ash looks over the side of the shelf. Fox and Kylie watch from above, grimacing. ASH I'm sorry. KRISTOFFERSON (DAZED) That's all right. You were just trying to unlock the apple crate. ASH No, I mean I'm sorry about -- KRISTOFFERSON (picking himself up) Oh, you mean from before. The apology you owed me which you never actually said. ASH Yeah. Kristofferson nods sadly. He takes a deep breath. He nods again. KRISTOFFERSON That's all right, too. Throw me the shoelace, please. Ash smiles. CUT TO: Badger trapped in his cage. He hears something. He looks quickly down the alley. The old, orange van turns the corner and approaches, bumping over potholes. Badger shrinks into the corner of the cage and mutters grimly to himself: BADGER Badoit et fils. 84. A cobblestone beside Badger suddenly drops straight down and disappears into the ground. Badger recoils, scared and confused. Mrs. Fox pokes her head up through the hole. She is beaded with perspiration and breathes heavily. Her fur is wildly dishevelled. She looks to the van driving up the alley. She looks to Badger. She extends her paw to him and says FIERCELY: MRS. FOX Let's go! EXT. YARD. DAY Fox, Kylie, Ash, and Kristofferson come around the side of the building. They run to their motorcycle, outside the courtyard doors. They freeze. The front gates to the compound are closed and bolted. Bean's helicopter waits on top of the vegetable garden with its rotar-blades whirling. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean stand in front of Bean Annex with their weapons drawn. Fox sees his tail around Bean's collar. His eyes narrow. His jaw sets. He says to himself with growing emotion: FOX Your tractors uprooted my tree. Your posse hunted my family. Your gunmen kidnapped my nephew. Your rat insulted my wife -- and you shot off my tail. (STEELY) I'm not leaving here without that neck- tie. Bean smiles his sickly smile. Fox smiles back defiantly. Kylie looks utterly baffled. Ash says mystically: ASH I weigh less than a slice of bread. FOX (HESITATES) What? ASH I'll be right back. Ash runs. Fox, Kylie, and Kristofferson watch, shocked, as Ash sprints back to the courtyard doors. The three farmers open fire at him. Fox, Kylie, and Kristofferson duck and take cover behind a hay-bale. 85. Ash dodges bullets. He jumps off the balls of his feet with his arms out over a sprinkler-pipe and swings like a gymnast onto a clothesline, then flies through the air doing another of his spectacularly awkward four-armed and three-legged back- flips. He lands on the handle of one of the courtyard doors AND SCREAMS: ASH Ki-ya! Ash cyclone-chops the doorknob. The lock clicks. Ash's eyes light up. Ash drops to the ground. He digs a hole and burrows into the dirt as bullets fly everywhere. He breathes in through his nose and out through his mouth. Fox watches with his jaw hanging open. The courtyard doors smash apart and the rabid beagle tears out into the vegetable garden growling, foaming, and thrashing crazily. The farmers shriek and scream and run around, panicking, with their guns blazing. Fox, Kylie, Ash, and Kristofferson jump onto their motorcycle. The beagle rips the tail from Bean's neck, shreds it, chews it up, and swallows it. Fox deflates for an instant, then recovers. He looks to Ash on the back of the motorcycle, behind him, with his hands around Fox's waist. He says with the deepest affection and respect: FOX Ash, that was pure, wild animal craziness. You're an athlete. Ash swallows. He beams. He sits up straighter. (NOTE: from this point onwards, an alternate version of Ash will be used which is slightly taller, slightly leaner, and animated slightly more gracefully.) Fox kick-starts the motorcycle and races across the farm. Boggis, Bunce, and Bean scramble onto the roof of a car port with an old, white Mercedes convertible under it. The snarling beagle barks and snaps below them. They watch as: Fox steers the motorcycle toward a broken apple cart at the edge of the property. He guns the motor and yells: FOX Holy swearing cuss!!! 86. Fox races the motorcycle up the apple cart, into the air, and over the concrete barricade. They land in the middle of the road, skidding, and speed off down the hill. CUT TO: Boggis, Bunce, and Bean watching from the roof of the car port. Boggis turns to Bean and says, deadpan, needling him: BOGGIS Franklin? You got any final twist for this plot? BEAN (PAUSE) Yeah! Bean grabs Boggis by the neck and throttles him. Bunce starts throwing punches. Bean holds him back by the forehead. Boggis kicks Bunce in the stomach. They brawl chaotically while the rabid beagle continues to go bananas below them. CUT TO: Each fox-trap with a cobblestone missing underneath it and a hole in the ground. The old man with the grey moustache turns to his son and says with a strong French accent: BADOIT Cuss. INT. SEWER SYSTEM. DAY Mrs. Fox sits anxiously at the bottom of her ladder. Badger, Weasel, Rickity, the two small rabbits, and the others sit, exhausted, in the dark cavern, passing a jar of cider. Mole INTERRUPTS: MOLE Stand by! Everyone looks to Mole. Mole is holding the tin can with the string attached to it to his ear. He nods and says urgently: MOLE I just intercepted a high-frequency radio signal with the can -- (gestures with the tin can) -- and I think they're on their way home! 87. Mrs. Fox jumps up, embraces Mole, and kisses him on the snout. Mole blushes. CUT TO: Rabbit still running full-steam back into the village being pursued by the six farmhands. He comes to the manhole where they started and darts into it. The six farmhands stop at the manhole and look down. They go straight to the Nag's Head, walk inside, and close the door behind them. EXT. ROAD. DAY Fox, Kylie, Ash, and Kristofferson ride down a country road. Kylie sees something across the meadow. He says warily: KYLIE Don't turn around! FOX What? Fox turns around. A huge, wild, grey wolf with ice-blue eyes stands on a rock fifty feet away from them. Fox slams on the brakes. The motorcycle slides to a halt. FOX Where'd he come from? (LOUDLY) Where'd you come from? What are you doing here? Pause. Fox points toward the wolf: FOX Canis lupus! Fox points to himself: FOX Vulpes Vulpes! The wolf does not answer. Fox, Kylie, Ash, and Kristofferson watch idling from the motorcycle. FOX I don't think he speaks English or Latin. (LOUDLY) Pensez-vous que 1'hiver sera rude? (ASIDE) I'm asking if he thinks we're in for a hard winter. 88. The wolf shakes his head. Fox nods. FOX He doesn't seem to know. Silence. Fox shouts to the wolf with a strange hitch in his VOICE: FOX I have a phobia of wolves! The wolf does not answer. It breathes heavily with its mouth open. Its teeth are long, sharp, and yellow. Its tongue hangs out, and its eyes are wild. Fox looks back at it with the identical expression for a minute, mesmerized -- then Fox closes his mouth and his eyes soften. Fox raises his paw in the air. The wolf blinks a few times. It raises its paw in the air. It turns away and trots off into the woods. Fox says wistfully: FOX What a beautiful creature. Wish him luck, boys. Fox guns the motor. Gravel spits from under the spinning tires, and they tear off down the road. The shot booms down into the ground, below the grass, through buried pebbles, layers of soil, and subterranean mineral deposits. TITLE: THREE DAYS LATER (2 1/2 Fox Weeks) The shot continues to descend past Badger and his family having dinner in a nicely furnished drain-pipe, past Rabbit and his family watching Magnum, P.I. on the stolen, portable television set in a well-appointed cement tunnel, past Beaver and Mrs. Beaver hosting Mole and Weasel for cocktails in a tasteful sewer-conduit. The shot stops in a small chamber adjacent to the brick cavern. The walls are filled with electrical cables, wires, pipes, and a large, new mural which depicts the Fox's former view of the valley as seen from their tree with a trompe 1'oeil window-frame around it. It is signed Felicity Fox. Ash and Kristofferson sit Indian-style meditating on a braided rug. Mrs. Fox works mixing paints and turpentine at an easel in the corner. There is an armchair with a folded-up copy of the Gazette on its cushion in the center of the room under a glowing lamp. Classical music plays on a radio. 89. Fox swings his head into the room from a tunnel. He says GENTLY: FOX My darlings? Everyone looks to Fox. He signals them to follow him. INT. DRAINPIPE. NIGHT The cement conduit with the iron grating above it. Fox and his family walk briskly down the pipe. A knitted, woolen, artificial tail has been sewn into the seat of Fox's trousers. ASH Where are we going? FOX Nobody knows. ASH We were in the middle of a meditation practice. FOX Watch your step. Fox takes everyone through an opening and starts climbing a metal ladder. He says theatrically: FOX Let's see, now. Where does this lead? MRS. FOX Oh, no, Foxy. It's filthy. FOX Keep a good grip, everyone. ASH This better be worth it. FOX I think I see a little sliver of light. What's this? Is that a door? MRS. FOX You're a terrible actor, Foxy. 90. KRISTOFFERSON Do you smell something? Is that -- (SNIFFS TWICE) -- freon? FOX Shh. I'm going to crack open this trap door and see if something's on the other side. I highly doubt it, though. There's probably just more sewer. Fox clears his throat. Pause. FOX You know, wouldn't it be surprising if -- ASH Open it. Fox pushes open the trap door and crawls out. Everyone follows him. INT. SUPERMARKET. NIGHT Fox and his family stand in the middle of an aisle at the center of a large grocery store. To their left is the refrigerated section of milk, eggs, meat, fish, and cheese. To their right are canned goods, breakfast cereal, laundry detergent, rice, pasta, and condiments. The lights are half- dimmed, and a metal grate is closed over the front windows. There are no people. Fox says casually: FOX Hey, look! There's a whole, enormous, glorious, gigantic supermarket up here! Ash and Kristofferson seem dumbstruck. Fox raises an eyebrow and smiles at Mrs. Fox. She puts her arm around his shoulder. MRS. FOX You really are kind of a quote-unquote fantastic fox. FOX (SHRUGS) I try. I guess now that Kristofferson's dad's already down to single-pneumonia and getting better, he'll be going home soon, huh? MRS. FOX Actually, when he spoke to me from the hospital, he said he was already talking (MORE) 91. MRS. FOX (cont'd) to Weasel about real-estate availabil- ities down in our sewer system. FOX Oh, really? Well, now's the time to buy. Kylie comes around the end of the aisle pushing a miniature shopping cart filled with jars of jelly, jam, olives, pickles, and honey, plus three loaves of bread, Band-Aids, toothpaste, and a carton of strawberry ice cream. He says BRIGHTLY: KYLIE Did I hear my name? FOX (SMILING) Not down here, you didn't. KYLIE (SMILING BLANKLY) Why not? FOX Because we were talking about other things. KYLIE (RESIGNED) Oh, well. Fox looks at Ash, who is studying a twelve-pack of tropical juice punch-boxes. FOX The white cape rather suits him, doesn't it? Actually, I had to do quite a bit of searching myself before I found a look that really flattered me. Remember those horseshoe cuff-links? Fox and Mrs. Fox crack-up laughing. Fox notices something and stops. He stares at Mrs. Fox strangely. She is glowing. She hesitates. She shrugs. MRS. FOX I'm pregnant again. Fox is confused and moved. He holds Mrs. Fox's face in his paws. She smiles. Ash interrupts: ASH Dad? 92. Fox and Mrs. Fox look to Ash. An empty punch-box lies on its side behind him with a straw sticking out of it. There is a huge, purple stain all over the front of his white shirt. ASH Should we dance? Pause. Everyone breaks out giddily dancing an ecstatic jig. Kylie waltzes the cart in circles. Fox spins Mrs. Fox. CUT TO: A wide shot of all sixteen aisles of the supermarket stacked with boxes, cartons, cans, bottles, bags, and jars of every possible variety of food. The family of foxes continues to dance at the distant end of the center aisle. EXT. STREET. DAY Boggis, Bunce, and Bean sit silently in folding metal chairs around the manhole. Boggis's carbine rests across his lap. Bunce's shotgun hangs from a strap over his shoulder. Bean cleans his Luger. Petey sits on a cider box outside the Nag's Head strumming his guitar in the background. The bartender pulls the shutters shut and flips a sign on the door to Closed. Petey starts singing his song as the credits roll. The sun sets. The farmers sit waiting in the dark. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fargo.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fargo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ce6b7cbadf97ee0c8ae04bd4459c2ecb487439c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fargo.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +FARGO a screenplay by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen The following text fades in over black: This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occured. FLARE TO WHITE FADE IN FROM WHITE Slowly the white becomes a barely perceptible image: white particles wave over a white background. A snowfall. A car bursts through the curtain of snow. The car is equipped with a hitch and is towing another car, a brand-new light brown Cutlass Ciera with the pink sales sticker showing in its rear window. As the car roars past, leaving snow swirling in their dirft, the title of the film fades in. FARGO Green highway signs point the way to MOOREHEAD, MINNESOTA/FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA. The roads for the two cities diverge. A sign says WELCOME TO NORTH DAKOTA and another just after says NOW ENTERING FARGO, ND, POP. 44,412. The car pulls into a Rodeway Inn. HOTEL LOBBY A man in his early forties, balding and starting to paunch, goes to the reception desk. The clerk is an older woman. CLERK And how are you today, sir? MAN Real good now. I'm checking in - Mr. Anderson. The man prints "Jerry Lundega" onto a registration card, then hastily crosses out the last name and starts to print "Anderson." As she types into a computer: CLERK Okay, Mr. Anderson, and you're still planning on staying with us just the night, then? ANDERSON You bet. HOTEL ROOM The man turns on the TV, which shows the local evening news. NEWS ANCHOR - whether they will go to summer camp at all. Katie Jensen has more. KATIE It was supposed to be a project funded by the city council; it was supposed to benefit those Fargo-Moorehead children who would otherwise not be able to afford to attend a lakeshore summer camp. But nobody consulted city controller Stu Jacobson... CHAIN RESTAURANT Anderson sits alone at a table finishing dinner. Muzak plays. A middle-aged waitress approaches holding a pot of regular coffee in one hand and decaf in the other. WAITRESS Can I warm that up for ya there? ANDERSON You bet. The man looks at his watch. THROUGH A WINDSHIELD We are pulling into the snowswept parking lot of a one-story brick building. Broken neon at the top of the building identifies it as the Jolly Troll Tavern. A troll, also in neon, holds a champagne glass aloft. INSIDE The bar is downscale even for this town. Country music plays on the jukebox. Two men are seated in a booth at the back. One is short, slight, youngish. The other man is somewhat older, and dour. The table in front of them is littered with empty long-neck beer bottles. The ashtray is full. Anderson approaches. ANDERSON I'm, uh, Jerry Lundegaard - YOUNGER MAN You're Jerry Lundegaard? JERRY Yah, Shep Proudfoot said - YOUNGER MAN Shep said you'd be here at 7:30. What gives, man? JERRY Shep said 8:30. YOUNGER MAN We been sitting here an hour. I've peed three times already. JERRY I'm sure sorry. I - Shep told me 8:30. It was a mix-up, I guess. YOUNGER MAN Ya got the car? JERRY Yah, you bet. It's in the lot there. Brand-new burnt umber Ciera. YOUNGER MAN Yeah, okay. Well, siddown then. I'm Carl Showalter and this is my associate Gaear Grimsrud. JERRY Yah, how ya doin'. So, uh, we all set on this thing, then? YOUNGER MAN Sure, Jerry, we're all set. Why wouldn't we be? JERRY Yah, no, I'm sure you are. Shep vouched for you and all. I got every confidence in you fellas. They stare at him. An awkward beat. JERRY ... So I guess that's it, then. Here's the keys - CARL No, that's not it, Jerry. JERRY Huh? CARL The new vehicle, plus forty thousand dollars. JERRY Yah, but the deal was, the car first, see, then the forty thousand, like as if it was the ransom. I thought Shep told you - CARL Shep didn't tell us much, Jerry. JERRY Well, okay, it's - CARL Except that you were gonna be here at 7:30. JERRY Yah, well, that was a mix-up, then. CARL Yeah, you already said that. JERRY Yah. But it's not a whole pay- in-advance deal. I give you a brand-new vehicle in advance and - CARL I'm not gonna debate you, Jerry. JERRY Okay. CARL I'm not gonna sit here and debate. I will say this though: what Shep told us didn't make a whole lot of sense. JERRY Oh, no, it's real sound. It's all worked out. CARL You want your own wife kidnapped? JERRY Yah. Carl Stares. Jerry looks blankly back. CARL ... You - my point is, you pay the ransom - what eighty thousand bucks? - I mean, you give us half the ransom, forty thousand, you keep half. It's like robbing Peter to play Paul, it doesn't make any - JERRY Okay, it's - see, it's not me payin' the ransom. The thing is, my wife, she's wealthy - her dad, he's real well off. Now, I'm in a bit of trouble - CARL What kind of trouble are you in, Jerry? JERRY Well, that's, that's, I'm not go inta, inta - see, I just need money. Now, her dad's real wealthy - CARL So why don't you just ask him for the money? Grimsrud, the dour man who has not yet spoken, now softly puts in with a Swedish-accented voice: GRIMSRUD Or your fucking wife, you know. CARL Or your fucking wife, Jerry. JERRY Well, it's all just part of this - they don't know I need it, see. Okay, so there's that. And even if they did, I wouldn't get it. So there's that on top, then. See, these're personal matters. CARL Personal matters. JERRY Yah. Personal matters that needn't, uh - CARL Okay, Jerry. You're tasking us to perform this mission, but you, you won't, uh, you won't - aw, fuck it, let's take a look at that Ciera. MINNEAPOLIS SUBURBAN HOUSE Jerry enters through the kitchen door, in a parka and a red plaid Elmer Fudd hat. He stamps snow off his feet. He is carrying a bag of groceries which he deposits on the kitchen counter. JERRY Hon? Got the growshries. VOICE Thank you, hon. How's Fargo? JERRY Yah, real good. VOICE Dad's here. DEN Jerry enters, pulling off his plaid cap. JERRY How ya doin', Wade? Wade Gustafson is mid-sixtyish, vigorous, with a full head of gray hair. His eyes remain fixed on the TV. WADE Yah, pretty good. JERRY Whatcha watchin' there? WADE Norstars. JERRY ... Who they playin'? WADE OOOoooh! His reaction synchronizes with a reaction from the crowd. KITCHEN Jerry walks back in, taking off his coat. His wife is putting on an apron. Jerry nods toward the living room. JERRY Is he stayin' for supper, then? WIFE Yah, I think so... Dad, are you stayin' for supper? WADE (off) Yah. DINING ROOM Jerry, his wife, Wade and Scotty, twelve years old, sit eating. SCOTTY May I be excused? JERRY Sure, ya done there? SCOTTY Uh-huh. Goin' out. WIFE Where are you going? SCOTTY Just out. Just McDonald's. JERRY Back at 9:30. SCOTTY Okay. WADE He just ate. And he didn't finish. He's going to McDonald's instead of finishing here? WIFE He sees his friends there. It's okay. WADE It's okay? McDonald's? What do you think they do there? They don't drink milkshakes, I assure you! WIFE It's okay, Dad. JERRY Wade, have ya had a chance to think about, uh, that deal I was talkin' about, those forty acres there on Wayzata? WADE You told me about it. JERRY Yah, you said you'd have a think about it. I understand it's a lot of money - WADE A heck of a lot. What'd you say you were gonna put there? JERRY A lot. It's a limited - WADE I know it's a lot. JERRY I mean a parking lot. WADE Yah, well, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot - ha ha ha! JERRY Yah, well, it's a chunk, but - WADE I thought you were gonna show it to Stan Grossman. He passes on this stuff before it gets kicked up to me. JERRY Well, you know Stan'll say no dice. That's why you pay him. I'm asking you here, Wade. This could work out real good for me and Jean and Scotty - WADE Jean and Scotty never have to worry. WHITE A black like curls through the white. Twisting perspective shows that it is an aerial shot of a two-lane highway, bordered by snowfields. The highway carries one moving car. INT. CAR Carl Showalter is driving. Gaear Grimsrud stares blankly out. After a long beat: GRIMSRUD Where is Pancakes Hause? CARL What? GRIMSRUD We stop at Pancakes Hause. CARL What're you, nuts? We had pancakes for breakfast. I gotta go somewhere I can get a shot and a beer - and a steak maybe. Not more fuckin' pancakes. Come on. Grimsrud gives him a sour look. CARL ... Come on, man. Okay, here's an idea. We'll stop outside of Brainerd. I know a place there we can get laid. Wuddya think? GRIMSRUD I'm fuckin' hungry now, you know. CARL Yeah, yeah, Jesus - I'm sayin', we'll stop for pancakes, then we'll get laid. Wuddya think? GUSTAFSON OLDS GARAGE Jerry is sitting in his glassed-in salesman's cubicle just off the showroom floor. On the other side of his desk sit an irate customer and his wife. CUSTOMER We sat here right in this room and went over this and over this! JERRY Yah, but that TruCoat - CUSTOMER I sat right here and said I didn't want no TruCoat! JERRY Yah, but I'm sayin', that TruCoat, you don't get it and you get oxidization problems. It'll cost you a heck of lot more'n five hunnert - CUSTOMER You're sittin' here, you're talkin' in circles! You're talkin' like we didn't go over this already! JERRY Yah, but this TruCoat - CUSTOMER We had us a deal here for nine- teen-five. You sat there and darned if you didn't tell me you'd get this car, these options, WITHOUT THE SEALANT, for nine- teen-five! JERRY Okay, I'm not sayin' I didn't - CUSTOMER You called me twenty minutes ago and said you had it! Ready to make delivery, ya says! Come on down and get it! And here ya are and you're wastin' my time and you're wastin' my wife's time and I'm payin' nineteen-five for this vehicle here! JERRY Well, okay, I'll talk to my boss... He rises, and, as he leaves: JERRY ... See, they install that TruCoat at the factory, there's nothin' we can do, but I'll talk to my boss. The couple watch him go to a nearby cubicle. CUSTOMER These guys here - these guys! It's always the same! It's always more! He's a liar! WIFE Please, dear. CUSTOMER We went over this and over this - NEARBY CUBICLE Jerry sits perched on the desk of another salesman who is eating lunch as he watches a hockey game on a small portable TV. JERRY So you're goin' to the Gophers on Sunday? SALESMAN You bet. JERRY You wouldn't have an extra ticket there? SALESMAN They're playin' the Buckeyes! JERRY Yah. SALESMAN Ya kiddin'! JERRY'S CUBICLE Jerry re-enters. JERRY Well, he never done this before, but seein' as it's special circumstances and all, he says I can knock one hunnert off that TruCoat. CUSTOMER One hundred! You lied to me, Mr. Lundegaard. You're a bald-faced liar! Jerry sits staring at his lap. CUSTOMER ... A fucking liar - WIFE Bucky, please! Jerry mumbles into his lap: JERRY One hunnert's the best we can do here. CUSTOMER Oh, for Christ's sake, where's my goddamn checkbook. Let's get this over with. WIDE EXTERIOR: TRUCK STOP There is a restaurant with many big rigs parked nearby, and a motel with an outsize Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox flanking its sign: BLUE OX MOTEL. MOTEL ROOM Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud are in the twin beds having sex with two truck-stop hookers. CARL Oh, Jesus, yeah. HIS HOOKER There ya go, sugar. GRIMSRUD Nnph. HIS HOOKER Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. LATER The couples like in their respective beds, gazing at the offscreen TV. ED MCMAHON - Johnny's guests tonight will be Lee Majors, George Wendt, and Steve Boutsikaros from the San Diego Zoo, so keep that dial - LUNDEGAARD KITCHEN We hear a morning show on television. Jean Lundegaard is making coffee in the kitchen as Scott eats cereal at the table. JEAN I'm talkin' about your potential. SCOTT (absently) Uh-huh. JEAN You're not a C student. SCOTT Uhn. JEAN And yet you're gettin' C grades. It's this disparity there that concerns your dad and me. SCOTT Uh-huh. JEAN You know what a disparity is? SCOTT (testily) Yeah! JEAN Okay. Well, that's why we don't want ya goin' out fer hockey. SCOTT Oh, man! The phone rings. SCOTT ... What's the big deal? It's an hour - JEAN Hold on. She picks up the phone. JEAN ... Hello? PHONE VOICE Yah, hiya, hon. JEAN Oh, hiya, Dad. WADE Jerry around? JEAN Yah, he's still here - I'll catch him for ya. She holds the phone away and calls: JEAN ... Hon? VOICE Yah. JEAN It's Dad. VOICE Yah... Jerry enters in shirtsleeves and tie. JERRY ... Yah, okay... SCOTT Look, Dad, there is no fucking way - JEAN Scott! JERRY Say, let's watch the language - He takes the phone. JERRY How ya doin', Wade? WADE What's goin' on there? JERRY Oh, nothing, Wade. How ya doin' there? WADE Stan Grossman looked at your proposal. Says it's pretty sweet. JERRY No kiddin'? WADE We might be innarested. JERRY No kiddin'! I'd need the cash pretty quick there. In order to close the deal. WADE Come by at 2:30 and we'll talk about it. If your numbers are right, Stan says its pretty sweet. Stan Grossman. JERRY Yah. WADE 2:30. Click. Dial tone. JERRY Yah, okay. GUSTAFSON OLD GARAGE Jerry wanders through the service area where cars are being worked on. He stops by an Indian in blue jeans who is looking at the underside of a car that sits on a hydraulic lift with a cage light hanging off its innards. JERRY Say, Shep, how ya doin' there? SHEP Mm. JERRY Say, ya know those two fellas ya put me in touch with, up there in Fargo? SHEP Put you in touch with Grimsrud. JERRY Well, yah, but he had a buddy there. He, uh - SHEP Well, I don't vouch for him. JERRY Well, that's okay, I just - SHEP I vouch for Grimsrud. Who's his buddy? JERRY Carl somethin'? SHEP Never heard of him. Don't vouch for him. JERRY Well, that's okay, he's a buddy of the guy ya vouched for, so I'm not worryin'. I just, I was wonderin', see, I gotta get in touch with 'em for, I might not need it anymore, sumpn's happenin', see - SHEP Call 'em up. JERRY Yah, well, see, I did that, and I haven't been able to get 'em, so I thought you maybe'd know an alternate number or what have ya. SHEP Nope. Jerry slaps his fist into his open palm and snaps his fingers. JERRY Okay, well, real good, then. CAR Carl is driving. Grimsrud stares out front. After a beat: CARL ... Look at that. Twin Cities. IDS Building, the big glass one. Tallest skyscraper in the Midwest. After the Sears, uh, Chicago... You never been to Minneapolis? GRIMSRUD No. CARL ... Would it kill you to say something? GRIMSRUD I did. CARL "No." First thing you've said in the last four hours. That's a, that's a fountain of conversation, man. That's a geyser. I mean, whoa, daddy, stand back, man. Shit, I'm sittin' here driving, man, doin' all the driving, whole fuckin' way from Brainerd, drivin', tryin' to, you know, tryin' to chat, keep our spirits up, fight the boredom of the road, and you can't say one fucking thing just in the way of conversation. Grimsurd smokes, gazing out the window. CARL ... Well, fuck it, I don't have to talk either, man. See how you like it... He drives. CARL ... Total silence... JERRY'S CUBICLE He is on the phone. JERRY Yah, real good. How you doin'? VOICE Pretty good, Mr. Lundegaard. You're damned hard to get on the phone. JERRY Yah, it's pretty darned busy here, but that's the way we like it. VOICE That's for sure. Now, I just need, on these last, these financing documents you sent us, I can't read the serial numbers of the vehicles on here, so I - JERRY But I already got the, it's okay, the loans are in place, I already got the, the what, the - VOICE Yeah, the three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, you got the money last month. JERRY Yah, so we're all set. VOICE Yeah, but the vehicles you were borrowing on, I just can't read the serial numbers on your applicaton. Maybe if you could just read them to me - JERRY But the deal's already done, I already got the money - VOICE Yeah, but we have an audit here, I just have to know that these vehicles you're financing with this money, that they really exist. JERRY Yah, well, they exist all right. VOICE I'm sure they do - ha ha! But I can't read their serial numbers here. So if you could read me - JERRY Well, but see, I don't have 'em in front a me - why don't I just fax you over a copy - VOICE No, fax is no good, that's what I have and I can't read the darn thing - JERRY Yah, okay, I'll have my girl send you over a copy, then. VOICE Okay, because if I can't correlate this note with the specific vehicles, then I gotta call back that money - JERRY Yah, how much money was that? VOICE Three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. See, I gotta correlate that money with the cars it's being lent on. JERRY Yah, no problem, I'll just fax that over to ya, then. VOICE No, no, fax is - JERRY I mean send it over. I'll shoot it right over to ya. VOICE Okay. JERRY Okay, real good, then. CLOSE ON TELEVISION A morning-show host in an apron stands behind a counter on a kitchen set. HOST So I seperate the - how the heck do I get the egg out of the shell without breaking it? Jean Lundegaard is curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee, watching the television. HOSTESS You just prick a little hole in the end and blow! Jean smiles as we hear laughter and applause from the studio audience. She hears something else - a faint scraping sound - and looks up. HOST Okay, here goes nothing. The scraping sound persists. Jean sets down her coffee cup and rises. From the studio audience: AUDIENCE Awoooo! KITCHEN We track toward the back door. A curtain is stretched tight across its window. Jean pulls the curtain back. Bright sunlight amplified by snow floods in. A man in an orange ski mask looks up from the lock. Jean gasps, drops the curtain, rutns and runs into - - a taller man, also in a ski mask, already in the house. We hear the crack of the back-door window being smashed. The tall man - Gaear Grimsrud - grabs Jean's wrist. She screams, staring at her own imprisoned wrist, then wraps her gaping mouth around Grimsrud's gloved thumb and bites down hard. He drops her wrist. As Carl enters, she races up the stairs. GRIMSRUD Unguent. CARL Huh? Grimsurd looks at his thumb. GRIMSRUD I need ... unguent. UPSTAIRS BEDROOM As the two men enter, a door at the far side is slamming shut. A cord snakes in under the door. MASTER BATHROOM Jean, sobbing, frantically pushes at buttons on the princess phone. The phone pops out of her hands, jangles across the tile floor, smashes against the door and then bounces away, its cord ripped free. With a groaning sound, the door shifts in its frame. BEDROOM Grimsrud has a crowbar jammed in between the bathroom door and frame, and is working it. BATHROOM Jean crosses to a high window above the toilet and throws it open. Snow that had drifted against the window sifts lightly in. Jean steps up onto the toilet. The door creaks, moving as one piece in its frame. Jean glances back as she steps up from the toilet seat to the tank. The groaning of the door ends with the wood around its knob splintering and the knob itself falling out onto the floor. The door swings open. Grimsrud and Carl enter. THEIR POV Room empty, window open. Carl strides to the window and hoists himself out. Grimsrud opens the medicine cabinet and delicately taps aside various bottles and tubes, seeking the proper unguent. He finds a salve but after a moment sets it down, noticing something in the mirror. The shower curtain is drawn around the tub. He steps toward it. As he reaches for the curtain, it explodes outward, animated by thrashing limbs. Jean, screaming, tangled in the curtain, rips it off its rings and stumbles out into the bedroom. Grimsrud follows. BEDROOM Jean rushes toward the door, cloaked by the shower curtain but awkwardly trying to push it off. UPSTAIRS LANDING Still thrashing, Jean crashes against the upstairs railing, trips on the curtain and falls, thumping crazily down the stairs. Grimsrud trots down after her. A PLAQUE: WADE GUSTAFSON INCORPORTATED INT. WADE'S OFFICE Wade sits behind his desk; another man rises as Jerry enters. JERRY How ya doin' there, Stan? How are ya, Wade? Stan Grossman shakes his hand. STAN Good to see ya again, Jerry. If these numbers are right, this looks pretty sweet. JERRY Oh, those numbers are all right, bleemee. WADE This is do-able. STAN Congratulations, Jerry. JERRY Yah, thanks, Stan, it's a pretty - WADE What kind of finder's fee were you looking for? JERRY ... Huh? STAN The financials are pretty thorough, so the only thing we don't know is your fee. JERRY ... My fee? Wade, what the heck're you talkin' about? WADE Stan and I're okay. JERRY Yah. WADE We're good to loan in. JERRY Yah. WADE But we never talked about your fee for bringin' it to us. JERRY No, but, Wade, see, I was bringin' you this deal for you to loan me the money to put in. It's my deal here, see? Wade scowls, looks at Stan. STAN Jerry - we thought you were bringin' us an investment. JERRY Yah, right - STAN You're sayin' - what're you sayin'? WADE You're sayin' that we put in all the money and you collect when it pays off? JERRY No, no. I - I'd, I'd - pay you back the principal, and interest - heck, I'd go - one over prime - STAN We're not a bank, Jerry. Wade is angry. WADE What the heck, Jerry, if I wanted bank interest on seven hunnert'n fifty thousand I'd go to Midwest Federal. Talk to Bill Diehl. STAN He's at Norstar. WADE He's at - JERRY No, see, I don't need a finder's fee, I need - finder's fee's, what, ten percent, heck that's not gonna do it for me. I need the principal. STAN Jerry, we're not just going to give you seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. WADE What the heck were you thinkin'? Heck, if I'm only gettin' bank interest, I'd look for complete security. Heck, FDIC. I don't see nothin' like that here. JERRY Yah, but I - okay, I would, I'd guarantee ya your money back. WADE I'm not talkin' about your damn word, Jerry. Geez, what the heck're you?... Well, look, I don't want to cut you out of the loop, but his here's a good deal. I assume, if you're not innarested, you won't mind if we move on it independently. PARKING LOT We are high and wide on the office building's parking lot. Jerry emerges wrapped in a parka, his arms sticking stiffly out at his sides, his breath vaporizing. He goes to his car, opens its front door, pulls out a red plastic scraper and starts methodically scraping off the thin crust of ice that has developed on his windshield. The scrape-scrape-scrape sound carries in the frigid air. Jerry goes into a frenzy, banging the scraper against the windshield and the hood of his car. The tantrum passes. Jerry stands pantin, staring at nothing in particular. Scrape-scrape-scrape - he goes back to work on the windshield. FRONT DOOR A beat, silent but for a key scraping at the lock. The door swings open and Jerry edges in, looking about, holding a sack of groceries. JERRY Hon? He shuts the door. JERRY ... Got the growshries... He has already seen the shower curtain on the floor. He frowns, pokes at it with his foot. JERRY ... Hon? UPSTAIRS BATHROOM Jerry walks in. He sets the groceries down on the toilet tank. He looks at the open window, through which snow still sifts in. He shuts it. He picks up the small tube of uguent that sits on the sink, frowns at it, puts it back in the medicine chest. He looks at the shower curtain rod holding empty rings. FOYER Once again we are looking at the rumpled shower curtain. From another room: JERRY Yah, Wade, I - it's Jerry, I. Then, slightly more agitated. JERRY ... Yah, Wade, it's, I, it's Jerry... Beat. JERRY ... Wade, it's Jerry, I - we gotta talk, Wade, it's terrible... Beat. LIVING ROOM Jerry stands in wide shot, hands on hips, looking down at a telephone. After a motionless beat he picks up the phone and punches in a number. JERRY ... Yah, Wade Gustafson, please. BLACK Hold in black. A slow tilt down from night sky brings the head of a large paper-mache figure into frame. It is a flannel-shirt woodsman carrying a double-edged ax over one shoulder. As we hear the rumble of an approaching car, the continuing tilt and boom down brings us down the woodsman's body to a pedestal. A sweep of headlights illuminates a sign on the pedestal: WELCOME TO BRAINDERD - HOME OF PAUL BUNYAN. The headlights sweep off and a car hums past and on into the background. The two-lane highway is otherwise empty. INT. CAR Carl drives. Grimsrud smokes and gazes out the window. From the back seat we hear whimpering. Grimsrud turns to look. Jean lies bound and curled on the back seat underneath a tarpaulin. GRIMSRUD Shut the fuck up or I'll throw you back in the trunk, you know. CARL Geez. That's more'n I've heard you say all week. Grimsrud stares at him, then turns back to the window. At a loud WHOOP Carl starts and looks back out the rear window. Fifty yards behind a state trooper has turned on his gumballs. Carl eases the car onto the shoulder. CARL Ah, shit, the tags... Grimsrud looks at him. CARL ... It's just the tags. I never put my tags on the car. Don't worry, I'll take care of this. He looks into the back seat as the car bounces and slows on the gravel shoulder. CARL ... Let's keep still back there, lady, or we're gonna have to, ya know, to shoot ya. Grimsrud stares at Carl. CARL ... Hey! I'll take care of this! Both cars have stopped. Carl looks up at the rear-view mirror. The trooper is stopped on the shoulder just behind them, writing in his citation book. Carl watches. We hear the trooper's door open. The trooper walks up the shoulder, one hand resting lightly on top of his holster, his breath steaming in the cold night air. Carl opens his window as the trooper draws up. CARL How can I help you, officer? The trooper scans the inside of the car, taking his time. Grimsrud smokes and gazes calmly out his window. Finally: TROOPER This is a new car, then, sir? CARL It certainly is, officer. Still got that smell! TROOPER You're required to display temporary tags, either in the plate area or taped inside the back window. CARL Certainly - TROOPER Can I see your license and registration please? CARL Certainly. He reaches for his wallet. CARL ... I was gonna tape up the temporary tag, ya know, to be in full compliance, but it, uh, it, uh ... must a slipped my mind... He extends his wallet toward the trooper, a folded fifty- dollar bill protruding from it. CARL ... So maybe the best thing would be to take care of that, right here in Brainerd. TROOPER What's this, sir? CARL That's my license and regis- tration. I wanna be in compliance. He forces a laugh. CARL ... I was just thinking I could take care of it right here. In Brainerd. The policeman thoughtfully pats the fifty into the billfold and hands the billfold back into the car. TROOPER Put that back in your pocket, please. Carl's nervous smile fades. TROOPER ... And step out of the car, please, sir. Grimsrud, smiling thinly, shakes his head. There is a whimpering sound. The policeman hesitates. Another sound. The policeman leans forward into the car, listening. Grimsrud reaches across Carl, grabs the trooper by the hair and slams his head down onto the car door. The policeman grunts, digs awkwardly for footing outside and throws an arm for balance against the outside of the car. With his free hand, Grimsrud pops the glove compartment. He brings a gun out and reaches across Carl and shoots - BANG - into the back of the trooper's head. Jean screams. GRIMSRUD Shut up. He releases the policeman. The policeman's head slides out the window and his body flops back onto the street. Carl looks out at the cop in the road. CARL (softly) Whoa... Whoa, Daddy. Grimsrud takes the trooper's hat off of Carl's lap and sails it out the open window. GRIMSRUD You'll take care of it. Boy, you are smooth smooth, you know. CARL Whoa, Daddy. Jean, for some reason, screams again. Then stops. GRIMSRUD Clear him off the road. CARL Yeah. He gets out. EXT. ROAD Carl leans down to hoist up the body. Headlights appear: an oncoming car. INT. CIERA Grimsrud notices. EXT. ROAD The car approaches, slowing. Carl, with the trooper's body hoisted halfway up, is frozen in the headlights. The car accelerates and roars past and away. We just make out the silhouettes of two occupants in front. INT. CIERA Grimsrud slides into the driver's seat. He squeals into a U- turn, the driver's door slamming shut with his spin. Small red tail lights fishtail up ahead. The pursued car churns up fine snow. Grimsrud takes the cigarette from his mouth and stubs it in his ashtray. We hear the churning of the car wheels and the pinging of snow clods and salt on the car's underside. In the back seat, Jean starts screaming. Grimsrud is not gaining on the tail lights. He fights with the wheel as his car swims on the road face. The red tail lights ahead start to turn. With a distant crunching sound, they disappear. The headlights now show only empty road, starting to turn. Grimsrud frowns and slows. His headlights show the car up ahead off the road, crumpled around a telephone pole, having failed to hold a turn. Grimsrud brakes. Jean slides off the back seat and thumps into the legwell. Grimsrud sweeps his gun off the front seat, throws open his door and gets out. EXT. ROAD The wrecked car's headlights shine off into a snowfield abutting the highway. A young man in a down parka is limping across the snowfield, away from the wrecked car. Grimsrud strides calmly out after the injured boy. He raises his gun and fires. With a poof of feathers, a hole opens up in the boy's back and he pitches into the snow. Grimsrud walks up to the wreck and peers in its half-open door. A young woman is trapped inside the twisted wreckage, injured. Snow swirls in the headlights of the wreck. Grimsrud raises his gun and fires. AN OIL PAINTING A blue-winged teal in flight over a swampy marshland. The room in which it hangs is dark. We hear off-screen snoring. We track off to reveal an easel upon which we see a half- completed oil of a grey mallard. The continuing track reveals a couple in bed, sleeping. The man, fortyish, pajama-clad, is big, and big-bellied. His mouth is agape. He snores. His arms are flung over a woman in her thirties, wearing a nightie, mouth also open, not snoring. We hold for a long beat on their regular breathing and snoring. The phone rings. The woman stirs. WOMAN Oh, geez... She reaches for the phone. WOMAN ... Hi, it's Marge... The man stirs and clears his throat with a long deep rumble. MARGE ... Oh, my. Where?... Yah... Oh, geez... The man sits up, gazes stupidly about. MARGE ... Okay. There in a jif... Real good, then. She hangs up. MARGE ... You can sleep, hon. It's early yet. MAN Gotta go? MARGE Yah. The man swings his legs out. MAN I'll fix ya some eggs. MARGE That's okay, hon. I gotta run. MAN Gotta eat a breakfast, Marge. I'll fix ya some eggs. MARGE Aw, you can sleep, hon. MAN Ya gotta eat a breakfast... He clears his throat with another deep rumble. MAN ... I'll fix ya some eggs. MARGE Aw, Norm. PLATE Leavings of a huge plate of eggs, ham, toast. Wider, we see Marge now wearing a beige police uniform. A patch on one arm says BRAINERD POLICE DEPARTMENT. She wears a heavy belt holding a revolver, walkie-talkie and various other jangling police impedimenta. Norm is in a dressing gown. MARGE Thanks, hon. Time to shove off. NORM Love ya, Margie. As she struggles into a parka: MARGE Love ya, hon. He is exiting back to the bedroom; she exits out the front door. EXT. GUNDERSON HOUSE Dawn. Marge is making her way down the icy front stoop to her prowler. INT. GUNDERSON HOUSE Norm sits back onto the bed, shrugging off his robe. Off- screen we hear the front door open. FRONT DOOR Marge stamps the snow off her shoes. MARGE Hon? NORM (off) Yah? MARGE Prowler needs a jump. HIGHWAY Two police cars and an ambulance sit idling at the side of the road, a pair of men inside each car. The first car's driver door opens and a figure in a parka emerges, holding two styrofoam cups. His partner leans across the seat to close the door after him. The reverse shows Marge approaching from her own squad car. MARGE Hiya, Lou. LOU Margie. Thought you might need a little warm-up. He hands her one of the cups of coffee. MARGE Yah, thanks a bunch. So what's the deal, now? Gary says triple homicide? LOU Yah, looks pretty bad. Two of'm're over here. Marge looks around as they start walking. MARGE Where is everybody? LOU Well - it's cold, Margie. BY THE WRECK Laid out in the early morning light is the wrecked car, a pair of footprints leading out to a man in a bright orange parka face down in the bloodstained snow, and one pair of footsteps leading back to the road. Marge is peering into the car. MARGE Ah, geez. So... Aw, geez. Here's the second one... It's in the head and the ... hand there, I guess that's a defensive wound. Okay. Marge looks up from the car. MARGE ... Where's the state trooper? Lou, up on the shoulder, jerks his thumb. LOU Back there a good piece. In the ditch next to his prowler. Marge looks around at the road. MARGE Okay, so we got a state trooper pulls someone over, we got a shooting, and these folks drive by, and we got a high-speed pursuit, ends here, and this execution-type deal. LOU Yah. MARGE I'd be very surprised if our suspect was from Brainerd. LOU Yah. Marge is studying the ground. MARGE Yah. And I'll tell you what, from his footprints he looks like a big fella - Marge suddenly doubles over, putting her head between her knees down near the snow. LOU Ya see something down there, Chief? MARGE Uh - I just, I think I'm gonna barf. LOU Geez, you okay, Margie? MARGE I'm fine - it's just morning sickness. She gets up, sweeping snow from her knees. MARGE ... Well, that passed. LOU Yah? MARGE Yah. Now I'm hungry again. LOU You had breakfast yet, Margie? MARGE Oh, yah. Norm made some eggs. LOU Yah? Well, what now, d'ya think? MARGE Let's go take a look at that trooper. BY THE STATE TROOPER'S CAR Marge's prowler is parked nearby. Marge is on her hands and knees by a body down in the ditch, again looking at footprints in the snow. She calls up to the road: MARGE There's two of 'em, Lou! LOU Yah? MARGE Yah, this guy's smaller than his buddy. LOU Oh, yah? DOWN IN THE DITCH In the foreground is the head of the state trooper, facing us. Peering at it from behind, still on her hands and knees, is Marge. MARGE For Pete's sake. She gets up, clapping the snow off her hands, and climbs out of the ditch. LOU How's it look, Marge? MARGE Well, he's got his gun on his hip there, and he looks like a nice enough guy. It's a real shame. LOU Yah. MARGE You haven't monkeyed with his car there, have ya? LOU No way. She is looking at the prowler, which still idles on the shoulder. MARGE Somebody shut his lights. I guess the little guy sat in there, waitin' for his buddy t'come back. LOU Yah, woulda been cold out here. MARGE Heck, yah. Ya think, is Dave open yet? LOU You don't think he's mixed up in - MARGE No, no, I just wanna get Norm some night crawlers. INT. PROWLER Marge is driving; Lou sits next to her. MARGE You look in his citation book? LOU Yah... He looks at his notebook. LOU ... Last vehicle he wrote in was a tan Ciera at 2:18 a.m. Under the plate number he put DLR - I figure they stopped him or shot him before he could finish fillin' out the tag number. MARGE Uh-huh. LOU So I got the state lookin' for a Ciera with a tag startin' DLR. They don't got no match yet. MARGE I'm not sure I agree with you a hunnert percent on your policework, there, Lou. LOU Yah? MARGE Yah, I think that vehicle there probly had dealer plates. DLR? LOU Oh... Lou gazes out the window, thinking. LOU ... Geez. MARGE Yah. Say, Lou, ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J2L 4685? LOU Yah, that's a good one. MARGE Yah. THE ROAD The police car enters with a whoosh and hums down a straight- ruled empty highway, cutting a landscape of flat and perfect white. EMBERS FAMILY RESTAURANT Jerry, Wade, and Stan Grossman sit in a booth, sipping coffee. Outside the window, snow falls from a gunmetal sky. WADE - All's I know is, ya got a problem, ya call a professional! JERRY No! They said no cops! They were darned clear on that, Wade! They said you call the cops and we - WADE Well, a course they're gonna say that! But where's my protection? They got Jean here! I give these sons a bitches a million dollars, where's my guarantee they're gonna let her go. JERRY Well, they - WADE A million dollars is a lot a damn money! And there they are, they got my daughter! JERRY Yah, but think this thing through here, Wade. Ya give 'em what they want, why wont' they let her go? You gotta listen to me on this one, Wade. WADE Heck, you don't know! You're just whistlin' Dixie here! I'm sayin', the cops, they can advise us on this! I'm sayin' call a professional! JERRY No! No cops! That's final! This is my deal here, Wade! Jean is my wife here! STAN I gotta tell ya, Wade, I'm leanin' to Jerry's viewpoint here. WADE Well - STAN We gotta protect Jean. These - we're not holdin' any cards here, Wade, they got all of 'em. So they call the shots. JERRY You're darned tootin'! WADE Ah, dammit! STAN I'm tellin' ya. WADE Well... Why don't we... He saws a finger under his nose. WADE ... Stan, I'm thinkin' we should offer 'em half a million. JERRY Now come on here, no way, Wade! No way! STAN We're not horse-trading here, Wade, we just gotta bite the bullet on this thing. JERRY Yah! STAN What's the next step here, Jerry? JERRY They're gonna call, give me instructions for a drop. I'm supposed to have the money ready tomorrow. WADE Dammit! THE CASHIER She rings up two dollars forty. CASHIER How was everything today? JERRY Yah, real good now. PARKING LOT Snow continues to fall. Jerry and Stan stand bundled in their parkas and galoshes near a row of beached vehicles. Wade sits behind the wheel of an idling Lincoln, waiting for Stan. STAN Okay. We'll get the money together. Don't worry about it, Jerry. Now, d'you want anyone at home, with you, until they call? JERRY No, I - they don't want - they're just s'posed to be dealin' with me, they were real clear. STAN Yah. Jerry pounds his mittened hands together against the cold. JERRY Ya know, they said no one listenin' in, they'll be watchin', ya know. Maybe it's all bull, but like you said, Stan, they're callin' the shots. STAN Okay. And Scotty, is he gonna be all right? JERRY Yah, geez, Scotty. I'll go talk to him. There is a tap at the horn from Wade, and Stan gets into the Lincoln. STAN We'll call. The Lincoln spits snow as it grinds out of the lot and fishtails out onto the boulevard. SCOTTY'S BEDROOM Scotty lies on the bed, weeping. Jerry enters and perches uncomfortably on the edge of his bed. JERRY ... How ya doin' there, Scotty? SCOTT Dad! What're they doing? Wuddya think they're doin' with Mom? JERRY It's okay, Scotty. They're not gonna want to hurt her any. These men, they just want money, see. SCOTT What if - what if sumpn goes wrong? JERRY No, no, nothin's goin' wrong here. Grandad and I, we're - we're makin' sure this gets handled right. Scott snorfles and sits up. SCOTT Dad, I really think we should call the cops. JERRY No! We can't let anyone know about this thing! We gotta play ball with these guys - you ask Stan Grossman, he'll tell ya the same thing! SCOTT Yeah, but - JERRY We're gonna get Mom back for ya, but we gotta play ball. Ya know, that's the deal. Now if Lorraine calls, or Sylvia, you just say that Mom is in Florida with Pearl and Marty... Scotty starts to weep again. Jerry stares down at his lap. JERRY ... That's the best we can do here. EXT. CABIN It is a lakeside cabin surrounded by white. A brown Ciera with dealer plates is pulling into the drive. Grimsrud climbs out of the passenger seat as Carl climbs out of the driver's. Grimsrud opens the back door and, with an arm on her elbow, helps Jean out. She has her hands tied behind her and a black hood over her head. With a cry, she swings her elbow out of Grimsrud's grasp and lurches away across the front lawn. Grimsrud moves to retrieve her but Carl, grinning, lays a hand on his shoulder. CARL Hold it. They both look out at the front lawn, Grimsrud expressionless, Carl smiling. With muffled cries, the hooded woman lurches across the unbroken snow, staggering this way and that, stumbling on the uneven terrain. She stops, stands still, her hooded head swaying. She lurches out in an arbitrary direction. Going downhill, she reels, staggers, and falls face-first into the snow, weeping. CARL Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Jesus! Grimsrud, still expressionless, breaks away from Carl's restraining hand to retrieve her. BRAINERD POLICE HEADQUARTERS We track behind Marge as she makes her way across the floor, greeting various officers. She holds a small half-full paper sack. Beyond her we see a small glassed-in cublcle. Norm sits at the desk inside with a box lunch spread out in front of him. There is lettering on the cubicle's glass door: BRAINERD PD. CHIEF GUNDERSON. Marge enters and sits behind the desk, detaching her walkie- talkie from her utility belt to accomodate the seat. MARGE Hiya, hon. She slides the paper sack toward him. NORM Brought ya some lunch, Margie. What're those, night crawlers? He looks inside. The bottom of the sack is full of fat, crawling earthworms. MARGE Yah. NORM Thanks, hon. MARGE You bet. Thanks for lunch. What do we got here, Arbie's? NORM Uh-huh. She starts eating. MARGE ... How's the paintin' goin'? NORM Pretty good. Found out the Hautmans are entering a painting this year. MARGE Aw, hon, you're better'n them. NORM They're real good. MARGE They're good, Norm, but you're better'n them. NORM Yah, ya think? He leans over and kisses her. MARGE Ah, ya got Arbie's all o'er me. Lou enters. LOU Hiya, Norm, how's the paintin' goin'? NORM Not too bad. You know. MARGE How we doin' on that vehicle? LOU No motels registered any tan Ciera last night. But the night before, two men checked into the Blue Ox registering a Ciera and leavin' the tag space blank. MARGE Geez, that's a good lead. The Blue Ox, that's that trucker's joint out there on I-35? LOU Yah. Owner was on the desk then, said these two guys had company. MARGE Oh, yah? EXT. STRIPPER CLUB Marge's prowler is parked in an otherwise empty lot. Snow drifts down. INT. STRIPPER CLUB Marge sits talking with two young women at one end of an elevated dance platform. The club, not yet open for business, is deserted. MARGE Where you girls from? HOOKER ONE Chaska. HOOKER TWO LeSeure. But I went to high school in White Bear Lake. MARGE Okay, I want you to tell me what these fellas looked like. HOOKER ONE Well, the little guy, he was kinda funny-looking. MARGE In what way? HOOKER ONE I dunno. Just funny-looking. MARGE Can you be any more specific? HOOKER ONE I couldn't really say. He wasn't circumcised. MARGE Was he funny-looking apart from that? HOOKER ONE Yah. MARGE So you were having sex with the little fella, then? HOOKER ONE Uh-huh. MARGE Is there anything else you can tell me about him? HOOKER ONE No. Like I say, he was funny-looking. More'n most people even. MARGE And what about the other fella? HOOKER TWO He was a little older. Looked like the Marlboro man. MARGE Yah? HOOKER TWO Yah. Maybe I'm sayin' that cause he smoked Marlboros. MARGE Uh-huh. HOOKER TWO A subconscious-type thing. MARGE Yah, that can happen. HOOKER TWO Yah. HOOKER ONE They said they were goin' to the Twin Cities? MARGE Oh, yah? HOOKER TWO Yah. HOOKER ONE Yah. Is that useful to ya? MARGE Oh, you bet, yah. EXT. LAKESIDE CABIN It is now dusk. The brown Ciera with dealer plates still sits in the drive. INT. CABIN We track in on Jean Lundegaard, who sits tied in a chair with the black hood still over her head. As we track in, we hear inarticulate cursing, intermittent banging and loud static. We track in on Gaear Grimsrud, who sits smoking a cigarette and expressionlessly gazing offscreen. We track in on Carl Showalter, who stands over an old black- and-white television. It plays nothing but snow. Carl is banging on it as he mutters: CARL ...days ... be here for days with a - DAMMIT! - a goddamn mute ... nothin' to do ... and the fucking - DAMMIT!... Each "dammit" brings a pound of his fist on the TV. CARL ... TV doesn't even ... plug me in, man... Gimmee a - DAMMIT! - signal... Plug me into the ozone, baby... Plug me into the ozone - FUCK!... With one last bang we cut: BACK TO THE TELEVISION SET In extreme close-up an insect is lugging a worm. TV VOICE-OVER The bark beetle carries the worm to the nest ... where it will feed its young for up to six weeks... A pull back from the screen reveals that we are in Marge's house. Marge and Norm are watching television in bed. From the TV we hear insects chirring. After a long beat, silence except for the TV, Marge murmurs, still looking at the set: MARGE ... Well, I'm turnin' in, Norm. Also looking at the TV: NORM ... Oh, yah? Marge rolls over and Norm continues to watch. We hold. BLACK Hold. A snowflake drops through the black. Another flake. It starts snowing. BRAINERD MAIN STREET The lone traffic light blinks slowly, steadily, red. Snow sifts down. There is no other movement. PAUL BUNYAN We are looking up at the bottom-lit statue. Snow falls. HIGH SHOT OF MARGE'S HOUSE Snow drops away. HIGH SHOT IN MARGE'S BEDROOM The bedroom is dark. Norm is snoring. The phone rings. Marge gropes in the dark. MARGE Hello? VOICE Yah, is this Marge? MARGE Yah? VOICE Margie Olmstead? MARGE ... Well, yah. Who's this? VOICE This is Mike Yanagita. Ya know - Mike Yanagita. Remember me? MARGE ... Mike Yanagita! MIKE Yah! Marge props herself up next to the still-sleeping Norm. MARGE Yah, yah, course I remember. How are ya? What time is it? MIKE Oh, geez. It's quarter to eleven. I hope I dint wake you. MARGE No, that's okay. MIKE Yah, I'm down in the Twin Cities and I was just watching on TV about these shootings up in Brainderd, and I saw you on the news there. MARGE Yah. MIKE I thought, geez, is that Margie Olmstead? I can't believe it! MARGE Yah, that's me. MIKE Well, how the heck are ya? MARGE Okay, ya know. Okay. MIKE Yah? MARGE Yah - how are you doon? MIKE Oh, pretty good. MARGE Heck, it's been such a long time, Mike. It's great to hear from ya. MIKE Yah... Yah, yah. Geeze, Margie! GUSTAFSON OLDS GARAGE Jerry is on the sales floor, showing a customer a vehicle. JERRY Yah, ya got yer, this loaded here, this has yer independent, uh, yer slipped differential, uh, yer rack- and-pinion steering, yer alarm and radar, and I can give it to ya with a heck of a sealant, this TruCoat stuff, it'll keep the salt off - CUSTOMER Yah, I don't need no sealant though. JERRY Yah, you don't need that. Now were you thinking of financing here? You oughta be aware a this GMAC plan they have now, it's really super - ANOTHER SALESMAN Jerry, ya got a call here. JERRY Yah, okay. JERRY'S CUBICLE He sits in and picks up his phone. JERRY Jerry Lundegaard. VOICE All right, Jerry, you got this phone to yourself? JERRY Well ... yah. VOICE Know who this is? JERRY Well, yah, I got an idea. How's that Ciera workin' out for ya? VOICE Circumstances have changed, Jerry. JERRY Well, what do ya mean? VOICE Things have changed. Circumstances, Jerry. Beyond the, uh ... acts of God, force majeure... JERRY What the - how's Jean? A beat. CARL ... Who's Jean? JERRY My wife! What the - how's - CARL Oh, Jean's okay. But there's three people up in Brainerd who aren't so okay, I'll tell ya that. JERRY What the heck're you talkin' about? Let's just finish up this deal here - CARL Blood has been shed, Jerry. Jerry sits dumbly. The voice solemnly repeats: CARL ... Blood has been shed. JERRY What the heck d'ya mean? CARL Three people. In Brainerd. JERRY Oh, geez. CARL That's right. And we need more money. JERRY The heck d'ya mean? What a you guys got yourself mixed up in? CARL We need more - JERRY This was s'posed to be a no-rough -stuff-type deal - CARL DON'T EVER INTERRUPT ME, JERRY! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! JERRY Well, I'm sorry, but I just - I - CARL Look. I'm not gonna debate you, Jerry. The price is now the whole amount. We want the entire eighty thousand. JERRY Oh, for Chrissakes here - CARL Blood has been shed. We've incurred risks, Jerry. I'm coming into town tomorrow. Have the money ready. JERRY Now we had a deal here! A deal's a deal! CARL IS IT, JERRY? You ask those three pour souls up in Brainerd if a deal's a deal! Go ahead, ask 'em! JERRY ... The heck d'ya mean? CARL I'll see you tomorrow. Click. Jerry slams down the phone, which immediately rings. He angrily snatches it up. JERRY Yah! VOICE Jerome Lundegaard? JERRY Yah! VOICE This is Reilly Deifenbach at GMAC. Sir, I have not yet recieved those vehicle IDs you promised me. JERRY Yah! I ... those are in the mail. VOICE Mr. Lundegaard, that very well may be. I must inform you, however, that absent the reciept of those numbers by tomorrow afternoon, I will have to refer this matter to our legal department. JERRY Yah. VOICE My patience is at an end. JERRY Yah. VOICE Good day, sir. JERRY ... Yah. WIDE ON THE CUBICLE We are looking at Jerry's cubicle from across the showroom. Noise muted by distance, we watch Jerry slam down the reciever, rise to his feet, fling the phone to the floor, raise his desk blotter high over his head with pens and pencils rolling off it and slam it onto his desktop. He stands for a moment, hands on hips, glaring. He stoops and picks up the phone, places it back on the desktop, starts picking up the pens and pencils. TRACK On steam-table bins of food, each identified by a plaque: BEEF STROGANOFF, SWEDISH MEATBALLS, BROILED TORSK, CHICKEN FLORENTINE. A complementary track shows two rays being pushed along a buffet line, piled high with many foods. MARGE AND NORM AT A TABLE They sit next to each other at a long cafateria-style Formica table, silently eating. A hip with a hissing walkie-talkie enters frame. GARY Hiya, Norm. How ya doin', Margie? How's the fricasse? MARGE Pretty darn good, ya want some? GARY No, I gotta - hey, Norm, I thought you were goin' fishin' up at Mile Lacs? NORM Yah, after lunch. He goes back to his food. MARGE Whatcha got there? Gary hands her a flimsy. Marge takes it with one hand and looks, her other hand frozen with a forkful of food. GARY The numbers y'asked for, calls made from the lobby pay phone at the Blue Ox. Two to Minneapolis that night. MARGE Mm. GARY First one's a trucking company, second one's a private residence. A Shep Proudfoot. MARGE Uh-huh... A what? GARY Shep Proudfoot. That's a name. MARGE Uh-huh. GARY Yah. MARGE ... Yah, okay, I think I'll drive down there, then. GARY Oh, yah? Twin Cities? Norm, who has been eating steadily throughout, looks over at Marge with mild interest. He stares for a beat as he finishes chewing, and them swallows and says: NORM ... Oh, yah? KITCHEN OF LUNDEGAARD HOUSE Jerry, Wade, and Stan Grossman sit around the kitchen table. It is night. The scene is harshly toplit by a hanging fixture. On the table are the remains of coffee and a cinammon filbert ring. WADE Dammit! I wanna be a part a this thing! JERRY No, Wade! They were real clear! They said they'd call tomorrow, with instructions, and it's gonna be delivered by me alone! WADE It's my money, I'll deliver it - what do they care? STAN Wade's got a point there. I'll handle the call if you want, Jerry. JERRY No, no. See - they, no, see, they only deal with me. Ya feel this, this nervousness on the phone there, they're very - these guys're dangerous - WADE All the more reason! I don't want you - with all due respect, Jerry - I don't want you mucking this up. JERRY The heck d'ya mean? WADE They want my money, they can deal with me. Otherwise I'm goin' to a professional. He points at a briefcase. WADE ... There's a million dollars here! JERRY No, see - WADE Look, Jerry, you're not sellin' me a damn car. It's my show here. That's that. STAN It's the way we prefer to handle it, Jerry. THE DOWNTOWN RADISSON HOTEL Marge is at the reception desk. MARGE How ya doin'? CLERK Real good. How're you today, ma'am? MARGE Real good. I'm Mrs. Gunderson, I have a reservation. The clerk types into a computer console. CLERK You sure do, Mrs. Gunderson. MARGE Is there a phone down here, ya think? LOBBY CORNER Marge is on a public phone. MARGE ... Detective Sibert? Yah, this is Marge Gunderson from up Brainerd, we spoke - Yah. Well, actually I'm in town here. I had to do a few things in the Twin Cities, so I thought I'd check in with ya about that USIF search on Shep Proudfoot... Oh, yah?... Well, maybe I'll go visit with him if I have the... No, I can find that... Well, thanks a bunch. Say, d'ya happen to know a good place for lunch in the downtown area?... Yah, the Radisson... Oh, yah? Is it reasonable? A GREEN FREEWAY SIGN Through a windshield we see a sign for the MINNEAPOLIS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. ROOFTOP PARKING LOT The brown Ciera enters and drives lazy S-curves around the few snow-covered cars parked on the roof of the lot. It stops by one car and Carl emerges. He quickly scans the lot, then kneels in the snow at the back of the parked car and starts unscrewing its license plate. EXIT BOOTH Carl pulls up and hands the attendant his ticket. CARL Yeah, I decided not to park here. The attendant frowns uncomprehendingly at the ticket. ATTENDANT ... What do you mean, you decided not to park here? CARL Yeah, I just came in. I decided not to park here. The attendant is still puzzled. ATTENDANT You, uh... I'm sorry, sir, but - CARL I decided not to - I'm, uh, not taking the trip as it turns out. ATTENDANT I'm sorry, sir, we do have to charge you the four dollars. CARL I just pulled in here. I just fucking pulled in here! ATTENDANT Well, see, there's a minimum charge of four dollars. Long-term parking charges by the day. A car behind beeps. Carl glances back, starts digging for money. CARL I guess you think, ya know, you're an authority figure. With that stupid fucking uniform. Huh, buddy? The attendant doesn't say anything. CARL ... King Clip-on Tie here. Big fucking man. He is peeling off one dollar bills. CARL ... You know, these are the limits of your life, man. Ruler of your little fucking gate here. There's your four dollars. You pathetic piece of shit. GUSTAFSON OLDS GARAGE Jerry is staring up, mouth agape, at the underside of a car on a hydraulic lift. Bewildered, he looks about, then asks a mechanic passing by, his voice raised over the din of the shop. JERRY Where's Shep? The mechanic points. MECHANIC Talkin' to a cop. Jerry looks. JERRY ... Cop? Marge and Shep face each other at the other end of the floor in a grimy and cluttered glassed-in cubicle. MECHANIC Said she was a policewoman. Marge and Shep silently talk. Jerry stares, swallows. INSIDE THE CUBICLE MARGE - Wednesday night? Shep is shaking his head. SHEP Nope. MARGE Well, you do reside their at 1425 Fremont Terrace? SHEP Yep. MARGE Anyone else residing there? SHEP Nope. MARGE Well, Mr. Proudfoot, this call came in past three in the morning. It's just hard for me to believe you can't remember anyone calling. Shep says nothing. MARGE ... Now, I know you've had some problems, struggling with the narcotics, some other entanglements, currently on parole - SHEP So? MARGE Well, associating with criminals, if you're the one they talked to, that right there would be a violation of your parole and would end with you back in Stillwater. SHEP Uh-huh. MARGE Now, I saw some rough stuff on your priors, but nothing in the nature of a homicide... Shep stares at her. MARGE ... I know you don't want to be an accessory to something like that. SHEP Nope. MARGE So you think you might remember who those folks were who called ya? JERRY'S OFFICE Jerry is worriedly pacing behind his desk. At a noise he looks up. Marge has stuck her head in the door. MARGE Mr. Lundegaard? JERRY Huh? Yah? MARGE I wonder if I could take just a minute of your time here - JERRY What... What is it all about? MARGE Huh? Do you mind if I sit down - I'm carrying quite a load here. Marge plops into the chair opposite him. MARGE ... You're the owner here, Mr. Lundegaard? JERRY Naw, I... Executive Sales Manager. MARGE Well, you can help me. My name's Marge Gunderson - JERRY My father-in-law, he's the owner. MARGE Uh-huh. Well, I'm a police officer from up Brainerd investigating some malfeasance and I was just wondering if you've had any new vehicles stolen off the lot in the past couple of weeks - specifically a tan Cutlass Ciera? Jerry stares at her, his mouth open. MARGE ... Mr. Lundegaard? JERRY ... Brainerd? MARGE Yah. Yah. Home a Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. JERRY ... Babe the Blue Ox? MARGE Yah, ya know we've got the big statue there. So you haven't had any vehicles go missing, then? JERRY No. No, ma'am. MARGE Okey-dokey, thanks a bunch. I'll let you get back to your paperwork, then. As Marge rises, Jerry looks blankly down at the papers on the desk in front of him. JERRY ... Yah, okay. He looks up at Marge's retreating back. He looks back down at the papers. He looks over at the phone. he picks up the phone and dials four digits. JERRY ... Yah, gimmee Shep... The heck d'ya mean?... Well, where'd he go? It's only... No, I don't need a mechanic - oh, geez - I gotta talk to a friend of his, so, uh ... have him, uh ... oh, geez... HOTEL BAR Marge enters. She looks around the bar, a rather characterless, lowlit meeting place for business people. VOICE Marge? It is a bald, paunching man of about Marge's age, rising from a booth halfway back. His features are broad, friendly, Asian-American. MARGE Mike! He approaches somewhat carefully, as if on his second drink. They hug and head back toward the booth. MIKE Geez! You look great! MARGE Yah - easy there - you do too! I'm expecting, ya know. MIKE I see that! That's great! A waitress meets them at the table. MIKE ... What can I get ya? MARGE Just a Diet Coke. Again she glances about. MARGE ... This is a nice place. MIKE Yah, ya know it's the Radisson, so it's pretty good. MARGE You're livin' in Edina, then? MIKE Oh, yah, couple years now. It's actually Eden Prarie - that school district. So Chief Gunderson, then! So ya went and married Norm Son-of- a-Gunderson! MARGE Oh, yah, a long time ago. MIKE Great. What brings ya down - are ya down here on that homicide - if you're allowed, ya know, to discuss that? MARGE Oh, yah, but there's not a heckuva lot to discuss. What about you, Mike? Are you married - you have kids? MIKE Well, yah, I was married. I was married to - You mind if I sit over here? He is sliding out of his side of the booth and easing in next to Marge. MIKE ... I was married to Linda Cooksey - MARGE No, I - Mike - wyncha sit over there, I'd prefer that. MIKE Huh? Oh, okay, I'm sorry. MARGE No, just so I can see ya, ya know. Don't have to turn my neck. MIKE Oh, sure, I unnerstand, I didn't mean to - MARGE No, no, that's fine. MIKE Yah, sorry, so I was married to Linda Cooksey - ya remember Linda? She was a year behind us. MARGE I think I remember Linda, yah. She was - yah. So things didn't work out, huh? MIKE And then I, and then I been workin' for Honeywell for a few years now. MARGE Well, they're a good outfit. MIKE Yah, if you're an engineer, yah, you could do a lot worse. Of course, it's not, uh, it's nothin' like your achievement. MARGE It sounds like you're doin' really super. MIKE Yah, well, I, uh ... it's not that it didn't work out - Linda passed away. She, uh... MARGE I'm sorry. MIKE Yah, I, uh... She had leukemia, you know... MARGE No, I didn't... MIKE It was a tough, uh ... it was a long - She fought real hard, Marge... MARGE I'm sorry, Mike. MIKE Oh, ya know, that's, uh - what can I say?... He holds up his drink. MIKE ... Better times, huh? Marge clinks it. MARGE Better times. MIKE I was so... I been so ... and then I saw you on TV, and I remembered, ya know... I always liked you... MARGE Well, I always liked you, Mike. MIKE I always liked ya so much... MARGE It's okay, Mike - Should we get together another time, ya think? MIKE No - I'm sorry! It's just - I been so lonely - then I saw you, and... He is weeping. MIKE ... I'm sorry... I shouldn't a done this... I thought we'd have a really terrific time, and now I've... MARGE It's okay... MIKE You were such a super lady ... and then I... I been so lonely... MARGE It's okay, Mike... CARLTON CELEBRITY ROOM Carl Showalter is sitting at a small table with a tarty- looking blonde in a low-cut gown. Each holds a drink. CARL Just in town on business. Just in and out. Ha ha! A little of the old in-and-out! WOMAN Wuddya do? Carl looks around. CARL Have ya been to the Celebrity Room before? With other, uh, clients? WOMAN I don't think so. It's nice. CARL Yeah, well, it depends on the artist. You know, Jose Feliciano, ya got no complaints. Waiter! The reverse shows a disappearing waiter and the backs of many, many people sitting at tables between us and the very distant stage. Jose Feliciano, very small, performs on a spotlit stool. The acoustics are poor. Carl grimaces. CARL ... What is he, deaf?... So, uh, how long have you been with the escort service? WOMAN I don't know. Few munce. CARL Ya find the work interesting, do ya? WOMAN ... What're you talking about? A DIRTY BEDROOM Carl is humping the escort. We hear the door burst open. The escort is grabbed and flung out of bed. CARL Shep! What the hell are you doing? I'm banging that girl! Shep! Jesus Ch - Shep slaps him hard, forehand, backhand. SHEP Fuck out of my house! He hauls him up - CARL Shep! Don't you dare fucking hit me, man! Don't you - - punches him and flings him away. Carl hits a sofa and we see his bare legs disappear as he flips back over it. Shep enters frame to circle the sofa and kick at Carl behind it. SHEP Fuck outta here. Put me back in Stillwater. Little fucking shit. There is a knock at the door. VOICE Hey! Come on in there! Shep strides to the door, flings it open. A man in boxer shorts stands in the doorway. MAN C'mon, brother, it's late - Unghh! Shep hits him twice, then grabs both of his ears and starts banging his head against the wall. The hooker runs by, clutching her clothes, and Shep kicks her in the ass as she passes. He spins and goes back into the apartment. Carl is hopping desperately into his pants. CARL Stay away from me, man! Hey! Smoke a fuckin' peace pipe, man! Don't you dare fuckin' - Unghh! After hitting him several times, Shep yanks Carl's belt out of his dangling pants and strangles him with it. Carl gurgles. Shep knees Carl repeatedly, then dumps him onto the floor and starts whipping him with the buckle end of the belt. CHAIN RESTAURANT PHONE BOOTH Carl listens to the phone ring at the other end. His face is deeply bruised and cut. Finally, through the phone... VOICE ... Yah? CARL All right, Jerry, I'm through fucking around. You got the fucking money? JERRY'S KITCHEN Jerry is at the kitchen phone. Through the door to the dining room we see Wade picking up an extension. JERRY Yah, I got the money, but, uh - CARL Don't you fucking but me, Jerry. I want you with this money on the Dayton-Radisson parking ramp, top level, thirty minutes, and we'll wrap this up. JERRY Yah, okay, but, uh - CARL You're there in thirty minutes or I find you, Jerry, and I shoot you, and I shoot your fucking wife, and I shoot all your little fucking children, and I shoot 'em all in the back of their little fucking heads. Got it? JERRY ... Yah, well, you stay away from Scotty now - CARL GOT IT? JERRY Okay, real good, then. The line goes dead. A door slams offscreen. EXT. HOUSE Wade, briefcase in hand, gets into his Cadillac, slams the door and peels out. INT. CAR Wade's jaw works as he glares out at traffic. He mumbles to himself as he drives. WADE Okay ... here's your damn money, now where's my daughter?... Goddamn punk ... where's my damn daughter... He pulls out a gun, cracks the barrel, peers in. WADE ... You little punk. JERRY'S HOUSE Jerry sits in the foyer, trying to pull on pair of galoshes. Scotty's voice comes from upstairs: VOICE ... Dad? JERRY It's okay, Scotty. VOICE Where're you going? JERRY Be back in a minute. If Stan calls you, just tell him I went to Embers. Oh, geez - Thunk! - his first boot goes on. RADISSON Marge sits on the bed in her hotel room, shoes off, massaging her feet. The phone is pressed to her ear, and through it, we hear ringing. VOICE ... Hello? MARGE Norm? MILLE LACS LAKE It is late evening, blowing storm. A leisurely pan across the bleak gray expanse finds a little hut in the middle of the frozen lake with a pickup truck parked next to it. MARGE'S VOICE They bitin'? INT. HUT Norm has a cellular phone to his ear. His feet are stretched out to an electric heater. The interior is bathed in soft orange light. NORM Yah, okay. How's the hotel? MARGE Oh, pretty good. They bitin'? NORM Yeah, couple a muskies. No pike yet. How d'you feel? MARGE Oh, fine. NORM Not on your feet too much? MARGE No, no. NORM You shouldn't be on your feet too much, you got weight you're not used too. How's the food down there? MARGE Had dinner at a place called the King's Table. Buffet style. It was pretty darn good. NORM Was it reasonable? MARGE Yah, not too bad. So it's nice up there? NORM Yah, it's good. No pike yet, but it's good. DAYTON-RADISSON RAMP The top, open, level. Snow blows. A car sits idling. Another car pulls onto the roof. It creeps over to the parked car and stops. It continues to idle as its door opens and Wade steps out, carrying the briefcase. The door of the other car bangs open and Carl bounces out. CARL Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you? WADE I got your goddamn money, you little punk. Now where's my daughter? CARL I am through fucking around! Drop that fucking briefcase! WADE Where's my daughter? CARL Fuck you, man! Where's Jerry? I gave SIMPLE FUCKING INSTRUCTIONS - WADE Where's my damn daughter? No Jean, no money! CARL Drop that fucking money! WADE No Jean, no money! CARL Is this a fucking joke here? He pulls out a gun and fires into Wade's gut. CARL ... Is this a fucking joke? WADE Unghh ... oh, geez... He is on the pavement, clutching at his gut. Snow swirls. CARL You fucking imbeciles! He bends down next to Wade to pick up the briefcase. WADE Oh, for Christ ... oh, geez... Wade brings out his gun and fires at Carl's head, close by. CARL Oh! Carl stumbles and falls back, and then stands up again. His jaw is gouting blood. CARL ... Owwmm... One hand pressed to his jaw, he fires down at Wade several times. Blood streams through the hand pressed to his jaw. CARL ... Mmmmmphnck! He fnkem shop me... He pockets the gun, picks up the briefcase one-handed, flings it into his car, gets in, peels out. DOWN RAMP Carl screams down the ramp. He takes a corner at high speed and swerves, just missing Jerry in his Olds on his way to the top. INT. JERRY'S CAR Jerry recovers from the near miss and continues up. JERRY Oh, geez! EXIT BOOTH Carl squeals to a halt at the gate, still pressing his hand to his bleeding jaw. CARL Ophhem ma fuchem gaphe! ATTENDANT May I have your ticket, please? RAMP ROOF Jerry pulls to a halt next to Wade's idling Cadillac. He gets out and walks slowly to Wade's body, prostrate in the swirling snow. JERRY Oh! Oh, geez! He bends down, picks Wade up by the armpits and drags him over to the back of the Cadillac. He drops Wade's body, walks to the driver's side of the car, pulls the keys and walks back to pop the trunk. He wrestles Wade's body into the trunk, slams it shut and walks back to the scene of the shooting. He kicks at the snow with his galoshed feet, trying to hide the fresh bloodstains. EXIT BOOTH Jerry approaches in the Cadillac. The wooden gate barring the exit has been broken away. The booth is empty. Jerry eases toward the street, looking over at the booth as he passes. Inside the booth we see the awkwardly angled leg of a prostrate body. EXT. JERRY'S HOUSE The car pulls into the driveway. FOYER Jerry enters and sits on the foyer chair to take off his galoshes. SCOTT'S VOICE ... Dad? JERRY Yah. SCOTT'S VOICE Stan Grossman called. JERRY Yah, okay. SCOTT'S VOICE Twice. JERRY Okay. SCOTT'S VOICE ... Is everything okay? JERRY Yah. Thoonk - the first boot comes off. SCOTT'S VOICE Are you calling Stan? JERRY Well... I'm goin' ta bed now. CARL'S CAR Carl mumbles as he drives, underlit by the dim dash lights, one hand now holding a piece of rag to his shredded jaw. CARL ... Fnnkn ashlzh... Fnk... ROAD Carl's car roars into frame, violently swirling the snow. Its red tail lights fishtail away. FADE OUT HOLD IN BLACK HARD CUT TO: BRIGHT - LOOKING THROUGH A WINDSHIELD It is a starky sunny day. We are cruising down a street of humble lookalike houses. We pan right as we draw toward one house in particular. In its driveway a man in a hooded parka shovels snow. He notices the approaching car and gives its driver a wave. The driver is Gary, the Brainderd police officer. He gives a finger-to-the-head salute and pulls over. OUTSIDE Gary slams his door shut and the other man plants his shovel in the snow. MAN How ya doin'? GARY Mr. Mohra? MAN Yah. GARY Officer Olson. MAN Yah, right-o. The two men caucus the driveway without shaking hands and without standing particularly close. They stand stiffly, arms down at their sides and breath streaming out of their parka hoods. Each has an awkward leaning-away posture, head drawn slightly back and chin tucked in, to keep his face from protruding into the cold. MAN ... So, I'm tendin' bar there at Ecklund && Swedlin's last Tuesday and this little guy's drinkin' and he says, 'So where can a guy find some action - I'm goin' crazy down there at the lake.' And I says, 'What kinda action?' and he says, 'Woman action, what do I look like,' And I says 'Well, what do I look like, I don't arrange that kinda thing,' and he says, 'I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake' and I says, 'Well, this ain't that kinda place.' GARY Uh-huh. MAN So he says, 'So I get it, so you think I'm some kinda jerk for askin',' only he doesn't use the word jerk. GARY I unnerstand. MAN And then he calls me a jerk and says the last guy who thought he was a jerk was dead now. So I don't say nothin' and he says, 'What do ya think about that?' So I says, 'Well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him then.' GARY Ya got that right. MAN And he says, 'Yah, that guy's dead and I don't mean a old age.' And then he says, 'Geez, I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake.' GARY White Bear Lake? MAN Well, Ecklund && Swedlin's, that's closer ta Moose Lake, so I made that assumption. GARY Oh sure. MAN So, ya know, he's drinkin', so I don't think a whole great deal of it, but Mrs. Mohra heard about the homicides out here and she thought I should call it in, so I called it in. End a story. GARY What'd this guy look like anyways? MAN Oh, he was a little guy, kinda funny-lookin'. GARY Uh-huh - in what way? MAN Just a general way. GARY Okay, well, thanks a bunch, Mr. Mohra. You're right, it's probably nothin', but thanks for callin' her in. MAN Oh sure. They say she's gonna turn cold tomorrow. GARY Yah, got a front movin' in. MAN Ya got that right. CLOSE ON CARL SHOWALTER In his car, now parked, one hand holding the rag pressed to his mangled jaw. He is staring down at something in the front seat next to him. His other hand holds open the briefcase. It has money inside - a lot of money. Carl unfreezes, takes out one of the bank-wrapped wads and looks at it. CARL ... Mmmnphh. He paws through the money in the briefcase to get a feeling for the amount. CARL ... Jeshush Shrist... Jeshush fuchem Shrist! Excited, he counts out a bundle of bills and tosses it onto the back seat. He starts to take the rag away from his chin but the layer pressed against his face sticks, its loose weave bound to his skin by clotted blood. He pulls very gently and winces as blood starts to flow again. He carefully tears the rag in half so that only a bit of it remains adhering to his jaw. EXT. CAR It is pulled over to the side of an untraveled road. THe door opens and Carl emerges with the briefcase. He slogs through the snow, down a gulley and up the embankment to a barbed-wire fence. He kneels at one of the fence posts and frantically digs into the snow with his bare hands, throws in the briefcase and covers it back up. He stands and tries to beat the circulation back into his red, frozen hands. He looks to the right. A regular line of identical fence posts stretches away against unblemished white. He looks to the left. A regular line of identical fence posts stretches away against unblemished white. He looks at the fence post in front of him. CARL Mmmphh... He looks about the snowy vastness for a marker. Finding none, he kicks the fence post a couple of times, failing to scar or tilt it, then hurriedly plants a couple of sicks up against the post. He bends down, scoops up a handful of snow, presses it against his wounded jaw, and lopes back to the idling car. HOTEL ROOM Marge has a packed overnight back sitting on the unmade bed. She is ready to leave, already wearing her parka, but is on the phone. MARGE No, I'm leavin' this mornin', back up to Brainerd. VOICE Well, I'm sorry I won't see ya. MARGE Mm. But ya think he's all right? I saw him last night and he's - VOICE What'd he say? MARGE Well, it was nothin' specific he said, it just seemd like it all hit him really hard, his wife dyin' - VOICE His wife? MARGE Linda. VOICE No. MARGE Linda Cooksey? VOICE No. No. No. They weren't - he, uh, he was bothering Linda for about, oh, for a good year. Really pestering her, wouldn't leave her alone. MARGE So ... they didn't... VOICE No. No. They never married. Mike's had psychiatric problems. MARGE Oh. Oh, my. VOICE Yah, he - he's been struggling. He's living with his parents now. MARGE Oh. Geez. VOICE Yah, Linda's fine. You should call her. MARGE Geez. Well - geez. That's a suprise. MARGE'S CAR Marge drives, gazing out at the road. MARGE AT A DRIVE-THROUGH She leans out of her open window and yells at the order panel: MARGE Hello? MARGE AT THE GUSTAFSON OLDS GARAGE She sits in the lot, eating a breakfast sandwich. JERRY LUNDEGAARD'S OFFICE Jerry is at his desk using a blunt pencil to enter numbers onto a form. Beneath the form is a piece of carbon paper and beneath that another form copy, which Jerry periodically checks. The carbon-copy form shows thick smudgy, illegible entries. Jerry hums nervously. Glass rattles as someone taps at his door. Jerry looks up and freezes, mouth hanging open, brow knit with worry. Marge sticks her head in the door. MARGE Mr. Lundegaard? Sorry to bother you again. Can I come in? She starts to enter. JERRY Yah, no, I'm kinda - I'm kinda busy - MARGE I unnerstand. I'll keep it real short, then. I'm on my way out of town, but I was just - Do you mind if I sit down? I'm carrying a bit of a load here. JERRY No, I - But she is already sitting into the chair opposite with a sigh of relieved weight. MARGE Yah, it's this vehicle I asked you about yesterday. I was just wondering - JERRY Yah, like I told ya, we haven't had any vehicles go missing. MARGE Okay, are you sure, cause, I mean, how do you know? Because, see, the crime I'm investigating, the perpetrators were driving a car with dealer plates. And they called someone who works here, so it'd be quite a coincidence if they weren't, ya know, connected. JERRY Yah, I see. MARGE So how do you - have you done any kind of inventory recently? JERRY The car's not from our lot, ma'am. MARGE but do you know that for sure without - JERRY Well, I would know. I'm the Executive Sales Manager. MARGE Yah, but - JERRY We run a pretty tight ship here. MARGE I know, but - well, how do you establish that, sir? Are the cars, uh, counted daily or what kind of - JERRY Ma'am, I answered your question. There is a silent beat. MARGE ... I'm sorry, sir? JERRY Ma'am, I answered your question. I answered the darn - I'm cooperating here, and I... MARGE Sir, you have no call to get snippy with me. I'm just doin' my job here. JERRY I'm not, uh, I'm not arguin' here. I'm cooperating... There's no, uh - we're doin' all we can... He trails off into silence. MARGE Sir, could I talk to Mr. Gustafson? Jerry stares at her. MARGE ... Mr. Lundegaard? Jerry explodes: JERRY Well, heck, if you wanna, if you wanna play games here! I'm workin' with ya on this thing, but I... He is getting angrily off his feet. JERRY Okay, I'll do a damned lot count! MARGE Sir? Right now? JERRY Sure right now! You're darned tootin'! He is yanking his parka from a hook behind the opened door and grabbing a pair of galoshes. JERRY ... If it's so damned imporant to ya! MARGE I'm sorry, sir, I - Jerry has the parka slung over one arm and the galoshes pinched in his hand. JERRY Aw, what the Christ! He stamps out the door. Marge stares. After a long moment her stare breaks. She glances idly around the office. There is a framed picture facing away from her on the desktop. She turns it to face her. It is Scotty, holding an accordion. There is another picture of Jean. Marge looks at it, looks around, for some reason, at the ceiling. She looks at a trophy shelf on the wall behind her. She fiddles idly with a pencil. She pulls a clipboard toward her. It holds a form from the General Motors Finance Corporation. She looks idly around. Her look abruptly locks. MARGE ... Oh, for Pete's sake. Jerry is easing his car around the near corner of the building. Marge's voice is flat with dismay: MARGE ... Oh, for Pete's sake... She grabs the phone and punches in a number. MARGE ... For Pete's s- he's fleein' the interview. He's feelin' the interview... Jerry makes a left turn into traffic. MARGE ... Detective Sibert, please... POLICE OFFICER We are looking across a steam table at a man in blue. He moves slowly to the right, pushing his tray along a cafeteria line. Behind him, in the depth of the room, is an eating area of long Formica tables at which sit a mix of uniformed and civilian-clothed police and staff. We are listening to an offscreen woman's voice. WOMAN Well, so far we're just saying he's wanted for questioning in connection with a triple homicide. Nobody at the dealship there's been much help guessing where he might go... The woman is entering frame sliding a tray. Marge enters behind her, sliding her own. We move laterally with them as they slowly make their way along the line. MARGE Uh-huh. WOMAN We called his house; his little boy said he hadn't been there. MARGE And his wife? WOMAN She's visiting relatives in Florida. Now his boss, this guy Gustafson, he's also disappeared. Nobody at his office knows where he is. MARGE Geez. Looks like this thing goes higher than we thought. You call his home? WOMAN His wife's in the hospital, has been for a couple months. The big C. MARGE Oh, my. WOMAN And this Shep Proudfoot character, he's a little darling. He's now wanted for assault and parole violation. He clobbered a neighbor of his last night and another person who could be one of your perps, and he's at large. MARGE Boy, this thing is really ... geez. WOMAN Well, they're all out on the wire. Well, you know... MARGE Yah. Well, I just can't thank you enough, Detective Sibert, this cooperation has been outstanding. DETECTIVE SIBERT Ah, well, we haven't had to run around like you. When're you due? MARGE End a April. DETECTIVE SIBERT Any others? MARGE This'll be our first. We've been waiting a long time. DETECTIVE SIBERT That's wonderful. Mm-mm. It'll change your life, a course. MARGE Oh, yah, I know that! DETECTIVE SIBERT They can really take over, that's for sure. MARGE You have children? Detective Sibert pulls an accordion of plastic picture sleeves from her purse to show Marge. DETECTIVE SIBERT I thought you'd never ask. The older one is Janet, she's nine, and the younger one is Morgan. MARGE Oh, now he's adorable. DETECTIVE SIBERT He's three now. Course, not in that picture. MARGE Oh, he's adorable. DETECTIVE SIBERT Yah, he - MARGE Where'd you get him that parka? They have reached the end of the cafeteria line. With a nod to the cashier, Detective Sibert indicates hers and Marge's trays. DETECTIVE SIBERT Both of these. MARGE Oh, no, I can't let you do that. DETECTIVE SIBERT Oh, don't be silly. MARGE Well, okay - thank you, Detective. DETECTIVE SIBERT Oh, don't be silly. GAEAR GRIMSRUD He sits eating a Swanson's TV dinner from a TV tray he has set up in front of an easy chair. He watches the old black-and-white TV set whose image - it might be a game show - is still heavily ghosting and diffused by snow. The audio crackles with interference. Despite the impenetrability of its image, it holds Grimsrud's complete attention. At the sound of the front door opening, Grimsrud looks up. Carl enters, his face suppurating and raw. He reacts to Grimsrud's wordless look with a grotesque laugh. CARL You should she zhe uzher guy! He glances around. CARL ... The fuck happen a her? Jean sits slumped in a straight-backed chair facing the wall. Her hooded head, resting on her chin, is motionless. There is blood on the facing wall. GRIMSRUD She started shrieking, you know. CARL Jezhush. He shakes his head. CARL ... Well, I gotta muddy. He is plunking down eight bank-wrapped bundles on the table. CARL ... All of it. All eighty gran. Forty for you... He makes one pile, pockets the rest. CARL ... Forty for me. Sho thishuzh it. Adiosh. He slaps keys down on the table. CARL ... You c'n'ave my truck. I'm takin' a Shiera. GRIMSRUD We split that. Carl looks at him. CARL HOW THE FUCK DO WE SHPLITTA FUCKIN' CAR? Ya dummy! Widda fuckin' chainshaw? Grimsrud looks sourly up. There is a beat. Finally: GRIMSRUD One of us pays the other for half. CARL HOLD ON! NO FUCKIN' WAY! YOU FUCKIN' NOTISH ISH? I GOT FUCKIN' SHOT INNA FAISH! I WENT'N GOTTA FUCKIN' MONEY! I GET SHOT FUCKIN' PICKIN' IT UP! I BEEN UP FOR THIRTY-SHIKSH FUCKIN' HOURZH! I'M TAKIN' THAT FUCKIN' CAR! THAT FUCKERZH MINE! Carl waits for an argument, but only gets the steady sour look. Carl pulls out a gun. CARL ... YOU FUCKIN' ASH-HOLE! I LISHEN A YOUR BULLSHIT FOR A WHOLE FUCKIN' WEEK! A beat. Carl returns Grimsrud's stare. CARL ... Are we shquare? Grimsrud says nothing. CARL ... ARE WE SHQUARE? A beat. Disgusted, Carl pockets the gun and heads for the door. CARL ... Fuckin' ash-hole. And if you shee your friend Shep Proudpfut, tell him I'm gonna NAIL hizh fuckin' ash. OUTSIDE We are pulling Carl as he walks toward the car. Behind him we see the cabin door opening. Carl turns, reacting to the sound. Grimsrud is bounding out wearing mittens and a red hunter's cap, but no overcoat. He is holding an ax. Carl fumbles in his pocket for his gun. Grimsrud swings overhand, burying the ax in Carl's neck. MARGE In her cruiser, on her two-way. Through it we hear Lou's voice, heavily filtered: VOICE His wife. This guy says she was kidnapped last Wednesday. MARGE The day of our homicides. VOICE Yah. Marge is peering to one side as she drives, looking through the bare trees that border the road on a declivity that runs down to a large frozen lake. MARGE And this guy is... VOICE Lundegaard's father-in-law's accountant. MARGE Gustafson's accountant. VOICE Yah. MARGE But we still haven't found Gustafson. VOICE (crackle) - looking. MARGE Sorry - didn't copy. VOICE Still missing. We're looking. MARGE Copy. And Lundegaard too. VOICE Yah. Where are ya, Margie? We hear, distant but growing louder, harsh engine noise, as of a chainsaw or lawnmower. MARGE Oh, I'm almost back - I'm driving around Moose Lake. VOICE Oh. Gary's loudmouth. MARGE Yah, the loudmouth. So the whole state has it, Lundegaard and Gustafson? VOICE Yah, it's over the wire, it's everywhere, they'll find 'em. MARGE Copy. VOICE We've got a - MARGE There's the car! There's the car! We are slowing as we approach a short driveway leading down to a cabin. Parked in front is the brown Cutlass Ciera. VOICE Whose car? MARGE My car! My car! Tan Ciera! VOICE Don't go in! Wait for back-up! Marge is straining to look. The power-tool noise is louder here but still muffled, its source not yet visible. VOICE ... Chief Gunderson? MARGE Copy. Yah, send me back-up! VOICE Yes, ma'am. Are we the closest PD? MARGE Yah, Menominie only has Chief Perpich and he takes February off to go to Boundary Waters. ROAD EXTERIOR Marge pulls her prowler over some distance past the cabin. She gets out, zips up her khaki parka and pulls up its fur- lined hood. For a moment, she stands listening to the muffled roar of the power tool. Then, with one curved arm half pressing against, half supporting her belly, she takes slow, gingerly steps down the slope, through the deep snow, through the trees angling toward the cabin and the source of the grinding noise. She slogs from tree to tree, letting each one support her downhill-leaning weight for a moment before slogging to the next. The roar grows louder. Marge stands panting by one tree, her breath vaporizing out of her snorkel hood. She squints down toward the cabin's back lot. A tall man with his back to us, wearing a red plaid quilted jacket and a hunting cap with earflaps, is laboring over a large power tool which his body blocks from view. Marge advances. The man is forcing downward something which engages the roaring power tool and makes harsh spluttering noises. The man is Grimsrud, his nose red and eyes watering from the cold, hatflaps pulled down over his ears. His breath steams as he sourly goes about his work, both hands pressing down a shod foot, as it if were the shaft of a butter churn. The roar is very loud. Marge slogs down to the next tree, panting, looking. Grimsrud forces more of the leg into the machine, which we can now see sprays small wet chunks out the bottom. Marge's eyes shift. A large dark form lies in the snow next to Grimsrud. Grimsrud works on, eyes watering. With a grunt he bends down out of frame and then re-enters holding a thick log. He uses it to force the leg deeper into the machine. Marge is advancing. She holds a gun extended toward Grimsrud, who is still turned away. Grimsrud rubs his nose with the back of his hand. Marge closes in, grimacing. Grimsrud's back strains as he puts his weight into the log that pushes down into the machine. The dark shape in the snow next to his side is the rest of Carl Showalter's body. Marge has drawn to within twenty yards. When she bellows it sounds hollow and distant, her voice all but eaten up by the roar of the power tool. MARGE Stop! Police! Turn around and hands up! Startled, Grimsrud scowls. He turns to face her. He stares. Marge bellows again: MARGE ... Hands up! Conscious of the noise, she shows with a twist of her shoulder the armpatch insignia. MARGE ... Police! Grimsrud stares. With a quick twist, he reaches back for the log, hurls it at Marge and then starts running away. Marge twists her body sideways, shielding herself. No need - the heavy log travels perhaps ten yards and lands in the snow several feet short of her. Grimsrud pants up the hill - slow going through the deep snow. Behind him: MARGE ... Halt! She fires in the air. She lowers the gun and carefully sighs. MARGE ... Halt! She fires. Grimsrud still slogs up the hill - a miss. Marge sights again. MARGE ... Halt! She fires again. Grimsrud pitches forward. He mutters in Swedish as he reaches down to clutch at his wounded leg. Marge walks toward him, gun trained on him as her other hand reaches under her parka and gropes around her waist. It comes out with a pair of handcuffs, which she opens with a snap of the wrist. MARGE ... All right, buddy. On your belly and your hands clasped behind you. THE CRUISER Marge drives. Grimsrud sits in the back seat, hands cuffed behind him. For a long moment there, he is quiet - only engine hum and the periodic clomp of wheels on pavement seams - as Marge grimly shakes her head. MARGE ... So that was Mrs. Lundegaard in there? She glances up in the rear-view mirror. Grimsrud, cheeks sunk, eyes hollow, looks sourly out at the road. Marge shakes her head. At length: MARGE ... I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. Grimsrud's head bobs with bumps on the road; otherwise he is motionless, reactionless, scowling and gazing out. MARGE ... And those three people in Brainerd. No response. Marge, gazing forward, seems to be talking to herself. MARGE ... And for what? For a little bit of money. We hear distant sirens. MARGE ... There's more to life than money, you know. She glances up in the rear-view mirror. MARGE ... Don't you know that?... And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day... Grimsrud's hollow eyes stare out. The sirens are getting louder. Marge pulls over. MARGE ... Well... She leans forward to the dash to give two short signalling WHOOPS on her siren. She turns on her flashers. She leans back with a creak and jangle of utilities. She stares forward, shakes her head. We hear the dull click of her flashers. MARGE ... I just don't unnerstand it. Outside it is snowing. The sky, the earth, the road - all white. A squad car, gumballs spinning, punches through the white. It approaches in slow motion. An ambulance punches through after it. Another squad car. FADE OUT: FADE IN: HIGH AND WIDE ON A SHABBY MOTEL It stands next to a highway on a snowy, windslept plain. One or two cars dot the parking lot along with an idling police cruiser. MOTEL ROOM DOORWAY We are looking over the shoulders of two uniformed policemen who stand on either side of the door, their hands resting lightly on their holstered sidearms. One of them raps at the door. COP ONE Mr. Anderson... A title fades in: OUTSIDE OF BISMARK, NORTH DAKOTA After a pause, muffled through the door: VOICE ... Who?... COP ONE Mr. Anderson, is this your burgundy 88 out here? VOICE ... Just a sec. COP ONE Could you open the door, please? VOICE ... Yah. Yah, just a sec. We hear a clatter from inside. VOICE ... Just a sec... One of the policemen unholsters his gun and nods to someone whose back enters - a superintendent holding a ring of keys. This man turns a key in the door and then stands away. The two policemen, guns at the ready, bang into the motel room. The rough hand-held camera rushes in behind them as the two men give the room a two-handed sweep with their guns. The room is empty. Cop one indicates the open bathroom door. COP ONE Dale! The two men charge the bathroom, belts jingling, guns at the ready, jittery camera behind them rushing to keep pace. A man in boxer shorts is halfway out the bathroom window. The policemen holster their guns and charge the window, and drag Jerry Lundegaard back into the room. His flesh quivers as he thrashes and keens in short, piercing screams. The cops wrestle him to the floor but his palsied thrashing continues. The policemen struggle to restrain him. COP ONE Call an ambulance! COP TWO You got him okay? Cop One pinions Jerry's arms to the floor and Jerry bursts into uncontrolled sobbing. COP ONE Yah, yah, call an ambulance. Jerry sobs and screams. A BEDROOM We are square on Norm, who sits in bed watching television. After a long beat, Marge enters frame in a nightie and climbs into bed, with some effort. MARGE Oooph! Norm reaches for her hand as both watch the television. At length Norm speaks, but keeps his eyes on the TV. NORM They announced it. Marge looks at him. MARGE They announced it? NORM Yah. Marge looks at him, waiting for more, but Norm's eyes stay fixed on the television. MARGE ... So? NORM Three-cent stamp. MARGE Your mallard? NORM Yah. MARGE Norm, that's terrific! Norm tries to suppress a smile of pleasure. NORM It's just the three cent. MARGE It's terrific! NORM Hautman's blue-winged teal got the twenty-nine cent. People don't much use the three-cent. MARGE Oh, for Pete's - a course they do! Every time they raise the darned postage, people need the little stamps! NORM Yah. MARGE When they're stuck with a bunch a the old ones! NORM Yah, I guess. MARGE That's terrific. Her eyes go back to the TV. MARGE ... I'm so proud a you, Norm. Norm murmurs: NORM I love you, Margie. MARGE I love you, Norm. Both of them are watching the TV as Norm reaches out to rest a hand on top of her stomach. NORM ... Two more months. Marge absently rests her own hand on top of his. MARGE Two more months. Hold; fade out. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fast Times at Ridgemont High.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fast Times at Ridgemont High.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..77d812e03055eeff7e9603abf78058f625657232 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fast Times at Ridgemont High.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +FADE IN:EXT. RIDGEMONT CENTER MALL - NIGHTFrom the outside parking lot it looks like anenormous beached whale. It is the prime hangout forall the teenagers in the area. Kids mill around theparking lot or stand by the mall entrance.INT. RIDGEMONT CENTER MALLThere are three levels of stores underneath amassive fluorescent roof. Different music comesfrom each store. It looks seventies-modern, butalready used and run-down. Groups of kids cruisethe mall, eyeing each other and acting cool.INT. SWENSON'S ICE-CREAM PARLOR - NIGHTThe teenage waitresses in their peppermint pattieuniforms are rushing around, trying to keep up withtheir orders.A good-looking man in his mid-twenties enters andsits. He wears a plastic name tag that says:"Pacific Stereo Audio Consultant, RON JOHNSON."Two Swenson's Waitresses pass by with supremeindifference, and take their orders into the backkitchen.INT. SWENSON'S BACK KITCHEN WAITRESS #1 I think he looks like Richard Gere.The two Waitresses discuss the issue at hand. Oneof them, Linda Barrett, is the seventeen year old,retired sex queen of Ridgemont High. WAITRESS #1 (CONT'D) I think he looks like... Richard Gere. (Bruce Springsteen) LINDA Did you see his cute little butt?A third waitress enters. WAITRESS #2 Let's talk about C-19. WAITRESS #1 AND LINDA We were! WAITRESS #2 I think I'll drop over and change the shakers. LINDA No, be cool, that's Stacy's section.Through the entrance, we see Stacy Hamilton. She isthe fifteen-year-old trainee, sweet-looking withjust the last traces of baby fat. She puts down aglass of water for Ron, spills some and mops it up. WAITRESS #1 He's too old for Stacy, she hasn't even started high school yet.A flustered Stacy enters the back kitchen. LINDA How's it going. STACY Do you think that guy's cute? WAITRESS #1 In a blow-dryed kind of way. STACY Does anyone else want to take his table? LINDA Don't you like him? STACY Yeah, but I fucked up. You can take it. Really. LINDA Come on, Stacy, it's your section and your man. STACY What should I do? LINDA Just take his order, look him in the eye and if he says anything remotely funny, laugh a lot.She fluffs up Stacy's hair and gently shoves hertowards the door. Stacy reluctantly exits.INT. SWENSON'S DINING ROOMStacy goes to Ron's table. RON So you working hard or hardly working?Stacy thinks it over, decides it's a joke andlaughs (a little too late). Ron looks at hersoulfully. RON (CONT'D) You look like you could still be in high school. STACY I know, everyone says that.He stares at her and she stares back uncomfortably. STACY (CONT'D) What can I get for you tonight. RON How about your phone number?Stacy smiles nervously.INT. RIDGEMONT MALL - OUTSIDE SWENSON'S - NIGHTA teenage boy stands in front of an in-mall theatreacross from Swenson's. He wears a stiff over-sizedtuxedo suit. He is Mark "The Rat" Ratner, a tickettaker on the job.Mike Damone, a transplanted Easterner, bops overfrom the record store, eyeing every girl he passes.He stops at the movie theatre. THE RAT Do you ever look at those girls who work at Swenson's? They're beautiful. And I have to stand out here and watch them six nights a week. DAMONE You should work for yourself.Two Junior High Kids spot Damone, walk up to him. DAMONE (CONT'D) What can I do for you, gentlemen? JUNIOR HIGH KID #1 You the guy with the Van Halen tickets? DAMONE I could be. JUNIOR HIGH KID #2 What do you want for something in the first ten rows? DAMONE Twenty bucks apiece. JUNIOR HIGH KID #1 Those tickets were only twelve fifty! DAMONE So don't buy 'em. JUNIOR HIGH KID #2 (to friend) All the other scalpers are sold out, Arnold.Damone reacts indignantly. DAMONE Scalper? You call me a scalper? I perform a service, my friends. The service costs money. Now do you want the tickets or not?The Kids look at each other. JUNIOR HIGH KID #1 Are you sure you can't go any lower. DAMONE These are my special back-to-school prices. JUNIOR HIGH KID #2 We'll take 'em.Damone reaches inside his pants pocket for a wad oftickets.EXT. CARL'S JR. - NIGHTAt the other end of the mall is a neon-lit Carl'sJr. Hamburger Restaurant. If Swenson's was the warmup, this is the main attraction of the RidgemontMall.INT. CARL'S JR.Back-to-school banners hang from the walls. Manykids are lined up at the counters. In the middle ofthe kitchen, directing all the orders, is aseventeen year old named Brad. He movesconfidently, observing the fryer, checking cupsupply, and giving an affectionate squeeze to apretty cashier named Lisa. She lets him kiss her,but only once.A teenage Customer shouts to Brad from the frontcounter. CUSTOMER Hey Brad! I waited till you came on! I wanted your fries.Brad smiles, walks over to the fryer and discardsthe fries left from the previous shift. He shoutsto the other employees as he puts in a new batch,"his" batch. BRAD We need fifteen Superstars, David! FELLOW EMPLOYEE #1 Okay, Brad! BRAD I'll take care of the fry orders! Just get me the Superstars! FELLOW EMPLOYEE #2 Fish sandwiches!Brad spots three surfers sitting in the diningarea. None of them are wearing shirts. BRAD Hey you guys! You had shirts on when you came in here.ANGLE ON THE MAIN SURFERa bleary kid sitting at the head of the table. Heruns a hand through his long, stringy blond hair.After a time, he speaks. SPICOLI Something happened to them, mon. BRAD Come on, Spicoli. Why don't you just put your shirts back on? See the sign?ANGLE ON HANDWRITTEN SIGN IN WINDOWthat reads: "No Shirts, No Shoes, No Dice"INT. CARL'S JR.A store manager, Dennis Taylor, bustles up to Brad. DENNIS Any problems? BRAD No, just a couple of surfers with no shirts on. I took care of it, Dennis.ANGLE ON SURFERSgrumbling, putting shirts back on. It pains them.Dennis heads back to his office when he seessomething in the trash bin. DENNIS Did you throw away those fries, Hamilton? BRAD They were left over from the last shift. DENNIS Those were perfectly good fries, Hamilton. (glares at Brad) Perfectly good. BRAD But they weren't mine.Brad laughs, goes back to work.INT. MALL - LATE NIGHTIt is closed and only a few janitors remain. Stacyand Linda walk through the large empty mall. STACY He gave me his card. (lovingly) 'Ron Johnson, Audio Consultant.' LINDA (amused) Should we buy a frame for that? STACY Come on, Linda, I haven't had a boyfriend all summer. You promised when I started working at the mall that my life would change... Do you think he'll call this week? LINDA Listen, Stace, you want to know about guys? I'll tell you. They're mostly chicken. Before I met Doug I chased after every guy I thought was cute. I thought if I gave out a vibe they'd get the message and call me up. Well, guess what? They don't call. STACY So what did you do? LINDA I called them. If I was sitting next to a guy and I wanted to sit closer, I'd sit closer. If I wanted to kiss him, I'd just do it. You want Ron Johnson? Grab him. STACY I can't do that.They pass a janitor cleaning graffiti that says:LINCOLN SURF NAZIS and MAGGOT LUST FOR THE DUST. LINDA Face it. With some guys you have to make the first move. A lot of guys are just... wussies. STACY Really? LINDA Stacy, what are you waiting for? You're fifteen. I did it when I was thirteen. It's no huge thing. It's just sex. If you don't, one of the other girls will. STACY (cute) He was hot, wasn't he? LINDA If I didn't have a fiance in Chicago, I'd go for it.A young Girl runs and catches up with Linda andStacy. GIRL (breathless) Are you Linda Barrett? LINDA Yes. GIRL I'm Carrie Frazier from Toys 'R Us. Judy Hinton from May Company told me I could ask you something.Linda nods. GIRL (CONT'D) I have this situation with my boyfriend, and I wanted to... (looks at Stacy, then whispers in Linda's ear)Linda listens thoughtfully, then clicks into her"sex expert" mode. LINDA Okay, are you over sixteen?The Girl nods. LINDA (CONT'D) All right, what you want to do is go to the Free Clinic and tell the doctor that you have sex regularly - several times a week -- and that you need Nornel One Plus Fifty's. GIRL And they don't call my parents? LINDA Not if you're over sixteen. GIRL Okay. Thanks a lot, Linda. LINDA And don't let them talk you into a diaphragm either.The Girl thanks Linda again. Linda and Stacy get tothe back exit of the mall and Linda uses a key toopen the door. STACY I can't believe I start high school tomorrow. LINDA Believe it.They exit the mall, into the night.EXT. RIDGEMONT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL - DAYWe see all the elements of the first day of school.The students carry new books, explore new lockers,begin to stake out their ground.Someone has taken the steel letters from the greenvanguard out front. It reads: "IDG MON SENOR HIHO."The rest of Ridgemont High is covered with toiletpaper. And a black spray paint message along theside of the front office building reads, "LINCOLNSURF NAZIS."EXT. RIDGEMONT PARKING LOT - DAYBrad pulls into the Ridgemont High parking lot. Hedrives a beat-up, four-door model LTD sedan. Threefriends wait for him near his parking space.They are dressed in the same golf caps with brandlogos on the front like CAT, NATIONAL and CHAINSAW. BUDDY #1 Hamilton! BUDDY #2 The cruising vessel! Hey -- Yooooo!Brad climbs out of his car and pats it admiringly. BRAD Six more payments, gentlemen.Brad joins his friends, and they walk towards thegymnasium.EXT. RIDGEMONT PARKING LOTWe see a shiny, new, blue Mustang whip into theparking lot. Students scatter from the parkingspace. Behind the wheel is football star CharlesJefferson. A huge, black kid. The halls atRidgemont part for Charles Jefferson.Rat and Damone are in the parking lot. Damonesurrounded by underclassmen (customers) sellingtickets. DAMONE See that Mustang? U.C.L.A. gave Charles Jefferson that car when he was a sophomore.The underclassmen are impressed. They watch asJefferson opens his car door and stands to his fullheight, over six-foot tall. He opens his trunk andpulls out no books, just a football duffel bag. Heslowly walks by Damone, Rat and the underclassmen. DAMONE (CONT'D) How ya doing! That car looks great, Charles!Jefferson gives Damone a death glare. JEFFERSON Don't... fuck... with... it.He moves on. Damone resumes selling tickets. DAMONE Shit, that's my man.EXT. RIDGEMONT PARKING LOTWe see a clutching, smooching couple walk by.Cheerleader Cindy Carr and her boyfriend, GreggAdams.EXT. RIDGEMONT PARKING LOT - DAYThe Four Stoners (from Carl's Jr.) tumble out of avan in the parking lot. They head towards thegymnasium.INT. RIDGEMONT GYMNASIUM - DAYStanding by the A-B-C-D-E registration counter inthe gymnasium, Brad waits to pick up his red adcard. He stands surrounded by his buddies. They nodvigorously at everything Brad says. As he talks,fellow students all say hello or pat him as theypass.One troubled-looking boy, Arnold, walks up to Brad. ARNOLD Brad, can I talk to you a minute? BRAD Arnold. What's happening?Arnold speaks confidentially to Brad. ARNOLD Brad, I really fuckin' hate McDonald's, man. Ever since they started in with the chicken, everything went downhill. BRAD You want to work at Carl's? ARNOLD Oh, man, if you could swing something there, I'd do anything for you. I want to work with you guys. BRAD I can probably get you in there. Just let me talk to Dennis Taylor. ARNOLD All right!!Brad notices Stacy and nods with complete innercool. STACY Hi, Brad. BRAD Sis. BRAD'S BUDDIES Hey, Stacy. STACY Hi... Where's Lisa? BRAD Everyone wants to know where Lisa is. How should I know where Lisa is? (to buddies) What am I gonna do? Now my little sister goes to the same high school. The party's over. (to Stacy) So who do you have first period? STACY U.S. History. Mr. Hand. BRAD Hey-yo. DAVID Hey-yoooooooooo. STACY (concerned) What's wrong with Mr. Hand? BRAD Nothing... if you like 'Hawaii Five O.' You better get in class, Stacy. That's not the one to be late to.Stacy hurries off. RICH (as soon as she is gone) Your sister is really turning into a fox. BRAD You should see her in the morning. BRAD'S BUDDIES Hey-yooooooooooo.INT. U.S. HISTORY CLASS - DAYStacy barely slips in the door before the finalattendance bell sounds. She finds a seat just asthe teacher's cubicle door opens at the back of theclassroom. A tall figure comes barreling down theaisle. He is Mr. Hand. The man makes a double-speedstep to the door at the front of the class, kicksthe door shut and locks it. The windows rattle intheir frames. Stacy watches, wide-eyed, at herfirst high school class. MR. HAND Aloha. My name is Mr. Hand.Mr. Hand writes his name on the green chalkboardbefore his class. Every letter is a small explosionof chalk. MR. HAND (CONT'D) (almost sweetly) I have but one question for you on our first morning 'together.' (pause) Can you attend my class? Pakalo?... Understand?... History has proven us one basic fact. Man does not do anything that is not for his own good. It is for your own good that you attend my class. And if you can't make it... I can make you.An impatient knock begins at the front door of theclassroom. MR. HAND (CONT'D) We have a twenty-question quiz every Friday. It will cover all the material we've dealt with during the week. There will be no make-up exams. It's important that you all have your Land of Truth and Liberty textbooks by Wednesday. At the latest.The knock continues. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Your grade is the average of all your quizzes, plus the midterm and final, which counts for one-third. Got it?The mystery knocker tries a lazy calypso beat onthe front door. No one in Mr. Hand's U.S. Historyclass dares mention it, much less answer it.Stacy grips her desk with the tension of her firstday. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Also. There will be no eating in this class. You get used to doing your own business on your own time. That's one demand I make. I don't like staying after class with you on detention. That's my time. I don't like wasting it. Just like you wouldn't want me to come to your house some evening and discuss U.S. History on your time. Pakalo?Hand finally turns, as if he has just noticed thesound at the door and opens the door an inch.Jeffrey Spicoli stands in the doorway, red eyesglistening. His long, blond hair is still wet andstreaming down the back of his white peasant shirt.He grins, oblivious to such trivial matters asattendance bells. A Student sitting near Stacyturns to his friends. STUDENT That guy has been stoned since the third grade. MR. HAND Yes? SPICOLI Yeah. I'm registered for this class. MR. HAND What class? SPICOLI This is U.S. History, right? I saw the globe in the window. MR. HAND (appears enthralled) Really?Spicoli holds his red ad card up to the crack inthe door. SPICOLI Can I come in? MR. HAND (swinging door open) Oh, please. I get so lonely when that third attendance bell rings and I don't see all my kids here.Spicoli laughs. He is the only one. SPICOLI Sorry I'm late. This new schedule is totally confusing.Mr. Hand takes the red ad card and reads from itwith utter fascination. MR. HAND Mr. Spicoli? SPICOLI That's the name they gave me.Mr. Hand slowly tears the card into little piecesand sprinkles the pieces over his wastebasket.Spicoli watches in disbelief. His hands are frozenin the process of removing his backpack. SPICOLI (CONT'D) You just ripped my card in two! MR. HAND Yes. SPICOLI Hey, bud. What's your problem?Mr. Hand moves to within inches of Spicoli's face. MR. HAND No problem at all. I think you know where the front office is.It takes a moment for the words to work their wayout of Jeff Spicoli's mouth. SPICOLI You... dick.In the tense moment that follows, no one in theclass is sure what might happen.Mr. Hand simply turns away from Jeff Spicoli as ifhe ceased to exist and coolly continues hislecture. MR. HAND I've taken the time to print up a complete schedule of class quizzes, and the chapters they cover. Please pass them back to the desks behind you...Hand begins passing out stacks of purplemimeographed sheets.ANGLE ON STUDENTSall smelling the purple mimeographed sheets.Still standing in the doorway, hyperventilatingwith fifteen-year-old adrenalin, is Jeff Spicoli.After a time, he fishes a few bits of his ad cardout of the wastebasket and huffs out of the room.EXT. RIDGEMONT LUNCH COURT - AFTERNOONIt's packed. The school's outdoor dining area isactually just a small courtyard lined with fastfood machines and dominated by a large oak tree inthe center. Standing at the center of lunch court,under the large oak tree, is Brad Hamilton and hisgolf-cap Buddies. BRAD You hear about the surfer in Mr. Hand's class?His Buddies shake their heads. BRAD (CONT'D) Told Hand to fuck off. BRAD'S BUDDIES Whoa!_Brad sees another friend pass through lunch court. BRAD Thompson!Brad waits for him to pass. BRAD (CONT'D) I hear Thompson got canned at Bob's this summer. BUDDY #1 Yeah. They hacked his hours, so he quit. BRAD Where is he now? BUDDY #1 Making two eighty at Seven-Eleven. BRAD Man. (pause) They make you wear a fuckin' candy stripe suit over there. BUDDY #2 Poor guy. BRAD Poor guy.EXT. LUNCH COURT - ANGLE ON THE 200 BUILDINGBATHROOMnear the outer rim of lunch court. Jeff Spicolicomes stumbling out into the daylight, surroundedby a small group of Ridgemont Stoners. Marijuanasmoke billows out behind them. STONER BUDDY #1 It was so bitchin', mon. Everybody is talking about it. STONER BUDDY #2 Totally. SPICOLI The motherfucker pissed me off. STONER BUDDY #2 Totally. You don't have to take that shit. SPICOLI I didn't take that shit.They all laugh, flip hair out of their eyes. STONER BUDDY #1 Tell us again. What happened after he ripped up your ad card? SPICOLI I called him a dick. And then I reached for his class notes, and I ripped 'em up. I said, 'Hey bud. Two can play this game.'The Stoners go wild. SPICOLI (CONT'D) I'll tell you this. If he hassles me again, I can't be responsible for what happens... you know why? STONER BUDDY #1 Because he's a fuckin' dick! SPICOLI You got it. (pause) Gimme a dollar.One surfer digs out a dollar for Spicoli. They lookout at lunch court, see it teeming with straightkids. They turn and walk towards the parking lot.EXT. LUNCH COURT - ANGLE ON STACY AND LINDAas they walk onto lunch court. They take a seat onthe outskirts of the area and watch all thestudents crowding onto the eating area. LINDA I hear some surfer pulled a knife on Mr. Hand this morning. STACY No way! He just called him a dick. LINDA God. People exaggerate so much at this school.The school couple, Cindy and Gregg walk by. CINDY Hi, Linda. God, you look so great. LINDA Hi, you guys. This is Stacy. Stacy, this is Gregg Adams and Cindy Carr. GREGG AND CINDY Hi, Stacy.Stacy smiles. Gregg and Cindy move on, repeatingthe same scene a few feet away. LINDA If there's one thing that never changes... it's a cheerleader.Stacy turns to see a girl with short, black hairpassing by, wearing tight black spandex pants, anddark lipstick. STACY Linda. That girl looks just like Pat Benatar. LINDA I know.They watch her pass. LINDA (CONT'D) Actually, there are three girls at Ridgemont who have cultivated the Pat Benatar look.Linda gestures out on lunch court.ANGLE ON ANOTHER PAT BENATAR LOOK-ALIKEwearing pink spandex pants and short-cropped blackhair with dark lipstick.ANGLE ON STILL ANOTHER PAT BENATAR LOOK-ALIKEwearing blue spandex pants and short black hair.She stands a good distance away from the other two. LINDA (CONT'D) None of them talk to each other.Linda looks at them with bemusement but Stacy iswondering. STACY Do you think guys find that attractive? LINDA Oh, give me a break, Stacy. You're much prettier than them.They sit and eat their lunches. Linda has herperennial diet lunch of yogurt and raw vegetables. STACY Yeah but they look more sophisticated. You'd probably think they'd be better in bed. LINDA What do you mean 'better in bed.' You either do it or you don't. STACY No there are variables that, like, I might not be good at. LINDA What variables? STACY (shyly) Like, you know, giving blow jobs. LINDA What's the big deal? STACY Well I never did it. LINDA There's nothing to it.She takes out a carrot stick and eases it down herthroat. Stacv tries one but chokes. LINDA (CONT'D) You just have to practice a little first. (feels her throat) Relax these muscles. Think of your throat as an open tunnel.The girls try sliding the carrot sticks down theirthroats without gagging.ANGLE ON A BOYat the next table; sees them and points them out tohis companions. STACY What happens... don't laugh at me, but when a guy has an orgasm... you know, like, how much comes out.Stacy stops practicing and looks horrified. Lindalaughs. LINDA Just kidding. About 10cc. STACY (enlightened) Oh! That's where that group got its name from.They continue practicing as the boys look on. Stacymanages to get almost a whole carrot down herthroat to Linda's amazement.The group of boys break out in applause.Stacy looks very embarrassed.INT. BIOLOGY LAB - DAYThe class is situated so that all students sit atBunson burner tables lining the room.Pat is seated at one of the tables and Stacy takesa seat nearby; she looks at the ledge in front ofher. It contains a pig embryo. She listens to theconversation next to her. GIRL STUDENT I'll tell you right now. I'm not going. I'll get sick or something. I'm not going into a room with a bunch of dead guys. ARNOLD You'll go. It's part of the final. GIRL STUDENT (a Pat Benatar) Have you heard what they do? I'm serious. Have you heard? BOY STUDENT What? ARNOLD The bodies are dissected, Mike, and Mr. Vargas pulls out parts of the dead body and holds them up. Okay? BOY STUDENT You mean he reaches in and pulls this stuff out? GIRL STUDENT Yes. BOY STUDENT Like a heart? GIRL STUDENT Hearts, lungs, guts...Stacy strains to hear more, just as Mr. Vargas -- adiminutive man holding a coffee mug -- enters theclass. MR. VARGAS Good day, everyone! I just switched to Sanka. I'm running a little slow today, so have a heart.ANGLE ON THE RATHe is riveted on Stacy Hamilton, swooning. DISSOLVE TO:INT. STACY'S ROOM - NIGHTWe see Stacy's room, a young girl's room withposters and frilly pillows. Stacy is in bed, andher Mother is just leaving the room. MOTHER Sleep tight, Stacy. STACY Good night, Mom.Her Mother shuts off the light, exits. Stacy pullsback the covers. She is fully dressed.EXT. STACY'S WINDOW - NIGHTWe see the window to Stacy's room slide slowlyopen, and watch her slip outside. She hikes down adrainage pipe to the street.EXT. STREET CORNER - NIGHTA brown MG pulls up. Stacy jumps from the shadowsand hops in. The car drives away.INT. RON'S CAR - NIGHTRon sits behind the wheel, humming casually alongto the music on his car stereo.Ron has on a light-brown leather jacket. He lookslike a contestant for "The Dating Game." STACY (a little nervous) Thanks for picking me up. RON No problem.He speeds off, turning up the radio to sing along. RON (CONT'D) 'The Cuer-vo Gold, the fi-ine Columbian.' (eyes Stacy) You look nice tonight. STACY Thanks. So do you. RON Where do you feel like going? STACY I don't know. Wherever you want. RON How about the point? STACY (nervously) The point sounds fine. RON (looks at her knowingly) All right, the point it is.We see Stacy's anxious face, as the car speeds upRidgemont Drive, with music.EXT. THE POINT - NIGHTStacy and Ron sit in the car, listening to music.The "point" is a natural lookout spot that loverscan "discover." It is behind the baseball field anddugout of Ridgemont High School.Stacy and Ron get out of the car and walk to thebaseball dugout.INT. DUGOUT - NIGHTThey sit side-by-side. Above them, a single lightbulb shines a very private fifty watts on things. STACY That's a nice shirt. RON Thanks. Thanks a lot.Silence. They look at each other, look away. RON (CONT'D) It's very warm out tonight. STACY It is. It's very warm. I wonder how long it will last?Ron leans over and kisses Stacy lightly on thecheek. Stacy sits quietly for a moment, thinking,was that the first move? Then she lunges at Ron andkisses him square on the mouth. At first surprised,Ron then holds her there and kisses her in return.After a time, he breaks away. RON Are you really nineteen? STACY Yes... I am really nineteen.They continue making out. RON I think I better take you home. STACY What about those other guys you live with? RON No. I mean back to your home.But they make no moves in any direction. Theycontinue making out. Ron begins unbuttoning herblouse and massaging Stacy's breasts. A momentlater, he tugs at her pants. Awkwardly, she startsto help him. He tilts her backward onto theconcrete dugout bench. They kiss feverishly, herhand pulling off her shoes, then her pants. Rongoes to work. RON (CONT'D) (whispers) Is this your first time? STACY Yes.STACY'S POINT OF VIEWas she feels a man enter her for the first time, wesee the graffiti above her: Surf Nazis Lincoln was here -- Sieg Heil Led Zeppelin Dan y Roberto (Disco Fags) DISSOLVE TO:EXT. SCHOOL LOCKERS - DAYStacy is standing by her locker, twirling thecombination. She is joined by Linda Barrett. LINDA Was it great? STACY It was okay. I LINDA You'll always remember your first time. STACY It was nice. LINDA So tell me, do you like Ron? Is it serious? STACY Come on, Linda. It's just sex. LINDA Hey! That's my line!They both laugh and walk down the hall.EXT. HAMILTON HOME - LATE AFTERNOONStacy arrives home. The Hamilton home has thatanonymous prepackaged tract look, like many othersin this lower-middle class neighborhood.Brad washes his car in the driveway and listens tothe car radio. BRAD Mom says to clean up the pool. STACY Why can't you do it? BRAD Your friends use the pool. Your friends messed it up. STACY Your friends use the pool too. BRAD I take out the garbage. STACY Don't strain yourself.Stacy bristles, and heads inside the front door.INT. HAMILTON LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOONThe furniture in the Hamilton living room lookslike it was gleaned for a sale at Pic 'N Save.Through the living room, one can see a very small,kidney-shaped pool.Stacy checks an erasable telephone message sheetnear the refrigerator. There are two names on it:BRAD/STACY. Brad's side is filled with messages.Stacy's is empty.She notices a summer bouquet floral arrangement.Stacy reads the attached note. It reads: "Memoriesof You, Ron Johnson." She quickly gathers it up andcarries it back outside. She fans the door severaltimes to dispel the odor.EXT. HAMILTON DRIVEWAY - AFTERNOON STACY Brad! Have Mom or Dad seen this? BRAD They're not home yet. STACY Brad, what would you say if I asked you to just put these flowers in the trunk of the Cruising Vessel and get rid of them at work? BRAD I'd say... who the hell is Ron Johnson? STACY I'll explain everything later.Brad nods, as Stacy pushes the flowers into hisarms.INT. DAMONE'S ROOM - AFTERNOONDamone expertly fills two glasses three-quartersfull of Kahlua, then adds a few drops of milk.Music is playing on a nearby speaker. Damone handsThe Rat a drink and checks himself out in hismirror. DAMONE See that moustache coming in, Rat?There is only a hint of peach fuzz, but he groomsit anyway. DAMONE (CONT'D) See? You can almost press it out.Damone turns around. His friend is preoccupied. THE RAT I am in love.Damone takes a sip of his drink, looks at The Rat. DAMONE You... are a wuss. Part wimp. Part pussy. THE RAT What do you mean -- wuss? This girl is my exact type. It's her. Definitely her. DAMONE (distracted) It's definitely your mama. THE RAT Damone, you gotta listen to me.Damone quits puttering around his room with theKahlua and milk. He grabs a chair and straddles it. DAMONE All right... where did you see her? THE RAT She's in my biology class. DAMONE Did you get her number? THE RAT No. DAMONE Did you get her name? THE RAT No. It's too soon. DAMONE It's never too soon! Girls decide how far to let you go in the first five minutes. THE RAT Well, what do you want me to do? Go up to this strange girl in my biology class and say, 'Hello! I'd like you to take your clothes off and jump on me?' DAMONE (thoughtfully) I would. Yeah. THE RAT Really? DAMONE I can see it all now. This is going to be just like the girl you fell in love with at Fotomat this summer. You bought forty bucks of fuckin' film and you never even talked to her. THE RAT (woeful) You tell me, Mike. What do I do? DAMONE Okay. Okay. (sighs, but loves it) Here's what you do.Damone gets up, moves to the door. DAMONE (CONT'D) You start from the second you walk into biology. Don't just walk... move across the room.He saunters over to the chair. DAMONE (CONT'D) Don't talk to her. Let her know. Use your face. Use your body. Use everything. This is what I do. I just sent out the vibe and I have personally found that... girls do respond. Something happens. THE RAT Of course something happens. You put the vibe out to thirty million chicks, you know something's gonna happen. DAMONE That's the idea, Rat. That's The Attitude. THE RAT The Attitude? The Attitude dictates that you don't care if she comes, stays, lays or prays. Whatever happens, your toes are still tappin'. When you are the cruelest and the coolest... then you have The Attitude.Damone knocks down the rest of his drink, and we... DISSOLVE TO:INT. CARL'S JR. KITCHEN - NIGHTWe see Brad operating at full throttle in thekitchen, and taking a moment to sneak a kiss withhis girlfriend Lisa as she goes to the frontcounter to open up a cash register. She allows himonly one kiss. LISA Were those flowers really for me, Brad? BRAD Of course. LISA How much did they cost? BRAD Don't worry about it.She gives him a kiss... on the cheek. BRAD (CONT'D) Let's go to the Point tonight.She pulls away. LISA What's there to do at the Point?Brad shifts his weight, tries to find the rightwords. BRAD What's there to do at the Point? God, Lisa, we've been going together almost two years, and... LISA Brad. I don't want to have to use sex as a tool. BRAD Tool? Tool for what? We've been going together almost two years! LISA I don't want to talk about it here, Brad.Brad prepares to respond. He squints his eyes,prepares for a truly sizzling comeback, when DennisTaylor, short and prematurely balding assistantmanager of Carl's Jr., comes bustling out of hisback office. He quickly surveys the situation inthe kitchen. TAYLOR Hamilton! You have fifteen double cheese to box!Lisa returns to her cashier post, leaving Brad'slast words stalled in his mouth.EXT. HAMILTON HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHTWe see the Hamilton's cul-de-sac home. All thelights are off in the house at this hour. Exceptfor Brad's room.INT. BRAD'S ROOMBrad is alone in his room. He's prone on his neatlymade bed, reading a paperback book entitled PowerWith Class. On the wall of Brad's room is a largeframed photo of a Carl's Jr. hamburger.Brad hears a muffled knock at his door. BRAD Come on in.Stacy walks into Brad's room. STACY Thanks for getting rid of those flowers. BRAD Don't worry about it. Who sent the flowers? STACY It's just some guy I met at Swenson's. You don't know him. BRAD I don't care it you tell me or not. I got problems of my own.He begins pacing. STACY Is everything okay at work? BRAD Are you kidding? Work is great. I kill at work. I don't even mind Mom and Dad making me pay rent. STACY You're going to break up with Lisa, aren't you? BRAD I've been doing some thinking. It's my last school year. I'm a single, successful guy. I think I want my freedom. STACY Why? Because she won't sleep with you? BRAD Where did you hear that? STACY I'm just guessing. BRAD Well... it's true. STACY Maybe you just need to give her some time. She's so nice, Brad. Everybody loves Lisa. BRAD Everybody loves Lisa. Everybody loves Lisa. But everybody doesn't have to be her boyfriend.Suddenly, Stacy pops the question. STACY Hey, Brad. Are you still a virgin? BRAD Why? STACY I don't know. I was just curious. BRAD Maybe yes. Maybe no. STACY You are a virgin! BRAD I didn't say that. STACY But your face did!They laugh. Then Brad turns serious. BRAD Are you still a virgin? STACY Maybe yes. Maybe no. BRAD Don't give me that shit! I know you're still a virgin!Stacy smiles and stands up. She playfully slaps herbrother on the arm and walks down the hallway toher room. We can see there is less frill and lacein Stacy's room. The junior high paperbacks aregone. There are no dolls in sight. EXT. MALL PARKING LOT - NIGHTLinda and Stacy walk past rows of cars. Stacy stopsat a brown MG. STACY There... There's his car. I know he's at work tonight. He hasn't come into Swenson's since he called my house. My mother told him I was still at high school, after I told him I was nineteen. I guess I should tell him I'm fifteen. LINDA Don't you dare, you'll never hear from him again. STACY Does Doug care that you're seventeen? LINDA Doug sees beyond that stuff to what the person inside is like. That's why I'm marrying him. STACY If he ever calls again I'll say I'm eighteen. LINDA Boy I am so glad to be through with all these games.They enter the mall.INT. U.S. HISTORY CLASS - MORNINGWe are now several weeks into the school year. Mr.Hand is dropping test papers on desks like they arepieces of manure. MR. HAND C... D... F... F... F... three weeks we've been talking about the Platt Amendment. What are you people? On dope? A piece of legislation was introduced into Congress by Senator John Platt. It was passed in 1906. This amendment to our Constitution has a profound impact upon all of our daily liv....Mr. Hand stops on a dime. He is like a championhunting dog that has just picked up the scent. Hescans the room. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Where is Jeff Spicoli?There is silence in the U.S. history classroom. MR. HAND (CONT'D) I saw him earlier today near the 200 Building bathrooms. Is he still on campus?Silence. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Anyone?One student sitting next to Stacy raises his hand. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Yes, Desmond? DESMOND I saw him by the food machines. MR. HAND How long ago? DESMOND Just before class, sir...Mr. Hand snaps his fingers, Hawaii Five-O style. MR. HAND Okay. Bring him in.Desmond hustles out the door. MR. HAND (CONT'D) What is this fascination with truancy? What is it that gets inside your heads?Mr. Hand begins to pace the aisles as he speaks.Occasionally, for emphasis, he bends down tolecture directly into the students' faces. MR. HAND (CONT'D) There are other teachers in this school who look the other way at truants. (points to attendance clip on the doorway) It's a little game that you both play. They pretend they don't see you, you pretend you don't ditch. Who pays the price later? You.Desmond returns to the room with a red-eyed JeffSpicoli. SPICOLI Hey! Wait a minute! There's no birthday party for me here! MR. HAND Thank you, Desmond. (to Spicoli) What's the reason for your truancy? SPICOLI I couldn't make it in time. MR. HAND (in top form) You mean, you couldn't? Or you wouldn't? SPICOLI I don't know, mon. The food lines took forever. MR. HAND Food will be eaten on your time! (pause) Why are you continuously late for this class, Mr. Spicoli? Why do you shamelessly waste my time like this? SPICOLI I don't know.Mr. Hand appears mesmerized. He then turns andheads for the board. He writes in long, largeletters as he slams the chalk into the green board.He writes: "I DON'T KNOW". MR. HAND I like that.He stands back and admires it. He turns randomly toStacy. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Don't you like that, Miss Hamilton? STACY Yes, sir. MR. HAND I really like that too. 'I don't know'... that's nice. 'Mr. Hand, will I pass this class?' 'Gee, Mr. Spicoli, I don't know'. I like that. I think I'm going to leave your words on this board for all my classes to enjoy. Giving you full credit, of course, Mr. Spicoli.We hear the blare of the dismissal bell. Stacy andthe other students get up to leave. Spicoli staysin place. He has just figured out a truly bitchin'comeback... and his mouth is forming the firstword, when Mr. Hand cuts him off. MR. HAND (CONT'D) You can go now.Hand turns back to his desk. The rest of thestudents have already left. Spicoli's audience isgone. He shrugs and lopes out the door.INT. RIDGEMONT MALL - AFTERNOONIt's Christmas time at the Ridgemont Mall. Allthree tiers are strung with neon lights, and wehear the sound of the bell-ringing Santas.INT. SWENSON'S - AFTERNOONStacy and Linda are enjoying a brief lull in theChristmas season madness. They sit at the sundaebar. Stacy looks forlorn, almost red-eyed, as shemakes a sundae. LINDA You've got to get used to working Christmas. People are always screaming and yelling... then they get home and they're all Christmasy. STACY I think Christmas brings out the worst in people. LINDA I guess Ron hasn't called yet. STACY Not since November.Linda nods her head, always the coach. LINDA Stacy, it doesn't look good for the relationship.Stacy continues making her ice cream, slapping thescoops onto the stainless steel dish. STACY (sighs) Don't you think it meant anything to him. Even if I am fifteen? LINDA Stacy. What does it matter? He's a stereo salesman. You want to marry him? You want to have kids with him? You want this guy to come home, fifty years old, and he's still got that little Pacific Stereo badge on? Come on.ANGLE ON GREGG AND CINDYwho are seated at a back table, feeding each other.Stacy looks at her finished sundae. STACY I should quit this job. I'm going to get so fat working here... nobody will ever take me out. LINDA Stacy. How many times do I have to tell you? You are really going to be beautiful... someday. STACY Thanks a lot.Linda punches Stacy lightly on the shoulder. LINDA Hey -- Ron Johnson? It's his loss.We follow Stacy, as she walks into the dining roomto serve the sundae.INT. WHEREHOUSE RECORDS - MALL - DAYWe see a group of buzz-cut young toughs, walking information, hunched over, sneering and wearingsleeveless U.S. Army fatigue jackets. None of thesedamaged-looking kids is over the age of fourteen.They pass to reveal this legend on their backs:LINCOLN SURF NAZIS.Angle on Mike Damone and Mark Ratner, who arestanding by the upcoming concert list posted on thedoor to Wherehouse Records. Damone sees the SurfNazis pass, turns to Mark Ratner, who is stillwearing his Cinema Four jacket. DAMONE The business is changing, Rat. I'll tell you, these kids today... they don't even listen to Aerosmith. THE RAT I hear they all dress like that at Lincoln now. DAMONE There used to be three or four of those guys. Now we see 'em every time we come to the mall.Damone is approached by a couple of young ticketCustomers. CUSTOMER #1 Got any Blue Oyster Cult tickets? DAMONE No Cult. I ate twenty-four pairs of Blue Oyster Cult tickets last time around. I was this close to working at 7-11. No Cult.Suddenly we see all ticket business stop. Damoneand his customers see someone menacingly comingdirectly for them. The small crowd parts as CharlesJefferson, football duffel bag in hand, walks up.With him is a thick, tough, miniature version ofhimself. This is Little Charles. They both stop infront of Damone. JEFFERSON (after long look) When is Earth, Wind and Fire coming? DAMONE (respectfully) I'm really not sure. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'll let you know the second there is the slightest news, sir. JEFFERSON I'm taking my little brother. DAMONE Excellent. So that will be two tickets... All right. Fine, sir.Jefferson and L.C. push past the customers. CUSTOMER #2 Wow. He really lives here. I thought he just flew in for the football games. DAMONE (gaining composure) Shit, he's my man. He knows where to come for tickets.Damone turns to The Rat. DAMONE (CONT'D) Well, Rat. Are you ready for the moment of truth?The Rat adjusts his jacket, and nods. THE RAT She is immune to my charms.They walk together towards Swenson's, as The Ratdrapes his aqua-blue Cinema Four jacket around hisshoulders, like a French film director. Damonewalks a few steps, then stops Rat. DAMONE Hey, Rat. THE RAT Yeah? DAMONE Ace the jacket.The Rat considers the suggestion, gets rid of thejacket. They continue towards Swenson's.EXT. SWENSON'S - DAYThe Rat pulls open the door to Swenson's. He walkstoward the counter to Stacy Hamilton. STACY Hi. May I help you?The Rat feels the beginnings of cold panic, butbarges through nonetheless. THE RAT Yes. I have two questions. I was curious...His voice becomes a shade deeper. He begins to pullThe Attitude together. THE RAT (CONT'D) What do you do with the jackets people leave here? STACY (smiling) We keep them. THE RAT You keep them. STACY We keep them, in case the people come back.She reaches under the counter and pulls out acardboard box with some rumbled jackets and otheritems. STACY (CONT'D) Here they are. You can look through it, if you want.The Rat chuckles to himself, struggling with TheAttitude. THE RAT It's cool. It would take too much time to go through all that stuff. I'll just pick up a new one.Stacy smiles. He's obviously awkward, and she likesit. STACY What's your other question? THE RAT My other question is... can-I-have your-phone-number-so-I-can-ask-you out-sometime?To The Rat's surprise, Stacy continues smiling. STACY Do you have a pen? This one's out of ink. THE RAT Oh... yes.He pulls one out of his jacket pocket, gives it toher. Stacy writes her name and phone number on ascrap of paper and gives it to him. The Rat looksat the paper. THE RAT (CONT'D) Stacy. Nice to meet you, Stacy. My name is Mark Ratner.He sticks out his hand, and they shake. We see TheRat turn around and walk out of Swenson's.EXT. SWENSON'S - AFTERNOONThe Rat exits with ultimate cool. He sees Damonewaiting just off to the side, talking to somegirls. The Rat nods, gives him the thumbs-up.Damone returns the gesture. All-Attitude.EXT. CARL'S JR. - MORNINGCarl's is happening tonight. There are lots of kidsinside. We hear charging rock music -- "Girls GotRhythm" by AC/DC -- coming from a radio in the backkitchen.INT. CARL'S JR. BATHROOM - MORNINGInside the bathroom, Brad Hamilton applies theCarl's scrub brush to a felt tip graffiti messagenear the mirror: I EAT BIG HAIRY PUSSY. He pausesand catches himself in the mirror. He adjusts hishair. BRAD (talking to mirror) Lisa? I have something to tell you. Look, I'm a senior now. I'm a single, successful guy and I've got to be fair to myself. Lisa... I think I need my freedom.Brad pauses, looks at the mirror soulfully. BRAD (CONT'D) Aw, don't do that... don't take it personally, okay? Please? I knew you'd understand, because...The bathroom door opens -- it's Arnold, the boy whoBrad got a job. ARNOLD Brad! I know you're on your break, but would you cover me on register three?Brad nods, exits:INT. CARL'S JR. COUNTERBrad stands at the register.We see a prominent display over Brad's head: TRYOUR 100% GUARANTEED BREAKFAST. The last of manyharried businessmen customers gets his breakfastorder and takes his seat.Brad is joined by Dennis Taylor, the AssistantManager. DENNIS Come on. Clean that counter off Brad. Let's go. Play ball. BRAD Okay, Dennis.Brad begins polishing the counter and Dennis Taylorreturns to his office at the back of the kitchen.Brad watches him disappear behind the door thatsays: ASSISTANT MANAGER.As soon as Dennis disappears behind the door, theone Businessman in the place rises and returns tothe counter. BRAD (CONT'D) (nervously) May I help you?The Businessman has short, curly brown hair. Hespeaks in a whine. BUSINESSMAN Yes. This is not the best breakfast I ever ate.The Businessman points to the huge display overBrad's head: TRY OUR 100% GUARANTEED BREAKFAST. BUSINESSMAN (CONT'D) And I want my money back.Brad begins searching under the counter. BRAD Well, I believe you have to fill out a form. There's a pad right around here. BUSINESSMAN No. I want my money back right now. BRAD Well, that's not the way it works, really. And you ate most of your food already, too... BUSINESSMAN See that sign? It says 100% Money Back Guarantee. Do you know the meaning of the word 'guarantee'? Do they teach you that here? Give me my money back.Brad begins looking to the restroom. "Where'sArnold?" BRAD I can't do that. But if you wait a minute... BUSINESSMAN (as if talking to a kindergartner) Look. Just put your little hand back in the cash register and give me my $2.75 back. Okay? (looks at name tag) Please, Brad? BRAD I'm sorry, sir. Just let me find the forms here. BUSINESSMAN I am so tired. I am so tired of dealing with morons. How hard is it to...Brad looks up from under the counter. No amount ofpay will make him take that kind of insult. BRAD Mister, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kick 100% of your ass. BUSINESSMAN Manager!!"Bam!" The door to the Assistant Manager's officeswings open, and Dennis comes hurtling out of theback. DENNIS Can I help you, sir? Is there a problem? BUSINESSMAN You bet there's a problem! Your employee used profanity and threatened me with violence! I'm shocked, frankly. I've eaten here many times and I've always enjoyed the service -- until today!Angle on bathroom door as it opens and Arnoldstarts towards the register. He quickly sees theincident with the irate Businessman and ducks backinside the bathroom. BUSINESSMAN (CONT'D) All I wanted was my money back for this breakfast. It was a little undercooked. And this young man threatened me. Now I plan to write a letter! I plan to...Dennis wheels around to Brad. DENNIS Did you threaten this man or use profanity in any way? BRAD He insulted me first. He called me a moron. DENNIS Did you threaten this customer or use profanity in any way? BRAD Yes, sir. DENNIS You're fired.Brad looks around, expecting his friends to defendhim. Dave and Rich seem very occupied with theirwork. Brad is stunned. DENNIS (CONT'D) (to Businessman) I'm very sorry this happened to you, sir. BUSINESSMAN Thank you very much.Then Brad unhooks his fryer's apron and throws iton the counter. He grabs a backpack and walks outof the place. On the way, he bangs the bathroomdoor with his fist. BRAD I hope you had a hell of a piss, Arnold. DISSOLVE TO:INT. BRAD'S ROOM - DAYHe arrives back in his room and locks the door. Heyanks the burger picture off his wall, dumps itinto the trash. Then he takes it back out of thetrash and cracks the cardboard picture and plasticframe in half.DARKNESSWe are in the middle of a deep, dark void. After amoment, a pinprick of light appears in thedistance. We head towards the light. We are beingled somewhere important.As we draw still closer, curtains suddenly part toreveal a wildly cheering studio audience. We hearthe voice of Merv Griffin. MERV GRIFFIN (O.S.) Will you please give a warm welcome to... Jeff Spicoli!The Merv Griffin Show band begins playing a MervGriffin Show version of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell".Someone hands Jeff Spicoli a microphone. He worksthe studio audience into a frenzy as he sings thewords to "Highway to Hell": Merv Griffin showstyle. SPICOLI (singing) 'Layin' ladies! Drinkin' wine! You gotta dollar -- You're a friend of mine! Gettin' loose! Feelin' fine! You and me -- It's get down time! We're on the Highway to Hell! The Highway to Hell!'Spicoli finishes up with a spectular pump. Theaudience goes wild as Merv Griffin greets himwarmly, and guides Spicoli to his seat. Spicolimotions for the cheers to die down. Griffin isobviously happy to see him. He touches Spicoli'sarm lightly. GRIFFIN How've you been? SPICOLI Outrageous, Merv. Nice to be here. I feel great. GRIFFIN I was going to say... your eyes look a little red. SPICOLI I've been swimming, Merv.The audience howls. It's a famous Spicoli line. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Seriously, Merv, everything is great. I was thinking about picking up some hash this weekend, maybe going up to the mountains. GRIFFIN (concerned) I wanted to talk a little bit about school, if I could... SPICOLI School. (sighs) School is no problem. All you have to do is go to get the grades. And if you know something, all you have to do is go about half the time. GRIFFIN How often do you go? SPICOLI I don't go at all.The audience is howling again. He is Merv'sfavorite guest. GRIFFIN I hear you brought a film clip with you. Do you want to set it up for us? SPICOLI Well, it pretty much speaks for itself. Peter, you want to run with it?EXT. A MASSIVE WAVE - DAYThe film clip begins. It is a mammoth wave crestingagainst the blue sky. SPICOLI (V.O.) Merv, this is the action down at Sunset Cliffs at about six in the morning. GRIFFIN (V.O.) Fascinating.A tiny figure appears at the foot of the wave. GRIFFIN (CONT'D) Who's that? SPICOLI That's me, Merv.The audience gasps. GRIFFIN (V.O.) Are you going to ride that wave? SPICOLI Totally.We watch as Spicoli catches the perfect wave, andit hurtles him through a turquoise tube of water. GRIFFIN What's going through your mind right here, Jeff? The danger of it all? SPICOLI Merv, I'm thinking... I've only got about four good hours of surfing left before these little clowns from junior high start showing up with their boogie boards.The audience is howling once again... when suddenlywe hear the loud noise of a door opening, followedby a shrill voice. It is Spicoli's eight-year-oldbrother, Curtis.Jeff Spicoli's dream of glory evaporates.INT. SPICOLI'S TRAILER HOME - MORNINGIt is a messy trailer, part of a trailer park bythe sea. Spicoli's area is small, but he has madeit his own. The walls are covered with posters,almost all of them naked centerfolds. It is obviousSpicoli's parents are not welcome in his room. CURTIS Dad says you have to get up! SPICOLI Ugh.He groans, starts to struggle out of bed. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Leave me alone! CURTIS Dad says you're late again, you butthole! SPICOLI Leave me alone. CURTIS Dad says!Spicoli reaches over to the floor next to his bed.He pulls a snorkel from the mess, heaves it at thedoor and his little brother. It bounces off thewall and doesn't even hit Curtis, but the kidstarts crying anyway. CURTIS (CONT'D) Daaaaaaaad! Jeff threw a snorkel at me!!!!!!Spicoli gets out of bed, groans again, and kicksthe door shut.EXT. RIDGEMONT GYMNASIUMcelebrating the big game with rival Lincoln HighSchool. We see Jeff Spicoli stumble from thedirection of the parking lot. He heads into thegym, which is already full for a mandatoryassembly.INT. GYMNASIUM - DOORWAY - DAYSpicoli wanders into the assembly, takes a seat ona corner bleacher. He sits just below Brad Hamiltonand Lisa.On podium in front of assembly, Cindy Carr andanother cheerleader, Dina Phillips, are making apresentation before the school. CINDY I just want to say that we are not 'Spirit Bunnies' anymore. We always hated that name. It bugged the heck out of Dina and me... DINA It's just such a put down. CINDY They don't call the Chess Club 'Checker Champs' or anything like that. We're going to go to everything this year, you guys. We're going to go to soccer, wrestling, basketball... everything. We know you've got a lot of spirit! Everybody -- riiiiiight? And we're gonna destroy Lincoln next week? Riiiiiiight?ANGLE ON THE STUDENTS OF RIDGEMONTThey don't respond.ANGLE ON JEFF SPICOLIwho is asleep in the bleachers.ANGLE ON BRAD AND LISAsitting nearby. We hear them over the drone of theassembly. BRAD Man, I don't even want to see those guys from Carl's again. LISA If you'd apologize I think Dennis would take you back. BRAD Apologize to that wimp? No way. Fuck Dennis Taylor. They sit in silence for a moment. BRAD (CONT'D) I'm just glad we're still together, Lisa, because I need you this year. LISA (sighs) Look, Brad, I've been trying to think of a way to tell you this. We're almost out of high school, this is our last year. I think we owe it to ourselves to be free, and meet some new people. Then, if we get back together, we'll know it's the right thing.TIGHT ANGLE ON BRAD'S FACEas he accepts the news. LISA (O.S.) (CONT'D) But I still want to be friends.TIGHT ANGLE ON BRAD'S FACEas it falls slack.INT. GYM - PODIUM IN FRONT OF ASSEMBLY CINDY We're going to be going to every game this year. We just want the crowd to participate and we want spirit from every little person in this entire school. Allll-Riiiight?There is unenthusiastic, minor applause from theassembled students of Ridgemont High. VicePrincipal Ray Connors, a tough-looking man with anH.R. Haldeman crew cut, approaches the podium. Hehas a sour look on his face. CONNORS Well, thank you, girls. People, don't forget, the big game is one week away. We'll see everybody back here on Monday and have a good weekend.For the first time during this assembly, there is aloud and hearty applause.A GRAINY HIGH SCHOOL FILM 57We are suddenly watching a movie shown on a classprojection screen. We see footage of a serene,middle-class neighborhood -- as seen through theglass windshield of a car. Judging from the othervehicles parked on the street, the film is from theearly Sixties. We hear the narrative voice of DesiArnaz, speaking in his inimitable Latin accent. ARNAZ Driving ess an important part of each and every one of our da-ily lives. Ees a responsibility like no o-ther and ess a matter of life and...A ball comes rolling out into the serene street. Asmall child runs out after it. The driving of ourvehicle brakes, but not in time. The film freezeframes on the terrified face of a child about to besplattered. ARNAZ (CONT'D) Death.There is a swell of dramatic music. ARNAZ (CONT'D) They have foun'... The Braking Point.The words flash on the screen and we hear a highschool Driver's Training class groan in mockhorror.INT. DRIVER TRAINING CLASS - DAY ANGLE ON CHARLES JEFFERSON AND BRAD HAMILTONwho are seated in this class.ANGLE ON LINDA AND STACYsitting together in the class. They are oblivious,lost in conversation. STACY What do you think of that guy who works at the theatre? You know, Mark Ratner. LINDA Oh, come on. What is he? Fifteen? STACY Sixteen.Linda looks nauseous. LINDA Just watch out if he pulls up in a van, and then puts on a Led Zeppelin tape.INT. DRIVER TRAINING CLASSThe film returns to another serene street scene asseen through another front windshield. ARNAZ The driver here has had jus' two drinks. Two drinks at the home of a frien'.We hear the very-present sounds of Driver'sTraining students. STUDENT #1 He's fucked-up, Ricky! STUDENT #2 They guys a drunk, Ricky! ARNAZ And although this driver thinks he ees drivin' well, he may be 'doing okay, but he forgets to per-ceive what ees real goin' on...In the film, another car comes barreling from theleft, running a stop sign and exploding into theside of the two-drink goner. In the class, theDriver's Training students are howling.EXT. RIDGEMONT MALL - EARLY EVENINGThe parking lot is full. Kids and shoppers streamthrough the entrance in groups of all sizes.INT. RIDGEMONT MALLAll three levels are teeming with kids.ANGLE ON THE VIDEO PINBALL ARCADEwhere we see Jeff Spicoli manning the MissileCommand machine. Spicoli wears a red bandana acrosshis forehead. A cigarette dangles from his mouth.He is surrounded by a fleet of young surfers wholisten to him with reverence. SPICOLI Be noble. Be aggressive. The thing about Missile Command is to decimate before you can be decimated. Just like in real life. The youngsters hang on every word of the sageadvice.ANGLE ON A GANG OF SURF NAZISwalking in formation.ANGLE ON MIKE DAMONE AND MARK RATNERwalking the mall. DAMONE Check it out, Rat. The Surf Nazis... out for a Sunday stroll.Damone and The Rat walk on. The Rat is barelyinterested. He appears deep in thought. THE RAT What do I say after she gets in the car?Damone, obviously in his element here at the mall,stops to flash a winning smile at a well-builtolder housewife. DAMONE No problem, Rat. What you need is my special Five Point Plan.As he talks, Damone passes a Country Farms shop. Heplucks a free sample of cheese and sausage. THE RAT Knock it off, Damone. I need real help. DAMONE What do you mean? Men have died trying to obtain this information. I will give it to you for free.The Rat and Damone continue on. THE RAT Okay. Tell me. What's the Five Point Plan? DAMONE All right. Pay attention.The Rat nods, always the student, as they pass aWherehouse Record store. Damone stops right infront of a seductively posed life-sized cardboardstand-up of Debbie Harry, the alluring rock singer.Damone begins his speech. DAMONE (CONT'D) First of all, Rat... never let on how much you like a girl.Damone turns to the cardboard cutout of DebbieHarry to demonstrate. DAMONE (CONT'D) (disinterested) Oh. Hi. (turns back to The Rat) ) Two. Always call the shots.He turns to Debbie Harry, who looks on with aninviting cardboard smile. DAMONE (CONT'D) Kiss me. (to The Rat) Three. Act like wherever you are, that's the place to be. (to Debbie Harry; debonair) ) Isn't this great? (to The Rat) Four. When ordering food, find out what she wants and then order for both of you... it's a classy move. (to Debbie Harry; Cary Grant) And the lady will have... (to The Rat) Five. And this is most important. When you get down to making out, whenever possible, put on the first side of Led Zeppelin IV. (to Debbie Harry; seductive) Why don't you put this tape on? It sounds great in the back of my van... why don't we listen from there?ANGLE ON DEBBIE HARRYwith the same inviting smile. DAMONE (CONT'D) And that is how you talk to a girl, Rat. Voila. You can't miss. THE RAT I think I've got it. Once I get going, I'll be okay. But... how do I get started? I mean, I hardly know her. DAMONE You wuss. It's no problem. One person says something to the other and that's how it starts...Standing there in the front of the Wherehouse, TheRat nods his head and smiles. He's finallybeginning to understand, and we... CUT TO:EXT. THE RAT'S CAR - LATER THAT NIGHTWe see The Rat behind the wheel of a green Volvo.Stacy sits beside him. They are driving the streetsof Ridgemont.INT. THE RAT'S CARThis is it. The Big Date. "Led Zeppelin IV" is onthe car stereo of his sister's van.Finally... STACY Thanks for coming to get me. THE RAT Sure thing.Silence.EXT. THE RAT'S CARHe rounds the corner of Luna Street, off the neonfast-food stand that is Ridgemont Drive.INT. THE RAT'S CARYet another silence has fallen. Then, after atime... STACY This is a nice car. THE RAT Yeah. It's my sister's.Silence. STACY Do you have Mrs. George for English? THE RAT Yeah. She is pretty good. STACY Yeah. She is pretty good.EXT. ATLANTIS RESTAURANT - NIGHTThey pull into the parking lot of a steak andlobster house called The Atlantis. THE RAT Joey at Cinema Four said this is a pretty good restaurant. STACY I've heard that, too.The Rat finds a parking spot near the back of thelot, grateful that the long silence is over. Hewalks with Stacy to the front of The Atlantis.INT. THE ATLANTIS - NIGHTThe Rat and Stacy are escorted by the host to anearby table. They are given large wooden menus. THE RAT Do you know what you want? STACY I think I'll have the Seafood Salad Special. THE RAT Excellent.The Rat leans back in the booth. He is starting tofeel in control now. Then something hits him. Thepanic sweeps across his face.Slowly, The Rat reaches back to check his wallet.It's gone. STACY Are you all right? THE RAT (weakly) Oh yeah.Cool. Cool was the name of the game. Stay cool. THE RAT (CONT'D) Do you mind if I excuse myself for a moment? STACY Not at all.Just as The Rat is about to get up, the Waitressapproaches the table. WAITRESS Are you ready to order here? THE RAT Well... sure. (settles back down) She will have the Seafood Salad Special. And I will have... the same. WAITRESS Anything to drink? THE RAT Two Cokes. WAITRESS Okay. Thanks.The Rat gets back up again, looking paler by theminute. He excuses himself and walks over to thepay phone by the Atlantis toilets.The Rat dials a number. Damone answers.INT. DAMONE'S ROOM - NIGHTHe is sitting in a chair, leaning onto the back twolegs, watching television. DAMONE Yo. THE RAT (V.O.) Damone. It's Mark. DAMONE Mark. What happened to your date? THE RAT It's happening right now. I'm here at the Atlantis. Everything's fine except... I left my wallet at home. DAMONE Did you go home and get it? THE RAT No. It's too late. The food is coming and everything. Damone, I've got to ask you this favor, and I'll never ask you for anything again in this lifetime or any other. Will you please borrow your mom's car, go by my house, get my wallet, and meet me back here?There is silence. THE RAT (CONT'D) Damone, are you there? DAMONE (world-weary sigh) I'm really pretty busy...ANGLE ON DAMONE'S TELEVISIONas we see the flickering images of Leave It ToBeaver. DAMONE (CONT'D) You owe me for this one.INT. ATLANTISThe Rat hangs up, mildly relieved, and returns tothe table. DISSOLVE TO:INT. STACY AND THE RAT'S TABLE - AN HOUR LATERThe Rat and Stacy have finished the meal, anddesert.ANGLE ON THE CHECKas it sits in a little tray before The Rat.The Waitress approaches the table. It is clear shewants to make room for other customers and biggertips. WAITRESS Are you sure there's nothing else I can bring you? THE RAT I'll have one more Coke... Do you want another Coke, Stacy? STACY (quizzical) ) Sure. I'll... have another Coke. THE RAT Two more Cokes. WAITRESS (sarcastic) Two... more... Cokes.ANGLE ON FRONT DOORas Mike Damone finally walks in. Damone looks overthe diners, then feigns great surprise when he seesThe Rat. DAMONE Hey, Mark. Is that you? THE RAT Damone! You come here? DAMONE I come for the seafood. It's great! Hey... you know what, Mark? I found your wallet the other day. You want it back? THE RAT Wow. I've been looking for that thing! Hey, Damone, have you met Stacy Hamilton? Stacy, this is Mike Damone.Stacy smiles politely, with the slightest sparklein her eye, as the Waitress returns with the twoCokes. DAMONE Well, I've gotta be running. THE RAT Okay. See ya.ANGLE ON STACYlooking strangely at the proceedings. DAMONE Nice to meet you, Stacy. STACY Nice to meet you.Damone leaves. The Rat takes a few quick gulps ofCoke, and gets up to pay the bill. As he moves outof camera range, we see the strange look on thefaces of waitresses and diners.INT. THE RAT'S CAR - LATE EVENINGThe Rat pulls up to Stacy's house in the cul-desac. He stares straight ahead, like a zombie. THE RAT I had a really nice time tonight. STACY Me, too. I'm real sorry someone broke in and stole your tape deck.The Rat nods glumly. THE RAT I never thought it would happen at The Atlantis. Jeez. STACY Do you want to come inside? THE RAT Aren't your parents asleep? STACY No, they're away for the weekend. Brad and I are watching the house. THE RAT Okay. Sure. I'll come in.We see a confused but interested look on The Rat'sface.INT. THE HAMILTON HOUSE - EVENINGThey walk in the front door. The Rat standsuncomfortably in the doorway to the living room. THE RAT Where's your brother? STACY I don't know. Probably out. Want something to drink? THE RAT No. That's okay. STACY Well, I'm going to change real quick. I hope you don't mind. THE RAT Naw. I don't mind.Stacy turns her back and pulls up her hair. STACY Will you unzip me?ANGLE ON THE RAT'S FACEas the wheels inside his mind start to spin. Thiscan't be what it seems. He unzips Stacy, past herbra, down to the small of her back. It's the firsttime he's ever done anything like that. STACY (CONT'D) Thanks!She walks down the hall to her room, easing out ofher dress as she walks. She leaves the door to herroom open. STACY (CONT'D) You can come in, if you want!ANGLE ON THE RAT'S FACEHe is completely unsure of himself, as he begins towalk down the hall. His heart pounds into histhroat. He turns the corner and steps into Stacy'sroom.INT. STACY'S ROOM - NIGHTStacy stands there, looking gorgeous in an almostseethrough white robe. The Rat pretends not tonotice. THE RAT So... pretty nice house you've got here. STACY Thanks. So... (puts hands on hips) What do you want to do?ANGLE ON THE RAT'S FACEas he struggles with the memory of Damone's words."Always call the shots." THE RAT I don't know. STACY Do you want to see some pictures? I kept a lot of scrapbooks and pictures and stuff from junior high. How stupid, right? THE RAT Sure.Stacy goes to her closet, reaches up to grab thebooks from the top shelf. The Rat watches her robeslip up her legs. Then she sits down next to him.Her knee grazes his. It is almost too much for TheRat. Go for it. We see The Rat struggle with theaction of putting his arm around her. He almostdoes, but then reacts as she says suddenly... STACY This is me in the eighth grade. Did you have Mr. Deegan? THE RAT (looking pained) Oh, yeah. I had Mr. Deegan.Her knee grazes him again. Does she expectsomething? THE RAT (CONT'D) Look, Stacy, I want you to know that...The Rat struggles. Try as he might, he can't seemto cross the line. He can't make his move. He iswoeful as he completes the sentence. THE RAT (CONT'D) ... I've got to go home. STACY Do you really have to go? THE RAT Well... it's getting kind of late.Suddenly, The Rat is seized with ambition. Hereaches one hand around her right shoulder andplants the other hand directly on her left breast.It looks something like a wrestling hold. The Ratlooks at Stacy. Stacy looks back at The Rat. TheRat is absolutely frozen. STACY I guess it is getting late, Mark.She shrugs him off, walks him to the door.EXT. THE HAMILTON HOME - NIGHTWe see The Rat's forlorn face as he trudges towardshis car. He stops. He takes a breath -- it wasn'tthat late, he really didn't want to leave. The Ratturns and begins walking back up the Hamiltonsteps. Just as he does so, Stacy's bedroom lightclicks off. It was too late. He kicks at his car. THE RAT You blew it, asshole.Behind him, recklessly speeding towards RidgemontDrive, is Charles Jefferson's blue Mustang.EXT./INT. THE BLUE MUSTANG - NIGHTJeff Spicoli is behind the wheel. Sitting next tohim is Little Charles, "L.C.", Jefferson's youngerbrother. They're smoking grass and holdingLowenbrau beers in between their legs. The radio isblasting the music of Rick James. L.C. Hey, slow down. This is my brother's car. SPICOLI I thought he was out of town. L.C. He is. SPICOLI Then don't hassle it.They speed off down Ridgemont. L.C. Seen the new Playboy? SPICOLI Naw. Any good? L.C. Suzanne Somers' tits. SPICOLI All right. L.C. I like sex.Spicoli sees something in the rearview mirror. SPICOLI Hold your beer down, L.C., I think it's a cop.Spicoli slows down. The car behind him slows down. SPICOLI (CONT'D) This is a cop. He's definitely cruising me at busting distance.The high beams switch on behind Spicoli. SPICOLI (CONT'D) What the fuck is this guy doing?The car behind Spicoli then advances to the pointwhere it is now almost touching the blue Mustang. SPICOLI (CONT'D) What the fuck is this guy doing? L.C. This ain't no cop.The mystery car bumps them lightly from behind. L.C. (CONT'D) Hey! He's gonna scratch my brother's car!The two boys start yelling. High beams fill theMustang with bright light and...EXT./INT. MUSTANG AND GRANADAThen mystery car pulls back, then up alongsideSpicoli and L.C. on the left. We hear the music onthe radio of George Thoroughgood's "Ride On,Josephine". SPICOLI It's a bunch of Jocks in a Granada! L.C. They're fuckin' with us.The drivers of the two cars eye each others. Thenthe Granada begins inching over, trying to forceSpicoli off the road. L.C. (CONT'D) My brother's car! SPICOLI All right. Die, Granada Jocks!Spicoli guns ahead, in a real bullet move, andeasily overtakes the Granada. Spicoli is proud ofhimself. He checks himself out in the rearview andturns to L.C. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Would you roll your window up, L.C.? It's messing my hair.Spicoli pulls way ahead of the Granada, while L.C.rolls his window up. Spicoli looks over to L.C. andsmiles wickedly.Now Spicoli wants to show off. He pushes the pedalto the floor. L.C. We just missed the turnoff to the party. SPICOLI You know the thing I love about Mustangs? The steering wheel.Spicoli fingers the bubbles in the wheel. SPICOLI (CONT'D) With a genuine Mustang steering wheel, you can negotiate a hairpin turn with ease, my man.EXT./INT. MUSTANGon the word "ease", Spicoli curls his finger intoone of the Mustang steering wheel bubbles and whipsit clockwise. The idea is to turn off onto a sidestreet and head back to the party. But instead, atthe moment of the hairpin turn, L.C. is attemptingto switch the radio station. Spicoli crooks hisfinger farther into the bubble than he expected.The car swings in a complete circle, a circle thatincludes a bright yellow fire hydrant. The hydrantrips the side of the car open like a can of tuna.There is a silent moment of terror. SPICOLI Are you okay?There is silence. Outside the smashed car, theGranada Jocks pass Spicoli and L.C. GRANADA JOCKS Fuck youuuuuuuuuu!Then L.C. stirs and utters his first words. L.C. My brother is going to kill us. He's gonna kill you and then he's gonna kill me. He's gonna kill us. SPICOLI Just be glad you're all right. L.C. My brother is gonna shit. SPICOLI Make up your mind. Is he gonna shit, or is he gonna kill us? L.C. First he's gonna shit. And then he's gonna kill us.. SPICOLI Will you just relax, mon? He's not gonna kill us. My father is a television repairman. He's got all kinds of tools. I can fix-this car. L.C. You can't fix this car, Spicoli.ANGLE ON THE BLUE MUSTANGwaffled and mangled. It is just inches away fromscrap iron. SPICOLI I can fix it.MONTAGE OF SHOTSas we see Ridgemont High gearing up for its bigHomecoming Game against Lincoln. We see a series ofshots of kids talking about it, wagering on thechances of a Ridgemont victory. We see the manysigns and placards all over school, proclaimingRidgemont revenge. We see students lining up tovote for Homecoming King and Queen in thegymnasium. It is the most spirit that Ridgemont hasshown this year. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. RIDGEMONT SCHOOL - FLAGPOLE - DAYFrom the back of the parking lot, we see a crowdaround the flagpole. A group of kids are staring atsomething. They sadly shake their heads at thesight, as if they are witnessing a funeral.As we draw closer, we see the center of commotion.It is an ugly sight. Someone had wrecked CharlesJefferson's Blue Scholarship Mustang and welded itto the flagpole. Spray-painted on the side was themessage: LINCOLN SURF PUNKS RULE.EXT. RIDGEMONT BLEACHERS - NIGHTThe Ridgemont football bleachers are full ofcheering students. We see the same basic groupsfrom lunch court, and many more.The cheerleaders are on the field -- Cindy Carr,Dina Phillips and company -- and their cheerleader"husbands" sit directly in front of them in thestands. Linda and Stacy sit in the bleachers withsome of the Swenson's girls. The Rat and Damone sitseveral rows above them, watching. The teachers sittogether in another section.ANGLE ON BRAD HAMILTONwho is again sitting alone in the bleachers.Watching. Several old lunch court friends pass by,on their way to the concession area. STUDENT #1 Hey, Brad! How's going? BRAD All right. STUDENT #2 Where you working? BRAD Fish and chips place. STUDENT #1 Which one? BRAD Just a fish and chips place.Brad says nothing more. The students look at eachother. STUDENTS We'll be seeing you, Brad! BRAD (sullen) Later.EXT. FOOTBALL FIELD - THE GAME - NIGHTEveryone is cheering the amazing game on the field.Charles Jefferson is poised on the offensive line.He mutters a string of obscenities at the opposingLincoln player. The ball is snapped, and CharlesJefferson comes directly at the player with bothelbows up and angled to hit inside his helmet. TheLincoln player is hit and keels over.Charles Jefferson sets up for another play. Theball is snapped. Ka-boom. Down falls anotherLincoln player. Jefferson doesn't know who it waswho wrecked his Mustang, but he wasn't about tospare any of them. There is pure madness in hiseyes. It has taken him over.The Ridgemont points rack up. Jefferson is singlehandedly maiming Lincoln for Homecoming.EXT. RIDGEMONT BLEACHERS - NIGHTWe see Jeff Spicoli and L.C. sitting calmly in thebleachers, watching. SPICOLI I think we may have gotten away clean.EXT. FIELD AND SCOREBOARDThe half-time gun fires and the score is 36-7...Ridgemont. Even the Ridgemont players steer clearof Charles Jefferson as they return to their lockerroom.EXT. THE HAMILTON POOL - HOT AFTERNOON - SEVERALWEEKS LATERLinda and Stacy are sitting by the pool, dressed instring tie bathing suits. They are listening to themusic of Tom Petty's "Breakdown" playing on theliving room stereo. Linda luxuriously appliessuntan lotion to her chest and legs, in long andwrithing strokes. Stacy reads a book. It's calledTotal Orgasm. Several beats pass. LINDA I sent a letter to Doug today. I'll be so glad when he gets out here. STACY (engrossed in book) You really ought to look at this, Linda. There's a drawing on every page... and all these quizzes. It's like school. LINDA Why don't you put your mother's secret book back?Linda continues regally applying lotion. STACY Listen to this... 'What are your mate's three most erogenous zones?' LINDA (automatic) Okay, penis, that's one, balls... STACY Wouldn't penis and balls be the same category? LINDA You're right. Probably penis, mouth and neck. STACY All right! Here's another one. 'The most satisfactory lovemaking occurs when your mate climaxes first, you climax first, you and your mate climax together?' LINDA Climax together. STACY Does that ever happen? LINDA No. But it's a nice idea. STACY Listen to this ... it says 'Most women derive pleasure from sex, but they don't have real orgasms.'Linda stops applying lotion, considers thatthought. LINDA Well... they obviously don't know about Doug.They laugh. Linda resumes applying the lotion.Stacy continues reading the book. A couple of beatspass. STACY How long does Doug take? LINDA I don't know. Thirty to forty minutes. STACY (pause) What's Doug do in Chicago? LINDA He works for the airline. He'll be out here. You'll meet him.Stacy looks at Linda, almost disbelieving. LINDA (CONT'D) (wistful) He's no high school boy.There is a noise by the side fence leading into theHamiltons' backyard. It is Mark Ratner and MikeDamone. They are already wearing swimsuits. DAMONE Hey! We came over to help you with Math homework! STACY Oh, really? THE RAT Really. We figured you needed the help. On such a hot day.Stacy quickly stashes the book in a stack of towelsbeside her. She leans over to Linda and speaksconfidentially. STACY What do you think? LINDA I think they're both virgins.Stacy smiles, gets up and goes over to the fence. STACY I didn't ask for any help. Did you, Linda? LINDA No. DAMONE Well, that's exactly why I brought some Wisk for the jacuzzi. STACY O-kay, you guys can come swimming. But you have to leave as soon as my Mom gets home. Okay?EXT. HAMILTON POOLMike Damone yells "banzai!" and dives into thesmall pool. At one end of the pool is the jacuzzi,which is separated by a tile wall. Damone hasalready poured the Wisk into the jacuzzi, and thedetergent has created a huge bubble bath effect.Damone surfaces and flips into the jacuzzi.Stacy, looking great in a green bikini, sitskicking her legs by the side of the pool. Lindastands on the board. She is poised to dive. The Rattreads water and stares at both girls. Inside theHamilton living room, the family stereo plays themusic of Deep Purple's "Woman From Tokyo". DAMONE Hey, Linda! I'll judge your dive. I'm a champion diver myself.Brad arrives home by the side gate and slams itbehind him. He is home from a bad day at work. Hewalks out onto the patio and stands with his handson his hips. For the first time, our former campushero looks absurd. He is still in his uniform fromCaptain Kidd Fish and Chips -- it is a blue andwhite striped Pirates of the Caribbean outfit,complete with black plastic sword at the side, anda ridiculously large Ponce de Leon-esque hat. Bradcarries the hat under his arm. BRAD Does Mom know you have company? STACY It's just Linda. And Mark from school.Brad ignores the underclassmen, and notices Lindaon the board in her maroon bikini. He smiles. BRAD Hi, Linda. LINDA Hi, Brad. BRAD Well, you guys, keep it down. I've got some work to do upstairs.Brad turns and heads back inside. He is just out ofearshot when they begin talking about him. LINDA God, he hardly even talks anymore. STACY I know. He hates to have to wear uniforms. DAMONE Poor guy. THE RAT Really.Stacy breaks the spell by jumping into the water,surfacing, and flipping over the tile wall into theJacuzzi. She sits next to Damone, lookingmischievous.ANGLE ON DAMONE AND STACY IN THE JACUZZItalking while the others are at the other end ofthe pool.ANGLE ON THE RATcasually catching sight of them together from theother side of the pool. We can read the emotions onThe Rat's face. He is still taken with Stacy, buthis big moment for her appears to have passed.ANGLE ON DAMONE AND STACY IN THE JACUZZIas they talk.Underneath the water, her leg accidentally knocksagainst his. Then he feels her continue. Damonefeels Stacy's cool hand on his inner thigh. Movingupwards, stopping just short of the bulge in histrunks.ANGLE ON DAMONE'S FACEas it loosens and quivers just the slightest bit.This is uncharted territory, even for Mr. Attitude.ANGLE ON LINDAwho is now sunning herself by the side of the pool.She rubs her legs against each other, slowly,enjoying the hot afternoon.EXT. BRAD'S WINDOW - ANGLE ON BRADwho is watching Linda from the window in his room.We see him from behind, peeking out the curtains.EXT. POOL - ANGLE ON LINDAwho smiles at Damone and flips back into the poolwith a splash. Damone steals a look down at hisswimsuit. He's popped a big one. THE RAT Why don't you get up and do a dive, Mike? LINDA Go ahead.ANGLE ON DAMONE'S FACEand we know he can't get out of the water yet. DAMONE No. I don't think so. Not right now. THE RAT Chicken!Linda, for one, loses interest quickly. Standing bythe side of the pool, she jams a finger in her earand wiggles it. LINDA Stacy! I've got water in my ears. Do you have any Q-Tips? STACY God, I don't think so. Better look in the house.Linda towels off and heads back inside the Hamiltonhouse. She knows how to walk.INT. BRAD'S BEDROOM AND BATHROOM - AFTERNOONWe see Brad's room. The Carl's burger picture onthe wall is conspicuously missing. There is musicplaying from his stereo -- Pink Floyd's "You andMe".We see Brad. He is kneeling on the bathroom floor,his back to us. His green T-shirt is on, hisunderwear in a pile on the floor behind him. Hisarm is pumping slowly. Brad is jacking off. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. HAMILTON POOL - BRAD'S DAYDREAMIt features Linda Barrett, just as she stood on thediving board a moment ago. She is gorgeous. Herbreasts seem even bigger than usual. Her nipplesare hard, poking through the film maroon stringbikini. Water rolls slowly down her cheeks, intothe corners of her mouth. Her lips are partedslightly. Her eyes are filled with desire as shesays... LINDA Hi, Brad. (pause) You know how cute I always thought you were. I think you're so sexy. Will you come to me?ANGLE ON BRAD IN DAYDREAMin a nice shirt, his hair combed back and lookinggreat. He walks to Linda. She reaches out and grabshim for a kiss, pulling him close. Then she pusheshim away, so he can watch as she carefully unstrapsthe top of her bathing suit. The incredible LindaBarrett's breasts fall loose.She takes Brad's hands and places them on her, asshe begins unbuttoning his shirt. They are justabout to fall into passionate lovemaking when wehear... LINDA (O.S.) (CONT'D) Hey, Brad! Do you have any Q-Ti...The daydream evaporates and we see real life againwith an...INT. BRAD'S BATHROOM - ANGLE ON LINDA'S FACEin the doorway of Brad's bathroom as she watchesthe sight before her.ANGLE ON BRADtrying to cover himself and act nonchalant and keephis back turned at the same time. The words barelyescape his mouth. BRAD Wait just a... minute. LINDA Sorry. I didn't know anybody was in here.Linda turns and goes immediately, as if she wantsto forget what she saw as quickly as possible. Shecloses the door behind her.ANGLE ON BRADstill kneeling. It had all happened so quickly, sofast BRAD Doesn't anybody fuckin' knock anymore?He slams the toilet seat down and we... CUT TO:INT. U.S. HISTORY CLASS - DAYThe third attendance bell rings, and Mr. Handstrides to the front of the class. He locks thedoor. Then he takes the front of the class andnotices something very different.ANGLE ON JEFF SPICOLIbright and clear-eyed, sitting in the front row.His hands are clasped in front of him on the desk.His textbook is open to the proper page.Mr. Hand is suspicious, but continues with class. MR. HAND Now in 1898, Spain owned Cuba. Outright. Think about it. Cuba, owned by a disorganized parliament 4,000 miles away. Cubans were in a constant state of revolt.Mr. Hand begins pacing the aisles as he talks. MR. HAND (CONT'D) In 1904, the United States decided to throw a little weight around, and...There is a brief, sharp knock at the door. Mr. Handwhips his head around, like McGarrett. Heapproaches the door like a cat. MR. HAND (CONT'D) (sweet voice) Who is it? VOICE Mr. Pizza. MR. HAND Again? VOICE Mr. Pizza, sir!Hand swings the door open, out of curiosity. Inwalks a young Man in a Mr. Pizza delivery shirt. PIZZA MAN Okay, who had the double cheese sausage and bologna?Jeff Spicoli speaks up. SPICOLI That's me.The Delivery Man takes the pizza, sets it on thedesk, as Spicoli whips out some crumpled dollars.Then he produces yet another crumpled dollar, andpresses it into the Delivery Man's hand. SPICOLI (CONT'D) For you, my man.The Delivery Man thanks him warmly, just as Mr.Hand rages into the picture. MR. HAND Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you're doing? SPICOLI Learning about Cuba. Having some food. MR. HAND Mr. Spicoli, you're on dangerous ground here. You're causing a major disturbance in my class and on my time. SPICOLI (cool and urbane) I've been thinking about this, Mr. Hand. If I'm here... and you're here... doesn't that make it our time?Mr. Hand is so furious he's almost shaking. SPICOLI (CONT'D) So I thought I'd order us a pizza. Just leave me a lot of bologna...Mr. Hand snatches up the pizza, and starts to throwit in the wastebasket. Then he thinks better, andheads for the door. He opens it just as a gang ofyoung Stoners walk past. STONER #1 There's the pizza. STONER #2 Totally!Mr. Hand pushes the pizza into their hands andslams the door. SPICOLI You better save some for me, you swine! MR. HAND And you, my friend. I'll see you for a two-hour detention every afternoon this week.Spicoli eases back in his chair, shrugs. It was agood idea at the time.INT. CAPTAIN KIDD FISH AND CHIPS - DAY Brad Hamilton, looks terribly uncomfortable in hisPonce de Leon hat and buccaneer uniform. He ringsup an order for an older Customer. CUSTOMER Why aren't you in school, son? BRAD I go to school in the mornings. I have a work study program for the afternoon.He bags one final coffee and punches up the amount. BRAD $8.46, please. CUSTOMER Here you go. I have it exactly. (sets money down) Good luck! BRAD Thank you, and thanks for coming to Captain Kidd.Brad loosens his buccaneer scarf, and starts backtowards the kitchen. He is stopped by the suddenappearance of Captain Kidd Assistant Manager,Harold. HAROLD Hamilton! I'll take over the fryer. Those boys at IBM need some Catch of-the-Day boxes, and I told them you would personally deliver them within the hour. I'll reimburse you for gas.Brad dutifully unhooks his apron, to reveal thebottom half of his pirate suit. BRAD Just write me out a bill.While Harold leans down to tally up the fish order,Brad goes to a nearby employee's closet. He hascompletely perfected the art of changing back intohis street clothes, and it takes less than aminute. He is just about to finish buttoning hisstreet shirt when Harold sees him. HAROLD Hamilton, come over here. What is that you've got on? BRAD This is how I dress all the time. HAROLD But you took off your Captain Kidd uniform. BRAD I thought I'd take it off for the drive over to IBM. It's kind of uncomfortable.Harold can barely fathom the idea. HAROLD Come on, Hamilton. You're going over there to represent Captain Kidd Fish and Chips. We have stores all over Southern California. Part of our image, part of our appeal is in our uniforms. You know that! BRAD You really want me to put all this stuff back on? HAROLD Yes. I think so. Show some pride, Hamilton.ANGLE ON BRADas he stands there, stoic looking. BRAD I don't believe you're asking me to do this, but okay.He begins taking off his street shirt. He looks atHarold, looks at the boxes, and returns to thecloset.INT. THE CRUISING VESSELBrad is driving down the freeway, listening to themusic of Bruce Springsteen's "Out in the Streets."He pries open one of the fourteen Catch-of-the-Dayboxes on the seat next to him and pulls out a smallpiece of fried fish. Brad takes a bite.The look on his face says it is the worst piece ofshit he has ever tasted. He throws the piece outthe window, and drives on.Brad turns to see a girl smiling at him fromanother car. It makes his afternoon. He returns thesmile with gusto.ANGLE ON THE GIRLas she bursts out laughing and drives away.ANGLE ON BRADlooking perplexed. Then he realizes that he hasn'ttaken his Ponce de Leon hat off. Brad drives on.A SERIES OF ANGLES ON BRAD'S CARas we see the Cruising Vessel move down thehighway. We see the Captain Kidd hat go flying outthe window. Then the plastic sword, and the scarf.Then a couple boxes of Captain Kidd fish. Then therest of them. We see Brad rip past the IBMBuilding. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. RIDGEMONT HIGH SCHOOL - AFTERNOONSchool is out and kids are leaving campus, headingfor the parking lot and bus stop. We see MikeDamone carrying some books, walking towardsRidgemont Drive. He is joined by Stacy Hamilton,who hurries to catch up to him. STACY I can't wait until I can drive next year. I walk every day. It's such a drag. DAMONE Get a ride with somebody. STACY Sometimes I get a ride with my brother. But he usually works in the mornings, and then drives to school himself. DAMONE What a guy. Damone turns to her after a moment, all Attitude. DAMONE (CONT'D) You know Mark Ratner really likes you. You like him? STACY Mark is a really nice boy...Stacy walks along, then stops and looks at Damone. STACY (CONT'D) But I think I like you.They turn the corner.EXT. HAMILTON HOMEThey have arrived at Stacy's house. There are nocars parked out front. No one is home. STACY Do you want to come in for a second?The Attitude starts to weaken. After a long pause,Damone responds. DAMONE Do you have any ice tea? STACY Sure. Come on in.Stacy unlocks her front door, they go inside.INT. HAMILTON KITCHENDamone stands in the white linoleum Hamiltonkitchen. Stacy opens the refrigerator door. STACY I guess the annuals are coming in pretty soon. Are you going to get one? DAMONE I don't know. STACY Aren't you curious to see how your class picture turned out? DAMONE I know what I look like.Stacy places a glass of ice tea in front of him.They are all alone in the house. STACY Do you want to take a quick swim? DAMONE Well... STACY Brad probably has some trunks you can borrow... I'm going to my room to change!Damone stares straight ahead. She's going to herroom to change. Stacy scoots down the hall towardher bedroom. DAMONE This is great ice tea!INT. STACY'S ROOM - ANGLE ON STACY IN HER ROOMIn the middle of changing, she has caught her ownreflection in the mirror. She pauses a moment,looking at the young girl looking back.INT. KITCHEN - ANGLE ON DAMONE IN THE KITCHENHe continues staring straight ahead. STACY (from other room) You don't have to shout! You can come back here to my room!Damone doesn't move. He pretends he doesn't hear. Amoment later, Stacy comes bounding back down thehall in her green bikini. She grabs Damone by thearm. STACY Come with me! I know there's a suit in the changing room!She pulls him away.INT. THE CHANGING ROOMThey enter the wood-panelled changing room next tothe Hamilton pool. There are two swimsuits hangingfrom wooden pegs. STACY Pick a suit. DAMONE I don't know. It's getting pretty late...She locks the door to the changing room and beginsto walk towards Mike Damone. STACY Are you really a virgin? DAMONE Come on...He could feel his leg starting to shake theslightest bit. STACY It's okay if it's your first time.She gives him a kiss. DAMONE Listen. I feel pretty strange here. Because Mark really likes you, and he's my friend. STACY He's my friend, too.She gives him another kiss. He kisses her inreturn. Standing there, feeling Stacy in herbikini, feeling her kiss him, Damone also felt someof his reservations slip away. DAMONE You're a really good kisser. STACY So are you. (pause) Are you shaking? DAMONE (shaking) No. Are you crazy?It is clear that this is as far as Mr. Attitude hasever gotten with a girl. Stacy takes theinitiative, rubbing her hands through his hair,rubbing his sides, kissing his neck, then pullingaway. STACY (whispers) Why don't you take off your clothes, Mike? DAMONE You first. STACY How about both of us at the same time?Damone nods, and watches as Stacy unhooks her topand steps out of her bikini bottom. She standsnaked in the shadows of the afternoon sun. She sitsdown naked on a red changing room couch, andgathers her legs up to her chest. She watches asDamone struggles with his clothes.ANGLE ON DAMONEhopping on one leg, pulling first out of his pants,then his jockey underwear. Bashfully, he goes tosit next to Stacy on the couch. They begin to kiss,and it quickly escalates into heavy petting. Stacypulls away. STACY I want you to know that it's your final decision if we should continue or not. DAMONE Let's continue.Stacy leans back and pulls him on top of her. Heenters her and begins pumping so hard, so fast,that he doesn't notice he's banging the sofa intothe wall of the changing room.But just as quickly as Damone starts, he stops. STACY (whispers) Hey, Mike? DAMONE What? Are you all right? STACY I think we're making a lot of noise. DAMONE I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.He has a strange look on his face. STACY What's wrong? DAMONE I think I came. Didn't you feel it? STACY I guess I did.They lay there, Damone still on top of her on thered couch.ANGLE ON DAMONEas we read the confusion on his face. He isembarrassed, a little confused... mostly he justwants to be alone. DAMONE I've got to get home. I've really got to go, Stacy.ANGLE ON STACYas she looks up at him. She gives him a kiss.Damone gets up puts his pants and shirt on. Heleaves the changing room. DISSOLVE TO:INT. BIOLOGY CLASS - AFTERNOONWe see Stacy sitting at her usual seat, and she'swearing a bright spring dress with a slight amountof makeup.She looks at Damone's seat with anticipation, butit remains empty as other students file in.Finally, she turns to The Rat. STACY Where's Mike today? THE RAT Today's April 16th. Damone never comes to school on April 16th. STACY What's April 16th? THE RAT It's John Bonham's birthday. STACY John Bonham? THE RAT John Bonham. The drummer for Led Zeppelin. He died a couple years ago. Every birthday he stays home and plays everything John Bonham ever recorded. It's like his own holiday. STACY Oh. I see.The bell rings, and Mr. Vargas enters the room withhis Sanka cup.INT. COLLEGE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE - AFTERNOONSeated at the desk is Mrs. O'Rourke. There is aknock at the door.The door swings open. Brad Hamilton holds out hisyellow slip. MRS. O'ROURKE Have a seat, Brad... Brad have you got your list of college applications? BRAD Well, to tell you the truth Mrs. O'Rourke, I've kind of been putting it off. I'm not sure what I want to do yet. MRS. O'ROURKE (by rote) All right Brad. Let me ask you like this. If I were queen of the world, and I could make you whatever you wanted to be, what would it be? BRAD I don't know... Burt Reynolds.There is no humor on Mrs. O'Rourke's face. MRS. O'ROURKE I realize it's important to have fun in your senior year, with your friends, but there comes a time when you have to get serious about your future, think about college, and put aside all this fun.Brad looks up suddenly. BRAD You know what, Mrs. O'Rourke? I broke up with my girlfriend this year. I lost my job at Carl's, and two other places. I wake up at 5:30 to work at 7-11, then I go to school, then I go back to 7-11. I have to pay rent, you know. My grades haven't been that bad, and now you're telling me that the fun is over. Well, I'm still waiting for the fun to start. MRS. O'ROURKE Brad, I'll see you when I'm through with the rest of the seniors. If you want to visit the career office, go right ahead. I'll talk to you when you're more prepared.Brad gathers his books and opens the door to leave. MRS. OIROURKE Next!An absolutely exuberant Cindy Carr pops her head inthe door. CINDY Hi-yeeeeeeee!!! DISSOLVE TO:EXT. RIDGEMONT HALLWAY - MORNINGThe bell has just rung, and Mike Damone comes outof Youth and Law class. He has an absorbed, drivenlook on his face. He walks past the rows oflockers, and doesn't even notice as he passes StacyHamilton standing by her locker. She smiles, grabshis arm affectionately. STACY Hi Mike!Damone turns to see her, is thoroughly unimpressed. DAMONE Oh. Hi. STACY I didn't see you this morning. DAMONE Look, I'm kind of in a hurry. STACY I'm in a hurry too. I just thought I could say hi to you. DAMONE Hello.He pulls away, leaving a bewildered Stacy standingby her locker. She grabs some books and hurries inthe other direction.EXT. SCHOOL BUS - DAYThe bus pulls up to the front entrance ofUniversity Hospital. The students file out andcollect next to the front door. Mr. Vargasgleefully addresses the class. This is his favoritefield trip. MR. VARGAS Today we're going to explore how this hospital works to preserve human life. We'll be visiting every floor, every level where these fine doctors and nurses take care of us, in life... and in death.INT. MATERNITY WARDThe class exits from a hospital elevator, ontoanother floor. They are now standing outside thematernity ward. We hear the loud noise of babies. MR. VARGAS Over thirty children are delivered here each day...The class moves on.INT. THE BOTTOM FLOORThe class exits another hospital elevator. MR. VARGAS This is part of your third quarter exam, and I'd advise you to take careful notes on what we're about to see.ANGLE ON DR. MILLERa young intern who has joined the class for thelast part of their tour. MR. VARGAS May I just ask you one last time to conduct yourselves with the utmost maturity...The kids are beginning to get very nervous now asthey are led down the hall to the "Cold Room." Thedoor to the "Cold Room" has only one sign on it. Itreads: CADAVERS -- MEDICAL EXAMINATION ONLY. Mr.Vargas opens the door, and the class seems to gasp.INT. THE COLD ROOMThere are six examination tables in the "ColdRoom". Each of them contains a cadaver covered by awhite sheet. Mr. Vargas has gathered the classaround one table in particular. He fingers the edgeof the white sheet as he talks. MR. VARGAS As you know, all the bodies in this room are recently deceased human bio-structures.A student raises his hand. MR. VARGAS Yes, Randy? RANDY Who are these guys? MR. VARGAS Most of them were derelicts, Randy. They sold the right for medical examination of their bodies for money. Something like thirty dollars, I believe. Isn't that right, Doctor Miller? DR. MILLER Twenty-five dollars.ANGLE ON JEFF SPICOLIwho turns to Stacy. SPICOLI Twenty-five bucks is pretty good. MR. VARGAS Now this gentleman here is named Arthur. Arthur died from heart failure last week and we are fortunate enough to view his body in its pristine state.Mr. Vargas suddenly pulls the white sheet aside andwe see the body of Arthur. The students' eyeswiden. Some gasp. Others cover their mouths. Othersbegin furious notes. Nobody speaks. The body ofArthur is smallish and withered. It is orange,flaky, and not quite real looking. A deep cut hasbeen made in Arthur's chest.Mr. Vargas bends Arthur upright for a betterstudent view. He gestures to the deep cut made inArthur's chest.The tension mounts. MR. VARGAS (CONT'D) This incision allows us to pull aside the skin covering of the chest cavity and really observe the human organs as they exist in their natural state.ANGLE ON ARTHURand his shrunken face, which seems to say pleasedon't. MR. VARGAS (CONT'D) I want all of you to take a look at the chest cavity for just a moment.Mr. Vargas grabs the two sides of Arthur's chestcavity covering, and rips it open. MR. VARGAS (CONT'D) Here we have the human lungs and heart, which you can see is actually located in the center of your chest.With a squish, Mr. Vargas reaches inside Arthur andpulls out the human heart for display. The classstands in silent shock. Only one comment escapesfrom any of them. SPICOLI Bitchin'.ANGLE ON STACY HAMILTONwho goes running out of the "Cold Room", holdingher mouth. The Rat runs after her.INT. BOTTOM FLOOR HALLRat and Stacy sit side-by-side on some orangeplastic chairs, by a nurse's desk. Stacy is shookup. STACY I made a fool of myself. THE RAT Nobody noticed. Don't worry about it. We'll just stay out here until everyone comes out, we'll blend back in. STACY What about the notes? THE RAT I'll get you the notes.She squeezes his arm.EXT. HOSPITAL - AFTERNOONThe students file out of the hospital, looking likethey've just been through a war.INT. LINDA'S BEDROOM - NIGHTIt is night, and Linda and Stacy are watchingFantasy Island. MONTALBAN You see, Tatoo, what this man doesn't realize is that he must one day leave Fantasy Island. And he must continue his life as an incurable leper.Stacy is fighting back tears. Linda looks angry.Telephone rings. Linda jumps to get it. LINDA Hello.Linda obviously is disappointed when she hears afemale voice. LINDA (CONT'D) Yeah... you're kidding... What did he say... What did you say... How much did it cost? Look, tell him he can have a relationship with you or a 'more open' relationship with someone else... Listen, Debbie, can I call you later. I'm waiting for Doug to call.She plops back on the couch with Stacy. LINDA (CONT'D) I'll bet he forgets to call again.She notices that Stacy is crying over the TV show. LINDA (CONT'D) God, Stacy, it's not that sad. It's just David Soul and Ricardo Montalban. STACY I don't know, I'm just so depressed. Everything is just so... depressing.Linda shuts off the television. LINDA You have been acting very strange the last few weeks. STACY I don't know... I just don't feel right.Linda sits down next to Stacy on the bed. LINDA What do you think it is? STACY What do you think it is? LINDA It couldn't be. STACY It could be. I had a pregnancy test at the clinic. I'll find out Monday. I guess it was Damone. LINDA Of course it was Damone. If it was Ron Johnson, you'd be out to here! STACY I'm not going to tell him. He's an asshole. I hate him. LINDA But it costs money to have an abortion. Even at the Free Clinic. You tell Damone to pay for it. It's the least he can do. It's the guy's responsibility too.She puts the TV back on and they watch. STACY You know, there's one thing you didn't tell me about guys. LINDA What? STACY You didn't tell me that they can be so nice, so great... but then you sleep with them and they start acting like they're five years old. LINDA You're right. I didn't tell you that.EXT. FOOTBALL FIELD - TWO DAYS LATERStacy Hamilton is walking towards Mike Damone onthe football field. We see him from a distance,timing track runners. DAMONE What's going on? STACY Mike, there's something that's been on my mind and I have to tell you about it. DAMONE What? Now?He clicks off the time on a runner, and then turnsto face her. DAMONE (CONT'D) Why don't you call me up tonight? STACY Mike. I want you to know that I'm pregnant.ANGLE ON STACYas she looks down. They are words she never thoughtshe would be speaking. DAMONE How do you know it's mine? We only did it once. STACY I know it's yours.ANGLE ON DAMONEas he realizes she is sincere, and he truly beginsto panic. DAMONE You made me do it! You locked the door. You made me do it! You wanted it more than me!ANGLE ON STACYShe does not flinch. STACY Take that back. DAMONE All right, I take it back.ANGLE ON DAMONEHe hugs his arms tighter across his chest, anddecides to try a more mature tact. DAMONE (CONT'D) There's only one thing we can do. We've got to get rid of it. We've got to get an abortion. STACY We've got to get an abortion? DAMONE Yeah. My brother Art got his girlfriend one once. STACY It's already planned, Mike. It's going to cost $150 at the Free Clinic. DAMONE Doesn't sound free to me. (pause) So you want me to pay for it? STACY Half. Okay? (bites back tears) Seventy-five dollars. And a ride to the clinic. DAMONE Seventy-five dollars, and a ride. Okay.Stacy stands there, hands folded, nodding. DISSOLVE TO:INT. DAMONE'S ROOM - AFTERNOONHe is working at his desk, counting through a wadof money.ANGLE ON THE LISTin front of him, which has a split line down themiddle. People Who Owe Me -- fifteen dollars Rick.People I Owe -seventy-five dollars REO Speedwagontickets, seventy-five dollars abortion. Damonecounts fifteen dollars into his stack, crosses outRick. Then he counts through the money. Seventyfive dollars exactly. He crosses out REO Speedwagontickets. This leaves him no money for the abortion.EXT. STREET CORNER - AFTERNOONHere, at the same corner where she once waited forRon Johnson, Stacy waits for Damone. Cars pass, noDamone.INT. HAMILTON HOUSE - AFTERNOONStacy is on the phone, calling Damone. We see thephone messages sheet that lists two calls forStacy, and none for Brad. The line rings fourtimes, then it's answered. FEMALE VOICE Hello? STACY Hello... is Mike there? FEMALE VOICE Hold on.Stacy sags, disbelieving, and looks at the clock onthe kitchen wall. It's getting late... FEMALE VOICE (CONT'D) He says he's helping his father in the garage and he'll call you back.Stacy is stunned. FEMALE VOICE (CONT'D) Hello?Stacy hangs up. She punches out another number,quickly. MRS. BARRETT (V.O.) Hello? STACY Hi, Mrs. Barrett. Is Linda there? MRS. BARRETT (V.O.) She went off to the beach. She'll be back later, though. STACY Okay. Thanks.She looks at the clock again, then hears a noise inthe driveway. STACY (CONT'D) Brad! Hey, wait a second!She runs out.EXT. CRUISING VESSEL - AFTERNOONBrad and Stacy pull up next to the flea market. STACY Yeah. This is it. I have some shopping to do. BRAD See you later. STACY Thanks a lot, Brad. I really appreciate it.She gets out of the car.EXT. FLEA MARKETStacy Hamilton watches her brother drive away. Thenshe looks to both sides, and walks on. She passesthe entrance to the Flea Market. She walks aroundthe corner to another building marked BIRTH CONTROL- FREE CLINIC. Brad follows her in the rearviewmirror.INT. BIRTH CONTROL CLINICStacy is lying in bed wearing a paper dress. Herhair is stuffed in paper shower cap. She looksanxious. In a bed next to her an older girl isbeing affectionate with her visiting boyfriend.A Nurse comes in with an IV. NURSE This is going to prick a little.She sticks the needle into Stacy's hand. Stacylooks pained but doesn't yell. The Nurse pats therolling bed. NURSE (CONT'D) Now scoot over here.Stacy moves onto it. Looking up from her point ofview, we see the ride out of the room and into:INT. OPERATING ROOMStacy gets wheeled in. The Doctor looks down ather. DOCTOR Hello, Stacy, I'm Doctor Bartell.Stacy moves onto the operating table as the Nurseand Doctor get ready. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Any questions before we begin? STACY This is going to hurt, isn't it? DOCTOR We'll use a local but you'll feel some pressure. It doesn't last that long. STACY Does it hurt more to have a baby?The Doctor pauses and considers her question. DOCTOR Yes... but I think you mind it less.Stacy looks up at the lights and listens to thesound of suction tubes.INT. B.C. WAITING AREAThe other girl and Stacy sit at a table eatingtoast and jelly. The girl is reading. The Nurseenters. NURSE How are we doing in here? Debbie, ready to leave?The girl nods and gets up. NURSE (CONT'D) Right through here. Stacy, I can't let you go unless you have a ride home. STACY Uh, my boyfriend said held be waiting downstairs.The Nurse studies her, decides she's telling thetruth and allows her to leave.EXT. ENTRANCE TO THE FREE CLINICStacy walks back out into the sunlight, slowly andweakly. She is surprised and amazed at who she seesstanding outside, waiting for her.ANGLE ON BRAD HAMILTONHe stands, hands on hips, just outside the door. STACY Brad!He puts an arm around her and leads her toward hiswaiting car. BRAD Since when do you shop at the Flea Market anyway? STACY Brad. Please don't tell Mom and Dad...He helps her into the cruising vessel. He starts upthe car and drives off. BRAD Who did it?Stacy stares out the window. Tears well in hereyes. BRAD (CONT'D) You're not going to tell me, are you? STACY No. BRAD All right, then. It's your secret.Stacy smiles at Brad. Brad smiles back. The cardrives on.INT. LINDA'S ROOM - NIGHTStacy is in Linda's room, sitting on her bed. Hereyes are red and moist from crying. Linda listensto her story. STACY I really thought he would show up. I waited... and waited... and waited... LINDA That little prick. STACY Then I called his house, and his mother told me he was in the garage helping his father. LINDA That little prick. STACY I paid for it and everything. LINDA There goes your stereo for another year. Mike Damone is a no-brain little prick. I'm not letting him get away with this. STACY Don't do anything, Linda. I'd rather just forget about it. I don't even like the guy. LINDA Stacy, he's not a guy. (loud) He's a little prick! Stacy lies back on the bed.EXT. DAMONE HOUSE - MORNINGThe front door to the Damone house opens, and outwalks Mike Damone carrying some books. He lookstroubled, burdened, and stares down at the walkwayas he moves towards his car. He walks around,starts to pen the car door, then he sees it. There,in white spray paint across the driver's door, isthe message: PRICK. DAMONE Shhhhhhhhhit.He looks both ways, and starts back towards thehouse.EXT. DAMONE CARMike Damone travels down Ridgemont Drive, makingthe turn into the school parking lot. There is alarge cardboard panel taped on the side of his car.EXT. DAMONE'S LOCKERHe arrives at his locker, where, in white spraypaint, there is another message: LITTLE PRICK.Several girls walk by, they laugh knowingly. GIRL #1 Hi, Mike! GIRL #2 Hi, mike!Damone backs up against the locker, with a sicksmile on his face. DAMONE Hi... girls.More students pass, looking strangely at the youngman pinned against his own locker.EXT. BOY'S LOCKER ROOM - AFTERNOONDamone exits the boys locker room. Just as he does,he is accosted by The Rat. We have never quiteheard this tone in The Rat's voice before. THE RAT Damone? What happened between you and Stacy?Damone feigns The Attitude, shakes his head. Damonesighs. DAMONE Let me tell you something, Rat. Sometimes girls just go haywire. It was a month ago, I've been trying to think of a way to tell you ever since. We started messing around and... (shrugs) ... something happened. It's all over with. It's no big deal. I never called her again.The Rat says nothing. DAMONE (CONT'D) If you ask me, she's pretty aggressive. You understand what I'm saying? THE RAT No Damone. I don't understand. DAMONE She wasn't really your girlfriend anyway. THE RAT Hey fuck you Damone. There's a lot of girls out there and you mess around with Stacy. What have you got to prove? DAMONE Jesus. I'm sorry. THE RAT I always stick up for you. Whenever people say 'Aw, that Damone is a loudmouth' -- and they say that a lot -- I say 'You just don't know Damone.' When someone says you're an idiot, I tell them 'Damone's not an idiot. You just don't know him.' Well, you know, Damone, maybe they do know you pretty good. And I'm just finding out. DAMONE Fine. Get lost.Damone starts to push past him, but The Rat shoveshis shoulder hard. DAMONE (CONT'D) All right, Rat. You want to do something about it?Damone begins the classic high school fightingritual. He throws his books down. He takes a stepback. He goes into a crouch. He gestures towardshimself. Then Damone says the universallyrecognized high school fighting words. DAMONE (CONT'D) Well come on.The Rat shows no fear. As other kids begin to crowdaround the two boys, Rat throws his own books down.He takes a step back, goes into the crouch. Hegestures toward himself. THE RAT You come on.They stand there, gesturing, neither one of themwanting to make the first move. DAMONE No. You come on, you wuss.Assistant Coach Mr. Sexton comes running out of theboy's locker room, and steps in front of the twoboys. SEXTON Hey! Knock this crap off!!The Rat stalks off, disappearing into the crowd ofonlookers. DISSOLVE TO:EXT. RIDGEMONT DRIVE - NIGHTThe Ridgemont Drive strip is filled with cars,cruising for parties. There is a lot of honking,and yelling out windows. Everyone is headed towardsthe beach. We stay on a lowly 7-11 store near thefreeway entrance.EXT. 7-11 STORE - NIGHTA yellow Firebird slowly, menacingly cruises theempty parking lot. It does not stop.Then, around the corner, walks Jeff Spicoli. We seehim in the neon 7-11 light, his hands stuffed deepinto the pockets of baggy jeans. He walks insidethe store. He is the only shopper.INT. 7-11 STOREBrad Hamilton stands behind the counter in a redand white striped shirt and cap, making freshcoffee. Jeff Spicoli trudges up to the counter. Helooks at Brad. Brad looks at Spicoli. There is anunspoken edge between them. SPICOLI Hey, mon, can I use the bathroom?Brad squints his eyes, looks at the sign on theback room door.ANGLE ONsign which reads: Rest Room For Employees Only. BRAD Go ahead. Just make it quick. SPICOLI Totally. BRAD It's the first door on your left.Spicoli disappears into the back room. Brad sighs,looks at the clock. It reads: 11:15. Then he hearsSpicoli from the back room. SPICOLI (O.S.) I can't find it, mon! BRAD It's the first door on your left! SPICOLI (O.S.) On the ledge? BRAD First door on your left! SPICOLI (O.S.) There it is!Brad sighs again. He loads a new filter into thecoffee maker.EXT./INT. 7-11 STOREA moment later, the yellow Firebird pulls into the7-11 parking lot. A man in a windbreaker comeshurtling out of the car, into the store. He spraypaints the scanning camera above the door. Hehustles up to the counter, produces a .45 Magnumand points it chest high at Brad. There is a glazedand nervous speedy edge to his voice. ROBBER I want money. And I want it all -- now.Brad looks pale and young under the fluorescent 711 light.He speaks slowly. BRAD They empty and close the big safe here at midnight. ROBBER (getting tougher) I know this store. I know where the safe is.He bangs the gun on the counter, hard. ROBBER (CONT'D) Over there behind the donut case. Now move!Brad slowly moves to the donut case, like a zombie. BRAD I'm instructed to tell you that we are on a video alarm system and there are other hidden cameras in the store ... ROBBER Just give me the money. Move it. BRAD Okay. (legs are shaking) I just started here, and they just taught me the procedure. I'll give you the money, just let me figure this out. ROBBER (very menacing) Move it. Move it.Brad opens the phony back of the donut case andfiddles with the strongbox combination. ROBBER (CONT'D) (more menacing) Let's go, stupid.Brad looks at the gunman. BRAD You motherfucker. Get off my fuckin' case.The Robber is about to react when the bathroom dooropens and Jeff Spicoli starts out, wiping his handson his pants. SPICOLI No towels, mon...The Robber turns to look at Spicoli, and that isall that Brad Hamilton needs. Just like it is themost natural thing in the world, Brad reaches forthe hot, steaming coffee pot he has just made andthrows it into the gunman's face and hands. ROBBER Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!The .45 falls out of his hand and rattles to thefloor. The gunman is still grabbing his face, andlooking at his skinless hands in horror when Bradsnaps up the gun. In the parking lot, the gunman'saccomplice, poised behind the wheel of the yellowFirebird, spots the foul-up and screeches out ofthe parking lot. BRAD There goes your ride home.Brad pulls the under-counter alarm with newfoundconfidence. Jeff Spicoli stands there, mesmerizedat the entire event. SPICOLI Awesome. Totally awesome.EXT. RIDGEMONT MALL - NIGHTKids are pouring into the Ridgemont mall. Summerbanners are already up.INT. THE MALL - NIGHTIn the midst of all the kids and shoppers, we seeThe Rat walking slowly down the promenade. He iswearing an Army surplus jacket, and his hands areburied deep in his pockets. Two girls pass his way. One smiles briefly at him,and The Rat turns to watch her pass. He is about tosay something to her, then no. He walks on, seesSwenson's Ice-Cream Parlor up ahead. The Ratdecides to walk the other way.INT. SWENSON'S - NIGHTThe place is busy again, filled with shoppers andteenagers in summer-type clothing.We see Stacy Hamilton, once again, at the cashregister wearing an Assistant manager name tag anda hostess gown.She handles a customer's bill, then stands there amoment, looking glum. Linda Barrett approaches. STACY Another summer of working at Swenson's. LINDA Come on. There's lots of men around here. Keep your eyes open. STACY You know, Linda. I've finally figured it out. It's not sex I want. Anyone can have sex. LINDA What do you want? STACY I want romance. LINDA Romance in Ridgemont? We don't even get cable TV.ANGLE ONthe back kitchen door, which swings open, and outcomes Mike Damone in a peppermint Swenson's shirt.He wipes some grime on his pants. STACY Mike! You have a mess on C-9! DAMONE All right. All right. I just cleaned B-8. Give me a break. STACY Get going.The two girls smile, go back to their posts.INT. JEFF SPICOLI'S ROOM - NIGHTJeff Spicoli sits in his room, and it is hiscastle. Clothes lie in disarray on the floor. Ahuge half-waxed surfboard is propped against thewindow. We see Spicoli dressed in a too large whiteshort-sleeved shirt, attempting to tie his father'sfat paisley tie. He stops to take a hit from hisbong, all the while talking on the phone. The musicof Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" plays on the radio. SPICOLI I... am... so... wasted, mon. What is in this shit? (pause) Doesn't that stuff cause brain damage? (pause) Bitchin'.Spicoli listens for a moment. He rubs his eyes,shakes his head. He is really buzzed. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Hey, mon, I am going to Mexico as soon as school is out. Two more weeks, bud. Week from Wednesday. (pause) I am gonna take both boards, my duck feet, many cases of beer, and just jam. (pause) No, mon, from school. I'm leaving as soon as school gets out. I'll be at Sunset Cliffs by nighttime. (pause) Totally. (pause) Later.Spicoli hangs up, and concentrates on tying histie. He almost strangles himself. Then suddenly thedoor to his room flies open and Spicoli's littlebrother Curtis bursts in. CURTIS Jeff you have company! SPICOLI Go away, Curtis. If you can't knock, I can't hear you.Curtis slams the door and leaves. A moment laterthere is a knock. SPICOLI (CONT'D) That's better. Come in.The door swings open and Jeff Spicoli sits instoned shock at the sight before him. There,standing in the doorway of his room is Mr. Hand. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Mr... Mr. Hand. MR. HAND That's right, Jeff. Mind if I come in?Spicoli can only nod. MR. HAND (CONT'D) (calling downstairs) Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Spicoli.Hand walks into Spicoli's room, takes off his suitjacket and lays it on the chair back. He stops amoment and catches the stare of Miss JanuaryPenthouse on the wall, then turns to Spicoli. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Were you going somewhere tonight, Jeff? SPICOLI Yeah. The Graduation Dance Mr. Hand. It's the last school event of the year. MR. HAND I'm afraid we've got some things to discuss here, Jeff. SPICOLI Did I do something wrong, Mr. Hand?Hand removes several copies of Oui Magazine fromanother chair and sits down. He sets his briefcaseon Spicoli's dresser, next to a bag of pot, andopens it up for easy access. MR. HAND Do you want to sit there, Jeff? SPICOLI I don't know. I guess so. MR. HAND Fine. You sit right here on your bed. I'll use the chair here. (pause) As I explained to your parents just a moment ago, and to you many times since the very beginning of the school year -- I don't like to spend my time waiting for late students, or detention cases. I'd rather be preparing the lesson.Mr. Hand takes a sheet from his briefcase and looksat it. MR. HAND (CONT'D) According to my calculations, Mr. Spicoli, you wasted a total of eight hours of my time this year. And rest assured that is a kind estimate.He returns the sheet to his case and looks intoSpicoli's weed-ravaged eyes. MR. HAND (CONT'D) Now, Mr. Spicoli, comes a rare moment for me. Now I have the unique pleasure of squaring our account. Tonight, you and I are going to talk in great detail about the Davis Agreement, all the associated treaties, and the American Revolution in particular. Now if you can just turn to Chapter 47 of Lord of Truth And Liberty. SPICOLI Hey, it's in my locker, Mr. Hand. MR. HAND Well, then, I'm glad I remembered to bring an extra copy just for you.Hand reaches in his case and produces the book. Hehands it to Spicoli. DISSOLVE TO:INT. SPICOLI'S ROOM - HOURS LATERWearily, Spicoli is trying to grasp the material. SPICOLI ... so, like, when Jefferson went before the people what he was saying was 'Hey, we left this place in England because it was bogus, and if we don't come up with some cool rules ourself, we'll be bogus, too!' Right?ANGLE ON MR. HANDwho nods his head. MR. HAND Very close, Jeff.Hand reaches over and gets his case. MR. HAND (CONT'D) I think I've made my point with you tonight. SPICOLI Hey, Mr. Hand, can I ask you a question? MR. HAND What's that? SPICOLI Do you have a guy like me every year? A guy to... I don't know, make a show of. Teach other kids lessons and stuff? MR. HAND Well, you'll find out next year. SPICOLI (smiling) No way, mon. When I graduate U.S. history I ain't even coming over to your side of the building. MR. HAND If you graduate. SPICOLI (panicked) You're gonna flunk me?!Mr. Hand pauses a moment, then breaks into thenearest approximation of a grin we have seen allyear. It isn't much, but it's noticeable. His lipscrinkle at the ends. MR. HAND Don't worry, Spicoli. You'll probably squeak by. SPICOLI All right! Oh, yeah!Mr. Hand has now gathered all his material, and hestands to approach Spicoli's door. Jeff jumps up,extends his hand. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Aloha, Mr. Hand! MR. HAND Aloha, Spicoli.Mr. Hand exits the room, and descends the staircaseof the Spicoli household. Spicoli kicks the doorshut, grins, and continues struggling with his tie.INT. RIDGEMONT GYMNASIUM - NIGHTTight angle on the emotion-filled face of the leadsinger in a cheesy high school band called the TBirds. He is bathed in a blue light, singing thelast verse of The Eagles' 'Take It To The Limit'.We pull back to reveal a large, clumsy bannerreading: LAST DANCE. Students are pouring into thegym for this event. Many have brought their annualyearbooks. On stage, the lead singer snaps hisfingers and the band goes into Nick Lowe's 'Heartof the City'. Some students start to dance.Every one of our characters is either here, orabout to arrive. From Charles Jefferson to Spicolito Mr. Hand. For once, all classes are partyingtogether. But, just as in the beginning of the yearon lunch court, the kids are still cordoned offinto their distinctive cliques.ANGLE ON MORE STUDENTS ARRIVINGat the Last Dance. They see Mr. Hand signingannuals by the door. They all say the same thing asthey pass, "Aloha, Mr. Hand". He nods in return.ANGLE ON STACYsurveying the growing mob of annual-crazedstudents. From behind her comes Linda Barrett in alow-cut black dress. STACY Where's Doug? LINDA He's not coming. STACY Not coming? What happened? LINDA He says he's got to stay in Chicago. (sighs) He says I should visit him sometimes. STACY Sometime? LINDA Yeah, like maybe never. STACY But what are you going to do? LINDA Well I might go to Dartmouth. STACY Dartmouth?! LINDA I didn't tell anyone I applied cause I never thought I'd make it. STACY I can't believe it! But what about Doug? LINDA (STOIC) There's a world of guys out there. I just wish I didn't have to date any of them. STACY Hey -- Doug Stallworth? It's his loss.ANGLE ON MIKE DAMONEin another part of the dance, by the Junior classsponsored food counter. Damone is standing, talkingto several girls, gesturing and being Damone, Mr.Attitude. DAMONE Sign my annual, honey. The girls look at each other, laugh. They walkaway.ANGLE ON THE RATstanding nearby. THE RAT You're losing it, Damone. DAMONE You're crazy. Those girls love me.ANGLE ON JEFF SPICOLIsprawled out in the bleachers with his surferstoner buddies. He turns to one admiring stoner(Todd). SPICOLI Hey, mon. Sign my annual.Spicoli slips the annual into the kid's crotch. Thestoner winces in pain, but still opens the book andlingers on all the signings in Spicoli's annual.They are all drug-related messages from fellowstoners. After a moment, Spicoli's friend signs:"Thanks for the reds. Todd." TODD Hey, mon, good thing we're going to Mexico this summer. 'Cause you're gonna get kicked out of your house when your parents read your annual.INT. GYMNASIUM - ANGLE ON DOORBrad Hamilton pushes both doors open, and makes hisentrance into the Last Dance. There is a lot ofactivity going on, but all nearby eyes turn to Bradas he walks into the dance. Fifteen kidsimmediately gravitate towards him. They all wantBrad to sign their annuals, to talk about the 7-11incident. Onstage, the T-Birds play the Beatles'"It Won't Be Long".We see Brad's old girlfriend Lisa push up to him.Her new jock boyfriend holds a protective armaround her. LISA I saw your picture in the paper. You had the greatest look on your face! ANOTHER STUDENT Front of the Metro Section. I'm telling my parents, 'I know this guy, I know this guy.'Lisa's boyfriend pulls his arm tighter around her. LISA Will you sign my annual, Brad?Brad smiles, nods. He signs, and gives her his. Wethen see Brad's three Buddies from Carl's Jr. comeup, pat him on the back and grab his shoulder. Bradstudies them warily. BUDDY #1 Fuckin' manager of 7-11! BUDDY #2 Get us jobs over there, Brad! You can do it! BRAD Since when do you guys want to work at 7-11? BUDDY #2 Come on, Brad! It would be great! All of us together! BRAD Well, 7-11 is a tremendous operation. It's really changed, man. They've got great food, great magazines, videogames... it's class. Total class. BUDDY #3 As soon as you can get us in there, we're gone from Carl's, Brad. BUDDY #2 Yeah, man, all the little punks from junior high have taken over the place.Brad leaves his old buddies. He grins and noticessomeone across the crowded dance floor. BRAD Hey, Thompson! Wendell! Get a job!They laugh, flip him off. Brad is back in hiselement at last. He moves into the main dancingarea, works his way across the room, past thebleachers, when he hears a voice. SPICOLI (O.S.) Hamilton!Brad turns around, seen Spicoli sitting on thebottom rung of the bleachers. Spicoli looks backwith true respect. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Awesome.He throws Brad his annual. Brad gives him his. Theysign. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Easy, mon. BRAD Later.ANGLE ON THE BLEACHERSwhere several couples are passionately making out.Four teachers clomp up into the stands fromdifferent angles. They pin the couples inflashlight beams, like the main tower pinning anescaping prisoner.ANGLE ON THE T-BIRDSonstage, singing the Rolling Stones' "I'm Free".EXT. GYNMASIUM - NIGHTWe see Jeff Spicoli leave the dance and comebacking down the stairs with a stoner bud. His fistis in the air. SPICOLI Summer, mon! We're there!He turns to his stoner bud. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Let's roll, my man.Spicoli backs right into a young buzz-cut kid. SPICOLI (CONT'D) Hey, bud! Watch yourselffSpicoli turns around to see he's backed into asquad of eight Lincoln Surf Nazis. They are allstanding on the steps, waiting. SURF NAZI Are you Jeff Spicoli?Spicoli looks up and down the row of Surf Nazis. Onthe end, he sees L.C. L.C. That's him! He did it! SPICOLI Hey, mon, I don't know what your trip is, but...Spicoli dashes off down Luna Street. L.C. and theSurf Nazis take out in hot pursuit, chasing himthrough the parking lot, past Ridgemont High, andinto the night. They will never catch him. SLOW DISSOLVE:INT. RIDGEMONT MALLSchool is out and it's summer business as usual atthe Ridgemont Mall. We see the same stores, thesame packs of kids roaming the three tiers.ANGLE ON MARK RATNERwho stands against the railing in his Cinema Fourjacket, gazing across the mall at Swenson's IceCream Parlor. He sees Stacy walk two girlfriends tothe outdoor front tables, and almost look his way.The Rat turns away suddenly. Then he hears hercalling out after him. STACY Hey Mark! Turn around!Ratner turns around, affects total and completecool. He waves across the mall to her. STACY (CONT'D) Come over here!He looks back at his post at the theatre, decidesit's okay to step away. He walks across the mall.INT. SWENSON'SStacy is standing by the sundae bar. Next to herare two empty stools. After a moment, we see TheRat plop onto one of the metal stools. He poundsthe seat next to him with the palm of his hand. THE RAT You. Sit.Stacy turns to look at him, smiles. She sits. STACY Hi, Mark. THE RAT Hi, Stacy. How are you? STACY I'm fine. Mark, I'm so glad you came over here because I want you to know something. I just thought I would tell you that I really enjoyed getting to know you this year.The Rat maintains The Attitude. THE RAT Yeah? About fifty people I didn't know wrote that in my annual. STACY I know everybody says it, but I really mean it.The Rat looks at her from the corner of his eyes. THE RAT Really? STACY Yeah. I want you to have this picture, so you won't forget what I look like. And so you'll remember to call me over the summer.She withdraws a picture from her pocket, hands itto The Rat. THE RAT Well, I don't know, I may be doing some traveling this summer. I don't know how much I'll be around... (breaks down, takes picture) But I'll give you a call sometime. STACY I'd like that.She gives him a kiss on the mouth, gets up andwalks away. The Rat sits there, smiling at the waythings sometimes turn out. He slips the pictureinto his pocket, a satisfied young man.INT./EXT. SWENSON'S AND MALLThe Rat is joined by Mike Damone, who has changedinto his street clothes. DAMONE She wants it, Rat.The Rat snickers, shakes his head. DAMONE (CONT'D) I saw you. You had pure Attitude.The Rat turns to look at his friend. THE RAT The Attitude, Damone, is only good until you meet the right girl. DAMONE Whatever you say, Rat.They take off together, blending into the crowd ofkids walking the mall. THE RAT And... you can only tell it's the right girl if you're sensitive. DAMONE Sensitive -- what is that? THE RAT Sensitive is when you can tell how people feel without asking. DAMONE So what makes you so sensitive? THE RAT Well, for one, I read. I don't watch as much television as you. I'm trying to feel things more. I'm learning a lot about people. DAMONE What do you read? What's the last book you read? THE RAT Lust For Life. It's the story of Vincent Van Gough. DAMONE (scoffs) Yeah, well, I saw the movie. That must mean I'm sensitive too. THE RAT It's a way, Damone. It's a vibe. I put it out, and I have personally found that girls do respond.Damone laughs, shoves him hard. We lose sight ofthe two boys in the sea of kids.A SERIES OF ANGLESof Ridgemont Center Mall with music.CREDITS FADE TO BLACK THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fatal Instinct.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fatal Instinct.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..07189262b7a99013b01b380736b5840a40b78cdc --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fatal Instinct.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "FATAL INSTINCT" Screenplay by David O'Malley SHOOTING DRAFT FADE IN ON: EXT. SANTA MONICA PIER - NIGHT The sultry dampness of a blistering summer hangs in the night air. People stroll the boardwalk looking for a cool breeze. The soft rhythms of a jazz concert float from the band shell. CLOSE SHOT - A PAIR OF SEXY HIGH HEELS and a woman's shapely legs, walking along the wooden pier. OPENING TITLES & CREDITS OVER. After several steps, a discarded piece of gum sticks to one of her shoes, stretching out stickily. Two steps later, a piece of paper sticks to the gum, flopping awkwardly with each step. The MOVING CAMERA PANS UP her gorgeous legs and sensuous body. She wears a loose summer dress that floats like gossamer around her soft curves. Her hair is long and blond. NED (V.O.) To some guys, women are like a cheap puzzle... with pieces that just don't fit. They think the soul of a woman is darker than a back alley... more tangled than a telephone cord... and colder than a Klondike Bar in Canada. But those guys don't even have a clue. She stops at the railing. We see an incredibly beautiful face and cool, alluring eyes. This is LOLA CAIN. The term "femme fatale" was coined for her. She's on display... and knows it. NED (V.O.) When you know women the way I do, you understand exactly what what makes them tick... what makes them hum... what makes them jiggle up and down when they walk. And it's not the kind of thing you can learn from a correspondence course. The CAMERA MOVES with her as she walks on, passing TWO MEN whose eyes are glued to her. We HOLD ON THEM. One is NED RAVINE, in his thirties, stalwart, handsome, hair trimmed neatly, but with a feel of loose ends about him... coat slung over his shoulder, sleeves rolled up, the sweat dampening his shirt. He's a cop. A plain clothes detective who's been around the block a few times and still gets lost. Next to him is ARCH, his partner. Older, if not in years, at least in mileage. Dependable, solid, with no great aspirations except to reach the end of a shift intact. He's eating Nachos from a cardboard container, licking the cheese off his fingers. The CAMERA PUSHES IN to NED. His eyes are fixed on Lola. ANGLE - LOLA - NED'S POV She walks to the other side of the pier... as more paper sticks to the gum on her shoe. She stands at the railing. NED (V.O.) There are two kinds of women in this world... and I've known 'em both. ANGLE - ARCH Arch heaves an exasperated sigh and looks toward Ned. The CAMERA PULLS BACK to INCLUDE NED. It isn't "voice-over" narration at all. Ned is actually talking out loud. NED (V.O.) One will take you for a fast ride on a bumpy road with no seat belt. But the other kind... ARCH (interrupts) Jeez... knock off the chatter, will ya. NED Just trying to keep you awake, Arch. ARCH I'm awake! Where do you come up with all that crap about women? NED It's true. Women are very complex, but if you know how to read 'em... they're an open book. You can always tell the rotten apples from the peaches. ARCH Are you kiddin'? NED I'd stake my career on it. Anybody ever proves me wrong, I'll throw away my badge. ARCH Aayyhh... women are trouble... NED I used to believe that too. Until I married Lana. Now, she... is a peach. ARCH Yeah, well you're a lucky stiff, pal. Ya hold down two jobs. Got a beautiful wife waitin' for ya at home. Everything a guy could ever want, including NO kids. NED I'd love to have kids. ARCH What?! Rug-rats? Give me a break! (looks around) Jeez, I hate stakeouts. What makes you think Milo's gonna show up here? NED Logic. He knocked off all those banks. He's got cash. He's gonna want to spend it. This is one of the few places that still takes cash. Sooner or later... he's gotta turn up. ARCH And how we s'posed to recognize this scumbag? NED The "Support Hose Bandit"? When you see him... you'll know him. In the b.g., MILO CRUMLEY, the "Support Hose Bandit", ambles by casually, unnoticed, sucking on a cherry Snow-Cone through the panty-hose pulled down over his head. ARCH These are the best damn Nachos in North America. Maybe the world! He pops the last chip in his mouth, licks his fingers and turns the container over. ARCH I'm empty. I'm gonna get a refill. You want some? Ned shakes his head. Arch heads off to the Nacho stand. Ned steps over to the railing... gazes out at the ocean. A SAXOPHONE begins to wail a scorching, romantic melody... a recurrent tune that will come to be known as LOLA'S THEME. A beat later... Lola moves to Ned's side at the railing. He tries to ignore her presence, peering into the darkness. Lola digs in her purse for a pack of cigarettes. LOLA Got a light? NED Sure. Ned pulls out a small flashlight, shines it in her purse. She pulls a cigarette out of the pack, puts it to her lips... her eyes on Ned, sizing him up. LOLA How about a match? NED No thanks. I have plenty. He pulls out a handful of matchbooks, shows her, then stuffs them back in his pocket. He turns and walks along the pier. She falls into step beside him, lighting her own cigarette. A saxophone player named DIZZY follows behind them, continuing to play. He's the actual source of the romantic THEME MUSIC we've been hearing. LOLA You really are incredibly stupid, aren't you? I like that in a man. NED I'd be insulted, but I know you're serious. LOLA You sound so sure of yourself. NED I'm not as dumb as I look. LOLA Let me buy you a drink, Mr. uh... NED Ravine. Ned Ravine. And you are...? LOLA Thirsty. What about that drink? NED I'm on duty. LOLA Brain surgeon? NED Cop. LOLA Oooo... and I bet you have a big gun. NED You lose. Lola looks toward a nearby hot dog vendor. LOLA If I can't buy you a drink... (nods toward vendor) ...let me buy you one of those. NED Who can say no to a weiner? LOLA Not me. Lola turns to the hot dog VENDOR, raising two fingers. LOLA Two dogs. Hot. She takes them... hands one to Ned. He picks up the plastic mustard container to put mustard on her hot dog first. NED You come here often? LOLA Only when I'm in heat. Ned REACTS to this, squeezing the container. A stream of mustard squirts out, hitting the front of Lola's dress. NED Oh! Sorry. Flustered, he stuffs his hot dog into his inside jacket pocket, then tries to wipe the mustard off Lola's dress, smearing it all over her, making it worse. She watches him with a cool, detached gaze as he fumbles ingenuously. Suddenly, Ned stops, looking off. He sees... Milo Crumley going into the PUBLIC RESTROOM. Ned starts to leave. Lola grabs his hand, holding it tightly against her breast. LOLA Where ya going? NED Get something to wipe it off. LOLA That's okay. You're doing just fine. NED I'll get you a wet paper towel. He heads for the men's room... signaling to Arch, who's waiting in line at the Nacho stand. Arch motions at the long line... all UNIFORMED COPS... shrugging helplessly. INT. MEN'S ROOM ON PIER - NIGHT Several MEN are at the urinals. Milo, still wearing the panty hose over his head, washes his face at the sink. He looks up, sees Ned enter. Ned sees Milo... reacts, pulling the frankfurter out of his pocket and pointing it. NED Hold it right there, Milo! The Men turn, seeing Ned pointing the frankfurter. RESTROOM PATRON Look out! He's got a weenie! Milo bolts, slamming into Ned, knocking him back through the door of a stall, into the lap of the MAN inside. EXT. MEN'S ROOM - NIGHT Milo bursts out, colliding with Arch. They both go down in a flurry of Nacho chips and cheese. Arch helps Milo to his feet, apologizing profusely... picking up the gun that Milo dropped, handing it back to him. Milo sprints off down the pier. A beat later, Ned bursts out the door... dashing after Milo. ANGLE - ALONG THE PIER Milo runs frantically, knocking people aside! He ducks into... INT. BUMPER CAR PAVILION - NIGHT ...and drags a FLUSTERED MAN out of a bumper car, jumps in, and speeds away! A beat later, Ned runs up, followed by Arch. Ned flashes his badge at a FRECKLE-FACED KID in one of the bumper cars. NED Police emergency! I need your car! He pulls the kid out, jumps in, slaps a portable FLASHING RED LIGHT on the dashboard... then speeds off after Milo, a SIREN WAILING! He zig-zags through the crush of other bumper cars in the pavilion. Ned's bumper car catches up with Milo, pulling alongside. Milo turns the wheel, RAMMING Ned! Ned RAMS him back, both bumper cars swerving violently... spraying SPARKS! Ned SLAMS Milo's car again! Milo loses control, spins out and SMASHES into the pavillion railing! Ned swerves to avoid a collision, but RAMS into two other bumper cars, wrenching to a grinding halt. A BEAT. The AIRBAG inflates in his bumper car. Arch runs up as Ned pulls himself from the wreckage. They turn to see Milo leap from his mangled bumper car, leap over the pavillion railing and dash down the pier and into an alley between two buildings. A sign on the building says: DEAD END ALLEY. Ned and Arch eye each other, shake their heads, and follow after Milo. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. IN THE ALLEY Milo runs into a tall chain link fence at the end of the alley and scrambles up the wire mesh. Suddenly, Ned's hand shoots out, grabs Milo's ankle, yanking him down hard. Milo jumps to his feet, swinging at Ned, who catches Milo's fist with his hand, stopping it cold... neatly snapping a handcuff on his wrist. He shoves Milo's arm against the fence and snaps the other cuff to the chainlink. A SWITCHBLADE flashes out of Milo's other hand with a sharp CLICK! Milo slashes the blade at Ned, just missing his face. On the backswing, Ned parries with his own switchblade and flips Milo's knife away. Milo pulls a .45 Calibre REVOLVER with his free hand! Ned shoves his finger into the end of the barrel. Milo looks surprised... then sneers, clicking the hammer back. NED You take science in high school, Milo? MILO I skipped high school, cop! NED Then you're probably not familiar with the theory of inverse proportionate explosive dynamics. MILO What about it? NED If you fire a weapon with the barrel obstructed, the explosive force multiplies by twenty-three point five nine eight and reverses on itself with diametric polarity? MILO Yeah. So? NED The gun will blow up in your hand... and it won't even scorch my pinkie. MILO Ha! That's just theoretical hypothesis. Inverse proportionate explosive dynamics has never been demonstrated conclusively in a laboratory environment. NED Oh yeah. Then pull the trigger, smart guy. Let's find out. Milo hesitates, unsure. Finally, he releases the gun. Ned raises it up on the end of his finger. Arch pulls it off with a loud POP! Ned cuffs Milo's hands behind him... spins him around. NED You have the right to remain silent... next... if you waive that right, anything you say... next... REVEAL ARCH holding up a series of "cue cards"... as Ned reads from them. NED ...may be used against you in a court of law... next... You have the right to an attorney... Do you have an attorney? MILO Nahhhh! NED Then today's your lucky day... He flips out a business card, handing it to Milo. ANGLE - THE BUSINESS CARD It reads... "Ned Ravine - Defense Attorney" EXT. NED'S HOUSE - DAWN Large. Expensive. Impressive. The name on the mailbox reads "Ned and Lana Ravine." We begin to HEAR the O.S. SOUND of passionate lovemaking! OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOUSE - DAWN The CAMERA MOVES up the stairs, into the bedroom. Still O.S., we hear more heavy breathing... urgent whispers... lust... passion... squeaky bedsprings! A trail of clothes is scattered before us on the way to the bed... shoes, a dress, slip, bra, nylons, panties... greasy coveralls with a "Frank Kelbo - Mobile Mechanic" namepatch, dirty work boots, a wrench and a gigantic grease gun... The bed shakes violently. A female VOICE calls the shots as various tools drop to the floor. LANA (O.S.) Oh yes, Frank! Adjust the stroke by ten percent! That's it. (CLUNK! A wrench) Now tweak my points. Oh yes, oh yes! (THUNK! Pliers) You got it! Stabilize your ball joints and grind my rear differential! (CLINK! Screwdriver) Now accelerate! Floor it! Lay rubber, baby! VRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM! A beat. The LIGHT clicks ON. LANA; a sexy redhead with a cool, manipulative edge, and FRANK; a slick, smarmy Lothario, lay under the sheets, panting, glistening with sweat. Lana reaches for a pack of "Fatal 100's" on the bedside table. LANA Not bad for an auto mechanic... FRANK (grins, cocky) Yeah, well you're not so bad yourself... for a lawyer's wife... LANA Better watch your tongue, sweetie, or I'll have my husband arrest you. FRANK Busy man. Cop and a lawyer. When does he ever find time for you? She lights a cigarette... exhales a soft, gloomy cloud. LANA He doesn't. That's why I need you to keep my engine tuned, Frank. Why drive a jalopy when you can have a hot rod? FRANK Maybe you should trade him in on a new model. LANA I would... if I could make any money on the deal. FRANK (reaches for her) Want to go for another test drive? The SOUND of an automobile engine outside. Lana stops him. LANA Pull over and park it, Frank. I'm still under warranty. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - MORNING Ned glances at the white van parked in the driveway, then takes note of his wife's silver Mercedes... sitting on floor jacks, the hood raised, tools spread out around it. INT. HOUSE - THE KITCHEN - MORNING Ned enters. Lana wears a diaphanous dressing gown, buttoned unevenly, hair disheveled. She smokes a cigarette. NED Morning sweetheart. Ned kisses her on the back of the neck as he passes through the kitchen on his way to the dining room. She reacts with bored, contemptuous disinterest, picking up the coffee pot. LANA Uh huh. Want some coffee? Ned steps back into the kitchen with his briefcase. NED No thanks. Ned sees Frank sitting at the kitchen table, hair messed up, coveralls hastily pulled on inside-out. Frank is reading a copy of INSURANCE DIGEST magazine. A headline on the cover touts an article: "LIFE INSURANCE FOR YOUR CAT!... Cover All Nine Lives For The Price of One!" Ned's smile fades. LANA Frank here was just grabbing a little before going back to work on my car. He steps over to the table... gives Frank a cool stare. NED How long you been working on Lana's Mercedes, Frank? FRANK (shrugs) Oh... I don't know... six, seven weeks. NED And ya still haven't found the problem? FRANK (a leering smile) Think I got my finger on it though. Ned turns to Lana. NED I know what he's doing, Lana. I wasn't born yesterday. He's not fixing your car. He's SCREWING you! Lana tenses up at this. Frank freezes. He figures they've been busted. He sits there, holding the magazine, not moving a muscle... as Ned turns on him. NED YOU are screwing my wife! I can see what your game is, Frank. You open up her hood, poke around in there... squirt some lubrication in... play around with all her parts... then take an old used piston and stick it in... then pull it out... in, out, in, out! Every day! There's no end to it. You just keep coming and COMING!... and the bill just gets bigger and BIGGER! Lana braces herself against the sink, breathless... turned on by Ned's description. Ned goes to her, sympathetic. NED But you don't see it, do you, Lana? You're too good... too pure. You can't see the evil in people like him. (turns to Frank) Well, you're not getting away with it, pal. I'm pulling the plug! You're fired! LANA (breathless) Ned... don't you have to be somewhere? NED (checks his watch) Oh... yeah. Thanks, honey. I'm late for court. He goes to kiss her mouth and she turns her cheek to him. He looks at her lovingly... touches her face tenderly. NED You are so naive. He picks up his briefcase, gives Frank a nasty look, then exits thru the back door. Lana and Frank stare at each other lustfully, really hot now! Frank sweeps the dishes off the table with his arm. Lana leaps into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. He lays her down on the kitchen table, standing over her. Suddenly, Ned opens the back door, glaring right at Frank... not even noticing Lana on the table. NED Finish your coffee... then GET OUT! He slams the door. A beat. Lana and Frank begin to devour each other with passionate kisses. Another beat. The front doorbell RINGS once... then again. FRANK Who's that? LANA Just the postman. He always rings twice. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. INT. NED'S LAW OFFICE - DAY Richly appointed with stately oak, walls lined with law books. As in all "Noir" thrillers, venetian blinds cast dramatic slashes of light and ceiling fans turn lazily in every room. Ned hurries in, rummaging through the files on his desk. LAURA, a strikingly lovely brunette, enters from the outer office, files in hand. She is Ned's astute, dedicated, self- sacrificing "girl-friday" and legal secretary. She keeps his life from spinning crazily apart. She absolutely adores him. NED Laura... do you know where...? LAURA (hands him file) Right here. The judge decided to skip arraignment and take Milo direct to trial. You're six minutes late, but don't sweat it. You got Judge Allen. He's always eleven minutes late. She picks up a lawbook, flips it open to a dog-eared page. LAURA I suggest you try Lemming versus Florida, 1956... where the guy jumped in the water and everybody followed. NED (thinks about it) Yeah. Good idea. He smiles gratefully... drops the file into his briefcase. Ned heads for the office washroom. Laura darts ahead of him into the washroom and turns the water on. Ned steps in... splashes some water on his face. Laura grabs a towel from the rack where three small towels hang neatly... hands it to Ned. He dries his face, looking at her with genuine fondness and gratitude. NED I don't know what I'd do without you? She glances toward the toilet, notices it hasn't been flushed. She FLUSHES it, lowers the seat. LAURA Really? She sits down on the toilet seat, watching him adoringly as he shaves with an electric razor. NED Laura, how long have you worked for me? LAURA Two years, seven months, twenty-three days, nineteen hours... (checks her watch) ...six minutes and fifty-two seconds. (softly, to herself) ...fifty-three... fifty-four... fifty- five... fifty-six... NED And when was the last time I gave you a raise? Laura neatly folds the end of the toilet paper into a point. LAURA Never. But that's okay. I don't need a raise. In fact... I was thinking of giving you a rebate on my salary. He clicks off the razor, turns to look at her for a long moment, considering this, then... NED Naw. That's okay. You keep it. He gives her a manly pat on the shoulder then casually tosses the towel onto the rack, where it hangs sloppily askew... right next to her face. He exits. Laura stares at the towel with a tortured expression. The CAMERA PUSHES IN to her face as we see... INT. ULTRA-MODERN BEACH HOUSE - DAY Scrawled on a steamed-up bathroom mirror - FLASHBACK - CAPE COD - THREE YEARS EARLIER. A hand wipes the mirror off, revealing Laura... younger, longer hair, with a nasty black eye. LAURA'S HUSBAND appears behind her, glaring insanely. He looks toward the towel rack. There are three towels... with HIS - HIS - HIS embossed along the bottom edge. One towel hangs longer than the others. LAURA'S HUSBAND Did we forget something? She meekly lines up all the towels. LAURA'S HUSBAND Did we forget something? She meekly lines up all the towels. INT. BEACH HOUSE KITCHEN - DAY Laura's Husband pulls the cupboard open. All the cans and boxes are neatly stacked in straight lines. All except one. She straightens it... trembling with fear. EXT. DECK OF BEACH HOUSE - DAY He pulls her outside, nodding toward a line of tall PINE trees behind the house. They are all straight and even... except one, whose tall branches tower conspicuously above the rest. He holds up a chainsaw, nodding toward the trees. Shaking and tearful... she backs into the house. END FLASHBACK BACK TO LAURA SCREAMING out in terror! Ned rushes in, shaking her. NED Laura. Laura! What is it? LAURA (coming out of it) I'm okay, I'm okay. I just get a bit... claustrophobic... in the bathroom. NED Maybe we should try some prune juice. He gives her shoulder a consoling squeeze, then exits. She shakily straightens the towels and regains her composure. Ned opens a wardrobe closet in his office. He walks along, looking at thirty exactly identical blue suits, hanging neatly. Laura follows behind him. He stops and stares, indecisive. LAURA Wear the blue one. INT. COURTROOM - DAY Ned turns dramatically to face the jury. NED Ladies and gentlemen... I ask you... does this look like the face of a crook? ANGLE - MILO CRUMLEY sitting next to Laura at the defense table... STILL wearing the panty hose over his head. BACK TO SCENE NED Of course it does. But the question of my client's guilt or innocence is not the issue here today. I'm certain every member of the jury can clearly see that he's guilty! BLIND JUROR I can't. ANGLE ON NED - JURY'S POV Ned ignores this, turning to look directly at the CAMERA as he addresses the jury... holding up a pair of nylon pantyhose. NED Put yourself in his shoes. Look through his eyes. See the world the way HE sees it! He puts the pantyhose over the LENS, obscuring our view. NED Things just don't look the same. It's fuzzy... and frightening! NEW ANGLE - TO INCLUDE NED AND JURY The nylon pantyhose are draped over the frightened face of a WOMAN JUROR. All the other Jurors are holding up their own socks and nylon stockings, trying to peer through them. Ned steps over to Milo, motioning toward him. NED Ladies and gentlemen... Milo Crumley is not the perpetrator here. He is the VICTIM! Milo unwraps a piece of bubble gum and pushes it into his panty-hose covered mouth, chewing the nylon and gum together. NED Like ALL of us... this man is the unfortunate victim of these tragically difficult economic times. And what does that mean? He can't support his family! Ned motions toward the gallery, where we SEE... ...MILO'S WIFE and TWO CHILDREN, all wearing panty hose over their faces. Ned motions toward Milo. NED For God's sake!... He can't even support his own FACE! JUDGE ALLEN notices that Milo is chewing gum. JUDGE ALLEN Mr. Crumley... you cannot chew gum in my courtroom... unless you have enough for everyone. Milo holds up a big plastic bag filled with bubble gum. Judge Allen grabs it, takes a piece of gum and hands it to the Bailiff. JUDGE ALLEN Bailiff. Pass these out. The Bailiff takes the bag, offers one to Ned... who takes a piece, unwraps it and starts chewing. The Bailiff then proceeds to pass out gum to EVERYONE in the courtroom. The JURY FOREMAN raises his hand and clears his throat. JUDGE ALLEN And don't forget the jury. NED And so, desperate and broke, with no other options before him, Mr. Crumley went to eleven Savings & Loans and did what any of you would have done. He stole back the money that the S&Ls had stolen from him! The courtroom erupts in CHEERS! Judge Allen raps the gavel. JUDGE ALLEN (interrupting) Mr. Ravine... please approach the bench. He does. The Judge leans toward him, reaching out to cover the microphone, covering the end of the gavel instead. The Judge's voice is AMPLIFIED over the courtroom speakers. JUDGE ALLEN You're not running for congress here, so knock off the speeches and quit inciting these brainless morons! Now pick up the pace and wrap this son- of-a-bitch up! Call your first witness. Ned turns... looking out over the courtroom. NED I call... Detective Ned Ravine. There is a surprised GASP from the crowd... and a loud MURMUR. The BAILIFF holds out a video box. It's titled HOLY BIBLE - THE VIDEO. Ned puts one hand on it, raises the other. BAILIFF Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? NED I do. Ned sits down... then gets up, his demeanor changing. NED Detective Ravine, at the time of the arrest, did you read the defendant his Miranda rights? He slips back into the witness box. NED Of course. That's standard procedure. Ned steps over to Arch, who is sitting in the first row of the gallery. Arch hands him the Miranda "cue cards." NED Are these the cards Officer Brooks used to prompt you while reading Mr. Crumley his rights? He lays them on the corner of the stand... then slips into the chair. He picks the cards up and flips thru them. On the back we can see scribbled... "NED'S IDIOT CARDS" NED Yeah. These are them. Ned jumps to his feet, pacing dramatically, grabbing the cards. NED Reading from the cards now... quote "You have the right to remain silent, if you waive that right, anything you say... may be used against you in a court of law." Is that right? NED (back in the chair) That's right. NED (stands up, announces) WRONG! The official Miranda warning is... "anything you say CAN be used against you in a court of law." Not "may"... "CAN!" (on the attack) Don't you know the difference between "can" and "may", Detective? Every school kid knows "can" is a verb that indicates ability to perform, while "may" is a verbal auxiliary indicating the permission to act. Ned pivots into the witness stand, changing his attitude from aggressive attorney to defensive, angry witness as he hits the chair. NED I didn't have time to worry about past participles or interrogative pronouns! I was trying to protect society from a deranged MADMAN! (leaps up, pointing) But this ivy league fop...!!! The courtroom ERUPTS! The Judge bangs the gavel. Ned strides proudly toward the defense table. NED I have no more use for this witness. JUDGE ALLEN Mr. Ravine... Ned turns. The Judge motions with a finger for Ned to approach the bench. Ned does, resting his hand on it. JUDGE ALLEN I'm dismissing this case on the grounds of improper grammar. The Judge smacks Ned's hand with a ruler! NED Ow! PROSECUTOR (jumps up) But your Honor...! JUDGE ALLEN I know, I know. It's a technicality. But it's the kind of technicality that makes the American legal system what it is today! Court's adjourned! The Judge mistakenly picks up the microphone and whacks it on the bench like a gavel. BAM! BAM! BAM! It is DEAFENING! Everyone covers their ears in pain. The THX Sound System Logo appears at the bottom of the screen... along with "The Courtroom Is Listening" INT. NED'S LAW OFFICE - LATE AFTERNOON Ned turns the key... enters through the private door. He HEARS the plaintive sound of a saxophone playing Lola's Theme... his eyes drawn to the slightly opened door to the outer office. ANGLE - NED'S POV THRU OPENING A gorgeous pair of legs, sleek nylons, high-heeled shoes. There are several CANDY WRAPPERS, CIGARETTE BUTTS and other pieces of TRASH stuck to the bottom of one shoe. NED pushes the door open. It's Lola. She wears a tight white dress, long white gloves and broad-brimmed hat. The hat tips up slowly, revealing her eyes. LOLA I waited. You never came back. Ned reaches in his pocket, pulls out a wet paper towel. NED I got busy. Here's that paper towel I promised. LOLA Thanks... NED How'd you get in? The door was locked. Lola proudly holds up a tiny bobbie pin. She smiles. LOLA It's miraculous what a real woman can do... with a bobbie pin. Ned looks at the door. The frame and lock have been brutally chewed away, as if someone used a jackhammer on them! She pulls out a pack of cigarettes... BLACK LUNG LITES. LOLA (offering) Cigarette? NED No... thanks. They're bad for ya. He goes to the water cooler. She lights up, exhaling a soft cloud of smoke through a sleepy smile, her voice purring. LOLA Yes, I know. I like things that are bad for me. (touching lawbooks) So... I hear you go both ways. Ned hesitates... about to drink from the paper cup. NED Only once. It was a fraternity prank. I never saw him again. He gulps the water down, crumbles the cup in his hand. LOLA No, I mean... you're a cop and a lawyer. NED Oh. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of scum out there on the streets... but they all deserve a fair and costly trial. Ned turns, tries to casually "dunk" the crumpled cup in the waste basket. He misses. Laura enters with a huge pile of lawbooks in her arms. She sees Ned miss the basket and darts over as he bends down to pick it up. LAURA I'll get that. She picks it up and tosses it into the waste basket. NED Oh... Laura... this is, uh... LOLA Lola Cain. Laura sets the heavy load of books on the desk and steps toward Lola, extending her hand. Lola takes her time removing the long white glove... finally reaching out and shaking Laura's hand with a condescending air. LOLA (sarcastic) So lovely to meet you, Laura. Ned grabs the books and turns to the bookshelf, replacing each lawbook in its proper slot. The "handshake" between Lola and Laura turns tense, then aggressive, eventually becoming a "standing Indian wrestle" as they try to force each other off balance with sheer force. Ned is oblivious to the battle behind him, chattering away. NED Gotta keep these darn books in their right place or we'll never find the ones we need. Let's see, Q thru M... R thru B... W thru F... Laura suddenly whirls Lola around, putting her in an arm lock. But Lola elbows Laura in the stomach! Laura doubles over. Lola feigns sympathy, taking her hand... then spins, twisting Laura's arm, flipping her head over heels! Laura lands on the couch... upside down... gasping. Lola strikes a haughty pose, still holding her lit cigarette. She takes a drag. Laura checks her watch, then tumbles off the couch, landing on her feet. She straightens her skirt. LAURA It's getting late. I'll give you a ride home, Ned. Finished with the books, Ned turns... smiles. NED I have my car. LAURA I'll tow you. NED Not today. You don't need to wait. I'll see you tomorrow. Lola looks at Laura... icy, haughty, triumphant. Laura moves reluctantly toward the door, sees the lock and door frame chewed to pieces... whirls around, heads back toward Ned. LAURA I should call someone to fix this... NED Tomorrow... She instantly spins around, heads back toward the door... LAURA I'll call from home. ...and exits. Ned sits down on the corner of the desk. Lola sits in the chair across from him. LOLA I think I should warn you, Mr. Ravine... I'm not wearing any underwear. She crosses her legs suggestively... then slowly, enticingly, re-crosses them in the other direction. Unimpressed, Ned opens Laura's desk drawer... pulls a pair of sexy lace panties from a Kleenex-style dispenser box labeled "PANDORA'S POP-UP PANTIES"... which pulls another pair up into position. He tosses the panties to Lola. NED Try these on. She does... very, very slowly and seductively... as they talk. NED So... what can I do for you? LOLA I've run across some... papers... and I thought you might be able to tell me what they are. You see, I'm not very experienced when it comes to... papers. NED I'll help you Miss Cain, if I'm able. Do you have the... papers... here? LOLA No... they're at home. I thought you might stop by... NED I'm on duty tonight. LOLA Don't they ever give you a night off? NED Yeah. Tomorrow. LOLA (picks up cigarette) Why don't we meet tomorrow evening then? She finishes pulling the panties on with a sultry smile... "snapping" the elastic waistband. She goes to the door, pauses... turns to him. LOLA I'll let you know where. NED (steps over to her) What's wrong with my office? She looks around, exhaling another cloud of smoke. LOLA Nothing a good interior decorator couldn't fix. She opens the door. Behind her, in the hall, we see Dizzy, the saxophone player, wailing away on "Lola's Theme." CLOSE ON LOLA She takes a final, long drag on her cigarette, then reaches O.S. with it... toward Ned. LOLA Take care of this for me, will ya? With a sultry smile, she turns and leaves, closing the door. ANGLE ON NED The cigarette is stuck in his nose. INT. NED'S HOUSE - NIGHT The front door swings open. Frank is standing there, dressed in a cheap, loose-fitting suit and a T-shirt. FRANK I came back for my shower cap. Lana, now wearing the diaphanous gown, pulls him inside. She kisses him hungrily, slipping a frilly plastic shower cap with a gaudy floral design on his head. LANA Yeah, well you came to the right place. She walks to the living room. Frank follows, still wearing the shower cap. Lana snaps her fingers. LANA Sit down. He sits in a chair, looking around. FRANK Where is he? LANA On duty all night. By the time he wraps up his reports, it'll be close to noon tomorrow. She sits on the couch, picks up a stack of papers. LANA I was just reading over... She looks up at Frank. Sees the shower cap. LANA Take off the hat, Frank. He slips the shower cap off as Lana continues. LANA I was just reading over my husband's insurance policies. You wouldn't know anything about insurance, would you, Frankie? FRANK Yeah, matter of fact, I sell policies part-time. I got half a brain... or didn't you notice? LANA I musta had my eye on something else. (hands him papers) How about a translation. He flips through, scanning the pages, shrugging. FRANK Standard accident policy... all the usual stuff... blah, blah, blah. The face value is... Wow. Not bad. Three million bucks! (flips page) And there's a triple indemnity rider. LANA Meaning? FRANK Aw, it's just something agents throw in so we can boost the premium. If the policy holder dies under very specific conditions, it pays off three times the face value of the policy. LANA Nine million dollars...? FRANK Yeah... but it's a sure bet for the company. Nobody ever collects. LANA Why not? FRANK Well, like here... it only pays off if he's shot with a pistol, falls from a moving northbound train and drowns in a fresh water stream. LANA All three? FRANK See what I mean, sweetheart? What are the odds of that? LANA It could happen. (dramatic beat) Suppose it did happen? FRANK Then you'd be rich. LANA Then we'd be rich. FRANK What're you sayin'...? She drops to her knees in front of him, her face close to his, speaking with a persuasive urgency. LANA We're gonna kill the son-of-a-bitch! And I know exactly how! He has a legal symposium in Santa Barbara this weekend... All we have to do is get him to take the train up instead of driving. FRANK How we gonna do that? Didn't you tell me he hates trains? LANA That's where you come in, baby. You're gonna rig his car so it doesn't work. That should be no problem for you. She gets up, walks to the adjoining room... snapping her fingers at her side. He follows. She steps to a table, pulls the cover off an elaborate scale- model of Dealey Plaza and a train station, complete with HO- Scale model trains chugging around the tracks. She uses a pointer to trace the route to the depot. LANA Then... we give him a lift to the train station... through Dealey Plaza, past the Book Suppository and around the grassy knoll... FRANK Isn't that out of our way? Ignoring this, she turns the LIGHTS OFF, walks over to a screen and picks up a remote control. She clicks the button. A SLIDE PROJECTOR comes on, throwing an IMAGE on Frank's back. We can read the words: THE PLAN. LANA Move, Frank. He moves over. "THE PLAN" appears on the screen. LANA And pay attention. As she talks, IMAGES appear on the screen, accompanying her rapid spiel. We see: a shot of the depot, a map of the rail route, a gun, a river, a Bingo game, baseball action and a huge dollar sign! LANA Ten minutes out of the station he'll be standing in the vestibule between cars... trying to avoid a panic attack. Fourteen minutes and ten seconds out, the train crosses the Santa Ynez River. So at thirteen minutes and fifty-four seconds, I shoot him, shove him out the door... he hits the river and drowns. Bingo! A triple play. We're rich! The lights click ON. FRANK You been thinking about this a lot, haven't you? LANA No. It just came to me. (closer, seductive) I had this image of a big, powerful, throbbing train... plunging into a long, dark, wet tunnel. They embrace, kissing passionately, dropping out of frame. The model train CHUGS faster, the train whistle SHRIEKING a long "Woooooooo-woooooooooo!"... racing into a model tunnel. INT. POLICE STATION - SQUAD ROOM - NIGHT Ned and Arch drag in a bunch of bad-ass, multi-ethnic GANG MEMBERS they've just busted. Ned angrily shoves one of the toughest gang members against the wall... losing his cool. NED Stand over there and shut up! GANG MEMBER #1 Hey, man, we got rights! Don't you be layin' no deleterious malfeasance on us. Ned goes ballistic and slams him into the wall again! NED Watch your mouth, punk! I don't want to hear language like that! Arch grabs Ned by the shoulder, pulling him back, calming him. ARCH Whoa, hold on, hoss! Take it easy. You seem a little tense tonight. What is it? Ned regains his composure. He's depressed. NED Aw... I don't know. I guess it's Lana. It's just... I know she wants to have a baby so bad... Gang Member #1 steps closer, listening. NED ...but I never get to spend any time with her. And when I am home... it's like she's, you know... avoiding sex. Gang Member #1 steps closer, listening. GANG MEMBER #1 You should try to be more sensitive, man. More romantic. Bring her flowers. He steps between them, putting his arm around Ned's shoulder. GANG MEMBER #1 Try to understand how she feels. After all... He steps back, begins to SING "Try A Little Tenderness"... GANG MEMBER #1 She may be weary... Women do get weary... Wearing that same old shabby dress... But when she's weary... Try a little ten-der-ness... The other Gang Members join in on the SECOND VERSE with a sweet, mellow street-corner harmony as back-up... and some smooth group choreography. The COPS on duty listen raptly, getting maudlin and dewey- eyed. Tears roll down the cheeks of the BOOKING SERGEANT. The lights dim. A big, gruff COP makes eyes at a HOOKER being booked... and they start to slow dance. Arch watches all this with a sentimental smile, munching on his Nachos. When the song ends, Arch puts a comforting hand, covered with Nacho cheese, on Ned's shoulder. NED That can't be it. I'm the tenderest guy on the force. Nah... I think she's just afraid she won't be able to get pregnant. ARCH What's to be afraid! It's like making breakfast! You bring home the bacon... she's got the eggs. Ya scramble it up. Ba-da-boom ba-da-bing! She's got an omelette in the oven! (a beat, then) Why don't you knock off early... go home. It'd be nice for Lana to wake up in the morning and find you there for a change. NED Naw... I can't. I got all this paperwork. ARCH Don't worry about that. GANG MEMBER #1 We'll do our own paperwork, man! OTHER GANG MEMBERS Yeah! We'll fill out all that shit. Ned nods, smiles and gratefully "high-fives" the Gang Members as he heads for the door. INT. THE HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT The house is dark. A key turns in the lock and Ned enters. IN THE BEDROOM It's dark. Ned quietly undresses and slips into bed. INT. BEDROOM - CLOSE ON LANA - DAWN Sunlight creeps through the windows. Lana's eyes flutter open. She sees Ned beside her... sleeping. Suddenly, it hits her. She turns! Frank is on the other side, curled up, snoring. She's laying between both men! Lana elbows Frank. He stirs, groggy. She covers his mouth... indicating Ned. Frank's eyes bug out! He slips out of bed. The bed frame SQUEAKS LOUDLY! Frank freezes. Ned sleeps on steadily. Frank grabs his clothes. An unending torrent of coins fall out of his pants pockets, CLANGING on the floor! He freezes. Ned sleeps on. Frank retrieves the coins, clumsily stepping on the TV REMOTE CONTROL. A high-tech, sleekly designed TELEVISION MONITOR rises up... clicks ON. Frank tries frantically to push the set down, but it keeps rising into position. An IMAGE appears. It's WILLARD SCOTT, doing the weather on the TODAY SHOW. Frank grabs the remote control, frantically pounding on all the buttons. The VOLUME goes up... SOUND BLASTING! WILLARD SCOTT (on television) ...and Mrs. Prudy Ann Camomile of Delphi, Georgia is one-hundred and thirteen! What a gorgeous hunk of female! Smokes three cigars a day, drinks a straight shot of vodka at bedtime... and still has sex! The alarm clock goes off, CLANGING LOUDLY! Lana dives for it, slamming her hand down, killing the alarm. Going for a double-play, she flings the clock at the TV, nailing the on/off switch! Silence. Ned is still out cold. Frank moves toward the door... but with each step the floor CREAKS LOUDLY! He turns the knob. It CLUNKS! He pulls the door open v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and it CRE-E-E-E-A-K-S like the piercing metal brakes of a train! He blows Lana a kiss, then pulls the door closed very gently. It sticks. He pulls harder. The knob pops off in his hand and he falls backward, tumbling down the stairs with a HUGE RACKET! Ned doesn't stir. Finally it's SILENT. Lana exhales. A SMALL BIRD lands on the sill of the open window, trilling a sweet little "CHIRP." Ned sits bolt upright, irritated. NED Damn birds! He grabs his shoe, heaving it toward the open window. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - MORNING Frank glances back up at the bedroom window with an arrogant smirk. WHAP! Ned's shoe hits him right in the face! EXT. COURTHOUSE - DAY Ned comes down the courthouse steps. He pauses in the street, glimpsing the back of a WOMAN passing nearby... a STUNNING BLOND decked out in a clinging dress and fashionable hat... a long strip of toilet paper trailing from her high heel shoe. It must be LOLA. He turns to watch her. A HORN BLARES! BRAKES SCREECH! The SOUND OVERLAPS to... INT. NED'S LAW OFFICE - DAY The door opens. Ned enters, looking terrible. Suit ripped, hair messed up, bruised and battered, briefcase crushed. LAURA My God, Ned... you look like you were hit by a bus. NED I was. (notices) Who's in my office? LAURA Max Shady's mother. NED Not again. INSIDE THE OFFICE MRS. SHADY, an older woman with a pleasant appearance, sits in an overstuffed leather chair. Ned and Laura enter. NED Hello, Mrs. Shady. Ned goes straight to his office closet, pulls out an identical blue suit... and starts stripping off his tattered clothes. NED Laura... check on my insurance. Make sure it's paid up. Laura reluctantly returns to the outer office. MRS. SHADY Good idea, Mr. Ravine. My son, Max, is getting out of prison tomorrow. NED (checks his watch) Gee, has it been seven years already? MRS. SHADY Seven long, miserable years in the slammer. And he's a bit pissed off. NED Well, being locked in a tiny room with no TV can make a guy feel pretty tense. MRS. SHADY I'm very concerned about him, Mr. Ravine. He said you were a two-bit shyster... and he's going to rip your head off and use it for a bowling ball! He goes to her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, looking her right in the eye, attempting to provide solace. NED I'm sure the experience wasn't all negative. He probably made a lot of friends... MRS. SHADY (ever hopeful) You think? NED ...learned a useful trade... MRS. SHADY Oh yes... live autopsies... NED ...caught up on all those books he wanted to read... She struggles to her feet feebly... MRS. SHADY Maybe so... but he said he's going to punch you in the testicles... She hauls off and PUNCHES him like a pile driver! WHAM! He doubles over, gasping. MRS. SHADY ...smash your face... She KNEES him in the face, raising him up... then nails him with a devastating RIGHT CROSS, spinning him around. He collapses over the desk. MRS. SHADY ...and decimate your wardrobe. She grabs the tail of his suit jacket and rips it up the back! MRS. SHADY And I wouldn't want that to happen. (spanks his butt) He's a naughty naughty boy. I just thought I should warn you. She turns and shuffles out, passing through the outer office. MRS. SHADY (to Laura) Bye for now. (pauses by desk) Oh... may I have a cookie? LAURA (at file cabinet) Sure. She grabs a handful of cookies and casually flings them at Laura... as she heads out the door. MRS. SHADY Thank yooooooooou. Laura rushes into Ned's office with the file folder. He staggers unsteadily by the desk. LAURA Oh my God, Ned. NED I hate when she comes to see me. LAURA Don't you realize, Ned?... you could be in real danger. NED (sees file) What's that? LAURA Extreme peril. You know, the risk of personal bodily harm. NED (points at file) No... I mean that. LAURA Your insurance file. But the policy's missing. Did you take it home? NED I don't think so. Laura looks puzzled... wondering where it might be. Then... LAURA Oh, wait a second... She goes to her desk in the outer office, digs through a drawer. Suddenly, she GASPS! She is holding... A FRAMED PHOTOGRAPH of her abusive HUSBAND... sneering. A circle has been drawn around his head with lipstick and a diagonal line slashed across his face. MATCH DISSOLVE TO: FLASHBACK HER HUSBAND'S FACE peers out through a sailboat porthole at stormy seas. A piece of masking tape stuck to the glass matches the diagonal line. INT. CABIN OF SAILBOAT - NIGHT Laura's Husband turns from the porthole. Laura cowers. The boat pitches and heaves, disturbing all the neatly hung towels, emblazoned with MINE - MINE - MINE across the bottom edge. Laura's Husband reacts with a crazed look in his eyes. Laura makes a break for it, running up on deck. EXT. SAILBOAT IN STORM - NIGHT Laura's Husband scrambles up onto the deck, looking fore and aft. Laura's vanished! He looks out to sea, calling... LAURA'S HUSBAND Lau-raaaaa! EXT. BEACH - NIGHT Laura paddles ashore, grasping a little kid's inflatable float ring. She struggles onto the sand and looks out to sea, triumphant... tossing the plastic float aside. MONTAGE - ULTRA CONTEMPO BEACH HOUSE - NIGHT -- Laura rushes in, tracking water all through the house. -- Laura cuts an inch of hair from her amazingly long, very wet tresses, then puts on a WIG... that is also LONG and WET! -- Laura retrieves a bra and a package of Twinkies from a secret hiding place... and stuffs them into a small brown paper bag. -- Laura hurriedly mops up her water tracks, then... -- She uses an industrial buffer to wax the hardwood floor. -- Laura removes her wedding ring... throws it in the toilet. She reaches for the handle to flush it... hesitates, seeing the "CONSERVE WATER - THIS MEANS YOU!" sticker on the toilet. She reaches into the bowl and retrieves the ring. -- On the deck, Laura throws the wedding ring toward the ocean. A SEAGULL swoops down, snatching it in mid-air and flies off. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. -- In the bathroom... the Seagull flies in through the open window, lands on the back of the toilet and drops the ring... into the toilet bowl! EXT. THE BEACH - NEXT MORNING Laura's Husband reaches into the surf and picks up the deflated float ring. He looks at it with a cruel sneer. INT. BEACH HOUSE - BATHROOM Laura's Husband fishes Laura's wedding ring out of the toilet bowl... looking off with demonic rage! END FLASHBACK MONTAGE THE CAMERA PULLS BACK from Laura's SCREAMING mouth! Her eyes are filled with pure terror! A GIGANTIC wave of WATER splashes in her face! We see Ned... holding a tiny empty paper cup in his hand. Laura is completely drenched! NED Laura! Are you alright? That was a very long flashback you had. She snaps out of it, sputtering. LAURA Yes... I know. It's okay. I'm just a little... pre-menstrual. She goes to her desk, still upset. She picks up the message spike and turns to Ned. LAURA That Lola Cain... "person"... stopped by. She left this! She thrusts it toward Ned's face! There's a business card stuck on the end. He pulls it off. ANGLE - CLOSE ON BUSINESS CARD It reads: LE HOT CLUB! No Air Conditioning... And Proud Of It! Scribbled next to it is the message... "Meet me at 7:30". The edges of the card are scorched. INT. LE HOT CLUB - NIGHT It's dark, seductive, smoky, crowded... and HOT. Everybody is dripping with sweat and holding unlit cigarettes. Ned enters, sees Lola sitting on a stool at the bar, one leg crossed provocatively over the other. A beer can is stuck to the gum on the bottom of her shoe. It falls off with a CLUNK. He sits on the stool next to her. She looks at him, smiles. NED Oh yeah, before I forget... you asked me to take care of this. He reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out a LIT CIGARETTE. It has a very long ash. LOLA Thanks... She takes it... inhales a drag, then lets the smoke flow out through her smile. It flows out for a loooooooooong time! More smoke than she could ever have inhaled. Then... NED You smoke too much. (looks around, then) It's hot tonight. LOLA Is it? I never know. My body heat runs about twenty degrees above normal. He notices the drink in her hand is BOILING. A saxophone begins to softly wail Lola's Theme. Ned looks over to see a QUARTET, featuring Dizzy on sax. The GUITARIST spontaneously bursts into FLAME! A FIREMAN, in full gear, jumps up from the bar and puts out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. None of the band members miss a beat. NED Maybe we should look for a cooler place. LOLA I doubt we'll find one. Even the wind chimes on my porch aren't moving much these days. They keep thudding softly, like dairy cows bumping butts in the night. I go out there expecting to find a cool breeze... but it's just a lot of hot air. Ned glances at the MALE CUSTOMERS... sitting at the bar across from them. They're staring coldly at Ned. NED What're they lookin' at? LOLA A lot of them have tried that seat. You're the first one's lasted this long. NED I feel honored. LOLA Don't. It's broken. A beat of realization, then the stool collapses with a CRASH! Ned pulls himself back up and drags another stool over. NED Did you bring the... papers? LOLA No. I thought you might come over... NED Sure. I'll drive you. LOLA I brought my own car. NED I'll follow you then. LOLA I know it sounds silly, but would you leave first... wait in your car? I come here a lot and I wouldn't want those men to think I'm "easy"... a slut who'll jump into bed with anyone at the drop of a hat. But if you leave first... NED ...they'll think I'm a putz for passing up a sure thing. Lola stares at Ned for a long moment... then SLAPS his face. He doesn't move, remaining staunchly macho. Then, suddenly, she SLUGS HIM so hard it knocks him over the top of the bar! LOLA (for all to hear) Now leave me alone! She pauses to give him a flicker of a COY SMILE... then picks up her drink and moves to a nearby table. Ned struggles to his feet and staggers to the door. INT. NED'S CAR - NIGHT Ned is a mess! Blood trickles from the side of his mouth. Shirt soaked in sweat. He turns the radio ON. LOLA'S THEME starts playing. A small ceiling fan hangs from the interior roof of his car, turning slowly. The venetian blinds on his side windows are partially open, letting in slashes of dramatic light. ANGLE - HIS POV OF ROAD He's following Lola's car. It signals and turns left. INT. NED'S CAR - NIGHT Still hot, Ned pulls the chain on the ceiling fan. It spins faster. MUCH faster! The car becomes like a wind tunnel! EXT. LOLA'S HOUSE - NIGHT The two cars enter a long drive, coming to a stop near a large two story house surrounded by lush greenery. Ned climbs out... his wind-blown hair flattened on one side and sticking out crazily. ANGLE - LOLA'S CAR DOOR - NED'S POV It opens. Lola's legs swing out. The CAMERA PANS DOWN her long legs to her feet. The car floormat is stuck to one shoe. She casually shakes it off... going to the front door. INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - NIGHT They enter. It's DARK. Ned squints into the shadows. NED Well, here we are... in the dark. LOLA I have The Clapper. NED You what? Lola CLAPS her hands twice and all the LIGHTS COME ON. She smiles at him... drops her car keys on the hall table, then goes up the stairs. Ned drops his car keys on the table too and follows her. EXT. PORCH OFF BEDROOM - NIGHT Lola clicks on a porch light. She and Ned step out. Dozens of small boxes hang around the perimeter of the porch. LOLA My wind chimes. Ned steps over, running his hands along the boxes. They "thud" against each other. NED You know, these would work a lot better if you took them out of the boxes. He slips several boxes off, releasing clusters of the metal chimes. They "tinkle" and "clang" melodically in the breeze. LOLA Well well... I guess you have been around. I'm impressed. She moves close, coming on to him. Ned feels uneasy. NED Why don't we take a look at those... papers? LOLA (remembering) Papers. Right. INT. DRESSING AREA OFF BEDROOM - NIGHT Lola comes in, looks around, then down. She removes her shoe, pulling off two scraps of paper stuck to the gum on her heel. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Ned is looking through a book... "KAMIKAZE KAMA SUTRA - The Encyclopedia of Deadly Sexual Positions." Lola comes back in, hands Ned the two scraps of paper. NED That's it? These are the... papers? LOLA Yes. They're so confusing to me. Can you tell me what they are? He checks them out... shrugs. It's obvious. NED This one's a laundry receipt... and the other one's an expired lottery ticket. He hands them back to her, but she gently pushes them away. LOLA No. You keep them... as a memento of our time together. She slips them into his jacket pocket... then sensuously slides her hands around him, grabbing his buns, pulling him closer. LOLA I'm so grateful. How can I ever repay you for all you've done? NED Cash would be nice. LOLA Isn't there some other way? NED I suppose you could wash my car. LOLA No, I mean, isn't there something else you want? Something I could give you? She seductively starts to slide the jacket off his shoulders. NED Hey... slow down... there's a speed limit in this state. Sixty-five miles an hour. LOLA How fast was I going, officer? NED Oh, about a hundred and twenty-three. LOLA Suppose you pull me over and frisk me? NED Suppose I let you off with a warning? LOLA Suppose I find a cop with a bigger nightstick? NED Suppose I put you under arrest for being a bad girl with bad thoughts? LOLA Suppose you handcuff me to the bed? NED (rapid run-on) Suppose I do and then we lose the key and while I'm gone to get a duplicate made the house catches on fire and I can't get back to save you because the bridge is washed out and so you die a horrible death toasted like a Polish sausage on a flaming spit! (shakes his head) Nah... I better be going. He turns and leaves. She is stunned, confused, breathless. EXT. FRONT DOOR - NIGHT Ned opens the door, pauses, turns... as Lola joins him there. She looks into his eyes with desire. LOLA You're not so tough. Last chance. She moves her lips close to his, about to kiss him. Then... NED No thanks. I got a cold shower and a wife who trusts me waiting at home. LOLA What's the matter? Don't you want me? It's the way I look, isn't it? He steps out, pauses... turns to her. NED Don't forget to lock up. Ned pulls the door shut. The lock CLICKS. He pauses by his car, realizing something, heaves a sigh, goes back to the door. He tries the knob, but the door is locked. He looks through the small window. He sees Lola standing inside... breathing heavily, bracing herself against the staircase bannister, hand to her heaving chest as if to calm a pounding heart. He pushes against the door. It won't budge. He goes to the large window, gazing inside. She slides one hand enticingly across her breast and thigh, striking a seductive pose. He points toward the door, motioning for her to unlock it. She looks away. Frustrated, Ned tries the window. It's locked. He picks up a wrought iron chair, SLAMS it into the window! The heavy chair falls apart. The glass doesn't even vibrate! He sees a riding power mower in the driveway... jumps into the seat, starts the engine... barreling toward the front of the house! THUNDER CRASHES and LIGHTNING FLASHES in the sky! He PLOWS into the side of the house, SMASHING a huge hole thru the wall!... MOWING a swath in the carpet! Lola GASPS. Ned climbs off the mower, moving toward her. She opens her arms, breathless. The MUSIC SWELLS dramatically! She intercepts him, embracing him passionately. LOLA I knew you'd come back... NED (looking past her) I forgot my car keys. He struggles free, grabbing his car keys from the hall table. She follows, embracing him again, even more tenaciously. LOLA That's not what you came back for. NED Yes it is. Impatient, she crushes her mouth against his, kissing him hard, desperately clawing at his clothes. She's relentless... devouring him with her lips and tongue. Overwhelmed, he succumbs to her passion. His car keys drop from his hand. She pushes him down toward the floor. LOW ANGLE - AT FLOOR LEVEL Her hands grasp his shirt, ripping it open. The buttons fly in all directions! She grabs at his leather belt, twisting it in her hands... ripping it in two! She grabs his pants by the cuffs... rips one pant leg off! Then the other!... tossing them over each shoulder! Ned and Lola tumble across the floor, arms and legs entangled... rolling themselves up in a rug in the process. ANGLE - FIREPLACE A roaring fire. We HEAR O.C. MOANING and HEAVY BREATHING. The CAMERA TILTS DOWN to a sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace. No one is there! A crystal vase falls, CRASHING on the stone hearth. The CAMERA TILTS UP to REVEAL Ned and Lola... stretched out on the mantle, ravishing each other. ANGLE - THE REFRIGERATOR The door suddenly BURSTS OPEN! Ned and Lola tumble out... wrapped in each other's arms, food tumbling out with them. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. ANGLE - THE DINING ROOM TABLE The table wiggles. The CAMERA MOVES UP to REVEAL Ned and Lola kissing passionately. She lays on the table, arms and legs stretched upward... a spinning plate balanced on the pointed finger of each hand... and a large spinning platter balanced on the end of her pointed left toe. Her right foot brushes the platter to keep it spinning. The Ed Sullivan Show position. SEVERAL ANGLES - IN BED -- Ned and Lola's entangled legs, moving under the sheets. -- Ned sitting, wrists tied to the brass bed with silk scarves. -- Lola, also with her wrists tied to the bed with silk scarves. -- Then... A WIDER ANGLE... revealing that they are BOTH tied... at opposite ends of the same bed! ANGLE - THE BASEMENT STAIRS Wrapped in each other's arms, they tumble down the stairs... crashing into a workbench, still kissing passionately! ANGLE - A WALL SOCKET Ned's hand plugs in a cord. RACK FOCUS to a soft lamb's wool BUFFER WHEEL rising into frame, WHIRRING. It dips into an open can of FLOOR WAX... then moves over to Lola's naked body, buffing the surface of her skin to a high gloss. The CAMERA MOVES to her EYES. They're CROSSED in ecstasy. ANGLE - THE BEDROOM FLOOR HEAVY BREATHING. SQUEAKY BED NOISES. The CAMERA MOVES up along the mattress. The bed moves with a jerky rhythm. The CAMERA REVEALS Lola's hand, grasping the sheet tightly. WE MOVE UP to Lola, lying face down against the pillow. LOLA (breathless) ...don't... stop... FULL SHOT - THE BED Ned jumps up and down on the bed like a trampoline! Lola is on her stomach, bouncing each time Ned's feet hit the bed. LOLA ...Oh Ned... please... don't... stop... He does a complete BACK FLIP!... then keeps bouncing. EXT. THE ROOFTOP - NIGHT The wind blows. THUNDER and LIGHTNING! RAIN pours down. Ned and Lola, both in yellow rain slickers, ravish each other lustfully on the roof, sliding down the incline of shingles. Oblivious to the peril, they slip right over the edge! They hang from the eaves trough, each clutching it with one hand while still holding one another with their free arms... kissing passionately. The trough breaks! They fall! ANGLE - THE GROUND BELOW They roll out of the bushes onto the lawn, arms and legs entangled. They fall apart, gasping for breath. A beat. LOLA That takes care of foreplay. Ned's eyes widen. Lola grins lustily, rolling on top of him. INT. PRISON CELL - MORNING The cell wall is a clutter of PHOTOS: Hitler... Mussolini... Charles Manson... and his mother, Mrs. Shady. A man's muscular naked torso rises into frame, his back to us. He's doing pull-ups, his body covered with TATTOOS! Quotes on each arm... "Don't have a cow, man!" - Bart Simpson... and "I know you are, but what am I?" - Pee Wee Herman. On one shoulder, a gravestone with the epitaph "I told you I was sick!" In the center of his back... we see a big tattoo of Ned's face labeled "DEAD MEAT." A GUARD opens the cell door. GUARD It's time, Max. The prisoner turns. He's butt-ugly, hard, nasty looking. It's MAX SHADY... with a HUGE "Double Corona" CIGAR in his mouth. On his chest is a tattoo that reads: THIS SPACE FOR RENT. He walks right toward the CAMERA LENS and the FRAME goes TO BLACK. MATCH CUT TO: BLACK FRAME EXT. FEDERAL PRISON - MORNING Two huge iron doors swing open and a mob of milling REPORTERS rushes forward, surrounding Max Shady. He wears a blue suit just like Ned's. The Reporters have no microphones, but shove their empty hands at Max as if they do. They shout questions. REPORTER #1 Mr. Shady! What's the first thing you're gonna do now that you're out? MAX SHADY Find Ned Ravine... rip his head off and use it for a bowling ball! REPORTER #2 Are you a good bowler? REPORTER #3 You ever bowled a three-hundred game? REPORTER #4 How would you handle a seven-ten split? REPORTER #1 Say, aren't you wearing one of Ravine's "trademark" blue suits? MAX SHADY Yeah. The bastard gave it to me as a gift... to make up for losing my case. Now I'm going to wear it to his friggin' funeral!! Shady sees someone o.s., waves like a gleeful little kid. MAX SHADY Ma! INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - MORNING A ceiling fan rotates slowly... a pair of shorts and a nylon stocking hanging from the blades. The house is a wreck! The CAMERA MOVES DOWN to Ned and Lola, both reclining in a big claw-foot bathtub, facing each other, their arms draped lazily over the sides. Ned's eyes are closed. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" plays on the stereo in the b.g. Lola's hand reaches for an ICE PICK on the floor, raising it up slowly. Then... CLICK!... ignites the cigarette lighter in the handle, touching the flame to the end of her cigarette. She chips away a big chunk of ice from the block in a silver ice bucket beside her... then sensuously rubs the ice across her breasts. Ned winces at the sight of this. Lola smiles at him, then lets the chunk of ice slide into the water... and pushes it between Ned's legs. He cringes, eyes crossed. The familiar repetition of MUSICAL notes from the stereo DRONES LOUDER... grabbing Ned's attention. NED That's Madam Butterfly, isn't it? LOLA Iron Butterfly. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. NED (listening) Oh yeah, sure... now I can hear it. LOLA It tells the sad story of a woman who is rejected by her lover after a brief, but torrid, affair... so she stalks him with an ice pick and stabs him with it more than a thousand times. NED Really? I never could understand the lyrics. He lifts his feet out of the water, dangles them over each side of the tub. He's still wearing one blue sock. Lola raises her feet out of the water. She's still wearing her high heel shoes. They are dripping. NED You know, what happened last night was very, uh... LOLA Yes... it was. I should check on my homeowners insurance. NED But we can't ever let it happen again. Ever! LOLA What are you saying, Ned? That you're rejecting me, your lover, after a brief, but torrid, affair?! Ned pulls his feet in, sits up... suddenly feeling vulnerable. He measures his words very, very carefully. NED I wouldn't put it exactly like that. It's just that... well, I'm married to a wonderful woman... who is very, very attractive... (but adds quickly) ...not that you aren't very attractive! His voice begins to ECHO and FADE as the CAMERA MOVES IN to a CU of Lola's enraged EYES! NED (voice echoing) ...you aren't very attractive... you aren't very attractive... you aren't very attractive... And then WE SEE... A CLOSE SHOT of her hand, grasping the ice pick... scratching it along the side of the tub, peeling back the porcelain. A GRATING SCREECH OVERLAPS to... INT. PET STORE - DAY TIGHT on a SCREECHING TROPICAL BIRD. We PULL BACK to reveal Ned looking around the store. His ripped pants have been temporarily repaired with big pieces of masking tape. A CLERK steps over with two big Parrots on her shoulders. CLERK Don't touch anything. You bond with it... you buy it. Whatdya want? NED I'd like to buy a pet. She eyes him suspiciously. CLERK Yeah. For what purpose? NED It's a gift... for my wife. CLERK Right. They all say that. NED She spends a lot of time alone. I thought it might be nice if she had something to keep her company. CLERK Yeah. Sure. I bet. How do I know you're not the kind of guy who punches out parakeets? Or takes some poor defenseless animal, throws it in a sack and runs over it with your car five or six times. NED I would never hurt an animal. CLERK Boy, I would. They're driving me CRAZY! Turns and SHOUTS at the noisy birds. CLERK Shuddup! They do. She turns back to Ned. CLERK Okay... tell me more about this broad you're married to. I like to match people with the pets they deserve. INT. POLICE SQUAD ROOM - DAY A typical police squad room... smoke-filled, cluttered, busy. Arch sits at a desk doing paperwork, surrounded by the Gang Members... who are also filling out papers. Arch SINGS to himself, munching on nachos from a big pile of chips. The Gang Members harmonize with him. A Gang Member reaches for a nacho chip. Arch grabs for the gun in his shoulder holster. ARCH Uh-uh. The Gang Member drops the chip. Arch pops it in his mouth, continues singing. The Gang Members join in with harmony. Ned enters in the background, carrying a box with airholes in it. He steps over to his desk, looking at the singing Gang Members, then motions like a choir leader, cutting them off neatly. NED (doubtful) You do all my paperwork? They all hand over their completed paperwork. Ned stares at them for a beat... surprised. NED Get out of here. They do. He opens the files... checks out the papers. Arch notices something O.S. and gets up. ARCH And a damn good job, too. One of 'em even did it in Spanish. Arch turns the sound up on a wall-mounted TV monitor. ARCH Hey Ned! Catch this! Friend of yours. On the screen... it's Max Shady speaking to the press. MAX (O.S.) (on T.V.) ...I'd like to reach down Ned Ravine's throat and pull out his guts with my bare hands! ARCH (shocked) Jesus... you hear that? NED He's just working through his anger, trying to find a constructive outlet. ARCH Are you kiddin'! He'll do it! The guy's a friggin' looney! NED Trust me, I spent a lot of time with him when I was preparing his case. He's really a very sweet, sensitive human being. MAX (on T.V.) I'd like to mash his head like a ripe melon... NED He gets a little melon-dramatic. MAX (on T.V.) ...then cut off all his fingers and rip out his liver with my teeth! NED (shrugs) See. Loves to exaggerate. Arch slumps in his chair, really stunned. ARCH Christ, Ned... you're in deep shit. Ned laughs it off. He starts checking through the messages and paperwork on his desk. The PHONE RINGS. He picks it up. NED Lieutenant Ravine. Ned's face darkens. He turns away. INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - TIGHT SHOT - LOLA'S MOUTH - DAY Speaking into the phone... intense, obsessive. LOLA I want to see you, Ned. INT. POLICE SQUAD ROOM - DAY NED (whispering harshly) I told you not to call me! It's finished between us. No. No, I'm not sucking anything of yours anymore! (voice gets louder) It's done! OVER! He SLAMS the receiver down, shattering the phone! Everyone stares at Ned in stunned silence. NED (shrugs it off) Wrong number. INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - DAY She's in the bathtub, phone receiver in one hand, still jabbing at the porcelain tub with the ice pick. Water squirts from the holes she's punctured in the side of the tub. She flings the ice pick at the wall. It sticks! EXT. PARK - DAY Lana is seated on a park bench wearing a trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses. Frank walks up, looks around nervously, pretending not to know Lana. He sits down next to her. FRANK How come we gotta meet here? LANA We have to be careful now. We can't risk being seen together at the house or someone might connect us to the murder later on. She hands him a hat. LANA Here... put this on. She takes her sunglasses off, looks at him. He hesitates, staring at the hat. A dignified looking OLDER GENTLEMAN approaches. Frank quickly slips the hat on his head. The Older Gentleman sits on the bench across from them. He opens a paper sack and begins neatly laying his lunch out next to him. An apple, sandwich, napkin, Mountain Dew. LANA (whispers to Frank) Speak Yiddish. FRANK What? LANA Red Yiddish. We see the SUB-TITLE "Speak Yiddish." From this point on, all their dialog is in YIDDISH... but it appears in ENGLISH SUB-TITLES across the bottom of the screen. FRANK Ich hobe getracht, efsher iz der nisht geshtoigen un nisht gefloygen. (I been thinkin'... maybe this plan is too complicated.) LANA Zein nisht azoy meshige! Der plan iz kosher vi yosher. (Quit worrying. The plan is perfect.) INTERCUT - ANGLE ON OLDER GENTLEMAN He tosses crumbs of his sandwich to the pigeons, occasionally glancing up at Frank and Lana. Whenever they speak, however, his eyes look down toward their legs. INTERCUT - MEDIUM TWO-SHOT ON FRANK AND LANA with SUB-TITLES across the bottom of screen, about knee-level. FRANK Yo! Ober mir darfen imvarfen in tsug. Un schissen un schtippen in vasser arein. Oy a broch! Mir zenen git bakackt. (Yeah, but we gotta get him on the train, shoot him... then push him in the river. There's a million ways we can screw up.) LANA Vus iz mit idr? Die host a vaichen schmoke? (You're not going soft on me, are you?) FRANK Ven hob ich gehat a vaichen schmoke? (When have I ever gone soft on you?) LANA Lest'n Yomkippur. (Last Yom Kippur.) FRANK Nu shoin, ein mul. Es paseert tsie yeyden man. (Okay... once! It happens to every guy.) He looks around nervously. FRANK Oy! Mir vellen zein oif groise tsures. Me'vet unz chap'n. (We're going to be in big trouble. They're going to catch us.) OLDER GENTLEMAN There's very little risk involved. Statistics reveal that less than thirty-two percent of all murderers are ever apprehended. They both look at him... stunned. A long beat. LANA You speak Yiddish? OLDER GENTLEMAN No. But I can read sub-titles. Frank and Lana are speechless. But across the bottom of the screen we see a SUB-TITLE reflecting their thoughts. SUB-TITLE Oy vay! INT. NED'S LAW OFFICE - DAY Ned enters, carrying the box. He sets it down on her desk. LAURA Oh gee, you shouldn't have... NED I didn't. It's for my wife. He goes into his office, starts to change out of his tattered suit. Laura talks to him from the outer office. LAURA She called. Wondered why you never came home last night. I told her you were working with a client, undercover. She steps into the doorway of his office. LAURA Were you? NED What? LAURA There's lipstick on your collar. She returns to her desk. Disturbed, Ned quickly pulls the shirt collar out, checks it. NED No there isn't. LAURA No... there isn't. But you answered my question. She's a real looker, huh? NED Who? LAURA Lola Cain. NED I hadn't noticed. She opens the blinds behind her and looks at Ned through the window between their offices. LAURA Yeah, I noticed how you hadn't noticed. (returns to work) That's alright. She noticed enough for both of us. She picks up a stack of papers from the FAX machine. Ned steps into the doorway, wearing a clean shirt. LAURA I worry about you, Ned. I worry a lot. (hands him papers) Max Shady's been faxing death threats to you all morning. NED (reading bits) ...stick a knife in your... (reacts, next) ...rip the eyeballs out of your... (next) ...drive razor-sharp spikes under your... LAURA Did you get to the one...? NED ...cut it off... shove it in a blender. LAURA Yeah... that one. NED (tosses them aside) He's just getting it out of his system. Once they say it... they never do it. You know... like the President. There's a KNOCK at the door. They look up to see an ominous SILHOUETTE of a MAN on the milkglass. Ned starts toward the door. Laura grabs his arm, stopping him. LAURA (whispers) Wait. It might be him. She opens her purse, pulls out a big COLT .45, holding it out to him. Ned stares at it, taken aback. NED Where did you get that? LAURA (as if obvious) From my purse. NED What are you doing with it? LAURA (still obvious) Handing it to you. NED Jeez, Laura, what do you use a gun for? LAURA You shoot it. A bullet comes out. Gosh, Ned, after all your years as a cop, I'd think you'd know these things. NED Laura... put the gun away. He hands the gun back to her... goes to the door... opens it. There's a young DELIVERY MAN holding a bouquet of flowers. DELIVERY MAN (checks card) Flowers for Ned Rav... (looks up) Hey... aren't you that lawyer guy? Man, you are dead meat! Ned grabs the flowers, slams the door. Laura takes the envelope from the flowers... opens it. LAURA Is this another sick joke from Max Shady? She looks at the card... her expression turning cold. NED What is it...? LAURA (hands it to him) Lola Cain. She grabs the flowers... takes them into the bathroom. LAURA I'll put these in water for you. Ned opens the envelope. An audio cassette drops into his hand. Written on the label: PLAY ME. From the bathroom, we hear the LOUD SOUND of a TOILET FLUSHING. INT. NED'S CAR - NIGHT It's raining. Ned pops the cassette into the tape player. LOLA'S VOICE Ned, darling... I know this seems like a strange way to talk with you... but since you won't take my calls, I have no other choice. (then suddenly) Watch it! That red car's turning left! Ned swerves to avoid a collision, HONKING his horn. LOLA'S VOICE I love you, Ned. We're meant to be together... forever. (then suddenly) The light's changing! Floor it! Go! Go! Go! Ned guns it!... accelerating through a yellow light. LOLA'S VOICE Nice move! (then sincere again) Nothing can keep us apart, Ned. Not even your wife. I'd hate to have to tell her about us, but if necessary... I will. We see HEADLIGHTS behind Ned's car. INT. LOLA'S CAR - NIGHT She is following him, her eyes intense, obsessed. Dizzy sits in the back seat, noodling softly on his saxophone. INT. NED'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ned steps into the living room carrying the box. Lana comes down the stairs, pulling on a bathrobe. LANA What happened to you last night? NED (guilty as charged) Why? What have you heard? LANA (sarcastic) You could have called. But then, I suppose you were tied up. NED (reflecting back) Only part of the time. LANA I never know when you're coming home, Ned. How can I ever make any plans? In the b.g., through the window, WE SEE Frank drop from the second floor, right onto the seat of a waiting motorcycle. He ZOOMS OFF into the night. Ned steps up behind Lana, slips his arms around her. NED I promise I'll spend more time with you. I know it's been rough, being alone so much. But I'll make it up to you. Maybe we should try again, you know... to have a baby. She rolls her eyes at this... changes the subject. LANA So what's in the box? NED Oh... I brought you a present! He hands it to her. She opens it, looks in. She looks up, struggling unsuccessfully to hide a look of displeasure. LANA What is it? NED It's... sorta like a cat. Ned pulls out a PET SKUNK and puts it in Lana's lap. She forces a weak smile. LANA Not enough like a cat. NED It's a little skunk. I got it at Birds-and-Skunks-R-Us. EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT Lola stands in the pouring rain outside, drenched... staring at Lana and Ned through the window. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT NED So... what're you going to name him? LANA How about... Ned? NED (thinks about it) Yeah. Got a nice ring to it. I've always liked the name Ned. LANA No kidding. He puts his arms around them both. NED So whatdya think? You love Ned Junior as much as you love me? LANA At least. The phone RINGS. Lana stands up, unceremoniously dropping the Skunk into Ned's arms. She goes into... THE ADJOINING ROOM ...to answer the phone. LANA Hello?... Hello?... Hello? (then, whispering) Frank? Is that you? EXT. THE HOUSE - NIGHT Lola is in a glass telephone booth with venetian blinds and a ceiling fan. She cracks the blinds open. In the background, through a window, we can see Lana in the house on the phone. LANA (filtered) I told you not to call. Frank? FRANK! INT. COURTHOUSE - DAY Ned enters the cavernous marble rotunda, turns down a hallway crowded with milling attorneys and defendants. Lola suddenly intercepts him... a newspaper trailing from her high heel shoe. LOLA Who's Frank? NED Frank? The only Frank I know is an auto mechanic... but I sure as hell wouldn't recommend the guy. He's really slow. He starts to move off, but she stops him, impassioned. LOLA I had to see you, Ned. I need to feel your arms around me! I wanna suck your toes til the nails pop off! Lola's voice ECHOES. BYSTANDERS gather, listening. Ned looks around self-consciously, embarrassed. NED I told you, what happened was a big mistake. A one night stand. It's over. I have a wife... The CROWD presses closer... not missing a thing. A WOMAN snaps a FLASH PICTURE! A MAN turns on his video camera. LOLA It doesn't matter. She'll know all about us soon anyway. I want YOU! In my bed... in my arms... in MEEEEEEE! Mortified, Ned spins on his heels and makes a bee-line for the safety of the Men's Room. Lola holds up two tickets. LOLA I got us tickets to see Iron Butterfly! NED I hate opera! INT. MEN'S ROOM - DAY Ned bursts in, goes to the urinal... not noticing BEN ARUGULA, an older gentleman in a business suit, standing at the urinal next to him. A beat later... Lola enters. LOLA Why are you running from me? Didn't it mean ANYTHING to you?... buffing my buns with carnuba wax? (looks down) Come on, Neddy-poo. Doesn't Mr. Pokey want to go exploring? NED He's busy right now. Arugula glances sideways at Ned, curious and uneasy. NED Look, I told you... Mr. Pokey made a big mistake! One lousy mistake in his whole stinkin' life! So why don't you give him a BREAK! Besides... he belongs to my wife! EXT. SHOOTING RANGE - DAY Lana FIRES her gun rapidly... BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!... over her shoulder, behind her back, under her leg. ANGLE ON TARGET A full-body cut-out of a man, wearing one of Ned's trademark gray suits. A HUGE SMOKING HOLE has been blown right through the crotch! Lana smirks, inhales the SMOKE from the gun barrel... and blows it out. INT. COURTROOM - DAY TILT DOWN from an official government seal that reads "ARS GRATIA ARTIS." JUDGE Ben Arugula... the distinguished looking gentleman from the men's room, sits on the bench. Ned, Laura and a SLIMY DEFENDANT stand at the defense table. JUDGE ARUGULA I'd like to congratulate Mr. Pokey for setting yet another unusual legal precedent. This is the first time I've ever tried a case in which the JURY was found to be insane. ANGLE - JURY AND BAILIFF The BAILIFF is handing out straitjackets to all the JURORS. The Jury Foreman struggles to get his on and laced up. BAILIFF (to another Juror) What're you? A thirty-eight long? BACK TO JUDGE ARUGULA JUDGE ARUGULA The jury will be remanded to the Center For Unclear Thinking in Simi Valley. Court's adjourned. INT. COURTHOUSE HALLWAY - DAY The JURY is led from the courtroom in straitjackets and chains. Ned and Laura follow them out. NED Your BIRTHDAY! Today? Why didn't you tell me? LAURA It's not important. I just had one last year. NED Well, I'm taking you out to celebrate! In the b.g. the Slimy Defendant pulls a gun and forces CITIZENS... including Judge Arugula... up against the wall, robbing them! LAURA Oh no no! It's no big thing. I'll have another one sometime. NED I insist. And I want to get you a nice present. LAURA You're so sweet. You don't have to. You gave me a present last year. Those lovely Ginzu knives. NED Yeah... aren't they great! They last forever. And you can cut right through a shoe with 'em! As they walk off, we HOLD ON a CLOSE SHOT of a newspaper. The headline reads: EX-CON STALKS COP/LAWYER NED RAVINE! Below it is a picture of Max Shady, eyes wide with psychotic rage... a huge cigar in his mouth, wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt. Hands lower the newspaper... revealing Max himself, with the same cigar, shirt and crazed look on his face. INT. LE MISS FASHION BOUTIQUE - DAY - MONTAGE Laura models hats... each one becoming more outrageous. She coaxes Ned into joining her. They BOTH try on WOMEN's hats... smiling and laughing... as "Brown Eyed Girl" plays. In one of the mirrors, we SEE Max Shady's reflection... as he also tries on women's hats, watching them, puffing his cigar. INT. LE HULA BOWL RESTAURANT - NIGHT Laura wears a baseball cap with beer cans attached to each side with long, curved plastic straws. The cap emblem reads "BEER BIMBO." A price tag hangs from it. She is beaming. In the b.g., Hawaiian DANCERS juggle flaming torches as they dance around an ICE SCULPTURE of a Hula Dancer. NED It's nice to be off the streets... away from all the pain and misery out there. Ned motions casually toward the world "out there"... sticking his thumb into the eye of a WAITER who is bending over to pick up a spoon, setting off a chaotic CHAIN REACTION of small disasters that finally culminates with someone near the dance floor bumping into the Torch Juggler, throwing his rhythm off. Distracted, he starts catching the FLAMING ENDS of the torches! OW! OH! YI! OUCH! YIPES! He drops them all. The Waiter who bumped into him, politely picks up one of the flaming torches and hands it back to the Torch Juggler. He grabs the flaming end of the torch... and lets out a SCREAM! He lunges toward a voluptuous HULA GIRL ICE SCULPTURE, grabbing the frozen breasts. His burned hands SIZZLE! Ned and Laura don't even notice... gazing only at each other. LAURA (V.O.) What's he thinking when he looks at me with that goofy smile...? NED (V.O.) Boy, does she look stupid in that hat. LAURA (V.O.) If I told him how I really feel, he'd probably fire me. What am I saying? He probably doesn't even know I exist. NED (V.O.) Laura's incredible. And so smart. Smart enough to recognize that Ginzu knives are the gift of a lifetime. (then, concerned) But she never goes out with guys. I wonder why? LAURA (V.O.) I guess I'll just have to wait. But he's married. I could wait forever. Than again... maybe Lana will get hit by a runaway truck. There's always a chance that... NED (V.O.) (interrupting) But who cares if she... Oh, sorry. LAURA (V.O.) That's alright. I was just rambling. NED (V.O.) Go ahead... LAURA (V.O.) No, no, really... you first... NED (V.O.) I insist... please... LAURA Oh, uh... I just wanted to remind you about... NED ...the Legal Symposium... LAURA ...in Santa Barbara... NED ...tomorrow... NED & LAURA (in unison) ..."How To Sue Your Loved Ones." NED Yeah. I'm driving up in the morning. ANGLE - MAX SHADY sits at a corner table wearing a chic beret from the hat store, voraciously devouring a huge Hawaiian Pit Roasted Pig. He wrenches the apple from the Pig's mouth... takes a huge bite! BACK TO NED AND LAURA A saxophone begins to wail "Lola's Theme." Ned looks up, his eyes drawn to the lounge. He sees... Lola... striking a sexy pose on a bar stool, eyes locked on Ned. Dizzy walks thru, behind the bar, playing his sax. She grabs a handful of cherries from a glass on the bar, shoves them in her mouth, cheeks bulging, tongue moving furiously. A moment later, she pulls out a long chain of inter-locked cherry stems. Ned reacts, shaken, glancing nervously at Laura. She smiles, unaware. His eyes flash back to Lola. LAURA (V.O.) He's so cute. He can't even look me in the eye. Ned's reacts intensely to... LOLA - NED'S POV She stretches out sensuously on the bar, executing a series of humanly impossible erotic gymnastic positions! Then, wrapping her legs around a brass pole, she spins no-handed... until her thighs begin to SMOKE! REVERSE ANGLE - ON ENTIRE ROOM The eyes of every MALE in the restaurant are riveted on Lola! CLOSER ON NED AND LAURA The table starts to rise slowly on Ned's side, glasses sliding toward Laura. She reaches out to stop them... noticing Ned's distracted expression. LAURA (touching his arm) What is it, Ned? You can tell me. NED (sighs, reluctant) I'm a man, Laura. And all men feel passion at one time or another. Even me. LAURA (hopeful) Really? NED What would you think of a married man who gave in to those wild, sensual, raging desires? LAURA Oh... wow... golly... She gulps, eyes wide. The DRUMS pound faster as the Dancers in the b.g. pick up the frenetic tempo! NED What if, for just one crazy moment, he couldn't resist...? He got knocked for a loop and lost control? LAURA (smiles, eager) Gosh... that might be okay. Breathless, she breaks a sweat, gasping for air. The DRUMS beat LOUDER, FASTER. The b.g. Dancers whip into a frenzy! NED What if a tidal wave of lust crashed over him and he was sucked into a vortex of wild, thrashing urges? Both of Laura's ballcap beer cans EXPLODE! Beer SPRAYS out in a huge gush, drenching her! Ned is so preoccupied with his own dilemma, he doesn't even notice. He heaves a sigh... pats her hand... smiles philosophically. NED Well... it's not your problem. I'll work it out. ANGLE - AN ICE PICK grasped tightly in Lola's hand. She walks toward Ned and Laura, a seething rage in her eyes. As she passes the ice sculpture, she stabs the ice pick into the crystalline Hula Dancer's neck! The head breaks off. She catches it and keeps coming, tossing the head casually in one hand, like a basketball. Lola appears suddenly at Ned and Laura's table. They look up. LOLA (to Laura) Like some ice for your drink? She drops the ice Mermaid head. It shatters Laura's glass to bits! Lola turns to Ned with a cold glare. LOLA Does your wife know you're... "working" late? I certainly hope so, Mr. Ravine. She lights her cigarette with the ice pick lighter, then flips it like a jackknife. It STICKS into Ned's chair, right between his legs. Lola flashes a coldly arrogant smile at Laura... then exits. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - MORNING Frank opens the hood to Ned's car, holding a screwdriver in one hand... a wrench in the other. He doesn't know where to start. CLOSE ANGLE - MAX SHADY'S FEET - MORNING A NEWSBOY tosses a folded newspaper. It lands at Max Shady's feet. Max picks up the paper, opens it. The headline says: SHADY READS NEWSPAPER IN FRONT OF RAVINE RESIDENCE! Max looks around self-consciously, eyes shifting uneasily. INT. NED'S HOUSE - MORNING Lana stands by the front door. She calls upstairs to Ned. LANA Hurry up, darling. You'll be late! Frank slips in, wearing his greasy overalls. He wipes his hands on a rag... giving Lana a sly wink. FRANK (whispering) It's all taken care of. When do I knock on the door? LANA Wait until I signal you. When I raise the blinds... you knock. She steps over to the blinds and demonstrates. He knocks. LANA Not now! FRANK Oh, later... right... okay. She nods, patronizing. Frank exits. Lana picks up the Skunk, cuddling him. Ned comes down wearing his trademark gray suit. Lana kisses him passionately... a final farewell. LANA Drive carefully, sweetheart. Say bye- bye to Little Ned. He loves his daddy... don't you Stink Pot? NED (pets the skunk) See you tonight, Junior. As soon as Ned closes the door, Lana's smile vanishes and she casually tosses the Skunk aside with a LOUD CRASH O.C. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - MORNING Ned turns the car key. Nothing. He gets out, opens the hood. He stares... dumbfounded. INT. THE HOUSE - MORNING Ned comes in, visibly upset. Lana acts surprised. LANA What's wrong? NED This neighborhood is getting worse all the time! Damn kids stole my engine! LANA Why don't you catch the train to Santa Barbara? It leaves in twenty minutes. NED I'll just fly up. LANA No! Ned looks at her strangely. She catches herself. LANA I mean... you can't. Armed terrorists seized the airport this morning. A plane crashed into the tower... and all the runways are on fire! NED Yeah. So? LANA And it's fogged in. NED (disappointed) Dammit. LANA For my peace of mind... take the train. Lana goes to the window, starts to raise the blinds. NED I can't do it. You know how I feel about riding trains. She stops... letting the blinds drop down. LANA Darling... it's only a short trip. NED (reconsiders) Yeah... right. A short trip. She starts to raise the blinds again. He picks up the phone. NED (he hesitates) A short trip to hell in a metal tomb! He slams the receiver down. Lana drops the blinds again... LANA Just because both your parents died in a train wreck... NED And my brother, Jeff... LANA And your brother, Morty... NED My two sisters... LANA Right... NED My best friend, Al... my dog, Woof... Grandma Rose... and Uncle Lionel. All killed by trains! LANA (very convincing) Coincidence, Ned. Beside... that's the past. They're gone. NED (sighs, resigned) Yeah. I guess I can't bring them back by not riding on a train. LANA That's right. She starts to raise the blinds again... NED But I just can't get over this stupid nagging fear that... She abandons the blinds, leaving them raised part way... LANA Fear! What about our baby, Ned? I don't want to raise a child in a home filled with fear! There's a KNOCK at the door. Lana tugs on the cord and the blinds drop with a CRASH. The KNOCKING stops. She pretends it didn't even happen, racing on. LANA But if you can conquer your fear... maybe I can conquer my fear of having a baby with a father who's fearful. (goes for broke) Ned... don't let a train kill our child before it's even conceived! NED (heaves a sigh) I guess you're right. She grabs the cord, then hesitates... LANA You're sure now...? A beat. He nods. She quickly pulls the blinds up. NED But we'll never make it to the station. By the time a cab gets here... A LOUD KNOCK at the front door. Lana opens it. It's Frank. FRANK I was in the neighborhood. Thought I'd stop by and pick up my tools. LANA Frank will drive you. Won't you Frank? FRANK Sure, I'll take you to the train station. They all freeze. Lana glares at Frank, who is completely unaware of his faux pas... while Ned tries to figure out why that response didn't sound right. INT. FRANK'S VAN - DAY They climb into the van. Ned nervously checks his watch. NED Twelve minutes. We'll never make it. EXT. FRANK'S VAN - DAY The CAMERA BOOMS DOWN LOW to reveal Max Shady under the van, hanging on like a leech, his back only inches from the road. The van drives off. INT. FRANK'S VAN - MINUTES LATER At an intersection... they see a "DETOUR" sign. Frank and Lana exchange concerned looks. Frank turns the corner. The van starts vibrating violently, tossing them around. NED (checks his watch) We're not going to make it. FRANK We'll make it! He shifts gears, guns the engine. They rocket ahead, BOUNCING WILDLY, their heads THUMPING the car roof! The van SPLASHES through deep water, a huge fantail spraying out on both sides. EXT. TRAIN STATION - DAY The train is pulling in. The CAMERA PANS to Frank's muddy van as it drives up nearby. Frank waits in the van as Ned and Lana get out and walk toward the train. They pass a feeble OLD WOMAN struggling to drag a HUGE STEAMER TRUNK along the platform... inches at a time. A REDCAP passes her also, carrying a small overnight case for an attractive, elegantly attired SOCIALITE. Everyone ignores the Old Woman. Ned looks nervously at the train, already pale. LANA Okay... now what're you going to do if you feel queasy going through the tunnel? NED I'll stand in the vestibule between the cars. LANA That's right. When you get queasy... go stand in the vestibule between the cars. She kisses his cheek. He reluctantly boards the train. Her smile vanishes. She hurries back to the next car, nods at Frank, boards the train. Frank peels off his coveralls, follows her on. ANGLE - COACH PLATFORM Laura's Husband steps from the train, holding the deflated Ninja Turtle float ring. He looks around, then walks toward the cab stand. The CAMERA MOVES with him, then HOLDS ON... MAN READING NEWSPAPER - TIGHT SHOT The headline says: SHADY VOWS BLENDER VENGEANCE ON RAVINE! Under the headline is a picture of Max Shady... muddy, bloody, greasy, clothes ripped, cigar shredded... looking off. The paper lowers, revealing Max... a battered mess, looking off. He picks up a small violin case and quickly moves toward the train as it starts to pull out. We now SEE that the seat of Max's pants has been ripped out, his naked buttocks scratched and scraped raw by the road. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned stares out the window... apprehensive, nervous. Frank and Lana enter at the opposite end of the coach. They spot Ned, quickly ducking into a seat where they can observe him yet remain hidden from view behind the tall seatbacks. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY Max walks through the car looking for Ned. He pauses, puffing on his big cigar. A WOMAN PASSENGER looks up and is shocked to see Max's scraped bare butt hanging out only inches away. WOMAN PASSENGER OH! My dear gracious! Max swivels around to look at her... turning his bare behind toward an IRRITABLE MAN across the aisle. IRRITABLE MAN SIR! Would you PLEASE extinguish that foul smelling cigar? MAX (turning slowly) You want me to put out my CIGAR? YOU want me to put out my cigar? You want ME to put out my CIGAR? IRRITABLE MAN Yeah. MAX Certainly. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Max enters through the vestibule, without his cigar, stopping in his tracks when he sees Ned. He smiles to himself, then ducks back into the lavatory. INT. LAVATORY - DAY Max looks at himself in the mirror. He's a disaster. He opens the violin case, pulling out his trademark "Ned Ravine" gray suit on a hangar. It's not even wrinkled. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned looks pale... sweating... reacting tensely to every lurch and bump the train makes. The feeble Old Woman strains to pull her huge steamer trunk down the aisle, inch by inch, toward Ned. ANGLE ON FRANK AND LANA Lana peers over the seat, watching Ned with a cruel smile. LANA It's already getting to him. He'll be out of that seat and into the vestibule within ten minutes... I guarantee it. INT. LAVATORY - DAY Max is cleaned up, dressed in the suit. He straightens his tie, slicks his greasy hair back, sticks a big cigar in his mouth and grins at himself in the mirror. MAX You talkin' to me? You talkin' to ME? You... talkin'... to... ME? He reaches into the violin case, pulls out a complex assortment of metal parts, assembling them swiftly. CLICK... SNAP... CLUNK! It's an incredibly nasty looking high-tech, automatic weapon with gigantic cartridge clip. He screws on a long silencer and points the gun at the ceiling. POOF!... a muffled gunshot! Debris fall around him. He looks up. He has blown a HOLE through the roof of the coach. He adjusts the Silencer Volume Control, which has a scale from 1 thru 11. He turns it all the way down to "0"... DEAD SILENT. He pulls the trigger. The gun RECOILS, but there is absolutely NO SOUND! He has blown another HOLE in the ceiling. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned looks across the aisle to see a GROSS SLOB pulling all kinds of strange food items from a paper bag, making a big, sloppy, disgusting SANDWICH that squirts and drips all over. Ned turns away... really queasy now. INT. LAVATORY - DAY Max reaches into the case, pulls out A BLENDER! He plugs it into the outlet and REVS it a couple times, grinning wickedly. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Max steps out of the lavatory and sees the CONDUCTOR coming his way collecting tickets. He quickly spins around, slides the door open and steps into the vestibule between cars. The Conductor can't get past the Old Woman, so he climbs over the top of her trunk, with no thought of helping her. INT. VESTIBULE - DAY Max looks out the side window, trying to conceal the weapon in front of him. The Conductor enters, sees him. CONDUCTOR Ticket? Without turning, Max holds the ticket up over his shoulder. The Conductor takes it, punches it, notices the gun barrel. CONDUCTOR Sorry pal... automatic weapons are only allowed in the club car after nine p.m. Max turns, raising the gun with a nasty GROWL. The Conductor casually snaps a baggage tag to the barrel, taking the gun. CONDUCTOR I'll check it with baggage. You can claim it at the depot in Santa Barbara. The Conductor drops the weapon into a big mesh bag... along with a dozen other guns he's collected. He exits. Max whirls around facing the window, eyes filled with rage. Now what? INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY A gun barrel slowly protrudes between the seats in front of Frank and Lana. Their eyes widen. Suddenly, a stream of water hits Frank in the face! He sputters. A LITTLE KID named JEFF scrambles into the aisle. JEFF Hi! I'm Jeff and I'm eight years old. Didja know if ya put a penny on the track it'll make the train crash? No kiddin'! You ever been in a wreck? My uncle has. Lotsa times. It's really neat. Everybody gets creamed! All bloody guts... heads ripped off and stuff... Hey... wanna hear my song "Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts"? Lana turns to Frank... inspired. She leans toward Jeff. LANA You want to earn a couple bucks, kid? ANGLE ON NED Jeff bounces into the seat across from Ned. JEFF Hi! I'm Jeff and I'm eight years old. Didja know if ya put a penny on the track it'll make the train crash? ANGLE ON FRANK AND LANA Lana peers over the seat at Ned. She smiles. LANA He's losing it. You better get up to the next car. Remember, give me the high sign as soon as you see the river. It'll be two minutes and nine seconds past the tunnel. I'll take care of the rest. Anything goes wrong... just make sure you back me up. (grabs his collar) And don't let him see you. Frank gets up, moves down the aisle slowly, eyes on Ned. He can't squeeze past the Old Woman, who is still struggling to pull her huge trunk down aisle. So... he climbs right over the top of it... oblivious to her. Frank stares at Ned warily as he gets closer. Suddenly, Jeff squirts a stream of water in Ned's eyes. Frank sees his chance, rushing past Ned toward the vestibule. INT. VESTIBULE - DAY Frank races through the vestibule behind Max's back. By the time Max turns to see who's there... Frank is gone. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned wipes the water from his eyes, blinking. He grabs the squirt gun away from Jeff, holding it up angrily. NED This... is not a toy! JEFF Yes it is. A beat. Ned realizes he's right. Acting tough, he pulls the plug and drains the water out of the gun, then tosses it back to Jeff. Without missing a beat, Jeff drops the empty water magazine from the grip and jams a full one in... just like loading a cartridge clip. He smirks, ready for action. In the aisle next to them, the Old Woman now pulls her trunk back toward the vestibule. Jeff points the squirt gun at her. Suddenly, she whips around and SQUIRTS HIM in the face with her own squirt gun! He sputters! INT. VESTIBULE - DAY Max stares out the window, still seething. Behind him, the Old Woman moves into the vestibule, inch by inch, trying to drag her trunk into the first coach car. Max turns, sees her struggling and goes to her aid. MAX Here... let me help you with that. He pushes the trunk into the first coach car, then very politely holds the door open for her. She smiles sweetly at him as she shuffles through. OLD WOMAN What a nice young man. You are so polite. MAX (smiles) I try to be. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Jeff is SINGING to Ned... to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare." JEFF Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts... mutilated monkey meat... chopped up dirty birdie's feet... one pint jar of all-purpose porpoise pus... cooked in a Mulligan stew. Ned turns queasy. The train lurches. He stiffens. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY The Old Woman has unpacked her huge trunk. She has hung up clothes... set out a vase with flowers... hung up a big framed painting... and turned on a floor lamp. She pulls out a set of dumbbells, pumps them a couple times... and drops them on the floor with a loud CLUNK! Frank watches her from his seat across the aisle with a blank expression... only his eyes moving. The Conductor punches the Old Woman's ticket, then holds out his hand, waiting. She pulls out a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum... drops it in his bag. He waits. She pulls out an Uzi. EXT. THE TRACKS AHEAD - MOVING SHOT - DAY Up ahead, we see a tunnel approaching. OMIT Sequence omitted from original script. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY JEFF (still singing) French fried eyeballs and ugly scabs you wanna pick... stuff to make your mother sick... dog poop on a stick... puke and snot all mixed together in a pot... Ned is looking very pale and queasy. Suddenly, Jeff jumps up... presses his face against the window. JEFF Oh boy! Here comes the tunnel! Ned can't take it anymore. He gets up, pale and sweating. EXT. TRACKS AHEAD - MOVING SHOT - DAY ...racing toward the tunnel! INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana sees Ned stumble shakily into the aisle, moving toward the vestibule. LANA Way to go, Ned. Right on time. The train enters the TUNNEL. Everything goes PITCH BLACK. A few beats, then... LIGHT fills the car again as they emerge from the tunnel. Lana looks. Ned is gone! She heads down the aisle. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY The Conductor is still tagging weapons as the Old Woman comes up with a Ruger Mini 14 machine gun, a Mauser C96 automatic handgun, a sawed-off double-barreled .12 gauge shotgun... and an old wooden slingshot. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana looks through the small window into the vestibule and catches a glimpse of a gray suit. She ducks back, leaning against the lavatory door. INT. LAVATORY - THE MIRROR - DAY Ned's dripping face rises up from the sink into view. He splashes more water on, trying to overcome his queasiness. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana reaches into her purse, pulls out a gun. She looks through the vestibule windows into the first coach car, her eyes searching for Frank. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - LANA'S POV - DAY Frank pokes his head out into the aisle, looking toward Lana. He waves at her. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana ducks back, pressing herself against the lavatory door... gripping the gun, tense. INT. LAVATORY - DAY Ned starts to open the door, then stops. He notices the violin case. Opens it. A couple of bullets roll around inside. Then, he sees the blender... puzzled. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana leans forward, looking through the vestibule windows, watching desperately for Frank's signal. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY Frank looks out the window and sees... EXT. THE RIVER - FRANK'S POV It looms ahead. INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Lana sees Frank's frantic signal. She raises the gun, pulls the hammer back and steps quickly into... INT. THE VESTIBULE - DAY Max hears someone enter. He stiffens... INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned steps out of the lavatory. INT. VESTIBULE - DAY Lana FIRES!... blowing a hole right through Max and the window behind him! She keeps firing! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! More bullets than the gun could ever possibly hold! INT. SECOND COACH CAR - DAY Ned hears the GUNSHOTS and whirls around, looking into the vestibule through the glass window, just as... INT. VESTIBLE - DAY ...Max turns to face Lana, filled with bloody bullet holes. MAX You shootin' at me? Shocked to see it's Max, Lana empties the rest of the bullets into him... BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Max is SLAMMED back into the vestibule door by the impact! MAX Yeah... you're definitely shootin' at me. She fires one last shot... BLAM!!! EXT. TRAIN ON BRIDGE - DAY Max flies out the door, executing a perfect "full gainer with a triple twist and a half-tuck"... a flawless Olympic style dive... ending with a dead body "belly flop" into the water! INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY Frank sees Max hit the river and lets out a loud "WHOOP!" The Old Woman shoots him a nasty look. He stifles himself. INT. VESTIBULE - DAY Ned slides the vestibule door open... steps toward Lana. In a daze, she raises the gun, points it at him, pulling the trigger... CLICK... CLICK... CLICK. He takes the gun from her gently. INT. FIRST COACH CAR - DAY Frank jumps up, rushing forward. He skids to a stop... seeing Ned through the glass! Shocked, he ducks back. INT. VESTIBULE - DAY NED In this crazy world, there's not a whole lot a guy can count on. But when the chips are down, I can always count on you. He takes her hand gently and kisses it... NED You risked your life to save mine. A guy can't ask any more from a woman than that. ... then, CLICK! He snaps a handcuff on her wrist! NED But I saw you shoot him, Lana. In cold blood. I gotta arrest you for murder. LANA Ned... you wouldn't... NED Sorry. I'm a cop. I have a job to do. LANA But... you said it yourself. I saved your life. NED Don't worry, baby. I know a good lawyer. SPINNING NEWSPAPER whirls at us, snapping to a stop in someone's hands... upside down. The hands turn it rightside up. The headline reads: "COP ARRESTS WIFE FOR MURDER!... WILL DEFEND HER IN COURT!" REVERSE ANGLE The paper lowers, revealing Lola Cain with a gratified smile. EXT. CITY JAIL - DAY Ned and Laura move up the steps, surrounded by REPORTERS and MEDIA PEOPLE. Questions are being fired from all sides. REPORTER #1 What kind of gun did she use? NED That's a question for the arresting officer. REPORTER #2 Aren't you the arresting officer? NED You'll have to ask her attorney. REPORTER #1 But aren't you her attorney? NED Only her husband can answer that. REPORTER #3 What will Mrs. Ravine be wearing at the trial? Ned stops at the top of the stairs, turning to the Reporters. NED A lovely powder blue dress with a cinch waist, full bodice and a delicately pleated skirt. REPORTER #3 Does it have a matching jacket? NED No comment. REPORTER #3 Is it cotton or rayon? NED (perturbed) I said... NO COMMENT! Ned and Laura turn and enter the building. REPORTER #1 (calling out) Did she eat any of the victim's body parts? INT. CITY JAIL BUILDING - ENTRY CORRIDOR - DAY NED Jeez... they're really throwing some tough questions out there today. LAURA They're just doing their job. NED Yeah... well I call it a "high-tech lynching of an uppity white housewife." INT. CAVERNOUS ROOM - DAY It's huge, dark and shadowy. More than a dozen heavily armed POLICE OFFICERS stand guard all around the perimeter. In the center is a cell constructed of iron bars, like an animal cage. Ned and Laura enter. Arch steps over. NED (seeing the cage) What's this? ARCH Only cell available. They had that serial killer locked up here... you know, the one who talks his victims to death then eats them... Hannibal the Lecturer. But they let him out for a three week tour to publicize his new book. Arch hands him a hardbound book. NED (reading the cover) "To Serve Man." ARCH It's a cookbook. Ned flips it over. ANGLE - THE BOOK - NED'S POV On the back is a picture of HANNIBAL THE LECTURER... wearing a baseball catcher's mask with barbed wire over the mouth. BACK TO SCENE ARCH And look, look... he autographed it. Arch pulls the front cover of the book open, pointing. NED (reads it) To Arch... Love to have you for dinner sometime... Hannibal. (hands it back) Very nice. Arch points toward the cage. ARCH They're waiting for ya. They didn't want to start without her attorney being present. CLOSE ON LANA - CANTED ANGLE There's a BIG MOTH on her mouth. The CAMERA PULLS BACK SLOWLY. A beat... she spits the moth off, irritated. LANA PFFFTT! Damn moths! This place could use a good exterminator. Three POLICE INVESTIGATORS sit opposite Lana at a long table. Moths flutter everywhere. INVESTIGATOR # 2 (to Police Guard) Let's get the SWAT Team in here. Ned, Laura and Arch enter the cage as the Guard exits. LANA Can't you get me out of this cage, Ned? I'm goin' buggy in here. NED Judge said no bail. Don't worry. Just tell the truth, you'll be fine. He turns to the Investigators. NED Who's gonna handle the interrogation? INVESTIGATOR 1 It's your collar... your bust... your call... your show... your play... your move... your wife... NED Okay, okay!... I'll handle it. Laura sits at the far end of the table and opens her notebook. Lana pulls out her mirrored compact, starts to apply lipstick. INVESTIGATOR 2 Sorry Mrs. Ravine... there's no makeup allowed in this building. He nods toward a warning sign: a circle around a LIPSTICK with a diagonal line thru it. She responds, cool, confident. LANA What're you gonna do... arrest me for primping? In the b.g., members of the SWAT Team desperately swat at the fluttering moths. Ned spins his chair around, plants one foot on it, leans on his knee, looking hard at Lana. NED Don't give us a tough time. Just spill it! What were you doing on that train? LANA Well... Ned raises his hand, sits down, leans close, changing his tone. NED (confidential) As your attorney, I must advise you... you don't have to answer that question. Ned stands, paces, agitated... plants his foot on the chair again. He leans toward her... getting tough again. NED Alright, quit playing games with us! (fires questions) Who put ya up to it? Where'd you get the gun? What's your link with the CIA? LANA I... Ned jumps in, motioning with his hands for this to stop. NED Whoa whoa whoa whoa! That's it! I will not tolerate this unwarranted badgering of my client. She'll have her day in court, gentlemen. He slams his briefcase shut and turns to Lana, sincere. NED I want to thank you, Mrs. Ravine, for being so cooperative with these gentlemen. (turns to Laura) Did you get all that down, Laura. Every word she said? LAURA Yep. Both of 'em. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - BACKYARD - DAY The CAMERA MOVES IN to a wire mesh cage at the very back of the yard. A small sign on it says: NED JUNIOR. The door is open. The cage is... empty! EXT. AMUSEMENT PARK - DAY Lola rides the roller coaster with Lana's pet Skunk. She LAUGHS maniacally as they plunge down a steep grade! The Skunk stands stiffly on her lap, his paws planted on the guard rail, eyes bulging out!... his fur standing straight up! INT. NED'S HOUSE - DAY Ned hesitates at the front door. It's open a crack. He moves inside cautiously. There is a strange BUBBLING SOUND coming from the kitchen. He moves toward it... apprehensive. He enters the kitchen and SEES... a huge bubbling pot on the stove, foam spilling over from under the lid! His mind reels! He charges out the back door. EXT. BACK OF HOUSE - DAY Ned bursts out the back door... CAMERA TRACKING with his feet as he dashes across the huge back yard... MUSIC POUNDING! He SEES the EMPTY animal cage! The door is open. A fuzzy blanket hangs halfway out. Shocked, Ned spins around... running back toward the house... CAMERA TRACKING HIS FEET, struggling to keep up. The CAMERA SLAMS into a tree!... CRACKING the LENS! INT. NED'S HOUSE - THE KITCHEN - DAY Ned bursts in... SEES the bubbling pot!... a huge butcher knife on the counter!... and LOLA, arms outstretched to greet him. NED NO! LOLA Yes. NED NOOOOO! LOLA Yes! NED NOOOOOOOooooooo!!! She whips the cover off the bubbling pot. LOLA YES! Cappelini pomodoro! NED What? She lifts up pasta with a spaghetti spoon... tossing a sprig of basil into the pot from the basil-leaf crown she wears. LOLA Pasta with tomato sauce. Whatsa matta? You don't like Italian? NED Where's Ned Junior? WHERE IS HE?! LOLA I thought he might like to get out, so I took him to the amusement park. He grabs Lola's arm and drags her toward the front door. NED You can't just break into my house, cook my food... borrow my skunk! (opens the door) Leave me alone. Stay out of my face! Out of my neighborhood! Out of my LIFE! She steps outside... turns to him. LOLA You haven't seen the last of me, Ned. He SLAMS the door in her face... hesitates a beat, curious... then pulls the door open. Lola's still there. LOLA I told you. Ned SLAMS the door again. EXT. COURTHOUSE STEPS - DAY It's a media circus! Vendors sell "TRIAL BALLOON" balloons. PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS cluster around a squad of CHEERLEADERS wearing sweaters emblazoned with "FREE LANA OR BUST!" across their chests. They perform a rousing CHEER in front of a sign on the building that reads... "LE COURTHOUSE". CHEERLEADERS (with choreography) Lana, Lana, she's the one Shot a bad guy with a gun Blew that sucker off a train Some guys are a friggin' pain YaaaaaAAAAAAAAY LANA! A BBC COMMENTATOR speaks to a TV camera. COMMENTATOR Once again, Americans are making a mockery of their courts, turning a murder trial into a media circus! How can justice ever prevail when it is ridiculed and reviled in such a heinously revolting manner? This is Clement Von Franckenstein returning you to our BBC studios in London for the latest photographs of Lady Di naked in the bath. Ned and Laura push their way through the crush of REPORTERS. INT. COURTROOM - DAY Spectators pour through several turnstiles, shoving in their tokens. TV cameras have been set up to broadcast the trial. A UNIFORMED THEATER USHER escorts JURY MEMBERS in, checks their tickets, hands them programs and directs them to their seats. Ned and Laura sit at the defense table, next to Lana... who is oblivious to everything, deeply engrossed in a pocket video game. Ned looks toward the gallery and does a disturbed take. It's Lola!... sitting in the back row wearing a tailored suit, large brimmed hat with dark veil... and a SKUNK SKIN STOLE draped around her shoulders! Dizzy sits next to her, playing softly on a MUTED SAX. ANGLE - BROADCAST BOOTH A SPORTSCASTER delivers play-by-play of the action. SPORTSCASTER What a great day for a trial! We have lots of incandescent lighting, seventy-two degrees inside... and no wind! ANGLE - COURTROOM BAILIFF Oy vay! Oy vay! Superior Court of Los Angeles is now in session. And here he is... direct from a triumphant one-week engagement in Las Vegas Circuit Court... the honorable... the venerable... the totally irrepressible... Judge Harlan Skan- kyyyyyyy! Flashing "APPLAUSE" signs and flashing "ALL RISE" audience prompters. Everyone gives the Judge a standing ovation. ANGLE - BROADCAST BOOTH SPORTSCASTER Wow... has this defense team been HOT! Thirty-seven straight victories this year! Let's go down for the coin toss. ANGLE - COURTROOM The Bailiff flips a coin, motions to the PROSECUTOR. SPORTSCASTER (V.O.) The Prosecution wins the flip of the coin and elects to kick things off. INT. COURTROOM - LATER The PROSECUTOR delivers her impassioned opening statement. PROSECUTOR ...the prosecution will prove that this repulsive and degenerate woman coldly murdered a decent, law-abiding citizen... NED (jumps up) Objection! Move to strike. Hearsay, irrelevant, stupid, idiotic, caca- doody poo-poo... JUDGE SKANKY Sustained. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Laura is on the stand. Ned hands her a sheet of paper. NED And can you tell us what this is? LAURA Yes. It's a death threat that Max Shady FAXED to you on the day he was released from prison. Ned snatches it back, pacing, folding it into a paper airplane. NED A FAX in which he threatened to puree certain parts of my anatomy in a blender! I'd like to submit this into evidence. PROSECUTOR (jumps up) Objection! Who cares about the FAX in this case? JUDGE SKANKY I'll allow it. Ned sails the paper plane toward the COURT CLERK, who is at an evidence table already piled high with tagged guns, appliances, knickknacks, auto parts and other junk. The plane sails toward an open window. The Clerk grabs it... going OUT the window with the plane! EXT. COURTHOUSE LAWN - DAY The Cheerleaders lead the SPECTATORS in an exuberant CHEER. CHEERLEADERS U-G-L-Y! You ain't got no alibi! You're ugly! Yeah, you're ugly! M-A- M-A! How you think you got that way? Your Mama! Yeah, your Mama! In the b.g., the Court Clerk plummets to the ground, then staggers to his feet, and stumbles... dazed... back toward the courthouse. INT. COURTROOM - LATER One of the JURORS watches a "DICK VAN DYKE" re-run on a small portable TV monitors, oblivious to the testimony. In the b.g., the battered Clerk stumbles back in with the paper plane. The Conductor is on the stand. Ned holds up a BLENDER. NED And is this the blender you found in the lavatory of the train? CONDUCTOR Yes... it is. NED I'd like this marked as evidence. The Bailiff reaches out, Ned waves him off... instead, tossing the blender over several heads to the Court Clerk... who runs to catch it, CRASHING into the wall. The blender falls, SHATTERS. ANGLE - BROADCAST BOOTH SPORTSCASTER Awwwww... a bad call by Ravine. Let's check out the re-play. On the RE-PLAY SCREEN we see the action repeated in SLOW MOTION as the Sportscaster draws lines, circles, x's and squiggles. SPORTSCASTER Look at THAT! The Bailiff is wide open! But instead of handing it off, Ravine goes for the long bomb. Ohhhh! The pass is wide! A real wobbler! There's no way! He scrambles, but he just can't get his hands on it... And RIGHT THERE!... (freezes the frame) ...WHAM! That blender is gone! INT. COURTROOM - LATER At the defense table, Laura glances over at Lana, who is casually browsing through a copy of GALS & GUNS magazine. Laura reacts, then, trying to be as diplomatic as possible... LAURA Ned... did you ever consider that maybe you don't know women as well as you think you do? PROSECUTOR (O.S.) Now would you tell the court, in your own words, what you said to Mr. Ravine? They both look toward the witness stand. Ned is shaken. NED (whispers) I'm really worried about this guy. He could blow our whole case right out of the water. ANGLE - WITNESS STAND - MOMENTS LATER Jeff, the little boy from the train is on the witness stand. The Prosecutor stands by, listening as... JEFF (singing) Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts... mutilated monkey meat... itsy-bitsy birdie feet... Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts... and me without a spoon! The JURORS turn pale and reach for the air sickness bags in front of them. The Courtroom erupts. The Judge pounds his gavel LOUDLY. JEFF (pointing at Lana) That lady paid me two bucks to sing it to him...! But NO ONE hears this in all the confusion. The Judge, also looking ill now, bangs his gavel again. JUDGE SKANKY Recess! Ten minutes! EXT. PLAYGROUND - DAY The Judge, Jury, Attorneys and Spectators are all playing on the swings, teeter-totters, monkey bars... having a blast! Ned and the Prosecutor play "dodge-ball." Laura cheers Ned on. The Prosecutor rockets the ball at Ned... and just misses! PROSECUTOR Gotcha, dork face! Gotcha, gotcha! LAURA No you didn't! NED No way! Uh-uh! Missed by a mile! The BAILIFF steps into CLOSE UP, blowing a whistle loudly! BAILIFF Recess is over! Let's go... move it, move it, move it! INT. BROADCAST BOOTH - LATER Marching band MUSIC fades off-screen. SPORTSCASTER There they go... the UCLA Marching Band! And now... Holy Toledo!... it looks like the victim's mother... Helen Shady... is gonna take the stand! This will be the first defensive play of the afternoon. INT. COURTROOM - SAME TIME Mrs. Shady is on the stand. Ned paces. NED Mrs. Shady... would you tell us about your son, Max. Was he a... a good boy? MRS. SHADY He was the best. And that's not just a mother talking. You can ask anybody. NED But he got into trouble once in awhile... like all kids do? MRS. SHADY Well, you know, pranks. Little jokes and things. But he was so cute. I have pictures! She reaches down into her huge purse, pulling out a photo album. She opens it, showing Ned. MRS. SHADY Here. This is when he set the cat on fire... (then, assuring him) Oh... but the cat deserved it. NED (looks, points) And what, uh... what are these...? MRS. SHADY Marshmallows. He just loved to toast marshmallows over a roaring cat. Burned on the outside... all soft in the middle. (turns page) And right here... this was taken on the day he left the priesthood to join the Green Berets. ANGLE - THE JURY They rise slowly out of their seats, craning their necks, trying to see the photos. BACK TO SCENE Ned is now seated next to Mrs. Shady in the witness box, looking at the photo album with her. Judge Skanky peers over the side of the bench. NED This is cute. MRS. SHADY (laughs, delighted) Oh yes! That was during his Ku Klux Klan phase. He would take the sheets right off my bed... cut those little holes in them. What a stitch he was! ANGLE - THE SPECTATORS are now on their feet, all straining to catch a glimpse of the photos in the album. BACK TO SCENE NED And is this Max... with all the tools... fixing his bike? She snatches the photo out of the album. MRS. SHADY Why that shouldn't even be in there! It's his rotten little half-brother. (rips up photo) Stinkin' little pecker... he never was any good... ANGLE - BROADCAST BOOTH The Sportscaster is pushing his face against the broadcast booth glass, trying to see what everyone's looking at. BACK TO SCENE MRS. SHADY (points at another) Oh! I didn't like these neo-Nazi boys. They were all so fussy and persnickety about everything. Heil this and heil that. (flips the page) Oh look... here's Max with his chainsaw. He loved to go to the national park and cut down those giant old trees. It made him feel so patriotic. You know, if he hadn't been such a successful criminal... I think he would have been a lumberjack. The Court Clerk, Bailiff and Court Recorder have all moved around behind the witness stand, peering over Mrs. Shady's shoulder at the photos. MRS. SHADY (tearful, angry) But now he'll never be anything! Not since... (stands up, points) ...that woman, your wife, pulled the trigger and put my little Max in his grave! JUDGE SKANKY Mrs. Shady! Do not POINT your finger in my courtroom. It's discourteous, impolite and disrespectful. MRS. SHADY Don't you tell me what to do with my finger! It's been more places than you've ever dreamed of! JUDGE SKANKY (bangs gavel) Sit down! MRS. SHADY I'll point my finger wherever I want! Mrs. Shady goes berserk... leaping from the witness stand, pointing several different fingers at Judge Skanky. The Bailiff attempts to restrain her, but she breaks free... scurrying around the courtroom, pointing fingers at everyone! CHAOS prevails! INT. COURTROOM - LATER The Irritable Man from the train is on the stand... Max's huge cigar stuck in his ear! The hair around his ear is scorched. NED Did you encounter the victim... Max Shady... on board the train? IRRITABLE MAN Yeah. And I told him... "this is the NO SMOKING car! Would you please put out your damn cigar!" NED And is that the cigar in your ear? The Man strains to see the cigar out of the corner of his eye. Impatient, Ned finally holds up a small pocket mirror. IRRITABLE MAN I believe it is. NED I'd like the cigar and the head of this witness entered into evidence. The Bailiff picks up the Irritable Man and dumps him on the evidence table, where he is tagged by the Court Clerk. NED The defense calls... Lana Ravine! INT. COURTROOM - LATER Lana is on the stand. The Bailiff swears her in. BAILIFF Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God? LANA (looks to Judge) Do I have to answer that, Harlan? JUDGE SKANKY No, no dear. I'll vouch for her. Ned approaches. NED Now, Mrs. Ravine... may I call you Lana? LANA No. Call me Angel Tits. PROSECUTOR I object! JUDGE SKANKY Sustained. Counselor... you will address Angel Tits as Mrs. Ravine. NED (after a beat) Mrs. Ravine... would you please tell the court... what were you doing on that train? LANA I saw Max Shady at the station... saw him get on board. I knew he'd made threats to kill you and mutilate your reproductive organs... Ned and EVERY MALE in the courtroom winces at this, doubling over in imagined agony. Lana pauses, then continues... LANA ...so I got on the train too... so I could warn you. NED Do you want to have children? LANA Someday. With the right man. NED But you couldn't have children if my... (makes a gesture) ...were... (another gesture) ...and, uh... LANA It would be difficult. NED So you followed him, knowing you had to protect me... your husband... your best friend... the man you love... the future father of your children. LANA Something like that. NED And when you saw that maniac standing in the vestibule, waiting to pulverize my pee-pee... you pulled the gun and fired and fired and FIRED! LANA And fired and fired and fired and fired and fired and fired and fired... She pauses to count off on her fingers, then... LANA ...and fired and fired and fired. NED The defense rests, your Honor. INT. COURTROOM - LATER The COURTROOM ARTIST has been sketching intensely throughout the trial. We finally see... he's been sketching a BOWL OF FRUIT on the Court Recorder's desk. Ned picks up some fruit from the bowl and approaches the defense table. NED How can you convict a courageous woman who risked everything to save the life of her beloved husband? A woman who acted boldly to stop a demented maniac from doing THIS!... Ned shoves the BANANA and two PLUMS into a demonstration blender on the defense table. He hits the puree button and the blender WHIRRS loudly! NED (shouts over) ...pulverizing the private parts of the man she loves! All MALES in the courtroom react with pained expressions, cringing and doubling-over. Ned turns the blender off. NED (directly to Jury) Lana Ravine is a loving wife and the potential mother of my potential child. I challenge YOU to strike a blow for motherhood and the American justice system! Put the "con" back in the Constitution. Put the "ju" back in jurisprudence. Put the "can" back in American. And put the "dom" back in freedom. Find this woman INNOCENT!... so we can all go to bed happy tonight! INT. PRESS ROOM - LATER A REPORTER opens the door marked PRESS ROOM. Inside, a DOZEN REPORTERS press their pants on a dozen ironing boards. REPORTER The jury's back! The Reporters scramble for the door, pulling their pants on! INT. COURTROOM - LATER The CAMERA FOLLOWS a folded piece of paper as the Jurors pass it along to the FOREMAN... who hands it to the Bailiff... who hands it to the Judge. He unfolds it, reads it... then winks flirtatiously at the FEMALE JUROR who wrote it. She blushes. JUDGE SKANKY (back to business) So... has the jury reached a verdict? JURY FOREMAN (stands up) Yes we have, your Honor. JUDGE SKANKY How do you find the defendant... on the count of manslaughter? JURY FOREMAN Not guilty. JUDGE SKANKY On the count of murder in the first degree? JURY FOREMAN Not guilty. JUDGE SKANKY On the Count of Monte Cristo? JURY FOREMAN Not guilty. A BOISTEROUS CLAMOR in the court. The electronic signs FLASH "NOT GUILTY!"... "NOT GUILTY!"... "NOT GUILTY!" JUDGE SKANKY Good. Then on the count of three, let's all get the hell out of here! One... two... The Jury and Spectators start to rise. The Judge hesitates, gavel poised, shooting them a warning look. JUDGE SKANKY Wait... for... it... Everyone FREEZES halfway out of their seats... waiting. JUDGE SKANKY Two and a half... THREE! He smacks his gavel. Everyone scatters for the doors, but Judge Skanky beats them out of the room. Lana turns cool, dropping her courtroom facade. She plucks off her earrings, unbuttons the neck of her dress, reaches in and magically pulls out her bra, tossing it away. LANA Well, counselor, looks like you won another case. Lucky for me. TWO LEGAL AIDES sneak up behind Ned and dump a big plastic barrel of Gatorade cans over his head! BAILIFF (O.S.) (over P. A. system) Attention courtroom shoppers! All trial evidence now on sale. Forty to sixty percent off all exhibits! Everything must go! They turn to SEE: Spectators and Jurors browse through the clutter of junk in front of the Court Clerk on the evidence table. An IRRITABLE WOMAN claims the Irritable Man, grabbing the cigar from his ear and throwing it down. IRRITABLE WOMAN I told you, Bernard... smoking cigars is bad for your hearing! She pulls him away as Lana steps up, with a cigarette dangling from her lips. Lana picks up her gun and spins the cylinder. It's loaded. The battered Court Clerk limps over, smiling. COURT CLERK Mrs. Ravine! What can I do for ya? LANA How much for my gun? Laura sees this... turns to Ned with a look of shock. LAURA I don't believe it! She just bought her gun back! The gun she used to kill a man! Ned looks off toward Lana with admiration. NED Yeah... the same gun that saved my life. I'm sure it has sentimental value. As Lana wades into the crowd of REPORTERS, some still without pants, the CAMERA MOVES TO Lola, who is watching Lana from the back of the courtroom. Lola pulls a small cord hanging from the side of her hat... opening her veil like window drapes. She's not happy. INT. FRANK'S GARAGE - DAY Frank lays on a mechanic's "creeper", working under a car. Lana steps between his feet. He hears her and rolls out, his crotch sliding to a stop against her legs. He looks up, covered with black grease. FRANK So... you did it. Ya beat the rap. LANA No thanks to you. He gets to his feet, cocky. FRANK Hey... I knew he'd spring ya. She walks toward him, her voice cold, accusing. He backs up. LANA You didn't lift a finger, Frank. You let me take all the heat. FRANK Heeeee-eeey... what could I do? Lana pulls the gun from her purse, pointing it at him. LANA You were gonna let me rot in the slammer... never say a thing. FRANK Look... you're out... free. Now we're together. That's what counts. We can try again! Forget triple indemnity. We'll whack him and split three mil. LANA I'm not splitting anything, Frank. (cocks the gun) And you know too much. FRANK (arrogant) Come on, Lana. You're not gonna shoot me. He brashly turns his back to her, putting some tools away. She sees a huge electric powered SCREWDRIVER on the workbench next to her, smiling diabolically. She lowers the gun. LANA You're right. (then, seductive) Maybe I'll just screw you to death. He laughs arrogantly... starts to unbutton his shirt. FRANK Now you're talkin' baby. EXT. THE GARAGE WINDOW - DAY We see Lana's SILHOUETTE on the window as she raises the big power screwdriver and turns it on. WHIRR-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R! The CAMERA WHIPS AROUND and PUSHES IN TO... LOLA watching the murder from her car. There is a... FLASH! Then another! And another! We are... INT. THE GARAGE - LATER A POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER takes FLASH pictures of the crime scene. The CORONER, COPS, FORENSIC MEN... all do their thing. Ned and Arch amble in, looking around. Arch is eating Nachos. FORENSIC MAN Watch your step, guys. There's a lot of blood. Throughout this scene, in the b.g., the milling COPS and INVESTIGATORS slip on all the blood, as if on slick ice, and fall out of frame, their arms and legs flailing helplessly! One of the Coroner's INVESTIGATORS approaches Arch and Ned. INVESTIGATOR Looks like a suicide. We found a note. He holds up a rolled piece of paper with a pair of tweezers. Ned takes it, trying to unroll it. INVESTIGATOR It was stuck up his nose. Ned hands it off to Arch, who casually unrolls it. The Investigator slips, arms waving, and falls out of frame. ARCH (reading it) "I can't take it anymore. I'm a mediocre mechanic... and a lousy lover." NED He's sure got that right. Arch gives Ned a very strange look. Ned feels his stare. NED The "mechanic" part, I mean. In the b.g., various COPS pair up to have their pictures taken by the Police Crime Scene Photographer... posing, grinning. NED (stares at the body) I don't know why, Arch, but I just can't shake this crazy hunch it wasn't suicide. THE CAMERA MOVES behind Ned on his line, revealing Frank... pinned to the wall by the power screwdriver stuck in his back! It's still running... vibrating with a GRINDING HUM. Ned reaches out and turns the screwdriver OFF. INT. NED'S HOUSE - DAY Ned enters, pausing. He hears VOICES. He goes to the living room. Lana and Lola turn to see him in the doorway. He is shocked. Lana looks shaken. But Lola is cool... in control. LANA Oh... uh, Ned... This is Lola, um... NED (nervous, defensive) Um? She told you her name was Um? And what other lies did she tell you? I've never seen this woman in my life! Never followed her home! Never had sex with her in the refrigerator! It's all a sick fantasy... and I deny everything! He turns to Lola. NED When will women like you learn, you can't tear apart a perfectly good marriage with your vicious lies... Miss UMMMM! LOLA Actually... it's Smith. Lola Smith. I sell vacuum cleaners, Mr. Ravine. The big powerful kind that suck up everything in sight. I was just telling your wife, if she wants to get rid of all her dirt, she has to be willing to pay the price. She turns to Lana with a cold and contemptuous glare. LOLA Let me know what you decide, Mrs. Ravine. I'm sure we can work out a convenient "payment" plan. A pleasure meeting you... Ned. Lola exits. As soon as the door closes, Lana whirls around in a fury!... SMASHING a lamp! She SHRIEKS furiously! LANA I... hate... SALESMEN! He puts his arms around her, comforting. NED I know it's been a tough ordeal... with the trial and everything. Tell you what... let's take a trip. LANA A trip? NED Yeah. Just the two of us. LANA (darkly inspired) I like that. Just you and me... all alone. I'll start packing. NED Great. Listen... I got something to take care of. I'll be back in awhile. He kisses her and exits. Lana turns to look up toward the landing, a vengefully insane smile clouding her face. INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - DUSK A demanding KNOCK at the door. Lola hesitates at the door. LOLA Who is it? The door CRASHES OPEN! Ned is silhouetted in the doorway. He looks really pissed! Lola turns and runs. Ned sprints after her, leaping through the air... bringing her down with a tackle! NED I just want to talk. LOLA Why didn't you say so? Her foot shoots out, smashing him right in the face... WHAM! She jumps up and scrambles away. Ned pursues her. She grabs a bottle of scotch from the counter, spins around. LOLA Would you like a drink? She throws the bottle! He ducks and it shatters on the wall! NED No thanks. I'm driving. She whirls on one foot, nailing him in the head with a FLYING SPIN KICK! He stumbles back, dazed. She grabs an ice pick. LOLA Then let's get to the point! Lola charges! Ned rolls onto his back, jamming both feet into her stomach, heaving her up over him... thru the air! She SLAMS into the wall!... then slowly turns... still cool and collected. She raises a cigarette... lights it with the ice pick "lighter." LOLA So what's your problem, tough guy? NED Stay away from my life, my wife, my home and my pets! I'm taking Lana on a vacation and when I come back, I don't ever want to see your face again! He shoves her against the wall... the cigarette flying away. LOLA (shocked) A VACATION! She doesn't deserve a VACATION! She's a brat! A bad girl! She always was and always will be! He grabs her by the shoulders, shaking her. NED What are you talking about? You don't know anything about Lana? LOLA I know EVERYTHING! NED (shakes her hard) How do you know her? Who is she to you? TELL ME! She clams up. He slaps her. NED Who is she! LOLA She's your wife! NED (slaps her again!) Who is she!? LOLA She's my sister! NED (slaps her again) Liar! Who is she? LOLA She's your wife! He raises his hand to slap her hard. NED WHO IS SHE! She SLAPS him! LOLA She's my sister! She continues to slap him... back and forth... repeating her answers... "She's your wife"... "She's my sister!"... "Your wife!"... "My sister!"... "Wife!"... "Sister!" He reaches a boiling point, raising two fingers, preparing to give her the Three Stooges "two-fingered eye poke." She blocks it with her hand and shoves him away. Then, she executes a perfect Three Stooges "wiggly-hand head slap", telling him... LOLA She's your wife... AND my sister! Ned is stunned. MUSIC THUNDERS dramatically! Lana clicks the stereo off. The MUSIC STOPS. LOLA She was spoiled rotten! She stole everything I ever had. Everything! Including him. NED Him? Who, him? LOLA Dwayne. The boy's gym teacher. He was older. So mature... so strong. He smelled like dirty sweat socks and old basketballs. And he was all mine. For awhile. (turning bitter) But Lana wasn't satisfied with her own things. She had to have mine too. She took it all... my makeup, my sweaters, my shoes, my underwear... NED You wore the same clothes? LOLA We were identical twins. NED What're you talking about? You two don't look anything alike. LOLA Not anymore. One day I caught her stealing my lavender eye shadow and she smashed my face in with a shovel. I had fifty-three operations. When the doctors were finished with me... I looked like THIS! I'm ugly. UGLY! NED You're beautiful. LOLA Don't lie to me. NED They did a terrific job! LOLA I look in the mirror. I can SEE! NED But... you're gorgeous! LOLA Tell that to Dwayne. When he saw my face, he left me for HER... because she looked more like me than I did! First she stole my looks... then she stole the only man who ever loved me! She comes toward him... feeling in control once more. LOLA But I found a way to get even. The best revenge possible. Destroy her marriage! NED That's why you did all this? Seduced me... harrassed me... the tape... the flowers... the phone calls... LOLA You been hangin' out with Dick Tracy, haven't ya? NED It won't work. Lana loves me. LOLA It doesn't matter. I'm blackmailing her for everything she's worth. She murdered that greasy auto mechanic. I saw her do it. NED (stunned) Lana killed Frank Kelbo? LOLA (also stunned) Kelbo! His name was Kelbo? NED Yeah. Why? Did he burn you on car repairs too? LOLA Dwayne's name was Kelbo. He had a son. Frankie Kelbo. INT. NED'S CAR - NIGHT Ned wanders to his car, climbs in, sits there... stunned. NED (V.O.) The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place and I didn't like the picture they were making. If Lana really killed Frank Kelbo, then I had misjudged her by a mile. Sure... he was a lousy mechanic. But murder? Ned rubs his temples, shuts his eyes. NED (V.O.) It was all starting to give me a headache bigger than the national deficit. INT. LOLA'S HOUSE - NIGHT "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" plays on the stereo. Lola sits on the floor by an end table, eyes dazed, staring blankly. A lamp with a "clapper" switch sits on the table. As the CAMERA MOVES IN SLOWLY to her, she absently "claps" the light off... then on... then off... then on... then off... INT. NED'S HOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE ON female hands using a keyhole saw to cut through a railing on the second floor landing above the foyer. Outside... the SOUND of a car... headlights! The sawing stops. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ned pulls up. The house is dark and ominous. So is the MUSIC. INT. NED'S HOUSE - NIGHT The front door is open a crack. He cautiously pushes it and the door CR-E-A-K-S open very slowly. The door STOPS, but the LOUD CREAKING continues. Ned touches it lightly with the tip of his finger. The CREAKING STOPS. NED Lana? Ned moves up the stairs. The CAMERA BOOMS UP with him, HOLDING ON an ECU of the partially severed railing. INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Ned enters. Hot water gushes from the faucet into a clawfoot bathtub. He turns the water off, looking around, puzzled. Loosens his tie, rubs his head. A splitting headache. Opens the medicine cabinet and... SCREECH! YEOW! CRASH! A CAT leaps out!... darts away. There's a NOISE from downstairs. INT. THE KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER Someone is POUNDING on the door. Ned enters and opens it. It's Laura. LAURA Ned! I'm glad you're here. I have so much to tell you. NED Come on in. I'll make some tea. Grab a chair. LAURA Thanks... I brought my own. She drags a chair in behind her, sits at the kitchen table. Ned puts a kettle on the burner, turns it on. He starts searching through the cupboard for teabags. NED So... what have you got? LAURA A lottery ticket and a laundry receipt. (lays them on table) I found them in the pocket of that suit you wore the night you were working under cover with a client. Ned freezes, staring out the window, unable to face her. LAURA You remember that night, don't ya Ned? Then it hit me. Lottery starts with L-O. Laundry starts with L-A. L- O... L-A. Lola. Ned turns to her when he hears Lola's name... looking baffled by this convoluted piece of logic. LAURA (shrugs it off) Don't sweat it. It's the way a woman's mind works. He turns back to the cupboard, picking up a container. NED How about Ovaltine? LAURA Fine. Then I remembered you told me some guy named Frank had been working on your wife's car for two months. You with me so far? NED I'm way ahead of you. He brings the Ovaltine container to the table. LAURA Well back it up. You probably took a wrong turn. Remember your insurance policy... the one we couldn't find? I started thinking, who else had access to it beside you and me? The answer came up... Lana. And since she's a woman, it's probably hidden right here. A huge ceramic cookie jar sits on the table in front of them. Laura SMASHES it with her fist, breaking it open! Cookies spill out... and the insurance policy. NED So that's where she hid the Oreos. He sits down... starts eating Oreos... twisting them apart. LAURA Ned, Lana wasn't trying to save your life when she shot Max Shady. She and Frank were plotting to kill you and collect on your insurance policy. But she shot the wrong guy. NED That's the craziest thing I ever heard. LAURA (she presses on) Don't you see... Frank was going to let her take the fall. So she murdered him and tried to make it look like suicide. (beat) That's when I realized there was a connection between Lola and Lana... NED Yeah... they're sisters. Twin sisters. LAURA Well, hang on to your jock strap, Ned. There's more. She unrolls a complex genealogical chart... walks him thru it. LAURA Not only is Frank's father Dwayne Kelbo, notoriously amorous gym teacher and Lola Cain's former lover... Frank's mother is Helen Shady. Max and Frank are half-brothers who never met. Laura pauses dramatically, then announces. LAURA Your lovely wife, Lana, murdered both of Helen Shady's sons. NED This is so unbelievable. LAURA And you haven't even heard my story. INT. HOUSE - UPSTAIRS LANDING - NIGHT The keyhole saw cuts through the railing. The CAMERA REVEALS Lana, eyes filled with Machiavellian rage. She enters the bathroom, lays the saw blade down. Suddenly... a PAIR OF HANDS plunge into frame, grabbing her by the throat! We GO WITH HER as she is pushed back into the tub, the hands forcing her head under water. Lana grabs a diving mask, clamps it over her face. One of the attacking hands rips it away! Lana grabs a snorkel, sticking it in her mouth. The hand pulls it from her, tossing it aside. The hand shoves a little RUBBER DUCKIE into Lana's mouth! Lana struggles, finally going limp. Her open eyes stare up from beneath the water. The last few bubbles rise to the surface. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME LAURA He turned into a monster. And that's when I left him. I just couldn't... The tea kettle WHISTLES! Laura pulls it off the burner. The whistling subsides... replaced by the distant SOUND of water running upstairs. Ned cocks his head, listening. NED That damn faucet keeps turning on all by itself. I'll go check it. LAURA Okay. I'll make the Ovaltine. Ned exits. Laura opens the Ovaltine container. It's empty. A DARK SHADOW moves past the window behind Laura. Suspense MUSIC. Laura opens the cupboard. PIGEONS explode out, wings beating furiously! She catches her breath, looks in the cupboard. The cans and boxes are covered with pigeon shit. She shoves them aside, looking for the Ovaltine. INT. FOYER - SAME TIME Ned looks up toward the light from the bathroom. Water seeps over the edge of the landing and down the steps. As he moves up the steps, the SOUND of MUSIC... the familiar strains of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"... grows louder and LOUDER. INT. BATHROOM - SAME TIME It's filled with steam. He waves the steam away... STARTLED to see Lana's lifeless body beneath the water, the rubber duckie jammed into her mouth. The tub overflows on the floor. He turns the faucet off. The water stops... and so does the MUSIC. Puzzled, he turns the faucet on. The MUSIC STARTS. Turns it off. The MUSIC STOPS. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME As Laura turns away to enter the pantry... her Husband's twisted face suddenly appears in the kitchen window! INT. BEDROOM - SAME TIME Ned enters. The MUSIC is coming from the closet. Ned yanks the door open! A flock of PIGEONS bursts out!... revealing a GUEST MUSICIAN playing an instrument. GUEST MUSICIAN I'm sittin' in for Dizzy. He had a gig tonight. Ned shuts the door, eyes shifting. Lola must be near. INT. PANTRY OFF KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura searches the large walk-in pantry for tea bags. She hears a LOUD CRASH of BREAKING GLASS in the kitchen... stops and listens... then casually shrugs it off. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura's Husband stands in the kitchen. The back door is open... the window shattered. He SEES... the kitchen towels hanging sloppily on the rack! The disorganized clutter of cans and boxes in the cupboard! WE PUSH IN to his wildly insane eyes! INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING - SAME TIME As Ned enters the upstairs landing, we hear VOICES in his mind. NED (ECHOING V.O.) Women are an open book. You can always tell the rotten apples from the peaches. I'd stake my career on it... stake my career on it... stake my career on it... The repetitive ECHO gets to him. He smacks his head with the palm of his hand. The skipping stops... followed by... NED (ECHOING V.O.) ...If anyone ever proves me wrong, I'll throw away my badge. IN THE DARKNESS A woman's HAND unrolls a leather kit... the "U-Pick an Ice Pick Porta-Pik-Pak!"... with seven ice picks in separate slots, each labeled with a day of the week. The hand selects "Wednesday's" ice pick, pulls it out. Then... BONG... BONG... BONG... BONG...! CANTED ANGLE ON - A GRANDFATHER CLOCK It CHIMES loudly. It's twelve midnight! THE HAND returns the ice pick to its slot, selects the one for Thursday. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura comes out of the pantry. She stops... gasps! Everything in the cupboard is neatly stacked! All the towels are straight! She whirls around... coming face to face with her Husband! He smiles demonically, holding up the Ninja Turtle float ring. LAURA'S HUSBAND Forget something, sweetheart? INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING - SAME TIME Ned nears the bathroom door and suddenly... A PIERCING SCREAM! Lola charges, an ice pick raised over her head! She knocks him backward, into the bathroom, slashing at him. But he deflects the attack, grabbing at her arms. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura backs away from her Husband. He holds her wedding ring. LAURA'S HUSBAND You forgot to flush, darling. INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING - SAME TIME As Ned and Lola continue their violent struggle... Lola grabs toiletries to aid in her attack. She squirts Ned with SHAVING CREAM... squeezes TOOTHPASTE in his hair... and throws BATH POWDER in his face! Ned is blinded. Gaining the advantage, Lola shoves him back, slamming his head into the wall. He's dazed, helpless. Lola raises the ice pick, moving forward to strike! But Ned grabs a HAIR BLOWER and swings it around, pointing it at her like a gun! She freezes... then smiles contemptuously. LOLA What're you gonna do, Ned? Blow me away? She LAUGHS arrogantly. Ned clicks on the hair blower to HIGH, a blast of HOT AIR hitting Lola's face, puffing her cheeks out, pushing her back, hair flying wildly! Her backside hits the railing where Lana has cut it... the wood splintering! Lola tumbles over backward, SCREAMING! She hangs suspended in mid-air for a moment, like a cartoon character, arms flailing. Then... WHOOM!... she FALLS to the marble floor below, hitting with a LOUD THUD! INT. THE KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura's Husband hears Lola fall, turning. Laura grabs the iron skillet and CLOBBERS him with it! BONG! He goes down. LAURA I never forget anything... honey. INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING - SAME TIME Ned stares at the hair blower in his hand. Filled with disgust and revulsion, he throws the "weapon" down. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME Laura pulls TWO REVOLVERS from her purse... spinning them like John Wayne... expertly tossing one over her back, catching it in front! She heads for the foyer. INT. FOYER - A MOMENT LATER - ON LOLA'S BODY Laura pauses, looks down at Lola's body... notices something. She pushes Lola's skirt a bit higher with the toe of her shoe. LAURA (outraged) Those are MY panties! She looks up... sees a light emanating from the bathroom. ON THE LANDING Laura moves through the shadows... stops outside the bathroom, pressing her back against the wall, guns up and ready. She swivels into the doorway... taking a shooter's stance... guns pointed! She sees... LANA... submerged in the tub, face up, the rubber duckie in her mouth. Laura steps back and turns... right into a THING covered in white! Startled, she SHRIEKS! Ned drops the white towel he's using to wipe off all of the shaving cream and toothpaste. Relieved to see it's Ned, she throws her arms around him! LAURA Oh Ned! NED You were right... there's a million things I don't know about women. Maybe you can teach me a few hundred. He pulls out his police badge, looks at it. NED Hell... I had too many careers anyway. He tosses it away, over the railing. INT. FOYER - ECU LOLA - SAME TIME The badge drops from above, landing on the floor right in front of Lola's lifeless face. A beat. Her eyes pop open! INT. BATHROOM - ECU ON BATH WATER - SAME TIME Suddenly, the rubber duckie pops to the surface. ON THE LANDING Laura hugs Ned again, arms locked around his neck, still gripping a gun in each hand. LAURA Oh Ned, I love you. I always loved you! INT. FOYER Lola sits bolt upright, bloody but still bouncy. INT. BATHROOM Lana suddenly SITS UP in the tub, inhaling a huge GASP of air, her eyes wild! INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Laura's Husband's eyes POP OPEN! He SITS UP suddenly... smashing his head into the sharp corner of the kitchen table! He topples back slowly... really dead! Finally. INT. THE STAIRCASE Lola's feet move steadily up each stair... her bloody hand grasping the ice pick. INT. BATHROOM FLOOR - LOW ANGLE Lana's feet step out of the tub, water dripping all around. She picks up the pointed saw from the floor. ON THE LANDING Ned and Laura still embrace, her forearms crisscrossed behind his neck. It's been a long embrace. Suddenly, Lana and Lola both appear, SCREAMING like banshees! Lana charges from the bathroom, grasping the sharp saw blade! Lola races at them from the stairway... with the ice pick! Without missing a beat, Laura raises the barrels of both guns and FIRES at them simultaneously... right next to Ned's ears. The impact of one bullet knocks Lana all the way back through the bathroom, CRASHING spectacularly out the window! The other bullet sends Lola flipping down the staircase! Ned looks stunned, his eyes crossed... the thundering gunshots still ringing in his ears. Laura proudly blows the gunsmoke away from the end of each barrel. LAURA Got 'em! NED (deafened) WHAT? LAURA I said... I GOT 'EM! NED HUH?!!! LAURA (yells) THEY'RE DEAD! GONE! KA-PUT! He strains to make out what she's saying, ears still ringing. NED (yells back) SURE I'LL MARRY YOU! NEXT TUESDAY WOULD BE PERFECT! A beat. Laura opens her mouth to correct him, then decides against it. She smiles... speaking softly, almost shyly. LAURA Okay. But I want to have kids. He hears THIS... smiles at her. NED Great. They embrace. EXT. NED'S HOUSE - WIDE SHOT - NEAR DAWN We MOVE IN SLOWLY toward the house. NED (V.O.) So... maybe I was wrong. Maybe women really are like a big jigsaw puzzle... with pieces that never seem to fit where you want 'em to. INT. NED'S HOUSE - THE BEDROOM - SAME TIME Ned and Laura are in bed, wrapped in each other's arms. NED (V.O.) All I know is, there are three things that men can't possibly ever do... NEW ANGLE - NED AND LAURA Revealing that it's NOT "voice over narration." Ned is actually rattling on aloud again. NED ...understand women... give birth... and program a VCR. And giving birth is the easy one. LAURA Ned... NED Yeah, Laura? LAURA Knock off the chatter, will ya? He smiles at her. They kiss. Romantic SAXAPHONE MUSIC begins to play... only this time, it's "Laura's Theme." The CAMERA PULLS BACK SLOWLY... revealing Dizzy laying on the bed beside them... playing the sax. After a beat, Laura turns to Dizzy. LAURA We won't need you anymore. Ned casually slips him a twenty dollar bill. Dizzy slips off the bed and out the door. Laura turns to Ned. LAURA We can make our own music. Her hand reaches slowly over the edge of the bed, toward the floor. Suddenly... she comes up with a CONCERTINA, a small accordian... and begins to play it! Ned lays there listening for a few moments, a stunned look frozen on his face. Then... he reaches under the pillow and pulls out a HARMONICA and joins in. The CAMERA BOOMS UP to a HIGH ANGLE SHOT... as they play MEDLEY of all the MUSIC heard in the film. FADE TO BLACK ROLL END CREDITS After the final credit, WE HEAR: LAURA (V.O.) Ned, do you know... I want you to make love to me all night long? NED (V.O.) No. But if you hum a few bars... I'll fake it. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f6e672d9070641f08d1bd94c800ae146667f92d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS by Terry Gilliam & Toy GrisoniBLACK SCREENA desert wind moans sadly. From somewhere within the windcomes the tinkly, syrupy-sweet sounds of the Lennon Sisterssinging "My Favorite Things." A series of sepia images ofanti-war protests from the mid-sixties appear one afteranother on the screen.In the violently scrawled style of Ralph Steadman, the titleFEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS splashes onto the screen. Abeat, and then it runs down and off revealing:TITLE: "He who makes a beast of himself Gets rid of the pain Of being a man." Dr. JohnsonThe VOICE OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON -- a.k.a. RAOUL DUKE: DUKE (V/O) We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!A red Chevy convertible -- THE RED SHARK -- wipes the blackscreen.EXT. ON THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS - DAYAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!THE RED SHARK races down the desert highway at a hundredmiles an hour. THE STONES' "Sympathy For the Devil" blares.AT THE WHEELSTRANGELY STILL AND TENSE, RAOUL DUKE DRIVES -- SKELETAL,BEER IN HAND -- STARES STRAIGHT AHEAD.BESIDE HIM, FACE TURNED TO THE SUN, EYES CLOSED BEHINDWRAPAROUND SPANISH SUNGLASSES, IS HIS SWARTHY AND UNNERVINGLYUNPREDICTABLE ATTORNEY, DR. GONZO.The music pounds DUKE stares straight ahead. GONZO frothsup a can of beer - uses it as shaving foam. DUKE (V/O) I remember saying something like: "I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive..."GONZO starts shaving. 2. DUKE (V/O) Suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car...Close on DUKE -- shadows flutter across his face. Thereflections of bats swirl within his eyes. We push in closeto one eye ball -- SCREECHING SWIRLING BAT-LIKE SHAPES!AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! DUKE (V/O) ... and a voice was screaming: Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?CUT TO WIDE SHOT OF CAR -DUKE, eyes rigid, flails at the air. No bats anywhere.GONZO casually looks over... GONZO What are you yelling about?DUCK SCREECHES to the side of the road. The sudden wrenchmakes GONZO nick his face with his razor. DUKE Never mind. It's your turn to drive. DUKE (V/O) No point mentioning these bats. I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.DUKE hops out of the car, keeping an eye out for bats,frantically opens the trunk to reveal what looks like AMOBILE POLICE NARCOTICS LAB. DUKE desperately riflesthrough the impressive stash. DUKE (V/O) We had two bags of grass, seventy- five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi- colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. 3.DUKE, eyes darting madly as he hears what sounds like theSHRIEKS OF BATS returning, grabs an assortment along withanother six-pack of beer - slams the trunk shut and divesback into the car. DUKE (V/O) Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.THE RED SHARK RACES INTO THE DISTANCE... on the ground,weakly flapping is a SEMI-SQUASHED, SLOWLY DYING ANIMAL... ABAT?EXT. FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS - DAYIN THE RED SHARKGONZO grips the wheel - stares maniacally down the road - alousy driver. DUKE (V/O) The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.The radio news wars with "SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL" on a taperecorder. RADIO NEWS An overdose of heroin was listed as the official cause of death for pretty 19 year old Diane Hanby whose body was found stuffed in a refrigerator last week...GONZO changes the station - "ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE, SWEETJESUS, ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE" vies with "SYMPATHY"... Hesings along - washes a couple of pills back with a new beer.The RED SHARK fishtails. GONZO "One toke over the line, sweet Jesus." 4. DUKE (muttering to himself) One toke. You poor fool. Wait till you see those goddamn bats.UP AHEAD - AT THE SIDE OF THE DESERTED ROADA LONE HITCHHIKER spots them, jumps up and sticks out athumb. The RED SHARK roars past. Then, fifty yards downthe road... GONZO Let's give that boy a lift.GONZO wrenches the wheel - THE RED SHARK swerves to the sideof the road. DUKE We can't stop here - this is bat country!GONZO JAMS THE CAR INTO REVERSE AND ROCKETS BACKWARDS. TheHITCHHIKER races to the car. A poor OKIE KID with a big grin. HITCHHIKER Hot damn! I never rode in a convertible before!Then the big grin freezes on the OKIE KID's face at thesight of: DUKE and GONZO looking out at him with HYPER-NORMAL, shit-eating SMILES. DUKE Is that right? Well, I guess you're about ready, eh?The HITCHHIKER hesitates. GONZO We're your friends. We're not like the others. DUKE (hissing sharply) No more of that talk or I'll put the leeches on you.DUKE turns back to the HITCHHIKER - smiles reassuringly.EXT. EVEN FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS - DAYThe HITCHHIKER sits nervously in the back seat as the REDSHARK screams down the road. 5.GONZO sings along to the tape player.The HITCHHIKER's eyes go to the door - considers jumping outand taking his chances.DUKE, sweating bullets, STARES AT THE HITCHHIKER in the rearview mirror. DUKE (V/O) How long could we maintain, I wondered. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family.The HITCHHIKER's eyes notice a thin line of blood tricklingdown GONZO's neck. DUKE (V/O) Would he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car?DUKE's mouth moves intermittently - sometimes in sync withthe words, sometimes not. DUKE (V/O) If so - well, we'll just have to cut his head off and bury him somewhere. Because it goes without saying that we can't turn him loose. He'd report us at once to some kind of outback Nazi law enforcement agency, and they'll run us down like dogs... DUKE (out loud to himself) Jesus! Did I say that? DUKE (V/O) Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me? GONZO (reassuringly to HITCHHIKER) It's okay. He's admiring the shape of your skull.DUKE gives the HITCHHIKER a FINE BIG GRIN and the HITCHHIKERgiggles nervously. 6. DUKE (V/O) Maybe I better have a chat with this boy I thought. Perhaps if I explain things, he'll rest easy... DUKE (roaring over the road noise) THERE'S ONE THING YOU SHOULD PROBABLY UNDERSTAND --The HITCHHIKER stares at him, not blinking. DUKE (yells) CAN YOU HEAR ME?The HITCHHIKER nods -- giggles -- terrified. DUKE climbsinto the back seat. DUKE That's good. Because I want you to have all the background. This is a very ominous assignment -- with overtones of extreme personal danger. I'm a Doctor of Journalism! This is important, goddamnit! This is a true story!... (WHACKS the BACK OF THE DRIVER'S SEAT with his fist)The CAR SWERVES SICKENINGLY, then straightens out. GONZO (screams) Keep your hands off my fucking neck!The HITCHHIKER makes a sudden lunge for freedom. DUKE GRABSHIM BACK DOWN. DUKE (V/O) Our vibrations were getting nasty -- but why? Was there no communication in this car? Had we deteriorated to the level of dumb beasts?The HITCHHIKER STRUGGLES IN PANIC. 7. DUKE (to HITCHHIKER) I want you to understand that this man at the wheel is my attorney! He's not just some dingbat I found on the Strip. He's a foreigner. I think he's probably Samoan. But it doesn't matter, does it? Are you prejudiced? HITCHHIKER Hell, no! DUKE I didn't think so. Because in spite of his race, this man is extremely valuable to me. Hell, I forgot all about this beer. You want one? (HITCHHIKER shakes his head) How about some ether? HITCHHIKER What? DUKE Never mind. Let's get right to the heart of this thing. Twenty-four hours ago we were sitting in the Pogo Lounge of the Beverly Wills Hotel...INT. THE BEVERLY WILLS HOTEL POGO LOUNGE 1971 - DAYA uniformed DWARF, carries a shockingly PINK TELEPHONEthrough the glittering, tranquil POGO LOUNGE CROWD. Theyare the ELOI. HENDRIX AFROS and DROOPING MUSTACHES and BELLBOTTOMS and LOVE BEADS and BELLS. ACTRESSES sip SingaporeSlings and PROMOTERS sip ACTRESSES in this MONIED, SANITISEDVERSION OF THE GREAT REVOLUTION YEARS. DUKE (V/O) ... in the patio section, of course, drinking Singapore Slings with mescal on the side, hiding from the brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord, 1971.The DWARF reaches DUKE -- T-shirt, levis, sneakers andshades. GONZO -- white rayon bellbottoms and a khaki tanktop undershirt. They are in the middle of a seriousconversation. 8. DUKE I'm telling you, the Salazar story is getting too complicated. The weasels have started closing in.The DWARF sneers. DWARF Perhaps this is the call you've been waiting for all this time, sir...DUKE lifts the receiver -- listens... DUKE Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Uh-huh...DUKE hangs up the PHONE with the DEAD-PAN EXPRESSION OF AMOVIE SPY. DWARF That was headquarters. They want me to go to Las Vegas at once and make contact with a Portuguese photographer named Lacerda. He'll have the details. All I have to do is check into my sound proof suite and he'll seek me out.GONZO, says nothing for a moment, then POUNDS the table! GONZO God hell! I think I see the pattern! This one sounds like real trouble! You're going to need plenty of legal advice before this thing is over. As your attorney I must advise you that you'll need a very fast car with no top and after that, the cocaine. And then the tape recorder, for special music, and some Acapulco shirts... (GONZO tucks his khaki undershirt into his white bellbottoms -- he means business!) This blows my weekend, because naturally I'll have to go with you -- and we'll have to arm ourselves. 9. DUKE Why not? If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing right.DUKE and GONZO are up and off. The DWARF chases after themwith the (very large) check in his hand.They sweep out through the Lounge door, unaware of itswinging back into the face of the pursuing DWARF. DUKE I tell you, my man. This is the American Dream in action! We'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way to the end. GONZO Indeed. We must do it. What kind of story is this?EXT. BEVERLY WILLS HOTEL - FRONT ENTRANCE - DAYDUKE and GONZO emerge. DUKE The Mint 400! The richest off-road race for motorcycles and dune- buggies in the history of organized sport! (handing parking ticket to Valet) -- a fantastic spectacle in honor of some fatback grossero who owns the luxurious Mint Hotel in the heart of downtown Vegas... at least that's what the press release says.Their car arrives -- rusted out, smashed door panels. Theyjump in. DUKE We're going to have to drum it up on our own. Pure Gonzo Journalism.And they're off in a cloud of black exhaust as the nose-bleeding DWARF stumbles out with the unpaid bill in his hand.EXT. SUNSET BLVD - DAYThe PINTO races through shot. DUKE (V/O) Getting hold of the drugs and shirts had been no problem... 10.EXT. POLYNESIAN BAR - DAYThe PINTO skids to a halt outside Polynesian bar, the backwindow full of Hawaiian shirts. DUKE (V/O CONT'D) ... but the car and tape recorder were not easy things to round up at 6:30 on a Friday afternoon in Hollywood.INT. POLYNESIAN BAR - DAYTORN YELLOW PAGES with dealer's ads ticked off lie in a pileas GONZO yells into a PAYPHONE. DUKE carries over fourSingapore Slings. GONZO O.K., O.K., yes. Hang onto it. We'll be there in thirty minutes. (to DUKE -- hand over the PHONE) I finally located a car with adequate horsepower and the proper coloring. (into PHONE) What?! OF COURSE the gentleman has a major credit card! Do you realize who the fuck you're talking to? DUKE Don't take any guff from these swine. (GONZO slams the phone down) Now we need a sound store with the finest equipment. Nothing dinky. One of those new Belgian Heliowatts with a voice-activated shotgun mike, for picking up conversations in oncoming cars. GONZO We won't make the nut unless we have unlimited credit. DUKE We will. You Samoans are all the same. You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man's culture. 11.EXT. SUNSET BLVD - DUSKThe PINTO races down street. DUKE (V/O) The store was closed, but the salesman said he would wait, if we hurried...EXT. SUNSET BLVD - TRAFFIC JAM - DUSKThey're stuck in a traffic jam -- clouds of exhaust. DUKEBANGS ON THE HORN IN FURY. DUKE (V/O) But we were delayed en route when a Stingray in front of us killed a pedestrain.Directly in front of them: BLOODY CARNAGE -- a coveredcorpse is loaded into an ambulance by PARAMEDICS.EXT. CAR RENTAL AGENCY - NIGHT DUKE (V/O) We had trouble, again, at the car rental agency.Behind the wheel of the RED SHARK: DUKE grins withsatisfaction -- checking it out. A nervous AGENT holds outa clipboard. DUKE signs without looking at the rental papers. AGENT Say... uh... you fellas are going to be careful with this car, aren't you? DUKE Of course.DUKE throws the car into reverse -- roars backwards past thegas pumps to where GONZO is unloading their rusted out car. AGENT Well, good god! You just backed over that two foot concrete abutment and you didn't even slow down! Forty-five in reverse! And you barely missed the pump! DUKE No harm done. I always test the transmission that way. The rear end. For stress factors. 12.GONZO transfers boxes of new sound equipment and a large boxof rum and ice into the RED SHARK. AGENT Say. Are you fellows drinking? DUKE Not me. We're responsible people.He JAMS the car into LOW GEAR and lurches into traffic. TheAGENT runs into the street and helplessly watches them go. GONZO There's another worrier. He's probably all cranked up on speed.EXT. RUNDOWN BEACH HOUSE - NIGHTSTRANGE AND MAGICAL. In the moonlight: the silhouettedfigures of DUKE and GONZO as they pack the RED SHARK. DUKE (V/O) We spent the rest of that night rounding up materials and packing the car. Then we ate some mescaline and went swimming.The surf crashes in the distance...EXT. PACIFIC OCEAN - NIGHTDUKE cries out as he dives into the ocean. He lets himselffloat up through the silvery bubbles...DUKE AND GONZO FLOAT BEATIFICALLY IN THE GLOWING, SHIMMERINGMOONLIT SURF. DUKE (V/O) Our trip was different. It was to be a classic affirmation of everything right and true in the national character; a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country. But only for those with true grit...EXT. AND EVEN FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS - DAYDUKE's intense face. DUKE ...and we're chock full of that! 13. GONZO Damn right! DUKE My attorney understands this concept, despite his racial handicap. But do you?!The HITCHHIKER nods -- giggles -- petrified. DUKE (V/O) He said he understood, but I could see in his eyes that he didn't. He was lying to me. GONZO My heart!GONZO clutches his heart. The car veers off the road andscreeches to a halt. He slumps over the wheel. GONZO (CONT'D) Where's the medicine? DUKE The medicine? Yes, it's right here.DUKE spills out 4 AMYL CAPSULES from a tin. DUKE Don't worry, this man has a bad heart... Angina Pectoris. But we have a cure for it.DUKE and GONZO break 2 AMYLS apiece -- INHALE DEEPLY. GONZOfalls back on the seat, staring straight up at the sun. TheHITCHHIKER looks petrified. GONZO (suddenly flailing his naked arms at the sky) Turn up the fucking music! My heart feels like an alligator! Volume! Clarity! Bass! We must have bass! What's wrong with us? Are you goddamn old ladies? DUKE (turns up music to full volume) You scurvy shyster bastard! Watch your language! You're talking to a Doctor of Journalism! 14. GONZO (laughing uncontrollably) What the fuck are we doing out here? Somebody call the police! We need help! DUKE (to HITCHHIKER) Pay no attention to this swine. He can't handle the medicine. (he begins laughing) GONZO (to the HITCHHIKER) The truth is we're going to Vegas to croak a scag baron named Savage Henry. I've known him for years but he ripped us off -- and you know what that means, right?GONZO pulls out a .357 Magnum -- waves it around. GONZO (CONT'D) Savage Henry has cashed his check! We're going to rip his lungs out! DUKE And eat them! That bastard won't get away with this! What's going on in this country when a scum sucker like that can get away with sandbagging a Doctor of Journalism?GONZO cracks ANOTHER AMYL.The HITCHHIKER SCRAMBLES OUT OF THE CAR, DOWN THE TRUNK LID,AND FLEES. HITCHHIKER Thanks for the ride. Thanks a lot. I like you guys. Don't worry about me. DUKE (yells) Wait a minute! Come back and have a beer!The HITCHHIKER RUNS from car. 15. GONZO Good riddance. That boy made me nervous. Did you see his eyes? (laughing) Jesus, this is good medicine.DUKE glances back at the running HITCHHIKER. DUKE (suddenly clambering into the front seat) Move over!! We have to get out of California before that kid finds a cop!DUKE GUNS THE RED SHARK -- TAKES OFF DOWN THE ROAD...EXT. UNBELIEVABLY FAR DOWN THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS - DAYTHE RED SHARK races -- DUKE at the wheel -- straight aheaddriving. DUKE (V/O) It was absolutely imperative that we get to the Mint Hotel before the deadline for press registration. Otherwise, we might have to pay for our suite.GONZO wrestles with a shaker of COCAINE. The top comes offand the powder swirls away on the wind. GONZO Oh, Jesus! Did you see what god just did to us? DUKE God didn't do that! You did it! You're a fucking narcotics agent, that was our cocaine, you pig! GONZO (waving his .357 Magnum at Duke) You better be careful. Plenty of vultures out here. They'll pick your bones clean before morning. DUKE You whore!GONZO tears up a BLOTTER OF ACID. 16. GONZO Here -- chew this. It's your half of the acid.DUKE takes his half -- chews it. DUKE How long do I have? GONZO Maybe thirty more minutes. As your attorney, I advise you to drive at top speed. It'll be a goddamn miracle if we can get there before you turn into a wild animal. Are you ready for that? Checking into a Vegas hotel under a phony name with intent to commit capital fraud and a head full of acid. DUKE (V/O) Thirty minutes. It was going to be very close.The RED SHARK screams along the highway past a billboard:"DON'T GAMBLE WITH MARIJUANA! \ IN NEVADA: POSSESSION - 20YEARS; SALE - LIFE!!"EXT. LAS VEGAS MINT HOTEL - DUSKThe RED SHARK pulls up outside the MINT. A great bannerspanning the street announces the MINT 400.DUKE can feel the drug surging up inside him. Clutching abuckled beer can, sweat pouring, he stares fixedly at theTICKET the ATTENDANT gives him. DUKE I need this, right? ATTENDANT I'll remember your face.DUKE stares -- losing it... DUKE (V/O) There is no way of explaining the terror I felt.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - DAYDUKE waits in line at the front desk -- RIGID WITH PENT UPENERGY. GONZO's ahead of him -- muscling in -- trying toqueue jump and failing. 17. DUKE (V/O) I was pouring sweat. My blood is too thick for Nevada. I've never been able to properly explain myself in this climate.A COUPLE move off and DUKE jerks forward -- stops -- eyesfixed on the stony FEMALE RESERVATIONS CLERK. DUKE (V/O CONT'D) Be quiet, be calm... name, rank, and press affiliation, nothing else...DUKE moves ANOTHER RIGID STEP CLOSER to the desk -- thetension almost snapping him in two. GONZO's FLAPPINGAROUND -- absolutely no success.Something catches DUKE's eye... He REMAINS ROOTED -- hiseyes turning to the VEGETAL PAISLEY PATTERNS ON THE CARPETWHICH ARE SHIFTING -- UNDULATING. THE CARPET PATTERNS AREINEXORABLY CREEPING UP THE WALLS... DUKE (V/O CONT'D) ...ignore this terrible drug, pretend it's not happening...The LAST PEOPLE leave -- with A FINAL, STIFF MOVE, DUKEcomes face to face with the RESERVATIONS CLERK... ANDEXPLODES! DUKE HI THERE. MY NAME... AH, RAOUL DUKE... ON... ON THAT LIST, THAT'S FOR SURE. FREE LUNCH, FINAL WISDOM, TOTAL COVERAGE... WHY NOT? I HAVE MY ATTORNEY WITH ME, AND I REALIZE OF COURSE...As DUKE stares at her, BABBLING, her FACE BEGINS TO MORPH.He tries to stop it happening by TALKING FASTER. DUKE ... THAT HIS NAME IS NOT ON THE LIST, BUT WE MUST HAVE THAT SUITE. YES. JUST CHECK THE LIST AND YOU'LL SEE. DON'T WORRY. WHAT'S THE SCORE HERE? WHAT'S NEXT?DUKE sags -- grips the desk -- WHITE KNUCKLES. 18. RESERVATIONS CLERK (hands him an envelope) Your suite's not ready yet. But there's somebody looking for you.Her face is CHANGING -- SWELLING -- PULSING... DUKE (shouts) NO! WHY? WE HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING YET!The FACE OF THE RESERVATIONS CLERK TURNS GREEN & GROWS FANGS.DEADLY POISON! DUKE LUNGES BACK at GONZO, who GRIPS his armintensely -- REACHES OUT to take the ENVELOPE. GONZO I can handle this. This man has a bad heart, but I have plenty of medicine. My name is Dr. Gonzo. Prepare our suite at once. We'll be in the bar.GONZO manoeuvres DUKE away from the desk. DUKE looksback -- the RESERVATIONS CLERKS is now a MORAY EEL -- greenjowls and fangs.INT. NAUTICAL BAR - DAYThe bar -- OILY PEOPLE -- quiet music -- nautical theme.DUKE and GONZO at the bar, a marlin spike hanging on thewall behind them. DUKE has turned to stone... GONZO (to the bartender) Two Cuba Libres with beer and mescal on the side. (opens the envelope) Who's Lacerda, he's waiting for us in a room on the twelfth floor? DUKE Lacerda? DUKE (V/O) I couldn't remember. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't concentrate. Terrible things were happening all around us...DUKE is staring -- RAPT -- TERRIFIED. BLOOD FLOWS FREELYonto the floor. DUKE keeps his voice low. 19. DUKE Order some golf shoes. Otherwise, we'll never get out of this place alive. It's impossible to walk in this muck -- no footing at all...DUKE looks up -- GONZO has disappeared.DUKE looks around him -- the entire room has TRANSFORMEDinto a ROOM FILLED WITH REPTILES IN CLOTHES, DRINKING ANDGNAWING AT ONE ANOTHER. DUKE (V/O) I was right in the middle of a fucking reptile zoo. And somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things! It won't be long before they tear us to shreds!GONZO IS SUDDENLY BACK -- AT DUKE'S SHOULDER. GONZO If you think we're in trouble now wait until you see what's happening in the elevators.GONZO removes his sunshades and we see he's been crying...as he speaks he seems to be floating. Duke struggles tokeep him in his line of vision. GONZO I just went upstairs to see this man Lacerda. I told him I knew what he was up to... (GONZO rallies -- turns fierce) He says he's a photographer! But when I mentioned Savage Henry he freaked! He knows we're onto him! DUKE But what about our room? And the golf shoes?A GROUP OF REPTILES AT A TABLE ACROSS THE ROOM stares atthem, BLOOD DRIPPING FROM THEIR FANGS. DUKE (CONT'D) (grabbing GONZO trying to hold him still) Holy shit! Look at that bunch over there! They've spotted us! 20.Cut to wider shot -- DUKE is holding on to a man standingnext to him at the bar. The room has returned to normality.GONZO is sitting in his original position. GONZO (downs his drink -- gets up) That's the press table. Where you have to sign in for our credentials. Shit, let's get it over with. You handle that, and I'll check on the room. DUKE No, no. Don't leave me!Black screen.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - DUSKA TELEVISION shows the NIGHTLY NEWS. A BUDDHIST MONK,protesting the war, sets himself on fire. A very nervousBELL BOY is laying out GONZO's order. A marlin spike is onthe floor next to DUKE. BELL BOY Four club sandwiches, four shrimp cocktails. DUKE There's a big... machine in the sky... some kind of electric snake...DUKE is curled by the window -- MESMERIZED by an unseen neonsign outside the window. His eyes fill with a millioncolored lights. BELL BOY ... a quart of rum... DUKE ... coming straight at us. GONZO Shoot it. DUKE Not yet. I want to study its habits. BELL BOY ... and nine fresh grapefruit. 21. GONZO Vitamin C. We'll need all we can get.GONZO sees the BELL BOY out the door -- turns and lays intoDUKE. GONZO Look, you've got to stop this talk about snakes and leeches and lizards and that stuff. It's making me sick!DUKE stares -- hears the drone of B52 BOMBERS...On TV: The LAOS INVASION -- A SERIES OF HORRIFYINGDISASTERS -- EXPLOSIONS AND TWISTED WRECKAGE.Newsreel footage of MAI LAI MASSACRE and the LIEUTENANTCALLEY court-martial. DUKE What are you talking about? GONZO You bastard! They'll never let us back in that place. I leave you alone for three minutes and you start waving that goddamn marlin spike around -- yelling about reptiles! You scared the shit out of those people! They were ready to call the cops. Hell, the only reason they gave us press passes was to get you out of there...A knock at the door. DUKE and GONZO break out in a sweat. DUKE Oh my God! Who's that?!GONZO STICKS HIS GUN IN HIS WAISTBAND -- opens the door toLACERDA -- BOUNCING WITH PUPPY DOG ENTHUSIASM. GONZO staresat a man he instantly hates -- watches him with deepsuspicion. LACERDA Duke? I'm Lacerda your photographer. Got your press passes? Good, good. Too bad you missed the bikes checking in. My, what a sight!DUKE watches the B-52S DROP THEIR BOMB LOADS. 22.Looking down to the thick, patterned carpet, DUKE sees theBOMBS EXPLODE like vicious flowers.DUKE looks up: LACERDA is a war photographer -- bruised,filthy and blood spattered. LACERDA approaches him --talking a foreign language. LACERDA Husquavarnas. Yamahas. Kawaskis. Maicos. Pursang. Swedish Fireballs. Couple of Triumphs, here and there a CZ. All very fast. What a race it's gonna be.DUKE screws up his eyes -- WILLS NORMALITY BACK. LACERDA isnow just a keen photographer.L LACERDA Well, we start at dawn. Get a good night's sleep. I know I will.And with a cheerful wave, he's gone. DUKE is in shock. DUKE (weakly) That's good... GONZO I think he's lying to us. I could see it in his eyes. DUKE (even weaker) They'll probably have a big net for us when we show up.DUKE's attention returns to the devastation on the TV... GONZO Turn that shit off!GONZO kills the TV.Black screen. DUKE (V/O) Never lose sight of the primary responsibility. Cover the story. But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. 23.EXT. DESERT - DAWNAgainst A BIG ORANGE SUN, on a concrete slab, MEN FIRESHOTGUNS into the dawn sky. Clay pigeons shatter. The MintGun Club.Next to them, MOTORCYCLES REV -- preparing for the MINT 400RACE: A hundred BIKERS, MECHANICS and assorted MOTORSPORTTYPES milling around in the pit area; taping headlights,topping off oil in the forks, last minute bolt tightening.DUKE wanders through. DUKE (V/O) The racers were ready at dawn. Very tense. But the race didn't start until nine so we had three long hours to kill.A sign by a long trestle table: "KOFFEE & DONUTS." DUKEwalks past -- ignoring the SMILING LADY behind the stall. DUKE (V/O CONT'D) Those of us who had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts. We wanted strong drink. We were, after all, the Absolute Cream of the National Sporting Press and we were gathered here, in Las Vegas, for a very special assignment. And when it comes to things like this you don't fool around.INT. RACE BAR TENT - DAYA real pit of iniquity. Slot Machines. Crap tables. Smoke.Drunken shouting. The absolute cream of the NATIONALSPORTING PRESS.DUKE is at the bar, engaged in drunken conversation with aLIFE REPORTER...showing him his notebook. DUKE See..."Kill the body and the head will die"... the Frazier/Ali fight... MAGAZINE REPORTER A proper end to the 60's... Ali beaten by a human hamburger! DUKE And both Kennedy's murdered by mutants. 24.A SHOUT goes up from outside. The sound of engines revving. REPORTER That's it! They're starting!In a sudden rush the PRESS CROWD make for the door takingDUKE with them.EXT. DESERT - DAYMOTORCYCLES REV -- tension builds...A flag goes down. The CROWD cheers. The MOTORCYCLES ROARAWAY. A great cloud of dust goes up -- obscuring the RACERSas they disappear into the desert...A moment... REPORTER Well, that's that. They'll be back in an hour or so. Let's go back to the bar.The CROWD turns and streams back into the tent.INT. RACE BAR TENT - DAYDUKE heads for the bar along with the REST. It's packed.Drinks are ordered.A shout from outside the tent goes up: VOICE OFF Group 2!The CROWD rushes for the door. DUKE gets swept along.EXT. DESERT - DAYMOTORCYCLES REV. A flag goes down. The CROWD cheers. TheMOTORCYCLES ROAR AWAY. Another great cloud of dust goes up...The CROWD head back for the bar.INT. RACE BAR TENT - DAYThe CROWD surge back to the bar. VOICE OFF Group 3!This time DUKE fights his way free of the CROWD. 25. DUKE (V/O) There was something like 190 more bikes waiting to start. They were due to go off 10 at a time every 2 minutes.DUKE hits the bar. DUKE Beer!A middle-aged HOODLUM in a T-shirt booms up to the bar. HOODLUM God damn! What day is this -- Saturday? DUKE More like Sunday. HOODLUM Hah! That's a bitch, ain't it? Last night I was home in Long Beach and somebody said they were runnin' the Mint 400 today, so I says to my old lady, "Man, I'm goin'." So she gives me a lot of crap about it, so I start slappin' her around, and the next thing you know two guys I never seen before are beating me stupid. VOICE OFF Group 4!Outside, another batch of motorcycles roar away -- kickingup more clouds of dust. HOODLUM Then they gave me ten bucks, put me on a bus, and when I woke up here I was in downtown Vegas, and for a minute all I could think was, "O Jesus, who's divorcing me this time?" But then I remembered, by God! I was here for the Mint 400. And, man, I tell you, it's wonderful to be here. Just wonderful to be here with you people.A silence. A MAGAZINE REPORTER lunges across the bar --grabs the BARTENDER. 26. MAGAZINE REPORTER Senzaman wassyneeds! DUKE (smacks the bar with his palm) Hell yes! Bring us ten! VOICE OFF Group 5! MAGAZINE REPORTER (screams) I'll back it! (slides off his stool to the floor)Outside, motorcycles roar away. The dust cloud billows intothe tent -- getting denser. MAGAZINE REPORTER (CONT'D) (on the floor) This is a magic moment in sport! It may never come again! I once did the Triple Crown, but it was nothing like this.A FROG-EYED WOMAN claws at the MAGAZINE REPORTER, tries tohaul him up. FROG-EYED WOMAN Please stand up! You're a correspondent for a major national magazine who's name we can't get clearance for! Please! You'd be a very handsome man if you'd just stand up! MAGAZINE REPORTER Listen, madam. I'm damn near intolerably handsome down here where I am. You'd go crazy if I stood up!A feverishly eager LACERDA appears out of the dust cloud, 3cameras slung round his neck. LACERDA Club soda, please. FROG-EYED WOMAN (to MAGAZINE REPORTER) Please! I love Life! 27. LACERDA (to DUKE) Man, it's great out there! DUKE Lunatics.LACERDA grins. VOICE OFF Group 6! LACERDA Meet you outside!LACERDA downs his drink -- hurries out through the crowd andout into the cloud of dust.EXT. DESERT - DAYNothing. Except for a THICK CLOUD OF DUST.Barely visible, a motorcycle comes speeding into the pits.The RIDER staggers off his bike. The PIT CREW gas it up andsends it back with a FRESH RIDER.DUKE watches him disappear back into the dust cloud. DUKE (V/O) By 10 they were spread out all over the course. It was no longer a race, now it was an Endurance Contest. The idea of trying to "cover this race" in any conventional press sense was absurd.A HORN HONKS. A shiny BLACK BRONCO with DRIVER. LACERDAhangs out of the window. LACERDA It's great, isn't it?! Jump in!DUKE gets into the Bronco and they head into the DUST CLOUD.EXT. DESERT - DAYIN THE BRONCO.DUKE hangs on with his beer. Nothing all around but theHUGE IMPENETRABLE CLOUD OF DUST. LACERDA snaps madly awayat nothing at all! 28. LACERDA I'll just keep trying different combos of film and lenses till I find one that works in this dust!The SOUND OF MOTORCYCLES RACING...We hear music and voices singing: BATTLE HYMN "...As we go marching on When I reach my final campground, in that land beyond the sun, And the Great Commander asks me..." [What did he ask you, Rusty?] "Did you fight or did you run?"A moment later, the Bronco races out of the dust. DUKEcoughs, chokes, drinks beer. BATTLE HYMN (continuing) [And what did you tell them, Rusty?] "We responded to their rifle fire with everything we had..."The sound of gun shots...A DUNE BUGGY races toward them, loaded down with THREERETIRED PETTY OFFICERS, DRUNK AS HELL. The radio blares:"THE BATTLE HYMN OF LIEUTENANT CALLEY."The dune buggy is COVERED WITH OMINOUS SYMBOLS: SCREAMINGEAGLES CARRYING AMERICAN FLAGS IN THEIR CLAWS. A slant-eyedSnake being chopped to bits by a buzz-saw made of stars andstripes. A MACHINE GUN MOUNT on the passenger side. Theyyell over the roaring engines. DUNE BUGGY DRIVER Where's the damn race? DUKE Beats me. We're just good patriotic Americans like yourself.DUKE gives DUNE BUGGY PASSENGER #2 A NICE BIG GRIN. Inresponse, the PASSENGER #2 narrows his eyes -- tightens hisgrip on an automatic weapon. DUNE BUGGY DRIVER (suspiciously) What outfit you fellas with? 29. DUKE The sporting press. We're friendlies. Hired geeks.The DRIVER and DUNE BUGGY PASSENGER #2 exchange looks. DUKE If you want a good chase, you should get after that skunk from CBS News up ahead in the black jeep. He's the man responsible for that book, THE SELLING OF THE PENTAGON. DUNE BUGGY PASSENGER #1 HOT DAMN! DUNE BUGGY PASSENGER #2 A black jeep, you say?And they ROAR away. DUKE Take me back to the pits. LACERDA No, no -- we have to go on. We need total coverage.DUKE gets out of the Bronco. DUKE You're fired.After a moment's hesitation, LACERDA and the BRONCO driverroar away leaving DUKE alone in the cloud of dust. DUKE (V/O) It was time. I felt, for an Agonizing Reappraisal of the whole scene. The race was definitely under way. I had witnessed the start; I was sure of that much. But what now?EXT. LAS VEGAS STREETS - NIGHTMUSIC PUMPS OUT. CRUISING IN THE RED SHARK IN VEGAS. THESKY SWIRLS WITH MILLIONS OF NEON LIGHTS CHASING EACH OTHERIN BAROQUE PATTERNS ACROSS GIGANTIC HOTEL SIGNS. PSYCHEDELICLIGHT SHOWS TO LURE AND DERANGE THE INNOCENT. CITY OF LOSTSOULS. 30. DUKE Turn up the radio! Turn up the tape machine! Roll the windows down. Let's taste this cool desert wind! Aaah, yes! This is what it's all about!DUKE, beer in hand, drives -- a big smile for the world.GONZO scans The Vegas Visitor. DUKE (V/O) Total control now. Tooling along the main drag on a Saturday night in Vegas, two good old boys in a fire apple red convertible... stoned, ripped, twisted... Good people! GONZO How about "Nickel Nick's Slot Arcade?" "Hot Slots," that sounds heavy. Twenty-nine cent hotdogs... DUKE Look, what are we doing here? Are we here to entertain ourselves, or to do the job? GONZO To do the job, of course. Here we go... a Crab Louie and quart of muscatel for twenty dollars!The Shark hits a bump. GONZO As your attorney I advise you to drive over to the Tropicana and pick up on Guy Lombardo. He's in the Blue Room with his Royal Canadians.They hit another bump. DUKE Why? GONZO Why what?CUT to wide shot. They are DRIVING AROUND IN CIRCLES in alarge casino parking lot, bumping over the dividers. 31. DUKE Why should I pay out my hard-earned dollars to watch a fucking corpse. I don't know about you, but in my line of business it's important to be Hep.EXT. DESERT ROOM HOTEL - NIGHTTWO BIG SCREAMING FACES. DOORMAN #1 What the hell are you doing?! DOORMAN #2 You can't park here! DUKE Why not? Is this not a reasonable place to park?Reveal the RED SHARK parked on the sidewalk in front of theDesert Inn. TWO DOORMEN loom over the car hood. TheMARQUEE says: TONIGHT. DEBBIE REYNOLDS.GONZO leaps from the car, waving a five-dollar bill at theDOORMAN. GONZO We want this car parked! We drove all the way from L.A. for this show. We're friends of Debbie's.A pause, then... the DOORMAN pockets the bill, hands them aparking stub. DUKE and GONZO hurry into the hotel.INT. DESERT FROM HOTEL LOBBY - NIGHTDUKE and GONZO walk through the lobby. Black, mirrored,sleek, classy. DUKE Holy shit! They almost had us there! That was quick thinking. GONZO What do you expect? I'm your attorney. You owe me five bucks. I want it now.DUKE shrugs and hands over the $5. 32. DUKE (V/O) This was Bob Hope's turf. Frank Sinatra's. Spiro Agnew's. It seemed inappropriate to be haggling about nickel/dime bribes for the parking lot attendant.A WINE-COLORED TUXEDO stops them at the entrance to theballroom. WINE-COLORED TUXEDO Sorry, full house. GONZO Goddamnit, we drove all the way from L.A. WINE-COLORED TUXEDO I said there are no seats left... at any price. GONZO Fuck seats! We're old friends of Debbie's. I used to romp with her.GONZO and the WINE-COLORED TUXEDO get into an ugly arm-waving negotiation. DUKE (V/O) After a lot of bad noise, he let us in for nothing provided we would stand quietly at the back and not smoke.As DUKE and GONZO disappear through the door we can hear theorchestra blasting out a HIGHLY BLANDIZED "SGT. PEPPER'SLONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND."A beat.The door flies open and BOUNCERS manhandle DUKE and GONZOout. Despite the rough treatment they're both SCREECHINGWITH LAUGHTER. GONZO Jesus creeping shit! DUKE (tears streaming) Did the mescaline just kick in? Or was that Debbie Reynolds in a silver Afro wig?! 33. GONZO (in hysteria) We wandered into a fucking time capsule!EXT. LAS VEGAS STREETS - NIGHTDUKE DRIVES FAST into the night. They're both LAUGHINGHYSTERICALLY. DUKE (in hysteria) We wandered into a fucking time capsule!THEN... GONZO finds a TINY TEAR IN HIS JACKET... GONZO What's this?...GONZO is instantly MOROSE. GONZO That scum...GONZO twists round in the car -- SCREAMS back into the night. GONZO SCUM! I know where you live! I'll find you and burn down your fucking house!EXT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS - NIGHTA hundred foot high neon clown: BAZOOKO CIRCUS.The RED SHARK pulls up beneath the sign. DUKE This is the place. They'll never fuck with us here. GONZO Where's the ether? This mescaline isn't working.EXT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS CASINO - NIGHTInto the GLARING, CHASING LIGHTS of the entrance canopysteps DUKE in EC/U holding a KLEENEX SOAKED IN ETHER TO HISNOSE. 34. DUKE (V/O) Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel... total loss of all basic motor skills; blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue -- (throws away kleenex) The mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column. Which is interesting, because you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can't control it.DUKE and GONZO approach the entrance with elaborate care-taking one step at a time -- trying to keep ahead of the drug. DUKE (V/O) You approach the turnstiles and know that when you get there, you have to give the man two dollars or he won't let you inside... but when you get there, everything goes wrong.THE ETHER KICKS IN:DUKE and GONZO BOUNCE off the walls, CRASH into OLD LADIES,GIGGLE HELPLESSLY as they try to pay -- HANDS FLAPPINGCRAZILY, unable to get money out of their pockets. DUKE (V/O) Some angry Rotarian shoves you and you think: What's happening here? What's going on? Then you hear yourself mumbling. DUKE (mumbling) Dogs fucked the Pope, no fault of mine. Watch out!... Why money? My name is Brinks; I was born... Born? GONZO Get sheep over side... women and children to armored car... orders from Captain Zeep.The ATTENDANTS indulgently escort them through the TURNSTILES. 35. DUKE (V/O) Ether is the perfect drug for Las Vegas. In this town they love a drunk. Fresh meat. So they put us through the turnstiles and turned us loose inside.INT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS CASINO - NIGHTFlames shoot up from below the casino. Above, a HIGH WIREACT with FOUR MUZZLED WOLVERINES, SIX NYMPHET SISTERS FROMSAN DIEGO, TWO SILVER PAINTED POLACK BROTHERS, and THREEKOREAN KITTENS.The WOLVERINE chases a NYMPHET through the air. TWO POLACKSswing at it from opposite sides and they are instantlylocked in a death battle.All plummet to the nets suspended over the GAMBLING TABLESand SLOT MACHINES. No one looks up. The GAMBLERS REMAININTENT ON THE SPINNING ROULETTE WHEEL, THE TURN OF THE CARD,THE ROLL OF A DICE. DUKE (V/O) Bazooko Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This was the Sixth Reich.Something causes DUKE to look down. A dwarf carrying drinkson a tray is tugging DUKE's pants leg trying to get him tomove out of the way. DUKE (V/O CONT'D) A drug person can learn to cope with things like seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth but, nobody should be asked to handle this trip.GONZO and DUKE go upstairs walking past funhouse booths.One of them is manned by an orangutan in costume. AFAIRGROUND BARKER grabs DUKE. FAIRGROUND BARKER Stand in front of this fantastic machine, my friend. For just 99 cents your likeness will appear 200 hundred feet tall on a screen above downtown Las Vegas.On a TV monitor a 200 FOOT HIGH DRUNKARD looms over the LasVegas skyline screaming OBSCENITIES. 36. FAIRGROUND BARKER 99 cents more for a voice message. Say whatever you want, fella. They'll hear you, don't worry about that. Remember, you'll be 200 feet tall! ANOTHER BARKER Step right up! Shoot the pasties off the nipples of this ten-foot bull-dyke and win a cotton candy goat!INT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS REVOLVING MERRY-GO-ROUND BAR - NIGHTDUKE and GONZO sit on the revolving platform. GONZOstares -- glassy eyed -- coming apart. GONZO I hate to say this, but this place is getting to me. I think I'm getting The Fear. DUKE Nonsense. We came here to find the American Dream, and now we're right in the vortex you want to quit. You must realize that we've found the Main Nerve. GONZO That's what gives me The Fear. DUKE Look over there. Two women fucking a Polar Bear. GONZO Please, don't tell me those things... Not now. (signals the waitress for two Wild Turkeys) This is my last drink. How much money can you lend me? DUKE Not much. Why? GONZO I have to go. DUKE GO? 37. GONZO Yes. Leave the country. Tonight. DUKE Calm down. You'll be straight in a few hours. GONZO No. This is serious. One more hour in this town and I'll kill somebody! DUKE OK. I'll lend you some money. Let's go outside and see how much we have left. GONZO Can we make it? DUKE That depends on how many people we fuck with between here and the door. GONZO I want to leave fast. DUKE OK. Lets pay this bill and get up very slowly. It's going to be a long walk. (signals waitress who comes over) GONZO (suddenly to waitress) Do they pay you to screw that bear? WAITRESS What? DUKE He's just kidding. (to GONZO) Come on, Doc -- lets go downstairs and gamble.GONZO trembles with fear -- walks to the edge of theturntable. GONZO When does this thing stop? 38. DUKE It won't stop. It's not ever going to stop.DUKE carefully steps off the turntable.GONZO, eyes staring blindly ahead, squiting in fear andconfusion, rooted to the spot, is carried away. DUKE Don't move you'll come around.DUKE reaches out to grab GONZO, who jumps back -- keepsgoing around.The BARTENDER narrows his eyes at them.DUKE steps onto the merry-go-round -- hurries round thebar -- approaching GONZO from the blind side and shovesGONZO from behind. GONZO goes down with a hellish scream.DUKE approaches him with his hands in the air. Smiling. DUKE You fell. Let's go.GONZO refuses to move and stands tense, fists clenched,looking for somebody to hit...an old woman perhaps? DUKE (CONT'D) OK. You stay here and go to jail. I'm leaving.DUKE walks fast towards the stairs. GONZO catches up withhim. GONZO Did you see that? Some sonofabitch kicked me in the back. DUKE Probably the bartender. He wanted to stomp you for what you said to the waitress. GONZO Good God! Let's get out of here! Where's the elevator? DUKE (turning him in the opposite direction) Don't go near that elevator. That's just what they want us to do... trap us in a steel box and take us down to the basement. 39.EXT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS CASINO - NIGHTDUKE and GONZO stumble out of the entrance. DUKE Don't run. They'd like any excuse to shoot us. GONZO (in an extended fall) You drive! I think there's something wrong with me.INT. MINT HOTEL CORRIDOR OUTSIDE THEIR SUITE - NIGHTDUKE AND GONZO RUN MADLY DOWN THE CORRIDOR... DUKE TAKINGCARE NOT TO STEP ON THE PATTERNED PART OF THE CARPET.GONZO STRUGGLES with the key in the lock. GONZO Those bastards have changed the lock on us. They probably searched the room. Jesus, we're finished!The door SUDDENLY SWINGS OPEN. DUKE AND GONZO fall inside.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT GONZO Bolt everything! Use all chains!DUKE locks the door. The suite is crowded with ROOM SERVICEGOODIES. DUKE turns to see GONZO staring at two hotel roomkeys. EVERYTHING STOPS. GONZO Where did this one come from?DUKE snatches a key. DUKE That's Lacerda's room.GONZO smiles a slow smile... GONZO Yeah... I thought we might need it... DUKE What for?GONZO snatches the key back. 40. GONZO Let's go up there and blast him out of bed with the fire hose. DUKE No, we should leave the poor bastard alone. I get the feeling that he's avoiding us for some reason. GONZO Don't kid yourself. That Portuguese son of a bitch is dangerous. He's watching us like a hawk. DUKE He told me he was turning in early...GONZO utters an anguished cry -- slaps the wall with bothhands. GONZO That dirty bastard! I knew it! He's got hold of my woman! DUKE (laughing) That little blonde groupie with the film crew? You think he sodomized her? GONZO That's right, laugh about it! You goddamn honkies are all the same!GONZO SLASHES A GRAPEFRUIT with a HUGE RAZOR SHARP HUNTINGKNIFE. DUKE blanches. DUKE Where'd you get that knife?GONZO SLICES THE GRAPEFRUIT -- MANIACAL. GONZO Room service sent it up. I wanted something to cut the limes.GONZO SLICES THE GRAPEFRUIT -- INTO EIGHTHS! DUKE What limes?GONZO SLICES -- SIXTEENTHS! 41. GONZO They didn't have any. They don't grow in the desert.SLICE! SLICE! SLICE! GONZO That dirty toad bastard! I knew I should have taken him out when I had the chance. Now he has her.SLICE! SLICE! SLICE! GONZO SLASHES INSANELY!DUKE watches -- straight-faced. DUKE (V/O) I remember the girl. We'd had a problem with her in the elevator a few hours earlier: my attention had made a fool of himself.INT. ELEVATOR - DAY (FLASHBACK)An elevator door opens to reveal the SMILING FACES OFLACERDA, THE BLONDE TV REPORTER AND HER CREW.DUKE and GONZO stagger in.LACERDA drops his smile. He's standing beside the BLONDE TVREPORTER. A trembling GONZO moonily turns his eyes onto her. BLONDE TV REPORTER (to Gonzo) You must be a rider. What class are you in? GONZO Class? What the fuck do you mean? BLONDE TV REPORTER What do you ride? We're filming the race for a TV series -- maybe we can use you. GONZO Use me? DUKE (V/O) Mother of God, I thought. Here it comes.GONZO is TREMBLING BADLY. There's a moment of uncomfortablesilence. 42. GONZO (suddenly shouting) I ride the BIG ONES! The really BIG fuckers!GONZO shows his teeth to LACERDA. DUKE laughs trying todefuse the scene. DUKE The Vincent Black Shadow. We're with the Factory Team. TV CAMERAMAN Bullshit.GONZO stills -- becomes dangerous -- zeros in on the TVCAMERAMAN -- groin to groin... GONZO Wait a minute, pardon me lady, but I think there's some kind of ignorant chicken-sucker in this car who needs his face cut open. You cheap honky faggots! Which one of you wants to get cut?!DEAD SILENCE.Ding! The elevator door opens, but nobody moves. The doorcloses.Next floor. Ding! The door opens again. A middle-agedcouple start to get in. Change their minds. The door closes.INT. CORRIDOR - DAYDUKE and GONZO run down the corridor. GONZO LAUGHS WILDLY. GONZO Spooked! They were spooked! Like rats in a death cage!INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - DAYDUKE and GONZO CRASH into their hotel suite -- BOLT THE DOOR.GONZO stops laughing. GONZO Goddamn. It's serious now. That girl understood. She fell in love with me.END FLASHBACK. 43.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTSLICE! SLICE! SLICE! GONZO with the BIG HUNTING KNIFE --sliced grapefruit segments everywhere. GONZO Let's go up there and castrate that fucker!GONZO pauses -- A MAD THOUGHT -- turns to DUKE. GONZO (squinting suspiciously) Have you made a deal with him? Did you put him on to her? DUKE (backing slowly towards the door) Look you better put that blade away and get your head straight. I have to put the car in the lot. DUKE (V/O) One of the things you learn, after years of dealing with drug people, is that you can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug. Especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eyes.INT. CASINO/LOBBY MINT HOTELThe MAGAZINE REPORTER is on the telephone. MAGAZINE REPORTER Las Vegas at dawn. The racers are still asleep, the dust is still on the desert, fifty thousand dollars in prize money, slumbers darkly in the office safe at Del Webb's fabulous Mint Hotel...DUKE walks past the REPORTER -- into THE CASINO, THE SAD,MEAGRE CROWDS AROUND THE CRAP TABLES. No joy. DUKE watches. DUKE (V/O) Who are these people? These faces! Where do they come from? They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas. (MORE) 44. DUKE (V/O; CONT'D) And, sweet Jesus, there are a hell of a lot of them at four-thirty on a Monday morning. Still humping the American dream, that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute predawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino.DUKE stops at the Money Wheel, puts down a two dollar billon a number, the wheel turns, he loses. DUKE You bastards! DUKE (V/O) No. Calm down. Learn to ENJOY losing.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE walks back into the room. We hear the LOUD STRAINS OFTHREE DOG NIGHT'S "JOY TO THE WORLD."He walks to the bathroom and opens the door.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE BATHROOM - NIGHTSubmerged in green water, GONZO WALLOWS in the steaming tub.Soap labels and grapefruit rinds float on the surface. Alarge empty pack of Neutrogena soap lies on the floor. Theshower is on -- the tub overflowing. THE TAPE RECORDERPLAYS, from where it's plugged into the razor socket overthe sink.DUKE turns off the shower -- notices a HUGE HUNK OF CHEWEDUP WHITE BLOTTER. DUKE You ate ALL THIS ACID?No answer. DUKE (turning down the volume) You evil son of a bitch. You better hope there's some Thorazine in that bag, because if there's not, you're in bad trouble. GONZO Music! Turn it up. Put that tape on. 45. DUKE What tape? GONZO Jefferson Airplane. "White Rabbit." I want a rising sound. DUKE You're doomed. I'm leaving here in two hours and then they're going to come up here and beat the mortal shit out of you with big saps. Right there in that tub. GONZO I dig my own graves. Green water and the White Rabbit. Put it on. DUKE OK. But do me one last favor, will you. Can you give me two hours? That's all I ask -- just two hours to sleep before tomorrow. I suspect it's going to be a very difficult day.He switches on the tape. "WHITE RABBIT" begins to build. GONZO (coolly) Of course, I'm your attorney, I'll give you all the time you need, at my normal rates: $45 an hour -- but you'll be wanting a cushion, so, why don't you just lay one of those $100 bills down there beside the radio, and fuck off? DUKE How about a check? GONZO Whatever's right.DUKE moves the radio as far from the tub as he can andleaves, closing the door behind him.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE goes across to the sofa and crashes -- exhausted.Suddenly a great ripping and crashing noise in the bathroom. GONZO (V/O) Help! You bastard! I need help! 46.DUKE JUMPS up -- crosses to the bathroom door, muttering. DUKE Shit, he's killing himself!INT. BATHROOM - NIGHTDUKE RUSHES IN. GONZO flails -- trying to reach the radiowith the shower curtain pole which he has ripped from itsmounts. GONZO (snarling) I want that fucking radio!DUKE GRABS THE RADIO. DUKE Don't touch it! Get back in that tub! GONZO Back the tape up. I need it again! Let it roll! Just as high as the fucker can go! And when it comes to that fantastic note where the rabbit bites its own head off, I want you to THROW THAT FUCKING RADIO INTO THE TUB WITH ME!DUKE stares down at GONZO. DUKE Not me. It would blast you through the wall -- stone dead in ten seconds and they'd make me explain it! GONZO BULLSHIT! Don't make me use this.HIS ARM LASHES OUT OF THE WATER, HOLDING THE KNIFE. DUKE Jesus. GONZO Do it! I want to get HIGHER!DUKE considers this. He's had enough. 47. DUKE Okay. You're right. This is probably the only solution. (holds the PLUGGED IN TAPE/RADIO over the tub) Let me make sure I have it all lined up. You want me to throw this thing into the tub when "WHITE RABBIT" peaks. Is that it?GONZO falls back into the water, smiling gratefully. GONZO Fuck yes. I was beginning to think I was going to have to go out and get one of the goddamn maids to do it. DUKE Are you ready?He switches "WHITE RABBIT" back on. GONZO HOWLS AND MOANSAND THRASHES TO THE MUSIC, straining to get over the top.Meanwhile, DUKE picks up a grapefruit from the sink -- agood two-pounder, he gets a grip on it... and when "WHITERABBIT" peaks... HE HURLS IT INTO THE TUB LIKE A CANNONBALL.GONZO SCREAMS CRAZILY, THRASHING AND CHURNING -- CAUSING ATIDAL WAVE.DUKE JERKS THE RADIO CABLE OUT OF THE SOCKET -- SLAMS OUT OFTHE BATHROOM.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE slumps onto the sofa.SILENCE.GONZO RIPS OPEN THE BATHROOM DOOR, his eyes unfocused. HEWAVES THE RAZOR SHARP BLADE out in front of him -- LUNGES atDUKE. DUKE WHIPS OUT A CAN OF MACE. DUKE MACE! YOU WANT THIS?GONZO stops -- hisses. GONZO You bastard! You'd do that, wouldn't you? 48. DUKE (laughs) Why worry? You'll like it. Nothing in the world like a Mace high. Forty-five minutes on your knees with the dry heaves... GONZO You cheap honky sonofabitch... DUKE Why not? Hell, just a minute ago, you were asking me to kill you! And now you want to kill me! What I should do, goddamnit, is call the police! GONZO The cops? DUKE There's no choice. I wouldn't dare go to sleep with you wandering around with a head full of acid and wanting to slice me up with that goddamn knife! GONZO (mumbles) Who said anything about slicing you up? I just wanted to carve a little Z on your forehead. Nothing serious.GONZO shrugs and reaches for a cigarette on top of the TV set. DUKE (menaces him with the MACE) Get back in that tub. Eat some reds and try to calm down. Smoke some grass, shoot some smack -- shit, do whatever you have to do, but let me get some rest.GONZO turns toward the bathroom -- suddenly sad. GONZO Hell, yes. You really need some sleep. You have to work. Goddamn. What a bummer. Try to rest. Don't let me keep you up. 49.GONZO shuffles back into the bathroom. DUKE wedges a chairup against the bathroom doorknob and puts the mace can nextto the clock.DUKE turns on the TV. WHITE NOISE FILLS THE ROOM. Hecollapses onto the sofa and lights up his lightbulb as pipe. DUKE (V/O) Ignore the nightmare in the bathroom. Just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation.The WHITE NOISE snow storm on the TV is reflected in hisface. The camera pulls back revealing THE ENTIRE WALLBEHIND HIM TO BE SWIRLING WITH THE FIZZING SNOWSTORM PATTERN. DUKE (V/O) My attorney had never been able to accept the notion -- often espoused by former drug abusers -- that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them. And neither have I, for that matter.The pattern on the wall changes to A 60'S VISCOUS OILLIGHTSHOW PATTERN. With DUKE still sitting in theforeground, the projected image widens to reveal the interiorof A HAIGHT ASHBURY DANCE HALL full of DANCING PROTO-HIPPIES.INT. MATRIX CLUB - NIGHTA slightly YOUNGER DUKE moves through the throng. All theaction is in a DREAMLIKE SLOW-MOTION. DUKE (V/O) I recall one night in the Matrix. There I was -- a victim of the Drug Explosion. A natural street freak, just eating whatever came by.A ROAD-PERSON with a big pack on his back is shouting. Thesound of his voice, like his movements, is in slow-motion. ROAD-PERSON Anybody want some L...S...D...? I got all the makin's right here. All I need is a place to cook.The camera pushes right into the ROAD-PERSON's mouth.INT. MATRIX MEN'S ROOM - NIGHTStill in slow motion, the YOUNGER DUKE is trying to eat aHUGE SPANSULE OF ACID. With difficulty. 50. DUKE (V/O) I decided to eat only half at first. Good thinking. But I spilled the rest on the sleeve of my red Pendleton shirt.DUKE stares at his sleeve, uncertain what to do. C/U of thedoor to the men's room as a MUSICIAN enters speaking inslow-motion. MUSICIAN What's the trouble? DUKE (also in slow-motion) Well, all this white stuff on my sleeve is LSD.The MUSICIAN approaches and looks down at DUKE'S arm. Along pause.Cut back to tight shot of door as it opens and a very clean-cut, PREPPY, STOCKBROKER TYPE enters. He freezes in horror.We cut to his POV. DUKE is standing in the middle of themen's room with the MUSICIAN hunkered down at his side...sucking on his sleeve. A very gross tableau. TheSTOCKBROKER slowly eases out of the room. DUKE (V/O) With a bit of luck his life was ruined -- forever thinking that just behind some narrow door in all his favorite bars, men in red Pendleton shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know.INT. A BAR - YEARS LATER - NIGHTThe STOCKBROKER LOOKING CONSIDERABLY OLDER sits lookinglost, confused, a nervous wreck. The image flares out in aTV white noise snowstorm.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE sits staring at the TV. 51. DUKE (V/O) Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. (he gets up, pours himself a drink) Has it been five years? Six? It seems like a lifetime -- the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. But no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.DUKE throws open the curtains. Light streams in.EXT. 1965 STOCK FOOTAGEWe are in SAN FRANCISCO. IMAGES OF THE TIME FLOOD IN. DUKE (V/O) THERE WAS MADNESS IN ANY DIRECTION, AT ANY HOUR... YOU COULD STRIKE SPARKS ANYWHERE. THERE WAS A FANTASTIC UNIVERSAL SENSE THAT WHATEVER WE WERE DOING WAS RIGHT, THAT WE WERE WINNING. AND THAT, I THINK, WAS THE HANDLE -- THAT SENSE OF INEVITABLE VICTORY OVER THE FORCES OF OLD AND EVIL. NOT IN ANY MEAN OR MILITARY SENSE; WE DIDN'T NEED THAT. OUR ENERGY WOULD SIMPLY prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...DUKE'S FACE IS SUFFUSED WITH A SADNESS AND SERENITY WE HAVENEVER SEEN BEFORE. DUKE (V/O) So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark -- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. 52.The memories dissolve into the night skyline of Vegas.Suddenly towering over the casinos is a 200 foot high Nazishouting "WOODSTOCK ÜBER ALLES!"INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE closes the curtain. The room is in darkness again.INT. MINT HOTEL SUITE - DAWNA harsh door buzzer. DUKE jerks awake. Alone. Lookinglike shit. Around him is the wreckage of their stay. DUKE (V/O) The decision to flee came suddenly. Or maybe not.DUKE opens the door to a BELL BOY with a trolley load offruit, drinks and flowers... and a smile. BELL BOY Room service!The BELL BOY wheels the trolley across the room -- alreadystacked with EVEN MORE BOXES OF GOODIES. DUKE (V/O) Maybe I'd planned it all along -- subconsciously waiting for the right moment. The bill was a factor, I think. Because I had no money to pay for it.DUKE slams the door -- starts FRANTICALLY PACKING. DUKE (V/O) Our room service tabs had been running somewhere between $29 and $36 per hour, for forty-eight consecutive hours. Incredible. How could it happen?DUKE sees the DISCARDED WRAPPINGS OF EXPENSIVE, HAND TOOLEDLUGGAGE. A sudden thought. He rushes to GONZO's room --empty. His plastic briefcase remains on the bed... DUKE (V/O) But by the time I asked this question, there was no one around to answer.DUKE opens the briefcase -- finds the .357 MAGNUM inside. 53. DUKE (V/O) My attorney was gone. He must have sensed trouble. QUICK CUT TO:EXT. LAS VEGAS AIRPORT - DAYGONZO WAVES GOODBYE as he boards an airplane with a set ofbrand-new fine cowhide luggage. DUKE (V/O) Panic.INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE HOTEL SUITE - DAYDUKE emerges with his bag and Gonzo's plastic briefcase --leaves the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door -- checks bothways, then hurries away down the corridor. DUKE (V/O) It crept up my spine like first rising vibes of an acid frenzy. All these horrible realities began to dawn on me.INT. MINT HOTEL ELEVATOR - DAYAn anxiety ridden DUKE watches the floor numbers as theelevator descends. He searches his pockets... DUKE (V/O) Here I was, alone in Las Vegas, with this goddamned incredibly expensive car, completely twisted on drugs, no cash, no story for the magazine. And on top of everything else I had a gigantic goddamn hotel bill to deal with.DUKE finds a last crumpled $5 bill.The door opens. A SECURITY GUARD enters with an OLD LADY INHANDCUFFS.DUKE hides the bill -- crams back into the corner. Doorsclose. DUKE (V/O) I didn't even know who had won the race. Maybe nobody. 54.INT. MINT HOTEL LOBBY - DAYDUKE hurries out of the elevator -- eyes on a hoveringMANAGER. Past the curious look of the reception CLERK. DUKE (muttering to himself) How would Horatio Alger have handled this situation?EXT. MINT HOTEL - DAYMotoring, DUKE gives his $5 bill to the HOTEL FRONT DOORMANwith a smile. The DOORMAN blows a frantic whistle and wavesat the CAR BOY. DUKE (V/O) Stay calm. Stay calm. I'm a relatively respectable citizen -- a multiple felon, perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.The CAR BOY pulls up with a screech. DUKE jumps in. Theback seat is stacked with bars of Neutrogena, piles of Mint400 t-shirts, boxes of grapefruit. DUKE (V/O CONT'D) Luckily, I had taken the soap and grapefruit and other luggage out to the car a few hours earlier. Now it was only a matter of slipping the noose...DUKE shifts into drive. Deliverance! CLERK'S VOICE MR. DUKE!DUKE freezes. CLERK'S VOICE Mr. Duke! We've been looking for you! DUKE (V/O) The game was up! They had me. DUKE (to himself) Well, why not? Many fine books have been written in prison. 55.Resigned, DUKE turns off the ignition. A young CLERKarrives breathlessly with a smile and a YELLOW LETTER IN HISHAND. CLERK Sir? (thrusts out a TELEGRAM) This telegram came for you. Actually, it isn't for you. It's for somebody named Thompson, but it says 'care of Raoul Duke'. does that make sense? DUKE (barely able to speak) Yes... It makes sense.DUKE stuffs the telegram into his top pocket.The CLERK peers into the car -- sees part of the enormousstash inside. CLERK I checked the register for this man Thompson. We don't show him but I figured he might be part of your team. DUKE He is. Don't worry, I'll get it to him.He fires up the engine -- eases the RED SHARK into low gear.SECURITY GUARDS are looking across -- sharing a quiet wordor two. CLERK What confused us was Dr. Gonzo's signature on the telegram from Los Angeles. When we knew he was right here in the hotel. DUKE You did the right thing. Never try to understand a press message. About half the time we use codes -- especially with Dr. Gonzo. CLERK Tell me. When will the doctor be awake? 56. DUKE (tenses) Awake? What do you mean?DUKE's eyes are on the SECURITY GUARDS -- moving closer. CLERK (uncomfortably) Well... the manager, Mr. Heem, would like to meet him. Nothing unusual. Mr. Heem likes to meet all our large accounts... put them on a personal basis... just a chat and a handshake, you understand. DUKE Of course. But if I were you, I'd leave the Doctor alone until after he's eaten breakfast. He's a very crude man.DUKE edges the car forward, but is stopped by the CLERK. CLERK But he will be available? Perhaps later this morning? DUKE Look. That telegram was all scrambled. It was actually from Thompson, not to him. Western Union must have gotten the names reversed. I have to get going. I have to get out to the track. CLERK There's no hurry! The race is over! DUKE (taking off) Not for me.He waves the CLERK off the car -- roars away. CLERK Let's have lunch! DUKE Righto!EXT. ROAD OUT OF VEGAS - DAYDUKE drives the RED SHARK out of Vegas. 57.A "YOU ARE LEAVING LAS VEGAS" sign flashes past.Bob Dylan plays: "Memphis Blues Again -- "Aaww, Mama, canthis really by the end...?"A sign: LOS ANGELES -- 400 miles. DUKE (V/O) Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing -- intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out! The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee!DUKE drives fast. DUKE Do me one last favor Lord: just give me five more high-speed hours before you bring the hammer down; just let me get rid of this goddamn car and off of this horrible desert.A sign flashes "YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE."A patrol car pulls out behind him, lights flashing. DUKE (CONT'D) You evil bastard! This is your work! You'd better take care of me, Lord... because if you don't you're going to have me on your hands.The patrol car screams after the RED SHARK. DUKE (V/O) Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a Highway Traffic Cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side. This is wrong.DUKE floors the gas pedal. DUKE (V/O) It arouses contempt in the cop heart.THE SPEEDOMETER CLIMBS STEADILY. 58. DUKE (V/O) Make the bastard chase you. He will follow. But he won't know what to make of your blinker signal that says you're about to turn right.DUKE signals right. The RED SHARK screams at 120 mph. DUKE (V/O) This is to let him know you're looking for a proper place to pull off and talk.AN EXIT OFF RAMP: MAX SPEED 25.DUKE hits the brakes. The COP brakes. DUKE (V/O) It will take him a moment to realize that he is about to make 180 degree turn at speed... but you will be ready for it, braced for the G's and the fast heel toe work.The patrol car spins and fishtails crazily out of control.EXT. SCENIC PICNIC AREA - DAYThe patrol car comes skidding around the corner. DUKEstands beside the RED SHARK, completely relaxed and smiling.The HIGHWAY PATROLMAN gets out of the car, screaming. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN Just what the FUCK did you think you were doing?!DUKE smiles. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN May I see your license. DUKE Of course, officer.DUKE reaches for it. And BOTH MEN look down at a beercan -- which DUKE had, somehow, forgotten was in his hand. DUKE (V/O) I knew I was fucked.The COP relaxes -- actually smiles... He reaches out forDUKE's wallet, then holds out his other hand for the beer. 59. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN Could I have that, please? DUKE Why not? It was getting warm anyway.The HIGHWAY PATROLMAN takes it, pours out the beer --glances in the back seat of the RED SHARK. Amongst the barsof soap... A case of warm beer. DUKE smiles back at him. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN You realize... DUKE Yeah. I know. I'm guilty. I understand that. I knew it was a crime but I did it anyway. Shit, why argue? I'm a fucking criminal. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN That's a strange attitude.He looks at DUKE thoughtfully. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN You know -- I get the feeling you could use a nap. There's a rest area up ahead. Why don't you pull over and sleep a few hours? DUKE A nap won't help. I've been awake for too long -- three or four nights. I can't even remember. If I go to sleep now, I'm dead for twenty hours.The HIGHWAY PATROLMAN smiles. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN Okay. Here's how it is. What goes into my book, as of noon, is that I apprehended you... for driving too fast, and advised you to proceed no further than the next rest area... your stated destination, right? Where you plan to take a long nap. Do I make myself clear? DUKE How far is Baker? I was hoping to stop there for lunch. 60. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN Not my jurisdiction. The city limits are two point two miles beyond the rest area. Can you make it that far? DUKE I'll try. I've been wanting to go to Baker for a long time. I've heard a lot about it.The PATROLMAN holds the door for DUKE who gets in. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN Excellent seafood. With a mind like yours, you'll probably want to try the land-crab. Try the Majestic Diner.The PATROLMAN slams the door shut.EXT. DESERT ROAD - DAYDUKE drives away -- teeth gritted. DUKE (V/O) I felt raped. The Pig had done me on all fronts, and now he was going off to chuckle about it -- on the west side of town, waiting for me to make a run for L.A.DUKE drives past the rest area to an intersection where hesignals to turn right into Baker. As he approaches the turnhe sees the HITCHHIKER! As DUKE slows to make the turntheir eyes meet. DUKE is about to wave -- but the HITCHHIKERdrops his thumb. DUKE Great Jesus, it's him.DUKE, spooked, SPINS THE RED SHARK round -- ROARS BACK THEWAY HE CAME.EXT. BAKER TRUCK STOP - DAYDUKE on the public phone booth -- screaming. DUKE They've nailed me! I'm trapped in some stinking desert crossroads called Baker. I don't have much time. The fuckers are closing in. They'll hunt me down like a beast! 61.INT. GONZO'S OFFICE - DAYGONZO sits surrounded by legal papers and law books. MexicanDay of the Dead masks hang from the walls -- flame-red demons. GONZO Who? You sound a little paranoid.EXT. BAKER TRUCK STOP - DAYDUKE screams -- sweat pouring. DUKE You bastard! I need a lawyer immediately!INT. GONZO'S OFFICE - DAY GONZO What are you doing in Baker? Didn't you get my telegram?EXT. BAKER TRUCK STOP - DAY DUKE What? Fuck telegrams. I'm in trouble. You worthless bastard. I'll cripple your ass for this! All that shit in the car is yours! You understand that? When I finish testifying out here you'll be disbarred!INT. GONZO'S OFFICE - DAY GONZO You're supposed to be in Vegas. We have a suite at the Flamingo. I was just about to leave for the airport.INT. BAKER TRUCK STOP - DAYDUKE pulls out the telegram from his top pocket. GONZO'S VOICE You brainless scumbag! You're supposed to be covering the National District Attorney's conference! I made all the reservations... rented a white Cadillac convertible... the whole thing is arranged! What the hell are you doing out there in the middle of the fucking desert? 62.DUKE stares at the telegram. DUKE Never mind. It's all a big joke. I'm actually sitting beside the pool at the Flamingo. I'm talking from a portable phone. Some dwarf brought it out from the casino. I have total credit! Can you grasp that? (shouts) Don't come anywhere near this place! Foreigners aren't welcome here!DUKE, breathing heavily, hangs up phone.EXT. DESERT - DAYC/U of .357 Magnum cylinder being spun. DUKE (V/O) Well. This is how the world works.C/U An IGUANA basks in the sun. DUKE (V/O) All energy flows according to the whims of the Great Magnet.C/U Barrel of the gun. It fires. An explosion of desertdirt. DUKE (V/O) What a fool I was to defy Him.The IGUANA sits unfazed. DUKE (V/O) Never cross the Great Magnet. I understood this now... (another blast from the gun) ... and with understanding came a sense of almost terminal relief.DUKE stands alone in the vast desert firing at nothing, thethuds of the explosions echo away.EXT. ROAD INTO VEGAS - DAYThe RED SHARK driving back towards Las Vegas. 63. DUKE (V/O) I had to get rid of The Shark. Too many people might recognize it... ...especially the Vegas Police. (tight C/U of DUKE) Luckily, my credit card was still technically valid.PULL BACK TO REVEAL:DUKE, now driving a white Cadillac Coupe de Ville -- THEWHITE WHALE.DUKE pushes buttons -- lowers the top. DUKE (V/O) This was a superior machine -- ten grand worth of gimmicks and high price special effects. The rear windows leapt up with a touch like frogs in a dynamited pond. The dashboard was full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I would never understand.EXT. FLAMINGO HOTEL - AFTERNOONA GIANT SIGN: THE FLAMINGO WELCOMES THE NATIONAL DA'SCONFERENCE ON NARCOTICS & DANGEROUS DRUGS. DUKE (V/O) If the Pigs were gathering in Vegas, I felt the Drug Culture should be represented as well... and there was a certain bent appeal in the notion of running a savage burn on one Las Vegas hotel and then just wheeling across town and checking into another.The WHITE WHALE turns into a VIP parking slot, immediatelyattended by impressed MINIONS. DUKE (V/O) Me and a thousand ranking cops from all over America. Why not? Move confidently into their midst.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL LOBBY - AFTERNOONDUKE enters -- old Levis, grubby sneakers, 10 peso Acapulcoshirt coming apart at the seams, 3 day growth, eyes hiddenbehind mirror shades. He heads for the check-in line. 64. DUKE (V/O) My arrival was badly timed.THE PLACE IS FULL OF COPS. 200 of them, on vacation, alldressed in cut price Vegas casuals: plaid Bermuda shorts,Arnie Palmer golf shirts, and rubberized beach sandals.Ahead of DUKE -- A POLICE CHIEF argues with the DESK CLERK.The POLICE CHIEF'S AGNEW STYLE WIFE stands to the side,weeping. The POLICE CHIEF'S FRIENDS stand uneasily around. POLICE CHIEF What do you mean I'm too late to register? I'm a police chief. From Michigan. Look, fella, I told you. (waves a POSTCARD) I have a postcard here that says I have reservations in this hotel. CLERK (prissily) I'm sorry, sir. You're on the "late list." Your reservations were transferred to the... ah... Moonlight Motel, which is out on Paradise Boulevard... POLICE CHIEF I've already paid for my goddamn room! CLERK It's actually a very fine place of lodging and only sixteen blocks from here, with its own pool and... POLICE CHIEF You dirty little faggot! Call the manager! I'm tired of listening to this dogshit!FRIENDS restrain the POLICE CHIEF. CLERK (solicitously) I'm so sorry, sir. May I call you a cab?The POLICE CHIEF's screamed insults fade away... DUKE (V/O) Of course, I could hear what the Clerk was really saying... 65. CLERK (IN DUKE'S IMAGINATION) Listen, you fuzzy little shithead -- I've been fucked around, in my time, by a fairly good cross- section of mean-tempered rule-crazy cops and now it's MY turn. "Fuck you, officer, I'm in charge here, and I'm telling you we don't have room for you."DUKE steps to the desk, around the raging POLICE CHIEF. DUKE Say. I hate to interrupt, but I wonder if maybe I could just sort of slide through and get out of your way. Name's Raoul Duke -- Raoul Duke. My attorney made the reservation.DUKE snaps a credit card down onto the counter. EVERYONEgoes silent. The POLICE CHIEF GROUP stares at him like hewas some kid of water rat crawling up to the desk. TheCLERK hits the bell for the BELLBOY. CLERK Certainly, Mr. Duke! DUKE My bags are out there in that white Cadillac convertible. Can you have someone drive it around to the room?ALL EYES turn to the gleaming WHITE WHALE. DUKE Oh, and could I get a quart of Wild Turkey, two fifths of Baccardi, and a night's worth of ice delivered to my room, please? CLERK Don't worry about a thing, sir. Just enjoy your stay. DUKE Well, thank you.DUKE gives the POLICE CHIEF a polite smile -- crosses to theelevator -- turns to face the GAWPING COPS -- pops a can ofbeer and toasts them. The doors close. 66.INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE SUITE - DAYDUKE rams the key home -- swings the door open. DUKE Ah, home at last!INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - AFTERNOONDUKE enters. The door hits something with a thud.A 16-year-old GIRL with the aura of an angry Pit Bull.GONZO stands in the bathroom doorway -- stark naked with adrug-addled grin on his face. DUKE You degenerate pig! GONZO It can't be helped. This is Lucy. (laughing distractedly) You know--like "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds."LUCY eyes DUKE venomously. GONZO Lucy! Lucy, be cool, goddamnit! Remember what happened at the airport! No more of that, okay?LUCY keeps her eyes on DUKE. GONZO idles over and puts hisarm round her shoulder. GONZO Lucy... this is my client. This is Mr. Duke, the famous journalist. He's paying for this suite, Lucy. He's on our side.DUKE flops onto the sofa. GONZO Mr. Duke is my friend. He loves artists.DUKE notices for the first time that the room is full ofartwork. Maybe 40 or 50 portraits, some in oil, some incharcoal, all more or less the same size and same face. GONZO Lucy paints portraits of Barbra Streisand. 67. LUCY I drew these from TV. GONZO Fantastic. She came all the way down here from Montana just to give these portraits to Barbra. We're going over to the Americana Hotel tonight to meet her backstage...DUKE's voice rises above GONZO. DUKE (V/O) I desperately needed peace, rest, sanctuary. I hadn't counted on this. Finding my attorney on acid and locked into some kind of preternatural courtship. DUKE Well, I guess they brought the car round by now. LET'S GET THE STUFF OUT OF THE TRUNK.DUKE fixes GONZO hard. GONZO Absolutely, LET'S GET THE STUFF. (to LUCY) Now, we'll be right back. Don't answer the phone if it rings. LUCY (makes one-fingered Jesus freak sign) God bless.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE SUITE - DAYDUKE collars GONZO -- serious. DUKE WELL? What are your plans? GONZO Plans? DUKE Lucy. 68. GONZO (struggling to focus) Shit. I met her on the plane and I had all that acid. (he shrugs) You know, those little blue barrels. I gave her a cap before I realized... she's a religious freak... Jesus, she's never even had a drink. DUKE Well... It'll probably work out. We can keep her loaded and peddle her ass at the drug convention.GONZO stares uneasily at DUKE. GONZO Listen, she's running away from home for something like the fifth time in six months. It's terrible. DUKE She's perfect for this gig. These cops will go fifty bucks a head to beat her into submission and then gang fuck her. We can set her up in one of these back street motels, hang pictures of Jesus all over the room, then turn these pigs loose on her... Hell she's strong; she'll hold her own.GONZO's face twitches badly. GONZO Jesus Christ. I knew you were sick but I never expected to hear you actually say that kind of stuff. DUKE It's straight economics. This girl is a god-send. Shit, she can make us a grand a day. GONZO NO! Stop talking like that. DUKE I figure she can do about four at a time. Christ, if we keep her full of acid that's more like two grand a day. Maybe three. 69. GONZO You filthy bastard. I should cave your fucking head in. DUKE In a few hours, she'll probably be sane enough to work herself into a towering Jesus-based rage at the hazy recollection of being seduced by some kind of cruel Samoan who fed her liquor and LSD, dragged her to a Vegas hotel room and savagely penetrated every orifice in her body with his throbbing, uncircumcised member.GONZO starts crying. GONZO NO! I felt sorry for the girl, I wanted to help her! DUKE You'll go straight to the gas chamber. And even if you manage to beat that, they'll send you back to Nevada for Rape and Consensual Sodomy. She's got to go.Pause. GONZO Shit, it doesn't pay to try to help somebody these days.A silence. DUKE (V/O) The only alternative was to take her out to the desert and feed her remains to the lizards. But, it seemed a bit heavy for the thing we were trying to protect: My attorney. GONZO We have to cut her loose. She's got two hundred dollars. And we can always call the cops up there in Montana, where she lives, and turn her in. DUKE What?... What kind of goddamn monster are you? 70. GONZO It just occurred to me, that she has no witnesses. Anything that she says about us is completely worthless. DUKE Us?INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - SUNSETDUKE is speaking into the phone in hushed tones. DUKE Hotel Americana? I need a reservation. For my niece. Listen, I need her treated very gently. She's an artist, and might seem a trifle highstrung...In the background GONZO helps LUCY and her paintings out thedoor. GONZO Okay, Lucy, it's time to go meet Barbra... DUKE (V/O) I felt like a Nazi, but it had to be done.EXT. ON THE STREETS - A CAB STAND - DUSKThe WHITE WHALE pulls up -- DUKE at the wheel. GONZO helpsLUCY and her paintings from the car. DUKE (V/O) Lucy was a potentially fatal millstone on both our necks. There was absolutely no choice but to cut her adrift and hope her memory was fucked.GONZO unrolls a couple of bills -- pays off a CAB DRIVER --waves to LUCY in the back with her paintings. She's startingto come down...GONZO gets back in the WHITE WHALE and slaps his handstogether as if washing his hands of the situation. GONZO Well that's that. Take off slowly. Don't attract attention. 71.They pull out into traffic.EXT. LAS VEGAS STREETS - DUSK GONZO I gave the cabbie an extra ten bucks to make sure she gets there safe. Also, I told him I'd be there myself in an hour, and if she wasn't, I'd come back out here and rip his lungs out. DUKE That's good. You can't be subtle in this town. GONZO As your attorney, I advise you to tell me where you put the goddamn mescaline. DUKE Maybe we should take it easy tonight. GONZO Right. Let's find a good seafood restaurant and eat some red salmon. I feel a powerful lust for red salmon...The electric WHITE WHALE heads off down the Strip. Thesun's going down behind the scrub hills, a good Kristoffersontune croaks on the radio in the warm dusk.INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - BATHROOM - NEXT MORNINGGONZO throws up in the toilet bowl.In the background, DUKE opens curtains. Daylight blinds him. DUKE Come on, we're going to be late.GONZO looks up at his sick reflection -- wipes his mouthwith a towel. GONZO This goddamn mescaline. Why the fuck can't they make it a little less pure? Maybe mix it up with Rolaids or something. 72.INT. HOTEL BALLROOM - DAY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (crackling and booming over the lousy sound system) On behalf of the prosecuting attorneys of this county, I welcome you to the Third National DA's Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.The EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR -- well groomed, GOP businessmantype -- speaks from the podium. A banner behind him reads:NATIONAL DA'S CONVENTION 1971. "If You Don't Know, Come ToLearn... If You Know, Come To Teach."A BIG MIXED CROWD: TOP LEVEL STRAIGHT COPS, UNDERCOVER NARCSAND OTHER TWILIGHT TYPES -- beards, mustaches and super-Moddress. Just because you're a cop, doesn't mean you can't beWITH IT! However, for every URBAN-HIPSTER there are around20 REDNECKS.A dozen big, low-fidelity speakers mounted on steel polesdistort and feed back the EXECUTIVE's voice through the room.At the back, under a loudspeaker, sits DUKE -- $40 FBIwingtips, a Pat Boone madras sportcoat, and an official nametag: RAOUL DUKE, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, L.A.GONZO sits beside him. His name tag: DR. GONZO. EXPERT,CRIMINAL DRUG ANALYSIS. He's nervous -- close to the edge. GONZO (lowers his voice) I saw these bastards in Easy Rider, but I didn't believe they were real. Not like this. Not hundreds of them! DUKE They're actually nice people when you get to know them. GONZO Man, I know these people in my goddamn blood! DUKE Don't mention that word around here. You'll get them excited. GONZO This is a fucking nightmare. 73. DUKE Right. Sure as hell some dope- dealing bomb freak is going to recognize you and put the word out that you're partying with a thousand cops. COP IN BACK SSSSHHH!DR. BLUMQUIST -- a "drug expert" -- takes the stage. DR. BLUMQUIST We must come to terms with the Drug Culture in the country... country... country...The sound systems echoes. DR. BLUMQUIST (CONT'D) The reefer butt is called a "roach," because it resembles a cockroach... cockroach... cockroach... GONZO (whispers) What the fuck are these people talking about? You'd have to be crazy on acid to think a joint looked like a goddamn cockroach! DUKE (V/O) It was clear that we had stumbled into a prehistoric gathering. DR. BLUMQUIST Now, there are four states of being in the cannabis, or marijuana, society: Cool, Groovy, Hip, and Square. The square is seldom if ever cool. He is not "with it," that is, he doesn't know "what's happening." But if he manages to figure it out, he moves up a notch to "hip."DUKE and GONZO listen in disbelief. DR. BLUMQUIST (CONT'D) And if he can bring himself to approve of what is happening, he becomes "groovy." After that, with much luck and perseverance, he can rise to the rank of "cool." A cool guy... cool guy... cool guy... 74. COP IN BACK Dr. Bloomquist, do you think the anthropologist, Margaret Mead's strange behavior of late might possibly be explained by a private marijuana addiction? DR. BLUMQUIST I really don't know, but at her age, if she did smoke grass, she'd have one hell of a trip!Roars of laughter. GONZO I know a hell of a lot better ways to waste my time than listening to this bullshit.He stands, knocking the ashtray off his chair arm, andplunges down the aisle to the door. COP IN BACK Down in front! GONZO Fuck you! I have to get out! I don't belong here! COP IN BACK Good riddance!He stumbles from the room. DUKE turns his attention back tothe stage.The lights go down. A black & white film -- REEFERMADNESS! -- illustrates his now evangelical talk. FILM NARRATOR KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND! YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT! You will not be able to see his eyes because of Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension...DUKE turns his attention to a 340 pound TEXAN POLICE CHIEFwho necks with his 290 pound WIFE beside him. FILM NARRATOR ... and his pants will be crusted with semen from constantly jacking off when he can't find a rape victim... 75.DUKE gazes at the TEXAN and his WIFE. -- Feigning sickness,he gets up, hand over mouth. DUKE Pardon me, I feel sick. FILM NARRATOR He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command -- including yours...DUKE heads for the exit. DUKE Sorry, sick... Beg pardon! Feeling sick... FILM NARRATOR BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time [on him] will usually save nine on you.DUKE CRASHES OUT THROUGH THE DOOR.INT. CASINO BAR - DAYDUKE sees GONZO at the bar -- talking to a SPORTY LOOKINGCOP about 40 whose name tag identifies him as a DISTRICTATTORNEY FROM GEORGIA. DA I'm a whiskey man myself. We don't have much trouble from drugs where I come from... GONZO You will. One of these nights you'll wake up and find a junkie tearing your bedroom apart. DA Naw! GONZO They'll climb right into your bedroom and sit on your chest with big Bowie knives. They might even sit on your wife's chest. Put the blade right down on her throat. 76. DA Not down in my parts.DUKE joins them. DUKE (to WAITRESS) Rum and ice, please. DA (looks at DUKE'S NAME TAG) You're another one of these California boys. Your friend here's been tellin' us about dope fiends. DUKE They're everywhere. Nobody's safe. And sure as hell not in the South. They like warm weather... You'd never believe it. In L.A. it's out of control. First it was drugs, now it's witchcraft. DA Witchcraft? Shit, you can't mean it!The BARTENDER cleans his glasses, one ear straining for theconversation. GONZO Read the newspapers. DUKE Man, you don't know trouble until you have to face down a bunch of these addicts gone crazy for human sacrifice! DA Naw! That's science fiction stuff! DUKE Not where we operate. GONZO Hell, in Malibu alone, these goddamn Satan worshippers kill six or eight people every day. All they want is the blood. They'll take people right off the street if they have to. 77. DUKE Just the other day we had a case where they grabbed a girl right out of a McDonald's hamburger stand. She was a waitress, about sixteen years old... with a lot of people watching, too!The BARTENDER keeps cleaning the same glass -- more and morefuriously. DA What happened? What did they do to her? GONZO Do? Jesus Christ, man. They chopped her goddamn head off right there in the parking lot! Then they cut all kinds of holes in her head and sucked out the blood! DA (DA ad-libs a summation of the crime) And nobody did anything? DUKE What could they do? The guy that took the head was about six-seven, and maybe three-hundred pounds. He was packing two Lugers, and the others had M-16s. GONZO They just ran back out into Death Valley -- you know, where Manson turned up... DUKE Like big lizards. GONZO ... and every one of them stacked naked... DA Naked!? DUKE Naked. 78. GONZO Yeh, naked!... except for the weapons. DUKE They were all veterans. DA Veterans?!!!?Agog with the horrors of the story, the BARTENDER polishesthe glass -- faster and faster... GONZO Yeh. The big guy used to be a major in the Marines. DA A major! GONZO We know where he lives, but we can't get near the house. DA Naw! Not a major. GONZO He wanted the pineal gland. DA Really? GONZO That's how he got so big. When he quit the Marines he was just a little guy. DUKE Usually, it's whole families. During the night. Most of them don't even wake up until they feel their heads going -- and then, of course, it's too late.The glass smashes in the BARTENDER's hand. DUKE (CONT'D) Happens every day.DUKE turns to a WAITRESS with a warm smile. 79. DUKE (CONT'D) Three more rums. Plenty of ice. Maybe a handful of lime chunks. WAITRESS Are you guys with the police convention upstairs? DA We sure are, Miss. WAITRESS I thought so. I never heard that kind of talk around here before. Jesus Christ! How do you guys stand that kind of work? GONZO (grinning) We like it. It's groovy.The WAITRESS stares -- sickened -- at GONZO. DUKE What's wrong with you? Hell, somebody has to do it. GONZO Hurry up with those drinks. We're thirsty. Only two rums. Make mine a Bloody Mary. DA (whacks his fist on the bar) Hell, I really hate to hear this. Because everything that happens in California seems to get down our way, sooner or later. Mostly Atlanta. But that was back when the goddamn bastards were peaceful. All we had to do was to keep 'em under surveillance. They didn't roam around much... But now Jesus, it seems nobody's safe. GONZO (with a conspiratorial nod) You're going to need to take the bull by the horns -- go to the mat with this scum. 80. DA What do you mean by that? GONZO You know what I mean. We've done it before and we can damn well do it again! DUKE Cut their goddamn heads off. Every one of them. That's what we're doing in California. DA (stupefied) WHAT? GONZO Sure. It's all on the Q.T., but everybody who matters is with us all the way down the line. DUKE We keep it quiet. It's not the kind of thing you'd want to talk about upstairs. Not with the press around. DA (recovering slightly) Hell, no. We'd never hear the goddamn end of it. DUKE Dobermans don't talk. DA What? GONZO Sometimes it's easier to just rip out the backstraps. DUKE They'll fight like hell if you try to take the head without the dogs. DA God almighty! (muttering in a daze) I don't think I should tell my wife about this. She'd never understand. You know how women are. 81.DUKE gives the DA a brotherly slap on the back. DUKE Just be thankful your heart is young and strong.DUKE and GONZO leave the stunned DA -- staring into theswirling ice in drink.INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - DAYDUKE and GONZO fall into the suite in fits of laughter.GONZO feels the nausea rise suddenly -- heads for thebathroom. Immediate sounds of retching.The phone message light is blinking. DUKE opens a beer,picks up the phone. DUKE What's the message? My light is blinking. CLERK (V/O) Ah, yes. Mr. Duke? You have one message: "Call Lucy at the Americana Hotel, room 1600." DUKE Holy shit!DUKE slams the phone down. GONZO emerges from thebathroom -- looking like death. DUKE Lucy called.GONZO sags visibly -- like an animal taking a bullet. GONZO What?The telephone rings. DUKE answers.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL - RECEPTION - DAYA worried CLERK speaks in to the phone. CLERK Mr. Duke? Hello, Mr. Duke, I'm sorry we were cut off a moment ago... I thought I should call again, because I was wondering... 82.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - DAY DUKE WHAT? (hand over the PHONE) What was that crazy bitch said to him? (screams) There's a war on, man! People are being killed! CLERK (V/O) Killed? DUKE IN VIETNAM! ON THE GODDAMN TELEVISION! CLERK (V/O) Oh... yes... yes... This terrible war. When will it end? DUKE Tell me. What do you want?In the background GONZO is upturning a sofa to retrieve hisstash from the lining. CLERK (V/O) The woman who left that message for you sounded very disturbed. I think she was crying... DUKE Crying? Why was she crying? CLERK (V/O) Well, uh. She didn't say Mr. Duke. But since I know you're here with the Police Convention... DUKE Look, you want to be gentle with that woman if she ever calls again. We're watching her very carefully... this woman has been into laudanum. It's a controlled experiment, but I suspect we'll need your cooperation before this thing is over. CLERK (V/O) (hesitantly) Well, certainly... We're always happy to cooperate with the police... 83. DUKE Don't worry. You're protected. Just treat this poor woman like you'd treat any other human being in trouble. CLERK (V/O) What? Ah... yes, yes, I see what you mean... Yes... so, you'll be responsible then? DUKE Of course. And now I have to get back to the news. Send up some ice.He hangs up. GONZO zaps TV channels -- commercials. GONZO Good work. They'll treat us like goddamn lepers after that. DUKE (slowly, carefully) Lucy is looking for you. GONZO (laughing) No, she's looking for you. DUKE Me? GONZO She really flipped over you. The only way I could get rid of her was by saying you were taking me out to the desert for a showdown -- that you wanted me out of the way so you could have her all to yourself. (laughing again) I guess she figures you won. That phone message wasn't for me, was it?A look of stunned realization from DUKE...INT. FANTASY COURT ROOM - DAYLUCY is on the witness stand. LUCY Yessir, those two men in the dock are the ones who gave me the LSD and took me to the hotel. 84.A doomed DUKE and GONZO await their fate. LUCY I don't know for sure what they done to me, but I remember it was horrible. JUDGE Twenty years... and Double Castration!The JUDGE bangs his gavel.INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - DAYDUKE is madly stuffing his suitcase. GONZO Wait! You can't leave me alone in this snake pit. This room is in my name.DUKE KEEPS PACKING. GONZO is looking worried. GONZO OK, goddamnit!... Look... I'll call her. I'll get her off our backs. You're right. She's my problem. DUKE It's gone too far. GONZO Relax. Let me handle this. (dials the PHONE, snaps angrily at DUKE) You'd make a piss-poor lawyer. ...Room 1600, please. (to DUKE) As your attorney, I advise you not to worry. (nods towards bathroom) Take a hit out of that little brown bottle in my shaving kit.DUKE goes in the bathroom. He finds a little bottle -- alabel: "DRINK ME." DUKE What is this? 85. GONZO You won't need much. Just a little tiny taste, that stuff makes pure mescaline seem like ginger-beer. Adrenochrome.DUKE stares wonderingly at the bottle. DUKE Adrenochrome... GONZO (into PHONE) Hi, Lucy? Yeah, it's me. I got your message...what? Hell, no, I taught the bastard a lesson he'll never forget... what? No, not dead, but he won't be bothering anybody for a while. Yeah. I left him out there, I stomped him, then pulled all his teeth out... DUKE (V/O) I remember thinking, "Jesus, what a terrible thing to lay on somebody with a head full of acid."DUKE dips a match head into the brown bottle -- studiesit -- TASTES IT -- NOTHING -- TASTES SOME MORE... GONZO (to PHONE) But here's the problem. That bastard cashed a bad check downstairs and gave you as a reference. They'll be looking for both of you. Yeah, I know, but you can't judge a book by its cover, Lucy. Some people are just basically rotten... Anyway, the last thing you want to do is call this hotel again; they'll trace the call and put you straight behind bars... no, I'm moving to the Tropicana right away. I have to go, they've got the phone tapped. Yeah, I know, it was horrible, but it's all over now... OH MY GOD! THEY'RE KICKING THE DOOR DOWN! (throws the PHONE down; shouts) No! Get away from me! I'm innocent! It was Duke! I swear to God! (MORE) 86. GONZO (CONT'D) (stomps the PHONE; moans) No, I don't know where she is. You'll never catch Lucy! She's gone! I swear, I don't know where she is! DON'T PUT THAT THING ON ME! (slams the PHONE down)GONZO sits back in his chair... watching MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. GONZO Well. That's that. She's probably stuffing herself down the incinerator about now. That's the last we should be hearing from Lucy. (fumbling with the hash pipe) Where's the opium?DUKE stares at the back of GONZO's neck. SOMETHING VERYSTRANGE IS HAPPENING TO HIM... DUKE (V/O) I remember slumping on the bed, his performance had given me a bad jolt. For a moment I thought his mind had snapped -- that he actually believed he was being attacked by invisible enemies. But the room was quiet again.DUKE CLUTCHES THE BROWN BOTTLE. DUKE Where'd you get this? GONZO Never mind, it's absolutely pure. DUKE Jesus... what kind of monster client have you picked up this time? There's only one source for this stuff -- the adrenaline gland from a living human body!GONZO turns to smile at DUKE. 87. GONZO I know, but the guy didn't have any cash to pay me. He's one of these Satanism freaks. He offered me human blood -- said it would take me higher than I've ever been in my life. (laughs -- struts round DUKE -- eyes bright with expectation) I thought he was kidding, so I told him I'd just as soon have an ounce or so of pure adrenochrome -- or maybe just a fresh adrenaline gland to chew on. DUKE (V/O) I could already feel the stuff working on me -- the first wave felt like a combination of mescaline and methedrine -- maybe I should take a swim, I thought...DUKE sees that GONZO is TOYING WITH HIS HUNTING KNIFE... GONZO Yeah, they nailed this guy for child molesting. He swore he didn't do it. "Why should I fuck with children?" he says. "They're too small." Christ, werewolf is entitled to legal counsel. I didn't dare turn the creep down. He might have picked up a letter opener and gone after my pineal gland!GONZO JABS WITH THE RAZOR BRIGHT KNIFE. DUKE'S BODY ISGOING RIGID -- HE SPEAKS THROUGH GRITTED TEETH. DUKE Why not? We should get some of that. Just eat a big handful and see what happens. GONZO Some of what? DUKE (spitting words) Extract of pineal! 88. GONZO (STARING AT DUKE WITH A STRANGE SMILE) Sure. That's a good idea. One whiff of that shit would turn you into something out of a goddamn medical encyclopedia.GONZO GROWS HORNS -- HIS FACE BECOMES A MEXICAN DEMON MASK. GONZO Man, your head would swell up like a watermelon, you'd probably gain about a hundred pounds in two hours...A CLOVEN HOOF BURSTS THROUGH GONZO'S SHOE. DUKE Right! GONZO ... grow claws... bleeding warts.GONZO'S CHEST EXPANDS -- BONY RIBS BURSTING HIS SHIRT. DUKE Yes! GONZO ... then you'd notice about six huge hairy tits swelling up on your back...A TAIL LASHES, HOOFS STRIKE THE FLOOR. GONZO TOWERS -- AFLAME RED DEMON! DUKE Fantastic!DUKE is now so wire that his hands are CLAWING UNCONTROLLABLYat the bedspread, JERKING IT RIGHT OUT FROM UNDER HIM. Hisheels are dug into the mattress with both KNEES LOCKED,EYEBALLS SWELLING.GONZO-DEMON LOOMS AGAINST THE CEILING. GONZO you'd go blind... your body would turn to wax... they'd have to put you in a wheelbarrow and...GONZO'S VOICE FADES AWAY -- DUKE'S frenzied gaze revealsGONZO REVERTED TO NORMAL HUMAN SHAPE AND SIZE. 89. GONZO Man I'll try about anything; but I'd never touch a pineal gland. DUKE FINISH THE FUCKING STORY! What happened?! What about the glands?GONZO, a small smile on his lips, backs away warily...towards the TV -- NOW A HUNDRED FEET AWAY IN THE DISTANCE... GONZO Jesus, that stuff got right on top of you, didn't it.VEINS stand out on DUKE's forehead. He is purplish-red.OVER THE TOP! Too late, he realizes he is NEAR DEATH! DUKE Maybe you could just... shove me into the pool, or something...GONZO shakes his head disgustedly. GONZO If I put you in the pool right now, you'd sink like a goddamn stone. You took too much. Jesus, look at your face, you're about to explode.GONZO sits back down... watching the TV. GONZO Don't try and fight it, or you'll get brain bubbles. Strokes, aneurysms. You'll just wither up and die.DUKE FALLS TO THE GROUND, WRITHING, CATATONIC, SINKING INTOPARALYSIS.AND THE SOUND, SUDDENLY AND STRANGELY, OF THE VOICE OFRICHARD NIXON AND HIS DISTORTED FACE ON THE TV SCREEN. NIXON Sacrifice... sacrifice... sacrifice...DUKE PASSES OUT.BLACK SCREEN 90.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDarkness. Insanely, somewhere NILSSON plays -- "Put thelime in the coconut and mix em all up..." DUKE (V/O) What kind of rat-bastard psychotic would play that song -- right now, at this moment?DUKE opens his eyes and the hotel suite rushes in. He lies,awkwardly twisted -- unable to move. He could have beenthere days -- months. DUKE (V/O) When I came to the general back alley ambiance of the suite was so rotten, so incredibly foul. How long had I been lying there? Hours? Days? Months? All these signs of violence. What had happened?DUKE moves his eyes -- taking in his surroundings: Like THESIGHT OF SOME DISASTROUS ZOOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT involvingwhisky and gorillas. Blue and red Christmas tree lightsreplace lightbulbs, used towels hanging everywhere,pornographic pictures ripped out of a magazine are plasteredon a shattered mirror. DUKE (V/O) There was evidence in this room of excessive consumption of almost every type of drug known to civilized man since 1544 AD.DUKE manages to move -- stiffly gets to his bare feet --HOBBLES ROUND THE TRASHED ROOM like a newly risen ape. DUKE (V/O) But what kind of addict would need all these coconut husks and crushed honeydew rinds? Would the presence of junkies account for all these uneaten french fries? These puddles of glazed ketchup on the bureau? Maybe so, but then why all this booze? And these crude pornographic photos smeared with mustard that had dried to a hard yellow crust...DUKE peers into Gonzo's room -- HIS BED LIKE A BURNED OUTRAT'S NEST -- blackened springs and wires. 91. DUKE (V/O) These were not the hoof prints of your normal god-fearing junkie. It was too savage, too aggressive.QUICK FLASHBACK:GONZO SMASHES THE TEN FOOT MIRROR WITH A HAMMER:BACK IN THE ROOM:DUKE stares at the smashed mirror. DUKE (V/O) Grim memories and bad flashbacks.In the bathroom, DUKE'S unlaced boots CRUSH BROKEN GLASS INVOMIT AND GRAPEFRUIT RINDS.DUKE unzips and pisses. THERE IN THE TOILET BOWL IS THEMAGNUM .357! DUKE (V/O) Something ugly had happened. I was sure of it...DUKE stares at the golden stream SPLASHING ON THE GUN.The SOUNDS OF VOMITING come from a closet near the front door.DUKE looks into the room. He sees GONZO's ass sticking outof the closet. He opens his mouth to speak when, IN THESMASHED MIRROR HE SEES THE FRAGMENTED REFLECTION OF HIMSELF...sleeping on the sofa.The ominous SOUND OF A KEY TURNING in the room lock.A hellish scream wakes up the SLEEPING DUKE. He sees GONZOgrappling naked with the maid -- gun to her head. GONZO ismuffling her screams with an ice bag. MAID Please... please... I'm only the maid. I didn't mean nothin!... DUKE (jumps up from the bed, flashing his press badge) YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! 92. GONZO (to DUKE) She must have used a pass key. I was polishing my shoes in the closet when I noticed her sneaking in-so I took her.DUKE shakes his head. DUKE (barks at the MAID) What made you do it? Who paid you off? MAID Nobody. I'm the maid! GONZO You're lying! You were after the evidence. Who put you up to this -- the manager? MAID I don't know what you're talking about! GONZO Bullshit! You're just as much a part of it as they are! MAID Part of what? DUKE The dope ring. You must know what's going on in this hotel. Why do you think we're here? MAID (blubbering) I know you're cops, but I thought you were just here for that convention. I swear! All I wanted to do was clean up the room. I don't know anything about dope!GONZO laughs. GONZO Come on, baby don't try to tell us you never heard of the Grange Gorman. 93. MAID No! No! I swear to Jesus I never heard of that stuff! DUKE Maybe she's telling the truth. Maybe she's not part of it. MAID No! I swear I'm not! GONZO (long pause) In that case, maybe she can help. MAID Yes! I'll help you all you need! I hate dope! DUKE So do we, lady. GONZO (helping her up) I think we should put her on the payroll. See what she comes up with. DUKE Do you think you can handle it? MAID What? GONZO One phone call every day. Just tell us what you've seen. Don't worry if it doesn't add up, that's our problem.GONZO hustles the MAID to the door. MAID You'd pay me for that? DUKE You're damn right. But the first time you say anything about this, to anybody -- you'll go straight to prison for the rest of your life. What's your name? MAID Alice. Just ring Linen Service and ask for Alice. 94. GONZO Alright, Alice... you'll be contacted by Inspector Rock. Arthur Rock. He'll be posing as a politician. DUKE Inspector Rock will pay you. In cash. A thousand dollars on the ninth of every month. MAID Oh Lord! I'd do just about anything for that! GONZO You and a lot of other people. DUKE The password is: "One Hand Washes The Other." The minute you hear that, you say "I fear nothing." MAID I fear nothing.She repeats the password several times while they listen tomake sure she has it right. GONZO Oh, and don't bother to make up the room. That way we won't have to risk another of these little incidents, will we? MAID Whatever you say, gentlemen. I can't tell you how sorry I am about what happened... GONZO Don't worry, it's all over now. Thank God for the decent people.She smiles, repeating to herself "One Hand Washes The Other"as GONZO hangs the DO NOT DISTURB sign and shuts the door.CUT BACK TO THE PRESENT.A grimy tape runs through a grunged-up portable tape recorder. GONZO ON TAPE ... Thank God for the decent people. 95.DUKE sits in the middle of the wrecked suite with hismangled tape recorder in front of him. DUKE (V/O) Memories of that night are extremely hazy...DUKE fast forwards through the tape -- SEARCHING: "Awwww,mama... can this really...be the end...?"EXT. SAFEWAY SUPERMARKET - DAYThe WHITE WHALE waits -- gleaming -- beautiful. DUKE (V/O) There is a definite obligation, when you boom around Vegas in a white Coupe de Ville, to maintain a certain style.DUKE and GONZO burst out of the supermarket riding a shoppingbasket loaded with COCONUTS, GRAPEFRUIT and TEQUILA. Theysend DEFEATED SHOPPERS sprawling.The trolley collides into the WHITE WHALE. SHOPPERS gatherat the supermarket entrance to watch -- baskets loaded withjunk, SCREAMING KIDS and EMPTY WALLETS.DUKE switches on the music: JUMPING JACK FLASH. He selectsa coconut -- ceremonially balances it on the hood. GONZOpulls out a silver claw-hammer. A sly look at the gatheringCROWD... then he smashes the hammer down on the coconut!A GASP from the surly SHOPPERS.DUKE places another coconut. SMASH! Milk and white meatflies everywhere. SHOPPER #1 Hey! Is that your car? DUKE Sure is.SMASH! Coconut fragments fly. DUKE Any of you folks want the milk? We're after the meat. This is honest coconut essence. Real meat.SMASH! 96. SHOPPER #2 Meat, hell! Look what you're doing to that car! GONZO Fuck the car. They should make these things with a goddamn FM radio.SMASH! DUKE Yeh... This foreign made crap -- is sucking our dollar balance dry! SHOPPER #3 Someone should stop them!SMASH! DUKE You poor fools don't understand, do you? This car is the property of the World Bank! That money goes to ITALY! SHOPPER #3 Somebody should call the police! GONZO Police? Are you people crazy?GONZO confronts the CROWD, hammer in one hand, a coconut inthe other. GONZO (CONT'D) You folks every heard of ole Patrick Henry? Know what he said?!Silence -- the CROWD uncomprehending of this STONE DEGENERATE. GONZO (CONT'D) (ROARS) GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!GONZO brings the hammer down on the hood. CLANG!A gasp from the CROWD. Getting ugly. GONZO (CONT'D) In Samoa we LOVE THE CONSTITUTION! SHOPPER #3 Bullshit. 97.The CROWD move in. SHOPPER #1 Call the goddamn police!GONZO SWINGS THE HAMMER. CLANG! SHOPPER #4 Look what they've done to that beautiful car!DUKE jumps in behind the wheel. DUKE This crowd is not rational. They can't relate to us. Let's go!A final CLANG! GONZO jumps in.DUKE floors the accelerator -- screams at the CROWD. DUKE You people voted for Hubert Humphrey! You killed Jesus!They swerve round and through the CROWD. DUKE (V/O) The crowd broke ranks. Nobody wants to be run over by a Coupe de Ville.INT. HOTEL FLAMINGO SUITE - NIGHTDUKE FAST-FORWARDS... PLAYS THE TAPE... VOICE ON TAPE You found the American Dream? In this town? DUKE ON TAPE We're sitting on the main nerve right now...INT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS REVOLVING MERRY-GO-ROUND BAR - NIGHTDUKE and GONZO (wearing a single black glove) talkconspiratorially to a 3RD MAN. A PLACID ORANGUTAN in a bowtie sits next to him. THE BAR IS REVOLVING FASTER THANNORMAL. DUKE IS INSANELY TALKATIVE -- WIRED! 98. DUKE The manager told me a story about the owner of this place...about how he always wanted to run away and join the circus when he was a kid. Well, now the bastard has his own circus, and a license to steal, too. 3RD MAN You're right -- he's the model. DUKE Absolutely! Pure Horatio Alger... Say...INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE playing the tape. DUKE ON TAPE ... how much do you think he'd take for the ape?DUKE fast-forwards again -- searching... TRAFFIC NOISES.SCREECH OF BRAKES. VOICE ON TAPE Holy God!...A TERRIBLE GRINDING NOISE.EXT. CAR RENTAL AGENCY - NIGHT RENTAL AGENT Holy God!, how did this happen? DUKE They beat the shit out of it. RENTAL AGENT The top's completely jammed!The CAR RENTAL AGENT wrestles with the trashed car. DUKE Yeah, something's wrong with the motor...INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT DUKE ON TAPE ... The generator light's been on red ever since I drove the thing into Lake Mead on a water test... 99.A HUGE SPLASH...The tape's gone too far. DUKE No, no. Shit...DUKE races the tape BACKWARDS... Then, SIRENS HOWL. DUKE ON TAPE Where's the ape? I'm ready to write a check.INT. BAZOOKO CIRCUS BAR - NIGHTDUKE is standing in the middle of A SEMI-DESTROYED BAZOOKOCIRCUS REVOLVING BAR. Mirrors are broken. People arerecovering from some kind of battle. THE BAR SPINS MADLY.DUKE IS INSANELY WIRED. 3RD MAN Forget it, he just attacked an old man... he took a bite out of the bartender's head! The cops took the ape away. DUKE Goddamnit! What's the bail? I want that ape! I've already reserved two first-class seats on the plane. DUKE (V/O) There was every reason to believe that we had been heading for trouble, that we'd pushed our luck a bit far...INT. WHITE WHALE ON THE STREETS OF LAS VEGAS - NIGHTGONZO SCREAMS ABUSE out of the window at a Ford alongsidethe VOMIT STREAKED WHITE WHALE. DUKE MAKES A SUPERHUMANEFFORT TO STAY ON THE ROAD. GONZO Hey there! You folks want to buy some heroin?In the Ford: TWO COUPLES -- MIDDLE-AGED AMERICAN FACESFROZEN IN SHOCK -- stare straight ahead. GONZO leans out --close to them. 100. GONZO Hey, honkies! Goddamnit, I'm serious. I want to sell you some pure fucking smack!No reaction. GONZO Cheap heroin! This is the real stuff! You won't get hooked. I just got back from Vietnam! This is scag, folks. Pure scag!The lights change. The Ford bolts. DUKE keeps pace withthem. GONZO Shoot! Fuck! Scag! Blood! Heroin! Rape! Cheap! Communist! Jab it right in your fucking eyeballs!The MAN IN THE BACK SEAT suddenly loses control -- enraged,lunges against the glass, trying to get at GONZO. MAN IN CAR You dirty bastards! Pull over and I'll kill you! God damn you! You bastards!INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTBACK IN THE SUITE:The tapes runs: MAN IN CAR ON TAPE You dirty bastards!An ugly squeal of brakes. GONZO ON TAPE Shit, he was trying to bite me! I shoulda maced the fucker!DUKE fast forwards the tape. The TAPE MANGLES -- the soundsski to a halt...DUKE grabs the nearest tool -- uses it to hook out the tape,then realizes... IT'S GONZO'S RAZOR-SHARP FOLDING KNIFE... ACHILLING MOMENT...DUKE turns the knife over... THERE'S A DRIED CRIMSON SPOT ONTHE BLADE... OR IS IT DRIED MASHED POTATOES? 101.READ ON TO FIND OUT! DUKE (remembering) Back door beauty! DUKE (V/O) The mentality of Las Vegas is so grossly atavistic that a really massive crime often slips by unrecognized.DUKE SCRAPS A LITTLE OF THE CRUST -- TASTES IT... DUKE (V/O CONT'D) The possibility of physical and mental collapse is very real... No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...HE HEARS THE SOUNDS OF SOMEONE BEHIND BEATEN UP... VOICE OFF Shit! Faggot! Bastard!EXT. NORTH STAR COFFEE LOUNGE - NIGHTWHACK! SHADOWY FIGURES beat up a MAN -- give him A GOODKICKING. BRUTAL AND UGLY. DUKE (V/O) North Vegas is where you go when you've fucked up once too often on The Strip and when you're not even welcome in the cut-rate Downtown places.PAN to reveal a seedy diner -- THE NORTH STAR CAFE in thebackground. Through the window -- DUKE and GONZO sit at thecounter.INT. NORTH STAR COFFEE LOUNGE - NIGHT DUKE (V/O) The North Star Coffee Lounge seemed like a fairly safe haven from our storms. No hassles, no talk. Just a place to rest and regroup. I wasn't even hungry.GONZO stuffs a hamburger down PAYING NO ATTENTION TO THEBEATING going on outside the window. Duke reads a newspaper. 102. DUKE (V/O) There was nothing in the atmosphere of the North Star to put me on my guard... GONZO (to WAITRESS) Two glasses of ice water with ice.The WAITRESS brings the ice water. DUKE (V/O) She looked like a burnt out caricature of Jane Russell. She was definitely in charge here...GONZO gulps down his glass of water and hands her a napkin. DUKE (V/O) He did it very casually, but I knew that our peace was about to be shattered. DUKE What was that?GONZO shrugs.The WAITRESS stands at the end of the counter with her backto them while she ponders the napkin... She turns. WAITRESS What is this? GONZO A napkin.THE WAITRESS slams the napkin down on the counter. WAITRESS Don't give me that bullshit! I know what it means! You goddamn fat pimp bastard. GONZO That's the name of a horse I used to own. What's wrong with you? WAITRESS You sonofabitch! I take a lot of shit in this place, but I sure as hell don't have to take it off a SPIC PIMP! 103.GONZO GOES VERY VERY STILL AT THIS... DUKE (V/O) Jesus. I thought, what's happening?DUKE picks up the napkin. On it is printed in careful redletters: "BACK DOOR BEAUTY?" DUKE (V/O CONT'D) The question mark was emphasized. WAITRESS (screams) Pay your bill and get the hell out! You want me to call the cops? GONZO Spic pimp?GONZO's hand goes inside his shirt. He PULLS OUT THE RAZOR-SHARP HUNTING KNIFE.GONZO KEEPS HIS EYES ON THE WAITRESS. He walks about sixfeet down the aisle and lifts the receiver of the pay phone.He SLICES IT OFF, then brings the receiver back to his stooland sits down. DUKE (V/O) I was stupid with shock -- not knowing whether to run or start laughing. GONZO (casual) How much is the lemon meringue pie? DUKE (V/O) Her eyes were turgid with fear, but her brain was functioning on some basic motor survival level. WAITRESS (blurting -- on automatic) Thirty-five cents! GONZO (laughing) I mean the whole pie.The WAITRESS MOANS. GONZO places a $5 BILL on the counter. GONZO Let's say five dollars. Okay? 104.GONZO walks round the counter TAKING THE PIE OUT OF THEDISPLAY CASE. DUKE (V/O) The sight of the blade had triggered bad memories. The glazed look in her eyes said her throat had been cut. She was still in the grip of paralysis when we left.DUKE IS ROOTED TO THE SPOT.GONZO urges him out the door. The camera retreats with them.The WAITRESS STANDS THERE -- PETRIFIED. Alone in a lousybar at night.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE - NIGHTDUKE's face as he stares at the knife -- remembering... GONZO (V/O) Drive! Drive! Drive! We have fifteen fucking minutes to get me on that plane!EXT. ROAD ON OUTSKIRTS OF LAS VEGAS - DAYThe WHITE WHALE, looking like shit -- it's TOP HALF UP,TORN, SLAPPING IN THE WIND -- ROARS THROUGH AN INTERSECTIONas the light turns red.DR. GONZO FRANTICALLY PAWS OVER A MAP.DUKE drives -- SILENT AND FURIOUS -- sick to his stomachwith the PSYCHOTIC GONZO. GONZO What are you doing? You were supposed to turn back there! DUKE (V/O) We had abused every rule that Vegas lived by -- burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help. The only chance now, I felt, was the possibility that we'd gone to such excess that nobody in the position to bring the hammer down on us could possibility believe it.DUKE suddenly SLAMS ON THE BRAKES. 105. GONZO Jesus Christ!!!There, crossing the road in front of them, is LUCY -- herpaintings under her arm -- looking lost. SHE LOOKS UP WITHA VAGUE SENSE OF RECOGNITION...DUKE throws the car into a SKIDDING REVERSE TURN AND ROARSOFF.EXT. DESERT ROAD OUTSIDE LAS VEGAS - DAYTHE WHITE WHALE TEARS DOWN THE DESERTED FREEWAY. GONZOlooks wildly around. GONZO Goddamnit! We're lost! What are we doing out here on this godforsaken road?GONZO sees that THEY'RE RUNNING PARALLEL WITH THE AIRPORTRUNWAY. GONZO The airport is over there! DUKE Never missed a plane yet.DUKE HITS THE BRAKES and wrenches the wheel -- takes theWHALE down into the grassy freeway divider. WHEELS CHURNING,HE MAKES IT UP THE OPPOSITE BANK, nose of the car straightup, then BOUNCES ONTO THE FREEWAY and keeps going right OVERA FENCE, dragging it through a cactus field and onto theRUNWAY.GONZO is FROZEN WITH FEAR -- GRIPPING THE DASHBOARD. Hethrows a worried look at DUKE. DUKE I'll drop you right next to the plane.They SPEED UNDER A PARKED AIRPLANE, SHOUTING ABOVE THE JETENGINE SCREAM. GONZO No! I can't get out! They'll crucify me. I'll have to take the blame! 106. DUKE (irritatedly) Ridiculous! Just say you were hitchhiking to the airport and I picked you up. You never saw me before. Shit, this town is full of white Cadillac convertibles. I plan to go through there so fast that nobody will even glimpse the goddamn license plate. You ready? GONZO Why not? But for Christ's sake, just do it fast!EXT. AT THE AIRPLANE - DAYDUKE SCREECHES UP in front of the DESERT AIR 727. GONZOJUMPS OUT -- HEADS FOR THE PLANE.DUKE watches him go -- RELENTS. DUKE Hey!GONZO stops -- turns. DUKE Don't take any guff from those swine. Remember, if you have any trouble you can always send a telegram to the Right People. GONZO Yeah... Explaining my Position. Some asshole wrote a poem about that once...GONZO pauses. GONZO Probably good advice, if you have shit for brains.GONZO turns and RACES TOWARDS THE STEPS JUST AS HE IS ABOUTTO ENTER THE PLANE HE PAUSES AND LOOKS BACK...SMILES...ANDLEANS FORWARD AND VOMITS. DUKE (V/O) There he goes -- one of God's own prototypes -- a high powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die. 107.DUKE watches for a second then ROARS AWAY. PULL BACK WITHTHE WHITE SHARK -- LEAVING THE AIRPLANE FAR BEHIND.INT. FLAMINGO HOTEL SUITE/APOCALYPSE - NIGHTOn the TV an airplane soars thru the sky. Pull back to findDUKE barricaded in GONZO'S BEDROOM. He is typing on histypewriter. DUKE We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously...DUKE records like A WAR CORRESPONDENT. The CAMERA slowlyrises -- DUKE alone in the room with the TV SPEWING OUTIMAGES OF WARS AND CIVIL UNREST OF THE 90'S. DUKE All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create...RISING HIGHER -- THE WALLS OF THE ROOM APPEAR TO BY 20 TO 30FEET HIGH. DUKE SEEMS TO BE AT THE BOTTOM OF A WELL... THECAMERA RISES UP THROUGH BROKEN TIMBERS... DUKE ... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force -- is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.HIGHER STILL -- DUKE ALONE IN THE ROOM -- AN ISOLATED BOXSURROUNDED BY THE TWISTED METAL AND RUBBLE AND SMASHED NEONSIGNS OF THE DEAD CITY -- A BLASTED LANDSCAPE WITHOUTLIGHT -- SHARDS OF A CIVILIZATION. 108.EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - DAYA BURNING FLARED-OUT SUN. The camera pans down to DUKEDRIVING THE WRECKED WHALE. A piece of the fence flies outof the back seat as he takes a bump. DUKE (V/O) There was only one road back to L.A. US Interstate 15, just a flat-out high speed burn through Baker and Barstow and Berdoo, then on to the Hollywood Freeway straight into frantic oblivion: safety, obscurity, just another freak in the Freak Kingdom.DUKE sees THE HARDWARE BARN, A RUSTIC OLD FARM BUILDINGfacing the road with a single gas pump outside and a neonsign that flashes beer. DUKE Ahhh. Wonderful.DUKE PULLS OFF THE ROAD and parks. Gets out and walks in.INT. HARDWARE BARN - BAKER, CALIFORNIA - DAYDUKE enters the DARK, CLUTTERED INTERIOR. Scattered allabout the store are BITS OF AMERICANA... OLD BARRELS, WAGONWHEELS, WOODEN YOKES. A STUFFED HORSE HANGS FROM THERAFTERS. The sunlight shafts through high windows. AN OLDMAN is repairing an iron pot-bellied stove near the woodenbar. A NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTING... ONLY REAL. PROPRIETOR What'll you have?DUKE can't quite believe this place -- too good to be true. DUKE (doubtfully) Ballantine Ale...?THE PROPRIETOR serves the ale up ice cold. DUKE SMILES ANDRELAXES. DUKE Hard to find it served like this anymore.As he drinks, DUKE toys with a rack of key chains -- LITTLEAMERICAN ICONS... A REMINGTON COWBOY, A BUGS BUNNY, A TWEETYPIE, BETTY BOOP, A BASEBALL PLAYER. The logo on the rackreads: AMERICAN DREAM KEY RINGS. 109. PROPRIETOR Where ya comin' from, young man? DUKE Las Vegas. PROPRIETOR A great town, that Vegas. I bet you had good luck there. You're the type. DUKE I know. I'm a triple Scorpio. PROPRIETOR (trustingly) That's a fine combination. You can't lose.A LOVELY GIRL appears. Seeing DUKE, she smiles. CAN THISREALLY BE HIS LUCKY DAY? She approaches him... and...KISSES THE PROPRIETOR. DUKE (caught off guard... muttering) Oh, my God!... PROPRIETOR (not understanding) This is my granddaughter... DUKE (recovering) Don't worry... (leans forward in confidence) ... and I'm actually the District Attorney from Ignoto County. (winks) Just another good American like yourself.A MOMENT. THE PROPRIETOR'S SMILE DISAPPEARS.Wordlessly the PROPRIETOR and his GRANDDAUGHTER go to theback of the store -- GET ON WITH THEIR WORK -- IGNORING DUKE.WHO FEELS ASHAMED.DUKE puts some money down on the bar and SLOWLY LEAVES.EXT. HARDWARE BARN - DAYA CHASTENED DUKE approaches the vomit streaked WHITE WHALE.Gets in -- sits there -- deflated -- miserable... 110.A state bus draws up across from the Hardware Barn.Somberly, DUKE watches as TWO YOUNG MARINES with duffel bagsstep off -- chatting like TRUE BROTHERS...DUKE switches on the ignition. Something rolls off thetrembling dash... DUKE catches it...ONE SINGLE BEAUTIFUL AMYL CAPSULE...DUKE CRACKS THE AMYL -- INHALES. THE RUSH MAKES HIM GASP --TEETH BARED LIKE A MADMAN. DUKE HOLY SHIT!!!DUKE GUNS THE ENGINE with a laugh -- leans out -- YELLS ATTHE MARINES. DUKE GOD'S MERCY ON YOU SWINE!DUKE ROARS AWAY. AN AMERICAN FLAG FLIES UP FROM THE DEBRISIN THE BACK SEAT, MADLY UNFURLING ITSELF AS IT SNAGS ON THECONVERTIBLE-TOP FRAME OF THE TRASHED WHITE WHALE!AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!The TWO MARINES look after him CONFUSED.EXT. DESERT HIGHWAYDUKE drives fast -- TEETH GRITTED IN FROZEN ECSTASY!!DUKE CRANKS UP THE TAPE RECORDER. DUKE (V/O) My heart was filled with joy. I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger... a man on the move... and just sick enough to be totally confident.The WHITE WHALE WIPES THE SCREEN BLACK.AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Feast.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Feast.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..92a339f45bf3e122cdba43192452442dcc864143 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Feast.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FEAST Written by Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunston Revised Draft 5/3/2004 FADE IN: EXT. DESERT -- DAY The white sun beats down on the rocky terrain. There's not a cloud in the blue sky and the wind is at a standstill. Far in the distance, a MEDIUM SIZED FLAT-BED TRUCK makes its way to the entrance of a large cavern opening. Two VULTURES perched on a barren tree watch the intruders. EXT. DESERT -- DAY The truck screeches to a dusty stop. Three men in matching coveralls and hard hats jump from the cab: CHIEF (42, stocky, weary), LANKY (32, withered) and COLLEGE BOY (23, clean cut and naive). Chief holds a map and glares into the howling black mouth before them. CHIEF This is it. LANKY Why did it have to be these caves... COLLEGE BOY Is something wrong? LANKY (to College Boy) Don't mind me, buddy. It's nothin'. Chief grabs a flashlight and moves to the back of the truck. The logo on the rear gate reads "WIGWAM WASTE MANAGEMENT." CHIEF Let's get that first barrel. The gate drops revealing their full load of YELLOW BARRELS bearing the familiar BIOHAZARD WASTE symbol. INT. CAVERN -- MOMENTS LATER College Boy and Lanky steer a cart loaded with the first barrel inside. Chief's lone beam of light leads the men. COLLEGE BOY What's with the awkward silence? LANKY You don't know? College Boy shakes his head "no" and they set the cart down. CHIEF Last winter, a man kidnapped a little girl and holed up in one of these caves. The cops had him pinned down and began to move in. This guy started shooting... but he wasn't aiming at the officers... (getting closer) ...he was firing at something inside. College Boy is rapt. CHIEF When the dust cleared, all they found was the little girl's shoes. (beat) With the feet still in 'em. Something GRABS College Boy's ankles, causing him to jump. COLLEGE BOY Ahh!!! Lanky's on his knees, having grabbed him from behind. The two men mockingly laugh. College boy settles, embarrassed. COLLEGE BOY Assholes. CHIEF Hey, relax, I nearly shit myself when my boss pulled that one on me. LANKY I went well beyond nearly. Then, a sound. All eyes turn. CHIEF What was that? COLLEGE BOY Once was plenty, fellas. CHIEF Shhhh... As Chief moves forward, pulling out his pick-axe. Instantly, the cave is illuminated by a white floodlight. A group of GREENPEACE HIPPIE ACTIVISTS stand in the cave, CHAINED TOGETHER at the waist, startling the men into screams. MEAN GREEN (35, crooked glasses on a face that has launched a thousand craps) barks into a MINI BULLHORN that hangs around her neck. She charges towards Chief. MEAN GREEN Stop it right there! You will not rape Mother Nature one more day! Panicked, Chief drops his pick-axe and stumbles back. CHIEF Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! In unison, the hippies start CHANTING. HIPPIE GROUP Mother Nature is not a whore/Don't dump in her any-more/Mother Nature is not a whore/Don't dump in her any- more... A BEARDED CAMERAMAN with a huge KEY RING on his belt, films the whole event. The three men are stopped in their tracks. CHIEF Take it easy! We have a permit! MEAN GREEN (handing a document) And we have an injunction from the State to prevent any dumping in these caverns! This is virgin land! The aqueducts in these caves bring drinking water to our families, and its piping provides drainage for our farms that enrich this barren land! And it won't be tainted by waste of any kind! Not now! Not ever! Chief, shaken, confirms the injunction and hands it back. CHIEF Fine, just back off! He snaps his fingers, motioning to the barrel. CHIEF Let's roll... Now-now-now! Backing away, looking to Mean Green. CHIEF How do you guys always know where we're going? MEAN GREEN (with a smirk) I'll tell ya next time! NOW MOVE IT! Hastily, the men roll the barrel out of the cave. MEAN GREEN Score one for the green team!!! The hippies let out a spirited cheer. One pulls out a tambourine, drums the beat for KUM BI YA. The rest join in the victorious chant as they watch the three men hop in their truck and peel away. BEARDED CAMERAMAN Hey, man, that was righteous, but I need a shot with the sign up. At the end of the human chain, an earthy woman, FUZZY, moves to hang a GREENPEACE sign. Mean Green strokes the cave wall. MEAN GREEN We saved you today, ol' gal. Fuzzy hammers the sign in, but hits too hard, causing a breach in the rock wall. FUZZY Oh, fuck! MEAN GREEN Sister, why do you always swing for the fences? FUZZY (eyeing breach) It's okay, but I... I think I see something in there... something shiny. Fuzzy puts her face up to the hole for a closer look. The rest of the hippie-chain moves in closer. FUZZY Oh my, it looks like diamonds! CHOMP! A set of giant, ravenous teeth bite into Fuzzy's skull. Blood SPLATTERS on the hippies. Bearded Cameraman jumps to pull Fuzzy from the breach. Fuzzy's body is YANKED into the hole. The group tumbles forward. Mean Green tries to stop herself from sliding, but can't. One by one, the hippies are being dragged to their death. Ripping, tearing, and howling echoes off the walls. Bearded Cameraman stumbles back. Mean Green spots him. MEAN GREEN Give me the keys!!! Bearded Camerman just stares at her in shock. He's missing both his arms. Mean Green lunges and grabs Chief's dropped pick-axe. She HAMMERS at the chain around her waist. Foot by foot, she's dragged closer. At the last second, she BREAKS the chain, popping herself free. She spins, running for safety. A guttural HOWL behind her fills the cavern. Mean Green sprints toward the cave opening. She's gonna make it. Only a few more feet. And then... JERK! Something grabs her neck and YANKS her back into the darkness. The whiplash sends her bloody BULLHORN flying into the light. As it lands, it lets out one last weak HONK... CUT TO BLACK: SUPERIMPOSED: BASED ON A TRUE STORY The title SHATTERS... INT. CRASHED CAR -- NIGHT P.O.V. - We frantically EMERGE from the burning wreck... RUN from the crash over desolate prairie land... EXT. BAR -- NIGHT Neon light flashes UNITED NATIONS TAVERN. Laughing and music emanates. Besides the bar, there's nothing around for miles. A 1985, pristine black Pontiac Trans-Am with a Golden Eagle on the hood pulls up. The rear bumper sticker reads "MY OTHER TOY HAS TITS." A weasel-like man with a fat belly and tank-top emerges from the hot rod carrying a VELVET POOL CUE CASE. Freeze on him. NAME: BOZO AGE: 32 JOB: UNEMPLOYED OCCUPATION: TOWN JACKASS LIFE EXPECTANCY: DEAD BY DAWN The rest of the parking lot is scattered with cars and pickup trucks. Bozo lazily makes his way to the bar and pushes through the front entrance -- INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Bozo passes a man dressed in a cheap suit and standing well over six foot five with frazzled black hair and olive skin. Talking with a thick Greek accent, he pleads into a pay phone. COACH (into pay phone) They took my laptop with my PowerPoint presentation, my Blackberry, my cell... And to top it off, my car crapped out on the side of the road! I'm not making the conference and I have fourteen leads waiting for me. You gotta help me out here. I'm not kidding, I've have fourteen PRIMO leads waiting in the lobby of the Mariott... MARIOTT... Freeze on him. NAME: COACH AGE: 42 OCCUPATION: LIFE COACH & MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER FUN FACT: OFTEN CALLED THE GREEK TONY ROBBINS LIFE EXPECTANCY: STAY FAR, FAR AWAY CLICK. The pay phone goes dead. COACH Son of a -- (deep breath, soothing) In with anger, out with love. Further into the bar, a man in a wheelchair loads a quarter into an old jukebox, but he is instantly pushed away by Bozo. Freeze on him. NAME: PARA AGE: 29 OCCUPATION: FIREWORKS DEALER COMIC BOOK COLLECTION: RIDICULOUSLY HUGE LIFE EXPECTANCY: THEY WOULDN'T KILL A CRIPPLE... WOULD THEY? Bozo's tank-top reads, "ONLY COOL CHICKS CAN DO ME." PARA (rolling away) Hey... BOZO Shut up, fag. Bozo punches in his selection. EDGY CAT (34, samurai pony tail, don't you dare call him an alcoholic) stands by the bar's POOL TABLE powdering his cue. EDGY CAT (to Bozo) You're late! BOZO Don't dilly-dally then. Rack 'em! The CD spins and an 1980s heavy metal classic KICKS IN. Bozo, mouthing the lyrics, struts away. NOTE: Music plays over all the bar sequences. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - We continue to run. Rapid breathing. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Beer Guy (kinda handsome... just kinda) sets a keg of beer behind the bar. Freeze on him. NAME: BEER GUY AGE: 32 OCCUPATION: BEER GUY/PART-TIME HOST AT RED LOBSTER LIFE EXPECTANCY: WIMPS AND DORKS ARE THE FIRST TO GO... HE'S BOTH He talks with BARTENDER (thinning hair, chiseled face, big earring) who preps a drink. BEER GUY I mean, we'd been together for so long and then... bang! She drops me. Since then, it's been like a damn country song: she's gone, the car's repossessed, and a father figure made a pass at me. I'm not saying I ever had it. But I have definitely lost it. (beat) Now I haul this swill from armpit to armpit. I used to be a model for Christ's sake. Coach has been eavesdropping on Beer Guy and approaches. COACH For what, may I ask? BEER GUY JC Penny. Spring wear. Beer Guy then mimics throwing a sport coat over his shoulder and delivering his "model" cheese smile. COACH You know, Chach, catching you at this low point is pure serendipity. BEER GUY Why is that? COACH Because I take the rubble of man and build superstars. In my briefcase here is a doorway to a self-help sensation. Give me a minute, because I'd like to buy you a drink and change your life forever. I have a brochure -- BARTENDER Save it. We don't deal in pamphlets 'round here. We stick to chemistry. And his drinks are on me. Bartender puts a shot in front of Beer Guy. Behind him, a mounted DEER HEAD is prominently displayed. Freeze on him. NAME: BARTENDER AGE: 50 OCCUPATION: BARTENDER FUN FACT: SHOT 4 TIMES, STABBED 6 TIMES, BIT BY 1 SQUIRREL LIFE EXPECTANCY: READY TO WEAR With Coach stumped, Bartender turns to Beer Guy. BARTENDER Was that the last keg? BEER GUY Yup, one keg of Beast for the basement, then the truck's dry. BARTENDER If you're stayin', move the truck, boss gets pissed about you using primo parking. Beer Guy downs his shot and hoists the lone keg into the waiting keg elevator. BEER GUY Right, 'cause this joint's hopping. He hits a button and the keg slowly lowers to the basement. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - We jump over a bush and crash in the dusty earth. INT. BAR -- NIGHT A glass of beer slides down the bar. A hand GRABS it and puts it on a tray. The woman is pretty though haggard, stained apron and dirty blond hair. Freeze on her. NAME: TUFFY AGE: 25 OCCUPATION: CAREER WAITRESS FUN FACT: SERVED 100 HOURS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE FOR ILLEGAL DUMPING OF MANURE... IN EX-HUSBAND'S CAR LIFE EXPECTANCY: BADASS-IN-WAITING Tuffy carries the tray toward a table. She passes a TV mounted on the wall. ON TV: A NEWSCASTER, dressed in a coat and tie, talks. NEWSCASTER ...the search for the missing protesters will be further complicated by the unstable conditions of these deep tunnels. Thus far, no sign of life has been detected, yet town officials are still optimistic. Newscaster spins and an ECLIPSE GRAPHIC appears on screen. NEWSCASTER On a brighter note, or should I say a darker note, tomorrow's solar eclipse will bring out adults and children alike for a citywide fair of this metrological event. Stay tuned for our man on the street to take a closer look... INT. BAR -- BASEMENT -- NIGHT Beer Guy pulls the keg from the elevator and places it next to other kegs. A faint conversation brews behind a curtain. BOSS MAN (paunchy, sweaty, ugly) and ROADIE (English accent, light hair, leather skin, thin build) talk shop. BOSS MAN (O.S.) Listen, bud. I got a load ready to move and your man's not here. ROADIE (O.S.) He's coming. Relax. And if he doesn't show -- BOSS MAN (O.S.) We got a problem. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - We are trucking... labored breathing... INT. BAR -- NIGHT Tuffy moves to a table where ADULTERER (bushy mustache, sweater vest, dress shirt) sits with TRAMPY (designer glasses, hair pulled back, tight blue business suit, closet tramp). Freeze on Trampy. NAME: TRAMPY AGE: 19 OCCUPATION: BANK TELLER MOTTO: THE SHORTER THE SKIRT, THE HIGHER THE RAISE LIFE EXPECTANCY: BETTER THAN ADULTERER TRAMPY He said there was no reason I had to stay a teller and that if I did good work and didn't mess up, I could become an assistant manager within three years. (pause) Can you believe that? ADULTERER That sounds great. Freeze on him. NAME: ADULTERER AGE: 36 OCCUPATION: HIGH SCHOOL P.E. INSTRUCTOR NICKNAME: DR. BLUMPKIN GENITALS: SHAVED LIFE EXPECTANCY: WORSE THAN TRAMPY Adulterer reaches into his pocket to pay the tab, but he inadvertently pulls out his hidden WEDDING RING. TRAMPY That sounds like bullshit! I could be an assistant manager at The Lake Arrowhead Casino for knowing the fuckin' alphabet to G! I'll be twenty in three months... The damning wedding band falls and bounces. As it rolls, Tuffy, Trampy and Adulterer watch. The ring stops, standing still on its side. Trampy seethes as she chooses which obscenity to deliver. Adulterer slides a wad of cash to Tuffy. ADULTERER Just bring the whole bottle. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - Sprinting and wheezing. The bar lights are ahead. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Tuffy walks back over to the bar adding Adulterer's cash to a fat roll of money. BELLE (stringy blond hair, cute face, brand-spanking new employee) looks up with surprise. Freeze on her. NAME: BELLE AGE: 21 OCCUPATION: WAITRESS GOAL: PLAY BELLE IN STAGE VERSION OF "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" LIFE EXPECTANCY: SAME ODDS AS PLAYING BELLE IN STAGE VERSION OF "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" BELLE If I could made that kind of money, I'd be in Hollywood next week. Boss Man walks by and nods to Tuffy, making his way to the rickety side-staircase to the SECOND FLOOR. Tuffy grinds her teeth and moves to the staircase. TUFFY 'Round here, there are ways. Boss Man winks at Belle. Pure sleaze. Freeze on him. NAME: BOSS MAN AGE: 47 OCCUPATION: BAR OWNER MOTTO: IF THERE'S GRASS IN THE FIELD, PLAY BALL LIFE EXPECTANCY: REGULAR OR EXTRA-CRISPY? EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - Running, approaching the distant bar... INT. BAR -- NIGHT Bozo looks grimly at a pile of CASH on the ledge of the pool table. Edgy Cat sinks the eighth shot of a NINE BALL game. EDGY CAT That cash is gonna look much better in my pocket. BOZO (re: mounted head) Ya know, that deer only looks scared when you're in the room. Para rolls up behind Edgy. PARA Excuse me, please. EDGY CAT Jesus! Edgy looks to Para, distracted. Bozo quickly replaces the WHITE CUE BALL with one hidden in his waistline. EXT. BAR -- NIGHT P.O.V. - The bar's a quarter mile away. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Para's chair back aims at the pool table pocket of which Edgy Cat is lining up for the winning shot. EDGY CAT That's all she wrote... SMACK! The nine ball sinks in the pocket, the cue ball ricochets away as intended. Para flips a switch under his wheelchair's arm rest. The cue ball strays ODDLY into the pocket near Para. Scratch. EDGY CAT What?! BOZO Ohhh, now that's a rough one. EDGY CAT That's motherfuckin' impossible! BOZO (crude Oriental accent) Yoh anga will be yoh downfah. Go again? EDGY CAT Goddamn it! NO! BOZO Oh, come on. Crape Diem! Bozo takes the cash from the table. Edgy Cat sulks away cursing to himself and moves to the bar. Roadie looks on, sipping a beer. Freeze on Roadie. NAME: ROADIE AGE: 38 OCCUPATION: BAND ROADIE FUN FACT: TOURED WITH BON JOVI... SLIPPERY WHEN WET ERA LIFE EXPECTANCY: A FEW DOG YEARS EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - Still running. The bar is getting closer. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Bozo HITS the table of GRANDPA (elderly, white hair, bushy white mustache) and GRANDMA (curly white hair, glasses). Freeze on them. NAMES: GRANDPA AND GRANDMA AGES: 88 AND 86 OCCUPATION: RETIRED FUN FACT: BEEN TOGETHER SINCE THE DEPRESSION LIFE EXPECTANCY: THEY DON'T BUY GREEN BANANAS BOZO Wake up! Check your pants! GRANDPA Get outta here. BOZO (mocking) What's that? Wha'cha say? Huh? (to Grandma) How much for the whole night, Grandma? GRANDMA You should be so lucky. GRANDPA (re: his fists) This one will stun ya, but this one will put ya to sleep. BOZO Whoa! Bozo approaches OLD VET (52, long hair with bandanna, dirty beard) HARLEY MOM, (45, bruiser, grizzled, tough as a saddle) and DRUNK GUY at the bar. The sad trio toss peanut shells into three nearby tall, fat peanut barrels. BOZO You boys wanna try your luck at the loot? Harley mom is offended. Not a word from the others. BOZO Come on, I'll even throw with my left hand. He turns in disappointment. BOZO Nothin' but a bunch of butts and pussies in here! EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT P.O.V. - The bar is close -- we leap a ditch. INT. BAR -- NIGHT KRASH! Belle DROPS a tray full of drinks behind the bar. BELLE Shit! Shit! Shit! BARTENDER Don't sweat it, just clean it up before he's done. He points up to the second floor. INT. BAR -- SECOND FLOOR -- NIGHT Tuffy's son CODY (7, innocent, cute) sits on the floor watching TV. Freeze on him. NAME: CODY AGE: 7 OCCUPATION: TAX BREAK LIFE EXPECTANCY: A WONDERFUL, FULL LIFE Tuffy puts headphones over his ears. TUFFY Keep these on, sweetheart. CODY Mommy, I want Nemo. TUFFY Mommy's working on it. Tuffy kisses him and then moves to an adjacent room. ADJACENT ROOM Tuffy enters the room and takes off her blouse exposing her breasts. She pulls up her skirt and bends over a bedpost. TUFFY Let's get this over with. Boss Man walks up naked, except for red cowboy boots. BOSS MAN I love a woman with enthusiasm. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Bozo walks to the middle of the room. BOZO I got two hundred bucks says none of you can beat me! BARTENDER Hey! Get quiet or get out. BOZO C'mon guys -- EXT. BAR -- NIGHT P.O.V. - Hurtling toward the double doors and -- INT. BAR -- NIGHT BOZO Gimme some ACTION -- BOOM! The double doors to the bar are kicked open by HERO (30s, rugged alpha man built to kick ass). KRASH! Belle DROPS a second tray of drinks -- MUSIC CUTS OUT Hero is scraped, bruised and bloodied. He is dressed in blue denim and holds a RUST-RED SHOTGUN and GUNNY SACK. He SLAMS the double doors shut and props a chair against the handles, securing them. HERO Unless you people want to die you'll do what I say and you'll do it fast! Bartender cocks his SHOTGUN. BARTENDER You hold it right there, mister. HERO A storm of hell's coming down on this place any minute! BARTENDER Drop the canon! Hero puts down the shotgun and moves towards Bartender. HERO I'm not armed now, just hear me out. BARTENDER I'll drop you and not even think about it! HERO Let me explain! BARTENDER You got one second to -- Hero reveals a drool-dripping, white, GRANDPA BEAST HEAD from the gunny sack and holds it out and for all to see. HERO Take a good look and listen to me! There's at least a four of these things out there! Grandpa Beast's head has large red eyeballs and a mouth full of jagged, ivory white teeth. It is like an albino jackal head with spiked hair. HERO I saw one of them tear up five men like they were corn on the cob! (off silence, shock) I don't know what they are. I don't know where they came from. All I do know is that these fuckers are fast, nasty, and hungry. The bar stares at him, slack-jawed. HERO And they can fly. Not to mention they got claws like Ginsu knifes and more teeth than a chainsaw. The Bartender lowers his shotgun slightly. Fast as a snake, Hero GRABS it. He notices the engraving, "THE JUDGE." HERO They're like goddamn blood hungry biker tattoos come to life. They're clocking us. Right now. And we have to lock this bar down! (moving around) That means doors, windows, drains, and basements. We have to do it fast! Hero looks out the lone front window. HERO (looks to Belle) You! Get on that phone. Call the cops, National Guard, townies, whoever kicks ass and get 'em out here. Belle moves to a pay phone at the end of the bar. HERO Any questions? BARTENDER Who are you? HERO I'm the hero -- CRASH! A white Beast arms BURSTS through the window and SPLITS Hero right down the middle. The Judge FIRES into the ceiling -- SECOND FLOOR The Judge's blast blows a toe off Boss Man's RIGHT FOOT as he reaches climax with Tuffy. Boss Man HOLLERS. MAIN BAR Hero's right half is JERKED outside through the window. Blood sprays. Rapid chomping. CRASH! The double doors are kicked open, splintering the propped up chair. HEROINE (Native American, rugged, ripped pants, wickedly hot) rushes in, slams the doors shut and instinctively kicks up the RUST RED SHOTGUN. She flips it sideways and slides the metal weapon through the handles of the double doors, securing them. BAM! A massive HIT slams into the doors from the outside sending Heroine SLIDING across the floor. She SPRINGS to her feet and drives her weight into a table attempting to hoist it over the now open window. HEROINE HELP ME! SOMEBODY! Old Vet and Harley Mom rush to Heroine's aid. They raise the table to cover the gaping hole. Heroine looks outside. HEROINE GET DOWN! A BEAST nails the rising table, just missing Heroine's face. The table falls, pinning Heroine. JUNIOR BEAST enters. He's small and too fast to see well. He SWIPES the heads off Old Vet and Harley Mom. Bartender grabs The Judge, but he's SCRATCHED down the back. Junior Beast rips out the pay phone. Knocks over the TV. Yanks out half of Trampy's hair. Edgy Cat CHARGES the spastic monster with a stool. EDGY CAT I got you! Edgy Cat misses. Junior Beast sends him FLYING into a wall. BLAM! BLAM! Bartender FIRES The Judge at the creature hitting lights instead. An errant shot destroys Edgy Cat's face. Para covers as Junior Beast RIPS the back of his wheelchair. Roadie WHACKS Junior Beast with a chair. Stunned, it flies across the room, landing in a metal ICE COOLER. Bozo SLAMS it closed, capturing Junior Beast. BOZO Got 'cha! EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Shadows of THREE SHRIEKING BEASTS close in on the window... INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Bartender runs across the bar and SLAMS shut the thick wood shutters. The Beasts HIT, cracking the middle. Roadie power lifts the table with Heroine and braces it against the window for reinforcement, but a FURRY ARM busts through and grabs the other half of Hero. HEROINE Goddamn you! Blood starts to SPRAY from outside as the rest of Hero is being devoured through the smallish hole. Heroine works a GOLD RING off of Hero's ring finger. The feeding MOMMA BEAST'S head breaks in through the hole. It grabs Heroine's left forearm. Bartender aims The Judge at the Beast... ROADIE You'll hit her! Roadie KNOCKS The Judge up -- BLAM! SECOND FLOOR The Judge's shotgun blast blows off another toe on Boss Man's RIGHT FOOT. He cries out in agony. MAIN BAR Heroine spins and buries a splintered piece of the broken chair into the ATTACKING MOMMA BEAST'S RIGHT EYE. The Beast SCREECHES and jerks back, dragging the rest of Hero outside. Heroine clutches the ring. Shrieks and flapping wings are heard outside. They dissipate. A moment of calm. Belle timidly holds the receiver of the busted pay phone. The other patrons emerge from under tables and other hiding spaces in various states of shock. Junior Beast has momentarily stopped moving. Bozo secures the lid with a nearby PADLOCK. BOZO What the FUCK was that? Wild-eyed and with a trembling hand, Heroine pours herself a shot from the bar. She downs it and takes a long breath. HEROINE The jungle has a new king. Freeze on her. NAME: HEROINE AGE: 27 OCCUPATION: SURVIVOR LIFE EXPECTANCY: HOPEFULLY LONGER THAN THE LAST HERO CUT TO: Pan and scan over various NEWSPAPER HEADINGS with pictures and newsreel footage that read: "EDWARDS, CALIFORNIA 1940: HIKING CLUB MAULED BY BEARS" "LOCKHART, CALIFORNIA 1948: BRUSH FIRE DEMOLISHES RURAL COMMUNITY, DOZENS MISSING" "HI-VISTA, CALIFORNIA 1956: UNIVERSITY ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG BURIED IN MINE SHAFT COLLAPSE" "PEARBLOSSOM, CALIFORNIA 1964: AVALANCHE BLAMED FOR MISSING HORSEBACK RIDERS" "SALTDALE, CALIFORNIA 1972: MUDSLIDE CLAIMS LOCAL BROWNIE TROOP EARNING COURAGE BADGES" "GARLOCK, CALIFORNIA 1980: ELDERLY TOUR GROUP WASHED AWAY BY FLASH FLOOD" "CALTIL, CALIFORNIA 1988: SINKHOLES DEMOLISH A STRING OF CABINS, SEVERAL FAMILIES PERISH" "WILSONA GARDENS, CALIFORNIA 1996: GAS LEAK EXPLOSION DESTROYS HILLSIDE COMMUNITY" CUT TO: INT. BAR -- NIGHT There is a HOLLER at the top of the stairs. Everyone turns. BOSS MAN Is it clear?! BARTENDER Yeah. BOSS MAN Is there a gun pointing at you? BARTENDER Nah, I got the gun. Boss Man hobbles down the stairs with the help of Tuffy. His foot is a bloody mess. He is holding a .38. BOSS MAN Alright goddamn it! Who shot me!? Who did it!? Belle and Bartender move to his aid. BOSS MAN My goddamn foot is gone! Who fuckin' shot me? Who fuckin' shot me!? BARTENDER (motioning to Heroine) Her fella. HEROINE My husband... BOSS MAN Well, where's the sonuvabitch!? HEROINE He's dead. BOSS MAN What? (noticing destruction) What the hell happened down here?! Boss Man looks to Bozo. BOZO I didn't do it! It was fuckin' monsters, asshole! BOSS MAN Jesus Christ on the cross... someone make sense. HEROINE Easy. We're surrounded by something the likes none of you have ever seen before. Some kind of animals. Real fast, volatile, predators. One went through three of your patrons like nothing. BOSS MAN So, your dead hubby shot me twice, three of my customers have been eaten, and there are angry creatures outside? HEROINE He only shot you once. BOSS MAN Huh? HEROINE (re: Bartender) He shot you the other time. BARTENDER It was an accident. Sorry. Boss Man squints skeptically. Adulterer points to GRANDPA BEAST'S HEAD on the bar. ADULTERER Look at it! BOSS MAN Fan-fuckin-tastic. TUFFY My god... what is that? HEROINE That's one piece of four problems. BOSS MAN Please elaborate. HEROINE That head over there, that's the oldest of the bunch, looked like the Grandpa. We caught the little one, Junior, in the cooler there. As we've seen, what he lacks in size he more than makes up for in speed. BARTENDER And the rest of 'em? HEROINE Unfortunately, the worst of 'em are still outside. NOTE: As Heroine describes each beast, we see a slight glimpse of their virtues, hidden mainly by shadows and fog. HEROINE The next one is taller, but all out of proportion. Like a "teen beast." EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT TEEN BEAST has a big head and awkward body. He clumsily moves and seems uncomfortable in his own skin. HEROINE (V.O.) He was spastic, clumsy, but deadly just the same. INT. BAR FRONT -- NIGHT Heroine tends to her scratched arm. HEROINE I just took the eye out of the mother. She calculates, guiding the attacks. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT MOMMA BEAST flashes out from the dark. She's shorter than Teen, but much wider. She has a big mouth and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOBS that hang down to her waist. She covers her stabbed right eye and SCREECHES. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Heroine taps her right eye. HEROINE If you are face to face with her, dive left. ROADIE And the last one is the -- HEROINE Father. The biggest, the strongest... EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- NIGHT A blur of muscles, bloody fur, and teeth. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS The entire bar stares at Heroine with their mouths agape. HEROINE No sign of any weaknesses. No sign at all. He's an eating machine. COACH Of all the friggin' bars to be stuck in. HEROINE That's not it. Four are here, but there's three others... which I can't account for. Heroine eyes the room. HEROINE We need to lock this place down. Is everyone in this room? TUFFY Oh my god! My son! My SON! Tuffy races toward the staircase to the SECOND FLOOR. HEROINE Wait! Tuffy is halfway up the stairs. TUFFY Cody! Mommy's coming! Mommy's coming! HEROINE Stop her! BARTENDER Hey! SECOND FLOOR Tuffy BURSTS through the door. Cody sits by the TV, unmoved. CODY Mommy -- Tuffy pulls Cody into her arms. Heroine and Bartender halt to guard the doorway. Heroine spots a SMALL PORTAL WINDOW. TUFFY Oh sweetheart! What was I thinking? Mommy is never gonna let you go! HEROINE Let's lock off this room. TUFFY (moving to exit) Never, ever, never. Never, ever, never, baby. I love you -- SMASH! Papa Beast BURSTS through the portal window and RIPS Cody's torso from Tuffy's grasp. Tuffy holds his DANGLING ARMS. Blood sprays everywhere. TUFFY NOOOOOOOO! Papa Beast LUNGES at Tuffy! Bartender SHOOTS, nailing Papa Beast. He hisses, but can't fit through the small window. Bartender aims again for a kill shot, but Papa Beast projectile vomits Cody's remains at Bartender. Papa Beast retracts out the portal window. Heroine SLAMS the wood shutters closed. Tuffy drops Cody's arms. Bug-eyed. She moves, zombie-like, to the staircase. Bartender follows, covered in Papa Beast's bile. Heroine locks the staircase door shut. HEROINE Damn it. MAIN BAR Beer Guy stares at the bile covered Bartender. BEER GUY Oh god... He hands him a towel. Tuffy slowly walks towards the rest of the patrons. The blood on her face and chest tells them what happened. The horror hits home. Heroine eyes the destroyed phone. COACH (to Tuffy) Are you -- Heroine puts a hand up to silence Coach. HEROINE Just let her be... please. (beat) Is that the only phone? Bartender emerges from the back holding a mess of plastic and wires. BARTENDER The back phone is wrecked, too. Trampy's eyes light up and she digs through her purse. BELLE This is really happening. I can't believe this is really happening. Grandpa and Grandma have calmly re-taken their seats. GRANDPA What'd you say? GRANDMA I didn't say anything. Bartender hesitantly tosses a wash towel over the Grandpa Beast head at the end of the bar. Para is awkwardly trying to fix the back of his wheelchair. Belle moves over to help and sees a mess of wires coming from the wheelchair's back rest. PARA Thank you, but I don't need any help -- BELLE What's this? A power magnet or something? PARA No. It's nothing. Belle puts together his scam with a smirk. BELLE I didn't peg you for a con man. PARA Hey, it pays more than the couch. BELLE Lots of stuff around here does. Trampy pulls out a CELLULAR PHONE from her purse. TRAMPY Here! The group looks over. Adulterer GRABS it. TRAMPY Hey! ADULTERER Back off! Beer Guy walks from behind the bar. BEER GUY So, what now? Did those things leave? BOZO Why don't you go check it out? BEER GUY Fuck no. ADULTERER (into cell phone) I have a signal! I have -- Diane? Diane listen to me... get the kids and get in the basement... do it right now... Trampy stares with grief in her eyes. ADULTERER I'll explain later. Not now! I'm at a bar... look... shut up! JUST SHUT UP AND GET IN THE FUCKING BASEMENT, DIANE! Diane! Diane?... Hello? Damn it! I lost the signal! Adulterer looks at the phone a bit dazed. ADULTERER Okay. Okay. Look now, I gotta get outta here! I gotta go! My wife... See my wife is alone... She could be in trouble. I GOTTA GO! He moves towards the front door. Heroine moves into his path. HEROINE I wouldn't do that. Adulterer, violently grabs Heroine to shove her away. ADULTERER Fuck you, bitch! Heroine nails Adulterer with THREE HITS to the chin, throat and chest, flipping him to the floor. She pulls a KNIFE from her belt buckle and has it under Adulterer's chin. HEROINE You can risk your life, but not mine! My daughter's no more than twenty miles from here waiting for me. I have just as much reason to leave this place as you do. But I also know that if they're here, then they're not there yet. Adulterer squirms. HEROINE You understand me? ADULTERER Get the fuck off... HEROINE You understand me!? ADULTERER Yes! HEROINE Now pull that tough boy shit again and I'll slice you from neck to nuts! Adulterer nods obediently. Heroine removes the knife from his neck and plants it back into her buckle. ADULTERER You can't keep me here. This is bullshit. Fuckin' bullshit. This is fucking BULLSHIT! HEROINE We can't risk letting them in. ADULTERER (trembling, pissed) Right. Adulterer takes his seat. He looks over at the half bald Trampy. She looks at him, hurt. At the bar, Bozo puts the TV back into place, he jiggles with some wires in the back, bringing back the picture. BOZO Anything? PARA Yeah, you got it. The bar takes notice. Trampy, cell phone in hand, paws through a phone book as she watches the broadcast. BELLE See! This has to be isolated. That's a local broadcast. ON TV: The Newscaster reads the teleprompter. NEWSCASTER And now, we head to our man on the scene with a live look at tomorrow's event in Red Mountain. Heroine eagerly looks on, moving closer to the TV. HEROINE My daughter's in Red Mountain. ON TV: There is an awkward pause from the Newscaster. The broadcast doesn't cut to the reporter. NEWSCASTER Can you hear us? Apparently we're having some technical difficulties... Heroine sinks in her skin. HEROINE Oh no. NEWSCASTER Oh, there we go! ON TV: A REPORTER, in an even worse suit, stands in a field with several people looking through telescopes. REPORTER That's right, the crowds are lining up early to witness tomorrow's meteorological phenomenon. Heroine sighs a gust of relief. REPORTER But always remember, don't look straight into the sun because a special filter is needed to avoid damaging your cornea. The Reporter beams. REPORTER And we're all looking forward to it tomorrow. Back to you. In the studio, the Newscaster smirks. NEWSCASTER Thank you. And in other news... Roadie points to the TV. ROADIE That studio's local, we can call in. BOSS MAN I have a short wave radio upstairs. Trampy is already dialing on the cell. TRAMPY I'm calling them... it's ringing! ROADIE They'd have a police scanner. TRAMPY (into cell) Hello? Yes, we're at the United -- ON TV: the Newscaster continues his routine. NEWSCASTER ...it has been reported that the power outage -- A Beast arm REACHES in and TEARS off Newscaster's jaw. The bar gasps in horror as his blood sprays. ZAP! The broadcast cuts out, turning to static. Trampy screams and DROPS the cell, SHATTERING on impact. TRAMPY Oh no! Oh fucking no! Heroine, tense, quells the rising panic. HEROINE Keep it together! I came from the east. That studio is south of here. For all we know, north and west are okay. ROADIE An associate of mine was coming in from the north, ain't heard a word from him in hours. HEROINE So, that leaves the west. Tuffy looks up from a booth, clearing her throat. TUFFY And Red Mountain. Your daughter. Heroine looks over, making eye contact. HEROINE Right. BEER GUY This is goddamn depressing. At the door, Heroine slides a thick metal pole through the double door handles and takes out the Rust Red shotgun. BOSS MAN I've got some tools and extra planks in the kitchen, if we're on the same page here. HEROINE Let's work. INT. BAR -- NIGHT The last board is hammered into place as the survivors back away from the now re-enforced bar. BARTENDER We'll it ain't pretty... BOSS MAN But its got teeth. BAM-BAM-BAM! Junior Beast bangs around in the ice cooler. BOZO I think it's hungry again. HEROINE We have to kill it. (to Boss Man) Can you help? Boss Man hobbles over to the cooler and aims his .38. Junior Beast goes wild, trying to get out. BOSS MAN Fire in the hole! Bullets rip through the cooler. Junior squeals. More shots. Casings hit the ground. Smoke rises. Bozo leans in. BOZO I think we got -- RAH! A tiny white arm fires out from the cooler GRABBING Bozo's leg. Bozo yelps. Moving quick, Tuffy grabs The Judge from Bartender and shoves the barrel into a hole. BLAM! Guts splatter. Bozo falls back unscathed. He catches his breath and looks to Tuffy. She is born again, seething. TUFFY You're welcome. She hands the shotgun back to Bartender. TRAMPY Jesus, it took all that? All those bullets? How can we possibly fight off the others? HEROINE Aim for their orifices. Eyes, ears and mouth. From what I've seen, it's their only weakness. ROADIE (looking at the corpse) Looks like they're soft on the inside like any other animal. Trick is to get in there and do the damage. BELLE Maybe we don't have to fight them. BOZO Right, let's just call 'em names. Coach steps forward, poised to make the sale. COACH Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention. The bar skeptically eyes the large, sweaty Greek man. COACH We have to think outside the box here. We don't need to fight them, we need to scare them. Scare them right back. This is a species stand- off. We just need to show them we're not vulnerable. That we're formidable. ADULTERER How? COACH I need a stick. Bartender opens the cooler's lid and carefully pulls out Junior Beast with salad tongs. It falls to the floor with a SPLAT. Coach grabs a splintered broomstick. COACH Stand back. He buries the broomstick into Junior's side and carries the limp carcass towards a covered hole in the wall. COACH Let's get that board down. Roadie pries off a board to reveal a pumpkin sized hole. HEROINE What are you doing? Coach shoves Junior's mangled body through to the outside. COACH Showing superiority. The scent of their dead may drive them away. The whole bar moves to the side wall to see how the Beast family will react. They look through SMALL HOLES, barely able to see anything. BEER GUY I don't see them. COACH Come on. Come onnnnnn. BELLE Is there a call, or something? BOZO See that you monkey fucks! That's what you get when you mess with us! Woman or man, I don't give a fuck! Shit don't make me gay because you'll be sucking my dick! Bozo's insult hangs in the air. PARA Sweet... P.O.V - THROUGH SMALL HOLES WHOOSH! Junior is swiped from the handmade pike. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Coach jerks back. The startled group tries to focus, but it's too dark outside. With the moon as the only light, Father Beast can barely be made out cradling his dead child. Silhouettes of the other family members slowly approach Junior. Papa Beast is gentle and it's almost endearing. BEER GUY It's working. I think it's working. COACH You see? What I tell you? The whole group starts to ease. Then... Papa Beast HOLLERS. P.O.V. - THROUGH SMALL HOLES Papa Beast lets out a HORRID WAIL. The group jumps back, covering their ears. Then, something really odd happens. Momma tosses Junior in the air, opens her wide jaws and SWALLOWS HIM WHOLE. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Adulterer's eyes widen. ADULTERER Good christ! They're cannibals! COACH Oh dear... P.O.V. - THROUGH SMALL HOLES Papa Beast moves behind Momma Beast and grabs hold of her. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS A steady "thud-thud-thud" rhythm vibrates the bar. Grandpa's drink starts to hop to edge of his table with the beats. The group maneuvers to get a better look. TRAMPY Oh... my... god. PARA What are they doing now? P.O.V. - THROUGH SMALL HOLES Yes, Momma Beast and Papa Beast are having MONSTER SEX. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS BOZO Dude, they're humpin'! P.O.V. - THROUGH SMALL HOLES Unlike humans, Papa Beast finishes and the birth cycle lasts all of thirty seconds. Momma Beast's belly balloons up and she squats. POP! A SLIMY OBJECT the size and shape of a vacuum cleaner drops from her. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Trampy VOMITS. P.O.V. - THROUGH SMALL HOLES The slimy object SPLITS in half. The two halves spring appendages and raise their heads. The TWIN SISTER BEASTS have been born. Papa moves forward and cleans off his new baby girls. The Beast Girls look at the bar and hiss in unison. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Heroine's eyes bulge. HEROINE Get back! SLAM-SLAM! The two hissing Beast Girls strike the bar front. Roadie shoves that board back over the hole. Beer Guy is holding back the still heaving Trampy's hair. BOZO Any more ideas, Animal Planet? COACH I-I-I was just being proactive... BEER GUY (to Bozo) Hey, you weren't helpin'! BOZO Go douche. BARTENDER What the hell now? ADULTERER We're stuck in here. That's what. Bozo pops open a beer off the back of Para's wheelchair. Roadie nods to Grandpapa Beast's head on the end of the bar. ROADIE Hey, Miss? Heroine turns. ROADIE If you don't mind me asking, how did you run into these things? BOSS MAN More importantly, how did you run away from these things? HEROINE Well, it all started about forty hours ago... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- EVENING The orange sun melts into the horizon. INT. FARMHOUSE -- CONTINUOUS Hero and his overweight friend TUBBS (35, hard living career farm hand) laugh at a TV show while Heroine paces on the telephone in the background. HEROINE (into phone) So, how is staying with Grandma working out? Ya know, if you stare into her glasses, you can see what cards she is holding. But I didn't tell you that. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- CONTINUOUS There's a home on the horizon with a big barn next to it. Shrieking and flapping grows in the distance. INT. FARMHOUSE -- CONTINUOUS Heroine starts to peek out of the window. HEROINE Mommy will pick you up tomorrow night, okay baby? The phone cuts out. HEROINE Hello? Charlie? Heroine and Hero look at each other with concern. Hero looks out the window. HERO Holy mother of... INT. BAR -- NIGHT Heroine has the group mesmerized. HEROINE We barricaded ourselves in the cellar. Then it was just listening. We heard those things destroy an entire heard of livestock. They just kept coming. Closer and closer, consuming anything in the way. Slashing, feeding and licking the bones clean. Just when we said our prayers, the first ray of sun hit the house... EXT. FARMHOUSE -- MORNING PLOP! A HORSE'S HEAD falls as Heroine and her companions peek out from the damaged cellar door. INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE That first beam of sunlight drove 'em away. Somewhere. We called who we could and then decided to run for it. We didn't see a soul the whole drive out. When the tank went dry, we came upon a gas station to refill. EXT. PRAIRIE LAND -- LATE DAY The sun is falling into the horizon. The traveler's CAMARO pulls into a small gas station EXT. GAS STATION -- CONTINUOUS Heroine goes up to the service window with Tubbs and looks inside. Nobody. There is a slight BUZZING from inside. Hero hollers from the fuel pump by the car. HERO What's goin' on? The pumps are off. TUBBS There's nobody here -- She follows the buzzing sound to a corner of the room. There is a swarm of black flies crawling over half a STATION ATTENDANT'S gutted torso. HEROINE They've been here! HERO Turn on the pump! Glass shatters as Heroine reaches inside to turn on the pumps. INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE We had no time. All we knew was the sun was dropping and we had to get enough fuel to make it through the night at 90 miles per hour... EXT. GAS STATION -- LATE DAY Hero fills their Camaro. HERO Suck it down you metal bitch. Suck it down. INT. GAS STATION -- CONTINUOUS Heroine and Tubbs hastily grabs food and drinks, ignoring the cash register completely. The sun is setting. EXT. GAS STATION -- CONTINUOUS Hero turns as a shrill HISSING comes from the shadows... INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE It happened fast... EXT. GAS STATION -- LATE DAY Heroine and Tubbs emerge from the gas station shop. HERO Move it! Heroine and Tubbs hear the growing cries of the Beasts. Their loot hits the pavement as they run. HERO Get in the car, baby. Hero drops the spilling gas nozzle. Tubbs slides into the back as Heroine jumps into the driver's seat. Hero runs over the top of the Camaro and slides into the sunroof. He grabs a rifle and aims toward the leaking gas pool. Something rises in the gas station. INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE That's when I saw three others... just for a second. EXT. GAS STATION -- SUNSET Three lean, muscular shapes rise from the shadows. HERO Roll! Heroine fires up the car and tears out. Hero shoots and the station becomes a FIREBALL. INT. CAMARO -- CONTINUOUS HEROINE Close the roof! Hero lowers into the back seat and starts to close the roof as STRIPPED COUSIN BEAST lands on top of the car... HERO Shit! Stripped Cousin Beast PUNCHES through the back window, reaching for them. Heroine jerks the wheel. The car 180's and the Beast sails off of the car into darkness. The Camaro tears down a tangent dirt road. HERO We made it! Hero reaches back to give a "five" to Tubbs. Tubbs doesn't respond. Heroine is the first to see Tubbs' quivering, HEADLESS body in the back seat. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Heroine stands near Grandpa Beast's head. HEROINE It must have smelled the blood or something. We buried the body and got back on the main road when... INT. CAMARO -- NIGHT BOOM! Grandpa Beast LANDS on the front hood of the Camaro. Heroine and Hero SCREAM and rev the engine, swerving madly as Grandpa Beast VOMITS on the windshield. HERO Break! Heroine slams on the breaks. Grandpa Beast slides back, holding onto the grill. HERO Go! Go! Go! Grandpa Beast tears into the engine through the grill as sparks and smoke shoot out. Heroine jerks the steering wheel. HERO Look out! INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE And that's how I ended up here. BARTENDER And the head? INT. CAMARO -- NIGHT The car crashes into a ditch, DECAPITATING Grandpa Beast. His head FIRES through the windshield, landing on Heroine's lap. Its snake-like tongue lashes out at Heroine's crotch. INT. BAR -- NIGHT HEROINE I don't want to talk about that. BARTENDER So, your husband ditched you? HEROINE No. It was wild out there. No time to think. We just moved. He didn't leave me. He just ran. BARTENDER Well, justice is funny. Para wheels over to a COUNTY MAP on the side wall. ROADIE The three from the gas pump are over at the TV station? And you say there's four here, huh? HEROINE It appears so. COACH There's five here now, actually. BOZO Yeah, thanks for that. PARA (to Heroine) Hey, you lived on a farm, right? HEROINE Yeah. ADULTERER Do you think they're gone? I haven't heard anything for a while, maybe they're gone. BELLE Well, maybe they migrate? HEROINE As long as it's dark, they're around. They hide, wait for you to drop your guard, and then attack. TRAMPY How can you be so sure? You said yourself this started a day ago. HEROINE We learned fast. BOZO We? We learned fast? You are all that is left of we. No offense Pocohantas, but I think someone else should play "Chief" tonight. Someone that knows the lay of the land. (beat) Like me. HEROINE Fine. Para stares intently at the map. Adulterer moves over to the window that has shutters over it, peeking through a hole. ADULTERER Maybe these things are like locusts or something and only come out for a few days to feed. This could just be a part of their life cycle. BELLE Somebody's gotta know something about these things. This stuff just doesn't happen out of the blue. The room is silent. Bozo looks around, quickly moving towards Grandpa and Grandma. BOZO You! GRANDPA Wha? BOZO You gotta know somethin', you're old. GRANDPA I don't know a thing. BOZO Old people know stuff like this. Legends, tall tales, shit like that. GRANDPA No! BOZO Spill it! GRANDPA I don't know anything! BOZO (to Grandma) How 'bout you? Or do I have to get rough? GRANDMA Heavens no! BOZO Come on! Think back! GRANDPA If I throw a stick, will you go away? BOZO That's just horse shit. HEROINE Relax, they don't know anything. BOZO Yeah... allegedly. Bozo saunters off. PARA (to Heroine) Hey, where was your farm? HEROINE (points to map) East. Why? PARA Did you ever slaughter? Slaughter livestock? HEROINE Previous owners did, I think. COACH What are you talking about? PARA Slaughterhouse run-off used to be drained into piping that ran through the mountains. Para points along the map as he explains. PARA Earthquakes often cracked the piping and those flow lines were condemned, but never drained. COACH Cheese n' rice... TRAMPY I still don't get it. PARA What I am saying is... there's a distinct possibility that what we are up against is the result of steady stream of blood and tissue that has been leaking into the caves. And a day ago... something broke out. The group is silent. BOZO The first order of business is gettin' a big fuckin' tampon in that cave! PARA Nope, that wouldn't do it. FROM ADULTERER'S P.O.V. - He peeks out the hole and sees nothing but the dark night. Bartender eyes him. BARTENDER I wouldn't do that. BOZO They're probably on to the next buffet by now. There's a retirement home up the road, they'd be easy pickings. HEROINE (to Adulterer) Careful. ADULTERER I'm telling you, I don't see a thing -- BOINK! Papa Beast's claw POKES into his eye. Adulterer JERKS away holding his blood squirting eye socket. FROM OUTSIDE P.O.V. - The eye sees its owner stumble back and fall to the floor holding his face. INSIDE Coach and Trampy move to help Adulterer. FROM OUTSIDE The eyeball fires into Papa's drooling mega-mouth. SLURP! INSIDE BASH! A Beast arm BURSTS through the side wall and SNAGS Coach's pants and boxers. He screams and lunges forward. He is BOTTOMLESS. HEROINE Everyone stay in the middle of the room! Off the walls! NOW! Everyone obeys her command to get in the middle of the room. Belle hands Coach a little menu to cover himself with. HEROINE Now, does everyone agree that they are still out there? The group nods. HEROINE (to Bozo) 'Eh, Chief? BOZO ...Duh. Trampy holds Adulterer's wounded head. TRAMPY He's out cold. BELLE I know some first aid if we have a kit. Do we? BOSS MAN In the kitchen, under the sink. HEROINE No one goes anywhere alone. Least of all, unarmed. TUFFY (to Coach) There's some sweats in my bag behind the bar. COACH Thanks. Coach heads to the bar. Roadie moves to the map near Para. ROADIE You're a clever man. (re: Bozo) Why do you take shit from him? PARA Yeah, he's an ass, but he's my brother. Que sera-sera. ROADIE Your brother, huh? PARA Yep. ROADIE Same parents? PARA Look man, I read books. He reads bumper stickers. Roadie nods. Heroine jerks a bottle of booze from Beer Guy and tosses it out. HEROINE Alright, we need to stay alert and for everyone to take a role. (to Boss Man) You gotta have some guns or weapons around here. Boss Man, pale and morphine pumped, sits at a table with his foot raised. BOSS MAN I got my .38 here. That's six shots and two refills. Downstairs, I have locker with a sawed-off and some gardening tools. Maybe a few boxes of shells. BARTENDER I got shells, too. Box and a half tops. Machete behind the bar. HEROINE Okay, well that's something. ROADIE So we've got guns, kitchen knives, pipes, fire and sticks. Beer Guy scans the stocked bar wall. BEER GUY I might be able to do something with the bottles. GRANDPA You're gonna need a whole lot more than that to get outta here alive. The crowd turns to face Grandpa and his wife. BOZO Oh, now you have something to say? Grandpa holds on to Grandma's hand as he speaks. GRANDPA You young'uns worry about weapons, I'm thinkin' 'bout strategy. BOZO Oh? And what's that? GRANDPA Sit still, look less like a meal. BOZO That's for bears and sharks, chunky chew. The group looks back to Heroine. HEROINE Alright, what else do we have? Can we somehow contact the outside world? Trampy pensively stays on her fractured phone. TRAMPY I can't get anybody. I don't even know if I have a signal anymore. BEER GUY I have a CB in my truck, we could get some help out here. BARTENDER Who the hell would you call? BEER GUY Anyone. BOZO Do you drive a short beer bus or something? You go out there, you get eaten. You stay in here, you get eaten. Anyone comes to help, they get eaten. Don't you see a pattern here, Spuds Makenzie? BEER GUY Then I guess we should just give up. BOZO (re: Trampy) Believe me, I'd love to save the day and get some heroic snatch, but it's not in the cards, partner. HEROINE (to Boss Man) You said you had a short wave radio. TRAMPY Where? BARTENDER Upstairs. BOSS MAN Go for it. It's by the far wall. Channel 9 is the emergency frequency. HEROINE Good. I'm heading to the basement for supplies. (to Bozo) And you're going upstairs. Bozo blinks. A little taken aback. BOZO Let's not get carried away... HEROINE Step up, Chief. BOZO So that's how it is? (hands out) Fine! Shotgun, please. Bartender hands him The Judge. BOZO (to Bartender) You're coming with, portly. 'Cause if I'm attacked, I want a fat man close by. BARTENDER I'll wait by the door. BOZO Now who else is comin'? No one budges. GRANDPA (rising from his seat) I'll go with ya. BOZO What are you gonna do? Throw your teeth at 'em? Sit down, Cocoon. Bartender moves to the back of the bar, grabbing his machete. At the same moment, Coach emerges from behind the bar in very snug, feminine-looking pink sweat pants. BOZO You! Zorba! You're coming too! (to Heroine) Now gimme the keys. Heroine tosses the keys to Bartender. HEROINE No. You're locked in. BOZO What? HEROINE Those two will be on the other side waiting for you. If you become food, I don't want the only set of keys in the belly of one of those things. BOZO Don't get your hopes up. Bozo moves to the staircase. There's blood at the bottom and it gets worse with each step. Bartender and Coach follow. Heroine turns to the bar. HEROINE Any volunteers to head into the basement with me? TUFFY I will. Tuffy stands, sniffling. She wipes the tears from her eyes, looking tough and resolute. BEER GUY That's not a good idea. BOSS MAN With what happened upstairs -- TUFFY Shut up! Shut your mouth. You have no idea what is running through me right now. No idea. (to Heroine) I'm ready. HEROINE Alright. ROADIE Count me in. BEER GUY Me too. Heroine, Tuffy, Roadie, and Beer Guy all move to the basement. The door creaks open slowly. The group descends. OUTSIDE THE DOOR Bozo slightly slips on the blood. He grips the railing and pulls himself up the staircase like an old man. BOZO Alright you two, I don't want to hear any of this, "oh, I dropped the key, wrong key, ain't no key here." When I want out, I want out, ok? BARTENDER (displaying keys) They're right here. COACH We've got your back, bro. They unlock the door, swinging it open. BOZO Just keep 'em handy, ladies. Bartender has the key in the thick dead bolt, ready to move. SECOND FLOOR Bozo hustles in. The door shuts and locks. BOZO Wish me luck... WHAM! Bozo is on the ground. OUTSIDE THE DOOR BOZO (O.S.) I'm okay! I'm okay! SECOND FLOOR Bozo rises and nervously surveys the damaged floor. BOZO Come on. Come on. Come on. Bozo jumps when he sees the gore and the bloody shoes from Cody's attack. The TV illuminates the room. BOZO Geeezzzus. (moving gingerly) Okay, now. Easy steps. Easy breaths. Easy steps. MAIN BAR Belle kneels next to the Boss Man. BELLE How are you holding up? BOSS MAN Well... He pulls a bottle out of his pocket and hands it to her. BELLE What is this? BOSS MAN Morphine. My magic potion. I need a few drops. She puts a few drops on his out-stretched tongue. BOSS MAN You should try a little, it'll calm your nerves. Works like a charm. BELLE No other time than now, right? BOSS MAN Wait, before you do that, help me move. There's a small room off the kitchen where I can lay down. BELLE But -- BOSS MAN It's much safer in there. Trust me. BASEMENT The basement is dark, dingy and scattered with crap. Dried out ANIMAL CARCASSES hang from the ceiling on hooks. A WINDOW is open. Roadie slams it shut, eyeing the room, staring into the dark corners. ROADIE Stay on your toes everybody. Tuffy tightly grips her weapon, ready to fire. Heroine kneels next to a hatch door that emits a red glow. HEROINE What's this? Roadie jams a pipe into the little door, bracing it shut. ROADIE You don't need to know what that is. Beer Guy finds the dusty locker and opens it. BEER GUY There's a sawed-off shotgun in here. OUTSIDE THE DOOR Bartender and Coach have their ears pressed to the door. COACH Come on, bro. Behind them, through a boarded window, something CRAWLS upward. SECOND FLOOR Bozo moves turtle slow. BOZO Lamaze. Lamaze. Lamaze. He moves to the Boss Man's private room. He puts his hand out to open it. Trembling, he touches the knob and... CREEEEEEEEAK! The door eases open. Bozo steps inside the room. He moves over to a lamp and pulls the chain. A bat FLIES off the lamp shade SCREECHING. Bozo falls backwards. BOZO HAAAA! OUTSIDE THE DOOR Bartender and Coach jump back. SECOND FLOOR Bozo gets off the floor again. He may have filled his pants. BOZO Just a bat! I'm okay! Just a bat! OUTSIDE THE DOOR BARTENDER If he doesn't shut up... COACH He is human kabob. SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN The room is like a converted pantry. Boss Man lies on a cot, kissing Belle. A tiny wall fan spins providing ventilation. Belle pulls away and brushes back her long hair. BELLE Doesn't your foot hurt? BOSS MAN I can't feel a thing, Hon. BELLE (touching his crotch) How 'bout now? BOSS MAN You're a bad girl, aren't you. Belle, a bit high, sways and starts to remove her clothes. BELLE Um-hmmm. BOSS MAN The girl's got rhythm. She takes off her blouse and tosses it at him. She then lifts up her skirt and bends over, giggling. BOSS MAN There it is. BASEMENT Roadie emerges with two crates. He dumps them on the floor. ROADIE This is all junk. Beer Guy holds a rusted machete. BEER GUY This could come in handy. HEROINE Let's get everything upstairs. Heroine moves to the stairs, but stops. She grabs Tuffy by the arm and takes her aside. HEROINE I'm sorry. TUFFY Don't worry, I'm fine. Really. HEROINE I admire your strength. TUFFY Trust me, I plan on having a full breakdown when this is over, but for now, we all have to be strong, right? Heroine reaches into her shirt and pulls out an IDENTICAL LOCKET as Tuffy's. She opens it and displays a picture of a LITTLE GIRL. HEROINE This is my daughter, Charlie. She's all I'm after. TUFFY (fighting back tears) Oh... HEROINE And I'm gonna need your strength, every bit of it. TUFFY You have it. HEROINE Good. But still do me a favor. TUFFY Name it. HEROINE (with a wink) Don't tell anyone I have a soft side. TUFFY (tiny smile) Deal. SECOND FLOOR Bozo turns and points the gun around the room. He sees the CB. It is like an intercom with a cable running outside. He drops the shotgun and fidgets with the CB knobs. BOZO Hello? Anyone there? We need help out here at the United Nations Tavern. Send guns, tanks, and all that shit. 10-4. S.O.S. All he gets is static. A faint GROWL is heard outside. OUTSIDE THE DOOR Bartender hears the growl, his eyes grow wide. SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN Belle rubs her hands over her rounded ass and flicks her tongue at Boss Man. BELLE You wanna see, baby? BOSS MAN Hell yeah. BELLE How much you got? BOSS MAN How much I got, what? BELLE How much you got to see the show? BOSS MAN You don't understand, sweety. Daddy doesn't pay. Daddy sees the show for free. But you do get points for being horny on a night like this. She cringes and backs up a little. BELLE What? BOSS MAN You can't expect a man to buy a car without a test drive first, can you? BELLE Um, hmm -- BOSS MAN Now wiggle that sweet little ass over here and sit on Daddy's face, I wanna do some appraising. SECOND FLOOR Bozo barks into the CB. BOZO Repeat. We need help. SOS. Calling all cars! Calling all cars! We need help at the United Nations Tav -- The CB is JERKED from Bozo's hands and slams into the wall. BOZO Shit! Bozo aims the gun at the wall. Chewing sounds begin. BOZO Double shit! He backs up to the door. OUTSIDE THE DOOR BOZO (O.S.) Okay, I'm ready to come out now! Bartender confidently turns the key. CLICK! It breaks off in the lock. BARTENDER Oh! SECOND FLOOR BOZO "OH!?" WHAT IS "OH?" What does "oh" mean? Bozo knocks on the door hard. BOZO HEY! OPEN IT!!! OUTSIDE THE DOOR Bartender looks to Coach. BARTENDER Wha? SECOND FLOOR BOZO OPEN THE DOOR!!! A thunderous CRASH! Boards fly off the wall. SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN Belle, hearing the crash, jerks back from Boss Man. BELLE What was that? CRASH! Sister Beast #1 and Sister Beast #2 punch through the tiny wall fan and GRAB Belle by the scalp. She is JERKED against the wall. She's slammed against it repeatedly and then -- RIP! Belle's skin is TORN from her head and torso. Boss Man jumps back. BOSS MAN Hoh-SHIT! Help!! Help me!!! Belle falls into Boss Man's arms for a HIDEOUS KISS. BOSS MAN NO! NO! NO! Boss Man shoves the bloody Belle back against the wall. Sister Beast #1 pokes her head inside the room, hissing. MAIN BAR Heroine and the others, just returning from the basement, hear the mayhem from upstairs and the kitchen. OUTSIDE THE DOOR Coach fumbles desperately with the jammed lock, trying to use his fingernails to turn the metal stump. COACH Great god, why do you damn me?! SECOND FLOOR Bozo bangs on the door and looks over his shoulder at the Momma and Papa Beast chomping at the wall. BOZO GET ME OUTTA HERE!!! MAIN BAR The group is mesmerized. PARA Oh please, no. SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN Boss Man uses the cot to block the Sister Beasts from entering. They hiss and shred the cot fabric. BOSS MAN They're getting in! Somebody help! SECOND FLOOR Bozo kicks and punches the door. BOZO HELP!!! GODDAMN IT!!! MAIN BAR Heroine charges up the staircase. Roadie rips the sawed-off weapon from Beer Guy and runs for the kitchen. OUTSIDE THE DOOR BARTENDER The key broke off! HEROINE (to Coach) Move it! Heroine rips the earring from Bartender's ear. He YELPS. She jams the backing into the lock. SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN Boss Man crawls for the door. Sister Beast #1 fires out a whip-like tongue and snags Boss Man's damaged foot. He howls in pain. Sister Beast #2 tongue-lasso's his other foot. OUTSIDE THE DOOR Heroine's picking fingers are bleeding from her effort. BOZO (O.S.) HELP ME PLEASE!!! SMALL ROOM OFF KITCHEN Boss Man is pulled towards the Sister Beasts. BOSS MAN HELLLLLP!!! Roadie kicks open the door and FIRES at the Sisters. They dive back out of the room screeching. SECOND FLOOR BOZO HELLLLLLLLP!!! Right behind Bozo, the boards fly off the portal window. Papa Beast flies at Bozo. Bozo spins and aimlessly FIRES his shotgun, hitting Papa Beast directly in the groin. The door flies open. Bozo is YANKED to safety just as Papa STRIKES the closing door. MAIN BAR The patrons track the wild CRASHING and HIGH-PITCHED SHRIEKING sounds of Papa Beast. He finally breaks out of the upstairs. Beer Guy and Roadie carry Boss Man into the room as Coach, Bartender, Heroine and the shaken Bozo creep down the stairs. Bozo slowly takes a seat in his brother's lap. PARA I thought that was it for a second there. TRAMPY What happened? BOZO I got Papa in the stones. (beat) He's neutered. PARA Whoa... good one... ROADIE That back room is sealed shut. Heroine glares at Boss Man. HEROINE I told you to stay in the main room. BOSS MAN Yeah... I will. I will. Promise. Coach eyes the group, this is his time to shine. COACH (rising, full of brawn) If they can't reproduce anymore -- we are one step closer! A big step! Now is the time to band together. We need to rise up against these monsters of the night! Those creatures are no match for the human spirit! We can do it! We just need to believe in each other! In all of us! We need to make a stand! Right here! Right now! Long silence. Bozo stares. BOZO Dude, are you gay? Coach sits down, humbled. HEROINE We know what not to do. We must stay focused and together. The beasts will find a breach. We gotta find a way out before they find a way in. TUFFY Let's run for the cars, cause mass confusion. BARTENDER The lot's too damn far, that's surefire suicide. The room is silent. Bartender motions to Boss Man, but he is promptly shushed by Boss Man. Heroine notices. HEROINE (to Boss Man) What? BOSS MAN What? HEROINE You know what. BOSS MAN I don't know shit. HEROINE (to Roadie) You. What was that door downstairs? BOSS MAN Wait, wait, wait. Heroine glares at Roadie. HEROINE Don't bullshit me. BARTENDER It's a tunnel. Roadie nods, causing Boss Man to sigh. BARTENDER It runs about a hundred yards and spits out on the backside of that hill down the way. HEROINE What's it for? They clam up. HEROINE What's it for!? BOSS MAN Grass, man. I grow pot down there. HEROINE Does the tunnel spit out near a car? BOSS MAN It spits out behind the parking lot. BOSS MAN My truck is near, but it ain't nearly big enough to haul the whole lot. HEROINE It's a shot. Is it gassed up? BOSS MAN Fully. HEROINE Four door? BOSS MAN Two. HEROINE How many can it hold? BOSS MAN Six. HEROINE Max? BOSS MAN Seven. HEROINE It's gonna fit thirteen. BOSS MAN Thirteen clowns wouldn't fit. HEROINE (with hand out) Keys. ROADIE What're you planning? HEROINE Three of us go. Two to defend, one to drive. We back up to the bar and then tear ass out of here. BOSS MAN Sounds sketchy. HEROINE Let me make this clear; if we stay, we die. Boss Man reluctantly pulls out some keys that are on a string around his neck. ROADIE Give 'em to me, I'm going. BARTENDER You're trusting that con? He'll ditch us and never look back. ROADIE Fuck you too. BARTENDER Get in line! HEROINE Hey! I'm not trusting him either, that's why I'm going with. Coach stands forward. COACH "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." (off blank stares) The Duke. I will go. HEROINE This is it. They have this place surrounded, but if we go under them we might just make it. BARTENDER This is a bottleneck waiting to happen. SMACK! Bozo SLAPS Coach's ass. BOZO This one's great under pressure. I wish you luck. HEROINE The rest of you prepare the weapons, whatever you got left. 'Cause when we crash through those walls, we're bringin' death with us. Heroine takes The Judge from Bartender and hands it to Coach. COACH No, I don't believe in guns. BARTENDER This ain't time for a political stance. Coach takes the rusty machete from Beer Guy. COACH This doesn't run out of ammo. BARTENDER Got ya. Heroine, Roadie, and Coach move to the basement. BOZO Hey! The three look to Bozo, who offers a parting nod. BOZO When you get to that truck... drive it like you stole it. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS At a booth, Trampy re-bandages Adulterer's eye. TRAMPY How does it feel? ADULTERER Lousy. TRAMPY You still have one left. ADULTERER Yes, the silver lining. TRAMPY It serves you right for cheating. ADULTERER Spare me. TRAMPY I figure it's karma. You wronged me and you wronged your wife, so this is karma biting you on the ass, or in your case... in the eye. Bozo moves close, surveying the bandage work. BOZO Oh yeah? TRAMPY It could be worse, you could be dead. Then again, the climax is upon us. BOZO (re: Trampy's hair) Ya know, that's not a bad look on you. Kinda 1985, but not bad. I'd hook it up. TRAMPY I wouldn't fuck you for practice. BOZO Tease. ADULTERER Leave her alone. BOZO Hey, cyclops. Let's have a quiet contest... starting now. Bozo turns his attention back to Trampy. BOZO Ya know, in situations of duress, I have found that women are attracted to my authority. INT. BAR -- BASEMENT -- CONTINUOUS Heroine, Roadie, and Coach make their way through the basement. Creeks and cracks with every step. ROADIE (to Heroine) You handle yourself pretty well. You a cop or a criminal? HEROINE Neither. Just a farmer. ROADIE Oh yeah? Then how do you do it? HEROINE I just think about my husband and daughter... and the rest is easy. The light casts a shadow of something BEHIND THE CURTAIN. Roadie moves to open the curtain with his sawed-off barrel. HEROINE Easy. WHIP! The curtain slides. It's a dried animal hide on a hook. They all sigh. Roadie unblocks the tiny door. Heroine scans the room. ROADIE This place is creepy in the daytime, too. Ready? Coach's hand shakes as he raises his weapon. ROADIE Scared? COACH No. You? ROADIE Of course not. I fight monsters all the time. (gripping the door) On three. Roadie, Heroine raise their weapons. COACH One... two... three!!! Roadie whips open the door. Nothing. BANG-GONG-GONG! Some pipes CRASH to the ground next to them... they jump, but nothing is there. A LITTLE MOUSE emerges from the fallen heap. COACH Well, look at that. Coach leans down and puts out his hand. He smiles as Heroine watches over his shoulder. COACH Hey, little fella. HEROINE Let's go. He leaves the mouse and follows Heroine to the tunnel. SLURP! A pink tongue LASSOS the mouse. A red fluorescent glow radiates from the tunnel. They all drop in, one by one, entering the steamy, confined space. COACH Looks like a brothel for plants. ROADIE Shhhhhhhhhhhhh. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Tuffy stands by a far wall, looking through the planks for movement. At the bar, Beer Guy makes MOLOTOV COCKTAILS. Bozo moves close, slaps Beer Guy's constructing hand. BOZO Ah-ah-ah! You're doing that all wrong! BEER GUY What do you know? BOZO I know you're doing it wrong. BEER GUY Prove it. Bozo grabs a cloth rag and moves to the alcohol bottles. BOZO Move aside, princess. INT. TUNNEL -- NIGHT The tunnel is thin and no more than SIX FEET HIGH. Cherry red fluorescent lights line the top of the tunnel and kneehigh marijuana plants are along the ground soil. There are thick pipes above the plants that work as a makeshift watering system. There is about six inches of water on the floor. COACH (to Roadie) You and I are similar. We both have accents. We both travel a lot. We both don't really have homes... ROADIE You should be quiet. COACH I am sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous. HEROINE Quiet. Coach bites his lip, dying to say something. COACH It's just that this seems like the opportune time for someone to be horribly... offed. ROADIE What did I say? COACH Sorry. I'm done now. INT. BAR -- NIGHT Bozo stuffs the cloth rag into one of the bottles. BOZO You don't want the rag touching booze, that way you can hold it and ensure it explodes when you throw it. PARA You sure? I thought the rag had to touch? BOZO I'm sure. Bozo finishes the Molotov cocktail and grabs a beer. BOZO Perfecto. What we should do, though, is put those peanut barrels to use. Fill 'em with booze and line up some planks. If the walls come down... we hit 'em Donkey Kong style. Para and Beer Guy eye the three large peanut barrels, perfect for bomb-making. PARA Genius. BEER GUY You aren't nearly as dumb as you look, are you? BOZO Next time, look within. Stereotyping can be ugly and hurtful. Bozo looks to Trampy, putting an arm around her shoulder. BOZO Excuse me for being forward, but I'm curious about your dimensions. INT. TUNNEL -- NIGHT Roadie leads the way and glares at the opposite end. The tunnel slightly curves, so he can't see the whole way down. ROADIE Hold up. You hear something? A SCRATCHING sound is heard from above. ROADIE They're trying to burrow through the tunnel walls. HEROINE Move. The scratching sound increases, now heard from the far end of the tunnel as well. COACH Like moles these things. Then, Sister Beast #1 drops into the tunnel from the far end. She charges. At the last second, Roadie spots her. ROADIE Duck! Roadie and Coach duck into the water, but Heroine is unable to avoid a thrust that knocks her back ten yards. Sister Beast #1 lands and turns, surveying her prey. Roadie aims his water-dripping gun, but Heroine rises and blocks his shot. ROADIE Stay down! From her knees, Heroine fires. BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! The three shots push Sister Beast #1 backwards. Heroine rises, covered in muddy water and bleeding from a cut across the face. HEROINE Go! The bitch is mine! Roadie and Coach reluctantly turn, leaving Heroine to fend with the Beast. Heroine charges. Hissing, Sister Beast #1 charges as well. Heroine pumps and fires. BOOM! Sister Beast spins, avoiding the shot. Now too close, Heroine jams the Beast in the mouth with the gun, knocking her back. Sister Beast #1 responds with a swipe and chomp on the arm. Heroine bats her away. Sister Beast #1 moves to the others. HEROINE Look out! Roadie and Coach sprint until Sister Beast #2 BURSTS through the tunnel walls, stopping Roadie and Coach in their tracks. Roadie fires his weapon, but it sparks and fizzles. ROADIE The shells are wet! With the two Beasts closing in. The men are trapped. Coach looks around, seeing a plan. COACH Grab onto ceiling and get out of water! ROADIE What? COACH Do it!!! Grabbing onto the piping along the ceiling, Roadie pulls himself from the water. Coach uses the machete to cut a power cord from above. He grabs the exposed, sparking end. COACH (to Heroine) Get out of water!!! Heroine sees what he's doing, sprints back the way they came. As the two Beasts charge, Coach pulls himself out of the water by holding onto the above piping. He's forced to wait for Heroine to get out of the water. The second she does, he jams the cord into the water. ZAP! The conductive water sizzles. Sister Beast #1 and Sister Beast #2 lock up and crash. ELECTROCUTION. Sparks and smoke rises from their cooked bodies. Roadie and Coach look to each other, victorious. They begin shimmying along the piping to the end of the tunnel. INT. TUNNEL/BASEMENT -- NIGHT Heroine looks back at the two men. She turns and reenters the basement. GAH! Teen Beast drops in front of her, whacking her to the floor. Heroine slides across the floor, but jumps up quickly. Teen Beast cautiously moves in for the kill. Heroine raises her weapon. HEROINE You fuck with my family. (aiming shotgun) I fuck right back! Click -- out of ammo! HEROINE Oh shit. Heroine THROWS the shotgun at him and pulls out the MACHETE. She rolls left and swings. Teen Beast loses two fingers. She swings again but gets whacked to the floor. Heroine rolls with the hit, grabs her shotgun, and dives into the KEG ELEVATOR. She slams closed the door as Teen Beast regains its composure and lunges. BAM! It CRASHES against the door. INT. TUNNEL -- NIGHT Roadie and Coach crawl to the platform by the exit. COACH They will write stories of your bravery. ROADIE If there's anybody left. The two men climb up the ladder leading to the ground above. At the top, Roadie pushes off the plywood covering. The two men peer into the night and spot the TRUCK. INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR Heroine wedges the door closed. The Beast continues to try to get in. Heroine bangs the top of the small elevator... HEROINE Send it up! Send it up! MAIN BAR Tuffy backs up and hears the screams from the keg elevator. TUFFY Hey! Hey! She's in the shaft! Beer Guy hits the button. The gears grind and start to pull the elevator up to the main floor. INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR Heroine squirms as the elevator rises. HEROINE Move it! Move it! Move it! As Teen Beast starts to tear at the base of the rising keg elevator in the shaft, Heroine pounds and tears at the few planks above her in the keg elevator. MAIN BAR Beer Guy hits the button. BEER GUY Come on! BOZO Ol' Crazy Horse has seen it. TUFFY Shut up! INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR The elevator SHAKES. Heroine POUNDS a hole through the elevator top. She tries to squeeze through the SMALL HOLE. Teen Beast BITES through the floor board of the keg elevator. CLANGGG! The elevator stops. Heroine lurches and grabs the greasy cables to stop her fall. HEROINE Goddamn it! MAIN BAR TUFFY It stopped. It fuckin' stopped! INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR Heroine screams as the elevator shakes. Teen Beast is struggling to climb right under her. MAIN BAR TRAMPY Do something! INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR HEROINE I'M ALIVE! OPEN THE DOOR! MAIN BAR Tuffy moves for the keg door. Adulterer grabs The Judge from Bartender. ADULTERER Stop! TRAMPY What the fuck are you doing?! ADULTERER They can't get in here! We agreed! They'll get us! TUFFY She can make it! ADULTERER I will not die because of her! BARTENDER Don't be stupid, drop the gun! INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR Heroine HACKS at one of the two greasy cables. Teen Beast is in the elevator car and RISING. MAIN BAR TRAMPY YOU'RE KILLING HER! ADULTERER They'll get in! We'll all die! INSIDE KEG ELEVATOR Heroine almost has the primary cable cut. Teen Beast rises up to bite. SNAP!! The cable BREAKS. Heroine SOARS up the shaft. Teen Beast is pulled down to the bottom. The keg elevator door bursts open on impact. Heroine SLAMS into the ceiling, kicking and yelling. MAIN BAR Tuffy KNOCKS Adulterer's shotgun up, takes the gun, and rips open the keg door. Heroine swings out. P.O.V. - Teen Beast is right behind her with mouth open and ready to feed. Tuffy points her shotgun. BLAM! Teen lurches back, dropping back down the shaft. Tuffy slams the keg door shut. Heroine pants on the floor. Adulterer is down, winded. BOZO Welcome back. HEROINE F-f-fuck you. BARTENDER What the hell happened? TUFFY You okay? HEROINE I think they made it. She turns to Adulterer, rigid. HEROINE Stop trying to get people killed. It is getting very old. Adulterer nods, ashamed. Heroine looks around the bar. She notices the peanut barrels on top of the bar. Two wooden planks serve as track, leading straight for the side wall. HEROINE What's this? BOZO Ingenuity, baby. Ingenuity. HEROINE (to Bartender) I need some shells. BARTENDER I have two left. Bartender expels a shell from The Judge and hands it over. BARTENDER Make it count. Heroine cringes, eyeing the lined up Molotov cocktails. HEROINE Let's prepare ourselves, they ought to be here with the truck any minute. BOSS MAN Bullshit. Boss Man sips a bottle, still hopped-up on morphine. He lazily loads his pistol from a pool of bullets on his belly. BOSS MAN If you ask me, I'm gonna just lay right here, wait for sunrise, then walk on out of here. HEROINE That's your choice, but this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. Boss Man shrugs, content with himself. BOSS MAN If all of you run for it, they won't care about lil ol' me. They like the food that moves... CRASH! Teen Beast's arm ERUPTS through the Boss Man's belly. His pistol and bullets scatter across the floor. BOSS MAN OHHH!!! SNAPPP!!! His head and legs SLAP together as the arm pulls him through a small hole in the floor. The group jumps back. Blood rockets out. His body is pureed down the tiny hole. HEROINE Get on the tables!!! On the tables!!! Everyone struggles to get on the tables. CRASH! Teen Beast's arm reaches up and GRABS Para's wheelchair, violently shaking it. Para FALLS to the floor. Teen Beast's arm grabs Para's leg... PARA HELP ME!!! BOZO Bonsai! Bozo jumps from a table and STOMPS on Teen Beast's arm. He picks up Para and TOSSES him onto a table. BOZO Hot potato!!! Bozo leaps back onto a table. POP! The power cuts out. The room goes black. BEER GUY We're gonna die! ADULTERER What the hell?! HEROINE Settle down! TRAMPY Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! And with that, the shouting and pounding stops. The group nervously shuffles around the tables. There's silence. Dead silence. Then, far is the distance, beyond the walls, a sound is heard. It's screaming. And it's approaching. Rapidly. The survivors maneuver to peek out the front walls. BARTENDER What's that? Tuffy sees what is coming. TUFFY They didn't make it. EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Being held by Papa and Momma Beast, Roadie and Coach are both rushed towards the wall like human battering rams. ROADIE RUN!!! THUD! The first strike causes the men to HOWL. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS The survivors shake in sickened silence. From beyond the walls, they can hear high-pitched SCREAMS. THUD! THUD! THUD! With every strike, a splattering of blood spits through the planks of wood. BARTENDER That wall's coming down! BOZO Commence Plan B! The entire group goes into motion. HEROINE What's Plan B? BOZO Just watch the floor and keep the others safe! THUD! THUD! THUD! With a final furious strike, a few wood planks splinter. Papa Beast sticks in his head and hisses. BOZO Bomb's away!!! From the bar, Beer Guy, Tuffy, and Adulterer release the first peanut barrel. It's ablaze and sails straight for Papa Beast. BLAM! It explodes, bursting open the wall and knocking back Papa Beast. The wooden walls go up in flame. Para, on a side table, reaches out and grabs Boss Man's .38 from the floor. The second peanut barrel is released. It sails outside the breach, but it doesn't explode. Nevertheless, the Beasts stay far away. Teen Beast madly rips floor boards away, moving towards Para's table. Teen Beast bursts through the floor, knocking Para to the floor. Para crawls to his fallen wheelchair. Teen Beast spots him, moves in to feed. Para points his seat back at the scattered .38 bullets and flips the armrest switch. SNAP! The bullets jump to the power magnet. Para yanks one free, loads the pistol and turns just as Teen Beast strikes... POP! The shot hits Teen Beast in the eye, sending him back down the hole in the floor. Heroine and Bartender move in. When Teen Beast sticks his head out of the hole again, they thrust both their shotguns into each ear. HEROINE Now! BLAM-BLAM! The two shots scatter head everywhere. The flames in the bar spread, catching the entire wall and roof on fire. EXT. BAR -- MOMENTS LATER The second barrel comes to a stop a good distance from the bar. Suddenly, the top is knocked off. Trampy sticks her head out. Seeing no trouble, she emerges, dizzy as hell, and races for the nearby BEER TRUCK. INT. BAR -- MOMENTS LATER Papa and Momma Beast both charge the bar. The third peanut barrel is released. It sails for them, but they dive out of the way. KABLOOM! It takes out the rest of the wall. Fire and smoke fills the place. Adulterer douses Momma Beast with booze as Beer Guy nails her with a lit Molotov cocktail. WHOOSH! Engulfed in flame, she bolts from the bar shrieking. BOZO One down, one to go!!! Papa enters and is instantly cornered. He swings wildly. HEROINE (to Bartender) Help me! Heroine and Bartender rip the DEER HEAD from the wall and charge Papa, pinning him against the wall with the antlers. HEROINE Come on! Bozo and Beer Guy dive into Papa's legs, holding them down. Tuffy picks up The Judge. WHAM! The shotgun butt knocks out Papa's front teeth. Tuffy raises the weapon again, staring down at the monster that killed her child, but Papa Beast gets an arm free to knock away her fatal blow. Bartender wrenches Papa Beast's arm with all his might. With her hair stuck in Papa Beast's claw, Tuffy is pulled face to face with the beast. She squirms as he chomps at her, but with no front teeth, he can't do immediate damage. BARTENDER I can't hold him!!! HEROINE Do something!!! Tuffy reaches back and shoves her fist into Papa Beast's mouth, jamming it down his throat. He instantly gags, sucking for air. Papa Beast struggles to get free, but the others hold tight. Papa Beast's body begins to quiver from a lack of oxygen. His eyes widen, face to face with Tuffy. TUFFY CHOKE ON IT!!! With one last lunge, Papa Beast shakes, his life drifting away. His eyes turn black as his body goes limp. Tuffy pulls out her arm from his throat. BARTENDER God... BOZO I need to get your number. Tuffy shakes her wet arm dry. As the group pulls away, Papa Beast is still pinned to the wall with the deer antlers dug into the wood. Heroine turns to Grandma and Grandpa, offering a hand. HEROINE Come on, I'll help you. GRANDPA No thank you, we're content. HEROINE I'm not leaving anyone behind. GRANDMA Maybe next time, dear. Heroine swallows and nods. HONK-HONK-HONK! Just outside the breached wall, the beer truck pulls up. EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS The beer truck screeches to a halt. Trampy's at the wheel, waving the group over. With the bar burning, a thick layer of SMOKE blankets the entire area. The people amass at the opening, but Heroine stops them from advancing. The group stares the dark night. Silent. HEROINE She's still out here. Heroine eyes the truck, seeing something she likes. HEROINE Stay put. She creeps out alone. HEROINE Where are you... come on... Nothing. Just smoke. And silence. HEROINE Come on! Come on! From the smoke, a smoldering Momma Beast charges like a bull. At the truck, Heroine opens the back doors and dives in, leaving the doors open. Momma Beast gives chase, entering the back. INSIDE TRUCK Heroine is deep into the truck as Momma Beast enters. She advances, hissing. HEROINE Come and get me you blood-chugging CUNT! Momma howls and charges. Heroine slides out the side keg door, locking it behind her. Before Momma can see the trap, Beer Guy slam closed the rear doors. OUTSIDE TRUCK Beer Guy latches it. Trampy comes around the truck. TRAMPY You got her? You got her! HEROINE Not for long, we gotta burn it. Heroine looks to the others at the breach. HEROINE Come on! Let's blow this thing! The others move into action. Beer Guy takes off his shirt and shoves it into the fuel tank. Adulterer and Bozo, with Para riding piggyback, help. They use the Molotov cocktails to make a fuel trail leading away from the truck. BEER GUY When this lights, run like hell. About fifteen yards away from the truck. Bozo throws his silver-plated American Eagle lighter to Heroine. HEROINE (catching lighter) Here we go... Then, a noise: EOCH-OCK-OCK! EOCK-OCK-OCK! EOCK-OCK-OCK! A deafening pattern of sound erupts from within the truck. It's Momma Beast. Again and again. TUFFY What is that? HEROINE She's calling for help. Heroine drops the lighter onto the fuel. It races for the truck. When feet away, COUSIN BEAST lands, stomping out the fire with his foot. BOZO The fan has officially been buried in the shit. Instantly, another beast, AUNT BEAST, lands on the top of the truck. These Beasts are like the others, but stripped. The group gasps. Trampy backs away. TRAMPY We have to run -- BURST! Trampy's rib cage is ripped from her body. The culprit, UNCLE BEAST, stands behind her. Her organs drop like a box of vegetables. Cousin Beast lets out a high-pitched roar. From atop the truck, the rear doors are ripped open. Momma Beast emerges. HEROINE Get to your cars!!! The Beasts spring into action, chasing the group. Bozo, with Para on his back, sprints for his car. Aunt Beast RIPS Para from Bozo's back. BOZO Motherfucker! Give him back! Bozo runs for his Trans-Am. Para falls to the ground, still alive. Bozo turns back and sees him. BOZO Oh Jesus! PARA HELLLPPP! Bozo grabs his brother and puts him on his back again, runs. BOZO I thought we lost you -- Para is RIPPED into the air again. BOZO You FUCKER! Tuffy and Bartender jump into his PICKUP TRUCK. TUFFY (to Heroine) Get in! Heroine hops in the back. Beer Guy and Adulterer run to a car together. Beer Guy lags behind, continually looking over his shoulder. ADULTERER Run and quit looking back! As Beer Guy looks forward, Aunt Beast and Uncle Beast hit him HIGH-AND-LOW, cutting him in half. Bozo makes it to his Trans-Am. BOZO DO IT! VAHVVVOOOMMMM! The car roars to life. He pushes in a tape. The "MIAMI VICE" theme song blares from the speakers. BOZO Get me FUCK BIRDS! Bozo peels out. Aunt Beast lands right in his path. BOZO No you don't! BAM! He SMACKS Aunt Beast head on, sending the creature's disemboweled body sailing through the air. BOZO VENGEANCE! Para DROPS from the sky, still ALIVE and panting. Cars are moving everywhere. PARA Oh Jesussss... INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS The burning JUKEBOX plays a slow love song. Dancing and holding each other, Grandpa smooches Grandma on the forehead. GRANDPA We had a good run. EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Para crawls along the ground, being ignored by the Beasts. PARA HELP ME! HELP ME SOMEBODY! Bozo turns on his windshield wipers to clear off the blood and guts. He spots Para. BOZO Hang on! Para claws the ground. PARA Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Bartender jerks the wheel of his car. BARTENDER Oh shit! Para sees Bartender's approaching truck. PARA NOOO!!! Para rolls right, just missing tires. Para yells for his brother. PARA COME ON! GODDAMN IT! Bozo's eyes bulge. BOZO Brother!!! BAM! Para is SMEARED by Adulterer's car. ADULTERER Shit! Bozo floors it. BOZO (overly endearing) I meant to tell you so much! The remaining cars maneuver to hit the open road. INT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Grandpa and Grandma hold each other tight. Uncle Beast enters, moving to their table. It moves in for the kill. Grandpa kisses his wife gently. GRANDPA Close your eyes, hon. The Beast OPENS its massive jaws and... CRASH! Bozo's car DRIVES through the bar, SMEARING the Beast. INT. BOZO'S CAR -- CONTINUOUS BOZO YOU ARE SUCKING MY DICK!!! Bozo guns the engine, crashing out the other end of the bar. EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS Bozo's car veers, flipping over a pile of rubble. BOZO Motherfucker!!! Bozo squirms in his flipped car, UPSIDE-DOWN. He hears a Beast approaching. He pulls out a BUTTERFLY KNIFE from the open glove box and SAWS at his safety belt. Cousin Beast leans into the passenger side of the car and looks him right in the eye. Bozo raises the knife. BOZO Lord, if I die, bury me upside down so the world can KISS MY ASS! Cousin Beast leaps in. EXT. BAR -- CONTINUOUS The remaining TWO CARS race down the road. INT. BARTENDER'S CAR -- CONTINUOUS With the peddle to the floor, Bartender drives. BARTENDER I think we're in the clear -- BAM! Momma Beast lands on the roof. She reaches inside and yanks out Bartender's throat. The car veers. Tuffy rights it, leaning over and stomping on the gas. Momma yanks at the door, pulling it open. Tuffy pushes out Bartender's corpse and JERKS the wheel. IN THE BACK Momma Beast falls back, knocking down Heroine. Momma Beast nearly falls out, but manages to grab the rear gate with one claw. Defenseless, Heroine backs away. Momma Beast holds on tightly, pulling herself onto the bed of the truck. Tuffy stares back through the glass, unable to do anything. Momma Beast lunges towards Heroine. Momma Beast's claw snags Heroine's locket, jerking Heroine right up to the creature's face. The locket catches Momma's attention for split second. Her remaining eye goes from the picture of Charlie to Heroine. Momma's mouth opens wide. Heroine screams! And then, a beam of the RISING SUN catches the gold locket and burns into Momma's eye. In one quick motion, she's gone, taking the locket with her. Heroine lets out her breath, reaching around her neck for what is no longer there. The truck SKIDS to a halt. Tuffy jumps out. TUFFY Are you okay?! HEROINE I don't know, I think -- ADULTERER (O.S.) Hey! They both jump as Adulterer approaches. ADULTERER Are you two all right? They left! We made it! I think we made it! TUFFY They'll be back. HEROINE We're safe until dark, but we need to find other people. Heroine rises and moves to the cab of the truck. She finds a pack of cigs under the visor. Pops in the lighter. HEROINE You know where the IGA grocery store is over in Red Mountain? ADULTERER Um, yeah, ten miles west. HEROINE They have a bomb shelter. PING! The lighter springs out, hot. Heroine lights up and passes one to Tuffy. HEROINE We'll meet in three hours? ADULTERER I don't wanna go home alone... I don't wanna see what might have... TUFFY Don't worry about that. Just go. Moment of silence as Adulterer and Tuffy look down the desolate road. ADULTERER I'm sorry about your son. I really am. Tuffy nods, affectionately touching his hand. ADULTERER Where are you two going? HEROINE We're going to get my little girl. ADULTERER I wish you luck. The car peels off. Adulterer watches the car tear down the road. He glances up at the RISING SUN. EXT. TOWN ROAD -- DAY A sign reading "RED MOUNTAIN" swings lazily in the breeze. Tuffy and Heroine coast down a town road. There are random POOLS OF RED BLOOD in the dirt. No one in sight. EXT. TOWN ROAD -- DAY Adulterer drives along a small town road. There's no sign of life here either. EXT. HEROINE'S GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE -- DAY The car pulls up to the house. The only sound is the wind. INT. BARTENDER'S CAR -- CONTINUOUS Heroine and Tuffy look at each other and proceed with caution. INT. ADULTERER'S CAR -- DAY He pulls up in front of his house. The front door is swinging open, BANGING against the door frame. INT. HEROINE'S GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE -- DAY Heroine enters the ransacked house. Tuffy follows. INT. ADULTERER'S HOUSE -- DAY He enters his house. It too, is a mess. INT. HEROINE'S GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE -- DAY They look down the stairs to the basement. Nothing. They move up the stairs to the second floor. SECOND FLOOR SMACK! They spin to the noise. INT. ADULTERER'S HOUSE -- DAY He moves up the stairs to the master bedroom. SMACK! There's a noise at the end of the hall. SMACK! INT. HEROINE'S GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE -- DAY They cautiously move to the last room in the hall. A scratched, closed door without an outside handle. HEROINE Oh no... Heroine kicks in the door and... There's a note on a teddy beer that says, "WE WENT TO THE SHELTER. LOVE GRANDMA AND CHARLIE." TUFFY They're alive! The shudders SMACK against the wall. INT. ADULTERER'S HOUSE -- DAY Adulterer holds a shattered PICTURE of his wife and two kids. He sighs and puts it down. ADULTERER I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... EXT. IGA (GROCERY STORE) -- DAY The sun shines bright in the cloudless sky. There is a stiff wind that stirs up the dust. Bartender's car slowly lurches up the street. INT. BARTENDER'S CAR -- CONTINUOUS Heroine and Tuffy skeptically look at the surroundings. HEROINE It's right up there, in the back of the store. EXT. IGA (GROCERY STORE) -- CONTINUOUS The car pulls up in the back of the store and stops. They get out, looking around. Tuffy holds a machete. Adulterer kneels against his car. HEROINE Where is everyone? ADULTERER I don't know, I just got here. Did you find your girl? HEROINE She's supposed to already be here. TUFFY Your family? Adulterer shakes his head, acknowledging their death. TUFFY I'm sorry. Adulterer sheepishly nods. HEROINE This place is a ghost town. The group makes their way to the store front, peeking beyond the glass doors. ADULTERER (pointing) Look! In the distance, in middle of a dusty parking lot, CHARLIE stands staring at them. HEROINE Charlie? Heroine runs to her and the others follow. Charlie fidgets awkwardly. She cries and blood stains her dress. HEROINE Charlie! As Heroine nears, Adulterer GRABS her arm. ADULTERER Stop! There's something wrong! HEROINE Honey!? The group eyes Charlie, noticing Heroine's locket around her ankle, leading to a slightly ajar manhole cover. Suddenly, the sunlight starts to FADE. They look up the sun. TUFFY Oh god. The MOON moves in front of it -- a SOLAR ECLIPSE. Beast HISSING and FLUTTERING is heard. Heroine looks from left to right, panic stricken. CHARLIE Mommy! The sunlight is fading. The manhole cover shakes, something is holding Charlie in place. Heroine lurches forward, but Adulterer holds her at bay. ADULTERER It's a trap! At a standstill, the group looks around for options. In the distance, the darkness of the eclipse rolls towards them. Adulterer reacts, grabbing Tuffy's machete and lunging for Charlie. The strike cuts the chain at her ankle. The manhole cover POPS off and a Beast claw sinks into Adulterer. The darkness covers the manhole. Momma Beast rises, hoisting Adulterer's blood dripping body from the ground. ADULTERER (gurgling blood) Run!!! Heroine scoops up her child, moving away from Momma Beast. Tuffy grabs them both, leading them back towards the store front. As Adulterer's blood flows, Momma Beast drags him towards her main prey. A blanket of darkness leads Momma Beast, overtaking the survivors. At the store front, Heroine pulls Charlie close. HEROINE (a whisper) I love you... CUT TO BLACK: EXT. IGA (GROCERY STORE) -- AN HOUR LATER A string of ten WHITE VANS come to a halt in the dusty parking lot. THE MAN IN TAN (45, buzz cut, leathery skin, cool) steps from the lead van and surveys the ravaged small town. A swarm of men emerge from the other vehicles, all dressed alike in work boots, gas masks and coveralls. They go into action honing in on rubble with SENSORS and COUNTERS. THE MAN IN TAN What's the damage radius? TECH (27, horn-rimmed glasses, all business) eyes a laptop. TECH Twenty miles. Red Mountain, surrounding farms, local TV studio. THE MAN IN TAN How many picked up the broadcast? TECH We'll have figures within the hour. The Man in Tan closes his eyes in thought. TECH Sir, what's the spin? THE MAN IN TAN Tornado cluster. TECH This is the California high desert. THE MAN IN TAN Get what you need to sell it. COMPANY MAN (O.S.) Sir, we have movement! The Man in Tan moves to a few men standing over a pool of blood and guts. Using the sensor equipment, the COMPANY MAN follows the blood trail that enters the grocery store. INT. IGA (GROCERY STORE) -- CONTINUOUS The place is torn to hell. Dust and soot hangs in the air. The men instinctively raise their high-powered rifles, letting the flashlights on the ends lead the way. They follow the trail of blood to a back FREEZER LOCKER. It's scratched, bashed and thrashed. THE MAN IN TAN Open it. Company Man #2 steps forward and uses a metal-cutting chainsaw to cut through the hinges. The door falls with a THUD. As the dust clears, Tuffy, Heroine and Charlie stare back at the men, huddled together in a defensive stance. The Man in Tan creaks his neck. THE MAN IN TAN Gentlemen, help them to safety. Heroine, holding Charlie, lurches back. HEROINE You're not safe, she's still alive, she'll be back... THE MAN IN TAN Relax. We know. We're the calvary. The Man in Tan steps forward, guiding the group out. EXT. IGA (GROCERY STORE) -- MOMENTS LATER A bulky security truck pulls up. A DRIVER, holding a bloody rag to his nose, gets out and moves to the back door. THE MAN IN TAN What happened to you? The Driver nods to the back of the truck, opening the door. Bozo lurches out, handcuffed and chained. BOZO Get these cuffs off me! I'm a goddamn hero for Christ's sake! A shirtless, irate BOZO sits next to Grandpa and Grandma in the back. He settles at the sight of the others. GRANDMA G'morning. BOZO Thanks for waitin' for me back there, really fuckin' appreciate it! Heroine covers her daughter's ears as the survivors are helped into the truck. Tuffy sits, looking to Bozo. TUFFY How'd you survive? BOZO I found a new weak spot on 'em, but it damn ain't pretty getting to it. Heroine, last in the truck, turns to the men. HEROINE Where are you taking us? THE MAN IN TAN A trauma center. We have doctors waiting. (off Heroine's pause) You're in good hands now. The door shuts on Heroine's concerned face. The Man in Tan locks eyes with the Driver. THE MAN IN TAN Do it quick and spread the mess. The Driver nods back. Sinister implication understood. The Man in Tan lights a cigarette as he watches the truck drive off. The truck's logo reads, "FARM-AID." He inhales. Freeze on him. NAME: THE MAN IN TAN AGE: 45 OCCUPATION: HE CAN'T TELL YOU PURPOSE: TO LAY GROUNDWORK FOR SEQUEL LIFE EXPECTANCY: PRETTY F-ING GOOD The Man in Tan exhales a gust of smoke. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Ferris Bueller's Day Off.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ferris Bueller's Day Off.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2815304803b0499ee54f77589158c944fff0ec2b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ferris Bueller's Day Off.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF" by John Hughes SHOOTING SCRIPT July 24, 1985 "FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF" 1 BLACK SCREEN 1 MAIN TITLES IT'S SILENT. A BEAT...AND AN EXPLOSION OF SOUND. A HOUSEHOLD IN THE MORNING. KIDS GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL. CLOCK RADIOS. KITCHEN APPLIANCES. SHOWERS. FIGHTING. PEOPLE YELLING. DOG BARKING. APPLIANCES BUZZING. CAR HORNS. IT SOUNDS JUST LIKE YOUR HOUSE DID. STREAMS OF ROCK'N ROLL FADE IN AND OUT. HUEY LEWIS TO LIONEL RITCHIE TO HUSKER DU. SURROUND MAKES IT FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN THE ROOM. AN AURAL TOUR OF A HOUSE ON A SCHOOL MORNING. BEGINING IN THE KITCHEN AND MOVING UPSTAIRS. FATHER'S VOICE (TOM) Where's my wallet?! SEVEN YEAR OLD BOY (TODD) YOU IDIOT!! TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL (KIMBERLY) MOM! TODD SHUT-UP! EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL (JEANIE) I NEED A TOWEL!! TOM JOYCE! KIMBERLY (whispers, sadistic) When you turn ten, your head's going to swell up real big like a watermelon and we're going to have to put you to sleep like they do with a dog. TODD MOM! TOM JOYCE!! JEANIE WHO PISSED ON THE TOILET SEAT!? MOTHER!! TOM Where's Mom? TODD Is my head going to swell up? TOM What?! JEANIE OH, MY GOD! THE TOILET PAPER'S ALL WET!!! MOTHER (JOYCE) (screams) TOM! The house falls dead SILENT. We hear footsteps thundering through the house. A TENSE STRAIN OF MUSIC FADES UP. TODD What's that? KIMBERLY Wait! Hold still! TODD What?! KIMBERLY You heads starting to swell up!! Todd screams. We hear the sound of Tom's footsteps running through the kitchen, down the hall, up the stairs, up the hallway. A door open. TOM (breathless) What's the matter? JOYCE (worried) It's Ferris! TOM What's wrong? JOYCE (snaps) What's wrong? For Christ's sake! Look at him! 2 CLOSE-UP. FERRIS 2 An eighteen year-old boy. He's staring lifelessly at CAMERA. His mouth's open. His eyes are bugged-out. His tongue is fat and dry in his mouth. He's laying in bed, on his side. 3 INT. BOY'S BEDROOM 3 Ferris' parents, TOM and JOYCE BUELLER are standing at bedside. They're in their late forties, early fifties. Handsome, upper-middle class parents. They're both dressed for work. TOM Ferris? JOYCE He doesn't have a fever. But he says his stomach hurts and he's seeing spots. 4 CLOSE-UP. FERRIS 4 His lifeless eyes blink. 5 INT. BEDROOM. PARENTS 5 Tom bends down and touches Ferris' forehead. TOM What's the matter, Ferris? JOYCE Feel his hands. They're cold and clammy. Tom takes one of Ferris' hands. TOM (discreetly) Should you call the doctor? JOYCE (whispers) He doesn't want me to. TOM Why don't you want Mom to call the doctor? Ferris exhales loudly. He tries to speak but all he can manage is a choked gasp. TOM What? Ferris tries again. FERRIS (raspy) Don't make a fuss. I'm fine. I'll get up. He starts to get up. Joyce gently pushes him back down. FERRIS I have a test today. I have to take it. I want to get into a good college so I can have a fruitful life... JOYCE You're not going to school like this. (to Tom) Maybe I should call the office and tell them I won't be in. FERRIS I'm okay, Mom. I feel perfectly...Oh, God! He's gripped by a seizure. His body stiffens and he chokes. His older sister, JEANIE, walks into the room. She's dressed for school. She's cute and stuck-up. A major pill. JEAN Oh, fine. What's this? What's his problem? JOYCE He doesn't feel well. JEAN Yeah, right. Dry that one out and you can fertilize the lawn. TOM That's enough, Jeanie. JEANIE You're not falling for this, are you? Tell me you're not falling for this. FERRIS Is that Jeanie? I can't see that far. Jeanie? JEANIE Pucker up and squat, Ferris. JOYCE (annoyed) Thank you, Jeanie. Get to school. JEANIE (angry, defeated) You're really letting him stay home? I can't believe this. If I was bleeding out my eyes, you guys'd make me go to school. It's so unfair. FERRIS Please don't be upset with me, Jeanie. Be thankful that you're fit and have your health. Cherish it. JEANIE (to herself) Oh, I wanna puke. She glares at Ferris. Her eyes are mascara and vengence. She slips out of the room. Ferris' brother, TODD and sister, KIMBERLY peek into the room. KIMBERLY Myocardial infarction? JOYCE Get your stuff. Daddy'll be right down. KIMBERLY Syphilitic meningitus? That would be a huge family embarrassment. TOM Get downstairs! KIMBERLY If he dies, I got dibs on his stereo. She turns sharply and exits. TODD (worried) Dad? Does my head look alright? JOYCE Get downstairs! Now! TODD Just answer me one question! Is it swelling up? Kim said it was going to get as big as... KIMBERLY (OC) A WATERMELON! TODD (yells out the room) Shut-up! JOYCE Get downstairs! NOW! Todd backs out of the room. FERRIS I'll be okay. I'll just sleep. Maybe I'll have an aspirin around noon. JOYCE (to Ferris) I'm showing houses to the family from California today but I'll be in the area. My office'll know where I am, if you need me. TOM I'll check it with you, too. FERRIS It's nice to know I have such loving, caring parents. You're both very special people. 6 CU. FERRIS 6 He acknowledges Tom with a pathetic flutter of his eyelids. 7 INT. BEDROOM. JOYCE 7 She strokes Ferris' hair. JOYCE I hope you feel better, pumpkin. She leans down and kisses his forehead. Tom pats his shoulder. TOM Get some rest. 8 CU. FERRIS 8 Ferris lets out a wheeze. His glassy eyes follow his parents to the door. JOYCE (OC) We love you, sweetie. TOM (OC) Call if you need us. They close the door. The lock clicks. Ferris' eyes shift from the door to CAMERA. A sly, little smile crawls across his lips. FERRIS They bought it. The MTV theme music ROARS IN. 9 CU. TV SCREEN 9 The TV at the foot of Ferris' bed. The MTV logo is playing. 10 INT. BEDROOM 10 Ferris yanks open the drapes. The pall of the sickroom disappears in the brilliant glow of morning sunlight. FERRIS Incredible! One of the worst performances of my career and they never doubted it for a second. (looks out the window) What a beautiful day! He turns from the window. FERRIS Parents always fall for the clammy hands. It's physical evidence of illness. It's a good, non-specific symptom. Parents are generally pretty hip to the fever scams. And to make them work you have to go a hundred and one, hundred and two. You get a nervous mother and you end up in a doctor's office and that's worse than school. He flips on his stereo and fills the room with the MTV broadcast. A NEW SONG begins. FERRIS Fake a stomach cramp and when you're doubled over, moaning and wailing, just lick your palms. It's a little stupid and childish but then so if high school. Right? He equalizes the sound a little. FERRIS This is my ninth sick day with semester. If I go for ten, I'm probably going to have to barf up a lung. So, I absolutely must make this one count. He exits into the hallway. 11 INT. BATHROOM 11 Ferris walks into the bathroom. It's littered with Jean's debris. He turns on the shower water. FERRIS I don't care if you're fifty five or seven, everybody needs a day off now and then. It's a beautiful day. How can I be expected to handle high school? He bends down OUT OF FRAME as he loses his briefs. He pops up. FERRIS I do actually have a test. That wasn't bullshit. He steps into the shower. Through the pebbled glass of the shower door we see Ferris' outline. FERRIS That I care about it was. 12 INT. BATHROOM. SHOWER STALL. 12 Inside the shower. Ferris' hair is standing straight up. It's moulded into a fin with shampoo. FERRIS It's on European socialism. I mean, really. What's the point? I'm not European. I don't plan to be European. So, who gives a shit if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists and it still wouldn't change the fact that I don't own a car. He turns the shower head around and uses it like a microphone. FERRIS (sings) WELL SHAKE IT UP, BABY, TWIST AND SHOUT... 13 INT. HALLWAY. LATER 13 Ferris comes out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He's drying his hair with another of a different color. FERRIS Not that I condone fascism. Or and "isms". "Isms", in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an "ism". He should believe in himself. John Lennon said it on his first solo album. "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." A good point there. Afterall, he was the Walrus. He opens a linen closet and tosses the towel in it. FERRIS I could be the Walrus and I'd still have to bum rides off people. He passes CAMERA and goes into his room. FERRIS (OC) I'm not very political? Let me put that into perspective... 14 INT. BEDROOM 14 Ferris tosses the towel he's dried hair with on the bed. FERRIS My uncle went to Canada to protest the war, right? On the Fourth of July he was down with my aunt and he got drunk and told my Dad he felt guilty he didn't fight in Viet Nam. So I said, "What's the deal, Uncle Jeff? In wartime you want to be a pacifist and in peacetime you want to be a soldier. It took you twenty years to find out you don't believe in anything?" (snaps his fingers) Grounded. Just like that. Two weeks. (pause) Be careful when you deal with old hippies. They can be real touchy. He opens his door. 15 INT. CLOSET 15 The door opens and Ferris rifles through his shirts. FERRIS My mother was a hippie. But she lost it. She got old. If she listens to the White Album now? She doesn't hear music, she hears memories. Nostalgia is her favorite drug. It'll probably be mine, too. I hope not. He finds a shirt he likes. He steps back from the closet and puts it on. He drops the towel. 16 INT. BEDROOM 16 He walks across the room to his dresser. He opens his underwear drawer. There's an old model of a submarine on the top of the dresser. He picks it up. FERRIS In eighth grade a friend of mine made a bong out of one of these. The smoke tasted like glue. He pulls out a pair of underwear. He gets dressed as he speaks. FERRIS His name is Garth Volbeck. He's a serious outsider. Not a bad guy, I like him. I'm probably his only friend. I do what I can for him. I mean, if I was him, I'd appreciate it. Do unto others, right? Anyway, his mother owns a gas station. His father's dead and his sister's rumored to be a prostitute, which is complete bullshit. She only puts out so people will hang out with her. It's sad but I don't hold it against her. Better to hold it against the guys who use her and don't care about her. (pause) My parents never allowed Garth over here. It was because of his family. Mainly his older brother. He's in jail. I could see them not wanting his brother here because he is a registered psycho. I wouldn't want him here. I once watched the guy eat a whole bowl of artificial fruit just so he could see what it was like to have his stomach pumped. But Garth isn't his brother. It isn't his fault that his brother's screwed-up. Alot of fights with the parents on that point. I always felt for Garth. I was sleeping at his house once and I was laying on the dark worrying that his brother was going to come in and hack me to death with an ax and I heard Garth crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "Nothing". ... Nothing was wrong. There was no specific thing he was crying about. In fact, he wasn't really even aware that he was crying. He just cried himself to sleep every night. It was a habit. The guy's so conditioned to grief that if he doesn't feel it, he can't sleep. How could you possibly dump on guy who has to deal with that kinda shit? My parents acknowledge the trudge of the situation and I'm sure that deep down, they do feel for him but still the guy's banned from our house. He looks at himself in the mirror on the back of his closet door. He doesn't like what he's wearing. He continues his speech as he disrobes. FERRIS Unfortunately, now my parents have a legit argument. Garth doesn't need his brother to give him a rep anymore. He's getting one on his own. He's lost. It's over for him. He's eighteen. Gone from school. Gone from life. His legacy is a gas station. 17 INT. HOUSE. STAIRCASE 17 Ferris comes down the stairs. He's wearing a completely different outfit. FERRIS One very serious danger is playing sick is that it's possible to believe your own act. 18 INT. KITCHEN 18 Ferris comes into the kitchen and crosses to the refrigerator. FERRIS That and boredom. Alot of people ditch and feel great for about an hour. Then they realize there's nothing to do. TV and food. I myself have ditched and gotten so bored I did homework. Figure that shit out. He takes a sip out of a bottle of orange juice. FERRIS You have to plan things out before you take the day off. Otherwise you get all nervous worrying about what to do and all you get is grief and the whole point is to take it easy, cut loose and enjoy. He crosses to the pantry. FERRIS You blow your day and at about three o'clock, when everybody's out of school, you're going to wish you'd gone to school so you could be out having fun. He emerges from the pantry with a handful of Oreos. FERRIS Avoid the misery. Plan your day. Do it right. 19 INT. FAMILY ROOM 19 Ferris walks in and flops down in an armchair. FERRIS There's alot of pressure at work in my age group. And it's not always recognized. He reaches over and picks up the telephone. He sets it in his lap. FERRIS Some guy whose hair is falling out and his stomach's hanging over his belt and everything he eats makes him fart, he looks at someone like me and thinks, "This kid's young and strong and has a full, rich future ahead of him, what's he got to bitch about?" 20 CU. PHONE 20 He punches out a number. 21 INT. FAMILY ROOM. FERRIS 21 He remote controls the TV on. FERRIS That's just one reason why I need a day off every now and then. 22 EXT. ANOTHER HOUSE 22 A sleek, modern house on a couple of deeply wooded acres. A prime house in a prime location. A telephone rings OVER. 23 INT. BOY'S BEDROOM 23 It's a dark, dreary sick room. Shades drawn, floor strewn with used tissues, nightstand a still-life of over the counter remedies. A high school boy, CAMERON FRYE, is laying in bed. We don't see his face, only a silhouette with a thermometer sticking out his mouth. U2's SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY is playing. He's mumbling random words. CAMERON Food...shelter...no...yes... The phone rings. His hand reaches back and hits the speaker phone button. CAMERON (weak) Hello? FERRIS' VOICE Cameron! What's happening? CAMERON Very little. FERRIS' VOICE How do you feel? CAMERON Shredded. FERRIS' VOICE Is your mother in the room? Cameron takes the thermometer out of his mouth. CAMERON She's not home. Where are you? FERRIS' VOICE Home. 24 INT. FERRIS' FAMILY ROOM. FERRIS 24 Ferris is sprawled out in the chair. FERRIS I'm taking the day off. Get dressed and come over. CAMERON'S VOICE I can't. I'm sick. FERRIS It's all in your head. Come on over. 25 INT. CAMERON'S ROOM 25 Cameron's insistant. CAMERON I feel like complete shit, Ferris. I can't go anywhere. FERRIS' VOICE I'm sorry to hear that. Now, come on over and pick me up. Ferris disconnects. Cameron slowly hangs up the phone. CAMERON I'm dying. The phone rings again. Cameron hits the speaker button. FERRIS' VOICE You're not dying. You just can't think of anything good to do. 26 INT. FERRIS' FAMILY ROOM 26 Ferris hangs up. FERRIS If anybody needs a day off, it's Cameron. He has alot of things to sort out before he graduates. He can't be wound this tight and go to college. His roommate'll kill him. I've come close myself. But I like him. He's a little easier to take when you know why he's like he is. The boy cannot relax. Pardon by French but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond. (after-thought) And Cameron would worry that he'd owe taxes on it. 27 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 27 We hear roll call as CAMERA MOVES ACROSS the tile floor. A shoe's POV. TEACHER'S VOICE Albers? BOY'S VOICE Here. TEACHER'S VOICE Anderson. GIRL'S VOICE Here. CAMERA enters a classroom. It travels past a teacher's Hush Puppies and heads up an aisle of desk past dirty yellow Reebocks, rotting Air Jordans, scuffed heels, pristine loafers... TEACHER'S VOICE Anheiser? BOY'S VOICE Here. TEACHER'S VOICE Busch? GIRL'S VOICE Here. TEACHER'S VOICE Bueller? CAMERA reaches the last desk and rises slowly to reveal that it's empty. TEACHER'S VOICE Bueller? GIRL'S VOICE He's sick. (pause) My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass-out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious. TEACHER'S VOICE (weary) Thank you, Simone. GIRL'S VOICE (cheery) No problem whatsoever. TEACHER'S VOICE Drucker? BOY'S VOICE What? WOUND-OUT CAR ENGINES COME UP LOUD. 28 CU. TV 28 THE ROAD WARRIOR is playing on video cassette. The big chase at the end. INT. FAMILY ROOM. FERRIS He's sitting in the arm chair pretending it's Humongous' war wagon. He's wearing a hockey mash. He's steering. He reaches down and grabs an imaginary nitrous oxide valve. CU. TV Humongous reaches down and grabs a real nitrous oxide valve. He gives it a twist. CU. FERRIS He throws himself back against the chair. CU. TV The force of the rapid acceleration of his vehicle throws Humongous back in his seat. CU. FERRIS He bounces himself in the chair to simulate the bumpy high speed ride. CU. TV The was wagon hurtles down the road. CU. FERRIS He rears back in horror. CU. TV The war wagon is heading for a head-on collision with the tanker truck. CU. FERRIS Arms outstretched, head thrown back, braced for collision. CU. TV IMPACT! MOZART COMES UP. 29 CU. FLOWERING TREE BRANCH 29 Outside a bedroom window. A flowering crabtree branch. Petite pink flowers. WE PULL BACK FROM THE WINDOW INTO THE ROOM. It's Jeanie's room. A pink and powder blue pig pen. Clothes everywhere, make-up, books, records. Ferris is sitting on her bed going through a purse. FERRIS This is really degrading. He comes up with a crumpled dollar bill. FERRIS Financing my activities this way. Very damaging to the self-image. But, hey, I'm broke. In times of crisis one must to what one must to. I'll pay it back. With interest. He comes up with a five. FERRIS Regardless of how much shit sisters make you eat, how often they rat on you, how gross they act or how wicked and insensitive they can be, you should not alientate them. Because most likely they have cash and it's usually very easy to get your hands on. He holds up a twenty and snaps it. PINK FLOYD'S "MONEY" COMES UP. 30 INT. LIVING ROOM 30 The song plays as Ferris digs through the sofa cushions. CU. SOFA Ferris extracts a sticky quarter from a crevice. 31 INT. PARENTS' BEDROOM 31 Ferris is going through his father's pants pockets. Another crumpled bill surfaces. 32 CU. WASHING MACHINE TOP 32 A couple of stiff, hard, bleached singles that have gone through the wash lay on top of the washer. A hand scoops them up. 33 CU. LUCITE ENCASED PROOF SET 33 An obvious gift from a grandparent. A U.S. Mint proof set. A ten, a five and a single enclosed in a lucite frame. A screwdriver tip wedges between the two pieces of Lucite and pops them apart. A hand peels the bills off the backing. 34 CU. KITCHEN DRAWER 34 Hands ripping through the kitchen junk drawer. Locating a dollar bill. 35 CU. COIN COLLECTION 35 The familiar blue collector's album. One-by-one, the quarters are being popped out of their slots. 36 CU. VACCUUM CLEANER 36 The dusty, dirty contents of the bag are emptied on the floor. Fingers pick a dime out of a matted wad of filth. 37 CU. SNOOPY BANK 37 It's being shaken furiously. 38 CU. BIRTHDAY CARD 38 It's a child's card. It's slowly opened to reveal a crisp, new five. 39 INT. HALL CLOSET 39 The door opens and Ferris thrusts his hands into the pockets of the coats. He comes up with a ball of Kleenex. A roll of Tums. A squirt gun. Then a modest wad of bills. His face lights up as he counts out the cash. He closes the door. 40 CU. FLOOR AND BED 40 Ferris' face appears between the bed and the floor. His arm reaches out for a small metal bank hidden under the bed. 41 CU. BANK 41 It's on a work bench. An awl is driven in between the door and the jamb. It pries the door open. Inside are trading cards, a charred doll's head, a Zippo lighter and, finally, a five dollar bill. 42 INT. KITCHEN 42 Ferris is on his hands and knees under the kitchen table. 43 CU. TABLE LEG 43 Ferris lifts the leg and removes a quarter that's been used to balance the table. 44 INT. KITCHEN 44 Ferris stands up and pockets the quarter. 45 CU. FERRIS' BED 45 A shower of coins and bills rain down on the sheets. The SONG ENDS. 46 EXT. REAL ESTATE OFFICE. MORNING 46 A suburban realty company. A cute little building in town. 47 INT. OFFICE 47 Joyce is behind a desk. Across from her are two WOMEN. They're also real estate agents. JOYCE No one's going to consider a house with a black living room. Not even those jerks from Vermont. Let's be realistic. AGENT 1 Mrs. Volbeck's dead set against putting any money into the house. Joyce's phone intercom buzzes. She take the call. JOYCE Joyce Bueller. Her eyes open wide with alarm. JOYCE Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I completely forgot to call. 48 EXT. HIGH SCHOOL 48 A modern, suburban high school. MAN'S VOICE Are you aware that your son is not in school today? 49 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 49 It's a passing period. The hall is clogged with students. JOYCE'S VOICE Yes, I am. Ferris is home sick. I had a meeting first thing this morning. I should have called. It completely slipped my mind. 50 INT. SCHOOL. DEAN'S OUTER OFFICE 50 A SECRETARY is at work at her desk. We hear the dean inside the office. DEAN'S VOICE Are you also aware that Ferris does not have what we consider an exemplary attendance record? 51 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE. CU. DESK SIGN 51 It reads, EDWARD R. ROONEY. DEAD OF STUDENTS. The dean's feet are up on the desk, behind the sign. Moderately priced dress shoes. JOYCE'S VOICE I don't understand. DEAN'S VOICE I just had his file up. INT. OFFICE. CU. DEAN ED ROONEY is sitting behind his desk. He's tough, clean and straight as an I-beam. Short, neatly combed hair, suit and tie. He's toying with a pencil. He's confident to the point of arrogance. ROONEY I just has his file up, Mrs. Bueller. Behind him is a computer terminal. He removes his feet from the desk and turns in his swivel chair. ROONEY If Ferris thinks he coast this last month and still graduate, he's sorely mistaken. JOYCE'S VOICE This is all news to me. CU. COMPUTER MONITOR The monitor on Rooney's desk displays Ferris' records. ROONEY'S VOICE So far this semester alone, he's been absent nine times. Including today. JOYCE'S VOICE Nine times? Under DAYS MISSED we see a number 9 suddenly change to a number 2. INT. OFFICE Rooney turns to the monitor. He reads off the screen. ROONEY I have it right here in front of me. He's missed... He looks closer at the screen. 52 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 52 Ferris is at his Macintosh computer. He has his record up on the screen. FERRIS I wanted a car. I got a computer. How's that for being born under a bad sign? 53 INT. JOYCE'S OFFICE 53 She's still on the phone with Rooney. JOYCE I can give you every assurance that Ferris is home and that he is, in fact, very ill. I debated whether or not I should even leave him. I can appreciate that at this time of year children are prone to taking the day off, but in Ferris' case, he's truly a very sick boy. 54 INT. FERRIS' BEDROOM 54 MUSIC BLASTS. SOLO GUITAR. CU. SPEAKER The grille cloth is throbbing. CU. LED METERS The meters on the amplifier are totally in the danger zone. CU. TV MONITOR We see Ferris in his room with a guitar around his neck. He's playing. CU. VIDEO CAMERA A home video camera is capturing Ferris on tape. 55 INT. CAMERON'S ROOM 55 He's sitting on the edge of the bed buttoning his shirt. He sighs deeply and fall back on the bed. 56 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 56 Jeanie is at her locker during a passing period. A GIRLFRIEND comes up to her. GIRL I'm really sorry about your brother. JEANIE What're you sorry for? I have to live with the trouser snake. GIRL No, I mean I heard he's really sick. JEANIE Who said he's sick. GIRL A whole bunch of people. They said he's like on the verge of death. Jeanie stares incredulously at the girl. GIRL This guy in my biology class said that if Ferris dies he's giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder? He's really sweet isn't he? She smiles and exits. Jeanie cocks her head in bewilderment. She kicks her locker shut. 57 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 57 He's in bed on the phone. FERRIS A sample of my blood was sent to Atlanta to the Center for Disease Control. I don't know, man, I'm bricking heavily. (point to the phone) Freshman. (to the phone) Did you see Alien? When the guy had the creature in his stomach? It feels like that. 58 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 58 A FRESHMAN BOY is on the pay phone. A couple of his BUDDIES are standing at his side waiting anxiously for news. BOY Goddamn! Are you kidding? SECOND BOY What? BOY Did you see Alien? SECOND BOY No. BOY You never rented the video cassette? Second boy shakes his head, no. BOY Oh. He's really wasted. THIRD BOY (to the Second Boy) Who's he talking to? SECOND BOY Ferris Bueller. You know him? THIRD BOY (excited) Yeah. He's getting me out of summer school. BOY Anyway, I appreciate you letting us know how you're doing. We gotta split. (pause) Huh?...Yeah, sure. Hold on. SECOND BOY (to Third Boy) Shit. I hope he doesn't die. I can't handle summer school. The boy snatches a passing GIRL. BOY Did you see Alien? GIRL Yeah, why? He hands her the phone. GIRL Hello? (pause) Who? (pause) Hi, Ferris. How's your bod? (jaw drops) Oh, my God! You're dying? Is it serious? (pause) Shiit! Are you upset? 59 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE 59 Rooney's comparing his computer monitor to hard copy. His SECRETARY is standing over his shoulder. ROONEY I don't trust this kid any further than I can throw him! SECRETARY With your bad knee, you better not throw anybody, Ed. Rooney stares at her for a long beat. ROONEY What's so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is that he gives the good kids bad ideas. The last thing I need at this point in my career is fifteen hundred Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls. SECRETARY He's very popular, Ed. Sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, pinheads, dweebies, wonkers, richies, they all adore him. ROONEY That's exactly why I have to catch him this time. To show these kids that the example he sets is a first class ticket to nowhere. SECRETARY (impressed) Ooo. You sounded like Dirty Harry just now. Rooney looks up at her with a proud smile. ROONEY Really? He unconsciously does an Eastwood squint. 60 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE 60 It's a glorious late spring day. A florist's truck drives past the house. 61 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 61 He's on the telephone. As he speaks he does a little MacPainting on his MacIntosh. A Modigliani nude. FERRIS Cameron, if you're not over here in fifteen minutes, you can find a new best friend. I'm serious, man. This is bullshit, making me wait around the house for you. 62 INT. CAMERON'S BEDROOM 62 Cameron's back in bed. CAMERON I'm sick. I feel like shit. Why can't you leave me alone? FERRIS' VOICE You're not up for some good times? It's a beautiful day. It's almost summer. If this was Hawaii, we'd be surfing. 63 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 63 He's growing weary of Cameron's wimpishness. FERRIS You want to stay home and try to have the shits? Try to barf? Try to feel worse? CAMERON'S VOICE I don't have to try. FERRIS Be a man. Take some Pepto Bismol and get dressed. You're boring me with this stuff. The other phone line rings. FERRIS Squeeze you buns for a second. I got another call. He puts Cameron on hold. He clears his throat and answers the second line. He sounds like he's on his last breath. FERRIS H--hell-o? 64 EXT. OFFICE BUILDING. DOWNTOWN 64 A LaSalle Street office tower. TOM'S VOICE Ferris? 65 INT. TOM'S OFFICE 65 He's behind his desk. Nice office. Two windows. Herman Miller desk and chair. TOM You sound miserable. FERRIS' VOICE Really? Darn! I thought I was improving. TOM Were you sleeping? FERRIS' VOICE I was trying to do some homework. 66 CU. COMPUTER MONITOR 66 A closer view of the rude drawing Ferris is making. FERRIS (OC) I'm so worried about falling behind. INT. FERRIS' ROOM He leans back from the monitor and sips a Coke. FERRIS Dad? Can you hold on a second? TOM'S VOICE Sure, pal. Are you alright? FERRIS Just a little phlegm on the phone. Hold on. He puts his father on hold. FERRIS Cameron? It's my Dad. CAMERON'S VOICE Oh, that's just great. Are you busted? FERRIS It's completely cool. He's just checking up on me. Now, listen to me. I'm working on getting some heavy bucks out of him. So, the least you can do is hurry up and get over here. Bye. He disconnects and gets his father back. He switches back to his sick voice. FERRIS Sorry, Dad. The moment before you called, I had a chest spasm and I blew lung fluid all over the place. It was making me ill looking at it. But gee, it's sure great of you to call. I'm sure there're alot of fathers who wouldn't take time out from their busy schedules to call a dumb, sick teenager. TOM'S VOICE Hey, pal, what was I supposed to do? Ferris reaches out and hits a key on his computer. The screen dumps the drawing. FERRIS Give yourself some credit, Dad. It was a mammoth gesture. It's like those savings bonds you used to give me every Christmas. (looks at CAMERA and smiles) It was that kind of concern. CU. COMPUTER SCREEN A message is flashing: "TRANSMITTING DATA". INT. FERRIS' ROOM He turns away from the computer and puts his feet up on the desk. He lights a cigarette. FERRIS You had to work hard for the money to buy those things, right? TOM'S VOICE Not any harder than anybody else. Ferris mouths Tom's words as he says them. 67 EXT. CHICAGO LOOP. DIAMONDVISION SCREEN 67 Ferris' drawing suddenly appears on the billboard. Pedestrians stop to look. 68 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 68 He blows a smoke ring. FERRIS You work so hard I'll bet you don't even remember where those bonds are, right? Ferris points a finger in the air as a cue to his father. TOM'S VOICE Wrong. He nods. FERRIS Oh, yeah? You're pulling my leg. You're just trying to cheer me up. TOM'S VOICE Like hell I am. They're in a shoebox in my closet. Ferris smiles. He looks at CAMERA. He's gotten exactly what he wants. FERRIS (to CAMERA, normal voice) Was that a class move or what? The guy gave it up faster than a drunk Catholic girl. I hope my kids don't pull this shit on me. (thinks) Of course, if they didn't, they'd be dumb and abnormal and they'd probably never move out of my house and I'd have to support them until I die. I take it back. (to the phone, sick voice) Dad? All this talking has made me kind of light-headed. I think I better lie down. TOM'S VOICE Okay, pal. You take care. I'll call you after lunch. FERRIS You don't have to, Dad. TOM'S VOICE I want to. Bye now. He hangs up. Ferris sighs. FERRIS You win some, you lose some. He turns his desk chair around and gets up. FERRIS I'm so disappointed in Cameron. Twenty bucks says he's sitting in his car debating about whether or not he should go out. 69 INT. CAR. CAMERON 69 He's sitting behind the wheel of his car. CAMERON We're gonna get caught. No doubt about it. He cuts the engine. CAMERON I'm not doing it. He sits for half a beat. CAMERON He'll keep calling until I come over. He sighs and restarts the engine. Another beat. CAMERON Actually, what'll happen is I'll get caught. Ferris'll escape. Another beat. He stops the engine. A CRASH OF HORROR MUSIC. 70 CU. DRESSER DRAWER 70 Hands curl around the drawer pulls. The drawer is opened slowly, ominously. The hands lift a sweater out. A HERALDIC STING as we see a men's magazine beneath the sweater. INT. FERRIS' ROOM He takes out the magazine. He leafs through the pages for the pictorials as he speaks. FERRIS Cameron'll go on like that for a good thirty minutes. The guy is a shellfish when it comes to making a decision. The reason he doesn't fell good is, he worries about everything. He's the only guy I know who's deeply concerned that when he grows up there'll be a critical shortage of strategic metals. He exits the room. 71 INT. HALLWAY 71 Ferris comes out of his room and heads down the hallway. FERRIS Cameron's also the only guy I know who knows what strategic metals are. (waves the magazine) Pardon moi. He goes into the bathroom. We HEAR THE TOILET SEAT SLAM DOWN. FERRIS (sings) MAYBE I'M JUST LIKE MY MOTHER, SHE'S NEVER SATISFIED... 72 INT. CLASSROOM. LATER 72 A stunningly beautiful girl, SLOANE PETERSON, is sitting at her desk in a history class. She's staring out the window as a tweedy MALE TEACHER delivers a dry, dusty lecture. TEACHER Roosevelt's health had seriously deteriorated by the time he met with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta. (sneezes) Pardon me. The classroom door opens and the school NURSE walks in. For a moment, the teacher thinks she's come in because she heard him sneeze. She crosses to him and whispers in his ear. SLOANE She, like the others, watches the nurse curiously. INT. CLASSROOM. TEACHER AND NURSE The teacher's face drops as he's delivered an obvious piece of disturbing news. He nods grimly to the Nurse. She looks at the kids. NURSE Sloane Peterson? SLOANE Sits up in her seat. NURSE She's a picture of compassion and understanding. NURSE May I see you outside for a moment? There's been an emergency. SLOANE A smile curls across her lips. As she gathers her books she looks to the GIRL next to her. SLOANE (whispers) Dead grandmother. 73 INT. HALLWAY 73 The Nurse is gently holding Sloane's hand. NURSE (nods solemnly) Dead grandmother. 74 CU. ROONEY 74 He has a suspicious look on his face. ROONEY Dead grandmother? INT. DEAN'S OFFICE Rooney's at his desk. His secretary is standing across from him. SECRETARY That's what Mr. Peterson said. I had Florence Sparrow notify Sloane. ROONEY Who's this girl's going with? SECRETARY It's so hard to tell. I see her alot with Ferris Bueller. Rooney smiles. His suspicions are confirmed. ROONEY Could you get me Mr. Peterson's daytime number? As the secretary starts out of the room, Rooney's phone rings. She stops and answers the desk phone. SECRETARY Edward Rooney's office. (pause) Yes. Can you hold? Thank you. She puts the call on hold. SECRETARY It's Mr. Peterson. Rooney is startled. He thinks for a beat then reaches for the phone. SECRETARY Do you still want his number? Rooney answers her with an annoyed look. She smiles and backs out. He punches the phone button. ROONEY Ed Rooney. MAN'S VOICE Ed? This is George Peterson. ROONEY How are you today, sir? MAN'S VOICE We've had a bit of bad luck this morning as you may have heard. Rooney rolls his eyes. It's so obvious it's not Mr. Peterson. ROONEY I heard. And, gosh, I'm all broken up. Huh? Oh, sure. I'd be happy to release Sloane. You produce a corpse and I'll release Sloane. I want to see this dead grandmother firsthand. The secretary stops cold in the doorway. She turns to Rooney in horror. He covers the phone. ROONEY (whispers) It's Ferris Bueller. Nervy litttle punk. I'm gonna set a trap and let his walk right into it! (to phone) That's right. Cart the stiff in and I'll turn over your daughter. It's school policy. Was this your mother? Rooney's other line rings. 75 INT. SECRETARY'S OFFICE 75 She steps out of Rooney's office and picks up the other line. SECRETARY Ed Rooney's office. Her jaw drops. SECRETARY Hold, please. She puts the call on hold and hangs up. She hurried into Rooney's office. 76 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE 76 Rooney's chewing out the person on the other line. ROONEY I'll tell you want, you don't like my policies, you can just come on down and smooch by big old ugly ass. You hear me? The secretary comes in. She's waving her arms furiously. Rooney tries to wave her away. He's angry. She stomps her foot. Rooney covers the phone. ROONEY What!? SECRETARY Ferris Bueller's on line two. CU. ROONEY'S FOOT It freezes in mid-tap. CU. ROONEY'S HAND The pencils falls from his fingers. CU. ROONEY'S FACE A mask of horror. He glances at the phone. CU. PHONE The second line light is flashing. CU. ROONEY He blinks, cocks his head, twitches. 77 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 77 He's zipping his pants, fastening his belt. The phone's cradled against his shoulder. He speaks in the same voice he used on his father. FERRIS Mr. Rooney? I'm sorry to disturb you at work but I was wondering if it would be possible for my sister to bring home any assignments from my classes that I may need. 78 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE. ROONEY 78 He's staring blankly ahead. FERRIS' VOICE Thank you, sir. He nods. CU. PHONE Rooney's finger gingerly presses the button on the waiting call. CU. ROONEY He winces as he returns to the first call. 79 INT. FERRIS' HOUSE. KITCHEN 79 Cameron's on the phone in the kitchen. He's doing a deep, phoney "father" voice. CAMERON You oughta be sorry for Christ's sake! A family member dies and you insult me. What's the matter with you, anyway? 80 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE. ROONEY 80 He apologies profusely to Cameron. He's perspiring, trembling. ROONEY I don't know. I thought you were someone else. You have to know, sir, that I would never deliberately insult you. I can't begin to tell you how embarrassed I am. CAMERON'S VOICE Pardon my French but you're an asshole! Rooney nods enthusiastically. ROONEY Absolutely! I most certainly am. 81 INT. KITCHEN 81 Cameron lays into Rooney. CAMERON This isn't over yet, buster. You just make sure my daughter's out in front of the school in ten minutes. Do you read me? ROONEY'S VOICE Load and clear, Mr. Peterson. CAMERON Call me sir, goddamn it! ROONEY'S VOICE Sir. CAMERON That's better. Ferris strolls into the kitchen to catch the last of the conversation. Cameron covers the phone. CAMERON (to Ferris) I'm scared shitless, Ferris! What is Rooney guesses my voice! FERRIS Impossible. You're doing great. Cameron sighs and goes back to the phone. CAMERON (clears his throat) I don't have all day to bark at you so I'll make this short and sweet. Ferris gives Cameron an enthusiastic thumbs up. FERRIS (mouths) Great! Cameron smiles proudly. CAMERON I want my daughter out in front of the school in ten minutes. By herself. I don's want anyone around... Ferris smacks Cameron. He's said the wrong thing. He covers the phone. CAMERON What'd I do? FERRIS Out in front my herself? It's too suspicious! He'll think something's up, moron. Cover it. Cameron panics. He holds the phone out to Ferris. CAMERON You do it! Ferris waves his arms angrily. FERRIS Talk! Cameron takes a deep breath. He clears his throat and puts on his father's voice. CAMERON I changed my mind, fella. You be out in front with her! I wanna have a few words with you! Ferris slaps Cameron. The phone flies out of his hand. 82 CU. ROONEY 82 He winces as the phone hits the floor with a loud CLONK! We HEAR THE BOYS SCRAMBLING TO PICK UP THE PHONE, THEN CAMERON CLEARING HIS THROAT. CAMERON'S VOICE On second thought, I don't have time to talk to you. We'll get together soon and have lunch. We HEAR A SLAP AND THE CALL DISCONNECTS. 83 INT. FERRIS' KITCHEN 83 Cameron's rubbing the side of his head. CAMERON Why'd you hit me?! FERRIS Where's your brain?! CAMERON Why'd you hit me?! FERRIS Where's your brain?! CAMERON Why'd you hit me? FERRIS Where's your brain? CAMERON I asked you first. FERRIS How can we pick up Sloane if Rooney's going to be there with her?! CAMERON I said for her to be there alone and you freaked! FERRIS My, God, you're so stupid! (aside) I didn't hit you, I lightly slapped you. CAMERON You hit me. Look, don't ask me to participate in your crap if you don't like the way I do it! Ferris is incredulous at Cameron's stupidity. Cameron's anger is intensified by his embarrassment. CAMERON I was home, sick. You get me out of bed, being me over here, make me jeopardize my future, make me do a phoney phone call on a dean of students, a man who could squeeze my nuts into oblivion and then you deliberately hurt my feelings. FERRIS I didn't deliberately hurt your feelings. CAMERON Oh, really? FERRIS Yeah, really. Cameron glares at Ferris. CAMERON Hey, Ferris? Have a nice life. He turns and heads out of the room. Ferris sighs. FERRIS Cameron? CAMERON Stick it up your ass, Ferris. FERRIS Cameron, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jam you. It was uncalled for. Cameron stops. CAMERON You're serious? He turns around. FERRIS Dead serious. Cameron smiles. He appreciates Ferris apology. CAMERON Thanks. FERRIS You did screw up through, right? Not that is was necessarily all you fault. Right? CAMERON (suspiciously) Why? FERRIS To fix this situation, I'm going to have to ask you for a small favor. Cameron's jaw drops. 84 INT. GARAGE 84 The door opens slowly, dramatically as we hear a heraldic fanfare. Light streams in to reveal Cameron and Ferris looking at the car. Ferris is smiling with excitement and awe. Cameron is frowning with trepidation and fear. CU. FERRARI STALLION The prancing black stallion. We move up from the stallion to the erotic red hood of a 1958 Ferrari 250 GTS California. CAMERON AND FERRIS Cameron's face is ashen. The end of the world is at hand. Ferris is in heaven. CAMERON (grim monotone) 1958 Ferrari 250 GTS California. Less than a hundred were made. It has a market value of $265,000. My father spent three years restoring it. It is joy, it is his love, it is his passion. FERRIS It is his fault he didn't lock the garage. CAMERON Ferris, my father loves this car more than life itself. We can't take is out. FERRIS A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile. CAMERON He never drives it, Ferris. He just rubs it with a diaper. FERRIS We can't pick up Sloane in your car, Cameron. Rooney'd never believe Mr. Peterson drives that piece of shit. CAMERON It's not a piece of shit. FERRIS It's a piece of shit. Don't worry about it. I don't even have a piece of shit. I have to envy yours. Look, I'm sorry but there's nothing else we can do. CAMERON He knows the mileage, Ferris. He has it tatooed on his wrist. FERRIS He doesn't trust you? CAMERON No. FERRIS Alright, look, this is real simple. He puts his arm around Cameron. FERRIS Whatever miles we put on it, we'll take off. CAMERON (suspicious) How? FERRIS (big, proud smile) We'll drive home backwards. Cameron shakes his head, no. CAMERON Forget it. I'm putting my foot down, Ferris. You'll have to think of something else... CU. FERRARI GRILLE Cameron's protests are drowned out by the distinctive roar of the twelve cylinders. CAMERON'S VOICE ...You're not talking me into this one. I have to live with the man. I'm sorry but... The roar of the engine is overtaken by the sound of a crowded school hallway. 85 INT. SCHOOL. JEANIE 85 She comes out of a classroom. She stops as Sloane and Rooney walk past. Sloane has her coat on and she's carrying her books. Jeanie watches her suspiciously. 86 EXT. SCHOOL 86 The Ferrari is parked out in front. The top is down. 87 INT. FERRARI 87 Ferris is driving. He's wearing a man's hat and sunglasses. Cameron's in the back. CAMERON Are you crazy?! Put the top back up! FERRIS This is perfect top-down weather. CAMERON What about Rooney? FERRIS Cameron, the more obvious we are, the less likely we are to get caught. CAMERON That makes no sense whatsoever. FERRIS The adult mind is a suspicious machine. (look around at Cameron) Stay down, man. Cameron squeezes himself lower. CAMERON Howcome it's my Dad's car and I'm taking all the risk and I have to ride back here? FERRIS I don't have an explanation. 88 EXT. SCHOOL 88 Rooney and Sloane come out the door. ROONEY Once again let me say how deeply saddened I am by your loss. SLOANE Huh? ROONEY Were you close to your grandmother? SLOANE Oh. Um. Yeah. Very. She was a terrific lady. Very hip. Very old. Yeah. DEEP VOICE Oh, Sloane! Dear! Sloane looks across at the Ferrari. Rooney looks. THEIR POV Ferris is looking out across the roof of the Ferrari. He's careful to keep his nose and mouth below the roofline. FERRIS Hurry along now! EXT. SCHOOL Rooney's suspicious. Sloane smiles and bids Rooney a hasty farewell. SLOANE I guess that's my Dad. Thanks. See ya. She hurries to the car. Rooney watches her. Something does compute for him. 89 INT. SCHOOL. JEANIE 89 She's watching out the door. She sees the Ferrari pull away. 90 EXT. SCHOOL. ROONEY 90 He can't quite put his finger on what's bothering him. 91 INT. FERRARI 91 Sloane shrieks with delight. She leans across the console and gives Ferris a kiss. SLOANE This is so great! I can't believe it! Right in front of Rooney! She laughs and turns to Cameron. SLOANE Hi, Cameron. You comfortable? CAMERON Hi. No. SLOANE What a fabulous car! CAMERON Enjoy it quick. It' s going home. FERRIS It was risky, it was bold but it was totally necessary. SLOANE What're we gonna do? FERRIS The question isn't "what are we gonna do", the question is "what aren't we going to do." CAMERON Don't tell me we're not going to take the car home. Please. FERRIS (to CAMERA) If you had access to a car like this would you take it back right away? Would you give up feeling like a ton just to ease your best friend's tension? He smiles. FERRIS Either would I. 92 EXT. STREET. FERRARI 92 It accelerates away like a shot. 93 EXT. SUBURBAN BANK 93 A fresh, modern bank building. The clock outside read 9:53. The Ferrari pulls into the parking lot. 94 INT. BANK. DOORS 94 Ferris, Cameron and Sloane walk in. Ferris is cocky and confident. Sloane's still intoxicated with her freedom. Cameron's having stomach trouble. Ferris leads the way to an open teller window. INT. BANK. TELLER A WOMAN about seventy with a silver blue beehive. It's about four inches higher the highest beehive you're ever seen. As she moves the beehive hits a small sign over her head. She's been at the bank since they opened. She smiles when she sees Ferris. TELLER Ferris Bueller? FERRIS He's at the window. On either shoulder are Cameron and Sloane. Ferris smiles. Cameron blanches. FERRIS Hello, Mrs. Froeling. How are you? TELLER She pats the rock-solid mass of blue hair. In doing so she locates a missing ball point pen. She withdraws it from the hair and smiles at it's reappearance. TELLER I passed a kidney stone Tuesday, so I'm a little pooped but other than that, I'm as chipper as can be. (something occurs to her) Say, should you be in school? FERRIS He lays his savings bonds on the counter. FERRIS Me? (polite laugh) I'm out of school, Mrs. Froeling. In fact. I'm married. This is my wife...Madonna. Sloane suppresses a laugh. FERRIS (to Cameron) And this is my brother-in-law, ZZ Top. ZZ, this is Mrs. Froeling. Cameron isn't amused. TELLER (to Cameron) Is Top a Slavic name? CAMERON Yeah. FERRIS I'd like to cash these in, please. We're having a baby and we need the cash for a crib, clothes, diapers, food pellets, leash, water dish... INT. BANK. TELLER WINDOW Mrs. Froeling takes the bonds with a hearty smile. The latter part of the conversation sails over her like a line drive. TELLER A baby! (to Sloane) You must be so excited. Cameron groans and turns away from the sham. SLOANE I'm thrilled, ma'am. I'm especially looking forward to wearing those jeans with the stretch panel in front. Mrs. Froeling thumbs through the bonds. TELLER Are you hoping for a boy or a girl? SLOANE Actually, we're hoping for a car. CU. CAMERON He's spooked by the games playing. He scans the bank nervously. He blinks, focuses, blinks again. HIS POV Joyce is with a MIDDLE-AGED COUPLE and their bored, sour-puss teenage son, BOYD. He's sitting in a chair with his legs slung over the sides waving a Bic lighter back and forth across his rump. The parents are Joyce's clients from Vermont. A LOAN OFFICER is discussing the local financing situation with them. His is an open office adjacent to the teller windows. Joyce's back is to the tellers. CU. CAMERON It's like he's just witnesses an ax murder. CAMERON Shit... INT. BANK. JOYCE Her back is to the teller windows. She's conducting her meeting. Behind her we see Cameron grab Ferris and point her out to him. He waves. Cameron slaps his arm. INT. BANK. TELLER WINDOW Mrs. Froeling shows Ferris the savings bonds. TELLER These bonds aren't mature. If you hold onto them another two years you'll get an additional four dollars... FERRIS I'm aware of that. TELLER You're throwing away four dollars. FERRIS No, ma'am, I'm giving it to the government. They need it. Do you know what an aircraft carrier's going for these days? INT. BANK. JOYCE She concludes her meeting. She shakes hands with the loan officer and stands. The Vermont Couple stands. Boyd scrapes the bottom of his shoe on the desk, leaving a glob of mud behind and he stands. Joyce turns into the bank. Ferris, Cameron and Sloane are gone. She escorts her customers out. INT. BANK. DOOR Joyce and the Vermont Couple approach the doors. Boyd lays a luggie in the drinking fountain. Mrs. Froeling passes with the savings bonds. She stops when she sees Joyce. JOYCE Mrs. Froeling, how are you? MRS. FROELING I passed a kidney stone Tuesday. (shifts gears, to Joyce) Say, you must be very proud. Joyce doesn't know what she's talking about. MRS. FROELING (whispers) I met Madonna. She pats Joyce on the arm. MRS. FROELING She told me everything. Keep me posted, I'll want to send a gift. She toodles on her way. Joyce and the Vermont Couple are completely baffled. 95 EXT. BANK 95 Joyce and the Vermont Couple walk along the side of the bank, heading for the parking lot. Boyd's tagging along behind. He picks up a stone and hurls it into the parking lot. JOYCE My son's home sick today. If you wouldn't mind, on our way back to the office, I'd like to just run in and check up on him. We HEAR A METALLIC PING! as Boyd's missle hits a car. MOTHER Of course. They pass a show window. As they pass, we hold on the window. It's promoting saving for college educations. A mannequin father is congratulating his mannequin son in a mortar and gown as a stiff Sloane, Ferris and Cameron look on proudly. 96 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE 96 His secretary is dialing a number for him. SECRETARY This is the Peterson's home. She hands the phone to Rooney. SECRETARY Watch your mouth this time. Rooney glares at her. ROONEY Ferris Bueller's behind this. There's no doubt in my mind. That's what I was saying this morning. Why he has to be stopped. He's got Sloane Peterson involved in this thing now. See? The secretary nods. SECRETARY And her grandmother, too. 97 CU. PHONE ANSWER MACHINE 97 It clicks on. We hear a grieved woman's voice. It sounds an awful lot like Sloane. SLOANE We can't come to the phone right now. We've had a death in the family. If you need to reach us we'll be at the following number... 98 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE 98 Rooney quickly takes down a number. 99 EXT. CAMERON'S HOUSE 99 His answering machine clicks on. We hear Cameron's voice. CAMERON'S VOICE You have reached the Coughlin Bros. Mortuary. We are unable to come to the phone right now but if you'll leave your name and number...100 INT. DEAN'S OFFICE 100 Rooney hangs up the phone. ROONEY Something's going on, goddamn it. The secretary's looking at a newspaper on Rooney's desk. She's not listening to him. SECRETARY There's a railroad strike. ROONEY And I'm going to stop it! SECRETARY My brother-in-law'll appreciate it. Rooney looks at her, puzzled. ROONEY What? SECRETARY My brother-in-law rides the train to work. Rooney stares at her like she's crazy. ROONEY Who gives a good goddamn?101 EXT. EDENS EXPRESSWAY 101 The major thoroughfare into the city of Chicago from the suburbs. The Ferrari streaks past. In the distance we see the Sears Tower, the Hancock Building and the Standard Oil Building.102 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 102 Jeanie's walking down the hall. She's stopped by a KID with a Coke can. KID Yo. We're collecting money to buy Ferris Bueller a new kidney. Jeanie stares at him. She's flabbergasted at the proportions her brother's scan has reached. KID They run about fifty g's so it you could help out... JEANIE Go piss up a flagpole! KID Huh? She knocks the can out of his hands and storms down the hall. The kid yells after her. KID Hey, babe! Some day you might need a favor from Ferris Bueller! Then where'll you be?! He reaches for the can. KID Heartless wench...103 EXT. CHICAGO LOOP. PARKING GARAGE 103 The Ferrari pulls into a large parking garage. EXT. GARAGE Ferris, Sloane and Cameron get out. Cameron's having fits. CAMERON We can't leave the car here! FERRIS Why not? CAMERON Because we can't! I want it back home where it belongs! SLOANE What could happen to it? CAMERON It could get stolen, wrecked, scratched, you name it. FERRIS I'll give the guy a five to watch it. CAMERON What guy? CU. PARKING ATTENDANT He smiles with relish at the car. 6'6", 240. An IQ that equals his hourly wage. Shoulder-length hair stuffed into a hairnet Gold teeth. Earring. Goatee. EXT. PARKING LOT The Attendant swaggers over to the car. Ferris slips him a give. FERRIS You speak English? ATTENDANT Since I was three. FERRIS Great. I want to you take extra special care of this vehicle, okay? He pats the Attendant on the arm. He smiles. ATTENDANT Like it's a beautiful woman. FERRIS I appreciate it. The Attendant very gingerly gets into the car. Ferris turns to Cameron. The Ferrari pulls into the lot very slowly, very carefully. No squealing tires, no revving engine. FERRIS See what a finski can do to a person's attitude? He's going to treat it like a beautiful woman. CAMERON Yeah, sure. Whip it with a stick and piss on the hood. SLOANE Oh, please, Cameron. Do you have to be so graphic? She heads down the street. SLOANE This is so right! Ferris nudges Cameron on. They exit the garage and head after Sloane. A long beat and the Ferrari creeps down the exit ramp of the garage. It's gone in the entrance and out the exit. Another attendant jumps in the passenger side. He's skinny, tall, with a huge knit hat willed with dreads. He lets out a spirited laugh and the Ferrari peels out of the lot. It heads down the street away from Sloane, Ferris and Cameron.104 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE 104 Joyce's care pulls in the driveway. She gets out and heads up the house.105 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 105 It's dark. There's a figure in the bed. We hear soft snoring. A wire runs from under the bed covers to the closet door to the door to the room itself. INT. ROOM. DOOR KNOB The wire is tied to the doorknob. It's taut. Downstairs, we hear a door open and close.106 INT. HOUSE. STAIRWAY 106 Joyce quietly walks up the stairs.107 INT. HOUSE. HALLWAY 107 Joyce comes up the stairs and crosses to Ferris' room. She listens at the door. WE HEAR THE SNORING. CU. DOORKNOB Joyce slowly turns the doorknob and pushes the door open a crack. HER POV The door opens and the figure-like lump in the bed moves. CU. JOYCE She smiles and closes the door.108 INT. ROOM. CLOSET 108 The closet door is open. The wire from the bedroom door is strung over the top of the closet door. A trophy is attached to the end of the wire and it's resting on a yard stick. As the bedroom door closes, the trophy lifts up off the yardstick and the lump in the bed goes back down to it's original position. CU. FERRIS' SYNTHESIZER Little LED's are lighting up to the rhythm of the snoring. The snoring it simulated.109 INT. HALLWAY 109 Joyce listens at the door another beat. She's smiles with relief and affection.110 EXT. SEARS TOWER. LATER 110 HELICOPTER SHOT moves in on the world's tallest building. As it passes we see three figures pressed against the windows. FERRIS (VO) This is the world's tallest building. From our vantage point here on the 103 floor, we are provided with a view of four states. CAMERON (VO) Do you think the car's alright? FERRIS (VO) Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and my personal favorite, Indiana.111 INT. SEARS TOWER OBSERVATION DECK 111 Ferris, Cameron and Sloane are standing against the window. CAMERON I don't feel good, Ferris. Are we gonna stay long? FERRIS Take a step back... Ferris steps back. Sloane and Cameron follow suit. FERRIS Now, lean against the glass. Like this... He leans forward, putting all his weight on his forehead. FERRIS And look down. Sloane leans forward. Cameron follows, reluctantly. SLOANE Oh, shit! HER POV The street far, far below. A dizzying view. INT. OBSERVATION DECK The three are leaning against the glass. SLOANE What if the glass gives? FERRIS Death. SLOANE Cool. CU. CAMERON He's looking down. CAMERON I think I see my Dad.112 EXT. STREET LEVEL 112 A middle-aged man, Cameron's father, HORACE FRYE, is standing on the street corner. He's lean, clean, tough and humorless. He's wearing a puzzled look on his face. CAMERON'S FATHER I think I see my car. HIS POV The Ferrari screams down the avenue and disappears down the underground ramp.113 INT. SEARS TOWER LOBBY 113 Ferris and Sloane bound down the escalator. Cameron follows glumly. They dance past the giant Calder mobile. They're singing. FERRIS AND SLOANE I BEEN ALL 'ROUND THIS GREAT BIG WORLD AND I'VE SEEN ALL KINDS OF GIRLS YEAH, BUT I COULDN'T WAIT TO GET BACK IN THE STATES BACK TO THE CUTEST GIRLS IN THE WORLD I WISH THEY ALL COULD BE CALIFORNIA I WISH THEY ALL COULD BE CALIFORNIA114 EXT. STREET 114 Ferris and Sloane burst out the doors garnering the annoyed stares of the business people busily going in and out of the building. Cameron politely waits his turn to exit. Ferris and Sloane head down the street. Cameron follows. FERRIS AND SLOANE I WISH THEY ALL COULD BE CALIFORNIA GIRLS!115 EXT. CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE 115 Giant old monolith.116 INT. CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE. TRADING ROOM 116 Traders are frantically buying and selling commodities.117 INT. GALLERY 117 Ferris, Cameron and Sloane are sitting in the gallery watching the proceedings. SLOANE Do you love me? FERRIS Do you love me? SLOANE I asked you first. FERRIS Yes. You? SLOANE Yes. FERRIS Would I trash a day of education to be with you if I didn't love you? SLOANE Yes. FERRIS Would I risk damaging a deep and wonderfully enriching relationship with my parents if I didn't love you? SLOANE Yes. FERRIS Would I have introduced you as my wife if I didn't love you? SLOANE Wait a minute. That was a lie. FERRIS True. Ferris puts his arm around Sloane. FERRIS Would you want to get married? I mean if I wasn't an asshole. SLOANE Sure. FERRIS (serious) Today? Sloane stares at him. Is he serious. FERRIS I'm game. SLOANE No way! FERRIS I'll do it, if you will. Cameron suddenly adds his two cents. CAMERON You need a blood test. Ferris looks around at him. FERRIS Huh? CAMERON If your blood's not compatible, you could produce a pinhead. The state requires a blood test. FERRIS So? CAMERON So, you can't get married today. FERRIS Tomorrow? CAMERON If you get a blood test today. SLOANE I'm not getting married. CAMERON I'm with you, babe. FERRIS Why not? SLOANE What do you mean, why not? Think about it. FERRIS Besides being too young and your father hating my guts and not having any place to live and feeling awkward about being the only cheer- leader with a husband, give me a good reason why not. CAMERON I'll give you two. My mother and father. Ferris and Sloane look at him curiously. CAMERON They're married and they hate each other. (to Ferris) You've seen them. Am I right? FERRIS You're father's a toad and your Mom's always wired out, but so what? They're old. That's natural. CAMERON It makes me puke. Seeing people treat each other like that. It's like the car. He loves the car. He hates his wife. SLOANE My parents are divorced. So what? It's not like it doesn't happen ten thousand times a day. CAMERON Just because it happens doesn't make it right. Are you comfortable with it? SLOANE No. It's not something I can get comfortable with. I've tried. Are yours divorced? CAMERON They may as well be. SLOANE Do you think they're staying together because of you? Cameron hasn't seen it that way. He shrugs. SLOANE Do they like you? It hasn't occured to Cameron that his parents might not like him. That parental love might not be a given. CAMERON Yeah. Sure. SLOANE Consider this...my father canned me and my brother and my Mom for a twenty five year old dipso with fake tits. He dropped us like a rock. Everything was cool at our house. I thought so. We all thought so. Then BLAM! It's over. FERRIS (to CAMERA) This is all news to me. She keeps a pretty good secret. SLOANE (to Cameron) It was pure selfishness. When I have a kid, I don't care how much I want something, if it's gonna screw-up the kid, forget it. FERRIS (to CAMERA) She's not lying. CAMERON You could change. SLOANE Yeah. But I'm gonna try not to. I'm gonna think about it. I'm gonna try to prevent it. FERRIS This is optomism. It's a common trait with my age group. Adults think it's cute, it's like a charming quick that infests youth. But it's a cool thing and I think, deep down, crusty old shits wish they had some. They wish they had her, too. (points to Sloane) Sorry. She's taken. CAMERON I'd rather not have my family break apart, thank you. SLOANE Well, you know what? It ain't up to you. It's out of your hands. CAMERON So, I in other words, I should just sit back and watch it crumble? SLOANE You're merely an inhabitant in their universe. FERRIS Frightening choice of words. SLOANE They call the shots. When you split from them, you call the shots. CAMERON So, you're saying I should run away? FERRIS No. She's saying it's time for lunch. SLOANE What? FERRIS Let's go feed Cameron. They stand up and head out. Ferris hangs back a moment. He cups his hands to his mouth. He yells at the top of his voice. FERRIS BUY! And he exits. Cool and casual.118 INT. CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE. TRADING FLOOR 118 It explodes with activity in response to Ferris' shout. We HEAR A RADIO ANNOUNCER. ANNOUNCER Commodity prices rose sharply today in unusually heavy trading...119 EXT. RESTAURANT 119 A French restaurant on the Gold Coast. It's noon.120 INT. RESTAURANT 120 Ferris, Sloane and Cameron are standing in the restaurant. Ferris is looking at the maitre 'd's reservations book. HIS POV His fingers runs down to a party of three for 12:00. INT. RESTAURANT The maitre'd returns. MAITRE'D (to Ferris) May I help you? FERRIS Yes. I'm Abe Frohman. Party of three for 12:00. The maitre'd looks at Ferris curiously. FERRIS Is there a problem? MAITRE'D You're Abe Frohman? FERRIS I'm Abe Frohman. MAITRE'D (chuckles) I'm sorry, son. I'm very busy right now. If you have trouble finding the door... Sloane tugs Ferris' sleeve. He ignores her. FERRIS Are you suggesting that I'm not who I say I am? MAITRE'D Shall I call the police? CAMERON Let's go...Abe. FERRIS I'm not going anywhere. (to the Maitre'd) Call the police. Go ahead. Better yet... (grabs the phone) ...I'll call myself. Cameron chokes. Sloane grits her teeth. The maitre'd smiles smuggly. CU. PHONE Ferris punches out a number. A beat and the restaurant's second line lights up and the phone rings. INT. RESTAURANT The maitre'd motions for the phone so that he can answer the call. Ferris waves him off angrily. FERRIS You touch me and I yell "rat!" There's another phone around here. Find it. The maitre'd backs off. CAMERON Ferris, let's split, please? SLOANE Cameron's right. We're gonna get busted. FERRIS Not a chance in the world. He hands the phone to Sloane. FERRIS Ask for Abe Frohman. INT. RESTAURANT. LATER Ferris, Sloane and Cameron are seated in the restaurant. The maitre'd is hovering over Ferris. MAITRE'D I appreciate your understanding. FERRIS Don't grovel, Charles. Just leave us to our repast and all will be forgotten. MAITRE'D Enjoy your luncheon. FERRIS Thank you. The maitre'd backs away. Ferris smiles. Sloane is impressed. Cameron is flushed with nerves. FERRIS Darling, you were wonderful. SLOANE Oh, but I had a wonderful teacher. FERRIS Cameron, dear friend? Cameron looks to Ferris. FERRIS And you thought we wouldn't have any fun. Shame on you. Ferris disappears behind his menu.121 EXT. SCHOOL 121 We HEAR HALLWAY SOUNDS AND JEANIE. JEANIE (VO) Ferris Bueller's days are numbered.122 INT. GIRL'S LOCKER ROOM 122 Jeanie's sitting on a bench in a field hockey uniform. She's talking to a FRIEND. JEANIE (mean, vicious) I'm gonna bust his buns. FRIEND Why? What's the point? JEANIE Why? Because I'm sick of the little dope. He manipulates my parents, he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants and he never gets nailed. (wicked pause) Well, babe, today I'm the hammer. She yanks angrily on the velcro strap on her sneakers. The straps rip off in her hand. FRIEND I think he's cute. JEANIE Sweetie, it's an established fact that you have no taste. Ferris is not cute. He's not charming. He's not nice. He's not a wonderful person. He's an ignorant mule and the sooner everybody in this school comes to that realization the better off we'll all be. She displays the velcro straps to her friend. JEANIE See? My brother strokes you, you sympathize with him, I get pissed off and this is what happens! Jeanie tosses the straps on the floor. JEANIE Let me tell you something. I study hard, I work hard, I'm polite, I'm considerate, I'm friendly and fair to all kinds of people. Except morons. I try to be everything a good, decent person should be and you know what? FRIEND Everybody thinks you're an asshole. Jeanie freezes with her next sentence pinned to her tongue. JEANIE Excuse me? FRIEND I don't think you're an asshole. JEANIE Who does? Her friend smiles sheepishly. JEANIE Rachel? Jeanie's friend shrugs, wags her head, does everything but verbally confirm. JEANIE Rachel's a dirt bag. Who else? FRIEND I don't know. Just forget it. JEANIE Forget that everybody thinks I'm an asshole? Would you like everybody to think you're an asshole? FRIEND Not everybody thinks you're an asshole. Mr. Rooney likes you. JEANIE Oh, hey. That's exciting. A fat fifty year old clod with B.O. likes me. Jeanie shakes her head in disbelief. JEANIE Would everybody be happier if maybe I were to die in a flaming car accident or something? FRIEND Maybe if you didn't cat like and asshole... JEANIE Am I acting like an asshole? FRIEND I didn't mean it that way. JEANIE I this a conspiracy to shit all over me or something? Is my brother behind this? Tell me if he is or I'll sock your tits. FRIEND You really do have a problem, Jeanie. JEANIE Me? I have a problem? FRIEND Somebody who threatens to sock people's tits has a problem. JEANIE Alright. How about if I sock your face? Jeanie's friend gets up. FRIEND Take a walk, Jeanie. Her friend exits. JEANIE (yells after her) If it means anything to you, I have my period! MY BODY'S RIDDING ITSELF OF OLD EGGS, GODDAMN IT! She snarls and slumps against the lockers. JEANIE He's gone. He's over. He's monkey meat.123 INT. MEN'S ROOM. CHEZ PAUL 123 Ferris is standing at the urinal. FERRIS She's a person who views life as an ordeal that must be endured. Her body is a transport vehicle for her anger. I don't know where she gets this shit. Basically, the family's pretty cool. He looks down at the urinal. FERRIS I wonder if everybody shoots at cigarette butts in urinals? Probably not many women. (continues) I used to think that my family was the only one that had weirdness in it. It used to worry me. Then I met Cameron and I saw how his family functioned. He zips this trousers and steps away from the urinal. FERRIS Cameron's home life is really shit. He wasn't lying. That's why he's sick all the time. It really upsets him. What he said about his parents hating each other? I refuse to sleep over at his house. His parents fight all the time. Even when I'm there. Is there anything worse than being at somebody's house when their parents are fighting? It's the absolute height of social discomfort. He checks his hair in the mirror. FERRIS When they go after each other, Cameron tightens up. It's scary. He gets so wadded-up, you couldn't pry his buns apart with a crowbar. The thing with taking his old man's car? It's good for him. It teaches him to deal with his fear. Plus, and I must be honest here, I love driving it. I highly recommend picking one up. He exists the men's room. We hold a beat. A toilet flushes. Another beat and Tom walks out of the stall. He crosses to the sink.124 INT. RESTAURANT 124 Cameron and Sloane have been served their lunches. They're staring at the plates. CAMERON What is it? SLOANE I don't know. But it looks like it's already been eaten and digested. CAMERON I knew it was a mistake letting Ferris order for us. Ferris slides over to the table and drops into his seat. FERRIS What are you doing? Cameron looks at Ferris. CAMERON What is this shit? FERRIS You got me. I don't speak French. He puts his napkin in his lap and smells his plate. FERRIS I think it's a land-based beefoid creature. He takes a bite. He savors the taste. FERRIS Splendid. CAMERON Really? FERRIS Superb. Cameron and Sloane try theirs. They chew tentatively. FERRIS Good? Sloane and Cameron shrug. It's not bad. A WAITER passes. Ferris stops him. FERRIS Yo, Clouseau! The waiter stops and looks at Ferris indignantly. FERRIS I have a growth on my brain that causes memory lapses. Could you tell me what we ordered here? The waiter glances at the plates. WAITER Sweetbreads. FERRIS Uh, huh. And what might that be? WAITER Pancreas. FERRIS As in the gland that has important functions in digestion and metabolism? CU. SLOANE AND CAMERON They stop chewing. They're holding their sweetbreads in their mouths. CU. FERRIS He continues his questioning. FERRIS ...That secretes a thick, colorless fluid containing digestive enzymes? The home of the world famous isles of Langerhans? CU. WAITER He nods broadly, knowing that he's spoiling the kids' meal. CU. SLOANE AND CAMERON They look at each other. CU. FERRIS He pats his mouth with his napkin. He looks to Cameron and Sloane. He raises a finger, holds it a beat and gives a cue. CU. WAITER He turns away as Sloane and Cameron spit out their food. CU. FERRIS He watches Sloane and Cameron then glances at the waiter. FERRIS Check, please!125 EXT. RESTAURANT 125 Tom and his two GUESTS are standing at the curb, talking. A cab is waiting. The door's open. In the B.G. Ferris, Sloane and Cameron come out of the restaurant. They approach the cab. Tom's back it to Ferris. Ferris stops cold. FERRIS, SLOANE, CAMERON They turns on cue at Tom, now in the B.G., turns toward the restaurant. FERRIS 40,000 restaurants in the downtown area and I pick the one my father goes to. CAMERON We're gonna get nabbed, for sure. FERRIS No way, Cameron. Only the meek get nabbed. The bold survive. Let's go. He turns to the cab. Sloane and Cameron turn slowly. EXT. STREET. CAB Tom and his party are still jawing at curbside. Ferris, Sloane and Cameron slowly approach the cab. Behind the backs of the men, Ferris scoots Sloane into the cab. Cameron dashes in. The Ferris hops the cab. INT. CAB Ferris slams the door. CU. CAB DOOR HANDLE A man's hand reaches for the handle as the cab pulls away. EXT. RESTAURANT Tom and his guests watch in bewilderment at their cab takes off. MUSIC COMES UP.126 EXT. MUSEUM OR SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 126 The grand old Chicago museum.127 INT. MUSEUM. OVERHEAD SHOT 127 The main gallery is crowded with school kids. INT. MUSEUM. FLOOR A class of kids walking along holding hands. Among the second graders are Ferris, Sloane and Cameron, holding hands looking like giant grade schoolers. INT. MUSEUM. DISPLAY CASE Baby chicks are hatching in a huge, round incubator. Sloane, Ferris and Cameron are intently watching the process. INT. MUSEUM. COAL MINE Sloane, Ferris and Cameron ride in the coal train in the coal mine replica. Ferris and Sloane are making out. INT. MUSEUM. INDUSTRIAL DISPLAY Sloane operates a metal press to produce a tin ashtray. INT. MUSEUM. HEART REPLICA A giant, walk-thru replica of a human heart. Ferris staggers out of it, clutching his heart, feigning a massive heart attack. INT. GERMAN U-BOAT Ferris is examining the controls of the captured U-Boat. He checks to see if he's being watched then he presses a button and pulls a lever. CU. PROPELLER For the first time in forty years, the screw turns. CU. HUMAN FETUS IN A BOTTLE The famous stages of life display which features bottled fetuses. The ninth month. A tiny human being in a jar. CU. SLOANE, FERRIS, CAMERON Sloane wants to cry. Cameron's stomach is in his throat. Ferris is lost in thought. The MUSIC ENDS. SLOANE (remorsefully) I wonder if he has a name? FERRIS (blank) Ninth Month.128 EXT. CHICAGO RIVER. LONG, HIGH SHOT 128 From the Merchandise Mart, looking down the fetid, green swath of water. A boat is rolling up the man-made canyon. CAMERON (VO) Are you guys worried about nuclear war? FERRIS (VO) Cameron, it's a beautiful day, we've won our freedom, we're traveling down one of American's most scenic polluted waterways and you have to bring up nuclear war? SLOANE (VO) It is kind of raggy subject, Cam. CAMERON (VO) Regardless. It's with us every day. The possiblity of global destruction. SLOANE (VO) Don't you think it's an issue because people need something to worry about? They have to like, have some major problem that puts all their little bullshit into some kind of persepective? CAMERON (VO) Maybe. FERRIS They used to have Viet Nam. They used to have the oil crisis stuff and Iran. That's over and people have to have their big issue. It's not like somebody came up with the nuclear holocaust yesterday at noon, you know. SLOANE (VO) To answer your question...No, I'm not worried about it at all. FERRIS (VO) We don't know when the bombs going off. We do know, however, that college starts in the fall. CAMERON (VO) (dramatic, deadly serious) Do you know what a nuclear winter is? Long beat. SLOANE (VO) Yeah. Everybody's dead, it's real cold and the skiing's for shit. The boat makes the turn in the river and CLEARS FRAME. EXT. BOAT DOCK The three are sitting on the aft deck of the tour boat. Their feet are up on the railing. Very casual, very relaxed. Discussing the end of the world. SLOANE My step-father's always going off about how when he was young he was committed to all these causes. FERRIS He's full of shit. All the old hippies are full of shit. SLOANE He says I don't care about things like he did. FERRIS What's he care about now? SLOANE Baldness, fatty meats and money. FERRIS I rest my case. CAMERON What's spooky is they still control everything. They took over when they were young and they never gave it up. FERRIS One of the most frightening experiences of my young life has been observing my parents and our neighbors playing the Baby Boom Edition of Trivial Pursuits. It's chilling to see people crazed with the minutia of their past. CAMERON It's human nature to like what you had better than what you have. SLOANE Agreed. A loud speaker on the boat identifies a point of interest. LOUDSPEAKER TO YOUR LEFT IT THE WORLD'S TALLEST BUILDING... The three look to the left. LOUDSPEAKER, FERRIS, SLOANE, CAMERON The Sears Tower. CAMERON You know, this is all very interesting but I'm starving. FERRIS An hour ago you wanted to yack. CAMERON I feel better now. FERRIS Lean over and grab a fish. Cameron looks over the side of the boat. An obtuse thought flashes through Sloane's brain. SLOANE What comes after a nuclear winter? FERRIS Nuclear spring.129 EXT. SCHOOL 129 Meanwhile...130 INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE THE DEAN'S OFFICE 130 Jeanie is having a small moral debate with herself. JEANIE It's reprehensible to squeal on your own flesh and blood...but it's for his own good. His cavalier attitude will get him into trouble later in life...and it'll continue to piss me off and I'll get so wadded-up that it'll cause cervex cancer and he'll ruin my life. Screw him. She slips into the Dean's outer office.131 INT. DEAN'S OUTER OFFICE 131 Rooney's secretary is behind her desk. Jeanie walks in. The secretary looks up and greets her with a weary smile. SECRETARY Hello, Jeanie. Who's bothering you now? Jeanie scowls at her. JEANIE Is Dean Rooney in? SECRETARY I'm sorry, he's out. Can I help you? JEANIE (condescending) I seriously doubt it. When's he back? SECRETARY I don't know. He left the grounds on personal business.132 EXT. STREET. CU. CURB 132 A car tire rolls into FRAME and stops. Slide across to the sidewalk. Rooney's dress shoe steps out onto the pavement. Move up to reveal Rooney standing at the door of his bile-green LeBaron. Rooney peels off his shades and looks around like he's Dirty Harry. In his mind he is Dirty Harry. CU. FIRE HYDRANT Rooney's dres shoe on the hydrant. He ties his lace and pulls up his sock. EXT. STREET Rooney straightens his tie and jacket and slips into a rowdy hot dog joint.133 INT. HOT DOG STAND 133 It's jammed with construction workers, secretaries, suburban businessmen. It's loud and confusing. Rooney pushes his way in and scopes the crowd. HIS POV A young person is playing a video game in a far corner. CU. ROONEY He suspects it's Ferris. It look sort of like Ferris. He smiles and cuts into the crowd. CU. THE BACK OF THE VIDEO PLAYER'S HEAD MOVE IN on the player. ROONEY (OC) I've been waiting a long time for this. The player looks up. ROONEY (OC) Your ass is mine. The player turns around. It's a GIRL. CU. ROONEY The blood evacuates his face. He stares at the girl. CU. GIRL She stares at him. She picks up her Coke. She puts the straw to her lips and sucks. CU. ROONEY He's still staring. He can't think of anything to say. CU. GIRL Holding the straw in the mouth, she draws it out of the cup. She raises it, pointing it directly in Rooney's face. CU. ROONEY He squints CU. GIRL She blows a strawful of Coke in Rooney's face. CU. NAPKIN HOLDER A hand yanks a napkin hold. INT. HOT DOG STAND. SERVICE COUNTER Rooney wipes his face. Behind him is the kitchen and a grease-covered TV set broadcasting a Cubs baseball game. There's a long foul ball. The TV camera follows the ball into the stands. A kid makes a stab at the ball. Rooney wipes his suit off. The TV camera zooms in on the boy triumphantly holding the foul ball aloft. It's Ferris. He does a little celebration dance. Rooney wads up the napkin and tosses it in a trashbin. The TV camera returns to the game. Rooney glances at the screen. ROONEY What's the score? HOT DOG MAN Zero to zero. ROONEY Who's winning? HOT DOG MAN Cubs. Rooney nods and exits.134 EXT. WRIGLEY FIELD. STANDS 134 Ferris sits down with the baseball. He shakes his stinging paw. On either side of him are Cameron and Sloane. Cameron's scarfing nachos. FERRIS I think I broke my thumb. SLOANE Can we leave now? FERRIS You want to leave? We just got here. SLOANE You got a call, you broke your thumb, what's left to do? Cameron offers his nachos to Sloane. She looks at them with disgust. SLOANE No wonder you're always sick. Ferris leans back, puts his hands behind his head and turns his face to the bright sun. FERRIS Do you realize that if I played by the rules, right now I'd be in gym?135 EXT. HIGH SCHOOL. PLAYING FIELD 135 A boy's gym class is doing laps. A blue Fiat pulls into the shot.136 INT. FIAT 136 Jeanie's at the wheel. She sneaks a glance at the school. JEANIE I can't believe my brother's making me put myself in a position where I could get expelled. Selfish little moron. (pause) Ferris? You're overshadowed me long enough. I'm gonna get you, buddy. She puts the car in gear and drives out of the shot.137 EXT. STATE STREET 137 A parade is underway. Floats and politicians. Marching bands, drum and bugle corps, soldiers, school kids. Figure skating club in outfits and skates performing their routines on pavement. It's GERMAN-AMERICAN APPRECIATION DAY. EXT. STATE STREET. FLOAT Riding atop on a float is Ferris. He's waving to the crowd. He and half a dozen homely German-American Beauty Queens. He's leading the girls in singing, "DANKE SHOEN". EXT. STATE STREET. SLOANE AND CAMERON They're watching Ferris go by. They wave to him. SLOANE I love him. CAMERON It's hard not to. Cameron breaks a smile. As worried as he is about the day and getting caught, he has to admire Ferris for his lack of inhabitions. Cameron mumbles a few words. CAMERON Stop...water...want... SLOANE Do you believe in reincarnation? CAMERON Huh? SLOANE Do you believe that you lived before? CAMERON Yeah. Sort of. SLOANE DO you ever wonder what you were? CAMERON I don't have to wonder. I know. Sloane looks at him with amazement. CAMERON I was a tractor tire. EXT. STATE STREET. FLOAT Ferris is on his knees, reaching down from the float, shaking hands with people in the crowd. FERRIS Guten tag, dude! EXT. STATE STREET Sloane and Cameron continue their conversation. CAMERON What were you in a previous life? SLOANE I'm not sure but I think I know who Ferris was. CAMERON Hannibal. SLOANE From the A-Team? CAMERON No. The guy who rode the elephants into Switzerland. Sloane laughs at herself. They step out of the crowd and head down the street in the direction the parade's heading. SLOANE I think if he was anybody, he was Magellan. You know, the guy who went around the world. Cameron nods. SLOANE I could see him ignoring popular belief and taking off on some impossible mission. CAMERON Yeah. As long as I've known him, everything works for him. There's nothing he can't handle. I can't handle anything. School, parents, the future. Ferris can do anything. EXT. STATE STREET. FLOAT Ferris is playing "TWIST AND SHOUT" on the accordian. The girls on the float are singing. FERRIS WELL, SHAKE IT UP, BABY, NOW! GIRLS SHAKE IT UP, BABY FERRIS TWIST AND SHOUT! GIRLS TWIST AND SHOUT! FERRIS COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, BABY ON! COME ON AND WORK IT ON OUT! GIRLS WORK IT ON OUT! EXT. STREET. SLOANE AND CAMERON They continue their conversation. SLOANE The future's worse for a boy, isn't it? Cameron doesn't understand what she means. SLOANE A girl can always bail out and have a baby and get some guy to support her. CAMERON That's a pretty grim thought. SLOANE True, but it's an option. No options is worse. CAMERON I don't know what I'm gonna do. SLOANE College. CAMERON Yeah, but to do what? SLOANE What are you interested in? CAMERON Nothing. SLOANE Me either. They walk on for a few beats. We HEAR "TWIST AND SHOUT" GROWING LOUDER AND LOUDER. The sons is taking over all the other tunes in the band. It's infecting the entire parade. CAMERON What do you think Ferris is gonna do? EXT. STATE STREET. MARCHING BAND They're playing TWIST AND SHOUT. EXT. STREET. MOUNTED POLICE OFFICER He's singing. POLICE OFFICER YOU KNOW YOU LOOK SO GOOD! EXT. STREET. PUNKS A band of PUNKS are dancing on the roof of a news kiosk. PUNKS LOOK SO GOOD! EXT. STREET MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN A WOMAN and her two TODDLERS sing along. WOMAN YOU KNOW YOU LOOK SO FINE! TODDLERS LOOK SO FINE! EXT. STREET. BLACK TEENAGER He's wearing a shower cap and a maroon overcoat. TEENAGER COME ON AND TWIST A LITTLE CLOSER! EXT. STREET. OLD NEWSPAPER SELLER He singing along. NEWSPAPER SELLER TWIST A LITTLE CLOSER! EXT. STREET. CHOIR GROUP They're marching down the parade. They're singing in their angleic voices. CHOIR AND LET ME KNOW THAT YOU'RE MINE! EXT. STREET. STREET CLEANERS With their brooms ready... STREET CLEANERS KNOW THAT YOU'RE MINE! EXT. STREET. DECK The entire parade is singing and playing "TWIST AND SHOUT". EXT. STREET. VIEWING STAND The POLITICIANS and their WIVES stand up. POLITICIANS AND WIVES AH! EXT. STREET. VIEWING STAND The CLERGYMEN stand. CLERGYMEN AH! EXT. STREET. VETERANS Marching in formation and in WWII uniforms. VETERANS AH! EXT. STREET. FLOAT Ferris leads the Beauty Queens in the rousing finale. FERRIS AH! EXT. STREET. WIDE AND HIGH The entire parade is at frenzy pitch. PARADE AHHHHH! The SOUND OF THE VOICES blends with the SOUND OF A RED-LINED HIGH PERFORMANCE ENGINE.138 EXT. CALUMET CITY 138 The Port of Chicago. Grim, gritty waterfront. Suddenly, Cameron's father's car flies OVER CAMERA. Like the opening shot in Star Wars. The Starship Ferrari. SLO-MO. CU. FERRARI UNDER-CARRIAGE It travels past to reveal a beautiful blue sky. SLO-MO. CU. PARKING ATTENDANT His eyes are wide with exhilaration. Mouth open, tongue out. Maniac at the wheel. SLO-MO. CU. RASTAMAN His eyes are closed. Big smile. SLO-MO, EXT. STREETS. KIDS They're looking up in the air, following the car as it flies over them. Broad, excited smiles. The car's shadow passes over them. SLO-MO.139 CU. CAR GRILLE 139 It fills the frame and stops. We MOVE UP to reveal Rooney behind the wheel of his car. EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE Rooney gets out of his car. He looks at the house, looks up and down the street, then crosses to Ferris' house.140 INT. HOUSE. FOYER 140 Rooney's at the front door. We see him peek in a window at the top of the door. The doorbell rings.141 INT. HOUSE. FERRIS' ROOM. COMPUTER 141 It acknowledges the doorbell. CU. CASSETTE PLAYER It clicks on.142 EXT. HOUSE. FRONT PORCH 142 The house intercom activates. We HEAR FERRIS' VOICE. FERRIS Who is it? Rooney presses the intercom. ROONEY This is Ed Rooney, Ferris. I'd like to have a word with you. FERRIS' VOICE I'm sorry I can't come to the door right now. I'm very ill and I'm afraid that in my weakened condition, I could take a nasty spill down the stairs and subject myself to further school absenses. There's a pause. Rooney presses the intercom again. ROONEY B.S. Come down here. FERRIS' VOICE You can reach my parents at their places of business. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your concern for my well-being. It will be remembered long after this illness has past. His voice clicks off. Rooney presses the intercom again. ROONEY I'm not leaving until you come down and talk to me. FERRIS' VOICE Have a nice day. Rooney presses the intercom. ROONEY I'm not leaving, Ferris. There's no response. Rooney rings the doorbell again. The pre-recorded litany starts over. FERRIS' VOICE Who is it? Rooney doesn't realize that he's listening to a recording. ROONEY Don't get smart with me Ferris! FERRIS' VOICE I'm sorry I can't come to the door right now. I'm very ill and I'm afraid that in my weakened condition... Rooney leans back from the door. He can't quite figure out what's going on. But's it's highly suspicious.143 INT. HOUSE. LIVING ROOM 143 Rooney steps through the hedges and peeks in the windows. We HEAR FERRIS' VOICE inside. FERRIS' VOICE You may reach my parents at their places of business.144 INT. HOUSE. KITCHEN 144 Rooney tries to peak in the kitchen window. FERRIS' VOICE I appreciate your conern for my well-being. It will be remembered long after...145 EXT. HOUSE. BACKDOOR 145 A black rubber doggie door. The type that allows a dog to come and go as it pleases. Rooney is crouched down. He lifts the doggie door and peeks in the house. HIS POV Along the kitchen floor. Through the kitchen, into the dining room. We hear a LARGE DOG GROWL. CU. ROONEY He's peaking through the door. He hears the dog. His face freezes. FERRIS Have a nice day. EXT. HOUSE. DOGGIE DOOR A Rottweiler bursts through the doggie door in a fury of gnashing teeth and foam.146 CU. LARGE BREASTS 146 Tassled pasties twirl like airplane propellers. CU. CAMERON, FERRIS AND SLOANE They're sitting in a booth in the garish, nearly deserted strip joint. Cameron's mouth is open in amazement. Sloane is embarrassed and revolted. CAMERON How does she do that? One goes one way, one goes the other. FERRIS She's probably schizophrenic. SLOANE Ferris, this is nauseating me. Really. I'm losing respect for you by the bucket. FERRIS You don't think it's amazing that we got in? SLOANE Who wants to get in? FERRIS Cameron looks like a toddler, for Christ's sake. I'm talking about a major achievement in false identification. SLOANE I'm not interested in watching someone jiggle their mammary glands. FERRIS Point well taken. But consider why she does it. Why she does it and you don't. SLOANE I'm not a tramp. FERRIS Maybe her life fell apart. Maybe she lost somebody. A lover. A boyfriend. A parent. A child... (to CAMERA) This kind of thing makes me a little depressed. You may think because I'm the age I am that I'm a sex maniac. That sex is all I think about. But that's not true. I'm a romantic. I think alot of people my age are. We think about love and matters of the heart. And SAT scores and acne aside, we worry about lonliness. It's a terrible thing. And we feel it. I feel it. He flips his collar up, curls his lip and affects an Elvis impression. A sappy, do-wop track FADES UP. The club lights go down. Cameron and Sloane disappear into darkness. Ferris stands up from the booth. He strolls slowly through the empty club as the stripper bumps and grinds in a pool of blue light. FERRIS You know, someone said the world's a stage and each must play a part. Fate had me playing in love, with you as my sweetheart. Act one was when we met. I loved you at first glance. You read your lines so cleverly and never missed a cue. Then came act two. You seemed to change. You acted strange. And why, I've never known. He climbs up on the little runway. The stripper disappears in darkness as Ferris takes over the spotlight. FERRIS Honey, you lies when you said you loved me and I had no cause to doubt you. But I'd rather go on hearing your lies than to go on living without you. Now, the stage is bare and I'm standing there with emptiness all around and if you won't come back to me, then they can bring the curtain down... Elvis fades up. The orignal recording. Ferris lip synchs with the big, dramatic florish that was the King's trademark ballad sign-off. ELVIS IS YOUR HEART FILLED WITH PAIN? SHALL I COME BACK AGAIN? TELL ME DEAR, ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT? Ferris drops his head. Like the King would.147 EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET. CAMERON'S CAR 147 Cameron's father is looking at the car. He's studying it. It looks terribly familiar. He leans into the open car and reaches for the glovebox to see if the contents will confirm if it's his. He freezes. He looks up slowly. HIS POV The Attendant and the Rastaman are glowering at him. They're holding bags of fried chicken. ATTENDANT You looking for something in my car? CU. CAMERON'S FATHER He shakes his head, no. CAMERON'S FATHER No.148 EXT. FERRIS' TOWN. JEANIE 148 Jeanie's standing at her car. She's staring incredulously into the distance. Her mouth's open. She's shaking her head slowly. HER POV Spray-painted on the town water tower in gigantic black letters -- SAVE FERRIS BUELLER. CU. JEANIE She's furious. JEANIE I'm gonna microwave his nuts...149 EXT. MICHIGAN AVENUE 149 Afternoon traffic.150 INT. TAXI CAB 150 Ferris, Sloane and Cameron in the backseat of a checker. Ferris is on one window, Cameron on the other. Sloane's in the middle. Ferris is talking to the DRIVER. FERRIS So... He leans forward and reads the driver's name off the city license. FERRIS So, Yuri, how long have you been in America? DRIVER One year. FERRIS What's your overall impression? DRIVER It's very good here. FERRIS Better than Russia? DRIVER Much better here than in Russia. FERRIS Clearly you've never been to an American high school. Ferris sits back. He puts his arm around Sloane. CAMERON It's getting late, Ferris. I have to get the car home. I know you don't care, but it means my ass. FERRIS You think I don't care? CAMERON I know you don't care. FERRIS That hurts, Cameron. SLOANE Jump back, Ferris, Cameron's been a good sport. FERRIS Cameron, what'd you see today? Cameron looks at him. FERRIS You saw four states, a submarine, a giant heart, seventy five dollars worth of cooked pancreas, two of the most incredible breasts ever to come out of modern plastics, major league baseball and... (quizical look) Are you gonna chuck your nachos? Cameron's staring past Ferris. He's frozen. Ferris realizes he's looking at something out the window. He turns. He freezes. HIS POV In the gridlock traffic, their cab is squeezed tight alongside another cab. In that cab is Tom. He's about a foot from Ferris. He turns and looks right into CAMERA. TOM'S POV Ferris' frozen face. FERRIS' POV Tom glances back at his paper. He pauses. Looks up. Thinks. Turns back to CAMERA. TOM'S POV Sloane is sitting where Ferris was. She's wearing sunglasses, looking bored. She turns and glances out the window. Fakes a yawn. HER POV Tom stares at her. He's baffled. He looks away. INT. CAB. FLOOR. Cameron and Ferris are on the floor. On their asses, with their backs to the back of the front seat, feet up on the seat. FERRIS (to Sloane) What's he doing? SLOANE (revolted) He's looking at me and he's licking the glass and making obscene gestures with his hands. FERRIS What?! Sloane bursts out laughing. SLOANE Roast! She licks her finger and touches Ferris knee. She makes a sizzling sound. She collapes on the seat in hysterics. INT. TOM'S CAB Tom's looking into Ferris' cab. HIS POV Sloane's bouncing up and down. CU. TOM He can't quite figure out what's going on. He turns and slowly raises his newspaper over his face. We see on the back of the paper a small story with the headline: COMMUNITY RALLIES AROUND SICK YOUTH.151 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE. BACKYARD. DOG 151 The Rottweiler's chewing on a shoe. Tearing it apart. EXT. BACKYARD. ROONEY He's standing outside the fence. He's missing a shoe. His suit pants are torn from the crotch to the knee. His suit coat pocket is torn off. His hair's messed and there're grass-stains on his knees and elbows. He's looking in at the dog. ROONEY That's a $28.00 dress shoe, you worthless mutt! HIS POV The Rottweiler leaps at CAMERA.152 EXT. CITY STREET 152 Ferris is leading the way down Michigan Avenue. He's hustling through the crowd. He has Sloane by the hand. She's jogging to keep up. Cameron's a few steps behind. He keeps bumping into people. Ferris and Sloane make the turn at Wacker Driver and disappear into the Stone Container Building. Cameron follows, mumbling again. CAMERON Money...tits...please...153 EXT. HOUSE. FRONT 153 A florist truck pulls up in front of the house. A DELIVERY MAN gets out iwth a huge floral arrangement. He heads up to the house.154 EXT. HOUSE. PORCH 154 Rooney's sitting on the porch patting a bloody knee with his handkerchief. The delivery man hops up on the steps. Rooney looks up at him. He greets Rooney cheerily. DELIVERY MAN Howdy! He presses the doorbell. A beat and we hear Ferris' recording. FERRIS' VOICE Who is it? The Deliver Man presses the intercom. DELIVERY MAN Focus on Flowers. I have a delivery. FERRIS' VOICE I'm sorry but I can't come to the door right now. I'm very ill and I'm afraid... ROONEY FERRIS' VOICE It's a recording, asshole. ...that in my weakened condition, I could take a DELIVERY MAN nasty spill and subject What's your problem? myself to further school absenses... ROONEY (pause) He's one of my students. You can reach my parents at their places of DELIVERY MAN business. Thank you for Little bugger's dying. stopping by. I appreciate your concern for my well- ROONEY being. It will be What? remembered long after this illness has passed. DELIVERY MAN As I heard it from our mailman he was supposedly born with only half a kidney. FERRIS' VOICE Have a nice day. DELIVERY MAN (to the intercom) Thank you. (continues) I don't know the details. But my boss had to send to Milwaukee to get more orchids. He's very popular. Rooney is flabbergasted. DELIVERY MAN Nobody's home here? ROONEY No. DELIVERY MAN You gonna be around for awhile? ROONEY I imagine so. DELIVERY MAN You wanna keep an eye on these? Rooney looks at the flowers. Then he looks at the Delivery Man. DELIVERY MAN (happy sigh) It really touches me that so many people are rallying behind this guy. I guess there's hope for the human race afterall. He hands the arrangement to Rooney. DELIVERY MAN Gotta run. He bounds off the porch and trots to the truck. Rooney looks incredulously at the arrangement. He opens the attached card. ROONEY (defeated) Oh, Christ... CU. CARD It's signed: ALL OUR BEST FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY THE ENGLISH DEPT. FACULTY AND STAFF155 INT. RADIO STATION STUDIO 155 The number one afternoon FM rock'n roll D.J. is sitting behind his microphone. D.J. I don't know who that was or what they were playing but I apologize for it nonetheless. (pause) I have a guest with me today...156 INT. STUDIO. FERRIS 156 He put his headphones on.157 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE 157 Jeanie's car pull in the driveway. We hear her car radio. D.J. His name is Ferris Mueller. FERRIS Bueller. Ferris Bueller. INT. CAR. JEANIE She goes into shock. Her eyes blink, her head cocks. D.J. Sorry about that. FERRIS It's cool. Jeanie draws back and punches out her radio. CU. CAR ANTENNA The impact of her blow to the radio shoots the antenna in the air.158 INT. STUDIO 158 Ferris leans forward and adjusts the microphone. D.J. He has an incredible story. Ferris turns to CAMERA. FERRIS I'm going to tell a massive lie here. It's going to by very thick and very steamy. I think radio's a facinating medium, it challenges the imagination. Unlike television which provides the images, radio... (pause) You know this. Anyway, it's always been a dream of mine to be on the radio. I have what I consider to be an excellent broadcast voice. I practise it in the bathroom all the time. I used to play records and do introductions to them. But I've never had the chance to sit behind a microphone and try it out for real. This is a 50,000 watt outlet. I'm going out to several million people so let me just say, I'm in a very pleasant groove right now. (clears his voice, speaks into the mike, affects a "radio" voice) Well, Steve, you and your listeners are probably not going to believe this but...159 INT. SCHOOL 159 A group of kids are sitting around a blaster. FERRIS' VOICE ...I'm the first Chicago area youth to be selected to participate in a space shuttle mission.160 INT. STUDIO 160 Ferris turns from the mike to CAMERA. FERRIS I was going to say I knew Springsteen's home phone number and I was going to give out the number of the New Jersey State Police but I thought I might get busted. After I got flunked in driver's ed for sideswiping a mail box, which was not in any way, shape or from my fault. I was putting out a cigarette, like I was told. It was weird. I'm so used to getting in a car and lighting up, because I'm not allowed to smoke at home, that I got in the driver's ed. car and spaced completely, pulled out of the lot, lit up a 'boro and Mrs. Heller looked at me like I'd just pulled a bunny out of my nose or something and I realized what the hell I was doing and I went to put it out and hit the mail box. Anyway, I was so pissed off at her reaction to the whole thing that I considered running an ad in a sleaze magazine for a school teacher that does phone sex and I was gonna use Mrs. Heller's home number but is cost too much. I took it again and passed. But I had to work at Burger King to get the cash to pay for the driver's ed. car. The car got fixed in auto shop for nothing and I think Rooney pocketed the cash. But I can't prove it? I'm in high school, remember? He turns back to the DJ. D.J. How did you get picked for this. FERRIS It's kind of a long story but I've been doing alot of programming for NASA.161 INT. SCHOOL. HALLWAY 161 A even larger group of kids is listening to the blaster. They're cheering him on.162 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE. BACKYARD 162 The Rottweiler is laying unconscious on the lawn. The flower arrangement is scattered all over the yard and the ceramic vase the flowers were in has obviously struck the dog. The broken pieces are all around the dog's head. EXT. FERRIS HOUSE. BACKYARD. ROONEY He's smiling with great satisfaction. ROONEY Sleep tight, pooch. He hears something in the house. His head snaps around. He drops down and peek in the windows. HIS POV A glimpse of a fleeting figure. CU. ROONEY His eyes dance in anticipation of revenge.163 INT. HOUSE. FERRIS' ROOM 163 Jeanie kicks the door open. The yardstick flings the covers and the pillows beneath them in the air. She stomps in and turns off the snoring synthesizer. JEANIE I knew it! She grabs the phone and sits down. She dials a number.164 EXT. HOUSE. FRONT 164 Rooney sneaks around the side of the house. He slinks up on the porch. The front door's open. He peeks in.165 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 165 Jeanie's on the phone. JEANIE Is Mrs. Bueller there? Where is she? This is her daughter. Do you know where she is? Do you know when she'll be back? Do you know anything? She slams the phone down. JEANIE The worm has luck like clams have body odor... She's startled by a noise downstairs. A smile spreads across her face. He's back and she's going to nail him.166 INT. HOUSE. FOYER 166 Rooney sneaks into the house. He looks around the foyer and heads into the kitchen.167 INT. HOUSE. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY 167 Jeanie tiptoes down the stairs.168 INT. HOUSE. KITCHEN 168 Rooney sneaks through the kitchen into the den.169 INT. HOUSE. FOYER 169 Jeanie comes down the stairs into the foyer.170 INT. HOUSE. KITCHEN 170 Rooney comes out of the den, back into the kitchen. He crosses back toward the foyer.171 INT. FOYER 171 Jeanie sneaks into the kitchen.172 INT. KITCHEN 172 Jeanie and Rooney come face-to-face. Jeanie squeals in horror. She doesn't recognize Rooney as himself but as an intruder. She drops into a karate stance and kicks Rooney in the face. He hits the deck. She flees back up the stairs.173 INT. CAR 173 Boyd is sitting in the backseat of Joyce's car listening to the radio. FERRIS' VOICE My input on the Star Wars defense plan was pretty substantial so I guess this is their way of rewarding me. I'm pretty flattered. EXT. CAR Joyce and her clients leave a show house and head toward the car. INT. CAR Boyd looks out the window as his parents and Joyce appear. D.J. VOICE Can you stay around and take a few phone calls? FERRIS' VOICE I'd really like to but I have a kidney operation in about an hour. EXT. CAR Joyce and her clients take one last look at the house. JOYCE If you're willing to commit a little time and a little money to this place, you can really have something to be proud of. Don't let the black living room throw you off. She opens the car door. INT. CAR The door opens. D.J. VOICE I wish you the best of luck. FERRIS' VOICE Thanks, Steve. D.J. VOICE A very interesting guy, Ferris Bueller. Joyce gets in. The clients get in the other side. A song starts. JOYCE (to the kid) Well, Boyd, how are you bearing up? The kid stares at her. JOYCE Did I tell you I have a son your age? BOYD Twice. JOYCE His name is Ferris. I think you'd like him. Boyd sits up in the seat at the mention of Ferris' name. BOYD Is he going up in the space shuttle in September? Joyce looks around at Boyd. She gives him a curious look. JOYCE Not that I know of. BOYD I knew he was bullshitting. MOTHER Watch your mouth. BOYD How do you watch your mouth? JOYCE Do you know my son? FATHER Don't pay any attention to him. He thinks it's cute to bait adults. BOYD I don't think it's cute. I think it's fun. Joyce give him a puzzled smile and starts the car.174 INT. FERRIS' ROOM 174 Jeanie's on the phone. She's in a panic. JEANIE This is not a phoeny phone call. There's an intruder, male caucasian, possibly armed, certainly weird, in our kitchen. (pause) My name is Bueller. There's another pause. Jeanie's face drops. JEANIE It's real nice that you hope my brother's feeling better but I'm in danger, okay? I'm very cute, I'm very alone and I'm very protective of my body. I'd rather not have it violated or killed. I need help!175 INT. KITCHEN 175 Rooney's plugging his bloody nose with paper towel. The intercom goes on. JEANIE'S VOICE Excuse me. If whoever's in the house is still in the house, I'd like you to know that I have just called the police. If you have any brains whatsoever, you'll get your ass out of my house real quick. Rooney stiffens with fear. JEANIE'S VOICE I'd also like to add that I have my father's gun. And a scorching case of herpes.176 EXT. STREET 176 Rooney's car is hooked to a tow truck. It's parked in front of a fire hydrant and the windshield is decorated with parking citations. In the distance SIRENS WAIL.177 EXT. PARKING LOT 177 The three are waiting for the Ferrari. We HEAR TIRES SQUEALING, AN ENGINE REVING-OUT. Then the Ferrari pulls down the ramp and jams to a frightening stop. A BLACK GUY jumps out. Ferris hands him the parking stub. FERRIS Just out of curiosity, what was your top speed coming down the ramp? BLACK GUY (matter-of-fact) About 60. FERRIS Stunning! He hands him a buck and opens the door and pulls the passenger seat forward for Cameron. FERRIS This is probably the last time you'll have to ride back here. Keep that in mind. Cameron gives him a look and squeezes in.178 EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET 178 The Ferrari cruises through traffic. INT. FERRARI Sloane's in the passenger seat. Ferris is driving and Cameron is crammed in the back. SLOANE What's next. CAMERON Nothing. We return the car. SLOANE We could go to my house. My parents aren't coming home until late. FERRIS We have enough cash left for a quick flight to Peoria and back. CAMERON Very funny. Ferris looks in the mirror and changes lanes. He glances down at the speedometer, then to the road. And back to the speedometer. FERRIS Cameron? How many miles did you say this thing had when we left? CAMERON One hundred and twenty six and halfway between three and four tenths. Why? How many miles are on it now? He glances down at the speedometer. CU. SPEEDOMETER The odometer reads 432.7. FERRIS (to CAMERA) Here's where Cameron goes berserk. EXT. TRAFFIC The Ferrari pulls up at a stop light. We HEAR A THUNDERING, MUFFLED SCREAM. EXT. EXPRESSWAY The Ferrari is buzzing through traffic. INT. FERRARI Sloane turns in her seat and looks at Cameron. Her gesture is one of genuine support. SLOANE You okay? CU. CAMERON His eyes are frozen in a mindless, vacant stare. CU. FERRIS He looks at Sloane. He's concerned. FERRIS Hey, Cameron. It's okay. We'll fix it. CU. CAMERON He's still holding the stare. He starts to breathe heavily. He's trembling. CU. SLOANE She whips around in the seat and grabs his arms. SLOANE Cameron! Cut it out! What's wrong?! Ferris! CU. FERRIS He shoots Sloane a look. FERRIS Cameron, are you okay? It's no problem, really. Your old man won't know a thing. It's completely fixable. INT. FERRARI Sloane fires an angry look at Ferris. SLOANE Shut-up! It is a problem! For him it's a problem. Nothing's a problem for you. But it's a problem for him! So, just shut-up. She turns back to Cameron. SLOANE What can I do, Cameron? CU. FERRIS Eyes front. He knows what he's doing.179 INT. FERRIS' HOUSE. FOYER 179 The doorbell rings. The Ferris' tape is activated. FERRIS VOICE Who is it? We hear a MALE VOICE over the intercom. VOICE Anybody home? FERRIS' VOICE I'm sorry that I can't come to the door right now... The tape continues as Jeanie hurtles down the stairs. JEANIE I'm saved! Thank you, God! Thank you, thank you, thank you! She jumps the last few stairs and slides to the front door. She whips it open.180 EXT. HOUSE. FRONT DOOR 180 The door swings open. JEANIE Thank...you... Her jaw goes slack. She blinks her eyes. HER POV The Delivery Man and a young ASSISTANT are standing at the door with floral arrangements. Spread all around them are more flowers. A sexy singing NURSE and a BALLOON MAN steps up on the porch. NURSE (sings) WE HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER WE HOPE YOU'RE FELLING FIT WE... The door slams shut.181 EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREET 181 Rooney's walking down the street. A school bus is crawling alongside him as kids hang out the windows. From inside we hear SHOUTING and seventeen different SONGS PLAYING ON BLASTERS. A top forty montage. KID Hey, Mr. Rooney! What're you doing? Rooney doesn't respond. ANOTHER KID Did you get in a fight? Rooney keep walking. The bus doors open. The DRIVER calls out to him. DRIVER You want a lift? Rooney takes a few more steps. He stops. The bus stops. Rooney takes a deep breath. He climbs aboard the bus.182 INT. BUS 182 The bus is jammed with WONKS and WEINERETTES. The passengers are silent as they watch Rooney shuffle down the aisle and take an empty seat next to a skinny, myopic GIRL. CU. GIRL She looks at Rooney and smiles. She pushes her Coke bottle glasses up on her nose. CU. ROONEY He looks vacantly at her. CU. GIRL She holds her smile. GIRL I'll bet you never smelled a real school bus before. CU. ROONEY He stares at her. CU. GIRL She holds up a candy package. GIRL Gummi Bear? CU. ROONEY He stares at her. CU. GIRL She puts one in her mouth. GIRL They've been in pocket. They're real soft and warm. CU. BOY A rotund FRESHMAN BOY sitting across from Rooney is staring at him. CU. ROONEY He looks across to the kid. CU. BOY He leans forward. FRESHMAN BOY It's kind of like being in the belly of the beast isn't it? CU. ROONEY He turns him eyes to the front. The bus jerks forward and pulls away.183 EXT. BUS 183 It grinds through the gears as it heads down the quiet street. The BLASTERS go back on, the SHOUTING RESUMES.184 EXT. PARK 184 Cameron's laying on a picnic table. Sloane's sitting beside him on the table. She's stroking his hair. Ferris WALKS INTO THE FOREGROUND. He addresses CAMERA. FERRIS This may very well be for real. I think Cameron might have blown a micro-chip or two. He's always been a little keyed-up. All I wanted to do was give him a good day. We're gonna graduate in a couple of months. Then we have the summer. He'll work and I'll work. And we'll see each other at night and on the weekends but then he'll go to one school and I'll go to another. And basically that'll be it. As much as we like each other, the process of growing up will separate us. He begins to walk. We follow him. FERRIS Sloane's a bigger problem. She still has another year of high school. How do I deal with that? I was serious when I said I'd marry her. I would. This isn't just teenage infatuation. That's what my parents call it. What do they call what they have? If that's love, I'll take infatuation. CU. CAMERON His eyes are closed. Sloane's stroking his hair. FERRIS (VO) Cameron's never been in love. At least no one's ever been in love with him. He's gonna marry the first girl he lays. And she's gonna treat him like shit because he's gonna kiss her ass for giving him what he's built-up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existance. She won't respect him because you can't respect someone who kisses your ass. It just doesn't work. CU. SLOANE She's studying Cameron's face. She looks away. SLOANE Ferris? CU. FERRIS He looks to the picnic table. Then back to CAMERA. FERRIS I'm being tested here. He starts back to the picnic table. FERRIS My best friend has flipped-out. Conventional wisdom would suggest a visit to the nearest trauma center. I wouldn't fault anybody for doing that. My, personally, I think this calls for something new, something bold, something wet and wild.185 CU. JACUZZI JET 185 UNDERWATER SHOT. A hyrdojet spews a gush of air bubbles. CU. BLASTER A finger pushes the PLAY button on the cassette. MUSIC COMES UP. CU. BEER CAN LID The finger pops a beer. CU. OREO PACKAGE A painted fingernail pierces the cellophane wrapper. INT. JACUZZI Ferris and Sloane are in Sloane's parents' Jacuzzi. Their clothes are tosssed around the deck. Cameron's been placed in a patio chair at the edge of the Jacuzzi. He's still catatonic. He's mummbling softly. Ferris is drinking a beer. Sloane's eating Oreos. FERRIS You feeling any better, Cameron? SLOANE The water's really nice. I wish you'd come in. CU. CAMERON Staring into space. CAMERON Surgery...fire...move... CU. SLOANE AND FERRIS They look at each other. She offers him a cookie. He offers her his beer. FERRIS Cameron? Do you think this because of the car or is it a combination of everything shitty in your life? CU. CAMERON He doesn't respond. CAMERON Music...kiss...attack... CU. SLOANE AND FERRIS Sloane sips the beer. FERRIS You just can't deal with anymore shit? The car took you into the red zone? Time for a reality check? SLOANE Cameron? I could flip real easy, too. There's nothing wrong with it. At one time or another, everybody goes to the zoo. FERRIS Maybe he was actually sick. Maybe he wasn't bullshitting himself. CU. CAMERON No response. CAMERON Gesundheit...God...mercy... EXT. BACKYARD Ferris and Sloane watch their catatonic friend. CU. CAMERON He smiles. CU. SLOANE She leans forward and stares at Cameron. CU. FERRIS He cocks his head, wondering what Cameron's up to. CU. CAMERON He keels over forward. EXT. BACKYARD Cameron falls out of the chair and splashes down, face-first, into the water. Sloane screams. Ferris leaps for him. UNDERWATER Ferris struggles with Cameron's lifeless bulk. CU. SLOANE She's screaming. Ferris thrashes around in the water. UNDERWATER Ferris grabs Cameron's collar and rips him out of the water. EXT. BACKYARD Ferris sits Cameron on the edge of the Jacuzzi. FERRIS CAMERON! CU. CAMERON His eyes are closed. He's lifeless. CU. FERRIS His face is a mask of terror. He shakes Cameron. CU. SLOANE She's screaming. CU. CAMERON A smile spreads across his face. CU. FERRIS He sees the smile. He stops shaking Cameron. EXT. JACUZZI Ferris and Cameron are looking at each other. Sloane's still screaming. She realizes that Cameron's okay. She stops screaming. SLOANE What? FERRIS (Cameron) You asshole! Cameron's smiling. SLOANE What? Ferris starts to laugh. Cameron explodes with laughter. Sloane's bewildered. SLOANE What's so funny?186 INT. POLICE STATION. WAITING ROOM 186 Jeanie's sitting on a wooden bench with a WASTED TEENAGE BOY in a Triumph t-shirt, long hair, torn jeans, creepers, studs and chains. He's studying her. BOY Drugs? JEANIE No, thank you. I'm straight. BOY I meant, are you here for drugs? Jeanie stares at him. JEANIE Why are you here? BOY Drugs. JEANIE I don't know why I'm here. BOY Then why don't you go home? JEANIE Why don't you put your thumb up your butt? The boy stares at her. BOY You want to talk about your problem? JEANIE With you? Are you serious? BOY Yeah, I'm serious. JEANIE Blow yourself. Jeanie turns away. The boy crosses his legs. Jeanie looks back at him. JEANIE You really want to know what's wrong? The boy shrugs. JEANIE Alright. If you've got the time, I've got the troubles. In a nutshell, I hate my brother. How's that? BOY That's cool. Did you shoot him or something? JEANIE No, not yet. The boy nods. He understands the emotion. JEANIE I went home to confirm that the shithead was ditching school and a guy broke into the house and I called the cops and they picked me up for making a phoney phone call. BOY What do you care if your brother ditches school? Jeanie stares at the boy. JEANIE Why should he get to ditch school when everybody else has to go? BOY You could ditch. JEANIE I'd get caught. BOY So, you're pissed at him because he ditches and doesn't get caught? JEANIE Basically. The boy nods knowingly. BOY Then your problem is you. JEANIE Excuse me? BOY Excuse you. You oughta spend a little more time dealing with yourself and a little less time worrying about what your brother does. It's just an opinion. Jeanie stares angrily at him. Partly because he's so bold and partly because he's so right. BOY There's somebody you should talk to. Jeanie stares at him threateningly. JEANIE If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle. BOY You know him? CU. JEANIE'S HAND It curls into a fist.187 CU. FERRARI TIRE 187 It's spinning rapidly. CY. ACCELERATOR A brick's resting on the accelerator, holding it down. INT. CAMERON'S GARAGE Ferris, Cameron and Sloane are sitting in the garage. The Ferrari is jacked up. The wheels are turning. The engine's racing. CAMERON The whole time I was just thinking things over. I was like, meditating. I was thinking about the future. And I realized it doesn't make and difference if the present goes to shit. FERRIS I have a agree with you there. SLOANE Really. CAMERON I've been thinking all day that if you could only have the use of one word, what would it be? FERRIS Sloane is naked before your eyes and you're thinking about words? SLOANE God bless you, Cameron. CAMERON Thank you, Sloane. CAMERON If you guys only had one word, what would it be? FERRIS I can't believe you'd think up something like with a naked girl in a jacuzzi right in front of you. SLOANE Come on, Ferris, answer his question. FERRIS Bathroom. SLOANE I'd say... She thinks. FERRIS Cash. CAMERON It's the only word you could ever use. FERRIS Hello. SLOANE Love. FERRIS And what is you loathe somebody? Are you going to say "love" every time you see them? SLOANE It's better than "hello". FERRIS Hellos' generic. SLOANE You wanna be generic? CAMERON It's help. Cameron smiles at his wisdom. Ferris and Sloane think about it. It's a good choice. Cameron gets up and walks to the Ferrari. CAMERON The word is help. Cameron peeks in the window. CU. ODOMETER Nothing's happening. INT. GARAGE Cameron pulls his head out of the car. CAMERON Ferris? It's not working. Ferris looks up. CAMERON The miles aren't coming off, running it in reverse. FERRIS I thought that might be a problem. Let's crack open the odometer and roll it back by hand. Cameron shakes his head. CAMERON I got a better idea. It's cool. He walks back around behind the Ferrari. CAMERON Seventeen years and I've never taken a stand. Now, I'm gonna do it. I'm taking a stand against my father, against my family, against myself, against my past, my present and my future. I will not sit idly by as events that affect me unfold to change the course of my life. I will take a stand and I will defend it. When my father comes home tonight, he's finally going to have to deal with me. Good or bad, I'm taking a stand. CU. FERRIS He turns to CAMERA. FERRIS This is a big U-2 fan. CU. SLOANE She smiles proudly at Cameron. She applauds him. CU. CAMERON He's serious and determined. He has made up his mind and it appears that it won't be changed by anyone but himself. CU. TIRES It's spinning wildly. CU. MERCEDES BUMPER Cameron's foot rests on the bumper. A beat and it gives a mighty shove. CU. TIRE The spinning tires slam down on the cement. INT. GARAGE Cameron has kicked the Ferrari off the jack. It squeals out of the garage in a cloud of blue tire smoke. A $50,000 unmanned investment heading backwards down a driveway. CU. SLOANE AND FERRIS They're in shock. EXT. HOUSE The Ferrari shoots down the driveway. INT. GARAGE Cameron watches the car go. He's strangely placcid about the impending disaster. Ferris and Sloane are bewildered. THEIR POV The Ferrari travels down the driveway, across the street, over the curb into the wooded property opposite the house. CU. TREE The Ferrari's brief journey ends as it smacks a tree trunk. INT. GARAGE Ferris and Sloane exchange baffled looks. They look at Cameron. He's proud and bold. FERRIS What was that about? SLOANE This has to be a dream. FERRIS Cameron? One quick question. Why'd you do that? Cameron holds his proud posture for a beat. Then a look of bewilderment comes over his face. He shoots a look to Ferris. A puzzled look. FERRIS You trashed the car. Cameron looks across the street. SLOANE Why? CAMERON I took a stand. FERRIS No, Cameron. You wrecked a car. Cameron thinks for a moment. Then he regains his confidence. CAMERON It's okay. Ferris looks across the street at the car. FERRIS I have an idea. If you're interested. Cameron looks at him. He shakes his head. CAMERON I'm gonna handle it. FERRIS I think this could work. CAMERON No, thanks. I want to deal with it by myself. SLOANE What about your one word? CAMERON You already did it. If I need it again, I'll use it. He smiles. He raises am impish eyebrow. CAMERON It's cool. I'm loose.188 INT. POLICE STATION. OFFICE 188 Joyce is talking with the juvenile officer. Outside the office, on the bench, we see Jeanie and the boy making out. JOYCE She's never been in trouble before. This is a shock to me. First, I don't know why she wasn't at school. Second, I don't know why she'd call you with this story about a rapist. OFFICER For whatever reasons she did it, I think she'd had a good scare. JOYCE I hope so. I appreciate your calling me. I can assure you that her father and I will have a long talk with her. The gathers her purse and jacket and stands. JOYCE Thank you. OFFICER Oh, by the way, I hope you son's feeling better. Joyce looks at the officer curiously. OFFICER Tell him, all the guys at the station here are pulling for him.189 INT. POLICE STATION. WAITING ROOM 189 Jeanie quickly breaks the embrace with the boy as Joyce steps out of the juvenile officer's room. She's still a little bewildered that everybody knows Ferris was ill. Jeanie wipes her lips and sits up straight. The boy adjusts his pants to better hide his passion. JEANIE (to the boy) If you keep this to yourself, I think we can probably get it on pretty good. BOY For sure. Jeanie stands up. JEANIE Hi. JOYCE Don't "hi" me, young lady. Get your stuff. Jeanie reaches down for her purse. BOY What's your name? JEANIE Jean. What's yours? BOY Garth Volbeck.190 EXT. SLOANE'S BACKYARD 190 Sloane and Ferris are standing at the back fence. SLOANE I had a great time today. FERRIS Yeah. It was pretty cool. SLOANE You think Cameron's gonna be alright? FERRIS Sure. He had to so it, I guess. His old man had it coming. He'll be okay. I'd be worried if he'd taken my idea. Sloane smiles knowingly. SLOANE You didn't have an idea, did you? FERRIS Not a glimmer. SLOANE You're so smart. FERRIS No. I'm just real loose. He kisses her. FERRIS I'll call you tonight. Sloane nods. Ferris jumps the fence and takes off across the backyards. Sloane watches him go. A huge smile spreads across her face. SLOANE I LOVE YOU! She backs away from the fence. MUSIC FADES UP. SLOANE He's gonna marry me. I know it. She turns and runs into the house.191 EXT. BACKYARD 191 Ferris sprints across a backyard. He jumps a plaster elf.192 EXT. ANOTHER BACKYARD 192 Ferris vaults a fence. He runs directly for a swimming pool. He's approaching it from the side. He leaps, hits the diving board, springs off, does a flip and lands on the grass on the other side of the pool.193 CU. BEDSPREAD 193 Neatly bundles stacks of bills and rolled coins. A significant amount of cash. CU. SLOANE She's writing. CU. PIECE OF PAPER We see a portion of the typewritten letter as she signs it. "...in the amount of $1,765.33. It gives us great pleasure to assist you in performance of your worthy and much needed survives to those so desperately in need. Sincerely, Sloane Peterson Executive Director The Ferris Bueller Foundation"194 EXT. FERRIS' STREET 194 He's running down the middle of the street. A car honks. Ferris moves to the side. The car pulls around him. INT. CAR. Tom's at the wheel. He glances in the mirror. He does a take. HIS POV. MIRROR We see Ferris cut across a front lawn and into a house. CU. TOM He realizes it couldn't be Ferris.195 INT. HOUSE 195 Ferris runs through the kitchen, past a WOMAN, fixing dinner and out her backdoor. The Woman looks up curiously.196 EXT. FERRIS' HOUSE 196 Tom pulls in the driveway. He parks and gets out. Joyce pulls in from the other direction.197 EXT. HOUSE. BACK PORCH 197 Ferris tries the door. It's locked. He reaches down and lifts the doormat. CU. PORCH The outline of a key in the dirt under the mat. The key's gone. The toe of a chewed-up dress shoe steps INTO FRAME. An OMNIOUS CHORD IS STRUCK. CU. FERRIS He stares up in horror. HIS POV Rooney's looking down at him. He's holding the house key. EXT. PORCH Ferris stands up. He smiles. ROONEY Looking for this? FERRIS Yes. ROONEY I got you, Ferris. This time I finally got you. Ferris is caught. There's no way out. Rooney gloats severely. ROONEY How does another year of high school sit with you? Suddenly, the backdoor opens. Jeanie looks out. She feigns joy and relief. She rushes Ferris and hugs him. JEANIE Thank God, you're alright! We've been worried sick! CU. FERRIS A moment of curiosity. Then it dawns on him what's happening. He smiles. CU. ROONEY His eyes dart from Ferris to Jeanie to Ferris. His victory is evaporating. EXT. PORCH Jeanie breaks the embrace. JEANIE (to Rooney) Thank you for bringing him home, Mr. Rooney. (to Ferris) You better get up in bed tight now. Ferris limps into the house. JEANIE Can you imagine someone as sick as Ferris trying to walk home from the hospital? (shakes her head) Kids! CU. ROONEY He's dumbfounded. CU. JEANIE She raises her hands and strikes a karate pose. A huge smile passes over her face. CU. ROONEY A look of terror as he realizes that is was Jeanie who kicked him and that Jeanie knows it was he who she kicked. EXT. PORCH Jeanie steps into the house.198 INT. HOUSE 198 The door closes on Rooney's defeated, lost, dejected, bewildered face. Not only has he lost Ferris again, he has Jeanie to deal with next year.199 EXT. YARD. CU. DOG 199 The click of the door wakes him up. His head pops up off the grass. CU. ROONEY He senses new danger. We hear AN O.C. GROWL. Rooney squeezes his eyes shut.200 INT. KITCHEN 200 Kimberly and Todd are sitting at the kitchen table watching TV and eating cereal. They look up at Ferris as he comes in from outside. TODD Ferris? Does my head look like it's getting bigger? Ferris leans against the counter as he tries to catch his breath. He looks at his little brother. FERRIS No, but Kimberly's is. He crosses to the refrigerator and opens it. Kimberly feels her head. KIMBERLY (to Todd) Is he serious? TODD I think so. KIMBERLY Oh, shit! Ferris takes out a bottle of orange juice out of the refrigerator and drinks straight from the bottle. Jeanie comes in. FERRIS Thanks, Jeanie. JEANIE No problem. FERRIS By the way, I borrowed some cash from you. I'll pay you back. JEANIE You don't have to. FERRIS I want to. JEANIE You don't have to. I've been ripping off your wallet for years. Ferris gives her a proud smile.201 EXT. HOUSE 201 Joyce and Tom head up to the kitchen.202 INT. KITCHEN 202 Ferris and Jeanie exit the kitchen as Joyce and Tom enter. JOYCE (to Todd and Kimberly) Hi, guys. KIMBERLY Is my head swelling up?203 INT. HOUSE. FOYER 203 The foyer is jammed with floral arrangements, plants and gifts. Ferris and Jeanie step gingerly through the flowers and head upstairs. JEANIE I'm sorry I've been riding your buns for so long. FERRIS It's completely cool. JOYCE (OC) Ferris! Ferris continues up the stairs. He affects a sickly voice. FERRIS Upstairs, Mom!204 INT. SECOND FLOOR LANDING 204 Ferris and Jeanie stop. JEANIE Do you know a guy named Garth Volbeck? FERRIS Vaguely. JEANIE Is he cool? FERRIS He's cool. But stay away from his brother. Ferris walks into the room, brushes the crumbs off his hands and peels off his shirt. He climbs into bed. No sooner are the covers over him than the bedroom door opens and Joyce and Tom walk in. They walk over to the bed. Joyce sits down. JOYCE Honey? CU. FERRIS The same deathly face he had in the morning. Tongue out, eyes bulging. TOM (OC) Ferris? How do you feel? He pulls in his tongue to speak. FERRIS (deathly gasp) 150% better, thank you.205 INT. BEDROOM 205 Tom and Joyce hover over him with deep concern. FERRIS I'm much better, really. Please, don't make me stay home again. I want to go to school. I'm graduating in June and I... TOM Ferris. You're sick. There's no point pushing yourself and making it worse. FERRIS Maybe you're right, Dad. TOM I know I'm right. Joyce leans over and kisses him forehead. JOYCE How did you get so sweet? FERRIS Years of practice. Tom pats Ferris on the rump. He and Joyce exit. CU. FERRIS The hideous face. A beat and we HEAR THE BEDROOM DOOR CLOSE. Ferris looks at CAMERA. FERRIS (happy sigh) Yeah, life is a carousel. A great big crazy ball of pure living, breathing joy and delight. He rolls over on his back and puts his hands behind his head. FERRIS You gotta get one. He smiles. MUSIC UP BIG END TITLES THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Field of Dreams.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Field of Dreams.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..080e12c117214c76924a7d44684816dfa19de5f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Field of Dreams.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + ? FIELD OF DREAMS Written by Phil Alden Robinson March 9, 1988 FINAL DRAFT SCREENPLAY 1 FADE IN MONTAGE OF PHOTOS RAY (V.O.) My fatherís name was John Kinsella. A faded, sepia shot of a dirty little kid on a farm. RAY (V.O.) Itís an Irish name. He was born in North Dakota, in 1896... Young man in doughboy uniform. RAY (V.O.) ...and never saw a big city until he came back from France in 1918. Chicago. Tenement. Comiskey Park. Ballgames. RAY (V.O.) He settled in Chicago, where he quickly learned to live and die with the White Sox. Died a little when they lost the 1919 World Series... Newspaper headlines. Photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson. RAY (V.O.) ...died a lot the following summer when eight members of the team were accused of throwing that Series. Dad (a catcher) playing ball. At work. Weeding. RAY (V.O.) He played in the minors for a year or two, but nothing ever came of it. Moved to Brooklyn in í35, married Mom in í38, and was already an old man working at the Naval Yards when I was born in 1949. Ray as an infant. With his father. In front of Ebbets Field in miniature Dodger uniform, etc. RAY (V.O.) My nameís Ray Kinsella. Mom died when I was three, and I suppose Dad did the best he could. Instead of Mother Goose, I was put to bed at night to stories of (MORE) CONTINUED 2 1 CONTINUED RAY (CONT'D) Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig...and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson. Dad was a Yankees fan then, so of course I rooted for Brooklyn. But in '58 the Dodgers moved away, so we had to find other things to fight about. We did. And when it came time to go to college, I picked the farthest one from home I could find. Berkeley in the 1960s: hippies, protesters, etc. RAY (V.0.) This, of course, drove him right up the wail, which I suppose was the point. Officially my major was English, but really it was the Sixties. Ray looking foolish in long hair and tie-dye. RAY (V.O.) I marched, I smoked some grass, I tried to like sitar music... and I met Annie. Annie: blue jeans, T-shirt, freckles. Their courtship. RAY (V.0.) The only thing we had in common was that she came from Iowa and I had once heard of Iowa. We moved in together. After graduation, we moved to the Midwest, and stayed with her family as long as we could. Unsmiling American Gothic types. RAY (V.O.) Almost a full afternoon. The apartment, Ray at different jobs, the wedding. RAY (V.0.) We rented an apartment and I took a job selling insurance. I also drove a cab and worked in a pizza parlor. Dad died in June of 1 74. Annie and I got married that fail. Baby pictures. RAY (V.O.) A few years later Karin was born. She smelled weird, but we loved her anyway. Then Annie got the crazy idea that she could talk me into buying a farm. CONTINUED 3 1 CONTINUED (2) 1 Ray, Annie, and four-year-old Karin by the "SOLD" sign of their farm. Ray in a cornfield. RAY (V.0.) I'm thirty-eight years old and I'm about to become a farmer. I love my family, I love baseball, and I miss New York. Moving in on Ray's face. RAY (V.0.) But until I heard The Voice...I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life. DISSOLVE TO 2 THE CORNFIELD - DUSK 2 It is dusk on a spring evening. The sky is a robin's-egg blue, and the wind is soft as a day-old chick. Ray Kinsella is working in the cornfield when a voice -- like that of a public address announcer -- speaks to him. THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' Ray looks up and around, but sees nothing that could be the source of this sound. All around him are empty fields. He stands quietly for a few moments, then goes back to work. THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' Ray jerks his head in all directions to see where this voice is coming from, but again, he sees nothing unusual -- just the furrowed fields and a few hundred feet away, the massive old farmhouse with a sagging veranda on three sides. On the north veranda is a wooden porch swing where Annie and Karin sit, sipping lemonade and dreaming. RAY (CALLS) Annie, what was that? ANNIE (CALLS BACK) What was what? RAY That voice. ANNIE What voice? CONTINUED 4 2 CONTINUED 2 RAY Just now. Like an announcement. Annie confers briefly with Karin, then calls back to Ray. ANNIE We didn't hear anything. RAY Oh. Ray thinks for a second, then shakes it off, trying to dislodge that thought from his mind, and gets back to work. THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' Again, he bolts upright and looks around. Again, he sees nothing. This is beginning to bug him. He calls: RAY Okay, you must've heard that. 3 ON THE PORCH 3 Annie and Karin lock at each other and exchange a shrug. Annie extends her arms palms upward, and calls to Ray. ANNIE Sorry. Come on. Dinner. Annie leads Karin inside. 4 -IN THE FIELD 4 Ray looks all around him with an "Okay, fellas, what's the joke?" look on his face. But there is no one there. He puts down his tools and walks toward the house. 5 INT. KITCHEN Ray enters, looks at his wife skeptically and joins his wife and daughter setting the table. RAY Was there like a sound truck on the highway, or something? ANNIE Nape. CONTINUED 5 5 CONTINUED 5 RAY Kids with a radio? ANNIE Nope. You really hearing voices? RAY Just one. ANNIE Ah. God? RAY More like a. . .ballpark announcer. Annie shoots him an "Are you kidding?" look. Ray responds with a shrug. They sit down to eat. ANNIE What'd it say? RAY 'If you build. it, he will come.' ANNIE If you build what, who will come? RAY (SHRUGS) He didn't say. ANNIE Ooh, I hate it when that happens. RAY Me too. CUT TO 6 RAY AND ANNIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 6 They are snuggled together, asleep. All is quiet. Then: THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' Ray's eyes pop open. He looks at Annie, who does not stir. Without moving, he looks around the room. There is no one there. Very quietly, he crosses to the window and looks out. He whispers out toward the cornfield: RAY Build what? For who? CONTINUED 6 6 CONTINUED 6 Behind him, Annie stirs. ANNIE Ray? RAY It's okay, honey, I'm just-talking to the cornfield. He sighs and goes back to bed. Annie cuddles up to him. Her eyes are closed, but Ray's eyes remain open. He is puzzled and concerned. CUT TO 7 TELEVISION SCREEN A scene from the 1950 movie Harvey, in which James Stewart insists he is conversing with an invisible rabbit. 8 RAY AND ANNIE'S KITCHEN MORNING L ittle Karin is watching Harvey while she eats her breakfast. Ray enters, looking like he had very little sleep, and promptly turns the TV set off. KARIN Why'd you do that? It was funny. RAY Trust me, Karin, it's not funny. The man is sick. He's very sick. Annie enters, putting on her coat. ANNIE Karin, if you're finished, get your coat and school bag. Let's go. Karin bolts from the table. RAY Uh honey, I'll take her today. I'v-e got some errands in town. ANNIE Far out. She takes off her coat and kisses Ray as he takes-the car keys and heads outside. Annie sits at the kitchen table. CONTINUED 7 CONTINUED 8 ANNIE What if the voice calls while you're gone? RAY Take a message. ANNIE Right. He exits. She grins, turns on the TV and watches Harvey. CUT TO 9 EXT. IOWA CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY 9 Ray's car pulls up, Karin runs out and Ray drives off. CUT TO 10 INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY 10 Ray is plugged into some weird-looking contraption, having his hearing examined. Then the Doctor shines a penlight into his eyes, shrugs, and starts putting his gear away. DOCTOR Well, I can't find anything wrong. I could recommend a shrink, but hey, people hear things all the time. I heard a voice once. I was still living with my parents, 'then. They worked in the circus, so I was raised in the circus, and I was training to be a clown. This one day, I'm putting on my little red nose and I hear a voice, tells me to go to medical school. Here I am. Ray is not sure if he should ignore this or run. CUT TO 11 FARM SUPPLY STORE - DAY 11 Farmers are loading up with seed, fertilizer, and other farmer stuff. This is the kind of place where people also linger to exchange gossip, swap lies, and pass the time. Ray is off to one side, chewing the fat with an old-timer. CONTINUED 8 11 CONTINUED 11 RAY In all those years, did you ever... (SEARCHES) I've heard that sometimes farmers out in the field...hear things. Voices. OLD-TIMER You hearing voices? RAY (QUICKLY) No. It's just that I heard some farmers do, and... I, of course, don't, so I was wondering if I was doing something wrong, or something. Did you ever hear voices out there? CASHIER (calls from her CASH REGISTER) Who's hearing voices? OLD-TIMER Ray is. Out in the fields. Now, everyone in the store turns to look at Ray. RAY No! No, I'm not. Really. But the people still stare. Ray addresses them. RAY Noises! That darn tractor, it's... (forces a nervous LAUGH) Well, I'll just get some 3-in-1 oil, that should... (TO THE OLD-TIMER) Nice talking to you. CUT TO 12 RAY'S FARM - DAY 12 Ray is out in the fields again, hard at work. A breeze picks up. He stops fora moment, cocks an ear and looks around. All he sees are the empty fields. Insects make the only sounds. He goes back to work. Then: THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' CONTINUED 9 12 CONTINUED 12 He throws his tools down angrily and looks all around, but there is no apparent source of the voice. Ray is pissed. RAY All right, who are you, and what the hell do you want from me?!? All he hears is a faraway echo. THE VOICE 'If you build it, he will come.' This is serious. Ray shakes his head and repeats the words to himself. RAY If you build it... As he thinks about these words,,some unexplained impulse causes Ray to turn his head deliberately toward a portion of the cornfield between him and the house. FLASH CUT 1 13 A BASEBALL FIELD L3 For the briefest of moments, the dreamlike image of a baseball field at night, illuminated by floodlights, flares in over the lawn. Standing on the edge of the field, is the figure of a man with his back to us. Before we can see anything else, the image disappears. 14 RAY 14 Ray's eyes widen. RAY . he will come'. FLASH CUT i5 THE MAN AND THE FIELD 1 5 The dream image flares in again, this time closer to the man. He stands in the middle distance, silhouetted by the lights, and we see he is wearing a uniform of some kind. He starts to turn slowly towards us, but before we can see his face, the image disappears. 10 16 CLOSE ON RAY 16 Ray's mouth opens. He half-laughs, as if to say "This can't be." But whatever is in his mind won't go away. RAY .he will come. FLASH CUT 17 THE MAN 17 Now we see him in head-and-shoulders. He has the muscular neck of an athlete. As he slowly turns we start to see a bit of his weathered face before the image flares out. 18 RAY 18 Wheels are turning inside his head. He is trying to figure all this out. In the distance, a bell is ringing. He looks O.S. 19 EXT. HOUSE - DUSK 19 Annie is on the veranda ringing the dinner bell hanging by the front door. ANNIE Yo, Ray! Food! 20 HER POINT OF VIEW - THE FIELDS 20 We see Ray emerge slowly from the fields, the twilit sky changing colors behind him. 21 THE VERANDA 21 Annie leans against a post, lazily watching Ray approach. She likes how he moves, and how he looks. ANNIE Hiya, cutie. Ray climbs up the steps, accepts her kiss, and instead of following her into the house, pulls her down with him onto the swing. He takes-her hand and looks into her eyes. RAY Annie... CONTINUED 11 21 CONTINUED 21 ANNIE (PLAYING ALONG) Ray... RAY You're not going to believe this... ANNIE You heard the voice again. RAY Wait, this gets better, I just saw a vision. ANNIE Get out of here! RAY I swear to God. An actual vision. ANNIE We're going to have to burn you at the stake if this keeps up. RAY I know. CUT TO 22 INT. HOUSE - NIGHT 22 THE family is eating dinner. Ray seems lostin thought. ANNIE Hey, you don't suppose this could be like an acid flashback, do you? RAY I never took acid. ANNIE Maybe you will someday, and it's a flash forward. RAY Annie, there's more. ANNIE You're subscribing to the Enquirer. RAY I think I know what 'If you build it, he will come' means. CONTINUED 12 22 CONTINUED 22 ANNIE Oooh, why do I not think this is a good thing? RAY I think it means if I build a baseball field out there, Shoeless Joe Jackson will get to come back and play ball again. ANNIE You're kidding. RAY Uh uh. She whistles. This is serious. RAY Yeah. CUT TO 23 INT. KARIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 23 Ray and Annie are putting little Karin to bed. ANNIE Boy, I thought my family was crazy, but this...this is the craziest thing I've ever heard. RAY I know. It's totally nuts. ANNIE I mean, Shoeless Joe, he's... RAY (NODS) Died in '51. ANNIE And he's the one they suspended, right? -AY Right. ANNIE He still dead? RAY Far as I know. CUT TO 13 24 INT.'BATHROOM - NIGHT 24 Ray and Annie in their pajamas, brushing their teeth, getting ready for bed. ANNIE You know what amazes me? No one could ever get you to believe in astrology, or ESP, or reincarnation, or heaven, or any of that stuff. But this...I think this shows real personal growth, Ray. RAY Thank you. Annie smiles, but sees that Ray is troubled. She hugs him. ANNIE Oh, sweetie. I hope you know that even though I make jokes, I'm going to visit you every month wherever they put you. He offers her a weak smile and exits. CUT TO 25 INT. RAY AND'ANNIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT It is dark. For a few seconds it is quiet. Then: RAY Did you know Babe Ruth copied his swing? ANNIE If I did, I'd forgotten it. Ray sits up in the dark. RAY I always felt cheated I never got to see him play. He was supposed to be so graceful, and agile. So to actually get to see him play again...to let him play again, to right an old wrong... He shakes his head in wonder just to think of it. Annie turns on the light. ANNIE Wait a minute, Bosco. Are you actually thinking of doing this? CONTINUED 14 25 CONTINUED 25 RAY No. (THEN) I mean, I can't think of one good reason why I should,-but... (takes a breath) I'm thirty-eight years old, I have a wife, a child, and a mortgage, and I'm scared to death I'm turning into my father. ANNIE What's your father got to do with this? Ray tries to picture his father in his mind. He speaks softly, but the words obviously have a great deal of meaning for him. RAY I never forgave him for getting old. By the time he'was as old as I am now, he was ancient. He must have had dreams, but he never did anything about them. For all I know, he may have even heard voices, too, but he sure didn't listen to them. The man never did one spontaneous thing in all the years I knew him. Annie, I'm scared that that's what growing up means. I'm afraid of that happening to me. And something tells me this may be my last chance to do something about it. (looks at her) I want to build that field. Do you think I'm crazy? She looks at him with great understanding. ANNIE Yes. He smiles wanly. She touches his face lovingly. ANNIE I also think that if you feel you really have to do this... then you should do it. They hold each other's gaze, and Ray cannot remember when he has loved her so much. He takes her in his arms. Outside their window, the field of corn lies waiting. CUT TO 15 26 THE CORNFIELD - DAY 26 Stalks of corn wave slowly in the breeze. A bee buzzes near one. The light is yellow. Suddenly, the stalks bend violently to the ground as Ray's tractor plows them under. 27 ON THE TRACTOR 27 Ray drives, Karin rides shotgun, holding the large detailed diagram Ray has drawn of the ballpark's dimensions. RAY Ty Cobb called him the greatest left fielder of all time. His glove was called 'the place where triples go to die.' 28 HIGH ANGLE 28 The tractor turns to plow under more corn, and we can see the size of the area Ray has staked off with marker sticks. KARIN (V.0.) Could he hit? RAY (V.O.) Lifetime 356 average. Third highest in history. Karin whistles. 29 ANOTHER ANGLE 29 By the side of the road, an old man and woman stand and watch these neighbors-plow under their. corn. They look at each other as if to say "Could it be Communists?" KARIN (V.0.) Why'd they called him Shoeless Joe? 30 SEEDING THE FIELD - DAY 30 It is days later, an area the size of a baseball field has been plowed under, and Ray is seeding it. RAY (V.O.) When he was still in the minors, he bought a new pair of spikes and they hurt his feet. About the sixth inning he took them off and played the outfield in just his socks. The other players kidded him, called him Shoeless Joe, and the name stuck. 16 31 WATERING THE GRASS - NIGHT- 31 We can see roughly where the grass has been planted, and where the dirt will be smoothed out for the base paths. Ray stands stock-still in the moonlight, water hose in hand, patiently misting the baby grass, little Karin at his side. RAY (V.0.) Then in 1919, his team, the Chicago White Sox, threw the World Series. KARIN (V.0.) What's 'threw'? RAY (V.0.) They lost it on purpose. Gamblers paid them to. 32 SIDE OF THE ROAD 32 Now, dozens of families stand to watch silent and dumb-eyed, at what has obviously become a daily spectacle among the townspeople. Some snap photos. RAY (V.0.) Except Shoeless Joe. 33 SMOOTHING OUT THE FIELD - DAY Ray smooths out the base paths with a large roller, as Annie and Karin follow behind with rakes. On either side of the base paths, the infield and outfield grass is growing. RAY (V.0.) Nobody could prove anything one way or another, but he was the one guy who probably wasn't in on it. 34 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 34 Ray, Annie and Karin wait as the cashier totals up their load of lumber and hardware. RAY I mean if he was supposed to be throwing it, how do you explain the fact he hit 375 for the series and didn't commit one error? Huh? KARIN I can't. CONTINUED 17 34 CONTINUED 34, RAY Twelve hits, including the series' only home run. And they said he was trying to lose! KARIN It's ridiculous. CASHIER That's 855 dollars, sixty-four cents. From O.S., we hear oooh. Ray turns and notices for the first time that a crowd of spectators -- employees and customers -- has been watching him and whispering among themselves. They look at him as if he had two heads. Ray turns his attention back to writing a check for his purchases. He deadpans to Annie: RAY We'd better notify Mars to send us more money. ANNIE (EQUALLY DEADPAN) Remlak won't like that. RAY That's his problem. And tell him to make it in Earth dollars this time. Ray hands over the check to the open-mouthed cashier. RAY Thank you. Have a nice day. Ray and Annie turn and leave with Karin. The farmers watch, obviously trying hard to figure this one out. CUT TO 35 BUILDING THE OUTFIELD WALL - DAY 35 Ray hammers the braces that will support the outfield wall. Karin hands him nails from a bag she wears around her neck. RAY (V.O.) There's a famous story about when he came out of the courtroom, a kid ran up to him, tugged his sleeve and said 'Say it ain't so, Joe.' And Jackson looked down t him and said 'I'm afraid it is, kid.' CONTINUED 18 35 CONTINUED 35 KARIN Then what happened? 36 BUILDING THE BLEACHERS 36 Annie helps Ray lift a board to what will be the top row. RAY The Commissioner of Baseball suspended eight of the players -- including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson -- for life. KARIN What's suspend? RAY They never let him play the game again. They continue to work in silence. CUT TO 37 INT. SPORTING GOODS STORE I 7 Ray writes a check for his purchases: bats, balls, bases pitcher's rubber, home plate, etc. He appears slightly annoyed that once again, he is being stared at by all the uniformed employees of the store. He turns to catch the Store Owner staring at him the most intently. RAY What. What! STORE OWNER You're the fella that plowed under your corn and built a baseball diamond, right? RAY Yeah. What about it? STORE OWNER (shakes his hand) Greatest damn thing I ever heard. The other employees beam their agreement. RAY At these prices, I'm not surprised. CONTINUED 19 37 CONTINUED He wheels his shopping cart of sporting goods out through a gauntlet of approving salesmen. They smile and pat him on the back. Ray cannot decide if they're crazier than he is. RAY Thank you...thank you... CUT TO 38 THE LIGHT STANDARD - NIGHT 38 Atop the aluminum-painted poles, an array of store-bought floodlights switch on, flaring against the blue-black sky. In this sharp white light the grass glows parrot green, cool as mint, soft as a cashmere blanket. Annie and Karin watch as Ray puts down the clean white bases, which pick up the light like little moons on a cold, clear night. RAY My father said he saw him years later playing under a made-up name in some tenth-rate league in Carolina. He'd put on fifty pounds, and the spring was gone from his step, but he could still hit. Dad used to say no one could hit like Shoeless Joe. Ray is smiling wistfully. ANNIE That's the first time I've ever seen you smile as you mentioned your father. Ray considers that. KARIN How come? ANNIE Come on, you. Bed time. Annie hoists Karin on her shoulders with a grunt, and the three climb their way down the bleachers. Ray's hand steadies Annie as she takes one of the steps. RAY Careful... Moonl ight butters the Iowa night. They walk along the side of the field, and Ray stops. He looks at the field. CONTINUED 20 38 CONTINUED 38 RAY I have just created something totally illogical. ANNIE That's what I like about it. RAY Am I completely nuts? ANNIE Not completely. She looks out over the baseball field. ANNIE It's a good baseball field, Ray. RAY It is kinda pretty, isn't it? Annie smiles at him and carries Karin inside. Ray steps onto the porch and flicks the switch shutting off the floodlights over the field. CUT TO 39 RAY AND ANNIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 39 Annie opens her eyes and sees Ray not beside her in bed, but in th window seat, looking out at the empty field. Barely awake, she gets out of bed, shuffles to his side and curls up against him. ANNIE Any sign? RAY Something's going to happen out there. I can feel it. Annie lowers her head against his chest and goes back to sleep. Outside, the trees are fully leafed. DISSOLVE TO 40 RAY'S BASEBALL FIELD - OCTOBER 40 The trees are almost bare now, and there's a Halloween pumpkin in the front window of the house. The cornstalks CONTINUED 21 40 CONTINUED 40 ,rustle like crumpling paper in the Indian-summer breeze which blows fallen leaves across the empty baseball field while Ray sits in the stands... waiting. DISSOLVE TO 41 THE BASEBALL FIELD - LATE DECEMBER 41 it is covered with snow. 42 INT. RAY AND ANNIE'S HOUSE 42 Ray looks forlornly out the living room window towards his snow-covered baseball field, the merrily blinking lights of the Christmas tree behind him belying his true mood. DISSOLVE TO 43 SPRINGTIME - DAY A baby robin tries to pull a worm out of the around. Inside the house, Annie is doing spring cleaning. She looks out the window to see: 44 THE BASEBALL FIELD Ray mowing the outfield grass. He stops, looks around, listens, hears nothing, and continues mowing. 45 ANNIE 45 just watches him. CUT TO 46 TV SCREEN 46 We see the first exhibition game of spring training from Florida, as the announcer talks about a "southpaw" pitcher. 47 INT. RAY AND ANNIE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 47 Little Karin watches the TV, while Annie and Ray sit at the living room table, financial ledgers spread out before them as they struggle with their accounts. KARIN Daddy, what's a southpaw? CONTINUED 22 47 CONTINUED 47 RAY A left-handed pitcher. (TO ANNIE) How bad is it? ANNIE Well, given how much less acreage we have for corn, I'd say we'll probably .almost break even. RAY Jesus. ANNIE We've spent all our savings on that field. KARIN (O.S.) Daddy.. RAY Just a minute, Karin. (TO ANNIE) So what are you saying? We can't keep the field? ANNIE (SADLY) It makes it real hard to keep the farm, Ray. Ray closes his eyes. KARIN (O.S.) Daddy... RAY (a little testy) In a minute, Karin. KARIN (O.S.) There's a man out there on your lawn. Ray opens his eyes and turns to see Karin kneeling on the kitchen counter, looking out the window. Ray and Annie exchange a quick glance, and Ray walks to the window. 48 EXT. THE WINDOW 48 seen from outside, as Ray's head appears and looks out. He sees something out there and just looks at it. 23 49 RAY'S POINT OF VIEW 49 There is a Man standing on the edge ofthebaseballfield. Hi es wearing a baseball uniform. Anold-fashionedone. 50 INT HOUSE 50 Ray turns to Annie. She looks out and nods thoughtfully. Annie stays very calm in emergencies. ANNIE We'll put up some coffee. You go ahead. Ray takes a breath and steps out onto the veranda. The night sky seems close enough to touch. 51 EXT. HOUSE 51 On the porch wall, Ray finds the switch, holds his breath, flicks it and the floodlights sputter to life. 52 THE MAN 52 steps onto the field. On his uniform is a large "S" with an "O" in the top crook, an "X" in the bottom, and an American flag with forty-eight stars on his left sleeve. 53 RAY 53 walks through the swirling ground mist toward the field. 54 RAY'S POINT OF VIEW 54 Moving closer to the field we see the Man standing out in left field. Feet spread wide, body bent forward from the waist, hands on hips, he waits. 55 RAY 55 Ray's mouth is dry. He reaches home plate and picks up one of the bats lying beside the pail of hard balls. The back of his neck tingles. Then, he picks up one of the balls. 56 IN THE OUTFIELD 56 The Man spreads his feet, pounds his small, old-style glove, and waits to field the ball. 24 57 AT HOME PLATE 57 Ray tosses the ball a few feet into the air and swings at it. And misses. His face reddens, he clears his throat, and tries again. This time he connects. 58 THE FIELD 58 He has hit a grounder that would be easily fielded by a shortstop had there been one, but it bounces through and falls into left field. The Man runs in for it, scoops it up cleanly and throws it back to the plate. Ray is thrilled. He hits another ground ball, and this too, is fielded cleanly. Then another, which the Man deftly short-hops. Ray hollers out to him. RAY How's the field play? THE MAN It's good. The ball bounces true. Ray smiles with pride. He tosses up another ball, gives it his best swing, and is thrilled to see he has actually lofted one into the air. But into center field. The Man sprints across the outfield, and makes a lovely catch in short center. Instead of throwing the ball in, the Man runs it in, loping toward home plate. Ray's heart thumps. RAY Hi. The Man nods at him, takes the bat, and tests it to feel its weight. RAY Ray Kinsella. THE MAN Joe Jackson. Ray is thrilled to hear the words spoken. It is Shoeless Joe Jackson after all, who stands not five feet away from him, trying out all the bats now. Ray isn't quite sure if he should talk, or ask questions, or just stand there. Finally, he can't help himself. RAY I bet its good to be playing again, huh? SHOELESS JOE It was like having part of me amputated. CONTINUED 25 58 CONTINUED Joe looks over at Ray, now, his dark eyes evincing the pain his steady voice tries to conceal. SHOELESS JOE I've heard that old man wake up and scratch itchy legs that've been dust for fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up in the night with the smell of the ballpark in my nose and the cool of the grass on my feet. The thrill of the grass... He has found the bat he likes. SHOELESS JOE Can you pitch? RAY (WITH FALSE MODESTY) Yeah, I'm not bad. Joe hands Ray the bucket of balls. Ray can barely contain his excitement as he races to the mound. He stands on the rubber and faces Joe at the plate. RAY Don't we need a catcher? SHOELESS JOE Not if you can get it near the plate, we don't. Ray smiles, takes a breath and starts his windup, during which he says aloud to himself: RAY I am pitching to Shoeless Joe Jackson. He makes a pitch. It's not a very good one, and Joe has to step across the plate to make contact, but his swing is graceful, compact and effortlessly powerful. He drives the ball against the fence. Ray watches it with wonder and when he turns back, Jackson is gesturing with the bat for him to make the next pitch. Ray makes the standard pitcher's gesture for a curve ball. RAY See if you can hit my curve. ∞He goes into an elaborate windup, throws it, it does not curve much, and Jackson whistles it right by Ray's ear. CONTINUED 26 58 CONTINUED (2) 58 RAY Yes, he can hit the curve. SHOELESS JOE Stick with fast balls, kid. RAY You bet. Ray makes another pitch, and Jackson hits a line drive down the third base line. Then a smoker down the first base line. Ray is mightily impressed. RAY Wow. SHOELESS JOE Damn, this feels good. Put it right here, huh? Joe holds the bat out low over the plate and Ray pitches it reasonably close to that spot. Jackson hits it out of the park, and beams. Ray brightens up with remembrance. RAY Right, you were a low ball hitter. SHOELESS JOE Oh man, I did love this game. You know, I'd have played for food money. it was the game, the sounds, the smells. You ever held a glove or a ball to your face? Ray smiles as he walks in from the mound. RAY Yeah. SHOELESS JOE And it was riding the trains from town to town. And the hotels with brass spittoons in the lobbies and brass beds in the rooms. And it was the crowd getting to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd have played for free. The sound of a screen door turns their. attention to the house. Annie and Karin are coming out to them. RAY My family. Jackson nods and then points to the floodlights. CONTINUED 27 58 CONTINUED (3) 58 SHOELESS JOE What's with the lights? RAY "All the stadiums have them now except Wrigley Field. SHOELESS JOE Makes it harder to see the ball. RAY The owners found that more people could attend night games. SHOELESS JOE (SHAKES HEAD) Owners... By now, Annie and Karin have joined them. RAY Mr. Jackson: my wife Annie, my daughter Karin. SHOELESS JOE Joe. Ma'm... (SHAKES ANNIE'S hand and winks AT KARIN) Hi. KARIN Are you a ghost? Ray and Annie are instantly embarrassed, and try to cover with forced, nervous laughter. RAY Karin... (to Shoeless Joe) She's just kidding. SHOELESS JOE It's okay. (TO KARIN) What do you think? KARIN- You look real to me. SHOELESS JOE Then I guess I'm real. ANNIE Would you like to come inside'? CONTINUED 28 58 CONTINUED (4) 58 SHOELESS JOE Uh, thanks, but...I don't think I can. Ray and Annie look at Joe for a moment, not quite understanding the ground rules here. Joe senses their discomfort and changes the subject. SHOELESS JOE Hey, can I come back again? RAY Yeah. I built this for you. SHOELESS JOE There are others, you know. There were eight of us. It'd sure mean a lot to them. RAY Oh man, anytime. They're all welcome here. Joe looks out over the field in eager anticipation of the good times to come. SHOELESS JOE Thank you, Ray. I appreciate it. See you later, huh? RAY Yeah. See you later. KARIN Say it ain't so, Joe! Joe laughs and walks to the outfield. Annie puts her arm around Ray and snuggles her head against his chest. Nearby, brook water splashes softly in the darkness, a frog shrills, and fireflies dazzle the night. Joe is in the outfield grass now, walking toward a door cut into the fence. ANNIE Where's he going? RAY (SMILING) Through that door in the fence. ANNIE Since when is there a door in the fence? CONTINUED 29 58 CONTINUED RAY (SMILING EVEN MORE BROADLY) I don't know. I didn't put one there. Joe reaches the door, opens it, and turns back to Ray, his voice carrying effortlessly through the night air. SHOELESS JOE Hey! Is this heaven? RAY No. It's Iowa. Shoeless Joe Jackson nods and fades away as he walks through the door in the fence. Ray and Annie looks at each other in absolute wonder. RAY We're keeping this field. ANNIE You bet your ass we are. CUT TO 59 INT. RAY AND ANNIE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY 9 MARK You're going to lose your farm, pal. It is Sunday afternoon, and Annie's family is visiting. her mother, pink-faced and white-dentured, sits ramrod straight in an antique rocking chair. Also present are her brother, Mark, and his wife Dee. RAY Come on, it's so big. How can you lose something so big? ANNIE You misplaced the house once. RAY Yeah, but it turned up two days later, didn't it? MARK Ray, this stupid baseball field is going to bankrupt you. Everybody knows it. All I'm saying is if you wait till you default on your loan, you lose everything. Sell now, my partners'll (MORE) CONTINUED 30 59 CONTINUED 59 MARK (CONT'D) give you a more than a fair price and you walk away with a nest egg. RAY Thanks, Mark, but no. MARK What are you holding on to this place for? You've never even liked Iowa. You don't like farming, you don't know the first thing about it --- RAY Hey; I know a lot more about farming than you think. MARK How could you plow under your major crop? RAY (TO ANNIE) What's a crop? Karin enters breathlessly. KARIN Daddy, the baseball game is on. Ray beams. Karin returns the smile and reaches her arms out to be picked up. She scissors her legs around her father at belt level, hugging his neck. RAY Excuse us. He exits, carrying Karin. Mark shakes his head. MARK I don't believe this guy. I'm trying to bail him out and he goes off to watch television. Annie stifles a laugh. MARK He used to be so normal. MOTHER Does he beat you? ANNIE What??? CONTINUED 31 59 CONTINUED (2) 59 MARK He's drinking, right? ANNIE He doesn't drink, and he doesn't beat me, okay? Now I'll grant you, he has gotten me to worship Satan with him, but just a little. Her mother gasps. ANNIE Kidding... I'm kidding! Her family has no sense of humor about this whatsoever. ANNIE I think we need more cheese. She goes into the kitchen, and when she has rounded the corner, she raises her eyes to heaven and mutters: ANNIE Families. 60 THE FIELD 6 0 Karin and Ray sit on the bleachers, eating peanuts while Shoeless Joe and his seven teammates practice. (Three, including Shoeless Joe, are in the outfield, two more in the infield, one pitches, one catches, and one bats.) The men are all in their twenties or thirties, but show the sheer enjoyment of returning after an absence of sixty-five years to the game they love. Ray directs Karin's attention to the left fielder. RAY Watch Joe. Watch his feet as the pitcher gets the sign and starts to pitch. A good left fielder knows what pitch is coming, and he can tell from the.angle of the bat where the ball's going to be hit. At the sharp crack of the bat Shoeless Joe whirls, takes five loping strides toward the fence, turns again', reaches up, and the ball smacks into his glove. Karin cheers. One of the players good-naturedly boos. HAPPY FELSCH Showoff! CONTINUED 32 60 CONTINUED 60 BUCK WEAVER Aw, stick it in your ear, Felsch. EDDIE CICOTTE Yeah, if you'd run like that against Detroit I'da won twenty games that year. HAPPY FELSCH Oh for Pete's sake, that was sixty-five years ago! Give it up, will ya... SWEDE RISBERG Hey., you guys wanna play ball, or what? HAPPY FELSCH .you muscle-bound jerk. EDDIE CICOTTE Oh yeah? At least I got muscles. HAPPY FELSCH No. At most you got muscles. BUCK WEAVER Come on, asshole, pitch! The good-natured banter stops short, and the other players glare at Weaver who looks sheepishly toward the little girl and her father in the bleachers. BUCK WEAVER Sorry, kid. KARIN It's okay! PLAYERS All right,'Karin! The players resume their practicing and ribbing. 61 EXT. HOUSE 61 Annie emerges with-her Mother, Mark and Dee, walking toward the bleachers where Karin and Ray are still watching the spirited practice. ANNIE Ray? Mom's leaving. RAY Oh. Well, it was...you know, thanks for coming. CONTINUED 33 61 CONTINUED 61 MARK Think about what I said. I just want to help. RAY I know. Mark just stands there for a moment, the only sounds coming from the players on the, field. MARK I thought you two were going to watch some game. RAY Oh, I guess it's not really a game. It's more like a practice. Mark looks at his wife and Mother with concern. Ray doesn't understand this reaction. RAY See, there's only eight of them, so they can't play a real game... MARK Eight of what? Ray points to the noisy players on the field. RAY Them. Now, Mother and Dee look as if they're about to go into mourning. Mark kneels next to Karin. MARK Karin honey... what are you watching? KARIN The baseball men. MARK Do you see any baseball men right now? KARIN (SLIGHTLY ANNOYED) Of course I do. Mark stands up and shoots Ray an accusing look. Annie's Mother starts to walk away. CONTINUED 34 61 CONTINUED (2) 61 MOTHER I don't think it's very polite to try to make other people feel stupid. Annie questions Mark and Dee as they pass her on the way to catch up with Mother. ANNIE You don't see it? DEE That's not funny, Annie. Her family leaves in a huff. ANNIE They couldn't see it. RAY Interesting. He and Annie sit beside Karin and watch the players. Each slowly starts to smile. CUT TO 62 ON THE FIELD - LATER 62 The practice is over, the players are perspired and exhilarated. Ray is over at first base talking with Swede Risberg, the shortstop. SWEDE RISBERG Here, look at this. Sixty-five years since I worn this uniform, still fits me like a glove. RAY You must keep in pretty good shape. SWEDE RISBERG (NODS) I died in '75. So I ain't had a cigarette in, what, thirteen years. You don't smoke, do you? RAY No. SHOELESS JOE (APPROACHING) Felt good out there today, huh, guys? CONTINUED 35 62 CONTINUED 62 BUCK WEAVER Fuckin' A! PLAYERS Weaver! Buck realizes that once again he has cursed in front of Karin. WEAVER Oh shit. I mean, sorry. I'm sorry. Annie calls from the house. ANNIE Ray! Dinner! SOME OF THE PLAYERS (FALSETTO) Ra--ay! Dinner! They all laugh. Ray clearly loves being part of this locker room-style comradery. Karin runs to the house. SHOELESS JOE Come on, fellas. Let's hit the showers. (TO RAY) See you later, Ray. RAY Right. See you guys. The players call their "good-byes" to Ray and head for the door in the outfield fence. Ray watches them fade out as they go through the door. Then he takes a moment to look around him. The baseball diamond set in the cornfield is quite beautiful. Ray takes a satisfied breath, and walks back toward his house. He is the very picture of contentment. Then he hears The Voice. THE VOICE 'Ease his pain.' Ray stops short. RAY What? No response. CONTINUED 36 62 CONTINUED (2) 62 RAY I'm sorry. I didn't understand. THE VOICE 'Ease his pain.' Ray stops short. RAY What? No response. RAY I'm sorry. I didn't understand. THE VOICE 'Ease his pain.' RAY Whose pain? What pain? No response. RAY Why me? But there is no response. 63 INT. HOUSE 63 Ray enters as Annie and Karin are putting dinner on the table. Ray plops- into his chair at the head of the table. ANNIE Come on, wash up. We've got a PTA meeting after dinner. They're talking about banning books again. Really subversive books like, Wizard of Oz, Diary of Anne Frank --- She notices Ray is strangely silent. ANNIE What happened to you? PAY The Voice is back. ANNIE Oh Lord, you don't have to build a football field now, do you? CONTINUED 37 63 CONTINUED" 63 RAY (shakes head no) He said...'Ease his pain.' ANNIE Ease whose pain? RAY I asked him. He wouldn't tell me. ANNIE Shoeless Joe's? RAY I don't think so. ANNIE One of the other players? RAY I don't think so. ANNIE This is a very non-specific voice you've got out there, Ray, and he's really starting to piss me off. Ray nods as Annie serves the meal in silence. CUT TO 64 EXT. IOWA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING - NIGHT 64 Parents stream in past the "PTA Meeting Tonite" sign. Ray and Annie stand by the doorway, talking with Miss Corser, Karin's teacher. (Ray is too distracted by his own thoughts to pay this much attention.) MISS CORSER Karin has such a wonderful imagination. Lately, she's been making up these charming little stories about ghosts who play baseball in a cornfield... wonderful imagination. ANNIE (WITH A MYSTERIOUS SMILE) Yes. She gets that from Ray. Miss Corser smiles approvingly. Ray realizes both women are looking at him, now, and he emerges from his thoughts. CONTINUED 38 64 CONTINUED 64 RAY Hmm? Annie leads Ray inside. 65 INT. SCHOOL LIBRARY - NIGHT 65 Ray and Annie -- along with a hundred or so other grownups -- are sitting in chairs too small for their grownup backsides. Ray is still lost in his own thoughts, doodling "Ease his pain" over and over again, while an Irate Mother has the floor, holding up a novel. IRATE MOTHER .and I say smut and filth like this has no place in our schools! A large portion of the audience applauds. Annie whispers snarlingly to Ray: ANNIE Fascist. I'd like to ease her pain. Ray is still lost in thought. PRINCIPAL Mrs. Perkins, the book you are waving about is hardly smut. It is considered by many critics as the classic novel about growing up in the 1960s. ANNIE (whispers to Ray) I read it four times. Funniest book I ever read. IRATE MOTHER It's pornography! PRINCIPAL The Supreme Court said its not. And its author, Mr. Mann --- ANGRY FATHER -- is sick! PRINCIPAL Terence Mann is a Pulitzer prize-winner, and was widely regarded as the finest satirist of his time. IRATE MOTHER Well I think he's a pervert, and quite probably a Communist, too! CONTINUED 39 65 CONTINUED 65 The crowd murmurs its assent. ANNIE (TO RAY) What planet are these people from? Ray looks as if he is starting to realize something. ANOTHER PARENT (READING FROM NOTES) The se-called novels of Terence Mann endorse promiscuity, godlessness, the mongrelization of races, and disrespect to high-ranking officers of the United States Army. And that's why right- thinking school boards all across the country have been banning this guy's shit since 1969. RAY (TO HIMSELF) Terence Mann... IRATE MOTHER You know why he stopped writing books? Because he masturbates! ANNIE (TO RAY) I can't take this anymore. RAY (VERY INTERESTED) ,Terence Mann... Annie stands and smiles disarmingly. ANNIE (VERY REASONABLY) Excuse me, madam, but you're speaking of something about which you don't know squat. Terence Mann was a warm and gentle voice of.reason during a time of great madness. He coined the phrase 'Make Love, Not War.' When others were chanting 'Burn, baby, burn,' he was writing about love, and peace, and understanding. He helped define an era. And a generation. And he helped us laugh at ourselves. I cherished every one of his books, and I dearly wish he'd write more. And if you had experienced even a little bit of the Sixties, you might feel the same way, too. CONTINUED 40 65 CONTINUED (2) IRATE MOTHER I experienced the sixties. ANNIE No. I think you had two Fifties, and moved right on to the Seventies. IRATE MOTHER Oh yeah? Well your husband plowed under his corn and built a baseball field! The crowd "oohs" and "aahs." ANNIE Now there's an intelligent response. IRATE MOTHER The weirdo. Ray is so excited at his revelation that he really wants to leave immediately. He tugs Annie's sleeve. RAY Annie... But Annie mistakes her husband's intentions. She thinks he is cautioning her not to get embroiled in trouble. ANNIE (TO RAY) It's okay, I'll be cool. (aloud, to the PARENT) At least he's not a book burner, you Nazi cow! Now the crowd erupts. IRATE PARENT You're both a bunch of weirdos! Annie pulls herself up to her full 5'4" and thrusts an angry finger at. the woman. ANNIE All right Beulah, you wanna step outside?!? Huh? The other woman takes a half-step backward. No one has ever seen sweet Annie like this. ANNIE I got a better idea. Let's put it to a vote. Come on! Who's for Eva Braun (MORE) CONTINUED 41 65 CONTINUED (3) ANNIE (CONT'D) here? Who wants to burn books? Who wants to piss on the Constitution of the United Sates? Anybody? The majority who had sided with the book-banner wants to vote for censorship, but under these terms just can't raise their arms. Little Annie is on a roll, now. ANNIE All right. Now: who's for The Bill of Rights? Come on...who thinks freedom's a pretty good thing? Let's see those hands. Some people start raising their hands. ANNIE Who thinks we have to stand up to the kind of censorship they have in Russia? Reluctantly, just about everyone raises their hands. Annie is thrilled. ANNIE There you go. All right, America! I'm proud of you. I mean it. You're beautiful! RAY (RISING) Annie, we gotta go. ANNIE (to the crowd) We gotta go. Ray pulls her from the room. Each is proud as hell, each for a different reason. 66 EXT. SCHOOL - NIGHT 66 as they burst out, bubbling over with their enthusiasm. ANNIE Oh Ray, was that great, or what? it was like the Sixties again. RAY I figured it out. ANNIE (RELIVING IT) 'Step outside, you Nazi cow.' Ha-ha! CONTINUED 42 66 - - CONTINUED 66 RAY I know whose pain I'm supposed to ease. ANNIE (STOPPING SHORT) What? RAY I know whose pain I'm supposed to ease. ANNIE Ray, I just halted the spread of neo-facism in America, and you're talking about --- RAY Terence Mann. ANNIE What about him? RAY That's whose pain. ANNIE How do you know that? RAY I don't know. I just know. I was right about building the field, wasn't I? ANNIE What's his pain? RAY I don't know. ANNIE Then how are you supposed to ease it? RAY I don't know. None of this questioning has dampened Ray's pride and excitement. Annie shakes her head. ANNIE Ray... RAY Annie. CONTINUED 43 66 CONTINUED (2) 66 ANNIE (tries to put THIS GENTLY) He's my favorite writer too, but...what's Terence Mann got to do with baseball? Ray's smile freezes. Then disappears. He hasn't a clue. CUT TO 67 INT. UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARY - DAY 67 A montage of Ray at the library: checking indices, reading old magazines, finding newspaper interviews on microfilm, s couring old anthologies, and taking copious notes. Some of the articles include: "Where is Terence Mann Now That We Really Need Him?". ."20 Rumors About America's Greatest Living Ex-Writer" ... and , "Terence Mann: Still Ignoring Us After All These Years ". The photographs show Mann to be a large black man with gentle eyes. RAY (V.O.) Annie, it's incredible. 68 EXT. LIBRARY 6 8 Ray and Annie run down the steps to the street for their car, Ray's words racing as fast as his feet. RAY By the early Seventies, the guy decides people have become either too extremist or too apathetic to listen to him. So he stops writing books. He starts writing poetry. About whales and stuff. Then, he starts fooling around with a home computer, and gets hooked. Know what he does now? Annie shakes her head no. RAY He writes software for interactive children's videos. They teach kids how to resolve conflicts peacefully. What an amazing guy.. ANNIE Right. So what's it got to do with baseball? CONTINUED 44 68 CONTINUED 68 RAY In the April 1962 issue of Jet Magazine, there's a story of his called 'This Is Not A Pipe.' Annie laughs at that. Ray is so excited, he laughs too. RAY It's not his best work, but the hero of the story, a character that Mann created twenty-six years ago, is named John Kinsella. My father. She stops short. ANNIE -Wow. He gives her a "See? What'd I tell you?" look. ANNIE What can I say... Big wow, but..what's it got to do with baseball? They are standing by their car. RAY You drive. 69 INT. CAR 69 Annie drives as Ray excitedly consults his notes. RAY Okay. The last interview-he ever gave was in 1973. Guess what it's about. ANNIE Mmm. Some kind of team sport? RAY Annie, he was a baseball fanatic! Listen to this: He finds a page and reads from it: RAY 'As a child, my earliest recurring dream was to play at Ebbets Field with Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Of course, it never happened, and the Dodgers left Brooklyn, and they torn down Ebbets Field. But even now, I still dream that dream.' CONTINUED 45 69 CONTINUED 69 ANNIE That's sad... 70 EXT. RAY AND ANNIE'S HOUSE - DAY 70 They have arrived home and are walking into the house. He is still spouting things to her his research has uncovered. RAY The man wrote the best books of his generation, he was a pioneer in the civil rights and anti-war movements, he made the cover of Newsweek, he knew everybody, he did everyting...he helped shape his time. He hung out with the Beatles! But in the end, it wasn't enough. What he missed ...was'baseball. Annie takes a look at Ray's handful of Xeroxes. ANNIE Oh my God! RAY What. ANNIE (SPOOKILY) As a small boy, he had a bat named 'Rosebud.' Ray disapprovingly grabs the Xeroxes back.from her. ANNIE Sorry. RAY (CONTINUES READING) He hasn't been to a live baseball game since 1958. ANNIE So to ease his pain, you have to take him to a ball game? RAY Yes. 71 INT. HOUSE 71 as they enter and put away their things. CONTINUED 46 71 CONTINUED 71 ANNIE Ray, this is nuttier than building the field. RAY No it's not. It's pretty weird, I grant you, but building the field was weirder. Five, ten percent weirder. ANNIE I'm sorry, pal, but I have to nip this one in the bud. We are having moderate to heavy financial difficulties here. You cannot take off for Boston while you're going broke in Iowa. RAY Annie, this is really new territory for both of us, I know, but we're dealing with primal forces of nature, here. When primal forces of nature tell you to do something, the prudent thing is not to quibble over details and --- ANNIE (starting to get PISSED) But why do you have to go? Why can't the voice send someone else? What's wrong with Shirley MacLaine, she too busy? What does this have to do with you??? Ray hears her anger and sits her down. RAY That's what I need to find out. ANNIE Ray, we're behind on the mortgage. That field ate up our savings. We could lose the farm. RAY I won't even stay in motels. I'll sleep in the car, and I'll beg for food. ANNIE No. This is too much.- I understand your need to prove to the world you're not turning into your father, but you've done it! You believed in the magic, and it came true. Isn't that enough? CONTINUED 47 71 CONTINUED (2) 71 RAY Annie, it's more than that. I know this- is nuts, but there's another reason I'm supposed to do it. I feel it. I feel it as strongly as I've ever felt anything in my life. There's a reason. ANNIE What. Just tell me what it is. RAY I think something's going to happen at the game. I don't know what, but...there's something at Fenway Park in Boston, and I have to be there with Terence Mann to find it. Something he just said changes Annie's mood. ANNIE Fenway Park... Is that the one with the big green wall in left field? RAY Yeah. ANNIE I dreamt last night you were at Fenway. RAY Uh, was I sitting on the first base side? ANNIE Yes... RAY About the fifth row? ANNIE (nods, OPEN-MOUTHED) You were keeping score and eating RAY -- a hot dog. I had the same dream. ANNIE I'll help you pack. CUT TO 48 72 INT. BEDROOM 72- Ray is throwing clothes into a suitcase as fast as he can. Annie reads from a road map she has marked for him. ANNIE .you take that to 93, and then it gets all squiggly, and after that you're on your own. How are you going to find him, anyway? He won't exactly be in the phone book, you know. RAY The article says he has a storefront on Harvard Street next to some place that sells Kosher food. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I don't need a tie, do I? ANNIE No, dear. Not for a kidnapping. 73 EXT. HOUSE 73 Ray has packed the car and is getting ready to leave. RAY You'll be okay, right? ANNIE I'll try to sell the combine. We sure don't need it anymore. Karin runs up, grabs Ray behind each ear and hugs and kisses him. RAY So long Tiger. He get into the car and looks up at Annie. RAY I'll call you every night. If the team shows up while I'm gone, just tell them... (shakes his head) On second thought, stay away from them. Those guys haven't been near a woman since 1922. ANNIE Ray, they're not going to make a pass at me. They're'ghosts. RAY They're jocks. Keep away from them. CONTINUED 49 7 3 CONTINUED 73 She laughs, kisses him, and watches him drive off. CUT TO 74 ON THE ROAD 74 Ray's brave little Datsun chugs along the interstate between eighteen-wheelers, busses, gasoline tankers, auto-transport trucks, and other monsters. 75 TRAVELING MONTAGE 75 Driving...gas stations...boring roadside restaurants... getting lost...looking at the map...signs that announce the "Entering" and "Leaving" of various states...days turning to nights and back again... .Finally, the green hills of Massachusetts. CUT TO 76 BOSTON - DAY 76 He emerges from a tunnel and enters traffic, the likes of which he has not seen in a very long time. On one side of the expressway there are sweaty factories, and on the other, old wood-frame apartment buildings with advertising for long-forgotten products painted on the sides. Lunatic drivers abound. We are not in Iowa anymore. 77 INT.-RAY'S CAR 77 He rehearses as he drives. RAY Hi, I'm Ray Kinsella. I'm really a big fan of... (DIFFERENT) How do you, Mr. Mann, I have to take you to a baseball game. (SHAKES HEAD) All right, put your hands up and get in the trunk! (FACETIOUSLY) Good. 78 HARVARD STREET - BROOKLINE - DAY 78 Ray drives slowly, looking for a store that sells Kosher food. But in this old newish neighborhood, there are dozens: butcher shops, delis, bakeries, groceries. 50 79- INT. KOSHER BUTCHER SHOP 79 Ray is asking the spritely Jewish Butcher for directions. RAY He lives right around here. Do you know him? I'm a friend of his. The Butcher just stares back, with suspicion. RAY He's sort of a tall, black man. BUTCHER If you was much of a friend, he'd of give you the directions himself. Ray nods. He knows this is useless. RAY That's a good point. Thank you. Ray exits. CUT TO 80 ON THE STREET 80 Ray has stopped an Ancient Jewish Woman on the street. She looks from Ray's Iowa license plate to Ray's face. ANCIENT WOMAN I don't know where he lives. But by her raised eyebrows and the tone of her voice, it is clear that if she did know -- which she probably does -- she certainly wouldn't tell him. CUT TO 81 GAS STATION 81 Ray has pulled his car to the edge of the gas station -- he is not buying gas -- and slips a five dollar bill to the ruddy-faced, teenaged Irish Pump Jockey. PUMP JOCKEY Two blocks down. Right hand side. First store that don't have a chicken in the window, is his. CUT TO 51 82 EXT. HARVARD STREET - DAY 82 In between a deli and a Kosher butcher shop, Ray finds a storefront with blacked-out windows. He enters an open hallway in which he sees the door to the storefront, as well as stairs to the apartments above it. There are half-a-dozen mail boxes on the wall. Ray checks the names. He smiles. 83 INSERT- MAILBOXES 83 All but one have immigrant names. The first one reads: #1: TIE-DYED SOFTWARE. 84 RAY 84 Ray turns to the storefront door. Instead of a buzzer there is a long wire with a weight on its end hanging from a hole at the top of the door. Next to the wire is a handwritten note taped to the door, which reads: "You better have a goddamn good reason for ringing this bell." Ray laughs. This guy is great. He pulls on the wire. On the other side of the door, a bell rings. Ray has to struggle to control his nervousness. He takes a breath. He hears footsteps inside, approaching the door. He cannot help but smile with delight at the thought of meeting one of his cultural heroes. The door opens. Terence Mann is menacingly huge. He glares at Ray and roars: MANN Who the fuck are you???- Ray is momentarily taken aback, but he figures maybe the guy is joking, so he just smiles and plunges ahead. RAY Sir, my name is Ray Kinsella, and it's a great pleasure 'Co finally --- The door slams in his face. It takes Ray a few seconds to realize the interview is over. He rings the bell again. The door opens. Mann∞s large frame fills it. MANN We got a learning disability here? CONTINUED 52 84 CONTINUED 84 RAY (TALKS FAST) Mr. Mann, I've come 1500 miles to see you at the risk of losing my home and alienating my wife. If I could just have a minute. Please. MANN Look. I can't tell you the secret of life, and I don't have any answers for you. I don't give interviews, I am no longer a public figure, I just want to be left alone. So fuck off. RAY Just one minute. I'm begging you. Mann looks him over. Then he sighs. MANN One minute. Mann turns and enters the storefront. Ray follows. 85 INT. MANN'S STOREFRONT It is hardly fashionable, but it's roomy and comfortable. There are tables stacked high with mailing envelopes and a postage scale. A few workbenches have software and spread sheets strewn across them. In the back are a couple of personal computers. On a side wall there are book jackets and newspaper photos in cheap frames: pictures of Mann with Martin Luther King...with Bob Dylan...with Timothy Leary...rann being arrested at some demonstration.. .Mann at Woodstock... Mann's gruff voice pulls Ray's attention away from these relics. MANN Your minute ain't getting bigger. RAY Okay. I understand your desire for privacy, and i wouldn't dream of intruding if this weren't extremely important. MANN Oh God. I don't do causes anymore. CONTINUED 53 85 -CONTINUED 85 RAY This isn't a cause. I don't need money, or an endorsement. MANN Refreshing. RAY You once wrote: 'There comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place, and the universe opens itself up for a few seconds, to show you what is possible.' MANN Oh my God. RAY What. MANN You're from the Sixties! RAY Well, actually --- MANN Out! Out! RAY Just wait a second --- Mann picks up an old-fashioned bug sprayer -- the kind with a long arm that pumps in and out -- and starts spraying it at Ray as if he were an unwanted insect. MANN Back to the Sixties! Back! He is backing Ray out the door. RAY If you'd just --- MANN There's no place for you here in the future! Get back while you still can! He gets Ray just past the door and slams it shut. Ray slams it open. He's pissed. RAY You've changed, you know that? CONTINUED 54 85 CONTINUED (2) 85 Mann stops fuming and considers that. He sighs, sadly. MANN Yes. I suppose I have. How's this? (smiles and makes the peace sign) 'Peace, love, dope.' (ROARS) Now get the fuck out of here!!! And he slams the door shut again. Ray is flabbergasted. He is thinking furiously. Then he notices that in slamming the door, the latch has not locked in place. He thinks, makes up his mind, and quietly opens the door. Mann has returned to work, his back to the door. Ray enters the loft, his left hand in his jacket pocket. When he is halfway across the loft, he clears his throat. Mann spins around. MANN Now you've pissed me off. RAY Okay, hold it right there. He juts his pocketed hand forward, as if he had a gun in his jacket. RAY I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it this way... MANN What the fuck is that? RAY It's a gun. What'd you think it is? MANN It's your finger. RAY No it's not. It's a gun. MANN Yeah? Let me see it. RAY Get out of here, I'm not going to show you my gun. Mann sighs, and stands. CONTINUED 55 85 CONTINUED (3) 85 RAY Now look. I'm not going to hurt you, I just need you to go with me for a little while, then -- what are you doing? Mann has found a crowbar among his tools, and is advancing toward Ray. MANN I'm going to beat you with a crowbar till you go away. Understandably, this makes Ray nervous. RAY Whoa! Wait! You can't do that. MANN (STILL ADVANCING) What, are there rules? There's no rules. Mann is almost to him, now, the crowbar raised above his head. RAY You're a pacifist! Mann stops. He thinks. He lowers the crowbar. MANN Shit. Ray breathes a sigh of relief. RAY Thank you. MANN All right, are you kidnapping me? What's the deal here? RAY I'm sorry. I was hoping I could-just convince you to come with me. MANN Then you are kidnapping me. RAY I have to take you to a baseball game. MANN You what? CONTINUED 56 - 85 CONTINUED (4) 85 RAY Tonight's game. Red.Sox, Twins. MANN Why? RAY Something will happen there. I don't know what, but we'll find out when it does. Mann now has no idea what to make of all this, so he just looks Ray over for a few seconds. RAY My name is Ray Kinsella. You used my father's name for a character in one of your stories. John Kinsella. MANN You're seeing a team of psychiatrists, aren't you? RAY (LAUGHS) I don't blame you for thinking that, but no, I'm not. I swear to God I'm the least crazy person I've ever known. MANN Then why are you kidnapping me to a baseball game? RAY I read an interview you gave a long time ago about how you always dreamed of playing at Ebbets Field, and how sad you felt when they tore it down. MANN (shakes head no) I never said that. RAY You didn't? MANN I don't even remember thinking it. Now Ray is ndt sure what to do. RAY This whole. thing is so weird. CONTINUED 57 85 CONTINUED (5) 85 MANN Then why go through with it? RAY It's a long story...and I'll tell you on the way. Please. MANN I'm not going to get rid of you, am I? RAY If you just come to this game with me, I'll never bother you again. Not even a Christmas card. Mann picks up a hat, .plops it on his head and heads out the door. CUT TO 86 CITY STREETS 86 Mann sits tensely beside Ray, who drives with his right hand, while his left hand remains in his pocket, substituting for a gun. MANN You do this often? RAY No. It's my first time. So be gentle. Ray laughs nervously, and is embarrassed to see Mann not sharing the humor. RAY You used to have a sense of humor. MANN Things used to be funny. Ray pulls up at an intersection. He has to choose between left and right. Behind him, cars are honking. Ray doesn't have a clue which way to go. He sighs. RAY I'm sorry. This is really humiliating. Which way is-Eenway? Mann shakes his head, then tilts it to the left. RAY Thank you. CONTINUED 58 86 CONTINUED 86 Ray makes the turn, and heads off down the street. MANN You're really inept at this, aren't you? Ray grins sheepishly and nods. Mann laughs. MANN I mean you're like a total bumbler. Ray chuckles his reluctant acceptance of the truth. MANN 'Bozo the Kidnapper. RAY (no longer so AMUSED) Okay, okay... After a few moments, Ray decidesto break the ice. RAY Can I ask you a question? Something I've always wanted to know. Mann nods. He's been asked this question a million times. MANN No, I never slept with her. RAY You never slept with who? MANN Whoever you were going to ask me about. If I'd been with one-tenth the famous women they said I was with, I'd be in formaldehyde by now. RAY (INTERESTED) You slept with a lot of famous women? MANN (SOURLY) What's your question? RAY How'd you get a name like Terence? Mann cannot believe that's the question. MANN Rastus was taken. CONTINUED 59 86 CONTINUED (2) 86 Ray knows now to shut up. He returns his attention to his driving, glances up to his rearview mirror, and sees something that causes his eyes to widen in horror. 87 REAR-VIEW MIRROR 87 A Boston police car on his tail, red lights flashing. RAY (O.S.) Oh no. 88 INT. RAY'S CAR 88 Mann looks behind him, sees the police car, and turns back to Ray. Ray wears a look of resignation as he pulls the car over to the side of the road, and shuts off the ignition. Mann just looks at him, and starts to chuckle. MANN Nice going, Boze. RAY Okay. I don't really have a gun. So don't say anything to this guy, okay? I swear to God there's a reason we're supposed to be at this game. Mann gives him a "Give me a break" look. Ray sees the Policeman is getting out of his cruiser and walking towards them. Ray is desperate. RAY If I get arrested, the press'll be all over you, you'll have to appear in open court, you'll be the lead story on Entertainment Tonight, and your picture'll be on the front page of every tabloid in America. The Policeman knocks on Ray's window. He is young, fresh-scrubbed and earnest. Ray holds up one hand to him. RAY Just a second. (-CO MANN) 'Terence-Mann Kidnapped... Also seen in UFO with Elvis.' Mann's eyes narrow. The cop knocks again, more insistently. Ray rolls down-the window." CONTINUED' 60 88 CONTINUED 88 RAY Sorry. POLICEMAN License and registration. Nervously, Ray complies. Mann turns his face toward the passenger side window. Ray's mouth dries up. He has no idea what Mann will do. The Policeman scrutinizes the license, turns it over to look for convictions, and checks Ray's face against the felonlike photo. Then he looks at Mann. POLICEMAN And what's your name,-sir? Mann keeps his face averted. MANN Terry. POLICEMAN Where is it that you and Raymond are going, Terry? RAY Fenway Park! We're going to the ball game. MANN (turns to cop) Actually, Officer, I'm being kidnapped. Discreetly, under his breath, Ray sings the "Entertainment Tonight" theme song. RAY 'Entertainment Tonight, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo... Mann winces. The officer looks at him questioningly. MANN, What I mean by that is, I don't care much for baseball, but Raymond insisted. POLICEMAN Yeah, I hate baseball. (hands Ray back HIS ID) Your right taillight is out, Raymond. I want you to get it fixed at the first opportunity. CONTINUED 61 88 CONTINUED (2) 88 RAY Yes. I will. Thank you. The Policeman walks away, and Ray heaves a sigh of relief. RAY 'Terry?' MANN 'Raymond?' RAY Ray. My...hostages call me Ray. Can I call you Terry? Sourly, Mann nods. Ray smiles and drives off. RAY And thank you. MANN I didn't do it just because I don't want the publicity. RAY Then what else? MANN I envy you your craziness, Ray. It's been years since I did something completely crazy. RAY Well, you want to hear something really crazy? MANN Do I have a choice? RAY Nope. I live on a farm in Iowa. One day, out in the cornfield, I heard a voice... 89 EXT. CAR 89 It glides through city traffic. 90 EXT. FENWAY PARK - DAY 90 Ray slides the Datsun into a parking place, and he and Mann walk the short sleazy block to Fenway, and old-fashioned center-city ballpark. CONTINUED 62 90 CONTINUED 90 MANN (SHAKING HIS HEAD) But can't you accept the probability that it's all just a hallucination? RAY Annie and Karin see it, too. They have reached the ticket window. RAY Two, field level, first base side. The elderly Ticket Seller pulls out two tickets. TICKET SELLER Section seventeen. Twelve dollars. Ray takes out his wallet and turns to Mann.. RAY It's on me. MANN You're damn right it is. Ray pays the man and receives the tickets. TICKET SELLER Game don't start for a while, but you can go in, watch batting practice. RAY Great. They enter the stadium. 91 INT. STADIUM 91 They walk through the indoor portion of the grandstand toward their section. RAY So what do you do with yourself these days? MANN I live. I work. I've learned to cook. I take walks. I watch sunsets. RAY Don't you miss being... involved? CONTINUED 63 91 CONTINUED 91 MANN (SNORTS) I was the East Coast distributor of 'involved.'. I ate it, drank it, and breathed it. Then they killed Martin. They killed Bobby. And then they elected Tricky Dick. Twice. And now, people like you think I must be miserable that I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you: I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for any of you. I gave at the office. They approach the refreshment stand. RAY So...what do you want? . MANN I want them to stop looking to me for answers. Begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. And I want my privacy! Ray looks slightly embarrassed. RAY No, I meant what do you want from... Ray points to the hot dog vendor, as they have reached the front of the line. MANN Oh. (LAUGHS AT HIMSELF) A dog and a beer. RAY (to the vendor) Two. (TO MANN) Okay, I agree, you should be entitled to as much privacy as you wane. But why stop writing? MANN I haven't published a word in seventeen years and I still have to endure assholes like you all the time. What do you think it'd be like if I suddenly came out with a new book? CONTINUED 64 91 CONTINUED (2) 91 Ray nods. Mann is making sense. MANN They'd bleed me dry. 92 SECTION SEVENTEEN 92 Ray and Mann emerge into the sunlight and walk down the aisle toward the field. RAY God, this place is so beautiful. The grass is so green you can almost smell it. Looking around the old ballpark, they see only about twenty or thirty die-hard fans in the stands for batting practice; a half-dozen players are grouped around the batting cage as one player hits to several others in the field. A few sportswriters and other civilians stand near the dugouts. Ray and Mann stop at the first row, right behind the Red Sox on-deck circle, lean on the railing and talk. RAY It could be 1912 out there, for all this place has changed. Babe Ruth stood on that very mound as a pitcher long before anyone knew he could hit home runs. Same mound. MANN Why are we here, Ray? RAY Something.. about the game. CUT TO 93 THE GAME - NIGHT 93 The game is in progress. Ray and Mann are in their fifth row seats. They do not speak. At one point, Ray becomes suddenly and strangely aware that something is about to happen. He looks at Mann who is just watching the game. Then he looks at the scoreboard. 94 THE SCOREBOARD 94 Fenway Park has a sophisticated scoreboard that flashes pictures of the batter and pitcher, and can show instant replays of some of the action. CONTINUED 65 94 CONTINUED 94 Right now, the display is replaced by an oddly glowing message. The sounds of the stadium, the game, and the crowd fade out. There is only the message: ARCHIBALD "MOONLIGHT" GRAHAM Chisholm, Minn. New York Giants LIFETIME STATISTICS: 1 Game, 0 At Bats The message does not just glow, it pulsates. It looks almost otherworldly, phosphorescent; clearly unlike anything ever seen before on a ballpark scoreboard. 95 RAY AND MANN 95 Ray looks around him. The sounds of the game return, and from the unconcerned faces of the people near him, he realizes that no one else can see the message. He opens his program and starts writing it down. Mann notices this, but cannot see what Ray is writing. Then Ray hears The Voice. THE VOICE 'Go the distance.' RAY Oh my God. MANN What's the matter? RAY Nothing. MANN You okay? Ray sighs. RAY Yeah. ;THEN) Whenever you wanttogo,wecan go. CONTINUED 66 95 CONTINUED 95 MANN What??? RAY If you want to go, we can go. Mann looks at Ray curiously, trying to read this new attitude. MANN Then let's go. Mann rises and heads up the aisle. Ray looks down at the program -- at the handwritten legend of Moonlight Graham, who played one game fifty-seven years ago, but did not get to bat -- and follows Mann out of the ballpark. CUT TO 96 THE RIDE BACK TO BOSTON 96 It is nighttime, and Mann drives. Ray slumps, dozing, troubled. Mann looks curiously at Ray, but says nothing. They ride in silence. CUT TO 97 MANN'S STREET - NIGHT 97 The street is blue with moonlight as they park in front of the storefront. MANN Where are you goingfrom here? RAY Home. MANN What is it you're not telling me? RAY (shakes head no) I've taken up too much of your time. Mann gets out of the car. MANN I wish I had your passion, Ray. However misdirected it may be, it's still a passion. I used to feel that way about things, but... CONTINUED 67 97 CONTINUED 97 Ray slides into the driver's seat. MANN You got another message, didn't you? RAY You'll think I'm crazy. MANN I already think you're crazy. What did it say? After a little thought, Ray smiles sadly. RAY It said 'The man's done enough. Leave him alone.' Ray puts the car in gear, makes a wide turn, and starts to head back up the street. But he stops short when Mann's form looks out of the darkness into the glare of the headlights.. Ray does not know why Mann is blocking his path. Or why he appears tense, almost frightened. MANN 'Moonlight' Graham. Ray's jaw drops. RAY You saw it. MANN Saw what? RAY New York Giants, 1922. He played one game, never got to bat. Mann looks spectrial in the high-contrast glare on the headlights. MANN. What did I see, Ray? RAY Chisholm, Minnesota. We were the only ones who saw it. Did you hear the voice, too? Mann glances at Ray, then looks away. CONTINUED 68 97 CONTINUED (2) 97 RAY It's all right to admit it. That's what told me to find you. No response. RAY Did you hear it too? MANN 'Go the distance.' RAY Do you know what it means? MANN Yes. RAY What. MANN It means...we're going to Minnesota to find Moonlight Graham. RAY (THRILLED) We? MANN Yeah. RAY What do we do when we find him? MANN We'll know that when we find him. Ray opens the passenger door of the Datsun and Mann jumps in. Ray releases the brake and peels out, burning rubber. The two men look happy as kids with bats over shoulders, gloves dangling, on their way to a sandlot. CUT TO 98 ON THE ROAD 98 Once on 1-90, they begin the long haul across the Great Lakes states. Ray drives, Mann dozes in the reclined passenger seat. RAY (V.O.) Annie, I'm really sorry, but I'm going to be a few days longer. CONTINUED 69 98 CONTINUED 98 ANNIE (V.0.) (PHONE; FILTERED) Oh, Ray...Is everything all right? RAY (V.0.) Everything's great, and'I'll tell you all about it when I get back, but I'm going to Minnesota now. 99 MORE ON THE ROAD 99 Now Mann drives, and Ray tries to sleep, his stockinged feet propped up on the dash, occasionally sliding with a thud against the steering column. ANNIE (V.O.) (PHONE; FILTERED) I don't believe this. What's in Minnesota? RAY (V. 0.) An old ballplayer. I'll explain when I get home. How are things with you? 100 GAS STATION 100 Ray is using the pay phone on the wall of the office, while the car is being gassed. ANNIE (V.0.) (PHONE; FILTERED) Uh, fine. RAY Hey, guess what? Terence Mann is with me. We're going to Minnesota together. ANNIE (V.0.) (PHONE; FILTERED) Are you kidding me? Oh, Ray, that's unbelievable! RAY I know. I gotta go. Hug Karin for me. I love you. ANNIE (V.O.) (PHONE; FILTERED) I love you too. You guys behave yourselves. Hurry home. CONTINUED 70 100 CONTINUED 100 Ray smiles and hangs up. CUT TO 101 ANNIE'S KITCHEN 101 She hangs up, and loses her smile as she turns back to the kitchen table, where her brother Mark sits with two men in business suits. MARK Why didn't you tell him? ANNIE For the same reason I've never pissed on your birthday cake. MARK Annie, you don't have a choice in the matter. Annie looks vertroubldye. CUT TO 102 ON THE ROAD - MINNESOTA -02 1 They are north of Duluth,andthelandscape hasgrown harsher, the trees shorterandmore gnarled, thegrass tougher and wirier. After Virginia, Minnesota, all the land is scarred. Above the town the mines sit like sand-colored bunkers in the cliffs,- stern and silent. Near Chisholm, the land is getting ever weirder. It looks like a pasture rooted and rerooted by giant hogs. It has been split and gutted; greenery has grown back, but at weird and unnatural angles. But as they swing into town; the highway divides and they cross a beautiful and tranquil lake, so smooth and shiny it might be a scene painted on a glass plate. A sign reads WELCOME TO CHISHOLM. 103 CHISHOLM, MINNESOTA 103 Ray and Mann have parked on the main street next to a corner phone booth. Ray is flipping through the thin phone book attached to the booth by a chain. CONTINUED 71 103 CONTINUED 103 RAY Half a dozen Grahams...no Archibald, no Moonlight. MANN Follow me. CUT TO 104 EXT. CHISHOLM FREE PRESS 104 The local newspaper is located in a small storefront that was probably once a confectioners or a dry-goods store. 105 INT. CHISHOLM FREE PRESS 105 Ray and Mann are talking with the paper's publisher, Veda Ponikvar, a handsome woman in her sixties, with a sweet, innocent smile, and eyeglasses hanging from a fine chain around her neck. MANN We're trying to find an ex-baseball player named Archibald Graham. VEDA You mean 'Doc' Graham. RAY No, I think his nickname was 'Moonlight.' VEDA Yes, that's Doctor Graham. MANN Doctor Graham. This is interesting news to Ray and Mann. VEDA His baseball career never amounted to much, so he went back to school. His father was a doctor. MANN Do you know where we can find him? RAY It's nothing bad. We're not from the IRS, or anything --- CONTINUED 72 105 CONTINUED 105 VEDA Doc Graham is dead. He died in 1972. Ray and Mann look at each other, unsure of what this means to their quest. CUT TO 106 NEWSPAPER BACK ROOM 106 Ray and Mann sit at a table in the newspaper's back room, the "morgue" file on Doc Graham -- a collection of clippings, pictures, and the obituary -- strewn before them. Right now, their attention is on Veda, who has put her glasses on, and is reading from an editorial. VEDA .'And there were times when children could not afford eyeglasses or milk, or clothing. Yet no child was ever denied these essentials, because in the background, there was always Doctor Graham. Without any fanfare or publicity, the glasses or the milk or the ticket to the ball game found their way into the child's pocket.' MANN You wrote that. VEDA The day he died. MANN You're a good writer. The compliment is just right, and she smiles warmly. VEDA Excuse me. She exits. Mann spreads out the clippings and shakes his head. MANN Something's missing. Ray is looking at a photo of Doc Graham as a man in his late sixties. CONTINUED MANN Half the towns in North America has a Doc Graham. What makes this one so special we have to come halfway across the country to find him fifteen years after he died? There's got to be more. Veda enters with a piece of paper from a yellow legal pad. VEDA You might want to talk to some of these people. They knew Doc pretty well. Mann takes the list and looks it over. CUT TO 107 INTERVIEW 07 Two old Codgers on a park bench. FIRST CODGER Oh, that man had an arm on him. One day over at the ballpark, he said 'Lemme see that ball', and one of the boys threw him the ball, and he walked over behind home plate, reared back, and fired that ball over the left field fence. SECOND CODGER And he was at least fifty years old when he did it. FIRST CODGER It was still rising when it disappeared. 108 INTERVIEW A woman, an older Nurse. NURSE i went with him to make a housecall at one of the camps. .mining camps. The husband was sick, and they had no stove, so they had no heat. (MORE) CONTINUED 74 108 CONTINUED NURSE (CONT'D) When we got back to Chisholm, Doc went to the hardware store and bought a stove for them and paid to have it delivered. And I know that wasn't the only time he did something like that. 109 COUNTRY KITCHEN RESTAURANT - DAY 109 Several tables have been pushed together, and Mann sits surrounded by townspeople, mostly men past retirement age. BALDING MAN He didn't smoke or drink, .but he used to chew up paper and spit it out wherever he went. If you were around Doc very long, you learned to duck. MOUSTACHED MAN He'd even chew up his prescription slips, so sometimes we'd have to dig into our pockets for a piece of paper so Doc could write us prescriptions. WHITE-HAIRED MAN He always wore a black overcoat, even in the summer, and it was always flapping open, even in the winter and it was fifty below. And he had white hair, like me, and he always carried an umbrella. SMOKER 'Cept he was always, I mean always, losing them. Stores 'round town would just lean his umbrella somewhere near the door, and if anybody asked, they'd just say 'Oh, that's Doc's umbrella'. MANN What was the umbrella for? WHITE-HAIRED MAN Oh, I think it got to be a habit, something to hang onto. But if you'd ask him, he'd say it was to beat away all his lady admirers. This, as much as the other remembrances, brings warm chuckles to the old men. MANN Tell me about his wife. CONTINUED 75 109 CONTINUED BALDING MAN Alicia. She moved to South Carolina after he passed. She passed a few years later. She always wore blue. I bet you didn't know that. MANN (SMILES) No. I didn't. 110 MOTEL OFFICE - NIGHT 110 The woman Manager of the motel is having a'cup of coffee with Ray. MOTEL MANAGER You know, everybody's talking about you two. Our neighbors came over last night and we just told Doc'Graham stories until after midnight. I even wrote some of them down. She takes out a piece of paper. RAY That's very nice of you. MOTEL MANAGER Well, it's funny. It's like all these memories we have of Doc had gone to sleep and sunk way down inside us. But once you started asking about him, and started us talking about him, why they swum back up to the surface again. Ray smiles. CUT TO 111 MOTEL ROOM 111 Ray and Mann are sitting in their beds, comparing their notes. MANN No screwing, no drinking, no opium, no illegitimate children. No-midnight abortions, no shady finances. Ray puts down his notes and picks up the Chicago Tribune. RAY You sound disappointed. CONTINUED 76 111 CONTINUED 111 MANN Shoeless Joe had a problem. That's why he needed you. This guy doesn't need us. Suddenly, Ray straightens with a start. RAY Oh, My God. Ray hurries over to Mann, offering the opened newspaper, and points out an article to Mann. It is headlined: TERENCE MANN MISSING. MANN Damn. (READS) 'His son, who lives in New York City, notified police after receiving no answer to repeated telephone calls...' Shit. I'd better call him. He pulls the phone onto the bed and dials MANN What the hell do I tell him. RAY You want me to...? He motions outside with his head. MANN Thanks. Ray exits. CUT TO 112 EXT. CHISHOLM RESIDENTIAL STREET - NIGHT 112 Ray walks by the old movie theatre, which sits at the edge of a residential street. The Godfather is playing. He nods at an elderly man who passes him on the street. He passes a darkened house and notices there is a sign of some kind in its unlit front window. He takes another two or three steps before he has, to stop to take a better look at the sign. 77 113 THE SIGN 113 It takes a second to make out the image in the dark, but it is a head shot of Richard Nixon. Above, it says "Four More Years". Below, it reads "Re-Elect The President". 114 RAY 1.14 is puzzled. He turns and looks at the theatre marquee. 115 THE THEATRE MARQUEE 115 Under the letters that spell out "The Godfather", are smaller letters that read "Nominated for 10 Academy Awards". 116 RAY 116 frowns. He says the word to himself. RAY Nominated? Ray now looks at the car parked nearest to him. 117 THE CAR : . 17 It is an old Mustang. The annual tag on the license plate reads: 1972. 118 ?? RAY 118 LOOKS-AROUND 119 HIS POINT OF VIEW 119 All the cars on the street are pre-1972. And still walking down the block away from him, is the elderly man Ray passed moments earlier. The man is about sixty-five years old, stooped a little, but the body is still lithe, an athlete's body. He is wearing a dark overcoat... 120 CLOSER POINT OF VIEW 120 .and he carries an umbrella. 78 121 RAY 121 The little hairs on the back of Ray's neck stand up. His mouth is dry, and for a moment, he cannot speak. Then, he calls to the man. RAY Doctor Graham? Slowly, the man stops and turns back to face Ray. Ray starts to trot to him. ELDERLY MAN Who's that? RAY My name is Ray Kinsella. I'm from Iowa. Are you Moonlight Graham? The old man narrows his bright eyes to see Ray more clearly. DOC GRAHAM No one's called me 'Moonlight' Graham for fifty years. RAY Well, I've come... (SMILES TO HIMSELF) . a very long way to see you. DOC GRAHAM Funny. I couldn't sleep tonight. Usually, I sleep like a baby. So I told Alicia I was going to take a walk. RAY Mind if i join you? I'd like to talk to you. Doc nods and they start to walk. DOC GRAHAM Let's go to the high school. We can sit in my office. What do. you want to talk about? RAY Well, first of all, how'd you get to be called 'Moonlight'? DOC GRAHAM 'Cause of a night like this, long ago. I'd just gotten to the minors, and I went out to the ballpark. (MORE) CONTINUED 79 121 CONTINUED DOC GRAHAM (Cont'd} There's nothing as peaceful as a ballpark at night. Like a church. RAY Yeah, I know what you mean. DOC GRAHAM Anyway, I fell asleep. Next morning, they found me in the on-deck circle, all curled up like a baby. Someone called me 'Moonlight,' and it stuck. 122 EXT. HIGH SCHOOL 122 Doc fumbles out a key, and lets them in. RAY When you got to the majors, you played only one inning of one game. What happened in that inning? 123 INT. HIGH SCHOOL 123 They enter the hallway of the old school, the smell of varnish and chalk almost palpable. DOC GRAHAM It was the last day of the season. Bottom of the eighth, and we were way ahead. I'd been up with the club for most of a month, but hadn't seen any action. Just then old John McGraw points a bony finger at me and says 'Right field.' Well sir, I jumped up like I was sitting on a spring, grabbed my glove, and ran out onto the field. They reach a varnished door with an opaque glass inset, and enter. Doc Graham's office. 124 INT.,DOC GRAHAM'S OFFICE 124 Doc seats himself behind a cluttered desk, and motions Ray to the black-leather sofa a few feet away. RAY Did you get to make a play? Doc takes a sheet of paper off his desk, expertly rips an inch or so off the corner with his teeth, and begins chewing. CONTINUED 80 124 CONTINUED 124 DOC GRAHAM Nope. They never hit the ball out of the infield. Ray chuckles, but then flinches as Doc shoots his little spitball towards him. DOC GRAHAM Heads up. It hits the back of the sofa a few feet from Ray, and hangs there, like a white fly. RAY I was warned about you. DOC GRAHAM Anyway, one inning later the game was over, and so was I. RAY And what was that like? DOC GRAHAM It was like coming this close to your dreams, and then watching them brush past you like a stranger in a crowd. Ray nods, and a look of understanding begins to appear on his face. He looks out the window, focused on faraway. DOC GRAHAM Except, at the time, you don't think much of it. Hardly anybody recognizes the most significant moment of their life when they're happening. Back then I just figured there'd be plenty more days. I didn't know that would be the only one. Doc Graham notices that Ray is looking very serious. DOC GRAHAM Now, let me ask you a question, Ray Kinsella. What makes that half-inning so interesting that you come all the way from Iowa to ask me about it sixty-five years later? Ray chooses his words carefully. CONTINUED 81 124 CONTINUED (2) 124 RAY I didn't really know till just now. But I think it's to ask you if you could do anything you wanted to...if you could have a wish... DOC GRAHAM Ahh... Doc nods. his understanding. He smiles wryly, takes a new piece of paper, and bites off a little section. DOC GRAHAM And are you the kind of man who could grant me that wish? RAY I don't know. I'm just asking... Doc leans his left elbow on the desk and rubs his forehead thoughtfully with a palm, as if it were an eraser that could erase the years and take him back to 1929 and the Polo Grounds in New York. DOC GRAHAM I never got to bat in the major leagues. I'd have liked the chance -- just once -- to stare down a big league pitcher. Stare him down and then just as he goes into the windup -- wink! Make him wonder if I know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. The chance to squint my eyes when the sky is so blue it hurts to look at it, and to feel the 'tingle that runs up your arms when you connect dead-on. The chance to run the bases, stretch a double to a triple, and flop race-first into third, wrapping my arm around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella... that's my wish. Ray begins to smile. Graham is staring intently at him. DOC GRAHAM Is there enough magic floating around in the night out there for you to make that wish come true? RAY What would you do if I said 'Yes'? DOC GRAHAM I think I might actually believe you. CONTINUED 82 124 CONTINUED (3) RAY There is a place where things like that happen. And if you want to go there, I can take you. Doc's eyes start to glisten, and he offers an embarrassed smile as he wipes away a tear. DOC GRAHAM If it means leaving Chisholm... He shakes his head.no. Ray is surprised. RAY I understand, but I think you're supposed to come with us. DOC GRAHAM This is my most special place in the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it like it was your child. I can't leave here. Ray cannot believe the man won't leave Chisholm for his dream. RAY But your wish... DOC GRAHAM It'll stay one. I was born here, lived here, and I'll die here. That's okay. I'll have no regrets. RAY But sixty-five years ago -- for five minutes -- you came this close. (holds up two FINGERS) It would kill some men to get that close to their dream and never touch it. They'd consider it a tragedy. DOC GRAHAM Son...if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes. .now that would have been a tragedy. Those words fill up the room, and Ray sinks back against the couch. CONTINUED 83 124 CONTINUED (4) 124 DOC GRAHAM Well, I'd better get home before Alicia starts to thinking I've got a girlfriend. And Doc Graham smiles at him. RAY (V.0.) And he smiled. CUT TO 125 INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT 125 It is later that same night, and Ray has been recounting his experience with Doc Graham to Mann, who appears quietly troubled. RAY And then I figured maybe we're not supposed to take him with us. So now I don't know why the hell we were supposed to come here. MANN Maybe it was to find out if one inning can change the world. RAY Did it? MANN It did for these people. If he'd gotten a hit, he might've stayed there. (THEN) Your wife called before. She wants you to call her tonight. CUT TO 126 INT.RAY AND ANNIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 126 Annie is asleep. The phone rings, and the speed with which she picks it up suggests that her anxiety to get this phone call prevented her from sleeping very deeply. CONTINUED 84 126 CONTINUED 126 ANNIE Ray. (PAUSE) I asked the bank if we could miss a payment or two, and they told me they'd just sold the note on the farm to Mark and his partners. So they own the paper now, and he says if we don't sell to them, they'll foreclose. Ray, we don't have the money. 127 INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT 127 Ray holds the phone, pained. RAY Okay, look. They can't foreclose for thirty days, or something like that. I've got to take Terry back to Boston first, so it'll be --- MANN No. Ray looks over at Mann. MANN I'm going to Iowa with you. RAY We're coming home.- CUT TO 128 ON THE ROAD - MORNING 128 Ray drives with purpose and speed. Mann looks relaxed. MANN Hell, I couldn't quit now. I've got see this ballpark. RAY Not everybody can see it. You might not. MANN I'll give it a try. As they turn onto the highway near the lake, a Teenager with a dufflebag appears on the side of the road, his arm raised in. a hitchhiker's stance. Ray pulls the car over to the side of the road. CONTINUED 85 ---128 - - - CONTINUED 128 RAY I need all the karma I can get right now. The car stops, and the Teenager runs for it. He tosses his dufflebag in the backseat and squeezes in after it. TEENAGER Thanks. You're the first car by. I didn't expect to get a lift so soon. Ray starts the car back onto the highway. RAY How far are you going? TEENAGER How far are you going? RAY Iowa. TEENAGER Well, if it's okay with you, I'll ride along for a while. I play baseball. Ray and Mann exchange brief smiles. TEENAGER I'm looking for a place to play, and I heard that all through the Midwest, towns have teams, and in some places they'll find you a day job so you can play ball nights and weekends. RAY This is your lucky day, kid. We're going someplace kind of like that. TEENAGER All right! RAY I'm Ray Kinsella, this is Terry Mann. TEENAGER Hi. I'm Archie Graham. Mann and Ray just look at each other. And the little Datsun heads off down the highway. CUT TO 86 129 INT. CAR - NIGHT Archie sleeps in the backseat. MANN I'm dying to ask him if he has a nickname. RAY Don't. He didn't get it till he was in the minors. MANN Maybe we can give it to him. RAY Funny, the way he described towns, finding you a job so you can play on their team...they haven't done that for years. My Dad did that for a while. But that was in the Twenties. MANN What happened to your father? RAY He never made it as ball player, so he tried to get his son to make it for him. By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage, so when I was fourteen, I started to refuse. Can you believe that? An American boy refusing to have a catch with his father. MANN Why at fourteen? RAY That's when I read The Boat Rocker, by Terence Mann. MANN Oh God. RAY I never played catch with him again. MANN (SERIOUSLY) See, that's the kind of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father! CONTINUED 87 129 CONTINUED 129 RAY I know. Anyway, when I was seventeen, we had a big fight, I packed my things, said something awful, and left. After a while I wanted to come home, but I didn't know how. I made it back for the funeral. MANN What was the awful thing you said? RAY I said I could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal. MANN Who was his hero? RAY Shoeless Joe Jackson. Mann considers this all very carefully. MANN You knew he wasn't a criminal. Ray nods. MANN Then why'd you say it? RAY I was seventeen. Mann nods with growing understanding. MANN So this is your penance. RAY I know. I can't bring my father back.. MANN .so the least you can do is bring back his hero. Ray nods. MANN Well now we know what everybody's purpose here is...except mine. Ray looks at him. He hadn't thought of that. After a few moments Ray points to something in the distance. 88 130 POINT OF VIEW 130 Something down the road, in the midst of all this flat farmland, is glowing in the night. It is an illuminated baseball diamond in a cornfield. 131 RAY AND ANNIE'S FARM - NIGHT Ray turns the Datsun into the long driveway and, with a rumble, crosses the metal cattle guard that keeps livestock from escaping to the roadway. He eases the car to a stop in front of the house, and as the three men unfold themselves from the car, Karin bolts from the back door of the house, a blur of white blouse and pink pedal pushers. She flings herself into Ray's arms, and hugs his neck in unrestrained joy. KARIN Daddy! Then Annie appears too. They kiss while Mann and Archie wait to be introduced. Finally, Mann clears his throat. RAY ( (BEAMING) Karin, Annie... This is Terence Mann MANN Terry. KARIN Hiya Terry. Annie steps forward, wining some curls from her eyes with ahand that has recently been immersed in flour'. She smiles, wipes the hand on the thigh of her jeans, and shakes his hand. ANNIE Welcome. MANN Thank you. RAY And this young fellow is Moon -- uh, Archie Graham. Karin and Annie shake his hand. RAY He's come to practice with the team. CONTINUED 89 131 CONTINUED 131 ANNIE He'll be able to do more than just practice. RAY What does that mean? ANNIE Come on. They walk towards the field. ANNIE Let's enjoy this place while we still have it. 132 EXT. BASEBALL FIELD - NIGHT 132 Ray and Annie walk silently with their arms around each other as they lead Mann, Archie and Karin to the bleachers. Mann's eyes widen as several of the players shout greetings to Ray. SHOELESS JOE Hi, Ray, welcome back. RAY Thanks, Joe. Good to see you. MANN Oh my Lord. RAY What. MANN That's Shoeless Joe Jackson! RAY Well of course it is. MANN I've seen pictures. Those are the White Sox! RAY You mean you still didn't believe me? MANN I thought I did, but... Oh my Lord. They have reached the foul line where Shoeless Joe waits for them. CONTINUED 90 132 CONTINUED 1321 RAY Terry, I'd like you to meet Joe Jackson. Joe, this is Terry Mann. Mann and Jackson shake hands. MANN It's a pleasure to meet you. SHOELESS JOE Pleasure's mine. (TO RAY) Ray, I hope you don't mind, but we got tired of just having practices, so we brought another team out with us so we could have some real games. He points to the visitors' bench, and, indeed, there are a dozen or so more old-time baseball players in old-time baseball uniforms. RAY I don't mind. Where'd they come from? SHOELESS JOE (CHUCKLES) Where'd we come from. Man, you wouldn't believe how many guys wanted to play here. We had to beat 'em off with a stick. ARCHIE (FROM THE BLEACHERS) Hey, that's Mel Ott. And Carl Hubbell. Those are the New York Giants! SHOELESS JOE With a couple of Cardinals and A's thrown in for good measure. Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the sonofabitch when we were alive, so we told him to stuff it. (TO ARCHIE) Hey, are you Graham? ARCHIE Yes sir. Ray and Mann are astonished that Shoeless Joe knows who Archie is. CONTINUED 91 132 CONTINUED (2) 132 SHOELESS JOE What the hell you doing on the sidelines? You came here to play ball, didn't you? ARCHIE Yes sir. SHOELESS JOE Go warm up! ARCHIE (THRILLED) Yes sir! Archie quickly scampers down the bleachers, onto the field, shakes Joe's hand, and runs to the dugout. MANN Unbelievable. RAY It's more than that. It's perfect. CUT TO 133 THE GAME 133 The White Sox are in the field, the Giants at bat. A Giant hitter bunts, and the runner on second takes third despite a close throw. Mann, Ray, Karin and Annie are in the stands, Mann keeping score. MANN Does he get a hit for that? RAY Karin? KARIN Um, no. The batter was trying to sacrifice. RAY So how do you score it? KARIN Fielder's choice? RAY Very good. CONTINUED 92 133 CONTINUED 133 Mann is impressed. He lifts Karin up from her seat on the row below them, and places her next to him to help him. MANN You better sit here. Karin beams. Ray taps Mann and points to the plate. RAY Look. Archie Graham -- now wearing a Giant's uniform -- drops one of the two bats he has been swinging in the on-deck circle, and advances on the plate, slashing the air with a brand-new bat the color of vanilla ice cream. He plants himself in the batter's b.ox, then cocks the bat, the top end of it trembling as if he were stirring something, and waits for the pitch.' The pitcher looks in for his signs. Archie stares back. As the pitcher goes into his windup, Archie winks at him. There is a moment of confusion and then anger on the pitcher's face, and when the ball speeds to the plate it is aimed right at Archie's head. He dives out of the way and hits the dirt hard. The Catcher chuckles through his mask. CATCHER Good thing for you that wasn't his fastball. Archie digs in again at the plate, but backs up just a little. Now his look to the pitcher is one of determination. ARCHIE Come on, let's see your fastball. The pitcher smiles, winds up and throws. Very fast. And right at Archie's chin. Again, he has to dive out of the way. This time, however, he gets right up and immediately appeals to the Umpire. ARCHIE ∞ Hey, ump, how about a warning? UMPIRE Sure. Watch out-you don't get killed. Both benches laugh at that. Archie holds up his hands to call time, and steps out of the batter's box. The on-deck batter, Mel Ott, comes over. CONTINUED 93 133 CONTINUED (2) 133 OTT Okay, kid, first two were high and tight, where do you think the next one's going to be? ARCHIE Either-low and away, or in my ear. OTT He don't want to load the bases. Look for low and away. Archie nods and starts to walk back to the plate. OTT But watch out for 'in your ear.' Archie takes his place in the batter's box again. He still looks determined, but a little less cocky. The next pitch is a curve that looks as if it's heading right for him. But he holds his ground, and when the ball breaks down and away, he steps in, snaps the bat forward, and hits it. The ball sails in a high arc to right center. The center fielder backs up a couple of steps, lopes a few strides to his left, and makes the catch. Archie is out, but the runner on third tags up and scores. As Archie curls across the diamond from the first baseline to the Giants' bench, he hears cheering. In the stands, Ray, Annie, Karin and Mann are giving him a standing ovation. In return, he touches the brim of his cap, a ballplayer's cool response to adulation. MANN (LAUGHS) ïLook at that. Mr. Cool. But when Archie gets to the bench, he can't contain himself anymore. He leaps up and lets out a cheer of pure joy. DISSOLVE TO 134 THE FIELD - LATER 134 The game has ended, and players are rough-housing and joking as they slowly make their way to the door in the outfield fence. Ray and Mann are talking to some of the players over the fence. MANN Where do you go when you walk through that door? What do you do? CONTINUED 94 134 CONTINUED CHICK GANDIL We sleep. HAPPY FELSCH And wait. SHOELESS JOE We dream. RAY You can't leave the field any other way, can you? SHOELESS JOE Not if we want to come back. RAY I'd love to go with you sometime. The silence that follows is long and ominous. RAY I'd like to see what's out there. There is still no response. RAY I'll take that as a no for now. He spots Archie jogging off the field. RAY Hey, slugger, congratulations! Archie jogs over. ARCHIE Thanks. I can't stop shaking I'm so happy. 'Course, I would've liked a base hit... KARIN But you got a RBI! ARCHIE I sure did, didn't I? SHOELESS JOE (YELLS BACK) A rookie's luck! They all laugh at that. RAY Well come on, this calls for a drink. CONTINUED 95 134 CONTINUED (2) 134 Archie hesitates. ARCHIE I can't. I'm... He motions with his head toward the other players disappearing through the outfield door. Ray nods understandingly. RAY Good game, Archie. ARCHIE Thanks. MANN Good night, kid. Ray, Karin, Annie and Mann watch Archie jog towards the rest of the players. When he reaches the fence, he turns back to them. ARCHIE Mr. Kinsella? Ray turns toward him. Archie looks as if he knows more than he's saying. ARCHIE Thank you for bringing me here. I couldn't have wished for anything more. Ray recognizes there may be more behind those words than just a teenager's pleasure. But he decides not to ask any questions. RAY I know. You're welcome. Archie runs through the door in the fence and vanishes. CUT TO 135 INT. KITCHEN - MORNING 135 Mann and Karin eat their country breakfasts at one and of the table, while at the other end, Annie and Ray sit in front of the bank books, ledgers, and the sheaf of bills puffed up around the paper spike. ANNIE Once we fell behind in the payments, the full amount of the mortgage became due. CONTINUED 96 135 CONTINUED 135 RAY And they own the paper, so they have the legal right to foreclose. ANNIE Unless we sell. RAY Either way we lose the farm. Maybe we can make it a condition of the sale that they keep the field up. ANNIE Forget it. They're buying up single farms all around us, make it one big farm. First thing they'll do is plow under your field. Ray just sits there, letting that sink in. CUT TO 136 EXT. FARM - DAY 1.36 Ray and Mann walking. MANN I don't have a lot of money, Ray, but maybe I could pitch in a little. RAY Fine. You can put in twenty bucks for groceries. MANN That's not what I meant. Maybe the reason you were supposed to find me was so I could help you with this. RAY More likely it's that you're supposed to start writing again. About this. MANN Don't change the subject. RAY You promise to publish and I'll let you chip in from your royalties. Mann's expression suddenly turns to one of indignation. CONTINUED 97 136 CONTINUED 136 MANN One thing has nothing to do with the other. RAY I'm not sure I agree with that. MANN You're not only stubborn, you're stupid. RAY That I won't argue with. Annie emerges from the house and calls to Ray. ANNIE Honey, that was Mark. He's coming tonight. He needs a decision tonight. CUT TO 137 THE GAME 137 Again, it's J,oe Jackson's Chicago White Sox against the New York Giants, now featuring rookie Archie Graham. In the stands, Mann keeps score, Karin munches on a hot dog, and Annie and Ray snuggle together to watch the game. ANNIE Everything is so perfect here. RAY Whatever I have to do to save this place, I'll do. ANNIE I know. Suddenly, Ray snaps his head to the side, as one does to pick up a-distant sound. RAY He's here. They look and see Mark's car heading up the gravel lane. He parks the car at the edge of the field, and the game stops as he walks right across it, completely mindless of the players. Since he doesn't see any of them, a few actually have to move out of his way. He approaches the bottom of the bleachers. RAY You're interrupting the game, . Mark. CONTINUED 98 137 CONTINUED 137 Mark shakes his head sadly at the thought that these otherwise sensible relations have lost their minds. MARK Ray, it's time'to put away our little fantasies and come down to earth. RAY It's not a fantasy, Mark. They're real. Mark obviously do.esn't see anyone on the field. MARK (EMPHATICALLY) Who's real? RAY Shoeless Joe Jackson. The White Sox. The Giants. (TO MANN) He can't see any of it. MARK And who's that? Babe Ruth? Ray smiles, savoring the moment. RAY As a matter of fact, it's Terence Mann. MARK Ah, how do you? I'm Michael Jackson. (TO RAY) Ray, we have to settle this thing right now. RAY I'm not selling you my home. MARK You have no money, you've got a stack of bills to choke a pig, and come fall, you've got no crop to sell. But I have a deal to offer you that will allow you to stay on this land. This has Ray's attention. Mark climbs the bleachers to stand closer to him. KARIN Daddy, we don't have to sell the farm. But no one pays her any attention. All eyes are on Mark. CONTINUED 99 137 CONTINUED (2) 137 MARK Let us buy you out, and we'll leave the house. You can live in it rent free as long as you want. RAY What about the baseball field? MARK Do you realize what this land is worth? RAY Over $2200 an acre. MARK Then you must realize we cannot keep a useless baseball diamond in the middle of rich farmland. RAY No deal, Mark. We're staying. KARIN We don't have to go. MARK (EXPLODES) You're virtually bankrupt, and I'm offering you a way to keep your home because I love my sister! I've got partners who don't give a damn about you, and they're ready to foreclose right now! KARIN Daddy, we don't have to sell the farm. MARK Karin, please! RAY Wait. They all turn to Karin. KARIN People will come. RAY What people, sweetheart? CONTINUED 100 137 CONTINUED (3) 137 KARIN From all over. They'll just decide to take a vacation, see, and they'll come to Iowa City, and they'll think it's really boring, so they'll take a drive. And they'll drive down our road, and they'll see the lights and they'll think it's really pretty. Ray, Annie, and Mann listen with wonder, to this vision. KARIN So, the people in the cars? They'll drive up and they'll want to pay us, like buying a ticket. Mark looks at them all as if they're crazy. MARK You're not listening to this seriously, are you? ANNIE Yes. MARK Why would anybody pay money to come here? Karin looks at her Uncle mark as if he were a simpleton. KARIN To watch the game. And it'll be just like when they were little kids a long time ago, and it was summertime, and they'll watch the game and .remember what it was like. Ray and Annie couldn't be prouder of their daughter than they are right now. MARK What the hell is she talking about? ANNIE She's talking about people seeing their memories... touching their past. RAY (NODS) People will come. CONTINUED 101 137 CONTINUED (4) 137 ANNIE It'll be like one of those tiny, French restaurants that have no sign. You find it by instinct. They'll be drawn. MARK Okay, this is all fascinating, but the fact remains that you don't have the money to bring the mortgage up to date, so you still have to sell. I'm sorry, but you have no choice. He produces a document and hands it to Ray with a pen. Ray looks at it. He doesn't know what to do. MANN Ray... Ray looks at Mann. 138 MANN - 1.38 speaks now as he has not spoken for many years: as Terence Mann, master of words, spellbinder. MANN People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it, and arrive at your door, innocent as children, longing for the past. 'Of course we won't mind if you look around,' you'll say. 'It's only twenty dollars per person.' And they'll pass over the money without even looking at it. For it is money they have, and peace they lack. 139 MARK 139 pushes the papers. forward. MARK Just sign the papers, Ray. 140 MANN 140 is not one to give up. CONTINUED 102 140 CONTINUED 140 MANN They'll walk out to the bleachers and sit in shirtsleeves in the perfect evening, or they'll find they have reserved seats somewhere in the grandstand or along one of the baselines -- wherever they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. They'll watch the game, and it will be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. 141 MASTER 141 Spellbound, Ray has put the papers down. Mark picks them up again. He is battling Mann for Ray's attention. MARK Listen to me. Tomorrow morning, when the bank opens, they will foreclose. MANN People will come, Ray. MARK You're broke, Ray. Sell now or lose everything. MANN The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an`army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this ∞ game... it's a piece of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good. And that could be again. People will come. People will most definitely come. Mann has moved everyone (but Mark) with the beauty of his words, and the passion in his.voice. Behind him, the assembled ballplayers respectfully applaud. BUCK WEAVER (TEARY-EYED) That was beautiful... The other players nod, also teary-eyed. CONTINUED 103 141 CONTINUED 141 BUCK WEAVER (SINCERELY) .fuckin' beautiful. The players on either side of him jab his ribs with their elbows, but Mann, Ray and Annie laugh with pleasure. MARK Ray. You will lose everything and you will be evicted. Ray looks at the paper with dread. He looks at Shoeless Joe and the players. He looks at his family. Then he turns back to Mark. It's decision time. RAY I'm not signing. Mark shakes his head sadly. Annie hugs Ray. The players breathe a great sigh of relief. Mann smiles. MANN Ray... Ray looks up at Mann, who, with a gentle tilt of the head, directs Ray's attention to the house. Ray looks behind him toward the house. 142 RAY'S POINT OF VIEW - CARS 142 have parked in front of the house. More are coming quietly down the driveway. Dozens of cars. Cars with out-of-state license plates. Some people,have gotten out of their cars and wait patiently. One or two families sit on their hoods, or have set up picnic dinners on their station wagons' tailgates. 143 THE BLEACHERS 143 Ray, Annie, Karin and Mann are deeply happy -- but not terribly surprised -- to see these people. RAY (SING-SONG) They're he-re. Mark looks at the house and then back at Ray. NARK Who's here? CONTINUED 104 143 CONTINUED 143 RAY (with an edge) You don't see those cars? All those people? MARK Don't do this, you son of a bitch! There's no cars, no people... KARIN Uncle Mark, I can see them. ANNIE We all can. MARK You're crazy. You're all bat-shit crazy! RAY Watch your language, Mark. MARK You build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere, you sit around here and stare at nothing --- KARIN It's not nothing. Mark grabs Karin's arm and pulls her to her feet as if she were "Exhibit A." MARK And you've turned your daughter into a goddamn moron! RAY Get your hands off her. Ray rises threateningly, and Mark turns toward him. In so doing, he twists little Karin off balance. MARK I'm trying to help you, goddamnit! In that split second, they hear a strangled gasp, and see Karin falling forward from the top row of the bleachers. RA Y Karin!! 105 144 KARIN 144 Her hot dog flies off, the bun and wiener separating in midair. One small sandal bounces end over end and lands at the foot of the bleacher. It takes forever for her body to come down with a sickening thud on the hard green boards of one of the bottom rows. 145 THE OTHERS 145 rush down to where she lies, face up. Ray is first, but he does not know what to do. Annie and Mann hover. Mark is horror-stricken, but no one knows what to do. MARK Oh my God, I'm sorry...Annie...I didn't mean to... Karin is unconscious, and seems to be fighting for breath. Ray and Annie's eyes meet in anguish. ANNIE Should we move her? RAY Get the car. 146 ANNIE 146 springs for the house. The tourists by their cars watch quietly. ANNIE Is there a doctor? A nurse? Any of you? They sadly shake their heads no. Annie races inside. 147 BACK AT THE BLEACHERS 147 Most of the White Sox players stand by the left field fence, staring silently. MANN How long? RA Y Its a twenty-minute drive. Mann winces. He knows that could be fatal. Ray kneels by Karin. Her nose and one side of her face have been scraped by the fall. Blood starts to trickle from her nose, across her cheek and down her neck. She is becoming bluer and her cough is faint, as though she is in another room. CONTINUED 106 147 CONTINUED 147 Mark takes off his $300 pale-green velvet corduroy jacket and is wordlessly holding it out to Ray. Ray takes the jacket and covers Karin gently. Karin is getting paler, bluer, and her breathing more strained and distant. RAY Karin... Then, without reason, Ray slowly turns toward the field. The White Sox stand near him by the fence, the Giants stay around their bench. All except one: young Archie Graham. 148 ARCHIE GRAHAM 148 has noticed the'commotion in the bleachers, and he starts to lope across the field. 149 BLEACHERS 149 Annie has pulled the car over and honks. Ray holds up his hand to her to wait. His eyes are on young Archie Graham. 150 YOUNG ARCHIE GRAHAM 3.50 As Graham gets closer, his features begin to change, and his step slows. He reaches the end of the fence -- around which no player can pass -- and when he emerges from the shadows on the bleachers side, he is no longer young Moonlight Graham, the ballplayer of long ago...but Doc Graham, the old man from Chisholm, Minnesota. His baseball glove has turned into a black doctor's bag. 151 THE BLEACHERS 151 as Doc Graham approaches. DOC GRAHAM What have we got here? RAY She fell. Doc kneels beside her and instantly knows what is wrong. DOC GRAHAM This child's choking to death. CONTINUED 107 151 CONTINUED 151 He picks her up with one hand under her shoulders and the other under her knees, seats himself on the bleachers, and turns her face down. Supporting her chest with one hand, he delivers a series of sharp blows between her shoulder blades with the heel of his other hand. Annie honks again. Ray waves her to him. Mark cannot believe what he is seeing. Suddenly, Karin's diaphragm expands as she sucks in air. Doc reaches around and pries her mouth open, releasing a sizable piece of hog dog and bun. As he turns her over, we can see the blueness disappearing from her face as she continues to breathe deeply. Doc peels back each eyelid in turn, stares at the pupil for a few seconds, and lets the eye close. DCC GRAHAM She's okay. I don't think the fall really hurt her, just the dog in her throat. She'll be coming around in a minute or two. RAY (SIGHS DEEPLY) Thank you, Doc. Doc looks deeply into Ray's eyes. DOC GRAHAM No, son. Thank you. It just now sinking for Ray what-Doc Graham has sacrificed to save the child. Ray looks to the field, and then back at the Doctor. RAY 'Oh, my God, you can't go back. DOC GRAHAM It's okay... (NODS KNOWINGLY) It's okay. 152 MARK AND ANNIE 152 Mark is slack-jawed. He has seen something magical happen and cannot explain it. MARK I saw...A11 of a sudden this kid runs off the field and turns.into... CONTINUED 108 152 CONTINUED 152 He looks questioningly at Annie. She smiles reassuringly. ANNIE There's hope for you yet, Mark. 153 RAY AND DOC GRAHAM 153 Doc Graham stands, and picks up his black bag. DOC GRAHAM Well, I best be getting back home before Alicia starts to thinking I've got a girlfriend. He walks around the edge of the fence, and heads for the outfield door. The players respectfully make way for him. HAPPY FELSCH Good work, Doc. EDDIE CICOTTE Way to go, Doc. DOC GRAHAM Thanks, boys. Win one for me, someday, will you? He passes them. SHOELESS JOE Hev rookie! Doc Graham turns. SHOELESS JOE You were good. Only now do Doc Graham's eyes shine with tears. He smiles, and disappears through the door. 154 ON THE SIDE 154 Karin is coming to, Ray and Annie by her side. Some of the players start to gather up their equipment. Shoeless Joe calls to Ray. SHOELESS JOE We're gonna call it a night. We'll see you tomorrow. RAY Okay. CONTINUED 109 154 CONTINUED 154 MANN Good night. Joe starts to trot off the field, then he stops and turns back to the bleachers. SHOELESS JOE Hey! You wanna come with us? Ray's jaw drops. RAY You mean it? SHOELESS JOE Not you. (points to Mann) Him. RAY Him? MANN Come with you? SHOELESS JOE Out there. MANN What is out there? SHOELESS JOE Come find out. RAY Wait a second. Why him? Shoeless Joe and the other players wait for Mann to join them, ignoring Ray's question. RAY I built this field! You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me. MANN Ray, for God's sake, I'm unattached. You've got a family. This takes Ray down a peg or two. RAY But I want to know what's out there! I want to see it! CONTINUED 110 154 CONTINUED (2) MANN There's a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you to find me. RAY Oh yeah? Why? MANN Because, you big jerk, I gave that interview. RAY What interview? MANN The one about Ebbets Field. The one that charged you up and sent you all the way to Boston to find me. RAY Then you lied to me. MANN You were kidnapping me at the time, you asshole! Think of it, Ray: maybe there's an Ebbets Field still floating around out there somewhere. And maybe I'll get to sit in the stands, and watch a twenty-year-old kid with a smooth face and kinky hair try out for the 1948 Dodgers. RAY (to Shoeless Joe) So I do all the work, and all I get is to see everybody else's dreams come true. Is that it? SHOELESS JOE What are you saying, Ray? RAY I'm saying I'm happy for you, and I'm happy for him, but after all this what's in it L for me? SHOELESS JOE Is that why you did this? For-you? MANN There's something out there for me, Ray. And what a story it'll make: a man being able to touch the perfect dream. CONTINUED 111 154 CONTINUED (3) 154 RAY Then you'll write about it? MANN You bet I will. Annie walks Karin over. Ray bends down to Karin's face. RAY How you feeling, honey? KARIN Stupid. Ray laughs and hugs her. He looks up at Annie. RAY Terry's been invited to go-with the players. ANNIE You mean 'out'? RAY (NODS) Out. ANNIE (HUMS TWILIGHT ZONE THEME) Doo-doo-doo-doo. Be careful. She smiles brightly and gives Mann a kiss on the cheek. Mann shakes Ray's hand. RAY-- I want a full description. MANN -You take care of this family, Ray. Mann joins several of the White Sox as they leave the field. 155 MARK 155 is absolutely dumbfounded as'he sees the players fade out upon walking through the outfield gate. He turns to Annie. MARK He just... Where'd he...? CONTINUED 112 15.5 CONTINUED 155 ANNIE You go inside and lie down. I'll explain later. Mark walks off toward the people in their cars outside the house. MARK Where'd all these people come from...? 156 BACK AT THE FIELD 2.56 Only a few players are left on the field. RAY We're keeping this field. ANNIE You bet your ass we are. Ray realizes Shoeless Joe is staring at him, with a shit-eating grin on his face. RAY What.. Shoeless Joe just keeps smiling. RAY What're you grinning at, you ghost? SHOELESS JOE 'If you build it... He nods toward where the catcher is taking off his gear at home plate. SHOELESS JOE ' .he will come.' Ray looks at the Catcher. The hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand up. RAY Oh, my God. ANNIE What is it? RAY Its my father. 113 157 THE YOUNG CATCHER has taken off his mask. He is in his early twenties. He is in the same pose as the photo we saw in the prologue. 158 RAY AND SHOELESS JOE Ray blanches and turns to Shoeless Joe, his voice a strangled whisper. RAY Say it ain't so,- Joe. SHOELESS JOE I'm afraid it is, kid. The Catcher is now walking toward Ray. RAY (FINALLY UNDERSTANDING) 'Ease his pain...' SHOELESS JOE (smiles and nods) 'Go the distance.' When he says those words, Shoeless Joe sounds just like The Voice. RAY It was you. 159 SHOELESS JOE 159 SHOELESS JOE No, Ray. It was you. Shoeless joe winks and walks away, disappearing through the door in the outfield fence. 160 RAY AND ANNIE 160 The Catcher is halfway across the field. Ray turns to Annie. He cannot even swallow. RAY My God, I only saw him later, when he was worn down by life. Look at him. The young Catcher has reached the outfield grass. Ray walks down to the edge of the outfield. CONTINUED 114 160 CONTINUED 160 RAY He has his whole life in front of him, and I'm not even a glint in his eye. What do I say to him? ANNIE Introduce him to his granddaughter. Ray cannot believe how wonderful Annie is. The Catcher has reached the edge of the field, and now stands before Ray and Annie. CATCHER Hi, I just wanted to thank you folks for putting up the field and letting us play here. I'm John Kinsella. They shake his hand. RAY I'm Ray. My wife Annie. And this is my daughter, Karin. (TO KARIN) Karin, this is... He almost says "My father." RAY KARIN JOHN Ray and Annie are beaming. Annie takes Karin's hand. ANNIE We're going to let you two talk. I have to go look after our guests. Someone's gotta start collecting admission if we're going to keep this place. (to the Catcher) Very nice meeting you. JOHN M' am. 161 ANNIE 161 hoists Karin up and totes her toward the tourists waiting in front of the house. 115 162 RAY AND JOHN 162 watch them for a while, then start to,stroll across the field. RAY You catch a good game. JOHN Thank you. It's so beautiful here. Its like-well for me, it's like a dream come true. Ray cannot speak. He nods. JOHN Can I ask you something? Again, Ray nods. JOHN Is this heaven? Ray smiles and shakes his head no. RAY It's Iowa. JOHN Iowa. I could've sworn this was heaven. 163 RAY 16 3 stops and looks intently at John. He asks this question as if he were asking the secret of life. Maybe he is. RAY Is there a heaven? 164 JOHN 164 takes time to answer that. He looks up at the night sky and searches it. JOHN Oh, yeah... Then he looks square into Ray's eyes. JOHN Heaven's where dreams come true. 116 165 RAY 165 looks toward the house and sees his wife and daughter on the veranda, a moon bright as butter silvering the night above them. He smiles. He finally understands. He turns back to John and nods. RAY Then maybe this is heaven. 166 JOHN 166 smiles wisely in return. JOHN Well...good night, Ray. RAY Good night. 167 MASTER 167 John starts to walk off toward the door in the outfield fence. RAY Hey! John turns back. Ray is holding a ball. RAY You wanna have a catch? John closes his eyes for a second, and when he opens them; there is the hint of moisture. Does he know Ray is his son? JOHN I'd like that. Ray tosses him the ball, picks up a glove lying there, and puts it on. They throw the ball back and forth. And as we pull up higher and higher we see a father and son bathed by white floodlights and car headlights... on the silent, satiny green of a baseball diamond at the edge of a cornfield. FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fifth Element, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fifth Element, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a90b1d59de78162f291941095b5ce09d0f3061d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fifth Element, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + The Fifth Element An original script by Luc Besson Revisions by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen August 1995 Draft Gaumont and Les Films du DauphinFADE IN:1 EXT. DESERT NILE RIVER VALLEY - DAY Somewhere in the Nile at the edge of the desert. CREDITS ROLL WRITTEN: EGYPT 1913 OMAR and his mule zigzag along the bottom of sun scorched dunes.2 EXT. TEMPLE EXCAVATION - DAY The mule and the boy finally reach a camp. A few tents dwarfed by a hugetemple door jutting out of the sand. The camp is deserted except forsome kids by the temple entrance holding large mirrors, reflecting lightinto the temple. Omar leaves his mule in the shade, seizes two goatskins and slips insidethe temple.3 INT. TEMPLE - DAY Omar makes his way uneasily down a pillared corridor that opens into avast room where an old scientist stands on a small wooden ladder in front ofthe wall across the room. PROFESSOR MASSIMO PACOLI. A young man is besidehim, BILLY MASTERSON, age 25, an American student. He has a large sketchpad inhis hands. Behind them AZIZ, age 10, whose job is to hold the lastmirror which shines light into the expansive room. PROFESSOR (deciphering) "..when the three planets are in eclipse.." His fingers trace across the wall which is covered with symbols andstrange hieroglyphs as he deciphers. PROFESSOR "..the black hole like a door is open... Evil comes ... sowing terror and chaos..." See? The snake, Billy. The Ultimate Evil ... make sure you get the snake! The Professor points emphatically to the snake, the symbol of Evil,coming through the door between the three planets in eclipse. C.U.Billy's hand sketches the snake quickly. He is a natural artist. BILLY And when is this door opening snake act supposed to occur? The Professor's fingers touch the signs. PROFESSOR ..if this is the five..and this the thousand.. He calculates. PROFESSOR Every five thousand years.. BILLY (kidding) So I have some time.. He reaches for the pad. ANGLE ON: Omar. Standing at the entrance to the chamber with the waterbag, entranced by the sight. A skeletal hand falls on his shoulder. Omarturns to an ancient PRIEST in a rough milled black cannock. PRIEST I will take it to them my son. Startled but obedient, Omar gives the water bag to the Priest. PRIEST Go with God.. be safe from Evil.. The Priest makes the sign of the Cross on the boy's forehead, dismissinghim. As soon as he is gone, the Priest turns a worried eye to the Professor. ANGLE ON: The Professor is back to translating, Billy to sketching. PROFESSOR "..then arrange the elements of life against the Terror just so.." His fingers run on. PROFESSOR "..Water..fire..earth..air..four elements around the fifth.." His fingers fall on the one element that has a human shape, surrounded byall the others. The Priest opens the water skin and begins to pour a vial of powder intothe skin. ANGLE ON: Aziz falling asleep. The mirror falls, the light fails. PROFESSOR Aziz! Light! The boy struggles to stay awake. The mirror comes up. PRIEST Lord forgive me.. they already know too, much.. PROFESSOR "..in which all the history of the Universe resides ..all the strength..all the hope..Protect us fromEvil.." PRIEST (V.O.) Amen.. The Professor turns to the Priest who is pouring water into a tin cupfrom the skin. PROFESSOR Father.. it in the most extraordinary thing.. the greatest find in history..can you imagine the implications. PRIEST Only too well... here you must be parched.. He hands the cup to the Professor. The Professor takes it, has it almostto his lips when.. PROFESSOR I mean look.. it is like a battle plan.. In his excitement he does not drink, much to the Priest's chagrin. PROFESSOR Here the Good.. Here the Evil.. As the Priest looks up, Aziz the mirror boy, tips his mouth under thewater skin, drinking the leakage. PROFESSOR Here.. He points to the Five Elements. PROFESSOR A weapon against evil. Amazing! I am going to be famous. PRIEST Then let us toast to your fame! Here Billy.. The Priest hands Billy a cup. PRIEST Drink! PROFESSOR To fame.. salud.. The Professor raises the cup to drink, and then... PROFESSOR We cannot toast with water.. Billy ! In my sack.. the Grappa! The Priest watches, disconsolate, as the Professor tosses away his water.Billy finishes his cup before running off into the tunnel.4 EXT. COLONNADE - DAY A muffled SOUND grows steadily louder. Outside, a monstrous linear shadowdisturbs the kid's game and gradually darkens the temple entrance.5 INT. TUNNEL - DAY Billy is looking for the grappa in the Professor's bag. He comes upon amachine pistol. When the muffled SOUND suddenly grabs his attention. Heleans toward the corridor and sees part of a spaceship appear. Billy isparalyzed.6 INT. TEMPLE ROOM - DAY The Professor keeps reading over the inscription. PROFESSOR "..this perfect person.. this perfect being.." I do not understand this.. perfect? PROFESSOR Where is that boy? Billy!7 INT. TUNNEL - DAY Billy presses himself against the wall, in the shadows, terrified, butsketching away like mad, as large shadowed figures lumber past him. Hebegins to blink, feeling the effects of the Priest's potion..8 INT. TEMPLE ROOM - DAY The Professor reads the wall. PROFESSOR And this divine Light they talk about.. what is Divine light? At that moment, the reflection from Aziz's mirror drops again. The lightfails. PROFESSOR (without turning) Aziz light! The room is flooded with light all of the sudden. PROFESSOR Better.. this is the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen.. The Professor turns around, and is stunned speechless to find himselfface to face with two MONDOSHAWANS. A dozen others fill the hall manningthe source of the light, large luminous globes. Aziz is fast asleep. PROFESSOR (uncomprehending) ...Uh, yes? The Professor is lifted up and carried off to the side by the aliens.The KOMMANDER stops in front of the Priest who is still on his knees, faceto the ground. PRIEST Master... He was about to discover everything, but I had the situation under control. The two MONDOSHAWAN GUARDS hold the professor three feet off the ground. PROFESSOR (in a panic) Who are you? Are you Germans? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?9 INT. TUNNEL Billy staggers forward, a machine pistol in his hand.10 INT. TEMPLE ROOM The KOMMANDER holds out his hand to the Priest. PRIEST What did I do wrong? The Priest jumps to his feet excitedly. KOMMANDER Servant, you and the thousand guards before you... You have done your work well, but we have to recover the elements. War will soon engulf your planet. We must keep them safe. The Kommander goes over to the wall and seems to be looking for a lock.He finds it and slides in his metallic finger which is more intricatethan a key to a safe. He turns his hand, activating a mechanism that opensthe wall. PROFESSOR Unbelievable!!! The Kommander turns around and crooks a finger. One of the MONDOSHAWANS waves his hand, puts the professor to sleep and heads down the hallwayrevealed by the opening. He is followed by his men. The Priest slips inbehind them.11 INT. ROOM 2 TEMPLE - DAY The Kommander steps into a vast room. The ceiling is very high, pyramid-shaped. In each corner of the room, four vessels contain fourrectangular twelve-inch stones-, the four elements. In the middle, anopaque sarcophagus rests on an altar. The Kommander stops andcontemplates it a moment. PRIEST (to himself) The Fifth Element... KOMMANDER Take them and put them in a safe place. His men carry out his order.12 INT. ROOM 1 TEMPLE - DAY Billy staggers across the floor, struggling to stay awake.13 INT. ROOM 2 TEMPLE - DAY The Kommander opens a case. His men come and put the four, preciousstones in it, one by one. PRIEST (moved) Will the elements be gone now forever from this place? KOMMANDER When mankind comes to its senses. We will return. PRIEST Knowing mankind as I do, that could take centuries! KOMMANDER Time is of no importance, only life is important. The Priest nods and lowers his eyes. Angle on: Billy staggering forward, raising his pistol, blinking hiseyes to focus.. A MONDOSHAWAN puts the fourth element in the case The Kommander shuts the case and looks at the Priest. KOMMANDER When EVIL returns so shall we. PRIEST (head lowered) We will be ready, Lord. Billy suddenly staggers into the room, brandishing his gun. BILLY Stop. Billy trips, the gun goes off. He empties the clip. The Mondoshawancarrying the case crumples to the ground. The wall immediately begins toclose. Billy fires wildly, unable to control the powerful kicking gun. PRIEST No!!! Don't!!! The Priest rushes Billy. The weapon has such a kick to it that Billystarts shooting into the air, backs up, then stumbles and knocks himselfout. The Priest is on the ground, seriously wounded. So is the Kommander.The WARRIORS are in a panic. CLERK Hurry, Kommander! The wall's closing!!! The wall continues to close. Sand pours in from everywhere. The vastroom fills up like an hourglass. KOMMANDER A mission is a mission, Savoia. You'll learn that. The Kommander picks up the case and reaches the wall but can't getthrough it. His armor is too bulky, the opening too small. He manages to get his arm andthe case through. KOMMANDER My apologies to General Kroi -- and my wife.. The wall closes, crushing his arm. The CLERK scoops up the case and runs through the huge piles of sand.14 EXT. COLONNADE - DAY The CLERK boards the ship carrying the case. Omar hides in a corner,frightened to death, hugging Billy's bag of drawings.15 INT. TEMPLE ROOM - DAY The room fills with sand. The Priest's body is soon buried.16 EXT. DESERT - DAY The huge ship's main hatch closes.17 EXT. TEMPLE - DAY The ship lifts off and speeds away. Omar emerges from the temple gapingat the ship as it vanishes in the sky.18 EXT. PYRAMIDS A gigantic shooting star flashes above the pyramids.19 EXT. EARTH ORBIT The ship passes in front of us and heads for the stars disappearing atunbelievable speed. The background is a star-spattered cosmos. WRITTEN: 500 YEARS LATER Another, more modern, spaceship, fills the screen. A warship belongingto the Federal Army.20 INT. SPACESHIP CONTROL ROOM CU of a digital control screen. Three planets projecting three straightlines that crisscross at one point. Identical to the one observed by theprofessor on the temple wall. GENERAL STAEDERT looks out through theship's window at one of the three huge planets in eclipse. STAEDERT Don't you have anything? Not even a temperature? CAPTAIN The thermo-analyzers have jammed. One of them reads over a million degrees, the other's at minus 5000... Never seen anything like it. TECHNICIAN It's taking shape.21 EXT. SPACE In the middle of the shadows, a door to the nightmare has just opened.Evil is back. A round, moving mass, continually changing color. CAPTAIN (in awe) What the hell can it be? TECHNICIAN Hook-up with the president in one minute, General. General Staedert remains calm. STAEDERT ...Send out a probe.22 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE MANHATTAN LINDBERG, 50, the president of the United Federations, his features linedand worn by various delegations, mainly military, enters his office.There's a crisis in the air. The President's AIDE leans down to his ear. AIDE On air in 30 seconds. In the middle of the group is a Priest whose appearance reminds us ofEgypt. A younger man DAVID, 18, shy, a priest-in-training attends the oldman.23 INT. CONTROL ROOM / PRESIDENT'S OFFICE CAPTAIN President on line sir.. General Staedert leans over his screen and seems surprised to see theroom but not the president. PRESIDENT (O.S.) Staedert, do you read me? STAEDERT I can hear you, Mr. President, but I can't see you . The President grabs the mini-camera on his desk and yanks it around toface him. His face fills the screen. PRESIDENT (exasperated) Is that better? STAEDERT Perfect, Mr. President. PRESIDENT I have to address the Supreme Council in 10 minutes. Just the facts, General. STAEDERT There are no results from the chemical and molecular analysis as of yet, all the calibers are overshot..we're hoping a thermo nucleatic imaging.. PRESIDENT (exasperated) What you are saying is you don't know what this..thing..is. Consternation reigns in the President's office. STAEDERT Not yet Sir..The only thing we know is it just keeps getting bigger! PRESIDENT Options. STAEDERT Wait or act. PRESIDENT Recommendations. STAEDERT My philosophy Mr. President is shoot first ask questions later. I don't like uninvited guests. PRESIDENT Gentlemen? HEAD CHEMISTS I think it would be foolish to shoot at an organism that seems alive, without first taking the time to study it more! Besides, it has shown no signs of hostility. PRESIDENT (worried) No... it's just getting bigger. HEAD CHEMISTS So do people, but that's no reason to shoot them. PRESIDENT (exasperated) The security of the Federated Territories is and remains number one priority. (to the military) I suppose General Staedert's "philosophy" is acceptable to you? All the Generals nod "yes" PRESIDENT All right, then! Staedert? PRIEST (O.S.) Mr. President? The President scans the room. Staedert remote controls the camera towardthe room. PRESIDENT ...Yes? The camera moves up the Priest and we finally discover his face. He isin his sixties, a shrewd look in his eyes. Around his neck hangs the Kommander's finger, the key to the temple. PRIEST Cornelius, Vito Cornelius. 50th level parish. I have a different theory to offer you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT I'm listening. CORNELIUS Imagine for a moment that this. thing is not anything that can be identified because it prefers not to be, because it is the antithesis of all we are. Because it is evil.. TOTAL EVIL. PRESIDENT (a little sarcastically) One more reason to shoot first eh? All the Generals nod in agreement. CORNELIUS Evil begets evil, Mr. President. Shooting would only make it stronger.24 INT. SPACESHIP TECHNICIAN The probe will attain its objective in five seconds. Staedert moves closer to the ship's window.25 EXT. SPACE. Evil swallows the probe and immediately bubbles over with activity like afurious volcano.26 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE STAEDERT Mr. President, we're at crisis point. The President looks puzzled. PRESIDENT Your theory is interesting Father but I don't think we have time to go into it right now! CORNELIUS Time is of no importance, Mr. President. Only life is important. PRESIDENT (exasperated) That's exactly what we are going to try and do: Protect the lives of some 200 billion of our fellow citizens! General? You may fire when ready.27 INT. SPACESHIP STAEDERT (cold) (to the CAPTAIN) ..Up front loading of a 120 ZZR missile. Marker lights on the objective.28 EXT. OUTSIDE SPACESHIP All of a sudden, outside the ship, the strange planet's activity ceases.A black crust immediately covers it.29 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE SCIENTIST (consulting new data) Its structure has just solidified on the surface, as if the object felt something. If that's the case, we are undoubtedly dealing with an intelligence. CORNELIUS The most terrible intelligence imaginable, Mr. President. The President hesitates. CAPTAIN ...The ship is in combat formation. The missile is loaded, General. PRESIDENT (uneasy) Staedert? Give me a minute... I have a doubt. STAEDERT (cold) I don't, Mr. President.30 EXT. OUTSIDE SPACESHIP The missile explodes from the ship and penetrates its target. Theexplosion is swallowed like a fizzy pill in a small glass of water.Nothing happens. And then the mass grows larger.31 INT. CONTROL ROOM / PRESIDENT'S OFFICE Staedert looks worried. STAEDERT Load a series of 740 missiles. Maximum shield protection. CAPTAIN Yes, Sir. The President is growing ever more worried. PRESIDENT Staedert? What's going on? Did you destroy it? STAEDERT I'm about to, Mr. President.32 EXT. SPACESHIP A series of three missiles heads for the planet, which absorbs them all.And literally doubles in size. SCIENTIST The planet's diameter has greatly increased and it's moving toward the ship. PRESIDENT Staedert? Get out of there immediately! I don't want an incident, do you hear me, Staedert? STAEDERT (worried) ...What do we have that's bigger than 240? CAPTAIN Nothing, General. PRESIDENT Staedert, get out of there! That's an order! A bead of sweat pearls Staedert's forehead. He is about to give an orderwhen a gigantic flame emerges from the planet and literally swallowsStaedert's spaceship. STAEDERT (eyes wide) ... Good God! The flame fills the screen with a horrendous NOISE that....33 INT. APARTMENT ... wakes up a man trying to escape from a nightmare. KORBEN DALLAS rubshis head. Thirty five years old, short hair, powerfully built,unquestionable charm, good looking in spite of the scars here and there.The alarm clock is still ringing, it shows the date as March 18, 2359. Itin two in the morning. Ha grabs a cigarette, and stops to look for alight. He shuts oft the alarm. He hears a cat mewing in the hall. But it still rings. Korben takes a moment and then realizes it in the phonethat is ringing. KORBEN (to the cat) I'm coming. He grabs the phone and crosses his tiny apartment (27 feet long by 6 feetwide) heading for the door, patting himself for a light. Behind him, thebed makes itself automatically. KORBEN (on the phone) Yeah? FINGER (V.O.) Hey bud! Finger here. He opens the door for the cat and starts to rummage through a drawer fora match. Out come a handful of war decorations, a hero's collection. KORBEN (to the cat) Hi sweetie! ...A Medal of Honor Certificate to Major Dallas FINGER (V.O.) I love you too Major, but you haven't called me that since basic training. KORBEN I was talking to the cat. FINGER (V.O.) Oh, yeah, I forgot.You still prefer your cat to the real thing. ...A picture of Korben and his ex-wife on their wedding day. KORBEN At least, the cat comes back. FINGER (V.O.) (ironical) You still pining for that two timing bitch. Forget her. There are a million women out there. KORBEN I don't want a million - I just want one. A perfect one. FINGER (V.O.) Don't exist bud. ...A picture of Korben and Finger in uniform next to a space fighter. KORBEN I just found a picture of you. FINGER (V.O.) How do I look? KORBEN Like shit. Korben finds a box of matches with three matches. He strikes one. Itdoes not light. Korben opens the fridge, bare, except for an empty can ofGEMINI croquettes. On the packet is an ad: WIN A DREAM TRIP FOR 2 TO FHLOSTON PARADISE. FINGER (V.O.) Must be an old picture.. Listen, you gotta bring me your hack for the 6 month overhaul. A.S.A.P. Korben heats up some brackish water. KORBEN (sighs) I don't need one. FINGER (V.O.) You forgetting who sat next to you for a thousand missions. I know how you drive. KORBEN Finger! I'm driving a cab now, not a space fighter!! FINGER (V.O.) How many points you got left on your license? KORBEN (lying) Uh... at least fifty. FINGER (V.O.) In your dreams! See you tonight! Finger has hang up. Korben sighs and does the same. He gets the heatedbrackish water and sits down. The cat pounces on the table and meows forits food. Korben pours half the coffee in the cat's cup. The cat meows. Korben taps his cup to the cat's saucer. KORBEN Cheers!34 INT. HALL - DAY - OMIT35 INT. GARAGE - DAY - OMIT36 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The office is emptied, only a few army officers remain. An ancientmanuscript, Billy's drawings, sits in front of the President. Corneliusturns page after page, illustrating his point. CORNELIUS (to the President) We have forty-eight hours, the time it needs to adapt itself to our living conditions. PRESIDENT (worried) And then? CORNELIUS And then it will be too late. The goal of evil is to wipe out life! All forms of life. For all eternity...Life upsets it. The President appears upset himself by this image. PRESIDENT Is there anything that can stop it? CORNELIUS (knowing) Yes..thank God..37 EXT. SPACE The Mondoshawan spaceship bursts through a star cluster and fills thescreen.38 INT. COCKPIT - OMIT39 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The manuscript is open on the President's desk.. CLOSE ON: Billy's rendering of the Mondoshawan. CORNELIUS (to the President) The Mondoshawans don't belong to the Federated Territories, but they are peaceful... in their possession are the four elements of life. These elements when they are gathered around a fifth: The Supreme Being, ultimate warrior, created to protect life...... The SUPREME BEING is standing, as if frozen in armor. All we see is thebottom half of his body. Big metallic gloves hold the case engraved withthe emblem of the three suns containing the four Sacred Stones. CORNELIUS ..will produce what the ancients called the light of creation, the light of total goodness which is the only thing that can defeat EVIL. The President points to the spot occupied by the 5th element. PRESIDENT But what happens if instead of this... Ultimate Warrior... it is EVIL who stands here? CORNELIUS White turns to black. Light to Dark. Life to Death. For all eternity. The President's nerves quiver. CAPTAIN Sir, we have a Mondoshawan spaceship at the frontier requesting permission to enter our territory. PRESIDENT I guess I should make a decision.. CORNELIUS They are the only ones who can help.. GENERAL Sir..the Mondoshawan do not belong to the federation. We do not know their intention.. I must recommend a full trinuclear assault.. PRESIDENT (yells) Did you see that..thing..swallow our battleship like a gum drop? You can't even tell me what it is! I ask you for options you give me bullshit. Give them permission to enter our territories with my warmest regards. CORNELIUS (relieved) Thank you, Mr. President.40 INT. MONDOSHAWANS SPACESHIP - OMIT41 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - OMIT42 EXT. SPACE / INT. MONDOSHAWAN SHIP The MONDOSHAWAN spaceship zips across the Federated Galaxy. But it is not alone: Two black warships seem to be dogging it.43 INT. MONDOSHAWAN COCKPIT The MONDOSHAWANS have spotted the spacecraft chasing them. FIRST OFFICER Two non-identified ships approaching. CAPTAIN Must be the welcoming committee.44 INT. WARSHIP COCKPIT A MANGALORE sits at the controls of the warship. His terrifying featurestell us what sort of welcome they can expect. The pilot fires withoutwarning.45 EXT. SPACE / INT. MONDOSHAWAN SHIP The huge ship is badly hit and immediately swerves oft course. Panic aboard the MONDOSHAWAN ship.46 INT. MONDOSHAWAN SHIP CAPTAIN We've been hit! General alert!!! Blast after blast hits the defenseless ship. CAPTAIN We're losing control! We have to land fast! The huge ship veers oft course and heads for a small red planet, takinghit after hit. CAPTAIN Send out a distress signal!!! Activate the emergency landing procedure! The huge ship approaches the planet at blinding speed. FIRST OFFICER Impact in less than ten seconds! The red planet looms ever closer. CAPTAIN Time is of no importance... The ship crashes in a gigantic explosion.46A INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - DAY A thermo nuclear explosion fills a T.V. screen..Which Korben's catwatches with interest. Korben is about to exit the apartment. KORBEN Don't watch it all day, it'll rot your mind. Bye sweetie.. In response, the cat meows. Korben opens the door to..A huge gun, brandished by a nervous MUGGER, pointing right in his face. MUGGER The cash man! KORBEN Been here long? MUGGER Don't fuck with me man or I'll blow you into tomorrow! Unperterbed, Korben looks at the mugger's fearsome weapon. KORBEN Isn't that a Z140? Alleviated titanium. Neuro charged assault model? MUGGER (off balance) Uh.. KORBEN You know you could hurt someone with this puppy..good thing it's not loaded.. The mugger is lost. He looks at his weapon. MUGGER It's not? KORBEN You gotta push the little yellow button... Korben points to the button on the side of the gun. The mugger takes hisadvice. MUGGER Thanks.. KORBEN You're welcome.. And with lightning speed, Korben blasts the mugger with a straight righthand, sending him down for the count. Korben retrieves the gun. KORBEN ..you know these things are VERY illegal.. you could get in a shit load of trouble.. I better hang onto it for you.. As the mugger clears his head, Korben opens a drawer next to him which isfull of similar guns! The mugger's eyes pop out of his head. He scampersto his feet and runs off. Korben shrugs, exits his apartment, and closes the door. The cat watchesa nuclear holocaust on T.V., uninterrupted.46B INT. KORBEN'S GARAGE - DAY Korben enters his taxi. A robotic voice greets him. VOICE Please enter your license.. Korben complies, and starts to push a series of buttons on the dash. VOICE Welcome on board Mr. Dallas.. KORBEN How you doing this morning? Sleep OK? I didn't. Korben hits a button. The garage door starts to open. VOICE Fuel level 6.03..Propulsion 2x4... KORBEN I had the worst goddamn nightmare. VOICE You have nine points left on your license.. KORBEN Thanks for reminding me.. As the garage door lifts, the Megalopolis that is New York City in the23rd century comes into view. Startling in it's height, and breath. VOICE Have a nice day.. Korben lets the propulsion build. KORBEN Right.. He lets the gear slip. The taxi rockets off into the City.47 EXT. TAXI STAND - NIGHT - OMIT48 EXT. RED PLANET-OMIT49 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE Cornelius collapses in a chair. CORNELIUS We are lost! GENERAL MUNRO Mr. President, the attack was launched by two unregistered warships. PRESIDENT Close all borders and declare a state of general alert. GENERAL MUNRO Yes, sir. PRESIDENT (to another OFFICER) Try to contact these Mondoshawans. We owe them an explanation. CORNELIUS (lost, to himself) What are we going to do? PRESIDENT This is government business now. You ought to go home and get some rest, Father. The President motions to his guards to come and get Cornelius. PRESIDENT I promise to keep you informed. A weary Cornelius leaves the room with David's help. PRESIDENT (to the CAPTAIN) ...Has the rescue team found any survivors?50 EXT. RED PLANET - OMIT51 EXT. RED PLANET ORBIT - OMIT52 INT. LABORATORY 1ST DISTRICT MANHATTAN - DAWN An arm, on a surgical cart, moves down the hall of the NucleologicalCenter, the most sterile of environments. PROFESSOR MACTILBURGH, age 60, hurries alongside GENERAL MUNRO. MUNRO This is all that survived? MACTILBURGH Actually only one cell survived.. MUNRO Have you identified it? MACTILBURGH It's not that easy..we've never encountered anything like it before..you see normal human beings have 40 DNA memo groums..which is more than enough for any species to perpetuate itself..This one has 200,000. MUNRO Talk English Doc. MACTILBURGH This cell is like a huge library. It has infinite genetic knowledge stored inside. Almost like it was...engineered. MUNRO Sounds like a freak of nature to me. MACTILBURGH Yes... I can't wait to meet him. They pass into the lab.53 INT. LABORATORY The two enter a cylindrical laboratory. There is a huge glass turbine inthe middle with the metal glove inside. A DNA chain scrolls on the computerscreen. MACTILBURGH (rather fascinated) The compositional elements of his DNA chain are the same as ours, there are simply more of them tightly packed. His knowledge is probably limitless.. MUNRO (worried) Is there any danger? Some kind of virus? MACTILBURGH We put it through the cellular hygiene detector. The cell is for lack of a better word... perfect. Munro hesitates a moment. Then he sighs and uses his personal key toopen the self-destruct box. MUNRO OK, go ahead! But Mr. Perfect better be polite... otherwise I turn him into cat food. Mactilburgh starts the operation rolling as Munro puts his hand on thesell-destruct button, ready to use it. Thousands of cells form in theheart of the generator, an assemblage of DNA elements. Then the cells movedown a tube, like a fluid, and gather in an imprint of a HUMAN body. Stepby step bones are reconstructed, then the nervous and muscular systems.Whole veins wrap around the muscles. An entire body is reconstructing beforeour very eyes. DOCTOR Three seconds to ultra-violet protection. A shield comes over the reconstructing body and makes it invisible. MACTILBURGH (to Munro) ...This is the crucial phase, The reconstruction of pigment. Cells are bombarded with slightly greasy solar atoms which forces the body cells to react, to protect themselves. That means growing skin. Clever, eh? MUNRO (disgusted) Wonderful! The meter slows, drops to zero. ASSISTANT ... End of reconstruction, beginning of reanimation . A whoosh of air in the glass chamber. Captain Munro has his hand on theself-destruct button, ready to destroy the being that has barely beenreborn. MACTILBURGH (pushing a button) Activate life support system. An electrical discharge fills the glass chamber causing the body insideto jerk. After a few moments of silence, the SOUND of a heartbeat fills the roomover the loudspeaker. ASSISTANT Life support system activated. The Supreme Being is alive once again. MACTILBURGH Remove the shield. The ASSISTANT automatically removes the ultra-violet shield which slowlyreveals... a woman... nude... young... and very beautiful. Munro stands theregaping. Not quite his vision of the Supreme Being. Mactilburgh glancesat Munro and gently pushes his hand away from the self-destruct button. MACTILBURGH (with a smile) I told you ... perfect! Munro is hypnotized by the GIRL's beauty. MUNRO ...I'd, uh , like to get a few pictures for thearchives before she wakes up. Mactilburgh looks at him with a grin. A remote-control camera approachesthe girl's face, a flash goes off. Blinded by the flash, the girl jumps andscreams. She cowers in a corner, shaking from the cold, darting eyeseverywhere looking for the case she was holding. GIRL (very angry) Ouacra cocha o dayodomo binay ouacra mo cocha ferji akba ligounai makta keratapla. Tokemata tokemata! Seno santonoi-aypa! Minoi ay Cheba! Givomana seno! MUNRO (worried) What's she saying? MACTILBURGH (to his ASSISTANT) Activate the phonic detector. The girl kicks the window repeatedly. MACTILBURGH And give her a light sedative... and something to wear! The ASSISTANT hits a button. A pile of clothes drops out of a trapdoorin the ceiling. She snatches up the clothes angrily and dresses quickly.Munro draws closer to the glass window. He watches her dress withundisguised pleasure. MUNRO (to Mactilburgh) This thing solid? MACTILBURGH (smiling) An elephant couldn't crack it. The Girl finishes dressing. GIRL (angrily) Teno akta chataman assin-omekta! Munro smiles safely behind his plate glass window. MUNRO (with a smile) You're gonna have to learn to communicate better than that angel if you want out. Munro dangles the key on a chain that will let her out. The girl ramsher fist right through the window. She grabs the key and yanks it. Thechain snaps tight and Munro slams into the window knocking himself out. Thegirl puts her hand through the window again, unlocks the chamber and stepsout. She is still bit wobbly on her legs. Two GUARDS try to grab her.She sends them flying across the room. Mactilburgh is most impressed. Hesets off a general alarm.54 INT. CORRIDOR LABORATORY The girl runs through a maze of corridors looking for a way out. A squadof SECURITY GUARDS appear in front of her and open fire without warning. Thegirl takes a leap, grabs an air vent, kicks it out and dives into the airshaft. The COPS try and jump up to the vent, but none can reach it. CHIEF Get me a chair or a stepladder The rest of you go through the main ventilation!55 INT. VENTILATION DUCT LABORATORY The girl moves along unable to see what's ahead of her. She comes to adead-end, a grill that leads outside. She pushes it out and exits ontothe ledge.56 EXT. LEDGE LABORATORY - DAWN She has exited to a ledge on the 450th floor of a building, right in themiddle of Manhattan, which we discover for the first time. The city hasbecome monstrous. Buildings rise 600 stories. Cars fly. Subways runvertically...The girl edges along the narrow ledge, unfazed by the height.The CHIEF leans out the vent, looking out into the void. CHIEF (to his men) Go on follow her! The COPS stare into the gaping void. COP ...No way. The CHIEF angrily pulls out his gun and shoots at the girl who ducksaround the corner of the building. Unfortunately the other side in full ofcops as well. A flying police car zooms up in front of her, sirensblaring. VOICE (O.S.) This in the police. Your status is illegal. Please put up your hands and follow our instructions! The girl feels trapped. She looks down into the endless 450 below andall the cars flying underneath her. Then she raises her arms... and divesoff.57 INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT COP (in the car.) Christ! She dove off! In a panic, the COP makes a wrong turn. The girl falls for severalseconds. She lands on the roof of a flying cab.58 INT. CAB - NIGHT Korben tries to control his car, reeling from the impact. VOICE (O.S.) You have just had an accident. Seven points have been temporarily removed... Korben manages to stop his cab, pulls over to the side. VOICE / KORBEN You have one point left on your license. Have a good day. Korben sighs and looks in the back seat to see what the damages are. Thegirl, a bit dazed (who wouldn't be), emerges from the debris and sits up.There's some blood on her face. Korben is stunned. The girl's still aliveand... so beautiful. His heart heads for a meltdown. GIRL Akina delutan, nou-shan. KORBEN (lost) ...'Scuse me? A police car with wailing sirens halts in front of Korben. COP (over a loudspeaker) You have an unauthorized passenger in your vehicle. We are going to arrest her. Please leave your hands on the wheel. Thank you for your cooperation. KORBEN (obeying) Sorry, Hon, but I only got one point left on my license and I gotta get to the garage! The police car presses up against the cab. Doors slide open. Huge gunspoint at her. Korben feels lousy. The girl's helpless, there are tears inher eyes, she looks exhausted. Korben glances at her in the rear view mirror. She's looking all aroundto find something to help her communicate with him. Her POV: an ad on the back of the seat. An 800 number to help anorphanage. A teary photo of a kid over the words Please Help. She shootsto Korben a look of pure distress. GIRL (irresistible) Please... HELP... Korben can't resist her plea. KORBEN Don't put me in this position... I can't... I'm late as it is... But he cannot say no to her eyes. KORBEN Finger's gonna kill me. Korben shuts oft the meter and floors it, sideswiping the police car ashe roars away. VOICE (O.S.) Your license has been revoked. Would you please.... Korben whips out a gun and shatters the loudspeaker. KORBEN I hate when people cry... I got no defense... The police car takes out after him, sirens screeching. An insane chaseensues.59 INT. NEW YORK STREETS - DAY Korben and his flying taxi are absolute masters of the air. The copshave trouble following him but then another cop car comes to join in thefun. Korben drives like a man possessed, nothing can stop him. Except thedead-end he's just come up against. GIRL Daya deo dono Dato. Dalutan! KORBEN It there's one thing I don't need advice on, it's how to drive. Korben turns his cab sideways and scrapes through a narrow passageway, ripping his taxi light from the roof. The police car smashes into thewall. The other one brakes just in time. COP Shit! Attention all-patrol cars! The car makes a U-turn, looking for a wider passageway.60 EXT. NEW YORK STREET The police car roars up, sirens screaming then slows down and checks outa dead-end flanked by a large vertical neon billboard. The dead-end is empty .Korben's cab is hidden vertically behind the billboard. Seeing nothing, the police drive away. KORBEN We'll wait till things quiet down a bit. You mind? The girl grabs his shirt collar and pulls him close, whispers in his ear. GIRL (weak) ...Priest... KORBEN You're not that bad... Come on we'll get you to a doctor. The girl hands him the handle of the case, struck with the three Egyptiansuns. GIRL (weak) Vito... Cor... Ni-lious... Priest... KORBEN Vito Cornelius? The girl nods, then faints. Korben is somewhat lost faced with so muchmystery.61 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY The door opens. Korben is there with the unconscious girl in his arms. KORBEN (embarrassed) Excuse me, I'm looking for a priest. CORNELIUS (tired) Weddings are one floor down. Congratulations. Cornelius closes the door. The doorbell RINGS again. KORBEN She's not my bride, she's my fare. She's looking for this Vito Cornelius. According to the phone guide he lives here. CORNELIUS (curious) That's me. But I don't know who she is... where did you find her? KORBEN She dropped in on me... holding this. Korben hands him the metal handle with the three Egyptian suns, stampedon it. CORNELIUS (staggered) The fifth element. He faints dead away. Korben, with the girl still in his arms looksaround helpless. KORBEN (sighing) Finger's gonna kill me...62 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY In his armchair, Cornelius gets woken by a slap in the face. CORNELIUS (with a start) Who are you? KORBEN I brought the girl remember? CORNELIUS The girl? Cornalius gets up. He looks at the handle. KORBEN Yeah! She dropped in on me. I mean on my taxi... talking... this... this bizarre language... And then it dawns on Cornelius who the girl is. CORNELIUS (eyes riveted on her) He's a she! KORBEN (bemused) You noticed... CORNELIUS (face shining) There's not a moment to lose! Wake her up, but be gentle about it! This woman is mankind's most precious possession! She is... perfect! KORBEN So you do know her. CORNELIUS Uh yes, we're cousins..distant cousins.. Cornelius runs into the next room. Korben looks at the girl, goes toslap her, then changes his mind. Her beauty troubles him. He hesitates, then, gently caresses her cheek.Her skin seems so soft, so fragile. KORBEN Perfect...63 INT. SMALL ROOM David, is mending a cassock when Cornelius bursts into the room out ofbreath. CORNELIUS It's a miracle!!! DAVID (worried) What is? CORNELIUS (babbling crazily) I can't wear these clothes! This calls for dignity! I have to dress the part! He opens a closet filled with identical robes and plunges in,disappearing as David looks on, uncomprehending.64 INT LIVING ROOM. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT Korben gently kisses the girl's cheeks, but she doesn't respond. Helooks around then kisses her on the lips. The girl's eyes snap open.When Korben straightens up he discovers his own gun jammed under hischin. GIRL (angry) Eto Akta Gamat! KORBEN (embarrassed) I'm sorry, it's just that... I was told to wake you up gently, so I figured... The girl pauses a moment. She stares at him, looks puzzled. KORBEN You're right, I was wrong! I shouldn't have kissed you... especially since we haven't been introduced and... (he pulls out a business card) Here, it's a bit late, but... my name is Korben, Korben Dallas. Keep it, you never know, maybe... you'll need a cab one day. I'll be happy to open the door this time!. The girl hesitates, then snatches the card like a wild animal.65 INT. SMALL ROOM Cornelius is lost in the closet. DAVID Father, will you please explain what's going on? CORNELIUS The Supreme Being, the fifth element is here, in our parish!!! It's a miracle!!!66 INT. LIVING ROOM KORBEN ...What's your name? GIRL (after a moment) Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat. KORBEN (polite) Hey, that's... cute... Do you have a nickname, something a little... shorter? GIRL ...Leeloo. Korben is falling in love. KORBEN That's... really cute... Cornelius bursts into the room. She turns the gun on him. He bows before her. CORNELIUS Appipulai Leeloo Minai.. LEELOO Corn-i-Lius? CORNELIUS (bowing) At your service. LEELOO lowers her guard starts to laugh. An irresistible childish laugh. Korben smiles. DAVID Father. You sure she's the Supreme Being? CORNELIUS Absolutely sure There's the triple suns on her gloves! David bows low, but his eyes glance up at Leeloo. Cornelius begins tolead Korben toward the door, hustling him out. KORBEN They all like this in your family, father? CORNELIUS She's an exception.. CORNELIUS Thank you so much for your help Mr...? KORBEN Dallas. Korben Dallas. Cornelius takes his arm. Leeloo stops laughing when she sees Korbenleaving. CORNELIUS Yes. That's fine! Thank you very much. A thousand times over! KORBEN I might call to check up on her, you know... to see if she's better? CORNELIUS She's fine, really..don't you worry.. just needs some rest..she's had a very long trip. KORBEN I know. I was there when she arrived. Cornelius is about to close the door. Korben's hand blocks it. KORBEN Excuse me! Just one thing! She said something to me a while ago and... I don't really get it... Akta Gamat? CORNELIUS It means, "Never without my permission". KORBEN That's what I thought. Cornelius slams the door in his face. KORBEN ...Thanks.66A INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - DAY Korben beads down the hallway. He passes his NEIGHBOR. KORBEN Evening... NEIGHBOR Fuck you! KORBEN ...Thanks... You, too. Korben enters his-apartment.66B INT.. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - DAY The door slides back and the cat comes rubbing up against him, tail inthe air. KORBEN Oh god. I forgot your food ... I'm really sorry! How about a nice Thai nosh to apologize? How does that sound, huh? The cat meows, appeased, just an the phone rings. KORBEN Hello? FINGER (V.O.) Hey bud...I'm waiting all day here. KORBEN Finger..man..I'm sorry..listen..I was on the way over but I had a fare fall into my lap.. y'know one of those big fares you just can't resist.. FINGER (V.O.) (suspicious) So, just how big was this fare? KORBEN 5'7", green eyes... long legs... great skin... perfect.. Korben takes out a cigarette. FINGER (V.O.) Uh huh..and I don't suppose you got the name of this..perfect fare.. KORBEN (dreamy) Leeloo..67 INT. GARAGE - DAY - OMIT68 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY Leeloo has a towel wrapped around her, it looks like she just took ashower. She sits in front of a computer wolfing down some chicken. Datascrolls by on the screen. David watches from the corner, in awe. DAVID What's she doing? CORNELIUS Learning our history! The last 5000 years that she missed! She's been out of circulation a while, you know. Leeloo breaks into her childish laughter. CORNELIUS What're you laughing about? LEELOO (pronouncing badly) Napoleon... small. She laughs again and tosses some capsules into the microwave. DAVID (hesitant) Uh father, I know she's been through a lot... but the sacred stones..we don't have much time.. CORNELIUS Yes. Of course.. Leeloo takes her plate out of the microwave. A steaming plate heapedwith chicken and exotic vegetables. CORNELIUS Leeloo..I'm sorry to interrupt you but.. She sits back down in front of the screen and chomps away heavily on hersecond chicken. Cornelius sits opposite her. and holds up the casehandle. CORNELIUS (serious) The case..with the stones... Where is it? LEELOO San Agamat chay bet... envolet! CORNELIUS The case was stolen? Leeloo nods her head, quite unperturbed and continues to devour the foodin front of her. CORNELIUS (shocked) Who in gods name would do such a thing?69 INT. CORRIDOR. ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY CLOSE ON: A pair of feet limping heavily. A MAN comes alongside them. RIGHT ARM Excuse me sir, the council is worried about the economy heating up. They wondered if it would be possible to fire 500... They reach a door at the end of the corridor. Zorg enters a code. ZORG Fire 1000. RIGHT ARM But... 500 is all they need, sir. ZORG turns slowly. A small scar across run across his face, his eyestutters. This is not a man to cross, or contradict. RIGHT ARM 1000! Fine, sir! Sorry to have disturbed you. The door opens...70 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY ... and David enters carrying a bundle of clothes. CORNELIUS There was this guy with a limp who came a month ago..said he was an art dealer ... Asking all these questions about the Sacred Stones..at the time I didn't think anything of it.. What was his name? I'm so bad with names... DAVID (to Leeloo, timid) I didn't know your size. Leeloo is happy. She pulls off the towel and stands there nude. Corneliusand David turn away. DAVID They really made her... CORNELIUS Perfect. Leeloo finishes dressing. She is delighted. LEELOO (to David) Domo danko! David smiles, dumb with admiration. Cornelius comes over. CORNELIUS Leeloo? The Stones... We must get them back. Leeloo settles down, sits at the computer and turns it on. LEELOO Ikset-kiba. Me imanetaba oum dalat! CORNELIUS You know exactly where they are!71 INT. WAREHOUSE - DAY A group of handsome WARRIORS approaches. AKNOT, their leader has thesacred case in his hands. The metal handle is missing but the secondmetal glove is still grasping the case. ZORG (pretending to be worried) Aknot? Is that you? The LEADER nods. A disgusted look stamps Zorg's features. ZORG ...What an ugly face! Doesn't suit you at all! Take it off... AKNOT's face burns away revealing the head of a monstrous MANGALORE. ZORG That's better! Never be ashamed of who you are... You're warriors... be proud... AKNOT says nothing, but if his eyes could talk! ZORG So what if the Federal Army crushed your entire race and scattered your people to the wind... Your time for revenge is at hand... Voila... the ZF1. He takes out a weapon from one a crate and goes into a sales pitch. ZORG (very fast) ...It's light... the handle's adjustable for easy carrying... good for righties and lefties. Meanwhile, two MEN set up a mannequin rigged with various defensemechanisms at the far end of the warehouse. ZORG ... Breaks down into four parts, undetectable by X-rays.. It's the ideal weapon for quick, discreet interventions. A word on fire power: Titanium recharger. 3000 round clip with bursts of 3 to 300. With the replay button, another Zorg innovation, it's even easier... one shot. He fires at the mannequin. ZORG ... and replay sends every following shot to the same location... Zorg spins around, the rounds all hit the mannequin. ZORG (even faster) I recharge, but the enemy has launched a cowardly sneak attack from behind, the automirror takes care of that. Gives me the time to turn around and finish the job. 300 round bursts, then there are the Zorg oldies... He fires off each item he names. ZORG ...Rocket launcher. The always efficient flame thrower... My favorite. Our famous net launcher, the arrow launcher, with exploding or poisonous gas heads - very practical. And for the grand finale, the all-new ice-cube system! The mannequin has been blasted into a pile of ashes covered by a net,.stuck with arrows, the whole mess frozen solid. He tosses the weapon intoAKNOT's hands. ZORG ...Four full crates, delivered right on time! What about you, my dear Aknot, did you bring me what I asked you for? AKNOT sets the case on a crate. Zorg gloats while stroking the case. ZORG ...Magnificent. Zorg smiles, takes a deep breath, opens the case. It's empty72 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY Leeloo breaks into her childish laughter once again. CORNELIUS (astonished) What do you mean empty?73 INT. ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY AKNOT looks into the case. Things grow tense. ZORG Alright..I've got an open mind here.. anyone care to explain?74 INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY Leeloo explains what happened in her language. CORNELIUS (translating) She says that the Guardians never really had much faith in humans. They were afraid of being attacked. The stones were given to someone they could trust who took another route. She's supposed to contact this person in a little less than twelve hours from now in a hotel. She's looking for the address! A map of the stars flashes onto the screen, Leeloo points. LEELOO Dot! The little group comes over to look. DAVID Planet Fhloston, in the Angel constellation Cornelius plops down into his armchair. CORNELIUS ...We're saved!75 INT. ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY ZORG I'm fucked! Zorg calmly closes the case and gives Aknot a blood-chilling stare. AKNOT You asked for a case. We brought you a case. ZORG (shouting) A case with four stones in it. Not one! Not two or three! But four!!! Four stones!!! What the fuck am I supposed to do with an EMPTY case?!!AKNOT's men grow edgy. AKNOT (tense) ...We are warriors, not merchants! ZORG (humored) But you can still count. Look... my fingers. He holds up four fingers. ZORG ...Four stones, four crates... Zero stones... (yelling) ZERO CRATES!!! (to his men) Put everything back, we're outta here. AKNOT's warriors turn their weapons on Zorg. AKNOT (icily) We risked our lives. I believe a little compensation is in order. ZORG (smiling) So, you are a merchant, after all. (to his men) Leave them one crate. For the cause! Zorg's men leave a crate and exit with the other three.76 EXT. OUTSIDE ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY Zorg walks along the street to his limo. RIGHT ARM carries the emptycase. ZORG I don't like warriors! They're too narrow-minded, no sublety. Worse, they fight for hopeless causes..for honor! Honor has killed millions of people but hasn't saved a single one. (pause) You know what -- do I like though, I like killer. A real dyed in the wool killer. Cold-blooded. Clean. Methodical. Thorough. A killer, when he picked up the ZF1, would've immediately asked about the little red button on the bottom of the gun.77 INT. HALLWAY ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY The warriors have all taken a weapon. One of them inspects his ZF1. Heturns it over and notices the little red button. He presses it.78 EXT. OUTSIDE ZORG'S WAREHOUSE - DAY Behind Zorg, an ear-shattering explosion levels the warehouse. ZORG (impassive) Bring the priest.79 INT. GARAGE - DAY - OMIT79A INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - DAY Korben is finishing a Thai meal, cooked by a Thai on his mini restaurantanchored at the window. The cat eats next to Korben, contented. KORBEN So you forgive me? The cat meows just as a red light blinks, announcing the arrival of amessage in a glass tube. Korben ignores it. THAI Not going to open? KORBEN I've never gotten a message that wasn't bad news. THAI How someone strong like you scared from a message? Is good news I sure! KORBEN The last two messages I got? The first one was from my wife telling me she was leaving! And the second was from my lawyer telling me he was leaving too... with my wife. THAI You right that is bad.. but mathematically luck must change! Grandfather say: "It never rain every day." This is good news guarantee.. I bet you lunch! Korben hesitates, then gives the envelope to the Thai, who opens it witha big smile that fades as reads the contents aloud. THAI ...You're fired. Oh! Korben smiles at him. KORBEN At least I won lunch. THAI Good philosophy..see good in bad.. I like..I prepare number one dessert.. special for you and pussy.. The cat meows.79B INT. CORNELIUS' APARTMENT - DAY Leeloo is polishing of' an immense pile of dessert as David bangs away atthe computer. DAVID I got it! Everything here we need to know about Fhloston Paradise Hotel... and a detailed blueprint of the entire hotel! CORNELIUS Good work, my son. Now all we need is a way to get there. The doorbell rings. CORNELIUS I'll get it. Finish your work my son. Cornelius opens to Right Arm with armed escort. RIGHT ARM Father Cornelius? CORNELIUS My son? RIGHT ARM Mr. Zorg would like a word with you. CORNELIUS Mr. Who?80 EXT. MANHATTAN - OMIT81 INT. HALLWAY CORNELIUS APARTMENT - OMIT82 INT. REFRIGERATION ROOM - OMIT83 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE Zorg turns to Cornelius. ZORG Zorg. Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg... nice to see you again CORNELIUS I remember you now..the so called art dealer. ZORG I'm glad you got your memory back, Father... Because you're going to need it... Where are the stones? CORNELIUS ...Why on earth do the stones interest you? ZORG Personally, they are of no interest to me, I'd rather sell weapons..but I have a customer... so tell me... CORNELIUS Even it I did know where the stones were I would never tell somebody like you. ZORG Why? What's wrong with me? CORNELIUS ...I'm a priest! I'm here to serve life, All you want to do is destroy it. ZORG Ah, Father... You are so wrong. Let me explain... Zorg leads Cornelius into his inner office. ZORG ...would you like a drink? CORNELIUS No thank you. ZORG Follow me.. Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction. Look at this empty glass. Zorg pushes the glass with his finger. ZORG Here it is... peaceful... serene... but if it is... Zorg pushes the glass off the table. It shatters on the floor. ZORG Destroyed... Small individual robots, both free-wheeling and integrated, come zippingout to clean up the mess. ZORG ...Look at all these little things... so busy all of a sudden. Notice how each one is useful. What a lovely ballet, so full of form and color. So full of..life! CORNELIUS They are robots! A SERVANT comes in pours water in another glass. Zorg tosses a cherryinto it. ZORG Yes but... by that simple gesture of destruction. I gave work to at least fifty people today. The engineers, the technicians, the mechanics. Fifty people who will be able to feed their children so they can grow up big and strong. Children who will have children of their own, adding to the great cycle of life! Cornelius sits in silence. ZORG Father, by creating a little destruction, I am, in fact, encouraging life! So, in reality, you and I are in the same business! CORNELIUS Destroying a glass is one thing..killing people with the weapons you produce is quite another. ZORG Let me reassure you Father..I will never kill more people in my entire life than religion has killed in the last 2000 years. Zorg smiles, holds up the glass and takes a drink. Unfortunately, he chokes on the cherry. Unable to breathe, Zorg startsto panic. CORNELIUS (mocking) Where's the robot to pat your back? Zorg falls, writhing, on his desk, inadvertently hitting buttons whichtrigger a slew of little mechanisms. They pop out all over the desk.True chaos reigns. Even a cage appears, holding a Souliman Aktapan, a fatmulticolored beastie, PICASSO, who seems surprised to be out in daylight. Helicks his half-dead master in thanks. Cornelius gets up and walks aroundthe desk. Zorg motions for help. CORNELIUS Can I give you a hand? Cornelius whacks him on the back. The cherry comes flying out. Zorgregains control of himself. GUARDS come running in. ZORG You saved my life... So, I'm going to spare yours. (to the GUARDS) Throw him out! The GUARDS throw Cornelius out. CORNELIUS You are a monster, Zorg! ZORG (complimented) I know... The GUARDS drag Cornelius out of the office. ZORG ...Torture whoever you want, the president if you have to but I want those Stones. You have an hour. Right Arm salutes and hurries out of the office.84 EXT. MANHATTAN STREET - OMIT85 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE - OMIT86 INT./EXT. STREET / TAXI - OMIT87 INT. REFRIGERATION ROOM - OMIT88 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE - DAY - OMIT89 INT. HALLWAY - OMIT90 INT. REFRIGERATION ROOM - OMIT91 INT. TAXI - OMIT92 INT. ROOM - DAY - OMIT93 INT. TAXI - OMIT94 INT. ROOM - DAY - OMIT95 INT. TAXI - OMIT96 INT. SHAFT - OMIT97 INT. GARAGE - OMIT98 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE - OMIT99 INT. GARAGE - OMIT100 INT. LOCKER ROOM GARAGE - OMIT101 INT. GARAGE - OMIT102 INT. LOCKER ROOM GARAGE - OMIT103 INT. KORBEN'S BUILDING - DAY - OMIT104 INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - OMIT105 EXT. / INT. SPACE / SPACESHIP ...The dark planet. Three warships are positioned in front of it. Communication satellites arrive from all over the place, drawn to it likea magnet. CAPTAIN (observing) It's gobbling up all the communication satellites in the galaxy!106 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindberg appears even more crushed by recent events. PRESIDENT Why the hell is it eating up all those satellites like that? HEAD SCIENTIST (desperate) ...We're working on it, Mr. President. We're working on it. PRESIDENT It should only choke on them. MUNRO enters the office just as a cockroach crawls onto the desk.There's a small antenna on its back.107 INT. SMALL ROOM Zorg's Right Arm wears earphones, monitoring the President's conversationwith the cockroach-spy.108 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE / SMALL ROOM MUNRO I managed to contact the Mondoshawan. They deplore the incident, but accept our apologies. PRESIDENT (relieved) And the Stones? Did you find them in the wreckage? MUNRO The-Stones weren't aboard the ship. PRESIDENT (surprised) ...What do you mean? The President is all ears. So is Zorg's Right Arm. MUNRO The Mondoshawan never fully trusted the human race..they felt we're too unpredictable.. so they gave up the Stones to somebody they do trust. Her name is Plavalaguna. She's a Diva and she's going to sing at the charity ball on Fhloston Paradise in a few hours. She has the Stones with her. The President breathes easier. Zorg's Right Arm is delighted. PRESIDENT (taking off a shoe) Excellent! The President crushes the cockroach with his shoe. Right Arm's earphones fly off his head. Good-bye eardrums.109 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE PRESIDENT I want your best man on this! MUNRO Don't worry, Sir. I have the perfect one.110 INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT - DAY C.U. The most disgusting dessert ever made. Korben looks at it shimmyingon a plate as the Thai serves it to him proudly. THAI Stewed jellyfish cake.. my speciality.. Korben forces a weak, polite smile as the Thai looks on expectantly. Thephone rings. KORBEN Saved by the bell. Korben rises to get his cigarettes, and answer the phone. KORBEN ...Hello? MOTHER (V.O.) You're the nastiest dirtbag I know in this stinking City! KORBEN (resigned) Hi Ma... MOTHER (V.O.) I've been playing twice a week for 20 years, 20 years I've been eating those shitty croquettes. Korben goes to light his cigarette. There are only two matches left inthe match box. Korben strikes one and it fizzles. MOTHER (V.O.) You wouldn't even eat one to help your poor mother, and you win the big prize? Know something? The whole thing makes me sick! The Thai starts to clean up. Just as Korben goes to strike the secondmatch.. MOTHER (V.O.) Are you listening to me, you ingrate! KORBEN (resigned) Yes ma.. Korben sighs and puts the match back in the box. Korben enters his code on the keypad the Thai is holding. KORBEN (to the Thai) Go on... This is gonna take a while!The Thai casts oft. Korben closes the window. KORBEN Other than that... You all right? MOTHER (V.O.) ...And now you're making fun of me? I'm warning you! If you don't take me after all these years of sacrifice, I'll never forgive you!! The Thai flies off. In the hall, the cat meows-for more food. KORBEN (to the cat) I'm coming!. Ma, what're you talking about? MOTHER (V.O.) I get it! You want to make me beg, is that it? KORBEN All I want is an explanation! I just got in, I lost my job. I smashed my cab. I got mugged, but other than that everything's peachy, Ma, thanks for asking!! Now settle down and explain to me calmly.. A message drops in his tube. The red light goes on. MOTHER (V.O.) You just won a trip, you dolt! Ten days in Fhloston Paradise for two! KORBEN Ma. If I'd won, I'd know about it. Someone would have notified me. MOTHER (V.O.) They've been blaring out your name on the radio for the last hour, blockhead! He eyeballs the message still in the tube. The doorbell rings.- KORBEN Ma.. it's the door. I'll call you back. Korben hangs up before his mother can say anything and heads for thedoor. Before he gets there it opens, General Munro enters followed by aCaptain and a Major. MAJOR ICEBORG is a woman. All she needs to become a man is a mustache. Munro opens a file. MUNRO (clipped) Major Dallas, if our calculations are correct you still have 57 hours owed to the Federal Army on your enlistment which is more than you will need for a mission of the utmost importance. KORBEN What mission? MUNRO To save the world. KORBEN Where have I heard this song before? MUNRO You're to leave immediately for Fhloston Paradise. Retrieve four Stones from the Diva Plavalaguna. And bring them back with the utmost discretion as possible. Any questions'? KORBEN (a little bewildered) Just one... why me? MUNRO Three reasons... One: As part of The Elite Special Forces Unit of the Federated Army you are an expert in the use of all weapons and spacecraft needed for this mission. Munro pulls out a long list of documents. MUNRO Two: Of all the members of your unit you were the most highly decorated. KORBEN And the third one? MUNRO You're the only one left alive... Munro removes the message Korben hasn't bothered to look at. MUNRO Don't you open your messages? KORBEN I've had enough good news for today MUNRO (by rote) You have won the annual Gemini contest and a trip to Fhloston Paradise. For two. Congratulations. Here are your tickets. He hands Korben the tickets. Korben gets it. KORBEN You rigged the contest? Munro nods. MUNRO Major Iceborg will accompany you... as your wife... The idea of taking a trip with Iceborg makes him sick. KORBEN (sarcastic) You couldn't come up with something a little more discreet? MUNRO Old tricks are the best tricks eh? KORBEN I'm not going. MUNRO Why not? KORBEN One reason... I want to stay the only one left alive.110A INT. KORBEN'S HALL Leeloo and Cornelius search for Korben's apartment. Leeloo carries thecard Korben gave her. Cornelius finds the apartment, and yanks the.number off the door. He waves Leeloo over as his hand goes to the bell.110B INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT The doorbell rings. KORBEN ...Scuse me. Korben goes to the door and looks out the peephole: the beautiful Leeloo. Korben panics, overcome with happiness. KORBEN ...Shit! MUNRO (worried) What is it? Korben has two seconds to make up something to get rid of Munro. KORBEN It's my wife. MUNRO I thought you were divorced. KORBEN I mean my future.. my ex.. My future ex.. if she sees you here I'm finished. She hates you guys. It's what killed us in the first place. Please... He puts them in the fridge, shoving the jellyfish cake in Iceborg'shands. KORBEN ...Sorry, General, but we've got no choice! It'll only take a minute! Let me set up another meeting and I'll be back. MUNRO Three of us will never fit in there! KORBEN (pushing him) Oh, yes you will... Korben slams the fridge door. The doorbell RINGS again. KORBEN ...Coming! He whips through his place in ten seconds, gathers up things layingabout, shuts drawers, rolls up his laundry in the folding bed. He brushes hishair back and opens the door with a big smile only to discover a gun stuck betweenhis eyes held by Cornelius. LEELOO Apipoulai! KORBEN I suppose that means "Hi" ? CORNELIUS I'm sorry to have to resort to such methods, but we heard about your good luck on he radio and we need the tickets to Fhloston. KORBEN Is that the usual way priests go on vacation? CORNELIUS We're not going on vacation..we're on a mission.. KORBEN What kind of mission? CORNELIUS (sincere) We have to save the world. KORBEN (skeptical) Good luck.. CORNELIUS Of course. KORBEN Father, I was in the Army for awhile and every time they told us we were on a mission to save the world the only thing that changed was I lost a lot of friends. So thanks for the offer.. but no thanks. Cornelius is disappointed. Leeloo looks crestfallen. KORBEN I'm sorry.. VOICE This is a police control action.. Everyone freezes as the whole building resounds with the electronicvoice.111 INT. LANDING KORBEN'S BUILDING A group of POLICEMEN bursts into the hallway. One of the cops enters acode on the police wall box. A device descends from the ceiling, aflashing light-siren, a VOICE fills the air. VOICE This is not an exercise. This is a police control. Cornelius starts to panic. Korben takes charge. CORNELIUS Oh my god oh my god.. Korben pushes a button sending the fridge to the next floor. A showertakes it's place. KORBEN Leeloo, hide in here and don't move! Leeloo hops in. Korben tosses Cornelius on the bed. CORNELIUS What are you doing? KORBEN Trying to save your ass so you can save the world. ..and hits a button on the wall. The bed disappears into the wall. Korben grabs his tickets and slides them in his belt.112 INT. LANDING KORBEN'S BUILDING - DAY Meanwhile, the automatic police voice continues. VOICE ...Spread your legs and place your hands in the yellow circles, please. A COP slaps a viewer device on Korben's door which makes part of ittransparent. COP 1 Put your hands in the yellow circles, please. Korben takes his time hiding his face. The Cop looks at his sheet. He'slooking for a... KORBEN DALLAS. He has his picture, but it is Korben with long hairand beard. COP 1 (to COP 2) Sir? Are you a human? KORBEN No, I'm a meat popsicle. COP 3 (at the other end of the hall) I found him! C.U. Korben's calling card is clumsily stuck to the door of theneighbor's apartment. COP 3 slaps the viewer on the nasty neighbor's door.The neighbor is at his sink shaving instead of against the wall, COP 1arrives with Korben's picture. COP 1 Sir, this is a control. Please put your hands in the yellow circles. The neighbor steps right up to the viewer, shaving cream on his face. Hecould pass for Korben. NEIGHBOR Fuck you!!113 INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT Korben still has his hands to the wall. KORBEN Wrong answer. SHOT O.S. EXPLOSION. Scuffle.114 INT. HALL The riot police hustle down the hall dragging the neighbor behind them ina canvas bag. A cop is on the wall phone. COP OK, we got the guy under wraps.115 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE Right Arm is on the phone, facing Zorg. COP (O.S.) It was not easy, but we bagged him!. Thanks for the tip! RIGHT ARM (smiling) Glad to help. He hangs up. RIGHT ARM They just arrested the guy for Uranium smuggling. Everything's going as planned. He shows him a plane ticket, and a passport with his picture and Korben'sname. RIGHT ARM All I have to do now is to go to the airport and take his place. I should be in Fhloston in less than four hours. Zorg sits there quietly for a moment. ZORG Don't come back without the Stones.116 INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT Korben opens the shower door. Leeloo is soaking wet, her teethchattering from the cold. KORBEN I'm really sorry.. there wasn't time.His eyes fall on an old blanket. KORBEN Here let me wrap you up. Korben wraps her in an blanket and vigoroualy rubs her back. Leeloowarms gradually and snuggles closer to that warm comfortable shoulder.Korben's rubbing slows, looking more like caresses. KORBEN ..It's funny. I've met you twice today and you've ended up in my arms both times. Leeloo suddenly realizes that she has maybe gone a bit too far. She recovers, looking embarrassed too. LEELOO (nicely) Valo massa... Chacha hamas. KORBEN Uh..you're welcome. The intimacy makes him nervous. He looks for a diversion. KORBEN Coffee! That's what you need! A nice, hot cup of coffee! He pushes a button on the coffee machine. KORBEN With some honey! You'll see, honey's great!... Korben rummages through the drawer. Leeloo, innocent, doesn't seem toquite understand everything that is going on. KORBEN A hot cup of coffee... with honey... He rummages through the cupboard, exceedingly nervous. Leeloo smiles andbegins to look around. She opens a drawer and comes upon.. KORBEN (nervously) I've got this great honey somewhere. You know about honey? There used to be these little animals who made it with antenna... ..pictures of Major Korben Dallas War Hero. KORBEN ..and these other animals who ate it.. one were bees the other were bears.. She looks back to the man fumbling for honey. KORBEN I forget which ate it and which made it but.. And she smiles. KORBEN Here it is! Korben holds up the jar of honey. KORBEN Taste this... Leeloo innocently sticks his finger in the jar then puts it in her mouth. KORBEN It... melts in your mouth, doesn't it? She savors the honey, slowly; sensually. Her lips shine with honey. Hereyes narrow with pleasure. Korben is hypnotized by her lips, like a mothattracted to a flame. He begins to lose control, which makes him nervous. An indistinct sound comes from the wall. But Korben is so entranced withthe sight of Leeloo licking her honied fingers, he doesn't hear it untilit becomes quite a racket. KORBEN You hear that? LEELOO (licking) Cornelius.. KORBEN Oh god! Korben pushes the button on the wall. The bed pops out, fully made, withCornelius tucked in it, struggling to get out. KORBEN I'm really sorry.. let me help you..Korben begins to pull at the covers when.. LEELOO Achta ge lumitai de matala.. Korben turns.. KORBEN What? He turns to Leeloo struggling out of her wet clothes. His breath is takenaway by the sight of her perfect body. Cornelius whacks him heavily on the head with a lamp. Korben drops tothe floor. LEELOO (displeased) Vano da, mechteba?! Soun domo kala chon hammas! CORNELIUS No, I'm not proud of myself... But we don't have the luxury of choice.117 INT. ENTRANCE KORBEN'S BUILDING - DAY The POLICE exit the elevator and head for the front door. A cop suddenlytakes a hit from a silencer, then a second. Others are bashed on the headby MANGALORE warriors. One of them picks up the prisoner bag, takes itinto a small shed.118 INT. SHED Aknot, the Mangalore leader, is seriously wounded and can't walk. AKANIT Korben Dallas! We got him. AKNOT Perfect... Take command, Akanit. Go to Fhloston and get the Stones... If Zorg really wants them... He'll have to negotiate. Revenge is at hand.119 INT. KORBEN'S APARTMENT KORBEN'S BUILDING - DAY Korben gets unsteadily to his feet, some blood drips down his face. Hedaubs at it. KORBEN Jesus!... Some priest! The phone rings, he manages to answer. KORBEN Yeah? MOTHER (V.O) Have you pulled yourself together? KORBEN ...Not yet. He hangs up. Korben opens the fridge door. The three officers are frozen solid.Korben grabs some ice, presses it to his forehead. KORBEN I'll take the mission. He closes the door.120 INT. AIRPORT HALL - DAY Cornelius and Leeloo (still damp) arrive at the Manhattan IntergalacticAirport. A huge hall three quarters filled with trash piled up to the ceiling. There are groups of extra-terrestrials on strike standing in trashholding picket signs. A SECURITY GUARD picks up a phone off the wall. SECURITY GUARD Illegal gathering in Zone 4. A hand taps Leeloo from behind. She whips around catching David in theface. CORNELIUS Leeloo, be careful. He turns to David who in holding his bloody nose. CORNELIUS Did you get them? David hands Cornelius two passports. CORNELIUS Excellent... Leeloo Dallas. He hands it to her. The name makes her smile. CORNELIUS And Korben David Dallas. She frowns. LEELOO Akta dedero ansila do mektet. CORNELIUS I can't pretend to be your husband... David's in great shape. She looks at David holding his bloody nose. CORNELIUS He'll protect you. Go on... See the Diva... get the Stones... See you at the temple... God be with you. ANGLE ON: Korben comes rushing into the airport. Walking quickly, hescopes the hall looking for Leeloo. A POLICE PATROL bearing down on theSTRIKERS jostles him. The cops open fire. The strikers dive into the garbageand disappear.121 INT. BOARDING GATE David nervously puts tickets and IDs on the check-in counter. Leeloo tosses her suitcase on the conveyor belt. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT Congratulations on winning the contest. David gives her a bleak smile. Leeloo rolls her eyes. Back a ways, Korben has spotted Leeloo and... David. He heads right forthem. Leeloo's seen him. She is both delighted and panicked. David'sseen nothing. Korben presses one of his fingers like a gun to David's back. KORBEN (friendly) Hey! I really thought I was going to miss my flight! (to David) Thanks, kid! You put the luggage on the conveyor belt? DAVID (freaking) Uh... yeah. KORBEN (smiling) Great! Now beat it! Paralyzed, David leaves. Korben turns to the attendant. KORBEN Excuse me. I was so afraid I'd miss the flight that I sent the kid here to pick up my boarding card. He looks at David's fake ID. KORBEN ...My cousin David... Leeloo is unable to hold back a smile. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT (looking at Leeloo's ID) Your wife? Korben grabs the ID and reads it. KORBEN Uh, yes... Newlyweds. (aside) You know how it is... Love at first sight. You meet, something goes tilt,. you get married, you hardly know each other. Right, darling? Leeloo rips her boarding card out of the attendant's hand. LEELOO (sharply) Dinoine chagantakat! KORBEN Took the words right out of my mouth. Go on... I'll be right with you. (to Check-in Attendant) It's our honeymoon. We're going to use the trip to get to know each other better. He winks at the stewardess. ANGLE ON: The neighbor and a tawdry young girl cross the airport. The couple inalmost knocked over by a police patrol holding a 500 pound PIG on astainless steel leash. The couple panics a moment, the realize the patrolisn't for them. The pig heads for the pile where the strikers disappeared. COP (to pig) Come on, snyffer, go root! The pig piles into the garbage. The Cop cuts it some slack. Cornelius sits at a bar. CORNELIUS (to the bartender) I feel so guilty sending her to do the dirty work. I know she was made to be strong but she's also so fragile... So human. You know what I mean? The bartender, a robot, nods his head as he pours Cornelius a drink. ANGLE ON: The nasty neighbor and his wife hand their tickets to the check-inattendant. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT (surprised) Dallas... Korben... NEIGHBOR (in a different voice) Yes, that's me. The check-in attendant triggers a transparent blue light that shines ontheir faces, revealing two other faces: Mangalores. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT (smiling) Just a minute, please. She hits a silent alarm, but the Mangalores feel something is wrong. NEIGHBOR We'll be right back ... we're gonna check out the duty free... They spin around and hurry away. ANGLE ON: Cornelius at the bar, half in the bag. ROBOT The same? CORNELIUS Yeah... DAVID (V.O.) Make that two... Cornelius turns to David. CORNELIUS Where's Leeloo? DAVID On the plane... with Mr. Dallas... the real one. CORNELIUS It's all my fault. I'm the servant... It's my mission! Here! He hands David the Temple Key from around his neck. CORNELIUS Here's the key to the Temple.. Prepare for our arrival! Cornelius tosses David's drink into his own, downs it all in one shot,and takes off, passing the Mangalore couple headed for the exit. They arevery nervous. A police patrol is coming. This time, it seems to be for them. NEIGHBOR (to the tawdry girl) Tell Aknot plan A flopped. Tell him to go to plan B. The tawdry girl nods and peels off. The neighbor takes out a gun andblasts away at the cops. The cops fire back. A firefight rages in thehall. The tawdry girl dives into a pile of garbage and disappears. COP (into walkie-talkie) ...Send in a back-up unit, Zone 7! ANGLE ON: On one side of the hall, a trap door opens. Three pigs come running out,grabbed by their police handler. Cornelius waits until everyone has left, gets down on all fours andcrawls through the trapdoor reserved for the pigs.122 INT. FIRST CLASS LOUNGE Leeloo stands at the buffet in the first class lounge eating everythingin sight.123 INT. HALL Korben is led down the hall by a STEWARDESS. STEWARDESS You are so lucky... Loc Rhod is the coolest DJ in the universe. KORBEN Listen... I don't want to be interviewed. I'd prefer to remain anonymous. The stewardess stops in the corridor. STEWARDESS Forget anonymous. You'll be doing Loc Rhod's live show every day from 5 to 7! KORBEN (expression changes) You gotta be kidding! The stewardess smiles and shakes her head. The door next to him suddenlyswings open and smashes him in the face. In walks LOC RHOD amidst a tornado of music and security guards. He isyoung, good-looking, eccentric, charming as an elf or sly as a fox. Abundle of energy. He is the 24th century's most popular DJ. LOC RHOD (speedy, in rhythm) Korben Dallas! Here he is The most hated man in the universe. The one and only winner of the Gemini Croquette contest! Ladies, start melting 'cause the boy's hot! Hot! Hot! The boy is perfect.. (he feels his muscles) ...The right size, right build, right hair. Right on! Say something-to those 50 billion pair of ears out there D-man! An ASSISTANT hands a totally lost Korben a mike. KORBEN (hesitant) ...Hi. LOC RHOD Does it get any better or what! Loc Rhod grabs Korben's arm and leads him down the hallway, as fast asthe music. LOC RHOD ...Quiver ladies, he's gonna set the world on fire right here from 5 to 7! You'll know everything there is to know about the D-man. His dreams, his desires, his most intimate of intimates. And from what I'm looking at intimate is the stud muffin's middle name. So tell me my main man... you nervous in the service? KORBEN Uh... not really. Loc Rhod lets go of Korben's arm and grabs the Stewardess. LOC RHOD Freeze those knees, my chickadees, 'cause Korben is on the case with a major face... Loc Rhod rubs up against the stewardess. LOC RHOD ...Start drooling, ladies! My man here is a sharp-tongued Sire who's gonna stroke your every desire. They come to an intersection. The airline company has prepared drinksfor them. Loc Rhod pushes on, grabs a glass of champagne, scribbles hisautograph. LOC RHOD Yesterday's unknown will be tomorrow's Prince of Fhloston Paradise, the hotel of a thousand and one follies, home of luxury and beauty. A magic fountain flowing with non-stop wine, women and Bootchie Koochie Koo... He tosses away his champagne glass. LOC RHOD Beware out there puppy dogs my man is on the prowl. Owwww! Howling, Loc Rhod grabs another stewardess by the arm. LOC RHOD ...And start licking your stamps little girls, this guy's gonna have you writing home to Momma! Tomorrow from 5 to 7, I'll be your voice, your tongue and I'll be hot on the tail of the sexiest man of the year... D-man... Your man... My man. The stewardess shivers. A BEEP is heard. VOCODER (O.S.) End of transmission. The MUSIC suddenly stops. Several assistants come and compliment LocRhod who sighs, lights up a cigarette, and drops his pretense. LOC RHOD Korben sweetheart do me a favor I know this is probably the biggest thing that ever happened to you in your inconsequential life. But I've got a show to do here and it's got to pop. So tomorrow, when we're on air, give me a hand... Try to make believe you have more than a one word vocabulary. OK pal? That does it. Korben grabs him by the collar and drags him into acorner. Loc Rhod's feet don't touch the ground. KORBEN (pissed) I didn't come here to play Dumbo on the radio. So tomorrow between 5 and 7 give yourself a hand, that clear pal? LOC RHOD (petrified) Crystal.124 INT. AIRPORT The Check-in attendant has two more tickets in her hand. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT (alter a moment, reading) ...Mr. Dallas... Korben Dallas? Zorg's Right Arm gives her a big smile. RIGHT ARM That's right. The attendant scans the ID with a yellow beam, it checks out, and theblue light reveals no other face but his. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT The problem is I only have one Korben Dallas on my list... and he's already checked in. Right Arm's smile shatters. RIGHT ARM That's impossible! He's in j... I mean, there must be some mistake. I have my ticket! I'm the real Korben Dallas! A shrill BELL rings out. CHECK-IN ATTENDANT (smiling) I'm sorry, sir, boarding is finished. The attendant hits a button. A thick window slowly slides up betweenthem. Right Arm totally loses it. RIGHT ARM I want to see your boss! Get rid of this fucking window! Somebody's made a mistake, goddamnit! He pounds on the counter with both fists. A steel curtain comes down.Red sighting beams target spots on his body, ten gun barrels protrude fromthe wall, all aimed at him. VOICE (O.S.) This is not an exercise. This is a police control. Put your hands in the nearest yellow circles... RIGHT ARM (slowing down) Sorry, my fault... Just a little overexcited... that's all... I'm calm now.125 INT. SHUTTLE - DAY Korben makes his way in the plane looking for his seat. No more seats inmodern planes, just individual travel boxes lined up like microwaves. Hepasses STEWARD holding his bloodied nose. He has found what he is lookingfor. He enters to.... Leeloo quietly stretched out in front of a computerscreen. Korben slips in beside her. Leeloo in concentrating on the wordsthat scroll rapidly past her on the screen. He doesn't understand what sheis doing. LEELOO Apipoulai! KORBEN Not hard to find you...just follow the Chaos... Leeloo smiles, as if complimented. KORBEN Leeloo, listen to me... these tickets... they're not mine... I mean they are, but not for vacation like everyone thinks... I'm on an operation... and if I didn't come get you, you'd be in a shitload of trouble... I'd love to be on vacation with you... but now.... now I've got to work... And Leeloo... I would love to work in peace. Leeloo types in "LOVE" on the keyboard. LEELOO Love... KORBEN Yes! But "love" isn't the operative word here, PEACE is! Leeloo types in this new word. LEELOO (rather pleased) Peace... and love... She brings up a picture of a 60's style Hippie flashing a peace sign.Korben sighs and switches off the screen. KORBEN Sometimes you can't learn everything from a screen..sometimes it's better to ask someone who has experience.. LEELOO (quite happy) What is... Make Love? Korben just stares at her for a few minutes. KORBEN Know what? On that subject maybe you'd be better off asking the screen. He turns the computer back on. ANGLE ON: A STEWARDESS walks up the aisle of the shuttle pushing the red buttons ontop of each individual box. VOICE (O.S.) ...to make your flight as short and agreeable as possible, our flight attendants are switching on the timing sleeper which will regulate your sleep during the trip... ANGLE ON: LEELOO (switching off the screen) OK! Finished! KORBEN Finished what? LEELOO Learning language. KORBEN Which one? LEELOO All 900. Korben doesn't know if he should laugh or not. KORBEN You learned 900 languages in five minutes?! LEELOO (pleased) Yes! Now it's your turn! I learned your language, you have to learn mine! KORBEN I know how to say "Hello". Teach me how to say "Good-bye", that's all I need. LEELOO Apipoussan! KORBEN Apipoussan? LEELOO Good! Do you know how we say "make love"? KORBEN (fumbling) Uh... LEELOO ...Hoppi-hoppa. Korben literally melts. KORBEN (to himself) Help... Luckily, a stewardess smiles at him through the box window. STEWARDESS Sweet dreams, Mr. Dallas! The stewardess sets the timing sleeper. Korben and Leeloo immediatelyfall asleep. A STEWARDESS at the other end of the shuttle has a problem. STEWARDESS 2 Mr. Loc Rhod you have to assume your individual position. LOC RHOD (hugging her) I don't want an individual position, I want all positions! STEWARDESS 2 (resisting somewhat) We're going to take off soon, Mr. Rhod! LOC RHOD Now you're talking!126 INT. COCKPIT FHLOSTON SPACE SHUTTLE Three CREW MEMBERS prepare for liftoff. COPILOT (on the radio) Molecular axis authorization. Vector 130. Destination Fhloston. Stewardess 1 enters the cockpit. STEWARDESS 1 Zone 1. 217 locked. The sleep regulator is OK. PILOT (checking her out) Thanks, Miss. The Stewardess leaves with a smile. A red light flashes on the vastcontrol panel. MECHANIC Tell the ground crew we've got parasites in the landing gear.127 INT. AIRPORT LANDING STRIP - DAY A GROUND CREW MEMBER goes over to the truck parked under one of theplane's wings and bangs on the side of it with a shout. GROUND CREW MEMBER Disinfecting! Two DISINFECTORS in hermetically sealed suits exit the truck. They goover to the front landing gear and send up a whooshing beam. The flameburns everything it touches. A pack of repugnant creatures falls squealingfrom the landing gear. A small trapdoor is opened under the shuttle and ahuge slightly phosphorescent tube falls out.128 INT. AIRPORT HALL / ZORG'S OFFICE Zorg's Right Arm is in a phone booth in the middle of the hall. RIGHT ARM Yeah, it's me... Put Zorg on. He is already sweating. ZORG (cold) I'm listening. RIGHT ARM The real Korben Dallas is on the plane! He took my place. ZORG This is a joke, right?129 INT. SHUTTLE Loc Rhod is wrapped around a stewardess like a snake. LOC RHOD No!! I swear to God! I've never been this sincere with a human before!130 EXT. LANDING STRIP TWO GROUND CREW MEMBERS stick an enormous, highly phosphorescant tube into the opening. GROUND CREW MEMBER You're fueled and ready to go. Have a nice flight.131 INT. SHUTTLE PILOT (to copilot) Everything ready for liftoff?132 INT. CABIN STEWARDESS (weakly, to Loc Rhod) No, no... I'm not ready! I'd like to talk first...133 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE / AIRPORT HALL ZORG I cannot hear you. We have a bad connection here. What's your number? Right Arm reads off the phone number. RIGHT ARM 278-500-645-321 ZORG I'll call you back.134 EXT. LANDING STRIP The runway is now empty. A man slips out of the shadows. It's Cornelius.He scurries over to the front landing gear. He pauses for an instant, theclimbs up the wheel well and disappears inside the shuttle.135 INT. SHUTTLE The pilots are going through the pre-flight check list. COPILOT Anti static pressure? MECHANIC Primed. The mechanic presses a series of buttons.136 INT. CABIN Loc Rhod undoes a series of buttons on the stewardess' blouse, behind acurtain. He whispers a poem. Impossible to resist him. Outside thecurtain the stewardess' legs rise slowly.137 EXT. LANDING STRIP On the ground, protective fire curtains rise slowly to contain the engineexhaust on liftoff.138 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE A keyboard slowly appears in front of Zorg. ZORG (typing the number) 278... 500...139 SERIES OF QUICK CUTS: The pilot gradually turns the engines up. COPILOT 10 seconds... PILOT Power increase. - The stewardess undergoes a power surge from Loc Rhod that's about tolift her of. - Zorg finishes gleefully typing in the number. ZORG 3... 2... 1... - The engines at full blast. - The stewardess in close to screaming. PILOT Liftoff. - The copilot pushes a button. - So does Zorg. - The engines release their full power. - The stewardess screams in ecstasy. - In the hall, Right Arm literally explodes along with the phone andeverything else within 60 feet.140 INT. FHLOSTON SPACE SHUTTLE The stewardess' legs slowly descend and disappear behind the curtain.141 INT. COCKPIT In the cockpit, the atmosphere loosens up. COPILOT (relaxing) Landing gear secure. Let's light one up.142 INT. CABIN Korben and Leeloo sleep soundly in their box. Leeloo has a smile on herface and her hand in Korben's.143 EXT. OUTERSPACE - NIGHT The spaceship rockets past us, then suddenly vanishes with amazing speed.Space is now empty and calm. Billions of stars glow in perfect silence.144 EXT. SPACE The nefarious planet in still there, immobile, even larger now, writhinglike a serpent. Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, all activity stopsand it becomes gray and cold.145 INT. SPACESHIP In the Admiral's starship, scientists watch the measuring device. One ofthe devices suddenly starts working. TECHNICIAN All right! We're finally getting something!146 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The Head Scientist stands facing the President, who is looking more tiredthan ever. HEAD SCIENTIST The thing is sending out radio wavelengths! PRESIDENT What the hell does it want with radio waves? HEAD SCIENTIST ...Probably wants to make a call! The President and his Generals look at him in astonishment.147 INT. ZORG'S OFFICE Picasso purrs contentedly on Zorg's lap. The phone rings. SECRETARY (O.S.) Mr. Shadow on the line. Zorg shoots to his feet. Picasso tumbles to the floor. Zorg picks upthe phone, both excited and uneasy. He stands there, almost coming toattention. ZORG Yes... Zorg here. The voice is feeble. It comes from the far reaches of time, from thebowels of the universe. SHADOW Am I disturbing you? ZORG No... not at all. Where are you? SHADOW'S breathing is awesome. SHADOW ...Not far, now. ZORG Really? Maybe I can get you on my screen and see you at last! Zorg brings up a huge screen and pushes a few buttons. In the middle of an electronic snowstorm, a blackish, vaguely human,quiverinq form appears. Two eyes, like lava, give an idea where the head is.Zorg feels sick. SHADOW Do you have the picture now Mr. Zorg? ZORG Got it. SHADOW How's our deal coming along? ZORG (ill at ease) Fine, just fine! I'll have the 4 pieces you asked for any time now. But it wasn't easy. My costs have tripled. Shadow pauses an instant. A black slimy liquid starts to ooze from thetop of the screen. Zorg is feeling worse all the time. SHADOW Money is of no importance... I want the Stones! The black liquid oozes all over the screen which starts to melt. Zorgsweats profusely, his legs tremble. ZORG The Stones will be here. I'll see to it personally! SHADOW ...I can't wait to be among you. Zorg sighs and sits down totally freaked.148 EXT. ORBIT FHLOSTON PARADISE The space shuttle fills the screen. It banks left and begins its descenttoward Fhloston, the turquoise planet. Crystal blue water, perfect white sandbeaches. A true paradise.149 INT. SPACE SHUTTLE The stewardess picks up a microphone to make an announcement. STEWARDESS Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our descent toward Fhloston Paradise... Stewardesses walk down the aisles waking the passengers one by one. Theypress a button on the door of each box. In the corner, Loc Rhod and the stewardess awake with a start andstraighten their clothes quickly. The stewardess is embarrassed. STEWARDESS (timidly) I wanted to tell you that... Loc Rhod puts on his sunglasses and presses a finger to her lips. Hedisappears behind the curtain leaving the sighing stewardess on her own.150 EXT. FHLOSTON PARADISE The spaceship descends through some clouds and glides over a vastturquoise sea. Fhloston Paradise looms into view. An enormous oceanlinerfloating a dozen yards above the water. On closer inspection it is moremodern than a traditional oceanliner. The shuttle draws near, lookingridiculously small next to the monster. Like a sardine next to a whale.151 INT. COCKPIT A blinking light goes on. PILOT Shit! Parasites in Zone 1. Take a look. The 1st Mate heads off.152 INT. CABIN A stewardess opens Korben's box door. He is still heavy with sleep. Helooks over at Leeloo. She's not there.153 EXT. FHLOSTON The tiny space shuttle clings to the huge oceanliner.154 INT. COCKPIT The Pilot maneuvers the ship into it's docking area. PILOT Docking activated. You can let the passengers out.155 INT. REAR OF COCKPIT The 1st mate pries open the door to an overhead panel. Cornelius fallsout, hanging in a jumble of wires.156. INT. ENTRANCE HALL FHLOSTON PARADISE - DAY The enormous door opens and the passengers exit. Leeloo is among them.She appears quite impressed by the beauty and luxury of the 19th centurydecoration.157 INT. CABIN Korben attempts to make his way up the shuttle's aisle. KORBEN (jostling everybody) Pardon me. Excuse me. I'm trying to reach my wife.. Sorry!158 INT. ENTRANCE HALL A dozen policemen wait patiently at the end of the hall. Leeloo stopsand presses against the wall. She spots Korben leaving the shuttle. Agorgeous HOSTESS comes up to him, drapes a lei around his neck and plants akiss on his lips in welcome. HOSTESS (smiling) Welcome to Paradise. Korben's face is covered in lipstick. Leeloo sees he did nothing to stopthe girl and she doesn't like it. A HEFTY MAN wearing a sarong drapes some flowers around her neck. Then, obviously relishing it, he leans down to kiss her. Leeloo bashes him onthe forehead. The hefty man straightens up. He's still smiling, but hisnose is bleeding. He falls slowly to the floor. Korben pushes forward trying to spot Leeloo. He also tries to wipe thelipstick off. Leeloo tries to escape through a door marked PERSONNEL ONLY,but it's locked. A HOST looks at her with a grin. HOST (playful) If you don't have the code you can't open it! Leeloo smiles and punches in an old code and twists the doorknob. Thedoor opens with the sound of a braking lock. Leeloo smiles sweetly and entersas if nothing were amiss. A shriek of joy fills the room. Korben turns around. The HOSTESSEScluster around Loc Rhod as he comes out of the plane. Loc Rhod spots Korbenand latches onto his arm. It's not going to be easy to remain discrete. LOC RHOD (relieved) My main man! Please don't leave me here alone. My head's killing me and my adoring fans are gonna tear me apart! Get me outta here! KORBEN I'll take you to the bar, after that, you're on your own. LOC RHOD (hanging on to Korben) Oh, yes! Do that! You treat me right, man. Tell me all about yourself, your roots, your personal life, your childhood dreams... KORBEN I don't think this is a good time... LOC RHOD ...You got brothers and sisters? What about your dad? Tell me about your dad! What was he like? Physically? Big, I suppose? KORBEN (evasive) Yeah, very big, a giant. LOC RHOD I didn't have a dad... never saw him... never even heard him. 50 billion people listen to me every day... and he doesn't hear me...159 INT. SMALL ROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE - DAY Leeloo is in a small room, ear at the door, listening. Everything seemsnormal. She turns and discovers the room for what it is: a rest roomfor... three cops who look up from their books and stare blankly at her.Leeloo doesn't know what to do. So she smiles.160 INT. HALL - OMIT161 INT. MAIN HALL FHLOSTON PARADISE - OMIT162 EXT. ORBIT FHLOSTON PARADISE - DUSK - OMIT163 INT. THE CONTROL ROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE - DUSK - OMIT164 INT. KORBEN'S STATEROOM The door opens. The HOSTESS turns on the light and enters. Korbenfollows her, gaping at all the luxury. The BAGGAGE BOY enters bringing Leeloo's two suitcases. Korben grabs the notice announcing Diva Plavalaguna's concert at 5:30 inthat evening. Dress: Formal attire. KORBEN For the concert it says formal attire... I didn't bring... The hostess pulls back the closet door. Twenty tuxedos in a row. HOSTESS (looking him over) Here's some champagne. I'll drop by after the concert to open it. She gives him a blinding smile and closes the door. Korben pushes a button. The curtains open to reveal a most spectacularview of the turquoise planet. Stars shoot out into infinity.Breathtaking. Korben stands gaping. The phone rings, snapping him out ofhis reverie. KORBEN Hello? MOTHER (O.S.) You little sleaze bag! KORBEN ...Ma??? MOTHER (O.S.) Don't you ever ask me for another thing in my life again, you've killed your poor mother with your own hands! Korben drops into an armchair and sighs. His eyes go to the ceiling. KORBEN ...Ma!!!165 INT. CONTROL ROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE - OMIT166 INT. FHLOSTON PARADISE POLICE OFFICE - DAY The Chief of Police has Cornelius in front of him, handcuffed. FOG The Diva's ship is coming in. CHIEF OF POLICE I want maximum security. FOG Yes. Sir! CHIEF OF POLICE (to Cornelius) OK, let's hear it. CORNELIUS Where was I? CHIEF OF POLICE (bored) ...You open the door. There's a cabby with a girl in his arms. FOG opens the door. Two COPS come hobbling in all bloody and bandaged.They hold up a THIRD COP. CHIEF OF POLICE What happened? A bomb go off in your face? BEAT-UP COP Yeah... A 5 foot 7 inch bomb... with green eyes. Cornelius perks up. CORNELIUS And the smile of an angel? They all turn to look at him. CORNELIUS (to Chief) May I speak to you alone.167 INT. CORRIDOR FHLOSTON PARADISE - DAY Leeloo watches the Diva's arrival. A door opens and two POLICEMAN clearthe way for DIVA PLAVALAGUNA, her MANAGER, her BODYGUARDS and a gaggle of PORTERS carrying trunks. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Leeloo feigns interest in apainting that is obviously upside down. A white chiffon veil covers the faceof the Diva, she stops in front of Leeloo. The Diva reaches out andstrokes Leeloo's face, without touching her. The Diva removes her handmaking a sound of crackling electricity, then passes on. Leeloo is groggy.The Diva's ASSISTANT comes up to her. DIVA'S ASSISTANT Please forgive this little incident. She wants you to know that she senses great powers in you... in the service of a noble cause... She will give you what you have come to get, but she wants to sing first... One last time... The Diva's assistant turns the painting right side up. DIVA'S ASSISTANT (nodding) Miss. Leeloo looks at the painting, seems to understand it better.168 EXT. DIVA'S SUITE Policemen stand at attention in front of the Diva's suite. FOG Hello, I'm head of security. Everything is in order. You can... The Diva enters her suite without letting him finish. FOG ...make yourselves at home safely. If you need anything...give it a knock!169 INT. POLICE OFFICE HALLWAY - NIGHT A door opens near the police officer's main entrance. Cornelius looksboth ways. Then crosses the hall, dragging the Chief of Police by the feet.170 INT. KORBEN'S STATEROOM Korben finishes putting on his tux, still on the phone. KORBEN Listen, Ma! I've only got a few days vacation and I'll be damned if I'm gonna spend them on the phone. The door RINGS. KORBEN ...Hang on, it's the door. No! I told you I didn't bring anybody! I'm all alone... as usual! Korben opens the door. It's not the champagne. Even better. It'sLeeloo. KORBEN (to his mother) ...I'll call you back. Leeloo heads right for her suitcase and starts to undress. Korben has toturn away once more. KORBEN Here we go again... LEELOO (by rote) You know women normally change five times more than men. KORBEN You get that off the screen? LEELOO Yes... you know there's a lot of differences between men women. KORBEN You noticed.. LEELOO OK, you can turn around! Korben turns around. Leeloo has put on a very simple dress which is sexyto the max. He is smitten. So much so that Leeloo wonders if somethingisn't quite right. KORBEN Where you going? LEELOO I'm going to see the Diva sing. What's the matter?... Do I look bad? KORBEN No, not at all! I mean, just the opposite, you're... you're beautiful! Leeloo smiles at him, his compliment pleases her. She turns, revealingher unzippered back. Korben cannot help but stare at her bare flesh. Herperfect bottom. LEELOO Do you know how this works? Korben's blood boils. She wriggles, pressing her hands together close tothe zipper. KORBEN I have an idea. But instead of pulling on the zipper he slips a bracelet on her wrist. Aflourescent beam bursts out of the bracelet and forms a vertical bar goingfrom the floor to the ceiling. Stunned, Leeloo is held captive. KORBEN I told you I need to work in peace. Remember? I need to concentrate. LEELOO And you can't concentrate with me around?. KORBEN It's difficult. She tries to breakout. KORBEN Army issue. I'm sorry. Leeloo tries desperately to get out of the handcuffs. Impossible. Korben sets the radio down in front of her and turns it on. Leeloo looks like she'd like to break his head. LEELOO (seething) You're nothing but a... a... KORBEN The words you're looking for weren't in the dictionary you studied. I won't be long. The door flies open. Loc Rhod barges in. LOC RHOD Hey Stud we gotta... Then he sees the scene, Leeloo cuffed, in a low cut dress. His mind goesto the obvious. LOC RHOD Korben my man what's happening here? Who's the chick? What's the gig? We free forming here? Getting funky with the monkey? Can I get in on this? Korben grabs him by the collar.. KORBEN No..to all of the above. And yanks Loc Rhod out of the room. Leaving Leeloo looking extremelyunhappy.171 INT. RADIO - OMIT172 INT. LOC RHOD'S STATEROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT - OMIT173 INT. HALL - OMIT174 INT. BATHROOM - OMIT175 INT. DIVA'S SUITE FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT - OMIT176 INT. FHLOSTON PARADISE OPERA - NIGHT Loc Rhod and Korben enter what turns out to be a replica of the GarnierOpera in Paris. A hostess escorts them to their seats. LOC RHOD (broadcasting) We have just walked into what is probably the most beautiful concert hall in the universe. Totally awesome! Magnificent paintings on the ceiling. I don't know who painted them, but he must have busted his balls! I see a row of former ministers, more sinister than minister! A few generals practicing how to sleep. And there's Baby Ray, star of stage and screen, drowning in a sea of nymphets. He's not gonna get much out of this concert, he's stone-deaf! ANGLE ON: Baby Ray bending his ear to a girl asking for an autograph. BABY RAY ...to who? LOC RHOD (moving down the aisle) ...And over there is Roy Von Bacon, the king of laserball and the best paid player in the League. (shakes hands as he goes by) ...And over there is the Emperor Kodar Japhet whose daughter Aachen is still at the bar. "I love to sing, too, but in the shower", she recently confessed to me. She will no doubt prove to be as generous tonight as she always is. A waiter gives them two glasses of champagne. Track with the WAITER anhe leaves the hall with his empty tray. He enters a small room reserved forstaff.177 INT. STAFF ROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT The waiter joins some other WAITERS. They are well armed. He opens acupboard and pulls out a humongous weapon. Suddenly their faces burn offrevealing AKANIT, the young leader of the Mangalores, and his troops. AKANIT It's showtime!178 INT. CONCERT HALL The lights dim slowly in the concert hall.179 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindbergh and his staff, including Munro, sit at the desk.Speakers appear.180 INT. KORBEN'S SUITE Leeloo, still a prisoner, listens to the concert.181 INT. CONCERT HALL Korben is tense. The curtain rises. The Diva, in a stunning gown,stands in the center of the stage, head bowed. Behind her, a star filledwindow. The MUSIC begins. The Diva looks up, a rare beauty, but an alien.And then she begins to sing. Her voice is divine, unmatched. Korben isswept up in the TEARS.182 INT. KORBEN'S SUITE Leeloo has tears in her eyes183 INT. DIVA'S SUITE The manager couldn't care less about the concert. His main problem isthe bottle of scotch he can't seem to open. The doorbell RINGS. MANAGER (ugly mood) Yeah!? VOICE (O.S.) Flowers for the Diva. MANAGER She's allergic to flowers!!! VOICE (O.S.) There's champagne as well... The manager takes one look at the stubborn bottle and opens the door. Andfinds himself staring down the barrel of a gun. A dozen Mangalores rushin. One of them, with a human face, closes the door and waits out in the hall. ANGLE ON: Cornelius watching from around the corner. CORNELIUS ...My God!184 INT. CONTROL ROOM FHLOSTON PARADISE CAPTAIN Commander, I have a ship with a main malfunction. He requests permission to dock for repairs. COMMANDER Did you check out his registration number? CAPTAIN Everything's in order. COMMANDER Put him in the docking garage and inform the police.185 INT. COCKPIT ZFX200 - NIGHT CAPTAIN (V.O.) Permission granted. Dock 575. You have an hour. Will that be enough time'? Zorg sits at the controls. ZORG (cold) More than enough.186 EXT. FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT The ZFX approaches Fhloston.187 INT. KORBEN'S SUITE The ship comes close enough for Leeloo to see it out the window. FLASHBACK: The same ships with Mangalores at the controls attack the Mondoshawans atthe beginning of our story.188 INT. KORBEN'S SUITE Leeloo is alarmed. She has to act. She seizes the flourescent bar beamwith great effort and rams it into the ceiling, marking a hole large enoughfor her to escape.189 INT. CLOSET FHLOSTON PARADISE Cornelius bursts into the closet he left the Chief of Police tied andgagged in. He quickly unties him. CORNELIUS (in a panic) Mangalores! The Diva's suite! They want the Sacred Stones! They must be stopped. We must stop them!. I'm going to free you but you must promise to help me! The Chief of Police nods his agreement.190 INT. DIVA'S SUITE The Mangalores have trashed the suite. One of the Mangalores finallyfinds a case engraved with the four elements. MANGALORE I have it. The Mangalore is about to open the case when... Leeloo descends quietlyand gracefully from the ceiling. Time stands still. LEELOO (smiling) Apipoulai!191 INT. CONCERT HALL The Diva switches from classical music to funk, picking up the tempo. INTERCUT':192 INT. DIVA'S SUITE / CONCERT HALL. A WARRIOR whips out the biggest knife ever made and rushes Leeloo. Shedisarms him gracefully. A violent fight breaks out. The Diva sings andLeeloo dances. The Mangalores pay a heavy price for the show.193 INT. CORRIDOR Hearing noise from inside the suite, the Mangalore by the door getsnervous. He runs for reinforcements.194 INT. POLICE STATION Cornelius enters the police station wearing handcuffs. The Chief ofPolice is behind him holding a gun.195 INT. DIVA'S SUITE / CONCERT HALL Leeloo knocks out the last Mangalore just as the Diva finishes her songto a burst of applause. The Diva takes a bow. So does Leeloo.196 INT. ROOM Akanit and his men listen to the concert. The Mangalore guard runs in. MANGALORE They were waiting for us! It was an ambush! AKANIT If it's war they want it's war they'll get! Enact the Final Plan! All the Mangalores cock their weapons.197 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Leeloo is about to open the case when the door EXPLODES. Zorg is thereholding a ZF1. ZORG My compliments, little lady! ...And thanks for doing all the dirty work! I couldn't have done it any better myself! (sharply) ...Now hand over the Stones! Leeloo smiles and hands him the case. Zorg arms the ZF1 and gets readyto kill her. ZORG Nice knowing you. Leeloo catches on quickly. She kicks the scotch bottle on the floor intothe gun which throws Zorg's shot off. She jumps to the ceiling anddisappears in an air vent. Furious, Zorg fires at the ceiling.198 INT. AIRSHAFT Leeloo dodges the bullets as best as she can.199 INT. SUITE Zorg fires his 3000 round clip. The ceiling looks like a piece of swisscheese. Zorg sticks a small cylinder in the wall and flicks it on. Thenumbers flashing by tell us it's a bomb. The timer reads: 19 minutes and 59seconds. ZORG (with a crafty smile) You can run but you can't hide...200 INT. POLICE OFFICE FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT Cornelius is seated opposite the Chief of Police. A MEDIC is bandagingthe chief's head. The door explodes. The cop outside in riddled withbullets. A dozen Mangalores attack the police office. Akanit is attheir head. The policemen are caught unaware. AKANIT Nobody move! We're taking over this ship! The Chief of Police is goggle-eyed. Cornelius leans toward him. CORNELIUS (pleased with himself) I told you...201 INT. CORRIDOR Zorg has the case and exits the suite just as the general alarm goes off. He sighs in exasperation.202 INT. CONCERT HALL Three Mangalores suddenly rush into the opera hall shooting. MANGALORE 1 Everyone down! There is panic all around. LOC RHOD (broadcasting, panic stricken) Ladies and gentlemen, I think we're being... attacked. The place is crawling with warriors.203 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindberg and his generals look very worried.204 INT. CONCERT HALL Some security guards open fire one of the Mangalores is hit. The othersturn their guns on the cops. People scream, diving for cover. Korben bideshis time. More Mangalores rush in from all around shooting. Two cops are killed. The Diva... takes a bullet. She falls from the stage into Korben's arms. He lowers her to the floor.Korben ignores the panic all around and wraps her in his dinner jacket,trying to stop the blue blood spurting from her wounds.205 EXT./ INT. SPACE AROUND FHLOSTON Zorg's ZFX200 speeds away from the boat. Zorg is at the controls, adevilish smile on his lips. ZORG You want something done, do it yourself!206 INT. CONCERT HALL Fighting rages all around in the concert hall, but Korben is oblivious toit. He sets the Diva's head delicately on the floor. Loc Rhod is hiddennearby, still on the air. LOC RHOD (voice low, panicked) They're hideous. They've got a crest on the head, the eyes of a toad and fingers all over their hands. Totally hideous!207 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE. MUNRO (worried) ...Mangalores! PRESIDENT Send a battalion out immediately!208 INT. CONCERT HALL KORBEN (to the Diva) I was sent by the government to help you. DIVA Don't worry. This is my fate... How was the concert? Korben is a little surprised, but... the Diva is an artist. KORBEN I've never heard anything so beautiful in my life. A Mangalore jumps on them from the stage. Korben makes short work of himand grabs his gun. DIVA (weak) You're a good man... She was right to have chosen you... KORBEN Who? DIVA The Fifth Element... The Supreme Being... Your wife... Korben is floored. KORBEN Leeloo... is... she's... DIVA Yes, and more than that... You must give her the Stones, she's the only one who knows how to use them. KORBEN (to himself, suddenly realizing) ...So Cornelius was telling the truth!209 INT. POLICE STATION The Mangalores tie up Cornelius and the Chief of Police together. CORNELIUS (to the Chief of Police) Of course I was telling you the truth!... If you had listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't be in this predicament now!210 INT. CONCERT HALL Korben wastes two more Mangalores. DIVA She needs you. She needs your help and your love. She's more fragile than she seems... Korben looks around, ready for another attack. KORBEN ...Yeah, so am I. The Diva takes his hand. DIVA She was taught to love the life of others... but not her own. You have to teach her to love if you want her to truly live! KORBEN (uncomfortable) I'll help her, I promise, but I think you should tell me where the Stones are! DIVA Do you love her? KORBEN I... I don't know! We hardly know each other... it takes time! DIVA I don't have time... I need to know. KORBEN Listen, the last time I admitted to a woman I loved her ... I never saw her again. DIVA I would like to have died in peace... The Diva's eyes close.211 INT. DIVA'S SUITE The timer on Zorg's bomb clicks over to "15 minutes".212 INT. CONCERT HALL KORBEN You tell me to save the world then you go off and leave me in the shit! He shakes her, gently slapping her cheeks. KORBEN Come on! You're not gonna die in peace! You're not going to die at all! You hear me? Where are the Stones?213 INT. SPACESHIP Zorg sets the Sacred Case on a table in the cockpit. He opens it with acomplacent smile: It's empty! He cannot believe his eyes. He goes berserk, destroying everything insight.214 INT. CONCERT HALL Korben slaps the Diva soundly. She comes around somewhat. KORBEN I'm sorry, but... the Stones... DIVA (very weak) They are... with me... The Diva dies. Blue blood streams from her mouth. Korben frisks theDiva but doesn't find anything. The shooting slowly stops in the theatre.The Mangalores are now in total control. MANGALORE 2 Stay calm and nobody will get hurt! Hands on your head and into the hall! The guests comply KORBEN (to himself) ...The Stones are with me? and then it occurs to him. KORBEN ...In me? He touches the Diva's stomach and senses something hard. Girdinghimself, he sticks his hand in the wound and pulls out a Sacred Stone.Then another. And another. Korben pulls out all four Stones, covered in blueblood. Everyone has left the theater. The Mangalores check the aisles oneby one. Loc Rhod peeks out from under a seat. LOC RHOD Don't you think we'd better be going? A Mangalore spots Korben kneeling alongside the Diva. He grabs Korben bythe shoulder and pokes him with his gun. MANGALORE Hey, you! With the others! Korben spins and, in one swift motion, breaks his arm. Just forstarters. Another WARRIOR rushes over. Korben punches him into oblivionand snatches the gun. KORBEN That's it... I've had... all day people have been sticking guns in my face... Korben wraps up the four Stones in his shirt. LOC RHOD Korben man... These dudes are going to waste us if we don't do what they say. Korben gives him the package and grabs his mike. KORBEN You don't do what I say... I'll waste you myself. Got it? LOC RHOD Got it...215 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindberg dabs his sweaty face with a towel.216 INT. POLICE STATION Akanit is still in the police station facing control screens. He barksinto a walkie-talkie. AKANIT What's the situation in the hall?217 INT. HALL Hostages are being gathered in the middle of the hall. They aresurrounded by Mangalores who guard them. MUGGER (into walkie-talkie) There's no more resistance. Everything's under control. Three Mangalores are suddenly blasted through the glass door leading tothe theater. Korben bursts into the hall, two huge guns in his hands. KORBEN Everybody down! Korben takes out two more WARRIORS coming towards him, rolls behind acolumn. Laser bullets stinging all around his head. LOC RHOD This is amazing! Korben, Korben Dallas, the winner of the Gemini Croquette contest just killed three warriors like he was swatting flies... Panic everywhere! Heavy firing fills the hall. ANGLE ON: Roy von Bacon, the laserball player, rises from the floor behind aMangalore, grabs him and smashes his head into a column, seizing the gun. ANGLE ON: Two Mangalores firing a huge machine gun at the column Korben is usingfor cover. He dives for cover behind the bar. ANGLE ON: Two Mangalores watch awestruck. Roy whistles behind them. The twoMangalores turn around. Roy bonks their heads together. LOC RHOD It's Roy von Bacon, the Lions center forward joining in the battle... Someone taps Loc Rhod on the shoulder. He jumps with fright. PRINCESS AACHEN (hot to trot) All this is terribly exciting, hmmm? Loc Rhod covers his mike. LOC RHOD GET OFF MY BACK! A Mangalore shoots in their direction. Loc Rhod flattens himself on thefloor. A vase falls on the Princess knocking her out. A Mangalore loadssome missiles in his gun and destroys the bar piece by piece forcing Korben tomove forward. Korben motions to Baby Ray hiding under the pool table. KORBEN Toss me the balls! BABY RAY (terrified, still deaf) What? Another piece of the bar explodes. KORBEN The balls for Christ's sake! Korben apes playing pool, but Baby Ray really is stone-deaf. EMPEROR JAPHET He wants the balls! You deaf or something? The EMPEROR rolls the balls over to Korben. The Mangalore loads moremissiles and shatters another part of the bar. Korben hides behind the lastbit left. KORBEN How far is he from here? The EMPEROR glances at the Mangalore, who in reloading. EMPEROR I'd say about thirty yards to the left. Korben hefts the ball, jumps up and hurls it with blinding speed. TheMangalore catches it right in the head. He drops, firing in the air. Themissile strikes the ceiling which collapses on him. The emperor gives Korbena thumb's up. LOC RHOD ...And our man Korben has literally knocked out the opposition with an amazing 90 foot pitch. The COPS on the floor rise, scoop up weapons from dead Mangalores and laydown a line of fire at the last of the fleeing rebels . Roy whirls his armin victory. FOG Thanks for your help. KORBEN Forget it. Korben grabs Loc Rhod and takes him with him.218 INT. KORBEN'S SUITE Korben bursts into the room. He stares at the luminous bar still struckto the ground and sees the hole Leeloo escaped through. KORBEN Leeloo???219 INT. DIVA'S SUITE - CEILING Leeloo in bleeding all over. She can barely move. LEELOO (feeble) Kor... ban...220 EXT. NEAR FHLOSTON The ZFX 200 speeds back toward Fhloston Paradise.221 INT. DIVA'S SUITE The bomb timer now reads 10 minutes.222 INT. POLICE STATION HALLWAY - FHLOSTON PARADISE The last of the Mangalores have barricaded themselves in the back of thestation and shoot at anything that tries to enter. Korben joins thepolicemen already there. COP 1 Hey, who are you? KORBEN The winner of the Gemini Croquette contest. Korben goes to the door and peeks around the corner. Loc Rhod arrives. KORBEN Seven to the left. Five to the right. COP What's he doing? Korben leans around the corner and fires rapidly. KORBEN Six to the left. One to the right. LOC RHOD He's on vacation. KORBEN (reloading) We got to find the leader. Mangalores don't fight without a leader.223 INT. POLICE STATION Akanit gets up, grabs Cornelius by the throat and put a gun to his head. AKANIT One more shot and we start killing hostages, got that?224 INT. POLICE STATION HALLWAY KORBEN Found him... AKANIT (tense) Send someone to negotiate! KORBEN Mind if I go? I'm an excellent negotiator. COP 1 Uh... Sure, go ahead. Korben gets ready. COP 1 We're sending someone in who's authorized to negotiate.225 INT. POLICE STATION Korben walks quickly into the room, heads straight for Akanit, raises hisgun and puts a bullet through his head. KORBEN Anyone else want to negotiate? COP 2 (to another Cop) Where'd he learn to negotiate like that?226 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE MUNRO From us! The President gives Munro a hard look.227 INT. CONTROL ROOM The police round up the remaining Mangalores. Korben is at the controlcenter screens trying to find Leeloo. Cornelius comes over to him,embarrassed. CORNELIUS You're probably very angry with me and I quite understand. But I want you to know I'm fighting for a noble cause. KORBEN Yeah, I know... to save the world... but right now all I want to do is save Leeloo. CORNELIUS Leeloo's in trouble? KORBEN When is she not in trouble? CORNELIUS Uh.. Have you tried the Diva's suite? Korben realizes that Cornelius in probably right.228 INT. FHLOSTON PARADISE LANDING DOCK AND GARAGE The ZFX200 settles in the landing dock garage. SECURITY POLICE approachthe ship just as Zorg in getting out holding the ZF1. POLICEMAN More trouble? ZORG Nothing I can't fix myself. He brings up the ZF1 and wipes out the garage.229 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Korben enters the Diva's suite which is in shambles. He lookseverywhere, but finds nothing.230 INT. AIRSHAFT Leeloo lies in a pool of blood. She hears something below her.231 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Exhausted, Loc Rhod wipes his forehead and finds himself face to facewith the bomb stuck on the wall. Korben in busy looking for Leeloo. KORBEN (loudly) Leeloo? Up in the airshaft, Leeloo has heard him. LEELOO Korben... Her voice is too weak, Korben can't hear her. LOC RHOD Korben man... what the hell is this? Korben gives the bomb a prefunctory glance. KORBEN A molecular bomb. Three minutes left on the timer. LOC RHOD (increasingly worried) And, uh, what're these numbers clicking by? CORNELIUS Probably the time remaining before it explodes. Cornelius smiles and continues his search. LOC RHOD (weak smile) You're just saying that to scare me! Right? If it was a bomb, an alarm would've gone off. There's bomb detectors in all these hotels! A general alarm goes off. Loc Rhod is crushed.232 INT. MAIN HALL The lights flicker. VOICE (O.S.) This is a Type A alert. For security reasons the hotel must be evacuated. Please proceed calmly to the lifeboats located in the main hallways. A wave of panic engulfs the hall. The cops are unable to hold back thecrowd as it stampedes to the exits.233 INT. CORRIDOR Zorg marches down the corridor shooting everyone in his path.234 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Loc Rhod stands paralyzed in front of the flashing timer. Less than twominutes left. LOC RHOD Maybe we oughta be going, what do you think? KORBEN Not without Leeloo. Loc Rhod cannot take his eyes off the bomb. LOC RHOD Like D-Man, I hate to bother you but uh, like, we're down to 2 minutes here... Korben breathes out, bothered. He turns his attention to the bomb. KORBEN It's the latest model.. I've never seen one before... it works off a magnetic coded card... Let's see if I can rig it up.235 INT. AIRSHAFT Leeloo sticks her fingers out one of the bullet holes and lets some ofher blood drip down. The blood splats on Korben's hand. He snaps his head up and knowsimmediately who is up there. He forgets about the bomb. LOC RHOD Hey! What are you doing? The bomb! Korben drags the desk over, jumps on it and pokes his head in the torn upairshaft He spots Leeloo who gives him a weak smile. KORBEN Don't worry, I'm here now! He pulls her toward him, helps her out of the shaft and stretches her outon the desk. KORBEN Just relax. I've got the Stones. Everything's going to be fine. 30 seconds left on the timer. LOC RHOD (falling to pieces) Like Korben, can I have 30 seconds of your time here? KORBEN (to Leeloo) I'll be right back. Korben dashes over to the bomb. He is stopped by the barrel of the ZF1.Zorg, in person, holding a magnetic card. ZORG (smiling) Allow me... Zorg slips a small magnetic card in the bomb, it starts to count downfrom 5 minutes. ZORG Just for the fun of it. Loc Rhod faints. ZORG Well, what do we have here? Is this Korben Dallas? The famous winner of the Gemini Croquette contest? Or is this Korben Dallas from Special Section sent by old Lindberg himself. Korben doesn't reply. ZORG ...In any event, whoever you are, I was glad to meet you. Zorg fires at Korben who figures he is dead. Nothing. Zorg tries again.Nada. The clip is empty. Zorg starts to panic. ZORG ...A 3000 round clip! I didn't fire off 3000 rounds... did I? KORBEN Don't you know how to count. It's not all that hard. Watch! Korben punches him square in the face, shows him his index. KORBEN One! That's for trying to kill me! Second Punch. KORBEN Two! That's for firing me! Three! That's for pushing around a priest! And the rest is for what you did to my wife! Korben pummels him mercilessly.236 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindberg prefers closing his eyes. Munro's shoulders move asif he were beating on Zorg.237 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Zorg falls to the floor, beaten to a pulp. The timer clicks over to 3minutes. KORBEN We're outta here! He picks Leeloo up in his arms. Cornelius grabs Loc Rhod and gives him a resounding slap. LOC RHOD Are you nuts, Father? That hurts! I can't feel my teeth. CORNELIUS Doesn't matter all you need are your legs.238 EXT. FHLOSTON PARADISE - NIGHT The lifeboats launch from the hotel and fly out into space.239 INT. FHLOSTON PARADISE LANDING DOCK GARAGE Korben, carrying Leeloo, Cornelius and Loc Rhod are in the garage. VOICE (O.S.) Two minutes to complete evacuation... Korben bursts the lock on the first ship he finds and enters followed byCornelius and Loc Rhod. The ZFX200.240 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Zorg starts to come around.241 INT. ZFX200 Korben sets Leeloo down.242 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Zorg picks up his ZF1, unaware of the bomb and the countdown. ZORG I didn't fire three thousand rounds...243 INT. ZFX2O0 COCKPIT VOICE (O.S.) One minute to total evacuation... LOC RHOD You know how to fly this thing? KORBEN (concentrating) It's like a cab isn't it? VOICE 30 seconds... KORBEN Anyone know how to release the lines on this crate?244 INT. DIVA'S SUITE Zorg is busy with the ZF1 when the bomb starts to BEEP signaling the lastten seconds. Zorg is terror stricken. He pushes a button and holds theZF1 over his head. ZORG (loudly) Maximum Protection. A mauve-colored magnetic shield closes around Zorg like an indestructible sarcophagus.245 INT. ZFX200 COCKPIT Cornelius and Loc Rhod are bent over the buttons looking for a way torelease the lines. VOICE (O.S.) 6... 5... KORBEN Found it? Loc Rhod searches frantically. LOC RHOD I don't even know what I'm looking for! KORBEN Fuck it! Hold tight! Korben slams the throttle into full forward. The ship roars away rippingthe lines to shreds. Loc Rhod is thrown to the rear of the ship. CUT TO: The counter goes 1... 0 -The suite disintegrates - The corridor is consumed. -The main hall is no more.246 EXT. FHLOSTON PARADISE The ZFX200 jets away as the enormous oceanliner explodes behind it.247 INT. ZFX200 The ship stops shaking. That was a close one. Everyone's relieved. KORBEN Solid little jobs, aren't they? LOC RHOD (broadcasting, exhausted) Dear listeners, your favorite DJ is alive and kicking. It's seven o'clock and time for the news. Tune in tomorrow for another adventure. VOCODER (O.S.) Beep. End of transmission. Loc Rhod lets out a huge sigh. LOC RHOD (to the others) The best show I ever did!248 EXT. PLANET FHLOSTON A magnetic sarcophagus crosses the Fhloston sky and crashes into aglacier.249 EXT. FHLOSTON Zorg appears in the middle of the ice. He takes a portable phone out ofthe ZF1. ZORG How's that? Can you hear me better now? SECRETARY (O.S.) Yes, Mr. Zorg, I hear you perfectly! So, how was the concert? ZORG Who gives a shit! I didn't come here to listen to music! Listen up instead of running off at the mouth! The batteries on my phone are almost gone. SECRETARY (O.S.) Yes, Sir! ZORG Dispatch me another ZFX200 immediately. Someone stole mine. SECRETARY (O.S.) Right away, Sir. I'll send you a new one to the hotel. ZORG I'm not at the hotel! ZORG Hello?... BEEPER (O.S.) Battery dead. Zorg is all alone, lost, in the middle of the glacier. ZORG (to himself) Stay calm.... stay calm...250 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE General Munro enters the office with a smile. MUNRO Major Dallas has the Five Elements on board. The priest is guiding them directly to the temple. President Lindberg closes his eyes in relief. PRESIDENT Thank God! We've been saved! A SCIENTIST rushes in. SCIENTIST Mr. President. PRESIDENT Yes? Now, what?251 EXT. SPACE A ball of fire, all-powerful Evil, speeds across the screen with threeFederal Army warships following along behind it as best they can.252 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE PRESIDENT What do you mean, "its advancing"?!253 INT. COCKPIT FEDERATED WARSHIP COMMANDER It's not only advancing, but it's moving at incredible speed! We're having trouble following it.254 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE PRESIDENT (to Scientist) ...And... Do you have any idea where it's heading? The scientist is hard to put to answer, he shakes his head.255 INT. ZFX200 COCKPIT - NIGHT Korben gently wipes Leeloo's forehead with a cloth. She opens her eyes alittle. KORBEN (gentle, loving) Apipoulai.. Leeloo smiles, weakly, feverish. LEELOO I'm so very sad. KORBEN Why? We did pretty well, wouldn't you say? LEELOO Five hundred wars... Arms... Drugs... Money... Everything you create is used to destroy... KORBEN I told you not to read all that crap! LEELOO Protect life... Until death. Her eyes close and she falls back asleep. Korben is worried. She seemsso depressed. Cornelius enters. CORNELIUS There's a General on the phone... His name's Mambo, I think.256 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE MUNRO Munro here. President Lindberg wants to talk to you. Hold the line. The President clears his throat and takes the phone. PRESIDENT Major, first off, I want to thank you, in my name and in the name of the Federation...257 INT. ZFX200 / PRESIDENT'S OFFICE PRESIDENT (O.S.) For the praiseworthy courage you have shown us! I'd like to congratulate General Munro for his choice. He found the ideal man for such a... KORBEN (to the point) So now what's the problem? The President drops into his armchair and sighs. PRESIDENT There's a ball of fire 1,200 miles in diameter heading straight for the earth. And we have no idea how to stop it! ...That's the problem. Korben thinks fast. The Priest is with him. The Five Elements are onboard. KORBEN How much time before the collision? The President queries the scientist with a nod of the head. SCIENTIST If its speed remains constant... in an hour and 57 minutes. KORBEN (O.S.) I'll call you back in two hours. Korben hangs up. The President looks stunned.258 EXT. SPACE The ZFX200 shifts to the speed of light and vanishes in the star-studdedcosmos.259 INT. CHAPEL David is asleep. He is woken by the sound of...260 EXT. DESERT - DAWN The ZFX200 is parked in the middle of the desert. Korben walks ahead carrying Leeloo. Cornelius has the four Stones withhim. Barely awake, Loc Rhod stumbles along. David appears at the door of thechapel. DAVID You're all safe. Thanks be to God! CORNELIUS Later, David! Later! There's not a minute to lose! The small group enters the chapel.261 INT. CHAPEL Cornelius pushes the group onto the altar which is surrounded by a woodenbarrier. Cornelius stands in front of the cross. KORBEN Excuse me, Father, but... could we pray later? Cornelius bends the cross and pushes it down. A mechanism is set offlowering the altar like a service elevator. The altar descends amid rocky walls.262 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE MUNRO They just landed in the desert. PRESIDENT (sweating) How much time is left?263 EXT. SPACE Earth is in view. The Dark Planet fills the screen and heads for theblue planet.264 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE SCIENTIST About nine minutes. President Lindberg has trouble breathing.265 INT. TEMPLE Lit by torches, Korben sets Leeloo delicately on the altar in the exactcenter of the four elements. Cornelius looks over the four Stones everywhich way. CORNELIUS (panic-stricken) Uh, this one... must be water! It's obvious he doesn't know where to put it. KORBEN Don't tell me you don't know how all this works? CORNELIUS Theoretically, yes! The four Stones form the beam and the Fifth Element is supposed to stand in the middle there, but... I don't have the reference book. I've never seen the Stones work! Korben can't believe his ears. He tears the Stone out of Cornelius' handand studies the inscriptions. He goes over to one of the four bases thestones rest on and tries to figure it out. The symbol of air is on the Stone,the same as on the base. KORBEN Match the symbols! Korben places the first Stone and picks up another one. Cornelius hasfound the symbol for water. Loc Rhod sits down. He is very tired. LOC RHOD What is this some kinda game? Like chess? Korben pulls him to his feet and sticks a Stone in his hands. KORBEN No. It's much simpler. If we don't figure out where these Stones go in five minutes, we're all dead! Think you got it? Loc Rhod's got it and runs over to put in his Stone. The four Stones areall in place but nothing happens. KORBEN There's no light! You told me there were supposed to be four beams of light. CORNELIUS (lost) Yes, of course, but... The Stones are shut! They have to be open for it to work. KORBEN And you don't know how they open, is that what you are saying? CORNELIUS That's what I'm saying.266 EXT. SPACE The Dark Planet closes in on Earth rapidly.267 INT. CHAPEL Korben leans over Leeloo. KORBEN Leeloo? The Stones! We have to open them! How does it work? LEELOO (feeble) The wind blows... the fire burns... KORBEN I know all that, Leeloo! I'm talking about the Stones. LEELOO ...The rain falls... Korben is desperate. Leeloo's too weak, he won't get anything more outof her. He darts over to a Stone and turns it over and over. KORBEN The rain falls... the wind blows? Loc Rhod stands in front of his Stone looking at Korben. KORBEN Try and figure out how this fucking thing opens, instead of staring at me like that! Loc Rhod starts feeling the Stone all around. LOC RHOD (afraid) I'm looking, I'm looking.268 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The tension is palpable in the President's office. SCIENTIST ...Three minutes. MUNRO We've lost contact with them.269 INT. CHAPEL Korben and Cornelius turn the Stones every which way. All to no avai1.Loc Rhod is discouraged. LOC RHOD ...we'll never make it. He sighs. Three hooks pop off the Stone. Loc Rhod can't believe hiseyes. LOC RHOD It... it moved! Korben! Korben! Korben rushes over, looks at the Stone. Hooks are undone. KORBEN What did you say? What did you do? LOC RHOD Nothing! Swear to God, I didn't do nothing! KORBEN Look, you did something that set it off. Try to remember. Concentrate. Tell me exactly what you did!! Loc Rhod tries to duplicate the same movement. LOC RHOD I was like this... With my hands here and... I said, "We'll never make it!" That's all! Nothing happens. KORBEN Is that all? LOC RHOD Yeah... then I sighed... like this. Loc Rhod sighs, really depressed this time. The Stone opens even more. Korben's got it. KORBEN The wind! The wind blows... Korben blows on the Stone which immediately opens revealing a patch ofblue sky with some miniature clouds floating around inside. A yellow beampops up like a ray of sunlight, like Korben's smile. KORBEN Quickly, everyone on a Stone! Water for water! Fire for fire! Earth for earth! The two men move fast. Korben on the 4th Stone: Earth. He grabs afistful of earth and throws it on the Stone. A miniature patch of greenappears and immediately forms a green beam. Cornelius wipes his foreheadwith a scarf and wrings it out over the Stone. It opens revealing a patch ofminiature raging sea. A blue beam appears. Loc Rhod has a problem. LOC RHOD (shaking) I don't have a light. I stopped smoking last week! If we'd come a bit sooner... Korben pats his pockets, he comes up with a box of matches. There's onlyone left. KORBEN Don't breathe. Loc Rhod and Cornelius hold their breath. Korben strikes the match. Asmall flame appears on the tip. A breeze goes through the room. Korbenfeels like he's got TNT in his hands. He approaches the flame to the Stone.The flame twists, dims, flickers ...but holds on. The Stone opens. A patchof miniature fire appears. Korben sighs, snuffs out the match. The fourthbeam, a red one, immediately forms.270 EXT. SPACE A mass of fire fills the screen. The Earth is only a thousand milesaway.271 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE SCIENTIST Two more minutes. The President shuts his eyes. His lids move in prayer.272 INT. CHAPEL Korben helps Leeloo onto her feet where the four beams and four colorscrisscross. KORBEN It's up to you now, Angel! LEELOO I'm so tired... KORBEN You can sleep tomorrow... come on... LEELOO I want to sleep... forever... KORBEN Leeloo! Listen to me! I'll take you on a vacation afterwards! A real vacation, this time, for as long as you want. Come on! You can do it! Korben slowly releases Leeloo and steps back from the altar. Leeloo can barely stand in the center of the four beams. An indistinct white beam begins to form around her, starts to rise. CORNELIUS Come on Leeloo! Come on! The beam loses its intensity. Leeloo crumples to the floor.273 EXT. SPACE The Dark Planet hurtles toward Earth. A hundred miles before impact.The African continent is visible. No doubt about it: The fireball isheading right for Egypt.274 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE Seconds tick away relentlessly on the scientist's stopwatch. SCIENTIST It'll be entering the atmosphere in one minute.275 INT. CHAPEL The heat in the temple is unbearable. All the walls start to ooze thesame horrible black slimy liquid seen at Zorg's. A drop of liquid falls tothe temple floor and begins to smoke, eating away at it like acid. LocRhod has to dodge another drop of the stuff. Korben quickly straightensLeeloo up and puts her back in the center of the beams. KORBEN Leeloo! If you don't get on with the program we're all gonna die! And that's not on my agenda for today. Leeloo wraps her arms around Korben's neck. LEELOO (weak) What's the use of saving lives... when you see what you do with them! KORBEN You're right but there are lots of good things... beautiful things... LEELOO ...Like love... KORBEN Exactly. LEELOO But I don't know love... I'm like a machine programmed to save other people's lives but never to have one of my own.276 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The Scientist's stopwatch goes from 30 to 29 seconds.277 INT. CHAPEL LEELOO I have thousands of memories but none of them are mine... There is no need for me other than this. I'm immortal but I have no life. KORBEN Yes, you do! I need you. More than you can imagine! Stand up straight! LEELOO Why?... Why would you need me? KORBEN Because... CORNELIUS (to himself) Tell her, for God's sake! A bit of the black acid falls on Loc Rhod's shirt setting it on fire. Herips if off. CUT TO:278 INT. CHAPEL KORBEN Because... Leeloo has tears in her eyes. The heat is overpowering. Black acid iseverywhere. LEELOO Tell me... KORBEN I love you... Despite her fatigue, Leeloo smiles broadly. CUT TO:278b INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE The stopwatch goes from 3 to 2.279 INT. CHAPEL LEELOO Now you're allowed to kiss me. - Korben wraps his arms around her and kisses her like he's never kissedanybody before. - The white beam, the Divine Light, immediately formsaround Leeloo and Korben. - The stopwatch hits zero. - The Absolute Beamexplodes from the top of the pyramid and heads straight into the sky zappingthe fireball smack in the middle, slowing it down. - Korben and Leeloo kisslike there was no tomorrow. - The beam hardens and slowly solidifies the Evil Planet. Inaudiblescreeches escape from the dying planet. Screeches of terrifying pain as if amillion souls were dying. - Streams of black acid spurt from the pyramid and solidify likebrilliant stalactites.280 EXT. SPACE The pure beam, the Light of Life, has finished its work. The Dark Planetnothing more than a dead planet. Strangely enough, it looks like the moon. Everything is calm around it.281 INT. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE President Lindberg opens his eyes and realizes he's not dead- SCIENTIST The planet seems to have stopped at... 62 miles from impact.282 INT. CHAPEL In the temple, the beam loses its intensity. But Leeloo and Korbenremain stuck together, lost in their kiss. Cornelius has dropped to hisknees, clutching his hands. Loc Rhod slips along the wall with a sigh. He gives Cornelius a knowingsmile. LOC RHOD This guy is a killer with the babes. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on him. Cornelius and Loc Rhod burst out laughing. Korben and Leeloo keep onkissing.283 INT. LABORATORY We are in the Nucleological Laboratory that gave birth to Leeloo in thebeginning of our story. The President enters the lab followed by a groupof officials in ceremonial dress. MUNRO Mr. President, let me introduce you to Professor Mactilburgh, who runs the center. MACTILBURGH It's an honor to receive you. Mr. President. PRESIDENT (beaming) Yes.. Well? Where are our two heroes? MACTILBURGH They were so tired from their ordeal that we put them in the reactor this morning.. PRESIDENT I have 19 more meetings after this one Professor.. PROFESSOR Of course.. Let me see if they're revived. AIDE We go live in one minute, Mr. President. Mactilburgh goes to the reactor and opens a small slot which allows himto see what is going on under the blue shield. Leeloo and Korben are naked, arms wrapped around each other, kissing andprobably engaged in hoppi hoppa. Mactilburgh looks troubled. MACTILBURGH I.. uh.. they need five more minutes, Mr. President. The President, pressed for time, looks over to his aide who in strugglingwith a phone call. AIDE No ma'am... I tried... No ma'am... PRESIDENT Who is it? AIDE Some woman... claims she's Korben's mother... PRESIDENT Give it here... The President takes the phone and goes to the window. PRESIDENT Mrs. Dallas, this in the President. On behalf of the entire Federation, I would like to thank... MOTHER (V.O.) Don't pull that crap with me, Finger... I'd recognize that trash can voice of yours in a dark alley during a rain storm. You tell that worthless no account son of mine he should plotz for the way he's ignored his mother... when I think of all I sacrificed for him...284 EXT. NEW YORK Outside the lab we see the President through the window, holding thephone away from his ear. PAN slowly across Manhattan. Credits Roll as TWO full rising silver moons ascend in the dark blue sky.THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fight Club.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fight Club.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b201cc3e016ddb19c009e8ac156a75558576b934 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fight Club.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +F I G H T C L U B by Jim Uhls based on a novel by Chuck Palahnuik 2/16/98 -------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN BLACK JACK (V.O.) People were always asking me, did I know Tyler Durden. FADE IN: INT. SOCIAL ROOM - TOP FLOOR OF HIGH RISE -- NIGHT TYLER has one arm around Jack's shoulder; the other hand holds a HANDGUN with the barrel lodged in JACK'S MOUTH. Tyler is sitting in Jack's lap. They are both sweating and disheveled, both around 30; Tyler is blond, handsome; and Jack, brunette, is appealing in a dry sort of way. Tyler looks at his watch. TYLER One minute. (looking out window) This is the beginning. We're at ground zero. Maybe you should say a few words, to mark the occasion. JACK ... i... ann....iinn.. ff....nnyin... JACK (V.O.) With a gun barrel between your teeth, you only speak in vowels. Jack tongues the barrel to the side of his mouth. JACK (still distorted) I can't think of anything. JACK (V.O.) With my tongue, I can feel the rifling in the barrel. For a second, I totally forgot about Tyler's whole controlled demolition thing and I wondered how clean this gun is. Tyler checks his watch. TYLER It's getting exciting now. JACK (V.O.) That old saying, how you always hurt the one you love, well, it works both way. Jack turns so that he can see down -- 31 STORIES. JACK (V.O.) We have front row seats for this Theater of Mass Destruction. The Demolitions Committee of Project Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns of ten buildings with blasting gelatin. In two minutes, primary charges will blow base charges, and those buildings will be reduced to smoldering rubble. I know this because Tyler knows this. TYLER Look what we've accomplised. (checks watch) Thirty seconds. JACK (V.O.) Somehow, I realize all of this -- the gun, the bombs, the revolution -- is really about Marla Singer. PULL BACK from Jack's face. It's pressed against TWO LARGE BREASTS that belong to...BOB, 45, a moose of a man. Jack is engulfed by Bob in an intense embrace. Bob weeps openly. JACK (V.O.) Bob had bitch tits. PULL BACK to wide on... INT. CHURCH MEETING ROOM - NIGHT Men are paired off, hugging, talking in emotional tones. Near the door, a SIGN on a stand: "REMAINING MEN TOGETHER." JACK (V.O.) This was a support group for men with testicular cancer. The big moosie slobbering all over me was Bob. BOB We're still men. JACK Yes. We're men. Men is what we are. JACK (V.O.) Six months ago, Bob's testicles were removed. Then hormone therapy. He developed bitch tits because his testosterone was too high and his body upped the estrogen. That was where my head fit -- into his huge, sweating tits that hung enormous, the way we think of God's as big. BOB They're gonna have to open my pec's again to drain the fluid. Bob hugs tighter; then looks with empathy into Jack's eyes. BOB Okay. You cry now. Jack looks at Bob. JACK (V.O.) Wait. Back up. Let me start earlier. INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Jack lies in bed, staring at the ceiling. JACK (V.O.) For six months. I could not sleep. INT. COPY ROOM - DAY Jack, sleepy, stands over a copy machine. His Starbucks cup sits on the lid, moving back and forth as the machine copies. JACK (V.O.) With insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. Other people make copies, all with Starbucks cups, sipping. Jack picks up his cup and his copies and leaves. INT. JACK'S OFFICE - SAME Jack, sipping, stares blankly at a Starbucks bag on the floor, full of newspapers and FAST FOOD GARBAGE. JACK (V.O.) When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything. The IBM Stellar Sphere. The Philip Morris Galaxy. Planet Starbucks. Jack looks up as a pudgy man, Jack's BOSS, enters, Starbucks cup in hand, and slides a stack of reports on Jack's desk. BOSS I'm going to need you out-of-town a little more this week. We've got some "red-flags" to cover. JACK (V.O.) It must've been Tuesday. he was wearing his "cornflower-blue" tie. JACK (listless management speak) You want me to de-prioritize my current reports until you advise of a status upgrade? BOSS You need to make these your primary "action items." JACK (V.O.) He was full of pep. Must've had his grande latte enema. BOSS Here are your flight coupons. Call me from the road if there are any snags. Your itinerary... Jack hides a yawn, pretends to listen. INT. BATHROOM - JACK'S CONDO - NIGHT Jack sits on the toilet, CORDLESS PHONE to his ear, flips through an IKEA catalog. There's a stack of old Playboy magazines and other catalogs nearby. JACK (V.O.) Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct. JACK (into phone) Yes. I'd like to order the Erika Pekkari slip covers. Jack drops the open catalog on the floor. MOVE IN ON CATALOG -- ON PHOTO of COFFEETABLE SET... JACK (V.O.) If I saw something like clever coffee table sin the shape of a yin and yang, I had to have it. PAN TO PHOTO of ARMCHAIR... JACK (V.O.) Like the Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stripe pattern... INT. LIVING ROOM/DINING AREA/KITCHEN The armchair APPEARS. PAN OVER next to armchair... JACK (V.O.) Or the Rislampa wire lamps of environmentally-friendly unbleached paper. The lamps APPEAR. PAN OVER to wall... JACK (V.O.) Even the Vild hall clock of galvanized steel, resting on the Klipsk shelving unit. The clock APPEARS as the shelving unit APPEARS on the wall. JACK (V.O.) I would flip through catalogs and wonder, "What kind of dining set defines me as a person?" We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow Collection. A dining room set APPEARS. Jack, the cordless phone still glued to his ear, walks INTO FRAME and continues. JACK No, I don't want Cobalt. Oh, that sounds nice. Apricot. Jack opens a cabinet, takes out a plate. JACK (V.O.) I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of wherever. He rummages through the refrigerator. It's practically empty. Jack takes out a jar of mustard, opens it and uses a butter knife to eat it. INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY Jack, eyes puffy, face pale, sits before an INTERN, who studies him with bemusement. INTERN No, you can't die of insomnia. JACK Maybe I died already. Look at my face. INTERN You need to lighten up. JACK Can't you give me something? JACK (V.O.) Red-and-blue Tuinal, lipstick-red Seconals. INTERN (overlapping w/ above) You need healthy, natural sleep. Chew valerian root and get some more exercise. The Intern ushes Jack to the door. They step into the... INT. HALLWAY The Intern walks away from Jack, picks up a chart. JACK I'm in pain. INTERN (facetious) You want to see pain? Swing by First Methodist Tuesday nights. See the guys with testicular cancer. That's pain. The Intern moves into the other room. Jack stares after him. EXT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH - NIGHT Jack heads for the front door. INT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH MEETING ROOM - NIGHT Jack stares at a group of men, including Bob, who are all listening to a group member speak at a lectern. The SPEAKER has pale skin and sunken eyes -- he's clearly dying. SPEAKER I... wanted three kids. Two boys and a girl. Mindy wanted two girls and one boy. We never could agree on anything. The Speaker cracks a sad smile. Some men chuckle, happy to lighten the mood. SPEAKER Well, she had her first child a month ago, a girl, with her new husband... And, Thank God. I'm glad for her, because she deserves... The speaker breaks down, WEEPS UNCONTROLLABLY. Jack watches. A couple of the men go up to the speaker, comforting him, leading him away. A LEADER takes the stand. LEADER Everyone, let's thank Thomas for sharing himself with us. Jack, uncomfortable, joins EVERYONE ELSE: EVERYONE (in unison) Thank you, Thomas. LEADER I look around this room and I see a lot of courage. And it gives me strength. We give each other strength. Jack looks around. Many of the men are sniffling, sobbing. Jack squirms in his seat. LEADER It's time for the one-on-one. Let's follow Thomas's example and open ourselves. Everyone gets out of their chairs and begins pairing-off. Jack stands, uncomfortable. LEADER Can everyone find a partner? Bob, his chin down on his chest, starts toward Jack, shuffling his feet. JACK (V.O.) The big moosie, his eyes already shrink-wrapped in tears. Knees together, invisible steps. Bob takes Jack into an embrace. JACK (V.O.) Bob was a champion bodybuilder. You know that chest expansion program you see on TV? That was his idea. BOB ...using steroids. I was a juicer. Diabonol, then, Wisterol -- it's for racehorses, for Christsake. Now I'm bankrupt, divorced, my two grown kids won't return my calls... JACK (V.O.) Strangers with this kind of honesty make me go a big rubbery one. Bob breaks into sobbing, putting his head on Jack's shoulder and completely covering Jack's face. After a long beat of crying, Bob raises up his head, looks at Jack's NAMETAG. BOB Go ahead, Cornelius. You can cry. They look at each other. Slowly, Jack's eyes grow wet. JACK (V.O.) Then... something happened. I was lost in oblivion -- dark and silent and complete. Bob pulls Jack's head back into his chest. Jack tightens his arms around Bob. JACK (V.O.) I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. Jack pulls away from Bob. On Bob's chest, there's a WET MASK of Jack's face from how he looks weeping. JACK (V.O.) Babies don't sleep this well. INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Jack lies sound asleep. JACK (V.O.) I became addicted. INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - NIGHT Jack moves into a "group hug" of sickly people, men and women. In view is a sign by the door "Free and Clear." INT. OFFICE BUILDING BASEMENT - NIGHT Jack stands with a weeping middle-aged WOMAN. He begins to cry along with her. A sign by the door: "Onward and Upward." JACK (V.O.) If I didn't say anything, people assumed the worst. They cried harder. I cried harder. INT. PUBLIC BUILDING CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Everyone, including Jack, sits back in their seats, EYES CLOSED. The Leader speaks into a microphone. LEADER Tonight, we're going to open the green door -- the heart chakra... JACK (V.O.) I wasn't really dying, I wasn't host to cancer or parasites; I was the warm little center that the life of this world crowded around. LEADER ...And you open the door and you step inside. We're inside our hearts. Now, imaging your pain as a white ball of healing light. That's right, the pain itself is a ball of healing light. Jack, eyes closed, is silent... LEADER It moves over your body, healing you. Keep this going and step forward, through the back door of the room. Where does it lead? To your cave. Step forward into your cave. INT. CAVE - JACK'S IMAGINATION Jack walks along, moving through an ICE CAVERN... LEADER'S VOICE That's right. You're going deeper into your cave. And you're going to find your power animal... Jack comes upon a PENGUIN. The penguin looks at him, cocks his head to signal Jack forward. PENGUIN Slide. The penguin jumps onto a patch of ICE and slides away. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Jack walks out a doorway, saying goodbye to people. He walks down the sidewalk, shining with peace. JACK (V.O.) Every evening I died and every evening I was born again. Resurrected. CUT BACK TO: INT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH MEETING ROOM - RESUMING Jack's still in an embrace with Bob. JACK (V.O.) Bob loved me because he thought my testicles were removed too. Being there, my face against his tits, ready to cry -- this was my vacation. MARLA SINGER enters. She has short matte black hair and big, dark eyes like a character from japanese animation. JACK (V.O.) And, she ruined everything. Marla looks around, raises a cigarette to her lips. MARLA This is cancer, right? Bob and Jack stare, dumbfounded. INT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH MEETING ROOM - LATER Everyone paired-off. MOVE THROUGH ROOM... FIND JACK'S FACE as he stares... MOVE THROUGH ROOM... FIND MARLA'S FACE. She's drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette. JACK (V.O.) This ... chick ... Marla Singer ... did not have testicular cancer. She was a liar. INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - NIGHT Marla sits with the group, smoking, listening intently while a member speaks. Jack spies on her. JACK (V.O.) She had no diseases at all. I had seen her at my melanoma Monday night group ... INT. CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL - NIGHT Marla sits at the end of a row, smoking. All the faces down the row are turned toward her, incredulous... JACK (V.O.) ... and at "Free and Clear," my blood parasites group Thursdays. Jack leans out further than the others, scornful. JACK (V.O.) -- And, again, at "Seize The Day," my tuberculosis Friday night. CUT BACK TO: INT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH MEETING ROOM - ANOTHER NIGHT Jack watches... Marla's eyes are closed, her head on the shoulder of the MAN she's embraced by. She opens her eyes, catching Jack's stare. Jack looks away. JACK (V.O.) Marla -- the big tourist. Her lie reflected my lie. Marla rests her chin on the man's shoulder. Tears roll down her cheeks. She wipes at them. EXT. FIRST METHODIST CHURCH - NIGHT Marla walks out, The support group's dispersing. Jack exits amongst them. He spots Marla walking away. JACK (V.O.) And suddenly, I felt nothing. I couldn't cry. So, once again, I could not sleep. Jack stares after Marla for a long moment. He walks away. INT. BEDROOM - LATER Jack, in underwear, is cross-legged on the floor, assembling IKEA furniture, CORDLESS PHONE shouldered to his ear. JACK (into phone) No, I just can't believe that card is declined -- Okay, okay, let me give you a different card number. Jack gets his wallet off the floor, pulls out another card and, MOS over the following, he reads it into the phone. JACK (V.O.) Next group, after guided meditation, after we open our chakras, when it's time to hug, I'm going to grab that little bitch, Marla Singer, pin her arms against her sides and say... INT. MEETING ROOM - NIGHT - JACK'S IMAGINATION CLOSE ON JACK as he CLAMPS his arms around Marla. JACK Marla, you liar, you big tourist. I need this. Get out. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Jack, in pajamas, stares at Home Shopping Network on his TV. JACK (V.O.) When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep and you're never really awake. I hadn't slept in four days... INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - NIGHT Jack walks in and joins the crowd, looking around. People are chattering with each other. JACK (V.O.) -- But, in here, in everyone, there's the squint of a five-day headache. Yet they forced themselves to be positive. They never said "parasite;" they said "agent." They always talked about getting better. LEADER Okay, everyone. Everyone sits in chairs. Jack catches sight of Marla. LEADER To open tonight's communion, Chloe would like to say a few words. Taking the lectern is CHLOE, a pale, sickly girl whose skin stretches yellowish and tight over her bones. She wears a head bondage. She clears her throat. JACK (V.O.) Ahh, Chloe. Chloe looked the way Joni Mitchell's skeleton would look if you made it smile and walk around a party being extra nice to everyone. CHLOE Well, I'm still here -- but I don't know for how long. That's as much certainty as anyone can give me. but I've got some good news -- I no longer have any fear of death. APPLAUSE from around the room. CHLOE But... I am in a pretty lonely place. No one will have sex with me. I'm so close to the end and all I want is to get laid for the last time. I have pornographic movies in my apartment, and lubricants and amyl nitrate ... The LEADER gingerly takes control of the microphone. LEADER Thank you, Chloe. Everyone, let's thank Chloe. EVERYONE Thank you, Chloe. INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - LATER LEADER Now, you're standing at the entrance to your cave. You step inside your cave and you walk. Keep walking. Jack's face, eyes closed, is motionless. JACK (V.O.) If I did have a tumor, I'd name it Marla. Marla...the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it, but you can't. LEADER Now, find your power animal. INT. CAVE - JACK'S IMAGINATION Jack finds Marla smoking a cigarette. Marla cocks her head, indicating whe wants him to -- MARLA Slide. INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - RESUMING Jack's eyes open and turn to Marla, watching her blow smoke rings with her eyes closed. INT. SMALL PROTESTANT CHURCH - LATER Everyone stands and mills about, pairing-off. LEADER Pick someone special to you tonight. Jack sees the ghastly spectre of Chloe ambling towards him. He tries to smile. She smiles with a twisted, dying mouth. CHLOE Hello, Mr. Tayler. JACK (V.O.) I never gave my real name at support groups. JACK Hi, Chloe. CHLOE We've never actually talked. Chloe's eyes are eerily bright with desperation. Jack, in a sincere attempt at levity, chokes out: JACK You look good. You ... look ... like a pirate. Chloe laughs, a little too much. Jack squeezes out a laugh. Then he sees Marla, off by herself. Someone heads for her. JACK Excuse me, I have to... Jack gives a quick nod to Chloe and darts towards Marla. Chloe watches him go. STAY ON JACK AND MARLA as Jack CLAMPS his arms around her. He whispers into her ear. JACK We need to talk. MARLA Sure. JACK I'm on to you. You're a faker. You aren't dying. MARLA What? JACK Okay, in the Sylvia Plath philosophy way, we're all dying. But you're not dying the way Chloe is dying. LEADER Tell the other person how you feel. JACK You're a tourist. I saw you at melanoma, tuberculosis and testicular cancer. MARLA And I saw you practicing this... JACK Practicing what? MARLA Telling me off. Is it going as well as you hoped... ? (reads his nametag) "... Mr. Taylor." JACK I'll expose you. MARLA Go ahead. I'll expose you. LEADER Share yourself completely. Marla puts her head down on Jack's shoulder as if she were crying. Jack pulls her head back up. She deadpans at him. JACK Why are you doing this? MARLA It's cheaper than a movie, and there's free coffee. JACK These are my groups. I was here first. I've been coming for a year. MARLA A year? How'd you manage that? JACK Anyone who might've noticed either died or recovered and never came back. LEADER Let yourself cry. MARLA Why do you do it? JACK I... I don't know. I guess... when people think you're dying, they really listen, instead... MARLA -- Instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. JACK Yeah. Brief recognition between them, broken as the Leader passes. LEADER Quietly, now. Share with each other. Jack waits till the Leader's out of earshot. JACK (warning) It becomes an addiction. MARLA Really? Jack sighs, then pulls back. JACK Look, I can't cry with a faker present. MARLA Candy-stripe a cancer ward. It's not my problem. JACK Please. Can't we do something... ? Marla starts out of the room. Jack follows her. LEADER Now, the closing prayer. EXT. CHURCH - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS Marla gets to the sidewalk, moving quickly along. JACK We'll split up the week. You can have lymphoma, tuberculosis and -- MARLA You take tuberculosis. My smoking doesn't go over at all. JACK I think testicular cancer should be no contest. MARLA Well, technically, I have more of a right to be there than you. You still have your balls. JACK You're kidding. MARLA I don't know -- am I? Jack follow Marla into... INT. LAUNDROMAT - CONTINUOUS Marla walks with authority up to an unwatched DRYER. She takes out clothes, picks out jeans, pants and shirts. MARLA I'll take the parasites. JACK You can't have both parasites. You can take blood parasites -- MARLA I want brain parasites. JACK Okay. I'll take blood parasites and organic brain dementia -- MARLA I want that. JACK You can't have the whole brain! MARLA So far, you have four and I only have two! JACK Then, take blood parasites. It's yours. Now we each have three. Marla gathers the chosen garments and heads out past Jack... EXT. SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS Jack follows, bewildered. JACK You... left half your clothes. HONK! Jack starts. Marla's led him into the street with traffic barreling down. Marla walks on, oblivious as CARS screech to a halt, HORNS BLARING. Jack dashes, following... INT. THRIFT STORE - CONTINUOUS Marla drops the pile of clothes on a counter. An old CLERK sifts through the clothes, begins writing on a pad. JACK You're selling those? Marla steps down hard on Jack's foot. He winces in pain. MARLA (for the Clerk to hear) Yes, I'm selling some chothes. The Clerk starts to ring up the assessed amounts. MARLA So, we each have three -- that's six. What about the seventh day? I want ascending bowel cancer. JACK (V.O.) The girl had done her homework. JACK I want ascending bowel cancer. The Clerk gives a strange look as he hands money to Marla. MARLA That's your favorite, too? Tried to slip it by me, eh? JACK We'll split it. You get it the first and third Sunday of the month. MARLA Deal. They shake. Jack tries to withdraw his hand; Marla holds it. MARLA Looks like this is goodbye. JACK Let's not make a big thing out of it. She walks to the door, pocketing money, not looking back. MARLA How's this for not making a big thing? Jack watches her go. A moment, then he follows after... EXT. SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS Jack hesitates, unsure, then run/walks to catch up to her... JACK Um... Marla, should we maybe exchange numbers? MARLA Should we? JACK In case we want to switch nights. MARLA I suppose. Jack takes out a business card, writes his number on the back, hands it to her. She takes the pen, grabs his hand and writes her number on his palm. She walks into the street, causing more SCREECHING and HONKING. She turns, holds up the card. MARLA It doesn't have your name. Who are you? Cornelius? Mr. Taylor? Dr. Zaius? Any of the stupid names you give each night? Jack starts to answer, but the traffic noise is too loud. Marla just shakes her head, turns, and keeps moving. A BUS moves into view, obscuring her. JACK (V.O.) This is how I met Marla Singer. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY The plane touches down; the cabin BUMPS. Jack's eyes open. JACK (V.O.) You wake up at O'Hare. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY Jack snaps awake again, looking around, disoriented. JACK (V.O.) You wake up at SeaTac. EXT. HIGHWAY - DUSK The rear of a CRASHED CAR sticks up by the side of the road. Jack stands, marking on a clipboard. The SUN SETS behind. INT. AIRPORT - NIGHT Jack stands at a gate counter. An ATTENDANT smiles at him. ATTENDANT Check-in for that flight doesn't begin for another two hours, Sir. Jack looks with blearing eyes at his watch, steps away and looks at an overhanging CLOCK. JACK (V.O.) Pacific, Mountain, Central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY Jack's eyes snap open as the plane LANDS. JACK (V.O.) You wake up at Air Harbor International. INT. AIRPORT WALKWAY Jack stands on a conveyor belt, briefcase at his feet. He watches PEOPLE MOVING PAST on the opposite conveyor. JACK (V.O.) If you wake up at a different time and in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? Jack misses seeing TYLER on the opposite conveyor belt. They pass each other. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT Jack sits next to a BUSINESSMAN. As they have idle CONVERSATION, we MOVE IN ON Jack's tray. An ATTENDANT'S HANDS set coffee down with a small container of cream. JACK (V.O.) Everywhere I travel -- tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. CUT TO: HANDS place a dinner tray down. JACK (V.O.) Microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - NIGHT Jack brushes his teeth in the MIRROR. JACK (V.O.) Shampoo/conditioner combo. Single- serving mouthwash, tiny bar of soap. Jack picks up an individual, wrapped Q-TIP, looks at it. He moves out of the bathroom into... MAIN ROOM Jack sits on the bed. He turns on the TV. It's tuned to the "Sheraton Channel," shows WAITERS serving people in a large BANQUET ROOM. Jack stops brushing his teeth, feels something on the bed, lifts it -- a small DINNER MINT. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT Jack sits next to a frumpy WOMAN. They chat. Jack turns to look at his food, takes a bite. He turns back and it's... --a BALD MAN next to him, talking. Jack takes another bite, turns back and it's... --a BUSINESSMAN next to him. Jack takes another bite, turns back, and it's... --a BUSINESS WOMAN next to him. JACK (V.O.) The people I meet on each flight -- they're single-serving friends. Between take-off and landing, we have our time together, but that's all we get. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - LANDING Jack's eyes snap open. JACK (V.O.) You wake up at Logan. INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS A giant corrugated METAL DOOR opens. JACK (V.O.) On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Two TECHNICIANS lead Jack to the BURNT-OUT SHELL of a WRECKED AUTOMOBILE. Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it and starts to make notes on a CLIPBOARDED FORM. JACK (V.O.) I'm a recall coordinator. My job is to apply the formula. It's a story problem. TECHNICIAN #1 Here's where the infant went through the windshield. Three points. JACK (V.O.) A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 miles per hour. The rear differential locks up. TECHNICIAN #2 The teenager's braces around the backseat ashtray would make a good "anti-smoking" ad. JACK (V.O.) The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: do we initiate a recall? TECHNICIAN #1 The father must've been huge. See how the fat burnt into the driver's seat with his polyester shirt? Very "modern art." JACK (V.O.) Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X... CUT TO: INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - MOVING DOWN RUNWAY Jack is speaking to the BUSINESSWOMAN next to him. JACK If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one. BUSISNESS WOMAN Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents? JACK Oh, you wouldn't believe. BUSINESS WOMAN ... Which... car company do you work for? JACK A major one. Turgid silence. Jack turns to the window. He sees a PELICAN get SUCKED into the TURBINE. JACK (V.O.) Every time the plane banked too sharply on take-off or landing, I prayed for a crash, or a mid-air collision -- anything. Jack's face remains bland during the following: the plane BUCKLES -- the cabin wobbles. People panic. Masks drop. JACK (V.O.) No more haircuts. Nothing matters, not even bad breath. The side of the plane SHEARS OFF! Screaming PASSENGERS are sucked out into the night air, flying past the quivering wind. Magazines and other objects fly everywhere. JACK (V.O.) Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip. Jack remains in his same position, same bland expression. DING! -- the seatbelt light goes OUT. Jack SNAPS AWAKE. EVERYTHING IS NORMAL. Some passengers get out of their seats. From next to Jack, a VOICE we've heard before... VOICE There are three ways to make napalm. One, mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice... Jack turns to see TYLER. Without turned to Jack, Tyler continues: TYLER Two, equal parts gasoline and diet cola. Three, dissolve kitty-litter in gasoline until the mixture is thick. JACK Pardon me? Tyler turns to Jack. JACK (V.O.) This is how I met -- TYLER Tyler Durden. Tyler offers his hand. Jack takes it. TYLER You know why they have oxygen masks on planes? JACK No, supply oxygen? TYLER Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, we're taking giant, panicked breaths... Tyler grabs a safety instruction CARD from the seatback, hands it to Jack. TYLER Suddenly, we become euphoic and docile. We accept our fate. Tyler points to passive faces on the drawn figures. TYLER Emergency water landing, 600 miles per hour. Blank faces -- calm as Hindu cows. Jack laughs. JACK What do you do, Tyler? TYLER What do you want me to do? JACK I mean -- for a living. TYLER Why? So you can say, "Oh, that's what you do." -- And be a smug little shit about it? Jack laughs. Tyler reaches under the seat in front of him and lifts a BRIEFCASE. TYLER You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh. Jack points to his own briefcase. JACK We have the same briefcase. Tyler turns the top of his briefcase toward Jack. TYLER Open it. Jack looks at Tyler, then pops the latches and raises the lid to reveal quaintly-wrapped bars of SOAP. TYLER Soap -- the yardstick of civilization. (reaches in his pocket) I make and sell soap... Tyler hands Jack his card. "THE PAPER STREET SOAP COMPANY." TYLER If you were to add nitric acid to the soap-making process, one would get nitroglycerin. With enough soap, one could blow up the world, if one were so inclined. Tyler SNAPS the briefcase shut. Jack stares. JACK Tyler, you are by far the most interesting "single-serving" friend I've ever met. Tyler stares back. Jack, enjoying his own chance to be witty, leans closer to Tyler. JACK You see, when you travel, everything is small, self-contained-- TYLER The spork. I get it. You're very clever. JACK Thank you. TYLER How's that working out for you? JACK What? TYLER Being clever. JACK (thrown) Well, uh... great. TYLER Keep it up, then. Keep it right up. Tyler stands, looks towards the aisle. TYLER ... As I squeeze past, do I give you the ass or the crotch? Tyler moves to the aisle, his ass toward jack, walks away... TYLER We are defined by the choices we make. Tyler goes to the curtain dividing First Class, slaps the curtain aside and sits in an empty seat. Jack watches. JACK (V.O.) How I came to live with Tyler is: airlines have this policy about vibrating luggage. INT. BAGGAGE CLAIM AREA - NIGHT Utterly empty of baggage. No people except for Jack and a SECURITY TASK FORCE MAN. The Security TFM, smirking, holds a receiver to his ear from an official phone on the wall. SECURITY TFM (to Jack) Throwers don't worry about ticking. Modern bombs don't tick. JACK Excuse me? "Throwers?" SECURITY TFM Baggage handlers. But when a suitcase vibrates, the throwers have to call the police. JACK My suitcase was vibrating? SECURITY TFM Nine time out of ten, it's an electric razor. But, every once in a while ... (whispers) ...it's a dildo. It's airline policy not to imply ownership in the event of a dildo. We use the indefinite aricle: "A dildo." Never "Your dildo." Jack sees, through the window, Tyler, at the curb, throwing his briefcase into the back of a shiny, red CONVERTIBLE. Tyler leaps over the door into the driver's seat and PEELS OUT. jack turns away, looks at the Security TFM. In the background, a HARRIED MAN dashes after Tyler and the convertible, SCREAMING. JACK (to Security TFM) I had everything in that bag. My C.K. shirts... my D.K.N.Y. shoes... SECURITY TFM (into phone) Yeah, uh huh... yeah? (pause, still on phone) Oh... EXT. EMPTY RUNWAY A lone SUITCASE sits on the concrete. SECURITY PERSONNEL keep their distance. KABOOM! The suitcase explodes. INT. BAGGAGE CLAIM AREA - RESUMING The Security TFM, shakes his head, hangs up. SECURITY TFM I'm terribly sorry. The Security TFM hands Jack a claim form. Jack snatches it, disgusted, takes out a pen, starts filling out the form. SECURITY TFM You know the industry slang for "Flight Attendant?" "Air Mattress." INT. TAXI - MOVING - NIGHT Along a residential street. Jack looks ahead, sees a tall, grey, bland BUILDING on the corner. JACK (V.O.) Home was a condo on the fifteenth floor of a filing cabinet for widows and young professionals. The walls were solid concrete. A foot of concrete is important when your next- door neighbor lets her hearing aid go and has to watch game shows at full volume... The taxi turns a corner and Jack sees the front of the building. A diffuse CLOUD of SMOKE wafts away from a BLOWN- OUT SECTION of the fifteenth floor. FIRETRUCKS, POLICE CARS and a MOB are all crowded around the lobby area. JACK (V.O.) -- Or when a volcanic blast of debris that used to be your furniture and personal effects blows out your floor- to-ceiling windows and sails flaming into the night. EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF BUILDING Jack, gaping at the sight above him, absently gives the Cabbie money. The taxi pulls away. Jack starts toward the building. He pushes through the fray of people, into the... INT. LOBBY The DOORMAN sees Jack enter, gives a sad smile, shakes his head. Jack starts for the elevator. DOORMAN There's nothing up there. Jack presses the button. The Doorman moves next to him. DOORMAN You can't go into the unit. Police orders. The elevator doors open. Jack hesitates. The doors close. Jack heads out the lobby doors. The Doorman follows... EXT. CONDO BUILDING - CONTINUOUS Jack walks past SMOKING, CHARRED DEBRIS -- a flash of ORANGE from the Yang table, a CLOCK FACE from the hall clock, part of an arm from the GREEN ARMCHAIR. His feet CRUNCH glass. JACK (V.O.) How embarrassing. DOORMAN Do you have somebody you can call? Jack comes to his REFRIGERATOR lying on its side. He reaches down and takes a note: "MARLA --" and a phone number, from under a BANANA MAGNET. CLOSE SHOT - JACK'S STOVE Hissing. JACK (V.O.) The police would later tell me that the pilot light might have gone out... letting out just a little bit of gas. EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING Jack gets to a PAYPHONE. The Doorman follows, watching him. DOORMAN Lots of young people try to impress the world and buy too many things. Jack picks up the receiver, puts in a quarter. He looks at Marla's number a long moment. CLOSE SHOT - JACK'S ENTIRE CONDO - KITCHEN AND LIVING ROOM The SOUND of the HISS... JACK (V.O.) The gas could have slowly filled the condo. Seventeen-hundred square feet with high ceilings, for days and days. EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING Jack replaces the receiver. He pockets Marla's number, digs out a small FILOFAX. He flips through the pages for phone numbers and addresses. Most of the pages are blank. DOORMAN Many young people feel trapped and desperate. INSERT - CLOSE ON THE BASE OF JACK'S REFRIGERATOR JACK (V.O.) Then, the refrigerator's compressor could have clicked on... Click. KABOOM! SCREEN GOES WHITE. EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING Jack looks at the Doorman. Tyler's BUSINESS CARD falls from the Filofax. Jack catches it. DOORMAN If you don't know what you want, you end up with a lot you don't. The Doorman walks away. Jack stares at Tyler's card. JACK (V.O.) If you asked me now, I couldn't tell you why I called him. Jack re-deposits the quarter, dials Tyler's number. It RINGS... and RINGS and RINGS. Jack sighs and hangs up the phone. A moment, then the phone RINGS. JACK Hello? TYLER'S VOICE Who's this? JACK Tyler? TYLER'S VOICE Who's this? JACK Uh... I'm sorry. We met on the plane. We had the same briefcase. I'm... you know, the clever guy. TYLER'S VOICE Oh, yeah. JACK I just called a second ago. There was no answer. I'm at a payphone. TYLER'S VOICE I star-sixty-nined you. I never pick up my phone. What's up? JACK Well... let me see... here's the thing... EXT. LOU'S TAVERN - NIGHT A small building in the middle of a concrete parking lot. INT. LOU'S TAVERN - SAME Jack and Tyler sit in the back, with a pitcher of BEER. JACK You buy furniture. You tell yourself: this is the last sofa I'll ever need. No matter what else happens, I've got the sofa issue handled. Then, the right set of dishes. The right dinette. TYLER This is how we fill up our lives. Tyler lights a cigarette. JACK I guess so. TYLER And, now it's gone. JACK All gone. Tyler offers cigarettes. Jack declines. TYLER Could be worse. A woman could cut off your penis while you're asleep and toss it out the window of a moving car. JACK There's always that. TYLER I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's a terrible tragedy. JACK ...no ...no ... TYLER I mean, you did lose a lot of nice, neat little shit. The trendy paper lamps, the Euro-trash shelving unit, am I right? Jack laughs, nods. He shakes his head, drinks. TYLER But maybe, just maybe, you've been delivered. JACK (toasts) Delivered from Swedish furniture. TYLER Delivered from armchairs in obscure green stripe patterns. JACK Delivered from Martha Stewart. TYLER Delivered from bullshit colors like "Cobalt," "Ebony," and "Fuchsia." They laugh together. Then, silence. They drink. JACK Insurance'll cover it. TYLER Oh, yeah, you gotta start making the list. JACK What list? TYLER The "now I get to go out and buy the exact same stuff all over again" list. That list. JACK I don't... think so. TYLER This time maybe get a widescreen TV. You'll be occupied for weeks. JACK Well, I have to file a claim... TYLER The things you own, they end up owning you. JACK Don't I? TYLER Do what you like. JACK (looks at watch) God, it's late. I should find a hotel... TYLER A hotel? JACK Yeah. TYLER So, you called me up, because you just wanted to have a drink before you... go find a hotel? JACK I don't follow... TYLER We're on our third pitcher of beer. Just ask me. JACK Huh? TYLER You called me so you could have a place to stay. JACK No, I... TYLER Why don't you cut the shit and ask if you can stay at my place? JACK Would that be a problem? TYLER Is it a problem for you to ask? JACK Can I stay at your place? TYLER Yes, you can. JACK Thank you. TYLER You're welcome. But, I want you to do me one favor. JACK What's that? TYLER I want you to hit me as hard as you can. JACK What? TYLER I want you to hit me as hard as you can. Freeze picture. JACK (V.O.) Let me tell you a little bit about Tyler Durden. EXTREME CLOSE-UP - FILM FRAME -- And we see it's PORNOGRAPHY. INT. PROJECTIONIST ROOM - THEATRE - NIGHT Jack, in the foreground, FACES CAMERA. In the BACKGROUND, Tyler sits at a bench, looking at individual FRAMES cut from movies. Near him, a PROJECTOR rolls film. JACK Tyler was a night person. He sometimes worked as a projectionist. A movie doesn't come in one big reel, it's on a few. In old theaters, two projectors are used, so someone has to change projectors at the exact second when one reel ends and another reel begins. Sometimes you can see two dots on screen in the upper right hand corner... Tyler points to the side of OUR FRAME and the TWO DOTS briefly APPEAR ONSCREEN. TYLER They're called "cigarette burns." JACK It's called a "changeover." The movie goes on, and nobody in the audience has any idea. TYLER Why would anyone want this shitty job? JACK It affords him other interesting opportunities. TYLER -- Like splicing single frames from adult movies into family films. JACK In reel three, right after the courageous dog and the snooty cag -- who have celebrity voices -- eat out of a garbage can, there's the flash of Tyler's contribution... In the AUDIENCE, CHILDREN suddenly start squirming, confused, looking at each other. A WOMAN abruptly stops sucking her soda straw, feeling vaguely terrible. Her uncomfortable HUSBAND slowly leans back in his seat. Jack and Tyler watch from the projection booth window. TYLER One-forty-eighth of a second. That's how long it's up there. JACK No one really knows that they've seen it. But they did. TYLER A nice, big cock. JACK Only a hummingbird could have caught Tyler at work. INT. LARGE BANQUET HALL - NIGHT Tyler moves around one of many tables, setting down SOUP BOWLS. Jack stands in the same position, FACING CAMERA. JACK Tyler also worked as a banquet waiter at the luxurious Pressman Hotel. The GUESTS command the WAITERS with snaps of fingers. INT. SERVICE ELEVATOR - NIGHT Jack turns and WE PAN to Tyler, standing by a CART with a giant SOUP TUREEN. His hands are at his open fly and he's in position to piss into the soup. JACK He was the guerrilla terrorist of the food service industry. TYLER Don't watch. I can't if you watch. Jack waits. The SOUND of a STREAM of LIQUID is HEARD. TYLER ... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. JACK He farted on meringue; he sneezed on braised endive; and, with creme of mushroom soup, well... TYLER (O.S.) Go ahead. Say it. JACK You get the idea. EXT. PARKING LOT OF TAVERN - RESUMING Tyler and Jack come out the back door. JACK I don't know about this. TYLER I don't know, either. I want to find out. I've never been hit, have you? JACK No. That's a good thing, isn't it? TYLER I don't want to die without any scars. How much can you really know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? Come on... you're the only person I've ever asked. JACK Me? Jack stares at him. TYLER Why not you? I'm letting you go first. Do it. JACK This is crazy. TYLER Alright, go crazy. Let 'er rip. JACK Where do you want it? In the face? TYLER Surprise me. Jack swings a wide, clumsy roundhouse -- hits Tyler's neck -- makes a dull, flat sound. JACK Shit. Sorry. That didn't count. TYLER Like hell. That counted. Tyler shoots out a straight punch to Jack's chest. Jack falls back against a car. His eyes tear up. TYLER How do you feel? JACK Strange. TYLER But a good strange. JACK Is it? TYLER We've crossed the threshold. You want to call it off? JACK Call what off? TYLER The fight. JACK What fight? TYLER This fight, pussy. Jack swings another roundhouse that slams right under Tyler's ear. Tyler punches Jack in the stomach. Tyler and Jack move clumsily, throwing punches. They breathe heavier, drooling saliva and blood, growing dizzier from every impact. EXT. CURBSIDE - LATER Jack and Tyler sit on the curb, watching sparse headlights on the nearby freeway. Their eyes are glazed with endorphin- induced serenity. They look at each other, laugh. Look away. TYLER If you could fight anyone... one on one, whoever you wanted, who would you fight? JACK Anyone? TYLER Anyone. Jack thinks. JACK My boss, probably. (pause) Who would you fight? TYLER My dad. No question. A long pause as Jack studies Tyler's face. JACK Oh, yeah. (nodding) I didn't know my dad. Well, I knew him, till I was six. He went and married another woman, had more kids. Every six years or so he'd do it again -- new city, new family. TYLER He was setting up franchises. My father never went to college, so it was really important that I go. JACK I know that. TYLER After I graduated, I called him long distance and asked, "Now what?" He said, "Get a job." When I turned twenty-five, I called him and asked, "Now what?" He said, "I don't know. Get married." JACK Same here. TYLER A generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is the answer we really need. Another pause. Jack feels his bleeding lip, smiles. JACK We should do this again sometime. Tyler cracks a smile, give a sidelong glance to Jack. EXT. PAPER STREET - NIGHT A street sign: "PAPER STREET." A PAPER MILL stis on one side, facing a lone HOUSE on the other. The rest of the land is grass and weeds. It's a grand, old three-story, long abandoned. Tyler leads Jack toward it. JACK Where's your car? TYLER What car? JACK (V.O.) I don't know how Tyler found the house, but he'd been there for half a year. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - ENTRANCE -- NIGHT Tyler leads Jack through the FRONT DOOR... JACK (V.O.) It looked like it was waiting to be torn down. Most of the windows were boarded up. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - MOMENT LATER Tyler and Jack climb CREAKY STAIRS to the 2ND FLOOR LANDING. JACK (V.O.) None of the doors locked. The stairs were ready to collapse. I didn't know if he owned it or he was squatting. Tyler opens the door to a ROOM... INT. ROOM - CONTINUOUS Jack enters, stis on the creaky BED. Dust drifts upwards. JACK (V.O.) Neither would have surprised me. INT. SHOWER - MORNING Jack turns on the water. LOUD VIBRATIONS from the walls. Water spits in starts. JACK (V.O.) Nothing worked. The rusty plumbing leaked. Turning on a light meant another light in the house went out. EXT. LOU'S TAVERN PARKING LOT - NIGHT All the tavern's lights are off. Tyler and Jack FIGHT. FIVE GUYS stand around watching. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING Jack, his face showing NEW BRUISES AND CUTS, makes coffee with a wire-mesh strainer. Tyler shuffles in, wearing a flannel bathrobe. He spears pieces of bread on a fork, starts roasting them over a burner. JACK (V.O.) There were no neighbors. Just warehouses and the paper mill. The fart smell of steam, the hamster cage smell of wood chips. EXT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - NIGHT Jack sits watching as Tyler SWINGS an old GOLF CLUB -- THWACK -- sends a golf ball soaring down the desolate street. JACK (V.O.) At night, Tyler and I were alone for half a mile in every direction. EXT. LOU'S TAVERN PARKING LOT - NIGHT All the lights are off. TEN GUYS YELL, standing around Jack and Tyler, who FIGHT. THREE CARS are parked in the lot. INT. BASEMENT - DAY Jack sits on basement stairs, watching as Tyler, knee-deep in water, works at an open FUSEBOX, flipping breakers in a certain order, showing Jack how it's done. JACK (V.O.) When it rained, we had to kill the power. By the end of the first month, I didn't care about TV. I didn't mind the warm, stale refrigerator. INT. READING ROOM - NIGHT CANDLES BURN. Tyler and Jack are seated across from each other on the buckled floor, reading MAGAZINES. Rain DRIPS from the ceiling. No furniture. THOUSANDS of MAGAZINES. JACK (V.O.) The previous occupant had been a bit of a shut-in. TYLER (of magazine) Hum. JACK What? TYLER Oh, a new riot control grenade... (reading) "...the successful combination of concussive, 3000 foot-candle flash- blasts and simultaneous high-velocity disbursement of...blah, blah, blah..." Tyler begins RIPPING the ARTICLE from his magazine. JACK ("Reader's Digest") "I am Joe's Lungs." It's written in first person. "Without me, Joe could not take in oxygen to feed his red blood cells." There's a whole series -- "I am Joe's Prostate." TYLER "I get cancer, and I kill Joe." Tyler tosses his article in a pile of other articles, chooses another magazine. JACK What are you reading? TYLER Soldier of Fortune. Business Week. New Republic. JACK Show-off. EXT. LOU'S TAVERN PARKING LOT - NIGHT All the lights are off. Jack and Tyler stand amidst FIFTEEN GUYS around TWO GUYS FIGHTING. The crowd YELLS MORE WILDLY than before. In the background are EIGHT PARKED CARS. JACK (V.O.) I should have been haggling with my insurance company. I should have been looking for a new condo... EXT. STREET - NIGHT Jack walks along. He stops, looking at a CHURCH with SUPPORT-GROUP-PEOPLE milling around the entrance, drinking coffee and sodas. Marla's there, amongst them, smoking. JACK (V.O.) .... I should have been upset about my nice, neat, flaming little shit. Jack's face shows no reaction. He continues to walk. JACK (V.O.) But I wasn't. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING Jack, in work clothes, interlocks his fingers and POPS his knuckles, picks up a saucepan with coffee and sips. Tyler, in waiter's uniform, comes to have Jack straighten his tie. JACK (V.O.) Most of the week, we were Ozzie and Harriet. Jack picks up his briefcase and walks out the door. JACK (V.O.) But, Wednesday night, ever Wednesday night... EXT. LOU'S TAVERN PARKING LOT - NIGHT All the lights are off. No one around, but there are at least TWENTY-FIVE CARS parked in the full lot. JACK (V.O.) ... we were finding something out: we were finding out, more and more, that we were not alone. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY A SLIDE SHOW progresses, run by a chipper salesman, WALTER. Jack sits, deadpan, with a PUFFY LIP and a BRUISED cheek. JACK (V.O.) Thursday mornings, all I could do was think about next week. Boss gives Jack a dubious look. Walter's next SLIDE: a COMPUTER SCREEN. WALTER The basic premise of cyber-netting your office is -- make things more efficient. BOSS Can I get the icon in cornflower blue? WALTER Absolutely. Walter continues, his sales pitch drowned out by Jack's V.O.: JACK (V.O.) Walter, the Microsoft account exec. Walter, with his smooth, soft hands. Maybe he was thinking about the free- range potluck he'd been to last weekend, or his church-group car-wash fund-raiser. Or, probably not. Walter moves to Jack and slaps him in the shoulder. WALTER I showed this already to my man here. You liked it, didn't you? Jack smiles. His teeth are RED with BLOOD. They GLOW eerily in the dim light. JACK (V.O.) You can swallow a pint of blood before you get sick. WALTER Jesus, I'd hate to see what happened to the other guy. Jack keeps the smile frozen on his face. JACK (V.O.) Screw Walter. His candy-ass wouldn't last a second Wednesday night. EXT. LOU'S TAVERN - NIGHT Out of silent darkness, HEADLIGHTS appear from all directions. CARS PULL UP and park in the already-packed lot. YOUNG MEN get out and march into the tavern... INT. LOU'S TAVERN - SAME The men, including Jack and Tyler, enter and stand against the back wall, waiting. The bartender, IRVINE, calls out: IRVINE Drink up people. We're closing. Irvine flicks on the LIGHTS. Drunken customers squint and get the message. They plop down money, leaving. JACK (V.O.) It was right in everyone's face. Tyler and I just made it visible. Irvine hits a button and the JUKEBOX loses power. Members of the waiting army begins to share secret looks. Finally, one buy locks the door. Two other guys close the blinds. JACK (V.O.) It was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name. INT. TAVERN BASEMENT - SAME A BOMB-SHELTER. Concrete walls. One BARE BULB above, Tyler standing directly beneath it. TYLER Welcome to fight club. The guys mill around, finding partners. Everyone brims with eagerness, but tries to act cool. CHATTER gets LOUDER. Everyone spreads out, forming a circle, Tyler at center. JACK (V.O.) Every week, Tyler gave the rules that he and I decided. PEAKING CHATTER, till Tyler raises his arms and the CHATTER DIES. A couple of COUGHS, FEET SHUFFLING, then, SILENCE. TYLER The first rule of fight club is -- you don't talk about fight club. The second rule of fight club is -- you don't talk about fight club. The third rule of fight club is -- when someone says "stop" or goes limp, the fight is over. Fourth rule is -- only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule -- one fight at a time. Sixth rule -- no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule -- fights go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule -- if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight. Tyler steps back. A short guy, RICKY, and a GOATEED MAN take off shirts and shoes and step to the center. JACK (V.O.) This kid, Ricky -- supply clerk -- couldn't remember whether you ordered pens with blue ink or black ink ... The two fighters circle, then begin throwing PUNCHES... JACK (V.O.) But Ricky was a god for ten minutes last week when he trounced an actuary twice his size. Harder, faster PUNCHES between the two. SWEAT flies. SHOUTS become DEAFENING. Ricky's getting the best of Goateed Man, POUNDING him... JACK (V.O.) Sometimes all you could hear were flat, hard packing sounds over the yelling, or the wet choke when someone caught their breath and sprayed... GOATEED MAN (spittle-lipped) Ssssstop... ! INT. OFFICE PARK RESTAURANT - DAY Jack, eating lunch, watches the BROKEN-NOSED WAITER with a GOATEE -- from the above fight -- converse with a MAITRE D'. JACK (V.O.) Even if I could tell someone they had a good fight, I wouldn't be talking to the same man. The Goateed Waiter approaches Jack and sets a refill soda down on the table. The two of them briefly make eye contact. JACK (V.O.) Who you were in fight club is not who you were in the rest of the world. INT. PHOTOCOPY ROOM - DAY Jack stands over a copy machine, hit by flashes of light. He glances over his shoulder, watches Ricky, wearing an apron, push a supply cart. Ricks nods at Jack. JACK (V.O.) You weren't alive anywhere like you were there. But fight club only exists in the hours between when fight club starts and when fight club ends. INT. JACK'S OFFICE - DAY Jack, playing SOLITAIRE on his computer, daubs blood from his mouth with a handkerchief. Boss, passing by the doorway, looks in at Jack, irritated. BOSS What are you getting yourself into every week? Jack keeps playing Solitaire. Boss enters, folds his arms. JACK (V.O.) After fight club, everything else in your life gets the volume turned down. You can deal with anything. BOSS Have you finished those reports? JACK (handing him reports) Yes. JACK (V.O.) The people who had power over you have less and less. Jack looks at Boss. Reflexively, Jack's tongue plays with his teeth. JACK (V.O.) By this point, I could wiggle most of the teeth in my jaw. EXT. STREET - DUSK Tyler and Jack walk, both smoking cigarettes. JACK (V.O.) A guy came to fight club for the first time, his ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, he was carved out of wood. JACK If you could fight any celebrity? TYLER Alive or dead? JACK Doesn't matter. TYLER Hemingway. You? JACK Shatner. William Shatner. They reach a BUS STOP as a BUS arrives, tossing their cigarettes, getting on board... INT. BUS - DUSK The bus is crowded. As Tyler and Jack walk toward the back, Jack studies the faces of OTHER PASSENGERS... JACK (V.O.) We all started seeing things differently. Wherever we went. They hold hand grips. Jack looks up at an ADVERTISEMENT; a CALVIN KLEIN ad featuring a tan, bare-chested MUSCLE STUD. JACK (V.O.) I felt sorry for all the guys packing into gyms, trying to look like what Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger said they should. Tyler looks at Jack, looks at the C.K. advertisement. TYLER Self-improvement is masturbation. Self-destruction is the answer. A MAN in a suit KNOCKS Tyler's shoulder as he passes. The Man takes a handle, close by. Jack's pissed, staring at the man, who stares back. JACK (to Tyler, so the Man can hear) You could take him. Tyler looks to Jack, glances over his shoulder at the Man. Tyler casually picks a small scab off Jack's nostril. TYLER The trick is not to care. Tyler stares forward. INT. TAVERN BASEMENT - NIGHT Tyler HITS the floor, stomach first. HIS OPPONENT lands on top of him, grappling, trying for a CHOKE HOLD. The surrounding CROWD, Jack included, SCREAMS at them... Tyler and the Opponent wrestle desperately, and Tyler flips his attacker, gets on top, sprawling to pin him. Tyler turns -- starts reining PUNCHES into the Opponent's GROIN... CUT TO: Jack lands a couple of BLOWS to HIS OPPONENT'S stomach -- brings up a left uppercut that smashes the Opponent's jaw. Tiny spatters of BLOOD adorn the walls, along with sweat. Jack catches sight of a swollen-faced Tyler, watching appreciatively, a smile growing slowly on his face. JACK (V.O.) Fight club wasn't about winning or losing. It wasn't about words. The Opponent recovers, throws a headlock on Jack. Jack snakes his arm into a counter headlock. They wrestle like wild animals. The crowd CHEERS maniacally. JACK (V.O.) They hysterical shouting was in tongues, like at a Pentecostal church. Onlookers kneel to stay with the fight, cheering LOUDER. The Opponent SMASHES Jack's head to the floor, over and over. JACK ... stop... JACK (V.O.) When the fight was over, nothing was solved, but nothing mattered. Everyone moves in as the Opponent steps away. Tyler pushes through the crowd. Others lift Jack up. They turn their attention to the floor, to a BLOOD MASK of Jack's face -- similar to the TEAR MASK on BOB'S SHIRT. TYLER Cool. Jack limply shakes his Opponent's hand. OPPONENT How about next week? JACK Look at me. How about next month? Everyone helps Jack walk. He's sweating, bleeding, smiling. JACK (V.O.) Afterwards, we all felt saved. INT. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT A NURSE tends to Jack while Tyler watches. TYLER He fell down some stairs. The Nurse doesn't look at Tyler, just keeps tending to Jack. JACK I fell down some stairs. JACK (V.O.) Sometimes Tyler spoke for me. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - BATHROOM - MORNING Tyler and Jack share the cracked MIRROR. Tyler's clipping at his hair with blunt, ill-suited SCISSORS. Jack's brushing his teeth, spitting out pink foam. JACK (V.O.) Fight club became the reason to cut your hair short and trim your fingernails. TYLER Any historical figure. JACK Okay... Ghandi. TYLER Good answer. JACK You? TYLER Abe Lincoln. Big reach. Skinny guys fight till they're burger. Jack reaches in his mouth, exploring, pulls -- yanks a TOOTH. Jack looks at it. Tyler puts scissors down, done. TYLER Remember, even the Mona Lisa's falling apart. Jack drops the tooth in the sink with Tyler's hair. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATE AFTERNOON Jack enters, buttoning his shirt. The PHONE RINGS. JACK Hello? INTERCUT WITH... INT. MARLA'S BUILDING, HALLWAY - SAME Marla's in the HALL, on the PAYPHONE, twisting the phone cord around her neck. MARLA Where have you been the last few weeks? JACK Marla? Jack looks through the archway and sees Tyler, in his gummy flannel bathrobe, doing sit-ups. Jack leans, cups the phone. JACK (quietly) How did you find me? MARLA The forwarding number. I haven't seen you at any support groups. JACK That's the idea -- we split them. MARLA You haven't been going to yours. JACK I found a new one. MARLA Really? JACK It's for men. MARLA Like testicular cancer? JACK Look, this is a bad time... MARLA I've been going to debtor's anonymous. You want to see some truly fucked up people? JACK I'm just on my way out... MARLA Me too. I got a stomach full of Xanax. I took what was left of a bottle. Might've been too much. Jack looks exasperated, turns TO LOOK INTO THE CAMERA. JACK (V.O.) Picture yourself watching Marla Singer throw herself around her crummy apartment. MARLA This isn't a for-real suicide thing. This is probably one of those cry-for- help things. JACK (V.O.) This could go on for hours. JACK So you're staying in tonight? MARLA Do you want to wait to hear me describe death? Jack puts the handset on top of the phone, still off the hook, walks out the back door. MARLA'S VOICE Do you want to listen and see if my spirit can use the telephone? Thru the archway: Tyler leans to look in, curious. INT. BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT GRUNTS of PLEASURE and EXERTION. Glimpses of TORSOS, ASSES, LEGS, ARMS, BREASTS, and FEMALE HAIR, all DRENCHED in SWEAT. Sheets RIP. Bodies hit the FLOOR. Insane GRUNTING and LAUGHING. A flash of MARLA'S FACE. CUT TO: INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - SUNRISE Jack sits up in bed, looks around the room. INT. 2ND FLOOR LANDING Jack steps out of his room. The neighboring door is closed. JACK (V.O.) Tyler's door was closed. I'd been living here two months, and Tyler's door was never closed. INT. BATHROOM - SAME Jack stares into the TOILER, looking at SIX USED CONDOMS. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING Jack sits at the table, sips coffee, read Reader's Digest. He hears FOOTSTEPS approaching. JACK You're not going to believe what I dreamt last night. Marla walks in, straightening her dress, looks like she's been raped by a hurricane. Jack's jaw drops. MARLA I can hardly believe anything about last night. Marla goes to pour coffee. She takes a swig, GARGLES and SPITS it in the sink. She gives Jack a lascivious smile. JACK What are you doing here? MARLA What... ? JACK What the hell are you doing here? Marla stares at him a beat, then drops the cup in the sink. MARLA Fuck you. Marla shoves open the door to the backyard and walks out. Jack gets up, watches her stomp away. Jack turns and -- Tyler is at his shoulder, staring after Marla. He's in his usual sweatpants. He grins at Jack, then moves away, pours himself coffee. Jack, smoldering, slumps at the table and picks up Reader's Digest. Tyler puts his foot on a countertop, does stretching exercises. TYLER She's a piece of work. Get this -- I come in here last night, the phone's off the hook... Jack pretends to read, quickly glances at Tyler. TYLER'S VOICE FADES... JACK (V.O.) I already knew the story before he told it to me. INT. KITCHEN - LATE AFTERNOON (FLASHBACK) Tyler enters, gently lifts the handset and listens. MARLA'S VOICE (from handset) I'll tell you when I'm floating out of my body. Tyler smiles. JACK (V.O.) How could Tyler, off all people, think it was a bad thing that Marla Singer was about to die? INT. MARLA'S - 8TH FLOOR LANDING - LATE AFTERNOON (FLASHBACK) Tyler, a wry smile on his face, ambles up the stiars, looking at the rotting walls. He reaches the top of the stairs and heads for Marla's room. Before he can knock, Marla's hand shoots out and grabs him... INT. MARLA'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS (FLASHBACK) Marla pulls Tyler inside and shuts the door. Her drugged eyes look him over. MARLA You got here fast. She staggers and sits on the bed. She slides off, along with the blanket and sheets, to the floor. MARLA The mattresses are all sealed in slippery plastic. She tries to focus her eyes on Tyler. MARLA Did I call you? Tyler studies her with cynical curiosity, looks at a DILDO lying atop a dresser. Marla follows his gaze. MARLA Don't worry. It's not a threat to you. SIRENS and vehicles SCREECHING outside can be HEARD; doors opening and SLAMMING; running FOOTFALLS. MARLA Oh, no! Somebody called the cops... She gets to her feet, grabs Tyler, pulls him out the door. INT. HALLWAY (FLASHBACK) Marla LOCKS her door, then pulls Tyler toward the STAIRCASE. COPS and PARAMEDICS charge up with oxygen and medical kits. Marla and Tyler flatten against the wall to let them pass. COP 8-G! Where's 8-G? MARLA (pointing) End of the hall. The rescuers keep running. MARLA (calling after) The girl who lives there used to be a charming, lovely girl, but she's lost faith in herself... COP Miss Singer, let us help you! You have every reason to live! Marla yanks Tyler's arm, heading down the stairs. MARLA She's a monster! Infectious human waste! Good luck trying to save her! INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) Tyler makes coffee. Marla slouches against the refrigerator. MARLA If I fall asleep, I'm done for. You're gonna have to keep me up all night. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING (RESUMING) Tyler chuckles, shakes his head. TYLER Unbelievable, huh? JACK (V.O.) He was obviously able to handle it. Tyler stands across from Jack, gets a cigarette from a pack. TYLER I mean, this girl... uh, you're not into her or anything... ? JACK No. Not at all. JACK (V.O.) I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct. Tyler lights his cigarette. TYLER You're sure? JACK Yeah, I'm sure. TYLER Good. This chick was up on the table with her legs in the stirrups before the doctor even walked in the room. The things that she said... I've never heard a woman talk like that... INT. TYLER'S ROOM - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) Tyler smokes, post-coital. Marla puts her lips to his ear. MARLA (whispering) I want to have your abortion. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING (RESUMING) Tyler laughs, shakes his head. Jack's gripping his Reader's Digest just a little too tight. JACK (V.O.) How could Tyler not go for that? Night before last, he was splicing sex organs into "Little Mermaid." Tyler sits, studies Jack's face. TYLER You're okay with this? JACK I'm fine. JACK (V.O.) Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains. Tyler smokes. TYLER She is a wild, twisted bitch. Stay away from that one. JACK Oh, and my pace is more librarians. TYLER Hey... don't knock librarians. JACK Marla doesn't need a lover. She needs a case worker. TYLER She needs an exorcist. This isn't love. This is sport-fucking. JACK (V.O.) She'd invaded my support groups, now she's invading my home. TYLER Listen... do me a favor... sit here a minute... Tyler pulls out a closer chair, motions to it. Jack puts down his Reader's Digest and moves to that chair. JACK What? TYLER You've gotta understand something about me. I have a little rule, okay? Don't ever talk to her about me. Ever. I can't stand that kind of shit. Tyler fixes Jack with a friendly, but firm stare. TYLER If you ever say anything about me or about what happens here in this house, to her or anyone -- I will find out. And you'll never see me again. Promise me. JACK Okay. TYLER Promise you won't. JACK Yes, I promise. TYLER Promise? JACK I said I promise! TYLER That was three times you promised. Tyler smiles, gets up and leaves. Jack sits smoldering. JACK (V.O.) If only I had wasted a couple of minutes and gone to watch Marla die, none of this would have happened. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Jack watches TV at HIGH VOLUME. SOUNDS of SEX from upstairs. INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Jack lies calmly on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Sounds of THUMPS and CRASHES from beyond the wall. MARLA'S VOICE (muffled through wall) Miserable fucking discharge! JACK (V.O.) I could've moved to another room, one on the third floor -- so I wouldn't have heard them. But I didn't. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT SOUNDS of RAIN. Jack flips FUSES off, then walks upstairs. INT. 2ND FLOOR LANDING - SAME Jack walks, HEARS Marla SCREAM in orgasm. He reaches the landing. Tyler's door is ajar. Jack peeks in... Marla's legs are sprawled on the bed. The door PUSHES OPEN WIDER -- Tyler, naked, stands CLOSE TO CAMERA. TYLER What are you doing? Jack steps back. JACK I... uh... just going to bed. Tyler scratches his head, wears a RUBBER GLOVE. TYLER You want to finish her off? JACK Uh... nah... Jack continues toward his room. INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Jack brushes his teeth. JACK (V.O.) I became the calm, little center of the world. I was the Zen master. CLOSE UP - COMPUTER MONITOR Haiku is BEING TYPED in a trendy, italicized font. "Worker bees can leave Even drones can fly away The queen is their slave" JACK (V.O.) I wrote little haiku poems. INT. JACK'S OFFICE - DAY Jack's clothes are PERMANENTLY STAINED with BLOOD. He sits in Zen pose, cigarette in mouth, finishes typing Haiku. JACK (V.O.) I faxed them around to everyone. He hits "SEND," gets the "ERROR CHIME" SOUND. He presses this key over and over. Boss enters. BOSS Is that your blood? JACK Some of it, yes. Boss stares at Jack like he's from Mars. BOSS Take the rest of the day off. Come back tomorrow with clean clothes. Get yourself together. INT. HALLWAY - SAME Jack's leaving, looks like a war casualty, passing COWORKERS who coldly stare at him. His face is totally passive. JACK (V.O.) I got right in everyone's hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from fighting. I'm comfortable with them. I am enlightened. EXT. PAPER STREET - SUNSET Jack walks toward the HOUSE. JACK (V.O.) You give up the condo life, give up all your flaming worldly possessions, go live in a dilapidated house in the toxic waste part of town... INT. TYLER'S KITCHEN - SUNSET Jack walks in. SOUNDS of VIOLENT SEX and a POLAROID CAMERA from upstairs. Pieces of PLASTER fall from the ceiling. JACK (V.O.) ... and you come home to this. TYLER'S VOICE (laughing) You fucking slut!! MARLA'S VOICE Thank you, sir, may I have another! Thank you sir, may I have another... ! Jack rolls his eyes, takes off his pants. He runs water in the sink, finds a tiny bit of SOAP and scrubs at the blood stains. The PHONE RINGS. He answers it. JACK Yeah. Speaking. INTERCUT WITH... INT. POLICE STATION - OFFICE A cop, DETECTIVE STERN, refers to a file. DETECTIVE STERN This is Detective Stern with the arson unit. We have some new information about the "incident" at your condo. JACK Yes? DETECTIVE STERN I don't know if you're aware... your front door -- it seems someone sprayed freon into the lock, then tapped it with a chisel to shatter the cylinder. JACK No, I wasn't aware... JACK (V.O.) I am Jack's Cold Sweat. DETECTIVE STERN Does this sound strange to you? JACK Yes, sire, strange. Very strange. Jack starts to sweat, scrubs his pants obsessively. DETECTIVE STERN The dynamite... JACK Dynamite? DETECTIVE STERN Yes. It left a residue of ammonium oxalate and potassium perchloride. Do you know what that means? JACK What does that mean? DETECTIVE STERN It means it was homemade. JACK This is... really a shock... DETECTIVE STERN Whoever set this homemade dynamite could've blown out the pilot light days before the explosion. The gas, it seems, was just a detonator. JACK Who do you think could've done this? DETECTIVE STERN I'll ask the questions, son. TYLER (whispering in Jack's ear) Tell him... Jack almost leaps out his skin, startled; looks to see Tyler standing right next to him. JACK Huh? TYLER (overlap w/below) "The liberator who destroyed my property has re-aligned my paradigm of perception." JACK Shhhhhh! (into phone, overlap w/above) I don't know what to make of this, sir, I really don't... DETECTIVE STERN Do you know anyone who'd have the expertise or motive to do something like this? TYLER "I reject the basic assumptions of civilization, including material possession." Jack pushes Tyler away, cups the receiving. JACK (into phone) No. No, sir. I loved that condo. I loved every stick of furniture. The lamps, the chairs, the rugs, were me. The dishes were me. The plants were... JACK (V.O.) I'd like to thank the academy... DETECTIVE STERN Well, if any ideas come to you, give me a call. In the meantime, don't leave town. I may need to bring you in for questioning. END INTERCUT Jack hangs up. Tyler shrugs. TYLER Could be worse. You could be cursed with the three terrible Karmas. You could be beautiful, rich and famous. Jack turns away, continues to scrub his pants. Marla's FOOTSTEPS can be HEARD coming downstairs... Jack really grinds the soap against the pants, splashing water. He turns, sees Marla enter. Tyler is GONE. Marla lights a cigarette. JACK (V.O.) Except for their humping, Tyler and Marla were never in the same room. MARLA I got this dress at a thrift store for one dollar. JACK (keeps scrubbing) Worth every penny. JACK (V.O.) My parents pulled this exact act for years -- one came in, the other disappeared. Marla begins a slow, exotic dance, moving very close to Jack. She lifts her dress dangerously high, dancing close to Jack's body, almost touhcing. MARLA (seductive) It's a bridesmaid's dress. Someone loved it intensely for one day, then tossed it. Like a Christmas tree -- so special, then, bam -- it's abandoned on the side of the road, tinsel still clinging to it... Jack becomes very aware of having no pants on, presses against the counter. Marla pulls her hemline further up. MARLA Like sex crime victims, underwear inside-out, bound with electrical tape. JACK (coldly) It suits you. She leans in very close to Jack's ear, whispers hoarsely: MARLA You can borrow it sometime. Jack takes a step away, keeps scrubbing. Marla blows smoke in his face. Jack takes her cigarette and throws it in the sink. Marla backs away, fed up, storms out, going UPSTAIRS. TYLER (O.S.) Get rid of her. Jack turns to see Tyler in the doorway. JACK You get rid of her. TYLER (pointing at Jack) Don't mention me. Marla's FOOTSTEPS are coming DOWNSTAIRS. Jack looks to the archway, then back at -- Tyler's GONE. Marla enters, shoes and balled up clothing under one arm, looking for something on the junk strewn table. JACK (V.O.) I'm six years old again, passing messages between my parents. JACK I, uh... think you should go now. Marla ignores, still searching the table, tossing things, pushing other things off to the floor. JACK It's time for you to leave. MARLA Don't worry, I'm leaving. Marla finds what she wanted, a pack of cigarettes. She moves up into Jack's face. MARLA You're such a nutcase, I can't even begin to keep up. JACK Goodbye. She laughs, spins on her heels. As she exits the back door, she sings "This Merry-Go-Round" from "Valley of the Dolls." Jack watches her through the kitchen window. TYLER (O.S.) Nice work. Jack turns. Tyler's right behind him. Through the window, Marla can be seen walking away. Tyler picks up the remnant of SOAP Jack's been using, holds it up to Jack. TYLER To make soap, first we have to render fat. Jack looks at Tyler. CLOSE UP - SIGN: "DANGER - BIOHAZARD." EXT. FENCED-IN BIOHAZARD WASTE DUMP SITE - NIGHT Tyler stands inside the fence. Jack's atop the fence, struggling to cross BARBED WIRE. He wobbles, gets over, snags his shirt. Jack falls, RIPPPPP. Tyler helps. FOOTSTEPS. A FLASHLIGHT BEAM. Tyler pulls Jack behind a DUMPSTER, one of DOZENS. A silhouette of a SECURITY GUARD moves along the perimeter, flashlight first. He walks away. MOVE BACK to Tyler and Jack, who emerge from hiding. Tyler eagerly grabs the lid of the closest dumpster. TYLER The best fat for making soap -- because the salt balance is just right -- comes form human bodies... Tyler lifts the lid -- it CREAKS. JACK What is this place? TYLER A liposuction clinic. From the dumpster, Tyler pulls out an industrial-sized, thick plastic bag full of PINK GOO. TYLER Paydirt. From society's richest asses and thighs. TIME CUT: Tyler and Jack climb back over the fence, carrying BAGS of fat. One of Jack's bags RIPS, spilling the goo down the chain-link fench. Jack slips and slides. Tyler laughs. Tyler tries to scoop the running fat back into the bag. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Jack and Tyler each stir a boiling pot. TYLER As the fat renders, the tallow floats to the surface. Remember the crap they taught you in Boy Scouts. JACK Hard to imagine you in Boy Scouts. TYLER This clear layer in glycerin. We'll mix it back in when we make the soap. Tyler sticks a spoon into a pot, lifts up a scoop of the glycerin layer. Then, he crabs a can, opens it. TYLER Lye -- the crucial ingredient. (adding lye to mix) Ancient peoples found their clothes got cleaner if they washed them at a certain spot in the river. Why? Because, human sacrifices were once made on the hills above this river. Year after year, bodies burnt. Rain feel. Water seeped through the wood ashes to become lye. The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies, till a thick white soapy discharge crept into the river. Tyler licks his lips until they're gleaming wet. He takes Jack's hands and KISSES the back of it. TYLER The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes. Like the first monkeys shot into space. The saliva shines in the shape of the kiss. Tyler pours a bit of the flaked lye onto Jack's hand. TYLER Without sacrifice, without death, we would have nothing. Jack's whole body JERKS. Tyler holds tight to Jack's hand and arm. Tears well in Jack's eyes; his face tightens. TYLER This is a chemical burn. It will hurt more than you've ever been burned and you will have a scar. Jack looks -- the burn is swollen, glossy, in the shape of Tyler's kiss. Jack's face spasms. JACK (V.O.) Tyler's kiss was a bonfire on the back of my hand. TYLER Look at your hand. JACK (V.O.) Guided meditation worked for cancer, it could work for this. SHOT OF A GREEN MAPLE LEAF, GLISTENING WITH DEW. RESUME: Tyler looks at Jack's glazed and detached eyes. TYLER Come back to the pain. Don't shut this out. Jack, snapping back, tries to jerk his hand away. Tyler keeps hold of it and their arms KNOCK UTENSILS off the table. JACK (V.O.) I tried not to think of the words "searing" or "flesh." I imagined my pain as a ball of healing white light. SHOT OF A FOREST, IN GENTLE SPRING RAINFALL. RESUME: Tyler JERKS Jack's hand, getting Jack's attention... TYLER Stop it. This is your pain -- your burning hand. It's right here. Look at it. JACK (V.O.) I was going to my cave to find my power animal. SHOT OF THE INSIDE OF JACK'S FROZEN ICE CAVE. RESUME: Tyler JERKS Jack's hand again. Jack re-focuses on Tyler... TYLER Don't deal with this the way those dead people do. Deal with it the way a living person does. SHOT OF INSIDE THE ICE CAVE - ON MARLA, LYING NAKED UNDER A FUR COAT, TURNING HER HEAD TO LOOK TOWARDS US. RESUME: Jack tries to pull his hand free. Tyler won't let go. Jack's eyes glaze over again. Jack speaks, whiny from pain: JACK I... I think I understand. I think I get it... TYLER No, what you're feeling is premature enlightenment. SHOT OF A GREEN FOREST WITHOUT RAIN. RESUME: Tyler SLAPS Jack's face, regaining his attention... TYLER This is the greatest moment of your life and you're off somewhere, missing it. JACK No, I'm not... SHOT OF TREES ENGULFED BY A FOREST FIRE. RESUME: TYLER Shut up. Our fathers were our models for God. And, if our fathers bailed, what does that tell us about God? JACK I don't know... SHOT OF EMBERS POURING FROM THE HELLISH FOREST FIRE. RESUME: Tyler SLAPS Jack's face again... TYLER Listen to me. You have to consider the possibility that God doesn't like you, he never wanted you. In all probability, He hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen... JACK It isn't... ? TYLER We don't need him... JACK We don't... ? SHOT OF INSIDE ICE CAVE - NAKED MARLA PULLS JACK DOWN ON TOP OF HER - JACK KISSES HER - CIGARETTE SMOKE COMES FROM HER MOUTH - JACK COUGHS. RESUME: Jack is a wide-eyed zombie... JACK ... Marla ... ? TYLER Fuck damnation. Fuck redemption. We are God's unwanted children, with no special place and no special attention, and so be it. Jack looks at Tyler -- they lock eyes. Jack does his best to stifle his spasms of pain, his body a quivering, coiled knot. He bolts toward the sink, but Tyler holds on. TYLER You can go to the sink and run water over your hand. Look at me. Or you can use vinegar to neutralize the burn, but first you have to give up. First, you have to know that someday, you are going to die. Until you know that, you will be useless. Jack spasms with a shiver of pain... JACK You ... you don't know what this feels like, Tyler. Tyler shows Jack a LYE-BURNED KISS SCAR on his own hand. Tears begin to drip from Jack's eyes. Tyler grabs a bottle of VINEGAR -- pours it over Jack's wound. Jack closes his eyes, holds his hand... slumps to the floor. TYLER Congratulations. You're a step closer to hitting bottom. INT. BARNEY'S - DAY Jack and Tyler, in trench coats, looking like deaht-warmed- over, wait as a BUYER fills out forms. There are bars of "The Paper Street Soap Company" soap on the counter. Jack looks like he's half-expecting to get arrested. His hand is BANDAGED. JACK (V.O.) Tyler sold the soap to department stores at twenty bucks a Ear. God knows what they charged. How ironic. We were selling rich women their own fat asses back to them. INT. JACK'S OFFICE - DAY Jack sits at his desk, playing a game on his computer, smoking a cigarette. Boss enters. JACK (V.O.) He was wearing a yellow tie. It must be Thursday. I didn't even wear a tie to work anymore. Boss slaps a piece of PAPER down on Jack's desk. BOSS "The first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club." Jack snuffs his cigarette in an ashtray, stares up stoically. JACK (V.O.) I must've left the original in the copy machine. BOSS "The second rule of fight club... Is this yours? JACK Hmm? BOSS You don't get paid to abuse the copy machine. JACK "Abuse" the copy machine. There's an image. BOSS Pretend you're me. You find this. What would you do? Jack rises slowly, walks to his door, shuts it. JACK Me? I'd be very careful who I talked to about this. It sounds like someone dangerous wrote it... someone who might snap at any moment, stalking from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 Carbine-gas semiautomatic, bitterly pumping round after round into colleagues and co- workers. Jack moves very close to Boss, picks up the PAPER and starts tearing it into pieces. JACK Might be someone you've known for years... somebody very close to you. Or, maybe you shouldn't be bringing me every little piece of trash you pick up. Jack puts the PAPER in his trash. Bass stares with a tinge of outrage, a tinge of fear. PHONE RINGS. Jack answers it. JACK Compliance and Liability. MARLA'S VOICE My tit's going to rot off. JACK Just a second. (to Boss; smiles) Could you excuse me? I need to take this call. Boss goes to the door, stares at Jack a beat, then leaves. JACK (into phone) What are you talking about? INTERCUT WITH - CLOSE UP OF MARLA... MARLA Would you do something for me? I need you to check and see if there's a lump in my breast. I can't afford to throw money away on a doctor. JACK I don't know ... MARLA Please. JACK (V.O.) She didn't call Tyler. I'm neutral in her book. EXT. MARLA'S HOTEL - SUNSET Jack walks down the sidewalk, seeing Marla take two BOXES from a VAN with the sign "MEALS ON WHEELS." INT. MARLA'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Marla leads Jack inside. JACK This is a sweet side of you. Picking these up for ... (reads the boxes:) "Mrs. Haniver" and... "Mrs. Raines." Where are they? MARLA Tragically, they're dead. I'm alive and I'm in poverty. You want any? JACK No, thanks. MARLA Good. He stares at her while she eats. MARLA What happened to your hand? Jack awkwardly puts his bandaged hand behind his back. JACK Nothing. INT. MARLA'S ROOM - NIGHT Marla stands facing a MIRROR with her shirt open. Jack stands behind her with his hand on the bottom side of her breast. Marla's hand guides his. JACK Where? Here? MARLA Here. JACK There? MARLA Here. JACK Here. MARLA Feel anything? JACK No. Jack's head is behind Marla's. They speak softer, slower. MARLA Make sure. JACK Okay. Okay, I'm sure. MARLA You feel nothing? JACK Nothing. Marla turns around and faces him, begins to button her shirt. MARLA Well, that's a relief. Thank you. JACK No... no problem. MARLA I wish I could return the favor. Jack touches his own chest, shakes his head. JACK I think everything's okay here. MARLA I could check your prostate. JACK Uh ... nah. MARLA (pause) Well... thanks, anyway. Marla leans to kiss him -- lingers for a bit longer than just friendly. Jack pulls away. JACK So.... are we done? Marla sighs. MARLA Yeah, we're done. See you around. EXT. HOTEL - MOMENTS LATER Jack emerges from the lobby. He looks up at Marla's window, watches her silhouette. He walks away, right into -- Big BOB, the moose, eating a donut and drinking orange juice. BOB Cornelius! How are you? JACK Bob. I'm okay. How are you? BOB Better than I've ever been in my life. JACK Really? Great. Still "Remaining Men Together?" An intense look of born-again fervor comes over Bob's face. BOB No. I found something new. JACK Really, what's that? BOB (quietly) The first rule is... you aren't supposed to talk about it... JACK Oh. BOB And the second rule about it is... you're not supposed to talk about it. And the third rule... JACK Bob, Bob... I'm a member. BOB You are?! JACK Look at my face. Bob roughly slaps Jack's shoulder. BOB That's a fucking great, man! Fucking great! Congratulations. JACK Yeah, both of us. BOB You know about the guy who invented it? I hear all kinds of things. Supposedly, he was born in a mental institution. They say he only sleeps one hour a night. You know about this guy? Tyler Durden? INT. BASEMENT - ELECTRONICS WKREHOUSE - NIGHT The CROWD SCREAMS insanely as Bob and Jack go at it in the circle of light. Bob's eyes are wild with glee. EXT. BASEMENT DOOR - ELECTRONICS WAREHOUSE - LATER Everyone sneaks out of this new location - we've seen none of these guys before - it's a new chapter. Jack and Bob Stagger out last, Jack being in worse shape. They both grin with religious serenity. Bob hugs Jack. BOB Thank you. Thank you. Bob relaxes the hug and Jack drops to the ground like a sack, completely enervated from the beating he took. JACK You're welcome. JACK (V.O.) Fight club -- this was mine and Tyler's gift... our gift to the world. INT. KITCHEN -- MORNING Jack has his briefcase on the table, looks at PAPERWORK. Tyler wanders in, carries a dirty pot to the sink. Jack takes out a cigarette, lights up. He offers the pack... TYLER No thanks, I quit. JACK You quit? TYLER Yeah. Where you headed? JACK Work. Going to work. Tyler scratches his chin absently. JACK What... ? TYLER Nothing. Do what you like. Tyler walks out the way he came. INT. JACK'S OFFICE - DAY Jack sits staring at his SCREEN SAVER. INT. BOSS'S OFFICE - DAY Jack steps into the open doorway, knocks on the doorframe. Boss looks up from his large, expensive desk. JACK We need to talk. BOSS Okay. Where to begin? With your constant absenteeism? With your unpresentable appearance? You're up for review... JACK I Am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise. Boss sits up in his seat, becoming enraged. JACK Let's pretend. You're the Department of Transportation, and you discover that our company intentionally did nothing about leather seats cured in third world countries with chemicals we know cause birth defects? Brake linings that fail after a thousand miles. Fuel injectors that burn people alive. BOSS Just who the fuck do you think you are?! Get out! You're fired! JACK What about this? Keep me on payroll as an outside consultant. In exchange for my salary, I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't need to come to the office. I can do this job from home. Boss stands, moves around his desk, glaring with rage. BOSS You little fucker! I oughta... Jack PUNCHES HIMSELF in the nose. Blood starts to trickle. He punches himself in the jaw, throws himself back as if by the force of the punch, SLAMS against a framed picture and SHATTERS the glass. He falls to the floor. JACK (V.O.) I Am Jack's Smirking Revenge. Jack gets back to his feet. JACK Please... don't hit me again, please. I'm your responsibility... He PUNCHES himself in the stomach, then in the jaw again. He reels backwards, pulls down a hanging shelf, its contents flying. He hits the floor. JACK (V.O.) For some reason, I thought of my first fight -- with Tyler. Jack crawls toward Boss, dripping blood, grabs Boss's leg. JACK Please... give me the paychecks like I asked for. I won't be any trouble. You won't see me again. Jack climbs up Boss's leg while Boss tries to shake him off. Boss stumbles back into his desk, knocking off belongings. JACK (V.O.) Under and behind and inside everything this man took for granted, something horrible had been growing. Jack crawls high enough to grab Boss's belt, hoisting himself up. He dribbles blood an Boss's clothing, SMUDGES blood from his face onto the knuckles of Boss's hand. JACK Please... please... JACK (V.O.) And right then, at our most excellent moment together... Two SECURITY GUARDS enter and gape at the sight. Behind them stand CURIOUS WORKERS, looking in. JACK (gurgling blood) Please don't hit me again. INT. TYLER'S HOUSE - ENTRANCE FOYER - DAY Jack holds a CHECK in front of Tyler's face. JACK Six months advance pay. Six months! TYLER Fucking sweet. JACK Okay, and... and... Jack digs in his pocket, takes out a thick bundle of CARDS. JACK Forty-eight airline flight coupons. Plus... hold on... just a minute... Jack holds up a finger, going to open the front door. He drags an unwieldy SHOPPING CART in behind him; filled with his COMPUTER, PHONE, FAX and other office equipment. JACK I am now officially self-employed. Jack looks at the cart, then back at Tyler, proud. TYLER Good for you. INT. LOU'S TAVERN - BASEMENT - NIGHT LOUD. An enormous CROWD of guys, including Jack and Bob, stands around Tyler, who's in the center of the circle, holding up his hands to quiet them... TYLER I look around... I look around and see a lot of new faces. An enthusiastic RUMBLE from the crowd. TYLER Shut up! Which means a lot of you have been breaking the first two rules of fight club. A glum silence falls. Guys look at each other. TYLER I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived -- an entire generation pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves with white collars. (more) TYLER (cont) Advertisements have them chasing cars and clothes, working jobs they hate so they can buy shit they don't need. We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no great war, or great depression. The great war is a spiritual war. The great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe that we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars -- but we won't. And we're learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed-off. The crowd erupts into a DEAFENING CHORUS of agreement. Jack looks at the blazing excitement in the eyes of the crowd. TYLER We are the quiet young men who listen until it's time to decide. A fat, MIDDLE-AGED MAN stomps down the stairs, pushing into the crowd, followed by a TALL, HEFTY THUG who holds a GUM. TYLER Who are you? FAT MAN (LOU) Who am I?! There's a sign on the front that says "Lou's Tavern." I'm fucking Lou. Who the fuck are you?! TYLER Tyler Durden. Tyler extends his hand for a shake, but Lou SLAPS it away. LOU Who told you motherfuckers you could use my place? TYLER We have a deal worked out with Irvine. LOU Irvine? Irvine's at home with a broken collarbone. Everyone glances guiltily at each other. LOU He don't own this place, I do. How much money's he getting for this? TYLER There is no money. LOU Really? TYLER It's free to all. LOU Ain't that something? TYLER Yes, it is. LOU Look, stupid fuck, I want everyone outta here now! TYLER You're welcome to join our club. LOU Did you hear what I just said?! TYLER You and your friend. Lou SLUGS Tyler in the stomach, doubles him over. LOU You hear me now? Tyler gains his breath, determined. He looks up, turns his head, looking to Jack. Jack watches, wide-eyed. Tyler straightens, facing Lou. TYLER No, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Lou PUNCHES Tyler in the face. Some of the guys move forward, but the Thug points his gun. Jack-runs forward anyway -- Lou PUNCHES him in the face. More guys move forward, but Tyler waves them off, facing Lou. TYLER We really need to use this place. Lou proceeds to beat the shit out of Tyler, PUNCHING his face, his stomach. Tyler collapses to the floor. Lou starts KICKING his. Tyler bleeds from the mouth and face. TYLER That's it.... that's good. Get it all out. You'll feel better. Lou flushes red with exasperation, KICKS more. Finally, sweating, bewildered, Lou stops. He looks to the Thug, who is just as bewildered. Suddenly, Tyler SPRINGS UP, grabs onto Lou... TYLER Yes, I am shit and crazy, to you and this whole fucking world... Tyler's blood spatters on Lou. Lou tries to shake Tyler off, but Tyler BITES Lou's NECKTIE. The Thug grabs Tyler and pulls, the necktie tightening and strangling Lou. Lou slaps at Tyler's face, but recoils from the blood. Tyler spits and shouts through clenched teeth... TYLER You don't know where I've been. Tyler bear hugs Lou, pulls him to the floor. Tyler rubs his bloody face into Lou's face. The Thug lifts Tyler. Tyler clings to Lou's belt, dragging Lou as he is dragged... TYLER We need this place. We need it. Please let us keep it, please... Blood dribbles out of Tyler's mouth, spattering Lou. LOU What are you doing?! TYLER Pleeeeeease! LOU Okay! Okay, fuck it! Use the basement! Get off me! TYLER We need some towels, Lou. We need replacement light bulbs. LOU Alright, Christ! Fucking let me go! TYLER Thank you. Thank you, sir... LOU Let go of me!! Tyler lets go of Lou's belt. Lou scrambles away. The Thug drops Tyler, trying to keep clear of the blood. Lou gets to his feet, looks at Tyler, then at the rest of the guys. He and the Thug back away... slamming the door behind. Fight club surrounds Tyler. They help him up, move him to a crate. Tyler sits slumped for a long moment, his breathing labored... then, he sits back, crossing his legs and looking to the group, his demeanor businesslike. TYLER This week, each of you has a homework assignment. You're going to go out and start a fight with a total stranger... (pause, drooling blood) You're going to start a fight... and you're going to lose. Jack beams in appreciation. EXT. STREET - DAY Ricky trips a passing YUPPIE. The Yuppie falls. JACK (V.O.) Not as easy as it sounds. People'll do just about anything to avoid a fight. The Yuppies gets up, angry, and Ricky PUNCHES him... YUPPIE Hey! Wha... What the hell... what are you doing?! Who are you?!! The Yuppie backs away. Ricky follows... YUPPIE Get away from me! Keep away! NO... ! Ricky TACKLES the Yuppie. The Yuppie struggles spastically. YUPPIE Who are you!? Why are you attacking me... ?! Having no recourse, the Yuppie begins trading blows. EXT. AUTO SHOP - DAY A MECHANIC WITH A BATTERED FACE uses a hose to wash the sidewalk. As MEN pass, he jerks the hose up and SPRAYS them. FIRST MAN Hey... hey... SECOND MAN Watch out, jackass! These men continue on their way. The Mechanic sprays a third man, a SEMINARY STUDENT, who looks down, stunned. SEMINARIAN You... you did that on purpose! The Mechanic DOUSES the Seminarian. The Seminarian grabs the hose, wrestling the Mechanic for it. The Mechanic shoves the Seminarian, who responds with a half-assed PUNCH. The Mechanic purposely takes it. The Seminarian starts to run away. The Mechanic sprints after him, PUNCHING the Seminarian in the back of the neck. They fight. INT. RECORD STORE STOCKROOM - NIGHT A FIST smashes a JAW. Guys CHEER. An arm snakes around a neck and squeezes, blood and sweat dripping. It's the YUPPIE and the SEMINARIAN fighting. Tyler walks around the perimeter of the circle. JACK (V.O.) Now nobody was the center of fight club except the two men fighting. The leader walked around in the crowd, out in the darkness. Tyler hands ENVELOPES out to the crowd. JACK (V.O.) Everyone took a homework assignment. EXT. STREET - LATE NIGHT Ricky and another FIGHT CLUBBER paste up a BILLBOARD which reads: "DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN USE YOUR OLD MOTOR OIL TO FERTILIZE YOUR LAWN! -- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY." INT. PAPER STREET HOUSE HANDS use a MARKER, writing on a FILE: "Disinformation." EXT. LARGE PARKING LOT - DAY Jack and Tyler, in work gloves, armed with TOOLS, work together to lift the entire METAL PLATE of EXIT SPIKES from the ground. They reverse it, then replace it. MOMENTS LATER Jack and Tyler walk away, each carrying a 4x4 plank of WOOD. JACK There's fight club in Delaware City. TYLER I heard. Local 15, Monday nights. As they pass PARKED CARS, they SWING the planks against front bumpers -- activating ALARMS and INFLATING AIR BAGS... JACK Local 8 just started in Penns Grove. And, Bob said he was at fight club in Newcastle last week. TYLER Newcastle? Did you start that one? JACK I thought you did. In the background, a CAR quickly EXITS the parking lot -- front tires EXPLODING, wheel rims throwing sparks. INT. FAMILY HOUSEHOLD -- NIGHT FATHER, MOTHER, YOUNG DAUGHTER and SON, eat dinner, watching TELEVISION. Suddenly, the TV IMAGE turns to SNOW and static. Family members stop eating. Father picks up the REMOTE, points it -- all channels are SNOW. Father turns the TV OFF. He and his family members look at each other, utensils in hand, uncomfortable. EXT. CITY ROOFTOPS - NIGHT The Yuppie SWINGS a BASEBALL BAT -- DESTROYS a digital SATELLITE DISH. The Yuppie and the Seminarian move on, climbing to a neighboring rooftop. They come upon another DISH. The Seminarian takes the bat, takes a SWING... INT. PAPER STREET HOUSE HANDS place NEWS CLIPPINGS into a FILE: "Mischief." INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - ON GROUND - DAY Two AIRPLANE MAINTENANCE,MEN, with bruised faces, rip open a box from a PRINT SHOP. They dig up AIRPLANE SAFETY INSTRUCTION CARDS and begin inserting them into each seatback. We SEE a CARD - it shows passengers SCREAMING and FLAILING ABOUT IN TERROR. INT. BUSINESS OFFICE - NIGHT Huge office. Rows and rows of desks. FIGHT CLUB MEMBERS work: one guy moving from COMPUTER MONITOR to COMPUTER MONITOR, using a DRILL to drill a hole into the top of each. Other guys follow behind, with FUNNELS and CANS of GASOLINE, filling each monitor with gasoline. INT. PAPER STREET HOUSE Files and newspaper clippings are piled up. HANDS write on a new FILE FOLDER: "Arson." EXT. ROOFTOP -- DAY The Yuppie crumbles a loaf of stale bread into a bucket, stirring it with a big spoon, mixing in a BOTTLE of EX-LAX. Nearby, Rob throws handfuls of wet BREADCRUMBS to PIGEONS... HUNDREDS of PIGEONS -- a rooftop feeding-frenzy. EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE - NIGHT Tyler and Jack cross the parking lot, towards the convenience store. Jack wears a BACKPACK. TYLER Let me have that a minute... Tyler takes the BACKPACK, unzips it, searching the contents. JACK What are we doing? TYLER Homework assignment. JACK What is it? Tyler takes out a HANDGUN, hands the backpack back. TYLER Human Sacrifice. Jack turns white, staring at the gun. EXT. BEHIND THE CONVENIENCE STORE - MOMENTS LATER The BACK DOOR opens and Tyler brings the store's CLERK out at gunpoint, forces him to his knees. Jack follows, freaked. Tyler points the gun at the Clerk. JACK (V.O.) On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. CLERK Please... don't... TYLER Give me your wallet. The Clerk fumbles his wallet out of his pocket and Tyler snatches it. Tyler pulls out the DRIVER'S LICENCE. TYLER Raymond K. Hessel. 1320 SE Benning, apartment A. A small, cramped basement apartment. RAYMOND How'd you know? TYLER They give basement apartments letters instead of numbers. Raymond, you're going to die. Tyler rummages through the wallet. TYLER Is this a picture of Mom and Dad? RAYMOND Yesssss... TYLER Your mom and dad will have to call kindly doctor so-and-so to dig up your dental records, because there won't be much left of your face. RAYMOND Please, God, no... Raymond begins to weep, shoulders heaving. JACK Tyler... TYLER An expired community college student ID card. What did you used to study, Raymond K. Hessel? RAYMOND S-S-Stuff. TYLER "Stuff." Were the mid-terms hard? Tyler rams the gun barrel against Raymond's temple. TYLER I asked you what you studied. JACK Tell him! RAYMOND Biology, mostly. TYLER Why? RAYMOND I... I don't know... TYLER What did you want to be, Raymond K. Hessel? Raymond weeps and says nothing. Tyler COCKS the gun. Raymond GASPS. TYLER The question, Raymond, was "what did you want to be?" A beat. JACK Answer him! RAYMOND A veterinarian! TYLER Animals. RAYMOND Yeah ... animals and s-s-s --- TYLER Stuff. That means you have to get more schooling. RAYMOND Too much school. Tyler shoves Raymond's wallet back into Raymond's pocket. TYLER Would you rather be dead? RAYMOND No, please, no, God, no! Tyler moves the gun right between Raymond's eyes. RAYMOND NOOOOO! Tyler UNCOCKS the gun, lowers it. TYLER I'm keeping your license. I know where you live. I'm going to check on you. If you aren't back in school and on your way to being a veterinarian in six weeks, you will be dead. Get the hell out of here. Raymond staggers to his feet, heads down an alleyway. Jack and Tyler watch Raymond flee, then Tyler looks at Jack. JACK I feel sick. TYLER Imagine how he feels. Tyler brings the gun to his own head, pulls the trigger -- CLICK. Empty. JACK I don't care, that was horrible. Tyler walks away. TYLER Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessell's life. Jack watches Tyler go. TYLER His breakfast will taste better than any meal he has ever eaten. Jack turns to look the direction Raymond ran. He finally turns back, following after Tyler. INT. BUSINESS OFFICE - NIGHT SLOW MOTION: in the deserted office, gasoline filled COMPUTER MONITORS begin to EXPLODE...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM... ! EXT. CITY STREETS -- MORNING Luxury AUTOMOBILES are parked, splattered with BIRD SHIT. EXT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - BACKYARD - DAWN VIEWED OUT 3RD STORY WINDOW: Tyler uses a RAKE, dragging it across rocks and dirt. He stops a moment, rake on his shoulder, staring off. Then, back to work... TYLER (muttering quietly) ... You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the shoes you wear. Tyler's marking a large SQUARE in the weeds and rubble of the backyard, kicking rocks away, dragging the rake... TYLER You are not the contents of your wallet... INT. CITY BUS - NIGHT The DRIVER has a broken nose. The bus is empty, except for Jack, in the very last seat, sleepy. JACK (V.O.) He had a plan. Maybe you just didn't see it till it hit you between the eyes. (pause) But, it started to make sense... in a Tyler sort of way. No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide. EXT. PAPER STREET - NIGHT Jack gets off the bus. As the bus pulls away, we see it dropped Jack off right in front of the house. INT. KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER Jack enters. Tyler, dressed in FATIGUES and splattered with PAINT, grabs BEERS from the refrigerator. JACK Hey. TYLER Hey. Jack notices ROPE and RAPPELLING TOOLS on the table. Tyler comes to hand Jack a bunch of beers, nod to the living room. TYLER Go on in. We're celebrating. INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Jack, bewildered, enters carrying beers. Tyler does NOT follow. BOB, RICKY and several other fight club guys sit in front at the TV, chanting not too loudly, all also dressed in FATIGUES and splattered with PAINT. RICKY You are not your job. OTHERS TOGETHER You are not your job. RICKY You are not how much money you have in the bank. BOB Shhhh, wait... they're back to it... Bob goes to turn up the TV. One guy, sixteen years old with an angelic face, ANGEL FACE, gets up to take beer from Jack. ANGEL FACE (to Jack) Great, thanks. Angel face starts distributing beer amongst his cohorts. BOB Shhhhh! Watch! Jack looks to the TV -- it shows a LIVE shot of the "PARKER MORRIS BUILDING." The building has a GIANT, GRINNING FACE PAINTED on it -- two BROKEN WINDOWS for EYES, with flames pouring out... FIRETRUCKS spray water. REPORTER (V.O.) Police Commissioner Jacobs has just arrived... just a second... excuse me, Commissioner, could you tell us what you think has happened? COMMISSIONER JACOBS, a wrinkled official, turns to camera. COMMISSIONER JACOBS (V.O.) We believe this is related to the recent acts of vandalism around the city. It's some kind of organized group, and we are coordinating a rigorous investigation. Jack turns, sees Tyler in the archway, watching him. Tyler tips his beer to toast, pulls back, out of sight. JACK What did you guys do? They all BURST INTO LAUGHTER. They look at Jack and shake their heads. Jack doesn't get it. Suddenly, the guys' faces turn to stone. Bob sits rigid. BOB The first rule of Project Mayhem is... you do not ask questions. Jack stares at them. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL BALLROOM - NIGHT A luxurious BANQUET. Commissioner Jacobs guzzles champagne. He rises and starts out of the room. Jack, in a WAITER'S UNIFORM, looks apprehensively to OTHER WAITERS: BOB... RICKY... ANGEL FACE -- who all give each other a look. INT. HALLWAY Jacobs saunters down an empty hall. He stops to check his tie in a mirror. He pushes open the door of the MEN'S BATHROOM -- face to face with TYLER. INT. BATHROOM Tyler GRABS Commissioner Jacobs, pulling him into the bathroom. He slaps a piece of tape over Jacobs' mouth. The OTHER "WAITERS" rush in. Jack stays back to keep the door shut. Tyler and the others hold Jacobs, pulling down his pants. Bob snaps a rubber band -- reaches to Jacob s crotch. TYLER Wrap it around the top of his hackie- sack. BOB Man, his balls are ice cold. Ricky produces a KNIFE, moves it down to Jacob's testicles. Jacobs is bug-eyed. Jack, red-faced, keeps his distance. TYLER You're not going to continue your "rigorous investigation." You will publicly state that there is no underground group. Or -- imagine, the rest of your life with your scrotum flapping empty. JACOBS (mouth taped) ... no... please, no... TYLER We'll send one to the New York Times and one to the Los Angeles Times. Press release style. Your nuts will be bicoastal. Understood? The people you're after are everyone you depend on. (more) TYLER (cont) We do your laundry, cook your food and serve you dinner. We guard you while you sleep. We drive your ambulances. Do not fuck with us. Ricky makes a dramatic cut with the knife, causing Jacobs to JUMP -- Ricky holds up the severed RUBBER BAND. EXT. HOTEL - LATER Jack, Tyler and the others file quickly out the back SERVICE ENTRANCE. Tyler gives Angel Face a hearty slap on the back. Angel Face smiles at Tyler, nods, grinning. Jack sees this, his eyes narrowing, stops walking. INT. TAVERN BASEMENT - NIGHT Fight club in full swing. Jack battles Angel Face, BEATING the shit out of him with unprecedented viciousness. JACK (V.O.) I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't screw to save its species. The crowd shouts maniacally, save Tyler, who watches with an inscrutable stone face. Angel Face tries to speak, but Jack POUNDS too hard. Blood flies. The crowd begins to grow QUIETER. JACK (V.O.) I wanted to open the dump valves on oil tankers and smother all the French beaches I'd never see. Finally, Angel Face lies still, unconscious. Jack stops, stares down, numb. Jack walks away -- the crowd parts to let him pass. Jack scans faces... finds Tyler. TYLER Where did you go, Psycho-Boy? JACK I felt like destroying something beautiful. EXT. STREET NEAR LOU'S TAVERN - LATER RAINING. Tyler and Jack walk through pools of streetlight. A idling car HONKS. Tyler leads Jack toward it. A bruised- faced VALET PARKER thrown keys to Tyler, but Jack intercepts. VALET There you are, Mr. Durden. Airport parking, long term. JACK (motions to car) After you, Mr. Durden... TYLER No... after you. INT. STOLEN CAR Tyler gets in the driver's seat. Jack gets into the front passenger seat. Ricky and the mechanic are in back. EXT. STREET Tyler pulls the stolen car away from the curb. It has two bumperstickers: "RECYCLE YOUR ANIMALS" and "MAKE MINE VEAL." INT. STOLEN CAR - MOVING - LATER RAIN GUSHES down. Jack stews, silent. The car moves down a HIGHWAY, intermittently illuminated by oncoming headlights. TYLER Something on your mind? JACK No. Tyler shrugs; turns on the RADIO, ignores Jack. JACK Why wasn't I told about "Project Mayhem?" TYLER What should I have told you? JACK Why wasn't I involved from the beginning? You and I started fight club together. TYLER Fight club was the beginning. Now it's out of the basements and there's a name for it -- Project Mayhem. RICKY AND MECHANIC (together) The first rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions. JACK This is as much mine as yours. TYLER Is this a needlepoint club? Is it about you and me? JACK You know what I mean. TYLER What do you want? A statement of purpose... ? JACK Look... TYLER Should I E-mail you? Should I put this on your "action item list?" JACK I want to know -- TYLER What do you want to know about Project Mayhem? RICKY AND MECHANIC (together) The first rule of Project Mayhem -- JACK (to Ricky and Mechanic) Shut up!! (to Tyler) I want to know what's going on. Tyler steers the car into the opposite lane, accelerates... Opposing HEADLIGHTS get closer fast... TYLER This does not belong to us. We are not the leaders. We are not special. JACK What are you doing?! TYLER We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. We are all part of the same compost heap... JACK Tyler... Tyler steers back into the proper lane. The other CAR flies past, HORN SOUNDING... JACK What the hell ... ?! TYLER You choose your level of involvement. I won't make decisions for you. JACK I'm not asking you to. TYLER You're asking questions that don't have answers. You know just as much about Project Mayhem as anybody else. JACK I don't think that's true. Tyler again steers into the oncoming lane, speeding up. Through the windshield: oncoming headlights -- a TRUCK. JACK Tyler... what is this... ! Jack fights to turn the wheel, but Tyler uses both hands. TYLER What will you wish you'd done before you died? RICKY Paint a self-portrait. MECHANIC Build a house. TYLER (to Jack) And you? JACK I don't know! Nothing! TYLER If you died right now, how would you feel about your life? JACK I would feel nothing about my life? Is that what you want to hear?! The oncoming truck HONKS and FLASHES its LIGHTS. It moves to the other side of the road. Tyler steers there, too. TYLER I want to hear the truth. JACK Fuck my life. Fuck fight club. Fuck you and fuck Marla. I'm sick of this. How's that? TYLER Why do you think I blew up your condo? JACK What? TYLER Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat! It's not a seminar! You have to forget everything you know, everything you think you know -- about life, about friendship, about you and me. Nearing impact with the oncoming truck, Tyler takes his hands off the wheel -- Jack keeps his grip, turns the wheel... the car swerves... The truck ROARS past, spraying water, HORN BLASTING. Tyler looks at Jack, his hands in the air. Jack looks at Tyler with dead eyes. JACK Okay, okay... fine... Jack takes his hands off the wheel, holds them in the air. Tyler studies Jack face, impressed. Tyler makes no move to take the wheel. THROUGH THR WINDSHIELD: a STALLED CAR ahead on the side of the road, surrounded by flares. Jack and Tyler's eyes stay locked as the car drifts onto the shoulder... heading for the stalled car. Their faces are illuminated by the light of the flares. Tyler smiles. They SMASH into the stalled car -- AIRBAGS INFLATE! The back of their car whips around and carries it into a ass- over-tea-kettle ROLL down a hill... JACK (V.O.) I'd never been in a car accident. This must've been what all those statistics felt like before I filed them into my reports. The car finally hits the bottom, lying on its roof. EXT. OVERTURNED CAR Tyler crawls from the passenger side. He walks around... opens the driver's side door and drags Jack out into the mud. Ricky and the Mechanic climb out the broken rear window. Tyler sits beside the stunned, wounded Jack. TYLER We just had a near-life experience. INT. JACK'S BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Jack lies in bed, traumatized, eyes empty, staring at the ceiling. Tyler sits in a nearby chair. TYLER In the world I see -- you're stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You will wear leather clothes that last you the rest of your life. You will climb the wrist- thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. You will see tiny figures pounding corn and laying-strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of the ruins of a superhighway. Tyler stands, gives Jack's head a pat. TYLER (leaving) Feel better, champ. INT. KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER Jack sits at the table, sips coffee. He's pale, dazed, seems broken. He hears the faint SOUND of SAWING and HAMMERING, unsure of where it's coming from. Marla walks into the kitchen and goes straight to the counter. Her back is to Jack as he looks at her. She pours ccffee and lights a cigarette. A beat of silence, then: MARLA I'll be out of your way in a sec. She seems to be as weak as Jack. JACK You... don't have to... leave. MARLA Whatever. JACK Really... I mean it. (pause) Have you been going to your groups? MARLA Chloe's dead. JACK When? MARLA Do you care? JACK I don't know. MARLA It was the smart move on her part. Marla turns to face Jack, a grim expression on her face. There's a BRUISE on her ARM. Jack gets up, moves closer. JACK Why are we both... caught up like this... with... ? JACK (V.O.) I came so close to saying Tyler's name, I could feel it vibrate inside my mouth. Marla looks a him, waiting. JACK I don't understand. Why does a weak person have to go out and find a strong person... to hang onto? MARLA What do you get out of it? Faint SOUND of SAWING and HAMMERING. Jack can't quite figure where it's coming from. JACK You hear that? MARLA Hear what? JACK That... sawing and hammering. MARLA Have we been talking too long? Must we change the subject? Jack turns -- through the crack of the open basement door, Tyler's staring at Jack from the bottom of the stairs. TYLER (harsh whisper) You're not talking about me, are you? Jack reacts, turns back to Marla. JACK (to Marla and Tyler) No. MARLA That day you came over to my place to play doctor... what was going on there? TYLER (still a whisper) What are you talking about? JACK (to Marla and Tyler) Nothing. MARLA Nothing? I don't think so. TYLER (whisper) This conversation... JACK This conversation... TYLER ... is over. JACK ... is over. Marla comes to touch Jack's hair. Jack closes the basement door. Marla sees the kiss-scar on Jack's hand, grabs his hand. Jack tries to pull it back, but Marla keeps a grip. MARLA What is this? Who did this? JACK ... A person. MARLA Guy or girl? JACK Why would you ask if it's a guy or a girl?! MARLA Why would you get bent if I asked? JACK Let go of me... (pulls his hand free) Leave me alone. MARLA You're afraid to say. Marla backs away, closes her eyes, struggling with frustration. She leaves out the back door, not looking back. Jack leans against the wall. After a moment, he opens the basement door, heads downstairs... INT. BASEMENT STAIRCASE Tyler walks upstairs, passing as Jack continues down... INT. BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS Jack looks around. TRIPLE-DECKER BUNKS clutter the basement, as many as can fit into the space. JACK (calling upstairs) Tyler... ? What's this for? From upstairs, the SOUND of the DOORBELL. INT. LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Jack opens the door. Ricky stands on the porch, staring ahead in subordinate military style. He's in black pants, black shirt, black shoes, holds a PAPER BAG, with an army surplus MATTRESS rolled-up at his feet. JACK Um... what can I do for you, Ricky? Tyler steps up beside Jack, looks Ricky over. TYLER You're too young. Sorry. JACK Wait a minute... Tyler comes back inside, shuts the door. JACK "Too young?" TYLER If the applicant is young, we tell him he's too young. Old, too old. Fat, too fat. JACK "Applicant?" TYLER If the applicant waits at the door for three days without food, shelter or encouragement, then he can enter and begin training. JACK "Training?" Tyler... EXT. PORCH - MOMENTS LATER Jack comes out, walks around Ricky, hands in his pockets, unsure. Tyler watches, nods for Jack to go ahead. JACK Uh, look. You're too... young to... train here. You should probably be on you way. No response from Ricky, who remains at attention. Jack goes back inside. Tyler closes the door. EXT. PORCH - NIGHT Ricky remains at attention. Jack bursts out with a BROOM, knocks the brown bag out of Ricky's hand, kicks it away. JACK Are you deaf?! I told you to leave! You will never get inside this house! EXT. PORCH - MORNING Ricky's still there. Tyler comes out, friendly. TYLER Look, friend, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. It's not the end of the world. Just go away. You're trespassing and I will call the police. Nothing personal. EXT. PORCH - NIGHT Ricky, same spot. Jack bursts outside with the broom again. JACK You're never getting through this door, you stupid little weasel! Look at me when I talk to you... ! He WHACKS Ricky in the shoulder with the broom. JACK What is your major malfunction!? INT. JACK'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS At the window, Tyler sips coffee, watches this scene on the PORCH below. JACK (V.O.) Sooner or later, we all became what Tyler wanted us to be. EXT. PORCH - MORNING Ricky's there. Bob is now next to him, in black, with a paper bag in hand, mattress at his feet. Tyler steps out. Jack stays in the doorway, locking eyes on Bob. To all the following questions, Ricky answers "Sir!" -- TYLER You have two black shirts? Two pair black trousers? One pair black boots? Two pair black socks? One black coat? Three hundred dollars personal burial money? Go inside. Ricky goes in. Tyler turns to Bob. TYLER You're too old. Sorry. And, you're too fat. Nice seeing you. Bob looks genuinely hurt. He picks up his mattress and starts away. Tyler looks at Jack and rolls his eyes. Jack follows Bob... JACK Bob... Bob, wait... (leading Bob back) Let me explain this to you... EXT. PORCH -- NIGHT CRICKETS CHIRP. Bob stands at at rigid attention. INT. 2ND FLOOR LANDING - NIGHT Tyler and Jack stand in bathroom doorway, watching Ricky finish SHAVING off all of his HAIR. Tyler comes to give the top of Ricky's head a sharp SLAP. TYLER A monkey, ready to be shot into space. A Space Monkey, ready to sacrifice himself for Project Mayhem. From here on, all those with shaved heads: "SPACE MONKEYS." EXT. PORCH - DAY Jack looks out the window. Bob stands motionless. There's another "applicant," a SHORT GUY, beside Bob. Ricky comes out the front door with the BROOM... RICKY (to Bob) You're too fucking old, fatty! We don't want your kind here! (to short guy) You're too short. Go away, stumpy! Go back to the circus! Ricky HITS them with the broom, then goes in, SLAMS THE DOOR. JACK (V.O.) So it went... EXT. BACKYARD - DAY Tyler works with a HALF DOZEN SPACE MONKEYS, preparing the square of backyard. They pull weeds, clear rocks; working with shovels, rakes, etc. They cart away WHEELBARROWS of rocks and carry in SACKS of FERTILIZER. JACK (V.O.) Tyler built his army. IN THE KITCHEN WINDOW, Jack watches... INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Jack keeps watching out the window, eats toast. JACK (V.O.) To what purpose, might one ask? Well, one might ask, if not for the first rule of Project Mayhem. Jack turns to look around the kitchen. THREE SPACE MONKEYS work -- one SCRUBBING the FLOOR, one WASHING DISHES, one SCRUBBING the walls. Jack walks out. JACK (V.O.) In Tyler We Trust. INT. JACK'S ROOM - DAY Jack opens his eyes, awakening to sunlight thru the window. JACK (V.O.) And, then... INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING - DAY Jack slowly pushes open the door to Tyler's room... JACK Tyler... The room is empty. Jack stares. JACK (V.O.) He was gone. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY Jack comes downstairs... finds DOZENS of SPACE MONKEYS. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Jack enters. Space Monkeys render fat and make soap. They pinch HERBS, adding them to the mix. They add VODKA. Off to the side, a couple Monkeys stir a vat of RICE. On the wall is a big bulletin board with HUNDREDS of DRIVER's LICENSES; a sign above it: "HUMAN SACRIFICES." FRECKLED SPACE MONKEY "You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are all part of the same compost heap." JACK (V.O.) Planet Tyler. Jack dips a spoon into the rice, chomps on it irritatingly. FRECKLED SPACE MONKEY "We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." Jack picks up a BOTTLE of VODKA. JACK (V.O.) I had to hug the walls, trapped inside this clockwork of Space Monkeys, cooking and working and sleeping in teams. INT. READING ROOM - NIGHT Jack enters, vodka in hand. TEN SPACE MONKEYS here, reading. JACK (V.O.) The house became a living thing, wet inside from so many people sweating and breathing. So many people moving, the house moved. Jack walks out. INT. OFFICE - DAY Jack enters. Angel Face reads a book, marks on a chart. Space Monkeys shuffle PAPERS and NEWS CLIPPINGS. Walls are lined with FILES, each labeled with a STREET ADDRESS, under SIGNS: "Mischief," "Disinformation," "Arson." Jack's eye lingers on "Arson." He starts flipping through a file. Angel Face comes to take the file from him. ANGEL FACE That wouldn't interest you. JACK Where's Tyler? ANGEL FACE The first rule of Project -- JACK Right, right. As Angel Face replaces the file, Jack notices -- a LYE- BURNED KISS-SCAR on the back of Angel Face's hand. EXT. BACK YARD - NIGHT Jack takes a swig of vodka, smokes. In the BACKGROUND, a Space Monkey WHACKS an APPLICANT with a BROOM. It's a ritual; no words. Other Space Monkeys tend the garden. JACK (V.O.) I'm all alone. I Am Jack's Broken Heart. Jack drops his cigarette in the gravel, steps on it. A Space Monkey immediately comes to clean it up. JACK Get away from me! MARLA'S VOICE (O.S.) Who are all these people? Jack turns, sees Marla with an overnight bag. JACK The Paper Street Soap Company. MARLA Can I come in? JACK He's not here. MARLA What? JACK He's not here! Tyler's not here anymore! He's gone away! Marla stares at Jack, miserable. A tear runs down her cheek. She turns and walks away. Jack watches her go. There's a LOUD COMMOTION from the house, VOICES SHOUTING. Jack heads to the back door... INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Jack enters. Ricky crawls, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the LEG. Space Monkeys begin a rudimentary job of treating the wound. Other Space Monkeys carry in a DEAD BODY in BLACK CLOTHES and SKI MASK, putting it on the table. JACK What's going on? Space Monkeys stare at the body. The Mechanic, sweating, gets to his knees and pulls the ski mask off the corpse -- it's BOB, with a gunshot wound to the HEAD. JACK Bob... oh, Christ... Jack pushes past a Space Monkey, stares down, stricken... JACK What... what happened... ? MECHANIC (out of breath) We were on assignment... EXT. SCULPTURE PARK - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) A SCULPTURE adorned with a giant GLOBE on top. MECHANIC (V.O.) We were supposed to kill two birds with one stone: A SERIES of EXPLOSIONS blasts the GLOBE free. It ROLLS... MECHANIC (V.O.) A piece of corporate art... The GLOBE ROLLS downhill, to the street -- rolling over one parked LUXURY CAR after another, crunching car roofs and causing windows to explode... MECHANIC (V.O.) ... and trash a trendy coffee bar. Then, the GLOBE arrives at the lobby of a HOTEL... BROADSIDES a limo, RICOCHETS... ROLLS directly into the front of a closed ARROSTO coffee bar, SMASHING windows... DECIMATING coffee push-pats... EXT. PARK - AERIAL VIEW - (FLASHBACK CONTINUOUS) Bob, the Mechanic and Ricky FLEE, LAUGHING at their handiwork. They split up, running O.S. MECHANIC (V.O.) We had it all worked out, man. It went smooth... until... HARSH VOICE Police! Freeze! O.S. SOUNDS of GUNSHOTS and FLASHES of MUZZLE FIRE. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - (RESUMING) The Mechanic looks up from Bob's corpse. MECHANIC They shot Bob... they shot him in the head. Those fuckers... Jack walks away from Bob's corpse, distraught, holds his head, turns to look back, his eyes filling with tears. ANOTHER SPACE MONKEY We gotta do something. RICKY We got to get rid of the evidence. We have to get rid of this body. ANGEL FACE Bury him... Jack looks around in disbelief. JACK What... ? ANGEL FACE The garden. Take him there. Move, people. Let's do this! Several Space Monkeys gather around Bob's body. JACK No... ! Space Monkeys stop. Jack gets between them and Bob, SHOVES a few Space Monkeys back... JACK Get your hands off him! Get off...! What the hell do you think you're doing... ? Evidence?! This is a man... ! You killed him! ANGEL FACE He was killed in action. JACK No! Look at you! You're... you're running around in ski masks, exploding things... ANGEL FACE He was killed serving Project Mayhem. RICKY It's what he would have wanted, sir. JACK What he wanted? Look... look at him. Look at him! What does he want? (wipes tears, points at Bob) This is a person. This is not a cog in your machine... RICKY But, this is Project Mayhem. JACK No, no. This is a man -- this man has a name... RICKY But, in Project Mayhem, we have no names. JACK No! Wrong! This man's name is Robert Paulson. RICKY Robert Paulson? JACK Robert Paulson is dead. He's dead, because of you... MECHANIC I understand. Everyone just stares at Jack. MECHANIC In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name. JACK No -- ! MECHANIC His name is Robert Paulson. RICKY His name is Robert Paulson! JACK No! ALL SPACE MONKEYS His name is Robert Paulson! JACK Stop that -- ! ALL SPACE MONKEYS (louder) His name is Robert Paulson! His name is Robert Paulson... Jack backs away, surrounded, PUSHES his way out of the room. INT. TYLER'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Jack barges in, goes to the desk, rifling through drawers. He finds FLIGHT COUPONS, used and unused. The used coupons. have the flight information, including the destination cities. The PHONE RINGS. Jack answers it... JACK Tyler? DETECTIVE STERN'S VOICE (from phone) This is Detective Stern of the arson unit. I'd like to see you in my office tomorrow morning... Jack, in a panic, HANGS UP. INSERT - AN AIRPLANE TAKES OFF... INT. PLANE CABIN - DAY Jack sits stiffly in a seat. JACK (V.O.) I went to the cities on Tyler's used tickets stubs. INSERT - A SIGN: "LA GUARDIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT" EXT. AIRPORT - NIGHT Jack hurries from the terminal, runs to a TAXI ... JACK (V.O.) In every city, I branched out from the airport to downtown, bar- hopping... INT. TAXI - IN MOTION, MID-CITY - NIGHT Jack's looks out the window, intently watching buildings. JACK (V.0.) I didn't know how or why, but I could look at fifty different bars, and somehow I just knew... JACK (to driver, points) Here. Let me out, right here... INT. BAR - NIGHT Jack enters. He sees several MALE PATRONS with FIGHT BRUISES. Jack moves to the bar. The BARTENDER has a broken arm and swollen face. JACK I'm looking for Tyler Durden. BARTENDER Never heard of him. JACK This is an emergency. It's important I find him. BARTENDER I wish I could help you... sir. The bartender WINKS at Jack. INSERT - AERIAL VIEW - ATLANTA SKYLINE - NIGHT JACK (V.O.) Every city I went to... INSERT - AERIAL VIEW - CHICAGO SKYLINE - DAY JACK (V.0.) ...as soon as I set foot off the plane... INSERT - AERIAL VIEW - DALLAS SKYLINE - NIGHT JACK (V.).) ...I knew fight club was close. INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - NIGHT Jack RUNS through the airport, lugging his suitcase. JACK (V.O.) Tyler was setting up franchises, all over the country. INT. DRY CLEANERS - DAY The PROPRIETOR, his head bandaged, is confronted by Jack. JACK I need to know where Tyler is. Can't you help me? BANDAGED PROPRIETOR Sir, you're disturbing the other patrons with your laudish behavior. JACK (pointing) There's no one else here. BANDAGED PROPRIETOR I'm sorry, I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. JACK Look at my face. I'm a member. I just need to know if you've seen Tyler Durden. BANDAGED PROPRIETOR I'm not disclosed to bespeak any such information to you, nor would I, even if I had said information you want, at this juncture be able. Jack looks around, incredibly frustrated. JACK You are a moron. BANDAGED PROPRIETOR I'm afraid I have to insist you leave. Jack gives up, shoves his way out the door. INT. CITY BUS - DAY Jack sits on the bus, looking out the window. The bus stops. JACK (V.O.) Under and behind and inside everything I took for granted, something horrible had been growing. OUT THE WINDOW, a CONSTRUCTION WORKER with a BROKEN NOSE works a jackhammer. He stops, wipes his brow. INT. SPORTS BAR - DAY TVs show football. Jack is seated with TWO BRUISED PATRONS. BRUISED PATRON #1 No one's ever seen him. No one knows what he looks like. BRUISED PATRON #2 He has facial reconstructive surgery every three years. JACK That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. BRUISED PATRON #1 Is it true about fight club in Miami? BRUISED PATRON 12 Is Mr. Durden building an army? JACK (V.O.) Am I asleep... ? INT. AIRPLANE - NIGHT Jack sits awake. Everyone around him is asleep. JACK (V.O.) Have I slept? I'm not sure if Tyler is my bad dream or if I'm Tyler's. EXT. MID-TOWN STREETS - DAY Jack steps off the sidewalk, hailing a TAXI... EXT. CITY ALLEY - DAY The alleyway's deserted. Jack heaft to rusty CELLAR DOORS. He opens the doors, looks around, heads down stairs... JACK (V.O.) I was living in a state of perpetual deja vu. INT. DANK BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS Jack enters this dark basement, walks ahead in the dim light. The place is damp and empty. Jack stops, looks down. JACK (V.O.) Everywhere I went, I felt I had already been there. At his feet -- DRIED BLOOD on the concrete floor. INSERT - AERIAL VIEW - PHOENIX SKYLINE - DAY INT. ANOTHER BAR - DAY Jack walks in. The place is empty. He walks to a KITCHEN DOOR, opens it and peers in at... a GROUP of KITCHEN WORKERS solemnly stand in a circle, chanting... KITCHEN WORKERS His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson... MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (from behind Jack) Welcome back, sir. Jack whirls, startled -- facing the wounded BARTENDER, who wears a NECK BRACE, his nose a smashed eggplant. WOUNDED BARTENDER How have you been? JACK ... You know me? WOUNDED BARTENDER Is this a test, sir? JACK Yes... it's a test. WOUNDED BARTENDER You were in here last Thursday night. JACK What? WOUNDED BARTENDER You were standing right where you are now, asking how good our security is. It's tight as a drum. JACK Who do you think I am? WOUNDED BARTENDER Is this part of the test? Jack nods slowly. The Bartender holds up his hand, shows the KISS SCAR on the back of his hand... WOUNDED BARTENDER You're the one who did this to me. You're Mr. Durden, sir. Tyler Durden. JACK (V.O.) Please return your seatbacks to their full upright and locked position. INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jack bursts inside, out of breath, runs to grab the phone, punches a number, doesn't bother to turn on the lamp. INTERCUT WITH... INT. MARLA'S ROOM - SAME Marla answers. MARLA Yeah? JACK Marla, it's me. Have we... have we ever had sex? MARLA What kind of stupid question is that?! JACK Because the answer's "yes" or because the answer's "no?" MARLA Is this a trick? JACK Will you just answer me, for Christsake?! MARLA You mean, you want to know if I think we were just having sex or making love? JACK We did make love? MARLA Is that what you're calling it? JACK Answer the question! MARLA You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me your sensitive side, then you turn into a total asshole! Is that a pretty accurate description of our relationship, Tyler? JACK (V.O.) We've just lost cabin pressure. JACK What did you say... ? MARLA What is wrong with you? JACK Say my name. MARLA What... ? JACK Say my name! What's my name!? MARLA Tyler Durden! Tyler Durden, you fucking freak. What's going on? I'm coming over there... JACK Marla, no, wait... As Marla HANGS UP. Jack stares at the receiver, dazed... TYLER'S VOICE We've got six fight clubs in Chicago now... Jack spins, dropping the phone -- TYLER sits beside him. TYLER Four in Milwaukee. JACK What's this all about, Tyler? TYLER And, we're definitely filling a void in the rural South. JACK Why do people think I'm you? TYLER You broke your promise. You talked to her about me. JACK Why do people think I'm Tyler Durden? TYLER Why did you do that? JACK Answer me, Tyler. TYLER Why do people think anything? JACK I don't know! Tell me! Tyler shakes his head in disgust, extremely irritated. TYLER People think that you're me, because you and I happen to share the same body. JACK What... ? TYLER Is this really news to you? JACK What are you talking about... ? TYLER Sometimes I control it, and you imagine yourself watching me... FLASHBACK - HALLWAY - NIGHT Commissioner Jacobs checks his tie in a mirror, goes to open the door of the MEN'S BATHROOM -- face to face with JACK. FLASHBACK - LOU'S BAR BASEMENT - NIGHT JACK stands surrounded by eager fight club MEMBERS, under the bare bulb, talking and behaving like Tyler... JACK The first rule of fight club is -- you don't talk about fight club. INT. HOTEL ROOM - RESUMING TYLER And, sometimes you control it... FLASHBACK - EXT. PAPER STREET HOUSE - DAY Jack stands in the yard, VODKA in hand, yells at Marla. JACK He's not here! Tyler's not here anymore! He's gone away! INT. HOTEL ROOM - RESUMING TYLER You can see me and hear me, but no one else can... FLASHBACK - CURBSIDE - NIGHT JACK sits alone on the curb, watching the nearby freeway. He talks to someone beside him, but nobody's there. JACK Anyone? (thinks) My boss, probably. (pause) Who would you fight? Jack listens, looks at the empty space beside him. JACK Oh, yeah. (nodding) I didn't really know my Dad... INT. HOTEL ROOM - RESUMING TYLER But, when you fall asleep, I do things without you... FLASHBACK - TYLER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT JACK is on top of Marla, sweating, making violent love... INT. HOTEL ROOM - RESUMING TYLER I go places without you. Get things done... FLASHBACK - BUILDING - NIGHT The Parker Morris Building. JACK, Bob, Ricky, Angel Face and another GUY rappel down the side, SPRAYING PAINT. JACK is "TYLER" in demeanor, mannerisms, speech... JACK (shouting) You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. TWO WINDOWS SHATTER OUTWARD -- TWO MEN look out and yell: BRUISED MAN #1 I am not my job! BRUISED MAN #2 I am not how much money I have in the bank! INT. HOTEL ROOM - RESUMING Jack's having trouble catching his breath. Tyler stands. TYLER There! Happy? I asked for one thing from you... one simple promise. Now look what you've done! JACK This isn't possible... TYLER We're going to have to do something about Marla... JACK What... what are you saying? TYLER It's okay. We okay... a little codependent, sure, but... Jack shakes his head in disbelief, in denial... JACK No! This isn't true. We... we were around other people, together, both of us... TYLER You never talked to me in front of anyone else. JACK Wrong, wrong -- what about the car crash... the two guys in the backseat? TYLER What about them? They're lunatics. JACK You took me to the house. TYLER The house is rented in your name. JACK You have jobs. TYLER Night jobs -- while you were sleeping. JACK What about Marla? TYLER What about Marla? JACK She's... you... you're fucking her. TYLER Um, well... technically, no. Jack stands, trying to absorb, feeling ill, trying to find words, then -- he suddenly FAINTS to the floor, OUT COLD. JACK (V.O.) It's called a "changeover." The movie goes on, and nobody in the audience has any idea. INT. HOTEL ROOM - PRE-DAWN Jack's eyes snap open. He sits up, alone. He remembers the previous night... looks at himself in the mirror... looks at the clock -- 4:35am. INT. HALLWAY The room door SLAMS OPEN as Jack bursts out of the room, carrying his suitcase, SPRINTING for the STAIRWELL... INT. STAIRWELL Jack races down, three steps at a time, dragging his suitcase - BOOM, BOOM, BOOM - behind him... INT. LOBBY Jack hurries to the front door, his suitcase half-broken open, passing the front desk. A DESK CLERK calls after him. DESK CLERK Sir... sir? Are you checking out? JACK Yes. The clerk follows the length of the counter, waves a PAPER. DESK CLERK Please initial this list of phone calls. JACK Bill me! Jack goes out the door, freezes. He rushes back in, going to the desk -- snatches the bill, studies it: many NUMBERS. JACK Wait...when were these made? DESK CLERK It says right there, sir... between two and three-thirty this morning. Jack looks at the clerk, at the bill, at the clerk. JACK I need a copy of this. INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - DAY Jack stares out the window, his face set hard. JACK (V.O.) Had I been going to bed earlier every night? Have I been sleeping later? Has Tyler been in charge longer and longer? EXT. PAPER STREET - DAY A TAXI halts. Jack leaps out, points to the GRUNGY CABBIE. JACK Wait here. INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE, LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER Jack walks in to find the place EMPTY and DESERTED. He continues on into the KITCHEN, gawks at BATHTUBS and CANISTERS holding vast amounts of liquid. There are HOSES, GAS MASKS, BEAKERS, TEST TUBES and PUMPS. He picks up a BOTTLE labeled "NITRIC ACID." INT. TYLER'S ROOM Jack sits by the PHONE, pulls out the HOTEL BILL, runs his finger up and down the list of PHONE NUMBERS... JACK (V.O.) Deja vu, all over again... Jack finger stops on a NUMBER. He dials, phone to his ear. VOICE (from phone) Eighteen-eighty-eight. Jack sees a file on the wall: "1888 CENTURY PARK EAST." JACK Who is this? VOICE Maintenance. JACK Listen, something is going to happen, something terrible... VOICE Very good, Sir. JACK Excuse me? VOICE Don't worry about us, sir. We're solid. JACK Now wait, there's been a mix-up. Everything's changed... VOICE You told me you'd say that. JACK Abort the plan. VOICE You told me you'd say that, too. JACK Did I tell you I'd call you a fascist dickhead?! VOICE Well, sir, you said you might. Jack HANGS UP, desperately dials the next number on the bill. DIFFERENT VOICE (front phone) Twenty-one-sixty. Maintenance. Jack sees a file: "2160 PICO BOULEVARD." He throws the phone, pocketing the bill. He grabs up all the FILES. EXT. MARLA'S HOTEL - SUNSET Jack's TAXI halts. Marla walks out of the lobby doors, sees Jack getting out of the cab, laden with files... JACK Marla! Marla makes a sharp turn, walking away. Jack follows, hugging the files to his chest, catching up. JACK Marla... MARLA Your whacked-out, bald freaks hit me with a fucking broom. I thought they were going to break my arm. JACK I'm sorry, I... MARLA The were burning their fingertips with lye. The stink was unbelievable. JACK Marla... I need to talk to you. It's going to take a tremendous act of faith on your part for you to hear me out. MARLA Here comes an avalanche of bullshit. Marla heads into a DINER. Jack follows... JACK -- A little more faith than that. INT. DINER - MOMENTS LATER Marla sits in a BOOTH. Jack sits across from her. MARLA I don't want to hear anything you've got to say. JACK Give me a minute, Marla, alright... just sixty seconds. MARLA Sixty seconds, then I'm out of here. JACK Absolutely, you have every right. I need you to do me a favor. MARLA I've done you enough favors. A WAITER with a BLACK EYE appears at the table. WAITER Sir! Anything you order is free of charge, sir. MARLA Why is it free of charge? JACK Because... I'm Tyler Durden. MARLA Then, I'll have the clam chowder... fried chicken and a baked potato with everything and a chocolate chiffon pie. Jack look to the pass-through WINDOW into the kitchen where THREE COOKS look out with STITCHES in their faces. JACK Clean food, please. WAITER In that case, sir, may I advise against the lady eating the clam chowder? JACK Thanks, no clam chowder. That's it. The waiter snaps to attention and leaves. MARLA You got about thirty seconds. JACK (takes a deep breath) I know that I've been... unwell. I know it's been like there's two sides to me. MARLA Two sides? You're Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Jackass. JACK I deserve that. Anyway, I've... I've only just realized MARLA What? JACK I mean, the depth and breadth of our relationship has only recently been illuminated for me. I know this... I know us hasn't been such a great thing for you... MARLA Whatever. (to waiter) I'll take my food to go... Marla's getting up to go, but Jack rises, fed up, takes her by the arm, putting her back in her seat. JACK Sit down! Sit down and give me my last fifteen seconds without opening your mouth! Marla crosses her arms. Jack collects himself. JACK I'm trying to tell you -- and this is where you have to trust me -- but, I think your life might be in real danger. MARLA What? JACK You have to get out of here. Leave as soon as possible. Go to any rural town, away from any major city... MARLA You are an insane person. JACK Marla... MARLA No, no, shut up! I've had enough. I tried, Tyler... I have tried... Marla's getting upset, tears coming to her eyes. MARLA There's a part of you I really like, but I can't do this anymore. I just can't. This is killing me... JACK I'm sorry, but I... MARLA What?! You're sorry? I don't believe that for a minute. Marla gets up. Jack grabs for her, but she's gone, heading for the door. Jack gathers his files, runs to follow... EXT. DINER - MOMESTS LATER Jack pushes out the door, files under one arm, catching up... JACK I can't explain. You wouldn't believe me anyway. I'm trying to protect you... Jack grabs her arm, tries to hail a TAXI, but the taxi races past. Marla pulls free, screaming at him..., MARLA Let go of me! JACK Do this for me, Marla. Do this for me, if you never do anything else... Jack spots a BUS idling further up the street. MARLA Leave me alone! I don't ever want to see you again! JACK Okay, if that's what it takes, you'll never have to see me again. (digs in his pocket) Here... here... He pulls MONEY from his pocket, holding it out. JACK Take this money, get on this bus... (pointing to bus) Get on, and I promise you, I'll never bother you again, if that's what you want. Please... Marla looks at Jack, numb. MARLA Tyler... JACK I'm begging you. Get on the bus. Get on the bus. Marla takes the money from Tyler, walks towards the bus. As they approach it, Jack shields his eyes, afraid to look... MARLA Why are you doing this? JACK I can't let myself see where you're going. Go wherever it takes you, remember... keep away from major cities... Marla stands at the doors of the bus, heartbroken, gives one last look at Jack. MARLA (holds up the money) I'm not paying this back. I consider it "asshole tax." JACK Yes, fine. Just, get on. Stay away a couple of weeks, at least. Jack's still covering his eyes. Marla gets on the bus. MARLA Tyler... Jack finally looks to her. MARLA You are the worst thing that ever happened to me. DOORS HISS SHUT. The BUS LEAVES, heading away. Jack seems relieved. Then, a SCREAM is HEARD from MARLA... Jack turns, looks... THROUGH THE BUS WINDOWS: the bus is filled with BALD MEN IN BLACK: Space Monkeys. Jack SPRINTS after the bus... The bus speeds away. Onboard, Space Monkeys subdue Marla. Jack falls to the asphalt, rolls, files-flying. JACK Son of a bitch! INT. POLICE STATION - DAY Jack RUNS to the front desk, crazed, dumps the armload of files on the desk in front of the DESK SERGEANT... JACK (loudly) I want you to arrest me. I'm the leader of a terrorist organization responsible for acts of vandalism all over the city. Detective Stern in arson knows who I am... INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - LATER Detective Stern and THREE DETECTIVES stand, staring at Jack, who's seated. On the table are the phone bill and files. JACK There are probably several hundred members in the metropolitan area. Chapters are sprouting in at least five other major cities. They're tightly-regimented, with many cells capable of operating without a central leader. Check this address: 1537 Paper Street. You'll find the body of Robert Paulson buried in the garden. You'll also find numerous tubs used to make gallons of nitroglycerin. The plan, I believe, is to blow up these credit card headquarters and the TRW building. STERN Why these buildings? JACK You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. STERN (to other detectives) Keep him talking. Stern leaves. A beat, then, the remaining Detectives smile at Jack with REVERENCE. FLAT-TOP DETECTIVE I really admire what you're doing. You're a brave man to order this. JACK What? REDHEAD DETECTIVE You're a genius, sir. They grab Jack and force him on his back on the table. Flat-Top has a rubber band; the Bald Detective has a knife. BALD DETECTIVE You know the drill. You said if anyone ever tries to interfere with Project Mayhem, even you, we got to get his balls. Flat-Top PULLS Jack's pants completely off, tosses them aside. Jack SCREAMS. Flat-Top holds his legs. FLAT-TOP It's useless to fight. REDHEAD This is really a powerful gesture, Mr. Durden. It'll set quite an example. JACK No... you're making a mistake! FLAT-TOP You told us you'd say that. JACK I'm not Tyler Durden! BALDY You told us you'd say that, too. JACK Okay, I am Tyler Durden and I'm ordering you to abort the mission! FLAT-TOP You said you would definitely say that. BALDY What's our best time for a "cut and run?" FLAT-TOP Four minutes. BALDY Is somebody timing this? REDHEAD (looks at his watch) Wait till the second hand gets to the twelve. A KNOCK at the door. Flat-Top slaps a hand over Jack's mouth. He and Redhead block view of the table as Baldy opens the door a crack. Stern mutters: STERN Some of this info checks out. Let's go to the place on Paper Street. Baldy glances back at the other Detectives, leaves, closing the door. The two remaining Detectives continue. Jack kicks and screams and writhes. The Detectives wrangle him, but with more difficulty, now that Baldy's gone. REDHEAD (checking his watch) Mr. Durden, you're going to fuck up the time! Jack gets one leg free, KICKS, knocks Flat-top backwards -- Flat-Top SLAMS the wall, falls. Redhead lets go of one of Jack's arms, jams his elbow into Jack's throat... cutting off the airway. Jack's face reddens... he's choking... Jack's free hand reaches, searching.. pulls Redhead's GUN and points it at him. Redhead backs off. Jack gets up, gasping for air, PISTOL-WHIPS Flat-top as he rises. Jack grabs one of the files off the table. EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY Jack, without pants, in BOXER SHORTS, escapes out the BACK DOOR. He looks at the ADDRESS on the file folder. EXT. STREET Jack SPRINTS down the middle of the street, gun in hand, looking like a complete madman. Cars almost hit him. EXT. BANK BUILDING - LATER Jack, sweating and panting, stops, looks... then heads toward the BUILDING with the address "1888." EXT. 1888 LOBBY Jack tries the door. Locked. He lifts a cast iron bench, runs forward -- RAMS it into the glass. The bench immediately recoils from the glass, SLAMS Jack's groin! Jack falls to his knees, doubled over, holding his package. Then, he rises, SHOOTS the glass... INT. 1888 LOBBY Jack pushes through the broken glass. He sprints for the "PARKING" door... INT. GROUND LEVEL - PARKING Jack enters, looks -- NO CARS. He bolts to the STAIRS... INT. TOP-LEVEL PARKING AREA - SEVENTH FLOOR Jack enters, heaving. Again, NO CARS. He moves from one SUPPORT POST to another, searching. He finally spies, across the garage, NINE LARGE CANISTERS, heavily-WIRED. Jack runs to the BOMB, frantic. He walks around it. There's a DIGITAL CLOCK, ticking down from "10:05"... Jack moves to pull the lid off one CANISTER, looks inside.. TYLER Could be worse... Jack looks -- Tyler's seated, his back against one post. TYLER You could be standing under 37 stories of steel and concrete with a 150 gallons of nitroglycerin strapped to the support... oh, maybe it couldn't be... JACK (points at bomb) You... you can't be serious about this. TYLER What a ridiculous thing to say. JACK I can't let you... TYLER ...go through with this? What are you going to do? JACK I'm going to... TYLER ...stop me? JACK I'm not going... TYLER ...to let this happen! JACK Stop finishing... TYLER ...your sentences! They're our sentences. Get your mind around that. Tyler gets up walks to Jack. TYLER What are you doing running through the streets in your underpants? We both use that body. JACK Since when is Project Mayhem about murder? TYLER The buildings were evacuated thirty minutes ago. Everything's proceeding exactly as planned. JACK You don't know that. There could still be people inside. Tyler keeps walking around, crosses his arms. TYLER Maybe. Maybe a couple of guys with shaved heads couldn't synchronize their watches. Good riddance. Jack looks back to the BOMB, goes to it, wipes sweat off his face. He starts finger the MANY WIRES, sorting them. TYLER I wouldn't be doing that. Unless you know which wires, in what order... JACK If you know, I know. Jack holds his gun under one armpit, uses both hands to go through the tangle of colored wires. TYLER Or... maybe I knew you'd know, so I spent the whole day thinking about the wrong ones. Jack chooses one wire, GREEN, holds it in his fingers. JACK If I'm wrong, we're both dead.. TYLER This is not about martyrdom. Jack twists the GREEN WIRE around his finger. JACK I'm pulling the green wire. TYLER Green? Did you say green? Tyler comes a little closer, leaning to try to get a look, seems genuinely concerned. JACK Yes... TYLER Don't pull the green wire. Pull anything but the green wire. JACK Fuck you. TYLER I'm serious. That's the wrong one. Jack's unsure, swallowing, pulling the wire taunt, fingers trembling. The SOUND of a VEHICLE is HEARD from below... TYLER Hear that? Marla's here. Just in the nick of time, eh? Jack looks to Tyler. Tyler points towards the SOUND... TYLER See for yourself. Jack releases the wire, walks to a RAILING, gun in hand, keeps an eye on Tyler. Jack looks over the railing... BELOW, a BUS idles. The doors open and MARLA'S dragged out, kicking and screaming, carried by SIX SPACE MONKEYS... MARLA You motherfuckers... They carry Marla into the BUILDING'S ENTRANCE. Jack leans against the railing, exhausted. TYLER I've got everything. The bombs. The army. I've got Marla. JACK Bob is dead, Tyler. The police blew a hole in his head. Was that part of your plan? Tyler thinks, shrugs. TYLER Bob was a grown man. In any great struggle, there will be casualties. Wouldn't that be implicit in the name? Project "Mayhem." JACK Fuck your struggle. I want out. TYLER You want out? JACK I quit. TYLER Not an option, for the most obvious of reasons. You need to get with the program. (looks at his watch) Seven minutes. Let's get out of here. Tyler's walks away. Jack looks at the gun in his hand. He points the gun at Tyler... JACK Tyler... TYLER (still walking away) What? JACK (COCKS the gun) Defuse the bomb. Tyler stops walking. TYLER Ask me nicely. JACK Defuse the bomb, please. TYLER Defuse the bomb? JACK Yes. Tyler strides towards the BOMB. Jack trains the gun... JACK Please. Tyler looks at the BOMB, reaches over to it. He grips the GREEN WIRE, yanks it out -- the CLOCK STOPS. Jack lowers his gun. TYLER I did that for you. As a gesture. Now, how fast can you run? There are ten other bombs, in ten other buildings in the immediate area. If you're going to get them all, you better get cracking. (looks at watch) Six minutes. Green wires, remember. I'll be upstairs. Jack's stunned. Tyler walks across the parking garage, past Jack, heading for the STAIRS. Jack aims the gun at Tyler's back, FIRES! Tyler ducks to one side, impossibly quick, avoiding... Tyler spins to face Jack. TYLER Whoa! What was that all about? Jack aims... FIRES! Tyler DODGES behind a post as the BULLET THROWS CONCRETE. Jack edges forward, gun held in both hands, moves around the post... Tyler is NOT THERE. Jack turns, takes slow steps, moving the gun from side to side... Suddenly, a FIST ENTERS FRAME -- SLUGS Jack's face. Jack falls. The gun goes CLATTERING across the floor... Jack turns, looking... Tyler's GONE. Jack looks to the gun, scrambles to his feet, running to pick up the gun... Tyler KICKS Jack in the chest, sends Jack sprawling. Jack rolls, holding his chest. He looks up, sees Tyler run into the STAIRWELL. Jack grabs the gun and follows... INT. STAIRWELL Jack smashes the door open. The stairwell's empty. Jack RUNS up a flight of stairs, kicks open ANOTHER DOOR... INT. MAIN LOBBY Jack steps forward, gun up... TWO INTERLOCKED HANDS SLAM down onto his head. Jack drops to the floor. Tyler backs away, laughing. Jack gets to his feet, aims his gun... TYLER Fire at will. Jack clenches his teeth, FIRING -- nothing happens to Tyler. Jack FIRES TWICE -- no effect. Tyler raises his arms. TYLER What did you expect? Jack charges. Tyler dodges, PUNCHES, knocks the gun out of Jack's hand. They FIGHT, trading PUNCHES, grappling, taking each other to the floor... CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Banks of SECURITY MONITORS sit unmanned. ON ONE MONITOR: Jack is seen in the lobby, on the floor, alone, wrestling himself. He swings his left hand up, punching empty air, then swings his right hand -- PUNCHING himself in the side of the head... INT. MAIN LOBBY Tyler and Jack fight viciously, bloodied. Tyler manages to get his hands around Jack's throat, starts BANGING Jack's head against the floor... SECURITY MONITOR P.O.V. ... Jack's got his hands around his own throat, BANGING his own head against the floor, over and over... INT. MAIN LOBBY Jack manages to break Tyler's grip, KICKS Tyler away. Tyler springs to his feet, RUNS, heading for a STAIRCASE. Jack gets up, breathing hard, holding his head, follows... ON THE STAIRS, Tyler reaches the LOFT LEVEL, above the lobby, disappears around a corner. Jack's right behind, turning the corner -- Tyler's NOT THERE. Jack receives a SHARP SLAP on the back of the head. He wheels. Tyler isn't there. A TAP on his shoulder. Jack turns around -- WHAM! -- Tyler PUNCHES his face. Jack falls against the loft railing. Tyler comes forward, SWINGS... SECURITY MONITOR P.O.V. Jack PUNCHES himself square in the nose! INT. MAIN LOBBY Jack's dazed. Tyler grabs Jack's shirt, pulls him forward, SWINGS HIM -- THROWS him DOWN THE STAIRS... Jack TUMBLES horribly down... HITS BOTTOM, striking his head on the floor. Jack PASSES OUT... FADE TO BLACK: INT. LARGE SOCIAL ROOM - TOP FLOOR CLOSE ON: Jack's head jerks back as he SNAPS AWAKE. He looks around, trying to focus his eyes... JACK'S P.O.V. -- TRACKS in the sawdust of the floor, from where his body was dragged across to where he is how. CLOSE ON: Jack tries to comprehend. He turns his head -- TYLER'S HAND brings the GUN up, PUTS THE GUN IN JACK'S MOUTH. Jack freezes, looks around with his eyes... PULL BACK TO: Tyler is seated in Jack's lap. Tyler holds the gun in Jack's mouth, his arm around him. This huge room is being remodeled. Tyler and Jack are seated near floor-to-ceiling windows affording a spectacular view of the CITY. Tyler looks at his watch. TYLER One minute. JACK (V.O.) I think this is about where we came in. TYLER (looking out window) This is the beginning. We're at ground zero. Maybe you should say a few words, to mark the occasion. JACK i... ann....iinn.. ff....nnyin... Jack tongues the barrel to the side of his mouth. JACK (still distorted) I still can't think of anything. Tyler checks his watch. TYLER It's getting exciting now. Jack turns, so he can see down -- 31 STORIES. TYLER Look what we've accomplished. (checks watch) Thirty seconds. (looks out windows) Out these windows, we will view the economic collapse. One step closer to global equilibrium. I'm glad you're here with me. Tyler watches the skyline, WHISTLES at tune, waiting. JACK (distorted) Can't you call it off... ? TYLER It's out of our hands. (looks at watch) This is it. JACK Please... TYLER Fifteen seconds now. Can you see alright? 10... 9... 8.... Tyler looks out the windows, at SURROUNDING BUILDINGS, excited. Jack closes his eyes, despairing. TYLER 5... 4... 3... 2... Out the window, the SKYLINE remains unchanged. Nothing. A long beat. A very dark scowl comes over Tyler's face. Jack opens his eyes. More waiting. Tyler looks genuinely surprised, pissed-off. TYLER What the fuck -- ? JACK Paraffin. TYLER What? JACK (relieved) Paraffin. Your merry band mixed the nitro with paraffin. I saw it floating in the bomb. (more) JACK (cont) They must've run out of cotton and Epsom salt. Paraffin is iffy at best. Tyler rises, taking the gun from Jack's mouth, starts pacing. Jack rubs his sore jowls, allows himself a smile. TYLER Damn it! God-damn it... JACK Not exactly according to plan. TYLER Do we have to do everything ourselves?! Tyler stops walking, lets out a sigh of disgust. He reaches into his pocket, taking out a WALKIE TALKIE. TYLER (into WALKIE TALKIE) ... Codename Rooster. Passcode First Strike... Jack's eyes go wide. JACK NO... TYLER (into WALKIE TALKIE) Proceed with remote detonation. Jack leaps -- TACKLES Tyler. The GUN is knocked away. Jack STRIKES Tyler's face repeatedly with his elbow, scrambles off... Jack gets the gun, turns, pointing it. Tyler's getting to his feet, sees the gun, annoyed. Jack stands. TYLER Haven't we already done this? Jack SHOOTS TWICE. Bullets pass right thorough Tyler. Tyler just rolls his eyes, drops the walkie-talkie to the floor and STOMPS on it, CRUSHING it. JACK (pointing) How'd you do that?! You're a fucking figment of my imagination... you're psychogenic fugue state... TYLER Fuck that, maybe you're my hallucination. Jack falters, pointing at Tyler's feet. There's no walkie- talkie there. Jack looks down, sees the WALKIE-TALKIE CRUSHED under his own foot. JACK Oh... Christ... Jack holds his head, walks around, at his wit's end. JACK Why... why... why... ? TYLER Why what? JACK Why can't I get rid of you? Why can't I just wish you away? TYLER You need me. JACK No, no, I don't. (pause) I thank you, I really do. Thank you, but I don't need you anymore. TYLER Look, I can be selfish, I know that. (pause) I'm not blind to my own failings... JACK Noooo, please... Jack backs up against a window, numb and weary. TYLER From now on, we'll share Marla. We've been spending too much time apart... JACK ... no, no, no... TYLER No more running off without you. From here on out, we do it together. JACK Why are you doing this?! TYLER I'm doing this for us. JACK Please understand... I've gotten all I can from this, Tyler. TYLER (sullen) If I leave, you will be right back where I found you... JACK I swear on my life, I won't... TYLER You will. You know you will. Jack stares at Tyler, tears welling up, hangs his head. He looks at the gun in his hand... TYLER Can you live with that? Jack stares at the gun a long time... then... Jack brings the gun up, PUTS THE GUN IN HIS MOUTH. Tyler cocks his head. TYLER What are you doing? JACK What have you left for me? TYLER Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to put that gun in your mouth? JACK Not my mouth. Our mouth. Tyler is calm. TYLER This is interesting. Tyler smiles in appreciation, slowly walks forward, stands very close to Jack. TYLER Why are you going with this, Ikea- boy? JACK It's the only way to get rid of you... Jack COCKS the hammer on the gun. TYLER I can see you feel very strongly. I feel strongly too. (pause) Hey, you and me. (pause) Friends again? Their eyes are locked, unblinking. Long silence. JACK Do something for me. TYLER What? JACK Appreciate something. TYLER What? JACK Look at me... TYLER What? JACK My eyes are open. EXTREME SLOW MOTION: Jack's finger squeezes the trigger... KABLAM! -- Jack's cheeks INFLATE with gas. His eyes bulge. BLOOD flies out from his head. The WINDOW behind him SHATTERS. SMOKE wafts out of his mouth and tear ducts. RESUME NORMAL SPEED as the GLASS FALLS behind Jack... Tyler stands, in gunsmoke, eyes glazed, sniffs the air... TYLER What's that smell... ? Jack slumps to the floor... Tyler falls... Tyler hits the ground. The back of TYLER'S HEAD is BLOWN OPEN, revealing blood, skull and brain. Suddenly, a GROUP of SPACE MONKEYS burst into the room, moving forward to Jack. TYLER'S BODY IS GONE. TALL SPACE MONKEY Are you all right, sir... ?! Jack quakes, holding the side of his head; a ragged hole blown in his CHEEK. He's bleeding hard, but he's alive. JACK I'm okay... Jack looks to the Space Monkeys, trying to get his eyes to see. TWO SPACE MONKEYS enter with Marla. One holds a gun to Marla as she struggles. SHORT SPACE MONKEY Are you sure? You look terrible, sir! What's happened? JACK Everything's fine. ANOTHER SPACE MONKEY Sir, you look really awful! Do you need medical assistance? Jack sees Marla, tries to get to his feet, falls... JACK Bring the girl to me. The rest of you get out. Now! The Monkeys bring Marla, releasing her, saluting. MARLA What happened... ? JACK Don't ask. Marla crouches, takes out wadded TISSUES and tries to apply. them to Jack's wound. Space Monkeys are leaving, hesitantly. JACK Get to the rendezvous point. Move it! Jack and Marla are left alone. MARLA My God, you're shot... JACK Yes. Jack tries to got up. Marla helps him. MARLA Who did this to you? JACK I did, I think. But, I'm okay... I'm fine... MASSIVE EXPLOSION... the glass walls rattle... Jack and Marla look -- OUT THE WINDOWS: a BUILDING EXPLODES; collapsing upon itself. Then, ANOTHER BUILDING IMPLODES into a massive cloud of dust. Jack and Marla are silhouetted against the SKYLINE. Jack looks to Marla, reaches to take her hand. JACK I'm sorry... you met me at a very strange time in my life. Marla looks at him. ANOTHER BUILDING IMPLODES and COLLAPSES inward... and ANOTHER BUILDING... and ANOTHER... The FILM SLOWS, then ADVANCES ONE FRAME at a TIME -- SHOWING SPROCKET HOLES on the SIDES. EACH FRAME is an IMPLODING BUILDING -- then, ONE FRAME IS A PENIS. Then, the IMPLODING BUILDING again. SPEED UP the frames, LOSE the sprocket holes, RESUME NORMAL SPEED... FADE TO BLACK: end -------------------------------------------------------------- \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination 2.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination 2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e42e4679e29d80fc25f066360162c743b5f733f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination 2.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FINAL DESTINATION 2 By J. Mackye Gruber and Eric BressFADE IN:INT. DARK ROOM - NIGHTTITLES OVER:A padded wall is papered with NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS that date back tothe early 1900s:"LOCAL FOWLER BROTHERS LOSE $35 TICKETS TO BOARD TITANIC" appearsover "FOWLER BROTHERS KILLED IN COAL MINE MISHAP." Another series ofarticles reads, "JEWISH PROFESSOR DENIED ADMITTANCE TO HINDENBURG"and "PROFESSOR RABINOWITZ KILLED IN AVALANCHE." Etc...Continuing along the wall, the newspaper articles all focus on thefates of the original SURVIVORS of the FLIGHT 180 CRASH.We DISSOLVE between the various headlines depicting the gruesomedeaths of Tod, Terry, Ms. Lewton, Billy Hitchcock, Carter and AlexBrowning.Also in the mix are various CRIME SCENE PHOTOS of the deaths.Decapitated torsos, crushed, mangled bodies, the charred remains ofanother and the face- down body of Alex Browning.MAPS line the walls as well, pinpointing the locations of numerousdeaths, perhaps seeking a pattern. Charts that timeline bizarredeaths, seating charts of downed aircraft, etc...LATEX -GLOVED HANDS tear out the last article, apply fun- tack to itscorners and place it in the center of all the others:A REMEMBRANCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF FLIGHT 180Friday marks one year anniversary.END TITLES.FLASH TO BLACK as a HAND ENTERS FRAME, PULL BACK TO REVEAL:EXT. KIMBERLY'S NEIGHBORHOOD - DAYKIMBERLY BURROUGHS, 19, puts a folded AAA map in her mouth. She opensthe back of a RED NISSAN SUV, and pla ces her duffel bag inside.That done, she lets the map drop from her mouth, catches it in herfree hand and turns to hug her father, MR. BURROUGHS. KIMBERLY Thanks, Dad. I'll call you. MR. BU RROUGHS You have everything, Kimberly? Credit card, cell phone, AAA card? KIMBERLY Relax, Dad. It's Daytona, not Mongolia. MR. BURROUGHS (playful) Fix -A-flat? Road flares? Sunblock? Mace? SHAINA (O.S.) Condoms, handcuffs, lube?Kimberly and Mr. Burroughs turn to see --SHAINA, 19, tall leggy brunette. Tan, tight tube top revealing herpierced navel, Kimberly's best friend. She walks up the driveway withher bags. SHAINA Just kidding, Mr. B. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her. MR. BURROUGHS (sarcastic) Oh, that makes me feel a lot better.Shaina throws her bags in, shuts the back and climbs in the SUV.Kimberly hugs her dad, kissing him on the cheek. KIMBERLY I know this is the first time we've been apart since. But everything's gonna be okay. MR. BURROUGHS I know, honey. I just --Kimberly hugs him tighter. Cutting him off. MR. BURROUGHS Your mother would have been so proud of the way you've handled yourself through all of this... KIMBERLY (softly) I know, Dad. SHAINA (O.S.) Hello, the guys are waiting!Kimberly gives him a quick kiss, jumps behind the wheel, starts thecar and pulls away as Shaina cranks up the stereo. MR. BURROUGHS Buckle up!Mr. Burroughs waves as the girls roar off. As he looks down he spotsan OIL STAIN left by Kimberly's SUV. As he drags his shoe across thestain, a SLIGHT BREEZE blows past his face.CAMERA PUSHES IN as a look of concern crosses his face.EXT. HIGHWAY ON RAMP - DAYON OLD WOMANAs she pushes her supermarket cart up the on ramp. A SQUEAKY WHEEL isshrill and disturbing.DRIVERS of several waiting vehicles avoid staring at her weatheredface as she passes. Up ahead waiting in line, is Kimberly's red SUV.UP AHEADWaiting in line, is Kimberly's red SUV. SHAINA (O.S.) Watch it!Kimberly accidentally KISSES the bumper in front of her whiledaydreaming. She calls out to the driver in front: KIMBERLY Sorry! My fault!Shaina looks over, concerned. In the backseat, the guys DANO andFRANKIE laugh hard and some of Frankie's milkshake comes out of hisnose. SHAINA Want me to drive? KIMBERLY No, I'm good.Shaina looks at Kimberly as a HAND suddenly hits Kimberly's window.Kimberly spins around, startled.Kimberly stares transfixed at the Old Woman, who stares back withchilling intensity.The kids ad-lib "Let's go" and "Fucking freak." The Old Woman'sPLASTIC BAG BREAKS, sending oranges rolling down the on- ramp. The OldWoman breaks eye contact with Kimberly as she rushes to retrievethem.The signal turns from red to flashing yellow.Kimberly pulls the SU V onto the highway, looking in the side viewmirror to see the Old Woman look up at her in SLOW-MO. FRANKIE Dano, shouldn't we go back and help your mother? DANO Blo w me.CU ON KIMBERLYAs she looks back from the mirror and reacts to an ominous electronicroad sign that flashes "WARNING: CONSTRUCTION NEXT 180 FEET".NISSAN SUVKimberly merging into traffic, NEARLY COLLIDES with a speeding yellowmini- bus carrying a high- school football team.Kimberly nervously jerks the wheel to the right, then realizing she'sspeeding towards the road construction barrels, she swerves backleft, right behind the mini-bus at the last moment.CLOSE.Kimberly pulls around the mini-bus as rowdy football players tackleeach other, yelling: FOOTBALL PLAYERS Pile up! Pile up! Pile up!Kimberly flicks on the radio and we hear HIGHWAY TO HELL by AC/DC atearsplitting volume. Kimberly and Shaina jump from the shock andreach to lower the volume.Kimberly, disturbed by this, hits SEEK -- an oldies station. A GRISLYCAR CRASH from Nervous Norvus' TRANSFUSION album. DANO Christ, is this tribute to Princess Di Day or what?Kimberly passes a car WEAVING on her right. The driver reaching intothe back seat to quiet a BARKING DOG hanging on its head out thewindow. KIMBERLY (unnerved) Jesus, all the crazies are out today.A CLOUD passes Kimberly's head. She smells it and turns around,taking her eyes off the road to see Dano smoking a joint. KIMBERLY I told you no drugs in the car! My dad will freak!Dano and Frankie exchange looks, God, what a geek! DANO (laughs) Calm down, Kimmy. It's not drugs, just weed. FRANKIE Yeah, you should have specified.Kimberly turns to Shaina, helpless. Shaina spins around, her eyeswordlessly tell Dano, I know she's a priss, but put it out.Then Kimberly's CELL PHONE RINGS. She hits the speaker button. MR. BURROUGHS (V.O.) Kimberly? It's Dad. KIMBERLY Hey, Dad. What's up?Dano defiantly blows more smoke toward Kimberly, then breaks into anunexpected coughing fit - looking over to see a HELLS ANGEL laughingat hi m. The biker's trashy GIRLFRIEND, also laughing, quickly FLASHESHER TITS at Dano over: MR. BURROUGHS (V.O.) Your car's leaking either transmission or brake fluid. I want you to have it checked ASAP at a gas station. KIMBERLY You got it, Dad. I'll call you if I have a problem. MR. BURROUGHS (V.O.) I mean it. Take care of it. KIMBERLY I will, Dad. Bye, luv you.Kimberly passes a STATION WAGON on her right, the DRIVER squinting ata map while driving. A mattress and some furniture tied to the topSHIFT as the wagon hits a bump. SHAINA Um, Kimberly, your dad's not gonna call like every ten minutes is he?Before Kimberly can answer, Dano sees a CHP speeding up behind him.He lowers the joint at once. DANO (hiding bag of weed in pants) Shit! There's a cop behind us. Pull into the right lane now!Kimberly, scared, does as she's told nearly colliding with a speedingflat bed semi hauling a huge load of logs !A HORN BLASTS. The truck swerves. Then speeds by on the right. ACOILED CHAIN drops down to the highway. DANO Look first, idiot!Shaina turns up the radio and leans over to Kimberly. SHAINA Ignore 'em.ON LOG TRUCKOne end of the RUSTY CHAIN holding the logs in place rattles on thepavement, sparking.Looking in her rearview mirror, Kimberly turns pale - the COP pullsin behind her. KIMBERLY Dano, put that out NOW.Dano takes one last drag and flicks the joint out the window. Itbounces on the windshield of a FORD EXPEDITION to their left.INSIDE THE EXPEDITIONKAT, 28, very corporate America, wears a navy blue power suit andspeaks into a phone headset while smoking a cigarette. KAT No, I'm stuck on Jury Duty so I won't be able to pitch the campaign. Let's get Silverstein to come in and...Kat sees the joint that smoulders in the dried leaves beneath herwindshield wipers. A moment later, a small FLAME crackles. KAT What the hell? No, not you.Kat flicks on her WINDSHIELD WIPER FLUID, successfully putting outthe joint, but her worn wipers smear ash and fluid around, impairingher vision.Kat turns and looks at --DANO, dead serious all of a sudden. Staring straight ahead. DANO What's the cop doing? Did he see that?Kat sees the tailgating CHP, smiles, then resumes her conversation. KAT Forget it, I'll call him myself.Kat hangs up, then looks down at her cell phone, squints and dials anumber...PAN OFF KAT TO OFFICER THOMAS BURKEEarly 20's, rookie cop, who seems to have missed the entire exchange.INSIDE THE POLICE CARThomas speaks into his radio. THOMAS I was supposed to be off today. How did I get screwed? DISPATCHER (O.S.) No biggie. Drake called in sick. THOMAS Copy that. (switches off; annoyed) Go on, sleep it off Drake.Thomas tries to sip from a McDonald's coffee cup on the dashboard,but it's TOO HOT. He places it back on the dash.The VIBRATIONS of the road make the COFFEE CUP slide closer andcloser to the edge of the dashboard.BACK TO KIMBERLY'S SUVDano nervously looks back. FRANKIE Relax, dude.But Kimberly still looks uneasy as her dashboard "Check Engine" lightbegins flickering.Kimberly spots a road sign -- Next Service 18 Miles. KIMBERLY This trip better be wor th it. What's the guy- girl ratio again? SHAINA Get ready to smile, five guys per girl. KIMBERLY I can live with thaaaa --Kimberly stops mid-sentence when the WHITE VAN in front of hersuddenly SLAMS ON ITS BRAKES and pulls onto the shoulder for noreason. Kimberly SCREAMS, swerving around the van just in time toavoid an accident. Frankie instinctively SHOUTS at the van. FRANKIE What's your problem, ya fuckin' crack baby?!INSIDE THE WHITE VANISABELLA CRUZ, late 20's and VERY PREGNANT, drives a delivery vanfull of funeral wreaths, crosses and classic rose urns. Most aremarked: In Memory of Flight 180.She chokes back sobs into a cell phone as she pulls over. ISABELLA ...couldn't Keep your dick in check for another month? I knew this would happen when I got pregnant.She pounds the steering wheel, furious. ISABELLA What'd the doctor say? I have to come in to test for STDs? Goddamn you, Jorge.A CRATE in the back of her van topples over and CRASHES and a flurryof sunflower petals sails out the window. Isabella jumps in surpriseand, wiping tears from her eyes, rolls up the windows as petalsshower the visor of --EUGENE, the Harley Rider, who smears the petals (and some squashedbugs) around his visor and drops back.INSIDE NISSAN SUVKimberly falls back into the right lane and looks uneasy as she seesa TRUCK DRIVER guzzling from a flask as it passes the SUV, revealingits side is an ad for FIRESTONE TIRES.It finally clears frame, revealing a highway billboard that reads,"DRUNK DRIVING KILLS."Kimberly reaches back and pulls on her seatbelt in spite of laughterfrom the back seat.Up ahead, the RUSTY CHAIN seems to have more give to it. LOGS STRAINagainst it.Suddenly, a black cloud of exhaust from a blue '83 Chevette in frontof them causes everyone to roll up their windows.OIL DRIPS from its rusty exhaust pipe. The thick exhaust BLINDSKimberly. FRANKIE Gas it around these idiots. We do have 1200 miles to go, you know.Kimberly tires to enter the passing lane, but she's blocked by aSUBURU WAGON. In the front seat, a seven- year old kid is sadisticallySMASHING two toy cars together.Kimberly passes the Suburu and pulls up to a PACER. The Harley roarsby, startling her.INSIDE PACERNORA KESNER, 35, and her son TIM, 15. Tim drums on the dashboard withtwo ten-ounce Naya bottles. NORA Tim, will you cut that out? I can't even hear myself think.Tim frowns and then winces, holding his jaw. TIM Damn, it really hurts, Mom. NORA I know, we'll be there soon.Tim drops the Naya bottles on the seat. One of them quietly falls tothe floor, rolls a bit, finally settling UNDER THE BRAKE PEDAL.INSIDE NISSAN SUVKimberly is still behind the smoke-spewing Chevette. She passes it onthe left. Frankie rolls down his window. FRANKIE (yells to driver) Ever hear of the Ozone layer, asshole?INSIDE CHEVETTERORY, 27, leans down to snort a line of coke off a Def Leppard CDcase. S he looks up to see the Patrol Car is now behind him, hereflexively taps the brakes.Rory, eyes like saucers, sits rigidly transfixed at the wheel andnonchalantly wipes the CD clean on his pants.INSIDE NISSAN SUVShe has dropped back behind the Chevette and CHP car and is runningdown along side of a BLACK TRANS AM.Up ahead she sees the Hig hway Patrol Car flick on its LIGHTS and pullinto the shoulder around the Chevette and behind the Semi loaded withlogs.INSIDE THE COP CARAs Thomas pulls in behind the log truck, his coffee cup lurchesforward, spilling hot coffee all over his lap and the floor. THOMAS Son of a bitch.INSIDE TRANS AMIts driver, EVAN SCHAEFFER, 21, flashes a cocky smile at Kimberly,clearly making Frankie jealous. FRANKIE A Trans Am. That shit went out with New Kids on the Block. DANO Yeah. Who does he think he is? Knight Rider? FRANKIE (laughs; then) Who?Frankie leans out and tosses milkshake on Evan's window. DANO You know, Hasselhoff before he did Baywatch.Evan, pissed off, flips off Frankie. The windshield wipers smeararound the thick milky fluid. The sun blinding him. KIMBERLY What's the chance of finding a nice mature guy once we get to Daytona? SHAINA How does a nice mature fuck sound?Kimberly laughs, then leans in close to Shaina. KIMBERLY Hey, thanks for talking me into this trip. Ever since my mom... I dunno, I just feel like I'm starting to live again, you know?Shaina smiles in understanding.INSIDE POLICE CRUISERThomas bends to wipe up the mess. He only glances at the road as hetries to soak up the coffee.Suddenly up ahead, THE RUSTY CHAIN SNAPS! The logs roll off the sideof the truck onto the highway.One bounces as it hits, and slams through Thomas' front winshield andout the back, taking Thomas' head with it.EUGENE slams on his brakes. His Harley slides out and he is SLAMMEDto the ground, sliding at 60 miles per hour across the highway, rightin front of the yellow mini-bus.The MINI- BUS DRIVER brakes to avoid Eugene. The FOOTBALL PLAYERStumble forward and hit him in the head. He loses control and slidesoff the road onto the grass median.He blows a front tire and the mini-bus begins to flip, ROLLINGseveral times int o the oncoming lanes of traffic, and is HIT by aMACK TRUCK.Eugene slides into a huge log, and hits it with a sickening crunch.Only to be HIT and CRUSHED by his sliding motorcycle.Rory looks up too late and REAR ENDS Thomas' car, EXPLODING the gastank and HURLING Rory's dead body halfway through the windshieldwhere it remains half in/half onto the hood.KAT, dialing, looks up, slams on her brakes, but SKIDS on oil fromthe Chevette.She swerves into Kimberly, SIDE SWIPES her, then swerves to miss ahuge log -- only to run head on into two more, flipping theExpedition end over end right next to Kimberly.Kimberly swerves back from being hit by Kat, just in time to see ahuge log ahead. She tries to turn hard to the right to avoid it, buthits it broadside --Sending the SUV FLIPPING OVER the top of the log and SLIDING down theroad. Inside, Shaina, Dano and Frankie are tossed around like ragdolls, shredded by glass and shrapnel -- Frankie is EJECTED out theside window.Kimberly's SUV slides to a stop on its side. She looks back to hermangled but still alive friends and up in time to seeNORA'S PACERNora sees the collisions ahead and slams on the brakes but the fallenNaya bottle prevents her from braking, and she SLAMS into the back ofKat's Expedition.The crash test dummy collision folds her Pacer and it EXPLODES into ahuge fireball.EVAN, blinded by the smeared windshield, is too late. He swerves hisTrans Am around the burning cars onto the wet grass.Kimberly sees the topless Trans Am slowly roll out of a huge WALL OFFIRE and coast to a stop. Evan comes up battered and bloody but stillalive. He is trapped in his burning car, screaming and trying torelease the seatbelt.Then, just when she thought it was over, a HUGE SEMI slides thro ughthe wall of fire, SMASHING the Trans Am out of the way, SPINNING itlike a top. With the back sliding at 90 degrees it keeps on coming.KIMBERLY'S POVThe semi's grill comes right at her!CU ON KIMBERLYShe screams and we --CUT TO:THE HIGHWAY O N RAMP - NISSAN SUV - 8 MINUTES EARLIERSweating profusely, Kimberly's eyes dart around, taking in hersurroundings... DANO (O.S.) Flight 180. You know, that plane crash with those kids from Mount Abraham.The Old Woman BUMPS the window - scaring the shit out of everyone.The kids ad-lib "Let's go" and "Fucking Freak!"Kimberly stares in horror as the Old Woman flashes an evil grin.Kimberly's eyes lower to the bag of oranges --Which BREAKS, exactly like before, and the Old Woman scurries afterthem. The signal turns from red to flashing yellow. FRANKIE Dano, shouldn't we stop and help your mother? DANO Blow me. Yellow means go, Kimberly.Kimberly hyperventilates in the driver's seat. Freaking. A yellowmini- bus with football players speeds past. KIMBERLY Oh my god, oh my god...Dano, confused, rolls a joint. SHAINA What is it? What are you? KIMBERLY There's going to be a huge accident! Everyone's gonna die. All of us! I saw it!Dano hums the Twilight Zone theme. FRANKIE That's it. My turn to drive.CLOSE UP - KIMBERLY SCREAMS!AND WE'RE BACKTHE HIGHWAY ON RAMPSweating profusely, Kimberly's eyes dart around, taking in hersurroundings. DANO (O.S.) Flight 180. Y'know, that plane crash with those kids from Mt. Abraham?The Old Woman BUMPS the window - scaring the shit out of everyone.The kids ad-lib "Let's go", "Fucking freak."Kimberly stares in horror as the Old Woman flashes an evil grin.Kimberly's eyes lower to the bag of oranges, which breaks, exactlylike before and the Old Woman scurries after them.The signal turns from red to flashing yellow. FRANKIE Dano, shouldn't we stop and help your mother? DANO Blow me. Yellow means go, Kimmy.Kimberly hyperventilates in the driver's seat. Freaking. A yellowmini- bus with football players speeds by. KIMBERLY Oh my God, oh my God...Dano, confused, rolls a joint. SHAINA What is it? What are you? KIMBERLY There's going to be a huge accident! Everyone's gonna die, all of us, I saw it!Dano hums the Twilight Zone theme. FRANKIE That's it. My turn to drive.HONK! The drivers behind them start leaning on their horns. Kimberlyleans out the window and sees the Chevette, the Pacer, The White Van,the Trans Am, the Harley...all the familiar vehicles from the pileup. She turns on the radio, frantically scans the dial. SHAINA Relax, you need to chill the fuck out. KIMBERLY Highway to Hell, Highway to Hell. SHAINA For Christ sakes girl, take a breath. D.J. (O.S.) Taking you into an all request weekend with a classic from AC/DC.The opening guitar riff to HIGHWAY TO HELL blares from the speakers.Kimberly turns to Shaina with a "believe me know?" look, but Shaina'snowhere near on the same page.HONKING behind them.Kimberly, shaking like a leaf, pulls the SUV forwards, turning itsideways to block off all traffic. DANO What the hell are you doing?Dano shifts in his seat and sees - a Highway Pat rol Car ominouslycruising up the shoulder of the onramp. He shoves a bag of weed,along with the joint, down his pants. DANO Five-O's coming! Let's fucking roll, man!Officer Thomas Burke stops the car behind them. FRANKIE Jesus Christ! Here he comes! Move! KIMBERLY No! We'll all die if we do!The cop turns on his FLASHERS. DANO I told you she'd ruin everything! SHAINA Shut up, Dano, just stay cool. (to Kimberly) He's just stoned.Officer Thomas Burke exits his car and approaches the passenger sideof the SUV, hand on weapon. Thomas taps the window with his knuckle. THOMAS What's going on here? KIMBERLY (incoherent, through tears) There's going to be a pile up. Logs. Bodies everywhere. I saw it happen. It happened.Thomas looks to the guys in back who shrug, "we don't know her." THOMAS Miss, please step out of the vehicle.As she does, Thomas discretely unsnaps his holster. RORY nervouslyeyes the action. Sneaks a paper bundle into his sock. ISABELLA, thepregnant woman in the White Van, gets out. She gives Thomas herfriendliest smile, milking the pregnant belly. ISABELLA Excuse me, but is there some way we could just drive around? I have a delivery.Her CELL PHONE RINGS and she leans back inside to answer it. ISABELLA Hey hon, you got a mysterious caller on the answering machine from Planned Parenthood. What's going on?As she listens, growing agitated, the Harley Rider dismounts andpulls off his helmet. Revealing EUGENE DIX, 35, a nebbishy schoolteacher in cool leathers.INSIDE PACERNORA watches the SUV, distressed. NORA What on Earth are they doing? TIM (picking up two Naya bottles) Who am I, David Blane?Nora gives Tim a hard stare, then they both break into smiles. Noratousles his hair. And doesn't stop. TIM (good-natured laughter) Okay, quit it already.As he laughs, something pains his jaw and he winces. THOMAS isn'tquite sure what kind of insanity he's dealing with yet. Dano andFrankie, no help, stare dead ahead. KIMBERLY (trying to calm herself) The radio played the same songs, the old lady's bag broke the exact same way it did in my premonition.Kimberly erupts into a panic when she sees the LOG TRUCK speed past.She grabs at Thomas for emphasis. KIMBERLY THAT's the truck that's going to kill everyone! THOMAS Alright miss, calm down. I just need this lane open. I need you to pull your vehicle onto the shoulder! KIMBERLY You're not listening to me! You have to do something!EVAN impatiently yells out the window of his TRANS AM. EVAN Arrest this whack-job, wouldja? Some of us have lives, y'know.Kimberly looks to Shaina for support, but even Shaina can't meet hereyes. KIMBERLY Why won't anyone listen to me?Thomas, subtly reaching for his cuffs. THOMAS I'm not going to tell you to calm down again --A SERIES OF CRASHES AND EXPLOSIONS ARE HEARD. In the distance. It'sneverending. Horrific. Kimberly's face crumbles. She screams inhorror and collapses against the SUV.Thomas runs to his patrol car.The White Delivery Van makes a J- turn out of the line of cars andSPEEDS down the onramp in reverse, Isabella screaming angrily intoher cell phone. ISABELLA You couldn't keep your dick in check for a month?!The other drivers exit their cars, craning their necks to see what'shappened up ahead. Kat takes a deep drag off her smoke. KAT Great, now I'm really gonna be late.Thomas barks into the radio handset -- THOMAS L.A. 51, I need assistance and requesting paramedics for a major T.A. At --INSIDE THE SUVFrankie watches the traffic start to back up as a couple of passingcars BRAKE HARD. Shaina anxiously watches Kimberly pacing behind theSUV. SHAINA Kimberly, what's going on?Kimberly moves toward Shaina's window. As she leans her head intoShaina's window, an ominous BREEZE blows back their hair and we hearthe BLARING HORN of a TRUCK.And Kimberly is unexpectedly yanked backward by Thomas!From nowhere, a SHRIEK of BRAKES as a JACK-KNIFED TRUCK plow s the SUVacross the frame! CRASH! Flying debris misses Kimberly and Thomas byinches!Kimberly cries in horror into Thomas' shoulder as her friends burn upin the wreckage.EXT. POLICE STATION - ESTABLISHING SHOTINT. POLICE STATION - CONTINUOUSCHAOS. Evan, the driver of the Trans Am, impatiently speaks toDETECTIVE SUBY, late 40s, professional with an open face that makeshim a great listener. EVAN I don't know what you want from me. Some crazy chic k blocks the highway with her car, said there'd be an accident and there was. Big deal. Even a broken watch is right twice a day...Officer Thomas Burke passes by, heading into --INT. A ROOM - CONTINUOUSKat, Eugene, Nora, Tim, and Rory sit in a large room, waiting to givestatements. Unlike Evan, these witnesses are clearly distraught. KAT Not to sound insensitive, but how much longer is this going to take? EUGENE If I don't get back to my classroom soon, the kids'll tear the room apart. NORA Those poor people. To think it would've been us if not for...PAN OVER TO REVEAL KIMBERLY. She's still in shock, her mind far away.Thomas sits close to her, speaking softly. THOMAS Tell me again how it started. KIMBERLY Like I said, it was like I was there. I remember everything. The sounds of the crashes, the smells, the look on Shaina's face... THOMAS Do you remember what triggered it all? KIMBERLY The log truck...and everybody I guess. Everyone was driving like a maniac. And somehow I knew something horrible was going to happen, even before it did.Something clicks for Thomas, but he forces himself to speak calmly,like a lawyer leading a friendly witness. THOMAS You knew? You just mean a hunch, right? A bad vibe, maybe?The other drivers stare at Kimberly. KIMBERLY More than that. All the songs on the radio were about car crashes. Some kid's banging toy cars together. (lookin g at her) She was dialing her cell phone with her headset on. (points to Rory) His car was leaking oil all over the road. RORY Hey, don't be knockin' the Chevette.But the others listen intently now. Especially Kat, who spies herheadset buried deep in her purse. KIMBERLY Billboards about accidents. Kids yelling "pile up" for no reason. It all felt...just wrong. Just like... (swallows; hesitates) THOMAS Like what?Kimberly sighs and looks down. The room becomes eerily silent, exceptfor the FLICKER of a florescent light. KIMBERLY I know this sounds crazy...but you all heard about Flight 180, right? The kid who got off the plane?Thomas' eyes widen -- then a startling CRASH as Rory, le aning back inhis chair, tips over. Thomas rolls his eyes as Rory grins sheepishlyand picks himself up. THOMAS You mean Alex Browning. KIMBERLY (looking down) ...My Premonition was just like his. NORA What are you talking about? EUGENE (sarcastic) Oh, you must have read about that kid who had a dream about a plane crash so he got his buddies off the plane? Then the thing blew up just like in the dream? NORA Maybe...Eugene sees Nora and Tim are hooked and speaks in scary campfiretones. EUGENE But this is where it starts to get freaky. So a month goes by, everything seems cool, but then the survivors start dying one boy one. 'Cause when your number's up, it's up, right? Some people said Death itself started coming for them, hunting down every last one, until they were all dead.Everyone tenses up. THOMAS Well, not quite all of them. Clear Rivers checked herself into a padded room at Stoneybrook.Kimberly, affected, looks to Thomas for confirmation. KIMBERLY You do believe me, don't you?BANG! Everyone jumps as Detective Suby pounds on the door and opensit. DETECTIVE SUBY Officer Burke? Could I see you in here?INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUSThe DOOR OPENS. Detective Suby enters, leading Thomas. Through a two -way mirror, they can see the others chatting anxiously. DETECTIVE SUBY Tell me you didn't start up on that Flight 180 shit again. (beat) Did you? THOMAS Of course not. That would be irresponsible and unprofessional.Detective Suby's persistent glare makes Thomas uncomfortable. THOMAS Look, you weren't there. It was weird. She knew that log truck was gonna cause an accident, she knew. (beat) Never mind. DETECTIVE SUBY I thought we we re finished with this bullshit. This is police work, not the psychic Hot Line.But Thomas isn't listening. He's glued to Kimberly's words. WhenDetective Suby realizes this, he stops and listens. KIMBER LY But if I was never meant to pull over, then we all should have died in the pile up. TIM Which means Death could be coming for us.Detective Suby looks pissed o ff. DETECTIVE SUBY Way to console the witnesses Burke.At the same time, we watch Evan enter the other room, grab his jacketand wave goodbye to the others. DETECTIVE SUBY You got 'em thinking Death is after them? Shit, they're the luckiest sons o' bitches on the planet. Get this guy Evan Shaeffer; Yesterday the kid wins the lotto and today some looney bitch b locks traffic and he avoids the worst pile up in years. I should be so damn unlucky.INT. A ROOM - CONTINUOUSKimberly, Nora, Tim, Kat, Eugene and Rory now seem affected by whatthey've heard. KAT What if it's true? What if it's happening all over again?The fluorescent light above FLICKERS ominously. Nora, disturbed,stands up in a huff, grabbing Tim's arm. NORA You're all certifiable, you know that? I can't believe I've been listening to this crap. Come on, Tim, let's go outside. TIM Jeez, Mom, stop trippin'. EUGENE Look lady, we're just yankin' your chain. RORY Yeah, you're acting like we all just got the Diff'rent Strokes curse or something.Eugene and Rory burst out laughin g. Nora shakes her head, disgusted. NORA What's wrong with you people?Nora pulls a reluctant Tim out of the room. As she opens the door,the others watch Detective Suby and Thomas appear from nowhere tocalm her down . When the door swings shut, an awkward silence.Suddenly, the door opens again and Thomas leads Mr. Burroughs inside.Mr. Burroughs sees Kimberly and chokes back tears. MR. BURROUGHS Kimberly...The sight of her fath er crying is enough to make Kimberly's own damburst. She rushes over to him and buries her head in his chest,sobbing. MR. BURROUGHS Can I take her home?Thomas nods. DETECTIVE SUBY Sure, you can all go.By now, the fluorescent light flickers out of control. When Rory, Katand Eugene stand up, Thomas looks helpless. KAT First I'm stuck with Jury Duty, now this nonsense. RORY Yeah, I hate to love and leave ya, but I've been over this X-Files shit since the sixth season.As Thomas watches them file out, the fluorescent light POPS. ThenDARKNESS.INT. KITCHEN - DAYKimberly sits at the table. Mr. Burroughs sets down a cup of teabefore her. Both are shaken. KIMBERLY I know it's crazy, but I'm really scared for the others. I've got this terrible feeling. MR. BURROUGHS What feeling? KIMBERLY That it's not over yet.She picks up the tea, it clatters in her trembling hands. MR. BURROUGHS Don 't worry. Everything will be fine, you'll see.INT. EVAN'S STAIRWELL - DAYA dingy singly light bulb illuminates the narrow stairwell. Evanappears in the darkness, carrying a brand new television with somepackages on top. He's unable to s ee the long rickety stairwell heclimbs.The stairs are littered with Chinese take out MENUS and a TONKA TRUCKapparently left by some kids.As Evan slowly climbs the staircase, a FAT MAN comes down, forcingEvan to lean against -THE RAILING - which CREAKS and BENDS. After the FAT MAN passes, Evanslowly continues up again, TEARING HIS SHIRT on a nail. EVAN Motherfucker.A HEATING DUCT CLICKS ON. The air blows a TONKA TRUCK slowly towardthe center of the staircase, directly in Evan's path - but Evan justmisses it!He continues past MORE TOYS, nearing the top stair -The Airduct coughs, sending menus fluttering toward Evan's feet andhe slips on them! He juggles the TV - but ultimately rights himselfand continues down the hallway.INT. EVAN'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSDim, cheap, probably roach-infested. As Evan enters, the smallpackages fall off the TV box and onto the floor.Evan places the TV by the door, looks at his torn shirt, but fuck it,who cares; he's on a natural high. He peels his shirt off, revealinghis PIERCED NIPPLES, flicks on the radio and DANCES his way over tothe fridge and grabs a drink.In the tiny kitchenette area, a small swarm of flies hovers over agrease-filled frying pan.Evan recoils, throws open the window and throws the grease to thesidewalk five stories below. An ominous BREEZE enters --And a kitchen cabinet slowly BLOWS OPEN. Some FORKS and KNIVES slideforward on poorly stacked plates. Daring to fall into the toaster.Evan spills some cooking oil on the range while pouring it into thefrying pan, then dumps in some frozen mozzarella sticks. Evan putsthe frying pan on the stove and turns it on HIGH.He then grabs a container of CHINESE FOOD and rests it on the counternext to the fridge. On the fridge, several colorful MAGNETS spell outHEY E.PUSH IN on the H - which mysteriously drops into the Chinese food -the word EY E remaining. Oblivious, Evan puts the food in themicrowave and turns it on.ANGLE ON STOVEThe cooki ng oil creeps toward the range... Evan hits PLAY on hisanswering machine and rushes across the room to tear open hispackages... VOICE (O.S.) Dude! You suck! You buy one fucking ticket in your whole life and win twenty grand? We're going whoring in Prague, you know this! (whisper) Hold on, the boss is coming.A CLICK, then hold MUZAK: AC/DC's HIGHWAY TO HELL.ANGLE ON MAGNET in Chinese fo od. SPARKING. It pops and fizzles. Andugly sound.As many similar messages continue, Evan unwraps a new ROLEX! Heslides it over his wrist, admiring it.ANGLE ON KNIFELazily sliding off the shelf and into the toaster, protruding aboutan inch and a half. Hardly noticeable.By now, Evan has opened the next package; a gaudy gold and diamondencrusted horseshoe ring.He carries the ring into the kitchenette, sees the Chinese food isFLAMING, and his hands flash out to turn it off -- A SMALL EXPLOSIONfrom the microwave startles him.The RING falls into his drain/garbage disposal! EVAN Damn it!Evan reaches INTO THE DRAIN, his fingers searching for the ring. Whenhe tries to pull his hand back out, the ROLEX CATCHES.Another small EXPLOSION from the microwave, this one cracking theGLASS. A Solo Plastic Cup nearby begins to melt.Flames sputter around the rim of the frying pan. In moments, the oilfrom the pan IGNITES. A small fire.Evan sees all this and YANKS with all his might. No use. As the FIREslowly spreads to nearby cereal boxes, Evan starts to panic. Hecontinues yanking... Stuck.He sees a bottle of PALMOLIVE on the other end of the counter. Hisfingers reach for it.Slightly out of his grasp. But his fingertips are just long enough toknock the bottle backwards - where it rests against TWO SWITCHES.The FIRE ALARM goes off. The PHONE RINGS.Evan desperately lifts his leg and tries to use his foot to edge thePalmolive over. By pushing the bottle up against the wall, itthreatens to turn on one of the switches.ANGLE ON FINGERSIn the GARBAGE DISPOSAL. A SWITCH is flipped - but the light goes on.And the Palmolive lazily falls, resting on the remaining switch. EVAN Come on, come on...Evan makes one last push with his foot - accidently flipping theSWITCH - the GARBAGE DISPOSAL GRINDS METAL!Evan, horrified, miraculously yanks his hand free, brushing againstthe knife in the toaster.When the SHOCK goes through Evan's body, his other hand jerks out,knocking the flaming frying pan to the floor.The entire kitchen is in flames, including the new TV blocking thedoor. The window slams SHUT! The room fills with smoke. EVAN Jesus Christ!Evan grabs a fire extinguisher. A mere dribble of foam comes out. Hebegins COUGHING in the smoke.Evan tries the window - STUCK! He has no choice but to smash thekitchenette window with the fire extinguisher to get to the fireescape.He dr ops the fire extinguisher, starts to climb out the window, hearsa creak and looks up just as --A large jagged shard of glass comes CRASHING down at him -- Evanjumps back just in time as it shatters before him. The firecompletely engulfs the kitchen.He bravely jumps through the window pane, landing on the fire escape.He runs down the fire escape from floor to floor.A LARGE BLAST from his window showers him with glass and brickshrapnel, but ultimately, he makes it to the fire escape's lowestlevel, intact.He tries to lower the rusty metal ladder to the ground. It budgesonce, then twice, but won't go down. So he climbs over the railingand gently drops to the ground.Safe and sound, he breathes a sigh of relief and turns to walk --SUDDENLY he s lips on the very grease he threw out the window, hislegs shoot out from under him and he lands on his back.The rusty ladder suddenly dislodges and hurls downward -- comingright for Evan's face -- but stops halfway!As Evan laughs, breathing a final sigh of relief, it suddenlyPLUMMETS again -- impaling Evan through his eye socket!INT. POLICE STATION - COMPUTER ROOM - NIGHTThomas sits at the computer terminal. He checks to make sure no one'swatching as he enters a SEARCH for Alex Browning.Ten websites come up, all devoted to the Flight 180 Curse. Thomasscrolls around, seeing the death pix and autopsy photos of Flight 180"survivors".Headlines blare, "Freak Accident?" "Bizarre Coincidence?" describingthe way the victims died. As Thomas begins a localized search of theword, "PREMONITION" --SPOOKY HUMMING from behind him.Thomas whirls around to see Det. Suby looking over his shoulder,humming the music from an old monster movie. Suby presses one hand tohis forehead, the other polishing an apple against his vest. DETECTIVE SUBY (as if entranced) Ooooh, I see it now. Your future... A transfer to another department.Suby bites the apple, casually offering nothing more. Thomas,embarrassed, flicks off the computer, stands. THOMAS You've made your point. DETECTIVE SUBY Good. Cause we just got some new info and I don't ne ed you getting freaky on me. THOMAS What? DETECTIVE SUBY Evan Shaeffer's dead. Guess he wasn't as lucky as we thought.Detective Suby shrugs and walks away, munching the apple. Thomaslooks stunned.INT. KAT'S ROOM - NIGHTKat cradles a phone to her shoulder. She watches television andcrushes Oreos into a bowl of ice- cream. KAT No, Mom. Just turn on any station, they've been playing it all day. (beat; rolls her eyes) Yes, Mother. Channel four will do just fine. Here it is, gotta go.She hangs up the phone, mesmerized by the report:FOOTAGE FROM A HELICOPTER shows the pile up wreckage. ANCHOR MAN (V.O.) Route 18 was backed up for almost nine hours today when a record breaking pile up...INT. NORA'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUSNora and Tim watch the same report. ANCHOR MAN (V.O.) ...killed An estimated 18 people. Emergency crews spent hours sifting through the wreckage.INT. EUGENE'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUSEugene looks up from grading midterm bluebooks to watch. ANCHOR MAN (V.O.) ...hoping To recover any survivors from this tragic collision. So far, the police are refusing to release the names of the victims until their families are notified.INT. KIMBERLY'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUSMr. Burroughs numbly watches the same report. He doesn't see Kimberlyenter behind him from the kitchen. ANCHOR WOMAN (O.S.) The camera of a highway patrol car managed to catch this shocking footage --B/W CAMERA FOOTAGE from Thomas' car shows Thomas tackling Kimberly tothe ground just as a jack -knifed truck plows into the SUV. MR. BURROUGHS My Lord...A GASP from behind him. Mr. Burroughs spins to see Kimberly fightingback tears and picks up the remote, prepared to click of the TV --but she stops him. KIMBERLY Don't. I have to see this.Mr. Burroughs reluctantly keeps the newscast on.INT. RORY'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSIt's a party. Rory, surrounded by BUDDIES, shakes a triumphant fistat the television. HE WHOOPS with delight, spilling popcorneverywhere. RORY Whoohoo! You see that shit? Right there? That's my fuckin' car right there! Oh God, that's dope.After high-fiving his peeps, he bends to table level and snorts afreshly chopped line. ANCHOR MAN (O.S.) In other news, a freak accident took the life of a lotto winner.Rory looks up to see the DMV photo of Evan. As he takes in thereport, his mood radically shifts. He looks like he's been hit by atrain.MONTAGEOf Kimberly, Nora, Tim, Eugene and Kat watching. They all take thenews very hard as the FOOTAGE shows Evan's BODY being carried away byEMT workers. Eugene, however, shakes his head sadly but goes back tograding blue books.TIM'S BEDROOM - LATERTim's eyes are glued to the latest Stephen King novel. Nora peers in. NORA Come on, Tim, lights out already.Tim starts at her voice, then reluctantly puts down the book. TIM Mom? NORA Yeah? TIM You think... You think those guys were b.s.-ing us today or what?Nora swallows, trying to seem brave. NORA Oh, please. Some people just need some serious rewiring, that's all.But neither of them are convinced. NORA Get some sleep.Nora kisses his forehead and leaves the room. After she leaves, Timopens his nightstand drawer, pulls out a dusty nightlight and plugsit in.INT. NORA'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATERNora closes her bedroom door. And locks it. She nervously checks thecloset and even lowers the blinds. Finally, she takes out a businesscard and dials a number. She hangs up, then dials again. NORA Officer Burke, please?INT. KIMBERLY'S ROOM - CONTINUOUSMr. Burroughs tucks a still-shaken Kimberly into bed. In one of hishands is a nearly empty glass of scotch. KIMBERLY It's okay, Dad. I'm not ten anymore.Mr. Burroughs catches himself being overprotective. MR. BURROUGHS I'm sorry. I'm just so happy that you're safe. KIMBERLY I love you too, Dad. Goodnight.But Mr. Burroughs isn't ready to leave. He finishes his drink. MR. BURROUGHS You know, after your mother died...Kimberly tenses, bracing for the worst. MR. BURROUGHS There were so many times I didn't think I could last another day. I can't even tell you some of the things I th ought about. KIMBERLY I used to have those feelings, too. But that's when I'd think of Mom. Her strength...and courage. And I'd pray that maybe I'd grow up to be as brave as she was. And the bad thoughts would go away. MR. BURROUGHS (choking up) I don't know what I'd do if I lost you.Mr. Burroughs leans over, kisses her forehead and leaves. Just ashe's out the door, he braces at the distant sound of a CAR SKIDDINGout of control. The ENDLESS SCREECH is nerve shattering. Mr.Burroughs stands frozen, tensing for the inevitable crunch. But thereis none. And he leaves.DISSOLVE TO:INT. KIMBERLY'S ROOM - NIGHTThe room is dark except for one burning candle. Kimberly tosses andturns. The wind sends a single branch scraping against her window. Aporch swing SQUEAKS back and forth. Adding to her anxiety.A BREEZE ENTERS, sputtering out the candle. Kimberly sits upright inbed and sees the WINDOW IS SHUT. Huh? She lights a match and sees thecandle wax dripped onto her table, forming the gooey shape ofa...180? The match goes out in her hand. The room is dark again.Headlights fr om passing cars cast eerie shadows on her ceiling.Shadows resembling PLANES seem to transform into a SKULL.Kimberly, freaked out, looks around to see the blinking light fromthe VCR: it flashes 18:0 a few times, then 12:00.She can't take it anymore. She yanks the VCR cord from the wall andflicks on the lights, ridding the room of shadows. And anxiouslyturns on her computer.EXT. STONEYBROOK HOSPITAL - DAYKimberly drives a beat up Hyundai through an eerie morning mist thatsurrounds the grounds of the Stoneybrook Hospital.ANGLE ONA computer printout in the shotgun seat: MAPQUEST directions to"Stoneybrook Hospital".As Kimberly drives through the gate, the mist almost seems to followher inside.A SIGN offers a choice between "Emergency/Medica l Care" or"Psychiatric Treatment Center." Kimberly drives to the mental ward.INT. MENTAL WARD - DAYA PHYSICIAN in a lab coat leads a nervous Kimberly down the center ofa long corridor. The Physician consults a clipboard. PHYSICIAN ...at the request of the patient, you are to relinquish any sharp objects such as nail files, pencils, pens, safety pins, bobby pins, no matches, lighters, belts, belt buckles, earrings, chokers, shoelaces...Kimberly watches carefully as the Physician comes to a door andpunches "4514" into the electronic lock. They continue down anothercorridor.Lights flicker,patients cackle and moan in the B.G. PHYSICIAN ...paper clips, watches, food, drinks, keys, poisons, pills and medications. (looks at Kimberly) You have a cell phone on you?Kimberly nods, hands it over. PHYSICIAN Then I think we're all done.They arrive at a door to a padded room. The Physician punches inanother code. KIMBERLY Wait. Is she...dangerous or something? PHYSICIAN No honey, but she expects you are. KIMBERLY Jesus, how long are you going to keep her locked up this way? PHYSICIAN Depends on her, I guess. She's voluntary.The door hisses open.INT. CLEAR'S PADDED ROOM - CONTINUOUSREVEAL CLEAR RIVERSWhile still beautiful, this young woman bears few traces of herformer self. Her eyes dart around suspiciously, maddened by chronicparanoia. Her hair is patchy, her eyes dark and haunted. Bordering onsavage. Her movements are fidgety, erratic, always distracted bysomething unseen. KIMBERLY Clear Rivers?Clear looks Kimberly up and down and steps back, allowing her insideher inner sanctum. A mattress on the floor, a plastic bottle ofwater, some paperbacks and a bedpan.Kimberly's jaw drops when she sees the far wall: a SHRINE to flight180. The wall is papered with art icles about all the survivors (asseen in the opening title montage).The door SLAMS. Kimberly jumps. CLEAR Kimberly Burroughs, eh? What do you want? KIMBERLY I thought...I thought you might be able to help me. CLEAR (snicker) Yeah, how? KIMBERLY I had a premonition about the Route 18 pile up. .. I saved some people. And now I think Death is after me. CLEAR Nice work. Maybe if you're real lucky, you'll wind up in here with me. (gives Kimberly the once over) But I doubt you'll survive that long.Kimberly flinches. KIMBERLY It's not just about me. Someone I saved died last night in a freak accident. What if the others are in danger, too? CLEAR Well, if you put them on the list, they're already tits up. KIMBERLY What list? CLEAR Death's list. The precise order you're going to die in.Clear's eyes bore into a terrified Kimberly's. CLEAR The survivors of Flight 180 died in the exact order they were originally meant to die in the plane crash. That was Death's original design. KIMBERLY (sudden realization) Exact order? Then I'm next! I was meant to die with my friends, so I'm next!Clear backs away from Kimberly as if she were lethal, then stopsshort. CLEAR But you said someone else died last night. That means Death skipped past you. Someone must have intervened. (off Kimberly's confusion) Sometime yesterday you must have nearly died, but someone saved you.Kimberly nods, recalling the events. KIMBERLY Officer Burke pulled me away from the crash that killed my friends. CLEAR Congratufuckinglations. That makes you last to go. But don't worry, once the others are dead, it'll come back for you. Always does. KIMBERLY That still doesn't make sense. You said you die in the same order you were originally meant to. But Evan Shaeffer died last in my premonition, not first.Clear seems very disturbed by that. CLEAR It's moving backwards? Are you sure?Kimberly reluctantly strains to remember something...HARD CUT TO:THE FINAL MOMENTS OF THE PILE UPNora's Pacer folds like an accordion, then EXPLODES, followed by Evanscreaming in the Trans Am, which gets CREAMED by the semi!BACK TO:Kimberly, shaken, does the math. KIMBERLY Yes. In my premonition that Nora woman and her kid died first, then Evan and then...my friends.Clear is oblivious when Kimberly breaks into silent sobs. CLEAR Backwards...that's new.Clear sees Kimberly crying and softens. CLEAR That's good. Get all your tears out now, you'll need your eyes. (off Kimberly's confusion) For the signs. KIMBERLY Signs? CLEAR If you have the same power as Alex, you'll be seeing signs soon. When you see anything creepy or ominous, an in-your- face irony kinda thing? Don't ignore it. It usually means the difference between life and death. KIMBERLY (to herself) The songs on the radio. (to Clear) But wait. I don't understand. Why is this even happening to me? CLEAR That's what Alex used to ask himself right up until...For an instant, we see a gentle side of Clear. KIMBERLY It's obvious you know what you're talking about. You beat it. You have to help us.Clear suddenly toughens up, an abrupt mood shift. CLEAR I didn't beat it; I hid from it. If you were smart you'd put a down payment on a burial plot and say goodbye to the dog, because what little life you have left is over as you know it. Don't make new friends, don't fall in love, and don't ever bother trying to save others. That's the worst killer of them all. KIMBERLY How can you say that? What kind of monster are you?At once, Clear, enraged, is in her face, speaking through clenchedteeth. CLEAR My family is dead. My friends are dead. And Alex...Clear angrily peels a Polaroid off the wall and shows it to Kimberly.While we don't see the photo, Kimberly's horrified face paints agruesome picture on its own. CLEAR And yes, that's the blade of a fucking ceiling fan in his head.Clear pounds on the door, apparently done with Kimberly. A GUARDopens the door. Kimberly, devastated, turns to leave, then summonsher courage and turns back to Clear. KIMBERLY Know what? I think you're a coward. I think you hide out in here because you're too damn bitter and selfish to care about another living soul. In my opinion, you're already dead.Kimberly leaves, giving Clear something to think about.EXT. KIMBERLY'S HOUSE - DAYAs Kimberly pulls into her driveway, she's surprised to see a STRANGECAR parked there. Then --THOMAS, wearing street clothes, peers through the front window of thehouse. He guiltily backs away as Kimberly gets out. THOMAS I tried calling last night but your father -- KIMBERLY Evan Shaeffer's dead.Thoma s nods and leans against the large glass windows that reflectthe sky behind them. THOMAS I know. I've gotten calls all morning from everyone who was on the onramp. We're all meeting at my apartment tonight. KIMBERLY Then you believe all this?? That Death is working off a list?Thomas hesitates before answering. THOMAS I didn't. Until I was dispatched to clean up one of the Flight 180 survivors. KIMBERLY Clean up? I don't...Suddenly through the reflection of the window glass, Kimberly seeshundreds of pigeons dive bomb her at once!Like a scene out of THE BIRDS, Kimberly must duck and cover as thepigeons assault her from every angle.But when Kimberly turns away from the reflection, toward the actualpigeons, THEY'RE GONE. ALL IN HER HEAD. KI MBERLY Did you see that??Thomas, concerned for her, saw nothing. KIMBERLY Pigeons... It's a sign! If Clear's right about the order, then Nora and Tim are going to be attacke d by Pigeons! THOMAS I'm not following you -- KIMBERLY They're next on the list. We have to find them.EXT. MEDICAL COMPLEX - DAYANGLE ONWoman's N ike shoe on a down-moving escalator. Reveal Nora taking herson Tim to a dentist's office. The SHOELACE snags on a bolt of one ofthe steel side panels, untying it... TIM (mischievous smile) You think the tooth fairy's gonna come tonight? I'm thinkin' like fifteen bucks. NORA Nice try, kiddo.Tim smiles, then winces from the pain in his mouth.THE DANGLING SHOELACE heads straight for the escalator grate. IT GETSSWALLOWED UP. As Tim steps off, Nora TRIPS forward. Her caughtsneaker is pulled tighter into the innards of the metal staircase. TIM Mom!Tim watches helplessly as Nora reaches down, tug ging at her sneaker,fear mounting. Tim also grabs her sneaker and yanks. Finally, theshoelace SNAPS, and Nora's free again. TIM You okay?Nora puts on a brave face and begins tying one long shoelace to thestubby one. NORA Sure hon. I'm fine. Let's shake it, we're late.Tim nods. The wind picks up as they continue past a --CONSTRUCTION CREWWho apply industrial suction cups to large, thick sheets of PLATEDGLASS .Tim stares in childlike fascination as they pass JACKHAMMERS, aCEMENT MIXER, and an EXCAVATOR.INT. CLEAR'S PADDED ROOM - DAYClear Rivers applies fun- tack to the back of a newspaper article andsticks it on the wall devoted to Flight 180.REVEALA photo of Eva, "Lotto Winner Killed By Ladder".Clear backs away, pausing to look at a group photo of the Survivorsof Flight 180 just before take off. Smiling faces. TIM Not so much.Dr. Lees keeps a skeptical smile to himself.INT. WAITING ROOM - CONTINUOUSThe RECEPTIONIST appears next to the fallen fish food with a VACUUM.She plugs it in an outlet below the fishtank.A startling GRIND as the vacuum turns on and coughs up a nail. Shevacuums up the fish food around Nora's feet.The DEAD FISH gets sucked into the water filter in the fishtank whichsputters and stops. The water level RISES, spilling water over theside of the tank. The water TRICKLES closer to the outlet.EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAYThomas drives his car into a friendly neighborhood. Kimberly, ridingshotgun, hangs up her cell phone. KIMBERLY Turn around. The cleaning woman said they're at the dentist's. 14th and Main. THOMAS Hold on.Thomas expertly skids into a U-turn.INT. DENTIST OFFICE - CONTINUOUSTim looks petrified as Dr. Lees unveils a tray full of PICS, CARVERSand EXTRACTING FORCEPS.The KA-CHUNG of construction outside makes it im possible toconcentrate, but, hands trembling slightly, Dr. Lees picks up a picand mirror and starts examining Tim's mouth. CU of PIC gentlyprodding Tim's teeth. DR. LEES (O.S.) I'm a little disappointed, Tim. Does your mom know you've been smoking?Tim groans "uh-uh", then suddenly flinches. DR. LEES (O.S.) Yeah, that'll have to be filled.A BANG from the window startles Dr. Lees. His HAND JERKS, but luckilythe pic was removed from Tim's mouth.Dr. Lees whips around in time to see a PIGEON flutter away from thewindow. DR. LEES Jesus. Every day at the same damn time. Now this'll only sting for a moment.Dr. Lees picks up a large SYRINGE and moves it toward Tim's openmouth. DR. LEES Open big. Wiiiiider...Tim's eyes radiate fear. The MOUTH OPENS. Reluctantly. Tim nervouslyeyes the window as the needle enters...ANGLE ONNEEDLE heading toward his gumline --BANG! Another pigeon takes a header into the reflection. Dr. Lees'hand jerks, nearly jabbing Tim's tongue. Tim squirms violently. Dr.Lees looks towards the window angrily. DR. LEES How the hell do they expect me to... Would you rather have the laughing gas?Tim nods his head ferociously. DR. LEES Jean? I need you in here. (waits) Jean??!INT. WAITING ROOM - CONTINUOUSJean continues vacuuming. The vacuum makes contact with Nora's foot.INT. DENTIST OFFICE - CONTINUOUSAfter a minute, Dr. Lees angrily switches on two compressors: Oxygenand Nitrous Oxide.By now, the NO mask has been attached around Tim's nose. As Timdrifts off, Dr. Lees lowers a DRILL into his mouth. DR. LEES Open big. Wiiiiiider.Excruciating SOUNDS of the drill going through enamel.INTERCUT KIMBERLY AND THOMASRacing to the medical complex throughout.THE WAITING ROOMThe WATER TRICKLES into the outlet. The vacuum sparks and dies justas --BACK IN DR. LEES' OFFICEBANG! SFX: BROKEN GLASS - it sounds like a pigeon finally crashedthrough the window. In the other room. DR. LEES Goddamn it already.Dr. Lees marches out of the room to investigate. Another quickelectrical surge and the OXYGEN COMPRESSOR flutters off. The needledrops. But the NITROUS flow remains strong.ANGLE ON FISH MOBILESpinning from a new breeze. Suddenly, a small round PUFFER FISH FALLSdirectly into Tim's mouth.Soft, gurgling and choking.INT. WAITING ROOM - CONTINUOUSNora stares at a pigeon with a broken wing frantically trying to flyright. Dr. Lees makes a half- hearted attempt to soothe and catch it.BACK IN DR. LEES' OFFICESLOW DOLLY up to Tim. Choking, gurgling. His eyes are open, butrolled up. His hand limply reaches up...then drops.Sounds of commotion in the next room seem to fade away as we continueour SLOW DOLLY into Tim's eyes.They GLAZE OVER...the choking stops. And a HAND reaches into frameand pulls the puffer fish out of Tim's mouth.REVEAL JEAN looking petrified at the close call, looking around tomake sure nobody saw...EXT. MEDICAL COMPLEX - LATERNora and Tim, feeling better now, walk past the CONSTRUCTION CREW. ACRANE OPERATOR smiles at Tim, who smiles back.From across the mall, the tiny running figures of Kimberly and Thomasappear in the dis tance, pointing and screaming. TIM What are they doing here? And why are they yelling "pigeons"?Just then, Tim and Nora walk into a large cluster of PIGEONS whosuddenly burst into flight, startling the Crane Operator, whose handinadvertently jerks a lever -A METALLIC CHAIN RATTLE fills the air and Tim looks up just as a HUGESHEET OF GLASS PLUMMETS downward toward him and CRUSHES him, hismangled body visible underneath.As two pearly whites roll around on the sidewalk, NORA SCREAMS.DISSOLVE TO:EXT. MEDICAL COMPLEX - LATEREmergency vehicles everywhere. Thomas seems exhausted as he walksback to Kimberly, who stands by his car. In the BG, EMTs load astretcher into an ambulance. THOMAS (shaking his head) Nora's not coming. She refuses to leave her son. KIMBERLY We have to tell her she's in danger! THOMAS (sadly) I did. And right now, I don't think she cares.EXT. KIMBERLY'S HOUSE - DAYThomas' car turns into the driveway and parks. Kimberly holds up herhand and watches it tremble. KIMBERLY It's happening again. It's fucking happening again. I hoped we'd get there and they'd be okay, that Clear Rivers was full of shit and Evan's death was just a freak accident...Thomas kills the engine to listen. KIMBERLY But we're all going to die. We can't stop it. It's just a matter of time. I'm so scared.Thomas takes her hand and squeeze s it reassuringly. THOMAS I am too. But you can use that fear. It'll sharpen your instincts. Keep you alert fro signs. It's the only way you'll be able to sav e the others...and me.Kimberly, seeming overwhelmed, pulls her hand back. Thomas senseshe's losing her, and softens her approach. THOMAS I know you didn't ask for any of this, Kimberly. But I don't think you have it in you to quit either.Kimberly stares straight ahead, the weight of the world sinking in.BANG! A startling pound on the roof of Thomas' car.Kimberly jumps, then spins around to see:CLEAR RIVERS - standing in the driveway. A determined, powerfulpresence. Kimberly exits the car. A MOMENT where Kimberly and Clearstare each other down. KIMBERLY Clear/Thomas. Thomas/Clear.Clear nods absently to Thomas, still focused on Kimberly. KIMBERLY (bitter) The second one just dies. A 16 year old kid. CLEAR (nods; a faint trace of guilt) I hope you're ready for this.EXT. FUNERAL HOME - DAYThomas' car pulls into a partially filled parking lot. Kimberly,Thomas and Clear file out and head to the door. KIMBERLY This is cheery. THOMAS Who is this guy, anyway? CLEAR A mortician. He seemed to know a hell of a lot more about death than he ever told us. THOMAS Should we knock? CLEAR (looking ill) He probably already knows we're coming.INT. FUNERAL HOME - MOMENTS LATERKimberly, Thomas and Clear open the large wooden doors into a smallchapel, creat ing a loud CREAK. A corpse in an open casket sits at thefront of the chapel, post -wake.Kimberly, Thomas and Clear are forced to walk around the dead body toget to a side door.INT. CORRIDOR - MOMENTS LATERThe three slowly edge towards a room at the end of a creepy hallway.An ORANGE GLOW flickers from the far room. The unmistakable sounds ofa furnace make it all the more eerie.As they near the door, they're able to see inside the room; theshadow of a figure looms against a steel oven.They edge closer. They peek inside the --INT. CREMATORIUMOddly there is no one there. As they enter, passing the furnace, amomentary WHOOSH of flames startles them all!They jump back - bumping right into:MR. BLUDWORTH, the dark, sinister mortician from FD1, who hasinexplicably appear BEHIND THEM. MORTICIAN Hello, Clear. I've been keeping an eye out for you.The mortician rolls a metal gurney carrying EVAN'S EYELESS BODYtoward the firing oven. Kimberly and Thomas are scared. KIMBERLY Oh my God. That's Evan Shaeffer.Clear, however, seems to expect nothing less. MORTICIAN Come to... Pick my brain?The Mortician slides a gleaming set of medical pliers into Evan'smouth. And YANKS out a gold tooth. Kimberly recoils as he discardsthe bloody tooth on a metal tray. MORTICIAN (to Kimberly) Flesh and bone require 1,600 degrees for cremation. Gold, prosthetics and other metals must be removed before the final -- CLEAR (not falling for this again) Just a simple question and we'll leave you alone with your new friend.The Mortician grins; he likes the new Clear. He crosses the room andhits a LEVER. KA- CHUNK! The oven begins to blaze. MORTICIAN Fire away. CLEAR How do you cheat Death once and for all?The Mortician, recrossing the room, passes Kimberly and stoops downto sniff, no INHALE, a terrified Kimberly's essence. MORTICIAN Dead. But still fresh.Kimberly shudders as the Mortician moves back to Evan's body. Clearhas had about enough. CLEAR (to the Mortician) Look, we drove a long way to get here. So if you happen to know how to get this death monkey off our backs, it sure would be swell if you told us.The Mortician now CLAMPS THE PLIERS around Evan's NIPPLE RING. MORTICIAN For what purpose? You seek a back way out of a room with but one door. You can't cheat Death; there are no escapes. CLEAR Bullshit. You told me Death has a distinct design, a blueprint, unalterable. But Alex and I cheated Death not once, but dozens of times. If the design is flawed, it can be beaten.A sick smile crosses the Mortician's lips. He yanks the nipple ringOFF! Kimberly looks on both horrified and awed when Clear doesn'tflinch back from the pliers, where a bloody nub dangles. MORTICIAN Such fire in you now. People are always most alive just before they die. Don't you think?Clear steps back from him, hate flashing in her eyes. CLEAR It can be beaten. And you know it.CREEEAAAK -SLAM! The Mortician rolls Evan's body into the oven. MORTICIAN Some say that there is a balance to everything. An equilibrium that is the connective tissue of the universe. They say that for every lif e there is a death, and for every death a life...His words hang in the air. An ominous BREEZE enters. MORTICIAN Solus novus anima licet evinco mortis; Only new life can defeat death. (off their confusion) The list of life is forever set by the Divine Plan, the guiding hand that plots the course of the universe, down to its tiniest element s.Thomas looks to Clear; what's he talking about? The Mortician focuseson Kimberly as if the others had ceased to exist. MORTICIAN The list accounts for every life; from the dawn of man to the great apocalypse. But the introduction of life that was not meant to be, a soul forbidden to roam the earth, that could invalidate Death's list, shatter its very existence.Evan's other eye POPS , startling Thomas and Kimberly. THOMAS What the hell does that mean? MORTICIAN (with finality) To figure that out you'll have to follow the sign s.The Mortician grabs Kimberly. MORTICIAN But be warned. To disrupt the grand design is to unravel the tapestry of the universe. When you pull all the threads apart, you may find yourself hanging from them.The Mortician finally lets Kimberly go. CLEAR One last question. Why is Death working backwards this time?The Mortician glances at his watch - Evan's bran d new Rolex. MORTICIAN (shakes head; a sick smile) Sorry, time's up.EXT. GAS STATION - DAYCLOSE UP - GAS DRIPPINGFrom the nozzle in Thomas' car. Thomas fills the tank, watching forsigns of danger. Clear's hand is poised over the gas pumps' EMERGENCYCUT-OFF VALVESome SKATE RATS exit the mini -mart with a pack of Camels, followed byKimberly, who carries a couple of Red Bulls and hands them out. THOMAS New life defeats death? Follow the signs? Where the hell did you find that guy? KIMBERLY Yeah, I thought he was supposed to be helpful. CLEAR He was. If we can use your ability to see the signs, we can cheat Death long enough to figure out what "new life" means. (off their looks) I know, it worries me that I understand him.Thomas tops off the tank. Some gas spills to the ground. Quick looksall around -- sure enough, one of the Skate Rats is about to strike amatch.CLEAR'S HAND SLAPS the kid in the back of the head, stopping him mid -motion. CLEAR What the fuck are you thinking?The startled Skate Rat shrinks back from Clear's rage. SKATE RAT I'm thinkin', suck my junk, bee yatch.Thomas chuckles to himself and looks at Kimberly who --SMASH CUT TO:EXT. LAKE - DAYPOV DRIVER. Grease-covered female hands reach out toward a steeringwheel of a white van speeding out of control TOWARD A LAKE!The van crashes through a railing and PLUNGES into the water. Inmoments, the van fills with water, the driver inside trapped.Drowning. Horrible.SMASH CUT TO:INT. GAS STATION - DAYKIMBERLYComes to Thomas' arms - GASPING uncontrollably for breath. Terror-stricken. She begins hyperventilating. THOMAS What is it? What did you see?It's so bad, Kimberly can't speak. She coughs and gags as if recentlydrowned. Clear scans the perimeter for immediate dangers.QUICK CUTS:A POWER REPAIRMANOn a cherry picker messes with the transformer, a LAWN BOY pull-starts a WEED WHACKER close to broken glass, a MECHANIC on a tallladder changes out the gas price numbers, a female DOG WALKER withthree dogs approaches the ladder. CLEAR You have to tell us now. KIMBERLY I...I...Clear shakes her head by the shoulders and barks commands like anangry drill sergeant. CLEAR You're strong. Do you hear me? You're a fucking warrior. Nothing scares you. In fact you happen to be the single most powerful woman on earth. Now what did you see?The words slowly take affect. Kimberly becomes centered, getting herbreath back, and speaks without a hitch. KIMBERLY I was driving a white van. It must've gone out of control because it crashed into a lake and I drowned. It was...horrible. CLEAR You were there? KIMBERLY I can practically taste the water in my throat. And something else. The smell of flowers... CLEAR (confused) Then it wasn't just a sign. It was a premonition?Thomas gently releases her, paces. THOMAS Remember the onramp? There was a pregnant woman in a white delivery van. CLEAR Holy shit. He said "only new life can defeat death." (off looks) If she gives birth to a baby that was never meant to be born, a brand new soul that was never part of Death's Design... KIMBERLY It throws the entire Death list out of whack. And a new list has to be rewritten f rom scratch. We all start over with a clean slate. THOMAS It sounds all well and good, but what if we're wrong? CLEAR Please, what else could it mean? KIMBERLY (to Thomas) So if you give us the pregnant lady's number, we can warn her about the lake and she'll live long enough to have the baby. CLEAR So let's do it. THOMAS (realization) Shit, I don't have her number. She was never interviewed. She took off right after the accident. KIMBERLY How are we going to find her? There must be thousands of white vans in this state. THOMAS Hey, I'm a police officer, remember?INT. A/V ROOM - POLICE STATION - LATERThomas works a VCR, scanning BACKWARDS through the video footage fromthe patrol car camera. We see the SUV's explosive collision with thejack- knifed semi. Kimberly is taken by surprise by the sight of thecrash. KIMBERLY Oh God...Thomas sees Kimberly and quickly flicks off the monitor. THOMAS I, uh...sorry.Kimberly notices Clear watching her and toughens up. She forces backthe tears and qui ckly wipes the rest away. KIMBERLY I know, I know. We need my eyes.Clear sits beside Kimberly. CLEAR It's all right. I'll take watch.Kimberly looks grateful, and a moment passes between them, but she'salready buried the need to cry. KIMBERLY I'm okay. Just caught me by surprise. Put it back on.Clear does, watching the cars seemingly pass in reverse. CLEAR Make sure all these people will be at the meeting tonight. THOMAS Taken care of.THE MONITORBack, back, back until the Patrol Car slowly creeps backwards downthe onramp. KIMBERLY There it is. THOMAS Got it.Thomas hits play and we see footage from the patrol car cruising pastthe White Van. A clean shot of the license plate. Jackpot.As Thomas slides his chair to a data base and types in the platenumber, the pause function dislodges, slowly advancing the tape frameby frame. CLEAR I don't get it. Why is everything happening so fast? After Flight 180. A month went by before anyone died. And now five people are dead in less than a day.Thomas' computer screen finally fills with information. THOMAS Here we go. The vehicle's a delivery van registered to Jorge and Isabella Cruz. And Christ, there's almost a dozen domestic disturbance complaints on these two. CLEAR We need to hurry.They all get up and leave.Ominously, THE MONITOR shows the NEXT VEHICLE creeping behind Nora'sPacer - a white van!INT. CRUZ HOUSE - NIGHTThomas pulls up to an upper-middle class house. Thomas, Kimberly andClear get out and start up the unlit path. It's dark, hard to seewhere they're going, so they negotiate by feeling the bushes aligningthe walkway. THOMAS Let's lay this on her gently now. The stress alone could upset the pregnancy.Kimberly nods, ever creeping closer to the front door -- whenAUTOMATIC LIGHTS FLASH from over the garage.All three freeze for a moment, during which we hear STOMPING emanatefrom within the house, and the lights SHUT OFF.But nothing else happens. No one comes to a door. Thomas sighs, andas if suddenly remembering his status, he walks fearlessly andpurposefully to the front door.He makes a fist, is about to knock - when the DOOR FLINGS OPEN and aROTTWEILER LUNGES for his throat - only to have its collar snagged atthe last second by its owner -JORGE CRUZ, late 30's, handsome, cocky. He speaks above Rotty'sBARKING: JORGE What? THOMAS I'm Officer Burke. I'm looking for an Isabella Cruz.Suddenly, with an unexpected fury, Jorge SCREAMS at his dog. JORGE Shut up!!!The Rottweiler cowers, and Jorge shoves it to the floor, where itlands on its feet and fearfully trots away. Jorge's face is onceagain pleasant, but it's a thin veneer.Jorge sees Clear and Kimberly behind Thomas and frowns. THOMAS Are you Jorge Cruz? JORGE Maybe. What's this about? THOMAS May we come in? JORGE No. What's this about?ANGLE ON CLEAR - eyeing what appears to be DROPS OF BLOOD on the tilefloor. She takes in what she can see of --THE ROOMAs if a tornado had hit it. Wedding photos smashed and torn.Furniture over-turned. THOMAS (a little stern) It's about your wife, Isabella. Now is she here?Jorge's eyes flicker ever -so- involuntarily behind him. JORGE No. I'm alone.But by now, Thomas has seen everything Clear has and more. He staresthrough the house, into a bedroom and sees -A FEMALE FOOT lying half0buried under the bedspr ead. THOMAS Look, pal, it's probably nothing. But I need to see --Jorge is already closing the door. JORGE Forget it. You'll need a warrant. I know, I'm a lawyer.Clear rushes the door, shoulders it and expertly wriggles pastJorge's grasp. JORGE Stop!!! You can't go in there!!!Clear tears into the bedroom, grabs the bedspread and THROWS it tothe floor to reveal a YOUNG WOMAN, naked, trembling with fear, takesa closer look at Clear. YOUNG WOMAN We never meant to hurt you Isa...You're not Isabella!Meanwhile, Jorge yells at Thomas. JORGE I'm going to sue your ass! KIMBERLY Whose blood is that on the floor?Defensively, Jorge holds up his arm. Freshly cut. JORGE Mine, you idiot. The dog went nuts this afternoon. Now arrest her! KIMBERLY Where's Isabella? Did you finally kill her you fucking wife beater?Jorge flinches. It's time to come clean. JORGE We had a fight. Some things got broken, the dog went crazy, she left me. Wouldn't say where she was going. THOMAS What was the fight about? JORGE Take a guess. THOMAS Does she have a cell phone? A way we can contact her? JORGE She did.He eyes a SHATTERED CELL PHONE on the floor. CLEAR We're wasting time with this piece of shit. Let's just get to the meeting.Jorge turns to soothe the frightened Young Woman in the bed. JORGE Hey, when you find her, tell her the kid's half mine.Clear mutters something as they exit the house. CLEAR We can only pray it doesn't come out retarded.Jorge hisses something at the Rotty, which CHARGES them and SPRINGS!But Thomas slams the door on the frothing dog just in time.DISSOLVE TO:EXT. THOMAS' APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHTRory sits in his Chevette outside an apartment building, staring upat the address. He quickly snorts some powder off his key and wipeshis nostrils free of crystals. He takes a breath and exits the car.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHTRory follows some PEOPLE into the elevator. The elevator doors closeon his shoe -- trapping Rory in an awkward position.One MAN frantically pushes the DOORS OPEN button to no avail.Finally, as the elevator rises, Rory YANKS his foot free. MAN Jesus Christ. I wrote to management two weeks ago about these friggin' bumpers.Rory bends down and inspects his shoe. RORY Damn, is that dogshit?Rory briefly holds the shoe too close to the Man's face - see? -before disgustedly slipping it back on.DING. The doors open. The man hurries out and the elevator DOORSCLOSE on Rory's smirking face.HARD CUT TO:INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT - LATERREVEAL - Nora, Rory, and Kat, mortified, sit on a couch. It's obviousthe bomb's been dropped, reality has set in. Clear and Kimberly awaittheir reactions. Nora raises a trembling hand. NORA Does anybody have a Valium?Kat opens her purse and hands her a blue pill. KAT You'll want to take --Nora pops it in her mouth. KAT -- half of that.Nora chews, her eyes half dead from bereavement. Across the loft,Thomas paces, phone in hand. THOMAS (quietly, into phone) Any word yet on the Dodge van? Damn.Eugene alone seems unafraid. He uses a GRABBER - a long pole withmovable claw on the end - to OPEN THE SKYLIGHT. When done, hebalances the long pole precariously against the wall.An OMINOUS BREEZE enters. Clear notices MAGAZINE PAGES blowing overthe desk by the couch. NORA So that would mean... I'm next. EUGENE Nobody's next. This is crazy. First death's stalking us and now premonitions? KAT This can't be happening. My career's at a peak, I finally met a cute guy, I just bought a new house... RORY Just shut the fuck up and maybe you'll live.Kat's hands ball into fists. The hatred is mutual. Clear reaches fora nearby cardboard box on the desk, noticing MAGAZINE PAGES blowingover until their weight tips over a PENCIL HOLDER which spills pensout. She takes the box to Nora. CLEAR You're not next, Nora. Nobody has to be next. That's the point. Last time, we didn't plan. We weren't organized. Now we can help each other.She reaches into the box and passes out cell phones to Nora and theothers. CLEAR Think what would have happened if Kimberly had been able to warn you with the word pigeons...Nora's head falls. Kimberly senses her anguish and takes over. KIMBERLY The point is, as long as you know what to beware of, you have a fighting chance. It can be beaten. If I call you and say subway, get to a high rise fast. A place where no subway could possibly go, get it?Everyone nods in understanding. Rory fidgets, sniffling, then POUNDSthe table in frustration. Startling Kat. RORY Why the hell did I ever get on Route 18 in the first place? That's me, Mr. Dumb Fucking Luck.Clear, very alert, looks at the tipped PENCIL HOLDER. PENS ROLLtoward the end of the desk, toward a large White Pages directorywhich hangs precariously off the edge just so. CLEAR Anyone read today's paper? The article on Evan Shaeffer?No one says a word. CLEAR The only reason he was on Route 18 was because he own the lottery and had to collect the winnings. RORY That lucky bastard. CLEAR What about the rest of you? Kimberly, you were driving to Daytona. Was Route 18 your first choice? KIMBERLY The new freeway was faster, but Route 18 was the way my mom used to take, so...They take turns going around the room. THOMAS Route 18 is Drake's assignment, but he called in sick so I got... (blanches) Drake's never sick. KAT I was my first day of jury duty. EUGENE Jury duty? That's randomly selected by social security numbers. CLEAR Random, sure. EUGENE What, you think Death planned for each of us to die in the pile up weeks ago? You're nuts.Clear fumes. Rory looks ill and reaches into his wallet. RORY Last July I dialed a wrong number and got a radio station by accident. They asked me what number means "good luck" in Jewish. KAT Eighteen. And it's "Hebrew". RORY Anyway, I guessed it right and won these.Rory holds up two Yankee tickets. RORY The best way to get to Yankee Stadium is Route 18. KIMBERLY I don't know what's weirder, the dialing a wrong number part or that Death would set you up nine months in advance. THOMAS (realization) Whoa, nine months? KIMBERLY Are you thinking what I'm thinking?INT. CHEAP MOTEL - NIGHTANGLE ON ISABELLA'S PREGNANT BELLY.REVEAL she's lying down, binging on take- out food, while speaking onthe motel phone. A disturbing metallic SQUEAK SCRAPE -SQUEAK can beheard, nearly drowning out the SCREAMING COUPLE next door. ISABELLA Yes, I'd like to report a domestic squabble - my name? Isabella Cruz why, does it matter? I'm at the Super 8 motel. Yes, I own a white van. So what? Just get over here.Isabella hangs up, recoiling at VIOLENT THUMPS against her wall. PULLBACK AND UP TO REVEAL the source of the unsettling SQUEAK is arickety, wobbling CEILING FAN.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT - NIGHTKimberly whispers into the phone. KIMBERLY I'm sorry, Dad, we're having a hard time with Shaina's eulogy. I'll stay here at Virginia's tonight and see you tomorrow. I love you too.She hangs up, looking guilty for having lied to her father. Clearkeeps her eyes on the pens that ROLL on the slightly canted tableinto the about-to -fall White Pages directory. CLEAR Remember everyone, just because Kimberly's got the power doesn't mean we're not all capable of seeing signs to some extent.The pens softly tap the phone book one by one until it lazily tipsover and PLOPS HEAVILY onto a GOOSE-DOWN THROW PILLOW.Small feathers from the pillow are carried upwards by the breeze.Everyone in the room watches them rise. RORY It's like Forrest Gump.They float across the room, ultimately landing on a MOUSETRAP! SNAP!The trap flies over and knocks into the base of the unstable Grabber- which tips and slowly slides down the wall.Clear, in a chair, looks directly above her head at a LARGE SWORDFISHmounted on the wall.The Grabber picks up speed, arcs downward and hits the mountedSWORDFISH. The supporting brackets give, causing the SWORDFISH TO TIPand SLIDE DOWNWARD!Clear lurches back in her chair just in time - the razor sharp billimpales the seat cushion between her legs! CLEAR Fuck. Should have seen that coming. The institution's made me soft.Clear gets up, carefully easing herself around the swordfish. Eugeneisn't quite sure what to make of what he's just seen. EUGENE If Death has got such a hard-on for you, maybe you should get the hell away from us. KIMBERLY We need her. She's the only one who's dealt with this before, idiot!Kimberly looks self-conscious by her outburst. Clear, however, looksgrateful. CLEAR We're all going to have to open our eyes from now on. Look out for each other. Sleep in shifts. (looks around apartment) And we've got to safeproof this deathtrap.MONTAGE - SAFEPROOFING THE APARTMENTEveryone but Nora and Eugene helps unplug appliances, put out thefire, take down hanging objects, switch off the gas, put sharpobjects away, affix padding to chart corners...Kat, placing poisonous cleansers and flammable liquids in a box,nervously pulls out a pack of smokes. Thomas watches as he takes ahanging mirror off the wall. KAT Screw this. I'm going outside for a smoke. THOMAS You think you should? It's not safe out there. KAT So? Nora's gotta bite it before me anyway, right?Kat steps towards the front door, then remembers the cell phone andgrabs it just in case. Thomas smiles 'good job' at her.Kimberly, unscrewing the light bulb, looks up when Nora rises fromthe couch in a stupor and struggles to put on her jacket. Kimberlylooks concerned. KIMBERLY Where are you going, Nora? You okay?Nora fights the sleeve, dazed and defeated. NORA Four years ago my husband died. Now Tim. There's nothing left for me.Kimberly stops pouring liquor down the drain. KIMBERLY Don't say that. Once you lose hope, it's already too late.Eugene snickers. Nora looks up, anger surfacing. NORA If it's my time to go, to be in heaven with my family, then I can accept that. KIMBERLY You can't give up. Don't accept Death's plan. Trust me, you can fight this. If we can just survive long enough until that baby is born, we can --Nora looks more resolute than ever. NORA If you'll excuse me, I have a funeral to prepare.Everyone looks crushed when Nora heads for the door. Except Eugene,who stands up as well. EUGENE Yeah, why am I listening to a girl who just got out of the nut house?As Eugene heads out, Kimberly becomes enraged and grabs him. KIMBERLY Seeing you die once was enough for me. EUGENE Whatever. I control my life, not fate. CLEAR I'll be sure to put that on your tombstone.Rory presses a cell phone into Eugene's hand on his way out. RORY Be careful. And even if you don't believe, give this to Nora.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHTEugene pushes the elevator button a thousand times. Nora nervouslyties her long hair back in a single braid.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT - CONTINUOUSThe nervous group finishes safe-proofing the apartment.RORY, standing on the couch, pulls a POLICE ACADEMY DIPLOMA off thewall - and slips - stumbling BACKWARDS into the closet.Staggering, he accidentally knocks some COAT HANGARS and a VOLLEYBALLTROPHY from the high shelf to the floor.Thomas whips around and sees that Rory's not hurt. He then lowers hisgaze and sees --The figurine of a VOLLEYBALL TROPHY is framed by a tangled jumble ofwire COAT HANGARS. Suddenly, STREETLIGHT FLICKERS ON for the evening.Oddly, it only illuminates the Trophy/Hangar array.From Rory's vantage point, it looks like a surreal sculpture of a manwith hooks emanating from his body. The sodium vapor lamp casts anOMINOUS GLOW around the image. RORY ...man with hooks. I see a man with hooks. Someone?!?!The others look over, trying to see what he does. THOMAS (unsure) I kinda see it, yeah. So...Nora's going to be killed by a man with hooks?Kimberly and Clear stare at the volleyball trophy - the street lampominously FLICKERS OUT AND DIES.Everyone looks around for a hesitant beat, then Thomas picks up hiscell phone. Clear first walks, then RUNS out the door.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT BUILDING - CONTINUOUSThe elevator finally comes. Eugene and Nora get inside, standing infront of a gaunt looking man holding a cardboard box full ofPROSTHETIC LIMBS.MUZAK plays AC/DC's HIGHWAY TO HELL. EUGENE Going down, right?The Gaunt Man says nothing. The DOORS CLOSE.INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSEugene stares blankly at the CONCAVE MIRROR in the upper corner. He'sdisturbed by the WARPED REFLECTION OF:THE GAUNT MAN leans closer to Nora's hair and as the doors finallyclose, he leans over and SMELLS it. Creepy. EUGENE Um, by the way, your shoe's untied.Nora bends down to tie her shoelace (the one that snapped). She triestying the long dangling shoelace to the stubby one as Eugene's cellphone VIBRATES in his hand. Startled, he drops it to the floor. Thenlooks embarrassed. EUGENE Probably for you, anyway.Nora picks it up. STATIC CRACKLES. It's hard to make out Thomas'yelling. NORA Officer Burke? I can't hear...A beat of confusion, then she slowly turns to see the clawed hooksand hands of the Prosthetic limbs. Terror. She freezes. EUGENE What is it? What's wrong?But Nora's too frightened to speak. Eugene grabs the phone, hearingunintelligible STATIC.INTERCUT CLEARAs she frantically hits the elevator button. When it fails to come,she runs downstairs.INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSNora slowly rises to her feet, feverishly mouthing a prayer... As thedoor opens, Nora rushes out - unseen to her, her long braid getssnagged on one of the PROSTHETIC HOOKS, YANKING her backwards. NORA Let me go let me go! EUGENE Oh, watch it, you've caught your uh...The Guant Man's sweet voice and demeanor are a clear contrast to hisoutward appearance. MAN Goodness gracious, darling, let me help you with...Nora panic,s as Eugene and the Man try to untangle her braid. Noradesperately spins her body around, sticking her head back inside theelevator.Kat appears in the lobby, smoking a cigarette. KAT You alright, Nora?The elevator DOORS begin to close, and CLAMP around Nora's neck, herhead inside, body outside the elevator.Eugene pounds on the BUMPERS, but they don't seem to work! NORA My God, someone please let me out of this --INTERCUTThe UP BUTTON is lit. Clear rushes to the lobby.The Elevator RISES!INSIDE THE ELEVATOR, Eugene watches Nora's head drop to floor level -then he pounds the Emergency Button - which SHORTS OUT!Nora's body lifts upwards from the force of the elevator floor!Nora's screams of terror and agony fill the air as the elevatorrepeatedly LURCHES UPWARDS.Kat gasps in horror to see this poor woman suspended above the floor.It lurches. And lurches. And lurches. The horror never ends.Clear comes from the stairwell and is shocked by the sight. She runsto the elevator doors, trying to pry them apart to no avail.All Kat can do, crying, is grab hold of Nora's flailing legs and tryto pull her back down.The elevator lurches a final time. NORA'S HEADLESS BODY fall downinto Kat's arms, knocking her to the floor. Kat freaks, skitteringaway as the body convulses.INSIDE THE ELEVATOREugene balls his hands to his mouth in undeniable fear. Abloodcurdling moan escapes him. He stares transfixed as Nora's head,still aghast in terror, rolls around the floor.The sight clearly sends Eugene over the edge. He SCREAMS, CLAWS ANDPOUNDS, desperate to escape the elevator.INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT - MOMENTS LATEREugene suddenly bursts through the door, babbling incoherently.Kimberly, Thomas and Rory look on, bewildered. EUGENE ...no escapes my ass. I control my fate. I die on my terms, hear me Reaper cockscuker?!Eugene's in another world. He approaches Thomas and lunges for hisGUN - yanking it from the holster! THOMAS What the hell are you...? EUGENE Ain't going out like that. On my terms! THOMAS Just take it easy!A twisted insane smile comes to Eugene's face as he jams thegunbarrel to his temple. The others shrink back in terror.He PULLS THE TRIGGER. CLICK! Eugene tries again. CLICK!Thomas looks stunned as Eugene goes through every round, CLICK CLICKCLICK CLICK CLICK CLI CK...Kimberly breaths a sigh of relief. KIMBERLY You don't keep it loaded?Thomas' eyes disagree. He reaches in and GRABS the gun away fromEugene, who stands there trembling. Thomas cracks open the cylinder.Loaded. RORY Maybe they were all duds. THOMAS Six in a row? Never. Impossible. That's like (sinking realization) ...winning the lottery. CLEAR (O.S.) It wasn't his turn to die.Everyone turns to see Clear and Kat, standing in the doorway,DRENCHED IN BLOOD. Kat trembles uncontrollably. KAT Can we find the pregnant woman, please? DISSOLVE TO:INT. THOMAS' APARTMENT - DAWNFlashing lights from rescue vehicles illuminate the living room. Inthe newly conformed safe house, Kat and Clear relax as best they canin Thomas' dry clothes.Thomas makes another phone call. In the corner, Eugene shivers tohimself. Desperately looking for signs of danger. He looks over toClear. EUGENE Um, Clear? I'm sorry...about before. I... CLEAR Your entire world view just went out the window. I couldn't expect a religious conversation overnight. We'll get through this. (beat) I promise.Eugene looks immensely relieved. Rory ambles over to Kimberly, histypical callousness gone. RORY Can I ask you a question? KIMBERLY Sure. RORY When I die. Is it gonna hurt? KIMBERLY I...I don't know.Rory nods. He expected as much. He fishes his LICENSE and KEYS out ofhis pocket. RORY And you're gonna die after me, right? KIMBERLY I guess so. RORY (re: keys and license) Would you take these? And if I die... (tears well up) Could you throw all my drugs out? Paraphernalia, porno, you know... Anything that would break my mom's heart.Kimberly looks deeply into his eyes, looking for the punchline. Whenshe doesn't see one, she nods tenderly and takes the keys.The PHONE RINGS. Rory jumps at the sound, paranoid eyes in scan mode.Thomas answers, speaks softly, hangs up. THOMAS A one very pissed off Ms. Isabella Cruz is being detained up in Greenwood. Let's finish this thing.EXT. COUNTRY ROADS - DAYKat's Ford Expedition winds its way through rural New York.A SPORTS CAR speeds past on the left, then as it pulls in front ofthe Exped ition, its slipstream sucks over some debris from theshoulder; a thin metal piece of trim, which bounces in front of Kat'sExpedition's left front tire.CU KAT'S WHEEL WELL -- the metal trim is shot upward into the wheelwell, where it lodges firmly, its sharp metal edge GRINDING AGAINSTTHE RUBBER.INSIDE THE CARKat drives, Thomas reading directions in the shotgun seat. Kimberly,Eugene and Rory ride in back. In the CARGO area, Clear scans out therear window for danger.Rory fidgets. RORY Is this safe, guys? I mean, someone in this car is about to get whacked. Do the rest of us really feel like sitting next to him? (off Kat's glare) Or her. Hopefully her.An uncomfortable beat. THOMAS Guys, let's not panic. Isabella's safe. KIMBERLY How do you know? THOMAS You said she was going to drive into a lake. How can she when she's in protective custody?INT. SHERIFF'S STATION - DAYIsabella, pissed, is in a holding tank. Small town deputy STEVEADAMS, 30's, CLEANS HIS GUN in her direction. ISABELLA What do you mean "grand theft auto?" This is insane. STEVE Hopefully the district judge can straighten it all out by Monday mor ning. ISABELLA (figures it out) Jorge. When I get out of here I'm going to sue his cheating ass off.As she fumes, a rivulet of WATER streaks down her leg. IS ABELLA Oh my God.Steve, at first confused, sees the water and gasps. STEVE Are you kidding me?! Oh, man.He rushes across the room, pulls a lever, unlocking the cell. STEVE C'mon. Let's go.As Steve throws on his jacket, we reveal its prominent emblem:GREENWOOD LAKE SHERIFF DEPARTMENT.EXT. SHERIFF'S STATION - MOMENTS LATERSmall town station. Only one patrol car. In the patrol car, Isabellabuckles up in the sho tgun seat, the belt stretched tightly across herbelly.Deputy Steve tries the ignition, but the car won't start. STEVE Damn, they always stick me with the clunker. ISABELLA Take my van!EXT. WESTCHESTER COUNTY - DAYKAT'S EXPEDITION speeds through a yellow light and continues on.CLOSE ON EXPEDITION'S LEFT TIREMetal sheers away more rubber.INSIDE THE EXPEDITIONRory, antsy, rubbing his nostrils, stares at two Yankee tickets. RORY Here's what I don't get. For nine months, Death does all this shit to make sure I win these tickets and end up on Route 18 at exactly the right time for the pile up... KAT Yeah? RORY But why single me out? What am I in the great scheme of things? You'd think I stepped off Flight 180 or something... Fucking weird, man. THOMAS You want weird? Last year, my partner and I were heading out for the graveyard shift. A call comes in about a train wreck and Frank decides to let me handle it alone. (beat) Frank died that night in a shootout. I'd be dead too if that call had come in just ten seconds later.Everyone nods in that 'life's weird' reverence kind of way. KAT I got that beat. So like, last May, I was supposed to stay at this cheesy bed and breakfast in Pennsylvania. There was a major gas leak no one knew about and all the guests suffocated during the night. RORY Yeah, so what happened? KAT I never mad it. The Greyhound bus I was on splattered some chick all over the road and we had to stop. CLEAR Was that in Mt. Abraham? KAT Yeah. How did you know? CLEAR (sinking realization) That bus you were on? It killed Terry Mathers. She was supposed to die on Flight 180. KAT I'm not sure I-- THOMAS Shit. The call about the train wreck that saved my life? That was the night I scraped up Billy Hitchcock. RORY Who? KIMBERLY Another kid from Flight 180.A chill passes over the group.INT. WINDING ROADS - DAYDeputy Steve speeds the White Van up the narrow winding road.Isabella breathes Lamaze- style through intense pain. ISABELLA Promise me...I won't have the baby...in this van.Speeding up the incline, Steve tries to speed around a VolkswagonBeetle, but cars scream by in the opposite direction. ISABELLA Get around it!!!Steve leans on the horn and stomps the gas, dangerously riding theshoulder around the Beetle.Way ahead of the Beetle, on the left side, is a LAKE.EXT. WINDING ROADSBRIAN GIBBONS, 15, cheerfully drives a TRACTOR hauling a WHOODCHIPPERacross the high crest of the empty road toward a pile of thickbranches.The Tractor unexpectedly stalls in the middle of the road. He triesthe ignition, pumps the gas. Nothing...Only by standing on the tractor can Brian see the White Van speedingup the hill toward him. He jumps down and frantically tires startingthe tractor. Once, twice, nothing.EXT. KAT'S EXPEDITION - CONTINUOUSCU FRONT TIRE - METAL shreds away more rubber.INT. KAT'S EXPEDITION - CONTINUOUSRory excitedly makes a connection. RORY Remember the theater in Paris that collapsed last year, killed everyone inside?Everyone nods, anticipating... RORY I had tickets to go, but one day I'm in Paris, trippin' on acid, sippin' lattes an' such, and this dude gets whacked by a falling sign. CLEAR Carter. RORY Freaked me out so bad I hid in a shopping cart for four hours. 'Course, missed the show... CLEAR What about you, Kimberly? Did you anyone from Flight- ?Clear stops when she sees all the color has drained from Kimberly'sface. Even Eugene looks concerned. EUGENE Are you okay?The car becomes completely silent (except for the slight SCRAPING) asKimberly prepares to tell her story. KIMBERLY A little over a year ago, my mother and I went to the mall. I was supposed to meet her outside, but I got caught up watching some news report about some kid who committed suicide. I kept thinking, "How can you strangle yourself in a bathtub?" That's retarded.Thomas mouths, "Tod?" to Clear. Clear nods. KIMBERLY It felt wrong. And yet... (continuing) There were gunshots outside and I ran... (chokes up) Some kids tried to jack her car. She fought them off - she was a fighter - and they killed her.Kimberly looks to Clear. KIMBERLY After the funeral I had this overwhelming feeling that it should have been me. I figured that's how everyone must feel. But I guess I was right.Thomas reaches between the seats and takes Kimberly's hand. As helooks into her eyes, Kat takes her own eyes off the road to light acigarette.INTERCUT BRIANThe tractor is safely off the road next to a wood pile. Brian grabs acord and starts up the whoodchipper.INT. KAT'S EXPEDITION - CONTINUOUS CLEAR It's all starting to come together. When Alex got us off Flight 180, it didn't just change our lives. It affected everyone and everything we've come into contact with ever since. EUGENE I'm not sure I understand. CLEAR Being alive after our time caused an outward ripple - a rift in Death's design.Eugene nods, slowly getting it. EUGENE So if you never got off the plane, none of us would be ali ve in the first place. CLEAR That's why Death is working backwards. It's tying up all the loose ends, sealing the rift once and for all ≠This chapter of the screenplay contains scene(s) that do not appearor occur elsewhere in the final movie. In order to maintain theintegrity of the screenplay, it has not been edited.CU LEFT TIREA thick retread sheers itself onto the pavement.BRIANThe wood chipper roar s loudly. Suddenly, some forgotten stray chunkSHOOTS from the spout --The airborne chunk of WOOD CRACKS the White Van's windshield. Steveveers out of control.Kat sees the White Van ahead swerving into HER LANE. She quicklyjerks the wheel to the right.Kat's LEFT FRONT TIRE BLOWS! It sends rubber flying and the entireSUV pulls hard to the left, spinning her out of control into theoncoming lane of traffic - toward the White Van!Isabella SCREAMS! Steve jerks the wheel to the left! The White Vanhas a close near miss with the Expedition, and goes off the roadtoward a LAKE! STEVE Hang on!The SUV misses the tractor -- but sails off the other side of theembankment, spinning and rolling towards --THE GIBBONS' FARMAt the bottom of the hill of a large rural farm, a PROPANE TANK sitsat the edge of the property!The SUV barrels down the hill - coming right for it!INSIDE THE SUVAll Kat can do is cover her head with her arms.THE WHITE VANSpeeding toward the lake! Isabella SCREAMS, in pain, not fear. TheWhite Van is ready for splashdown.Steve finesses the hand brake while tapping the accelerator. He'sable to right the van away from the water without so much as a hardjerk. STEVE We're okay, we're okay.THE PROPANE TANKIt's about to get creamed - but the bouncing Expedition just barelymisses it! It continues, backwards, CRASHING through a temporaryfence and right into --AN AGRICULTURAL CONSTRUCTION SITE!The Expedition plows past earth movers, crashing through irrigationditches and pipes, shrapnel flying everywhere.Just as the Expedition comes to a stop, an IRRIGATION PIPE ROCKETSthrough the rear window -- miraculously missing Clear and Rory --coming to a rest just behind Kat's head.INSIDE THE WHITE VANSteve sees the wreckage on the other side of the highway and slowsdown. Isabella squeezes his hand white. ISABELLA Please. It's not going to wait. STEVE I've got to stop and help those people. ISABELLA Do you want to deliver this baby?Steve looks ill, then sees another car stopping by the crash. Hefloors it and speaks into the shoulder mic of his cop radio.THE EXPEDITIONThe dust settles in the silent car. The only sound is a QUIET, WETWHEEZE. Clear, dazed, looks around carefully, avoiding the METALSPIKE that skewers the vehicle.Rory holds his trembling hand before his eyes as if amazed to see it.Kimberly shakes her hair, spilling glass onto the floor. Kat tries toopen the door, but it won't budge. KAT Not my time. Amazing... THOMAS Is everybody alright?A BLOODY HAND SEIZES HIS SHOULDER!Thomas turns to seeEugene SPASMING in the back seat! He clutches his ribcage in agonyand wheezes! Blood trickles from his mouth. KAT He can't breathe! He can't breathe! CLEAR Oh my god, Eugene!?Eugene's head tilts forward, unconscious.EXT. GIBBONS' FARM - DAYBRIAN GIBBONS jumps off the tractor and sprints down the hill towardthe accident. At the edge of the property is a common farm FENCE madefrom wooden posts bridged by two thick wires.Brian skillfully climbs between the wires and runs past a DEAD OAKTREE ten feet inside the fence. In the BG, MR. GIBBONS darts inside adouble-wide construction trailer. MR. GIBBONS (O.S.) Call 9- 1-1!WE FOLLOW BRIANTo the crash site. Brian's jaw drops as he absorbs the chilling sightof a guy and a girl dragging a blood- soaked man from the back seat toperform CPR on him.Around Brian, voices mesh in a surreal haze. THOMAS Stop it, don't move him! KIMBERLY He can't breathe damn it. I think his lung's collapsed! CLEAR Someone call for help!We STEADICAM around Brian to reveal a woman screaming from thedriver's seat. The sound is surreal. KAT I can't move my fucking leg! Please get me out of here before it explodes!The color drains from Brian's face as the dying man on the groundcoughs blood and the girl performing CPR recoils.The moment is still surreal as Brian steps back, further away fromthe horrors he can't face. Into the street --And Rory yanks him back from imminent death as an AMBULANCE SPEEDSonto the property. RORY Watch it, dude!That SNAPS Brian back to reality. Sounds become normal again. Briancollects himself and SNIFFS the air. He then drops to ground level,looking under the Expedition for something. KIMBERLY Help us, we need help over here! BRIAN (to Kat, reassuringly) I don't smell any gas. And none's dripping, either.Brian sticks his head in Kat's window and peers down at her trappedleg. He swipes the broken glass away from the window with this thickflannel sleeve, reaches in, and tries to YANK the door open with allhis might.No good, Kat SCREAMS in pain. KAT Stop that! I still need this foot, thank you.Brian steps back as the emergency vehicle speeds over.DISSOLVE TO:EXT. GIBBON'S FARM - LATERClear watches two EMTS lo ad Eugene into the back of an ambulance. Anoxygen mask has been placed over his mouth. CLEAR Be careful with that, check the gages on the regulator and be mindful of overdoses. Oh, watch for potholes and puddles.As Clear continues, the exasperated Paramedics do their best toignore her. When she tries to climb inside, she is pushed away. CLEAR Look, I made him a promise -- PARAMEDIC Sorry. There's no room.Again, she's shoved away and steps back, helpless.Thomas and Kimberly stand by Kat, still trapped in the SUV. THOMAS Get that over here! Move move move!A RESCUE WORKER carries the JAWS of LIFE past Clear towards theExpedition. RESCUE WORKER Excuse me, hot soup coming through.The hydraulic hose that leads back to the Power Unite WRAPS AROUNDCLEAR'S LEG.As the hose tightens, Clear realizes she's surrounded by shards ofglass and metal. She quickly WRESTLES herself free of the hose andwatches the Paramedics lock Eugene's gurney into place. CLEAR One more thing. Watch out for power lines.The doors slam, revealing the PHELPS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL logo. Theambulance speeds off, spraying gravel at her.She reaches into her pocket and withdraws a CRUSHED cell phone. Shit.She runs back over to Thomas. CLEAR We have to contact Isabella now!A NEWS VAN tries to weave through the emergency vehicles to getcloser to teh accident.ANGLE ON NEWS VAN UNDERCARRIAGEIt sinks into the loose dirt, SCRAPING A LARGE ROCK. The gas tankPUNCTURES.EMT'S angrily wave the news van back to the road, where it parks nearthe twin wire fence opposite the DEAD OAK TREE.Immediately, A CAMERA CREW exits the van to catch the action. Rorysteps behind the News Van, making sure he can't be seen, and digsinto his sock, coming up with a bindle. A SMILE... THOMAS (O.S.) Rory!!!Rory cringes at his name, pockets his stash, then EXITS FRAME. WEPUSH IN, the news van gas tank is leaking. A SMALL DRIP...EXT. GIBBON'S FARM - CONTINUOUSThomas, Kimberly, Clear and Rory watch the JAWS OF LIFE being clampedonto Kat's door. THOMAS Where's the cell phone Clear gave you? RORY I dunno. I think I gave it to Eugene back at your place. THOMAS Damn it. We have to call the Greenwood Police Station and warn Isabella.Thomas runs in the direction of some local POLICE. After he leaves,Rory drifts away from the pack, hand in pocket.Kimberly moves back to Kat, who chain -smokes in the front seat of theExpedition. KIMBERLY You doing alright in there? KAT My legs are starting to cramp up. And God, why am I so thirsty? Does anyone have any Fiji?The KA-CHUNK of the Jaws of Life next to Kat startles her half todeath. KAT Christ, you wanna give me a heads up next time, pal?Brian and Mr. Gibbons approach with a cup of tap water. They hand itto kat, who frowns but drinks anyway.CUT TO:THE DRIPOf the leaking gas becomes a steady trickle. GAS SLITHERS over packeddirt, around debris, toward the crash site.BACK TO:THOMAS DARK ROOMSpeaks to another COP who clicks off his radio. COP She's at Phelps Memorial. They're prepping her to give birth right now. THOMAS Where's that? COP A few miles up the road. Near the docks.KATLights one cigarette off the other KA -CHUCNK! The sound makes herflinch, dropping the cigarette on the floor. KAT Damn, can't you be quieter with that thing? RESCUE WORKER (dripping scorn) Sure, I'll just set it to the "quiet" mode.Kat rescues the glowing cigarette from around her feet and inhales.KA-CHUNK!!! She jumps again, but maintains her composure.MEANWHILEThe gasoline purposefully trickles down corrugated steel, throughpipes, closer and closer to the Expedition. At one point, the gaseven disappears into a hole in the ground, only to resurface twentyfeet closer to the site...KIMBERLYLooks confused to watch Rory climb between the fence wires and driftthe Dead Oak Tree into the field. Thomas runs down the hill towardKimberly. THOMAS We gotta go now. Isabella's in labor.Rescue Workers pull off a large chunk of door. KA-CHUNK! KatFlinches. KIMBERLY What about that? CLEAR (calls over to Kat) How you doing in there, hero? KAT (re: spike behind head) I guess it could be worse.Brian hands out drinks to Rescue Workers. THOMAS So let's go...Where the hell is Rory?!Thomas sees Rory in the field and angrily hops the fence, headingdirectly under the dead Oak Tree.Rory, his back to everyone, finally opens the BINDLE. Enraptured, hedelicately unfolds it...KIMBERLYIs put on alert by a fresh BREEZE. Her attention is caught by theWINDOW of an emergency vehicle. IN THE REFLECTION, Kimberly sees aman sitting on the Expedition, but when she spins ar ound, there's noone there.KA-CHUNG! The door comes off the Expedition, finally freeing Kat!Everyone applauds! KIMBERLY Wait!Mr. Gibbons, applauding with everyone else, chooses that very momentto sit on the bumper.DEPLOYING THE AIRBAG!SLAMMING Kat's head backwards through the spike, HEAD-KABOB.Kat's dead limp hand drops her last cigarette -- which bounces alongthe hard dirt -- toward the oncoming gas. Closer, closer,.. TheBREEZE KICKS UP, aiding the cigarette.WHOOSH, the gas fuse catches. The blusih flame travels through pipes,over rocks, racing toward the news VAN.Kimberly , half-traumatized, watches an ominous BREEZE rustle throughthe field, up to the trees, toward Thomas.The GAS BURNS up an incline, and disappears into the ground... Andpops up twenty feet closer to the News Van.Kimberly follows the BREEZE to the dead oak tree under which Thomasstands. And blows a large branch until it snaps! A startled Thomassees it fall just in time to DIVE to safety.Clear, seeing the flame, instinctively runs from the van. CLEAR Get back!BOOM! The news van's explosion hurls two fence posts just overThomas' head, end over end, the two lengths of wire stretched betweenthem. The flying garrote heads directly for --Rory, who sorts hard, stands up with a satisfied smile - and issliced into three sharp cuts of beef.The silence from the emergency crew is deafening. Mr. Gibbons startscrying hysterically. MR. GIBBONS I didn't mean to do it - I didn't know.Kimberly numbly stares at the fallen branch, the one that causedThomas to step out of the path of the flying fence. KIMBERLY (to herself) It wasn't his turn. And it's not my turn.Kimberly sees the corpses of Kat and Rory, buries the pain, andapproaches Mr. Gibbons. KIMBERLY Give me the keys to your truck. Now! MR. GIBBONS (hysterical) Anything you want. Anything. I wish I knew. I didn't...Mr. Gibbons hands Kimberly the keys.EXT. WESTCHESTER COUNTY - MOMENTS LATERKimberly drives Thomas and Clear in the Gibbons' truck. All are numb. THOMAS (buckling up) Hurry up. There's no time. She's about to give birth.Kimberly unbuckles her seatbelt and floors it. CLEAR What are you doing? You're going to kill us! KIMBERLY No. If anyone dies from a crash now, it'll be me. But I can't die if Eugene and Isabella are still alive. I'm last on Death's list. CLEAR Are you crazy? What makes you think you'd survive? KIMBERLY What happened when Eugene tried to kill himself out of turn? CLEAR (considering) Six duds in a row. KIMBERLY And when it was Rory's turn to die, and Thomas was in the way? THOMAS That branch fell and saved my life. You're right, Death's maintaining the order. KIMBERLY Let's pray that Isabella's still alive.The truck speeds into the horizon.EXT. PHELP'S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - ESTABLISHING SHOTINT. DELIVERY ROOM - DAYTypical chatter as the staff preps Isabella. Steve paces nervously inthe background. STAFF ...contractions coming quicker now. Take her pressure and CTG. One centimeter dilation. Prep the epidural stat.Isabella breathes Lamaze style in the hospital bed, her feet instirrups. A NURSE rocks Isabella's body back and forth, until herback arches almost unnaturally forward.In the BG, an OBSTETRICIAN, 50s, sterilizes his hands in a scrubsink.A female ANESTHESIOLOGIST hustles over, swabbing a LONG EPIDURALNEEDLE. The nurse places a mask over Isabella's face. TheAnesthesiologist lowers the needle to the base of Isabella's spine. ANESTHESIOLOGIST She's going to have to stop moving if I'm going to --The Nurse SNEEZES. ANESTHESIOLOGIST Goddamn it, keep her still! NURSE Sorry, doctor.XCU NEEDLETracing skin between Isabella's constantly moving vertebra.ANGLE ON BUMBLEBEEIt buzzes about the room, darting between the he ads of the doctorsand nurses, hovering above the --ANESTHESIOLOGIST, who traces the long needle down Isabella's spine,finding the proper vertebrae. ANESTHESIOLOGIST Perfectly still now...Everyone freezes. SILENCE. As the tip of the needle presses the skindown --The BEE lands on the Anesthesiologist's ear. And STINGS!FLINCH!The NEEDLE SINKS IN - a NURSE GASPS. Did something go wrong? ANESTHESIOLOGIST Done. (tears welling) Now could someone please find the open window and fucking close it?EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - CONTINUOUSKimberly speeds the truck down some dangerously twisty roads slickfrom wet leaves. KIMBERLY This makes no sense. Isabella was supposed to crash her van into a lake. Could we have altered her destiny when we had her arrested? CLEAR I don't think so. Alex's premonitions happened exactly as he saw them no matter how much we tried to change it. THOMAS Then the only way to survive is to get to the hospital and protect Eugene and Isabella for as long as we can. CLEAR If only Alex and I had done that with the others, Alex might still be...A somber beat. Then Thomas looks over at the speedometer. THOMAS Um, Kimberly? This is a neighborhood. You may wanna slow it down. KIMBERLY Don't worry. Nothing can happen to us. THOMAS I wasn't worried about us.Suddenly, Kimberly clutches her throat!HARD CUT TO:INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAYUNKNOWN POVA NURSE hovers over us in a hospital, WRESTLING us down by the lookof things. There is SCREAMING all around. The image comes at us sofast, we see only the briefest glimpse of the NAMETAG on her uniform:KALARJIAN THOMAS (O.S.) Kimberly! Slow down! BACK TO:INT. TRUCK - CONTINUOUSKimberly "comes to" at the wheel -- FLAILING DESPERATELY at thesteering wheel. She even claws at Thomas who tries to control theneglected steering wheel. CLEAR Slow down! We're...Kimberly looks up as the truck comes around a blind curve, where carsare backed up at a stop sign. Kimberly screams and SLAMS on thebrakes.The truck SKIDS on wet leaves, completely out of control, towards aLANDSCAPING TRUCK parked on the shoulder.Kimberly's truck hits the loading ramps and launches itself twentyfeet into the air, DUKES OF HAZZARD-style.And lands miraculously without a scratch! On a parallel road. Andkeeps going. Dumb, insane fucking luck.Kimberly shakes off her premonition and looks out the rear window.She turns around with a cocky smile.She rubs her throat and FLOORS IT again to Thomas' horror, moredetermined. CLEAR (eyes darting) What did you see? What am I looking for? KIMBERLY No, it's not here. This one was different. More like the pile up and the van going into the lake. It wasn't just a sign, I was there. CLEAR (confused) Another premonition? KIMBERLY Yes. I was in a hospital. There was screaming... A nurse was choking me. I couldn't tell wh at she looked like, but the name tag was right in my face. Kalarjian. THOMAS Kalarjian? KIMBERLY I think a nurse named Kalarjian is going to choke Isabella to death!INT. PRIVATE ROOM - DAYWIPING FRAME, a NURSE enters a room and reads a clipboard on anunseen patient's bed.REVEAL EUGENE lying in a hospital bed, wired to the latest medicalhardware. Nearby, a RESPIRATOR plunges up and do wn, the RESPIRATORTUBE snaking down Eugene's throat.The NURSE'S HAND reaches down to Eugene's neck...Eugene WINCES when the Nurse gives the tube a friendly little SHAKEto check if it's stable. NURSE Sorry. Can you feel that in your trachea?Eugene rolls his eyes. Stupid question. NURSE Quite complaining. I got burnt babies in the Children's Ward braver than you.She sticks an electri c thermometer in his ear. Eugene opens his mouthas if to speak. NURSE Don't bother. You won't be talking for at least a month. Think you can handle that, Jabberjaw?Eugene looks ready to cry. The Nurse sits on the bed, jarring Eugeneenough to make him WINCE again. NURSE Don't worry. Everyone learns to love me once they get used to my sense of humor, okay?Eugene looks grat eful to see a humane side to this creature.EXT. WINDY ROADS - DAYThe pick up truck races to the hospital. As Kimberly speeds past abillboard, a POLICE CAR pulls in hot pursuit. KIMBERLY Shouldn't we pull over? THOMAS No time. Keep going. I wouldn't know how to explain any of this anyway.At the next intersection, TWO MORE COP CARS APPEAR. KIMBERLY Oh come on.The pick up truck blows by the second pair of cop cars, whichinstantly join the high speed chase. Kimberly takes a long look inthe rearview mirror at the TAILGATING COPS. She then inspects theroad ahead.UP IN THE DISTANCEA busy six-lane intersection. KIMBERLY What do you want me to do? CLEAR (hesitated beat) Speed up. KIMBERLY Yeah, fuck 'em. (to Thomas) No offense.Kimberly SPEEDS toward the intersection. She pulls her seatbeltaside, making sure it offers ZERO protection. Thomas jumps in thebackseat, buckles up... CLEAR Be alive, Isabella, please be alive.Kimberly's eyes widen in fear. Her foot hesitates over the brakepedal as --The truck blindly blazes through the busy intersection, miraculouslymissing every car!The police are just barely able to fishtail into 90 degree turns,avoiding the intersection completely.Kimberly's eyes open and she lets out a victory cry.INT. PRIVATE ROOM - DAYANGLE ONOxygen valve. PAN OVER AND DOWN TOEugene tries to watch a news flash of HIS accident on the TV acrossthe room, but a bulky ORDERLY blocks his view. ANCHOR MAN (O.S.) ...ironically impaled through the head as a result of an emergency airbag deploying.As Eugene shudders with dread, the Orderly pushes a huge cart infront of him, again obscuring his view. Eugene frantically pantomimeswriting. ORDERLY Need a pen? Sure. If you like, I'll bring crosswords for you, too.Eugene tries nodding his thanks, but the tube in his throat hampershis movement. ANCHOR WOMAN (O.S.) ...police Have speculated that one of the deaths may have been narcotics related and urge children to stay away from d rugs.Finally, the Orderly pushes the cart away, revealing the TV. AnANCHOR MAN taps his pages on the desktop. ANCHOR MAN Good advice, Sue. And stay in school. Up next, Johnny Showers has the weather...A WEATHERMAN dressed as a frog points out cloud formations.Eugene, tormented, stares at the screen as the Orderly begins pushingthe huge cart out of the room.The sound of a SKIDDING CAR fills the room. It comes from the TVwhich shows a PSA featuring CRASH TEST DUMMIES. ORDERLY Jeez, it's freezing in here.The Orderly flicks the thermostat and one by one, VENTS CLOSE justbelow the ceiling.Eugene's eyes fill with terror - he knows something's wrong.ANGLE ON OXYGEN HOSE -Bursting. It HISSES softly. We follow the OBLIVIOUS ORDERLY out ofthe room.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSA hospital ADMINISTRATOR briskly strides up to the Orderly. ADMINISTRATOR What are you doing? The Henzels are still waiting for you in the Children's Ward --The Orderly smacks his forehead - shit. Totally forgot. ORDERLY Right, right, right. Gregory's big day. ADMINISTRATOR And Mrs. Dempsey in hydrotherapy can't feel her legs.The Orderly, nodding rapidly, is halfway down the hall by now. TheAdministrator shakes his head in disgust and walks past.The HUGE CART. Which now blocks the door on Eugene's room.EXT. PHELPS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - CONTINUOUSKimberly seems to have ditched the cops. She speeds the pick upthrough the medical facility.EXT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAYThe pick up skids to a halt in front of the hospital. Kimberly,Thomas and Clear run outside and into the building.INT. PRIVATE ROOM - DAYThe OXYGEN HOSE hisses, but is drowned out by the volume of the TV.Eugene's eyes dart frantically as a blaring fast food commercialends. The n, a NEWS REPORT comes on. The BANNER:ROUTE 18 TRAGEDYFootage showing grieving families, wreaths on doors, yellow ribbons,and emergency crews pulling wreckage apart, dissolve together over: ANCHOR WOMAN (O.S.) Mor e tears were shed this morning in the wake of yesterday's tragedy that rocked the Tri -State area...Suddenly, the FRAYED ELECTRIC CORD of Eugene's TV begins sparking.The sound DROPS OUT, the picture SPUTTERS.Eugene goes white with terror. He looks back to --The broken OXYGEN TUBE. HISSING softly. The BEEPS of the EEG machinefrantically increase. Eugene reaches for the nurse call switch.Mockingly out of reach by mere millimeters.INT. NURSES STATION - DAYClear, Kimberly and Thomas dash toward the main desk. CLEAR Isabella Cruz. What room's she in? RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry, I can't give out that info unless you're a relative. CLEAR I'm her sister.The Receptionist eyes her dubiously. RECEPTIONIST I'll have to see your ID, Ms. Cruz.Clear vaults over the counter, straight-arms the Receptionist andseizes the computer. Thomas and Kimberly look on, stunned. CLEAR Delivery rooms are downstairs. I'll find Eugene and catch up with you.Kimberly and Thomas hurry to the elevator banks...then reconsider andenter the stairwell.INT. PRIVATE ROOM - CONTINUOUSEugene scratches the top sheet of the bed, trying to inch the call-switch closer and closer to him. But it won't budge.A RAT APPEARS behind Eugene's pillow, CRAWLS over his chest anddisappears by his stomach!He pounds desperately on the empty food tray, his side rails, lookstoward the door --INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSOutside the door, you can't hear a thing in the bustling hallway aspeople rush by. Kimberly and Thomas rush past his door, lost. THOMAS Hurry, I think she's this way.BACK TO EUGENEHis eyes scream insanely, but he respirator tube prevents any soundfrom escaping him. And that's when the RAT appears on the floor andbegins gnawing on the respirator's power cord!When Eugene sees this, the EEG machine climbs off the charts.INT. NURSES STATION - CONTINUOUSClear takes off down the hallway. The Receptionist, shaken, dials herphone. RECEPTIONIST Security?INT. DELIVERY ROOM - CONTINUOUSThe Obstetrician voices concern. OBSTETRICIAN Listen to me, Isabella, I need you to stop pushing. ISABELLA What's wrong? IS the baby all right? OBSTETRICIAN It's a breach. If I can't reverse it, we may need to do a Caesarian.The Obstetrician's hands go to work. Steve looks ill. STEVE Maybe I should step outside.INTERCUT KIMBERLY AND THOMASRunning down the corridor. PA ANNOUNCEMENT Code Blue in Delivery Room 6. Code Blue!INT. PRIVATE ROOM - DAYThe rat GNAWS away at Eugene's power cord, Eugene looks trapped,helpless, tortured.His eyes dart from the sparking TV to the gnawed power cord to theuseless call- switch.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSClear walks up and down the corridor, scanning room numbers as shepasses. A -169, A- 171, A-173... CLEAR B-187...B-187...A HAND suddenly GRABS Clear and shoves her against the wall. REVEAL ASECURITY GUARD leering at her. SECURITY GUARD Just where do you think you're going?Clear struggles to get away, getting sympathetic looks from an OLDMAN walking a rolling IV STAND down the corridor.INT. DELIVERY ROOM - CONTINUOUSIsabella is pushing again. OBSTETRICIAN Almost there. I see the head...The NURSE takes a pair of SCISSORS off a tray.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSClear plays possum, offering no resistance to the Security Guard asthe Old Man wheels his IV STAND along.Suddenly, Clear grabs the stand - and WHAMS the heavy wheeled baseinto the Guard's BALLS! As the Guard recoils, she thoughtfully handsthe IV back to the Old Man and runs.INT. DELIVERY ROOM 0 CONThe Nurse is startled when Kimberly and Thomas BURST THROUGH thedoor. In the BG, a puzzled Steve peeks inside until Kimberly pullsthe door closed. NURSE What are you doing in here? Get the hell out! Right now!Finally we hear the BABY CRY! The Nurse immediately moves in toswaddle the newborn. Dr. Kalarjian beams at the very groggy lookingIsabella. OBSTETRICIAN Isabella, look down and see your son.To the confusion of everyone around them, Kimberly and Thomas BURSTINTO CHEERS! They jump, dance and hug each other.It's a magical moment --EXT. EUGENE'S PRIVATE ROOM - CONTINUOUSThe RAT stops gnawing. The TV stops sparking. A wave of intenserelief washes over Eugene. He pantomimes reaching into his shirtpocket and lighting a victory cigar.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSRelaxed and invigorated, Kimberly and Thomas giddily exit thedelivery room as Clear runs up to them. CLEAR A guard grabbed me before I could find Eugene. THOMAS Don't sweat it. It's over. CLEAR She had the baby? KIMBERLY New life defeats death. We've done it. Death has to rewrite the list. We're safe.Steve watches, confused, as Clear whoops with delight and HUGS theothers.Clear laughs with a relief that seems completely foreign to her.Kimberly laughs with her, then is suddenly rocked by a vision --HARD CUT TO:UNKOWN POVLooking up a the EEG machine. Flatlined! THOMAS (O.S.) Kimberly! Are you okay?!INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - BACK TO PRESENTKimberly, on the ground, looks frazzled as she SNAPS out of hertrance. Thomas helps her to her feet. THOMAS Are you okay? You just face planted! KIMBERLY I know how it feels to be dead.Her lips blue, Kimberly shivers uncontrollably. Clear sees TWOSECURITY GUARDS round a distant corner and quickly walks the otherstoward an EMERGENCY LOADING ZONE. CLEAR What did you see? KIMBERLY I was dead. And came back to life. An EEG machine. Where's Eugene? THOMAS But it's over. Isabella's baby was the key. You saw her die and everything, right? KIMBERLY I don't...what if I made a mistake? THOMAS Impossible. She was on the onramp.Kimberly reluctantly closes her eyes and remembers.CUT TO:PREVIOUSLY UNSEENMoment of the pile-up premonition. A WHITE VAN in fr ont of Kimberlysuddenly slams on its brakes and pulls onto the shoulder.Kimberly screams, swerving around the van just in time to avoid anaccident.BACK TO:Kimberly, overcome with self- doubt. KIMBERLY I'm not sure... I don't think Isabella was ever destined to die in the pile -up. THOMAS Then what's the premonition of the lake supposed to mean? CLEAR Can you remember anything about it?Kimberly shuts her eyes, remembering:EXT. LAKE - DAYPOV DRIVERGrease-covered hands reach out toward a steering wheel of a white vanspeeding out of control TOWARD A LAKE!The van crashes through a railing and PLUNGES into the water. Inmoments, the van fills with water, the driver inside trapped.Drowning. Horrible.And on the rearview mirror, six floral scented AIR-FRESHNERS.BACK TO:Kimberly looks down at her grease -covered hands and looks ill. KIMBERLY ...the Same hands from the van.Finally everything makes sense to Clear. CLEAR It's you Kimberly. The premonitions are about you.Kimberly trembles, refusing to accept what she's hearing. KIMBERLY No! It can't be. CLEAR (suddenly remembering) I have to save Eugene!Clear leaves Kimberly and Thomas together. Kimberly verges on tearsand Thomas consoles her with a hug.IN THE BACKGROUNDClear looks at passing room numbers while hurrying down the corridor.She comes to a room with a HUGE CART parked outside, blocking thedoor. She looks up to see - B -187.Clear leans into it, pushing it out of the way of the door. CLEAR Eugene? Are you in there?EUGENE'S ROOMEugene strains to hear through the thick door. CLEAR (O.S.) Can you hear me? I'm coming in .An intense wave of relief washes over Eugene.BACK TO:As Kimberly hugs Thomas, she watches Clear push the cart past thedoor. ORDERLY (O.S.) Make way, make way lovebirds.Kimberly spins as Eugene's Orderly passes her; a paper, pen and acrossword book in one hand, A BIRTHDAY CAKE in the other.The CAKE reads "Happy Birthday Gregory". The THIRTEEN SPARKLINGCANDLES on top ODDLY FRAME Clear's head. KIMBERLY Oh no...The Orderly speeds down the corridor toward Clear, whose hand reachesfor Eugene's door handle. She leans into it -- ORDERLY (to Clear) Thanks hon, the Henzels are going crazy for this thing.THOMAS AND KIMBERLYWatch as Clear opens the door, briefly revealing Eugene, a whoosh ofOxygen --BOOM!!!Clear's body is obscenely hurled END OVER END towards the CAMERA,heading straight for Kimberly and Thomas!Thomas throws himself and Kimberly around the corner to prevent beingcrushed by Clear's lifeless body!The hospital erupts in total chaos. Just as Kimberly is about tobreak down completely, she sees --A WOMAN hurrying down the hallway in their direction, pushing a crashcart.Kimberly sees the nametag: KALARJIAN. KIMBERLY Nurse Kalarjian... DR. KALARJIAN Doctor Kalarjian. Excuse me, please.ANGLE ON CARTDEFRIBULATOR PADDLES rest on top. And then Dr. Kalarjian passes themtoward the area of the explosion.KIMBERLY OMINOUSLY TURNS, the camera following her view, until shesees a small lake across the street from the hospital. KIMBERLY Oh my God. That's it. The lake. The EEG machine. Nurse Kalarjian. THOMAS What?Just then, an AMBULANCE SKIDS up to the nearest entrance. PARAMEDICSjump out and run towards the blast site. KIMBERLY You can't cheat destiny. I know what I have to do to save us. I have to die. THOMAS That's crazy. You can't give up now. We can still fight this thing.But Kimberly isn't listening. She stares through the glass doors atthe --AMBULANCEA red stripe down the side, but the hood is completely white. Sixfloral scented air-fresheners hang from the rearview. The 'van' fromher vision! And it's running! KIMBERLY I have to do this.Kimberly wipes tears from her eyes, kisses Thomas' cheek, then turnsand runs before he can speak.EXT. HOSPITAL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUSKimberly heads right for the open ambulance. The driver's door almostseems to swing open for her as she gets in.INT. HOSPITAL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUSThomas frantically tries to get through the electric doors, whichSPARK and short out. He struggles to pry them apart.EXT. HOSPITAL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUSKimberly shifts into gear and speeds off. Thomas squeezes through thedoors and runs after her. An EMT, the driver of the stolen ambulance,rushes outside. EMT What the fuck?!EXT. LAKE - DAYThomas chases the ambulance, watching helplessly as it barrels overcurbs, pylons and a fence, ultimately plunging straight into thelake!Thomas sprints to the lake as fast as he can - the EMT trailing farbehind.INSIDE THE AMBULANCEKimberly panics as the ambulance fills with water and she takes afinal gasp of air --ON THE LAKE'S EDGEThomas stares in horror at the percolating air bubbles as the vehicledescends below the surface -- and he dives in!UNDERWATERThomas swims into the dark, murky water. Deeper and deeper, he g etsto the ambulance and tries to open the door. Stuck. He withdraws hisbaton and BANGS on the glass - nothing!He tries coming up for air, but his pants snag on the jagged metal ofthe twisted bumper. He squirms frantically...And as his exhausted body loses consciousness, everything --FADE TO BLACK.INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAYBLACKNESS. DR. KALARJIAN (O.S.) Ready and...CLEAR!The SHOCK of defribulator paddles brings Kimberly back to life.KIMBERLY'S POVLooking up at Dr. Kalarjian, all she can see is part of a woman'sface and a partial nametage reading "Kalarjian".It would appear as if she's choking Kimberly, but --An EEG MONITOR turns from a flatline to a steady heartbeat, the samePOV as the premonition. NURSE She's back! DR. KALARJIAN Five CC's of narcodon. I want her stabilized and prepped for ICU.Kimberly turns her head to seeTHOMASUnconscious, CPR being performed on him by the EMT (who's now soakingwet). Thomas doesn't respond.An INTERN opens an eyelid, points a flashlight at his eyes. Shakeshis head, nothing. The sopping wet EMT goes back to performing CPR.Finally, Thomas coughs up water, chokes, gasps for air, then BOLTSUPRIGHT. THOMAS Kimberly?!He turns to see Kimberly reaching out for him. Immeasurably relieved,he takes her hand and allows himself to be eased back down to theplatform. Kimberly's eyes fill with tears. KIMBERLY (whispering) Welcome back. We did it. For real. THOMAS I know. I can feel it too.Outside, a parting of dark clouds causes a shaft of sunlight to floodinto the hospital. Its light covers Kimberly and Thomas with anethereal glow. There are no more doubts; they've won.They exchange meek, yet triumphant smiles in the smoky, chaotichospital.SLOW DISSOLVE TO:EXT. PARK - DAYWe are at a summer barbecue. Frisbee, lawn darts, croquet, et.Everyone's happy.TITLE CARD: FIVE MONTHS LATERANGLE ONShish -Kabob entering a mouth.REVEALKimberly taking a bite, relishing the taste and calmly pulling themetal skewer from her mouth. KIMBERLY My God, this is delicious. I can't believe I used to be a vegan.Thomas, out of uniform, takes a bite of his own. As the metal skeweris deep in his mouth --A running FRISBEE PLAYER accidentally bumps into Thomas! But no harm.Thomas gives the guy a friendly pat and goes back to rewrapping hismouth around the shish-kabob. MR. BURROUGHS (O.S.) So what's the deal, Thomas? Three months and you still haven't asked my daughter out on a date.Kimberly turns red as Mr. Burroughs appears and takes a seat. THOMAS What's wrong with a platonic relationship? MR. GIBBONS Platonic my ass. That's for ugly women. KIMBERLY For God's sake, leave him alone, Dad. THOMAS (smiling) Yeah, don't make me cite you for harassment. MR. GIBBONS Oh please. I'm not hurting anyone. (looking around, lowering voice) Besides, if you can beat Death, what's he got to worry about me for?Mr. Gibbons sits down at the table with two plates of food. His wife,MRS. GIBBONS, joins. MR. GIBBONS You know, you still never explained to us how you did it.It seems by now everyone's familiar with the concept. THOMAS Well, technically when we died, we gave Death what it wanted. And by the time we were revived, it had already moved on to graver pastures.Mrs. Gibbons makes a face, finding the discourse distasteful. Shechanges the conversation. MRS. GIBBONS You know, I'm having the greatest day? KIMBERLY Food's great too, Mrs. Gibbons. Big props to you and Brian. MRS. GIBBONS Our...pleasure. So, ready for the back-to -school season? NYU, right? KIMBERLY Three short glorious weeks away. MRS. GIBBONS Sounds wonderful. I wish I were going myself. MR. GIBBONS (to Mr. Burroughs) You may want to think twice about letting her live in the village, Bob. Our eldest daughter moved there and came back with piercings all over her face. (looks grave) Among other places.A chorus of friendly laughter. BRIAN (O.S.) Dad used to call her the pincushion. From Hellraiser.BRIAN enters frame, soaking up fresh laughter. He holds a plate fullof raw chicken fillets and some long, wooden matches. BRIAN Dad, you had the spatula last, right? MR. GIBBONS Sure, here.Mr. Gibbons hands it over and Brian saunters away from camera,SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS, toward the barbecue, his body framed betweenKimberly and Thomas' heads. KIMBERLY Brian looks like he's having fun. MR. GIBBONS Sure does. Owes it to that friend of yours, in a way.Mr. Gibbons immediately regrets having said that. KIMBERLY How's that? MR. GIBBONS Well, Brian was nearly hit by an ambulance the day...but your friend Rory pulled him back at the last second.Kimberly and Thomas ominously turn their heads around. In the BG,Brian fidgets in front of the barbecue. MRS. GIBBONS You never told me that, Peter. Boy, that was lucky.BOOM!!! The PROPANE TANK blows Brian to smithereens. A deafeningsilence follows, punctuated when Brian's ARM lands on Mrs. Gibbons'plate. PLOP.FADE TO BLACK.END CREDITS. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7b63ab6425d93914c3c9a4c59189b1fb375abb47 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Final Destination.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"FINAL DESTINATION" Originally Called "FLIGHT 180"By James Wong and Glen MorganJanuary 15, 1999Awaiting......each of us; a cold...dark...lonely place.Deny its finality. Deride its totality. Dread the inescapableinevitability......it will arrive.The BLACK SILENT SCREEN senses this moment before a distant blues harp introduces a contemporary band's cover of Blood, Sweat, and Tears' campy, yet haunting, gospel, "And When I Die."As the Introduction closes, RESONATES... A FLASH OF LIGHTING!A CRACK OF THUNDER! CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE - BEDAn airline ticket is tossed INTO FRAME beside a suitcase; "EURO-AIR. FLIGHT #180. New York City (JFK) - Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG.) Departure: Thursday 13May. 16H25 - Arrival: Friday 14May. 05H40.""And When I Die" Continues throughout the MAIN TITLES:AN OLD TABLE FANswivels beside and open window. Outside, a humid spring THUNDER STORM drops warm, ominous rain. The figure of a seventeen year old boy, ALEX BROWNING, packing for a trip, passing the fan...THE BEDA Paris guidebook is tossed atop the plane ticket. CAMERA PUSHES IN ON THE BOOK as the fan's breezes flip through the pages.THE TABLE FANturns, head swiveling away from the bed.TIGHTER - THE GUIDEBOOK PAGESstop flipping, REVEALING A GULLOTINE from the Reign of Terror.As an American passport is dropped beside the guidebook...THE TABLE FANswivels, returning towards the guidebook on the bed.THE GUIDEBOOK PAGESFLIP. FLIP. FLIP. Alex's faint shadow continues moving about the room. The fan head swivels away, allowing the pages to settle... upon a Louvre masterpiece, Francisco de Zurbarans Lying-in-the State of St. Bonaventura.CAMERA CREEPS IN, teasingly on the dark faced corpse. The pages begin to turn once again.TIGHTER, OMINOUS ANGLE - THE DESK FANThere is more of a hint of conincidence as the blades whirl and head swivels. The boy's figure passes, blocking the breeze.THE GUIDEBOOK PAGESstop dead on... Jim Morrison's decorated tomb in the Cemetiere du Pere Lachaise. A pilgrim has spray painted "This is the End." Which in fact, it is... of the MAIN TITLE. BARBARA Alex...CAMERA ADJUSTS, to fully reveal Alex Browning as he turns toward the bedroom door. Alex is an average kid; handsome. A high school "everyman."One the wall amongst Yankee and Knicks posters, hangs a pennant;"Mt. Abraham High School, New York. The Fighting Colonials!"Alex's mother, BARBARA, 45, walks in, excited and a bit anxious. BARABRA (Cont'd) Tod and George's dad just called, he's picking you up at 10 in the morning. Bus leaves the high school for JFK at noon.Barbara moves towards the suitcase to help him pack. Alex's father, KEN BROWNING, 48 appears, leaning against the door threshold, smiling enviously at his son. KEN My suitcase workin' out for ya?Alex nods and buckles it. Barbara reaches in to tear off an airline baggage I.D. ticket attached from the previous flight. ALEX Whoa! Whoa! Mom, you gotta leave that on. It's like... the tag made the last flight without crashin' or anything, right? So, it should stay on, or with, the bag for good luck. BARBARA Where would you get a nutball idea like that?EXTREMELY CLOSE - THE AIRLINE BAGGAGE MARKERis torn away from the suitcase handle.RETURNAs Barbara picks up the suitcase to place it on the floor... a dozen old baggage I.D. tickets spill from the outer compartment. She looks at Ken, as if "you?" The guilty party shrugs. KEN I'm still here.Barbara shakes her head as Alex smiles at his dad. KEN (Cont'd) Seventeen and on the loose. Ten days in Paris. In the springtime! Live it up, Alex...CAMERA INCHES INTO KEN as he winks at his son... KEN (Cont'd) Got your whole life ahead of you.ALEXCAMERA CREEPS IN as, oddly, the words strike him portentously... CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - LATERThe storm has ceased. The room is QUIET.As if itself a presence, CAMERA CREEPS across the dark and motionless room TOWARD Alex, sleeping soundly. CAMERA CRANES DOWN to the level of the bed until Alex is in the f.g. and the room is visible behind him.On the rear wall, the Fighting Colonials pennant begins to flutter slightly, as if affected by the moving breeze. The path of which is continued toward the bed, rustling the sheets, subtly blowing Alex's hair and continuing OVER CAMERA.Even in his sleep, Alex shivers from the passing cold. His eyes open surprised to be suddenly awakened. He considers for a beat, then looks toward...THE WINDOWSwhich... are closed.ALEXpuzzled, checks...THE TABLE FANwhich is off.ALEXperplexed, rolls over toward his digital clock. It's 1:00 a.m., however... the middle digit bar in the first zero faintly flickers so this time appears to read... 1:80. AIRPORT P.A. (V.O.) (overlapping) Attention airline travelers... CUT TO:INT. JOHN F. KENNEDY AIRPORT - MORNING - TELEVISION MONITORFLIGHT 180 departs 4:25. Gate 39. AIRPORT P.A. (V.O.) This airport does not support solicitors...CAMERA ADJUSTS FROM the "Arrival-Departure Schedule" to REVEAL forty high school KIDS, four TEACHERS and several PARENTS are gathered inside the International terminal at J.F.K. Several of the students wear Fighting Colonial leterman's jackets or hats and shirts displaying "Mt. Abraham High, New York." AIRPORT P.A. (V.O.) (CONT'D) You are not required to give money to solicitors.Alex gathers his bags, as does his best friend TOD WAGGNER and his older brother GEORGE WAGGNER, standing before their father, JERRY WAGGNER. For Alex, any psychic tension from the night before seems forgotten in the fun and excitement of the trip. MR. WAGGNER Alright, you guys got everything? TOD Yeah, we're all set Dad.MR. MURNAU, the French teacher (any further description necessary?) and leader of the class trip waves his arm. MR. MURNAU Les estudients, allons en France! MR. WAGGNER Does that mean "go?"Tod shrugs, "I guess" as he moves to his father and gives him a warm hug goodbye. Mr. Waggner then gives his older son a hug. AIRPORT P.A. (V.O. Atencion senores pasajeros. No es necesario contribuir... MR. WAGGNER I'll miss you guys.Tod and George gives a wave, as does Alex, who is slapped on the back by Mr. Waggner. MR. WAGGNER Take care of those two, Alex. ALEX I will. Don't worry.The group begins down the airport toward the check-in counter. In the f.g., before the boys, strides a girl, CLEAR RIVERS, 17, reading the TROPIC OF CANCER. The loner in the group, Clear wears dark colors against the insecerity of her sex appeal. She appears aloof and more wordly then the other students.Readying his ticket and documents, Tod flips open his passport, checking out his photo. TOD I didn't think anything could worse than my yearbook picture. GEORGE Now you know how I feel havin' to look at you all the time. AIRPORT P.A. (V.O.) Avis aux passagers...Mr. Murnau stops the group. Excited, he cups an ear with one hand while raising a finger toward the public address system. MR. MURNAU Entendez classe, qu'est ce que c'est l'announce?Everyone begrudgingly stops to listen. AIRPORT P.A. (O.S. CONT'D) Vous n'etes pas dans l'obligation de contribuer aux demandes des quemandeurs.CARTER HORTONis the class dickhead who mix and matches his role models in the most superficial manner. His hand is tucked into his girlfriend, TERRY CHANEY'S, waistband... CARTER (re: MURNAU) What the fuck's he want?Terry, hot now, but with no idea what time will do to her in just five years, smiles obsequiously and mouths "shh." P.A. SYSTEM (O.S., CONT'D) cher aeroport n'est responsable pour leurs activities.Mr. Murnau scans the group, his expression looking for an answer. Clear Rivers keeps her head in her book as... CLEAR The airport doesn't endorse solicitors. MR. MURNAU Tres bien, Clear! Tout droit!She doesn't react. Her expression remains cool as Murnau leads the procession forward. The boys continue. Alex sighs... ALEX Fuh-ck, do we have to put up with that shit the whole time?A hand reaches out to gently detain Alex. He looks up to find a HARE KRISHANA, dressed in everyday clothes, but head shaved and a mark on his nose. HARE KRISHANA Death is not the end.CAMARA PUSHES IN ON ALEX... unsettled by the soft spoken, yet ominous, "Solicitation." The Krishana offers a small book, REALITY BEYOND THE MATTER: VAISHNAVA PHILOSOPHY.As he hands the book to Alex, a female form ENTERS FRAME between them. The women is MISS VALERIE LEWTON, 30, a feisty English teacher whose figure inspires all the boys' fantasies. MS. LEWTON It will be for you if you harass my students.She places a hand on Alex's shoulder, herding him to the group. HARE KRISHANA (pissy) Hare Rama.Ms. Lewton turns and, while walking backward, flashes a smile... MS. LEWTON (mouths) Fuck off.As she turns her back and continues down the terminal... CUT TO:INT. CHECK IN DESK - AIRPORT - DAYAlex's passport and ticket are set INTO FRAME and picked up by a female TICKET CLERK. Alex waits as she busily types into the computer and checks his passport... TICKET CLERK I have a few questions to ask you this afternoon.O.S., LOUD, EXAGGERATED plastic tiles rapidly CLICK and CLACK. TICKET CLERK (CONT'D) Did you pack these bags yourself?The CLACKING CONTINUES, demading Alex's attention. His eyes turn forward.ALEX'S POV - THE FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARDPlastic tabs CLACK rapidly, settling on the word... "CANCELLED."ALEXCAMARA CREEPS IN on his dawning paranoia... TICKET CLERK (CONT'D, O.S.) Have your belongings remained in your possession the entire time?Alex absently nods. Again, O.S., CLACK CLACK CLACK. His eyes move to...ALEX'S POV - (TIGHTER) - FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARDThe plastic tabs FLIP and CLACK rapidly, stopping on... "DEPARTED."TICKET DESKAlex is still considering the "messages..." TICKET CLERK Have you recieved any packages from persons unknown to you?Alex quickly runs the day through his head and flashes her the REALITY BEYOND MATTER book. She smiles, then leans over toward the baggage scales. Alex's eyes turn toward...CLOSE - (MOTION SLOWED)- ALEX'S LUGGAGEa new airline I.D. marker is attached to his bag.RETURNAlex eyes the new tag hoping it's "good luck." As the clerk returns his ticket and passport... CLACK, CLACK, CLACK. TICKET CLERK Same as your birthday.Alex is puzzeled by the comment. He shakes his head if, "pardon me?" CAMERA INCHES INTO the ticket clerk gesturing pleasantly to the passport and ticket... TICKET CLERK (CONT'D) April 25th. Four-twenty-five... your birthday is the same as your departure time.CLACK. CLACK. CLACK. Alex's eyes flash toward...ALEX'S POV - (FULL FRAME) - FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARDthe title settles upon... "TERMINAL." CUT TO:INT. SECURITY AREA - AIRPORT - MONITORThe ghastly green and reds of the X-ray monitors flash as carry on bags flash through the machine. CAMERA MOVES COUNTER to the direction of the conveyor belt. The pace and excitement of the collective group escalates as departure approaches.Carter Horton and his girlfriend, Terry, take cuts in line with smug, bullying expressions. Unseen by the chaperones, no student, has the nerve to protest Carter's action. Alex, Tod, George and BILLY HITCHCOCK, heavyset with a New York Rangers jersey watches Carter and Terry with disgust. BILLY I can't believe they let that dickhead on this trip. GEORGE His parents bought a ton of those trip certificates we had to sell, just to get him out of their hair for ten days.Excited, Tod speaks in a convert tone over Alex's shoulder. TOD Dude, I so worked the ticket clerk so you're sittin' next to Christa and I'm next to Blake.Alex looks up ahead of the metal detectors...ALEX'S POV - TWO GIRLSAttractive and they know it, CHRISTA MARSH and BLAKE DREYER appear clearly out of Alex and Tod's league. TOD (CONT'D) That's seven hours and most of it is in the dark.ALEX AND TODThe boys dump their change in a plastic bowl. TOD Dude, if we don't get someone going on this flight, we should just call Dr. Kervorkian and put ourselves out of our fuckn' misery.As Alex and Tod pass through the metal detector, their eyes performing reconnaissance on Christa and Blake, the opening drum BLASTS of Boingo's "No One Lives Forever" OVERLAPS... CUT TO:INT. AIRLINE GATE - AIRPORT - AFTERNOON - CLOSE - GATE 39CAMERA ADJUSTS from the sign indicating GATE 39. The class is squirrely and excited. Mr. Murnau, Ms. Lewton, and the parent chaperones are allowing kids to burn off steam at the gate, hoping for a calm flight.CAMERA MOVES ALONG the awaiting passengers... Carter and Terry are making out, a step away from heavy petting...Blake and Christa are flipping through Parisian fashion magizines... Billy Hitchcock lays into a Burrito Supreme...CAMERA MOVES to an empty seat. Clear Rivers ENTERS FRAME and sits, struggling with her Walkman, coffee, books, and a cassette box handmarked "Boingo" (a cheat that We hear the song)As she places her stuff on the unoccupied seat beside her, a Paris guidebook falls on the floor, opened but face down. A passing, unidentified, student reaches down and hands her the book, still open and face down. CLEAR Thanks.The student continues down toward the observation deck. Clear looks at the opened guidebook.CLEAR'S POV - GUIDEBOOKPrincess Di's Mercedes is totaled in a Paris tunnel. Besides the photo are two portraits of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed.CLEARCAMERA INCHES IN as she shakes off a shiver down her spine. She looks up from the book toward the student who handed it to her, the identity of which is fully REVEALED to be Alex Browning.He stands at the gate window, looking out at the plane.ALEX'S POV - 747It is raining. In the distance, MUFFLED THUNDER RUMBLES.CAMERA CREEPS AWAY from the plane... huge, seemingly incapable of flight and yet we unquestioningly trust our lives in this machine. Emotionless. Cold. Lifeless, and yet soon full of life.ALEXCAMERA inches in on him. TOD (O.S.) Dude, let's take a dump.Tod MOVES INTO FRAME beside Alex... ALEX Man, that is one George Michael notch from being gay. TOD Dude, get wisdom. We're about to board a seven hour flight. The toilets in coach are barely ventilated closets. What if your body wants that airplane food out of your system and you have to go torgue a wicked cable and then right after you walks in Christa or Blake? You want them to associate with you with that reflexive gag and the watery sting in their eyes?Alex takes a beat to consider... CUT TO:INT. MEN'S ROOM - AIRPORT - OVERHEADCAMERA LOOKS DOWN on two stalls. Alex sits in one, Tod sits in the other. O.S., OVER the airports P.A. SYSTEM John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" begins... ALEX John Denver...Upon the mention, CAMERA CRANES DOWN, TURNING, TWISTING UNTIL FINDING ALEX in a straight on CLOSE-UP. He listens, tense... JOHN DENVER (O.S.) He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year... ALEX He died in a plane crash.A P.A. ANNOUNCMENT breaks into the song... P.A. SYSTEM Ladies and Gentlemen, thank-you for your patience, at this time we would like to begin pre-boarding of Euro-Air Flight 180 to Paris through gate 39.Really for the first time, Alex appears a bit tentative and pale. It is intensified by the return of the song... JOHN DENVER (O.S.) It's the Colorado Rocky Mountian High/ I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky... CUT TO:INT. BOARDING AREA - GATE 39 - CLOSE - ALEX'S BOARDING PASSis torn along the perforated edge and handed back.ALEXlooks down the paasenger ramp.ALEX'S POV - RAMP TUNNELCAMERA CREEPS toward it... lit to cheat a feeling of no return.O.S., distant THUNDER RUMBLES...WIDERThere is something more emotionally tense about the moment of boarding than take-off. CAMERA PICKS UP Ms. Lewton searching... MS. LEWTON Anyone seen Billy Hitchcock? How'd we lose him?Tod nudges Alex toward the tunnel, the three boys start down the ramp, passing Mr. Murnau who checks his list, counting heads... MR. MURNAU Vingt huit, vingt neuf...PASSENGER RAMPAlex, Tod, and George catch up to Christa and Blake, excited. As always, everyone becomes bottlenecked just at the point of entering the plane. Alex looks out the ramp's side porthole window toward the back of the plane.ALEX'S POV - THROUGH PORTHOLEThe enormous engine. The expansive wings. Behind the tail, distant, a bolt of lightning FLASHES!ALEXlooks away. Just ahead, in the plane, FLIGHT ATTENDANTS greet the passengers. He is next to enter the plane.CLOSE - FLOORa slice of opening from where the ramp meets the plane provides a sense of how high up one actually stands.ALEXCAMERA PUSHES INTO HIM as he takes his first step into the plane.CLOSE - AIRLINE CABIN FLOORAlex's Nikes land on the carpet.INT. 747 - FIRST CLASS CABIN - AFTERNOON - CLOSE - BABYSCREAMS! Its parents desperately comfort the child.CAMERA ADJUSTS, LEADING George, Alex and Tod through the aisles. Alex and Tod wince at the screaming child. George, however feels comforted. GEORGE Good sign. Younger the better. It would be a fucked-up God to take down this plane.INT. ECONOMY CLASS CABIN - 747 - AFTERNOONIn the first row slumps a young man with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. A cannula is set in his nostrils leading to an oxygon tank beside him.The kids sneak sympathetic yet anxious glances at the man while continuing in their seats. George whispers over his shoulder... GEORGE A REALLY fucked-up God.Alex's tension increases as he continues up the aisle.ALEX'S POV - OVERHEAD COMPARTMENTSCAMERA INCHES IN ON "Row 25. Seats H, I, and J."ALEXclimbs into the row, carrying his backpack. He takes his window seat and reaches up to the air flow valve.CLOSE - AIR FLOW VALVEturns, HISSING, air streaming full blast.CAMERA INCHES IN ON HIM as he takes in deep breaths of the stale air. He presses his face to the window.ALEX'S POV - THE LEFT WINGRain falls. GEARS WHIR as the ailerons are tested.CLOSE - ALEXCAMERA CREEPS TOWARD HIM, face to the glass; eyes scanning the plane and outside area. CHRISTA (O.S.) Alex?He turns toward the aisle.ALEX'S POV - CHRISTA AND BLAKEMan, they look great and they're workin' the sex appeal. CHRISTA Could you trade seats with Blake so she and I can sit together? I asked Tod, but he says he's got some medical thing?ALEXsneaks a quick check with Tod.ALEX'S POV - TODshakes his head. "NO! NO! DON'T DO IT."ALEX AND THE GIRLSHe looks to them and knows he is just plain overmatched. Alex shrugs, "Sure." In front of him Tod throws up his arms, disgusted. Alex climbs out of his seats. The girls are touchy-feely thankful, but only know guys dig that. CHRISTA AND BLAKE You're so sweet. Thanks, Alex.Alex crames up into the aisles, making his way to Tod, sitting two rows up in 22 H.Alex climbs over Tod to take the window seat. Clear Rivers sits in the seat directly behind Alex. TOD (mouths) Fag. ALEX C'mon, man, like you really thought you were gonna tittie fuck 'em over Greenland, or something? TOD Because of you, I gotta sit here and watch fuckin' "Stepmom."As Alex sits, the tray table falls from its upright position.He lifts the tray back up, but as he turns the latch, it BREAKS OFF in his hand. He briefly tries to jimmie the tray into postition, then gives up.CAMERA FOLLOWS ALEX'S HAND as it rises. CAMERA SWEEPS IN EXTREAMLY CLOSE to the ATTENDANT CALL BUTTON. As Alex's finger engages the button, it lights up orange.ALEXThe jet lurches. He looks...OUT OF THE WINDOW - ALEX'S POVThe 747 begins rolling out of the gate.ALEXAs he looks back, searching for the nearst flight attendant...ALEX'S POV - THROUGH THE SEATS - CLEAR RIVERSreads her book. Another leans to look out the window.ALEXlifts a bit out of his seat, searching for any flight attendant O.S., A PING. CAPTAIN (V.O) Flight Attendants prepare for departure.Looking fore in the cabin...ALEX'S POV - NEAR THE FLIGHT DECKThe flight attendants strap themselves in for take-off.ALEXO.S., the ENGINE VOLUME INCREASES in PITCH and INTENSITY as the jet begins to taxi. Alex sits back as the tray over his lap. He looks out the window.ALEX'S POV - THE RIGHT WINGappears motionless in the f.g. as the tarmac and runway signs roll past the window. THE ENGINE PITCH RISES...ALEXThe ENGINES WHIR as the jet gathers SPEED. He checks the window.ALEX'S POV- THE RUNWAYis a blur. The airport terminals in the b.g. streak past. The wings lift, angled as the jet leaves the ground.ALEXO.S., his classmates CHEER and "raise the roof." The trip has begun.CAMERA PULLS AWAY FROM ALEX, as if reflecting his easing of annoyance with the tray situation. He finally appears to notice the raucous reaction and settles back in his seat, slightly pushed by mild-g force. The upwarding angle increasing...The cabin buffets, as if passing mild turbulance. Then...The cabin sharply JOLTS! Everyone tenses, GASPS. CAMERA SWEEPS BACK TO ALEX. And just as he clenches his backpack... the cabin BANGS, ROCKS. THE ENGINES SPOOL TO A STALL. METAL TWISTS under extreme PRESSURE. The cabin dips, angles, sharply to the right.ALEX'S POV - THE CABINPassengers SCREAM! Unrestrained personal belongings fly across the aircraft INTO CAMERA, which BUFFETS and SHAKES...OXYGEN MASKSdeploy from the overhead compartments. A prerecorded message, like that recorded by the black box of the crash of JAL# 123 August 12, 1985, BLARES over the P.A., with erie calm... MESSAGE (V.O.) Fasten seat belts...put on oxygen masks...ALEXhis hand trembles as he reaches for the oxygen mask and places it over his face. The ENGINES resuscitate. SCREAMING. WHINING. Alex checks out his window.ALEX'S POV - OUT OF WINDOWThe plane is on its side, losing altitude. A slow, sick spin.ALEXbreaths deep into his oxygen cup.The JET ENGINES GRIND AND WHIR, as if the craft were in the midst of a last-ditch effort to regain stability; the sounds DEAFENING over the PASSENGERS' cruelly hopeless SCREAMS.Then...KA-BOOMA DEVASTATING EXPLOSION ERUPTS across the cabin, blasting a five foot hole in the fuseluge. Human limbs and blood spray, craft and passengers torn to shreds.Dead students sit lifeless in their seats.Every unrestrained object on board flies to the hole and through the fire; paper, books, luggage, pillows. A PARENT and a STUDENT clutch their seat in terror, SCREAMING before they are pulled into the sky.Wind. Screams. Dying engines, a deafening blare.ALEX AND TODSCREAM, pale, knowing there is no hope, no escape as the ENGINES DIE. The cabin begins to tilt downwards... then straight down. Debris tumbles toward the flight deck as if falling from a cliff.OUTSIDE... the sick familiar SOUND of an aircraft going down.ALEX is strapped to his seat, upper body facing downward toward the water. FIRE, WIND, AND BLOOD WHIP across him. A BUILDING WHINE CRESCENDOES before a second EXPLOSION RIPS ACROSS FRAME... CUT TO:CLOSE - ALEX'S TERRIFIED EYESdilating rapidly, as the shock of what appears to be happening before him washes over his very psyche. CHRISTA (O.S.) Alex?ALEXDrenched with sweat, trembling in his seat, his eyes dart toward Christa and Blake. They look great and they're workin' the sex appeal. CHRISTA Could you trade seats with Blake so she and I can sit together? I asked Tod, but he's got some medical thing.Alex turns sickeningly disoriented. His eyes dart about, searching for evidnece of the catastrophe. There are none to be found. Alex blots from his seat, startling the two girls. He scrambles toward Tod, who looks at his friend, concerned. TOD Dude, what up?Frenzied, Alex climbs over his friend, on top of the seat. Alex's panic has alerted the other students and a MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANT who makes his way to the row.ALEXgrabs the tray table latch before the vacent seat. IT BREAKS OFF, JUST AS BEFORE. CAMERA PUSHES INTO ALEX, terrified. He begins to hyperventilate. FLIGHT ATTENDANT Is there a a problem, sir?Alex's wild eyes and expression convey "no fucking kidding there's a problem." The flight attendant realizes this passenger is experiencing a serious episode.Directly across the aisle, Carter Horton and Terry look at him with severe expressions. CARTER What's your fuckin' problem?Mr. Murnau and Ms. Lewton unfasten their seat belts and rush toward Alex. MR. MURNAU Alex? Qu'est-ce se? ALEX Qu'est-ce se?! THE PLANE'S GONNA EXPLODE!Obviously, no one ever wants to ever hear that. The students tense.THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTimmediately turns to other attendants, signaling for assistance with a quick definite gesture. In the b.g., attendants hustle toward the economy class cabin.CARTER AND TERRY CARTER TERRY Shut up, Browning! You're not funny.ALEXfrenzied, begins moving toward the aisle. ALEX We have to get out!This frightens everyone. Not the "prophecy," but his panicky, irrational behavior. ALEX (CONT'D) We have to get off this plane!CLEAR RIVERSCAMERA PUSHES INTO HER, hearing Alex's declaration. ALEX (CONT'D) Now! NOW!!RETURNAlex is desperately climbing over Tod, who is trying to calmly restrain his friend. Across the aisle, Carter Horton stands ready to quiet Alex, with force. CARTER Sit! DOWN! Browning! TOD FLIGHT ATTENDANT Alex. Alex! Easy, man. Take it Sir, if this is a joke, easy. we don't tolerate such humor.The flight attendant restrains Carter with an extended forearm. ALEX I'm not joking! I'm not joking!Ms. Lewton and Mr. Murnau move to the seats. Flight attendants try restraining Alex from reaching the aisle. MS. LEWTON MR. MURNAU Alex, Knock it off. It's alright. Settle down, Alex. ALEX Listen to me! This plane will explode on take-off! FLIGHT ATTENDANT Sir, we will remove you from the aircraft if this continues. CARTER I'll remove him. ALEX Fuck you! I'll remove myself!Carter reaches for Alex, who pushes back, trying to get out. Carter responds aggressivly and now the flight attendant, Tod, and the two teachers are in the midst of the melee.The Co-Pilot arrives to secure the situation. He grabs Alex and begins forcibly ushering him up the aisle.A male flight attendant choke holds Carter from the back. Carter struggles but the attendant's postioning has the advantage. He begins removing Carter from the plane as well. TERRY He didn't do nothin'!She follows the attendant, hitting him to help her boyfriend.Just arriving in the cabin, Billy Hitchcock tries to fight past a STEWARDESS to get to his seat. He is blocked by the mass of combatants as they are escorted out. FLIGHT ATTENDANT (he's had it) Anybody in the aisle is off the plane! BILLY No, wait, I was late... that's my seat right there!Under protest, Billy gets pushed back off the plane. Mr. Murnau and Ms. Lewton follow the pack of students and airline personnel as they move toward the exit, calling out to seated teachers and parents while hustling up the aisles. MS. LEWTON MR. MURNAU Everybody just stay where you Mr. Carpenter, keep an eye on are. Just sit tight. things for a moment.Tod watches, amazed and concerned for his friend. He looks across the cabin to...TOD'S POV - GEORGEhis brother gestures, mouths... "you should go with him."TODstarts off down the aisles. CAMERA COUNTERS... ADJUSTING TO CLEAR RIVERS. Amongst the chaos, she considers for a beat, then grabs her backpack, stands and moves into the aisle to exit the plane. CUT TO:INT. BOARDING AREA/TUNNEL - GATE 39 - DAYAlex, the co-pilot, Carter, the attendant, Mr. Murnau, Ms, Lewton, Terry, Tod and Billy proceed down the tunnel. Billy is confused by the chaos. BILLY I didn't do anything! I have my ticket right here!Arriving SECURITY OFFICERS quickly have control of the situation. Alex is taken to a seat at the gate and dropped there by the co-pilot, who, winded, eyes the officers. CO-PILOT You got this?The officers nod. One moves toward Carter as he dropped in a seat away from Alex. Terry sits behind Carter.The co-pilot and attendants start back toward the plane. Ms. Lewton hustles over to them and an airline representitive. CO-PILOT No one gets back on board. That's my call. MS. LEWTON PLEASE... I've got forty students going to Paris...During these negotiations... CAMERA MOVES PAST Ms. Lewton and the Co-Pilot to the boarding ramp door...Clear Rivers exits and takes a seat away from the others, aware she is unnoticed in the confusion. CAMERA INCHES IN as she looks up toward...ALEXCAMERA MATCHES THE MOVE TO HIM AS TOD and Mr. Murnau attempt to calm him down. TOD It's alright. It's alright. You're off the plane. You're off the plane...Rattled, Alex attempts to compose himself. Ms. Lewton appears, hurriedly pulling aside Mr. Murnau. MS. LEWTON Airline's not taking this very well. They'll let one of us back on and the rest can grab a six-ten flight. Gets in two hours later at DeGaulle. It's alright. It's not that big of a deal. MR. MURNAU I'll stay. MS. LEWTON No, you know the whole French thing. Get on the plane.Murnau understands this point and takes off toward the boarding ramp door. Pleading his case, Billy follows Murnau. BILLY I was in the bathroom. The lock was stuck. I didn't fight with anyone!Hustling toward the door. Mr. Murnau gestures toward Ms. Lewton as if "talk to her." He disappears down the ramp. CAMERA PUSHES IN as airline personnel CLOSE THE DOOR...with an ominous THUD.EXT. GATE 39 - AFTERNOON - CARTER, TERRY & BILLY'S POVFlight 180 pulls out of the gate, taxiing toward the runway.INT. GATE 39 - OBSERVATION WINDOW - AFTERNOONCarter turns over his shoulder, looking back angrily towards Alex. Terry wraps a calming/restraining arm around Carter's shoulder, but he starts towards Alex, seated with Ms. Lewton.MENS ROOM ACROSS FROM GATE 39Tod races out of the bathroom with a dampened paper towel. CAMERA FOLLOWS as he hands it to Ms. Lewton seated next to Alex. The teacher places it on Alex's forehead. TOD I called your mom and dad and they're on their way. MS. LEWTON Alex, talk to me. What happened?Alex looks at Tod, who nods. His friend's expression is soothing and open. With lowered tense tone, meant for only the two people beside him... ALEX I... I saw it... like, I don't know... the plane took off. I saw it leave the runway... I looked down and saw the ground...Ms. Lewton and Tod exchange concered glances. ALEX (CONT'D) And then the cabin banged and the left side exploded. The the whole plane... blew up. It was so real. Exactly how everything goes. TOD Been on many planes that blew up, have you?Good point. Alex looks away. MS. LEWTON You must have fallen asleep. CARTER We get thrown off the plane and blow a half day in Paris because Browning has a bad dream? (mocking Alex) It's going to explode! It's going to explode! TOD Fuck off, Horton. MS. LEWTON Tod...A raw nerve, Alex stands. ALEX Only trip you're gonna take is to the fuckin' hospital.Carter scoffs while moving aggressively toward Alex.Carter makes a quick move and grabs Alex. The two security guards rush in to break it up. Chaos erupts agian as the two boys wrestle in the terminal.OBSERVATION DECKCAMERA PUSHES INTO Billy Hitchcock, depressed as he watches the plane take off... BILLY There they go and here we stay.AIRPORT TERMINALOne guard restrains Alex; another Carter. In the b.g. out of the observation deck window... Flight 180 lifts off the runway. CARTER You're payin' for my trip, Browning! ALEX I wish you were on the plane!In the b.g. the 747 head and taillights suddenly, violently, ERUPT into a gigantic fireball of flame.It takes a few seconds for the CONCUSSION to hit the terminal, but when it does... BOOM! A window SHATTERS! Chairs rock! People are knocked off their feet.CAMERA SWEEPS INTO ALEX... stunned as he turns to the window...ALEX'S POV - FLIGHT 180The unceremonious speed of obliteration of hundreds of lives is cruel as flaming debris plummets from the early evening sky.CLEAR RIVERSCAMERA PUSHES IN ON HER, rattled, afraid, but aware of Alex as she is first to turn her eyes toward him.GATE 39Billy Hitchcock walks backward from the window, shocked by shocked step. Ms. Lewton drops to her chair as her legs give out.O.S., ALARMS BEGIN. The two security guards tear off toward more urgent duties. O.S., OUTSIDE, SIRENS WAIL as emergency vehicles race to the tragedy.CAMERA BEGINS TO MOVE toward ALEX... as Tod's head turns toward him, then Terry's... then Carter's. In the chair, beginning to cry, Ms. Lewton eyes Alex, as if afraid of him.CAMERA CONTINUES. SIRENS PIERCING. The emergency vehicles' strobing red lights reflect in Alex's eyes, now in TIGHT as he looks out, frozen with shock... upon the doomed FLIGHT 180. CUT TO:INT. JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - PRESS ROOM #10 - NIGHTSILENCEA pair of Airline REPRESENTATIVES sit with the seven survivors, each numb with shock. Everyone is too raw with residual fear to show any emotion. They sit on folding metal chairs in an empty room, too bright from the fluorescent lights. Beneath their obvious trauma resulting from the catastrophe... each feels uneasy by Alex's presance.The others sit away from Alex and Tod. Alex appears wrought with guilt. He checks the others out of the corner of his eye.ALEX'S POV - THE ROOMMs. Lewton, Carter and Billy glare at Alex. Terry averts her eyes from Alex to bury her face in Carter's shoulder.ALEXfrightened as anyone over what has happened, tenses, defensive and scared. With softspoken strength... ALEX You're lookin' at me as if I caused it. I did not cause this.LEWTON, CARTER, TERRY, AND BILLYmaintain their uncertain expressions. With strained apprehansion, as if not wanting to "dabble in the occult," but needing an immediate answer. MS. LEWTON Is everyone dead? Are there any survivors?WIDERAlex is taken aback by the question, yet even his best friend looks at him for an answer. ALEX How would I know? You think I'm some sort of... CLEAR He's not a witch.CAMERA PUSHES IN ON Alex, relieved and thankful, as he turns to her...CLEAR RIVERS - ALEX'S POVCAMERA MATCHES the move INTO HER as she looks up at Alex, not with fear or repulsion... but with knowledge of an unwanted but irrefutable connection.WIDERCausing a startle, the DOOR OPENS. Everyone's head whips reflexively toward the entrance. The strange event of the flickering lights is quickly forgotten.A half dozen MEN and WOMEN enter the room, displaying official badges and passes. All but two are dressed in casual clothing, having been called in from home; the pair being F.B.I. Special Agents WEINE and SCHRECK. HOWARD SEIGEL and DON HAWKS are representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board. EILEEN WHALE and JACK ARNOLD are members of the Euro-Air "Trauma Team."The officials are sympathetic and calm, exuding the confidence and security trauma victims look for at this time. SEIGEL Hello. I'm Howard Seigel, National Transportation Safety Board vice chairmen. We've notified your families and they are on their way. Does anyone feel they need medical attention or spiritual counseling at this time?Although the words are comforting, being in the position of having to hear them macabre. Ms. Lewton reacts, snapping... MS. LEWTON Have they found any survivors? What's going on?Seigel is calm, yet honest... carefully honest. SEIGEL The cause of the explosion is undetermined. Nassau county authorities are on the scene. Naval search and rescue are en route.He gestures... "and that's all we know." The group slips deeper into despair. WEINE We understand how you must be feeling at this hour... and although we know it may be difficult, we must ask you some questions... regarding today's events, while it's still fresh in your minds.The survivors dread the thought of recounting the horrible experience, yet collectively are ready to co-operate. WEINE It may be valuable to our rescue attempts, or any potential... criminal investigation.The agents, F.B.I. badges displayed in their pockets, turn their eyes, suspicioulsy, toward Alex.ALEXreacts, puzzled, as he realizes the Agents are focused on him... CUT TO:INT. A ROOM - AIRPORT - NIGHT - CLOSE - SCHRECK & WEINEare direct and professional, with no hidden agenda in searching for the truth. Seigel and Hawks from the NTSB are behind them taking notes... SCHRECK You said... (checks notes) "Listen to me! This plane will explode on take-off." (to Alex) How did you know that?ALEXCAMERA PUSHES IN as he looks up, nervous... not about suspicion toward him, but trying to explain what even he doesn't understand. ALEX I got this... feeling... a weird feeling... I can't explain it... WEINE Did you take any seditives before boarding, or on the plane. Sleeping pills? ALEX No. I saw it. I saw it!Tears well as he grows frustrated trying to convey the unique experience. Being trained, veteran officers, Schreck and Weine obsereve; allow him to talk. ALEX Not like a dream... more than that. I experienced the plane exploding... it was so horrible... I know what they all went through tonight...The officers remain quiet, gauging his explanation. ALEX (CONT'D) I'm not a pyschic... I've never had this happen before...The officers study him, unsure yet carefully... SCHRECK Did this "weird feeling" have anything to do with you saying you wished Carter Horton was on the plane... just before it exploded?Alex looks up, stunned. He didn't even recall this until now. ALEX No! SCHRECK Why'd you say it?He considers, owing them an explanation. The he realizes... ALEX Because... I... never thought it would really happen.Weine leans foward... WEINE If that's the case, Alex... why did you really get off the plane?CAMERA INCHES IN as Alex considers, confused, emotional... CUT TO:INT. A ROOM - AIRPORT - NIGHT - TODCAMERA CONTINUES THE MOVE on Tod... as if just realizing... TOD My brother... told me to keep an eye on Alex. He stayed... and I went to make sure Alex was okay. (a whisper) He told me to get off the plane. INT. A SECOND ROOM - AIRPORT - NIGHT - MS. LEWTONdisplaying a similar sickened expression as Tod... MS. LEWTON Larry Murnau told me to get back on... but I told him to go. (pause, guiltily) I sent him back on the plane.INT. A ROOM - AIRPORT - NIGHT - WEINE WEINE No one forced you to get off the plane. You told us you aren't friends with any that did... so, why did you leave the airplane?CLEAR RIVERSCAMERA INCHES IN as she looks up. With total resolve... CLEAR Because I saw and I heard Alex. And... I believed him. CUT TO:INT. JFK INTERNATIONAL BUILDING - PRESS ROOM #10 - NIGHTThe surviviors have all returned to the room. They may be a group, but they are alone with their thoughts. The door is opened by Ms. Whale.Alex's Mother and Father lead by a group of parents into the room. Each moves with grief, yet relief, to their child.Barbara Browning grabs hold of Alex and holds him tight. The mother begins to cry. Ken Browning, eyes welling with tears, grabs his son's hand and squeezes. Alex does not cry. While holding his mother, he watches the others.ALEX'S POV - CARTER AND TERRYTheir parents are concerned, but do not demonstratively show affection. Carter appears as if he wants to hug his MOTHER, but he can't bring himself to betray his self-image.ALEXhis eyes moves toward...CLEAR RIVERSalone, hurt that no one has come to take her home.ALEXhis eyes find...TOD AND HIS FATHERJERRY WAGGNER holds his son, both of them releasing anguished tears. Through his grief, however, Jerry stares at Alex with an expression of anger and accusation.ALEXCAMERA PUSHES IN ON HIM as he holds his mother tightly. OVERLAPPING... A CRACK OF THUNDER! CUT TO:INT. KEN BROWNING'S CAR - NIGHTAlex sits in the back against the door, looking out the window at the storm. Clear Rivers is pressed against the other door. Everyone is slient. Outside, the STORM angrily rages.Alex is unaware that Clear is watching him, searching for some answer that she will not now find. She looks up. CLEAR Here's good.The car pulls over. CLEAR Thank you for the ride. She opens the door and flashes one more look at Alex, but he appears unaware. She exits the car and as the door SHUTS... CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - NIGHTThe room is empty, but the CAMERA is SLOWLY MOVING, as if ITSELF a PRESENCE. O.S., FOOTSTEPS move up the stairs. Alex appears, his parents behind him. He clicks on the light, sending a soft, safe, orange glow across the room.ALEXstands in the threshold of the doorway. His mother places a comforting hand on his shoulder.ALEX'S POV - PENNANTMt. Abraham High School Fighting Colonials.ALEXand now, the tears arrive. He begins crying, SOBBING, as his mother and father hold him. O.S., OUTSIDE... lighting FLASHES... THUNDER RUMBLES... CUT TO:INT. LIVING ROOM - BROWNING HOUSE - NIGHT - TVCNN broadcasts video footage of the disaster. Seat cushions and personal belongings float in the harsh floodlights.LIVING ROOMIt is late and dark. Only the pale light of the TV spills across the living room. Ken and Barbara have fellen asleep, but their son remains awake.Alex's red eyes are locked on the screen, mortified. O.S., a VICIOUS CRACK of LIGHTNING and immediate THUNDER... as if calling Alex to the window. He remains fixed on the TV.ALEX'S POV - TVAn image of Hell as jet fuel burns on the ocean. O.S., as if furious at the slight, THUNDER BANGS...ALEXHe turns, stands... and moves to the picture window, pulling the curtains aside as CAMERA PUSHES IN ON HIM...ALEX'S POV - THE STORMIt is as if Nature is angry. Lightning BOLTS spiderweb across the sky. THUNDER BOOMS.A shard of lightning breaks across the front yard. Oddly, it does not make contact. In the split-second strobe of lightning flash, the bolt abstractly appears as if it were a hand pointing directly at Alex.ALEXhorrified, lurches away from the window, considering what he has seen. Just felt on the ROAR OF THUNDER... CUT TO BLACK:Over black: MINISTER (V.O.) Thirty-nine days have passed since we've lost our thirty-nine loved ones, friends, and teachers.FADE IN:EXT. MT. ABRAHAM HIGH SCHOOL - DAY - CLOSE - ALEXwearing a dark suit and tie, sits beside his parents on white folded chairs. His head is bowed, guilty and sad... MINISTER (CONT'D) As each day passes without a determining cause for the accident, we ask ourselves, "Why?"Alex raises his eyes and looks across the ceremony...ALEX'S POV - TODsits with his mother, LINDA WAGGNER and his father, Jerry. Destraught, Jerry stares off blankly at the minister. MINISTER (CONT'D) Ecclesiastes tell us, "Man no more knows his time than fish taken in the fatal net...ALEXguiltily averts his eyes. Ken notes this and wraps a comforting arm around his son. MINISTER (CONT'D) ...or birds trapped in the snare...Alex checks over his shoulder.ALEX'S POV - OVER HIS SHOULDER - LAST ROW OF SEATSSpecial agents Schreck and Weine subtly survey the area, taking notes. Although their eyes are beyond sunglasses, the tilt of their head indicates they are watching Alex. MINISTER (CONT'D) ...like these the children of men...ALEXturns away, tense. He looks at the minister. MINISTER (CONT'D) ...caught when the Time falls suddenly upon them."CAMERA PUSHES INTO ALEX, feeling eyes upon them. He looks up...ALEX'S POV - CLEAR RIVERSis actually sexy and a bit scandalous in her black dress. Still, she is off by herself, eyes burning at Alex as if challenging him to challenge the words being spoken.ALEXself-consciously turns away, unable to face her, let alone the words being spoken. MINISTER (CONT'D O.S.) And so before we can heal, before we can escape the presence of Death Time, we must mourn and celebrate theirs with this memorial.WIDERA student with a guitar and harmonica stands at the microphone. Without introduction, he begins Neil Young's "Long May You Run."Two other students remove a cloth, unveiling a memorial sculpture etched with the names of the departed. The gathered stand and begin paying their respects to the memorial.MEMORIAL LINECarter and Terry appear IN FRAME. Terry holds a rose. As they move slowly up toward the memorial, Alex gets in line behind them. Carter knows Alex is there, but will not look at him. CARTER Hope you don't think, Browning, that because my name ain't on this wall... that I owe you anything. ALEX I don't. CARTER (re: victims) All I owe is these people. (turns to Alex) To live my life to the fullest.Alex winces from Carter's breath... ALEX Then maybe you should lay off the J.D.Carter has an angry reflexive reaction, grabbing Alex threateningly by the forearm. Terry immediately tries to get Carter to release his hold. CARTER Don't ever fucking again tell me what to do. I control me. Not you.Carter and Alex lock eyes, Alex refraining from showing any pain caused by Carter's grip. Terry finally gets him to release. CARTER I'm never gonna die.He moves off. Terry, however, holds a beat, eyes Alex and gently rubs the area of his arm, as if this is the only manner she can extend her gratitiude in Carter's presence. As Alex pats her arm, Terry quickly moves off.Shaken, Alex considers whether to move foward to the memorial. He steps aside to let the others go ahead as Billy Hitchcock, who has finished paying his respects, spots Alex and heads back up the line. BILLY I took my driver's test this week at the DMV...Alex turns to him, increudlously.. BILLY Got a 70. Lowest score, but I passed. When I was done with the test, the guy who drives with you during the test, he goes, "Young man, you're going to die at a very young age." (beat) That true? ALEX Not here, not now. (beat) Not EVER!Billy sighs, and moves OUT OF FRAME, only to quickly RE-ENTER... BILLY If I ask out Cynthia Paster, will she say "no?"Alex flashes Billy an angry glare. He gets the message and moves off, for good. Alex returns in line, moving toward the memorial.Valerie Lewton places a rose at the base of the memorial then studies the engraved names as the students move past behind her. Alex approaches, watching her as she reaches out with a trembling finger, touching the etched names...CLOSE - MEMORIALLinda Krauss... Thomas Lewis... John McConnell.RETURNAlex stands near her, sympathetically, understanding her pain.... ALEX Ms. Lewton...Her eyes fill with tears and fear. Alex places a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she reacts quickly, pulling away from him, her eyes piercing at him. MS. LEWTON Don't talk to me. You scare the hell out of me.Alex is shattered as the teacher moves away. Tod ENTERS and faces the memorial. TOD (a greeting) Hey.Alex notices Tod is in line behind him. Alex looks around for Tod's father. He is not in line... ALEX I don't want to sound gay, or nothin, but... I miss you.Tod subtly nods, reaching out to the memorial.CLOSE - MEMORIALTod's hand moves across his brother's name... GEORGE WAGGNER.RETURNAs Tod longs for his brother, then looks at his friend. TOD Me, too. (beat) But my dad doesn't understand. When he's better; you and me, road trip to the City. Catch the Yanks. ALEX That's a plan.Tod nods. The two friends stand uncomfortably foar a beat before Tod gestures to the podium. TOD I gotta go. This thing Ms. Lewton showed me in her class, they're gonna let me read it. It says what I'm feeling.Tod holds his friend's arm for strength as he passes. Clear Rivers appears in line, holding a rose. She looks at the memorial, before her startling eyes turn to Alex. Even away from these circumstances, Alex would have trouble handling her intense maturity. As he begins to step away, she thrusts the rose to him. He looks up, puzzled. CLEAR Because of you... I'm still alive. Thank you.Alex takes the rose and she walks away. CAMERA PUSHES IN ON HIM as he eyes... feels... the red flower. TOD (V.O.) We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast... TIME CUT:EXT. MT ABRAHAM HIGH SCHOOL - DAY - THE PODIUMTod nervously stands before the assembly, reading aloud with a sad, yet optimistic resolve. CAMERA PUSHES IN, at an ominous ANGLE and rhythm, to the podium. TOD (CONT'D) But when we say this, we imagine that the hour is placed in an obscure and distant future.As he speaks, the sunlight suddenly turns to shadow.ALEXlooks up at the sky...THE SKY - ALEX'S POVWithin the deep blue, a single black cloud blocks the sun.ALEXCAMERA INCHES IN as, troubled, he looks back to Tod...TODas he continues to read... TOD (CONT'D) It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon. CUT TO:EXT. WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHT - ESTABLISHINGStorm clouds devour a waxing crescent moon above a modest home set amongst the edge of the woods. TOD (V.O., CONT'D) This afternoon... which is so certain... and which has every hour filled in advance.INT. LIVING ROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHTA lone light glows. Jerry Waggner has fallen asleep, perhaps passed out, reclined in "dad's chair." Tod's mother is asleep on the sofa, balls of tissue on the floor. Tod enters the room and stares sadly at his parents...Tod picks up a glass and swigs the remainder of his father's scotch before moving off and climbing the stairs. CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE - TABLE FANswivels as it distributes its breeze.ALEXsits at his desk, dark circles beneath his eyes. Swamping the desk are printouts of Internet Web pages and newspaper articles concerning the crash of Flight 180, forensic engineering textbooks, NTSB reports on past airline disasters and... REALITY BEYOND MATTER: Vaishnava Philosophy.Alex studies his mountain of research, increasingly obsessed.An O.S. paper FLUTTER draws his attention to the newspaper being blown by the fan. He reaches out and grabs it. Headlines and photos report on the memorial service.CAMERA PUSHES IN as he sighs, troubled...ALEX'S POV - NEWSPHOTOClear Rivers sits in her seat, legs crossed, alluring and sexy and mysterious.ALEXcloses the paper, puzzled by his reaction. He shakes it off and throws the paper on the desk. Alex considers for a beat, then pulls open a lower drawer. Digging through the mess inside, he finds his stash... the April 1997 issue of Penthouse. CUT TO:INT. BATHROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHTAlight CLICKS on REVEALING an old, '20's built bathroom. The toilet is beside the bathtub/shower, with just enough knee space to the counter cabinets when one lifts the toilet seat.Tod puts the lid down and UNSNAPS his jeans. As he turns, pulls his pants down and sits, CAMERA MOVES to the CURTAINS... still... until a cold soft breeze causes them to billow. CAMERA FOLLOWS the wind as it CONTINUES into the room, rippling across shower curtains.As the breeze passes Tod, he pauses... as if sensing, but not understanding... this is more than a wayward autumn breeze. He moves to close the window, however, CAMERA CONTINUES as the air makes ITS way to the door.The door is softly pushed closed by the breeze.BACK OF THE TOILET TANKTod sits, back to CAMERA, which CRANES DOWN the tank, STOPPING behind the locking nut and water line pipe.As the toilet FLUSHES O.S., CAMERA NOW MOVES INTO the locking nut, which begins to slightly rattle. Drips of water stream from the tank onto the floor. CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - NIGHTAlex flips the magazine open to a centerfold.PENTHOUSE PICTORIALThe model's pose and expression tempt Alex towards the momentary respite form his troubles. The caption beneath the centerfold pictorial reads, "Tymme Has Come Today!"ALEXconsiders the reports on the Flight 180 crash, then returns his attention to the magazine. He unzips his pants, then pauses... his eyes returning hesitantly to the newspaper photo of Clear... CUT TO:INT. BATHROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHT- CLOSE- RAZOR BLADEwaits on the counter. CAMERA PULLS AWAY as Tod picks it up. He looks at his face in the mirror, as if behind him... a black indiscernible form, like a shadow, however, actually a presence incapable of reflecting light.Tod whips around...a puddle forms, creeping toward the heel of Tod's stocking feet.TODturns on the faucet and grabs his toothbrush, squeezing paste onto the bristles.CLOSE - FAUCETthe f.g. running water is out of FOCUS. In the b.g. sits an unplugged radio.TODnotes the radio. CAMERA FLLOWS HIS HAND as he grabs the plug.THE PUDDLE ON THE FLOORgrows closer to his foot...ELECTRICAL SOCKETthe radio plug is inserted.TODturns on the radio... JOHN DENVER (V.O.) And they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun.spooked, quickly turns it off, unplugs it and pushes it aside.THE PUDDLE ON THE FLOORcontinues to grow... CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - NEWSPHOTO - CLEAR RIVERSOdd how one can appear so erotic at a funeral.ALEXstudies the photograph, then notices the rose she gave him. Succumbing to guilt, feeling like the freak all teenagers believe they are, Alex sets the paper back on the desk. He grabs the Penthouse and turns, opening the desk drawer in order to return the magazine, however...A LOUD BANG turns Alex's head to the window!ALEX'S POV - WINDOWAn OWL has apparently smashed into the window, awkwardly flapping its large wings, then turns its head toward Alex, large yellow eyes shining like an alien creature.WIDERStartled, Alex reflexively throws the Penthouse across the room, pages tearing as it hits the sill. The giant bird flies off.THE TABLE FANswivels, a page catching in the whirling blades.A PIECE OF PAPERtorn form the magazine flits across the room.ALEXCAMERA INCHES IN ON HIM as the piece of paper ENTERS FRAME, floating and flitting until landing on his knee. He picks it up and turns it over...ALEX'S POV - PIECE OF PAPERis torn in such a manner that the only lettlers remaining from the centerfold's caption are "...Tod..." CUT TO:INT. BATHROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHT - SHOWER CURTAINis pulled aside REVEALING two pairs of Linda Waggner's nylons drying on a retractable clothesline.THE PUDDLE ON THE FLOORhis foot slips...TODfalls foward.THE RETRACTABLE CLOTHESLINEretracts! WHIPPING wildly!THE SOAP DISHTod's hand tries to grab anything to hold him. His hand slips, knocking over a bottle of shampoo.TOD'S NECKthe thin clothesline coils around his neck. The plastic anchor wraps beneath the cord, essentially creating a noose.PUDDLE ON THE FLOORHe slips again.TODfalls against the back wall of the shower stall, pulled by the retracting wire. He kicks with his feet, desperately trying to gain a footing.SHOWER HEAD - TOD'S POVquickly, reflected in the chrome... the dark shadow approaches...BATHTUBTod's feet slip in the slick shampoo and water.CLOSE - TOD'S EYESflare. Blood vessels burst. He GROANS, attempting to call out.THE BATHROOM DOORis closed.INT. LIVING ROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHTTod's parents remain asleep. O.S., a FAINT MUFFLE can be HEARD.INT. BATHROOM - WAGGNER HOUSE - NIGHT - CLOSE - TOD'S NECKhis hands tear at his flesh, desperately trying to pull the cord from his neck.TOD'S EYESdart desperately toward the counter.ON THE COUNTERa pair of nose-hair scissors.TODCHOCKING, GASPING, face turning purple, reaches for the counter.ON THE COUNTERTod's hand ENTER FRAME. The scissors, sadistically just out of reach.TOD'S FACEFALLS INTO FRAME, suspended by the cord, propped against the back wall of the shower stall, his bluish purple tongue grotesquely juts from his mouth.TOD'S POV - DEATHall four edges of FRAME appear to collapse as if by weight of the darkness until forming a myopic center. Then, from within the center... appears Tod's face. Although the expression is serene the pallor is grayish, until... suddnely, shockingly... Tod's face decays, as if ten years of rot in the grave is compressed into 72 FRAMES.TODThe moment of realization...HIS FEETkick upon the slippery basin. After a beat... they stop.TODAs his body settles... dies... CAMERA PULLS AWAY fully revealing his lifeless form. Once behind the toilet tank, CAMERA CRANES DOWN to the floor. The water eerily retreats from the floor, slipping back toward the base of the toilet and like a murderer, slips out of the night. CUT TO:EXT. WAGGNER HOUSE - LATER - CLOSE - SIREN LIGHTSwhirl and flash INTO CAMERA. CAMERA CRANES DOWN, ADJUSTING to REVEAL a Paramedics vehicle, a Sullivan County, N.Y. Sheriff's patrol car and unmarked sedan.CAMERA CONTINUES MOVING UNTIL REVEALING Alex Browning racing down the sidewalk. He runs into a CLOSE-UP, sweating, out of breath, expression horrified as he takes in the scene before him.SPECIAL AGENTS SCHRECK AND WEINEstand in the front yard. Schreck subtly redirects Weine's attention toward...ALEX - SPECIAL AGENT'S POVThe boy franically moves to a paramedic. ALEX What happened? Is Tod alright?SCHRECK AND WEINEhearing this, they turn to one another, with an expression suggesting a deepening suspicion.ALEXsees the officers. Assuming they are sympathetic to his concern, he starts toward them, until... CLEAR (O.S.) Alex!Alex stops, looks around. Behind the tree and in the shadows of the adjacent house, stands Clear Rivers. CLEAR (CONT'D) (a warning) Get outta here!CAMERA PUSHES INTO ALEX, stunned, but before he can ask any further questions, a METALLIC CLACKING draws his attention back toward the house.ALEX'S POV - A COVERED GURNEYis rolled out of the front door by paramedics and an official with a jacket marked "CORONER," Behind the body follows Tod's father. He pauses in the doorway as he spots Alex in the front yard.ALEXis pale, nauseous. His eyes follow his friend's dead body as it is rolled toward the paramedics vehicle. Tod's father approaches Alex, the agents stand nearby. ALEX What... what happened?Mr. Waggner glares at Alex, accusingly. MR. WAGGNER Didn't you... "see" it?Alex is stung, guilty. He averts his eyes. Schreck and Weine note this reaction. MR. WAGGNER (CONT'D) Couldn't you "predict" it? Couldn't you read his mind? Alex remains silent, hurt. ALEX Mr. Waggner... MR. WAGGNER You caused Tod so much guilt over George staying on the plane that... (breaking down) He took his own life.Alex is stunned, defensive. ALEX He wouldn't do it!Mr. Waggner turns toward the paramedics van, as if "there's the proof." ALEX He... he told me we would be friends again after you got better. After you got over George. Why would he make plans for the future if he were planning on killing himself? MR. WAGGNER All my wife and I will ever know is we wouldn't have lost our youngest son... if you'd told our oldest to get off the plane.Alex is rocked as if having taken a punch to the face. Mr. Waggner begins to walk toward the peramedics vehicle. Alex eyes the F.B.I. agents, who, after studying for a beat, turn and move toward their vehicle.The gathered spectators begin whispering to one another, clearly about Alex, causing him to search for, what appears to be, his only ally, Clear Rivers.ALEX'S POV - ADJACENT YARDClear is gone.FRONT YARDeveryone has moved away from Alex, leaving him very alone. Alex's eyes remained locked on the peramedics' vehicle. As the ambulance doors CLOSE on the body of his best friend... CUT TO:EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY - CLOSE - LEAVES ON TREESA soft summer breeze passes through the leaves on a tree. A yellow leaf drops from the branch and flutters to the ground. CAMERA FOLLOWS until it falls upon an old cracked sidewalk.A pair of worn Nikes ENTER FRAME just as the leaf drops before them. The feet and CAMERA HOLD until CRANING UP to REVEAL Alex, staring at the leaf with an expression reminiscent of the torn paper's message about "...Tod." CLEAR (O.S.) Almost Autumn.Alex looks off toward a small unkept house, nestled at the edge of the woods. In the open garage stands Clear Rivers amongst cluttered artwork, supplies and tools. Her t-shirt's sleeves have been cut off and neck-line cut low. Her jeans have a revealing hole at the spot which once was a back pocket. She wears heavy black work shoes. A dog rests nearby on the floor. ALEX It's only the end of June. CLEAR (shrugs) Yeah, but everthing's always in transition. If you focus, even now, one week into summer... you can feel Autumn coming. (beat) Almost like bein' able... to see the future.Alex reads her intention loud and clear. She returns to her artwork. The dog GROWLS softly as Alex appraches the garage.INT/EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVERS' HOUSE - DAYEntering the garage, Alex gets a closer look at her artwork. It's abstract sculpture and canvas work and pretty bad, at that. CLEAR Know what this is?She gestures to him to approach her. He tenses, awkward, but moves closer. Clear lifts a plastic cover off a canvas. Beneath is a mess of green and brown and orange; teen angst poorly communicated. Glued to the center is a twisted piece of metal. ALEX Like, um... you're mad about something?She sighs, "thanks a lot," then proud, but not enough to make her appear foolish over her bad artwork, indicates the metal. CLEAR A piece of debris... from the plane. I went to the shore off the crash site and it washed up on the beach. ALEX You went there? I've wanted to go there, but I thought it was off limits. CLEAR It is. But that didn't stop me. Shouldn't stop you.Alex gently touches the piece of the plane, almost expecting to feel something more than cold metal. He looks to Clear... ALEX Why were you there last night?While she cleans brushes with a can of turpentine... CLEAR Look, I've seen enough T.V. to know the F.B.I. doesn't investigate teen suicides. But they were there last night, that means: one, they still don't have a clue what caused the crash. Two, they haven't ruled out anything. And the fact that seven people got off the plane is probably weird enough, not to mention, that one of those people had a vision, or whatever, of it exploding minutes before it did explode, is highly suspicious. And it doesn't help that the visionaries' friend just committed suicide.Alex eyes her for a long beat. She turns away from him, returning the can of turpentine to a shelf. ALEX Why were you there last night?Clear turns to Alex. The two couldn't appear more different. She moves to a sculpture, an ugly black and green globular sculpture with a white dot in the center. CLEAR Know what this is?Alex, cocks his eyebrow probably thinking, "a mess?" but tactfully shakes his head "no." CLEAR It's you.Remaining dry and stoned faced, Alex tenses, uncomfortable. CLEAR Not a likeness. It's how you make me feel, Alex. ALEX I'm... really sorry. CLEAR Like you, the sculpture doesn't even know what, or why, it is. Reluctant to take form. And, yet, creating an absolute but incomprehansible attraction.Uncertain, and yet moved, Alex listens. CLEAR (CONT'D) Before that day, you were just another suburban nothing that would never have anything to do with my life. And I'm sure you thought I was some Marilyn Manson body-pierced freak, or whatever. (beat) But at that moment... on the plane... I felt what you felt. I didn't know where all those emotions were coming from until you started freaking out.Alex sighs, embarrassed. CLEAR (CONT'D) I didn't see what you saw, but I felt it. Okay, I'm not into all that X-Files bullshit... but it was a psychic connection. Why to me? Why to you?Jarred, he eyes her, frightened. CLEAR And you can still feel it, can't you? Something from that day is still with you. I know, because I can still feel you.Alex is increasingly uncomfortable with the subject, but eased by Clear's apparent, somewhat, understanding. Lowering his tone... CLEAR That's why I was there last night. ALEX I've never dealt with death before. I wasn't alive when my grandparents died. I wish I could know. I mean, all this... could just be in our heads. Now it feels like it's everywhere. CLEAR "It?" ALEX What if Tod... is just the first... of us?The idea sends a shot of apprehension through Clear. CLEAR Is that something you're "feeling?" ALEX I don't know. I wish I could just see him... one more time, then, maybe... I would know. CLEAR Then, let's go see him!Alex reacts, shocked and yet her impulsiveness is exciting... CUT TO:INT. FUNERAL HOME - FOYER - NIGHTCAMERA is LOW, moving across the paisley carpet. Dim light, spilling through the stained glass windows, falls upon the creepy decor, appearing as if designed by a morose Laura Ashley, floor model coffins and urns. CAMERA CONTINUES, TILTING UP to the CEILING, REVEALING a stained glass skylight. Outside, on the roof, two silhouettes appear...The skylight hinges CRACK open. Clear leads the way. lifting the frame, then dropping it throught the skylight window.Alex is not as smooth as his socius criminus. Using his knee to slow his descent, he hangs from the sill for a moment before dropping to the carpet.CAMERA MOVES WITH Alex and Clear through the unsettling reception area; plastic flowers, gold candelabra, plaster cherubs and angels. A bronze plaque identifies: "MT. ABRAHAM FUNERAL HOME. THE JOURNEY'S END. WILLIAM BLUDWORTH - INTERMEDIARY." CLEAR (whispering) Gives me a rush... ALEX This place?! CLEAR Doin' somethin' I'm not supposed to.With a hot, mischievous smile, Clear proceeds toward the hallway. Alex anxiously sighs... then follows.INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALLWAY - FUNERAL HOME - NIGHTAn elevator with collapsible metal door lowers INTO FRAME. Pushing the door aside, Alex and Clear proceed into the hallway, lined with morgue green tile. Stainless steel gurneys and porcelain equipment holding yellow surgical tubing and thick foot-long needles sit in the corridor.A faint light spills from beneath a doorway. Clear reaches out to the knob but Alex quickly grabs her hand. From a cart behind them, he pulls a latex glove out of a box and snaps it on. CLEAR Good call. Very "Quincy."Alex tries the doorknob. Locked. He looks at her, defeated. Clear quickly points to some mortician's tools on the cart.From it, Alex produces a thin six inch needle. He inserted the tool in the lock and jimmies the doorknob. CLACK!INT. MORGUE - FUNERAL HOME - NIGHTA lone desk lamp shines. Across the room, laying on a porcelain table, fluid draining tubes attached, lies Tod. A sheet is pulled up to his shoulders. He carries the macabre appearence of a corspe having been made up by a mortician. Hair combed and sprayed, skin tone too orange, blush too rouge and lips too red.As Alex and Clear approach... ALEX That... him? CLEAR I think. But why'd they make him up like... Michael Jackson? ALEX That's him, but... he's not here. That... whatever... that whatever made him Tod is gone.Suddenly, Tod jerks; his hand lifting four inches... ALEX CLEARAhhh! fuck! You fucking Ohmygod! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD!asshole. You think this He's not dead? is funny, you fucking dick? Tod, if you're not dead I'm gonnafucking kill you! MR. BLUDWORTH (O.S.) Please don't yell... Both are jolted again with shock, turning toward the voice...MR. BLUDWORTHCAMERA PUSHES, LOW ANGLE, INTO WILLAIM BLUDWORTH, an African-American man, early 50's, dressed in dark suit and tie. MR. BLUDWORTH You'll wake the dead.He flashes a dry mortician's smile, pleased by his wan pun. Alex and Clear haven't recovered from the corspe's actions to calmly address Bludworth.. ALEX Why..?Alex completes his question by raising his hand, ala Tod's dead body. Bludworth nods, understanding... MR. BLUDWORTH Chemicals in the vascular flush create cadaveric spasm.As the startle of the situation settles, it dawns on Alex that they have been busted. He nervously offers an explanation. ALEX I'm... a friend of his. His best friend. See, his father... MR. BLUDWORTH (ominous) I know who you are.The mortician eyes Alex, understanding. Alex senses this and eases. Clear moves toward Tod's body, examining the neck area. CLEAR They said he hung himself, but there's no marks. MR. BLUDWORTH I crafted a reconstruction of the Laryngeal prominence region with Velvetone Surgical Wax and Permaseal.Clear moves in for a closer look, then calls Alex over to the body. After a beat of reluctance, Alex looks at Tod's neck. ALEX What are all those tiny marks?ALEX'S POV - CLOSE - TOD'S NECKThe wounds have been filled with wax and covered by greasepaint. At this proximity, however, it is apparent tiny cuts line the area above and below the large cut made by the wire. MR. BLUDWORTH (V.O.) Cuticle lacerations. WIDER ALEX Why would he pull at the wire if he were committing suicide? CLEAR Why would they say it was a suicide... if it weren't?Because of the supernatural "message" he recieved, Alex is reluctant to answer. He eyes Mr. Bludworth, who, with a wry half smile, eyes Alex as if aware of the reason behind his hesitation. ALEX His father's pretty fucked up with denial. Maybe he couldn't deal with the thought of an other accident... taking another son. MR. BLUDWORTH In Death...CAMERA INCHES TOWARD the mortician. In this environment, lit with Fritz Lang shadows, Bludworth's tone, appearance... he could easily be mistaken for personification of the subject. MR. BLUDWORTH ... there are no accidents. No coincidencess. No mishaps. (smiles) And no... escapes. ALEX You saying Tod did kill himself?Bludworth moves to Tod on the draining table, disconnecting the tubes connecting the body to the embalming chemicals. MR. BLUDWORTH Suicide. Murder. Plane crash. What does it matter? He was going to end someday. From the minute you're cut loose from the womb... it's a one way ticket on a trip to the tomb.Vile liquid oozes out of the body onto the porcelain table. MR. BLUDWORTH You may not realize it, but we're all just a mouse that a cat has by its tail. Every single move we make, from the mundane to the monumental... the red light we stop at, or run; the people we have sex with, or won't with us; the airplane we ride, or walk out of... is all a part of Death's sadistic design leading to the grave. ALEX Design?The mortician considers as he drains some yellowish green fluid from the table. He shrugs then continues his work... MR. BLUDWORTH If Life is like a box of chocolates... Death... Death is like a big Milton Bradley game of "Mouse Trap." The day you're born is just the boot, hanging from the streetlamp, kicking the marble to get things rolling. Growing up is only the marble rolling down the curving chute. You feel immortal having survived school, sex, drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll, but you've really only upset the big hand holding the steel ball that falls into the bathtub. Marriage and kids and career seem to make it all worthwhile until the ball hits the see-saw and flips the diving man into the big barrel. In the old folks home or the hospital you just see the big cage rattling down until it captures... the mouse. (beat) Game over.Alex considers as Clear eyes him, conveying "this guys's whacked!" Alex moves toward Bludworth... ALEX Maybe there's no way to win... but... if you figured out the game... you knew where the "steel ball was rolling" couldn't you avoid the trap and extend the playing time? Couldn't you... cheat Death at Its own game?Mr. Bludworth looks directly at Alex. CAMERA MOVES IN ON EACH, INDIVIDUALLY... this between the two of them. MR. BLUDWORTH You already did that by walking off the plane. Now you gotta out when and how it'll come back at you. (beat) Play your hunch, Alex. If you think you can get away from it. (beat) But beware the risk of cheating the plan, disrespecting the design... could iniciate a horrifying fury that would terrorize even the Grim Reaper. (beat) And you don't even want to fuck with that Mack Daddie.Alex's eyes are locked on Bludworth's chilling, pleasant smile. The mortician yanks on a tube, REVEALING a foot long needle removed from Tod's spinal column. The horrific nature of death is vividly demonstrated to Alex. ALEX I'm sorry we broke in. MR. BLUDWORTH No harm. No foul.Alex grabs her arm, starting toward the door. CLEAR We didn't find what we were looking for.Alex looks at Bludworth... ALEX Yeah, we did.MR. BLUDWORTHCAMERA PUSHES INTO the mortician, pleased the message has been recieved. MR. BLUDWORTH I'll see you soon. CUT TO:EXT. MAIN STREET - DAYBRAKING LOUDLY, startlingly, a public bus PULLS INTO CAMERA and stops. The doors HISS open. CLEAR (O.S.) The mortician was whacked.CAMERA ADJUSTS as Alex and Clear step off the bus and onto the street. CLEAR (CONT'D) He was trippin' on formaldehyde.Clear starts up the street, but Alex grabs her arm and steps back, assuring the bus moves off... safely. He nods, "it's safe to go." Throughout the following, his eyes are searching for anything potentially deadly. ALEX He said Death has a design. Even before he said that I had been seeing patterns. CLEAR (sarcastic) As in flannels and plaids?Up ahead, scaffolds rise before a building being restored. O.S., HAMMERING and CONSTRUCTION WORK POUND from above. In the f.g., tools and metal spikes. After a "thumbs up" gesture, the rope is pulled UP AND OUT OF FRAME. ALEX How many died on Flight 180? From our group? CLEAR Thirty-nine. ALEX Remember the gate number?As Clear takes a moment to consider, Alex steers them well around the scaffolds, eyes skyward during the move... CLEAR No. ALEX Thirty-nine.This is a creepy fact. Even though past the construction, Alex checks over his shoulder to assure they are out of harm's way. ALEX Remember the departure time? CLEAR Like... 4:25.Reaching an intersection, Alex pushes the pedestrian traffic light button, then steps well away from the curb.PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC SIGNALthe halting red hand is lit. ALEX (V.O.) Do you know when I was born?INTERSECTIONClear sighs, growing impatient with Alex. CLEAR 4:25. ALEX Right. April 25th. CLEAR Wait. I thought you meant the time of your birth. Four/Twenty-five, as in, month and day... that's a reach.PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC SIGNALthe halting red hand turns to the little white walking man.INTERSECTIONClear takes a step off the sidewalk and onto the street. Alex tugs her back, looking both ways while outraged by her challenge. ALEX My birthday is the same as of the time I was meant to die! That's a reach!?VROOM! A car indeed makes a right, TEARING through the intersection. Once past, Alex takes Clear by the arm and hustles them across the street. CLEAR You're sounding like those people who, you know... "Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and hid in a theatre and Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and hid in a warehouse."CAMERA HOLDS REVEALING an unmarked sedan parked across and down from a Starbucks with outdoor seating. Schreck and Weine sit in the car, eyes coolly locked on Alex and Clear.DOWN THE STREET - HEADING WESTBilly Hitchcock rides toward the Starbucks on his bicycle.EXT. STARBUCKS - DAYsitting outside, Alex hunches over the table, increasingly anxious. Clear listens; expression skeptical. ALEX I'm not just layin' down a bunch of math here, with this. I'm talking about indications... omens... that day, that we were meant to die. That, if, we have been aware of... would have saved everyone on the plane. CLEAR That's total bullshit. You can find death omens anywhere you want to.She picks up her paper coffee cup. CLEAR (CONT'D) Hey, look! "Coffee" starts with a "C" and ends with an "E." So does the word "choke!" We're going to choke to death! Oh no! Starbuck was a whaler. We're going to be harpooned!Alex angrily glares at Clear. Clear drops her tone. CLEAR (CONT'D) You'll go nuts if you start with that shit.Ms. Lewton appears from around the corner. She starts toward the entrance, but pauses, tensing when she sees Alex.He cautiously flashes a greeting smile. The teacher, however, averts her eyes and continues into the coffee shop. Alex sighs, guiltily. Clear sympathizes with both of them. CLEAR She's leaving the school. Moving away.Alex studies, appealing to her... ALEX Clear, how do we know that by just sitting here, breathing this air or sipping the coffee, having crossed the street... we haven't started in motion the events that will lead to our death? Fifty years from now. Ten years. Tomorrow. (beat) You don't unless... you're able to open yourself to the signs I'm willing to show you.He leans foward, removing a peice of paper from his pocket.CLOSE - ALEX'S HANDslides across the table. Opening his hand REVEALS the piece of paper reading, "... Tod..." Clear's hand ENTER'S FRAME to take the paper. CAMERA FOLLOWS AS SHE raises it, her expression obviously puzzled. As she eyes Alex for an explanation, CAMERA CRANES DOWN QUICKLY to the empty paper cups on the table...... a slight approaching BREEZE knocks them over.DOWN THE STREET - HEADING WESTA somewhat cherry 70's muscle car speeds in the direction of the Starbucks. Carter Horton is driving. Terry Chaney rides shotgun. Carter looks out the window.CARTER'S POV - MOVING - ALEX AND CLEARShe holds the paper as Alex, apparently, explains the story.CARTER'S CARCARTER scowls, his anger rising as he slows, staring at the perceived reasons for his problems.ALEX AND CLEARHer eyes turn from the paper to Alex, concerned about him... CLEAR I don't understand... did you see Tod die? Did it happen again, like on the plane? ALEX No, but it might as well be the same thing. This was a message... from someone, or something... hinting... at the design. CLEAR Alex, on the plane... you must have experienced... some kind of hyper awareness. But here... you're suggesting Tod's death... and maybe our own... will happen because of... an active Presence.Alex nods, feeling she's understanding. ALEX The mortician said Death has a design. Now... if you, me, Tod, Carter, Terry, Billy, Ms. Lewton messed up that design, because, for whatever reason, I was able to see Death's plan... then we cheated it. (beat) But what if it was our time, what if we were not meant to get off that plane? What if it is still is our time? If... It... is still not finished with us? We will all still die; now, not later.Troubled and deeply concerned, Clear studies Alex. ALEX (CONT'D) Unless... we find the pattern. And cheat it again.Clear sets the paper down, looking sadly at Alex. CLEAR After hearing you, just now... I do believe... Alex leans back and sighs, relieved... CLEAR (CONT'D) ...that Tod killed himself.Alex is taken aback, hurt and angry. ALEX Then there's no one left who can help me.CARTER'S CARHis eyes having never left Alex, Carter suddenly cranks the wheel hard to the left to make a tight U-Turn.BILLY HITCHCOCKrides his bike. He reacts, startled by...BILLY HITCHCOCK'S POV - CARTER'S CARbarreling down towards him. The car cuts in front of the bicycle to complete the U-Turn.WIDERBilly SWERVES to the left, directly in front of an oncoming car. The car SWERVES right, as does Billy, avoiding a certain fatal collision for the cyclist. The oncoming car HONKS!Carter's car pulls up to the curb. Oblivious to the accident he almost caused, Carter gets out, strutting toward the tables outside the coffee shop. Inside the car, Terry sighs... TERRY Baby, come on... not now.But her boyfriend continues. She gets out and hustles after him.ALEX AND CLEARTheir attention drawn by the commotion, Clear and Alex watch Carter Horton approach them, followed by Terry, who stops, irked, near the curb at the crosswalk. TERRY Carter...At that moment, Ms. Lewton exits with an ezpresso drink. Sensing trouble, she has no energy or desire to involve herself. CARTER Kind of have a reunion, here. TERRY Let it go!Carter steps before Ms. Lewton, blocking her exit... CARTER When are you moving? MS. LEWTON A couple of weeks.She can't wait to leave. While trying to walk around Carter... CARTER We're losing our favorite teacher. ALEX Look, there's something you should all know. CLEAR Alex...Carter eyes Alex, continuing the taunt. He raises the volume of his words to drown out Alex's words and incite conflict. CARTER (CONT'D) ALEX (CONT'D)Lived here her whole life. This'll be hard to believe.Ms. Lewton's eyes flash to Alex, afraid of him. CARTER (CONT'D) ALEX (CONT'D)And now she has to move. Listen to me, we may allAll because of Browning. be in danger... TERRY Shut up! The both of you!The two boys stop their heated exchange. TERRY (CONT'D) They died! We lived! (beat) Get over it! I won't let that plane crash be the most important thing in my life. I'm moving on, Carter, and if you're gonna waste your life beating the shit out of Alex everytime you see him, then you can just drop fucking dead!Head and shoulders remaining angrily in Carter's direction, Terry takes a blind step off the curb and into the crosswalk, WITHOUT A CUT... a bus suddenly speeds INTO FRAME and, THUD! plows directly right into her...ALEX, CLEAR, CARTER AND MS. LEWTONare SPLATTERED with BLOOD before they can even recoil. CUT TO:INT. BROWNING LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE - ALKA SELTZERFIZZLES in the glass, while O.S., a PHONE RINGS...ALEXhas crashed, watching CNN. It's a tense recline. Red circles rim the lids of his eyes. He sips from the glass to settle his stomach. Ken appears from the kitchen, hand over the reciever. KEN It's that girl... Clear.No response from Alex. Ken sighs, then into the phone... KEN He's in the shower, Clear. Can I have him get back at ya? Sure... bye.Ken returns to the living room, concerned about his son. Alex averts his eyes, stressed and ashamed. Ken sits nearby. KEN (CONT'D) She's concerned about you. (beat) I'm concerned about you.Alex turns his eyes to the glass. KEN (CONT'D) Why don't you want to talk to her... or me? ALEX Dad... you and mom have helped me out, so much. But there's... some things I need to understand before I can talk... to anyone about it.The father respects this young man's wishes. Ken nods "fair enough." In the silent moment, O.S., from the television... CNN ANCHOR (O.S.) The National Transportation Safety Board has a new theory tonight on the possible cause of Euro-Air Flight 180...Alex quickly grabs the remote and turns up the VOLUME...TELIVISIONA computer graphic illustrations the area of the lower fuselage. CNN ANCHOR (CONT'D, V.O.) Deterioration of silicon insulation on an electrical connector to the scavenger pump may have leaked combustible fluids.ALEX AND KENAlex remains riveted to the screen. CNN ANCHOR (CONT'D, V.O.) A spark in the fuel switch...TELEVISIONThe graphic ZOOMS into the area in the rear right side, nearly above Tod's seat. ALEX (O.S.) That's Tod's seat...ALEXCAMERA PUSHES IN as he listens... CNN ANCHOR (CONT'D, V.O.) ... may have ignited the fuel line. And proceeded to the fuel pump.TELEVISIONThe high-tech computer image traces the path of the explosion through the plane. A red line representing the fuel line zigs through the body of the plane, making a sharp turn forward to the fuel pump, which explodes. Jagged lines show the direction of the explosion moving backwards toward the rear of the plane. MATCH CUT TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - DAY - 747 SCHEMATICdrawn in Alex's hand, and hundreds of steps down from CNN computer image, yet accurate as Alex's finger traces the path, away from the seats marked "ME" and "CLEAR." The path starts over "TOD," then moves to "TERRY." The line moves forward away from "CARTER" toward the fuel pump.The corresponding jagged picture of the explosion back is reminiscent of the "hand of Death," seen earlier in the lightning. It is a graphic demonsration of the arbitrary nature of Death.ALEXis amped, intensely more frightened as he believes... ALEX The path of the explosion... (a whisper) That's Death's design.It instantly, frightfully, occurs to him, he now knows who will be next...CLOSE - SCHEMATICAlex's finger quickly moves along the fuel line. After "TERRY," the seat intersecting the path of the fule line, over the fuel pump, is marked "MS. LEWTON." CUT TO:INT. VALERIE LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - VALERIE LEWTONENTER'S FRAME, on the phone, wearing a t-shirt and sweats. MS. LEWTON (O.S.) Some nights I'm woken up by the sound of my own voice, you know, inside my head, goin', "No, you know the whole French thing. Get on the plane."Moving boxes are stacked in the living room; organized disarray of relocating. The house is old, been in the family forever. Dust marks the walls where framed photos and artwork were once displayed. MS. LEWTON (CONT'D) Everything here reminds me... of sending Mr. Murnau back on the plane... Right, I'm hoping a change will help... I lived here my whole life and wherever I looked were great memories, you know... but now all I can see is Mr. Murnau... those kids. Just looking out my own front yard... makes me feel mothing but fear.She peeks out of the front curtains and looks sadly upon her front yard. Her expression alters... alarmed...EXT. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - MS. LEWTON'S POV - FRONT YARDThe figure is Alex Browning.INT. MS. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTMs. Lewton steps away from the curtains. MS. LEWTON (quickly) Laura, I gotta call you back.She immediately hangs up and speed dials. MS. LEWTON (CONT'D) This is Valerie Lewton. I need Agent Schreck... TIME CUT:EXT. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTAlex has moved closer to her house, remaining in the shadows. He checks for any passers-by. Being sure there are none, he creeps toward Ms. Lewton's car. He visually inspects the exterior. As he kicks the tires... an unmarked sedan SCREECHES up. Doors open...Startled, Alex turns to find...Special agents Schreck and Weine standing in the street, backlit in the strong headlights of their car. SCHRECK What are you doing?ALEXis nervous but determined. He tells the truth... ALEX Checking the air in her tires to make sure they're safe.SPECIAL AGENTS SCHRECK AND WEINEafter a beat of incredulity... SCHRECK Get in the car.INT. MS. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - VALERIE LEWTONis watching, peeking out her front curtains. O.S., CAR DOORS CLOSE. The vehicle ROARS OFF. She releases the curtains and moves back, feeling somewhat better, but still rattled.Then...The curtains billow as if blown by a breeze. Ms. Lewton appears puzzled as she moves the curtains aside to find the windows closed. As CAMERA PUSHES IN ON HER, tensing and uneasy... CUT TO:INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - POLICE STATION - NIGHTAlex sits behind a table in the cinderblock room painted police station green. Sitting across from him, with a good cop tone, is Agent Weine, while Schreck stands with a hard-ass posture. ALEX I believe that... Ms. Lewton's next. WEINE "Next?" ALEX Yes... see, there's this... pattern... that's occuring. WEINE (sarcastic) Oh, you've noticed it, too? CUT TO:INT. MS. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTMs. Lewton moves to a closet door, opens it and CLICKS on an overhead light.Kneeling down, she tugs on a heavy box and opens it to check the contents. Her expression warms, as if recalling a far off memory. MS. LEWTON Oh... mom's favorite.She slides a vinyl record album out of the sleeve and moves to the turntable on a shelf, thick with dust.Valerie places the record on the stereo and sets the needle on the album. CAMERA SWEEPS IN CLOSE TO THE TURNTABLE, although spinning around and around... the bold letters of the center label can be read... JOHN DENVER... the opening acoustic guitar of "Rocky Mountain High" has never sounded so eerie... JOHN DENVER (V.O.) He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year...Pleased with the feeling of a pleasant memory, Lewton moves off.INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - POLICE STATION - NIGHTSchreck moves closer to Alex. SCHRECK Where'd you get this "pattern" from? You have another "vision?" Maybe saw it in some T.V. static?Alex is insulted by the condescending tone. ALEX I didn't ask for what happened to me on the plane. You can make fun of me. You can think I'm a nut. I'm used to it. I saved six lives but the entire school acts like I'm a freak. Fine.Alex takes a nervous breath... ALEX I'm not suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. I haven't developed a narcissistic deity complex. I'm not going Dahmer. (beat) This just is. There's a pattern in place for you. And you. There's a design for everyone.The agents study Alex... ALEX (sighs) And I'm not sure yet how... but I intend to break this one. CUT TO:INT. MS. LEWTON'S KITCHEN - NIGHT - SET OF CUTLERY KNIVESheld in a wooden block, sits atop the kitchen counter.In the b.g., Valerie removes the chrome teapot from the stove and moves it to the sink. JOHN DENVER CONTINUES in the next room. Ms. Lewton turns on the faucet, pours water into the kettle. Some water spills on the side of the kettle. As she wipes the pot with a blue checked hand towel, a dark shadow appears to cross behind her.Lewton turns. CAMERA FOLLOWS, CIRCLING as she looks about the room only to find she is alone. Unsetteled, she absently tosses the towel on the counter the edge which, catches a knife blade held in the cutery block.STOVEMs. Lewton turns on the gas, adjusts it, however... the flames blow out. She pauses, nerves on edge. Her eyes cautiously move about the room and find nothing. She grabs a pack of nearby matches and strikes one. JOHN DENVER (V.O.) He left yesterday behind him/ You might say he's born again...CAMERA PUSHES INTO the burner as the flames re-ignite and FILL THE FRAME... CUT TO:INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - POLICE STATION - NIGHTWeine sits across from Alex, symapthetic, but professional... WEINE Alex, you got our attention, at first, because you were under suspicion in the plane explosion.Alex tenses, but Weine shakes his head. WEINE (CONT'D) I know you didn't blow up that plane.Alex sighs, eases. WEINE (CONT'D) I don't believe you have magical powers. No one has any... control over life and death... unless... that person is taking lives and causing death.Weine leans forward toward Alex... WEINE (CONT'D) Alex... can you promise me that no one else will die? ALEX No... I can't. As long as I'm in here, it's outta my control.The agents are taken aback by his answer; unnerved by his sincerity. Weine sighs and looks to his partner, who sighs, frustrated and turns away. WEINE Alright, go on. Get outta here.Alex stands and, with no urgency, moves off. He exits the room. SCHRECK Kid gives me the creeps. WEINE We got nothing to hold him. SCHRECK I don't mean that... (beat) There's a couple of times, there... I almost believed him.Weine considers, yet remains skeptical. WEINE Sometimes, you give me the creeps. CUT TO:INT. MS. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLOSE - TEAPOTWhistles. JOHN DENVER (V.O.) When he first came to the mountains, his life was far away...COFFEE MUG - OVERHEADtwo tea bags are dropped inside, then the steaming hot water.MS. LEWTONpicks up the cup, raising it toward her lips. She pauses, her expression turning tragic.On a reflex, she spins toward the sink and throws the hot contents into the drain. She sits the mug down...A COFFEE MUGENTERS FRAME... displaying the logo of the Mt. Abraham Fighting Colonials.MS. LEWTONTrembling. She takes a deep breath, getting a hold of herself. MS. LEWTON You gotta stop this! Stop this! It's just a stupid mug. (composed) You're outta here. Pretty soon... you'll be gone.Opening the refrigerator frezzer, she grabs some ice and a bottle of pure Polish Vodka then deliberately turns back toward the same mug...COFFEE MUGthe ice cubes PLUNK. The cold alchohol pours into the hot mug. CAMERA PUSHES INTO THE MUG as... it slightly CRACKS, Vodka dripping out of the base.Lewton's hand picks up the mug, oblivious to the crack. She moves off toward the living room, leaving a trail of alcohol. CUT TO:EXT. POLICE STATION - NIGHTAlex exits the police station, walking. He checks over his shoulder to see if he is being watched and increases his pace, legs whipping across FRAME... CUT TO:INT. MS. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTValerie Lewton tears off a piece of plastic bubble wrap. She stands over her desk, placed against the wall. On the desk is her desktop computer monitor. JOHN DENVER (V.O.) It's the Colorado Rocky Mountain High...She pauses to swig from her cup of vodka.EXTREMELY CLOSE - COFFEE MUGalcohol drips from her mug...EXTREMELY CLOSE - COMPUTER MONITOR VENT... fluid drips inside the circuitry.MS. LEWTONsets the mug out of the way on the back edge of her desk.CLOSE - COFFEE MUGThe remaining vodka oozes from the crack, pools, then drips off the edge of the desk... JOHN DENVER I've seen it rainin' fire from the sky...CAMERA CRANES DOWN to REVEAL the moniter cabel inserted into an electrical wall socket. The vodka drip... drip... drips PAST FRAME. Then, Lewton's hand ENTERS and pulls the monitor plug, creating tiny SPARKS at the connection...ON THE FLOORthe alcohol ignites...MS. LEWTONher back is to the desk, while pouring styrofoam peanuts into the box. In the b.g., FLAMES, nearly supernaturally, leap up the walland toward the computer monitor.CLOSE - COMPUTER MONITOR - THROUGH THE VENTSthe interior catches fire, causing an electrical POP!MS. LEWTONturns, holding her sheet of bubble wrap, shocked by the flames.THE COMPUTER MONITOROn the screen, the reflection of the approaching shadow passes before the monitor... EXPLODES!MS. LEWTONa large jagged shard from the monitor flies into her throat. Blood squirts from her neck onto the bubble wrap. Her stunned expression is sickeningly numb from shock. JOHN DENVER (V.O.) Rocky Mountain High/ Colorad-oh.She reaches up to reflexively pull the glass from her throat, creating a flood of spurting blood.She drops the glass and quickly stumbles toward the kitchen, blindly banging the turntable as she passes. The needle skips, BUMPS... and settles... umercifully at the start of "Rocky Mountain High." CUT TO:EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREET - NIGHTAlex walks quickly up the street. Smoke wafts before him. He turns to see a man burning leaves in the backyard.The breeze intensifies, lifting the burning debris. The smoke swirls around him. CAMERA PUSHES INTO ALEX as he senses the Presence. He looks ahead.ALEX'S POV - TWO DOZEN LEAVESmystically float past him, each on fire.ALEXsenses the taunting message and breaks into a full sprint, passing through many of the burning leaves that break up into the bright orange cinders against the black sky. CUT TO:INT. LIVING ROOM - LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - THE FLAMESreach the coffee mug, igniting the trickling stream leading to, and away from, the crack in the cup.FLOORFlames ride the small trickle of vodka back toward the kitchen...INT. KITCHEN - LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTValerie Lewton races in, desperately pressing her hand to her throat as she GURGLES and CHOKES on the blood from the wound. She leans over the now red sink. She turns pale from the blood loss.THE STOVEthe flaming stream shoots up the stove, lighting the burners.MS. LEWTONbehind her, the stove ERUPTS in FLAMES. They jump, leap like a tiger, landing on her shoulders and hair, which catch on fire... CUT TO:EXT. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHTAlex approaches the front of the house. From here, nothing appears to be wrong. As he catches his breath, sweating, visually examining the house.From INSIDE, a hoarse, macabre SCREAM! CAMERA PUSHES IN ON ALEX, stunned, before he races off toward the house.INT. LEWTON'S HOUSE - NIGHT - MS. LEWTONDROPS INTO FRAME ON HER KITCHEN FLOOR, hair and sweatshirt aflame. She desperately rolls on the floor and manages to extinguish the flames.On her back, on the floor, she is badly burned. Her open neck wound continues to bleed. Blood pools on the floor. In shock and moving on pure survial instincts, she reaches up...LEWTON'S POV - (LOOKING UP) - THE HAND TOWELthe lower third of the towel dangles over the edge of the counter top. Her hand grabs it, and pulls.COUNTER TOPthe draped edge of the towel pulls over the cutlery block. The knives spill out, entangled with the hand towel. ALEX (O.S.) Ms. Lewton!KITCHEN DOORWAYAlex rushes across the threshold as Ms. Lewton pulls the knives over the counter.MS. LEWTONa half dozen knives, from small, but sharp, cutting blades to large butcher knives, cascade into her body. JOHN DENVER (V.O.) They say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun...Her hand trembling, her expression horrified, Lewton grabs the handle of the largest blade, trying to pull it out. Alex quickly kneels next to her. She looks at him, in shock, her eyes pleading. Alex gathers his courage, places his hand on the handle of the largest blade. As he's about to remove it...THE STOVEa gas line ERUPTS, creating a small EXPLOSION.THE COUNTER TOPthe cutlery block is knocked off of the counter...MS. LEWTONthe block lands directly on the butcher knife handle, driving the blade further into Ms. Lewton's body.LEWTON'S POV - THE SHADOWdescends, the FRAME COLLAPSING until her face, eerily peaceful, but lifeless gray, horrifically decays... flesh rotting, worms feeding on muscle until only a skull remains.MS. LEWTONas Death arrives, her eyes are macabrely focused above her.ALEXEven as blood squirts on him from her open wound, he appears to realize she is "seeing" the moment of death. ALEX Ms. Lewton!Flames leap from the stove to the curtains, which catch fire.Alex grabs the knife and pulls it out. He quickly removes another and another... yet there is no reaction from the woman.Knowing she is dead, Alex pauses with guilt. He looks at the knife in his hand, then realizes how incriminating this could appear. In that moment, another small EXPLOSION from the stove brings Alex quickly to his feet. He drops the knife to the floor and races from the house. CAMERA TILTS DOWN to the shoe prints left in the pool of blood. CUT TO:EXT. LEWTON'S STREET - NIGHTAlex runs with all his strength away from Valerie Lewton's home. Billy Hitchcock is riding his bicycle in Alex's direction. He stops and gets off his bike. BILLY Hey, Alex...Alex appears unaware as he simply runs past Billy, who curiously turns his head to watch Alex race up the street. O.S., the CRACKLING OF FIRE. CAMERA MOVES INTO Billy as he turns back, reacting with shock to Ms. Lewton's house.THE HOUSEfrom inside, an intense EXPLOSION propels glass from the windows. Flames engulf the entire house.ALEXeven down the street, he is knocked to his feet by the blast. In the distance, SIRENS from approaching POLICE AND FIRE trucks are HEARD. He stands, looks to the now suspicious Billy... then opts to run off away from the scene. Escaping into the dark backyards of the neighborhood. CUT TO:INT./EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVERS' HOUSE - DAY - CLEAR RIVERSTense, her eyes look left, then right... CLEAR I don't know where he is. He's not talking to me.WIDERAgents Schreck and Weine stand before Clear in her garage. WEINE Why?She studies the men before averting her eyes. CLEAR Because I didn't believe him.The agents study her. Weine accepts the explanation. Schreck's eyes take a walk around the artwork in the garage, pausing on a piece of twisted metal from the crash. Clear tenses, however... SCHRECK If he should contact you, it would be in the best interest of your own safety to contact us.Schreck hands his card. She takes it and nods. Schreck pauses, once again eyeing the painting before moving out of the garage on their way to their car.CAMERA PUSHES IN ON CLEAR as she looks at the business card. CUT TO:EXT. MT. ABRAHAM HIGH SCHOOL - NIGHTCAMERA PUSHES IN ON Flight 180 Memorial, lit for dramatic effect at night, but only achieving an eeriness. Carter Horton and Billy Hitchcock ENTER FRAME, moving toward the monument. Billy is riding his bicycle, wearing a New York Rangers jersey with "Hitchcock" across the back of the shoulders. Nearing the shadows, the two boys stop looking at the monument.Carter pulls put a heavy pocket knife and starts attempting to cut into the stone.Clear Rivers appears from the shadows. CLEAR What are you doing? CARTER Terry's name should be on this wall.Clear is touched by the action. CARTER (CONT'D) So, why'd you want us to meet you here? Now? CLEAR They're watching me, see if I go to Alex. BILLY Are you? CLEAR They'll follow my car. (beat) That's why you're taking me. CARTER Why would I want to see him?Clear eyes the two of them. With the memorial standing behind them... CLEAR Because he knows which one of us is next.As Carter and Billy feel the chill of their inner fears... CUT TO:EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHTThe muscle car ROARS onto U.S. 17 on ramp. A sign near the road indicates: "Middletown - 25 mi. New York City - 105 mi."INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTCarter checks the rearview mirror. Clear looks out the front passenger window. She shakes her head, as if "no one's following us." Billy leans forward from the backseat... BILLY Um... okay... drive the speed limit, right?He sits back, OUT OF FRAME, but quickly darts forward. BILLY (CONT'D) And don't pass on the right. CARTER Billy! I'm gettin' a vision! You're the next one... BILLY (nervous) Hey, man, why'd you say that?! CARTER 'Cause if you say another word, I'm gonna fuckn' kill ya!Billy sits back, gesturing, "hear ya. Got it." Clear pays no attention to their exchange as she stare out into the darkness, her thoughts a million miles away.EXT. SEASHORE - JONES BEACH SATE PARK - NIGHTA posted sign indicates "ACCIDENT SITE. ANY DEBRIS FOUND SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE NTSB (212)555-NTSB." CAMERA FINDS Carter's car pulling up to a stop. Clear opens the passenger door and pauses in the car a while... CLEAR He could be anywhere from here to a mile down the shore. You guys drive down there, start this way and we'll meet around the middle. It'll take half the time. Clear closes the door. Carter and Billy drive off. As she looks to the beach. CUT TO:EXT. BEACH - NIGHTCAMERA, FACING the ocean, moves along the shore revealing a lone image sitting on the beach, looking into the Atlantic.The waves are small bur rhythmic, an enternal metronome. Numb, Alex Browning sits in the sand searching for an answer somewhere in the darkness of the evening sea.Behind him, O.S., approaching in the sand, SOFT FOOTSTEPS. He listens, notes them. Yet rather than turn around... he looks up into the sky.ALEX'S POV - THE SKYThe shoreline lights cast an orange haze on the stars, breaking through, infinitely above. ALEX (O.S.) Are they up there?WIDERClear Rivers approaches, barefoot in the sand. He neddn't turn to know who is behind him. ALEX (CONT'D) Somehow... is 180 still in flight? Somewhere... are they still safe?Clear hasn't met eyes with Alex, but she sits nearby, looking into the sky. CLEAR When I was a kid, like, six or seven... I used to worry so much about my parents dying. Like lying awake at night... just worrying. I loved them so much. I didn't want them to get hurt. And what would happen to me? What would life be like? (beat) Every night... it seemed.She looks out at the stars. He doesn't eye her, either... ALEX Most kids do, I guess. CLEAR Most kids never have it happen.Alex hangs his head... CLEAR When I was ten... my dad went into a 7-11 for cigerettes. I guess he heard somebody say "Don't turn around." So on reflex, or thinkin' a friend was jokin'... he did. And the guy blew his head off.She has lived this so many times, she is long beyond crying... CLEAR (CONT'D) And, let me tell ya, I had every reason to worry before... because life became shit. I don't blame her, I guess, but my mom couldn't deal with it at all. She married this asshole, who my mom with my real dad would cross the street to avoid this guy. He really didn't want a kid. And so my mom didn't either anymore, I guess. (beat) If that was the design for my father... and my family... then fuck Death, FUCK IT!The waves continue to shore. Clear looks up at the sky. CLEAR (CONT'D) And so, anyway... I've thought of that "somewhere," Alex. It exists, that place.He looks at her. CLEAR (CONT'D) Where my dad is still safe. Where he had a full pack of cigerettes and kept driving. A place where me and my dad and my mom... are still together....and have no idea about this second life, here. (beat) A place where our friends are still in the sky... where everyone gets a second chance.She looks at him... CLEAR (CONT'D) But that place might only exist in my heart. And maybe, now... yours. I haven't experienced too many second chances in my life. I haven't seen any. But because of all of this, I believe... because of you... I will get a second chance. Because of me, you will. With you in my life... that place, right now existing in our hearts, will spring out... and become a real part of this life.Alex looks within her, as a soft ocean breeze blows through Clear's hair. CLEAR And that is the only way we can beat Death... by making something special out of Life.His eyes well with tears. Only as she looks at Alex does Clear become emotional... they move closer, and kiss, the desire for each other, to defy the events around them; darkness; the isolation...They dive into a deep feverish kiss. Embracing, as if the tighter, the safer. She pulls him back down to the beach and lifts his shirt over his head. ALEX This won't be safe.Clear looks down the beach, checking for any sight of Billy and Carter. CLEAR Those guys are probably fifteen minutes away. ALEX No.. I mean, I don't have anything on me. This won't be safe. CLEAR (sadly) Nothing is... anymore.Alex looks to Clear, then kisses her with passion that reflects the defiance of death. He pulls open her shirt and falls into her arms. CAMERA CRANES UP as the young man and woman make love in the sand... consciously and defiantly oblivious, to anything around them... including the stars, possibly Flight 180, up above. CUT TO:INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTCarter drives. Billy rides shotgun. Alex and Clear are in the back. Everyone anxious, looking for cops. ALEX I can't go home. After Lewton's, they'll be after me. CLEAR We're takin' you to a cabin in the woods, it's only a couple miles from my house. (to Carter) Keep off the highways, they'll be lookin' for us.Carter, however, continually glances into the rearview mirror, checking Alex. Finally, hotheaded and unable to withhold it any further... CARTER Alright, Browning, you fuckin' warlock... did you know about Ms. Lewton, or what? ALEX Why do you think I was hiding? CLEAR Billy told the F.B.I. he saw you runnin' away from her house. ALEX They blame me for everything. Her, Tod, the plane crash... BILLY Your shoe prints were in the blood. Your fingerprints on the knives... ALEX I already told you... CARTER (interrupting) I'm not talkin' about if you did it. Or if you knew she was dead... (beat) Did you know she was going to be next... before she was?Alex looks at Clear, her expression asking the same question... ALEX (quietly) Yeah. (almost to himself) When she died... at that moment, I could tell she saw something... horrible.The three others turn quiet, considering what it must be... CARTER Out of us... who's next to see it?Alex eyes them... hesitant to respond. BILLY Please tell me I'm gonna get to see the Jets win the Super Bowl. CARTER Me, right? That's why you're not saying.Billy looks out the window, despondent. BILLY Shoulda felt up Tammy in the pool, that time... CARTER (to Billy) Whatta you whinin' about? He said I'm next. CLEAR He didn't say nothin'. Just drive. CARTER You have a responsibility to tell me. ALEX Is knowing going to make it easier? It makes it harder. CARTER You get off havin' control over me. Let me choose how to deal with it. ALEX It doesn't matter who's next... we're all on the same list.The three are silent. CARTER Aww, fuck... really?Carter's expression becomes frightened, but he cannot have this. He counters with an irrational bravado. CARTER Then why bother? What's the fuckin' point? Terry and me will be back together on the other side, so why wait any longer?Carter bares down on the wheel, hits the GAS...EXT. AN INTERSECTION - NIGHTThe muscle car ROARS past a stop sign.INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTThe interior bounces as the car clears a dip past the intersection. Alex, Clear, and Billy tenses... CLEAR Knock it off! CARTER May as well go out under my own free will, right? CLEAR Not with us in the fuckin' car!EXT. ANOTHER INTERSECTION - NIGHTThe car GUNS IT through another stop sign.INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTEvery passenger hangs on as the car BOUNCES from the next dip. CLEAR BILLY Stop it! Hey, c'mon, man... CARTER What's your fuckin' worry? If it's not your time...? I could get nailed runnin' this red light and you all wouldn't get shit! Only me, right? ALEX CLEAR No! Knock it off!EXT. TRAFFIC LIGHT INTERSECTION - NIGHTRed light. A car approaches with the greenlighted right of way. Carter's car TEARS INTO FRAME, just missing being T-boned in the intersection as the other car HITS THE BRAKES, fishtailing.INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHT BILLY And I fuckin' HATED FRENCH CLASS! ALEX CLEAR Carter, stop it, you Get control of yourself! fuckin' maniac!! CARTER That's what I'm doin'! CLEAR I know what you're doing! It's alright to be scared, Carter. You don't have to prove to us how big your balls are. Not now. CARTER I'm not afraid! I DECIDE WHEN IT'S TIME! I control my life! I control my death! BILLY Watch it! Watch it!EXT. A SECOND TRAFFIC LIGHT INTERSECTION - NIGHTCarter barrels through the intersection as a car makes a left turn at the intersection.TURNING CAR DRIVER'S POV - CARTER'S CARflying down the road, appears to be heading straight towards him.INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTCarter takes his hands off the wheel and raises them in the air, like a terrorized child on a roller coaster...EXT. A SECOND TRAFFIC LIGHT INTERSECTION - NIGHTThe turning car HONKS, ROARING through the intersection as Carter's car nearly clips the rear end of the turning car.INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTCater hooks his elbow on the window and his right arm around the front seat, driving; no hands. CLEAR ALEX Stop the car! Let us out! BILLY I am... so close to puking, you don't wanna know. CLEAR We're afraid, too, Carter, but we're not going to quit. Maybe you are. You act like you're not, but you are!Carter eyes Clear in the rearview mirror. CLEAR So, stop what you're doing and STOP THIS CAR! Right fucking now!EXT. BACKSTREET - NIGHTIn the backseat, Alex and Clear ease... just as a railroad crossing arm drops INTO FRAME in the REAR WINDOW. O.S., the CLANG CLANG CLANG of a RAILROAD CROSSING ALARM.OUT OF THE FRONT WINDOWThe front crossing arm drops INTO FRAME before the car. Carter turns and flashes a "that's why I stopped" smile.INSIDE THE CAR CLEAR Move it!Carter turns off the engine, then sits back into his seat and folds his arms, indicating he has no intention of moving. ALEX Billy, get out!Scared to death, Billy fumbles with the car door handle. From the front passenger seat, he looks up and to his left...OUT OF THE DRIVER'S WINDOW - BILLY'S POVA locomotive headlight arcs across the trees... approaching.RETURN CLEAR ALEX Can't you open the door?! Easy, Billy, just open it.Billy collects himself...CLOSE - BILLY'S DOOR HANDLEPOPS open!EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - NIGHTThe train appears around the blind bend...INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTBilly opens the door and pours out. Clear and Alex are quickly behind him. Carter remains in the drivers seat.EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - NIGHTThe train WARNING WHISTLE BLOWS as Alex, Clear and Billy hustle away from the car, on the same side of the tracks. They quickly turn around, desperate to convince... CLEAR Carter, get out! ALEX BILLY Don't do it! Don't do it! It's coming! It's coming!INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTArms crossed, Carter remains in the front seat. As the interior fills with light from the headlight of the oncoming train, Carter turns and looks at them with a smart ass smile, pleased that he's shown how brave he truly is. With a beam of cocky definace... CARTER It ain't my time.He cooly turns back to the ignition, grabs the key and turns it over... only to be met with the DULL CLACK of a dead engine.CAMERA SWEEPS INTO HIM AS his EYES FLARE with tension...CLOSE - IGNITIONhe turns it, again and again... nothing.CARTERlooks up...EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - NIGHT - CARTER'S POV - THE TRAINis moments away.ALEX, CLEAR AND BILLYassess the situation... ALEX CLEAR Get out! Get out of the car! Get out! Get out of the Get out of the fuckin' car! car!INT. CARTER'S CAR - NIGHTAs he turns away from them, Carter sees something in the rearview mirror...CARTER'S POV - REAR VIEW MIRRORthe passing shadow is darker than any surrounding darkness.CARTERas if the image has effected him, he looks to his lap belt and CLACKS the button. He tugs at the restraint, but it will not move. He's strapped in.He tries to open the door... it won't open. He pulls at the door handle... tugs at the seatbelt... panicked. Horrified, he whips towards the others. CARTER I can't get out!EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - NIGHTAlex, Billy and Clear look at one another, equally frightened... BILLY Man, he really is next.Alex takes off toward...CARTER'S CARAlex hustles around the drivers' side. CAMERA SWEEPS INTO THEM as Alex desperately tries freeing the seatbelt.THE TRAINthe WHISTLES SCREAMS!CLEAR AND BILLYtense, as the train nears...ALEX AND CARTERAlex grabs Carter by the shoulders and strains with all his might to pull the much more muscular kid out of the driver's window.CLOSE - CARTER'S SEAT BELTthe shadowy presence is reflected by the chrome buckle, however, after it passes... the seat belt begins to TEAR.ALEX AND CARTERAs CAMERA SWEEPS IN to ALEX and he releases a deep GROAN...ACROSS THE TRACKSThe train TEARS THROUGH the front end of the muscular car! GLASS and METAL ERUPT as the locomotive THUNDERS THROUGH FRAME.CLEAR AND BILLYmust turn away from the shower of metal and broken glass.ALEX AND CARTERAlex holds Carter by the shirt at the shoulders, dragging him away from the wreckage. The two boys collapse on the road as the trian continues to ROAR PAST...TRAIN TRACKSas the heavy train wheels THUNDER and CLACK, a broken two foot long shard of the car's debris BOUNCES upon the tracks, kicked about by the train wheels.CLEAR AND BILLYrun to the two survivors.CLEARruns and falls into Alex's arms, holding him tight.ALEX, CLEAR, CARTER AND BILLYCarter lies on the road, urine stains around his crotch, hyperventilating and near tears. CLEAR Scared now?Carter looks at the piece of seatbelt. CARTER It broke! BILLY No one's that strong. CLEAR (to Carter) Bullshit. He saved your life...again!CLOSE - TRAIN WHEELScontinue to kick around the chunk of twisted metal...RETURNThe THUNDERING TRAIN intensifies the situation... BILLY THAT'S RIGHT! HE'S RIGHT! YOU ARE NEXT! I'M GETTING THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOU!Billy begins backing away from the others. CARTER SHUT UP, BILLY! CLEAR WE DON'T NEED THIS NOW!Billy continues backing away, horrified. BILLY I DON'T NEED IT EVER! GET AWAY FROM HIM! HE'S NEXT!CLOSE - TRAIN TRACKSthe debris rattles beneath the wheels...CARTER AND ALEXstill on the ground... CARTER FUCK YOU, BILLY! I'M NOT DEAD!BILLYbacking away... BILLY YOU WILL BE! YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD!TRAIN TRACKSthe debris bounces directly on the track. With great power and force, a train wheel runs over the debris, cutting it in half. It catches in the wheel and is spun around until shot out with the force of a missile...BILLY BILLY (CONT'D) AND YOU AIN'T TAKIN' ME WITH YOU!FWOOP! The metal tears ACROSS FRAME, ripping Billy's head from his shoulders.ALEX, CLEAR AND CARTERThe ROAR of the TRAIN seems exaggerated as they are frozen in horrified shock.EXTREMELY WIDE - ACROSS THE TRACKSThe train CLEARS FRAME and is gone... REVEALING, across the tracks, Alex, Clear and Carter can do nothing but watch Billy's decapitated body macabrely wobbling on its two front feet before falling to the ground. CARTER Jesus fucking Christ!For a beat, there is SILENCE... until, in the distance, SIRENS can be heard, approaching. As Alex stands and Carter manages to rise on wobbly legs... none of them can remove their eyes from Billy's body. ALEX (to Carter) You should have been next. After Lewton, you should've been next. That's the only pattern. You should be dead. CARTER You're the fuckin' devil. ALEX (to Clear) But I saved him. I intervened. Just like the plane. That's the design. CLEAR Police are coming. ALEX That's why It skipped Carter and went to the next one in the path of the explosion; Billy.Alex looks at Clear as if expiriencing an intense epiphany. ALEX (CONT'D) My intervention in the death of 180 surviviors will cheat the design. CARTER "Intervention?" What are you, God now?! ALEX Of course not! Gods aren't afraid to die! Gods don't die! We do! CLEAR You're losin' it. The police will be here. We have to go to the cabin. You can hide there. Get your head together.Alex considers, mind racing... then realizes... ALEX After Billy... it's me. And then you.Clear grabs Clear and touches her face. ALEX (CONT'D) (to Clear) Hey, I won't let it happen, okay.Carter turns to them; it's as far as he will go to admit he believes... or will help... CARTER Then, get out of here.As she moves to Alex, Clear nods her acknowledgement and appreciation to Carter. She takes Alex by the hand and the pair begin running away, off into the woods.In the DISTANCE, a TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS, eerie, as if Death was punctuating the moment. CUT TO:EXT. CABIN - NIGHTThe windows are boarded. The front steps are worn and dilapidated. In the early evening moonlight, the dwelling appears eerie and ghostly. CAMERA CREEPS TOWARD the house, a pre-storm breeze swaying branches and blowing leaves. In the distance... LIGHTNING...INT. CABIN - DAY - A SMALL TABLEA final piece of duct tape is applied to the corner of the table, dulling any sharp edges. Even though it is sunny outside, all the shades are pulled. The room sits in dark shadows broken by occasional bright shafts of light.CAMERA FOLLOWS a hand as it carefully picks up a Coleman lantern and sets it atop an empty can placed in the center and above the water line of a large metal tub; a fire protection moat.ALEXfinds his way to a chair in the center of the room, away from everything except a nearby table holding a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit, both at less than arm's reach.Unshaven, a week and a half's growth, and unkept, Alex looks horrible. An anxious zombie, especially in the dim glow of the lantern. Dark circles, from lack of sleep. Thin, from lack of food. Pale, from lack of sunlight.He places workman's gloves on his hands before picking up a can of Underwood chicken spread. With some degree of difficulty, he works the gloves beneath the tab and pulls. Careful not to cut himself, he reaches out and drops the lid into a small trash can.Alex removes the gloves and, with a plastic spoon, begins to eat. CAMERA PUSHES IN as he begins to chew methodically, chewing and chewing and chewing with concentration until... after steadying himself... prepares to swallow... then, carefully does.Pause... he's alright. He takes the spoon. Scoops some more. And the process begins again. CUT TO:INT. BATHROOM - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - DAYA pink circle fills THE ENTIRE FRAME.EXTREMELY CLOSE - CLEAR'S EYESlook downward, anxious and full of thought.A HOME PREGNANCY TESTthe results are positive, two pink dots, confirming.WIDERClear sighs, frightened as she tosses the test upon a half dozen other discarded tests. You can never be too sure. Outside, WIND of an approaching storm blows. CAMERA tensely INCHES IN ON Clear... CUT TO:INT. CABIN - NIGHT - CRACK BENEATH DOORThe resulting THUNDER RUMBLES. A breeze blows beneath the door, carrying some Autumn leaves. CAMERA FOLLOWS the breeze across the floor to Alex's pant legs which slightly flutter.CAMERA RISES TO ALEX, sitting in his safe chair. Paranoid and obsessively cautious, his eyes move towards the door, anticipating the consequential events. Following the path of the breeze, Alex turns around...ALEX'S POV - TRASH BAGthe brown shopping bag tips over. Amongst the trash spread on the floor, a can rolls out and across the floor.ALEXtenses. He doesn't look to where the can has been, but where it is going.ALEX'S POV - CANrolls across the floor and gently hits the end of a fishing pole, propped in the corner. The pole teeters and falls over.FISHING HOOKfalls, hooking a closet door. The door begins to swing open.ALEXis quickly out of his safe chair, hustling towards...THE DOORAlex slams the door shut before it can open. Behind the door, a CRASH as something falls. Alex cracks a wicked half smile, cocky he has caught Death before this attempt has brought to fruition.Alex removes the hook from the door and places the pole on the floor. He cautiously opens the door, REVEALING an old fish scaling knife embedded on the back side of the door, unaware. Removing the knife and securing it, his eyes turn towards the floor.CLOSET FLOORa tackle box has spilled thick, rusted old treble and aberdeen fishing hooks upon the floor. Alex bends down and examines them. ALEX (as if to Death) Rusted. Tetanus. Nice touch. (defiant) I overlooked it. You tried to capitalize. But I caught you, you fuck. I can beat you. Not forever, but I got this cabin rigged to beat you NOW!O.S., a sound. Like a THUMP near the cabin steps. He freezes, like an animal sensing danger. THUNDER RUMBLES. The light around him begins to flicker and sway.COLEMAN LANTERNa draft creeps beneath the glass enclosure. The flame, dancing. CUT TO:INT. BEDROOM - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - DAYENTERING FRAME, Clear peeks out the window, careful not to be seen.EXT. CLEAR RIVER'S STREET - DAY - CLEAR'S POVThe unmarked F.B.I. sedan maintains surveillance. Schreck and Weine sit inside.INT. BEDROOM - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - DAYDistant... APPROACHING THUNDER RUMBLES as she steps away. The weight of the world on her shoulders, Clear paces, considering her options. She looks to a bookshelf...CLOSE - AN OLD PHOTOGRAPHA man, early thirties, holds a six year old girl in his arms, waving at the camera. Both appear happy and alive. They are standing before the cabin surrounded by the thick woods.The photograph is turned over. On the back is marked in a young girl's handwriting, "me and dad at the cabin. 1986."CLEARAs CAMERA PUSHES INTO HER... considering life. Then, now and what is to come. CUT TO:INT. UNMARKED CAR - NIGHTWeine sits in the passenger seat looking through the pair of binoculars. Schreck is behind the wheel. WEINE She was up there a minute ago...A figure steps into the drivers side window, from the rear. The two agents are startled as Clear Rivers leans into FRAME. She pauses, gauging their trustworthiness, then... CLEAR I'm not turning him in. There's another life that needs him now.The two agents remain respectful... CLEAR I go with you. WEINE You can't.She considers... and understands. CLEAR Don't hurt him. WEINE Tell us where he is. Wait at home, and I promise... we'll bring him back safe, in protective custody.As she senses the agents' sincerity...INT. CABIN - NIGHTDistant THUNDER ECHOES. Alex kindles a fire in the fireplace, balling up old newspapers. He begins to crumble the local news... then pauses.A headline catches his attention. CAMERA INCHES IN ON HIM, tense, while THUNDER RUMBLES. As he unrolls the paper, his expression is rocked... anxious... he cocks his head to consider... recalling... as CAMERA PUSHES ALL THE WAY INTO...HEADLINE - CRUMPLED NEWSPAPER"PARENTS TO ESTABLISH MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS." Besides the headline are two yearbook photos; Christa Marsh and Blake Dreyer.ALEXhis expression reflects a terrifying revelation... ALEX I... never moved. Christa asked me to move, but I didn't change seats. I would've moved up... next to Tod... How could I not remember... that... I never moved. Clear's seat was in front of mine...CAMERA PUSHES into a TIGHT CLOSE UP... ALEX (CONT'D) She's next. CUT TO:INT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear paces in her living room. She moves to the curtains and checks out the window. Although it is not raining, LIGHTNING CRACKS across the sky!EXT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - POWER LINEThe lightning STRIKES the top of the pole, SNAPPING two power lines, which whip in the wind.INT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTThe power goes out. The room turns dark. Outside, brilliant bluish white arc lights CRACKLE. Clear moves to the window.EXT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLEAR'S POV - POWER LINESARC violently striking the ground and each other. Each line whips unpredictably like an uncontrolled garden hose with the water turned on full. And yet, there's a mean, angry and taunting personality to the two power lines. As if Death were within them.INT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTShe assesses the situation and moves to a pair of candles on the mantle, lightning them with a Bic. O.S., from the backyard, a DOG BARKS. Clear brings the candle through the small house.INT. KITCHEN - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear moves quickly to the kitchen, holding the candle. Outside, BLUE ARC LIGHT CRACKLES. She looks out the backyard.EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLEAR'S POVAn old circular clothesline turns like a pinwheel in the wind. In the center of the yard is an oblong, tarped above ground pool. In the furthest corner of the yard, her dog is chained to a tree, BARKING AND FREAKED OUT. An old tire swing rocks in the storm. From the manner in which the house is situated and the length of the snapped power lines, one is capable of reaching the backyard.The power line STRIKES the ground, "closing in on" the dog.INT. KITCHEN - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear considers the danger of venturing out to get the dog.Although no window is open, and the power outage has shut off any air conditioning... the candle flame whips, then extinguishes. The blue smoke swirls ominously into the room.EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLOTHESLINESharp metal edges spin. Glinting blue arc light... CUT TO:EXT. CABIN - NIGHTAlex charges out the front door, leaping over the steps. O.S., SEVERAL CARS APPROACH, headlights pan across the trees. Alex stops dead in his tracks and runs off into the woods, just as the F.B.I umarked sedan and three Sheriff 4x4s THUNDER up to the cabin, siren lights swirling.INT. UNMARKED CAR - NIGHTWeine is driving, leading the other vehicles. Schreck points out the passenger window. SCHRECK There!EXT. CABIN - NIGHT - WEINE'S POV - THROUGH CAR WINDOWFull sprint, Alex disappears into the dark forest.WIDERthe cars BRAKE to a stop, SKIDDING in the dirt. Sheriffs leap out of their vehicles. High powered flashlights shoot beams in Alex's direction. The officers take after the suspect. CUT TO:EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTThe backdoor opens. Clear charges out into the backyard.THE DOGHelpless, chain wrapped around the tree. THUNDER RUMBLES.CLEARcontinues to run...THE CIRCULAR CLOTHESLINEis whipped by a power line. SPARKS FLY as the base pole snaps in two.CLEARthe metal poles punge into the ground just before and behind her, inches from impaling her. She stumbles, but quickly steps aside and continues toward the tree.THE CIRCULAR CLOTHES-LINE FRAMEis rolled by the winds, across the yard toward...ABOVE GROUND POOLthe clothesline frame punctures the pool. Water streams from the rupture.CLEARreaches the tree and begins unfastening the dog's collar from the chain.THE POWER LINESwhipping, strike one another causing an angry FLASH!THE RIVETSholding the pool frame begin to BREAK and POP. Water floods into the yard. CUT TO:EXT. FOREST - NIGHTCAMERA MOVES WITH Alex, blindly running through the forest, sheriffs' flashlight beams crossing behind him... in pursuit.Looing back to check the postition of the agents, Alex blindly runs over the lip of a downward slope...GULLYHe rolls and tumbles uncontrollably down the hillside. As he nears the base...ALEXstops with a CRUNCHING THUD... his face an inch from being impaled by a sharp, thick protruding branch. No time to catch his breath, he's up and running. CUT TO:EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLEAR'S FEETwater floods, pooling the backyard, cascading over Clear's feet. She looks down, in the reflection of the puddle, the dark shadow passes. Clear whips up, checking the position of...A POWER LINEcoils, like a cobra, ready to STRIKE!TREEClear drops the chain and hits the dog on its backside. CLEAR Run!The dog starts to tear off toward the house. Clear runs toward the hanging tire. Leaps...THE POWER LINEwhips, the frayed wires hitting the puddle of water...CLEARin mid-air, desperately grabs the tire, hanging on, literally for her life. O.S., the dog YELPS. Clear turns back...CLEAR'S POV - THE DOGconvulses in the small pool of water, burning from the overwhelming amounts of electricity. CUT TO:EXT. FOREST - NIGHT - SMALL CREEKDistant flashlights reflect in a small stream, barely two inches deep. Alex's foot splashes in the water. THUNDER RUMBLES.ALEXraces along the path of the stream.SHERIFFScontinue their pursuit through the dark trees.ABOVELightning CRACKS a tree branch. SPARKS FLY! The tree tumbles down the branches.ALEXThe thick branch falls from above, landing on top of him. He's knocked to the ground and pinned... face down in the creek.CAMERA MOVES IN... his nose and mouth, just below the water line, but he cannot move. His eyes flash with panic, as he struggles... battles to move and avoid drowning in two inches of water.As he struggles in the f.g., Weine and a pair of Sheriffs appear ten yards beyond him. They pause, confused, panning their flashlights across the forest.WIENE'S POV - FORESTthe lights actually expose the area where Alex lies. From their postition, however, he is covered by the branch and out of sight.ALEXstruggles to raise his head above the water, chest bursting...WEINE AND SHERIFFSbelieving Alex is not in the area, move ahead into the woods. CUT TO:EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVERS'S HOUSE NIGHTClear pulls herself up to a tree branch. Lighting and THUNDER CONTINUE amongst the ARCING, CRACKLING POWER LINES. She searches for an escape.CLEAR'S POV - THE TREE BRANCHextends toward the house.CLEARstraining in the storm, begins moving up the branch... CUT TO:EXT. FOREST - NIGHT - CLOSE - ALEX'S EYESdart open. Taking a tenth of a second to gather all of his strength, all his courage, he arches his back, pushing with his hands, anything to lift his face out of the stream.With a DEEP GASP, he does so. Drinking up the air. It appears to infuse him with another blast of adrenaline as he manages to push with his arms and free himself from the pinning tree branch.He pauses only for a couple gulps of air... and is off. CUT TO:EXT. WINDOW - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear leaps from the end of the branch to her window, grabbing the sill awkwardly, she dangles outside the house. With a breath, she pulls herself inside, just as the power line bites, ARCING, at her feet. CUT TO:EXT. FOREST - NIGHTWeine RUNS INTO FRAME, looks around, frustrated... WEINE (into radio) Lost him.ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST - SCHRECKdeperately scans the area. SCHRECK From the direction... there's only one place he can heading... CUT TO:EXT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTThe power lines strike the rooftop.INT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear River's stands in her bedroom just as it fills with blinding blue light. Her television screen BLOWS OUT. Sparks jet across the room. Blasts of FLAME erupt from the electrical outlets. She quickly turns, racing toward the hallway.INT. HALLWAY - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTCAMERA IS LOW, RACING WITH HER as SPARKS EXPLODE FROM the lamps and electrical outlets. She cuts and leaps three steps at a time down the staircase... CUT TO:EXT. EDGE OF THE WOODS/BACKYARD - NIGHTAlex tears across the fenceless backyards towards Clear's house. Blue ARC light glowing from the front yard. CUT TO:INT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTA mid-eighties Corolla is parked amongst Clear's artwork. A door, adjacent to the kitchen flies open. Clear hustles through, running to the car and entering via the passenger door, for the sake of expediency.EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTThe power lines WHACK angerily against the door.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTClear scoots into the driver's seat. She CLICKS the automatic garage door opener...GARAGE DOOR OPENER MOTERconnected to a metal arm, attached to the door, remains motionless - there is no power.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTRealizing the motor is dead, Clear takes a beat, STARTS THE ENGINE and SHIFTS INTO REVERSE...EXT. BACKYARD - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTAlex reaches the backyard. CAMERA PUSHES IN as he quickly tries to deduce the deadly situation. HE RUNS OUT OF FRAME...INT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTClear guns the small car in reverse.GARAGE DOORas the rear of the car makes impact with the door...THE GARAGE OPENERtrembles, the long metal arm collapses, falls...EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTBAM! In reverse, the Corolla SMASHES through the garage door.THE METAL ARMof the garage door opener RIPS through the windshield, locking upon the windshield wiper grille. The other end remains attached to the garage roof interior, essentially acting as an anchor.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTThe car SHUDDERS, wheels spinning uselessly, as the arm "holds" onto the car.INT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - DOOR OPENER MOTERthe screws holding the arm to the ceiling begin to pull away...A METAL CANon a shelf, is rocked as, O.S., the CAR rattles the garage, trying to break free. The can is marked "TURPENTINE: EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE." The can tumbles over the shelf.GARAGE FLOORthe can SMACKS on the floor, edgewise, REVREALING the can is sealed tight with a cap.EXT. CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - POWER LINEthick cable ARCS, snapping toward the car INTO FRAME.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTFoot to the floor, Clear SCREAMS for the car to move.INT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - DOOR OPENER MOTORpulls away from the ceiling.EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTThe Corolla lurches backward, freed from the grasp of the house.INT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTa chunk of the ceiling collapses upon Clear's artworks, including the canvas incorporating a jagged piece of debris from Flight 180. The metal SLAMS to the floor, on top of...THE CAN OF TURPENTINEwhich causes the flammable liquid to stream out, toward the driveway.EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTAs the Corolla lurches away from the house down the sloped driveway...THE POWER LINETHUDS upon Clear's car.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTAn ear splitting CRACKLE. SPARKS FLY! The electrical system of the samll car erupts and the engine dies. The car stops.EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTFrom the rear of the house appears Alex. CAMERA SWEEPS IN ON HIM as he reacts to the situation... ALEX Don't move!WIDERThe power line sadistically rests atop the automobile. The exposed end of the cable flutters and whips like a cat's tail, SPARKING, CRACKLING, as it hits the ground.INT. COROLLA - NIGHTClear looks up desperately to Alex.EXT. GARAGE - CLEAR RIVER'S HOUSE - NIGHTAlex extends his hands. O.S., CARS approach THUNDEROULSY... ALEX You're grounded in the car. Don't touch anything. DON'T MOVE.IN THE STREETThe unmarked F.B.I. vehicle and two sheriff patrol cars pull up on the street. Schreck and Weine hustle out of the car. WEINE Alex, get away from there! SCHRECK Any part of that line touches you, you're dead.THE POWER LINESNAPS in ALEX'S DIRECTION.ALEXlurches back...THE STREAM OF TURPINTINEis ignited by a single spark fom the power line. It flows toward the car.ALEXbacks away, eyes locked with Clear's, assuring she's remaining in the car.CLEARkeeps her eyes locked on Alex, watching him. Suddenly, a BURST OF FIRE FLASHES FROM BELOW FRAME...ALEXreacts, shocked. He realizes...WIDERthe underbelly of the Corolla has ignited from the stream of combustible fluid.SCHRECK AND WEINEstep forward...THE POWER LINEatop the car, whips, ARCS, warning everyone away.IN THE COROLLAClear can see the flames, her instinct is to grab the handle to get out.CLEAR'S POV - GARAGE WALLThe fire roars angrily in the f.g., on the garage wall, however, the shadows do not match that of the flames, rather, the approaching form of Death appears.ALEXsteps closer... ALEX NO!CAMERA PUSHES IN ON ALEX as he quickly considers, then moves toward the hood of the burning car...SCHRECK AND WEINE WEINE Get back! You'll both die!ALEX AND CLEARhearing this, Alex's mind is made up. He looks to Clear. ALEX You know what to do. CLEAR No! No! Don't! ALEX When I do this.. it'll have skipped you... and it'll all be over.At that moment, Clear doesn't understand. She looks to him, scared... ALEX You know what to do. I'll always be with you.He reaches out and grabs the power line, falling back to pull it away from the hood of the car. The cable ARCS furiously.COROLLAClear opens the driver's side door and runs out, knocked to her feet as behind her the car EXPLODES.ALEXis engulfed in the flames.ALEX'S POV - THE SHADOWSthe edges of the FRAME are collapsing. Alex's face, gray and emotionless appears, yet, before it can transform into decay...ALEXthrough the flames, as if sensing the oncoming horror, defying the image... ALEX NO!He looks toward...CLEAR - ALEX'S POVShe... is the last sight he'll ever see.WIDERThe power line ERUPTS! Alex disapears behind the wall of fire and sparks before falling limp on the driveway.CLEARSchreck, Weine and PARAMEDICS rush to the girl. Schreck turns back, calling out to a paramedic, helplessly watching by ther burning car. SCHRECK Is he alive?CLEAR'S EYESflash open, horrified, answering the question...THE SKYa web of LIGHTNING CRACKS across the Heavens, as if Death was making a final angry proclamation.SCHRECK AND WEINECAMERA EASES IN on the agents, exchanging rattled expressions that convey their unease in the proof that Alex was right.CLEAR - OVERHEADAs a pair of paramedics work on her, a soft breeze blows across the girl, and only the girl. CAMERA MOVES DOWN TO HER FACE, her eyes opened... welling with tears... seeming to realize... to sense, he is gone. CUT TO:INT. DELIVERY ROOM - DAY - CLEARSCREAMS, as if reacting to Alex's death, but in actuality it is a reaction to the pain of delivering her child.DOCTORS AND NURSESstand between Clear's legs in the stirrups... DOCTOR A little more. Little more!CLEARbreathes, pushes hard. Alex's parents stand on each side of her, holding her hand, wiping her forehead.THE DOCTORcuts the umbilical cord. DOCTOR He's here. A beautiful boy.CLEAR, KEN AND BARBARAsmile and fight back the tears. Clear begins to laugh euphorically through the tears. CLEAR I felt him! When the baby was born... I felt Alex pass through me... like the night he died...Clear lifts her head up, still battling the pain of labor...CLEAR'S POV - THE BABYcovered in goop, eyes shut... a new life arrives.DOCTORlooks at the clock and reprots to an attending nurse. Another nurse cleans up the baby, wieghs him and places him in a hospital bassinet. DOCTOR 13th of May... 4:25 p.m.CLEAR, KEN AND BARBARABarabra places a cool wet cloth on Clear's forehead... BARBARA Exactly a year... to the minute.Everyone recognizes the eerie, yet beautiful coincidence. Clear leans her haed back, relieved, euphoric... CLEAR We beat it, Alex.Cleaned and wrapped in a swaddling blanket, the baby is placed in the mothers arms. The long retrospective harmonica of Neil Young's "Long May You Run" reprises as Clear looks at the I.D. braclet...WRIST BRACLET"Alexander Chance Browning II."DELIVERY ROOMCAMERA PULLS BACK. The birthing room is quiet; the people introspective. The doctors. The family. The mother and child. A room of new life, in which, each recalls a life lost.As "Long May You Run" OVERLAPS... DISSOLVE TO:INT. ALEX'S BEDROOM - DAY - FLOWERSA bright, colorful arrangment of flowers is carefully placed into a vase. CAMERA ADJUSTS to REVEAL Alex's bedroom is now lived in by Clear and the baby. Clear makes the final adjustment in the arrangement, then checks the sleeping baby in the bassinet.Clear moves to her bed with a book. As she settles in, O.S., a faint RUSTLE. CAMERA INCHES IN ON CLEAR as she looks to...CLEAR'S POV - THE FLOWERSa soft breeze causes the petals to flutter...CLEARlooks toward...CLEAR'S POV - THE WINDOWSwhich are closed.CLEAR'S POV - THE FANwhich... is off.CLEARlooks across the room...CLEAR'S POV - THE ROOMThe breeze moves through the flowers... billows the cutains, posters and photos on the wall... until seemingly settling over the bassinet. The lace trim and blankets rustled by the breeze, it is hovering over the child.CLEARCAMERA SETTLES, but her expression does not reflect fear. She knows Alex is here... and she smiles, tears welling in her eyes.THE BABYthe bassinet trim settles, as if the presence is leaving. Before it fully departs...CLEARthe wind softly and rapidly passes over Clear. He smile remains as the room becomes still and her eyes looks across the room.CLEAR'S POV - ON THE WALLis a pencil rubbing, like people take away from the Vietnam veteran's Memorial. The name... "ALEX BROWNING..." CUT TO:EXT. MT. ABRAHAM HIGH SCHOOL - DAY - CLOSE - MONUMENT"ALEX BROWNING" is marked in the granite. CAMERA PULLS BACK TO REVEAL the name has been added to the memorial, along with Tod Waggner, Valerie Lewton, Terry Chaney and William Hitchcock.A hand ENTERS FRAME, fingers hover in space before they gently trace over "Terry Chaney." CAMERA ADJUSTS TO REVEAL Carter Horton, staring at the name. Alone, he allows himself the moment to grieve. Carter glances up to find Clear approaching with the baby in the stroller.Carter straightens and nods, then begins to walk away. He hesitates, then turns back to Clear. CARTER Alex was right.Clear looks up. CARTER (CONT'D) It did skip us.Clear smiles. As she takes the baby out of the stroller... CLEAR I believe... that's what Alex believed. But how do we know... this wasn't the design all along?Clear holds baby Alex up to the monument, showing her son his father's name. Carter stands, watching. CAMERA WIDENS to REVEAL the entire monument against the deep blue sky. At the base in readable, but understandable lettering... "FLIGHT 180."CAMERA HOLDS as "Long May You Run" CONTINUES... RETURNING each of us to the awaiting darkness. FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Finding Nemo.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Finding Nemo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fa4109ab7d9290d21ea6e3a3cb2ea364ff61c3e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Finding Nemo.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------FINDING NEMO Transcript v1.0Copyright 2003 Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios------------------------------------------------------------Transcribed by BaD_BURNemail : markgonzalez154@hotmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------| Okay, this is the work-in-progress FINDING NEMO film transcript. || Why is it 'work-in-progress' you might ask? Well for one, this || isn't a 100% accurate transcript: some words might be missing, || may not be right. Second, some lines may or may not have been || spoken by the right character. There are instances in the film || where a line is spoken but the character isn't on screen, which || makes things complicated. But I'd say this transcript is about || 98-99% accurate. Dialogue for each scene is seperated by a line || of equal signs (=). || || This transcript is open for corrections, additions if you have || any. What you CAN'T do, however, is to edit it and take credit || for it. Although I do not own the movie or it's screenplay, this || transcript was made with no intention of copyright infringement || and the like. Enjoy. And remember: 'Fish are friends, not food'. | ------------------------------------------------------------------======================================================================================MARLINWow.CORALMmm.MARLINWow.CORALMmm-hmm.MARLINWow.CORALYes, Marlin. No, I see it. It's beautiful.MARLINSo, Coral, when you said you wanted an ocean view, you didn't think that we we're gonnaget the whole ocean, did you? Huh? [sighs] Oh yeah. A fish can breath out here. Did yourman deliver or did he deliver? 1CORALMy man delivered.MARLINAnd it wasn't so easy.CORALBecause a lot of other clownfish had their eyes on this place.MARLINYou better believe they did--every single one of them.CORALMm-hmm. You did good. And the neighborhood is awesome.MARLINSo, you do like it, don't you?CORALNo, no. I do, I do. I really do like it. But Marlin, I know that the drop off is desirablewith the great schools and the amazing view and all, but do we really need so much space?MARLINCoral, honey, these are our kids we're talking about. They deserve the best. Look, look,look. They'll wake up, poke their little heads out and they'll see a whale! See, right bytheir bedroom window.CORALShhh, you're gonna wake the kids.MARLINOh, right. Right.CORALAww, look. They're dreaming. We still have to name them.MARLINYou wanna name all of 'em, right now? All right, we'll name this half Marlin Jr. and thenthis half Coral Jr. Okay, we're done.CORALI like Nemo.MARLINNemo? Well, we'll name one Nemo but I'd like most of them to be Marlin Jr.CORALJust think that in a couple of days, we're gonna be parents!MARLINYeah. What if they don't like me?CORALMarlin.MARLINNo, really.CORALThere's over 400 eggs. Odds are, one of them is bound to like you.CORALWhat?MARLINYou remember how we met?CORALWell, I try not to.MARLINWell, I remember. 'Excuse me, miss, can you check and see if there's a hook in my lip?'CORALMarlin!MARLIN 2'Well, you gotta look a little closer because it's wiggling'.CORALGet away!MARLINHere he is. Cutie's here! Where did everybody go?MARLIN[gasps] Coral, get inside the house, Coral. No, Coral, don't. They'll be fine. Just getinside, you, right now.MARLINNo!MARLINCoral! Coral?MARLINCoral? Oh!MARLINOhh. There, there, there. It's okay, daddy's here. Daddy's got you. I promise, I willnever let anything happen to you...Nemo.======================================================================================NEMOFirst day of school! First day of school! Wake up, wake up! C'mon, first day of school!MARLINI don't wanna go to school. Five more minutes.NEMONot you, dad. Me!MARLINOkay...huh?NEMOGet up, get up! It's time for school! It's time for school! It's time for school!It's time for school! Oh boy! Oh boy!MARLINAll right, I'm up.NEMOOh boy--whoa!MARLINNemo!NEMOFirst day of school!MARLIN[gasps] Nemo, don't move! Don't move! You'll never get out of there yourself. I'll do it.All right, where's the break? You feel a break?NEMONo.MARLINSometimes you can't tell 'cause fluid is rushing to the area. Now, any rushing fluids?NEMONo.MARLINAre you woozy?NEMONo.MARLINHow many stripes do I have? 3NEMOI'm fine.MARLINAnswer the stripe question!NEMOThree.MARLINNo! See, something's wrong with you. I have one, two, three--that's all I have? Oh,you're okay. How's the lucky fin?NEMOLucky.MARLINLet's see.MARLINAre you sure you wanna go to school this year? 'Cause there's no problem if you don't.You can wait 5 or 6 years.NEMOCome on, dad. It's time for school.MARLINAh-ah-ah! Forgot to brush.NEMOOhh...MARLINDo you want this anemone to sting you?NEMOYes.MARLINBrush.NEMOOkay, I'm done.MARLINYou missed a spot.NEMOWhere?MARLINThere. Ha ha! Right there. And here and here and here!======================================================================================MARLINAll right, we're excited. First day of school, here we go. We're ready to learn to getsome knowledge. Now, what's the one thing we have to remember about the ocean?NEMOIt's not safe.MARLINThat's my boy. So, first we check to see that the coast is clear. We go out and back in.And then we go out, and back in. And then one more time--out and back in. And sometimes,if you wanna do it four times--NEMODad..MARLINAll right. Come on, boy.NEMODad, maybe while I'm at school, I'll see a shark!MARLIN 4I highly doubt that.NEMOHave you ever met a shark?MARLINNo, and I don't plan to.NEMOHow old are sea turtles?MARLINSea turtles? I don't know.NEMOSandy Plankton from next door, he said that sea turtles, said that they live to be abouta hundred years old!MARLINWell, you know what, if I ever meet a sea turtle, I'll ask him. After I'm done talkingto the shark, okay? Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on, hold on, wait to cross. Hold my fin,hold my fin.NEMODad, you're not gonna freak out like you did at the petting zoo, are you?MARLINHey, that snail was about to charge. Hmm, I wonder where we're supposed to go.FISH KIDSBye, mom!FISH MOMI'll pick you up after school.CRAB KIDCome on, you guys. Stop it! Give it back!MARLINCome on, we'll try over there.MARLINExcuse me, is this where we meet his teacher?BOBWell, look who's out of the anemone.MARLINYes. Shocking, I know.BOBMarty, right?MARLINMarlin.BOBBob.TEDTed.BILLBill. Hey, you're a clownfish. You're funny, right? Hey, tell us a joke.BOB/TEDYeah, yeah. Come on, give us a funny one.MARLINWell, actually, that's a common misconception. Clownfish are no funnier than anyother fish.BILLAw, come on, clownie.TEDYeah, do something funny. 5BOBYeah!MARLINAll right, I know one joke. Um, there's a mollusk, see? And he walks up to a sea, well hedoesn't walk up, he swims up. Well, actually the mollusk isn't moving. He's in one placeand then the sea cucumber, well they--I mixed up. There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber.None of them were walking, so forget that I--BOBSheldon! Get out of Mr. Johansenn's yard, now!KIDSWhoa!MR. JOHANSSENAll right, you kids! Ooh! Uuh, where'd you go? Where'd you go? Where, where'd you go?NEMODad, dad...can I go play too? Can I?MARLINI would feel better if you go play over on the sponge beds.MARLINThat's where I would playPEARLWhat's wrong with his fin?TADHe looks funny!SHELDONOw! Hey, what'd I do? What'd I do?BOBBe nice. It's his first time at school.MARLINHe was born with it, kids. We call it his lucky fin.NEMODad.PEARLSee this tentacle? It's actually shorter than all my other tentacles but you can't reallytell.Especially when I twirl them like this.SHELDONI'm H2O-intolerant. [sneezes]TADI'm obnoxious.MR. RAY[singing] Oooh, let's name the zones, the zones, the zones. Let's name the zones of theopen sea.KIDSMr. Ray!SHELDONCome on, Nemo.MARLINWhoa, you better stay with me.MR. RAY[singing]..mesopolagic, bathyal, abyssalpelagic. All the rest are too deep for you andme to see.MR. RAYHuh, I wonder where my class has gone?KIDS 6We're under here!MR. RAYOh, there you are. Climb aboard, explorers. [singing] Oh, knowledge exploring is oh solyrical, when you think thoughts that are empirical.NEMODad, you can go now.MR. RAYWell, hello. Who is this?NEMOI'm Nemo.MR. RAYWell, Nemo, all new explorers must answer a science question.NEMOOkay.MR. RAYYou live in what kind of home?NEMOAn anemo-none. A nemenem-menome-nememen-nenemone--MR. RAYOkay, okay, don't hurt yourself. Welcome aboard, explorers!MARLINJust so you know, he's got a little fin. I find if he's having trouble swimming, let himtake a break. Ten, fifteen minutes.NEMODad, it's time for you to go now.MR. RAYDon't worry. We're gonna stay together as a group. Okay, class, optical orbits up front.And remember, we keep our supraesophogeal ganglion to ourselves...that means you, Jimmy.JIMMYAw, man!MR. RAY[singing]MARLINBye, Nemo!NEMOBye, dad!MARLINBye, son! Be safe.BOBHey, you're doing pretty well for a first timer.MARLINWell, you can't hold onto them forever, can you?BILLYeah, I had a tough time when my oldest went out at the drop off.MARLINThey just gotta grow up--the drop off?! They're going to the drop off?! Wh-what are you,insane?! Why don't we fry 'em up now and serve them with chips!?BOBHey, Marty. Calm down.MARLINDon't tell me to be calm, pony boy!BOB'Pony boy'? 7BILLYou know for a clownfish, he really isn't that funny.TEDPity.======================================================================================MR. RAY[singing] Oh, let's name the species, the species, the species. Let's name the speciesthat live in thesea.NEMOWhoa.MR. RAY[singing] There's porifera, coelenterata, hydrozoa, scyphozoa, anthozoa, ctenophora,bryozoas, three! Gastropoda, arthropoda, echinoderma, and some fish like you and me. Comeon, sing with me. Oh...!MR. RAYJust the girls this time. [singing] Oh, seaweed is cool. Seaweed is fun. It makes it's foodwith the rays of the sun...MR. RAYOkay, the drop off. All right, kids, feel free to explore but stay close. [gasps]Stromalitic cyanobacteria! Gather. An entire ecosystem contained in one infinitesimal speck.There are as many protein pairs contained in this...TADCome on, let's go.MR. RAYCome on, sing with me! [singing] There's porifera, coelentera, hydrozoa, scyphozoa, anthozoa,ctenophora, bryozoas, three!NEMOHey guys, wait up! Whoa.TADCool.TADSaved your life!PEARLAw, you guys made me ink.NEMOWhat's that?TADI know what that is. Oh, oh! Sandy Plankton saw one. He called, he said it was called a...abutt.NEMOWhoa.PEARLWow. That's a pretty big butt.SHELDONOh, look at me. I'm gonna go touch the butt. [sneezes] Whoa!SHELDONOh yeah? Let's see you get closer.PEARLOkay. Beat that.TADCome on, Nemo. How far can you go?NEMOUh, my dad says it's not safe. 8MARLINNemo, no!NEMODad?MARLINYou were about to swim into open water!NEMONo, I wasn't go out--but dad!MARLINIt was a good thing I was here. If I hadn't showed up, I don't know--PEARLSir, he wasn't gonna go.TADYeah, he was too afraid.NEMONo, I wasn't.MARLINThis does not concern you, kids. And you're lucky I don't tell your parents you were outthere.You know you can't swim well.NEMOI can swim fine, dad, okay?MARLINNo, it's not okay. You shouldn't be anywhere near here. Okay, I was right. You'll start schoolin a year or two.NEMONo, dad! Just because you're scared of the ocean--MARLINClearly, you're not ready. And you're not coming back until you are. You think you can dothesethings but you just can't, Nemo!NEMOI hate you.MR. RAYThere's--nothing to see. Gather, uh, over there. Excuse me, is there anything I can do? I am ascientist, sir. Is there any problem?MARLINI'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt things. He isn't a good swimmer and it's a littletoo soon for him to be out here unsupervised.MR. RAYWell, I can assure you, he's quite safe with me.MARLINLook, I'm sure he is. But you have a large class and he can get lostfrom sight if you're not looking. I'm not saying you're not looking--FISH KIDOh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!MARLINNemo! What do you think you're doing? You're gonna get stuck out there and I'll have to getyou before another fish does! Get back here! I said get back here, now! Stop! You take onemove, mister. Don't youdare! If you put one fin on that boat..are you listening to me?Don't touch the bo--Nemo!TAD[whispering] He touched the butt.MARLINYou paddle your little tail back here, Nemo. That's right. You are in big trouble, young man.Do you hear me? Big...big-- 9NEMOAaaah! Daddy! Help me!MARLINI'm coming, Nemo!KIDSAaaah!MR. RAYGet under me, kids!NEMOAh! Oh no! Dad! Daddy!MARLINOh! Nemo! Unh! Nemo! Nemo, no! Nemo! Nemo! Nemo! No! No! Aah! Nemo! Nemo!DIVERWhoa! Hold on.MARLINOh no. No, no. It's gone, it's gone. No, no, it can't be gone. No, no! Nemo! Nemo! Nemo! No!Nemo! Nemo! No! No, please, no! No, no!MARLINHas anybody seen a boat!? Please! A white boat! They took my son! My son! Help me, please!DORYLook out!MARLINWaaaah!MARLINOoh, ooh...DORYOhh. Oh, oh. Sorry! I didn't see you. Sir, are you okay?MARLINHe's gone, he's gone..DORYThere, there. It's all right.MARLINHe's gone.DORYIt'll be okay.MARLINNo, no. They took him away. I have to find the boat.DORYHey, I've seen a boat.MARLINYou have?DORYIt passed by not too long ago.MARLINA white one?DORYHi. I'm Dory.MARLINWhere!? Which way!?DORYOh, oh, oh! It-it went, um, this way! And it went this way! Follow me!MARLIN 10Thank you! Thank you, thank you so much!DORYNo problem.MARLINHey! Wait!DORYWill you quit it?MARLINWhat?DORYI'm trying to swim here. What, ocean ain't big enough for you?MARLINHuh?DORYYou got a problem, buddy? Huh? Huh? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? You want a piece of me? Yeah,oooh, I'm scared now. Whaat!?MARLINWait a minute..DORYStop following me, okay!?MARLINWhat? You're showing me which way the boat went!DORYA boat? Hey, I've seen a boat. It passed by not too long ago. It went this way, it went thisway. Follow me!MARLINWait a minute, wait a minute! What is going on? You already told me which way the boatwas going!DORYI did? Oh dear...MARLINIf this is some kind of practical joke, it's not funny! And I know funny..I'm a clownfish!DORYNo, it's not. I know it's not. I'm so sorry. See, I suffer from short-term memory loss.MARLINShort-term memory loss..I don't believe this!DORYNo, it's true. I forget things almost instantly. It runs in my family..or at least I thinkit does. Hmmm..where are they? Can I help you?MARLINSomething's wrong with you, really. You're wasting my time. I have to find my son. [gasps]BRUCEHello.DORYWell, hi!BRUCEName's Bruce. It's all right, I understand. Why trust a shark, right? So, what's a couple ofbites like you doing out so late, eh?MARLINNothing. We're not doing anything. We're not even out.BRUCEGreat! Then how'd you morsels like to come to a little get-together I'm havin'?DORY 11You mean like a party?BRUCEYeah, yeah, that's right--a party! What do you say?DORYOoh, I love parties! Parties are fun!MARLINParties are fun, and it's tempting but--BRUCEOh, come on, I insist.MARLINO-okay..that's all that matters.DORYHey, look--balloons! It is a party!BRUCEHa ha ha! Mind your distance, though. Those balloons can be a bit dodgy. You wouldn't wantone of them to pop.BRUCEAnchor! Chum!ANCHORThere you are, Bruce, finally!BRUCEWe got company.ANCHORIt's about time, mate.CHUMWe've already gone through all the snacks and I'm still starvin'!ANCHORWe almost had a feeding frenzy.CHUMCome on, let's get this over with.======================================================================================BRUCERight, then. The meeting has officially come to order. Let us all say the pledge..BRUCE/ANCHOR/CHUM'I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I mustfirst change myself. Fish are friends, not food'.ANCHORExcept stinkin' dolphins.CHUMDolphins! Yeah, they think they're sooo cute! 'Hey, look at me. I'm a flippin' little dolphin!Let me flip for 'ya! Ain't I a somethin'!'BRUCERight, then. Today's meeting is step 5, 'BRING A FISH FRIEND'. Now do you all have yourfriends?ANCHORGot mine.DORYHey there!BRUCEHow 'bout you, Chum?CHUMOh, um, I seem to have misplaced my uh, friend. 12BRUCEThat's all right, Chum. I had a feeling this would be a difficult step, you can help yourselfto one of my friends.CHUMOh, thanks, mate. A little chum for Chum, eh?BRUCEI'll start the testimonies. Hello, my name is Bruce.ANCHOR/CHUMHello, Bruce.BRUCEIt has been three weeks since my last fish, on my honor, or may I be chopped up andmade into soup.CHUMYou're an inspiration to all of us.ANCHORAmen.BRUCERight, then. Who's next?DORYOoh! Pick me! Pick me!BRUCEYes, the little Sheila down the front.DORYWoo-hoo!BRUCECome on up here.DORYHi. I'm Dory.BRUCE/ANCHOR/CHUMHello, Dory.DORYAnd, uh, well, I don't think I've ever eaten a fish.CHUMHey, that's incredible.BRUCEGood on 'ya, mate!DORYWhew! I'm glad I got that off my chest.BRUCEAll right, anyone else? Hello, how 'bout you, mate? What's your problem?MARLINMe? I don't have a problem.BRUCEOh. Okay..BRUCE/ANCHOR/CHUMDenial.BRUCEJust start with your name.MARLINOkay. Uh, hello. My name is Marlin. I'm a clownfish--CHUMA clownfish? Really?! 13BRUCEGo on, tell us a joke!CHUMOoh! I love jokes!MARLINActually I do know one that's pretty good. There was this mollusk and he walks up to a seacucumber. Normally, they don't talk, sea cucumbers, but in a joke, everyone talks. So thesea mollusk says to the cucumber...NEMODaddy!MARLINNemo!CHUMNemo! Ha ha ha! Nemo! I don't get it.BRUCEFor a clownfish, he's not that funny.MARLINNo, no, no, no. He's my son. He was taken by these divers.DORYOh my, you poor fish.CHUMHumans. Think they own everything.ANCHORProbably American.BRUCENow there is a father looking for his little boy.MARLINUgh! What do these markings mean?BRUCEI never knew my father! [sobs]CHUMAw, come here.ANCHORGroup hug.CHUMWe're all mates here, mate.MARLINI can't read human.DORYWell then we gotta find a fish who can read this. Hey, look. Sharks!MARLINNo, no, no, Dory!DORYGuys, guys!MARLINNo, Dory!DORYThat's mine! Give it to me! Gimme! Oww!MARLINOh, I'm sorry. Are you okay?DORYOw, ow, ow. 14MARLINI'm so sorry.DORYYou really clocked me there. Am I bleeding?MARLINOhh...DORYOw, ow, ow.BRUCEDory, are you oka--oohh. Oohh, that's good.ANCHOR/CHUMIntervention!BRUCEJust a bite!ANCHORHold it together, mate!CHUMRemember, Bruce, fish are friends, not food!BRUCEFOOD!MARLINDory, look out!BRUCEI'm havin' fish tonight!CHUMRemember the steps, mate!BRUCEJust one bite!BRUCEG'day!MARLIN/DORYAaaaaaaah!BRUCEArrrr!MARLINThere's no way out! There's got to be a way to escape!DORYWho is it?MARLINDory, help me find a way out!DORYSorry, you'll have to come back later. We're trying to escape.MARLINThere's gotta be a way out!DORYLook, here's something! 'ESSS-CA-PE'! I wonder what that means. It's funny, it's spelledjust like the word 'escape'.MARLINLet's go!BRUCEHere's Brucey!MARLIN 15Wait a minute..you can read?!DORYI can read? That's right, I can read!MARLINWell, then here. Read this now!ANCHORHe really doesn't mean it, y'know! He never even knew his father!CHUMDon't fall off the wagon!MARLINOh no, it's blocked!ANCHORNo, Bruce. Focus!CHUMSorry about--this, mate!ANCHORHe's really--a nice guy!MARLINI need to get that mask!DORYYou want that mask? Okay.MARLINNo, no, no, no, no, no!MARLINQuick grab the mask!ANCHOROh no. Bruce?BRUCEWhat? [gasps] Swim away! Swim away!DORYAw, is the party over?PELICANNice.======================================================================================NEMODad? Daddy?DENTISTBarbara?BARBARAUh-huh?DENTISTPrep for his anterior crown, would you, please? And I'm going to need a few cotton rolls.BARBARAOkay.DENTISTHello, little fella!NEMOAah!DENTISTHeh heh heh! Beauty, isn't he? I found that guy struggling for life out on the reef andI saved him. So, has that novocaine kicked in yet? 16PATIENTI think so. We're ready to roll.BUBBLESBubbles! [muttering] My bubbles.PEACHHe likes bubbles.NEMOAah! Ohh! No! Uhh!JACQUESBonjour.NEMOAah!BLOATHeh heh! Slow down, little fella. There's nothing to worry about.DEBOh, he's scared to death.NEMOI wanna go home. Do you know where my dad is?PEACHHoney, your dad's probably back at the pet store.NEMOPet store?BLOATYeah, you know, like I'm from Bob's Fish Mart.GURGLEPet Palace.BUBBLESFish-O-Rama.DEBMail order.PEACHEbay.GURGLESo which one is it?NEMOI'm from the ocean.GURGLEAh, the ocean. The ocean! Aaah! He hasn't been decontaminated yet! Jacques!JACQUESOui.GURGLEClean him!JACQUESOui.GURGLEOcean!JACQUESOoh, la mer. Bon. Voila. He is clean.BUBBLESWow. The big blue. What's it like?NEMOBig...and blue? 17BUBBLESI knew it.DEBKid, if there's anything you need, just ask your auntie Deb, that's me. Or if I'm notaround, you can always talk to my sister Flo. Hi,how are you? Don't listen to anythingmy sister says, she's nuts! Ha ha ha ha!PEACH[muffled] We got a live one!BLOATCan't hear you, Peach.PEACHI said we got a live one.GURGLEYes!BLOATOh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!DEBWhat do we got?PEACHRoot canal, and by the looks of those x-rays it's not gonna be pretty.PATIENTOwwwwwwwww!BLOATRubber dam and clamp installed?PEACHYep.GURGLEWhat did he use to open?PEACHGator-Glidden drill. He seems to be favoring that one lately.DEBI can't see, Flo.PATIENTYou're getting a little too--aaaaah!!!PEACHNow he's doing the Schilder technique.BLOATOooh, he's using a Hedstrom file.GURGLEThat's not a Hedstrom file. That's a K-Flex.BLOATIt's got a teardrop cross-section. Clearly a Hedstrom.GURGLENo, no. K-Flex.BLOATHedstrom!GURGLEK-Flex!BLOATHedstro--! [inflates] There I go. A little help over here.DEBI'll go deflate him. 18DENTISTAll right, go ahead and rinse.GURGLEUgh! The human mouth is a disgusting place.PEACHHey, Nigel.NIGELWhat did I miss? Am I late?PEACHRoot canal and it's a doozy.NIGELRoot canal, eh? What did he use to open?PEACHGator-Glidden drill.NIGELHe seems to be favoring that one. Hope he doesn't get surplus sealer at the portal terminus...hello.NEMO[gasps]NIGELWho's this?DEBNew guy. Ha ha ha!GURGLEThe dentist took him off the reef.NIGELAn outie. From my neck of the woods, eh? Sorry if I ever took a snap at you. Fish gotta swim,birds gotta eat. [gasps]DENTISTHey! No, no, no, no! They're not your fish. They're my fish. Come on, go! Go on, shoo! Oh,the picture broke. This here's Darla. She's my niece. She's going to be eight next week.Hey, little fella. Say hello to your new mummy. She'll be here Friday to pick you up. You'reher present. Shh, shh, shh! It's our little secret. Well, Mr. Tucker, while that sets upI'm going to see a man about a wallaby.BLOATOh, Darla.NEMOWhat? What's wrong with her?GURGLEShe wouldn't stop shaking the bag.BUBBLESPoor Chuckles.DEBHe was her present last year.BLOATHitched a ride on the porcelain express.PEACHShe's a fish killer.NEMOI can't go with that girl! I have to get back to my dad! Aaah! Daddy! Help me!GURGLEOh, he's stuck!GILL 19Nobody touch him! Nobody touch him.NEMOCan you help me?GILLNo. You got yourself in there, you can get yourself out.PEACHGill..GILLI just wanna see him do it, okay? Calm down. Alternate wiggling your fins and your tail.NEMOI can't. I have a bad fin.GILLNever stopped me.GILLJust think about what you need to do.BLOATCome on.GILLPerfect.BUBBLESYay!GURGLEYou did it!DEBGood squirming! Ha ha ha!PEACHWow. From the ocean. Just like you, Gill.GILLYeah.PEACHI've seen that look before. What are you thinking about?GILLI'm thinking, tonight, we give the kid a proper reception.BLOATSo kid, you got a name or what?NEMONemo. I'm Nemo.======================================================================================MARLINNemo. Nemo. [mutters]DORYAre you gonna eat that? Careful with that hammer...MARLINHuh? No, no! What does it say? Dory!DORYSea monkey has my money...MARLINWake up! Get up! Come on! Come on!DORYYes, I'm a natural blue...MARLIN 20Get up!DORYLook out! Sharks eat fish! Aaaaaah!MARLIN/DORYAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!DORYWow. Dusty.MARLIN[gasps] The mask! Where's the mask? No! No, not the mask! Get it! Get the mask!Get the mask! Get it!DORY[singing] Hoo doot doo doot doot doo doot. Whoo-hoo! La la la la la la. Just keepsgoing on, doesn't it? Echo! Echo! Hey, what are you doing?MARLINIt's gone. I've lost the mask.DORYDid you drop it?MARLINYou dropped it! That was my only chance of finding my son, now it's gone.DORYHey, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do?MARLINI don't wanna know what you gotta do when life gets you down.DORY[singing] Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do?We swim, swim.MARLINDory, no singing.DORY[singing] Ho ho ho ho ho ho! I love to swim! When you want to swim..MARLINSee, I'm going to get stuck now with that song now it's in my head!DORYSorry.MARLINDory, do you see anything?DORYAaah! Something's got me!MARLINThat was me. I'm sorry.DORY[gasps] Who was that?MARLINWho could it be? It's me!DORYAre..are you my conscience?MARLINYeah, yeah. I'm your conscience. We haven't spoken for a while. How are you?DORYHmm, can't complain.MARLINYeah? Good. Now, Dory. I want you to tell me..do you see anything? 21DORYI see..I see a light.MARLINA light.DORYYeah. Over there. Hey, conscience. Am I dead?MARLINNo, I see it too. What is it?DORYIt's so pretty.MARLINI'm feeling...happy. Which is a big deal for me.DORYI want to touch it. Oh!MARLINHey, come back. Come on back here.DORY[singing] I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna swim with you.MARLINI'm gonna get you. I'm gonna be your best friend...good feeling's gone.MARLINI can't see! I don't know where I'm going!DORYHaah!MARLINThe mask!DORYWhat mask?DORYOkay, I can't see a thing.MARLINOh, gee!DORYHey, look! A mask!MARLINRead it!DORYI'm sorry, but if you could just bring it a little closer, I kind of need the light.That's great, keep it right there.MARLINJust read it!DORYOkay, okay. Mr. Bossy. Uh, 'P'. Okay, 'P'. 'Shh-eer...Sher--P. Sher--P. Shirley? P.--'. Oh!The first line's 'P. Sherman'!MARLINP. Sherman doesn't make any sense!DORYOkay, second line. '42'.MARLINDon't eat me! Don't eat me! Aaaah!DORYLight, please. 'Walla--Walla--Walla-beee'... 22MARLINWaah! Waaah! Waaaah!DORYThe second line's '42 Wallaby Way'!MARLINThat's great! Speed read! Take a guess! No pressure! No problem! There's a lot of pressure!Pressure! Take a guess now with pressure!DORY'Sydney'. It's 'Sydney'!MARLINDuck!DORYAaah!MARLINI'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I died, I'm dead.MARLINWhoo-hoo! [singing] We did it, we did it! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! No eating here tonight, whoo!BOTH[singing] Eating here tonight!MARLINDory.DORY[singing] No, no, no eating here tonight. You on a diet--MARLINDory! What did the mask say?DORY'P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney'. [gasps] I remember what it said! I usually forgetthings, but I remembered it this time!MARLINWhoa, whoa, wait! Where is that?DORYI don't know. But who cares? I remembered!MARLIN/DORYAaah!DORYP. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. I remembered it again!======================================================================================JACQUESPsst. Nemo.NEMOMmmm...JACQUESNemo.NEMOHuh?JACQUESSuivez-moi. Follow me.BLOAT/BUBBLES/GURGLE[chanting] Ha! Ho! Hwa! Hwee! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ha! Ho! Hwa! Hwee! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ha! Ho!Hwa! Hwee! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Hahoo! Wahoo! Yahoo! Ho! Ha! Ho! Wahee! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Hoo!GILLState your name. 23NEMONemo.GILLBrother Bloat, proceed.BLOATNemo! Newcomer of orange and white, you have been called forth to the summit of MountWannahockaloogie to join with us in the fraternal bonds of tankhood.NEMOHuh?PEACHWe want you in our club, kid.NEMOReally?BLOATIf you are able to swim through..THE RING OF FIRE! [whispers to Jacques] Turn on theRing of Fire! The Ring of Fire, you said you could do it--THE RING OF FIRE!BUBBLESBubbles! Bubbles! Let me--oww!BLOAT/BUBBLES/GURGLE[chanting]PEACHIsn't there another way? He's just a boy!JACQUES[wailing]GILLFrom this moment on, you will now be known as Sharkbait.BLOAT/BUBBLES/GURGLESharkbait! Ooh ha ha!GILLWelcome, brother Sharkbait!BLOAT/BUBBLES/GURGLESharkbait! Ooh ha ha!GILLEnough with the Sharkbait.GURGLESharkbait! Ooh..ba-ba-doo.GILLOkay, Sharkbait's one of us now, agreed?BLOAT/BUBBLES/GURGLEAgreed!GILLWe can't send him off to his death. Darla's coming in 5 days, so what are we gonna do?I'll tell you what we're gonna do: we're gonna get him outta here. We're gonna helphim escape.NEMOEscape? Really?GILLWe're all gonna escape!GURGLEGill, please, not another one of your escape plans.DEBSorry, but they, they just, they never work. 24BLOATYeah. Why should this be any different?GILL'Cause we've got him.NEMOMe?GILLYou see that filter?NEMOYeah?GILLYou're the only one who can get in and out of that thing. What we need you to do is takea pebble inside and jam the gears. You do that and this tank's gonna get filthier andfilthier by the minute. Pretty soon, the dentist'll have to clean the tank himself. Andwhen he does, he'll take us out of the tank, put us in the individual baggies, then we rollourselves down the counter, out of the window, off the awning, into the bushes, across thestreet and into the harbor! It's foolproof! Who's with me?BLOATAye!JACQUESAye!DEBAye!BUBBLESAye!GURGLEI think your nuts.GILL/NEMO[sighs]GURGLENo offense, kid, but, um..you're not the best swimmer.GILLHe's fine, he can do this. So Sharkbait, what do you think?NEMOLet's do it.======================================================================================DORYI'm going to P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. Where are you going? I'm going to P.Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. If you're askin' where I'm goin'. I'll tell you that'swhere I'm going. It's P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. Where? I'm sorry, I didn't hearyou. P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way...MARLINExcuse me. Ex-excuse me, um, hi. Do you know how to get to--hello? W-w-w-wait! Can youtell me--hey! Hold it! Wait a minute! I'm trying to talk to you. Okay, fellas, come backhere. Please, one quick question. I need to aaaaand they're gone again. [sighs]DORYP. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. Why do I have to tell you over and over again? I'll tellyou again. I don't get tired of it--MARLINOkay, all right.DORYHuh?MARLINHere's the thing.DORY 25Uh-huh.MARLINY'know, I just, I-I think it's best if I just, if I just, carry on from here by..by myself.DORYOkay.MARLINY'know, alone.DORYUh-huh.MARLINWithout, without..well, I mean, not without you. I mean, it's just that I don't want you...with me.DORYHuh?MARLINI don't wanna hurt your feelings..DORYYou want me to leave?MARLINWell, I mean not..yes, yeah. It's just that you know I-I just can't afford anymore delaysand you're one of those fish that cause delays. And sometimes it's a good thing. There'sa whole group of fish. They're..'delay fish'.DORYYou mean..[whimper]you mean you don't..like me? [sobs]MARLINNo, of course I like you. It's because I like you I don't wanna be with you. It's acomplicated emotion. Oh, don't cry. I like you.MOONFISH LEADERHey, you! Lady, is this guy botherin' you?DORYUm, I don't remember. Were you?MARLINNo, no, no, no, no. We're just, we're..hey, do you guys know how I can get to--MOONFISH LEADERLook, pal. We're talkin' to the lady, not you. Hey-hey, you like impressions?DORYMm-mmm-mmmm.MOONFISH LEADEROkay. Just like in rehearsals, gentlemen. So, what are we? Take a guess.DORYOh, oh, I've seen one of those.MOONFISH LEADERI'm a fish with a nose like a sword.DORYWait, wait, um..MARLINIt's a swordfish.MOONFISH LEADERHey, clown boy! Let the lady guess. Where's the butter?DORYOh-oh-oh! It's on the tip of my tongue.MARLIN[coughs up answer]Lobster. 26MOONFISH LEADERSaw that.MARLINWhat?MOONFISH LEADERLots of legs, lives in the ocean.DORYClam!MOONFISH LEADERClose enough. [singing] Oh, it's a whale of a tale, I'll tell you lad, a whale of a tale.DORYOh, they're good.MARLINWill somebody please give me directions?MOONFISH LEADER[impersonating Marlin] Will somebody please give me directions?DORYHa ha ha ha ha!MARLINI'm serious.MOONFISH LEADERBlah-blah-blah! Me-me-blah! Blah-blah-blah-blah-me-me-me!MARLINThank you.DORYOh dear. Hey, hey come back! Hey, what's the matter?MARLINWhat's the matter? While they're doing their silly little impressions, I am miles fromhome, with a fish that can't even remember her own name.DORYBoy, bet that's frustrating.MARLINYeah. Meanwhile my son is out there.DORYYou're son Chico?MARLINNemo.DORYRight. Got it.MARLINBut it doesn't matter, 'cause no fish in this entire ocean is gonna help me.DORYWell, I'm helping you. Wait right here. Hey, guys.MOONFISH LEADERWhat, is he bothering you again?DORYNo, no, he's a good guy. Go easy on him, he's lost his son, Fabio. Any of you heard ofP. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney?MOONFISH LEADERSydney? Oh sure. Why, Ted here's got relatives in Sydney. Don't you, Ted?MOONFISH TEDSure do. 27DORYOh, hey! They know Sydney!MARLIN[gasps]DORYYou wouldn't know how to get there, would you?MOONFISH LEADERWhat you wanna do is follow the EAC, that's the East Australian Current. Big current,can't miss it, it's in..that direction. And then you gotta follow that for about, Idon't know, what do you guys think? About three leagues? And that little baby's gonnaput you right past Sydney.MOONFISH SCHOOLTA-DAA!MARLINGreat! That's great! Dory, you did it!DORYOh, please. I'm just your little helper. Helping along, that's me.MARLINWell, listen fellas, thank you.MOONFISH LEADERDon't mention it. And, uh, loosen up. Okay, buddy?DORYOh, you guys. You really nailed him. Bye.MOONFISH LEADEROh, hey ma'am, one more thing.DORYYes.MOONFISH LEADERWhen you come to this trench, swim through it, not over it.DORYTrench, through it, not over it. I'll remember. Hey, hey! Hey! Hey! Hey, wait up, partner.Hold on. Wait! Wait-wait! I got, I gotta tell you something..whoa. Nice trench. Hello!Okay, let's go.MARLINBad trench, bad trench. Come on, we're gonna swim over this thing.DORYWhoa, whoa, partner. Little red flag goin' up. Somethin's telling me we should swim throughit, not over it.MARLINAre you even looking at this thing? It's got death written all over it.DORYI'm sorry, but I really, really, really think we should swim through.MARLINAnd I'm really, really done talking about this. Over we go.DORYCome on, trust me on this.MARLINTrust you?DORYYes, trust. It's what friends do.MARLINLook! Something shiny!DORY 28Where?MARLINOh, it just swam over the trench. Come on, we'll follow it.DORYOkay.DORYBoy, sure is clear up here.MARLINExactly. And look at that, there's the current. We should be there in no time.DORYHey, little guy.MARLINYou wanted to go through the trench.DORYI shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come here,Squishy. Come here, little Squishy. [Baby talk]---oww!MARLINDory! That's a jellyfish!DORYBad Squishy! Bad Squishy!MARLINShoo! Shoo, shoo! Get away! Come here, let me see.DORYDon't touch it! Don't touch it!MARLINI'm not gonna touch it. I just wanna look.DORYHeeey, how come it didn't sting you?MARLINIt did. It's just that..DORYOw! Ow, oww!MARLIN..hold still. I live in this anemone and I'm, I'm, I'm used to these kind of stings.Come here.DORYOw, ow! Oww!MARLINIt doesn't look bad, you're gonna be fine. But now we know, don't we?DORYYeah.MARLINThat we don't wanna touch these again. Let's be thankful this time it was just alittle one.[gasps]MARLIN/DORYAaaah!MARLINDon't move! This is bad, Dory.DORYHey, watch this! Boing! Boing!MARLIN[gasps] Dory! 29DORYBoing-boing-boing! [singing] You can't catch me!MARLINDory! Don't bounce on the tops! They will..not sting you. The tops don't sting you,that's it!DORYOoh! Two in a row, beat that.MARLINDory! All right, listen to me. I have an idea, a game.DORYA game?MARLINA game.DORYA game?MARLINYes.DORYAah! I love games! Pick me!MARLINAll right, here's the game. Um, whoever can hop the fastest out of these jellyfish, wins.DORYOkay!MARLINRules, rules, rules!DORYOkay!MARLINYou can't touch the tentacles, only the tops.DORYSomething about tentacles, got it. On your mark, get set, go!MARLINW-wait! Wait! Not something about them, it's all about them! Wait!DORYWeeee!MARLINDory!DORYGotta go faster if you wanna win!MARLIN[gasps] Dory!DORYBoing! Boing! Boing-boing-boing-boing!MARLINWait a minute--whoa! Dory!DORYWeeee!MARLINSo, we're cheating death now. That's what we're doin'. We're havin' fun at the same time.I can do this, just be careful.DORYYeah, careful I don't make you cry when I win! 30MARLINOh, I don't think so!DORYHa ha ha ha! Whooo! Give it up, old man. You can't fight evolution, I was built for speed.MARLINThe question is, Dory, are you hungry?DORYHuh? Hungry?MARLINYeah, 'cause you're about to eat my bubbles! Duck to the left! Right there! The clownfishis the winner! Woohoo! We did it! We're gonna...Dory? Oh no. Dory! Dory! Dory! [gasps]Dory! Uggghhh!DORYUgh...am I disqualified?MARLINNo, you're doing fine! You're, you're actually winning! But you gotta stay awake. Uh, wheredoes P. Sherman live?DORYP..Sherman..Wallaby Way...Sydney...MARLINThat's it! Oww! Ow! Stay awake! Stay awake! Ow! Stay awake! Stay--awake!DORYAwake...P..Sherman..MARLINAwake...DORY..42 Wallaby Way...MARLINAwake...wake up...Nemo...======================================================================================GILLYou miss your dad, don't you, Sharkbait?NEMOYeah.GILLWell, you're lucky to have someone out there who's lookin' for you.NEMOHe's not looking for me. He's scared of the ocean.GILLPeach, any movement?PEACHHe's had at least four cups of coffee, it's gotta be soon.GILLKeep on him.GILLMy first escape, landed on dental tools. I was aimin' for the toilet.NEMOToilet?GILLAll drains lead to the ocean, kid.NEMOWow. How many times have you tried to get out? 31GILLAah, I've lost count. Fish aren't meant to be in a box, kid. It does things to 'ya.BUBBLESBubbles! Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles---PEACHPotty break! Potty break! He just grabbed the Reader's Digest! We have 4.2 minutes.GILLThat's your cue, Sharkbait.BLOATYou can do it, kid.GILLOkay, you gotta be quick. Once you get in, you swim down to the bottom of the chamberand I'll talk you through the rest.NEMOOkay.GILLGo on, it'll be a piece of kelp.NEMO[takes a deep breath]GILLNicely done! Can you hear me?NEMOYeah.GILLHere comes the pebble. Now, do you see a small opening?NEMOUh-huh.GILLOkay, inside it you'll see a rotating fan. Very carefully, wedge that pebble into thefan to stop it turning.NEMOAaah!GILLCareful, Sharkbait.NEMOI can't do it!PEACHGill, this isn't a good idea.GILLHe'll be fine. Try again.NEMOOkay.GILLThat's it, Sharkbait. Nice and steady.NEMOI got it! I got it!PEACH[sigh]BLOATHe did it!GURGLEWhew! 32GILLThat's great, kid! Now, swim up the tube and out.NEMOOh no! Gill! Gill!GILLSharkbait!BLOATOh my gosh!GILLGet 'im outta there! Get 'im outta there!BUBBLESHelp him!GURGLEWhat do we do!? What do we do!?PEACHOh no!GILLStay calm, kid! Just don't panic!NEMOHelp me!GILLSharkbait! Grab hold of this!NEMONo! No!GILLFeed me more!GURGLEThat's it!GILLCome on, Sharkbait! Grab it!NEMOI got it!GILLPull!PEACHGill, don't make him go back in there.GILLNo. We're done.======================================================================================CRUSHDude.MARLINOoh...CRUSHDude. Focus, dude. Dude.MARLINOoooh...CRUSHOh, he lives! Hey, dude!MARLINOoooh..what happened? 33CRUSHOh, saw the whole thing, dude. First you were like, 'whoa'! And then we were all like,'whoa'! And then you were like, 'whoa'.MARLINWhat're you talking about?CRUSHYou, mini-man. Takin' on the jellies. You got serious thrill issues, dude.MARLINOoh.CRUSHAwesome.MARLINOoh..ooh, my stomach. Ooooh..CRUSHOh, man. No hurlin' on the shell, dude, okay, just waxed it.MARLINSo Mr. Turtle...CRUSHWhoa, dude. Mr. Turtle is my father. Name's Crush.MARLINCrush? Really? Okay Crush, listen I need to get to the East Australian Current. EAC?CRUSHHa ha ha, dude, ha ha, you're ridin' it, dude! Check it out!CRUSHOkay, grab shell, dude!MARLINGrabbing--waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Whooooooaaaa!!!CRUSHHa ha! Righteous! Righteous! Yeah!MARLINStop!CRUSHSo, what brings you on this fine day to the EAC?MARLINWell, Dory and I need to get to Sydney. [gasps] Dory! Dory! Is she all right!?CRUSHOh. Oh, Little Blue. She is sub-level, dude.MARLINDory, Dory! Dory!DORYHmm-mmm....MARLINOh, Dory. I-I-I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, it's my fault...DORY..29, 30! Ready or not, here I come! There you are! Catch me if you can! Ha ha!Ha ha ha ha!MARLINHuh?SQUIRTWhoa!MARLIN[gasps] Oh my goodnes! 34CRUSHWhoa. Kill the motor, dude. Let us see what Squirt does flying solo.SQUIRTWhoa! Whoa! That was so cool! Hey dad, did you see that? Did you see me? Did you seewhat I did?CRUSHYou so totally rock, Squirt! So give me some fin..noggin..CRUSH/SQUIRT..dude!CRUSHOh, intro. Jellyman, Offspring. Offspring, Jellyman.SQUIRTJellies? Sweet.CRUSHTotally.MARLINWell, apparently, I must've done something you all like. Heh, uh, dudes.SQUIRTYou rock, dude.MARLINOw.CRUSHCurl away, my son. Aw, it's awesome, Jellyman. Little dudes are just eggs, leave 'emon the beach to hatch, then coo-coo-ca-choo, they find their way back to the big 'ol blue.MARLINAll by themselves?CRUSHYeah.MARLINBut-but-but dude, how do you know when they're ready?CRUSHWell, you never really know. But when they'll know, you'll know, you know? Ha.DORYHey! Look, everybody!SQUIRTI know that dude. It's the Jellyman.DORYWell, go on, jump on him.TURTLE KIDSTurtle pile!MARLINW-w-wai-wait--TURTLE KID 1Are you funny?TURTLE KID 2Where's your shell?MARLINHold on, I need to breath--TURTLE KID 3Are you running away?TURTLE KID 4Did you really cross the jellyfish forest? 35TURTLE KID 5Did they sting you?MARLINOne at a time!TURTLE KID 6Mr. Fish, did you die?DORYSorry. I was a little vague on the details.SQUIRTSo where are you going?MARLINWell, you see my son was taken. My son was taken away from me.TURTLE KIDS[gasp]DORYNo way.SQUIRTWhat happened?MARLINNo, no, no, kids. I don't wanna talk about it.TURTLE KIDSAwww! Please?SQUIRTPleeeease?MARLIN[sighs] Well, okay. I live on this reef, a long long way from here.DORYOh, boy. This is gonna be good, I can tell.MARLINAnd my son, Nemo, see he was mad at me. And maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't beenso tough on him, I don't know. Anyway, he swam out in the open water to this boat and whenhe was out there, these divers appeared and I tried to stop them but the boat was too fast.So we swam out in the ocean to follow them...TURTLE KIDThey couldn't stop them. And then Nemo's dad, he swims out to the ocean and they bump into..SMALL FISH..three ferocious sharks! He scares away the sharks by blowin' them up!BIG FISHGolly, that's amazing!SMALL FISHAnd then dives thousands of..LOBSTER..feet straight down into the dark. It's like wicked dark down there, you can see a thing.How's it goin', Bob? And the only thing that they can see down there..SWORDFISH..is the light from this big horrible creature with razor sharp teeth. Nice parry, old man.And then he has to blast his way...DOLPHINSo, these two little fish have been..searching the ocean for days. On the East AustralianCurrent.FEMALE BIRDWhich means that he may be on his way here right now. That should put them in Sydney..MALE BIRD 1..Harbor in a matter of days. I mean, it sounds like this guy's gonna stop at.. 36MALE BIRD 2..nothing until he finds his son. I sure hope he makes it.MALE BIRD 3That's one dedicated father if you ask me.GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!NIGELOh, would you just shut up! You're rats with wings!PELICAN..bloke's been lookin' for his boy Nemo.NIGELNemo?PELICANHe was taken off the reef by divers and this..NIGELThere, take it! You happy!GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine!NIGELHey, hey, hey! Say that again! You said something about Nemo. What was it?GULLSMine! Mine! Mine!CRABWhooooooaaa..watcha!GULLMine!PELICANLast I heard, he's headin' towards the harbor.NIGELHo ho! Brilliant!======================================================================================NEMO[sighs]DEBIs he doing okay?GURGLEI don't know, but whatever you do, don't mention D-A-R..NEMOIt's okay, I know who you're talking about.NEMOGill? Gill?GILLHey, Sharkbait.NEMOI'm sorry I couldn't stop the--GILLNo, I'm the one who should be sorry. I was so ready to get out, so ready to taste thatocean. I was willing to put you in harm's way to get there. Nothing should be worth that.I'm sorry I couldn't get you back to your father, kid.NIGELAll right! Hey, hey, hey, hey--! 37DENTISTWhat the!?PATIENTAAAAAAAAAH!!! Oooooh...DENTISTWell, uh, that's one way to pull a tooth. He he he he he! Huh, darn kids. Well, goodthing I pulled the right one, eh, prime minister? He he he he!NIGELHey, hey. Psst!PEACHOh, Nigel. You just missed an extraction.NIGELOoh! Has he loosened the periodontal ligament yet--oh, what I'm talkin' about!? Nemo!Where's Nemo? I gotta speak with him.NEMOWhat? What is it?NIGELYour dad's been fighting the entire ocean looking for you.NEMOMy father? Really?GILLReally?NIGELOh yeah. He's travelled hundreds of miles. He's been battling sharks and jellyfish andall sorts of--NEMOSharks? That can't be him.NIGELAre you sure? What was his name? Some sort of sportfish or something: tuna, uh, trout..NEMOMarlin?NIGELThat's it! Marlin! The little clownfish from the reef.NEMOIt's my dad! He took on a shark!NIGELI heard he took on three.DEB/BLOAT/GURGLEThree!?GILLThree sharks!?BLOATThat's gotta be forty eight hundred teeth!NIGELYou see, kid, after you were taken by diver Dan over there, your dad followed the boatyou were on like a maniac.NEMOReally?NIGELHe's swimming and he's swimming and he's giving it all he's got and then three giganticsharks capture him and he blows them up! And then dives thousands of feet and gets chasedby a monster with huge teeth! He ties this demon to a rock and what does he get for areward? He gets to battle an entire jellyfish forest! And now he's riding with a bunchof sea turtles on the East Australian Current and the word is he's headed this way rightnow, to Sydney! 38BLOATWow! Ha ha ha!DEBOh, what a good daddy!GILLHe was lookin' for you after all, Sharkbait.GILL[gasps]GURGLEHe's swimming to the filter!GILL[gasps] Sharkbait!BLOATNot again!GILLSharkbait!DEBNo!GURGLEYou've got your whole life ahead of you!BLOATOh no!GILLWe'll help you, kid!BLOATGotta get him out!DEBGimme that thing!DEBGet him outta there!GURGLECome on, kid! Grab the end!ALL[gasps]DEBSharkbait!BLOATSharkbait! Are you okay!?GURGLENo!GILLCan you hear me, Sharkbait!? Nemo! Can you hear me!?NEMOYeah, I can hear you.GILLSharkbait, you did it!GURGLESharkbait, you're--covered with germs! Aaaaaaah!!!GILLThat took guts, kid.GILL 39All right, gang. We have less than 48 hours before Darla gets here. This tank'll getplenty dirty in that time but we have to help it along any way we can. Jacques!JACQUESOui!GILLNo cleaning.JACQUESI shall resist.GILLEverybody else, be as gross as possible. Think dirty thoughts. We're gonna make this tankso filthy, the dentist'll have to clean it.BLOAT[belch]GILLGood work.NEMOHa ha ha ha!======================================================================================CRUSHAll right, we're here, dudes! Get ready! Your exit's comin' up, man!MARLINWhere!? I don't see it!DORYRight there! I see it! I see it!MARLINYou mean the swirling vortex of terror!?CRUSHThat's it, dude!MARLINOf course it is.CRUSHOkay, first: find your exit buddy!CRUSHDo you have your exit buddy?DORYYes!CRUSHOkay, Squirt here will now give you a rundown of proper exiting technique!SQUIRTGood afternoon, we're gonna have a great jump today! Okay, crank a hard cutback as you hitthe wall! There's a screaming bottom turn, so watch out! Remember: rip it, roll it andpunch it!MARLINIt's like he's trying to speak to me, I know it! You know, you're really cute! But I don'tknow what you're saying! Say the first thing again!CRUSHOkay, Jellyman! Go, go, go, go, go, go!MARLIN/DORYAaaaaaaaaah!!! Weeeeeeeeeeee!!! Whoooooooooooaaaaa!!! Aaaaaaaaaaah!!! Woohoooo!!!Whoooooaaa!!!DORYWhoooo!MARLIN 40Ha ha ha ha! That was..fun! Ha ha! I actually enjoyed that!DORYHey, look! Turtles!CRUSHHa ha! Most excellent! Now, turn your fishy tails 'round and swim straight on throughto Sydney! No worries, man!MARLINNo worries! Thank you, dude Crush!TURTLE KIDSBye! Bye, Jellyman!CRUSHYou tell your little dude I said 'hi', okay?SQUIRTSee you later, dudes!DORYBye, everyone!MARLINOh, Nemo would've loved this. Hey, ooh! Hey, Crush! Crush, I forgot! How old are you?CRUSHHundred and fifty, dude! And still young! Rock on!MARLINHundred and fifty! Hundred and fifty, I gotta remember that.DORYWhoa. We goin' in there?MARLINYup.DORYP. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney?MARLINYup. We're gonna just swim straight.DORY[singing] Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.MARLINDory?======================================================================================MARLINBoy, this is taking a while.DORYHey, how about we play a game?MARLINOkay.DORYUh, okay. I'm thinking of something, uh, orange. And it's small..MARLINIt's me.DORYRight. Okay..DORY..orange, and uh, small..MARLINIt's me. 41DORYAll righty, Mr. Smarty Pants.DORY..orange and small, and white stripes..MARLINMe. And the next one's just a guess: me.DORYOkay, that's just scary.MARLINW-w-wait, I have definitely seen this floating speck before. That means we've passed itbefore and that means we're going in circles and that means we're not going straight!DORYHey. Hey!MARLINWe gotta get to the surface, come on! Let's figure it out up there. Let's go! Follow me!Wha--?DORYWhoa, whoa, whoa! Hey! Relax. Take a deep breath. Now, let's ask somebody for directions.MARLINOh, fine. Who do you wanna ask, the speck? There's nobody here!DORYWell, there has to be someone. It's the ocean, silly, we're not the only two in here.Let's see...okay, no one there. Uhh, nope. Nada. [gasps] There's somebody. Hey! Excuse--MARLINDory! Dory! Dory! Okay, now it's my turn. I'm thinking of something dark and mysterious.It's a fish we don't know. And if we ask it directions, it could ingest us and spit outour bones!DORYWhat is it with men and asking for directions?MARLINLook, I don't wanna play the gender card right now. You wanna play a card? Let's play the'Let's Not Die' card.DORYYou wanna get outta here, don't you?MARLINOf course, I do.DORYWell then, how are we gonna do that unless we give it a shot and hope for the best? Hmmm?Hmmmm!? Come on, trust me on this.MARLINAll right.DORYExcuse me! Woohoo! Little fella? Hello. Don't be rude, say 'hi'.MARLINHa..hello.DORYHis son Bingo..MARLINNemo.DORY..Nemo, was taken to, uh..MARLINSydney.DORY 42Sydney. Yes. And it's really, really important that we get there as fast as we can. So canyou help us out? Come on, little fella. Come on.MARLINDory, I'm a little fella. I don't think that's a little fella.DORYOh. Oh, oh, big fella. Big fe--whale. Okay. Maybe he only speaks whale.MOOOOO-WEEEEEEE-NEEEEED...MARLINUh, Dory..what're you doing?DORYTOOOOOOO-FIIIIIIND...MARLINWhat're you doing?DORYHIS-SOOOOOOOOOOOON...MARLINAre you sure you speak whale?DORYCAN-YOOOOOOOUUU-GIIIIIIIIIVE-USSSS-DIRECTIOOOOOOOONS-TOOOOOOOOO...MARLINDory! Heaven knows what you're saying! See, he's swimming away.DORYCOOOME-BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!MARLINHe's not coming back. You offended him.DORYMaybe a different dialect. MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA..!MARLINDory. Dory, this is not whale. You're speaking like..upset stomach.DORYMaybe I should try humpback.MARLINNo, don't try humpback.DORYWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOO!!! WAAAAAAAAAOOOOOO!!!MARLINOkay, you actually sound sick.DORYMaybe louder, huh? RAAAH!!! RAAAAH!!!MARLINDon't do that!DORYToo much orca. Didn't it sound a little orca-ish?MARLINIt doesn't sound orca! It sounds like nothing I've ever heard!DORYMOOOO..MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!MARLINIt's just as well, he might be hungry.DORYDon't worry. Whales don't eat clownfish, they eat krill.KRILL 43Swim away!DORYOh, look. Krill.MARLINMove, Dory! Move!DORYAah-aaah! Aaaaaaaaaah!======================================================================================GILLLook at that. Would you look at that? Filthy. Absolutely filthy. And it's all thanks toyou, kid. You made it possible. Jacques, I said no cleaning!JACQUESI am ashamed.PEACHHey, look. Scum angel.GURGLEAah! Aaaah! Ooh-ooh! Aaaaah!BUBBLESBubbles! I love the bubbles--! [coughs]DEBFlo! Flo! Has anybody seen Flo? Flo!PEACHNine o' clock and cue dentist.DENTISTHello, Barbara. Sorry I'm late.PEACHOkay. Okay, here we go. Here we go, okay.DENTISTLittle Davey Reynolds.PEACHOkay. Walks to the counter, drops the keys..GURGLEBloat, that's disgusting!BLOATTastes pretty good to me. [belch]GURGLEEww! Don't you people realize we are swimming in our own--PEACHShhh! Here he comes.DENTISTCrikey, what a state. Oh. Barbara, what's my earliest appointment tomorrow?BARBARAUh, ten 'o clock, luv.DENTISTLeave it open, would you? I gotta clean the fish tank before Darla gets here.GILLHe he! Did you hear that, Sharkbait?NEMOYay! He's gonna clean the tank! He's gonna clean the tank! We're gonna be clean!GILLAre you ready to see your dad, kid? 44NEMOUh-huh.GILLOf course you are. Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if he's out there in the harborwaitin' for you right now.NEMOYeah.======================================================================================MARLINAaaaaaaaaaaah! Ooof!DORYHa~~haaa~~haaaaaaah! Whooo!MARLINAaaaaaaaaaaah!DORYHere comes a big one--whooooooo! Come on, you gotta try this!MARLINWould you just stop it!?DORYWhy? What's wrong?MARLINWe're in a whale! Don't you get it!?DORYA whale?MARLINA whale! 'Cause you had to ask for help! And now we're stuck here!DORYWow. A whale. You know I speak whale.MARLINNo, you're insane! You can't speak whale! I have to get out! I have to find my son!I have to tell him how old sea turtles are! [sobs]DORYWoo-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-hoo! Hey. You okay?DORYThere, there. It's all right. It'll be okay.MARLINNo. No, it won't.DORYSure it will, you'll see.MARLINNo. I promised him I'd never let anything happen to him.DORYHuh. That's a funny thing to promise.MARLINWhat?DORYWell, you can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him.Not much fun for little Harpo.DORYHmm..MARLINWhat's going on? 45DORYI don't know. I'll ask him. MMMWWHAAAAAAAAA! HUUUWHAAAAAAAAA..MARLINDory. Dory.MARLIN..AAAAAAAAAAT'SSS-GOOIIIIIIING..MARLINDory.DORY..OOOOOOOOONNN?DORYI think he says we've stopped.MARLINOf course, we've stopped. Just stop trying to speak whale, you're gonna make things worse.[gasps] What is that noise? Oh no. Look what you did. The water's going down!It's-it's-it's going down!DORYReally? You sure about that?MARLINLook, it's already half-empty!DORYHmm..I'd say it's half full.MARLINStop that! It's half-empty!DORYOkay, that one was a little tougher. He either said we should go to the back of the throator he wants a root beer float.MARLINOf course he wants us to go there! That's eating us! How do I taste, Moby!? Huh!?Do I taste good!? You tell him I'm not interested in being lunch!DORYOkay. HEEEEEEEEE--MARLINStop talking to him--waaaah!DORYAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!MARLINWhat is going on!?DORYI'll check! WHAAAAAAA--!MARLINNo! No more whale! You can't speak whale!DORYYes, I can!MARLINNo, you can't! You think you could do these things but you can't, Nemo!DORYOkay.MARLINDory!DORYHe says it's time to let go! Everything's gonna be all right!MARLIN 46How do you know!? How do you know something bad isn't gonna happen!?DORYI don't!MARLIN/DORYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!MARLINHa ha ha! We're alive!DORYLook! Sy-d-ney..Sydney! Uh, Sydney! Sydney again!MARLINYou were right, Dory! We made it! We're gonna find my son!MARLINTHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK-YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUU-SIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!DORYWow. I wish I could speak whale.MARLINOkay. All we gotta do is find the boat that took him.DORYRight!MARLINCome on, Dory. We can do this!======================================================================================PEACH[yawn] Morning. [gasps] It's morning, everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, thetank is clean and we are getting out of--[gasps]--the tank is clean. The tank is clean!DEBBut how?GILLBoss must've installed it last night while we were sleepin'.NEMOWhat're we gonna do?GILLWhat's it say, Peach?PEACH[muffled] The AquaScum two-thousand..GILLI can't hear you, Peach.PEACH'The AquaScum 2003 is an all-purpose, self-cleaning maintenance free salt water purifierthat is guaranteed to even extend the life of your aquarium fish'.BLOAT[inflates] Stop it!PEACH'The AquaScum is programmed to scan your tank environment every 5 minutes'?GURGLEScan? What does that mean?GURGLEAaah!AQUASCUMTemperature: 82 degrees. PH balance: normal.ALLOooooh. 47PEACHNice.GURGLEOoh..ah..curse you, AquaScum!BLOATThat's it for the escape plan. It's ruined!NEMOThen what're we gonna do about--ALL[gasps] Darla!GILLStay down, kid!BLOATFalse alarm.GURGLEMy nerves can't take much more of this.BLOATWhat're we gonna do when that little brat gets here?GILLI'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'.NEMOAaah! Oh! Gill!GILL[gasps] Nemo!NEMOHelp me! Help me!GILLHold on! I'm comin'!NEMOHelp me!GILLSwim down! Come on, kid! Swim down! Come on!BLOATEverybody jump in!DEBSwim down!GILLThat's it!DENTISTWhat the!?ALLYay!GILLGood work!NEMOGill!GILL[gasps] Nemo!BLOATSharkbait!GILL 48Roll, kid! Lean! Lean!DENTISTWhoops. That would've been a nasty fall.NEMOGill! Don't let me go belly up!GILLJust calm down, Nemo.NEMODon't let me go belly up!GILLYou won't go belly up, I promise. You're gonna be okay.ALL[gasps] Darla!======================================================================================DORYAll right, do any of these boats look familiar to you?MARLINNo, but the boat has to be here somewhere! Come on, Dory, we're gonna find it.DORYI'm totally excited. [yawn] Are you excited? [yawn]MARLINDory, wake up, wake up. Come on.DORY[gasps] Duck!MARLINThat's not a duck. It's a--pelican! Whooooaaaaah!DORYAaaaaaaaaaaah!MARLINNo! I didn't come this far to be breakfast!PELICANHey, hey, Nigel. Heh, would you look at that?NIGELHuh? Wha-what?PELICANSun's barely up and already Gerald's had more than he can handle.NIGELYeah. Reckon somebody oughta help the poor guy.PELICANSYeah, yeah, right.NIGELWell, don't everybody fly off at once.NIGELAll right, Gerald, what is it? Fish got your tongue?DORYAaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!NIGELLove a duck!MARLINI gotta find my son Nemo!NIGEL 49[gasps] Nemo? Hey, hey, hey! He's that fish! Y'know the one we were talking about!The one that's been fighting the whole ocean! Hey, I know where your son i--huh?Hey, wait! Come back! Stop!MARLINDory, keep going! He's crazy!NIGELI got something to tell 'ya!GULLMine.NIGELOkay, don't make any sudden moves. Hop inside my mouth if you want to live.MARLINHop in your mouth, huh? And how does that make me live?GULLMine.NIGELBecause I can take you to your son.MARLINYeah, right.NIGELNo. I know your son. He's orange, he's got a gimpy fin on one side..MARLINThat's Nemo!GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!DORYAaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!NIGELFasten your seatbelts!GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!DORYWhoooooo! Woohooooo!GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!DORYHa-haaaa! Ha ha ha ha!MARLINAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!NIGELEverybody hold on!MARLIN/DORYAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!GULLSMine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!======================================================================================BUBBLESAaaah! Too loud! Too loud for me!DARLA[singing] Twinkle, twinkle little star.PEACHFind a happy place, find a happy place, find a happy place! 50BARBARADarla, you're uncle will see you now.DENTISTAll right, let's see those pearly whites.DARLARAAAH! I'm a piranha. They're in the Amazon.DENTISTAnd a piranha's a fish, just like your present.DARLA[giggling] I get a fishy! Fishy, fishy, fishy!DENTISTOh no. Poor little guy.BLOATHe's dead!GILLSharkbait!DARLAYay! Fishy, fishy, fishy!DENTISTHe he he! Must've left your present in the car, sweetie. Ha ha ha ha ha!DARLAAwwwww.DENTISTI'll go and get it.GILL[gasps] He's still alive!PEACHHe's not dead!BLOATWhat's happening? Why is he playing dead?GILLHe's gonna get flushed down the toilet! He's gonna get outta here!DEBYay!BLOATHe's gonna get flushed!GURGLEWhat a smart little guy!GILLOh no, not the trash can!BUBBLESNemo! No!NIGELHey! Hey! I found his dad!MARLINWhere's Nemo!? Where is he!?BLOATDentist! Dentist!GILLHe's over there!MARLIN 51What's a dentist!? What is that!? [gasps] Nigel, get in there!NIGELI can't go in there.MARLINOh yes, you can! Charge!DARLAAaaaaaaaaaaah!DENTISTWhat the--!? Darla, sweetie! Look out!DARLAAaaaaaaah!DENTISTHold still!DARLAAaaaaaaah!DENTISTEasy! Easy!DARLAAaaaaaaah!DENTISTHold still! Nobody's going to hurt you! Oof!MARLIN[gasps] Nemo.DORY[gasps] Oh my goodness.DENTISTGotcha! Keep down!MARLINNemo!NEMODaddy?DENTISTOut with 'ya! And stay out!NEMODaddy!?DARLAFishy? Fishy! Wake up! Wake up!DEBOh no!GILLQuick! To the top of Mt. Wannahockaloogie!DARLAWhy are you sleeping!?PEACHHurry!GILLBloat! Ring of Fire!DARLAFishy--aaaaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaah!DENTISTWhat!? All the animals have gone mad! 52DARLAAaaaaaaah! Get it out!GURGLESmack her in the head!BLOATGo, Gill! Go!DARLAFish in my hair! Aaaaaaaah!NEMOGill.GILLSharkbait. Tell your dad..I said..hi. Go get 'em.DENTISTOoooh. [gasps]BLOATHe did it! Ha ha!DEBYay!BUBBLESI'm so happy!GURGLEIs he gonna be okay, Gill?GILLDon't worry. All drains lead to the ocean.DARLAFishy!NEMOAaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Daddy!======================================================================================NIGELI'm, I'm so sorry. Truly, I am.DORYHey..MARLINDory. If it wasn't for you, I never even would have made it here. So, thank you.DORYHey! Hey, wait a minute. W-w-wait! Where are you going?MARLINIt's over, Dory. We were too late. Nemo's gone and I'm going home now.DORYNo..no, you can't! Stop! Please don't go away. Please? No one's ever stuck with me forso long before. And if you leave, if you leave...I just, I remember things better with you.I do. Look, P. Sherman, 42..40..2..agh! I remember it, I do. It's there, I know it isbecause when I look at you, I can feel it. And I, I look at you and...I'm home. Please.I don't want them to go away. I don't wanna forget.MARLINI'm sorry, Dory, but I do.======================================================================================CRAB 1Manna from heavens!CRAB 2Sweet nectar of life! 53CRAB 1/CRAB 2Hey! Hey, hey! Hey!CRAB 1This is our spot!CRAB 2Go on! Get outta here!CRAB 1/CRAB 2Hey, hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!CRAB 1Yeah, that's it fella! Just keep on swimmin', you got that!CRAB 2Too right, mate! Oh, Oh! I got a live one here!NEMOHey, have you seen my dad?CRAB 2Gotcha! Hey! Hey! Come back here!CRAB 1You let 'im go!CRAB 1/CRAB 2Hey! Hey, hey, hey!NEMODad! Dad! Dad!DORYAah! No!NEMOUm, excuse me. Are you all right?DORYI don't know where I am! I don't know what's going on, I think I lost somebody but I,I can't remember.NEMOIt's okay, it's okay. I'm looking for someone too. Hey, we can look together.DORYI'm Dory.NEMOI'm Nemo.DORYNemo? That's a nice name.======================================================================================NEMODad!DORYDad!NEMODad!DORYDad! Wait a minute, is it your dad or my dad?NEMOMy dad.DORYGot it. Dad!NEMOWhere are we, anyway? 54DORYDad! Dad! Oh. S-ss-syl--shi--Sydney. [gasps] 'P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney'.DORYAaaaah! Nemo! It's you! Aaaaaah! You're Nemo!NEMO[muffled] Yes! Yes! I'm Nemo!DORYOh! You're Nemo! [gasps] You were dead! I saw you! And then I--[gasps], here you are!I found you! You're not dead! And your father--[gasps]! Your father!NEMOMy father!? You know my father!? Where is he!?DORY[gasps] This way! He went this way! Quick!DORYHey! Hey, hey! Hey!CRAB 1/CRAB 2Hey! Hey, hey, hey!DORYHey! Have you seen an orange fish swim by? It looks just like him!NEMOBut bigger!CRAB 2Yeah, I saw 'im, bluey! But I'm not tellin' you where he went. And there's no way you'regonna make me!GULLMine.CRABHuh!? Aaaah! All right! I'll talk! I'll talk! He went to the fishing grounds! Aaaaah!GULLSMine!Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!======================================================================================FISHHey! Look out!MARLINSorry. Just trying to get home.NEMODad! Dad!MARLINNemo?NEMODaddy!MARLINNemo?NEMODad!DORYNemo's alive!MARLINDory? [gasps] Nemo!NEMODaddy! 55MARLINNemo! I'm coming, Nemo!NEMODad!MARLINNemo!NEMODad!MARLINOh, thank goodness! It's all right, son. It's gonna be okay.FISHTurn around! You're going the wrong way! Aaaaaaaaaaah!DORYAaaaaaaaaaaah! Look out!MARLINMove! Move!FISHAaaaaaaaaaaah!DORYHelp! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!MARLINDory!NEMOCome on!DORYHeeeeeeeelp!!! Help!NEMODory!DORYHelp! Get us out! Aaaaaaaah!MARLINNo, no, no! No! Dory!NEMODad! I know what to do!MARLINNemo! No!NEMOWe have to tell all the fish to swim down together!MARLINGet out of there, now!NEMOI know this will work!MARLINNo, I am not gonna lose you again!NEMODad, there's no time! It's the only way we can save Dory! I can do this!MARLINYou're right. I know you can.NEMOLucky fin!MARLINNow go! Hurry! 56NEMOTell all of the fish to swim down!MARLINWell!? You heard my son! Come on!NEMODory!DORY[gasps]NEMOYou have to tell everybody to..MARLIN..swim down together! Do you understand what I'm saying to you!? Swim down!DORYEverybody swim down!NEMOCome on! You have to swim down!DORYSwim down, okay?NEMOSwim..MARLINdown! Swim down! Swim down! Swim down!MARLINDon't give up! Keep swimming! Just keep swimming!NEMOIt's working!FISHKeep swimming! Keep swimming! Keep swimming!MARLINJust keep swimming! Keep swimming!NEMOCome on, dad!MARLINYou're doing great, son!NEMOThat's my dad!MARLINCome on! Let's get to the bottom! Keep swimming!DORY[singing] Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.MARLINAlmost there! Keep swimming!FISHKeep swimming! Keep swimming! Keep swimming! Keep swimming! Yay!MARLINOww!DORYHey!MARLINDory! Where's Nemo!?DORY 57[gasps] There!MARLINOh no. Nemo!MARLINNemo? Nemo? It's okay. Daddy's here, daddy's got you.NEMO[coughs] Daddy?MARLINOh, thank goodness.NEMODad...I don't hate you.MARLINNo, no, no. I'm so sorry, Nemo.MARLINHey, guess what?NEMOWhat?MARLINSea turtles? I met one! And he was a hundred and fifty years old.NEMOHundred and fifty?MARLINYep.NEMO'Cause Sandy Plankton said they only live to be a hundred.MARLINSandy Plankton? Do you think I would cross the entire ocean and not know as much asSandy Plankton!?NEMOHa ha ha ha!MARLINHe was a hundred and fifty! Not one hundred! Who is this Sandy Plankton who knows everything?======================================================================================MARLINTime for school! Time for school! Get up! Let's go! Go!MARLINI'm gonna win!NEMONo, you're not! I did it! Woohoo! Ha ha ha!MARLINOh! My own son beats me!MR. RAYClimb aboard, explorers!MARLINSo just then, the sea cucumber looks over to the mollusk and says : 'with fronds like these,who needs anemones?'!BOB/TED/BILLHaaa-ha ha ha ha ha ha!MR. RAYWell, hello, Nemo! Who's this?NEMOExchange student. 58SQUIRTI'm from the EAC, dude!MR. RAYSweet.NEMO/SQUIRTTotally.BOBBut seriously, Marty, did you really do all the things you say you did?BRUCEUh, pardon me.BOB/TED/BILL[gasps]BRUCEHello.TEDOhh!BRUCEDon't be alarmed.ANCHOROh, we just wanna make sure that our newest member got home safe.DORYThanks, guys.BRUCEWell, we'll see you next week.CHUMKeep up with the program, Dory.ANCHORRemember: fish are friends..DORY..not food! Bye!MR. RAYHold on! Here we go! Next up, knowledge!MARLINBye, son! Have fun!NEMOBye, dad! Oh! Oh, Mr. Ray! Wait. I forgot something.NEMOLove you, dad.MARLINI love you too, son.NEMOUh, dad, you can let go now.MARLINSorry! Now go have an adventure!SQUIRTGoodbye! See you later, dudes!DORYBye, Elmo!MARLINNemo.DORY 59Nemo! Bye, Nemo!NEMOSee you after school, Dory! Bye, dad!MARLINBye, son.======================================================================================DENTISTBarbara?BARBARAUh-huh?DENTISTI don't understand it. Here this thing has a lifetime guarantee and it breaks! Had to cleanthe tank myself, take all the fish out, put 'em in bags and---where'd the fish go?GILLCome on, Peach!DEBHurry!GILLYou can do it!BLOATYeah, that's it! You can do it!GURGLEJust a little further!PEACHThat's the shortest red light I've ever seen!BLOATCome on, Peach!PEACHOooh--aaaaah!ALLYay! We did it! Ha ha ha ha ha!BLOATNow what?####################################################################################### FINDING NEMO, and all related media, characters, and stories ## are copyright 2003 Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. ## The transcript below contains parts of a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, ## Bob Peterson and David Reynolds. This transcript is provided for fans' enjoyment ## and reference and does not intend copyright infringement. The entire content of ## this transcript is property of Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, ## Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. ## No claim is lain on the ownership of the words contained within this transcript ## on the part of BaD_BURN. ## ## GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. RETAIN THIS COMMENT BLOCK. ## ## The transcript is intended for teaching /educational purposes only. It falls under ## the U.S. Code 17/Sec. 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: 'Fair Use'. ## Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a ## copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or ## by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, ## comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), ## scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. ####################################################################################### 606162 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Five Easy Pieces.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Five Easy Pieces.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3f9e99af4ce0855e4fbd85ea76a397a4ae208155 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Five Easy Pieces.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Five Easy Pieces By Carole Eastman TITLE SEQUENCE: The Bach-Vivaldi A-Minor Concerto for Four Pianos PLAYS OVER a series of family album photographs. Written in careful penmanship beneath each are names identifying family members: 1ST PHOTO: A man stands in front of the raised sounding board of a piano, playing the viola. Seated on the piano bench, accompanying him, is a woman in a maternity dress: "Isabelle and Nicholas" 2ND PHOTO: A boy of 11, wearing conductor's tails and holding a raised baton in his right hand as if about to gesture a downbeat: "Herbert Kreutzer Dupea" 3RD PHOTO: Another boy of approximately 9, in the act of playing the violin: "Carl Fidelio Dupea" 4TH PHOTO: The two boys are now poised behind the piano. Seated on its bench is a girl of 6, her hands resting on the keyboard. Written beneath: "Elizabeth Partita Dupea" 5TH PHOTO: The above family group, seated on the porch of the Dupea home. All eyes but Isabelle's are faced toward the camera. She beams upon a 3 year-old asleep in her arms, his head resting against her bosom. His figure is encircled by the pen's marking and preceding his name is the configuration of a small heart: "Robert Eroica Dupea" INT. MUSIC ROOM - DUPEA HOME - DAY BACH-VIVALDI OVER: A 7-year-old BOBBY sits in a chair, his feet dangling in absent-minded rhythm to a chamber piece played by his father, his two brothers and his sister. CLOSE ON a metronome, marking a slow etude rhythm. The CAMERA MOVES from it to Bobby, on the piano bench beside his mother. As she patiently demonstrates the etude for him, he places a thumb in his mouth and leans against her arm. ON THE METRONOME at an andante rhythm. CARL and TITA, now in their teens, are seated side by side on the piano bench, playing four-hands with dazzling virtuosity. The CAMERA MOVES from them to a framed newspaper article on the music-room wall. Below a photograph of a 20-year-old young man are the words: "Herbert Kreutzer Dupea - Seattle's Youngest Guest Conductor." INT. RECITAL HALL GREEN ROOM - NIGHT BACH-VIVALDI OVER: Bobby, at 10, wearing a dress suit. His mother combs his hair with maternal concentration. CLOSE-UP of a program announcing a Dupea family recital. The CAMERA SCANS down the bill, over: Sonata in C Major for Two Violins - Bach - Played by Nicholas and Carl Dupea. Like As a Lovelorn Turtle - Hendel - Sung by Isabelle Dupea. Rondo Alla Turca - Mozart - Played by Elizabeth Dupea. Piano Sonata, Opus 110 - Beethoven - Played by Herbart Dupea. The CAMERA COMES to rest on: Five Easy Pieces - Grebner - Played by Robert Dupea. INT. MORTUARY CHAPEL - DAY Five Easy Pieces, played haltingly OVER the torsos of a line of people moving slowly down the chapel aisle. ANOTHER ANGLE shows a solemn procession of the above, filing by an open casket holding Isabelle Dupea. ON THE FAMILY PEW The CAMERA PANS from NICHOLAS, seated on the aisle, to the four adult children seated next to him and COMES TO REST on Bobby. His gaze is cast down to his lap, as he refuses to look at: The pale profile of his mother's face resting within the satin folds of the casket lining, and... ... as the last of the "family friends" pay their respect: Nicholas steps out into the aisle and, followed by Tita, Carl and HERBERT, moves down toward the casket. Bobby rises from his seat and makes his way toward the aisle, where he hesitates briefly, then turns and walks up the aisle and out the chapel doors. TITLES END EXT. SIGNAL HILL OIL FIELD - DAY TAMMY WYNETTE'S "STAND BY YOUR MAN" OVER: The toothed bucket of a back hoe trenches into the earth, then lifts up into the air, revealing Bobby in hard-hat and heavy gloves, operating the levers. As the hoe swings off to the side and deposits a load of earth into the rear of a truck... ... a SERIES OF SHOTS begins, showing Bobby and a fellow hard-hat (ELTON) engaged in the dirty and dangerous task of working "crew" with a team of TOOL-PUSHERS on the derricks of Signal Hill. Functioning as servants of the well and its pumps, the PULL rods, MAKE and BREAK joints on the rig floor, WELD tubing, CARRY pipes, CLIMB the "tour," and PLAY THE DOZENS on beer wagon breaks. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - SIGNAL HILL - NIGHT ABOVE SONG OVER: Bobby, still in his hard hat, as he drives. Out through the window, the derricks of the Hill can be seen, their night-work lights on. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - NIGHT SONG OVER: FOLLOWING ON the car as it moves off the Hill into the seamy districts adjacent to it, passing by fast food joints, liquor stores, all-night porno parlors and neon-lighted bars. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - NIGHT SONG OVER: ON BOBBY'S FACE: as he stares out through the windshield, his eyes distant, dwelling in an oblivion that blanks both the present and past. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - NIGHT SONG OVER: The car pulls onto a low-rent residential street and comes to a stop in front of a small bungalow. Bobby exits the car, moves up the walkway to the house and disappears inside. INT. RAYETTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT SONG OVER: Bobby, seated on the couch, a can of beer in hand, staring morosely across the room, to: A PORTABLE STEREO, playing the song: WYNETTE (V.O.) "And if you love him/Oh be proud of him/For after all, he's just a man..." RAYETTE DIPESTO, in a waitress's uniform with a bowl of beer nuts. After placing them on the coffee table in front of him, she leans down and kisses him. Challenged by a less than reciprocal response, she kisses him more fervently. As she moves her lips from his ear to his neck, he lifts the can to his mouth and drinks. WYNETTE (V.O.) "Stand by your man/And show the world you love him/Keep giving all the love you can/Stand by your man." The song concludes, and setting aside her ardor for the moment: RAYETTE (Arky accent) I'm gonna play it again... As she starts for the stereo, he takes hold of her hand. BOBBY You're not going to play it again. RAYETTE Well, lemme play the other side then. BOBBY No. Again, he prevents her from moving to the stereo and pulls her down onto the couch. RAYETTE Now quit, Bobby. You said you're goin' a help me pick a song. BOBBY You said. RAYETTE Well, lemme sing the one I picked an' see what you think... (she sings) "When there's a fire in your heart/Break the glass/Sound the alarm..." He picks up one of the couch pillows and holds it over his ear. RAYETTE Oh, you prick... She pulls it from his hand. RAYETTE How 'bout if I just cut off your damn water? BOBBY I'm too moved by your gentility to speak. She immediately softens and tries to become more "refined." RAYETTE Sugar, you know how I feel about you, don't you? I'm just tryin' to get you to take an interest in my kind a things, an' what I'm tryin' to do with myself... (bringing her face close to his) You know, there id'n anything in the world I wouldn't do for you, baby. I started livin' the day I found you, you know that? BOBBY You're playing the other side. Very hurt, she sits up and looks away from him. He finishes the beer and holds the can out to her. BOBBY Cerveza. RAYETTE (grabbing it from him) Serveza yourself! BOBBY Now, now. RAYETTE (she stands up) No, dammit, I would easy. And, as she turns and goes toward the kitchen: BOBBY But you heal fast. Through the open door to the kitchen, Rayette can be seen opening the refrigerator. She takes out a can of beer and returns to Bobby. RAYETTE (over the above) You can play the piano, an' your whole damn family can play on some type a musical instrument. An' all I'm askin' is for you to listen to my singing for one single little second... She hands him the can and sits back down on the couch. RAYETTE But you think you would? No, you're too damn selfish... He gestures at the name tag on her dress, and, as we'll find he often does, speaks in the Okie-Arky accent he's learned from working the rigs: BOBBY Why'nt you take 'at sign off your tit, Ray, an' let's go on out. RAYETTE Out where? She sits down and begins removing the tag. BOBBY I don't know, I'll holler up Elton an' Stoney... She thinks about it, then moves closer to him and begins unbuttoning his workshirt, as: RAYETTE I'll go out with you, or I'll stay here, and do anything you'd like for me to do... if you'll just do one thing. If you'll tell me that you love me. BOBBY You can sing the song. RAYETTE (annoyed) You know what, you are never satisfied. BOBBY That's right, hand. The response makes her deeply insecure and she immediately lays her body against his... RAYETTE Oh, now, baby... ... and initiates another round of kissing. INT. BOWLING ALLEY - NIGHT Bobby lifts his ball from the return rack, moves to the lane and bowls a perfect strike. Making a self congratulatory gesture of triumph, he turns back to: Elton, seated at the scoring table. His wife, STONEY, is seated beside Rayette on the horseshoe banquette. As he addresses Rayette, we note that Elton's two front teeth are missing. ELTON (Okie accent) Your ball, Ray. RAYETTE (reluctant) Is this suppose to be fun? BOBBY Go on, get up there... She rises and moves to the rack. BOBBY (CONT'D) ... and stay relaxed this time. Picking up ball, she moves to the head of the lane and slings it down the alley, watching hopefully as... ... it rolls off to the right and takes only one pin. ON BOBBY as she moves to her second ball. BOBBY Now don't loft it, just release it like I told you. ON RAYETTE as she bowls the ball down the right-hand rut and comes back to the banquette, apologizing: RAYETTE The ball's too heavy for me, honey... He looks past her to Stoney, about to bowl her ball. BOBBY It's not the damn ball. And as Stoney bowls a strike, Rayette hugs his arm. RAYETTE I'm tryin', baby, so don't start gettin' mad now. BOBBY No, I'm not mad at you, hand. It'll be all right. Just spot and follow through... And as Elton bowls a strike... BOBBY (CONT'D) (mumbling) Shit. He gets up and passes Elton on his way to the rack. BOBBY (CONT'D) Nice ball, El. Rayette, to Stoney as she watches Bobby prepare to bowl: RAYETTE Id'n he somethin' to see? And as he makes another strike and returns to the banquette, she gets up and throws her arms around him. He returns her embrace, smiling over her shoulder at: Two heavily made-up young women (TWINKY and BETTY) taking possession of the adjacent lane. (Note that Betty is of diminutive proportions, while Twinky is Amazonian.) RAYETTE (CONT'D) Is it my turn again? BOBBY Right. Now show me a little somethin' this time, okay? Give me some form... He remains standing, watching as she throws another gutter ball and then comes back toward him, alibi ing: RAYETTE I can't help it, honey, the ball just keeps goin' cocky wobbly on me... BOBBY Will you just do what the hell I tell you... RAYETTE I did, didn' I, El? BOBBY You got another ball comin'. She moves to the rack and, concentrating hard, advances down the lane and releases the ball. It rolls slowly down the center, hits at precisely the right spot and clears the pins. ELTON Atta boy, Ray! Ecstatic, she comes back to the banquette, seating herself beside Bobby and trying to solicit a response from him. RAYETTE That was damn good, wad'n it? I finally did it... BOBBY Yeah, great. (begins removing his bowling shoes) Why don't you throw Z's for 19 frames, and then roll a strike on the last ball in the last frame of a losing game? Just wonderful. Turning to address the two young women over the back of the banquette. BOBBY (CONT'D) Wasn't it, ladies? TWINKY (pointing at herself) Are you talking to us? Rayette pulls off her rental shoes and throws them to the floor. RAYETTE I'm gonna go wait in the car. He stretches his arms out on the back of the banquette as though he intends to reside there awhile. BOBBY Yeah, why don't you do that. She grabs her sling-back and her purse and as she gets up: STONEY Wait an I'll I go with you, honey... As she picks up her belongings and follows Rayette: ELTON (changing his shoes) We gotta get on home an' relieve the sitter. Why'nt you an' Ray come on over. BOBBY Okay. Go ahead. I'll settle up for the beers... (hands him the bowling shoes) An' walk Rayette over with you, will you. Elton moves off and Bobby, now full of remorse, slumps into a depressed reverie. Beyond him, Betty and Twinky, can be seen, engaged in some discussion concerning him. A WAITRESS with a tray approaches and leans down to him. WAITRESS Can I get you anything else? BOBBY No. How much do I owe you? WAITRESS Five'll do it. He takes some loose bills from his pocket and lays them on her tray. She thanks him and moves off. As he reaches down and pulls on one of his boots, Twinky approaches behind him and leans down over the back of the banquette. TWINKY We been wantin' to ask you something. Are you the guy on YV? BOBBY Am I on TV? TWINKY (pointing lo Betty) She says you're the one that sells all the cars on TV. BOBBY Well, I don't claim to have sold 'em all. They still have some left, I believe. Betty appears on the other side of the banquette. BETTY See, I told you it was him... (then to Bobby) Your name's Donnie something, right? BOBBY I leave it to you. BETTY My name is Shirley, but they call me Betty, and her name's Twinky. BOBBY (looking to Twinky) Twinky? BETTY (explaining) Yeah, 'cause she's so "twinky"... BOBBY (looking from one to the other) Well, Betty and Twinky, it sure is nice talking to you girls. I just wish I had more time... BETTY That's a wig you wear, isn't it? BOBBY (touching his hair) A wig? BETTY Yeah, I told her it was you, but that you're wearing a wig, 'cause on TV you're mostly bald in the front. BOBBY (to Twinky) Your little friend's real sharp there... (to Betty) Yeah, I don't like to wear the wig on TV, because with two and a half million people watching you, you've gotta be sincere. I just like to wear it when I'm out slippin' around bowling alleys an' things like that. I think it gives me a little more class, don't you? TWINKY Oh, definitely... BETTY (looking at his hairline) Yeah, but I can see a little bitty of the net up there, that's what give it away. TWINKY It's so weird to see you in person, but that's who she says you are. BETTY (to her) It is him, he said it's him. (to Bobby) Aren't you. BOBBY Yeah, you could say it's me. Twinky reaches over to the scoring table, picking up a pencil and a score sheet. TWINKY I'm gonna give you our number, Donnie, just in case... (as she writes) We're both professionals, if you didn't guess. BOBBY Well, you seem very professional... TWINKY (handing the score sheet to him) I always tell everyone the same thing. I got rolled and beat up real bad recently, and since then it's two for one, an' I work strictly in tandem with Betty... He glances at the dwarfish Betty. BOBBY Yeah, I can see how she'd come in handy. EXT. BOWLING ALLEY PARKING LOT - NIGHT Rayette sits sulking in Bobby's car. He comes up to the passenger window and leans down to her. BOBBY Come on. We're goin' over to Elton's. RAYETTE I'm not. BOBBY You just going to sit there? RAYETTE Yes. BOBBY Okay. Hope no one hits on you. RAYETTE I hope they do. He casually slaps the outside of the door. BOBBY See you later, then... He walks off through the lot. ON RAYETTE staring out through the windshield. ON BOBBY as he stops and comes back to the car. BOBBY No one would want to hit on you, you look too pathetic. No response. BOBBY (CONT'D) Come on, DiPesto. We can still have a good time. RAYETTE You're the pathetic one, not me. BOBBY I'm going on over there... RAYETTE I'm not some piece a crap. BOBBY I know you're not. RAYETTE You treat me like I was. BOBBY I'm sorry. RAYETTE (close to tears) You go slippin' around in front a my face, an' in front a Elton an' Stoney. What do you imagine they think a someone you treat that way... BOBBY Now, hand... He opens the door and gets inside, putting his arm around her. BOBBY (CONT'D) Elton and Stoney know how I feel about you. An' they're just goin' to think I'm not too nice a guy, which I'm not, an' that you're a hell of a person puttin' up with me, that's all. RAYETTE You're goin' a find me dead one time. BOBBY Sssh, come on now... (he kisses her) Be a good girl. RAYETTE If you really want a get up an' leave me, you can read about it in the newsprint. BOBBY I'm not going to get up an' leave you. (kisses her again, then:) Now let's go over to El's an' have a good time. RAYETTE Do you love me, Bobby? He hesitates briefly, then: BOBBY Well now, what do you think? Though hardly an undying declaration, it's close enough to fill her with forgiveness. Reaching over, she pulls him into her arms. EXT. SIGNAL HILL DERRICK - DAY KALEIDOSCOPIC SERIES OF SCENES, showing Elton and Bobby WORKING THE RIG as part of a four-man team. The DRILLER stands back, giving them directives, while the prestigious DERRICKMAN, the "star" of the team, lounges around in the b.g. Though he has been working the fields for some months, it is apparent that Bobby is still somewhat of a novice in the operations of the rig. FADE OVER ABOVE ACTIONS, to: INT. SIGNAL HILL DOGHOUSE - DAY An impromptu card game, taking place on a lunch break. (IMPROVISED) Bobby, in a buoyant mood, lays down a winning poker hand and rakes in a pile of bills and change lying on the table. The participants include Elton and THREE OTHER TOOLPUSHERS. In the b.g., as the game continues, other "HANDS" can be seen changing clothes. INT. TWINKY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Bobby sits morosely on the couch beside Twinky. One of his arms is around her, the other holds a can of beer. Both he and Twinky are looking at... ... Elton, who rides Betty on his leg as both sing "Ride a Cockhorse To Banbury Cross." She begins to laugh with the hysterical abandon of a child, and Elton, nearly beside himself, looks over to Bobby. ELTON God, id'n she the cutest damn thing in your life! EXT. SIGNAL HILL FIELD - DAY (ELTON SINGING A RANK DOGHOUSE SONG OVER:) REMOTE ANGLE ON BOBBY AND ELTON Having been up all night, drinking, they move unsteadily toward a derrick and are intercepted by the driller as they climb the stairs to the rig floor. He informs them they are unfit to work and "impolitely" eighty-sixes them for the day. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY (ELTON SINGING OVER:) Bobby's car slows as it moves into a freeway jam. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY He gestures out at the traffic as Elton, strumming a ukelele, concludes his song. BOBBY Can you believe this shit? He takes a drink from a half pint of bard liquor, then angrily hits at the steering wheel. BOBBY (CONT'D) Goddamned freeway... Jesus Christ... THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD A few cars ahead, a truck can be seen carrying several furniture pieces protected by padded covers. ELTON Give 'em the horn, Bob. BOBBY Look at these assholes! What the hell are they doing?! EXT. FREEWAY JAM - DAY The assholes are going nowhere and other cars close up behind and to both sides of Bobby's car. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY He suddenly throws the car into "park"... BOBBY I can't take this shit anymore. ... opens the door and gets out. EXT. FREEWAY - DAY ON BOBBY moving down the freeway, away from his car. Behind, Elton can be seen sliding over into the driver's seat. ANOTHER ANGLE as Bobby steps up onto the fender of a car, looking for the cause of the jam. DRIVER Hey, get off my car! INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY ON ELTON ELTON Where the hell's he goin'? EXT. FREEWAY - DAY Bobby cuts in front of another car and climbs up into the rear of the truck. Moving to the front of it, he looks out over the cab. POV of the glut of cars in all four lanes. ELTON Hey, Bob! Come on! Quit foolin' around! EXT. TRUCK - FREEWAY - DAY On his way out of the truck, Bobby pauses to look beneath one of the padded protectors, then pulls it off to reveal an upright piano. He leans down to the keyboard and plays a few notes. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY Elton, amused. ELTON Shit, what's he doin'? EXT. TRUCK - FREEWAY - DAY Bobby has pulled the bench out from beneath the piano and, sitting himself, begins to play a Chopin prelude. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Elton can be seen applauding him. EXT. TRUCK - FREEWAY - DAY ON BOBBY playing as the traffic begins to move and the truck with it. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY Again, Elton leans out the window, yelling at him: ELTON You better get your butt off there, Bob! Come on, now!! EXT. TRUCK - FREEWAY - DAY The right-turn indicator is flashing and the truck begins to work its way across the lanes. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - FREEWAY - DAY ELTON'S POV of Bobby playing, as the truck heads for an off ramp. ON ELTON honking the horn and flailing his arm out the window as he tries to cross lanes. The traffic closes on his right, preventing him from following. EXT. FREEWAY - DAY ANGLE INCLUSIVE OF ELTON hemmed into the left-hand lanes, and the truck, with Bobby still playing, pulling away on the off ramp. EXT. TRUCK - LONG BEACH STREETS - DAY (CHOPIN PRELUDE OVER:) The truck slows and comes to a stop at a signal. Bobby jumps out and moves to the sidewalk. FOLLOWING with him as he wanders, boozed and aimless, along the dispirited cheap streets of the city. INT. DINER - LATE NIGHT Rayette clears some plates from an empty table and, crossing the diner, sees... ... Bobby entering. As he takes a seat at the counter, she goes about her tasks, ignoring him. He watches her as she moves to the only other customer and totals his bill. Another waitress appears with a coffee Silex. She gestures it at Bobby and he nods. As she pours him a cup, Rayette moves to the register, deposits some bills, then turns and exits to the kitchen. EXT. REAR OF DINER - LATE NIGHT Bobby leans against a pickup adjacent to Rayette's car. She comes out of the rear door of the diner, hesitates as she sees him, then moves past him to her car. BOBBY I was with Elton last night, Ray. Maintaining her attitude of suffered injustice, she reaches to the car door and opens it. BOBBY (CONT'D) It's the truth. He reaches behind her and pushes the door shut. Then gently taking hold of her arm, he turns her toward him, bringing his face close to hers... BOBBY (CONT'D) Rayette... ... and as she turns away, be begins to kiss her neck. She lowers her gaze to the ground, quietly uttering: RAYETTE You son of a bitch. INT. ELTON AND STONEY'S MOBILE HOME - NIGHT Bobby, Elton and Stoney are seated on the couch, all looking toward the TV, playing an old black-and white. Rayette is seated on an adjacent chair, holding an infant in her lap, cooing and fawning over it throughout the following. ELTON I swore to God I'd never hire on to this type a work again. Christ, I don't know how the hell I let you talk me into it... Rayette reaches over to Bobby. RAYETTE Give me a swig, hon'. He hands her his beer and as she takes a sip and hands it back: ELTON You didn' know I was a derrickman once, did you? Bobby shakes his head. ELTON (CONT'D) Down in the southern fields, an' man, did I hate it. An' Stoney's brother was a well-puller, wad'n he, honey? The one with three fingers? STONEY (her eyes on the TV) My brother Cruser, yeah... ELTON I once hung suspendered 90 feet up on a tour, like a damn circus artist... RAYETTE Honey, took at this little bugger. ELTON Near broke my damn neck... RAYETTE Id'n he the cutest little guy? BOBBY Very cute... Put it down, an' let's go. Elton turns to him with a gap-toothed smile: ELTON You know, you oughta get you one them things, Bob. ON BOBBY as he stands up... BOBBY (standing up) Yeah... (stretching his arms) An' I oughta live in a trailer park with my front teeth poked out... EXT. SIGNAL HILL RIG - DAY ON ELTON seated on the rig floor opposite Bobby, who eats a sandwich, as: ELTON Well, what if she was, Bob? I can't see nothin' so bad in it... Bobby scowls hostilely at him. ELTON (CONT'D) What if I was to let you in on the little fact that she is. He looks away from Elton, not wanting to hear. ELTON (CONT'D) That's right. She told me. An' she's all tore up about it, which I hate a see. ON BOBBY as he continues: ELTON Hell, id'n it just somethin' to face up to? I'll tell you, somewhere along the line, you even get to likin' the whole idea... ON ELTON ELTON I recall when Stoney first give me the news, I could a shit... Bobby throws his sandwich onto the rig floor near Elton's leg. He looks down at a spatter of mayonnaise on his pants. ELTON Well, id'n that nice. BOBBY (attacking the messenger) It's ridiculous! I'm sitting here, listening to some asshole cracker compare his life to mine! He spills out the remainder of coffee from his cup and screws it onto the top of a thermos. BOBBY (CONT'D) Just keep telling me about the good life, Elton, if you want a see me puke my lunch! Elton reaches down and wipes the mayonnaise off his pant leg. ELTON If you're sayin' you're somethin' better'n what I am, that's one thing. But I can't say much a someone who'd run off an' leave a woman in a situation like this an' feel easy about it. An' that's all I gotta say. BOBBY I hope that's all you gotta say, El, 'cause I'm about as tired of your mouth as I am workin' this stinkin' hole! He grabs his jacket and his lunch bucket, jumps down off the rig and begins walking toward his car parked by the Field Office. In the b.g., Elton gets up and hurls his hard hat toward Bobby. ELTON Shit ass!! As he approaches his car, he looks toward the Field Office, where... ... The driller is leaning down to a car with TWO MEN in it. ON BOBBY calling over to him: BOBBY Hey, Longcipher! I'm quitting! The driller gestures a direction to the driver of the car, and as it pulls off, he moves toward the office: BOBBY (CONT'D) Longcipher! I'm talking to you! The driller opens the office door and looks back to Bobby. BOBBY (CONT'D) Did you hear me?! I said I'm quitting! DRILLER I don't give a shit what you do. You ben more trouble than you're worth, an' I'm damn glad to be rid of both a you assholes. He goes into the office and closes the door. ON BOBBY throwing his jacket and his lunch bucket into his car. As he starts to get in, his attention is drawn back to the rig. POV: The car that held the two men is parked next to it, and both men are on the rig platform moving toward Elton. He backs away from them, breaks toward the rig tour and starts to climb it. One of the men catches hold of his leg and yanks him back. Elton pulls loose from him, jumps to the ground and begins running with both men in pursuit. BOBBY Hey! What's goin' on?! He starts sprinting back to the rig. The first man has a hold on Elton and is struggling to subdue him. He is joined by the second man, and as they force his arms behind his back and cuff his wrists... ... Bobby MOVES INTO FRAME, grabbing onto the first man and wrestling him away from Elton. ELTON Don't do that, Bob!! It's the Law! Bobby hurls the man onto the ground and turns around to go after the second man, struggling with Elton. ELTON (CONT'D) It's the Law, Bob, don't mix in! The second man pushes Elton aside and as Bobby throws a punch at him... ELTON (CONT'D) Look out behind! ... the other grabs him from behind, holding him, while the second man jams a fist into his stomach and, as he doubles over, follows with a violent chop to the back of his neck. Bobby slumps to the ground, and as the first man puts a knee into his back and prepares to handcuff him: ELTON (CONT'D) Hey, don't do that. Don't you think you could just leave him... The second man takes hold of Elton and starts to move him off. ELTON Sure as hell he wouldn' a done that if he'd known who you was... Would you, Bob? Bobby, dazed, raises his head from the dirt, looking toward Elton. BOBBY Christ Almighty, what's happening here? SECOND MAN Okay, let him go. As he starts pushing a resistant Elton toward the car, Bobby sits up. BOBBY Tell me what in the hell's going on, Elton! ELTON I got accused a robbin' a fillin'station down in the Indian Nation, didn' I tell you... SECOND MAN Come on. ELTON I got wild an' jumped my bail... SECOND MAN Move it! He takes him roughly by the arm and moves off with the first man following. ELTON (over his shoulder, to Bobby) An' here they come runnin' after me a year later... Ain't that somethin'? ON BOBBY looking toward: The two men forcing Elton into the rear seat of the car, as he calls back to Bobby: ELTON Tell Stoney for me, will you?! Tell her to come get me... They close the door on him and get into the car. As it drives off... Bobby sits watching until it disappears from sight, then he sits back against a pump casing and drops his head onto his chest. INT. TWINKY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT CLOSE ON TWINKY'S FACE She opens her mouth and rends the air with a keening wail. Her face beads with moisture and journeys through expressions indistinguishable from grief and anguish. Presently, an ecstatic and very professional screech issues from her, after which she reaches up and pulls Bobby down onto her, breathing into his ear... TWINKY Donnie, oh Donnie... INT. RECORDING STUDIO - DAY (BACH PARTITA FAINTLY UNDER:) Bobby, dressed in a suit and tie, moves through a network of hallways, checking the door numbers. He arrives at a door designated as Studio A, and, after hesitating for a moment, opens it and steps inside. INT. STUDIO A RECORDING BOOTH - DAY (BACH PARTITA UNDER:) TWO RECORDING ENGINEERS glance at him without interest and return to their dials and needles. Bobby looks from them through the glass partition to the recording studio in view beyond. POV: ELIZABETH "TITA" DUPEA is at the piano, intensely into the Bach. She wears a monastic-looking dress, her unruly hair is pinned back from her face, and her glasses lie on the bench beside her. ON BOBBY watching her with both affection and appreciation. ON TITA She is "sounding" as she plays, in tones out-of-key and discordant with the Bach. FIRST ENGINEER There she goes again. Bobby glances over at him, then looks back to Tita. POV: She hunches over the keyboard and plays an arpeggio, humming a long monochromatic note. SECOND ENGINEER My 1-year-old can carry a tune better than that. Bobby is about to defend her, when the engineer flips a toggle switch and addresses the mike feeding into the studio: SECOND ENGINEER (CONT'D) Miss Dupea. There is no response and she continues playing. SECOND ENGINEER (CONT'D) (more emphatic) Miss Dupea. TITA (annoyed) Yes. Bobby can be seen in the b.g., having difficulty restraining his irritation under the following: SECOND ENGINEER I'd like to remind you again, this isn't an opera or a musical comedy. TITA Oh... I'm sorry. Was I singing again? SECOND ENGINEER If you want to call it that. TITA Well, you have to simply tell me, that's all. SECOND ENGINEER That's exactly what I am doing, again. TITA Do you have to let me get halfway through the movement first? This is tiring me. SECOND ENGINEER I have a suggestion. Why don't we take a break. TITA Oh, for pity's sake... She puts her elbows on top of the piano and drops her head into her bands. FIRST ENGINEER Is she going to cry again? TITA I don't want to take a break. SECOND ENGINEER What would you like in your coffee? She makes a mumbled response, her head still in her bands: TITA Tea. BOBBY Would you tell her Bobby's here? SECOND ENGINEER (to the mike) Miss Dupea, Bobby's here. She raises her head, squints toward the booth, then grabs her glasses from the bench and puts them on. INT. RECORDING STUDIO - DAY Bobby enters the studio and comes toward her, opening his arms. She rushes into his embrace, burying her face in his shoulder. TITA (very emotional) Oh my goodness... Bobby... BOBBY Hi, Tita. She raises her head to look at him, and verging on tears: TITA Robert Eroica... BOBBY Now don't... TITA No, I'm not... (taking a deep breath, then:) I'm not. BOBBY That's good. A NEW ANGLE Tita sits on the piano bench, crying and searching through her purse for a tissue. Bobby hovers behind her, gently patting her on the back and glancing with some embarrassment toward the recording booth. TITA I just can't look at you. BOBBY Don't, then. As she blows her nose into the tissue, a young man comes into view, hands Bobby a paper cup and leaves. Tita takes another tissue from her purse and dabs at her eyes. TITA You always do this to me. BOBBY Well, I don't mean to. (setting the cup down on the piano) Here's your tea, Tita. TITA Thank you... (then:) Oh no, don't put it on there... She quickly picks up the cup and places it on the floor. BOBBY Sorry. TITA (caressing the piano) This is a very special, very old CB 275... BOBBY Oh. TITA You know who it once belonged to? BOBBY No. TITA Waldnit von Schnechter. Prewar. BOBBY (politely) No kidding. He sits down on the bench beside her... TITA It has absolutely no objectionable idiosyncrasies... ... and tests it out with a brief flourish on the keys. She watches him, then: TITA (CONT'D) Robert... BOBBY (stops playing) Very nice. TITA I have to talk seriously with you... BOBBY Everybody still up on the Island? TITA Well, Herbert's mostly on the mainland because of the orchestra, so at the moment, there's just Daddy, Carl and myself... and Van Oost. BOBBY Who's Van Oost? TITA (not fond of the subject) Catherine -- she's a pianist. She's working with Carl. BOBBY Carl's a fiddler. What's he doing coaching piano? TITA Well, 11 months ago he was on his bicycle, on his way to the post office in La Roche... and he ran into a Jeep and sprained his neck... Bobby laughs. BOBBY Sprained his neck? Tita laughs, then: TITA It's not funny. He permanently sprained his neck, and since then it's been extremely difficult for him to tuck the violin. BOBBY Crashes into a Jeep and totals his neck. (shaking his head) That's Carl... TITA Robert, I have to tell you something... BOBBY What? TITA Daddy's very ill. BOBBY Oh, well, what, what's he... TITA He's had two strokes. He looks away from her, not wanting to hear any more. TITA (CONT'D) He's not... They feel he... maybe he might not recover, and that he'll either... BOBBY (standing up) Don't tell me about this... He moves away from the piano and Tita turns to look at him. TITA But don't you think it's right, though, that you should see him, at least once... SECOND ENGINEER'S VOICE (miked) We're ready Miss Dupea. TITA (to the booth) Just a minute, please! (to Bobby) Robert, don't you think it's right that you should see him? He moves aimlessly about trying to subdue his anguish. BOBBY Yeah... I guess so... TITA I'm going back up tonight. Will you go with me? BOBBY No... He glances at her, catching her profound disappointment. BOBBY (CONT'D) I'd rather drive up myself and... maybe go into Canada after... And I can't stay long, Tita, probably a week, at the most. TITA I know. He looks toward the booth. BOBBY Well... (then, to Tita) I better let you... TITA Wait... She gets up from the bench and goes to him, taking hold of his arm. TITA (CONT'D) I'll walk out with you... As they move to the hall door, she addresses the booth: TITA (CONT'D) I'll be back in two minutes! SECOND ENGINEER'S VOICE Cut that in half, will you? She smiles at Bobby as they go out into hall. TITA They hate me, I feel. FOLLOWING WITH THEM down the hallway. BOBBY Maybe you better stay, then. TITA No, I need to talk to you, about so many things... BOBBY Well, I'll be seeing you in a couple of days, won't I? They stop at the stairway. TITA Oh God, I'm so glad, Robert, that you're coming... BOBBY Yeah, me, too... TITA It'll be so good for you, and for Daddy, because you know, you've never really... BOBBY (cutting her off) Tita, I've got to go... TITA All right... He kisses her. TITA (CONT'D) Okay. Feeling herself about to break down again, she attempts a valiant smile and stands watching as... ... Bobby turns and goes down the stairs. EXT. RAYETTE'S HOUSE - DAY (TAMMY WYNETTE'S "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" OVER:) ON BOBBY moving from his car, up the walkway and entering Rayette's house. INT. RAYETTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY ON THE STEREO playing the above song. ON BOBBY looking from... ... a rumpled blanket on the couch, to... ... a can of beer and a lighted cigarette burning in an ashtray on the coffee table. BOBBY (calling out) Hello?! He crosses to a hall and moves down toward the bedroom. BOBBY (CONT'D) You have the day off?! He steps into the doorway, to see: Rayette, lying in bed, her back against the pillows, staring at the wall. BOBBY (CONT'D) Are you sick? No response. BOBBY (CONT'D) You heard about Elton, I guess. She turns her gaze to the window. He looks at her briefly, then: BOBBY (CONT'D) Okay, I get your point. As he moves to the closet: BOBBY (CONT'D) Hope you didn't strain yourself, getting in here and into your pose before I hit the door. He picks up a suitcase from the closet floor, grabs some of his clothes from the rack, and, moving to a chair, sets the suitcase on it and begins packing. BOBBY (CONT'D) I have to go home. My father's sick. Rayette turns on her side, making a snorting sound of disbelief. BOBBY (CONT'D) Yeah, it's very funny. He moves to a dresser, extracts his underwear and returns to the suitcase. BOBBY (CONT'D) I'll be gone two or three weeks. RAYETTE (not looking at him) You'll be gone, period. He closes the suitecase, secures it... BOBBY I'll try and call you from up there. ... and picking it up, moves around the bed toward the door. He stops, setting the suitcase on the bed and looking down at her. She is still faced away from him, her shoulders trembling as she weeps soundlessly. BOBBY (CONT'D) (very emotional) Come on, DiPesto. I never told you it would work out to anything. Did I? He looks away from her, to the window. BOBBY (CONT'D) I'll send you some money, that's all I can do. Returning his gaze to her: BOBBY (CONT'D) And... I'll call you, like I said... (he pauses, then) Bye, Ray. An audible sob finally comes from her. Bobby quickly picks up the suitcase and moves out of the bedroom and down the hall. EXT. RAYETTE'S HOUSE - DAY ON BOBBY'S CAR as he moves into view. He throws the suitcase in through the rear window, moves around to the driver's side and gets in. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - DAY He starts the motor, angrily throws it into gear and places his hands on the wheel. INT. RAYETTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY BOBBY'S HAND slashes at the arm of the record player, pulling it across the grooves and stifling Tammy Wynette. BOBBY Do you want to go with me, Ray? EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY (WYNETTE'S "WHEN THERE'S A FIRE IN YOUR HEART" OVER:) His car moves north along the Pacific Coast Highway. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY (WYNETTE OVER:) ON BOBBY looking over at Rayette and smiling. ON RAYETTE She returns his look with absolute devotion, then reaches over and caresses the back of his neck. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - INLAND HIGHWAY - DAY (WYNETTE OVER:) OUT PAST Bobby's profile, to a Southern California pastoral landscape passing by. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - BIG SUR COUNTRY - DAY ON RAYETTE singing the above song. RAYETTE "There's been hot spells/An' cold spells ever since we met/I've seen your small fires/Your big fires/But I won't give up yet/Oh someday you'll yearn/'Cause your heart's gonna burn/For that old familiar glow/You'll be burned..." Bobby laughs and she looks over at him. RAYETTE (CONT'D) You like it? BOBBY I love it. RAYETTE (resumes singing) "You'll be burned out/Or smoked out/An' come back to me, I know..." Bobby's attention is taken by something on the road ahead. RAYETTE (CONT'D) "Every trail that you blaze/Makes me..." BOBBY What the hell is that? POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD of a car lying upside down on the left side of the highway. TWO FIGURES are standing beside it, engaged in a heated argument. RAYETTE Is it an accident? EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY Bobby pulls off onto the right-hand shoulder, stops the car and gets out. He moves out to the center line, looking across the road, to: A long-haired young woman (PALM) in Levi's and parka, presently pushing her close-cropped, boyish looking friend (TERRY) against the side of the car and making some indecipherable accusation. BOBBY Hey! What's going on, what's the trouble?! The young woman turns and gives him the finger. PALM Rotate, mack! ON RAYETTE sticking her head out the driver's window. RAYETTE What'd she say? ON PALM gesturing angrily back at the wreck as she crosses toward Bobby. PALM Look at my car! Piece of shit! I just bought it brand new from a used-car lot, and the steering goes to the pot on me! BOBBY You're lucky no one was hurt. PALM Seven hundred dollars, down the toilet! I'd like to go back and punch the son of a bitch out! Can you give us a lift? Without waiting for a response, she moves back to Terry, who is retrieving some of their belongings from the highway. PALM (CONT'D) Come on, Terry, we got a ride! RAYETTE Jesus, what a rude person... INT. BOBBY'S CAR - ON THE ROAD - DAY Palm and Terry, still under the spell of their roadside tiff, sit in sulky silence in the back seat. Bobby glances at Palm in the rear view. BOBBY What's your name? PALM Palm Apodaca. Rayette turns around and, thinking Terry is a boy, asks rather flirtatiously: RAYETTE An' what's your name? TERRY Terry Grouse. Shocked at the female voice coming from "him," she turns back around and pokes Bobby on the leg. BOBBY (loudly) What? RAYETTE (low tones) I'll tell you... (spelling out) ... l-a-t-e-r. PALM How far are you going to? BOBBY Washington. PALM We'll get off in Washington and hook another ride. BOBBY Where are you going? PALM Alaska. BOBBY Alaska? Are you on vacation? TERRY (sullenly) She wants to live there, because she thinks it's cleaner. BOBBY Cleaner than what? PALM (to Terry) You don't have to tell everybody about it. Pretty soon they'll all go there and it won't be so clean. BOBBY How do you know it's clean? PALM I saw a picture of it. Alaska is very clean. It appeared to look very white to me... Don't you think? BOBBY Yeah. That's before the big thaw. She leans forward, looking annoyed. PALM Before the what? EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - NORTHERN HIGHWAY - DAY (COUNTRY & WESTERN INSTRUMENTAL OVER:) ON THE CAR moving through the Redwood country above San Francisco. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY ON BOBBY bored, as he drives. Beside him, Rayette primps in the sunvisor mirror. ON THE BACK SEAT Terry lights a cigarette while Palm, staring morosely out the window, goes into a soliloquy: PALM I had to leave this place. I got depressed, seeing all the crap. And the thing is, they're making more crap, you know? They've got so many stores and stuff and junk full of crap, I can't believe it. BOBBY Who? PALM Who? People, that's who! Pretty soon there won't be room for anyone. They're selling more crap that people go and buy than you can imagine. Oofh! Crap! I believe everybody should have a big hole where they throw in all this stuff and burn it. Rayette leans around to her. RAYETTE There'd never be a hole big enough. Now took at me, for instance, when I was just one person, before Bobby, I had so much garbage collectin' onto me every day, I was thinkin' about gettin a dispose all... PALM A dispose-all, what's that but more crap? I've never seen such crap. Oofh, I don't know how people get up in the morning. TERRY Mass production is what does it. PALM What do you mean "mass"... I have to come out and tell you, you're not that clean, either. TERRY Wait a minute. I'm not that neat, maybe, but I am clean. PALM Well, you're not that bad, but some people... I mean, people's homes, just filth. I've been in people's homes... TERRY In my personal observation, I think that more people are neat than are clean... PALM In my personal thing, I don't see that. I'm seeing more filth. A lot of filth. What they need to do every day, no, once in a while, is a cockroach thing, where they spray the homes. And uh... can you imagine, if their doors were painted a pretty color, and they had a pot outside, with... TERRY Yeah, it could be adorable... PALM And they picked up! I mean, it wouldn't be filthy, with Coke bottles and whiskey, and those signs everywhere... She gestures angrily out the window at the roadside billboards. PALM (CONT'D) ... they oughta be erased! All those signs, selling crap, and more crap, and, I don't know, it's disgusting, I don't even want to talk about it! Bobby starts to say something: BOBBY Well... PALM It's just filthy. People are dirty. I think that's the biggest thing that's wrong with people. I think they wouldn't be as violent if they were clean, because then they wouldn't have anybody to pick on... Oofh... Dirt... RAYETTE Well... PALM Not dirt. See, dirt isn't bad. It's filth. Filth is bad. That's what starts maggots and riots... She suddenly leans over to the front seat, pointing to a semi ahead. PALM (CONT'D) Hey, follow that truck. They know the best places to stop. RAYETTE That's an old maid's tale. PALM Bullshit! Truck drivers know the best eating places on the road. Rayette turns around, asserting: RAYETTE Salesmen and cops are the ones. If you'd ever waitressed, honey, you'd know. PALM Don't call me "honey," mack. RAYETTE Don't call me "mack," honey. PALM I wouldn't be a waitress. They're nasty and full of crap. RAYETTE You better hold onto your tongue! PALM (giving her the finger) Hold onto this. Terry laughs. RAYETTE Just one minute, you! Don't you ever talk to me like that! BOBBY Shut up! All of you! INT. ROADSIDE CAFE - DAY All four are seated at a booth. The women have given their orders and a WAITRESS stands above Bobby, waiting for his: BOBBY (looking at his menu) I'll have an omelette, no potatoes. Give me tomatoes instead, and wheat toast instead of rolls. The waitress indicates something on the menu with the butt of her pencil. WAITRESS No substitutions. BOBBY What does that mean? You don't have any tomatoes? WAITRESS (annoyed) No. We have tomatoes. BOBBY But I can't have any. Is that what you mean? WAITRESS Only what's on the menu... (again, indicating with her pencil) A Number Two: Plain omelette. It comes with cottage fries and rolls. BOBBY I know what it comes with, but that's not what I want. WAITRESS I'll come back when you've made up your mind... She starts to move away and Bobby detains her. BOBBY Wait, I've made up my mind. I want a plain omelette, forget the tomatoes, don't put potatoes on the plate, and give me a side of wheat toast and a cup of coffee. WAITRESS I'm sorry, we don't have side orders of toast. I can give you an English muffin or a coffee roll. BOBBY What do you mean, you don't have side orders of toast? You make sandwiches, don't you? WAITRESS Would you like to talk to the manager? PALM Hey, mack! BOBBY (to Palm) Shut up. (to the waitress) You have bread, don't you, and a toaster of some kind? WAITRESS I don't make the rules. BOBBY Okay, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. Give me an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast -- no butter, no mayonnaise, no lettuce -- and a cup of coffee. She begins writing down his order, repeating it sarcastically: WAITRESS One Number Two, and a chicken sal san -- hold the butter, the mayo, the lettuce -- and a cup of coffee... Anything else? BOBBY Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, charge me for the sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules. WAITRESS (challenging him) You want me to hold the chicken. BOBBY Yeah. I want you to hold it between your knees. The other three laugh, and the waitress points to a "Right to Refuse" sign above the counter. WAITRESS You see that sign, sir?! Bobby glances over at it, then back to her. WAITRESS (CONT'D) You'll all have to leave, I'm not taking any more of your smartness and your sarcasm! He smiles politely at her, then: BOBBY You see this sign? He reaches his arm out and "clears" the table for her. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - ON THE ROAD - DAY ON PALM in the back seat. PALM Fantastic! That you could figure all that out, and lay that down on her, to come up with a way you could get your toast. BOBBY I didn't get it, did I? PALM No, but it was very clever... I would of just punched her out. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY (COUNTRY & WESTERN OVER:) ON THE CAR moving through the Northwest coastal region. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY Palm resumes her monologue: PALM People... Oofh... (shaking her head in utter disgust) Animals are not like that... They're always cleaning themselves. Did you ever see... What are they called? Pigeons! She looks over at Terry, slumped in her seat, asleep. PALM (CONT'D) He's always picking on himself and his friends. They're always picking bugs out of their hair... ON RAYETTE asleep. PALM (O.S.) Monkeys, too. ON PALM PALM Except monkeys do things out in the open that I don't go for. ON BOBBY benumbed, his eyes glazed over as he stares out through the windshield. ON PALM PALM I was in this place once, this store, with snakes, monkeys, everything you could imagine. I walked in, I had to run out. It stunk! They didn't even have an incense going... Though no one listens, she goes on, working herself up: PALM And you know, I read where they invented this car that runs on... that runs on... when you boil water... TERRY (half-dead) Steam. PALM Right, steam. A car you could ride around in and not cause a stink. But do you know, they will not even let us have it. Can you believe it? Why?! Man! He likes to create a stink. I wrote them a note once, and told them to clean it... I mean, don't you see that? It's just filthy! I mean, I've seen filth you wouldn't believe! Oofh, what a stink! I don't even want to talk about it... EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - LATE DAY (WYNETTE'S "WHEN THERE'S A FIRE" OVER:) ON PALM AND TERRY deposited at the side of the highway, with their luggage, duffle bags and television set lying on the road edge. Terry lifts a bored hand to wave at... ... Bobby, behind the wheel. He waves back, pulls out onto the highway and drives off. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - MOTEL - NIGHT (MUSIC FADES, AS:) The car pulls into a motel parking slot and stops. INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Bobby and Rayette in bed. She lies on her side, watching him watch TV. After a moment: RAYETTE Are you depressed about your daddy, honey? BOBBY No. RAYETTE I 'magine it's me then, id'n it? BOBBY Is what you? RAYETTE You're depressed that I come along. BOBBY Who said I was depressed? RAYETTE Well, is that a happy face I see? No response. RAYETTE (CONT'D) 'Cause if it was me, I could just catch a Greyhound back. BOBBY Oh, you're not going to kill yourself this time. I wish I'd known... He turns off the light on the night stand and rolls onto his side, faced away from her. They lie silently in the dark for a moment. Then: RAYETTE I don't know if I'm gonna be able to sleep or not. No response. RAYETTE (CONT'D) (looking over at him) Hint, hint. No response. RAYETTE (CONT'D) (sighing; then:) I guess I'll just have to count the sheep. (closing her eyes) One-two-three-four... She opens her eyes and looks over at him. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Seven... eight... (caressing his shoulder) Look at this old cold shoulder, what am I gonna do with it? He looks around at her and with gentle good humor: BOBBY If you just wouldn't open your mouth, everything would be fine. She turns an imaginary key at her lips. RAYETTE Tick a lock. He rolls over to face her and, yielding to her request, begins to make love to ber. EXT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY Rayette following after Bobby. As he moves to his car, he removes some cash from his wallet. RAYETTE Why can't I go out to your folks' house? Give me one good reason. BOBBY I have to see how things are first. My father's sick, you understand? They wouldn't be prepared for me bringing anyone. He holds out a roll of bills and as she takes them: RAYETTE So how long am I supposed to sit an' twiddle my thumbs in this place? BOBBY If you can't do what I ask, Ray, use that money to go back home, then. RAYETTE Bobby, don't talk like that... She moves over to him and gives him a quick kiss. RAYETTE (CONT'D) It'll be all right, I'll get a hold a some magazines an' things like that. An' maybe find a beauty salon an' get my hair fixed, okay? ON BOBBY getting into the car. BOBBY Okay, Ray... RAYETTE Or maybe sit out by the pool an' get myself nice an' tan for you. Would you like that? BOBBY (starting the engine) Sure... RAYETTE It brings out my eyes... BOBBY Bye, honey, I'll call you in a couple of days. RAYETTE Okay... She watches unhappily as he backs out of the slot and the car pulls away. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Bye, baby... EXT. FERRY (CROSSING) - DAY Bobby gets out of his car and wanders the deck of the ferry. He stops to look out over the Sound to one of the islands off the Washington coast, then glances back to the mainland, receding in the distance. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - FERRY LANDING - DAY Bobby drives off the ferry onto the island. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - COUNTRY ROAD - DAY The car moves over a tree-lined country lane and presently turns off onto a private road, leading to a large Victorian-style house. It pulls to a stop behind two other cars. Bobby gets out of the car and moves up the porch steps to the front door. CLOSER ON him as he hesitates, listening briefly to the FAINT SOUND of two pianos coming from within. Then he opens the door and goes inside. INT. DUPEA HOME - DAY (TWO PIANOS OVER:) Bobby tentatively wanders the first floor of the house, taking in the ghosts of the past. In the living room, he pauses at a table to look at several framed photographs. He picks up one of his mother and father, looks closely at it, then gently returns it to its place and resumes wandering. He stops at the music room and looks in through the half-opened door: POV INTO MUSIC ROOM: On the far side of the room, near windows which give view to a verdant exterior, are two concert grands. His brother CARL is seated at one of the pianos, and a young woman (CATHERINE VAN OOST) is seated at the other. ON BOBBY looking from Carl, to Catherine. He watches her briefly, then steps out of the doorway... ... and moves down a hallway to a closed door. He reaches down and opens it, looking inside to: TITA grooming the hair of an elderly man (NICHOLAS DUPEA) seated in a wheelchair with his back to Bobby. She looks up and, seeing Bobby, smiles happily, then reaches down and turns the wheelchair around. ON NICHOLAS His eyes are half-closed and are cast down to the floor. Bobby moves over to him, bending down and looking into his face. Nicholas opens his eyes slightly and gazes through Bobby into an absolute elsewhere. Bobby raises his eyes to Tita. BOBBY He doesn't even know who the hell I am. INT. DUPEA DINING ROOM - NIGHT Nicholas Dupea sits at the head of the table, being fed his dinner by a male nurse (SPICER). Bobby, at the opposite end of the table, is seated next to Tita. Unable to bear looking at his father, he glances over at Catherine, seated next to Carl on his right. She raises her eyes from her plate to ask him something, just as Tita is moved to reminisce: TITA Remember, Bobby, what mother used to say when... CATHERINE (to Bobby) How long have you been... (To Tita) Oh, excuse me... TITA No, it's all right, you go ahead... CATHERINE I was just going to ask Robert how long he's been away from here. BOBBY Four or five years. CARL No, the last time was three years ago. TITA Oh no, it's been much more than that. CARL Away from the piano, Tita, you have no sense of time at all. TITA I don't think that's true. CARL It is true. TITA Besides being very rude. CATHERINE What have you been doing since then? BOBBY What have I been doing? Different things, different jobs, here and there. Nothing that interesting. CATHERINE And you no longer play at all? Bobby starts to reply and is interrupted by: CARL You know, just after I came back off tour with the Betenthaller Quartet, Dad, myself and Herbert had a summit conference about you... TITA Oh, my, "a summit conference." I wonder where I was, polishing silver behind the coal bin. CARL I don't know where you were, penis envy. TITA I hope I didn't hear that. CARL At any rate, Dad wanted to hire a private detective to ferret you out, and I said, "What for?" Whatever the hell he's doing, even if it's a completely wasteful escapade, it's entirely his business. Simple as that... BOBBY Well, I really appreciate it, Carl. TITA I don't think you should infer Daddy was wrong in front of him... She looks at Spicer, pushing a spoon at Nicholas's closed mouth. TITA (CONT'D) Don't force him like that, Spicer. Spicer lays the spoon down and begins eating his own dinner. BOBBY (to Catherine) How long have you been staying here? TITA A couple of months. He starts to ask another question and is again overridden by: CARL Did you hear about my misfortune, Robert? BOBBY What? CARL It's still nearly impossible for me to turn my neck. If I wanted to turn toward Catherine, for instance, I'd first have to twist the whole base of my body around... (demonstrating) ... like this... Tita gets up from the table and, taking her plate, exits to the kitchen. And as Carl readjusts himself in his chair and takes a sip from his wine glass, Bobby looks at Catherine to find her looking at him. She quickly alters her gaze to Carl. CATHERINE I wouldn't mind doing a little work, if you're finished, and not too tired... CARL No, I'm finished... (placing a hand on his stomach) Satiety is my father and mother. Finding he's amused himself and nobody else, he gets up and addresses Bobby. CARL (CONT'D) She's tremendously gifted, this girl. BOBBY (looking at her) Is she? Catherine stands up and, wanting to change the subject: CATHERINE Excuse me, I don't want to hear this... She exits and Carl, on his way out, pauses at Bobby's chair. CARL I hope you feel at home, Robert. (patting him on the shoulder) I'm really glad you're here. BOBBY Thanks, Carl... He looks down table to see Spicer stacking his plate onto Nicholas's and his eyes follow him as he, too, moves out of the dining room to the kitchen. CLOSE ON BOBBY in extreme discomfort at being left alone with his father. He looks down at his plate, poking at the remainder of his dinner, then braves a look down the table. ON NICHOLAS looking back at him, his eyes devoid of interest or cognition. EXT. DUPEA GROUNDS - DAY Bobby and Tita walk away from the house down toward the ocean. Accompanying them is a Borzoi hound belonging to her. TITA He has ways of communicating, Robert. I can tell when he's expressing approval or disapproval, just from his eyes... BOBBY Uhm hmm. Some range. TITA It's not that bad. BOBBY Yes, it is. I can't take seeing him, sitting there like a stone. TITA A week or two isn't going to ruin your life, for Godsakes. He doesn't respond. TITA (CONT'D) I mean, you think I'm that happy? BOBBY No, I don't. (a pause, then:) You should've left a long time ago. TITA We can't all get up and leave, can we? I mean, there are certain needs you have to respond to... She stops walking and moves to one of the garden chairs, facing out toward the bay. TITA (CONT'D) And anyway, I want you to stay, so I can spend some time with you, and ask you some questions... He leans his back against a tree. BOBBY What questions? TITA Well, do you -- I mean, have you enjoyed all these... strange things you've been doing? BOBBY Sometimes. She stares at him for a moment, and taking note of it: BOBBY (CONT'D) Why? Am I some kind of freak to you or something? TITA No, no, I don't think that, I'm just curious about it... (a pause) Do you think I'm a freak? BOBBY Sort of. She laughs. TITA Oh no... Why? What is it? The way I look? BOBBY No, I don't really think you're a freak. TITA I probably am, but I don't care. I mean, I wasn't that blessed to begin with, and when would I have had time to make any improvements... BOBBY What about Carl and Catherine? Is he just coaching her, or what? TITA Constantly. Night and day. And unless I get up before the birds, I can't get in any practice time for myself... BOBBY Uhm hmm. TITA Actually, it's very admirable, the way she works. She'll probably be enormously successful, because she's attractive as well, not that that's so important in music, but... BOBBY You're attractive, Tita. If you just did a little more with yourself... TITA Like what? BOBBY Well, if you just maybe did something with your hair, or... TITA Oh, let's not talk about my hair, it does what it wants to, and anyway, who cares, I want to talk about you... BOBBY There's nothing to say, Tita... He offers nothing further and looks out over the bay. Then, after a brief silence: TITA Well, you're not going to run out on me right away, are you? BOBBY I don't know. INT. DUPEA HOME - DAY Bobby strolls casually about the house - in truth, looking for an opportunity to run into Catherine. He moves to the music room and looks inside. THROUGH THE DOORWAY Catherine can be seen, seated at the piano. Carl stands above her and they engage in some exchange about the score resting on the piano's music stand. ON BOBBY as he moves down the hallway and sees: Spicer descending the staircase, with the brittle Nicholas in his arms. He ducks into the nearest room to avoid them. INT. DEN - DUPEA HOME - DAY Tita, startled in the act of appraising herself in a mirror above the fireplace, turns around to Bobby: TITA Oh God, don't sneak up on me like that! We see she wears a little make-up and has done something "different" with her hair. BOBBY Sorry. He turns and exits the den. EXT. DUPEA HOUSE - DAY Bobby stands on the front porch, looking toward... ... Catherine coming up from the ocean. She wears a bathrobe over a wet bathing suit and carries a towel, and as she approaches: CATHERINE Hello... BOBBY I guess you fell in the water. CATHERINE (amused) Yes, intentionally. BOBBY That's dangerous, you know. CATHERINE Swimming? BOBBY Playing piano all day and then jumping into cold water. You could get a cramp. She laughs and begins drying her hair with a corner of the towel. CATHERINE I love to swim, and I don't mind the cold at all. It's invigorating. BOBBY Well, I wouldn't want to get too invigorated myself. CATHERINE Why? BOBBY What would I do with it? Run amok? She comes up the stairs. BOBBY (CONT'D) Besides piano and swimming, what else do you do? CATHERINE Well, there's fishing and boating. There's concerts on the mainland and... but I feel silly telling you. This is really your home. You probably know better than I what there is to do. BOBBY Nothing. CATHERINE Nothing? Then it must be very boring for you here. BOBBY That's right. Have you anything to suggest? CATHERINE I don't know. Let me give it some thought. She moves toward the front door, with Bobby following. BOBBY What're you doing right now... INT. DUPEA HOME - DAY Catherine comes inside and moves toward the stairway, with Bobby behind. CATHERINE Right now I'm going to run a hot tub and soak myself. BOBBY Then after that? She goes up a few steps and turns back to him. CATHERINE After that, I plan to read some music and rest for awhile. BOBBY Tomorrow, then. CATHERINE Tomorrow's a full practice day... (continues up the stairs) But the day after is kind of open. At the top of the stairs, she stops and looks down at him. CATHERINE (CONT'D) Carl has hydrotherapy on Tuesdays. BOBBY (as if it were a year) The day after tomorrow. CATHERINE If you're free. BOBBY Yeah, I'll probably be free. She turns and disappears into the second-floor hallway. INT. DUPEA KITCHEN - NIGHT Dinner has concluded and Tita moves around the table, distributing cups and saucers. Carl is remote and off his feed. Spicer attends Nicholas, and Catherine looks across the table to Bobby as he drinks from a bottle of beer. After a moment, a loud belch comes from Nicholas and Tita quickly requests: TITA Don't laugh... She attempts to stifle her own amusement, as do Bobby and Catherine, then changes the subject: TITA (CONT'D) What's wrong, Carl, you hardly ate anything... CARL I took some aspirin and it really upset my stomach. Catherine begins pouring the coffee. CATHERINE One thing that's hard to understand is how you could have this incredible background in music, and then just walk away from it, without a second thought... BOBBY I gave it a second thought. Tita seats herself at the table, addressing Spicer: TITA He looks tired to me, Spicer. I think you should put him to bed. He nods, and as he gets up and wheels Nicholas from the room: CATHERINE I mean, how could you not play anymore? That's so strange to me... BOBBY I have played a few times. Here and there. As a matter of fact, I was once a rehearsal pianist for a Las Vegas musical revue. CATHERINE You don't call that music, though. BOBBY Of course I do. It's music. You know... He places his hands on the table and simulates the playing of a rousing production-type show-stopper, simultaneously vocalizing as he does. Though Tita and Catherine are amused, Carl winces disapprovingly and breaks into Bobby's act: CARL Robert, do you mind? BOBBY What? CARL Nothing. Will you excuse us for a while? He takes hold of Catherine's hand and stands up. CATHERINE We really don't have to, Carl, if you're not feeling good... CARL (a bit martyred) Well, maybe if we put the Thermaphore on me for a while, first... CATHERINE Oh, all right. And as they move to the door, she glances apologetically back at Bobby. Deflated and embarrassed, he looks away from Tita's sympathetic gaze. After a brief silence, she reaches to a platter on the table. TITA Do you want some gingerbread? BOBBY (elsewhere) What? TITA With applesauce? BOBBY No, thanks... INT. DUPEA LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Bobby stands in the living room. It is dark and the only light comes from some burning logs in the fireplace. He listens briefly to the sounds of a Beethoven sonata coming from the music room... ... then moves to a chaise near the fireplace and lies down, staring absently into the flames. After a moment, he closes his eyes. ANOTHER ANGLE on his sleeping face as the sonata begins to FADE. INT. DUPEA LIVING ROOM - MORNING ON BOBBY still asleep in the chaise. He is suddenly jolted awake by a loud thud and sits up, looking out the window to: POV OF SPICER lifting a barbell with heavy weights attached to it. He does a series of vigorous presses with it, before he again lets the bar drop heavily onto the porch. INT. DUPEA HOME - UPSTAIRS HALL - DAY (BACH VIOLIN OVER:) Bobby stands in the hallway, a phone to his ear, listening to Rayette and looking down the hall toward the open door to Catherine's room. BOBBY Yeah, well fine, you know what I suggest, Ray... (listening) Because I don't know how long. Things are not going that well here... He listens again, his eyes on Catberine, moving around in her room. BOBBY (CONT'D) Yeah, well I'm not having any fun, either, so why don't you... (pause) No, you can't, it's just not convenient, and I have to get off... (listening impatiently) Ray, I really have to go, I have to get off now... (longer pause) Another couple of days, maybe. I'll call you and let you -- (pause) All right, if you're gone, you're gone. Now I have to get off, okay? (pause) Bye, Ray... He hangs up and, as he starts down the hall to Catherine's room, the VIOLIN STOPS and Carl steps out into the hall ahead of him. He carries his fiddle and detains Bobby, with: CARL Only 10 minutes of playing and it's already killing my neck... Bobby looks past him to Catherine as she glances out at them and then closes the door to her room. EXT. DUPEA GROUNDS - DAY Bobby and Carl, playing a game of table tennis. Tita stands leaning against a tree, watching them. In the b.g., Spicer can be seen, meticulously oiling and cleaning the wheelchair. As they volley the ball back and forth: BOBBY You sure you should be playing, Carl? CARL What do you mean? Aside from my neck, I'm in superb shape. Carl hits into the net, and as the ball rebounds to him, he tosses it to Bobby. BOBBY (serving) I don't know, there's something wrong with the way you move. Carl hits the net again. CARL I'm not aware of it. Like what? BOBBY Your serve. Two -- Eighteen. Carl serves and as they volley: BOBBY (CONT'D) I'd hate to see you walk across a concert stage like that. Carl tries a smash and mis-hits the ball... BOBBY (CONT'D) Two -- Nineteen. ... and as he retrieves it: CARL (irritated with Bobby) I've walked across a stage a number of times, without exciting any particular response... BOBBY That's what I mean... Carl comes back to the table. CARL Any particular humor, I meant. He angrily serves the ball. BOBBY (returning) I think you should get someone to coach you how to walk. I think it's a substantial problem. He hits a smash and it sails past Carl into some shrubbery several yards away. CARL Dammit! As he moves after the ball, Bobby gestures at him. BOBBY Look at that. TITA Why are you being so mean? BOBBY I'm not. He does walk funny. Don't you see that? She looks at Carl, bent over and searching through the shrubs. TITA I don't think I'd notice. I'm so used to Carl. BOBBY (wanting to go on about it) Yeah, well, he's... She interrupts him, looking toward Spicer. TITA Bobby? Do you think Spicer is attractive? He looks over at Spicer, polishing the frame of the wheelchair. BOBBY I think he's got a terrific personality. TITA You know, he was formerly a sailor. Bobby gestures his paddle at Carl, on his way back with the ball. BOBBY Look, can't you see that, what I'm talking about? TITA Sailors are sadistic, I feel. Carl comes up to the table, asserting: CARL See? There's nothing wrong with the way I walk. Now where are we? BOBBY At game, Carl. Carl serves and they volley briefly. Then BobbY angles the ball sharply and puts it away. BOBBY (CONT'D) That's three games to none, Carl. CARL All right, let's have a rematch. BOBBY I thought you had to go to the mainland today. Aren't you going to miss the ferry? Carl takes a quick glance at his watch, then drops his paddle onto the table. CARL Too bad. Just when I was hitting my stride. He starts away, then turns back. CARL (CONT'D) Say goodbye to Catherine for me, will you? As he moves off in the direction of the cars, Tita comes up beside Bobby. TITA Can I play now? Carl calls over to them from his car: CARL Tell her I'll be back sometime tomorrow! Bobby turns to Tita. BOBBY Where is she, anyway? TITA (ignoring the question) My turn. He hands her the paddle... BOBBY Why don't you and Spicer play? ... and moves off toward the house. INT. DUPEA HOME - UPSTAIRS HALL - DAY Bobby knocks on Catherine's door and, hearing no response, opens it and steps inside. INT. CATHERINE'S ROOM - DAY He wanders about, discreetly touching nothing, but taking in some essence of Catherine from her belongings and from the scent of her that lingers in the room. His journey brings him into proximity with the windows and he pauses to look out at: TITA AND SPICER BELOW playing table tennis. He starts to move from the windows, when he sees: CATHERINE'S CAR pulling into view and parking near the garage. She gets out, and, carrying a shopping bag and a wrapped bouquet of flowers, pauses on her way to the house to have some exchange with Tita. INT. DUPEA HOME - STAIRCASE - DAY ON BOBBY quickly descending the staircase, and FOLLOWING with him as he moves to the music room and goes inside, leaving the door open. INT. MUSIC ROOM - DAY He crosses to one of the grands, seats himself and rubs his hands together to warm them. Then, scanning his mental repertoire, he places his hands on the keyboard and begins to play a Chopin etude. Presently, Catherine appears in the doorway. She stands listening for a moment, then places the shopping bag and flowers on a settee near the doorway and crosses to a chair near the pianos and sits down. Bobby glances at her, then returns his eyes to the keyboard. ON CATHERINE her features intensely concentrated, as she listens to his playing. ON BOBBY apparently deep into the music. On the wall behind him are the series of photographs seen in the opening and the present ANGLE FAVORS an 8-year-old Bobby in his dress suit, playing a recital. THE CAMERA MOVES down to his hands... ... then to Catherine, profoundly moved. ANGLE INCLUDING BOTH as Bobby plays the concluding chords of the etude. He lets his hands linger on the keys until the last overtones fade, then he removes them to his lap. After a brief silence: CATHERINE That was beautiful, Robert. I'm surprised... BOBBY Thank you. CATHERINE I was really very moved by the way you... Unable to keep up the "serious" musician pose, a brief, derisive laugh issues from him. CATHERINE (CONT'D) Is that funny? BOBBY It wasn't supposed to be, it just struck me that way. CATHERINE Why? BOBBY Nothing. It's just that... I picked the easiest piece I could remember. I think I first played it when I was 8 years old and I played it better then. CATHERINE It doesn't matter. It was the feeling I was affected by. BOBBY I didn't have any. CATHERINE You had no inner feeling? BOBBY None. CATHERINE Then I must have been supplying it. She gets up and crosses toward the settee. BOBBY Wait... CATHERINE Well, at least you're accomplished at something... BOBBY What? CATHERINE At being a fake. And as she picks up the flowers and the shopping bag: BOBBY Catherine... CATHERINE No, you're very good at it. I'm really impressed. She goes out the door. Bobby looks down at the keyboard. He closes the cover and softly utters: BOBBY Shit. INT. CATHERINE'S BEDROOM - DAY She stands in front of a dresser mirror, pinning up her hair, preparatory to taking a bath. Her attention is drawn to... ... Bobby entering, and as he crosses to her, she quickly turns back to the mirror. BOBBY You think I'm a fake. CATHERINE I think it's what you think. BOBBY No, it isn't what I think. CATHERINE Look... You made a very calculated move, and then made me feel embarrassed for responding to you. That wasn't necessary. She moves away from him and he follows her. BOBBY Yes, it was. You've made it clear that if I can cut a little piano, I might get a little response. CATHERINE (stops and turns to him) I don't think that's accurate... BOBBY Up to now, what I've been getting from you are meaningful looks over the dinner table and a lot of vague suggestions about the day after tomorrow... CATHERINE I'm not conscious of having given you any meaningful looks. And as for the day after tomorrow, this is the day after tomorrow, and I am, unfortunately, seeing you... Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to take a bath. She moves back to the dresser and as she begins searching through an array of bath oils on top of it, Bobby steps in beside her. BOBBY It's convenient to fake looking for something right now, isn't it? CATHERINE I'm not faking anything. I'm looking for some bath oil... BOBBY Some bath oil? He lifts up one of the bottles. BOBBY (CONT'D) What about this one? (picking up another) Or this one? (and another) How about some jasmine? (and another) What about some musk? CATHFRINE What are you doing! BOBBY (knocking the bottles over) What are you doing, screwing around with this crap?! A little intimidated by his aggressivity: CATHERINE I don't find your language that charming. BOBBY It's direct, anyway, which seems to be difficult for you. CATHERINE I'd like you to leave now. Is that direct enough? He makes no move to go. CATHERINE (CONT'D) You're not a serious person, by your own admission. And that may be interesting, but it doesn't interest me... Needing the safety of distance, she moves over to the windows next to the bed. Again, he follows after her. BOBBY Serious, that's what's important to you? CATHERINE Yes, that's what's important to me... He takes her by the shoulders... BOBBY Okay, let's be serious... ... and forces her onto the bed. CATHERINE No, don't do that... BOBBY Shut up... He hesitates for a moment, full of things he wants to say and cannot. Catherine looks up at him, uttering a quiet challenge: CATHERINE No inner feeling. BOBBY That's right. CATHERINE I don't believe vou. He leans down to her, begins kissing her. Her arms encircle him and laying back on the bed, she pulls his body onto hers, fervently returning his kisses. And as he responds with an ardor absent of fakery and full of a lifetime of derelict feelings, a FADE OVER BEGINS, to: INT. CATHERINE'S BEDROOM - DAY Catherine and Bobby lie side by side. He watches her as she addresses the ceiling: CATHERINE I married him when I was 17. He was a cellist, and I thought he was the most brilliant man I'd ever met... And I'm sure he was, because at that age, I hadn't met that many... But he was insidious, you know. He had me convinced that I was a mediocrity, musically, as a woman, as an intellect. But in this completely imperceptible, pleasant way, so that you weren't even sure he was doing it. Anyway, I just woke up one morning and I said, you know something Joseph, you're full of beans, and I left him... BOBBY That's what you said? CATHERINE Something witty and devastating like that. She moves onto her side, looking over at him. CATHERINE (CONT'D) As a matter of fact, he's the one who introduced me to Carl... (a pause, then:) How are you? BOBBY I'm fine. CATHERINE Carl restored my confidence. He really did. He's much more substantial than you give him credit for. BOBBY Is he? CATHERINE Yes. She reaches over, tentatively caressing his face, then: CATHERINE (CONT'D) Do you think you could discreetly move across the hall now? BOBBY Yeah, I think I could. He kisses her, gets up and crosses to the door, and as he opens it: CATHERINE Robert? BOBBY What? CATHERINE I could spend some time with you tomorrow morning, before Carl comes back, I mean, if you'd like to. BOBBY Of course I'd like to. EXT. LA ROCHE WOODS - DAY (CHOPIN OVER:) Bobby and Catherine walk over a path through a thickly wooded area that presently brings them in sight of the Dupea house. He stops and, taking hold of her, leans back against a tree, kissing her. When they break off and resume walking, she takes one of his hands in both of hers and, after looking at the scars and callouses accumulated by his years of manual labor, she lays the hand against her cheek. The ANGLE ALTERS from them, to: EXT. DUPEA HOUSE - DAY A taxicab pulls up in front of the house. Rayette gets out with her suitcase and, after paying the driver, moves up the steps to the front door and reaches out to ring the bell. INT. DUPEA DINING ROOM TABLE - NIGHT ON RAYETTE looking down the table to Nicholas. RAYETTE You certainly do have a beautiful piece a real estate out here, Mr. Dupea. ON NICHOLAS AND SPICER the former with his chin resting on his chest. RAYETTE (turning to Bobby) Can he hear me? Bobby doesn't respond. TITA (politely) He's not hard of hearing. RAYETTE Well, that's a blessing, at least. She takes a bite of food, and as she chews: RAYETTE (CONT'D) This certainly is an improvement on the motel an' the coffee shop. (to Bobby) How could you have left such a beautiful place, Bobby? BOBBY I don't know. ON CARL fascinated with Rayette, while beside him, Catherine keeps her eyes on her plate as she eats. CARL You've been staying in a motel all this time? RAYETTE For two whole weeks, an' there wasn't hardly nobody there to talk to but me. The manager of the place told me it was the off season, an' it must a ben, because other'n me, there was just this 25-year-old kid, DeLyon, that didn't appear to be all there, an' this old married pair next to me that was always hollerin' for quiet. Can you imagine? All you could a heard there was a pin, an' them, hollerin' away... CARL I don't understand why you had to stay in a motel. There's more than enough room here. RAYETTE Well, I was goin' to, but Bobby said he hadda kind of feel things up here first, which I can understand, but then it went an' took so long, I ran flat outa money... (to Bobby) I didn't have no number to call, you know. (to Carl) So I hadda clear outa there an' come on up here, in the hopes that I wouldn't be intrudin' myself... CARL Oh, no. You're more than welcome. RAYETTE Well, thank you, that's a very nice thing for you to say. CARL Not at all. She goes on eating and there is a brief silence before she resumes, looking over at Catherine: RAYETTE That certainly is a beautiful head a hair you have. CATHERINE Thank you. RAYETTE Is it natural? BOBBY Rayette. RAYETTE What? BOBBY Just finish eating. RAYETTE Oh, am I holdin' up dessert? Carl laughs. CARL No, you're not. Go ahead and take your time. RAYETTE I do eat slow as a bird, whereas Bobby can put it away like a speed swing... (to Tita) Is there any ketchup around? BOBBY Oh, for chrissakes... CARL Robert, let's not be rude, okay? RAYETTE It's all right. He don't mean anything by that. BOBBY I don't, huh? He throws his napkin on the table, gets up and leaves the room. There is an awkward silence, followed by Rayette valiantly covering her own feelings: RAYETTE I guess Bobby's just about the moodiest man I ever ben with... INT. FISHERMAN'S BAR - MAINLAND - NIGHT (TAMMY WYNETTE'S "DON'T TOUCH ME" OVER:) Bobby finishes the last of several drinks. He ships a half pint into his jacket pocket, lays some bills on the bar and moves toward the door. EXT. FISHERMAN'S BAR - MAINLAND - NIGHT (WYNETTE OVER:) Thoroughly anesthetized, he wanders aimlessly through the harbor-front streets. As he disappears into the dark, the MUSIC FADES. EXT. WHARF - MAINLAND - DAWN ON BOBBY lying huddled on the boardwalk next to the boat slips. The crying of the gulls and the sound of outgoing fishing launches awaken him. Disoriented, he gets to his feet and, hugging himself against the cold, moves unsteadily down the dock. EXT. FERRY - MORNING Bobby's car pulls off the ferry and approaches a line of cars waiting to board. He sees Catherine at the wheel of the first car, and pulling abreast of her, stops and rolls down his window. BOBBY Where are you going? CATHERINE I'm going to pick up some friends of Carl's. Are you all right? BOBBY I have to talk to you. CATHERINE I'll be back later... The blocked cars behind each of them begin HONKING impatiently and CONTINUE TO under the following: BOBBY No, I want to talk to you now. I have to explain something about... CATHERINE No, you don't have to, it isn't necessary... BOBBY (overlapping her) Yes, it is! A DRIVER behind Bobby sticks his bead out the window, yelling furiously at him: DRIVER Come on, get moving, dammit!! BOBBY (turning around to him) Will you shut up for a minute!! (to Catherine) Pull your car out of line. CATHERINE No, I can't... BOBBY Will you let me talk to you, please? CATHERINE I can't do that. I haven't been being fair to Carl. I have to tell you that. BOBBY (barely audible) Oh. You have to tell me that. CATHERINE What?! I can't hear you! He looks back at her not responding. CATHERINE (CONT'D) I'm sorry everything's been so confusing, but I have to go, Robert... BOBBY Catherine... CATHERINE Please, I'll see you later this evening. She pulls ahead and moves onto the ferry. INT. DUPEA LIVING ROOM - NIGHT FAVORING SAMIA GLAVIA a friend of Carl's. (Somewhere under the following, the ANGLE ALTERS to include TWO OTHER FRIENDS, as well as Carl, Catherine, Bobby and Rayette, seated around the living room, variously captive to her monologue.) SAMIA But the point is, man is born into the world with a pre-existent adversary, both real and imaginary, so you'd have to say that aggression was one of his primary, psychic inheritances, which... JOHN FINCHER, a professorial type, attempts to interject: FINCHER If I may beg to differ... SAMIA Beg all you like, John, but the fact remains that man takes enormous delight in aggressive acts, as well as the portrayal of aggressive acts, and to be triumphant over another no matter how, seems fundamental to his having a sense of well being, as well as... FINCHER No, I don't quarrel with your inference, but you draw too long a bow in your conclusions, which seem unnecessarily harsh and... SAMIA Well, I don't make poetry. As an analyst, I... Rayette interrupts, calling across the room to Carl: RAYETTE Is there a TV in the house? Carl starts to answer and is pre-empted by Samia: SAMIA John believes in the basic goodness of man, and that's fine, but gaze into the pit like I have and that view seems a little soporific. And not unlike television, it hardly represents the real world... RAYETTE There's some good things on it, though. SAMIA Pardon me? RAYETTE The TV. There's some good things on it, sometimes. SAMIA I strongly doubt it, but I wasn't really discussing media... FINCHER If you really hold such bleak views, how can you, in good conscience, carry on a practice? SAMIA Oh, there's always hope, I think, for a few individuals, if they're courageous enough to shed their illusions and their... CATHERINE (cutting her off) And what about love? SAMIA What about it? Wouldn't you agree that a great deal of mischief has been done in the name of love? CATHERINE No, I wouldn't. SAMIA Well, you're a romantic, Catherine, as are most musicians, and what's more, about to be married... ON BOBBY and his reaction as Samia goes on: SAMIA ... which should exclude you from any objective discussion. But keep in mind, even the arts aren't free of aggressive content, nor the institution of marriage. CATHERINE I think these cold, "objective" discussions are aggressive, Samia... She gets up and starts to move away. SAMIA But I'd like to say, so that I don't dampen the spirit of your adventure... CATHERINE (cutting her off) You haven't dampened my spirit, Samia... Excuse me. SAMIA Well, I should hope not... She leaves the room, with Bobby's eyes following her, and as Carl moves over to sit beside Rayette, Samia resumes to Fincher while the other friend moves in beside Bobby and tries to engage him in conversation. SAMIA (CONT'D) Because obviously there are loftier classes of people that do establish a kind of relating, that's relatively free of... (Etc.) ON CARL AND RAYETTE as she indicates Tita's dog, lying near the fireplace. RAYETTE What kind of doggy is that? CARL It's a Borzoi. RAYETTE Oh, uh huh. I had a little kittycat once, that Bobby give me... She calls across to Bobby, interrupting Samia. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Remember, Bobby?! The little pussycat you gave me?! Bobby, now feeling trapped by the other friend, looks across to her ass she returns her attention to Carl. RAYETTE (CONT'D) She had four little white paws, an' oh, was I crazy over her. We hadda go an' leave her one time at some friends, an' she went out an' got smashed flatter'n a tortilla right outside their mobile home. Samia gestures toward Rayette as if she were an example to prove her point. SAMIA There. You see what I mean? Bobby looks over at Samia. SAMIA (CONT'D) The choice of words, "squashed flat," juxtaposed against the image of a fluffy kitten... RAYETTE Well, she was. SAMIA Perhaps... She addresses Fincher gesturing toward Rayette again. SAMIA (CONT'D) But you see how close that is to what I'm trying to... Bobby stands up, cutting her off: BOBBY Don't sit there pointing at her. SAMIA I beg your pardon. BOBBY (advancing on her) I said, don't point at her like that! What gives you the right to sit there and tell anybody about class and who the hell's got it, and what she typifies! You shouldn't even be in the same room with her, you creep! SAMIA Carl, this is really too much... BOBBY (to Samia) You're totally full of shit! CARL Robert, I think you better just... BOBBY (cutting him off) You're all full of shit! He turns away and exits the room. INT. DUPEA HOME - NIGHT FOLLOWING WITH BOBBY running up the stairs and down the hall to Catherine's room. He goes inside and, not finding her, comes quickly back into the hall. As he moves down it, opening other doors, he begins calling her name. He comes back down the stairs and runs into Rayette at the bottom landing. RAYETTE Bobby... BOBBY (moving past her) I can't talk to you right now, leave me alone... He moves to the music room, to the den, then down the main hall to the kitchen, which gives off to two other doors. He opens one of them, to see: INT. SPICER'S ROOM - NIGHT Tita and Spicer. Though both are clothed, they are caught in some stage of intimacy on top of Spicer's bed. Tita sits up immediately, mortally embarrassed, as Bobby steps into the room. BOBBY Tita, what the hell are you doing?! Spicer stands up. SPICER Hey, this is my room. BOBBY (moving over to the bed) What's going on here!? TITA It's none of your business! BOBBY Where's Catherine?! TITA I don't know where she is! Spicer moves to Bobby, taking hold of his arm. SPICER Don't you believe in knocking, pal? Bobby roughly pushes him away and advances on Tita. BOBBY I'm talking to you, Tita! TITA (close to tears) Can't I have anything to myself, dammit?! SPICER (grabbing hold of him again) Come on now, out! BOBBY (struggling with him) Keep your fucking hands off my sister, nurse! Spicer goes into sudden rage, pushing Bobby violently toward the door and yelling: SPICER Did you hear me! Move out!! Bobby leaps at him and as their struggle carries them into the kitchen, Tita begins yelling: TITA Stop it! Bobby, will just you stop! I mean it! Spicer gets Bobby into a painful headlock and is being bulled around the kitchen by him. SPICER Hold it, just hold it!! They crash into the kitchen table, knocking chairs over. TITA Carl! Somebody get Carl! Bobby rams Spicer into the refrigerator. SPICER Take it easy, dammit! He hurls him against the kitchen wall, still holding him in a headlock as Tita enters the kitchen. TITA Stop it! Right now! Just stop it!! Carl!! And as she runs from the room, Spicer begins violently jerking his forearm up against Bobby's trachea, punctuating each jerk with the repeated command: SPICER Give up! Give up! Give up! Give up! Give up! Give up! He feels Bobby's body slacken. He releases him and Bobby drops to the floor as... ... Carl, Catherine and Tita run into the kitchen, looking to: Bobby, gasping for air, tries to get up from the floor, and unable to, slumps back against the kitchen wall. TITA Oh God, Bobby, look what you've done... He looks past her, to Catherine. BOBBY I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. EXT. BAYFRONT - DAY Catherine and Bobby sit on a low stone wall bordering the Dupea property. Each is staring out at the ocean, and after a moment: CATHERINE No. It's useless, Robert. It wouldn't work, not ever... BOBBY Just give me a chance, will you? CATHERINE I'm trying to be delicate with you, but you're not understanding me. It's not just because of Carl, or my music, but because of you... (she looks at him) I mean, what would it come to? If a person has no love for himself, no respect, no love for his work, his family, his friends, something... How can he ask for love in return? I mean, why should he ask for it? Profoundly wounded, he looks away from her. BOBBY And living out here, in this rest home asylum, that's what you want? CATHERINE Yes. BOBBY (looking back to her) That'll make you happy. CATHERINE I hope it will, yes. (she pauses, then:) I'm sorry. Needing to distance herself from witnessing his pain, she gets up and moves OUT OF FRAME. His eyes move from her to look out over the bay and, after a brief silence, he softly utters: BOBBY Okay. EXT. COUNTRY - DAY Bobby pushes Nicholas's wheelchair along a path between fields of tall grasses and wildflowers. He stops and moves around to the front of the chair. BOBBY Are you cold? He leans over to adjust the blanket covering Nicholas's legs and, hunkering down in front of him, glances around at the fields, searching for articulation: BOBBY (CONT'D) I don't know if you'd be particularly interested in hearing anything about me. My life, I mean... Most of it doesn't add up to much... that I could relate as a way of life that you'd approve of... He pauses briefly, then: BOBBY (CONT'D) I'd like to be able to tell you why, but I don't really... I mean, I move around a lot because things tend to get bad when I stay. And I'm looking... for auspicious beginnings, I guess... He breaks off again, resuming with evident difficulty. BOBBY (CONT'D) I'm trying to, you know, imagine your half of this conversation... My feeling is, that if you could talk, we probably wouldn't be talking. That's pretty much how it got to be before. I left... (another pause) Are you all right? He searches his father's face, entreating him for some kind of answer, some sign of response, and seeing none... BOBBY (CONT'D) I don't know what to say... ... he breaks down, barely able to utter the following: BOBBY (CONT'D) Tita suggested that we try to... I don't know. I think that she... seems to feel we've got... some understanding to reach... She totally denies the fact that we were never that comfortable with each other to begin with... (pauses, trying to gain control) The best I can do, is apologize. He looks silently at his father for a moment... BOBBY (CONT'D) We both know I was never really that good at it, anyway... ... then, bowing bis head: BOBBY (CONT'D) I'm sorry it didn't work out. EXT. DUPEA HOUSE - DAY Bobby comes out the front door. He carries his suitcase and, as he descends the steps and moves across the drive... ... Tita, wearing gloves and holding a pair of gardening clippers, comes around the side of the house and calls out to him: TITA Bobby! He sets the suitcase down as she comes toward him. TITA (CONT'D) You're leaving? BOBBY Yeah. I said a week, and I've overstayed myself... TITA You were going without saying goodbye? BOBBY I didn't want to say goodbye to anyone. TITA But what about me? BOBBY (smiling at her) I'll say goodbye to you, Tita. She puts her arms around him and as she embraces him: TITA Just once in a while, call and tell me where you are, please... RAYETTE'S VOICE Watch the birdie! They turn to see: Rayette, standing near the open trunk of Bobby's car, taking a Polaroid shot of them. Bobby returns his attention to Tita, kissing her. BOBBY Bye, now. TITA (tearing up) Bye, Robert. He picks up his suitcase and moves to the trunk, where Rayette is fussing with her camera. He puts the suitcase inside, closes the trunk and takes hold of her arm. BOBBY Come on. RAYETTE (resisting him) Wait a sec. I want Tita to take a picture of you an' me in front of the place... BOBBY No, let's go... She pulls free of him and, as she moves back toward Tita, Bobby can be seen getting into the driver's seat. RAYETTE I never got the chance to thank you all for your hospitality. You tell Carl for me, if any of you folks wanta come on down to our place anytime, you'd be more'n welcome... TITA Thank you, that's very nice. RAYETTE Bye bye, now. She moves back to the car and gets in. ON TITA watching as Bobby's car pulls out of the drive and disappears onto the private road. EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY As Bobby's car moves over a highway through the northern forests, RAYETTE'S VOICE is heard SINGING: RAYETTE "Your kiss is like a drink when I'm thirsty/An' I'm thirsty for you with all my heart..." INT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY Rayette is seated close to Bobby, looking at him as she sings. RAYETTE "But don't love me/Then act as though we've never kissed/Oh, don't touch me..." She leans closer and kisses him, then bringing her lips close to his ear: RAYETTE (CONT'D) "Don't touch me..." She kisses him again. RAYETTE (CONT'D) "Don't touch me..." And again. RAYETTE (CONT'D) "Don't touch me..." Her kisses become more fervent and insistent. RAYETTE (CONT'D) "Oh, don't touch..." He suddenly pushes her away. BOBBY Cut it out! Grievously hurt by his gesture and expressive of an anger she's heretofore been afraid to reveal: RAYETTE Son of a bitch, Bobby! You quit pushin' me away like that! I've had enough a that to last me a lifetime! She makes a fist of her hand as though she were about to hit him, then changes her mind. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Whyn't you just try an' be good to me for a change!? There is no response. She turns away from him, looking out through the windshield for a moment, then: RAYETTE (CONT'D) There id'n anyone gonna look after you an' love you better'n I do, you know that. She looks over at him. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Baby? Did you hear me? There is no response. EXT. GAS STATION - DAY ON BOBBY'S CAR as it turns off the highway and pulls up into a gas station next to roadside cafe. INT. BOBBY'S CAR - DAY ON RAYETTE searching through her purse. RAYETTE I'm gonna go in that cafe an' get some coffee. You want anything? BOBBY No. RAYETTE You got any change? He searches into his jacket, takes out his wallet and hands it to her. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Don't you just have 50 cents or somethin'? He shakes his head. RAYETTE (CONT'D) Okay, be right back... She reaches to the door and opens it. EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - DAY Bobby gets out of the car as the station attendant approaches. Rayette turns back to him as she nears the front of the cafe. RAYETTE Sure you don't want anything? BOBBY (to attendant) Fill it up. The attendant moves to the pumps, and as Bobby crosses toward the men's room and disappears inside, a Peterbilt semi can be seen pulling into the station. INT. GAS STATION - MEN'S ROOM - DAY Bobby removes his jacket and lays it on top of the waste container. He moves to the wash basin and stands a moment, gazing absently down at it, his mind searching for that inward oblivion in which nothing much is demanded, nothing much felt. Then, leaning over and placing his hands on the rim of the basin... ... he lifts his gaze to the mirror and, after minutely perusing the features of his face, looks into his own eyes as he had into his fathers, silently beseeching them for guidance. EXT. MEN'S ROOM - GAS STATION - DAY (SOUND OF SEMI'S MOTOR OVER:) REMOTE ANGLE as Bobby comes out of the men's room. He has left his jacket inside and stands for a moment, looking at the... ... DRIVER, bending down to check the undercarriage of the semi. As he stands up and circuits the front of the truck, heading for the cab: BOBBY (faintly audible) Hey, wait a minute. He moves over to him and after a brief exchange, the driver nods his bead and continues on to the cab, Bobby moves to the passenger door and climbs up into the pass seat. INT. SEMI CAB - GAS STATION - DAY The driver glances over at Bobby: DRIVER Haven't you got a jacket or anything with you? BOBBY No, I don't, I uh... it got burned up. Everything in the car got the shit burned out of it. All I got left is what I have on... DRIVER I've got an extra jacket behind the seat, if you want to put it on. BOBBY No, it's okay. DRIVER Suit yourself. But I'll tell you, where we're headed is gonna get colder'n hell. BOBBY It's all right. I'm fine. The driver puts the truck into gear and releases the brake. BOBBY (CONT'D) I'm all right. And as the truck begins to move forward: BOBBY (CONT'D) I'm fine. EXT. SEMI - GAS STATION - DAY REMOTE ANGLE: The semi pulls out of the station onto the highway, giving view to Bobby's car. The attendant is cleaning the windshield and Rayette can be seen opening the passenger door. As she gets out and surveys the area for some sign of Bobby, the semi MOVES INTO VIEW, going north on the highway. Rayette looks over the hood of the car, addressing the attendant. He gestures toward the men's room and as she moves across the station and disappears OFF THE SCREEN... ... the semi recedes in the distance, leaving a black trail of smoke from its exhaust stack, dissipating in the air. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Flash Gordon.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flash Gordon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..76b4357fbad158693ea1cd2bdc401321634702eb --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flash Gordon.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FLASH GORDON Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. FADE IN: EXT. WIDE AFRICAN LANDSCAPE - MORNING At first only darkness, then the rising sun paints in an endless savanna from horizon to horizon. We hear savage drums beating in the distance coming from some unknown place. The sun clears the horizon. Suddenly it changes amazingly: the white disc goes through a rapid series of color transitions, from yellow to green to purple to an incredible BLOOD RED. From it shoots a RED LIGHTNING BOLT. The sky echoes with THUNDER. We hear a HOWLING ethereal wind, but not a twig of the brush stirs as bolt after bolt of RED LIGHTNING rips the sky, with each one a TITLE or CREDIT appearing. Under FINAL CREDIT snow is beginning to fall on the burning blood-red savanna. EXT. PLANE IN FLIGHT - DAY I's a Twin Otter with the logo of some commuter airline. It buzzes along over pleasant countryside, through a sky that's almost unnaturally serene and filled with fleecy white clouds. INT. PLANE IN FLIGHT - DAY There are just two passengers in the cabin. One is DALE ARDEN, a great looking dark-haired girl sitting by herself and reading a book entitled "KARATE FOR THE SINGLE GIRL.... A Guide to Survival In The City." A few rows forward, near the open door into the pilots' compartment, is FLASH GORDON. He's studying a football play-sheet, one of those diagrammed things with X's and 0's for the players and dotted-line arrows indicating the directions of movement. Suddenly the plane makes a violent bump. It almost knocks the book from DALE'S hand. She looks out the window with sudden fright, tossing hair out of her eyes, in a gesture that's habitual to her in moments of stress. There's nothing to see outside but the pretty clouds. She looks forward again and watches FLASH standing up easily, leaning in t..e cockpit doorway to speak to the PILOTS. INT. PLANE/ COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS (CO-P:ILOT, DALE, FLASH, PILOT) FLASH What was that, fellas? 2. PILOT Clear-air turbulence, is all. Nothing SERIOUS CO-PILOT But nothing you'd want to toss a third-down pass through either -- (Grinning back at FLASH) Can I have an autograph for my kid, Mr. Gordon? FLASH Sure -- my pleasure. As FLASH takes a bit of paper from the CO-PILOT, the plane takes another jolt, even more violent than the first. PILOT Wow. Call Westchester Approach, see what they've got. FLASH I sure hope we don't have to turn back. I mean this is first day of training camp, I wouldn't want to be LATE -- PILOT Seat-belt time. FLASH starts back to his seat. The plane jumps again, shudders violently. He holds on, calls up front: FLASH Maybe it'd be smoother if you went HIGHER -- DALE Will you SHUT UP? (as FLASH's head SWIVELS) Look, Mister Flash Gordon, they have their hands full -- just let 'em drive. INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS (DALE, FLASH) The plane buffets. FLASH is sent reeling, catches hold of the rack above DALE, lowers himself into the seat next to her. He buckles fast, takes out a candy bar and offers it to her. 3. FLASH When you're nervous, it can help to chew on something DALE Thanks a lot -- I look dumb enough to take candy from a stranger? FLASH I'm not a stranger exactly -- You know my name. DALE Who doesn't. Number one draft pick, cover of PEOPLE mag -- what'd the GIANTS sign you for, eighty-nine million? Big deal! FLASH Of course. DALE God, I hate flying -- I'm Dale Arden it's crazy of me to hate flying -- I'm a travel agent, you see? -- I've just been checking out a little hotel in Vermont -- can I still have that candy bar? (and in the same breath) Are we going backward? FLASH Backwards? DALE (GASP) Holy cow! Look at the clouds! EXT. SKY - POV FROM PLANE WINDOW - DAY The pretty white clouds are changing above and beginning to surround the airplane. Over the engines we HEAR that same ethereal wind rising which we heard in the opening. Slowly and terrifyingly, the sun starts turning BLOOD RED. The clouds race faster, faster, until they are actually streaming past the plane from behind. INT. PLANE - DAY FLASH and DALE -- faces bathed in the eerie light. Speechless- DALE grasps the football player's hand with all her strength. EXT. A FANTASTIC GREENHOUSE - DAY It is a huge and rambling, antique, standing in semiruinous isolation in a pretty country landscape. The sun has turned 4. the SAME BLOOD RED we saw from the airplane, and clouds race across it with unnatural velocity. In the center of the greenhouse rises a glass-paned tower through which we glimpse something MIRROR BRIGHT. Floating high in the air above the structure are several silvery helium- filled balloons, secured by wires. As we move closer, we discern a MAN moving about actively on a platform inside the central tower, about half-way up: INT. GREENHOUSE TOWER - DAY (MUNSON, TV NEWSMAN, ZARKOV) The man is DR. HANS ZARKOV: big, bearded, feverish looking and seemingly half mad with exhaustion. In striking contrast to the antique greenhouse exterior, here there are all kinds of computers and displays connected together in a slapdash fashion. Quantities of neglected plants, most brown and dead or dying, hide the works in here from outside view. As Zarkov runs around throwing switches and eyeing displays, a grim-voiced TV. NEWSMAN is appearing and speaking from a good-sized television screen above the main control console: TV NEWSMAN The extraordinary weather disturbances reported from Africa this morning are now crossing the Atlantic, and are expected to reach the East Coast of the United States by noon. According to scientists at NASA, the Earth is being struck by an immense stream of cosmic energy, apparently the result of some catastrophic stellar accident beyond the reaches OF -- ZARKOV whirls, slams the TV SOUND OFF and yells at the silently mouthing NEWSMAN on the screen. ZARKOV Fools! Can't you understand? This is no accident-- it's an ATTACK! An attack planned by a MIND! This is ATTACK! MUNSON, a scared looking assistant, comes running up the stairs with a computer print-out sheet. MUNSON Dr. Zarkov! Look at the report from the last balloon! ZARKOV grabs it, eyes it. 5. ZARKOV I predicted it, didn't I? MUNSON Yes, sir -- you sure did. And this funny sun too --- ZARKOV Ozone layer starting to crack up. By tonight Carbon dioxide will be combining with free nitrogen to form -- (breaks off, crumpling THE SHEET) Well, this is it. MUNSON Sir, the President is on the TV behind YOU -- ZARKOV What the hell do I care? I tried to warn him -- he called me mad, like all the others. BOOM! The TV screen EXPLODES in a fine shower of glass. ZARKOV (CONT'D) Time for us to go, Munson. Get your toothbrush and whatever. MUNSON Go where? ZARKOV Up. Up and at him. Stunned, MUNSON turns his head and glances at something big and MIRROR BRIGHT gleaming behind foliage in center of tower. MUNSON You're crazy! Perfectly calm except for the maniacal glint in his eyes, ZARKOV pulls out a revolver and points it at MUNSON. ZARKOV I can't handle the capsule alone get your toothbrush. INT. COCKPIT TO SKY - POV (CO-PILOT, PILOT) The PILOTS watch these clouds also, transfixed with disbelief. They speak with that incredible calmness characteristic of professional airmen in a moment of impending catastrophe. 6. PILOT What's ,e word from Westchester Approach, Bill? CO-PILOT Zip. All chanels dead. (Reacting to the panel) Say, get a load of the VOR's.... The directional needles are going crazy. All the instruments are going crazy. Displays flash impossible symbols. The PILOT gapes at them a moment, then returns his gaze to the sky and swallows. PILOT On the left, about six o'clock high...... The racing stream of clouds is parting open like in some surreal painting. From the cortex LASER-like bolts of RED LIGHTNING shoot out. Like a missile, one zaps right over the plane's nose with a horrible crackling NOISE. PILOT (CONT'D) Hold on tight, let's put baby down right here...... The CO-PILOT reaches up and hits the flap control. There is a whooshing crackling ZAP! The whole cockpit FLARES OUT with an intolerable blinding flash of RED LIGHT. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - CONTINUOUS The cockpit door flys off its hinges, admitting a gale of wind that scatters FLASH'S play sheets like autumn leaves. FLASH unsnaps his belt, leaps up and races forward. INT. COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS (DALE, FLASH) The TWO PILOTS are gone, vanished without trace. Wind from the shattered windows assaults FLASH as he charges in. He stumbles forward as the plane noses into a dive. Recovering he scrambles into the left-hand seat, grabs hold of the bucking wheel yoke, pulls back and kicks at the rudder pedals. DALE lurches in against the tornado. DALE Can you fly it? FLASH I can fly all right -- I've had a couple of lessons! -- just don't if I can land! (MORE) 7. FLASH (CONT'D) (FIGHTING CONTROLS) Grab that other wheel! Help me pull her up! DALE staggers into the co-pilot's seat, pulls back on the wheel in front of her. DALE Oh boy! Ever hear about the man who fell ninety stories from a window and didn't break a bone? FLASH No but I'd sure like to! How'd The man fall ninety stories didn't break a bone? DALE The window was ninety-one stories up! SHOOTING FORWARD - THROUGH THE BROKEN WINDSHIELD The Earth is approaching fast, wheeling and tilting. We get a glimpse of a strange greenhouse structure at the end of a flat area. Another barrage of crackling RED LIGHTNING BOLTS shoot all around the plane but just miss it. INT. COCKPIT (FLASH) FLASH Brace yourself I'm aiming at that field up ahead! EXT. ZARKOV'S GREENHOUSE - DAY (ZARKOV'S VOICE) Its thousands of panes reflect the RED SUN and the RED BOLTS which rain down in intermittent bursts. One strikes an end of a gallery, exploding glass and foliage. From inside, we HEAR a furious echoing VOICE: ZARKOV'S VOICE I see you, Munson! Come out or I shoot! 8. INT. GREENHOUSE - DAY (MUNSON, ZARKOV) ZARKOV is on the lower stairs of the tower, aiming his revolver. MUNSON emerges from some dry brown bush where he was hiding. MUNSON So what's it matter if I'm shot or go up in that thing? I'm a goner either way, right? ZARKOV Of course -- I admit that! But this way you'll be giving your life for a chance of saving Earth! Haven't you any spirit at all?? MUNSON Goodbye, Doctor -- they were all right about you. Have a nice trip. MUNSON starts walking away, toward the door at the end of the long side wing. ZARKOV I tell you I can't take it off alone! If you won't come, who will I find? If you woo't come, who will I find: MUNSON ignores him totally, keeps walking away. ZARKOV lifts his revolver and draws a bead on the man's back. Just as he is about to shoot, he reacts to something outside. EXT. GREENHOUSE Amazingly, a Twin Otter is gliding in to a horribly rough landing in the field outside. The plane hits on one wheel, bounces into the air, comes down again and keeps right on rolling toward the greenhouse. AS ABOVE - FEATURE MUNSON SEEING the onrushing plane, freezing an instant then starting to run. He hardly gets five yards before the Twin Otter comes SLAMMING IN through the greenhouse wall, burying MUNSON totally under the wreckage. INT. COCKPIT - DAY (DALE, FLASH) Crazily angled, filled with dust and smoke. Dazed, blood on his forehead, FLASH struggles from his seat. 9. FLASH Dale! Are you all right? DALE I'm terrific. (WEAK SMILE) Flash Gordon, you have just made me a Giant fan for life. FLASH Come on -- let's get out before she blows! FLASH helps her from the wrecked seat, wheels and kicks out the emergency exit in the cockpit area. INT. GREENHOUSE - DAY (DALE, FLASH, ZARKOV) FLASH lowers DALE to the ground, jumps down after her. ZARKOV is there, smiling at them in a strange way. FLASH Hello. i'm Flash Gordon, this is Miss Dale Arden -- ZARKOV (MEANS IT) Delighted to see you. FLASH This crazy storm knocked us down could we use a phone? ZARKOV Certainly. Just follow me -- up those stairs. FLASH Some weather huh? ZARKOV It will get worse. ZARKOV turns and smiles at them again as they start up the tower stairs. SUddenly DALE stops short, staring at ZARKOV with a funny expression. DALE You're Dr. Hans Zarkov! ZARKOV hesitates just an instant, the nods. ZARKOV How did you know? 10. DALE I saw you in PEOPLE mag. After you left NASA, remember? It said you were utterly --- DALE breaks off, almost biting her tongue. ZARKOV Insane? Off my rocker? DALE I forget what it said: (TURNING HASTILY) Flash, let's find some other phone, okay? I'm sure Dr. Zarkov is very busy....... FLASH is baffled, but he gets her urgent look. FLASH Well, all right -- but it seems to me we ought to -- Now it's FLASH'S turn to break off. ZARKOV is pointing a gun at him. ZARKOV Up the stairs to the tower! Ahead of me -- quick! -- (as they gape at him, FROZEN) Quick I said: We haven't much time -- Earth is being attacked! -- there's only one slim chance of saving it! FLASH Mister, you are insane! HOWL of ether-wind increases. Storm of RED LASER BOLTS. Glass showers them as parts of the green house EXPLODE and dry foliage bursts into FLAME. ZARKOV Up the stairs -- RUN! ZARKOV jabs the revolver into DALE'S back. RED BOLTS zap around. FLASH whispers to her as they start running up ahead of ZARKOV. FLASH Go with the flow -- wait for a chance! Below them, bottom of staircase disintergrates in a RED FLASH. 11. INT. TOP LEVEL OF GREENHOUSE TOWER (DALE, FLASH, ZARKOV) ZARKOV rips away a screen of foliage, revealing a MIRROR BRIGHT capsule, seamless but for one door. He yanks that open. On every side things are blowing up and burning under the merciless rain of bolts. One strikes the capsule head on, but does not even leave a mark. ZARKOV I need your help to take off! Get in or I shot you dead! DALE gasps and shrinks back. FLASH Take off for where? ZARKOV God only knows -- whatever black corner of space this is coming from -- wherever HE is!. -- we'll plunge into the devil's heart and destroy him! We'll die ourselves, of course, but our names will be honored till the end of time! DALE Look, Doc -- I don't book kamikaze tours -- never. FLASH is poised to jump, but ZARKOV suddenly pushes DALE off- balance, INTO the capsule. FLASH leaps after her. INT. CAPSULE (DALE, ZARKOV) It is curiously transparent from the inside, mirrored only on the exterior. There are some controls and displays, but in general the interior is severely ascetic: as far removed from conventional spacecraft as ZARKOV's solitary genius is from everyday science. Immediately starting to set switches in a frenzy of activity, ZARKOV waves the gun at FLASH. ZARKOV Sit down there! Foot on the red pedal! DALE Flash! Sack him! 12. ZARKOV wheels and pulls the door shut. FLASH jumps him. He punches ZARKOV in the gut. ZARKOV slams him back with the well-known strength of a madman. FLASH clobbers him again. Falling, ZARKOV dives sidewards and hits a switch. The capsule WHINES SOFTLY and begins to WHIRL. Looking out through the transparent wall, it is as if the capsule itself was motionless and the scene outside is whirling. What's left of the greenhouse is under a constant rain of those LASER BOLTS, flashing fire that makes us dizzy. FLASH staggers to his feet and finds DALE, folds his arms around her protectively. The centrifugal force is rapidly increasing now, throws them both against the wall. Faster and faster, whirling, the force presses DALE'S body back against FLASH'S until they are almost one flesh. We move over and find ZARKOV plastered against another part of the whirling capsule, his face drained white and distorted by the terrific G-Force operating here now, his lips moving as he speaks with enormous effort: ZARKOV, Friendship...Built this to send to them in...Friendship...The end now...End of the world....Unless we ∑∑∑∑ (every sound an effort NOW) Unless...We...Three...Can... ZARKOV'S eyes close. He loses consciousness. EXT. GREENHOUSE - LONG SHOT (MINIATURE) Totally ablaze within now, one huge fantastic jewel of fire. The whole central tower explodes outward. From the inferno a MIRROR-BRIGhT capsule slowly rises, hovers, begins picking up speed again as it ascends. EXT. CAPSULE IN FLIGHT Whirling, whirling, invincibly unharmed by the LASER BOLTS which glance off it again and again, accelerating up into space. EXT. CAPSULE IN FLIGHT - POV The EARTH recedes below into a ball, RED-HUED' under the fantastic sun. A fast approaching light FLARES up against the mirrored surface and is recognised as our MOON. It flashes past, follows EARTH into e distance. All around, the sky darkens into the void of space. FANTASTIC MONTAGE - OUTER PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 13. They hurtle past the capsule in rapid sequences: RED MARS A sudden gauntlet of careening ASTEROIDS, all sizes, from tiny zingers to one almighty tumbler big as AFRICA. Mammoth JUPITER with thirteen moons and its atmosphere of deadly methane clouds more than 1000 miles deep. The RED PATCH on its surface is a storm 20,000 miles across which has raged without intermission for 200 EARTH centuries. Through the RINGS OF SATURN in a dazzling LIGHTSTORM of blazing ice crystals. NEPTUNE, PLUTO, outermost URANUS. One after another the planets are left hurtling behind, wheeling in their concentric orbits, the entire SOLAR SYSTEM dwindling into nothing. EXT. A SPIRAL NEBULA It tilts and wheels wondrously as the Capsule passes through the middle of it. Considering that this Nebula is probably a million light-years from edge to edge, we get some notion of the Capsule's speed. EXT. A BLACK HOLE IN SPACE Curving light-rays from another galaxy are drawn fantastically together and then simply DISAPPEAR as they are pulled in by the unimaginable gravitation force of is THING. we SEE the CAPSULE, tiny, curving, and spinning along amidst the mind- blowing display of light rays, sucked along with them ∑∑∑∑ then simply DISAPPEARING as it too enters the void. EXT. CAPSULE IN FLIGHT (KLYTUS, MING) Visible again, gleaming in an AMBER GLOW. Suddenly a dancing grid of lines appears OVER IT, making us realise that we must be SEEING IT on some kind of screen. It BLURS out of focus, comes back again more sharply as some adjustment has apparently been made. ECU - EYES OF MING THE MERCILESS Deep in shadow, gleaming with evil amusement. MONTAGE - ECU'S OF MING'S FACIAL FEATURES Curve of lip, flare of nostril, fold of eyelid, gleam of shaven scalp, each a menacing landscape of sensual shadow as WE HEAR: MING (O.S.) They survived our Black Hole -- 14. KLYTUS (O.S.) Hail Ming! Shall I drown them in the Sea of Fire? MING (O.S.) Later, Klytus -- I think we will look at them first. INT. CAPSULE - SHOOTING FROM WITHIN Through the transparent walls as the spinning motion is rapidly SLOWING DOWN. The three voyagers are crumpled on the floor against the wall in strange attitudes, FLASH'S arms still holding DALE. They seem semi-conscious, as if dropped. An AMBER GLOW bathes them, and soon we see its source. A huge planet wheels into view through the transparent wall. It is MONGO. Its curved surface is a pure sea of AMBER FIRE molten lava, with great tongues of flame erupting horrifically. ZARKOV blinks, struggles to focus his eyes. He succeeds, with horror SEES where they are headed. Making a choking sound, ZARKOV stirs and tries to crawl over to a control panel. He pushes switches. Nothing happens. The CAPSULE keeps on going down. A great leaping tongue of fire licks it. Suddenly, just as destruction seems imminent, the capsule miraculously changes its flight path and soars above the remaining flames. It races through them. A shadow passes over MONGO as the CAPSULE passes through a wall of PURPLE VAPOR and emerges above a totally different landscape. A dozen VARIOUS COLORED CLOUDS sweep past in silent majesty. The CAPSULE slows, hovers starts straight down into a sea of high grass. EXT. MONGO -- GRASSY AREA - EVENING In the distant B.G. against an extraordinary SUNSET SKY, rises the shimmering CITY OF MONGO.... a place of many levels, golden tiers and turrets, towers, flags and pennants. It is like something dreamed. Several STRANGELY ARMORED MEN watch the MIRROR-BRIGHT CAPSULE descending slowly. The LEADER waves and they all start toward the CAPSULE. INT. CAPSULE (DALE, FLASH, ZARKOV) Gentle bump as the thing touches down. 15. ZARKOV By God, we did it! We made it! FLASH Made it where, Doctor? ZARKOV I don't know. Suddenly DALE gasps, reacting to something she SEES through the transparent-from-within wall. They all look around and SEE those STRANGE MEN approaching. DALE Don't. Suddenly I like it in here just fine -- EXT. GRASSY AREA - DAY (ARMORED MEN, FLASH, LEADER, ZARKOV) The door of the CAPSULE is opened from the inside. ZARKOV and DALE and FLASH get out. THE MEN stop. Long beat as the two parties gaze at each other, the first human eye ever to see an extraterrestrial being. FLASH walks up to the leader. FLASH Hello -- my name's Flash Gordon -- can you understand me? (SILENCE) We're from EARTH -- we come as friends. ZARKOV (URGENT) Extend your hand! That's the gesture of friendship known everywhere! With a warm grin, FLASH extends hi right hand. FLASH Hi! CLACK! With lightning speed a manacle is slammed on FLASH'S wrist and he is thrown to ∑the ground as other RED MEN advance to handcuff DALE and ZARKOV. LEADER You are prisoners. I will take you now to Ming the Merciless, Ruler of the universe! ARMORED MEN (CHORUS) Hail, Ming! 16. Groggily, FLASH lifts his head towards ZARKOV. FLASH Thanks, Doctor -- next time I'll call my own play. EXT. GRASSY AREA - POV THROUGH OPENING (DALE, FLASH) Another strange glimpse through an opening. Some fierce tethered BEAST is being goaded and tormented by MONGO MEN, as in an Elizabethan bear-baiting. On the floor lies the tor n body of one MAN who apparently got too close. DALE has one brief horrified GLIMPSE of this, then turns her head away and shuts her eyes as she's marched along. DALE Just do what I'm doing. Flash -- FLASH What are you doing? DALE Shutting my eyes -- dreaming I booked us to Disneyland. INT. MAIN PALACE HALL (ARMORED MEN) A gigantic STATUE comes into view amidst topless columns at the end. Light plays over it in ever-shifting patterns. As we come nearer, we SEE that this STATUE is cut out in the middle to form a throne. MING THE MERCILESS sits in the throne niche, silent, gazing down on the PRISONERS as they are marched to a halt before him. ARMORED MEN Hail, Ming! Hail, Great One Without Mercy! A hundred reduplicated ECHOES of that shout ring through unseen reaches of the palace. MING bends his head slightly in acknowledgement, points idly at the ARMORED MEN at the left of the group. INT. PALACE OF HALLS - SERIES OF DISSOLVES (ARMORED MAN, AURA, DALE, FLASH, KLYTUS, LEADER, MING, VOICES, ZARKOV) As FLASH, DALE and ZARKOV are marched along by many ARMORED MEN, perspectives are bewildering, curvilinear, surfaces 17. bending away into caverns of gloom without measurable dimension. We pass an archway opening into what seems to be an AMUSEME- NT ARCADE. Glimpse of MONGO PEOPLE playing amazing electronic games, while MONGO GO-GO GIRLS cavort on a platform to unearthly music. ZARKOV Fantastic -- into a Black Hole and out the other side -- to this. Who said Hans Zarkov was mad? DALE You're mad. Look down over a balcony from a MOVING POV. A fencing glass is in session. SIX PAIRS OF MEN go at each other with magic swords which give off pyrotechnical displays each time the blades clash. Thrust, parry, SLASH! The head of one duellist EXPLODES in a bloodless fountain of fire. FLASH You got us into this -- HOW DO WE GET OUT? ZARKOV Get out? Why? We're being taken to Ming -- getting at him is our only hope of saving EARTH. It's perfect! FLASH Dr. Zarkov, I'm about to show you what it feels like to be clipped by a New York Giant -- DALE Flash, it's no use - he's too crazy! MING Step forward, Soldier. The designated one marches two paces forward, halts. MING (CONT'D) Are you loyal to Ming? Would you die for him? ARMORED MAN Gladly! MING Fall on your sword. 18. Instantly the ARMORED MAN pulls his sword, rips open his breast-plate, sets the sword hilt-down on the floor and PLUNGES FORWARD on to the fatal point. With a little cry of horror, DALE shrinks back into FLASH'S arms. ZARKOV You inhuman fiend! MING Of course I'm "inhuman"! -- that's a compliment! (Dropping his voice) Pathetic Earthlings, forever wondering if you are alone in the universe -- beaming you plaintive messages into to the void for anything that might hear you -- even hurling your bodies out into it -- and all without the faintest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything -- anything at all about the true nature of the universe, you would have hidden from it, in terror! There is a low throaty LAUGH from the shadows. FLASH and DALE turn their eyes quickly in its direction. FEATURE PRINCESS AURA Emerging half into the light beside a column, fondling the head of an obscure BEAST slouching between her legs. Voluptuous beyond her years, fiercely erotic, AURA looks FLASH boldly up and down as the BEAST HISSES with the pleasure of her touch. FLASH can't take his eyes off her. No normal man could. FLASH swallows with a dry throat as AURA'S gaze devours him. DALE gets the electricity going on, gives him a poke and WHISPERS LOUDLY. DALE Watch it, fella -- you came with me! AURA laughs again, sidles up toward MING. We dimly SEE a couple of MUTANT CREATURES dragging away the lifeless body of the one who so vividly proved his loyalty. MING You know who Ming is now -- who are you and why do you come to Mongo? 19. FLASH I'm Flash Gordon of the New York Giants this is Dale Arden -- Dr.Zarkov hijacked us in an effort to save EARTH. MING looks questioningly at KLYTUS KLYTUS Sirs, Earth is the meaningless planet you are in the process of obliterating. ZARKOV (pouncing on that) In the process? You mean Earth still exists? MING For the moment -- not for much longer. FLASH But why? What in hell have we ever done to hurt you? MING You exist -- and yet you pay no homage to Ming! What greater crime can be committed? The palace rings with an answering chorus: VOICES of all the ARMORED MEN and numerous others presently UNSEEN, including many WOMEN. VOICES Hail, Ming! Hail, Great One Without Mercy! MING Come closer, Dale Arden -- let me see you. DALE doesn't move. MING takes a step down, narrows his eyes and gazes at her intensely. This guy's personal magnetism is enormous. As if irresistibly drawn, DALE steps forward. MING moves his hand in a gesture. A sourceless GOLDEN LIGHT bathes DALE, sensuous MUSICAL CHORDS are heard. DALE's lips open slightly, her color heightens, her rate of breathing increases. MING touches her flesh lightly. FLASH tense, ready to spring. KLYTUS This woman will amuse you. 20. ZARKOV (INTERESTED) Klytus can see the future, eh? MING He can foresee it -- but for a few moments only. It gives him a unique gift for survival, -- and treachery. ZARKOV Extraordinary. I'd like to study his beta factors -- I wager I could extend them with a course of telekinetic exercise. (peering at KLYTUS) Tell me -- when you use this fit does your temporal lobe prickle? Here? MING flashes a glance of interest at ZARKOV, then addresses the LEADER of the ARMORED MEN. MING Chain this one up. Preserve him for further examination. LEADER Hail, Ming! ZARKOV is roughly seized. FLASH starts after them angrily as they drag the scientist away. FLASH Oh no you don't! We came together and we're STAYING together! Languidly, MING indicates FLASH GORDON with a pointed finger. MING That one is useless to us. Remove him and kill him. Shock reactions. FLASH wheels back at MING as DALE steps in front of her friend. DALE You dirty old bastard can kill me too! CLOSE ANGLE - AURA Wetting her lips, moving sinuously to WHISPER to MING: 21. AURA Don't kill him yet, Father. Give him to me! MING (EYEBROWS UP) What would your Prince Barin say? AURA I can handle Barin. MING Really, Aura -- your appetites are too monstrous -- even for our family. This could cause great trouble with Barin -- I must forbid it. AURA touches the rime of MING'S ear with her tongue as she WHISPERS AGAIN: AURA But you adore me, Father -- you ca refuse me nothing . Yes? WIDER SHOT As MING steps quickly away from his super-provocative daughter and indicates DALE. MING Take the Earth-woman to our quarters! Bathe and annoint her for our pleasure! A HOODED GUARD comes from shadow, moves towards DALE. FLASH starts around to defend her, but before he can do it DALE has made her own move. WHAM! Quick as lightning, she flattened the HOODED GUARD with a perfectly executed city- girl's kick to the balls. DALE is astonished at her own prowess. DALE My God -- and I thought that book was another rip-off- FLASH Watch out! Behind you! Three more HOODED GUARDS are emerging from the shadows towards DALE. QUICK ANGLES 22. FLASH flies at them. An elbow in the mouth disposes of one. He seizes the man's mace-like club as he falls, uses it quickly to knock cold the other two. AURA'S eyes shine at FLASH'S prowess. Fascinated, she runs her moist tongue along the cutting edge of her teeth. Panting, braced, FLASH stands in front of DALE with raised mace. Unearthly MARTIAL MUSIC comes in a glissando from the Cavernous space above. To its tempo MING'S PERSONAL GUARDS now starts∑ appearing. They are all a race of AMAZON WARRIORS, and the most amazing thing is that they all have the SAME FACE. From left to right, back and front, the AMAZONS advance 0n FLASH and DALE. They do not attack, merely stun ad overwhelm us with their massive, silent, answerable threat. FLASH swallows, looks this way and that, stands as if paralysed. DALE (low and tremulous) What's the play, Flash? FLASH I can't -- I just can't -- DALE Can't what? FLASH Clobber a woman, Dale -- DALE (OUTBURST) You damn fool, those aren't women they're murderous AMAZON DYKES! The AMAZONS are all around DALE now. DALE (CONT'D) Help!! FLASH is paralyzed by indecision one beat more, then suddenly makes up his mind. He flies into action, SLAMS the nearest pair of AMAZONS. 23. INT. PALACE - FIGHT SEQUENCE (DALE) Fast and furious. Great havoc is wreaked by DALE and her karate, by FLASH and his flailing fists, but the AMAZONS' numerical superiority is of course decisive. Soon FLASH is on the floor, pinioned by a dozen AMAZONS. He looks up, with despairing eyes SEES poor DALE being dragged up a flight of stairs that disappear mysteriously into upper gloom. DALE Flash!! The pitiful shout sends FLASH'S adrenaline rushing. With a superhuman effort, he fights free from the pile-up and dashes after DALE. INT. PALACE - ON THE STAIRCASE FLASH struggles to get through to DALE. DALE claws fiercely at the bare AMAZON arms and shoulders that engulf her, reaches desperately back down for FLASH. CLOSE SHOT - THEIR HANDS Just touching their fingertips. CLOSE SHOT - A STEP OF THE STAIRS Opens like a yawning trap door UNDER FLASH'S FEET. FLASH drops away with a YELL, in the very instant that AURA comes running INTO THE SHOT and boldly JUMPS after him. AURA is swallowed up too, a split-second before the trap door step CLOSES again after them. INT. PALACE - CU-MING (KLYTUS, MING) Watching that, as KLYTUS hisses into his ear. KLYTUS She betrays you! She'll take him to Aboria! MING So Prince Barin will kill Flash Gordon for me -- I don't care. KLYTUS Don't be too sure! 24. MING glances at him, then back up the stairs at where DALE has vanished. His face softens, his tone turns museful! MING I haven't taken a wife in centuries. I could bring myself to marry this Dale Arden -- (A BEAT) What do you see in her future, Klytus? NO reply. MING turns his head and finds that KLYTUS is gone. Vanished. Not particularly surprised or concerned, MING gazes again toward the top of the stairs and answers his own question with a licentious smile. INT. A DARK METALLIC SHAFT - SHOOTING DOWN IT (AURA, FLASH) It is seemingly endless, faintly lt by phosphoresence from below. We dimly make out the figures of FLASH and AURA falling away from us, far below, falling, falling. We HEAR Hollow echoing VOICES reverbrating up to us. AURA Take a deep breath! Grab my ankle after we hit the water -- I'll lead you! FLASH Hit what water? In answer, we instantly HEAR a titanic SPLASH. INT. UNDERWATER (TANK) FLASH plummets down, AURA right after him. Recovering balance in a universe of bubbles, FLASH finds himself confronting an enormous savage LUMINOUS FISH. Wheeling himself away in fear and revulsion, FLASH encounters AURA. He seizes her ankle as directed. Holding his beat, FLASH swims after her through a maze of stalagmites growing up from the cavern floor. AURA dives down, leads him OUT OF SIGHT through a low opening. INT. UNDERGROUND GROTTO (AURA, FLASH, PLASH) FLASH and AURA emerge from a pool of water. FLASH staggers across and collapses on a fringe of beach. For sure, AURA'S wet clinging robe doesn't make her look any less sexy. He stares at her. AURA Catch your breath -- then I'll take you up and find you a disguise. 25. FLASH You're saving my life. How can I Thank you? AURA I'll fly you to the forest of Arboria - we'll find a way. FLASH Let's get one thing straight -- I've got to find Dale and that nut Zarkov too -- rescue them and try to save Earth too. AURA Do you realize how foolish you are to tell that to me -- Ming's daughter? FLASH I'm no good at lying. AURA You're funny -- are all Eathlings like you, Flash Gordon? PLASH I guess I'm about average. INT. UNDERGROUND CORRIDOR (AURA, FLASH) There are windows on one side, emitting a fierce GLARE. FLASH follows AURA rapidly along. Suddenly he stops short, looking in through the tinted glass. WHAT HE SEES - PLASMA CAVERN An infernal place, chief feature of which is a LAKE OF SEETHING MAGMA that slowly rotates within a wide encircling platform. The platform is piled with GLOWING RADIOACTIVE GRAVEL, being shoveled into the magma by LIZARDMAN SLAVES who toil in rythmic unison. FLASH (O.S.) What's that? AURA (O.S.) The plasma core. It's e source of the energy-beam my father ia aiming at Earth. You can't stop it. Ming is merciless and all-powerful! ANGLES - LIZARDMAN SLAVES 26. Showing ankle electrodes shackled to each SLAVE, so that those who collapse can be shocked back to their feet by GUARDS stationed on a surrounding catwalk above. Any SLAVE unable to rise is summarily pitched into the magma by HOODED MEN, waiting like executioners to perform this chore. AURA (O.S.) (CONT'D) The slaves are Lizard Men. Once they had their own water Kingdom, the fairest of Mongo. Then they dared to rebel. They will suffer for it here forever. FLASH looks at AURA again, then back in the window. He reacts. INT. GROTTO - HIS POV IN CAVERN - ON A CATWALK (AURA) ZARKOV is being led along by SOLDIERS, heavily shackled. He stops, gazing in wonder at the seething lake, which FLARES UP BLINDINGLY with each shovel full of gravel. FLASH and AURA AURA You can't reach him. If a soldier spots you, it's instant death! -- Come! AURA takes his hand. With one backward look toward ZARKOV who of course has not seen him, FLASH follows her. INT. PLASMA CAVERN - FEATURE ZARKOV (MING'S VOICE, SOLDIER, ZARKOV) ZARKOV Incredible - the very core of this planet, is it not? SOLDIER We are but soldiers. We do not know. MING'S VOICE You guess well, Dr. Zarkov! ZARKOV wheels in his chains, looks up. INT. PLASMA CAVERN - MESSANINE (EVERYONE, MING, ZARKOV) High above this place where MING stands with KLYTUS, lit by the infernal glare as he goes on: 27. MING I am forcing this plasma through the successive nuclear phases of a star - building it toward the apocalyptic moment that will end Earth's pathetic history in one flash of fire. ZARKOV Devil! Why don't you turn this science to peaceful use? The name Ming would be blessed instead of cursed. MING Bring him up to the dome, Soldiers -- we wish to show him wonders. At that instant a couple of worn-out SLAVES are pitched into the magma. Their dying SCREAMS are drowned by the chorus from all the minions: EVERYONE Hail! Ming! Hail, Great one Without Mercy! INT. UPPER PALACE AREA - CORRIDOR (AURA, FLASH) AURA leads FLASH out through a doorway. He is now fitted out with a fairly resplendent MONGO costume: boots, cape, headdress and all. They hurry along through shadows. Suddenly FLASH seizes her by the shoulders, stops her. FLASH Listen, where's he got Dale? As she looks at him, she SEES a detachment of SOLDIERS marching this direction. Quickly she pulls FLASH into a niche, presses her body against his in the narrow space. WHISPERS: AURA Forget Dale Arden! FLASH I can't! I mean I hardly know her, BUT -- AURA Forget her, Flash Gordon: I saw a look in my father's eye -- I think he intends to marry her. FLASH What?? Marry her? What are you talking about?? 28. The SOLDIERS have gone past, but AURA is still pressing against him. AURA Oh you ask so many questions. (SEDUCTIVE) I'm taking you to people who'll help you. Trust me! FLASH Can I honestly? AURA Trust me! AURA hauls FLASH from the niche, they hurry on a bit further. AURA stops in front of big doors, with glass windows in them. AURA (CONT'D) Here we are. FLASH Here we are where? AURA I've dressed you as a Royal Pilot, First Class. We'll slip into my personal car and you'll fly it. FLASH takes one look into the glass, then swivels back to AURA FLASH Those are ROCKET SHIPS in there! I can't fly a damn rocket ship! AURA (soft, teasing) Learn from me -- I'll teach you so much! INT. MING'S DOME (MING, ZARKOV) Open at the top to space. But instead of our familiar pinpoint stars, here whole nebulae wheel in majesty against infinity, their innards popping with explosions as whole galaxies are born and die. ZARKOV stands before MING in chains, mesmerized by fantastic devices on every side. Most prominent is a huge transparent cube, supported in the air above a control console. MING moves to that, plays in it like an organist. we HEAR a soft intense hum, GLIMPSE great dish-like radio antennae turning on the top side of the dome. 29. An astonishing things happens. Inside the cube a recognisable greenish globe appears like a three-dimensional holograph, slowly turning as the continents and oceans come into view below a veil of clouds. ZARKOV Earth! MING Yes, Zarkov -- as it was. Now as it will be, when my plasma reaches full force..... A sudden TIDE OF FIRE sweeps the globe, Even the clouds BURN. ZARKOV gasps as MING'S fingers dance of the control keys again. MING (CONT'D) And as it will be in yet another time, long after you have died. Earth reborn! A pleasant image, no? The fires recede. The hanging globe sparkles again with beauty just as it was except that the outlines of our continents have been subtly changed. ZARKOV But that's impossible! Even your perverted genius can't create new life! MING Of course I can create life. There's nothing easier. It only requires myself and one woman. ZARKOV (SUDDEN UNDERSTANDING) Dale Arden..... MING Who else? As in that childish myth of yours -- Adam and Eve, wasn't it? I will breed with her and repopulate the Earth in my own image. I've already done it on over a thousand planets. MING touches a key. The image of Earth DISAPPEARS from the cube. ZARKOV glares hatred at MING for a beat, then his eye catches something else. WHAT HE SEES 30. A big block of crystal on the floor with two swords embedded in it, just their hilts sticking out. ANGLE to include ZARKOV. Chained as he is, he suddenly bounds over and seizes a sword hilt, tries to pull it out. It doesn't budge. MING (CONT'D) The magic blades are not for your kind, Zarkov. One is my own the other will only be withdrawn by my rightful heir. Pull on them with all your MIGHT: ZARKOV tugs desperately, but it doesn't give an inch. He falls panting over the block. ZARKOV Monster! MING laughs, makes a sign to a SOLDIER. MING Return him to the dungeon. INT. MING'S SERAGLIO (DALE, HEDONIA) DALE stands amongst the EXOTIC FEMALES of this lavish place, being gently but firmly divested of her clothes and put into a diaphanous gown. They intend her no harm. Though each has some slight unearthly peculiarity, all are very beautiful. Tickled, DALE can't suppress a giggle. The females are amazed and delighted by this phenomenon. They take turns poking at her ribs as tall HEDONIA glides up, bearing a flagon of green liquid. HEDONIA Drink this. DALE recoils, her giggling cut short. DALE What is it -- some rotten drug? HEDONIA It has no name. But many brave men died to bring it across space from Cythera, planet of Pleasure. It will make your hours with Ming more agreeable. With a karate chop, DALE- knocks the flagon away. HEDONIA rubs her hurt wrist but does not seem angry. 31. HEDONIA (CONT'D) We are of different race, Dale Arden but we all are women here. I know your fears. Believe me, it will be better if you drink it... HEDONIA retrieves the flagon from the silken pillow where it landed, extends it again to DALE. A shout! DALE Flash! Where are you?? Of course there is no answer. Sudden tears of despair spring from DALE'S eyes. She seizes the flagon and impulsively drinks it. Her expression changes. DALE (CONT'D) Say, this stuff isn't bad at all. EXT. SPACE - AURA'S SHUTTLE CRAFT Sails along, a wonderful little bubble-topped two-seater, with royal devices. EXT. SPACE - A MOON OF ICE Floats toward us, dazzling sphere of frozen seas and glaciers. INCLUDE AURA'S SPACECRAFT Coming into SHOT in a curving pass over the surface. It's a Nifty bubble-top two-seater with royal devices. INT. COCKPIT - IN FLIGHT (AURA) There are no normal controls, just a glowing multi-colored panel over which the pilot makes hand-movements to effect changes of course and attitude. FLASH is in the left-hand seat beside AURA, gazing down at the glittering sight. AURA Frigia -- eleventh of the moons of Mongo. It's inhabited by the Bear Men who eat their own young... FLASH shivers. Patches of frost and ice start to form on the craft's bubble. AURA (CONT'D) Now pull up -- go starboard around that next moon rising -- Ardentia. FLASH moves his hands over the panel. The craft pulls up and banks. 32. INT. COCKPIT - ANOTHER SHOT (AURA, FLASH) Another moon RISING ahead. Its reddish desert surface is swept by a raging sandstorm. FLASH Some lucky people live on that one too? AURA Of course - the Sand Men. Every Moon is a kingdom -- seperate and hostile to all the others. They have nothing in common but Ming's rule -- and their hatred of him. FLASH Why don't they team up and fight him? AURA Fight Ming the Merciless? (LAUGHS) You saw what happened to the Lizard Men. FEATURE FLASH With a sudden thoughtful look, his head working. FLASH Sue -- but that wasn't a team effort. AURA I don't know these words what's a "team"? FLASH just shakes his head. AURA watches him a beat more, then reaches up and pulls down a curious gadget hanging above her seat. It's a TRANSPARENT HOOD with strange fittings inside, not totally unlike a beauty-shop hairdryer. AURA (CONT'D) Telekinetic Thought Transfer. (setting its dials) I'm going to get together with Prince Barin in Arboria and tell him I'm arriving. He's the one who'll help you. FLASH Why? 33. AURA Because he does anything I ask. He loves me. FLASH You can really transfer your thoughts with that? Like I could get in touch with Dale? AURA If I showed you how. (TEASING) But I'm not going to. FLASH Please. AURA just gives him a look and laughs. FLASH stares at her a moment, then suddenly MOVES HIS HANDS sharply over the control panel. The craft hurtles into a violent DIVE. AURA yells. AURA What are you doing? AURA drops the plastic hood, lunges to move. her own hands on the controls, but FLASH seizes her wrists. EXT. SHOOTING THROUGH BUBBLE TO EXT. Showing the windblown surface of the moon ARDENTIA dead ahead. INT. COCKPIT (AURA, FLASH) AURA Are you mad> We're diving straight at Ardentia! FLASH That's right, Princess ∑∑∑ and we're not pulling out until you put that gadget over my head and tune me in to Dale Arden! AURA struggles wildly, but FLASH'S grip on her wrists is like iron. The surface of Ardentia LOOMS UP , closer and closer. INT. MING'S SERAGLIO - BATHING AREA (DALE, FLASH'S VOICE, HEDONIA) DALE is immersed naked in a bubbly swirling tub, a luxuriant prisoner of the FEMALES who bathe and groom her. She seems dazed by steam and by the sensuous movement of the water. 34. A couple of the FEMALES lift DALE'S hands, make a cup of them. HEDONIA pours rich oil into it. HEDONIA Rub this on your body. It gives Ming pleasure. DALE starts to oil herself as the FEMALES exchange looks and LAUGH softly. Suddenly a FILTERED VOICE is HEARD from nowhere, though it seems very close: FLASH'S VOICE Dale, it's me -- Flash! Am I with you? CU DALE She blinks, befuddled, pauses in her oiling of herself. HEDONIA What's the matter? DALE I'm dreaming. INT. COCKPIT (FLASH'S VOICE) CU FLASH with the Thought Transference gizmo down over his head, a faint BLUISH GLOW flickering within, as AURA watches him and we SEE the moon Ardentia falling behind rapidly through the glass. FLASH concentrates fiercely. We HEAR his VOICED THOUGHTS but his lips do not move. FLASH'S VOICE No, Dale -- you're not dreaming I'm Flash -- I'm with you and you are with me! INT. MING'S BATHING AREA (DALE'S VOICE, FLASH'S VOICE, FLASH' S VOICE) FLASH'S VOICE Are you receiving my thoughts? Now we HEAR DALE'S VOICE, without her lips moving either: DALE'S VOICE I'm receiving something -- 35. FLASH' S VOICE (EXCITEDLY) I read you, Dale -- I'm getting you too! Think of me -- hard! INTERCUTS - FLASH AND DALE - SERAGLIO BATH AND COCKPIT As they communicate. NOTE: There might be some faint glow in the air above the tub some spectral suggestion. of FLASH'S presence, the idea being to show that HEDONIA and other FEMALES are unaware of this interchange going on as they continue to bathe and groom DALE. INT. CUTTING BETWEEN BATHING AREA AND COCKPIT (DALE'S VOICE, FLASH'S VOICE, FLASH' S VOICE) DALE'S VOICE Where are you Flash? FLASH'S VOICE Speeding for the Kingdom of Arboria to get help! I'm in a spacecraft with Aura, Ming's daughter! DALE'S VOICE What? That bitch? Don't trust her! She's after you! FLASH'S VOICE Listen, she means nothing to me -- not a darn thing. Where are you, Dale? DALE'S VOICE Naked in a bathtub. FLASH'S VOICE (CHOKED) Oh God -- if I could only see you, Dale. If I could touch you -- what are you in a tub for? DALE'S VOICE I'm being fixed up for Ming. FLASH' S VOICE No! Where's Dr. Zarkov? DALE'S VOICE Chained in a dungeon, I think. What'll I do, Flash? FLASH' S VOICE Fake 'em out! 36. DALE'S VOICE How? FLASH'S VOICE Just fake 'em out, Dale -- girls know how. But don't go too far. I mean get to Zarkov and release him, I'll have help by then -- I'll find you. Can you do all that? DALE'S VOICE Sounds like fourth down and about ninety yards to go, but I'll try. FLASH'S VOICE Dale, you're some girl -- God, you really are. (PAUSE) Do you get what I'm thinking now? DALE'S VOICE (SUPER-SENSUOUS) Oh yes. FLASH' S VOICE Dale, we're gonna get out of this jam -- I swear we will -- I'll find you, and when I do we'll ----- INT. COCKPIT - FEATURE AURA (AURA) who has been watching FLASH'S face with increasing frustration and jealousy during this, Suddenly snatching the Thought Transfer bubble OFF FLASH'S head. AURA Enough! He has a dazed dreamy look on his face. AURA slaps him out of it, points-ahead. AURA (CONT'D) There's Arboria! EXT. ARBORIA - DAY Green tangle of branches and leaves and vines. ANGLING UP , we SEE the SHUTTLE CRAFT approaching us head-on at a down angle. EXT. ARBORIA - SHUTTLE CRAFT POV It races up toward the craft's windshield. We level off for a moment, then PLUNGE DOWN again into a blur of green. 37. INT. COCKPIT - FLASH (FLASH) Working his hands over the control sensors as crazy GREENERY rushes by outside. THUMP THUD CRASH! The craft careens to a swinging HALT, so Suddenly that FLASH and AURA almost have their wind knocked out as they are thrown against their seat belts. FLASH recovers. FLASH Sorry. I guess landings aren't my thing. EXT. SHUTTLE CRAFT (AURA, FLASH) It hangs snagged in a huge vine, like a creature caught by some monstrous boa-constrictor. This is a complete world of green, the light, the feeling of the air. Everything rings with forest SOUNDS. The very sky is shut from view by leaves and foliage. The craft's hatch opens. FLASH struggles out, gives AURA a hand up. Kneeling on the cabin, FLASH takes in this incredible vista stretching all around. FLASH Where's Robin Hood? AURA Who? FLASH It doesn't matter. How do we get down. AURA Follow me. Carefully, balancing lithely, AURA starts along the trunk of the great vine that caught them. INT. MING'S BEDCHAMBER (DALE, SERVING GIRL) Ultra-Byzantine splendor. The only light is by a huge bed on which DALE reclines. A SERVING GIRL glides up with a flagon of that liquid. SERVING GIRL He is coming to see you now. Are you ready? 38. DALE (easy, smiling) Very. SERVING GIRL Do you need any more of this? DALE No, thanks. Just turn down the light a bit, would you? I'm shy. The SERVING GIRL leans over the bed to do so. We GLIMPSE DALE'S HAND rising quickly to deliver a karate-chop. INT. PALACE HALLWAY MING walks down it toward a closed door at the end. He pauses a moment in anticipation, composes himself, opens the door. INT. MING'S BEDCHAMBER It's nearly dark. MING comes from shadows, looks down at the bed. There is a feminine silhouette on it. MING sits, extends a hand. His FINGERS travel sensuously up a BARE THIGH, suddenly stop. Savagely, MING pulls the face of the GIRL into the light. It is not DALE ARDEN but the unconscious SERVING GIRL, now dressed in DALE'S gown. INT. DUNGEON - MING' S PALACE (GUARD) OPENING CLOSE on ZARKOV, who lies asleep in his chains. A hand touches his shoulder. ZARKOV wakes with a start to SEE a SERVING GIRL bending over him, tray in hand. She moves her cloak to reveal that she is DALE. A GUARD stands nearby against a wall, faceless in the shadow of a cowled uniform. GUARD Serving Girl - what business have you in this dungeon? DALE quickly puts the tray down, stands and turns to the GUARD She smiles invitingly, lifts her skirt up above her knee. The legs are long and terrific. 39. The GUARD catches his breath, steps toward her lecherously to accept the invitation. WHAM! He doubles up as DALE kicks him in the groin, goes down without a sound as a left-right- left series of KARATE CHOPS hits his neck. He is hardly on the floor before DALE is pouncing on the key- ring at his belt. EXT. ARBORIA FOREST - FLASH AND AURA (AURA, FLASH) Making their way swiftly through it between earth and heaven, crossing this green world on branches and trunks of monster vines. FLASH pauses. FLASH Listen -- are you sure this Barin will help me? Gently, provocatively, AURA puts her finger on his lips to silence him. AURA Ssssh...... Trust me! EXT. ARBORIA - FULL SHOT (AURA, FLASH) Of a fantastic structure, many levels, built of wood and other materials from the heart of the forest. MOVE OFF it to find FLASH and AURA nearby, him gazing at this apparition with a strange wistful expression. FLASH It's amazing -- I dreamed of this tree-house when I was a kid -- AURA laughs softly, waves him on. WITH FLASH AND AURA climbing the ramp-like stairs which wind up around it in a mounting spiral. SUddenly the forest rings with SINGSONG CRIES and CALLS I mingled with a sort of ROARING SNARL. AURA It's Barin's hunt! Watch! AURA leads him on at a run to the wide balcony above. EXT. FOREST - MOVING SHOT With a desperate LION MAN, running full tilt; roaring and snarling as he zig-zags this way and that. 40. There is a SWISHING SOUND and an arrow-like missile catches him in the back. Sharp PFSSSSS: as of gas escaping. EXT. FOREST - ANOTHER ANGLE (ALL THREE MEN, TREE MAN) BARIN, PRINCE OF ARBORIA and looking every inch the part, stands with a fired crossbow. Over his shoulder is a quiver of GLASS ARROWS, each a little POINTED CYLINDER at the end. Some distance behind and around we see a number of his loyal TREE MEN. TREE MAN Barin got him! ALL THREE MEN Hail, Ming! EXT. STRUCTURE - BALCONY (AURA, FLASH) FLASH -- BESIDE AURA ON BALCONY FLASH'S eyes jumping to her as he hears that echoing. FLASH These are the guys who are gonna help me? AURA It means nothing. They only shout that because it's treason not to. They hate Ming. EXT. FOREST - FEATURE BARIN (BARIN, FLASH) BARIN I scent a Tiger Man near the lodge! Form battle lines above and below! As the TREE MEN scurry to obey, BARIN moves forward, reloading and cocking his weapon. The stricken LION MAN comes INTO VIEW. Incredibly, the glass arrow in his back has transformed him into a STATUE OF ICE. At BARIN'S footfall, he DISINTEGRATES in a tinkling fall of frozen shards. THE TIGER MAN is poised behind a tree near the lodge, panting. He is a magnificent creature, with a horn sticking out of his forehead. He tenses, HEARING the BIRDLIKE CALLS of the advancing hunters. Closer, closer. 41. ANGLE WIDENS. We SEE another PAIR OF LION MEN crouching nearby, terrified. The line of TREE MEN comes INTO VIEW. The crouching pair look in appeal to the TIGER MAN by the tree. He watches a beat, waves them to run backward, then covering the escape of the others, TIGER MAN charges into his enemies headlong. FROM LODGE BALCONY - POV SHOT FLASH and AURA watch the fight. TIGER MAN'S rage is magnificent as he flails the nearest TREE MEN without regard for their number. He has flattened half a dozen when suddenly BARIN'S upper line of TREE MEN leap DOWN on him from the branches above, and he is buried under their sheer weight. CU FLASH WATCHING FLASH I know just how he feels -- we played the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. EXT. FOREST -FEATURE BARIN (BARIN, TREE MAN) ANGLE - BARIN advancing by himself, HEARING the triumphant SHOUTS of his men. TREE MAN (O.S.) Prince Barin! We have him! BARIN Not him! Bring him back for sport: EXT. BALCONY - FLASH (AURA) Watching with horrified fascination as NETS are thrown over the struggling TIGER MAN. AURA'S eyes bright with lust for this kind of spectacle, AURA speaks low to FLASH AURA Go inside -- let me talk to Barin first. (as FLASH hesitates) Foolish Earthling - trust me! EXT. FOREST - BELOW LODGE (AURA, BARIN) BARIN walks up ahead of some TREE MEN who are carrying the TIGER MAN in their nets. Suddenly he stops, reacting to AURA on the balcony. BARIN Aura! 42. AURA It's so long since I've been with you, Barin -- I couldn't stand it. Please don't be too angry at me for coming. BARIN Angry at you? BARIN laughs. INT. LODGE (AURA, BARIN, FLASH) FLASH is flattened against the wall, IWATCHING through louvers of a door. SOUND of feet on ramp, SNARLING and ROARING of captive TIGER MAN. BARIN comes hastening INTO VIEW on the balcony and embraces AURA. AURA AND BARIN CLOSE BARIN You'll stay the night? AURA I've dreamed of it! His eyes alight with anticipation, BARIN steps back from her. as his MEN arrive with the netted TIGER MAN. BARIN Get me a sword -- (turning to AURA) This is the fiercest Tiger Man we have ever hunted. I'm going to kill him now -- and dedicate his blood to you, my beloved. AURA (DELIGHTED) But that's treason! Blood can be dedicated to Ming alone! BARIN I know you, Aura -- the more a man risks, the greater your passion. If I knew a greater risk, I'd take it. AURA SMILES, turns and calls softly toward the interior. AURA Flash Gordon -- come out! FLASH steps out, halts about ten feet from BARIN. Reactions from BARIN and his TREE MEN. 43. FLASH I'm from Earth, Prince Barin. My friends and I were Ming's prisoners. She kindly brought me here to enlist your help. BARIN What in hell? My help? AURA Hide him from my father -- don't let him wander -- keep him for me! CU - FLASH FLASH Keep me for.....???? (STUNNED) Oh, my god. I trusted you. AURA darts INTO SHOT, puts her lips to his ear and WHISPERS: AURA You still must -- I'm playing a game! CU BARIN BARIN What? What are you saying? AURA darts back into shot on his side now, WHISPERS in same WAY: AURA He's a mere toy to me, my love -- when I'm tired of it we'll kill him! BACK TO SCENE as AURA quickly steps away, continues aloud: AURA (CONT'D) It's the risk I ask, Barin hide him for me in Arboria. BARIN I'll hide him, all right -- under six feet of Arborian dirt! The sword BARIN ordered has been brought. He seizes it. FLASH I'm not your enemy, Prince Barin. we share a hatred of Ming 44. AURA Are you so afraid of my Earthling, Barin; Won't you even give him a chance? BARIN hesitates, provoked by that, then shouts: BARIN Snake keeper! Rouse your beast! ANGLE - SNAKE KEEPER A HALFWIT TREE MAN, drowsing against another part of the parapet, He jerks awake, shuffles across to a big wicker basket, pulls off the lid. A hideous EEL-LIKE SERPANT rears it's head, HISSING and SNAPPING venemously. The KEEPER sticks his arm down. The snake coils around it. With a drooling grin, the KEEPER withdraws it. CU FLASH watching with horrified revulsion. BACK TO SCENE KEEPER carries the hissing snapping snake toward an enormous STUMP of a tree trunk. He holds his arm out over it, WHISTLES a curious note. The snake leaps off the arm and VANISHES into the hollowed out trunk. We notice now that there are SIX HOLES drilled into the gnarled wood. BARIN (CONT'D) Who dares the beast? A battle-scarred OLD TREE MAN steps forward. without a word, he goes to the stump and plunges a hand INTO one of the holes. INSIDE THE STUMP BIG CU SNAKE with a hiss, fangs strike a wrist. INT. LODGE - FEATURE OLD MAN (AURA, BARIN, FLASH, TREE MEN) With eyes widening in horror, hs face starts to turn BLUE. He pulls out his hand and staggers backward. BARIN plunges his sword into the man's breast and he topples over the parapet, dead. Sword in hand, BARIN turns to FLASH. BARIN I did him a mercy. This venom brings death only after long tortured madness. Your turn, Earthling. CU FLASH 45. FLASH I think I'll pass on this one. INCLUDE BARIN BARIN There are six openings to the serpent. Five are safe -- the sixth is death. Choose one -- or take your end from my sword here and now. FLASH He swallows, Looks at the stump, at BARIN with his bloody sword, to the stump again, then at AURA. He crosses close and stares into her glittering eyes. FLASH Would you give Dale a message from me? Tell her I'm sorry how things have panned out -- I Loved her. AURA I'll do that. FLASH What the hell? Forget it. Sending that message by you is like sending a lettuce-leaf by a rabbit. BARIN'S sword touches FLASH'S back. He walks to the stump. Every eye is on him, every breath held. With a sudden quick motion, FLASH plunges his hand into a hole. He leaves it there a second, then whips it back out and wheels to BARIN. FLASH (CONT'D) Whew! -- Your turn, Prince Barin. SHOTS -- AROUND THE GROUP BARIN goes still. This is not what he had planned. AURA'S Tongue runs over her tee. AURA If your love for me is great enough, Barin, surely it will protect you from the serpent -- no? AURA laughs softly. BARIN strides across, plunges his hand into another hole, rips it out again unscathed. He whirls to FLASH, points the sword at him. 46. BARIN Go again. FLASH thrusts into a third hole, pulls out again. Turns. FLASH What are you waiting for? BARIN glares at him, takes a breath, jams his hand into the fourth of the six holes. BIG CU BARIN His eyes widen horribly, he makes a choked sound. PULL BACK FAST as he whips his hand out, unbitten. His face twists into a grin. BARIN Fooled you, didn't I? AURA laughs, turns her smile on FLASH. AURA It's an even chance now, Flash Gordon -- that's better than Daddy would have given you -- FLASH Boy. You oughta be handled with a forked stick yourself. BARIN If I were you, I'd choose the sword -- The point touches FLASH again. Just two holes left. He does a silently mouthed eeny-meeny-miney-mo between them, plunges his hand into one. INSIDE THE STUMP The snake's head MOVES fast. BACK TO SCENE QUICK CU - FLASH'S FACE Wincing, contorting. As FLASH whips his arm out again. Amazingly, he has hold of the terrible serpent, grasping it just below the head. CRIES from the astounded TREE MEN, and then FLASH is leaping INTO ACTION. 47. Whirling, FLASH swings the hissing snapping writhing beast at the nearest TREEMEN, scattering them, and thrusts the serpent's head at BARIN. BARIN slashes with his sword, misses. The serpent's tail coils around the blade, rips it from BARIN'S hand as the Prince of Arboria dives backwards. FLASH whirls again, SLAMS the serpent's head into a post, and SNATCHES the sword from the tail before it hits the floor. MOVING WITH FLASH He dashes for the ramp to the ground.. The TIGER MAN is right in front of him, struggling in the net. FLASH pauses, SLASHES at the cords. TIGER MAN is freed, bounds to his feet with a ROAR, clobbers a pair of TREE MEN just jumping on him and FLASH. Snatching one's CROSSBOW and QUIVER OF GLASS ARROWS, he races down the ramp behind FLASH. BACK TO TOP LEVEL FEATURE BARIN Picking himself up, wheeling furiously on AURA, who has been watching all this with her lips half parted, her tongue flicking teeth in supersensuous excitement. BARIN (CONT'D) A mere toy of yours, eh? AURA (TAUNTING) Maybe I was wrong -- surely the Prince of Arboria wouldn't be beaten by a toy. BARIN snatches a horn from his belt, blows a BLAST. BARIN The hunt's on, my Tree Men! TREE MEN To the hunt with Barin! EXT. FOREST - FLASH AND TIGER MAN (FLASH, TIGER MAN) They run through the green tangle. FLASH trips over a vine. TIGER MAN picks him up. TIGER MAN Thank you for freeing me. 48. FLASH You can speak? TIGER MAN For all the good it does me. SOUNDS echo: hunting horns, birdcalls of TREE MEN. They start running again. FLASH Have we a chance, Tiger Man? TIGER MAN Only if we climb -- out of the green light -- to the sky -- Prince Barin's Tree Men can't follow us up there! FLASH What do you mean? TIGER MAN Ming's Law -- outside his own kingdom, every hunter becomes the hunted! Ahead is a huge tree made for climbing: branches stick out like the rungs of some great green ladder. They leap onto the lowest. ANGLES - THE TREE - FLASH and TIGER MAN Climbing. Jack and the Beanstalk, up and up, panting, but there is never a top in sight. Suddenly the branches end. FLASH Damn. End of the line. TIGER MAN reacts to something off. Touches FLASH'S shoulder and points. THEIR POV - AT END OF LAST BRANCH A crazy sort of ELEVATOR is going by. It's a moving. vine with LEAFY BASKETS attached, a vertical conveyor from the ground to above. As FLASH and TIGER MAN watch, they SEE one basket moving UP with an armed TREE MAN in it, scanning the forest below. FLASH Snatches the crossbow off TIGER MAN'S back, cocks it, notches it quickly with a GLASS ARROW from the quiver. INCLUDE THE TREE MAN 49. hearing the CLICK of the cocking. He wheels, looks up, SEES FLASH. Letting out a fierce BIRDCALL. he jumps up and swings his own crossbow just as FLASH shoots. SWISH-PFFST as FLASH'S arrow hits him. ICE, he tumbles out of the basket. FLASH and TIGER MAN Run out along the branch, jump INTO the basket as it passes by. FLASH (CONT'D) How far will this take us? TIGER MAN I don't know --no man has ever been above the green. EXT. ANOTHER PART OF THE TREES (BARIN, FLASH, TREE MAN, TIGER MAN, TREE MAN LEADER) BARIN and a troop of TREE MEN are poised in the branches, listening acutely. The one scouting in front calls back: TREE MAN The sight -- call came from the left! TREE MA.i. The sight-call carne from the left: BARIN Up and across we'll cut them off! He BLOWS his horn again. The TREE MEN start moving quickly some climbing, others SWINGING laterally on vines. IN THE BASKET FLASH and TIGER MAN Rising looking upward, as the light through the leaves is changing, becoming less intensely green. TIGER MAN What is that color above? FLASH Blue. We call is blue. A DOZEN TREE MEN come swinging into view on vines, land on a fat branch. The LEADER looks right in this direction, points and gives a chilling BIRDCALL. The TREE MEN unsling their crossbows, reach for GLASS ARROWS. FLASH and TIGER MAN 50. SEEING cold death staring them in the face. FLASH reaches for an arrow, notches it. TREE MAN LEADER You haven't a chance! Throw down your weapon! FLASH makes like to throw his crossbow away. At the last instant, h swings it around, aims and FIRES. TREE MEN ON BRANCH Are startled as the arrow WHIRRS in and sticks into the branch under their feet. The branch instantly turns to ICE. BARIN - CLIMBING FROM BELOW HEARS a loud brittle CRACKING SOUND. He looks up, gapes, holds on tight to the tree trunk. A dozen SHRIEKING TREE MEN plummet down around him amidst chunks of ICE, crashing through the branches to doom. A look of fierce delight on his face, BARIN resumes his climb. EXT. TREETOPS OF ARBORIA (FLASH, TIGER MAN) FLASH and TIGER MAN jump from their basket into a wide leaf, near a loading platform where the elevator-vine goes around a great iron wheel. The forest is open to the sky at this altitude, a sunny Eden of huge exotic flowers. Enormous overlapping leaves form a floor FLASH and TIGER MAN can stand on. FLASH Which way to the border: TIGER MAN Legend says Arboria ends in an ocean to the west. FLASH quickly checks his wristwatch and the angle of the shadows, starts in the direction he estimates is west. TREETOPS OF ARBORIA - OTHER ANGLES FLASH and TIGER MAN running over the leaves, which are somewhat BOUNCY like a huge trampoline. It's quite enjoyable. FLASH laughs aloud at the sensation, takes a big jump off the edge of one leaf, BOUNCES HIGH from the next. Amazingly, a fat TENDRIL seizes him in mid-air, coils around his waist. FLASH yells as he is lifted further up. AN ENORMOUS FLOWER 51. is right above him. The closed petals open. The inside is viscous, hideous looking. In the deepest recess is a dark red blob which PULSES like a huge heart, emits a BEING SOUND. With horror, FLASH realizes the tendril is feeding him into the flower's maw. PLASH struggles vainly against the tendril's strength. TIGER MAN dashes to his rescue below, but another tendril knocks him flat. INT. FLOWER (BARIN, FLASH) FLASH is conveyed INTO the flower. He punches wildly with his fists, kicks, but petals are CLOSING inexorably around him. On their inner surface are deadly spiny SPIKES. Scattered around are the crushed SKELETONS of luckless TREE MEN who have been fed in here. SWISH-PFFFFST! Out of nowhere a GLASS ARROW comes flying past FLASH'S ear, sinks itself into the flower's heart. The flower SHRIEKS. All around, FLASH, it is turning into crystalline ICE. The tendrils lose their grip, FLASH falls onto the leaf below beside the TIGER MAN. TREETOPS - ANOTHER ANGLE As FLASH turns his head to see BARIN standing with his crossbow on a leaf some twenty feet away. BARIN I saved you because your death must be mine. FLASH What's the point of all this killing? Why don't we team up and overthrow Ming? BARIN notches another arrow, cocks his bow, with slow pleasure raises it and aims at FLASH'S heart. Suddenly a SHADOW covers BARIN. He jerks his head up to SEE: A WINGED SILHOUETTE Diving from the sun at him. It is a HAWKMAN, magnificiently fierce. It seizes BARIN in its talons and lifts him INTO THE AIR. OTHER HAWKMEN Hover, their wings beating the air. They dive on FLASH and TIGER MAN, lift them too. 52. EXT. SKY - AURA'S SPACECRAFT Rises in a steep climb over Arboria. INT. COCKPIT - AURA In the pilot's seat gazes OFF at something through tricky little binoculars. WHAT SHE SEES - DISTANT HAWKMEN Ascending with their three captives- INT. COCKPIT -AURA (AURA'S VOICE) Put the binoculars down, with one hand lowers the THOUGHT TRANSFER hood over her head, with the other waves the craft into a sharp turn away from the HAWKMEN. Without her lips MOVING: AURA'S VOICE Princess Aura returns to Mingo City The passage through the force-field opens at her approach -- AURA twists the tuning dial, then goes on in a soft PROVOCATIVE TONE: AURA'S VOICE (CONT'D) Daddy darling -- am I with you? Are you getting me? EXT. GRASSY AREA - ZARKOV'S CAPSULE Sits some fanciful form of ground transport: perhaps a thing with bicycle wheels and sails. INT. CAPSULE - ZARKOV AND DALE (DALE, ZARKOV) They are inside, she watching tensely as ZARKQV throws switches and eyes displays. DALE Will it fly? ZARKOV Basic circuits seem okay. DALE It has-to fly! We gotta rescue FLASH from that vampire before she -- Sudden BLINDING BLUE LIGHT explodes within the capsule. 53. ZARKOV Jump!! EXT. CAPSULE - ZARKOV AND DALE - CONTINUOUS (DALE, ZARKOV) Come diving out headlong into the grass. DALE What happened? ZARKOV Heaven knows. I was just starting to test the primary transformer-banks AND ---- ZARKOV stops abruptly, looking down at himself. DALE gasps. DALE My God -- your hands! Your hands are gone! It is true: ZARKOV has no hands. ZARKOV Not gone -- Just invisible. See? INVISIBLE HANDS pick up a pebble from the ground, hold it before DALE'S nose. Magically, they toss the little object back and forth from one UNSEEN HAND to the other. DALE touches one, can feel it. DALE Does it hurt? ZARKOV Not a bit. I believe Mongo's gravitational. field must have reversed the polarity of my generator so that -- He breaks off again. Slowly, in front of our eyes, ZARKOV'S HANDS are FADING IN, again and becoming VISIBLE. DALE whistles in amazement. ZARKOV (CONT'D) Neat trick. I wonder if it's controllable? SHADOW over them suddenly. Great WHIRRING of wings. DALE Looks up and SCREAMS. HAWKMEN 54. Swoop down on ZARKOV and DALE, bear them aloft as they did with FLASH AND TIGER MAN. INT. MING'S DOME ROOM (KLYTUS, MING) CU MING In his wonderous DOME ROOM, watching something. PULL BACK. KLYTUS is beside him as usual. ANGLE to include the VIEWING SCREEN which MING is watching. On it is a directional continuation of the scene we just saw: a struggling DALE being Carrie dup into the open sky by HAWKMEN. KLYTUS Mongo is restless today. Your vessels stray from their appointed kingdoms.... MING That damned Vultan -- time I clipped his wings once and for all. We could put those insolent Hawkmen of his to work in the plasma cavern ---- KLYTUS Dale Arden and Flash Gordon? Will I send out the Imperial Fleet to bring them back? MING We'll let Vultan tame her first -- I'll look pretty to Dale Arden after him. Flash Gordon is nobody. KLYTUS smiles that sinister way. MING looks at him questioningly. KLYTUS Sire, it is not for me to tell Great, Ming that he is making mistakes. EXT. SKY - WIDE SHOT (HAWKMAN, TIGER MAN) Serried squadrons of HAWKMEN escort the ones bearing FLASH, BARIN and TIGER MAN through space. CLOSER - TIGER MAN Struggling against the TWO HAWKMEN who have him, snarling and roaring. He butts one in the belly with his horn. HAWKMAN Want us to let you go, et? 55. TIGER MAN Yes!! HAWKMAN Okay. TIGER MAN Nooo!!! SKY - WIDE PANORAMA Light streams rough tremendous El Greco clouds. HAWKMEN Are tiny figures, rising against it. Higher, higher. Above the clouds a blinding DAZZLE comes INTO FRAME. It resolves into a fantastic SKY PALACE hanging in mid-air, reflecting sunlight from myriad turrets and terraces. The HAWKMEN climb above it. CLOSER HAWKMEN Carrying FLASH and BARIN and TIGER MAN , going into a screaming dive. EXT. SKY PALACE - HAWKMEN POV Rushing at us with horrifying speed. ZOOMING DOWN we see a dark opening. The wind howling around wings, we rush dizzingly into the aperture. EXT. SKY PALACE - VULTAN'S EYRIE - A HIGH TERRACE (DALE) VULTAN circles admiringly around DALE. VULTAN is a lusty viking of the sky, winged like his men, one eye blinded, his beard cloven by an old scar from forehead to jaw. Gorgeous HAWKGIRLS watch jealously as VULTAN inspects DALE very closely, reaches out a sly hand and touches her bosom. DALE slaps his hand away. DALE Watch out, you old bird -- Ming wants to marry me. VULTAN hoots at that as HAWKGIRLS murmur. He's about to touch her again when there is a CLAMOR o.s. VULTAN reacts. EXT. SKY PALACE - ANOTHER LEVEL (BARIN, DALE, FLASH, SARIN, VULTAN, ZARKOV, ZAAKOV) HAWKMEN carrying FLASH, TIGER MAN and BARIN swoop OUT from another hole like the one they dove into. The whole place is like a great hanging birdhouse, HAWKWOMEN and HAWCHILDREN moving in and out and perching on the various exterior terraces. 56. FLASH and TIGER MAN Are dropped on to a terrace, so hard it stuns them. BARIN Is lowered more carefully on another terrace, this one grander, with a throne in the center. FEATURE VULTAN Flying down from above, hovering above BARIN with menacing glee. VULTAN Ho! -- Barin! - I knew my Hawkmen would catch you one of these days. SARIN Be careful how you address me, Vultan. I am Prince Barin, ruler of Arboria. VULTAN Not in my Kingdom -- here you're just a stray animal to be killed for our sport! BARIN Will you do that, Vultan? VULTAN What would you do if you'd caught me in Arboria? BARIN Yes -- I would hunt you down and kill you without mercy. FLASH on the OTHER TERRACE Lifts his head groggily, reacts to something. ANGLE TO INCLUDE ZARKOV, stumbling out from an opening in his usual clothes. ZARKOV Hello - we do meet in the strangest places. FLASH Where's Dale? ZAAKOV The boss-bird has her up in his 57. Sudden ear-piercing SCREAM from above. DALE'S scream, FLASH bounds to his feet. IN THE EYRIE DALE is surrounded by jealous HAWKGIRLS who are pushing her toward the terrace edge. Screaming again, DALE goes OVER. SPACE BETWEEN TWO TERRACES/ ONE TERRACE FLASH wheels toward the sound, dives to the parapet and catches DALE as she plunges past. DALE Flash! Oh darling! FLASH Dale baby! He hauls her in and they embrace in a steamy kiss. FLUTTER of wings. HAWKMEN swoop at the terrace and LIFT UP the clinging couple. It barely interrupts their conversation: DALE Flash -- when I was in that tub -- FLASH Yes -- it was me -- DALE Did you mean it? FLASH Every thought, baby! -- EXT. VULTAN'S TERRACE (BARIN, DALE, FLASH, HAWKPEOPLE, TIGER MAN, VULTAN) As FLASH and DALE are lowered on it. VULTAN No. What have you to say to Vultan, Prince of the Air? FLASH We're all Ming's prisoners. I say let's team up and smash him. TIGER MAN (O.S.) Listen to his words! -- ANOTHER TERRACE - TIGER MAN On his feet on the other terrace, shouting across: 58. TIGER MAN (CONT'D) I know -- I'm only an ignorant Tiger Man -- but I tell you Flash Gordon is the leader we've waited for! BACK TO VULTAN'S TERRACE Where VULTAN gazes at TIGER MAN a beat, then turns mocking eyes on FLASH. VULTAN You're a leader, he? FLASH Well, back home it's what I'm paid for -- I called a pretty good game against the Dallas Cowboys once --- VULTAN (TO BARIN) Do you understand him? BARIN Not a word. (LIKE ICE) I was hunting him when you seized me. Before you finish me. Vultan I beg only that you let me finish him. FLASH Oh god -- here we go again -- DALE Is everyone on Mongo CRAZY? Haven't you guys ever heard of TEAMWORK? FLASH (TO BARIN) When I had that damn snake in my hand, I could've poked it in your face and KILLED you. BARIN I had you in bow-sight you were dead! VULTAN Enough! (shouting to all around) These vagrants talk a brave fight, my Hawkmen! Shall we test their words? QUICK CUTS - HAWKPEOPLE 59. CHEERING AND SHOUTING eagerly from all around: HAWKPEOPLE Test them! -- Let's have sport! The joust! -- To the joust! -- CU VULTAN VULTAN Take them below -- put them together. INT. SKY PALACE - A RAMP (DALE, FLASH, ZARKOV) VULTAN leads the way down. FLASH, BARIN, DALE, ZAAKOV and TIGER MAN are escorted by many fierce HAWKMEN. DALE Flash - don't do this. FLASH (low, bitter) I've got to. DALE Why? ZARKOV He has no choice, Dale it's the Mongo way. DALE I'm so homesick -- what I wouldn't give for a nice quiet night with some muggers in Central Park -- FLASH squeezes DALE'S hand. Ahead appears an archway opening to the sky. A GREAT GONG is heard. ANOTHER TERRACE ANGLE - HAWKMAN appears with a mallet, he beats again on a huge bronze GONG. EXT. SKY PALACE - WIDE SHOT Startling sight: A big DISC hangs in the air between the curved prongs of a lower terrace, the shaft that supports it lost in clouds below. 60. EXT. A LOWER PLATFORM (VULTAN) FLASH and the OTHERS appear. They halt, looking at the disc. VULTAN Prepare them! ONT HE DISC - A HAWKMAN Is GREASING the shiny surface with a mop, slipping around a bit as he does so. ANOTHER TERRACE SHOTS - ASH AND BARIN getting prepared. Removing shirts being equipped with heavy leather gauntlets, and so on. Each is given a long vicious WHIP. THE LOWER PLATFORM ANGLE - a bridge-like plank extends itself, out over the edge of the shiny greased disc. FLASH and BARIN appear, ready for combat. HAWKMEN behind them, wthey start out over the bridge. VULTAN (CONT'D) Arm the disc! CU - FLASH Stopping short, eyes popping, as he SEES: ON THE DISC Razor sharp knives are POPPING UP from the top surface all over, maybe two feet apart. If a man loses his footing and falls he will surely be fatally impaled. INT. LOWER PLATFORM (BARIN, DALE, FLASH, MING'S VOICE, VULTAN, ZARKOV) FEATURE FLASH and BARIN with whips in hand, they step from the bridge onto the disc. FLASH almost slips and falls immediately. QUICK CU - DALE DALE Flash!! CU - FLASH 61. Getting his balance again. BARIN moves across amidst the knives, takes a stance facing FLASH, raises and coils back his whip. BARIN Ready for me, Earthling? FLASH (POISED LIKEWISE) I ask you to swear, Barin -- if you defeat me, you'll join Vultan against Ming! If for no other reasons, because you'll never have Aura as long as her father lives!- BARIN What do you now of Aura? FLASH Quite a lot! ZWIPPP! BARIN'S whip lashes out savagely at FLASH. ANGLES - FLASH AND BARIN - SPECTATOR REACTIONS Suddenly the fight begins. FLASH and BARIN stalk around, slipping on the grease, whamming at each other with their whips. The disc suddenly begins to TILT and SWAY, making this affair even more desperate. BARIN begins to get an edge. Slashing, cutting, he drives FLASH back. CU DALE DALE Flash, I love you! Win for me, Flash!?? FEATURE FLASH Adrenaline courses through his veins as he hears that over the uproar. He flies at BARIN, dodges the lash, grapples with him hand- to-hand. They wrestle their way tot he very rim of the swaying tilting surface. It looks bad again for FLASH, when with a superhuman effort he flips BARIN over his back... over the edge! In the same instant, FLASH dives onto his side amidst the deadly knives and grabs at BARIN'S wrist. 62. FLASH catches him. BARIN hangs suspended over the abyss of space held only by FLASH'S grip. VULTAN You've won, Earthling! Drop him to doom! FLASH (gasping at BARIN) Try to catch my wrist! -- the other one. VULTAN What is this?? ZARKOV Call it what you want, Vultan -- compassion -- mercy: let us teach you the meaning of these words. FLASH (TO BARIN) Swing your body -- see if you can get a leg up here! Suddenly an ECHOING VOICE BOOMS from the sky: MING'S VOICE Vultan! Hear Ming, Ruler of the Universe! INT. MING'S DOME (AURA, MING, MING'S VOICE, VULTAN, ZARKOV) Where MING watches the SKY PALACE SCENE on a viewing screen, a weeping AURA beside him, as he goes on: MING I see you, Vultan -- and Barin too! You both have defied we by sparing these Earthlings! AURA Barin -- my only -- I swear I didn't mean to get you into this! FEATURE VULTAN As the VOICE goes on: MING'S VOICE Do you want to live, Vultan? VULTAN What creature wants to die? 63. MING'S VOICE Then kill Flash Gordon now! Pick up Dale Arden, deliver her to me on your own wings -- it's your only chance! My fleet is already in the air, ready to destroy your whole Kingdom if you disobey! The ECHO rolls and dies. DISC TIGER MAN suddenly leaps out onto the disc, slides over between the knives, helps FLASH pull BARIN up to safety. AS BEFORE ZARKOV in his chains, walks over to the confused VULTAN... QUIETLY: ZARKOV What'll you have -- death or dishonor? VULTAN looks down at FLASH once more, then makes up his mind. He shouts to his people: VULTAN We'll save these Earthlings! - Curse Ming! -- Into the air, my Hawkpeople - fly! ZARKOV grins, extends a hand to VULTAN. He just looks at it. VULTAN (CONT'D) I don't understand this. I think I've gone mad. INT. MING'S DOME (AURA, MING) MING snaps off the viewing screen, looks at AURA AURA Spare him Daddy -- oh please spare BARIN -- AURA tries to throw herself into his arm, but he pushes her roughly away. KLYTUS materialises from a shadow, smiling. MING You've always wanted her, Klytus -- Aura is yours. 64. EXT. SKY PALACE - LONG SHOT It is being evacuated. Squadrons of HAWAKPEOPLE stream out of its many openings, diminutive figures against the sky. ANOTHER PART OF THE SKY Several ROCKET-SHIPS appear, wonderfully gaudy contraptions with MING's battle-flags flying. A RAY shoots out from the nose of the biggest. EXT. SKY PALACE - LONG SHOT The RAY zaps it. The whole place EXPLODES. EXT. SQUADRON OF HAWKMEN - IN FLIGHT (DALE, FLASH, VULTAN, ZARKOV) VULTAN and his CAPTAIN lead. Ranged around are BARIN, FLASH, DALE ,TIGER MAN and ZARKOV, each carried by a HAWKMAN. Distant explosions rumble like thunder. VULTAN Don't look back, Hawkman. Head for that cloud-cover! (over his shoulder) Where's this capsule of yours, exactly? ZARKOV In the high grass east of Mingo. VULTAN Pick it up, Captain! The CAPTAIN and a FEW HAWKMEN peel off. FLASH and DALE Gaze at each other lovingly, flown along about a hundred feet apart. He calls for her: FLASH Guess the first thing you and me are gonna do after we land..! DALE Darling not in front of the Hawkmen -- you'll make me blush! -- FLASH Gonna do it first thing -- around here, never know if you'll get another chance! 65. Dark SHADOW falls over DALE. She looks up. ANOTHER ANGLE IN THE SKY A big ROCKET SHIP hovers, doors in its bottom side opening. A flickering RAY shoots down. BACK TO THE HAWKMEN AND OTHERS IN SKY FEATURE DALE As an effulgent GLOW envelopes her. Inexorably, DALE and her HAWKMEN are sucked upward. DALE Help!! FLASH I'm coming, Dale! (to his Hawkmen) Follow her -- climb! VULTAN's command of course takes precedence. The HAWKMAN bearing FLASH follows his mates into a shrieking vertical. dive. INT. ROCKET SHIP (DALE, HEDONIA) DALE and her HAWKMAN are sucked up into a chamber. Waiting SOLDIERS seize the struggling HAWKMAN, brutally smash his wings pitch him OUT the bottom as the doors close. DALE backs off, drops into a karate stance, With a WHINING ROAR the craft accelerates throwing DALE off balance against a wall. HEDONIA enters through a door, her arms full seems to be yards and yards of filmy white material. HEDONIA Smiles nicely. HEDONIA Time is short. Ming sent me to fit you with is. DALE Fit me with what? HEDONIA Your wedding dress. EXT. ARBORIA - VINCINITY OF LODGE TREE MEN and LION MEN and TIGER MAN toil together in peaceful concernt, constructing a crude wooden launch-gantry around ZARKOV'S SPACE CAPSULE, which has been conveyed here. 66. Several hovering HAWKMEN hold it in position with vine cables as the work is completed. Capsule door is open. Through it we see ZARKOV at work inside, feverishly re-wiring a control panel. EXT. LODGE BALCONY (BARIN, FLASH, VULTAN, ZARKOV'S VOICE) Up on Lodge Balcony, FLASH, BARIN and VULTAN lean over a table on which maps and drawings are laid out, a typical military staff meeting. With a bit of charcoal, BARIN sketches a semi-circular line over a map of MING'S city. BARIN A force-field covers the whole city, from here to here. With luck, Flash can lure them into lowering their defenses. VULTAN What if he fails? (ABRUPTLY) This is suicide, Barin! I can't order my men to suicide! VULTAN ascends into the air. Hovers as he goes on: VULTAN (CONT'D) The flight brought me back to my senses -- good luck and goodbye. BARIN Ming destroyed your kingdom! VULTAN We'll build another. BARIN Vultan! FLASH Let him go -- I understand. (up to Vultan) Thanks anyway for getting us this far! VULTAN hesitates a moment, the soars away with determination. ZARKOV'S VOICE Flash! Ready for a test! INT. CAPSULE (FLASH, ZARKOV) FLASH ENTERS 67. FLASH What's the game-plan? ZARKOV Sit there. When I give you zero, punch that button. Any questions? EXT. CAPSULE (BARIN, FLASH'S VOICE, ZARKOV) ZARKOV jumps out, leaving the door open. He crouches low. BARIN and VULTAN and EVERYBODY are watching. ZARKOV Five, four, three, two, one -- ZERO! Interior of the capsule is filled with BLINDING BLUE LIGHT for an instant. ZARKOV pops up, sticks his head in. ZARKOV (CONT'D) Flash! (NO REPLY) Do you hear me, Flash? Where are you? CU ZARKOV As INVISIBLE HANDS turn around the helmet on his head. ZARKOV (CONT'D) Eureka! I did it! You can come out now, Flash -- FLASH'S VOICE Not unless you get out of my way, I CAN'T -- BACK TO MAIN SCENE - EXT. CAPSULE ZARKOV moves inside. BARIN Look -- he still casts a shadow: It's true. FLASH is totally invisible, but on the ground we SEE his shadow as he climbs out and stands upright. Suddenly there is rising WHINING HUMMING SOUND that seems to fill the whole firmament. The earth trembles. LION MEN and TREE MEN cower in terror. TIGER MAN roars. BARIN (CONT'D) Zarkov! What have you done? 68. The SOUND grows louder, intolerable. Brown smoking foliage rains down. EVERYONE looks up. EXT. FOREST OF ARBORIA (KLYTUS, VOICE, ZARKOV) CUTS AND ANGLES - UPWARDS The topless forest of Arboria is withering, falling apart. TREE MEN cry with primal fear as the SEE the sky revealed. Hovering against the sun are the dark shapes of MING'S ROCKET SHIPS. PULSING RAYS emanate from projectors on their bottoms. A VOICE booms from heave: VOICE Prisoners of Ming, you are surrounded! The creature who moves is obliterated! EVERYONE stands frozen. PART OF FOREST - CUTAWAY ONE LION MAN Howls in terror, makes a break for cover. A RAY instantly zaps down at him and he EXPLODES into fiery fragments. BACK TO MAIN PART OF FOREST A small SHUTTLE CRAFT descends vertically to a soft landing. KLYTUS gets out. Every sound ceases. He nods at BARIN, at ZARKOV. Looks around. Frowns. He walks directly across FLASH'S SHADOW, to ZARKOV. KLYTUS We'll find vultan later. Where's Flash Gordon? ZARKOV His Hawkman dropped him. He's dead. INT. MING'S SERAGLIO (AURA, DALE) CU DALE DALE Nooo -- it's not true! WIDER ANGLE 69. AURA (GENTLY) It is -- they saw him fall a mile into the glaciers of Frigia. DALE shuts her eyes, sobs out: DALE Oh Flash -- no -- you can't be dead -- it doesn't make any sense -- AURA When I think of being given to Klytus, I wish it was myself who had fallen. DALE (blazing at her) I don't believe you. You -- you awful Mongo person -- you were born without a heart: AURA Then what is it that melts into my eyes, Dale Arden? Feel it breaking -- Tear runs down AURA'S cheeks. She seizes DALE'S hand, presses it against her wonderful breast. DALE is really moved. DALE You poor kid -- don't you have a MOM to talk to? AURA Ming tired of her. He blew my Mother into outer space. I look into the night sky sometimes and wonder what star she's orbiting -- DALE God, Aura -- no wonder you've had problems -- that bastard: DALE embraces AURA. They cling to each other, bosom against bosom, in perfect womanly understanding. Golden CHORDS are heard. Doors open. AMAZONS enter. EXT. ARBORIA - ZARKOV'S CAPSULE Capsule sits in its launch-gantry, amidst the ruined blight left by the ray attack. There is not a soul in sight. Then Flash's SHADOW moves quickly over the ground toward the Capsule and VANISHES into the hatch. The door shuts itself. 70. INT. CAPSULE Control levers move. A red button depresses itself. Through the side, which we should remember is transparent from within, we SEE the scene outside going into a GREEN-BROWN BLUR as the capsule starts to spin for takeoff. INT. MING'S BEDCHAMBER (KLYTUS, MING) MING is being robed by TWO GIRL ATTENDANTS. Suddenly KLYTUS is there in a shadow, smiling. MING senses him, turns. MING Well? What is it this time? KLYTUS I can't remember. I feel danger -- but I cannot see it. MING Klytus, you're impossible. Aura deserves you. KLYTUS I foresee another thing. In one minute exactly, the Earthling space capsule will be seen on the scanner. KLYTUS is swallowed again in shadow. EXT. ZARKOV'S CAPSULE - IN FLIGHT Sailing over the ever frozen Moon of FRIGIA INT. MING'S DOME (CAPTIN, MING) Capsule is SEEN on the viewing screen, grid-lines dancing over the image as FRIGORIA is left behind. Watching are MING, KLYTUS, the CAPTAIN and several other SOLDIERS. CAPTIN Shall I disintegrate it, Your Majesty? MING No, Captain -- bring it in. Land it to a warm reception. INT. ZARKOV'S CAPSULE - IN FLIGHT (FLASH'S VOICE) Through the front we see MING'S CITY dead ahead and below. Numbers flash on the navigation display, constantly changing. 71. INVISIBLE HAND picks up a microphone, holds it before INVISIBLE LIPS. FLASH'S VOICE Vultan! Do you read me? EXT. ARBORIA - IN A BROWN BLASTED TREE (FLASH'S VOICE, VULTAN) VULTAN and some other HAWKMEN perch, listening to VOICE coming from a radio in VULTAN'S belt. FLASH'S VOICE Flash Gordon calling Vultan! Over! VULTAN doesn't stir a feather. After a moment: FLASH'S VOICE (CONT'D) Okay, don't answer -- I'm on Hawkman frequency I know you are reading me. Now get this -- CAPSULE AND TREE IN ARBORIA INTERCUTS FLASH'S VOICE (CONT'D) I'm being guided through the force- field under their control. You're on the beam when you've got the tops of two towers lined up exactly -- the high gold one behind the green one with the blue flag got that? (SILENCE) Okay, Vultan, it's your decision the ball is in your court -- I hope I'll be seeing you, you crazy ole bird. The microphone hangs itself up on the panel. VULTAN AND HIS HAWKMEN Just sit there, grim-faced. VULTAN shake his head. VULTAN He calls us crazy -- EXT. PALACE BATTLEMENTS (GUARD CAPTAIN, KLYTUS) It's an armed camp. SOLDIERS stand admits tanks and ray-gun artillery, every weapon trained on a landing pad in the middle. 72. KLYTUS waits with his CAPTAIN watching the mirror-bright capsule coming down. It lands. CAPTAIN gives a signal. ZAP! From a tank's ray gun. The capsule's door is knocked with surgical precision off its hinges. Flanked by SOLDIERS with ray-guns at the ready, the CAPTAIN advances and looks in. He turns and calls back to KLYTUS in surprise. GUARD CAPTAIN It's empty! KLYTUS What? GUARD CAPTAIN Unmanned. Must've taken off on some automatic program. KLYTUS frowns. He doesn't notice the SHADOW that suddenly passes over him, moves on quickly. KLYTUS Destroy it. FLASH'S SHADOW Halts, shift shape as FLASH stops in dismay at that, turns. A RAY GUN - ON A TANK ZAPS out a ray. ZARKOV'S CAPSULE - glows white, falls into thin ashes. FLASH INVISIBLE Lets out a bitter sigh. Then the SHADOW moves again, fast, to an open doorway. INT. PALACE HALLWAY - A SOLDIER (FLASH' S VOICE, SOLDIER) Stands on guard. Suddenly out of nowhere, but very close. FLASH' S VOICE Which way to the dungeons, Soldier: SOLDIER Third elevator down, turn left! (then doing a take) Who is that? 73. WHAM! A left to the gut doubles him over to take an invisible knockout right on the chin. INT. UNDER THE PALACE (FLASH'S VOICE) TWO SOLDIERS stand with ray-guns before a heavy locked door. Suddenly INVISIBLE FLASH steps behind a flaring torch, casting an enormous SHADOW on the wall. He manipulates his caped arms so that the image becomes truly fearsome. FLASH'S VOICE I am the ghost of all the good men murdered by Ming! Prepare for doom! The SOLDIERS faint. INT. NARROW PASSAGEWAY - UNDER THE PALACE FOUR SOLDIERS march along, two by two, filling the narrow way. SOUND OF RUNNING FEET coming towards them. They halt i n consternation. WHAM! Invisible FLASH crashes into them, sending them flying like bowling-pins. INT. DUNGEON AREA (GUARD) FOUR GUARDS lounge. around. MOVE to one of them, who sits studying the pictures in the Mingo version of PLAYBOY magazine. A SHADOW falls over the page. GUARD I'm looking at it now -- wait for your turn. An INVISIBLE UPPERCUT knocks him off his chair. ANGLES - THE FIGHT As INVISIBLE FLASH goes after the other three with a deadly chair that seems to SWING itself through the air. INT. DUNGEON (FLASH'S VOICE) ZARKOV, BARIN and TIGER MAN lie in chains, heads cocked at SOUNDS of the facas outside. THUD of a body falling, brief silence, then sound of a KEY IN THE LOCK. The door opens itself. FLASH'S VOICE It's me! 74. INT. NARROW VERTICAL SHAFT (BARIN, FLASH'S VOICE, ZARKOV) The Same one AURA and FLASH fell down originally. Now BARIN, ZARKOV, TIGER MAN and FLASH are inching their way UP it like mountain climbers doing a rock chimney; in. back-to-back pairs, feet pressed out against the shaft walls. What makes it look even stranger, half of the FLASH-BARIN twosome is INVISIBLE. Low conversation as they pant and struggle up the SHAFT: ZARKOV How do we get down to the plasma level? FLASH'S VOICE Anti-gravity shaft -- I got a guard to show me -- BARIN This won't be easy, Flash -- FLASH'S VOICE Nothing's easy on Mongo -- INT. PLASMA CAVERN (CONTROLLER, GUARD CAPTAIN) LIZARD MEN SLAVES work like mad, shoveling radioactive fuel into the seething mass. ON THE MEZZANINE CONTROLLERS are at consoles. Many GUARDS stand around. Everyone watches a big hanging dial. Its needle quivers with each flare-up from the inferno below, inches toward a RED SECTOR. GUARD CAPTAIN Faster! -- More fueld! CONTROLLER What's the hurry? CONTROLLER What's the hurry? GUARD CAPTAIN He wants to give Dale Arden the final destruction of Earth as a wedding present. CONTROLLERS twist the shock-knobs. Tortured SLAVES howl in agony. Some drop and are thrown into the fiery mass, others redouble their efforts. 75. ON THE MEZZANINE The needle quivers upwards. MOVE OFF it to a slot-like window in back wall. There are EYES behind the glass. INT. CRAWLSPACE BEHIND THE MEZZANINE (BARIN, FLASH'S VOICE, TIGER MAN, ZARKOV) ZARKOV,BARIN and TIGER MAN crouch amidst WHIRRING ventilators, watching through the window. BARIN How's it look to yoU? ZARKOV Bad. Plasma's contracting into a critical mass. When that needle hits the red, Earth is finished. TIGER MAN Grrao! I'll charge down at them: ZARKOV and BARIN just look at him. TIGER MAN slumps out of his fighting stance. Low door at the back opens itself and INVISIBLE FLASH comes in. FLASH'S VOICE Cavern is sealed tight -- every door locked from the inside -- CU ZARKOV Hope drains from his expression. ZARKOV Let's face it, my friends -- without a miracle, we've lost. EXT. SKY - WIDE ANGLE (HAWKMAN CAPTAIN, VULTAN) It is filled with HAWKMEN, flying toward us. VULTAN and HIS CAPTAIN. fly in the lead, looking ahead and down at the City of Mingo. HAWKMAN CAPTAIN All right -- I see the towers lined up now as Flash Gordon said -- VULTAN soars up and hovers, shouts to the ranks behind: 76. VULTAN Through the force-field, my Hawkmen! The pass is narrow -- dive three-by- three! Any man who wishes to turn back may do so! THE HAWKMEN Keep flying right on, not one bird of them turning back. FEATURE VULTAN Musing to his captain: VULTAN (CONT'D) Who are these Earthlings, that so many would die for? HAWKMAN CAPTAIN They must have one hell of a little PLANET -- INT. MING'S DOME - ON VIEWING SCREEN (OFFICER) THREE HAWKMEN are SEEN in steep descent. comes ,INTO FOCUS over them. PULL BACK. Several OFFICERS and SOLDIERS are around a console, watching the screen and other displays. OFFICER In range. Another OFFICER touches a red firing-button. EXT. PALACE BATTLEMENTS Ranged here are devices like multiple rocket-launchers, bristling with hundreds of arrows. SWOOSH: One fires its load into the sky. EXT. SKY - HAWKMEN (HAWKMAN CAPTAIN, VULTAN) The THREE LEADING HAWKMEN are impaled a dozen times each crumple and plummet down. VULTAN and CAPTAIN - HOVERING HAWKMAN CAPTAIN It's a trap! The passage is covered! 77. VULTAN Onward, Hawkmen! Dive! We outnumber their arrows -- overwhelm them! EXT. BATTLEMENTS/SKY INTERCUTS - HAWKMEN and ARROW PROJECTORS as the brave HAWKMEN dive in a converging stream at the invisible opening, and the projectors FIRE again and again. Great slaughter is wreaked on the HAWKMEN, but they keep coming. One group VEERS to the side away from the deadly fire, only to crash into the equally deadly force-field. They EXPLODE into flames. INT. DOME FIRING OFFICER is almost breaking his thumb, he has it jammed down so hard on the red button. ANGLE to the VIEWING SCREEN. On it VULTAN leads a stream of descending HAWKMEN. EXT. SKY - HAWKMEN Circle and reform, some giving mid-air aid to wounded mates, and on they come, onward! INT. DOME (OFFICER) OFFICER Man the battlements! EXT. PALACE BATTLEMENTS HAWKMEN descend as SOLDIERS rush out at them. The battle is epic, a crazy combination of swords and ray-guns and clubs and spears. VULTAN is a towering figure in the middle of it, dealing havoc on all sides. As he fights THREE SOLDIERS, ANOTHER races at VULTAN'S back with a deadly spear. Suddenly he TRIPS OVER NOTHING and crashes headlong to be dispatched by another HAWKMAN. VULTAN whirls and is amazed to have his freehand warmly clasped by an INVISIBLE ONE. 78. INT. A PALACE ANTECHAMBER (KLYTUS, MING, OFFICER) MING and KLYTUS, in ceremonial robes. As part of his costume MING wears a sword. MING You have the ring? KLYTUS In my pocket. Door flies open, an OFFICER dashes in. OFFICER Your Majesty, we're under attack by Hawkmen! MING So what are you doing down here, coward? Why aren't you in the fray? OFFICER Sire, I thought you'd -- MING Mingo City is impregnable! I'm not about to put off wedding Dale Arden for this! EXT. BATTLEMENTS (FLASH'S VOICE, HAWKMAN CAPTAIN, VULTAN) The battle continues. Bloodies HAWKMAN CAPTAIN fights his way up beside VULTAN, who is engaged in seizing a dominant piece of ray-gun artillery. HAWKMAN CAPTAIN What's for us after this lot? VULTAN Ming! FLASH'S VOICE The cavern first! Gotta get Zarkov in there to -- Suddenly MUSIC is heard from below. Some great electronic organ booms out the strains of what is recognizably "Here Come The Bride".... the familiar thrilling wedding-march. FLASH'S VOICE (CONT'D) On my god! 79. INT. MING'S GREAT HALL - HIGH WIDE ANGLE A magnificent wedding is on. DALE marches slowly up the middle, on KLYTUS'S arm, helped along by AMAZONS who march at her back with spears. Her long train passes between the AMAZONS to be borne behind by LOVELY GIRLS, as the party passes between ranks of splendidly garbed MONGONS. An aged HIGH PRIEST waits at the throne-altar with MING, whose eyes lecherously devour his approaching bride. CLOSE ON DALE Her beauty only enhanced by the teas rolling soundlessly down her cheeks. INT. PLASMA CAVERN The molten mass is more intense than we have ever seen it, scarcely bearable to the eye. INT. CRAWLSPACE BEHIND THE MEZZANINE (TIGER MAN, ZARKOV) Even in here there is a terrible glare from the slot-window, ZARKOV turns his face away suddenly, infinitely sad. ZARKOV I can't watch any more. To think of all our history ended this way -- the incredible ascent from primordial slime to Albert Einstein and Dale Arden and -- TIGER MAN (AT WINDOW) Look! INT. CAVERN - POV SHOT VULTAN and THREE HAWKMEN are swooping down from some gallery above. VULTAN and TWO pounce on CONTROLLERS, while the THIRD HAWKMAN flies down to open a door on the lower level. INT. CRAWLSPACE ZARKOV and BARIN and TIGER MAN Scramble for the low exit behind them. 80. INT. MING'S GREAT HALL (DALE, FLASH'S VOICE, HIGH PRIEST, MING) Earth turns slowly in mid-air, its seas and continents veiled by clouds of hideous smoke which seethe with flashes of interior red lightning. Then FACES come INTO FOCUS below and behind it, and we realise we are in MING' S GREAT HALL, where EARTH is a holographic image in a transparent box above the altar-throne. FEATURE DALE Standing beside MING at the altar with KLYTUS, looking up despairingly at her beloved planet while the HIGH PRIEST INTONES: HIGH PRIEST Do you take her, this Earthling, Dale Arden, to be your Empress of the hour? Do you solemnly promise to use her as you will -- not discard her until such time as you grow weary of her? MING I do. HIGH PRIEST The wedding ring, please -- KLYTUS produces a golden ring, hands it to MING. MING takes DALE'S left hand, forces it up into position, holds the ring poised to slip it on. MING'S face has never been more merciless. HIGH PRIEST (CONT'D) Recite after me -- with this ring I thee wed -- FLASH'S VOICE With this ring, I thee wed! An INVISIBLE HAND snatches the ring from MING'S grip like lightning and james it onto DALE'S finger. DALE Flash!!! FLASH'S VOICE Run!!! HIGH ANGLE 81. Pandemonium. DALE runs like hell, but is tripped by her train and goes down as MING leaps up onto his throne platform. MING Seal this hall! Close every portal! ANGLE - A PORTAL Swinging shut, BARIN squeezing in through it at the last instant, sword in hand. KLYTUS rushes at him with a sword of his own. MING Looks around wildly, whipping out the sword sheathed at his belt. Its blade is like crystal fire. He reacts sharply, catches his breath. WHAT MING SEES - ANOTHER SWORD (FLASH'S VOICE, MING) exactly like his, a blade of fire, apparently hanging in the air and pointed right at him. MING Where did you get that sword? FLASH'S VOICE From the crystal block. MING Impossible! It could only be pulled by my rightful heir! FLASH'S VOICE How about that? The sword slowly advances. FEATURE MING His face contorted, he flies at INVISIBLE FLASH behind the sword. FLASH parries the blow. Astonishing pyrotechnics as the blades hit each other. Shrieking MONGONS flee under showers of fire. INT. PLASMA CAVERN (ZARKOV) HAWKMEN and LIZARD MEN SLAVES engage MING'S PEOPLE. Aided by VULTAN and TIGER MAN, ZARKOV battles his way up to the Mezzanine Control area. He shouts down wildly: 82. ZARKOV Attach the electrodes to the shovels! Pitch them into the plasma! INT. GREAT HALL (BARIN, DALE, KLYTUS) MING and FLASH Duel dazzlingly around the enormous throne. Suddenly FLASH starts to lose his invisibility. A pair of eyes appears, the tip of a nose, parts of limbs. CU DALE Pinned by AMAZONS, reacting to that. DALE Flash -- look out -- you're coming back! He can see you now, Flash! FLASH and MING FLASH pauses to look at himself, almost gets his head lopped off by a fiery slash from MING, recovers to bound up higher on the vast throne statue wheron they battle. PULL UP. In the f.g. the image of EARTH slowly turns and glows redder with the lightning inside the clouds. BARIN and KLYTUS Duel in another area of e Hall. A thrust by BARIN catches KLYTUS on the forehead. KLYTUS springs back, blood gushing down over his eyes. KLYTUS I foresaw at blow -- BARIN You're blinded, Klytus -- drop your sword! KLYTUS laughs, reaches up and throws off his helmet, WHIRLS in a lightning way to reveal ANOTHER FACE Shadowed, hideous, marked with all the evil in the universe. It's mouth emits a raging SCREAM. BARIN Lunges with horror, slashes with his sword point. 83. KLYTUS'S CHEEK Is slashed but grotesquely does not bleed. BARIN and KLYTUS Fly at each other again, trade blows, then each catches a wrist of the other with his free hand. KLYTUS laughs horribly. KLYTUS You fight me in vain, Barin I do not foresee my death at your hands -- KLYTUS twists away, knocks BARIN'S sword out of his grasp, drives BARIN back against the wall. KLYTUS lifts his own sword, puts it at BARIN'S throat for the final thrust. KLYTUS'S FACE Suddenly changes horribly. PULL BACK. AURA is behind him, her hand on the hilt of BARIN'S sword, which she has driven into KLYTUS' back. Soundless, dead, KLYTUS falls to the floor. AURA and BARIN Move together, embrace. BARIN touches her face. Gently, AURA strokes BARIN'S cheek in hirst human-like, loving touch. FLASH and MING Have duelled their way right up onto the shoulder of the great statue now, fight against a vast replica of MING'S EAR. INT. PLASMA CAVERN (ZARKOV) Needle trembles on the verge of red. ANGLE DOWN to ZARKOV at console, protected against the final GUARDS' onslaught by VULTAN and TIGER MAN as he works feverishly with a screwdriver on a wiring panel pulled out from the innards He straightens up, takes a deep breath. ZARKOV Cross your fingers, boys! ZARKOV hits a switch. INT. GREAT HALL (ALL THE MONGONS, DALE, DALE'S VOICE) CU DALE 84. Reacting to something, pointing upward: DALE Look -- Earth! EARTH - THE IMAGE IN THE AIR DALE'S VOICE Oh it's so beautiful! FEATURE MING As he swivels his head for a quick look. He freezes, gives a CRY of unmitigated rage. FLASH seizes the instant, thrust his sword. The blade goes into MING up to the hilt. FLASH pulls it out. There isn't a drop of blood. MING just stands there , smoking, in spectacular fashion into the atoms of which he was constituted. MING is just GONE. HIGH SHOT - THE GREAT HALL EVERYONE looks upwards at FLASH, standing with his sword atop the statue. There is a clatter as AMAZONS cast away their spears. A cry goes up as if from one throat! ALL THE MONGONS Hail, Flash Gordon! EXT. SKY OVER MINGO Vista of stunning beauty as HAWKMEN soar and loop in wondrous victory rolls, leaving behind RAINBOW CONTRAILS. EXT. PALACE BATTLEMENTS (DALE, FLASH, ZARKOV) It is a scene of peace now. HAWKMEN and SOLDIERS join in tending their wounded. Formerly fierce AMAZONS act as gentle nurses. MOVE OVER this to find FLASH, DALE and ZARKOV standing together, looking up at the terrific sky-shadow, FLASH with an arm around DALE'S shoulder. He glances at her tenderly, is surprised to see tears on her cheeks. FLASH What's the matter, darling? DALE We saved Earth but we lost the capsule -- we'll never get home again. 85. ZARKOV (SIMPLY) You are home. FLASH Zarkov is right. ZARKOV Shouldn't you fellows be leaving on your honeymoon? DALE laughs, turns her face up to FLASH. He kisses her. As they head into the Palace, ZARKOV gazes upward again. EXT. SKY HAWKMEN swoop and soar, weaving RAINBOWS, as END CREDITS ROLL. THE END EDITOR'S NOTE: What you have just read is a reproduction of the "1st Draft" for the feature film "Flash Gordon". The original source material came from a badly deteriorated copy of the original script and in some instances dialogue which could not be read was guessed upon by best case understanding. We have made every attempt to include the integrity of the original script, "as-is", to include all original descriptions, grammar and spelling. Errors as well. We hope you've enjoyed this original look at "FLASH GORDON"! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fletch.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fletch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c848d9616f3edde896b98bcbe23ab20572893847 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fletch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1638 @@ +May 4, 1986 +PRODUCERS:PETERDOUGLASALAN GREISMANDIRECTOR:MICHAEL RITCHIE +  +FLETCH +Final DraftScreenplay +by +PHIL ALDEN ROBINSON +From a Draft +by +ANDREW BERGMAN +Based on the novel +by +GREGORY MC DONALD +  +FLETCH +FADE IN + 1. EXT.CALIFORNIA BEACH – DAY 1Seagulls squawk, and the waves pound, but we’re not talking about Malibu Colony, here. This is a fairly rundown beach area, catering to lower-echelon surfers, vagrants, and strung out druggies of all ages, several of whom stand or sit on their haunches by a dilapidated old hamburger stand. Over the stand is a faded sign: "FAT SAM’S HAMBURGERS".
A simple but haunting electronic melody plays in the b.g.
 + 2. INT. "FAT SAM’S" – DAY 2Seated just inside the stand on a folding aluminum chair is a chubby man in his late thirties. He’s wearing a stained valor sweat suit and a cap. This is Fat Sam. He’s a dealer. Seated on the sand next to him is Fletch, a rangy man, early thirties, in jeans and a Magic Johnson T-shirt, nodding idly on a battered Casio music machine which he treats lovingly. This is the source of the title music.
FLETCH
So what do you figure?
FAT SAM
No idea.
FLETCH
No idea at all?
FAT SAM
Okay. Some idea.
FLETCH
Like when?
FAT SAM
Like tonight.
FLETCH
For sure?
FAT SAM
No, not for sure. When it comes, it comes. You gonna want some $hit?
FLETCH
I think I’d rather have drugs.
 + 3. CONTINUED +FAT SAM +(shakes head andsmiles) +Fletch… +FLETCH +Sorry. I find alittle humor really brightens +things up aroundhere, don’t you? +A young junkie with a black eye– Gummy – passes. +GUMMY +Hi Sam. Hi Fletch. +FLETCH +Hi Gummy.How’s the eye? +GUMMY +It’s okay. Thecops did it. +FLETCH +I know. +GUMMY +They busted me lastweek. +FLETCH +They bust you everyweek. +GUMMY +I know. I got badluck or something. +Gummy exits. Fletch and Fat Samwatch him go. +FLETCH +That kid spends anymore time in jail +He’ll have tostart paying rent. +WIDER ANGLE THROUGH BINOCULARS +Fat Sam and Fletch conclude theirconversation. Fletch walks back among the drifters, the nervous, expectant junkies. He stops to talk to a young man propped up on his elbows on a towel.    Creasy. +4      CREASYAND FLETCH   +FLETCHMaybe tonight?   +CREASYWhaddyamean 'maybe'? +  FLETCHThat's what he said. +  CREASY(getting desperate)He doesn't know? How come he doesn't know?   +FLETCHI don't know how he doesn't know. He doesn't know. +  CREASYSonofabitch. +  FLETCHWonder who his supplier is. +  CREASYI have no idea. +  FLETCHI wasn't asking. +  CREASYHe never leaves the beach, Fat Sam.    Neverleaves.Sits in that chair, he's outta junk.    Then hesuddenlygets up, he's got junk.    So where does it comefrom?Through the sand? +  FLETCHI think that's highly unlikely, Creasy. +  CREASY(rolls over)I ought to get some sleep. +  FLETCHCreasy, how old are you? +  CREASYNineteen. +  FLETCH(a touch of sadness)You're not taking real good care of yourself. +5       WIDER - BINOCULARS AGAIN              +---Fletch takes his Casio and startsoff the beach.    The binocular angle follows ---him.    A pelicancrosses the water.    The binoculars move offFletch and ---follow the flight of the pelicanas it swoops low over the ocean.   +6       BEACH PARKING LOT - DAY              +---Fletch emerges into view, walkingtowards camera, when a Man steps into the ---immediate f.g., the binoculars athis side large in frame.    Fletch Stops.   +MANExcuse me. I have something I'd like to discuss with you. +  FLETCHWhat? +7       REVERSE +---A trim man of approximatelyFletch's age, wearing a perfectly tailored grey ---suit, is standing across fromFletch.    This is Alan Stanwyk.   +STANWYKWe can't talk about it here. +8       MASTER   +FLETCHWhy not? +  STANWYKBecause we can't. +FLETCHAre you on ascavenger hunt of some kind? +  STANWYKI want you to come to my house.    Then we'lltalk. +  FLETCHI think you've got the wrong gal, fella.   +STANWYKI'll give you a thousand dollars cash just to come to my house and listen to the proposition.    If you reject the proposition, you keep the thousand, and your mouth shut. +  FLETCHWill this proposition entail my dressing up as Tina Turner? +  STANWYK(unsmiling, all business)It is nothing of a sexual nature I assure you.(Takes a thousand in cash from his pocket)One thousand, just to listen.I don't see how you could turn that down Mr... +  FLETCHNugent.    Ted Nugent. +  STANWYK(shakes his hand)Alan Stanwyk. +  FLETCHCharmed. +9 EXT.BERMAN STREET - BEVERLY HILLS - DAY +---A Jaguar XJ sedan goes up BermanStreet, a dead end. Fletch'shand reaches out ---of the passenger window and empties sandout of a sneaker. +10 INT. JAGURE - DAY +FLETCHI always liked this part of town. +11 EXT. BERMAN STREET- DAY +---The Jaguar continues on up Berman Street,stopping before massive iron gates ---marked PRIVATE PROPERTY -- NO TRESPASSING-- STANWYK. The gates open ---electronically. +12 EXT. STANWYK HOUSE- DAY +---The jaguar goes up the center of the drivetoward a white-pillared mansion. The ---lawns and planting are spectacular. +13 INT. JAGUAR - DAY +---Fletch stares out the window. +FLETCHWhat a coincidence. +---The car stops before the house. +STANWYKWhat? +14 EXT. HOUSE - DAY +---as they get out of the car. +FLETCHI came this close...(holds fingers slightly apart)...to buying this place +---Stanwyk ignores Fletch and starts towardthe house. Fletch follows. +FLETCHThen I found out Hopalong Cassidy hadshot himself in the game room. Thatjust blew it for me. +STANWYKWho? +FLETCHHopalong Cassidy. Killed himself here.Bow and arrow. Strange. +---Stanwyk stops before the front door, staresat Fletch +STANWYKWhat are you, doped up or something? +---Fletch abruptly changes gears, stares atStanwyk +FLETCHI don't work for you yet, assface.Don't talk to me like that. +STANWYK(after a beat)Come inside. +15 INT. HOUSE - DAY +---Stanwyk and Fletch enter. A Mexican Maidcrosses. +STANWYKBuenas dias. +MAIDBuenas dias. +She disappeared. +FLETCHI commend you on your Spanish. +---Stanwyk doesn't reply, keeps on walking. Heopens a set of double doors to the---left of the winding staircase, then standsto one side, indicating that Fletch---should enter. +16 INT. LIBRARY - DAY +---Massive fireplace. Everything built inteak. Fletch enters, and Stanwyk closes---the door behind them. +FLETCHAhh, the library. Masculine but sensitive. +---Stanwyk wordlessly goes behind the desk +FLETCHReally, I love what you've done with the place.Must have cost you...hundreds. +---Stanwyk turns, looks out a pair of Frenchdoors behind his desk, then turns ---back. +STANWYKHere's my proposition, Mr. Fletcher. +FLETCHI'm all ears. +STANWYKI want you to murder me. +17thru OMITTED19 +20 FLETCH +---Even garrulous Fletch is stopped in histracks by this remark, uttered in the ---most business-like manner. +21 STANWYK +STANWYKHere. On Thursday. I'd like you to shoot me dead. +22 FLETCH +---He just stares, barely breathing. +23 STANWYK +STANWYKThe reason I ask you to do me this serviceis that I am facing a long, painful, and mostcertain death. You see, I have bone cancer.I don't know if you know anything about bone cancer. +24 FLETCH +---He shakes his head. +25 STANWYK +STANWYKIt doesn't get any worse than that. Just eats you up, bit by bit. +FLETCH +---Finally regains the gift of speech. +FLETCHYou don't look sick, Mr. Stanwyk. +27 MASTER +STANWYKI don't feel sick. Not yet. They tell me it'llstart getting bad in about a month. After that...well, I'd rather not be around for it. +FLETCHWhy don't you try suicide? +STANWYKMy company has taken out a very large insurancepolicy on me. And I have a wife. Suicide would nullify my insurance. Murder does not. +FLETCHSo why pick me? +STANWYKYou're a drifter, a -- pardon the expression --beach bum. No one would notice if you disappeared. I've watched you for a couple weeks. +FLETCHMaybe I'm just on vacation. +STANWYKNot with the scum you hang out with. I've watched.I've thought. Its a perfect scheme. I even have a perfectescape plan for you. +FLETCHDid it ever occur to you that I might not want to kill you? +STANWYKI've got fifty thousand dollars says you will. +28 FLETCH +---He chews his lip. +29 STANWYK +STANWYKFifty thousand and a guarantee you won't get caught. +---Stanwyk searches Fletch's face carefullyfor a reaction. After several beats.... +FLETCHI'm still here. +STANWYK(turns and goes to the French doors)I want it done Thursday evening, around eight PM.My wife will be off to the club for a committeemeeting. It's the staff's night off.(pushes doors open)These will be open. +30 FLETCH +FLETCHWouldn't they normally be locked? +31 MASTER +STANWYKSometimes yes, sometimes no. The staff usually forgets. +FLETCHI have the same problem with my help. +STANWYK(goes on, unresponsive)I will be here in the room, waiting for you.The safe will be open and there will be fiftythousand dollars in it. You will be wearingrubber gloves. Do you own rubber gloves? +FLETCHI rent them. Monthly lease, with an option to buy. +STANWYKIn this drawer.... +---He opens the top drawer of his desk +32 INSIDE THE DRAWER +---an enormous .357 Magnum. +33 MASTER +---Stanwyk holds up the gun. +34 FLETCH +FLETCHA .357. +35 MASTER +STANWYKVery good. My .357. Use it and no one cantrace it to you. The room will be in some disarray. +FLETCHSo it looks like a burglary attempt. Youcatch me. I get the gun, and shoot you. +STANWYKPrecisely. Are you a good shot? +FLETCH(looking at the huge gun)What's the difference? The noise'll kill you first. +STANWYKGet me on the first shot, if you can. +FLETCHI don't think you'll have to worry about that. +---A beat. Stanwyk stares at Fletch. +STANWYKDo you have a passport? +FLETCHSure, all drifters do. +STANWYKFine. After you kill me, take the Jaguar.The keys will be in the glove compartment. +FLETCHTake it where? +---Stanwyk starts to write down theinformation on a note pad. +STANWYKLAX. Go to the Pan Am desk. There will be a ticket waiting for you. +FLETCHWhere am I going? +STANWYK(hands Fletch the note)Rio. Flight 306. Departs at eleven PM. +FLETCHThey serve dinner on the flight? +STANWYKIt'll be a first class-ticket. I'm sure you'll enjoy the ride. I would recommend staying down thereat least a year, Mr. Fletcher. +FLETCHYou've certainly thought this out, haven't you? +STANWYKI am not someone who leaves a great dealto chance, Mr. Fletcher. +FLETCHYou sure those doors will be open? +STANWYKYes. All you provide are the gloves, the passport,and the aim. I'll take care of everything else. +FLETCHThe gun, the money, the tickets, and the dying. +STANWYKThat's right. +FLETCHYou sure got the hard part. +STANWYKWhat do you say, Mr. Fletcher? You'll be doingme and my family a great service. +36 FLETCH +---thinking it over. +37 STANWYK +STANWYKWill you kill me? +38 FLETCH +FLETCHSure. +39 INT. NEWSPAPERBUILDING - DAY +Fletch pushes throughthe double glass doors, still dresses in a beach mufti -- thejeans and Magic Johnson shirt, Puma sneakers. +40 INT. L.A. NEWSOFFICE - DAY +Fletch is greetedad-lib by several people as he walks through the cavernousnewspaper City Room. +REPORTERWhoa, check out the beach boy! +SECOND REPORTERLooking very good, Fletch. +FLETCHThank you so much(to someone else)Hey, Larry! +Larry, the young"morgue" researcher, hurries over and walks withFletch. She is fun and flirty, and her feelings for Fletch falljust short of idolatry. +LARRYYo! +FLETCHCan I steal you for a minute? +LARRYOnly if you promise not to return me. +FLETCHDeal. +LARRY(pointing to Fletch's T-shirt)'Magic' today, huh? +FLETCHKareem's in the wash. I need a favor. +LARRYShoot. +FLETCHDon't say shoot, okay. +They pass the officeof the city editor Frank Walker, fiftyish. Hold on Walker'soffice. Upon noticing Fletch, he jumps from his seat, edges hisway past the two reporters in his office and runs outside. +WALKERFletch. Fletch! +40-A FLETCH AND LARRY +They continue theirwalk. +FLETCHDid you hear something? +LARRYNot me. +FLETCHMe neither. See what we've got on a guynamed Alan Stanwyk, okay? I need it right away. +WALKER(running up to them)Fletch, I take it by your presence here thatthe story is done. Tell me I'm right. +Fletch hold up ahand. +FLETCHW-Y-K no 'c.' I'll be down in a minute. +LARRYNo problem, boss. +Larry peels off andFletch now talks to Walker without breaking stride for hisoffice. +WALKERFletch. +FLETCHFrank, you look a little peaked. Wanna vomit? +WALKERNo, I want an answer, Is the story done? +FLETCHUh, almost. +WALKER'Uh, almost' is not an answer. 'Yes Frank, it's alldone': that's an answer. +FLETCH(as he enters his cubicle)And a damn fine one, I might add. +41 INT. FLETCH'SCUBICLE - DAY +A pile of mail is onhis desk. On the walls are a team portrait of the Lakers, plus acouple of blow-ups of his column. Fletch writes under the name ofJane Doe. An unused word processor is on his desk, but thekeyboard has been moved aside to make room for an old, much-usedRoyal typewriter. +He bounces some wastepaper off the monitor into a strategically placed waste can. (Alot of crumpled papers lie on the floor all around the can.) +FLETCHTwo.... +WALKERIrwin.... +FLETCHOh, I hate it when he calls me that. +WALKERIrwin, professional journalism time, now. Go back to thegoddamn beach and finish the goddamn story! +FLETCHI will, Frank, I will. Something came up, okay? +WALKERNo it's not okay. You have to have this in by tomorrow.Did you see the ad we ran Sunday? +FLETCHI never read the paper. +WALKER...never reads the paper... +Walker goes through apile of unread newspapers on Fletch's desk, finds the Sundaypaper. +FLETCHWhat's the spread on the game tonight? +WALKERI don't know.(holds up paper)Look! +FLETCHLooks great. +42 INSERT - AD +A full-page ad. +NEXT WEEKA "JANE DOE" SPECIAL REPORT:DRUGS ON OUR BEACHES -SHAME OF THE CITY +43 MASTER +FLETCH'Shame of Our City' is so good. +WALKERNow, Irwin, try to follow me. You can't run the ad and then not run the story. +FLETCHWhy not? Oh $hit...really? +Walker just stares athim. +FLETCHJust kidding, Frank. You'll have the story and you'll be damn proud of it. +WALKERYou broke it? You know the source? +FLETCHPractically. +44 WALKER +ready to kill. +WALKERWhat's 'practically'? Is it Fat Sam?You said you had pictures of him.... +45 MASTER +FLETCHI have pictures of him. Dealing.... +WALKERSo let's go! We run the pictures. +FLETCHHe's not the story! There's a source behind him. +WALKERWho? +FLETCHWell, there we're in a gray area. +WALKERHow gray? +FLETCHI'd say charcoal. +WALKER(straining for control)I'm going to bite out your eyeballs, you know that? +FLETCHFrank, you animal, I love it. I'll have the storyby Thursday night, I swear to God.(to himself as he exits)I hope. +INSERT - NEWSPAPERCLIPPING +ALAN STANWYK NEWV/PBOYD AVIATION +A photograph ofStanwyk; a head shot. Hands turn the clipping paper. Nextclipping: a social page spread on the wedding of Alan Stanwyk.("GAIL BOYD WED TO ALAN STANWYK.") +LARRY (V.O.)Everything's recent. +47 FLETCH AND LARRY +Fletch and Larryexamine the file. +FLETCH'Mr. Stanwyk, of Provo, Utah, is a former commercial pilot.' +LARRYMarried Boyd Aviation. He's no dummy,that's serious coin. +48 INSERT - CLIPPING- TIGHTER ANGLE +FLETCH (V.O.)'Stanwyk's parents, Marvin and Velma Stanwyk, alsoof Provo, were unable to attend the wedding.' +49 FLETCH AND LARRY +LARRY(affected accent)Not our kind of people, you understand. +FLETCH(points to his back)Spot right here. +She scratches. +FLETCHThanks. +LARRYYou doing a story on this guy? +FLETCHMaybe. +He pours over somemore clippings, then stops at one. +50 INSERT CLIPPING +headlined:"CANCER SOCIETY BENEFIT". A photograph of Alan and GailStanwyk, with a gray haired man and his wife. +FLETCH (V.O.)'...Stanwyk, blahblahblah, with internistDoctor Joseph Dolen. +51 FLETCH AND LARRY +FLETCHI wonder if that's his doctor. +LARRYOnly one way to find out. +52 INT. DOCTOR'SEXAMINING ROOM - DAY +Fletch, stripped tothe waist. is being examined by Dr. Joseph Dolen, a ratherimperious physician. +DR. DOLENSo where do you know Alan from? +FLETCHWe play tennis at the club. +DR. DOLENReally. The California Racquet Club? +FLETCHYes. +DR. DOLENThat's my club too. I haven't seen you there. +FLETCHWell, I haven't played in a while because ofthese kidney pains. +DR. DOLENRight, and how long have you had thesepains, Mr. Barber? +FLETCHThat's Babar. +DR. DOLENTwo bs? +FLETCHOne. B-a-b-a-r. +DR. DOLENThat's two. +FLETCHBut not right next to each other. I thoughtthat's what you meant. +DR. DOLENArnold Babar. Isn't there a children's book aboutan elephant named Babar? +FLETCHI don't know. I don't have any. +DR. DOLENNo children? +FLETCHNo books. No elephants either. Noreally good elephant books. +DR. DOLEN(eyes Fletch curiously)Still, it'd an odd name. I don't remember seeingit on the club registry. +Fletch's eyes driftto Dolen's side table with its unnerving assortment of medicalparaphernalia. +FLETCHOh, I don't belong formally. I've gone with my aunt. +DR. DOLENYour aunt? +FLETCHMrs. Smith. +DR. DOLENJoan or Margaret Smith. +FLETCHRight. +DR. DOLENWell, which one? +FLETCHMargaret. +DR. DOLENFunny old bird. +FLETCHIs she ever. I've got some stories.... +DR. DOLENI'll bet. Shame about Ed. +FLETCH(vamping)It was. Really a shame. To go so suddenly. +DR. DOLENOh, he was dying for years. +FLETCHSure, but the end was so sudden. +DR. DOLENHe was in intensive care for eight weeks. +FLETCHYes, but the very end, when he actually died,that was extremely sudden.(quickly)You know, Alan and I were recently speaking ofdying. Told me Boyd Aviation took out a lot of insurance on him. You must have to be in some kindof perfect health to get that kind of policy. +DR. DOLENBend over and drop your pants, Mr. Babar. +FLETCHOh really, there's no need to -- we don't want to do that.... +DR. DOLENJust relax.... +FLETCHHonest, I feel fine. You better be married. +Fletch looks alarmedas Dolan pushes him into position. Dolan puts on a plastic glove. +53 CLOSE - FLETCH +FLETCHDid I say 'kidneys'? I meant my ear. Maybe Ishould see an ear dahhh --(as Dolan starts to probe from behind)Ever serve time? +DR. DOLENBreathe easy.... +FLETCHAnyway, I'm surprised Alan got the policy so easily.I know there's a history of cancer in the family. +DR. DOLEN(noncommittally)There is? +FLETCHWhoa, look out there. You really need the whole fist? +DR. DOLENJust relax. +FLETCH(reacts to a poke)Gee, Alan's been looking kind of sick lately.Is he all right? +DR. DOLENI can't discuss another patient. You know that.(rising into frame and washing up)Well, I can't find anything wrong with you. +FLETCHI'm sure it's not for a lack of looking. MaybeI should get a real complete physical. You giveAlan an annual, don't you? +DR. DOLENYeah, we check you into Mt. Hebron for a few days,run lots of tests, charge a bundle. You can pull your pants up now. +FLETCHI hope they still fit. Do I get to keep the glove? +DR. DOLENTell the nurse when you've got a few free days. She'llmake all the arrangements. +FLETCHThanks, Doc. Maybe I'll come back with a date.Or an elephant. +54 INT. HOSPITALRECEPTION AREA - DAY +Fletch is dressed inshorts, a clean shirt, and is carrying a doctor's bag. He iswearing a stethoscope around his neck , has a beeper on, a lot ofpencils and other doctor gadgets. He's standing at the directory +55 DIRECTORY +Combing it with hiseyes, he sees the directory: +PATHOLOGY - THIRDFLOORB. ROSENSTIEN, M.D.H. ROSENBLATT, M.D.P. ROSENWOHL, M.D. +Fletch goes to a doormarked "Stairs." +56 INT. STAIRWELL -DAY +Fletch abruptlyempties his doctor's bag and puts on a long green gown, a cap anda face mask. He plugs the stethoscope in his ears, removesmiscellaneous file folders filled with papers, closes the bag,and heads for Pathology. +57 INT PATHOLOGYDEPARTMENT - DAY +It's at the end of along hall, and adjacent to the Autopsy Room and the PathologyRecords Room. Over his shoulder we can see into the autopsy roomwhere a gowned doctor is happily performing an autopsy. +RECORDS NURSE(to Fletch)Identification please. +Fletch hastilyfumbles through his wallet, deftly dropping and picking up thepapers he has brought with him. +FLETCHIt's me doctor Rosenpenis. I just have to takeanother peek at Alan Stanwyk's file. What have they done with this place? +RECORDS NURSE(confused at all his activity)Nothing. They're still there. +FLETCHRight. Fine. +Still dropping andpicking up, shuffling and collating, Fletch starts toward theFiles Room, when the doctor performing the autopsy yells at him. +PATHOLOGISTHey you! +Fletch stiffens andturns around. +PATHOLOGISTGive me a hand for a second would you doctor? +Fletch hesitates. +PATHOLOGISTCome on, come on. +Reluctantly, he goesto the autopsy table, and the cadaver thereon, which is coveredby a sheet, except for the mid-section. +58 TWO SHOT -FLETCH AND PATHOLOGIST +(Note: from here onwe never see the body.) +PATHOLOGIST(poking around)Have you ever see a spleen this large? +FLETCH(trying not to look)Not recently. +PATHOLOGISTGrab this, will you? +FLETCHUh, I'm not really prepared. My hands aren't sterilized. +PATHOLOGISTYou're not going to make this guy any sicker. +We hear a squishingnoise as he grabs something large and wet and plops it intoFletch's hand. Fletch stands there holding something icky out offrame, looking uncomfortably up at the ceiling, the floor,anywhere but at the cadaver or at the stuff in his hand.Meanwhile, we hear sounds of further incisions, and the deflatingof an organ. +PATHOLOGISTYou never really get used to the smell, do you? +Fletch's eyes rollup, and he falls to the floor in a dead faint. +59 INT. RECORDSROOM - DAY - MINUTES LATER +Fletch is on a couch,beginning to regain consciousness. The Records Nurse hovers overhim. +RECORDS NURSEAre you all right, Doctor? +FLETCHWhere am I? +RECORDS NURSEYou're in the Records Room. +FLETCHI'm fine. +RECORDS NURSECan I get you something? +FLETCHHave you got a make-shift plywood pillory? Heh Heh, just kidding. +RECORDS NURSEDoctor Holmes went to get you some smelling salts. He was quite surprised that you fainted. +FLETCHWell, I didn't want to say anything, but I thoughtthe dead man was my brother. +RECORDS NURSEOh my God! +FLETCHIt's all right. It wasn't him butthat spleen was a splitting image. +He sits up and seesthat just outside the glass is none other that Dr. Joseph Dolen,talking with the pathologist. +FLETCHOh, God, I think I'm about to hyperventilate.Have you got a paper bag, or something. +RECORDS NURSEYes, right away. +She goes to get thepaper bag, and Fletch turns his back on Dr. Dolen to go throughthe file cabinet. By the time the Nurse returns, he's gotStanwyk's file. +RECORDS NURSEHere you are, Doctor. +FLETCHThank you. +He puts the bag overhis mouth and breathes deeply as he continues the conversationwith her. (From time to time, we see Dr. Dolen in the b.g.looking over, but does not come into the records room or questionwhat's happening). +RECORDS NURSEIs there anything particular you're looking for? +FLETCHMy associates did a biopsy on this man recently.(thumbs through file)He's supposed to have a melanoma, or a carcinoma,some kind of noma. Hmmm. I can't seem to find any recordof it. +RECORDS NURSE(taking the file)Well, if he had one, it would certainly be in here.(searches)Wait. Here it is. Yep. Surgical removal of two moles.Tissue was benign. +FLETCHThat's it? +RECORDS NURSE(shows him the file)That's it. +FLETCH(reading it)This was last month. So Alan Stanwyk does not have cancer. +RECORDS NURSEI guess not. +FLETCH(very puzzled)He'll be so relieved. +60 EXT. SANTA MONICASTREET - LATE AFTERNOON +Fletch pulls up infront of his building, a 1970's cinderblock apartment complex.Fletch parks his car halfway up the curb, gets out and spots aMercedes coupe. He starts running toward the rear of hisbuilding. +61 EXT. REAR OF THEBUILDING - DAY +Fletch startsclimbing up the fire escape of his building. +62 FIRE ESCAPE - DAY +Fletch reaches thesecond floor. He's huffing and puffing. +FLETCHChrist. +63 REVERSE +Attorney CharlesGillett is waiting for him on the second floor fire escape.Gillett smiles. +GILLETTRefusal to pay alimony is a jailable offense, Fletch. +64 MASTER +FLETCHWhat about breaking and entering?(points to Gillett's coat)Are you wearing anything under that? +GILLETTI did not break nor enter. I simply chose an advisablelocation to await my client's delinquent husband. +FLETCHI hate to conduct business on the lanai. Why don't we stepinside. +Fletch takes out acredit card and jimmies open the lock on the window. +65 INT. FLETCH'SAPARTMENT - DAY +Fletch climbs inthrough the window, followed by Gillett. His small apartment isjust barely furnished. A low basketball hoop is attached to thewall. Fletch takes a ball, offers it to Gillett. +FLETCHOne on one? +Gillett shakes hishead. Fletch does a reverse shot and misses, sending a plasticglobe lamb crashing to the floor. +FLETCHAnd the foul. +Fletch takes asecond, successful shot. +GILLETTYou owe Wendy nine hundred and eighteen dollars. +FLETCH(still playing b-ball)She doesn't need the money, for crissakes. She's living with Monty. I know it. +GILLETTI don't know what you're referring to. Wendy maintains her own residence. +FLETCHIt stinks. I thought woman were independent now. +GILLETTUntil she remarries, Fletch. +FLETCHHey, shut up, okay? I just hate this. +GILLETTI empathize with your plight, Fletch. However,you threw her out. +FLETCHShe was sleeping with everybody. The cable TVguy. You can't get lower than that.... +GILLETTYou should have proved that in a court of law. +FLETCHMy lawyer was a bum. +GILLETT(smiles)I agree. +Fletch puts down thebasketball, picks up a stack of mail and rifles through it. +FLETCHI think he was sleeping with Wendy, too. +GILLETTYou may be right. +FLETCHAre you serious? +GILLETT(shrugs)That's history, Fletch. You owe us nine hundredand eighteen dollars. +FLETCHWait a minute! Our problems might be solved. +Fletch holds up anenvelope with Ed McMahon's picture on it. +FLETCH(continuing)I think I just won a million dollars! +He opens it and looksinside, feigning disappointment. +FLETCH(continuing)Damn...lost again. Sorry. +GILLETTThis is no joke. If some kind of payment isn't made,we're going to have to contact the paper and garnish your wages. +Fletch sighs, takesout the envelope given to him by Stanwyk. He hands a thousanddollars to Gillett. +GILLETTCash. I'm impressed. +FLETCHFound it in a cab. That's a grand.Apply the difference to next month. +GILLETTTill then. +Gillett smiles andexits. +66 KITCHEN - DAY +Fletch opens thefridge. Inside are tow six-packs of Coors, a jar of Miracle Whip,a half a cucumber, and a brown head of lettuce. Fletch takes abeer and slams the door shut with such force that we hearbreakage inside. +67 MASTER - APARTMENT- DAY +In a foul mood,Fletch leaves the kitchen, and wanders into the living room. Ithas the personality of an Abbey Rents. +He picks up the TVremote control. The television clicks on. Chick Hearn is withJabbar, during a Laker pregame warmup. +FLETCHThank God. +Fletch settles back. +68 TELEVISION +Hearn is gushing overJabbar. +69 FLETCH +He watchescontemplatively. He is bone tired. +70 TELIVISION +HEARNHow about Fletch? +JABBARWell, Fletch has been great. He's super-strong,really clogs the middle for us, boxes out, gets the bounds.... +71 FLETCH +He smiles and nods,deep in fantasy. +72 TELEVISION +HEARNNow here's a key play in Tuesday night's game.... +Hearn and Jabbar lookdown at a television monitor. +73 FLETCH +He's half asleep. +JABBAR (V.O.)Here I am dishing off to Fletch.... +Fletch raises aneyebrow. +74 TELEVISION +There's Fletch, hishair in an Afro, dressed in Laker gold. He's on the receiving endof a Jabbar pass, making an easy layup. +HEARN (V.O.)Gosh, he makes it look so easy! +75 FLETCH +asleep, smiling. +77 PRICATICE COURT -DAY +Gail Stanwyk is onthe other side of the net, loading tennis balls into theautomatic serve machine. She is in her late twenties and quiteattractive., but in a much more natural way than other women wesee here. She is good natured and effervescent. Fletch steps upto the entrance of the court. +FLETCHGail Stanwyk! +She looks up. Heenters the court with great delight. +FLETCH(continuing)I haven't seen you since the wedding,Jeez, you look great. +MRS. STANWYK(genuinely pleased)I do? Oh, isn't that sweet, thank you. I have to confesssomething to you. I must have been pretty plowed at your wedding.I really don't have the faintest idea who you are. +FLETCHHuh? No, not my wedding. Yours. +MRS. STANWYKOh, mine! Thank God.(furrows her brow)Actually, that doesn't make it any better, does it?Are you a friend of Alan's? +FLETCHWe used to fly together. I'm...John. +MRS. STANWYK(snaps her fingers in happy recognition)John! You used to fly together! +Her smile seguesright into an "I'm sorry, bit I give up" expression. +MRS. STANWYKJohn who? +FLETCHJohn Ultrarelamensky. +MRS. STANWYK(bursts out in laughter)Oh, I'm sorry. It's a beautiful name, really. +FLETCHIt's Scotch-Rumanian. +MRS. STANWYK(still loading tennis balls)That's a strange combination. +FLETCHSo were my parents. +MRS. STANWYKMind if I keep practicing? I need to workon my ground stroke a little. +FLETCHPlease. +As Mrs. Stanwykcrosses to the other side of the net, a waiter approaches Fletch. +WAITERExcuse me sir. Are you a guest of the club? +FLETCHYes, I'm with the Underhills. +WAITERThey just left, sir. +FLETCHThey'll be back. He had to go in for a urinalysis. +WAITERWould you care for a drink while you're waiting?I can put it on the Underhill bill. +FLETCHGreat. I'll have a Bloody Mary and a steak sandwich. +WAITERVery good sir. +The Waiter leaves,and Fletch watches as Mrs. Stanwyk tries to return the servingmachine's serves. She swings so goofily that she can't even getthe racket on the ball. She has clearly never taken a lesson inher life, and it is doubtful if she will ever make contact with atennis ball in this century. +MRS. STANWYKDamn, I thought I had that one. +FLETCHYou should play with much larger tennis balls. So how's Alan? +MRS. STANWYKWhat are you asking me for? He's so busy lately I hardly see him.And he's been so preoccupied. +FLETCHPreoccupied with what? +MRS. STANWYKOh, personal stuff. Look! I hit one! +Indeed, she has.Strait up. She and Fletch crane their necks upward to follow it'sflight. +FLETCHGood. Lobs are a very important part of the game. +She completely missesthe next one. +FLETCHWhy do you keep doing this? +MRS STANWYKI love the outfits. +The next one shehits with the handle. +FLETCHTry stepping into the ball with your left foot. +He demonstrates aswing. She puts on a determined face, makes an awkward step andswings at the next ball, missing it completely, and letting theracket fly. +FLETCHThere, much better. +Mrs. Stanwyk laughshappily and dodges the machine-served balls to walk over toFletch. When she's almost up to him, she turns back to theserving machine and points a finger at it, as if addressing a petdog. +MRS STANWYKStay!(to Fletch)I must be having an off day. I'm really a fabulous player. +FLETCHI have this effect on lots of women. +MRS STANWYKI bet you do. +FLETCHSay, the reason I asked about Alan is that I bumped intohim this morning and you know what I can't figure out? +MRS STANWYK(catching him in his lie)Alan's in Utah. +FLETCH(after a beat)I can't figure out why I went to Utah for the morning. +MRS STANWYKOkay. I'm delighted to have someone to talk to,and you're very cute, so I'm very flattered, butI'm also very married so you may as well forget --You are trying to hit on me, aren't you? +FLETCH(thinks, then nods)I'm such a heel. How'd you guess? +MRS STANWYKIf I had a nickel for every one of Alan's flyboy buddieswho tried to pick me up, I'd be a rich woman. +FLETCHYou are a rich woman. +MRS STANWYKSee what I mean? +She trots back to herball machine. Fletch calls after her. +FLETCHWhat's he doing in Utah? +MRS STANWYKNone of your business, now go away.You're throwing my game off. +Fletch chuckles -- helikes this woman -- and exits. +78 BOYD AVIATION -DAY - ESTABLISHING +A sprawling,Hughes-like complex. +FLETCH(O.S.)...then who walks in but George Bush. He took one look around the room... +79 INT. JOHN BOYD'SOFFICE - DAY +A Secretary isserving coffee to Fletch (now dressed in a three piece suit) andJohn Boyd, Gail Stanwyk's father. At seventy, he is probablyChairman Emeritus now; no longer running the day-to-dayoperations of the company, and thus somewhat grateful from thecompany. +FLETCH(continuing)...and said 'Sorry Mr. President, I thought it was Saturday.' +Boyd Laughs. +FLETCHI thought I was going to die. +SECRETARYSugar, Mr. Poon? +FLETCHThank you. +Fletch notices aframed wedding photograph on the credenza behind Boyd. It is ofAlan and Gail Stanwyk, Alan beaming a $hit-eating grin andholding a happy thumbs-up. +Fletch waits as theSecretary leaves the room, then begins speaking confidentially. +FLETCHOkay. +He opens his attachecase, allowing Boyd to see an airline ticket, a WashingtonPost, and a file stenciled "Confidential/S.E.C. Useonly." +FLETCHFirst of all, let me just reiterate that this is not aformalinvestigation. I'm not going through formal channels here,becauseif Alan Stanwyk is not involved in any improprieties, then nobodyhas to know I was even --- +BOYDAlan Stanwyk is not involved in improprieties. Wherethe hell does the S.E.C. come off --- +Fletch is noddingsympathetically and holds up a quieting hand. Boyd stops inmid-tirade, and watches as Fletch reaches into his briefcase andseemingly turns off a tape recorder. +FLETCHLook. You know that and I know that, but somebody's bucking for a promotion. I think it's that bozo, Hanrahan, I can't besure.Anyway, unless I go back there with something, you and your son-in-law are next week's scapegoats. +BOYDUnbelievable. +FLETCHI feel like dirt. They even want to know what he's doing in Utah? +BOYDUtah?(laughs)Jesus Christ! First of all, Alan Stanwyk does not own one share of stock.The three million dollars for the ranch in Provo comes from my daughter who converted some of her personal holdings, not company holdings. Now if anybodyin DC wants to make something of that, bring 'em on. Until then, get the hell out of my face. +FLETCH(stands and closes briefcase)God I admire you. +BOYDBy the way: what kind of name is Poon? +FLETCHComanche Indian. +80 ALAN STANWYK'SOFFICE - DAY +Fletch breezes in,right up to the Secretary, whose nameplate reads MADELINE TURNER. +FLETCH(rapidly)Oh, Margie, sorry, Frieda lost the numberof Alan's realtor in Provo. Can you give it tome real quick? +MARGIEJim Swarthout? +FLETCHYeah. +She writes it outfor him. +MARGIEAnd, I'm sorry, who are you again? +FLETCH(grabbing the paper)Frieda's boss. +MARGIE(calling after him)Who's Frieda? +FLETCH(out the door)My secretary. +81 EXT. BEACH - DAY +Pan across thebeach.... +FLETCH (O.S.)Larry, it's me.... +Fletch is in a phonebooth on the sidewalk next to the beach, keeping an eye on"Fat Sam's." +FLETCHSee if you've got anything in Stanwyk's backgroundfrom when he lived in Utah. Also check on a realtorin Provo named Swarthout. And tell Frank I'm crazy about him and I'd like to discuss his maybe movingin with me. +We hear policesirens. Fletch looks O.S. +FLETCHLater. +He hangs up. +82 FLETCH'S POINT OFVIEW - FOUR SQUAD CARS +have pulled up to thebeach, lights flashing. The druggies are dispersing. Creasy isrunning towards Fletch. +CREASYFletch! Take off! +83 FLETCH +He steps out onto thebeach, and starts towards the cops. +84 MASTER +CREASYWhat are you doing? +85 MASTER +Everyone isscattering. The cops run past everyone, and approach Gummey. +86 FLETCH AND CREASY +FLETCHThey're after Gummy again. It's weird. +Fletch keeps movingtoward the police. +CREASY(out of breath)Fletch, slow down. +87 GUMMY AND THE COPS +Gummy trips and fallsin the sand. A Cop kicks him in the head. +COP #1Let's go, Gummy. +88 FLETCH AND CREASY +still running towardthe cops. +FLETCHHey, what are you doing? +CREASYFletch, this is dumb. +FLETCHYou don't have to run with me, Crease. +89 MASTER +The cops drag Gummytoward a squad car. +90 ANGLE - "FATSAM'S" +Fat Sam peers out,watching the action. +91 MASTER +Fletch approaches thecops. +FLETCHWhy are you beating up on that kid? +No responce from thecops. +FLETCHHe's defenseless, and you kick the crap out of him.What do you want from --- +One of the cops turnsand, in one smooth motion, kicks Fletch in the balls. Fletchsinks to the ground. +92 SQUAD CAR +Gummy is packed intothe squad car. +93 FLETCH +He rises slowly fromthe sand. He is in great pain. He starts after the cops again. +94 CREASY +CREASYFletch! +95 MASTER +FLETCHWhat goddamn right do you have to take him? +The cop car startsoff. Fletch picks up a rock, hurls it at the cop car. It smashesthe rear window. +96 CREASY +CREASYFletch!!! +97 MASTER +The cop cars go off.Fletch bends over. He's hurting. Creasy comes over to him. +CREASYHey you're really nuts. +FLETCH(breathless)They didn't do anything. +CREASYWhat? What are you talking about? +FLETCHI busted their window, they didn't do anything. +CREASYYou're lucky. +FLETCHNot luck. They don't want me. +98 POLICE CARS +In a caravan, theyhead down the highway. +99 FLETCH +He turns and lookstowards "Fat Sam's." +100 "FATSAM'S" +Fat Sam watches thepolice cars go down the road, then turns and looks towards theocean. He pulls his Angels cap down over his head. +101 CLOSE - FLETCH +He is focusing onsomething, but has not figured it out yet. +FLETCHGummy and two cops.... +102and OMITTED103 +104 INT. FRANKWALKER'S OFFICE - DAY +FLETCHCool your tool, Frank, I need a littlemore time. I think I'm really on to something here. +WALKERYour onto something. That's good. What? +FLETCHI really don't want to spoil your surprise, Frank.Why don't you read it tomorrow? +Larry, knocks on thedoor. +WALKERWhat do you want? +Larry points toFletch. +WALKERSpeak, don't point! +LARRYI need Fletch for a second. +FLETCHShe needs me, Frank. +Fletch turns toLarry. Push to two shot. +LARRYNothing on Gail Stanwyk, nothing on Jim Swarthout.But I did --- +FLETCHThat's okay, Lar. I gotta put this on the backburner for a while. +Larry starts to exit. +WALKERJust give me a hint, all right? +FLETCHAll right. Maybe there are some crookedcops involved in all this. +LARRY(stopping in the doorway)Did you say cops? +FLETCHYeah. +LARRYThat's one thing I did find. It's fromLast month, so it was in the unsorted pile. +She hands Fletch aclipping. +105 INSERT - CLIPPING +It is an article andphotograph of the newly-appointed citizens on the Police AdvisoryBoard. One of them is Alan Stanwyk. +WALKERWhat's that? +106 MASTER +Fletch pockets thephoto. +FLETCH(puzzled)More cops.(then)I think I gotta go to Utah, Frank. +WALKERUtah? +FLETCHYeah. It's wedged in between Wyoming and Nevada.I'm sure you've seen pictures. +WALKERWhat about finding the source? +FLETCHI have some ideas. +WALKERWho? Donnie and Marie? +FLETCHVery possibly. Come on, say yes. I'll buyyou a shirt. +WALKERGo to transportation, get a ticket. +LARRY(to Fletch as he exits)My hero. +FLETCHNothing to it. +107 EXT. PROVO, UTAH- AIRPORT -DAY +A Western Airlinesflight arrives. +107-A EXT. HIGHWAY -DUSK +Fletch's rentedFairmont speeds down the highway. +107-B INT. FAIRMONT -FLETCH +wearing a polyesterbrown suit -- fiddles with the radio. Snatches of programs areheard: "easy listening" music; country-and-western; arevival show; a call in show -- "Hi, you're on theair." "Hello, Bob, I'd like to discuss the deathpenalty. As you know, Jesus was in favor of it --" Fletchwhistles and switches the radio off. He turns the car off theinterstate. +108 EXT. TRAVELODGE -LATE AFTERNOON - ESTABLISHING SHOT +as Fletch drives up. +109 INT. TRAVELODGEMOTEL ROOM +Fletch dials thephone in the small, sparsely furnished room. +FLETCHHi, Jim Swarthout, please. Oh, hello, my nameis Igor Stravinski and I'm looking for some ranch property. +110 INT. SWARTHOUTREALTY +Jim Swarthout is arugged-looking man in his forties. He sits in the den/office ofhis house talking on the phone, surrounded by pine-paneling,property tract maps and wall-mounted animal heads. +SWARTHOUTGood, Mr. Starinski, what'd you have in mind?(pause)Uh huh. Oh are you a friend of Alan's? +111 INT. FLETCH'SMOTEL ROOM +FLETCHNo, I just heard some people at the club talking about thepropertyyou sold him, and the way it was described, three million soundedlikea pretty good price.(pause)What? +Fletch pauses againto listen, flummoxed over what he has just heard. +FLETCHAre you sure?(pause)Of course. I guess I was misinformed. Listen,I'd love to come out and see you anyway.When are you available? +112 INT. SWARTHOUTREALTY +SWARTHOUTWell, I'm about to close up shop and go out for theevening. How about first thing in the AM?(pause)Great. See you tomorrow. +113 INT. FLETCH'SMOTEL ROOM +FLETCHTomorrow. +Fletch hangs up, veryinterested. +114 OMITTED +115 EXT. SWARTHOUTREALTY - NIGHT +Fletch stops his carin front of the ranch-style house. A lighted sign in the yardindicate that this is indeed Swarthout Realty, but the house isdark; no one appears to be home. Somewhere in the yard a dogbarks viciously, frantically. +116 DOG +A killer Doberman istied up behind a chain link fence. At the sight of the intrudingFletch, the dog's lip is practically over his nose, his fangs arepoised and gleaming. +117 FLETCH +FLETCH(getting out of his car)What's your name fella? Fluff? Pom-pom? +118 DOG +completely bananas. +119 FLETCH +Fletch reaches thefront door and looks around. He rings the bell. The dog yowlseven louder. Fletch waits. And waits. He rings again. Satisfiedthat no one is home, he tries the front door. Of course, it islocked. He takes out a credit card, starts to jimmy the lock, andactually seems to be making progress when his credit card snapsin half. +FLETCHSh*t. +He pockets the brokencredit card, steps back and looks over the house for anotherpossible point of entry. +120 FLETCH'S POINT OFVIEW - AN UPSTAIRS WINDOW +Double-hung. Slightlywarped, so that the upper half does not exactly true with thelower half. +121 FLETCH +looks around to seehow to climb up to it. +122 MASTER +There's only one way.Climb up the side of the chain link fence which separates himfrom the murderous dog. Fletch approaches it warily. The dog ispractically foaming. Fletch reaches out a hand to get a hold ofthe fence, and the dog just about rips the fence apart. +FLETCH(in his best Barbara Woodhouse)Sit-tuh! +This has no effect,so Fletch backs up a few yards, take a deep breath for courageand makes a headlong running start for the fence, using hismomentum to get to the top before the dog eats him. He grabs holdand scrambles wildly for the top. He makes it. +FLETCHRoll over. Play dead. Good boy. +Fletch now grabs holdof the eave on the side of the house, and very carefully pullshimself onto it. It's only about ten feet from there to thevulnerable window, but the angle of the eave is rather steep, andthe going is treacherous. As he makes his way, he keeps a waryeye on the dog who keeps leaping up, seemingly getting closer andcloser to taking a giant bite out of Fletch's backside. +FLETCHYou any relation to Doctor Dolan? +Now he's at thewindow. He tries to open it, but despite it's warped appearancefrom the ground, it is locked. Fletch looks at the lock and can'tbelieve it. He sighs. He shakes his head. He smashes the windowwith his elbow. +FLETCHI hate this. +He climbs into thedarkened house, leaving the enraged dog to run furiously aroundthe fenced in yard that surrounds the house. +123 INT SWARTHOUT'SHOUSE - UPSTAIRS - NIGHT +Fletch tiptoes thoughthe upstairs bedroom and down the stairs. From outside, he canstill hear the dog snarling and barking. +124 INT. SWARTHOUT'SHOUSE - DOWNSTAIRS - NIGHT +As Fletch passesthrough the living room he sees the dog snarling at him throughthe living room window. +125 INT. SWARTHOUT'SDEN - NIGHT +Fletch enters andlooks around. +The dog is nowoutside the den window. +FLETCHMake sure nobody comes in, okay? +He goes to the filecabinet and opens it. +He flips through the"S" section. "Stanwyk". He pulls it. Hethumbs through various documents until he finds what he's lookingfor. A copy of a deed. He pulls it out. +125-A INSERT - DEED -CLOSE ON THE PURCHASE PRICE +Three ThousandDollars. +FLETCH (O.S.)So much for your three million dollar ranch. +126 FLETCH +takes out a tinydocument camera -- the kind spies use in the movies -- and loadsit fumblingly. Then he props the deed up on top of the filecabinet, and moves a lamp into position to light it. Just as hesnaps his first shot, we hear a terrible crashing sound. +127 WINDOW +The murderousDoberman has made a crashing leap right through the den window,sending glass flying everywhere, and he streaks across the roomto rip Fletch into bite-sized shreds. +128 MASTER +Fletch bolts and thedog flies into the file cabinet, knocking it over, scattering allthe files over the floor. Fletch dashes for the nearest door, andruns through it just as the dog slams into it. +129 INT. KITCHEN +Fletch is now holedup in the kitchen, panting to catch his breath, feeling the fullcourse of adrenaline pumping through his terrified veins. He seesthat he can get to his car by climbing through the window. But inorder to get to the window he has to let go of the door, and thatwould allow the dog to get in. +Looking aroundfrantically, holding the door shut against the furious slammingof the dog, he reaches for and finally grabs a mop which he propsunder the door knob, thus keeping the door shut. Letting go ofthe door gingerly, he satisfies himself that the dog cannot getin, and he makes his break for the window. +He vaults up onto thecounter top and is just about to break the window when he seesthat the dog's continued efforts are about to result in openingthe door. +Fletch knows he hasonly seconds. Standing on top of the counter, he opens the doorof the restaurant-sized refrigerator next to him, and just as thesnarling dog bursts into the room Fletch starts hurling food atit. A pot roast, sliced turkey with stuffing, a couple of filetmignons. The dog is momentarily distracted. Fletch pours a largebucket of cranberry sauce on the dog. +FLETCHSuck on this Cujo! +Then he dumps anequally large bucket of mashed potatoes. With the dog temporarilyvision-impaired, Fletch bolts. +130 EXT. SWARTHOUTHOUSE - NIGHT +Fletch runs as fastas humanly possible towards his car, fishing for his keys as hegoes. The dog -- having shaken off the people-food from hishateful face -- is seconds behind and closing. +Fletch makes it tohis car, hops inside, and slams the door just as the dog leapsfuriously at the windshield. +131 INT. FLETCH'S CAR +Fletch makes it tohis car, huffing and puffing. The dog jumps across the closedwindow, snarling and bug-eyed with hatred. +Fletch smiles, wavesat the dog, and starts taking its picture with his little camera. +FLETCHGimme a smile! There you go...oh, that's a nice one...(starting the car)Everything's fine, now...go take a little nap.... +Fletch is ready topull out, but the dog is still leaping madly at the window.Fletch points back to the house. +FLETCHLook! Defenseless babies! +The dog turns to lookand Fletch guns it. +FLETCHThat dog is such an A**hole. +132 EXT. FLETCH'SAPARTMENT HOUSE - DAY +Fletch parks his carhalfway up on the curb, steps out carrying a small overnight bag.He is unshaven and looks beat. +133 INT. APARTMENTHOUSE - CORRIDOR +Fletch comes down thehall signing "Billie Jean" is an excruciating falsetto. +FLETCH'Bil-lie, Bil-lie...' +He opens the door tohis apartment and is immediately thrown to the ground. +134 INT. APARTMENT +Fletch isspread-eagled on the floor. Two huge Cops are over him, oneholding a gun to his head, the other going through his clothes. +COP #1(feeling the inseam of Fletch's trousers)Oh, what's this? +FLETCHIf I took that out, you guys couldn't fit in here. +COP #1Funny boy. Look at this.... +He produces a heroinbag. +COP#2Looks like heroin, Gene. +FLETCHYou just planted that. +Cop #1 kicks Fletchin the ribs. +COP#2What'd you say? +FLETCHRead me my rights. +COP #1Okay. You have the right to remain silent. Youhave the right to be kicked in the face by me.You have the rights to have your balls stomped.You have the --- +FLETCHHold it! I'll waive my rights. +135 EXT. PRECINTHOUSE +Fletch is lead intothe precinct house. +136 INT. PRECINTHOUSE +The Sergeant at thedesk checks Fletch out. +SERGEANTWho we booking here, gentlemen? +COP #1No booking. Chief wants a talk with the boy. +SERGEANTOh Yeah?(smiles at Fletch)You'll like the Chief. Nice man. +FLETCHI hear he's mellowed a lot since he came out of the closet. +SERGEANTI find he gets real mellow after he hits somebody a lot. +137 DOOR TO CHIEF'SOFFICE - CHIEF'S OFFICE +The cops open thedoor, pull Fletch inside. Chief Cummings, looking like a modernexecutive, looks up from his paperwork. +COP #1Here he is Chief. +They roughly throwFletch into a chair. The Chief -- seemingly oblivious to thisbrutality -- smiles sincerely. +CUMMINGSEasy fellas.(To Fletch friendly)Be with you in just a second. +The two Cops leave.As Chief Cummings continues with his paperwork Fletch looksaround the office, which is decorated tastefully -- no guns onthe wall, no American flags. On one wall there is a Matisse, andon another, various photos of the Chief with local celebrities. +FLETCHYou decorate this yourself or did Mrs. Chief of Police help you? +CUMMINGS(laughs)You should have seen what she wanted to do with the place. Mauve.(shakes his head and pushes his papers aside)So what's your name? +FLETCHFletch. +CUMMINGSFull name. +FLETCHFletch F. Fletch +CUMMINGS(skeptical but patient)I see. And what do you do for a living,Mr. Fletch? +FLETCHI'm President of the International Fletch Corporation. +Cummings just staresat Fletch. +CUMMINGSWhy are you doing this Mr. Fletch? +FLETCHFrankly sir, you look a little like my father. Probalyexplains the curious feeling of love I have for you. +CUMMINGSFor a gentleman who was just found holding a bagfull of heroin.... +FLETCHIt was planted on me, sir. +CUMMINGSWe're looking at five years, maybe ten. Is thatwhat you want...Jane Doe? +He suddenly kicksFletch's chair out from under him. Fletch falls to the floor. +CUMMINGSYour editor called me yesterday to respond to allegationsyou're about to print about police involvement in narcoticsdealing. +Fletch starts to getup, but Cummings plants his foot on Fletch's chest, forces himback down. +CUMMINGSI'm about to break that beach wide open, and I don'tneed some pennyante Woodward and Bernstein getting in the way of my men. +FLETCH'Your men' might just be involved in all this. +CUMMINGSYou idiot. Off the record, deep background:I've got that beach crawling with undercover cops. +Cummings picks Fletchup, and holds him by the lapels. +CUMMINGSIf you keep nosing around, you make the bad guys just a little bit more cautious. That makes my job harder.And if you print your story this week, you might get some of my men killed. I can't let that happen, Mr. Fletch. +He throws Fletchagainst the wall of celebrity photos, some of which fall to thefloor. +CUMMINGSYou go back to that goddamn beach, I swear to God I'llmake you regret it. +FLETCH(picks up a picture)Hey, you and Tommy Lasorda. That's great. +Fletch takes thepicture and hurls it across the room. It smashes into theopposite wall and shatters. +FLETCHI don't like Tommy Lasorda. +138and OMITTED139 +140 JAIL CORRIDOR +Fletch is tossed intoan empty cell by the two Cops who brought him in. Cummingswatches. The two Cops leave, and we see that all the cells inthis corridor are empty. +FLETCHYou can't keep me here. +CUMMINGSMaybe I'm not going to keep you here.(takes out a gun)Maybe I'm gonna blow your brains out. +FLETCHI'm no lawyer, but I do believe that's a violation of my rights. +The Chief takes aknife out of his pocket, holding it with a handkerchief. +CUMMINGSAfter I shoot you, I stick the knife in my arm, thenplace it in your dead hand. Self-defense. We don't do thisvery much anymore...but we have. Got rid of a lot of minorities that way. +FLETCHMy God, you're serious. +CUMMINGSAsk anybody. +FLETCHCan I ask anybody now? +Cummings looks downthe corridor. Deserted. +FLETCHCan I call my Mom? I'd like to tell here how muchI've always loved her. +CUMMINGS(cocks the gun)What'll it be Fletch? +Fletch looks inCummings' eyes. They are steely and cold. He is quite serious. +FLETCHI hate the beach. Wouldn't go there if you paid me.Besides, I'm way overdue on my story about off-trackbetting in the Himalayas. You don't think it's the mafia,do you? +CUMMINGS(opening the cell)Its been very nice meeting you. I enjoy your column. +Fletch walks out ofthe cell. Cummings walks with him through the empty corridor tothe exit. +CUMMINGS(very chummy)Speaking of which, you're not going to printanything before my investigation is through, are you? +FLETCHNot a prayer. +CUMMINGSThat a boy. +The emerge into themain hallway of the police station, which is filled with officersand civilians. Cummings makes a show of cordially shakingFletch's hand as if they were old friends. +CUMMINGSThanks for coming down to see us. +FLETCHNot at all, Chief. But next time...no tongue, okay? +Exit Fletch. +141thru OMITTED147 +148 INT. NEWSPAPEROFFICE +Fletch is railing atFrank Walker. +FLETCHHow could you call him? +WALKERIt's called journalism, Fletch. It's called gettingboth sides of the story. Something you apparently don'tknow anything about. +FLETCHIt's also called getting me this close to being murdered. +WALKERGet out of here. +FLETCHHe threw me in a cell, took a gun and a knife and threatened to kill me right there if I didn't promise to give up the story. +WALKERYou know, I've had it up to here with yourbullsh*t. I need a story from you by tomorrow. +FLETCHYou'll have it. +WALKERBut not unsubstantiated charges about dope-dealingcops, and not horse sh*t paranoid fantasies abouthomicidal police chiefs. +FLETCH(exiting)Thanks for the vote of confidence, Frank. +WALKER(calling after him)I want something I can print! +FLETCH(giving him the finger)Print this Frank. +Exit Fletch. +149thru OMITTED152 +153 EXT. RAQUET CLUB +Fletch again appearsin his tennis whites and walks familiarly toward the patio. Richpeople are having lunch. Fletch stops the waiter. +FLETCHHi, where's Mrs. Stanwyk? +WAITERIn her cabana, sir. +FLETCHOh, that's right. She told me to meet her there.That's cabana six? +WAITERCabana one. +FLETCHOne. +WAITERWould you be caring for something to eat or drink, sir? +FLETCHI would, actually. +WAITERCharged to the Underhills, sir? +FLETCHRight. Tell you what -- have you caviar? +WAITERYes, sir. Beluga. But it is eighty dollars the portion. +FLETCH(whistles)I'd better only get two. How about the lobster thermidor? +WAITERI recommend it. +FLETCHFine. And a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon. To cabana one. +WAITERVery good, sir. +The waiter leaves.Fletch looks around, takes a deep breath. +FLETCHThis is just the nicest place. +154 OMITTEDand155 +156 EXT. CABANA ONE +A little Spanishbungalow-type affair. Old California money-style elegance. Fletchrings the bell. +MRS. STANWYK (V.O.)Who is it? +FLETCHIt's John. John...(forgets name)Znhcneelsky. +MRS. STANWYKJohn Ultramalensky? +She opens the door,clad only in a towel. A towel is wrapped around her head. Sheseems surprised, but not displeased, to see Fletch. She alsoseems a little at a loss for words. +FLETCHHi. +MRS. STANWYK(finally)Hi. +FLETCHI was hoping you'd say that. +They have just shakenhands, and Fletch notices his hand is now sopping wet. +MRS. STANWYKUh...I'm just out of the shower. +FLETCHCan I borrow your towel for a minute? +She laughs a nervouslittle laugh. There is a bit of sexual tension here. +MRS. STANWYKI'm sorry, I'm just surprised to see you. Ididn't think...What do you want? +FLETCHI ordered lunch. +MRS. STANWYKYou ordered it here? +FLETCHWell, I knew this is where my mouth would be. +MRS. STANWYKDown boy. +With a nervous glancein both directions, she lets him in and closes the door behindthem. +157 INT. CABANA +They stand there fora few seconds looking at each other. +MRS. STANWYKI really should change. +FLETCHNo, I think you should stay the same wonderfulperson you are today. +MRS. STANWYKI mean put clothes on. +FLETCHHere, take mine. +He starts to take offhis shirt. She is amused, and responds playfully, but firmly. +MRS. STANWYKStop that! +He does. +MRS. STANWYKHave you gotten cuter since I last saw you? +FLETCHYes. +She stands there,looking around, trying to act as if her heartbeat weren'tspeeding up. +SFX: Knock at door. +FLETCHLunch.... +MRS. STANWYKGod.... +She goes sprintinginto the bathroom. +FLETCHCome on in. +The door opens. Asecond Waiter, Mexican, solemnly wheels in a cart bearing thegoodies ordered by Fletch. The twin bottle of Dom Perignon jutsfrom a silver ice bucket. +WAITERYou want I set up? +FLETCHNo thanks, I'll do it. Give yourself twenty dollars. Underhill. +WAITERMuchas gracias. +FLETCHSierra del fuego. +The waiter bows,leaves, shuts the door. Mrs. Stanwyk scampers back in, gazes atthe cart as Fletch takes a bottle of Dom Perignon and pops thecork. +MRS. STANWYKAll this goes on Underhill's bill? +FLETCH(offering her a glass)I saved his life during the war. +MRS. STANWYKYou were in the war? +FLETCHNo. He was. I got him out. +She laughs and sighs,knowing she's getting into something she probaly shouldn't. +MRS. STANWYKI can't believe I'm doing this. Well, lets eat. +She tucks a napkin inher towel like a bib and sits at the table. +158 EXT. RAQUET CLUB- DAY +The Underhills havejust been handed the bill run up by Fletch. +MR. UNDERHILLFour hundred bucks for lunch??? +WAITERYour guest, sir. +MR. UNDERHILLWe have no guest here today.(reading the bill)Two bottles of Dom Perignon, hundred bucks a pop. Jesus H. Christ! Where is he? +WAITERI believe he's with Mrs. Stanwyk. +MRS. UNDERHILLGail Stanwyk. Tom, if he's with Gail Stanwyk --- +MR. UNDERHILLI don't care who he's with! This is criminal. +MRS. UNDERHILLTom.... +MR. UNDERHILLShe's where, cabana one? +WAITERYes sir. +Mr Underhill stalksoff. +159 INT. CABANA - DAY +Fletch and Mrs.Stanwyk are having lunch. Fletch sings while he opens thechampagne. She is looking at his back which is turned to her. +FLETCH'I've been so many placesin my life and times.I've sung a lot of songs,I've made some bad rhymes....' +MRS. STANWYKIt's amazing. +FLETCH'I've acted out my life on stages,with ten thousand people watching....' +MRS. STANWYKYour bone structure, shoulders, neck.... +FLETCH'But we're alone now, and I'm singing this song for you.' +MRS. STANWYKJust like Alan. It's freaky. +FLETCHCan I ask you a question? +MRS. STANWYKDepends on the question. +FLETCHAre you still in love with Alan? +MRS. STANWYKNo.(quickly)I mean, 'no you can't ask me that.'I mean, ask me something else. +FLETCHWhy'd you let me in? +MRS. STANWYKBecause I'm bored. Oh, that sounds terrible, doesn't it.I'm sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I also letyou in because I'm hungry. +FLETCHThanks, I feel much better. Listen, if you're so bored, why didn't you go to Utah with Alan? +MRS. STANWYKUtah is not exactly a cure for boredom. +FLETCHGood point. +MRS. STANWYKOh, listen to me. I've never even been there and lookwhat I say about it. Anyway, I know there'd be nothingfor me to do. I don't even know anybody there. +FLETCHWhat about his parents? +MRS. STANWYKHe never sees them and I never met them. +FLETCHHow come? +SFX: Insistent knockat door. +Fletch and Mrs.Stanwyk freeze. +MRS. STANWYKYes? +MR. UNDERHILL(V.O.)Mrs. Stanwyk, I hate to disturb you.Tom Underhill here...I'm a new member. +Fletch rises. +FLETCHThanks for the great time. +MRS. STANWYK(sotto voice)What is this? +FLETCHLong story. +MR. UNDERHILL(V.O.)Apparently, someone of your acquaintance hascharged the most extraordinary lunch to my bill. +MRS. STANWYK(hissing)John! +Fletch starts pushingthe lunch table towards the bathroom. +MRS. STANWYKYou don't know the Underhills? +MR. UNDERHILL(V.O.)I'd appreciate an opportunity to discussthis with you. +MRS. STANWYKI just stepped out of the shower!Can you give me a minute? +MR. UNDERHILL(V.O.)Of course. +Mrs. Stanwyk followsFletch into the bathroom. +160 INT BATHROOM +Fletch jams the cartinto the bathroom. +FLETCHTake one end. +Mrs. Stanwyk liftsone side of the cart. They lift it and put it up into thebathtub. There's a window in the bathroom. Fletch opens it. +FLETCHI'll be leaving now, Mrs. Stanwyk. +MRS. STANWYKI think you should call me Gail, now. +FLETCHGail. I hope this won't embarrass you in any way. I thinkUnderhill's a yutz, you won't have any trouble with him. +MRS. STANWYKWhy did you do it? +Fletch shrugs,smiles. +MRS. STANWYKA four hundred dollar lunch tab! +FLETCHYeah. +MRS. STANWYKI'll cover it. You have any other surprises? +FLETCH(after a beat)Yeah. My name's not John Ultramalensky andI wasn't at your wedding. +She stares at him. +MRS. STANWYKWho. +FLETCHIrwin Fletcher. I write a newspaper columnunder the name Jane Doe. +A long beat. +MRS. STANWYKSo? +FLETCHSo, your husband hired me to kill him.That's the truth. +MRS. STANWYKWhat are you talking about? +FLETCHThat's what I want to know. +161 EXT. CABANA +Mr. Underhill knocksagain. +MR. UNDERHILLMrs. Stanwyk! +162 INT. BATHROOM +MRS. STANWYKIn a minute! +FLETCHHe told me he was dying of cancer.Not True. That ranch you thought youwere paying for in Utah? Not true. +MRS. STANWYKHow do you know about that? +FLETCHHe's a bad guy, Mrs. Stanwyk. Gail.I think he's involved in somethingvery big and very bad. +MRS. STANWYKWhat does all this mean? +FLETCHHave you ever heard the name Jim Swarthout? +MRS. STANWYKSwarthout. Yes. He's the man who sold us the ranch in --- +FLETCHWrong. He sold you $3,000 worth of scrub brush. +MRS. STANWYKBut I've seen the deed. +FLETCHYou saw a forgery. +He takes out hisphotographs. +FLETCHThat's the real deed. +162-A INSERT - PHOTOOF DEED +It's is so fuzzy,shaky, and poorly framed that there's no way we can read theprice on it. +FLETCH (O.S.)Now, if this were at all legible, you'd believe me. +162-B MASTER +Fletch shows her moreof the photos. +FLETCHHere's this dog that tried to eat me.Here's my motel. Here's the car I rented.... +MRS. STANWYKStop it.(angry and concerned)Are you saying my husband is defrauding me? +FLETCHI don't know. All I know is that he told me a lotof things and so far not one of them has been true. +Mrs. Stanwyk staresat Fletch. She gets a little teary. +FLETCHI'm really sorry I have to tell you all this. +MR. UNDERHILL(O.S.)Mrs. Stanwyk? +MRS. STANWYK(really screams)Just wait, all right?!?(to Fletch)I'm going to call my father. He'll know what --- +Fletch stops her. +FLETCHNo. You can't. Look, I know you don't know me fromAdam, but you've got to trust me. +MRS. STANWYKTrust you? I may seem a little goofy at times, butI'm not a complete Bozo, you know. +FLETCHJust give me twenty-four hours. Please. Someonealmost killed me today. People are not being nicelately, and I don't want you getting hurt. I think you'reterrific. Are you a Laker fan? +Gail is now teary,confused, and scared. +MRS. STANWYKNo...I've got to go to Mr. Underhill.... +FLETCHI'll take you to a game. +MRS. STANWYKWhat are you talking about? +FLETCHI'm talking about how much I'd like to take you to a Laker game. +MRS. STANWYKWait a second. What am I supposed to do for twenty-four hours? +FLETCH(climbing out window)Act natural. +MRS. STANWYKI was afraid you'd say that. +FLETCHIf you need me, call the paper. Handme that extra bottle okay? +163 EXT. CABANA +Gail opens the doorwhere Mr. Underhill has been waiting. +MRS. STANWYKSorry. Here.(grabs the bill from his hand)Thanks. Bye. +She closes the doorin his face. +164 OMITTED +165 EXT. BOYDAVIATION - PARKING LOT +Alan Stanwyk crossesthe parking lot and gets into his Jaguar. He starts the engine,backs out of his reserved space, and pulls out of the lot. +166 ANOTHER ANGLE -PARKING LOT +Fletch is reading acopy of Sports Illustrated. He puts it down, starts hiscar, and pulls out of the lot. +167 SANTA MONICABOULEVARD +Stanwyk's Jaguartools down Santa Monica Boulevard. Fletch's car follows, severaldiscreet car lengths behind. +168 INT. JAGUAR +Stanwyk checks hiswatch, and makes a turn. +169 MASTER +Stanwyk has pulledinto a service station. He gets out of his car and opens thetrunk. +170 FLETCH +He pulls into afast-food joint on the west side of the street. He opens the SportsIllustrated and peers over it. +171 STANWYK +He takes a gas canfrom the trunk, goes to the pump, fills it, and pays theattendant in cash. +172 FLETCH +Curious. +173 STANWYK +He puts the gas canback in the trunk, gets into the car, and starts off. +174 FLETCH +follows suit. +175 SANTA MONICABOULEVARD +We are getting intothe increasingly rundown section of Santa Monica. The Jaguarturns off. Hold: Several beats later, Fletch turns off. +176 OVERPASS +A freeway overpass.Stanwyk stops his car. +177 FLETCH'S CAR +He pulls off behind aliquor store, in view of the overpass. Fletch waits. +178 OVERPASS +A second car pulls upbehind Stanwyk's. A cop steps out and says something to Stanwyk.Stanwyk gets out of his car and walks over to the unmarked policecar, and gets in. +178-A FLETCH +takes out hisbinoculars. +178-B FLETCH'S POINTOF VIEW +Because he's lookingthrough the reflection of sunlight on the back window of theunmarked police car, Fletch's point of view is fuzzy, but we canjust make out the form of someone else in animated conversationwith Stanwyk. +178-C FLETCH +A moment of possiblerecognition. He focuses intently. +178-D FLETCH'S POINTOF VIEW - THE OTHER MAN IN THE CAR +with Stanwyk...isPolice Chief Cummings. +179 FLETCH +FLETCHJesus. +He starts up his carand backs out. +DISSOLVE TO +180 EXT. FLETCH'SAPARTMENT HOUSE +Fletch pulls up tohis house and stops the car. +181 INT. CAR +Fletch looks around. +182 EXT. HOUSE +Fletch doesn't leavethe car. +183 INT. CAR +Fletch sits put,drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He just has afeeling. He starts the car up, and pulls out. +184 EXT. HOUSE +Two cop cars,concealed in driveways, scream out, heading after Fletch's car. +185 INT. FLETCH'S CAR +Fletch sees them inthe rearview and stomps on the gas. +FLETCHShould've known. Goddamn it. +186 EXT. STREETS +Fletch floors it. +FLETCHGreat. First I'll get a speeding ticket,then they'll shoot me. Terrific. +Fletch cuts throughthe parking lot of a drug store/dry cleaning complex. The copcars follow suit. Shopping wagons are tossed about. He turns acorner and realizes he has a few seconds before they're on top ofhim again. He screeches up next to a teenager in a sports car. +FLETCHAll right, fella, smog check. Move over. +Before the guy cansay "who?", Fletch is in the guy's driver seat andtears out, hell bent for leather. +187 ENTRANCE TOFREEWAY +Fletch peels off ontothe Santa Monica Freeway. +188 FREEWAY +Fletch hits aboutninety. So do the cops. Now a motorcycle cop joins the chase. +189 OMITTED +189-A INT. SPORTS CAR +TEENAGERHoly sh*t! +FLETCHSorry, youngster, but we have to see what kind offluorocarbons this thing puts out at ninety-five. +TEENAGERHoly sh*t! +FLETCHDon't worry about the speed limit. That'swhat the police escort's for. +190 EXT. FREEWAY +Indeed, behind themis a gaggle of speeding cop cars and motorcycles. +TEENAGER (O.S.)Holy sh*t! +Fletch cuts acrosstwo lanes of traffic and gets off the freeway. He loses themotorcycle cop who goes past the exit. The squad cars are thrownbehind a bit, but still chase. +191 INT. SQUAD CAR +COP #1Sh*t! He'll kill us if we lose him. +191-A INT. SPORTS CAR +The teenager issweating bullets. +TEENAGEROkay, okay, just stop, will you. I admitit. I stole it. I was just taking it fora little joy ride, that's all.... +FLETCHHoly sh*t. +191-B EXT. CAR +Fletch squeals arounda corner, runs a light, and booms into the parking lot of a largeHoliday Inn. He's a few seconds ahead of the cops. +FLETCHOkay, kid. Just stand here with your handson the car and wait for the cops. I gotta pee.Here, take my hat. +Fletch pops his haton the kid's head, and runs off. +192 EXT. HOLIDAY INN +Fletch runs into thekitchen entrance of the Holiday Inn. +193 INT. HOLIDAY INNKITCHEN +Fletch picks up acase of vegetables and walks through as if he belonged there. +Moments later, twocops enter. +194 THE COPS +can't see him becauseof the crate. +195 INT. HOLIDAY INN- BANQUET ROOM +A testimonial dinneris in progress. A sign on the wall reads: +TRB SYSTEMS SALUTESFRED DORFMAN40 YEARS OF SERVICE +Thirty tables ofconservatively dressed, older men and women are enjoying lunch.Fletch enters from the kitchen followed by several waiters andbusboys. He looks over his shoulder. +196 FLETCH'S POINT OFVIEW - KITCHEN +Two cops are in hotpursuit. +197 FLETCH +moves into the middleof the tables as a florid fat Speaker at the dais drones on. +SPEAKER...and he can truly be called the Fatherof Internal Bushings. +A round of applausewhich Fletch joins heartily, as he quickly sits in the audienceat an empty seat at a table in the center. +FLETCH(to his table)Hello. I'm with the hotel catering. Are youenjoying your meal? Carrots overcooked? +Fletch looks to thekitchen entrance and sees two cops scanning the crowd. Onesignals to the opposite door. +198 DOOR +Four more copsconverge, looking for Fletch. Distant sirens indicate even more. +199 MASTER +SPEAKERAnd now a man who needs no further introduction.... +The police spotFletch and start moving forward. Fletch stands up. A spotlightswings onto him. +FLETCHThank you, Tony, thank you. As a lifelongfriend of....(looks at banner)...Fred Dorfman, I'm thrilled to be here. +200 DIAS +Fred Dorfman turns tothe people on either side of him and whispers, obviouslywondering who the hell this guy is. +201 FLETCH +The cops are hesitantto move in. They wait for Fletch to finish and get out of thelight. +FLETCHMany of you are probably not aware of Freddie'slifelong commitment to honoring a profession thatfrequently goes unsung -- the police. Many times Fredused to forsake a night with his wife and children togo out an sell tickets for the Policemen's BenevolentAssociation. +202 POLICE +look at each other,sensing a trick, and start to move in. +203 FLETCH +going for broke. +FLETCHOur men in blue are with us today, and I think weshould all extend a shake of the hand, a slap on the back and a 'howdy' to them. +204 POLICE +moving faster, butimpeded by the crowd which rises and follows Fletch's suggestion. +205 FLETCH +out of the crowd,still encouraging the crowd. +FLETCHWhen was the last time you hugged a cop?Do it for my good friend Tommy Lasorda.Doesn't it feel good? Don't you wish you'ddone it long ago? +one cop raises hisgun towards Fletch, but the crowd is too close, too busy. Fletchshakes his hand and slugs him so hard on the back that he fallsover into the crowd. +FLETCHLet them know how we feel, with a song. Forevery cop on every beat in every city of thisgreat nation.(singing)'For he's a jolly good fellow....'(calls out)Everybody!(sings)'For he's a jolly good fellow....' +The crowd sings alongthe rest of the verse. Fletch looks back to the kitchen entranceat the police who are swallowed in a sea of congratulations andsinging. Fletch takes his time strolling out of the kitchen. +206 INT. LAX - DAY +Fletch is at the PanAm counter, talking with a reservation Clerk. +CLERKYes sir, you are confirmed on Flight 306 to Riotomorrow evening at 11 PM. First Class. +FLETCHYou're kidding. +CLERKWould you like me to change anything? +FLETCH(to himself)So he's going. Uh...are there any other ticketscharged to the same account? +CLERKWe'd have no way of knowing that, sir. +FLETCHHmm. It's just that there are some other peoplefrom my office going on this trip and...is thereanyone in the seat next to me? +The clerk checks thecomputer. +CLERKYes, there is. Cavanaugh. +Fletch shakes hishead. He's never heard of him. +FLETCHNever heard of him. Thanks anyway. +CLERKYou mean her. +FLETCHWhat? +CLERKSally Ann Cavanaugh. Oh wait, she couldn't workin your office, she's not from around here. +FLETCHOh, thanks. +Fletch walks off andwe follow him. +CLERKShe's from Utah. +207 EXT. PROVOAIRPORT - DAY +as Fletch emergesfrom the Rent-A-Car office and drives off. +208 EXT. PROVO STREET- DAY +A lower-middle-classarea, one that seems to be sliding fast -- the plans arescraggly, the houses need paint. +Fletch's rental pullsup over the curb onto the sidewalk. Fletch gets out, checks apiece of paper, and goes up the steps to a dark-shingledtwo-story house. +209 TOP OF STEPS +Fletch looks at thename over the doorbell. +210 CARD +written in smearedink: "CAVANAUGH". +211 FLETCH +rings the doorbell.It sounds like a fire alarm in the quiet. Nobody answers. Fletchtries the door. It opens. Fletch hums the old "Dragnet"theme. +212 INT. HOUSE +still humming thetheme. +FLETCH'Bom-ba-bom-bom...bommmm.' +Fletch enters. +213 FLETCH's POINT OFVIEW - LIVING ROOM +The shelves are bare.Furniture is in place. +214 MASTER +Fletch enters thekitchen, and opens the refrigerator. Inside is a can of coffee,and some vegetables. Fletch leaves the kitchen and heads for thebedroom. We follow him as he enters the bedroom. +215 INT. BEDROOM +Fletch opens thecloset. It's bare. He pulls open the drawers. Nothing. Fletchgets down and looks under the bed. +VOICEWho the hell are you? +In his surprise,Fletch bangs his head as he starts up. +216 REVERSE +At the door stands agruff-looking Man in a red and black hunter's jacket, overalls,and a hat with earflaps. He holds a rifle. +MANGet up. +217 MASTER +Fletch gets up. +FLETCHThe door was unlocked. +MANLock's busted. +FLETCHNo wonder. +MANI work for the landlord. He toldme to watch out for the place. +FLETCHI commend him on his choice. +MANWhat? +FLETCHI commend him on his choice +The Man stares athim, holding the gun. He's not the brightest guy in the world,and Fletch has already caught on to that. +FLETCHI was supposed to meet Mrs. Cavanaugh. +MANWho are you? +FLETCHDon Corleone. I'm a cousin of Mrs. Cavanaugh's. +The Man just staresat Fletch. Fletch starts to move ever so slightly, testing hisfreedom of movement. +FLETCHWhere is she? +MANMoved out. +FLETCHShe moved out? +The Man nods andcocks the weapon. Fletch stops his tentative movements and justlooks around the room +FLETCHI spoke to her last week. She didn't say anything. +MANShe moved out. +FLETCHSo you're saying she moved out. +MANThis morning. +FLETCHThis morning? Christ. We had so much to talk about.Moe Green is out of the Tropicana, and my sons, Michaeland Fredo, are taking over. +The Man continues togaze unblinkingly at Fletch, holding the rifle. +MANWhat did you want under the bed? +FLETCHMattress police. There are no tags on the mattress.I'm going to have to take you downtown. Please giveme your weapon. +MANI'm calling the cops. This is for the cops. +FLETCHI'm her cousin. +MANTell the cops. +FLETCHGo ahead. Call them. Better tieyour shoelaces first. +The man looks down athis shoelaces. Fletch kicks the gun out of his hand and runsthrough the house. +218 EXT. HOUSE +Fletch runs out ofthe house and jumps into his car. +219 INT. CAR +Fletch pulls out. Therear window is suddenly blown away. +FLETCHI'm getting real tired of all this hostility. +220 EXT. PROVO PIGFARM +Fletch pulls up, getsout of the car and addresses the couple sitting on the porch ofthe house. +FLETCHEvening.(nods toward car)They oughta recall these things. One bump,the whole window goes. +221 PORCH +Sitting on the porchis a couple in their late sixties, whom we are about to learn areAlan Stanwyk's parents -- Marvin and Velma. +FLETCH(approaching the steps)Are you Mr. Marvin Stanwyk? +Marvin nods +FLETCHI'm Harry S. Truman from Casewell Insurance Underwriters. +MARVIN(smiles)Harry S. Truman? +FLETCHMy parents were great fans of the former President. +MARVINIsn't that nice. Good man. Showed the Japs a thing or two. +FLETCHSure did. Dropped the big one on them. +MARVINDropped two big ones. Real fighter.You're in the insurance line, Harry? +FLETCHRight. +MARVINWell, I'm fully covered. +FLETCHI don't doubt it, Mr. Stanwyk. Actually, my company is thesub-insurer of the subsidiary carriers of a policy held byAlan Stanwyk, who I believe is your son. +MARVINYes. Where you from, Harry? +FLETCHCalifornia. San Berdoo. Utah's part of my route.Can I ask you a few questions? +MARVINCome on in. +222 INT. MARVIN ANDVELMA'S LIVING ROOM +Fletch and theStanwyks face each other on couches that flank the fireplace.Fletch has a clipboard on which he will take notes. +FLETCHFirst, a couple of routine things:are you and you wife currently alive? +Marvin just stares athim. +FLETCHRegulations, Mr. Stanwyk. And you and your wife, named.... +MARVINVelma. +Velma smiles. +FLETCHVelma. You and Velma are the parents of Alan Stanwyk,Beverly Hills, California, executive vice presidentof Boyd Aviation? +MARVINCheck. +FLETCHOkay.(makes notation)Now, the last time you saw your son was when? +MARVINOh, about ten days ago. +Fletch is takenaback. +FLETCHTen days ago? +MARVINThat's right. Alan comes by every three weeks or so. +This is all news toFletch, but he covers his surprise. +FLETCHIsn't that nice. Since when? +MARVINSince he moved to L.A. +Fletch is veryinterested in all this. +FLETCHForgive me now for seeming personal, but we understandthat there is a lady friend he sees here in Provo. +MARVINWhat the hell does this have to do with insurance? +FLETCHTrust me, sir. It's a comprehensive policy. +MARVINWell, you can forget about that lady friend business,Alan's the most loyal husband a girl could have. Hedotes on that bride of his. +VELMACute young thing, too. +FLETCHI'm sorry? +VELMAHis bride. Cute as a button. +FLETCHYou've met her? +MARVINWell, of course we have. He brings her with him. +Fletch is gettingvery puzzled and very concerned about all this. +FLETCHHas Alan ever mentioned the name Sally Ann Cavanaugh? +Marvin and Velmaexchange the oddest of glances between them. +FLETCHHas he? +MARVINBoy, what the hell's the matter with you? +FLETCHThen he has. +MARVINCourse he has. That's his wife. +You could knockFletch over with a straw. Again, he quickly recovers. +FLETCHOf course, his wife's name is Sally Ann Cavanaugh? +VELMACute thing. +FLETCH(starting to sweat a little)Do you happen to have a picture of Alan and his wife? +VELMAOh, we've got lots of pictures. Let me show you some. +Velma rummagesthrough a family album on a side table as Fletch tried to sortall this out in his mind. She brings a photo over to him. Helooks at it. +223 INSERT - PHOTO +It's a wedding photoof Alan and a woman we have not seen. She is brunette and quiteunlike Gail. Alan wears a similar sh*t-eating grin, and makes asimilar thumbs-up gesture to the wedding photo with Gail thatFletch saw in Boyd's office. +224 FLETCH +He sighs. +FLETCHAnd they're still married...Alan and Sally Ann. +MARVINOf course they are. +VELMAShe's cute as a button. +FLETCHHow long have they been married? +MARVINLets see, it was before he moved to L.A...four years April. +FLETCHMrs. Stanwyk, may I borrow this picture. I promise to send it back to you. It's routine, really. The actuarial people need to --- +VELMAOh, that's all right, I've got lots more. Want to see thereception? +FLETCH(rising)No, thank you. +VELMAHow about Marvin's sixty-fifth birthday party? +Exit Fletch. +225 INT. PROVO MOTELROOM +Fletch is on thephone. +FLETCHFrank told you that? +226 INT. NEWSROOM -MORGUE +Larry is on thephone. +LARRYI overheard it. He thinks you're completely out ofcontrol, he said he was gonna can you as soon as hegot the story. If I were you, I'd just chuck it, Fletch.Screw him. Let him eat three full pages on Sunday. +227 MOTEL ROOM +FLETCHYou kidding? I got an unbelievable story here, Lar.Un-believable. Jesus. It's the cops, I know it. The Chief! And they're all over Frank. +228 MORGUE +LARRYI just thought...sure.(takes out pad and starts writing)Sally Ann Cavanaugh. +229 MOTEL ROOM +FLETCHCheck every hotel in L.A. Start with the onesnear the airport. Yeah. He's about to leave thecountry with her. Thanks, Lar. +230 INT. MOTELBATHROOM - LATER +Fletch is in theshower, lipsynching to the radio. Elvis is singing, "AllShook Up." +FLETCH'welluh bless my soul whatsuh wrong with me?I'ma itchin' like a man Inuh fuzzy tree....' +The phone rings.Fletch gets out, throws on a towel and picks up a phone mountedover the crapper. +FLETCHYeah...No kidding. The Marriott at LAX.Sonofabitch...Checked in this morning. Great. Thanks a million. And call Gail Stanwyk atthe Racquet Club. Tell her I have to meet hertonight. Eight o'clock at the club. Urgent andconfidential. Thanks. +231 INT. PLANE -NIGHT +Fletch is sitting ina semi-deserted flight on his way back home. He is hunched overan airline meal, eating with his right hand and turning in hismini recorder with his left. +FLETCHQuestion: +But as he pushed thebutton down, the tape pops out. He fumbles it back in, and thenpushes another button. +FLETCHQuestion.... +TAPE RECORDER(Fletch's voice playing back)Day three on the beach. Fat Sam still hasn't moved, and --- +FLETCH(stopping the machine)What's wrong with my life? +He starts it rightthis time. +FLETCHQuestion: Why does a man marry a millionaire'sdaughter in Beverly Hills if he is already marriedto a girl who lives in a crappy one bedroom apartmentin Utah? Answer: Three million dollars. Big Question:What's with Stanwyk and Cummings? I don't know. Bigger Question: Why does Stanwyk want me to kill him? +He takes a spoonfulof airline food, chewing meditatively. +FLETCH(continuing)Biggest Question: Why do I eat this sh*t?(to passing stewardess)Miss, I believe this has already been eaten. +232 EXT. MRS.STANWYK'S CABANA - NIGHT +Fletch knocks on thedoor, and a tensely white-faced Mrs. Stanwyk quickly lets him inand shuts the door behind him. +MRS. STANWYKI want you to know that dramatic phonecalls about secret meetings scare thesh*t out of me. +He can sense she isunusually upset. +FLETCHWhat's wrong, Gail? +MRS. STANWYKI decided I was going to tell myhusband about you today. +FLETCHNo. +MRS. STANWYKBut first I called the Hall of Records in Provo.They checked on the deed. You're telling the truth.A minute later Alan came in the room and asked mewhy I was shaking. +Fletch waitsanxiously to hear if she told Alan about him. +MRS. STANWYKSo I told him...I told him I wasjust cold or something. +Fletch sighs withrelief. +MRS. STANWYKI've never lied to him before.(chokes back a sob)It's the first time he's ever lied tome. He was just as convincing as whenhe says 'I love you.' +FLETCHI think you better sit down. +MRS. STANWYKOh God, I hate things that start like that.... +FLETCHGail, please. +She sits in a chair.he hands her the wedding photo. +FLETCHI got this from Alan's parents. Bythe way, they see him all the time. +First she looks atFletch with puzzlement. Then, she looks at the photo and can'tseem to decide what to think of it. But she knows it's bad. +MRS. STANWYKWhat is this.... +FLETCHI checked. There was no divorce. +MRS. STANWYKAre you telling me my husband is a bigamist??? +FLETCHI'm telling you he's not your husband at all. +She is stunned. +FLETCHAnd they're leaving the country tomorrow night. +MRS. STANWYK(rocked)Bastard. +FLETCHI don't have all the pieces yet, butI'm close. I'll know tomorrow. +MRS. STANWYKI'm calling the police. Right now. +FLETCHYou cant do that. +MRS. STANWYKDon't tell me I can't --- +FLETCHThey're trying to kill me! +She is taken aback bythat, but there is a determination in her eyes. +MRS. STANWYKYour twenty-four hours are up, Fletch. +She starts for thephone, but he stops her. +FLETCHYou're going to have to trust me, Gail.You have to. Now listen to me: he's expectingyou to go to your meeting tomorrow night. Do it.Stay out of the house. +There is a long beat. +MRS. STANWYKI'm terrified. +FLETCHCome here. +He puts his armsaround her and holds her tight against him. After a few secondsshe raises her head and turns the hug into a kiss. Then the kissturns passionate. +DISSOLVE TO +233 FRISBEE +sails across thesurf. +234 EXT. BEACH - DAY- WIDER +The usual scene-- amix of teeny-boppers, junkies and surfers. Into the f.g. step acouple of "surfers." They're wearing wet suits andcarrying surfboards, but they're obviously cops. They sit down.Across the beach, a Sufi, dressed in a turban and flowinggarments, crosses the sand. +SURFER COPA Sufi junkie. +The cops laughderisively and turn their attention else-where. +235 CLOSER ON SUFI +It's Fletch. he's gota beard pasted on, and nervously scans the beach. +236 FLETCH'S POINT OFVIEW - GUMMY +is seated on a towel. +237 MASTER +Fletch sits near, butnot next to, Gummy. +FLETCHGum? +Gummy looks around. +FLETCHI'm the Sufi. +GUMMYFletch? +FLETCHDon't call me Fletch. Don't look at me.Lie back down. We'll talk. +GUMMYWhat? +FLETCHCops are here. I can smell them.They're after me. Lie down, Gum. +Gummy lies back down. +GUMMYWhy are they after you? +FLETCHBecause I'm a newspaper reporter and I'm nailingChief Cummings as the source for drugs on thebeach. You're in big trouble, Gummy. +Gummy sits up. +FLETCHSit back down. +Gummy lies downagain. +FLETCHFat Sam is turning state's evidence. +GUMMYWhat's that? +FLETCHHe wrote me a nice deposition. He says hejust received the drugs. You did the selling. +GUMMYI didn't sell nothing! I didn't sell nothing!I just carried the drugs from the Chief to Sam. +FLETCHSure you did. +GUMMYFletch, I never sold nothing. +FLETCHTwenty years. +Fletch gets up andadjusts his flowing robes. +FLETCHCan't do a thing with this robe. Onemore question, Gum...don't look at me. +Gummy lies backdown. +FLETCHWhere does the Chief get the drugs? +GUMMYI dunno. Somewhere in South America, I forget. +FLETCHRio de Janeiro, maybe? +GUMMYMaybe, Fletch. Is that Brazil? +FLETCHThat's Brazil. +GUMMYYeah. Maybe. +FLETCHWait here for me, Gummy. +Gummy looksquestioningly at him. +FLETCHIt's the only way you'll be safe. Believe me. +Fletch crosses thesand, heads for "Fat Sam's". +238 "FATSAM'S" +Sam is reading the NationalReview. He looks up, sees Fletch approaching, and grins. +FAT SAMJesus. +FLETCHYou don't know me. +FAT SAM(smiling)My pleasure. +FLETCHI'm serious, Sam. +FAT SAMWhat, the heat here? +FLETCHAffirmative. +FAT SAMThe two surfer boys? +FLETCHAffirmative. +FAT SAMThought so. What for? +FLETCHFor me. I'm a reporter, Sam. I'm breaking thedrug story and I got the chief red-handed. Gummygame me a deposition. +FAT SAM(smiles)You gonna nail the chief? +FLETCHI'm gonna nail the chief. And you can help or --- +FAT SAMOh, I'll help, Fletch. I'm a slave to thatsonofabitch. He busted me, third offense, gave mea choice: Work for him or do fifteen long. All I getout of this is free snort. +FLETCHYou don't have a piece of the action? +FAT SAMNoooo. Free snort. That's it. +FLETCH(hands him a card)Wait five minutes, and go to my office.You'll get federal protection after that. +FAT SAMGonna need it. That boy is dangerous. Fletch? +FLETCHWhat? +FAT SAMYou find the source? +FLETCHGum thought Brazil. +FAT SAMRio. Know how he gets it in the country?Some big shot airline executive flies it in oncompany jets. Very impressive operation, Fletch.Very impressive. +239and OMITTED240 +241 INT. NEWSPAPER -CITY ROOM +Fletch paradesthrough the city room, still in his Sufi getup. He takes off thebeard and heads for Frank Walker's office. Fat Sam and Gummy,looking like fish out of water, follow him. +242 WALKER'S OFFICE +Fletch marches inwith Sam and Gummy. Walker gawks at him. +WALKERFletch.... +Fletch takes offthe turban. +FLETCHI'm quitting, Frank. As of midnight tonight. +WALKERWhat?(stares at Fat Sam and Gummy)Who the hell are they? +FLETCHThis is Fat Sam, and this is Gummy.(hands two sheets of paper to Walker) +WALKERWhat.... +FLETCHTheir statements, naming Chief Cummings as the numerouno drug pusher from here to Oxnard. I want them to havefederal protection under the paper's sponsorship. +Walker just stares atthe sheets. +WALKERJesus H. Christ.(smiles)Fletch, this is the greatest. +FAT SAMHe's some reporter, this guy. +FLETCHI'm out, Frank. You lost faith in me. +WALKERFletch, I got nervous. Please.... +FLETCHForget it. +Fletch takes off hisrobe and drops it to the floor. Beneath the robes he's wearingcutoffs and a Bob McAdoo t-shirt. +FLETCHI'm going to write the story. Just hold the lastcouple of paragraphs till ten o'clock tonight. +Fletch leaves theoffice. +FLETCH(to Fat Sam and Gummy)Make yourselves comfortable, guys, but don't leave the office. +243 CORRIDOR +Fletch heads for hisoffice. Walker follows. +WALKERFletch! +Fletch doesn'tanswer. +244 FLETCH'S OFFICE +Fletch enters theoffice and kicks his door closed. Walker opens it. +WALKERFletch, you want an apology? +FLETCHYou were going to can me, right? +WALKER(fumbles)Not really. +FLETCHNot really? +WALKERI was upset. +FLETCHI'm sick of this place. I'm going to tryout for the Lakers. They need a power forward. +WALKERFletch. +Fletch sits down andturns on his word processor, ignoring Walker. +245 EXT. STANWYKHOUSE - NIGHT +Fletch parks his Oldshalfway up on the sidewalk, and gets out. He climbs over thegates of the Stanwyk home, and drops down inside. He lands on thegrass, trots around the shrubbery, heads toward the garage, andchecks his watch. +246 WATCH +It's five minutesbefore eight. +247 INT. STANWYK'SGARAGE +The jaguar is parkedjust where it is supposed to be, and the key is in the ignition.Fletch thinks for a moment and looks around. He sees a pile oftorn rags on the ground. He removes the key from the ignition andopens the trunk. +248 INT. TRUNK. +Six large gasolinecans and more rags. +249 FLETCH +Another piece of thepuzzle fits in place. +250 EXT. HOUSE +Fletch reaches therear of the house. He peers inside. +251 FLETCH'S POINT OFVIEW - STANWYK +is in the library,sitting patiently at his desk. +252 FLETCH +approaches the Frenchdoors and enters. +253and OMITTED254 +255 INT. LIBRARY +Alan rises from hisdesk to greet him. His hair is combed like Fletch's. We can seethat beneath his sports jacket he is wearing a Magic Johnsont-shirt and jeans. +MR. STANWYKGood evening. +FLETCHI like your outfit. You got the fiftygrand and the plane ticket? +MR. STANWYKOf course. +Stanwyk nods toward asmall briefcase in the corner. Fletch eyes it quickly, and justas quickly looks back at Stanwyk who just stands there by hisdesk. +MR. STANWYKWhy don't you check it out for yourself, Mr. Nugent? +FLETCH(smiles)Because I trust you, Alan. By the way,the name's Fletcher. I.M. Fletcher. I writea newspaper column under the name Jane Doe. +MR. STANWYKWhat? +Fletch holds out anenvelope. +FLETCHRead this, please. +MR. STANWYKWait a second --- +FLETCHCut the crap and read it. +Stanwyk unfolds thepaper. +FLETCH(continuing)Unless my people hear differently, thisletter goes out at midnight. +256 INSERT LETTER +We see that it isaddressed to: +JOHN BOYDCHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDBOYD AVIATION +257 STANWYK +MR. STANYK(reading)'Dear Sir: Alan Stanwyk murdered metonight. The charred remains foundby the police in the Jaguar aremine, not his. Mr. Stanwyk, usingmy name and passport, boarded Pan AmFlight 306 for Rio, where he intendsto establish residence with ---' +He stares at Fletch. +258 FLETCH +He is liftingStanwyk's two attaché cases. +FLETCHPretty hefty. Keep reading. +259 STANWYK +MR. STANWYK(reading)'...with his legal wife, the formerSally Ann Cavanaugh.' +Stanwyk stops. He'sstunned, and not about to read anymore of this. +GAIL'S VOICE (O.S.)Keep reading, Alan. +Stanwyk spins to thedoorway. +259-A GAIL STANWYK +standing in thedoorway. +MRS. STANWYKDon't worry, I can take it. +260 MASTER +FLETCHYou shouldn't be here. +MRS. STANWYKI want to hear this. +Fletch takes theletter from Alan. +FLETCHHe doesn't read my stuff well.(reads)'Sally Ann and Alan were married four years agoand never divorced, making Stanwyk a bigamist even in Utah. Stanwyk is also traveling with three million dollars in cash, the result ofGail Stanwyk's conversion of Boyd Aviation stock.Mrs. Stanwyk believed the money was to be used topurchase property in Utah, but it wasn't; a factthat can be confirmed by realtor James Swarthoutof Provo.'(aside)That was stupid, Alan. +MR. STANWYKI'd have been long gone. +FLETCHAhem.(continues reading)'Sally Ann can confirm all this whenthe police pick her up at the Airport Marriott.' +Mr. Stanwykblanches. Fletch continues. +FLETCH'By the way, Alan is a very big drug smuggler,but you can read all about that in tomorrow's paper.Sincerely yours, I.M. Fletcher. P.S. Have a nice day.' +Alan mulls over allthis for a few seconds, then smiles wistfully. +MR. STANWYKBravo, Mr. Fletcher. +FLETCHThe thing that really tipped it off for mewas something your wife said to me while wewere in bed together. +Stanwyk shoots asurprised look at Gail. She returns it with an innocent shrug. +MR. STANWYK(to Fletch)And what was that? +FLETCHHow similar in build you and I are.then I figured it. You bump me off,throw me in the car, and burn me up. +MRS. STANWYKMy God, Alan, you really are and a**hole, aren't you? +Now it is Alan's turnto shrug innocently. +MR. STANWYKSorry, darling. +MRS. STANWYKYou sonofabitch. +MR. STANWYKYes, I suppose I am. But I'm not a stupid sonofabitch. +Mr. Stanwyk reachesinto his desk and pulls out his gun, and levels it at Fletch. +MR. STANWYKI was already prepared to commit one murder. What makes you think I won't commit two? +FLETCHWhoops. +MRS. STANWYK(her bravado deflated)'Whoops?' What do you mean 'whoops?'Don't say 'whoops.' +MR. STANWYKI mean, by the time your story gets published, I'llbe on the beach. I understand extradition from Rio isvery complicated. I'll bet for two murders it's even more so. +FLETCHThat is a lighter, isn't it? +Just then, the Frenchdoors swing open, and Chief Cummings enters. +CUMMINGSGreetings, everyone. +FLETCH(dryly)Thank God, the police. +MR. STANWYKWhat the hell are you doing here? +CUMMINGSPut the gun down, Alan. I'll take care of them. +Stanwyk lowers thegun. +MRS. STANWYK(to Fletch)I thought you had this all figuredout. Good going 'Irwin.' +FLETCHDon't ever call me 'Irwin,' okay? +MRS. STANWYK(to Cummings)I've got it all under control, Jerry. You can go now. +CUMMINGS(laughs)Under control? You idiot. Youdidn't know who he was? +During the followingdialogues, Fletch starts nudging the fireplace's gas lighter jetkey with his foot. +CUMMINGSFat Sam left the beach today. So did Gummy.It began to occur to me that some things arebeginning to happen that maybe I should be aware of. +MR. STANWYKI said I'll take care of it. Now, a man of your positionshouldn't be a part of what's about to go down. So gohome and I'll call you tomorrow. +CUMMINGSWhat, 'long distance?' I couldn't help but hearyou say something about Rio, Alan. You're not leaving with the eight hundred thousand dollarsI staked you for the next load, are you? +FLETCHWhoa. Well, you two obviously have a lot to talkover, so we'll go catch the last ten minutes of Dynasty. +Fletch and Gailactually start to leave, but Cummings draws his gun and firesover their heads. They dive for the floor, landing on the side ofthe fireplace. Fletch palms a Zippo lighter from his pocket. +MR. STANWYKJerry, you're simply going to have to trust me.I've got a foolproof way to get rid of this guyand now you're jeopardizing everything. +CUMMINGSYour 'foolproof' way is going to land my a** onthe front page while you're basking in Rio. +FLETCH...with your money. +Cummings turns hishead momentarily to consider what Fletch has said, and Stanwyktakes advantage of the distraction to go for his gun. But he istoo slow. Cummings shoots once, striking Stanwyk in the chest,killing him instantly. +Gail screams inhorror. Cummings turns to Fletch. +CUMMINGSThis one's going to be even more fun. +FLETCH(striking the Zippo)Go ahead. Make my evening. +Fletch hurls thelighter into the fireplace, causing a great whoosh of flames.Cummings throws his hands up in front of his face and Fletchleaps at him, wrestling him to the ground. Cummings is thestronger of the two, and just as he starts to gain dominance overFletch, Gail Stanwyk staggers to her feet, picks up her husband'stennis racket in it's wooden brace, and slams it againstCummings' head with all her might. +The Chief is knockedout. +Fletch lies there,panting, trying to catch his breath. He looks up at Gail, stillholding the racket, and staring at Alan's body. Fletch hustlesher out of the room. +260-A HALLWAY +FLETCHI'm calling the police. Then I'mleaving. You wait here for them. +GAILWhere are you going? +FLETCHAway. I think it might take you a while to get your life back together. You don't need me around.(indicates the library)Don't go back in there. +He starts to leave.She calls after him. +GAIL(still holding the racket)I really creamed the sonofabitch, didn't I? +FLETCH(smiles)You sure did. +Fletch exits. +DISSOLVE TO +261 EXT. RIO DEJANEIRO - DAY +With SugarloafMountain in the b.g., Fletch lies in a lounge chair, sipping anexotic drink, watching the cavorting lovelies and playing hisbattered Casio. This is obviously at some very expensive beachclub or hotel, as witnessed by the uniformed servant who brings atelephone. +WAITER(Brazilian accent)Your call is come through. +FLETCHFar out.(to the phone)Larry? It's Fletch.(pause, looks around)Well, it's not 'Fat Sam's', but...any port in a storm.(pause)Oh, tell Frank I need a couple of months.The fifty grand's lasting longer than I thought. +He pauses again tolisten to Larry, but sees something O.S. that takes over hisattention. he doesn't wait for Larry to finish what she's saying. +FLETCHI gotta go, Lar. +He hangs up andstands. We see that Gail has just walked up to him. The way theylook at each other indicates they have not seen each other forawhile, and her arrival is a surprise to Fletch. +GAILJohn Ultramalensky, right? +FLETCHRight. +GAILGod, I haven't seen you since the wedding. +FLETCHGee, I must have been sh*t-faced at your wedding, I don't --- +GAILNot mine, stupid. Yours. +FLETCH(big smile)What are you doing here? +They start walkingdown the beach. We stay right with them. +GAILI couldn't sit home and play the mournful widow anymore, and the police didn't need me,so I tried watching a Lakers game on TV, but the announcer talked to fast and Icouldn't understand a lot of what was happening, so I figured if I camedown here maybe you could explain therules to me, and besides, I missed you. +FLETCHNo problem. +He puts his armaround her, as we watch them leave us behind and walk off downthe beach. +FLETCHBasketball, of course, was invented in France,and is played with a large ball, two tongue depressors and a fish.... +Fletch ad-libs justlike Chevy Chase would as they walk further away down the beachuntil we.... +FADE OUT +THE END diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Flight.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flight.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7555c3f09f336a67df05ad94ec16f04c490a5e5b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flight.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FLIGHT Written by John Gatins Dec. 12, 2011 CHYRON -- ATLANTA 6:12 AM EXT. SOMEWHAT SEEDY TWO-STORY HOTEL IN ATLANTA -- PRE-DAWN It's still more night than day as we look down on the HOTEL ATLANTA. The lit sign for the HOTEL ATLANTA may be the only source of light as we hear a metallic rattle. EXT. HOTEL ATLANTA -- SECOND FLOOR -- PRE-DAWN We follow the metallic rattle to a door. The rattling stops and we watch the knob slowly turn. Tight on a feminine arm with a tattoo that announces "hope." We pull back to find that both arms are employed in the pulling of what looks like a large suitcase. NICOLE MAGGEN, a beautiful but tired woman, finishes pulling the suitcase that we now surmise to be a folded-up massage table out of the motel room. With her bra in one hand and the rickety table resting against the wall of the exterior 2nd floor hallway of the motel, she assesses her situation. She digs in her purse, lights a cigarette and continues digging in her purse. She finds a beat-up candy tin. She opens it and quickly sorts through a collection of burnt foils, heroin foils, looking for residue. Nothing. She now finds and holds up the 100 bucks she just made. She flips open her cheap phone and makes a call...she thinks better of it and hangs up. EXT. HOTEL ATLANTA -- PARKING LOT -- MOMENTS LATER NICOLE forces the clumsy table into the hatchback of a 1988 Toyota Tercel and slams it shut. INT. 1988 TOYOTA TERCEL -- PARKING LOT -- SAME TIME We hear the electronic ring of her cheap cell phone on "speaker phone" mode. The phone rests on the passenger seat. We pull up to find NICOLE slumped with her head resting on the steering wheel. She is exhausted and irritated... NICOLE (as the phone rings) Don't pick up...don't pick up... don't pick up... 2. A MAN answers with music in the background..."Yo.." NICOLE quickly picks up the phone. NICOLE (CONT'D) It's Nic, do you have any? Good morning to you too. You're what? Well, where are you guys shooting today? Where? Text me the address. You have some...Okay. She hangs up the phone and catching herself in the rearview she tries to smile. CHYRON -- ORLANDO 7:14 AM EXT. AMERICAN VALUE SUITES - HOTEL -- ORLANDO -- MORNING The sun would be rising if the sky wasn't swirling with grey clouds. We see the American Suites Hotel and recognize it as a decent commuters' hotel near the airport in Orlando. The sound of a clock radio breaks the calm of our picture. INT. AMERICAN VALUE SUITES - HOTEL -- ORLANDO -- MORNING Through the clock radio we loudly hear two morning drive-time radio personalities spewing nonsensical patter... An attractive YOUNG WOMAN wrestles free of the covers and gets out of bed. She crosses naked through the room as a cell phone starts ringing. Back to the bed as WHIP WHITAKER rises into frame and inhabits the room like a lazy ape at the zoo. WHIP wears his 40 some years of life experience like a medal. Smoke hangs in the air and empty beers, a pint of vodka and two empty carafes of cheap hotel wine clutter the table as WHIP snatches up his phone and answers... VOICE For the love of Christ! Look...just hold...HOLD ON. He aggressively drains the last four inches of beer from a clear bottle and cracks the last fresh one that bobs in the hotel ice bucket. The naked, YOUNG WOMAN bends over to pick up her clothes. We witness her ass as a tanned glass vase with a perfect crack down the middle. Whip smiles, taking it all in... 3. WHIP (into the phone) I've been up since the crack 'a dawn. What check? Tuition? How much does it cost to go there? The YOUNG WOMAN has re-lit the last half of a joint and is puffing it to life as WHIP is beckoning with his large hands. The YOUNG WOMAN, looking more like a stripper by the second, hands the joint to WHIP who takes a masterful drag. WHIP shakes his head in violent disapproval to what he hears on the phone. He exhales in anger as he shouts into the phone. WHIP (CONT'D) NO! NO! NO! You decided he needed private school...lemme talk to Knuckles. He's not? Tell'em the phone works both ways. Oh he's my son because you need a tuition check...that's great Deana. I'm glad you tracked me down in Orlando at 7 in the fucking morning to shake me down for money. Does he even like the fucking school? No I've never seen it. Yeah I wonder why not too. I gotta 9 o'clock flight, sit tight 'till I get back to Atlanta. How am I a liar? What? No, I'll call you. WHIP hangs up and continues to make quick work of the last beer as he stares through his thoughts and out the window. YOUNG WOMAN Was that your wife? WHIP That was my ex-wife. But you Trina, you could be my second or third wife if you'd just C'mere. The YOUNG WOMAN we now know as TRINA smiles seductively... TRINA Whip, don't even joke about that. Our flight's at 9, let's hit it. TRINA is still naked but she holds a navy blue skirt and a white blouse as she hands WHIP his pants. WHIP can't help but pat that perfect ass as TRINA tries to skip away. ON THE RADIO We hear the opening bars of a familiar rock anthem...JOE COCKER's "I'm Feeling Alright" 4. WHIP Yeah, I'm feelin' a little light- headed. I shoulda ate somethin'. WHIP leans over the motel table, picks up a soda straw that's been cut in half. He efficiently sniffs up a line of coke. INT. AMERICAN VALUE SUITES HOTEL-ORLANDO-HALLWAY-MORNING WHIP wears his pilot Blues and carries his hat as he strides confidently down the hallway. JOE COCKER continues to wail, perfectly narrating the hero's swagger that WHIP maintains while passing bad light fixtures and ornate wall paper. EXT. AIRPORT SOUTHJET TARMAC - AIRPLANE - MORNING RAINING WHIP leans against the landing gear of the JACKSON-RIDGEFIELD 88 PASSENGER JET -- He takes a swig from a small bottle of mouthwash -- gargles, then spits the green foam on the tarmac. WHIP wipes fatigue from his face as he stashes the mouthwash in his pocket, then quickly completes his visual walk around. He looks at the sky again as he steps on to the jet way ladder. His foot slips, sending his shoe SPLASHING in to a puddle. WHIP Son of a bitch! Whip shakes the rain out of his shoe as he continues up the stairs. INT. ORLANDO AIRPORT TERMINAL - JETWAY -- DAY WHIP enters the jetway from the exterior door at the entrance of the plane. TRINA is greeting a MAN and his SON. WHIP Morning Miss Marquez. TRINA Morning Captain Whitaker. WHIP waits as TRINA politely parts the stream of folks to allow WHIP to enter the plane. INT. AIRPLANE GALLEY -- MOMENTS LATER WHIP exchanges a look with a MATURE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, MARGARET THOMASON. She can't help but smile... 5. MARGARET Captain Whitaker, that sky gonna hold? You're not gonna make me spend another night in Orlando? WHIP Don't worry, Margaret I'm gonna get you home for your prayer meeting at...what is it? Jesus Christ Superstar 27th Baptist King Church? TRINA and CAMELIA SATOU, the other flight attendant, laugh. MARGARET That's right, Christ the King First Baptist Church on Hazel and 9th Street. And I'm still saving you a seat next to me. Offer stands...come on down. WHIP One of these nights, Margaret, I'm comin'. You hold my seat. The girls laugh at the familiar exchange. INT. AIRPLANE COCKPIT - MORNING WHIP enters the cockpit, removes his hat and nods to KEN EVANS, our clean-cut, young first officer. WHIP G'morning. Walk around is complete. Whip pulls his emergency oxygen mask off the bulkhead and takes a huge hit. WHIP (CONT'D) Emergency oxygen, checks. (offering the mask to EVANS) You want a hit? EVANS No thank you sir. WHIP (tries to break the chill) My pleasure to share the chair with ya'. Didn't we fly together... EVANS lets him hang... 6. EVANS No sir, not that I remember. Ken Evans, sir. WHIP Call me Whip. EVANS Yes sir. WHIP studies this little Bible Thumper for a second before... WHIP (calls to the galley) Margaret. (SHE APPEARS) Sweetie, will you get me a coffee, black, lots of sugar. And some aspirin. You want something? EVANS (looks to Margaret) No ma'am. Thank you. (SHE LEAVES) Sir, it's 8:50. WHIP Then let's push. I got a great `on time' record. EVANS Yes sir, you gottit. And how you feeling today, sir? WHIP focuses on EVANS, trying to read into that statement. WHIP Tired, sir. But, this is a quick turn for me. Ten turns in three days. Off tomorrow. MARGARET returns with the coffee, placing it down near WHIP's chair on an airline cocktail napkin. MARGARET Here's your coffee and the final manifest. 102 souls on board. WHIP Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're a life saver. And Margaret gettem' tucked in, we're ready to push. 7. WHIP goes to the head. MARGARET and EVANS exchange a look. CUT TO: EXT. ATLANTA SUBURB - STONE MANSION - DRIVEWAY - DAY NICOLE gets out of her Tercel and slams the door twice before it closes. She checks the address on her phone and looks up at the enormous mansion. INT. ATLANTA -- STONE - MANSION - DAY NICOLE pushes through the overly tall front door of the house. At first glance, it's completely empty, unfurnished. A GUY in cargo pants and a baseball hat sleeps sitting up against the huge dual staircase that leads to the second floor. Random boxes of video equipment are now evident as are thick cables that lead to a staircase going down. On the staircase she immediately encounters another YOUNG CREW GUY holding a tiny lap dog while standing next to a NAKED GIRL wearing a Shakespearean Military Helmet. The YOUNG CREW GUY holds up the "be quiet" finger to his lips. NICOLE quietly makes her way down a few steps, stopping at the odd duo. We now hear activity downstairs, music. SUDDENLY the YOUNG CREW GUY frantically points at the NAKED GIRL. NAKED GIRL IN HELMET Othello you bastard! And she grabs the TINY DOG and hustles downstairs. NICOLE waits with the YOUNG CREW GUY until we hear.... KIP (O.S.) CUT! CUT THAT! NICOLE is free to walk all the way downstairs now. INT. MANSION - OTHELLO PORN SET - BEDROOM SUITE - DAY NICOLE enters to reveal a large porn set with a Shakespearean theme, specifically "Othello." We see an Elizabethan Four- poster bed with a canopy surrounded by stone arches and cardboard Venetian Columns. In the bed we find an AFRICAN AMERICAN PORN ACTOR laying with TWO FEMALE ADULT ACTORS. A GIRL WITH DYED-BLONDE HAIR stands naked next to the throne smoking a joint as she shaves her crotch with a man's electric razor. 8. NICOLE approaches a YOUNG TATTOOED MAN who only wears board shorts. He's talking with an OLDER ASIAN MAN as they groom a pile of coke for snorting. NICOLE KIP- He sniffs a quick line and gets up to kiss her, she turns her cheek avoiding the coke-frozen kiss. KIP Nicole, this is Tiki Pot. He's my partner in this new series, he knows a lot about porn. NICOLE Kip I need 2 grams of "h." KIP Tiki and I are trying to put the narrative back in porn. Our Desdemona hasn't shown yet. (a great idea hatches...) You should play Desdemona. FUCK YEAH! You got that fair skin. KIP is flirting, seeing if she'll consider it... NICOLE Desdemona? What the fuck? TIKI does a line and comes up babbling. TIKI POT She do anal, two thousand, one hour. NICOLE I don't do porn, Kip. Just lemme see the "h." KIP Just listen, we're doing an Othello theme where the Moor finds you in bed with your nurse and- NICOLE He fucks me in the ass? 9. KIP Well...yeah. We're giving a whole new meaning to the "beast with two backs." That's actually a title we're toying with...'beast with two backs' or Hole-thelo or Butt Hole- thelo...would you be up for it? TIKI POT College kid, very clean...BRETT?! A tall thin kid joins them. He wears a Moorish Headdress and has a bath towel wrapped around his waist. TIKI POT (CONT'D) Show her the pipe- BRETT drops the towel... NICOLE Fuck you Tiki, you put that in your ass and call me in the morning. Kip, have I ever done that shit for you? Never. Asshole. NICOLE walks away. KIP follows her...at the door. KIP Nic...sorry, we're tweaked, okay baby girl. Hey, c'mon you wanna stay and shoot some stills for me, you're pics are awesome. And what's going on with you? You were clean for a while and... (she begins to cry) Sweetheart, don't cry. NICOLE I just need a little to smoke. (flashes the cash) I've got 100. KIP pulls a small tin foil square from his vest pocket. KIP No, keep your money, okay? But, Nicole, this is the Taliban baby, very big time. It will take you down. NICOLE I can handle it. 10. KIP (CONT'D) Don't shoot this shit, it is way too heavy. NICOLE I'm just gonna smoke it. I haven't done needles in weeks. KIP Okay, no needles and take a little coke and if you start going down just whiff a little. Okay? I wanna see you... KIP hands her a tiny baggy of coke. He kisses her cheek. CUT TO: INT. COCKPIT -- MORNING Out the window...nothing...the rain pounds. WHIP leans close to the windshield in an attempt to improve his view. EVANS reaches down and throws a switch. The windshield wipers go on. We can now see very clearly the path of lights the plane is to follow. WHIP looks to EVANS, smiles with stoned eyes. WHIP Thanks junior. EVANS looks out at the rain... EVANS Looks pretty ugly, sir. WHIP A little rain never hurt anybody. We're not made of sugar. What's the RVR? EVANS Half a mile. Right at minimums. Wind's gusting to 29. 30 is our crosswind max. WHIP I know what our crosswind max is. Tellem were good to go at the end. EVANS just stares at WHIP. 11. GROUND CONTROL (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227, say intentions. WHIP looks right at EVANS. EVANS keys the radio. EVANS Orlando ground. SouthJet 227 will be ready to go at the end. WHIP stares forward, not looking at EVANS. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY Nervous passengers stare out the windows as the JR-88 lumbers along the tarmac, headed for the runway. We follow TRINA whose ass looks as good in a tight navy skirt as it does split bare with orange fluorescence. MARGARET speaks into the PA mic. MARGARET Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the seat-belt sign. Please be sure your seat-belts are securely fastened, and all carry-on items are safely stored in the over- head bin, or under the seat in front of you. Also, all personal electronic devices must be switched off, at this time. Today's flight time to Atlanta should be 52 minutes. Flight attendants please take your seats. 16 TRINA straps into her jump-seat. 16 INT. COCKPIT -- MORNING -- POV THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Heavy rain lashes the nose of the plane. Lightning FLASHES. We watch the plane steer on to the GLOWING center-line. INT. COCKPIT Whip inhales his coffee and readies himself for take-off. EVANS tries to relax, continuing with the checklist. EVANS (reading the check-list) Elevator trim - set. Flaps, One, two, three - set. Radios - set. 12. One, two, three altimeters - set. Lights, pitot heat, de-ice - on. Transponders, set. TOWER (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227, wind is one-zero-zero at seventeen. Runway 18L, cleared for take off. WHIP has razor focus as he places his hand on the throttle. EVANS sits upright and prepares for battle. EVANS (keys the mic) Cleared for take off, SouthJet 227. Whip pushes the throttles and the engines SCREAM as they spool up to full thrust. After a beat, he releases the brakes. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The passengers are pressed into their seats like blades of grass as the breeze of the plane's momentum moves them towards flight. The main lights in the cabin go out and the small glow of the aisle lights lead us back to the cockpit. INT. AIRPLANE COCKPIT - DAY WHIP mans the stick as he squints his eyes and tries to keep the nose between the lights of the runway. WHIP It's like a video game, right? WHIP laughs and turns to his copilot. EVANS is visibly nervous as he begins the take-off check... EVANS Airspeed's alive, both sides... Engine instruments are in the green...100 knots crosscheck... The JR-88 fishtails as the main gear begins to hydroplane. WHIP Yep, nothing like a little 30 knot cross wind to exercise that sphincter muscle. Evans is jostled violently. 13. EVANS That's wind shear! A micro burst! Whip's eyes are focused on the end of the runway. The RED THRESHOLD LIGHTS are approaching fast. The plane is not lifting off. EVANS (CONT'D) Less than a thousand feet to go! Whip snaps at him. WHIP Just watch my airspeed! C.U. The airspeed indicator reads 145... EVANS V1...and... Now the air speed indicator climbs to 160... EVANS (CONT'D) ...rotate. Whip pulls back on the yoke, and... The plane jerks up and we can hear the fuselage flex as we leave the ground. The plane is immediately buffeted by severe turbulence. EVANS (CONT'D) That's wind shear for sure! WHIP Yeehaw! Ride `em cowboy. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The passengers are rattled like a bag of marbles. INT. COCKPIT - DAY The plane is loping up as the rain continues to pound the windshield. The ascent is very bumpy as the turbulent wind tosses the plane side to side. Copilot EVANS is communicating with Air Traffic Control... 14. EVANS Orlando Departure...SouthJet 227, climbing out of 2500 for 5 thousand, runway heading. ATC (ON RADIO) Roger SouthJet 227. Turn left heading one-seven-zero. Climb, maintain niner thousand. EVANS Left to 170. Climb, maintain niner thousand. EVANS quickly dials the heading and altitude into the auto- pilot. WHIP I don't want the auto-pilot. I'm flying. ATC (ON RADIO) What's your ride like, SouthJet 227? Before EVANS can answer, WHIP jumps on the radio. WHIP Ah, Departure, we've got some rough chop here. I'd say moderate to... WHUMP!! The plane hits a severe bump! EVAN's headset turns sideways and he quickly rights it. WHIP chokes back a nervous chuckle. WHIP (CONT'D) (into his mic) No, severe. Definitely severe turbulence. No meal service today. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL Roger that. Whump!! Once again the plane is violently rocked. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The passengers audibly HOWL as the roller coaster dip lifts most of their stomachs into their throats. A few overhead luggage bins fly open and bags and coats rain down. 15. The THREE ATTENDANTS calmly collect the luggage and stow it in the kitchen. They talk loudly for the benefit of the passengers. TRINA (to a passenger) This happened last week, always bumpy outta Orlando. Right Cam? MARGARET grabs the cabin mic and addresses the passengers. MARGARET Ladies and Gentlemen, the captain has asked that until we clear this air you stay seated with your seat belts fastened. Thank you. INT. COCKPIT - DAY The plane rocks and shutters. WHIP seems oblivious as he continues to serenade Evans. WHIP (SINGING) Feelin' alright - Not feelin' too good myself - Feelin' alright - Not feelin' too good myself... WHIP is interrupted by Air Traffic Control. ATC (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227...Be advised there is a large convective cell four miles at your 11 o'clock. And another cell, 2 o'clock, 10 miles. Both moving rapidly. EVANS Copy, Center. (TO WHIP) Did you get that? WHIP Gottit Skippy. I'm just tryin' to get birdie here outta this wind bowl...What did they clear us to? EVANS We're cleared to Flight Level one- eight-thousand. 16. THE PLANE TAKES ANOTHER VIOLENT DIP EVANS' headset flies off. His tie and all the loose equipment and coffee cups are thrown to the ground. WHIP Goddamnit! Enough of this shit! WHIP pushes the yoke forward. The plane pitches downward. EVANS What are you doing!? WHIP Leveling off. EVANS What!? WHIP points to the MFD screen. WHIP See that sliver of blue sitting between those two ugly bastards? C.U. MFD screen: A narrow line of blue is visible between the two monstrous convective cells. WHIP (CONT'D) That's a little pocket of smooth air squatting right over Lake Kissimmee... EVANS nervously squints at the screen. WHIP (CONT'D) And we're gonna thread that fucking needle. Turn me thirty degrees right! EVANS jumps on the radio. EVANS (into his mic) Center. This is SouthJet 227, We need to divert 30 degrees right... WHIP For weather. EVANS (into his mic) ...for weather. 17. ATC SouthJet 227, this is Jacksonville Center. 30 Degrees, right, approved. Report back on course. EVANS Report back on course. WHIP banks the plane to the right. Suddenly -- the plane falls 200 feet in 2 seconds. A huge air pocket pulls the rug out from under the JR-88. From the cockpit we can hear the passengers scream. EVANS holds on to his headset. EVANS (CONT'D) Oh, Lord! WHIP He can't help you now, brother. WHIP remains cool as he rides more bad air. The plane now bounces rapidly over a non-stop succession of speed bumps. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The passengers clutch each other as they rattle like bobble head dolls; it's getting worse. INT. COCKPIT - DAY WHIP pushes the throttle and the 17-year-old Jackson- Ridgefield JR-88 accelerates directly into a huge black cloud. He begins to dip the nose level to the ground. EVANS Why are you leveling off, sir? WHIP I'd like to spend less time in this shitty air, Kenny. Is that alright with you? WHIP pushes the 17-year-old Jackson-Ridgefield JR-88 directly into a huge black cloud. He begins to dip the nose towards the ground. EVANS We're approaching maximum airspeed! 18. WHIP Fucking right! I'm gonna need some speed to punch through this crap. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The passengers howl in fear as the plane pitches forward. INT. COCKPIT - DAY EVANS calls out to WHIP... EVANS You're over-speeding! WHIP Not yet!! The AIRSPEED INDICATOR moves from GREEN right up to the YELLOW line. WHIP banks the plane steeply to the right. From the cabin we HEAR the passengers SCREAM! Now ATC comes on the radio... ATC (ON RADIO) Uh, SouthJet 227, this is Jacksonville Center. Say altitude. WHIP Tell `em we're climbing. EVANS (scared and lying badly) Center...uh...SouthJet 227 is leaving niner thousand...for Flight Level 180. ATC (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227, this is Center. You need to check your Mode-C. Your transponder indicates you're descending. EVANS looks at WHIP -- panicked. WHIP You're useless Evans, shit! (keys the radio) 19. Center. This is SouthJet 227, we've encountered some bad air here. Some pretty severe downdrafts. We're in our climb now. ATC (ON RADIO) Roger. The shaking gets incredibly violent. WE HEAR SCREAMS from the cabin. Evans points to Whip's airspeed indicator. EVANS (TERRIFIED) Look at your airspeed! You're too fast for this rough air! WHIP I'm right on the line Kenny. Right on the line. WHIP starts to hum the Joe Cocker song again as he cranes his head up close to the windscreen -- looking intently at the dark sky. WHIP (CONT'D) C'mon sweetheart, show me the sun. Suddenly, we see a beam of light breaking through the black clouds -- 12 o'clock high. A God ray. WHIP (cont'd) (CONT'D) Finally, daylight. WHIP banks the plane hard, lifting the nose -- pointing it directly at the crack in the darkness. He shoves the throttles to full power. The plane is banking, rising and accelerating. INT. PASSENGER CABIN - DAY The screaming passengers go quiet with the strange new development. The shaking has eased from a 10 to a 5. INT. COCKPIT - DAY Whip keeps the plane climbing steeply. The Vertical Speed Indicator shows we're ascending 2,000 feet per minute. The altimeter spins up past 12,000 ft. 20. The murky grey outside becomes lighter and brighter, until suddenly, in a dramatic reveal... WE BREAK THROUGH THE CLOUDS! Instantly the air becomes perfectly smooth. Whip levels off and maneuvers between the two towering cloud walls -- smooth as silk. Gliding over the fluffy white clouds and through the shimmering rays of the sun -- it feels like WHIP just flew the JR-88 into heaven. A joyous CHEER ERUPTS from the passenger cabin WHIP pulls the power back and switches on the auto-pilot. EVANS is cheery, almost giddy... EVANS Glad that's over. WHIP, however, is very shaky and beaded with sweat. WHIP How tall are we? EVANS 16 thousand. That was incredible sir... WHIP Ken, turn us north and take us home. Your plane. EVANS looks at him and nods. EVANS My plane. WHIP (picks up the phone) Margaret, I'm coming out. WHIP hangs up, puts on his pilot hat and exits the cockpit. EXT. NICOLE'S GEORGIAN GARDENS APTS FRONT DOOR-ATLANTA-DAY NICOLE has her keys out as she hustles for her door. She looks to find the door slightly open. She pushes it fully open to see FRAN, the building manager, standing in her living room holding her camera. He tries to be casual... 21. FRAN Where you been Nicole? She is scared and pissed by his invasion of her space. NICOLE Fuck! Fran...get out. FRAN You're like a little ghost. I never know when you're here. NICOLE Get the fuck out Fran! She grabs the full-bodied 35 MM camera from him. FRAN As the building manager I have a legal right to enter an apartment if I believe the occupant is unwell. Especially if said occupant is not current on her rent. He takes a slimy step towards her. She steps away. NICOLE Fran, please just gimme a minute. Get out. I have the rent. I will bring it down to you. Just let me shower. FRAN You could just bring the check down now, use my shower. I got good water pressure. You know that... FRAN leans against the door frame, trying to strike a seductive pose. NICOLE smiles and holds up her camera. NICOLE You're in the perfect light Fran. (he smiles, preening) Back up a little...little more. FRAN steps outside and on to the landing. INT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT FRONT DOOR -- ATLANTA -- DAY NICOLE kicks the door shut and locks it, escaping FRAN who calls through the door. 22. FRAN (O.S.) Tricky tricky, girl. Alright, so you shower up and come down. For real. We don't gotta talk about the check. Hang out a lil bit... NICOLE puts her camera down gently on the table. NICOLE (SOTTO) In your fucking dreams. She now flings her purse on the ground in frustration...the contents spill on to the carpet. Amidst the flotsam we focus on yet another candy tin that springs open. NICOLE fixes her stare at the hypodermic needle resting inside. INT. CABIN - GALLEY - DAY WHIP exits the lavatory drying his hands with a towel. He looks down the aisle to see TRINA far down the cabin. TRINA sees WHIP, comes back up the aisle and stands with her back to him watching the passengers. WHIP opens a bottle of orange juice and takes a big swig. He then pours half of it in the sink. WHIP places the open juice bottle on the liquor cart, reaches up, and grabs the cabin mic to address the passengers. WHIP Folks, this is Captain Whitaker. If you look up, I'm here in the galley. I will wave to you. WHIP steps into the aisle so the passengers can see him. WHIP waves with a calm smile that would put anyone at ease. WHIP (CONT'D) Good Morning. I apologize for the bumps, but Florida just doesn't seem to like us Georgians. Must be the beatin' the Bulldogs put on the Gators last fall. Titters of laughter from the passengers as WHIP moves the half step he needs to put himself behind the liquor cart. WHIP (CONT'D) Stretch out and relax. The air might stay a little cranky so I'm gonna ask that you sit tight if you can, with your seat belts fastened. 23. We now watch from behind WHIP as his free hand reaches into the top drawer of the liquor cart and pulls three small vodka bottles out. WHIP (CONT'D) We won't have beverage service but the girls will walk through with water and snacks and I'll have you in Atlanta in about 40 minutes. Thank you. WHIP puts the mic to its hook. Alone in the galley and out of view, he quickly empties the vodkas into the orange juice bottle and replaces the cap. Whip shakes the juice as he tosses the little empties into the galley trash. Whip takes a healthy pull from the spiked juice, downing nearly half. WHIP knocks on the cockpit door. MARGARET emerges and WHIP disappears in to the cockpit. INT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT -- ATLANTA -- DAY Framed photos on a bureau show: Christmas around the tree with Mom (30) and Dad (33) and a girl who's 8 and a boy who's 5. (In the reflection of this photo we see a flame cooking heroin in a spoon.) Another photo depicts an 8 year-old girl's birthday party. (In the reflection of this photo see wee Nicole tying off.) A last photo shows NICOLE (30)and her mom (54). They are both wearing kerchiefs. We can see that her mom is gaunt and has no hair under her kerchief. (In the reflection of this photo we see the needle injected into her arm.) A HYPODERMIC NEEDLE is placed in front of that picture. Next to the photos is a small CD station that NICOLE taps to life and turns up. The opening bars of Michael Fitzpatrick's "Medication" begin to play. We pull wide to see NICOLE pull the bra from her arm that she used to tie off with. Her face is pure happiness. Clothes and a peach crate filled with camera equipment join a suitcase on its side that acts as a coffee table. NICOLE picks up her camera and admires it before putting it down. She picks up the cigarette she had staged pre dope fix and reaches for the lighter. She laughs and hums, pulls out gum, a brush...She's holding the brush when the first heavy wave of narcotic death washes over her. She leans back and uses the wall for support. "Medication" is hitting its chorus... 24. NICOLE Oh man... She puts her arms out at her sides, euphoria. A slow, sloppy smile breaks across her face. She exhales slowly. She reaches for the now burning cigarette when the second wave of heavy drugs hits. NICOLE looks up with fear. NICOLE (cont'd) (CONT'D) Oh no, oh no, oh no... She reaches for the little bag of coke that KIP gave her. Next she grabs her phone, flipping it open. As she tries to dial it, she crumbles to her knees. NICOLE somewhat controls her fall to the ground, but her eyes are fading. The little bag of coke falls from her fingers. There's no way to stem the tide of the oncoming overdose. NICOLE's arms stretch out in a frozen reach as her body sinks to the floor. On her back like a girl making angels in the snow as her eyelids flutter, she slips away. We hear a pounding on the door. FRAN is on the other side... FRAN (O.S.) Open up, Nicole! I can smell that shit cooking! Open Up! Nicole. Nicole! INT. COCKPIT - DAY WHIP is now passed out in the seat next to EVANS. He has two approach plates (charts) folded and tucked between his sunglasses and eyes, creating a makeshift sleeping mask. His lower jaw hangs open as his head bobs in deep sleep. Margaret leans in through the cockpit door talking to Evans. MARGARET How long has Sleeping Beauty been out? EVANS maintains a military posture as he monitors the plane's progress. The flight is smooth and the sky appears clear. EVANS (looks at his watch) 26 minutes. We're going to start descending any second now. MARGARET Well, I guess you'll need to wake... 25. The radio interrupts... ATC SouthJet 227, Atlanta Center. Descend and maintain Flight Level 30 thousand. EVANS Descend and maintain 30 thousand. Evans dials 30,000 into the auto-pilot, but just as he rolls the thumb switch to the "Descend" position... BANG! THE PLANE SUDDENLY PITCHES SIDEWAYS Instantly the autopilot's Shut-Off SOUNDS. WHIP jolts awake and pushes up his sleeping "shades." WHIP The fuck was that? Evans grabs his yoke and pulls. EVANS The stabilizer feels really stiff. WHIP Don't force it. EVANS does, we HEAR a big mechanical SNAP. MARGARET (referring to the noise) That came from the back! EVANS I have very little trim control sir. WHIP Margaret, get everybody strapped in tight. Margaret runs to the PA, leaving the cockpit door open. EVANS It's pulling right. Hard! WHIP Shit! It's locked up, ease up on the trim don't... 26. BANG! THE PLANE PITCHES DOWN VIOLENTLY AND BEGINS A NOSE DIVE. EVANS (PANIC) I have no trim at all! The instrument panel LIGHTS UP like a Christmas tree -- A WARNING HORN BLARES. WHIP We lost our hydraulics! WHIP pulls on his headset and keys his mic. WHIP (CONT'D) Center, this is SouthJet 227, we've lost our hydraulics...and, ah shit! (TO EVANS) Power. Pull back the power! Evans pulls the throttles to idle. WHIP (CONT'D) (into his mic) ...we lost hydraulics and looks like...also our horizontal stabilizer. ATC SouthJet 227, Atlanta Center. Understand you've lost hydraulics and stabilizer? WHIP (TO EVANS) Turn on the back-up pumps! Evans engages the emergency hydraulic pumps. WHIP (CONT'D) (INTO MIC) Center, that's affirm. We are in a descent, an uncontrolled... WHOOOAAAAA!!!! The plane starts to bank to the right, WHIP puts his hand against the wing-window to stay in his seat. EVANS grabs his harness with both hands. The passengers shriek with terror. ATC SouthJet 227, do you wish to declare an emergency!? 27. MARGARET stumbles into the cockpit. MARGARET Everyone's belted in. Are we going down? The plane suddenly pitches up, begins to roll, and dives again. WHIP Get belted in, everyone belt in. Brace position! MARGARET rushes to the bench in the galley. Whip grabs his yoke and pulls. The plane inches up. WHIP (CONT'D) I've got some control on my side! My plane! EVANS Your plane. Whips keeps back pressure on his yoke. EVANS (CONT'D) It's stiff as hell. We're pitching up. Slowing a bit. ATC SouthJet 227, say your condition. Whip continues to give orders to Evans. WHIP We need drag. Throw out everything we've got. Speed brakes. Gear... (keys his mic) Uh, Center we're in a dive...lost vertical control. ATC SouthJet 227, Roger. Evans deploys the landing gear and applies the speed brakes. The wind ROARS as the gear doors drop. The airframe shakes and rumbles violently. WHIP (TO EVANS) ...there enough hydraulics to drop the gear? 28. EVANS Gear's down. I don't think hydraulics is the problem. WHIP Throw out the flaps. EVANS Too fast for flaps. WHIP We need to start dumping fuel. Evans hesitates. WHIP (CONT'D) Do it! Evans quickly throws the "EMRG FUEL DUMP" switch. The airplane bucks and drops violently -- A chorus of terrified SCREAMS ERUPTS from the main cabin. Whip pulls on his yoke with all of his strength and the dive shallows out a bit. ATC (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227, Atlanta Center. How do you hear? WHIP (keys his mic) Atlanta. This is SouthJet 227. We are in an uncontrolled dive, descending out of...shit I don't know... EVANS (calls to Whip) 21 thousand! WHIP (into his mic) ...21 thousand. We are declaring an emergency! We are dumping fuel! We have a jammed stabilizer...or something. We need a block of altitude to work the problem...and a heading to the nearest airport! (YELLS to Evans) I'm starting to lose it! The yoke pressure pulls Whip hard against his harness. 29. ATC SouthJet 227. Hartsfield-Jackson International is 10 O'clock and 20 miles from your present position. Maintain block altitude, Flight Level 10 thousand through Flight Level 20 thousand. Turn left heading 260. WHIP (KEYS MIC) 260...we'll do our best. (TO EVANS) It's getting away from me! I can't hold...dump the flaps! EVANS We're still fast. The yoke is ripping away from Whip's hands. WHIP DO IT! 30 percent! Evans dumps in the flaps. The JR-88 slows dramatically and balloons up. WHIP (CONT'D) That bought us a little time. We need to revert to manual control. Your side first, pul... Whip is interrupted by the radio. ATC (ON RADIO) SouthJet 227, Atlanta. Fuel dump is approved. WHIP (KEYS MIC) Thank you. Evans is confused and panicked, he throws his hands up. WHIP (CONT'D) Evans, look at me! Manual Reversion. Red lever, on the floor, far side of the console. Evans sees it. EVANS I got it. 30. WHIP Pull it up, turn it clockwise, push it back down. Evans does exactly that, then pulls back on his yoke -- nothing! EVANS Nothing! No control! WHIP Goddamn it!! Once again, the plane pitches into a dive. Whip strains to hold on. WHIP (CONT'D) I can't let go! Can you reach mine? Evans strains to reach Whip's Reversion Pull-Handle -- but can't. EVANS I can't reach it. Evans moves to release his harness, but Whip stops him. WHIP No! Don't! Stay strapped in! (calls over his shoulder) Margaret! Margaret! Margaret tumbles into the cockpit, catching herself on Whip's chair. She's crying. MARGARET Oh God, Whip. What's happening?! WHIP Get strapped into the jump-seat. I need your help. Margaret opens the jump-seat and starts to pull on her harness. Throughout the scene she is struggling with her harness. WHIP (CONT'D) Margaret, see that red lever on the floor next to my chair? The one that says, Manual Control? MARGARET Yes. 31. WHIP On the count of three you pull it up, turn it clockwise, then push it back down. OK? You ready? With tears streaming down her cheeks, she gives Whip a brave nod. WHIP (CONT'D) Here we go. One, two... Whip releases back pressure from his yoke, pushing it forward -- the plane noses downward 20 degrees! WHIP (CONT'D) ...three! MORE TERRIFIED SHRIEKS come from the back. Margaret quickly disengages then re-engages the large red handle. Whip pulls back on his yoke. The plane pitches up. WHIP (CONT'D) Ok. OK. We got something. It's still stiff as hell. Evans, put in some power! Evans pushes up the throttles. Whip gingerly applies pressure to his stick. His face fills with worry. WHIP (CONT'D) I don't know. It feels like the son of a bitch wants to nose over. Then suddenly... WHAP! Whip's yoke flies out of his hands and SLAMS forward! The plane banks right and drops! Margaret SCREAMS! WHIP (CONT'D) SHIT! POWER BACK! (he pulls back the power) I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS! EVANS OH NO! Now, ATC comes on the radio... ATC SouthJet 227, Hartsfield-Jackson is eleven o'clock and niner miles. I see you below 10,000. How are you doing? 32. WHIP (keys his mic) Not good. You got anything closer? We're in a rapid dive here... ATC Roger, SouthJet 227. Uh...Clayton County is 2 miles at your 4 o'clock. WHIP Negative. We're too high...we can't pitch for glide. We have no stabilizer control. ATC Copy, SouthJet 227. The plane continues to drop, increasing its nose-down attitude and speed. WHIP pushes both of his feet forward, stretching his body to get leverage as we can see him pulling on the yoke, trying to get the plane out of the dive it's in. Evans is starting to lose it. EVANS Oh Lord, we're descending at 4,700 feet per minute, out of 7,000. I SEE NOTHING BUT HOUSES! WHIP OK! Here's what we're going to do! (TO EVANS) When I say, you retract the gear, retract the flaps and trim both ailerons. But every things gonna be opposite, so be sure to trim down. Margaret... EVANS Trim down?! What are you gonna do?! Whip takes Margaret's hand and puts it on the throttle levers. WHIP When I ask for power, push both of these forward. Got it? (MARGARET NODS) What's your son's name? 33. MARGARET Trevor. WHIP Say "I love you Trevor." EVANS You mean trim up?! Right? You want me to trim up? MARGARET Why? WHIP The black box. MARGARET I love you Trevor. Be a good boy. Mommy loves you. EVANS What are we doing?! Why would I trim down?! WHIP We're gonna roll it. Ready? Here we go. I've got control. EVANS (TERRIFIED) WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ROLL IT?!! WHIP Just a little barrel roll. Don't panic. Relax. Let it roll. WHIP's body is fully extended as he pulls back on the yoke and turns into a steep bank. WHIP (CONT'D) EVANS, FLAPS! EVANS FLAPS UP! WHIP MARGARET FULL POWER! EVANS, TRIM US! GEAR UP! The G-force of the roll presses Evans away from the console. EVANS I CAN'T REACH THE GEAR! 34. WHIP Margaret! Can you reach it? Margaret bends forward and pulls the lever. WHIP (CONT'D) WHAT'S OUR ALTITUDE? EVANS 3,000...I think. WHIP Let it roll. I got it! Whip quickly retracts the speed brakes, then PUSHES HIS YOKE FULL FORWARD! The clumsy liner does a slow, ungraceful roll. INT. PLANE CABIN - SAME WE WATCH as the PASSENGERS scream as the plane rolls over and they are suspended upside down. EXT. SKY OVER ATLANTA - SAME The JR-88 finishes its barrel-roll, skimming over suburban rooftops and trees. A CLOUD-TRAIL of Jet-A SPEWING from its wings. As the INVERTED PLANE ROARS overhead the CAMERA PANS to find - NICOLE Being rushed out of her apartment on a stretcher. The TWO PARAMEDICS and Fran (the landlord) instinctively duck as the jet SCREAMS over. FRAN (at the sight of the jet) Jesus Christ! What the Fuck!? INT. FLIGHT DECK - SAME THE PLANE IS COMPLETELY INVERTED!! THRU THE WINDSCREEN -- THE PLANE LEVELS OFF -- IT'S INVERTED NOSE RISES TO MEET THE HORIZON. EVANS hangs in his harness straps as dust and smoke swirl around him. The inverted wings make an EERIE WHISTLING SOUND as the plane SHUDDERS violently side-to-side. 35. EVANS Oh Lord Jesus! We're inverted! WHIP reaches over and pulls the throttles back. He suddenly seems strangely calm, comfortable with his fate... WHIP We're level. We can maintain altitude like this. MAIN CABIN -- WE WATCH OVER TRINA'S SHOULDER AS SHE HANGS TRINA struggles to stay in her seat as she looks at the passengers hanging. She watches as a YOUNG BOY loses his grip and flops to the ground. TRINA unhooks and flops to the ground. We follow her as she runs on the ceiling of the cabin towards the BOY. She gets there and starts lifting him towards his FATHER. COCKPIT -- SAME TIME The ATC voice now plays loudly through the entire cockpit. ATC SouthJet 227, Atlanta Center. I see your position 4 and a half miles southeast of the airport. Descending out of 1,800. Are you OK? It takes Whip a second to find the mic key on his inverted yoke... WHIP Uh, Atlanta...we're inverted. There's a very pregnant pause... ATC Uh, SouthJet 227...say again sir. Did you say inverted? EVANS seems calmed by WHIP'S workaday attitude about their insane tragedy. But suddenly... WARNING LIGHTS BEGIN FLASHING! EVANS WE'RE LOSING OIL PRESSURE! PUMP FAILURE. BOTH ENGINES! 36. WE HEAR A HORRIBLE, METALLIC GRINDING SOUND as the engines become oil-deprived. WHIP We're flying! WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP! -- THE ENGINE FIRE ALARM SOUNDS! EVANS FIRE IN THE LEFT ENGINE! WHIP PUT IT OUT! Evans pulls the Fire Bottle handle. Whip BARKS at air traffic control. WHIP (CONT'D) (into his mic) HOW FAR'S THE AIRPORT!? ATC 227, three miles, and one o'clock. WHIP (into his mic) We're not gonna make that! WHIP'S POV -- THRU THE INVERTED WINDSCREEN -- A small white church on a hill -- 100 yards past the church is a soy bean field and a two-lane blacktop. WHIP (CONT'D) (into his mic) There's a field and a road ah...we're gonna put it down in that field. ATC Roger, SouthJet 227. BACK TO ACTION -- CLOSE ON WHIP -- HE CALMLY FIGHTS ON. EVANS is breathing heavy as his face is beet red from the blood rushing to it. EVANS WE'RE LOSING THE LEFT ENGINE! 37. WHIP WE'RE COMING BACK OVER! EVANS, WHEN I START THE ROLL, THROW EVERYTHING BACK OUT! THE NERVE-WRACKING ALARMS CONTINUE TO SOUND! EVANS FIRE IN THE RIGHT! Evans deploys the right engine Fire Bottle. WHIP'S POV -- WE'RE HEADED TOWARD THE CHURCH -- WHIP (into his mic) WHAT'S MY ALTITUDE!? ATC (ON RADIO) Eight hundred, descending... A NEW ALARM SCREAMS! EVANS WE LOST THE LEFT ENGINE! WHIP We have enough speed to fly! EVANS WE'RE LOSING POWER IN THE RIGHT! WHIP HERE WE GO! WHIP PULLS HARD ON HIS YOKE -- THE PLANE SLIPS SIDEWAYS AS IT STARTS TO RIGHT ITSELF. Whip yanks back the throttles! WHIP (CONT'D) FLAPS FULL! GEAR DOWN! Evans and Whip deploy every bit of drag they can think of. ATC SouthJet 227, altitude 500 indicated, descending. Do you concur? We follow WHIP's eye line that takes us off the control panel and to the windshield. THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD WE SEE -- the landscape and the church steeple getting closer and closer. 38. The plane does a clumsy roll to the right -- AND GETS STUCK PERFECTLY ON ITS SIDE! WHIP MARGARET, POWER!!!! EVANS pushes the power to full thrust AND THE PLANE FINISHES ITS ROLL! THE PASSENGERS HOWL! INT. MAIN CABIN -- GALLEY -- SAME TIME TRINA is still struggling to strap herself in to her jumpseat. The plane rolls! She sees Camelia... P.O.V. -- Camelia is tossed across a row of SCREAMING passengers. TRINA loses her grip and is violently thrown against the galley wall! Like a rag doll, CAMELIA is hurled down the cabin aisle as the plane plummets! Trina slides across the galley floor and CRACKS her head on the jumpseat. INT. COCKPIT -- SAME TIME Whip frantically spins the trim wheel! THRU THE WINDSCREEN -- THE CHURCH SPIRE IS COMING RIGHT AT US -- BOOM! -- THE RIGHT WING CLIPS THE STEEPLE, SHEARING OFF THE CROSS! WE HEAR A HORRIFIC, METALLIC GRINDING -- followed by a TERRIFYING SILENCE -- RIGHT ENGINE STOPS. EVANS WE LOST ALL POWER! An unnerving quiet descends over the passenger cabin. The only SOUND is the wind RUSHING past the air-frame. CLOSE ON WHIP -- WHIP (to himself, incredulous) Are we gliding? 39. THROUGH THE WINDSCREEN -- WE'RE DROPPING RAPIDLY TOWARD THE GROUND -- A GROUP OF PEOPLE GATHERED NEAR A POND IN THE CHURCHYARD SCATTER -- some are wearing long white robes. CLOSE ON WHIP -- WHIP (CONT'D) WE'RE IN A GLIDE! PITCH FOR GLIDE! EVANS (O.S.) Oh God. CLOSE ON THE YOKE -- WHIP PULLS WITH ALL HIS MIGHT -- WHIP TRIM IT! CLOSE ON THE TRIM WHEEL -- WHIP SPINS IT "TRIM UP" -- WHIP (CONT'D) PITCH FOR GLIDE! THROUGH THE WINDSCREEN -- THE BEAN FIELD RUSHES UP AT US... CLOSE ON WHIP -- WHIP (CONT'D) BRACE! BRACE FOR IMPAC... ALL SOUND FADES AWAY AS THE SCREEN BLEEDS HOT WHITE -- OVEREXPOSED. IN GRAPHIC SLOW-MOTION -- THE INSTRUMENT PANEL CRUMPLES AND COLLAPSES AROUND WHIP -- And in a final, ironic, cosmic gesture -- WHIP'S CONTROL YOKE HURDLES TOWARD HIM -- IMPACTING HIM BETWEEN THE EYES -- CUT TO BLACK: NOW WE HEAR -- SHOUTS, SCREAMS -- A WOMAN SOBBING. FADE IN: WHIP'S POV -- WE SEE Whip's lower torso being pulled from the wreckage -- There is swirling SMOKE AND DUST, SMALL FIRES -- 40. Evans strapped in his chair, bleeding -- Margaret SOBS uncontrollably -- FADE OUT. FADE IN: EXT. CRASH SITE -- SLOW MOTION - HILLSIDE -- DAY WHIP's being pulled up a grassy hillside. In the distance WHIP can see the shattered airplane lying in a crater. Fires smoulder around the impact zone. Passengers are joined by first responders as they frantically carry, drag and walk the injured and the dead from the plane. WHIP sees a fire truck fly by him, down the grassy slope towards the burning plane. FADE OUT. FADE IN: WHIP'S POV -- LOOKING UP at the sky -- WE SEE black, oily SMOKE billowing across the shattered church steeple -- WE GLIMPSE PEOPLE rushing past, some are wearing white flowing robes -- WE HEAR DISTANT SIRENS APPROACHING AND PEOPLE PRAYING -- FADE OUT. FADE IN: A LOUD SIREN SCREAMS -- WHIP'S POV -- LOOKING UP at the ceiling of an ambulance -- TWO EMTS are urgently attending to him -- FADE OUT. FADE IN: 41. WHIP'S POV -- NIGHT A halogen overhead light and an air-conditioning vent -- brown-stained acoustic ceiling tiles -- WE HEAR the rhythmic BEEP of a heart monitor -- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- NIGHT WHIP's eyes open to see the halogen overhead lights of a hospital room. He turns his head slightly to see the flicker of a TV with no sound. TELEVISION -- NEWS - NO SOUND -- GRAINY CELL PHONE FOOTAGE A news show runs a loop of eye witness cell phone footage of the plane turning over and crashing belly down. A MAN who has been watching the TV turns to see that WHIP is awake. The MAN turns off the TV, gets up and approaches WHIP's bedside. WHIP knows him. WHIP Charlie Anderson. CHARLIE ANDERSON is a late 50's former military pilot who carries that familiar air of Texas comfort and entitlement. CHARLIE How you feelin' Whip? Initial reports look like you pulled some move up there, kid. You saved a lot of lives. WHIP is moved by the first realization of survival. WHIP How many? CHARLIE moves close to deliver the news. CHARLIE 102 souls on board including the flight crew, and 96 of them survived the crash. Six people died. 2 crew, 4 passengers. WHIP 4 passengers. Are the rest badly hurt? Who'd we lose on the crew? A NURSE enters the room. CHARLIE nods to her. 42. CHARLIE Listen, protocol is the NTSB has to make the first contact with you and the agent is here. Let me go get him. CHARLIE ducks out of the room. WHIP is alone and still getting his bearings. He goes to scratch his head and catches sight of his left hand. It's swollen and sore --his wrist is bandaged with a splint-brace. He now looks at both of his hands in wonder. WHIP hears a muffled conversation that gets clearer as do the images of MANY PEOPLE entering the room. A POLICE OFFICER accompanies a DOCTOR and TWO NTSB AGENTS. An NTSB AGENT holds a small voice recorder towards WHIP. NTSB OFFICER #1 Captain William Whitaker? Nod if you can hear me and understand me. (WHIP NODS) I'm Craig Matson from the NTSB and I'm required as the lead on the Go Team to make an initial contact with you after a major incident like the one you had today. WHIP nods as his senses are getting sharper. NTSB OFFICER #1 (CONT'D) You are in a hospital in South Atlanta. Are you aware that you were piloting a plane that went down? (WHIP NODS) I have a doctor here who can explain your medical situation. WHIP offers a "thumbs up" gesture. The DOCTOR steps in. DOCTOR I'm Doctor Kenan and the good news is that you are in good condition. You did suffer a concussion which is the reason you have a bit of blurred vision and a headache. You have numerous lacerations around your left eye. We're going to leave the patch on for a few days as a precaution. But it seems your eye is OK. MRI's show strained tendons in your left knee and ankle but you didn't break any bones. 43. You have some deep bruising in your left thigh and you have a few torn ligaments in your left wrist. Nothing serious. So as soon as we clear you from the concussion, and you feel well enough -- you can go home. That could be a day, could be 3 days. Okay? WHIP quietly nods. The DOCTOR leaves and WHIP begins to study his body. His left leg is wrapped, his left wrist has a splint-brace -- NTSB OFFICER #1 I won't ask too much of you tonight, but as I said, the NTSB is required to make initial contact. How much do you remember about the flight? WHIP looks at the NTSB OFFICER and slowly speaks. WHIP I remember everything until the crash. WHIP's voice is failing him as his throat is sore and dry. NTSB OFFICER #1 Okay Mr. Whitaker, that's fine. I am required to inform you that this incident did result in the loss of life. (checks an index card) The most current information states that of the 102 souls on board we lost 6. 2 crew members and 4 passengers. 59 people were treated and released. 37 people remain in the hospital and 3 of those cases are listed as critical. WHIP Who on the crew died? NTSB OFFICER #1 Two flight attendants; (checks a note card) Camelia Satou and Katerina Marquez WHIP tries to exhale as the loss of TRINA sinks in. 44. NTSB OFFCIER #1 The rep from your Pilot's Union, Mr. Anderson, will act as our contact for you. It's important to follow your Union's guidance on press and media. The pilot's union works closely with the NTSB. So, I'm gonna head out. Good luck Mr. Whitaker. WHIP nods as the NTSB OFFICER leaves with the police and other officials in tow. CHARLIE returns to WHIP's side. WHIP I knew Trina Marquez. We spent some time together. CHARLIE Apparently she wasn't strapped in. A survivor reported that she was assisting a kid. CHARLIE tries to put a reassuring hand on WHIP's shoulder. WHIP How's Margaret Thomason? CHARLIE (checks his notes) Broken collar bone, cuts, banged up, but she's okay. She's here too. Ken Evans your copilot took a bad shot to the head. They're keepin' him in a coma to let the brain swelling go down. He's listed as critical, but we feel good about him. He's gonna be okay. WHIP lets that information land as his head is swirling. WHIP Charlie, why are you here? CHARLIE I'm flying a desk now. I'm a regional rep for the IAP. WHIP You're the rep for the pilots' union? 45. CHARLIE I'm one of a few union reps for the southeast. When your plane went down all the reps got a page and since I know you I shot my hand up and said I wanted to come and be the first face you'd see. WHIP I'm glad it's you. WHIP starts to weep as he needs to begin the long process of expressing this trauma. CHARLIE It's good to see you too, Cowboy. You're gonna be okay. We're gonna take care of you. That's my job. WHIP nods as he wipes his eyes on his heavily bandaged hand. CHARLIE (CONT'D) The union will put out a statement on your behalf. Condolences to the families who lost loved ones and gratitude to the brave men and women on the flight crew. (WHIP NODS) And I know you and Deana have been divorced for a while but maybe she and your son...? WHIP Yeah, Knuckles. CHARLIE Yeah, how old's he now? WHIP 15. CHARLIE Wow, you weren't even married when we flew for Delta. We're dinosaurs, Whip. Do you want me to reach out to Deana and see if she and Will want to come? Any family you want here, we'll get them here, stat. WHIP thinks about his long since fractured family... WHIP No, I'll call her. 46. CHARLIE Speaking of which, I have your phone and some of your personal effects from the plane. CHARLIE has a zip-locked bag with his phone, keys, sunglasses and wallet. WHIP looks at them, odd to see them encased in plastic. CHARLIE (CONT'D) Your clothes are toast. Do you need me to get you some stuff? WHIP No, I'm okay. I'll take care of it. CHARLIE I'm gonna head out, let you get some rest. I'm coming back. You'll see plenty of me. CHARLIE hands WHIP his card. WHIP Thanks Charlie, I really... (Whip begins to crack) It means a lot to me that you came. CHARLIE Okay. Get some rest now. WHIP Charlie, that plane was fucked. CHARLIE I know. The way you landed that plane was nothing short of a miracle. WHIP nods trying to pull it together. CHARLIE pats WHIP's shoulder before he leaves. WHIP sits up and pulls his phone from the plastic bag. Dials, waits... WHIP Harling...Harling...yeah, it's Whip. I'm in a hospital in South Atlanta...what? You know where I am? Okay well fuck...yeah, I'm okay. What? Well, I'm looking to get outta here...hopefully tomorrow. Yeah. But, listen, I need you to bring me something to wear. 47. I don't know -- clothes -- and smokes, I really need smokes. Tee shirt, sweat pants....Harling? I'll put you on the visiting list. Yeah...and smokes. Just be low key, no fucking around, Harling. Cigarettes. Okay? I need cigarettes. Yeah. Good. WHIP closes his eyes and exhales. He now stares at the foot of the bed for a long, long moment. WHIP squeezes his eyes shut tight -- holding back tears. Then quietly, as if whispering a prayer... WHIP (CONT'D) Goddamn it... INT. HOSPITAL -- ELEVATOR DOORS -- MORNING The Stones "Sympathy for the Devil" kicks up as we wait... The doors split open and HARLING MAYS steps out. HARLING has a pony tail and a goatee and is probably wearing a Tommy Bahama button down shirt. We follow HARLING as he strides down the hall. With ear buds in, HARLING points a Sanyo pistol-shaped cam corder at the ATTENDING NURSE at the nurses' station, recording her... HARLING MAYS I'm on the list baby girl. Check the list for Mr. Mays. Harling. The Stones continue to wail as Harling strolls on, adjusting the duffel bag he has slung over his shoulder. EXT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- MOMENTS LATER HARLING stands in the doorway looking in. He sees... The MORNING NURSE is helping WHIP to stand. HARLING points his camcorder at WHIP and the NURSE. HARLING MAYS (O.C.) If this is gonna turn into a sponge bath, I'll come back. NURSE SIR- HARLING immediately goes to WHIP and supports him. 48. WHIP It's okay, Harling. HARLING MAYS That's right honey, I'm on the list. Harling Mays. Some say they Harling knew me. HARLING boxes her out. She steps away. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Honey can you hustle us a couple of daiquiris and a cocktail weenie? On second thought just bring the booze. I brought my own weenie. No reaction as the NURSE collects the trash and towels. HARLING focuses his camcorder on the NURSE and leaves WHIP in an unsteady stance. HARLING films her and comments... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) She's offended, and she should be. I'm a pig. And I hate me. That's what we have in common Nurse Ratched...we both hate me. And she's gone. HARLING turns to WHIP. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Whip? What the fuck my man? They're sayin', "Sweet Jesus, what a fuckin' stud that pilot is." You're a hero, no shit. You will never pay for another drink in this life time. There is crazy news people all over, look at this shit-- HARLING helps WHIP to the window... EXT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- PARKING LOT -- DAY From WHIP's window we can see a slew of news vans with signal towers as well as reporters milling about -- a small zoo. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- DAY HARLING and WHIP stare for a moment at the circus below. WHIP doesn't last long and slowly returns to the bed as HARLING continues to gawk. 49. HARLING MAYS Classic hero worship, you're a rock star man. You gotta see the video I've got -- I'm making a doc about you, well us, y'know? HARLING pulls an iPad out of his knapsack and flips it open. He lets a collection of videos run... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) This is outside your condo... On HARLING's iPad we see footage of PRESS swarming outside WHIP's condo. We also see the crash scene footage. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Look that's me, and that`s Mark Mellon...you know that douchey talking haircut from local Atlanta channel 3? I said a few words. Just straight talk, y'know? WHIP's hands shake as he grabs the bed frame. HARLING takes notice and stashes the iPad... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) You okay Captain Whitaker? Easy... HARLING helps him get settled. We see the beads of sweat on WHIP's lip and forehead. WHIP The meds they're giving me are fucking me up -- I'm all shaky and dried out. I can't sleep good. HARLING immediately picks up the small paper cup that holds WHIP's pain meds. He fishes out the two pills and stares at them. HARLING shakes his head. HARLING MAYS Aprazolam? That's generic Xanax and this Hydrocodone is generic Vicodin. It's shit, prolly Canadian. HARLING casually tosses the pills down his gullet and expertly swallows them without water. He grabs WHIP's medical chart and scours it as he prattles on... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) We want the premium stuff. Blue label...not the fucking well shit. Where's the dihydromorphinone? 50. Or just some fucking Palladone would suffice. What is this? Fucking amateur hour over here? Get that goddamned doctor in here. You just saved a 100 people from death, they should get your fuckin' meds right. (calls to the door) YO! ROOM SERVICE! WHIP Listen Harling, leave it alone. (HARLING CHILLS) So you got my message and decided not to call me back? Did you bring me smokes? HARLING MAYS I decided to come by instead. And yes I got your fucking message and yes I brought you smokes. HARLING hands WHIP a pack of smokes from his pocket. He also pulls out a carton of smokes from his backpack. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Here is a fresh carton, enjoy. You fucking earned it -- you smoke your nuts off, champion. If I were you I'd fire up right here in the God damn room. Fuck'em, you're immortal, you're a fucking God man. WHIP Harling... WHIP motions with his hands to "calm down." HARLING MAYS Sorry Whip. It's just...this is big time, man. You're a hero in a time when we really need heroes. WHIP Shut the fuck up, Harling...Six people died. HARLING MAYS 96 people lived! When are you gonna take yes for an answer? Pick up the phone, man. Fuck. HARLING pulls something from his vest pocket and puts it in WHIP'S hand. WHIP looks at it and back at HARLING. 51. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Here's a pint of Smirnoff and a few Red Bulls. You know what I'm sayin'? I know my customer. HARLING continues to pull items from the bag. WHIP Harling, take the vodka with you. HARLING freezes his frenzied energy with this odd command. HARLING MAYS What?! Take the vodka? Dude, are you insane? I'm gonna just tuck it in the bottom of your- WHIP Take the fucking vodka! HARLING hears him this time and raises his hand and nods, putting the VODKA back in his own duffel. HARLING tosses a tee shirt, sweat pants and flip-flops on the bed, then... HARLING MAYS Okay man. Check it out. HARLING holds up a silk Japanese Happi Coat, with elaborate stitching depicting colorful birds flying around Mt. Fuji. WHIP Look, I'm tired man. HARLING MAYS I'm out. You rest up. WHIP You gotta come and get me, tomorrow. WHIP pulls his keys from the bag that CHARLIE gave him. WHIP (CONT'D) Here are my keys. Go to the condo and bring me some nice clothes I can wear, my phone charger and grab the veal outta my fridge. It's marked. HARLING MAYS The veal? 52. WHIP Yeah, the veal that's in my freezer. HARLING MAYS Done and done. What time you need me here? WHIP Tomorrow. I'll call you. HARLING MAYS Send the mayday and you're outta here in 7 minutes. (A SMILE) I got you a few stroke mags too. I've been in hospitals. I know what you need. JUGS, HOT MILFS in heat. ASSMASTERS. You should just stroke it all day. You're a hero -- know what I'm saying? If I was in here I'd be jerkin' it all day long. See, there's a smile. HARLING puts his hand on WHIP's forehead in an attempt to reassure him. A quiet moment before HARLING slips out. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- 11 PM -- SAME EVENING WHIP wakes up in a cold sweat. He is breathing heavy as he scans the room. LIGHTENING FLASHES from outside the window. Thunder RUMBLES. WHIP looks to the night stand where we see a pack of nicotine gum has been chewed through. WHIP uses his hands to get to the edge of the bed. He roots through the duffle bag that HARLING left and finds a pack of smokes and a Bic lighter still in its package. Determined to smoke, WHIP eyes a WHEEL CHAIR that has been placed next to his bed. Leaning against the wheelchair is a medical cane. INT. HOSPITAL -- QUIET HALLWAY -- MOMENTS LATER Wearing his Happi Coat (or robe), WHIP limps in to the empty hallway with the use of his cane. He checks the quiet corridor as he begins his quest... 53. INT. HOSPITAL -- FIRE DOOR -- 11:38 PM The door swings open, and no one appears to be on the other side. Now WHIP fights to push the heavy door open again to slip through. A hand grabs the door and holds it. WHIP walks into the sanctity of the stairwell. INT. HOSPITAL STAIRWELL -- SAME TIME We find the owner of the helping hand was NICOLE who returns to a quiet spot along the wall of the stairwell as she demurely smokes a cigarette. WHIP Thank you. WHIP leans his cane against the wall and carefully pulls a pack of smokes from his pocket. WHIP (CONT'D) I didn't think anyone would have the same devious thought about using the fire stairs to have a smoke... NICOLE smiles and looks down, awkward around men when she is not loaded. She drops her cigarette which we see was barely smoked as she maneuvers to leave. WHIP (CONT'D) Don't go. I'll be quiet. He offers her a cigarette, she takes it. WHIP (CONT'D) We don't have to talk. Be nice to just smoke with someone. And they do. They sit in silence as the stairwell fills up with smoke. After a long beat... NICOLE Were you on the plane? WHIP studies her, she's beautiful in an exhausted way... WHIP Yeah, I was. Were you? Nicole shakes her head. NICOLE Where were you sitting? 54. WHIP Up near the front. Again it falls silent as we let them smoke and think in the sanctity of the fire stairs. A VOICE breaks their silence. VOICE (O.S.) Tobacco's but an Indian weed, Grows green in the morn, cut down at eve; It shows our decay, We are but clay;...I love the smell of Nicotina in the morning. Smells like...victory. We hear a metallic rattle and WHIP and NICOLE look to the stairs. VOICE (CONT'D) Don't flee dear comrades! Really, wait for me, please. A GAUNT YOUNG MAN makes his way to their landing. He is dressed in a hospital gown and carrying an I.V. pole on which hangs a small bag of clear liquid. The man's hair has completely left him. His skin is gray. Eyes hollowed from his battle with cancer. GAUNT YOUNG MAN Can I bum a smoke? WHIP offers him a cigarette. He takes it and fires it up with a lighter he keeps stowed in the pocket of his gown. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) I should quit, my cancer might get cancer. (SILENCE) Joke. You guys in the plane crash? NICOLE He was. WHIP looks at the ground as the GAUNT YOUNG MAN studies him. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (it hits him) You're the fucking pilot. Nicole gives Whip a look. 55. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) I saw you on TV. Holy shit, man. Tough deal, but you walked away or it looks like you limped away. WHIP Yeah, I'm lucky. Goin' home tomorrow. GAUNT YOUNG MAN Home. Home for me is the basement, they keep cancer treatment in the basement. I'm livin' here. WHIP You're living here? GAUNT YOUNG MAN No. I'm dying here. WHIP What kind of cancer? GAUNT YOUNG MAN Fibro-mixzoid sarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma. Very rare, God chose me. GAUNT YOUNG MAN laughs. WHIP God chose you? You believe in God? GAUNT YOUNG MAN Fuck yeah bitch. You're a stupid fucker if you don't believe in God. The GOD topic has silenced the stairwell... GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) As soon as you realize that the random events in your life are God...you will live a much better life. You spend your life believing that you have all the control over what happens. Bullshit. The plane you're flying goes down? Out of your control. God gives you cancer. I have no control over that. Did God give me cancer? You bet your ass God gave me cancer. You think if I begged for cancer God would have given it to me? 56. No...because I assure you I have begged for God to take it away - and guess what? I have no control over that. GAUNT YOUNG MAN smokes the cig to the nub and rubs the remains against the smooth concrete wall. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) Can I get another smoke? What's wrong with you honey? You're beautiful, do you know that? Do I scare you? People either have to pretend they don't see me or they're drawn to me. It's funny because people see me as being close to the other side -- they feel like I have power or wisdom. They think I have the answers. Who knows? Maybe I do. Death gives you perspective. I lived my life so indecisive, in a haze. But now that I'm dying everything is so clear. It all makes sense somehow. I'm sorry but I can't get over how beautiful you are? Look at your arm, you an addict? NICOLE looks at him. She nods. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) What's your name? NICOLE Nicole. GAUNT YOUNG MAN What do you do in the world Nicole? She laughs, what a question. NICOLE Not much. I was a photographer and then I was a masseuse and I wash hair at a salon sometimes. GAUNT YOUNG MAN Where is it? I'll come by, I'm easy, you can wash my head. (SHE SMILES) Do you think you're gonna die? NICOLE laughs to keep from weeping. 57. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) You're not. You're not gonna die. The men watch as NICOLE quietly cries, it's powerful. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) Don't you love her? WHIP I don't know her. GAUNT YOUNG MAN Bullshit, I do. Random act of God? Don't think so. Survive a plane crash to meet a gorgeous girl in a stairwell. Fuck you man. (he reflects, then...) I'm sure they're looking for me. My family just showed up from Utah. You know it's bad when they start flying in. Every morning is special now, I'm so grateful. It's a trip, wish I could bottle this feeling I have...about how beautiful every breath of life is.. GAUNT YOUNG MAN starts laughing. WHIP joins him. GAUNT YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) Can I get a smoke for the road? WHIP Here's a pack. GAUNT YOUNG MAN Thank you, I'll pass them out in the cancer ward. Take care Nicole, you're gonna be okay. The GAUNT YOUNG MAN leaves, clanging away with his I.V. pole. NICOLE wipes away her tears, we see her hospital bracelet as well as her track marks. NICOLE Chemo brain. Chemo makes you pretty foggy. WHIP Yeah? 58. NICOLE They call it chemo brain, my mom used to slur her words and get all chatty. WHIP Your mom had cancer. NICOLE Breast cancer, she was only 54. It's quiet. WHIP But why'd that guy ask you if you were gonna die? NICOLE I dunno. I flat-lined twice in the ambulance. Heroin addicts who use needles tend to die. Especially women for some reason. WHIP Is that right? NICOLE I have a pamphlet to prove it. A girl from AA just came to see me -- (IT'S QUIET) That guy was a trip. He made it feel like, I dunno...we were the last people left on the planet.. (drops her smoke) ...and together we should save the world. NICOLE steps on her cigarette and puts the nub in her pocket. She begins to leave. WHIP stops her. WHIP Well, where should we live? If we're gonna save the world, where should we do that? NICOLE laughs. WHIP (CONT'D) What? NICOLE You don't want me. WHIP laughs. 59. NICOLE (CONT'D) What? WHIP You don't want me either. NICOLE's laugh tapers off as she senses his honesty. WHIP (CONT'D) Where do you live? NICOLE Why you wanna come visit? It's luxurious. (silence between them) I live in Bankhead, it's south Atlanta, near the bus station. WHIP The luxurious bus station? NICOLE Yeah. WHIP I'll come visit you. NICOLE You're sweet. WHIP I will. What's your address? She measures him. NICOLE I live at the Georgian Gardens on Taylor street. WHIP Georgian Gardens? NICOLE Yeah. WHIP How long are you staying here? NICOLE Trying to stay as long as I can but I don't have insurance to cover rehab. I'll prolly be out tomorrow. 60. WHIP Oh. Okay. And you're a masseuse? NICOLE Yeah. WHIP What kind of masseuse? NICOLE I've been every kind of masseuse there is. There is strong tension between them. An orderly busts through the down the stairs. This breaks their stare. WHIP Good luck Nicole. NICOLE You too. WHIP leaves NICOLE where he found her. EXT. ST. FRANCIS REGIONAL MEDICAL HOSPITAL-LOADING DOCK-DAY WHIP is wheeled out of a service exit by an ORDERLY who also holds the duffle bag of WHIP's stuff around his neck. Whip no longer wears the eye patch but has a butterfly bandage over his left eye brow. HARLING jumps out of his 2001 Cadillac STS and immediately takes over, grabbing the duffel bag. WHIP Thanks Mike. The ORDERLY tries to hand WHIP a medical file. HARLING snatches it. HARLING MAYS Yeah, thanks Mike. (Harling tips him) Here's 20 American. ORDERLY MIKE Thanks. Good luck, sir. HARLING hugs WHIP who hangs on tight. The ORDERLY spins the chair around and heads back inside. HARLING uses his key fob to remotely pop the trunk and stow Whip's duffel. 61. HARLING MAYS This is how they get the Stones out of Madison Square Garden, man. 4 smoked black limos fly outta the VIP driveway and the fans jump on the limos...mayhem. Those limos? Empty. Meanwhile, Mick and the boys go out the service exit into delivery vans -- casual, rock star type shit. HARLING helps him into the front seat and they pull away. The Stones, "Gimme Shelter" starts to play... 53 As they drive off, we see media mayhem collected in front of 53 the hospital. Trucks with towers, cameramen, stringers and newscasters add to catering trucks and coffee stands as the vultures wait for the carrion of sound bytes and footage of survivors. INT. HARLING'S CADDY -- DAY Whip watches through the rear window -- the "Media Circus" disappears as the Caddy rounds a corner. The back seat is piled with Whip's clothes, most of them still on hangers. HARLING lights a cigarette and hands one to WHIP who takes it. HARLING MAYS I couldn't find any suitcases so I just put your shit in grocery bags. HARLING pulls a cold Becks from a cooler on the floor of the back seat and uses a bottle opener that's been screwed to the dash of his car next to the radio to open the beer. He offers the beer to WHIP who waves it off. HARLING gladly keeps it for himself... "Gimme Shelter" continues to play... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) So you're stayin' with me down on University, right? It's nice. A lotta young people...good vibe. Harling tosses Whip a freezer bag marked:"VEAL" -- Whip begins to open it. WHIP No. I'm gonna go to the farm. HARLING MAYS The fucking farm? 62. WHIP My dad's place. I can't stay at my condo. HARLING MAYS I thought you sold that fucking place. WHIP Not yet. HARLING MAYS I'm not sure I wanna stay at the farm. WHIP You're not. Just take me to the airport to get my car. Whip finishes opening the freezer bag -- it's full of cash. HARLING starts to laugh... HARLING MAYS 58 Veal? Really? Don't you know the 58 first place every two-bit thief looks is in the freezer? EXT. ATLANTA RURAL SUBURBAN ROAD - WHIP'S FARM - DAY WHIP's BUICK turns off the blacktop past a small weathered billboard: WHITAKER CROP DUSTING. Also a real estate "FOR SALE" sign is posted in front. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- DRIVEWAY -- DAY Whip pulls into a long, dirt driveway that approaches a one- story farm house. He gets out of the car. With his cane in one hand, he uses his free hand to toss the grocery bags close to the steps and heads inside. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- LIVING ROOM - DAY WHIP ambles in and we see the interior of the house bears the fading patina of a proud American Family. We see PHOTOS -- WHIP in his NAVAL FLYER UNIFORM. A GROUP MILITARY PHOTO -- a SQUADRON of NAVAL FLIERS on a carrier. WHIP's PARENTS next to the farm house. WHIP's FATHER stands next to WHIP who is holding his infant son. 63. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- LIVING ROOM -- DESK AREA - DAY WHIP empties his pockets onto the desk top. His keys, wallet and his cell phone are placed next to an old rotary phone attached to an old answering machine. WHIP plugs in his cell phone charge, dials in for his messages and puts it in "speaker mode" as we hear... CELL PHONE You have 127 messages. (A BEEP) Message one..."Captain Whitaker, this is Jim Court I'm with CNN. We'd like to schedule an interview..." (he deletes that message) Message two..."This is NBC affiliate KGAT in Athens we're looking to contact William J. Whitaker for..." (he deletes and moves on) Message three..."Captain Whitaker, this is Karen James, media relations with the pilots' union..." WHIP again deletes the message and decides to just shut the phone down. He continues to empty his pockets. In his jacket pocket he finds a prescription bottle of pain pills. WHIP holds it up, opens it and pours a few out in his hand. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- BATHROOM -- MOMENTS LATER WHIP pours the pain pills into the toilet. He then opens the medicine cabinet and starts to empty all of the bottles into the toilet. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- KITCHEN -- MOMENTS LATER WHIP goes to the collection of liquor bottles next to the sink that act as a makeshift bar. He picks up a bottle of vodka. He unscrews the cap and sniffs the contents. He slowly tips the bottle and pours it into the sink. Whip opens the refrigerator and removes an assortment of beers. He pops them open and pours them in the sink. The faucet running to offset the pungent smell. 64. INT. BEDROOM -- MOMENTS LATER Whip opens a dresser drawer and finds a couple of zip-lock bags of "bud" hidden under the socks. INT. BATHROOM -- MOMENTS LATER Whip dumps the weed into the toilet and FLUSHES it. INT. LIVING ROOM -- MOMENTS LATER A cigarette dangles from WHIP's mouth as he ferrets around the room, showing the focus and determination of a serial killer cleaning his kill site. He finds rolling papers, roaches, more liquor and weed -- he reaches into the Shell Bag that's hanging next to the shotgun rack and finds another "pint." INT. KITCHEN -- LATER Whip opens the freezer to put in his frozen dinner and his "packet of veal" and finds another fifth of vodka. He pours the vodka in the sink and tosses the bottle into the trash -- which is piled high with empties. Through the kitchen window, Whip sees the farm's old weathered barn. Whip furrows his brow. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- BARN -- DAY WHIP slides open the heavy barn doors to reveal -- A VINTAGE CESSNA 172 -- covered in dust and bird shit from the years of stagnant storage. WHIP lights a smoke as he marvels at the little piece of aviation history resting in his barn. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- BARN -- AIRPLANE -- DAY Whip walks past the plane and starts to examine the large, two-story, open-ceilinged barn that is junked full of farm equipment and old furniture. He finds... A WALL OF PHOTOS -- WHIP WITH HIS FATHER NEXT TO A PLANE. HIS GRANDFATHER, FATHER and WHIP pose next to the barn. A CROP DUSTER acts as the background for a picture with a 15 year old WHIP and his father next to a small plane. 65. A series of pictures feature the PLANE in flight and SHOTS TAKEN FROM THE PLANE, aerials of the farm, etc. WHIP holds the framed shot of he and his dad as he walks back to the plane, resting his arm on the wing. WHIP pulls himself from the wall of photos and stares at his stuff. We recognize what must be the stuff he took from his house after his divorce. We see bikes, weights and fishing gear. Whip rummages through a box of things packed from his home office. Trophies, sports memorabilia, citations -- A PHOTO OF HE AND HIS WIFE from happier times. THEIR WEDDING PHOTO. Now Whip comes upon A FRAMED BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO of he and Charlie in their younger, Navy days -- wearing flight suits and standing on a carrier flight deck in front of an F-14 Tomcat. Big smiles, full of hotshot pilot swagger. WHIP puts the photo back and spots his golf bag. He roots out a pint of cheap vodka from the inner pocket. Next he finds a fifth of bourbon in his bicycle saddle bag. He goes to the workbench and removes a couple of bottles from the paint shelf. EXT. BARN -- DAY 63 Whip dumps out the liquor onto the grass as he hobbles back 63 to the house. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- NIGHT 65 WHIP uses just his cane now as he drags a garbage bag full of 65 empty liquor bottles to his garbage cans. He tosses the bag of empties in a can. His work done, WHIP lights a smoke and stares at the empty fields that run forever as does the landscape of his mind. He quietly tries to grasp the horror he endured and the reality of his survival. INT. KITCHEN TABLE -- LATER THAT NIGHT We hear the microwave beep and WHIP retrieves a frozen dinner. 66. INT. WHITAKER FARM--LIVING ROOM DESK AREA--MOMENTS LATER WHIP sits at the coffee table eating his frozen dinner while watching news coverage of the crash. PHONE RINGS WHIP is startled by the phone that never rings. He snaps off the TV using the remote. WHIP is in no hurry to answer the phone as the old time ring continues. WHIP goes to the desk where the phone rests and he watches the old answering machine click on. We hear... WHIP'S FATHER'S VOICE You've reached the Whitaker Crop Dusting Company, flying lessons and plane rides. Please leave a message and it will be returned. Thank you. VOICE MAIL ...I think that was the beep. Hey Cowboy, it's Charlie again. WHIP reaches for the phone but decides to just listen to CHARLIE... CHARLIE (speaking to voicemail) I'm back in town and I stopped by the hospital tonight but they said you went home...so I guess you're feelin' pretty good, but um we went out to your condo and the manager said you had not returned. INT. CARR'S OFFICE -- ATLANTA BASEBALL STADIUM -- NIGHT CHARLIE sits at a beautiful wooden table in a modern glass- walled office above a baseball field. The table is populated with casually-dressed businessmen and lawyers as this after- hours meeting was called on the fly. CRASH SCENE PHOTOS and FILES fill the table top. We also see a photo or two of the WHITAKER FARM. VOICE MAIL So...you may be with relatives, which I understand. I was really hoping to see you for breakfast. I'm at the St. Regis downtown. 67. There's an executive buffet on the 16th floor - 10 o'clock, okay? If you get this, please come. Some important stuff to cover. Be good. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- LIVING ROOM -- DESK AREA -- NIGHT WHIP stands still as a beep sounds, ending the message. INT. ST. REGIS HOTEL -- EXECUTIVE BUFFET -- MORNING The executive buffet is a staple at the ST. REGIS. A long center table with silver trays houses eggs and breakfast meats. Fruit, bagels and a staff of servers cater to the business elite of Atlanta. CHARLIE ANDERSON sits at a corner table with HUGH LANG, a young, well-dressed African American man. CHARLIE and HUGH are chatting in jocular spirit when WHIP approaches, walking much more confidently with his cane. CHARLIE Whip, hey buddy. Glad you got my message. Grab a seat. WHIP studies HUGH as he pulls out his chair. CHARLIE (CONT'D) Whip this is Hugh Lang; he's an attorney from Chicago. HUGH stands and shakes hands with WHIP. HUGH Nice to meet you Captain Whitaker. WHIP and HUGH remain standing, both feeling a little "alpha." CHARLIE Siddown. Coffee? (Whip nods, sits) Miss, can we get some fresh coffee? She smiles and nods. She's off to get the coffee. CHARLIE (CONT'D) We were just talking about your copilot's wife. She told a newspaper that "God landed that plane." 68. WHIP God landed the plane? WHIP just stares at the two men who have large buffet plates surrounding them. CHARLIE I too believe that God landed that plane. The same way I believe that God should hit the buffet, the turkey sausage is excellent. WHIP I'm good with coffee. CHARLIE Len Caldwell was really trying to get here this morning. (Whip seems lost) Len is the president of the pilots' union and he wanted to be here with us and meet with you but they wanted him at the crash site. So.. WHIP is quiet, anxious to hear the purpose of the meeting. CHARLIE (CONT'D) Whip, as you know, when a plane crashes, the NTSB sends a "go team" to the crash site immediately. WHIP They find the flight data recorders? CHARLIE Yes they found them, perfectly intact. WHIP Great. That solves everything. The recorders will tell the story. Why do we need a lawyer from Chicago? CHARLIE Hugh's an attorney who specializes in criminal negligence- WHIP Criminal negligence? The WAITRESS returns with the coffee. It's quiet as they wait for her to finish. She does. 69. HUGH Death demands responsibility. Six dead on that plane, someone has to pay. WHIP The plane fell apart at 30 thousand feet. CHARLIE The airline will try to prove equipment failure. Which would make the manufacturer responsible. The manufacturer of the plane will try to prove poor maintenance of the equipment by the airline. HUGH Or pilot error. WHIP I had to fly that plane inverted, that means upside down, Hugh. Do you get the picture? 100 passengers hanging upside down, 500 feet off the ground. Do you have any idea what that sounds like? HUGH I do. I heard the black box last night. WHIP Are you a pilot? HUGH LANG No I'm not. WHIP Then you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. CHARLIE Hugh's on our team and it's the NTSB's ball game. They run the investigation and they will ultimately rule on the cause. HUGH They interview the entire flight crew and the passengers. They hold PUBLIC HEARINGS- 70. WHIP Charlie, what do I need to know? I'm already tired of this guy. HUGH The NTSB `go team' collects blood, skin and hair from the flight crew for a toxicology report. WHIP studies the two men, trying to read their poker hands. WHIP When did they do that? HUGH In the hospital. It's the first thing they do. Do you remember having your blood drawn on the night of the crash? WHIP looks at CHARLIE and then to HUGH... WHIP Do they have the results of these blood tests? HUGH Yeah, they do. The WAITRESS checks in. WAITRESS Anything else for you gentlemen? WHIP Did I just see warm cinnamon rolls come out? WAITRESS Yes sir. WHIP Bring me one wouldya? Actually bring me two, okay sweetie? WAITRESS Comin' up. An awkward silence as they wait for her to clear out. HUGH An initial report shows alcohol in your bloodstream at a level of .24. In the U.S. 71. -- one of the most lenient drunk driving countries in the world -- you go to jail for driving with a number over .08. And by driving, I mean a car. They all digest the information as the WAITRESS delivers the cinnamon rolls. She leaves. It's still quiet. WHIP What does that mean? I had a beer the night before I flew. And what...That made the tail of the plane explode? CHARLIE Separate issues Whip- WHIP I need a lawyer. CHARLIE Hugh is your lawyer. WHIP I need a bigger lawyer. A lawyer who understands that I flew a broken plane and without me at that stick there'd be 102 funerals, not 6. HUGH We're talking about prison not funerals. Somebody has- WHIP To write checks, well it's not me I promise you that. And as long as they're writing checks, write me one because someone put me in a broken plane. I'd love a check. CHARLIE EASY WHIP- HUGH This tox report states that you were drunk and high on cocaine, felonies punishable by 24 years in jail. And if your intoxication is proven to have caused the death of the 4 passengers you'll get 4 counts of manslaughter. That could be life in prison. 72. Can I now do my job on your behalf and kill this tox report? WHIP is listening. CHARLIE tries to reign it in. CHARLIE He'll get it done, Whip. It's what his entire life is about. Trust me, trust him. (Whip stares at Hugh) Don't worry Whip, you're gonna walk away the hero you deserve to be. WHIP I'm not worried, Charlie. I promise you that. No one could have landed that plane like I did, no one. 68 The WAITRESS returns with a coffee pot. WHIP leaves. 68 INT. ST. REGIS HOTEL -- LOUNGE -- DAY Close on TV -- A SPLIT SCREEN -- CNN's PIERS MORGAN on one side of the screen asking questions of JIM TILMON, an aviation expert. WE NOW SEE A PHOTO OF WHIP IN HIS SOUTHJET AIRLINE UNIFORM. PIERS MORGAN Captain Tilmon, we wanna play a portion of the black box that all of the news outlets have grabbed hold of... WHIP (ON TELEVISION) When I ask for power, push both of these forward. Got it? What's your son's name? WIDER...WHIP STEPS UP TO THE BAR, GLANCING AROUND. The BARTENDER steps up to serve WHIP... BARTENDER What'll you have? WHIP Can I get an orange juice? The BARTENDER leaves to grab the orange juice. 73. TELEVISION -- The transcription and AUDIO of the cockpit recording continues... MARGARET (O.S.) Trevor. WHIP (O.S.) Say "I love you Trevor." MARGARET (O.S.) Why? WHIP (O.S.) The black box. MARGARET (O.S.) I love you Trevor. Be a good boy. Mommy loves you. The BARTENDER returns with the orange juice. BARTENDER That's it? WHIP And a double shot of Stoli. The BARTENDER nods and turns in acknowledgement of the order. PIERS MORGAN (ON TELEVISION) Wow. That audio paints a strong picture. Captain Whitaker is surely a hero in my opinion. JIM TILMON (ON TELEVISION) Absolutely. However, every incident is different. The actions of the pilots on SouthJet 227 will be heavily scrutinized. It's protocol for any investigation. The BARTENDER returns with a frosted glass and pours two shots over the ice. WHIP downs the vodka in a flash. The OTHER BARTENDER has the remote and starts searching for more coverage of the crash. He stops at a local report. ON TELEVISION WE SEE 74. EXT. CRASH SITE -- DAY A REPORTER gives a lead in at the crash site. CRASH SITE REPORTER #1 Kevin, it's still chaotic here at the site. Apparently a small ministry was conducting services near to where the plane came down. So the scene here is a mix of survivors and first responders, I was able to catch up with an actual passenger moments ago... A YOUNG SHORT HAIRED BLONDE MAN GIVES HIS ACCOUNT PASSENGER 1 We were in a nose dive and people were screaming and yelling and then the plane turned upside down and we had to hold on to our seat belts to keep from falling out of our chairs -- I saw one kid fall to the floor and this flight attendant picked him up and handed him to his dad...I didn't see her again. CRASH SITE REPORTER #1 More details and more reports of the casualties are continuing to fly around. I can tell you that there appears to be many, many survivors. That's all I have for now. Kevin? Another reporter has a passenger's account. CRASH SITE REPORTER #2 Rebecca, surviving passengers are being put in ambulances, police cruisers and even first responder vehicles and they are being taken to local hospitals for treatment. Some of the injured appear serious and it's safe to assume at this point that there are at least a few fatalities. Let's roll the tape of the passenger I caught up with earlier. A MAN with SHORT DARK HAIR explains his experience. 75. PASSENGER 2 We turned like a corkscrew and all I could think was, "this is really happening, I'm going to die" and then all of a sudden the plane was upside down but steady and the pilot must have known how to fly it that way. He flipped it back over and landed it hard. CRASH SITE REPORTER #2 Obviously a harrowing ordeal for those on the troubled plane. This is Callie J Kenner for News 5. A third Reporter gets a FEMALE NEIGHBOR's perspective. CRASH SITE REPORTER #3 Folks in the houses that border this field came running from their houses... NEIGHBOR I thought it was thunder at first. But it shook the ground hard. Thunder don't do like that. I ran outside and I could hear people yelling and I could see a small fire at first. I just took the dogs and headed down there. Then I saw the plane crumpled on the ground. I never seen nothing like that in my life. CRASH SITE REPORTER #3 Just like that plane, this community is shattered. Folks here remain on edge as media trucks continue to line their small road and crowd the field where the plane still lies. Back to you, Tom. EXT. CRASH SITE -- NIGHT A news light shines on a lone reporter who stands atop a small hill above the crash field. 76. CRASH SITE REPORTER #4 We're gonna take another look at the cell phone footage that captured the last moments of SouthJet's Flight 227. WE SEE THE GRAINY CELL PHONE FOOTAGE OF THE PLANE After the PLANE levels off and smacks down in the field, we return to REPORTER #4 in the crash field. CRASH SITE REPORTER #4 (CONT'D) Many hours have passed since the footage you just watched but the crash site remains active as investigators work through the night. Using flood lights and miners' caps, teams continue to comb the crash field looking for the answers to the hard questions as to what brought down SouthJet's flight 227. Those answers remain in darkness as do the broken pieces of the aircraft. Hopefully sunlight will bring answers. For now this is Kent Johnson reporting. INT./EXT. WHIP'S BUICK -- QWIK STOP LIQUOR STORE -- DAY A 12-pack of beer hits the passenger seat as Whip climbs behind the wheel. Whip cracks open a "handle" (half-gallon) of vodka and takes a liberal pull. Whip's shoulders relax as the alcohol kicks in. 71 After a moment, he starts the car, shifts into gear -- downs 71 another huge slug of vodka -- and pulls out. INT. WHIP'S BUICK -- ATLANTA STREET -- DAY Whip is at the wheel. A cigarette in one hand, an open beer in the other. He cruises slowly -- searching street signs with his beer-buzzed eyes. WHIP (TO HIMSELF) Taylor street, Taylor st...ah, here we are. Whip rolls the Buick to a stop and scans the street. 77. P.O.V. THROUGH DRIVER SIDE WINDOW WHIP spots a SIGN: "Georgian Gardens Apartments" Suddenly, NICOLE flies into frame and tosses a box into the back of her Toyota. She hustles off leaving the hatchback open. 72 WHIP raises an eyebrow, and drives toward the building. 72 EXT. THREE STORY APARTMENT BUILDING -- ATLANTA -- DAY WHIP parks his car at a fire hydrant right in front of NICOLE's building and gets out with his cane. He pops a fresh beer and looks at the building, looking for a proper entrance. He notices Fran walking quickly along the second story balcony -- carrying a baseball bat. Whip thinks nothing of it and begins casually poking through the stuff in Nicole's car -- a random collection of junk including clothes and photographs -- mostly of rock bands performing. Now, WHIP HEARS an argument escalating between Fran and NICOLE. FRAN (O.S.) The guy in Unit 1 just told me you stayed here last night?! NICOLE (O.S.) Franny relax, I'm just getting my shit outta here, okay? FRAN (O.S.) What about the rent! YOU OWE ME MONEY! He heads off... EXT. THREE STORY APARTMENT BUILDING -- STAIRCASE -- DAY WHIP does a decent job of making his way up the exterior staircase. That beer is making his leg feel a little better. WHIP moves more aggressively up the stairs as the ARGUMENT GROWS LOUDER... FRAN (O.S.) Who do you think broke down this fucking door to let the paramedics in there? Huh?! -- You gotta pay for all this. 78. NICOLE (O.S.) I'm sorry. Just let me get my shit and get outta here. I will pay you when I can. FRAN (O.S.) I know, just take a shower with me. How hard is that? C'mon. NICOLE (O.S.) No. I'm not doin' that. FRAN (O.S.) If I had a bag a dope you'd be on your knees in my shower right now, right? Come on... NICOLE (O.S.) DON'T TOUCH ME! WHIP PICKS UP THE PACE OF HIS LIMP TOWARDS THE FRACAS. FRAN (O.S.) Gimme the camera, for collateral. What's it worth? NICOLE (O.S.) No fucking way! I will kill you if you touch this camera! I will pay for all of this! I will pay, okay! WHIP crests the top of the staircase to see... SCENE 75 COMBINED WITH SCENE 74 INT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT -- SAME FRAN, the landlord, wielding a baseball bat as he berates NICOLE. NICOLE has her full-bodied 35 MM camera hanging from a strap around her neck. FRAN points the bat at her head. Whip WHACKS Fran with his cane. WHIP The fuck are you doin'!? FRAN stumbles and falls as the bat goes flying to the ground and rolls away. WHIP licks the foaming top of his excited beer. 79. FRAN (gives Whip a puzzled LOOK) Hey, don't I know you? Whip jabs him again with his cane. WHIP Keep your fucking hands off her! NICOLE who is crying, now laughs in relief. She can't believe it. "America's Hero" has just come to her rescue. WHIP moves to comfort her.. WHIP (CONT'D) You okay? (SHE NODS) Is this all the stuff you want from here? NICOLE (nods again, recovering) Just this stuff. She points to a camera tripod and a box of broken portfolios with photos dripping out. WHIP Okay, start taking that stuff down. FRAN has gotten up and stands a safe distance from WHIP... FRAN She owes me 1100 bucks! Plus damages! WHIP You wanna spend a thousand bucks suing her and get jack shit? Or do you want to make a cash deal with me? FRAN Give me 700 in cash. WHIP You're a creep...with your baseball bat bullshit... Whip flings his beer at Fran's head, then pulls out his billfold. 80. WHIP (CONT'D) (sorts through his cash) I'll give you 400 in cash. Whip throws the money on the floor. FRAN sorts the options...none...he tentatively bends down and picks up the cash. Keeping a wary eye on Whip. WHIP (CONT'D) Good boy. Now help her get that box in her car. NICOLE Ah...my car doesn't run. It won't start. I'm taking this with me. WHIP Your car doesn't run? What were you gonna do? NICOLE I don't...I...I was... I don't know what I was gonna do. Fran smirks. Whip drills Fran with his eyes... WHIP (with deliberate malice) Then put the fucking box in my car. FRAN's smirk fades. He relents and picks up the box as WHIP grabs the lighter shoulder bag and they head downstairs. INT. WHIP'S BUICK -- DAY NICOLE stares out the window as the city disappears. WHIP pulls a beer from the box and offers it to Nicole. NICOLE smiles, thinks about it...she shakes her head, "no." WHIP pops the top and takes a drink. NICOLE What's your name? WHIP looks to her, she to him. They begin to laugh at the absurdity. When it subsides... WHIP Whip. NICOLE nods. A long moment quietly passes. 81. NICOLE Thank you, Captain Whip. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "You Really Got a Hold on Me" plays as WHIP eases himself into a recliner using his cane. On the small table next to him rests his beer and an unopened bottle of bourbon with a glass of ice. WHIP cracks the seal on the bourbon bottle and pours a drink. He takes a sip and chases it with his beer. WHIP now starts to remove the brace that we clearly see under his basketball shorts. As he takes it off he tries to massage his aching leg. NICOLE enters the living room, fresh from a shower. WHIP studies her -- she's beautiful and innocent. WHIP You okay? NICOLE I was gonna lay down, get some rest. WHIP Okay. WHIP takes another sip before returning to massaging his leg. NICOLE Is it really okay that I stay here? WHIP Yea. I want you to stay. NICOLE walks over to WHIP and kneels down and gently takes over massaging his leg. WHIP exhales. WHIP (CONT'D) That feels better. NICOLE It's throbbing because the blood is having a hard time getting back to your heart. 78 NICOLE continues to soothe his aching leg. After a moment, 78 NICOLE stands and takes the drink out of WHIP's hand and sets it down. She now bends down and kisses him softly. She now stands and takes his hand, leading him in to the bedroom. 82. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- WHIP'S BEDROOM -- DAY WHIP's been awake for hours as he sits at the foot of the bed. Whip's wearing a long sleeve tee shirt and sweat pants and no shoes. He looks at NICOLE -- sleeping angelically on her side of the bed. Whip watches her sleep for a long moment, until... 80 He hears something. He gets up and goes to the window. It's a 80 car pulling up the driveway. INT./EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- KITCHEN DOOR -- DAY WHIP opens the door to find HUGH in his driveway. WHIP casts a strange figure with his bare chest, boxers and brandishing a shotgun. They stare at each other. HUGH Do you wanna shoot me or can I come inside? WHIP C'mon in. I'll shoot you inside. HUGH walks closer to the porch. WHIP questions him. WHIP (CONT'D) You just decided to drop by? HUGH Your voice mail is full and you never answer your cell phone. I called your cell 10 times. WHIP I turned it off. HUGH nods as the explanation lands. HUGH I thought we'd take a ride. WHIP measures HUGH's intention... WHIP Okay, gimme a minute. Wait here. 82 HUGH nods and recedes from the door as WHIP goes to get 82 dressed. 83. EXT. CRASH SITE -- OBSERVATION SCAFFOLDING -- DAY WHIP joins HUGH on a rectangular platform on top of a two- story scaffolding frame. The platform provides a perfect view of flight 227's final resting area. We see the awesome devastation that 50 tons of metal flying at 140 miles an hour can do to a hillside. HUGH You can see the initial impact sheared the right wing clean off. If only the left wing had come off at impact, I think everyone would have walked off that plane. WHIP The left wing partially pulled away- HUGH It snapped but stayed connected to the airframe. So it whipped back towards the plane, hit the fuselage in front of the tail. If you were sitting in the last 6 or 7 rows on the left side, it was like being hit by a train. WHIP I drank a lot the night before that flight. I drank that morning too and I used coke to straighten up. HUGH I know, it's in the toxicology report. WHIP But that's not the reason this happened. HUGH I know. WHIP looks at HUGH expecting him to finish his thought. HUGH holds his look for a beat before changing thoughts. HUGH (CONT'D) The John the Baptist Pentecostal Mission. We hear voices; a low murmur that gets louder, chanting. WHIP looks to the top of the hill to see... PENTECOSTAL MASS IN PROGRESS 84. A MINISTER in a dark purple cloak calls from the new testament as the CONGREGATION responds in unison. MINISTER "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." -- Revelation 21:4 There are at least 50 people sitting in white folding chairs at the foot of the hill. A small brook babbles behind them. WHIP continues to take in the bizarre scene. HUGH They helped pull survivors out of the wreckage. Now they come out here every day and have a mass 30 minutes prior to the crash. And then they sit in silent prayer for 10 minutes at 9:42...which is when you went down. WHIP is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crash field and the WORSHIPPERS. WHIP looks back at the crash site to see... NTSB INVESTIGATORS Inside the crash site, a small group of INVESTIGATORS with NTSB jackets following the lead of a CONFIDENT WOMAN. HUGH answers the question in WHIP's mind... HUGH (CONT'D) Ellen Block, she's the head of the investigation for the NTSB. She's the one that's gonna ask the tough questions. WHIP Why'd you bring me here? HUGH I needed you to see this. WHIP You trying to scare me? HUGH I need to know that you can handle all this. 85. WHIP continues to stare at the awesome dent in the earth. HUGH (CONT'D) Listen clearly. There was a mechanical issue with the plane, but what you and I know? Is that this was an act of God. I'm gonna fight to get the NTSB to place "act of God" on the probable causes list. WHIP Who's God would do this? It's quiet before HUGH makes his case. HUGH So here's the deal. Avington Carr, the owner of the airline, is on our side...and he's got big friends in Washington. He wants to sit down with us. 10 O'clock tomorrow morning. WHIP's had enough. He starts to walk away. HUGH stops him. HUGH (CONT'D) You can't drink. You're under the microscope. You can't be out buying liquor. No bars, no drugs. WHIP I'll stop. I can stop. (Hugh stays quiet) I told you I can stop. I won't drink. HUGH 10 O'clock tomorrow morning with Mr. Carr, the owner of the airline. INT. CARR'S OFFICE - ATLANTA BASEBALL STADIUM -- DAY A huge office with a glass wall that looks out over the diamond. We are high above the outfield; if GOD was a baseball fan, this would be his office. We now meet AVINGTON CARR, a very righteous and self-satisfied, wealthy, southern gentlemen. MR. CARR I never wanted that fuckin' airline. Neither did my brother. 86. CARR scans the room, reading faces, holding court. MR. CARR (CONT'D) It was my father that wanted it. I like baseball. Ornate, wood furniture helps to announce the political feel of MR. CARR's world. Presidential photos and commendations pepper the walls. It's quiet... HUGH LANG I like baseball. Everyone looks to HUGH as it gets oddly silent... We get our first look at LEN CALDWELL, the president of the pilots' union. LEN tries to wrest some control and exude some confidence. LEN CALDWELL Everyone in Georgia likes baseball. MR. CARR Yeah...so what's the deal Lenny? Is your union gonna survive this one? More importantly? How big a check you think I'm gonna have to write? LEN CALDWELL There were 6 fatalities on the PLANE- HUGH LANG The 2 crew members don't get settlements like the passengers. That's a workman's comp claim, part of the union contract -- they do a dangerous job and they know it. MR. CARR You're the lawyer for the pilots' union? LEN CALDWELL No, this is Hugh Lang, the attorney we brought in to handle the criminal side of Captain Whitaker's situation. MR. CARR Yes, and what is Mr. Whitaker's situation? NTSB is up my ass with a flashlight. We had to give them access to everything. 87. (shakes his head) And everyone is curious about Captain Whitaker. Through a glass wall we see... WHIP SITS ON A COUCH READING A MAGAZINE IN A RECEPTION AREA. CHARLIE I flew with him. He's a great pilot. MR. CARR Is he a drunk? CHARLIE He's a heavy drinker. Should I bring him in? Everyone steals glances at WHIP as CARR continues to dominate. MR. CARR In a minute. Alright, so let's get down to it, Lenny. What does the union plan to do about this blood test that says Whitaker was high on booze and coke? This guy's a real peach. HUGH I'm gonna kill the toxicology report. (feels eyes of disbelief) It was done incompetently. The last time the toxicology equipment they used was calibrated was in June of 2009, which is 18 months past code. Their log that should clearly state who labeled the blood vials and when, is very incomplete. And they aren't sure who stored them. They used a preservative in the vials that has in some cases caused blood to ferment and register higher in an alcohol test. That's what I've done so far. I can handle this. MR. CARR I like this guy Lenny. He makes me wanna go out and sniff a few lines and fly a jet. 88. LEN CALDWELL Mr. Carr, we're gonna fight to push all the fault on Jackson Ridgefield, the manufacturer. MR. CARR Oh and you think they're gonna just open their check book and buy us all lunch? Good fucking luck. What's my exposure Jim? CARR'S BUSINESS GUY The awards to the families could kill the airline. MR. CARR Fuck the airline. The insurance companies can have the goddamm airline. I just don't want them to come sniffing in my other pockets. LEN CALDWELL Speaking for the pilots' union? We don't want your airline to go away. We enjoy your contract with us and we will protect Captain Whitaker and in turn protect your airline. MR. CARR That's sweet Mr. Caldwell, but if the NTSB leaks that toxicology report showing my pilot was flying that plane drunk? We're all fucked. CHARLIE So far we've been lucky. MR. CARR Lucky?! Are you that goddammed dumb?! You think they're waiting for a light news day to splash the headline, "Drunk, coke-addled pilot crashes a plane?!" EVERYONE goes quiet as CARR's anger commands silence. MR. CARR (CONT'D) My brother's in DC on his knees at the foot of the throne begging for forgiveness. And so far it's working. 89. They've got their boot on the neck of this girl Ellen Block runnin' the show for the NTSB and she is pissed. Can you handle that? HUGH can't stifle a laugh. They look to him. HUGH LANG Trust me, I'm gonna kill the toxicology report. That's my job. CARR looks to his lawyer who nods... CARR'S ATTORNEY I wish you luck, but we're still sorting out the best way to go forward legally. We might split from you and go it alone. CARR stands to signal the end of the meeting. HUGH stands to stop him. HUGH LANG To go it alone? Without us? That would be what the French call "a big fucking mistake." MR. CARR Does Whitaker know he's going to jail? HUGH LANG I haven't had a client go to jail yet. MR. CARR He's going to jail. He belongs in jail. You bet your ass he's going to jail, the question is...is he gonna die in jail? HUGH LANG You're wrong, Mr. Carr. CARR'S ATTORNEY Last time I checked, 6 counts of manslaughter is life in prison. MR. CARR Life in prison, what we in Georgia call "all day long." It goes quiet as everyone reflects on that reality. 90. INT. CARR'S OFFICE -- WAITING ROOM -- DAY WHIP stands up as the meeting spills into the waiting room. Handshakes are exchanged as CARR walks to WHIP and offers his hand to shake. MR. CARR They tell me you're some kind of pilot. 86 CARR nods, sizing WHIP up. WHIP returns the nod as HUGH 86 quickly puts a hand on WHIP's back and leads him away like a heavyweight being returned to his corner after pre-fight instructions. THE TELEVISION IN WHIP'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT We are now in WHIP's living room watching HOME MOVIES... WHIP'S VOICE Get up! What? You can't get up?! (Whip is laughing...) C'mon, Knuckles Whitaker drags himself up and goes long...go. We watch an 8 year-old WILL WHITAKER run long as the ball flies to him. He catches it and on-screen WHIP hollers. WHIP'S VOICE (CONT'D) Touchdown Whitaker! Atta boy! C'mon back. What? Come back and do it again. Tired? Junior, you don't know tired. I'm not going out. You go out. Keep running. We pull away from the screen to find WHIP who sits on the couch. A large bottle of vodka appears empty amidst many dead beers and an ashtray that overflows. WHIP moves in drunken slow motion as he attempts to free a cigarette from the pack and light it. He freezes at one point and places his hands straight out in front of himself, a strange, involuntary, drunken reset. His stare is a 1000 miles offshore; he is anywhere but on this planet. Oblivion. The light from the HEADLIGHTS of a car in the driveway wash across the walls of the living room. We hear a car door open and women exchange good byes. SHEILA (O.S.) Keep coming back, Nicole. One day at a time. 91. NICOLE (O.S.) I know, one day at a time. 87A We hear them laugh as WHIP still stares in to space. 87A INT. WHITAKER FARM -- DOOR -- NIGHT The door pushes open and NICOLE comes in with the Big Book of AA in her hand. NICOLE Hey. Sorry I'm a little late, but we went for coffee after the meeting... (Whip doesn't look) Whip? NICOLE goes close to see WHIP look at her with a non-focused stare. She sees the table and reads the situation. NICOLE watches as WHIP stands up. In his oblivion he tries to focus. WHIP Don't, don't, don't! I'll get him. Knuckles, junior. See him. Yeah. I'm not calling again. Fuck him. He didn't call. Not back. Not calling back. NICOLE backs away as she watches the blacked-out ballet play itself out in slow, tragic fashion. WHIP motions to his lips as if he is smoking. He freezes and then steps forward and trips in to the coffee table. Whip falls to the ground. NICOLE checks WHIP's face to see his eyes partially opened but passed out. NICOLE goes to the bedroom and returns with a blanket that she covers WHIP with. She also places a pillow under his head making sure that his head is titled to the side so he doesn't choke. NICOLE looks around the room. She begins to collect the bottles and straighten up. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- BEDROOM -- MORNING CLOSE ON WHIP's FACE as he struggles with a thick hangover. He rubs his face and smacks his lips, he's dry as a bone. WHIP shakes his head as he tries to focus his look through the bedroom window. He looks out to see NICOLE sitting on a chair enjoying the landscape. WHIP rubs his head before walking to the kitchen. 92. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- KITCHEN -- MOMENTS LATER WHIP pulls open the door to the fridge and pulls out a gallon of water in a plastic jug. WHIP stands and takes a long pull of the cold water. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- PORCH -- MORNING NICOLE sits with her camera staring at a candle on the table in front of her. An AA Book rests on the table. She snaps a picture of the flame and then focuses out to the grassy landing strip and the rolling hills. WHIP enters carrying the large plastic bottle of water from the kitchen. WHIP Morning. WHIP coughs and rubs his eyes. NICOLE Are you okay? You were in bad shape when I got home. WHIP Tired. Guess I drank a bit. NICOLE A bit? WHIP You wanna count the fuckin' beers? They're still in the garbage. Vodka too, is that okay with you? NICOLE It's more than okay, Whip. WHIP Good. It's quiet as they let the awkward exchange pass. NICOLE I've been watching the sky change as the sun rises. Beautiful. (holds up the camera) Perfect light, I went out and took some great shots. WHIP reaches for the camera. She hands it to him. 93. WHIP Lemme see that camera. NICOLE My mom got it for me. Towards the end, when she knew she wasn't gonna recover. She maxed out her credit card to buy me that camera and a lighting kit. NICOLE takes a moment to tamp down some emotions. NICOLE (CONT'D) It's just so beautiful here. Did you grow up here? WHIP still holds the camera as he sits down. WHIP It was my grandfather's farm, my dad grew up here. He was a pilot in World War II, flew with the 332nd. See the landing strip out there? He built that. He ran a crop duster outta here until the EPA put an end to that. (she nods, listening) He traded the crop duster for a used Cessna. He flew that damn thing all over. It's still in the barn. I was gonna sell this place after my dad died. Then I got divorced... NICOLE And your mom? WHIP Dead...she's dead. Your dad still alive? NICOLE I'm pretty sure my father lives in Colorado. WHIP You got no relationship with him. NICOLE He drank. It was my mom that raised me. She was incredible. NICOLE lights a cigarette as the memories are tough. 94. NICOLE (CONT'D) She held it together for so long, I couldn't tell how sick she was. Even through chemo she looked beautiful. NICOLE leans over and blows out the candle. NICOLE (CONT'D) They gave her very heavy meds for pain. Dilauded, morphine, oxycontin. I started taking them with her. We would get all medicated and sit in our back yard and talk and talk and watch the sun go down. We'd be so stoned that we couldn't get up to go inside when it got dark. (laughs, fights the pain) I know it sounds crazy to get hooked on dope with your mom, but she was dying and we spent her last seven months together like teenagers, trading stories about boys and whatever. She loved me. WHIP lifts the camera and points it at NICOLE. She contorts her face into a sly smile. WHIP snaps it...she laughs. 89A A CHURCH BELL SWINGS INSIDE A STONE BELFRY 89A The blue sky is the perfect backdrop as we reveal... INT. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH -- DAY WHIP in a dark suit walks amidst mourners who file out of the church. The center of attention is a large, distraught woman in her 60's being consoled by what appears to be her son and his wife. The WOMAN wears a pin that holds a photo of TRINA. WHIP stands at the bottom of the steps, watching folks, looking for someone. Suddenly, a 9 year-old BOY stands in front of him. The BOY locks eyes with him. BOY I'm Trevor. You saved my mom. WHIP looks up to see MARGARET THOMASON walking towards him. She has her left arm in a sling underneath her jacket. We can see a bandage along her hairline. WHIP smiles, obviously uncomfortable. MARGARET hugs him. 95. MARGARET It's great to see you, Whip. WHIP You too Margaret. Broken collar bone? MARGARET Yeah, and some stitches but I'm fine. I really am. (she goes quiet) It was a nice service. I mean, look at all these people that wanted to say goodbye. She looked beautiful in there. (Whip is blank) Didn't you think so, Whip? Like she was gonna wake up and smile. WHIP I didn't go in. I couldn't. MARGARET is sensing WHIP's struggle. MARGARET Trevor, find Dad. He's by Mr. Benton, there. (TREVOR LEAVES) Are you okay? You should come to the counseling group. The union has great people for us to talk to. WHIP No. I can't, really. I will, but just not now. It's quiet. MARGARET smiles and leans in and kisses WHIP on the cheek. MARGARET Take care Whip, okay? She starts to leave...WHIP stops her with... WHIP Yeah...y'know...I'm in the middle of this investigation. The NTSB is investigating the crash- MARGARET I know. I'm going in to see them next week. 96. WHIP I'm nervous because I was out the night before the crash at dinner- MARGARET With Trina... WHIP Yeah and I had two glasses of wine. And they might ask you about my condition that morning and if you thought I had anything to drink. MARGARET appears speechless... WHIP (CONT'D) What? MARGARET I've known you 11 years and you're gonna stand here and tell me you and Trina went to dinner and you drank two glasses of wine? Sounds like a nice restaurant Whip, which one was it? WHIP You have to tell them it was an ordinary day. I mean it was an ordinary day. You know I was in shape to fly. You have a problem with saying that? MARGARET It's a lie. Whip, it's a lie. Trina told me you two hadn't been to sleep. WHIP My lack of sleep made the plane fall apart, huh Margaret? I'm just trying to get it straight. You think that another pilot would have been able to land that plane and save more lives? MARGARET I didn't say that Whip. I can't imagine another pilot doing- 97. WHIP Well can you imagine Trevor at this same church looking at you in that box in there? Or my son having to come and see me in prison? MARGARET fights tears as WHIP has struck a blow. MARGARET Please Whip, enough. Don't you think we've all had enough. (Whip is quiet) What do you want me to say? WHIP It was an ordinary day. The storm right after we took off was very severe, but as far as the flight crew was concerned it was a perfectly ordinary day. The tears flow now as MARGARET can't hold them in. WHIP realizes he's gone too far. Not knowing what to do, WHIP walks away. EXT. PEACH STREET DRUGS - AZURE BLUE SKY OF AUTUMN -- PHARMACY -- PARKING LOT - DAY WHIP watches an airliner fly over head as he stands by his car smoking a cigarette. He wears his suit from the funeral. NICOLE approaches. She's in a great mood. NICOLE Are you okay? How was it? WHIP It was okay, okay. How're you doin'? A beat. NICOLE Well, I got through my first day. They haven't fired me. WHIP That's good. Cause for a celebration. NICOLE They needed someone to work the night shift. They asked me and it's time and a half so... 98. She sorts through her shoulder bag... NICOLE (CONT'D) I gotta vest and here's my name tag. Oh oh oh....I got you something.. (hands him a nice lighter) It's a P-51 mustang on there... (flies her arms like WINGS) You're dad flew a P-51, right? WHIP (stares at the lighter) He did. So should we get some dinner? NICOLE I promised Sheila I would be at the meeting tonight. She's the one that's been helping me, my sponsor. Can we do it tomorrow night? And Please, Whip don't make me choose between dinner with you and the meeting. WHIP nods, playing with the lighter. WHIP No, it's okay. You should go. NICOLE Why don't you come with me? We'll eat after. It's an open meeting. WHIP Open meeting? NICOLE That means anybody can come. Anybody. WHIP Even me? She is bubbling with happy spirit; she's hot. She's hard to deny as WHIP can't help but smile at her. INT. ST. FRANCIS CATHOLIC CHURCH -- ATLANTA -- NIGHT A MAN stands at a podium wearing a coat and tie. He is lost in the energized retell of a story. 99. A.A. SPEAKER # 1 The cop is shining his flashlight on me. I'm standing there behind the dumpster, wearing nothing but my girlfriend's panties, vomit on my chest and I say to the cop...about two beers. The room erupts with laughter. NICOLE is really taken by the candor of the speaker as she joins the room in laughter. A.A. SPEAKER # 1 (CONT'D) That's why they call me "Two-Beer" Barry. BARRY makes eye contact with a STERN LOOKING OLD TIMER. BARRY holds up a loose leaf binder and addresses the man... A.A. SPEAKER # 1 (CONT'D) Don't worry Ed, I got the format right here. I'm sorry, Ed's giving me the stink eye. Let me get back to the format... (reads from the format) I'm Barry. I'm an alcoholic. THE ASSEMBLY (IN UNISON) Hi Barry. A.A. SPEAKER # 1 Are there any other alcoholics present? WHIP glances around to find himself in a sea of raised-handed alcoholics. A few look at WHIP with no judgement. A.A. SPEAKER # 1 (CONT'D) I like meetings that have us all identify. Because it makes me tell the truth about who I am. It reminds that I never ever told the truth. I lied about everything. My whole life had been a lie. And I was told that I would never get sober if I kept lying. WHIP is very reserved, poker-faced. A.A. SPEAKER #1 I mean, lying's what I'm good at. If I know anything in this life it's how to lie, especially about my drinking. 100. We pan the faces and everyone seems immediately connected. Except WHIP who leans over to NICOLE. WHIP I gotta go. Okay? (NICOLE NODS) Can uh... (points to Sheila) NICOLE Yeah, Sheila. She can take me back to work. SHEILA (extends her hand) I'm Sheila. WHIP shakes her hand before quickly escaping as if from a fire. We stay close on WHIP's face as he walks out. BARRY continues his pitch. A.A. SPEAKER #1 Like I said, I would lie about everything. It didn't matter what it was. My whole life had been a lie. A series of lies strung together by me. And when I drank? It was worse. What I came to understand was that, my lies were killing me. And that remains the great fact for me...My lies will kill me. 93 WHIP is gone. 93 INT. ROUND TABLE RESTAURANT -- BAR -- MINUTES LATER WHIP enters the bar and we hear off camera a voice coming from the TV above the bar. PIERS MORGAN (O.S.) The NTSB is focusing their investigation on the flight crew, specifically Captain Whitaker. KEN EVANS (O.S.) Sir, I am not at liberty to discuss Captain Whitaker or any of the flight crew. WHIP looks up to the TV. 101. CLOSE UP TELEVISION -- KEN EVANS IS ON TV LIVE FROM HIS HOSPITAL BED. KEN EVANS (ON TELEVISION) And in truth, I don't have much to say about him. PIERS MORGAN (on a split screen) So, safe to say that he remains a mystery. KEN EVANS (ON TELEVISION) Sir, those are your words not mine. WHIP exits as fast as he arrived. He's gone. PIERS MORGAN continues from the TV... PIERS MORGAN (ON TELEVISION) I've been speaking to some people who are very close to the NTSB investigation and they are very confident that they will be able to determine exactly what brought this plane down. KEN EVANS (ON TELEVISION) I'm sure they will sir. PIERS MORGAN (ON TELEVISION) Thank you, Ken and Vicki Evans. KEN EVANS (ON TELEVISION) Thank you, and God bless. INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY -- NIGHT WHIP steps off an elevator and walks down the quiet hospital hallway toward a room where a few TECHNICIANS are packing up the last bits of TV equipment. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- KEN EVANS' ROOM -- NIGHT WHIP stands in the doorway and addresses EVANS... 102. WHIP How're you feeling, Ken? EVANS stares at WHIP with a blank look. EVANS Happy to be alive. VICKI EVANS Blessed to be alive. WHIP I'm Captain Whitaker, I was flying- VICKI EVANS I know who you are. WHIP senses an unwelcome undercurrent. He locks eyes with EVANS trying to read him. Silence before EVANS speaks to the ATTENDING NURSE... EVANS Ma'am can you give us some privacy? Thank you. (TO WHIP) Come on in sir. Shut the door. The ATTENDING NURSE files out placing a chair next to the bed as she leaves. WHIP enters. It's again quiet. WHIP Listen, how long have you been... EVANS Outta the coma? Two days. WHIP I didn't mean to disrupt your whole day. I know they been swamping you with interviews. You were great on CNN... EVANS smiles at WHIP. EVANS Both my legs were crushed and my pelvis snapped. I'll probably never walk again, least not without a walker or braces. I'll certainly never fly again. WHIP I'm sorry Ken. 103. EVANS That plane was doomed the second you sat in the chair. You reeked like gin or somethin'. I called Vicki from the plane before we took off. That's when the rain kicked up. VICKI nods, holding her cross with the chain across her lips. WHIP I don't know how much you remember, but the plane started to fall apart. EVANS I remember everything until we crashed. I know what went on. WHIP What are we talking about? EVANS I don't know Captain Whitaker, what are we talking about? WHIP I just wanted to get a sense from you what you thought caused the crash. EVANS Was it the fact that you got on the plane drunk from the night before? WHIP goes white and drops his head. EVANS (CONT'D) The NTSB is coming back tomorrow to finish taking a deposition from me about the events on the flight. WHIP You think you'd be alive without me on that plane? EVANS No, we'd all be dead. But are you gonna argue that your physical state was tip top? WHIP I'm not gonna argue anything with you. 104. WHIP gets up. EVANS Sit, please sit. (WHIP SITS) I never shared my opinion about your physical state the morning of the flight. I've never said word. WHIP sits and studies EVANS. EVANS (CONT'D) The flight was pre-ordained. I've prayed on it Captain. Vicki and I have prayed on it. There's only one judge -- VICKI EVANS Praise Jesus. EVANS And he has a higher plan for you sir. This event although tragic in its loss of life is also a celebration of life. EVANS begins to mist up with sincere inspiration. EVANS (CONT'D) Nothing happens in the Kingdom of the Lord by mistake. VICKI EVANS Praise Jesus. EVANS Captain, will you pray with me? WHIP stares into EVANS' eyes and sees a believer's conviction. EVANS reaches out his hand to WHIP. WHIP slowly moves out of his chair and kneels at the side of EVANS' bed. WHIP takes EVANS' hand and bows his head as he reaches for VICKI's at the same time. It's quiet before... EVANS (CONT'D) Jesus our Lord and savior we thank you for blessing Captain Whitaker with courage and wisdom. For guiding his hand on that fateful morning. In his divine light we were saved. Praise Jesus. 105. VICKI EVANS Praise Jesus. It is quiet for an extended beat. Finally... WHIP Praise Jesus. 97 WHIP looks at EVANS and his WIFE whose heads are bowed with 97 reverence. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- DRIVEWAY -- NIGHT A small pickup truck rambles to a stop in the driveway. We hear music and laughter as NICOLE gets out. NICOLE Thanks for the ride guys. I'll see you tomorrow. COWORKER Keep it up Nicole, you could be employee of the year. They all laugh; Nicole waves as they drive off. She walks towards the house which is dark. She hears music and looks towards the barn to see bright light escaping through the sagging doors and split wood walls. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- BARN -- NIGHT NICOLE slowly approaches the almost glowing barn door. Her curiosity compels her to pull it open. INT./EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- BARN -- NIGHT The door swings open to find the plane pointed towards the driveway with an aged patina but revitalized shine. Lenny Kravitz, "Fly Away" blares from the stereo... WHIP emerges from the cockpit. He's still in his suit but with his jacket off and sleeves rolled up. He's energized like an excited kid. He runs up and kisses her. NICOLE notes the cloud of smoke hanging in the air and the burning cigarette in the ashtray, empty beers. WHIP Looks great right? 106. NICOLE It's kind of...beautiful. WHIP wipes at his nose. WHIP It's a Cessna 172, it was my dad's. He kept it perfect. NICOLE takes in this cool trinket of aviation history. NICOLE Does it work... WHIP Yeah, he flew this plane a few months before he died. I learned to fly in this plane. You can land it anywhere. WHIP laughs, remembering... WHIP (CONT'D) My friend Harling and I flew it to Jamaica. NICOLE Jamaica? In this? WHIP We set off for an overnight fishing trip two hours south of here. We ended up in Bethel, Jamaica. NICOLE You're insane. WHIP It was like a picture on a post card. The white sand and sky blue water. Most beautiful place I've ever been. NICOLE Was the water warm? WHIP Yeah, really warm. NICOLE That's my kind of place. WHIP Let's go. 107. NICOLE Sure, why not. NICOLE laughs thinking they're playing a game. WHIP Let's go tomorrow. NICOLE You're serious? WHIP We'll leave in the morning...we'll just go. Start over. NICOLE realizes he's serious as he opens another beer. NICOLE Whip, we can't. WHIP It's a beautiful beach, it's paradise. NICOLE I'm worried about you. WHIP (laughs a bit lit) I'm fine thanks. NICOLE No you're not, you're really not. You need help, Whip. I think you need rehab. WHIP You go to a couple of AA meetings and all of a sudden you think you're Jesus Christ? Worry about yourself. NICOLE We're the same Whip, you and me, we're the same- WHIP WE'RE NOT- NICOLE WE ARE- 108. WHIP I didn't suck dick to get high. And don't give me a whole... NICOLE Never Whip, I never in my life- WHIP Your mom died and dad drank and bullshit, bullshit, bullshit -- NICOLE Stop. Please stop. WHIP Is that why you shot dope? NICOLE That's not fair- WHIP Well there's a lot of people out there who lost their mom who've never had a drink in their life. NICOLE You're sick, Whip. NICOLE walks away, leaving WHIP with his plane and his dream of freedom. WHIP calls after her. WHIP I choose to drink. NICOLE Do you? You choose it? I don't see a lot of choice goin' on. WHIP I choose to drink! And I blame it on me. I'm happy to. I've got an ex-wife and a son I don't see. Why? Because I choose to drink! INT. WHITAKER FARM -- WHIP'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT We follow WHIP as he enters the house and approaches the doorway of the bedroom. WHIP sees NICOLE sitting on the bed. She quickly tucks her cell phone away as WHIP holds up his hand to signal a truce. 109. WHIP Alright look, I was loaded when I crashed that plane. With this investigation going on, I don't know what's gonna happen. Come to Jamaica with me. NICOLE Whip. I'm afraid I'll use again. WHIP Come with me. I need help, I do. NICOLE I'd love for you to get help, Whip. WHIP When we get to Jamaica we can go to the local hospital. I'll do it for you. Anything you want. NICOLE looks at the sincere love in his eyes. NICOLE I don't wanna use again. I can't. I won't make it back. WHIP I'll be sober. I won't force you to stay. I promise if you don't like it or if I don't clean up? You can leave. This is the most sincere plea she's ever heard. WHIP (CONT'D) It's so beautiful there. We'll leave before noon. I'm a great pilot. You'll get to see so much. WHIP wraps his arms around her. We stay on NICOLE's face as he holds her tighter and tighter. INT. WHITAKER FARM -- KITCHEN -- EARLY MORNING NICOLE is dressed and sitting at the kitchen table. Past NICOLE we can see WHIP lying in bed. She has all her possessions in a crate and a duffel bag at her feet. She finishes a handwritten note and places it down. NICOLE picks up the note and begins to reread it. 110. She hears a car in the driveway -- she picks up her stuff and takes one last look at the sleeping WHIP. She leaves, careful not to make a sound. EXT. WHITAKER FARM -- FRONT DOOR -- EARLY MORNING NICOLE quietly exits the house, carrying a crate of her stuff. She has a duffel bag of clothes over her shoulder as she makes her way to SHEILA's car that we see parked at the top of the driveway, far from the house. INT. WHITAKER RANCH -- BEDROOM -- LATER SAME DAY WHIP stirs, wakes up and looks around. WHIP walks around looking for NICOLE. He finds the note and reads it. The reality of her disappearance sets in and he moves to the window and stares out at the barn. WHIP returns his look inside the house and he sees the big book of AA on the table near where the letter was left. WHIP picks it up and throws it across the room. He then grabs the back of a chair and tosses it against the wall. After wiping photos off of the wall he picks up an empty beer bottle and fires the bottle at a shelf on the opposite wall. The bottle explodes and WHIP stops as he realizes he came within an inch of shattering a framed photo of he and his son. We hear the antiquated ring of the OLD HOUSE PHONE. WHIP relaxes his shoulders as the ringing phone distracts him. Whip is now drawing heavy breaths as the ringing phone is answered by the old machine... WHIP'S FATHER'S VOICE You've reached the Whitaker Crop Dusting Company, flying lessons and plane rides. Please leave a message and it will be returned. Thank you. The beep concludes... CHARLIE (speaking to voice mail) Hey Whip, if you're there pickup...I got some good news... WHIP snatches the phone of the hook. 111. WHIP Yeah, I'm here. What's goin' on? 104 WHIP listens as CHARLIE talks... 104 EXT. NTSB HANGAR -- RAINING -- DAY WHIP sits in his car. Rain pounds the windshield as we watch him expertly add vodka to a half-full bottle of orange juice. WHIP gives the bottle a shake before taking a long drink. WHIP takes another drink before re-capping the bottle and stowing it in the glove box. WHIP gets out and we watch him walk in the rain towards the door of the hangar. A SECURITY GUARD meets him and takes him inside. INT. NTSB HANGAR -- THE REMAINS OF FLIGHT 227 - DAY WHIP is now alone in the huge, brightly lit hangar. He sees the plane. The JR-88 has all of its pieces laying as close together as possible. Like the skeleton of a T-Rex in a museum. The sight is awesome, breathtaking. WHIP walks closer to the twisted wreck and stops. WHIP is overwhelmed by the sight and as he is about to leave... CHARLIE steps out of the passenger door and calls down to WHIP. CHARLIE Here's our guy. C'mon. WHIP walks towards a ramp that leads up to the hole in the plane where the door used to be. CHARLIE stands at the top of the ramp. Suddenly HUGH steps out of the plane... HUGH Captain Whitaker, we've won. WHIP doesn't move as HUGH starts down the ramp. HUGH (CONT'D) This is what we call in my profession a "walk over." CHARLIE They've scheduled the hearing. It's in 10 days. CHARLIE and HUGH reach the bottom of the ramp. 112. HUGH But these hearings can be tough. You just need to stay sharp and on course and answer the questions correctly. It's no longer a question of your condition but the condition of the plane. This picks directly at the scab of WHIP's guilt. HUGH (CONT'D) I've had an "Act of God" successfully added to the list of probable causes. WHIP Look, it's simple. I flew a broken plane. CHARLIE You got it. That's right. WHIP And what about my toxicology report? HUGH (trying to stay calm) I killed it. They have no physical proof that you were intoxicated on that plane. And no eye witness claims. But there's a problem. This stops WHIP cold. HUGH (CONT'D) Because of the turbulence at the beginning of the flight and then the crash, there was never any drink service on the flight. But, they found two little vodka bottles in the galley trash bin. There was no physical evidence found on the bottles, no DNA, no finger prints. But both the bottles were uncapped and empty. The only people who had access to those bottles and could have drank them were the flight crew. Margaret, Evans and Camelia Satou all had clean tox reports. That leaves you and Trina Marquez. They let that land. WHIP nods. 113. WHIP Okay. I see...where this is going. That's funny that they found two bottles. HUGH Why? WHIP Because I drank three. One's missing. HUGH explodes in frustration. HUGH LANG When I met you I couldn't believe what a flip, drunk, arrogant scumbag you were. WHIP Fuck you too, Hugh. HUGH LANG But I did the research and heard the analysis from the experts. I'm in awe of what you did. WHIP Can I go now? HUGH gets big as he has to add the final piece of credence to the coronation. HUGH LANG THE NTSB AND THE FAA TOOK 10 EXPERIENCED PILOTS AND PLACED THEM IN SIMULATORS. THEY RECREATED ALL OF THE EVENTS THAT LED TO THIS PLANE FALLING OUT OF THE SKY! HUGH is so loud and emotional even WHIP lends focus. HUGH LANG (CONT'D) Do you know how many were able to safely land these broken planes? Everyone waits for the response as HUGH acknowledges the debris around them... HUGH LANG (CONT'D) Not one. Every pilot crashed and killed everyone on board. 114. WHIP Yeah. So? HUGH You have no capacity to accept the responsibility for the miracle you performed and the lives you saved. WHIP Great. I'm going home. WHIP pulls out his cigarettes and frees a smoke from the pack. HUGH LANG Do you want to go to prison? I'm trying to save your life! CHARLIE steps between them as this exchange spirals. WHIP What fucking life?! Don't kill yourself on my account, Hugh. WHIP starts to walk away. HUGH Okay, I'm done here. I'm running out a faith that this guy's gonna make it, Charlie. WHIP (turns on Hugh) You wanna talk about me like I'm not here? Like I'm fucking dead? HUGH (to Whip now) This NTSB hearing is a Federal Agency Hearing. Do you understand that? It's in 10 days and if I show up with you like this?! WHIP turns and walks. HUGH wheels on CHARLIE and lights him up. HUGH (CONT'D) Everything we've done? Everything I've done? Goes out the window. That's not on me. I did my job. It's your job, Charlie, to get him straight and get him to the church on time. 115. WHIP Yeah Charlie just get him home. Sober him up long enough to save the union's contract and that fat fuck's airline. Fuck you. I shoulda died on that plane. 106 WHIP walks away from them -- away from the bright, clean, 106 shiny floor of the hangar and into the growing rain storm. EXT. ROAD OUTSIDE THE WHITAKER FARM -- DAY The rain has subsided as WHIP pulls up to his driveway. Whip turns into the driveway and spots a NEWS VAN in front of his house. He makes a U-turn and speeds away. EXT. NICE MODEST SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD -- DAY The rain has completely stopped but everything remains wet as WHIP bangs his front tire in to the curb as he attempts to park in front of a well-maintained house. INT. WHIP'S BUICK -- PARKED - SAME TIME 111 WHIP checks the mirrors before taking a long drink from a 111 large orange juice bottle. EXT. NICE MODERN SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD -- MOMENTS LATER WHIP gets out of his car and makes his way across the street and towards the house. We notice... The DRIVER OF A BLACK PRIUS that has been parked farther down the street gets out of his car, talking on a cell phone. EXT. FRONT DOOR -- NICE SUBURBAN HOME -- SAME TIME WHIP walks up the steps and knocks on the door. He waits a beat and knocks again. Finally, it opens -- DEANA, an attractive, well-dressed woman in her 40's, stands there staring. DEANA What are you doing here? WHIP It's lovely to see you too Deana. May I come in? 116. DEANA takes a moment before stepping aside to allow WHIP in. INT. SUBURBAN HOME -- SAME TIME WHIP glides into the kitchen of this fastidiously kept home. WHIP Thought I`d come see you and Will. (calls out, loudly) KNUCKLES! YOU HERE? (it's very quiet) We haven't talked at all since this whole thing happened and I just thought we should talk. DEANA You know that I prefer that you call us. WHIP Call you? Like anyone in this house has called me in the last three years to say anything other than "Where's the money?" DEANA Have you been drinking? WHIP Well that took...what? 17 seconds? (fake checks his watch) It took 17 seconds for you- DEANA I'm gonna ask you to step outside of the house, please. WHIP (has continued to rant) LADIES and GENTLEMEN it took EXACTLY 17 SECONDS FOR DEANA COLEMAN to ask me if I have been drinking! A NEW WORLD RECORD! DEANA I'm calling the police. WHIP You're asking me to leave the house I bought for you?! Very good. WILL (O.S.) I'm telling you to leave. 117. WHIP turns to see his 16 year old son, WILL, standing at the foot of the stairs near the door. WHIP William Whitaker, junior. The man of the house. Nice of you to call me back. WILL I'm telling you to leave. WHIP You are? Are you the man of the house? WILL You upset my mother. You gotta go. WHIP I'm your father, tough guy. WILL You're a drunk. Now get the fuck out! WHIP You don't know who the fuck I am! WILL (pulling open the door) I sure don't. WHIP What did you say? WILL I said, "I sure don't." Why don't you tell me? Who the fuck are you?! Who are you? Huh? WHO ARE YOU?! DEANA now steps between them and pushes WILL towards the stairs as she puts her hand on the doorknob. WHIP I'm outta here. I'm outta here. I know where I'm not wanted. WHIP turns quietly. He opens the door and walks outside to find... 118. A GROWING GALLERY OF NEWS RATS START JOSTLING FOR PICS WHIP is completely caught off guard. They step right onto the tiny landing with him. Through the fracas we hear a variety of questions lobbed at WHIP. DEANA'S PORCH REPORTER #1 How come you won't talk to the press? DEANA'S PORCH REPORTER #2 A lot of people are going out of their way to keep you out of the media, are you hiding something? We hear the squelch of a police siren as a COP CAR lands on the scene. DEANA'S PORCH REPORTER #3 Do you still live here, Captain Whitaker? DEANA'S PORCH REPORTER #1 How well did you know Katerina Marquez, the flight attendant that died? A REPORTER trips down the stairs. WHIP grabs one of these news rats and just before pounding him, he breaks in to a relaxed smile. WHIP Folks, please give us some room. (gets down the stairs) At the appropriate time I will tell my story. Now is a time for grieving and taking care of those injured. Thank you. I appreciate your interest in me but I ask that you leave my family in peace. The GALLERY quiets to listen and record his words. WHIP again is incredibly smooth and intuitive while drunk and under pressure. We can hear the squawking of POLICE SIRENS approaching. WHIP starts to head down the porch and the frenzy erupts again. 119. The POLICE begin to disperse the NEWS RATS. WHIP pulls an officer aside. WHIP I'm Captain Whitaker, I was- YOUNG COP Yes sir, I know who you are. WHIP Can you get me to my car? YOUNG COP (STUDIES HIM) Anything you need, sir. WHIP walks with the YOUNG COP who shields him from the fray. INT. WHIP'S BUICK -- DEANA'S STREET -- MINUTES LATER We can see the YOUNG COP standing in front of the driver side door, shielding WHIP from the press who stay away. 116 WHIP exhales, trying to slow his racing heart and head. He's 116 drunk but controlled. He looks at his hands. They are shaking. INT. CHARLIE'S HOUSE -- OFFICE - CLOSE ON TELEVISION - NIGHT We see WHIP on the TV repeating the speech he gave reporters on DEANA's front lawn... WHIP Now is a time for grieving and taking care of those injured. Thank you. I appreciate your interest in me but I ask that you leave my family in peace. A REPORTER now wraps up the piece... TELEVISION A reasonable request from a quiet, heroic man who's been through so much. This is Tilda Banden reporting from Devonwood. Now a DESK ANCHOR changes stories... 120. DESK ANCHOR In a related story, tonight at 10 Cale Rawson talks with aviation experts to see if the tragedy of flight 227 could have been avoided. We boom down to find WHIP who looks drained as he sits on CHARLIE's couch in the fastidiously neat office. WHIP holds an unlit smoke. The WOODEN POCKET DOORS SLIDE OPEN and CHARLIE's WIFE gestures towards WHIP. WHIP stands as CHARLIE enters. WHIP Hey, Charlie. Thank you. Amanda was so nice to let me in. It's just...I couldn't find a safe place. AMANDA slides the door shut as CHARLIE throws his bag and his coat down with gusto. He reaches up and pushes a button on the TV and it goes off. CHARLIE What the hell is wrong with you? I spoke to Hugh, he told me that you went to your ex-wife's house? Drunk as a skunk and the news crews showed up? (Whip just stares) And the police escorted you out? WHIP I think it's okay. I've been watching and I think it's okay. CHARLIE Hugh checked every media outlet that covered it and it looks like we're good. You come off fine. WHIP Okay. Good then. Listen Charlie, here's the deal- CHARLIE No Whip. No deals. Look at you. I have no idea what you're gonna do or say, ever. You're all over the place. I was the one guy in your court. I was your apologist, your defender. But not anymore. 121. WHIP No. I can do this. CHARLIE You're about to be questioned by a Federal Agency about piloting an airliner drunk...an airliner that crashed. And you continue to drink and stumble around. What kind of crazy do you have to be to do that? I'm scared of you. WHIP Let's just stick to the plan. CHARLIE You can't stick to anything. WHIP This whole thing has just been so heavy, it's killing me. Tell Hugh, I can do it. Look, I really wanna fly again, get back to my life and be done with all this shit. CHARLIE This hearing is 10 days away. Hugh busted his ass to try to get you excused, but there's no way. You have to appear. WHIP Let me stay here. They have my houses all staked out now. Let me stay here until the hearing, Charlie. I won't leave the house. CHARLIE takes a long look at his old, troubled friend. CHARLIE You can't drink here, Whip. You can't drink in my house. Can you do that? WHIP I won't drink. 118 CHARLIE nods, hoping that WHIP can deliver on that promise 118 122. INT. ST. JEROME HOTEL -- GUEST HALLWAY -- NIGHT We watch a can of Coca Cola swing in WHIP's hand. We pull out to find WHIP walking with CHARLIE down a hallway of THE ST. JEROME HOTEL. Time has passed as WHIP looks the best we've ever seen him look. He is well rested, well dressed and carrying a suit in a wardrobe bag. As we approach the open door to a guest room, HUGH pops out. A plain clothes SECURITY GUARD follows HUGH out of the room and stands behind him. HUGH You look great, Whip. I mean that. WHIP Thank you. I feel really good. HUGH I heard you haven't had a drink in 8 days. WHIP 9 days... (checks his watch) Two hours and 26 minutes...but who's counting? CHARLIE addresses the SECURITY GUARD. CHARLIE Officer Edmonds? OFFICER EDMONDS Yes sir. CHARLIE Whip, Officer Edmonds will be staying here tonight. Any problems he'll handle it. HUGH stands by the open door and gestures CHARLIE and WHIP inside... INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- WHIP'S ROOM -- NIGHT HUGH walks in to the center of the room and turns to WHIP. HUGH Well, Whip we just wanted to make this as easy for you as possible. WHIP puts his wardrobe bag down on the bed. 123. CHARLIE Just get a good night's rest. Relax, order up a steak, get a movie. WHIP is checking his phone. HUGH gestures to CHARLIE for him to leave so they can be alone. CHARLIE (CONT'D) Okay, cowboy, I'm out. The hearing starts at 10, so we should plan on 9 for breakfast here in the room. WHIP Wait, Charlie, thanks for letting me stay with you. I needed it. CHARLIE You did great cowboy. WHIP You've got a beautiful family. CHARLIE I'm very blessed. CHARLIE leaves and HUGH joins WHIP at the window. HUGH hands WHIP a thick folder. HUGH LANG I made you a copy of my entire file on you and the investigation. I also tried to anticipate what you might be asked under oath and I wrote out some non-damaging responses. It's all in there; photos, testimony, interviews...I called Ellen Block let her know that you're here and all tucked in. WHIP So does she have the knife out for me? HUGH LANG Remember she's limited in what she can ask you. You're not on trial but you are under oath. She's probably not happy that I killed the tox report, but you'll be fine. WHIP laughs a little. 124. HUGH LANG (CONT'D) I'll see you in the morning. The two respectfully nod. HUGH leaves and the door shuts behind him. WHIP puts the folder on the table and steps to the mini-bar. He bends down and opens the fridge... WHIP sees the fridge is overly stocked with soda and juices. Every soft drink you can imagine. No booze, anywhere. WHIP chuckles about the alcohol removal as he grabs a coke. WHIP unbuttons his shirt and pulls it out of his waist line. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- WHIP'S ROOM -- LATER Whip sits on the edge of the bed eating a room service steak. The File Folder sits on the table. WHIP'S ROOM -- LATER Now in his undershirt and shorts, Whip lies propped up on the bed watching television. The File Folder now rests on the bed. WHIP'S BATHROOM -- LATER Whip is meticulously shaving. He stares a long while at the disposable razor as the water runs over its blade. After a moment he goes back to shaving. WHIP'S ROOM -- MUCH LATER Whip sits at the small table looking through the file. He leafs through photos, with no recognizable emotion. He looks to the clock radio -- 12:37. WHIP'S ROOM -- BATHROOM -- LATER AGAIN We hear the shower running and steam fogs the mirrors. WHIP'S ROOM -- LATER THAN THAT WHIP wears boxers and a tee shirt with a towel around his neck. He looks to the clock -- 2:07 WE WATCH HIS SUIT BE PULLED FROM THE WARDROBE BAG. WHIP lays the suit out neatly on the couch, separating the shirt which he hangs from a light fixture to relax any creases. WHIP'S ROOM -- LATER YET AGAIN 125. The room is dark. A soft wind RATTLES the window sash. WHIP lies on the bed. He sighs, sleep is alluding him and the anxiety of tomorrow's events on no sleep has his head spinning. He hears a metallic click. He stays quiet to listen for it...there it is again. An annoying click. The clock reads "3:43"-- He sits up and switches on the LIGHT. He rubs his eyes and goes to the table and sees the file folder laying there. As he is about to pick it up he hears the metallic click again. He goes to investigate. HOTEL ROOM CONNECTING DOOR -- SAME TIME The connecting door is unlocked. WHIP arrives and waits. He now watches as the connecting lock-bolt CLICKS against the frame -- the door swinging in a draft. He looks up to see the culprit -- a heating vent. WHIP flips the vent closed. Whip now pushes the door with his finger, opening it a few inches. Nothing. Darkness. WHIP Hello? Anyone? Whip enters. INT. CONNECTING HOTEL ROOM -- SAME The room is vacant. The bed is made. The drapes are pulled open. WHIP walks quietly on the carpet towards the window. The night is clear. Quiet. Whip takes in the city lights. WHIP'S POV -- Among the glass and steel office buildings, Whip spots a church spire. A simple cross is perched on top. Whip looks at the church, deep in thought. Then suddenly... We HEAR A HUM. THE GENTLE HUM OF AN ELECTRIC MOTOR. WHIP turns from the window and scans the room... It's the MINI-BAR refrigerator -- HUMMING to life. 126. Whip stares at the gleaming black box. The WHIR of the motor seems to get LOUDER. Calling Whip. Beckoning him... Whip looks at the fridge. His face is blank, His eyes tell us nothing. Then... Whip steps toward the box. CLOSE ON THE MINI-BAR. Whip swings open the door. WHOOSH -- OUR DARK SCREEN LIGHTS. COLORS SPARKLE as a cadre of tiny liquor bottles GLOW like jewels in a chest. WHIP stares at the "glimmering gems" for a long, long time -- vodka, gin, wine, bourbon. The bottles SHIMMER -- AMBER, CRYSTAL, EMERALD, RUBY. WHIP reaches for a frosted vodka mini bottle -- he gently pinches the neck of the bottle and lifts it out of the fridge. He holds up the mini vodka and considers it. Now Whip slowly removes the stopper and smells the White Whiskey. He looks at the bottle once more, then slowly twists the tiny cap back on. With a look of solemn resignation, Whip places the frosted mini bottle on top of the fridge and walks away. WE STAY CLOSE ON THE BOTTLE. The CAMERA FOCUSES on the small bottle as a small droplet of condensation runs down its side -- ever so slowly, slowly. Then suddenly... WHAP!!! In a flash, WHIP SCOOPS THE VODKA OUT OF FRAME!! INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL - ELEVATOR DOORS - MORNING The ELEVATOR DOORS open and HUGH and CHARLIE step out and head down the hallway. We follow our guys as they approach WHIP's room, finding OFFICER EDMONDS exactly where we left him -- in front of WHIP's door. EXT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL - HALLWAY - WHIP'S DOOR - DAY OFFICER EDMONDS stands up as CHARLIE and HUGH approach carrying coffees. CHARLIE Good morning, how's our man? 127. OFFICER EDMONDS Not a peep. CHARLIE knocks on the door and checks his watch as he waits for WHIP to answer. CHARLIE cocks his head, knocks again. CHARLIE I think your pilot overslept. HUGH You didn't let any girls in there last night did you? OFFICER EDMONDS No sir, not a soul. No one came in or out. They all wait awkwardly as HUGH checks his watch and knocks on the door. More silence... OFFICER EDMONDS (CONT'D) I have a room key. CHARLIE takes the room key and lets himself in. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- WHIP'S ROOM -- MORNING CHARLIE carefully enters WHIP's room. He is spooked by the silence. HUGH joins him as they take in the room. The bed looks slept in and the room service dinner tray rests politely on the dining table but WHIP is nowhere to be found. HUGH LANG Did he disappear? CHARLIE tentatively walks around the empty room, the bathroom, the closet, until he finally sees the adjoining room door. He turns to HUGH with a surprised look. CHARLIE Whip? Hello? CHARLIE knocks on the slightly opened adjoining door. No response, so CHARLIE lightly tosses the door open. INT. ADJOINING ROOM -- SAME TIME CHARLIE looks in to find the scene of the crime. Smoke still hangs in the air and empty bottles and cans cover every surface in the room. HUGH joins him... 128. HUGH Where is he? CHARLIE Whip? WHIP! CHARLIE closes his eyes and says a silent prayer as he heads for the bathroom... BATHROOM -- ADJOINING ROOM -- MOMENTS LATER CHARLIE is stopped by the sight of WHIP's lifeless body wedged between the tub and the toilet. CHARLIE WHIP?!!! WHIP!!! CHARLIE turns WHIP over to see his non-responsive face. HUGH arrives and freaks out. HUGH Is he dead? CHARLIE I DON'T KNOW!!! HUGH IS HE DEAD?! WHIP Yes!!! I'm dead!!! CHARLIE shows immediate relief that WHIP is breathing. OFFICER EDMONDS has joined them. OFFICER EDMONDS Should I get an ambulance? CHARLIE Yes! HUGH Wait!...just wait, Charlie...let's think about this. The two stare at each other and realize they are both breathing heavily from the shock and stress of their predicament. CHARLIE Get him to the bed... (to the Officer) 129. Can you wait outside and don't let anyone in here? Thank you. EDMONDS leaves. CHARLIE and HUGH drag WHIP out of the bathroom and flop him on the bed. HUGH explodes. HUGH Son of a bitch! You worthless motherfucker, what a waste! I cleared the decks for you...you piece of shit. You just fucked it all up like the piss drunk you are! HUGH grabs at WHIP's collar and WHIP actually sits up and reaches for HUGH, a nice sign of life from WHIP. CHARLIE WOAH!!! WOAH!!! WOAH!!! Enough! CHARLIE pulls HUGH away from WHIP who falls back on the bed. CHARLIE (CONT'D) What time is it? HUGH 9:14, the hearing is in 46 minutes. CHARLIE How much grace do you think we got? WHIP Amazing grace...how sweet the sound...that saved a wretch like me- HUGH Shut the fuck up you drunk... WHIP I once was lost and now I'm found was blind but...now...well I'm still kinda blind. CHARLIE We probably have an hour before we really need to get him to the hearing and it's just downstairs. HUGH We need a wheel chair. WHIP Call Harling Mays. 130. CHARLIE Harling's got a wheel chair? WHIP Harling's got cocaine. HUGH Cocaine? Cocaine?! HUGH and CHARLIE exchange a desperate look... CHARLIE WHAT'S HIS NUMBER!? HUGH This is fucking insane. And criminal. WHIP 609-237-1184. We're in 609 so just... CHARLIE (DIALING) 237...1184... WHIP 129 Tell him I need bananas... 129 INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- WHIP'S ROOM -- MORNING CHARLIE prays for a voice on the other end...it appears... CHARLIE Harling? Harling this is Charlie. I'm a friend of Whip's...yeah. We need you to do a very early, very discreet...uhm...Whip needs bananas and you need to bring them to The St. Jerome Hotel downtown...how many bunches of bananas? (Whip holds up 3 fingers) 3 is the answer I'm getting -- you will be well compensated...the The St. Jerome Hotel room 1027... CHARLIE hangs up and looks at WHIP who is mostly passed out again. CHARLIE looks to HUGH. 131. INT. THE. ST. JEROME HOTEL -- ELEVATOR BANK -- SAME TIME The elevator opens and we see HARLING step from the elevator with his knapsack over his shoulder. Teva sandals, sunglasses. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- WHIP'S ROOM -- MORNING WHIP has a towel around his neck as he tries to sip coffee. CHARLIE sits opposite him at the small table by the window. The door bursts open, and HARLING storms in. HARLING MAYS (SINGING) Come mista tally man tally me banana...Whip, what's the deal man you look like you're hurtin' for certain...shut the door, interior lock! HARLING places a leather doctor's bag on the table. An anxious CHARLIE reaches for the bag which sets HARLING into a frenzy. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE MERCH MOTHERFUCKER!!! It's quiet as HARLING gives orders. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Everyone except Whip and myself take three steps away from the table. As they step away, HARLING now pulls a beautiful silver- framed mirror from his bag and a blue coke grinder, he calmly but sternly delivers orders... HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) I need three things. (focuses on Charlie) Two glasses of water, a credit card and a hundred dollar bill. CHARLIE All I have is a twenty. HARLING MAYS (takes the card and bill) That'll do. And I need to make a coco puff. 132. HARLING Tosses a pack of smokes to CHARLIE. CHARLIE A what? HUGH takes the smokes from CHARLIE and pulls out a cigarette. HARLING stops grinding, opens the lid and pours out a nice smooth pile of coke. He begins a masterful ballet of cocaine manipulation. HUGH Millions of dollars hang in the balance. HUGH is removing the last quarter of an inch of tobacco from the end of the cigarette. CHARLIE They hang on the consumption of a 300 dollar bag of cocaine. HARLING uses the credit card to groom the coke into neat piles and lines. He has a system. WHIP's head sags as he again appears ready to pass out. HARLING MAYS Okay Whip, just two small whiffs first...one on each side...just a primer. Using the mirror as a tray, HARLING holds the rolled up 20 dollar bill just above the line of coke. WHIP slowly manages to place his face in position to ingest the coke. It's tense as his head wobbles. He finally zeroes in and snorts the first line. HARLING quickly switches nostrils. WHIP sniffs the other side. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Atta boy, head back now. Swallow. Water, chief, you! Water. CHARLIE puts the glass of water to WHIP's mouth. WHIP drinks. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) (snaps his fingers) Coco puff... HUGH hands HARLING the cigarette with a slightly hollowed out tip. HARLING leans over the coke with the cigarette in his mouth and hoovers up a small pile, sucking the coke through the cigarette. 133. HARLING sits up, careful to keep the cocaine in the end of the cigarette. He tips it up and lights it. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Little coco puff buddy. C'mon banana man. Who's the banana man? WHIP's head levels a look to Harling with a smile that leads us to believe that he is actually making a rally. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) Good man, focus up big dog. Here's the train comin' to you. HARLING takes a puff and holds it as he extends the cocaine cigarette to WHIP. WHIP is more nimble now as he cocks his head in acceptance of the cigarette. WHIP takes a drag and holds it. HARLING MAYS (CONT'D) (still holding the smoke) Keep it down big dog, banana boat's comin' tell me the banana boat's comin'... WHIP finally exhales the smoke, HARLING does too. WHIP smiles. WHIP The banana boat is here. HARLING MAYS Nothing can keep you down dog. Nothing keeps the big dog down. CHARLIE Okay, we gotta go. HARLING has crafted 4 big lines now, he snorts one himself in record time. Looks to HUGH and CHARLIE. HARLING MAYS You guys are up. HUGH No, I'm good. Charlie? CHARLIE Are you fucking crazy? WHIP jumps in and sniffs 2 huge lines. He looks to HARLING. WHIP Thanks brother, I'm back. 134. HARLING gathers his things, stands and hugs WHIP. HARLING MAYS I love you man. WHIP I love you too. HUGH and CHARLIE are quiet as they watch the strange but sincere drug-fueled emotion pass between two old friends. HARLING eyes CHARLIE before handing him a baggie. HARLING MAYS There's a gram in here, you paid for it and he might need it. My work here is done. See you all on the dark side of the moon. HARLING leaves and our TRIO exchange looks, "Did that just happen?" EXT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- GUEST HALLWAY -- DAY 133 The opening bars of Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright" crackle 133 just before we see WHIP step out of the hotel room and begin a relatively steady strut down the hallway. Deja Vu. Sunglasses on, WHIP is backed by HUGH and CHARLIE who flank him from a few steps behind. Further back we can see that OFFICER EDWARDS also exits the room wearing latex gloves, carrying a large plastic garbage bag that obviously holds any evidence of the debauched night or the morning's resurrection. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL -- ELEVATOR -- DAY WHIP, HUGH and CHARLIE ride the elevator. WHIP is buttoning his shirt and fixing his tie. It is miraculous how the coke has revived him. A MOM and her 8 year old DAUGHTER get on the elevator. CHARLIE Morning. We watch as a small trickle of blood escapes from WHIP's left nostril. HUGH pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, hands it to WHIP. HUGH Your nose... WHIP accepts the handkerchief and wipes his nose. WHIP sees blood on the cloth and tilts his head back. 135. We now see that there is a mirrored ceiling to the elevator. WHIP tries to study his reflection in the ceiling as he holds the hankie to his nose. WHIP begins to wobble and CHARLIE helps him regain his balance. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL-ELEVATOR LOBBY-MOMENTS LATER Our TRIO walk as tall as they can towards the hearing room. HUGH I'm gonna head in and tell Ellen Block that we're here. HUGH hustles off as CHARLIE pulls close to WHIP. CHARLIE You're gonna make it. Remember, if they ask about your drinking, it's totally acceptable to say, "I don't recall." WHIP wheels on CHARLIE and unloads with focused anger... WHIP Do not tell me how to lie about my drinking. I've been lying about my drinking my whole life. As we disappear in to WHIP's weary eyes we hear the distinctive sound of a jetliner screaming through the air. INT. THE ST. JEROME HOTEL - BALL ROOM - NTSB HEARING-DAY On TWO LARGE SCREENS we watch the grainy cell phone footage shot by a witness of SOUTHJET FLIGHT 227's final moments in the sky. ACCOMPANYING the Video is the REAL AUDIO of the cockpit voice recording... The room has a dais where the NTSB board members sit. A large blue curtain is the backing for the round NTSB shield that hangs above the proceedings. A large drop down screen will show images, graph and text as needed by the NTSB. A confident woman, ELLEN BLOCK, approaches carrying a file which she lays on the podium. ELLEN BLOCK Those are difficult images to watch. For the record, I'm Ellen Block, Hearing Officer for this hearing. Captain Whitaker, good morning. 136. We see WHIP who looks rough but stable in his witness chair. WHIP Morning. ELLEN BLOCK What was captured on that video is that the aircraft was in a relatively stable glide just prior to the moment of impact. However, according to the data we retrieved from the cockpit data recorders, at exactly 9:34, after flying 27 minutes without incident, the transponder recorded a loss in altitude in excess of 4800 feet per minute in what is considered a "full pitch nose down" attitude. Then at 9:42, according to the data recorders, a decision was made to invert the aircraft. The NTSB has created animated simulation that I would like to play at this point. ELLEN points to the screen... An NTSB animation shows the plane pitching down and we follow it through the inversion of the plane while listening to the real audio of the flight crew. The animation has a split screen that also shows the instruments and printed text of what's being said. We hear..."What's your son's name?" "Why?" "The black box" "I love you, Trevor. Be a good boy, Mommy loves you." "What are we doing?! Why would I trim down?!" "We're gonna roll it. Ready? Here we go. I've got control." That last statement seems to echo as the presentation stops and the lights come back up. We return to the hearing in progress. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) That audio is tragic and compelling. I chose to play that part of the cockpit recording to highlight a key moment aboard flight 227, wherein you say "We're gonna roll it, here we go, I've got control." You made a very conscious decision to invert the airplane, to roll the plane upside down. Is that correct? 137. WHIP I'm not sure it was conscious. It was more of an instinct. ELLEN BLOCK What led to that decision? WHIP is clearly struggling in his chair. The coke got him there but it may start to fail him soon. WHIP I don't recall. ELLEN BLOCK Let me quote from an investigative summary..."From 9:34 until 9:42 the events on the aircraft are"...again I quote, "bold and remarkable"... "By inverting the plane, Captain Whitaker arrested the descent and allowed the aircraft to level off enabling him to glide the aircraft away from any populated areas and allowing him to execute a forced landing in an open field. We hear a smattering of applause as the facts of his actions are remarkable. WHIP I heard a metallic bang. We pitched nose down. No control. WHIP looks ashen as the booze and chemicals are still coursing through his exhausted frame. ELLEN BLOCK You had no idea what was wrong with the aircraft? WHIP There was a lot of things wrong with that aircraft. WHIP glances towards HUGH and CHARLIE who are poker-faced. ELLEN BLOCK As I said before you can add any details you like to any comments I make. Do you remember any thing else that was out of the ordinary? Did you feel the flight crew was in their best shape? 138. WHIP takes a minute to digest this question. WHIP Yes. ELLEN BLOCK It was raining very hard the morning you took off, wasn't it? WHIP There was some convective activity in the area. However, my first officer and I discussed the conditions on the field and determined that we were safely within our visibility and crosswind minimums. ELLEN BLOCK Yes, first officer Evans' testimony confirms the same. WHIP goes quiet as ELLEN BLOCK looks at him over her glasses, seeing if he has any reaction. WHIP smiles. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) I want to show you something. HUGH is frozen in a steely gaze; CHARLIE seems to hold his breath. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) Nothing's happening. ELLEN points her remote at the projector but it doesn't work. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) This remote is not working. Apologies. I can do it manually. She shrugs and heads down onto the stage closer to WHIP where she can advance the slides by touching the projector. We now see a screen where a slide is showing a long metal screw the size of a trombone. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) This is the jackscrew on the tail assembly which articulates the horizontal stabilizer--also known as the elevator. As you can see, the threads on this screw are almost entirely gone. " 139. Substandard thread life" is how we reported it. This part was suggested as a maintenance replacement in January of 2010. It was never replaced. This had 1200 additional hours of flight on it. It finally failed. AN ANIMATION SHOWS THE TAIL ASSEMBLY. We watch the elevator acting as a wing on the tail that goes up or down and makes a plane get lift or descend. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) Our investigators have concluded that the jackscrew snapped and the elevator was frozen in a fixed position, locking the elevator in a down position which forced the plane into a dive. The loss of the elevator was, and I quote our report, a "catastrophic event, from which recovery was improbable and stable flight impossible." Everyone goes quiet as those words resonate. ELLEN's tone changes as she understands how hard this is for some people to hear as they think of their loved ones spending their last living minutes on this earth in sheer terror. It is deathly quiet in the ballroom. Even the PRESS are silent. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) Again I quote..."From 9:34 until 9:42 the piloting decisions made by Captain Whitaker were bold and remarkable. The fact that Captain Whitaker commanded that the aircraft stay inverted while descending to an extremely low altitude shows a miraculous intuition that in this instance saved 96 lives." A genuine applause spreads from the hearing room. ELLEN BLOCK allows this moment to happen. WHIP is fading, dazed and uncomfortable with the unexpected adulation. He stands up. WHIP I appreciate that. 140. The room gets quiet as WHIP's demeanor seems terse. WHIP stares at ELLEN, white with sweat and chemicals. We see HUGH grind his jaw as this line of questioning has him on tilt. ELLEN BLOCK Mr. Whitaker, I want to talk about the days leading and hours leading up to the accident. But before I do, I want to remind you that you are under oath and any testimony that you give here today will be considered admissable in any subsequent hearings or criminal proceedings, do you understand what that means? WHIP nods. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) Captain Whitaker, for the record I need you to verbalize your answer. WHIP Yes, I understand. ELLEN BLOCK On the three days leading up to the day of the accident -- Tuesday, October 11th, Wednesday, October 12th or Thursday, October 13th of 2011 -- did you consume any alcohol or other intoxicating elements? WHIP takes his time. WHIP No. I did not. HUGH AND CHARLIE Sit stone faced in the second row feeling the relief of months of hard work. ELLEN BLOCK continues with a rote posture... ELLEN BLOCK On the morning of the accident, Friday, October 14th, did you consume any alcohol or ingest any chemicals or drugs that may have impaired your ability to perform your job? 141. WHIP No. I did not. ELLEN wraps up this line of questions... ELLEN BLOCK Mr. Whitaker, do you now or have you ever had a problem with alcohol dependency, alcoholism or drug addiction? WHIP waits for her to look at him...this takes a while... WHIP No. HUGH maintains a poker face; CHARLIE appears relieved. ELLEN sorts through her notes one last time. ELLEN BLOCK Okay, Mr. Whitaker, we're about done. (She refers to her notes) Due to the severe turbulence during the early part of the flight, you asked the flight crew to suspend the beverage service on the plane. Is that correct? WHIP Yes. I suspended the drink service. ELLEN BLOCK Are you aware that our investigators found two single- service Vodka bottles in the galley trash bin? Slides now show the TWO SMALL VODKA BOTTLES in evidence. WHIP Yes. ELLEN BLOCK There were 5 crew members on board the flight who would have had access to the beverage trolley. Less than an hour after the accident, blood was taken from each of the crew members. Yourself... 142. A SOUTHJET CORPORATE PHOTO OF WHIP pops on to the large monitors. After ELLEN references a member of the flight crew, their photo pops on to the monitors... ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) First Officer Evans, flight attendant Margaret Thomason and posthumously from Camelia Satou and Katerina Marquez. KATERINA MARQUEZ PHOTO does not pop up on the screen...yet. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) A toxicology analysis was performed and three of these tests came back negative, one was disqualified for technical reasons... Hugh smiles -- satisfied. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) And one tested positive for alcohol. It registered a .17 blood alcohol level. Are you aware of that? WHIP I am now. ELLEN BLOCK Miss Marquez was not only a colleague, but you knew her outside of work? Correct? WHIP Outside of work? Not really. ELLEN BLOCK Did you know Miss Marquez had a drinking problem? WHIP No. I did not. ELLEN BLOCK Did you ever see her drink to excess? WHIP No. I did not. 143. ELLEN BLOCK Did you know that she was twice treated for alcohol addiction? The last time was 16 months ago and paid for by SouthJet Airlines? WHIP No. I did not. A picture of Trina's beautiful smiling face FLASHES UP ON THE BIG SCREEN. ELLEN BLOCK Is it your opinion that Katerina Marquez drank the vodka on the plane? WHIP smiles at the photo of TRINA as if she can see him. He then shakes his head to snap from the memory of her great spirit. He gets serious as he bears his look down on ELLEN. WHIP Can you repeat the question? ELLEN BLOCK Your opinion Captain. Is it your opinion that Katerina Marquez drank on that flight? Whip shakes. He runs his trembling hand through his hair. WHIP I'm sorry. My what... ELLEN BLOCK Since her toxicology report is the only toxicology report that is admissable in this hearing, and she in fact tested positive for alcohol, is it your opinion that Katerina Marquez drank those 2 bottles of vodka on the flight? Whip drops his head and MUTTERS SOMETHING INAUDIBLE. ELLEN BLOCK (CONT'D) I'm sorry Mr. Whitaker, I couldn't hear you. What did you say? WHIP I SAID...God help me... 144. A confused MUMBLE rises in the room. Whip's response flusters ELLEN for a moment, but she recovers quickly. ELLEN BLOCK Yes, well. However, is it your opinion... Whip cuts her off... WHIP (EXCESSIVELY LOUD) IT'S MY OPINION... (lowers his voice) It's my opinion... Trina DID NOT...drink the vodka. ELLEN BLOCK Excuse me, Mr. Whitaker... WHIP (softly, to himself) She saved that boy's life... ELLEN BLOCK Captain Whitaker can you speak LOUDER- WHIP (LOUD AGAIN) I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SHE DID NOT DRINK THAT VODKA... Whip stops. His whole body trembles, his face tightens. He looks right at ELLEN... WHIP (CONT'D) ...because I did. I drank the vodka. The crowd gasps, unsure of what they just heard... CHARLIE rockets out of his chair. CHARLIE OBJECTION!!! NTSB OFFICER #2 Please be seated sir. This is not a court room. Now CHARLIE returns to his chair to find that HUGH is gone. CHARLIE looks around for HUGH, no sign. He's vanished. WHIP leans close to the microphone. 145. WHIP I drank the vodka bottles on the plane. ELLEN BLOCK Mr. Whitaker, in light of that remark, would you like to readdress... WHIP You don't have to readdress anything. I DRANK THE VODKA! ELLEN BLOCK On the three nights before the accident, October 11th- WHIP On October 11th, 12th and 13th and 14th I was intoxicated. I drank alcohol on all of those days. I drank to excess. Chaos erupts further as REPORTERS outnumber SECURITY. Flash bulbs pop repeatedly and large lights are aimed at the fracas on stage as video is taken of the bizarre melee. ELLEN BLOCK Mr. Whitaker, on the morning of OCTOBER- WHIP I was drunk. I'm drunk right now, Miss Block...I'm drunk right... (Whip finally breaks down) I'm drunk now, because... Because I'm an alcoholic. We have pushed into a tight shot on WHIP's face as the sound in the room fades away. We stay tight on WHIP's face as he lets the moments unfold. Suddenly the noise cuts to silence. WHIP is looking at the assembly. WHIP wipes tears from his eyes. We hear WHIP's voice as the dialogue pre-laps the image of his face. WHIP (V.O.) That was it...I was done. It's as if I'd hit my life long limit for lies. A new angle shows WHIP speaking these words... 146. WHIP I could not tell one more lie. And maybe I'm a sucker. Because if I had just told one more lie? I could have walked away from that whole mess and kept my wings and my false sense of pride and most importantly I would have avoided being locked up here with all of you nice folks for the last 13 months. We hear laughter as we pull out from WHIP to realize that he is in fact wearing a white penal jumpsuit and leading an AA meeting in a Federal Prison. WHIP (CONT'D) It looks like I will serve every day of the remaining 4 plus years of my sentence. And that's fair. I betrayed the public trust. I did. That's what the judge explained to me. I had betrayed the public trust. The FAA took my license. And that's fair. The chances of me flying again are slim to none. And I accept that. INT. MCRAE FEDERAL PENITENTIARY -- GEORGIA -- DAY A large room houses an AA meeting for about 50 inmates wearing white jumpsuits. WHIP continues his story. WHIP I've had time to think about all of it. Doing a lot of writing. I've written letters to each of the families that lost loved ones on my flight. Some were able to hear my apology, some never will. I've also apologized to all the people who tried to help me along the way, but I couldn't or wouldn't listen, like my wife, I mean my ex wife... (he gets emotional) ...and my son. Again, some were able to forgive me...some never will. (COLLECTS HIMSELF) But at least I'm sober, and I'm grateful for that. Whip gives it to us straight... 147. WHIP (CONT'D) And this is gonna sound really stupid coming from a man who's in prison...but for the first time in my life...I'm free. We hold close on WHIP's face as we hear the metallic clang of prison doors shutting. On the sound we cut to... INT. FEDERAL PENITENTIARY -- CELL -- DAY We pan across the concrete cell wall, looking at a small, personal photo collage. We see a photo of NICOLE and SHEILA and a few other AA FOLKS surrounding WHIP who sits in front of a birthday cake in the common room of the prison. We see a photo of WHIP's DAD as an airman. We ultimately land on a photo of NICOLE. We recognize it as the photo WHIP took on the porch of the Whitaker Farm. We pan down to find WHIP writing in a journal. A GUARD comes to the front of his cell. GUARD Whitaker, you got a visitor. WHIP looks at the GUARD and nods before taking a last glance at the photo of NICOLE. EXT. FEDERAL PENITENTIARY -- GUEST YARD -- DAY WHIP sits at a lone picnic table in a fence-enclosed courtyard. He checks his watch and looks up. WHIP stands and walks towards us, towards his visitor. As he gets closer we see a smile break across his face. A smile we haven't seen since he first saw NICOLE. We reverse to see... WILL -- WHIP's 17 year old son stands next to a GUARD. GUARD You have 40 minutes. WHIP Knuckles, you're looking good. (BEAT) I sent you something for your birthday. WILL Yeah. I got it. Another beat as they can't find a way in to a conversation. 148. WHIP This is a real surprise; a great surprise. I haven't seen you- WHIP chokes up. WILL nods. It's intense. WHIP motions to the table and they both sit. WILL pulls out a notebook. WILL College counselor thought I should come and interview you. WHIP Great. An interview. Okay. WILL I'm writing essays for college applications. WHIP studies him and laughs...WILL nods and tries to smile. WHIP Listen Will, it means everything to me that you came here. You are an amazing kid and you deserve great things... Again WHIP has to tamp down his emotions. WILL So can you help me with this essay? WHIP Yeah. Of course. WILL pulls out a small voice recorder and clicks it on... WILL This essay. I have to do an essay called, "the most fascinating person I've never met." The two men just look at each other. WHIP And that's me? WILL nods, both men are struggling to keep it together. WILL Can we pick up where we left off? WHIP nods, unsure as to where this is going. 149. WHIP Okay. WILL Who are you? WHIP Good question. WHIP smiles...a great, familiar question. He begins to alternately laugh and sob as there is great relief in the promise of a connection with his son. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Flintstones, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flintstones, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..96a50252f0464c7438087f455b52536fe1e0fb69 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Flintstones, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +THE FLINTSTONESWritten by STEVEN E. DE SOUZABased on characters created by JOE BARBERA & WILLIAM HANNA Early Draft - September 1987 FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY THE FLINTSTONES FADE IN:1 EXT. SLATE QUARRY - DAY 1 FRED FLINTSTONE, archetypical Everyman, sits atop his faithful heavy-equipment dinosaur, cranking the winch that makes the mighty beast rip and tear into the quarry wall.2 THE QUARRY FOREMAN 2 looks down at his wristwatch. Well... actually, it's a wrist sundial. And it's magic time... quittin' time... Millerock time! Now the foreman turns from his watch to a steam whistle bird, and yanks its tail. The BIRD SQUAWKS the end of the workday --3 ANOTHER ANGLE 3 FRED YABBA DABBA DO -- ! Fred happily discards his hard hat, leaps out of the canvas-roofed cab on the dino's back, slides down the tail and bounces right into the seat of his stone and timber car! He gets up to a running start with the only motor (his feet), slows to allow a "time clock" dinosaur to punch his stone timecard, and then he's trotting back up to speed and out of the gate! MUSIC comes UP and OVER -- MUSIC (V.O.) 'Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones, They're a modern Stone age fam-i-ly --' -- And so forth, as for the first time in "his-tor-y" we see the Flintstones' OPENING CREDITS live!4 TIGHT ON A MAILBOX 4 reading "FLINTSTONE." We WIDEN as Fred SKIDS to a halt in the driveway of his three-bedroom ranch cave. A moment later, WILMA and PEBBLES run out -- both looking just like they should -- and get into the car. A beat behind them are the Flintstone pets, Dino and the saber-toothed cat. Fred pauses, looks around... HONKS his HORN... BARNEY, BETTY and BAM-BAM come out of the neighboring house, hop in! (CONTINUED) 2.4 CONTINUED: 4 Fred's feet slap on the street as the car starts up -- MUSIC (V.O.) 'From the Town of Bedrock They're a page right Out of his-tor-y -- '5 DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATRE - DUSK 5 Fred and company pull in. He takes a giant sea shell "speaker" off of its wooden stand and hooks it to his car door. He leans over, puts his arm around Wilma. (In the back seat, Dino pops his head up, tearing through the canvas top.) Dino picks up Pebbles and Bam-Bam and puts them on his head for a better view. CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON the drive-in screen and the words that America has waited twenty-five years to see in 70mm Dolby(TM) drop- your-popcorn reality: THE FLINTSTONES And as the MAIN CREDITS ROLL, we -- DISSOLVE TO:6 AN EERIE CARBONIFEROUS FOREST - DAWN 6 Dew drips from strange multi-leafed plants. Giant DRAGONFLIES BUZZ AND HUM to and fro. Bubbles rise from a still pond, and weird lungfish move onto the land. (The third one out carries a little suitcase.) CAMERA PANS PAST the lungfish TO a muddy shore. With a DRAMATIC MUSICAL STING, we DISCOVER a set of strange, hideous clawprints. The CAMERA FOLLOWS these, then WIDENS to reveal the make of these footprints: A seven- foot tall and fearful beast we will call the Xenosaurus. It looks around menacingly. (Oddly, it's carrying a canvas sack, but we don't stress this.) Suddenly a garbage truck appears out of nowhere and runs over the Xenosaurus.7 NEW ANGLE 7 Dazed, the Xenosaurus gets up. As it does, we realize that we aren't deep in some primeval forest, but on the shoulder of a gravel highway. A stone road sign reads BEDROCK 1/2 MILE. ROCK VEGAS, BABYLON & EDEN NEXT THREE EXITS. Now, the CAMERA CRANES UP ABOVE the sign and we see -- Bedrock! (CONTINUED) 3.7 CONTINUED: 7 Nestled incongruously in a savage landscape, the charming protosuburbia gleams in the dawn's early Spielberg light. The Xenosaurus grabs its sack and some silverware spills out. Then it runs off into the bushes and out of sight.8 WITH THAT GARBAGE TRUCK 8 It reaches the crest of a hill where there's a "WELCOME TO BEDROCK" billboard which bears greetings from the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and (of course) The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes. The garbage truck guys drop their feet down through the floorboard and trot over the rise, coast down to the street below. The driver yanks a wooden brake and the truck stops, and the rear guys hop off. One of them waves to --9 A MILKMAN 9 who returns the wave, then takes a four-pack of stone bottles out of his milk truck, heads towards a doorway. As the milkman drops off the milk, he passes a big TORTOISE with trash cans on its back. The Tortoise nods familiarly to the milkman, then it waddles down the curb, CAMERA FOLLOWING. The garbage men take the cans off the Tortoise's back, dump them into the truck.10 REAR OF TRUCK 10 -- revealing that the back of the truck is actually a giant-jawed CREATURE strapped onto the chassis. The garbage men dump the cans into its maw... it happily swallows the works, licks its lips, BELCHES.11 BACK TO SCENE 11 The garbagemen slam the cans back on the Tortoise, who winces as they drive off. TORTOISE (under his breath) You can forget about a tip for Christmas... It waddles back up the lawn... passing by a wooden "lawn timer" box which now pops open. Inside the box is a "ROOSTERSAURUS" which CROWS and flaps its wings. The motion of the wings knocks loose two round stones which roll down two long troughs a la Rube Goldberg... 4.12 FOLLOWING THE ROUND STONES 12 They reach the ends of their respective paths, dislodging a stick... that releases a coiled rope which in turn spins a turntable which holds a little wooly mammoth. As it begins to spin around, it squirts water out of its snout. Elsewhere on the lawn, other spinning MAMMOTHS repeat this performance. After a moment, they gradually slow their revolutions. The one closest to the house scrunches its trunk with a GROAN. LITTLE MAMMOTH (sotto) Oh, my aching sinuses...13 INT. FLINTSTONES' BEDROOM - DAY 13 WIDEN FROM the windowsill, where a little sea shell hearing aid trumpet AMPLIFIES another ROOSTERSAURUS "COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO" into the ear of a "CLOCK RADIO WOODPECKER." The Woodpecker yawns, gets out of bed, puts a timecard in a little clock. Then it turns and begins pecking on a BELL, which RINGS PIERCINGLY.14 INT. BEDROOM - NEW ANGLE 14 Two shapes are visible under the bedclothes: One is a great SNORING bulge, the other is a svelte and lithe shape. As the BELL continues RINGING, the larger bulge GRUNTS, MOANS, pulls a pillow over its head, and then finally gropes under the bed for a slipper. The slipper is thrown without aiming --15 THE WOODPECKER 15 ducks just in time. It wipes its forehead nervously. RADIO WOODPECKER (sotto) I hate this job... There's not even a health plan... He staggers back up to his perch, and then notices for the first time that the dial on the side is pointed not to "ALARM" but to "ALARM & RADIO." The WOODPECKER SIGHS, looks over at the bed where SNORING is still emanating. Then the bird swings a little telescope around to point out the window.16 WOODPECKER'S TELESCOPE - IRIS SHOT 16 as the 'SCOPE PANS and FOCUSES, finally SETTLING ON a distant stone building marked RADIO STATION B-ROK. (CONTINUED) 5.16 CONTINUED: 16 Perched on top of the wooden radio tower are a monkey and an octopus. The monkey holds up cue cards which the octopus reads, and then waves nautical semaphore flags.17 BACK TO SCENE 17 Our WOODPECKER squints, CLEARS his THROAT. RADIO WOODPECKER (deeper "on-air" voice) Good morning, Bedrock. This is station B-R-O-K with the morning weather and news...18 IN THE BED 18 The big bulge GRUNTS and MUTTERS a bit, then one hand gropes around, finds the curvaceous form under the neighboring covers... feels it tentatively... then the fingers "walk" upwards... RADIO WOODPECKER (O.S.) It will be fair and mild through the weekend, continuing for the next eight hundred years, followed by cooling breezes and a protracted ice age... Those walking fingers have reached the top edge of the covers... now they pull them down revealing the owner's face... the face of Fred, his eyes at half-mast, his face covered in fashionable "Bedrock Vice" stubble. FRED (with genuine charm) Wil-ma. Wil-ma? How about a great big good morning kiss for your Freddy-weddy? And he pulls the covers down to reveal -- DINO, who is immediately "YI-YI-YI-YI-ING," hopping all over the bed and showering Fred with sloppy kisses. FRED Dino! Dino, cut it out -- ! RADIO WOODPECKER (O.S.) In the news, Bedrock civic and business leaders met yesterday to discuss the growing kibble crisis. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 6.18 CONTINUED: 18 RADIO WOODPECKER (O.S.) (CONT'D) Ecological activist Ralph Naderock warned that if new supplies of kibble are not found, our animal- powered civilization itself may be threatened. By now Dino's affection attack has knocked both master and pet to the floor in a jumble of bedclothes, asses and elbows. Dino begins to roll Fred across the room like a seal playing with a ball. FRED Dino, that's enough -- here, look, Daddy has a nice dino bone for you, just please stop it -- Fred has now backed up to a dresser, where he grabs a brightly-colored box labeled "PURINROCK DINO TREATS." Fred holds it up -- Dino gets up on two legs, eager for the treat -- Fred shakes the box... alas, nothing comes out. DINO "YI-YI'S" again, propelling Fred into the next room.19 INT. FLINTSTONE KITCHEN - DAY 19 Five-year-old PEBBLES GIGGLES at the table as Fred and Dino tumble into the room like Frank Buck and a lion. Wilma turns at the noise. One look at her and we under- stand Fred's romantic turn. RADIO WOODPECKER (O.S.) In other news, Bedrock police report that the Xenosaurus has struck again! Yes, the fiercesome intruder was sighted in the Bedrock Hills for the third time this month. Outlying shops and residencies report extensive looting and property destruction... WILMA Fred, stop playing with Dino and sit down. Your breakfast's getting cold. Saying this, Wilma puts a huge egg at Fred's place. Meanwhile, Fred manages to get to his feet, holds out one arm to keep Dino at bay. Fred does a big "take," looking out the window -- (CONTINUED) 7.19 CONTINUED: 19 FRED (throwing open the door) Oooh, Dino, look -- there's a nice big dino bone laying out on the front lawn -- ! Pause. Dino gives him a big look as if to say, "Oh, yeah?" FRED (trying again) -- Gosh, look at that adorable little female dino -- "YI-YI-YI-YI," DINO is out the door like a rocket. Fred cackles, slams it shut, then sits down at the table. FRED -- That animal's gonna kill me with kindness. Do you know we're out of dino treats? WILMA So is everybody else in Bedrock. That kibble crisis is getting worse every day. She puts two giant slices of bread into a toaster. Two claw-like devices hold the toast, pulling it out of sight. WILMA I'm afraid Dino's going to have to manage on leftovers from Pebbles and me. FRED (sitting down) And what's wrong with my leftovers? WILMA I'll let you know when I see some. RADIO WOODPECKER (O.S.) (finishing up) ... Scientists from B.C. University report that the footprints of the Xenosaurus match no known animal. (CONTINUED) 8.19 CONTINUED: (2) 19 PEBBLES Mommy, is the bad Ze-ze-zenosaurus gonna get me and eat me up? WILMA Of course not, baby. FRED That's right, sweetheart. The only thing that's gonna eat you up is -- me! And he grabs her and bites her and tickles her. PEBBLES (giggling, calming) I'm still a little scared... FRED Pebbles, don't worry. These stories are very exaggerated. Like, you know, the boogyman? There's no such thing as a huge, inhuman reptile that attacks without warning -- WHAM! Dino reappears, bounding through the window and knocking Fred onto the floor. Once again Dino is happily licking and loving and cuddling his callously unresponsive owner. Fred struggles to avoid the slurping tongue, pulls himself up to the window sill, looks out. FRED -- Oh, look, everybody, the mailman is here -- "YI-YI-YI-YI!" DINO buys it again, runs to the door, lets himself out. This time Fred puts a chair against the door. Meanwhile, Wilma turns at the sound of the TOASTER POPPING UP. We see that the "claws" we saw earlier were the actual claws of a LOBSTER in a little fireproof suit who is tucked inside the toaster. As Wilma takes the toast, the Lobster blows on his claws, wincing, then looks TOWARDS the CAMERA. LOBSTER Well, it beats working in a seafood restaurant... (CONTINUED) 9.19 CONTINUED: (3) 19 FRED (taking the toast) Thanks, Wilma... Fred slaps jelly on the toast, takes a big bite, and then something outside the window catches his eye.20 HIS POV - STREET 20 A paperboy on a wood-and-stone bicycle is coming rapidly towards the house. In the bike's basket is a stack of dried, rock-hard clay tablets.21 BACK TO SCENE 21 Fred leans out the window, waving his hands. FRED Arnold! Arnold! Don't aim at the house -- please, not at the house -- WHAM! Fred ducks back just as the stone newspaper slams into the window frame, SMASHING a FLOWERPOT, taking out a chunk of wall, and continuing diagonally through the kitchen and out another window. Fred follows this action in time to see --22 HIS DRIVEWAY - THROUGH THE OTHER WINDOW 22 The rock paper drops like a foul shot, rips through the canvas roof of Fred's car, and then bangs a huge dent in the hood.23 BACK TO SCENE 23 Fred sighs, turns back to his breakfast. WILMA Lucky it wasn't the Sunday paper. FRED (slight smile) Yeah. What else can go wrong? He slices through the big egg with his knife -- releasing a baby PTERODACTYL which SQUAWKS and flaps, knocking Fred over as it takes off through the window. DISSOLVE TO:24 EXT. FLINTSTONE DRIVEWAY - LATER 24 Fred -- now dressed for work -- is forlornly trying to fix his car. (CONTINUED) 10.24 CONTINUED: 24 In the neighboring driveway, Wilma and Betty pile the kids into Betty's car. BETTY (wiping their mouths) Come on, kids. Time for nursery school. PEBBLES 'Bye-bye, Daddy. FRED 'Bye, little sweetheart. (as Wilma clears her throat) 'Bye, big sweetheart. Fred kisses them both and they drive off. Fred sighs, tries to stretch the canvas roof edges close enough to stitch. Nearby, Dino struggles to drag the stone news- paper inside the house. The twin headlines are, of course, KIBBLE CRISIS GROWS and MYSTERIOUS XENOSAURUS STRIKES AGAIN. Suddenly a pink flamingo appears over the hedge. As its mouth opens and closes, it appears to be talking, but the voice is that of -- BARNEY Nice morning, huh, Fred? FRED What's nice about it? BARNEY Heh, hey. That Arnold's got a real arm on him, don't he? Now we see that Barney is holding the flamingo's stiff legs which he scissors, making the bird's beak trim the hedge. FRED This is the third ragtop this year ... say, shouldn't you be at work? BARNEY Ah, well, that appliance store and me, we kinda had a little adjustment -- FRED You got fired, didn't ya? (CONTINUED) 11.24 CONTINUED: (2) 24 BARNEY Fred, don't start on me again. I donno, I'm just not a nine to five guy. I got dreams, Fred. Ideas -- FRED Yeah, I know, I know, those crazy inventions of yours. Be honest with me, Barn... tell me one thing you invented that really caught on. BARNEY I invented fire. FRED (pause) You invented fire? BARNEY I told you that, Fred. But the coal conglomerate ripped me off. The case is still in court, but meanwhile I got lotsa other ideas -- FRED Yeah, but did any one of them ever put bread on the table? How long are you and Betty gonna live on those penny-ante royalties you get? Fred pulls his car hood off of its wooden hinges, examines it with dismay. FRED If you ask me, pal, you're just blowing smoke up your own volcano... BARNEY Maybe, Fred. But first... He uses the flamingo's jaws to snatch the car hood from Fred's surprised grasp. BARNEY Let me try some of that smoke on your car. CUT TO: 12.25 INT. BARNEY'S GARAGE/WORKSHOP - DAY 25 We can still see Fred's car in the neighboring driveway. (We can also see Dino, who drags the newspaper on a bit more, then collapses from exhaustion). Barney's garage is cluttered with all kinds of odds and ends, plus various inventions and scale models in different stages of completion. (Interestingly, a number of these anticipate Leonardo da Vinci's work). Many of the models are made of a strange celadon green material. Fred watches, skeptical, as Barney presses the car hood into some soft clay between two big blocks of stone. BARNEY (as he works) -- See, the first step, we make a mold of the old car hood, smooth out the dent in the clay -- He tosses the original car hood aside with a crash. Then, moving rapidly, he starts heaving a variety of ingredients into the reverse imprint of the car hood. BARNEY -- Add some lava granules... some woca leaves... juice from two coo-coo berries... FRED (impressed) Two coo-coo berries? You made of money, Barney? BARNEY Anything for a pal, Fred -- a lump of coal... bamboo sawdust... eucalyptus sap... a touch of the La Brea tarbrush -- and -- voila. Barney dips a finger in this mess, "tastes" it; satisfied, he yanks on a hanging rope and a giant rock weight slams down on the whole mess, making Fred jump out of his skin.26 NEW ANGLE 26 Fred is caked with dust. He coughs and spits. FRED Barney, why don't you try inventing a brain for yourself! Look at what you did to -- (CONTINUED) 13.26 CONTINUED: 26 He stops as Barney cranks up the weight on a ratchet, proudly lifts out a perfect (though greenish) duplicate of the car hood. As Fred examines it, impressed despite himself, we... CUT TO:27 BETTY'S CAR - TRAVELING 27 The two kids are in the back seat. Somehow both of the kids' faces are messy again. Working together with beautiful precision, they are carefully dismantling the rear armrests and door handles. BETTY (in mid-speech, driving) ... Oh, it's not that I'm complaining, Wilma. I mean, Barney's sweet, but... well, he's just not cut out to punch a clock. And he's such a dreamer, you think he ever once picked up a hammer and chisel and tried to balance a checkbook? They pull up in front of a pleasant-looking simple little nursery school. MRS. GRANITE, a pleasant-looking 65, sees them from the schoolyard, waves while Wilma and Betty un- load the kids. BETTY No, Barney just keeps looking for that coo-coo berry pie in the sky, and I don't want to pop his balloon by talking about the price of mastodon ribs. She wipes off Bam-Bam's mouth with a handkerchief. Wilma does the same with Pebbles and then they kiss the kids, who immediately run into the schoolyard. MRS. GRANITE (approaching) Mrs. Rubble, Mrs. Flintstone, I wanted to thank you personally. BETTY You're welcome, Mrs. Granite. But we wipe their mouths every day. MRS. GRANITE No, no, I mean for all your wonderful support the past few years. It's parents like you that make me think twice about retiring. (CONTINUED) 14.27 CONTINUED: 27 From the schoolyard comes the sudden sound of KIDS QUAR- RELING and then a THUD and some CRYING. MRS. GRANITE On the other hand... Wilma and Betty laugh. WILMA We're really going to miss you, too, Mrs. Granite. MRS. GRANITE Have you found another school for the children? BETTY We're still shopping around. WILMA Fortunately, we're both -- Wilma and Betty straighten... salute. WILMA & BETTY (they've done this routine before) -- Professional shoppers! As the three women laugh, we... CUT TO:28 EXT. BEDROCK STREET - TRAVELLING - DAY 28 Fred and Barney drive along. (Behind them, the same houses and palms seem to be going by... duplex, palm... split level, two palms... duplex, palm). Barney grins, gestures towards the front of the car. BARNEY Not bad, eh? After it cures for an hour or so, it's solid as a rock. FRED Okay, you fixed a dented hood. But you call that a living? Face it, pal, this is the Stone Age, and it's a dino eat dino world. You want my advice? BARNEY Did I ever? (CONTINUED) 15.28 CONTINUED: 28 FRED You stick with me today, cruise on down to the quarry and fill out a job application. I'm a big man there, Barney -- BARNEY You're a big man anywhere, Fred -- FRED I'm serious, pal. Me and Mr. Slate are just like this -- He takes his hand off the wheel to hold up two fingers... ends up swerving instead. FRED -- just like that. I know, I know -- you're not a clock-punching guy -- but face it, Barney -- it's time to grow up and put your nose to the grindstone, batten down the hatches and join the ratasaurus race with the rest of us. (meaningfully) It's time to retire those dreams. Barney looks glum, doesn't say anything. Suddenly Fred pulls over, stops the car. FRED Barney. Look.29 WIDE SHOT 29 They're at the crest of a high wide hill. BARNEY Hey. Lava Lane. FRED Remember the old days, Barn? We used to race our go-carts here to impress the girls. BARNEY (wistful) Yeah, those were the days... we usta dream about coming back here some day with a real car and goin' for the goldrock...! A look from one to another, and then down the hill... Fred gets a malicious grin on his face. (CONTINUED) 16.29 CONTINUED: 29 BARNEY Fred... I thought you said it was time to retire those old dreams. FRED Hey. Since when do I have to be consistent? The two pals laugh, and then with a whoop they begin pedalling like mad. They go over the top, gravity takes over and they are flying past that billboard with all the Rotary Club welcomes on it. But now we see a different sort of welcome, as a POLICE CAR ZOOMS out from behind it.30 POLICE CAR - CLOSER 30 Inside are SERGEANT FELDSPAR and his rookie partner, OFFICER GRAVEL. Cackling with anticipation, Feldspar opens a box marked radar detector. Out pops a little bird in a police helmet. It has a stopwatch (actually, stop-sundial) around its neck. Feldspar points -- the bird salutes -- takes off!31 FRED AND BARNEY 31 BARNEY (spotting the cops) Oh-oh! Fred, slow down -- ! Suddenly both Fred and Barney see the RADAR BIRD flying alongside them. It checks its stopwatch, writes a note to itself. Fred is so preoccupied he doesn't notice as --32 THE POLICE CAR 32 cuts in front of Fred. Fred SLAMS on the "BRAKES," sits helplessly as Feldspar gets out, walks over, grinning. FELDSPAR Well, Flintstone, looks like today's the day. FRED Sergeant Feldspar, I... I wasn't speeding... honest... Fred reaches down to the floorboard as he speaks...33 ANGLE ON FLOORBOARD 33 There's a box there marked RADAR BUSTER. (CONTINUED) 17.33 CONTINUED: 33 FELDSPAR (O.S.) Forget it, Flintstone. This time I got you dead to rights -- Fred opens the box. A scary-looking winged reptile sticks out its head, smacks its hungry lips.34 BACK TO SCENE 34 Confident, Feldspar jerks a thumb at the Radar Bird, turns to his rookie partner. FELDSPAR Gravel. Get me the radar reading and I'll show you how we deal with scofflaws. Gravel nods, steps towards the bird. The bird checks its stopwatch... and then it notices the flying lizard which is hovering nearby, licking its lips. RADAR BIRD Whoa! Wings, do your stuff -- ! The Radar Bird flies away at a hundred miles an hour, leaving a cloud of dust and the stopwatch behind. Feldspar catches the watch, startled. FRED Well, Sergeant, if you don't have a radar reading, I guess we'll -- (quickly) -- justbeonourway -- ! A new cloud of dust appears as Fred ROARS away. FELDSPAR Flintstone! Flintstone, come back here -- ! CUT TO:35 EXT. BEDROCK BUTCHER SHOP - DAY 35 Betty and Wilma have just pulled up. We notice that next to their legal spot, a big limousine is parked in a "no parking" zone. But our law-abiding Betty in the next space now drops a stone coin in a parking meter.36 CLOSE ON THE METER 36 Inside the window we see a LITTLE BIRD. It "bites" the coin to check it, then turns over an egg timer. (CONTINUED) 18.36 CONTINUED: 36 LITTLE BIRD (with a sigh) Four years in accounting school for this...37 INT. BUTCHER SHOP - DAY 37 It's absolutely mobbed. Customers push past each other with armloads of food. Gigantic cuts of meat hang from above or are on display behind the counter. MORRIS THE BUTCHER looks up from the chaos and manages a weak smile for the girls. BETTY Morris, what on earth is going on? You giving away Bronto filets? MORRIS Ah, my two loveliest customers. It's this darn kibble crisis, Mrs. R... people are buying everything I got to feed their dinos... MRS. SLATE Young man, if you're through flirting, I'd like some service.38 NEW ANGLE 38 REVEALING MRS. SLATE, who stands there, impatient and overdressed. MORRIS Of course, Mrs. Slate. Just take a number. Wilma senses the tension, quickly steps forward to break it with a smile. WILMA Ah, hello, Mrs. Slate. Morris reacts with relief. Mrs. Slate reacts with a blank look. WILMA (prompting) We met at the quarry picnic? MRS. SLATE Oh, of course. Mrs. Flintstein. She turns her back to Wilma, forces her way towards the counter again. Wilma burns. (CONTINUED) 19.38 CONTINUED: 38 MORRIS Ladies, the meat's not getting any fresher. Mrs. R, what'll it be? BETTY Oh, I'd like some ground mammoth patties and uh... some dodo drumsticks. MORRIS Gino? We got any dodo bird? GINO turns, looks at his end of the counter. GINO There's one left -- and it's the last one! MORRIS Good. (handing him the note) Give it to Mrs. Rubble along with this. Gino nods, smiling. He picks up a crate, begins to load it with giant fryer parts and several manhole-sized meat patties. MORRIS (turning to Betty) How about you, Mrs. F? WILMA I just need a few things for Fred. MORRIS 'Fred...'? (calling into the back) David! Herman! Get Rob and BoBo and tell 'em to bring the big dolly! VOICE FROM BACK (O.S.) Flintstone again, huh? MORRIS You got it. Now then... Mrs. Slate? (pointing at the limo outside the shop) You're in a no parking zone there. (CONTINUED) 20.38 CONTINUED: (2) 38 MRS. SLATE Well, if I get some service, I'll be out of it, won't I? Mrs. Slate steps to the counter. Meanwhile, the staff begin using a refrigerator dolly to bring out giant ribs, steaks and sausages which they pile up in front of Wilma. MRS. SLATE I want a nice fresh, juicy chickensaurus, Morris. And not one you've had laying around on the shelf. I mean fresh. MORRIS Mrs. Slate, we're kind of busy now -- MRS. SLATE I don't care if you're busy. What I care about is my adorable little grand nephew. He's staying with me for the summer and I intend to make his favorite dish... Southern fried chickensaurus! Now I want a fresh chickensaurus and I want it now! MORRIS Boys, you heard her... she said fresh.39 THE STAFF 39 with a sigh, they buckle on elbow and knee protectors, go to a side door, open it. Inside is another barred door. They open it, go inside. Immediately we hear loud SQUAWKING and CACKLING... THUDS, BUMPS...40 NEW ANGLE 40 Suddenly the barred door slams open and a giant chicken- saurus comes bounding out, with Morris's staff hanging all over it like rodeo cowboys. They try and restrain it with ropes but it's enraged and flops around the store. MRS. SLATE (oblivious of the trouble) Morris, while you're at it, I'd like it plucked -- (CONTINUED) 21.40 CONTINUED: 40 Suddenly the chickensaurus snaps the ropes, flaps its wings and leaps through the front window --41 EXT. BUTCHER SHOP - DAY 41 The huge bird lands with a crunch atop Mrs. Slate's car, which is practically squashed flat. Then it disappears around the corner. (We hear CAR HORNS and SKIDDING TIRES as it goes.)42 BACK TO SCENE 42 MRS. SLATE My car -- ! Wilma and Betty try and hide their laughter. CUT TO:43 EXT. SLATE CONSTRUCTION - DAY 43 Clouds of dust rise from behind the fence. We see the heads of the heavy equipment dinos rising and falling. A two-story office building is at one end of the site with a big "Slate Construction Inc." sign on the roof. CAMERA ADJUSTS as Fred's car turns into the lot, Barney seated beside Fred. The new green hood gleams in the morning light.44 CLOSER - FRED'S CAR 44 Fred digs his feet into the ground, slams to a halt. He gets out, surveys the activity. Immediately, the various workers shout AD LIB greetings. Fred acknowledges these, beaming in the respect he gets here. He lovingly dusts off his construction helmet, puts it on, knocks an offending speck from his parking sign (F. Flintstone - Shop Steward). He leads Barney towards the quarry area. FRED Barney, you won't regret this -- hiya, Al -- fixing dents in cars is one thing, a career's another. Here, you're getting in on the ground floor of the first footstep of a new leaf -- hi, Wally, how's the old backhand? And with a guy like me ta show you the ropes, you can skip all the red tape, all the malarky, all the dino doo -- 22.45 NEW ANGLE 45 Fred stands near the weight station booth, where a plump GIRL in a beehive hairdo sits inside a trailer. GIRL (New York accent) Hi, Mr. Flintstone. FRED Hiya, Shirley. This is my very special neighbor and pal Barney Rubble. He needs an application form, okay? GIRL Anything for you, Mr. Flintstone. She slams down two clay tablets and a stylus. GIRL Here you go. (smiling) Thanks again for the football tickets. My boyfriend and I both liked them. FRED My pleasure, Shirl. Anytime. GIRL Okay. But do you think next time we could go to the same game? FRED (confidently) No problem. Fred smiles at her, hands the forms to Barney. Fres steps towards the quarry, admires the activity, hands on hips, master of all he surveys. He waves to more friends. FRED Well, Barn, what did I tell you? When you're in with Flintstone, you're in like Flint. BARNEY Gee, Fred. I knew you were a big shot. I just didn't know how big. Fred beams at that, and then follows Barney's gaze to the read-out on the truck scale. Fred is standing on it and it's pushing 250. With a scowl, Fred grabs Barney's sleeve and they go into the quarry. As they move, the CAMERA PANS and CRANES UP TOWARDS the window of the Slate Construction Office. CUT TO: 23.46 INT. OFFICE - PULLBACK FROM WINDOW 46 The room here is dominated by a tabletop architectural model of a large scale construction project. There's acres of little development houses, then some tall office buildings, a mall, you name it: There's even little foot- powered model cars in the model parking spaces. Near this we see MR. SLATE, a giant in the Bedrock con- struction business (but not in height). Slate drinks coffee from a "Boss" mug, listens with growing impatience to JERRY LAVA. Several of Slate's lackeys listen, their heads nodding up or down in sympathy with Slate's mer- curial moods. LAVA Uncle, if you'll look at this unit cost projection... it intersects here with -- SLATE -- how'd you like my fist to intersect with your nose? I've told you a hundred times, don't call me uncle in the office! Now, I didn't arrange your scholarship to Harvrock University so you could waste my time! So stop beating around the bushasaurus and get to the bottom slime! LAVA You'll be bankrupt in six months. Slate does a Danny Thomas spit take all over the model.47 EXT. QUARRY - MOVING SHOT 47 Fred and Barney cross the busy lot, sidestepping workers and animals. Fred does a lot of backslapping, waving. Barney's filling out the forms on the move. Behind them, we see the wide access ramp which spirals around the quarry's sides. BARNEY (to himself) Social Security number... dependents... 'how learned of job' ... newspaper ad, carrier pigeon... (writing) ... Personal reference... Hearing a loud SMASH, Fred looks up and sees --48 FRED'S POV - A WRECKING BALL OPERATOR 48 A burly and rough looking guy named PILTDOWN, he grins in- side his dino-topping cupola, winds his winch handles and then propels his wrecking ball towards the... 24.49 QUARRY WALL - ABOVE 49 -- where the huge stone BALL SMASHES into some walnuts balanced on a boulder.50 WIDER 50 Piltdown's compact buddy PYRITE cackles, sweeps up the walnuts. Munching them, he balances a new one in place. (It should be noted here that the relationship and physi- cal appearances of Piltdown and Pyrite mirrors that of our heroes... they're sort of an anti-Fred and Barney.) PYRITE Way ta go, Pilty baby. Five bucks says you can't hit one on the fly. PILTDOWN (calling up) Yer on, Pyrite -- Pyrite tosses a walnut, which bounces on the ledge. The wrecking BALL SMASHES into the stone wall.51 BELOW 51 Workers near Fred duck as dust and debris fall down. People grab for their construction helmets. FRED Not again... Fred hustles up a ladder to a ramp which leads him up to the level of Piltdown's cab. Barney hurries to follow. FRED All right, Piltdown, that's enough! You're endangering your fellow workers! PILTDOWN Yeah? Sez who? FRED Says me, Fred Flintstone -- shop steward of Amalgamated Neolithic Workers 101. PILTDOWN Yeah? Well, A.N.W. one-oh-one gives us workers a snack break. So... (a nasty grin) ... I'm breakin' some snacks. He swings the wrecking ball again. 25.52 UP ABOVE 52 This time he's overdone it: The wrecking ball flies past the walnuts -- Pyrite ducks for cover -- and then the wrecking ball whips over and around the handrail which runs along here, twisting as tightly as Indiana Jones' whip. The handrail wobbles dangerously in its foundation --53 PILTDOWN'S DINO 53 SNORTS, backs up -- the crane SUPPORTS on its back begin to CREAK and GROAN with the strain --54 WIDER 54 Workers scatter, fearful of the imminent collapse. Fred runs to grab the dino's reins. FRED Whoa, whoa, big fella -- He calms the beast by giving it a carrot. As it munches, Fred quickly ties the reins to a post. FRED (calling up to the cab) You're on report, Piltdown! If it's up to me you'll be pushing a wheelbarrow! PILTDOWN (leaping down) You've been asking for this, Flintstone... I'm gonna kick your fat butt -- FRED Fat butt? Hold me back, Barney -- (sotto, very sincere) -- Barney, hold me back -- Quickly the men form a circle around Piltdown and Fred. Barney looks up and sees --55 THE CRANE ON THE DINO'S BACK 55 It is shuddering and threatening to come crashing down.56 BACK TO SCENE 56 BARNEY Hey, maybe you guys oughta fix that first. PILTDOWN Why should we? (CONTINUED) 26.56 CONTINUED: 56 BARNEY It looks dangerous. Besides, you can kick Fred's fat butt anytime. FRED Yeah. That's right. (realizing, a glare at Barney) I mean -- this ain't over, Piltdown. (turning, shouting) Come on, guys. Let's clean up the mess. With much grumbling, ropes and grappling hooks are gathered and the crew hops to it...57 INT. SLATE'S OFFICE - SAME TIME 57 Slate stands in a blubbering fury as Lava mops coffee up from the model and Slate's face. SLATE Bankrupt? Are you crazy? Lava holds up a clay tablet covered with figures. LAVA It's all here in hack and slice. When you committed to this housing development the price of dino kibble was a few clams per ton. Since then, it's gone up a hundredfold. (indicating the model) You can't build a project like this without the heavy equipment dinos, and we can't afford to feed those dinos. Slate glowers, paces around the model. SLATE I'm two months behind schedule, my option's running out on the land and Donald Trumprock is just waiting to jump in and steal the whole deal ... meanwhile that damn union's on my back, hell, they'll probably want an eighty hour week or something... (frustrated) There's got to be an answer... A LOUD COMMOTION outside the window attracts everyone's attention. (CONTINUED) 27.57 CONTINUED: 57 SLATE What's that? LAVA (worried) Sounds like a worker's comp claim if I ever heard one... All rush to the window. They look out and see --58 THE QUARRY - WIDE 58 Supervised by Fred, all the workers are straining on the ropes to haul the rear legs of the crane back into their sockets on the back of the big dino. Only the last critical rope is still dangling. FRED Barney! Grab that line! Hurry! Barney scrambles up Fred's back, shoving a foot in Fred's face, but finally snatching the rope. He pulls on it... Fred throws his own weight into the effort...59 THE CRANE 59 THUDS into place on the dino's back -- the workers cheer --60 THE WRECKING BALL 60 alas, with its cable now twisted shorter, it's become an immovable object, and as the shortened CABLE SNAPS, the wrecking ball begins to roll down the quarry wall.61 NEW ANGLE 61 Men and ANIMALS YELP and dive out of the way as the BALL rolls downwards, SMASHING everything in its path.62 EXT. SLATE'S OFFICE WINDOW 62 The executives watch concerned as --63 THE WRECKING BALL 63 tumbles down, down, knocking scaffolding and ladders aside, reaches the end of a ramp, and drops through the air right onto --64 THE HOOD OF FRED'S CAR 64 -- where, astonishingly, the HOOD sinks in resiliently like a trampoline and then with a loud "SPROING" the wrecking ball flies straight back up into the air, followed a beat behind by the unhinged hood itself. Both hurtle TOWARDS the CAMERA -- 28.65 SLATE AND EXECUTIVES 65 react fearfully as they realize all this is coming straight for them. With a howl, they all dive aside --66 INT. SLATE'S OFFICE - WIDER - DAY 66 The wrecking BALL flies through the window, SLAMS onto Slate's desk, crushing everything in its path and then sails on SMASHING right into --67 THE MODEL DEVELOPMENT 67 -- where all of the lined up HIGH RISES SMASH ASIDE with a sound like falling pins.68 IN THE QUARRY 68 The workers pick themselves up and now their eyes follow the path taken by the long-gone wrecking ball. FRED Oh boy. Goodbye pension fund -- They rush for the office building.69 INT. SLATE'S OFFICE - DAY 69 Dust is still settling. The staff rises from the mess, coughing. Lava rummages in the debris, finds a stiff body. LAVA Uncle, Uncle, speak to me -- But it's only a statue of a golfer from one of Slate's trophies. SLATE (sitting up) I'm over here, you moron -- and don't call me 'Uncle'! Slate's eyes fall on Fred's car hood, swinging from a bookshelf. He reaches for it -- pulls it -- it stays put, and only releases a new deluge of rubble and plaster which reburies him. At the same time, the door slams open and Fred, Barney and the other workers tumble inside.70 THEIR POV - OFFICE 70 As they take in the destruction. Barney notices the wrecking ball amidst the model buildings. As we watch, the last remaining little HIGH RISE FALLS. (CONTINUED) 29.70 CONTINUED: 70 BARNEY Hey, nice going, Fred. You even got the spare -- FRED Barney, shut up -- (turning) Mr. Slate -- Mr. Slate -- are you all right? Slate staggers to his feet, seething with fury. He finally yanks the car hood free. It bounces and VIBRATES in his hands like a hand saw. SLATE (eying the men) For five years Slate Construction has had the finest safety record in Bedrock. (pacing, angry) Our workers are trained in first aid, our equipment is first rate and our dinos are worm free. And then something like this happens ... I want to know how! A cacophony of voices starts to answer. SLATE Shut up! (in the sudden silence) I want one person to answer me: (waving the car hood) Who's responsible for this?71 PILTDOWN 71 nudges the wrecking ball off the edge of the table. It falls on Fred's foot. Fred starts to scream and Piltdown shoves a pencil holder into his mouth. PILTDOWN (quickly) It was Flintstone, Mr. Slate! PYRITE That's right, Mr. Slate, it was Flintstone! BARNEY That's a lie, Mr. Slate! SLATE Who are you? (CONTINUED) 30.71 CONTINUED: 71 BARNEY (pointing to his forms) B. Rubble. White male personal reference -- SLATE (pushing Barney aside) Flintstone, I have just one thing to say to you -- Fred cringes. Piltdown and Pyrite smirk. SLATE (pumping his hand) Congratulations! FRED PILTDOWN Huh? What? SLATE This stuff you had on your car is the most incredible building material I've seen in thirty years in the construction business! (testing it) It's strong -- (twirling it) -- Light -- (bending it) -- Resilient -- It rebounds, "SPROINGING" him on the chin. He recovers, shakes it off. SLATE Where on earth did you get it? FRED Oh, it's ah, just something I whipped up in the old garage workshop -- (quickly) -- with a little help from my buddy Barney, right, Barn? BARNEY Well, actually, Fred, it was the other way ar-- Fred hisses between his teeth, repeats the "Slate and me are just like this" gesture he made earlier, points at Slate. (CONTINUED) 31.71 CONTINUED: (2) 71 BARNEY (reluctant) Sure, Fred, right, right. Slate nods, distracted, his eyes and hands running over the smooth lines of the car hood. SLATE The rest of you men go back to work. I want to talk to Flintstone and the personal reference alone. Come on, move, move... They go out, Piltdown looking furious. SLATE (a man in love) Light as a Pterodactyl feather... why, a child could handle this... Lava, we could cut construction costs in half... in quarters... in uh... whatchacallit -- LAVA (patiently) Eighths -- SLATE Eighths, right. Flintstone, what do you call this stuff? FRED Well, Mr. Slate, I call it -- (hesitating, sotto) -- Barney, what do I call it? BARNEY (sotto) Fibrerock, Fred... FRED -- I call it Fibrerock Fred -- ! (realizing) I mean, ah, 'Fibrerock'! SLATE (rolling it over his tongue) 'Fibrerock'? 'Fibrerock'? (playing with it) 'Fib-bre-rock' -- Slate's staff make disparaging noises. (CONTINUED) 32.71 CONTINUED: (3) 71 SLATE I love it! SLATE'S STAFF (instantly reversing themselves) Love it... great... has a nice ring... says it all, you know? (Etc...) Slate takes the piece of material, leans it on the table so it catches the light. Despite himself, Lava comes over, examines the car hood... can't help but marvel at it as well. Meanwhile, Slate puts his arms around Fred and Barney. SLATE (to Lava) You see this, Lava? All those courses of yours at Harvrock University, and who saves my bacon? Two simple-minded run-of-the-mill nobodies. BARNEY Gee, thanks, Mr. Slate. Lava glowers. Slate pulls Fred and Barney close with genuine excitement. SLATE Boys, this is a small step for Slate Construction... a giant step for all mankind. He points to the translucent material. CAMERA TIGHTENS ON it. We see Fred, Barney and Slate's reflections in it. SLATE (dramatically) The Stone Age is over! Let the Fibre Age begin! As HEROIC MUSIC STINGS IN, we... CUT TO:72 BETTY'S CAR - TRAVELING - DAY 72 Mrs. Slate is in back, crammed in with groceries. Betty pulls up in front of a building that looks like a Palm Springs spa. This is "L'ECOLE DES ENFANTS PREHISTORIQUE HAUTE SUPERIOR." (CONTINUED) 33.72 CONTINUED: 72 BETTY Here we are, Mrs. Slate. Sorry you had to ride in the back. MRS. SLATE (getting out) Not at all. I'm used to being driven around. And she's sashaying up the path. Betty and Wilma burn, then follow her.73 INT. SCHOOL - DAY 73 As elegant as we can get MMMCXV years before Louis XIV. As the three women come in, we see CHILDREN with alliga- tors on their deerskin shirts singing: CHILDREN 'La hachette de ma tante est sur le roche de mon oncle -- ' HEADMISTRESS (coming over, gushing) Madame Mrs. Slate, bonjour! Welcome to L'ecole des Enfants Prehistorique Haute Superior! MRS. SLATE Thank you, Marie. (showing a rock receipt) I ordered the hors d'oeuvres for the junior talent show. They were out of Ceolanth caviar so I got Mastodon brie instead. Oh, ah, these are my, uh, friends, Wilma Flintstein -- WILMA Flintstone -- MRS. SLATE -- oh, it used to be Flintstein -- ? And this is ah, Becky... Betty! The Headmistress reaches over, takes their hands gracefully. HEADMISTRESS Enchante. WILMA I'm sure. (CONTINUED) 34.73 CONTINUED: 73 BETTY Likewise. HEADMISTRESS (waving a hand) Well, Madame Slate, as you can see, we remain ze creme de la creme in the croissant of life known as Bedrock. Now, your leetle gran' nephew will be wiz us for two weeks, no? (opening a drawer) Here is ze application for him. An' mais oui, he weel participate in zee annual talent show, naturalment? Mrs. Slate takes the parchment application. Meanwhile the Headmistress looks appraisingly at Wilma and Betty. HEADMISTRESS An' your friends perhaps would like zum school applications for zere enfants? MRS. SLATE (amused) Them? Oh, Marie, really, you don't understand -- BETTY (suddenly) That's right, you don't understand. My husband's business manager usually handles this sort of thing, but I don't mind. And to Wilma's astonishment, Betty takes one of the parchments. BETTY I know Bam-Bam -- (correcting herself) -- pardonez-moi, 'Bem-Bem' will love attending your school and performing in the talent show. Thank you oh so much. She gives Mrs. Slate an even and controlled look, and sends some of it over in Wilma's direction as well. Wilma makes her choice, smiles tightly. WILMA Let me have one of those, too. For ma petite Pebbles. (CONTINUED) 35.73 CONTINUED: (2) 73 HEADMISTRESS Of course. Any friend of Madame Slate is a friend of mine. As Mrs. Slate reacts, we -- CUT TO:74 INT. CAR - FRED AND BARNEY - NIGHT 74 They're cruising along. Fred puffs on a cigar. Barney flips the pile of legal sized tablets in his lap. In the back seat are some boxes and bundles. BARNEY Gee, Fred, I don't believe it. Eight hours ago I didn't have a job and now look -- I got 1/2 of one percent of the after-taxes after-expenses net breakage profits on Fibrerock! FRED Just be thankful I was there to go over the fine print. (full of himself) It's like I told you this morning -- There's something noble about a man digging in with his hands and doing an honest day's work. Once you file those dreams under 'old business' and put your nose to the plow, well, the world is your oyster. And was I right? BARNEY No, Fred, you weren't. I didn't nose any grindstones and you didn't shoulder a wheel. We just hung out together and everything that happened was a total accident. FRED (after a moment) Details, Barney, details... (smiling) I just can't wait to see the girls' faces when we tell 'em the news...75 INT. FLINTSTONE HOUSE - NIGHT 75 The girls' frowns are a great contrast to their husbands' smiles. Wilma's looking at the school enrollment forms. Betty paces, looks at the clock. (CONTINUED) 36.75 CONTINUED: 75 WILMA (seeing this) It's not like the boys to be so late. BETTY Unless they were forced to go bowling again. Remember that time a burglar pointed a gun at them and said, 'go bowling right now'? WILMA Betty, sometimes you're a little too gullible -- BETTY Don't tell me. I still can't believe what I did today... WILMA No kidding. (indicating the forms) Do you have any idea of what the enrollment fee is? And get this... it's non-refundable -- BETTY I know, I know! I just couldn't stand that woman's attitude! But we had to find a new school anyway, and there we were... the next thing I knew, I was in over my head... but why did you jump in, too? WILMA Oh, she was getting to me too with all that mastodon snort about her little nephew... and... BETTY And? WILMA And... if a friend can't help you do something stupid, who can? Betty smiles, touched. Then reality intrudes again. BETTY What do we tell the boys? WILMA What's wrong with the truth? (CONTINUED) 37.75 CONTINUED: (2) 75 BETTY We put ourselves in debt so the kids can attend school with a family we can't stand? WILMA (pause) Maybe we could rephrase it... Suddenly the door bursts open. Fred and Barney run in with candy and flowers. FRED AND BARNEY Surprise! Pause. BETTY Flowers? WILMA Rock candy? That's nice, but... why? FRED Why? Oh, me and Barn, we suddenly realized that we had a little spare change. WILMA (sotto) Not anymore you don't... BARNEY (presenting flowers) Betty, these are for you. For sticking beside me during the tough times, and well... for making a little guy feel like he was ten feet tall. BETTY Aw, Barney... I... I don't deserve these. I did something really stupid today. BARNEY Hey. Fred does something stupid every day and I still love him. Fred laughs good naturedly, grabs Barney in a headlock. FRED Noogy, noogy, ha, ha -- ! (CONTINUED) 38.75 CONTINUED: (3) 75 WILMA (observing this) Have you been drinking? In reply, Fred whips a bottle of champagne into view. FRED Ready when you are. (noticing the label) Hey, '1'... a good year. This confuses the girls even more. WILMA Fred, there's no easy way to say this so -- She closes her eyes, swings the enrollment forms over on the table so that Fred and Barney can read them. Fred and Barney look at them, look at each other... and yawn.76 FAVORING WILMA AND BETTY 76 They can't believe this. BETTY Boys... did you see... the dollar signs there at the bottom? WILMA The non-refundable dollar signs? BARNEY Plenty more where that came from. FRED We see your dollar signs, ladies... and... He tosses his stone contracts on top of the parchment ones with a THUD. FRED ... we raise them. Wilma and Betty look at each other, then at the contracts. They blink, look again. WILMA Betty... these... these look... real -- (CONTINUED) 39.76 CONTINUED: 76 Fred opens the champagne, which foams all over them. The girls squeal. FRED You bet they're real, sweetheart. They're as real as... as... well, as real as -- (embracing the group) -- the best darn friends and neighbors in the whole world. Barney squeezes back. BARNEY Yeah. And nothing's ever gonna change that... right, Fred? FRED (emotionally) Right, pal o'mine. As they laugh and the girls slowly absorb the truth, we -- CUT TO:77 EXT. WATER BUFFALO LODGE - NIGHT 77 A sign proclaims this as "GRAND BEDROCK LODGE -- LOYAL ORDER OF WATER BUFFALO." The parking lot outside is full of vehicles. We hear the sound of a GAVEL BANGING... HERDMASTER (V.O.) Attention, fellow Water Buffaloes...78 INT. WATER BUFFALO LODGE - NIGHT 78 The members are milling about the main room, schmoozing, drinking, kibitzing. All wear the furry and horned ceremonial Fez of the Buffalo. One wall of the lodge displays a big version of the lodge coat of arms (with the motto "Ackus Ackus Adackus" below); a trophy case holds a mind boggling display of various bowling trophies, balls and pins. At the lectern, the HERDMASTER (a mustachioed, inspirational type) bangs again for order. HERDMASTER Brothers, your attention! It quiets a bit. He clears his throat, raises his chin, and gives a strange mournful bellow. (CONTINUED) 40.78 CONTINUED: 78 HERDMASTER ("ritual" type tone) The herd is now called to the prairie. (holding fingers above ears) Antlers... up! The entire Lodge dutifully imitates this gesture. ENTIRE GROUP Ack-ack-a-dack! HERDMASTER (banging gavel) This meeting of the Water Buffaloes is now in session. Sergeant-at-Arms, have we got any old business? Barney stands, acknowledges his friends and Lodge brothers. BARNEY Indeed we do, Brother Herdmaster. Tonight we are to hear speeches from prospective candidates for Lodge offices, such as good old Fred and some other guys.79 PILTDOWN 79 Seated across the room with Pyrite and other cronies, he immediately leaps to his feet, paws the ground, and gives an eerie moan even stranger than the Herdmaster's earlier call to order.80 BACK TO SCENE 80 After the CRY ECHOES away: HERDMASTER Brother Piltdown: You have given the Cry of the Gelded Buffalo at the Poisoned Water Hole. Do you wish to file an objection? PILTDOWN You bet I do. How come Flintstone is 'good old Fred' and me and the other candidates are just 'some other guys'? PYRITE Yeah, how come? (CONTINUED) 41.80 CONTINUED: 80 BARNEY (rising) My apologies, Brother Piltdown. Allow me to rephrase. Tonight we will hear speeches from a whole bunch of good old guys... (pause) ... plus the one and only Fred Flintstone! Cheers go up, which drown out Piltdown's renewed cry of the poisoned water hole. Fred moves towards the podium as the noise dies down.81 NEW ANGLE 81 Barney moves to the wall, where he pulls a rolled up tapestry from a hiding place behind a plant. He tacks it to the wall, yanks a string. It unrolls. It's a big "VOTE FOR FRED FLINTSTONE" poster. Barney turns, gives Fred a "thumbs up," and as he does, Barney's hand brushes against a folded parchment in his pocket. Barney pushes his way through the seats, catches up to Fred and hands him the document. Fred takes it, continues up to the podium. There, the Herdmaster hands Fred the ceremonial hoof and antler, crossed over each other like a Pharaoh's badges of office. Fred does a Papal-like wave with these, sets them down, and unrolls the crib notes Barney gave him. FRED (reading, at first wooden, then confident) Brother Buffaloes, honored Herdmaster, Junior Bucks and Apprentice Antlers, a great good evening to you all. Ahem. As you know, our organization has survived difficult times that have seen the extinction of such other lodges as the Order of Whooping Cranes and Brotherhood of Giant Sloths. But we here have come through the croo ... the crux... BARNEY (hissing) -- crucible -- (CONTINUED) 42.81 CONTINUED: 81 FRED (grateful) -- crucible with our fur fluffy and our hooves unscathed. Now, the future holds many promises and many problems. As your next Herdmaster, I would bring to you the same determination, courage and -- if I may say so -- bold thinking that I have brought to the workplace. Thank you, and ack ack a-dack. Applause follows Fred's return to the floor.82 PILTDOWN AND PYRITE 82 The only ones in their row not clapping, they scowl as Fred passes them... CUT TO:83 INT. LODGE - RECREATION AREA - LATER 83 WIDEN as Barney propels a bowling ball (stone, of course) rumbling down the alley, sending pins flying. The Buffaloes cheer Barney's strike. We notice that most (if not all) of these Lodge members also work at the quarry.84 AUTOMATIC PIN SPOTTER 84 It descends. It consists of a bent snout creature which "cranks" down a shelf with several monkeys on it. The monkeys grab the pins with their tails, straighten them up. Then the shelf cranks back up.85 OTHER END OF ALLEY 85 Now it's Fred's turn. He trots up to the line, bowls... another strike! More cheers, AD LIB complaints, etc. The scorekeeper picks up hammer and chisel and fills out the last frame. LODGE MEMBER Congratulations, Fred. FRED Hey, when you're hot you're hot... boys, lemme buy a round of drinks for everyone. BARNEY Thanks, Fred, but here at the lodge drinks are free. (CONTINUED) 43.85 CONTINUED: 85 FRED But the principle is the same, Barn. Don't forget that. Fred leads the group over to the bar. Piltdown and Pyrite come along with a shrug... why not, for a brew? Fred reaches --86 UNDER THE COUNTER 86 where he pulls out a hook-beaked little LIZARD --87 BACK TO SCENE 87 Fred uses this creature to open several beers. FRED (during this) Here you go, boys, nice and frosty... "BOTTLE OPENER" CREATURE (LIZARD) (aside) Go ahead, laugh. If I had a good orthodontist, my life woulda been different... Fred tosses the "Opener" aside --88 UNDER THE COUNTER 88 The critter bounces into the shelf, slides... when it re- covers, it realizes that its overbite has been straightened out by the impact. Very happy, it grabs a hat and coat, exits.89 BACK TO SCENE 89 FRED (raising drink) Well, here's to... He looks around, sees --90 "PHOTO" ON WALL 90 It's actually "dots" chipped into a stone. It shows the young Fred, Barney and others gathered around soapbox racers. A banner reads "Junior Buffalo Day." 44.91 BACK TO SCENE 91 FRED Here's to the greatest bunch of lifelong Buffaloes a guy could dream of leading. (an obvious prompt) Anybody else got a toast...? BARNEY 'Here's to the Water Buffalo and their next Herdmaster... Fred'! FRED Aw, gee, Barn... you shouldn't say that... (winking) ... at least not till after next week's election! LODGE MEMBER Fred, what was all that stuff in your speech about the workplace? I thought the only decision you made there was how many lunches to eat -- Laughter. Fred accepts it good-naturedly, reaches into his pocket. FRED Well, Harry, it just so happens that old Fred is moving up in the world... Boys, you're looking at Mr. Slate's new partner. PILTDOWN You and Slate? Who are you kidding, Flintstone? The only partner you got is hanging over your belt. Pyrite laughs, a bit too much. FRED Prepare to eat those words, Piltdown. PILTDOWN -- If I don't, you will -- FRED (a tight smile) Gentlemen, my card -- He passes them out, and the others take them, curious -- 45.92 INSERT - CARD 92 Of course it's a little stone tablet... but it does indeed say "SLATE CONSTRUCTION -- F. FLINTSTONE, ASSISTANT JR. V.P. -- PUBLIC RELATIONS."93 BACK TO SCENE 93 LODGE MEMBERS (AD LIB, impressed) Hey, way ta go, Fred... Whoa, gonna switch from a hard hat to a top hat, Freddy boy...? PYRITE (examining the card) Ah, it's probably a phony... Saying this, he bites down on it... winces as a tooth cracks.94 BARNEY 94 tugs Fred's sleeve, pulls him close. BARNEY Gee, Fred, how come I didn't get any business cards? FRED Barney, it's all part of the plan. (to the others) Yes, boys, you see, I went up to my pal, Mister Slate and single- handedly made him an offer he couldn't refuse -- (Barney reacts to the "single-handedly" --) FRED -- 'Freddy boy,' he sez to me, 'We gotta talk turkey -- ' BARNEY Fred, we gotta talk turkey -- FRED That's right -- just like that -- BARNEY Fred -- ! Fred realizes Barney's got something on his mind. FRED Ah, excuse us, boys... 46.95 NEW ANGLE 95 Fred pulls Barney into a quiet corridor. They stand near a trophy case. There's some bowling trophies here with a variety of names on them. (There's also trophies for "pie-eating contests" and "beer drinking chug-offs"; these have only Fred's name on them.) BARNEY Fred... what's this single-handed stuff? I distinctly remember at least four hands and two of them were mine. FRED (lowered voice) Barney, we could tell everyone how you invented this Fibrerock stuff, how Slate and Lava found out about it by accident and all, but what would that be? BARNEY The truth? FRED This is big business, Barney. We can't start telling the truth, it'd create the wrong impression. Think about all the really big deals in history -- back to the beginning of recorded time. Barney knits his brow in thought for maybe three seconds. BARNEY Okay. FRED What do they all have in common? (as Barney is stumped) I'll tell you. A front man. A guy who's out in the public eye running the point, fighting the crowds... and meanwhile... back in the corner is the silent partner. BARNEY I never knew that. FRED That's because the silent partner is always silent. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 47.95 CONTINUED: 95 FRED (CONT'D) But while you're busy being silent -- (conspiratorially) -- all along you're the brains behind the operation and I'm the brains in front of the operation. I'm out here running the guts of the operation but you got a cut. It looks like my mind, but you're really behind. BARNEY I get it. I got the brains, but you just pretend to have them. FRED Attaboy! And a confident Fred shakes hands with an unsure "silent partner"... CUT TO:96 EXT. FLINTSTONE/RUBBLE HOUSES - DAY 96 Barney comes out of his front door, heads toward the neighboring driveway and Fred's car. Betty comes out, calls to her husband. BETTY Barney, wait a minute...97 CLOSER 97 He stops, turns. Betty comes over and we see he's wear- ing a sports jacket and an abysmally-tied tie. Betty fixes the knot. BETTY There. That looks more like a captain of industry. BARNEY Thanks, Betty. What would I do without you? BETTY Hmm. Probably run off to the tropics with one of those executive secretaries. (CONTINUED) 48.97 CONTINUED: 97 BARNEY Come on, Betty, it's only my first day. You have to have seniority to run off... She giggles, kisses him.98 FRED 98 is at the car door, lunch pail in hand, when Wilma calls out to him. WILMA Fred! Wait a minute! There's something wrong with your lunch -- FRED ("weighing it") Yeah... it does feel a little light... He returns to her, opens the pail, is surprised to find it's empty. Before he can comment, she smilingly presents him with a spanking new briefcase. "F.F" is embossed on it in gold. WILMA Fit for a king... my king. FRED Aw, Wilma... lookit, it's got buckles, a strap, a lock -- He opens it. Inside is a huge drumstick and some ribs. FRED -- Baby, you're the greatest. WILMA (kissing him) Good luck. (pause) Watch out for those... you know... hostile takeovers. FRED I'm already taken. He moves to the car. FRED Ah, Mister Rubble, I presume? Of the Fibrerock Rubbles? (CONTINUED) 49.98 CONTINUED: 98 BARNEY Yes, yes. Looking good, Mister Flintstone. I see you've recovered from that polo accident. FRED Yas, yas. The water was too deep and my horse drowned. They crack up at their own wit, drive off. CUT TO:99 SLATE QUARRY - LAVA'S OFFICE - DAY 99 Lava's on the phone, very worried. LAVA Ivan, look, okay, so I bought too much on margin... everyone said glaciers were here to stay, I mean, who knew? Just leverage my shares in Atlantis dry goods and -- what? When did that happen? Piltdown enters, knocks on the open door. PILTDOWN Mister Lava, the armored car is here. LAVA Armored car...? PILTDOWN Yeah. Must be a fortune in coo-coo berries on that baby. You know, for that Fibrerock stuff of Flintstone and Rubble's. You gotta sign here for it. LAVA (into phone) I... I'll get back to you. Lava comes over, signs the form. Meanwhile he looks out the window at --100 HIS POV - ARMORED CAR 100 The guards are unloading sacks of coo-coo berries. 50.101 BACK TO SCENE 101 Lava signs the form, meanwhile looking Piltdown up and down. Finally -- LAVA Piltdown, this Fibrerock program is going to create a lot of changes around the plant. I want to make one more. You've been a wonderful thug and goon for me. Now, I'd like to expand your duties. I want you to become a provocateur. PILTDOWN Gee, Mister Lava, I donno. I kinda like girls myself. LAVA (patiently) What I mean, is, I'm going to use you to double-cross your Lodge and Union brothers, and make their lives a living hell. PILTDOWN Oh, okay. LAVA Good. You and your little pal will report directly to me and take orders only from me. (slapping him on the back) Now get out of here and start screwing your former friends and associates. Piltdown leaves, smiling. Lava rubs his chin, thoughtful. LAVA Coo-coo berries... CUT TO:102 EXT. QUARRY - DAY 102 Fred and Barney appear in Fred's car, make a very quick turn into the quarry lot.103 CLOSER 103 They both duck down behind the wheel. A moment later, Feldspar's patrol car comes barrelling by. (CONTINUED) 51.103 CONTINUED: 103 Feldspar looks every which way, doesn't spot them. BARNEY (when he's gone) Gee, Fred, driving with you is better than an 'E' ticket at Magerock Mountain. FRED (getting out) Gets the old adrenaline going, Barn. Us big executives, we need that kind of jolt to get the old wheels turning. Lava comes INTO VIEW, carrying an armload of plans. LAVA Flintstone! Rubble! BARNEY Oh, hi, Mister Lava. LAVA Please, call me Jerry. Uncle -- I mean, Mister Slate told me to take you to your offices. If you'll follow me...? They move along. Fred notices a hotbed of activity nearby. Workers move scaffolding, animals labor. FRED Hey. What's going on? LAVA The Fibrerock assembly line. Unc -- Mister Slate's had a crew working on it all weekend. We're going to roll out the first sheets of Fibrerock by mid-week. FRED Yes, yes. Quick, dynamic entry into the marketplace. I approve. BARNEY But, Fred, it's right where the employee basketball court used ta be -- (CONTINUED) 52.103 CONTINUED: (2) 103 FRED Hey, you're right... (resigned) ... Big business is hell, Barney. Trust me... you'll get used to it. BARNEY I guess so. You already did. Lava leads them to a wood-sided trailer. LAVA Well, gentlemen, here you are. As soon as you're settled, come over to the assembly line. We'll go over the Fibrerock formula before the first run. He goes off. Fred and Barney go --104 INSIDE TRAILER 104 There're two tiny little desks at the far end, separated by a flimsy divider. The single window here looks out over the quarry scrap heap. (As we watch, somebody dumps a load of debris.) Threadbare furniture on a worn rug sits under a portrait of "Our Founder" (Slate).105 BACK TO SCENE 105 Fred and Barney look at all this in turn. Pause. Then they whirl, give each other high-fives. BARNEY All-right! FRED Welcome to the top -- partner. And as they shake, we -- CUT TO:106 MONTAGE - ASSEMBLY LINE - DAY 106 Now, accompanied by heroic "industrial"-type MUSIC, we see the Fibrerock assembly line in full operation. This cannot be described now with appropriate justice, but it involves a series of animal-powered conveyor belts, Rube Goldberg-like funnels, spouts and chutes, and all sorts of gadgets, gizmos, bells and whistles, to wit: (CONTINUED) 53.106 CONTINUED: 106 At one end of the building, dino-powered dumpsters and lifters drop off all the ingredients; these get stomped/ chewed/bashed and otherwise reduced to powder, which is then (courtesy of some squirting Mastodans) mixed with water into a foam, which bubbles through a long sawmill- type trough and is held back by a gate. Meanwhile, we see a sample item (in this case, a stone sofa) as it is placed before two "goatasauruses" which butt heads and smash the sofa between the two halves of a clay mold. When the mold is opened and the sofa tossed aside, Barney appears and personally "aims" the foam trough at a funnel in the top of the mold. Pausing to "taste" the mix, he smiles, then shouts -- BARNEY Ready... aim... fibre! Barney pulls a rope which opens the trough. "Fibrefoam" pours into the mold.107 THE CLAY MOLD 107 gets "winched" unpwards by monkeys, and then an alliga- torsaurus whaps it with its tail.108 BELOW 108 Presto! A Fibrerock copy of the stone sofa drops neatly out of the mold, bounces lightly on the conveyor belt below! It sparkles with the tell-tale celadon-green shimmer of Fibrerock. As it chugs along, the process repeats, and soon a score of identical sofas is in view.109 END OF ASSEMBLY LINE 109 as a beaming Fred watches, workers easily stack the Fibrerock sofas (often one-handed). Nearby, we see Fibrerock window frames, doors, chairs, etc.110 UP ANGLE - SLATE'S OFFICE BALCONY 110 Slate and Lava watch the progress, dollar signs in their eyes. DISSOLVE TO:111 LONG MATTE SHOT - SLATE QUARRY - LATE AFTERNOON 111 Fibrerock products are stacked up everywhere, stretching away like the inventory in Charles Foster Kane's warehouse. We see everything from Fibrerock bricks to Fibrerock table lamps to Fibrerock toilets. MUSIC OUT. 54.112 CLOSER - QUARRY YARD 112 Fred and Barney, weary, approach each other, shake hands as they view the day's incredible output. Other weary, but proud workers gather around them: Mr. Slate is about to address them from his office balcony. SLATE Men, this is a proud day for Slate Construction. You have seen the first pieces of Fibrerock roll off the assembly line and into history... a history you are all part of... thanks to your very own fellow worker, Fred Flintstone!113 WORKERS - FAVORING FRED AND BARNEY 113 They cheer Slate's remarks, pat Fred on the back.114 BACK TO SCENE 114 SLATE No longer will man and beast bend under the backbreaking load of stone and rock and timber... because Fibrerock is so light that even a child can handle it. (pause) That's why on Monday we're going to hire two dozen children from Bedrock Technical Junior High. They'll be replacing the 36 heavy equipment operators, 15 shaft diggers and 22 laborers we're laying off today. Your pink slips will be in your final pay envelopes along with a ticket to the grand opening of Slate City. It's non-transferable, so hang on to it. Thank you, and have a nice weekend.115 THE QUARRY YARD 115 The workers stand slack-jawed and stunned. WORKER #1 Laid off --? WORKER #2 Pink slip --? WORKER #3 Thanks to Fred Flintstone? (CONTINUED) 55.115 CONTINUED: 115 WORKER #4 Flintstone! What kinda shop steward are you? All eyes swivel and bore into Fred, who is as shocked as anyone. BARNEY Fred. You gotta do something about this! FRED I do? (realizing) I mean, I do, yeah! He squares his shoulders, marches off. BARNEY (proudly) That's my Fred...116 INT. SLATE'S OFFICE - DAY 116 Slate is practicing hitting golf balls into an automatic putting cup. Lava and some office workers are checking a blueprint against a model of "Slate City" which is made out of Fibrerock. A ball shoots back at Slate, who tees up again.117 INSIDE THE PUTTING CUP 117 A little MOUSE in a complete hockey outfit jumps to catch the ball. Stopping it with his little hockey stick, the Mouse gasps, raises its hockey mask. MOUSE Whew. And it's still pre-season. He whaps the ball to Slate again.118 BACK TO SCENE 118 Slate tees up the ball again. Fred barges in, banging the door. Startled, Slate drives the ball instead of putting it. It sails across the room and SHATTERS a PICTURE of Mrs. Slate. SLATE (furious) Flintstone! (CONTINUED) 56.118 CONTINUED: 118 FRED (undeterred) Mr. Slate -- we gotta talk -- SLATE We do, eh? About what? FRED About those guys outside, Mr. Slate. Some of 'em, well, they been here for years. And you, well, you can't lay them off just like -- (snapping fingers) -- that! Slate looks at Lava, who shrugs. Slate looks back at Fred, stays surprisingly calm. He toys with the putter, balances it on his palm. SLATE Of course I can, Fred. I can lay them off like -- (snapping fingers) -- that, or like -- (a different style snap) -- that, or like -- He does a really nifty snap which combines with a buck- and-wing with the putter. SLATE -- that. FRED (bravura slipping) Oh, you can, huh? LAVA Of course he can, Flintstone. It's his quarry. SLATE (still calm, warm) That's right. Why -- (chuckling) I could lock the front door and go fishing if I wanted! Lava laughs along with the office staff and Slate. Fred chuckles a little to fit in. (CONTINUED) 57.118 CONTINUED: (2) 118 SLATE (winking) Why, I could even fire Lava here if I wanted. Lava quivers with mock surprise. Everyone really laughs, now. SLATE Or... (wiping away a tear) I could fire you, Fred. FRED (guffawing) Me! Ah, ha, that's rich, Mr. Slate, that's -- Suddenly Fred stops laughing. SLATE Flintstone, Lava, here, recommended that you be in charge of public relations to get Fibrerock off to a good start. I'm a member of that public, Flintstone, and I have to say... this isn't a good start. I'm getting a bad feeling about Fibrerock. A bad feeling about... you. You want that feeling to go away, don't you? FRED Uh... well, gee, I... uh, yeah. SLATE Good. Then turn around and walk out of here and we'll forget all about this. Fred swallows, looks at Lava, goes meekly out.119 EXT. QUARRY YARD - DAY 119 All the Workers watch expectantly as Fred comes out. They AD LIB -- WORKERS Well? What'd he say...? Ol' Freddie boy told him a thing or two... Probably got us a raise... Right, Fred...? Fred...? (CONTINUED) 58.119 CONTINUED: 119 FRED Akkk... something... noble... man ... job... nose... wheel... shoulder... grindstone... hommm... yggggg... BARNEY (worried) Fred? Fred staggers over to his locker, opens it... gets in, and closes the door. We hear a MUFFLED SOB.120 A NEW ANGLE 120 As the workers slowly realize the mighty Casey has struck out. CUT TO:121 EXT. FLINTSTONE & RUBBLE LAWNS - DAY 121 Betty and Wilma stand, determined, while the kids gripe. PEBBLES But, Mommy, I wanna go roller skating... BAM-BAM (mouth full) Yeagh... 'hend thugh guys wher ghoing -- (swallow, munch) -- to play rockball at Paleolithic Park -- Betty wipes Bam-Bam's mouth, smiles sweetly. BETTY Well, you're both going to change your plans. Your new school is going to have a talent show... and you're going to have some talent. WILMA You don't have to win... honorable mention or most Kongenial Kids is perfectly acceptable. PEBBLES (aside) As long as we beat the pants offa Mrs. Slate's nephew... (CONTINUED) 59.121 CONTINUED: 121 WILMA Young lady, this is not about beating pants, this is about becoming a well rounded child. Now, what kind of act will you do? BAM-BAM How about a disappearing act? He takes a tentative step away but Betty grabs him. BETTY We're waiting. Pebbles and Bam-Bam sigh, huddle. We hear snatches of discussion... PEBBLES BAM-BAM ... Wanna recite something? Nah, what are we, little 'Inky Dinky Spidersaurus...'? kids? How 'bout magic tricks? We could cut up a newspaper -- PEBBLES But then we'd need a hammer BAM-BAM and chisel... oh, what about That dumb thing? You that thing with Dino? think so...? Pebbles turns, the decision made. PEBBLES Okay. We're gonna sing a song with Dino. Instantly, on cue, Dino leaps out of nowhere, holding a straw hat and a cane. Wilma and Betty look at each other, skeptical. Bam-Bam reaches into his shirt and takes out a whistle. He blows it -- PEBBLES A one-and-a-two and-a --122 WIDER 122 MUSIC comes UP and Dino and his little friends do a dance routine we will call "The Dino Dance." It is a spectac- ular blend of soft-shoe and the kind of dog-and-pony-show gags usually seen in the circus or on the Ed Sullivrock show. Most importantly, the routine includes the following: A) Dino leaps back and forth through a hoop. (CONTINUED) 60.122 CONTINUED: 122 B) The kids tie down a jump rope and Dino does a wire walk. C) And finally, Dino uses his tail to flip the kids onto his back, culminating in a big "ta-da" after they all slide down the rope for a big finish.123 NEW ANGLE 123 THE KIDS (winding up) You can keep the Twist, The Frug and Hop I don't need to Shimmy, I don't need to Bop 'Cause I'm doin' doin' doin' The Igneous Rock! Panting for breath, Pebbles, Bam-Bam and Dino wait for a reaction. BETTY (to Wilma, impressed) Well? Think they're ready for the talent show? WILMA I think they're ready for Rock Vegas. As they laugh and hug the kids and Dino, we -- CUT TO:124 EXT. LODGE HALL - THAT NIGHT 124 HERDMASTER (V.O.) Fellow Water Buffalo. In a few moments we will cast our votes for the lodge officers.125 INT. LODGE HALL 125 TIGHT ON Fred as he leans back in his usual chair. HERDMASTER The election committee will make the preparations. FRED (confident) Since when do you have to prepare for a landslide, right, guys? (CONTINUED) 61.125 CONTINUED: 125 Pause as Fred waits for a reply. He turns... SHOT WIDENS as he realizes no one is sitting near him. He looks around and sees --126 HIS POV - FRED'S POSTER 126 It's been altered to read "Fred Finkstone." Also added to Fred's image are horns, a beard and other choice touches.127 BACK TO SCENE 127 Fred looks around, sees Barney approaching, having just left a group of angry Buffalo. FRED Barn -- w-what's going on? BARNEY They're mad at you, Fred... it's understandable, I mean, they all got laid off today -- Fred crosses to the other guys, puts on a big smile. FRED Guys, guys, come on now -- what's a quarry fulla layoffs got to do with a lodge fulla Buffaloes? BARNEY Is that a riddle? Give me a second -- PYRITE (stepping forward) I'll tell ya what! Mosta the guys in this lodge work for Mr. Slate -- PILTDOWN -- You mean used to work for him -- until somebody opened their big mouth -- FRED Fellas, come on. We're all big boys here -- He gestures vaguely towards the outside world, then back to the little band of brothers here. FRED Surely we can separate in our minds work, and play... Job, and Lodge... (CONTINUED) 62.127 CONTINUED: 127 PILTDOWN (pointing at Fred) Candidate and double-crossing back stabber? (turning) Herdmaster! I move we commence the meeting... and the election! PYRITE I second the motion! HERDMASTER All in favor, say -- FRED Wait, wait... Your Antlerness, please, one second -- ! Fred grabs Barney by the shoulder, spins him around, pushes him forward like a refrigerator on a dolly, stands him up center stage. FRED Barney, you gotta tell the other guys what really happened. Tell 'em the story behind Fibrerock. The true story. The room quiets. Barney clears his throat. Fred waits, hopeful. BARNEY Well, there's not much to tell. (trying to remember Fred's phraseology) True, I got a cut... but Fred's got a gut. FRED No, no, the rest --! BARNEY Oh, yeah, I remember! I got the mind, but Fred's got the behind. Right, Fred? Barney turns, gives Fred a big wink. Fred groans. HERDMASTER Thank you, Brother Rubble. The Buffaloes will now have their secret vote. (a command) Fit... furs! (CONTINUED) 63.127 CONTINUED: (2) 127 Everyone pulls their horned fezzes down over their eyes. HERDMASTER Paw... ground! Everyone does a bull-like stomp and scrape. HERDMASTER All for Piltdown, bellow now! The room ECHOES with MOOSE-LIKE SNORTS. HERDMASTER All for Flintstone, bellow now! Fred snorts, sounding like Herb Alpert's lonely bull. Even under his furry fez we see him "looking around" desperately, hoping to hear one more snort. He kind of sneaks in one more forlorn grunt which fades away... finally, as Fred squirms miserably, there is one more lonely snort... ... from Barney, of course. HERDMASTER Order furs! The fezzes come up. HERDMASTER The snorts have it! Brother Piltdown, it is my privilege to install you as the new Exalted Herdmaster Erect Antler and Big Buck of our Lodge. If you'll come forward, I will present you with the tokens of office. Cheers and applause as Piltdown goes to the podium.128 FAVORING FRED AND BARNEY 128 Fred's a broken man. Barney moves over, puts his arm around him. BARNEY I voted for you, Fred. FRED Big deal, after you screwed everything up in the first place...! Barney reacts, really hurt. He moves away on the bench. Fred's so agitated he doesn't even realize it. 64.129 WIDER 129 Piltdown accepts the festooned fez and shoulder ribbon, smiles at the group. PILTDOWN Thank you, Brother Chairman. Fellow Buffaloes, I'm a man of few words. It's no secret that most of our lodge members are also members of Amalgamated Neolithic 101... which means that most of us aren't gonna be able to make our cave payments next month. So my agenda for tonight... ends right now. There's a time to be a Buffalo... there's a time ta be a brown nosin' double-crossin' creep... All heads turn and swivel to look at Fred... swivel back. PILTDOWN ... and there's a time to stand up and be a man! So let's go down there and make the Slate shop into slate scrap... then we'll see how he gets along without the heavy equipment operators of Neolithic 101! Meeting adjourned! With angry grumbles and threats, the meeting breaks up. Fezzes are thrown into cubby holes and hard hats are slapped on. The Buffalo run out. When the dust clears, we see that only one member has avoided the herding instinct: Barney. Now, he turns, runs into --130 BUFFALO LODGE - RECREATION AREA - NIGHT 130 Fred is at the bar, opening a beer. He looks wistfully at the old, framed picture on the wall -- reacts as he sees --131 PICTURE 131 Even his childhood shot has been defaced.132 BACK TO SCENE 132 He sets his jaw with a "screw 'em" expression, downs his beer. Then Barney runs up, shakes him by the shoulders. (CONTINUED) 65.132 CONTINUED: 132 BARNEY Fred! Fred! The Buffalo are heading for big trouble -- ! FRED No kidding. They rejected the best candidate -- BARNEY No, no, not that! Piltdown's got the guys all worked up and they're heading down to the quarry! They're gonna wreck the assembly line! FRED (genuinely worried) Oh, no! That -- that's horrible! (pause) We could end up with half a percent of nothing! BARNEY No, Fred, if they do that they'll be breakin' the law! Our brother Buffalo could go to jail! FRED Oh, yeah, yeah, that, too... come on, Barn, we gotta stop 'em! CUT TO:133 EXT. SLATE QUARRY - NIGHT 133 Silent, empty. CAMERA PANS FROM the still yard TO the gate. Down the road, we see Piltdown leading the angry mob. Quickly, they go to the gate, climb up and over it! PILTDOWN Okay! Let's start with Slate's golf trophies and work our way up to the assembly line! AD LIB angry cheers, and the mob storms into the plant, knocking aside equipment and supplies.134 IN CAR - FRED AND BARNEY - NIGHT 134 Both pedaling like mad. (CONTINUED) 66.134 CONTINUED: 134 FRED I don't believe this... how did things ever get this out of hand -- ? BARNEY I know. Makes you wish things were back the way they were... before we was big executives. FRED Well, I wouldn't go that far... Suddenly they're interrupted by the sound of a SIREN. Fred looks back and sees --135 FELDSPAR AND GRAVEL 135 Coming up from rear. Feldspar grabs his megaphone as he pulls abreast of Fred. FELDSPAR Flintstone! Pull over! FRED Oh, no, not now... Feldspar signals Fred onto the shoulder. Fred smiles, nods...136 CLOSE ON FRED'S FEET 136 He slams them down through the floorboard --137 WIDER 137 Fred's CAR SKIDS, spins out, whirling around like a record on a turntable. It jerks to a halt 180 degrees later, and then ROARS off in the opposite direction.138 FELDSPAR 138 So astonished he follows this action with his head... a bad move because -- GRAVEL Sarge! Look out -- !139 NEW ANGLE 139 The patrol CAR runs off the road, CRASHING into a stone fire hydrant. Water squirts into the air. Feldspar and Gravel are drenched. They're just coming to their senses when the ground heaves -- the car's front wheels rise -- 67.140 NEW ANGLE 140 As we see that the water spout is actually coming from the blowhole of a whale which now sticks a bit of its head up from under the broken curb. WHALE I'm gonna sue you for everything you got -- CUT TO:141 SLATE QUARRY - NIGHT 141 Led by Piltdown, the workers have grabbed a big timber which they're using like a battering ram on the doors of the assembly line building. Suddenly, with a crash, the doors go down! Piltdown and Pyrite stand back while the angry workers rush past them. PILTDOWN (loudly) Now we'll show 'em who's boss! PYRITE They can't push us around! Piltdown and Pyrite smash a few items to get everybody juiced up, and then... when no one is looking... ... they slip out the back!142 REAR OF QUARRY - NIGHT 142 Fred pulls into the lot, slams his feet down to stop -- we hear SKIDDING -- they fishtail all over, slam right through a storage area for crates and barrels which collapse all around them. Finally they slam broadside into the main Quarry build- ing, knocking a hole in the wall.143 NEW ANGLE 143 Fred and Barney cough in the rising dust. Neither one of them sees what we see, which is that visible in the hole in the wall is the Slate Company's granite-doored safe... ... and right beside it is the Xenosaurus, which now jumps up, startled, dropping a crowbar and a big hand drill. Recovering its composure, the Xenosaurus grabs up the tools as well as a big canvas bag and tiptoes away, vanishing just as our heroes stir. (CONTINUED) 68.143 CONTINUED: 143 FRED (double-taking) Barn! Did you see that -- ? (peering through the dust) -- Huh, now it's gone... I coulda sworn... BARNEY Come on Fred. Time to earn those big bucks. They rush into the plant.144 INT. ASSEMBLY LINE - NIGHT 144 As the workers continue their rampage, Piltdown and Pyrite reappear. PYRITE Darn that Flintstone and Rubble... they're gonna screw everything up... PILTDOWN Not if we give 'em a nice long vacation... in the hospital. Saying this, he grips tightly on a wrench. Then some rampaging workers rush by. Piltdown gives them an encour- aging cheer, and then he and Pyrite lead them up some stairs to the assembly line catwalk. There, Pyrite begins SMASHING some LIGHT FIXTURES with a club, while Piltdown uses brute strength to snap big support beams which he flings below.145 CLOSE - PYRITE 145 Winds up for another baseball-type swing -- but as he follows through, the ball-shaped light fixture jerks up on its cable. Unable to stop in time, Pyrite spins around, falls on his ass. Barney drops down INTO VIEW, hanging horizontally from the rafters. He's holding the light fixture with his free hand. BARNEY Stee-rike one! Heh-hey. Ready for a curve ball? Pyrite doesn't have a sense of humor; club in hand, he jumps up, starts chasing Barney through the rafters. 69.146 PILTDOWN 146 Spits on his hand, grabs another big beam. He pulls down on it... but it doesn't snap, it goes right up again. Puzzled, he pulls down on it again... there's another see-saw motion... ... This time Piltdown goes with the flow, pushes up and peers under the beam...147 NEW ANGLE 147 Fred is hanging on the other end. FRED Brother Piltdown... can we talk about this, antler to antler? Piltdown roars, begins slamming the girder up and down. FRED Guess not... Fred inches down the shuddering beam, jumps off. Freed of Fred's weight, the other end "BOINGS" down on Piltdown's head. He groans, recovers in time to chase after Fred.148 BARNEY AND PYRITE 148 Square off in the rafters. BARNEY Give me your best shot. Pyrite swings. Barney ducks and Pyrite SMASHES a WINDOW pane. Barney dodges again and the same thing happens. Getting cocky, Barney does it one more time... ... but this time the window is hinged in the center and the swivel action after the hit whaps Barney on the back and knocks him into Pyrite's next blow.149 FRED 149 Is backpedaling away from Piltdown on the upper super- structure of the assembly line. Fred scrapes one foot in an arc in front of him. FRED Dare you to cross that line. Piltdown crosses it. FRED That line. (CONTINUED) 70.149 CONTINUED: 149 Piltdown crosses it. Fred "marks" another one. Piltdown doesn't even wait for the challenge, takes a giant step. Oops. Bad idea: The last "line" was at the edge of a straight drop! Piltdown yelps, "treads air" in the best cartoon manner -- and then desperately grabs a handful of Fred's clothing! Both men fall -- at the last minute Piltdown catches a ladder!150 BELOW - ASSEMBLY LINE 150 Fred lands with a thud right in the clay mold used to form the Fibre products! Worse, the impact arouses the goatasauruses out of their sleep. Dutifully, they rise, and then ram both sides of the mold just as Fred is struggling to his feet! Fred's yell is muffled by the clay.151 OTHER ASSEMBLY LINE ANIMALS 151 Aroused by the "start up" of the assembly line, they do their job. Fibre foam begins to chug down the trough: The alligator crane picks up the mold, shakes it.152 FRED 152 is flung to the conveyor belt, stiffly caked in clay.153 THE FIBRE MOLD 153 shudders -- and shakes out a Fibre statue of... Fred!154 BELOW 154 The real Fred, moving stiffly like a robot, is getting to his feet when his Fibre doppleganger slams him to the mat again! A moment later, another "Fred" drops down beside him.155 PILTDOWN 155 Has descended the ladder, hopping mad. Now, he sees Fred coming toward him... Piltdown breaks a big lever off the equipment, swings -- reacts astonished as "FRED" SHATTERS.156 FRED 156 Back down the line, he's seen this. His clay-caked Adam's apple gulps. Quickly, he turns and tries to "tip-toe" away -- then, with a CREAK and CRUNCH -- the clay and Fibre all over him solidifies! Desperate, he tries to move... can't! 71.157 PILTDOWN 157 Watches, confused, as dozens of Fred Flintstones chug towards him on the belt. He shrugs, smashes the next one in line. Another phoney. He smashes the next one... CUT TO:158 UP ABOVE - BARNEY 158 Dodging Pyrite's renewed attack. Now, Barney becomes aware of the activated assembly line. Getting an idea, he moves behind an inspection table, grabs a big rubber stamp. Pyrite comes around the corner... Barney's head butts him in the gut, dodges under his legs! Then, as Pyrite stumbles, Barney stamps his ass with the word "REJECT." Pyrite looks back, sees this, reddens... raises his club. PYRITE Reject, huh? Whaddya say we reject your head? He raises the club... when an alligator swings down and grabs him by the seat of his pants! Pyrite drops the club, howls --159 WIDER 159 The alligator crane swings him away and over a big bin marked REJECTS -- and drops him. Howling, Pyrite falls into a big bin of broken and defective Fibrerock goods.160 BARNEY 160 Chuckles to himself... and then looks down, reacts. CAMERA ADJUSTS and we see that Piltdown has smashed yet another of the duplicate Freds. Worried, Barney looks around, sees that he's just above the Fibrefoam chute. Without another thought, he jumps into it -- slides downward like a passenger on the Magerock Mountain Log Flume ride --161 BELOW 161 Piltdown is about to swing at the real Fred -- when Barney sails out of the end of the chute and slams into him and Fred! All three of them roll across the floor towards -- 72.162 THE END OF THE BUILDING 162 where a squad of policemen has just appeared -- led by a dripping wet Feldspar and Gravel! FELDSPAR All right! You're all under arr -- Wham! Barney, Fred and Piltdown roll right into the cops, who go flying like (what else?) tenpins, complete with appropriate sound. BARNEY (sitting up) Whattya know. Even got the spare again... Then he gasps as he looks over at Fred, whose head has just fallen off! Pause. Fred's real head slowly pokes up out of the clay and Fibre shoulders. Before he can extricate himself further, Feldspar and his men are dragging them out of the building. CUT TO:163 INT. BEDROCK POLICE STATION - NIGHT 163 Wooden bars delineate the holding cells. "Wanted" posters of stone are hanging on the walls. As we watch, the contrite buffalos are bailed out by friends and relations. Wilma and Betty are just now clunking down stone money on the night sergeant's desk. BETTY Barney, I don't understand... what came over you boys? EXITING BUFFALO 'Night, Barney. (to Fred) So long, fatso. BUFFALO #2 See ya, Barn. (pause) Flintstone, you're dead meat. BUFFALO #2 'Night, pal. 'Night, slimeball. WILMA Fred, is there something you want to tell me about the lodge meeting? (CONTINUED) 73.163 CONTINUED: 163 FRED I don't wanna talk about it. Besides, who cares about a bunch of jerks running around with furs on their heads? I'm more of a country club guy myself anyway... He goes out, hardly looking at Barney. Wilma and Betty look at each other, mystified... then Wilma follows Fred out, puzzled.164 EXT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT 164 Lava stands in the shadows beside his Porscherock. Piltdown and Pyrite are with him. In the b.g., Fred and Wilma drive away. LAVA A simple little heist -- I gave you everything but the keys and you blew it -- PILTDOWN Hey, we got the union guys to break in and create a distraction, didn't we? Who knew Flintstone and Rubble would show up, too? LAVA The day after Slate City opens there's going to be an audit. If the stuff isn't gone by then we'll all be doing time until the Bronze Age. PYRITE Don't worry, Mister Lava... we're on top of it. They both turn and start down an alley... jamming together as they do. Lava sighs... then jumps as Barney comes up behind him and taps him on the shoulder. BARNEY Excuse me, Mister Lava -- ? I think you oughta know... something could be wrong with the Fibrerock mix. LAVA (thrown) How do you know that? (recovering) I mean... ah, why do you say that? (CONTINUED) 74.164 CONTINUED: 164 BARNEY It tastes different. LAVA Tastes... different? BARNEY Yup. See, ever since I started with Fibrerock -- I mean, since me and Fred started with it, I always take a little taste of the Fibre foam. And tonight's batch, well... I didn't get much of it, but it seems a little off. (smacking his lips) Can't fool the old taste buds, heh-heh. I think there might be an ingredient missing. So tomorrow, I'll run a couple of tests and stuff -- LAVA Rubble, Rubble! We're fighting a deadline to finish Slate City... and we're not pulling the plug on production to satisfy your tastebuds! If you ask me, you and your tastebuds are overworked ... overwrought... how long have you been with us, anyway? BARNEY Nine days, Mister Lava. LAVA Jumping Jurrasic, no wonder you're so run down. He puts his arm around Barney, leads him towards the car where Betty is waiting. LAVA I'm authorizing a nice vacation for you, Rubble. Starting tomorrow. You can catch some rays, maybe invent something... hey, how about Fibrerock, the sequel, part II -- ? BARNEY But -- LAVA No, don't try and thank me. CUT TO: 75.165 INT. SLATE'S OFFICE - DAY 165 Slate and Lava are examining a newer and larger model of Slate City. It's even more grandiose than its predecessor. Now the housing development has two huge office buildings beside it, and then a convention center beyond that. LAVA ... As you can see, the Fibrerock is so light we're using it for construction, for furnishings... for everything. You can't stack a two-bedroom cave this high... but the sky's the limit with Fibrerock! SLATE 'Sky's the limit'... 'sky's the limit'... why, these two buildings, they... they practically scrape the sky! We should call them... Slate scrapers! LAVA That's brilliant, Unc... Mister Slate. In fact, maybe you can help me with the centerpiece of the complex... (indicating the convention center) ... I wanna call 'em the FibreSphere and the '____' something Needle... but I just can't... SLATE (modestly) How about, 'Slate Needle'? LAVA 'Slate Need...' (astonished) ... How do you keep coming up with these? It's uncanny. SLATE (shrugging) It's a gift... LAVA (casually) Oh, that reminds me, sign these, will you... just a few overruns ... minor cost problems... that's it... thank you... (CONTINUED) 76.165 CONTINUED: 165 Slate's so busy admiring his moment to himself he hardly listens to what Lava's saying, just runs his stylus through the wet clay of the statements, meanwhile "framing" the model city in his hands. LAVA (heading for the door) ... Oh, Mister Slate, we're going to hold the Bedrock Junior Talent Show in the uh, 'Slate Needle.' Good for public relations -- Lava breaks off. He's just looked out the window and seen --166 LAVA'S POV - QUARRY BELOW WINDOW 166 A small figure appears behind some of the equipment, tiptoeing from console to cabinet and thus towards the assembly line. Wearing sunglasses with attached nose and a hook-on beard, it at first appears to be some sort of bizarre hermit or bum... and then we realize, hey, this is Barney!167 LAVA 167 Looks around, spots Piltdown and Pyrite, now resplendent in security guard uniforms. Lava whistles softly to get their attention, can't. Then he sees one of Slate's golf trophies. He shrugs, throws it.168 BELOW - PILTDOWN 168 Reacts as the trophy bounces off his head, then looks up to see Lava gesticulating. Piltdown nods, grabs Pyrite in tow.169 BARNEY 169 Looking around carefully, Barney takes out a Thermos bottle, unscrews the top, and quickly dunks it into the Fibrerock foam. Then he tiptoes O.S., right into the massive bulk of --170 PILTDOWN 170 -- who looks down at him with a big smile, Pyrite at his side. PILTDOWN Can we help you... sir? (CONTINUED) 77.170 CONTINUED: 170 BARNEY (fake crotchety voice) Ah, yup, yup, young feller... jest show me the way to the personnel office... I'm lookin' fer a job as a custodian... PYRITE Our pleasure. Then they grab Barney with such force that the THERMOS drops and SHATTERS, drag him O.S. --171 SLATE QUARRY - MAIN GATE - DAY 171 Barney is tossed outside, landing in a heap amidst the picketing workers of Neolithic 101. PILTDOWN (chuckling) Ya can start by cleaning the street with your pants! Still laughing, Piltdown and Pyrite cross over to Lava, who has come out of the office building. LAVA That takes care of the half-pint. (pause) Now to deal with the half-wit. CUT TO:172 INT. LAVA'S OFFICE - DAY 172 Lava walks Fred from the door into the color-coordinated high-style room. FRED (on the move) ... But Barney doesn't want to take a vacation -- he says he's gotta be here to check up on the Fibrefoam -- LAVA (pointedly) -- Oh? Or check up on us? Emotionally, Lava turns, indicates a picture of Slate on the wall. (CONTINUED) 78.172 CONTINUED: 172 LAVA Flintstone, that... that's a slap in the face of our founder... our employer... our uncle. (turning back, another tone) Unless, of course, you agree with Rubble... that Mister Slate isn't capable of running this operation ... that I'm not capable of running it? FRED (nervous) Of course not, Mister Lava. But -- LAVA Call me Jerry. Sit down, please... Fred complies. Lava winces as his designer FURNITURE CREAKS under Fred's weight, but he only says -- LAVA (offering one) ... Cigar? FRED Why, yeah, sure, Jerry. LAVA Fred, let me get to the bottom slime. Some men -- you and me, for instance -- we're cut out for the big time, the big bucks... (eyeing Fred's girth) ... the big everything. Lava smiles, prepares the tips on two cigars. He puts each one in turn in a gizmo on his desk.173 CLOSER - GIZMO 173 It's actually a frame supporting a little LIZARD. The Lizard bites the tip off the cigar, practically chokes on it, finally manages to spit it out with difficulty. LIZARD (aside) When they say smoking is bad for your health, they're not kidding... 79.174 BACK TO SCENE 174 LAVA And others? Wellll... Now Lava takes out a lighter, leans across the desk.175 CLOSER - LIGHTER 175 As Lava works the mechanism, two wooden twigs rub rapidly across each other and ignite.176 BACK TO SCENE 176 LAVA ... Now, I know your pal Barney had a small part in the preliminary research and development of Fibrerock... FRED Well, actually, I wouldn't say small part... I'd say... LAVA Yes? FRED ... Kind of a medium-sized... well, almost medium-sized... well, really a semi-partial assistant counsulting type, of -- LAVA (giving Fred a playful punch) You're too kind, Flintstone, that's what I like about you. But you're a big guy with a big decision to make. Are you gonna keep covering for Barney, keep pulling his acornsauruses out of the fire... or are you going to concentrate on your own important duties? FRED Well, gee, that's tough one -- (pause) -- Uh, what are my important duties? LAVA Publicity, Flintstone, publicity! (MORE) (CONTINUED) 80.176 CONTINUED: 176 LAVA (CONT'D) And that's why I've got a little surprise for you... for the man who made Fibrerock a household word, I want you to meet the man who's going to make you a household word... Lava throws the door open. Fred's jaw drops as he sees -- FRED R-rockin' Leach? Indeed, it is he, and he smiles, extends his hands. LEACH 'Ello, Fred. I've 'eard a lot h'about you from Mister Lava. H'at's why we're going to put you on our program. FRED M-me? On -- on television? LAVA (patting his back, sotto) Right, Fred. As long as you forget all this nonsense about Barney. FRED (still in a dazed thrill) Barney who? CUT TO:177 EXT. FLINTSTONE HOUSE - DAY 177 Three big dino-mounted trucks are parked in front. You have to read the words on all three: "ROCKSTYLES OF..." "THE RICH..." "AND FAMOUS." Technicians roll out gear, set up big spotlights, etc.178 CLOSER - YARD 178 Rockin' Leach is surveying the place with an aide. Fred and Wilma are with them. Leach makes a "frame" with his hands, "pans" the area. (CONTINUED) 81.178 CONTINUED: 178 LEACH Hmm. Lovely little guest 'ouse, Mister Flintstone. So simple, so ordinary, so unexceptional... why, h'it's almost quaint. Let's say we start with the camera 'ere, except... Leach breaks off, looks over the fence at the Rubble homestead. He shakes his head sadly. FRED W-what's wrong? LEACH Well, just look at that yard over there... barbecues and trikes, not exactly the right image... FRED (pointing) Maybe you could move those plants to block them out...? LEACH Good idea. Rodney, get 'hoppin' with those greens. The aide nods, gathers some workers. They start moving the potted plants. Puzzled, Wilma comes over. WILMA Fred, this was supposed to be a 'typical evening' at the Flintstones, and you invited fifty people I don't even know. Now what's going on? Where are they taking my ficus-sauruses? FRED It's the Rubble yard, Wilma. It's just not the right image... He starts away, suddenly notices his own barbecue and trikes... quickly, without missing a stride, he tosses a tarp over them, slides a potted plant over for good measure.179 BARNEY AND BETTY'S HOUSE - SAME TIME 179 Betty, hair and face done, but still in a slip, is putting a reluctant Bam-Bam into a cute little blazer. In the f.g., Barney finishes tying a black tie, then struggles into a dinner jacket. (CONTINUED) 82.179 CONTINUED: 179 BETTY I don't know why you want to go to this thing... after the way Fred's been treating you lately -- BARNEY Fred's in a high-powered executive job, Betty. There's a lot of pressure on him. BETTY Yeah... and it's all around his belt. If it wasn't for poor Wilma I wouldn't give him the Geological Time -- BARNEY Trust me, Betty. After the Fibrerock debut, he'll be the same old Fred. Both react to the sound of HAMMERING and SAWING. Curious, they go out the sliding bedroom door into the yard and see --180 THEIR POV - THE FENCE 180 The television crew has just finished nailing boards up over the top of the fence. Now the big potted plants are dropped into place. With each hammer stroke or thud a little more of the late afternoon sun is shut off until Barney and Betty are in shadow. Finally a canvas tarp is tossed as gracefully as pizza dough, sails into the Rubble yard and covers their bird bath. One last stray end lands on Barney's head. CUT TO:181 QUICK CUTS - FLINTSTONE YARD - ANGLE ON "KLEIG LIGHTS" 181 Inside each one, a little BIRD in hardhat and smoked visor lights up the arc, gets knocked on his butt when it catches. BIRD (slowly getting up) I've heard of a flash in the pan, but this is ridiculous...182 ON DINO 182 He's squirming uncomfortably under the attentions of two crew members who are busy with scissors and combs and brushes. (CONTINUED) 83.182 CONTINUED: 182 Finally, they're done and leave him. He has been cut and trimmed like a French poodle. He gets a glimpse of himself in the swimming pool and freaks out. Then he arches his back, shakes out the hairstyle.183 CLOSER ON ROCKIN' LEACH 183 The MAIN TITLE of the show can be heard O.S. ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And now... the man who brings you the romance and excitement you crave... from the casinos of Monte Carlrock to the glamour of Hollyrock, here's your guide to the Rockstyles of the Rich and Famous, Rockin' Leach! Leach takes his cue from the director -- LEACH (INTO CAMERA) Good evening. Tonight we come to you live from the ah... charming pied a terre of the man of the 'our, Fred Flintstone -- Leach pauses, hearing the sound of someone CHIPPING AWAY at a stone tablet... he looks up at --184 HIS POV - FRED 184 He has just carved "FREDERICK" into a stone cue card and points to it.185 BACK TO SCENE 185 LEACH 'Ere we are at the 'ome of Bedrock's man o' the 'our, Frederick Flint-- More CHIPPING. Leach looks up and sees:186 HIS POV - FRED 186 Now he's carved something grander. Leach sighs, goes on. LEACH 'Ere we are at the fabulous 'ome of Bedrock's man o' the 'our, Frederick von Flintstone -- 84.187 NEAR THE HOUSE 187 Barney and Betty appear, Bam-Bam in tow. They come out into the yard. Betty waves at Wilma, who comes over, whispers. WILMA Thank heaven. There isn't one person I know here. BARNEY You mean beside Fred? WILMA I mean including Fred. They look over at --188 THE SET 188 Where Leach has pulled Fred on camera. Fred is posing, fluffing his ascot, etc. We notice a "FVF" embroidered patch on his jacket. LEACH Frederick, of course, is the man behind Fibrerock -- the invention that some predict will revolutionize life in the future. Frederick, 'ow does it feel to know that you 'ave personally brought the Stone Age as we know it to a long-deserved end? FRED (very affected accent) Well, Rockin', you're right, I have affected destiny for all mankind, and it's a sobering thought. However, if I may add a personal note at this time, I myself cannot personally take all the credit for Fibrerock...189 WILMA, BARNEY, BETTY 189 react with hopeful expressions -- BARNEY (sotto, to them) See? What'd I tell ya? 85.190 BACK TO SCENE 190 FRED No, I could never have done it without the inspiration and support of a very special person. I'm speaking, of course, of my close friend and associate, Mister Slate, founder and C.E.O. of Slate Construction...191 WILMA, BARNEY, BETTY 191 Barney's face falls. So do Wilma and Betty's. CUT TO:192 EXT. SLATE CITY - NIGHT 192 Slate City! In the far future, Manhattan will have New Jersey... Philadelphia will have Levittown... L.A. will have Burbank... but today Bedrock has... Slate City!193 CLOSE ON "SLATE NEEDLE" AND FIBRESPHERE 193 Both decorated in pennants and bunting, connected to each other by a gangway six stories up. Block letters on the Fibresphere proclaim "Slate Construction brings you THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF FIBRE." A heroic statue of Slate himself stands close by the structures. (Sphere and needle, of course, are dead on parodies of the Trylon and Perisphere, centerpieces of the '39 World's Fair.) A limousine pedaled by two chauffeurs pulls up. Mr. and Mrs. Slate and Lava, and Lava's son, POINDEXTER, get out. It is immediately evident that the little obnoxious acorn hasn't fallen far from the tree. POINDEXTER Wow! Is this ever keen! Dad, you promise I can cut in all the lines? LAVA Of course, Poindexter, of course. They head for the mastodon and pully-powered elevator. Standing there are Piltdown and Pyrite, both in security guard uniforms. (Piltdown is carrying a vaguely-familiar satchel). Lava gives them a big look. They nod. As the elevator rises, his two cronies duck into a stairwell marked "NO ADMITTANCE." CUT TO:194 RESUME - FLINTSTONE HOUSE 194 The party is in full swing. (CONTINUED) 86.194 CONTINUED: 194 We see Pebbles and Bam-Bam squirming uncomfortably in their party clothes. They take some canapes off of a table, take a bite... spit them out.195 FRED 195 Stands beaming, nodding to his guests. FRED Hello, hello. Bon soir. Good to see ya... glad you could make it... GUEST (unconvincingly) Hello, Frank... FRED Fred -- there's the bar, make yourself at home -- mi casa es votre casa, so, when in Rome and all that -- WILMA (coming over) Fred, can I talk to you -- ? Fred? Fred? (concerned) We have a serious problem with Betty and Barney. FRED (alarmed) You mean you can see their house -- ? WILMA (exasperated) I mean you're treating them horribly! What's come over you, Fred? Does a little money mean so much to you that you just turn your back on the things that really count? FRED Wilma, I'm shocked. I wouldn't do that. Okay, I admit it: I'm trying to make an impression here, I wanna look good, I wanna be a success... He takes her hand, looks into her eyes. For a moment, Wilma's face softens. (CONTINUED) 87.195 CONTINUED: 195 FRED ... But deep down inside, I'm still the same lovable guy you married -- (pause) -- Frederick von Flintstone the third -- WILMA Arrrgh -- ! She throws up her hands, stalks away. FRED What'd I say?196 PRODUCTION ASSISTANT 196 Hangs up the sea shell phone, runs over to Leach. P.A. That was our location guy at Slate City. They just moved the ribbon cutting up by an hour. Guests are already starting to arrive. LEACH Fabulous! I've 'ad enough crab meat and crabgrass to last me a year. All right, boys, that's a wrap!197 FRED 197 In the middle of a tight little group which is pigging out. Fred seems oblivious to the fact that they're oblivious to him. FRED ... Yas, yas, it's a challenging commodity market these days. Personally, I'm considering petrified forests, but they do say that volcano futures are ready to explode, ha, ha... Suddenly Fred notices that his "audience" has evaporated. He looks around, sees everyone headed for their cars, the TV crew packing up, etc. FRED ... Hey, whoa, what's happening -- (CONTINUED) 88.197 CONTINUED: 197 LEACH'S AIDE What's happening isn't happening here. The action's over at Slate City. Oh, thanks for the booze, Ed -- FRED Fred! He stumbles through the thinning crowd, clutching at elbows. FRED Hey, what's the hurry? We got a cake shaped like a piece of Fibrerock... I got it, how about some charades? No, even better, twenty questions: 'Am I animal, mineral, or fossil'...? Oh, I heard a great one the other day ... a guy walks in a bar with a duckasaurus on his head and the bartender says -- this'll kill you, the bartender says -- Fred stops, running out of steam along with his moment of glory. He stands alone on the lawn. Wilma slowly comes up to him. WILMA Fred... I... I'm sorry it's not working out... Fred turns, puts on a big smile. FRED Whaddya mean, not working out? They're goin' party hopping, that's all. That's what ya do in society, Wilma... you cruise around. They'll go over to Slate's shindig for a while, then they'll come back here. WILMA Fred... FRED You go on over to Slate City, okay? WILMA Fred, I want to be here with you -- (CONTINUED) 89.197 CONTINUED: (2) 197 FRED Nah, me and some of the guys from the country club, we're gonna play poker, yeah, big stakes poker until everybody comes back. Go on with the others. The kids got their show to put on anyway... and I wouldn't want people to think... to think the Flintstones were party poopers. She doesn't know what to say, or what she can say that won't shatter his shaky image. She sighs, kisses him, then calls out. WILMA Come on, Pebbles. We're going to another party. PEBBLES Will there be real food there? WILMA We'll find out together. She takes the girl's hand and goes to the door, where the last of Leach's crew is just going out. Suddenly Betty catches up to her, Bam-Bam in tow. BETTY Wilma, wait. I'm going with you. WILMA Why? BETTY If friends can't do something stupid, who can? Wilma smiles, touched. BETTY Besides... (lowering her voice) ... Maybe if we leave the boys alone...? Wilma nods, hopeful.198 EXT. FLINTSTONE HOUSE - NIGHT 198 The film crew caravan is already leaving as Wilma, Betty and the kids get into the Rubble car. The last TV crew- man extinguishes the big spotlight. The house is dark, forlorn in the fading twilight. 90.199 REAR OF YARD - NIGHT 199 Fred sits forlorn in the rubble of his party. Dino comes over, nuzzles his leg. FRED Just you and me now, Dino. Yeah. That's okay. Man and man's best friend. He gives Dino one of the canapes. Dino tastes it, makes a face, spits it out. DINO runs off, going "PTOOIE" all the way. We see him run to the corner, jump in Betty's car and drive away.200 FRED 200 sighs, looks around, down at his blazer and the "FVF" patch. He suddenly rips it off in a fury. Then he looks at --201 THE WALL IN FRONT OF BARNEY'S PROPERTY 201202 BACK TO SCENE 202 Fred stares at it, his face slowly darkening. Then he grabs a lawn chair from the yard, begins to smash it in a fury against the divider. The wall cracks, splinters; the potted plants go flying.203 FRED 203 His anger spent, he stands panting, splattered with dirt... then he sees --204 NEW ANGLE - ANOTHER DIRT-COVERED FIGURE 204 -- standing in the ruins of the wall. The figure sneezes, whacks dirt off of itself. It's -- FRED (disbelieving) B... Barney? BARNEY (moving closer) Hiya, Fred. (noticing his ruined tuxedo) Boy, the rental place is gonna be mad... (eyeing the mess) ... You feeling better, pal? (CONTINUED) 91.204 CONTINUED: 204 FRED 'Pal'? How can you call me that? Barney, I... I've been such a... such a... such a... BARNEY Creep? FRED Well, yeah. But more of a -- BARNEY (helpful tone) Fool? FRED Well -- BARNEY Slimeball? Louse? Jackass? (snapping fingers) Stuck-up blimpasaurus? FRED (wincing, but taking it) Barney... can... can you ever forgive me for being such a jerk? BARNEY (stepping closer) Sure, Fred. (smiling) I've had lots of practice. FRED (touched) Aw, Barn... And he grabs Barney in a big bear hug. Tears in both their eyes, they slap each other on the back, two prehistoric sensitive guys. CUT TO:205 FIBRESPHERE & SLATE NEEDLE - NIGHT 205 Little cupola cars are chugging around the upper level of the Fibresphere, where they enter a tunnel-like open- ing labeled "THE WORLD OF FIBRE." Wilma, Betty, the kids and Dino are in one of these. Now, we FOLLOW them as they chug into -- 92.206 THE FIBRESPHERE "WORLD OF FIBRE" RIDE 206 The cupolas rattle along in Disneyland style, passing a sign which reads: "FIBREROCK--TRANSFORMING THE HOME." Here, mechanical figures in an all-Fibre home move klutzily around the room. RECORDING (V.O.) (a la 'The Great Gildersleeve') Welcome! Welcome to the fabulous world of tomorrow... a world brought to you by Fibrerock!207 REVERSE ANGLE 207 REVEALING that behind the hollow shells of the human family is a veritable family of monkeys, all working the figures like puppets. A PARROT at a stand-mounted microphone is giving the narration. PARROT (RECORDING) (V.O.) Here, we see a typical family of the future, free of the cares and worries of today... yes, the great kibble crisis is a thing of the past when you're living the good life... the Fibrelife!208 NEXT EXHIBIT 208 The CARS CHUG past a display of tree trunks, leaves, bubbling gunk... and those iridescent vegetable pearls we've come to know... coo-coo berries. Iron bars and vault-like doors separate the coo-coo berries from the other items. ANOTHER PARROT Here, gathered from the four corners of the globe, are the secret ingredients of Fibrerock... some common, some rare... all making life easier for you and yours!209 THIRD EXHIBIT 209 The little CARS CHUG into an elegant salon, complete with runway. There's another PARROT here in front of another megaphone, but this parrot is chic and flamboyant. FASHION PARROT But does Fibrerock belong only in the kitchen, the garage, the workplace? No, no, no, my darlings! 93.210 FASHION MODELS ON RUNWAY 210 As each girl struts forward, she shrugs off a bulky animal fur and tosses it into a garbage can. Underneath are all kinds of daring and tantalizing fashions woven in the tell-tale fibre colors. The clothes are a blend of the future and retro (that is, prehistoric retro). FASHION PARROT Because the clothes of the Stone Age are as extinct as stones themselves! Yes, thanks to the wonder of Fibrerockfibre, the world of high fashion will be totally transformed... by Fibre furs... Fibre frocks... Fibre foundations and Fibreshoes... it's to die for!211 FOURTH EXHIBIT 211 Now, we see a display of Fibrerock props of all kinds -- appliances, toys, tools, etc... all of it upstaged by a choir consisting of every animal, bird and critter we've seen in this film. Wilma, Betty, the kids and Dino ooh and ahh with the other guests as the mechanical animals all sing in unison -- FIBRE CHOIR (V.O.) 'It's a Fibre World you know, It's a Fibre World you know, It's a Fibre World you know -- ' CUT TO:212 INT. BARNEY'S WORKSHOP - NIGHT 212 Fred and Barney are surrounded by books and cartons and memorabilia. They have their arms around each other and are singing. FRED & BARNEY 'Now it's time to do or die, grab that rock and kick it high, let's fight, fight, fight for Bedrock High!' They break up laughing. Fred chuckles, looks at one of the many old photographs strewn around. FRED Boy, those were the days, Barney. Bedrock High winning all those games... and you and me right in the middle of it. 94.213 NEW ANGLE - FAVORING PHOTO 213 The photograph (dots in stone) shows the young Fred and Barney in their cheerleading costumes. Barney has a sweater and megaphone; Fred is in a Godzilla-like "mascot" costume. He's holding the hideously-sculpted head under his arm. BARNEY Yeah. Too bad we never made the team. FRED So what? We made the team spirit. That's just as important... whatever happened to those cheerleader costumes? BARNEY You know Betty. She never throws anything away. He hauls out an old footlocker, opens it. There they are. FRED (rummaging in it) Boy. Talk about memories. Fred tosses the cheerleader sweater to Barney, who grins, pulls it on. Fred also starts to get into his old "uniform," but has to suck his gut in mightily. Finally, he can zip it up, stern to stem. FRED Back then, we thought a pop quiz was a big problem. We didn't know how good we had it. No problems, no worries... Saying this, Fred attempts to put on the Godzilla-like head. He has a hard time sliding it into a hinge rail behind his neck, an even harder time swinging it down and forward. BARNEY Speaking of problems and worries, shouldn't we get on over to Slate's party? Fred has finally "clinked" the monster head down into place. Now, when he talks, the monster's mouth moves in sync. (CONTINUED) 95.213 CONTINUED: 213 FRED (echo-y) What for? So him and all his fancy friends can look down their noses at us? Completely covered in the ferocious-looking suit, Fred steps over to Barney, stabs an angry claw in his direction. FRED (echo-y) All they've been doing is using us, Barney. And meanwhile -- Now Fred reaches up to take the head off. It sticks for a moment. Finally he gets it to flip back on its hinge where it hangs behind his neck like a ski parka hood. FRED (normal voice) -- Meanwhile all the time they were laughing at us. BARNEY Yeah? When did you notice that? FRED About an hour ago. BARNEY Boy, there's no fooling you, Fred. Suddenly, with a GROWING CREAKING, CRACKING and TINKLING, a scale model of Slate City in the corner begins to fall apart. Fred and Barney look at each other, startled, then rush over to the model. It's the interim version we saw earlier.214 CLOSER - MODEL 214 The decomposition continues, walls and supports turning into sand and running down before our eyes. In a Rube Goldberg-like continuum, the little houses go first, falling like dominoes... FRED Wha... what's happening? Barney tries to stop the process, can't. (CONTINUED) 96.214 CONTINUED: 214 BARNEY I... I don't know... the Fibrerock it's... it's decomposing... but this shouldn't happen... FRED Your old models are just fine...215 ANGLE 215 Indeed, the older models from Barney's tinkering days are rock solid.216 BACK TO SCENE 216 BARNEY It should be. There's enough coo-coo berry resin in there to petrify a brontosaurus -- Suddenly Barney gets it. He looks from the older models to the now decomposing little Fibresphere with growing awareness. BARNEY (snapping his fingers) -- The coo-coo berries! Fred, that's it! FRED What's it? BARNEY Remember I said the Fibrefoam tasted funny? It was the coo-coo sap that was missing! FRED But.. why would -- BARNEY Why? Because coo-coo berries are as valuable as goldrock! And we've had tons of 'em delivered to the plant since we started... somebody musta got greedy -- FRED -- Not 'somebody' -- Lava! BARNEY (alarmed) Fred, that sap acts as a fixative -- it's the glue that holds the whole formula together -- ! (CONTINUED) 97.216 CONTINUED: 216 FRED (with mounting concern) Then... what's happening here... BARNEY (finishing it) ... Is gonna happen for real in the real Slate City! FRED Oh no... Barney! Wilma and Betty -- and the kids -- they're all there -- With a final WHIMPER, the little FIBRESPHERE CAVES IN and then the nearby SLATE NEEDLE CRUMBLES, model story by model story. Finally the "DISK" on top of the needle is all that's left, wobbling around like a spun dinner plate. It finally falls... EXPLODES. FRED (worried) -- B-barney... what do we do? Barney runs to a locker, grabs a big plunger-powered flit gun, begins filling it with a red liquid. BARNEY Coo-coo berry sap, Fred! It's our only chance -- their only chance! Barney gives it a quick test squirt. Fred nods, and they rush out of the room. CAMERA PUSHES IN ON the ruins of the model "Slate City"... CUT TO:217 INT. SLATE NEEDLE - NIGHT 217 WIDEN FROM a young kid who is drinking a glass of water and simultaneously singing with a ventriloquist's dummy. Obviously, the talent show has begun. In the audience, Lava fidgets with nervous and confident energy... gives Wilma a big look. LAVA You're certainly looking lovely this evening, Mrs. Flintstone. Life with a junior executive must agree with you. (CONTINUED) 98.217 CONTINUED: 217 WILMA Uh... thank you... I think. LAVA (looking into her eyes) Yes. I think so, too. (smiling) Imagine how good you'd look with a senior executive. WILMA Oh? Is Fred getting promoted? Lava laughs, sure she's kidding... then not so sure. The ventriloquist finishes to scattered applause. The kid bows, gets up... splashes across puddles of water on the stage area. The Headmistress of L'ecole Superior et al steps up. Behind her, the picture window displays the expanse of Slate City: The twin Slatescrapers framing endless rows of little tract houses stretching to the distant volcanic ridge. HEADMISTRESS (as applause dies) Sank you, ladies and gentlemen. An' sank you, Monsieur Slate for zis lovely setting. Zoot alors, zis will ze mos' fantas'tic recital in Bedrock 'istoree. Now, I would like to sank out mos' generous benefactress, Madame Slate for her fine support o'vair zee years -- She gestures into the audience, where Mrs. Slate stands, waves a gloved hand like the Queen Mother. HEADMISTRESS -- An' now, what better introduction could we 'ave for Mrs. Slate's vairy own gran' nephew... Poindexter Lava! She steps aside. Curtain rises on little Poindexter. He is carrying a leather-and-bone accordion. He begins to play: POINDEXTER (singing loudly) 'Dino of Spain, I adore you Right from the moment I saw you -- ' 99.218 QUICK SHOTS - AUDIENCE 218 Their smiles become fixed. (Up on the spotlights, the little birds who operate the lights put earplugs in their ears.) In the wings with Pebbles and Bam-Bam, DINO MOANS, hides his head under his paws. On the refreshment table, GLASSES CRACK... a cake falls.219 CLOSE ON LAVA 219 He surreptitiously checks his wrist watch... CUT TO:220 INT. EMPTY FIBRERIDE - TIGHT ON ANOTHER WATCH - NIGHT 220 This one a pocket job. (Like Lava's, it's really a little sundial with a built-in burning match above it to provide a shadow!) We WIDEN, and see that this watch is held in a green, scaley claw.221 ANOTHER ANGLE 221 It's the xenosaurus, lurking behind the exhibits! Now, the CREATURE GRUNTS confidently, lights up a cigar. Then it picks up a canvas bag and a big toolbox and tiptoes into the deeper recesses of the Fibre ride. CUT TO:222 INT. FRED'S CAR - TRAVELLING 222 Fred and Barney rush along, Fred at the wheel. FRED What'll we do when we get there? BARNEY We just tell Mister Slate that all 500 acres of his development are going to crumble into dust any minute. (holds up the flit gun) Then we zap the stairs and corridors with some of this coo-coo sap. I just hope we have enough to get everybody out -- whoops! He's said this last because as he held up the flit gun, the handle whacked the back of Fred's monster costume, and the head has flipped down with a solid "clink." (CONTINUED) 100.222 CONTINUED: 222 FRED Barney -- ! (swerving all over the road) -- I can't see straight -- Barney gets up on his knees, grabs the wheel with one hand and the monster head with the other. BARNEY Hang on, hang on -- Oops. He rotates the head completely around. Fred flails around. Barney grabs the wheel with one hand, tries to help Fred with the other.223 EXT. CAR - NIGHT 223 It careens around even more wildly now. There's several near collisions. CUT TO:224 EXT. "ROCKDONALD'S" RESTAURANT - NIGHT 224 "Rockdonald's" is, of course, complete with golden arches of stone, a drive-up window, etc. It even has the oblig- atory cops on a break... in this case, Feldspar and Gravel. They're sitting in their patrol car eating from little bamboo containers shaped just like McDonald's Styrofoam. (Of course, the logo on the building behind them proudly reads "OVER 100 SOLD.") FELDSPAR (mouth full, bitching) Speed traps again! Face it, Gravel. I'm in a rut... and meanwhile, the guys who went through the academy with me, they're all big shots now: Sam Slate... Dirty Harock... Magma, P.I. And you know why? 'Cause they got the breaks, that's why! Suddenly both officers react to the sound of SKIDDING TIRES and HONKING HORNS. They look out their window at --225 FRED AND BARNEY - DRIVING PAST 225 both still battling the wheel and the resistant costume head. (By now their gyrations have put Barney's face inside the jaws of the monster mask.) 101.226 BACK TO SCENE 226 GRAVEL S-sarge, d-did you see that? Some sorta creature was attacking that little guy -- ! FELDSPAR There's a lesson there, Gravel... never pick up hitchhikers. Besides -- (realizing) -- Did you say 'creature'? They do a big double-take at the now-vanishing car. FELDSPAR & GRAVEL The xenosaurus! Excited, Feldspar bangs his dashboard and a DISPATCH PARAKEET in a police uniform pops INTO VIEW. Feldspar grabs it around the neck, holds it like a microphone. FELDSPAR This is a xenosaurus alert. Repeat, a xenosaurus alert. The creature has been sighted on the Slate City exit of the Venturock Freeway! It is driving a brown late model sedan and eating a white male Caucasian. Car twelve is in hot pursuit. He releases the bird, which doesn't fly away right away, but gives him a look. FELDSPAR (remembering) Oh, yeay... over and out! The bird nods, appeased, flies off. DISPATCH PARAKEET (as it goes) Awwk! Car Twelve is on the way. Car Twelve is on the way... FELDSPAR (thrilled) Gravel, this could mean promotions for both of us! (trotting up to speed) Load the shotgun and turn on the siren! 102.227 FRED'S CAR - TRAVELLING 227 Barney is rocking Fred's head back and forth, finally gives it one last mighty yank. Something breaks. Barney falls back on the passenger side of the car. Fred drives with one hand, "raps" the monster head. It rattles. When Fred speaks again, the monster mouth no longer opens and closes in sync. FRED (muffled, shouting) Ho, gweat! Hoo bwoke hit, Bahnee! Hi khnat twalk hennymore! Suddenly both men (pardon, man and xenosaurus) react to an approaching SIREN. They both look back at --228 FELSPAR'S PATROL CAR 228 Closing in. Gravel has produced a little sabre tooth CAT and is "cranking" its tail. As it WAILS away, the cops close in on our heroes.229 BACK TO SCENE 229 FRED Ho noh! Ahhrisser Felghspah! (turning to Barney) Haybee whee hould shtop -- ? BARNEY What, and explain what you're doing in that costume? Start talking about coo-coo berries and Fibrerock? By then it'll be too late! FRED 'Hen yore height, yore height... Fred pours on more speed. They careen around a turn. CAMERA WHIP PANS TO a road sign: SLATE CITY--1 MI.230 SLATE CITY - REAR GATE 230 A fence surrounds the empty housing development; in the distance, we can see the dark Slate Scrapers, and past them, the brightly-lit and gleaming Fibersphere and Slate Needle. We hear a SCREECH and then the CAMERA PANS BACK to pickup Fred's CAR as it whips around a turn, two wheels off the ground. It crashes right into the gate, knocking down a sign reading "SLATE CITY--DELIVERY GATE." The fence collapses all around the car. 103.231 NEW ANGLE 231 Fred and Barney stagger out of the wreck. Barney, covered with debris, rummages around and sighs with relief when he finds the flit gun of coo-coo sap is still intact. BARNEY (hearing a siren) We'd better split up; that way at least one of us can make it to the Slate Needle -- ! FRED 'Ood hidea. Ood whuk, ol' bhudee. They slap hands together like basketball players, then head off in two directions. CUT TO:232 INT. SLATE NEEDLE 232 CAMERA PANS the audience as the accordion recital con- tinues. Several people look visibly ill. Finally, CAMERA ADJUSTS to take in Poindexter's big finish as he slides forward on his knees. There's a scattering of half-hearted applause, led by Lava and the Slates. HEADMISTRESS Sank you, sank you. Our nex' performance is Bam-Bam, Pebbles... (checking notes) ... an' friend. She steps aside as a spotlight picks out --233 PEBBLES, BAM-BAM & DINO 233 poised in the stances we recognize as the "first positions" of the "Dino Dance." However, whereas the previous version of this was done impromptu and a cappella with only a few primitive props and straw hats alone, this time the kids and Dino are fully costumed, with sequins, batons and the like, and the dance is completely choreographed. KIDS You can keep the twist, the frug and hop --234 VARIOUS ANGLES 234 As the Dino dance begins, FULL ORCHESTRATION OVER IT. The audience seems to really like it -- all except -- 104.235 MRS. SLATE 235 who glances over at the judges long enough to see that they like this a lot better than the accordion act. Suddenly Mrs. Slate jumps up, barges on stage. The MUSIC DIES. HEADMISTRESS Madame Slate, what ees wrong -- ? MRS. SLATE I'll tell you what's wrong! This 'act' is an absolute disgrace! This is supposed to be a talent show! And a pedestrian animal act like this belongs in a circus!236 WILMA AND BETTY 236 React, furious, jump out of their seats. BETTY A circus, huh? Well, if our kids belong in a circus with their act, then your little nephew belongs in a zoo with his -- WILMA Yeah -- a zoo where the animals are dead -- because if they aren't, they will be! MRS. SLATE Why, how dare you! Mrs. Flintstein, I'll have you know that my little Poindexter has been trained by the finest tutors! Poindexter! Show them! Encore! The kid jumps up, begins to play. Immediately another GLASS SHATTERS. But then the CEILING FIXTURES CRACK, and then the PICTURE WINDOW PANELS begin to SHATTER one by one. MRS. SLATE (alarmed) Ah... Poindexter... that's enough ... Poindexter...? The kids stops... But another WINDOW PANEL EXPLODES. Then one of the tables collapses. Pause. Every head in the room swivels around and stares at Poindexter. Nervous, he tosses the accordion aside. But the destruction continues: Another WINDOW PANEL SHATTERS. Then, the entire building shakes. 105.237 SLATE 237 Loses his balance, grabs onto Lava for support, ends up pulling him down, too. Slate gets to his knees and looks out the window... and his jaw drops in astonishment.238 HIS POV - SLATE CITY 238 In the distance, with a CRACKLING ROAR, the little rows of Fibrerock tract houses are falling like dominoes in a wave that is rolling toward the Slate Needle.239 SLATE CITY DEVELOPMENT - NIGHT 239 A flashlight beam rakes the CAMERA. Feldspar, shotgun in one hand, light in the other, looks around cautiously. (The shotgun has a slingshot mechanism; the flashlight is a mirror-backed candle.) Behind him, FOOTSTEPS APPROACH. Feldspar tenses, but it's -- GRAVEL No sign of the driver... FELDSPAR You kidding? By now he's a couple of shinbones and a belch. Gravel drops down on one knee, excited. He shines his light on Fred's big "clawprints." GRAVEL Holy cowasaurus! Look how deep these tracks are! That xeno thing must weigh a ton! They aim their lights at the tracks, begin to follow them. Suddenly they round a corner and come face to face with --240 NEW ANGLE - FRED 240 He's stopped between two sample homes to wrestle with the monster head again. Now, he freezes in twin flash- light beams! FELDSPAR Okay, lizard, reach for the sky! Fred hesitates... then, hearing a CREAK and GROAN, he looks at the HOUSE beside him. The stucco-like exterior of Fibrerock is beginning to crumble. (CONTINUED) 106.240 CONTINUED: 240 FRED Offisser Fledapar, het me hexpwain -- his howse hiss maid uv fibahwock -- He reaches out to tap the nearby wall and -- WHAM -- it collapses all around him, leaving a gaping hole in the house! FELDSPAR (frightened, backing away) Quivering quartzite, d-did you see that -- GRAVEL (following him) O-one flick of his paw... and he knocked down a wall -- ! FRED Nogh, wate, chum baggk -- As Fred "roars" and moves forward, Feldspar and Gravel scream, panic, and run!241 FRED 241 Tries to catch up and collides with the already damaged house. It collapses totally, falling in on itself, obscuring Fred. Finally the last TIMBER DROPS. Pause. Fred staggers out of the rubble, realizes that the impact has knocked the monster mask off his head and back on its hinges. He rubs dust out of his eyes, turns and looks at the Slate Needle. He's much closer to it now. Quickly, he runs toward it. CUT TO:242 INSIDE THE SLATE NEEDLE 242 Everyone is rocking back and forth with the escalating vibrations of the swaying building. The remaining table of refreshments slides across the room.243 POINDEXTER LAVA 243 gets hit full force by a flying cake shaped like Slate City. He falls on top of his accordion, smashing it with one last dissonant squeeze. 107.244 PARTYGOERS 244 They pause in their panic to applaud gratefully. CUT TO:245 EXT. BASE OF FIBRESPHERE AND SLATE NEEDLE - NIGHT 245 The supporting pylons and cable anchors begin to slowly decompose. A FLIGHT of STAIRS CREAKS AND GROANS. Barney runs INTO the SHOT, sees the steps about to go, dives for them... too late! He ends up with a face full of Fibredust! Now, he whirls as Fred runs up, points -- FRED Barney! The elevator -- ! Barney runs toward it, hits the button.246 OTHER SIDE OF WALL 246 REVEALING elevator mechanism. The button pokes a mouse which runs out of a box. Seeing the mouse, a nearby mastadon becomes frightened, begins running. A heavy cable tied to the mastadon runs over a pulley and into --247 THE ELEVATOR SHAFT 247 -- where the elevator rises out of the sub-level and INTO VIEW! Fred and Barny start towards it... when suddenly the Fibrerock elevator begins to crumble! FRED Quick! Use your coo-coo gun -- ! Barney aims, pulls back the plunger... too late! The elevator is gone. The cable swings back and forth loosely, "whapping" the shaft walls as it shoots upwards. Fred dives for the cable, misses! As he stumbles, Barney leaps on Fred's back, catches the cable! As Barney starts to whizz upwards, Fred garbs onto his ankles!248 ABOVE - FIBRESPHERE 248 Propelled upwards, the would-be rescuers shoot OUT of the FRAME, disappear into the Fibresphere with a CRASH! CUT TO:249 INT. BEDROCK POLICE STATION - NIGHT 249 The POLICE CHIEF looks skeptically at Feldspar and Gravel, who are exhausted, covered with dust, uniforms torn. (CONTINUED) 108.249 CONTINUED: 249 CHIEF Feldspar, if you ask me, you've seen too many Rockzilla movies: In all the Xenosaurus sightings we've had reported, not one has had this kind of wholesale destruction -- FELDSPAR Chief, you -- you gotta believe me -- just one swipe of its paw and -- wham -- a whole house was pre-history -- ! Suddenly one of those police DISPATCH PARAKEETS comes flying excitedly through the window, lands on a perch in front of the Chief. DISPATCH PARAKEET Calling all cars. Calling all cars. Unconfirmed reports of destruction and collapse at Slate City. Rescue vehicles are on the way. The xenosaurus has been spotted in the area. That is all. That is all. FELDSPAR (excited) You see -- ? I told you -- CHIEF All right, Feldspar, I'm convinced! As of this moment you're completely in charge of operation... (dramatic) ... 'Xeno Dino'! Now, what do you need? CAMERA TIGHTENS ON Feldspar. This is the moment he's waited for all his life. FELDSPAR (firm-jawed) Artillery. CUT TO:250 INT. FIBRESPHERE - NIGHT 250 Dust and little fragments of construction material are still tinkling down around our heroes. The elevator cable sways from its uppermost pulley. Slowly, something stirs in the pile of arms, legs and scaly limbs. (CONTINUED) 109.250 CONTINUED: 250 First to sit up is Barney, who groans, rubs his head. Next, Fred sits up. Damn! The impact has knocked Fred's monster mask back on his head! Fred mutters angrily... Barney starts to help... and then they both notice that there's another monstrous head in the middle of their group! There're big "takes" all around, and then the xenosaurus leaps out of the tangle of bodies, treads air, and runs away! BARNEY (recovering) Fred, stop it! It might know the way inside! Fred "gets up to speed" and chases the xeno. Barney follows.251 NEW ANGLE 251 Fred and Barney both leap on the mysterious xenosaurus -- all crash through a wall --252 INT. SLATE NEEDLE - NIGHT 252 The panicked partygoers turn as a section of wall collapses. Dust and debris billow upwards. The battered monster mask breaks loose from Fred's costume, bounces on the floor. Slowly, everyone gets up: Fred... Barney ... and two halves of the xenosaurus: The bottom half is Piltdown; the top-half is Pyrite. WILMA BETTY Fred? Barney? PEBBLES BAM-BAM Daddy! Pop! FRED BARNEY Piltdown? Pyrite? SLATE What the devil's going on here? FRED It's real simple, Mister Slate. Your boy Lava here has been stealing the coo-coo berries from the Fibrerock mix and fixing the books to hide it! LAVA That's ridiculous, Flintstone! Nobody could get that many coo-coo berries off our premises! (CONTINUED) 110.252 CONTINUED: 252 Suddenly the bottom of Piltdown's canvas sack rips open. Thousands and thousands of coo-coo berries tumble out.253 LAVA 253 Slaps his hands over his face.254 THE SCENE 254 BETTY (dryly) These sure look like coo-coo berries to me -- LAVA (smoothly) They're convincing fakes, Mrs. Rubble -- part of our exciting display -- PYRITE Fakes? (to Piltdown) Gee, Pilty, I thought the real ones were gonna be moved up here for us ta steal -- whatta waste a time -- PILTDOWN Pyrite, shaddup -- FRED (snapping fingers) Now I remember! These guys were pulling this xenosaurus act that night at the plant! What's this, Lava... 'Plan B'? LAVA Uncle! Are you going to stand there while aspersions are being cast at the Slate family? This is absurd -- SLATE Of course it is! Why, without the coo-coo berry sap, Fibrerock would be completely -- (realizing) -- unstable... Suddenly the entire building shudders. Dust falls from the ceiling. Everyone looks at Lava. (CONTINUED) 111.254 CONTINUED: 254 LAVA All right, all right, I admit it! I got in over my head in the stock market... took some big losses... I had these guys pull jobs for me all over town disguised as a monster... but it still wasn't enough... and when I saw all those coo-coo berries being delivered every day, I guess I just lost my head... I figured with the Woca sap in the Fibremix, the berry juice as superfluous... SLATE I'll tell you what's superfluous, Lava... your liver! So why don't we remove it -- ! He leaps, snarling, on top of Lava... Fred and Barney pull them apart. Then, more falling dust and beams give everyone more pressing problems -- CUT TO:255 EXT. SLATE NEEDLE - NIGHT 255 Rescue VEHICLES and police CARS ROAR up, slam to a halt, CAT SIRENS WAILING. The rescue workers jump out. Firefighters carry circular trampolines of hide stitched to bamboo frames; others go to the back of their trucks and start to turn cranks on the hook and ladder trucks to raise the ladders.256 CLOSE ON A HOOK AND LADDER TRUCK 256 It's actually a wheeled carriage carrying a firesaurus, which is a critter with a very tiny body and an incred- ibly long neck. The bony plates on the creature's back make perfect stairs. However, the creature is noticeably listless and uncooperative. FIRE CHIEF Come on, come on, what's the hold up -- ? FIREFIGHTER It's the kibble crisis, sir -- the firesauruses have been on half-rations for a month! Above them, the BUILDING SHUDDERS again. 112.257 IN THE SLATE NEEDLE 257 Now, the remaining LIGHT FIXTURES CRASH down. When they hit the floor, the oil lamps inside spills and fire spreads. WILMA (pointing) Fred! There's a fire hose -- ! Indeed, it's on the back wall in a closed box marked FIRE HOSE--IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS. Fred and Barney take a step towards it, but the fire quickly spreads and cuts them off. Helpless, they step back. With a THUNDEROUS ROAR, the two SLATE SCRAPERS visible through what's left of the picture window COLLAPSE. Then the big statue of Slate just outside the window begins to decompose. It falls in on itself like a sand sculpture in a storm... finally, for a split second it is, well, life-sized, and then the head of the statue snaps loose, CRASHES through the only remaining pane of GLASS here ... rolls up to Slate's feet. Pause. Everyone looks at everyone else. This is it: Titanic time. Fred embraces Wilma... Barney embraces Betty. Their kids are pulled into the clinch. Even Slate takes Mrs. Slate's hand. Talk about grace under pressure... and speaking of --258 GRACE 258 -- the star fashion model, suddenly her Fibrethread costume decomposes, leaving her in her cute little animal print undies.259 BETTY 259 In the middle of going down with the ship, she turns Bam-Bam's face away from this display. BAM-BAM D-dad, are we gonna be okay? BARNEY (pause; false smile) Sure, pal. We just gotta wait for the fire department. Right, Fred? FRED Y-yeah. Everything's gonna be just -- Whoa, hoo-hah, aggh -- (CONTINUED) 113.259 CONTINUED: 259 He's started yelping because he's realized his arm is on fire, and now he jumps up and the others begin beating at the arm with anything in their hands, and then Fred suddenly pushes away from them, stands there with a small flame flickering on his forearm like a Rock Vegas stage magician. FRED -- Wait a minute -- I don't feel anything at all -- With his other "claw" he slaps tentatively at the flames, and then confidentially snuffs it out. BARNEY It must be the suit, Fred -- old Bedrock High built them things to last -- Fred looks over at the wall of flame separating the guests from the fire hose. As everyone gets the same idea, Dino rushes up, the costume head in his mouth. All brighten. Barney helps Fred with the head, twists it into place. BARNEY (rapping on the head) -- Okay? FRED Hist hust fine! He lowers his head, runs through the fire, which licks at him harmlessly. Then with his claw, he SMASHES the amber GLASS --260 IN THE BOX 260 A big PYTHONSAURUS is curled up inside, SNORING. (Note to herpetologists: The pythonosaurus is not quite a snake: it has little vestigial forepaws the better to emote with. Right now the snoring head is in those little paws.) The Pythonsaurus stirs, looks at Fred, "sniffs" the smoke. Then he raises one hand and finger as if to say "one moment." Then the pythonsaurus turns his head towards a nozzle like the ones in hamster cages, slurps loudly. We hear gallons and gallons of WATER GURGLING away... 114.261 IN THE MAIN ROOM 261 Everyone retreats from the fire. Slate picks up the head of the statue, his only souvenir.262 WITH FRED 262 Waiting impatiently until the pythonsaurus finally finishes drinking. It wipes its mouth daintily with a napkin, slaps a little fire helmet on its head, turns and runs back into the other room. (Behind him, yards and yards of pythonsaurus unroll from a hidden compart- ment behind the box.) Water shoots out of the creature's mouth.263 WIDER 263 Fred turns in a semi-circle and puts out every lick of flame in the room. All the guests cheer, rush forward and slap Fred on the back. Pebbles jumps up on him and kisses him. FRED Hit fuzz nudding... wheely... The pythonsaurus looks around at the attention. PYTHONSAURUS Hey, what am I, chopped liver? BARNEY Come on, everybody -- we'll go out the way we came! Barney squirts a pathway with his flit gun, solidifying a route in the crumbling Fibrerock. Then Barney and Fred stand back nobly, wave everyone on into the adjacent Fibresphere. POINDEXTER (pushing and shoving) Outta the way -- outta the way -- women and children first -- ! I mean, ah, children and women first, yeah, yeah, provided that uh, there's room for the women... Meanwhile, the pythonsaurus gives Fred (or rather his costume) a big look up and down, looks TOWARD the CAMERA. PYTHONSAURUS Hey, not bad. Wonder if she lives around here. Just then Fred tilts back the monster head. The pythonsaurus reacts. (CONTINUED) 115.263 CONTINUED: 263 PYTHONSAURUS Heartbreaker! Depressed, the pythonsaurus follows the others. Fred and Barney cross over into the Fibresphere. As the do, Slate Needle completely collapses.264 EXT. FIBRESPHERE - LONG SHOT 264 The Slate Needle tumbles down, taking a big chunk of the Fibresphere with it! But the rest of the huge globe stays put... for now.265 RESCUE WORKERS BELOW 265 gasp, cry out --266 UP ABOVE 266 Already the first partygoers are sliding down the elevator cable. HEADMISTRESS (panicking) Oh, geez, we're all gonna croak -- I neva shoulda left Far Rockaway -- Wilma gives her a big suspicious look -- blanching, the Headmistress slides down the cable --267 BELOW 267 The rescue teams catch the people in nets as they hit the ground.268 ABOVE 268 Barney gives the dwindling circle of solid Fibre around the group another shot of coo-coo juice. Poindexter Lava pushes his way forward. POINDEXTER (to anyone and everyone) Fifty clams for a piggy-back ride ... a hundred clams! MRS. SLATE (aghast) Do you see that, Jerry? Do you see how my great-nephew is behaving at this moment of crisis? (CONTINUED) 116.268 CONTINUED: 268 LAVA (proudly) Yeah. Real chip off the old block, ain't he? Embarrassed, Mrs. Slate grabs the kid by the neck, practically throws him at the cable. She follows him down, followed by Lava and Mr. Slate.269 REAR OF FLEEING PEOPLE 269 Fred and Barney have bravely held up the rear, their families clutching to them. Barney's carrying Bam-Bam. FRED (to Pebbles) Upsy-daisy, sweetheart -- piggy back time! She jumps on his back... slamming the monster head back in place. FRED (resigned) Hohh... GWEAT! BARNEY (to Betty) Go on, honey... I got Bam-Bam! BETTY Barney... tonight you're the biggest man in Bedrock. She kisses him, slides down.270 CLOSE ON WILMA AND FRED 270 Backlit romantically by the flames, just like Gable and Leigh when Atlanta burned. FRED (through the mask) Wilmagh, I jusght whunt to sagh thad I knogh shumtimes I dogh dumb thinks... Bhut hit's becaughse high luff yough sogh much thaght high whant yough to livgh likge a pwincess orgh a qween 'cause you reaally arggh rugg aaggg hummmmg higga! (CONTINUED) 117.270 CONTINUED: 270 WILMA Oh, Fred -- that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard! They kiss... she drops to safety...!271 BELOW 271 Wilma slides into a rescue net, gets on unsteady feet next to Betty.272 BACK UPSTAIRS 272 FRED Lhet's dogh it! Their kids on their backs, Fred and Barney exchange a heroic forearm-to-forearm gladiator-type handshake... both put their hands on the cable... and then the whole pulley mechanism falls right down between them and through the hole! A second later, the entire remaining structure collapses!273 BELOW 273 Everyone reacts in horror --274 ABOVE 274 Dust and smoke clear. When we can see again, well, it's not a pretty sight. The entire fibresphere is gone. All that's left, teetering on two spindly supports, are two tiny islands of safety connected by a twisted maze of rubble too small for a human to negotiate... and all that's holding that up is a long guide wire leading to the ground!275 CLOSER 275 Figures on one of the islands stir: Fred. Barney. Bam-Bam... Pebbles! The platform shudders again. Barney aims the flit gun -- empty! The dads hold on to the kids. It's all they can do.276 BELOW 276 Wilma and Betty gasp... what can be done?277 THE SECOND ISLAND 277 Bricks and chunks of Fibre stir... a form sits up... it's -- Dino! He looks around at the situation, becomes agitated... he wants to help... but how? 118.278 WILMA AND BETTY 278 Suddenly become inspired. BETTY W-wilma... those hoops of bamboo... those wires... do you think -- ? WILMA Yes! Yes! Betty, we have to try it -- ! Dino! Dino, look down here -- !279 DINO 279 Obeys, puzzled --280 HIS POV - WILMA AND BETTY 280 Amazingly, they grab scraps of wood, borrow fire fighter's helmets, and begin to do a buck and wing. WILMA AND BETTY You can keep the twist, the frug and hop I don't need to shimmy, I don't need to bop --281 BIG CAMERA PUSH - DINO 281 MUSIC COMES UP DRAMATICALLY as he catches on! His eyes fill with courage and he charges toward the spindly bridge that leads to his master and friends.282 ANOTHER ANGLE 282 Dino dives through the hoops of bamboo, duplicating his steps in "The Dino Dance." He reaches the other island! Without a beat, still keeping time, he puts the two kids on his shoulders, just like in the dance! Then he "presents" his tail to Fred -- Fred hands his tail to Barney -- and then --283 LONG SHOT 283 -- Dino slides down the long wire, carrying everyone to safety! They all plow into the biggest rescue net as Wilma and Betty wind up! WILMA AND BETTY Yes, I don't need to shimmy, I don't need to bop 'Cause I'm doin', doin', doin' THE IGNEOUS ROCK! 119.284 FRED 284 rolls out of the net and away from the others. He's slightly stunned, still in the suit. He sits up... suddenly lights snap on all around him! Fred looks up and sees --285 HIS POV - CORDON OF POLICE OFFICERS 285 All with weapons aimed right at him. Spotlights on the police car roofs (actually little fires with parabolic mirrors) are operated by uniformed monkeys. Feldspar is at the head of the group. He cocks his shotgun. The elastic catapults at the hammers twitch menacingly -- FELDSPAR It's the xenosaurus -- stand back, men -- it's a vicious killer -- Ready -- Aim -- FRED (with desperate poignancy) High ham noght a zenosore! High ham hay hooman beeng -- ! BAM! WHAM! KABAM! Bullets and projectiles begin slamming all around Fred! He ducks behind a big fallen chunk of Fibrerock -- catches his breath as the bullets and shells bounce off its resilient surface.286 CLOSE - FRED 286 Momentarily safe, he tries desperately to remove that stupid head -- bangs it against the wall, tears at it with his claws -- -- meanwhile, the chunk of Fibrerock protecting him decomposes! He's back in the line of fire!287 DINO 287 Flanked by Wilma, Barney and the kids, who are shouting for the police to stop, only Dino the wonder bronto has the wits to act! "YI-YI-YI-ING," he races forward, CAMERA FOLLOWING -- and with lightning reflexes grabs the seat of Fred's monster suit and -- de-pants him! Instantly, Dino whirls Fred around, points to the now revealed striped undershorts.288 WIDER 288 Pause. (CONTINUED) 120.288 CONTINUED: 288 Then Officer Gravel takes a good look at that rear end. GRAVEL Hey, those are the biggest shorts I've ever seen... (realizing) ... It... it must be Mister Flintstone! Cease fire! (to Feldspar) Gee, Sarge, now you don't have to shoot him -- ! Now Fred confirms Gravel's hunch as the costume head finally pops off. All the cops lower their guns. (Strangely, though, Feldspar still continues to raise his gun -- even aims! Then an alarmed Gravel wrestles it away from his superior.)289 THE FLINTSTONES AND RUBBLES - DAWN 289 Safe, they all emotionally embrace. Fred even suffers Dino's affection. (In the b.g., a police car holding Piltdown, Pyrite and Lava drives past. Poindexter Lava is chasing the car.) POINDEXTER (distant) Dad! Dad! Can I use the Porscherock while you're in the slammer? Suddenly the Slates push their way into the group hug. SLATE Flintstone. Rubble. I... I don't know what to say. I... I treated you horribly... I ignored you, abused you... and then you come here and risk your necks like this... well, there's no price you can put on something like that, so I won't even try. But let me give you... (with great poignancy) ... a hearty handshake. MRS. SLATE Dear, don't you think a little more than that is in order? SLATE Honey, you're being hysterical, go lie down, okay? (CONTINUED) 121.289 CONTINUED: 289 MRS. SLATE I am not being hysterical, I am being fair -- now the Flintsteins and Rabbles saved all of our lives, not to mention your reputation. SLATE (sighing) Okay, okay. (to Fred and Barney) Boys, I'm feeling guilty about how you've been taken advantage of, so I'll tell you what... I'm going to give you back all world-wide rights to Fibrerock, free and clear. He picks up a fragment of stone, begins writing on it. SLATE Your only obligation will be to cover oh, whatever legal expenses might surface at some later time... BARNEY You think there's gonna be some? Slate looks around at --290 HIS POV - THE RUINS AND DESTRUCTION 290 Smoking desolation as far as the eye and CAMERA can see. As we watch the last remaining fragment of Slate City collapse, crushing a police car.291 BACK TO SCENE 291 SLATE (casually) Oh, you never know...292 RESCUE DINOS 292 Several sniff at the air, look curiously at a nearby pile of crumbled Fibrerock. One and then another shuffles over, tentatively tastes some... grins... and digs in! Seeing this, the "firesauruses" crane out their necks, also begin chowing down on the pile of Fibrerock crumbs.293 FRED, BARNEY, SLATE AND OTHERS 293 All turn at the growing sound of the ANIMALS PIGGING OUT. (CONTINUED) 122.293 CONTINUED: 293 Now DINO "YI-YI-YI'S" past this group and leaps into the pile, munching like crazy. Barney puts out his hand as chunks of Fibrerock shower down like rain from the feeding frenzy. Catching some pieces, he nibbles on it a little. FRED Barn...? What's going on? BARNEY (sniffing it) Lava Lava leaves... Woca sap... all still there, but now the nutrients are all released... (realizing) ... Fred, this... this is Dino kibble! FRED Dino kibble...? Disbelieving, Fred moves over to the happily-munching animals. He has to get on his knees to wiggle in with the pack. He grabs some, stuffs it in his mouth... chews. His eyes widen... FRED (mouth full) Dhinough khibble!! He spits it out, takes out the chunk of contract Slate wrote on. FRED Barney, we -- we're rich! Yabba dabba do -- !294 SLATE 294 Faints dead away! The CAMERA PULLS BACK... BACK... BACK --295 EXT. DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT 295 We're back where we began. As "The End" appears on the drive-in screen, cars are streaming out of the drive-in theatre. The Flintstone car is among them.296 EXT. DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT - NIGHT 296 Fred and company roll into a '50's-style drive-in restaurant. A sign advertises BRONTO BURGERS AND RIBS. (CONTINUED) 123.296 CONTINUED: 296 A pretty carhop on stone roller skates glides over. Fred holds up one finger towards her. She nods, scampers O.S. Fred rubs his hands and licks his lips with antici- pation... and then the girl returns with a massive rack of ribs on a car tray. She hooks it on the edge of the driver's door... and the entire car tips over with a crash. CUT TO:297 EXT. FLINTSTONE HOUSE - NIGHT 297 WIDEN FROM the mailbox. Fred and family pull up. Dino runs in first, followed by Wilma with Pebbles already asleep on her shoulder. Fred follows, the saber-tooth cat on his heels. Fred stops in the doorway to put a milk bottle on the doorstep, and then puts the cat down beside it. He shuts the door. Quick as a flash, the cat leaps through the side window. Pause. The door opens and the cat puts Fred out, then slams the door! Fred recovers from his shock, tries the door... it's locked! MUSIC (V.O.) We'll have a yabba dabba-do time A dabba-do time We'll have a gay old time! FRED (knocking) Wilma...? (another knock) ... Wilma? CAMERA CRANES UP, WIDENS as Fred becomes a tiny sil- houette banging on the door. FRED Wilma? Wil-ma --! FADE OUT. THE END THIS SCRIPT WAS PREPARED BY WARNER BROS. INC.SCRIPT PROCESSING DEPARTMENT (818) 954-4632 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Forrest Gump.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Forrest Gump.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f0b65953ac214ab37846e454b0f7e1cb20de5ea8 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Forrest Gump.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"FORREST GUMP" Screenplay by Eric Roth Based on a novel by Winston Groom EXT. A SAVANNAH STREET - DAY (1981) A feather floats through the air. The falling feather. A city, Savannah, is revealed in the background. The feather floats down toward the city below. The feather drops down toward the street below, as people walk past and cars drive by, and nearly lands on a man's shoulder. He walks across the street, causing the feather to be whisked back on its journey. The feather floats above a stopped car. The car drives off right as the feather floats down toward the street. The feather floats under a passing car, then is sent flying back up in the air. A MAN sits on a bus bench. The feather floats above the ground and finally lands on the man's mudsoaked shoe. The man reached down and picks up the feather. His name is FORREST GUMP. He looks at the feather oddly, moves aside a box of chocolates from an old suitcase, then opens the case. Inside the old suitcase are an assortment of clothes, a pingpong paddle, toothpaste and other personal items. Forrest pulls out a book titled "Curious George," then places the feather inside the book. Forrest closes the suitcase. Something in his eyes reveals that Forrest may not be all there. Forrest looks right as the sound of an arriving bus is heard. A bus pulls up. Forrest remains on the bus bench as the bus continues on. A BLACK WOMAN in a nurse's outfit steps up and sits down at the bus bench next to Forrest. The nurse begins to read a magazine as Forrest looks at her. FORREST Hello. My name's Forrest Gump. He opens a box of chocolates and holds it out for the nurse. FORREST You want a chocolate? The nurse shakes her head, a bit apprehensive about this strange man next to her. FORREST I could eat about a million and a half of these. My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Forrest eats a chocolate as he looks down at the nurse's shoes. FORREST Those must be comfortable shoes. I'll bet you could walk all day in shoes like that and not feel a thing. I wish I had shoes like that. BLACK WOMAN My feet hurt. FORREST Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. The black woman stares at Forrest as he looks down at his own shoes. FORREST I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes. Forrest closes his eyes tightly. FORREST Momma said they'd take my anywhere. INT. COUNTRY DOCTOR'S OFFICE - GREENBOW, ALABAMA - DAY (1951) A little boy closes his eyes tightly. It is young Forrest as he sits in a doctor's office. FORREST (V.O.) She said they was my magic shoes. Forrest has been fitted with orthopedic shoes and metal leg braces. DOCTOR All right, Forrest, you can open your eyes now. Let's take a little walk around. The doctor sets Forrest down on its feet. Forrest walks around stiffly. Forrest's mother, MRS. GUMP, watches him as he clanks around the room awkwardly. DOCTOR How do those feel? His legs are strong, Mrs. Gump. As strong as I've ever seen. But his back is as crooked as a politician. Forrest walks foreground past the doctor and Mrs. Gump. DOCTOR But we're gonna straighten him right up now, won't we, Forrest? A loud thud is heard as, outside, Forrest falls. MRS. GUMP Forrest! EXT. GREENBOW, ALABAMA Mrs. Gump and young Forrest walk across the street. Forrest walks stiffly next to his mother. FORREST (V.O.) Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest... EXT. RURAL ALABAMA A black and white photo of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The photo turns into live action as the General dons a hooded sheet over his head. The General is in full Ku Klux Klan garb, including his horse. The General rides off, followed by a large group of Klan members dressed in full uniform. FORREST (V.O.) She said we was related to him in some way. And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around. And anyway, that's how I got my name. Forrest Gump. EXT. GREENBOW Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk across the street. FORREST (V.O.) Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense. Forrest stops suddenly as his brace gets stuck. Forrest's brace is caught in a gutter grate. Mrs. Gump bends down and tries to free Forrest. Two old cronies sit in front of a barber shop and watch. MRS. GUMP Just wait, let me get it. Mrs. Gump struggles to pull the stuck brace from the grate. MRS. GUMP Let me get it. Wait, get it this way. Hold on. Forrest pulls his foot out of the grate. MRS. GUMP All right. Mrs. Gump helps Forrest up onto the sidewalk. She looks up and notices the two old man. MRS. GUMP Oooh. All right. What are you all staring at? Haven't you ever seen a little boy with braces on his legs before? Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk along the sidewalk past the two old men. Mrs. Gump holds tightly onto Forrest's hand. MRS. GUMP Don't ever let anybody tell you they're better than you, Forrest. If God intended everybody to be the same, he'd have given us all braces on our legs. FORREST (V.O.) Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them. EXT. OAK ALLEY/THE GUMP BOARDING HOUSE Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk along a dirt road. A row of mailboxes stands left. FORREST (V.O.) We lived about a quarter mile of Route 17, about a half mile from the town of Greenbow, Alabama. That's in the county of Greenbow. Our house had been in Momma's family since her grandpa's grandpa's grandpa had come across the ocean about a thousand years ago. Something like that. Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk along the Gump Boarding House driveway. FORREST (V.O.) Since it was just me and Momma and we had all these empty rooms, Momma decided to let those rooms out. Mostly to people passing through. Like from, oh, Mobile, Montgomery, place like that. That's how me and Mommy got money. Mommy was a real smart lady. MRS. GUMP Remember what I told you, Forrest. You're no different than anybody else is. Mrs. Gump heads Forrest to the porch. She bends down to look Forrest in the eye. MRS. GUMP Did you hear what I said, Forrest? You're the same as everybody else. You are no different. INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL / PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE - DAY PRINCIPAL Your boy's... different, Mrs. Gump. Now, his I.Q. is seventy-five. MRS. GUMP Well, we're all different, Mr. Hancock. The principal sighs, then stands up. INT. HALLWAY Forrest sits outside the principal's office and waits. FORREST (V.O.) She wanted me to have the finest education, so she took me to the Greenbow County Central School. I met the principal and all. The principal stands in front of Mrs. Gump. Forrest, sitting left, listens. PRINCIPAL I want to show you something, Mrs. Gump. Now, this is normal. The principal holds up a chart with a designations according to I.Q. and points to the center of the graph, labeled "Normal." A red line below the normal area is labeled "State Acceptance." The principal points to the section below the acceptance line labeled "Below." PRINCIPAL Forrest is right here. The state requires a minimum I.Q. of eighty to attend public school, Mrs. Gump. He's gonna have to go to a special school. Now, he'll be just fine. MRS. GUMP What does normal mean, anyway? He might be a bit on the slow side, but my boy Forrest is going to get the same opportunities as everyone else. He's not going to some special school to learn to how to re-tread tires. We're talking about five little points here. There must be something can be done. INT. HALLWAY Forrest sits outside the principal's office. PRINCIPAL We're a progressive school system. We don't want to see anybody left behind. INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE PRINCIPAL Is there a Mr. Gump, Mrs. Gump? MRS. GUMP He's on vacation. EXT. GUMP BOARDING HOUSE - NIGHT Forrest sits on a swing outside the house. Loud organic male grunts are heard coming from inside the house. Forrest sits on the swing as the grunts continue. The principal steps out of the Gump House and wipes the sweat from his face. Forrest is sitting on the porch. PRINCIPAL Well, your momma sure does care about your schooling, son. Mm-mm-mm. The principal wipes the sweat from his neck, then looks back at Forrest. PRINCIPAL You don't say much, do you? Forrest grunts, imitating him. The principal, embarrassed, turns and walks away. INT. GUMP BOARDING HOUSE/FORREST'S BEDROOM Mrs. Gump reads from the book "Curious George" as Forrest sits on the bed and listens. MRS. GUMP Finally, he had to try it. It looked easy, but, oh, what happened. First there... FORREST Momma, what's vacation mean? MRS. GUMP Vacation? FORREST Where Daddy went? MRS. GUMP Vacation's when you go somewhere, and you don't ever come back. Forrest lies down on his bed and looks up. FORREST (V.O.) Anyway, I guess you could say me and Momma was on our own. EXT. GUMP BOARDING HOUSE - DAY A cab driver closes the trunk of the car as two women walk toward the house. A milkman steps down from the porch. FORREST (V.O.) But we didn't mind. Our house was never empty. There was always folks comin' and goin'. MRS. GUMP (V.O.) Suppa. INT. GUMP BOARDING HOUSE Mrs. Gump steps forward and speaks to all the boarders. MRS. GUMP It's suppa, everyone. Forrest... A MAN WITH A CANE steps left across the hall. MAN WITH CANE My, my. That sure looks special. Mrs. Gump looks into a sitting room and informs the boarders about dinner. MRS. GUMP Gentlemen, would you care to join us for supper? Hurry up and get it before the flies do. I prefer you don't smoke that cigar so close to mealtime. FORREST (V.O.) Sometimes we had so many people stayin' with us that every room was filled with travelers. You know, folks livin' out of their suitcases, and hat cases, and sample cases. MRS. GUMP Well, you go ahead and start. I can't find Forrest. Mrs. Gump walks up the stairs. MRS. GUMP Forrest... Forrest... FORREST (V.O.) One time a young man was staying with us, and he had him a guitar case. Mrs. Gump looks into Forrest's room. She hears singing coming from another room and walks over to a closed door. Mrs. Gump opens the door, revealing a young man with long sideburns as he plays the guitar and sings. Forrest holds onto a broom and dances oddly. The young man is ELVIS PRESLEY. ELVIS PRESLEY (sings) "Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit, and you ain't no friend of mine." Forrest's legs rock back and forth to the guitar. MRS. GUMP Forrest! I told you not to bother this nice young man. ELVIS Oh, no, that's all right, ma'am. I was just showin' him a thing or two on the guitar here. MRS. GUMP All right, but your supper's ready if y'all want to eat. ELVIS Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you, ma'am. Mrs. Gump leaves and closes the door. Elvis sits back down. Forrest stands left, and looks himself in a mirror. ELVIS Say, man, show me that crazy little walk you just did there. Slow it down some. Forrest begins to dance again as Elvis plays the guitar and sings. ELVIS (sings) "You ain't nothin' but a hound, hound dog..." FORREST (V.O.) I liked that guitar. Forrest dances as he watches himself in the mirror. FORREST (V.O.) It sounded good. ELVIS (sings) "...cryin' all the time" Forrest rocks up and down on his braced legs, then begins to step. ELVIS (sings) "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog..." FORREST (V.O.) I started moving around to the music, swinging my hips. This one night me and Momma... EXT. GREENBOW - NIGHT Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk along a sidewalk. A television inside a store window reveals Elvis Presley as he performs "Houng Dog" on a stage. FORREST (V.O.) ...was out shoppin', and we walked right by Benson's Furniture and Appliance store, and guess what. The television reveals Elvis as he thrusts his hips and sings. ELVIS (sings) You ain't nothin' but a hound dog... Mrs. Gump and Forrest watch the television. Elvis dances around in the same manner Forrest did. A woman in the audience screaming and applauding. ELVIS (sings) You ain't nothin' but a hound dog... MRS. GUMP This is not children's eyes. Mrs. Gump walks away, pulling Forrest with her. Forrest stops and takes one last look. Elvis continues to perform over the television. ELVIS (sings) "Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine." FORREST (V.O.) Some years later, that handsome young man who they called "The King," well, he sung too many songs, had himself a heart attack or something. EXT. SAVANNAH/BUS BENCH - DAY Forrest is still sitting on the bus bench. The black nurse looks at him. FORREST Must be hard being a king. You know, it's funny how you remember some things, but some things you can't. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD/ALABAMA - MORNING (1954) Mrs. Gump and Forrest wait for the school bus. The bus pulls up as Mrs. Gump prepares Forrest for his first day of school. MRS. GUMP You do your very best now, Forrest. FORREST I sure will, Momma. FORREST (V.O.) I remember the bus ride on the first day of school very well. The bus driver opens the door and looks down. Forrest walks to the steps of the bus and looks at the bus driver. She is smoking a cigarette. BUS DRIVER Are you comin' along? FORREST Momma said not to be taking rides from strangers. BUS DRIVER This is the bus to school. FORREST I'm Forrest Gump. BUS DRIVER I'm Dorothy Harris. FORREST Well, now we ain't strangers anymore. The bus driver smiles as Forrest steps up into the bus. INT. BUS Forrest steps up onto the bus. Mrs. Gump waves to Forrest as the bus drives away. Forrest begins to walk down the aisle. TWO YOUNG BOYS look up from the seat. BOY #1 This seat's taken. BOY #2 It's taken! Forrest looks around. A larger girl slides over so Forrest can't sit next to her. She shakes her head. Forrest looks to the other side where a boy sits alone on a larger seat. They boy glares up at Forrest. BOY #3 You can't sit here. FORREST (V.O.) You know, it's funny what a young man recollects. 'Cause I don't remember being born. EXT. SAVANNAH/BUS BENCH - DAY Forrest continues talking as he sits on the bus bench. FORREST (V.O.) I, I... don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But, I do remember the first time I heard the sweetiest voice... INT. BUS - MORNING (1954) Young Forrest is still standing in the aisle on the bus. FORREST (V.O.) ...in the wide world. GIRL You can sit here if you want. Forrest looks back at JENNY CURRAN, a young girl about Forrest's age. FORREST (V.O.) I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She was like an angel. JENNY Well, are you gonna sit down, or aren't ya? Forrest sits down next to Jenny. JENNY What's wrong with your legs? FORREST Um, nothing at all, thank you. My legs are just fine and dandy. FORREST (V.O.) I just sat next to her on that bus and had conversation all the way to school. JENNY Then why do you have those shoes on? FORREST My momma said my back's crooked like a question mark. These are going to make me as straight as an arrow. They're my magic shoes. FORREST (V.O.) And next to Momma, no one ever talked to me or asked me questions. JENNY Are you stupid or something. FORREST Mommy says stupid is as stupid does. Jenny puts her hand out toward Forrest. Forrest reaches over and shakes her hand. JENNY I'm Jenny. FORREST I'm Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump. FORREST (V.O.) From that day on, we was always together. Jenny and me was like peas and carrots. EXT. OAK TREE - DAY Young Jenny and Forrest run toward a large oak tree. FORREST (V.O.) She taught me how to climb... Jenny sits on a large branch and calls down to Forrest. JENNY Come on, Forrest, you can do it. Forrest dangles from the branch. FORREST (V.O.) ...I showed her how to dangle. Jenny and Forrest sit on a tree branch and read. FORREST "...a good little monkey and..." FORREST (V.O.) She helped me to learn how to read. Forrest hangs upside down from a branch and swings back and forth. Forrest's braces are wedged in the tree. FORREST (V.O.) And I showed her to swing. EXT. OAK TREE - NIGHT The silhouete of the oak tree, Jenny and Forrest as they sit on a branch. FORREST (V.O.) Sometimes we'd just sit out and wait for the stars. FORREST Momma's gonna worry about me. Jenny puts her hand on Forrest's hand. JENNY Just stay a little longer. FORREST (V.O.) For some reason, Jenny didn't never want to go home. FORREST Okay, Jenny. I'll stay. FORREST (V.O.) She was my most special friend. INT. SAVANNAH/BUS STOP - DAY Forrest nods as he remembers. FORREST My only friend. Forrest continues talking to the black woman. She doesn't seem to be listening as she reads her magazine. She looks up from her magazine. FORREST Now, my Momma always told me that miracles happen every day. Some people don't think so, but they do. EXT. OAK ALLEY - ANOTHER DAY (1954) Jenny and Forrest walk. A dirt clod hits Forrest in the back of the head. Jenny looks as Forrest rubs his head. THREE YOUNG BOYS get off their bikes and pick up more rocks. BOY #1 Hey... dummy! Forrest is hit in the eye with another dirt clod. Forrest falls backward onto the ground as the boys glare at him. BOY #2 Are you retarded, or just plain stupid? BOY #3 Look, I'm Forrest Gump. Jenny helps Forrest back up. Boy #1 and Boy #2 throw more dirt clods at Forrest. JENNY Just run away, Forrest. Another dirt clod hits Forrest in the arm. JENNY Run, Forrest! Forrest tries to run along the road, but his braces makes it impossible. He hobbles along as Jenny yells after him. JENNY Run away! Hurry! Boy #1 and Boy #2 turn back toward the bikes. BOY #2 Get the bikes! BOY #3 Hurry up! The boys pick up their bikes and ride after Forrest. BOY #3 Let's get him! Come on! BOY #2 Look out, dummy, here we come! The boys ride after Forrest. Jenny stands and watches. BOY #2 We're gonna get you! JENNY Run, Forrest! Run! Forrest hobbles along the dirt road. JENNY Run, Forrest! Forrest looks over his shoulder. The three boys race on their bikes. BOY #1 Come back here, you! Forrest begins to run faster with his braces on. Forrest continues running as the boys chase him. Blood drips down from a cut on his head. The boys on the bikes are gaining on Forrest. Forrest hobbles along. He begins to gain speed. JENNY Run, Forrest! Run! SLOW MOTION -- Forrest runs from the chasing room. He looks over his shoulder in fear. The boys on the bikes peddle faster as they gain on Forrest, running. Forrest tries to run even faster to get away. Suddenly his braces shatter, sending steel and plastic flying into the air. Forrest runs and look down at his legs in surprise. Forrest continues to run faster as the metal braces and straps fly off his legs. Forrest runs free of his braces and begins to pick up speed. The chasing boys ride over the remains of Forrest's braces. FORREST (V.O.) Now, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. EXT. SAVANNAH/ BUS BENCH - DAY FORREST But I can run like the wind blows. The black woman continues to read her magazine. Forrest smiles as he remembers. FORREST From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running! EXT. OAK ALLEY - DAY (1954) Forrest sprints away from the boys. The boys stop the chase and watch in disbelief. Forrest is already at the far end of the road, clear of the chasing boys. BOY #2 He's gettin' away! Stop him! Boy #1 throws his bike down in frustration. Forrest runs across a field. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD Forrest runs past a chain gang in their prison uniforms. They are cutting at the weeds on the side of the road. EXT. GREENBOW Forrest runs across the street. THE TWO OLD MEN sit in front of the barber shop. OLD CRONY That boy sure is a running fool. EXT. JENNY'S HOUSE Forrest runs down a driveway toward Jenny's small house. FORREST (V.O.) Now remember how I told you that Jenny never seemed to want to go home? Well, she lived in a house that was as old as Alabama. Her Momma had gone up to heaven when she was five and her daddy was some kind of a farmer. Forrest knocks on Jenny's door. FORREST Jenny? Jenny? Forrest look around the field at the left. He notices Jenny and runs toward her. FORREST (V.O.) He was a very lovin' man. He was always kissing and touchin' her and her sisters. And then this one time, Jenny wasn't on the bus to go to school. Forrest runs to Jenny. FORREST Jenny, why didn't you come to school today? JENNY Hsh! Daddy's takin' a nap. Jenny grabs Forrest's hand and runs into the field. Jenny's DAD drunk, steps out onto the porch and shouts. JENNY'S DAD Jenny! JENNY Come on! JENNY'S DAD Jenny, where'd you run to? You'd better come back here, girl! Jenny's dad steps out toward the field. Jenny leads Forrest into the thick tobacco field. Jenny's dad runs through the field searching for Jenny with a liquor bottle in his hand. JENNY'S DAD Where you at? Jenny and Forrest run into a corn field as Jenny's dad tries to chase her. JENNY'S DAD Jenny! Jenny! Where you at? Jenny! Jenny drops to her knees and pulls Forrest down with her. JENNY Pray with me, Forrest. Pray with me. JENNY'S DAD Jenny! JENNY Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far, far away from here. Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far, far away from here. FORREST (V.O.) Momma always said that God is mysterious. JENNY'S DAD Jenny! Get back here! FORREST (V.O.) He didn't turn Jenny into a bird that day. Instead... EXT. TRAILER PARK/ALABAMA - DAY (1955) A police officer escorts Jenny to her grandmother's trailer. Jenny's grandmother meets Jenny outside and leads her toward the trailer. FORREST (V.O.) ...he had the police say Jenny didn't have to stay in that house no more. She went to live with her grandma just over on Creekmore Avenue, which made me happy 'cause she was so close. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT (1955) Jenny climbs over a second-floor railing and enters the house. FORREST (V.O.) Some nights, Jenny'd sneak out and come over to my house, just 'cause she said she was scared. Scared of what, I don't know... INT. GUMP HOUSE/FORREST'S BEDROOM Jenny lies in bed next to young Forrest. She hugs him. FORREST (V.O.) ...but I think it was her grandma's dog. He was a mean dog. Anyway, Jenny and me was best friends... EXT. GREENBOW/OAK ALLEY - DAY (1961) Forrest and Jenny are teenagers now. They walk along an oaklined road. FORREST (V.O.) ...all the way to high school. Suddenly Forrest is hit in the back with a rock. Forrest and Jenny turn around. OLDER BOY #1 Hey, stupid! JENNY Quit it! A teenage boy throws another rock as a pickup truck pulls up behind him. Jenny turns and looks at Forrest. JENNY Run, Forrest, run! OLDER BOY #1 Hey. Did you hear me, stupid? JENNY Run, Forrest! Forrest drops his books and runs down the road. The teenage boy jumps into the back of the pickup truck with another boy as the truck speeds after Forrest. Jenny steps left and gets out of the way. OLDER BOY #2 Come on, he's getting away! Move it! JENNY Run, Forrest! Run! OLDER BOY #1 You better be runnin', stupid. Forrest runs along the road. The truck speeds after him. OLDER BOY #2 Come on, dummy! OLDER BOY #1 Haul ass, dummy! Older Boy throws rocks at Forrest. OLDER BOY #1 Yeah, you better be runnin'! INT. TRUCK BOY Ya-hoo! EXT. OAK ALLEY The boys in the back of the truck throw rocks at Forrest as they drive up to him. OLDER BOY #1 Move it, jack rabbit! The truck follows right on Forrest's heels. A rebel flag license plate adorns the truck's grill. OLDER BOY #1 Come on! Forrest runs along the road as the truck chases him. The boys in the back of the truck pound on the roof as the truck turns right, after Forrest. The truck drives into a field. Forrest runs toward a fence. BOY Run! Faster! Yeah! Go! Go! Come on, Forrest! Yeah! JENNY Run, Forrest! Forrest leaps over a five-foot fence as the boys try to catch him. EXT. SAVANNAH/BUS BENCH - DAY (1981) Forrest looks left as he continues telling his life story. FORREST Now, it used to be, I ran to get where I was goin'. I never thought it would take me anywhere. EXT. HIGH SCHOOL/ROAD - DAY (1961) Forrest runs along the road in front of the high school. The truck continues to chase him as the boys pound on the roof. OLDER BOY Come on. Whoo-hoo! The truck speeds past Forrest as he turns from the road and runs onto the high school football field. Forrest runs across the field during a football scrimmage. In the stands watching the scrimmage is the legendary University of Alabama football coach BEAR BRYANT, wearing his trademark plaid hat. A group of assistant coaches sit around him, as well as the high school football coach. The quarterback throws the ball into the air. Forrest runs past the quarterback. The receiver catches the ball. Forrest runs past the receiver as an opposing player tackles the stunned receiver. The football coach stands, followed by the assistant coaches. FOOTBALL COACH Who in the hell is that? HIGH SCHOOL COACH That there is Forrest Gump. Coach. Just a local idiot. Forrest runs under the field goal post and through the end zone. FORREST (V.O.) And can you believe it? I got to go to college, too. EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STADIUM - DAY (1962) The crowd roars with excitement as a football is kicked off. The football players run around on the field. The crowd of cheering fans create a huge sign that reads: "GO." Forrest is in a University of Alabama football uniform. He looks up into the cheering crowd as his teammate fields the kickoff. The teammate runs over to Forrest and hands him the ball. FOOTBALL COACH Okay! Run! The football coach, the assistants, and Alabama players cheer for Forrest. FOOTBALL COACH Run, you stupid son-of-a-bitch! Run! Forrest runs across the field. He speeds past the defending players. Forrest runs past the opposite players. The crowd cheers wildly, holding up cards, making a large sign that reads: "Go." They turn the cards over, creating the word: "ALABAMA." The football coach runs along the sidelines as he yells. FOOTBALL COACH You stupid son-of-a-bitch! Run! Go! Run! Forrest cuts and runs toward the sidelines. Two opposing players collide. The football coach, the assistants and the players all motion for Forrest to run toward the end zone. FOOTBALL COACH Run! Turn! Go! Forrest turns up the sidelines and runs toward the end zone. Some opposing players fall down. Forrest runs along the sidelines. The opposing players try to catch him. Forrest runs into the end zone as an opposing player dives at his feet. The referee holds up his arm, signaling a touch down. The crowd cheers wildly. Forrest continues to run, smashing through the band members, then all the way toward the team tunnel. The football coach looks at an assistant coach. FOOTBALL COACH He must be the stupidest son-of-a- bitch alive. But he sure is fast! FORREST (V.O.) Now, maybe it was just me but college was very confusing times. INT. GREENBOW/BARBER SHOT - BLACK & WHITE TELEVISION (JUNE 11, 1963) An anchorman named CHET HUNTLEY appears over the television. CHET HUNTLEY (on TV) Federal troops enforcing a court order integrated the University of Alabama today. EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - DAY Forrest walks through a crowd of people. CHET HUNTLEY Governor George Wallace had carried out his symbolic threat to stand in the schoolhouse door. GOVERNOR WALLACE We hereby denounce and forbid this illegal and unwarranted action by the central government. INT. GREENBOW/BARBER SHOP A black & white television reveals George Wallace as he stands in the doorway of the schoolhouse. KATZENBACH (on TV) Governor Wallace, I take it from that, uh... EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA Forrest steps over to a young man as the crowd looks at the demonstration. KATZENBACH ...statement that you are going to stand in that door, and that you are not going to carry out the orders of this court, and that you are going to resist us from doing so. I would ask you once again to responsibility step aside and if you do not, I'm going to assure you... FORREST Earl, what's going on? EARL Coons are tryin' to get into school. FORREST Coons? When raccoons try to get on our back porch, Momma just chase 'em off with a broom. EARL Not raccoons, you idiot, niggas. And they want to go to school with us. FORREST With us? They do? Forrest walks toward the schoolhouse. INT. COACHES' OFFICE A football coach looks at a black and white television as a newsman outside the schoolhouse speaks to the camera. NEWSMAN (on TV) ...block the doorway, President Kennedy ordered the Secretary of Defense then to use the military force. BLACK AND WHITE FOOTAGE The footage cuts to Governor Wallace as he speaks to General Graham. NEWSMAN Here by videotape is the encounter by General Graham, Commander of the National Guard, and Governor Wallace. Forrest stands next to George Wallace and listens. GOVERNOR WALLACE We must have no violence today, or any other day, because these National Guardsmen are here today as Federal Soldiers for Alabamans. And they live within our borders and they are all our brothers. We are winning in this fight because we are awakening the American people to the dangers that we have spoken about so many times, just so evident today, the trend toward military dictatorship in this country. EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA Some of the Alabama policeman and citizens clap their hands as the National Guardsmen stand at attention with their weapons in front of them. Forrest walks through the crowd. Two black students were being led toward the schoolhouse. NEWSMAN And so at day's end the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa had been desegregated and students Jimmy Hood and Vivian Malone had been signed up for summer classes. The young black girl drops one of her books. Forrest notices and steps past the policeman toward the book on the ground. Forrest steps out from the crowd and picks up the book. He brings it up to the girl. FORREST Ma'am, you dropped your book. Ma'am. INT. COACHES' OFFICE - NIGHT (1963) A coach looks at the television. The television reveals Forrest as he stands at the schoolhouse door. He looks around, then waves. CHET HUNTLEY (on TV) Governor Wallace did what he promised to do. By being on the Tuscaloosa campus, he kept the mob from gathering and prevented violence. An assistant coach looks at the television, then at the other coaches. ASSISTANT COACH Say, wasn't that Gump? The football coach and two assistant coaches look. Forrest dries himself off with a towel as he steps from the showers. CHET HUNTLEY (on TV) NBC News will present a special program on the Alabama integration story at 7:30 p.m. tonight... ASSISTANT COACH Naw, that couldn't be. FOOTBALL COACH It sure as hell was. CHET HUNTLEY ...standard Eastern Daylight Time. Now a word from Anacin. Forrest steps up to the coaches' area and grabs a clean towel. The coaches turn and stare at Forrest. Forrest gives them one of his silly waves, then walks away. COLOR FOOTAGE - Governor Wallace waves to the crowd as he stands behind a podium with his wife. FORREST (V.O.) A few years later, that angry little man at the schoolhouse door thought it would be a good idea, and ran for President. COLOR FOOTAGE - Governor Wallace mingles in a crowd. Gunshots are fired, wounding him. Some men wrestle the shooter. Wallace lies wounded on the ground. FORREST (V.O.) But, somebody thought that it wasn't. EXT. SAVANNAH/BUS BENCH - DAY (1981) Forrest sits on the bench as the black woman looks at him. A WHITE WOMAN with a bay sits left. FORREST But he didn't die. A bus pulls up to the bus stop. The BLACK WOMAN looks down at her watch. BLACK WOMAN My bus is here. FORREST Is it the number 9? BLACK WOMAN No, it's the number 4. The Black Woman gets up and steps over to the bus. FORREST It was nice talkin' to you. The white woman sits closer to Forrest. WHITE WOMAN I remember when that happened, when Wallace got shot. I was in college. FORREST Did you go to a girls' college, or to a girls' and boys' together college? WHITE WOMAN It was co-ed. FORREST 'Cause Jenny went to a college I couldn't go to. It was a college just for girls. EXT, GIRLS' COLLEGE/JENNY'S DORM - NIGHT (1963) Forrest sits outside Jenny's dorm in the rain. FORREST (V.O.) But, I'd go and visit her every chance I got. A car pulls up. A song is heard from the radio. Forrest, holding a box of chocolates, looks at the car. The two people inside the car begins to kiss and embrace each other. Jenny is inside the car with a boy. She leans back against the passenger side door as they struggle to get comfortable. JENNY Ouch! That hurts. Forrest gets up and runs toward the car. He tries to look in the window as he steps over to the driver's side door. He opens the door and begins to punch the boy inside. Jenny jump out of the car and runs over to Forrest. JENNY Forrest! Forrest! Forrest, stop it! Stop it! BILLY Jesus! JENNY What are you doing? FORREST He was hurtin' you. Jenny's date, named BILLY, gets out of the car angrily. BILLY What the hell is going on here? JENNY No, he's not! BILLY Who is that? Who is that? JENNY Get over there! Jenny turns and looks at Billy. He shoves Jenny's hands away from him. JENNY Billy, I'm sorry. BILLY What in the hell, git, would you git away from me! JENNY Don't... Wait a second! BILLY Git, just git away from me! JENNY Don't go! Billy, wait a second! Billy gets back into the car. JENNY He doesn't know any better! Billy pulls away as Jenny steps toward Forrest. JENNY Forrest, why'd you do that? Forrest holds out the box of chocolates. FORREST I brought you some chocolates. I'm sorry. I'll go back to my college now. JENNY Forrest, look at you! Come on. Come on. Jenny grabs Forrest hand and leads him toward the dorm. INT. JENNY'S DORM/HALLWAY Jenny and Forrest sneak to Jenny's door. FORREST Is this your room? JENNY Shh! Jenny unlocks the door and they step inside. INT. JENNY'S DORM ROOM Jenny pulls a robe off of her sleeping roommate's bed. Jenny hands the robe to Forrest, sitting on Jenny's bed. JENNY Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be? FORREST Who I'm gonna be? JENNY Yeah. FORREST Aren't I going to be me? JENNY Well, you'll always be you, just another kind of you. You know? I want to be famous. Jenny picks up a towel, then walks back toward Forrest. Jenny dries the water from her hair. JENNY I want to be a singer like Joan Baez. I just want to be an empty stage with my guitar, my voice... just me. Jenny takes off her slip and sits on the bed next to him. She is only wearing her bra and panties. Forrest looks at Jenny like he's never seen a woman in her underwear before. JENNY And I want to reach people on a personal level. I want to be able to say things, just one-to-one. Forrest looks down at Jenny's breasts. Jenny realizes that he is looking at her. JENNY Have you ever been with a girl, Forrest? FORREST I sit next to them in my home economics class all the time. DJ (over radio) You're listening to WHHY in Birmingham, the clear A.M. voice of Northern Alabama. I'm Joel Dorn... Forrest looks at Jenny as she removes her bra. Forrest looks away, a bit shamed. Jenny takes his hand and guides it up to her breast. DJ (over radio) ...coming to you on a night that is anything but clear. The weatherman says that rain's gonna fall all night long so stay with us, get warm, get cozy, get under the covers to the cool sounds of WHHY. Forrest looks over at Jenny's breasts, the shudder as he has an orgasm. FORREST Ohh... Oh... I'm sorry. Sorry. JENNY It's okay. DJ (over radio) ...444-6789, with ya till sunrise, playing the music you want to hear when you want to hear it. If you have a request or dedication, give us a call. We guarantee you'll hear your requests within one hour. Forrest breathes heavily. Jenny puts her bra back on. JENNY It's all right. Jenny leans over and puts her head on Forrest's shoulder. DJ (over radio) Candy is on the line tonight. Candy's answering the phones, give Candy your request, your dedication, and ask her why she won't go out with me, would you? Here's more music. JENNY It's okay. FORREST Oh, I'm dizzy. A song is coming over the radio. Jenny hugs Forrest. JENNY I bet that never happened in home ec. FORREST No. Jenny laughs and kisses Forrest on the cheek. Forrest and Jenny hug on the bed as Jenny's roommate pretends to be asleep, but is listening, horrified, with her eyes open. FORREST I think I ruined your roommate's bathrobe. JENNY I don't care. I don't like her, anyway. EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA/FOOTBALL STADIUM - DAY (1963) Forrest runs across the field as the defending team chases him. The crowd yells for Forrest. They flip a sign that reads: "Go Forrest." CROWD Run! Run! Run! Forrest runs along the field. The crowd cheers. CROWD Run! Run! Run! Forrest runs into the end zone. The band members rush toward Forrest with their hands up, signaling him to stop. The crowd flips over cards, creating a sign that reads "STOP." CROWD Stop! Forrest stops in the end zone as he hears the crowd yells. The band motions for Forrest to stop and stay in the end zone. A group of defending players fall over each other in the end zone. Forrest looks as the crowd cheers wildly. FORREST (V.O.) College ran by real fast 'cause I played so much football. BLACK AND WHITE PARAMOUNT NEWSREEL - DAY (1963) The White House with the words "The eyes and ears of the world Paramount News" superimposed. FORREST (V.O.) They even put me on a thing called the All-America Team where you get to meet the President of the United States. BLACK AND WHITE NEWSREEL PRESIDENT KENNEDY holds an autographed football as the All- American Team stands behind him. Forrest is among the players in suits. ANNOUNCER (over newsreel) President Kennedy met with the Collegiate All-American Football Team at the Oval Office today. INT. WHITE HOUSE RECEPTION AREA - DAY (1963) The All-American players mingle around the food table. Forrest steps up to the table. A large spread of food and soda is on the table. FORREST (V.O.) Now, the real good thing about meeting the President of the United States is the food. Forrest takes a bottle of Dr. Pepper from the buffet table. Numerous bottle of Dr. Pepper are displayed on the table. A servant opens the bottle for him. FORREST (V.O.) They put you in this little room with just about anything you'd want to eat or drink. And since number one, I wasn't hungry, but thirsty... Forrest begins to guzzle the Dr. Pepper. FORREST (V.O.) ...and number two, they was free, I musta drank me about fifteen Dr. Peppers. Forrest sets down an empty Dr. Pepper bottle next to a large number of other empty bottles. Forrest holds his stomach and burps. BLACK AND WHITE FOOTAGE - President Kennedy shakes hands with the All-American football players. PRESIDENT KENNEDY Congratulations. How does it feel to be an All-American? 1ST PLAYER It's an honor, Sir. Another player steps up to the President and shakes the President's hand. PRESIDENT KENNEDY Congratulations. How does it feel to be an All-American? 2ND PLAYER Very good, Sir. PRESIDENT KENNEDY Congratulations. How does it feel to be an All-American? 3RD PLAYER Very good, Sir. The player walks away. Forrest steps up to the President. The President shakes his hand. PRESIDENT KENNEDY Congratulations. How do you feel? FORREST I gotta pee. President Kennedy turns and smiles. PRESIDENT KENNEDY I believe he said he had to go pee. INT. WHITE HOUSE/BATHROOM Forrest urinates in the bathroom, then lowers the lid and flashes. Forrest washes his hands, then notices an autographed photo from Marilyn Monroe and a photo of John with his brother Bobby. FORREST (V.O.) Sometime later, for no particular reason, somebody shot that nice young President when he was ridin' in his car. ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE - DAY SLOW MOTION - President Kennedy rises in a convertible and smiles. FORREST And a few years after that... ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE - Robert Kennedy stands at a podium as people around him applaud. FORREST (V.O.) ...somebody shot his little brother, too, only he was in a hotel kitchen. EXT. SAVANNHA/BUS BENCH - DAY (1981) Forrest sits on the bench and shakes his head. FORREST It must be hard being brothers. I wouldn't know. EXT. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - DAY - GRADUATION DAY (1966) Students in their caps and gowns step forward the podium to receive their diplomas. Forrest's name is called. He steps up and accepts his diploma. DEAN Forrest Gump. FORREST (V.O.) Now can you believe it? After only five years of playing football, I got a college degree. The dean shakes Forrest's hand vigorously. Forrest looks out into the crowd. DEAN Congratulations, son. Mrs. Gump, sitting in the audience, cries. FORREST (V.O.) Momma was proud. Forrest and Mrs. Gump have their picure taken in front of a large statue. A military recruiter spots Forrest and steps up to him. MRS. GUMP Forrest, I'm so proud of you. Here, I'll hold this for you. Mrs. Gump takes the diploma from Forrest. The recruiter slaps Forrest on the shoulder and hands him some military literature. MILITARY RECRUITER Congratulations, son. Have you given any thought to your future? FORREST Thought? Forrest looks at a pamphlet with a photo of "Uncle Sam" and the caption "EXCELLENT CAREERS FOR EXCELLENT YOUNG MAN. Apply now at your local U.S. Army Recruiting Center." FORREST (V.O.) Hello, I'm Forrest... INT. ARMY BUS - DAY (1966) Forrest steps onto the army bus. Rain pours outside as the army bus driver yells at Forrest. FORREST ...Forrest Gump. ARMY BUS DRIVER Nobody gives a hunk of shit who you are, fuzzball! You're not even a lowlife scum sucking maggot! Get your faggoty ass on the bus. You're in the Army now! Forrest is about to sit on the first available seat, but the recruit sitting there refuses Forrest. RECRUIT #1 This seat's taken. Forrest tries to sit on the next seat, but the 2nd recruit slides over, blocking him. RECRUIT #2 It's taken. Forrest steps forward, looking much like he did on his first bus ride to school years ago. FORREST (V.O.) At first, it seemed like I made a mistake. A large black recruit with a strange look on his face, much like Forrest's, looks up from his seat. His name is BUBBA. FORREST (V.O.) ...seeing how it was my induction day and I was already gettin' yelled at. Bubba moves his case over, making room for Forrest to sit down. BUBBA You can sit down... if you want to. FORREST (V.O.) I didn't know who I might meet or what they might ask. Bubba hands Forrest a handkerchief. BUBBA You ever been on a real shrimp boat? FORREST No, but I been on a real big boat. BUBBA I'm talkin' about a shrimp catchin' boat. I've been workin' on shrimp boats all my life. I started out my uncle's boat, that's my mother's brother, when I was about maybe nine. I was just lookin' into buyin' a boat of my own and got drafted. My given name is Benjamin Buford Blue. Bubba and Forrest shake hands. BUBBA People call me Bubba. Just like one of them redneck boys. Can you believe that? FORREST My name's Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump. FORREST (V.O.) So Bubba was from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and his momma cooked shrimp. INT. LOUISIANA/KITCHEN - DAY (1966) Bubba's mother, a robust woman in a cook's uniform, carries a bowl of shrimp into a dining room. She sets it down on a table in front of a wealthy white man. FORREST (V.O.) And her momma before her cooked shrimp. INT. SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH/KITCHEN - DAY (EARLY DAYS OF SLAVERY) Bubba's grandmother carries a bowl of shrimp into a dining room. She sets it down on a table in front of a wealthy white man. FORREST (V.O.) And her momma before her momma cooked shrimp, too. Bubba's family knew everything... INT. ARMY BUS - DAY (1966) FORREST (V.O.) ...there was to know about the shrimpin' business. BUBBA I know everything there is to know about the shrimpin' business. Matter of fact, I'm goin' into the shrimpin' business for myself after I get out the Army. FORREST Okay. INT. BARRACKS - DAY A DRILL SERGEANT is in Forrest's face as Forrest stands in line with the other recruits. DRILL SERGEANT Gump! What's your sole purpose in this Army? FORREST To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant! DRILL SERGEANT Godamnit, Gump! You're a goddamned genius! That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a godamned I.Q. of a hundred and sixty! You are godamned gifted, Private Gump! The Drill Sergeant moves down the line to the next man. DRILL SERGEANT Listen up, people... FORREST (V.O.) Now, for some reason, I fit in the Army like one of them round pegs. It's not really hard. You just make your bed real neat and remember to stand up straight. DRILL SERGEANT That is one very intelligent individual! You lock your scuzzy bodies up behind that private and do exactly what he does and you will go far in this man's army! FORREST (V.O.) And always answer every question with "Yes, Drill Sergeant!" DRILL SERGEANT Is that clear? FORREST & RECRUITS Yes, Drill Sergeant! ANOTHER DAY The recruits are sitting at the base of their bunks assembling their rifles. Bubba speaks to Forrest. BUBBA What you do is you just drag your nets across the bottom. On a good day, you can catch over a hundred pounds of shrimp. If everything goes all right, two men shrimpin' ten hours, less what you spends on gas, you can... Forrest finishes assembling his rifle as the other recruits are still working on theirs. FORREST Done, Drill Sergeant! DRILL SERGEANT Gump! The Drill Sergeant rushes up to Forrest. DRILL SERGEANT Why did you put that weapon together so quickly, Gump? FORREST You told me to, Drill Sergeant. The Drill Sergeant looks at his stop watch. DRILL SERGEANT Jesus Christ! This is a new company record. If it wouldn't be a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man, I'd recommended you for O.C.S., Private Gump. You are gonna be a General some day, Gump! Now, disassemble your weapon and continue! The Drill Sergeant walks away as Forrest begins to disassemble his rifle. After the Drill Sergeant walks past Bubba, Bubba looks up at Forrest. Bubba continues talking about shrimp in his slow southern drawl. BUBBA Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There, uh, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole... ANOTHER DAY Bubba and Forrest shine their boots. BUBBA ...shrimp gumbo, panfried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp... ANOTHER DAY Bubba and Forrest are on their hands and knees as they scrub the floor with toothbrushes. BUBBA ...shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... that's, that's about it. NIGHT Bubba lies in his bunk and looks up quietly. FORREST (V.O.) Nighttime in the Army is a lovely time. Forrest lies in his bunk and looks up. FORREST (V.O.) We'd lay there in our bunks, and I'd miss my momma. And I'd miss Jenny. A young private tosses a Playboy magazine onto Forrest. YOUNG PRIVATE Hey, Gump. Get a load of the tits on her! Forrest pick up the magazine and turns the page, revealing Jenny as she poses with a school sweater on, and that's all. The pictorial is titled: "Girls of the South." Forrest looks up with shock. He cranes his head up for a closer look. FORREST (V.O.) Turns out, Jenny had gotten into some trouble over... some photos of her in her college sweater. And she was thrown out of school. SONG "My baby does the hanky-panky..." INT. NASHVILLE/NIGHT CLUB - NIGHT (1966) Forrest, in his army uniform, steps into the foyer of the club. FORREST (V.O.) But that wasn't a bad thing. Because a man who owns a theater in Memphis, Tennessee, saw those photo and offered Jenny a job singing in a show. The first chance I got, I took the bus up to Memphis to see her perform in that show. EMCEE steps out onto the stage. EMCEE That was Amber, Amber Flame. Give her a big hand, guys. Good job, Amber. And now, for your listening and viewing pleasure, direct from Hollywood, California, our very own beatnik beauty, let's give a big round of applause to the luscious Bobbie Dylan. CROWD Bobbie... Bobbie... The emcee walks back off the stage and the curtain opens, revealing Jenny as she sits on a stool on the stage. She holds a guitar up and begins to play. She is topless. JENNY (sings) "Yes, and how many seas must the white dove said, before she sleeps in the sand." FORREST (V.O.) Her dream had come true. She was a folk singer. JENNY (sings) "Yes, how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned." MAN #1 You gotta lose the guitar, darling. MAN #2 Hey, come on, baby. Shake it up. Shake it up now. MAN #3 Hey, somebody ought to get her a harmonica. The men laugh. JENNY (sings) "The answer, my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in... MAN # ...skin, honey. This isn't Captain Kangaroo. MEN Yeah! Come on! Man #5 reaches up and tries to stick some money in Jenny's shoe. MAN #5 : Hey, honey, I got something here for you. Jenny kicks his hand. He yells angrily as he sits back down, then tosses his drink on her. MAN #5 Goddamnit! JENNY Hey! Hey! Stupid jerk! I'm singing a song here. Polly, get out here! MAN # Hey, show us some stuff, honey! JENNY Shut up! Oh, shut up! Forrest walks up to Man #5 and grabs him and tosses him down on the ground. Man #4 tries to grab Forrest, but Forrest shoves him down too. JENNY Forrest, what are you doing here? What are you doing? Forrest climbs up onto the stage and picks Jenny up, guitar and all, and carries her. FORREST Come on. JENNY What are you doing? Forrest, let me down! Jenny struggles and frees herself from Forrest. Forrest steps back in surprise. Jenny shoves the guitar at Forrest. Jenny walks off as Forrest holds the guitar. He follows after her. EXT. MEMPHIS BRIDGE - NIGHT Forrest follows Jenny over a bridge outside the night club. JENNY You can't keep doing this, Forrest. You can't keep tryin' to rescue me all the time. FORREST They was tryin' to grab you. JENNY A lot of people try to grab me. Just -- you can't keep doing this all the time! FORREST I can't help it. I love you. JENNY Forrest, you don't know what love is. Jenny turns and looks over the bridge. JENNY You remember that time we prayed, Forrest? We prayed for God to turn me into a bird so I could fly far, far away? FORREST Yes, I do. JENNY You think I can fly off this bridge? FORREST What do you mean, Jenny? JENNY Nothing. Jenny turns and looks at the light of an approaching vehicle. She steps into the street. JENNY I gotta get outta here. Jenny runs and flags down the approaching vehicle. FORREST But wait. Jenny! JENNY Forrest, you stay away from me, okay? You just stay away from me, please. A pickup truck pulls over as Jenny looks at the driver. JENNY Can I have a ride? DRIVER Where you going? JENNY I don't care. DRIVER Get in the truck. FORREST So bye-bye, Jenny. They sendin' me to Vietnam. It's this whole other country. Jenny walks toward Forrest. She looks at the driver. JENNY Just hang on a minute. Jenny walks up to Forrest. JENNY Listen, you promise me something, okay? Just if you're ever in trouble, don't try to be brave, you just run, okay? Just run away. FORREST Okay. Jenny, I'll write you all the time. Jenny takes a last look at Forrest, then climbs into the truck. Forrest watches Jenny in the pickup as it drives away. FORREST (V.O.) And just like that. EXT. GREENBOW/GUMP BOARDING HOUSE/RIVER - DAY Forrest, dressed in his uniform, sits on a log and looks out at a river. FORREST (V.O.) ...she was gone. Mrs. Gump walks toward Forrest and sits down next to him on the log. Forrest leans down, placing his head on his mother's shoulder. MRS. GUMP You come back safe to me, do ya hear? EXT. VIETNAM/MEKONG DELTA - MORNING (1967) The shadow of a helicopter over the rice field below. A soldier is manning a gun from inside the helicopter. The solider looks left, Forrest and Bubba ride in the helicopter. EXT. FIREBASE/4TH PLATOON The helicopter circles overhead, then lands at the firebase. SONG "Some folks are born made to wave the flag. Ooh, they're red, white and blue. And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief," ohh, they point the cannon at you all. It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no Senator's son, no. It ain't me. It ain't me..." Bubba and Forrest jump out of the helicopter with their gear/ They walk and look around oddly. FORREST (V.O.) Now, they told us that Vietnam was gonna be very different from the United Sates of America. The soldier places a case of beer on a large stack of cases. He takes two beers out and walks away. In the background, soldiers are barbecuing steaks and drinking beer. FORREST (V.O.) Except for all the beer cans and the barbecue, it was. BUBBA Y'know, I bet there's shrimp all in these waters. They tell me these Vietnams is good shrimp. You know, after we win this war, and we take over everything we can get American shrimpers to come on here and shrimp these waters. We'll just shrimp all the time, man. So much shrimp, why, you wouldn't believe it. Lieutenant DAN TAYLOR steps out of a tent. Shirtless, he holds a roll of toilet paper in his hand. LT. DAN You must be my F.N.G.'s. BUBBA AND FORREST Morning', sir! LT. DAN Ho! Get your hands down. Do not salute me. There are goddamned snipers all around this area who would love to grease an officer. I'm Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Welcome to Fourth Platoon. Lt. Dan looks at Bubba. LT. DAN What's wrong with your lips? BUBBA I was born with big gums, sir. LT. DAN Yeah, well, you better tuck that in. Gonna get that caught on a trip wire. Where you boys from in the world? BUBBA & FORREST Alabama, sir! LT. DAN You twins? Forrest and Bubba look at each other oddly, they don't get the joke. FORREST No, we are not relations, sir. LT. DAN Look, it's pretty basic here. Lt. Dan starts to walk. Bubba and Forrest grab their gear and follow him. LT. DAN You stick with me, you learn from the guys who been in country awhile, you'll be right. There is one item of G.I. gear that can be the difference between a live grunt and a dead grunt. Lt. Dan stops and looks at the boys. LT. DAN Socks, cushion, sole, O.D. green. Try and keep your feet dry when we're out humpin'. I want you boys to remember to change your socks wherever we stop. The Mekong will eat a grunt's feet right off his legs. Lt. Dan steps over to a large black soldier named SERGEANT SIMS. LT. DAN Sergeant Sims! Goddamnit, where is that sling-rope I told you to order. SGT. SIMS I put in requisitions at Battalion. LT. DAN Yeah, yeah, yeah, well you call those sonabitches again, call them again and again and again. I don't care how much it takes... FORREST (V.O.) Lt. Dan sure knew his stuff. I felt real lucky he was my lieutenant. He was from a long, great military tradition. Somebody in his family had fought and died in every single American war. EXT. VALLEY FORGE/THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR - DAY (1778) A distant relative of Lt. Dan's, wearing a revolutionary war uniform, falls dead in the snow. EXT. GETTYSBURG/THE CIVIL WAR - DAY (1863) Another relative, wearing a civil war uniform and bearing a striking resemblance to Lt. Dan, falls down dead. EXT. NORMANDY/WORLD WAR II - DAY (1944) Another relative, wearing a World War II, falls down dead on the beach at Normandy. EXT. VETNAM/MEKONG DELTA/FIREBASE - DAY (1967) LT. DAN Goddamnit, kick some ass! SGT. SIMS I'm on it, Lieutenant. LT. DAN Get on it! Lt. Dan steps back up to Bubba and Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) I guess you could say he had a lot to live up to. Lt. Dan walks along the walkway and Bubba and Forrest follow. LT. DAN So, you boys are from Arkansas, huh? Well, I've been through there. Little Rock's a fine town. Now, go shake down your gear, see the platoon sergeant, draw what you need for the field. Lt. Dan steps inside the latrine, still holding the roll of toilet paper. LT. DAN If you boys are hungry, we got steaks burnin' right here. Lt. Dan sits down out of sight in the latrine, then stands up, looking at the boys. LT. DAN Two standing orders in this platoon. One, take good care of your feet. Two, try not to do anything stupid, like gettin' yourself killed. Lt. Dan sits back down out of sight in the latrine. Bubba and Forrest look at each other. FORREST I sure hope I don't let him down. EXT. RICE FIELD - ANOTHER DAY Forrest, Bubba, and other soldiers in the Fourth Platoon walk across the rice field. Some Vietnamese rice farmers are working as the soldiers walk past. FORREST (V.O.) I got to see a lot of countryside. We would take these real long walks. EXT. JUNGLE/DIRT ROAD - ANOTHER DAY Forrest's unit walks along a dirt road. SONG And we were always lookin' for this guy named Charlie. I can't get no relief. Suddenly Lt. Dan holds up his fist, a signal for the unit to stop. He motions for them to get down. LT. DAN Hold it up! SGT. SIMS Hold up, boys! Forrest gets down and looks around. FORREST (V.O.) It wasn't always fun. Lt. Dan always gettin' these funny feelings about a rock or a trail, or the road, so he'd tell you to get down, shut up! LT. DAN Get down! Shut up! FORREST (V.O.) So we did. Lt. Dan motions for the lead soldier to get down. Lt. Dan crouches down. Lt. Dan looks at the soldiers and points to his eyes. He lies down on the dirt road and crawls. FORREST (V.O.) Now, I don't know much about anything, but I think some of American's best young men served in this war. There was Dallas, from Phoenix. Cleveland, he was from Detroit. CLEVELAND Hey, Tex. Hey, Tex. Man, what the hell's going on? Tex holds up his hand, motioning that he doesn't know. FORREST (V.O.) And Tex was, well, I don't remember where Tex come from. LT. DAN Ah, nothin'. Fourth Platoon, on your feet! Still got ten clicks to go to that river. Forrest stands up and begins to walk with the platoon. LT. DAN All right, move out! Comin' out. Look alive out there. FORREST (V.O.) The good thing about Vietnam is there was always someplace to go. LT. DAN (V.O.) Fire in the hole! EXT. VIETNAM/VIET CONG FOXHOLE - ANOTHER DAY Lt. Dan walks away as Forrest rushes over, aims two pistols in the hole, then climbs inside. FORREST (V.O.) And there was always something to do. LT. DAN Mount 'em up. SGT. SIMS Spread out! Cover his back. ANOTHER DAY - The platoon walks through a rice paddy, waits deep in water. It begins to rain. FORREST (V.O.) One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. EXT. JUNGLE The rain pours down on Forrest and Bubba as they sit in a foxhole. FORREST (V.O.) We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... ANOTHER DAY - The platoon walks through the jungle as rain pours down on them. FORREST (V.O.) ...and big ol' fat rain. ANOTHER DAY - The platoon shelters themselves as they walk through the wind and rain. FORREST (V.O.) Rain that flew in sideways. ANOTHER DAY - Forrest and other soldiers walk chest-deep through a river. The rain splatters back up from the river, hitting the soldiers. Forrest holds his hand up to protect his face. FORREST (V.O.) And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. EXT. ENCAMPMENT - NIGHT The rain pours down on the men of the platoon as they sit in a camp. Bubba sits down next to Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) Shoot, it even rained at night. Bubba leans his back up against Forrest's back. BUBBA Hey Forrest... FORREST Hey Bubba... BUBBA I'm gonna lean up against you, you just lean right back against me. BUBBA This way, we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud. You know why we a good partnership, Forrest? 'Cause we be watchin' out for one another. Like brothers and stuff. Hey, Forrest, there's somethin' I've been thinkin' about. I got a very important question to ask you. How would you like to go into the shrimpin' business with me? FORREST Okay. BUBBA Man, I tell you what, I got it all figured out, too. So many pounds of shrimp to pay off the boat, so many pounds for gas, we can just live right on the boat. We ain't got to pay no rent. I'll be the captain; we can just work it together. Split everything right down the middle. Man, I'm tellin' you, fifty-fifty. And, hey, Forrest, all the shrimp you can get. FORREST That's a fine idea. FORREST (V.O.) Bubba did have a fine idea. ANOTHER NIGHT - Some soldiers patrol the area. Forrest lies in a pup tent and writes a litter as the rain pours down. He uses his flashlight to see. FORREST (V.O.) I even wrote Jenny and told her all about it. I sent her letters. Not every day, but almost. I told her what I was doin' and asked her what she was doing, and I told her how I thought about her always. EXT. JENNY'S GRANDMOTHER'S TRAILER - DAY Jenny steps out of the trailer with a backpack and a guitar. She hugs a hippie guy, then jumps into the back of a Volkswagen bus with another guy. FORREST (V.O.) And how I was looking forward to getting a letter from her just as soon as she had the time I'd always let her know that I was okay. EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHT Forrest writes a letter in his tent. FORREST (V.O.) Then I'd sign each letter, "Love, Forrest Gump." EXT. JUNGLE - DAY The Fourth Platoon makes their way through the jungle and rain. SONG "There's something happenin' here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there, telling' me I got to beware." FORREST (V.O.) This one day, we was out walking, like always, and then, just like that, somebody turned off the rain and the sun come out. Forrest looks up as the sun suddenly appears. Forrest's platoon is attacked. A bullet kills the soldier standing next to Forrest. Bombs explode all around as the soldiers scramble to the ground. LT. DAN Take cover! Forrest crawls over a berm as bullets fly overhead and explode all around him. Forrest rolls over and pulls his pack off Lt. Dan lies next to Forrest. LT. DAN Get that pig up here, goddammit! BUBBA Forrest, you okay? Two soldiers with a machine gun fire into the jungle. Lt. Dan shouts into the radio. Forrest begins firing his weapon into the jungle. LT. DAN ...Strongarm, please be advised... Two soldiers pull a wounded soldier into the jungle. BUBBA Medic, we got a man down! LT. DAN Strongarm, this is Leg Lima 6, over! LT. DAN Roger, Strongarm, be advised we have incoming from the treeline at point blue plus two. A.K's and rockets... The machine gunner fires into the treeline. Another soldier helps him with the ammunition. The machine gun jams. SOLDIER WITH BIG MACHINE GUN Misfire! Misfire! LT. DAN Goddammit, Mac! Get that pig unfucked and get it in the treeline! A rocket explodes on the machine gunner and the other soldier, killing them. Forrest looks down and covers his head as rockets explodes all around him. LT. DAN (into radio) Ah, Jesus! My unit is down hard and hurting! 6 pulling back to the blue line, Leg Lima 6 out! Pull back! Pull back! BUBBA Forrest! Run! Run, Forrest! LT. DAN Pull back! BUBBA Forrest! Run! Run, Forrest! Run! Run! SGT. SIMS Pull back! Let's go! Lt. Dan gets up and grabs Forrest by the collar. LT. DAN Run, goddammit, run! The platoon gets up and runs toward the cover of the jungle. Rockets explode all around the field. Forrest runs into the jungle. The soldiers run through the jungle as bullets explode all around. A soldier is blown up by a rocket. A soldier runs through the jungle. Forrest runs past the soldier. SOLDIER Medic! Medic! Jesus, can I get a medic? FORREST (V.O.) I ran and ran, just like Jenny told me to. Rockets explode in the jungle as Forrest runs out toward a clearing. FORREST (V.O.) I ran so far and so fast that pretty soon I was all by myself, which was a bad thing. FORREST Bubba! Forrest turns around, then runs back into the jungle. FORREST (V.O.) Bubba was my best good friend. I had to make sure he was okay. Rockets explode in the jungle. Forrest runs back into the jungle to look for Bubba. 1ST SOLDIER Any friendlies out there? 2ND SOLDIER Yeah, I've got three over there. 1ST SOLDIER Where the hell are you? Forrest stops and aims his weapon. He looks around, scared. FORREST Bubba? Something moves. Forrest turns and looks, then rushes over. FORREST (V.O.) And on my way back to find Bubba, well, there was this boy laying on the ground. FORREST Tex! Tex lies on the ground, his face distorted with pain. FORREST Okay. Forrest reaches down and picks up Tex from the ground. Forrest pulls Tex up over his shoulder, then runs. FORREST (V.O.) I couldn't just let him lay there all alone, scared the way he was, so I grabbed him up and run him out of there. Forrest carries Tex out of the jungle and into the clearing. He sets Tex down on the bank of a river, and runs back into the jungle. FORREST (V.O.) And every time I went back looking for Bubba, somebody else was saying, "Help me, Forrest. Help me." Forrest drops another wounded soldier down at the bank of the river next to Tex, and then runs back toward the jungle. Forrest grabs the third wounded soldier up from the ground and turns him over. It is DALLAS. DALLAS Can't hear... Can't hear... Dallas is dropped off at the bank next to the other wounded soldiers. Forrest turns to go back to the jungle. 2ND WOUNDED SOLDIER No sweat, man. Just lay back. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. FORREST (V.O.) I started to get scared that I might never find Bubba. STRONGARM (over radio) You're danger close for crack air, over. Forrest trips over something and falls to the ground. He looks up to find two bloody legs. It is Lt. Dan, who is wounded. He speaks into the radio. LT. DAN (into radio) Roger, Strongarm, I know my position is danger close! We got Charlie all over this area! I gotta have those fast movers in here now! Over! STRONGARM (over radio) Six, Strongarm, we want... FORREST Lieutenant Dan, Coleman's dead! LT. DAN I know he's dead! My whole goddamned platoon is wiped out! STRONGARM (over radio) Leg Lima 6, Leg Lima 6, how copy you this transmission? Over. Forrest tries to pick up Lt. Dan, who tries to push Forrest away. LT. DAN Goddammit! What are you doing? Leave me here! Get away. Just leave me here! Get out! Forrest pulls Lt. Dan over his shoulder and runs through the jungle. STRONGARM Leg Lima 6, Leg Lima 6. This is Strongarm, be advised, your fast movers are inbound at this time, over. FORREST (V.O.) Then it felt like something just jumped up and bit me. Forrest falls down. FORREST Ah, something bit me! Forrest gets up as Lt. Dan yells. Lt. Dan fires his pistol at the unseen enemy as Forrest pulls him away. LT. DAN You dink son-of-a-bitch! I can't leave the platoon! I told you to leave me there, Gump. Forget about me. Get yourself out! Did you hear what I said! Goddammit, pull me down! Get your ass out of here! Forrest drops Lt. Dan down at the bank, next to the other wounded soldiers. Lt. Dan grabs Forrest by the shirt, angry. LT. DAN I didn't ask you to pull me out of there, goddamn you! What the hell do you think you're going? FORREST To get Bubba. LT. DAN I got an air strike inbound right now. They're gonna nape the whole area. Forrest gets up and runs as Lt. Dan yells after him. LT. DAN Gump, you stay here, goddammit! That's an order! FORREST I gotta find Bubba! Forrest runs through the jungle searching for Bubba. Forrest slows down and looks around carefully. BUBBA Forrest... FORREST Bubba... Bubba looks up as he lies on the ground. BUBBA I'm okay. Bubba holds a palm frond over his wound. Forrest removes the frond to look at the wound. Bubba's chest has been blown open. FORREST Oh, Bubba, no... BUBBA Naw, I'm gonna be all right. Forrest looks around as he hear the voices of the enemy. FORREST Come on. Come on. Come here... Forrest carries Bubba through the jungle. The sound of approaching planes fills the air. BUBBA I'm okay, Forrest. I'm all right. The roar of approaching planes is deafening. Forrest looks up in fear. Three planes dive down toward the jungle. They fire napalm as the jungle explodes with massive fireballs. Forrest runs, carrying Bubba. The fireballs explode behind him. The entire jungle area is in flames as Forrest runs. Forrest carries Bubba to the bank of the river. Lt. Dan and the other wounded soldiers wait for a rescue helicopter. LT. DAN Helo's inbound. Pop smoke, get it up there! FORREST (V.O.) If I'd a known this was gonna be the last time me and Bubba was gonna talk, I'd a thought of something better to say. Forrest looks down at Bubba. A soldier releases a smoke canister. FORREST Hey, Bubba... BUBBA Hey, Forrest. Forrest, why'd this happen? FORREST You got shot. FORREST (V.O.) Then Bubba said something I won't even forget. BUBBA I wanna go home. FORREST (V.O.) Bubba was my best good friend. And even I know that ain't something you can find just around the corner. Bubba was gonna be a shrimpin' boat captain, but instead he died right there by that river in Vietnam. The helicopter fly overhead. BUS STATION - DAY Forrest continues with his life story. A MAN is sitting next to Forrest on the bus bench. FORREST That's all I have to say about that. MAN It was a bullet, wasn't it? FORREST A bullet? MAN That jumped up and bit you. FORREST Oh, yes sir. Bit me directly in the buttocks. They said it was a million dollar wound, but the Army must keep that money, 'cause I still ain't seen a nickel of that million dollars. The only good thing about being wounded in the buttocks... FLASHBACK - INT. US. ARMY HOSPITAL/VIETNAM - DAY Forrest holds two ice cream cones in his hands as he is wheeled on a rolling stretcher. FORREST (V.O.) ...is the ice cream. They gave me all the ice cream I could eat. And guess what. A good friend of mine was in the bed right next door. Forrest, lying on his stomach, is wheeled to his bed. Forrest's butt sticks up and is bandaged. Forrest looks at Lt. Dan lying on the bed. Forrest holds out an ice cream cone for Lt. Dan. FORREST Lieutenant Dan, I got you some ice cream. Lieutenant Dan, ice cream. Lt. Dan, annoyed, takes the ice cream cone and drops it into his bed pan. Forrest slides himself onto his bed. A NURSE reaches toward Lt. Dan. MALE NURSE It's time for your bath, Lieutenant. The male nurse places Lt. Dan's hands on a pull-up bar, then picks up Lt. Dan, whose legs have been amputated. MALE NURSE Harper... Another nurse wheels the rolling bed under Lt. Dan. The male nurse sets Lt. Dan down on the rolling bed. Forrest looks up at Lt. Dan as he is wheeled away. A soldier reads the names from a pile of letters. SOLDIER Cooper, Larson, Webster, Gump, Gump... FORREST I'm Forrest Gump. The soldier hands Forrest a large pile of letters. "Undeliverable as addressed. No forwarding order on file." Jenny Curran Rural Route 2 Greenbow, Ala. 39902 Forrest looks down at the pile of letters. INT. ARMY HOSPITAL/VIETNAM - DAY A group of wounded soldiers hang out in the hospital, recuperating. Forrest sits and watches "Gomer Pyle" on the television. SOLDIER Gump, how can you watch that stupid shit? Turn it off! ANNOUNCER From the D.M.Z. to the Delta, you are tuned to the American Forces Vietnam Network. This is Channel 6, Saigon. Forrest turns the TV off and he is hit on the back of the head by a ping-pong ball. SOLDIER Good catch, Gump. You know how to play this? Forrest shakes his head. SOLDIER Come on, let me show you. Here. The wounded ping-pong player hands Forrest a paddle. Forrest and the wounded ping-pong player step toward the ping-pong table. SOLDIER Now the secret to this game is, no matter what happens, never, never take your eye off the ball. He holds the ball up and moves it back and forth. Forrest keeps his eyes on the ball. SOLDIER All right... The wounded ping-pong player tosses the ball down onto the table. Forrest begins to hit the ball back to the other player. FORREST (V.O.) For some reason, ping pong came very natural to me. SOLDIER See, any idiot can play. FORREST (V.O.) So I started playing it all the time. Forrest hits ping-pong balls. FORREST (V.O.) I played ping-pong even when I didn't have anyone to play ping-pong with. The balls at land in a bed pan positioned on a chair. A group of wounded soldier sit and watch Forrest play with himself. Forrest hits two balls at a time against the opposite side of the table. FORREST (V.O.) The hospital's people said it made me look like a duck in water, whatever that means. Even Lieutenant Dan would come and watch me play. Lt. Dan stares out the window. Forrest lies in his bed asleep. A hand reaches and grabs him. FORREST (V.O.) I played ping-pong so much, I even played it in my sleep. Lt. Dan pulls Forrest to the floor, and holds Forrest down. LT. DAN Now, you listen to me. We all have a destiny. Nothing just happens, it's all part of a plan. I should have died out there with my men! But now, I'm nothing but a goddamned cripple! A legless freak. Look! Look! Look at me! Do you see that? Do you know what it's like not to be able to use your legs? FORREST Well... Yes, sir, I do. LT. DAN Did you hear what I said? You cheated me. I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field! With honor! That was my destiny! And you cheated me out of it! You understand what I'm saying, Gump? This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to me. I had a destiny. I was Lieutenant Dan Tyler. FORREST Yo-You're still Lieutenant Dan. Lt. Dan looks at Forrest, lets go of Forrest and rolls. Lt. Dan sits up as Forrest looks at him. LT. DAN Look at me. What am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do now? INT. REC ROOM/VIETNAM HOSPITAL - ANOTHER DAY Forrest plays ping-pong by himself. An OFFICER walks up to him. OFFICER P.F.C. Gump? Forrest immediately grabs the ball and places it down on the table under its paddle. Stands at attention. FORREST Yes, sir! OFFICER As you were. The officer holds up an envelope. OFFICER Son, you've been awarded the Medal of Honor. INT. VIETNAM HOSPITAL WARD Forrest steps up to Lt. Dan's bed. FORREST Guess what, Lieutenant Dan, they want to give me a me... Forrest stops in mid-sentence as he looks down at the bed. A heavily bandaged soldier with bloodstains lies there. Forrest turns and look at the NURSE. FORREST Ma'am, what'd they do with Lieutenant Dan? NURSE They sent him home. FORREST (V.O.) Two weeks later, I left Vietnam. INT. BARBER SHOP/GREENBOW - DAY ANCHORMAN (on T.V.) The ceremony was kicked off with a candid speech by the President regarding the need for further escalation of the war in Vietnam. President Johnson awarded four Medals of Honor to men from each of the Armed Services. The television reveals Forrest as he is awarded the Medal of Honor by President Johnson. PRESIDENT JOHNSON America owes you a debt of gratitude, son. Color footage revealing President Johnson as he places the award around Forrest's neck and shakes hands. PRESIDENT JOHNSON I understand you were wounded. Where were you hit? FORREST In the buttocks, sir. PRESIDENT JOHNSON Oh, that must be a sight. President Johnson leans and whispers into Forrest's ear. PRESIDENT JOHNSON I'd kinda like to see that. INT. BARBER SHOP The television revealing Forrest as he drops his pants, bends over and shows the bullet wound on his bare buttocks. President Johnson looks down and smiles. The three men in the barber shop look up in disbelief. Mrs. Gump looks up in shock. PRESIDENT JOHNSON Goddamn, son. EXT. LINCOLN MEMORIAL - DAY Forrest walks by the Lincoln Memorial. A fence surrounds the Memorial, as well as armed military guards. FORREST (V.O.) After that, Momma went to the hotel to lay down, so I went out for a walk to see our national capital. ISABEL Hilary, all right, I've got the vets, what do you want me to do with them? HILARY What are you doing here so late? Forrest takes a photo of the memorial as a woman named Hilary gathers together some veterans against the Vietnam War. HILARY We've been waiting for you for half an hour, so just get them in a line, will you. Hey, hey, come on, pictures later. You look great. Oh come on, get in this line, come on, come on right in line. Come on, let him here, let him in here. Hilary grabs Forrest and puts him in the line with the other vets against the war. FORREST (V.O.) It's a good thing Momma was resting, 'cause the street was awful crowded with people looking at all the statues and monuments. And some of them people were loud and pushy. Hilary leads the line of vets toward the large anti-Vietnam War rally. HILARY Okay, follow me! Come on. The group of vets walk as Forrest tries to take another picture. A vet behind him pushes him along. HILARY Let's move it out. VET Hey, buddy, come on. We could use your help. Forrest walks in the line. A banner reads "Veterans against the War in Vietnam." FORREST (V.O.) Everywhere I went, I had to stand in line. HILARY Follow me, let's go! Hilary leads the vets through a crowd of people outside the rally. Another woman, named Isabel, leads the vets toward the back of a stage. ISABEL All right, come on, guys. HILARY Stand here. VET Hey, you're a good man for doin' this. Good! FORREST Okay. A man, wearing an American flag shirt, stands on the stage. He is anti-war activist ABBIE HOFFMAN. ABBIE HOFFMAN We must declare to that fucking impostor in the White House -- Johnson. We ain't going to work on your farm no more! Yeah! FORREST (V.O.) There was this man, giving a little talk. And for some reason, he was wearing an American flag for a shirt... ABBIE HOFFMAN Now, I'm going to bring up some soldiers that are going to talk about the war, man... FORREST (V.O.) ...and he liked to say the "F" word. A lot. "F" this and "F" that. And every time... ABBIE HOFFMAN ...that war has come home, and we have to stop these politicians... FORREST (V.O.) ...he said "F" word, people, for some reason, well, they'd cheer. ABBIE HOFFMAN ...these guys just told Lyndon Johnson where to stick this fucking war! Yeah! Forrest looks up at the cheering crowd. Abbie turns and motions for Forrest to come up on the stage. ABBIE HOFFMAN Come on, man. Come up here, man. HILARY Come on. Come on. Yeah, you! Hilary pulls Forrest up onto the stage. HILARY Come on, get up there. Come on. Move, move. Let's go! Let's go. The other vets follow Forrest pushes onto the stage and push him toward the microphones. VET Come on, go. You can do it. Just get up there. Go on. That's it. Thousands of cheering protesters stand around the Washington Monument. Forrest looks at the crowd. Abbie Hoffmann steps up to Forrest. ABBIE HOFFMAN Tell us a little bit about the war, man. FORREST The war in Vietnam? ABBIE HOFFMAN The war in Viet-fucking-nam! Abbie raises his fist as the crowd cheers wildly. FORREST Well... FORREST (V.O.) There was only one thing I could say about the war in Vietnam. FORREST ...there was only one thing I could say about the war in Vietnam. Forrest looks at the crowd as he speaks. A policeman looks around as he sneaks over to the audio circuit board. FORREST In Vietnam war... The policeman pulls the patch cords out of the audio board. Forrest's amplified voice becomes inaudible. Forrest continues to speak into the microphone, even though no one can hear what he is saying. Hilary looks over and notices the policeman. Hilary rushes over toward the audio board, pushes the policeman away and grabs his night stick. Another protester grabs the policeman and pulls him away. POLICEMAN Hey, what the hell are you doing? HILARY I'll beat your head in, you goddamned oinker! Isabel, Hilary and another protester try to plug the tangled mess of wires back into the audio board. ISABEL Christ, what'd they do with this? Forrest continues to speak into the microphone. The crowd grows restless. CROWD We can't hear you! We can't hear anything! HILARY This one! This one! Give me that! Hilary plugs in the right patch cord. HILARY That's it. FORREST ...and that's all I have to say about that. Forrest looks at the massive crowd. They are silent. Abbie Hoffman steps over to Forrest and pats him on the shoulder. ABBIE HOFFMAN That's so right on, man. You said it all. What's your name, man? FORREST My name is Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump. ABBIE HOFFMAN Forrest Gump! Abbie raises his fist into the air. Abbie steps away from Forrest. The crowd cheers. CROWD Forrest Gump! JENNY (screaming) Forrest! Forrest! Jenny wades out into the reflection pool and waves her hand into the air. Forrest recognizes her. FORREST Jenny! Forrest rushes off the stage as Jenny makes her way out into the pool. JENNY Forrest! Forrest jumps down into the crowd and runs. Jenny smiles as she tries to run through the water. The crowd parts as Forrest runs into the pool. Jenny rushes toward him. JENNY Hey! Hey! The massive crowd cheers for the embracing couple in the pool. FORREST (V.O.) It was the happiest moment of my life. EXT. WASHINGTON MONUMENT/PROTESTER'S ENCAMPMENT - NIGHT Forrest and Jenny walk past the protesters who are camping out on the lawn. FORREST (V.O.) Jenny and me were just peas and carrots again. She showed me around, and even introduced me... INT. BLACK PANTHER HEADQUARTERS/STOREFRONT, D.C. - NIGHT Forrest stands at an open window and looks at the White House. FORREST (V.O.) ...to some of her new friends. A Black Panther, named RUBEN, steps over and pulls the shades down. RUBEN Shut that blind, man. And get your white ass away from that window. Don't you know we in war here? Another Black Panther named MASAI grabs Forrest and pats him down. JENNY Hey man, he's cool. He's cool. He's one of us. He's one of us. MASAI Let me tell you about us. WESLEY Where the hell have you been? JENNY I ran into a friend. MASAI Our purpose here is to protect our black leaders from the racial onslaught of the pig who wishes to brutalize our black leaders, rape our women, and destroy our black communists. BLACK PANTHER Masai, phone. Talk to these guys. WESLEY Who's the baby killer? JENNY This is my good friend I told you about. This is Forrest Gump. Forrest, this is Wesley. Wesley and I live together in Berkeley, and he's the president of the Berkeley chapter of S.D.S. MASAI Let me tell you something else. WESLEY I want to talk to you. JENNY Okay, but... WESLEY No. Now! Goddammit! MASAI We are here to offer protection and help for all of those who need our help, because we, the Black Panthers, are against the war in Vietnam. Yes, we are against any war where black soldiers are sent to the front line to die for a country that hates them. Yes, we are against any war where black soldiers go to fight and come to be brutalized and killed in their own communities as they sleep in their beds at night. Yes, we are against all these racists and imperial dog acts. JENNY You are a fucking asshole! Wesley hits Jenny across the face. Slow motion -- Jenny falls back. Slow motion -- Forrest steps forward with rage. Slow motion -- Wesley turns and looks at Forrest. Forrest tackles Wesley and slams him onto a table. Jenny turns and looks as Masai pulls out a gun. JENNY Forrest! Quit it! Quit it! Forrest! Stop it! Jenny rushes over to Forrest and pulls Forrest off Wesley. JENNY Stop it! Jenny tries to help Wesley as he moans on the floor. Wesley knocks Jenny's hand away. He gets up, holding his bloody lip. WESLEY Oh, God. I shouldn't have brought you here. I should have known it was just gonna be some bullshit hassle. FORREST He should not be hitting you, Jenny. JENNY Come on, Forrest. Jenny steps out the door as Forrest picks up his hat. FORREST Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther party. The group of Black Panthers glare at Forrest. Forrest turns and walks out the room. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT Forrest and Jenny walk past the White House. Protesters hold a candlelight vigil behind them. JENNY He doesn't mean it when he does things like this. He doesn't. FORREST I would never hurt you, Jenny. JENNY I know you wouldn't, Forrest. FORREST I wanted to be your boyfriend. They walk in silence. Jenny touches Forrest's uniform. JENNY That uniform is a trip, Forrest. You look handsome in it. You do. FORREST You know what? JENNY What? FORREST I'm glad we were here together in our national capitol. JENNY Me too, Forrest. I have so much to tell you, you won't believe what's been going on... FORREST (V.O.) We walked around all night, Jenny and me, just talkin'. EXT. ROUTE 66 - FLASHBACK - DAY Jenny stands in the rain, hitchhiking. A car pulls over to pick her up. Jenny and other other girls get into the car. FORREST (V.O.) She told me about all the travellin' she's done. EXT. COMMUNE IN NEW MEXICO - NIGHT A hippie gives Jenny a sugar cube of acid as they sit in front of a roaring fire. FORREST (V.O.) And how she'd discovered ways to expand her mind and learn how to live in harmony... EXT. HOLLYWOOD/WALK OF FAME - DAY A star with the name "Jean Harlow" on the sidewalk. Jenny and two other girls sing on the sidewalk and collect change from the passersby. Jenny plays the guitar. FORREST (V.O.) ...which must be out west somewhere, 'cause she made it all the way to California. JENNY (sings) "Smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love on another right now" A young hippie looks over his faded Volkswagen at the girls. YOUNG HIPPIE Hey, anybody want to go to San Francisco? JENNY I'll go. YOUNG HIPPIE Far out! EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - DAWN Forrest and Jenny walk through the park. FORREST (V.O.) I was a very special night for the two of us. I didn't want it to end. EXT. PARKING LOT - EARLY MORNING Jenny carries a backpack as she prepares to board a bus back to Berkeley. FORREST I wish you wouldn't go, Jenny. JENNY I have to, Forrest. WESLEY Jenny? Things got a little out of hand. It's just this war and that, that lyin' son-of-a-bitch Johnson. I would never hurt you. You know that. FORREST You know what I think? I think you should go home to Greenbow. Alabama! JENNY Forrest, we have very different lives, you know. Forrest looks down at Jenny. He pulls his Medal of Honor from around his neck. FORREST I want you to have this. Forrest places the Medal of Honor in Jenny's hand. Jenny looks up at him. JENNY Forrest, I can't keep this. FORREST I got it just by doing what you told me to do. JENNY Why're you so good to me? FORREST You're my girl. JENNY I'll always be your girl. Jenny and Forrest hug each other. Wesley waits for Jenny. Jenny turns and walks up to Wesley. They walk toward the entrance of the bus. Forrest smiles as Jenny looks at her. Jenny climbs up into the bus. Wesley glares at Forrest. Forrest gives Wesley the "evil eye." Jenny through the near window of the bus, knocks on the window. Forrest turns and looks. Jenny waves to Forrest. Forrest looks up and smiles sadly. Jenny gives Forrest the peace sign as the bus pulls away. The sign on the back of the bus reads "Berkeley to D.C." Forrest gives Jenny the peace sign. FORREST (V.O.) And just like that, she was gone out of my life again. INT. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL/REC ROOM - DAY A footage of Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon on television. NEIL ARMSTRONG That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. The, uh, the surface is fine and powdery. I can, I can pick it up loosely. Forrest demonstrates a ping-pong to some wounded vets. FORREST (V.O.) I thought I was going back to Vietnam, but instead, they decided the best way for me to fight communists was to play ping-pong. So I was in the Special Services, traveling around the country cheering up all them wounded veterans and showing them how to play... BUS STOP - PRESENT - DAY Forrest looks at a man. FORREST ...ping-pong. I was so good that some years later... EXT. CHINA/PING-PONG TOURNAMENT - FLASHBACK - DAY Forrest plays ping-pong against a Chinese player. A large mural of Mao Tse-tung hangs on the wall. A crowd of communist leaders sit and watch. FORREST (V.O.) ...the Army decided I should be on the All-American Ping-Pong Team. We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in like a million years or something like that, and somebody said that world peace was in our hands. But all I did was play ping-pong. When I got home... BUS STOP - PRESENT - DAY FORREST ...I was national celebrity. Famouser even than Captain Kangaroo. Color footage of the DICK CAVETT Show. Dick Cavett stands up as he introduces Forrest. DICK CAVETT Here he is, Forrest Gump, right here. Forrest makes his way onto the stage, shakes hands with Dick Cavett. DICK CAVETT Mr. Gump, have a seat. Forrest sits down between JOHN LENNON and Dick Cavett. DICK CAVETT Forrest Gump, John Lennon. JOHN LENNON Welcome home. DICK CAVETT You had quite a trip. Can you, uh, tell us, uh, what was China like? John Lennon lights a cigarette. FORREST Well, in the land of China, people hardly got nothing at all. JOHN LENNON No possessions? FORREST And in China, they never go to church. JOHN LENNON No religion, too? DICK CAVETT Oh. Hard to imagine. JOHN LENNON Well, it's easy if you try, Dick. Forrest looks oddly at John Lennon. FORREST (V.O.) Some years later, that nice young man from England was on his way home to see his little boy and was signing some autographs. For no particular reason at all, somebody shot him. EXT. STUDIO - LATER A guard lets Forrest out a side entrance door. Forrest steps, an then stops as he hears s man sitting in a wheelchair speak to him. LT. DAN They gave you the Congressional Medal of Honor. FORREST Now that's Lieutenant Dan. Lieutenant Dan! Forrest looks at Lt. Dan. He is a dirty with long hair. LT. DAN They gave you the Congressional Medal of Honor! FORREST Yes sir, they sure did. LT. DAN They gave you an imbecile, a moron who goes on television and makes a fool out himself in front of the whole damn country, the Congressional Medal of Honor. FORREST Yes, sir. LT. DAN Well, then, that's just perfect! Yeah, well I just got one thing to say to that. Goddamn bless America. Lt. Dan's wheelchair begins to slide down the ramp and spins around on the icy ground. Forrest looks down at Lt. Dan crashes at the bottom of the ramp. FORREST Lieutenant Dan! EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREETS - NIGHT Taxi cabs crowd the street as Forrest pushes Lt. Dan along the sidewalk. FORREST (V.O.) Lieutenant Dan said he was living in a hotel. And because he didn't have no legs, he spent most of his time exercising his arms. LT. DAN Take a right, take a right. A taxi driver honks his horn as Forrest wheels Lt. Dan out in front of the taxi. TAXI DRIVER #1 Hey! Come on already! LT. DAN Ah! FORREST What are you doing here in New York, Lieutenant Dan? LT. DAN I'm living off the government tit. Sucking it dry. A taxi skids to a stop, almost hitting them as they cross the street. The taxi honks at Lt. Dan. Lt. Dan slaps the bumper of the taxi. LT. DAN Hey! Hey! Hey! Are you blind? I'm walking here! Ah, get out... TAXI DRIVER #2 Why don't you go home before you kill yourself? Get out of the way! LT. DAN Come on, go! Go! Go! EXT. LT. DAN'S HOTEL ROOM - LATER A Bob Hope Christmas special in Vietnam on television. Lt. Dan and Forrest watch the television. FORREST (V.O.) I stayed with Lieutenant Dan and celebrated the holidays. BOB HOPE You have a great year and hurry home. God bless you. LT. DAN Have you found Jesus yet, Gump? FORREST I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir. Lt. Dan chuckles, drinks the rest of a bottle of wine and tosses it down. He looks at Forrest. He wheels himself over to television and turns it off. LT. DAN That's all these cripples, down at the V.A., that's all they ever talk about. Lt. Dan picks up another bottle of port wine, but it is empty. He tosses it onto the floor. LT. DAN Jesus this and Jesus that. Have I found Jesus? They even had a priest come and talk to me. He said God is listening, but I have to help myself. Now, if I accept Jesus into my heart, I'll get to walk beside him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Lt. Dan tosses the empty liquor bottle down and picks another bottle. He becomes enraged as he throws the bottle and looks at Forrest. LT. DAN Did you hear what I said? Walk beside him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, kiss my crippled ass. God is listening. What a crock of shit. FORREST I'm going to heaven, Lieutenant Dan. LT. DAN Huh? Ah, well, before you go, why don't you get your ass down to the corner and get us another bottle of wine. FORREST Yes, sir. INT. TIMES SQUARE BAR - NIGHT A television shows DICK CLARK as he emcees the Times Square New York Eve celebration. DICK CLARK We are at approximately 45th Street in New York City at One Astor Plaza. This is the site of the old Astor Hotel. Down below us, well over a hundred thousand people are milling about, cheering with horns and whistles and hats... LT. DAN What the hell's in Bayou La Batre? FORREST Shrimpin' boats. LT. DAN Shrimpin' boats? Who gives a shit about shrimpin' boats? FORREST I gotta buy me one of them shrimpin' boats as soon as I have some money. I made me a promise to Bubba in Vietnam, that as soon as the war was over, we'd go in partners. He'd be the captain of the shrimpin' boat and I'd be his first mate. But now that he's dead, that means that I gotta be the captain. LT. DAN A shrimp boat captain. FORREST Yes, sir. A promise is a promise, Lieutenant Dan. LT. DAN Now hear this! Private Gump here is gonna be a shrimp boat captain. Well, I tell you what, Gilligan, the day that you are a shrimp boat captain, I will come and be your first mate. FORREST Okay. LT. DAN If you're ever a shrimp boat captain, that's the day I'm an astronaut. Two sleazy women, named LENORE and CARLA, walk up to Lt. Dan. LENORE Danny, what are you complaining about? CARLA What are you doing, huh? LENORE Mr. Hot Wheels. Who's your friend? FORREST My name is Forrest, Forrest Gump. LT. DAN This is Cunning Carla, and Long-Limbs Lenore. Carla puts a "Happy New Year" crown on Lt. Dan's head. Lenore fixes her makeup. CARLA So where you been, baby-cakes, huh? Haven't seen you around lately. You know, you should have been here for Christmas 'cause Tommy bought a round on the house and gave everybody a turkey sandwich. LT. DAN Well, well, I had, uh, company. LENORE Hey, hey! We was, we was just there. That's at Times Square. Lenore leans and speaks into Forrest's ear. LENORE Don't you just love New Year's? You get to start all over. CARLA Hey, Lenore. LENORE Everybody gets a second chance. FORREST (V.O.) It's funny, but in the middle of all that fun, I began to think about Jenny. DICK CLARK (on television) ...getting wild out there. It's beginning to... INT. APARTMENT/L.A. - NIGHT The New Year's Eve celebration over the T.V. DICK CLARK (over television) ...pour here in Times Square. It's been off-and-on all night, but these people hang in there. Jenny fills her bag with her belongings. FORREST (V.O.) Wondering how she was spending her New Year's night out in California. A man lies passed out on the bed. Jenny looks at her black eye in a mirror, then leaves the apartment. The TV shows the ball in Times Square. CROWD (over television) INT. TIMES SQUARE BAR - NIGHT The ball is lowered, lighting up a sign that reads "1972." CROWD (over television) ...1! Happy New Year! The people in the bar cheer and kiss each other. They blow horns and toss confetti into the air. Forrest looks around as Carla and Lenore lean over and kiss him. PATRONS (sing) "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind... FORREST Happy New Year, Lieutenant Dan! PATRONS (sing) Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne." INT. LT. DAN'S HOTEL ROOM - LATER Carla removes her top and sits on top of Dan in his wheelchair. They kiss and play around. Forrest sits in a chair. Lenore leaps on him and begins to kiss Forrest. She reaches down to Forrest's crotch. Forrest stands up nervously, causing Lenore to fall down on the floor. Lenore stands up, angry. LENORE What are you, stupid or something? What's your problem? What's his problem? Did you lose your pecker in the war or something? CARLA What, is your friend stupid or something? LT. DAN What did you say? CARLA I said, is your friend stupid or something? LT. DAN Hey! Don't call him stupid! Lt. Dan throws Carla back onto the bed. CARLA Don't push me like that! LENORE Hey, don't you push her! LT. DAN You shut up! Don't you ever call him stupid! CARLA What's the matter, baby? Why you treating me like shit? LT. DAN Get the hell out of here! LENORE You stupid gimp. You belong in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not." LT. DAN Get the hell out of here! Go on! LENORE You should be in a side show! LT. DAN Go on! Get out of here! Get out of here! LENORE You big loser! CARLA Come on, Lenore. We don't need this shit! LENORE You're so pathetic. LT. DAN Get out of here! Lt. Dan falls out of his wheelchair and lands down on the floor. Carla and Lenore laugh as they leave the apartment. CARLA You retard! LENORE You loser! You freak! Forrest tries to help Lt. Dan. Lt. Dan pushes Forrest away. LT. DAN No! Forrest steps back as Lt. Dan flips back over, then pulls himself back up onto his wheelchair. He breathes heavily. FORREST I'm sorry I ruined your New Year's Eve party, Lieutenant Dan. She tastes like cigarettes. FORREST (V.O.) I guess Lieutenant Dan figured there's some things you just can't change. He didn't want to be called crippled, just like I didn't want to be called stupid. LT. DAN Happy New Year. EXT. WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT An ANCHORMAN reports in front of the White House. ANCHORMAN The U.S. Ping-Pong Team met with President Nixon today at an Oval Office ceremony... FORREST (V.O.) And wouldn't you know it... PRESENT - BUS STOP Forrest looks at the fat man on the bus bench. FORREST ...a few months later they invited me and the ping-pong team to visit the White House. So I went again. And I met the President of the United States again. INT. WHITE HOUSE - DAY A plaque, presented to Forrest, reads "Presented to Forrest Gump, member of the United States table tennis team as player of the year for 1971. President NIXON holds the plaque. FORREST (V.O.) Only this time they didn't get us rooms in a real fancy hotel. PRESIDENT NIXON So are you enjoying yourself in our national capital, young man? FORREST Yes, sir. PRESIDENT NIXON Well, where are you staying? FORREST It's called the Hotel Ebbott. PRESIDENT NIXON Oh, no, no, no, no. I know of a much nicer hotel. It's brand-new. Very modern. I'll have my people take care of it for you. INT. WATERGATE HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Forrest speaks on the phone. SECURITY GUARD Security, Frank Wills. Forrest steps over to a window. Flashlights are moving around in an office across from Forrest's room. FORREST Yeah, sir, you might want to send a maintenance man over to that office across the way. The lights are off, and they must be looking for the fuse box or something, 'cause them flashlights they're, they're keeping me awake. SECURITY GUARD Okay, sir. I'll check it out. FORREST Thank you. SECURITY GUARD No problem. FORREST Good night. SECURITY GUARD Good night. Forrest hangs up the phone. The camera tilts down, revealing the hotel stationary, which reads "The Watergate Hotel." INT. GYMNASIUM - DAY President Nixon makes a resignation speech on TV. PRESIDENT NIXON (over television) Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. The television cuts to a shot of President Nixon standing outside Air Force One with his hands in the peace sign. PRESIDENT NIXON (over television) Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office. As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office... Forrest is playing ping-pong by himself at the gymnasium. An officer steps up to him. OFFICER Sergeant Gump! FORREST Yes, sir! OFFICER As you were. I have your discharge papers. Your service is up, son. The officer hands Forrest an envelope, then walks away. FORREST Does this mean I can't play ping pong no more? OFFICER For the Army it does. FORREST (V.O.) And just like that, my service in the United States Army was over. So I went home. Forrest takes his paddle and runs out of the gymnasium. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY Mrs. Gump walks out of the house and smiles. Forrest walks up to the house, wearing his uniform. FORREST I'm home, Momma. MRS. GUMP I know, I know. INT. GUMP HOUSE Mrs. Gump and Forrest walk into the house. MRS. GUMP Louise, he's here. He's here, everybody. FORREST (V.O.) Now, when I got home, I had no idea that Momma had had all sorts of visitors. In the house are stacks of ping-pong paddles and life-sized cardboard cutouts of Forrest playing ping-pong. The name on the ping-pong paddles boxes reads: "Gump-Mao table tennis." MRS. GUMP We've had all sorts of visitors, Forrest. Everybody wants you to use their ping-pong stuff. One man even left a check for twenty-five thousand dollars if you'd be agreeable to saying you like using their paddle. FORREST Oh, Momma. I only like using my own paddle. Hi, Miss Louise. LOUISE Hey, Forrest. MRS. GUMP I know that. I know that. But it's twenty-five thousand dollars, Forrest. I thought maybe you could hold it for a while, see if it grows on you. Oh, you look good, Forrest. You look real good. FORREST (V.O.) That Momma, she sure was right. It's funny how things work out. EXT. BAYOU LA BATRE/BUBBA'S MOM'S HOUSE - DAY Forrest walks up to a shack on the edge of the Bayou. A group of black kids play in the front yard. FORREST (V.O.) I didn't stay home for long, because I'd made a promise to Bubba. And I always try to keep my promise. So I went on down to Bayou La Batre to meet Bubba's family and make their introduction. Bubba's mother named MRS. BLUE and her other children look at Forrest. MRS. BLUE Are you crazy, or just plain stupid? FORREST Stupid is as stupid does, Mrs. Blue. MRS. BLUE I guess. EXT. BUBBA'S GRAVE - DAY Forrest steps over to Bubba's tombstone. FORREST (V.O.) And of course, I paid my respect to Bubba himself. FORREST Hey, Bubba, it's me, Forrest Gump. I remember everything you said, and I got it all figured out. Forrest pulls out notes from his pocket. FORREST I'm taking the twenty-four thousand, five hundred and six-two dollars and forty-seven cents that I got... EXT. BAYOU - DAY Forrest walks across a yard where men are cleaning shrimp. FORREST (V.O.) ...well, that's left after a new hair cut and a new suit and I took Momma out to real fancy dinner and I bought a bus ticket and three Doctor Peppers. Forrest walks along a wooden pier. Forrest pays an old black shrimper a large wad of cash. OLD SHRIMPER Tell me something. Are you stupid or something? FORREST Stupid is as stupid does, sir. EXT. BUBBA'S GRAVE Forrest stands at the grave. FORREST Well, that's what's left after me saying, "When I was in China on the All-America Ping-Pong Team, I just loved playing ping-pong with my Flex- O-Ping-Pong Paddle." Which everybody knows it isn't true, but Momma says it's just a little white lie so it wouldn't hurt nobody. So, anyway, I'm putting all that on gas, ropes and new nets and a brand-new shrimpin' boat. EXT. BAYOU - DAY Forrest steers his shrimping boat. The boat is old and rusty. Forrest unleashes his nets as his catch of the day drops to the deck. It is a bunch of garbage and shells. Forrest picks up one shrimp. FORREST (V.O.) Now, Bubba had told me everything he knows about shrimpin', but you know what I found out? Shrimpin' is tough. EXT. DOCKS Forrest pulls a couple of shrimp out of a bucket. FORREST I only caught five. OLD SHRIMPER A couple of more, you can have yourself a cocktail. The old shrimper begins to walk away, then stops and looks at Forrest. OLD SHRIMPER Hey, you ever think about namin' this old boat? FORREST (V.O.) I'd never named a boat before, but there was only one I could think of. Forrest paints a name on the side of his boat. The name is "Jenny." FORREST (V.O.) The most beautiful name in the wide world. INT. DISCO Disco lights flash and people dance. A guy asks a girl to dance. GIRL Okay. Jenny sits at a table with some other people. She is snorting cocaine. FORREST (V.O.) Now, I hadn't heard from Jenny in a long while. But... EXT. BAYOU LA BATRE - DAY Forrest stands at the helm as the boat glides across the water. FORREST (V.O.) But I thought about her a lot. And I hoped that whatever she was doing made her happy. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Drug paraphernalia and a large wad of cash are spread out on a table. A man drops a syringe on the table. He reaches over and touches Jenny. She is pale with dark lines under her eyes. INT. BATHROOM Jenny smears some lines of cocaine on a mirror. She looks at herself in the mirror. EXT. BALCONY Jenny steps out onto the high-rise balcony. She steps up on a table and stands on the edge of the balcony. A busy street lies many stories below. Jenny looks down to the intersection below. She slips over the edge, regains her balance, turns and looks back at the intersection below, and begins to get down from the edge. Jenny grabs a hold of the ledge and carefully climbs down. She sits down on a chair. Jenny rocks back and forth as she cries. She looks up at the sky. EXT. BAYOU LA BATRE/FORREST'S BOAT - NIGHT The moon shines above in the sky. Forrest lies in a hammock on his boat. FORREST (V.O.) I thought about Jenny all the time. EXT. FORREST'S BOAT/BAYOU DOCK - DAY Forrest stands at the helm of his boat and slowly glides by the docks. Forrest looks around and notices something and bends down to get a clear view. Lt. Dan sits in his wheelchair on the deck. Forrest looks at Lt. Dan. He smiles, surprised. FORREST Hi! Forrest leaps off of his moving boat and into the water. The boat continues as Forrest clumsily swims. Lt. Dan sits in his wheelchair at the edge of the dock. Forrest flails his arms as he swims up to the dock. Lt. Dan waits for Forrest, smoking a cigar. Forrest climbs up a ladder onto the dock. FORREST Lieutenant Dan, what are you doing here? LT. DAN Well, I thought I'd try out my sea legs. FORREST Well, you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan. LT. DAN Well, well, Captain Forrest Gump. I had to see this for myself. And I told you if you were ever a shrimp boat captain, that I'd be your first mate. Well, here I am. I am a man of my word. FORREST Okay. Forrest shakes Lt. Dan's hand. LT. DAN Yeah, but don't you be thinking that I'm gonna be calling you sir. FORREST No, sir. Forrest's boat glides, crushing a dock. Forrest and Lt. Dan look at it. FORREST That's my boat. EXT. BAYOU LA BATRE WATERS - DAY Forrest's shrimping boat is alone on the gulf waters. LT. DAN I have a feeling if we head the east, we'll find some shrimp. So, take a left. Take a left. Forrest looks up. Lt. Dan is sitting in the rigging. FORREST Which way? LT. DAN Over there! They're over there! Get, get on the wheel and take a left! FORREST Okay. LT. DAN Gump, what are you doing? Take a left! Left! That's where we're gonna find those shrimp, my boy! That's where we'll find 'em. Forrest empties the net. Their "catch" is debris that falls to the deck. FORREST Still no shrimp, Lieutenant Dan. LT. DAN Okay, so I was wrong. FORREST Well, how we gonna find them? LT. DAN Well, maybe you should just pray for shrimp. INT. SMALL CHURCH - DAY The all-black gospel choir sings and claps their hands. FORREST (V.O.) So I went to church every Sunday... Lt. Dan is sitting in his chair at the back of the church. He takes swigs from a liquor bottle. FORREST (V.O.) Sometimes Lieutenant Dan came, too. Though I think he left the praying up to me. EXT. BOAT - ANOTHER DAY A catch of junk is dumped onto the deck. Lt. Dan lowers himself from the rigging. FORREST No shrimp. LT. DAN Where the hell's this God of yours? The wind begins to blow strong. FORREST (V.O.) It's funny Lieutenant Dan said that, 'cause right then, God showed up. EXT. BOAT - NIGHT Water sprays on deck during a hurricane. Lt. Dan on the rigging, shouts and shakes his fist as he is pelted by wind and rain. LT. DAN You'll never sink this boat! FORREST (V.O.) Now me, I was scared. But Lieutenant Dan, he was mad. LT. DAN Come on! You call this a storm? Forrest slides back and forth as he attempts to steer the boat. LT. DAN Blow, you son-of-a-bitch! Blow! It's time for a showdown! You and me. I'm right here. Come and get me! You'll never sink this boat! INT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY An ANCHORMAN over TV, is standing in front of a pier. ANCHORMAN (over television) Hurricane Carmen came through here yesterday... EXT. BAYOU DOCKS - DAY The anchorman is standing in front of the ruined pier and boats. ANCHORMAN ...destroying nearly everything in its path. And as in other towns up and down the coast, Bayou La Batre's entire shrimping industry... INT. GUMP HOUSE ANCHORMAN ...has fallen victim to Carmen and has been left in utter ruin. Speaking with local officials, this reporter has learned, in fact, only one shrimping boat actually survived the storm. Forrest's boat comes down the river. MRS. GUMP Louise. Louise, there's Forrest! FORREST (V.O.) After that, shrimpin' was easy. FORREST'S BOAT - DAY Lt. Dan and Forrest empty their net. A huge catch of shrimp falls onto the deck. Lt. Dan opens another big catch. Another catch drops open on top of yet another huge catch. Forrest and Lt. Dan smile. FORREST (V.O.) And since people still needed them shrimps for shrimp cocktails and barbecues and all... EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT The man sitting on the bench listens to Forrest. An ELDERLY WOMAN sits next to the man. FORREST ...and we were the only boat left standing "Bubba-Gump" shrimp's what they got. We got a whole bunch of boats. Twelve Jenny's, a big ol' warehouse, we even have hats that says "Bubba-Gump" on 'em. "Bubba- Gump Shrimp." It's a household name. MAN Hold on there, boy. Are you telling me you're the owner of the Bubba- Gump Shrimp Corporation? FORREST Yes, sir. We've got more money than Davy Crocket. MAN Boy, I've heard some whoppers in my time, but that tops them all. We was sitting next to a millionaire! The man laughs as he walks away. ELDERLY WOMAN Well, I thought it was a very lovely story. And you tell it so well. With such enthusiasm. FORREST Would you like to see what Lieutenant Dan looks like? ELDERLY WOMAN Well, yes, I would! Forrest shows her the cover of a "Fortune" magazine with Forrest and Lt. Dan on the cover. FORREST That's him right there. The elderly woman looks at the magazine and at Forrest with surprise. FORREST And let me tell you something about Lieutenant Dan. EXT. BOAT/DECK - DAY Forrest and Lt. Dan are working on the boat. LT. DAN Forrest, I never thanked you for saving my life. Forrest looks a little surprised. Lt. Dan smiles, then looks away. Lt. Dan pulls himself out of his chair to the railing and jumps into the water. FORREST (V.O.) He never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God. EXT. BOAT Forrest and Lt. Dan have dinner on the deck. The television shows an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford. ANCHORMAN (over television) For the second time in seventeen days, President Ford escaped possible assassination today when a woman, Sarah Jane Moore, fired on him as he stepped out of a hotel in San Francisco. MARGO (over radio) Base to Jenny One. Base to Jenny One. LT. DAN Jenny One, go Margo. MARGO (over radio) Forrest has a phone call. LT. DAN Yeah, well you'll have to tell them to call him back. He is indisposed at the moment. MARGO (over radio) His momma's sick. ANCHORMAN (over television) Lynett Alice Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson better known as "Squeaky," attempted to assassinate the President as he was... Forrest dives into the water as he reacts. EXT. ROAD/GUMP HOUSE - DAY Forrest carries a suitcase as he runs down the road. Forrest runs past the row of mailboxes and turns into the drive. Louise and others are on the front porch. FORREST Where's Momma? LOUISE She's upstairs. INT. GUMP HOUSE - WOMAN'S BED ROOM Forrest opens the door, the doctor stands next to Mrs. Gump in bed. MRS. GUMP Hi, Forrest. DOCTOR I'll see you tomorrow. MRS. GUMP Oh, all right. The doctor looks down at Forrest's legs. DOCTOR We sure got you straightened out, didn't we, boy? The doctor leaves and closes the door. Forrest takes off his hat and steps over to her. FORREST What's the matter, Momma? MRS. GUMP I'm dyin', Forrest. Come on in, sit down over here. FORREST Why are you dyin', Momma? MRS. GUMP It's my time. It's just my time. Oh, now, don't you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. It's something we're all destined to do. I didn't know it, but I was destined to be your momma. I did the best I could. FORREST You did good, Momma. MRS. GUMP Well, I happened to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the best with what God gave you. FORREST What's my destiny, Momma? MRS. GUMP You're gonna have to figure that out for yourself. Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you're gonna get. FORREST (V.O.) Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them. MRS. GUMP I will miss you, Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) She had got the cancer and died on a Tuesday. I bought her a new hat with little flowers on it. EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT The elderly woman and Forrest sit. The woman is crying and wipes her eyes with a hankie. FORREST And that's all I have to say about that. A bus stops. Forrest looks at the elderly woman. FORREST Didn't you say you were waiting for the Number Seven bus? ELDERLY WOMAN There'll be another one along shortly. FORREST Now, because I had been a football star, and a war hero, and a national celebrity, and a shrimpin' boat captain, and a college graduate, the city of fathers of Greenbow, Alabama, decided to get together and offered me a fine job. EXT. FOOTBALL FIELD - DAY Forrest rides a lawn tractor as he moves the football field lawn. FORREST (V.O.) So, I never went back to work for Lieutenant Dan. EXT. GUMP HOUSE MAILBOXES Forrest takes out a letter and opens it. FORREST (V.O.) Though he did take care of my Bubba- Gump money. He got me invested in some kind of fruit company. And so then I got a call from him saying we don't have to worry about money no more. EXT. BUS STOP FORREST And I said, "That's good. One less thing." INT. CHURCH - DAY The choir and members are singing. FORREST (V.O.) Now, Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs... EXT. CHURCH The sign reads: "Four Square Baptist Church." A new cross is placed on the steeple. New furniture is taken inside. REVEREND Praise the Lord. FORREST (V.O.) ...and the rest is just for showing off. So, I gave a whole bunch of it to the Four Square Gospel Church. EXT. HOSPITAL - DAY The sign reads: "Gump Medical Center Bayou La Batre, Alabama." The ribbon-cutting ceremony. FORREST (V.O.) And I gave a whole bunch to the Bayou La Batre Fishing Hospital. EXT. BUBBA'S MOM'S HOUSE A postman delivers a letter to Bubba's mom. She opens the letter. FORREST (V.O.) And even though Bubba was dead, and Lieutenant Dan said I was nuts. I gave Bubba's mommy Bubba's share. She is surrounded by her many children. She looks at the check and faints. EXT. BUS STOP FORREST And you know what... INT. FLORIDA CONDO A door opens as a white woman serves Bubba's mom some shrimp. FORREST (V.O.) She didn't have to work in nobody's kitchen no more. MRS. BLUE Smells wonderful! EXT. FOOTBALL FIELD Forrest rides the mower. FORREST (V.O.) And 'cause I was godzillionaire and I liked doing it so much. I cut that grass for free. EXT. GUMP HOUSE BALCONY - NIGHT Forrest looks down the road as he steps onto the porch. FORREST (V.O.) But at nighttime, when there was nothing to do and the house was all empty, I'd always think of Jenny. Jenny's image walks, then vanishes. Forrest looks away. He turns and walks into the house. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY Jenny walks across the lawn to Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) And then, she was there. JENNY Hello, Forrest. FORREST Hello, Jenny. FORREST (V.O.) Jenny came back and stayed with me. INT. GUMP HOUSE Jenny lies asleep in bed. FORREST (V.O.) Maybe it was because she had nowhere else to go. Or maybe it was because she was so tired, because she went to bed and slept and slept like she hadn't slept in years. It was wonderful having her home. EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - DAY Forrest and Jenny walking. FORREST (V.O.) Every day we'd take a walk, and I'd jabber on like a monkey in a tree. And she'd listen about ping-pong and shrimpin' boats and Momma makin' a trip to heaven. I did all the talkin'. Jenny most of the time was real quiet. FORREST ...big ol' gobs of rain and little bitty stinging rain and rain... Jenny's old house stands at the end of the dirt road. It appears to be deserted. Jenny walks toward the house and stops. She stares at the house. Forrest walks toward Jenny. Jenny suddenly heaves a rock angrily at the house. She throws other things at the house. JENNY How could you do this? She breaks a window. Jenny collapses to the ground and sobs. Forrest knees down next to her. FORREST (V.O.) Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks. EXT. OLD OAK TREE - DAY Jenny and Forrest sit on a limb together. FORREST (V.O.) I never really knew why she came back, but I didn't care. It was like olden times. We was like peas and carrots again. INT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY Jenny sits by the vase of flowers and look out the window. FORREST (V.O.) Every day I'd pick pretty flowers and put them in her room for her. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY Forrest closes his eyes as he sits on the porch. Jenny places a box of Nike running shoes in his lap. FORREST (V.O.) And she gave me the best gift anyone could ever get in the wide world. JENNY Okay, you can open your eyes. FORREST New shoes. JENNY They make them just for running. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT Through the windows, Forrest and Jenny are dancing as it rains outside. FORREST (V.O.) And she even showed me how to dance. And, well, we was like family... Jenny and me. EXT. RIVER - NIGHT Jenny and Forrest sit on a log together and look at the river. Jenny places her arms around Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) And it was the happiest time of my life. The fireworks explode in the sky. INT. GUMP'S HOUSE - NIGHT The Statue of Liberty is shown on the TV. Fireworks go off. Forrest and Jenny are watching the 4th of July celebration on TV. ANNOUNCER (over television) And this Fourth is witnessing one of the largest fireworks displays in the nation's two-hundred year history... JENNY You done watching it? FORREST Mm-hmm. ANNOUNCER (over television) ...here in New York Harbor. After the spectacular display of tall ships earlier, the Statue of Liberty... Jenny stands up and kisses Forrest on the cheek. JENNY I'm going to bed. Jenny turns off the TV and walks outside. Forrest stands as he puts down his Dr. Pepper. Jenny walks toward the stairs. FORREST Will you marry me? I'd make a good husband, Jenny. JENNY You would, Forrest. FORREST But you won't marry me. JENNY You don't want to marry me. FORREST Why don't you love me, Jenny? I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is. Forrest turns and walks toward the door. Jenny turns and walks up the stairs. Forrest stands outside. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT The house stands in the rain. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT Forrest lies in his bed as the door opens. Jenny gets into bed next to Forrest. FORREST Jenny? JENNY Forrest, I do love you. Jenny and Forrest kiss. Jenny takes off her nightgown as they make love. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - MORNING Jenny carries her purse and walks toward a waiting cab. CAB DRIVER Where are you running off to? JENNY I'm not running. INT. GUMP HOUSE The cab drives away as Forrest is asleep in his bed. The Congressional Medal lies on a table by a ping-pong paddle. Forrest holds a glass of milk and wears his bathrobe. He looks at the medal he had give to Jenny. Jenny's bed is made. Forrest stands in the doorway looking at the room and bed where Jenny had been. EXT. FRONT PORCH - DAY Forrest sit on a rocking chair with his running shoes on. He is still, as if in a trance. He slowly puts on his Bubba- Gump cap. Forrest stands. He walks off the porch. He begins to jog across the lawn. His speed increases as he runs farther away. Forrest runs down the drive away from his house. FORREST (V.O.) That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. Forrest runs to the end of the drive, then turns right and runs down the highway. FORREST (V.O.) So I ran to the end of the road, and when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. INT. BARBER SHOP - DAY The three men sit as they watch the television. Forrest runs through the main street of town. NEWSCASTER President Carter, suffering from heat exhaustion fell into the arms of security agents. FORREST (V.O.) And when I got there... EXT. ALABAMA ROAD The sign reads "Entering Greenbow County." FORREST (V.O.) ...I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great... Forrest runs by a sign that reads "Mississippi welcomes you. The Magnolia State." FORREST (V.O.) ...state of Alabama. And that's what I did I ran clear across Alabama. EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT FORREST For no particular reason, I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. EXT. SANTA MONICA - DAY The sign reads "Santa Monica yacht harbor sports fishing - boating - cafes." Forrest runs under the sign and onto the pier. FORREST (V.O.) And when I got there, I figured since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. EXT. ATLANTIC OCEAN Forrest runs to a pier at the Atlantic Ocean. FORREST (V.O.) When I got to another ocean, I figured since I've gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. Forrest runs across the pier. A lighthouse stands at the end of the pier. FORREST (V.O.) When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT FORREST When I had to go, you know, I went. ELDERLY WOMAN And so, you just ran? FORREST Yeah. EXT. HIGHWAY Forrest is running along the highway. Forrest runs down a road between field of wheat. A Mountain river. Forrest runs across a cobble-stone bridge. The Rocky Mountains are behind him in distance. Forrest runs through some meadowland. Split rail fences line the road. FORREST (V.O.) I'd think a lot about Momma and Bubba, and Lieutenant Dan, but most of all, I thought about Jenny. I thought about her a lot. EXT. BARBER SHOP The three men in the barber shop watch the news on television. NEWSCASTER For more than two years now, a man named Forrest Gump, a gardener from Greenbow, Alabama, stopping only to sleep, has been running across America. INT. COFFEE SHOP Jenny fills customer's coffee cups. NEWSCASTER Charles Cooper brings us this report. NEWSMAN For the fourth time on his journey across America, Forrest Gump, a gardener from Greenbow, Alabama, is about to cross the Mississippi River again today. The TV shows Forrest runs across a bridge that reads "Mississippi River." JENNY I'll be damned. Forrest... EXT. MISSISSIPPI BRIDGE NEWSMAN Sir, why are you running? 1ST REPORTER Why are you running? 2ND REPORTER Are you doing this for world peace? 3RD REPORTER Are you doing this for women's right? NEWSMAN Or for the environment? REPORTER Or for animals? 3RD REPORTER Or for nuclear arms? FORREST (V.O.) They just couldn't believe that somebody would do all that running for no particular reason. 2ND REPORTER Why are you doing this? FORREST I just felt like running. EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT FORREST I just left like running. EXT. SMALL EASTERN TOWN Forrest runs as a YOUNG MAN runs up to him. YOUNG MAN It's you. I can't believe it's really you. EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT FORREST Now, for some reason what I was doing seemed to make sense to people. EXT. SMALL EASTERN TOWN The young man jobs behind Forrest. YOUNG MAN I mean, it was like an alarm went off in my head, you know. I said, here's a guy that's got his act together. Here's somebody who's got it, all figured out. Here's somebody who has the answer. I'll follow you anywhere, Mr. Gump. FORREST (V.O.) So, I got company. Forrest runs up a slope on a high mountain road. A group of people are jogging behind him. FORREST (V.O.) And after that I got more company. And then... A large group jogs behind Forrest across the desert road. FORREST (V.O.) ...even more people joined in. Somebody later told me... EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT FORREST ...it gave people hope. Now... Now, I don't know anything about that, but... Forrest and his followers job through a small town. A man runs up and talks to Forrest. FORREST (V.O.) Some of those people asked me if I could help them out. AGING HIPPIE Hey, man, hey, listen. I was wondering if you might help me, huh? Listen, I'm in the bumper sticker business and I've been trying to think up a good slogan. And since you have been such a big inspiration to the people around here, I thought you might be able to help me jump into... Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dogshit! The hippie jumps over the "dogshit" as he runs along Forrest. FORREST It happens. AGING HIPPIE What, shit? FORREST Sometimes. The hippie stops to ponder this profound thought. FORREST (V.O.) And some years later I heard that fella did come up with a bumper sticker slogan... A bumper sticker reads "Shit Happens." FORREST (V.O.) ...and he make a lot of money off of it. The truck with the bumper sticker drives into an intersection. It collides with a car. EXT. TRUCK STOP Forrest runs, followed by his group, as a man runs up to him. FORREST (V.O.) Another time I was running along, somebody who had lost all his money in the T-shirt business, and he wanted to put my face on a T-shirt, but he couldn't draw that well and he didn't have a camera. WILD-EYED MAN I think it would be really fortunate for me if I could get your name on these, oh, your face and name on these T-shirts. It would be wonderful. A truck splashes mud onto Forrest as it goes by. The man hands Forrest a yellow T-shirt to use as a rag to wipe the mud off. WILD-EYED MAN Here, use this one. Nobody likes that color anyway. Forrest wipes his face on the towel and hands it back to the man. FORREST Have a nice day. The man looks at the T-shirt. He holds it up displaying the "Happy Face." FORREST (V.O.) And some years later I found out that that man did come up with a idea for a T-shirt and he made a lot of money off of it. EXT. MONUMENT VALLEY Forrest runs with a group that follows behind him. FORREST (V.O.) Anyway, like I was saying, I had a lot of company. My Momma always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on. And I think that's what my running was all about. I had run for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours. Forrest stops running. The group stops behind him. Forrest stands and looks as the group waits expectantly. Forrest turns and look. YOUNG MAN Quiet. Quiet, he's gonna say something. FORREST I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. Forrest walks toward the group. The group parts for Forrest as he walks down the middle of the road. YOUNG MAN Now what are we supposed to do? FORREST (V.O.) And just like that, my running days was over. So, I went home to Alabama. A television shows President Reagan and his staff as they react to gunshots in front of a limo. NEWSCASTER (over television) Moments ago, at two twenty-five p.m., as President Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel... INT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY Forrest sits eating a sandwich, watching the news of the assassination attempt. NEWSCASTER ...five or six gunshots were fired by an unknown would-be assassin. The President was shot in the chest and the assailant was immediately tackled by a half a dozen lawmen. As the Presidential... LOUISE I picked up the mail. FORREST Oh, thank you, Miss, Miss Louise. FORREST (V.O.) One day, out of the blue clear sky, I got a letter from Jenny... EXT. BUS STOP - PRESENT Forrest takes the letter out of his pocket. FORREST ...wondering if I could come down to Savannah to see her, and that's what I'm doing here. She saw me on TV, running, I'm supposed to go on the Number Nine bus to Richmond Street and get off and go one block left to 1-9-4-7 Henry Street, Apartment 4. The elderly woman looks at the letter. ELDERLY WOMAN Why, you don't need to take a bus. Henry Street is just five or six blocks down that way. FORREST Down that way? ELDERLY WOMAN Down that way. Forrest hastily grabs his suitcase and letter as he stands. FORREST It was nice talking' to you. Forrest runs, the elderly woman shouts from the bus stop bench. A truck honks its horn as Forrest runs across the street past the truck. ELDERLY WOMAN I hope everything works out for you. INT. JENNY'S APARTMENT - DAY Jenny opens the door. JENNY Hey! Forrest! How you doing? FORREST Hi. JENNY Come in. Come in. FORREST I got your letter. JENNY Oh, I was wondering about that. Jenny shuts the door. Forrest looks around. FORREST Is this your house? JENNY Yeah, it's messy right now. I just got off work. FORREST It's nice. You got air conditioning. Forrest hands Jenny the box of chocolates. FORREST Ah... JENNY Thank you. FORREST I ate some. Jenny picks up a scrapbook and turns the pages. JENNY Hey, I kept, I kept a scrapbook of your, of your clippings and everything. There you are. This, I got your running. FORREST I ran a long way. For a long time. JENNY There. Listen, Forrest. I don't know how to say this. Um, I just... I want to apologize for anything that I ever did to you, 'cause I was messed up for a long time, and... There is a knock at the door. LYNN MARIE enters as she opens the door. LYNN MARIE Yoo-hoo. JENNY Hey. LYNN MARIE Hi. Jenny grabs a young boy. JENNY Hey, you. This is an old friend from Alabama. LYNN MARIE Oh, how do you do? JENNY Ah, listen, next week my schedule changes, so I'll be able to... but thanks for picking up. LYNN MARIE No problem. Got to go, Jen. I'm double parked. JENNY Okay. Lynn Marie closes the door and waves bye to Forrest. LYNN MARIE Bye. JENNY Thanks. This is very good friend, Mr. Gump. Can you say hi to him? LITTLE BOY Hello, Mr. Gump. FORREST Hello. LITTLE BOY Now, can I go watch TV now? JENNY Yes, you can. Just keep it low. The little boy runs into other room and picks up TV remote control. FORREST You're a momma, Jenny. JENNY I'm a momma. His name is Forrest. FORREST Like me. JENNY I named him after his Daddy. FORREST He got a daddy named Forrest, too? JENNY You're his daddy, Forrest. Forrest continues to stare at Forrest Jr. Forrest then looks frightened and starts to back away. JENNY Hey, Forrest, look at me. Look at me, Forrest. There's nothing you need to do, okay? You didn't do anything wrong. Okay? Jenny turns and looks at Forrest Jr. in the other room. JENNY Isn't he beautiful? FORREST He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But... is, is he smart, or is he... JENNY He's very smart. He's one of the smartest in his class. Forrest breathes deep. He looks at Jenny, then at Forrest Jr. JENNY Yeah, it's okay. Go talk to him. Forrest walks into the room and sits down next to Forrest Jr. "Sesame Street" is on the TV. BERT Oh, great. ERNIE Hey, Bert, can you give me a hand? BERT A hand? Well, yeah, what do you want, Ernie? FORREST What are you watching. FORREST JR. Bert and Ernie. ERNIE Well, it's the first stage. Bert. It's planning to write a story, Bert. I have pencils right here to write with, Bert. Now, we got, uh, paper. I'll take that paper, Bert. See, we have the paper to write on. EXT. PARK - DAY Forrest and Jenny sit on a bench. Forrest Jr. swings behind them. JENNY Forrest, I'm sick. FORREST What, do you have a cough due to cold? JENNY I have some kind virus. And the doctors don't, they don't know what it is. And there isn't anything they can do about it. FORREST You could come home with me. Jenny, you and little Forrest could come stay at my house in Greenbow. I'll take care of you if you're sick. JENNY Would you marry me, Forrest? FORREST Okay. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - DAY A group has gathered on the lawn for the wedding. Louise walks up to Forrest. MINISTER Please take your seats. LOUISE Forrest, it's time to start. Jenny walks out of the house. Forrest walks over to greet her. She wears a white dress. She walks up to Forrest and adjusts his necktie. JENNY Hi. Your tie. Lt. Dan is walking across the lawn. He uses a cane. A WOMAN is walking next to him. FORREST Lieutenant Dan? Lieutenant Dan! LT. DAN Hello, Forrest. Jenny walks over to Forrest and Lt. Dan. FORREST You got new legs. New legs! LT. DAN Yeah, I got new legs. Lt. Dan lifts his pant leg to display his metal leg. LT. DAN Custom-made titanium alloy. It's what they use on the space shuttle. FORREST Magic legs. LT. DAN This is my fiancee, Susan. FORREST Lieutenant Dan! Susan shakes Forrest's hand. SUSAN Hi, Forrest. FORREST Lieutenant Dan, this is my Jenny. JENNY Hey, it's nice to meet you, finally. Jenny steps forward and kisses Lt. Dan's cheek. The group is seated as they watch Forrest and Jenny take vows on the front lawn. Forrest Jr. stands next to Jenny. MINISTER Do you, Forrest, take Jenny to be your wife? Do you, Jenny, take Forrest to be your husband? If so, I pronounce you man and wife. The wind blows fallen leaves across the ground. Jenny, Forrest, and Forrest Jr. walk toward the house. They all hold hands as they walk. INT. GUMP HOUSE - MORNING Forrest steps into Jenny's bedroom. He carries a tray with breakfast on it. Forrest looks at Jenny as she sleeps. Slowly she wakes up and looks at Forrest. FORREST Hey. JENNY Hey. Forrest sets the tray down next to Jenny as she sits up in bed. Forrest opens a window, then sits down next to the bed. JENNY Hey, Forrest, were you scared in Vietnam? FORREST Yes. Well, I, I don't know. EXT. VIETNAM - FLASHBACK - NIGHT Forrest looks up into the sky as the rain stops. Forrest removes his helmet. The stars emerge from behind the clouds. FORREST (V.O.) Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out. And then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou... EXT. BAYOU - FLASHBACK - SUNSET Forrest stands on his boat and looks at a deep orange and red sunset. FORREST (V.O.) There was over a million sparkles on the water. Like that mountain lake. EXT. MOUNTAIN LAKE - FLASHBACK - DAY Forrest runs along a highway. A lake reflects the mountains and the sky. FORREST (V.O.) It was so clear, Jenny. It looks like there were two skies, one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up... EXT. DESERT - FLASHBACK - SUNRISE Forrest runs along a desert highway. The morning light casts an orange glow over the desert. FORREST (V.O.) I couldn't tell where heavens stopped and the earth began. It was so beautiful. INT. GUMP HOUSE - MORNING Forrest looks at Jenny. Jenny looks out the window. JENNY I wish I could have been there with you. FORREST You were. Jenny reaches over and takes Forrest's hand. JENNY I love you. FORREST (V.O.) You died on a Saturday morning. EXT. JENNY'S GRAVE AT OLD OAK TREE - DAY Forrest stands under the old oak tree where Jenny has been buried. FORREST And I had you placed here under our tree. Jenny's grave marker. Forrest tries to hold back his tears. FORREST And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground. EXT. JENNY'S OLD HOUSE - DAY Forrest watches as Jenny's dad's house is knocked down by a bulldozer. FORREST (V.O.) Momma... EXT. JENNY'S GRAVE FORREST ...always said dyin' was a part of life. Jenny's grave marker reads: JENNY GUMP July 16, 1945 -- March 22, 1982 Beloved Mother, Wife and Friend FORREST I sure wish it wasn't. Little Forrest, he's doing just fine. INT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT Forrest Jr. reads a book to Forrest sitting next to him. FORREST JR. (reading) "But he wasn't quite sure. Everywhere they went, the new guests... FORREST (V.O.) About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner... EXT. JENNY'S GRAVE Forrest looks down as he sobs. FORREST ...every day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping pong. EXT. GUMP HOUSE - NIGHT Forrest tries to teach Forrest Jr. how to play ping-pong. FORREST Okay... FORREST (V.O.) He's really good. FORREST Forrest, you go. Forrest Jr. serves the ball, causing Forrest dive and miss it. EXT. GUMP HOUSE/RIVER - DAY Forrest and Forrest Jr. sit on a log by the river and fish. FORREST (V.O.) We fish a lot. EXT. JENNY'S GRAVE Forrest looks down at the grave marker. FORREST And every night, we read a book. He's so smart, Jenny. You'd be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you. Forrest places the letter down at the grave marker, next to fresh flowers. The name on the envelope reads: "Mom." Forrest steps back and looks down at the grave. FORREST Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away. As Forrest walks away, a flock of birds flies overhead and lands in the tree. Forrest turns and watches. EXT. ROAD - MORNING Forrest walks with Forrest Jr. for the bus. The bus drives toward them. FORREST Here's your bus. Okay. Forrest pulls "Curious George" out of Forrest Jr.'s backpack. FORREST Hey, I know this. FORREST JR. I'm gonna show that for show-and- tell because grandma used to read it to you. Forrest looks at the book. The feather from the beginning of the movie drops out of the book, unnoticed. FORREST My favorite book. The bus comes to a stop. The door opens. FORREST Well... Forrest puts the book back into Forrest Jr.'s backpack and hands it to him. FORREST ...okay. Hey, there you go. Forrest Jr. walks toward the bus. Forrest stands up. FORREST Hey, Forrest. Don't... I wanted to tell you I love you. FORREST JR. I love you too, Daddy. FORREST I'll be right here when you get back. Forrest Jr. looks into the bus and at the bus driver. It is the same bus driver, only older now, who drove Forrest to school when he was a young boy. SCHOOLD BUS DRIVER You understand this is the bus to school now, don't you? FORREST JR. Of course, and you're Dorothy Harris and I'm Forrest Gump. Forrest Jr. looks over and waves to his father. Forrest nods approvingly. Forrest Jr. gets on the bus. The bus pulls away. Forrest stands next to the mailbox. Forrest sits down. The camera cranes down, revealing the feather as it lies at Forrest's feet. A gust of wind picks the feather up. The feather floats up into the air. Forrest sits at the side of the road. The feather floats higher into the air. The feather soars up into the sky and travels up and down, then covers the camera lens. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Feathers.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Feathers.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c4df2c820dfd62435f0f1bfcfe105697a69e80a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Feathers.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5055 @@ + + +Four Feathers + +Screenplay by Michael Schiffer + +revised by Hossein Amini + +based on the book by A.E. Mason + +EXT. TRAINING GROUND/ WESTMINSTER barracks/ LONDON - Day. + +Through a veil of dust we see two lines of uniformed cavalry, stretched out across the parade ground. There's a tense silence except for the occasional flourish of hooves. A horseman steps out of each line. + +LIEUTENANTS HARRY FEVERSHAM and JOHN DURRANCE face each other across the wide expanse. Already we feel the keen sense of competition between them. DURRANCE raises his sabre first. His horse sets off at a slow trot. His troops follow in perfect time. HARRY waits a moment, then raises his own sword. A sea of sabres rises up in response. + +The two lines approach each other at a steady canter. A smile of anticipation lights up DURRANCE's face. He's a born soldier, enjoying himself. HARRY looks more nervous. He's not as easy as Durrance in the saddle. It's a skill he's acquired over the years rather than been born to. + +DURRANCE seems to sense Harry's doubt. With a loud whoop he kicks his horse into a gallop and points his sabre forwards. His troops echo his war cry and descend on the opposing line at speed. HARRY checks his troops and responds. The two lines bear down on each other, hooves thundering, sabres pointed. + +DURRANCE charges recklessly. His eyes are fixed on Harry all the time. HARRY holds his gaze, but doesn't look as sure of himself. He's thinking too much, trying too hard. His horse senses it and slows a fraction. The troops behind him lose their cohesion as they draw level. + +DURRANCE sees the momentary lapse and waves his men on at full tilt. They pass through HARRY's troops in a perfect line, panicking their mounts, cheering triumphantly. HARRY's formation loses its shape. There's no doubt who's won the drill. DURRANCE wheels his horse around and grins at HARRY through the clouds of dust. + +CREDITS ROLL. + +INT. Changing room/ WESTMINSTER BARRACKS - day. + +Moving through clouds of steam we see the CAVALRY OFFICERS washing themselves in wooden bathtubs. There's a din of voices, soldiers re-living the day's drill, those on Durrance's side still crowing over their victory. + +DURRANCE walks with his arm around HARRY. With them is another friend, LIEUTENANT TRENCH, a squat bull of a man. + +DURRANCE +...How many does that make it Harry? + +harry +It's not something I count. + +DURRANCE +How many Trench? + +harry +Trench can't count. + +TRENCH grabs HARRY in a neck hold. He lets go as he spots another friend of theirs, LIEUTENANT CASTELTON, sitting in a bathtub, staring out. TRENCH sneaks up on CASTELTON, and ducks his head under the water. CASTELTON comes up, spluttering. He reaches for a bar of soap and hurls it after TRENCH. + +CASTELTON +...Idiot. + +INT. WILLOUGHBY's rooms/ barracks - day. + +A fifth friend, LIEUTENANT WILLOUGHBY, stares at himself in the mirror. His hair like his uniform is perfect. There's a loud knocking on his door. + +trench o/s +...Miss Willoughby, Miss Willoughby we're waiting. + +WILLOUGHBY finally stops preening himself as he hears his friends picking the lock. He gets up reluctantly, taking one last look at his reflection in the mirror. + +EXT. BARRACK GATES/ LONDON STREET - DAY. + +The OFFICERS pour out of the barrack gates in full regimental unifom, a sea of gleaming red. We pick out HARRY, DURRANCE, TRENCH, WILLOUGHBY, and CASTELTON, laughing amongst themselves, taking turns to tease each other, inseperable. + +INT. carriage/ HAnsom cab/ london streets - day. + +The friends share a flask of whisky as they sit in the back of the carriage. WILLOUGHBY passes it on without taking a sip. + +harry +Who are you planning to impress tonight? + +trench +(Grinning) +Anna What's-her-name. + +DURRANCE +Anna What's-her-name's father more like. Don't think we're going to take you any more seriously when you're promoted. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Quietly confident) +We'll see about that. + +A chorus of mocking 'ooohs' from the others. TRENCH notices CASTLETON staring out of the window. + +trench +What's so interesting about a London street? + +CASTELTON +(Reflecting) +Ask me that when we're in Bombay. + +TRENCH rolls his eyes and turns to DURRANCE. + +treNCH +Is Ethne going to be there? + +We catch a hint of shyness in DURRANCE at the mention of Ethne's name. + +DURRANCE +I think so. + +HARRY watches DURRANCE, a little uncomfortably, as if he's holding something back. + +EXT. PARTY/ india office building/ london - night. + +CARRIAGES line the entrance to the India Office. INDIAN VALETS in turbans and robes escort the GUESTS to the entrance, holding umbrellas over them. + +The five friends crowd under a single umbrella. WILLOUGHBY makes sure he's in the middle, he doesn't want to get his uniform wet. TRENCH nudges him into the rain. + +INT. The Durbar court/ party/ INDIA office - night. + +Palm trees and fountains dominate the room. The ladies are dressed in ballgowns, the Officers in regimental colours. The full pomp and ceremony of Empire is on display. HARRY, DURRANCE, WILLOUGHBY, CASTELTON and TRENCH have gathered by the bar, a little overawed by the occasion. + +trench +(Admiring the passing women) +I'm going to ask someone to dance. + +willoughby +(Admiring the passing Generals) +You said that ten minutes ago. + +trench +I'm waiting for Castelton. + +CASTELTON stares at the ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN, paralysed with shyness. + +trench +(Pouring him another drink) +...Just look dreamy. I'll do the talking. + +DURRANCE smiles as he listens to them. He turns to HARRY. + +DURRANCE +Can you see Ethne? + +harry +Not yet. + +HARRY seems uneasy again. We sense there's something on his mind, something he wants to tell Durrance. DURRANCE doesn't pick up on it. He finishes his whisky and looks back into the throng. + +WILLOUGHBY +Harry, your father... + +HARRY looks away from DURRANCE. He sees his father, GENERAL FEVERSHAM, shaking hands with some COLLEAGUES across the room. + +INT. seating area/ durbar court/ india office - night. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM is deep in conversation with his friend, COLONEL SUTCH, a fellow veteran of the Crimean war. HARRY moves discreetly into their field of vision. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM +(His face lighting up) +Harry... + +Immediately we feel the bond between father and son. + +harry +(Greeting Colonel Sutch) +How are you Colonel? + +COLONEL SUTCH +Fine Harry. Relieved to see a few familiar faces. When are you boys shipping out? + +harry +Next month. + +COLONEL SUTCH +Your father and I served in Bombay. There are worse places they could have sent you. + +harry +Yes Sir. + +HARRY smiles politely. SUTCH is sensitive enough to see that his mind is on other things. He lets father and son talk. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM +Is Ethne here? + +HARRY +Not yet. + +They both smile, as if they share a secret. GENERAL FEVERSHAM reaches out and straightens his son's collar, trying to make him look as presentable as possible. + +INT. dance area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +TRENCH and CASTELTON are dancing with two GIRLS: TRENCH waltzing boisterously, CASTELTON taking it all very seriously. + +INT. another area/ durbar court/ india office - night. + +WILLOUGHBY has found a place amongst a group of SENIOR OFFICERS. He stands next to COLONEL HAMILTON, the Commander of their regiment. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +...If I had a choice we'd be on our way to the Sudan. Deal with this Dervish uprising once and for all. + +2nd colonel +You prefer a tour in the Sudan to India Willoughby? + +wILLOUGHBY +I don't know about that Sir, but I agree with Colonel Hamilton, we're going to have to fight the Mahdi sooner or later. + +WILLOUGHBY trails off, leaving COLONEL HAMILTON to continue. + +INT. bar area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +DURRANCE downs another whisky. He looks less sure of himself in this social whirl than he did in the barracks. A few WOMEN cast admiring glances in his direction but he doesn't notice them. His eyes keep searching the crowd for Ethne. + +INT. seating area/ durbar court/ india office - night. + +HARRY gazes through the crowd at DURRANCE. DURRANCE catches him staring and raises a glass. The two friends smile at each other. + +INT. STAIRWAY/ india office - night. + +A group of late arrivals hurry up the stairs towards the party. ETHNE EUSTACE, is several steps ahead of her father DERMOD, and her friend, CAROLINE ADAIR, a young widow in her 30's. + +INT. ENTRANCE/ durbar court/ india office - night. + +ETHNE's eyes search the crowd as soon as she walks through. She stops as she sees DURRANCE at the bar. Her eyes stay on him a moment, but it's only to see if Harry's nearby. When she realises he isn't she looks away. Finally she sees him, standing with GENERAL FEVERSHAM and COLONEL SUTCH. She takes her father DERMOD's hand, and leads him in their direction. + +INT. bar area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +CASTELTON and TRENCH are back at the bar, arguing. + +CASTELTON +Your sole purpose in life is to annoy me. + +trench +She couldn't see me. + +CASTELTON +I could see you. I can see you everywhere I look. Pulling those stupid faces at me. + +willoughby +Now Ladies. + +DURRANCE joins in the laughter but he seems distracted. He takes another gulp of whisky and looks around the crowd. His eyes stop as he sees ETHNE. A smile lights up his face, but it's short lived. + +Across the courtyard HARRY appears, greeting ETHNE. Their hands touch briefly. + +The noise fades in DURRANCE's head. He stares in silence. + +HARRY shakes DERMOD's hand warmly. DERMOD slaps him on the back, as if he's congratulating him. + +DURRANCE's eyes take in the smallest details now. Even though he can't hear a word, the scene before him reveals itself more and more clearly. + +COLONEL SUTCH raises his glass. GENERAL FEVERSHAM, DERMOD, and CAROLINE ADAIR respond. HARRY and ETHNE move closer, a little coyly, as if the toast is for them. + +DURRANCE looks pale. We feel the disappointment in his eyes as he realises what's happened. HARRY's arm moves around Ethne's waist, a libery that can only mean they're engaged. + +INT. fountain area/ durbar court/ india office - night. + +HARRY and ETHNE glance at each other tenderly. + +ETHNE +Did you tell them? + +harry +I was waiting for you. + +ETHNE +Not even Jack? + +harry +Not even Jack. + +The two of them look towards DURRANCE for the first time. + +INT. bar area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +DURRANCE looks up as ETHNE and HARRY make their way through the crowd. He gathers himself, and walks towards them, concealing his feelings: + +DURRANCE +Congratulations. + +harry +How did you know? + +DURRANCE +Nothing escapes me Harry... +(Kissing ETHNE on both cheeks) +I'm delighted for you both. + +ETHNE +Harry wanted to tell you before anyone else. It's my fault. I asked him to wait. + +DURRANCE +I'll still blame him. + +hARRY +(Relieved that his friend's taking it so well) +You were the one who introduced us. + +DURRANCE +Did I? I'll be more careful next time. + +DURRANCE takes HARRY in his arms, slapping him on the back. WILLOUGHBY, TRENCH, and CASTLETON appear behind them, realising something's up. DURRANCE turns to them, beaming: + +DURRANCE +Three guesses for Trench, one for everyone else. + +The friends let out a cheer as they realise what's happened. They crowd HARRY and ETHNE, congratulating them. + +INT. DANCE area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +TRENCH sweeps HARRY and ETHNE towards the dancefloor. + +trench +(As if they have to dance in public as a punishment) +...Over there. Where we can see you. And remember you're not married yet. + +HARRY takes ETHNE in his arms. + +harry +(Smiling ironically) +Alone at last. + +TRENCH claps loudly as they dance. CASTLETON looks embarrassed by his friend. Behind them WILLOUGHBY congratulates DERMOD and GENERAL FEVERSHAM. + +INT. bar area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +DURRANCE watches the celebrations from the bar. He's smiling to himself, but it's the glazed smile of someone who's forcing himself to be happy. A quiet voice interrupts him: + +CAROLINE o/s +Wonderful news isn't it? + +DURRANCE turns around to see CAROLINE, Ethne's friend, gazing at him. + +DURRANCE +(Smiling automatically) +Yes it is. + +CAROLINE +Had Harry told you? + +DURRANCE +I knew it was just a matter of time. +(Changing the conversation) +What can I get you to drink? + +CAROLINE +Nothing thank you. + +DURRANCE +(Nervous under her gaze) +I'd ask you to dance, only I'm not sure how steady I am on my feet. + +CAROLINE +(With the quiet confidence of an older woman) +I'd love to dance. + +DURRANCE grins sheepishly, at a loss, as he is with most women. + +INT. DANCE area/ the durbar court/ india office - night. + +The waltz is in full swing. All the friends are out on the dance floor. TRENCH spins his GIRL around energetically, exchanging glances with other women as they pass. CASTELTON stares into his partner's eyes, already in love. WILLOUGHBY dances with an elderly WOMAN, probably some General's wife. DURRANCE waltzes with CAROLINE, avoiding her meaningful glances, looking over her shoulder for Harry and Ethne. + +EXT. PARTY/ india office building/ london - night. + +The rain pours in torrents. HARRY and ETHNE stand in the shadows of the building. Harry tries to kiss her and hold an umbrella over her at the same time. + +ETHNE +What if I hold the umbrella? + +harry +I'd have to kneel. + +ETHNE +Nothing wrong with that. + +HARRY hands her the umbrella, bending under it. + +ETHNE +(With irony as he kisses her more and more passionately) +You're very distant tonight. + +harrY +I'm locked in a barracks room all day. + +ETHNE +What are you going to do in India? + +harrY +Take you with me. + +ETHNE +A Hindu wedding? + +harry +Why not. + +ETHNE +Not on your life. + +She walks away with the umbrella, leaving him exposed in the rain. + +ETHNE +I want the full works. The Church near my home. A long speech from you. An entire regiment crossing swords. + +harry +(Drenched) +Done. + +ETHNE +I don't believe you. + +HARRY makes a rush and grabs her, eneveloping her in his arms. + +ETHNE +You're soaking wet. + +HARRY +Whose fault is that. + +ETHNE squirms but loses herself in his embrace. As they start to kiss they're suddenly interrupted by TRENCH's braying voice in the distance. + +trench o/s +(A regimental song) +Goodnight, Ladies...goodnight, Ladies...goodnight, Ladies, we hate to see you go... + +HARRY shakes his head in despair. + +TRENCH, castelton, willoughby and durrance together o/s +Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along...Merrily we roll along, until the morning comes... + +ETHNE smiles. + +ETHNE +Duty calls. + +HARRY feels the quiet regret in her voice. + +harry +We've two days leave before we sail. Once I tell them we're engaged I'm sure they'll give me more. + +ETHNE +As long as you promise to make me miserable. Argue with me all the time so I don't miss you a bit. + +Her lightness is forced. + +harrY +You'll be fine. + +ETHNE +You don't have to reassure me. I'm a soldier's daughter. Everything under control. + +harry +I've never kissed a stiff upper lip before. + +TRENCH's VOICE bellows out again as they kiss: + +trench o/s +Goodnight, Ethne's...goodnight, Harry's...Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight... + +HARRRY and ETHNE ignore him, the rain falling all around them. + +INT. REGIMENTAL HALL/ WESTMINSTER BARRACKS - night. + +The regimental song turns into a deafening roar. All around the mess hall, OFFICERS are laughing and banging on tables. HARRY and DURRANCE stand on wobbly stools, downing pints of beer. As soon as their glasses are empty they set off down the hall at a sprint. It's an obstacle course. The two friends duck under two long tables, and crawl on their bellies, towards two more glasses. + +TRENCH and CASTELTON are busy laying bets on who'll win. DURRANCE and HARRY step over a bridge of chairs. They have to find a pint of beer hidden under one of them. DURRANCE finds his first. TRENCH looks at CASTELTON smugly, convinced he's going to win. + +HARRY and DURRANCE step-walk over two long benches. DURRANCE falls off. HARRY overtakes him. He throws his head back and finishes off another pint. CASTELTON stands up, cheering. + +HARRY and DURRANCE are level as they reach the last glass. As they start to drink HARRY stops, spluttering. + +harry +This isn't beer, it's whisky. + +trench +Down in one! + +HARRY drinks again, but he's fallen behind. The pint of whisky disappears down DURRANCE's throat. Grinning, he makes his way towards the finish line. HARRY pours the whisky over his head, conceding defeat. + +EXT. TRAINING GROUND/ WESTMINSTER barracks/ LONDON - Day. + +An obstacle course of a different kind. The CAVALRY are training, galloping at full tilt, HARRY and DURRANCE bringing up the front. At the sound of a bugle, they dismount their horses, and sprint towards a row of bayonets. They snatch up the weapons and charge a row of dummies. + +DRILL INSTRUCTOR +...In. Out. On guard... + +The blades tear into the dummies, exposing soft leaves and hard wood. + +DRILL INSTRUCTOR +...Hold the line...and charge... + +The OFFICERS charge towards a second set of targets. Teeth bared, they drive their bayonets into the stuffed dummies. CASTELTON's blade sticks in a chunk of wood. + +DRILL INSTRUCTOR +...In and out, Castelton, in and out... + +CASTELTON pulls in frustation. He can't get the bayonet loose. + +DRILL INSTRUCTOR +...They're coming at you boy. Rip it out or they'll stick you first. + +CASTELTON puts his foot on the dummy's head and tries to wrench the blade free. Even though it's only a training exercise, his panic is real. TRENCH slows down as he watches his friend struggling in vain. + +DRILL INSTRUCTOR +...Move on Trench. Castelton's dead. Enemy spear through his throat. + +The OFFICERS continue, bayonets thrust forward, leaving the struggling CASTELTON behind. + +EXT. STABLES/ training ground/ westminster barracks - day. + +The men are washing up after exercises, dousing themselves with cold water. Everyone's teasing CASTELTON, except for TRENCH. For once he keeps quiet, knowing how hard his friend's taking it. A SEARGENT-MAJOR enters and salutes. + +SERGEANT-MAJOR +Gentlemen... fifteen minutes, in the briefing room. + +As he leaves, the MEN look at each other curiously. + +INT. BRIEFING ROOM/ westminster barracks - day. + +The Officers are assembled. HARRY, DURRANCE, TRENCH, WILLOUGHBY, and CASTELTON, take their places on the wooden benches. As he sits HARRY notices a map of Africa behind Colonel Hamilton. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +...Gentlemen... +(when the room settles down) +The 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards have been ordered to forego their posting to India... +(Off murmurs of surprise) +...We ship out in three days, to establish a forward garrison in the Sudan... + +There's a buzz of excitement. COLONEL HAMILTON can hardly contain his smile. He turns to GENERAL HOLMBY: + +COLONEL HAMILTON +...General Holmby, Sir. + +GENERAL HOLMBY, a severe looking military man, stands and faces the OFFICERS. Their eyes are lit-up with anticipation, all except Harry, who stares ahead, slowly turning inward. + +GENERAL HOLMBY +...I'd like to apologise for not giving you men more notice. I know many of you will find it hard to see your families now. Unfortunately we had no alternative... + +He turns to the map and points out the Sudanese desert. + +gENERAL HOLMBY +...Three days ago, an army of Egyptian reserves led by General Hicks, was ambushed at Tashgil by the Mahdi's forces. Upoun attack the Egyptians fled, leaving General Hicks and the British Officers with him, to fight a heroic, but in the end hopeless rearguard action. All of them died, sword in hand... + +HARRY stares out silently, his whole world turned upside down. + +geNERAL HOLMBY +...I hesitate to call this a mission of vengeance, but the honour of our country is at stake. This Government has finally seen fit to send its own troops to war... + +There's loud cheering from the men now, regimental pride and bravado covering any trace of nerves. + +EXT. COURTYARD/ westinster barracks - sunset. + +The OFFICERS pour out into the courtyard, still exhilirated by the thought of seeing war. We hear TRENCH's voice rising above the others. + +trench +...I wish I had more than one life to give for my country. Two would make me feel a lot safer. + +HARRY laughs with the others, hiding his mounting anxiety. + +INT. HARRY and DURRANCE's ROOM/ BARRACKS - NIGHT. + +Laughter filters into Harry and Durrance's room. The two of them lie in their beds, watching the embers die out in the fireplace. + +DURRANCE +(Gazing up at the ceiling where the noise is coming from) +...I listen to them laugh, and I can't help wondering which ones won't be coming back. The worse part is I think I even know who they are. + +haRRY +Am I one? + +DURRANCE +Of course not Harry. You're one of the lucky ones. Always have been. + +HARRY picks up the reference to Ethne but doesn't say anything. More laughter filters through. HARRY stares out in the darkness, tormented. + +DURRANCE +What are you thinking? + +harry +(Hesitating) +I'm wondering what a Godforesaken desert in the middle of nowhere has to do with her Majesty the Queen. + +DURRANCE +Ask Willoughby. He's on the Colonel's staff. + +harry +I know what he'll say: 'It's not for us to question.' +(A beat) +Do you ever ask yourself why you're going? + +DURRANCE +Not for the Queen. I hardly know her. +(He smiles softly) +Nor for the regiment. There isn't much of a military tradition in my family... +(A beat) +I suppose I'm going because you're going. You, and Trench, and Castelton, and Willoughby... +(A big grin) +Not much of a reason I know, but it reassures me. + +HARRY smiles, but Durrance's words only make him feel more ashamed of the fear he feels inside. + +harry +Is there anything that frightens you, Jack? + +DURRANCE +I'm frightened of not coming back in one piece. Much more than dying. I wouldn't know what to do with myself in a wheel chair. And I couldn't stand to be pitied. + +He puts the thought out of his head and grins. + +DURRANCE +There's a Church near our house. Next to the pub. Every night at ten the drunks spill out, shouting at the top of their voices. That's where I want to be buried. Where I can hear them. + +harry +Nothing's going to happen to you. + +DURRANCE +It's out of our hands anyway. Might as well sleep easy... + +DURRANCE rolls on his side. HARRY looks back at the fireplace, as the last embers fade. + +EXT. REGIMENTAL COURTYARD - dawn. + +A cold blue light hangs over the barracks. The courtyard is empty, except for a few sentries on duty. Wagons pull in, loaded with supplies. + +INT. HARRY and DURRANCE's ROOM/ BARRACKS - dawn. + +HARRY buttons his uniform. He looks as if he hasn't slept. He turns to DURRANCE. His friend is still asleep. HARRY hesitates. He wants to wake him up, and talk, but in the end he turns away, and leaves the room. + +EXT. regimental COURTYARD - dawn. + +Harry walks slowly toward the Regimental Office. He glances up at the Regimental flag, flying beside the Union Jack. + +INT. ADCs' ROOMS/ THE REGIMENTAL OFFICE - dawn. + +WILLOUGHBY looks up from his desk as HARRY walks in. + +willoughby +(Grinning) +...Harry. You're up early. + +HARRY smiles awkwardly but doesn't say anything. WILLOUGHBY senses something's wrong. + +willoughby +(Concerned) +...What's the matter? + +HARRY looks at him for a moment, but then turns to Colonel Hamilton's other AIDE-DE-CAMP. + +HARRY +I'd like to see the Colonel please. + +WILLOUGHBY stares in confusion. The AIDE-DE-CAMP disappears into the next door office. HARRY still can't bring himself to look at his friend. + +willoughby +Harry, what's wrong?... + +He's interrupted as the AIDE-DE-CAMP walks back in. + +AIDE-DE-CAMP +The Colonel will see you, sir. + +harry +Thank you. + +HARRY walks into Hamilton's office. WILLOUGHBY stares after him, bewildered. + +INT. COLONEL HAMILTON's office - day. + +COLONEL HAMILTON glances at the letter HARRY has just given him. He stops reading after only a few words. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +What the hell is this? + +HARRY +My papers, sir. I wish to resign my commission. + +COLONEL HAMILTON doesn't appear to understand. He looks back at the piece of paper, as if he's misread something. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +If it's leave you want, there's a different procedure. Normally I wouldn't consider it in the circumstances, but given you've got engaged... + +HARRY +(Interrupting politely) +I don't want any leave Sir. I wish to resign my commission. + +A long silence. COLONEL HAMILTON calmly puts the letter aside, and returns to his work, ignoring HARRY. + +harry +Sir... + +COLONEL HAMILTON +It's nerves. We all have them. + +HARRY +Sir, I've made up my mind. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +And I'm asking you to reconsider. + +HARRY +I have considered, sir. And I've decided to leave the service. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +Come back to me when you've discussed it with your father. + +HARRY +It's not his decision, sir... + +HAMILTON explodes, all his repressed fury pouring out. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +I do not accept these "papers," Lieutenant -- and do not accept that one of my men -- the son of a man with whom I was honored to serve -- would walk out on his Regiment -- + +HARRY +Sir -- + +COLONEL HAMILTON +-- on the very eve we're shipping off to war! +(holding out the papers) +Take these back! + +HARRY +I will not, sir. + +Dead silence. + +harry +I wish to resign my commission. + +HAMILTON stares at HARRY for what seems an eternity. He's struggling to make sense of something beyond his comprehension. Slowly he gathers himself and lowers his eyes, looking down at Harry's papers: + +COLONEL HAMILTON +Very well. Then as the coward and disgrace you are, you may take yourself out of my office... +(Signing Harry's papers) +Please leave the barracks at once. You're belongings will be sent on. + +Face drained of color, Harry turns and leaves. + +INT. ADCs' ROOMS/ THE REGIMENTAL OFFICE - dawn. + +As the door opens, WILLOUGHBY stares at HARRY, speechless. HARRY lowers his eyes and walks on. + +INT. STAIRWAY/ BARRACKS - DAwn. + +HARRY walks down the stairway, gripping the bannisters. Two SOLDIERS salute him on their way up, but he doesn't respond. + +EXT. regimental COURTYARD - dawn. + +The supply wagons are being unloaded in the courtyard. HARRY walks between more SOLDIERS, his eyes fixed on the barrack gates. The only sound he hears in his head is the gentle flapping of a flag. + +INT. TRENCH and CASTELTON's ROOM/ BARRACKS - day. + +CASTELTON is packing his trunk, neat and fastidious, taking his time over every item. TRENCH waits for him impatiently. + +trench +...Why can't you do this after breakfast? We're not leaving till tonight. + +CASTELTON ignores him, folding his shirts. TRENCH turns to DURRANCE, exasperated. + +trench +He packs three bibles. Can you believe it? Three bibles... + +DURRANCE grins. He glances up as WILLOUGHBY enters. + +DURRANCE +...Field Marshall Willoughby... + +WILLOUGHBY doesn't smile. He looks ashen faced. + +DURRANCE +...What's the matter? + +CASTELTON and TRENCH look up. + +willoughby +It's Harry... +(He still can't believe it) +He's resigned. + +trench +Resigned what? + +willoughby +(Snapping at Trench) +His bloody commission. What do you think?! + +There's a long silence. No-one knows quite what to say. DURRANCE finally speaks. + +DURRANCE +What did Hamilton do? Refuse him leave? + +willoughby +Hamilton didn't do anything. Harry went to see him of his own accord. Right after they changed our deployment. + +CASTELTON looks at TRENCH, as the insinuation sinks in. + +trENCH +...It's just a coincidence. He's having second thoughts about leaving Ethne. + +willoughby +He was happy to leave her behind when we were going to India. No doubts then. + +DURRANCE +(Jumping to Harry's defence) +What's that supposed to mean? + +willoughby +You tell me. He resigns his commission the very day we're sent to war. + +DURRANCE +Harry's the best soldier in this regiment. + +wILLOUGHBY +Obviously not when it counts. + +DURRANCE +Why don't you say that to his face. + +CASTELTON +(Intervening) +We don't know the circumstances yet. +(Reasoning with Willoughby) +I think we should give Harry a chance to explain. + +willoughby +(Bitterly) +Harry's gone. He left this morning. Whilst you were all asleep. + +WILLOUGHBY turns away in frustration. He's as upset as the others, but he shows it in anger. TRENCH and CASTELTON look stunned. DURRANCE stares ahead in silence. + +trench +Did he say anything to you, Jack? + +DURRANCE +(Quietly) +No. Nothing. + +DURRANCE remembers his conversation with Harry the previous night. + +WILLOUGHBY +An action like this dishonors the entire Regiment. + +DURRANCE +(Suddenly venting his anger on Willoughby) +Will you forget about your bloody Regiment for once! + +WILLOUGHBY +Alright then, it dishonours us! + +He stares at DURRANCE with conviction. + +willoughby +He was my friend too, Jack... +(A beat) +...but a man who isn't prepared to give his life for his friends, isn't a man at all... + +From the look on their faces, it's clear TRENCH and CASTELTON are beginning to agree with him. + +wILLOUGHBY +This has to be answered. + +DURRANCE shakes his head, refusing to turn on Harry. He storms out of the room. + +INT. TRAIN to BINTREE - night. + +The whistle of a train. HARRY sits in a crowded carriage, looking stiff in his civilian clothes. He glances out of the window, but sees only his own reflection in the glass. + +EXT. ethne's carriage/ BINTREE - day. + +ETHNE drives the carriage through the country lanes, overjoyed to see HARRY. + +ETHNE +...How many days leave have they given you? + +harry +How many days would you like? + +ETHNE +They shouldn't have let you out of their sight. I'm going to kidnap you. + +harry +I thought as much. This doesn't look like the way to your house. + +ETHNE laughs happily. HARRY can't quite bring himself to tell her yet. + +INT. village church near ethne's home - day. + +Dappled light shines in the small stone Church. ETHNE takes HARRY under the arm, and walks him up the aisle. + +harry +Isn't this supposed to be bad luck? + +ETHNE +Seeing me in the wedding dress is bad luck. This is practice. + +ETHNE looks towards the church benches, as if she's greeting the guests. + +harrY +So I'm playing your father? + +ETHNE +You have to be a little less steady on your feet. He's had a few to drink. + +harry +(Taking slow deliberate steps) +How is he? + +ETHNE +Fine. He'll be thrilled to see you. + +ETHNE lets go of his hand as they reach the altar. She walks around him, and takes his other hand, as if he's the groom now. + +ETHNE +"Do you Harry Feversham -- + +harrY +(Skipping the rest) +-- You may kiss the bride." + +He tries to kiss her. + +ETHNE +(Laughing) +You can't jump ahead like that. You have to let me enjoy my wedding. It's your fault the real one isn't for another year. + +HARRY hesitates, finally seeing his opportunity. + +harry +There's nothing to stop us getting married whenever we like, Ethne. I've handed in my papers. + +A long silence. ETHNE stares at him, not sure she's understood. + +ETHNE +...When? + +harry +Yesterday. I'd been thinking about it for a while. + +ETHNE +Why didn't you tell me? Was it because of me? + +HARRY +Because of you. Because of me. I couldn't see the point of continuing. The moment I fell in love with you my career in the army was over. + +ETHNE +I would have supported your career. My mother did the same for my father. It's what's always been expected of me. + +harry +I didn't think it was what you wanted. + +ETHNE still looks conflicted. + +ETHNE +...It is my fault Harry. I gave you the wrong impression. I'm really much more stoical than that. It wouldn't have been easy, but I'd have coped. I love you far too much to let a year make a difference. + +hARRY +It wasn't what I wanted for us. +(A hint of guilt as he hides the whole truth from her) +I love this place. I love you in this place. We'll help your father with the farm. We'll get it going again. We'll begin our lives together. + +ETHNE is silent, moved by his words. + +harrY +All I want is for you to be happy. + +ETHNE +(The smile slowly returns to her face) +I am happy Harry. + +She rests her head in his arms again. + +ETHNE +As long as you're sure? + +hARRY +Of course I'm sure. + +He holds her close, kissing her hair, hiding his eyes from her. + +EXT. courtyard/ ETHNE'S HOME/ BINTREE - DAY + +DERMOD's dogs leap on HARRY as he jumps off the carriage. + +HARRY +Whoa! You ought to train these beasts Dermod. + +DERMOD +I have. Trained them to scare away prospective son in laws. + +HARRY and DERMOD hug each other, already like father and son. + +INT. ENTRANCE/ ETHNE'S COUNTRY HOME - DAY + +A MAID hands ETHNE some letters and a parcel as she enters the house. HARRY follows her up the stairs. + +ETHNE +Which room do you want? + +harry +The one with the connecting doors. + +ETHNE +You must have imagined that one. + +INT. the guest room/ ethne's house. day. + +Sunlight fills the room as HARRY throws open the blinds. He takes a long look at the fields outside. + +ETHNE +(Glancing through her letters) +I see you've moved in already. + +harry +Why? + +ETHNE +This one's addressed to you. + +She holds out the small parcel. HARRY walks over curiously. + +ETHNE +(Teasing him) +A secret admirer? + +harry +(Teasing her back) +I wonder which one it is. + +ETHNE +I'll open it, thank you. + +She undoes the wrapping. There's a small white box underneath. She opens the lid. There's nothing inside, except three white feathers, pinned to three visiting cards. ETHNE's about to make a joke when she suddenly sees how pale HARRY looks. + +ETHNE +What is it? +(Looking at the feathers again) +What does this mean? + +HARRY +(Slowly) +That there are some things that can't be hidden. + +ETHNE +(Beginning to look worried) +I don't understand. + +harry +These are feathers of cowardice. + +ETHNE laughs, nervously. + +ETHNE +What a horrible joke. + +harry +It isn't a joke Ethne. They were sent in earnest. + +ETHNE +By whom? Who sent them? +(Her anger rising) +How dare they!... + +harry +(Reading the cards) +Willoughby, Trench, and Castelton. + +ETHNE +You see it is a joke. They're your friends. + +She looks to HARRY for confirmation. + +HARRY +(All he can say) +You're the most important thing to me. + +ETHNE +(Panicked by his tone) +Why are you saying that to me now? What is it Harry? + +harry +We were told on Tuesday night that the regiment would be shipping out to the Sudan instead of India. That we'd be seeing war within a week. I handed in my resignation the following morning. + +There's a long silence as ETHNE takes it in. Like Durrance she won't accept it. + +ETHNE +I don't believe that's why you resigned. You wouldn't have come to me like this. You wouldn't have been able to look me in the eye. + +HARRY stares at her guiltily, tormented. + +ETHNE +(The tears shining in her eyes) +...I don't believe you. Three white feathers and our world is at an end. It can't be that simple... + +And still he doesn't answer. + +ETHNE +...Please Harry... You have to answer these charges... + +harry +(Finally) +I can't. All my life I've been following a path that's filled me with dread. I kept going because of the people behind me, and the people beside me, but all I wanted to do was turn and run. I didn't even have the courage to do that until I met you... + +ETHNE +Don't use me as an excuse. + +harry +Ethne -- + +ETHNE +(Pulling away from him) +-- This afternoon you told me you left the army because of me. Or at least you made me believe it. Tell me the truth? Would you have resigned if we weren't engaged? + +There's a long silence. These are the hardest words Harry's ever had to speak. + +harry +Yes. I would have resigned. I wouldn't have gone to war for anything. + +ETHNE stares at him a moment, then removes her engagement ring from her finger, and holds it out to him. + +ETHNE +I've no right to call you a coward, but you are a liar. Please take this back. + +HARRY takes the ring without protest. ETHNE turns and walks away. As she leaves she sets the feathers on the table, and closes the door behind her. + +HARRY listens to her footsteps fade. He walks towards the table. As he looks down he sees four feathers. Ethne has snapped the fourth from her fan. + +Very carefully, as if they were the most precious objects in the world, HARRY gathers them, his eyes shining with tears. + +EXT. LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +A burst of noise and colour. Rows of SOLDIERS march by, in perfect squares, proudly wearing their regimental colours. The wharf is lined with PEOPLE, cheering and waving flags, sending them off to inevitable victory. + +INT. stable deck/ troop ship/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +We can still hear the roar of the crowd outside. CASTELTON is trying to coax his horse into its box. TRENCH, and WILLOUGHBY, and DURRANCE wait for him. + +trench +...Come on Castelton. Give her a good kick. I want to wave to the ladies... + +EXT. wharf/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +The CROWD below cheers as the soldiers crowd the rails. + +EXT. rails/ troop ship/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +TRENCH waves at the crowd as if he were the Queen. CASTELTON is lost in the scale of it all. DURRANCE stares at the tiny figures, wondering if Harry's amongst them. + +willoughby +(Interrupting his thoughts) +...Jack, I wanted to apologise for the other day. My argument wasn't with you. + +DURRANCE +It's forgotten. + +DURRANCE keeps staring into the crowd below. + +EXT. wharf/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +HARRY stares up at the ship, a ghost amongst the cheering faces. The SOLDIERS at the rails look like specks, but Harry knows his friends are somewhere up there. + +EXT. officer's stand/ wharf/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +A line of RETIRED OFFICERS, salute as the vessel finally sets off. Amongst them is GENERAL FEVERSHAM, Harry's father. He stands at attention. + +EXT. LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +The celebrations over, the CROWD moves away from the docks. HARRY searches through the throng for his father. + +EXT. HANSOM CABS/ LONDON DOCKS - NIGHT. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM and COLONEL SUTCH wait in line for a hansom cab. The two old soldiers look frail in the falling rain. As they're about to climb onto a carriage, a voice calls out: + +HARRY (o.s.) +Father...? + +The General turns around. His eyes fill with emotion as his son approaches. + +HARRY +...I need to talk to you, Sir. + +There's a long silence as GENERAL FEVERSHAM gazes at his son. HARRY looks as if he hasn't slept in days. His eyes are swollen and bloodshot, full of heartbreak and shame. For a moment it seems as if the old man will take him in his arms and comfort him, but instead he averts his eyes, and climbs into the carriage. COLONEL SUTCH looks at HARRY regrettably, as if to say there's nothing he can do. + +EXT. LONDON STREETS - night. + +NEWSBOYS follow HARRY home, trying to sell him their newspapers, refusing to take no for an answer. + +NEWSBOY +...It's a commemorative issue, Sir. War in the Sudan... + +HARRY buys a paper just to be rid of him, only for another NEWSBOY to take his place. + +SECOND nEWSBOY +Different paper Sir, London Times. commerative issue... + +INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT - DAY. + +The sound of guns echoes in the distance. HARRY looks up. His face is unshaven, his eyes glassy from lack of sleep. Another volley sounds outside. HARRY gets off the floor and walks over. As he does so we see the piles of newspapers that have gathered on his floor over the past few weeks. + +The regimental guns boom outside. HARRY opens the window. He wants to hear them more clearly. He wants to be reminded of his shame. + +He walks back to the day's newspapers and kneels down amongst the mess. We see headlines of massacres and slaughters, beneath them artist's impressions of the Mahdist atrocities. + +EXT. LONDON STREETS - day. + +The NEWSBOYS run from HARRY now, mistaking him for a tramp. He catches up with one of them, forcing some money on him. + +NEWSBOY +(Giving him a paper) +British defeat in the Sudan! Hundreds dead!... + +HARRY flicks through the newspaper anxiously. + +EXT. war office/ LONDON - day. + +CROWDS have gathered outside the War Office. The mood has changed from celebration to panic. PEOPLE are stunned by the news of defeat, desperate to hear if their loved ones are alright. SOLDIERS hold back the surging mass. Only small groups are allowed in at a time. + +INT. corridor/ war office BUILDING/ LONDON - day. + +HARRY hurries down the corridor towards an area where the names of British casualties have been pinned to a notice board. PEOPLE swarm past him in the other direction. Some of them look relieved, others are overwhelmed by grief. HARRY hurries on, his heart pounding. + +INT. CASUALTY LIST/ war office BUILDING/ LONDON - day. + +HARRY pushes through the CROWD of peering heads. As he finally elbows his way to the front he glimpses the long list of casualties. His eyes look through the D's first. Durrance's name isn't there. No sign of Castelton under the C's. HARRY is jostled backwards as he searches for the other names. With a fierce effort he gets to the front again. No Trench under T, no Willoughby under W. They're all safe. HARRY's body slackens with relief. + +EXT. harry's appartment block/ LONDON STREET - day. + +HARRY looks drained as he reaches the front door of his building. As he opens it his LANDLADY walks out. + +landlady +There's someone to see you Sir. They're waiting upstairs... + +HARRY doesn't wait for her to finish. + +INT. STAIRWAY/ harry's appartment block/ LONDON STREET - day. + +HARRY bounds up the stairs, expecting to see Ethne. He stops suddenly as he sees COLONEL SUTCH instead, waiting outside his door. He hides his disappointment with an awkward smile. + +hARRY +Colonel Sutch... + +SUTCH can't help staring at HARRY, shocked by the state he's in. + +INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT - DAY. + +HARRY tries to make the room look more presentable, gathering up the newspapers and maps off the floor. He finally stops what he's doing and turns around. + +harry +(Quietly) +How is he? + +COLONEL SUTCH +He's been very withdrawn. I've tried to persuade him to leave the house but he's a stubborn man. + +harrY +Will he see me? + +COLONEL SUTCH +I don't think so... +(He pauses) +...but if it's money you need he won't cut you off. He hinted as much to me. + +harry +I don't need money, Sir. + +HARRY turns away. SUTCH looks torn. As a soldier he disapproves of what Harry's done, but as a family friend he can't help feeling sorry for the boy. + +COLONEL SUTCH +You were never cut out for this proffession. + +harrY +(A thin smile) +Was it that obvious? + +COLONEL SUTCH +It was to me. Ever since you were a child. I only wish I'd said something to your father. + +HARRY turns and faces him. + +harrY +(With an almost morbid curiosity) +How did you know I didn't have it in me? + +COLONEL SUTCH +What difference does it make? + +harrY +It does to me, Sir. It's all I think about. What makes a man a coward? + +COLONEL SUTCH +(Losing patience) +That's enough Harry. Get on a grip on yourself. You're no use to anyone, sitting here all day, driving yourself mad... + +The outburst seems to release SUTCH from his soldier's reserve. He's all concern now. + +COLONEL SUTCH +What's done, is done. + +harrY +(Quietly) +No Sir, it isn't. + +HARRY reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small white box. He opens it in front of SUTCH. There are four white feathers inside. SUTCH stares at the names on the cards. + +COLONEL SUTCH +(Stunned) +Who sent you the fourth? Jack? + +harrY +Ethne. + +SUTCH looks up in surprise, beginning to realise the full extent of Harry's heartache. + +COLONEL SUTCH +Throw them away. They don't mean a thing. + +HARRY +They do to me, Sir. They're all I have left of my friends. + +COLONEL SUTCH +Harry, this is morbid. + +harrY +I don't mean it that way... +(Trying to make him understand) +You see, if there was something I could do, something so undeniable...I'm not saying it would change anything, it's too late for that...but if the feathers can be given, then they can be taken back. + +COLONEL SUTCH +Harry, your friends are in Egypt. + +HARRY +Yes Sir. In Alexandria. They transfer to Suakin in a fortnight. + +SUTCH doesn't understand at first. Then he looks at the newspapers and maps spread out across the floor, and begins to see the method in Harry's madness. + +COLONEL SUTCH +(In disbelief) +...You're a civilian. Even if you find them, there's nothing you can do. + +harry +I'm well aware of my chances. + +COLONEL SUTCH +Then what's the point!? +(Staring at him in dismay) +You think Ethne will take you back? Is that what you think?! + +From the look in his eyes it's clear the thought had entered his head. Sutch's words bring him back down to earth. His voice is quieter now, resigned. + +harrY +I don't have any choice... +(With a terrible honesty) +I'm not sure how much longer I can live with myself, here, like this... + +COLONEL SUTCH stares at him with pity, seeing the depth of his anguish. + +haRRY +I'm leaving for Egypt tomorrow. + +COLONEL SUTCH +(He realises there's no point trying to dissuade him) +Do you want me to tell your father? + +harry +Only if something should happen to me. I'll write and let you know how I am, as often as I can. + +COLONEL SUTCH +What about Ethne? + +HARRY has to think long and hard about this. The thought of her fills him with sadness. + +hARRY +I'd rather you didn't tell her anything. After all I've put her through the least I can do is let her forget me in peace. + +COLONEL SUTCH looks moved by his predicament, and impressed by these first, grasping signs of nobility. + +harrY +Maybe I'll come back sooner than I think -- hear the guns booming off the African coast, and take the first ship home. + +COLONEL SUTCH +I doubt it, Harry. + +COLONEL SUTCH smiles weakly. + +EXT. HARRY's POV. VIEW OF THE AFRICAN COAST - day. + +Through the shimmering heat we see the outlines of the African mountains: an arid moonscape, dust clouds blowing in the wind. + +EXT. port of ALEXANDRIA - DAY. + +The same veil of dust blows through the crowded port. HARRY covers his eyes. His hair is longer now, his face gaunt and bearded. Clutching his suitcase, he moves through the throng. + +EXT. streets of ALEXANDRIA - DAY. + +The alleyways look almost dreamlike through the shimmering heat. It's as if we're in Harry's head, reflecting his state of mind. A crowd of URCHIN BOYS are following his every step, imitating his langorous walk. HARRY doesn't notice them. His gaze is riveted by the sights around him: the MERCHANTS beckoning him into their shops; the BRITISH SOLDIERS on leave, sheltering in the cool hollows of the cafes and whorehouses; the BEGGARS, hunched up against the stone walls, their faces covered with flies. + +Through the arches of the Souk, a wedding procession appears. The BRIDE and GROOM sit on brightly painted donkeys. All around them WOMEN and CHILDREN clap and shrill. HARRY catches a glimpse of the bride's face. She gazes at him for a moment, then looks away. + +INT. COLONIAL HOTEL/ ALEXANDRIA - DAY. + +The colours of the Souk give way to the cool white emptiness of a colonial hotel. ENGLISH GUESTS talk in hushed whispers as EGYPTIAN WAITERS serve them tea. HARRY sits in a corner of the lobby, nursing his drink, observing a group of ENGLISH OFFICERS, laughing amongst themselves. + +HARRY looks thoughtful, wondering how to approach them. Suddenly he hears a commotion. A drunk BRITISH CORPORAL is escorted out of the hotel by a group of SENIOR OFFICERS. He shouts and swears, but they ignore him, throwing him out of the door. HARRY gets up as he sees his chance. + +INT. EGYPTIAN bar - brothel/ BAZAAR/ ALEXANDRIA - night. + +The rhythmic beating of drums. Tattooed WOMEN dance on a makeshift stage, mesmerising the crowd of eager SOLDIERS. HARRY sits with the drunken BRITISH CORPORAL. The man's eyes keep drifting longingly towards the stage, as if he hasn't seen a woman in months. HARRY fills his glass. + +BRITISH CORPORAL +(Resuming their conversation) +...It's all reconnaisance trips. The river's too swollen to move troops in numbers. Her Majesty's army's rotting in Suakin. + +harry +Which other regiments were with you? + +BRITISH CORPORAL +They're all there: the Hussars, the Highlanders, the Grenadiers...Which newspaper did you say you were from? + +hARRY +The London Times. + +BRITISH CORPORAL +You must think I'm a disgrace? 'Sand happy'. That's what those Officers called me. + +harry +How much longer do you think the troops will be held up in Suakin? + +BRITISH CORPORAL +As long as they can if they're lucky. +(He finishes his drink) +Does the Prime Minister read your paper? + +harrY +I imagine so. + +BRITISH CORPORAL +Then tell him from me we're on a losing wicket here. These bastards aren't scared of anything. If they saw death walking down the street they'd hide in an alleyway and try to pick him off with a stone. How do you fight people like that... + +He tries to drain the last few drops from his empty glass, then looks over longingly, at the tattooed DANCERS. + +EXT. SAND STORM/ desert near SUAKIN/ sudan - DAY. + +Thick gusts of sand blow at us. As the swirling clouds settle we see a group of misshapen figures, huddled together. As they finally rise and start to move, we realise they're BRITISH SOLDIERS, on camels. Amongst the dust caked faces we see TRENCH, CASTELTON, WILLOUGHBY and DURRANCE. + +EXT. DESERT near SUAKIN/ SUDAN - DAY. + +The sand storm has cleared, and in its place a harsh desert sun beats down. The COLUMN OF BRITISH SCOUTS trudges forward. DURRANCE rides at the front, looking as if he were born here, eyes alert to every shimmer and nuance. + +Up ahead he sees a large mound of stones standing out amongst the mud flat. He drives his camel forward. As he approaches he sees that it's a dervish burial mound. Skulls and skeletons are splayed across the rocks. WILLOUGHBY rides up through the ranks and joins him. + +WILLOUGHBY +What do you think? + +DURRANCE +I think they're trying to frighten us off. We should keep pressing forward. + +WILLOUGHBY offers DURRANCE his water flask. DURRANCE takes a drink. + +DURRANCE +(Pulling a face) +It's bloody whisky. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Grinning) +My camel drinks the water. + +EXT. burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +As the camels tread their way through the sun baked shingles a ghostly fortress appears on the horizon. The men start loading their rifles instinctively. + +EXT. courtyard/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +All that's left of the fortress is a grim skeleton. The Union Jack lies ripped to shreds, halfway down its flagpole. The BRITISH SOLDIERS gaze at the destruction. Their camels sense their tension and rear a little in the eerie silence. As ever, TRENCH is the first to break the ice. + +trench +(Jumping off his camel, walking towards the fortress well) +I don't know about you lot, but I'm going to grab a drink before Mustapha does. + +"Mustapha" the camel whinnies as if he's understood every word. The MEN start laughing. + +DURRANCE +The water's probably poisoned. + +trench +(Leading his camel towards the well instead) +Mustapha, be my guest. + +There's more laughter. DURRANCE smiles but his eyes are still alert. Above the fortress tower he sees a flock of birds taking flight, rising up gracefully towards the desert sun. Suddenly amidst the laughter and chatter, one of the SOLDIERS topples off his camel. His FRIENDS laugh: + +friendS +...Capshaw you dosy bastard... +...Camilla's tired him out... + +CAPSHAW doesn't move. CASTELTON's the first to realise something's wrong. He jumps off his camel and turns CAPSHAW over. Half the soldier's face has been blown off. Raw bone glistens underneath. CASTELTON rears back in horror. + +CASTELTON +Sniper! + +Panic erupts. The SOLDIERS leap off their camels, using them as shields. + +The sniper's bullet rings out and sends one of the animals crashing to the dirt. The men start to run now, seeking shelter in the surrounding hutments. The sniper's gun rings out repeatedly. + +EXT. HUTMENT/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +DURRANCE and CASTELTON duck into the hutment. + +DURRANCE +...Keep him pinned. He's up in the tower. + +CASTELTON unleashes a volley of shots. DURRANCE moves quickly to the other side of the hutment and climbs out of the window. + +EXT. courtyard/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +The camels circle around themselves in panic. TRENCH weaves his way between the rearing animals, protecting himself from the sniper. A shot rings out and spits dust in his face. + +trench +(Whispering in anger) +You bastard... + +EXT. outer perimeter/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +DURRANCE runs around the back of the fortress, breathing hard. + +EXT. courtyard/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +A second shot spins TRENCH round, grazing him in the arm. + +trench +(His voice rising) +You bastard! + +A third shot narrowly misses. TRENCH is up and running now, not waiting for the fourth. + +trench +(Shouting like a madman as he charges towards the hutment) +You bastard! You bastard! You bastard! + +EXT. outer perimeter/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +DURRANCE has a clear view on the sniper's tower now. From below he can see the man's rifle edge out, fire, and then withdraw. DURRANCE heads quietly towards the tower stairs. + +EXT. STAIRS/ SNIPER's TOWER/ burnt out fortress - day. + +Several of the steps are missing from the rickety stairway. DURRANCE climbs over them as lightly as he can. Up above he can hear the sniper's rifle ringing out. + +EXT. castelton's HUTMENT/ burnt out fortress/ desert - day. + +CASTELTON fires another round at the sniper's tower. TRENCH sits on the floor, cursing as he bandages his grazed arm. + +EXT. SNIPER's TOWER/ burnt out fortress - day. + +DURRANCE raises his head cautiously. At the tower window he sees the DERVISH SNIPER firing his rifle. DURRANCE hesitates. He could kill the man easily, but it would mean shooting him in the back. He can't bring himself to do it: + +DURRANCE +Drop it! + +The DERVISH SNIPER stops still. He turns around slowly and looks DURRANCE in the eye. A contemptuous smile flickers across his face. Very slowly, he takes a bullet from his pocket and slips it in the rifle. He doesn't even look at DURRANCE. There's a terrifying, suicidal calm about him. + +DURRANCE studies his enemy, admiring his utter contempt for death, and then fires two bullets into his head. + +EXT. TENTS/ THE BRITISH CAMP/ suakin/ sudan - night. + +Bonfires flicker across the British camp. DURRANCE sits outside his tent, bathed in firelight, watching some BEDU DANCERS performing for the BRITISH TROOPS. He seems far away, as if he's thinking about the day's kill. TRENCH's braying voice snaps him out of his reverie. + +treNCH +(Showing off his wound) +Look at this beauty... + +TRENCH sits down between DURRANCE, CASTELTON, and WILLOUGHBY. + +trench +(Playful) +It's true what they say. You haven't lived until you've been shot. + +CASTELTON +It's only a scratch. + +trench +You wouldn't understand. You haven't looked into the abyss. + +CASTELTON +Shut up Trench... + +DURRANCE joins in the laughter but he still seems far away. + +wiLLOUGHBY +(Noticing) +Are you alright, Jack? + +DURRANCE +(Smiling) +Couldn't be better. + +WILLOUGHBY sees the haunted look in his eyes, but doesn't say anything. A SEARGENT-MAJOR interrupts. + +seRGEANT-MAJOR +Lieutenant Durrance, Colonel Hamilton would like to see you in his tent, sir. + +trench +Poor Willoughby, they've passed you over. + +WILLOUGHBY grabs a handful of sand and throws it at TRENCH. DURRANCE gets up to see what HAMILTON wants. + +EXT. COLONEL HAMILTON's TENT/ BRITISH CAMP/ suakin - night. + +COLONEL HAMILTON sits at a fold-up table, eating his dinner by candlelight. He turns around as DURRANCE walks in. He wipes his face with his knapkin and gestures for DURRANCE to sit. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +...Congratulations, it seems you had another successful day. + +DURRANCE +(Too honest to accept the complement) +We killed one Dervish sniper, Sir. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +I'm giving you three weeks leave. + +DURRANCE looks surprised. + +DURRANCE +I really don't need, or deserve any leave. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +You certainly deserve it, every report I receive singles you out for praise. + +DURRANCE +With your permission, I'd like to stay here with the rest of the regiment. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +Permission refused. + +DURRANCE is too disciplined a soldier to protest. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +...Anyway the rest of the regiment is stuck here in Suakin until the Government agrees to send us to Khartoum... +(Containing his frustration) +You and several other Officers will be going to London, to convince parliament, and more importantly public opinion, that it is necessary to pursue this campaign with the utmost vigour. Do you have any questions? + +DURRANCE +Yes Sir, why me? + +HAMILTON pauses. Then almost mischievously: + +COLONEL HAMILTON +Because you're a hero. + +DURRANCE +With all due respect Sir, I don't think we've been fighting long enough to have any heroes in this campaign. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +That's my point. It's all about perception. + +DURRANCE sees there's no point discussing it further. He salutes and turns to leave. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +A question Lieutenant? + +DURRANCE +Yes Sir? + +COLONEL HAMILTON +What is it you like about this place? + +DURRANCE chooses his words carefully. + +DURRANCE +The freedom Sir. The fact that one is reduced to what one really is. + +COLONEL HAMILTON smiles softly, wondering if Durrance is insulting him, not giving a damn. + +EXT. desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +A searing white sun hangs over the desert. Somewhere amidst the rolling dunes and floating dust we see a caravan of camels, winding its way through the plateau. + +EXT. caravan/ desert between egypt and sudan - day. + +HARRY rides at the front of the caravan with GUSTAVE, a sun blackened french slave-driver. Behind them ride SAADI, his Dinka assistant, and three beautiful DINKA SLAVEGIRLS. + +gustave +...The British soldiers rent my girls off me for three dhirrams an hour. Well worth the trip to Suakin. + +HARRY smiles distractedly. His eyes are fixed on the majestic landscape before him, miles and miles of rolling desert. + +gustave +(Recognising the first time awe one feels for the desert) +Don't fall in love too quickly. Nothing turns on you like the sand. + +He looks back at the DINKA SLAVEGIRLS, who are whispering amongst themselves. + +gustave +Shut up!!... +(To Saadi) +Keep them quiet! What do I pay you for?! + +SAADI says something to the SLAVEGIRLS in their native Dinka tongue. From the deference in his voice it's clear the women are from a higher caste than him. + +EXT. desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +A breeze blows sand-drifts across the desert floor. As a veil of dust clears, HARRY sees the bones of a camel, forming a perfect skeleton on the floor. + +gustAVE +Bones are a good sign. We must be near a well. + +EXT. well/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +The skeletons lie thick around the well: six or seven men in Bedu Robes, sprawled within yards of the precious water. + +gustave +(As Harry stares at the bones) +What else is there to fight for in a desert. At least it makes sense of war. + +SAADI hoists some water up in a goatskin canteen. He offers the canteen to GUSTAVE. The French slave-driver is about to take a drink when he hears one of the DINKA SLAVEGIRLS murmuring in her native tongue. He wheels his camel around angrily. + +gUSTAVE +(To Saadi) +What did she say? + +Before SAADI can make an excuse for her, the DINKA SLAVEGIRL starts cursing in her native tongue, her eyes fixed on GUSTAVE. + +GUSTAVE lashes out with his whip. The SLAVEGIRL's camel rears, throwing her to the floor. GUSTAVE rides towards her, raising his whip, ready to beat her. + +HARRY's camel suddenly lurches between them. At first it looks like he's lost control of the animal, but as he steadies his mount, it becomes clear he's put himself in Gustave's way. + +GUSTAVE sneers. With inch perfect skill, he starts to circle HARRY, trying to get a clear view of the girl. With equal skill, HARRY twists his own camel round, keeping her blocked from him at every turn. + +GUSTAVE grows impatient. He raises his whip, threatening Harry. HARRY doesn't flinch. His eyes are fixed on Gustave the whole time. Finally GUSTAVE backs down, intimidated by the mysterious stranger. He stares at HARRY, half in anger, half in admiration. + +gustave +You ride well. + +With that he rides his camel back to the well. The DINKA SLAVEGIRL doesn't look at HARRY. She's too proud to acknowledge his help. + +INT. cave/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - night. + +A howling sandstorm blows outside the cave. The camels screech in the night, terrified by the wind. SAADI and the DINKA GIRLS shelter in the furthest corner of the cave. HARRY and GUSTAVE sit by a flickering fire. + +gUSTAVE +...What's your secret? Anyone who talks as little as you do must be hiding something? Did you kill a man? + +HARRY prods the fire, ignoring him. GUSTAVE turns around as he hears SAADI and one of the DINKA GIRLS whispering. + +guSTAVE +Taiser vouz! + +Silence. GUSTAVE turns back to HARRY, looking pleased with himself. + +guSTAVE +You have to break them. For their own good. They'll only be happy again when they forget what it's like to be free. +(He looks at Harry mischievously) +It's like a man who's been thrown over by a woman. At first he's defiant, then he's determined, but finally he longs to forget. + +HARRY gets up and walks to the other side of the cave. He hears GUSTAVE chuckling behind him. + +gUSTAVE +...Any secrets you have, the desert will find you out. + +EXT. PASS/ CLIFFS/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - night. + +A screaming gale howls through the desert pass. + +INT. cave/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - night. + +It isn't the storm that wakes HARRY up, but the sound of whispering. GUSTAVE is snoring by the fire. HARRY looks past him. He sees SAADI and the DINKA SLAVEGIRL he rescued earlier, lying in each other's arms, making love as quietly as they can. + +HARRY can't help staring. Their act seems to represent the ultimate defiance, he ultimate affirmation of their freedom. He feels a spark of hope in their hope. + +SAADI and the DINKA SLAVEGIRL finally come to rest in each other's arms. HARRY listens as they continue to whisper in their native tongue. He's about to close his eyes when suddenly the DINKA SLAVEGIRL gets up. + +HARRY watches curiously as she walks across the cave. She picks something off the floor. As she walks towards GUSTAVE HARRY suddenly sees that it's a sharp jagged rock. + +Before HARRY can say anything the girl falls to her knees and buries the rock deep into GUSTAVE's face. Almost simultaneously HARRY feels a sharp crack on the back of his head. He rolls away instinctively, but to no avail. + +The blows rain down. As he tries to protect his face, HARRY sees SAADI, holding a thick wooden club over him. The club hammers down, splitting Harry's fingers, tearing into his face, knocking any resistance out of him. + +As he stares up listlessly, HARRY sees SAADI standing over him, ready to finish him off. Suddenly a voice rings out, a woman's voice, calling Saadi off. HARRY's eyes drift away. + +INT. ARMY/NAVY CLUB - LONDON - day. + +We see ETHNE's face now, staring out. For a moment we think she's part of Harry's dream, but then the familiar noises of reality fade in, and we realise she's amongst a crowd of OFFICERS and JOURNALISTS, listening to DURRANCE lecturing about the Sudan: + +DURRANCE +(Aware she's in the audience) +...Each moment we delay, we imperil General Gordon's life. The Mahdi is concentrating all his forces on Khartoum. At most the garrison can hold out for a few more weeks... + +EXT. ARMY/NAVY CLUB - LONDON - day. + +DURRANCE stands at the club entrance with ETHNE and her friend, CAROLINE ADAIR. + +ETHNE +...Caroline read about your lecture in the Times. We're both very proud of you. + +DURRANCE +I'm glad you came. + +DURRANCE tries not to stare at ETHNE too hard. + +CAROLINE +...We have to be somewhere this afternoon, but if you're free this evening Lieutenant Durrance... + +DURRANCE +I'm afraid I have to give another talk. + +ETHNE +(Suddenly) +Would you mind if I didn't come with you Caroline? I don't know the Gilby's all that well... + +CAROLINE hesitates. We see the reluctance in her eyes, but she's far too dignified to show it. + +CAROLINE +You can do whatever you like, darling. + +EXT. LONDON/ STREET - day. + +DURRANCE and ETHNE walk along a crowded street. Passing WOMEN glance admiringly at DURRANCE in his uniform. + +ETHNE +That's six I've counted. + +DURRANCE +Six what? + +ETHNE +Six married women, gawping at you. + +DURRANCE smiles shyly, wondering if she's flirting with him. + +INT. tea shop/ LONDON - day. + +A tinkle of china and cutlery. ETHNE and DURRANCE sit in a tea shop. ETHNE can't help sending up the place. She dabs her lips with her napkin, pretending to be all prim and proper. + +DURRANCE +Do you want to go somewhere else? + +ETHNE +No, it's lovely here. I'm teasing. + +DURRANCE looks out of place in the surroundings, and nervous around ETHNE. + +ETHNE +(Trying to put him at ease) +I want to hear all about the desert? + +She leans towards him, like a child waiting to hear a tale. DURRANCE isn't sure if she's aware of the effect on him. + +DURRANCE +It grows on you. There's something about all that emptiness that concentrates the mind. + +ETHNE +(Looking into his eyes) +On what? + +DURRANCE +(He hesitates) +You spend a lot of time thinking about the people you miss -- especially at night -- You have the most vivid dreams, it's hard to believe they're not real... + +He stops as he sees the sadness in her eyes, reminded of the barrier between them. + +DURRANCE +Have you heard from Harry? + +ETHNE +(A beat) +No. Have you? + +DURRANCE +I went to see General Feversham. He refused to discuss it with me. + +ETHNE +I know they had a falling out. + +She tries to sound casual, but DURRANCE feels how much the thought of Harry still pains her. + +DURRANCE +(Testing her, almost in spite of himself) +He's one of the people I think about all the time. + +ETHNE +(Very deliberately) +I don't as much as I used to. +(Looking up at Durrance) +I certainly wasn't until you brought him up. + +There's a touch of reproach in her eyes, but also something flirtatious. It's as if she's forcing herself to put Durrance above Harry in her thoughts. + +ETHNE +When do you go back? + +DURRANCE +Friday. + +ETHNE +So soon? + +DURRANCE isn't sure how to read her disappointment. He feels conflicted about Harry, but he can't help being drawn to her. + +DURRANCE +(Awkwardly) +Are you sure I can't persuade you to stay in London a few more days? Listen to more of my boring lectures... + +ETHNE +I thought the talk was fascinating. + +DURRANCE +(Steeling himself) +I really would like to see you again before I leave. + +There's something touching about Durrance's shyness: a contradiction between the fearless warrior and the tentative lover. ETHNE feels torn, but she wills herself on: + +ETHNE +(Lightly, but acknowledging his invitation nevertheless) +You could always visit us in Bintree. + +She feels her eyes drifting away from him, but she forces herself to look back, and holds his gaze. + +INT. cave/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +HARRY opens his eyes painfully. His face is still battered and swollen from Saadi's beating. As he picks himself up he sees Gustave's body, lying exactly where the Dinka slavegirl killed him, the jagged rock still embedded in his face. HARRY looks away as he hears a camel whinnying outside. + +EXT. cave/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +The camel is tied by some rope to a jutting rock, a goatskin canteen slung over its back. HARRY realises the Dinka girl he rescued has left them for him. He looks over the horizon. There's no sign of the Dinkas, only the vast desert waste. + +EXT. DUNES/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +HARRY urges his camel up the steep slope of a crescent dune. His battered face is burnt raw by the sun, his skin covered in blisters. He looks out hopefully as his camel finally conquers the sandy peak, but all he sees in its place are miles and miles of rolling dunes. + +EXT. water trough/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +Harry's camel noses its way into a shallow water trough. HARRY almost drops off the animal in his haste to drink. He digs his hands into the mud and cups some of the precious liquid in his palms. It's only after he's drunk that he realises there are dozens of tics, stuck to his arms, and face. + +EXT. desert between EGYPT and sudan - night. + +HARRY shivers in the cold night air, partly from the wind, but also from the fever he's caught off the tics. Hands trembling, he burns the blood gorged insects off his arm with a glowing stick from the camp-fire. + +EXT. shingles/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +HARRY's camel rears as it treads over the searing shingles. He topples off. Eyes half shut, he grabs the reins, making sure the camel doesn't run off. He takes a knife from his pocket. + +harry +...I'm sorry, I'm sorry... + +He cuts a slash in the camel's hide and puts his mouth to it. He sucks up what little blood he can, and rolls the liquid around his mouth. + +EXT. desert between EGYPT and sudan - night. + +HARRY talks to himself in the dark. His face is all puffed up with fever, his hair chalked with dust. Above him the stars glimmer, promising another day of relentless sun. + +EXT. DESERT HILLS/ desert between EGYPT and sudan - day. + +HARRY lies unconscious on the camel's back, roped to the animal. The CAMEL noses it's way through the desert floor, coming across a few shrubs. It tears them out of the earth, and starts up the hill, in search of more nourishment. HARRY slides precariously down the camel's back. Only the ropes hold him tight. As the camel finally reaches the top we see a vast plateau open up before us. The earth is still desert brown, but there are patches of green now -- and somewhere in the distance, the sky is blackening with rain. + +EXT. STREETS OF SUAKIN/ SUDAN - night. + +A torrential downpour floods the narrow streets of Suakin. A group of excited BEGGAR BOYS lead HARRY and his camel through the rain swept alleyways. + +EXT. LOCAL HOTEL/ SUAKIN/ SUDAN - night. + +HARRY lies shivering on a bunk bed, overwhelmed by fever. An ARAB DOCTOR treats his ravaged skin with balm. Behind them the BEGGAR BOYS argue with the ARAB HOTELIER, demanding more money for bringing the foreigner here. + +ARAB DOCTOR +English? + +HARRY shakes his head no. + +EXT. marketplace/ STREETS OF SUAKIN/ SUDAN - day. + +Sunlight dries out the previous night's storm. HARRY wanders through the marketplace, wearing long Bedu robes now, limping from his desert ordeal. PASSERSBY pull away as they see his face, mistaking the open blisters for leprosy. + +EXT. RIVERBANK NEAR THE BRITISH CAMP/ SUAKIN/ SUDAN - day. + +A crocodile rears out of the water and tears a lump of meat off a hook. It disappears back under the surface, avoiding the trap. There's a cry of disappointment from the riverbank. A group of LOCAL CHILDREN are trying to catch the beast. TRENCH is their leader. CASTELTON smiles at his friend's antics. + +treNCH +...Don't give up lads. Give the old porker another whack. + +The BOYS have tied a pig to a stake, outside the water. They beat it with a paddle until it whines. Hearing the noise, the CROCODILE rears its head, and sweeps towards the remaining lump of meat on the hook. + +TRENCH and the BOYS swarm around the river expectantly. In their excitement they fail to notice the shrouded FIGURE watching them from the distance. It's HARRY, hidden beneath his Bedu robes. He gazes at his two friends longingly. Finally one of the BOYS sees him, and thinking he's a leper, starts throwing stones: + +sudanese boy +Imshi, imshi. + +The other BOYS join in, yelling insults. TRENCH and CASTELTON pay no attention. They have no idea who it is. + +HARRY steps back slowly, the pebbles landing at his feet, still gazing at his friends. He knows he doesn't have the courage to face them yet, that it's too soon. + +INT. HAMILTON's TENT/ BRITISH CAMP/ SUAKIN/ SUDAN - night. + +Colonel Hamilton's tent is lit in torchlight. Dozens of OFFICERS mill about, celebrating their orders to march on Khartoum. + +A MAJOR FROM ANOTHER REGIMENT +...It's hard to imagine anyone changing the Prime Minister's mind. + +COLONEL HAMILTON +Even he reads the papers. They told him if he didn't send us to Khartoum he'd be indicted for murder... + +There's laughter all around. Across the tent, DURRANCE stands on his own, feeling out of place. WILLOUGHBY arrives with two drinks. + +wILLOUGHBY +You're quite the hero tonight. + +DURRANCE +The Colonel seems to be taking a fair bit of credit. + +They smile as they watch COLONEL HAMILTON holding forth. + +wILLOUGHBY +So you had a good time in London? + +DURRANCE +Better than I thought. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Trying to make it sound casual) +Did you look up Harry? + +DURRANCE +(Hesitating) +Nobody knows where he is. + +wILLOUGHBY +Not even Ethne? + +DURRANCE +(A little put out) +Why should she? She's broken off their engagement. + +WILLOUGHBY notices the edge in his voice but doesn't say anything. DURRANCE feels a touch of guilt, surprised by his own jealous reaction. + +INT. HARRY's ROOM/ LOCAL HOTEL/ SUAKIN/ SUDAN - night. + +HARRY studies his face in the mirror: his blisters have dried into tough leathery skin, his eyes are hollow from recent hardships. He whispers to himself in broken Arabic, and dips his fingers into a dark, mud like substance. He applies it to his hair, his beard, and his teeth. + +EXT. COOLIES/ BRITISH CAMP/ SUAKIN - day. + +Long lines of DESERT AFRICANS have gathered outside the British camp, looking for work as coolies. There are Nuers, Dinkas, Somalis, Ethiopians, all of them wearing different clothes, and speaking different languages. Somewhere amongst them, we see HARRY, disguised in his Bedu robes. He's being examined by a BRITISH SEARGENT-MAJOR and an EGYPTIAN ORDERLY. + +BRITISH SEARGENT-MAJOR +Tell him to remove his shirt. + +HARRY waits for the ORDERLY to translate before he opens his robes. His body is lean and tanned and scarred. + +BRITISH SEARGENT-MAJOR +(Impressed by his physique) +This one's been in the wars. Let me see his teeth. + +Again HARRY waits for the Arabic translation before he opens his mouth. + +BRITISH SEARGENT-MAJOR +Good bones. Put him on the boats. + +HARRY is ushered off. As he walks away he hears an argument start up behind him. The EGYPTIAN ORDERLY is protesting to the SEARGENT MAJOR about hiring a fierce looking NUBIAN warrior. + +EGYPTIAN ORDERLY +...This man comes from a race of slaves. They have blood feuds with everyone. If you arm him it will mean trouble. None of the Egyptian soldiers will serve with him. + +The NUBIAN stares ahead in silence, expressionless. + +BRITISH OFFICER +Alright, put him on the boats. + +The NUBIAN falls into line, behind HARRY. + +EXT. DRILL AREA/ BRITISH CAMP/ SUAKIN - day. + +WILLOUGHBY barks orders at the EGYPTIAN RESERVES, drilling them before departure. DURRANCE, TRENCH, AND CASTELTON walk out of their tent, imitating him. + +EXT. COOLIES/ BRITISH CAMP/ SUAKIN - day. + +HARRY watches his friends from afar. He sits amongst the COOLIES, holding out his soup bowl, waiting to be fed. The NUBIAN squats opposite him. HARRY can't help staring at the long white ostrich feather in his hair. + +The EGYPTIAN ORDERLY arrives and pours a rancid looking gruel in HARRY's bowl. He turns to the NUBIAN. + +EGYPTIAN ORDERLY +(In Arabic) +Is this good enough for you slave? + +The NUBIAN ignores him. The ORDERLY spits in the gruel before handing it to him. The NUBIAN takes it, and calmly downs it in one. The ORDERLY moves on in disgust. The NUBIAN looks at HARRY. HARRY braces himself and swallows the stew. + +EXT. CATARACTS of the nile/ sudan - day. + +A heavy current rushes through the waters of the Nile. The cataracts are full of treachorous rocks, jutting out in all shapes and sizes. HARRY is force-marched with the other COOLIES, prodded on by the EGYPTIAN OVERSEERS. They drag the British supply boats through the cataract by hand, pulling on huge hemp ropes. + +In front of HARRY, the NUBIAN is being singled out for punishment. The EGYPTIAN ORDERLY lashes him repeatedly. The NUBIAN keeps pulling, ignoring the stinging pain. He looks back at the ORDERLY as if to say; "Is that all you've got?" + +EXT. SUPPLY BOAT/ CATARACTS of the nile/ sudan - day. + +A supply boat rushes down a steep incline in the river. TRENCH yells at the top of his voice as the spray hits his face. CASTELTON stands beside him, staring at the banks of the Nile, watching the hundreds of COOLIES, dragging their boat through the cataracts. + +EXT. COOLIE CAMP/ CATARACTS of the nile/ sudan - night. + +Drum beats fill the night sky. The reflection of the coolies' camp-fires glistens over the black water. Some are singing, others praying, but most lie fast asleep. HARRY sits on his own, warming himself by a fire, his body wracked with pain. As he reflects he hears the gentle tread of feet. He looks up to see the NUBIAN staring at him. The man squats down beside his campfire without asking. + +nubian (Abou fatma) +(In English) +My name is Abou Fatma. + +haRRY +(Shaking his head as if he doesn't understand) +Bedu. + +ABOU FATMA +I was a scout for General Hicks. + +harry +Arabi -- + +ABU FATMA suddenly launches into a flurry of fluent Arabic. HARRY stares at him in silence, unable to respond. + +ABOU FATMA +There are many in this camp who would serve the Mahdi. When they find out there is a British spy amongst them, watching them, they will kill him. +(Quietly mocking) +It won't be long, Bedu. + +He turns to leave. HARRY hesitates, then: + +harry +Shoukran. + +ABOU FATMA +(Correcting his Arabic) +Shoukhran. + +Their eyes stay on each other a moment. + +harry +(Finally speaking in English) +Why do you warn me? + +ABOU FATMA +For money. + +harry +I can't pay you. + +ABOU FATMA +I can't help you. + +HARRY smiles. He gazes at the mercenaries's powerful features, and the long white feather in his hair. + +harrY +What's the feather for? + +ABOU FATMA +The first time I killed a man. +(Pointing to a feather earring in his left ear) +Five men. +(and an ivory bracelet on his wrist) +Ten men. +(He takes a beaded necklace out of his pocket) +This I will wear soon. I'm a good soldier. I will protect you. + +HARRY stares at him a moment, then takes out a small box from his pocket. He shows ABOU FATMA the four white feathers inside. ABOU FATMA looks at them, unaware of the irony in Harry's gesture, thinking he's saying he doesn't need help. + +ABOU FATMA +(Gesturing to the welts on Harry's body) +Underneath the flesh is white, and weak. Even if the Mahdi's men don't find you out, the whips will. + +harry +I'll pay you one shilling a day. + +ABOU FATMA +No. + +ABOU FATMA gets up, and walks away. HARRY can't help smiling as he stares after him. + +EXT. COOLIE CAMP/ CATARACTS of the nile/ sudan - day. + +Screams of agony fill the air. The EGYPTIAN ORDERLY lies in a pool of blood, his belly sliced open, holding his guts in his hands. + +HARRY stands amongst the gathered crowd, watching horrified, as a BRITISH OFFICER kneels beside the dying man. + +BRITISH OFFICER +Who did this to you? Who did this? + +The EGYPTIAN ORDERLY tries to speak, but all that comes out of his mouth is a froth of blood. His tongue has been cut out. HARRY looks around the crowd until he sees ABOU FATMA. The Nubian's eyes are expressionless. Around his neck he wears the beaded necklace now. + +EXT. CATARACTS of the nile/ sudan - day. + +The white sails of the British supply boats float through the hazy water. On the riverbank HARRY and the hundreds of other COOLIES drag them along. The OVERSEERS glance at ABOU FATMA warily, but none of them dare raise a whip to him now. + +INT. DURRANCE's tent/ BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - day. + +We can still hear the noise of the coolies outside. DURRANCE sits at a table, writing a letter. We glimpse the words: 'Dearest Ethne...' He stops as he hears a commotion outside. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - day. + +DURRANCE walks out of the tent. In the distance he sees a handful of ragged looking BRITISH OFFICERS being helped off their camels. As he stares more closely DURRANCE notices that many of them have terrible wounds. Those that can still walk are lead off to the commander's tent. + +EXT. general wolsey's tent/ BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - day. + +GENERAL WOLSEY and COLONEL HAMILTON are bent over a map of the Nile, discussing their progress with their AIDE-DE-CAMPS. WILLOUGHBY looks up as he hears the WOUNDED OFFICERS being led into the tent. He stops as he sees the terrible state they're in. Even WOLSEY and HAMILTON look shocked. + +GENERAL WOLSELEY +(Slowly rising, saluting) +What is it? + +WOUNDED CAPTAIN +A letter, sir... from General Gordon. + +WILLOUGHBY notices one of the WOUNDED OFFICERS has tears in his eyes. + +GENERAL WOLSELEY +What happened to you? + +WOUNDED CAPTAIN +We were ambushed, Sir. More than half our company were killed. + +GENERAL WOLSELEY +See that these men are tended to. + +AIDE-DE-CAMP +Yes, sir. + +The WOUNDED OFFICERS are led out. WILLOUGHBY, like all the other Aide-de-Camps, looks dazed. GENERAL WOLSEY opens General Gordon's letter, and reads in silence. + +GENERAL WOLSELEY +(Finally looking up at Colonel Hamilton) +Gordon says he can only hold out for forty more days. It took eleven for these men to get here. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - night. + +DURRANCE, WILLOUGHBY, CASTELTON, and TRENCH sit around a camp fire, trying to ignore the hideous cries of the wounded British soldiers coming from the hospital tent. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Recounting what he's heard) +...Wolsey's going to split the force. A River Column's going to continue down the Nile, whilst a Desert Column joins up with regiment at Abou Clea, and makes a dash for Khartoum. + +The piercing screams start up again. + +trench +Don't tell me, we've drawn the short straw. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - day. + +Silence hangs over the British camp. The COOLIES are lined up under the scorching sun. The EGYPTIAN OVERSEERS walk past them, selecting some for the desert march, others for the river march. HARRY stands next to ABOU FATMA. Across the camp he can see DURRANCE, TRENCH, CASTELTON, and WILLOUGHBY, preparing their camels for the overland trek. + +haRRY +(Whispering to Abou Fatma) +I need to travel with the desert detachment. + +ABOU FATMA +Two Shillings. + +HARRY nods. The EGYPTIAN OVERSEER finally reaches them. + +EGYPTIAN OVERSEER +(To Abou Fatma, in Arabic) +We'll keep you on the river. + +ABOU FATMA +(A calm, menacing look in his eyes) +With you? + +The EGYPTIAN OVERSEER hesitates, remembering what happened to his friend: + +EGYPTIAN OVERSEER +(Gesturing to the desert column instead) +Over there. + +HARRY falls into line behind ABOU FATMA. The EGYPTIAN OVERSEER doesn't seem to care. He's too relieved to be rid of the Nubian. + +EXT. DESERT COLUMN/ BRITISH CAMP/ CATARACTS - day. + +The Desert Column has assembled, fourteen hundred strong. + +SERGEANt at arms +Column... FOR-WARD... march! + +DURRANCE, TRENCH, CASTELTON, and WILLOUGHBY, ride off at the head of the column. Behind them, the COOLIES carry heavy loads, HARRY and ABOU FATMA bringing up the rear. + +EXT. DESERT lanscape/ sudan - day. + +A region of jutting cliffs and giant rock formations. The Desert column rides through a narrow pass. DURRANCE's eyes are fixed on the ridges above them, any one of which could be hiding a Dervish sniper or scout. + +At the back of the column, HARRY's equally alert. He looks across the cliff walls. Suddenly he notices one of the COOLIES in front of him, listening intently to a high pitched whine coming from a nearby gorge. + +HARRY studies the man. He's a powerfully built NUER TRIBESMAN, yellow streaks running down his long black hair. Every time he hears the distinctive noise, he looks up, concentrating. HARRY edges closer to ABOU FATMA: + +harry +(Indicating the whining) +Do you recognise that sound? + +ABOU FATMA +Mountain goats. + +HARRY doesn't look convinced. He stares at the NUER TRIBESMAN, walking ahead of them, glancing up from his heavy load every time he hears the distinctive cry. + +EXT. OPEN DESERT/ sudan - day. + +The wind blows gusts of sand into the camels' eyes. DURRANCE stares through the shimmering heatwaves. + +DURRANCE +There's a sandstorm coming. + +COLONEL HAMILTON looks at the clear blue sky, seeing nothing to indicate a storm, but trusting Durrance's instincts. + +EXT. DESERT CAMP - night. + +HARRY and the other COOLIES gather sticks and desert shrubs, building a makeshift wall around the camp. The wind has picked up, blowing thick gusts of sand in their faces. As they work in the darkness and the dust, HARRY hears the whining sound he heard earlier. It's quieter now, but closer. ABOU FATMA hears it too. + +harry +It's coming from inside the camp. + +They look around, but the dust obscures everything. The whining starts up again. HARRY concentrates until he thinks he knows where it's coming from. He checks to make sure the ORDERLIES aren't watching them, and then signals for ABOU FATMA to follow him. + +EXT. EDGE OF THE DESERT CAMP - night. + +Through the drifting clouds of sand we see a FIGURE crouching near the camp perimeter. It's the NUER TRIBESMAN Harry noticed earlier. Every time the wind picks up he calls out to the surrounding cliffs in a high piched whine. + +HARRY and ABOU FATMA watch him from behind a wagon. ABOU FATMA draws a knife from his boot. + +haRRY +We need to find out who he's signalling. + +ABOU FATMA replaces the knife reluctantly, and points to a makeshift corrall where the camels are gathered. + +INT. TENT/ DESERT CAMP - night. + +The tent flaps blow in the storm. TRENCH, CASTELTON, and WILLOUGHBY shelter inside, sharing a bottle of whisky. DURRANCE sits apart from the others, reading a letter. + +treNCH +Is that the same letter you read over and over again, or do you get a different one each day? + +DURRANCE +(He can't help a smile) +It's the same one, but it's twenty pages long. + +wILLOUGHBY +He writes them to himself. Go on Jack, read us a line. + +DURRANCE +Read your own. + +trench +Don't be so coy, you're amongst friends. + +Grins all around. DURRANCE looks at letter and tempts them with a single line: + +DURRANCE +"...I often think about our walks by the river..." + +He stops enigmatically to a chorus of protest: + +tRENCH +More, more... + +DURRANCE hesitates, reluctant to break the confidence of a letter, but anxious to broach the subject with his friends. + +DURRANCE +(Reading more quietly) +"...Your letter surprised and delighted me...If I appear indecisive it's because I'm thinking of both of us...In the meantime I hope the length of my reply gives you some assurance of how very much I care about you..." + +DURRANCE lowers the letter and looks at his friends. + +treNCH +So who's the lucky lady? + +DURRANCE +(After a moment) +Ethne...I've asked her to marry me...You probably gathered that from the letter. + +There's a long silence. Astonishment. Then suddenly TRENCH raises his glass and roars. + +treNCH +Congratulations. + +wILLOUGHBY +That's fantastic Jack. + +DURRANCE +She hasn't said yes. + +trench +Of course she will: "I hope the length of this reply gives you some idea of how much I bloody love you." + +DURRANCE +"How much I care about you." + +treNCH +Same thing. + +TRENCH fills his glass to the brim. DURRANCE laughs, relieved that his friends have taken it so well. It's only as he drinks that he catches a hint of disapproval in CASTELTON's eyes. CASTELTON raises his glass, trying to hide his feelings, but DURRANCE sees through him. The moment is interrupted by loud shouting outside: + +BRITISH CORPORAL o/s +...Something's up with the camels. + +CASTELTON +I'll go. + +CASTELTON looks relieved to leave the tent, worried that his conflicting emotions will betray him. DURRANCE stares after him, not entirely free of the memory of Harry himself. + +EXT. DESERT CAMP - night. + +CASTELTON follows the CORPORAL through the windswept camp. Up ahead they can hear the camels screeching. CASTELTON covers his eyes from the dust. Suddenly he sees the silhouettes of two RIDERS, charging out of the corral. One of them stops and stares at him momentarily. + +CASTELTON +(He can't see the man's face clearly, but his outline seems hauntingly familiar) +Harry? + +The RIDER turns and charges out of the camp. The CORPORAL blows a whistle, reaching for his gun, firing after them. CASTELTON stares at the disappearing figures, wondering if what he saw was real, or a figment of his troubled conscience. + +EXT. HILLS ABOVE THE DESERT CAMP - night. + +HARRY and ABOU FATMA ride up a steep hill, shots ringing out behind them. + +EXT. RIDGE ABOVE THE DESERT CAMP - night. + +As the sands sweep past we see the Mahdi's scouts for the first time: four NUER TRIBESMEN, standing on a ridge, looking down on the British campfires below. As they hear the shots, they turn away from the cliffside, and mount their camels. + +EXT. VIEW FROM A CLIFF/ DESERT - day. + +The sand storm is still blowing, obscuring the sun. In the distance, the tiny figures of the NUER SCOUTS, can be seen riding across the arid sandscape. HARRY and ABOU FATMA watch them from the cliffs, and set off in pursuit. + +EXT. ridge/ VIEW on NUER's campfire/ DESERT - night. + +The Nuer's camp-fire glows far below on the valley floor. HARRY and ABOU FATMA have built their own fire in a crevice on the cliff wall, hidden from view. HARRY's eyes are fixed on the Nuer scouts, ABOU FATMA's are fixed on him. + +ABOU FATMA +Why would a British spy be hiding from his own people? + +HARRY looks up at the Nubian, realising he can't keep up the pretence any longer. + +hARRY +Because I'm not a spy. + +ABOU FATMA +You're a deserter? + +harry +(A long pause) +Something like that. I was sent to fight, and I ran away. + +ABOU FATMA considers this for a moment. + +ABOU FATMA +All soldiers run away. Only the good ones return. + +HARRY smiles. + +harry +Shoukran. + +ABOU FATMA +Shoukhran. + +HARRY looks away. Down below the Nuer's camp fire goes out. + +EXT. OPEN DESERT - night. + +The moonlight colors the dunes in blues and greens. HARRY and ABOU FATMA follow the Nuers' tracks through the virgin sands. + +EXT. crest of A hill/ OPEN DESERT - day. + +The sunrise casts a blood red light over the horizon. The four NUER SCOUTS appear on the crest of a hill. We see them clearly now, their long black hair streaked yellow, their faces painted ghostly white. They survey the land beneath them and gallop off. + +EXT. THE same HILL/ desert - day. + +ABOU FATMA and HARRY walk their camels quietly up the hill, following the Nuers' hoofprints. As they reach the top of the dune a vast plateau opens up beneath them. They see the NUER SCOUTS, riding along a winding trade route. At the end of the desert road stands a huge fortress. + +ABOU FATMA +That is Abou Clea. A British fort. + +HARRY stares after the Nuer scouts, wondering why they're heading back into a British stronghold. The four riders merge into one of the caravans that dot the landscape. + +EXT. CARAVAN/ TRADE ROUTE TO ABOU CLEA - day. + +A long line of DINKA REFUGEES walk alongside one of caravans, begging for food. HARRY and ABOU FATMA ride near the back, their faces hidden by their Djellabas. + +EXT. FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +A village of tents has spread around the fortress walls. More STARVING REFUGEES clamour at the gates. HARRY gazes up at the garrison walls. BRITISH SENTRIES can be glimpsed high up. The fortress gates creak open to let the caravan through. HARRY lowers his eyes as he rides past the guards. + +EXT. courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +As he looks up again, HARRY suddenly feels a rush of panic. The fortress courtyard is filled with DERVISH WARRIORS. There are no British faces anywhere. HARRY glimpses a familiar red uniform, but as he stares more closely, his relief turns to horror. The British uniform is stained with blood. Wearing it is a fierce looking DERVISH WARRIOR with long braided hair. + +HARRY looks back at the ramparts. All the soldiers he thought were British sentries are in fact Dervish warriors, wearing the bloody uniforms of their victims. As he turns around, HARRY sees the worst sight of all. Hanging from scaffolds, are the chalk white bodies of the real British soldiers. + +HARRY is shaken out of his horror by a sharp hissing sound. ABOU FATMA glares at him to keep calm. DERVISH WARRIORS grab hold of their camels, and lead them with the rest of the caravan towards the stables. + +INT. stables/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +HARRY and ABOU FATMA tether their camels. Behind them the DERVISH WARRIORS unload the caravan's shipment of rifles. + +ABOU FATMA +(Whispering to Harry) +Follow me out. + +HARRY nods, still in shock. ABOU FATMA turns around and heads out of the stables, unchallenged. + +EXT. courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +HARRY follows ABOU FATMA through the crowded courtyard. His eyes are drawn to the torchlit faces all around him. The Mahdi's army is made up of dozens of different tribes: some in glowing war paint, others marked with ritual scars, wearing the dried viscera of their victims around their necks. The Dervishes' eyes seem to follow HARRY wherever he goes, staring out at him through their slit Djellabas. Suddenly HARRY feels a pair of hands grab him. He wheels around to see a huge DERVISH CAPTAIN towering over him. + +DERVISH CAPTAIN +(In Arabic, studying Harry's features) +Come with me. + +ABOU FATMA +(In Arabic) +Our caravan is waiting outside. + +DERVISH CAPTAIN +(Waving Abou Fatma away) +Imshi! + +ABOU FATMA murmurs something to HARRY in his native Nubian tongue, slipping in the English words: 'I'll find you.' + +DERVISH CAPTAIN +(To Harry, in Arabic) +Follow me! + +EXT. gallows/ courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +HARRY's heart is pounding as he walks back through the hellish courtyard. He isn't sure if the DERVISH CAPTAIN has realised he's British. It's only as he points HARRY towards the gallows that he realises the predicament he's in. + +DERVISH CAPTAIN +(In Arabic; gesturing to a mound of British dead) +Over there. + +HARRY hesitates, then walks over to the pile of British corpses, convinced he's going to be shot amongst them. + +DERVISH CAPTAIN +(In Arabic; gesturing to the uniforms) +Find one that fits. + +HARRY stares at him, then slowly begins to understand. He's been picked out as a pale looking Arab, one that might pass as a British officer from a distance. As he looks around he sees other DESERT ARABS, grinning at him, wearing their own blood stained British uniforms. + +HARRY kneels beside the slaughtered British soldiers. One of them still has his pipe stuffed between his teeth. As HARRY stares at the obscenity, his fear slowly turns to anger. With trembling fingers he unbuttons the dead man's jacket. As he slips the bloodstained British uniform over his shoulders we begin to see the change in his eyes. + +EXT. ABOU FATMA/ courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +ABOU FATMA wanders amongst the Dervish army, begging for alms, searching for Harry. Finally he spots him at the far end of the courtyard, sitting amongst the other DERVISH WARRIORS IN BRITISH UNIFORMS. + +EXT. HARRY/ courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +ABOU FATMA grovels at the feet of the DERVISHES, before he approaches HARRY. + +ABOU FATMA +(In Arabic) +Alms for the poor. + +HARRY turns around. His eyes are distant. He looks back at the spot he was staring at before. At first ABOU FATMA thinks he's in shock, but then he sees what HARRY's looking at. Across the courtyard stands a large tent, surrounded by flags. Waiting outside, are the four NUER SCOUTS. + +ABOU FATMA +(Beginning to see his intent) +We have to leave. + +harry +Wait for me at the gates. +(As Abou Fatma starts to protest) +Imshi. + +The other DERVISHES look at ABOU FATMA threateningly. ABOU FATMA gets up and walks away reluctantly. Across the courtyard, the NUER SPIES have been ushered into the tent. + +INT. WAR COUNCIL tent/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +The MAHDI, a tall, gaunt, warrior in desert robes, listens to the NUER SCOUTS in silence. As they notify him of the British advance, he starts to draw a battle plan on the tent's sandy floor. His LIEUTENANTS move closer to see what he's planning. + +INT. WAR COUNCIL tent/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +Outside the tent more DERVISH WARRIORS have gathered to catch a glimpse of their revered leader. HARRY is amongst them. He stares at the white clad figures within. Suddenly he feels a pair of eyes on him. He turns to see the DERVISH CAPTAIN who stopped him earlier, watching him intently. HARRY moves off. The DERVISH CAPTAIN stares after him suspiciously. + +EXT. gates/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +ABOU FATMA waits anxiously outside the fortress gates. The hordes of STARVING BEGGARS are pushed back as a troop of DERVISH WARRIORS ride out, carrying the naked bodies of the British dead. ABOU FATMA stares after them, wondering what's going on. + +EXT. HARRY/ courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +HARRY looks behind him. Through the milling crowd he sees the DERVISH CAPTAIN, still following him. His heart pounding, HARRY heads towards the stables, trying to give him the slip. + +EXT. HARRY/ STABLES/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +Camels kick and snort in the stable. HARRY crouches down. Through the animals' legs he sees the DERVISH CAPTAIN enter. + +Suddenly the DERVISH CAPTAIN shouts at the top of his voice. The camels scatter, leaving HARRY exposed. The DERVISH CAPTAIN stares at him menacingly. + +HARRY bows, and starts to walk towards him, in supplication. His hand slips behind his back, groping for the knife that's hidden there. + +The DERVISH CAPTAIN barks at him to stay where he is. As he steps backwards, HARRY suddenly charges, and drives the dagger deep into his gut. The DERVISH CAPTAIN screams, but all that comes out is a terrible hissing sound. + +HARRY clamps his hand over the CAPTAIN's mouth and bends his head backwards. As they tumble to the ground, HARRY twists the knife in deeper. The Dervish bites down in agony, drawing a stream of blood from Harry's knuckles. HARRY rams his fist deeper into the man's throat, choking him slowly. Meanwhile his knife hand tears its way out of the Dervish's gut, and plunges back into his thigh. + +The CAPTAIN's eyes water in pain and fear. HARRY stares at him, crushing his spirit with his own unflinching gaze. As he feels the man's grip weaken, he pulls away sharply, and swings the knife down with all his force. The blade sticks in the DERVISH CAPTAIN's chest, sending his eyes spinning out of focus, forcing a rush of blood out of his mouth. + +HARRY watches in horror, as the man's eyes roll around, desperately trying to find their focus, then stop still. He feels his enemy's dying breath on his face, and hears a horrible sucking sound, as he withdraws the knife. + +HARRY's arm is elbow deep in gore. He turns away and tries to retch, but nothing comes out. He stays like that for a moment, bent over the bloody sand, contemplating what he's just done. Finally he gathers himself, grabs the dead man by the ankles, and drags him further into the stable. + +EXT. courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +HARRY brushes past the crowds of DERVISH WARRIORS, his eyes fixed on the fortress gates ahead. He's only a few yards away, when a DERVISH SENTRY calls out: + +DERVISH SENTRY +(In Arabic) +The gates are closed. + +HARRY stares at him dangerously. For an instant it looks like another fight may ensue, but then a calming voice calls out: + +ABOU FATMA +(In Arabic) +Let him give us alms. It will bring you both fortune in battle. + +ABOU FATMA sticks his hands through the fortress gates, along with the hundreds of other BEGGARS outside. HARRY begins to understand. He pulls out some coins from his robes, and approaches the BEGGARS. + +harry +(Whispering to Abou Fatma, as he hands out alms) +Go to the British camp. Tell them they're going to be ambushed. Tell them they have to change their route. It's a trap... + +ABOU FATMA stares into HARRY's eyes, seeing the change that's come over them. + +EXT. BRITISH COLUMN/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +DURRANCE rides at the front of the column. He suddenly stops, and stares ahead in horror. All across the desert floor he sees the marble white bodies of dead British soldiers. Wild dogs chew at their remains. The whole of the column seems frozen for a moment. Then TRENCH suddenly breaks rank, and charges the animals, screaming at the top of his voice, dispersing them with his whip. + +EXT. tents/ THE SLOPE OF A HILL/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +The column has set up camp until their dead comrades are buried. The OFFICERS dig the graves themselves, watched by the COOLIES now. A CORPORAL approaches WILLOUGHBY and salutes. + +CORPORAL +A native to see you, sir. He says he has some intelligence regarding the route we're on. + +ABOU FATMA is pushed forward by the EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Eyeing him suspiciously) +What intelligence? + +ABOU FATMA +You must leave this area. + +The EGYPTIAN silences him with a slap to the head. + +EGYPTIAN CORPORAL +This man is lying. He's a deserter. He stole the camels -- + +ABOU FATMA +-- I went to Abu Klea. The Mahdi's forces have captured your garrison. They will attack you in this place. + +TRENCH and DURRANCE have arrived to see what's happening. TRENCH stares at ABOU FATMA menacingly, still seething over the treatment of the British dead. + +wILLOUGHBY +(To Trench and Durrance) +This is their idea of misinformation. +(Toying with Abou Fatma) +Who told you this? + +ABOU FATMA +A British Officer. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Mockingly) +A General no doubt. What else did he tell you? + +ABOU FATMA +(With equal disdain) +That you wouldn't believe me. + +WILLOUGHBY smiles at the Nubian's gall, but TRENCH explodes at his insolence. + +trench +(Grabbing Abou Fatma by the neck) +I'll show you a British Officer... +(Forcing him on his knees in front of one of the butchered corpses) +This is a British Officer!... +(Rubbing Abou Fatma's face into a patch of bloodstained sand) +This is a British officer's blood. Lick it up! Every bloody drop!... + +The NUBIAN spins around, ready to strike. TRENCH draws his knife, daring him to make a move. + +ABOU FATMA +(Controlling his anger) +The Muslims bury their dead. Even the enemy dead. These bodies have been left here for a reason. To keep you here. To hold you up. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Ignoring him) +Take him away. Find out why he was sent here. Do whatever you have to do. + +The SOLDIERS disperse. Only DURRANCE stays where he is, thinking about the Nubian's warning. + +EXT. courtyard/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - day. + +A chant of 'Allah Akbar' rises over the fortress walls. Hundreds of WARRIORS kneel and pray in unison. HARRY does the same. + +EXT. tent/ BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +ABOU FATMA is on his knees, manacled to a tent pole. + +EGYPTIAN CORPORAL +(In Arabic) +...You work for the Mahdi! + +ABOU FATMA +(In English) +I fought the Mahdi... + +The EGYPTIAN lashes him with a bull-whip. + +EGYPTIAN CORPORAL +(In Arabic) +...Who sent you?! + +ABOU FATMA +A British Officer. + +The EGYPTIAN starts whipping Abou Fatma again, ready to kill him. DURRANCE finally intervenes. + +DURRANCE +That's enough... + +He kneels down beside ABOU FATMA, staring into his eyes. ABOU FATMA sees no mercy in his gaze, but at least there's a glimmer of curiosity. + +DURRANCE +Why would you want to help us? + +ABOU FATMA +The Mahdi is allied with slave traders... +(pause) +My family were taken prisoners and sold as slaves. + +DURRANCE considers Abou Fatma's answer. There's something about it that has a ring of truth. DURRANCE glances at the BRITISH SOLDIERS, digging graves in the open desert, and then stares up at the surrounding hills. + +EXT. gates/ FORTRESS OF ABOU CLEA - night. + +Through the clouds of dust we see the first of the Mahdi's army riding out -- ghostly DINKA WARRIORS, naked from head to foot, caked in white ash. Behind then come the NUERS, long streaked hair trailing in the wind, faces painted the colors of a nightmare. The HADENDOA spearmen follow, blood-stained feathers in their hair, banging on their calf skin drums. Last of all come the DERVISH RIDERS IN THEIR BLOODSTAINED BRITISH UNIFORMS. HARRY rides at the heart of the demonic troop, his eyes filled with dread. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +DURRANCE surveys the surrounding hills. CASTELTON watches him curiously. + +CASTELTON +What is it Jack? + +DURRANCE's eyes stare at the horizon, still not sure. + +EXT. HILLS beyond ABOU CLEA - day. + +At a signal from the MAHDI, his army splits in two, some following the green flags, others the black. HARRY and the DERVISH RIDERS IN BRITISH UNIFORMS are told to wait. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +WILLOUGHBY and TRENCH join CASTELTON and DURRANCE at the edge of the camp. DURRANCE is still staring at the ridges above them. As they listen, they can just make out a distant rumble of thunder. DURRANCE looks up. The sky is perfectly blue. + +DURRANCE +We'd better get the Gatling gun out. + +EXT. HILLS ABOVE THE BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +NUER SCOUTS, daubed in yellow camouflage, appear out of the rocks. + +INT. CASTELTON's TENT/ BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +CASTELTON walks into his tent and searches through his belongings. He finds one of his bibles, kisses it for luck, and slips it in his jacket pocket. As he turns around he sees TRENCH grinning at him. + +trench +You haven't got a spare one have you vicar? + +EXT. SLOPE OF A HILL/ DESERT - day. + +Through thick gusts of sand we see hundreds of bare feet and horses' hooves moving up the desert slope. The sand at their feet pours back down the slope like an avalanche. + +EXT. DURRANCE's POV/ CREST OF the HILL/ DESERT - day. + +As DURRANCE gazes up, the first of the Mahdi's army appear on the crest of the hill, a handful of SCOUTS, riding back and forth, judging the British numbers. As the SCOUTS disappear, a curtain of dust rises up behind them. As it settles, DURRANCE sees thousands of figures appear along the length of the hill, their green banners fluttering in the wind. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +Across the camp, CASTELTON and TRENCH stare mesmerised, as another huge army appears on the opposite hill. This time their banners are black. Panicked voices ring out. + +officers' voices +Form a square...Form a square... + +EXT. CREST OF the HILL/ view of the british camp - day. + +The Mahdi's armies stare down from the wind whipped slopes, thousands of expressionless faces, listening to the British bugles shrilling down below. From above we see the British fighting square taking shape: red and khaki colors separating into units, the bright blue of the Egyptian uniforms forming a larger wall around the perimeter. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +The GRENADIER GUARDS are crouched in formation, rifles ready. TRENCH changes position, asking one of the other SOLDIERS to swap with him, settling down next to CASTELTON. + +trench +You can't get rid of me that easily. + +CASTELTON's fear seems to vanish in an instant. + +EXT. GREEN FLAGGED ARMY/ CREST OF the HILL - day. + +A cry of Allah Akbar is picked up by thousands all along the ridge, turning into a deafening roar as the Green flagged Army finally charges. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +DURRANCE moves along the lines of RIFLEMEN, barking intructions over the wind. + +DURRANCE +Fire at the horses. Fire at will. + +A volley of shots answers his call. + +EXT. GREEN FLAGGED ARMY/ slope OF the HILL - day. + +Enemy horses and riders collapse, sliding down the slopes. + +EXT. DESERT VALLEY - day. + +The British camp is shrouded in gunsmoke, flashes of orange light bursting through, the Gatling gun wreaking havoc. + +EXT. GREEN FLAGGED ARMY/ FOOT OF THE HILL - day. + +Through the sand drifts, we see the camels' hooves rearing up, bursts of arterial blood as the bullets tear into their hide. The HADENDOA SPEARMEN leap over the walls of torn flesh, and charge the British lines in a suicidal frenzy. + +EXT. CASTELTON/ BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +CASTELTON aims at the PAINTED WARRIORS. Every time he fires, someone falls. Every time he kills, he murmurs a prayer. TRENCH bites his lip so hard, his mouth fills with blood. He spits it out as he drops yet another man. + +EXT. BLACK FLAGGED ARMY/ FOOT OF THE HILL - day. + +The DERVISH HORDES keep coming, clambering over the bodies of their dead. + +EXT. HARRY/ ENTRANCE TO THE VALLEY - day. + +Far away, at the entrance to the valley, HARRY can hear the screams of the wounded and dying. Even the DERVISH WARRIORS seem apprehensive. Only the MAHDI is calm, waiting for his moment. He raises his hand, and signals for the horsemen in British uniforms to charge. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +Enemy bullets crackle past DURRANCE's head, but he doesn't seem to notice. Through the smoke and dust he sees hundreds of enemy dead, lying in blood smeared heaps. The Dervish onslaught is less sustained now. The occasional STRAGGLER appears out of the haze and is blown away by a burst of gunfire. Suddenly DURRANCE hears the sound of a bugle. + +EXT. CASTELTON/ BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +CASTELTON and TRENCH hear the bugle too. They stop firing as they see the remnants of the black flagged army retreating into the hills. There's a moments confusion and then a roar of celebration around the camp as the SOLDIERS see a troop of BRITISH CAVALRY, riding out of the sand clouds towards them. + +EXT. HARRY/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +HARRY stares in horror as he sees the BRITISH SOLDIERS, breaking rank, waving at the charging RIDERS, thinking they're British cavalry. HARRY kicks his horse and tries to weave his way out of the charging horde. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +The BRITISH SOLDIERS gather at the camp perimeter to welcome the approaching cavalry. + +EXT. HARRY/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +HARRY charges through the red uniformed Dervish ranks, ignoring orders to stay in line. At a signal from one of the DERVISH LIEUTENANTS, the horsemen raise their bows. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ BRITISH CAMP - day. + +DURRANCE stares curiously as a flicker of sunlight streaks across the heads of the distant riders. He watches the approaching dust cloud, wondering why it's coming at them so fast. Slowly he begins to make out the first figures. Something about them isn't right. Their uniforms hang too loosely. They ride too far apart. He reaches for his gun. + +EXT. HARRY/ DESERT VALLEY - day. + +HARRY breaks through the Dervish line. Behind him he hears the mounted ARCHERS stringing their bows. He drives his horse forwards, towards a lone BRITISH SOLDIER, standing on the camp perimeter. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ BRITISH CAMP - day. + +DURRANCE sees the lone rider, charging towards him, yelling at the top of his voice. He can't see the man's face or hear his voice, but he's convinced these riders are the enemy now. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ BRITISH CAMP - day. + +HARRY sees DURRANCE aiming his rifle, a moment too late. The gunshot sends his horse spinning to the ground. He feels the weight of the animal pin him down. As he looks up he sees the DERVISH RIDERS riding over him, letting their arrows fly. + +EXT. BRITISH CAMP - day. + +The sky above flickers with light as the arrows catch the sun. The steel shafts hurtle down, plunging into exposed eyes and throats. All around him CASTELTON sees SOLDIERS totter and fall, arrows sticking out of them like quills. He pulls out his revolver and starts firing at the onrushing horses. + +EXT. DERVISH RIDERS/ PERIMETER OF BRITISH CAMP - day. + +The DERVISH lances skewer the BRITISH SOLDIERS as they try to run back to their lines. Some of the DERVISH RIDERS dismount and finish them off with their daggers, and their bare hands. + +EXT. GREEN FLAGGED ARMY/ slope OF the HILL - day. + +On the desert slopes, the retreating green flagged army wheels around and charges back into the fray. + +EXT. WILLOUGHBY/ BRITISH CAMP - day. + +WILLOUGHBY looks up, and sees the Mahdi's black flagged army, also swarming back towards the British ranks. + +EXT. HARRY/ PERIMETER OF BRITISH CAMP - day. + +HARRY is still pinned. He slits the dead horse's belly with his knife, and slides his leg under the gore. He gets to his feet and runs towards the fighting, desperate to reach his friends. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ BRITISH CAMP - day. + +DUURANCE yells at the top of his voice: + +DURRANCE +Close the square! Close the square! + +CASTELTON and TRENCH fire at the charging horses. As they fall, the other GRENADIERS take courage, and rush at their RIDERS, bringing them down in a volley of gunfire. The SOLDIERS clamber over the dead bodies and link up with the rest of their Square. + +EXT. HARRY/ PERIMETER OF BRITISH CAMP - day. + +HARRY can't see the British square reshaping, but he can see its rippling effect all along the DERVISH line. He cuts his way through like a beserker. Whatever doubts and fears his civilized self felt his primitive self now rejects. He fights like a man possessed. + +EXT. grenadiers/ british square - day. + +The BRITISH line pulls back, firing and reloading as it retreats. + +EXT. WILLOUGHBY/ PERIMETER OF BRITISH CAMP - day. + +WILLOUGHBY stares in horror at the bloodshed all around him. Through the hellish smoke he sees ABOU FATMA, still tied to the whipping post, staring at him in silent reproach. + +EXT. grenadiers/ british square - day. + +CASTELTON fires into the enemy ranks. He's out of ammunition. TRENCH is retreating with the other GRENADIERS. He sees his friend stalling and yells: + +trench +Get back! Get behind us! + +CASTELTON doesn't hear him. His parade ground training is taking over. He lowers the rifle and fixes a bayonet on it. + +EXT. HARRY/ AMONGST THE CHARGING DERVISHES - day. + +Through the swarming ranks, HARRY glimpses CASTELTON, standing alone with his bayonet poised. He calls out as well. + +EXT. CASTELTON - day. + +CASTELTON hears nothing but the pounding of his own heart. The DERVISH WARRIORS swarm towards him. He disembowels the first WARRIOR, then swings his bayonet around to meet the next. The DERVISH impales himself, right up to his rib cage. CASTELTON tries to pull his blade free, but the bayonet is locked in bone now. + +EXT. TRENCH/ RETREATING grenadiers/ british square - day. + +TRENCH stares in horror as he realises what's happened. The noises around him seem to fade as he gazes at CASTELTON, straining as he did in the training ground, trying to pull the bayonet free. + +EXT. HARRY/ AMONGST THE CHARGING DERVISHES - day. + +HARRY runs as fast as he can, trampling over the dead soldiers and horses that litter the desert floor. + +EXT. CASTELTON/ ISOLATED FROM THE SQUARE - day. + +CASTELTON tries to loosen the blade, but it's no use. He looks up to see a storm of painted faces, rushing towards him, spears pointed at his eyes and guts. Somewhere amongst the screaming horde, he glimpses a familiar face, calling out. A smile flickers across his face. He mouths the words 'Harry' as the first of the Dervish spears sinks into his heart. + +EXT. TRENCH/ RETREATING grenadiers/ british square - day. + +TRENCH screams in agony as he sees CASTELTON disappear. He charges out of the retreating British line, swinging at everything in his way, breaking skulls and shattering bone. He's only yards away from CASTELTON when a blow to the back of the head sends him sprawling. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ RETREATING grenadiers/ british square - day. + +DURRANCE charges out of the British square as he sees his friends fall, firing round after round into the enemy ranks. Every time his gun empties, he picks up another from a dead soldier, and keeps going. + +EXT. HARRY/ AMONGST THE DERVISHES - day. + +HARRY drops to his knees, next to CASTELTON's body, protecting his friend's corpse from further abuse. + +EXT. TRENCH/ AMONGST THE DERVISHES - day. + +TRENCH stares up at the nightmare faces crowding all around him. The butt of a spear cracks open his head, reducing everything to a terrifying silence. He feels a sea of hands, reaching down, tearing his uniform, lifting him in the air. + +EXT. DURRANCE/ WALKING TOWARDS THE DERVISHES - day. + +DURRANCE charges towards the enemy, firing into their massed ranks, oblivious to any danger. One of his guns jams. DURRANCE keeps pressing the trigger. The gun suddenly backfires and blows up in his face. + +EXT. HARRY/ AMONGST THE DERVISHES - day. + +HARRY sees DURRANCE fall. He gets up and runs through the enemy ranks, pretending to be one of them. He leaps on DURRANCE as he tries to get up, pinning him to the ground, stopping him getting himself killed. The unsuspecting DERVISH WARRIORS sweep past them, towards their next victims. + +HARRY keeps DURRANCE pinned, until the enemy hordes disappear. Only then does he stand up. He looks down at his friend. DURRANCE doesn't seem to recognise him. At first HARRY thinks it's the sunlight blinding him, but then he sees the powder burns around DURRANCE's eyes. + +DURRANCE gropes around. He starts crawling away on his hand and knees. He crawls right into a mud bath of Dervish dead. He rears back in horror, and lets out a little cry of panic. + +HARRY slowly begins to understand. He watches in anguish, as his friend claws at his eyes, trying to rub the blindness out of them, his whimpers of panic turning into howls of agony. + +INT. BRITISH HOSPITAL SHIP/ ALEXANDRIA - day. + +The screams of the wounded BRITISH SOLDIERS echo all around the hospital ship. CAPTAIN CALDER, the Regimental surgeon, stands over Durrance's bed. DURRANCE stares out, blindly. + +CAPTAIN CALDER +...You ought to see a specialist once we're back. + +DURRANCE +Is it part of your treatment to offer false hope? + +CAPTAIN CALDER +Only for some. +(reaching in his pocket) +This came for you. + +He hands over a letter. DURRANCE sticks it in his top pocket. + +DURRANCE +I'll read it later. +(Grinning as he realises Calder hasn't caught the joke) +If you wouldn't mind, Doctor... + +He hands the letter back to CALDER to read for him. + +CAPTAIN CALDER +(Glancing over it) +..."Dear James, I hold in my heart all you have written me"... +(He looks up) +I feel a little awkward reading this... + +DURRANCE +Don't. + +There's something strident in Durrance's voice, a brittleness that hides the insecurity inside. CALDER continues: + +CALDER +..."Knowing you as I do, and convinced as I am of your affections, I wish to go back on my previous fears. I'm writing now, to let you know how grateful I am to have you in my life -- and to say, with all my heart, how much I wish to be in yours...With all my love, Ethne." + +CALDER, lowers the letter, quietly moved. + +CAPTAIN CALDER +Congratulations... + +DURRANCE stares out quietly. + +DURRANCE +I knew a man once who went blind, a good man too, before...A year after you wouldn't have recognised him. He was the most selfish, exacting, egotistical human being you could ever meet. I wouldn't wish him on anyone... + +He smiles ironically, hiding the heartbreak inside. + +DURRANCE +The one thing I want most in this life, finally comes to me when I can no longer accept it. + +INT. DRAWING ROOM/ CAROLINE's house/ OUTSIDE LONDON - day. + +ETHNE stares out of the drawing room window, waiting. Her friend CAROLINE sits at a table, pretending to be absorbed in her book, listening just as intently. There's the jingle of a carriage outside. + +CAROLINE +That's him. + +ETHNE +It isn't stopping. + +EXT. DURRANCE's carriage/ STREET/ caroline's house - day. + +DURRANCE stares ahead as the carriage passes Caroline's house. + +DURRANCE +(To the Driver) +Drive around once...Describe the entrance to me... + +INT. DRAWING ROOM/ caroline's house - day. + +ETHNE turns away from the window. + +CAROLINE +Maybe you should have gone to the station to meet him. + +ETHNE +He might have thought I was going because I imagined he was helpless. I don't want him to feel like that. + +There's a quiet resolve in Ethne's voice, as if she's been mulling over her future life with Durrance. The doorbell rings. + +ETHNE +That must be him. + +CAROLINE gets up to answer the door. ETHNE walks to the window. Her movements are nervous, her eyes tense. The door finally opens. DURRANCE walks in, alone. As soon as ETHNE leaves the window he turns around and looks straight at her. + +ETHNE +(Startled) +It isn't true then, you can see... + +DURRANCE +(Gently) +It's perfectly true. I can't see a thing. + +ETHNE stops, feeling guilty. + +DURRANCE +You moved from the window, that's how I knew. + +ETHNE +I hardly made a noise. + +DURRANCE +No, but the window was open. The noise outside grew louder. + +She tries to answer his smile. + +ETHNE +Let me get you some tea, and then we can talk. + +DURRANCE +(Sensing her tension) +Yes, we have a lot to talk about. + +ETHNE's hand trembles as she pours the tea. DURRANCE interprets every sound. She picks up the cup and walks over with a smile, holding it out for him. + +DURRANCE +I hate to sound humble, but I don't trust myself with a cup of tea yet. + +ETHNE feels stupid again. She sets the cup down on a table. + +DURRANCE +(Gently) +You're not bound, you know. + +There's a pause. ETHNE knows exactly what he means. + +ETHNE +Bound by what? + +DURRANCE +I wouldn't dream of holding you to your letter. Or a committment you made to a different man. + +ETHNE stares at him in surprise, and then in quiet admiration. + +ETHNE +You're not a different man. + +DURRANCE +I don't say it begrudgingly. I'm not being particularly noble or heroic either. It's something I've thought about long and hard -- + +ETHNE +Jack -- + +DURRANCE +-- Please hear me out... +(With difficulty) +I'm thinking of myself as much as you. I have to learn to accept what's happened. I have to learn to respect the person I've become. The only way to do that is to start again. + +ETHNE +Why does it have to be without me? + +Her words make him hesitate. + +DURRANCE +Because if I was with you, I'd spend every moment wondering how you really felt about me. + +ETHNE +If you don't know how I feel about you, then that's a good reason to call off our wedding. Your blindness isn't. + +She stares at him, determined. DURRANCE looks touched by her devotion, but still doesn't feel worthy of her love. + +DURRANCE +It has to be more than mere obligation Ethne, or even friendship. It has to be more than that... + +ETHNE suddenly reaches out and touches his face. DURRANCE stops as he feels her fingers. He's lost for a moment, unsure of himself. ETHNE leans forward and kisses him, tenderly at first, but then more and more passionately, proving herself to him, proving herself to herself. DURRANCE kisses her back, close to tears. + +EXT. PATIO/ caroline's house - DAY. + +A sharp clatter of hooves. DURRANCE rides his horse with the help of a GROOM, his face fixed in concentration. ETHNE and CAROLINE watch him from the patio. + +ETHNE +(Gazing at him proudly) +He seems to need his eyes less and less each day. It's incredible. Nothing escapes him. Sometimes I think he reads me like a book. + +CAROLINE +You no longer have your face to screen your thoughts. + +ETHNE doesn't notice the edge in her voice. She's lost in her own thoughts. DURRANCE climbs off his horse and strides towards them, looking pleased with himself. + +DURRANCE +(Wrapping Ethne in his arms) +You smell wonderful. + +ETHNE +And you smell like a horse. Go wash. + +ETHNE keeps smiling, even after DURRANCE has gone. CAROLINE watches her friend quietly, fighting the jealousy she feels within. A voice interrupts their separate thoughts: + +GARDENER o/s +(Calling out) +...Someone to see you Miss Eustace. + +ETHNE looks up to see a UNIFORMED OFFICER, standing with the GARDENER, by the maze. She gets up curiously. + +EXT. garden/ maze/ caroline's house - day. + +As ETHNE approaches the soldier she suddenly stops, recognising him. It's WILLOUGHBY. + +wILLOUGHBY +I went all the way to Bintree to find you. Your father told me you were here. I'm sorry I came unannounced, I needed to talk to you alone... + +ETHNE doesn't reply or return his smile. WILLOUGHBY seems to read her thoughts. + +wILLOUGHBY +I understand how you feel, Ethne. All I can say is that we never set out to hurt you. What happened was between us and Harry, not the two of you. + +ETHNE +(Coldly) +What do you want, Tom? + +WILLOUGHBY hesitates, bracing himself. + +wILLOUGHBY +...I've seen Harry. In Suakin. He asked me to give you these... + +He holds out TWO SOILED WHITE FEATHERS. ETHNE stares at them, unable to speak, her whole world turned upside down. + +wILLOUGHBY +He risked his life to save our regiment. He fought as if he'd been born to it. + +I've come to tell you I've withdrawn my accusation of cowardice against him, along with Castelton's. + +ETHNE +(All she cares about) +Is Harry dead? + +wILLOUGHBY +He was fine when I saw him. He'd changed a great deal but he was in good health. + +ETHNE +Changed how? + +wILLOUGHBY +I didn't spend much time with him. I don't know what else to tell you Ethne. + +ETHNE +Tell me everything Tom. Please... +(Imploringly) +If by your own admission you've hurt me, then I have a right to know. + +EXT. PATIO/ caroline'S house - DAY. + +CAROLINE watches curiously from the patio, as ETHNE and the mysterious Officer, walk into the maze, deep in conversation. + +EXT. maze/ caroline's house - day. + +ETHNE and WILLOUGHBY sit on a bench in the garden maze. + +wILLOUGHBY +...Nothing prepared us for what happened. We were two miles short of Abou Klea when we were ambushed. We managed to hold off the enemy, but at a terrible cost. A few days later Khartoum fell and the whole expedition was called off... + +TIME DISSOLVE BACK TO: + +EXT. BRITISH EVACUATION CAMP - ON NILE - DAY. + +WOUNDED BRITISH SOLDIERS lie in the open sun, moaning in agony, plagued by clouds of dust and swarms of flies. WILLOUGHBY stares out, numb to their suffering, thinking only of his own lost friends. The SHADOW OF A MAN in Arab robes hovers over him. + +WILLOUGHBY +...Get lost!... + +The ARAB doesn't move. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Looking up furiously) +Didn't you bloody hear me! Get lost!... + +WILLOUGHBY suddenly stops. He stares at the Arab as if in a dream. + +wILLOUGHBY +...Harry?... + +HARRY stares back at him through his black desert robes. + +HARRY +I sent a man to you with a warning from Abou Klea. You wouldn't listen to him. You had him tortured instead. + +The confusion and shock bring pent-up tears to WILLOUGHBY's eyes. + +HARRY +He told you a British Officer had sent him. Even if you didn't believe him, what would it have cost to take precautions. What more did I have to do? + +wILLOUGHBY +(As the horror sinks in) +I didn't know Harry...I didn't know it was you... +(He still can't believe his eyes) +...What are you doing here in God's name?...What are you doing?... + +HARRY opens his hand to reveal a soiled white feather. WILLOUGHBY stares at it, in bewilderment at first,then slowly beginning to understand. + +wILLOUGHBY +(He gazes at the feather as if it's the symbol of his own disgrace now) +Give me the others. Give them to me. + +harry +They're not yours to take back. + +WILLOUGHBY looks up at him through his tears. There's no condemnation in Harry's eyes, but no sympathy either. His experiences have changed him, turned him into a harder man. + +EXT. maze/ caroline's house - day. + +ETHNE gazes silently at the feathers in her hand. + +wILLOUGHBY +...He'd followed us all the way from Alexandria, looking for an opportunity to redeem himself. It was only after he left that I found out an Arab matching his description had also saved Jack Durrance's life. + +ETHNE looks up in surprise. + +willoughby +Jack doesn't know. That was the way Harry wanted it. + +EXT. FLASHBACK/ BATTLEFIELD/ DESERT/ SUDAN - DAY. + +Smoke hovers over the corpse strewn battlefield. We see HARRY through the haze, carrying DURRANCE on his shoulders, staggering under his friend's weight. + +EXT. FLASHBACK/ HILLS ABOVE THE BATTLEFIELD/ SUDAN - DAY. + +HARRY and ABOU FATMA help DURRANCE up a steep mountain trail, as below them, the battle rages. + +EXT. FLASHBACK/ BANKS OF THE NILE/ SUDAN - DAY. + +DURRANCE's brow is beaded with sweat. HARRY cools his face with a wet cloth. DURRANCE murmurs questions in his feverish state, but HARRY remains resolutely silent. + +EXT. maze/ caroline's house - day. + +ETHNE stares at WILLOUGHBY, thinking only of Harry. WILLOUGHBY thinks she's staring at the medals on his chest. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Embarrassed) +I tried to turn them down. I told the committee I'd done nothing to deserve them. They didn't care. I think they pick their heroes' names out of a hat. +(Trying to ease her pain) +You asked me how he'd changed. All I can say is that you would have been proud of him. + +ETHNE +I should have been proud of him before. Or at least I should have tried to understand. + +willoughby +You can't blame yourself. + +ETHNE +Why not, if you can. +(She won't forgive herself) +We all misjudged him, but I had the least excuse. He was the man I was supposed to love. + +Suddenly a voice calls out: + +DURRANCE O/s + +Ethne... + +They turn around, startled. DURRANCE stands at the entrance to the maze. WILLOUGHBY gets up nervously. + +ETHNE +(Whispering urgently) +Please, I don't want him to know you're here. + +WILLOUGHBY stops. DURRANCE looks in their direction. + +wILLOUGHBY +(In disbelief) +He can see us. + +ETHNE +He can't see a thing. + +DURRANCE reaches out and feels the hedge, finding his bearings, taking slow steps into the maze: + +DURRANCE +Ethne...? + +ETHNE keeps quiet. + +DURRANCE +Ethne...? + +She watches DURRANCE, wracked with guilt. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Beginning to panic) +I've got to say something. + +ETHNE +Be quiet. + +DURRANCE is only a few yards away from them now. He stares a moment, as if at ETHNE, then turns and walks back. + +EXT. window/ CAROLINE's house - day. + +CAROLINE sees DURRANCE, walking away from the maze, still calling out for Ethne. + +EXT. maze/ CAROLINE's house - day. + +Durrance's voice fades in the distance. + +ETHNE +(Struggling with her emotions) +I didn't want him to find out what you just told me. + +wILLOUGHBY +Harry was his best friend -- + +ETHNE +-- I'm engaged to Jack. I'm going to marry him. + +WILLOUGHBY stares in surprise. + +wILLOUGHBY +...I knew he'd proposed, I had no idea you'd accepted... +(Considering the implications) +...I'd never have told you if I knew. I'm sure Harry wouldn't have wanted me to. + +ETHNE +I'm glad you did. I needed to know. +(Looking at him) +Do you know where Harry is now? + +WILLOUGHBY hesitates. + +wILLOUGHBY +He didn't tell me anything; I didn't feel I had a right to ask -- + +ETHNE +-- Please, tell me the truth. + +There's no anger in her voice, only concern. WILLOUGHBY looks torn. + +wILLOUGHBY +Some of our men were taken prisoner. The Dervishes took them South, in case we tried a rescue. Trench was among the missing. + +ETHNE smiles sadly, as if she has her answer. + +wILLOUGHBY +(Trying to give her hope) +Harry may be determined but he isn't mad. He'll look for Trench and then he'll come back. + +ETHNE +He'll do whatever he has to do. There are still two feathers left. + +EXT. window/ caroline's house - day. + +From her window, CAROLINE sees ETHNE and WILLOUGHBY, saying goodbye, walking off in different directions. As ETHNE approaches the house, CAROLINE sees her gazing at something in her hand. + +INT. stairway/ caroline's house - day. + +CAROLINE walks down the stairs. + +CAROLINE +Is everything alright? + +ETHNE +(Forcing a smile) +He was a friend of father's. He apologised for not introducing himself. He was in a hurry. + +CAROLINE doesn't press. She notices the two white feathers in Ethne's hand. + +INT. LIVING ROOM/ CAROLINE's house - night. + +ETHNE sits at the piano stool, still gazing at the feathers in her hand. She hears voices in the corridor. It's Durrance, asking Caroline where she is. ETHNE hears his footsteps approaching. She lifts up the piano lid and starts to play. The living room door opens. ETHNE ignores the quiet footsteps behind her. She feels DURRANCE listening to every note. His hands cover her eyes gently. + +ETHNE +(Trying to smile) +Who could that be... + +She removes his hands from her eyes, and kisses them. DURRANCE sits down beside her on the piano stool. + +DURRANCE +What were you playing? + +ETHNE +The Melusine overture. + +DURRANCE +Cheerful stuff. + +He grins and starts to play the tune, perfectly. ETHNE looks on in admiration, trying to hide her feelings. + +DURRANCE +Join me. + +ETHNE +I'd rather listen. + +DURRANCE +Please... + +Reluctantly ETHNE starts to accompany him. + +DURRANCE +They say you can tell a woman's heart by the way she plays. + +ETHNE +What if she can't play at all. + +DURRANCE +It isn't how well you play, it's how passionately you stroke the keys. + +ETHNE presses the keys harder, pretending it's a joke, worried that he might see through her. + +DURRANCE +I'd say you're in love. + +Even though it's said in jest, his words stick like a knife. The notes torture her. She suddenly gets up and walk away from the piano. + +DURRANCE +(Following her footsteps) +Where are you going? + +ETHNE +I want to hear you play on your own. + +A moment's silence. Then DURRANCE turns back to the piano and starts to play -- quietly, tenderly. The haunting music breaks Ethne's heart. Almost involuntarily she starts to walk away from him, towards the open patio doors. + +DURRANCE +(With a sudden flourish of the keys) +There you go, I'm in love too... + +He swivels around and beams at her joyfully. ETHNE stares back at him, unable to speak. + +DURRANCE +(Gazing at her adoringly) +These past few days have been the best days of my life, blind or otherwise... + +His eyes shine in the candlelight, full of new-found hope. + +DURRANCE +...Before I came here I'd given up. I put on all kinds of fronts and defences, but deep down I was petrified. I had no idea what was going on around me, what people were thinking behind my back. I imagined the worst, so that nothing would surprise me, no-one would catch me out... + +He walks closer. + +DURRANCE +...You've made me realise I can't live like that. Whether one can see or not, there's no way of knowing how people really feel about you, all you can do is put yourself in their hands, and trust them unconditionally... + +ETHNE can't speak. + +DURRANCE +I know how much you loved Harry... +(A beat) +...for the first time I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm not not afraid to bring it up between us... +(A beat) +I'm not afraid, because of you Ethne, because of the way you've made me feel... + +He waits for an answer but all that greets him is silence. As he steps closer he suddenly loses her presence. A touch of panic enters his voice: + +DURRANCE +Ethne...? + +The only sound he hears is the wind on the curtains. We see for the first time that Ethne's left, through the open patio doors. + +DURRANCE +Ethne...? + +He turns around sharply as he hears a noise. CAROLINE stands in the doorway. DURRANCE walks towards her. + +DURRANCE +(Touching her arm) +I thought you'd disappeared. + +CAROLINE +It's Caroline. Ethne's gone. + +DURRANCE pulls back, embarrassed. + +DURRANCE +I'm sorry. + +CAROLINE +She must be in the garden. + +DURRANCE +(Trying to sound lighthearted) +She was here a minute ago. It must have been something I said. + +CAROLINE +(Every word is calculated) +I don't think it was anything you said. She's been upset all afternoon. Ever since she spoke to Lieutenant Willoughby. + +DURRANCE +Willoughby?... + +He looks perplexed. + +DURRANCE +Willoughby was here? Why didn't he come and see me? + +CAROLINE +I thought he did. I saw you walking into the maze to join them. + +She feels the impact on him -- the fact that he called out and no-one answered. + +DURRANCE +(Trying to justify it to himself) +He must have had his reasons. + +CAROLINE +He brought her two white feathers. That's all I know. + +DURRANCE looks up, startled. + +DURRANCE +...Harry... + +CAROLINE watches his unseeing eyes trying to make sense of what's happened. She feels a touch of remorse as she sees him struggling with his emotions. Finally he looks up: + +DURRANCE +Ethne obviously didn't want me to know... +(Curiously) +Why did you tell me? + +CAROLINE hesitates. + +CAROLINE +I thought you should know. + +DURRANCE +You're her friend. + +CAROLINE +Yours too I hope. + +DURRANCE stares at her in silence, her intentions slowly becoming clear to him. + +DURRANCE +You're not fair to Ethne. + +CAROLINE +Are you? + +Her meaning is clear. Her words sting him deeply. + +DURRANCE +How much of our conversation did you overhear? + +CAROLINE +Enough. + +DURRANCE +Then you should know I meant every word. +(more with pity than anger) +I love and trust Ethne unconditionally. Whatever doubts she's feeling, I know she'll resolve them. +(With quiet dignity) +I've put myself in her hands. + +A long silence. DURRANCE doesn't need to see CAROLINE to know she's in tears. + +CAROLINE +...The only reason I told you, was because you mean the world to me. + +DURRANCE +(A gentle rebuff) +I'm sorry, Mrs Adair. + +EXT. garden/ caroline's house - night. + +ETHNE sits in the garden alone, shivering in the wind, hating herself. + +EXT. THE CITY OF DONGOLA/ SOUTHERN SUDAN - night. + +The peeling CORPSE of a British soldier is dragged through the streets by a rope tied to a camel's back. LOCAL WOMEN tear at the dead man's uniform, grabbing at his testicles, spitting on his bloated face. HARRY slips out of the crowd, horrified by what he's seen, relieved it isn't Trench. + +EXT. DONGOLA/ SUDAN - day. + +The jeering women can be heard in the distance. ABOU FATMA sits in the shade, slurping an oily gruel. HARRY squats beside him. ABOU FATMA offers him the bowl. HARRY declines. + +ABOU FATMA +You're surprised by the women? + +HARRY doesn't need to answer, his face says it all. + +ABOU FATMA +They're always the most cruel. Amongst the Southern Tribes it's the custom for them to go into battle first, calling the men cowards until they're ready to fight. +(Mischievously) +It is the same in your country, no? + +HARRY looks up to find ABOU FATMA grinning at him. + +ABOU FATMA +The woman you spoke of. Go back to her. Tell her you're ready. + +haRRY +What did you find out about the British prisoners? + +ABOU FATMA +There are very few of them left. + +He offers HARRY his food again. This time HARRY takes the bowl and swallows the rancid meat as if it's nothing. + +harrY +Where are they being held? + +ABOU FATMA +Your Army abandoned them. The shame is no longer yours. + +harry +(Provoking him) +Have I paid you for nothing, Abou Fatma? + +The Nubian looks up, stung by the talk of money, when he was only expressing concern. + +ABOU FATMA +(Coldly) +Twelve British soldiers were taken by boat from here to Omdurman last month. + +haRRY +Shoukhran. + +ABOU FATMA +You're a foolish man. Even for a British Officer. + +hARRY +(Smiling) +'God protects the fool'. +(Passing Abou Fatma the bowl) +How would I get into the prison at Omdurman? + +ABOU FATMA +(Sarcastically) +Urinate in a holy well. + +harry +That carries a penalty of death. All I want is to be imprisoned there. + +ABOU FATMA stops eating, realising HARRY is serious. + +ABOU FATMA +You will die before your time. + +haRRY +'If it is the will of God.' + +ABOU FATMA +(Impatient now) +This man turned his back on you. Why should you give your life for his? + +harry +Because he'd do the same for me. No matter what had passed between us. +(Looking at the Nubian) +I hope I'd do the same for you too. + +ABOU FATMA +I have no need of such friends. + +The Nubian returns to his food, betraying no sentiment. HARRY reaches into his pocket and holds out five shilling coins. + +ABOU FATMA +(Disdainfully) +You owe me two shillings a day. This is too much. + +HARRY can't help smiling. + +haRRY +You still haven't answered my question? + +ABOU FATMA +You answered it yourself. God protects the fool. + +EXT. night MARKET/ outside the city of OMDURMAN - night. + +HARRY stumbles around the marketplace, strumming on a broken zither, pestering people for money, pretending to be mad. The passing crowds laugh at him and push him away. ABOU FATMA watches from across the street. + +HARRY staggers through the torchlit stalls. He sees a group of DERVISH WARRIORS, gathered around a fire. Their leader, a sickly looking EMIR, smokes a hashish pipe as he listens to his men recounting their feats of war. Next to him, lies a beautiful, jewel encrusted scabbard. + +HARRY thinks a moment, then approaches the group, strumming his zither, grinning at the men. Seeing the crazed musician, the DERVISH WARRIORS cover their ears. Some of them toss chunks of meat at him. HARRY picks up the dusty morsels, chewing them with relish, grinning like a happy puppy. + +ABOU FATMA watches as HARRY humiliates himself, playing his broken zither for the EMIR. The EMIR gazes back at him through bored, bloodshot eyes. + +As the WARRIORS laugh, HARRY suddenly bends down and snatches the Emir's scabbard. He runs off with it at speed, waving it around his head like a sword, yelling at the top of his voice. The DERVISH WARRIORS give chase, still laughing as they run after the lunatic. + +HARRY stumbles over a tent pole deliberately. The DERVISH WARRIORS swarm around him, caning him with their sticks. HARRY protects his face with his hands, pleading: + +harry +(In Arabic) +God loves the fool. God loves the fool... + +EXT. WELL/ outside the city of OMDURMAN - night. + +The whole marketplace has gathered to watch the madman punished. The WARRIORS hoist HARRY up onto a well, and shout at him to walk around the rim. Holding out his hands, HARRY starts to step around the ledge. As he glances down he sees the drop is at least thirty feet deep. Two of the WARRIORS jump onto the ledge behind him, blowing bugles in his ear. + +DERVISH WARRIORS +(In Arabic) +Faster thief...Faster... + +HARRY starts to walk faster, clapping in time with the WARRIORS, performing for the CROWD. + +harry +(In Arabic) +...God loves the fool. God loves the fool... + +Another WARRIOR steps out of the crowd and starts prodding HARRY with his spear. The CROWD roars as HARRY almost topples into the well. He regains his footing and laughs back at them, clapping his hands, wriggling his hips. + +spectator's voiCE +(In Arabic) +Here's someone for him to dance with... + +HARRY looks down to see a hideous, half-naked HAG, being pushed towards him. The crowd clears a space for the two lunatics to dance. HARRY forces a crazed giggle as the HAG starts to undulate and thrust her hips at him. He echoes her movements, staring into her deadened eyes. + +The CROWD pushes them closer together. HARRY feels an overwhelming sense of pity and dread. The dreamlike intensity is getting to him. The tragic creature, shimmying before his eyes, is like a grotesque reminder of the woman he loved and lost. + +The HAG starts murmuring to herself. As he listens, HARRY realises she's singing -- a tuneless lament, remembered from long ago, sung without any understanding now. The emotion wells up in HARRY's eyes, even as he laughs at her. It's as if he's gazing into a crazy, distorted mirror. + +The EMIR stares curiously as he catches the emotion in Harry's eyes. He suddenly signals for his men to part the lunatics. HARRY is dragged away from the shrieking HAG, and flung before him. + +EMIR +(In Arabic, suspicious now) +Play for me fool... + +HARRY picks up his zither, and starts to play a tuneless din. + +EMIR +(In Arabic) +You're not mad. + +HARRY pretends not to understand. The EMIR suddenly cracks his cane down on Harry's hands, breaking his fingers. HARRY screams in agony: + +harry +(In Arabic) +...God loves the fool... + +EMIR +(In Arabic) +The fool feels no pain. + +The EMIR beats him again with the cane. HARRY holds up his broken fingers in supplication, singing softly in his madman's gibberish. + +harry +(In Arabic) +...God loves the fool... + +The EMIR's cane cracks open his face. He doubles over in agony, spitting out blood. ABOU FATMA watches, sickened, unable to do anything. Even the other spectators look shaken. HARRY slithers away in the dust, whimpering like an animal. + +EMIR +(In Arabic) +You're not mad. Tell me who are you? Tell me or I'll kill you... + +ABOU FATMA stares in silence, willing HARRY to speak. Many in the CROWD turn away, fearing the worst. The EMIR raises his cane. With a surge of effort, HARRY lifts up his blood soaked face, and grins at the EMIR. He looks barely human, his face ripped open, swollen beyond recognition. + +harry +(Singing softly in Arabic) +God loves the fool. God loves the fool... + +The EMIR hesitates, convinced nobody in their right mind could take this much pain. + +EMIR +(In Arabic) +He's mad. Take him to the prison. Let him sing for them there. + +He turns away and disappears into the crowd. ABOU FATMA stares at HARRY, with both pity and admiration. He whispers a prayer for his friend's safety. + +EXT. PRISON of OMDURMAN/ BANKS OF THE NILE - night. + +The evening prayers drift over the waters of the Nile. In the distance we see the prison of Omdurman, a huge dome of stone, surrounded by fifty foot walls on three sides, and the river itself on the fourth. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - night. + +Hundreds of shapes move forward in the darkness. At first they look like a herd of animals, but slowly we recognise the grunts and cries as human. Faces come at us out of the dark, screaming and cursing, shoving each other violently, raising their faces to the ceiling, gasping for air. + +As our eyes adjust to the light, the vision of hell intensifies. The PRISONERS are manacled and herded into a space no more than thirty feet wide. They circle the room in a clockwise direction, pushed on by each other in perpetual motion, afraid that if they stop they'll be sucked under the maelstrom and trampled underfoot. + +The most fortunate are those who've found a resting space in the corners of the room. They cling to the walls, fighting off anyone who tries to share their sanctuary. From somewhere amongst them we hear a familiar voice: + +trench +Get away! This is Ibrahim's space! + +TRENCH protects his corner, lashing out at anyone who tries to breach the space. He bellows at the top of his voice: + +trENCH +Ibrahim, where are you?! + +A voice answers from the heaving mass. TRENCH holds out his hand and drags his friend, IBRAHIM, out of the scrum. + +trench +(Sounding half crazed) +You mustn't fall. You musn't fall. + +As if to prove his point, a fight breaks out at the far side of the room. TRENCH stands on tiptoes, as eager as everyone else to see the outcome. TWO PRISONERS try to strangle each other with their chains, fighting for an inch of space. It's hard to make out anything in the dark, but the savagery of the fight is reflected in the speed of flailing fists and feet. One of the PRISONERS finally loses his footing. In an instant he's sucked under. The victor laughs maniacally. The loser's cries continue for a moment and then stop suddenly as the trampling feet break his neck. + +TRENCH turns to Ibrahim, with the knowing look of an expert. + +trench +We mustn't fall Ibrahim. We musn't fall. + +Suddenly there's a cry from outside the cell door. + +prison guards o/s +(In Arabic) +Back! Get back! + +The PRISONERS closest to the door push away. The head guard, the towering IDRIS-ES-SAIER, tosses in a blazing torch to clear some space. A NEW PRISONER is flung inside and the door slammed shut behind him. The other PRISONERS surge back, trying to reclaim their space. There are cries of pain as some of them tread on the blazing torch. The sheer weight of men quickly puts it out. + +The NEW PRISONER holds onto anything he can to stop himself falling. From his corner TRENCH looks on grimly. + +treNCH +Watch Ibrahim. He's going to fall. + +The NEW PRISONER is swept up in the savage wave. As he approaches TRENCH's corner he tries to claw his way to safety. TRENCH beats him back with a flurry of blows. The prisoner disappears under the heaving bodies, but then he pops up again, gasping for breath. He fights with all his might, swinging his fists, clutching at anyone in his way. TRENCH looks impressed, but he knows it won't be long. + +trench +He'll fall. Youssef will get him. + +As the NEW PRISONER swings towards them again, the prisoner behind him, YOUSSEF, slams his chains down on his head. The new arrival goes down hard. As he disappears, he screams out the name: "Trench!!!" + +TRENCH stares in disbelief, frozen for a moment, then bellowing like a bull, he charges out of his corner and flails his way through the heaving mass, trying to retrieve the fallen prisoner. + +TRENCH +Help me Ibrahim...!!! + +The tall Arab fights his way to Trench. Together they pull the NEW PRISONER to his feet. They take him under each arm and fall in with the moving mass. + +treNCH +We've lost our place. You mustn't fall. + +The man almost collapses, but TRENCH holds him up. He and Ibrahim keep walking the prisoner, trying to keep him conscious, knowing they have to fight till daybreak now. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The sound of early morning prayers drifts into the House of Stone. Sunbeams pick out bloodmarks and broken nails where prisoners have tried to claw their way to safety. Half a dozen BODIES lie crushed on the floor, those who didn't make it through the night. Those who did, are ushered outside by the PRISON GUARDS, into the merciless heat. TRENCH and IBRAHIM support the NEW PRISONER. A fat, oily looking Prison Guard, HASSAN, sneers at TRENCH on his way out. + +HASSAN +You've found a friend, English. + +TRENCH ignores him, blinking as he walks into the sun. + +EXT. courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The PRISONERS collapse as they stumble into the prison courtyard, exhausted by the previous night's efforts. TRENCH and IBRAHIM help the NEW PRISONER to the river's edge. + +EXT. RIVERBANK/ courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +TRENCH kneels beside the prisoner and pours some water over his face. The man opens his lips to swallow it. + +treNCH +Don't drink. It's dirty. Your body isn't strong enough. + +Beads of sweat shine on the bearded man's ravaged face. TRENCH studies his features, wondering who he is. He digs out a copper coin from his shoe. + +treNCH +(To Ibrahim) +See if Hassan will sell us some drinking water. + +IBRAHIM sets off towards HASSAN, who's busy beating the other PRISONERS to their feet. + +treNCH +(Looking back) +You speak English? + +new prisoner +(A trace of a smile appears on his cracked lips) +...I hope so, after all this time... + +TRENCH stares at him in surprise. + +treNCH +...How do you know my name? + +new PRISONER +You told it to me yourself...the first time we met... +(Imitating Trench weakly) +"Trench by name, and Trench by nature. Good to meet you Feversham..." + +TRENCH stares in astonishment. + +trENCH +...Harry?... + +HARRY's eyes move around and find him, twinkling mischievously, despite all the pain. + +harrY +(With ironic good humor) +...You look well... + +treNCH +(Breaking into a smile) +Not half as well as you... +(Overwhelmed) +What the hell are you doing here?... + +hARRY +...I'd come to rescue you...but now that you've rescued me...I have to save you twice... + +TRENCH stares at him in disbelief. + +hARRY +...I have some money to bribe the guards...There's a man waiting for us across the river...With camels and provisions... + +TREnch +(Snapping out of his reverie, hushing him) +Keep your voice down. + +TRENCH looks across the courtyard to make sure no-one's watching them. HASSAN is busy bargaining with IBRAHIM over the cup of water. + +treNCH +(Under his breath) +How much money? + +harRY +Two hundred. + +TRENCH looks hopeful for the first time in weeks. + +TRENCH +...I knew it wasn't true. The guards kept telling me our army had left us behind. How far away are they? + +hARRY +(Regrettably) +They pulled out. Over a month ago. + +TRENCH stares in confusion. + +TRENCH +Then who sent you? + +harrY +You did. + +TRENCH doesn't understand. HARRY slowly opens his fingers to reveal a crushed white feather in his hand. TRENCH stares at it in bewilderment. Then suddenly he starts to laugh, full of anguish and joy, amazed by the madness of the world. + +EXT. PRISON GATES/ courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The compound gates rumble open. The Prisoners' RELATIVES are ushered inside, kept in order by the GUARDS' whips. The PRISONERS limp as fast as they can to receive any food their families have brought them. Before they can eat, the GUARDS have to be paid off, IDRIS first, then HASSAN and the others. As the feeding frenzy breaks out we hear Trench's voice: + +trENCH v/o +...Hassan's the only guard who's corruptible. For two hundred he'll get us on the graveyard detail... + +EXT. RIVERBANK/ courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +We see what he's talking about now. The dead bodies from the House of Stone are dumped in a row boat. The GUARDS order several PRISONERS onto the boat with them. They're too afraid to handle the corpses themselves. + +treNCH v/o +...The farthest the boat goes is a hundred yards from the opposite shore. We'll have to wait until you're strong enough to swim... + +HARRY watches the boat drift into the middle of the river. Ripples appear as huge CROCODILES move in to feed. The PRISONERS toss the bodies in the water. The corpses float for a moment, then suddenly vanish in a froth of blood. + +treNCH +(Smiling grimly) +You didn't think of that when you came? + +haRRY +I didn't think of much when I came. + +TRENCH looks at him, still unable to believe anyone could be so reckless and so brave. + +trENCH +All for a feather? + +hARRY +(Lightly) +More than one. + +TRENCH looks down at the sand, reflecting: + +trENCH +Give it to me Harry. + +haRRY +Why? + +treNCH +So I can show you it means nothing -- that if I throw it in the river it'll float away -- end up between some Croc's teeth. + +harry +(Smiling softly) +Not this feather. It's got the measure of me. It'll float back and find me. + +The water laps quietly in the silence. + +trENCH +There were a dozen British Officers here last month. Every time one of them died, the last words on his lips were: "Don't worry about me lads. Our boys will come and get you." They never did. Just you. I'd say you've done enough. + +haRRY +Not until I get you out. + +trENCH +You can hardly walk. + +harry +I don't need to walk, I need to swim. + +He smiles at TRENCH affectionately. Across the river, the boat returns, silhouetted against the sunset. + +EXT. house of stone/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The PRISONERS are herded back into the House of Stone. HASSAN walks alongside TRENCH and HARRY, negotiating his bribe. + +hASSAN +...God put you here for a reason, English. He tests us. I have fifteen starving children myself to care for. + +treNCH +(Taking his cue) +I was thinking of your children Hassan. I'd like to help them. God favours the almsgiver. + +hASSAN +For three hundred I could feed them for a year. + +treNCH +I can afford two. From myself, Ibrahim, and the madman. + +HASSAN nods, accepting the offer, and walks ahead. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - night. + +HARRY and TRENCH are in the thick of the crowd, fighting for space, trying to give each other strength. + +treNCH +...The first thing I do when I get back is book a table at Wilton's. A private room, all to myself, no bloody crowds... + +He shoves into the man in front, gaining a few more precious inches for them to breathe in. + +trench +...I'll start with a half shell of crab, then I'll order the mallard, medium rare. + +harRY +A glass of Burgundy to wash it down. + +treNCH +Nothing foreign. A pint of Stout'll do me fine. + +harrY +(Grinning) +Well I'm getting on the first train to Bintree, crowded or not. + +trENCH +I'll drink to that... +(He raises his hand, as if he's in a crowded pub, trying to get the Barman's attention) +Two pints please... + +The two of them surge through the crowd, laughing like lunatics. + +treNCH +A few more days Harry. A few more days... + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The morning call to prayer brings sobs of relief from the PRISONERS. HARRY, TRENCH, and IBRAHIM, lie in a corner of the room, exhausted by the night's efforts. HASSAN steps over the dead bodies littering the floor, and orders them to get up. + +hassAN +(As planned) +You three, take the bodies to the boat. + +HARRY and IBRAHIM get to their feet. TRENCH doesn't move. HARRY reaches down to give him a hand, when he suddenly sees how pale his friend is. He drops to his knees, feeling TRENCH's pulse. He's alive, but very weak. + +hasSAN +(Looking at the unconscious Trench) +You see, English. God didn't want you to leave. He has given you Umm Sabbah. + +TRENCH moans, gripped by Typhus fever. HARRY tries to help him up, refusing to believe their plans are dashed. + +hARRY +(Whispering) +Trench, get up. Get up... + +hassAN +(Shouting at Harry in Arabic) +Leave him. Carry the dead to the boat. + +HARRY ignores him, cradling TRENCH in his arms. HASSAN steps forward and lashes him hard across the back. + +harry +(Still trying to rouse Trench) +...Get up Trench. Get up... + +HASSAN lashes him again. This time HARRY spins around and grabs the whip. He stares at HASSAN dangerously, the frustration and disappointment pushing him to the edge. + +HASSAN +(In Arabic) +He paid me to release you. If you don't want to go, you can rot with him. +(Turning to Ibrahim) +What about you?! + +IBRAHIM looks at TRENCH guiltily, then gets up, and walks towards the dead bodies. HARRY gathers TRENCH in his arms, and holds him protectively, like a faithful slave. HASSAN sneers, and strides out of the House of Stone. HARRY looks at TRENCH. His friend shivers feverishly. HARRY brushes the wet hair out of his face: + +hARRY +We'll get you to Wilton's. Crab and Mallard, medium rare. + +EXT. RIVERBANK/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY watches from the shore, as IBRAHIM tosses the corpses overboard. Suddenly the Arab takes his chance and dives. He's only yards away from the boat when he's lifted into air by a huge crocodile, and dragged below the murky depths. All is still again. HARRY looks back at TRENCH, lying by the river's edge, lost in his own feverish dreams. + +INT. STUDY/ GENERAL FEVERSHAM's HOUSE/ LONDON - DAY. + +ETHNE sits across from GENERAL FEVERSHAM in the dimly lit room. There's bright sunshine outside but very little of it gets in. GENERAL FEVERSHAM seems much older than the first time we saw him, his eyes are withdrawn, his movements restless. He rings the handbell irritably. + +ETHNE +Don't worry about the biscuits General. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +I wanted some myself. I need something sweet in the afternoons, otherwise I fall asleep. +(Catching himself) +Not today of course. + +ETHNE tries to answer his smile, but neither of them is particularly convincing. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +I'm very touched you've come all this way to tell me your good news. Jack'll make you a wonderful husband. + +ETHNE +(Hiding all her doubts) +He'll be pleased to hear that. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +I'm very fond of the boy. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM smiles weakly, and looks away. Whatever they talk about seems to come back to Harry. ETHNE finally broaches the subject: + +ETHNE +Have you heard any news from the Sudan? + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM hesitates. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +...An old friend of mine came to visit me yesterday, Colonel Sutch. You probably remember him... + +ETHNE nods, panicking inside, sensing the old man's grief. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +...He used to receive the occasional letter from Harry, letting him know that he was alright... +(His voice falters) +...Harry made him promise not to tell me anything, unless the letters stopped. I'm afraid they did. Over a month ago. + +ETHNE looks pale. She tries to hold back her tears for the General's sake. + +ETHNE +I'm sure it doesn't mean anything. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +I asked some friends at the war office to make some enquiries. According to their spies, all the British prisoners are dead. + +ETHNE can't speak. The old man fights his tears as well. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +Would you like to see his letters? + +ETHNE +(Barely a whisper) +I'm not sure I could cope right now. + +geNERAL FEVERSHAM +No, of course not. I'm sorry... + +ETHNE looks up, remembering his grief is as great as hers. + +ETHNE +Have you looked at them? + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +Oh yes. They make wonderful reading... +(His face lights up briefly) +He travelled all the way from Alexandria to Suakin. Across three hundred miles of desert. From there he followed the camel corp disguised as a coolie. He fought with them at Abou Klea, excelled himself by all accounts, saved dozens of lives. If he was still a soldier they'd have probably given him the Victoria Cross. + +ETHNE +(Her eyes shining with tears) +You must be very proud. + +The old man nods, suffering again. + +geNERAL FEVERSHAM +...There isn't a trace of fear in the writing. That's what I find so hard to understand. That someone could be so terrified of going to war; and yet when the time comes to face it for real, he embraces it, almost gratefully... + +ETHNE +(Sharing his guilt) +We all misjudged him. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +You only knew him a short time. I had no excuse. + +Seeing him overcome by guilt and grief, ETHNE gets up and takes his hand. GENERAL FEVERSHAM holds hers tightly. + +gENERAL FEVERSHAM +My son loved Jack Durrance like a brother. I know he'd be happy for you. He'd want you to live your lives. + +ETHNE nods gratefully, unable to speak, her whole world falling apart. + +EXT. courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The PRISONERS tear and claw at each other like wild animals, desperately trying reach a scrap of meat that's fallen to the floor. HARRY is in the thick of the fighting, elbowing and head-butting people out of his way. He's changed beyond recognition, and it isn't just physical. He fights with a primal savagery, oblivious to everything except the precious scrap of food. He finally gets hold of it, and swings his elbow round, breaking another PRISONER's nose. + +EXT. RIVER's EDGE/ courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +TRENCH lies by the riverside, sweating and shivering from fever, his eyes sunken back into his skull. HARRY kneels beside him, covered in blood. He holds out the scrap of meat. + +hARRY +...Trench. Food. You have to eat. + +TRENCH can't move his jaw, let alone eat. HARRY chews the meat for him. When it's soft between his teeth, he spits it out, and feeds TRENCH with his fingers. For all the primal horror, there's a touching human tenderness in the moment. + +Suddenly a pair of hands grab HARRY by the hair, and drag him away from TRENCH. It's IDRIS. The giant prison guard tears the scrap of meat from HARRY's hands and kicks him in the ribs for good measure. Spitting out blood, HARRY crawls after him, no longer having to play the madman, he's halfway there. + +hARRY +(In Arabic) +Food master, food master please... + +IDRIS lashes him with his whip. HARRY's body arches in pain but his brain hardly registers. He kisses the ground at Idris's feet, still begging for his scrap of food back. + +hARRY +(In Arabic) +Food master. Food... + +IDRIS walks away in disgust. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - night. + +HARRY holds up the semi-conscious TRENCH, as they're buffeted around in the House of Stone. The other PRISONERS try to push them under, but HARRY defends TRENCH with the savagery of a veteran. A PRISONER tries to blind TRENCH with his hands, but HARRY grabs his fingers, sinking his teeth in as far as they will go. + +INT. house of stone/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +Daylight streams through the open doors. HARRY rests TRENCH against a wall, and scavenges amongst the bodies of the dead, searching for any money they may have hidden. + +EXT. courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY runs over to HASSAN, and drops to his knees in supplication, holding out a copper coin: + +hARRY +(Pleading in Arabic) +Food master. Food. My master needs food. + +HASSAN holds out his arm to reveal a stump where his hand should be. + +hasSAN +(In Arabic) +This is what Idris gave me for helping your master... +(Spitting at Harry's feet) +There's some food. + +HASSAN turns and walks towards the fortress gates. The other PRISONERS scramble after him, desperate to receive their daily handout from their RELATIVES. HARRY thinks about wading in and fighting them for it, but he has no energy left. He collapses in the sand, staring up at the sun. As he closes his eyes, he suddenly hears a whisper: + +ARAB BOY o/s +English... + +HARRY looks up to see a small ARAB BOY, approaching him. The BOY stops as he sees HARRY's ravaged face, frightened by his mad, staring eyes. HARRY sees the piece of chicken in his hand, and waves him over. The ARAB BOY finally kneels down, and offers him the chicken bone. HARRY snatches it and gnaws on it like a hungry animal. It's only when he examines the meat, making sure there's enough left for Trench, that we realise how human he still is. He slips the half eaten chicken bone in his robes, and looks at the ARAB BOY gratefully. The ARAB BOY holds out some coins for him. + +ARAB BOY +From Abou Fatma. + +HARRY stares at the coins. It's all the money he's ever paid Abou Fatma. + +harrY +Money's no good anymore. We can't bribe the guards. I need him to buy food and medecine for my friend... + +He stops as he realises the ARAB BOY doesn't understand a word. He gives him back the coins: + +harrY +(In Arabic) +Tell Abou Fatma to buy us food. You bring me the food... + +He points to the other RELATIVES as if to explain. The ARAB BOY nods that he understands. HARRY is about to ask him more when he suddenly spots IDRIS walking towards them menacingly. + +harrY +Go. Thank Abou Fatma. Thank him for me. + +The ARAB BOY gets up and walks away. HARRY watches him leave, already missing the human contact. As IDRIS approaches, he scrambles away, reduced to his bestial state again. + +EXT. courtyard/ RIVERside/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY pours water over TRENCH's face. + +hARRY +...You're better Trench. Much better. You may not feel it, but you look it... + +TRENCH opens his eyes, conscious enough for the first time in weeks, to see how much his friend has changed. + +treNCH +(Smiling weakly) +...When I'm better...Will I look as bad as you?... + +HARRY smiles through bleeding gums and swollen cheeks. The evening prayer starts up behind them. TRENCH closes his eyes in despair. + +treNCH +I don't think of God anymore when I hear that sound. It used to give me hope. Now all I feel is dread. + +hARRY +Don't talk like that. We're going to get you through this. + +treNCH +I don't want to get through this, Harry. What for? + +In the distance they hear IDRIS shouting at the prisoners, driving them back into the House of Stone. + +TRENCH +...There's only one thing that frightens me now. The thought that the closer I come, the more desperately afraid and sure I am that all this will end right here... when I so wish I could die at home... +(fighting tears) +In my own country -- in my own village...to be buried beneath the trees I know -- in sight of the church and houses I know...beside the trout stream, where I fished when I was a boy... +(Trying to smile) +Are you laughing yet?... + +HARRY +No, I'm not laughing. + +HARRY fights his own pain. + +treNCH +I don't think I can take it anymore, Harry... + +HARRY finds it hard to argue. Staring at TRENCH's ravaged face and withered body all he can do is nod in sympathy. + +EXT. courtyard/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY sits opposite the young ARAB BOY in the courtyard. There's a look of quiet resignation in his eyes as he stares at the small glass vial in his hand. + +hARRY +(In Arabic) +Thank Abou Fatma for me. Ask him to pray for us. + +The ARAB BOY nods sadly, as if he's seeing Harry for the last time. HARRY pats him on the shoulder, and gets up. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - night. + +HARRY and TRENCH lean against a wall, watching as the House of Stone fills with PRISONERS. TRENCH's eyes are filled with dread. + +hARRY +(Quietly) +...We had a visitor today. + +TRENCH turns and looks at him. HARRY opens his hand to reveal the small glass vial. TRENCH stares at the dark liquid inside, slowly realising what it is. + +TRENCH +Anything would be better than this. + +HARRY +Are you sure? + +TRENCH nods, his decision made. + +hARRY +(Slipping him the vial) +The poison will take a few hours to work. You won't feel any pain. + +TRENCH +(Smiling grimly) +That'll make a change. + +HARRY looks at him sadly, then turns away, preparing for the inevitable charge from the other PRISONERS. + +trENCH +...One last thing, Harry... + +HARRY turns around. + +trENCH +...My feather...I'd like it back... + +HARRY stares in silence. TRENCH holds out his hand. HARRY takes it. As they finally let go, we see the soiled white feather in TRENCH's palm. TRENCH closes his fingers around it, gratefully. + +treNCH +I hope it gives me as much strength as it gave you. + +Their eyes stay on each other, full of friendship and respect. Then, steeling himself, TRENCH snaps the vial, and starts to drink. + +HARRY +Half... + +TRENCH stops. + +trENCH +(Smiling sadly) +I didn't mean to be a pig about it... + +He holds out the vial for Harry. HARRY takes it and swallows the rest of the poison. He grins at TRENCH. + +hARRY +What do you say, we give them one last night of hell. + +trENCH +I'll drink to that. + +Shoulder first, HARRY charges into the massing PRISONERS. TRENCH follows him, laughing through his tears. + +INT. HOUSE OF STONE - DAWN. + +Blinding sunlight. The PRISONERS stumble out of the House of Stone, covered in blood from the previous night's fighting. IDRIS looks down at the broken bodies at his feet. HARRY and TRENCH are amongst the dead. IDRIS prods them both with his spear, making sure. + +IDRIS +(In Arabic) +Take them to the boats. + +EXT. courtyard/ RIVERside/ PRISON/ OMDURMAN - day. + +A dozen BODIES are dumped, one on top of the other, in two funeral boats. HASSAN takes charge of one, IDRIS the other. + +EXT. BOATS/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The GUARDS hold onto the sides of the boat, steadying themselves in case a crocodile tries to ram. The PRISONERS charged with throwing the bodies overboard, stare into the water, terrified of the unseen monsters lurking below. + +EXT. hassan's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The corpses are piled high in Hassan's boat, a mass of chalk white flesh. As we follow a rivulet of blood into the heap, we see Harry's face. His eyes suddenly open. Very much alive. They move around, trying to locate Trench. Above him he feels the corpses being lifted off, easing the burden on his back. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +Arrows break the surface, as the giant crocodiles move in. + +EXT. hassan's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY finally glimpses TRENCH. His friend is still unconscious. In tiny movements, HARRY slips through the ice cold flesh that separates them, and slides over TRENCH's body, trying to ensure he's thrown overboard first. + +EXT. idris's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +Blood boils around the boats as more bodies are tossed overboard. As IDRIS stares into the murky depths, he sees a fifteen foot monster, dragging away a translucent corpse. + +EXT. hassan's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY and TRENCH are the only bodies left in Hassan's boat. HARRY braces himself as he's lifted into the air. His body is swung out three times and thrown overboard. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY feels the warm water envelop him. Any trace of paralysis the poison has left, disappears in an instant, driven away by sheer terror. Through the eerie green haze he glimpses the dreamlike silhouettes of the crocodiles, feasting on the corpses, dragging them along the river bed. HARRY's instincts are to swim away as fast as he can, but even now he remembers TRENCH. The water above him explodes as TRENCH is hurled in. HARRY swims up to the surface and grabs hold of his friend. + +EXT. idris's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +IDRIS stares curiously as he watches the two bodies drifting away. The water around them is bubbling but there's no blood. It's only as he looks more closely that IDRIS realises one of the bodies is kicking his feet, swimming away. + +iDRIS +(In Arabic) +Hassan. Behind you! + +EXT. HASSAN's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HASSAN turns around to see HARRY and TRENCH disappearing with the current. He takes out his pistol. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +Holding the unconscious TRENCH in his arms, HARRY swims towards the fastest point of the river, hoping the current will drag him away from the crocodiles and the boats. + +EXT. HASSAN's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HASSAN aims the pistol with his good hand. He's about to squeeze the trigger, when there's a loud explosion from the opposite shore. A bullet smashes through his skull and hurls him into the water. + +EXT. opposite shore/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The MAN who fired the shot lowers his rifle. It's ABOU FATMA. He kicks his camel, and gallops along the riverbank, trying to keep up with HARRY and TRENCH in the water. + +EXT. IDRIS's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +IDRIS stares after them in fury. He orders the GUARDS to row into the current and give chase. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY and TRENCH tumble through the churning water, the current boiling all around them. There are splashes of water as bullets explode. + +EXT. opposite shore/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +ABOU FATMA dismounts as he sees HARRY and TRENCH being picked off. He takes up a position near the riverbank, and fires at the pursuing boat. + +EXT. IDRIS's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +IDRIS ducks as one of his GUARDS is hit. He shouts at the remaining GUARDS to fire back at Abou Fatma. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY and TRENCH keep disappearing under the water. As he surfaces briefly, HARRY looks around. He sees the current hurtling towards a row of jagged rocks. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +IDRIS aims at the distant figure on the riverbank, and fires a volley of shots. + +EXT. opposite shore/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +Two bullets spin ABOU FATMA round, grazing him in the leg, knocking the rifle out of his hand. Limping as fast as he can, he takes cover behind the camels. + +EXT. IDRIS's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +IDRIS looks back at HARRY and TRENCH, ready to pick them off. Suddenly his eyes stop. He sees the jagged rocks in his path. He yells at the GUARDS to row against the current. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The current picks up speed as it hurtles towards the rocks. HARRY holds TRENCH tightly, anticipating the impact. The current sweeps them right through the rocks. + +EXT. opposite shore/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +ABOU FATMA watches from the riverbank as IDRIS's boat tumbles helplessly towards the rocks. + +EXT. IDRIS's BOAT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +The GUARDS leap off the boat at the last moment, but the current sweeps them up, and dashes their brains against the rocks. Only IDRIS holds on. The boat breaks up all around him, but protects him from the full impact. + +EXT. RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY and TRENCH surface on the other side of the rocks. Huge tree roots jut out near the riverbank. The current is still strong but it's swimmable. + +EXT. opposite shore/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +ABOU FATMA rides after the disappearing bodies. + +EXT. GIANT TREE ROOT/ RIVER/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY reaches out and grabs a jutting tree root. With his legs clamped around TRENCH, he pulls them out of the fastest point of the current. As he looks behind him he sees IDRIS disappear under the torrent. Catching his breath, HARRY starts to clamber along the root, trying to make it to the safety of the riverbank. TRENCH groans, fully conscious now. + +harrY +We're going to make it. + +TRENCH stares at HARRY with an almost childlike trust. + +harrY +See if you can touch the bottom. + +TRENCH dips his feet under, nodding as they touch the riverbed. + +harrY +Grab the root. + +TRENCH grips the root. HARRY swims around him. + +harry +Now walk to the riverbank. + +treNCH +My legs are broken. + +harry +Your legs are fine. The poison paralyses the body. It's worn off. + +Gripping the root, TRENCH starts to walk against the current, the water flowing up to his neck. Slowly the river shallows. HARRY looks relieved as his friend finally tumbles onto the riverbank and collapses. He's about to follow him, when suddenly a pair of hands shoot out of the water, and grab him around the neck. It's IDRIS. He's also managed to clamber his way to safety. With a howl of rage he pulls HARRY's face under the water. + +HARRY kicks and flails. With one huge hand IDRIS keeps him under the surface, with the other he holds onto the giant tree root. HARRY tries to loosen his grip, but he isn't strong enough. He reaches down into the riverbed, and gropes around until he finds a rock. He grinds it into IDRIS's wrist like a pummel stone. + +IDRIS whips his hand away in pain. HARRY is instantly sucked out of his grasp. The current smashes him headlong into another root, downriver. IDRIS stares at his escaped prey in fury. His anger clouds his reason. He lets go of his own root and lets the current drag him to HARRY's. + +EXT. RIVERbank/ OMDURMAN - day. + +HARRY drags himself towards the riverbank. He's only a few yards away when IDRIS's hands grab him again. HARRY turns around swinging and catches IDRIS on the jaw. Both of them tumble in the water. + +They wrestle beneath the surface, then shoot up again, tearing at each other like wild animals. IDRIS grabs HARRY by the hair, and slams his face down on his knee, smashing his nose. The searing pain staggers HARRY. He tries to crawl away, but IDRIS stamps on his back, flattening him. He drops to his knees, and grinds HARRY's face into the riverbed. + +As he pulls him back up by the hair, we see HARRY's mangled features -- a mask of blood, eyes staring out, jaws hanging open in defeat. For a moment time seems to slow, then suddenly, shaking his head free, HARRY screams a savage, primal cry, and drives his elbow back into IDRIS's face, shattering bone and cartilege. + +IDRIS falls back, stunned. HARRY has his chance to get away, but he's not interested now. He wades after IDRIS, an expression of pure, uncontrollable rage in his eyes. As IDRIS tries to pick himself up, HARRY slams both fists into his mouth, smashing his teeth down his throat. + +It's IDRIS's turn to look scared. He tries to crawl away, but the bloody faced demon is on him in seconds, ramming his head back under the water. IDRIS manages to kick him away briefly, but it only enrages HARRY. He comes back at IDRIS with a large rock between his hands, cracking his face open. + +And still he isn't finished. Sitting astride the gurgling prison guard, HARRY raises both arms as high as they'll go, and smashes the rock into IDRIS's face, again and again. The guard's blood splatters all over him, but HARRY hardly seems to notice. He's gripped by a savage, primordial fury. Everything he's suffered has built up to this point. He's at his highest and lowest ebb. His hands whirr up and down, his eyes glow feverishly, his lips curl in a terrifying sneer. + +Strong arms grab him from behind, but HARRY ignores them, hammering away. He's beyond hatred, beyond compassion, face to face with his deepest, darkest self. Again the arms try to pull him off, but HARRY brushes them aside. The blood and tears stream down his cheeks. He howls like an animal. His hands finally slow as his arms reach exhaustion. + +This time ABOU FATMA manages to pull him off. HARRY collapses in his arms and weeps like a baby, finally breaking out of the darkness, no longer sure who or what he is anymore. ABOU FATMA holds him tightly, hushing him, comforting him, understanding. + +EXT. country lane/ bintree/ england - day. + +A primal silence. Mist hovers over the emerald fields. In the distance a carriage approaches. As it draws nearer, we see HARRY, sitting in the back. His scars have healed, but his eyes have the far away look of someone who's seen too much. The outlines of the village church appear through the fog. HARRY hears a dog barking. + +hARRY +(To the Driver) +Could you stop here. + +EXT. church/ bintree - day. + +The barking grows louder as HARRY enters the churchyard. He sees a Collie, tied to a post. It's Dermod's dog. HARRY bends down and strokes the animal. Then he looks up through the open church door. + +INT. church/ bintree - day. + +At first HARRY doesn't see ETHNE. She sits quietly in one of the Church pews. It's only as she hears his footsteps that she turns around. Her eyes stop still. She stares at him in silence, taking in the ravages of time. All the diffidence and boyish charm she remembers have long since disappeared. In their place, there's an inner strength, and confidence. + +ETHNE +Everyone said how much you'd changed. I didn't believe them. + +hARRY +Do I look that bad? + +ETHNE +Trench came to see me last week. He looked a good deal worse than you. + +hARRY +He's suffered more. + +ETHNE +That isn't what he told me. + +She stares at him with quiet pride. + +ETHNE +May I have it back? + +hARRY +That isn't why I came. + +ETHNE +I'd still like it back. +(She smiles sadly) +I have three of them, I'd like four. + +HARRY stares at her, then takes out the fourth feather. + +hARRY +I'm almost sorry to let it go. It's brought me a lot of luck these past few months. + +ETHNE takes the feather, unable to look at him. She stares at it in silence. + +ETHNE +When did you get back? + +hARRY +Two weeks ago. + +She looks hurt that it's taken him so long to come and see her, but she knows she has no right to expect more. + +ETHNE +I'm glad you did what you did, on your own, without anyone's help. I'm glad for you, Harry. + +hARRY +I did nothing on my own. You were with me the whole time. + +The tears begin to shine in her eyes. + +ETHNE +You've heard our news?... + +hARRY +Yes. + +ETHNE nods, unable to continue. + +hARRY +I didn't come here to change your mind. +(With quiet dignity) +The most I hoped for -- and I hoped for it every day -- was that I could do enough to save the memory of what we had. So that you wouldn't always be ashamed of the time we spent together. + +ETHNE is too ashamed of herself to answer him. Her eyes drift to a crack of sunlight on the church wall, glinting through the stained glass windows. + +hARRY +What are you thinking? + +ETHNE +You'd laugh if I told you. + +harrY +That might not be a bad thing. + +ETHNE +I was thinking I'd get up and leave when that patch of sunlight disappeared. So far it's been quite resilient. + +She smiles gently. For a moment they're the Harry and Ethne of old. + +ETHNE +I passed by your appartment the other day. + +hARRY +(Surprised) +When? + +ETHNE +When you didn't come and see me... +(She smiles sadly) +I was in London for the day. It took me hours to pluck up the courage. When I finally drove by, your lights were off. + +hARRY +I've hardly been out since I got back. + +ETHNE +It was last Friday. Between five and six. + +hARRY +(Pausing) +I'd gone to see my father. + +ETHNE +(Smiling ironically) +Someone must be watching over us. + +The sunlight lingers precariously on the wall. + +ETHNE +It will pass. You'll meet someone soon. Then you and her, and Jack and I, will sit over tea and chatter politely, as if there was never anything between us. + +hARRY +That won't happen. + +ETHNE +It has to happen. +(The tears fill her eyes) +Because I love you Harry...and I can't. I can't. + +The sunlight on the wall finally fades. ETHNE wipes her tears and gets up to leave. As she tries to walk past him, HARRY takes her in his arms. She doesn't resist. If anything she's relieved. They stay like that for a moment, holding each other, unable to do anything else. We feel their desperate longing, but there's a self imposed wall that keeps them apart. ETHNE pulls away gently. + +ETHNE +I'll take you to the station. + +He nods. + +hARRY +I wanted to look in on Jack. I'll leave him a note. + +ETHNE +(Considering) +No, he'd love to see you. He's staying at the vicarage. It's on the way. + +They're polite around each other now, like strangers. ETHNE slips past him with an awkward smile. HARRY waits before he follows her. They walk down the aisle, several feet apart. + +INT. DURRANCE's room/ vicarage/ glenalla - day. + +DURRANCE sits at a table, knotting his tie. There's a determination in his eyes, as if the smallest activity has become a battle to be won. Suddenly he hears the noise of Ethne's carriage outside. His face lights up. He feels his way towards the window. + +The carriage door takes a long time to open. DURRANCE stares curiously. Finally he hears footsteps on the gravel. They're heavier than he expected. They stop a moment. DURRANCE knows whoever it is, is staring up at him in the window. He looks thoughtful now, as if he knows who it is. + +He turns away from the window and finds a chair. He sits, facing the door, checking to make sure the carafe of Scotch and the crystal glasses are within easy reach. The footsteps climb the stairs. There's a knock on the door. + +DURRANCE +Come in. + +HARRY enters. He stops as he sees his friend. DURRANCE's face has softened from inactivity. His skin seems pale compared to Harry's coarse, sunburnt features. + +DURRANCE +It's good to see you, Harry. + +hARRY +(Quietly impressed) +How did you know? + +DURRANCE +A calculated guess. +(He grins) +Scotch alright? + +hARRY +Perfect. + +DURRANCE +I've got to cut down on the stuff. I'm putting on weight. + +hARRY +You look good. + +DURRANCE +Not as good as you, I'm sure. + +HARRY watches his friend, taking the carafe, pouring two perfect glasses. Everything Durrance does, is designed to show him he's alright, that there's nothing to pity. + +DURRANCE +(Handing him the drink) +I heard Ethne's carriage outside? + +hARRY +She's giving me a ride to the station. + +DURRANCE +Why didn't she come up? + +hARRY +(He knows the question isn't as casual as it sounds) +I think she wanted to give us a few minutes alone. + +DURRANCE +Do we need a few minutes alone? + +Even though he's smiling, the air is thick with tension. + +hARRY +I came to thank you, Jack. + +DURRANCE +For what? + +hARRY +For standing by me. + +DURRANCE +If you're talking about the feathers, I wasn't there. + +hARRY +Willoughby told me you were. He said you'd tried to talk them out of it. + +DURRANCE hesitates. + +DURRANCE +You don't owe me anything Harry. The wedding isn't for another month. Ethne's free to make up her own mind. + +hARRY +You don't owe me anything either, Jack. And she's made up her mind. You should trust her judgement. + +A long silence. DURRANCE is too proud to respond. HARRY stares at his friend, regretting the wall between them. + +hARRY +I'd better go. I'll miss my train. I'll come and see you soon. + +He finishes his drink and gets up. + +DURRANCE +Have another one. + +hARRY +I can't Jack. + +DURRANCE +Please. + +His voice is softer now, more conciliatory. + +DURRANCE +The friendship was the best thing about that place. It's the one thing I haven't been able to hang onto. + +It's his way of asking Harry to stay. HARRY sits again. + +DURRANCE +I've become like one of those old soldiers we used to laugh at. Forcing my stories on everyone. Enough medals on my uniform to light up a Christmas tree. +(Filling their glasses) +Have they given you back your commission? + +hARRY +They haven't acknowledged me in any way. + +DURRANCE +I suppose it wouldn't be the British Army if they admitted their mistakes. + +hARRY +I don't know if it was a mistake. I was never a real soldier like you. + +DURRANCE +A real soldier doesn't come back in a hospital ship. +(Raising his glass) +To Castelton and all the others we left behind. + +HARRY watches his friend down his whisky, sensing the guilt and pain inside. + +hARRY +(Reassuring him gently) +You did everything you could. + +DURRANCE +You saw it happen? + +hARRY +From a distance. I remember the entire British Square retreating in perfect order, and then these two lunatics, charging out to save their friend. +(He smiles affectionately) +I remember thinking there wasn't a bullet in the world that could stop you that day. + +DURRANCE +(Ironically) +Except my own. + +hARRY +You obviously weren't meant to die. You certainly tried your best. + +DURRANCE chuckles, close to tears, holding them back. + +DURRANCE +It's hard to talk like this with anyone else. They all want to know how many people you've killed, but the moment you mention the friends you've lost, their eyes glaze over. + +hARRY +They weren't there. + +DURRANCE +No. +(A beat) +Do you ever miss the desert Harry? + +hARRY +I'm glad I'm home. + +DURRANCE +It was the best time of my life. Whenever anyone had a problem they came to me. I never felt so needed. __ +(He smiles) +Maybe we should change places. + +HARRY isn't sure what he means. DURRANCE tops up their glasses. + +DURRANCE +You remember the first time we led a cavalry charge in public? + +hARRY +You wiped the floor with me. Most of my horses ended up in the bandstand. + +DURRANCE +Ethne was watching. + +hARRY +(Hesitating) +That's right. + +DURRANCE +We'd met her the previous night, at the regimental ball. + +hARRY +I remember. + +DURRANCE +You should. You were the only one she danced with. + +HARRY smiles but doesn't say anything. + +DURRANCE +I've never been so jealous. I stayed up all night brooding. The next day I was determined to show you up -- prove to her I was the better soldier. + +hARRY +(Affectionately) +You were always the better soldier. + +DURRANCE +And it still didn't make a difference. +(He smiles wistfully) +She was the first person I looked for in the crowd, and she was staring at you. Everyone else was applauding me, and she was staring at you. +(A beat) +I'm not sure if anything's changed. + +HARRY can't speak. He knows what DURRANCE is saying. + +DURRANCE +(Raising his glass) +To us Harry. + +He leans over, grinning, and touches Harry's glass. + +DURRANCE +To you. + +EXT. churchyard/ glenalla - day. + +Church bells chime, drowned out by the excited GUESTS. The Wedding party has gathered outside the chapel, waiting for the bride. There's a flurry of activity as Ethne's carriage finally draws up. FRIENDS and FAMILY run over to greet her. + +HARRY's PARTY stays behind at the Church door, preparing him for her imminent arrival. GENERAL FEVERSHAM and COLONEL SUTCH make last minute adjustments to HARRY's suit and tie. WILLOUGHBY reminds TRENCH to make sure he's still got the ring. + +ETHNE finally emerges from the carriage, looking radiant in a white dress. HARRY tries to catch a glimpse of her, but TRENCH covers his eyes, as if it's still bad luck to see his bride. + +ETHNE laughs as she walks past them into the church, accompanied by her FATHER. TRENCH waits until she's safely inside, before he removes his hands from Harry's eyes. HARRY looks around, hoping to see Durrance amongst the crowd. + +His friend is nowhere to be seen. HARRY smiles at the other GUESTS, but he seems distracted, as if he knows in his heart Durrance won't show. Slowly the CROWD outside thins until only HARRY, TRENCH, and WILLOUGHBY remain. + +trENCH +Ready? + +HARRY has one last look for Durrance, still hoping against hope, then he nods and follows his friends inside. + +The noise of the choir fades as the doors close behind them. For a moment we're left in the balmly stillness of the churchyard, and then, in it's place, we hear the unmistakeable whisper of the desert wind. + +FADE OUT. + +CUT TO: + +INT. BACK ROOM - CHURCH AT GLENALLA - DAY (CHURCH ORGAN OVER) 155 + +In full dress uniforms, Colonel Sutch and General Feversham work Harry over -- adjusting his collar: + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM +All set... looking good. + +HARRY +(mock nautical) +Aye, sir. + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM +That's enough out of you... + +As they shove him through the door -- turning back to Sutch: + +HARRY +By the way, I must remember to thank you... +(pause) +For telling everyone I was dead. + +SUTCH +I've never been so happy to be wrong in all my life. But I did what I thought was right.. + +HARRY +A terrible habit. +(beat) +Raises all kinds of hell... + +As he heads out through the door, with the ORGAN PLAYING: "THE WEDDING MARCH..." + +SERIES OF SHOTS (MUSIC OVER): 156 + +- THE CHAPEL: is filled with MILITARY MEN; Feversham family and friends; Mrs. Adair; and a church full of locals. + +- HARRY'S POV - ON ETHNE: walking down the aisle -- as beautiful as a bride can be. + +DISSOLVE TO: + +- HARRY AND ETHNE: kissing at the altar -- joined together as man and wife, as... + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM (v.o.) +(bellows) +Officers... + +CUT TO: + +EXT. CHURCH - AFTER CEREMONY 157 + +ANGLE ON: the assembled military men -- in two lines, leading from the church door: + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM (CONT'D) +(bellows) +Draw... + +CLOSEUP: hands on hilts, as: + +GENERAL FEVERSHAM +(bellows) +Swooooords!!! + +TWO ROWS OF SWORDS ARE PULLED AND FLOURISHED -- INTO THE AIR! + +Sunlight glinting off the blades, the Officers and former Officers of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards form a canopy, beneath which... + +HARRY AND ETHNE: exit the church, arm-in-arm, to the CHEERS of their families and friends... and the bitter-sweet tears of Mrs. Adair. As they move down the steps, beneath the ceremonial swords... + +WITH AN ARMY BAND PLAYING A ROUSING MARCH... + +TRACK DOWN THE LINE TO REVEAL: the joyous faces of General Feversham, Colonel Sutch, Colonel Willoughby, and Captain Trench. As their heads turn to follow the lovers... + +CONTINUE TRACKING TO REVEAL: an EMPTY SPACE -- amidst the row of Officers, in honor of the missing Durrance. + +TRACK IN TOWARD THAT EMPTY SPACE, AND RACK BEYOND IT TO REVEAL: + +Harry and Ethne, kissing for real... at last. + +FREEZE FRAME. + +As the MILITARY MARCH PLAYS ON; + +CREDITS ROLL TO... + +THE END. diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Rooms.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Rooms.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..126dcc0d9fed61c66dcaf630fa35342a35a1c105 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Four Rooms.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "FOUR ROOMS" Screenplay by Allison Anders Alexandre Rockwell Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino MAIN TITLES As presentation credits begin, we hear Johnny Cash's "Home of the Blues." Then we see Allison's name, under it Alex's, under that Robert's, under that Quentin's, then under that the title logo for Four Rooms, followed by "Starring Tim Roth as the Bellboy." Then "The Guests" listed in alphabetical order of all the actors playing guests. After the actors' names, we... FADE UP ON A WALL The camera pans down a weathered wall covered with postcards from Miami Beach, Florida, the Copacabana, N.Y.C., "Wish You Were Here" from Niagara Falls, rickshaws and babes on beaches, etc.... The camera comes to rest on an old photograph of a 1930s hotel, the "Mon Signor," in its heyday, with a full staff of 30 people posed on the lawn in front. An old guy with a staccato voice delivers a monologue: VOICE-OVER There used to be a staff of fifty in this place. I'm the only one left from those days. It all comes down to one sap: the night-shift bellhop, that's me. What the hell is a bellhop? You know where the name comes from? (silence) Of course not... It's so simple it's stupid. They ring a bell and you hop. You hop to front and center. No heroes in this line, kid. Just men doing a job. No questions asked, none answered. I try to keep it simple, kid, not too personal... Another voice of a young man interrupts. TED You met any of those old stars? THE OLD GUY Stars! Are you kidding me? I took Rin Tin Tin out for a shit, for Christ's sakes. I taught Shirley Temple how to roller-skate. I saw Fatty Arbuckle regurgitate three cheese sandwiches right on the spot you're sitting, kid. What did you say your name was? TED Ted. THE OLD GUY Ted, right. I remember Marilyn used to come down at night and doze off in the kitchen. She liked the sound of the fans out back spinning around. Sure, these were stars, kid. Errol Flynn used to call me "Alibi." You'll pick up a few stories yourself, kid. TED I don't think so, not like yours. THE OLD GUY What do you think a star does when he goes to the bathroom, kid? TED Beats me. THE OLD GUY He pulls his pants down and takes a crap just like you and me. Take my word for it. A wisp of smoke passes over a napkin pinned to the wall with a lip print on it signed "Marilyn." The camera pulls back to reveal Ted and the Old Guy sitting on a foldout cot in a small back room of the Hotel Mon Signor. The old man is dressed in a striped T-shirt with a bellhop's cap on. He looks like an old pirate. Next to him on the bed sits Ted, a young guy with a bellhop jacket draped over his knees. The old bellhop takes a long drag off a big cigar. THE OLD GUY Camacho! TED Who? THE OLD GUY The cigar. Cuban. A good cigar, wrapped in Miami. I get a box of them every Christmas from the chairman of the board. I think he sends them to me to keep my mouth shut. It's tough not to get a little personal in this business. The old bellhop takes a hit off his cigar and stares down at his cap, lost in thought. TED What do you mean? The old guy passes the cap over to Ted. THE OLD GUY Put it on. Ted puts the cap on. THE OLD GUY Frankly, you look stupid... like the Philip Morris guy. I can't believe I wore that thing for fifty years. You keep it. The Old Guy gets up from the bed and throws a jacket on. Pulls a few postcards off the wall, throws them in an old straw suitcase, and slams the lid down. He heads for the door. Ted follows. THE OLD GUY Stay away from night clerks, kids, hookers, and marital disputes. The Old Guy pauses for a second and looks Ted dead in the eye. THE OLD GUY Never have sex with the clientele. TED No way, not me. You got any other advice. THE OLD GUY Always get a tip. The door slams shut on the back room. INT. HOTEL LOBBY--TWILIGHT The big empty lobby of the Mon Signor. You can tell that at one point this used to be a swank place. It still is, kinda. It's also kinda decrepit. The concierge -- a snappy, fast- talking, red-haired young woman in a blue blazer named Betty -- stands behind the reception desk. The old man, suitcase in hand, makes a beeline through the lobby, heading toward the front door. Betty sees him. BETTY Sam! Hey, Sam, wait a minute! The Old Guy stops in his tracks and turns around. THE OLD GUY What? Betty comes from behind the desk. BETTY I just want to say good-bye. THE OLD GUY Who are you? BETTY Uhhh, Betty. The concierge. Your boss. The Old Guy squints his eyes at the young gal. THE OLD GUY Oh yeah. Gotta light, sister? Goddam cigar went out. BETTY Yeah, sure. She speaks to the Old Guy as she lights his cigar and he puffs away. BETTY I just want you to know, from the owner and all the staff, your fifty years of service have been an inspiration to us all. You're a legend in your own time, and the Mon Signor will never be the -- THE OLD GUY Just forward my cigars, Red. (He turns around the walks out, saying over his shoulder) Aufwiedersehen! Betty is left standing in the lobby. Ted appears behind her in his bellbody uniform, sans cap. TED Sam the bellboy. Now there was a man. BETTY Yeah. Oh, hi, Teddy. Ready to start the night shift? TED Yeah. BETTY Well, let me buy you a drink. TED You wanna buy me a drink? I'm starting my shift. BETTY You're not an alcoholic, are you; one drink won't kill you. TED Yeah, sure. They walk out of frame. In the empty frame we SUPER: NEW YEAR'S EVE 7:00 P.M. INT. BACK ROOM--NIGHT Betty and Ted sit in the back room, both with drinks in their hand. This dialogue is to be delivered rapid fire, Howard Hawks style. BETTY After fifty years, Sam retires, and you're taking over the night shift. TED Correct. BETTY You're filling some mighty big shoes. TED Oh, I know. BETTY Sam was a legend in the hotel business. TED Oh, I know... BETTY A bellhop's bellhop. TED An inspiration to us all. BETTY He ran the night desk for fifty years, all by himself. TED An amazing man. BETTY No desk clerk. No night man. No help. Just fuckin' Sam, and his wits. TED A man alone. BETTY And you're gonna do the same. TED I know. BETTY Tonight. Ted spews his drink. TED Tonight! BETTY Yes, tonight. TED I can't. BETTY Yes, you can. TED No, I can't. I never worked the night shift before. BETTY Oh night shift -- smight shift. TED We were supposed to work it together. BETTY I know, but I can't. TED Why not? BETTY I'm having a New Year's Eve party. TED Since when? BETTY Actually, I'm not having it. My roommate is. And there's this guy. German guy. He's gonna be there. And so am I. TED I can't run this place by myself. BETTY Oh, sure ya can. TED No, I can't. BETTY Sam ran this place by himself for fifty years. TED Yeah, and he had fifty years of fuckin' practice, too. I haven't had a day. BETTY Look, Teddy, calm down -- TED -- Don't call me Teddy. BETTY Ted, the night's cake. It's easy. The day's when it's busy. During the night there's nothing to do. TED It's New Year's Eve. BETTY Which'll make it less busy than normal. Ever worked on Christmas? Unless you sell turkeys, business is dead. You just got butterflies, that's all. TED What I have ain't butterflies. I can't handle this hotel all by myself. Betty slows the scene down. BETTY Okay, let's calm down a minute. Slow it down, cool it off. Let's just talk. TED You can say any goddamn thing you want -- BETTY -- Ted? I thought we were calming down? I thought we were cooling off? No hostility. Say good-bye to hostility. We're just talking. TED Okay... okay... okay... I'm calm, I'm cool, let's talk. BETTY Ted, in a nutshell, all you have to do is hold the fort. It's New Year's Eve. Most of the guests are going out. You'll just be giving them a little nod as they come staggering in at three... four... five... in the morning. Nobody's having any parties, a few get-togethers, but no parties. You got about three people checking in tonight, that's it. The only variable is Chester Rush in the penthouse. TED Chester Rush? The guy from The Wacky Detective? BETTY Yeah, him and his entourage checked in last night. They're in the penthouse. The only reason I refer to it as a variable is that he's a movie star. Ya never know about movie stars. I'm tellin' ya, Ted, it's cake. Betty takes a piece of paper and writes her number down. BETTY (continuing) And look, if you have any problems, call me at the party. Ted thinks about it for a moment. TED Okay. BETTY Great -- TED -- For fifty bucks. BETTY Fifty bucks! TED You're shirking your duties for this Nazi. For that you pay a price, and the price is fifty bucks. BETTY One, Horst is not a Nazi. Two, that's not a fair price. You're taking advantage of the situation. Twenty bucks. Now, twenty bucks is a fair price. TED Yeah, but what you're doin' to me ain't fair. And, you are completely and totally taking advantage of me and your position. So fifty bucks is the perfect price. Betty begrudgingly digs in her purse. BETTY Okay, but don't be a pussy. You don't bother me unless it's an emergency. In fact, for fifty bucks, you better not call me unless the fuckin' building's burning down. She gives him the money. BETTY Get ready to take the desk. Betty leaves. Ted sits in the chair, takes another drink, and prepares himself for the night. FADE TO BLACK STORY TITLE CARD: ROOM 321 "STRANGE BREW" FADE IN: EXT. THE MON SIGNOR HOTEL--DUSK Ted, the bellboy, meets his first guest of the evening, as a taxi unloads her luggage. To his warm surprise, the guest is a Beautiful Mediterranean Goddess (actually, we will come to see she is not technically a goddess, but a High Priestess). She is about 25 years old, speaks with an Italian accent and is dressed in Gypsy garb. She is Athena. Ted takes Athena's luggage onto his cart. But one item in a woven Moroccan bag proves to be unbearably heavy. Athena is concerned as he attempts to lift it. ATHENA Pleeze be careful -- my God. You have no idea... Ted strains as he uses all his cojones to lift the insanely heavy bag onto the cart. Athena tips the cab driver, stingily. The driver winces and gets in the cab. Ted has now managed with grunts and groans and strained blood vessels to put this thing on the cart. The cab skids away. Athena looks at Ted, who is out of breath. ATHENA I'm usually a good tipper, but this one -- this cab driver -- he had green all around him. I don't like that in a man. Ted wheezes and pounds on his chest. TED Green? Is that bad? Like you read auras or something like that? ATHENA Something like that. TED Yeah, well what color are you seein' around me... how's the tip lookin? ATHENA I see purple... in your face, and... As if she can't help herself, Athena's eyes are strangely drawn to his crotch. She frowns, confused by this impulse. Ted appears to be charmingly oblivious. Athena looks back into his face. ATHENA ...you're okay. Ted touches his face -- as if searching for the "purple" in it -- and moves the cart inside, discreetly checking out his crotch and giving her a confused side glance. INT. FRONT DESK--DUSK Ted shifts hats to check the girl in. He checks her reservation. ATHENA Athena Z. TED (scratching his head -- weird name, okay) You're booked in the Honeymoon Suite -- just one night? With all this luggage? ATHENA I will only need to stay till sunrise. TED Okay... and how will you be paying? ATHENA With gold. He looks at this wacky Gypsy chick numbly -- she pulls out her Gold Card and smiles. EXT. ELEVATOR--DUSK The doors open and Ted and Athena emerge upon the third floor. Ted follows Athena with the cart down the hallway to her room. AT THE HONEYMOON SUITE DOOR Ted opens the door, then lifts the easiest bags first. In the center of the room is a Jacuzzi with hokey plastic cupids poised with urns on each side. A dormant fireplace looms beyond the still hot tub. Ted stares at the heavy bag with anxiety -- then looks in front of him to Athena as she rubs the round plastic head of a little Cupid and mumbles, "Perfect." Then, arms open wide, chin lifted to heaven, eyes closed, she mumbles a faint incantation. Then she does a belly-dance wiggle and turns to Ted, who is truly perplexed. ATHENA Well -- the other bag -- I need it. TED Right. He starts to lift it, again straining and turning purple. He laughs sickly. TED What the hell you got in here, lady? Nuclear weapons? She relieves him of the task and effortlessly picks up the bag. ATHENA (dryly) The White Cliffs of Dover. Ted is stunned as she slings the bag over her shoulder and pauses to pull a 10 spot out of her cleavage. She hands it to him. Ted is grateful and disoriented. ATHENA The others will be coming soon. Send them, pleeze. Ted nods, confused by "the others," and walks off with the cart. Then he turns from outside the doorway. TED Oh -- I forgot to show you how to turn on the Jacuzzi. But Athena is ahead of him -- she flips a switch and water begins to flow from the baby cupids' urns into the hot tub. ATHENA I been in dis' place many New Year's. So... you send the others to me, huh. Go now. As she says this, the door closes with a strange force, shutting Ted out. Athena takes the bag to the bedroom of the suite. IN THE SUITE BEDROOM A round bed with pink tuck'n'roll headboard. It's impossible to imagine having an orgasm in this room -- unless it were achieved by laughing. Athena carefully removes a large, beautiful white slab of stone from her tapestry bag. She caresses it and carries it like a baby to the bed and places it in the very center, the head of the rock resting on dusty heart-shaped pillows. Then she removes from her bag a pink negligee and matching high-heeled slippers. And these she places with reverence on the bed. ATHENA On this night, oh great goddess Diana, we restore your virgin flesh and bring you back to real life. CLOSE ON the rock slab. We hold the artifact. ATHENA Soon -- I take you to the pond for a cleansing. Well, it's a swimming pool, but it will be under the setting sun, okay? INT. FRONT DESK--DUSK FALLS Just as Ted is recovering from the mystery of this first guest, Elspeth arrives. She has skin like marble, the body of Venus, piercing blue eyes, blond hair and is dressed all in black clothing, like Honey West in a rubber dress. She carries several bags, and a silver sword on her shoulder. TED May I help you? ELSPETH I... we... have a reservation. Then she snaps, irritated, behind her. ELSPETH Kiva! ANGLE ON a young punk rocker chick with long orange hair, a long leather coat, wearing a tight T-shirt with studs spelling "PUSSY" across her breasts. This is Kiva. Kiva is kicking the tar and nicotine outta the cigarette machine. Just as Ted's eyes grow wide with anxiety, several packs of smokes drop into the juvenile delinquent's hands. KIVA Wait up, gawd! I had to get supplies for this boring ass night. ELSPETH (to Ted) We have a reservation in the Honeymoon Suite. TED Oh yeah... you must be one of "the others." And what're you carrying -- the Rock of Gibraltar? She stares at him without humor. He fumbles for the key. He walks around the desk to help her with her black crocodile luggage. Jars clang inside. He is ready to go, but Elspeth turns to lecture Kiva on the hazards of smoking, as Kiva lights up. ELSPETH What'd I tell you about smoking? KIVA You smoke. ELSPETH That's right -- I smoke, and I'm addicted to it, and I don't want the same thing to happen to you. KIVA (in game-show host voice) "Hello -- welcome to this week's edition of the Hypocrite of the Year Award --" As Kiva goes off on her impression of a game-show host, Elspeth is growing increasingly rageful, like a mother with an unruly child. Ted waits, luggage in hand. ELSPETH Kiva! That's enough -- She cuts Kiva's ramble off. Kiva blows smoke defiantly. KIVA You're not my mother! ELSPETH Yes I am. KIVA Then why're we sleeping together? Ted looks on uneasily at the relationship that is beginning to unfold here. Elspeth checks his reaction and becomes self-conscious at his scrutiny. ELSPETH Well... I didn't mean it... literally. I... I happen to be the only one who... cares about you -- But her wild child looks off, bored. Elspeth turns to Ted, flustered. ELSPETH Please -- take us to our room! Ted smiles uneasily and reaches to relieve her of her sword, but Elspeth quickly slams her palm on the sword and shoots him a piercing glare. He jumps back with a light nervous laugh. He leads the way to the elevator. AT THE HONEYMOON SUITE DOOR The couch has been set out here in the hall, as well as coffee tables, lamps, and the TV. Elspeth and Kiva enter the room. Athena is gone. As Ted stumbles around the furniture in the hall, he peers in the room and see a transformation. With most of the furniture removed, candles and incense and flowers are beginning to form an altar around the fireplace. But oddest of all is the pink-tinged water swirling in the Jacuzzi and pouring from the cupid urns. A sprinkle of white powder on the carpet encircles the hot tub. Elspeth hands him a tip as he gawks at the circle. ELSPETH Flea powder. One of the others is bringing her cat. Ted starts away again, perplexed. He turns for one last look to see Elspeth kneeling before Kiva, who sprawls on the floor. He shakes his head and leaves. ELSPETH You're gonna have to wait in the other room. KIVA Why? ELSPETH Because I said so. KIVA I'll watch TV. ELSPETH You can't watch TV because the noise will interfere with our ritual. Kiva looks around the room and spies the TV in the hallway. She turns to Elspeth with sarcastic concession. KIVA Okay... Mommy. Elspeth bristles as the brat saunters off to the bedroom. Elspeth enters the sacred circle, stands before the altar, whips out her sword, and makes a ceremonial gesture pointing the sword upward, perfectly centered between her breasts. Kiva, behind Elspeth's back, exits from the bedroom doorway into the hall and comes back in, lugging the TV into the honeymoon bedroom. Elspeth kneels before the altar. Athena enters the room with the "cleansed" artifact and lays the slab in the center of the altar upon the heart-shaped pillows as Elspeth lays her sword next to the rock. The women look upon the union with tender affection. ATHENA Soon -- our goddess will come. I will go get her negligee. Athena stands up but her reverie is dispelled as she shrieks! Loud TV suddenly blasts from the bedroom and Kiva the brat is trying on the pink negligee over her clothes. Athena takes the negligee off the irrepressible youth. ATHENA What are you doing! Have you no respect -- who -- who is dis girl? ELSPETH Kiva. My friend. Kiva, turn off the TV! I can't leave her at home -- she's on probation and I gotta keep an eye on her. ATHENA Well, Elspeth, your friend cannot stay here during the ritual. She may be one of your kind, but she is not one of us. ELSPETH She stays!! Or I go -- along with my offering! The women have a stare-down. Then Athena calls out -- ATHENA TURN OF THE FUCKING TV, MAN! KIVA (in a seductive pout) Make me... Elspeth becomes anxious with jealousy. Athena is exasperated as she firmly demands from Elspeth -- ATHENA Let's not forget -- I am the High Fucking Priestess. Deal with dis girl! Elspeth defers to Athena with remembered reverence and respect. She bows apologetic and scurries to the bedroom. ATHENA (eyes lifted to heaven, wearily) Tell me -- did we have these problems in Salem? I don't think so... IN THE BEDROOM Elspeth swallows her rage and approaches the brat with a soft touch. ELSPETH Kiva... you know what I love about you? Kiva smirks... yeah, she knows. ELSPETH Your sweet side. KIVA And what do I get if I'm sweet? ELSPETH You get whatever you want. And you know what else I love about you? KIVA (seduced now) What? ELSPETH Your nose. And saying this, she kisses Kiva's nose and leaves the room. Kiva is quieted now. As Elspeth closes the bedroom door, she has the last word. ELSPETH And I saw you checking her out. Kiva slinks back on the bed, put in her place -- for now. IN THE HALLWAY/EXT. ELEVATOR--DUSK The doors open and Ted pushes a cart of expensive designer luggage -- and lots of it -- behind yet another Gorgeous Gal. This one is Jezebel, a Southern beauty, fawning over her cat, as she carries nothing else, and proceeds down the hall like a Southern princess. JEZEBEL (talking to her cat in baby talk) Oh you little stinker... oh you sweet little muffin. Yes... Mama loves the baby. AT THE DOOR Jezebel bursts in, chattering. JEZEBEL Well, this is just darlin'! Just darlin' Hi-dee, girls... Ted carries all her bags inside awkwardly. Again, the place has become all the more transformed with wild canopies of exotic cloths and fixings. Elspeth and Athena are hard at work on a strange nature sculpture as Jezebel enters. She stands inside the powdered circle and before the hot tub, which now has dark blue water swirling inside. She presents her cat -- upward toward heaven -- frees the cat, bares her breasts and sucks in the vibes: "Ahhhh." Ted settles the bags down, hoping for a peek at her charms, but her back is to him. The kitty rubs on her leg. She picks it up and presses it against her bare breasts, petting it sweetly. She winks and hands him a tip. JEZEBEL Toodle-loo. And saying this, she shoos him away. Through the glass doors to the bedroom, she sees Kiva sprawled on the bed, writing on herself. JEZEBEL Well -- I see Elspeth has herself a new lil' fool -- what the hell is she doin' here on our night of annual ritual? ATHENA (wearily) I have sanctioned her presence, as long as she behaves. Come on -- there is more work to be done to welcome our great Diana. KIVA I WANT ROOM SERVICE!! ELSPETH Why do I always attract girls who are looking for a babysitter? JEZEBEL Well now, honey, maybe Juvenile Hall ain't the best place to find serious relationship material. Elspeth seethes at her. Jezebel acts blithely innocent. IN THE HALLWAY Ted is walking from the room with the cart. His face is etched in a mask of perpetual frown as he looks at the tip in his hand -- at least these lunachicks tip well. Waking him out of his deep mood is Raven. Another female intoxication, she wears a short skirt, all done up in Native American, Southwestern themes. No shoes. But she carries a small, old handmade broom. She moves down the hall, blissed-out. Ted makes eye contact, despite himself. RAVEN I'm looking for the room for making love. TED You might be referring to the Honeymoon Suite. Straight thata way... you can't miss it -- see all that furniture in the hallway -- RAVEN Oh I know the way. I just wanted you to know that I knew where I was going and that you needn't bother yourself with me. The others are here -- great! TED (wearily) Oh yeah -- it's so great -- it's fantastic. RAVEN (in deep empathy) Ohhh... I know it all seems very strange but you're coping with us much better than the bellboys of past New Year's. TED Past New Year's? RAVEN Oh yes -- we've been coming here every New Year... for a long time. Thanks for your patience. TED Oh hey -- no problem -- wreck the place. Bring in cats. Ruin the carpet with flea powder, pour paint in the Jacuzzi. Throw the furniture out the... where're your bags? RAVEN I travel very light. Ted looks down at the broom at her side, her bare feets, her thick dark hair. It keeps getting weirder. She wanders off. INT. FRONT DESK--NIGHT The last of the lovely girls arrives. She is different from the others. She looks like a farm girl, very Earth Mother, with a tablecloth halter top and skirt, sandals, and a simple scarf over her long dark curls. She carries two bags by herself and holds a small black pot under her arm. She is Eva. TED (already weary of these girls) Yeah, yeah, Honeymoon Suite. EVA Oh... yes... I'm late. She lowers her eyes, worried. TED All right -- lemme give ya a hand. EVA Oh... no, that's all right. I can carry them by myself. She is so sweet and sincere that he feels like a heel to have been irritated with her. He picks up her bags. TED I'm a man doin' a job -- no hero. Eva smiles, beautifully. EVA Well gosh -- thank you! IN THE ELEVATOR Ted holds Eva's hippy sacks as she holds her black pot. There is a shy quiet tension here. EVA Tell me, how long have the others been here? TED About an hour. Eva's heart sinks. They arrive at the door. He carries her bags in. IN THE SUITE The room is entirely transformed into a beautiful glowing palace with an elaborate altar, both earthly and the other- earthly. The other four girls are arranging the altar as Eva enters. ATHENA You are very late, Eva. EVA I'm sorry, Athena. I was attending a birth and the placenta was late in coming. Ted is slightly queasy. She hands him a tip and smiles, then takes it back. EVA Oh, wait, lemme give you a little more than that... Ted's no fool, he waits while Eva looks through her change purse. ELSPETH Which birth is more important to you, that of a mortal or that of a goddess? EVA All life is precious... but I do apologize for being late, Elspeth. JEZEBEL Back home, they jist yank on the umbilical cord, do a Karate chop on the mama's belly, and them things come right out. EVA They do that here, too, Jezebel, in the hospitals, but it causes hemorrhages. I fed the mother a bowl of comfrey tea and it brought the afterbirth down perfectly. The couple are going to use it for fertilizer to plant a lovely tree for their baby. KIVA Oh wow -- if they were really back- to-nature, they'd eat it, like other mammals do. CLOSE ON Ted's face as he gets thoroughly grossed out. RAVEN In some Native American cultures, they dry the umbilical cord, grind it to a fine powder, and put it in a leather pouch that the baby wears to ward off evil. But burying the placenta is also a very sound ecological practice -- 'cause of the oxygen it carries. EVA (cheerfully to the others) Yes -- because you see when the placenta detaches from the uterine wall... TED (wincing in disgust) Uh, thank you, ladies -- I'll be going now. If you need anything -- Eva places a nice tip in his palm. ATHENA Wait. We do need a few things. Ted sighs as Eva enters the circle with her black pot. She kneels softly, holds her hands in piety before the altar, and softly incants as she offers her pot and places it on the altar. The stone and sword and flowers now rest here on pillows covered in chiffon scarves. The negligee hangs from the mantel, the slippers underneath as if expecting someone to materialize into the garments. ATHENA We need fresh rosemary from the kitchen. Mostly what we need is from the kitchen. Hey, are you listening? Ted is watching Eva, enchanted. TED Yeah, yeah, rosemary. ATHENA And a little bit of sea salt or Kosher salt if you don't got no sea salt. A bottle of spring water -- Italian please, not French shit. KIVA And some french fries! ELSPETH Kiva, shut up. ATHENA (irritated) And some ginger, two of the eyes of a trout fish, and a piece of raw meat, liver if you have it. KIVA (whining) I want fries -- you dumb jerks with your stupid fucking ritual! ATHENA Shut up, you little shit. ELSPETH Don't talk to her that way! Ted has scribbled down the items as she speaks. He looks at this list and these girls and shudders as he walks away. He turns, points at Eva. Ted smiles at this angel of a girl. She smiles back. But, as she looks him in the eyes, he feels a strange buzzing connection happening. He holds his head, almost swooning with dizziness. Athena smirks. ATHENA Get to work, man. Ted comes out of his daze, looks at the list again and huffs off. After he goes, the girls begin to bring forth their most treasured offerings in ornate ancient bottles, vases or vials. Jezebel folds her arms and clears her throat in the direction of Kiva, sitting idly on the edge of the blue water Jacuzzi, with her feet dipping irreverently in the water. ELSPETH Kiva... KIVA What? ELSPETH You have to go in the next room now. KIVA Oh, wow, like I'm bummed out that I can't watch. (whining at Elspeth) I'm bored! ELSPETH UP! She climbs up the stairs, trying to pull the brat to her feet. KIVA Don't put me in there by myself. I'll miss you way too much. ELSPETH Kiva, don't do this to me. Kiva sees a bit of weakening here; she takes her feet out of the Jacuzzi. She begins to speak softly. KIVA Please... if you just lemme... I'll play dress-up with you, the way you like it... you know what I mean... remember...? Elspeth begins to weaken. But continues to pull the brat up. Kiva pours on softer seduction. KIVA We can pretend and I'll do it exactly... the way you want it... with the egg whites and the kilt. Elspeth is now fully seduced. Kiva takes Elspeth's hand and presses it lightly on her face. ELSPETH You mean... like last week? Kiva nods. Elspeth is enthralled, but from a disgusted "ick" sound from Jezebel, Elspeth realizes she's revealing this side of her life -- in front of her coven. She nervously looks around and see all the coven looking at her: a disgusted Jezebel, an understanding Raven, a preoccupied Eva and an impatient and stern Athena. Elspeth comes to her senses, straightens her posture. ELSPETH We'll talk about this later, Kiva. KIVA (angrily) No! She turns on Elspeth and bites her hand. Elspeth pulls her arm away and grabs Kiva by the hair. JEZEBEL Aw, really now -- child abuse? ELSPETH You stay outta this! ATHENA I demand this stop now, Elspeth! Elspeth lets go of Kiva's hair. Kiva jerks away from her. KIVA I'm running away from you! ELSPETH Fine. Go ahead. And I'll call your parole officer and she'll find you and send you back to Eastlake! Kiva stomps off into the bedroom. ATHENA Now that the fucking melodrama is over, can we start the goddamn ritual -- pleeze? Elspeth enters the powered circle. Each girl takes off her shoes. They anoint themselves with oils. ATHENA We are communing here on New Year's Eve to bring to life the great goddess Diana, who was turned to stone in this very room forty years ago today. The girls moan in sleepy, eerie agreement as they begin to sway within the circle. ATHENA Diana, great beautiful one, we make these offerings to you, that we may undo the wicked spell which deprived you of the seed of your lover, your virginal blood, of your very life. We now form the symbolic rock with our bodies. And saying this, the girls all form a "rock" with their bodies gracefully draped one upon the other. Music begins, and slowly they start to unfold from the rock. The girls each find their place in a semicircle around the Jacuzzi. Some bare their breasts, other strip off a layer of clothes. They anoint their arms with water from the Jacuzzi. They begin a lovely dance, snaking their way around the semicircle. The first one to go from one end to the other is Athena. She then proceeds up the stairs and positions herself between the altar and the Jacuzzi. She steps forth with a bottle to the altar and pours it into the Jacuzzi. ATHENA On this night, in this hour, we Call upon the Ancient Power O Goddess bride, I offer thee Milk from a mother's sweet titty! Each of the girls moans eerily. Athena places the bottle on the altar and bows away. She joins the circle as Elspeth now steps forward with her offering in a vial. ELSPETH To reverse the evil which has been done I make this offering to the Divine One A whore not, an innocent was, For whom I seized a virgin's blood. JEZEBEL Goddess of Light, Goddess of Lust, To undo this awful spell is a real must. To bring you life and get you high I offer the sweat of five men's thighs. The girls moan loudly as they sway. Jezebel places her offering in the hot tub and bows out, returning to the circle. Now Raven comes forth with a small leather canteen. She unscrews the lid as she offers in her opiate stupor. RAVEN Diana, oh great one, we live without sun Until this wicked curse is undone. In hope that you live, and to us appear, I have collected a year's worth of tears. She pours liquid into the mix, as the witches moan. Now it's Eva's turn. Eva continues to sway, not moving forth to the altar. The girls keep their eyes closed as they sway, waiting for Eva's offering. Athena finally gives her a push and she goes. Eva kneels before the altar. She produces a silver bottle with a chain on its cap and neck. She timidly begins to incant. EVA Great Goddess Diana, fail you I will, I was to bring fresh sperm from my Bill. I had him erect, and his semen would follow But alas I was hot, so hot that I swallowed. The moans turn to wails as the girls GASP and SHRIEK! Athena opens her eyes, wildly. ATHENA You stupid little witch! You swallowed the sperm! Aye-yi--yi! Elspeth opens her eyes and folds her arms, smirking bitterly. ELSPETH It just shows what an amazing lack of control you have over yourself, Eva! JEZEBEL Honey, why didn't you just use your hands? Didn't your mama teach you not to put them things in your mouth? RAVEN I understand though... Eva bursts into tears. Athena is firm. ATHENA There is no time to cry over swallowed sperms. You're gonna have to get some, baby. You have one hour to prove what kind of witch you really are. Just then: a knock at the door. ATHENA (calling out) What do you want?! TED Ted... the bellboy. Athena smiles and turns to Eva. ATHENA Mr. Bellboy, come right in! Ted opens the door. His eyes bulge out as he looks upon the fleshly feast. He steps back. They giggle seductively, all except Eva, who sniffles, red-eyed. Amazingly, Ted's attention is captivated by Eva's sorrow, not by the naked charms of the other witches. She shyly covers her breasts. Sensitive to her shame and sorrow, he looks away and steps from the door to fetch the room-service cart. Athena directs the others to put on their shirts. Ted wheels in the cart. TED Here's the things you asked for. Oh, and uhh, sorry, but I'm not gonna pick the eyes outta this dead fish. He points to the trout. Elspeth picks it up, flings the eyes into the Jacuzzi, and tosses the trout out of the window. She smirks at him comtemptuously. ATHENA (handing Ted 50 bucks) Okay, mister, here's your fifty-dollar tip, only, you have to do one more thing... make our little Eva smile. Can you? We'll leave you alone. (to Eva, firmly) And don't use your mouth! The girls step out. Athena turns to Eva and points to her watch, then holds up one finger. Eva looks up, worried. The door closes on her and Ted. She looks at Ted and sighs. He covers her with a shawl. IN THE HALLWAY The other witches listen at the door. ELSPETH If she doesn't get his goop in ten minutes, I'm going to take him myself. JEZEBEL Ha! That'll be a first for you. ELSPETH Oh shit -- Kiva! She runs back in for her bratty girlfriend, who is already sneaking out the bedroom door. ELSPETH And just where do you think you're going? KIVA Well, gawd -- I need a candy bar or something -- you haven't fed me all day. I'm getting all shaky. My blood sugar's really low. JEZEBEL Elspeth -- honestly now -- some babysitter you're turnin' out ta be! ATHENA Enough, girls. I will collect fresh earth. Jezebel, I want you to gather damp moss. Raven, you bring me a birch branch. Elspeth, you go feed your terrible girlfriend. We meet back here in one hour and let's all have faith that Eva can get this guy off. The witches disperse. INT. HONEYMOON SUITE--NIGHT Eva sits among pillows before the altar as Ted stands in front of her. Ted is trying his best to make poor Eva smile. But no matter what his antics, she looks off sadly. TED Help me out, lady. I gotta earn this fifty bucks! EVA Oh look, they don't care if I smile or not! All they want is... Ted waits; she sighs and rest her chin in her hand. EVA You won't understand, believe me. She begins to cry tearfully again. TED Try me. I've been around, y'know. He postures proudly, all puffed out. Eva looks at him helplessly. And he paternally encourages her to explain. EVA Well... okay. The five of us -- Elspeth, Jezebel, Athena, Raven and me -- are a coven. TED Ha, like a coven of witches? EVA Yes. TED (stunned) Oh. He looks around the room: QUICK CUTS of candles, iconography, jars of lurid substances, unknown body parts of animals woven into the nature sculpture... and are those tongues in that can? Ted's getting the creeps, but again puffs himself up. TED I knew that! EVA (getting calmer) And you see, our coven has spent forty years trying to perfect a ritual to undo a wicked curse put on our goddess Diana. TED Gee, you don't look a day over twenty! EVA Oh... ha ha... I mean the witches before us tried and failed. But Athena, our High Priestess, discovered a great potion to reverse the evil spell which turned our beautiful goddess into an old rock. TED (looking at the rock) Yeah? Is... is that her? Eva nods, looking lovingly at the stone. EVA She was a beautiful virgin. An entertainer by trade, but a great sorceress by design. It was here in this very room, on her wedding night, a jealous rival placed the curse on Diana. TED She turned to -- that -- here? EVA Yes... and her young husband turned into a pink fish! They found him swimming in the pool in circles. While our dear goddess: a stone in her honeymoon bed. Ted frowns as he ponders all this. Eva takes a photo from the altar and hands it to Ted. EVA This was Diana. CLOSE ON photo: a Blond Bombshell in full-on Betty Page attire, a bare-tittied pinup girl, playfully spanking a girl in bondage with a spiked high heel. TED This girl here? This is the goddess Diana? The photograph slowly comes alive. Diana stops spanking the girl and unties her. She pulls the girl (in the black satin mask) up off her lap and makes the girl stand. The women face each other and break into a cheek-to-cheek tango. CLOSE ON Ted as he shakes his head. Are his eyes playing tricks on him? TED I hate to tell you this, but I kinda doubt she was a virgin. EVA Oh, but she was! She had lovers, but she saved that for marriage. Which is the example I've tried to follow: to do everything but that till I marry... She begins to sob again. Ted comforts her. TED Hey, don't cry... a virgin is a rare and beautiful thing. If you say she was a virgin, I'll believe it. EVA Well, it doesn't matter now... and she won't be resurrected tonight 'cause I failed her. I let my whole coven down! TED Wait a sec -- that rock was gonna turn back into this? He holds up the photo. Eva nods. TED Now, that would be something worth seeing! EVA Only, not now -- we were each supposed to bring something -- a life fluid. TED (wincing in disgust) If this is gonna be like one of those afterbirth conversations, I don't think I wanna hear this. EVA Only... I swallowed it... TED You swallowed what? Eva looks off. Ted searches his brains, thoroughly sickened now. TED You mean, you were supposed to bring... like... like a guy's... and you...? She nods; he winces, queasy. Eva looks at him, helpless. EVA And now, you're my last chance! TED (laughing) Yeah, sure. (then -- panic) Whoa, what? You want my -- for the -- witchy poo -- ahh no -- no way -- nope. Besides, it's against hotel policy. I was warned: "No sex with the clientele"! Eva sobs, pleading. She throws off her shawl, baring her lovely breasts, and reaches her arms around his neck. He keeps backing off. Unbeknownst to him, he is already doing a ritualistic shuffle. TED Ha, c'mon now, joke's over. (seeing this is no joke) Hey, we're gonna step in the flea powder. EVA That's not flea powder, that's sacred dust ground from the horns of Albino goats. TED Right! I knew that! He is backing away, into the circle, as she comes for him, soft and sweet. Her eyes are again putting the magic hex on him, as he tries to resist her gaze. TED What's a nice girl like you doing in a coven, anyway? EVA Well, see, what I really want to do is be a midwife. I've attended four births already! I can prevent vaginal tears and everything. TED (trying to dodge her hexing eyes) Well, that's a good thing! A guy doesn't like surprises down there. All the while she is stepping toward him into the circle. EVA I joined the coven to attain greater understanding of my feminine power so I could become a truly great midwife! TED (the hex working now) Oh, well, I see you've been gaining a lot of insight into your... girl powers... Eva sweetly takes his hand and places it on her breast. EVA Do you really think so? TED (buckling under the temptation) Well, yeah, I'd say that seems to be the case... (she licks his neck; his eyes roll back heavenly) Ohhh, God! Betty's gonna kill me! EVA Who's Betty -- your girlfriend? TED No. My boss. EVA Oh good! TED Oh no! They fall into a kiss, as she begins to remove his cap. She moves him toward the Jacuzzi, closer and closer. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY--NIGHT Ted pushes his room-service cart. He is flushed. Puffed up. Lights a cigarette, takes a great big, satisfied drag. Eva runs to the door dreamily, her naked body wrapped in her shawl. She passes him a card. EVA My phone number in Topanga. Call me? TED (cocky) Sure, baby. Yeah, I'll give ya a call. She smiles and shuts the door. The other witches are arriving with supplies from the garden. Kiva, now having raised her blood sugar, sucks on a lollipop, a sunny girl. She talks to Raven, who carries a birch limb. KIVA What's that used for? RAVEN It's a birch branch, symbolizing eternal life. You can also use the bark for a tea which assists in astral travel. KIVA Hey -- I wanna be a witch! The other girls roll their eyes as Elspeth smiles proudly. Ted blows smoke at them and pushes his cart off down the hall. The witches run inside the room. IN THE SUITE Eva sits, blissed-out, in the center of the circle, smiles. EVA I'm a woman now! ATHENA But where is his "stuff"? EVA (pointing to the Jacuzzi) We did it right there, in the big cauldron! JEZEBEL Ooohhh honey, you're gonna be sore tomorra! Didn't your mama teach you that water strips a girl's lubrication? RAVEN Sex in water is great in the movies, not in real life... but you will learn. As we all did. JEZEBEL Yeah, when she can't walk... (to Elspeth) I guess you wouldn't have those kinds of problems -- without penetration. ELSPETH No. And virtually no cervical cancer, either. ATHENA Okay, girls, enough Sex Education 101, let's get going with our ritual, goddammit. Athena regally leads the ritual as they all bare their breasts again. Kiva throws off her shirt to join in. As she does, we see black bondage tape on her nipples. Elspeth darts a quick look at the tape, looks at the other witches -- not sure she likes this -- but she goes with it. The witches sway in a circle, eyes closed, as Eva makes her offering. EVA Goddess Diana, I offer you The jism of one I wooed for you That you may live and know such bliss Of getting laid by a guy like this. The witches all incant. ALL OF THE WITCHES So must it be. Three times three times three. They march half-naked as they moan and revel in eerie cries. The Jacuzzi begins to bubble and boil. Their cries heighten; the potion bubbles over. DISSOLVE TO: HOURS LATER Athena reads from a huge leatherbound book, The Book of Shadows, full of potions and spells. Four discouraged witches pack their bags. The room has been restored to its worldly under-splendor. Kiva uses the remote on the TV... so much for witchcraft. The slab of rock remains a slab. ATHENA I don't understand what went wrong. ELSPETH I say Eva pulled one over on us. EVA What? JEZEBEL Honey -- Eva was wearing the face of someone just fucked good... and the best actress in this world, or any other, can't fake a thing like that! ELSPETH Exactly -- if she was fucked so good, how could she save his come? RAVEN It could be done... ATHENA Girls, knock it off. (she looks up from the book) Maybe... maybe it needed to be the sperm of a virgin male. EVA (dreamily) He was no virgin! The witches sadly collect their things. Athena, deep in thought, strokes the slab. ATHENA Let's leave her here, with the sword, until dawn. I will come back for her before checkout time. I just... feel too sad to carry her away before the sun comes up to warm her. They all agree. They pick up their bags and head out. JEZEBEL (cuddling her cat) I can't believe we have to carry our own bags out! My mama would have a hissy fit! KIVA (flirtatiously) I'll carry your bags. ELSPETH (firmly) You're carrying my bags! They leave the room. Jezebel's cat leaps from her arms as she hoists her luggage. Eva walks out satisfied, thought perhaps a little sore -- "ouch," she says, and smiles. Athena takes one last look at their goddess slab. ATHENA Next year, we try again -- with virgin sperm. She closes the door on the Honeymoon Suite (till next New Year's Eve!). FADE TO BLACK. FOUR ROOMS FADE UP ON: INT. MON SIGNOR LOBBY--NIGHT Ted behind the desk, on the phone. We only hear his side. TED Oh, Jesus, what did I tell you? Do you want milk and cookies, or do you not? (pause) I can't turn on an adult station without permission from your parents. (pause, he checks his computer) That's not what the machine tells me. (pause) You be good and you'll get milk and cookies, but for now leave me alone, please. I'll be up later to put you both to sleep. He hangs up. TED (to himself) Goddamn kids. SUPER: 1:00 a.m. The phone rings again. TED Room Service. INT. ROOM 404--NIGHT A small party is going on. A long-haired Yuppie Scum type in on the line. Music BLARES. People dance in background. YUPPIE SCUM What room am I in? INT. FRONT DESK--NIGHT BACK AND FORTH TED This is the front desk, sir. The Yuppie turns away from the phone and speaks to Real Theodore. YUPPIE SCUM What room are we in? REAL THEODORE How should I know? I just got here. YUPPIE SCUM (into phone) You know, don't you have one of those light things? TED If you care to go to the door and look on the other side, you'll find the room number. YUPPIE SCUM (to Real Theodore) Call my assistant and ask her what floor we're on. REAL THEODORE Who's your assistant? YUPPIE SCUM The girl you party with every night. REAL THEODORE (to himself) Who? TED I'm here alone, sir. REAL THEODORE It's room 404, I think. YUPPIE SCUM I could have sworn we were on the fifth floor. REAL THEODORE Right. 404. YUPPIE SCUM (into phone) Right. 404. TED What do you need, sir? YUPPIE SCUM (to Real Theodore) What do we need? REAL THEODORE Ice. YUPPIE SCUM Ice? REAL THEODORE Ice. YUPPIE SCUM (into phone) Ice. TED Ice. YUPPIE SCUM Yeah. Ice. TED Right, sir. Ice. 404. I'll be with you momentarily. CUT TO: STORY TITLE CARD: ROOM 404 "THE WRONG MAN" INT. DARK HALLWAY Ted saunters down a hallway with a butt hanging out the corner of his mouth and a bucket of ice swinging at his side. He pulls up at a door on which the faded numbers read something like "Room 404." Ted knocks on the door. After a moment, the latch is thrown and the door swings open. Ted cautiously steps into the dark room. INT. ROOM TED Anybody home? A DEMONIC CACKLE cuts through the darkness. MAN'S VOICE No one here but us chickens. TED Say, it's pretty dark in here, sir. MAN'S VOICE What do you expect, Theodore, a fuckin' floor show? TED Do I know you? MAN'S VOICE I don't know. Do you? In a flash the lights switch on and Ted finds himself staring down the barrel of a pretty intense-looking .357 Magnum, cocked and ready to fire. At the other end of the gun stands a 50-year-old man, Sigfried, who sports a Cheshire Cat smile and a "just try fuckin' with me" look on his face. Sigfried isn't the only person in the room. Directly behind him sits a beautiful young woman, Angela, gagged and bound to a chair. Ted drops the bucket to the floor. TED I brought your ice. SIGFRIED That's cute. In fact, the whole getup's kind of cute. The monkey suit's a nice touch, honey puss. TED This has to be a mistake. Is this room 404? SIGFRIED Theodore? What do you take me for, Theodore? TED A very upset man? Sigfried reaches in his pocket and throws a handful of assorted stimulants into his mouth, chewing on them like they were breath mints. Sigfried thrusts his hand forward, gripping Ted by the throat, and leads him to Angela. SIGFRIED (to Angela) I am an upset man, Theodore. TED How do you know my name, sir? SIGFRIED I'm psychic, Theodore. TED Look my name is Ted, actually, and I have no idea what's going on here, but I've obviously come at a bad time. SIGFRIED Let's not belabor the fact that you have no sense of timing, Theodore. The fact is you're here. Sigfried turns to Angela. SIGFRIED (continuing) And I couldn't think of a better time for you to introduce me to your beau than on New Year's Eve. TED Oh fuck, there's a mistake. You're fucking wrong here. My name is Theodore, yes! My mother named me that and I hate the name. But I'm a fucking bellhop. People call me Ted. I work here. Suddenly, with great force, Sigfried slams the butt of his pistol smack into Ted's temple, sending him to the floor. Ted looks up at Sigfried in shock. SIGFRIED Look, I'd love to sit here all night with you talking about things like when you broke in your first mitt -- (pause) That was insensitive of me, wasn't it, T H E O D O R E? But let's cut to the chase, okay? TED Okay. SIGFRIED So apologize! A tense silence fills the room. All eyes are on Ted, who can't figure out what the fuck this guy wants. TED For what? Sigfried looks hard with disbelief at Ted, who winces back. SIGFRIED You are really beginning to annoy me, Theodore. Sigfried throws another handful of pills into his mouth. TED Look, obviously you two are working something out and if I could help you with your problem I would. SIGFRIED What are you saying? Are you saying I got a problem? Are you trying to say I don't give her what she needs? That I'm FUCKING INSENSITIVE!! TED Look, is this about another man? Or something? Ted has struck a raw nerve. Sigfried's mood swings drastically; he bends down next to Ted. SIGFRIED Let's get our ABC's right, here, Theodore. Theodore, right? TED Ted's better. SIGFRIED Ted, okay... Are you saying my wife cheats on me? TED I didn't say that... I... SIGFRIED Oh, for Christ's sake, Theodore, this is about as intimate a situation as you can get, you, me, and Angela here. It's pretty cozy. To say nothing of how stupid an idea it is to lie to a man with a loaded gun without considering the possible response. I demand an apology! The phone rings. SIGFRIED Don't move. I've got to take this. Sigfried glances at it. Then to Angela. He picks up the phone. SIGFRIED (into phone) What? (pause) We ain't got any needles here, kid. Just a big fucking gun. He listens to the other line, says good-bye, and hangs up. SIGFRIED (to Ted) Now, where was I? Oh yeah, I remember. Sigfried kneels next to Ted and assumes a prayer position. SIGFRIED I want you to pray for forgiveness, Theodore. Sigfried, hands clasped together, signals for Ted to do the same. The gun lies at his side. Ted considers a bold move, but thinks better of it. Sigfried's eyes pop open. He cuts a look to Ted, signaling him to assume the pose. SIGFRIED (continuing) Now say after me, "I apologize..." TED I apologize... SIGFRIED For what? Ted looks to Angela for help. She can only stare back with intense, wide-open eyes. SIGFRIED For fucking what? TED That I said you might have been unfaithful? SIGFRIED "That I said you might have been unfaithful?" Listen, Theodore, you're in church here... you're kneeling in front of an altar. Truth... truth is all it hears. Say the following, "I, Theodore, must humbly and sincerely apologize for saying that you fucked another man!" Ted repeats what Sigfried has told him. This appears to have a calming effect on Sigfried, who gets up off the floor, turning his face to Angela. SIGFRIED (continuing) Satisfied? Angela nods. SIGFRIED (continuing) Do you accept the fucking apology? Naturally, Angela says nothing. SIGFRIED (continuing) You always gotta get the last word, don't you? It's one way with you, Angela, isn't it? I give and I give and I get nothing back. Sigfried turns to Ted. SIGFRIED (continuing) She just sits there waiting for me to jump through hoops... Angela attempts to speak through the gag. Both men wait with bated breath for a response. Sigfried's had enough. SIGFRIED (continuing) Stupid me, for a second I thought you were going to say something... something like, "I'm sorry." HA! "I'm sorry." You're absolutely right, love cakes, I wouldn't want it that way. That's one thing you can say about Angela. She'll never do anything she doesn't want to do. If the feeling ain't there, she just isn't going to do it. There is nothing in this world as fucked as a woman who gives when she doesn't want to. Never let that happen to you, Theodore. It makes you feel very little indeed. Ted beckons Sigfried. TED You mind if I...? SIGFRIED Go ahead. Spit it out. TED I don't mean to upset you further, sir, but I think she was trying to say yes. SIGFRIED Are you condescending to me, Theodore? TED Absolutely not, I would never do that. SIGFRIED Why don't you just say it? TED Say what? SIGFRIED That you think I'm an idiot. TED I would never say that. SIGFRIED You think you're superior to me, don't ya, Theodore? You don't think I notice there is a gag in the woman's mouth. TED Of course you do. SIGFRIED Naturally "of course." And do you know how I know that? TED How, sir? SIGFRIED Because I PUT THE GAG IN HER MOUTH! I'm gonna let you in on a little secret about communication, Theodore. It's all in the eyes... (points the gun at Ted) Him? (turns the gun on himself) Or me? Him or me? No one? Okay. Let's drag it out. Sigfried empties the last of the pills into his mouth, heaving the empty bottle over his shoulder. He takes off, disappearing into the bathroom. INT. ROOM Ted finds himself alone with Angela. They lock eyes. Angela implores Ted to lean forward. Ted sizes up the situation: His chances of making it to the door are slim due to the fact that he would have to pass by the bathroom door. Ted paces back and forth in front of Angela, who struggles to get his attention. He whips around and they face off in what appears to be a game of charades. Ted finally gets the point and cautiously removes the gag from Angela's mouth. Angela spits an old sock out. TED What! ANGELA We don't have time to play charades here, asshole! Untie me quick. TED Listen, lady, I don't know what in the hell is going on here, but I'd appreciate it if you would explain to that nutcase that he's making a big mistake. ANGELA Look, whether you like it or not, you're in the middle of a situation here you can't just wish your way out of. TED But I've never seen you people before, we're complete strangers. ANGELA Everyone starts out strangers, Ted, it's where we end up that counts. Hurry up. Ted wrestles with the idea of whether to untie Angela or not. TED I don't know if I can do this. It's too hard. ANGELA Life is hard, Ted. You ever stopped to consider how many times you change your underwear in a lifetime? On nervous impulse, Ted begins the calculations. ANGELA I don't mean literally, you ignoramus. TED What? ANGELA Forget it, listen to me. There's a gun in my suitcase behind the bed, it's loaded... TED I'm not going to shoot anybody. ANGELA Fine. Get the gun and I'll shoot "anybody." TED And make me an accessory in the murder of your husband? Ted collapses to his knees in front of Angela. TED That's not fair. It just isn't fair. ANGELA Get a fucking grip on yourself. First off, who says he's my husband? And second, we are a long way from fair here, fair is back in jolly old England eatin' crumpets and sipping on tea. Ted collects himself. TED Tut. Tut. Tut. Not so fast. Well, maybe there are two sides to this thing. ANGELA There are two sides to a plate, still you only eat off of one. Now GET THE GUN! TED So why's he got you tied up? ANGELA I'm a werewolf, Ted! Get the gun! Ted is at a loss as to what to do. Angela turns on the charm. ANGELA Come on, Ted. Come over here just for a minute. You can do it. Come on, Ted. You look like a good guy. Ted creeps towards her. ANGELA That's it, Teddy. You look so much more attractive when you're self- assured. Sigfried suddenly comes to life... He's heard from the bathroom belting out "Life is but a dream... she-boom, she- boom." ANGELA (she panics) Quick, he's coming back. Put the gag back in, and remember the gun! Ted hurries to replace the sock in her mouth. TED Nine thousand, three hundred and twenty-two times, to the best of my estimation. INT. ROOM Sigfried coughs, sending a chill up Ted's spine. Ted whips around to discover Sigfried leaning up against the door to the bathroom. SIGFRIED I was just beginning to think I could trust you, Theodore. Silly me. Ted's fingers are frozen over Angela's lips. TED I was just trying to help her breathe a little. SIGFRIED Don't let me stop you, Teddy. You don't mind me calling you Teddy, do you? TED That's fine. SIGFRIED I used to have a little bunny rabbit named Teddy, it looked real cute nibbling on Angela's ear. Only problem here is you're no bunny rabbit, Theodore, and it really fuckin' razzes me to picture you doin' it. But don't let me stop you, Teddy... no need to play sneaky-poo. Ted starts to back toward the door. TED Look, man, if this is some kind of Voodoo thing and you want me to have sex with your wife, there is absolutely no way. SIGFRIED (shouts at the top of his lungs) I said, nibble, asshole! Now! The directness of Sigfried's command, coupled with the SOUND of a trigger being cocked, forces Ted to approach Angela. Angela is a stunning beauty, and Ted being kind of a shy guy makes for an awkward situation. Ted leans forward. As he closes in, Angela's eyes close. TED (whispers) Sorry, lady. Ted pulls up short of actually nibbling on Angela. SIGFRIED What's the matter, no whiz left in the cheese? I'm not cramping your style, am I? TED Look, I'm not playing this game anymore. Sigfried yanks Ted backwards. He wraps his arms around him. SIGFRIED It's almost all over, Theodore, and soon you can go home to Mommy. Ted struggles to free himself from Sigfried's powerful bear hug and blasts out the following monologue. TED My name is not Theodore, it's TED, TED, TED, T... E... D... TED... NOT TEDDY, NOT THEODORE... TED... Yes, my mother did me the service of naming me Theodore and I haven't a clue as to how you know that because everyone who knows that lives a long way away from here. Do you have any idea what it's like to go to school where all the other kids' parents are in jail doing time for crimes like grand larceny, aggravated assault, burglary and murder, and you get stuck with a mother who names you Theodore and dressed you up in little matching pink outfits with, get this, a little blue bow fucking tie! Well, I'll tell you what happens. Pretty soon Theodore becomes "Theo the Thumper," and when Theo the Thumper gets old enough, he packs his bags and goes thousands of miles away where he can put the whole bloody mess behind him. So, if you don't mind, shoot me now, because no one is going to call me that again. My name is Ted, okay? Got it? TED! Sigfried has followed the entire tirade in stunned silence. He takes a step toward Ted and offers him his hand. SIGFRIED Sigfried. TED What? SIGFRIED My name is Sigfried. TED Sigfried? Sigfried cuts a "Something wrong with that?" look at Ted. SIGFRIED Yah, Sigfried. TED Nice to meet you, Sigfried. Ted cautiously takes Sigfried's hand. SIGFRIED Very impressive, Ted. "Theo the Thumper?"... Ouch. It's a deal, kid. Ted it will be. TED Thanks. Sigfried holds onto Ted's hand. The soft sound of distant fireworks pops in the background. Car horns and a muffled countdown signal that it's New Year's. Sigfried moves uncomfortably close to Ted and from out of nowhere bolts forward, planting a wet kiss right on Ted's mouth. Something snaps in Sigfried. He is either really getting off on this or he is caught in the grips of a seizure. He doubles back on the floors. Ted and Angela watch as he flops around like a flounder with the cocked gun waving all over the place. Ted wipes his mouth with his jacket sleeve while trying to dodge the barrel of the gun. TED You okay, mister? I'll get help! Sigfried manages to steady the gun and point it directly at Ted. He signals for Ted to go to the bathroom. TED (continuing) That's the wrong door, sir. Sigfried grabs Ted by the leg and shove the barrel of the gun into his crotch. Sigfried pulls Ted's face closer to his. SIGFRIED Get me the nitro... it's in the bathroom cabinet. Now! Ted rushes into the bathroom, leaving Sigfried a babbling mess behind. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM--SAME TIME Ted enters the bathroom, which appears shaken by an earthquake. Towels and wet clothes are all over the place. An evening gown is flushed halfway down the toilet and pills are everywhere. Sigfried is shouting from the other room to hurry. Ted checks the cabinet, searching for a bottle marked "Nitro." No luck. Ted spots a small window set above the toilet. He figures this is the best chance he's got to make a break. Ted goes for it. He manages to get his head and one arm through the window before he gets stuck. His legs dangle in the bathroom. Struggle as he may, he can only hit the toilet- bowl lever, which sends a loud FLUSH SOUND out through the apartment. SIGFRIED (O.S.) (shouting in the distance) It's no time to take a leak, Teddy, I'm fucking dying here! EXT. BATHROOM WINDOW--NIGHT Outside the window, Ted's in another world. He's almost safe. It's a strange feeling, kind of like bathing in warm water in paradise, knowing a huge shark is ready to rip his ass off. He can see the flickering red glowing light from the witches' room from the floor below. EXT. BATHROOM WINDOW AND BELOW--NIGHT Ted sees Eva bopping naked past the window. He shouts her name out, to no avail. The MUSIC drowns out his voice and they ignore his calls for help. The blood rushes to his head. He lets himself hang there for a moment. He wonders how many other people have found themselves in situations like this before him. Probably everyone. Right next to his face, Ted recognizes a bloody hand print. It's not his blood. EXT. BATHROOM WINDOW AND ABOVE--NIGHT Ted hears a sound from above and twists himself around, spotting a young man (previously seen as the Yuppie Scumbag on the phone) leaning out of the window directly above him. After a quick moment of sizing him up, Ted gathers himself. TED Hi... No answer. Something's wrong with the guy, all the blood is drained from his face and he is mumbling something. TED Listen, I'm stuck here in a situation that I can't even begin to explain, but would you be so kind as to get help? Could you call the police, please? Silence. TED (continuing) You okay? The young man manages to belt out the word "ice" just before hurling a mouthful of vomit toward Ted. It takes all Ted's strength to dodge the puke and pull himself back into the bathroom. He falls back on the floor. He props himself up and checks for damage. He notices something odd... the room is silent. No Sigfried. He walks into the bedroom. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL BEDROOM--MOMENTS LATER Ted looks around the still room. No one's there. TED Sigfried? He heads toward the door and, from out of the corner of his eye, he spots Sigfried's hairy leg. Sigfried has passed out on the floor. Angela's chair has been knocked on its side. Ted races over to help lift her back up. He pulls the gag from her mouth. Angela jumps all over him. ANGELA Where's the fucking nitro? TED I couldn't find it! ANGELA You took long enough. Untie me, for Christ's sake, you fucking upset him and he's dying. Ted struggles to untie Angela. TED I thought you wanted to kill him. ANGELA You'd make a great cop, Theodore. The knots are all over the place and a real bitch to untie. TED I can't handle this alone, I'd better get help. Ted turns on a dime and runs smack into Sigfried, who's been taking in the whole conversation. SIGFRIED I tie a pretty good knot, don't I, Ted? TED Thank God you're okay... SIGFRIED Never felt better. Angela hears Sigfried's voice from behind her back. ANGELA You bastard! SIGFRIED (to Angela) Come on, honey, don't get mad. It was just a little test, and I'm glad I did it because now I'll know forever that you really do love me. Truly and deeply. ANGELA If the simple fact that I didn't want your bloated, dead body lying out on the floor is love, then no wonder we find ourselves as we are at this very fucking moment. SIGFRIED Oh, no. I heard you and there was genuine care in that voice. Can't be denied. Can it, Ted? TED I think you're right and, if you just keep this kind of open dialogue going, you'll go a long way to resolving this misunderstanding. Ted edges his way toward the door. TED (continuing) You'd be surprised what happens when people just listen to each other without succumbing to all that pain and anger. ANGELA You heard shit, monkey boy. Easy for you to say after you fuck another man's wife. You should at least have the guts to stand by your convictions. Sigfried turns an icy eye on Ted, who has given up all hope of ever getting out of the room. TED That's a lie, Sigfried. I swear to God. Angela continues her tirade. ANGELA When I think of all the times you were inside me promising me a better life, it makes me want to puke. Sigfried slowly raises his gun, pointing it directly at Ted's chest. TED Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you people? ANGELA What didn't you do, stick man? Unfortunately, you don't have the balls to back up the actions of your huge cock. The words hit Sigfried like bullets to the chest... his legs weaken. SIGFRIED (whimpering) He's got a huge cock? TED She's lying again, mister. It's not that big. SIGFRIED Show it to me. TED Come on, man, she's lying. Can't you see she's fucking with you? ANGELA Put it this way, God made up for what he did to Gumby with Ted here. SIGFRIED Show it to me. ANGELA Show him your cock, Theodore. Sigfried runs over to Angela and kneels in front of her. SIGFRIED Stop talking about his cock, will you?! ANGELA It's hard to stop talking about something so huge. I could go on and on about his cock, bone, nob, bishop, wang, thang, hotrod. Hump mobile, Oscar, dong, dagger, banana, cucumber, salami. Sausage, kielbasa, schlong, dink, tool, Big Ben, Mister Happy, prick, disk, pecker, peter, pee-pee, wee-wee, weiner, pisser, pistol, joint, hose, horn, middle-leg, third- leg, meat, stick, joystick, dipstick. Angela is on a roll. She fires the words at Sigfried, hitting him pointblank. He staggers. He pleads with her to stop, covering his ears. Ted watches the man crumble. ANGELA (continuing) Junior, the little head, little guy, Rumple Foreskin, Tootsie Roll. Snake, one-eyed monster, one-eyed wonder, shaft, sword, meat whistle, skin flute, love muscle, Roto-Rooter, instrument, banger, rammer, ramrod, cherrypicker, log, pole. Sigfried tries jamming the sock back in her mouth to stop the flow; she manages to give him a "fuck of a bite" in the process. Meanwhile, Ted figures this to be his moment to make a move and bolts for the door, only to be tackled by Sigfried at the one-yard line. After a struggle, the two men rest on the floor, catching their breath in a relaxed embrace. SIGFRIED Please, don't leave me. I'll call you Ted from now on. TED It's not me, mister, I swear. SIGFRIED Personally, I don't give a fuck, Ted, it's just I don't want to be alone right now. I'm feeling a little vulnerable. Sigfried heaves the gun over his shoulder, grabs a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel's, and passes it to Ted, who takes a hit. SIGFRIED (continuing) No guns, okay? Just you and me, Ted. You know my father used to say that forgiveness is the only thing that evil can't sink its teeth into. TED That's beautiful. SIGFRIED Kind of nice down here on the floor, isn't it, Ted? TED Yes, actually. SIGFRIED Things take on a whole new perspective... You'd like my trust, wouldn't you, Ted? TED Yes I would. SIGFRIED I just got one thing to ask you and I'll let you go. TED Okay. Okay. SIGFRIED Tell me straight now. TED What? SIGFRIED What was it like? TED What was what like? SIGFRIED You know, you and her. TED Oh, for fuck sake, Sigfried, what do you want me to say? SIGFRIED Either way you're fucked, right? You ever gonna see her again, Theodore? TED If I ever saw her again, I'd run the other way. SIGFRIED Promise? TED I promise. Sigfried releases Ted and stands up. SIGFRIED You're lying, but I can respect that, Ted. If you told me, it would no longer be a secret, and secrets have a power, kid. You open that box and they disappear forever. A bad secret will rip you apart, but the good one are all you got. In the end, when all the people you knew are dead and gone, all you'll have left are you secrets. And when you die, the box is open and it all blows away -- dust to dust -- all the anger, jealousy, desire and love just blow away. Sigfried throws his hand out to help Ted up. SIGFRIED (continuing) So you know what I say, let's call it a truce, kiddo. Sigfried takes Ted by the hand and leads him to an open window. Ted is overcome by the sweetness in Sigfried's voice and follows him to the window willingly. The two men look out into the dark Los Angeles night. SIGFRIED (continuing) I'm a man of love, Theodore. Love is all I live for. TED I can see that. SIGFRIED Maybe to a fault. TED Don't beat yourself up over it. SIGFRIED That's nice of you to say, Ted, but I probably should make a clean break of it, cut her loose and get my own place. I just can't imagine living without her. Do you think I should seek professional help? TED It's not for everyone, but maybe in your case it could help. SIGFRIED You ever been out on the ocean at night? Ted shakes his head. SIGFRIED (continuing) I have... scary as a motherfucker, all that darkness around you. It's like a big black carpet rolled out as far as the eye can see. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll see a light. It could be as small as a little spark, but it will cut a path straight through all that blackness, straight to you. It could be another boat, or some distant fire on an island, but that light will shed a shining path of diamonds cutting through mile after mile of darkness to lie at your feet. That's love, Ted, it's like a path of light in an ocean of darkness. Ted and Sigfried stare out of the window in peace, transfixed by the glimmering lights of the city. A loud SHOT rings out, shattering the still moment. The two men spin around. Angela stands there with a smoking gun hanging at her side. Sigfried drops to his knees. Ted checks him out, no blood. Angela has fired the gun into the floor below. Ted looks up at Angela. Angela opens the chamber of the pistol and hands the bullets to Ted. ANGELA (to Ted) You'd better go check to see if I killed anybody downstairs. Sigfried is bent over, silently weeping on the floor. TED You people gonna be okay? Angela sits next to Sigfried and gently strokes his back. ANGELA We're fine, Ted. Ted points to a tray with half-eaten food on it. TED Would you like me to...? ANGELA Another time, Ted. Ted slowly walks toward the door and takes one last look at the strange couple at rest in the corner of the room before closing the door behind him. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY--MOMENTS LATER Ted walks down the hallway, lost in thought. An energetic Young Guy with a bouquet of flowers plows into him. YOUNG GUY Happy New Year, buddy. TED Happy New Year. YOUNG GUY I was just in room 404, what a party! You know where room 409 is at? TED Beats me. It's somewhere around here. The guy takes off in the direction Ted's walking from. Ted suddenly realizes who this guy is and whips around, shouting to the Young Guy. TED (continuing) Hey, what's your name? The door SLAMS on room 409. FADE OUT FADE TO BLACK STORY TITLE CARD: ROOM 716 "THE MISBEHAVERS" FADE UP THE FRONT DESK SUPER: 10:30 p.m. Ted is relaxing at the front desk. He breathes slowly. He finally has one moment's peace after an already long night. He even has a chance to straighten his tie. The phone RINGS. TED Front desk. CUT TO: ROOM 716 CLOSE-UP of a cigarette hanging out of a Man's mouth as he speaks into the telephone. MAN Bottle of Moet et Chandon. Fast. Man hangs up the phone and stubs out his cigarette into an already overstuffed ashtray by the bed. Man turns around to face the camera. He is a dark and handsome Latin male in his mid-30s. Dangerous. Impatient. He walks toward the camera as he continues straightening his tie. He stops at the door of the bathroom and watches his Wife and two kids get ready for the party. Wife seems to be a beautiful woman in her mid-30s. The children are Sarah, nine, and Juancho, six. Man strikes up another cigarette and finishes his tie. He watches his Wife comb Juancho's hair down and to the side like an idiot. Not being able to stand it anymore, Man tears Juancho away from his Wife and snatches the comb. MAN Give me that... Man begins to slick Juancho's hair back. MAN There... see? You look cool with your hair up like this. Like me... Juancho is smiling now. He's happy he's going to look like his dad. MAN Not down and to the side, all stupid like your mom likes to comb it. Juancho looks over at Sarah, who is going through the tortuous ritual of having her mother brush the tangles out of her long, unmanageable hair. Wife seems to be taking out her aggressions on the tangled mess. Man is starting to have problems of his own with Juancho's hair. Juancho's hair is thinner than Man's, so it won't stay up. Man puts down his cigarette in order to get a better handle on it. We see the frustration growing in his face. Juancho picks up the cigarette and pretends he's smoking too, just like his dad. Man tears the cigarette away from Juancho and smokes it down to the filter. He looks at his own cool hair, and then down at Juancho's, which won't stay up. Man flicks the cigarette butt into the toilet in frustration. MAN You've got your mother's hair. In anger, Man starts messing up Juancho's hair. MAN I can't do anything with it. Furious, Man simply swipes Juancho's hair back down and to the side, the way Wife had it before. Juancho looks like an idiot again. MAN There. Go. Juancho slouches past everyone as he exits the bathroom. Sarah watches him leave as her own hair is finished. WIFE (putting a plastic clip in Sarah's hair) There. Go. Sarah exits. Wife then finishes her own gorgeous hair. Man lights up a new cigarette. WIFE (mocking) So, are we gonna have fun tonight? Man blows smoke in Wife's face as he walks out of the bathroom. WIFE I didn't think so. Sarah has joined Juancho in watching television. Man watches the children watch TV. We can see the wheels turning in Man's head. He turns back to the bathroom. He watches Wife now. Wheels turning. Practically burning rubber. MAN Hey. Wife puts the lipstick down and turns to her husband. She is beautiful. MAN (shrugs) Let's just leave the kids here. Wife glances out at the children, eyes glued to the tube. WIFE Here in the room? By themselves? MAN No... with the television. Wife thinks about it for a second. She shrugs a "sure." MAN You want to have fun tonight, don't you? WIFE Yes. MAN They'll be fine. He kisses Wife's face and exits the bathroom. She covers the wet spot with more cake makeup. MAN Hey. The children turn to face him. MAN You guys are going to stay here and watch TV. The children look at each other. MAN I want you to be in bed asleep before twelve. Your mother and I will be back later on. Wife goes straight for the door. MAN Okay? He blows one kiss. One for both of them. As Man and his Wife walk out the door, Man turns back to the children... MAN Don't misbehave. He closes the door. Sarah stands in the middle of the room. She's looking at the door Man and Wife just disappeared through. Stunned. Her dress looks frilly and beautifully uncomfortable. She touches the edges of the fabric. SARAH Why did we have to get all dressed up if we weren't going with them? CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY Man and Wife are walking down the hall. Man stops in his tracks. Wife stops too and looks at Man. They wait. CUT TO: ROOM 716 Juancho shuts off the television. He drops the remote to the floor. His attention is on the fireworks outside. He leaps to the window and begins unlatching it. SARAH What are you doing? JUANCHO Escaping. Stinks in here, anyway. Man bursts through the door of the hotel room and stands in the doorway, glaring at the mischievous Juancho. Juancho bangs his head on the window trying to get back inside. He leaps to the floor and tries to turn on the TV with the remote. MAN (stern) What did I say? Juancho turns to Man as if he'd been sitting there watching television the whole time. MAN Behave. JUANCHO Yes, Papa. Ted appears at the door with Man's champagne. TED The champagne you ordered, sir. MAN No time for this. Leave it on ice. Ted proceeds to place the champagne in the room. WIFE But I want some now... Ted is torn. Man pushes him into the room. MAN There'll be plenty for you and the party, baby, you can bomb yourself all you want at the party. WIFE What a waste. Ted places the bucket near the bed. After setting up the bottle, he turns to leave, but now Man closes the door, trapping Ted inside with them. MAN (to Ted) Hey. Ted looks around, bewildered. Now what? Man is reaching into his coat pocket. MAN You want five hundred bucks? TED Sure! Man hesitates a moment, then pulls out his wallet. That was too easy. MAN How about three? TED Three hundred? MAN Yeah. TED Three's good. MAN My children are staying here tonight watching TV. I want you to check up on them every thirty minutes. TED Check up on 'em? MAN Make sure they're all right, make sure they're fed, make sure they go to bed. TED We can call out and hire a babysitter. MAN I don't trust babysitters. My children are safer alone than with some fucked- up pedophile babysitter I don't know from the man in the fucking moon. WIFE What about him? What makes you think you can trust him? Man grabs Ted's face and tilts it torward Wife. MAN Tell me that's not a face you can trust. Man lets go of Ted's face. He feels his jaw. It's still there. TED Look, sir, I'd like to help you out, but I really can't. I'm all alone here tonight. Man whips out his wallet and counts out money in Ted's face. MAN One hundred... two hundred... three hundred... TED I thought you said five hundred. Man glares at Ted. MAN I said three hundred. Ted doesn't back down. TED No, you distinctly said five hundred. The angrier Man gets, the quieter he talks. MAN You calling me a liar? Ted, while not backing down, massages the situation. TED No, I'm not saying you're lying. I'm saying you accidentally forgot that what you first said was five hundred. Man has never been challenged like this by a fuckin' bellboy. MAN I don't do anything accidentally, jerk. I might've first said five hundred, but what I last said was three hundred, and what you say last is what counts. Ted not only doesn't back down, but psychologically pokes his finger in the scary Man's chest. TED Well then, if you say five hundred one last time, we got a deal. Man's eyes narrow. He physically pokes his finger in Ted's chest. MAN You fuckin' with me, Pendejo? Now Ted takes a step backwards. TED No, not at all. It's New Year's Eve and I'm here alone. If there was somebody else here, no problem, but I'm by myself. And looking after your kids is a pain in the ass I don't need -- MAN You callin' my kids a pain in the ass? TED -- No, they're not a pain in the ass, it's the situation that's a pain in the ass. Man drops the tenseness. MAN No, you were right the first time. You win, tough guy, five hundred. Man respects Ted for not backing down, but not insulting him either. A skill Man never learned. Wife shoots a look at the children. WIFE (disgusted) You kids are getting expensive. Juancho turns back to the TV. Sarah stares down Wife. MAN (looking at name tag) What's your name? Ted? CLOSE-UP of name tag. TED Yeah. It's Ted. Man tears off Ted's name tag and throws it to children. MAN (to the children) His name is Ted. If you need anything, dial 0 and ask for Ted. Sarah catches the name tag and reads the name on it: "TED -- BELLHOP." Sarah looks up at Ted. She clips the pin to her dress and smiles shyly at him. Man puts the money in Ted's pocket and then grabs his ear, pulling him close. MAN (deadly whisper) If something happens to my children, I wouldn't want to be you. WIFE Make sure they're in bed before midnight. TED (thinking) Before midnight? Then should I wake them up for the countdown to the New Year? Wife looks disgusted. WIFE No... As Man and Wife exit, he turns to the kids and says: MAN Don't misbehave. Man closes the door. INT. HALLWAY Man and Wife book it down the hall before Ted can change his mind. ROOM 716 Ted is standing facing the door the Man and Wife just disappeared through. He turns around slowly to face the children. His eyes are wide. His face is quiet. Stern. The children are staring at him. TED Okay. These are the rules. Don't break the rules and I won't break your necks. The kids look at each other. TED (smiling) I always wanted to say that. Someone said that to me when I was a kid. Sarah laughs at his joke. TED Except they were joking. I'm not. Ted goes to the door. TED The rules are simple. Don't do anything you wouldn't do if your parents were here. If there's an emergency, call me on the phone, like your dad said. SARAH That's not what he said. Ted's surprised by a challenge this early in the game. SARAH He said to call if we need anything. TED Well, I've got a lot of work to do and I can't have you calling me every time you want a drink of water, so please limit your calls to emergencies only. SARAH We paid you five hundred dollars. We'll call you if we need anything. You don't want to upset my dad. TED Okay. Please. Try to call only when necessary. Watch TV, and if you're good, I'll bring up some milk and cookies. Bye. Ted leaves. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY Ted walks briskly down the hall, counting his money the whole way. CUT TO: INT. ROOM Juancho takes off his socks and shoes and throws them onto the floor. Sarah looks at the discarded shoes and socks. CLOSE ON the shoes and socks. Sarah looks over at Juancho's bare feet. Her nose twitches. SARAH Your feet stink. Juancho smells his feet. JUANCHO They don't stink. Sarah throws his shoes and socks behind her. They land on the bed. Juancho is flipping channels and finds an interesting show. JUANCHO Check it out. T & A. Sarah realizes he found a Nudie station. SARAH Change it. You're not supposed to watch this. JUANCHO We're supposed to watch TV. SARAH Not this kind of TV. Change it. Juancho rolls up in a ball, the remote tucked in some recess of his stomach. Sarah hits him, then goes to the phone. She punches 0, sits on the bed, and checks the name on the name tag pinned to her shirt. CUT TO: FRONT DESK Ted walks up to the front desk just as the phone rings. TED Front desk. INT. ROOM Sarah is taking off her white winter tights. SARAH Ted? Hi. It's me, Sarah. You're our sitter for tonight. TED Oh, Jesus, what did I tell you? I said if you don't bother me, you'll get milk and cookies. Now, do you want them or do you not? SARAH I want you to turn off the Nudie station in our room. Ted checks the computer. TED (reading stats on room 716) I can't turn on an adult station without permission from your parents. SARAH No. (struggling with winter tights) Not turn it on, turn it off. It's already on. TED That's not what the machine tells me. SARAH Well, stop listening to the machine and listen to me. There's naked ladies dancing on my TV and I want 'em off. TED If you're good, you'll get milk and cookies, so leave me alone, please. I'll be up later to put you both to sleep. He hangs up. ROOM 716 Angry, Sarah slams down the phone. She has an unusually adult temper. We know where she gets it from. She looks up and sees that the nudies are still in full force. SARAH Change the channel, now! Juancho turns around. He has a face like someone just laid a fart in his nose. JUANCHO Man, you're the one with the stinky feet. Sarah smells her feet. Twice. SARAH They don't stink. JUANCHO Yeah, they do. SARAH Here, smell for yourself. She sticks her foot out for Juancho to smell. He's reluctant. Fearful. SARAH Go ahead. He slowly, very slowly... climbs onto the bed and lowers his head to her foot. Very slowly. Sarah waits until he's close enough to her foot before she kicks him in the face, sending him somersaulting off the bed and crashing to the floor. She grabs the remote control he left behind and changes the channel to a cartoon. Juancho gets up and realizes his defeat. He decides to wander about. Looking for something to do... Sarah tries to ignore him as he stalks the room. It's only a matter of time before he finds mischief. Juancho sees the champagne bucket and Bingo!, he goes for the bottle. JUANCHO (holding up the bottle) Hey, get a bottle opener! Sarah opens her mouth, as if about to tell him to leave the champagne alone. She stops herself when she realizes she wants some champagne too. She quickly scrambles about for a bottle opener while Juancho unwraps the bottle top. Sarah opens the dresser drawer with such force that a few hidden contents long forgotten in the back of the drawer slide forward. Some coins, a paperclip, and a hypodermic needle. She looks down at the needle that lays beside the Gideon Bible and casually picks the phone back up and punches 0. The phone rings. FRONT DESK Ted, bucket of ice in his hand, gets ready to go to room 404. As he crosses the desk, the phone rings. He looks at the board and see room 716's light blinking. He sighs in exasperation. INT. ROOM Sarah sees Juancho shaking the champagne bottle violently. SARAH Don't shake it! (into phone) Ted? Hi. It's me. Sarah. TED Yeah. Who died? No one? Then don't call me. SARAH I thought I'd tell you that your cleaning ladies are doing a bum job. There's all kinds of leftover stuff around here. Sarah picks up the needle and rolls it over in her hand several times. SARAH Needles and things. We're not supposed to have needles here, are we? I mean, they don't come with the room, do they? Send someone up here to clean this place up right. The champagne bottle explodes all over Juancho. He looks surprised. SARAH (to Juancho) I TOLD YOU NOT TO SHAKE IT! (to Ted) I gotta go. My brother just exploded the champagne all over the room. Oh, and bring us a couple of toothbrushes. There's a card in the bathroom that says you'll bring free toothbrushes if we ask for them. She hangs up. A frustrated Ted hangs up the phone. He walks briskly to the elevator. Sarah and Juancho are pouring themselves champagne. They turn up the television and drink. Juancho shudders at the taste, but tries to drink as much as Sarah. Sarah clearly doesn't like it, but tries to pretend she does. Sarah picks up an instruction card near the phone to see how to make room-to-room calls. SARAH I'm calling another room, give me three numbers. JUANCHO 4-0-9. Sarah punches in the room number. The phone rings. She holds the needle up to the light to examine it. SARAH Hello? Hi. You don't know me, and I don't know you, but... do you have any needles? We've got needles here and I was wondering if they come with the room or not. Don't have any? Thanks. Just checking. She hangs up. Juancho puts down his champagne glass and searches his father's coat pocket. He finds a pack of cigarettes and takes one out. He puts it in his mouth and pretends to smoke. Sarah checks out the hypodermic needle carefully. She has an idea. MONTAGE: In the bathroom, Sarah seeks out her mother's lipstick. ROOM 716 Sarah stands atop the chest of drawers and uses the lipstick to draw a bull's-eye on one of the hotel art paintings. She writes numbers next to each circle representing points. Juancho is standing at the foot of the bed, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, as he practices his dart-throwing technique. SARAH (pointing out the rules) The center is the bull's eye, 100 points, this one's 10 points, this one's 20 points. WHACK! The needle lands an inch from her face in the 20-point slot. SARAH Hey, wait a minute. Let me get out of the way! Sarah, a little tipsy now, grabs the needle and staggers to the bed. She hears the key in the doorway and throws the needle into the curtain to hide it. Ted enters the room, somewhat disheveled from his encounter with Sigfried. He has a tray and a new bottle of champagne. He puts the champagne bottle into the empty bucket. He spots the original bottle lying on the floor half empty and dripping into the carpet. TED I brought you some milk and cookies. If you want some you have to eat them now, because you're going to sleep. SARAH We're going to sleep now? TED Your parents said put you to bed before midnight. Well, it's before midnight. Maybe that way you'll leave me alone. SARAH Those aren't milk and cookies. TED We were out of cookies, so I brought you milk and Saltines. Don't complain! Now hurry up and eat. You're going to bed right now. Juancho bites into a Saltine. Sarah simply examines one. JUANCHO These are old. SARAH They're stale. TED (impatient) Dip 'em in the milk! The milk will make them soft. Sarah gives up and throws the cracker back onto the tray. She's a little drunk. Ted picks up the ruined champagne bottle. Juancho dips his crackers and eats them. He makes a face and drops a soggy cracker onto the tray. TED No crackers? Okay, fine. Sleepy time. Now, I don't want you guys wandering around, so if you need to go to the restroom, go now. They go to the bathroom. Ted sits on the bed. Waits. He sees the painting on the wall but can't figure out what's different about it. The red lipstick blends right into the aesthetic value of the painting. Ted smells something funny. He looks down and sees the socks on the bed. He grabs a fork from the tray and uses it to throw the socks across the room. The kids come back out. JUANCHO What about our pajamas? TED You wanna look nice in case there's an earthquake, don'tcha? The children nod. TED Okay. Then stay in those clothes. The kids lie on the bed. Sarah notices a jar of Mentholatum ointment on the dinner tray. SARAH What's that? TED Oh, this is just some Mentholatum ointment. Come on, under the covers. Close your eyes and I'll tell you a story. The children close their eyes. Ted opens the jar of the ointment and sniffs it. Strong stuff by the look on his face. TED Your dad says he doesn't trust babysitters. I don't blame him. You know what my babysitter did to me once? (confiding) I never told my parents, either. The children lie in the bed, eyes closed, listening intently. Ted dips his fingers in the jar of vaporous ointment. TED I hated going to sleep. You know, it's nighttime and you wanna run around and act crazy. So what my babysitter did to make sure I'd go to sleep and not be tempted to get up, was, she'd take some of this vapor rub stuff... Can you smell this? Eyes closed, the kids inhale. They smell the ointment and nod yes. TED Well, she'd just dab a little of this over each eyelid, so that I would be sure and keep my eyes closed all night. Ted is spreading the ointment over their eyelids as he says this. TED There. Now you've got some, too! Don't open your eyes or it'll burrrn, burn, burn. The smell helps clear your sinuses too, so it's doing double duty. JUANCHO What happens when it's morning? TED If you keep your eyes closed all night, it will wear off by morning. But DON'T OPEN YOUR EYES BEFORE THAT... SARAH Did you ever open your eyes? Extreme CLOSE-UP on Ted's eyes. TED Yes... I did. The children are quiet. TED And now look at me. CHILDREN (in unison) We can't. TED Good. You'll do just fine. Sleep well and I won't tell your parents about the champagne. Ted leaves. CUT TO: AFTER A MOMENT OF DARKNESS After a moment of darkness, the night is disturbed by the loud crashing of fireworks outside the window. Sarah sits up, eyes closed. Her face feels the warmth coming from the window and she tilts her head toward it. The light of the fireworks dances its reflections off her face. She inhales deeply... then makes a sour face. She goes for the bathroom, arms outstretched like a blind girl. She gets to the bathroom, turns on the light, and searches for the sink. She begins to wash the ointment off her eyes very carefully. She dries her eyes thoroughly and opens them... checks them in the mirror. A little red, but otherwise fine. She goes back into the bedroom, turns on the television and grabs the new champagne bottle. She shakes it violently. Juancho wakes. He turns his head to her. His eyes are still closed. JUANCHO Are you watching TV? The champagne bottle explodes. She pours herself a glass. SARAH Yep. If you wanna watch too, you have to go wash your face. Juancho gets up smiling and tries to run to the bathroom. He slams into the wall, hard. SARAH Be careful... Juancho walks into the bathroom a little slower, more cautious. Sarah pours herself another glass. She downs the glass and shudders. She smells the bad smell again. Only now she really smells it. She smells her feet. Nothing. She smells the champagne. Nothing. Juancho enters the room and sits on the bed. Sarah grabs his foot and smells it. She drops his foot. Juancho stares blankly at her. Sarah looks down at the mattress. She smells the mattress. Juancho looks at her as if she's drunk. Sarah leaps off the bed and turns on the room lights. She takes a huge swig from the champagne bottle, then stalks toward the mattress. Juancho leaps off the bed as well and stands back. Sarah pulls the mattress off of the bedsprings enough to see what is underneath it. Juancho screams. Sarah is too stunned to scream. Stuffed into the bedsprings is a woman's dead and beaten corpse. CUT TO: CLOSE ON Ted's phone ringing. Ted looks at the phone as if pondering whether or not to answer it. He taps his fingers. Finally he answers the phone. ROOM 716 SARAH Ted! TED What do you want now, for Christ's sake! Who died? SARAH (near tears) I don't know, but she's in my bed! TED What? SARAH There's a dead body in my bed! TED That's just your brother. Sound asleep. SARAH No, there's a woman's dead body inside the bed, in the mattress. TED You saw the body? SARAH Yes! TED Impossible. You've got ointment on your eyes! You can't see shit! Now go to sleep! Ted hangs up the phone. Sarah redials. Ted answers. TED Godammit, go to sleep! SARAH (crying now) I washed it off... TED You washed off the ointment? SARAH (pissed, drunk) Yeah, didn't you ever think to do that? Ted is quiet on the line. Thinking. Juancho lights up a cigarette for real and takes nervous puffs. Sarah carries the phone over to Juancho and snatches the cigarette away from him. She stuffs it in her own mouth and nervously takes a long drag on it. SARAH (through cigarette) You never tried it, did you? Then you agree I'm smarter than you... TED All right. Now you listen to me... SARAH Get your ass up here and call the police, because there's a dead body in my bed and it smells like shit and it looks even worse, and if you don't help us, my dad is gonna lay you down right next to her, I swear to fucking God! She drinks from her champagne bottle. She's pulling the mattress back over the corpse again. JUANCHO Go, sis. She's drunk all right. TED (incensed) I'm coming up and if there isn't a dead body by the time I get there, I'll make one myself. You! FRONT DESK Ted slams down the phone. As he walks away from the counter, he spots the children's parents driving up to the valet out front. TED Oh shit! Ted breaks into a sprint and dives into a closing elevator. CUT TO: ROOM 716 Sarah continues to cover the body with the mattress. ELEVATOR Close on Ted's face as the elevator car races up seven floors. LOBBY The Man is carrying his drunk Wife through the lobby. Not happy. ROOM 716 Ted bursts into the room. He sees the disarray. Ted pushes the champagne out of Sarah's hand, spilling it onto the floor. TED What the fuck is going on??!! He sees Juancho with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth and rips it away from him. The butt goes flying onto the carpet near the spreading champagne spill. TED Your parents are on their way up and I'm not taking responsibility for this mess! SARAH Check under the mattress! TED For what? SARAH (crying) For the body, can't you smell it? TED It's your feet! Sarah grabs the mattress and pulls it off herself. Ted sees the rotting corpse. Vomit spews out of Ted's mouth. TED (gurgles through vomit- spewing lips) Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck is this? He tears at the phone. TED (into the phone) Police, it's an emergency! (pause) Hello, Police, this is the Mon Signor Hotel, get someone up here right fucking now, there's a DEAD WHORE stuffed under the mattress! Tears well in Sarah's eyes as she looks at the body. SARAH Don't call her that... TED (into the phone) I'm dead fucking serious, there's a dead fucking Whore stuffed in the bedsprings of the fucking bed! SARAH Stop calling her that!! Sarah grabs the hypodermic needle from under the curtain and stabs it into Ted's leg. TED FUCK!! Sarah steps back, almost tripping over the champagne bottle. She picks up the bottle and holds it defensively in case Ted tries to retaliate. Ted spins around, now noticing the needle sticking out of his leg. TED Jesus!! Juancho lights up another cigarette. The champagne spill has spread to the fallen cigarette butt. The carpet bursts into flames around the spill. CUT OUTSIDE TO: EXT. ROOM CLOSE ON a key going into the keyhole outside. BACK TO: ROOM 716 Ted tries to pull the syringe out of his leg, but yanking it makes it break in two, the plunger in his hand, and the needle still stuck in his leg. Ted staggers and grabs hold of the dead woman's foot for support as he steps on the remote control, flipping the TV on to the Nudie channel, just as... Man opens the door. Man stands at the door, drunk Wife unconscious on one arm, the door knob in the other hand. He's looking mean. Man's POV: focused on the dead woman in the bedsprings. We pan up the dead woman's leg to find Ted holding her foot. We pan down Ted's leg to find the hypodermic needle jutting out... then pan over to the other hand holding the broken syringe plunger. We pan over to the Nudie channel, then down to the fire blazing behind the children. Pan up to the dripping champagne bottle in Sarah's hand, then over to the cigarette hanging out of Juancho's mouth. Juancho tosses his cigarette out of his mouth to an area behind him. Another blaze starts immediately. Man drops his Wife to the floor. In the WIDE SHOT of Ted and the children, we see that the fireworks are bursting big and bright outside the window behind them. Almost as bright as the flames eating through the room. Man simply glares at Ted. Finally Man speaks... MAN Did they misbehave? Ted stares blankly at Man (the camera) as the sprinklers burst on... drenching the room as the picture FADES TO BLACK FOUR ROOMS FADE UP ON INT. HOTEL LOBBY--NIGHT SUPER: ONE MINUTE AFTER ROBERT'S STORY. TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE DAWN. The elevator rides down to the lobby. The doors open and a wet, disheveled, and frantic Ted steps out. He staggers across the lobby to the reception desk. He grabs the phone. INT. BETTY'S APT--ALMOST DAWN The wild New Year's Eve party is winding down. Some Guests are passed out, some are asleep, some are making out, two guys are playing Nintendo, a Girl watches them. The phone RINGS. The Girl, who wears a "Guinness Stout" T-shirt, answers the phone. GUINNESS GIRL Happy New Year! BACK TO TED: BACK AND FORTH TED Let me speak to Betty. GUINNESS GIRL Party's over, she probably went home. TED She lives there. GUINNESS GIRL Oh, well, I haven't seen 'em in a while. TED Do you even know who I'm talking about? GUINNESS GIRL Yeah... yeah... yeah... I know 'em, I know Eddy. TED Betty, not Eddy. GUINNESS GIRL Yeah... yeah... I know Betty too... Tall... TED No, not particularly. She's got curly red hair. GUINNESS GIRL No, no, no, no, no, I know, I know. Japanese girl. TED She's not Japanese! I just said she had red hair. GUINNESS GIRL Yeah... yeah... yeah... I know her. TED Well, then get her on the phone, it's an emergency. GUINNESS GIRL Who -- who should I say's calling? TED Tell 'em Teddy from work's on the phone, and it's a major fuckin' emergency. GUINNESS GIRL Gotcha, Betty from work. TED Not Betty from work, I'm calling Betty! I'm Teddy. Just say Ted. GUINNESS GIRL Hi, Ted, I'm Margaret. You sound down. Has this not been the happiest of New Year's? TED (resigning himself to talking with Margaret) No Margaret, this hasn't been my best New Year. This year's starting off pretty badly. MARGARET Awww, how come? TED Well, Betty -- the chick whose house you're at, even though you don't know her -- leaves me here all by myself on New Year's Eve. And first thing right off the bat, I'm fucked by a coven of witches. MARGARET An oven full of witches fucked you? Is that like at the circus when they stick all those clowns in an itty- bitty car? TED A coven. A coven of witches. Well, one witch in particular. MARGARET Was she an old hag with a mole, with hair growing out of it? TED No-no-no, she was... quite beautiful. Margaret thinks for a moment. MARGARET Ted? TED Yes. MARGARET What's the problem? TED Well, admittedly, that was the best part of the night. It was pretty fuckin' cool, actually. But it was still an unnerving way to start off the night. MARGARET Sounds to me like a pretty great way to start off the night. TED Okay, let's just skip over the witches. MARGARET -- Skipping over the witches. TED So, later, in another room, some crazy sucking maniac sticks a gun in my face and forces me to play out some psychosexual drama with his wife. MARGARET He made you have psycho sex with his wife? TED No, he didn't make me fuck his wife, he thought I'd fucked his wife! He held me at gunpoint with a loaded gun! MARGARET What kinda gun? TED I don't know, I'm not a gun guy. It was big. MARGARET Like Dirty Harry's gun. TED Yeah, something like that. MARGARET Did it have a real long barrel or a short barrel? TED What difference does it make? MARGARET Well, for one thing it's the difference between a .44 Magnum and a Magnum .357. TED Who cares if it was a .44 or a .392, it was a fuckin' loaded gun, pointed at my fuckin' head! Margaret takes this in. MARGARET You wanna skip over this part, too? TED I want you to get Betty on the phone! MARGARET Hold on. (yelling to the room) Anybody live here named... (to Ted) What's her name again? TED Betty. MARGARET Betty! The sleepy room stirs. Betty wakes up from the floor. BETTY Yeah, whatcha screamin' about? MARGARET You're Betty? BETTY Yeah, I'm Betty, it's my fuckin' place, who the fuck are you? MARGARET I'm Margaret (hands her the phone) And this is Ted. Betty takes the phone. BETTY Ted, what's the problem? TED What's the problem? I don't got a problem, I got fuckin' problems! Wanna hear? BETTY (yawning, wiping sleep from her eyes) Sure. TED Well, most recently, there's room 716. There's a scary Mexican gangster dude pokin' his finger in my chest. There's his hooligan kids snapping their fingers at me. There's the putrid rotting corpse of a dead whore stuffed in the springs of a bed. There're rooms blazing afire... There's a needle from God knows where stuck in my leg, infecting me with God knows what, and finally, there's me walking out the fuckin' door right now! Buenas noches. A RINGING SOUND happens that we haven't heard before. Ted's head turns toward it. It's the guest board. And the top light, the penthouse, is ringing. It rings where all the others buzzed. Betty can hear it distinctly on her side of the line. The sound fully wakes her up. They start talking Howard Hawks style again. BETTY (suddenly alert) Is that the penthouse? TED Yeah. BETTY That's the Chester Rush party, they want something. TED Yeah, well, tough titty. They're just gonna have to wait, 'cause I'm out the door. BETTY (panicking) Now, Ted, wait a minute. I know you're freaked, I know you're stressed. You've had a real bad night -- TED Yes, Betty, I've had-a-real-bad-night -- BETTY -- You say there's a dead body in a room? TED Yes, I did. BETTY No problem, this is a hotel, we've had dead bodies before, it's just the price of doing business. You said the hotel was on fire. Is it still on fire? TED No, it's out. BETTY Good, sprinkler system worked like a charm. Now, you wanna leave, you've had enough. Perfectly understandable. I'll take care of everything else. The only thing I ask is that you take care of Chester Rush. Then you can leave. TED Now, look -- BETTY Ted, he's a very important guest of this hotel. In fact, he is the most important guest at the hotel. The Mon Signor used to be a haven for movie stars. Through the thirties and forties, and the first half of the fifties, more movie stars -- if you break it down on a night-by-night basis -- stayed at the Mon Signor than any other hotel in Hollywood. Now, we had some hard time in the eighties, even though we were the official hotel of Cannon Pictures, but we're coming back strong in the nineties. And a movie star clientele is important to that comeback. If we can keep stars of his magnitude happy, we're on our way. So, Ted, just take care of him, then you can leave. TED Look, I don't feel like -- BETTY He probably just wants some champagne! You can do that, can't you? Please just take care of him, the entire staff of the Mon Signor is begging you! Ted crumbles. TED Okay. But get your ass here pronto. BETTY You're a good man, Ted. Thanks. Ted hangs up the phone. And picks up the board phone. TED Hello, Mr. Rush. Sorry for the delay. How can I help you? FADE TO BLACK STORY TITLE CARD: THE PENTHOUSE "THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD" EXT. HALLWAY TO PENTHOUSE--NIGHT The elevator door opens and Ted wheels out his tray into the hallway. There's been a bit of an effort to make himself appear a bit less disheveled than in the last scene. He's only minorly successful in the attempt. His uniform still looks like shit, his hair looks tousled, and he walks with a limp. He wheels the cart up to the penthouse door and KNOCKS at the door. A woman opens the door, it's Angela from Alex's story. ANGELA Hi, Theodore. TED What the hell are you doing here? She holds up the drink she has in her hand. ANGELA Having a drink. TED Is that crazy husband of yours in there? ANGELA Are you kidding, he'll be asleep till Christmas. From behind her we hear: VOICE (O.S.) Entrez, entrez. Angela steps aside and Ted wheels in the tray. INT. PENTHOUSE--NIGHT The penthouse is huge, far and away the best suite in the house. And standing in the middle of the biggest room in the hotel is the hottest, newest comedy star to burst onto the Hollywood scene in nearly a decade: Chester Rush. At this moment in time, he's the king, and he has the swagger of a new king. After only one movie, he's pulled the sword out of the stone. And the look on his face says, "King's good." Surrounding him is his entourage. They all look like once upon a time this evening they were dressed sharp; however, at this late hour, everybody looks about as disheveled as Ted. One of the lads, Norman, has planted roots in a comfy chair with his leg thrown over the arm and a bottle of Jim Beam in his hand. The second guy, Leo, is in the back of the room pacing back and forth on the telephone. He is completely oblivious to the rest of the room's activity. In Chester's hand is an ever present glass of champagne, which he constantly spills as he gestures wildly. Around the room are the leftovers: pizza boxes, fast-food hamburgers, and empty bottles of Cristal Champagne. CHESTER (still sitting) Entrez, entrez, come in, come in. TED (wheeling in the tray) Hi, sorry I took so long, but I got everything you asked for -- CHESTER -- Not a problem, my friend Mr. Bellboy. ANGELA (closing the door) His name's Theodore. TED Actually, it's not Theodore, (he throws a look at Angela) It's Ted. Chester rises from the couch. CHESTER So, Ted the Bellboy, as I was saying -- would you care for some champagne? That's not what I was saying, but would you care for some champagne? TED No, thank you. CHESTER Ya sure? Cristal. It's the best. I never liked champagne before I had Cristal, now I love it. TED Okay, yeah, sure. As Chester goes and pours Ted a glass: CHESTER -- As I was saying, Ted, don't worry about being late. For our purposes, promptness is far behind thoroughness. On "thoroughness," he hands Ted the glass. CHESTER Chin-chin. They clink glasses and drink. CHESTER Whadya say, Ted? TED Thank you? CHESTER No, not thank you. Whadya say about the tasty beverage? TED It's good. CHESTER Fuckin' good, Ted. It's fuckin' good. Let's try it again, shall we? So, Ted, whadya think about the beverage. TED It's fuckin' good. CHESTER You bet your sweet bippy, Ted. It's fuckin' Cristal, everything else is piss. Norman in the chair starts yelling at Ted. NORMAN Bellboy! Bellboy! Bellboy! Ted knows he's being laughed at, but not why. CHESTER (to Norman) Knock it off, you're making my friend Ted here uneasy. (to Ted) Pay no attention to Norman here, Ted, he's just fuckin' wit' ya, that's all. That's from Quadrophenia. Now me, myself, when I think of bellboys I think of -- "bellboy" isn't an insult, is it? Is there another name for what you do that I'm ignorant of? Bellman, bellperson -- TED Bellboy's fine. CHESTER Good. I'm glad they haven't changed that. There's a friendliness to "bellboy." As I was saying, Ted, when Norman thinks of bellboys, he thinks of Quadrophenia. But me, when I think of bellboys, I think of The Bellboy, with Jerry Lewis. Didja ever see The Bellboy? TED No. CHESTER You should, it's one of Jerry's better movies. He never says a word through the entire film. A completely silent performance. How many actors can pull that off? And he has to go to France to get respect. That says it all about America right there. The minute Jerry Lewis dies, every paper in this fuckin' country gonna write articles calling the man a genius. It's not right. It's not right and it's not fair. But why should that surprise anybody? When has America ever been fair? We might be right every once in a while, but we're very rarely fair. TED Where do you want this? CHESTER You in a hurry, Ted? TED (he is, but doesn't want to rush the movie star) No, not particularly. CHESTER Good, then stop playing "Beat the Clock." Now let me introduce you to everybody. He puts his arm around Ted and leads him around the room. Angela crosses frame, drink in hand. CHESTER Our friend from downstairs you already seem to be acquainted with. As she snuggles up in a big comfy chair: ANGELA Oh, me and Theodore go way back. Don't we, Theodore? TED The name's Ted, Angela. I only let people with loaded guns at my head call me Theodore. CHESTER Angela's like you, Ted, a newfound friend. ANGELA We met at the pool. CHESTER (to Ted) Have you ever seen Angela in a one- piece? TED No. CHESTER Well, it's somethin' to see. (arm around Ted) The Man sitting in the chair, with the bottle of Jim Bean in his hand and the sense of humor, is Norman. Norman, say hello to Ted. NORMAN What's up? Norman shakes his hand. CHESTER The sociable son of a bitch on the telephone is Leo. And the person on the other end of the phone is his lovely wife Ellen. (to Leo) Leo, say hello to Ted. Leo breaks away from his phone conversation for two seconds. LEO Hi, Ted, glad you could make it. (back to phone) What? (pause) What does punctuality have to do with love? CHESTER Which brings me to me, Chester Rush, Ted. Pleased to meetcha. Chester shakes Ted's hand. TED I know. I'm sorry I haven't seen your movie. Chester stops. Ted wonders if he should have said that. Chester walks over to the table and pours himself some more champagne. When he talks now it's slower and somewhat distracted. The tone of the scene starts changing. CHESTER It's quite all right, Ted, nothing to feel sorry about. That's why God invented video. But you know, Ted, a lot of people did see it. Chester takes a drink of champagne, a disgusted look crosses his face, and he slowly puts it down. His manner gives the room a chill. When he talks, he addresses the room. CHESTER Who drank out of this bottle last? No answer. Chester walks over to Ted and fills his glass. CHESTER Who drank out of this bottle -- not the other bottles -- this bottle last? NORMAN What's wrong, Chester? He spills the champagne from his glass onto the floor. CHESTER It's fuckin' flat, Norman, that's what's wrong. The champagne -- the fuckin' Cristal's fuckin' flat. Chester improvises a temper tantrum about the flat Cristal. Everyone looks at him, not knowing what to say. Even Leo walks over to witness. The whole room is uneasy and a little frightened. When Chester finishes his tantrum, he turns his attention back to Ted. As he talks to him, he opens up another bottle. But it's not the rapid-pace delivery Chester has done so far. It's more troubled and distracted. CHESTER I was saying, Ted, a lot of people did see it. And not just on video, either. Leo, what was the final take on domestic? Leo is still in the doorway making sure his boy's cool. LEO 72.1 million. (worried tone) You okay, champ? CHESTER (struggling with bottle) I'm cool, so talk to your wife. Leo turns his attention back to the phone and goes inside the room. CHESTER (to Ted) 72.1 million dollars. That's before video and before foreign, and before pay-TV and before free TV. We're talking fuckin' asses in fuckin' seats. (he pops the cork) Before all that other shit, The Wacky Detective made 72.1 million dollars. Chester walks over to Ted and fills his glass. CHESTER And my new one, The Dog Catcher, it's projected to break a hundred. (he clinks Ted's glass with his) The Dog Catcher. TED The Dog Catcher. They both drink. The tantrum's over, and Chester's back to his fast-talking, good-natured self. CHESTER Now let's stroll over here and see what goodies you brought us. TED Do you mind me asking what's all this stuff for? CHESTER One thing at a time, Ted. I'm not a frog and you're not a bunny, so let's not jump ahead. C'mon, Norman, you should be interested in this. NORMAN Damn Skippy! (pause) Tell it. Ted produces the things they called for. TED A block of wood. Chester knocks on it. CHESTER Good. TED Three nails. NORMAN Why three nails? CHESTER That's how many Peter Lorre asked for. Continue, Ted. Ted is completely bewildered. TED A roll of twine. CHESTER That's definitely a roll of twine. Continue. TED A bucket of ice. CHESTER (to Norman) You into it? NORMAN (to Chester) I'm into it. CHESTER (to Ted) Go on. TED A donut. Chester takes it and eats it. CHESTER That's for me. Continue. TED And a hatchet. CHESTER A hatchet as sharp as the devil himself is what I asked for. TED Well, you be the judge. Ted holds the hatchet out for Chester to take. Norman snatches it instead. NORMAN I'll be the judge. Norman touches the end of the blade with his thumb. CHESTER Whadya think? NORMAN That's a sharp motherfucker. Bring all this bullshit over to the bar. CHESTER You heard him, Ted. Ted is completely confused and starting to get a little scared, but he does what he's told. Leo slams down the phone. LEO Bitch! NORMAN You still married? LEO Maybe, maybe not, but I don't give a flyin' fuck either way. I've had it with that Machiavellian bitch! I'm too drunk to drive home. I'm sorry about that, I'm real sorry about that. I got drunk on New Year's Eve, cut my fuckin' head off... (noticing Ted at the bar) What's going on here? CHESTER We now return you to The Man from Rio, already in progress. LEO (surprised) Noooo, you're gonna do it? NORMAN Looks like. LEO You guys ain't bullshittin', you're gonna really go for it? Angela is still curled up. ANGELA After talkin' about it all night, they better. I wanna see a show. CHESTER When we do it, you'll have something to see. Leo walks up to Norman and throws his arm around him. LEO You are one radical dude. Ted doesn't know what anybody's talking about, which is just fine with him. He finishes laying out everything on the bar and says: TED Well, that's everything, so if you don't need me for anything else, I'll go back downstairs. CHESTER Not so fast, Ted. We ain't quite done yet. Why don't you take a seat at the bar, get comfortable, and have an open mind when we explain the festivities of the evening to you. TED Look, guys, you paid for the room. As long as you don't break up the furniture, you can do whatever the fuck you want. And me personally, I don't care if you break up the furniture. You don't have to explain anything to me. Whatever constitutes a good time as far as you guys are concerned is your business. CHESTER Well, it's your business, Ted. 'Cause we want you to take part. TED Take part in what? LEO Chester, your way of breaking the news to him gently is scarin' the shit outta him. ANGELA Look at the poor guy. Just spit it out. Little by little everybody has gathered around Ted. CHESTER First off, let me say that there's nothing homosexual about what we're going to ask you to do. There's nothing sexual at all about what we want. But I was thinkin' you might be thinkin' we want you to do some sex thing. Pee on us, suck us off, shit like that. Let me assure you nothing could be farther from what we want -- Angela interrupts: ANGELA Can I jump in here? CHESTER No, you can't jump in here, this is my story. ANGELA Theodore's been here fifteen minutes and you've talked about everything but. CHESTER Hey, if you don't like it, you can get the fuck out. Leo taps his champagne glass with a tiny spoon, shutting everybody up. LEO If it'll please the court, let me explain to Ted our intentions. NORMAN (yelling) I second the nomination! CHESTER (yelling) Move the nomination be closed! Chester takes the hatchet and brings it down on the bar like a hatchet. CHESTER (calmly) Leo, the floor is yours. LEO Thank you. (to Ted) Ted, did you ever watch the old "Alfred Hitchcock Show"? TED (totally bewildered at this point) Yeah. LEO Did you ever see the episode The Man from Rio, with Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen? TED I don't think so. LEO Oh, you'd remember it all right. In the show, Peter Lorre makes a bet that Steve McQueen can't light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row. Now if Steve McQueen can light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row, he wins Peter Lorre's new car. If he can't he loses his little finger. (pause) Norman and Chester just made the same bet. (pause) Norman's putting up his pinky against Chester's mint convertible, 1964 red convertible Chevy Corvelle that he can light his Zippo ten times in a row. Pause. Ted looks at all of them, taking in the information, before saying: TED You guys are drunk. CHESTER Well, that goes without saying, but that doesn't mean we don't know what we're doing. NORMAN I'll tell ya what I'm doin'. Norman lays an issue of Hot Classic Cars in front of Ted on the bar. On the cover is a picture of Chester smiling, standing next to a beautiful 1964 red convertible Chevy Corvelle. The headline reads: "Hollywood's Hottest New Star Next to America's Hottest Old Car." NORMAN I drive a motherfuckin' Honda my sister sold me. You hear what I'm sayin'? A little white motherfuckin' Honda Civic. (he holds up the magazine) You see this shit?! (reading the magazine) "Hollywood's hottest new star, next to America's hottest old car." (he hands Ted the magazine) Now you take a good look at that machine that this motherfucker over here is standing next to. That's a 1964 nigger-red, rag-top Chevy Corvelle. And I love that car more'n I love hips, lips, and fingertips. Cut to we sittin' here celebrating, gettin' high, drinkin' champagne -- CHESTER -- Cristal. When you're drinkin' anything else, you're drinking champagne. When you're drinkin' Cristal, you say you're drinkin' Cristal. NORMAN -- drinkin' Cristal. Watchin' TV. "Rockin' New Year's Eve." When all of a sudden we flip on Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre bein' fuckin' badass. And I look at this funny motherfucker over here, and I say, "I'd do that for the Chevelle." LEO And Chester replies... CHESTER "...Oh, really?" TED You guys wouldn't be doin' something this stupid unless you were drunk. Everybody breaks into a "here, here" murmur. NORMAN I think that pretty much goes without sayin'. We'd probably chicken out. But when you're fucked-up, you don't lie. You tell the fuckin' truth. And the fuckin' truth is, my lucky Zippo's gonna win me Chester's car. TED (to Chester) Why are you doing this? CHESTER Thrill of the bet. I'm the one with something to lose here. 'Cause I can pretty near guarantee that I love my car more'n Norman loves his pinky. TED (to Leo) How 'bout you guys, you're just gonna sit back and let your friends mutilate each other? LEO Why not? Life don't get much more exciting than this. I mean if Norman was puttin' his dick on the choppin' block, I'd step in, 'cause, ya know in the morning, we'd really regret that. But his pinky? Who gives a fuck? I mean theoretically, he could lose that choppin' onions tomorrow. Life still goes on. TED (to Angela) How 'bout you? ANGELA (to Ted) I don't care. CHESTER Which brings us to your part in this little wager. TED I don't have a part. CHESTER Now, Ted, my old granddaddy used ta say: "The less a man makes declarative statements, the less he's apt to look foolish in retrospect." Now there're some inherent obstacles in this undertaking. First of all, I'm not some sick fuck like Peter Lorre on that show, travelin' the countryside collecting fingers. We're all buddies, here. Nobody wants Norman to lose his finger. We just wanna chop it off. So if fate doesn't smile on ol' Norman, we'll put his finger on ice and rush 'im to a hospital, where in all likelihood be able to sew it back on. TED Hopefully. LEO Eighty percent. NORMAN Our side. CHESTER So Norman's protected. His interests have been looked after. My interests, on the other hand, have not. I am as emotionally attached to my car as Norman is physically to his finger. I'm putting up a very expensive piece of machinery on this wager. Now, if I lose, I lose, I have no problem with that. I'm a big boy, I knew what I was doing. However, if I win, I wanna win. If Norman lights his lighter ten times in a row, he's gonna have no emotional problems about taking my car keys whatsoever. But if I win, it's not inconceivable that Leo or myself, at the last minute, might not be able to wield the ax. Which brings us full circle to you, Ted. Sober Ted. Clear-eyed Ted. We want you to be the diceman. Pause as they all look at him. Angela breaks it. ANGELA Helluva night, huh, Ted? TED I gotta get out of here. Ted abruptly gets up and makes a beeline for the door. Chester whips out a hundred-dollar bill and quickly calls to Ted from his position at the bar. CHESTER Ted, I got a hundred-dollar bill here with your name on it, whether you do what we ask or not, just to sit back down in the chair for one minute more. Ted spins in his direction. TED I'm not gonna cut off his finger! CHESTER Maybe you will and maybe you won't, but that has nothing to do with this hundred-dollar bill in my hand. You can tell us all to go fuck off and walk right out that door. But if you sit back down and wait sixty seconds before you do it, you'll be a hundred dollars richer. Ted just stands across the room, thinking. ANGELA Ted. Take the money. LEO Ted, you're gonna do whatever you want to do. We're just askin' you to indulge us for another minute more. And Chester's willin' to pay for it. Ted thinks. TED I'll take your money, and I'll sit back down. But a minute from now, I'm gonna walk out the door, and when I do, there'll be no hard feelings? CHESTER Well, I want you to have a bit more of an open mind than that, but, yeah, we'll either convince you or we won't. No hard feelings. Right, guys? Everybody agrees. Ted wearily sits back down. Chester positions himself in front of Ted at the bar. CHESTER Okay, Leo, you be the timekeeper. Let us know when one minute begins and when it ends. LEO You got it. (he checks his watch) Gentlemen, start your engines. Chester jumps up and down, loosening up. LEO Begin! Chester, who talks fast anyway, starts his pitch. It's Chester who now plays "Beat the Clock." CHESTER Okay, pay attention here, Ted, I ain't got much time. Now I'm gonna make two piles here on the bar. (he takes the hundred- dollar bill and lays it out on the bar) One pile, (pointing at the hundred-dollar bill) which is yours. And another pile, (Chester whips out a money roll fat enough to choke a horse to death) which could be yours. (he lays a matching hundred-dollar bill on the bar, starting a second pile) Now, what you have to be aware of is we're gonna do this bet, one way, (he lays another hundred on the end pile) or the other. (he lays another hundred on the pile) Whether it's you who holds the ax, (he lays another hundred on the pile) or the desk clerk downstairs, (he lays another hundred on the pile) or some bum we yank off the street. (he lays another hundred on the pile) NORMAN You can buy a lot of soup with that pile. CHESTER (to Norman) Shhhh, I'm the closer. (to the group) How much is on the bar already? I lost count. ANGELA Six hundred. CHESTER Six hundred. Ted, do you know how long it takes the average American to count to six hundred? TED No. CHESTER (laying another bill on the pile) One minute less than it takes to count to seven hundred. You know, Ted, a person's life is made up of a zillion little experiences. (he lays another bill on the pile) Some, which have no meaning, are insignificant and you forget them. And some that stick with you for the rest of your natural life -- (he lays another bill on the pile) -- barring Alzheimer's of course. Now, what we're proposing is so unusual, so outside the norm, that I think it would be a pretty good guess that this will be one of those experiences that sticks. So, since you're gonna be stuck remembering this moment for the rest of your life, you gotta decide what that memory will be. (He lays down the last bill on the pile) So, are you gonna remember for the next forty years, give or take a decade, how you refused a thousand dollars for one second's worth of work, or how you made a thousand dollars for one second's worth of work? LEO Time! CHESTER Well, Ted, what's it gonna be? Ted looks at the pile, then looks up. We dolly into his face. FLASHBACK We see a quick MONTAGE of horrendous moments from all the other stories. INT. PENTHOUSE--NIGHT Back to Ted. TED Okay. The group cheers. TED But when it's over, no matter what happens, I get the money? CHESTER As long as you do your part, you can take the pile, walk out the door, and not say another word. TED Let's do it right now, before I change my mind. NORMAN Here, here. Everybody gets in their position by the bar. Norman lays his left hand on the block of wood with his pinky sticking out. In his right hand is his Zippo lighter, poised and ready to strike. Chester hands Ted the meat cleaver. Ted takes it, raises it up above Norman's finger, in position. CHESTER Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect! This is great! This is a moment in time none of us will ever forget. Everybody is crowded around the scene, on pins and needles. CHESTER Norman, you ready? NORMAN Ready! CHESTER Ted, you ready? TED Ready. CHESTER Okeydoke. Norman, begin. Norman looks hard at the Zippo in his hand. Ted, holding the cleaver, stares focused on Norman's pinky. Norman readies himself. Places his thumb on the wheel in the Zippo. Takes a breath. And strikes. It sparks, but doesn't light. Without missing a beat, Ted brings down the cleaver, slicing off Norman's pinky. Norman lets out a scream. Ted, in one move, lays down the cleaver, scoops up the money and walks out the door. INT. HALLWAY--AFTER DAWN CAMERA is positioned at far end of hallway, looking down it at the elevator at the other end. Ted walks out of the penthouse in the f.g. In a MEDIUM SHOT, he takes the thousand dollars in his hand, looks at it, smiles, and sticks it in his pocket. It might've been a bad night, but it's been a profitable one. He chuckles at the irony, and, whistling a happy tune, turns his back on the camera and walks down the hall to the elevator. All the while we hear PANDEMONIUM breaking out behind the door. As Ted walks to the elevator, the CREDITS ROLL. He waits for the elevator, it arrives, he gets in, the doors close. As CREDITS CONTINUE TO ROLL, we hold for about two beats... then... The door BURSTS open and everybody comes piling out. Everybody's screaming, yelling different things to one another. Norman has a bloody towel wrapped around his hand, he's screaming and crying. NORMAN My finger, my fucking finger!! Chester has the bucket of ice with the finger in it. Leo's trying to direct everything. Everybody's in frantic activity, except for Angela, who stands back, drinks her drink, and watches the show. They all run down the hall, toward the elevator. Somebody trips and they all hit the ground. The bucket of ice with the finger goes spilling. They run around like crazy, looking for the finger and picking up ice cubes. Norman lies on the floor and screams. They pick it all up, get to the elevator, and push the button. When it arrives, they all dive in except for Angela. ANGELA You know, I'm gonna call it a night and go back to my room. It's been fun. The doors close on the screaming maniacs. Angela walks through a door marked "Stairway." INT. 4TH FLOOR HALLWAY--AFTER DAWN MEDIUM STAIRWAY DOOR CREDIT ROLL continues Angela comes through the door; we STEADICAM in front of her as she walks the halls, looking for her room. She finds it... WE STOP CREDITS FOUR ROOMS Angela sticks her key in the door, then stops when she sees something approaching. The look on her face combines strange awe and mild shock. Almost floating ethereally, a mysterious Blond Bombshell, wearing Diana's see-through negligee and slippers, armed with Elspeth's sword slung over her shoulder, wanders toward her. She is in a daze, perhaps lost or drunk. ANGELA You okay, lady? The bombshell looks up at her dizzily. ANGELA I said -- you looking for someone? DIANA (disoriented) Uhhh... yes... my husband... I think. Have you seen him? Angela and the girl have a strange moment as they connect through the eyes. Having had enough emotional intensity tonight, Angela breaks their eye contact. ANGELA Lady, I haven't seen anybody. Diana quietly says, "Ohhh," as she drifts on down the hall in a daze. Angela puts her hand to her temples before opening her hotel door. She does a double-take on the hallway -- empty. She pauses a beat, then walks into her room. After the door closes, we hear Sigfried on the other side. SIGFRIED Where the hell have you been? CREDITS CONTINUE TO ROLL THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Foxcatcher.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Foxcatcher.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..76c294fbb11d649bce277641035de3a59f2d5c0b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Foxcatcher.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FOXCATCHER Written by E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman INT. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN GYM - VERY EARLY MORNING MARK SCHULTZ (27, 180 lbs., cauliflower ears) lifts a human- sized, leather WRESTLING DUMMY from the mat to stand in front of him. He performs a series of repetitive moves - hooking one arm under the dummy's arm, then the other; one side, then other. Again and again. It looks almost as if he's dancing gently with it. Then, very fast, Mark spins quickly around behind the dummy, grabs it in a bear hug, arches his back, lifts and SLAMS it to the mat, landing on top. QUICK CUTS: Mark spinning, lifting and slamming the dummy - first one way, then the other - first one hold, then another - SLAM. SLAM. SLAM. SLAM. SLAM - over and over and over again. CUT TO: I/E. BARABOO SCHOOL/PARKING LOT - LATE MORNING Mark pulls his beat-up car into a space in the parking lot of this nondescript, 1960s-era suburban brick-facade school. He's freshly showered, wears a short-sleeve dress shirt, clip- on tie, slacks. He reaches behind the front seat and pulls out a battered BROWN VINYL BRIEFCASE. CUT TO: INT. BARABOO SCHOOL/PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE WAITING ROOM - DAY Mark waits alone in a chair he's much too big for, his brown vinyl briefcase on his lap. A portrait of President Reagan hangs on the painted cinder block wall. A clock ticks. CUT TO: INT. BARABOO SCHOOL/AUDITORIUM - DAY Mark's on stage. An audience of 4th, 5th and 6th graders. MARK Why do I do it? Why do I push myself to my limits - of pain, of exhaustion - every day of my life? Why do I wake up every morning and make the commitment? Why do I do it? 2. The students are open-mouthed - they have no idea what to make of him. Mark's not being willfully over-the-top with these kids. This is just what's on his mind. All the time. MARK (CONT'D) In 13 months - if I train right, if I push myself - I'll be going to Seoul - that's a city in South Korea. Does anyone know why? Because that's where the Olympic games are. Mark reaches into the briefcase at his feet and pulls out a RIBBON with a MEDAL dangling from it. MARK (CONT'D) Does anyone know what this is? As a couple of kids start to raise their hands -- MARK (CONT'D) Olympic gold medal. I won it three years ago at the `84 Games in Los Angeles. My brother, Dave Schultz - my best friend, my older brother, my best friend - won one too, just 23 hours and 16 minutes before I did. That's unprecedented - two brothers winning at the same Olympics. (THEN) Would you like me to win another one? Would you like me to win another gold medal - for us, for America? Would you like to see me and my big brother - Dave Schultz - both win gold medals? Who here wants to see the two brothers win again? Silence. A couple of the kids tentatively raise their hands. The rest are completely frozen. MARK (CONT'D) Well we're going to give it absolutely everything we've got. CUT TO: INT. BARABOO SCHOOL/PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE WAITING ROOM - DAY A SCHOOL SECRETARY writes out a check as Mark stands in front of the desk, placing his medal back in his briefcase. 3. SCHOOL SECRETARY Twenty... and... no one-hundreds... She tears off the check and hands it to Mark. He takes the check, holds out to her a SIGNED 8x10 PHOTO of himself with his arms raised, in a USA WRESTLING SINGLET just after winning his Olympic gold. MARK And this is for the trophy case. SCHOOL SECRETARY I'm sorry?... For what? MARK For the trophy case. (BEAT) With the trophies. SCHOOL SECRETARY It's an elementary school. As Mark holds out the photo, WE HEAR: FAST FOOD KID (V.O.) Can I take your order? CUT TO: INT. ARBY'S - DAY A long-haired, greasy KID with the very beginnings of a mustache takes Mark's order. Mark looks up at the menu sign. MARK I'll have a # 4. FAST FOOD KID # 4. Anything to drink? MARK No. Can I get extra meat on that? FAST FOOD KID 65 cents. MARK What are you talking about? FAST FOOD KID Extra meat costs extra. 4. MARK Where's it say that? FAST FOOD KID I don't know. I just know I'm supposed to charge extra for extra meat. MARK I always get extra meat. Every time I come here. FAST FOOD KID It's extra for extra meat. They told me. 65 cents. CUT TO: I/E. MARK'S FORD STATION WAGON/ ARBY'S PARKING LOT - DAY Mark sits in his car, eating his sandwich - no enjoyment, just fueling himself. His RADIO plays a commercial. CUT TO: INT. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN GYM - AFTERNOON DAVE SCHULTZ (31, bearded, intelligent, 163 lbs., strong, fierce, but calm), Head Coach of U of W wrestling, stands on the wrestling mat speaking VERY QUIETLY with 3 or 4 select WRESTLERS from the team. We can't quite hear what Dave is saying to them, but we can sense immediately the reverence and deep respect they have for Dave - one of the country's top wrestlers and great coaches. The scene gives off the feeling one might have watching a horse whisperer with a small group of stallions. Whatever he's saying, they are calmed by him, pay absolute attention, will do whatever he asks. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - EVENING A cheaply built 70s-era structure, where Mark inhabits two small rooms with a cheap kitchenette built into the wall of one of them. A particle-board BOOKCASE houses a little SHRINE of Mark's medals - and PHOTOS of him and Dave. Mark retrieves his briefcase from inside the garbage bag and extracts his GOLD MEDAL. 5. He replaces it in the PLASTIC DISPLAY CASE on the top shelf, next to the photo of him and Dave smiling with their gold medals around their necks. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Mark dumps a package of TOP RAMEN NOODLES into boiling water. And another package. And another. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Mark sits on his one metal FOLDING CHAIR, at his table, eating his bowl of noodles. Moths tap against the window. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT/BEDROOM - LATER/NIGHT Mark, in just boxer shorts, crosses off another day on his wall calendar. 427 days to Seoul. He looks around, then drops to the floor and starts a monstrous number of push-ups. CUT TO: EXT. INDUSTRIAL ROAD - EARLY MORNING Mark runs hard past warehouses and auto repair outlets. CUT TO: EXT. FIELD AND HILL NEXT TO CAR DEMOLITION YARD - MORNING Mark runs through knee-high weeds dragging a CAR TIRE attached to a rope behind him. He reaches a hill and heads straight up, dragging the tire all the way - MARK (V.O.) Coach Teller? This is Mark Schultz-- CUT TO: 6. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - DAY An ink-stained directory of Wisconsin Public Schools lies open on the kitchen table. MARK (ON PHONE) I won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the `84 Olympics. Mark, the phone tucked against his shoulder, slips a BLANK TAPE into a cheap VCR. He slides a HAND-LABELED TAPE into a second VCR, wired to the first. We can read the label: "THE MARK SCHULTZ WRESTLING CLINIC." He starts making a copy. MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) I'm arranging a clinic in your area next weekend, and I wanted to invite you and some of your wrestlers to join... JUMP CUT TO: MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) That's Dave, my brother. I wrestle at 180... No, he won't be there, just me... Okay - well, good luck with your season, coach. JUMP TO: On the screen is a montage of highlights from Mark's career: take downs, pins. He's an animal - powerful, aggressive. MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Yes, there's a small fee. JUMP TO: MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) S-C-H-U-L-T-Z.... JUMP TO: On the screen, Mark wrestles Resit Karabajak, a Turkish wrestler, in his first round match at the `84 Olympics. MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) A unique, character-building opportunity for young wrestlers.... Yes, a small fee... Mark throws Karabajak to the mat. Pins him. Walks away, arms raised. Crowd cheers. Karabajak's on the mat, hurt. 7. MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Dave's my brother... On screen, Mark does a back flip. JUMP TO: MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Olympic Champion... Mark does a back flip. MARK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Dave's my brother... JUMP TO: Mark's holds the phone on his lap, just watching himself on the screen, wrestling... winning... match after match... EXT. MARK'S APARTMENT/OUTSIDE WALKWAY - EVENING Mark's outside at the second floor railing of this two-story stucco building, looking out over the bleak landscape: a 7- 11, an Auto-Zone. He eats a hard-boiled egg. He watches a CAR pull into the lot below. Dave gets out, looks up. DAVE Where were you today? CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - MOMENTS LATER Dave fills two mismatched glasses with tap water from the faucet. DAVE How far'd you run? Ten? Mark's on the tattered couch. He shrugs, though we should see that he loves the fact that Dave is concerned about him. DAVE (CONT'D) More than ten? Dragging weight the whole way? (Dave turns off the water) You're a sick fuck, you know that? Dave turns to look at Mark, sitting in the bare living room. 8. DAVE (CONT'D) Place is looking good, by the way. I like what you've done with it. Dave notices the Public Schools Directory on the table. DAVE (CONT'D) You setting up clinics? MARK Talked to some coaches. Dave comes toward Mark, handing off a water glass, dragging the folding chair over to sit across from him. DAVE I hope you don't have anything booked for Saturday. MARK Why? DAVE I need a favor. This school called me months ago to do a gig but now I can't. Nancy's got a thing all day so I gotta watch the kids. You free? MARK I'll check. He goes into the bedroom, looks at the calendar. There's NOTHING WRITTEN DOWN for any of the days. MARK (CONT'D) You said Saturday or Sunday? DAVE Saturday. MARK Saturday could work. He comes back in. DAVE Good. Thank you. Dave looks at the BACK OF HIS HAND, where he's written down a name and phone number in MARKER. He grabs one of Mark's VHS labels and a pen and writes the information. 9. DAVE (CONT'D) Coach Vinson, Radnor High. I'll let him know you'll call tomorrow. He peels off the label and slaps it on Mark's leg. DAVE (CONT'D) And Mark. Please come back to the gym. You don't have to do anything with the team. Just train with me. Mark's just looking at his older brother. DAVE (CONT'D) I need you there. Stay focused on what's important. For both of us. Seoul's the goal. Beat. Beat. Then, Mark nods at his brother. MARK Seoul's the goal. CUT TO: INT. RADNOR HIGH SCHOOL GYM - DAY Seven HIGH SCHOOL BOYS plus a couple of PRE-TEENS, all in wrestling gear, sit on the mat in front of Mark. He seems manic, evangelical, not tuned into his audience. MARK The minute you step on the mat, you are exactly who you are. You can't hide. You can't pretend you trained harder than you did, you want it more than you do. My brother Dave and me care about this more than we care about anything. The difference between the number one guy in the world and the number four guy is paper thin. The one who wins is the one who wants it more, who's willing to sacrifice, who can take the pain. I can take the pain. My brother Dave can take the pain. Can you take the pain? Blank looks from the teenage wrestlers. Mark gestures to a table set up near the door, on which is his OPEN BRIEFCASE, with a stack of TAPES. 10. MARK (CONT'D) I talk about all this in my instructional videotape - which you can purchase at the end of the day for a nominal fee. CUT TO: INT. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN GYM - DAY Mark exits the locker room in his wrestling gear, heading for the MATS. Dave's in his wrestling gear, on the far side of the gym, talking with TWO MIDDLE-AGED MEN in blazers with USA WRESTLING INSIGNIA. Mark walks onto the mat, waits for him. Dave and the two men see Mark, WAVE to him - but Mark pretends not to notice, busies himself loosening his wrists, hands, neck. Dave walks over to him. DAVE You remember Fred Cole from USA Wrestling. The men walk up behind Dave. FRED COLE Hey there, Mark, how you been? Mark sort of nods, but doesn't really respond. FRED COLE (CONT'D) (beat, then turns to Dave) All right, Dave. Let us know if we can count on you. We'll talk soon. Dave nods. They walk away. Then Dave turns back to Mark. MARK You been calling me and hanging up? DAVE (adjusting his knee brace) No. What do you mean? Mark doesn't answer, just stands looking at him. For several seconds, they look at each other. Then, slowly at first: They start to circle each other. We sense immediately their differences: Dave's hunched and not very muscular physique belies his quickness and enormous strength. 11. Mark's defining characteristic is brute force. A weight class heavier than Dave, he can NEVER SEEM TO BEAT HIS OLDER BROTHER. The wrestling becomes intense and violent - Mark's head slams into Dave's nose, drawing BLOOD. This only energizes Dave, who slams Mark to the mat - dripping blood onto him. VARIOUS SHOTS of the increasingly brutal match, ending with: Dave rides Mark, who's on his stomach, flattened and splayed - grappling for a hold. Mark glances up to SEE: The USA Wrestling men WATCHING from near the door. Mark looks away, gritting his teeth, but Dave's gotten his hold. As Dave TURNS and slams the bigger Mark - CUT TO: INT. DAVE'S CAR/OUTSIDE MARK'S APARTMENT - EVENING Mark looks out the window. Silence. They sit there, both bruised and bloodied. MARK Sorry about your nose. DAVE No, you're not. (BEAT) Come by the house, have dinner with me and Nance and the kids. Mark's still looking out the window. He speaks quietly - MARK You win a gold medal for them. And still. Nothing. No respect. He reaches for the door handle. DAVE Hey. Gimme a hug. Dave reaches for his arm, and Mark folds automatically into his older brother, puts his head on his chest. Dave embraces him for several long moments - it's like a father and his young child. Then Dave smacks him on the back of the neck. DAVE (CONT'D) Same time tomorrow. 12. Mark nods, gets out of the car and walks away. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - EVENING Mark presses PLAY on his answering machine. Hang-ups and DIAL TONES. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT/BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER Mark examines his bruised face in the mirror, wiping away blood - some of it his, some his brother's. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - LATER Mark's at the refrigerator, cracking ice cube trays into a plastic 7-11 shopping bag. The PHONE RINGS. He picks up -- MARK (ON PHONE) Yah. A man's voice is heard. It sounds like long distance. MAN (OVER PHONE) May I please speak with Mr. Mark Schultz? MARK (ON PHONE) It's Mark. MAN (OVER PHONE) I'm sorry to call you at night, but Mr. du Pont was anxious that I get in touch with you. MARK (ON PHONE) Okay... MAN (ON PHONE) He asked that you please consider taking a day off from your training to come out to Foxcatcher Farms so you men can meet face to face. MARK (ON PHONE) Who do you work for again? 13. MAN (ON PHONE) John E. du Pont of the du Pont family of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. (BEAT) You may also know of him in connection with his support of the Villanova wrestling program. MARK (ON PHONE) (HE DOESN'T) What does he want to talk about? MAN (ON PHONE) Mr. du Pont requested that I contact you to set up a meeting. He'd like to bring you out to Pennsylvania. MARK (ON PHONE) Uh-huh. MAN (ON PHONE) If I may I'd like to make travel arrangements for you, Mr. Schultz. Mark's holding the ice cube tray, alone in his dingy kitchen. MAN (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Mr. Schultz? CUT TO: INT. PHL AIRPORT/ARRIVAL GATE - DAY BRANDON (20s, post-prep school, jacket/tie) waits for Mark. BRANDON Mr. Schultz, I'm Brandon. Welcome to Philadelphia. CUT TO: INT. HELICOPTER (AIRBORNE) - DAY Mark watches out the clear Plexi as the Pennsylvania countryside spreads out below him. He and Brandon and the pilot (LARRY - 50s, aviator glasses, Air Cavalry patch on his jacket) all wear RADIO MIC HEADSETS. 14. BRANDON (ON RADIO MIC) Mr. du Pont would have flown you himself, but he was asked at the last minute for tactical assistance by the Newtown Square Police Department. Mark has no idea what that means, but nods his head. BRANDON (ON RADIO MIC) (CONT'D) He should be back at the estate by the time we get there. Larry BANKS the plane steeply on Mark's side so Mark has an unobstructed view of the ground. LARRY (ON RADIO MIC) Valley Forge below you. They speed over the historic site - wide fields, the memorial arch, wood fences, the old stone house. BRANDON (ON RADIO MIC) The du Pont family's supplied American armed forces with gunpowder since the beginning. (as Larry heads south) Foxcatcher in three minutes. CUT TO: I/E. HELICOPTER (AIRBORNE)/FOXCATCHER ESTATE - MINUTES LATER A MARE and FOAL run away as the helicopter descends toward the Big House - a huge Georgian brick home in the middle of 800 acres of fields and woods and outbuildings. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY/BIG HOUSE - DAY Brandon leads Mark down a carpeted hallway. CUT TO: INT. LIBRARY/BIG HOUSE - DAY They enter. It's at once grandly elegant and musty. 15. BRANDON Feel free to look around the library. Mr. du Pont will be up shortly. Shuts the door behind him. Mark's never been in a room like this - oil paintings of du Pont ancestors; foxhounds, horses, hunts. Leather-bound books share space with framed OLD STAMPS and antique (and not so antique) PISTOLS. Framed PHOTOS of the same man (JOHN DU PONT - 50, thin, beak-nosed, blond-grey hair) with Presidents Ford, Nixon, Reagan... Henry Kissinger. Mark's standing, gazing at the photos, when the door opens, revealing JOHN DU PONT, a police-issue HOLSTER dangling from one hand. He stops and breathlessly regards Mark. DU PONT You're actually here. MARK Oh. Yes, sir. DU PONT In my study. MARK (no idea what to say) They said it was the library. DU PONT It is. Du Pont puts the holster onto a chair. Holds out his hand. DU PONT (CONT'D) John du Pont. MARK Mark Sch -- DU PONT - I know who you are - I've watched your Olympic victory enough times to know exactly who you are, every inch of you. Please, put your bag down, make yourself comfortable, sit, make yourself at home - (You quickly realize that du Pont can be voluble and charming, but the more time you spend with him, the more you see what an effort this is for him - how essentially uncomfortable he is in his own skin.... Also, he just might have snorted a tiny bit of coke before he came in.) 16. Mark sits. Du Pont settles in, sits facing him - focused entirely on Mark. He speaks intimately, sincerely DU PONT (CONT'D) I watched the video of your Olympic run again last night. After you broke the arm of the Turk - after they disqualified you, handed you a loss - after they put an extra official on you to watch your holds - all of which were legal - after all that you rack up seven straight wins to take the medal. For your country. Thrilling. Thrilling. Inspiring. Take the gold medal. Mark can't recall when he's received this kind of attention. MARK Thank you, sir. I'm proud of that day. DU PONT You should be. I'm proud of that day. I'm proud of you on that day. Your parents must be enormously proud. MARK (after a moment) To be perfectly honest, we don't often talk. Du Pont nods, hoping Mark might say more. When he doesn't - DU PONT I want to tell you how much I appreciate your coming here. I know it cuts into your training. I imagine that's every day for you? MARK Yes sir, it is. DU PONT Strength training in the morning? Upper body regimen - muscle tone - building up the muscle tone - across the upper body. In the morning? 17. MARK Oh. Well. I take the mornings on my own - as you said, strength training, endurance - then I meet up with my brother - you know Dave Schultz - ? DU PONT Of course, of course, yes, I know him. I mean, not personally, but yes, of course, I do know him. MARK - I meet up with him at the U-W gym, we work out whatever free time we can grab between team practice. DU PONT University of Wisconsin. MARK Yes sir. DU PONT Where you both coach. Mark NODS vaguely. DU PONT (CONT'D) And they provide you with everything you need? Beat. MARK Pretty much. A moment as du Pont watches Mark. DU PONT I'd like to see you win this upcoming tournament - MARK - Thank you - DU PONT - I'd like to help you win this upcoming tournament. It's a big one, yes? MARK It's the world championship. 18. Du Pont nods. DU PONT Why do you do it, Mark? Mark just looks at him, unsure what he's being asked. DU PONT (CONT'D) Why? MARK (simply no other reason) I want to be the best in the world. DU PONT I want you to be the best in the world. I want this country to be the best in the world. (THEN) May I speak frankly? Mark nods... of course. DU PONT (CONT'D) I'm concerned. I'm concerned by what I see in these Unites States. Athletes labor to bring honor to America, and America fails to honor that labor. Fails to honor it and fails to support it. Mark's staring at du Pont intently. DU PONT (CONT'D) When did you win your first match? MARK I started kind of late - high school sophomore. Du Pont waits, listening... MARK (CONT'D) I was... well, truthfully, I was... kind of lost. And I got into it `cause my brother was wrestling. He convinced me to give it a try. I never told him this, but I was scared of losing in front of him. So of course my first match I get put up against a kid two years older. Dave was helping coach from my corner... and at the end, when the ref raised my hand... (MORE) 19. MARK (CONT'D) there was my brother, he was running towards me - screaming - laughing - he lifted me up -- Mark stops - face flushed - tries to stop himself from getting CHOKED UP. After a few moments, he speaks quietly: MARK (CONT'D) It's always been his sport. He let me inside. I'm just lucky to be very very good at it. DU PONT You won that match. Not him. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY Du Pont and Mark walk the last few steps of a huge lawn up to an OLD FIELD HOUSE in the final stages of renovation. Du Pont opens the door. They walk into a gleaming new GYM. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - CONTINUOUS Four pristine WRESTLING MATS are spread out on the floor. Through a doorway on the far end we can glimpse a WEIGHT ROOM with new nautilus and stationary bikes and free weights. DU PONT The U.S. Olympic Committee refuses to recognize that training for international competition is a full time job. Why is that? Why is that? (looks at Mark) I want you all to have a home. CUT TO: EXT. VALLEY FORGE - LATE AFTERNOON VARIOUS SHOTS of the vast historic site - monuments and fences and stone house headquarters. DU PONT (V.O.) I wish every American could come here and see for themselves. See the price of freedom. It's not free at all. 20. Mark stands next to John on a ridge over the CEMETERY field. Du Pont's front leg is poised on a large rock, as if he's a General surveying all that has been conquered. His black Ford Mercury is parked nearby. DU PONT The sacrifices of the troops that first long winter remind me of what you athletes go through. Silence as they look out over the national park. DU PONT (CONT'D) I'm gratified my family could play a small part in the history here. Then du Pont speaks, as much to Mark as to himself - DU PONT (CONT'D) We can't choose the family we're born to. But we can make our own. (BEAT) I can't think of anyone I'd rather build a team with. (turns to Mark) You name your price. CUT TO: EXT. PHL AIRPORT - ESTABLISHING/DAY A plane takes off on the runway. CUT TO: INT. PHL AIRPORT/BATHROOM - DAY CLOSE UP on Mark's face, looking at himself in the mirror. Studying his own face. Then he erupts in a PRIMAL SCREAM. CUT TO: EXT. PINE TREE - DAY CLOSE UP on the face of a SIX-YEAR OLD BOY, CRYING - terrified. ALEXANDER, Dave's son. He's mid-way up a tall pine tree and scared to go any higher. Dave is a couple of branches above him. He looks down at Alexander, patiently waiting for the boy to stop crying. Finally, ALEX stops. 21. DAVE You ready? Beat. The boy nods. They climb higher. CUT TO: I/E. TAXI/MADISON/DAVE'S STREET - DAY Mark rides in the back of a cab. As he nears Dave's house, we SEE Nancy tapping a beer keg in the side yard. Dave and Alex sit in the TOP OF THE TREE, watching Mark arrive. CUT TO: EXT. DAVE'S HOUSE - LATER/DAY Lots of U of W wrestlers, coaches, wives, girlfriends, kids. Dave's at the BBQ, carving a huge roast on a spit with a long CARVING KNIFE. Mark's talking to him - MARK 25 thousand a year. He said name your price and I said the highest price that came into my head. We'd get to hand-pick our own team, wrestlers we want to work with - DAVE Who you gonna train with? MARK No - I mean... when I say we, I mean - you and me... could choose a team. Together. DAVE What does du Pont get out of it? MARK As soon as you meet him you'll understand. He sees what we're after. He cares about America - old family, basically paid for the Revolutionary War - he gets it. He wants to help us win, help restore our pride. DAVE My pride is fine. 22. MARK No, not.... This country's pride. Dave just looks at him, silent. MARK (CONT'D) Dave - this is it. This is what we've wanted our whole lives - just to train - you and me - not to have to deal with USA Wrestling, or Harper and his corrupt university program - not to have to think about anybody else... Nancy has wandered over, Danielle on her hip. NANCY - What're you guys talking about? MARK I'm speaking to my brother, that okay with you? Nancy and Dave share a glance. Then Nancy turns to walk away. NANCY Always good to see you, Mark. (as she walks away) Please, eat our food, shit on our lawn. Enjoy yourself... The brothers are silent for a long moment until she's gone. MARK Why does she... He trails off. Then, a bit desperate - MARK (CONT'D) The deer hunting on his farm's supposed to be amazing... Dave speaks gently. DAVE I got a good thing going here. I got a contract. Nancy's happy, Alex likes his school... The reality starts to hit Mark that he may be doing this alone, without his older brother. He's shell-shocked. MARK The Worlds are sixty days away. 23. DAVE Tell me your plan. Who you gonna train with? MARK (LOST) Du Pont's taking his money out of the Villanova program. They'll pull the plug on that. So. Dan Bane could come. I - I guess Dan Bane. (beat, then, very quietly) I don't know how to do this without you. DAVE Do what? The answer is "everything" -- but Mark just shakes his head. DAVE (CONT'D) It sounds like an opportunity. MARK Does it? DAVE I think you could make something of it. MARK Do you? (DAVE NODS) A spot's always open for you if you decide to come. DAVE Thank you. Dave steps forward and holds out his arms - DAVE (CONT'D) Congrats, little brother. Mark steps into his brother's arms, folding into him, head on his chest, holding on for dear life. Nancy looks over. CUT TO: 24. I/E. MARK'S APARTMENT - MORNING Mark packs his apartment - trashing just about everything, tossing it in the dumpster - stuffing the few essentials in his AMC GREMLIN. CUT TO: EXT. DRIVING - DAY Mark drives across Ohio. CUT TO: EXT. FILLING STATION - DAY Mark gets gas. The attendant - clearly a HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLER - shakes his hand. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY Mark pulls onto the estate grounds. CUT TO: EXT. FRONT DOOR/BIG HOUSE - DAY Mark rings the doorbell. No answer. He goes to ring it again and the door is opened by a UNIFORMED MAID. MARK Hi. I'm Mark Schultz. Silence. That means nothing to her. MARK (CONT'D) I'm here to see John du Pont? UNIFORMED MAID Is Mr. du Pont expecting you? MARK Yeah. Well - not today exactly, but, yes. This week. Sometime. UNIFORMED MAID Just a moment, please. 25. MARK In the meantime can I use the - She SHUTS the door, leaving him outside. He turns and looks out over the VAST LAWN of the estate. Far off, it's being mowed by a gardener. UNIFORMED MAID (opening the door) Please. CUT TO: INT. BIG HOUSE/FOXCATCHER - CONTINUOUS They walk just a few feet and she gestures toward a door. MARK (CONFUSED) Is he? He's in there? UNIFORMED MAID The washroom. CUT TO: INT. ROCOCO WASHROOM/BIG HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Floral wallpaper, gold fixtures and faucet. Mark pisses - mouth open, eyes half shut. He flushes. He looks at a dish holding little pastel horseshoes. Soap? He picks one up, smells it. Washes his hands - monstrous with the tiny soap. He wipes his hands on his pants, avoiding the neatly hung towelettes. He opens the door. UNIFORMED MAID Mr. Beck will see you now. Mark doesn't know who Mr. Beck is. CUT TO: INT. STAN BECK'S OFFICE/BIG HOUSE - MINUTES LATER Mark is let into a large third floor office with a big desk, wood filing cabinets, LAW BOOKS lining the bookshelves. STAN BECK (mid-forties, no-nonsense, suit and tie) rises from behind the desk as Mark enters. 26. STAN BECK Come in, sit down. MARK Thanks. STAN BECK Thank you, Rosie. UNIFORMED MAID You're welcome, Mr. Beck. She exits, closing the door behind her. STAN BECK Okay. Okay. So. Mark Schultz, correct? MARK Yes. STAN BECK (opens a folder, writing) S-C-H-U-L-T-Z? MARK That's right. STAN BECK ... M-A-R-K? Mark just looks at him. Beat. Then he nods. STAN BECK (CONT'D) All right. Mark. I manage affairs for Mr. du Pont. Look after his interests. If you have a problem, you come to me. If Mr. Du Pont has a problem, I'll come to you. Okay? MARK Sounds okay. STAN BECK Let's talk about what you're doing here. I'd like to make sure we all understand each other. Does that sound like a good policy to you? MARK That could be a good policy. 27. STAN BECK Good. I think so, too. First thing I can tell you is that Mr. du Pont is very happy he can help you with your goals. But I want to make sure you're aware of what's expected. It's not a free ride. In exchange for the guest house, the more than substantial salary, the privilege of training at Foxcatcher Farms, Mr. du Pont expects results. Understood? MARK Yes. STAN BECK I'm sure you can appreciate that. MARK Of course. STAN BECK That goes for every wrestler. MARK I've actually got suggestions for about half the roster. He pulls a creased, folded piece of paper from his pocket. STAN BECK What about the other half? MARK (BEAT) I've been making phone calls. STAN BECK I'll take a look at that when you've finished. All right. Now. Stan takes out a form, writes on it as Mark puts away list. STAN BECK (CONT'D) Your age? MARK Twenty-seven. STAN BECK Education? 28. MARK Oklahoma University. STAN BECK Undergraduate? MARK Yes. STAN BECK You graduated? MARK Yes. STAN BECK Do you own any property? MARK No. STAN BECK Are your parents still married? MARK (BEAT) No. STAN BECK How old were you when they separated? MARK Two. STAN BECK Have you ever been accused of a crime? MARK No. The DOOR OPENS and John du Pont pokes his head in. Mark STANDS, relieved to see him finally -- MARK (CONT'D) Mr. du Pont. Du Pont seems surprised to see Mark. He stays in the doorway, waves slightly. DU PONT Ah. Hello. You've arrived. 29. MARK Yes sir, I drove straight down. It's a little odd that du Pont doesn't enter - he seems nervous. He looks at Stan. Stan hands him a sheet of paper. STAN Tonight's speech. All set. John takes the paper and glances at it. Then - DU PONT They're setting him up in the chalet? STAN BECK Yes, sir. DU PONT Excellent bed. Firm mattress. (SILENCE) Good for the lower back. MARK Great. DU PONT All right. MARK All right. Thank you, sir. And du Pont's gone, closing the door behind him. Beat. STAN BECK Shall we finish this? Mark sits. STAN BECK (CONT'D) Have you ever been sued? MARK No. STAN BECK Have you ever initiated a lawsuit? CUT TO: 30. EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - AFTERNOON Brandon walks with Mark. They've come far, across the huge side yard - the Big House looks small behind them. Mark can see HORSE STABLES that let out onto a huge fenced track with a grass infield. Stable hands are putting several thoroughbred horses through their paces. BRANDON (re the horses) They're Mrs. du Pont's. We all just keep our distance. They enter the WOODS. Just inside the trees is THE CHALET - a European style wooden guest house that is now Mark's home. MARK I didn't realize he was married. BRANDON Mr. du Pont? He's not. Mrs. du Pont's his mother. CUT TO: INT. THE CHALET - AFTERNOON Brandon lets Mark in the door, turns on the lights in the living room, in the kitchen, goes to the bedroom. It's decorated like a ski chalet. Brandon walks back from the bedroom, holding KEYS out to Mark- BRANDON Utilities are paid for - gas, electric. Refrigerator's stocked for now, but in the future you're responsible for feeding yourself. Unless of course you get invited to the Big House for dinner. Mark, still standing in the entry-way, accepts the keys. BRANDON (CONT'D) Someone will bring your car around. Anything else you need? MARK Has he always lived with his mother? BRANDON Mr. du Pont? I think so. 31. Brandon leaves. Mark stands still for a long time, gazing at his new home - including some of the oddities, like the POLAR BEAR SKIN RUG (with HEAD ON) which is draped over the sofa. CUT TO: INT. THE CHALET - LATE THAT NIGHT Mark (in tank-top undershirt) tapes up PHOTOS of himself and Dave. The POLAR BEAR HEAD on the rug gazes blankly at him. A KNOCK on the living room window. It's John du Pont, who points toward the front door. EXT. PORCH/THE CHALET - CONTINUOUS/LATE NIGHT Mark opens the door. John's standing on the little porch, wearing a tux, holding a BOOK and a SMALL BOX. MARK Mr. du Pont, I want to thank you FOR - Du Pont holds up a finger. Mark STOPS. Du Pont whispers - DU PONT You hear that? Mark listens, shakes his head. Du Pont holds up his finger again - and then we HEAR it: a faint HOOTING from the woods. DU PONT (CONT'D) Barred owl - He hands Mark the small box he's holding. Inside is a very small set of BINOCULARS. DU PONT (CONT'D) When you spot one, you'll see with each hoot there's a white flash in his collar. His throat swells, and he reveals to you the lighter feathers he keeps hidden underneath. He hands Mark the BOOK: "South Pacific Birds" by John Eleuthere du Pont. DU PONT (CONT'D) It's from ten years ago, but I thought you might find it interesting. 32. MARK You wrote this? DU PONT I did. Mark seems genuinely touched and impressed. MARK Thank you. Do you want to come in? DU PONT No no - MARK - The fridge is full - you probably know better than me what's in there- DU PONT - No. You need your rest. You need to get started bright and early. Du Pont hold up his own set of binoculars. DU PONT (CONT'D) - I had a wonderful night a few years back when I spotted all eight Northeast species. Right here on the farm. (THEN) What do we have - two months to the Worlds? MARK Not even. 54 days. DU PONT 54 days. (BEAT) We'll get it done. On the two men standing in the porch light. PRELAP the sound of POUNDING FEET, getting louder and louder - CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - SEVERAL WEEKS LATER/DAY CLOSE ON: Wrestling shoes running FAST in place on the gym mat. There are SIX SETS of feet in a wide circle. Team Foxcatcher is beginning to come together. 33. MARK Drop! All six wrestlers, Mark included, drop to the mats for 10 fast push-ups and sit-ups. The wrestlers are: ROBERTO GARCIA, aka "GECKO" (21 years old, 105 pounds, Latino, as fast a talker as he is a wrestler); JIM ZEREGA - "JIMMY Z" (24, 114 lbs., blond Midwesterner); MATT POPPER (24, 149 lbs., East coast working class); BRUCE SPRINGER (27, also 149 lbs., half Asian); MARK SCHULTZ (180 lbs.); and DAN BANE (30, 198 lbs., strong and low-key, intelligent, from the West, like Mark.) The wrestlers jump up - run in place incredibly fast. MARK (CONT'D) DROP - JUMP CUT TO: Garcia and Zerega sprint to the end of the mats and back. Relay shuttles, each pair races, then the next pair. Popper and Springer have just run (probably for the twentieth time) - they're BENT OVER, sucking wind by the wall. Du Pont WALKS IN. He wears a sweatsuit, has a whistle around his neck. He hovers a slight distance away, observing, seeming to want to be noticed. Mark and Dan take off, racing, as Garcia beats Zerega - Du Pont stares at Garcia. As Dan and Mark race back, Dan notices du Pont - DAN Hey, Coach. Du Pont becomes at once an odd combination of a kid invited to join in and the actual boss and benefactor of this team. DU PONT Dan Bane. How's that hamstring? DAN Coming back. It's coming back. DU PONT Good. Good to hear. Hamstring coming back. 34. MARK (walking up to him) Sir, you need me for something? DU PONT No no. Later. Please. Continue. MARK (nods, turns back) Pair up. On the mat. Up and down. Popper, Springer, let's go. Springer's dragging a bit, clearly wiped out. GARCIA Spling Loll - must lay off the pohk flied lice. SPRINGER (EXHAUSTED) Suck me, Gecko. (as he comes onto the mat) And I'm fucking Filipino, dickhead. The six wrestlers are paired and spread out on the mats - each pair in the up-down position. MARK Go! They all go to it - the top wrestler trying to get a hold secure enough to turn the other - and the down wrestler splayed on the mat, fending him off. Du Pont hovers nearby, watching intently. We can sense his fascination - his admiration for these athletes. Also, his jealousy - how desperately he'd love to be part of this brotherhood.... He CLAPS, like a coach would.... DU PONT (awkward, not loud enough) Good. (CLAPS AGAIN) Good. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - LATE AFTERNOON Mark, freshly showered, walks across the yard from the field house gym to the Big House. CUT TO: 35. INT. DU PONT'S OFFICE/BIG HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON Du Pont's pouring himself a scotch and soda at the built-in wall bar. Mark's in the SITTING AREA of this large office, which gives the unmistakable impression of having been inspired by the Oval Office. (We should sense that this is not the first of these meetings.) DU PONT I can't get you anything at all? MARK No, thank you. I'm good. DU PONT In training. Excellent. He comes over and sits. He's immediately hushed and serious. DU PONT (CONT'D) Talk to me about Roberto Garcia. MARK Gecko? Great wrestler. What do you want to know? Du Pont sits there nodding. He's mulling something. DU PONT Just a sense. Keep your eye on him. Let me know of anything suspicious. Subversive. Anti. MARK Anti-what? DU PONT Anything at all. Phone calls. Anything. MARK (no idea what that means) I will. Du Pont stands and goes over to a carved WOODEN EAGLE on top of one of the desk. DU PONT You see the artistry, the care, the craftsmanship that went into making this great American symbol? You see the face hidden among the feathers? (MARK LOOKS) Right here. 36. Mark looks. He doesn't see it. But he NODS anyway. DU PONT (CONT'D) We need to exert the same care in crafting a world-class wrestling experience here at Foxcatcher. (MARK NODS) How're we doing with Dave Schultz? MARK How do you mean? DU PONT You were going to speak to him again. When's he coming? MARK Right. Look. Dave's... he's got a good situation going up in Madison. He's... he doesn't want to uproot. The family. Just at the moment. (BEAT) At the present time. DU PONT He is a world class competitor - a world class coach. We are building a world class team. He belongs here. Tell me what I have to offer him. MARK Mr. du Pont, I don't... you can't buy Dave. Silence. Du Pont's clearly not happy with this answer. MARK (CONT'D) I wasn't... I didn't realize you wanted him to coach. DU PONT Wrestle and coach. We all coach each other. Support each other. His tone suddenly turns bright and positive - DU PONT (CONT'D) Let me ask your opinion - He goes to the desk, where there are several large DRAWINGS of a proposed Foxcatcher logo: a RED FOX running. In some, the fox runs one way, in some the other. Mark approaches. 37. DU PONT (CONT'D) What do you think? Right to left, or left to right? Silence as Mark examines the designs intently. Then, finally - MARK Right to left. Du Pont looks at him, then back at the drawings. On the two of them - studying, contemplating... CUT TO: EXT. WOODS/FOXCATCHER - EARLY MORNING Mark RUNS hard through the woods - pushing himself - jumping fallen branches, sprinting up hills. He reaches the edge of the woods and stops, bent over, breathing heavily. Across the field, PRIZE HORSES are led out of the stables onto the grounds of the estate. Mark WATCHES. A few wrestlers (Zerega, Popper and Dan Bane) emerge from the woods behind Mark, running. Dan Bane leaves the other two. DAN I'll catch up with you all later. Zerega and Popper jog off. Dan comes to stand next to Mark, who has taken his little pair of BINOCULARS from the pocket of his sweats and is looking through them. After a moment, he hands Dan the binoculars. Dan looks through them. MARK I'm pretty sure that's John's mother. BINOCULARS POV: A VERY OLD WOMAN stands in front of her wheelchair, with the help of an attendant. When the horses reach her, she TOUCHES THEM LOVINGLY, tenderly stroking their faces, feeding them treats from her hands. She's completely at home with these animals, as they are with her. CUT TO: INT. WRESTLING ARENA/CLERMONT-FERRAND, FRANCE - DAY Dave Schultz SLAMS his opponent to the mat. He's in TEAM USA uniform, and he's dominating. 38. Du Pont watches from the stands, transfixed. Then he glances over at: Mark. Off to the side, watching his brother wrestle. Whether he's fascinated, jealous, rooting - we can't tell. CUT TO: INT. WRESTLING ARENA/CLERMONT-FERRAND - LATER/DAY Mark wrestles like an animal - aggressive, forceful and fast. Dave's in Mark's corner, coaching - focused, intense, and very tough on Mark - shouting instruction. On du Pont, watching from the stands... CUT TO: INT. DAVE'S HOTEL ROOM - EVENING Loud. The TV is on. A few Team USA WRESTLERS watch the French Sports TV wrap-up of the day's matches. Danielle JUMPS on the bed near the window, with Nancy watching her. DANIELLE One... twois... quatro! Nancy laughs. Dave wrestles with Alexander on the other bed. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE DAVE'S ROOM - SAME TIME Du Pont and Mark are outside the door. Mark holds a VIDEOTAPE. He KNOCKS. No answer. CUT TO: INT. DAVE'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME Dave wrestling with Alex on the bed. DAVE ...Fireman's carry... to a half- nelson... to a chicken wing... Wait! A chicken wing? He starts to gobble up Alex's arm, who SHRIEKS in delight. CUT TO: 39. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE DAVE'S ROOM - SAME TIME Mark knocks again. We HEAR Nancy's voice yell from inside: "It's open!" Mark opens the door. INT. DAVE'S HOTEL ROOM - CONTINUOUS Noisy, chaotic. The wrestlers glance over "Hey, Mark" "What's up".... Mark's focused on Dave, who wrestles with Alex - MARK Dave. DAVE - a scrambled-egg!... a feather- pluck!... Dave's plucking Alex and Alex is cracking up. MARK Dave. DAVE Hey, Mark -- MARK Come meet Mr. du Pont. Dave sweeps up Alex and throws him over his shoulder, carrying him to the door. He SHAKES du Pont's HAND. DAVE Hi. Dave Schultz. DU PONT John du Pont. It's a pleasure to meet you in person finally. MARK (TO DAVE) I told him how excited you were to meet him. DAVE This is Alex, that's my wife, Nancy, our daughter Danielle. (TO NANCY) Hey, Nance. John du Pont. Nancy waves from over near the window - NANCY Hey. 40. DU PONT Hello. DAVE Come on in. Can I get you a drink - DU PONT No no. DAVE You sure - ? DU PONT Thank you. No. I need to be getting back. But, don't worry - we'll make a Foxcatcher out of you yet. (he laughs awkwardly) Until tomorrow. And he's GONE. Beat. Dave shrugs. DAVE Well, I know what I need. MARK What? DAVE Turkey drumstick! He throws Alex on the bed and jumps on him. Alex SQUEALS. Mark heads for the TV across the room. Pops in his video. MARK Dave, check out the tape I have on NANEV - DAVE (STILL WRESTLING) YEAH - MARK I want to show you this downblock - DAVE Cue it up. As the tape cues up, Mark glances at Nancy. MARK Too difficult to come say hello to Mr. du Pont? 41. NANCY I said hello. (lights a CIGARETTE) I'm watching my kid. MARK It's John du Pont. One of the most generous men in America. He's gonna save USA Wrestling. (re. cigarette) Can you not do that in here? NANCY Do what? MARK Smoking. NANCY Smoke? MARK I wrestle tomorrow. NANCY It's my room, Mark. You don't have to be here. MARK I'm trying to get advice from my brother, get ready for the finals - NANCY Go get ready - MARK You start smoking - ? NANCY You can leave. Go to your own room - MARK - Your kids are in here - She BLOWS SMOKE at him. MARK (CONT'D) What the hell is that? DAVE Mark. Calm down. MARK I'm not the one frigging smoking. 42. DAVE The window's open. Relax. Show me what you want me to look at. Mark looks around the room. At Alexander giggling on the bed, at Danielle bouncing, Nancy BLOWING SMOKE RINGS. It's all too much. He pulls out the videotape and WALKS OUT the door. CUT TO: INT. ARENA/CLERMONT-FERRAND - DAY VARIOUS SHOTS: Final matches in progress, intense and brutal. CUT TO: INT. LOCKER ROOM - SAME TIME Mark sits, alone, head in his hands. CUT TO: INT. ARENA/CLERMONT-FERRAND - SAME TIME Faces in the crowd watching; strained faces of the wrestlers. Mark Schultz and Alexander Nanev's names are put up on the board. FINALS ‡ 82 KILOS... CUT TO: INT. LOCKER ROOM - SAME TIME Du Pont enters. Mark's alone on a corner bench, frozen, head in his hands. Silence. Du Pont is stiff, but gentle. DU PONT I think you're up. Silence. Du Pont goes over to him, unsure what to do. Uncomfortable, he puts his hand on Mark's shoulder. DU PONT (CONT'D) Mark. Dave just won. It's your turn. Mark's body starts to shake. Then, very quietly: MARK I don't want to let you down. 43. This is the first time anyone has said anything like this to du Pont. He has no idea how to respond. He woodenly pats Mark's shoulder, then takes his hand back. DU PONT I can't.... I've watched you these past months... (long beat, then quietly) I can't imagine being let down by you. Mark stops shaking. Du Pont stands patiently beside him. CUT TO: INT. ARENA/CLERMONT-FERRAND - MOMENTS LATER CAMERA'S TIGHT ON Mark as he enters the arena. Mark walks directly onto the mat, straight to the center, faces off with the Bulgarian, NANEV. CAMERA stays tight on Mark looking directly at Nanev, as the ref checks each of them. WHISTLE. The match begins. Intense and rough. Neither able to gain an edge. Dave coaches from Mark's corner. CUT TO: In between periods. Mark sits as Dave FANS him with a towel, shouting instruction. Mark glances behind him: du Pont watches from the stands. CUT TO: Mark and Nanev wrestle the final seconds - Mark ahead by a point. Nanev tries desperately to turn Mark, to gain any advantage. The whistle blows. The ref takes each of their hands. He RAISES Mark's. He turns them around, raises Mark's hand again. Mark does a BACK FLIP. He trots over to the opposing coach, shakes his hand. He trots to his corner where Dave - beaming, his arms open wide - embraces him. Mark hugs his brother quickly, then turns to LOOK OUT into the stands. He SPOTS du Pont, who's coming down the steps toward the platform. Mark walks toward him. The enormity of what he's just accomplished STARTS TO HIT Mark. His face is red. He reaches du Pont, and from a step below him, THROWS HIS ARMS around him, clings to him. Mark starts to SOB. Du Pont holds him as he looks out toward the wrestling mat, where Dave watches. 44. PRELAP SOUND: The beginning "AAAAAH's" of David Bowie's "LET'S DANCE". CUT TO: INT. TROPHY ROOM/BIG HOUSE - NIGHT "LET'S DANCE" blasts from the stereo. Team Foxcatcher wrestlers are huddled in a circle in the Trophy Room - shouting the "AAAAAAAH's" along with the thin white duke. Each holds a BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE, shaking it up as they sing. When the chords kick in, they POP THEIR CORKS - SPRAYING champagne on each other, shouting wildly. Then they all CHUG the rest of their bottles. Du Pont is dancing around outside the circle, doing his best Euro-electronica moves, and drinking from his bottle (and it's not his first). The wrestlers DANCE. When du Pont finishes his bottle - DU PONT Let's clear it out! He gestures toward the center section of the enormous TROPHY CASE - the entirety of which is filled with horse-jumping and fox-hunting medals, ribbons and plaques. Some of the wrestlers open the glass doors and start taking down what's in there. A few of the others open more liquor... DU PONT (CONT'D) Oh, yes! SPRINGER You sure about this? DU PONT Mother's idea of sport is riding a horse that's chasing a dog that's chasing a fox. I don't share her affection for horseflesh - The center case is cleared out. DU PONT (CONT'D) Put `em up, boys! They hang their wrestling medals, place in trophies and other awards - leaving the TOP FEW HOOKS EMPTY. WRESTLERS (CHANTING TOGETHER) Mark! Mark! Mark! Mark!... 45. Mark hangs his OLYMPIC and WORLD CUP GOLDS on the top hooks. WRESTLERS (CONT'D) U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!... Du Pont raises his bottle to Mark - DU PONT You've brought honor to Team Foxcatcher. He starts to walk toward him. DU PONT (CONT'D) You've brought honor to - He SLIPS on the wet floor and his feet fly up in front of him, landing him FLAT ON HIS BACK. SILENCE. Du Pont's lying there, shaking - is he crying? No one knows what exactly to do. Dan Bane approaches him. DAN You all right, Coach? Du Pont starts LAUGHING out loud. Hugely relieved, Dan holds his hand out to him to help him up. Du Pont takes Dan's hand and promptly pulls him to the ground... and... JUMPS on his back - WRESTLING with him. The wrestlers, including Mark, go crazy, CHEERING him on. Dan lets du Pont get the best of him... lets du Pont PIN him. The wrestlers are cheering madly as du Pont stands with his arms raised. He makes as if he's about to do a back flip (like Mark), then sits and does a clumsy backwards somersault. Wild cheers. DU PONT More drinks! He's on his knees, fists in the air, head thrown back - TOTALLY EXULTANT... PRELAP sound of a GUNSHOT - CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - NEXT MORNING VARIOUS SHOTS: The AMERICAN FLAG being raised; a hawk soars above the trees; Jean du Pont BRUSHES the horses in the barn. 46. CAMERA picks up wrestlers running off their hangovers - Zerega, Popper, Springer, Mark. They pick up speed as the camera stays with them. WE HEAR more gunshots as they run through the grounds - the SHOTS get louder and louder. The wrestlers run somewhat near the FIRING RANGE, where several members of the NEWTOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT, in uniform, are SHOOTING target practice with DU PONT. Du Pont wears a "Team Foxcatcher" zip SWEATJACKET - with his honorary POLICE BADGE pinned to one breast. On the other breast are sewn the words: "Head Coach", and JOHN "EAGLE" DU PONT. He's about to SHOOT when the wrestlers pass by - WRESTLERS (EXCEPT MARK) Johnny D! Bossman!... Du Pont, still holding his pistol, turns to watch them run past. His expression seems oddly, entirely blank. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM/WEIGHT ROOM - DAY A few wrestlers lift weights - the others are hanging out, resting, talking. Du Pont wanders in, his target practice PISTOL dangling from the crook of his arm. A few guys notice him, greet him CASUALLY, go back to what they were doing. Du Pont FIRES a bullet through the roof. SILENCE. DU PONT 321 days to Seoul, gentlemen. 321 days. Let's get to work. He gestures for Mark to join him. DU PONT (CONT'D) Come talk to me. CUT TO: INT. DU PONT'S OFFICE - DAY CLOSE ON: a CHECK for $10,000.00 made out to Mark Schultz. MARK (O.S.) You don't have to do this. John sits at his desk, pistol stuck in his waistband. Mark, sweaty, stands across the desk from him, holding the check. 47. DU PONT America doesn't respect you. Doesn't place any value on you at all. I reward accomplishment. MARK Thank you, Coach. DU PONT Please. Call me John. Or Coach. Whichever you prefer. Maybe Eagle. Or Coach. Eagle is good. (THEN) How're we doing with Dave? Mark carefully folds the check, avoiding du Pont's gaze. DU PONT (CONT'D) You spoke to him again at the Worlds. MARK Yes. Yes, I did. I... (BEAT) It's not gonna happen. He got offered a contract extension at Wisconsin, Team USA wants him to train Olympic wrestlers next summer, he - it's not gonna happen. John is clearly unhappy with this answer. He removes the gun from his waistband, places it on the desk. DU PONT Do you believe in this team? MARK Of course I - DU PONT - Do you believe we deserve this country's best talent? MARK I do - DU PONT - I pay for results not only on the mat, but in recruiting the best of the best to Foxcatcher Farms. That's part of your job. Silence. Mark looks shamed by this. 48. DU PONT (CONT'D) It's probably best. Dave intimidates you. You don't believe you can ever do better than your brother. Glass ceiling. Impossible for you to break through. It looks like perhaps Mark believes this as well. MARK (TENTATIVE) Do you think that's true? Because... all these years - Du Pont stands suddenly - DU PONT - Well. You're the public face of Foxcatcher. MARK If that's what - DU PONT - What do you know about Masters League wrestling tournaments? MARK Uh - well - not all that much - DU PONT - Because I'm thinking of entering one. Beat. Mark nods - MARK Okay... CUT TO: CLOSE ON: VIDEOTAPE image of Mark at the 1984 Olympics, his hand being raised by the ref... Mark raises both hands in the air, glances slightly down, then out at the crowd... The image FREEZES, is rewound, plays again. At the moment Mark raises his arms and GLANCES DOWN, the image FREEZES. PHOTOGRAPHER (O.C.) This is the one. CUT TO: 49. INT. DINING ROOM/BIG HOUSE - CONTINUOUS/DAY The furniture has been pushed to the walls in the huge formal dining room, and a large WHITE SCRIM has been erected at one end. A FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER who could double as a member of Devo, stands at a video monitor with du Pont. PHOTOGRAPHER He wears the singlet - DU PONT - and the gold medal - PHOTOGRAPHER - and, of course, the gold medal. And a lot of oil. Mark's in a dressing area wearing his FOXCATCHER SINGLET and Olympic gold. Two assistants stuff his crotch with a bit of padding. PHOTOGRAPHER (CONT'D) A lot of oil. Please. More oil. It defines the musculature. Mark walks to his spot in front of the scrim. The two assistants slather baby oil on his arms and chest and legs as the photographer SHOWS him the pose on the monitor. PHOTOGRAPHER (CONT'D) You're winning the gold medal. You're raising your arms in triumph. You're also feeling humility. Du Pont is hanging back, but staring intensely at Mark. Mark looks over to him. MARK You good with this? DU PONT It's wonderful. It's exactly what I needed from you. The photographer takes his place behind the camera as the assistants finish with the baby oil and clear away. PHOTOGRAPHER Good! Now. Mark. You're winning the gold medal! And you are humbled! Mark raises his arms and glances down. FLASH. FLASH. 50. PHOTOGRAPHER (CONT'D) Good! And again! JUMP TO: Du Pont, in his Foxcatcher sweatsuit, is now in front of the scrim with Mark (still in his singlet.) Mark starts to hug du Pont for a photo - DU PONT I think you were below me by a couple of steps when you hugged me at the Worlds. PHOTOGRAPHER It's true. DU PONT Maybe if you kneeled. MARK Kneeled now? On the floor. (UNSURE) Really? It won't look... DU PONT No. No. You should kneel. Mark kneels in front of du Pont. Hugs him. FLASH. FLASH. DU PONT (CONT'D) I think you were crying. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER LAWN - TWILIGHT Mark and John, wearing TUXEDOS, board a large helicopter. It's cold out. CUT TO: INT. HELICOPTER (AIRBORNE) - EVENING Mark and John are flown southwest toward Washington DC by Larry the pilot. John takes a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket, hands it to Mark. DU PONT Brandon and I prepared some remarks. 51. Mark takes the paper and reads it over. He looks worried. DU PONT (CONT'D) Don't be nervous. You'll do great. Mark's not so sure. Then he HEARS a SNIFF. He looks over at du Pont: he's got a COCAINE BULLET in one nostril. Du Pont inhales, then OFFERS the bullet to Mark. Mark's frozen - DU PONT (CONT'D) What? You've never done this? (Mark shakes his head) It helps put everything in perspective. Trust me.... Mark. It's just cocaine. Trust me. Mark takes the coke bullet, examines it for several moments, then holds it to one nostril. He INHALES. DU PONT (CONT'D) Nice. You brought the medals? (MARK NODS) Good. Try the speech. MARK Read it? DU PONT Read the speech. MARK (READING) John Eagle du Pont, highly respected ornithologist, author, world explorer, phil... phila... DU PONT Philatelist. The helicopter nears the LIT UP city of WASHINGTON D.C. CUT TO: INT. HILTON HOTEL, DC/COCKTAIL AREA - NIGHT LARGE SIGN on an EASEL by the entrance reads: "CITIZENS' DEFENSE OF PATRIOTS FUND - 1st ANNUAL GALA AND AUCTION". Loads of tuxedoed Republicans and their wives or mistresses mill about. Small talk, hearty laughter, awarding of defense contracts, gallons of martinis. CUT TO: 52. INT. HILTON HOTEL, DC/COCKTAIL AREA - LATER/NIGHT DU PONT (O.C.) That's the one! That's the one I need! A FINGER is jabbing at a military photograph of an M-113 ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER (APC). We're in a corner of the reception. Du Pont stands with Steve Graham, looking at a set of PHOTOS. Mark's nearby, chewing vigorously on a straw. STEVE In that case, the Grand Old Party wants to help find you one. Graham calls over to the 3-star GENERAL in full dress uniform who's chewing on a cigar and drinking gin with a Senator. STEVE (CONT'D) General, any of these models available? GENERAL Which? We might have a couple of those left on the lot. (to du Pont) You gonna need financing? Everyone laughs. Du Pont smiles. DU PONT What I need is the gun turret. Don't send me one without that MK- 19 mounted on top. GENERAL Uh... I don't know there, son. Civilians don't usually get 40mm blowback grenade launchers. STEVE General, John du Pont is hardly your usual civilian. The General turns back to the Senator, grumbling - GENERAL Am I supposed to get him a 12-pack of live fucking grenades, too? CUT TO: 53. INT. HILTON HOTEL, DC/BANQUET HALL - NIGHT Mark's on stage, at the podium, READING from his Brandon- prepared remarks with - shall we say - some vigor... MARK ... highly respected ornithologist, author, world explorer, phil... phila... Du Pont watches from the wings, whispers: DU PONT Philatelist. Mark looks over at him blankly - he has no idea what du Pont just said. DU PONT (CONT'D) Philatelist. (Mark just looks at him) PHILAT-- (GIVING UP) Stamp collector. MARK Stamp collector, and former pentathlete. Jean, in the audience, in her wheelchair, almost imperceptibly shakes her head. MARK (CONT'D) Mr. Du Pont will be making his return to competitive sports in the over-50 category at the Masters' League du Pont Wrestling Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona this March. Scattered applause, though no one has any idea what he's talking about. Du Pont watches from the wings. Mark reads. MARK (CONT'D) I'm so proud to introduce my mentor. He has the ability to look at me and see where I am in life. He knows how to motivate me. I feel his love for me as an athlete and as a human being. My mother and father were divorced when I was two years old. I spent a lifetime looking for a father... (MORE) 54. MARK (CONT'D) and I found one in the Golden, uh... the Gold Eagle of America - John du Pont. Applause as du Pont strides onstage, hugs Mark. Du Pont turns, beaming (and a little hopped-up) to the audience - DU PONT Mark Schultz. Thank you, son. (waves to Jean in AUDIENCE) Hello, Mother. (to them all) The gold medal Mark won in 1984 was tarnished. Tarnished by Jimmy Carter. Tarnished by the unpatriotic acts of that democrat administration. He caused the entire Eastern bloc to boycott our Los Angeles Games. Mark will have an opportunity to shine up that medal at the World Championships in just a few short weeks. To prove his worth in front of the assembled nations of the globe... CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - ESTABLISHING/LATE AFTERNOON Some time has passed. Lights are on in the windows of the Field House Gym. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - LATE AFTERNOON Mark kneels on the mat with du Pont, holding him in the starting position. Mark is talking du Pont through the moves for an escape. We get the sense that this is not the first of these lessons. MARK Ready? Go. Du Pont clumsily attempts the escape. Mark is incredibly gentle with him, even tender, easing him through the moves. 55. MARK (CONT'D) Okay. Let's try it again. CUT TO: INT. THE CHALET - NIGHT Mark's HAIR IS NOW CUT SHORT AND BLEACHED WHITE. He's in shorts - no shirt - on the phone. He's sipping a beer, walking around the living room - MARK (ON PHONE) Yeah. I'm good. Yeah.... All good. INTERCUT with Dave in the U of W gym office, looking out over a wrestling team night practice. DAVE (ON PHONE) You working hard? MARK (ON PHONE) Yeah. No, I'm kind of giving myself a bit of a break right now. I'll ramp it up again as the trials come closer. DAVE (ON PHONE) All right. How close? There a KNOCK on Mark's window. Mark looks over and sees du Pont standing outside, an eager look on his face. He beckons to Mark and moves TWO FINGERS as if cutting his own hair. MARK (to du Pont) Just a sec... DAVE (ON PHONE) What's that? MARK (ON PHONE) No, I wasn't - listen, I gotta run - DAVE (ON PHONE) What're you doing? MARK (ON PHONE) I just - I gotta run. DAVE (ON PHONE) (BEAT) Okay. Call me soon. 56. MARK (ON PHONE) I will - DAVE (ON PHONE) - You're a tough man to track down - MARK (ON PHONE) - Yeah, well - DAVE (ON PHONE) - Call me - MARK (ON PHONE) - I will. I gotta roll - CUT TO: EXT. VERANDA/BIG HOUSE - NIGHT Bowie's "China Girl" PLAYS through outdoor speakers. Mark crops du Pont's hair with an ELECTRIC CLIPPER. It's unseasonably warm out - Mark's in shorts and flip flops. Both men are drinking from bottles of champagne. Du Pont's drunk enough that his defenses are down. A vanity table is on the veranda with a mirror and a bowl of COCAINE. MARK Looking good. (NO REPLY) Looking tough. Mark finishes buzzing -- looks at du Pont's crew cut in the mirror. Du Pont seems melancholy. MARK (CONT'D) I think you're ready. (BEAT) We just need some more talc. They both reach over to the bowl of "talc", rub some on their gums -- then they each snort a line. MARK (CONT'D) Yah! I think you're ready. DU PONT I appreciate this... MARK You've done the training, you learned the moves. You're ready to rumble, boss. 57. DU PONT No. Mark. I appreciate this. MARK (after a moment) It's nothing. DU PONT When I was fourteen - my father had left us long before that - my best friend was Clifford Holt, our gardener's son. Then I found out Mother had been paying Cliff to be friends with me. Mark is moved, but doesn't know what to say. MARK We all have demons. DU PONT (TOTALLY SINCERE) It's good to know you and I have come to this... friendship without any of that nonsense. Financial nonsense. Neither mentions that du Pont is actually paying Mark. Silence. Mark struggles whether to admit something. Then - MARK When Dave's son, Alex, was born he had some problems with his lungs. It looked like he wasn't gonna live. I was sitting in the hospital waiting room, and all I could think was: Maybe it's better if he dies. Dave won't be distracted. We can get back to training together. (BEAT) Alex is fine now and, you know, he's my nephew. I'm not proud I wanted him to die, but it's the truth. That's just the truth. (THEN) You gotta conquer your demons. Du Pont stands up. Expressionless, he disappears through the sliding glass doors into the house. Mark LOOKS OUT over the dark grounds of Foxcatcher. Quiet. Then Mark jumps out of his skin as a MACHINE GUN FIRES several rounds behind him. 58. When he turns around, there's du Pont, a determined look on his face, pointing a semi-automatic MACHINE GUN out into the rolling landscape. DU PONT Conquer demons. He FIRES again, a short burst of bullets into the dark. Du Pont fires again, a sustained volley into the dark... MARK (over the gunfire) Yeahhhhh!!!! Du Pont ceases fire and looks out. He begins lowering the gun when it accidentally goes off, firing a few bullets into the wood deck - though he doesn't seem to notice. DU PONT They're dead. CUT TO: INT. LEAR JET - DAY SILENCE, save for the steady HUM of flight inside the cabin. Du Pont's gazing out the window of this private jet; he's trying to be brave, but he's clearly terrified of the upcoming match. Mark sits next to du Pont, on the aisle. CUT TO: INT. PHOENIX ARENA - DAY Between periods at the "Du Pont Masters Open and Collegiate Invitational". Very few people in the Masters gym bleachers. Large posters of the oiled-up Mark on the walls. Through large OPEN DOORS, in the adjoining gym, a larger crowd cheers on a number of NCAA wrestlers. FRED COLE and another USA WRESTLING OFFICIAL look in from the other gym. They SEE the posters of Mark on the walls, and they SEE: An exhausted du Pont, in his Foxcatcher singlet, is slumped in his chair, encouraging Mark to massage his shoulders. Mark OBLIGES. Mark glances at the OPEN DOORS, notices Fred Cole. Self-conscious, he ignores Cole and focuses on John. 59. MARK When he gives you the slightest opening, you gotta shoot in on him. Be aggressive. Show him who's boss. Du Pont nods wearily. He can barely move. CUT TO: The final minute of the match. It's clearly RIGGED. The OTHER WRESTLER is trying to let the exhausted du Pont get the best of him. Mark watches. The REF blows the end of match whistle. The wrestlers stand, du Pont struggling to his feet. The ref takes each of their hands, and raises... du Pont's. He's "won". Du Pont limps off the mat. He approaches Mark, THROWS his arms around him the way Mark hugged du Pont at the Worlds. Mark glances toward the open doors to the other gym. CUT TO: INT. LOCKER ROOM/PHOENIX ARENA - MINUTES LATER Mark and an exhausted du Pont enter the locker room. Mark SEES, off in a corner, Brandon speaking quietly with the OTHER WRESTLER from du Pont's match. He watches Brandon HAND the other wrestler an ENVELOPE. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER LAWN - EVENING/ESTABLISHING The helicopter is on the lawn, blades slowing, shutting down. DU PONT (V.O.) I've rearranged some of the horse ribbons, Mother... CUT TO: INT. JEAN DU PONT'S ROOMS/FOXCATCHER - EVENING John is seated in front of his mother, next to a window in her third floor room. She's in her wheelchair, with the oxygen tubes in her nose, imperious as ever. DU PONT ... Some of the older prizes in the trophy case. (MORE) 60. DU PONT (CONT'D) To make room for Team Foxcatcher medals.... For the wrestling awards. Silence. Jean just looks at her son, not reacting. DU PONT (CONT'D) Including this, Mother. Ha. Which I've actually just won. He takes his WINNER'S PLAQUE out of a duffel bag, trying to be casual, but seeming all the more like an eager 9 year-old. He holds it out for her. She doesn't take it, but leans forward slightly to read what's inscribed on it: "FIRST PLACE, OVER-50, DU PONT MASTER'S INVITATIONAL: JOHN `EAGLE' DU PONT." She sits back. JEAN Which ribbons? DU PONT I'm sorry? JEAN Which ribbons did you move? DU PONT Just some of the older ones. From the case. From the Rosemont case. Silence. JEAN I'll have a look later to see exactly what you've done. CUT TO: INT. TROPHY ROOM - DAY C/U's of Jean's ribbons in the case, horse photos, etc. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - NEXT MORNING/ESTABLISHING On the vast lawn, the gardener drives his mower. CUT TO: 61. INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - LATE MORNING Du Pont, in Foxcatcher sweats, walks in. The gym is EMPTY. CUT TO: INT. GARCIA AND ZEREGA'S BUNGALOW/FOXCATCHER - LATE MORNING Mark and the team are watching a VIDEOTAPE Garcia has gotten of an early ULTIMATE FIGHTING MATCH. It's an American street fighter versus a huge Brazilian Jujutsu expert. The match is brutal and bloody and the wrestlers watching are CLEARLY INTO IT. Mark is lying on the couch - attentive, but quiet. There's KNOCKING at the door, but the guys don't notice it. Much LOUDER KNOCKING. Garcia opens the door. It's du Pont. Mark RISES to greet him as Dan MUTES the video. MARK (COMPLETELY GENUINE) Hi, Boss. How you doing? Any soreness from the match? DU PONT I went by the gym - it's almost noon - and there's no one in there. There is no one in there. In the gym. MARK Yeah, no, exactly - we've got an intense workout scheduled this afternoon. Real intense one. So we're taking the morning to rest up. DU PONT Who precisely is in charge around here? MARK Well, I mean, I am. DU PONT Where do we stand on Dave? MARK (BEAT) On what? DU PONT David Schultz. Your brother. When is he coming to Foxcatcher? 62. Beat. Mark glances at the other guys. DU PONT (CONT'D) We need someone to take charge around here, someone to lead. MARK John, seriously, I don't know how else to say it. It's not gonna happen. You can't buy Dave. It's just not gonna happen. Du Pont SLAPS Mark. HARD. Across the face. SILENCE. Mark could destroy du Pont. He doesn't seem to even consider it. He just stands there, like a chastened schoolboy, his face reddening. Du Pont WALKS OUT past the muted UFC on TV - Once he's gone, no one speaks. Then: GARCIA You got bitch-slapped. Mark turns to Garcia. GARCIA (CONT'D) Oh shit. Garcia runs into the other room. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM/THE CHALET - DAY Mark stands at the sink STARING at his reflection as the mirror fogs over from the RUNNING SHOWER: bleached hair, one side of his face is red where du Pont slapped him. CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM/THE CHALET - DAY Mark sits on the edge of his bed. He's neatly dressed, his wet hair brushed. His face shaved. He doesn't move. CUT TO: 63. EXT. FOXCATCHER LAWN - DAY Mark walks quickly across the vast lawn toward the Big House. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE ENTRANCE/BIG HOUSE - DAY Mark enters the Big House through the rear office entrance. No one's in the reception area. MARK Hello?... Hello? He starts up the stairs, two at a time. Stan Beck comes out of his office, meets him at the top. STAN BECK Mark. How are things? MARK I need to see John. STAN BECK Mr. du Pont's not available right now. MARK Stan, please. I need to see him. STAN BECK He's got a very full schedule this afternoon. But I'll let him know you stopped by. MARK (more and more upset) Listen - I - something happened. There was a - misunderstanding. I think I did something wrong and I really need to talk to him about it- STAN BECK - Mark, I hear you. But Mr. du Pont's away for the afternoon on business. He's simply not here. Mark doesn't move. STAN BECK (CONT'D) You're going to have to do this later. 64. Mark's frozen, not knowing what to do, where to go... PRELAP: KNOCKING on a DOOR... CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM/THE CHALET - THAT NIGHT/LATE Mark awakens with a start to the sound of someone KNOCKING at the front door. He looks at the clock. It's 3 a.m. CUT TO: I/E. FRONT DOOR/THE CHALET - NIGHT Mark opens the door to find du Pont standing there, in his SWEATS. He clearly hasn't been to bed. And it's clearly an artificial stimulant that's been keeping him awake. DU PONT New moves. Wrestling moves. Need to try them out. MARK Oh, uh - DU PONT In the gym. Beat. Mark forces the cobwebs from his head. MARK Yeah, of course. Just... just give me a minute. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - NIGHT Mark and du Pont are down on the wrestling mat. Du Pont on top. He's both weirdly aggressive with Mark - trying to get him in various holds - and also, in the bizarre way he's pressing against Mark, quasi-sexual. Mark is BLANK-FACED. Just waiting for it to end. FADE OUT. 65. EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY WIDE SHOT of the Foxcatcher estate. In the distance, a HELICOPTER approaches, the rotors getting louder and louder. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER LAWN - DAY The helicopter has LANDED, the rotors still WHIRRING LOUDLY. (We won't hear dialogue in the following sequence.) DAVE and NANCY and the kids descend from the helicopter, GREETED warmly by the wrestling team. MARK IS ABSENT. Du Pont emerges from the Big House, trailed by Brandon. WE SEE du Pont notice what a warm reception Dave gets from the team. He comes down the steps, greets Dave and the family. CLOSE ON: Mark, who's at the very far end of the lawn, just inside the ring of trees, WATCHING. His HEAD is COMPLETELY SHAVED. MARK'S POV: Brandon and the team escort Nancy and the kids toward their new home. Du Pont and Dave ascend the Big House steps together. Du Pont puts his arm around Dave's shoulder. Far away, the Big House front door CLOSES. CUT TO: I/E. FRONT DOOR/THE CHALET - EARLY EVENING The door OPENS. Mark has opened it from the inside. He's looking out at: Dave, on his porch. Beat. DAVE Hey. MARK Hey, Dave. DAVE How you doing? MARK Good. I'm good. DAVE I hadn't seen you yet. I just want to make sure everything's okay. 66. MARK Yeah. I'm just concentrating. Trials are in 50 days. Silence. DAVE You know, Nancy and the kids are here. MARK How they doing? DAVE Good. You should stop in, say hi. MARK I will. (BEAT) I will. As the brothers stand in the doorway looking at each other, PRELAP: the sound of a GUNSHOT. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER WOODS - DAY A deer STAGGERS. It's been hit by a rifle shot. It stumbles, starts to move away. REVERSE onto Dave, holding his RIFLE. He's hunting with Dan Bane and TWO WRESTLERS we don't recognize (recruited by him in the few weeks he's been there.) Dave FIRES again. HEAR: opening of THE DOOBIE BROTHERS' "Listen to the Music" CUT TO: EXT. BACKYARD/DAVE AND NANCY'S HOUSE/FOXCATCHER - DAY A BOOMBOX plays The Doobie Brothers. The deer CARCASS hangs from a large tree. Dave SKINS it with a long knife. Dave's son, Alex, sits on the picnic table, watching. Danielle runs around the yard with some of the other wrestlers' kids. CUT TO: 67. EXT. BACKYARD/DAVE AND NANCY'S HOUSE - EVENING MUSIC in the background. The (now dozen or so) wrestlers and their families are gathered around the picnic table, the keg, the roasting deer on the SPIT over the fire. Du Pont is at the table. Mark stays very much ON THE PERIPHERY of the group. Dave's holding court at the table - in front of a huge platter of venison steaks - DAVE There's this big match between an American and a Russian. The Russian is a monster, never lost, kills everybody with this hold called The Pretzel. So the American coach tells his wrestler, "Listen, whatever you do don't let this guy get you in The Pretzel or you're dead." Sure enough, match starts, the Russian gets him in The Pretzel. There are smiles around the table. DAVE (CONT'D) The coach buries his head in his hands because he know's it's all over. Suddenly, he hears the crowd roar. When he looks up the Russian is flying through the air - he lands on his back, the American jumps him. Pins him. Boom. The match is over. Du Pont is studying Dave intently, fascinated by the hold he has on people - the attention he gets. DAVE (CONT'D) "Nobody's ever gotten out of The Pretzel," the coach says afterward, "How'd you do it?" "Well, Coach, I was just about to give up when I opened my eyes and there was this big hairy pair of balls right in front of my face. I had nothing to lose, so with my last ounce of strength I craned my neck and bit those babies as hard as I could." (SOME LAUGHS) The coach says, "And that did the trick?" (LOW) (MORE) 68. DAVE (CONT'D) "Coach, you'd be surprised how motivated you get when you bite your own balls." Everyone CRACKS UP. Du Pont WATCHES, trying to discern what makes this man so effortlessly magnetic. Then du Pont laughs loudest of all. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - DAY The dozen wrestlers are spread out on the mats, in pairs, wrestling. Dave walks among them. He moves close to Springer, giving instruction. Du Pont, in sweats and a whistle, lurks nearby. Mark's off against the wall, putting on weightlifting gloves. DAVE He gives you opportunity, jump on it. Hard. Drive him down. DU PONT No mercy! Dave looks at du Pont, surprised by the comment - that John's actually behaving as if he's coaching. Dave looks at some of the wrestlers, realizes this is the norm. He laughs, pats du Pont on the back. DAVE (to the wrestlers) Okay. Okay. You heard the Head Coach. No mercy. Mark walks out of the wrestling room to the weight room. Du Pont is thrilled to be validated for a moment. Then - DAVE (CONT'D) (to du Pont) Would you give us a little room? Just stand over there for a sec... (turns to Springer) SPRINGER - Du Pont obeys, SHUFFLES off to the side. Fluidly, expertly, Dave talks and wrestles through a series of moves with Springer. (MORE) 69. DAVE (CONT'D) - when he grabs for your elbow, goes for head position - your hand on his wrist needs to come up immediately, suck his arm to your chest, right hook over the top for the headlock, take him down, drive him down - Du Pont watches the master work for several moments. DAVE (CONT'D) - you see him commit you make him PAY - Du Pont clearly has nothing to contribute. He claps. DU PONT Keep it up, gentlemen. Largely ignored, he drifts off into the weight room. CUT TO: INT. WEIGHT ROOM/FOXCATCHER GYM - CONTINUOUS Mark sits on the LEG-PRESS, pressing an enormous amount of weight - repeatedly - straining, pushing himself. Du Pont enters. Mark tries to ignore him, continues to press the huge stack of weights. DU PONT Your brother's taking the reins. Leading. Mark finishes his set, stares straight ahead, catching his breath. DU PONT (CONT'D) You've got more in you than that. Mark turns his gaze to du Pont. SILENCE. Du Pont walks over behind him, starts massaging Mark's shoulders. DU PONT (CONT'D) You've got to dig deep. Find out what's inside. Discover what you're made of. MARK (QUIET) Please don't do that. 70. Du Pont keeps massaging. Mark glances towards the wrestling room. DU PONT Conquer your demons, Mark. CONQUER - MARK (QUIET) - Please. I'm asking you to not... Dave is coming in the direction of the weight room. Mark STANDS and walks out of the gym. Du Pont turns and sees Dave come through the doorway. CUT TO: INT. THE CHALET - LATER CU on TV screen: Mark being taken down by a wrestler. The image pauses, plays again. And again. Mark sits in front of the screen, watching this sequence, over and over. Dave walks in through the open door. Mark doesn't acknowledge him. DAVE Why'd you take off so suddenly? MARK (STILL WATCHING) Need to study up. Fix some weakness. DAVE You been doing this since you left? MARK Pretty much. Beat. Dave stands there as Mark keeps watching. DAVE What's going on with you and John? MARK (STILL WATCHING) Nothing's going on. (BEAT) What does that mean? 71. DAVE You seemed kind of upset in the gym. MARK (STILL WATCHING) The fuck you talking about? DU PONT He was talking to you about something and you seemed pretty upset. (THEN) What was he saying to you? MARK I don't know what you're talking about. Beat. DAVE Okay. You want me to leave you alone, I'll leave you alone. You decide you want to talk, you know where to find me. Dave walks out. Mark keeps watching his videotape. CUT TO: I/E. DU PONT'S CAR/FOXCATCHER - NEXT MORNING Du Pont drives his black Mercury. He's wearing what looks like an antique Revolutionary War General's battle COAT over a Foxcatcher t-shirt. There are a couple of MUSKETS in the back seat, another COAT. CUT TO: EXT. DAVE'S HOUSE/FOXCATCHER - SAME TIME Dave's got the hood of his car up. He's showing Alex how to change the oil filter. Danielle picks flowers in the yard and brings them to Nancy on the steps. Du Pont pulls up in his car, gets out with the car running. DU PONT David Schultz. Dave. Dave looks around the open hood. 72. DAVE Hey, Coach. DU PONT I'd like to show you something. Why don't you hop in? It's more than a little odd that du Pont hasn't acknowledged anyone else. DAVE WELL - DU PONT - Need to show you something. At the battlefield. Come. Sit. Come. DAVE You know what, Coach? It's Sunday. Family time. Du Pont stands there as if he hasn't quite registered what Dave said. Beat. Beat. Nancy calls out from the steps. NANCY Good morning, John. Du Pont looks over at her as if he's just noticed her presence. DU PONT Family time. Ah. Very good. He turns, gets back in his car. DU PONT (CONT'D) Good. Good family time. He drives off. Dave looks at Nancy. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER WOODS - NEXT MORNING Mark RUNS - alone, pushing himself, sprinting - through the woods, jumping rocks and fallen tree trunks. CUT TO: 73. INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - SAME TIME The wrestlers train on the mats. Du Pont patrols the perimeter, REPEATEDLY LOOKING TOWARD the doorway. Du Pont SEES someone entering and immediately begins acting coach-like, SHOUTING instruction, CLAPPING encouragement. WE NOW SEE who has entered: Mrs. Jean du Pont. She's WHEELED in by an attendant; another wheels the oxygen tank she's attached to. They park themselves by the wall. INTERCUT: Mark SPRINTS through the woods, breathing hard. BACK IN THE GYM: The wrestlers notice Jean, begin to stop what they're doing. Du Pont BLOWS HIS WHISTLE too loudly- DU PONT And.... break! Gentlemen, well done! Listen up. Team. Listen up. Several wrestlers GLANCE toward Dave to check his reaction to this. Dave NODS his head in du Pont's direction. DU PONT (CONT'D) A number of you will be travelling with me to the Olympic Trials in Pensacola next week. From the moment you leave these hallowed training grounds, you will be in competition. There's no lying in a fight. Who you think you are in the moments leading up to a fight, and who you are when the fight begins - the truth will become abundantly clear. Jean du Pont watches her son. DU PONT (CONT'D) Raul Garcia, come up here for a moment. No one moves. He gestures at Garcia. DU PONT (CONT'D) Raul. Gecko. Come. GARCIA (mutters under his breath) My fucking name's Roberto, dickweed. 74. Springer smiles. Garcia stands. He's clearly the SMALLEST WRESTLER in the room. He approaches du Pont. INTERCUT: Mark sprinting through the woods. BACK IN THE GYM: DU PONT Muchas gracias, compadre. (gestures to the mat) Por favor. Garcia gets in the down position. Du Pont kneels next to him, his arms hovering over him, not yet grabbing on. DU PONT (CONT'D) The period begins before the whistle blows, when the other wrestler feels you above him, feels your purpose. Jean watches her son, not betraying any emotion. DU PONT (CONT'D) Then... the whistle blows! Du Pont grabs onto Garcia. Tries to flip him. He can't move him at all. TOTAL SILENCE, except for Du Pont grunting. Mrs. Du Pont, stoic - watches her son. Then she signals to her attendant to take her away. She's wheeled out. Du Pont sees her go. FADE OUT. INT. WRESTLING ARENA/PENSACOLA - DAY Dave wrestles. He's having trouble with a younger wrestler. Mark stretches by the wall, alone, trying to concentrate on his upcoming match. He keeps glancing over at his struggling brother, and at du Pont in Dave's corner. CUT TO: Du Pont FANS Dave with a towel in between periods, "coaching him", giving "advice". He's BEING FILMED BY A CAMERA CREW. CUT TO: End of Dave's match. Mark watches the ref raise the other wrestler's hand. Mark's stunned. 75. ANNOUNCER (OVER P.A.) That's the second - and final - loss for David Schultz. Dave graciously HUGS the other wrestler. ON MARK, watching, devastated, CUT TO: INT. WRESTLING ARENA/PENSACOLA - LATER/DAY Mark's on the mat, battling a college wrestler, Rico Chipparelli. Mark's struggling. We see a vulnerability we haven't seen before - something lost or disoriented. Dave shouts from the corner. DAVE Get after him, Mark! Shoot low!... Du Pont, BEING FILMED, claps, calls out instruction - DU PONT Need to get after him, there. Low low low. CUT TO: In between periods, Mark sits in the chair in his corner while Dave gets in his face, coaching. But all Mark can pay attention to is du Pont clumsily FANNING him with a towel. DAVE He's open to the left. He leaves his entire left side open. You gotta get after that fucker! Make him pay. Now or never... CUT TO: Mark's back out on the mat. It's not working. Mark gets PINNED. The wrestlers stand. The ref holds both of their hands, RAISES Chipparelli's arm. He turns them around, raises Chipparelli's arm again. Mark walks off the mat. Dave tries to console him. DAVE (CONT'D) Double elimination, buddy. You'll get it back. DU PONT Next time, Mark. A good effort. 76. Mark walks right past them, off the mats. We TRAIL him, staying with him as he walks straight out the arena door. EXT. PARKING LOT/WRESTLING ARENA - CONTINUOUS Mark walks out the door and along the side of the building. He turns down a side entrance ramp for delivery trucks leading down to an underground garage. I/E. DELIVERY TUNNEL/WRESTLING ARENA - CONTINUOUS Mark's alone here. He BANGS his head against the cement wall, smashing it repeatedly. He screams at himself. He punches himself. Punishment for losing. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY Mark, still in his wrestling clothes, sits on the edge of his bed in front of a ROOM SERVICE CART loaded with food. His face is bloody. He gorges himself on fried chicken, sandwiches, french fries. CUT TO: INT. MARK'S HOTEL ROOM - LATER Mark's on his knees at the room MINI-BAR, having discovered the Kit-Kat's, M&Ms. TV's on, place is a wreck. A KNOCK at the door. LOUDER. Mark looks through the peephole. His POV: DAVE Open up - I know you're in there. Mark walks away from the door. DAVE (CONT'D) Mark. I'm gonna kick it in if you don't open it. Dave POUNDS hard, seriously rattling the doorframe. DAVE (CONT'D) Mark! Mark doesn't move. Dave starts to KICK IN the door - once, twice - it might break. Mark goes to the door and opens it. SILENCE as the brothers stand there looking at each other. 77. DAVE (CONT'D) What's going on with you? You got a match in four hours. (BEAT) What happened to your face? Mark walks away, sits on the bed. Dave comes in, surveys the room - dishes on the room-service cart, open mini-bar. DAVE (CONT'D) Jesus Christ, tell me you didn't eat all this. (NO ANSWER) You got to weigh in before every match. MARK I'm done. DAVE What does that mean? MARK It's over. I'm done. You lost. I lost. It's over. Dave walks over to Mark, and CUFFS him, hard, on the side of the head. He hits him again. Hard. DAVE Look at me. Look at me. You have a chance to do what no wrestler's done since 1904. Not one. If you think I'm gonna let you throw away a chance to win back-to-back Olympic golds you're fucking crazy. Dave CUFFS him again, harder. DAVE (CONT'D) Do you know what I'd give to have the extra years you've got? To have one more shot? To not have to start coaching full time? Do you?! (hits him again) I'm done, Mark. I've lost a step. You haven't. I will kick the shit out of you. I will lift you up and personally throw you out on that mat to take what's yours - what we've been training for since high school. And I will be on your ass every day from here to South Korea. 78. Mark is silent, his face reddening. Staring straight ahead. DAVE (CONT'D) (QUIET NOW) I'm with you, Mark. You're not in this alone. Silence. Then, Mark stands and the CAMERA follows him into the bathroom. As he sticks his fingers down his throat and leans over the toilet bowl to throw up, CUT TO: INT. WEIGH-IN ROOM - DAY Mark steps on the scale. Dave watches. The balance shoots up, making a metallic clank. DAVE (under his breath) Shit. The official MOVES the slide weight up from 82 KILOS to... OFFICIAL 87 kilos. DAVE How long does he have to make weight? The official glances up at the CLOCK. OFFICIAL Weigh-in period ends at 3:30pm. Dave nods. Grabs Mark. DAVE C'mon, fat boy, you got 90 minutes to cut 12 pounds. CUT TO: INT. WORK-OUT ROOM - DAY Mark PEDALS furiously on a STATIONARY BIKE, wearing five layers of sweats and fleeces with PLASTICS on top. We can see how much Mark is perspiring by the POOLS OF SWEAT which are collecting up his arms. Dave eggs him on as he shoves TINY PIECES of ICE up Mark's nose to keep him from overheating. 79. Du Pont walks in the far side, clapping, calling out - DU PONT Here you are. I've been looking all over for you -- Dave immediately trots over to du Pont, heading him off. We SEE their conversation from Mark's POV (we'll hear only pieces of it): Dave explains how Mark needs to be left alone. Du Pont resists at first; Dave is gentle but firm. He tells du Pont he shouldn't be in Mark's corner right now. Finally, du Pont turns and WALKS OUT. Dave turns back toward Mark. Mark puts his head down and PEDALS even harder. CUT TO: INT. WEIGH IN ROOM - DAY C/U on the CLOCK: 3:29. The weigh-in official CLOSES his log book. Dave and Mark BURST into the room. DAVE Wait! Wait! We're here... (TO MARK) Get 'em off. The official looks at them, OPENS his log book. Dave helps Mark peel off his sweats. Soaked, they hit the floor with a smack. Mark, in his singlet, gets on the scale. He's 30 GRAMS OVERWEIGHT (5 ounces). He steps off, and Dave helps PEEL his singlet off. He gets back on the scale naked. The official slides the weight bar... 3 GRAMS OVER. Dave grabs Mark. DAVE (CONT'D) Come here. He grabs his wallet from his sweats pocket and pulls out a CREDIT CARD, dropping the wallet on the floor. Dave SQUEEGEES sweat off Mark's naked body with the card. Scraping him down. He helps Mark back on the scale. The pointer bobs, finally reaches equilibrium. OFFICIAL 82 kilos. 80. Mark practically COLLAPSES. Dave helps him off the scale, walks him over to a bench, sits him down. He grabs a GATORADE from nearby table and hold it out to Mark, who looks like he might pass out. DAVE Mark. Drink. Mark just sits there. Not taking the drink. DAVE (CONT'D) Mark... SMASH CUT TO: INT. WRESTLING ARENA/PENSACOLA - DAY Mark SLAMS his opponent, Mike Sheets, to the mat. He's like an animal, dominating, aggressive. Dave coaches from Mark's corner. INT. WRESTLING ARENA/PENSACOLA - DAY A SERIES OF QUICK CUTS OF MARK'S MATCHES: Mark dominating, turning his opponents, taking them down... THEN: The END WHISTLE of Mark's final match. The wrestlers stand and the referee RAISES MARK'S ARM... DAVE YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Dave's EXULTANT - leaping and screaming onto the mat - he grabs his brother in a BEAR HUG and LIFTS him off the mat. As Dave joyfully carries his exhausted, victorious brother around the mat, he glances over at where du Pont would be sitting. Empty seat. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL HALLWAY - NIGHT Dave walks down the long hall checking door numbers. He stops to KNOCK on one. After a moment, Stan Beck opens the door. DAVE Hey, Stan. 81. STAN BECK Dave. What can I do for you? DAVE I'm having some trouble finding John. He's not in his room - STAN BECK - Right. DAVE - I wanted to check in with him. I had a kind of uncomfortable thing with John before the match this afternoon - Mark was in a really delicate place, and I had to ask John to not be in his corner. I just wanted to make sure he's okay with everything. And that he's happy with the result. With how things turned out. STAN BECK Dave. Mr. du Pont's mother died this morning. He flew home to Philadelphia earlier today. On Dave, stunned. Dylan's "All the Tired Horses" STARTS TO PLAY. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE/TROPHY ROOM - DAY "All the Tired Horses" PLAYS. C/U on Jean du Pont's face in an OIL PAINTING. SHOTS of her horse-jumping ribbons; PHOTOS of Jean riding; the space John cleared for his wrestlers' MEDALS; John's Masters' Tournament winner's PLAQUE. A SHOT of the POSTER of Mark oiled-up, hanging on the wall. CUT TO: 82. EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - EARLY EVENING VERY WIDE SHOT of the field between the Main House and the stables. A distant figure - tall, thin - makes his way across the field. "All the Tired Horses" PLAYS. CUT TO: I/E. FOXCATCHER STABLES - EARLY EVENING The doors to the stables are wide open. "All the Tired Horses" PLAYS. The horses peer out from their stalls, confused, wild-eyed. Du Pont goes from stall to stall, throwing open the gates. He waves the horses out, slapping them, waving his arms, shouting wildly, forcing the horses outside. CUT TO: EXT. STABLES - CONTINUOUS/EARLY EVENING "All the Tired Horses" PLAYS. The horses CHARGE OUT from the stables and onto the fields. Du Pont follows them out, waving at them drunkenly, falling, getting up, falling again. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE/ENTRANCE - AFTERNOON Dave's Subaru turns off the road, onto the main driveway of Foxcatcher. Nancy's driving, Dave next to her, Mark in the back seat. A GUARD emerges from a makeshift guardhouse near the entrance gates to stop them. Nancy rolls down window. GUARD Can I help you? DAVE (leaning across Nancy) What's going on? GUARD How can I help you? DAVE We live here. We're part of Team Foxcatcher. 83. GUARD Your names? DAVE What's going on? GUARD New security plan. Names? DAVE Dave and Nancy Schultz. Mark Schultz. GUARD Can I see some picture ID's? DAVE Are you serious? GUARD Please. They hand over their driver's licences. Mark reaches to hand his over from the back seat - DAVE (TO GUARD) - this guy just made the Olympic team. No response. The Guard takes the ID's into the guardhouse. Mark looks out his window: patrolling the roof of the main house, we can see PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARDS. One of them speaks into a microphone in his cuff. The Guard returns. Hands back their ID's. And hands Dave an ENVELOPE. GUARD This is for you, sir. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE/THE CHALET - AFTERNOON Mark lifts his duffel bag from the back of Dave's car. He comes around to Dave's open window. MARK Tomorrow morning? 84. DAVE YEAH - MARK 7 O'CLOCK - DAVE Yeah. MARK I'll pick you up tomorrow, 7am. DAVE You got it. Mark starts off, then turns quickly - MARK Wait - your house, right? Dave has to laugh. DAVE Congrats, my brother. As Mark walks into the Chalet, he looks over toward the Big House, where he can see a SECURITY DETAIL fanned out on the lawn, sweeping the ground with metal detectors. IN THE CAR: Dave looks down at envelope in his hand. NANCY What you got, baby? Opens it. Beat. DAVE John wrote me a check for ten thousand dollars. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER - MORNING WIDE SHOT as du Pont trudges across the lawn toward the Field House in Foxcatcher sweats. After a few moments, he's followed by a LARGE PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARD in a dark suit... and by Stan Beck. CUT TO: 85. INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - MORNING Wrestlers warm up, work out, lift weights. Dave and Mark train intensively together, doing TAKE-DOWN DRILLS. Mark executes, Dave murmurs instruction to Mark, they do the drill again. Du Pont WALKS IN THE GYM, trailed by the his Plainclothes Security Guard and Stan. Du Pont looks like he hasn't showered in a few days. Dave moves toward John, offering greetings and condolences -- "How you doing there, Coach," "Sorry to hear about your mother, sir," etc. Du Pont brushes off the offers of sympathy - DU PONT No no. All's fine. There's work to be done. (CLAPS) Back to work, gentlemen. As they go back to their drills, John stays on the perimeter, watching Mark, STARING at them. It's disconcerting. Dave moves back to work with Mark. DAVE Mark. Focus. Look at me. (Mark looks at him) Focus on me. (MARK NODS) You here? (MARK NODS) Let's run it again. Mark tries to run the takedown, Dave escapes, he spins on Mark and takes him down hard. As they stand up, Dave smacks MARK - DAVE (CONT'D) Get your head on straight and do this. Du Pont walks over. Mark can barely look at him. Du Pont stops close to Mark. Mark looks to Dave to save him from this. Dave's clearly caught in the middle. Mark looks down, closes his eyes as if in pain. Du Pont moves close to Dave, speaking to him so Mark can hear - 86. DU PONT If you and I can't get him there, no one can. We're in this together. After a long moment, du Pont moves off the mat. He starts to stretch nearby. As Dave tries to get Mark back to work, du Pont starts to JOG around the perimeter of the gym. Mark's trying to keep it together, but it's clearly driving him insane. As du Pont jogs and jogs - PRELAP: DU PONT (V.O.) Our challenge... as coaches... as leaders. I have coached... and psychologically prepare... Our Mark Schultz. To capture Olympic Gold... CUT TO: INT. DU PONT'S OFFICE/BIG HOUSE - DAY C/U of du Pont. HE'S SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO CAMERA. We're not sure where we are yet. He speaks haltingly, with effort, trying to be authoritative. DU PONT ...I wear many hats. I am leader. Mentor. Father figure. Brother. Older brother. At times the younger... INT. DU PONT'S OFFICE/BIG HOUSE - DAY From a WIDER ANGLE, we see that he's being FILMED for the documentary. He wears his Foxcatcher sweat jacket with HEAD COACH and JOHN `Eagle' du PONT" stitched onto it. DU PONT It will not be easy. We have built... our family. Our obligation... is to build... winners... In life. To teach the secret... To build men who will... think of... Who will understand... the character traits... We must teach them... whether they will listen or no. 87. He's finished. Silence. He stares steadily into the camera. Then he twitches. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE/VARIOUS - NIGHT A SECURITY TEAM taps on the outside of the main house, listen to the walls with what look like giant STETHOSCOPES. THE CHALET: A HORSE, its mane unkempt and knotted, eats grass in the side yard. Lifting its head, it noses the side window. CUT TO: INT. BIG HOUSE/DU PONT'S OFFICE - AFTERNOON FRED COLE, with TWO OTHER OFFICIALS from USA WRESTLING, sits across from du Pont's desk. Dave's there, as is Stan Beck. John sits at his desk, CLEANING and OILING his pistol. A glass of SCOTCH next to it. FRED COLE We're so very sorry about your mother's passing. Du Pont doesn't look up, just meticulously cleans each part of the gun. Almost mumbling: DU PONT Yes. Very sad. Very sad days here. Here at the farm. He keeps his focus on the disassembled gun, wiping clean each piece. Silence, then - FRED COLE Well, whatever we can do. Silence. STAN BECK What we wanted to discuss... Mr. Du Pont spends a significant amount of money for wrestlers' training here at Foxcatcher. Now - in addition - he'd like to make a sizable direct donation to USA Wrestling. (THEN) This money would come with conditions. (MORE) 88. STAN BECK (CONT'D) First: that you will start to offer Foxcatcher Farms - with the Golden Eagle as Head Coach, and Dave Schultz as Coach - as an alternative to Colorado Springs for wrestlers to train. FRED COLE May I ask what sort of a donation we're discussing? STAN BECK Four hundred thousand dollars. Fred chokes on his glass of water. STAN BECK (CONT'D) Second: that the du Pont family name be on all Olympic wrestling singlets and sweatsuits. DU PONT (under his breath) And gym bags. STAN BECK And gym bags. Beat. Fred glances at his fellow officials. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER/WOODS - SAME TIME Mark sprints through the woods, breathing hard. He emerges from the ring of trees onto the lawn near the Big House. He's immediately brought up short as SEVERAL SECURITY GUARDS come towards him, hands up -- PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARD Sir! Please turn around and go back the way you came. MARK (GASPING) What's going on? PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARD Security. Please turn around and go back the way you came. Behind the guard, Mark can see a SECURITY DETAIL fanned out around the perimeter of the Big House. 89. MARK What -? PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARD - We'll let you know when this area is open. Please turn around and go back the way you came. Mark's confused, still breathing hard. After a moment, he turns and walks off into the woods. CUT TO: INT. BIG HOUSE/DU PONT'S OFFICE - SAME TIME STAN BECK We believe that Eagle has earned the right to be named to the official roster of Olympic coaches at Seoul. Which means he would be in Mark Schultz's corner throughout the games. Fred looks over at Dave. FRED COLE We'll all, of course, just need to get him to sign off on this. STAN BECK You can take care of that? DAVE I can try. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - MORNING Dave and the other wrestlers warm up, stretch, run drills. Mark walks into the gym in streetclothes, stays near the entrance. Dave senses that something's going on with his brother, walks over to him. DAVE You're late. MARK Were you in the Big House yesterday? 90. DAVE For a little while. MARK In the afternoon? Because I got turned away when I came within fifty yards of the house. (THEN) What were you doing there? DAVE I'm a coach here. I get paid by John. I was meeting with John. MARK About what? DAVE Mark. Get dressed. MARK He's weakening me. DAVE What are you talking about? MARK I talked to Bachman at SMU last night. He says they're expanding the program. There'll be room for both of us in the fall - DAVE - Mark - MARK - I told him we could all get on the phone next weekend - DAVE - You need to focus on what's happening a month from now. Not - MARK - SMU's gonna make a move, they're gonna take a run at it - we can be there at the beginning - DAVE - Don't do this. Don't do it. Stay clear about what we're working for. 91. MARK - I can't do this anymore. I can't do it - DAVE - It's not the time, Mark - MARK - John's killing me here - DAVE - He's not killing you - MARK - If we at least let Bachman know by the end of the week we'll have a place to go to after - DAVE - Stop. Stop it! Long beat as Dave looks at Mark. As gently as he can: DAVE (CONT'D) I will make sure you're taken care of after Seoul. I'll talk to John - whatever you decide: you want to stay, you want to go - I'll make sure you're taken care of. Mark's looking at his brother, something dawning on him for the first time. MARK You're not thinking of staying here...? DAVE I don't know, Mark. The schools are great, the kids are happy. They have eight hundred acres to run around in... Mark's at a complete loss. Just when he'd reconnected with his brother, it seems they'll be separated again. DAVE (CONT'D) If you win next month you're in a class by yourself, you write your own ticket. You live your own life however you want. Focus on that. 92. MARK (QUIETLY) My own life. DAVE That's right. MARK And you'll be here. DAVE I'll be here. Whenever you need me. Mark seems lost. Dave pats him on the shoulder and turns to walk toward his office. Mark watches him walk away, then - MARK What's on your forehead? DAVE What? MARK It says kids. DAVE To remind me to pick up the kids from school. MARK What does that mean? When are you gonna you see your own forehead? DAVE I don't have to. You just told me. On Mark, PRELAP: CORPORAL Here we go, sir. Five tons of fun. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - MORNING An M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) is off-loaded from the back of a wide-load army trailer. A DELIVERY CORPORAL directs the operation. Du Pont watches. CORPORAL That's one beautiful vehicle. The CORPORAL watches du Pont climb atop the APC. 93. DU PONT Where's the grenade launcher? CORPORAL I'm sorry? DU PONT The 40mm grenade launcher that's supposed to be mounted up here. The Corporal pages through the sheets of his delivery order. CORPORAL I don't know, sir. I don't... I don't see anything in the order - DU PONT - It goes right here. Right here. CORPORAL Yes, it does. It does mount right there on the top. DU PONT So where is it? CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY WORKERS heighten and reinforce the PERIMETER FENCE that runs along the rural roads surrounding the estate. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER/BIG HOUSE - DAY Portions of the exterior brick-face have been opened up, and SECURITY EXPERTS are peering inside, snaking cameras through the walls... looking for... something... CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY Drizzling. Du Pont sits in the M-113 APC, his torso sticks out the top. He TURNS IT ON, the engine roaring to life. CUT TO: 94. INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - SAME TIME Dave is being interviewed for the documentary. He stands in his workout clothes, in front of the camera crew. Some of the wrestlers work out behind him. Dave's reading much of what he says from CUE CARDS held near the camera. DAVE My name's Dave Schultz. I'm Coach and head of recruiting here at Foxcatcher, under Head Coach John "Eagle" du Pont - CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - SAME TIME Dave's voice continues - DAVE (V.O.) - Coach du Pont, uh, understands excellence, he represents... excellence, he expects it from his ATHLETES - Du Pont drives the APC over a little ridge and starts down a long slope toward the POND. CUT TO: INT. FOXCATCHER GYM - SAME TIME DAVE (halting; trying so hard) - His... commitment to this sport is complete. He's made himself um, an... an expert in the sport of wrestling... Dave, who's been so good at playing along, takes it too far even for himself. As he says the next bit, he stumbles over his words - DAVE (CONT'D) Eagle is indispensable to - uh - what it... to - what we're trying to accomplish here. (looks down, UNCOMFORTABLE) We... consider John... (QUIETLY) one of us. (MORE) 95. DAVE (CONT'D) (SO QUIETLY) One of us. CUT TO: EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - SAME TIME Du Pont drives the APC down the slope, into the POND. He continues driving as the tank goes lower and lower in the water -- the water covers the vehicle, then his torso, his neck, his head. And he's gone. Completely submerged. Beat. Beat. The surface of the water is still. Beat. Du Pont BREAKS the surface. He looks around, then swims slowly to shore. The tank remains on the bottom of the pond. CUT TO: INT. DU PONT'S OFFICE - DAY Dave and Mark sit on the couch across from Stan Beck and du Pont. Dave is firm and clear, but entirely diplomatic. Du Pont looks dishevelled, he won't meet anyone's gaze. We can see the POSTER of Mark hanging on the wall. DAVE I'll commit to remaining at Foxcatcher so long as John wants me here, but only if my brother is taken care of. STAN BECK Taken care of how? DAVE So long as I'm here, Mark will continue to be paid. STAN BECK Paid what? DAVE His full salary. STAN BECK You want him paid even if he leaves? What if he quits? DAVE Whether or not he chooses to stay. That's right. 96. Stan's incredulous. He glances over at du Pont, but his boss doesn't make eye contact. Stan turns back to Dave. STAN BECK You're making quite an assumption about the value of your presence here. DAVE You're welcome to test the theory. STAN BECK What does that mean? DAVE We can see how many wrestlers stay if I decide to go. (BEAT) I hope it doesn't come to that. (BEAT) I'd also ask John to understand the delicate nature of the lead-up to Seoul, and please allow Mark some space. Let him train just with me. Du Pont winces at this, but keeps quiet. STAN BECK (TO MARK) You're that determined to leave? Mark doesn't respond. DAVE He'd like the option. Stan leans over to du Pont and WHISPERS in his ear. It goes on for several seconds. Finally, du Pont NODS very slightly. STAN BECK First of all, Mark has always been free to train in whatever - DAVE - That's not exactly how it's - STAN BECK - Just a minute - you've had your say. DAVE Sorry. 97. STAN BECK - To train in whatever way is most effective for him. Eagle offers his advice and counsel. If Mark chooses to ignore it, that's his loss. (THEN) Mr. du Pont would be prepared to accept your financial terms, but only if we get an answer to what we proposed weeks ago. DAVE What's that? STAN BECK That John du Pont, Head Coach of Team Foxcatcher, be seated in Mark's corner throughout the Olympic Games. Mark looks at Dave. Quiet, betrayed -- MARK You've talked about this? DAVE I was waiting for the right moment to bring it up with you. You haven't exactly been in a receptive frame of mind. A long beat. Then Mark shrugs, and looks away from his brother. He's given up fighting this fight. STAN BECK All right, then. I guess we're done. Silence as they all just sit there. SMASH CUT TO: INT. OLYMPIC STADIUM/HALLWAY/SEOUL - DAY C/U on Mark, in his wrestling gear, looking disoriented, unfocused. He's in the hall right outside the locker room, just steps away from the WRESTLING ARENA. Dave's in his face - talking to him INTENSELY over the sounds of the crowd inside - 98. DAVE This is your moment to prove yourself - your moment to step out alone, away from everyone, into the spotlight. This has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with John - Du Pont hovers a few feet behind Dave, being filmed by his CAMERA CREW. Mark's eyes keep glancing over at him. DAVE (CONT'D) - nothing to do with anyone but you. This is you, Mark. This is you. Focus and take what's yours! CUT TO: INT. OLYMPIC STADIUM/SEOUL - MINUTES LATER Mark stands in his corner on the edge of the mat, flanked by Dave and du Pont. ANNOUNCER From the United States of America, at 82 kilos... Mark Schultz. Mark walks onto the mat. CHANTS of "U.S.A... U.S.A..." from the Americans in the stands... waving flags and shouting. Mark faces his Bulgarian opponent in the center of the mat as each are checked by the REFEREE. As Mark is patted down, he glances over at his corner: du Pont is talking in Dave's ear, and Dave HAS HIS ARM AROUND du Pont's shoulders, listening. The camera crew films them. REFEREE Wrestle! Mark's immediately taken down, for a moment ONTO HIS BACK. CUT TO: INT. OLYMPIC STADIUM - MINUTES LATER Mark is GASPING for air, sitting in his chair in the corner. Dave rubs his muscles while yelling at him, in his face -- But Mark can only focus on du Pont, clumsily fanning him with the white towel, accidentally hitting him with it. CUT TO: 99. INT. OLYMPIC STADIUM - MINUTES LATER Mark wrestles, struggling - eyes lost, mouth open, gasping. The drive, the poetry, it's all gone. REFEREE blows the whistle. The match is over. The wrestlers stand. Referee RAISES THE BULGARIAN'S hand. Mark looks lost. Du Pont is STARING at him. Dave hangs his head. Ref turns the wrestlers around and raises the Bulgarian's hand again. Du Pont watches the small Bulgarian contingent in the crowd - cheering, dancing, waving the Bulgarian flag. CUT TO: I/E. DRIVING - DAY C/U on Mark. He's driving. We don't know where he is, where he's driving. CAMERA stays close on him for some time. CUT TO: EXT. DRIVEWAY/FOXCATCHER ESTATE - CONTINUOUS Mark turns a RYDER VAN onto the Foxcatcher estate. He stops at the GUARDHOUSE, in front of the mechanical arm which blocks his way. The guard slides open the guardhouse window. GUARD Name? On Mark, looking at him. CUT TO: EXT. THE CHALET/FOXCATCHER - DAY Mark walks out of the house, arms full of belongings, past a pile of crap he's leaving heaped on the porch. He tosses his things in the back of the van, slams the doors shut. CUT TO: EXT. BIG HOUSE/FOXCATCHER - MINUTES LATER POV from THIRD FLOOR WINDOW OF THE BIG HOUSE: Mark driving his van away. REVERSE SHOT: We see who's POV this is: John du Pont, watching from his third floor window. 100. DU PONT'S POV: Mark's Ryder van drives toward the front gate, toward the guard house... Mark drives past it... and off the estate. REVERSE: Du Pont, in the window, closes the curtains. FADE OUT. EXT. FOXCATCHER ESTATE - DAY Birds sit in the BARE BRANCHES of an oak tree; THREE HORSES, long-haired and un-groomed, paw at the snowy ground, looking for grass; the American FLAG hangs limply on the flagpole. CUT TO: INT. BIG HOUSE/FOXCATCHER - DAY A SERIES OF SHOTS: The EMPTY ROOMS of the Foxcatcher Big House. Former grandeur, now devoid of life, dusty. OVER the last of these shots, WE HEAR a DEEP, OVERLY DRAMATIC VOICE coming from a TV: VIDEO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ... He's coached national and world champions with his unique blend of passion and inspiration... C/U of a TV SCREEN: a SERIES OF IMAGES: Mark Schultz winning matches (one of the images is the one that became the Foxcatcher poster); Dave winning; Dan Bane winning..... THEN, on screen, is the scene of du Pont "teaching" Mark a WRESTLING MOVE: DU PONT From the under hook, pivot sideways while pulling down on his arm. Kneel between his legs and take him to the mat. Mark lets du Pont take him down, though it's abundantly apparent how much Mark is gritting his teeth through this. INT. LARGE EMPTY ROOM/BIG HOUSE - CONTINUOUS WE SEE where we are: a huge empty room - once used for grand dances. 101. In a corner: du Pont and the Documentary Director sit on two chairs in front of a TV hooked up to a VCR. The Director is screening "The John du Pont Story" for his boss. Du Pont has a PISTOL tucked in his waistband. ON THE VIDEO: A SHOT OF: Mark finding du Pont in the stands at the Worlds and hugging him tightly. A SHOT OF: Mark winning the Olympic Trials and Dave HUGGING and LIFTING his brother into the air. A SHOT OF: du Pont watching this from the stands and raising his fist in the air. A SHOT OF: Dave talking to the camera in the Foxcatcher gym: DAVE He's made himself an - an expert in the art and sport of wrestling... Dave stumbles on the words - DAVE (CONT'D) Eagle is indispensable to - uh - what it... what we're trying to accomplish here. Dave looks down, obviously uncomfortable - DAVE (CONT'D) We... consider John... one of us. (QUIETLY) One of us. A SHOT OF: du Pont talking to the camera, haltingly - trying so hard to be authoritative, inspirational: DU PONT Our challenge... as coaches... as leaders. I have coached... and psychologically prepare... our Mark Schultz... to capture Olympic Gold. I wear many hats. I am leader. Mentor. Father figure. Brother. A SHOT of a GOLDEN EAGLE sitting on a tree branch, then flying away. VIDEO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) The symbol of America is the Golden Eagle... 102. A SHOT of du Pont climbing into the pilot seat of his helicopter. He puts on his headset. VIDEO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) John du Pont is that Golden Eagle. Du Pont takes off in the helicopter and flies away. Over this shot, the end title comes up: "THE GOLDEN EAGLE OF AMERICA - THE JOHN DU PONT STORY." THE TAPE ENDS. The TV screen goes to static snow. SILENCE. Du Pont sits there, Director next to him. Finally, du Pont stands and starts for the door. Director follows. DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR We've bought several time slots next week on local station WPHI - DU PONT (STILL MOVING) Good. DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR - Several late night slots, of course, but there was also an open afternoon half-hour, directly after "The Edge of Night." That should be a good one - Du Pont continues right out the door, down the hallway, not even turning to face him. DU PONT Excellent. The Director stops at the door. He calls out to du Pont -- DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR - I'll let you know what the viewership numbers are as soon as I have them. CUT TO: EXT. BIG HOUSE - DAY Du Pont walks out a SIDE DOOR of the Big House, followed by the LARGE PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GUARD. He continues toward his car - the BLACK MERCURY - goes to the driver's side. Then, something catches his eye in a nearby tree - he points it out the Security Guard: 103. DU PONT Northern Cardinal. Look at that. LARGE SECURITY GUARD Yes, sir. DU PONT They never leave home, no matter how cold it gets. LARGE SECURITY GUARD Yes, sir. They get in the car and du Pont turns on the ignition. Before he shifts into gear, he removes the PISTOL from his waistband and places it on the middle seat. He pulls out. CUT TO: I/E. DU PONT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS Du Pont drives the dirt road that edges the woods ringing the enormous front lawn. The trees are bare, a bit snowy. Peaceful and pretty. The car approaches Dave's house. CUT TO: EXT. DAVE'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Du Pont's car pulls up. Dave's Subaru is parked in the yard out front, and Dave lies half-in-half-out the driver's side door, working on the FUSE BOX under the steering column. Dave rises out of the car to see who's pulled up. DAVE Hey, Coach. Dave takes a step toward du Pont's car. Du Pont just looks at him through his open driver's window. DAVE (CONT'D) What's up, John? Du Pont picks up his PISTOL from the seat. LARGE SECURITY GUARD Oh. Hold on there - Du Pont POINTS the pistol at Dave. 104. DU PONT You got a problem with me? DAVE JOHN - Dave holds out his hand - on his palm is the word "KIDS" - Du Pont SHOOTS Dave. The bullet goes through Dave's hand, smashing into his chest, throwing him to the ground. The Security Guard scrambles out the car door and ducks behind the passenger side fender. Dave tries to crawl away. NANCY Dave!.... David!... Nancy runs onto the porch and is screaming for her husband. Du Pont POINTS the pistol at her. She RUNS inside. Du Pont SHOOTS Dave in the back. Then he SHOOTS him in the back of the head. After a few moments, he drives away. Nancy runs outside. She cradles her husband as he bleeds out in the snow. FADE OUT. INT. MAKESHIFT LOCKER ROOM - NIGHT Mark, his HEAD SHAVED, sits in a chair too small for him. He's in front of a painted cinder block wall. He wears only shorts, no shirt. A CLOCK ticks on the wall behind him. After several moments, we START TO HEAR crowd-pumping MUSIC in the background. LOUDER. LOUDER. CUT TO: INT. ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP ARENA - NIGHT Mark walks out of the tunnel into the ARENA. HUGE SOUND - loud, crowd-pumping music. Strobe lights. Mark's bare- chested, no shoes. He looks straight ahead as he walks. There's something missing behind his eyes. CUT TO: 105. INT. THE CAGE/UFC ARENA - NIGHT Mark fights a Japanese martial artist. Mark's destroying him in a brutal, uninhibited display of aggression. He's got his opponent on his back and he pounds his bloody face repeatedly. The REF stops the fight. Mark stands. He's completely still, except for his heavy breathing. The other man's blood is on him. The crowd is wild, CHANTING, SCREAMING -- "U.S.A.... U.S.A.... U.S.A.... U.S.A...." SCREEN GOES BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Fracture.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fracture.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d02e7329bd03182e4570ed6d77778778d9e2baa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Fracture.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FRACTURE Written by Dan Pyne Current Revisions by Glenn Gers January 6, 2005 CREDITS SEQUENCE: EXTREME CLOSE-UPS An unfinished mechanical device: a scaffold of thin metal pipes, levers, pulleys, wiring, serve-motors. THOMAS CRAWFORD works on it: in his 40s, well-dressed but in disarray, graying stubble, hair and clothes unkempt. Magnifying glasses distort his eyes, making them huge and strange. He sets aside a tool, takes a marble-sized ball-bearing and drops it into a slot at the top of the device. His enlarged eyes follow the metal ball - - as it rolls and flips and spirals through a Rube-Goldberg- style maze, setting off bells, clicking past turnstiles - - then missing a leap and clattering across the work-table. Eyes on the device, Crawford's hand traps the ball. He stays still, analyzing. He selects a tiny screwdriver from a neat array of metal- working and electronics tools. Makes a miniscule adjustment to a single joint. Drops in another ball. It rolls and flips and spirals all the way down. Crawford doesn't react. Just studies the machine. Behind him, on a desk: a framed photograph of a beautiful woman in her mid-30s. His wife. INT. LUXURY BEACH-HOTEL ROOM - THE SAME TIME JENNIFER CRAWFORD is just reaching orgasm - - with ROB NUNALLY: mid-30s, good-looking, aging-boyish. They clutch each other, shuddering, lost in passion. And then, breathing heavily, caressing each other - Nunally rolls off her - slowly coming back to earth. Jennifer studies her lover, a quiet play of relief and gratitude and satisfaction on her face - - darkened by a troubled distance, maybe even fear. She is, after all, having an affair. 2 INT. CRAWFORD'S OFFICE - DAY Crawford stares through the grotesque lenses, motionless, expressionless. He takes a deep breath and checks his watch. Then he stands, removing the glasses. We now see his office: large, austere. Decor and equipment related to aircraft engineering. Outside big windows, jets take off from an industrial airstrip. Crawford gets a brand-new bottle of Jack Daniels from a desk drawer, uncaps it and swigs as he opens the door to a private bathroom. He gargles, spits into the sink. He pours out more, then puts the half-empty bottle back on his desk. He collects a home-made device from the workbench: it looks like a PDA connected by wires to a blank credit card. He puts it in the pocket of his suit jacket, which he sets on the desk. Adjusts the placement of the open bottle, nearby. Crawford goes to a light-box, studying a set of large X-rays: dark strips of welding in a grayish fuzz of metal. TINA, his assistant, appears in the doorway. TINA The N.T.S.B. guys are here. CRAWFORD (Doesn't look up) Yep. She hesitates a second, glancing at the bottle. Crawford ignores her, pulling an x-ray off the light-box and grabbing his jacket - - which knocks over the bottle. It skitters across the desk, liquor spilling. Crawford just walks out past Tina. INT. AIRPLANE HANGER - SOON AFTER The twisted, torn and burned wreckage of a large private jet is being reassembled on the big empty concrete floor. 3 N.T.S.B. INVESTIGATORS in shirtsleeves and AIRCRAFT COMPANY EXECUTIVES in suits cluster around work-boards covered with photographs and diagrams of a crash site. They look up, falling silent, as Crawford comes in carrying the X-ray. A few exchange surprised, concerned glances; this is not a man who skips a shave. But when he gets to them, Crawford is laser-like - holding the X-ray and pointing to a spot three inches above it: CRAWFORD It's here. He hands a startled Investigator the film and strides off toward the giant open doors out to the airfield. His foot knocks a piece of the carefully-laid-out wreckage in passing; it clatters across the concrete, but Crawford doesn't slow or look back. INT. LUXURY BEACH-HOTEL ROOM - SOON AFTER Rob is still in the bed, naked under the sheet - watching Jennifer adjust the straps of her bathing suit. ROB What about dinner tonight? She looks at him, surprised. Smiles, comes to sit beside him. Gently: JENNIFER We go out to dinner - we might never come back. Beat. Rob nods. ROB Okay. (Beat) I want to wake up with you. I want to... He gropes for words, but it's too big and he relents - scales back, sighing: ROB ...at least see where you live. She regards him tenderly, feeling the same reckless yearning. But also fear. She rubs his hair. 4 JENNIFER I live...here. She leans over to kiss him delicately on the lips. EXT. SANTA MONICA STREET - DAY A black Porsche speeds down a quiet street near the beach, pulls into a parking space. Crawford gets out, goes to a pay phone. He puts his cell phone on top of it, drops in some change and dials. OPERATOR (ON PHONE) L.A.P.D. CRAWFORD Lieutenant Nunally, please. He listens to hold music and checks the time. OPERATOR (ON PHONE) He doesn't come on til six. You want his voice mail? CRAWFORD No. Thank you. (beat) I'll see him later. He hangs up, grabs his cell, and takes off down the sidewalk. INT. HOTEL LOBBY - DAY Crawford enters. He knows where he's going - past the front desk and outside to the - EXT. HOTEL POOL - DAY Jennifer swims laps with strong, even strokes. Rob is enjoying the sun in a lounge chair. Crawford eyes them as he passes on the other side of a low fence. Unnoticed, he heads upstairs. 5 INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY Crawford stops at a room with a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the knob. He takes out his PDA-device and slides its card into the key-card slot of the lock. The lock clicks to green. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY Crawford enters, quietly closing the door behind him. He just stands there, taking it all in. The unmade bed, the ripped-open condom packet, the clothes on the floor. He is silent. Very still. EXT. CRAWFORD'S STREET - LATER Jennifer drives her Mercedes convertible past expensive houses in the late-afternoon light. She goes up the driveway of the Crawfords' stark mordern home. Across the street, MR. GIFFORD is playing catch with his GRANDSON. He waves to Jennifer. She waves back, friendly but distracted, on her way to the front door. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Cold. Elegant. Metal planters with bamboo trees. Glass doors out to a back garden. A fire in the fireplace. In a corner is another of Crawford's Rube Goldbergs - this one the size of a refrigerator. On a coffee table in the center of the room, a big wooden bowl of ball-bearings. Jennifer hurries in, dropping her keys on a table and - - freezes, startled. Crawford waits in the center of the room; despite the outer "disarray", he is calm and focused. JENNIFER You're - home early. 6 CRAWFORD I just felt a sudden urge. JENNIFER Are you...okay? Crawford shrugs, smiling strangely. He looks pained. CRAWFORD I could use a hug. Jennifer submits guiltily. Crawford embraces her, tight. She waits it out, until: JENNIFER Have you been drinking? He lets go and she steps back. Studying him. Scared. CRAWFORD I've been watching you sleep. At night. JENNIFER (Gently) That's creepy. CRAWFORD Sometimes when I'm at work, I'll start thinking about you and I'll just get - just - overwhelmed. JENNIFER Tommy - CRAWFORD It's a dense, crushing - geophysical force. Like I'm pinned. At the core - where things change. (beat) You ever get that way about me, Jen? JENNIFER What are you talking about? CRAWFORD I'm trying to describe my feelings. JENNIFER Those don't sound like feelings. 7 CRAWFORD No? (Beat) What's the sound of one feeling...in a forest? JENNIFER You think you're so much smarter than I am. That must make you feel very powerful. CRAWFORD Helpless, actually. Silence. JENNIFER Okay. Maybe it's time to really talk. CRAWFORD No. JENNIFER No? He shakes his head. Frayed and worn, she sighs. JENNIFER Fine. Whatever. I'll make you some dinner. He watches her turn and head for the kitchen. To her back: CRAWFORD I know. Everything. She stops, exhales. Looking down. Afraid. Grateful it's happening at last. JENNIFER I'm so sorry. CRAWFORD Don't be. Knowledge is pain. I'm used to that. Jennifer winces, feeling some sympathy. Preparing herself to turn and end it, to grow, to move on. CRAWFORD It's not like I don't let little pleasures, in return for the pain. 8 She frowns and turns - and her eyes go big with fear. Crawford is holding a semi-automatic pistol, aimed at her face. Very still. The gunshot explodes out of the muzzle - bright, harsh, loud. EXT. GIFFORD HOUSE - FRONT YARD - CONTINUOUS Gifford and his Grandson turn to look at the Crawford house. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Crawford stands, tilting his head to watch the slow hypnotic curl of smoke leaking from the gun in his extended hand. The hand, we might notice now, wears a surgical glove. He lowers the gun, bends to pick up the ejected shell-casing from the floor. He wipes it and tosses it aside, on his way to Jennifer. He stands looking down at her: face-up on the floor, head in a small pool of blood, eyes and mouth open. The doorbell rings. EXT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Gifford leans on the frosted-glass panel next to the door - hands cupped around his eyes, trying to see in. GIFFORD Tom? Jen? Everything okay in there? INT. CRAWFORD FOYER - CONTINUOUS Crawford steps in from the living room. CRAWFORD Everybody just LEAVE US ALONE! He calmly aims up at the frosted-glass transom and fires three times - watching Gifford fling himself away. Crawford collects the shell casings, wipes them, drops them back on the floor. Peeling off the rubber gloves, he crosses to the fireplace and throws them into the flames. They curl and blacken. 9 Crawford watches, expressionless - then looks around, satisfied. Waiting. EXT. CRAWFORD'S STREET - DUSK Helicopters overhead, SWAT teams setting up. Nearby houses have been emptied, gawking NEIGHBORS and media vans moved back to a block away. UNIFORM COPS pull aside the barriers as a plain-wrap sedan rolls through. It pulls up by the SWAT Command Truck. ROB NUNALLY gets out, surveying the scene. The guy who spent his afternoon with Jennifer Crawford in the hotel is an L.A.P.D. Detective. SWAT COMMANDER You the Negotiator? NUNALLY Yeah. What do we know? INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - SOON AFTER Crawford waits, with the gun. The phone rings. He picks up: CRAWFORD Yes? INTERCUT WITH: EXT. CRAWFORD'S STREET - CONTINUOUS Nunally is standing by the open trunk of his sedan, wearing a Kevlar vest now - putting on his shoulder-holster over it. Into his cell-phone: NUNALLY Mr. Crawford? CRAWFORD Who is this? NUNALLY My name is Lieutenant Robert Nunally. I'm a hostage negotiator for the Los - Crawford hangs up. Thoughtful. 10 NUNALLY Mr. Crawford? Nunally grimaces, shuts his phone, shaking his head. But then he turns - with the SWAT Commander and everyone else - - as Crawford's front door unlocks and opens a few inches. Nunally considers this, looks at the SWAT COMMANDER. NUNALLY Okay then. Here we go. He pulls his suit jacket back on, then reaches into the trunk for his back-up gun. He tucks it into the back of his belt, concealed under the jacket. He takes a walkie-talkie and starts for the house. The spectators fall silent. Radios crackle and hiss as he heads up the driveway. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Crawford watches Nunally's silhouette appear on the frosted glass, from across the living room. NUNALLY (O.S.) Mr. Crawford? The door pushes open very slowly. Nunally stays in the doorway. NUNALLY Hey. Crawford studies him, staying back. CRAWFORD Get rid of the vampires. Nunally is confused; Crawford gestures at the flood-lit lawn outside. Nunally glances back, sees the SWAT teams and - down the street - the distant barricades, the media. He nods, steps in and lets the door shut. Careful silence. CRAWFORD Do I call you Rob? NUNALLY If you want. 11 CRAWFORD Not vampires. NUNALLY What? CRAWFORD Not vampires. Ghouls. Sorry. Nunally nods, humoring him, glancing around. Sees the small pool of blood where Jennifer fell. Plays it cool. NUNALLY Mr. Crawford, what do you say you give me the gun - so I can pay more attention to what you're saying? Crawford sighs. CRAWFORD Is that your best shot? (Beat) So to speak. NUNALLY I just think - maybe it would - CRAWFORD Tell you what: I will if you will. Nunally frowns, wary. Crawford moves to the coffee table in the center of the room, holds his gun out over it. CRAWFORD We both put down our guns. At the same time. Crawford gestures to a chair across the room - by the foyer door, near Nunally. CRAWFORD We set them down and step away. (Beat) Then you can "pay more attention" to what I'm saying. Nunally studies Crawford...and the gun, hovering above the coffee table. Looking for a trick, a catch. But there isn't one. If Crawford sets down his gun and steps away, he'll be standing in the open center of the room. 12 CRAWFORD Happy ending, then. Nunally stares Crawford in the eyes - - then slowly takes his gun from his shoulder holster. Eyes on each other from across the room - moving very slowly - the two men cautiously set down their guns - - and step away. Crawford smiles. Nunally smiles, too, reassuring and false. Begins to edge forward - alert to the possibility of a lunge for the gun or having another weapon. But Crawford stays absolutely still. NUNALLY Mr. Crawford, your neighbor mentioned that your wife - CRAWFORD It's Tom. NUNALLY I'm sorry? CRAWFORD You can call me Tom. NUNALLY Tom. Your wife. Is she here? CRAWFORD Yes. Crawford gestures to a library alcove, behind him, out of view. NUNALLY Is she all right? Nunally begins to drift slowly to the side, to see. CRAWFORD I don't think she is. I shot her, Rob. Nunally's nodding, edging to look into the alcove - NUNALLY You shot your wife. 13 CRAWFORD It was like I just suddenly - snapped. We were arguing - and I got the gun. NUNALLY - okay - I hear you - CRAWFORD And I shot her in the head. I know it was wrong. (Beat) Are you listening to me? But Nunally is not. He's frozen - staring, shocked, at the back wall of the alcove - which he can now see. There's a big framed black-white photograph: a portrait of Jennifer Crawford. NUNALLY Oh Jesus Christ. Nunally fumbles for his walkie-talkie, rushing past Crawford toward the alcove - - kneeling by Jennifer, who lies, face-up in a red puddle - NUNALLY (into walkie-talkie) We need a medic in here! Get the ambulance up! RIGHT NOW! NOW! NOW! Nunally feels her neck frantically for a pulse - looking in her open, vacant eyes for some sign - NUNALLY Oh no - God no - I can't - get a - Nunally desperately starts C.P.R., his hands getting bloody. He stops to check her neck for a pulse now and then - - as Crawford slowly approaches from the living room, standing behind Nunally. Cold. CRAWFORD You know, I think I read somewhere that a good place to find a pulse is the femoral artery. It's on the inner surface of the upper thigh. If you put your fingers - you know, right up inside her dress - 14 Nunally turns and lunges up, smashing a fist into Crawford's face. Crawford reels backward with Nunally - - the two of them falling with Nunally on top, beating Crawford furiously, cursing - - as SWAT COPS burst in, grabbing Nunally, dragging him back - knocking into PARAMEDICS trying to get to Jennifer - - Nunally kicking, flailing, spitting at Crawford - who's put face-down on the floor, to get cuffed. Nunally pulls free from the SWAT cops, distraught, angry - going to retrieve his gun and shove it in his shoulder- holster, struggling to regain control. PARAMEDIC Wait a second - she's not dead! Nunally whirls - everyone freezing, breathless, falling silent. The Paramedics kneeling around Jennifer work - - as Crawford lies on the floor, staring at his wife. Like she's a machine that defied astronomical odds and refused to behave according to his calculations. EXT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - SOON AFTER Jennifer's stretcher is loaded into an ambulance, doors slamming shut and sirens kicking on - - as Crawford, cuffed behind his back, is pushed into the back seat of a police car. His eyes on the ambulance as it pulls away, carrying his wife. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - SOON AFTER A DETECTIVE uses a pencil to lift Crawford's gun from the coffee table and carefully put it in an evidence bag. Nunally stands back, watching the COPS and TECHNICIANS work the scene - lost in his thoughts, shaken. SWAT COMMANDER You all right? Nunally "wakes" - nods. Absently: 15 NUNALLY Yeah. I'm good. To avoid talking more, he heads out to the glaring lights and chaos outside. FADE OUT INT. WILLY'S APARTMENT - THE NEXT MORNING The alarm clock shifts to 6:00 am and pops on to local news and traffic - - but the narrow futon bed is already empty. WILLY SLOCUM works at a laptop on his second-hand desk, lit by a solitary lamp. He is in his late-20s, good-looking. Short hair, office-pale but athletic, wearing mis-matched sweats from Eastern Oklahoma State College. He jots a final note, sets his yellow legal pad aside. As he goes to the closet-sized bathroom, pulling off his sweatshirt and starting the tiny pre-fab shower, we linger on the laptop screen: rental listings for a new apartment. TIME CUT The bare overhead bulb is on, revealing the concrete floor and painted-plywood walls. His clothes hang neatly on a length of pipe suspended by ropes from the exposed rafters. Law school texts fill cinderblock-and-board shelves. The radio chatters. Willy knots a tie in his crisp white collar. TIME CUT Willy methodically packs legal folders from last night's "homework" into his big, battered briefcase. He has to work to stuff all the files in. He pulls on his suit jacket, settles the shoulders, tugs at his cuffs. Uncaps a pen, leans over a one-sentence letter waiting on the desk. Reads it over. As he signs, we glimpse: - hereby give notice that I will be resigning my position at the District Attorney's Office as of Novemb- 16 Willy savors the moment. Then he tucks the letter into an envelope, gets the heavy briefcase - goes to shut off the light and open the door - - which swings about six inches, then clonks into something. Willy grimaces. Peeks out, goes to pound on a wall. WILLY Mrs. Demello? (Beat) MRS. DEMELLO! Your CAR! Silence. He sighs. Shuts the door and presses a button near the light-switch. There's mechanical grinding noise as the far wall slowly rolls up, letting in daylight and revealing an alley beyond the hanging clothes and cinderblock shelves. He presses the garage-door-opener button again, and hurries across the apartment to duck out under the closing door. EXT. ALLEY - CONTINUOUS Willy straightens and takes a breath, re-settling his suit jacket with an irritable glance at his landlady's car, parked sloppily next to the garage, blocking his door. As he walks away, down the alley, we rise up to reveal the hazy sprawling landscape of L.A. - and the towers of Downtown, rising ahead of Willy like Oz. WILLY (V.O.) Come on, Phil: I called you as a courtesy, and you start looking to take advantage? INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - LATER THAT MORNING An ancient fluorescent-lit cubby crammed with documents, case files, notes, reference books. Willy on the phone: WILLY I'm not knocking it down to a Class C. My backlog of open cases does not mitigate the fact that your client tried to kill his brother-in-law with - oh, right, a "golfing accident"? Your client owns one golf club and no golf (MORE) 17 WILLY (cont'd) balls - and the "accident" took place in the stairway of an illegal after- hours gambling club. Yeah, okay - I'll see you in court. His cell phone rings. As he gets it: WILLY Well, I won't see you in court, but someone from this office will. You take it up with them, I gotta go. (switching phones) Willy Slocum. Oh - hey, hi, yes. Assistant District Attorney NORMAN CHANG (mid-30s) throws the door open without looking: NORMAN Wooton Sims?! Willy holds up a finger, talking into his cell: WILLY No, I didn't. Wow. Okay. Norman mouths "WOOTON SIMS?!" repeatedly during: WILLY No - short notice is...fine. No, I can. Black tie. Sure. What time? Okay. Yes. Thank her. He hangs up, exhales slowly. Looks at Norman. NORMAN Wooton - SIMS?! Wooton Sims?! WILLY Please stop saying, "Wooton Sims" over and over. It's starting to sound like nonsense words. NORMAN You asshole! WILLY Okay: go back to "Wooton Sims." As Willy gets up and goes out, past Norman - NORMAN How the hell did you get a job at Wooton Sims?! I can't even get an interview! 18 INT. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE - DAY Norman follows Willy out to a central bullpen area where the shared ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS work: MONA and GLADYS. NORMAN I've been here five years. I'm your supervisor. I graduated USC, summa! WILLY We're just going to pretend he's not talking, okay? MONA NORMAN No problem. I'm serious. WILLY I'm really jammed-up all day, and I need to rent a tuxedo - for tonight. NORMAN A tuxedo?! Oh, come on! You are so full of shit. WILLY (Jotting notes) There must be a place that does that, right - same day? I'm also gonna need a messenger to bring it here. This is my suit size and my shirt size...I really appreciate this. Mona nods, taking notes as Willy gets out a credit card. Other DDAs are gathering to soak up some vicarious kicks. MONA What's going on? WILLY Wooton Sims buys a whole lot of seats to this charity opera thing every year, because Bob Wooton is the chairman of this committee - NORMAN "Bob" Wooton?! WILLY (Enjoying, mock-helpless) It's what the man told me to call him. 19 GLADYS You're gonna need to pick out a style, Willy. WILLY A style. GLADYS For the tuxedo. Willy hesitates, in over his head. A DDA helpfully does the Travolta finger-in-the-air pose. WILLY I don't know - I just don't want to look like I'm going to the prom. GLADYS You wanna go Classic. Fix him up. MONA We'll get you something Classic. (Picks up a ringing phone) Willy Slocum's office. NORMAN Make sure it comes with cuff-links and knee-pads. WILLY Oh, that's very nice: it's good to be back in high school. MONA (Hanging up) Willy? Her tone makes him - and everyone else - turn. MONA God wants to see you. WILLY (Beat) Our God? MONA Who art on the Eleventh Floor. Willy, startled, looks around. Approving nods, raised eyebrows. He tightens his tie and heads for the elevators. 20 NORMAN There is no justice! There is no justice in the city of Los Angeles! INT. LOBRUTO'S OFFICE - SOON AFTER District Attorney JOE LOBRUTO, 50-ish, sits behind a massive oak desk, studying a thick file. Doesn't look up as a SECRETARY shows Willy in. Willy hesitates. Looks around: he's never been here. Flags, wood panelling, leather furniture, windows overlooking the city. Finally Lobruto looks up, takes Willy in. LOBRUTO William No-Middle-Initial Slocum. WILLY Yes sir. LOBRUTO Sit. (As Willy does:) Eighty-four-percent conviction rate. That's remarkable. WILLY Thank you. LOBRUTO With a case load thirty percent higher than any other first-year DDA. (Beat) Of course - you also swapped more cases than the rest of them put together. Willy considers his options. He always does. WILLY I offered my losing cases in exchange for two or three of anyone else's possible convictions. They couldn't handle their workloads, and I prefer not to lose. Lobruto knew this; the question was would Willy admit it. LOBRUTO You're going to need a middle initial. 21 WILLY Sir? LOBRUTO You're going to Wooton Sims. WILLY In two weeks. LOBRUTO You'll be able to afford a better suit. But those guys all play squash and have middle names. They go in for the mother's maiden name a lot. Beat. Willy doesn't like the implied personal judgement, but the only way it shows is how calm he stays. WILLY My mother didn't have a maiden name. Lobruto nods, unruffled by Willy's hard calm. LOBRUTO So you're a bastard; sometimes I can be a son-of-a-bitch. Maybe you belong here. WILLY I didn't work this hard to stay where I belong. LOBRUTO You're a street-fighter, Willy. You should be in court. We can move you up to better cases. WILLY I appreciate the offer. LOBRUTO I didn't think so. (Closes the file, stands) Well - you got your litigation experience. Your chops. And your juicy private sector job. Anything else the City of Los Angeles can do for you? Willy's amused. He stands, too. As they shake hands: 22 WILLY No, I think that's everything - thank you. LOBRUTO The offer stands. If you get tired of carrying a spear. Willy nods - but Lobruto notes the tiny flicker in his eyes: not getting it and trying to cover. Lobruto smiles gently. LOBRUTO It's an opera joke. Give my regards to Bob. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - LATER Willy's twisting in his rented tux, trying to adjust a buckle on the side of the vest. The phone rings and he gives up, frustrated - pushing the plastic garment-bag aside to answer - - knocking a full cup of take-out coffee on to his chair. Which is where he left his suit. Willy freezes. Watching the coffee seep into the fabric. Into the phone, distracted: WILLY Willy Slocum. INTERCUT WITH: INT. NORMAN'S OFFICE - THE SAME TIME Norman's looking at a case file. NORMAN I've got an Attempted Homicide. Conley caught it last night, but he's hung up in motions with Gardner. Arraignment in Part Seven, at three o'clock. WILLY Three o'clock is in fifteen minutes. NORMAN Thank you. What's the temperature? 23 WILLY I can't do it. NORMAN You do still actually work here, Willy, right? I mean, you're still going to be cashing your paycheck for another two weeks and everything? WILLY Just get somebody else for this one. NORMAN Everybody's booked up. Look: it's not going to trial. There's a weapon with prints, and a confession. Take the arraignment and wait for the plea. WILLY (Beat) A real confession? NORMAN Spontaneous and signed. Come on, Willy. Willy sighs. Looking down at his coffee-soaked suit. WILLY Okay. Here's the problem. INT. NORMAN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Norman slowly smiles, listening. NORMAN You know - I really wish I was going to see this. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Willy slips self-consciously through the double-doors, wearing the tuxedo. He gets even more self-conscious when he notices a handful of local REPORTERS. He hurries in - - passing Nunally, in the back row. Nunally is making a good show of keeping it together...but it's only a show. JUDGE IRENE FELDMAN, 50-ish, looks over her half-glasses. 24 JUDGE FELDMAN Mr. Slocum. Nice to see a man who dresses for court. WILLY Sorry, your honor. Long story. Willy, hurrying to Prosecution Table, barely glances at the Defense Table - - but Crawford, sitting beside his PUBLIC DEFENDER in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, never takes his eyes off Willy, intrigued. JUDGE FELDMAN Grapevine has it the punch-line is Wooton Sims. WILLY Yes, ma'am. JUDGE FELDMAN Good for you, double-oh-seven. (Signaling the Bailiff) Let's see what public service is offering you by way of a send-off: BAILIFF The State of California Versus Thomas Crawford. The Defense rises; Crawford hardly pays any attention to the Judge - glancing back and noticing Nunally, whose eyes bore into him, haunted and burning. Crawford stares at him impassively a second, then turns to lean past his P.D. and watch Willy hastily skim the file. JUDGE Mr. Crawford, you've been charged with section 664 slash 187 of the California Penal Code: Attempted Murder, with additional allegations of Assault With a Deadly Weapon - Penal Code section 245 dash A2, with Great Bodily Injury, P.C. Section 12022.07. (Beat) Do you waive further reading of the complaint and complete statement of rights? 25 P.D. CRAWFORD (sotto) I do. But, your honor - You do. JUDGE FELDMAN And do you wish to enter a plea at this time? CRAWFORD Not guilty. But I also want to waive my right to counsel, and represent myself. Willy looks up from the file - startled. JUDGE FELDMAN Do you have a problem with your appointed counsel, Mr. Crawford? CRAWFORD No. I just want to do it myself. I believe it's within my rights. P.D. Your honor, if I could have a moment with my client - CRAWFORD I'm not your client. Try and keep up, would you? The P.D. shuts up, taken aback. The Judge considers Crawford, thoughtful, then turns to Willy. JUDGE FELDMAN Do the People have an objection or a comment for the record, Mr. Slocum? Willy hesitates, held by Crawford's strange, amused gaze. Shakes it off: WILLY I'm sorry, your honor: we've got the weapon and a signed confession. I really think Mr. Crawford needs a competent attorney to - frankly - negotiate a plea. Crawford reaches up with cuffed hands and adjusts an imaginary bow-tie. Willy self-consciously touches where Crawford indicated on his own collar, straightens his clip- on. 26 Crawford nods: you're welcome. Willy turns to the Judge. WILLY I - can't - this was supposed to be - with a pro se defendant, this is going to drag out for months - and I'm not even going to be here. The People request a continuance to - CRAWFORD Excuse me? Your honor? I'm willing to waive my right to a preliminary hearing and go directly to a jury trial. (To Willy) Does that help? JUDGE You don't need to look out for Mr. Slocum, Mr. Crawford. The District Attorney's office can shift another prosecutor to the case - CRAWFORD No, I like Mr. Slocum. Beat. JUDGE FELDMAN Mr. Slocum? He likes you. WILLY Terrific. JUDGE FELDMAN Mr. Crawford seems to understand his rights and responsibilities. WILLY All due respect, your honor, I'm worried this may turn into some sort of a - circus - JUDGE FELDMAN I appreciate your concern for the dignity of my courtroom, Mr. Slocum - considering you're making the argument dressed as a game-show host. Unfortunately, the man is a tax-paying citizen, entitled by our Constitution to try and manipulate the legal system, like everybody else. (turning) (MORE) 27 JUDGE FELDMAN (cont'd) As for you, Mr. Crawford, I strongly urge you to retain counsel. Lack of same will not be grounds for appeal. CRAWFORD I understand. Thank you. JUDGE FELDMAN Are the People ready to go to trial without a preliminary hearing? Willy hesitates, irritated. Looks through the file again. Checks Crawford - waiting, polite. WILLY Sure. Why not. Crawford smiles at him, as the Judge opens her calendar. INT. PARKING STRUCTURE - LATER Willy, in his tux, comes out of a staircase and stops. Rob Nunally is waiting by Willy's parked car. NUNALLY You're supposed to be good. Willy takes him in - wary, seeing an edge of anger and fear beneath the tough controlled cop manner. WILLY Is that what I'm supposed to be? NUNALLY I asked around. You're supposed to be top-notch - but to me it looks like you've got one foot out the door, and you're wiping the rest of us off the bottom of the other one. WILLY I'm sorry to...disappoint you. Nunally is silent - frustrated. The concrete walls and ceilings echo from distant cars. NUNALLY I took Crawford's confession. WILLY And now you want mine? 28 NUNALLY I'm here to warn you. Take this seriously, because it's serious. This guy is stone cold - and his wife - is lying in a hospital bed - with brain damage... He struggles to keep himself under control. WILLY Are you all right? NUNALLY Are you gonna be on this, or what? WILLY Yeah. I'm on it. (Gently) You got a confession. You took the gun out of his hand. It's done. NUNALLY I'm just - telling you. Is that okay? Or are you too friggin' busy?! WILLY No. It's okay. Willy waits. Watching the tortured cop wrestle with demons. NUNALLY Forget it. (Beat) It's a lock. We're good. Put him down. Bury him. Willy nods. Nunally turns and walks away, down a ramp. Willy watches him go. Sad. Like he's watching Nunally drown. But he's seen people drown before...and he's not about to put out a hand. Might get pulled in himself. INT. CHANDLER PAVILION - LOBBY - LATER Willy moves uneasily among clusters of laughing, chatting, sparkling FORMAL-DRESSED PEOPLE. NIKKI GARDNER joins him, strolling alongside. She's his age, but her elegant dress, unlike his tux, was made for her. NIKKI Are you a shark? 29 WILLY Sorry? NIKKI You've been circling the lobby for half-an-hour now, like if you stopped you'd die. WILLY If I stopped, I'd be standing around with no one to talk to. At which point, death would be a relief. NIKKI Why don't you talk to Bob? Willy stops walking, getting a little careful. WILLY "Bob" is talking to the Governor. (Beat) Do I know you? She puts a hand out, gently amused. NIKKI Nikki Gardner. Senior Associate, Wooton Sims. WILLY (Shakes) Oh - hey, hi. It was your office that called, with the invitation. NIKKI On Bob's orders. WILLY Listen, I don't...actually know "Bob." I mean, I've only met the man once. Nikki nods, considering this. And him. NIKKI Interesting. They're each conscious of an unexpected buzz of attraction. The lobby lights flicker, breaking the spell a little. As the CROWD begins to drift toward the auditorium doors: NIKKI You like opera? 30 WILLY Truth is, I haven't really had that much expos- NIKKI Neither do I. With a conspiratorial head-tip, Nikki moves toward the plaza doors. Willy follows. EXT. ARTS CENTER - SOON AFTER They stroll the emptying plaza, dressed to the nines. NIKKI Bob assigned you to my team. I'll supervise your case-work, steer you through the office arcana, and generally keep an eye on you. WILLY Kind of like a mentor. NIKKI Kind of like a probation officer. Beat. Willy nods, meeting Nikki's gaze as she looks to make sure he's got it. WILLY Okay. NIKKI Wooton Sims expects absolute loyalty and a hundred-and-ten-percent performance. But: you get to work on legendary litigation. National, sometimes global, in scope. It's high- stakes. And cut-throat - even within the team. We burn out associates at an astonishing rate. WILLY You're trying to scare me. NIKKI Yes. WILLY You're going to have to try harder. She stops walking. Studying Willy. 31 NIKKI Can I ask you something personal? WILLY Sure. NIKKI Who are you? Willy doesn't answer. Maybe uncertain what she means. Maybe not wanting her to know. Or even not knowing, himself. NIKKI We have a guy in our criminal division, fresh out of Yale, named Calvin Tyler. One of our very rich clients gets pulled over, D.U.I. - which is routine bullshit, so Calvin gets it. Against you. Next thing we know, Calvin is fired, and Bob Wooton, who has never even interviewed a junior associate before - let alone hired one - says you're on my team. Willy weighs his options. Decides to level: WILLY It was a good bust, so Calvin came to me for a deal. I told him if he could arrange an interview for me with Mr. Wooton, I would throw the case. I laid out his arguments and evidence for him - and I showed him how I would lose. Calvin set up my appointment for the day after our court date. Then he did what I had suggested in court - and I wiped the floor with him. Your client got the maximum. Next day, I met with Mr. Wooton. (Shrugs) Bob. Beat. NIKKI Wow. You know what's brilliant about that? WILLY Yes. 32 NIKKI You didn't actually do anything all that wrong. WILLY Well - I wasn't entirely honest with Calvin. His cell-phone rings. He ignores it. NIKKI You gonna get that? WILLY Everyone I need to talk to is here. They are both feeling the electricity in the air between them. They wait the phone out, enjoying the forbidden insanity of it. But then: NIKKI We need to talk about your transition timetable. WILLY All right. NIKKI Bob believes in trial-by-fire. He wants you up-to-speed two weeks from Tuesday, because we're getting on a plane to Chicago for depositions in a class-action against our biggest client, Armstead Pharmaceutical. WILLY No problem. She studies Willy, trying to make sure he understands: NIKKI That's catch-up on three years' work - and you haven't closed out your old job yet. WILLY I'm good at trials. Even by fire. Beat. NIKKI You know, a little bit of fear can be a very healthy thing to have. 33 WILLY I'm looking forward to when I can afford the luxury of having some. Nikki sighs, smiles. Enjoying him, somewhat reluctantly. NIKKI I'll have them put the Armstead materials in your new office. WILLY Thanks. Boss. He watches her head off into the night. He remains, alone, in his tuxedo, looking at the elegant glittering arts plaza. Then he checks his cell-phone. Dials. INTERCUT WITH: INT. FORENSICS LAB - LATER MARCHAND, Senior S.I.D. (Scene Investigation Division) Tech, works as he talks into a speaker-phone. He and Willy have teamed-up often, and an underlying respect lets them mock each other. MARCHAND Marchand. WILLY It's Willy Slocum. What's up? MARCHAND Your gun in that Palisades shooting is no good. WILLY How can the gun be "no good"? MARCHAND It's a perfectly good weapon. A Heckler & Koch nine-millimeter. It's just no good as evidence. It's never been fired. WILLY It's the gun from the scene? 34 MARCHAND Yep. Bought by Mr. Thomas Crawford and registered to his wife, about a month ago. Apparently a gift. WILLY And between the shooting and arrest, this guy was locked inside his house. MARCHAND Is that a question? WILLY No, I mean, just: what's the point? Playing games with the gun. He's alone in the house with the victim, and he confessed - it's not like the gun's gonna get him off the hook. MARCHAND Do you have a question I can answer? Beat. Willy shakes the puzzle off, irritated: WILLY Look, our weapon is in that house somewhere. Get a team out to search it tomorrow morning. MARCHAND Ya think? WILLY (Sighs, smiles) Thank you. He shuts the phone. Takes a moment, looking around again at where he is. Absently tugs at his tie and vest, lets the case go. Heads in to the opera. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - A WEEK LATER Controlled chaos. A week's work has emptied the shelves and cleared the surfaces, but the file-cabinet drawers are all half-open: Willy sorts folders, neatly marking and packing them. White "trans-file" storage boxes are piled all over. MESSENGER (O.S.) Slocum? Willy looks up, at a MESSENGER with another file box. 35 WILLY Yeah. MESSENGER Where do you want it? WILLY The idea here is we're trying to take boxes out - not bring more in. MESSENGER Is that the idea? Willy sourly gestures to a chair; checks the label as the Messenger sets it down - WILLY Whoa - wait a second, this is a screw- up. I already have these documents. I sent this box: to the Defendant, at County. MESSENGER I picked up at County. Slip says bring 'em here. Messenger holds out a clipboard. Willy reluctantly signs. As the Messenger leaves, Willy cuts the tape and takes out a folder. Opens it: Crawford has scrawled NO in red marker across the top sheet. Willy turns to the next page. A big red NO across that, too. Pulls out more documents - flips through: NO - NO - NO - NO - red letters wriggling across the typed pages, like flip-book animation. Beat. Disturbed, he picks up the phone, dials. INTERCUT WITH: INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - THE SAME TIME S.I.D. TECHS are taking the place apart: opening HVAC vents, pulling books off shelves, upending chairs and tables, removing drawers from cabinets. Marchand, supervising, answers his cell-phone: MARCHAND Marchand. 36 WILLY Where are we on this gun? MARCHAND We can't find it, Willy. WILLY I'm in trial on Monday. MARCHAND I know. I don't know what to tell you. I'm there now. WILLY You said you'd get a team out a week ago - MARCHAND I'm here now. My team has been here twice already. (Beat) Do you really need it? WILLY Do I need it?! The weapon?! He takes a second. Sighs, exasperated - but honest: WILLY I don't know. Probably not. Defendant's a whack-job. MARCHAND He went pro se, right? WILLY Yeah. Just when you think they're not really stupid, they defend themselves. MARCHAND You've got a confession and an airtight bunch of circumstantial. (Apologetic) We've gone over this place top-to- bottom three times now, Willy. Willy takes a breath. Thinks it through. WILLY Yeah, okay. Don't worry about it. (Beat) Sorry - got a lot going on. 37 MARCHAND Must be rough, figuring out what you're gonna do with all that money. WILLY Hey, I had to sit through an opera last week. MARCHAND Oh gee - lemme see if I can express how much sympathy I have: Marchand snaps his phone shut. Willy smiles, hangs up. But then his smile fades, as he glances down again at Crawford's box of papers. Hundreds of pages. Every single one scrawled NO. Willy considers them. INT. COUNTY JAIL - INTERROGATION ROOM - LATER Metal chairs. Bad light. Crawford sits, cuffed, at a table, waiting. Looks up as the door unlocks. A GUARD lets Willy in, locks the door behind him. Crawford watches Willy take a legal pad, files, pens from his briefcase, set them on the table. CRAWFORD How's my wife? WILLY I don't know. CRAWFORD I heard somewhere, I think it was on N.P.R., that you're supposed to talk to people in a coma. Play their favorite music. Supposedly it reaches them. Willy, now ready, lets Crawford study him. CRAWFORD You represent Jennifer. The voice of the victim, judicially speaking. But you haven't gone to see her? 38 WILLY Not yet. CRAWFORD Too busy getting up to speed on Armstead Pharmaceutical? Beat. WILLY I beg your pardon? CRAWFORD I'm not judging you. I think anyone - coming from...what you came from - then paying your way through East-Okie Cowshit College and Tulsa Law by writing papers for Princeton kids on the internet - my God, it must have eaten your liver! Sixty-thousand dollars in debt, eighty-four percent conviction rate: you deserve this. Willy tries to stay in control. WILLY What the hell have you been doing. CRAWFORD I'm permitted the use of a private investigator. WILLY Not to investigate me! CRAWFORD Why not? You're investigating me. WILLY You shot your wife. CRAWFORD Allegedly. That's how it works, right? If I can't introduce something in court as evidence - it doesn't exist. Legally. WILLY Look - I don't want to play games with you. CRAWFORD I'm afraid you have to. 39 Beat. Willy reconstructs his formal cool. Takes some pages scrawled NO from a folder, pushes them across the table. WILLY Is this some form of - communication? CRAWFORD You sent me a box of papers. WILLY It's called Discovery. The State has a legal obliga- CRAWFORD There's nothing in it, Willy. You haven't 'discovered' anything. Have you found the gun? Beat. WILLY Not yet. CRAWFORD No. (Beat) Does it bother you that I call you Willy? WILLY (Lies) No. Crawford nods. Pleased. Leans forward. CRAWFORD I'd like you to consider becoming my lawyer. I'll pay you. A lot of money. WILLY I'm - prosecuting you. CRAWFORD Yeah, but I'm offering you a chance to get on the right side of this whole mess while you still can. WILLY Are you out of your mind? 40 CRAWFORD I think - on advice of counsel - I'll decline to answer that one. Willy studies him. Decides: it's an elaborate act. Begins to put away his papers. WILLY I don't need the gun to convict you, by the way. CRAWFORD She was cheating, you know. Willy looks at him, slightly taken aback. He didn't know; it wasn't in the confession. As he considers whether it makes a difference - he notices Crawford watching, enjoying. Willy shuts his briefcase. WILLY It doesn't matter what she did...Tom. What you did is a crime. CRAWFORD Perhaps. But - maybe my so-called peers will look at me and see themselves. Betrayed. Frustrated. Humiliated. And you and I both know, Willy, that people have an infinite capacity for believing in their own innocence. WILLY Great. Take the stand. Tell your story. I'd appreciate it. CRAWFORD Not to mention the fact you have no actual evidence connecting me to the crime. Willy smiles, gets up. WILLY Except your confession. Crawford watches him go to the door. CRAWFORD My grandfather was an egg farmer. Willy stops, annoyed. 41 WILLY Is this gonna be about how you had a rough childhood? CRAWFORD I used to candle eggs at his farm. You know what that is? You hold an egg up to a light, and look for imperfections. (beat) The first time I did it, he told me to put the ones that were cracked or flawed in a bucket - for the bakery. (beat) He came back an hour later and there were three hundred eggs in the bakery bucket. He asked me what the hell I was doing. (beat) I found a flaw in every single one. Thin places in the shell, minuscule cracks. (smiles) Look closely enough and you'll find everything has a weak spot...where it can break. WILLY Looking for mine? CRAWFORD No, I've found yours. WILLY Illuminate me. Crawford considers how to put it. CRAWFORD You're a winner, Willy. Silence. Willy pushes the call-button by the door. WILLY Huh. Well. Joke's on me then, I guess. CRAWFORD Yes. It is. WILLY I'll see you in court, Mr. Crawford. 42 The door unlocks. Crawford winks. Willy hesitates for a second - then leaves. INT. WOOTON, SIMS - EMPTY OFFICE - LATER It's big. It's got a window. It's got a sofa. Undecorated, except for a pile of materials & boxes marked ARMSTEAD PHARMACEUTICAL. Willy is filling out forms - tax, citizenship, benefits. He doesn't notice Nikki when she comes to the door. NIKKI Make sure you sign the one with the devil in blood. It's not binding otherwise. He looks up, smiles. WILLY Just want to be ready for Chicago. I'm all closed-out, downtown. Last trial starts Monday. Beat. Not pleased: NIKKI You've got a trial Monday? WILLY Yeah: attempted murder. NIKKI That gives you three days. You told me - and I told Bob - that you would be ready to hit the ground r- WILLY The man confessed. And he's pro se. NIKKI Willy, some but acting as his own lawyer - he could drag it out for months! WILLY You want to hear his witness list? Nikki nods. Willy is silent. She frowns. 43 NIKKI No witnesses? Willy leans in, enjoying this part - analyzing, even admiring, Crawford's ploy: WILLY It's kind of clever: this guy is trying to provoke the system into declaring him insane. I think he thinks we'll call in the doctors and he can fake 'em out by refusing the defense. He's acting out this really - organized plan to appear crazy. Beat. Nikki considers Willy. NIKKI You're gonna miss being in court, aren't you? He studies her, confident. Gestures to the stacks of Armstead materials: WILLY I'm almost halfway through these. And I think I've already found about six disqualifiers in Delaware, Ohio, and Florida. I have to check case law in each state, but it looks good. I'll get the rest done over the long weekend. Nikki sighs, smiles a little, against her will. He's won her over...again. Willy shrugs, grins. In the silence, the impossible electricity returns. After a moment - to defuse it: NIKKI You don't go home for Thanksgiving? Slight beat. WILLY No. She studies him a moment, thoughtful. Careful. NIKKI If you want - you're welcome at mine. My family's. 44 WILLY Really? She nods. Smiling a little, knowing her family and starting to know Willy: NIKKI I think it would be interesting. Beat. WILLY Yeah. Okay, thank you. NIKKI Cool. Beat. She leaves. Willy doesn't go back to work right away. INT. COURTROOM - THE NEXT DAY JUDGE ROBINSON presiding. A mid-sized crowd, including a few REPORTERS. A UNIFORM COP is in the witness box, Willy stands in the Prosecution Table. UNIFORM COP We established a perimeter around the house and then waited for SWAT and the Negotiator. It was strictly by the book. WILLY So the house was completely surrounded within how long of the first shots? Crawford sits alone at the Defense Table. He wears an expensive suit and no handcuffs, but two DEPUTIES sit behind him. He's barely listening to the testimony - drawing on his legal pad: intricate, dense complex diagrams of "Rube Goldberg" contraptions. UNIFORM COP Maybe ten minutes. WILLY And when you arrived at the sc- Crawford noisily tears a page off his pad. Looks up - sees Willy, and everyone else, turned to him. CRAWFORD Sorry. 45 Willy sighs, returns to the Cop. WILLY When you arrived on the scene, was there a crowd? UNIFORM COP Oh yeah. Neighbors, came out to look soon as it started. WILLY And from what you could ascertain, no one went into or came out of the house until SWAT and the negotiator arrived? UNIFORM COP Definitely not. WILLY Thank you. No further questions. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Crawford? Crawford looks up from his drawing. CRAWFORD What? JUDGE ROBINSON Your witness, Mr. Crawford. Crawford takes in the Uniform Cop. CRAWFORD No questions for this witness. Willy watches Crawford return diligently to his doodles. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSE-UP: THE DEFENSE TABLE - LATER THAT AFTERNOON It's a mess of loose legal-pad pages torn from Crawford's pad, each covered in madly intricate schematics. He works on yet another, head down, intent. Dr. MARION KANG is on the stand, using a marker on a big diagram of a head: 46 DR. KANG - through the frontal cortex and the temporal lobe, coming to rest against the back of the skull. WILLY So this bullet inflicted serious injury? DR. KANG It inflicted serious and irreparable injury. Willy nods, allowing the jury time on this. He checks a note- card, glances at Crawford. Considers his options. WILLY Dr. Kang, is it safe to say that someone inflicting this kind of wound intended to kill? Judge Robinson gives Willy a warning look. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Crawford, you might want to object. The witness can't know your state of mind. Crawford doesn't even look up from his drawing. CRAWFORD No thank you, your honor. Willy gives Judge Robinson an I-told-you-so shrug. Turns to Dr. Kang. KANG I would say so, yes. WILLY Thank you, Dr. Kang. Crawford tears off the page, starts another. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Nunally on the stand. Focused, professional. Crawford draws, ignoring him. WILLY So after you put down your gun, what did Mr. Crawford do? 47 NUNALLY He confessed to shooting his wife. WILLY He confessed. (Beat) Did Mr. Crawford appear confused or in any way intoxicated, impaired? NUNALLY No. Not at all. He knew what was going on. WILLY What did Mr. Crawford say? Nunally looks at Crawford, enjoying the fatal blow: NUNALLY He said, "I got the gun and I shot my wife. God help me, I shot her in the head. I know it was wrong." CRAWFORD (low, still drawing) Objection. Everyone turns, surprised. JUDGE ROBINSON I'm sorry - Mr. Crawford, did you say something? Crawford sets aside his pen for the first time. Looks up. CRAWFORD Yes. I want to object. JUDGE ROBINSON On what grounds? CRAWFORD I don't know. WILLY Your honor - CRAWFORD I don't know what you'd call it. They - it wasn't the first time, either, but - I don't know the legal term. 48 JUDGE ROBINSON Why don't you just explain it in layman's terms. CRAWFORD Fucking the victim. Uproar in the court. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Crawford - CRAWFORD You said layman's terms - WILLY Your honor - CRAWFORD I'm sorry - what would you call it - legally - when the officer who arrested you has been having sexual intercourse with your wife? Utter silence. Willy whirls a look at Nunally. The cop meets his eyes - a deer in headlights. WILLY (Low) Oh - shit. CRAWFORD I think it's objectionable - maybe I'm wrong. WILLY Your honor... JUDGE ROBINSON Detective Nunally? Nunally looks down, silent. Shaking his head. CRAWFORD Rob? WILLY Your honor, the People request a - Nunally suddenly launches himself over the witness box rail to attack Crawford - as the Deputies leap forward to stop him - all of them flailing and cursing in a tangle - 49 - spectators screaming, fleeing, gawking. Chaos. INT. JUDGE ROBINSON'S CHAMBERS - SOON AFTER The Judge grim, Willy panicked, Crawford calm. WILLY He had my witness list. He should have filed to suppress. CRAWFORD (Shrugs) My mistake. Sorry. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Crawford, I warned you about representing yourself. CRAWFORD What about the fact that it's true? I mean, isn't that the point here: to get to the truth? JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Slocum - is it true? WILLY I don't know. I only heard about it five minutes ago. CRAWFORD Put him back on the witness stand if you don't believe me. WILLY We can't put him back on now! Not after what the jury just saw. Your honor, I told you this would turn into a circus. First he provokes the witness with an outrageous allegation - CRAWFORD My Dick has evidence. The Judge and Willy look at Crawford like he's truly insane. JUDGE ROBINSON Excuse me? CRAWFORD My investigator. I call him Dick. I guess I should call him as a rebuttal (MORE) 50 CRAWFORD (cont'd) witness? He's got phone records, credit receipts, photographs, videotapes - all documenting the affair. In graphic detail. (Beat. Mildly:) Dick is good. The Judge looks at Willy. This is bad. Thinking fast: WILLY Okay - um: I'll stipulate that my witness was less than forthcoming ...and that can more or less cancel out the fact that the defendant withheld a crucial - JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Slocum - your witness was intimate with the victim, and he assaulted the defendant during the arrest. CRAWFORD Actually, while obtaining my so-called "confession." Willy stares at Crawford, shaken. Understanding the trap. WILLY No way. Your honor - JUDGE ROBINSON He's got a point. They were alone in the house. The confession is no good. WILLY Oh - come on! CRAWFORD Is this a legal argument? "Oh come on"? WILLY (Whirls on him) You want to get into it?! Crawford raises his eyebrows. Awkward silence. Willy takes a deep breath. Turns to the Judge. WILLY Sorry. (Beat) He dictated and signed his confession, after that incident. 51 JUDGE ROBINSON In police custody. Arguably, in fear for his life. I'm sorry, Mr. Slocum - it's all 'fruit of the tainted tree.' We have to exclude all versions of the confession and any evidence collected by Lieutenant Nunally or by other police officers on the night he was present. WILLY This is insane! CRAWFORD It's Biblical, isn't it? The fruit and the tree and - WILLY He set this up! Don't you see what he's doing?! JUDGE ROBINSON Yes, I do. And I don't like it. But it's done, so we have to deal with it. CRAWFORD Do you think I could go home today, your honor? With Thanksgiving around the corner - JUDGE ROBINSON Don't push it, Mr. Crawford. (Beat) What we're going to do is give Mr. Slocum a few days to regroup and come up with new evidence. If he doesn't - then you can go home. That's going to put us into the long weekend. We reconvene Monday morning. Willy just stands there: blind-sided, shell-shocked. Crawford smiles at him. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - THAT EVENING The end of a bad, bad day. Willy flips on the lights as he comes in, shaken. A package is on the empty desk. Addressed in red marker. The return address: TC, County Jail. Willy just stands looking at it. 52 INT. COUNTY JAIL - THE SAME TIME Crawford sits on the metal bunk in his prison jumpsuit. Alone. Looking down. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - RESUME As Willy takes a letter-opener from the desk drawer - the phone rings. He answers it, eyes still on the package: WILLY Willy Slocum. INTERCUT WITH: INT. GLAMOROUS BAR - THE SAME TIME Crowded with UPSCALE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS. Nikki is on her cell-phone, hand over her other ear: NIKKI Well - you've gotta admire the cleverness of it. Willy begins cutting open the package as he talks: WILLY Do I? INT. COUNTY JAIL - CONTINUOUS Crawford very slowly raises his eyes, until he is looking directly at us. NIKKI (V.O.) Come on, Willy - give the devil his due. WILLY (V.O.) Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out what that is. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE/GLAMOROUS BAR - RESUME NIKKI Okay: then listen - I checked with Bob on how he wants you to handle this. (MORE) 53 NIKKI (cont'd) Has LoBruto tried to take you off the case yet? WILLY No. NIKKI Well, he pretty much has to if he's gonna save any face. So here's the strategy: you let him. Willy cautiously lifts the box's flaps - pulls aside tissue paper - to reveal: A single eggshell. Broken, empty. WILLY I let him? INT. COUNTY JAIL - CONTINUOUS Crawford begins to smile. NIKKI (V.O.) Yeah, damage control. Stop getting your face on TV. As it is, I had to talk Bob down from cancelling your contract. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE/GLAMOROUS BAR - RESUME Willy is staring down at the broken eggshell, barely listening to Nikki. NIKKI (CONT'D) But we've got to move fast and get out from under. Otherwise, and I quote: "Stick a fork in this kid's ass and turn him over, he's done." WILLY I can't just - walk away. NIKKI Willy: today, you got killed. The issue now is saving your new life. Willy can't take his eyes off Crawford's "gift." WILLY I guess...that would be the smart way of looking at it. 54 INT. COUNTY JAIL - CONTINUOUS Crawford stares right at us. Smiling. Ice cold. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE/GLAMOROUS BAR - RESUME Nikki is sympathetic, misunderstanding Willy's quiet: NIKKI You want to come out and get drunk? WILLY No. Thank you. I've got some stuff to take care of. NIKKI All right. Don't beat yourself up. WILLY I won't. He hangs up. Considering the empty eggshell. But then he looks up: District Attorney Lobruto is in his office doorway, trying to decide whether to be angry. LOBRUTO You don't look into who the victim was sleeping with? Willy burns, ashamed. But unable to admit it. WILLY He - threw me off. (Frustrated) Look, Crawford knew he'd be the prime suspect, so he gave us everything - but he made it all radioactive. The night this went down, it was over. LOBRUTO But you still walked it into court, Willy. We might not have a case...but it didn't have to be a public humiliation for this office and the police department. Silence. 55 WILLY Are you taking me off? LOBRUTO You're leaving anyway. WILLY I'm starting to get a sense of this guy. LOBRUTO That's not new evidence. WILLY I can take him now: he thinks he's smarter than I am. LOBRUTO It's not about you, Willy. WILLY Yeah, it is. He made it that way. (Shows him the egg) He likes me. LOBRUTO What is that - some kind of Oklahoma insult? WILLY Let me do this. I won't make you look bad. Beat. LOBRUTO No. You won't. That's what I need to make sure you understand. I remove you now: I'm covered, I took some action. (Beat) If you go on with this, when you lose - blame has to come down. And it'll come down on you. I'll have to investigate you for improprieties, incompetence - anything I can. In public. I'll hang you out to dry. For the good of this office. Silence. WILLY If I lose. 56 LOBRUTO What? WILLY You said "when." Lobruto grimaces. He shakes his head. Sighs. LOBRUTO All right. It's yours. Willy nods. Stubborn. Scared. INT. MOTEL ROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT Local news on the TV: Willy pushing past media outside the courthouse; official photo of Nunally; footage from the standoff at Crawford's. The sound is low, and Nunally isn't watching. He's sitting on the edge of the bed...looking down at his gun, in his hands. A knock on the door "wakes" him. Beat. He sets the gun aside, goes to peek out the curtains. Lets Willy in. WILLY You're not easy to find. I had to call Internal Affairs. NUNALLY Yeah - they put me on a desk - 'til this gets...sorted out. He uncomfortably watches Willy glance around at the half- empty liquor bottle, the mismatched suitcases and paper bags full of balled-up clothes. And the gun on the bed. NUNALLY Got home - my wife already took the kids to her folks. Press is all over our front lawn. Friggin' vampires. He falters, haunted by the echo. Willy doesn't notice: WILLY What the hell were you thinking. You're on the job and you get called to your girlfriend's house - 57 NUNALLY I didn't know it was her house. I'd never been there. WILLY It was her name! NUNALLY I didn't know her name! Willy waits. Nunally explains, reluctant to expose himself: NUNALLY No last names. Her rules. We met at the same hotel room, twice a week - no phone calls, no questions. She didn't want us to know too much about each other. She said it was like...travel in a foreign country. No baggage - from our lives. Just us. Escaping. WILLY Did you get the feeling she had rules because she had done it before? With other guys? NUNALLY No. I don't know. Maybe. (Thinking, remembering:) No. It was all just this...crazy thing. For both of us. It was... real. You know? We didn't expect that, when we started. We didn't know where it was going. I had cheated so many times, I was numb - but she was ...new. And she made me feel like there was - some chance. To change. We were scared. It was like we were afraid to go forward, but we couldn't go back. (Beat) You always think you have time. To work it out. Or make things right. (Angry) What was I supposed to do?! WILLY You were supposed to tell me! NUNALLY I'm married! I have kids! 58 WILLY You thought nobody knew - so maybe you could just walk away clean. NUNALLY No! I didn't think HE knew! OKAY?! Even - after. I thought it was just - massively fouled-up...bad luck. Like - God - telling me - something. (Anguished) I'm there. My mind is going crazy. I know the confession won't hold if anyone finds out. (Beat) I thought the guy was a whack! WILLY Yeah? Well, he's not. Nunally won't look at Willy. He just sits there, numb. WILLY Is there anything else you can give me. Anything that might get us some evidence. Nunally shakes his head. Willy grimaces. Goes to the door. NUNALLY I...tried to warn you. Willy stops. Looks back. WILLY You warned me he was smart. You didn't warn me you were stupid. Nunally winces. Takes it. Willy feels a little badly. Two guys in a shabby motel room, in terrible trouble. NUNALLY How do we get the confession back in? WILLY We don't. NUNALLY What are you gonna do? Willy shakes his head. Walks out. 59 INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - THE NEXT DAY A massive search is under way. Marchand's S.I.D. Team has been doubled, back-up by a dozen SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES - - passing hand-held metal detectors along the furniture - - taking pictures down from the walls - - turning over mattresses - patting-down every item hanging in the closets - - wriggling into crawlspaces - poking into light fixtures recessed into the ceilings - - opening the air-conditioning unit, up on the roof - - ripping out Crawford's high-end home-theater system - - taking apart the Porsche in the garage. Willy paces the edges of the action, restless, edgy. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER Willy stops in the doorway - watching a DEPUTY shut the stainless-steel freezer, open a wired-glass cabinet and poke around. WILLY Shake the boxes. DEPUTY Huh? WILLY The cereal boxes - shake 'em. And there's a chicken in the freezer. Thaw it out, check inside. The Deputy stares like he's nuts. Willy doesn't blink. The Deputy goes to shake the boxes, eyes on Willy: okay? Willy nods. Moves on. EXT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - FRONT DOOR - LATER Hours have passed. 60 Willy steps out of the front door, because he's going stir- crazy inside. Stands watching two TECHS walk the lawn and flower-beds with metal detectors. He notices, past the S.I.D. vans and Sheriff's Dept. black- and-whites parked in the driveway: Nunally, in his parked car, across the street. He meets Willy's eyes. Worried. Willy can't give him any news. So he pretends he didn't see the question in Nunally's eyes, looks away. Takes a breath, turns and goes back in to work. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DUSK It's getting dark out. Techs pack equipment cases, carry them out. The place is a disaster area. Marchand watches Willy pace the living room. WILLY The garage? Washer-dryer? MARCHAND And the tool shed, and the roof, and the H.V.A.C. ducts. WILLY What about the door frames? The floors? MARCHAND What did he do: rip open a door frame, hide the gun inside and re-plaster the wall before SWAT showed up? WILLY What about the neighbors' property? He could have thrown it over the hedges. MARCHAND We checked. (Beat) He might have passed it off to somebody, Willy. Had an accomplice, waiting, out the back. Willy shakes his head, grim. Pacing. 61 WILLY This isn't an accomplice sort of guy. He slows. Looking across the room at the big Rube Goldberg device. As he moves toward it: WILLY This is a...guy who likes to show off. He examines the intricate workings, eyes travelling the clutter of metal and wires and motors. Checks Marchand - who shakes his head. WILLY You sure? MARCHAND I'm sure. Willy grimaces. Fuming, relentless: WILLY It's a physical object. It can't just vanish. We're missing something - some step in the story. He begins walking through the crime, "the stations of the cross" - re-enacting it, starting from the front door, methodical, reciting it to himself: WILLY The neighbor sees her get home. He's already inside. She lets herself in. A minute or two later: blood-pattern says she's standing over there - he's somewhere around here. Willy stands where Crawford was. Raises a finger-gun. WILLY Boom. As Willy goes to where Jennifer fell: MARCHAND But then he carries her back there. Why? Willy walks along the path defined by the drops of blood: 62 WILLY Because he's gonna need time. To confess. When she's alone with the cop. Willy stops in the alcove, looking down at the dried blood, the discarded paramedic-supply-wrappers. MARCHAND Neighbor comes to the door. Willy nods, comes out - crosses to the foyer: WILLY Crawford shouts, "Leave us alone" and fires three more rounds: boom-boom- boom. MARCHAND So everybody knows he's dangerous - and she might still be alive. WILLY So they'll call the Negotiator. (Beat) Now he's got about ten minutes. And that's it. He stands there with the imaginary gun in his hand. Looking around. Trying to think like Crawford. He can't. MARCHAND I'm sorry, Willy. Willy won't respond - because accepting the apology means admitting he's got nothing left. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LATER It's night. The house is empty. Except for Willy, turning on lights as he gets to each room, turning them off as he leaves. WILLY (V.O.) Do you dare stay out? Do you dare go in? Studying framed photos: Jennifer - now and then with Crawford - in Italy, Bermuda, Colorado. Always a bit posed and formal when they're together. 63 WILLY (V.O.) And IF you go in - Should you turn left or right? Or right and three-quarters? Or maybe not quite. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - BATHROOM - SOON AFTER Checking the contents of the medicine cabinet. WILLY (V.O.) You can get so confused that you'll start in to race, Down long wiggled roads at break- necking pace No longer really looking for the gun. He's looking for insight. Contact. A way in. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - DRESSING ROOM - SOON AFTER Willy wanders through Jennifer's spacious dressing room. WILLY (V.O.) And grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, Headed I fear, toward a most useless place. He idly surveys the vanity, cluttered with cosmetics, skin- care products. Lifts her perfume, sniffs. WILLY (V.O.) The Waiting Place... For people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go Or a bus to come, or a plane to go Notices a storage box on the floor, left partly-open in the search. He shifts the lid aside. WILLY (V.O.) Or the mail to come, or the rain to go Or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow A high-school yearbook. An old photo album. A teddy bear. A snow-globe. A well-worn book by Dr. Seuss. 64 WILLY (V.O.) Or waiting around for a Yes or No Or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting. Willy stares down at the souvenirs of a lost life. INT. HOSPITAL - I.C.U. - NIGHT The room is dim, and silent except for the hiss-click of the respirator, the monotonous beep of the heart monitor. WILLY (V.O.) Waiting for the fish to bite Or waiting for wind to fly a kite Or waiting around for Friday night Or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake Jennifer Crawford lies with her head wrapped in gauze, eyes shut, plastic tubing down her throat held in place with tape. Willy sits beside her bed, reading Dr. Seuss: WILLY Or a pot to boil, or a Better Break Or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants Or a wig with curls... Or Another Chance. He stops reading a moment. Watching her: RESIDENT (O.S.) What are you doing? Willy turns. A work-weary RESIDENT comes past him to check the I.V.'s and monitors. He's about Willy's age. WILLY I heard it might - help - if somebody talked to her. RESIDENT Who told you that? WILLY (Reluctantly) The man who shot her. The RESIDENT looks up at Willy - who shrugs, uncomfortable. 65 WILLY Is there any chance...she might come out of this? RESIDENT Are you a member of the family? WILLY (Getting out ID) Sorry. I'm with the District Attorney's office. (Beat) We don't have any other witnesses. RESIDENT This woman had a bullet plow through her brain. WILLY I know. But you hear about people waking up from comas. After everybody said pull the plug - they wake up. (Beat) You hear stuff like that all the time. RESIDENT You hear about Elvis and Aliens, too. All the time. WILLY It's not impossible, though. Is it? I mean - why else are you keeping her like this? Beat. The Resident sighs. RESIDENT No. It's not impossible. But even if she did, she might not remember how to talk - let alone anything about how she was shot. WILLY When I was here alone before, she moved a little. RESIDENT Are you just going to keep asking the same question in different ways until you hear the answer you want? Beat. 66 WILLY That's how it works with the law. RESIDENT I knew I should have gone to law school. Willy watches the Resident go out. Then he looks back down at Jennifer. Listening to the machines. INT. CRAWFORD OFFICE - THE NEXT DAY Willy wanders. Tina, the assistant, waits in the doorway. He's trying to conceal the fact that he's on a fishing expedition. WILLY So this is all exactly how he left it. TINA Yes. Browses a wall of framed photos: Crawford at crash sites, universities, engineering test-labs - awards, certificates, articles from industry publications lauding Crawford as the Go-To-Guy for investigating mechanical failures of aircraft. WILLY And he was - distraught. TINA He was drinking. The past few weeks. WILLY But he was working on this. He stands over unfinished Rube Goldberg device. Tools laid out on the work table - meticulous, organized. WILLY All distraught and everything. It's not evidence. TINA Do you want coffee. He said I should ask. Willy turns, a little rattled. Beat. 67 WILLY Tell him I said no thank you. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY The room where Jennifer and Nunally met. Cleaned-up now, anonymous, empty. Willy stands looking at it. There's nothing to see. He grimaces, nods - heads out, past the ASSISTANT MANAGER waiting in the doorway. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS As Willy comes out of the room - he slows, noticing the little gray plastic surveillance-camera-ball in the ceiling. WILLY How long do you keep the tapes? ASSISTANT MANAGER A month. Willy considers it. He's got nothing else to try. WILLY Can I get a copy of October 9th? ASSISTANT MANAGER I'll have it for you Friday. WILLY I'm kind of under the gun here. ASSISTANT MANAGER We're short-staffed tonight and tomorrow. Beat. Seeing Willy's confusion: ASSISTANT MANAGER Thanksgiving? Willy nods, trying to pretend he hasn't forgotten: WILLY Right. Okay. 68 INT. GARDNER HOUSE - DINING ROOM - LATER A faux-Tudor Hancock Park dining room. Wealthy, but lived in. JUDGE LEWIS GARDNER, your basic Henry Fonda/Jimmy Stewart- type patriarch, carves a turkey at the head of a long table, wearing a worn and gravy-splattered apron. Platters circulate in both directions among Nikki's older siblings (BURTON and SANDRA), their spouses, their children. Willy sits next to Nikki, who is high-stylish despite the fact that she's dressed "casual." GARDNER White or dark, Willy? WILLY Anything is fine, your honor. GARDNER I'm off-duty, you can call me Lew. While Gardner piles turkey on a plate and passes it: WILLY So - is everyone in this family involved in the law? SANDRA Well, Nikki's not. NIKKI Ha ha. (To Willy:) Burton's a counsel for Sierra Club, and Sandra's ACLU - so they use the holidays as an opportunity to give me a hard time, because I can buy and sell them. SANDRA We're not actually for sale, Nick. Nikki gives Willy a did-I-tell-you? look. GARDNER Nicole decided early-on that black sheep was the most effective role in which to distinguish herself from her siblings. 69 NIKKI You know of any other family in America where the corporate lawyer who's going to make partner by thirty- five is the "black sheep"? GARDNER Well - you may be lost beyond recovery, but maybe we can still convince Willy that defending giant corporations against injured citizens is not the best use of his skills. WILLY I don't think so, sir. (smiles) It's where the money is. GARDNER (Scolding mildly) I believe that phrase refers to banks. And it was coined by a thief. Beat. Willy remains polite, but won't back down. WILLY Times have changed. NIKKI (To Willy) You don't have to do this. WILLY I don't mind; I get this kind of thing now and then. (to Gardner) Almost always from people with money. GARDNER Appearances can be deceiving, Willy. I grew up with eight brothers and sisters on a farm up in Fresno, and I promise you I saw my share of hard times. Willy considers his options. WILLY My mom OD'd fairly frequently, so they put me in a Group Home. My younger sister is dead and my older brother is doing twenty-five-to-life. 70 Awkward silence. GARDNER You win. Beat. Willy looks down, begins to eat again. WILLY I usually do. GARDNER (Gently) Yes. I see that. BURTON I don't know if you will against the wife-shooter, though. The click of silverware. SANDRA Whoops. NIKKI Nice, Burton. Beat. Willy looks up at Burton, steady. Shrugs. WILLY It's not over 'til it's over. BURTON That looked pretty over. NIKKI Anyway, Willy's been taken off the case. GARDNER It might not seem like it now, but that's a blessing in disguise, Willy. Willy nods. Beat. To Nikki, uncomfortable: WILLY I wasn't. Nikki looks at Willy. NIKKI What? 71 WILLY Taken off. NIKKI That...doesn't make any sense. Lobruto has to do some kind of damage control - WILLY I asked him not to. Silence. Nikki is staring at him. Angry. NIKKI You are really stupid, did you know that? Willy doesn't know how to handle this; everyone else tries to be polite, eating and pretending not to notice. WILLY I'm - getting new evidence - NIKKI Where? The Evidence Store?! Oh, that's right - they open early the day after Thanksgiving. You're gonna be fine! WILLY Did it ever occur to you I might be good enough to still win?! NIKKI Who cares?! Win what? WILLY The man shot his - NIKKI You wanted corporate, right?! You wanted to play in the big leagues?! WILLY Yeah, I'm just - NIKKI You go to all that trouble getting yourself in - and then you just pay no attention to wh- 72 WILLY Look - I'm sorry - can we not talk about this here?! Nikki stops. Refusing to look around. Ashamed at losing control, turns back to her food: NIKKI Fine. WILLY Thank you. Everyone eats in silence a moment - then Nikki tosses down her napkin: NIKKI I need to talk with you. She gets up and walks out of the room. With an awkward glance around, Willy excuses himself and follows her. EXT. GARDNER HOUSE - FOYER - CONTINUOUS WILLY Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you - NIKKI Did you hear me, when I said Bob wanted you gone as soon as this thing broke?! Did you hear me say I went out on a limb to convince him - WILLY Wouldn't it be better than damage control if I actually turn it around? NIKKI And what if you don't? Willy has no answer. He doesn't think that way. And she sees that. She sees a young man from Oklahoma, in way over his head. Desperate to get through: NIKKI You don't get it at all, do you?! You pulled a stunt to get yourself this job. Fine: you're a hot-shot! (Beat) Wooton Sims does not need hot-shots. Because you don't win. The firm wins. Bob wins. (MORE) 73 NIKKI (cont'd) (Beat) And you just put yourself head-to-head in conflict with Bob. Silence. Shaken: WILLY What am I supposed to do? NIKKI We told the man you're getting on a plane to Chicago, Tuesday. Painful silence. WILLY Yeah. Okay. Nikki watches him dealing with it, sympathetic. The impossible feelings always running under the surface for them have developed a darker, aching tone. If anything, stronger. WILLY I think maybe I'm gonna go now. NIKKI All right. (Beat) Call if you want. He nods. Neither one moves. Judge Gardner enters cautiously from the dining room - breaking the spell. Nikki nods goodbye to Willy, and goes out quickly without meeting her father's eye. Awkward pause. WILLY I've got some work to do. I need to call a cab. Gardner nods respectfully, but doesn't move quite yet. Studying the torn-up young man. GARDNER You know what nobody understands about certain kinds of underpaid public service work? Now and then you get to put a fucking stake in a bad guy's heart. We're not supposed to talk about that when we visit a third-grade class on Career Day, and it doesn't get you very far into the country-club locker room - but it's hard to beat when you actually get to do it. 74 Willy looks at the kindly old judge, a little surprised. Gardner shrugs: my two cents. He goes to a side-table, finds the Yellow Pages. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT Empty. Dark. Willy lets himself in. He looks for the light-switch - finds only a complex computerized dimmer-panel. He tries it. Accent lights come on, buried in the living room planters. He can't get any other pre-sets to work. The crime scene is creepy, lit like that. The dried blood is black. Shadows stretch up the walls, strange. Willy grimaces, moves through it - sees another panel by the French doors to the garden. Goes over - - and jumps back, startled - WILLY Shit! - by Nunally, on the other side of the glass. Catching his breath, Willy stares. He unlocks the French doors and Nunally steps in, uneasy, haggard. WILLY The hell are you doing here? Nunally looks around - taking a pint bottle from his overcoat pocket, uncapping it. NUNALLY We need to talk. He drinks, then offers the bottle. Willy hesitates, takes it. As he drinks: NUNALLY We have to find the gun. Willy winces at the liquor and the remark, hands back the bottle. WILLY Thank you, Professor Einstein. It would also be good to find a couple of (MORE) 75 WILLY (cont'd) eyewitnesses. If one could be the Dalai Lama, it would be even better. NUNALLY No - Willy: we need to find the gun. WILLY I've had three different teams here - NUNALLY He didn't leave between the shooting and when we took him out in cuffs. The gun is here. (beat) So we have to find it. WILLY Well - we can't! You want to move on? Nunally tosses something from an inside pocket of the coat - - Willy catches it. A Heckler & Koch nine-millimeter in a plastic bag. Willy stares down at it. Then at Nunally, who holds up: a bullet, deformed by impact. NUNALLY There's a guy in the Evidence Room, owes me a favor. Well - it's not so much a favor as I know stuff about him. He can trade this for the bullet from Jennifer, give us a ballistic match. Beat. WILLY It's a crime. NUNALLY So who's gonna get away with a crime - this asshole, or us? Willy sighs. Tosses the gun back. WILLY Go home. NUNALLY What else have you got?! WILLY I'll find a way. 76 Beat. NUNALLY No you won't. Willy watches Nunally stalk out through the big, strangely- lit room. The front door opens, and slams. A little worried, Willy takes a deep breath. Gets to work. He still has three days to break this open. Walking through the crime again. Playing it out in his mind. Standing in different places, getting different perspectives. Willy stands in the alcove. Looking around. There's something here. But he can't get it. His eye falls on the Rube Goldberg device. Moves closer, peering into the mechanism. Turns away: no gun. But now he's facing the big wooden bowl of ball-bearings, sitting out in the middle of the room on the coffee table. Hide in plain sight. He walks over - pushes his fingers in, feels around. Nope. He sighs. Takes a ball-bearing, rolls it in his hand. Goes to the device - drops the ball in the slot. The machine is amazing. The ball rolls and leaps and clatters - lights flash, elevators rise and fall, at one point the ball lifts on a jet of compressed air - then it spirals out of sight and reappears somewhere unexpected - - until at the end the ball suddenly catapults out and sails across the living room - - to land neatly back in the bowl on the coffee table. Willy grimaces. This guy is really good. INT. MARCHAND'S OFFICE - S.I.D. - SUNDAY AFTERNOON A mess of courtroom exhibits, copies of evidence, lists, depositions, photos, diagrams, take-out food containers and coffee cups. 77 Marchand surveys it. The bleary end of a long day - sifting clues, dead-ends. MARCHAND Willy. There's nothing here. Willy has barely slept all weekend. He shakes his head, reviewing the hotel surveillance tapes on a VCR/TV, stubborn. WILLY Guns don't just walk out of crime scenes. Marchand waves copies of Crawford's evidence - stills printed from home-video Dick took at a hostage negotiation: Nunally doing his job, his methods, his routine. MARCHAND Two months before he shot his wife, this guy had his investigator watching the cop at work. He knew exactly how it would go down - and he didn't leave any loose ends. WILLY Then what is this: Willy uses the remote. On the TV, in black-and-white: Jennifer and Nunally come out of their room and head for the pool - indistinct figures zip jerkily in and out of rooms on fast-forward - - until he slows it: Crawford comes to let himself in. WILLY Hotel surveillance. From that day. He was there. Why? Marchand watches over Willy's shoulder. Shrugs. MARCHAND Had to see it for himself. WILLY See what? They were out at the pool. MARCHAND The unmade bed. Her panties. Man's gonna shoot his wife in the head, he needs to get himself all worked up. Willy stares at the grainy black-and-white figure emerging from the room, walking away down the corridor. Unconvinced: 78 WILLY Yeah. Worked up. Marchand gets his jacket, pulls it on. MARCHAND Willy, go home. Tomorrow you go back into court and take your lumps - then you start your cushy new life, and you forget all about this one. (Hoping to get a smile:) And then you can lend me money and shit. Willy says nothing. Runs the tape back and then slow-motions it forward again. Marchand goes out. Leaving Willy alone, watching Crawford. DISSOLVE TO: INT. WILLY'S APARTMENT - VERY LATE THAT NIGHT Willy stands over crime scene photos and diagrams spread out on his narrow futon. "Walking the scene" again, on paper. The whole apartment is an array of law books, notes, exhibits, marked-up depositions. He's staring at evidence he's already stared at a hundred times. He grinds the palms of his hands into his eye sockets, a dull moan rising into a yell - - as he sweeps everything off his bed in a storm of paper - throwing books - tearing up printouts - pulling out drawers, emptying them, smashing them on the desk - - yelling in a frenzy until his throat is hoarse, his shabby garage apartment is trashed, and he's sitting, exhausted, in his chair. There's a knock on the door. Willy frowns, checking the clock: it's two-thirty a.m. He goes to open it - - revealing Nunally, standing in the darkness, a haunted shadow of the boyish confident cop we met making love to Jennifer Crawford. 79 NUNALLY It's done. In the tool shed: taped to the blade, inside the lawn-mower. Before Willy can say anything - Nunally walks away. Willy doesn't move. Watching the tormented cop disappear down the alley. INT. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE - BULLPEN - THE NEXT MORNING Willy - in a clean suit and crisp suit, carrying his briefcase - hurries through, paying no attention to the SECRETARIES and OTHER D.D.A.s who watch like he's on his way to his own execution. At his office door, he gestures for Mona to come in with him. Surprised, she gets up - taking with her an envelope with a messenger-receipt taped to the front. INT. WILLY'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Mona watches Willy shut the door behind her. MONA You okay? WILLY Yeah. Maybe. (Hesitates) Can I ask you to do something for me this morning? MONA Sure. WILLY Write down your cell number. (As she does) Once my trial is in session, wait outside. I might call - and just hang up. If I do, I want you to come into court and whisper to me that we got a tip about the murder weapon. MONA You found it? Beat. 80 WILLY I haven't decided yet. Mona studies Willy - then accepts it's don't-ask-don't-tell, hands him her number. Willy nods, grateful. Turning for the door, she remembers the envelope in her hand. MONA Oh: this came for you. He takes it, and as she leaves, checks the return address: Wooton Sims. Willy grimaces, opens it. Inside are an airline ticket to Chicago - first class - and a handwritten note, on Wooton Sims stationery: We only win the favor of the Gods by making a sacrifice See you tomorrow - Nikki He stands in his empty office, considering the ticket and the note. INT. COURTHOUSE - CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS Willy steps off the elevator, into a crowd of REPORTERS AND SPECTATORS outside the courtroom. He's startled for a moment: it's worse than he expected - the dense buzz of talk in the marble corridor and all the eyes tracking him like he's walking into an arena - a freakshow performer - - but he doesn't slow, ignoring the comments and questions, avoiding eye contact - - until he sees Nunally by the courtroom doors, his eyes fixed on Willy. Willy meets Nunally's gaze...moving on, giving back nothing. Nunally watches Willy disappear into the courtroom, stares at the closing doors - uncertain, on edge. Lost, no matter which way this goes. 81 INT. COURTROOM - SOON AFTER Mr. Gifford, the Crawford's neighbor, is on the stand. Willy questions him, standing by the Prosecution Table. Behind him, the court is standing-room-only. REPORTERS, SKETCH ARTISTS, SPECTATORS. Nunally, sitting near the front. Lobruto, standing at the back. Crawford writes intently on a legal pad, filling pages with dense scribble. WILLY So - between the time you heard the first gunshot and called 911, and the time of Mr. Crawford's arrest - you had the Crawford house in view? GIFFORD Yes. I was very concerned about Jennifer. She was a lovely woman. WILLY No one but Thomas Crawford came in or out? GIFFORD That's correct. WILLY Thank you, Mr. Gifford. No further questions. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Crawford? Crawford glances up at the Judge. Then at Gifford, as if he's just noticed him up there. Beat. Without getting up: CRAWFORD Did you see the guy run out the back door? GIFFORD What..."guy"? CRAWFORD The other guy. The one who shot my wife. Did you see him run out the back of the house, carrying the gun? Willy closes his eyes. Gifford grimaces. 82 GIFFORD I couldn't see the back of the house. (Trying to salvage it:) I believe...the police went around back when they arrived. CRAWFORD No further questions. Willy immediately stands: WILLY Re-direct, your honor. But Crawford is standing too - with his handful of pages: CRAWFORD I've also written a motion to dismiss. WILLY Objection - I'm on re-direct! The Judge hesitates. Both men standing. JUDGE ROBINSON On what grounds, Mr. Crawford? CRAWFORD The prosecutor doesn't have any actual evidence. WILLY I'm in the middle of presenting - CRAWFORD All of his witnesses are going to testify to the same facts: that my wife was shot and that I was, tragically, in the house at the time ...a witness - and, in a way, a victim myself. I'll stipulate to Mr. Slocum's entire witness list right now, a request a directed verdict or dismissal, per California versus Collier, 1982, and the Appellate court decision, v. Watrus, 486.19. Willy stares at Crawford, stunned. As the Judge reluctantly nods to the Bailiff to collect Crawford's pages and opens a law book: 83 JUDGE Your legal skills seem to have improved over the long weekend, Mr. Crawford. While the Judge checks the citations, Crawford glances at Willy. Amused. Beat. Willy looks down - reaches into his briefcase, moves his cell-phone out from under some papers. To where he can get it easily. Looks back up at Crawford. Smiles slightly. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Slocum? Willy and Crawford turn to the Judge. JUDGE ROBINSON Have you got any new evidence? Beat. WILLY May I have a moment, your honor? The Judge nods. Willy nods down. Trying to focus. He's got nothing, and everyone in the room knows it. He can hear it, he can feel it. There's a restless, hungry edge to the crowded courtroom. He stares into his open briefcase: the cell phone. Next to it: the first class ticket and Nikki's note. Willy glances back at the gallery. Nunally's eyes burn into him. In the back: Lobruto frowns, concerned. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Slocum? Willy turns back to his briefcase. He breathes. Press the MENU button - selects SPEED DIAL. On the tiny screen, a list of names. Selected: MONA/CELL. 84 INT. COURTHOUSE - CORRIDOR - THE SAME TIME Mona sits on a bench, a few steps down the corridor from the courtroom doors. Cell phone in her hand. INT. COURTROOM - CONTINUOUS Willy stands at the Prosecution Table. Hearing his own pulse. Crawford studies Willy, curious. CRAWFORD Your honor? Can we signal the prosecutor from here on planet Earth? Willy's fingertip hovers over the cell phone keypad. Press, and a path is chosen. Possibly for life. Next to the cell-phone, the ticket and the note. See you tomorrow. Nunally sits forward. Lobruto is watching intently. Willy doesn't move. JUDGE ROBINSON Mr. Slocum? Now or never. Willy won't look up. Nunally stares, agonized. Willy grimaces slightly, as if he feels his soul burning up, turning to ash and blowing away - - nods, closing the cell phone, sliding it under Nikki's note. Shuts the briefcase. Looks at the Judge. WILLY I have no further evidence at this time, your honor. Crawford begins to smile. Lobruto looks down. A buzz rises in the gallery - - as Nunally gets up, furious - stalks to the doors, slams out. 85 Judge Robinson looks at Willy a moment - then at Crawford, who has been waiting, calm and polite. Very reluctantly: JUDGE ROBINSON Motion to dismiss is granted. Uproar. The Judge bangs his gavel - JUDGE ROBINSON Order! The jury is released, with our apologies - - practically shouting over the chaos - REPORTERS hastily heading for the doors, pulling out cell phones - JUDGE ROBINSON - and the Defendant is free to go. Crawford gives the Judge a gentlemanly bow of the head. Willy begins to pack his papers into the briefcase. Refusing to look up. The Judge and the Bailiff might be saying other things, but no one is listening - SPECTATORS swarm up the aisles, out to the hallway - and the Court starts to close down. Crawford comes over to Willy, holds out a hand. Willy looks him in the eye. Doesn't move. Crawford shrugs. CRAWFORD Even a broken clock gets to be right twice a day. He winks, and heads up the aisle. As Willy watches Crawford go out the doors into a clamor of lenses, hand-held mikes, white-hot halogen glare and flashes - - he hears a buzzing noise. Looks down at his briefcase, moves the papers aside: his cell phone is vibrating. Willy stares at it, as if he'd forgotten the thing could be used for an incoming call. The caller ID reads: WOOTON SIMS. He picks up - INTERCUT WITH: 86 INT. WOOTON SIMS - NIKKI'S OFFICE - THE SAME TIME Nikki sits at her beautiful desk with stellar views out the windows behind her. NIKKI Hey, you. WILLY (It's an effort) Hey. NIKKI What did you think - I wasn't keeping tabs? WILLY I don't know what I thought. Awkward silence. She tries to get past it: NIKKI Listen: what do you say I take you out tonight and get you completely trashed? Tomorrow's just a travel da- - there's a gun shot outside the courtroom. Willy turns. Shocked. Screams and shouting in the corridor. WILLY Hang on - We move with Willy as he shuts the phone and heads for the doors - faster, pushing out - INT. COURTHOUSE - CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS - into the echoing chaos of the corridor - trying to move in the crowd - - shoving through to where people are yelling and clustered around a figure lying on the floor. Willy pushes closer, until he catches glimpses of: Nunally. Lying on the marble floor. His gun in his lifeless fingers. Blood all over, from his head. Willy stops pushing. Won't let himself look away - the screams and commotion around him retreating into a numb blur. 87 Then suddenly Willy looks up - as if he's been called - - to find Crawford, standing very still, in the crowd, on the other side of the body. Everyone else is moving, talking, gawking at the body or averting their eyes - - except Crawford. He's looking straight at Willy. Pleased. Triumphant. Willy stares into Crawford's eyes. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - LATE THAT NIGHT The life support system clicks and hisses and beeps. Jennifer is curled into a fetal position, despite the tubes and wires. Willy sits by her bed. Still in his suit from court, the jacket off, the tie loose. He's been there a while. But now he speaks. WILLY Your husband said something...that I can't seem to shake loose of. He said I'm a winner. (Beat) And he's right. I can't lose. I can't stand people who lose. (Beat) I may have been working so hard to put some distance between me and...people like you - that maybe I messed up. I don't know if did anything wrong. Or what I should have done. I really don't know, any more...what I'm supposed to do. (Beat) But I feel like I let you down. Somehow in the...process. And if I did, I'm sorry. That's all. I just - I hope you...have...just, some... (Beat) Anyway. He feels stupid. Takes a breath. Looking at her pale, drawn, comatose face. He stands, goes to get his jacket, lying folded on a table by the door. Pulls it on, settles the shoulders, tugs at his cuffs. Gets his briefcase. 88 He goes to the door, and as he opens it - he looks back. Freezes. Jennifer's eyes are wide open. She's staring at him. Willy stands, breathless, watching her. INT. HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR - LATER Sliding glass doors suck open, Willy walks with the Resident from the other night: WILLY She was looking at me. RESIDENT Yeah, I understand - WILLY No, she was looking at me. CLOSE UP - JENNIFER'S EYEBALL A beam of light slides across it. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS The Resident tucks his flashlight in a pocket, draws a pin from his lapel. Gently sticks Jennifer's cheek. Willy winces, watching. WILLY She's reacting. The Resident ignores him. Pricks her forehead - her chin - her big toe. Each time she twitches. He runs his thumb along the sole of Jennifer's bare foot. It arches up. WILLY You see? RESIDENT The normal reflex goes downward. Up indicates brain trauma. WILLY She's in there. She was looking at me. 89 The Resident sighs. Sympathetic, but plain: RESIDENT Sometimes we have to tape their eyes shut. They all move - they make sounds, they twitch. You think they're dreaming. But they're not. It's just what's left of the system, sending broken signals. WILLY Can we do other tests? Like an M.R.I. or something? And I want a coma specialist to see her. RESIDENT You're not authorized to order tes- WILLY I'll get you authorization. First thing tomorrow. The Resident studies Willy. Reluctantly: RESIDENT You get the paperwork, I'll do what I can. Willy nods, grateful. As the Resident heads out, Willy sits by Jennifer's bed - protective, intent. INT. HOSPITAL - LOBBY - THE NEXT MORNING Crawford comes in through the lobby: rested, well-dressed. A free man. He slows, surprised - - seeing Willy come off the elevators. Willy hasn't left Jennifer's bedside. He's in the same suit and carrying his briefcase from the courthouse. CRAWFORD Mr. Slocum. WILLY Just...visiting. CRAWFORD This isn't like you at all. WILLY No? 90 CRAWFORD You haven't got anything to gain. WILLY Oh - right. That's my weak spot. (Beat) Ever think about what yours might be? Your flaw? CRAWFORD Of course I have. (Leans in) The truth about me is, Willy...I'm really not very nice. Willy nods. Concealing the ace up his sleeve. WILLY You sure do know a lot, though. Got everybody all figured out, everything set up, like one of your contraptions. Then you just sit back and watch it all fall right where you want it to. Must be kind of...boring. At that point. CRAWFORD Not an ounce of sympathy, Willy? (Beat) Imagine it - imagine she was yours. And you knew you were losing her. (beat) Imagine days. Weeks. Going through her desk. Her purse. Her closet. Alone. Staring at her clothes. Her shoes. Knowing this is what it will be like. After. (beat) Do you have any idea how hard it was to go on living - with her - every day, knowing? WILLY But you had to, right? You needed time to set it all up...your "crime of passion." CRAWFORD There are many kinds of passion, Willy. 91 WILLY Yeah. There are. (Beat) So - thank you. Crawford frowns. Starting to feel wary. Willy sees it. Enjoys it. WILLY For sharing your wisdom. All your little helpful bits of information. (Beat) You were right. CRAWFORD About...? WILLY Talking to her. Beat. Willy winks. He goes past Crawford and out the doors. Crawford doesn't move - except to turn and watch Willy. Uncertain, for the first time since we've met him. INT. WOOTON SIMS - RECEPTION - LATER THAT MORNING Willy - still unshaved, unslept, in yesterday's suit - comes off the elevator, fishing out ID as he passes a RECEPTIONIST: WILLY Hi, I'm just - - going directly to the key-card slot by the glass double- doors to the rest of the floor. He swipes his card and pulls the handle - - but it stays locked. Willy swipes his card again. No go. WILLY Excuse me - I'm new, I just started - and there's something wrong with my card. Can you buzz me in? RECEPTIONIST Who are you here to see? WILLY I work here. Willy Slocum. I'm new - He stops, realizing how he must look. 92 WILLY Nikki Gardner. Willy Slocum, for Nikki Gardner. As he calls in, Willy sees Nikki through the doors - one of a half-dozen ASSOCIATES trailing in the wake of BOB WOOTON. They all carry expensive business luggage, except Wooton - who is powerful, perfectly groomed, and two decades older. WILLY Wait a second - never mind, here she is, thank you. Willy goes toward the glass doors as Wooton comes through - nodding deferentially to the boss, semi-apologetic: WILLY Hey...Bob - (To Nikki) Can I talk to you for a second? Wooton glances back at Nikki, eyes saying: don't take long. She nods as Wooton and the team continue to the elevators - staying back by the glass doors to talk with Willy: WILLY You let him know what happened last night? NIKKI I told him. WILLY Great - who do I work with on it while you're gone? NIKKI You don't work with anyone. WILLY Nikki: the man has power-of-attorney and a health-care proxy, he can disconnect her life-support whenever he wants. If we don't move fast - Nikki explodes - but quietly, not wanting the team to hear: NIKKI Jesus, Willy, wake up! It's over! What is wrong with you - it's first year law: that woman could fully recover and swear he shot her and it (MORE) 93 NIKKI (cont'd) wouldn't matter. Double jeopardy! You can't take him back into court! WILLY I told you - we bring a civil suit - NIKKI You've got no standing. WILLY It doesn't have to stick: we just need to get a court order for now - to keep Crawford from pulling the plug! With all the brain-power here, I'm sure somebody can come up with a pretext or call in a favor. Then we can tie this up in court while we arrange a state- appointed conservatorship - so we can protect her while we fight him on - NIKKI What's the point, Willy? WILLY The point?! Willy stares. Because she's drawn a line in the sand. One he already crossed, without truly understanding...and now he's standing out there alone - feeling the sand slither away under his feet. WILLY This man is going to kill his wife. NIKKI Yeah. (Beat) What does that have to do with Wooton Sims? Willy just breathes. Vulnerable like we have never seen him before. He looks across the big reception area, at Wooton and the team of associates. Some look away. NIKKI I warned you. WILLY No, this is insane. NIKKI It's what it is. 94 Ding! The elevator. Nikki grimaces, frustrated - and sad: NIKKI I warned you. She starts for the elevators, Willy following - WILLY You're not really just gonna let this happen, are you?! NIKKI Oh I'm supposed to lose my job over your problems?! WILLY My problems?! Wait a second - this is not about my anything any more - Willy grabs Nikki's arm to stop her, turn her around - and she shoves him away, hard, tears welling in her eyes - - Willy letting her go - as the Receptionist quietly calls for help - - and Nikki hurries into the waiting elevator. The Associate holding the doors lets them go. WILLY This is about taking a couple of goddamn weeks off to try and save a woman's life! The doors begin to close. Willy stands facing the cluster of lawyers in expensive suits, their expressions ranging from pity to contempt - - except Nikki, whose eyes are full of shame and guilt and defensive anger. As the doors shut across them. Willy doesn't move. Confused, humiliated, frustrated. He turns when a bunch of OTHER LAWYERS emerge from the offices, ready to act as bouncers. People gawk from behind the glass doors. Beat. Willy holds up his palms. WILLY Don't bother. I got it. 95 He bangs open the paddle-sign on the stairway door, setting off the fire alarms as he stalks out. INT. WOOTON SIMS - BUILDING STAIRWAY - SOON AFTER Willy runs down the stairs furiously - - the clanging alarm, several floors above now, a little fainter. He suddenly stops - clinging to the railing, bent over. He sways, dizzy, gasping - - backs up until he's against the concrete wall. Presses himself against. Listening to his own ragged breathing. Scared out of his mind. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DUSK Crawford stands by the bed, glancing over a set of forms on a metal clipboard. DR. LUNT, a senior neurologist, and a HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR wait. The machines hiss and click, keeping Jennifer alive. Crawford signs the forms, expressionless. EXT. COURTHOUSE - THE SAME TIME Willy's walking alongside Judge Robinson, as they leave the building. The Judge is wearing his "civilian clothes." JUDGE ROBINSON What do the doctors say? WILLY People wake up out of these things. JUDGE ROBINSON What did the doctors say, Mr. Slocum? WILLY They said...there's no way to really know. I'm trying to get them to run more tests - but I was there, and I'm telling you. 96 JUDGE ROBINSON I'm sorry. I have no probable cause to issue a court order against Mr. Crawford - and he's protected agai- WILLY WHAT ABOUT HIS WIFE?! WHAT'S PROTECTING HER?! The Judge stops - giving Willy a hard eye: I'm sympathetic, but yelling at me is not a smart approach. Willy looks at the Judge a second - hapless, frustrated, scared - then nods and shakes his head and turns away - hurrying off through the homeward-bound crowds. The Judge watches him go. Grimaces. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - KITCHEN - THAT EVENING Crawford is carefully preparing an elegant, solitary meal. Music plays on his state-of-the-art sound system. He stops, noticing a pair of Jennifer's reading glasses, folded up by a note-pad and pen next to the telephone. He picks them up. Stylish, feminine. He goes to the trash, steps on the pedal to flip open the lid, and drops the glasses in. Goes back to cooking. INT. LOBRUTO HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT Lobruto - at the dinner table with his family - looks up, surprised, as the doorbell rings. He excuses himself - - goes to open the door. Willy's outside: apologetic but urgent, near the end of his rope. WILLY I'm sorry - but nobody else seems to give a damn that sooner or later this guy is gonna finish what he started. Beat. LOBRUTO Have you been home at all today, Willy? 97 Willy looks down at himself: he's unshaven, in the same rumpled clothes he wore to court yesterday. Exasperated: WILLY No - I've been trying to get some- LOBRUTO There's a court order out against you. WILLY What? LOBRUTO A restraining order. (Beat) You were at the hospital? Talking to her doctors? Willy nods. Lobruto looks out at the confused, frantic young man - truly sorry that he can't help Willy fight his way back toward doing some good in this mess. LOBRUTO Crawford hired a lawyer this time. They saw Judge Gorman this afternoon. WILLY Against me. LOBRUTO You need to stay away from him, and his wife, and the hospital. He can have you arrested if you don't. (Beat) I'm sorry. (beat) I can't help you. I told you how it would go. Willy stares a second, slowly understanding his situation. WILLY Can you do anything for her? Beat. LOBRUTO I don't see how. Willy grimaces. But nods. Turns away. 98 EXT. LOBRUTO HOUSE - CONTINUOUS We move with Willy out to the quiet street. The windows of the houses he passes seem warm and safe - and very far away. Behind him, Lobruto watches from his lighted doorway. Willy walks, shaken, determined, into the night. INT. HOSPITAL - I.C.U. - THE NEXT MORNING A NURSE checks Jennifer Crawford's vital signs. She then begins to gently wash Jennifer's face, where it's not taped or bandaged. The monitor beeps, the ventilator hisses. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - THE SAME TIME Crawford knots his necktie, studying himself in the mirror. Expressionless. EXT. GARDNER HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - SOON AFTER Judge Gardner pulls his car out to the street - - swerving hastily, as Willy's car skids alongside and forces him to the curb, horn honking. Willy pulls to a stop, blocking Gardner's way, and gets out of the car - holding up both palms: just wait. INT. HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR - LATER THAT MORNING Dr. Lunt takes a chart from the I.C.U. Nurses' Station. DR. LUNT Has Mrs. Crawford been prepared? INT. CRAWFORD'S CAR - SOON AFTER Crawford drives, wearing a dark suit, sunglasses. Calm. 99 INT. JUDGE GARDNER'S CHAMBERS - SAME TIME Willy watches GARDNER'S SECRETARY bring in a document, fresh off the laser-printer. As Gardner signs: WILLY Can I use your fax machine? GARDNER These have to be served in person. INT. PARKING STRUCTURE - DOWNTOWN L.A. - CONTINUOUS Willy brakes as he drives around a corner and sees a DRIVER wrangling with the BOOTH GUY. He grimaces, looks around - - backs up, tires squealing, heading for another exit. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS Dr. Lunt stands by Jennifer's bed, supervising the Nurse and an Orderly as they prepare her. INT. HOSPITAL - LOBBY - CONTINUOUS Crawford walks in, goes toward the elevators. INT. WILLY'S CAR - INTERSECTION - CONTINUOUS He floors it, racing under a light going red - narrowly misses getting broad-sided. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS Dr. Lunt looks up from making notes on Jennifer's chart, as Crawford enters the room. EXT. EMERGENCY ROOM ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS Willy pulls into a NO PARKING zone and jumps out, papers in hand - tossing the keys to an ORDERLY smoking a cigarette - WILLY Move it if you need to! - running through the automatic doors. 100 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS Standing beside Dr. Lunt, Crawford watches, expressionless - - as the Nurse and the Orderly work, efficient and silent, disconnecting the oxygen tubes, unplugging the monitor - INT. HOSPITAL LOBBY - SOON AFTER Willy dodges people, coming to the elevators - which open. Too crowded. INT. HOSPITAL STAIRWAY - SOON AFTER Willy gasps a little as he hurries up the stairs - INT. HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR - SOON AFTER - comes out of the fire stairs, hurrying toward I.C.U. - INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS - and into Jennifer's room, where he stops. Shocked. The bed is being stripped, the equipment rolled out. Willy stares, breathless, overwhelmed. NURSE You just missed her. WILLY What? NURSE She just went on up. Willy struggles to control his emotions. Looks down. WILLY How long ago...did she die? NURSE What? (Beat) The roof. (Beat) (MORE) 101 NURSE (cont'd) Medevac transfer. Out to a long-term care facility up in Santa Barbara. They just left, you can probably still catch 'em. Willy tries to understand her. With growing horror. WILLY He's - moving her by helicopter? NURSE Nothing but the best. We hear the surge of a jet engine - - as Willy runs out of the room. EXT. HOSPITAL ROOF - HELIPAD - LATER A Sikorsky S-76 Medevac chopper is preparing to take off, very loud and windy. Through the open doorway and the thick windows, we can glimpse Crawford sitting beside Jennifer, who is strapped on to a gurney. She's connected to life-support equipment. The MED TECH is outside, checking a few last supplies and giving Crawford a moment alone with his wife. Crawford moves. He may be whispering to her. Or adjusting her pillow. Hard to tell. As he climbs out of the chopper - - he sees Willy across the roof, arguing with Dr. Lunt, who is skimming the court documents, shaking his head. Crawford, curious, walks toward the two men. EXT. HOSPITAL ROOF HELIPAD - WILLY - THE SAME TIME Dr. Lunt hands Crawford the court order. As Crawford reads them, Lunt and Willy shout over the helicopter engine: DR. LUNT This orders him not to take her off life support! He's not! We can't stop the man from - WILLY Then just hold it - for a couple of hours! Have it inspected! 102 DR. LUNT You're talking about a phenomenally expensive delay, Mr. Slocum - when the man has every right to move his wife! WILLY She's not gonna get there! He looks at Crawford: reading - amused, thoughtful. WILLY This man is a mechanical engineer with expertise in air crashes! He has access to airfields and he knows exactly how to make it look like an accident! You know what he did! You know why she's like this! Lunt hesitates, feeling a tiny edge of doubt. Crawford checks his watch. Looks into Willy's eyes - - then gestures for Willy to join him, and turns back to walk across the pad to the helicopter. Climbs in. Willy stares, stunned. Lunt looks at him: case closed. The rotors whirl faster, engine noise rising to a scream. From the open chopper doorway, Crawford looks at Willy again and gestures for him to get on. Willy doesn't know how to react. Slowly, he starts to walk toward the helicopter. INT. HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS Willy bends, coming to the door - wind-whipped, flinching. Crawford holds out a hand to help him in. Willy doesn't move. The PILOT glances back. Crawford's eyes are locked with Willy's. Willy stares at Crawford, scared. But unable to back down from the crude, plain challenge. Which Crawford is clearly counting on. Angry, at himself, Willy climbs in without taking Crawford's hand. As he nervously figures out how to buckle himself in - 103 - the Med Tech secures the door, the Pilot turns to face front - and they lift off. EXT. ABOVE LOS ANGELES - SOON AFTER Looking directly down at the Sikorsky as it glides over a picturesque mapscape of streets and freeways, gray and terra- cotta rooftops, blue kidneys and rectangles of pool. INT. HELICOPTER - SAME TIME Willy watches Crawford, who stares back at him. Calm. Glances uneasily at the Pilot, bug-headed in sun-goggles and headphones. Flying them, calm. The Med Tech, adjusting Jennifer's portable ventilator. Calm. EXT. ABOVE LOS ANGELES - SOON AFTER The Sikorsky glides over cross-hatched parking lots, a pale swath of beach - - and the white foaming edge of the Pacific. INT. HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS Willy looks up from the view. Scared. Yells to the Pilot. WILLY Why are we going out over the ocean? PILOT Less traffic. Willy looks at Crawford. EXT. ABOVE THE OCEAN - SOON AFTER Deep dark vast blue. The Sikorsky flies over. Small. INT. HELICOPTER - SOON AFTER Willy stares into Crawford's eyes. 104 Then he looks around at the vibrating metal box carrying him hundreds of feet above the earth. The sunlight glare in the scratched windows. The blur of the rotors against the empty sky. The edges of the door frame. The rivets in the roof. Crawford's eyes. Amused. Willy unbuckles his seat-belt, lurches toward the Pilot - WILLY We have to turn back! PILOT Get in your seat! WILLY He's doing something - we have to turn back! PILOT Who's doing something? Willy points to Crawford, who's just sitting there - WILLY He is! You have to get us DOWN! PILOT Get back in your goddamn seat! CRAWFORD Willy, I'm not doing anything. Everyone can see that. WILLY I'm TELLING you, we have to TURN BACK! He's DOING SOMETH- An alarm begins to shriek - on the ventilator. Everyone turns as the Med Tech hastily kneels next to it - WILLY What's happening?! MED TECH I don't know - I'm - there's a - malfunction - - Willy whips around to look at Crawford, with fury in his glare: oh, you bastard. Crawford almost smiles. 105 The Med Tech is flipping switches, checking wires - MED TECH I can't do anything with this, up here. The Pilot turns - steeply, Willy falling over, the Med Tech's supplies spilling - as the Med Tech hastily removes Jennifer's breathing tube and prepares to begin C.P.R. - CRAWFORD She's D.N.R. The Med Tech looks up - startled. Confused. WILLY What is it? CRAWFORD Check. Willy watches, wide-eyed, as the Med Tech grabs up his paperwork, searching it - WILLY What? The Med Tech looks up at Willy, scared. MED TECH She's Do Not Resuscitate. Willy turns on Crawford. He shrugs. CRAWFORD It's in her living will. The Med Tech looks at Willy, paralyzed. MED TECH She's D.N.R. She signed it. WILLY There's a restraining order - she's protected - I'm authorizing you to do it! The Med Tech turns to Crawford, uncertain - CRAWFORD No extraordinary measures. (Turns to Willy) Unless your court order specifies (MORE) 106 CRAWFORD (cont'd) contravening her living will. But I don't think it would. I think you got one that forbids me from disconn- Willy throws himself at Crawford - attacking him, as the Med Tech grabs him, drags him back - PILOT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BACK THERE?! - the Med Tech holding Willy down on the floor by Jennifer's stretcher - Willy struggles furiously - WILLY Wait! WAIT - LOOK! Willy is pointing at Jennifer - shocked - - as the Med Tech lets him up and they kneel by her, the Med Tech taking her pulse - Willy, staring down at her, intent: She's breathing. WILLY Yes. Yes. Willy whirls around to Crawford. Who's frowning. WILLY You messed up. With all your plans and games. Willy turns back to Jennifer. Delicately strokes the side of her face. Her eyes flutter open - WILLY Shhhh. It's okay. It's all right. - she stares into Willy's eyes. He takes her hand. Silent awe in her eyes. Yearning. Fear. WILLY You're gonna be okay? She squeezes his hand. Very weakly. Crawford is looking daggers: die, bitch. Jennifer's eyes - fixed on Willy - roll back. She fights it. WILLY Jennifer? Hang on. Something sad in her wordless gaze. As it starts to fade. 107 WILLY Jennifer?! JENNIFER?! She's slipping. Her eyes gone empty. Her hand becoming lifeless in his. WILLY No. Come on, Jennifer. Fight back. Tears well up in Willy's eyes, but he struggles against them - feeling Crawford's gaze, refusing him the satisfaction. WILLY Don't let go. But she's gone. He stares down. Mourning her. Letting his grief slowly burn into rage. He gently reaches up and closes her eyes. Then he looks up at Crawford, who smiles sympathetically. CRAWFORD You pushed it, Willy. We didn't have to be here. (Beat) But now you're my witness. You saw: I didn't touch anything, I didn't do anything. The machine went down. Anybody asks - you'll have to tell them. What you saw. (Beat) That's really kind of perfect, isn't it? Willy stares into his eyes. Cold. Then he looks away. Out the window, into the sun-glare. SLOW DISSOLVE TO: INT. WILLY'S APARTMENT - A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER The garage door is open, letting in daylight. We can see the alley especially well, because there are only empty hangers on the clothes-bar, and the cinderblock shelves have been taken apart, stacked on the floor. Willy is packing. He's wearing jeans, an old t-shirt. He carries a heavy pile of legal textbooks out to the trash bins, throws them away. 108 As he turns to go back in - he sees Lobruto coming along the alley, wearing a suit. Surprised, waits. LOBRUTO You're not answering your phone. Beat. WILLY That's kind of an answer in itself, isn't it? Willy heads back in, starts to pack again. LOBRUTO Where are you headed? WILLY Haven't decided yet. Just someplace else. Lobruto nods. Willy packs. LOBRUTO I shouldn't have let it get so far out of control. (Beat) We all lose, Willy. WILLY Yep. LOBRUTO We just have to live with that, and keep fighting the good fight. WILLY That's not what I was doing. LOBRUTO You belong in a courtroom. Willy packs, thinking about that. Shakes his head. WILLY I need to - get to know myself better. LOBRUTO You're a good lawyer. All this may have even made you a better lawyer. Don't waste it. Willy turns on him - angry, confused, bitter: 109 WILLY I didn't just lose a case! I let a man get away with murder. Lobruto nods. Respecting his pain. Shrugs, accepts the decision, with regret. Willy nods his thanks, and turns back to packing. Lobruto starts to leave. But from the alley door: LOBRUTO If it makes you feel any better - technically, you let a man get away with attempted murder. Willy doesn't respond. Keeps packing. Lobruto goes out. After a moment, Willy stops. Looking up. Something turning over in his mind. EXT. ALLEY - CONTINUOUS Lobruto is walking toward his car when Willy steps out of the garage and calls after him: WILLY His wife is dead! Lobruto turns. Uncertain what Willy is getting at. WILLY We can still get him. We can take him back to court. LOBRUTO (Gently) Willy... Willy comes toward him - excited, insistent: WILLY Double jeopardy doesn't apply! We bring a new charge - of homicide. LOBRUTO Willy - what happened to you, on the helicopter - we don't even know if we could prove - 110 WILLY No: he shot her and she died. The fact that it took time - the fact that he went to trial in between, just for shooting her - doesn't matter. He fired a gun and caused her death, and that's murder. (Beat) If he can twist the law around - then so can we. Lobruto thinks it out. Wary. LOBRUTO A second indictment on the same incident? WILLY A man burns down a house; we charge him with arson. There were people sleeping upstairs - and after weeks in the hospital, they die. We'd charge him with murder. Right? Lobruto nods. On the fence, but seeing it now. Impressed with the young man's fervor, and his logic. But he shakes his head. LOBRUTO All your evidence is still toxic. The confession, the arrest - it's all still inadmissible. Willy grimaces. Looks down. Thinking, intense. LOBRUTO I'm sorry, Willy. It was a good idea, but - WILLY I'll get something new. LOBRUTO How? Willy looks up at him. Calm now. WILLY You don't want to know. LOBRUTO Willy, you can't - 111 WILLY I don't work for you. (Beat) Right? Beat. Lobruto sighs, as Willy nods and turns to start back to the garage. With work to do. LOBRUTO Don't do anything crazy. WILLY What else have we got left? Willy disappears inside. INT. S.I.D. LAB - LATER End of the day. Marchand pulls on his coat, shuts down his computer. He turns to go - - Willy is standing in his doorway. WILLY I need a favor. INT. POLICE EVIDENCE WAREHOUSE - SOON AFTER Willy follows an EVIDENCE CLERK along an aisle between floor- to-ceiling steel shelves of boxes marked with case numbers. CRAWFORD These are from that thing at the courthouse, right? WILLY Uh-huh. The Clerk stops, checking a number against a slip of paper in his hand - pulls down a box for Willy. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - THAT NIGHT Crawford is building a new Rube Goldberg device, tools and parts laid out precisely on a table. Eyes enlarged by the glasses, he silently connects two tiny pieces of metal - 112 - when a French door suddenly implodes, a metal lawn chair hurled in from the backyard smashing through it. Crawford stands, taking off the glasses - - as Willy walks in over the broken glass, carrying Nunally's gun. CRAWFORD Very dramatic. Willy crosses the room to the alarm panel on the wall. WILLY You ain't seen nothin' yet. He presses the POLICE emergency button, then turns to Crawford. WILLY I want the gun. CRAWFORD Why? You've already got one. WILLY I want the gun you shot your wife with. Now. Crawford doesn't move. Willy raises his gun, points it at Crawford's face. WILLY One way or another, I'm going to see to it you receive justice tonight. Crawford studies Willy. CRAWFORD You're serious, aren't you. WILLY Oh, yes. CRAWFORD (A smile dawning) Willy. You got religion, didn't you?! You care. That's...priceless. He laughs. Willy keeps the gun aimed at him. 113 CRAWFORD No, it's very sweet. Really. WILLY Gonna be a whole lot less funny in about a minute. Crawford nods. Considering the game. Unruffled. CRAWFORD Getting it like this: is that going to hold up in court? WILLY I don't work for the D.A. any more. I'm just a guy who broke into your house. When the police arrest me - they'll inventory anything in my possession. If that happens to be crucial evidence in another case, well: some prosecutor just got lucky. Silence. Crawford studies Willy's eyes, over the muzzle of the gun between them. CRAWFORD It takes a very special kind of person to look right into someone's eyes and pull the trigger. It takes a unique kind of strength. WILLY I guess you'd know that. CRAWFORD Yes. I would. Willy cocks the gun. Crawford shakes his head. Eyes on Willy. CRAWFORD I don't think so. Willy doesn't lower the gun. But he doesn't pull the trigger, either. WILLY You don't know me. CRAWFORD No? 114 Beat. Crawford smiles slightly. CRAWFORD Then I'm in for a - rude awakening. Willy glares over the gun. Crawford shrugs. CRAWFORD Tick-tock. Willy's angry. Frustrated. Trapped. His bluff called. Refusing to back down. CRAWFORD Where did you even get yourself a gun? WILLY (Bitter) It's Nunally's. Crawford is thrown by this - but conceals it well. CRAWFORD Nunally's. Really. Willy grimaces, over the gun still aimed at Crawford's face. WILLY Yeah. Really. He has backed himself into a corner, and he's getting scared. Because all of a sudden the threat he came to fake Crawford out with - - is starting to seem like his only way out. Even Crawford sees it. In Willy's eyes. The uncertain edge of the idea. He could just do it. End the game. Blow Crawford's brains all over the wall. WILLY There I was, with a perfectly good weapon just sitting in the evidence warehouse. It would be so easy. With his life already a shambles. With everything already lost. At least he would have this. CRAWFORD Willy. Put it down. 115 WILLY I thought you might appreciate the ...irony. Willy's finger tightens on the trigger. CRAWFORD Willy. Think. And Willy does. Hesitating. Distracted, by a thought. Lowering the gun slightly, looking at it - remembering: INT. S.I.D. LAB - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) Marchand, on the phone - holding the gun Crawford surrendered, in its plastic EVIDENCE bag: WILLY (V.O.) "A perfectly good...Heckler and Koch nine-millimeter." INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) Crawford is getting edgy, watching Willy study Nunally's gun: CRAWFORD The police will be here very soon. WILLY The exact same type of gun you bought your wife, a month before. He looks up at Crawford. Getting it. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (FLASHBACK) Nunally setting down his pistol on the chair - as Crawford, across the room, sets down his on the table. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) CRAWFORD If they see you with a gun in your hand - they're not likely to ask a lot of questions. 116 WILLY That's why you went to the hotel. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY (FLASHBACK) Surveillance-cam view: Crawford lets himself into the room - WILLY (V.O.) That's why you went into the room. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY (FLASHBACK) Crawford quietly closes the door behind him. Stands, taking it all in - INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) Willy looks at Crawford. Stunned. WILLY You took his gun. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY (FLASHBACK) Crawford checks the dresser drawers, the night-table - finds Nunally's badge, holster and gun. WILLY (V.O.) And you left him yours. Crawford replaces Nunally's gun with his own matching pistol, which was tucked into the back of his belt. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) Beat. Crawford shrugs - arrogant: CRAWFORD I gave it back. WILLY Yes you did. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - (FLASHBACKS - VERY QUICK) Crawford fires at Jennifer - Crawford shoots at the transom - 117 WILLY (V.O.) After you'd used it. Crawford holds out the gun, to Nunally: making the offer - WILLY (V.O.) Then you told Nunally you'd put it down - if he put down his. Nunally setting down his pistol on the chair, as Crawford, across the room, sets down his on the table. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) Willy turns, looking into the alcove: WILLY That's why you moved her back there - INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (FLASHBACK) Nunally rushes past Crawford to kneel by Jennifer - shocked, frantic - CRAWFORD (V.O.) The truth is I could have done it right in front of the man and he wouldn't have noticed. - ignoring Crawford behind him. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) CRAWFORD He had...other things on his mind. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) Nunally's calling for help on the walkie-talkie, desperately starting C.P.R. - - as behind him, Crawford picks up the murder weapon, (Nunally's gun) from the table - - and walks over to the chair where Nunally left Crawford's gun (from his holster). 118 WILLY (V.O.) And all you had to do was switch the guns back - in the commotion - Crawford picks up his gun and sets the murder weapon on the chair in its place. WILLY (V.O.) - and then wait - He then comes back to put his gun on the table, where it will be mistaken for the murder weapon. Straightens, done. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (FLASHBACKS) Nunally grabs up the murder weapon from the chair, upset, distracted - puts it in his holster - WILLY (V.O.) - until Nunally walked the murder weapon right out of the house. A Detective drops Jennifer's gun into an evidence bag - - as Nunally walks out. INT. CRAWFORD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - (RESUME) Willy stares at Crawford. In real wonder. WILLY Brilliant. CRAWFORD You know, this is really kind of fun. It's like showing some caveman a cigarette lighter. Willy looks down at the gun in his hand. Thoughtful. WILLY This caveman's gonna put you in prison for the rest of your life. CRAWFORD It's still not evidence, Willy. There's no prints left by now. Nothing ties that gun to me. Willy smiles, slow... Enjoying himself, at last. 119 WILLY No. That would be true. Except for all those eggs. CRAWFORD Those what? Willy nods to himself, going to the wooden bowl of ball- bearings - selecting one, carrying it to the Rube Goldberg machine: WILLY With all those little cracks and weak places. Like Nunally. Shooting himself, right there in the courthouse. I didn't think he was going to do that. Did you? CRAWFORD (Wary) No. Studying the complex device, toying with Crawford: WILLY I mean, we all knew he was going to fall apart sooner or later. That was part of your plan, right? Like a bank shot, on a pool table: you kill your wife - and destroy her lover. With one bullet. (Turns) Well: four bullets, actually. Right? Crawford frowns. Trying to see what Willy's getting at. WILLY First bullet goes into your wife. INTERCUT QUICK FLASHBACKS: Crawford fires at Jennifer - WILLY (V.O.) Then three more out the front of the house, to get some attention. - and fires three times at the transom. WILLY Then while you're waiting for the show to begin - you have to reload Nunally's gun. 120 Crawford pushes new bullets into the clip - WILLY (V.O.) I mean, you don't want him wondering where the hell four bullets went, considering he never fired his gun that night. - and slides the clip back into the gun, pleased. Willy nods, thinking it out. Sure of himself. He sets the ball-bearing into the slot at the top of the machine - WILLY And I'm betting you didn't worry about fingerprints. Crawford reacts. CLOSE: Crawford's fingers, putting the bullets in the clip. Willy lets the ball go - watching it begin rolling down the ornate tracks. WILLY I mean, why would you? Nobody's going to be looking at his gun. The ball tumbles and clatters - flipping and clicking through the ingenious, precise, heartless machinery - WILLY And sooner or later, life goes on, those four incriminating bullets would get used, and be gone forever. - and Crawford is recognizing, slowly, his one mistake. The gun in Nunally's limp dead fingers, glimpsed on the marble courthouse floor, through the crowd. WILLY (V.O.) Except Nunally only fired one of those bullets. Into himself. Willy turns from the machine - - which continues clattering and working, beside him. 121 WILLY Which means there are still three left with your fingerprints on them - Tom. In this clip. He holds the gun up. Savoring Crawford's growing fear. They can hear a car rolling up the driveway. Red and blue lights sweep the frosted glass by the front door. WILLY Everybody has a weak spot, right? Some place they break. Without looking, Willy gently pushes the machine, moving it a fraction of an inch on the floor - - as the ball catapults out - sailing across the living room in a perfect, graceful arc - - that misses the bowl. Outside, the police car doors open and then slam. Crawford, going pale, watches the metal ball roll off the coffee-table and across the floor toward him. Crawford doesn't move. Trying to focus. His mind working. The ball comes to rest against Crawford's shoe. The doorbell rings. Crawford looks up. Meeting Willy's eyes. Smiling slightly, Willy tucks Nunally's gun into his belt and puts his hands in the air. And gives Crawford a wink. Crawford is staring at Willy, frozen - panic and hatred and fear curdling in his eyes - - as behind him, the police begin pounding on the front door. THE END \ No newline at end of file